Of mice and spacemen: Understanding muscle wasting at the molecular level Most of us have imagined how free it would feel to float around, like an astronaut, in conditions of reduced gravity. But have you ever considered what the effects of reduced gravity might have on muscles? Gravity is a constant force on Earth which all living creatures have evolved to rely on and adapt to. Space exploration has brought about many scientific and technological advances, yet manned spaceflights come at a cost to astronauts, including reduced skeletal muscle mass and strength. Conventional studies investigating the effects of reduced gravity on muscle mass and function have used a ground control group that is not directly comparable to the space experimental group. Researchers from the University of Tsukuba set out to explore the effects of gravity in mice subjected to the same housing conditions, including those experienced during launch and landing. "In humans, spaceflight causes muscle atrophy and can lead to serious medical problems after return to Earth" says senior author Professor Satoru Takahashi. "This study was designed based on the critical need to understand the molecular mechanisms through which muscle atrophy occurs in conditions of microgravity and artificial gravity." Two groups of mice (six per group) were housed onboard the International Space Station for 35 days. One group was subjected to artificial gravity (1 g) and the other to microgravity. All mice were alive upon return to Earth and the team compared the effects of the different onboard environments on skeletal muscles. "To understand what was happening inside the muscles and cells, at the molecular level, we examined the muscle fibers. Our results show that artificial gravity prevents the changes observed in mice subjected to microgravity, including muscle atrophy and changes in gene expression," explained Prof. Takahashi. Transcriptional analysis of gene expression revealed that artificial gravity prevented altered expression of atrophy related genes and identified novel candidate genes associated with atrophy. Specifically, a gene called Cacng1 was identified as possibly having a functional role in myotube atrophy. This work supports the use of spaceflight datasets using 1 g artificial gravity for examining the effects of spaceflight in muscles. These studies will likely aid our understanding of the mechanisms of muscle atrophy and may ultimately influence the treatment of related diseases. ### The article, "Transcriptome analysis of gravitational effects on mouse skeletal muscles under microgravity and artificial 1 g onboard environment," was published in Scientific Reports at DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-88392-4 This story has been published on: 2021-05-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. The US Treasury Department Tuesday sanctioned seven Lebanese tied to the powerful Hezbollah group and its financial arm, Arab News reports. The six of the seven people according to the Treasury Department were the groups shadow bankers, who used the cover of personal accounts at certain Lebanese banks to evade sanctions against Hezbollahs financial arm. They transferred approximately $500 million over the past decade. Ibrahim Daher, the seventh sanctioned, the US administration further noted, is one of Hezbollahs chief financial executives who oversees the groups overall budget, including the funding for its operations. The sanctions were also slapped on Al-Qard Al-Hasan; an association linked to Hezbollah. The US Treasury believes the charity, which already faced sanctions since 2007, is used by Hezbollah to gain access to the international financial system. While the alleged charity purports to serve the Lebanese people, in practice it illicitly moves funds through shell accounts and facilitators, the Treasury said. By hoarding hard currency that is desperately needed by the Lebanese economy, (it) allows (Hezbollah) to build its own support base and compromise the stability of the Lebanese state. The entity according to the Iran-backed movement blacklisted as a terror group by the U.S, has provided $3.7 billion in loans to some 1.8 million people since its founding in 1982. Museveni Sworn In, Vows to Ensure Welfare of Ugandans Uganda's longest-serving statesman, President Yoweri Museveni, was sworn in for a sixth five-year term on May 12, 2021 . The 76-year-old leader swore to observe the laws of the country and promote the welfare of the people of Uganda. At least 11 African heads of state and leaders of government arrived in Uganda to witness the swearing-in ceremony, including Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, South Sudan President Salva Kiir, Namibia President Hage Geingob and Guinea President Alpha Conde. Museveni, who has ruled Uganda since 1986, won a contested January 14, 2021 election with 58% of the votes, while his closest challenger Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, garnered 34% - with Wine claiming that the election was rigged. In November 2020, at least 54 people were killed in a protest that erupted after Wine was detained while campaigning. In April 2021 the country's main donor, the United States, announced visa bans on government officials accused of human rights violations and repressive acts. Bumper Harvest Could Bring End to Zimbabwe's Hunger Zimbabwe is expecting its biggest harvest of maize in 20 years, a sign that the country could end its cycle of food deficits due to successive droughts and a chaotic land reform programme. Official data shows the country will harvest 2.7 million tonnes of the staple grain in the 2020/21 summer crop season, the highest yield in 20 years, nearly 200% higher than 2020 and 130% above average. Zimbabwe expects to get a surplus of over 820,000 tonnes of cereal this year, the highest yield since the 2000/01 season when the now late president, Robert Mugabe began the infamous seizure of most of Zimbabwe's white-owned commercial farms. His controversial land reforms led to the collapse of Zimbabwe's agro-based economy and spawned large-scale food shortages with aid agencies to date still feeding more than half of the country's population. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a provider of early warning and analysis on food insecurity, said the "above-average harvest is driving increases in agricultural labour opportunities, especially in typical surplus producing areas." It however warned that Zimbabwe's humanitarian crisis was not yet over, due to the country's ongoing economic problems that has dragged on for over two decades. Vizcarra's lawyer Fernando Ugaz reported that they will appeal the decision adopted by Judge Rocio del Pilar Rabines. According to Ugaz, said judicial resolution could prevent Vizcarra from being sworn-in as Congress member this July. The legal protection appeal had been filed when the accusatory petition was still in progress. In her resolution, the magistrate indicated that what corresponds is to analyze the former presidents request in light of Parliament's final decision. In this sense, she considers that the arguments "should be analyzed as a whole when the final decision is issued by the parliamentary body so as not to hinder the investigation within the framework of the constitutional accusation." Likewise, she affirmed that Vizcarra "has relied on the minimum guarantees of a sanctioning due process, has exercised his right to defense, and has even admitted the alleged deeds." Given this, Ugaz announced via Twitter that "we will file a complaint against the judge and appeal (the resolution)." (END) FGM/CVC/MVB During the house-to-house visits, the operation provided COVID-19 tests and food support to senior citizens and people with comorbidities. The multisectoral operation was conducted by health brigades and staff of the Armed Forces, the National Civil Defense Institute (Indeci) , and National Police, with the support of different State sectors, as well as local and regional governments. In the capital city Lima, the strategy was implemented in the housing association La Grama, located in Puente Piedra district, where it assisted 275 vulnerable citizens who were previously registered by the Amachay Network and the municipality. The operation also reached the residential area of Ramon Espinoza, in Rimac district, where it served 200 people. In Callao, the multisectoral strategy was carried out in the district of Carmen de la Legua, where 145 vulnerable residents were assisted. The activities were carried out by members of the Navy, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) , the Regional Government of Callao, the Municipality of Carmen de la Legua, among other institutions. In inner areas of the country, Tayta Operation reached Cochabamba (Ancash region), Quinua (Ayacucho region), Santa Rosa (Cajamarca region), Pachamarca (Huancavelica region), Ambo (Huanuco region), Trujillo (La Libertad region), Salas (Lambayeque region), and Santa Cruz de Cocharcas (Lima Province). Other districts included Huachon (Pasco region), Cura Mori (Piura region), Padre Abad (Ucayali region), Huancaro (Cusco region), Juan Espinoza de Medrano (Apurimac region), Tambopata (Madre de Dios region), and Canoas de Punta Sal (Tumbes region). (END) NDP/RRC/RMB/MVB Loading... ?? A traves del Centro Nacional de Abastecimiento de Recursos Estrategicos en Salud se entrego mas de 12 millones de equipos de proteccion personal. https://t.co/TcvuwBKiI8 YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. On the occasion of Eid al-Fitr ("Festival of Breaking the Fast") religious holiday, Armenias caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has sent congratulatory messages to the King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the President and the Prime Minister of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Syrian President, the Vice President of the United Arab Emirates, the Prime Minister of Tunisia, the Iraqi Prime Minister, the Prime Minister of Lebanon, the Emir and the Prime Minister of Kuwait and the Sultan of Oman, wishing them good health and success, Pashinyans Office told Armenpress. Nikol Pashinyan wished peace and welfare to the friendly nations of all those countries and highlighted the development of the bilateral cooperation. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. The National Security Service of Armenia is denying media reports which claimed that battles are taking place in the territory of Syunik Province. Given the anxiousness which developed among the society as a result of the distribution of the said reports, the NSS is strongly warning to refrain from spreading disinformation, causing panic among the population and inciting needless tensions, and is notifying that similar occurrences will have relevant legal consequences with the use of the strongest set of tools, the NSS said in a statement, urging to rely exclusively on official information. Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. Head of Mission of Armenia to the European Union, Ambassador Anna Aghadjanyan presented on May 11 her credentials to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the Armenian Embassy in Belgium told Armenpress. During their brief meeting the sides exchanged views on the current situation and prospects of the Armenia-EU relations. Editing and Translating by Aneta Harutyunyan YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili is in Armenia on an official visit. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister, the Georgian PM has arrived at Baghramyan 26, where caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan met him. Nikol Pashinyan, Irakli Garibashvili Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Nikol Pashinyan Irakli Garibashvili Irakli Garibashvili, Nikol Pashinyan Photos by Gevorg Perkuperkyan Following the official welcoming ceremony, Nikol Pashinyan and Irakli Garibashvili had a private conversation. Nikol Pashinyan said in his speech, Honorable Prime Minister of the Republic of Georgia, Dear Irakli, I welcome you in Armenia. In the recent period our high-level interactions had slowed down due to the coronavirus. I am glad now we resume our high-level mutual visits. We have a broad agenda of bilateral relations, from transport infrastructures to energy and communications. Of course, fight against coronavirus is also an important issue on our bilateral agenda. The political relations between our countries have traditionally been warm and based on the historical friendship and fraternity between our peoples and countries. I think the regional situation is also on our agenda and we should discuss issues referring to it and its prospects, try to combine our perceptions. And of course, our countries and peoples should assist each other for ensuring the welfare and development of our countries. I once again welcome you and I am confident today we will hold effective talks''. Irakli Garibashvili thanked for the warm reception and said, ''Mr. Prime Minister, It's a great honor for me to meet with you. You recalled the coronavirus pandemic, we touched all the countries and peoples. Despite that, I arrived here and was received with great respect. As it's known, there are friendly relations between our peoples. Our relations and friendship date back centuries ago and we are interested in peace, stability and development in Armenia and the entire region. You also talked about our today's agenda. We should discuss how to develop our trade-economic and cultural relations, issues such as transport and logistics. These issues will bring us further closer, of course, also from the regional point of view. I once again reiterate that being here is a great honor for me. I am confident our meeting will be effective. Thank you''. Following the private conversation between Nikol Pashinyan and Irakli Garibashvili, an expanded-format meeting between the governmental delegations of the two countries took place. Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that during the private conversation they discussed issues of regional security and in that context exchanged views on the situation created in Syunik Province today. The sides emphasized that both Armenia and Georgia are interested in regional peace and stability, which is important for the development pf cooperation. In this context, Nikol Pashinyan condemned the Azerbaijani attempts to violate the trilateral declarations of November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021. In the context of fostering trade and economic relations, the sides highlighted the development of transport communications, including railway infrastructures. The sides assessed the Armenia-Georgia-Bulgaria-Greece-Iran five-sided cooperation as promising. YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and Prime Ministr of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili issued a joint statement for the mediafollowing the negotiations, ARMENPRESS was informed from the Office of the Prime Minister of Armenia. The statement rusn as follows, Nikol Pashinyan Honorable Mr. Garibashvili, dear Irakli, dear members of the delegation, I am glad to welcome and host you in the Republic of Armenia. It's always an honor and pleasure for me to meet with the Head of the Georgian Government and discuss the cooperation agenda between our countries in an atmosphere of friendship. The development of special neighborly relations with Georgia occupies a key place in Armenia's foreign policy. Our two peoples are intertwined with many threads. Our age-old friendship, as well as the common values of democracy and the rule of law, form the solid foundation on which the partnership of our two states is based. The Armenian community of Georgia, which has a centuries-old history, is the bridge that connects our two countries even stronger. We have a wide agenda of dynamically developing cooperation. It covers many areas. Today, I had the opportunity to continue the constructive dialogue with the Georgian government with Mr. Gharibashvili. We touched upon the current state of cooperation and development prospects of cooperation in transport, energy, other important sectors of the economy. We decided to put even more emphasis on the development of trade and economic ties in our relations. In particular, we mentioned the need to develop the transit potential and the more efficient use of regional transport routes. The potential of cooperation between the two countries in the field of high technologies and the need for its use were emphasized. As always, issues of cooperation in the fields of education, science and culture were discussed. We exchanged views on the steps taken in our countries to fight the pandemic. My Georgian counterpart and I also addressed regional security issues. For us, there is no doubt that the Armenian-Georgian partnership is one of the most effective guarantees for ensuring stability in our region. Touching upon regional issues, I expressed confidence that the Karabakh conflict should reach a final settlement within the framework of the process under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs and based on the principles proposed by them. I also expressed confidence that each conflict has its own peculiarity. In this regard, I emphasized maintaining a balanced, constructive position on issues that are sensitive to each other. Concluding my speech, I would like to welcome our friends again and I kindly give the floor to my colleague. Irakli Garibashvili Thank you. It's a great honor for me to be once again hosted in the Republic of Armenia. Our countries are connected by centuries-old historical friendly relations. I am confident that future cooperation will continue in this spirit. Georgia and Armenia stand out with their great history, unique culture and interesting traditions. The future of our countries must be built on these values, which are strengthened by strong state institutions, democracy, open-transparent governance, economic progress and innovation. We agree that all this can be achieved only in conditions of peace and regional stability. On the one hand, the Covid-19 , on the other hand, the war in Karabakh, of course, has caused significant difficulties for the whole region. I think there is no alternative to peace talks and dialogue. Georgia has always been a supporter of peaceful cooperation and coexistence in the South Caucasus, and this course will continue in the future. We are ready to promote regional dialogue, develop the economy, trade and other humanitarian issues. The Georgian people have chosen the European-Euro-Atlantic path in order to strengthen stability, peace and democratic values. I want to mention that during our meeting today we discussed all the directions of cooperation. We stressed the need to have an intensive political dialogue, to develop trade and economic relations, to discuss new projects, to cooperate in such areas as transport, economy, culture, innovation, and to develop the already intensive relations. Despite these relations, we still have the opportunity for development. Armenia's stability and democratic development are extremely important for Georgia and the entire region. We are convinced that the early parliamentary elections will be held openly and transparently, the Armenian people will once again show the world their commitment to the principles of democracy. We expressed readiness to continue the meetings, to maintain the dynamics of high-level mutual visits, to promote the cooperation of the sectoral departments. Mr. Prime Minister, thank you once again for the fruitful reception and cooperation. 3 individuals sew their mouths shut in protest against Georgian Manganese mine By Veronika Malinboym Three residents of Shukruti village in Chiatura of Imereti region of Western Georgia sewed their mouths shut to protest against the environmental damage caused by the Georgian Manganese mine, which produces and exports ferroalloys and manganese ore.Marking the 85th day of protests against the Georgian Manganese, residents of the Shukruti village demand that the company compensates for the damage it has caused. The companys official position revolves around the claim that the damage was caused during the Soviet period and was already compensated back then. One of the residents of the Shukruti village Jano Labadze said in an interview with the Georgian service of Radio Liberty/ Radio Free Europe that are currently 280 families living in the village and some of their houses have already been damaged to the uninhabitable condition.Vladimer Saladze, a representative of Georgian Manganese Ltd, stated that the radical demands of the protesters are hindering the process of negotiations:The company is trying to negotiate with the locals. As for this particular case, it is a truly extraordinary situation. Of the three individuals who arranged the action, the property of two has been assessed by a private auditor and the amount exceeds the market value. It is unclear to us why these individuals did not agree to the compensation. As for the third person, the family is an eco-migrant and was satisfied with the house in 2018, therefore, their radical position is unclear, we are left with the impression that the processes are managed by certain groups.Protesters in Chiatura believe that as a result of improper factory processing and extraction, the river Kvirila, air, and drinking water are polluted and the soil in the nearby areas becomes useless. Besides, the activists claim that the activity of the mine causes landslides and damages to the roads and houses located in its vicinity. YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. Caretaker Foreign Minister of Armenia Ara Ayvazian met with Georgian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani, who has arrived in Armenia as part of Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili's delegation. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia, the interlocutors exchanged views on cooperation on both bilateral and multilateral agendas. The sides reaffirmed mutual commitment to take steps to give new dynamics to the existing traditional neighborly relations, to raise the cooperation in the spheres of mutual interest to a qualitatively new level. Regular consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries was highlighted in this regard. The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Georgia also referred to issues of regional security and interconnectedness. Ara Ayvazian emphasized that use of force hampers the settlement of conflicts and disrupts regional peace and security. YEREVAN, MAY 12, ARMENPRESS. The ECHR Grand Chamber has accepted for consideration the complaints of Armenia and Azerbaijan against each other on charges of violations of the European Convention on Human Rights, ARMENPRESS was informed from the website of the ECHR. Its mentioned that the complaints are mainly about the recent military operations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and contain complaints about widespread violations of the Convention, including attacks against civilians, civilian and public property, mistreatment against soldiers and civilians, hostage taking and forceful eviction of citizens from territories affected by the military operations. Armenia submitted the complaint against Azerbaijan on September 27, 2020, while Azerbaijan did that on October 27, 2020. Following the November 9, 2020 trilateral declaration signed by Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan, Armenia returned all Azerbaijani war prisoners, including 2 charged for killing a minor, but Azerbaijn has failed to respect the agreement so far. There are also documented proofs about torturing Armenian POWs by the Azerbaijani side. 19 cases of killing Armenian POWs by Azerbaijan have been confirmed. WARNING DISTRESSING IMAGES: The death toll is mounting as fighting escalates in a decades-long conflict in the Middle East which threatens to further destabilise the region. Hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militant groups flared on Tuesday (local time), raising the death toll in two days to 32 Palestinians, including 10 children, according to the Health Ministry while roughly 200 have been injured. Meanwhile three women in Israel have been reported killed by rocket fire and dozens of people wounded. Israeli security forces deploy amid clashes with Palestinian demonstrators on May 12 as violence flared. Source: Getty Images Israel carried out multiple air strikes in Gaza, a self-governing Palestinian territory, which saw a 13-storey residential building collapse after it was hit by an Israeli air strike, one of hundreds Israel said it had carried out against targets of militant group Hamas. Hamas repeatedly fired volleys of missiles at Tel Aviv as Palestinian rockets rained down almost nonstop on parts of the country on Tuesday night (local time), The Associated Press reported. As sirens sounded across Israel, images from those on the ground showed the destruction caused by the bombing. On social media, footage from inside Israel's Ben Gurion airport showed panicked travellers rushing through terminals, ostensibly out of fear of a rocket strike as sirens blared in the background. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Air traffic into and out of Israel's Ben Gurion Airport has been suspended, with flights diverted, after rockets were seen intercepted in nearby airspace. "During the massive rocket fire... flights were stopped to protect the countrys skies, aviation authority spokesman Ofer Lefler told AFP. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Countries heading for 'full-scale war' It is the heaviest fighting between the two bitter enemies since 2014, with international observers warning it shows no signs of slowing. Story continues The UN envoy for Middle East Peace, Tor Wennesland, warned Israel and Hamas were heading towards "full-scale war". "Stop the fire immediately. Were escalating towards a full-scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of deescalation," he tweeted on Wednesday morning. "The cost of war in Gaza is devastating and is being paid by ordinary people." The blood of the Palestinian Ibrahim Hasanin, who was killed during an Israeli raid on Beit Hanoun City on May 11 in Gaza City. Source: Getty Images On Wednesday, Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the government was "deeply concerned about the violence in East Jerusalem" and called on leaders to restore calm. "The focus of all parties must be on a return to genuine peace negotiations to define a just, durable and resilient peace agreement," she said. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Israel PM: 'This campaign will take time' In another sign of widening unrest, demonstrations erupted in Arab communities across Israel, where protesters set dozens of vehicles on fire in confrontations with police. Israel has enacted a state of emergency to help police deal with the riots. The fighting between Israel and Hamas is the most intense since a 50-day war in the summer of 2014. In just over 24 hours, the current round of violence, sparked by religious tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem, increasingly resembled that devastating war. In a nationally televised address, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant groups have paid, and I tell you here, will pay a heavy price for their aggression. An Israeli firefighter extinguishes a burning bus after it was hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip. Source: AP He claimed Israel had killed dozens of militants and inflicted heavy damage on hundreds of targets. This campaign will take time, he said. With determination, unity and strength, we will restore security to the citizens of Israel. In a televised address, Hamas exiled leader Ismail Haniyeh said Israel bore responsibility for the violent unrest that had bubbled over. Its the Israeli occupation that set Jerusalem on fire, and the flames reached Gaza, he said. with AP Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play. A huge area of ocean around two remote Australian territories will be protected as part of the federal budget, leaving conservationists grinning. The Morrison government's 2021/22 budget locks in a $100 million package for protecting the oceans. It includes nearly $40 million for new marine park partnerships. The new marine parks will be off Christmas Island and the Cocos Keeling Islands and will cover up to 740,000 square kilometres of the Indian Ocean. That's twice the size of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. Australian Marine Conservation Society chief Darren Kindleysides said the islands were recognised as natural wonders. "Oceans across the globe are in deep trouble from pollution, overfishing, habitat loss and the very real and immediate impacts of climate change," he said. "Establishing marine parks to provide a safe haven for our marine life is critical in helping stop our oceans reaching a tipping point." The new parks increase the percentage of protected Australian waters from 37 per cent to 45 per cent. The protected areas are in the Indian Ocean where endangered southern bluefin tuna and other marine species breed. The government's goal is for a balance between natural habitat conservation, sustainable water use, eco-tourism promotion, research and regional economy stimulation. Pew Charitable Trusts director Michelle Grady said the islands were globally significant, pointing to world-renowned naturalist David Attenborough naming Christmas Island as one of the 10 natural wonders of the world. Christmas Island is famous for its annual red crab migration when tens of millions of crustaceans leave their forest homes and migrate to the shore to mate and spawn. "Its thriving rainforests, deserted beaches and fringing reef provide a haven for unique and rare seabirds, land crabs and marine life," Ms Grady said. "The Cocos Keeling Islands are Australia's unspoiled tropical island paradise. Their azure waters are home to an incredible array of diverse marine life including tropical fish, corals, turtles, manta rays and dolphins." The government predicts Australia's ocean industries to contribute $100 billion to the economy each year by 2025, supporting close to 400,000 jobs. Four suspected Muslim militants have been killed in a clash with government soldiers in the southern Philippines, an army commander says. The militants were among a group that occupied a part of a public market in the town of Datu Paglas in Maguindanao province, 960km south of Manila, at the weekend, said Major General Juvymax Uy, an army infantry division commander. The firefight broke out in the village of Talingko in the outskirts of Datu Paglas, where soldiers encountered almost 50 militants, he added. The two-hour clash left four militants killed, Uy said. On Saturday, the militants occupied a part of the public market in Datu Paglas as they fled an offensive by the military. They left the area after six hours when more soldiers arrived. No civilians or soldiers were killed or hurt in Saturday's incident. The militants were members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighter, a splinter group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which signed a peace agreement with the government in 2014. It has allied itself with the Islamic State militant group and has been blamed for bombings, extortion and attacks on government troops in the province of Maguindanao. There was no risk of COVID-19 infection when a historic case arrived at Brisbane airport from Papua New Guinea, Queensland's chief health officer Jeannette Young says. Qantas ground staff were instructed to "open the door and run" after being told a passenger on a flight arriving from Papua New Guinea on Saturday had coronavirus, the Courier Mail reported on Wednesday. The airline confirmed its ground staff had followed a clearly defined set of protocols when the flight arrived. "There are a number of strict procedures in place for managing aircraft arriving from overseas," a Qantas official said. The man had fully recovered and was a historic case, which is why he was given permission to travel to Australia, Dr Young said. "I do not criticise the airport or anyone there for taking such an ultra-cautious approach, that has stood us in excellent stead, but they do not need to be concerned, this was a fully recovered case," she said. "He was not infectious, there was no risk to anyone." The airport scare comes as the state's public servants prepare to head back to their offices in a move Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk hopes will be followed by the private sector. "It means more people buying a coffee in the morning supporting local cafes, more people buying a meal supporting local bistros and more people doing a spot of shopping during their lunch break supporting local retailers," she told parliament on Wednesday. "This will also send a clear message to private sector businesses based in the CBD that now is the time to return." Meanwhile, Queensland treasurer Cameron Dick has persisted with calls for the federal government to establish a quarantine facility near Toowoomba, with repatriation flights coming into Wellcamp airport. "The number one thing we need from the federal government is a decision to allow international flights to land at Wellcamp," Mr Dick said on Wednesday. "We don't understand why the Morrison government won't support a deal where the Wagner Corporation and the Wagner family has said they will effectively build it and fund it from quarantine charges. "This is an absolute no-brainer for our state and nation, and only Scott Morrison can answer the question, when we know there are thousands of Australians who want to return to Australia, why he won't back-in a ready made answer to quarantine for Australia." Check out our coverage of the budget proposals for the nine school districts in the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES region. Voters will decide on these "Those were great questions and those were conversations that we had. The reason we built our fund balance up was because that's what we were told to do by the state. Gov. (Andrew) Cuomo was going to cut 20% of our educational budget, he was going to cut 20%," Pirozzolo said. "So we exceeded the fund balance to be able to pay back whatever he was going to take out." Cuomo's office said last year that the governor would be able to announce adjustments to aid to districts on a quarterly basis, though those changes never came. Morgan expressed further concern. "I understand the severity and how difficult it is to sit there in these chairs, but you people are wrong, you're wrong. You don't hit and kick somebody when they're already down, and that's exactly what you're doing," he said. Other people argued against a tax levy boost. In addition to the budget, residents will be able to elect three out of this year's eight school board candidates. No special propositions will be included. Community members will able to cast their ballots Tuesday, May 18. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Auburn Junior High School, Casey Park Elementary School, Seward Elementary School and Owasco Elementary School. Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 10 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ALBANY The state university system has no plans to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for faculty and staffers this fall, even as it proceeds on a requirement that every returning student get a vaccine if they want to be on campus this fall semester. While Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo over the months routinely dismissed the notion of mandating the vaccine for anyone, he said Monday that the State University of New York will launch the vaccine requirement for all students wishing to go back to campuses this fall. On Monday, Cuomos office would not answer a question whether the edict will apply to tens of thousand of SUNY employees. But on Tuesday, a SUNY spokeswoman replied to The Buffalo News and said there are no plans to force SUNY employees to get vaccinated. The directive is focused on students. SUNY is developing a plan per the directive announced yesterday," said Holly Liapis, the SUNY spokeswoman. She did not answer a question about possible exemptions to the requirement, such as for medical reasons, nor did she elaborate when asked why only students were being included for the 64-campus system mandate. One SUNY student said if officials really want to reduce exposure on campuses by forcing students to get vaccinated, then all segments of the higher education community should be required to get a jab. I am writing in support of Ian Phillips' candidacy for school board. Ian has fought extremely hard for fair funding for Auburn schools. He has made numerous trips to Albany on our community's behalf, and he has established effective relationships with the lawmakers who must advocate for us in the state Legislature. Our district needs and deserves a fierce advocate who is not afraid to demand more funding for our students; Ian's commitment to obtaining adequate foundation aid is unparalleled. By fighting for fair funding from New York state, Ian also prioritizes the district's taxpayers. He understands that when we are shortchanged by New York state, our property owners and our children suffer. Our building infrastructure and technology needs suffer. Over the last three years, Ian has engaged with students, community members, teachers and other advocacy groups to elicit support for Auburn city schools. He has coordinated bus loads of volunteers and led their conversations with legislators. He has demonstrated, time and time again, a relentless commitment to Auburn city schools. Please vote for Ian Phillips and his running-mate, Nate Garland, for school board on May 18. Together, they will do all they can to ensure that Auburn students receive the funding and investment they deserve. Ann Padlick Auburn Love 6 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Death of Kazakh citizen raises suspicions of a possible sex trafficking network operating in Georgia By Veronika Malinboym On May 6, Georgian prosecutors office has detained a suspect in the case of a suicide of a 26-year-old citizen of Kazakhstan Asel Aytpayeva. 57 year-old male named Besik Tordua is currently under investigation on charges of rape and bringing to the suicide of Asel Aytpayeva. The prosecution demanded that the suspect remains in pre-trial detention, and, since he was not represented by a lawyer in court, the defense did not appeal to the courts ruling.It is now being reported that Asel Aytpayeva arrived in Georgia in April in order to work at a Georgian-Kazakh car company, where she, allegedly, met Besik Tordua. Asel was sexually, psychologically, and physically abused, and, shortly before jumping out of the window of the 8th floor, managed to record the abuse in an audio message and sent it to her friends. Georgian Rustavi2 TV Channel released a fragment of the recording with the conversation between Asel and an unknown man who verbally abuses her, admits that he raped her, and says that if she wants to throw herself out of the window, she should do so.The mother of the deceased believes that her daughter did not commit suicide but was murdered. Meanwhile, the leader of the Sapari womens rights organization, Baia Pataraia believes that a network of sex traffickers could be responsible for this tragic case:The investigation must pay attention to all the details and find out whether the accused was sexually exploiting the girl. In the short recording I heard, this man really comes across as a trafficker.The trial is expected to continue on June 23; the suspect may facee 8-10 years in prison. LOS ANGELESM.D. Science Lab, makers of the Swiss Navy brand, recently released a brand new collection developed by women, for women. The products and formulas were all uniquely created to support female intimate wellness and sexual health. This collection is Desire by Swiss Navy. Desire, and the women behind its creation, recognize May as Womens Health Month, which officially kicked off this year on May 9, Mothers Day, with National Women's Health Week. Our development team at Swiss Navy knows that women have special struggles, said Briana Watkins, M.D. Science Labs VP of sales and marketing. Creating this product line was one of my top focuses when I joined the Swiss Navy family a little over a year ago. Being able to design a full collection of products that support womens health has been incredibly fulfilling. And the fact that this collection is so successful just shows how much it was needed. The Office on Womens Health (OASH) states that every woman has her own approach to overall health and they created National Womens Health Week to serve as a reminder for women to make their health a priority. Along with regular doctor visits, eating right, and staying active, women should focus on their sexual health as well, said Dr. Sunny Rodgers, Swiss Navys intimate health advisor. Too often, creating healthy intimate routines and ensuring that products used are appropriate for female bodies gets overlooked. I believe that the Desire collection offers an empowered way for women to take control of their own sexual wellness. For more information on the National Womens Health movement, visit womenshealth.gov/nwhw. To learn more about Swiss Navy and to view their latest product range, visit swissnavy.com. LOS ANGELESBlisss.company has announced that Sally Fae, also known as Dawn Willow, will represent the Blisss brand alongside Sabrina Deep, on the path to the official launch. Blisss is only a few days away from opening their invitational phase. "I have always admired Sally, not just for her creativity and talent, but also for the way she approaches herself to people," Deep said. "She is very generous, laid back, and yet sophisticated when it comes to interpersonal relationships. She is a natural, and her indole and attitude perfectly represent the Blisss brand. Furthermore, her expertise as a creator will prove an invaluable asset for making Blisss the creation platform of reference." Fae's role as Brand Ambassador will see her involved in a series of initiatives aimed at spreading and establishing the Blisss brand among creators and fanatics during the closed invitational phase and beyond. She will have a leading role in fine-tuning the platform alongside the other invited creators before the official open-for-all launch. Creators who would like to test and use the platform before the official launch may contact Fae on Twitter @sally_fae and Sabrina Deep @sabrinadeep to receive their invitational code, or follow Blisss @BlisssCompany. Blisss is also looking for two more ambassadors who will be chosen among early joiners. Those interested, make sure you grab a code as soon as they get released in the next few days. In Nguyen's deft writing, the truth is never so simple as one version of a story. Throughout the novel, Huong thinks with anguish about the reasons she chose to spare her sons the truth about their father. Nguyen is showing that one story, one truth is not necessarily better or easier than the other, and all can lead to a kind of pain: "In fact, the ache grows. It grows into two boys, and the two boys grow into two sons, and those two sons grow to look like their father, uncannily like their father in their moods, their movements, their voices, so that it's always like she's losing him again to the world, to life, to fate." Billings City attorney Gina Dahl and chief deputy county attorney Jeana Lervick addressed the water district's actions in the request they filed for the temporary restraining order. The city and the county "have allowed the water board to conduct its business without interference," they wrote. "However, when it became clear that the water district has no intention of following the proper and valid election results, and further has attempted to prevent the city and county from maintaining a statutory presence on the board, it became necessary for the present action." It's an unusual move by the city and county. "The Heights water district is not part of the city or the county, but we have attempted to guide them to the right process over the last few months," Lervick said. "Unfortunately, the former water board is refusing to follow law or reason, and County Attorney (Scott) Twito will not stand by and watch our election process be abused. The city and county have filed the temporary restraining order today with the hope that we can prevent any permanent harm from being done by the former water board members." Cabrera, Drager, and Cook beat out water district board incumbents Roger Ostermiller, Donna Dinsmore and Steve Blood. The official said the efforts began in late April as the situation in Jerusalem worsened. He said Israeli actions, including the recent storming of the Al-Aqsa mosque and the planed evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in an east Jerusalem neighborhood, have frustrated the mediators. The official says the situation is changing rapidly, but officials nonetheless hope to reach a truce before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr later this week. Egypt frequently mediates between Israel and Hamas. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing ongoing diplomatic efforts. Samy Magdy in Cairo GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip An Israeli airstrike has hit another high-rise building in the middle of Gaza City. Local media reported that Tuesday's airstrike killed an unknown number of militants inside. But the airstrike in the middle-class Rimal neighborhood in Gaza sent terrified residents of the building into the streets. They included screaming women and children, some of whom were barefoot. WASHINGTON (AP) A combative Rep. Liz Cheney lashed out at leaders of her own Republican Party late Tuesday, taking to the House floor on the eve of her near-certain ouster from a leadership post to warn that former President Donald Trump and his GOP supporters are threatening to "undermine our democracy." In an abruptly announced evening appearance in a nearly empty House chamber, Cheney, R-Wyo., cast herself as a defender of the Constitution. Her four-minute speech also served notice that she had no intention of backing down in her battle against a former president who has retained loyalty among many GOP lawmakers and voters, even as it leaves her once promising political career in question. "Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar," she said, adding, "I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy." Cheney has for weeks faced calls for her ouster from her leadership job after her repeated public rejection of Trump's false claim that he lost his reelection bid last November because of widespread cheating. She's also insistently blamed him for inciting supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, resulting in five deaths, even as other Republicans have sought to downplay the attack. Two police constables who shot dead a civilian woman at City Park Nairobi in 2018 have been found guilty of manslaughter. Justice Stella Mutuku found the two, William Kipkorir Chirchir and Godfrey Kipngetich Kirui, guilty of manslaughter and not murder. The offence is not that of murder but manslaughter, malice aforethought has not been established, the judge noted. Justice Mutuku also found there was no shooting from inside the vehicle in which the deceased Janet Waiyaki was with her nephew, Benard Chege. The high court ruled that the officers acted unprofessionally and recklessly and used force that was not proportional to the alleged level of threat posed by the occupants of the car. Justice Mutuku said the deceased and her nephew did not commit any offence and didnt pose any threat to the officers. They acted recklessly and shot with the aim of killing. There was no shooting from inside the vehicle. By using the firearms to stop the car, they used force and acted contrary to the law, the Judge ruled. In defence, the two police officers claimed they were acting on the threat of terrorism. They also told the court they were operating in an area they were not familiar with at the time they shot Ms Waiyaki, Justice Mutuku, however, faulted the two and said; the accused persons shot at the vehicle without establishing whether it had occupants. The offence of manslaughter has been proved against the two suspects. I found the two accused persons guilty of manslaughter and not murder, she ruled. The judge further ordered them to submit their mitigation before sentencing on Thursday. HOUSTON (AP) A Texas man free on bond from a murder charge was returned to custody Monday after neighbors found a pet tiger wandering around a Houston neighborhood. Houston police tweeted Monday night that Victor Hugo Cuevas, 26, was back in custody charged with felony evading arrest. Police had said they believed the tiger had belonged to Cuevas, but his attorney questioned the accuracy of that belief. Video of the Sunday night encounter shows the tiger coming face-to-face with an armed off-duty Waller County sheriff's deputy, police said. During the encounter, the deputy can be heard yelling at Cuevas to get the animal back inside. No shots were fired. When officers arrived, Cuevas put the animal in a white Jeep Cherokee and drove off, Houston police Cmdr. Ron Borza said during a news conference Monday. Cuevas got away after a brief pursuit, he said. Police said Monday that the tiger's whereabouts are not known. Borza had said earlier Monday that the main concern was finding Cuevas and finding the tiger "because what I don't want him to do is harm that tiger. We have plenty of places we can take that tiger and keep it safe and give it a home for the rest of its life." Quick is not with Vogel Law Firm, but his motion to withdraw included the Vogel attorneys, who were hired by Quick and were acting as secondary counsel. Reich on Friday granted Quicks motion but ordered that Vogel attorneys Bruce Quick, Mark Friese, Luke Heck and Drew Hushka remain on the case. They had not asked to withdraw at that time. Their affidavit filed Monday states that Vogel Law Firm has not been retained by Isaak and has no financial resources for trial expenses such as subpoenaing witnesses, retaining experts, and paying room and board for attorneys. Quick contracted with the firm for assistance on pretrial motions and for one attorney to assist at trial. The firm has not been involved in significant trial preparation, Heck said, adding that the Vogel attorneys expected Quick would question witnesses during the trial. They further state that they are material witnesses in the disciplinary action Isaak filed against Quick. Southwest Montana has been persistently dry since last summer and flows in the tributaries to the Jefferson River basin look to be well below normal for overall volumes this spring and summer. Water users in this area, and downstream on the Missouri, should be aware of this possibility, especially if May and June precipitation fails to materialize, said Zukiewicz. Meanwhile, he said, The Big Hole River is in better shape than other tributaries to the Jefferson. Zukiewicz said thats because storm patterns this winter favored the Beaverhead Range, the Pioneer Mountains and the Pintlers. Specific numbers for snow water equivalent for regional rivers based on the report from NRCS on data as of May 1: the Upper Clark Fork River is at 93% of normal; both the Jefferson and the Madison are at 79% of normal. The NRCS reports that 79% equates to slightly below average or normal. So, the situation isnt dire. Zukiewicz noted that the numbers were much worse in May 2015. The NRCS report released that year in early May said the snow water equivalent for the Upper Clark Fork was at 66% of normal; the Jefferson was at 64% of normal and the Madison was at 50% of normal. A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a former Missoula man convicted of having gay sex would not have to register as a sex offender. Randall Menges, 45, was convicted of having gay sex in Idaho in 1994 after he had consensual sex with two 16-year-old boys. Menges was 18 at the time. He was convicted under Idaho's Crimes Against Nature law, which bans anal and oral sex between consenting adults, according to the lawsuit initially filed by Menges in December 2020. In its Tuesday ruling, the federal court stated Menges requirement to register is unconstitutional and that someone who is having consensual sexual contact with someone of the same sex does not pose a threat to public safety. After serving seven years in prison and being released on probation for the remainder of his sentence, Menges, who now lives in Butte, was required to register as a sex offender in Idaho. When he moved to Montana in the mid-2000s, the requirement to register followed him across state lines, according to court documents. During the '90s the halls of the Capitol were jammed by Fish and Game bills. Battles between resident hunters, outfitters, and land owners that leased to outfitters, were epic. We fought over access to public lands, waters, and special tags. The House passed bills enshrining resident hunter primacy. The Senate, populated with outfitters serving on the FWP committee, killed those same bills. Tabled bills do not lessen public angst. The pressure grew so Montana tried to find common ground. Regional committees comprised of resident hunters, land owners, and hunting outfitters were formed to explore issues, find compromise, and report back the state committee; hopefully to prepare a legislative fix. The proposed fix was sportsmen would take their grievances to the Private Lands/ Public Wildlife Council compromised of outfitters, land owners, and resident hunters. The PLPW would need to unanimously agree before legislation would advance. Tags for non-resident hunters using outfitters were set aside. within capped license sales. Outfitter net client hunter use days restrictions and outfitter business expansion (outside of purchasing a license from a departing outfitter) was disallowed. All sides reluctantly agreed and the legislation passed overwhelmingly. Within two sessions all outfitter give-ups were repealed. Public discontent grew as leases blocking public land for exclusive use increased. In 2010, Montana sportsmen and women in self defense passed I-161 stripping outfitters of their set aside. The name of the bill is not hyperbole. As more readers move to digital platforms to find local news, it is vitally important that news organizations footing the bill to create the content be fairly compensated for its distribution. Journalism especially local journalism is more important than ever. Readership is rising even as revenue generated by those readers is falling. This bill would help local news publishers negotiate with the dominant tech platforms fair prices for the stories they create. Recent experiences in Australia and Europe demonstrate that other countries recognize the disparity in bargaining power between news publishers and Facebook and Google and are moving toward a new compensation model for publishers, one that ensures equitable terms are offered to all publishers and that platforms participate in good faith. The revenue shared by the online giants in exchange for the news stories that drives their traffic would help pay the salaries of local journalists who keep Montana communities from becoming news deserts. Across the United States, more than 2,000 local newspapers have closed their doors since 2004. That is 2,000 communities with little or no reporting about local governments, businesses, community happenings and sports. With no local journalism, communities suffer. At Rocky Vista University (RVU) our mission is to educate and inspire students to become outstanding physicians and to meet the diverse healthcare needs of tomorrow. Our proposed Montana College of Osteopathic Medicine (MCOM) is designed to meet the significant need for additional dedicated medical education in the region. We are grateful for the strong support within the community we have received to date. In fact, RVU began developing a Montana campus at the invitation of the medical and business community in Billings. This support extends to major hospital and healthcare systems in Billings and elsewhere in the state and the region, where we have already secured all the physician teaching commitments required to provide the clinical training needed for students. There is a profound shortage of physicians, especially in rural regions of Montana and in primary care disciplines. RVU was recently ranked by the US News and World Report as No. 8 in Most Graduates Practicing in Rural Areas, No. 29 in Most Graduates Practicing in Primary Care Fields and No. 45 in Most Graduates Practicing in Medically Underserved Areas. We want to utilize the expertise that brought about these outcomes for the benefit of Billings, and greater Montana. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expects to complete the study, known as an Environmental Impact Statement, by March 2022. Even if the pipeline is ordered to shut down, Energy Transfer is expected to appeal. I think this is business as usual until we receive the EIS, and then this stops being news, Warren said. Oklahoma-based Continental Resources ships oil it produces in the Bakken through Dakota Access, and Hamm expressed optimism about the lines fate. Its not going to shut down, he said. I think this administration is finding out certainly how critical (energy) supply is to America, to national security. Energy Transfer is in the process of expanding the pipeline by building additional pump stations to boost horsepower, including at a site in Emmons County. Warren said that work should wrap up by the end of the year. The pipeline will then have the ability to transport up to 1.1 million barrels of oil per day, nearly double its existing capacity. The pipeline runs from North Dakota's Bakken oil fields to Illinois, and then much of the oil is carried via other pipelines further south to the Gulf Coast. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations has issued a notice cautioning members of the public against a suspected fraud syndicate operating within Nairobis Central Business District. DCI noted it has received numerous complaints from members of the public who have fallen victim to the well-organized syndicate of fraudsters. According to the crime-fighting security agency, the fraudsters pose as sales agents of a renown mobile telecommunication company. They operate from a vehicle behind Kenya Archives along Tom Mboya Street, posing as genuine marketers of unreasonably cheap smartphones, iPads, tablets & other flashy electronic products. They also purport to assist clients in upgrading their sim cards to 5G network. Once they have the full attention of an unsuspecting would-be buyer, they access the victims mobile money transfer pin & other mobile banking details, after which they transfer money from the victims accounts to unknown accounts, said the DCI. The directorate further pointed that whereas police have previously arrested the fraudsters, victims rarely show at the police stations or DCI offices to file formal reports, thus weakening court cases against them. As such, we appeal to members of the public who may have been hoodwinked by the fraudsters to report at DCI Headquarters Serious Crime Unit, to formally report their experiences with the syndicate for necessary Police action to be initiated. Members of the public are also encouraged to share intelligence information through DCI hotline 0800 722 203. This is a toll-free number where calls are made confidentially, with the caller remaining anonymous in that neither their names nor phone numbers are displayed, said the DCI. Officials on Friday plan to honor the first deputy with the Burleigh County Sheriff's Department to be killed in the line of duty and dedicate a new headstone for his grave. The ceremony for George Piepkorn is in conjunction with National Police Week activities being held across the country. Other activities in the Bismarck region include a memorial parade and the annual state Capitol service to honor the 65 peace officers who have been killed in the line of duty through the years in North Dakota. Piepkorn headstone Piepkorn died on Nov. 19, 1930, at a Bismarck hospital after being stabbed seven days earlier by a suspect in a domestic dispute in Wing. He was 36, and left behind a wife. The sheriff's department recently re-established contact with Piepkorn's living relatives. A remembrance ceremony for the deputy is scheduled for 2 p.m. Friday at the Wing Cemetery. A new headstone sponsored by First Western Bank and Trust will be dedicated as part of the ceremony, commemorating Piepkorn's service and sacrifice. The Bismarck AMVETS Post No. 9 will provide military honors. Invited guests include family, former sheriffs, school students and staff, and city and county officials. The ceremony also is open to the public. No doctrine has posed a greater threat to the U.S. Constitution than the flawed assertion of state sovereignty. It represented the extreme versions of the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 that asserted the authority of states to nullify federal laws, which would have eviscerated the Supremacy Clause and turned the Constitution on its head. It fueled the secession of southern states from the Union, and plunged the nation into the Civil War. And, it has been invoked to deny enforcement of the Bill of the Rights and 14th Amendment protections, including the Equal Protection Clause. We have observed that the framers of the Constitution sought to relegate to the ash can of history the Articles of Confederation and its featured principle of state sovereignty. That principle had resulted in disaster for the fledgling nation, and delegates to the Constitutional Convention replaced the concept of state sovereignty with the newly minted governing principle of popular sovereignty. In essence, the framers designed a system in which all government power federal and state alike would flow from the sovereign people. As Chief Justice John Marshall declared, the Constitution established, emphatically and truly, a government of the people. In form and substance, it emanates from them. Theres also the question of whether the district votes to censure reflect the opinions of the electorate. The next election will provide the real litmus test of how voters feel about their legislators. House Majority Leader Chet Pollert, R-Carrington, noted that the Republican Party is diverse and some of the most conservative members dont agree with the direction of party. At present, the party encompasses a majority of the states voters, with the GOP holding all congressional and state offices along with big majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. With such a majority it may not be possible for everyone to co-exist. On the national level, the Republican Party faces an internal battle for control. Republican members of Congress have been censured for votes to impeach former President Donald Trump and votes to certify the results of the Electoral College. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is the center of a firestorm in the House. She remains steadfast in her opposition to Trump, arguing he shouldnt be conceded leadership of the party. Cheney blames Trump for the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, refusing to remain silent as other GOP leaders support Trump. Finish this article for as low as $1 when you purchase a day pass. Just click the sign up button to purchase. If you are already a subscriber, just click log in to continue reading. Tony and I met when he hired me at the Tralf in 1989, she says. When Bob Militello owned the club, Tony Booked it and I ran it, and each show felt like we were welcoming people into our home. We had such an amazing staff then. Bobby Harper working at the door was always the epitome of grace and professionalism, no matter the audience. And I think that was the key - our our staff could roll with any group of people. It was a magical time, and those co-workers are still family to me today. It has been a journey of love, for so many. When you attended a Tralf show, your expectations were high, and rightfully so, for the club developed a reputation for providing the most consistently excellent sonic experience in the region. Musician and sound engineer Shaun Mullins was hired as a freelance sound man at the Tralf in the early '80s, moved on to opportunities in New York and Philadelphia, and was eventually enticed back to Buffalo and the Tralf in late 1985, when he became the venues production manager and sound technician. He would hold that position for thousands of shows, two shows a night, six nights a week, across more than a decade. "People think you have to do it all the time. You don't. I do it before I go to bed. It metabolizes and then I'm not high from it," Martin told The Buffalo News. "I don't need to be high when I'm at work. I'm focused when I'm at work." He said cannabis treats his pain better than opioids, which he said is far more addictive. Also, he pointed out that medical marijuana is not covered by insurance. "It actually, literally saves them money," Martin said about him using marijuana instead of opioids. According to the lawsuit, Martin was told he needed to submit to a random drug test. When he showed up on Dec. 15 for the test, he revealed that he would test positive and that he is a certified medical marijuana patient. A week later, he got a letter informing his he was suspended without pay and had to seek substance abuse treatment. Martin did. When Martin was tested again on Feb. 5, the urine sample tested positive for marijuana metabolites again, because he continued to use medical marijuana. Then he was fired based on the union's collective bargaining agreement. That agreement was entered into in 1984 and updated in 2011, but hasn't been updated since medical marijuana was legalized in the state in 2014, Martin's attorney said. A member of the Holland school board was arrested Tuesday on a felony charge for allegedly sexually assaulting a 16-year-old victim, State Police said Wednesday. Scott R. Wander, 46, of Holland was charged with third-degree rape, forcible touching, endangering the welfare of a child, first-degree unlawfully dealing with a child and sexual misconduct. The investigation began April 22, when Lancaster police contacted the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation based in Amity about a possible crime that occurred in late June 2020 in Rushford, Allegany County. Investigators allege that Wander "forcibly touched and had sexual intercourse" with the 16-year-old victim "while on a boat outing on Rushford Lake," according to a statement from police. Wander was virtually arraigned in State Supreme Court in Allegany County and released on his own recognizance. He is scheduled to return to Rushford Town Court in August. The judge issued a "full stay away order of protection," State Police said. According to Wander's bio posted on the school district website, he is a married father of two children who has lived in Holland since high school. He described his job as the emergency medical services director for the UBMD Emergency Medicine EMS Division. Hopes of eventually redeveloping 46 brownfields in four local cities rose Wednesday, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a total of $600,000 in grants to investigate the sites. The main focus of the awards was Lackawanna's First Ward, where $300,000 will be spent on 25 site assessments, all within a mile of the former Bethlehem Steel complex. "Several are remnants of the city's steel industry," said Walter Mugdan, acting regional EPA administrator. Vacant lots and old industrial sites along Route 5, Ridge Road and Smokes Creek will be investigated. "Over a third of our land was dedicated to the steel industry and support of the steel industry," said Richard Stanton, the city's director of development. "It's been largely vacant since about 1986, and the populations that were most impacted by the industry while it was operating were also most impacted by the blight. We had a land mass that was dedicated to something that collapsed and left ruin around it." +2 State announces cleanup of 489 acres at Bethlehem Steel site A court-ordered agreement requires the owners of the former Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna to spend at least $35 million to clean up 489 acres. Stanton said some of the primary sites to be targeted with the new grant are on Alliance Drive and Albright Court, as well as one at 539 Ridge Road. D'Angelo said Niacet is heavily regulated by state and federal agencies. "We have not had a reportable release of any chemicals in the last 20 years," he said. The NCIDA board is expected to vote on Niacet's incentives June 9. Bogart-Sinatra Development Eric Bogart and Michael Sinatra, young developers who already own a multitenant facility on Erie Avenue in North Tonawanda, have purchased a vacant lot nearby at 428 Zimmerman St., where they plan to erect multitenant business facilities, offering 22 spaces in three buildings. The $1.53 million project is estimated to bring 25 jobs with it in the first three years. "Basically, it's going to be warehouse space with commercial projects," Bogart said, for "anyone that's planning to run a business or do something on their own." The leases could be for one year or more, costing tenants about $1,000 a month. "We have a self-storage business in Buffalo, but we thought we'd do something different," Bogart said. He added that the space could be attractive to start-up owners who don't want to operate from their house or garage. The list of organizations behind the effort, first reported by Investigative Post, speaks to the seriousness of the issue. Were not a group of activists. Were minority lawyers. I live on the East Side and am personally vested in better policing, White said, noting that state Attorney General Letitia James also has endorsed the concept. Its hardly a radical idea. There are more than 200 such boards across the country, according to the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement. That includes one in Rochester, which has been challenged by the police union there something sure to happen here, as well. Buffalo itself has been talking about civilian review since at least the 1990s, but there have never been enough city officials willing to step up. The states initiative law outlines the two-step process that gives city lawmakers one more chance. If backers gather enough initial signatures, the measure goes to the Common Council for action. Only if the Council fails to act would coalition members have to return to the streets and gather more signatures to put the question directly on the ballot. Were hoping that they do the right thing the first time, said Katrika Carr of VOICE Buffalo. The race for the Westlands Parliamentary seat is hotting up following the entry of another popular personality in Nelson Havi. Days after Arthur Mandela, better known as Xtian Dela, declared his interest in the seat, Havi says he was approached by Westlands constituents to run for the post in 2022. In a statement on his Twitter handle on Monday 10th, the president of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) said he is looking forward to serving Kenyans from August 2022 or earlier should President Kenyatta dissolve parliament. I have accepted the request of the people of Westlands Constituency to serve them and the nation in that capacity of an MP effective August 2022 or earlier in the event Parliament is dissolved, Havi said in a video. The outspoken Advocate further demonstrated his understanding of the duties of a Member of Parliament as set out in the constitution. He exuded confidence that he is up to the task. The constitution enumerates functions and duties of a Member of National Assembly thus: making laws and protecting the constitution; determining the allocation of national revenue and oversight of its expenditure; reviewing the conduct of State officers and oversight of State organs; and infrastructural development, wealth creation and poverty alleviation at the constituency level, he stated. Havi and Xtian Dela(if indeed he is serious) will look to succeed current Westlands MP Timothy Wanyonyi, who has hinted at running for Nairobi Governor in 2022. River traffic was also shut down in the Memphis area until further notice, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said. The U.S. Coast Guard said 16 tug boats hauling more than 220 barges were waiting in line Wednesday. At least four tugs attached to barges sat idle Wednesday near a boat ramp at Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of the bridge. The closure is creating traffic congestion in Memphis and in neighboring West Memphis, Arkansas. DeWayne Rose, West Memphis' emergency manager, said officials there are using contingency plans to get trauma patients to facilities in Memphis or to other nearby hospitals. People around this area are used to lane closures, theyre used to construction, theyre used to shutdowns, and I think everyone is just a little on edge because of the uncertainty of the time frame of this, Rose said. Road crews were poised to remove any cars that crash or otherwise become stuck on the four-lane I-55 bridge. The next nearest Mississippi River crossings are about 60 miles (96 kilometers) to the south near Lula, Mississippi, and 100 miles (160 kilometers) to the north near Dyersburg, Tennessee. It is sad, distressing and ultimately dangerous to see the new level the Republican Party has sunk to. In a some fanatical illogical effort to continue to curry the favor of an impeached, egotistical, megalomaniac they are willing to cannibalize anyone who disagrees with their paranoid worldview even their own. Their most recent victim is none other than Liz Cheney, the number three Republican leader in the house. Her crime being that she dared to speak the truth about the ridiculous and false claims that the past presidential election was somehow stolen and delivered into the hands of Joe Biden. She would not walk in lock step with those who would rather sacrifice democracy to placate the ego of a demagogue. Her comments were succinct when referring to this renegade faction in trying to overturn a legitimate election by saying openly they are turning their backs on the rule of law and poisoning our democratic system and speaks to the incredible low the Republican Party has sunk to. In response to the article Fixing flawed system of jobless benefits so it reflects economy by Neil Irwin of the New York Times, two cliches come to mind: someone is asleep at the switch and nobodys minding the store. He states that people who study unemployment benefits have warned that the American system of jobless insurance was too antiquated and clunky to meet the needs of workers in a time of economic crisis. Let me take that a step further and say that it no longer meets the needs of employers either. All around me I see banners indicating that companies are hiring. Then why are people still able to certify for unemployment at their current rate plus pandemic unemployment? Years ago, a recipient needed to show proof that they applied for positions before they were eligible to receive benefits; now it seems that those measures have gone by the wayside. Some say that the Department of Labor lacks the personnel to verify every applicant; however, if funds can be saved by confirming eligibility, then theyd have the resources to hire more inspectors. Clearly, those who are kicking back at the local coffee shop sipping lattes for the remainder of the summer (since the payments are scheduled to end Sept. 6), can work. However, oversight is sorely lacking. While the nation has focused this past year on the Covid-19 pandemic, the opioid epidemic has continued to quietly and lethally ravage our communities. As schools closed, businesses shuttered, and many Americans hunkered down at home, the opioid crisis continued to rage, and in fact, worsen. The onset of Covid-19 triggered an exponential increase in drug overdose deaths in the United States. Preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzed by the Commonwealth Fund, indicates that more than 90,000 drug overdose deaths occurred last year, more overdose deaths than have ever been recorded in a similar time period. The number of overdose deaths in New York State alone is estimated to have increased by nearly 40% during the first eight months of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, and by almost 50% in Erie County, alone. Leading small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies LLC ("BCT" or "Blue Canyon"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX), today announced the company was selected to provide a pair of 6U CubeSat buses and an Engineering Development Unit for the Virtual Super-resolution Optics with Reconfigurable Swarms, or VISORS, program, a space mission sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The objective of the VISORS program is to detect and study the fundamental energy-release regions in the suns corona. "Blue Canyon Technologies is providing key components in a program that will, for the first time, reveal individual energy-release sites in the solar corona to test theories of coronal heating," said George Stafford, co-founder and CEO of Blue Canyon Technologies. "Our company's technology will enable the VISORS program to help scientists understand the suns plasma physics and refine models for nanoflares and corona composition." Under the contract awarded by the University of Illinois, BCT will also be providing an Engineering Development Unit that will allow the program's instrument team to test hardware well in advance of the VISORS launch. Delivery of the buses to Georgia Tech for instrument integration is scheduled for June and September 2022. In addition to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a number of academic institutions are involved including the Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Washington State University, Ohio State University, Purdue University, the University of California San Diego, New Mexico State University, Montana State University, and the University of Colorado. About Blue Canyon Technologies Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, offers a diverse portfolio of innovative, reliable and affordable spacecraft that enable a broad range of missions and technological advancements for the new space economy, reducing the barriers of space entry. BCT is currently supporting nearly 50 unique missions with over 90 spacecraft, all in production at their newly developed 80,000-square-foot facility in Lafayette, Colorado. Story continues BCT has supported missions for the U.S. Air Force, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and provided the Attitude Control Systems for the first interplanetary CubeSats, which successfully traveled to Mars. The company has been recognized with awards from Inc. Magazines 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies, the 2020 Best in Biz Award and the 2020 Tibbetts Award. For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com. You can follow the company on Instagram here or Twitter here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005306/en/ Contacts Media Contact: Hayle Bell, 720-458-0703 EDMONTON Albertas justice minister says he was wrong to accuse Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government, Albertas Opposition N-D-P, and the media of rooting for COVID-19 to buckle his provinces health system. "I would like to offer an apology for my recent comments on my personal Facebook account," Kaycee Madu wrote on Twitter Tuesday night. "Alberta is facing an unprecedented public health crisis. My comments were wrong, as all Canadians want this global pandemic to end as soon as possible. "I fully support the premiers recent call to avoid the divisive political rhetoric during what we all hope is the final period of this pandemic and will continue the important work of government in protecting Albertans from this virus." The apology came a day after Madus spokesman, Blaise Boehmer, told reporters in a statement that Madu was standing by his accusations, adding, "The minister wont apologize for stating the obvious." Earlier Tuesday, prior to Madus apology, Trudeau rejected the accusations. "Its a shame to see people pointing fingers and laying blame and suggesting that anyone in Canada wants anything else than to get through this pandemic as safely as possible everywhere," Trudeau said in Ottawa. Premier Jason Kenney, also asked about Madus comments prior to the apology, said he hadnt seen them but said, "COVID has caused us a lot of us at various times to say things we regret, and I just encourage everybody whatever side of the political spectrum theyre on to give each other a break right now." Trudeau noted he reached out to Kenney and Alberta's big city mayors last week to offer further support if called upon. Kenney declined the offer. "Every step of the way the federal government has been there to support Canadians, with $8 out of every $10 in pandemic support coming from the federal government," said Trudeau. The issues of blame and responsibility have recently been at the centre of debate in Alberta. Kenneys government has been criticized for waiting weeks to respond with tighter health restrictions to the current third wave that now threatens to overrun the health system if left unchecked. Story continues Alberta has recently had COVID-19 case rates that are the highest in North America. Kenney acted with renewed rules a week ago, closing schools and introducing sharper limits on businesses and worship services. He also stressed now is not the time to lay blame. Prior to that, Kenney and his ministers had repeatedly accused Trudeau's government of hamstringing the relief effort with a slow vaccine rollout. As late as April 29, Kenney blamed Alberta's entire third wave on Ottawa. Last Friday, Madu, in a Facebook post, wrote that the province couldnt risk giving the COVID-19 virus a chance to "overwhelm our health-care system. "That's what the NDP, the media and the federal Liberals were looking for and want," he wrote. NDP Leader Rachel Notley said her caucus has done its job as the Official Opposition. She said theyve pushed Kenneys government to enact rules to reduce the spread of the virus, while giving businesses financial aid to survive and workers support to allow them to isolate but still provide for their families. Notley added, "You dont tend to see that sort of incendiary, thoughtless messaging or tone from someone who takes on the role of justice minister." Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the chief medical officer of health, reported 24,998 active COVID-19 cases Tuesday. There are 705 people in hospital with the illness, 163 of them in intensive care the highest since the pandemic began. Hinshaw confirmed the province won't give out more first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for the time being. Based on global supply challenges, we do not know when Canada, and in turn Alberta, will receive additional doses, said Hinshaw. There are 8,400 doses left, which will be used for second shots. Hinshaw also said they will wait at least 12 weeks between AstraZeneca doses, given current research is showing that the interval delivers the best protection. Alberta has administered more than 255,000 first doses of AstraZeneca. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021. Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press Research 5 Ways to Address Inequities in Higher Education The Online Learning Consortium has identified key actions colleges and universities can take to ensure they are providing quality learning experiences for all students. The recommendations are based on a year of insights gathered from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) across the United States, as well as the findings of a 2020 HBCU Action Nation Town Hall co-hosted by the United States Distance Learning Association, the Online Learning Consortium, National Coalition of 100 Black Women and Tennessee State University. OLC found that improvements are needed in three primary areas: student support, funding and operations. Across those categories, it made the following recommendations for institutions: 1) Continue to lead and inspire educators to seek diversity, equity and inclusion. The inequities faced by underrepresented students have compounded during the pandemic: "Amid the environment of COVID-19 and social justice protests, students face new and enhanced challenges around physical and mental health, financial ability to attend, and equitable access to technology," OLC pointed out. 2) Collaborate in formulating legislation and funding to sustain HBCUs. More lobbying is needed to support the rich heritage, core values and contributions of these institutions, OLC said. 3) Expand and build partnerships with business and organizations to help integrate and implement diversity. Support and mentorship for the talent pool of underrepresented students is key. 4) Monitor and understand students' needs in the shifting environment. Provide more support and flexibility for students who may not be able to attend class. Consider new ways to serve students, OLC suggested, including online options and more health initiatives embedded into curriculum. 5) Innovate around the student experience. Institutions should build off changes necessitated by the pandemic, OLC said, in order to better serve students in the long term. On May 28, 2021 at 11 a.m. ET, OLC will host a free webinar on addressing equity and student success in online learning. For more information, visit the OLC site. Prosecutors say nothing was stolen from the construction site and Arbery was merely jogging. Jason Sheffield, one of Travis McMichael's lawyers, told Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley on Wednesday that Arbery's past arrests and other incidents include not only theft crimes. He said they also show Arbery when confronted by police or other authority figures would become angry and aggressive, physically and verbally. His intent and his motive is something that is central to this case, Sheffield said. Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski argued Arbery's past had no bearing on the McMichaels' decision to pursue him since they knew nothing about him prior to the fatal chase. It doesn't matter what Mr. Arbery's thoughts were... It doesn't matter what his actions were," Dunikoski said. He was running away from these men. Attorneys for the McMichaels want the jury to know about several incidents from Arberys past, including that he was on probation at the time he was killed. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} This split and timing does not necessarily reflect the urgency or the level of need that many businesses, families, workers, and community organizations have right now, Baldwin and Evers wrote. Over the past year, we have been clear that our response to the pandemic must be robust and it must be flexible to meet the specific needs that our state faces. The governor has sole discretion over the use of federal funds, and Evers has vetoed multiple attempts by state Republicans, who control the Legislature, to use those dollars, including a package of 11 bills that would have used those funds to pay down state debt, provide $200 million in assistance for small businesses and provide $500 million for broadband expansion, among other things. Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, co-chair of the states budget committee, on Tuesday again called for a meeting with Evers on the use of federal funds. Regardless of the exact amount, theres a lot of federal money coming into the state, and we would love to have a discussion with the governor on how that is going to be spent, Born said. Despite the call for representation and diversity in the grander scheme of the OPM narrative, the majority of the Pinoy pop music thats been getting traction on top 40 radio and streaming platforms are either too Western-influenced or Tagalog-centric. Without stating the obvious, its always the high and almighty folks from Metro Manila that perpetuate these significant inequalities, rendering everything outside of its cultural and socio-economic radar as irrelevant, lacking potential, and unworthy of attention. Initiatives that promote regional music rarely get funding or institutional support, while most songs written and produced in the local vernacular other than Tagalog are often shunned by Top 40/urban/rhythmic/alternative radio formats, Spotify/Apple Music playlists, and music video channels for fear that its not commercially viable enough, and that no matter how infectiously catchy or game-changing the material is, the urbanite snobs and powers-that-be controlling the playing field still deem it as culturally and artistically inferior. Award-winning songwriter, record producer, musical director and Vispop Founder Jude Gitamondoc also pointed out how record labels and local creatives often neglect to put in experts from key regions to strategically market and promote regional songs on a national level. He says, It's almost always someone from the major companies and institutions in Manila that are making these creative decisions. If there are attempts to bring in local creatives, they're mostly on a consultancy basis and not key decision makers. We need to be able to trust our local creatives to make creative decisions that represent their locality authentically, so as to engage the community. But there are some note-worthy instances when regional pop music accidentally makes its way into mainstream consciousness. These songs have introduced the distinct sensibilities and expressions of individuals and people outside Metro Manila thus, taking on the challenge of asserting cultural identity while moving forward with the times: Cebu-based band Mandaue Nights made shiny synth-pop jams inspired by New Order or The Human League, but the lyrics are proudly penned in their native Bisaya. Karencitta went viral in 2017 with Cebuana, and part of its charm was its insistence to include a verse in Bisaya over booming hip-hop beats and tropical rhythms. PhilPop, the countrys premier songwriting competition, awarded last years top prize to reons Suyo, a bilingual song that touches on young love amidst differences in cultural and geographical upbringing. And who can forget the breakout success of multilingual and multiethnic boy band Alamat whose vibrant debut single kbye had its members singing and rapping in Tagalog, Ilocano, Waray-Waray, Bicolano, Kapampangan, Hiligaynon and Bisaya? Yes, all seven languages in one song. Malditas Porque as cultural reset While these developments constitute a substantial step toward minimizing the systemic othering of the regional Filipino experience, none of the songs mentioned above have achieved the ubiquity often granted to cultural products made in Imperial Manila and marketed by big industry guns. Perhaps, the last contemporary-sounding song that isnt sung predominantly in English and Tagalog, but went on to become a massive chart-topper that everyone has heard of at least multiple times in their lifetime, is Malditas Porque a stripped-down song that dredged up wounds with great force, embracing the appeal of hugot songwriting even before Moira called it dibs a decade after. I remember the song being a cultural reset not only because it opened doors for a relatively unknown band in Mindanao, but also for introducing the poetic beauty of Chavacano in pop music. Chavacano, a Spanish-based creole language spoken in Zamboanga City and in some areas of Southern Mindanao, was primarily used in the original lyrics of Porque. Its effortless elegance and romantic appeal somehow complement the songs subdued, acoustic arrangement, making it easier for the pained words to flutter above gentle chords and soaring melodies. Filipinos love a pretty tune, says Jude Gitamondoc. I've also observed that acoustic renditions draw more people in, particularly the Filipino audience. In essence, Porque came at a time when the "band scene" has started to lose steam in terms of commercial impact, leaving the charts populated by EDM tunes and "women empowerment" anthems that brought Adele, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and Ke$ha to global prominence. It was one of the few rare songs on Philippine radio that is sincere in its confessional, and wastes no time in admitting its defenselessness over unrequited love. The songs guitarist and songwriter Roel "Whey" Guevara admitted that the band didnt expect Porque to be a chart-topping smash. We planned a different song to be released as the bands first single. It was actually our distribution label who suggested to release 'Porque.' Multiple versions Initially uploaded on YouTube in 2019, the version written in Chavacano caught the attention of local radio stations in Zamboanga City, which played the song for months. Thanks to its staying power and organic success, the song eventually reached Viva Records through the help of composer Geraldine Lim. This earned the band a five-year record deal with the major record label. Whey told CNN Philippines that Lim already had a Tagalog translation for the song even before meeting up with the pop-rock outfit. When she presented it to the band, we edited some parts of it so it would fit the arrangement of the song. Working with her had ups and downs, but we can never be thankful enough for having met her. We feel grateful that she chose us among many talented musicians to be given that opportunity. A talent scout who took notice of Porque after hearing it on local radio, Lim told Inquirer that she couldnt shake it off her head and immediately contacted them to re-record the material with a more polished finish. Two versions of Porque have made it to Malditas debut self-titled album: the full Tagalog track Bakit, which serves as a direct translation of the original song, and another one written in Chavacano and Tagalog. Whey revealed that some of the words in the Tagalog version were not the exact translation of the Chavacano words that he wrote, and that the song was specifically arranged as a duet. Initially, Maldita had two female vocalists: Dem and Francel, Whey says. But only Demz decided to go with Maldita when we got a recording deal. On the final version, we decided to give the song a grand ending by adding drums and more guitars so it would introduce Maldita as a band. Chavacano and Regionalism in modern pop music To date, Porque has amassed more than 30 million streams on Spotify and YouTube combined, becoming one of the biggest OPM hits not only of 2011, but of the last decade. Before it exploded at the top of the charts, Porque was a by-product of Original Chavacano Musics peak, which evolved into a more sophisticated, export-ready material that blurs genre lines and explores possibilities outside of the traditional form. The movement has spawned some of the most exciting pop music over the past few years, including Bluehome$s brooding R&B bop Escapa, Pluma and RIJJs inescapable jam Ole Ole, and Nikki Pantaleons emotive ballad Aguanta. All of these songs made an attempt to forge regional identity with a global sound in mind, which Vispops Jude Gitamondoc considers as a necessary step toward a more inclusive Pinoy pop. In these highly divisive times, I think it's necessary for us to start trying to understand each other. We are an archipelago that's trying to unite itself as one nation. Each of the islands is progressing, I would say, maturing in leaps and bounds thanks partly to the easy access of information and technology. We have to embrace this phenomenon. Gitamondoc stressed that regionalism is not a bad thing. It's not kanya-kanya, it's kinaiya, which in Bisaya means identity. We have to embrace our differences to truly celebrate our oneness as a nation. One such way is to assert and represent these many identities in pop music on the national, even international scale. He also emphasized that with genuine community effort, the challenges that hinder regional pop songs from gaining mainstream acceptance can be undone. We cannot shove this national crisis under the rug of a unifying Filipino/Tagalog identity anymore. That is not the country that we are. We cannot be alien to ourselves, not in this day and age of unprecedented necessity. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) Procter & Gamble Philippines has launched a program that aims to help revive the forests of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range. The company recently held a virtual Sustainability Summit, built on the theme #ItsOurHome,' where it declared accelerated commitment towards achieving its global Ambition 2030 goals. This aims to encourage responsible consumption among consumers through holistic, comprehensive interventions across 4 aspects which the company controls: its brand innovations, supply chain operations, trusted partnerships that impact society, and their employees. P&G also revealed in the summit that current efforts have reduced over 80% of its greenhouse gas emissions in its local operations. This is way ahead of its global target of cutting 50% by 2030. The event focused on increased awareness on the climate and solid waste landscape and discussed the solutions P&G, its consumers and partners could take towards greater sustainability. The summit panel included National Solid Waste Management Commissioner Crispian Lao, Plastic Flamingo Chief Revenue Officer Gauthier Belhomme, Ecomatcher founder and CEO Bas Fransen, and Anne-Marie Bakker, director for Partnership at Fostering Education and Environment for Education. Company employees, business leaders, external partners, and sustainability advocates were also present. Among the highlights was the launch of its Philippines Forests for Good program in Luzons backbone, the Sierra Madre, as part of its long-term commitment to make an impact in environmental areas of climate, water, and waste. PHOTO FROM PROCTER & GAMBLE This is part of its global initiative P&G Forests for Good program, which is one of its efforts to support natural climate solutions that help conserve, protect and restore forests along with global partners like the Conservation International. Apart from targeting net zero emission, the whole program aims to protect nature through 12 pilot programs in 12 months across its Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (AMA) region. The Philippines is one of the pilot countries supporting this natural climate solution and will help forestation efforts in the mountain range. To kick off the program, P&G entrusted each employee with trees, planted on their behalf by farmers in the Sierra Madre. Employees can name their tree, virtually travel to see it up close, check on it and learn more about it as it grows. They can also learn more about the farmer who planted it. To date, there are 5,000 trees and counting in the P&G Forest for Good in Sierra Madre. P&G will continue to help in the reforestation efforts in the Philippines longest mountain range. P&G has partnered with EcoMatcher to pilot blockchain technology in the AMA region to increase forestry transparency and accountability, together with local conservation organizations in each country where they are starting this journey. In the Philippines, FEED Inc. is the local conservation partner of Ecomatcher and P&G. This allows employees, partners and consumers to have strong visibility and track the impact they have made from planting trees. Aside from reforestation, another program of P&G to address climate change is achieving carbon neutrality by the end of the decade. This will be achieved through cutting its greenhouse gas emissions through the use of 100% renewable energy in its sites. Currently, its Cabuyao plant is already using renewable electricity and has cut more than 80% of its manufacturing GHG emissions ahead of the companys global targets. Boosting efforts for water conservation and waste management PHOTO FROM PROCTER & GAMBLE The companys 2030 goal is to promote and support water conservation and protection for people and nature. P&G is on track to achieving its global water goals to increase water efficiency at its sites and source at least 5 billion liters from circular sources, as seen at its Cabuyao plant that tracks its overall water consumption and recycles wastewater. Aside from this, P&G is innovating its brands and products such as laundry brands Tide and Ariel to help reduce consumer in-home water use. As for P&G AMA, it recently announced acceleration of these goals by developing a water stewardship action plan. This is in accordance with the externally recognized Alliance for Water Stewardship standard for 100% of P&Gs manufacturing sites in high water stress areas by end of 2022. This will significantly alleviate water scarcity, a challenge in many parts of the world including several across the AMA region. P&G said it will work with its partners and invest in packaging design to pilot waste infrastructure interventions across several of its markets. This is in keeping with its commitment to reduce post-consumer waste. Currently, the P&G AMA certified that 100% of its plants as Zero Manufacturing Waste to Landfill, including its local Cabuyao manufacturing plant. In the Philippines, P&G has also eliminated the virgin plastic overwrap packaging on its Safeguard multi-packs and are now using 100% recycled paper carton material. This effort saves 8,500 kilometers worth of plastic waste every year, equivalent to one thousand times the length of the world-famous Boracay shoreline. P&Gs new Herbal Essences bio: renew collection now uses post-consumer recycled material for its bottle packaging. Ultimately, P&G will make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2030 and will also cut the use of virgin plastic in packaging by 50%. We will reduce the use of virgin plastic and start using alternative materials in our Philippines product bundling activities as well as point-of-sale materials found inside stores, said Raffy Fajardo, P&G President and General Manager for Philippines. Employee participation to achieve greener tomorrow PHOTO FROM PROCTER & GAMBLE Fajardo also emphasized the importance of employee participation through their creation and integration of sustainable actions in their work and at home. For example, P&Gs IT team has developed an internal Green Citizen app that gives all employees a platform to learn, do and track sustainable acts that reduce their individual footprint at home. Every achievement earns them points that entitles them to more trees planted in their name in the P&G Forest for Good in Sierra Madre. These declarations and programs are the latest from P&G, who is putting its weight behind being a Force for Good and a Force for Growth. For more info about P&Gs global commitments and progress, visit P&Gs ESG website or read P&Gs 2020 Citizenship Report. P&G serves consumers around the world with one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands. The company is known for global brands Always, Ambi Pur, Ariel, Bounty, Charmin, Crest, Dawn, Downy, Fairy, Febreze, Gain, Gillette, Head & Shoulders, Lenor, Olay, Oral-B, Pampers, Pantene, SK-II, Tide, Vicks, and Whisper. The P&G community includes operations in approximately 70 countries worldwide. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) Some 287 Chinese vessels suspected to be maritime militia remain scattered over various parts of the Kalayaan town in Palawan, both within and outside the countrys exclusive economic zone, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) reported on Wednesday. Citing data from its latest maritime patrol on May 9, the task force said Beijings vessels were spotted in the following areas: Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, Lawak (Nanshan) Island, Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal, Pag-asa Island, Zamora (Subi) Reef, Panata Island, Burgos (Gaven) Reef North, Kagitingan (Fiery Cross) Reef, and part of the Pagkakaisa (Union) Banks including the Julian Felipe (Whitsun) Reef. Vessels were also spotted near Recto (Reed) Bank, it added. The task force added that bigger groupings of Chinese militia ships were also sighted at the artificial islands of China, as well as in areas near Philippine-occupied islands. The NTF-WPS assured the government will continue to strengthen its presence in the West Philippine Sea. It likewise encouraged fishermen to continue sailing and fishing in the countrys waters, as authorities guaranteed the protection of their safety and welfare. China has repeatedly rejected the 2016 arbitral ruling that recognized the Philippines sovereign rights in areas of its 200-nautical mile EEZ that Beijing contests. The tribunal had also invalidated China's sweeping "historic rights" claims to the sea. The Philippines, through the Department of Foreign Affairs, has lodged a number of diplomatic protests against the East Asian giant for their vessels lingering presence in the West Philippine Sea. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) The country received its second batch of the Russia-made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday night. The 15,000 doses that landed in Manila at 9:41 p.m. will be used as the second dose for the initial shipment that the country received on May 1, according to the Department of Health. The vaccines were welcomed by some government officials, including pandemic task force adviser Dr. Teodoro Herbosa and Health Undersecretary Ma. Carolina Vidal-Taino. Taino said the same five Metro Manila cities - Makati, Muntinlupa, Manila, Taguig, and Paranaque - will receive the fresh supply. Another 300,000 doses to be allocated as first dose may arrive next week, she added. All in all, the country is expecting a total of 5 million Sputnik V vaccines. Meanwhile, Herbosa assured the public that all coronavirus shots will be used before they expire. Herbosa was addressing concerns about the possible expiration of up to 2 million AstraZeneca doses in the following months, given the pace of the government's immunization program. Earlier, Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje said using up 1.5 million shots for the first dose and the remaining 530,400 for the second is doable if the 1,047 vaccination sites in the country inoculate a minimum of 100 people daily with AstraZeneca vaccines. Citing Vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr., Herbosa said the government expects around 10 million doses to be delivered every month. "If we are able to have that kind of deliveries, supply will not be a problem. Ma-achieve natin ang target (We will achieve our target) which is 70 million by November 27, 28. It's a tight target but it looks doable," he added. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) A fire hit a supply room on the fourth floor of the Pasig City General Hospital on Wednesday, PCGH administrator Arlene Samonte said. "The 4th floor of our (building) C was the one affected. That is the supply room. (The) hemodialysis (unit) is also housed there but was not affected by the fire," Samonte told CNN Philippines. No one was hurt in the incident, Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto said, adding that no major equipment or supplies were affected. He said 14 patients have been transferred to other medical facilities in Pasig. "No injuries and no major equipment/supplies hit," Sotto tweeted. The blaze reached the third of a ten-level alarm at 11:09 a.m. and was declared under control at 1:19 p.m., the Bureau of Fire Protection reported. It was finally put out at 3 p.m. At the third alarm level, the BFP estimates 12 fire trucks are needed to extinguish the blaze. The BFP initially said the blaze occurred on the second floor, but later clarified it was on the fourth. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) Vice President Leni Robredo has not yet made a decision on whether she will run for office in the upcoming elections or not, amid rumors she plans to run for governor of her home province Camarines Sur. "As VP Leni has repeatedly stated, her focus remains on helping our fellow Filipinos through the COVID-19 crisis," Robredo's spokesperson Barry Gutierrez said in a statement on Wednesday. "She has not made a decision regarding the 2022 elections, and there is absolutely no truth to the claim that she is making 'preparations' to run for governor of Camarines Sur." The clarification comes after former Senator Antonio Trillanes IV released a statement on the same day, claiming the vice president is in the middle of preparing for a gubernatorial race. Trillanes said in light of this, he opted to be the principal candidate for president representing the opposition under the 1Sambayan coalition, unless Robredo later decides to run for the top post instead. "She remains open to all options, including a possible candidacy for president, and at the appropriate time, she will personally convey her decision on this matter," Gutierrez stressed. Robredo is 1Sambayan's top pick for its presidential candidate. In February, Robredo revealed she was more interested in pursuing a local post, but the presidency is not completely off the table either. She said she is only hesitating due to lack of adequate resources. Clear signals Despite the response of the Vice President's spokesperson, Trillanes said signals are clear from Robredo that she is not closing the doors to a local post. "While close sila kay Vice President Robredo, ay hindi po sila si VP Leni [While they are close to Vice President Robredo, they are still not the Vice President]. We have our own lines and we have our own information. Ayan po ang nakuha naming signals [Those are the signals we're getting]," Trillanes told CNN Philippines' News.PH. "Last week or two weeks ago, naglipat na po si VP Leni ng kanyang residence out of Naga [VP Leni moved her residence out of Naga], that will pave the way for her run as governor," he added. Robredo registered for her national ID in Magarao, instead in her hometown of Naga City - sparking rumors about her possible 2022 election plans. But Gutierrez explained that Robredo and her siblings had bought a property in Magarao after their mother's death. Meanwhile, Trillanes said he will respect the nomination of 1Sambayan, which is expected to reveal its selection process on June 12. "Former Senator Antonio Trillanes has always been included in our list of nominees, as is Vice President Leni Robredo," the coalition said in a statement. The filing of candidacies for the 2022 elections is during the first eight days of October. (CNN) When Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is unloaded in countries around the world, hundreds of millions of doses will come with the label "Made in China." Chinese companies have made agreements over the past month to manufacture more than 260 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, which has been approved for use in more than 60 countries, including a large number of developing nations such as Mexico, India and Argentina. The deals are symbolic of how China and Russia's international vaccine goals are increasingly aligned, as they assist developing countries neglected by their traditional Western partners who have been accused of hoarding shots. Duke University research shows that while some countries, such as Canada, the UK and New Zealand, have bought enough vaccines to cover their population more than three times over, the vast majority of countries have barely got doses for half their citizens, including some of the nations worst hit by COVID-19. Bobo Lo, an expert on China-Russia relations and former deputy head of mission at Australia's embassy in Moscow, said both Moscow and Beijing saw an opportunity for geopolitical gains in the pandemic, winning favor and influence for their autocratic systems. "It's useful to them to point out that the West is being selfish in limiting the distribution of vaccine to developing countries," he said. "This is a really convenient narrative for both Beijing and Moscow." There is also a darker side to Moscow and Beijing's vaccine cooperation. In recent months, Russian disinformation efforts have tried to undermine confidence in US and UK vaccines, such as those made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca, according to Judyth Twigg, professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University. China has done the same, with state-run media hyping up reports of deaths from US and European-made vaccines. Former diplomat Lo said both Russia and China had an interest in discrediting the US-led world order, particularly Beijing, which is keen for a chance to burnish its own reputation and promote itself as the leader of the global south. "(China is saying), 'We understand you, we're not an imperial power like the Western powers ... we're just here to help,'" he said. In demand Russia was the first country to announce it had produced a viable COVID-19 vaccine in August 2020, named Sputnik V after the country's history making satellite launch in 1957. Initial doubts over its effectiveness were tempered by a study published in the Lancet in February, which found in preliminary results that the vaccine had 91.6% effectiveness. Now, hundreds of millions of doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine, along with China's Sinovac and Sinopharm shots, are making their way around the world, despite only Sinopharm being accepted into the World Health Organization's COVAX initiative. Neither Sputnik nor Sinovac has been approved by the WHO. In Latin America, traditionally an area of US influence, countries such as Argentina and Chile have been buying up large numbers of Russian and Chinese shots to fill the gaps in their vaccine rollouts. According to Duke University's records of vaccine procurements, Argentina has placed orders for 30 million doses of Russia's Sputnik vaccine and 4 million doses of Sinopharm. To date, Argentina has not been able to strike a deal for the US Pfizer vaccine, although it has ordered 23 million doses of AstraZeneca's shot. Indonesia, the world's largest democracy and a longtime US ally in southeast Asia, turned to China to order more shipments of Sinovac after its AstraZeneca order was delayed by a year due to the outbreak in India, according state-run Antara News Agency. To date, Indonesia has bought more Sinovac vaccines than any other country, at least 125 million doses, according to Duke University. The second largest buyer of Sinovac is Turkey, a "critical regional partner" for the US, according to the State Department. Turkey purchased 100 million doses of the Chinese-made shot, and started administering the first doses in January it took four more months for US-made Pfizer shots to arrive. Ankara even sent hundreds of thousands of excess Sinovac doses of the drug to Libya. Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said in February there had been requests for more than 2.5 billion doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. At the same time, Sinopharm said it had received orders for 500 million doses, according to the state-run tabloid Global Times. Meanwhile, Sinovac was being asked to deliver 450 million doses, and was planning to transfer the technology to manufacture the drug to 10 countries to assist in a rapid rollout, Reuters reported. Most of Russia and China's vaccine deliveries have been sold rather than donated, but an analysis by Think Global Health found that 63 out of the 65 countries Beijing had donated vaccines to so far were part of Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road Initiative. China isn't just producing its own vaccines it is also helping to produce Russia's. By April 19, three privately-owned Chinese companies had struck major deals with Russia's RDIF to produce 260 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine 60 million by Shenzhen Yuanxing Gene-tech Co, 100 million by TopRidge Pharma and 100 million by Hualan Biological Bacterin Inc, according to the Global Times. The deal is partially the result of inadequate manufacturing capacity in Russia. In January, the RDIF warned of delays of up to three weeks for countries waiting for their doses. China's ability to manufacture vaccines for other countries, including Russia, is partially due to having the COVID-19 outbreak almost completely controlled within its borders and rapid upgrades to the country's manufacturing capacity. In March, Sinopharm announced plans to create up to 3 billion doses per year, making it the biggest coronavirus vaccine producer in the world, according to state-run media. Sinovac said it was aiming to ramp up its annual capacity to 2 billion. Meanwhile, Russia has been forced to cut deals with international suppliers to reach its delivery goals for Sputnik -- in April, the RDIF announced 20 manufacturers in 10 countries would be making the shots. An unlikely partnership China and Russia have had a rocky relationship over the past century, despite both being large Asian nations with a long history of Communist rule. There have been border clashes, political hostages and a famously long-running chilliness between Russian leader Joseph Stalin and China's Mao Zedong. But in recent years, under Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, the two countries have developed a tight bond built on mutual geopolitical interests. In 2019, amid growing trade tensions between Beijing and Washington, Xi described Putin as his "best and bosom friend," while Putin said relations were at an "unprecedented level." The COVID-19 pandemic has strengthened those bonds further, with Russian ambassador to China Andrey Denisov saying in April 2020 that the two countries would fight the common enemy "hand-in-hand." "As we did in World War II," he said. In an opinion piece in China Daily on April 7, China's ambassador to Moscow Zhang Hanhui said: "The more the world changes, the more chaotic it is and the more significant the great friendship between China and Russia is." The cooperation has caused rising concern for some Western leaders. Speaking on March 25, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Russia and China could use their vaccines to exert influence over the developing world, in "a world war of a new type." Thomas Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council for Foreign Relations, said many developing nations were "desperate" for vaccines. But Bollyky said while there might be some concern from the US government over any political influence China and Russia might be gaining from their rollouts, at the end of the day "the world needs more vaccines." "My only concern with the China vaccine and Russia's vaccine is they still haven't released the underlying clinical trial data too assess their safety and effectiveness," he said. Former diplomat Lo said while it was hard to know if the closeness would remain in the long term, for now both Xi and Putin were being brought together by the growing Western opposition to their governments. Under President Joe Biden, the US has increasingly focused on building coalitions of friendly nations to put pressure on Beijing and Moscow. "For the time being, the US is so evidently, for both Moscow and Beijing, the clear and present danger," he said. Vaccine diplomacy China and Russia have denied they are engaged in vaccine diplomacy. Speaking at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on March 23, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said both countries were engaged in "humanitarian work." "Unlike some major countries that are hoarding the vaccines for their own interests, we want to see more people immunized. Our hope is for the world to beat the pandemic as soon as possible," Wang said. "For China and Russia, our choice is not to benefit only ourselves, but rather to help the whole world." Virginia Commonwealth University's Twigg said China and Russia knew they had a very limited window in which to offer their vaccines to the developing world before Western nations caught up. Questions have already been raised by some world leaders over Russia's motivations behind its rapid rollout of the Sputnik vaccine to developing countries. "We still wonder why Russia is offering, theoretically, millions and millions of doses while not sufficiently progressing in vaccinating its own people," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told a news conference in February. "This a question that should be answered." To date, only 5.9% of Russia's population has been fully vaccinated. China said it had administered over 300 million doses of the vaccine as of May 7, but it isn't clear how many of those are first or second shots. Even if Russia and China can work quickly to vaccinate the developing world, some experts doubt their efforts will have the desired long-term political payoff. Twigg said the global rollout is still in its infancy and any number of developments, including Biden's to waive vaccine patent laws, could change the current vaccine landscape. By the end of the pandemic, she said most nations are likely to have inoculated their populations with a variety of vaccines from a number of countries. "A year or two, or three, from now, the places where Russia or China got there first, I don't think anyone's going to remember," she said. This story was first published on CNN.com, "China and Russia want to vaccinate the developing world before the West. It's brought them closer than ever." (CNN) -- Colombian student activist Lucas Villa was declared brain dead Monday night, nearly a week after he was shot eight times at a peaceful protest against President Ivan Duque's government, CNN Espanol reported, citing a statement from San Jorge de Pereira University Hospital where he was being treated. His family and the government also confirmed his death on social media Tuesday. The 37-year-old was one of three students shot by unknown gunmen on motorcycles at a demonstration on the evening of May 5 in Pereira, central Colombia. "Continue dancing in each cloud and make everyone there happy, like you did here," his sister, Nicole Villa wrote in a post on Instagram. The death caused consternation in Colombia, as Villa was a well-known figure in Pereira, and doctors at San Jorge Hospital had expressed hopes he might recover from his wounds. Duque commented on the protester's death on Twitter writing: "We stand with the Villa family with deep sadness after the news of Lucas' death. I repeat what I [said to] Mauricio, his father, that this becomes the opportunity to come together and reject violence. To the responsible [I wish] all the power of the law." The government is offering a reward of 100 million Colombian pesos ($27,000) in exchange for any "information to capture those responsible," Minister of Defense Diego Molano wrote on Twitter, before expressing "all our commitment to finding those guilty for this atrocious crime." What behind Colombia's latest protests? Colombians initially took to the streets on April 28 over proposed tax reforms put forward by Duque, who said the changes were "a necessity to keep the social programs going." The government has since withdrawn the reforms but the demonstrations have continued in response to security forces' heavy-handed response to grievances. Videos of anti-riot policemen using tear gas and batons against protesters have gone viral on social media, spreading beyond big cities and across the country. Far from curbing the protests, alleged police brutality has become a focal point for the demonstrators, who are now calling for an independent, international inquiry into the deaths. A total of 42 people, including one police officer, have been killed during nationwide protests in Colombia since April 28, according to the latest report from the country's Ombudsman. However, rights groups such as the Colombia-based NGO Temblores and US-based Human Rights Watch believe the death toll to be higher and say more than 45 people have died. Molano also said on Twitter that 849 police officers have been injured, 647 people have been arrested, and 378 firearms and 72 explosive devices have been apprehended. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Colombian protest leader Lucas Villa, who was shot eight times, dies" Students taking the Slavery and the Archive course turned to Emorys extensive library resources to connect the threads from rare information sources to build new stories and perspectives. The Emory College of Arts and Sciences students who met every Tuesday night in Maria Montalvos U.S. history seminar this spring took on a challenge that can be a struggle for experienced historians. In the class titled Slavery and the Archive, they tackled how to read into archival silences, connect small threads from rare or unconsidered primary sources and contextualize their findings, all to offer new stories and perspectives that include one from an enslaved woman from Emorys own history. Adding to the challenge was the need to conduct all of their research, and coursework, online. Learning this way can make you a more empathetic and critical thinker. It reinforces a simple but challenging notion: that your perception is not the only one, Montalvo says. It is the second spring that Montalvo has taught the course. A historian who studies slavery and capitalism, this is her second year as an assistant professor at Emory. Students had weekly discussions about extensive readings exploring the limitations and opportunities to find records that center on enslaved people. They were required to produce original research by semesters end, in part by examining Emorys extensive collections in African American history in the Woodruff Library and Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. The courses focus on developing and sharpening skills in critical thinking, research and writing align with Emorys excellence in the liberal arts and sciences. My goal is not to have them all become historians, Montalvo says. My goal is to help them understand how to read, learn and question effectively enough to become the best of anything they want to be. The work required that students have the skills to find legitimate sources and put their findings into context. Erica Bruchko, an Emory librarian specializing in African American and U.S. history, came to one class to help students identify sources and understand the research process. She also created a resource guide, specific to the course, and could meet with students one-on-one. Recognizing how slavery has shaped the present, students are more interested than ever in using the library to explore these connections, Bruchko says. These sources, especially those documenting the voices of the enslaved, can be difficult to find and interpret, but students are well up for the challenge. Despite the hard work, students say emphasis on acknowledging untold stories is especially welcome in a year still weighed down by a pandemic, racial unrest and remote learning. For junior Lauren Mahoney, a biology major who plans to become a veterinarian, it also honed a new skill: the ability to have difficult conversations. In the class, she learned to have challenging conversations about how the history of slavery was long presented through records of investors or those who owned enslaved people, not those who were enslaved. We all come at this topic with different perspectives and different plans, but we are all receptive to other ideas, Mahoney says. Its very interesting because of the topic, but its just as interesting because we are able to have these discussions. The conversations took different shapes, based on the research done. Junior Bryn Walker spent last summer conducting remote research on the Georgia monuments erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, part of a planned honors thesis on the states role in such memorials. In Montalvos course, though, the history major returned to the buildings that captured her attention as a first-year student on Emorys original campus in Oxford, Georgia. One of them was home to Catherine "Miss Kitty" Andrew Boyd, an enslaved woman owned by the Methodist bishop who was Emorys board chair in 1844. The story is he built that house for her to live in as a free woman, then she became the only Black person buried in Oxford City Cemetery, Walker says. When you look at it critically, its not a story about loyalty but a myth about just how free Black women really were to live. Similar research into the everyday pushback of enslaved women putting pictures of Abraham Lincoln up in their quarters or putting energy into their limited social lives instead of field work changed how junior Channelle Russell views the concept of freedom and resistance. Unspooling those stories helped Russell, a history and English double major, create her own. In between responsibilities as incoming co-founder of Bloom at Emory and a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, Russell is plotting family histories of two characters in a speculative fiction novel she is developing, with special consideration of how they would resist. For the course, she researched an act of gendered violence in an 1830s Jamaican text. It has me thinking, we have these sources, but what story can you tell from them? I want to create something persuasive and founded in a good argument, she says. (CNN) -- Together, Bill and Melinda Gates were one of the richest and most philanthropic couples in the world. After splitting, they will be two of the wealthiest individuals in the world. With decades of philanthropic involvement under her belt, Melinda Gates has become something of a philanthropic role model. And her divorce from Bill Gates opens a new chapter for giving opportunities. "I have no doubt in her ability to have impact," Alexsis de Raadt St. James, founder and managing partner of Merian Ventures, told CNN Business. "It may be singularly the most important thing to follow in philanthropy because her impact is so disproportionately powerful." Melinda Gates has focused on several areas of giving in the past that could point to what we might expect from her in the decades ahead. Empowering women and young girls Empowering and supporting women is paramount to Melinda Gates. In 2015, she followed that passion and created her own investment and incubation company, Pivotal Ventures. "After Bill and I opened our foundation, I started spending time with women around the world and gaining a much deeper understanding of the impact of structural inequality on women's and girls' lives," Melinda Gates wrote in an opinion piece for CNN on International Women's Day in March 2020. "The data is unequivocal: No matter where in the world you are born, your life will be harder if you are a girl." Through philanthropic contributions and venture capital investments, the firm supports several women-focused efforts. And the team at Pivotal Ventures specifically focuses on getting more women working in key sectors such as technology and encouraging more women to run for public office, from the local level and up. In June 2020, through Pivotal Ventures, Melinda Gates teamed with Jeff Bezos' ex-wife MacKenzie Scott to launch the Equality Can't Wait Challenge. The program will grant $30 million to the organizations with the best ideas for helping expand women's power and influence in the United States by 2030. Ten finalists have been chosen and the winners will be announced this summer. "I think there's a lot that an everyday person can learn from Melinda's history with philanthropy," Tammy Tibbetts, co-founder and CEO of She's the First and author of "Impact" told CNN Business. "She's been very consistent in supporting gender issues and women and girls." Mental health Through her work at Pivotal Ventures, Gates has spearheaded several mental health initiatives, mostly focusing on young people. In April, she helped launch Sound It Out, a national campaign that promotes mental health for middle schoolers. The initiative includes an "album and resources to help parents and caregivers have meaningful conversations about emotional wellbeing with their middle schoolers," according to an Ad Council press release. In October 2020, she launched The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health, which provides resources to organizations that address the mental health needs of young people particularly focusing on young people of color and the young LGBTQ+ community in the United States. Vaccines and vaccine access Melinda Gates has been very vocal about vaccines and vaccine access, most recently during the Covid-19 pandemic. "Everybody needs this vaccine," she told CNN's Poppy Harlow in December. "If we only get it to the high-income countries, this disease is going to bounce around. We're going to see twice as many deaths. And our recovery of our economies is going to be much slower than if we get the vaccine out to everybody." She also encouraged policymakers to consider a long-term solution that will ensure women aren't at risk again should another crisis occur. In total, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has committed more than $1.75 billion to support the global response to Covid-19. Poverty Lifting people out of poverty has long been a priority for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda Gates wrote about the intersection of technology and poverty in an opinion piece for CNN Business in October 2018, saying, "The first step is making sure that all people have access to digital technology, and right now billions still don't." She added, "Digital technology won't help fight poverty if simply acquiring it pushes people into poverty." She also focuses on how poverty specifically applies to women. In 2019, she called "broad access to contraceptives" the "greatest anti-poverty tool we have in the world." Paid leave Through Pivotal Ventures, Melinda Gates has supported bipartisan efforts to advance a comprehensive federal paid leave policy since 2016, investing more than $65 million in advocates for the issue, including The Bipartisan Policy Center and the National Partnership for Women and Families. The company also works with Paid Leave for All and PL+US (Paid Leave for the US) national campaigns that work at the state and federal levels to push for a national policy by mobilizing voters, businesses, and other key stakeholders. In May 2019, Gates told CNN's Harlow that the United States needs government-funded paid family leave, and Congress needs to put forth policy proposals and learn from state policies. "We are the only industrialized nation that doesn't have it," Gates said. "It makes an enormous difference." This story was first published on CNN.com, "Here's where Melinda Gates will focus her multi-billion-dollar fortune after her divorce" Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) The Department of Health believes the Philippines can use up two million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines before it expires in the next two months, even rejecting the proposal to expand the vaccination to economic frontliners to prevent wastage. Health Undersecretary Myrna Cabotaje on Wednesday said using up 1.5 million shots for first dose and the remaining 530,400 as second dose is doable if the 1,047 vaccination sites in the country inoculate a minimum of 100 people daily with AstraZeneca vaccines. She said the vaccination hit a record-high of 90,000 people per day when the AstraZeneca supply was ordered used purely for first dose. "Kung magkaroon lang sila ng 100 vaccinees per day, aabot tayo sa ating mga target," she told state television PTV. [Translation: If they can have 100 vaccinees per day, we can reach our target.] The health official said they have reached out to DOH regional offices to speed up the vaccination. "Ang problema noon was there was no vaccine available so medyo hesitant sila magstart at maging agresibo. Now that we have enough vaccines, I'm sure they will be happy to receive it... I am sure they will adjust their strategies para maibigay ang kaukulang number of jabs within a shorter period," Cabotaje said. [Translation: The problem before was there was no vaccine available so they were hesitant to be aggressive with the vaccination. I am sure they will adjust their strategies to be able to give more vaccines within a shorter period.] COVAX delivered a total of 2,030,400 AstraZeneca doses to the Philippines on May 8. Of this number, 1.5 million doses are expiring on June 30, while 530,400 will expire in July. Dr. Tony Leachon, a health reform advocate and former adviser to the pandemic response task force, said the government should ask for the private sector's help to speed up the rollout to prevent wastage as global supply remains a problem. He criticized that only 40,000 to 60,000 vaccinations are being done per day, saying that the stock cannot be used by June at this rate. According to the latest government data taken on May 4, the seven-day average of people getting vaccinated nationwide is only at 36,491. Vaccinate A4 to prevent wastage, gov't told Leachon also urged the government to open up the vaccination to the next group in the priority list, which is the A4 group or the economic frontliners and government agencies. They are next in line to receive vaccines after the A1 healthcare workers, A2 elderlies, and A3 people with comorbidities. However, DOH rejected this proposal. Cabotaje said the World Health Organization has ordered the prioritization of the A1-A3 groups when using vaccines that were donated through COVAX. "Ang AstraZeneca ay galing sa COVAX facility. Ang priority ng COVAX ay A1, A2, A3 so hindi natin pwede ibigay sa ibang areas," she added. [Translation: Our AstraZeneca doses came from COVAX. Its priority is the A1-A3 so we cannot give it to other groups.] DOH reported that over 300,000 health workers have yet to be vaccinated, while only a measly 6% or 466,000 of the 7.7 million senior citizens have been vaccinated. Only 353,842 people with comorbidities have received their COVID-19 vaccine. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) The Department of Health is now looking into the health status of the close contacts on board the plane of two Filipino seafarers who contracted the "double mutant" B.1.617.2 COVID-19 variant first found in India. Health Undersecretary and Spokesperson Maria Rosario Vergeire told CNN Philippines on Wednesday that the DOH is now checking the swab test results of at least 32 close contacts of the two seafarers. Vergeire said there were at least six identified passengers who were seated near the 37-year-old seafarer who returned from Oman last April 10. Meanwhile the 58-year-old seafarer from the United Arab Emirates who arrived in the Philippines on April 19 had at least 26 close contacts inside the plane. "We are getting information because all of these returning overseas Filipino workers are tested on the fifth and sixth day when they arrive," Vergeire told CNN Philippines' The Source. "We are just finding their names in our laboratory system so we will know the information on their results." "'Pag sinabing close contact at nasa eroplano, merong protocol (When you say close contacts inside an airplane, there's a protocol)," Vergeire explained. "Its four seats behind, four seats in front and the ones beside [the patient]." The department noted that the two patients who had no history of travel to India have already recovered after completing their isolation in their quarantine facilities and in their respective homes. READ: PH records first 2 cases of COVID-19 variant from India Meanwhile, the results on the samples taken from travelers with travel history to India have yet to be released. Of the five passengers from the South Asian country who tested positive last week, only two samples have undergone genomic sequencing, with no other variant of concern. RELATED: DOH clarifies 5 travelers from India positive for COVID-19, no missing passengers The DOH also said that of the 12 Filipino seafarers onboard MTV Athens Bridge from India who tested positive for COVID-19, they will have to conduct a re-swabbing since only nine samples are eligible to be sent to the Philippine Genome Center for sequencing. Vergeire did not say when the results will likely be out. RELATED: 12 Filipino seafarers from India positive for COVID-19 evacuated, to be moved to quarantine center The Philippine government only imposed travel restrictions on India on April 29. Infectious diseases expert Dr. Rontgene Solante told CNN Philippines on Wednesday that there is still no proof that the B.1.617.2 COVID-19 variant can significantly affect the efficacy of the available vaccines in the country, but he advised the government to ramp up its inoculation and sequencing efforts. The variant has already been classified by the World Health Organization as a "variant of concern" or one found to have increased transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; increase in virulence; or potential decrease in effectiveness of public health measures, medicine, or vaccines. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) The Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) will publish on Thursday a list of individuals designated as "terrorists," according to National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon. Esperon made the revelation during Wednesday's oral arguments on the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, where he was asked by a Supreme Court justice if the council has already made designations. "There is a resolution of the Anti-Terrorism Council but until we have published this in local papers, we will not name them publicly," Esperon said in response to the inquiry of Justice Rosmari Carandang. "Tomorrow, they will come out in the papers," Esperon added, noting that he did not want to "preempt" the council. The implementing rules and regulations of the anti-terrorism law lets the ATC publish online and in a national broadsheet a list of people and entities designated as "terrorists." Once published, the tagged parties may file a verified request for delisting before the council within 15 days. The rule earlier drew flak from netizens and rights groups, which called out the measure over the lack of due process. READ: Here are the major issues raised against the Anti-Terrorism Act However, a number of security officials and lawmakers have repeatedly dismissed criticisms against the anti-terrorism law, saying there are enough safeguards in place to protect the rights of citizens. The Office of the Solicitor General, in a previous session at the high court, maintained the government is not engaged in "red-tagging" activities, asserting that officials only do "truth-tagging." Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) There is no proof yet that the COVID-19 variant first detected in India would significantly affect the efficacy of available vaccines, but the national government must ramp up its inoculation efforts to protect more Filipinos, an infectious diseases expert said Wednesday. Dr. Rontgene Solante, chief of the Adult Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine unit at the San Lazaro Hospital, told CNN Philippines' New Day on Wednesday that the government must improve its vaccination pace to help more people fight the B.1617 variant or the "double mutant" from India, along with other variants detected in other countries. "The concern on this variant now is if this continues to circulate and our vaccination will not ramp up, there is a possibilty that eventually, our vaccine will really not be able to be effective against this variant," said Solante, who is also a member of the government's vaccine expert panel. "But as of now, the ability of this variant is not significant enough to affect the efficacy of our available vaccines," Solante added. He noted, however, that some other countries like the US are already looking at giving vaccine booster shots to control the pandemic. The variant has already been classified by the World Health Organization as a "variant of concern." On Tuesday, the Philippines logged its first two cases found with the B.1617 variant two seafarers with no travel history from the South Asian country. READ: WHO labels COVID-19 variant first found in India as one of global concern The WHO defines a "variant of concern" as one found to have increased transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; increase in virulence; or potential decrease in effectiveness of public health measures, medicine, or vaccines. Solante stressed the importance of conducting early genomic surveillance among those who tested positive for the virus. He added that failure to curb transmission brought by the B.1617 variant might lead to more patients contracting severe COVID-19. India has been recording the world's highest number of new daily COVID-19 cases in its second wave of infections. The country's cases have soared to nearly 23 million, while more than 249,992 people have lost their lives, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. It is not yet clear how many infections have been linked to the double mutant variant. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) The Department of Foreign Affairs chief issued a series of warnings on Tuesday after a Malacanang official claimed that the Julian Felipe Reef is not part of the Philippines exclusive economic zone. DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said only his agency has the final say when it comes to matters related to the Philippines foreign relations. This is my last warning. When it comes to foreign affairs the Department of Foreign Affairs has the exclusive remit, Locsin said in a tweet Tuesday. I dont come from diplomacy; I come from a life that settled the hash of a lotta people who talked tough and ended up biting dirt. I dont talk, I deal. He said the country has one voice when it comes to foreign relations and that is his voice as the head of DFA. What can we do? Lets try this: drop the subject and leave it entirely to the Department of Foreign Affairs under ME, the only expert on the subject bar none, Locsin also said. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque drew flak on Tuesday after he said the Philippines was never in possession of Julian Felipe Reef, where around 200 Chinese ships were sighted in March, since it is not part of the country's exclusive economic zone. READ: Roque says Julian Felipe Reef not within EEZ His claim goes against the position of the DFA and Department of National Defense. His remark also diminishes the diplomatic protests filed by the Philippines on the continued presence of Chinese vessels and their illegal activities in the disputed waters. Roque said he already talked to Locsin, adding there is no bad blood between them. "We talked this morning, and we're fine," he told reporters on Wednesday. For his part, Senator Koko Pimentel, who chairs the foreign relations committee in the Senate, said Wednesday in a tweet, "the entire [executive] branch should follow a script, written by the DFA" regarding West Philippine Sea issues. He also suggested choosing "talking heads carefully and limit them, [then] form an elite team, which will educate "all of us" about the details of the WPS issues." The reef also known as Whitsun Reef is located approximately 175 nautical miles west of Bataraza, Palawan. It is within the Philippines' EEZ, where Filipinos have the sole right to resources under international law and the ruling by a Hague tribunal. Early April, the department warned that it will fire off diplomatic protests for each day Chinese vessels refuse to leave Philippine waters. This reiterated the demand of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana for China to immediately withdraw its vessels that are in the vicinity of Julian Felipe Reef and in the Philippines' maritime zones. Despite issuing a series of diplomatic protests in April and May, Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said on May 10 that Chinese boats remain in the area. Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 13) An armed clash between government authorities and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters -Karialan faction in Datu Paglas, Maguindanao resulted in the death of four of the BIFF gunmen. In a statement, Brig. Gen. Roy Galido, commander of the 601st Infantry Brigade, said the encounter happened in the early morning of May 12 as the militants try to evade security forces but were intercepted by Army troops. Recovered from the extremist group were four bodies, one high-powered firearm, and other war materials, Galido said. He noted that the group has been the target of military operations in Datu Paglas and nearby areas after their encounter on May 8 in the public market of the municipality. Since then, the group has suffered four deaths, while two were arrested through the authorities intensified manhunt activities. This comes after President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to local officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to help the government control rebels in the region to avoid an "all-out offensive." In his speech before BARMM officials, the President also slammed the BIFF for its continued attacks. "But the monkey wrench of the whole situation now is the BIFF...They continue to burn, ambush, detonate bombs," he said. "Talagang (It's really) full-blown terrorism." (CNN) Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Tuesday signed into law a controversial bill that could remove tens of thousands of voters from the state's early mail-in voting list, shortly after the GOP-controlled state Senate passed the legislation. SB 1485 would revise the state's permanent early voting list, which allows a voter to automatically receive a ballot by mail for every election. It would remove voters who have not participated in the last four elections, including partisan primaries, and don't respond to final mailed notices. "Arizona is a national leader when it comes to election integrity and access to the ballot box, and today I signed #SB1485 to continue that legacy," Ducey wrote on Twitter. Earlier on Tuesday, senators passed the bill on a 16-14 party-line vote. The Arizona House had approved the legislation last month. Under the bill, voters would not be eligible to be removed from the list until January 2025, following the 2022 and 2024 cycles. "This bill removes nonvoters," GOP state senator Vince Leach said in defending the bill. "These people have plenty of other means for voting." Critics say the bill amounts to voter suppression, making it more difficult for occasional voters, voters of color, independents and rural Indigenous voters. Opponents say as many as 150,000 Arizona voters could be affected. Vote by mail was widely practiced in Arizona long before the coronavirus pandemic took hold. The bill has faced a whiplash journey through the Arizona Legislature. The Arizona Senate previously approved the measure before the state House amended it and passed its version in April. The amended bill was expected to get final passage in the GOP-led state Senate last month. But the measure stalled following an intense back-and-forth over a highly controversial election audit between the bill's sponsor and another GOP lawmaker. After coming back to the Senate floor from caucusing on changes to the legislation, GOP state Sen. Kelly Townsend said she was voting against the legislation and any other election bills pending a Republican-backed audit of some of the state's mail-in ballots from the 2020 presidential election. The so-called audit ordered by the Senate began in April and has stretched into May, despite the election results already undergoing multiple reviews that had found no evidence of widespread fraud and ultimately being certified by state election officials. The audit -- which perpetuates the falsehood that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump -- has been decried by both Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors, which is majority Republican, and the Arizona secretary of state, who is a Democrat. The US Justice Department issued a warning about the audit last week, saying the effort could be in violation of federal voting and civil rights laws. Though the review is still ongoing, Townsend voted in favor of the bill on Tuesday. "I have been reassured because we are now looking into other issues," Townsend told her colleagues. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Arizona governor signs bill that would stop some voters from automatically receiving mail-in ballots." (Reuters) A court in Cameroon sentenced two transgender women on Tuesday to five years in prison for "attempted homosexuality" and other offenses after they were arrested for the clothes they wore in a restaurant, their lawyers said. A local social media celebrity known as Shakiro, who also is identified as Loic Njeukam, and Patricia, also identified as Roland Mouthe, were arrested on February 8. Human rights activists say their detention is part of the growing criminalization of sexual minorities and transgender people in Cameroon. The two received the maximum sentence of five years in prison and fines of 200,000 CFA francs ($370), their lawyers told Reuters. Besides "attempted homosexuality," they were convicted of public indecency and failing to carry identification. "This is a political decision," said one of the lawyers, Alice Nkom, who vowed to appeal the verdict. "It's Yaounde (the central government) that said these people must not bring homosexuality to Cameroon." A government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cameroon is one of more than 30 African countries where same-sex relations are illegal. Its courts have previously sentenced people to multiyear prison sentences for their alleged homosexuality. Human Rights Watch said last month that Shakiro and Patricia's arrests seemed to be part of "an overall uptick in police action" against sexual minorities. Fifty-three people have been arrested in raids on HIV and AIDS organizations since May 2020, with some reporting having been beaten and subjected to forced "anal examinations" to confirm accusations of homosexuality, the rights group said. This story was first published on CNN.com "Cameroon jails two transgender women for 'attempted homosexuality'" (CNN) Former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller is expected to tell Congress Wednesday that he was concerned sending US troops to Capitol on January 6 would have encouraged the conspiracy of a possible "military coup," according to his prepared testimony obtained by CNN. Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, at the same hearing, will reaffirm that the Justice Department did not find evidence of widespread voter fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Miller, who is scheduled to testify publicly for the first time about the insurrection, also maintains that if he had sent troops to the Capitol any time before noon that day it would have "created the biggest constitutional crisis since Watergate," according to a source familiar with his thinking. The military has been criticized for not responding faster to aid US Capitol Police in pushing back protestors. "My concerns regarding the appropriate and limited use of the military in domestic matters were heightened by commentary in the media about the possibility of a military coup or that advisors to the President were advocating the declaration of martial law," his prepared testimony for the House Oversight Committee states. RELATED: 2 men accused of using chemical on officer Brian Sicknick at the Capitol riot to stay in jail, judge rules "I was also cognizant of the fears promulgated by many about the prior use of the military in the June 2020 response to protests near the White House and fears that the President would invoke the Insurrection Act to politicize the military in an anti-democratic manner," Miller's prepared remarks add. Miller maintains that no such military coup was ever going to occur under his watch but "these concerns and hysteria about them, nonetheless factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our Armed Forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification," his remarks say. No evidence of voter fraud Rosen's testimony is coming the same day House Republicans are preparing to remove Rep. Liz Cheney from GOP leadership after she publicly challenged former President Donald Trump's lies about the election being stolen from him. "During my tenure, DOJ maintained the position publicly announced previously that the Department had been presented with no evidence of widespread voter fraud at a scale sufficient to change the outcome of the 2020 election, that it would not participate in any campaign's or political party's legal challenges to the certification of the Electoral College votes, and that there would be an orderly and peaceful transfer of power under the Constitution," Rosen plans to say, according to his prepared remarks. Rosen took over for Attorney General William Barr, who left in December 2020 amid clashes with Trump over the Justice Department's investigation into alleged voter fraud. Rosen says in his testimony that during his brief tenure leading the Justice Department, "no special prosecutors were appointed, whether for election fraud or otherwise; no public statements were made questioning the election; no letters were sent to State officials seeking to overturn the election results; no DOJ court actions or filings were submitted seeking to overturn election results, and the only time DOJ did file a brief it was to seek a dismissal of Representative (Louie) Gohmert's lawsuit aiming to decertify the electoral count -- and that lawsuit was dismissed, as DOJ had urged." Rosen will also defend the Justice Department's actions on January 6, saying that federal agencies responded quickly to the Capitol when they were requested, including more than 500 federal agents and officers, and helped eventually restore order so Congress could finish tallying the Electoral College votes that night. "Although the storming of the Capitol was a tragic episode in our nation's history, I take some comfort in the resilience of our institutions in the face of such an attack, as demonstrated by Congress's ability to reconvene and fulfill its constitutional duties just hours after the breach," Rosen says in his prepared remarks. He adds that he believed the Justice Department was "reasonably prepared for contingencies" before the January 6 attack, while noting there was "uncertainty" over how many people would take part in the demonstrations that led to the insurrection at the Capitol. This story was first published on CNN.com, "2 men accused of using chemical on officer Brian Sicknick at the Capitol riot to stay in jail, judge rules." In yet another SOS to the Centre, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said today that Bharat Biotech has declined to supply any more vaccines to the national capital. He said Delhi's reserve stock of Covid-19 vaccine is exhausted, and that the Centre should carry out its responsibility and stop all exports to fulfil the domestic demand. COVAXIN Vaccine ! Supply 17 100 Vaccination Centre ! 6.6 Vaccine Export 67 COVAXIN ! #ModiKaVaccineDisasterpic.twitter.com/oK0KF0sNri AAP (@AamAadmiParty) May 12, 2021 He said Delhi had demanded 1.34 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines, 67 lakhs each of Covaxin and Covishield. "Covaxin (Bharat Biotech) wrote to us yesterday that they can't provide. They wrote 'we're making dispatches as per directives of concerned govt officials'. Obvious that these are central govt officials," said the Delhi deputy chief minister. Also read: India's new COVID-19 cases have peaked, states Cambridge tracker Sisodia said the company wrote it can't give any additional supplies of Covid-19 vaccines. "I don't know how much is being supplied to other states but they've written to us that they can't provide it to Delhi because they have to supply as per the central government," he said. Vaccine mismanagement by Centre Gov- Covaxin refuses to supply vaccine citing directives of Gov. & limited availability. Once again I would say exporting 6.6cr doses was biggest mistake. We are forced to shutdown 100 covaxin-vaccination sites in 17 schools due to no supply pic.twitter.com/uFZSG0y4HM Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) May 12, 2021 Given no supply of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech, the Delhi government had to close over 100 centres across 17 schools, which were administering the vaccine. "The centres administering Covishield vaccines are functioning," said Sisodia. While slamming the Centre over the issue of shortage of vaccines, Sisodia said the central government should act as the government of a country. "They should carry out their responsibility and stop all exports," he added. Also read: 3.48 new Covid-19 cases, record 4,205 deaths in 24 hours; positivity rate dips to 17.56% Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain had on Monday also warned the national capital has Covaxin stock for only one day, while Covishield stock will last for up to four days only. As the issue of vaccine shortage takes centre stage, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday suggested to the central government that it should share the COVID-19 vaccine formula of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech with other firms in the country to scale up production of the coronavirus jab. He said there is a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine doses across India and there's an urgent need to scale up its manufacturing on a war footing. Kejriwal said vaccine production should be ramped up while developing a national policy for administering the jab to everyone in the next few months. "Not just 2, several companies should be deployed to produce vaccines. The Centre should collect the formula to produce vaccines from these 2 companies & give it to all those companies that can produce vaccines safely. Centre has the power to do this in these difficult times," the Chief Minister added. Also read: Kejriwal urges Centre to share Serum, Bharat Biotech's vaccine formula with other companies Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here. (CNN) -- Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians escalated further on Tuesday as Palestinian militants in Gaza fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which in turn ramped up airstrikes on the coastal enclave, as unrest spread to cities and towns beyond Jerusalem. As both sides traded airstrikes on Tuesday evening, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the nation from Tel Aviv, saying, "We are in the midst of a significant operation." Israeli bombing raids across Gaza have killed at least 32 people, including 10 children, according to Palestinian health officials, who also said 203 people have been injured. The Israeli military said it had killed more than 15 militants. Meanwhile in Israel, sirens wailed non-stop on Tuesday in the town of Ashkelon, where two people were killed by rocket fire, according to an Israeli military spokesman. A third person died in the town of Rishon Lezion, south of Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening after a rocket attack, Israeli media reported citing the ZAKA emergency service. A CNN team heard at least 50 explosions in the coastal town near Gaza, and rocket fire was also reported in the city of Ashdod. At least 17 Israeli civilians have been treated for injuries from rocket attacks, the military said. A 13-story building collapse A 13-story tower block in Gaza city collapsed on Tuesday night after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike, drawing vows of retaliation from militants. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the building contained offices used by Hamas across several floors, including intelligence offices of its military wing, and a research and development unit working on rockets. The IDF also said it provided "advance warning to civilians in the building and provided sufficient time for them to evacuate the site." There are reports that one person on a nearby street was injured in the building's collapse. Hamas and Islamic Jihad promised to retaliate by firing rockets at Tel Aviv, and shortly before 9 p.m. (2 p.m. ET) sirens went off across the city and surrounding towns. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, later said the militant group had targeted Tel Aviv with 130 rockets on Tuesday night, a statement shared on Whatsapp read. Seven people, including a 5-year-old child, were injured when a rocket struck a bus in Holon, south of Tel Aviv, according to Israeli media. No signs of de-escalation In the past two days, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza have fired at least 500 rockets into Israel, forcing the closure of Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion, about fifteen kilometers east of Tel Aviv. The militants say it is a response to the actions of Israeli police who fired stun grenades inside the Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem -- one of the city's holiest sites -- on Monday morning. Hundreds of Palestinians went to hospitals for treatment after ensuing clashes with Israeli police, in the most serious violence seen in the city in weeks. "We have the right to respond to the Israeli offensive and protect the interests of our people as long as the Israeli occupation continues the escalation," Hamas said in a statement. The Israeli military has conducted more than 150 strikes in Gaza as of Tuesday afternoon, according to a military spokesman, who said Israel had also called up 5,000 reserve troops to active duty to "enhance" its operation in Gaza. A number of deaths were reported in strikes in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza. Among them were Amira Abdel-Fattah, 57, who was killed in her apartment along with her son who has special needs, Ibrahim al-Masri, 11, and his brother Marwan, 7, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Israeli army says it is investigating. A Palestinian man in Gaza told CNN over the phone that the sounds of Israeli strikes throughout Monday night, as well as the sound of outgoing rocket fire, had been "horrifying." The man, who declined to be named, described a mood of anger in Gaza over recent events in Jerusalem. "It's the fact the Israelis targeted Al Aqsa, during Ramadan, while people were praying" that has so riled people, he said. The man added that Israel's actions would only embolden support for Hamas, and that he believed militants should continue firing rockets. Meanwhile, Arab citizens of Israel demonstrated Monday evening and Tuesday in the streets of several Israeli cities and villages, including Haifa and Lod, in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and Jerusalem. In Lod, a 25-year-old Arab-Israeli man was shot dead by a 34-year-old Jewish resident who said he was responding to stones being thrown at him. Two people were arrested in connection with that incident, police said. Israeli police said around 150 violent protesters had been arrested in multiple locations. Rioters attacked drivers, threw stones at passing cars, blocked roads and ignited trees tires and a car, according to police. International community calls for calm The United States and European Union called for a de-escalation of violence while several countries in the Middle East, including Turkey, condemned the Israeli police response to tensions in Jerusalem. One of the main sources of growing unrest in recent days has been the possible eviction of several Palestinian families from their homes in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Israeli police have clashed with Palestinians in the neighborhood, as well as other locations, for several weeks now, with Palestinians accusing Jewish nationalists of provocation and police of heavy-handed tactics. Nearly a thousand Palestinians were injured in East Jerusalem, and over 200 in the West Bank, between May 7 and May 10, according to the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. On Tuesday, UN human rights experts expressed "grave concerns about Israel's aggressive response to protests in East Jerusalem, and called on Israel, as an occupying power, to immediately lift its threat to evict hundreds of Palestinian households from their legally protected homes." "Re-establishing calm in Jerusalem is important, but creating the conditions for justice and equality in the City are even more important," the experts said in the statement. The UN also denounced Israeli airstrikes in Gaza as well as Palestinian rocket shelling. White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed "serious concerns" about the violence in Israel and said President Joe Biden was continuing to monitor the situation. This story was first published on CNN.com, "Israel ramps up airstrikes as barrage of rockets from Gaza continues" (CNN) -- Three senior reporters who fled Myanmar for Thailand after the brutal military coup "face certain arrest and persecution" if they are deported following their arrest in Chiang Mai on Sunday, journalist groups say. The three are prominent journalists with the independent Burmese news agency Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) and were detained in the northern Thai city after a random police search, their editor said in a statement Monday. They, along with two unnamed activists, have been charged with illegally entering the country. The case could be the biggest test yet for how Thailand decides to treat those fleeing persecution from Myanmar in the wake of the coup. "DVB strongly urges the Thai authorities to not deport them back to Burma, as their life will be in serious danger if they were to return," said Aye Chan Naing, executive director and chief editor of DVB, who used another name for Myanmar. "They have been covering the demonstrations in Burma until March 8 the day the military authority revoked DVB's TV license and banned DVB from doing any kind of media work." Thailand Police Captain Duangrit Wannarit, who filed the charges, told CNN Business the five arrested were Burmese passport holders and had not gone through the immigration system. On Tuesday, a Chiang Mai court adjourned the case until May 17 so the five could seek legal representation, Duangrit said. They will be held at the San Sai district police station until the hearing. As well as being charged for allegedly entering the country illegally, Duangrit said the "prosecutor will consider if they have also breached the communicable disease act." Duangrit declined to give more details, saying it was a "highly sensitive" case. However, he told CNN Business the five would not be sent back to Myanmar immediately after the court proceedings, and would remain in the custody of immigration police. Thailand's foreign ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat said in a tweet Tuesday "Thai authorities concerned are coordinating to find humanitarian solution(s) to the recent case of journalists from Myanmar." 100 days since coup Tuesday marks 100 days since Myanmar's military seized power in a coup on February 1, ousting the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party. Since then, the military junta has brutally cracked down on any perceived opposition to its rule. Mass street protests have been suppressed with deadly force, with more than 780 people killed by security forces and almost 5,000 arrested, according to advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The junta, led by Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, has attempted to silence independent media. Journalists across the country have been attacked and detained merely for doing their jobs. More than 80 reporters have been arrested since the coup, with more than half of those still in detention as of May 3, according to a statement from Western embassies in Myanmar. The military has also revoked the licenses of prominent independent broadcasters, online news outlets and newspapers, including DVB, so working for them is considered illegal. On May 4, the junta banned the use of satellite dishes an order aimed at DVB and banned independent news agency Mizzima, which continued to broadcast by satellite into the country. Offices of newspapers and online media have been raided, and a nightly news bulletin on state TV broadcasts the names and images of those sought by the junta, including journalists. Many are being held on charges under section 505a of Myanmar's Penal Code a law amended by the military that makes it a crime punishable by up to three years in prison for publishing or circulating comments that "cause fear" or spread "false news." There are fears if the five are deported to Myanmar, they will face certain arrest and the possibility of torture. Media and rights groups are calling on Thailand to ensure they remain in the country on humanitarian grounds. "Thai authorities should uphold the country's proud history as a sanctuary for journalists fleeing military repression in Myanmar, and on humanitarian grounds should not deport three Democratic Voice of Burma journalists recently arrested for alleged illegal entry," said Shawn Crispin, senior Southeast Asia representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "Myanmar's military regime has repeatedly abused and detained journalists, and Thai authorities should not force these members of the press to face potentially severe retaliation for their work." Big test for Thailand's position on coup The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT) said in a statement it was "seriously concerned" about the arrests. "These five individuals would face certain arrest and persecution, if not worse, for their work and association with the DVB, and under no circumstances should they be deported back to Myanmar," the statement read. "Rather, the DVB journalists and their associates should be released from detention, urgently offered protection, and granted the right to remain temporarily in Thailand." DVB's Aye Chan Naing also urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok "to intervene to help guard their safety." "We request the international community to help call the Thai authorities to waive their deportation," he said. For years, Thai authorities allowed exiled Burmese media organizations like DVB to operate within its borders. Thailand has also hosted tens of thousands of refugees in nine main camps along its border with Myanmar for three decades, following armed conflicts, human rights abuses and persecution of ethnic minorities by the Myanmar military. Thailand, however, has not ratified the UN refugee convention. Thailand Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha also seized power in a coup in 2014, and held onto his leadership following 2019 elections that opponents said were not free or fair. His government has arrested dozens of pro-democracy protesters who turned out on masse demanding his resignation and accusing him of engineering the election. Prayut has denied the election was flawed and allegations of interference. Prayut has previously declined to make a strong statement on the situation in Myanmar. Last month, the international community had hoped Southeast Asian leaders would be able to reach a breakthrough on stopping the violence in Myanmar at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting, but Prayut had skipped the summit, sending his deputy prime minister in his place. "Regarding the situation in Myanmar, it is a highly complex issue," he had said at that time. "The government is currently working at various channels in order to find peaceful solution, as a duty of being member state to AESAN." Thailand has agreed to support the plan that emerged from the ASEAN meeting, which includes ending violence in Myanmar and a constructive dialogue among all parties. The FCCT warned "the world is watching" how Thailand proceeds, adding it was an "important case for press freedom in Myanmar and the region, and for the protection of those fleeing the junta's brutal crackdown on independent media and civil society." This story was first published on CNN.com, "Arrest of journalists a litmus test for how Thailand treats those fleeing persecution in Myanmar" Long lines began forming at gas stations across the East Coast this week as panicked drivers worry about supply shortages and higher prices following the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, a major U.S. fuel artery that was hit by a cyberattack over the weekend. It was unbelievable. When I was driving today, I thought it was a catastrophe coming! Yasheeka Wiggins, of Marion, S.C., told CBS News. Ive seen all these cars waiting and I was like, OMG. I have to fill my tank up! The 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline, which delivers nearly half of the fuel used on the Eastern seaboard, was the target of a ransomware attack by a Russia-based criminal group called DarkSide, the FBI confirmed Monday. The company said it was working to resume operations by the end of this week, but the temporary disruption is already wreaking havoc across the region. Meanwhile, a Russian-speaking ransomware syndicate that stole data from the Washington, D.C., police department says negotiations over payment have broken down, with it rejecting a $100,000 payment, and it will release sensitive information that could put lives at risk if more money is not offered. The Babuk group said on its website late Monday that it would release all the data it stole from the Washington police department if it did not raise the price. Information is from police reports and may be incomplete depending on the status of an investigation. Phone numbers are nonemergency. Parnell later joined a post-election lawsuit in an attempt to overturn Democrat Joe Bidens victory in Pennsylvanias presidential election. That lawsuit which sought to throw out 2.5 million mail-in ballots, most of which were cast by Democrats was rejected by the state Supreme Court, and the U.S. Supreme Court later declined to take it up. The Senate seat in the presidential battleground state is being left open after two-term Republican U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey announced in October that he would not run again. Both the Democratic and Republican fields are getting crowded, with a year to go until next years primary election. On the Democratic side, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman has declared his candidacy, as have several others, while Lamb is considering a campaign. On the Republican side, Jeff Bartos, the states unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in 2018, has declared his candidacy, as well. Bartos, who hails from the other side of the state in suburban Pittsburgh, is a real estate investor and longtime GOP fundraiser who has the personal wealth to write his campaign a big check. On Tuesday, hours ahead of Parnells announcement, Bartos campaign tried to lay claim to the race. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a number of recalls in the last week, including two infant products that pose suffocation hazards. Kolcraft is the latest company to recall inclined sleeper accessories over the danger such items pose to children. Other inclined sleepers have been recalled because infants can roll from their back to their stomach or side, which have resulted in death. The company is recalling its inclined sleeper accessory that was included in the Kolcraft Cuddle n Care 2-in-1 bassinet and Preferred Position 2-in-1 bassinet. The inclined sleeper accessory is the only part of the bassinets being recalled. No incidents or injuries have been reported. The bassinets were sold nationwide from March 2011 to December 2017. Consumers should stop using the accessory and contact the company at 800-453-7673 for a $35 voucher to be used on the companys website or for a $20 refund. TJX is recalling its infant sleep bags because the size of the neck opening is too large for infants 0 to 6 months, which can allow an infants head to slip into it and be covered by the sleep bag, posing a suffocation risk. No incidents or injuries have been reported. The state has previously announced that nearly all COVID restrictions will go away on Memorial Day, including capacity limits on bars, restaurants and other businesses, as well as indoor and outdoor event gathering limits. The state's mask mandate will remain until 75% of adults are fully vaccinated. Statewide, about 45.6% of people aged 18 and older have been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Philadelphia, meanwhile, city officials announced pandemic restrictions will be eased beginning later this month, and will go away almost entirely on June 11. Starting May 21, retail stores and offices will no longer have to operate at reduced capacity, and the city is lifting its rule that bars and restaurants can only serve alcohol with food. Capacity limits on gyms, exercise classes and theaters will be eased, as well as limits on outdoor and indoor catered events. The city plans to lift all restrictions under its Safer at Home initiative on June 11, though its masking requirement will remain for the foreseeable future. Politically, U.S. Jews on the whole tend to support the Democratic Party. In the survey, which was conducted months before the 2020 election, 71% said they were Democrats or leaned Democratic. But Orthodox Jews have moved in the opposite direction: 75% of them said they were Republicans or leaned Republican, compared with 57% in 2013. And 86% of them rated Donald Trumps handling of policy toward Israel as excellent or good, while a majority of all U.S. Jews described it as only fair or poor. While there are signs of political polarization among U.S. Jews, the survey also found areas of consensus. For instance, more than 80% say they feel at least some sense of belonging to the Jewish people, and three-quarters say being Jewish is very or somewhat important to them. Pew asked respondents which of various causes and activities are essential, important but not essential or not important to what being Jewish means to them. More than 70% said remembering the Holocaust and leading a moral and ethical life are essential, and 59% cited working for social justice. Rabbi Noah Farkas of Valley Beth Shalom, a Conservative synagogue in Encino, California, said he hopes Jewish Americans can maintain solidarity even as their ranks diversify and many forego religious observance. The Assam government on Wednesday announced its decision to close all religious places, weekly markets, and offices for 15 days in urban and semi-urban areas of the state. It also banned the movement of people from 2 pm to 5 am in view of the surging COVID-19 cases. The new set of guidelines, effective from 5 am on May 13 till further orders, have been issued for the urban and semi-urban places in the periphery of 5 km of municipal areas. Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua communicated that all commercial establishments and standalone shops shall close at 1 pm on all days and only home delivery will be permitted after 1 pm. Also Read: Himanta Biswa Sarma sworn in as 15th Chief Minister of Assam Addressing a press briefing, Barua said that a "complete lockdown is an option, but we are going gradually in a phased manner. We hope these measures will work in the next two-three days." As per the restrictions notified by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), weekly haats, bazaars, educational institutions, and all government and private offices have been ordered to shut for the next 15 days. "Government officers of deputy secretary and above rank and senior executive in private sector along with their key support staff will be allowed to attend office up to 1 pm only for emergency and essential works," the order stated. However, these restrictions will not be applicable for organisations rendering essential and emergency services, law enforcement services, and election works. "All religious places shall remain closed for 15 days... Funeral/last rites related gatherings shall not be more than 10 persons," the order said. Also Read: India's new COVID-19 cases have peaked, states Cambridge tracker Likewise, weddings and religious functions will be only private affairs and be allowed with the presence of a maximum of 10 persons and no reception parties will be allowed post or pre-wedding. "In case the test positivity of COVID-19 in any area reaches five per cent or more in the last one week, District Magistrate will notify such areas as containment zone and ensure necessary containment measures for COVID-19," the ASDMA said. All public transport will be allowed with 30 per cent of seating capacity, while auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, taxis shall operate with one driver and two passengers only. "Pillion riding will be totally prohibited in two-wheelers except with women and children. "All vehicles other than government vehicles will be allowed to ply in accordance with an odd-even formula to be decided by the jurisdictional district disaster management authority between 5 am to 2 pm," the order stated. Also Read: Bharat Biotech begins supplying Covaxin directly to Delhi, Maharashtra, 12 other states ASDMA further said that there shall be a total ban on the movement of individuals from 2 pm to 5 am daily. For the rest of the state, all restrictions announced earlier such as night curfew from 6 pm to 5 am with total ban on movement of persons at public places on all days will continue, except for those engaged in essential and emergency services. When asked why the government is not considering imposing a complete lockdown, Barua said that any such drastic measures adversely affect the poor people and that will be considered as the last resort. Director-General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said the police will implement the restrictions very strictly if the people do not follow them. "If we see people crowding at any place, say in front of a permitted shop, police will be ruthless. We will use force and lathi-charge them. You may go and file cases against us, but we don't care. If someone organises any function secretly at home and invites people, then it will be considered as cheating and betrayal. We will not only file a case under Disaster Management Act, but also lodge an attempt to murder case," Mahanta said. Several states have begun requiring those receiving unemployment benefits to show they are actively searching for work, and a few will stop providing the additional federal supplement. It's not just the hospitality sector that is scrambling to fill positions. Alene Candles, based in Milford, New Hampshire, is looking to fill 1,500 positions for its facility there and another in New Albany, Ohio, to meet demand for the holiday season. Company representatives will be participating in a number of virtual job fairs this month. We have had more than 100 positions open since the start of the year, and just recently we increased sign-on bonuses to $1,200 for hourly positions - in-part because we are competing with an entity that can print its own money - the federal government - and its $300 per week additional unemployment benefit," said CEO Rod Harl. I would love to welcome those searching for work to join our team. On Monday, the state of New Hampshire reopened its job centers for the first time since the pandemic hit to help people looking for work, but only a handful showed up in the first few hours at the largest one in Manchester. Thanks to the beneficence of the Internal Revenue Service and the fallout from COVID-19 we half of Americans who pay federal income taxes have been given until May 17 to file. Since I began earning enough to file Form 1040 and associated forms, I have only known one person who prepared his own taxes. That was Bill Archer, a Texas Republican who formerly headed the House Ways and Means Committee. I once asked Archer why he prepared his. His reply was that not only did he think it was fun, but because he helped write the tax code, he felt a responsibility to demonstrate competence in filling out the forms. These days, the forms are so complicated, hardly anyone I know understands them. The instructions need instructions. I have again filed jointly with my wife (more than 70 pages). She owns a business, so it is more complicated than if we filed separately. Still, the forms require translating a language I have never studied and wouldnt want to. If you call the IRS and ask for help, you are still responsible for interest and penalties if they give the wrong advice. If signed into law, individuals can buy tax credits. Money from tax payers, that would have went into the General Revenue, gets taken off the top for scholarships to primarily private and parochial school tuition, transportation, etc. The bill will reduce the states general revenue by an estimated $50-75 million per year. House Bill 349 is restricted to large urban areas like St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia and municipalities with more than 30,000 residents. So, this will not help the rural areas of Missouri. Additionally, the bill will prohibit the program from going into effect until the funding for K-12 public school transportation is increased by approximately $20 million. The bill will also allow public schools who see students leave the district because of an ESA to continue receiving funding for those students. This provision will end five years after the bill goes into effect. Legislature Approves Bill to Protect Victims of Domestic Abuse (SB 71) Legislation is now on its way to the governor that would allow victims of domestic abuse to obtain lifetime orders of protection against their abusers. The bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. The Nagol is Back! VTOs guide to this years Nagol, plus where to stay and play in south, central and north Pentecost. I want to get a bipartisan deal on as much as we can, Biden said. Then, he suggested he would press ahead without Republicans, if need be. One legislative option aligns with what the president suggested: passing a potentially smaller package of roads, bridges, broadband and other areas of agreement with Republicans, and then Democrats would try to muscle the remaining priorities on their own. Im not going to give up on a whole range of things, Biden said. In recent days, Biden has opened the door to compromise, saying he was willing to negotiate the size and funding of the package. He has suggested lifting the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and said any personal income tax increases would not fall on those earning less than $400,000 a year. But Republicans view the 2017 tax law, which lowered many individual tax rates and dropped the corporate tax rate from 35%, as their signature domestic accomplishment when they held power. McCarthy said he impressed on the president the need for changing environmental reviews so infrastructure projects can be developed quickly, a potential new point of contention with Democrats. Theres an opportunity we can work together, McCarthy said. In a major relief to the import-dependent Indian pharmaceutical industry, Chinese state-owned Sichuan Airlines has resumed its cargo services to India. The decision of Sichuan to suspend its services to India due to increasing COVID-19 cases for 15 days from the end of last month had threatened to disrupt the pharmaceutical, medical devices and oxygen concentrator supply chains. It is known that Sichuan Airlines is restarting its operations from Chengdu to Chennai on May 12, while it had already resumed operations from Chengdu to Bengaluru on May 9. China has also permitted multiple cargo operations to India to avoid a crisis. Chengdu is one of the major sources for pharmaceutical raw material for Indian drug manufacturers. India is sourcing almost 70 per cent of drug intermediates, key starting materials and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) -- all essential raw materials needed to manufacture medicines from China. Almost 50 per cent of the APIs that go into the manufacture of products mentioned in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) are also imported from China. Even though India's production linked incentive (PLI) scheme aims at reducing this import dependency, it can only have an impact in the medium to long term. The Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) had sought the intervention of the Indian embassy in China to make necessary measures to restore the supply chain of pharmaceutical raw materials by either persuading Sichuan Airlines to resume its operations or arranging India air cargo players to lift the medical supplies in larger public health interest. With increased demand from within India and abroad, Indian pharmaceutical industry is struggling hard to meet its supply commitments at the moment. The industry was already reeling under immense pressure due to increased freight cost and shortage of containers when China decided to suspend its cargo services to India as a COVID-19 precaution. The fear was that the suspension of services will have a cascading effect on its entire supply chain and lead to shortage of essential medicines within India and in other export markets. Indian pharmaceutical exports had recorded 18 per cent growth in 2020-21 and touched the $24.4 billion mark. Also read: Dr Reddy's to make, sell Eli Lilly's COVID-19 drug Baricitinib in India; 5th drugmaker to do so For their part, Democrats clashed with Miller over the hours-long gap between when National Guard support was first discussed and the time troops arrived. Rep. Ro Khanna of California told Miller he was dumfounded we had someone like you in that role. After Miller described a statement from Lynch, the Massachusetts congressman, as ridiculous, Lynch replied that Miller himself was ridiculous. You were AWOL, Mr. Secretary, said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. That's completely inaccurate, Miller replied. That's completely inaccurate. In testimony aimed at rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to be deployed, Miller told the committee he was concerned before the insurrection that sending troops to the Capitol could fan fears of a military coup and cause a repeat of the deadly Kent State shootings in 1970. No such thing was going to occur on my watch, but these concerns, and hysteria about them, nonetheless factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our armed forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification, Miller said. My obligation to the nation was to prevent a constitutional crisis. With the help of their grandmother and Maleahs sisters, Kimyrie King, 13, and Zeyanie King, 10, they grew the lemonade business into a full restaurant where they sold nachos and hot dogs, too. They also eventually upgraded from pouring different-colored lemonades from pitchers to jugs. And it seemed that most community members had rallied around the girls lemonade stand that sat right outside the steps of their home. Between balancing virtual school and running a business they wanted to see expand, the four girls found that running a full lemonade stand wasnt as easy as they thought it would be. On the hottest days, the girls found themselves wanting to give up completely on the business. On the very first day of business when they set up the table, it fell through, the pitchers of brightly colored lemonade falling down on the cement with it. People posted all over social media about their business, called 4k Lemonade, in hopes of getting more people outside of Church Hill to support them financially. They made sure to open every day, even on days where they said it was too hot and they didnt feel like selling anything. The only time they didnt sell lemonade was if it rained, or if it was too cold outside. The money committees will play a leading role in working with the administration on deciding how to spend the money. A special session is likely in July to set those priorities, separately from the election of seven judges to the expanded Virginia Court of Appeals as the House and Senate spar over the number of judicial candidates who require vetting by the Virginia State Bar. By then, Virginia lawmakers will know the size of a likely revenue surplus for the fiscal year that will end June 30. Northam announced Wednesday that state revenues soared by almost 42% in April, compared with the same month a year ago when the states economy went into a partial shutdown in response to the public health emergency declared the previous month. Virginia is posting the largest monthly revenue increase in the 21st century this month, in sharp contrast with many other states, Northam said. Make no mistake this is the result of strong fiscal management and Virginians doing the right things to put this pandemic behind us, he said. People are getting back to work, businesses are investing, and we expect this surge to continue in the months ahead as our economy returns to full strength. In her campaign Sears also emphasized ballot box integrity, saying that she wants to bar third parties from turning in ballots for others and wants Virginia to go back to requiring a photo ID at the polls. She says she was not suggesting that such measures would have changed the outcome of the presidential election, but asserted that such changes would boost voter confidence. Sears, who worked in 2020 to win Black voters for President Donald Trump, asserted that she can win a general election because she can win over Black voters, including Democrats. Democrats quickly sought to label Sears as extreme. Its no surprise that Republican insiders nominated a right-wing extremist like Winsome Sears, said Del. Hala Ayala, D-Prince William, one of six candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor. The Republican Party of Virginia is out of touch with the needs of regular Virginians, and they continue to elevate conspiracy theorists and Trump extremists like Winsome Sears. In 2001 Sears became the first Black Republican woman elected to the General Assembly, knocking off Del. William P. Robinson Jr., D-Norfolk, who had been a delegate since 1981. She lost a race for Congress in 2004 to Rep. Bobby Scott, D-3rd. She cited the nearly $700 million that tourism brings to the area. But Walker and others may not be fully conversant with all the benefits that tourism produces, or with the industrys legitimate needs and concerns. Without that industry, local poverty might be even more severe. In a recent presentation from the Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association, a spokesman told the CACVB board that it is disconnected from the group it purportedly represents. This board needs representation that actually reflects the community it serves, said Travis Wilburn, co-founder of Stay Charlottesville. Earlier this year, the association had requested that representation on the board be changed again this time removing four government representatives and adding three members from the lodging industry and two from the restaurant sector. Meanwhile, Wilburn even said that he and some other members of the industry have been reluctant to speak out about their problems, fearing political retribution for expressing their opinions. Thats a very serious allegation that officials ought to take to heart. In the letter to the editor of April 26, Bidens early record is far from inspiring, the writer describes President Biden as a dehumanized marionette who tells lies, albeit without a significant lengthening of his nose. The writer concludes with a suggestion as to how Bidens record regarding the border situation should be scored: It looks like will be easier to cross our southern border than to visit Disneyland when it reopens on April 30 because the legal occupancy capacity would be ignored; there would be no entry fee; youd receive free food; and youd being given a free hotel room. The overall tone of the letter suggests that such hospitality on the part of the United States is unwarranted. In my view, it would be better to evaluate Bidens record against our mutual civic obligations under the Virginia Constitutions Bill of Rights language regarding the free exercise of religion: to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other. Kerrville, TX (78028) Today Partly cloudy skies. Hot and humid. High 89F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear this evening then becoming cloudy after midnight. Low 72F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. World News: WTO deal 'doable' to stop subsidies that lead to over-fishing by Umer Jamshaid May 12,2021 | Source: Urdu Point After two decades of talks at the World Trade Organization towards banning subsidies that contribute to over-fishing, the lead negotiator said Tuesday that a deal could be within reach. "It's time to sprint for the finish line," Colombian ambassador Santiago Wills, who is chair of the fisheries subsidies negotiations, told reporters from the WTO headquarters in Geneva. It is widely agreed that action is needed against over-fishing, which is stripping the seas of a hugely important resource that millions of people depend on for their livelihoods. After missing the last deadline to reach an agreement in December 2020, negotiations have accelerated in recent months. New WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who took the reins of the global trade body in March, has made clinching the long-awaited fisheries deal one of her top priorities, and has called for a breakthrough by July. Reaching any kind of an agreement at the WTO can be a struggle, since all decisions require a consensus among all member states. "I know it will not be easy for 164 members to reach consensus, but it is doable," Wills insisted. He said he had presented a new draft text to delegations, proposing "compromise language for areas where differences have persisted". - 'Crucial step' - This, he said, was a "crucial step" toward producing a clean text to present during a meeting of trade ministers on July 15. Before that, on May 20 and 21, he said, "short, confessional-style meetings" would be held with each delegation to gain more insight into what they find the toughest to accept in the text. "With just two months to go, I hope this sincere and honest attempt at balancing ambition and necessary flexibility will help members agree on landing zones that will make a substantial contribution to the health of our oceans," the lead negotiator said. One of the main stumbling blocks over the years has been a UN demand that developing countries and the poorest nations receive special treatment. The demand from some countries to be exempt from any subsidy constraints has been difficult for everyone to accept, especially since the WTO system allows members to self-identify as developing countries. Many of the major fishing nations are considered developing countries, including China, which has one of the world's biggest fishing fleets. Wills acknowledged Tuesday that the issue of so-called "special and differential treatment" had "been the toughest area to find convergence". The draft text proposes to tackle this by allowing all developing countries to request an "initial time-bound exemption" to the subsidy restrictions. After that first period lapses, countries "with a limited share of global fish catch and a limited total amount of fisheries subsidies, could seek an extension through a committee process," he explained. Global fisheries subsidies stood at $35.4 billion in 2018, with $22 billion of that going towards building up fishing fleets, according to Ussif Rashid Sumaila of the University of British Columbia in a study regularly cited by diplomats. Meanwhile the UN's food and Agriculture Organization has an increasingly alarming outlook on over-fishing, finding that a third of commercial fish stocks were fished at biologically unsustainable levels in 2017. 1997-2021, UrduPoint Network Cyber Pipeline ransomware attack renews infrastructure concerns The FBI on Monday attributed the cyberattack against Colonial Pipeline to ransomware group Darkside. The attack, which was announced on Friday, led to the shutdown of fuel pipelines serving the East Coast of the United States as a precautionary measure. At a White House briefing on Monday, officials provided details on the government response. Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger described Darkside as "ransomware as a service" operation in which the malware developers share proceeds from attacks with partners. Neuberger didn't say whether the government believes the breach may have progressed from Colonial's IT to operational technology that controls the pipelines, citing the ongoing criminal investigation but said that such spread was a "concern," and said that's why, "quickly and effectively negating the spread of the ransomware is always the first area of priority." Neuberger added the FBI released a flash alert to industry with indicators of compromise and mitigation measures. Additionally, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is preparing its own release information to critical infrastructure providers about the ransomware attack that shutdown a key natural gas pipeline for the East Coast on Friday, according to Homeland Security Advisor Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, who joined Neuberger at the press briefing. Sherwood said the administration on Friday convened an interagency team including DOE, CISA, the Defense Department, Treasury Department, and Transportation Department's Pipeline Safety and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to manage the situation. The Transportation Security Administration is responsible for the cybersecurity of oil pipelines, the Energy Department is considered the sector specific agency and is leading the government's response. The Energy Department has "also convened oil and natural gas and electric utility partners to share details about the ransomware attack and discuss recommended measures to mitigate further incidents across the industry," Sherwood-Randall said. Eric Goldstein, CISA's executive assistant director of the cybersecurity division, said in an emailed statement that the attack "underscores the threat that ransomware poses to organizations regardless of size or sector." As the administration confronts a rise in ransomware activities, cybersecurity experts and lawmakers continue to debate the pros and cons to paying ransoms. In general, the FBI has long discouraged the private sector from paying out of fear it will encourage future attacks. Neuberger said that companies are often left in a "difficult position" if they have no other method of recovering stolen data. "That is why given the rise in ransomware and given frankly the troubling trend we see of often targeting companies who have insurance and may be richer targets, that we need to look thoughtfully at this area to determine what we do in addition to actively disrupting infrastructure and holding perpetrators accountable, to ensure that we're not encouraging the rise of ransomware," she said. Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), who has previously introduced legislation to expand CISA's role in responding to cybersecurity breaches into industrial control systems, told FCW on Monday that, "You can expect substantial congressional oversight on this incident in the near future." Speaking at the White House shortly after the press briefing, President Joe Biden said the intelligence community does not have evidence that "Russia is involved although there is evidence that the actor's ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this." This article first appeared on FCW, a Defense Systems partner site. America's top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci on Tuesday said that India is in such "dire straits" because it made the "incorrect assumption" that they were finished with the COVID-19 and opened up prematurely. India has been severely affected by the unprecedented second wave of the coronavirus and hospitals in several states are reeling under the shortage of health workers, vaccines, oxygen, drugs and beds. "The reason that India is in such dire straits now is that they had an original surge and made the incorrect assumption that they were finished with it, and what happened, they opened up prematurely and wind up having a surge right now that we're all very well aware of is extremely devastating," Dr Fauci told Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee during a hearing on the COVID-19 Response. Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr Fauci is the chief medical advisor to US President Joe Biden. Chairing the hearing, Senator Patty Murray said that the surge of COVID-19 that is devastating India is a painful reminder really that the US can't end the pandemic here until it ends it everywhere. "I'm glad the Biden administration is leading that global fight by rejoining the World Health Organization and funding global vaccine efforts and committing to donate 60 million AstraZeneca vaccines to other countries by July 4," she said. "India's outbreak really underscores the need for a robust public health infrastructure in the US to respond appropriately to this pandemic and future outbreaks, as well," Senator Murray said as she asked Fauci what can the US learn from India's outbreak. "One of the important things is don't ever underestimate the situation," Fauci said as he referred to India's incorrect assumption and premature opening up. "The second thing is preparedness with regard to public health, preparedness, which we, as a lesson learned for future pandemics, have to realise that we need to continue to build up our local public health infrastructure, which over the last decades we have let actually in many respects go into disarray, likely because of our successes in controlling so many diseases," Fauci said. The other lesson that's learned is that this is a global pandemic that requires a global response, and one has to pay attention to the "responsibility that we have, not only for our own country, but to join with other countries to make sure that we have the access to interventions, particularly vaccines throughout the world," he said. "Because if it continues to have dynamics of virus anywhere in the world, we have a threat here in the United States, particularly with variants, and you know there's one variant in India that is also a new variant...So those are just a few of the lessons that I believe we can take from what's going on in India," Dr Fauci said. Senator Murray said that the deadly outbreak in India is a heartbreaking reminder of what can happen when this virus spreads unchecked, when it mutates into more contagious, more deadly strains and when it overwhelms healthcare systems. "It's a reminder this pandemic won't fully be over for our country until it is over for the world, which is why I'm glad the Biden administration is sending medical support to India, sharing some of our excess doses globally and even considering other steps to remove barriers to vaccines for countries that need them, including a targeted waiver of COVID-19 patent protections," she said. "These moves won't just save lives in India; they will ultimately save lives in Washington State, North Carolina and across the country because people get that when there is a fire down the street, it's in their best interest to put it out before it gets to their family's home. Not to mention that helping your neighbor is always the right thing to do," Murray said. After recording over four lakh fresh cases for four consecutive days, India witnessed a single-day rise of 3,66,161 COVID-19 cases on Monday and 3,29,942 infections on Tuesday. Also read: PM Modi cancels G-7 summit visit in June over COVID-19 situation Also read: Prioritise those eligible for second COVID-19 vaccine dose: Cabinet Secretary Deschutes County reported 542.6 cases per 100,000 people this week, the second highest of Oregon's larger counties behind only Klamath County. Allen said that high vaccination rates were more important than high infection rates in determining progress against COVID-19. Even if infection rates are high, vaccination rates above 65% meant that cases were unlikely to result in severe illness or death. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} On the flip side, if the state reaches a 70% overall vaccination rate, even counties such as Umatilla and Malheur, where vaccination rates are at the low end of the statewide scale, would move out of the restrictions along with all other counties. Asked if meeting the 70% vaccination goal would likely mean that the Pendleton Round-Up could be held in September, Brown was upbeat. "Let 'er buck," Brown forecast. While the Centers for Disease Control may suggest some mask requirements, most likely the event would go off much closer to normal than forecast earlier. The Round-Up was cancelled last year because of COVID-19 concerns. Brown said the moves were possible because data showing the most recent spike in cases over the past month has begun to fade. Wallace said she will make a decision on whether to seek the death penalty before Long's arraignment, which has not yet been scheduled. Georgias new hate crimes law does not provide for a stand-alone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether its motivated by bias, which carries an additional penalty. The 19-count Fulton County indictment includes charges of murder, felony murder, aggravated assault and domestic terrorism. The domestic terrorism charge says Long committed a series of illegal acts which were interrelated by distinguishing characteristics, with the intent to cause serious bodily harm and to kill individuals and groups of individuals, and with the intent to intimidate the civilian population of this state and of its political subdivisions. Four aggravated assault charges have to do with the shootings of the four victims who died. For a fifth, the indictment says Long pointed a gun at another woman, causing her reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury. As vaccinations continue successfully across the U.S., a return to normalcy begins to look more realistic. However, many of those who have been vaccinated twice still fear the disease. Psychologist Ken Goodman of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America explains why people may conti U.S. educators are doing everything they can to track down high school students who stopped showing up to classes and to help them get the credits needed to graduate, amid an anticipated surge in the country's dropout rate during the coronavirus pandemic. There isn't data available yet on how the pandemic has affected the nation's overall dropout rate 2019 is the last year for which it is available and many school officials say it's too early to know how many students who stopped logging on for distance learning don't plan to return. But soaring numbers of students who are failing classes or are chronically absent have experts fearing the worst, and schools have been busy tracking down wayward seniors through social media, knocking on their doors, assigning staff to help them make up for lost time and, in some cases, even relaxing graduation requirements. Parents, schools and vaccine clinics rushed to begin inoculating younger adolescents Tuesday after U.S. regulators endorsed Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 12, a decision seen as a breakthrough in allowing classroom instruction to resume safely around the country. SEATTLE (AP) Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, says she will vote to retain Rep. Liz Cheney in Republican leadership. Cheney, who also voted to impeach the former president, is expected to be ousted from her position this week. Jaime will be voting to keep the House leadership in place, Beutler's spokesman Craig Wheeler told The Seattle Times in an email. Wheeler said the congresswoman had no additional comment. Beutler represents the 3rd Congressional District in southwest Washington. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has set a Wednesday vote for removing Cheney from her No. 3 Republican leadership post. He sent a letter Monday to GOP lawmakers saying it was clear that he and his fellow Republicans need to make a change. It has been clear that right-wing groups like the Proud Boys and Three Percenters were dangerous. Many members of these groups have been arrested in connection with the storming of the Capitol and attempts to overturn the election. Theyve engaged in hate crimes, white supremacist rhetoric and domestic terrorism. In the wake of Jan. 6, we must recognize that these groups are militias openly preparing for a civil war. Despite this, many elected officials and political candidates continue to associate with right-wing militias. The public has known about Rep. Mike Nearmans tie to Three Percenters since 2017. He is under criminal investigation after being caught on camera letting armed protesters into the state capitol in December. He was scheduled to speak at a May 1 rally in Salem cosponsored by Proud Boys and Three Percenters. Many constituents, myself included, have asked Nearman to resign. This is unacceptable conduct from an elected official. He has continued to organize with white supremacists and insurrectionists, which is a clear breach of public trust. Yes, we have a new West Albany High School auxiliary gym and a new auditorium. But we also have an ongoing pandemic. Seems quaint, uninformed (maybe nice words for stupid?) and of a bygone era to have spent millions on facilities that cant be filled with students, teachers and parents. Oh, well, it is only taxpayers money. On April 27, we went back into the extreme risk category in Linn County, and our COVID-19 cases in Oregon are rising faster than any other state. Also, the TRACE program at Oregon State University has found the South African variant in Albany and Corvallis wastewater. The variants spread 50 times faster than the original virus. However, governors will not again shut down state economies for a lengthy time, because people will not abide by the closure rules. Also, not enough people will consent to being vaccinated. And because of global travel and global trade, experts say we will have other pandemics. My point is, in these times we live in, some people wont go to games and productions in the new Albany gym and auditorium. According to the League of Women Voters of Corvallis, Your property tax bill will not increase with the passage of 2-130, as this is simply an extension of the currently funded levy. Our tax bills will indeed increase (page 21) because it will ... impose taxes of $9,525,400 in 2023 on up to $10,930,700 in 2027. Why? Our property tax assessments will go up year after year. Does the LWV of Corvallis understand the difference between a levy and a property tax bill? We think not. Per usual, Gelser, Rayfield and Biff have no issue with rising rents and fees. Why is there no budget for voters to study? How is the money divided up? Where is the information showing the success/failure of this measure since 2007? Worse, the lack of even one argument against looks like more cancel culture and deep Oregon state politics. Plus, when did the nonpartisan LWV start endorsing obviously partisan issues such as levies and taxes by the Democratic Party? Robin Rose Corvallis Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Thanks to John Brenan (April 23) for his textbook demonstration of disingenuous shilling. (Well, this was inevitable.) But he should really save his high dudgeon for defending moral high ground nowhere to be found in Georgias recent voting law changes. A law can be racist by intent and/or impact, not just application. Poll taxes applied to all voters in the Jim Crow era: It was just coincidence the poor were most often denied the right to vote because they couldnt pay and Black voters were overwhelmingly the poorest. Fast-forward to Georgia 2021. The new law was enacted with no evidence of voting fraud. Why? (What other states do/did is irrelevant here.) Why did the Republican-controlled state assembly change how future Georgia voting will be done? Exactly what needed fixing? Tell us specifically, Mr. Brenan. Then explain why you chose to overlook, for example, the following unequal impacts of the new law: Absentee voting: three months, not six, to apply for a ballot; reduced drop boxes in metro Atlanta (94 to 23). In-person voting: food/water illegal to bring to queued voters (think single parents, after-work hours). Ballot counting: secretary of state removed as state election board chair; a partisan legislature can now throw the election count certification to itself! Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. A 30-year-old Indian woman in Israel has been killed in a rocket attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza, according to officials. Soumya Santosh, who hailed from Kerala's Idukki district, worked as a caregiver attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. Ashkelon, which borders the Gaza Strip, has come under a massive fire from the Palestinian militants. At least 31 people were killed in spiralling violence till 9 PM (local time) on Tuesday as Gaza-based militants fired hundreds of rockets on Israel since Monday evening. Israel has carried out hundreds of air strikes at Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the coastal strip. The Indian woman was said to be living in Israel for the last seven years. She has a nine-year-old son whom she had left with her husband in Kerala. Her 80-year-old elderly charge is said to have survived the direct hit on the house and is hospitalised in a serious condition, local media reports said. The deadly rocket attack directly struck the house of the elderly woman. Channel 12 reported that the rocket shelter was at least a minute's run away from the woman's home and the pair could not manage to reach it in time. The home lacked a fortified room of its own. Some media reports said that a technical glitch with an Iron Dome battery (an all-weather air defence system that intercepts and destroys short range rockets) during the massive rocket barrage towards the Israeli coastal city prevented some rockets from being intercepted and may have been responsible for the casualties and deaths. Ashkelon's Mayor Tomer Glam said that some 25 per cent of the residents do not have access to a protected area when rockets are fired at the city. "It is impossible when normal life becomes a state of emergency within minutes," Glam told Army Radio. "There are houses from the 1960s where there is no basic protection. It is time for treasury officials and decision-makers to understand what is happening here in the city," he stressed. Israel's ambassador to India Ron Malka on Tuesday took to Twitter to condole the Indian woman's death. "On behalf of the state of Israel, I convey heartfelt condolences to the family of Ms. Soumya Santosh, murdered by Hamas indiscriminate terror attack on innocent lives. Our hearts are crying with her 9 years old son that lost his mother in this cruel Terrorist attack," he said in a tweet. According to Soumya's family in Kerala, she was talking to her husband Santhosh over a video call in the evening when the incident took place. "My brother heard a huge sound during the video call. Suddenly the phone got disconnected. Then we immediately contacted fellow Malayalees working there. Thus, we came to know about the incident," Santhosh's brother Saji told PTI. Newly-elected MLA and Nationalist Congress Kerala leader Mani C Kappan condemned the incident. In a Facebook post, Kappan, who is representing Pala seat in the Kerala Assembly, said thousands of Keralites working in Israel were living in fear. He also sought an intervention of the Central and state governments. Chuck Winder had it right when he recently said the so-called Idaho Freedom Foundation, or IFF, was one of the biggest threats we have to our democracy in our state. Winder, a Republican and president pro tem of the Idaho Senate, had just witnessed the disruptive role played by the foundat May 15 Aglow International will hold its May meeting on Saturday, May 15 at PoFolks Restaurant in Enterprise. The guest speaker will be Alabama State Prayer Chairman Sandra Ritter. Everyone is welcome to join and bring a friend! For more information, call 334-406-9683. Wiregrass Emergency Pregnancy Services is holding the annual Rub Baby Run 5K Run/Walk, 1 Mile Fun Run, Diaper Dash and craft bazaar on Saturday, May 15 at 8.m. at Bates Memorial Stadium. Fort Ruckers Day at the Lake will kick off the opening of the Lake Tholocco swimming area and celebrate 50 year of outdoor reaction on Saturday, May 15 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Lake Tholocco on Fort Rucker. Greater Holy Temple COGIC will be hosting Prayer at the Park on Saturday, May 15 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the New Brockton city park. There will be prayer, free food and giveaways, and this will be a touchless event. Masks are required. For more information, visit ghtcogic.org or call the church at 334-697-4553. May 19 The Christmas Parade Committee heavily relies on a partnership with the city and its volunteers to facilitate the Enterprise Christmas Parade, which averages over 140 entries each year. We received new information from a small group of our downtown businesses after the Friday date was announced expressing their concerns about the potential negative impact the move could have, Grantham said. Unfortunately, we did not have this information beforehand and past policy has been that once the street closures were approve by the Alabama Department of Transportation they could not be changed. Recently, we were notified that in certain circumstances the dates could be resubmitted. While the Christmas Parade is largely a community event to kick-off the holiday season and spread goodwill, we (the Chamber) must always consider how our businesses will be affected. We solicited input from our past parade participants and received information from our downtown business community to present to our Christmas Parade Committee. Upon review of all of the new information presented, the Chamber and Christmas Parade Committee agreed that it would be in the best interest for the majority to move the date back to the first Tuesday following Thanksgiving. The Wiregrass-Enterprise Chapter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees (NARFE) Organization will hold its monthly lunch program at 11 a.m. on Thursday, May 27 at PoFolks Restaurant featuring guest speaker Bernard D. Nomberg, attorney at the Nomberg Law Firm in Birmingham. Nomberg will talk about the state and local court system; how the court system and legal profession serve as one of the largest economic engines in Alabama; the pandemics effect on the legal system; saluting veterans; lawyer professionalism and advertising; and the Alabama lawyer pro bono efforts and service to the community. I am so pleased to have Nomberg come and speak to our chapter of NARFE. Having someone of his statue and reputation come in and speak on legal issues in the State of Alabama is an absolute blessing for our membership, Chapter President Frank Zerbinos said. NARFE is the only national organization dedicated only to maintain and protect the earned pay, programs, rights, and other benefits of all current and retired federal civil service employees. During the lunch program, members discuss their most recent federal employee benefits and guest speakers present information to improve the lifestyles, health and well-being of the members and their families. Highlights Oximeters have become scare ever since the Covid-19 cases have surged in India. The smartwatches use reflectance oximetry while the oximeters use transmittance oximetry. The accuracy of smartwatches also depends on how well-calibrated the device is A friend I know bought a smartwatch when he started experiencing symptoms of Covid-19, primarily to keep a check on his blood oxygen levels. When asked why he bought a device worth Rs 30,000 instead of an oximeter which costs a fraction of the smartwatch. He said he trusts the smartwatch more than the oximeter because it costs more. While there is absolutely no logic to what he said, the dilemma of using an expensive smartwatch over an oximeter has been faced by many. Oximeters have become scarce ever since the Covid-19 cases have surged in India. Most chemist shops have run out of stock while some are selling them at exorbitant prices. The e-commerce platforms, too don't have very many options to choose from. The first thing that the doctor wants to know about is your saturation level when you seek treatment for Covid. "How much is your blood oxygen level?", you are often asked because your score determines your condition. It decides whether you should be hospitalised or isolate at home. Well, you can certainly do without ivermectins, azithromycins but not without a device that monitors your blood oxygen levels. But what if you don't have an oximeter, should you trust the readings displayed by your smartwatch or wait till the oximeter arrives? There are many factors and scientific reasons that determine the accuracy of smartwatches and oximeters. The difference is mostly due to reflectance oximetry and transmittance oximetry. The smartwatches use reflectance oximetry while the oximeters use transmittance oximetry. But let's hear what the doctors have to say about the two technologies and which one is more reliable than the other. How accurate are oximeters? Dr Ajay Mohan, a surgeon from AIIMS Delhi, explained the technology that is used by oximeters to measure blood oxygen levels. "The pulse oximeter uses an electronic processor and a pair of small light-emitting diodes (LEDs) facing a photodiode through a translucent part of patient's body (fingertip or earlobe). One LED is red, with wavelength of around 650 nanometers, and the other is infrared with a wavelength of around 950 nanometers. Absorption of light at these wavelengths differs significantly between oxygenated blood and non-oxygenated blood. Oxygenated blood absorbs more infrared light and allows more red light to pass through. Deoxygenated blood allows more infrared light to pass through and absorbs more red light. This difference is calculated by the receptor and the calculated SpO2 value is being displayed on the monitor," he told India Today Tech. Mohan explained that the accuracy of pulse oximeters is highest when the saturation level is above 90 per cent but its accuracy dims when the saturation is below 80 per cent. He noted that the accuracy of smartwatches is much less compared to the oximeter, but when it comes to measuring heartbeats, both devices are at par with each other. Mohan suggested that even a cheaper oximeter is far more accurate than an expensive smartwatch. However, he did mention that smartwatches can be used to get a rough idea about the SpO2 if there is no oximeter available. What about the accuracy of smartwatches? Dr Deepak Aggarwal, Senior Consultant, Cardiac Surgery, Max Super Specialty Hospital, Saket told India Today Tech that most oximeters have an upper hand over smartwatches, but they too have their flaws like any other electronic devices. It also has got a lot to do with how you place your finger. "The oximeters need to be placed properly. If flow at the placed finger is not good, you will have incorrect readings. In case, saturation is below 70% they will show erroneous results." Talking about the smartwatches, Dr Aggarwal said that the smartwatches are not as accurate enough to be used as a vital sign's measurement device, they are good for consumer-level but should not be used for clinical purposes. "The (device) was substantially more accurate, but it still failed to meet predefined accuracy guidelines for SBP and SpO2. They have to be well-calibrated. The inaccuracy is because these sensors are not precise, that's the main limitation. So, the ones that you wear are only for the consumer level, not for the clinical level. Pulse oximetry is another level of detail and precision that you need so that you have a usable value." Accuracy can be an issue in smartwatches and oximeters as well Dr Deepak Krishnamurthy, Senior Interventional Cardiologist at a hospital in Bangalore told us that both the oximeters and smartwatches can be fairly accurate, but it is important to check and calibrate in a doctor's office to confirm the accuracy. "Some spurious oximeter brands have now come into the market, and they can be inaccurate. It is important to check and calibrate and compare once in a doctor's office if it is working properly. Apart from that because of so many brands available it is really difficult to say which one is good. Accuracy can be a significant issue in these times because we advise Covid patients to stay at home or get admitted based on oximeter readings. The health authorities should have quality control on these commercially available oximeter brands and provide some sort of certification," he told India TodayTech.He noted that the accuracy of smartwatches also depends on how well-calibrated the device is. Smartwatches need certification across brands. What are smartwatch companies doing to improve accuracy? There are just too many smart bands in the market to choose from and each comes with a SpO2 monitor. They come in different price tags, shapes and sizes, but none has reached the level accuracy of that is expected from a medical-grade device. So are smartwatch companies working to improve their SpO2 tracker because that is the only feature that is needed right now? Amazfit, which is a popular fitness wearables brand in India, had compared their Spo2 tracker with a professional oxygen analyser to check the accuracy. "The company has invested huge in R&D and developed a platform of proprietary technology including AI chip. Compared with the results of professional oxygen analyzers, the average error of OxygenBeats is only 1.67% reflecting accuracy superior to that of most wearable wrist devices for blood oxygen detection. Smartwatch Spo2 readings are indicative measures to be accurate but should not be considered an alternative to medical-grade devices. Our team has also collaborated with medical institutions and R&D centers for the smart wearable joint laboratory to combat Covid-19 using data from our AI platform," Honey Singh, brand advisor, told India Today Tech. We spoke to Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO, of Made-In-India wearables brand, GOQii about how smartwatches companies are working towards making their features better and accurate. He told that some of GOQII smartwatches have received medical device registration under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which is the national regulatory body for Indian pharmaceuticals and medical devices. "We have been conducting studies with various organisations on the use of advanced wearable technology to be able to provide the medical fraternity with detailed health data of patients under their care real-time. The initial response from the fraternity has been positive and a lot of emphases is being laid upon the accuracy of the data," Gondal said. National Hurricane Preparedness Week runs from May 9 through May 15, and the American Red Cross urges everyone to plan now for any possible dangerous storms this year. After back-to-back years of active hurricane seasons that have broken records, this year its more important than ever before to get ready now, said Damon Summers, Regional Disaster officer. Last year, on top of the pandemic, we saw a record 30 named storms with two hitting the southeast before the actual start of hurricane season. There are simple steps you can take to be prepared: Create an evacuation plan. Plan what to do in case you are separated from your family during an emergency and if you have to evacuate. Coordinate your plan with your childs school, your work and your communitys emergency plan. Plan multiple routes to local shelters, register family members with special medical needs as required and make plans for pets. If you already have an emergency plan, update it and review with family members so everyone knows what to do if an emergency occurs. The Baptist College of Florida held its first-ever Preview Day at the schools new auxiliary campus at Medulla Baptist Church in Lakeland. It mirrored the traditional event of the same name that is held each semester at the main campus in Graceville to welcome and familiarize students new to the school. The Lakeland Preview Day was held April 29 in a morning and evening session. More than 100 people attended, including members of the community, incoming and prospective students and their families, BCF alumni, and current students, faculty and staff. I want to thank everyone that made this event for the Baptist College of Floridas Lakeland Preview Day happen, BCF President Thomas A. Kitchen said in a press release about the event. Its a great new day in Central Florida and we are happy to be here. Beginning at 9 a.m. in the Medulla Activity Center, visitors were provided pastries, coffee and juice as they visited different booths and gathered information on degree programs. Representatives from the Graceville campus were on hand to help greet and inform visitors about various topics, including various financial aid options. CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) NASAs new administrator is big on tackling climate and diversifying the agencys workforce, but hedging on whether the U.S. can put astronauts on the moon by 2024. In his first interview since becoming NASAs top official this week, former Sen. Bill Nelson told The Associated Press on Friday that tracking climate change is a top issue. He also wants to diversify the space agencys workforce so it reflects America. His underlying vision for NASA: to explore the heavens with humans and machines. For landing astronauts on the moon, Nelson said the goal remains 2024, a deadline set by the Trump administration. But he said he needs more time to review the matter, especially with challenges to the contract for the astronauts lunar lander. That is the intended schedule, but I think we have to put a dose of sobering reality into our analysis, he said from NASA headquarters in Washington. The lunar expeditions will benefit the Martian crews, according to Nelson. Whether the 2030s is still feasible for human Mars missions, all of that is being discussed, he said. TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) Florida's school voucher program will be significantly expanded after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday that increases eligibility to attend private schools at public expense. The bill is projected to allow more than 60,000 previously ineligible students to seek vouchers. The cost to the state will be an estimated $200 million. DeSantis held a bill-signing ceremony at a Miami-Dade County Catholic school surrounded by students in uniforms. He said the expansion will give parents more choices on where to send their children to school. Obviously, wealthy parents have the world as their oyster. They can make whatever decisions they want, DeSantis said. But when you talk about low-income families, working families they may not have the luxury of being able to get their kid in the school of their choice without our assistance. The law takes effect July 1 and combines three existing voucher programs, two that provide vouchers for students with disabilities and a third that assists low-income families, into one program. It also raises the income threshold to be eligible for vouchers from 260% of the federal poverty level to 375%, or from $68,900 for a family of four to $99,375. HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) A man long suspected in the disappearance of a woman whose toddler was found wandering alone in the parking lot of a South Florida apartment complex now faces a second-degree murder charge, police said. Shannon Ryan, 40, also is charged with tampering with evidence in the case of Leila Cavett, a 21-year-old woman who had been working in Atlanta and disappeared during a trip to South Florida last July, Hollywood police said in a news release. Ryan told officers he saw Cavett and her son get into a car with a group of men, but surveillance video at a gas station in Hollywood showed where Cavett was last seen: in the passenger seat of Ryans gold Lexus on July 25, police said. The next morning, a woman spotted the toddler wandering alone at the apartment complex in nearby Miramar, and called authorities. Also that morning, Ryan bought carpet deodorant, trash bags and duct tape from a Walmart store. Video surveillance at the gas station also showed Ryan returning there with a bottle of bleach and going back and forth between Cavett's white pickup truck and a dumpster. Women's clothing and toys were later found in the trash bin. Cavetts body has not been found. LAS VEGAS (AP) The purchase by a California-based Native American tribe of a casino resort just off the Las Vegas Strip is being seen a milestone in the evolution of Indian casino ownership in city at the center of U.S. gambling. Who doesnt want to be in Las Vegas? Laurens Vosloo, CEO of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal following last week's announcement that the tribe will buy the Palms Casino Resort from Las Vegas-based casino operator Station Casinos for $650 million. Its the gaming Mecca of the world and the place to be, Vosloo said. Its a natural and a good fit for us to have an asset there that we can send our customers to, contribute to that economy and be part of the Las Vegas community. The deal is expected to close later this year, making the San Manuel Band the second tribal enterprise in the Las Vegas resort corridor. The Mohegan Sun Casino opened in March at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas the renamed and renovated former Hard Rock resort several blocks east of the Strip. Resiliency was the overarching theme of the 2021 Small Business Week luncheon as Dothan chamber leaders congratulated local small business owners for persevering through the last year. You made it! You made it, guest speaker Jeremy Arthur, director of the Government and Economic Development Institute at Auburn University, said to the business community at the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerces event on Tuesday. You did it together. You are the very definition of a community leaders, whether you know it or not, because you took it to the next level. You solved your own problems and how did you do it collectively. Chris Suddarth, owner of TriState Graphics since 2010, was honored with the Small Business Person of the Year award. For me, its both validation but its also very humbling, Suddarth said. Last year was a difficult time for small businesses as closures made for an uncertain future, and TriState Graphics was not an exception. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} A Dothan attorney and planning commission member is in the running to represent Dothans 5th district as city commissioner. Gantt Pierce, 37, is hoping to fill the position being vacated by current City Commissioner Beth Kenward at the end of her term, saying he feels strongly that he has the integrity, vision, and leadership that is paramount to fill the seat. I am seeking office to continue the progress our mayor, city manager, and city commission have made in the past several years, Pierce said. I believe firmly that I can provide new ideas and solutions to problems or issues that may arise as we continue to grow as a city. I am passionate about growing downtown Dothan as well as maximizing the potential in Dothans District 5. Originally from Mandeville, Louisiana, Pierce moved to Dothan in 1995. He attended Honeysuckle Middle School and Carver Middle School and graduated from Northview High School in 2002. Upon graduation, he moved to Nashville where he attended Lipscomb University. He completed his post-graduate education at Jones School of Law in Montgomery where he met his wife Niki, who also practices law and is a founding partner of the Dothan Law Group. Paul Hornsby may not be as recognizable as some of Southern rocks greatest musicians but chances are he had a hand in their music. Im not famous but I have hung out with famous people, Hornsby said. Best known for the work he did with Capricorn Records in Macon, Georgia, during the 1970s, Hornsby is often referred to as one of the fathers of Southern rock. The New Brockton native played in the band Hour Glass with Gregg and Duane Allman. He produced the album Fire on the Mountain for the Charlie Daniels Band. Hornsby not only produced The Marshall Tucker Bands self-titled debut album, he was also a recording engineer on the album and played keyboards and organ on the tracks recorded at Capricorn Records. Thats Hornsby you hear playing piano on singles like Cant You See and Heard it in a Love Song. At 76, Hornsby still engineers and produces music through his Muscadine Recording Studio in Macon. He still performs and still visits his familys farm in rural Coffee County. He was inducted into both the Georgia and Alabama Music Hall of Fame. A few years ago, New Brockton hosted a Paul Hornsby Day, and he was the guest of honor at the Wiregrass Blues Festival. Phillip Journey, an NRA board member skeptical of LaPierre's leadership, said testimony at the bankruptcy trial about the organizations operations could be fresh ammunition for James lawsuit or a potential criminal inquiry. They were just waiting for all of these transcripts to be completed, all of these exhibits to be admitted," said Journey, a Kansas judge. I figure they're going to go throw them in front of a grand jury and see what pops out. SIGHTS STILL SET ON TEXAS The NRA remains interested in moving to Texas and has powerful allies who'd be happy to see it set up shop there. But doing so through another bankruptcy attempt would be fraught with risk, and James says she has the authority to block efforts to abandon its New York incorporation. Hale dismissed the NRAs case without prejudice, meaning the organization can refile but he warned a second bankruptcy petition would prompt him to take a hard look at the NRA's lawyers unusual involvement in the group's affairs. The judge wrote that the lawyers' actions raised concerns the group couldn't fulfill its fiduciary duty, which might lead him to appoint a trustee. That would hand the organization's reins to an outside official selected by the Biden administration's Justice Department. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: If we are to succeed in stopping the radical Democrat agenda from destroying our country, these internal conflicts need to be resolved so as to not detract from the efforts of our collective team, he wrote in a letter to colleagues justifying the move. Trump remains deeply popular among rank-and-file Republicans, and many in the party are loath to risk alienating the new voters he attracted, especially ahead of midterm elections that historically draw a far smaller slice of the electorate. Its impossible for this party to move forward without President Trump being its leader because the people who are conservative have chosen him as their leader, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said on Fox News this week. But others warn the episode may further repel voters, especially those in the suburbs who left the party in droves under the former president. Republican leaders need to figure out what theyre going to do with suburban women because this doesnt put us in the right direction in terms of gaining suburban women, said former Rep. Mia Love of Utah, the only Black woman ever elected to Congress as a Republican. Cheney, 54, would seem to have an uphill climb in her quest to redirect the GOP away from Trump. She's told Republicans she's not quitting Congress and will run for reelection next year, but she will have to survive a near-certain GOP primary challenge from a Trump-recruited opponent. Even if she returns to the House, it is unclear how loud her voice will be inside a party that has all but disowned her. Bring it on," Cheney said of a potential challenge by a Trump ally, in a portion of an interview released by NBC News. And though she has establishment lineage and embraces classical GOP conservative stances, it almost seems the party has evolved out from under her. Polls show Trump's hold is deep and wide on the party's voters. And many of the time-tested conservative views she and her father share including a belief in assertively projecting U.S. military force abroad have lost ground to Trump's inward-focused America First agenda. Cheney showed no signs of being bashful about her mission. Muhammad was apparently aiming for his brother, but investigators haven't yet pinpointed the motive, chief of detectives James Essig said. Police released videos and photos of Muhammad and asked the public for help tracking him down, and Essig said many people called in with tips. Muhammad's family made a public plea for him to turn himself in. Officers identified Muhammad as a suspect within hours and soon realized he was heading south, Essig said. Video then captured Muhammad and a woman, believed to be his girlfriend, buying dog food and other supplies at a store in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Meanwhile, investigators realized he had connections to some addresses in Florida. The U.S. Marshals Service caught up with the two on Wednesday as they were eating in a car outside a McDonald's in Starke, Florida, police said. Two dogs were with the pair when they were arrested, with French fries lying on the car's floor, police said. Muhammad had shaved off some of his hair, Essig said. The woman has not been arrested on any charges, but police consider her a person of interest in their ongoing investigation. Police believe the two had been living together in a building near Times Square. Associated Press writers David Fischer in Miami and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Some of you have inquired how Alabama will fare in Washington after Sen. Shelby retires at the end of 2022. The answer is that it will be nothing less than devastating for the Heart of Dixie. The amount of federal dollars that Shelby has individually brought home is incalculable and irreplaceable. Alabama is going to be in the proverbial boat without a paddle in 20 short months. We will have negligible power in Washington, and for a state that depends on federal dollars, that is not going to be a good position to be in for Alabama. Whoever wins the 2022 race for Shelbys seat will have no real power for at least 18 years. The Senate is a venerable institution where power is based on seniority. You have to wait your turn and patiently await the day when you can be a committee chairman or player in the Senate. Even if we elect someone with the acumen, ability, and temperament to be an effective senator, they will be in waiting two decades before they are modestly important. Tommy Tuberville has only been in the Senate for four months. He is 66 and will be irrelevant in probably one term in the Senate. In short, we are dead in the water in the Senate for this generation. There is hope for future generations of Alabamians if someone under 55 with ability takes Shelbys seat. Aircraft seen at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City in January 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran. Acquiring flight slots at U.S. airports is only the beginning of a challenging journey to making the Vietnam-U.S. direct route a reality, experts say. Private carrier Bamboo Airways recently acquired slots to operate regular direct flights from Ho Chi Minh City to San Francisco and Los Angeles starting September 1. The airline plans to begin charter flights starting July and regular flights in September with four flights a week. The flights would be operated using the long-haul Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft. The carrier said it was rushing to complete the final steps in the process of building its personnel apparatus, including pilot and flight crew training, to get ready for operating direct flights to the U.S. While the latest development stirs new hopes for direct flights between the two countries, something that airlines and officials have been discussing and working on for nearly two decades, there are still many hurdles to overcome. Aviation expert Nguyen Thien Tong said that apart from flight slots, each Vietnamese airline will need to acquire various safety permits from U.S. agencies before getting the go ahead for direct flights. Vietnam Airlines, with decades of experience in the industry, seems to be the most promising candidate to secure these permits, while Bamboo Airways, having operated for only two years, might face stiff challenges in proving its capability to conduct such long direct flights, he told VnExpress International. Last September, national flag carrier Vietnam Airlines had became the first Vietnamese airline to secure permits from the U.S. Department of Transportation for direct flights to the U.S. The airline last month received licenses from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) to operate the Airbus A350 aircraft to the U.S. It had already acquired a permit for the Boeing 787. Last year, Vietnam Airlines conducted over 20 charter flights between the two countries. But, for regular flights, various permits are needed from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The TSA is one of the toughest obstacles with its stringent requirements. It will send experts to examine Vietnamese airports before proceeding further. A CAAV official told local media that the current fleet of Vietnam Airlines and Bamboo Airways with their Boeing 787-9 and the Airbus 350 wont be able to fly directly to the U.S. at full capacity (over 300 seats). For long direct flights, the Boeing 777x and Airbus A350-1000 are needed, but the two carries do not own such jets, he said. Apart from concerns over technical challenges, experts have also questioned the profitability of Vietnam-U.S. direct flights. Vietnam Airlines CEO Le Hong Ha said the carrier might have to bear a loss of $30-50 million a year in the first five years of operating direct Vietnam-U.S. flights. Bamboo Airways chairman Trinh Van Quyet had earlier calculated that the airline could earn VND8 billion ($346,700) a month from direct flights with return ticket prices of around $1,300. But it is difficult to confirm those figures, especially as U.S. airlines, such as United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have launched and suspended direct flights to Vietnam after making losses, Tong said. There are currently no direct routes between the two countries, and passengers have to transit through Hong Kong, South Korea or Taiwan, taking 18-21 hours in all. A direct flight would shorten the travel time to 15-17 hours. Tong also said that with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic it is unclear when a regular direct route will be established. Americans are among the top foreign visitors to Vietnam, with 687,226 arrivals in 2019, and an ethnic Vietnamese population of over 2.1 million in the U.S. is also expected to be a steady source of travel demand. The seafood industry business group wants collection of port fees in HCMC delayed until year end since exporters still feel the pinch from the Covid-19 pandemic. The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) petitioned for this in a communication to the Ministry of Justice. The city plans to start collecting the port fees from July 1, but VASEP said the fees would increase the pressure on already embattled exporters, who have to pay billions of dong (VND1 billion = $43,300) to ports. For instance, a firm in Khanh Hoa Province that ships 3,000 containers through Cat Lai Port in HCMC will have to pay fees of around VND3 billion on top of VND7.5 billion in highway tolls. For goods that are imported for re-export, the fee starts at VND15,000 per ton and goes up to VND4.4 million ($190.37) for a 40-foot container. Regarding imported and exported goods, the lowest fee is VND30,000 per ton and highest is VND1.1 million for a 40-foot container. Japan has earmarked 200 million ($1.8 million) for vaccine cold chain storage development in Vietnam, PM Suga Yoshihide told President Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Japan highly values and would continue to collaborate and support Vietnam's development in the future, Yoshihide affirmed Tuesday, according to a press release by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In response, Phuc said Vietnam has always regarded Japan as an important, foremost and long-lasting strategic partner and highly values Japan's effective and practical cooperation in Vietnam's socio-economic development, including the non-refundable 200 million aid. Phuc has requested Japan to supply Covid-19 vaccine doses for Vietnamese, and to also support the Vietnamese community in Japan amid the pandemic. Yoshihide said Japan would support Vietnam to help it secure the necessary amount of vaccines and continue to support Vietnamese apprentices in Japan. The country would also provide Vietnam with marine vessels for research purposes and would launch a Japan Consulate General in Da Nang in 2022, he added. Phuc said he highly valued the fact Yoshihide had chosen Vietnam as a destination in his first overseas trip as Japanese prime minister in October 2020, and that he was happy to see the strong and comprehensive development of the Vietnam-Japan relationship. Both leaders said Vietnam and Japan would cooperate to deploy the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and cooperate at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations and ASEAN. Military staff disinfect an area of Hanoi against the novel coronavirus, May 6, 2021. Photo by VnExpress/Giang Huy. Vietnam on Wednesday noon recorded 19 local coronavirus patients who have already been isolated following contact tracing. Among the cases, two are recorded in Hanoi's locked down National Hospital for Tropical Diseases, nine in Bac Giang Province, five in Bac Ninh and one each in Ha Nam, Thai Binh and Hung Yen. In Bac Giang, the nine cases are all connected to electrical appliance manufacturer SJ Tech company, considered a coronavirus hotspot. All patients are being treated at a local field hospital. In Bac Ninh, the five cases have all made contact with confirmed coronavirus cases prom known hotspots. In Hanoi, the two cases are a patient and a family member at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. In Ha Nam, the patient is a 29-year-old woman who traveled from Da Nang to Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport on Vietnam Airlines flight VN160 on April 29. Following news of a coronavirus case on the same flight, she medically declared herself and was put into centralized quarantine on May 2. She's being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. In Thai Binh, the patient is a 37-year-old woman who had made contact with a confirmed coronavirus case. She's being trated at the Thai Binh general hospital. The Hung Yen patient is a 16-year-old boy who had made contact with several coronavirus cases. He's being treated at the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Vietnam is experiencing its toughest Covid-19 wave yet, which has seen 581 community transmission cases in 26 cities and provinces since April 27. Nearly 900,000 people have been vaccinated against Covid-19. Over 28,000 are isolated in hospitals and quarantine zones. In his first address to Congress, President Joe Biden announced America is on the move again. Focusing on renewal and opportunity, he praised the progress of the country in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and ameliorating its economic costs. The President also advocated for a series of bold proposals that require new government investment in health care, education, infrastructure, and climate change. Looking out at the world, President Biden said, America is moving forward, but we cant stop now: Were in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st Century. Were at a great inflection point in historyWe have to compete more strenuously than we have." Mr. Biden rejected the view that democracy is on the losing side because it takes too long to get consensus. Democracy, he said, is durable and strong as long as it lives up to its commitments to justice and fairness. He told leaders around the world that America is back: We arent going to do it alone. Were going to do it by leading with our allies. No one nation can deal with all the crises of our time from terrorism, to nuclear proliferation, mass migration, cybersecurity, climate change as well as what were experiencing now with pandemics. Regarding the Peoples Republic of China, President Biden said, We welcome the competition. Were not looking for conflict. But he noted the United States will reject unfair trade practices and the theft of American intellectual property. He also said the U.S. will maintain a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific not to start a conflict, but to prevent one. In response to Russias malign activities, President Biden pledged to respond directly and proportionately, as he has with the Kremlins cyberattacks and its interference in the 2020 Presidential elections. But on areas where Russia and the United States can cooperate to their mutual benefit, as they did on the extension of the New START Treaty, he will seek to do so. Concerning the threats posed by the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, President Biden promised to work with allies and partners to address them through diplomacy and stern deterrence. Because of the resolve of the American people, Autocrats will not win the future, said President Biden. America will. WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (AP) The Interstate 40 bridge linking Arkansas and Tennessee was shut down Tuesday afternoon after authorities said they found a crack in the span. The Arkansas Department of Transportation tweeted that it found the crack during a routine inspection of the bridge over the Mississippi River into Memphis, Tennessee. The department said it was working with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to ensure the bridge is safe before reopening. Arkansas Department of Transportation spokesman Dave Parker said the bridge would be closed at least through Tuesday night. The Tennessee Department of Transportation said the crack was found in the bottom side of the bridge truss. Drones were being used to take a closer look at the crack, Parker said. Traffic was backed up for miles in both directions because of the closure and was being rerouted to the 71-year-old Memphis & Arkansas Bridge that carries Interstate 55 into Memphis, about 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) south of the I-40 span. River traffic was also shut down until further notice, the Tennessee Department of Transportation said. Today is Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Let's get caught up. These headlines are in the news this morning: Israel unleashed new airstrikes in Gaza as Hamas fires rockets in escalating violence; a gunman attacked a school in Russia, killing seven students and a teacher; the GOP is planning a voting blitz against Dems' voting rights bill. Read on for these stories, other top headlines, celebrity birthdays and more. TOP STORIES Gaza militants, children among 24 dead as Israel hits Hamas GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza early Tuesday, hitting the high-rise home of a Hamas field commander and two border tunnels dug by militants, as Hamas and other armed groups fired dozens of rockets toward Israel. The escalation in the conflict was sparked by weeks of tensions in contested Jerusalem. LAS VEGAS (AP) One big casino operator says it'll begin charging parking fees again at events and its Las Vegas Strip resorts. The move by MGM Resorts International marks the end of free parking that lingered after pandemic-related casino shutdowns. In a statement on Tuesday, the company cited signs of economic recovery and increasing numbers of guests. So far, other properties in the busy Las Vegas resort corridor havent made similar announcements. MGM Resorts said paid parking will resume with Vegas Golden Knights playoff games at T-Mobile Arena and shows and events at Park MGM. Event parking fees will go into effect at New York-New York, Aria, MGM Grand, Excalibur, Luxor and Mandalay Bay. Valet parking will return by June 1 at all properties, and MGM Resorts will offer free self-parking to local residents for three hours. Resort parking fees can range from $15 to $18 per day. New York City has been given approval to vaccinate out-of-towners visiting the city in an effort to draw more tourists to boost the economy and give local residents peace of mind. "If they are here, get vaccinated while they are here. It makes sense to put mobile vaccination sites where the tourists are, that is good for all of us they get vaccinated. It's good for them. It's another reason to be here and know you are going to be taken care of," Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a news conference. Where can out-of-city residents get vaccinated in New York? The city will set up mobile vaccination buses at popular tourist attractions where people can get the one-shot dose of Johnson & Johnson. "We will be in Times Square, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Central Park, the High Line, a variety of locations," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. There will also be other pop-up sites in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Flushing Meadows Park and Sunset Park. Any US resident over the age of 18, including New Yorkers, can go rain or shine between 1 pm to 8 pm at the locations. New York City joins other states in lifting residency requirements for covid-19 jab The Big Apple was given permission by Governor Andrew Cuomo to expand covid-19 vaccination to US residents 16 and older as vaccinations across the state begin to lag. Currently, the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is only approved for those 18 and older. Access to the vaccine for out-of-towners will only apply to the five boroughs. Currently 18 states and one territory have lifted residency requirements to get an inoculation shot against covid-19. "This summer, you're going to see tourism come alive again in New York City, you're going to see a lot of jobs come back because of it. We want to go the extra mile, make it easy for tourists," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Will I be able to use a covid-19 passport to say Im fully vaccinated? Some venues may require the use of a covid-19 vaccine passport, which can be in the form of a paper certificate or a digital verification of a recent negative covid-19 test or full immunization. In order to be considered fully vaccinated you need to wait two weeks from the time you were vaccinated to give your body time to build up the proper immune defense. The vaccine will not cause you to test positive to a viral test, i.e. a test that would show you are actively infected, so you should be able to show a negative PCR or antigen test if required for entry at a venue even if you get the jab while in town. Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc holds phone talks with French President Emmanuel Macron (Photo: VNA) The two State leaders particularly highlighted cooperation on promoting sustainable development goals, adapting to climate change, protecting the environment, maintaining peace, security, stability and ensuring respect for international law and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). President Nguyen Xuan Phuc expressed satisfaction with the development of Vietnam-France ties, including the implementation of outcomes reached during the France visit by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. He affirmed that France is among leading partners in Europe of Vietnam, and suggested that the two countries continue working closely together towards the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship and 10th year of their strategic partnership in 2023. President Emmanuel Macron said he appreciates the steps of development in the France-Vietnam strategic partnership, particularly the official visit to France in 2018 by Party leader Nguyen Phu Trong. He reiterated Frances policy on closely cooperating with Vietnam to further develop their relations. The two leaders exchanged views on specific measures to promote bilateral ties. They agreed that their ministries and sectors should maintain existing mechanisms of exchange and push ahead with the joint work in important projects and priority fields of cooperation, such as COVID-19 prevention and control, security-defence, economy-trade-investment, energy, transport, aerospace, environment, culture, education-training and local cooperation towards a conference on cooperation between Vietnamese and French localities slated for late 2022. President Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked his French counterpart to provide support for the Vietnamese community in France so that they can stabilize their lives and ensure safety amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. He thanked France for backing the development of Vietnam-EU ties, especially in pushing the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement, adding that he hopes the French parliament will early complete the ratification of the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement, so as to promote mutually-beneficial cooperation between Vietnam and the EU in general and France in particular. President Macron spoke highly of Vietnams role in the region and the international arena, especially the Southeast Asian country's success in performing the role of the Chair of ASEAN last year and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council at present. The two leaders agreed that Vietnam and France should continue with their close coordination at multilateral forums, particularly the UN, ASEM, the Francophonie, while promoting ASEAN-France ties, especially now that France has become a development partner of ASEAN since 2020. President Nguyen Xuan Phuc took the occasion to repeat an invitation to visit Vietnam to the French President./. A staff member transfers a batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, May 11, 2021. A plane carrying a third batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine that Cambodia acquired from Chinese biopharmaceutical company arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua) PHNOM PENH, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A plane carrying a third batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine that Cambodia acquired from Chinese biopharmaceutical company arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday. "The vaccine's arrival today is another testament to the unbreakable iron-clad friendship between our two countries," Cambodia's Health Ministry secretary of state Yok Sambath told reporters while receiving the vaccine at the Phnom Penh International Airport. Sambath expressed her profound thanks to China for providing the vaccine to Cambodia timely, saying that both China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are very safe and effective. The Southeast Asian nation has received COVID-19 vaccines from China and the WHO's COVAX Facility. The country launched an anti-COVID-19 inoculation drive on Feb. 10. To date, more than 1.82 million out of the country's 16 million population had been vaccinated against the virus, a government report said. The kingdom logged 480 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, pushing the national case total to 20,223, with 131 deaths and 8,170 recoveries, the Ministry of Health said. Enditem 2 1 [ Editor: GSY ] Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi holds talks with Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin who visited China to attend the second China + Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers meeting in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Wei Xiang) XI'AN, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday held talks with his Tajik, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz counterparts, respectively, in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Chingiz Aidarbekov are in China for the second China plus Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers meeting. While meeting with Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Wang said that as brothers, good neighbors, and "iron friends," China and Tajikistan should earnestly implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state. The two sides should continue enhancing the "gold content" of bilateral relations, consolidate the foundation of political mutual trust, upgrade the scale and quality of cooperation, and push China-Tajikistan relations for a new development stage. Echoing Wang's remarks, Sirojiddin Muhriddin said that Tajikistan regards China as its most reliable strategic partner. Tajikistan is ready to expand cooperation with China regarding the Belt and Road (B&R) and would continue to support the one-China principle. During his talks with Abdulaziz Kamilov, Wang said that China-Uzbekistan relations maintain a sound and stable development momentum, which brings benefits to the two peoples. He said that as the phone call between the two heads of state pointed out the direction for relations between the two countries in the post-epidemic period, China is willing to share development opportunities with Uzbekistan and expand general cooperation. Abdulaziz Kamilov said Uzbekistan attaches great importance to relations with China and fully supports China in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Uzbekistan hopes that China and Uzbekistan will strengthen cooperation in poverty reduction, interconnection, combating the "three evil forces," and jointly promote B&R construction. Wang said that the friendship between China and Kyrgyzstan from generation to generation is the general trend and the people's will when meeting with Chingiz Aidarbekov. He said that China is willing to do its best to provide support and assistance for Kyrgyzstan to achieve stability and development. China is also willing to expand B&R cooperation, promote the development strategies of the two countries, and expand new areas and open up new prospects for bilateral cooperation. Chingiz Aidarbekov said, as China's good neighbor, brother, and partner, Kyrgyzstan firmly supports China on Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan issues, which involve China's core interests. Enditem 3 1 [ Editor: GSY ] NICOSIA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Air traffic has picked up in Cyprus in the first few days of May, Transport Minister Yiannis Karousos said on Tuesday. Karousos said in a tweet that in the first nine days of May, air passenger traffic accounted for 59 percent of that for the whole of April. Air flights in the first nine days of May reached 43.6 percent of those for the whole of April, he said. "With steady steps and good omens, we are entering the summer season with increased flights and strong interest from airlines. As we improve our epidemiological picture, our air connectivity and tourism will also see the benefits," Karousos said. Tourism in Cyprus took a beating as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, with statistics showing a decrease of over 93 percent in tourist arrivals for the first three months of this year. Deputy Tourism Minister Savvas Perdios said there has been a flow of tourists from Sweden in the past few days, on top of steady arrivals from Russia, the second largest tourist market for Cyprus. He said that more tourists from northern European countries are expected these days, but added that the stakes are on the UK market, the main source of tourists visiting the eastern Mediterranean island. Hermes Airports, the operators of the island's two international airports at Larnaca and Paphos, said a total of 220 flights are expected this week, compared with about 35 flights a week in April. Maria Kouroupi, a senior official with Hermes, said flights from the UK are expected to pick up in June as various airlines, including British Airways, began adding flights to their schedules. Cyprus counts on tourism for the restart of its economy, as the tourism and travel sectors contribute about 25 percent to the country's annual economy. [ Editor: WPY ] Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai agreed to hold a Trade and Investment Council. "We talked about the need to strengthen dialogue on climate change, non-tariff rules for industrial and food products both in the context of strengthening the World Trade Organization (WTO) and on the bilateral track. We agreed to hold a Council on Trade and Investment and talk," Kachka wrote on Facebook on Wednesday following a discussion with Tai on key trade issues held on May 11. During the conversation, Tai expressed support for the idea of free production of vaccines (waiver), he said. "We expressed our support. Ukraine is ready to act as a compressor of the waiver initiative and to convince the EU that it is necessary," Kachka said. With regard to duties on metallurgical products, the United States, according to Kachka, is ready to seek an individual approach to metal trading in order to overcome the problem of overcapacity. "We explained that the duties and the EU measures applied later ended in the opposite direction in terms of overcapacity [excess capacity]. In general, Ukraine is more likely a partner of the West in transforming metallurgy," Ukrainian trade representative added. MP of Ukraine of the Opposition Platform - For Life faction Viktor Medvedchuk, to whom Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova signed a suspicion, confirmed that he is in Ukraine and is not going to hide from justice. "Today, following an illegal order of the authorities, the Prosecutor General's Office, grossly violating the Constitution and laws of Ukraine, conducted searches at my home and office. As expected, nothing illegal was found. The real purpose of these illegal searches was, in violation of the established procedure, to hand me a suspicion of high treason fabricated by order of the authorities," Medvedchuk said in a statement published on the website of the Opposition Platform - For Life party on Tuesday evening. Medvedchuk is sure that the suspicion written out to him by Prosecutor General Venediktova is a political reprisal. "Everything that happens to me is a political reprisal for my principled political position. I declare that I am in Ukraine and do not intend to hide from justice. I will continue to participate in legal investigative actions and seek justice both for myself and for of all Ukrainian voters who entrusted me with the high title of MP of Ukraine," Medvedchuk said. Vaccine certificate not to be panacea for border crossing, EU may offer other options The vaccine certificate will not be a panacea for crossing borders, the EU can offer other options, Deputy Minister of Health Yaroslav Kucher said. "In addition to certificates, I think there will be other possible ways to cross EU borders," he said at a briefing on Wednesday. Kucher said that there will definitely be vaccine certificates in Ukraine, but this will not happen faster than in the EU, "because we are only connecting to this system." He said that there is no decision yet whether it will be necessary to do tests for COVID-19 to cross the EU borders in case there is no certificate. "It is not planned to oblige anyone to make these certificates yet, but it will be definitely more convenient to cross the border with certificates. We already feel that there is such a tendency, and Ukraine, as a part of the civilized world, will join it," he said. Kucher said that the certificate will preliminarily be issued through the Diia application. "It is planned that the certificate can be printed and received in paper form, for example, through the administrative services center, but there is no final decision yet," he said. Security Service clamps down on clinic issuing fake certificates for entry in Russia TASS, Vitaly Nevar 15:26 12/05/2021 MOSCOW, May 12 (RAPSI) The border service of the Federal Security Service (FSB) has disrupted activities of a private medical clinic on the territory of Sheremetyevo Airport, which issued fake certificates for the entry of foreigners into the Russian Federation, according to the press service of the bodys Directorate for Moscow and Moscow region. Border control officers at the Sheremetyevo international airport suppressed illegal activities related to the fabrication and sale of forged medical documents for the purpose of their further use by foreign citizens as grounds for entering the territory of the Russian Federation under the conditions of the current anti-epidemiological restrictions, the department said in the statment. According to the FSB, more than 100 invitations for the provision of medical services were seized from the head of the clinic, there was also seized a client base of foreigners who were going to purchase forged documents. Currently, this fact is under investigation, based on the results of which a procedural decision will be made, the statement reads. Ukraine does not see a threat of invasion from Belarusian territory at this point; however, the Ukrainian General Staff has a plan of action in case of such, Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran said. "We have been monitoring the situation very thoroughly. Clearly, we take into account the possibility of a Russian invasion from the side of Belarus or military aggression carried out via Belarusian territory. We do not see direct threats at this point," Taran said at a special session of the Ukrainian forum titled "Ukraine 30. Coutry's Security" in Kyiv on Wednesday. "However, in the event of emergency, the General Staff has developed a certain plan of action, and we know what should be done if we see signs of the creation of a group of forces that could attack Ukraine via the territory of Belarus," he said. Official Kyiv and Jerusalem will hold additional joint interagency activities aimed at standardizing documents on COVID-19 vaccination passports. This was agreed during an online meeting between Deputy Minister of Health of Ukraine Viktor Lyashko and Head of the International Relations Department of the Ministry of Health of Israel Asher Salmon with the participation of H.E. Mr. Yevhen Korniychuk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the State of Israel, the Embassy of Ukraine reported at Facebook. Much attention is paid to the issue of mutual recognition of official COVID-19 vaccination certificates - vaccination passports. In this context, it was agreed to hold additional joint interagency activities aimed at standardizing documents and providing appropriate technical support for their recognition, - the statement reads. The parties discussed ways to work together on vaccination of vulnerable populations from COVID-19, compared the positions in preparation for the celebration of the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah in September this year. The meeting was held with the assistance of the Embassy of Ukraine at the initiative of the Israeli side. Lawyers of fifth president of Ukraine, leader of the European Solidarity party Petro Poroshenko, will soon file the first libel suit against Dmytro Gordon, lawyer Ilia Novikov has said. "On May 7 this year, on the Freedom of Speech [Svoboda Slova] talk show, famous journalist Dmytro Gordon said some words that should have consequences. It was he who stated that fifth President of Ukraine Poroshenko 'entered into a criminal conspiracy with Putin and ordered the Ukrainian army to leave Mariupol as part of this criminal deal,'" Novikov said, according to the European Solidarity press service. He noted that no one would appeal against Gordon's right to criticize Poroshenko's policies, but "we are talking about abuse of freedom of speech." The lawyer noted that defamation, even if it is accompanied by the words "I think," "this is my opinion," and then followed not by an opinion, but a statement, does not enjoy immunity. "We announce that in the near future, in the coming days, as soon as all the necessary formalities are completed, the first such claim will be submitted on behalf of Petro Poroshenko to Gordon, demanding that the dissemination of this statement be declared unreliable," Novikov said. "Dmytro Gordon will have the opportunity to speak out on this matter. If he believes that this is still an opinion, and not a statement, he can say about it that he does not know about it reliably, but he thinks so. He will have the opportunity to report, what evidence he has, if any. I think he doesn't. One way or another, it will be possible to give an explanation not in the format of a talk show, which does not oblige much to anything, but in the format of a formalized judicial procedure. It was a long time coming, and obviously this moment has come," Novikov said. Intensification of contacts between the twin cities of Haifa and Odessa, as well as the possibility of implementing promising bilateral projects in various fields were the subject of a meeting between H.E. Mr. Yevhen Korniychuk, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the State of Israel and Haifa Mayor Einat Kalish-Rotem. The Embassy of Ukraine reported this at Facebook. The parties discussed opportunities for cooperation and implementation of promising projects in the framework of Ukrainian-Israeli relations in the field of economy, investment and culture. It was agreed to intensify bilateral contacts and establish cooperation between the twin cities of Haifa and Odessa. In particular, it was agreed to hold an online conference of chambers of commerce and industry operating at the city halls of the two cities, - the statement says. The Ambassador of Ukraine stressed the need to renew outreach consulates in order to serve citizens, especially the elderly, living in Haifa. The parties also touched upon the work of Haifa International Airport and the possibility of establishing air connections between Haifa, Kyiv and Odessa, - the Embassy noted. The next delivery of the Pfizer vaccine may take place after May 17, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov has said. "We expect to receive Pfizer vaccines under the COVAX initiative and direct contract in the near future, tentatively from May 17," he told reporters on Wednesday. According to the minister, the Ministry of Health is technically ready to maximize the daily vaccination against coronavirus (COVID-19) disease, but this requires "more vaccines." "You know that now vaccines have been shipped that are in debt to us under the already signed contracts. In the last ten days alone, 1 million doses have arrived. Now the supply volumes of vaccines should increase," he said. Stepanov also said that in the near future Ukraine expects to receive vaccines from Sinovac and AstraZeneca. "As soon as the supply of vaccines increases, we will immediately increase the number of people who will be vaccinated. We can vaccinate 5-6 million people a month in a quiet mode. The main thing is that there are vaccines and those who want to be vaccinated," Stepanov said. He also noted that the Ministry of Health has "healthy optimism" regarding the prevention of a new outbreak of COVID-19 as a result of the Easter holidays. "I am grateful to the Ukrainians for listening to the recommendations and that there were no mass visits to churches during the Easter holidays. The number of people who attended churches, according to the National Police, was 8 times less than it was before the epidemic 793,000 people versus 7 million," he said. MP of Ukraine Viktor Medvedchuk arrived at the Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) on Wednesday, declaring that he is not yet familiar with suspicion, and does not intend to hide from the investigation. "I am going to the Prosecutor General's Office. I heard that I was being summoned," he told reporters on Wednesday. He noted that he still cannot comment on the suspicion on three episodes, since the suspicion has not yet been handed over to him, "I cannot comment on the deposits and transmissions of information [...] I did not read the suspicion, they did not give it to me. I have nothing to say yet," Medvedchuk said. He called the criminal prosecution "an act of political repression." Medvedchuk also said that his lawyers are going with him to the Prosecutor General's Office. "I was not in Kyiv [...] When we found out that searches were underway [...] in the morning we left and returned to Kyiv," he said. At the same time, the MP assured: "I am not going to hide; I am ready to defend myself, since I am not guilty." Answering the question whether he is ready for the fact that a preventive measure in the form of detention will be chosen for him, he said: "Of course, I am ready." As reported, on May 11, MPs of Ukraine of the Opposition Platform - For Life faction Viktor Medvedchuk and Taras Kozak were notified of suspicion of high treason and attempted plunder of national resources in the Russia-occupied Crimea. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky calls for an immediate end of the escalation of violence in Israel for the sake of people's lives. "The sky of Israel is strewn with missiles. Some cities are on fire. There are victims. Many wounded. Many human tragedies. It is impossible to look at all this without grief and sorrow. It is necessary to stop the escalation immediately for the sake of people's lives," Zelensy said on Twitter on Thursday. Israel earlier this week launched attacks on Gaza Strip in response to rocket attacks on Israeli cities from there. Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces Aviv Kochavi said that the military over the past day and a half struck more than 500 targets in the Gaza Strip. According to him, dozens of Palestinian militants were killed. In turn, on Tuesday evening, the Palestinian group Hamas announced that it had fired 130 rockets towards Tel Aviv. Some of them exploded in settlements in central Israel. There were reports of casualties and one dead. Militants in the Gaza Strip initially launched rockets to support Palestinian demonstrators in Jerusalem. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky invited President of Romania Klaus Iohannis to take part in the inaugural summit of the Crimean Platform and the celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine. "Invited Klaus Iohannis to take part in the Crimean Platform Summit and Ukraine's Independence Day festivities. Urged to Romania join the countries that have already signed the Declaration on Ukraine's European prospect. Praise the Joint Statement by the Bucharest 9 on Russia's policy in the Black Sea," Zelensky said on Twitter on Wednesday. The "Comments" was the first and the one Ukrainian media which joined the UN Global Compact The "Comments" was the first among the Ukrainian media which became a member of the UN Global Compact. The Comments.ua has become a new member of the UN Global Compact in Ukraine, making a significant step towards sustainable development. Now it is the first and so far the only media in Ukraine that has joined this Agreement. Having become a member of the UN Global Compact, the "Comments" pledged to follow the 10 Principles in the main four areas: protection of human rights, labor relations, environmental protection and anti-corruption. In the nearest plans of the "Comments" in the framework of cooperation are: - creation of a separate section, which will highlight the topic of sustainable development and related problems; - initiation an annual Ecobrand of the Year award in the following nominations: Eco-office, Eco-tourism, Eco-vent, Eco-food, Eco-style; - providing information support to enterprises that have prioritized the principles of sustainable development and environmental protection; - holding conferences to actualize attention to this issue. The Comments team will continue to work towards achieving the 17 sustainable development goals identified by the UN, including: - ensuring healthy lifestyles and promoting well-being for all at all ages, - gender equality, empowering all women, - promoting sustained and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all, - reducing inequality within the country, - moving towards sustainable consumption and production patterns, - fighting climate change and its consequences, - building a peaceful and open society for sustainable development, - revitalizing of work of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development. The Comments has officially established itself as a socially responsible company that ensures the observance of human rights, as well as complies with the main provisions of the International Labor Organization and adheres to the principles of environmental law. As you know, in 2015, all 193 members of the United Nations adopted a plan for a common better future. For the next 15 years, together, the participants pledge to overcome poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and protect our planet. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals provide a shared vision of where the world should go. Realizing these ambitions requires unprecedented efforts from all sectors of society. And business has an extremely important role to play in this process. Date: 11/05/21 To, The Honorable CM, Maharshtra Mr. Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray, CM Office, Mantralaya, 154, Madame Cama Road, Churchgate, Mumbai, Maharashtra - 400020 Subject: Plea for release of the Bhima Koregaon (BK) detainees during COVID-19 pandemic Dear Sir, We represent the family members of the 15 human rights activists who are currently undertrial detainees lodged at Byculla District Mumbai Prison and Taloja Jail, in the NIA case: RC-01/2020/NIA/MUM. At a time when the entire country is faced with unparalleled devastation due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic it is particularly distressing times for us knowing that our loved ones are in jail with us having minimal knowledge of their health and wellbeing. Our anxieties have been further intensified recently learning about the death of a Taloja jail inmate due to COVID-19 due to delay in provision of medical attention. Another news report in recent times indicated that eight staff members at the Taloja Prisons have tested positive for COVID-19 and 40 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Byculla Prison. As India reports over 20.2 million cases of COVID-19 in the beginning of the month, and as news is rife with the healthcare system being overwhelmed, we are increasingly worried about the medical assistance that would be available to the prison inmates should they contract the deadly disease. Many of the BK undertrial detainees are over 60 years, with co-morbidities and are susceptible to rapid deterioration of health in the event of COVID-19 infection. Although vaccination is believed to reduce the lethality of the COVID -19 infection, it is seen that only four BK undertrial detainee, Gautam Navlakha, Vernon Gonsalves, Sudha Bharadwaj and Shoma Sen have received a single dose of the vaccine as of last week of April. We would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of the ongoing health concerns with the BK undertrial detainees. Father Stan Swamy, 83 years old is a known case of Parkinsons Disease. Dr. Anand Teltumbde, 72 years old is an asthmatic. These health conditions predispose them to worse health outcomes in the event of COVID-19 infection. Prof. Hany Babu is currently suffering from severe eye infection, which is adversely affecting his vision. Adv. Surendra Gadling has also informed his family of an eye affliction. Both Sudha Bharadwaj and Shoma Sen have a history of comorbidities which make them susceptible to COVID-19. Sudha Bhardwaj is currently undergoing treatment for health complaints. Jyoti Jagtap was tested positive for COVID-19 and has been quarantined with other cases from Byculla Prison. We would also like to bring to your kind notice that amidst this raging pandemic, there has also been a disruption of usual communication channels. Although letters have been written by the BK detainees in Taloja Prison on several occasions in the past two months, we, the families, have not received most letters from them. The few letters that have reached the families, were posted and delivered after delays of over a month. We are also concerned that they may be receiving letters written to them by their family and friends with undue delays. As physical meetings with the detainees have also been stopped, we are only dependent on phone calls which are made once in 10 days for a period of 4-5 minutes. Letters have been a crucial means of communication for the undertrial detainees and their families, friends and lawyers, to cut this lifeline has been cruel and unjust. The Supreme Court of India has empowered state governments to form High-Power committees which could then decide upon the release of prisoners in each state. We urge you to recommend to the committee to release the BK undertrials on interim-bail at least. They are all law abiding citizens who have families outside. We are all worried about their safety in these desperate circumstances where everyone is at risk. Thus, we sincerely appeal to you to take timely and necessary measures for the release of our family members till the time this COVID crisis subsides and there is no danger to their health and life of our kin. Hoping for a just and positive response, Thanking you. Sincerely, The undersigned family members of the 15 Bhima-Koregaon undertrials. Mr. Sagar Abraham-Gonsalves (Mr. Vernon Gonsalves); Mrs. Jennifer Cout (Adv. Arun Ferreira); Mrs. Minal Gadling (Adv. Surendra Gadling); Ms. Monali Raut (Mr. Mahesh Raut), Mr. Roy Wilson (Mr. Rona Wilson), Mrs. Shakuntalabai Prahlad Dhawale (Mr. Sudhir Dhawale); Ms. Anusuya Singh (Adv. Shudha Bharadwaj) Ms. Koel Sen (Prof. Shoma Sen); Mrs. Rama Teltumbde (Dr. Anand Teltumbde); Sahba Hussain (Mr. Gautam Navlakha); Dr. Jenny Rowena (Dr. Hany Babu); Fr. Joe Xavier (Fr. Stan Swamy); Surekha Gorakhe (Sagar Gorkhe); Pranali Parab (Ramesh Gaichor) Vimal Ragobha Jagtap (Jyoti Jagtap) (Please note: This is an appeal on grounds of humanity, by individuals who are blood-relations of the under-trials; we have no affiliations to any political organisation whatsoever.) To actively respond to the current situation, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has assigned the relevant units to monitor and follow the actual situation while arranging plant quarantine forces to implement the inspection of agricultural exports, especially lychee about to be harvested, to avoid export congestion of at border gates. The Plant Protection Department was asked to follow and quickly notify any changes in China's anti-pandemic process to exporters while supporting localities in the export of lychee to China, Japan, the US and others. The Department of Agro Processing and Market Development Authority have been directed to work alongside provinces with a high output of lychee such as Hai Duong and Bac Giang to assist the localities in consuming the fruit. The department will also take charge of online conferences with Vietnamese Trade Representatives in China to discuss plans to export Vietnamese agricultural products to China. The MARD also asked for timely solutions to facilitate the consumption, import and export of agricultural products and raw materials in pandemic-hit localities. Director of the Plant Protection Department Hoang Trung said that localities have completed procedures regarding growing area codes, packages and other to stand ready for the export of agricultural products. Early maturing lychee has been harvested from May 10 and this will last until June 10 with an estimated output of 45,000 tonnes. The main crop is scheduled to be picked from June 10 to July 20 with an estimated output of 134,500 tonnes. Hellen Nanez, who lost 13 relatives to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and whose father Guillermo Alejandro Nanez (Photo : REUTERS/Alessandro Cinque) Hellen Nanez has suffered enough tragedy for a lifetime. The Peruvian 28-year-old mother has mourned the death of 13 close relatives since the pandemic struck last year: uncles, cousins, a grandfather. Now her dad is fighting for his life. On a recent day in a dusty cemetery in the Pacific port town of Pisco, Nanez visited the graves of relatives lost to COVID-19. Advertisement "The truth is, I don't have any more tears," said Nanez, who dropped out of studying psychology to work and help pay her father's medical bills. "This is taking away our family. It's taking away our dreams, our tranquility and stability." Nanez's story is a grim reflection of the tragedy unfolding in Latin America, a resource-rich but politically volatile region of some 650 million people stretching from Mexico to the near-Antarctic southern tips of Chile and Argentina. The region has recorded 958,023 coronavirus-related fatalities, a Reuters tally shows, some 28% of the global death toll. It is set to hit the 1 million mark this month, which will make it the second region to do so after Europe. But unlike wealthier Europe and North America, Latin American nations have lacked the financial firepower to keep people from sliding deep into poverty; underfunded healthcare systems have strained and inoculation programs have stalled. Regional leaders from Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro to Argentina's Alberto Fernandez and Mexico's Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador have come under fire for their handling of the pandemic, while a string of health ministers have been fired. "We Peruvians are dying, Mr President. We are dying every day," Miriam Mota, a relative of a coronavirus patient in Lima told Reuters, beseeching the country's leader, Francisco Sagasti, to do more to help bring the crisis under control. "There are no vaccines. There are no intensive care beds. There are no medicines. Please, for humanity's sake, help us!" Peru has officially confirmed 1.85 million COVID-19 cases and some 64,000 deaths, but that toll could be three times as high in reality, experts say. The country's national death register has linked 171,000 deaths to the virus. 'PEOPLE ARE FED UP' Latin America's crisis has been driven by regional juggernaut Brazil, which has recorded the most deaths globally after the United States and where right-wing President Bolsonaro has long railed against lockdown measures and backed unproven cures. The emergence of virus mutations in the country, including the more transmissible P1 variant, has been linked to the severity of Brazil's outbreak. It has also driven surges in infections in neighboring countries, including Uruguay and Bolivia. Now there are signs that the pandemic, which has torn through regional economies and driven a spike in poverty, will have a longer-term ripple effect, stoking unrest, rattling industries and driving voters at the polls. Colombia has been roiled by deadly protests over a now-shelved tax reform and poverty; Chile is moving towards a sharp tax hike on copper miners; Peru's polarized presidential election race is being led by a socialist teacher who is a political outsider. "People are fed up and obviously tired of everything that has happened lately," Paula Velez said in front of a burned-out police station in Colombian capital Bogota, set on fire in the protests. 'I DON'T WANT TO LOSE HIM' Public health experts say Latin America has suffered an outsized hit from the pandemic, both in terms of health and growth, rattling fragile economies with high debt levels, steep inequality and where many work in less secure informal jobs. Unlike North America, Europe or Asia, the region has also lacked the high-tech infrastructure to rapidly develop or manufacture vaccines. A deal to produce the Oxford University-AstraZeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine by firms in Argentina and Mexico has been stalled by manufacturing hold-ups, and many Latin American countries are reliant on insufficient supplies of Chinese and Russian vaccines. A cottage industry has developed for wealthier Latin Americans to travel to Florida and Texas to get their shots. But for the less affluent, that is not an option. "I have been looking for work for a year and a half and I can't wait for my vaccine," said Rio de Janeiro resident Marco Antonio Pinto, who like others in the city was disappointed last week when an immunization center quickly ran out of vaccines. "They are playing with the people, thinking that we are animals. We aren't animals: we are human beings. We pay taxes. We pay for everything," he said. Back in Peru, Nanez is now fighting to save the life of her father, who has been in the intensive care unit of a hospital for more than two weeks, receiving medicine to reduce the ravages of the disease and on a mechanical respirator. Nanez, who has a two-year-old child, has turned to making soap at home and selling it on the street or in shops in Pisco, a coastal town set amid arid desert landscapes. She said her bank loans had run dry and the family had incurred enormous debts of some 100,000 soles ($26,500) to buy medicines, medical oxygen - and funeral expenses. While hope was low, she was determined to battle for her dad. "I'm not going to lose him. I don't want to lose anyone else. My dad can't leave me," Nanez said, sobbing, outside the hospital where she has come to check on the health of her father, who is in a coma. "I have been standing here for 17 days in front of the hospital and I know that he is going to make it. I do not think that life can be so unfair if it has taken so much from me and now it also wants to take away my father." A man inspects a handgun inside of the Beretta booth during the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. (Photo : REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo) A federal judge in Dallas ruled on Tuesday that the National Rifle Association cannot use bankruptcy to reorganize in gun-friendly Texas, a serious blow to the gun rights group's effort to avoid a lawsuit in New York seeking its dissolution. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale said the NRA did not file for Chapter 11 in good faith, but instead filed to avoid oversight by New York Attorney General Letitia James and gain an "unfair litigation advantage" over her. Advertisement James sued to shut down the NRA in August, accusing it of diverting millions of dollars to fund luxuries for officials including longtime Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenses. Closely aligned with Republicans including former President Donald Trump, the NRA has long been instrumental in thwarting Democratic-backed gun control measures in the U.S. Congress. Ruling after a 12-day trial that ended on May 3, Hale said some details that came out about the NRA were "cringeworthy." He singled out LaPierre for criticism, including the "surreptitious manner" he used to obtain sole authority to put the NRA into bankruptcy in January. "Excluding so many people from the process of deciding to file for bankruptcy, including the vast majority of the board of directors, the chief financial officer and the general counsel, is nothing less than shocking," Hale wrote. "The question the court is faced with is whether the existential threat facing the NRA is the type of threat that the Bankruptcy Code is meant to protect against," Hale added. "The court believes it is not." In a statement, LaPierre acknowledged defeat and appeared resigned to defending against James' lawsuit. "We remain an independent organization that can chart its own course, even as we remain in New York to confront our adversaries," he said. "The NRA will keep fighting, as we've done for 150 years." LaPierre and the NRA have denied wrongdoing. James welcomed Hale's decision. "The rot runs deep, which is why we will now refocus on and continue our case in New York court," she said. "No one is above the law, not even one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in the country." Hale's dismissal is without prejudice, meaning the NRA can file for bankruptcy again, but the judge said management issues could require appointing a trustee to oversee its affairs if it sought Chapter 11 again. 'DIRTY LAUNDRY' The NRA hoped to use Chapter 11 to reincorporate in Republican-dominated Texas and escape what it called a corrupt political and regulatory environment in New York, where it was founded in 1871. LaPierre testified that he feared James would try to put the NRA into receivership. He said that made bankruptcy preferable, though the group could fully pay its debts if the Chapter 11 case were dismissed. Internal upheaval has also plagued the NRA in recent years, including an effort to oust LaPierre over alleged mismanagement. "The NRA was forced to hang its dirty laundry out for the world to see," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, which supports stricter gun control laws. "Their loss is a huge gain for the gun safety movement." President Joe Biden's administration opposed the bankruptcy, with the Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog, the U.S. Trustee, urging its dismissal. Biden has called gun violence "a national embarrassment" following a spate of mass shootings, and called for Congress to ban military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. The NRA is separately backing a challenge to a New York law restricting the carrying of concealed handguns outside the home. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review that law, potentially leading to its first major decision in more than a decade on the right to bear arms under the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. The Spanish minister for industry, commerce and tourism, Reyes Maroto, said on Tuesday that British tourists could begin to visit Spain once more from May 20 onward, provided that the authorities in the United Kingdom place the popular vacation destination on its coronavirus green list of countries. Speaking at a press conference held after the weekly Cabinet meeting, Maroto said: We know what we have to do to allow British people to travel to Spain, which is to lower the cumulative incidence and keep on vaccinating. The statement comes ahead of the European Unions plans to relax restrictions on non-essential travel from countries outside of the EU where the 14-day cumulative number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants is lower than 100. In the UK, this data point currently stands at 48. Currently, Britons cannot travel to Spain unless for a series of exceptional reasons, and if they can take the journey must present a negative PCR test on arrival in the country. Those returning from Spain to the UK, meanwhile, must also provide a negative test on arrival, quarantine for 10 days and take two Covid-19 home tests. Industry, Commerce and Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto during a press conference on Tuesday. tak_k / Europa Press Maroto added that citizens entering Spain from the United Kingdom from May 20 were likely to be excluded from the requirement to provide a negative PCR test on arrival given that the cumulative incidence of the virus in the country is currently very low. The vaccination process in the UK began earlier than it did in European countries such as Spain, and its progress has had a marked effect on the epidemiological curve. The UK government last week announced the creation of a green list of 12 countries and territories to which its citizens will be able to travel from May 17 onward. These include Portugal, Gibraltar and Israel, but for now exclude Spain, France and Greece. The list is due to be revised every three weeks. More than 18 million British tourists traveled to Spain in 2019, making up the biggest group of foreign visitors, according to news agency Reuters. The arrival of the coronavirus pandemic saw these numbers fall to just 3.2 million in 2020, with the restrictions on travel causing an 80% fall in international tourism to the country. English version by Simon Hunter. The Spanish Health Ministry and the countrys regional governments on Tuesday approved the use of the Janssen single-dose Covid-19 vaccine among the under-60s. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Public Health Commission, at which the officials also decided to focus the ongoing vaccination campaign on people who are very vulnerable, such as those with major disabilities and accessibility problems, those with autism or severe mental illness, according to a statement from the ministry. The first group, those aged between 50 and 59, number 7.03 million people in Spain, according to Health Ministry reports. Around 17% (1.2 million people) have already started their vaccination process given that they belong to other target groups that have been designated priority. Of these, 459,000 have received the full protection offered by the vaccines, i.e. two doses, according to the latest data from the ministry. Healthcare personnel and carers among this age group account for some of those citizens who have already been immunized, in this case using the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which use the new messenger RNA technology to offer protection against Covid-19. Essential workers such as teachers, police officers, soldiers and prison guards, meanwhile, have been given the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, although this process has encountered a number of bumps in the road, after the detection of a tiny number of cases of rare blood clots associated with the medication. The Health Ministry has opted to extend the time between the first AstraZeneca shot administered to this group from 12 weeks to 16 weeks, while the Carlos III Institute in Madrid carries out research to determine whether it will be safer to give this segment of the population another dose of AstraZeneca, or a shot of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine in order to give them full protection against Covid-19. Until now, Spain has received 272,400 doses of the Janssen vaccine, of which 71% have been administered Meanwhile, most of Spains regions have already opted to start inoculating the 50-59 age group using the Pfizer vaccine, in order to move the campaign along to younger people. The second target group for the Janssen vaccine is made up of the over-18s who are in a vulnerable situation or those for whom getting two shots would be complicated. These are patients who can be difficult to locate because, for example, they do not have a fixed abode, explained healthcare sources from one region. In these cases, the fact that this vaccine is single dose facilitates the completion of the immunization process in one go. Up until now, Spain has received 272,400 doses of the Janssen vaccine, of which 71% have been administered. These vials so far have gone to the 70-79 group. Before June 30, another five million doses are due to arrive, which will allow for the vaccination of a large part of the 50-59 group. Whats more, until September 30, the company will give the Spanish government another 12 million doses, according to the agreements reached by the European Commission and the pharmaceutical companies that are supplying vaccines to European Union countries. While there are only 49 days left to go before Janssen must complete its first major round of deliveries, neither the Health Ministry nor the pharmaceutical company have responded to questions from this newspaper as to the dates or quantities agreed for delivery in the coming weeks, due to confidentiality clauses signed with the sector. Mass vaccination in Barcelona, in a file photo from April. Albert Garcia / EL PAIS The Janssen vaccine uses a viral vector to produce the spike proteins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which activates the bodys immune system. The process is the same as that used by the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The European Medicines Agency has obliged the manufacturers to add a warning to the prospectus of both medications pointing to the risk of very rare cases of blood clots associated with their use, although the incidence is lower with the Janssen shots than it is with AstraZeneca. In both cases, the risk is considered extremely low one serious case per million doses and that the benefits of vaccination against Covid-19 greatly outweigh the risks. The Janssen vaccine has so far proved to be effective against the main variants of the coronavirus that are circulating: the British, South African and Brazilian strains. Its published effectiveness is currently at 67%. While this percentage is lower than that of other vaccines for Pfizer, for example, the rate is 95% experts insist that there is no use in comparing these figures, given that each one is the result of different clinical trials. The Janssen tests, for example, were executed when variants such as that from South Africa were already circulating. This strain has been shown in some cases to reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines, leading to Covid-19 symptoms albeit much milder ones than those seen in people who have not been immunized. 13% with full protection According to the latest report from the Spanish Health Ministry, a total of 23,107,595 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been delivered to the central authorities. Of these, 20,162,661 have been administered (87.3%). The number of people with one dose of the vaccine stands at 14,028,954, which is 29.6% of the population. A total of 6,327,447 people have the full protection offered by the vaccines (i.e. either the two doses needed for the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines, or the single shot of Janssen). That is 13.3% of the population. After a slow start in the first quarter of the year, the vaccination campaign has now picked up speed in Spain. Earlier this week, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez predicted that group immunity in the country thanks to the vaccination drive was less than 100 days away. The government is aiming to have immunized 70% of the population by the end of the summer, but believes that it may be able to exceed that target provided there are no bumps in the road such as supply issues. Spain has also met its first target of fully immunizing five million people by the start of May. Latest figures On Tuesday night, the central Health Ministry reported 4,941 new coronavirus cases detected, and added 205 victims to the overall death toll. In total, there have been 3,586,333 confirmed infections since the health crisis began last year in March, while 79,100 people have died after testing positive for Covid-19. The 14-day cumulative number of coronavirus cases per 100,000 inhabitants continues to fall, dropping a full eight points on Tuesday to 180.69, according to the Health Ministry report. This key data point fell 10 points on Monday, a trend that has been attributed by the experts to the ongoing vaccination campaign. The cumulative incidence remains dangerously high in some Spanish regions, however, coming in at 279.83 in Aragon, 291.73 in Madrid, 261.19 in Navarre and 387.75 in the Basque Country. English version by Simon Hunter. On January 10, 1992, the sea was awash with yellow ducks, blue tortoises, green frogs and red beavers. A container filled with 29,000 bath toys had fallen off a ship during a violent storm in the North Pacific, almost exactly halfway between Asia and America. Seven months later, hundreds of the rubber toys were deposited on the coast of Sitka, Alaska, not far away from where some 61,000 Nike sneakers had washed up after a similar accident at sea two years earlier. It then occurred to American oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer that these drifting objects could be studied over a number of years to predict ocean currents. Four Spanish mathematicians, setting their minds to another monumental challenge, have now as a result solved the enigma of the Pacific rubber ducks: it was impossible to accurately predict where they might wash up. It seems like a bit of fun but the study was published in the respected scientific journal PNAS due to its potential implications for humanity. The Clay Mathematics Institute announced in 2000 that it would offer a $1 million prize to anybody who could solve any of the seven Millennium Problems, a set of devilishly complicated mathematical puzzles constituting the most important open problems in mathematics. One of these concerns the Navier-Stokes equations, which describe the movement of liquids and gases. They were formulated between 1821 and 1845 by French mathematician Claude-Louis Navier and Irish physicist George Stokes. Taking into account factors such as temperature, viscosity and the initial velocity of a fluid, the NavierStokes existence and smoothness problem calculated its projected speed at a point of time in the future. Almost 200 years after it was first posited, it remains unknown whether the answer to this formula produces accurate results with a certain level of regularity or if they can produce a blow-up, a sudden alteration in behavior. Finding out is worth a million dollars. Bath toys from the 1992 spill and Nike sneakers from an earlier accident. EOS Mathematician Eva Miranda recounts how she was traveling from Madrid to Barcelona by train one day in February 2019 and, idly going through Twitter, she learned that Australian researcher Terence Tao had published the latest details of his mission to solve this problem on his blog. Tao was a child prodigy in the mathematics world. At the age of 16 he earned his bachelors and masters degrees from Flinders University and by the time he was 21 he had received his PhD from Princeton University. At the age of 31 he was awarded the Fields Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in mathematics. Now, at 45, he is known as the Mozart of mathematics. In 2014, Tao announced that he intended to address the Navier-Stokes existence and smoothness problem by abstractly simulating a kind of computer made out of water, which would force the liquid to accumulate energy up to the point where a sudden change in the Navier-Stokes equations could be detected. Miranda, a professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, had a brainwave on the train and called three colleagues to propose an idea. The four mathematicians Miranda, Robert Cardona, Daniel Peralta and Francisco Presas announced on May 5 that they had managed to design an abstract hydrodynamic machine for the first time. The researchers based their work on a Turing machine, a mathematical model of computation that defines an abstract machine that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. The machine designed by the four Spanish researchers takes a point in space as input and offers up as a result the point to which the liquid has moved. (Clockwise from top left) Daniel Peralta, Robert Cardona, Francisco Presas and Eva Miranda. ICMAT Miranda explains that the machine provides evidence that the turbulent behavior of fluids is an indefinable problem: the mathematics fall short of being able to resolve the problem. It is not that mathematicians are missing something and it has nothing to do with the famous unpredictability of Chaos Theory (the idea that the flap of a butterflys wing can generate a tornado), it is simply that no algorithm exists to definitively prove that a fluid passes through a certain point in a given time. We are the first to demonstrate that you cannot predict where the rubber ducks will go, supposing that they move in three dimensions. It is as if I throw a message in a bottle into the sea. It will follow a trajectory and after a period of time it will wind up somewhere else. What we have demonstrated is that we cannot predict where it will end up, so its better to send a WhatsApp instead, jokes Miranda. Some of the toys from the 1992 accident washed up years or even decades later on coastlines across half the world, as the BBC documentary Blue Planet II showed. Some made it to Alaska, some to Australia, others to Japan and some even crossed the Arctic and passed through the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. Miranda recalls that shortly before the container hit the waves, American physicist Cristopher Moore had already asked if fluids are sufficiently complex to perform all the possible operations of a computer. We demonstrated that they are, Miranda says. Tao has applauded the work of the Spanish mathematicians. More than the solution, it is evidence of the difficulty of the problem, he tells EL PAIS. The new hydrodynamic machine is not applied to the three-dimensional space in which we live, but to a simplified curved version of it, Tao explains. But it does show that fluids can become sufficiently complex in these curved spaces that, to an extent, they can behave like a computer in such a way that you can program a fluid to do anything that you can program a computer to do, adds the University of California professor. I believe that the same type of phenomenon also occurs in our flat, three-dimensional world, which rules out many ways of approaching the solution to the problem of regularity in the Navier-Stokes equations, which are based on showing that fluids conform in certain simple ways. Australian mathematician Terence Tao. Reed Hutchinson/UCLA / Reed Hutchinson Taos hypothesis on the Navier-Stokes equations is that they will not display a global regularity, but instead will blow up. This does not mean that a tsunami will suddenly appear in an ocean in the real world, but rather that in certain conditions these equations are not sufficient to describe the complexity of fluids. Miranda compares the trajectory of a fluid particle with the stroke of a pencil on paper. Blow-up would be if someone hits you with their elbow and this causes you to move the pencil. In the drawing you would notice a discontinuity, a very out-of-place behavior, as if it went to infinity, explains the mathematician. Miranda believes that if the Navier-Stokes equations were to blow up it would be a genuine revolution, because it would imply that mathematical models for predicting atmospheric weather conditions, rising sea levels and the behavior of other essential viscous fluids such as human blood and petroleum - are imprecise. The machine designed by Miranda and her colleagues does not employ the Navier-Stokes equations but a previous version formulated in 1755 by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler that describes the movement of ideal fluids with zero viscosity. The results that the machine produced do not show any sudden jumps. Our investigation doesnt serve to demonstrate the blow-up of the Navier-Stokes equations, says Miranda. English version by Rob Train. Cannes, France, 1953: the Cote dAzur is enjoying a golden age after the end of the Second World War. A few years earlier the first edition of the film festival that placed the small town on the world map was held. And there, in that summer of 1953, two people met and played out a furtive love story: he was just a few weeks away from marrying his fiancee, Jacqueline Bouvier. Their names were already famous, but not on the scale they would be in later years. Swedish and American, they were the aristocrat Gunilla von Post and US Senator John F. Kennedy. Von Post was 21 when she met Kennedy, then 36. She had been learning the hospitality business in Lausanne, Switzerland, and was in Cannes to improve her French. Now, six decades later, their romance has been revealed to the world. Letters exchanged by Von Post and Kennedy are to be sold by Boston auction house RR. The lot consists of a complete letter and two partial missives, eight pages in total, dated a few years after their 1953 meeting in France and in which the two swap information and make arrangements to meet. The context of the letters is better understood by referencing a book written by Von Post and published in 1997 titled Love, Jack, in which the Swedish aristocrat details their little-known romance. The letters being auctioned remained among Von Posts personal possessions until her death in 2011. They will now go under the hammer for a reserve price of $2,500, although it is estimated they will fetch somewhere in the region of $30,000. Some of the letters written by John F. Kennedy to Gunilla von Post when he was still a US senator, in 1955 and 1956. RR AUCTION The first missive included in the lot is one of the partial letters, dated from approximately 1955. Von Post had previously sent Kennedy a photograph and he had asked that she translate the Swedish words she had written on the back of it. You look amazing and happy, Kennedy tells her. A meeting between the two is also arranged. Kennedy at the time was a senator for Massachusetts, a post he held from January 1953 until he was elected president in 1960. It seems that Congress will not break up until August 5, so I will be sailing on the United States, which arrives in Le Havre on August 10 and I should be in Sweden on the 12th. Where shall I go? Send me the address in Bastad where you will be staying. Indeed, the meeting went ahead as planned and Kennedy and Von Post spent almost a week together consummating their relationship throughout Sweden in August 1955, says the auction house, based on Von Posts book. It was a passion that, at least in the case of Von Post, lasted for some time. In her memoirs she stated that over the next year, Kennedy attempted to separate from Jackie Kennedy in order to once again be with Von Post, and even to bring her to the United States. However, Von Post said that this plan was thwarted by Kennedys political ambition and the considerable influence of his father, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Another factor was Jackie Kennedy giving birth to a stillborn daughter in 1956, which affected both Kennedy and Von Post profoundly, and her subsequent pregnancy and the birth of Caroline Bouvier Kennedy in 1957. The only complete letter in the lot dates from 1956 and is a farewell message with shades of humor. Many thanks for your letter. I have to say that Im sad to hear, after everything, that youre not coming to the US after all and youre going to marry the farmer. Thank God its not the one we gave a lift to in Sweden last year, joked the then-Senator in reference to Von Posts imminent marriage to a landowner. Nevertheless, in spite of his lovers situation, Kennedy wrote: I was planning to come and see you next summer and then this happens. In any case, let me know what youre going to do. If you dont get married, come, Id like to see you. I had a wonderful time with you last summer. Its a memory full of light in my life, you are amazing and I miss you, the senator wrote in the letter, which will be sold in its original envelope. According to the auction house, it is the only known letter in existence in which JFK professes his love for another woman while he was married, despite a long list of lovers attributed to the former president that includes Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn. A handwritten envelope addressed to Gunilla von Post when she was already married to Anders Ekman. RR Auction However, the fact that Von Post was unable to travel to the United States to be officially installed as Kennedys girlfriend or wife did not mean that he was going to give up her company, something the final letter displays. The partial correspondence, date stamped at Hyannis Port, a small coastal town in Massachusetts where the Kennedys would spend long summer breaks, is signed Jack and begins with a half-sentence that is easy to interpret. arriving and maybe you can make a space for me. Im eager to see you. Isnt it strange after so many months? As Kennedy says to Von Post in the letter: Perhaps at the beginning we appeared like strangers to one another, but we are not and I am sure that it will work and it will be worth it. The letter, dated August 1, 1956, is addressed to the wife of Anders Ekman, the name of the landowner who Von Post married. Kennedy and Von Post would only see each other on one more occasion, almost by chance at a gala dinner at the Waldorf Astoria in New York in 1958. She was pregnant at the time with her first child, Andrea, and would go on to have a second, Rosina. What they couldnt know at the time was they would never see each other again. Anders Ekman died two years later, in 1960, while piloting a plane. John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963. Von Post eventually moved to the US and settled in Florida after marrying an IBM executive. English version by Rob Train. KYODO NEWS - May 13, 2021 - 02:36 | All, Japan, Coronavirus A 62-year-old mayor in western Japan has received the first dose of the novel coronavirus vaccine although he is not eligible under current regulations in the country, which preserve the inoculations for those age 65 or older and medical workers. Admitting that he received the shot on May 6, the first day of mass vaccination in the town of Kamikawa, Hyogo Prefecture, Sogo Yamana said Wednesday he did it for the sake of "crisis management" in the town. Yamana, founder of a public hospital in the town, also justified getting the shot ahead of his age cohort by citing infection risks at the hospital where he attends meetings once or twice a week. According to the mayor, the dose he received would have gone unused due to the cancellation of a vaccination appointment. In late April, Yamana consulted with his deputy Yoshito Maeda about the possibility of receiving the shot before he would otherwise be eligible according to the age limit. After Maeda discussed the matter with the hospital's chief administrator, Yamana was told he could be vaccinated if a dose became available due to cancellation. "I confirmed that my shot would not cause any institutional issue," the mayor said, adding that he plans to receive a second dose if one becomes available in a similar fashion. Compared with the United States and other major Western countries, Japan has lagged in COVID-19 vaccination, limiting it to the elderly and medical workers even as the July 23 start date of the Tokyo Olympics draws nearer. KYODO NEWS - May 12, 2021 - 23:31 | All, World, Japan, Coronavirus The Japanese government said Wednesday it will bar the entry of foreign nationals who have been in India, Nepal or Pakistan in the 14 days prior to their arrival in Japan, amid the spread of more contagious variants of the novel coronavirus. The measure, effective Friday, comes as India continues to struggle with a surge of infections due to coronavirus variants, sparking fears they may have spread to neighboring countries such as Nepal and Pakistan. Permanent residents and their families, as well as the spouses or children of Japanese nationals who leave Japan by Thursday with re-entry permission will be exempted from the measure. Foreign nationals with special permanent resident status will also be exempted from the entry ban covering the three South Asian countries. At present, Japanese nationals and foreign residents arriving from about 35 countries and regions, including India, Nepal and Pakistan, are required to submit proof of negative COVID-19 tests taken before, upon and after arrival. People arriving from the three countries are also required to quarantine for six days at designated facilities, while those arriving from the rest of the listed countries and regions are required to do so for three days. India on Wednesday reported a record 4,205 COVID-19 deaths over a one-day period, bringing its total fatalities from coronavirus infections to 254,197, the third most in the world after the United States and Brazil. KYODO NEWS - May 12, 2021 - 21:55 | World, All A 90-year-old man of Japanese descent in the Philippines, who is stateless due to the turmoil after World War II, is on track to acquire long-sought Japanese citizenship, it was learned Wednesday. Julio Oshita, who resides on Palawan island, was last month granted permission by a family court in Hiroshima Prefecture to establish a new family register at a Japanese government office, in a major step toward becoming a Japanese citizen. According to the Philippine branch of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, the average age of war-displaced descendants of Japanese remaining in the Philippines is 81. Over 700 of them are stateless, and in many cases they die without attaining Japanese nationality. The UNHCR, which aims to eliminate statelessness, recently called on the Philippines and Japan to act urgently to help them acquire citizenship, such as by processing their cases at family courts in Japan. Most of them are children of Japanese fathers who moved to the Philippines in the early 20th century -- when the Philippines was home to the largest population of Japanese immigrants in Southeast Asia -- and Filipino mothers. But when World War II broke out, large numbers of the children became separated from their fathers, who either joined the Imperial Japanese Army, were repatriated to Japan or died during the tumultuous times. "Because they became retaliatory targets of Japanese atrocities during the war, many Japanese descendants fled into remote locations and hid their Japanese bloodline and discarded the documents and pictures indicating their Japanese origin," a UNHCR report noted as one of the main reasons these people never acquired citizenship from either country. Oshita's father traveled from Nagasaki Prefecture to the Philippines in 1911 to engage in agriculture and later married a local woman. However, anti-Japanese sentiment increased when the war began, and he was shot dead by a local guerrilla in 1942. Seeking a connection with their father, he and his brother sent a letter to the Japanese Embassy in the 1960s asking for its help in finding relatives in Japan, but no progress was made. In 2018, an acquaintance put him in touch with a support group for stateless people of Japanese descent in the Philippines, and the following year its members, Japanese Embassy staff, and Japanese lawyers interviewed him and drew up a statement of facts. After an investigation revealed that his father's registered domicile was in Hiroshima Prefecture, he filed for permission to establish a family register there, which was approved on April 28. During his interview, Oshita sang a Japanese song and used some simple Japanese words, while stating in the local language, "I have Japanese blood. I want to visit my father's hometown." If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). KYODO NEWS - May 12, 2021 - 00:49 | World, All Thailand's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it is seeking a "humanitarian solution" to the case of three Myanmar journalists and two activists arrested after fleeing across the border to escape the military's crackdown on dissent. The trio work for the Democratic Voice of Burma, an independent broadcaster that has been critical of the Feb. 1 military coup that ousted the elected government led by now-detained Aung San Suu Kyi. On March 8, the junta revoked the broadcasting or publishing licenses of five independent media organizations, including DVB, making reporting for the network an illegal act. On Monday, DVB's executive director and chief editor Aye Chan Naing issued a statement strongly urging Thai authorities not to deport the five detainees back to Myanmar "as their life will be in serious danger if they were to return." "We request the international community to help call the Thai authorities to waive their deportation," he said, while also seeking help from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. On Tuesday, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand also urged Thai authorities not to deport them, warning that they would face certain arrest and persecution, "if not worse." "The world is watching what the Thai authorities do in this important case for press freedom," it said in a statement. KYODO NEWS - May 12, 2021 - 17:07 | All, World, Japan, Coronavirus Japan is considering an additional payment of up to $700 million to the Covax Facility, a U.N.-backed program intended to ensure a fair supply of coronavirus vaccines in developing countries, government sources said Wednesday. Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will unveil the plan in an online meeting of global leaders on vaccine rollouts slated for June 2, the sources said. The envisaged payment will come on top of Japan's initial offering of $200 million to Covax, or the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access, Facility. Japan cohosts the June 2 summit with the Gavi vaccine alliance of governments, international organizations, companies and charities. High on the agenda will be the planned delivery of 1.8 billion doses of vaccine to cover 30 percent of the population of developing countries this year, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry. While members have so far secured a total of $6.6 billion to that end, the leaders will discuss ways to pool the remaining sum of $1.7 billion required, it said. New Delhi : The Delhi government is aiming to increase the bus frequency in the city by merging parallel routes and boost public transport and address last-mile connectivity issues. The Transport Department has put forth a proposal in a meeting of the State Transport Authority, a department official said. The proposal involves merging 73 routes to come out with a better frequency of mini-stage carriage buses, he said. The Transport Department will also take the help of the School of Planning and Architecture for the route rationalisation exercise, the official said. There are 73 routes for mini-stage carriage buses totalling 798. These buses provide last-mile connectivity by carrying passengers from residential areas to the Metro stations, he said. "Route rationalisation will involve shifting buses on routes having fewer buses and poor frequency. On an average, routes are 17-km long and 14 buses are required for the frequency of 10-15 minutes," the official said. Merging of routes will eliminate duplicity of services by the Delhi Transport Corporation and Gramin Seva Services. Route rationalisation exercise was last undertaken in 2009, he added. New Delhi: Sri Lankan Navy on Saturday apprehended four Tamil Nadu fishermen and seized one boat near Delft Island. They have been taken to Kankesanthurai naval camp by Sri Lankan naval personnel. Earlier, on Friday, Ten Tamil Nadu fishermen were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy on the charge of fishing in the island's waters. The 10 fishermen, including a juvenile, from Thideer Kuppam village in Nagapattinam district, were held on charges of poaching fish near Neduntheevu, Assistant Director of Fisheries Gangadharan said. Read more: BSF arrests three Pakistani fishermen, seize five boats in Gujarat For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A joint press conference was held on Sunday by 15 Corps Commander Lt Gen JS Sandhu, DGP SP Vaid, GOC Victor force and IG Operations CRPF on Bandipora encounter in which six terrorists were neutralised. General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 15 Corps Lt Gen J S Sandhu said that after receiving specific information, they had launched joint operation by CRPF, Army, J&K Police in which six terrorists were eliminated. All were foreign terrorists. Commend all agencies who worked to ensure success of the operation, he said. What we find this year is that we have killed approximately 125-130 terrorists in the hinterland of Kashmir Valley. This has resulted in a remarkable change in situation: General Officer Commanding (GOC) of 15 Corps Lt Gen J S Sandhu ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2017 Sandhu informed that the security forces have killed about 190 terrorists as on date in 2017. Out of these 190, 80 are local terrorists and 110 foreign. Out of these 110, 66 terrorists were killed near the LoC while infiltrating, he said. We had launched several operations in #Hajin mid September onwards we were practically launching search ops on a daily basis, had inducted special forces into the area: GOC of 15 Corps Lt Gen J S Sandhu pic.twitter.com/yqBiroxVio ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2017 While defining it as remarkable achievement, he said this year they have killed approximately 125-130 terrorists in the hinterland of Kashmir Valley which has resulted a remarkable change in the situation. Sandhu said that they had launched several operations in Hajin are from mid September and they were practically launching search operations on a daily basis. We had inducted special forces into the area, he said. Jammu and Kashmir DGP SP Vaid said Kashmir valley needs to be free from violence, terror, guns and drugs. Kashmir valley needs to be free from violence, terror, guns and drugs. Commendable joint effort by our agencies, jawans. Wish very soon we can see Kashmir free of violence: J&K DGP SP Vaid #HajinEncounter pic.twitter.com/Mtd8YviXJx ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2017 He said it was a commendable joint effort by the agencies and soldiers. Wish very soon we can see Kashmir free of violence, he said. While speaking on ISIS mouthpiece claiming responsibility of Zakura encounter in Srinagar, Vaid said, "It is yet to be verified, I don't think ISIS has any imprints here." For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit back at Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for terming his partys Rafale deal corruption allegations as Shameful. Rahul Gandhi, who is likely to be elevated to Congress partys President Post on Monday, said shameful was her boss silencing her. Earlier on Friday, Sitharaman had said that the allegations relating to the procurement deal for 36 Rafale fighter jet by Congress were shameful". Rahul Gandhi asked Sitharaman to tell the public the final price of each Rafale fighter jet and whether PM Modi took prior permission from Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) before announcing the purchase deal in Paris. Rahul also asked the Defence Minister to explain that Why PM bypassed experienced HAL & gave the deal to AA rated businessman with no defence experience. Dear RM, whats shameful is your boss silencing you. Please tell us : 1. Final price of each Rafale jet? 2. Did PM take CCS permission before announcing purchase in Paris? 3. Why PM bypassed experienced HAL & gave the deal to AA rated businessman with no defence experience? Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) November 18, 2017 The Congress party had accsued Modi government of compromising national interest and security over the Rafale fighter aircraft deal. Surjewala said the UPA government floated a tender on August 20, 2007 for purchase of 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for the Air Force and, post negotiations, two of themRafale and Eurofighter Typhoon remained in the reckoning. On December 12, 2012, Rafale was declared L1 vendor, the bidder whose quotation is the lowest, with base price of USD 10.20 billion (Rs 54,000 crore according to the conversion rate prevalent then). It was decided that of the 126 aircraft, 18 would come in fly away condition and the remaining 108 will be manufactured in India by HAL with transfer of techonology, he said. After the Modi government was formed in May 2014, Surjewala said, the earlier Request for Proposal (RFP) for purchase of 126 aircraft was cancelled on July 30, 2015, and signed a deal on September 26 the next year for procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets for USD 8.7 billion. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Are you making plans? Waiting for some happening moments in next few years? You may end up cancelling all those plans as earthquake across the globe will put up to 1 billion people at risk in 2018 and the next few years. Yes! If the latest prediction by two US scientists turns out to be true then the world could witness a sudden surge in the number of devastating earthquakes in the next couple of years. The trembles will particularly harm the heavily populated tropical regions. The latest study led by Roger Bilham and Rebecca Bendick from the University of Colorado and Montana has clearly shown a Correlation between the speed of earth's rotation and global earthquake activity. "On five occasions in the past century, a 25-30 percent increase in annual numbers of (earthquakes of magnitude 7.0 or greater) has coincided with a slowing in the mean rotation velocity of the earth, with a corresponding decrease at times when the length-of-day (LoD) is short," Roger and Rebecca stated in one of their statements. Also Read | NASA launches NOAA's JPSS-1 satellite to monitor weather across world Talking about their latest findings, published at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in October, the researchers told The Guardian, "The correlation between the Earth's rotation and earthquake activity is strong and suggests there is going to be an increase in numbers of intense earthquakes next year." "Next year we should see a significant increase in numbers of severe earthquakes. We have had it easy this year. So far we have only had about six severe earthquakes. We could easily have 20 a year starting in 2018," Biham added. Moreover, according to NASA, seasonal changes like El Nino have been shown to affect the Earth's rotation, while massive earthquakes can cause shifts in the planet's axial tilt. Also Read: SpaceX's latest rocket engine explodes during test in Texas For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Indian Army's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) asked his Pakistani counterpart on Saturday to ensure peace and tranquillity along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. During a telephonic conversation, Lt Gen A K Bhatt told his Pakistani counterpart that there appeared to be a"disconnect" between the Pakistan Army's reiteration about the desire for peace and the action of its troops, official sources said. Citing various incidents, Bhatt said that Pakistanitroops resort to heavy firing without provocation, they said. The telephonic conversation between the two DGMOs tookplace following a request by the Pakistani side. Lt Gen Bhatt impressed upon the Pakistan DGMO Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza that there appeared to be a "disconnect between the intent at the Pakistani General Headquarters which reiterates its desire for peace and the actions of Pakistani troops along the Line of Control, who resort to heavy firing without provocation," a source said. Bhatt further exhorted his Pakistani counterpart to resolve this "existent credibility gap" to ensure that peaceand tranquillity is maintained along the LoC. The Pakistan Army DGMO alleged that Indian security forces have resorted to unproved firing and targeted civilians along the LoC in the Pooch sector. Bhatt, however, made it clear that the Indian Army always maintains impeccable standards of professionalism and does not target civilians in any manner. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. United Nations: A UN General Assembly committee has unanimously passed a Pakistan-sponsored draft resolution over the right to self-determination for people who are subject to colonial domination and foreign occupation. The draft resolution, which now moves the General Assembly for passage next month, calls on countries to cease immediately their military intervention in and occupation of foreign countries and territories, and all acts of repression, discrimination, exploitation and maltreatment. It was co-sponsored by 75 countries. However, the US was quick to point out that the draft resolution contains many misstatements of international law and is inconsistent with current state practice. Introducing the resolution, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi said the right to self-determination "forms the bedrock" of the most important human rights conventions - the covenant of civil and political rights and the covenant of economic social and cultural rights. "The latter categorically states 'All people have the right of self-determination by virtue of their right to freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic social and cultural development'. The right to self-determination has also been reaffirmed and upheld time and again repeatedly by all major UN, NAM, OIC and other summits as well other numerous resolutions and declarations," she said. ALSO READ | Of fake photos, selfies and nonexistent countries: Is UNGA really a joke? Of late, Pakistan has itself been facing demands for right to self-determination in various parts of the country, including in Gilgit-Baltistan and Balochistan. 'Free Balochistan' posters and banners have appeared in various parts of the world including Switzerland and the UK. Altaf Hussain of the Muhajir Quami Movement (MQM) in recent months has also started demanding right to self-determination alleging that Muhajirs have been subject to brutal repression by Pakistani security forces. Lodhi told members of Third Committee of the General Assembly that the "draft resolution before the committee reaffirms the universal significance of the right to self-determination" and declares firm opposition to all acts of foreign occupation, military intervention and domination, which resulted in the suppression of this fundamental human right and gives rise to chaos and insecurity in the world. The resolution, she said, sends a strong signal of support from the international community to peoples everywhere in the world who still find themselves "subjugated and oppressed and struggling against foreign occupation". After the unanimous passage of the vote, the Spanish representative told the committee that the colonial situation in Gibraltar affected the territorial integrity of his country. Spain had asked for decades for a dialogue-based solution and had proposed co-sovereignty as a way to address the socio-economic well-being of the territory. Asserting that this means that the right to self-determination is not fully enjoyed, Spain alleged that the UN Charter is being used to uphold the interests of colonising powers. Spain has been calling for "shared sovereignty" on Gibraltar. The US representative said that the country considers the right of self-determination of peoples to be important and therefore joins a consensus on this resolution. "We note however as has frequently been stated by the United States and other delegations that this resolution contains many misstatements of international law and is inconsistent with current state practice," he said in the committee after the passage of the draft resolution. Exercising its right to reply, Britain recalled its sovereignty over Gibraltar, saying the people of Gibraltar had enjoyed the right of self-determination. The constitution endorsed by the people of Gibraltar had provided for a modern relationship, and the UK reiterated its commitment to the people of Gibraltar. The British representative said Britain would not enter into sovereignty negotiations with which Gibraltar was not content. She expressed regret that Spain had withdrawn from talks in 2012. ALSO READ | Sushma Swaraj's UNGA speech arrogant but there is terrorism in Pakistan: Chinese media For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Twitter suspended Pakistan's verified Defense handle as they used a fake picture of an Indian girl. The picture, which showcased a woman holding a placard giving messages of "secular values of our constitution", was morphed and distorted. This in turn sent out a completely negative message against India. Pakistan's defence handle @defencepk, however, deleted the picture some time later. Earlier, in September, Pakistan used a fake picture to establish a false narrative.Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi, in her right to reply to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's speech at the UN, showed pictures of Palestinian victims and tried to pass them off as 'evidence' of atrocities on Kashmiris. The picture, used by Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN, was reported by various media outlets as that of Rawia Abu Joma'a, a 17-year-old girl injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza city in 2014. Rawia's picture was taken by award winning photographer Heidi Levine. For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying's Regular Press Conference on May 12, 2021 2021/05/12 China News Service: The second China+Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers' meeting was held in Xi'an this morning. What important outcomes have been achieved? Hua Chunying: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi chaired the second C+C5 foreign ministers' meeting in Xi 'an, which is a great success. The meeting issued the joint statement on coordinated response to COVID-19, joint statement on deepening sub-regional cooperation, and joint statement on the Afghan issue, and adopted the memorandum on the establishment of the C+C5 foreign ministers' meeting mechanism. The in-person meeting between the foreign ministers of China and the five Central Asian countries against the backdrop of the epidemic demonstrates the confidence of the six countries in jointly combating the epidemic and their determination to strengthen solidarity and coordination. Since the first C+C5 foreign ministers meeting in July last year, despite the impact of COVID-19 and under the guidance of head-of-state diplomacy, the six countries have taken anti-epidemic cooperation as the main line to protect people's safety, take measures to resume work and production, promote in-depth connectivity, inject impetus into regional coordinated development and economic recovery, and make tangible contribution to regional peace and development. Facts have proven that the collective cooperation between China and Central Asian countries, standing at a great time, has broad prospects and great potential. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the independence of the five Central Asian states. Over the past 30 years, the relationship between China and the five Central Asian states has achieved great success. China has successfully established strategic partnerships with all the five Central Asian countries, and we have led the world in building a community with a shared future for mankind. At a new historical starting point, State Councilor Wang Yi put forward a five-point proposal at the meeting. First, we should work together to fight the epidemic and build a community of health for all. Second, we should continue to forge ahead with innovation and jointly build the Silk Road Economic Belt pilot zone. Third, we should stick to opening-up and cooperation to build a corridor of connectivity for Eurasia. Fourth, we should work together to build an anchor of regional stability. Fifth, we should continue to learn from each other through exchanges and jointly draw a new blueprint for high-quality development. During the meeting, the foreign ministers of the five countries expressed congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and spoke highly of the achievements made in their cooperation with China. They said China is a good neighbor and partner of the Central Asian countries. They are willing to work with China to ensure better synergy and coordination between the BRI and the development strategies of the Central Asian countries, expand cooperation in various fields, and jointly combat the "three evil forces" and transnational crimes, enhance coordination and cooperation within multilateral institutions including the United Nations, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, firmly defend multilateralism, and jointly maintain lasting peace, stability and security in the region. We believe this meeting will help China and the five Central Asia countries to make new progress in our relations. China Daily: We noted that at the second C+C5 foreign ministers meeting, the foreign ministers devoted time specially to in-depth discussions about the Afghan situation and what role neighbouring countries can play and released a joint statement. How do you see the current Afghan situation? Hua Chunying: Indeed, at the second C+C5 foreign ministers meeting this morning, the foreign ministers held in-depth discussions about the Afghan situation and what role neighbouring countries can play and released a joint statement, reaching important consensus. The current Afghan situation has drawn great attention from the international community. State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi elaborated China's position on the Afghan situation. To summarize, China proposed the following. First, the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan should be "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned". Second, Afghanistan should form inclusive political arrangements to make sure that all ethnic groups and parties could participate in political life in the future and enjoy equal political rights. Third, Afghan national governance structure in the future should conform to the country's unique national conditions and development needs, and should not simply copy foreign models. The Chinese side believes that foreign troops should withdraw from Afghanistan in an orderly and responsible manner to prevent any hasty action from adversely affecting and seriously interfering with the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan. As close neighbors of Afghanistan, Central Asian countries should make due contribution to the final settlement of the Afghan issue, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization should also play its due role for the long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan. China stands ready to continue working with regional countries and the international community to move forward the peace and reconciliation process and help Afghanistan realize peace and stability at an early date. Beijing Youth Daily: Recently, the Wall Street Journal published an article to play up a new surge in Covid-19 infections in Seychelles and questioned the efficacy of China's Sinopharm vaccines the island nation has administered to its people. President Wavel Ramkalawan of Seychelles refuted the doubts in an interview, saying that most of the newly infected patients have not been vaccinated and Seychelles has not recorded any death of people who received two doses of vaccines. He added that Sinopharm vaccines have served the population very well. Do you have any comment? Hua Chunying: I noticed relevant reports. Indeed, certain Western media outlet is obsessed with smearing the safety and effectiveness of Chinese vaccines. This is not the first time they spread disinformation against China. It once again exposes their unhealthy mindset of denigrating China at every turn. As you mentioned, the President of Seychelles explicitly negated this report and said that Chinese vaccines serve the country well in its fight against COVID-19. If the relevant media outlet really cares about vaccine safety and effectiveness, why did it choose to ignore the vaccine accidents in its own country? Why did it choose to ignore the fact that the safety, efficacy and quality of Chinese vaccines is recognized by the WHO? Why did it choose to ignore the fact that some developed Western countries are hoarding vaccines while offering nothing but superficial lip service to countries in urgent need? I read an article published by Bloomberg today titled "China Sinovac Shot Seen Highly Effective in Real World Study". It quotes Indonesian Health Minister as saying that Indonesia tracked health workers in the country after they are vaccinated and found that the vaccine protected 100% of them from death, 96% from hospitalization and 94% from infection. We hope media organizations can follow the principles of authenticity, objectivity and justice, report on the epidemic and vaccines in an impartial and fact-based manner, and use their voice to inject more positive energy to promote vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries. SCMP: Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh said during a recent event that if Bangladesh chose to join the Quad that groups US, Japan, India and Australia, China-Bangladesh relations would suffer "substantial damage". The foreign minister of Bangladesh has expressed regret over this. What's Chinese foreign ministry's comment on this? Hua Chunying: I can tell you clearly that China and Bangladesh are very friendly close neighbors. We have grown our ties on the basis of the five principles of peaceful coexistence. We always treat each other with mutual respect and firmly support one another on issues bearing on respective core interests and major concerns. We all know what kind of mechanism the Quad is. China opposes certain countries' efforts to form an exclusive clique, portray China as a challenge, and sow discord between regional countries and China. China Review News: China released data of the seventh national population census yesterday. A recent "exclusive" Financial Times report said the latest Chinese census was not made public immediately after its completion, because the total population of the country stands at less than 1.4 billion, marking the first population decline since the 1950s. After the data was disclosed yesterday, certain US and European media hyped up that China's population has grown at its slowest pace since the 1960s, calling it a "long-term time bomb" and a looming demographic crisis. They said China's falling birth rate, aging society and shrinking labor force will severely impact economic growth and that in the foreseeable future, China may not be able to overtake the US as the top economy. They even forecast that this may obstruct the realization of the "Chinese dream" as promised by the Chinese leadership. Do you have any comment? Hua Chunying: I noted those reports and remarks from US and European media on the latest population census in China. You just mentioned the so-called exclusive news by Financial Times. Now that the authoritative information about the latest census was released, I wonder whether this media outlet would care to publish a correction to its previous report? According to the authoritative data released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China yesterday, China's population reached 1.41178 billion, up by 5.38 percent compared with 2010. This represents an average annual growth rate of 0.53 percent from 2010 to 2020. The data shows that China's population has maintained a low growth trend in the past decade, and the total population has continued to grow. China still has the biggest population in the world. The population quality has improved steadily with significantly higher level of education. The population structure has adjusted and changed with improved gender composition. There is a more obvious trend of mobility and agglomeration, and the level of urbanization has continued to improve. In particular, it's worth mentioning that the population of ethnic minority groups increased 10.26 percent from 2010, up by 0.4 percentage points, while that of Han Chinese grew by 4.93 percent. The steady growth of ethnic minority population fully demonstrates the all-round progress of all ethnic groups in China. In the meantime, the data also indicates some structural problems in China's demography, including drops in working-age population and the number of women of childbearing age, the increasingly severe aging problem, falling total fertility rate, and low number of birth. In response to those points made by certain US media, I'd like to stress one point: isn't China's 1.41178 billion population still larger than the combined population of the US and European countries? I wonder how those journalists-turned "demographers" and "experts in social studies" come to the conclusion that China is facing a demographic crisis? The United States' population growth slowed in the past 10 years to its lowest rate in nearly a century, according to latest data released by the U.S. Census Bureau. A recent report by the CDC National Center for Health Statistics shows that the number of births in the US in 2020 was down four percent from the previous year. With sustained socioeconomic development, especially due to the changes of people's attitude towards childbearing resulting from industrialization and modernization, low birth rate and the aging of population has become a widespread issue among developed countries and a practical problem in China. At the press conference of the State Council Information Office yesterday, it was pointed out that we need to view the impact of demographic changes on socioeconomic development in a dialectical manner and promote quality development and formulate targeted population-related strategies and policies. The 14th Five-Year Plan has made it clear that we need to achieve appropriate fertility rate and reduce the costs of childbearing, up-bringing and education to unleash the potential of childbearing policy. At every critical stage of China's development, various judgment or predictions from the West have kept emerging, such as the "China threat theory" and "China collapse theory", which only turn out to be nothing but fallacies later on. China has embarked on a new journey of building a modernized socialist country in an all-round way. We will continue to forge ahead along the path that has been proven to be correct. I hope those who made up these China-related fallacies can enjoy health and happiness like the Chinese people and witness together with us the realization of the Chinese dream together. Global Times: On May 11, 11 people were killed and 21 hospitalized after a 19-year-old gunman opened fire in School No. 175 in Kazan, capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan. The suspect has been arrested. The mayor of Kazan said it was a terrorist attack on children. Do you have any comment? Hua Chunying: Upon learning of the shooting incident in Kazan, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi sent a message of condolences to the Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, mourning the victims, expressing sincere sympathies to the bereaved families, and wishing those injured a speedy recovery. China opposes violence in all forms. China supports Russian efforts to safeguard social security and hopes the country can maintain stability. Bloomberg: The United States government has agreed to remove Xiaomi from a US blacklist following a lawsuit. The original order under the Trump administration would have seen Xiaomi delisted from US Exchanges. I wonder if the foreign ministry has any comment? Hua Chunying: I'm not aware of what you said. I suggest you ask the relevant authority and enterprise. However, I want to stress that China supports its businesses in protecting their legitimate rights and interests through legal approach. It is hoped that the US will correct the mistake made by the former administration and provide the Chinese companies with a fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment. SCMP: You mentioned yesterday that the visa extension applications submitted by US-based correspondents for the Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily Online in early November last year have not yet been approved. The Xinhua reporter was forced to return home on May 1. Could you please clarify if you mean that all Xinhua journalists in the US have left? Are People's Daily Online journalists forced to plan their return to China? Hua Chunying: As we said many times before, the United States has used every possible means to suppress Chinese media. It designated 15 Chinese media organizations in the US as "foreign missions" or asked them to register as "foreign agents." In March last year, the US expelled 60 Chinese journalists in the US, and in May it limited the duration of their visas to no more than 90 days, meaning they have to renew their visas every three months. As far as I know, the visa renewal application submitted by two correspondents in early November, 2020 have yet to be approved, and they have been unable to work since early February. One of them, a Xinhua reporter, was forced to return to China on May 1, and was subjected to very detailed and unusual questioning at the Los Angeles airport by US border agents, who also checked his laptop and other electronic equipment. Other reporters, including one with the People's Daily Online, did not get an extension and are still waiting for reply in the United States. Every time the Chinese reporters pressed for updates, the US side replied that they need to wait and the application is still being processed. The relevant journalists are still waiting. I also stressed yesterday that these politically-motivated suppression has thrown the Chinese media journalists in the US into great uncertainty in life and work. As reporters, you can easily imagine how you will feel if your press card is subjected to revocation at any time, or its validity will expire in just a few days after having a hard time getting the application approved, leaving you no choice but to immediately apply for a renewal for another three months. Even though China has been doing its best to provide conveniences to foreign correspondents in both their life and work, some may still worry that they may encounter some trouble returning to China from their home country against the backdrop of COVID-19. The Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been accommodating their concerns and providing conveniences. I suggest that you put yourself in the shoes of Chinese journalists working in the US. For US journalists, I hope you may inform your government that most of you have visas valid for a year, and that we haven't taken any countermeasures for US moves to restrict Chinese journalists' visa validity to a maximum of 90 days. We hope the US can treat seriously China's concerns, stop politically-motivated repression against Chinese journalists and offer them fair and just treatment as soon as possible, including by resolving the visa issue. Shenzhen TV: The US Solar Energy Industry Association released a Solar Supply Chain Traceability Protocol last week to help steer manufactures away from products involving suspected forced labor or other immoral labor behaviors. Some analysts say the solar energy industry in Xinjiang may become the next "Xinjiang cotton". Do you have any response? Hua Chunying: As we've repeatedly said, the allegation of "forced labor" in Xinjiang is an outrageous lie. We still recall that not long ago, a few Western countries and anti-China forces went all out to hype up the so-called "forced labor" in Xinjiang's cotton-growing industry. Now they are turning to the solar energy industry. Xinjiang cotton is speckless and solar energy is clean, but those in the US and the West who are hyping up the issue have a dark and sinister intention. They are trying to fabricate lies like "forced labor" to create "forced industrial decoupling" and "forced unemployment" in Xinjiang to suppress Chinese companies and industries to serve their malicious agenda to mess up Xinjiang and contain China. There is no "forced labor" in Xinjiang, only voluntary employment and free choice in the labor market. Workers of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang choose profession of their own free will, sign labor contracts with employers voluntarily following the principle of equality, and receive payment for their work. This is in accordance with China's Constitution and laws and conforms to international labor and human rights standards. A March report titled "'Forced Labor' or 'Pursuit of A Better Life'? An investigation of Xinjiang minority workers' employment in Guangdong, China" released by Jinan University detailed the fact that minorities from Xinjiang voluntarily choose to work and have decent jobs with solid data, true examples and field visits. Xinjiang authorities also held many press conferences and many people have shared their stories and expressed their indignation and condemnation on lies and rumors fabricated by the US and the West. There have been more and more voices for justice on Xinjiang in the world for some time. For example, US independent news website The Greyzone, the website Project Syndicate, Counterpunch, media outlets from Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Sweden and so on, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, former mayor of Frogn municipality in Norway, French author, among others, have all published articles or books, pointing out that the allegations of "forced labor" and "genocide" lack evidence and exposing the double standard on counter-terrorism by the US and other Western countries as well as their geopolitical conspiracy to use Xinjiang to contain China. China Daily also ran an article with the title of "Things to Know about All the Lies on Xinjiang: How Have They Come About?". I hope those in the US will take some time reading them. As I said the other day, some in the US would rather believe the two dozens of fake "academics" and "witnesses" than listen to the voices of the people from all ethnic groups in Xinjiang and people of insight in the world. This is inconsistent with its much-touted principle of democracy. But no matter what they do, I want to tell them that attempts to suppress Xinjiang's economic and social development and undermine its stability and prosperity to contain China will never succeed. CRI: It is reported that Honduras President Hernandez recently stated that Honduras would purchase vaccines from China's mainland though El Salvador, which would help Honduras to break geopolitical blockade. He also mentioned the intention to set up a business office in China for further purchase. Do you have any comment? Hua Chunying: Vaccine is the hope for saving lives. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China has been adhering to the vision of building a community of shared future for mankind and a global community of health for all, and making significant contribution to reducing the vaccination divide and promoting the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries. Relevant cooperation is totally aboveboard, and highly appreciated by the international community, including central American countries, which serves as a good demonstration. I'm not sure what the statement of so-called "geopolitical blockade" made by some people in Honduras is driving at. I want to reiterate that there is only one China in the world, and that Taiwan region is an inalienable part of China, which is a fact based on history and jurisprudence. The correct path is to make the right choice that is in line with the trend and people's aspiration. Reuters: During Ramadan, Reuters viewed dozens of mosques across Xinjiang, including many that were damaged and destroyed. And outside of large cities, mosques were very sensitive places to visit, where we were not allowed to take pictures or have interviews. The foreign ministry and the Xinjiang government have said that they are committed to protecting religious sites in Xinjiang, and the right for people to practice their religions. How is the government ensuring people can freely and openly practice their religion in Xinjiang, and in cases where mosques have been removed or destroyed, how can the local government ensure there are still places nearby for people to practice their religion? Hua Chunying: Where are you from? Journalist: I'm British. Hua Chunying: You asked a long question in a breath. I would just like to ask, do you know the number of mosques in the UK or the US? Journalist: No. Hua Chunying: Let me tell you, there are about 2,000 mosques in the United States, about 1,750 in the United Kingdom, and the number is 24,400 in China's Xinjiang, which means one mosque for every 530 Muslims. There are more than twice as many mosques in Xinjiang as in the United States, Britain, Germany and France combined. So I don't know what is the point in hyping up the issue of mosques in Xinjiang. And before starting the job, have you done your homework? It's always important to do your homework. When making comments, you must make sure you have the facts. I reiterate that China's Constitution clearly stipulates that the following: Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief. No State organ, public organization or individual may compel citizens to believe in, or not to believe in, any religion; nor may they discriminate against citizens who believe in, or do not believe in, any religion. The State protects normal religious activities. Muslims from various ethnic groups are free to practice their belief in mosques and at home according to religious doctrines, rules and traditional customs. With regard to mosques in Xinjiang, the State Council Information Office has offered detailed descriptions in its many white papers. The mosques there were mostly built in the 1980s and 1990s or even earlier. Some of them were originally adobe houses, some are too narrow, some have become so dilapidated as to render religious activities impossible during windy and rainy weather. In recent years, as urbanization gathers speed and the rural revitalization strategy is implemented, some local governments, responding to local Muslim community's call and application, took measures including building new facilities, relocation and extending existing buildings to solve the problem and made mosques safer, better situated and cleaner, to the satisfaction of believers. All this was done together with work relating to shanty town renovation in urban areas, improvement of living environment in rural areas and poverty-alleviation relocation in accordance with development plans for urban and rural areas. The mosques in Xinjiang meet the needs of believers. You mentioned some problems journalists encountered during their filming there. I would like to talk about this with foreign journalists, especially those from the US and European countries. Chinese media reported not long ago how some journalists from a well-known British media agency tricked people into giving interviews in places like Xinjiang and Hubei. They even knowingly made lies and rumors. This has hurt the local people. You may relate to their feelings if you imagine how would you feel if someone in your house or around you is always seeking an opportunity to bad mouth or smear you and even to hurt you. Wouldn't that put you on guard? So if you want your interviewees to be forthcoming in a relaxed setting, an important point is to take concrete actions and win the trust of the Chinese people including residents of Xinjiang with objective reports. You need to make them feel sure that you will report on what you filmed and the interview in an objective and just manner, unlike others who concoct fake news and harm local people's interests and reputation. To build such trust calls for two-way efforts. RIA Novosti: When interviewed by Sputnik, the first deputy secretary of Russian Security Council Yury Averyanov stated that lethal and dangerous microorganisms from the US and NATO laboratories near Russia's border "could potentially be released into the environment, allegedly by mistake", and "would lead to a massive destruction of the civilian population both within the country and in neighboring states". China, on multiple occasions, urges the US to offer a full clarification on its bio-military activities at home and abroad. Has China lodged an official claim regarding the issue? Is there any response? Hua Chunying: Indeed, China has repeatedly urged the US side to offer a full clarification on its bio-military activities at home and abroad, which is a concern shared by Russia and many other countries. However, unfortunately, no meaningful response has yet been made by the US side. The so-called annual report on Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments released by the US not long ago, made a mere passing claim that all American activities are in compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, fails to address the concern of the international community on Fort Detrick, and glosses over its large number of bio-labs overseas. We once again call on the US side to give a detailed clarification and take concrete actions, to ensure the legitimacy, transparency and security of its bio-labs and relevant activities. A verification mechanism should be established under the Biological Weapons Convention, which is a global consensus and an effective way to address concerns and build mutual trust. Again we urge the US side to stop single-handedly thwarting the resumption of relevant negotiation process. Reuters: There will be a debt relief conference for Sudan in Paris next Monday. China is one of Sudan's largest non-Paris Club donors, with a total of $2.1 billion. China has been invited by Sudan to attend. Does China plan to attend? What kind of debt relief does China plan to extend? Hua Chunying: China and Sudan have friendly relations and fruitful cooperation in various fields. We have decided to send delegates to the international conference in support of Sudan's transformation to be held in Paris on May 17. China has not only granted partial debt relief to Sudan bilaterally, but has also been working for international debt relief for Sudan. Going forward we will continue to work with the international community to promote Sudan's development. The Paper: A couple of days ago, Republican congressman introduced a bill that would create 56 new FBI agent slots to investigate Chinese espionage and theft at higher education institutions in the US. What's the foreign ministry's comment on this? Hua Chunying: I have seen this report. Indeed, American lawmakers often come up with all sorts of strange arguments or suggestions. You just mentioned that Republican congressmen proposed to set up 56 FBI posts to supervise the activities of Chinese students in American universities, right? I think that's an underestimate. There were more than 300,000 Chinese students studying in the United States. Perhaps they should propose to set up 300,000 FBI posts or at least 150,000, which may also help solve the unemployment problem in the United States. In fact, many people find it hard to believe that the US lawmakers are making such baffling arguments when there are so many pressing problems to be solved at home. Just to give a few examples. Some US leaders often complain that the infrastructure in the country is far behind that of some other countries and regions. Nearly 600,000 American people have died of the COVID-19 epidemic, and recent reports say that this figure is far underestimated, and the actual death toll could be much higher. The past year saw a sharp increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans, and there are severe problems concerning ethnic minorities in the US. Pulitzer Prize winner John Toland wrote in his book Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography that Hitler attributed his idea of concentration camps and his practice of genocide to his study of British and American history. David Edward Stannard, an American historian at the University of Hawaii argues in his book American Holocaust that that European warfare against the Native American population after the arrival of Christopher Columbus was the largest genocide in history. With so many problems either left over from history or besetting the US in reality, those US lawmaker elected by the American people, instead of focusing their time and energy in solving problems at home, are keen to point fingers at China every now and then. Do they really have no clue as to what the real threat to the US is? As elected members of the American people, what have they done to promote the well-being of the American people, protect their health, safeguard their human rights and improve social equality for all ethnic groups? How about these US lawmakers do some serious thinking on these matters? Bloomberg: The top Philippines diplomat has said that China has sent more ships to disputed waters in the South China Sea. Do you have any comment on this? Hua Chunying: I haven't read relevant reports. But China's position on the South China Sea is very clear, consistent and firm. China and the Philippines have a smooth channel and maintain close communication on the relevant issue. Our full consensus is that the South China Sea issue account for only 1% of the overall bilateral relations. The two sides are committed to properly handling the relevant issue through dialogue and consultation, so as to continue to safeguard and promote the sound and steady growth of bilateral relations. HRTN: Violence and tension in East Jerusalem has been escalating. We learned that the Security Council held an emergency consultation on the situation in East Jerusalem on May 10, but the release of an outcome document experienced hindrance. Can you tell us more? Hua Chunying: With the severe clashes between the Palestinian people and Israeli police in East Jerusalem recently, the tensions between Palestine and Israel have been escalating. The international community expressed high concern over this. As the president of the UN Security Council for May, China chaired an emergency consultation to discuss the situation in East Jerusalem. Security Council members expressed shared concern about the clashes, urging cessation of violence against civilians and observance of international law. In collaboration with relevant countries, China drafted and disseminated a Security Council presidential statement. Most countries supported this draft and called for its early release. But regrettably, the Council has yet to reach consensus on it. China condemns violence targeting civilians. We call on parties to avoid provocative rhetoric and acts and take actions conducive to reducing violence and achieving a soft-landing of the situation, so as to restore peace and stability on the ground at an early date. Facing the on-going tensions, China believes that the Security Council should do something to reaffirm commitment and firm support to the two-state solution, work for the deescalation of the situation and fulfill the obligations of upholding international peace and security. As the president of the Security Council for this month, China will continue to do its best to ensure that the Council take actions about the situation in East Jerusalem as soon as possible. PTI: Further to what you said about response to the Bangladesh foreign minister, China stated that its policy is not to interfere in the affairs of the other countries. Now the Bangladesh foreign minister has stated that "we are an independent and sovereign state. We decide our foreign policy." This, I suppose, applies to a number of countries too. How do you respond to critics that China is aggressively trying to push its foreign policy, and what are your stand on issues on countries, especially the smaller countries? Hua Chunying: I'm not sure if your information on the statement from the Bangladesh foreign minister was an accurate quote or if further clarification is needed. But one thing is clear. China always treats other countries as equals, especially small and medium ones. As I said, China and Bangladesh have very friendly relations. We develop ties based on the five principles of peaceful coexistence, always respect and trust each other and offer each other firm support on matters concerning core interests and major concerns. In South Asia, it is definitely not China that is interfering in other countries' domestic affairs. China was, is and will remain committed to this principle. As to the Quad, I think India knows better than us the intention of this mechanism. Isn't it intended to as a small clique against China? Remarks expressing opposition to this mechanism are not about interference but about rejecting small cliques and bloc politics. They also reflect the aspiration for maintaining regional peace and stability. New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) has asked the Centre to file a status report "positively", on the prisoners languishing in Indian jails including Pakistani nationals. The SC expressed serious concern over the prolonged imprisonment of foreign prisoners and had asked for the release and repatriate 61 Pakistani nationals who have served sentences for various offenses. The bench comprising of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan has given four weeks time to the government to apprise it of the current status of foreign nationals in jail. The last status report filed by the Centre was in April 2016. The principal petitioner in the case, senior advocate Bhim Singh has told the SC that there were 82 Pakistani prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir back in 2005. So that the prisoners from foreign countries do not lag in Indian jails, the apex court has asked the Centre to bring in a suitable mechanism. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: NASA has completed another major milestone on its journey to space and on Saturday launched a next-generation satellite into space designed to monitor weather around the world and help improve forecasts. The American space agency has joined hands with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and introduced the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta II rocket as scheduled at 1:47 am (0947 GMT) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. It will orbit the Earth 14 times each day from one pole to the other at 512 miles (824 kilometers) above the planet, "providing scientists full global coverage twice a day," NASA said. The satellite 'is the first in NOAA's series of four, next-generation operational environmental satellites representing major advancements in observations used for severe weather prediction and environmental monitoring," it said. Also Read: SpaceX's latest rocket engine explodes during test in Texas JPSS-1 "carries a suite of advanced instruments designed to take global measurements of atmospheric, land and sea conditions, from sea surface temperatures, volcanic ash, hurricane intensity and many more." Four smaller satellites called CubeSats, part of NASA's educational nano-satellite program, are to be released on the same mission. The CubeSats belong to four US universities and will be set in orbit after the weather satellite has been deployed, NASA was quoted in a statement. Also Read: NASA releases SoundCloud playlist to make this Halloween extra spooky Two previous launch attempts were canceled, once due to high winds and another due to technical problems. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Manushi Chillar created headlines on Saturday after she won the Miss World 2017 ending India's seventeen year long wait. The lady managed to win the coveted title after competing against 118 contestants from several countries. Reportedly, Manushi is still finding it hard to believe that her dreams have turned into reality now. While it was a tough competition for the Haryana girl, her winning shot came after she gave a hearfelt answer to one of the questions by the judges, Manushi was asked, "Which profession in the world deserves the highest salary and why". To this the 21-year-old medical student, replied "My mother has been my biggest inspiration, so I have to say, a mother's job. It is not always about cash, but love and respect as well. A mother deserves that the most." Well, Manushi's anwser left the judges awe-struck and she went on to bag the coveted crown of Miss World 2017. Interestingly, Priyanka Chopra was the last Indian to win the crown in 2000 and Manushi is the sixth Indian to take up the title. According to the media reports, Chillar considers Reita Faria as her idol. Reita was the first Indian and Asian to win the Miss World crown in 1966. Also Read | Manushi Chillar crowned Miss World 2017, ends India's 17-year long wait Notably, the paegant is often considered to be a stepping point for Bollywood. But Manushi doesn't agree with this. "I disagree with the notion. I feel that Miss India is a stepping stone for anything you want to do, not just Bollywood," Manushi was quoted as saying. Manushi was also crowned as this year's Femina Miss India World 2017 after which made it to the Miss World 2017 paegant. New Delhi: The Rajasthan government has ordered all the state-run schools in Jaipur to send their students and teachers to take part in a five-day fair organised by RSS-backed Hindu Spiritual and Service Foundation (HSSF) where girls were being taught about Love Jihad. Not just that, on the directions of Primary and Secondary Education Minister Vasudev Devnani, it was made compulsory for all the students to attend the fair. The fair is said to be organised for philosophically explaining that through traditional Hindu lifestyle, many contemporary challenges including womens honour, patriotism can be solved. The right wing organisation Bajrang Dal was running an awareness program and distributing pamphlets on Love Jihad to all the female students attending the fair. The manual cites Bollywood celebs Saif Ali Khan, Aamir Khans marriages as examples of Love Jihad. The Pamphlet also describes places of Love Jihad which includes Beauty Parlours, Mobile recharge Shops, Ladies tailors shops and Muslim Feri-walas. At fair, Bajrang Dal's booklet also explains ways to save Hindu women from "Love Jihad". It said, parents should call Muslims as disgusting, terrorist, smuggler, traitor and Pakistan supporters in front of females at home. The students were also asked to sign up for a campaign to declare Cow as national mother and switch to Vegetarianism. A Baba named Jai Guru Dev, says people should become vegetarian to make their childrens future brighter and save womens honour. New Delhi: BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Sunday hailed his grandmother and former PM Indira Gandhi on her 100th birth anniversary saying she was a mother to this nation. Gandhi took it to Twitter and said Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you cant practice any other virtue consistently. To a lady that was a mother to this nation. Miss you Dadi...I know you always watch over us. He also tweeted a picture in which the former prime minister is seen holding him, then a small child, in her lap. 'Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently'. To a lady that was a mother to this nation. Miss you Dadi... I know you always watch over us. pic.twitter.com/2UltgEExD7 Varun Gandhi (@varungandhi80) November 19, 2017 ALSO READ: Congress prez Sonia Gandhi says Indira fought against people who wanted to divide society on religion, caste Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid tributes to the former PM. Other Gandhi family members, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi also paid tributes to her. Indira Gandhi, the Iron Lady was the first woman prime minister of India. She was born on this day in 1917 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. ALSO READ: Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee pay tribute to Indira Gandhi on her 100th birth anniversary For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A Bihar government officer allegedly committed suicide at his residence on Sunday. He was the Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Buxar DM Mukesh Pandey who had committed suicide by jumping in before train in the month of August in Ghaziabad. The deceased has been identified as Tauqeer Akram. He was posted in land ceiling department. The police officials have launched a probe into the matter. On August 11, Senior IAS officer and District Magistrate of Bihar Buxar district Mukesh Pandey was found dead near railway tracks. Pandeys body was found on the tracks about one km from the Ghaziabad railway station and a suicide note was also recovered from the spot. Tauqeer, OSD to Buxar DM Mukesh Pandey(who had committed suicide in August this year) has also allegedly committed suicide. Police begin probe #Bihar ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2017 Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had condoled the death of the officer. "He was a capable administrator and a sensitive officer. May god bless his soul," he had said in a tweet. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday re-affirmed his governments commitment to improving sanitation facilities across the country and hailed all those involved in building toilets. World Toilet Day is an official United Nations international observance day, celebrated on this day to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis. In a series of tweets, he said, "On World Toilet Day we reaffirm our commitment towards improving sanitation facilities across the nation". "I compliment all those individuals and organisations working towards building more toilets in various parts of India. Their invaluable contribution adds solid momentum to Swachh Bharat Mission," he tweeted. Also Read: Nation remembers Indira Gandhi on her 100th birth anniversary I compliment all those individuals and organisations working towards building more toilets in various parts of India. Their invaluable contribution adds solid momentum to Swachh Bharat Mission. Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 19, 2017 On World Toilet Day we reaffirm our commitment towards improving sanitation facilities across our nation. pic.twitter.com/nteYOD6wND Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 19, 2017 For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Congress Working Committee (CWC) is set to meet on Monday to take final call over Rahul Gandhis elevation as the partys president. The prolonged suspense over Rahul Gandhis elevation as the party president could be over prior to Gujarat polls. The election authority of the party has decided last date of filing nomination papers to be December 1 and if there is a contest, internal elections will be held on December 8. The opposition party is running behind schedule to elect its new chief. The Election Commission has set December 31 as the deadline to complete its internal poll. Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi told the media that the dates for election of the next Congress president will be fixed on Monday. If there is only one nomination then the name of next Congress president will be announced on the last day of nomination which is December 1, added the senior Congressman. Since 2000, no one has filed for the post of the party chief. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has indicated willingness to take over the position of the party president. Gandhi addressing students at University of California, Berkeley, on September, had said that he was ready to lead the Congress but the mandate had to come from within the party. I am absolutely ready to do that. We have an organisational election process which decides who the next chief will be, he said. Majority of states have unanimously passed resolution demanding the 47-year-old Rahul Gandhi to be made the party chief. Sonia Gandhi has been holding the the post of Congress president for more than 19 consecutive years. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Trolls have been abusing and threatening Tan Dhesi, a Sikh MP in the UK, with threats of violence for his alleged silence on issues related to the Sikh community. Dhesi has been accused of ignoring the plight of Jagtar Singh, a British Sikh man and Scottish activist who was arrested during his visit to India. Dhesi became Labour MP for Slough in June and vowed to continue working for the whole public "regardless of background, colour or creed" rather than focussing on just one community, The Sun reported. Trolling started after Dhesi won the right to speak at Prime Minister's Questions and used the slot to ask about a rail link in his local area. One troll wrote to Dhesi saying: "...A Sikh British citizen is being tortured in Punjab and you're worried about rail. You have no response to that. You need a slap upside your head you fake Sikh!" "It's hard enough serving as an MP without having to face constant abuse from various quarters (whether that's the far-right/extremists/others who feel that I'm only interested in 'my community's issues', or those from within my 'own' community who feel I don't do enough)," he wrote on Facebook. "When people resort to abuse, they are actually doing a disservice to their own cause. I will do what I genuinely feel is right, rather than be forced by anybody to follow their priorities or way of thinking. "I am not merely a Sikh MP/representative speaking solely on Sikh issues," Dhesi added. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Former prime minister Manmohan Singh will receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development this year for his leadership of the country between 2004 and 2014 and for enhancing India's stature globally. According to a statement from the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, Singh was unanimously chosen for the award by an international jury chaired by ex-president Pranab Mukherjee. "The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development is awarded to Manmohan Singh for his leadership of the country and his achievements during the momentous 10 years from 2004 to 2014, for his contributions to the cause of economic and social development, for improving India's stature in the world and its relationship with the neighbours and the leading nations of the world, and for his dedication to the security and well being of ordinary citizens regardless of their faith, caste, region or language", a statement from the Trust's secretary Suman Dubey said. The Trust said Singh is only the third Indian prime minister to complete two full terms as the PM between 2004 and 2014. His tenure witnessed the path-breaking nuclear agreement with the US and the Copenhagen Climate Change agreement, the statement said. Singh, who as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India and the finance minister in the government headed by P V Narasimha Rao, played a pivotal role in ushering economic reforms, it said adding that as prime minister he led India in achieving the highest sustained rate of economic growth since Independence. Read more: Gujarat Elections 2017: Manmohan Singh lambasts PM Modi The Trust said Singh has been responsible for making India's voice heard more effectively at international forums. "The 10 years of his premiership were not only a period of rapid economic and social changes, they witnessed the lowest terrorist violence, prolonged period of communal harmony, peace on the country's borders and a globally acknowledged rise in India's standing in the global community of nations", the statement said. The international award named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi was instituted in 1986. The award has been announced on the eve of Gandhi's birth anniversary, which falls on Sunday. The last two recipients have been the Indian Space Research Organisation and the UN High Commission for Refugees. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Human research took precedence aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday as the Expedition 65 crew explored how weightlessness affects the immune system. The orbital residents also trained for a medical emergency and ensured station systems continued operating in tip-top shape. NASA Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Megan McArthur worked in the Kibo laboratory module researching possible age-associated effects of the human immune system. The Celestial Immunity study observes donor cells in Kibo's Life Science Glovebox for insights into new vaccines and drugs which may advance the commercialization of space. McArthur started her day with NASA Flight Engineer Shane Kimbrough collecting blood samples, spinning them in a centrifuge and stowing them in a science freezer for later analysis. Kimbrough then spent the rest of Tuesday replacing fans that cool science racks in the U.S. Destiny laboratory module. Station Commander Aki Hoshide started the fan replacement work before swapping out life support components in the Tranquility module. At the end of the day, he and ESA Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet stowed hardware in Tranquility's end cone. Pesquet also packed the Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter with trash and discarded gear ahead of its departure in a few weeks. Vande Hei joined his Soyuz MS-18 crewmates Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov and trained for the unlikely event of a medical emergency in space. The trio reviewed medical hardware, performed simulated chest compressions, and practiced communication and coordination. Novitskiy also transferred cargo from the ISS Progress 77 (77P) resupply ship before studying planetary spacecraft piloting techniques. Dubrov worked on plumbing tasks inside the 77P before contributing to the Russian future pilot study. On-Orbit Status Report Payloads AC Touch: Per standard procedure, the crew touched both of the coated and uncoated coupons for this long-term investigation. Crew then took photos of the hardware. Boeing Environment Responding Antimicrobial Coatings tests is an antimicrobial coating on several different materials that represent high-touch surfaces. Some microbes change characteristics in microgravity, which could create new risks to crew health and spacecraft systems as well as creating the possibility of contaminating other planetary bodies. The samples will remain in space for approximately six months then return to Earth for analysis. Celestial Immunity: The crew set up the appropriate hardware, performed sample 3 operations for cell culture set beta, and initiated the cell culture experiment gamma ops. With the exception of last week's alpha set of operations, Celestial Immunity operations have been going well. This project seeks to gain a broad understanding of how gravity affects overall human immune function and potentially uncover novel pathways of immune function that can be exploited to develop better vaccines and immunobiologics for human use. The project will build on earlier studies that evaluated lymphocyte (a type of white blood cell) function in microgravity. The project will also evaluate whether gravity-regulated immune pathways are affected by age by examining cells from both young adult and elderly donors in parallel. ISS HAM pass: The crew participated in an ISS HAM pass with College Descartes, Antony, France. The College Descartes is a public general school with 700 students aged from 10 to 15. The ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) project is supported by 30 students within the school, aged from 13 to 15. 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. Standard Measures: The crew performed several sample collections and answered a questionnaire related to the Standard Measures experiment. The aim of the investigation is to ensure consistent capture of an optimized, minimal set of measures from crewmembers until the end of the ISS Program in order to characterize the adaptive responses to and risks of living in space. Among other things, the ground teams perform analyses for metabolic and chemistry panels, immune function, microbiome, etc. These measures populate a data repository to enable high-level monitoring of countermeasure effectiveness and meaningful interpretation of health and performance outcomes, and support future research on planetary missions. Systems: EXPRESS Rack 1 AAA Fan Replacement and Repair: As a continuation of the AAA troubleshooting, the crew removed the back panel of the rack, and replaced the AAA (Avionics Air assembly) high-speed cooling fan with a spare unit. The AAA fan circulates cooled air in the internal rack volume which subrack payloads can use for cooling. EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Station (EXPRESS) Racks are multipurpose payload rack systems that store and support research aboard the ISS. The EXPRESS Racks support science experiments in any discipline by providing structural interfaces, power, data, cooling, water, and other items needed to operate science experiments in space. Node 3 Endcone Stowage and NRAL Stowage Operations: Today crew returned hardware that was used in multiple systems and maintenance operations last week to the Node 3 Endcone. Crew also gathered hardware from the Nanorack Airlock in order to back fill long term spares of multiple pieces of hardware. Node 3 Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) Gas Trap Plug Replacement: Today, Crew performed a replacement of the Gas Trap Plug on the Node 3 Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) Pump Package Assembly (PPA). The EMU Gas Trap removes particulate contamination from the water flow to the EMU Water Pump and concentrates and directs free gas in the coolant loop to the EMU Water Separator. The EMU Gas Trap is considered an ORU and can be changed out on-orbit. The EMU Gas Trap lifetime is limited by the number of hours it has run with the fan. US Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Retractable Equipment Tether (RET) Inspection: Crew inspected for damaged cords on mounted and unmounted RETs. Each RET cord must be inspected prior to EVA use. Instructions are included to tape unmounted RETs if required. After inspection/taping of unmounted RETs, Crew places the RETs in protective Bag per Stowage Note to isolate RETs from potential damage until ready for EVA use. Completed Task List Activities: None Today's Ground Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. SSRMS Direct Drive Test COL-CC Prime MPLS maintenance PRO CHeCS Commanding Look Ahead Plan: Wednesday, May 12 (GMT 132) Payloads: AC Touch AWP Celestial Immunity PCRF relocation Repository Standard Measures STFS-8 T2AR Systems: Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) Gas Trap Remove and Replace (R&R) JLP1A2 Audit Dragon 22 Prepack Treadmill 2 (T2) Augmented Reality Sidekick Charge Thursday, May 13 (GMT 133) Payloads: Celestial Immunity HRP blood setup Ryutai IPU cable replacement Systems: ISPR and IPU HRDL Adapter Cable Setting between Ryutai Rack and iAPS Dragon 22 Prepack Environmental Health System (EHS) Acoustic Monitor Setup Friday, May 14 (GMT 134) Payloads: AC Touch Astrobee/SoundSee Celestial Immunity ESA EPO Food Acceptability Food Physiology MISSE MSC pack Repository Standard Measures Systems: In Flight Maintenance (IFM) Node 2 Smoke Detector Relocate In-Flight Maintenance Node 2 Common Cabin Air Assembly (CCAA) Water Separator R&R Treadmill 2 (T2) Yearly Maintenance Today's Planned Activities: All activities are complete unless otherwise noted. Antimicrobial Coatings Documentation Photos Antimicrobial Coatings Touch Cold Atom Lab Science Module Move Cold Atom Lab Science Module Return Celestial Immunity Thaw and Centrifuge Celestial Immunity Crew Handover Celestial Immunity LSG Staging Celestial Immunity MELFI Sample Insertion Celestial Immunity MELFI Sample Retrieve Celestial Immunity Plate Third Sampling Celestial Immunity Treatment and Sample Acoustic Monitor Battery Swap Acoustic Monitor Setup for Crew Worn Measurements Emergency CTB Replacement Discharge PBAs with low pressure EXPRESS Rack AAA Fan Replacement Express Rack 1 R&R Hardware Gather US Extravehicular Activity (EVA) Retractable Equipment Tether (RET) Inspection Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Questionnaire Health Maintenance System (HMS) Vision Test HRF Generic HRF Centrifuge Frozen Blood Collection Operator HRF Generic HRF Centrifuge Setup and Frozen Blood Collection Subject HRF Generic HRF Centrifuge Frozen Blood Collection Conclude and Stow HRF Generic HRF Centrifuge Frozen Blood Collection Configuration HRF Generic HRF Centrifuge Frozen Blood Collection Spin Conclude HRF Generic Frozen Blood Collection Hardware Setup HRF Generic MELFI Sample Insertion HRF Generic MELFI Sample Insertion Operations HRF Generic MELFI Sample Retrieval And Insertion Operations HRF Generic Urine Collection Female HRF Generic Urine Collection Male ISS HAM Columbus Pass Kenwood Lab ExPRESS-1 Rack Rotate Down Lab ExPRESS-1 Rack Rotate Up LSG Primary Crew Restraint Unfold Node 3 Endcone Stowage Replace Node 3 Low Temperature Loop (LTL) Gas Trap Plug Replacement Node 3 Moderate Temperature Loop (MTL) Gas Trap Plug Replacement Hatch Close Hatch Open Nanoracks Airlock Stowage Operations CHeCS Emergency Health Maintenance System Contingency Drill Training Photo T/V (P/TV) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Exercise Video Setup Photo T/V (P/TV) Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) Exercise Video Stow Public Affairs Office (PAO) Event in High Definition (HD) in Columbus Public Affairs Office (PAO) High Definition (HD) Config Columbus Setup Standard Measures Body Sampling Collection Standard Measures Body Sampling Stow Standard Measures Body Sampling Survey Standard Measures Fecal Collection Standard Measures Fecal Collection Stow Standard Measures Pre-sleep Questionnaire Transfer Cygnus Cargo Operations Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. New Delhi: The security forces recovered huge arms and ammunition including Under-Barrel Grenade Launchers, AK-47s and 10 hand grenades after the encounter in which six Pakistani militants of the LeT, including the nephew of Mumbai attack mastermind Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, were gunned down in north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Saturday. An IAF Garud commando was also killed in the encounter. Apart from Lakhvi's nephew, two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commanders were also among the militants killed by the security forces, Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police (DGP), S P Vaid, said. Arms and ammunition including Under-Barrel Grenade Launchers, AK-47s. 10 hand grenades were recovered after Hajin encounter yesterday. Six terrorists including Zakir ur Rehman Lakvi's nephew were killed #JammuandKashmir ANI (@ANI) November 19, 2017 Security forces launched a search operation in Chandergeer village in Hajin area of the district after receiving specific intelligence input about the presence of militants in the area, a police official said. The search operation resulted in an encounter when the militants hiding there fired on the search party of the security forces, who retaliated. "Six LeT terrorists have been eliminated in Bandipora encounter," Vaid said. He said all the six militants killed in the encounter were Pakistanis. One of the terrorists named Owaid is the son of Zakir Rehman Maki and the nephew of Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, he said on Twitter. Two LeT commanders -- Zargam and Mehmood -- were also eliminated in the operation today, the DGP said, adding that the operation was a "success". Six weapons were also recovered from the encounter site. Srinagar-based Defence Spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said an IAF Garud commando was also killed in the operation. "An IAF Garud commando was killed, while an army soldier was injured," he said. (With PTI Inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. A Pakistani boy of just 19-year-old become the youngest to climb the worlds highest peak Mount Everest on Tuesday. The name of the boy is identified as Shehroze Kashif, who hails from Lahore, climbed the stood on top of the 8,849-meter mountain on May 11, proudly raising the flag of Pakistan. He made an update on his instagram handle wrote Alhamdulillah. History has been made! Shehroze has summited Everest on May 11 at 5:02am Pakistan time. He was descending to camp 3 of Everest in Nepal after the successful summit, according to the update on social media. Nepalese mountaineer and the expedition manager, Chhang Dawa Sherpa announced his great news and congratulated him on becoming the youngest Pakistani to climb Mount Everest. In the meanwhile, Pakistani mountaineer community erupted in jubilation after the news broke out, sending best wishes to the young mountaineer and praying for his safe descent. The teenager has been fascinated by the idea of being at the top of the mountains since he was a little boy. Beginning his climbing journey at the age of 11, he summited Makra peak, and then later the Musa Ka Musalla peak and Chembra peak. At the age of 17, he climbed Broad peak, the 12th highest mountain in the world because of which he earned the title 'The Broad Boy for him. Now at 19, he has summited the tallest mountains of them all, the mighty Mount Everest. Also Read Pakistan Prime Minister reiterates support for Palestine, We Stand With Gaza Covid-19 Crisis: Pakistan reports 2,869 new cases, 104 deaths Pakistan: Under-40s those with allergies exempted from taking Oxford-AstraZeneca jab DHAKA: A special plane of the Bangladesh Air Force carrying the China-donated Covid-19 vaccines and AD syringes landed in capital Dhaka early on Wednesday. A forklift unloaded boxes of the Chinese vaccines from the military transport plane shortly after it landed at around 5:30 a.m. local time. Chief of Air Staff of the BAF Masihuzzaman Serniabat along with other senior officials were present at the BAF Base Bangabandhu in Dhaka's Kurmitola to receive the Sinopharm vaccines, the Xinhua news agency reported. According to an official handout at the airbase, the goodwill mission was conducted by a C-130J transport aircraft of the BAF to bring the Sinopharm vaccines and AD syringes provided by China to prevent the coronavirus as a sign of China's friendly relations with Bangladesh. It said the Bangladeshi government has expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for its commendable efforts in combating the coronavirus and unwavering support to countries including Bangladesh. Bangladesh's drug regulator in April authorized emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccines. The Bangladeshi government has also given the green light to a proposal of producing Chinese Covid-19 vaccines in the country. Addressing the international media, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming said China and Bangladesh are witnessing progress in their joint fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The vaccine aid was "just in time," Li said. "It is the latest outcome of China-Bangladesh anti-pandemic cooperation, which again shows that our two peoples are in the same boat, and we will stand with each other till the end of this battle." "The virus is our common enemy, and cooperation is the only way out," he said. China's economic recovery: UN report forecasts stronger world economic growth UN chief Guterres urges immediate end to growing escalation in Israel-Palestine An Italian research study reveals another facts about Coronavirus infection Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a telephonic conversation with Lotay Tshering on Tuesday. The two countries leaders noted that the coronavirus crisis has highlighted their special friendship once again. Bhutanese counterpart, Prime Minister expressed solidarity with the government and the people of India. The unity efforts against the recent wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is a great example of there friendship. Modi conveyed his sincere thanks to the people and the government of Bhutan for their good wishes and support. The Indian Prime Minister took to Twitter writing Discussed the pandemic situation with my friend Lyonchhen @PMBhutan, and conveyed appreciation for the solidarity and prayers expressed by the leaders and people of Bhutan. The India-Bhutan friendship is truly special, and we will continue to fight this crisis together. He also appreciated the leadership of Bhutans king Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck in managing the neighboring countrys fight against the pandemic. Modi extended his best wishes to Tshering for the continuing efforts. The two leaders further agreed to share special friendship between India and Bhutan, anchored in mutual understanding and respect, shared cultural heritage and strong people-to-people links, the statement by PMO. Also Read Telangana High Court questioning government about imposing lockdown Autorickshaws Get Makeover as Ambulances Amid Covid Surge Paytm Foundation contributes oxygen generation plant, 100 concentrators to Gujarat Kathmandu: Preparations are in full swing to form a new government in Nepal after PM KP Sharma Oli lost the floor test in the House of Representatives. Nepal's main opposition Nepali Congress (NC) has decided to stake claim to the POST of PM. Earlier in the day, the President had asked political parties to stake claim to form a new government by Thursday. A meeting of Nepal Congress functionaries held on Tuesday decided to form the next government. The Sher Bahadur Deuba-led party has the support of nepal communist party maoist centre (CPN-MC) and hopes that janata samajwadi party-nepal (JSPN) mps will also support it. Earlier, President Bidya Devi Bhandari's office had said on Monday that she had decided to invite parties to stake claim to form a majority government under Article 76(2) of nepal's constitution. It has also expressed hope of impressing mps from the CPN-UML led faction led by Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalnath Khanal to help form the government, the Himalayan Times reported. In the 271-member House of Representatives, the NC has 61 members while the CPN-MC has 49 MPs. With the party requiring 26 more MPs to form a coalition government under its leadership, 32 Members of JSP-N can play an important role in the formation of the government. Fake Remdesivir Injections Containing Salt and Glucose Sold in Madhya Pradesh China to create 'line of separation' at Mount Everest peak 19-year-old Becomes Youngest Pakistani To Climb Mt Everest According to the statistics of Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), Thailand on Wednesday reported a daily record of 34 Covid-19 fatalities, taking the country's death toll to 486, with 1,983 new infections, With these new cases, 1,974 were domestic infections while nine others were imported cases, the CCSA spokeswoman Apisamai Srirangsan said at a daily news conference. The infections added Thailand's total case tally to 88,907, more than tripled from the beginning of April when the third wave of coronavirus outbreak began to spread from the capital Bangkok, as per media reports Some 29,378 patients are now under treatment in hospitals, with 1,226 in critical conditions, according to Apisamai. Due to concerns over a highly infectious coronavirus variant first detected in India, Thailand has temporarily suspended the issuance of entry certificates to all foreigners traveling from or transiting through countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The government is also encouraging the public to receive Covid-19 vaccines as the country aims to inoculate 70 percent of its nearly 70 million population by the end of the year. China continues atrocities on Muslims, birth rates of Muslims redused Israel and Hamas escalate aerial bombardments, Dozens dead Covid-19 Crisis: Pakistan reports 2,869 new cases, 104 deaths Kathmandu, May 12 Nepali migrant workers in various countries in the Gulf have bought 600 oxygen cylinders to send to Nepal to help their motherland fight the Covid-19 crisis. Bibek Jha, the president of the Non-resident Nepali Social Club in Oman, says each of these cylinders will have 40 litres. According to him, preparations are underway to send them to Nepal as soon as possible, adding the cylinders are likely to arrive in Kathmandu by coming Sunday. Nepali Ambassador to Oman, Sharmila Parajuli, also says she has been talking with the Nepal Airlines Corporation in coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to dispatch the oxygen cylinders. Jha informs around Rs 7.5 million will be spent on the cylinders and the Non-resident Nepalis Association (NRNA)s international coordination committee has assured him that there would not be any lack of money for that. He says Nepalis in the Gulf have launched other initiatives also to help the country during this difficult time. Cybersecurity Biden signs much-anticipated cybersecurity executive order President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed his long-awaited executive order designed to confront the myriad of cybersecurity challenges facing the country -- ranging from the supply chain attack that compromised nine federal agencies to ransomware that ultimately shut down a natural gas pipeline last week. This Executive Order makes a significant contribution toward modernizing cybersecurity defenses by protecting federal networks, improving information-sharing between the U.S. government and the private sector on cyber issues, and strengthening the United States ability to respond to incidents when they occur, according to a White House statement on the EO. White House officials have discussed the executive order in vague terms for several weeks but gave no clues on when exactly it would be signed. The order ended up being released as the administration continues to work with Colonial Pipeline to confront a ransomware attack that brought down a key East Coast conduit for natural gas and oil. Just hours before the signing, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced the company said it had begun restoring pipeline operations. A senior administration official on Wednesday said the spate of high profile incidents is a sobering reminder about how vulnerable public and private sector entities are to cyberattacks and that the EO represents a fundamental shift in our mindset from incident response to prevention. The executive order mandates several basic cybersecurity practices across the federal government such as multi-factor authentication, encryption and end point detection to be rolled out in as quickly as six months. The Federal government must lead the way and increase its adoption of security best practices, including by employing a zero-trust security model, accelerating movement to secure cloud services, and consistently deploying foundational security tools such as multifactor authentication and encryption, according to a White House statement. The order also mandates contractors notify the government if their networks are breached and share specific details about the incident; recommended contract language to specify the exact requirements is due within 45 days. The administration official said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will play a major role in helping flesh out what details will be required for disclosures. Multiple lawmakers have said they are drafting legislation to a similar effect as the executive orders mandate for breach notification. FCW reported in March the reason, experts say, that breach notification policies are not already in place in government contracts is due to contracting and policy differences among individual agencies. The order also establishes a Cybersecurity Safety Review Board, similar to the National Transportation and Safety Board, a suggestion that lawmakers and industry have historically called for. Those calls were renewed by senators such as Mark Warner (D-Va.) following the supply chain attack on SolarWinds. After the EO was published, the senator said the recent attacks highlighted what has become increasingly obvious over the past few years. The United States is simply not prepared to fend off state-sponsored or even criminal hackers intent on compromising our systems for profit or espionage, he said. This executive order is a good first step, but executive orders can only go so far. Congress is going to have to step up and do more to address our cyber vulnerabilities. The administration official said this board will be stood up after each incident by the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS secretary will co-chair the board alongside a private sector leader who is knowledgeable about the relevant issues. The boards first task will be to review and report on the hacking campaign against SolarWinds, according to the administration official. Too often organizations repeat the mistakes of the past and do not learn lessons from significant cyber incidents. When something goes wrong, the Administration and private sector need to ask the hard questions and make the necessary improvements, according to a White House statement. The administration is also directing the National Institute for Standards and Technology to begin developing a labeling system for Internet-of-Things devices to help consumers make smarter buying decisions, similar to a system already in place in Singapore. Non-government organizations headed by cybersecurity experts have flooded the new administration with recommendations. A group of former government officials and industry organized by the Institute for Security and Technology in April made a variety of recommendations for how to combat ransomware. A technology trade association, ITI, also in April published a number of policy recommendations for securing information and communications technology. The Administration's new Cybersecurity Executive Order lays out an ambitious & achievable workplan to dramatically improve the security of US govt networks by using the power of the purse, Chris Krebs, the former CISA chief, tweeted on Wednesday. Cybersecurity TSA's role in pipeline security looks like a weak link to some in government and industry Lawmakers and government officials are re-examining the Transportation Security Administration's place in regulating the cybersecurity of the country's natural gas pipelines in the wake of the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline's business systems. The office responsible for those policies is historically short staffed and the agency has yet to address several issues brought up by government auditors in December 2018. In this instance, Colonial Pipeline faced a crippling attack on its IT system, but the fallout from the event has regulators and lawmakers worried about how the U.S. is prepared to confront an assault on the industrial control systems that manage energy pipelines. The Department of Energy has been designated the sector specific agency for cybersecurity incidents, and its Cybersecurity, Energy Security and Emergency Response (CESER) office is managing response. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is tracking the attack and publishing regular bulletins to industry about guarding against ransomware. The FBI is also investigating. TSA has the statutory authority to regulate pipeline cybersecurity but has historically relied on industry standards and non-mandatory guidelines. Pipeline owners also work with the Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for non-cybersecurity related issues. There have been several pushes in Congress over the years to clarify or shift responsibilities, but those bills ultimately failed. Still, many are concerned about the current distribution of authorities. "It is time to establish mandatory pipeline cybersecurity standards similar to those applicable to the electricity sector. Simply encouraging pipelines to voluntarily adopt best practices is an inadequate response to the ever-increasing number and sophistication of malevolent cyber actors," said Richard Glick, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said in a statement on Monday. FERC, which regulates the electric grid, has previously called for authorities over pipelines to change hands. A senior TSA official in 2019 testified to lawmakers the office responsible for securing the nation's pipelines -- the surface division in the office of security policy and industry engagement -- has only five full-time employees, none of whom are cybersecurity experts. Leslie Gordon, acting director of Homeland Security and Justice at GAO, told FCW on Monday that three recommendations from her office's December 2018 report to TSA about improving "significant weaknesses" in its pipeline security management remain open. The open recommendations include the TSA administrator developing a strategic workforce plan needed to conduct critical facility security reviews. The watchdog recommended TSA identify other data sources for determining the threats and vulnerabilities of critical pipelines. Auditors also wrote that TSA should coordinate an "independent, external peer review of its Pipeline Risk Ranking Tool. TSA officials have indicated to GAO that the three recommendations would be addressed later this year. A separate 2019 report also recommended that TSA update its 2010 Pipeline Security and Incident Recovery Protocol Plan to accommodate for modern threats and technology. Gordon said TSA indicated that would be done by June 30. A TSA spokeswoman told FCW on Monday that it had expanded its surface operations capabilities to include transportation security inspectors and partnered with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Idaho National Labs "to provide advanced cybersecurity training." Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.) in an interview with the Washington Post called for TSA to be held accountable for security failures and suggested evaluating whether TSA is best positioned to oversee natural gas and oil pipelines. Karen Evans, who headed CESER during the Trump administration and has served as CIO of the Department of Homeland Security said the current arrangement, "makes sense if you work it from the inside." She added: "There's a bunch of other things that come into play, not just cyber." In a May 11 letter to CISA's chief, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.), the ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, spoke favorably of a public-private initiative involving CISA, Energy and TSA to conduct "validated architecture and design review assessments" on pipeline systems, and wanted to know if the assessment program, which focuses on natural gas transport, will be expanded to include fuel pipelines. Chris Strand, chief compliance Officer at the threat intelligence firm IntSights, told FCW shifting regulatory authorities to FERC makes sense from a cybersecurity perspective. "It would then position the oil and gas energy industry under the same intense and mandatory reporting structure on cybersecurity as the rest of the energy industry," he said on Wednesday. "This would include more scrutiny and mandatory regulation for reporting cybersecurity incidents," as well as compliance with a standard baseline security control set or guideline" that meets existing North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection standards. Tim Conway, a technical director specializing in industrial control systems at the SANS Institute, told FCW the authorities could be made clearer, but that has not necessarily impeded the government's response to the attack on Colonial. "The ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline has demonstrated that clear rules would help for this event and future events, but the confusion over authorities is not crippling our nation's ability to respond and work together across agencies regardless of declared authorities," he told FCW on Wednesday. He said the level of cooperation both between government and the private sector and between government agencies was "encouraging," and said, "it is important that we move quickly and align regulatory bodies to make our national response more streamlined to address future cyber threats." The International Space Station's newest component is the NanoRacks Bishop Airlock (center left) attached to the end of the Tranquility module. Bishop will enable more commercial research, satellite deployments, and cargo operations outside in the vacuum of space. Located on the other side of Bishop on Tranquility is BEAM, or the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, which is a cargo stowage module outfitted with sensors continuously monitoring its environment. iss065e004417 (April 25, 2021) - Larger image Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook. (Adds details on vaccination drive) May 12 (Reuters) - Australia on Wednesday tapped Moderna Inc for 25 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, as it tries to speed up vaccination in people under 50 after deciding against AstraZeneca, whose jab has been linked to rare blood clots. The country had last month doubled its order for Pfizer-BioNTech's vaccine to 40 million shots, preferring it over AstraZeneca for its nearly 12 million people in that age group. Moderna said it will supply 10 million shots against the original strain of the virus this year and 15 million doses of its updated variant booster candidate in 2022. Australia's isolation strategy has helped it so far prevent a large pandemic impact, but its rollout of authorized vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca has been slow. It has already walked back on its goal to vaccinate nearly all of its 26 million population by year end. The prospect of Australia not achieving the objective until 2022 gained ground on Tuesday as its annual budget showed an expectation that its borders would not reopen until mid-2022, building pressure on Prime Minister Scott Morrison who faces an election in a year. A spokesman for Morrison did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Australia's supply deal with Moderna is subject to regulatory nod for the booster shot as well as its original vaccine candidate, which is authorized for emergency use in individuals above 18 years of age in the United States. The U.S. drugmaker said it expects to submit an application for provisional approval of its vaccine candidate to the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia shortly. (Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru and Colin Packham in Canberra; Editing by Arun Koyyur) NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Technavio has announced its latest market research report titled Luxury Yacht Market by Type and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2020-2024 The global luxury yacht market by type (motor yachts and sail yachts) and geography (APAC, Europe, MEA, North America, and South America) has been added to Technavio's offering. The global luxury yacht market is expected to grow by 310 units, at a CAGR of over 11% during 2020-2024. Request a Free Sample Report to Know More The market has witnessed steady growth in the HNWI population over the past few years. In addition, the expanding middle-class income group and growing consumer interest in the purchase of luxury products are expected to have a positive impact on the growth of the luxury yacht market during the forecast period. The market is expected to be driven by factors such as the increase in recreational tourism and growth in the HNWI population. The report also offers information on the upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. Download Our Free Sample Report Luxury Yacht Market: Opportunities During 2011 and 2018, the HNWI population increased by approximately 48% in North America. Similarly, Europe has witnessed an increase in the HNWI population over the years. This has increased the consumer demand for customized and luxury products. Besides, the rapid penetration of the internet and rising focus on innovations by vendors is expected to open several growth opportunities in the market. Luxury Yacht Market: Segmentation by Type Based on the segmentation by type, the market generated maximum revenue in the motor yacht segment in 2019. The segment is driven by the availability of modern features such as ACs, television, navigation aids, radar, echo-sounding, autopilot, and a reliable power generating system in motor yachts. Also, the increased use of motor yachts for recreational, non-cargo handling, and non-government purposes is contributing to the growth of the segment. Luxury Yacht Market: Segmentation by Geography Europe held the largest market share in 2019 and the market growth in the region is expected to be faster compared to the growth of the market in other regions. The growth of the market in Europe can be attributed to the continued expansion of tourism inflow and tourist spending due to simpler visa procedures in the region. Also, the emergence of France, Italy, and Portugal as manufacturing hubs for luxury goods is expected to contribute to the growth of the luxury yacht market in Europe during the forecast period. Story continues One of the fortune 500 companies had used the detailed research report on the luxury yacht market and had decided to increase their market share in the Europe region which offers the highest market opportunities during the forecast period. Explore more about market opportunities: Enquire about the report before purchasing Luxury Yacht Market: Major Vendors Alexander Marine Co. Ltd. The company offers luxury yacht through MEGAYACHTS and MOTORYACHTS product segments. Azimut Benetti Spa The company offers luxury yacht through the Azimut Yachts brand. The company also offers technical assistance and attentive maintenance to its customers. Ferretti Spa The company is engaged in the design, construction, and sale of luxury yachts and pleasure vessels. Some of its brands include Ferretti Yachts, Riva, Pershing, Itama, Mochi Craft, CRN, Custom Line, and Wally. The company offers luxury yachts through maxi and mega yachts. Fincantieri Spa The company offers all cruise ships, naval ships, ferries, and mega yachts. The company offers luxury yachts under the Victory and Serene brand. OVERMARINE GROUP Spa The company has a range of yachts like long-range, fast displacement, and maxi open yachts. Along with the market data, Technavio offers customizations as per the specific needs of companies. The following customization options are available for the luxury yacht market report: Regional Analysis Further breakdown of the market segmentation at requested regions. Market Player Information Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players, vendor segmentation, and vendor offerings. Know the strategies adopted by vendors during the COVID-19 Recovery Phase. Speak to our Analyst for a Customized Report Related Reports on Luxury yacht Market: Global Yacht Painting and Maintenance Market Download our free sample report to learn about major trends impacting the growth of the market over the next five years. Global Boat and Yacht Transportation Market Download our free sample report to learn about major trends impacting the growth of the market over the next five years. Global Leisure Boat Market Download our free sample report to learn about major trends impacting the growth of the market over the next five years. Global Boat Docks and Lifts Market Download our free sample report to learn about major trends impacting the growth of the market over the next five years. Global Tugboats Market Download our free sample report to learn about major trends impacting the growth of the market over the next five years. Executive Summary Market Overview Market Landscape Market ecosystem Value chain analysis Market Sizing Market definition Market segment analysis Market size 2019 Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 - 2024 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 Type Market segments Comparison by Type placement Motor yachts - Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Sail yachts - Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Market opportunity by Type Customer landscape Overview Geographic Landscape Geographic segmentation Geographic comparison Europe - Market size and forecast 2019-2024 APAC - Market size and forecast 2019-2024 North America - Market size and forecast 2019-2024 South America - Market size and forecast 2019-2024 MEA - Market size and forecast 2019-2024 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Drivers, Challenges, and Trends Market drivers Volume driver - Demand led growth Volume driver - Supply led growth Volume driver - External factors Volume driver - Demand shift in adjacent markets Price driver - Inflation Price driver - Shift from lower to higher priced units Market challenges Market trends Vendor Landscape Overview Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Alexander Marine Co. Ltd. Azimut Benetti Spa Christensen Shipyards LLC Damen Shipyards Group Feadship Holland BV Ferretti Spa Fincantieri Spa OVERMARINE GROUP Spa Palumbo group Spa San Lorenzo Spa Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses 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: media@technavio.com Website: www.technavio.com Report: www.technavio.com/report/luxury-yacht-market-industry-analysis Technavio (PRNewsfoto/Technavio) Cision View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/310-units-growth-expected-in-luxury-yacht-market--10-23-yoy-growth-in-2020-amid-covid-19-spread--europe-to-notice-maximum-growth--technavio-301290318.html SOURCE Technavio Celesta Digital has launched a Slingly Agency, My Ruby Deals, to sell branded merchandise stores to businesses and individuals interested in starting or growing an e-commerce business. Chennai, India, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Celesta Digital, a digital marketing and e-commerce consulting agency, announced the launch of My Ruby Deals, a store providing automated printed merchandise stores for individuals and businesses. The store also offers content marketing systems, lead generation software, and services. For more details, please visit https://myrubydeals.com The recently launched services provide businesses with a way to grow their own brand among consumers by taking advantage of the growing e-commerce market. Retail e-commerce is a growing industry, with expectations to grow even more in the next few years. Research indicates that the global e-Commerce industry is experiencing an annual growth rate of 14.7%. However, the variety of products available online increases competition for vendors who want to grow their brand. My Ruby Deals provides customers with branded designs and a complete ready-to-sell store set up for their merchandise. The company will work directly with store owners to ensure that product designs are uniquely tailored to their brand. The company also offers advanced e-Commerce training from online store owners who generate 7-figure revenues. Slingly is a platform that automates the e-commerce process for businesses. It allows business owners to create customized product lines and sell them on multiple platforms, including Shopify, Amazon, and Etsy. The platform offers concept-to-production services with its top-quality team of expert print designers and developers. With this solution, business owners can create custom-designed printed clothing, mugs, jewelry, handbags, footwear, and more while the agency handles product management and order fulfilment. My Ruby Deals uses Slingly to create print-on-demand merchandise for the customers store and fulfil orders automatically. There are 30 product types available and customers can create an unlimited number of designs. Full site setup and logo creation services are offered. Story continues My Ruby Deals offers three affordable packages Starter, Professional, and Corporation. The agencys designers have more than ten years of experience designing print-on-demand merchandise. Business owners can be based out of any country in the world with this automated order fulfilment model. E-com business owners can sell products in various sizes and colors, and product categories. The platform features powerful reporting, analytics intelligence, customer lookup, and shipping options. Also included are free native apps, a built-in support desk, and a customizable digital storefront. Orders are fulfilled by some of the largest and fastest-growing On-Demand printing companies in the USA. Slingly has partnered with highly targeted web traffic providers. Businesses could also leverage these additional services to increase their sales and brand awareness. With this launch, Celesta Digital continues to help customers achieve the best ROI from its services. Those interested in how My Ruby Deals can benefit their business can visit https://raincherry.com/thanks A satisfied customer of My Ruby Deals said, My shopping cart came out amazing. Their team took the extra time to get my branded designs exactly the way I imagined them. Interested parties can find more information by visiting https://myrubydeals.com Website: https://celestadigitalz.com CONTACT: Name: Celesta Digital Organization: Celesta Digital Address: Chennai, Chennai, TN 600115, India CALGARY, AB and LANSING, Mich., May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - The Government of Canada and entities representing hundreds of thousands of businesses and workers from across the Great Lakes region in the United States and Canada demonstrated support for Enbridge's case in federal court over the Line 5 easement in the Straits of Mackinac by submitting friend of the court briefs. Entities that submitted briefs include: The Government of Canada Attorneys General of Ohio and Louisiana Chambers of Commerce from the U.S., Canada, Michigan and Ohio, along with the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) and the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO "This broad support underscores that efforts by the State of Michigan to shutdown Line 5 have far reaching and severe implications across the region and North America well beyond Michigan's borders," said Vern Yu, Enbridge Executive Vice President and President Liquids Pipelines. The friend of the court briefs echo Enbridge's response to the Michigan Attorney General's March filing requesting that the State's easement case be heard in State court. Enbridge made clear in its response that this case belongs in federal court as any attempt to shut down Line 5 has serious ramifications for the Transit Pipelines Treaty of 1977 between Canada and the United States and raises substantial questions of federal law relating to interstate commerce and federal jurisdiction on pipeline safety issues. In its brief, the Government of Canada writes, "a shutdown of Line 5 would cause certain, immediate and serious harm to several important public interests. Economic prosperity and employment in Alberta and Saskatchewan would be harmed if a key part of their economies hydrocarbon production lost efficient and reliable access to its main markets. Central Canada and parts of the northern United States would lose relatively safe, efficient and reliable access to fuel that is essential to the Toronto and Detroit Airports, to businesses that employ thousands of people in Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, and to the propane supply on which many residents in Michigan rely for heating and cooking." Story continues In a display of unity and strong partnership, the chambers of commerce of the Great Lakes region, along with Canada and the United States joined together voicing extreme concern about widespread, deep economic impacts a Line 5 shutdown would have on the intertwined state, interstate and international energy system. "The proposed shutdown of Line 5 at the Straits of Mackinac would have a substantial negative impact to their member businesses, their employees, and residents of Canada and the United States, including those of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, It would also endanger a key public-private partnership designed to enhance protections for the Great Lakes." The friend of the court brief filed jointly by the North America's Building Trades Unions and the United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO underscores that workers on both sides of the international border will suffer the loss of jobs were Line 5 closed. According to these Unions, "The operation and maintenance of Line 5 and its associated industrial facilities provides thousands of members of the Union with meaningful work and solid, middle class wages and benefits. Shutting down Line 5 would threaten these workers' financial security, both in the present economy and in the future. And it would thwart the ability of the construction industry in the affected areas to train the next generation of skilled crafts workers." The brief filed on behalf of the Attorneys General of Ohio and Louisiana underscores that there are no viable alternatives that can transport most of the Line 5 product while also underscoring the devastating economic impact of a forced closure of Line 5: "Shutting down Line 5 will have enormous economic consequencesseveral billion dollars in lossesfor Toledo, Ohio and beyond. And the industrial impact would be on a similar scale. A cessation of Line 5 will reduce the gas, diesel, and jet fuel supply in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ontario, and Quebec by 14.7 million gallons per day." "Enbridge has a responsibility to the people of Michigan and the Great Lakes region, and will continue to operate Line 5 safely, reliably and affordably to fuel to the region's economies." said Yu. Despite confirmation of Line 5's safety by PHMSA, its federal regulator, Enbridge has supported the idea of a Great Lakes Tunnel and is proceeding with its design and permit applications. The tunnel would encase a replacement section of Line 5 at the Straits of Mackinac and be positioned well below the lakebed, eliminating the risk of any anchor strike and virtually eliminating the potential of any release from Line 5 into the Straits. The Great Lakes Tunnel concept and the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority enabling its oversight passed the Michigan legislature by overwhelming majorities in the House (74-34) and Senate (25-12) in December 2018. Initial permits for the tunnel project were approved by the Michigan Department of Environment Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) on January 29, 2021. Forward Looking Information Forward-looking information, or forward-looking statements, have been included in this news release to provide information about Enbridge Inc. ("Enbridge" or the "Company") and its subsidiaries and affiliates, including management's assessment of Enbridge and its subsidiaries' future plans and operations. This information may not be appropriate for other purposes. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by words such as ''anticipate'', ''expect'', ''project'', ''estimate'', ''forecast'', ''plan'', ''intend'', ''target'', ''believe'', "likely" and similar words suggesting future outcomes or statements regarding an outlook. Forward-looking information or statements in this news release include statements with respect to the Line 5 dual pipelines, including the impact of any shutdown and the continued safe operations thereof, and the proposed Great Lakes Tunnel Project, and related litigation and government and regulatory actions. Although Enbridge believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable based on the information available on the date such statements are made and processes used to prepare the information, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and readers are cautioned against placing undue reliance on forward-looking statements. By their nature, these statements involve a variety of assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, levels of activity and achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Assumptions regarding the expected supply of and demand for crude oil, natural gas, NGL and renewable energy, and the prices of these commodities, are material to and underlie all forward-looking statements, as they may impact current and future levels of demand for the Company's services. Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic, exchange rates, inflation and interest rates impact the economies and business environments in which the Company operates and may impact levels of demand for the Company's services and cost of inputs and are therefore inherent in all forward-looking statements. Due to the interdependencies and correlation of these macroeconomic factors, the impact of any one assumption on a forward-looking statement cannot be determined with certainty. The most relevant assumptions associated with forward-looking statements in this news release with regards to the Line 5 dual pipelines and the Great Lakes Tunnel Project include the impact of litigation and government and regulatory actions and approvals on ongoing and future operations. Enbridge's forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to those risks and uncertainties discussed in this news release and in the Company's other filings with Canadian and United States securities regulators. The impact of any one risk, uncertainty or factor on a particular forward-looking statement is not determinable with certainty as these are interdependent and Enbridge's future course of action depends on management's assessment of all information available at the relevant time. Except to the extent required by applicable law, Enbridge assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements made in this news release or otherwise, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. All subsequent forward-looking statements, whether written or oral, attributable to Enbridge or persons acting on the Company's behalf, are expressly qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. About Enbridge Inc. Enbridge Inc. is a leading North American energy infrastructure company. We safely and reliably deliver the energy people need and want to fuel quality of life. Our core businesses include Liquids Pipelines, which transports approximately 25 percent of the crude oil produced in North America; Gas Transmission and Midstream, which transports approximately 20 percent of the natural gas consumed in the U.S.; Gas Distribution and Storage, which serves approximately 3.8 million retail customers in Ontario and Quebec; and Renewable Power Generation, which generates approximately 1,750 MW of net renewable power in North America and Europe. The Company's common shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol ENB. For more information, visit www.enbridge.com. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Media Toll Free: (888) 992-0997 Email: media@enbridge.com Investment Community Toll Free: (800) 481-2804 Email: investor.relations@enbridge.com Cision View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/enbridge-federal-court-case-receives-broad-support-from-government-business-and-labor-from-michigan-canada-and-throughout-the-region-301289704.html SOURCE Enbridge Inc. Cision View original content: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/May2021/12/c9686.html BRISBANE, QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA May 11, 2021 - Graphene Manufacturing Group Ltd. (TSX-V: GMG) (GMG or the Company) is pleased to share the initial performance data when tested in coin cells for the patent-pending surface perforation of graphene in aluminium-ion batteries developed by the Company and the University of Queensland (UQ). The experiments were performed at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at UQ. Initial performance data is presented below. Currently, GMG Graphene is being used to produce coin cell prototypes for customer testing in Q4 2021. Source: 1. Hongjie Dai, Nat. Commun., 2017, 8:14283 2. Hongjie Dai, Nature, 2015, 520, 325, and 3. University of Queensland testing data. GMG announced recently the execution of a research agreement with UQs AIBN to develop graphene aluminium-ion batteries (please refer to the Companys News Release dated April 22, 2021, for further details). Under the agreement, GMG will manufacture commercial battery prototypes for watches, phones, laptops, electric vehicles and grid storage with technology developed at UQ. GMG has also signed a license agreement with Uniquest, the University of Queensland commercialization company, which provides GMG an exclusive license of the technology for battery cathodes. GMG CEO and Managing Director Craig Nicol said, We are currently looking to bring coin cell commercial prototypes for customer testing in 6 months and a pouch pack commercial prototype used in mobile phones, laptops etc. - for customer testing in 18 months. We are really excited about bringing this to market. We aim to have a viable graphene and coin cell battery production facility project after customer validation that we would likely build here in Australia, said Craig Nicol. Dr Ashok Nanjundan, GMGs Chief Scientific Officer, said, This is a real game-changing technology which can offer a real alternative with an interchangeable battery technology for the existing lithium-ion batteries in almost every application with GMGs Graphene and UQs patent-pending aluminium ion battery technology. The current nominal voltage of our batteries is 1.7 volts, and work is being carried out to increase the voltage to directly replace existing batteries and which lead to higher energy densities. Story continues The real differentiator about these batteries is their very high power density of up to 7000 watts/kg, which endows them with a very high charge rate. Furthermore, graphene aluminium-ion batteries provide major benefits in terms of longer battery life (over 2000 charge / discharge cycles testing so far with no deterioration in performance), battery safety (very low fire potential) and lower environmental impact (more recyclable), said Dr Ashok Nanjundan. GMG will make further disclosures regarding the performance and development of these graphene aluminium ion batteries as the research and development program progresses. About GMG GMG is an Australian-based clean-tech disruptive company listed on the TSXV (TSXV:GMG) that produces graphene and hydrogen by cracking methane (natural gas) instead of mining graphite. By using the companys proprietary process, GMG can produce high quality, low cost, scalable, tuneable and no/low contaminant graphene enabling demonstrated cost and environmental improvements in a number of world-scale planet-friendly/clean-tech applications. Using this low input cost source of graphene, the Company is developing value-added products that target the massive energy efficiency and energy storage markets. The Company is also in the early stages of pursuing additional opportunities for GMG Graphene, including developing next-generation batteries, collaborating with world-leading universities in Australia, and investigating the opportunity to enhance the performance of lube oil, biodiesel and diesel fuels. For further information, please contact: - Craig Nicol, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the Company at craig.nicol@graphenemg.com, +61 415 445 223 - Leo Karabelas at Focus Communications, leo@fcir.ca, +1 647 689 6041 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. The forward-looking statements herein are made as of the date of this press release only, and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new information, estimates or opinions, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budgets", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "projects", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, statements relating to the manufacturing of prototypes by GMG and UQ, anticipated timelines for commercial prototypes and customer testing, the development and viability of GMGs production facilities, the location of GMGs production facilities, and the results arising from and application of GMGs graphene aluminium-ion batteries. Forward-looking statements and information are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, the risk factors set out under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's final long form non-offering prospectus dated March 31, 2021 available for review on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com, many of which are beyond the ability of the Company to control or predict. Such risk factors may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied thereby, and are developed based on assumptions about such risks, uncertainties and other factors set out herein, including, assumptions regarding the Companys ability to research, develop and test its products within anticipated timelines, and that results of testing and development data will be consistent with anticipated results and estimates. Such forward-looking information represents management's best judgment based on information currently available. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual future results may vary materially. Accordingly, readers are advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. See more from Benzinga 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. Dublin, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "India Server Market, By Hardware (Rack, Blade, Tower), By Operating System (Linux, Windows, IOS, Others), By End User (IT & ITES, Government, Telecommunications, BFSI, Others), By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, FY2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Indian Server Market was valued USD 2712.49 million in FY 2020 and is anticipated to grow at 10.27% CAGR in the next 5 years. Growing IT sector, digitalization and emergence of data centers are the factors favoring the growth of the server market in India. Growth in adoption of newer and continuous innovations like big data or cloud are having a great impact on the market growth. The emergence of start-ups in India is adding a fuel to the demand for servers in various sectors. New apps that work on back end specialized computing needs are utilizing cloud servers in order to have a smooth functioning from both the ends. Along with that the advanced technologies like virtualization and flash storage are surging the growth of sever market. Policies of the government in India are in favor of promoting digitalization and therefore the shift to online portals for different government activities is fueling the emergence of IT infrastructure. For the government to connect with people and for the people to connect with government, IT infrastructure is crucial. Through these e-portals people of the country can save their time on tedious work. This will produce lots of data, consequently driving the demand for data storage for analysis. Hence there will be growing demand for servers in the upcoming years. The Indian Server Market is segmented based on hardware, operating system, end-user and region. Based on hardware the market is sub segmented into rack server, blade server and tower server. Among this, blade and rack servers are almost on a tie and are bought on specifically customer's preference. Tower servers are mostly used in data centers and are having comparatively less share of value 31.62% in FY 2020. Major players operating in the Indian Server Market are Dell Computer India Private Ltd., Hewlett-Packard India Pvt. Ltd., Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd., Lenovo India Pvt. Ltd., Super Micro, Oracle India Private Limited, IBM India Private Limited., Acer (India) Pvt. Ltd., Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd., Fujitsu India Pvt. Ltd., among others. Years considered for this report: Story continues Historical Years: FY2016 - FY2019 Base Year: FY2020 Estimated Year: FY2021 Forecast Period: FY2022 - FY2026 Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Research Methodology 3. Executive Summary 4. Impact of COVID-19 on India Server Market 5. India Server Market Overview 6. India Server Market Outlook 6.1. Market Size & Forecast 6.1.1. By Value (USD Million) 6.2. Market Share & Forecast 6.2.1. By Hardware (Rack, Blade, Tower) 6.2.2. By Operating System (Linux, Windows, IOS, Others) 6.2.3. By End User (Telecommunication, IT & ITES, Government, BFSI, Others) 6.2.4. By Region (South, West, East, North) 6.2.5. By Company (FY2020) 6.3. Product Market Map (By Hardware, By Operating System, By End User, By Region) 7. North India Server Market Outlook 7.1. Market Size & Forecast 7.1.1. By Value (USD Million) 7.2. Market Share & Forecast 7.2.1. By Hardware 7.2.2. By Operating System 7.2.3. By End User 8. South India Server Market Outlook 9. West India Server Market Outlook 10. East India Server Market Outlook 11. Market Dynamics 11.1. Drivers/Opportunities 11.2. Challenges/Restraints 12. Market Trends & Developments 13. Value Chain Analysis 14. Policy & Regulatory Landscape 15. India Economic Profile 16. Competitive Landscape 16.1. Competition Outlook 16.2. Company Profiles 16.2.1. Dell Computer India Private Ltd 16.2.2. Hewlett-Packard India Sales Pvt. Ltd. 16.2.3. Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd. 16.2.4. Lenovo India Pvt. Ltd. 16.2.5. Super Micro 16.2.6. Oracle India Private Limited 16.2.7. IBM India Private Limited 16.2.8. Acer (India) Pvt. Ltd. 16.2.9. Microsoft Corporation (India) Pvt. Ltd. 16.2.10. Fujitsu India Pvt. Ltd. 17. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/t2n0ev CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 The "Malaysia Air Conditioner Market, By Product Type (Splits, VRFs, Chillers, Windows, and Others (Portable, Floor Standing, etc.)), By End Use Sector (Residential Vs Commercial/Industrial), By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Malaysian Air Conditioner Market was valued USD728.52 Million in 2020 and is predicted to grow at CAGR of 4.70% in the next five years. Anticipated growth in the market is attributed to expanding population, growing disposable income, and increasingly affordable product offerings. Also, due to the increasing product offerings at the e-commerce platforms and easy financing schemes are boosting the use of air conditioners among lower middle class and middle-class income families in Malaysia. Moreover, the rising demand from the commercial sector is also driving the country's air conditioner market. Additionally, changing climatic conditions and construction of inbuilt air conditioner and energy-efficient buildings are the other factors expected to drive the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market during forecast period. Report on the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market is split based on product type, end-use sector, region and company. In terms of product type, the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market can be segmented into splits, VRFs, chillers, windows, and others (Portable, Floor Standing, etc.). In 2020, Split type air conditioner category held the largest share of 91.05% in the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market and this trend is expected to continue in the coming years. Split air conditioner has lower running cost and better energy efficiency contributing to the leading share of the segment in the market. Based on the end-use segmentation, the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market is categorized into the residential sector and commercial/industrial sector. Residential air conditioner segment garnered the maximum share of two-third in the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market due to rapidly growing population, household expenditure and income levels of the middle-class population. Story continues In terms of regional analysis, the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market is bifurcated into central region, east region, northern region, east coast region, and southern region. Until 2020, Central Region accounted for the largest market share in the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market due to its better living standards, urbanization and increasing population. However, other regions are expected to witness faster growth in the coming years during the forecast period. Some of the leading manufactures in the Malaysian Air Conditioner Market include Daikin Malaysia Sdn. Bhd, Midea Scott & English Electronics Sdn Bhd, Haier Electrical Appliances (M) Sdn. Bhd., Hitachi Sales (Malaysia) Sdn., Mitsubishi Electric Sales Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Samsung Malaysia Electronics (SME) Sdn, Panasonic Malaysia Sdn Bhd., LG Electronics (M) Sdn. Bhd., Carrier (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Sharp Electronics (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., among others. Key Target Audience: Air Conditioner sellers, distributors and other stakeholders Organizations, forums and alliances related to air conditioner market Government bodies such as regulating authorities and policy makers Market research and consulting firms Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2016-2019 Base Year: 2020 Estimated Year: 2021 Forecast Period: 2022-2026 Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Executive Summary 4. Impact of COVID-19 on Malaysia Air Conditioners Market 5. Voice of Customer 5.1. Brand Awareness 5.2. Factors Influencing Purchase Decisions 5.3. Brand Satisfaction 5.4. Challenges Faced Post Purchase 6. Malaysia Air Conditioners Market Outlook 6.1. Market Size & Forecast 6.1.1. By Value & Volume 6.2. Market Share & Forecast 6.2.1. By Product Type (Splits, VRFs, Chillers, Windows, and Others ((Precision AC, Packaged AC, Portable, Floor Standing etc.) 6.2.2. By End-Use Sector (Residential Vs Commercial/Industrial) 6.2.3. By Region (Central Region, East Malaysia, Northern Region, East Coast Region, Southern Region) 6.2.4. By Company 6.3. Product Market Map 7. Malaysia Split Air Conditioners Market Outlook 7.1. Market Size & Forecast 7.1.1.By Value & Volume 7.2. Market Share & Forecast 7.2.1.By End Use Sector (Residential Vs Commercial/Industrial) 7.3. Product Benchmarking 8. Malaysia VRFs Air Conditioners Market Outlook 8.1. Market Size & Forecast 8.1.1. By Value & Volume 8.2. Market Share & Forecast 8.2.1. By End Use Sector (Residential Vs Commercial/Industrial) 8.3. Product Benchmarking 9. Malaysia Chillers Air Conditioners Market Outlook 9.1. Market Size & Forecast 9.1.1. By Value & Volume 9.2. Market Share & Forecast 9.2.1. By End Use Sector (Residential Vs Commercial/Industrial) 9.3. Product Benchmarking 10. Malaysia Windows Air Conditioners Market Outlook 10.1. Market Size & Forecast 10.1.1. By Value & Volume 10.2. Market Share & Forecast 10.2.1. By End Use Sector (Residential Vs Commercial/Industrial) 11. Malaysia Others Air Conditioners Market Outlook 11.1. Market Size & Forecast 11.1.1. By Value & Volume 12. Supply Chain Analysis 13. Import-Export Analysis 14. Market Dynamics 14.1. Drivers 14.2. Challenges 15. Market Trends & Developments 16. Policy & Regulatory Landscape 17. Malaysia Economic Profile 18. Competitive Landscape 18.1. Company Profiles 18.1.2. Daikin Malaysia Sales & Service Sdn Bhd (DMSS) 18.1.3. Midea Scott & English Electronics Sdn Bhd (MSEE) 18.1.4. Haier Electrical Appliances (M) Sdn. Bhd. 18.1.5. Hitachi Sales (Malaysia) Sdn. Berhad 18.1.6. Mitsubishi Electric Sales Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. 18.1.7. Samsung Malaysia Electronics (SME) Sdn 18.1.8 Panasonic Malaysia Sdn Bhd. 18.1.9. LG Electronics (M) Sdn. Bhd. 18.1.10 Carrier (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. 18.1.11. Sharp Electronics (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd 19. Strategic Recommendations For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/3toema View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005421/en/ Contacts ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 CARMEL, Ind., May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- (Nasdaq: MBIN) Mortgage banking company Merchants Capital today announces that it has earned two high-ranking positions on the prestigious Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) 2020 Commercial/Multifamily Originator Listing. Merchants Capital placed #4 in multifamily affordable lending nationally for 2020. In total, the company closed $2.2 billion in affordable loans across 188 transactions, with an average transaction size of $11.8 million. Merchants Capital also ranked #1 for the originating office location of Indianapolis, where it is headquartered. Out of this office, it closed $3.2 billion across 287 transactions in 2020, with an average loan size of $11.3 million. Merchants Capital Indianapolis is one of Merchants' four production hubs nationwide, in addition to Chicago, Saint Paul and New York. Across locations, Merchants Capital provided an estimated $4.8 billion in financing in 2020, approximately half of which was dedicated to supporting affordable housing preservation and development across the country. That achievement marked a historic company milestone, as Merchants Capital's total year-over-year production saw an increase of 106%. In New York specifically, approximately $1.2 billion in debt financing was originated in 2020 for affordable housing preservation and development within the region, ranking Merchants as a top multifamily affordable housing financier in the area. The milestone reflected Merchants Capital New York's steep growth trajectory due to its ever expanding and diverse base of offerings, including on-book, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and FHA loan products. "We are incredibly proud to be named to this leading industry list. Achievements like this would not be possible without the support of our clients and our team members every day," said Mathew Wambua, Merchants Capital Vice Chair & Head of Agency Lending. "The national rankings reinforce our strategic decision to support much-needed public benefit projects as one of the top full-service financing providers for affordable housing in the U.S., and we look forward to seeing what we can accomplish in the future." Story continues The report is the only one of its kind to present a comprehensive set of listings of 141 different commercial/multifamily mortgage originators, their 2020 volumes, and the different roles they play. The report presents origination volumes in more than 140 categories, including by role, investor group, property type, financing structure type and the location of the originating office. It is available for purchase through MBA's Online Store. To learn more about Merchants Capital and its services, visit www.merchantscapital.com or find Merchants Capital on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and Instagram. ABOUT MERCHANTS BANCORP Merchants Bancorp is a diversified bank holding company headquartered in Carmel, Indiana operating multiple lines of business, including Federal Housing Administration ("FHA") multi-family housing and healthcare facility financing and servicing; mortgage warehouse financing; retail and correspondent residential mortgage banking; agricultural lending; and traditional community banking. Merchants Bancorp, with $9.7 billion in assets and $8.1 billion in deposits as of March 31, 2021, conducts its business primarily through its direct and indirect subsidiaries, Merchants Bank of Indiana, Merchants Capital Corp., Farmers-Merchants Bank of Illinois, Merchants Capital Servicing, LLC, and Merchants Mortgage, a division of Merchants Bank of Indiana. For more information and financial data, please visit Merchants' Investor Relations page at investors.merchantsbancorp.com. ABOUT MERCHANTS CAPITAL Established in 1990, Merchants Capital is one of the nation's top lenders for the refinance, acquisition, new construction and substantial rehabilitation of multifamily, affordable, senior and student housing. Whether you are considering Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, HUD/FHA insured or balance sheet financing, let our personalized services help you meet your financing objectives. Experience the creativity of a small lender, with all the capabilities of a large institution. To learn more about Merchants Capital, visit www.merchantscapital.com. Cision View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/merchants-capital-named-4-multifamily-affordable-lender-nationwide-by-mortgage-bankers-association-301289293.html SOURCE Merchants Bancorp NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / The Law Offices of Vincent Wong announce that class actions have commenced on behalf of certain shareholders in the following companies. If you suffered a loss you have until the lead plaintiff deadline to request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff. There will be no obligation or cost to you. CytoDyn Inc. (OTCQB:CYDY) If you suffered a loss, contact us at:http://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/cytodyn-inc-loss-submission-form?prid=15785&wire=1 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 17, 2021 Class Period: March 27, 2020 - March 9, 2021 Allegations against CYDY include that: CytoDyn securities were actively traded over the counter (OTC) in the United States. While the exact number of Class members is unknown to Plaintiff at this time and can be ascertained only through appropriate discovery, Plaintiff believes that there are hundreds or thousands of members in the proposed Class. Record owners and other members of the Class may be identified from records maintained by CytoDyn or its transfer agent and/or OTC Markets and may be notified of the pendency of this action by mail, using the form of notice similar to that customarily used in securities class actions. Romeo Power, Inc. (NYSE:RMO) If you suffered a loss, contact us at:http://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/romeo-power-inc-loss-submission-form?prid=15785&wire=1 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 15, 2021 Class Period: October 5, 2020 - March 30, 2021 Allegations against RMO include that: (i) Romeo had only two battery cell suppliers, not four, (ii) the future potential risks that Defendants warned of concerning supply disruption or shortage had already occurred and were already negatively affecting Romeo's business, operations and business prospects, (iii) Romeo did not have the battery cell inventory to accommodate end-user demand and ramp up production in 2021, (iv) Romeo's supply constraint was a material hindrance to Romeo's revenue growth, and (v) Romeo's supply chain for battery cells was not hedged, but in fact, was totally at risk and beholden to just two battery cell suppliers and the spot market for their 2021 inventory. Given the supply constraint that Romeo was experiencing during the Class Period, Defendants had no reasonable basis to represent that the Company had the ability to meet customer demand and that it would support growth in revenue in 2021. Story continues Acadia Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ACAD) If you suffered a loss, contact us at:http://www.wongesq.com/pslra-1/acadia-pharmaceuticals-inc-loss-submission-form?prid=15785&wire=1 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 18, 2021 Class Period: June 15, 2020 - April 4, 2021 Allegations against ACAD include that: (i) the materials submitted in support of the pimavanserin sNDA contained statistical and design deficiencies; (ii) accordingly, the pimavanserin sNDA lacked the evidentiary support that the Company had led investors to believe it possessed; (iii) the FDA was unlikely to approve the pimavanserin sNDA in its present form; and (iv) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. To learn more contact Vincent Wong, Esq. either via email vw@wongesq.com or by telephone at 212.425.1140. Vincent Wong, Esq. is an experienced attorney who has represented investors in securities litigations involving financial fraud and violations of shareholder rights. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: Vincent Wong, Esq. 39 East Broadway Suite 304 New York, NY 10002 Tel. 212.425.1140 Fax. 866.699.3880 E-Mail: vw@wongesq.com SOURCE: The Law Offices of Vincent Wong View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/647116/SHAREHOLDER-ALERT-CYDY-RMO-ACAD-The-Law-Offices-of-Vincent-Wong-Reminds-Investors-of-Important-Class-Action-Deadlines LEAD PLAINTIFF DEADLINE IS JULY 7, 2021 NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP announces that a federal securities class action lawsuit has been filed has been filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on behalf of investors that purchased the securities of Skillz Inc. ("Skillz" or the "Company") (NYSE: SKLZ) from December 20, 2020 through April 19, 2021 (the Class Period). All investors who purchased shares of Skillz Inc. and incurred losses are urged to contact the firm immediately at classmember@whafh.com or (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774. You may obtain additional information concerning the action or join the case on our website, www.whafh.com. If you have incurred losses in the shares of Skillz Inc., you may, no later than July 7, 2021, request that the Court appoint you lead plaintiff of the proposed class. Please contact Wolf Haldenstein to learn more about your rights as an investor in the shares of Skillz Inc. CLICK HERE TO JOIN CASE On March 8, 2021, Wolfpack Research released a report titled, SKLZ: IT takes Little Skill to see this SPACtacular Disaster Coming (the Wolfpack Report). The Wolfpack Report alleges that the growth speculations that Skillz and its insiders had touted were entirely unrealistic given the fact that Skillzs top three games, representing 88% of Skillzs revenue, reported a decline in downloads since the third quarter of 2020. On this news, the price of Skillz stock plummeted 10.9% to close at $24.45, down $3 from the previous day. Then, on April 19, 2021, Eagle Eye Research posted an anonymous report on Twitter in which it claimed that, through the use of providing users with incentive Bonus Payments, the company likely recognizes substantial non-cash revenue and [] cash revenues may be less than of GAAP revenue. On this news, SKLZ shares declined 6.61%, or $1 to close at $14.11 on April 19, 2021. Shares further declined the next day to an all-time low of $12.55. Story continues Wolf Haldenstein has extensive experience in the prosecution of securities class actions and derivative litigation in state and federal trial and appellate courts across the country. The firm has attorneys in various practice areas; and offices in New York, Chicago and San Diego. The reputation and expertise of this firm in shareholder and other class litigation has been repeatedly recognized by the courts, which have appointed it to major positions in complex securities multi-district and consolidated litigation. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions regarding your rights and interests in this case, please immediately contact Wolf Haldenstein by telephone at (800) 575-0735, via e-mail at classmember@whafh.com, or visit our website at www.whafh.com. Contact: Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP Patrick Donovan, Esq. Gregory Stone, Director of Case and Financial Analysis Email: gstone@whafh.com, donovan@whafh.com or classmember@whafh.com Tel: (800) 575-0735 or (212) 545-4774 This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. Christianity Today is Calling for Submissions for the 2022 Christianity Today Book Awards NEWS PROVIDED BY Christianity Today May 12, 2021 CAROL STREAM, Ill., May 12, 2021 /Standard Newswire/ -- Christianity Today is calling for submissions for the 2022 Christianity Today Book Awards. The CT Book Awards, along with our "Beautiful Orthodoxy" Book of the Year, will be announced in December at ChristianityToday.com. Winners will be featured prominently in the January/February 2022 issue of CT and widely promoted in CT newsletters and on the site. Publishers of the winning books will also have the opportunity to participate in a promotion organized by CT's marketing team. Awards Categories: Apologetics/Evangelism Biblical Studies Children and Youth Christian Living/Discipleship The Church/Pastoral Leadership Culture and the Arts Fiction History/Biography Marriage and Family Missions/The Global Church Politics and Public Life Spiritual Formation Theology/Ethics The "Beautiful Orthodoxy" Book of the Year* To be eligible for nomination, a book must be published between November 1, 2020 and October 31, 2021. CT is looking for scholarly and popular-level works, and everything in between. A diverse panel of scholars, pastors, and other informed readers will evaluate the books. Detailed instructions for how to submit your nomination can be found online at MoreCT.com/2022Nomination. * Beautiful Orthodoxy is a special add-on category. Books nominated for this category must have first been nominated in one of the other main categories. (They will be eligible to win more than once.) Deadline: The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, August 6, 2021. Please read complete submission instructions at MoreCT.com/2022Nomination. Christianity Today is a nonprofit, global media ministry centered on Beautiful Orthodoxystrengthening the church by richly communicating the breadth of the true, good, and beautiful gospel. Reaching over five million people monthly with various digital and print resources, the ministry equips Christians to renew their minds, serve the church, and create culture to the glory of God. SOURCE Christianity Today CONTACT: Leanne Snavely, 630-260-6200 ext 7214, lsnavely@christianitytoday.com TikToks dream of becoming a shopping destination appears to be taking a major step forward: On Thursday, reports began circulating that ByteDances social video app is testing e-commerce features in Europe with a select group of streetwear brands. One is apparently Hype, according to Bloomberg, which confirmed the test with a company representative. Now this test partner and perhaps others are reportedly set to operate their own in-app stores. Unlike other social commerce services most notably Facebook and Instagram Shops TikTok is not expected to deal with the actual transactions, but leave that to the merchants themselves. More from WWD TikTok confirmed to WWD that its running a test in the U.K., as well as Southeast Asia, as some reports had previously noted, but the company declined to offer any details on the initiative. More broadly, a spokeswoman explained that TikTok has been testing and learning with e-commerce offerings and partnerships and the platform is in a constant state of exploration. Were excited to experiment with new commerce opportunities that enable people to discover and engage with what they love, she added. The expanded tests represent significant forward momentum for TikToks retail ambitions, and may even potentially signal an impending launch. That would put it in the crosshairs of Facebooks sprawling empire, which has claimed its own stake in social commerce. But TikTok is no David to Facebooks Goliath. While its just five years old, and often likes to describe itself as a scrappy start-up, its actually owned by a major tech giant worth more than one Coca-Cola or five Twitters. By the math, ByteDances $250 billion valuation puts it in the same league as Facebook, with $280 billion. The Beijing-based company owns more than 20 apps, including highly popular platforms like Douyin. TikToks kin, both spiritually and literally, the China-based short video app pulled in $26 billion through e-commerce over its first year. In January 2021 alone, it clocked in with $128 million. Story continues ByteDance cofounder Zhang Yiming reportedly outlined his vision to employees in December, telling them that the combination of livestreaming, short videos and e-commerce would pack even more punch abroad. Theres certainly less stopping the company at this point, now that the Trump administration is no longer threatening the apps ability to operate in the U.S. Meanwhile, the Biden White House remains undecided about whether it wants to resume the predecessors battle against the app developer. Now, for TikTok, all roads seem to lead to e-commerce. The developer, which launched TikTok for Business last year, has made no secret of its interest in retail, but its efforts were primarily rooted in two partnerships one with Walmart on shoppable livestreams and another with Canadian mega-retail platform Shopify, which allowed merchants to connect with TikTok users through their online dashboards. Neither really amounted to actual shopping within the app. TikTok has also been exploring affiliate product linking for its creator community, with efforts like shoppable tags, and ways to facilitate discovery through catalogs. For instance, its Collection Ads offering allows brands to tie product catalogue listings to branded videos, so people can find the items they see in the clips. Certainly advertising and product discovery has been critical for the platform so far. But, like Facebook and Instagram, it may see commerce as its future. And that means turning TikTok into more than a traffic referrer to other sites. The network itself would have to become the destination. And now, it may have just taken its first concrete step toward that. (Bloomberg) -- Facing skyrocketing lumber prices at home, U.S. importers are driving competition for European wood, and winning. The frenzy comes on the heels of record American forest-products imports from Europe in 2020, when North American demand soared and caught sawmills off guard with low inventories. Lumber prices have reached new peaks on a near daily basis in recent weeks, quadrupling from just a year ago. The unprecedented rally has been spurred by low borrowing rates, an increased appetite for larger homes, and a frenzy of do-it-yourself renovations during the pandemic. Unrelenting building demand means U.S. sawmills have been unable to catch up, causing suppliers to look to Europe for a reprieve as it is one of the few parts of the globe with a surplus due to a beetle infestation that killed large swaths of trees that must now be harvested. Voracious U.S. demand means beetle-killed wood in Europe could sell faster than expected, though international shipping and U.S. trucking constraints limit supply chain capabilities. The other markets are getting pulled up by the U.S., said Geoff Berwick, vice president of business development at Atlantic Forest Products. Berwick has been importing lumber from Europe since 1999 and his job has never been easier, he said. Customers tell him: Get me covered and let me know what its going to cost. Normally, prices are negotiated. The buying power of lumber importers in the U.S. is strengthened by home builders willingness to pay up, as project costs rise by the hour on some days. The cost of lumber for the average U.S. house has increased by nearly $36,000 over the last year, according to the National Association of Home Builders. The U.S. continues to buy the biggest share of its foreign forest products from Canada, but imports from the European Union reached an all-time high in 2020, nearly tripling 2019s amount. The biggest jump from European countries came from Sweden, which rose a dizzying 1,300%. Imports from Europe remained strong in the first three months of 2021, up 37% from the same period a year ago, USDA Foreign Agricultural Service data show. Story continues European producers will always look for the best markets. Right now thats still the U.S., said Thomas Mende, chief executive officer of Binderholz Timber Inc. in Georgia, the U.S. branch of Binderholz GmbH in Austria. The Chinese have been more aggressive and are willing to pay higher prices, so are the Indian buyers. These days when Binderholz has wood available, its often sold within a minutes, Mende said. Insane Demand Even with insane Chinese demand for European lumber, the strength of U.S. buying is the largest factor supporting prices, said Hans-Joachim Hormel, the head of Baden-Wuerttemberg State Forest lumber sales in Germany. U.S. buyers have lower expectations for quality, so the damage and discolorations in lumber from beetle-infested forests make it ideal for export stateside, Hormel said. BPWood, a lumber trading house based in one of the main North American producing regions of British Columbia, has increased its European imports tenfold compared to a typical month last fall, according to Chief Executive Officer Paul Bouchard. Still, deliveries may come with a one- to two-month lag given robust demand in the U.S. Its a rowdy, rock n roll surreal market right now, Bouchard said. U.S. lumber futures fell for a third straight day Wednesday, trading more than $200 below Mondays record high of $1,733.50 per 1,000 board feet. Still, traders are reluctant to say the market has reached its peak due to the lack of lumber reaching customers and inability of mills to ship product quickly amid a trucking shortage. Customers and distributors clamored for material to fill in voids or meet obligations, and the mills struggled to ship existing orders, said William Giguere, who buys and sells eastern spruce with mills for Sherwood Lumber in Massachusetts, in a note on Wednesday. (Updates with futures, traders comment in final two paragraphs) For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2021 Bloomberg L.P. The US government has agreed to remove Xiaomi from a Trump administration blocklist after the company filed a lawsuit earlier this year, according to court documents seen by Bloomberg. Xiaomi was added to a US military list of alleged Chinese military companies in January, which would have blocked American investment in the firm. "The Parties have agreed upon a path forward that would resolve this litigation without the need for contested briefing," the filing reportedly states. Other details are scant, but both parties will file another joint proposal before May 20th, according to Bloomberg. Late in Trump's term, the US Department of Defense declared Xiaomi to be Chinese military controlled firm and part of China's "military-civil fusion strategy." Xiaomi fired back with the lawsuit just two weeks later, stating that its two co-founders owned 75 percent of voting rights and that there were no military links to ownership. It added that three of its most prominent shareholders were US investment groups. In March, a US court temporarily halted the ban, saying that Xiaomi was likely to win a full reversal. It also issued an injunction to prevent it from suffering "irreparable harm." So far, the Pentagon, Xiaomi and Chinese authorities have yet to comment on the development. 374 students prepare to showcase their STEM projects to students, parents and educators across the country in the most accessible fair on record From May 19 to May 21, thousands of Canadians engaged in education and the future of Canada will gather for what will likely be the single largest STEM-based online gathering in the history of our country. Held 59 times since 1962, Canada-Wide Science Fair Ottawa 2021 will take place entirely online and with an open invitation to all Canadians to join in on the adventure to the heart of scientific exploration and STEM education. With registration now closed and only one week remaining until the fair opens to the public, exactly 374 young students from every province and territory, grades 7 to 12 and Cegep, are now in final preparation mode to showcase their STEM projects to, well, all of us. "We could not be more excited for our participants," says Reni Barlow, executive director at Youth Science Canada, the organization behind the event since 1962. "Canada-Wide usually entails a trip and an intense weeklong experience in the physical sense. This years event is unique in that our finalists have the potential to reach many more people than ever before. Though this year is different, were prouder than ever to be leading this movement." The mission of Youth Science Canada and, by extension, Canada-Wide Science Fair, has always been to fuel the curiosity of Canadian youth through science, technology, engineering and mathematics projects a mission that is more relevant today with the protracted presence and impact of COVID-19. Although difficult to predict, organizers expect some 30,000 visitors to the virtual fair which is free for anyone with Internet access in Canada, thats approximately 36 million potential persons, or 94 per cent of the countrys population*. Once inside the fair, visitors will also be able to explore the Project Zone, which features the projects of CWSF finalists students who have earned a top position at their regional fair, also held virtually in 2021. In the STEM Expo space, visitors and participants will be able to explore more than 60 virtual exhibits from leading STEM-related organizations including post-secondary institutions, agencies, companies, museums and other youth STEM related organizations. Story continues Throughout their time online, visitors will also be able to tune into CWSF-TV, an on-demand and livestreamed specialty, event-based TV network with three hours of original STEM-related content each day including interviews with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Dr. Robert Thirsk, Dr. Mona Nemer, Canadas Chief Science Advisor and short videos from STEM partners across the country such as Ingenium, Canadian Museum of Nature, Telus World of Science in Edmonton and the Canadian Association of Physicists. Visitors who choose to register at www.projectboard.world.ysc can also participate in an educational and entertaining Escape Room and Scavenger Hunt taking place twice daily throughout the three days of the event. Available for two age groups, grade 5 to 8 and 9 to 11, students will search among the STEM Expo booths and finalist projects for answers to STEM-related questions. Participants will be entered into a daily draw for various prizes. Hosted virtually by Carleton University, finalists will be offered a variety of experiences during the event week from lab sessions to virtual tours of the national capital and local museums. Every year, roughly half a million K-12 students in Canada create a STEM project. During the months of March and April, more than 20,000 students showcase their projects at more than 100 regional fairs in every province and territory. The Canada-Wide Science Fair is the countrys largest annual youth STEM event, recognizing top projects from every regional fair. And now it is your turn to visit Canada-Wide Science Fair Ottawa 2021. Visit https://projectboard.world.ysc/ to start your adventure. * Stats Can. About Youth Science Canada Youth Science Canada fuels the curiosity of Canadian youth through STEM projects. A registered charity incorporated in 1962, YSC delivers on its mission through national programs including mySTEMspace, the National STEM Fair Network, Canada-Wide Science Fair, STEM Expo, "Team Canada" representation at international fairs and Smarter Science professional development for teachers. Through these programs, YSC provides direct support to the more than 500,000 students who do STEM projects in any given year. For more information, visit youthscience.ca. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005612/en/ Contacts Media Contacts: Samiha Fariha Torchia Communications Cell: (647) 268-6687 samiha@torchiacom.com Penelope Carreau Torchia Communications Cell: (514) 984-6123 penelope@torchiacom.com Cars crowded gas stations along the State Route 3 business corridor from the Interstate 95 interchange to points west early Tuesday evening as the ripple effects of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown spread to the Fredericksburg area. While local gas stations were plenty busy and some even ran out of fuel, there were no excessively long lines of vehicles waiting to gas up, as has been reported in Virginia and other states as the key pipeline serving the East Coast remained closed. The 5,500-mile pipeline was hit by a cyberattack on Friday night. The FBI confirmed on Monday that the ransomware attack was orchestrated by a Russia-based criminal group called DarkSide. While officials initially said the shutdown was unlikely to have an immediate impact on gasoline supplies, it didnt take long for gas lines to start forming at stations in Southeastern and Atlantic Coast states. Photos and videos shared on social media showed drivers lining up for gas in the Carolinas, Georgia and other states in the Southeast, according to the Associated Press. Many stations have run out of gas. In Virginia, the governor declared a state of emergency on Tuesday because of the pipeline disruption. What youre feeling is not a lack of supply or a supply issue. What we have is a transportation issue, said Jeanette McGee, spokeswoman for the AAA auto club. There is ample supply to fuel the United States for the summer, but what were having is an issue with is getting it to those gas stations" because the pipeline is down. The pipeline runs from the Gulf Coast to the New York metropolitan region, but states in the Southeast are more reliant on it. Other parts of the country have more sources to tap. For example, a substantial amount of fuel is delivered to states in the Northeast by massive tankers. Jamar Gatison, 36, was filling up his tank in Norfolk, Virginia, Wednesday before a doctors appointment. Im about to run out of gas, so I have no choice, the construction worker said while waiting in line at a 7-Eleven. Im also an Uber Eats driver. I also need gas for that, said Gatison, who added he probably wont deliver food Wednesday night because he doesnt want to wait in line again while the shortage continues. The clause is written in future tense because none of this had come to pass yet when the Constitution was originally ratified. In 2021, however, the creation and acceptance of the District and the cession of land has already happened. And, as required by the Constitution, the federal government took authority over it. They have no constitutional power to now hand over that authority to any other entity, including a state government. Aside from that direct violation of the Constitution, the bill would also render the 23rd Amendment obsolete. The amendment states that The District constituting the seat of Government of the United States shall appoint in such manner as the Congress may direct: A number of electors of President and Vice President equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives in Congress to which the District would be entitled if it were a State. The Constitution requires that the seat of government have at least three electoral votes in the presidential election. If the seat of government is whittled down to a few government buildings and monuments, its population will consist of whoever lives in the White House. Are the president and his family going to have three electoral votes all to themselves? After two masterful graphic quasi-memoirs that were almost more about her parents ("Fun Home" and "Are You My Mother?"), Alison Bechdel finally turns her gaze on herself, with beautiful results. Ostensibly framed as the story of her decadeslong obsession with exercise, the book appears to have metamorphosed from a simple physical fitness guide. The final product yokes in Margaret Fuller and the Transcendentalists, Jack Kerouac, Joseph Campbell, Buddhism, L.L. Bean, Patagonia, discovering yoga in Minneapolis, workout videos, various manias and girlfriends, the pressure of even graphic novelist-level fame, and, ultimately, death itself. Using her pursuit of different fitness fads (a "rampant expanse of damp spandex") as a jumping-off point, Bechdel describes her decade-by-decade search for some kind of meaning to transcend all the hamster wheels she kept jumping on. Her mania for work, whether the long-running "Dykes to Watch Out For" comic strip or her minutely detailed books, was matched by exercising to the point of burnout. Continually measuring herself against others especially her father, whose somewhat disapproving glare familiar from "Fun Home" reappears here she knows that her fitful bursts of mania and bleakness are as unsustainable as her avoidance of mortality: "I seemed to be going nowhere fast." The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) is collaborating with J P Morgan and Bank ABC in a pilot scheme to introduce instantaneous cross border payment solution leveraging state of the art technology and digital currency. Bank ABC along with J.P. Morgan will pilot the transferring of funds from and to the Kingdom of Bahrain in US-Dollars for payments from buyers to suppliers. This will lead to suppliers being paid faster and buyers originating payments in shorter time periods without the need for holding funds in advance. The Central Bank of Bahrain will act as a close partner in the pilot between Bank ABC and J.P. Morgan and going forward would look to extend the collaboration to Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). Rasheed Al-Maraj, Governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, said: We at the Central Bank of Bahrain are extremely pleased to announce this collaboration which is in line with our vision and strategy to continually develop and enrich the capabilities extended to the stakeholders within our financial services sector in the Kingdom using emerging technologies. Through this pilot with J.P Morgan and Bank ABC, we aspire to address the inefficiencies and pain-points which exist today in the traditional cross-border payments arena. Bank ABCs Deputy Group CEO Sael Al Waary commented: We are excited to collaborate with the CBB and JP Morgan in this landmark pilot, to develop a more efficient payments infrastructure, focused on addressing the current limitations in cross-border payments. We envisage major changes across the world with digital currencies, which will play a critical role in enabling the future digital economies. Ali Moosa, Vice Chairman of Wholesale Payments at J.P Morgan, stated: J.P. Morgan ONYX has been setup with the mandate to lead the buildout of next generation clearing and settlement infrastructures and we are delighted to partner with a leading central bank and regulator like the CBB and an innovation-focused partner like Bank ABC to lead the buildout of a next generation payment and settlement infrastructure. TradeArabia News Service Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} The grand jurys role is to investigate the death to determine if charges should be made against someone for committing a crime in connection with the death. The grand jury consists of 16 members and three alternates, more than a trial jury, and aside from witnesses and court/law enforcement personnel, are the only ones allowed in the courtroom. The jurys work is conducted in secrecy, and jurors must not discuss the investigation, deliberations or votes to avoid obstruction of justice and to protect witnesses or other people involved. Following the grand jurys investigation, members will decide if charges should be filed, and the decision will be filed in the office of the clerk of the Dodge County District Court. In the case of a custody death, grand juries may also make findings or recommendations to change the policies or procedures involved with the death. An employee with the district court said that the grand jury report for Knoells case is confidential. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The resolution passed unanimously. Associate Superintendent Brad Dahl also provided an update to the board regarding the May 3 Citizens Committee meeting at Fremont High School. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} The meeting included a tour of the high school, which Dahl said allowed community members to examine various aspects of the facility, ranging from the schools HVAC system to its locker rooms. FHS was originally built in 1960 and had 24 rooms added on to the building in 1968. Three more additions were constructed in the 2000s. We had some very lively small-group discussion and then they reported back to us and helped give us definitive data so we can move forward, Dahl said. A fourth and final Citizens Committee meeting will take place on May 17. The location and time of that meeting has not yet been determined. Dahl said FPS is looking at three potential dates when the bond issue vote could take place: Aug. 10, Sept. 14 and Oct. 12. Before any bond issue can go to the public for a vote, it must first be passed by the FPS Board of Education. Dahl said he is hoping to introduce a resolution regarding the bond issue to the board as early as June or as late as August. Hazel and Sid Dillons grandson, Andy Sajevic, shared thoughts about his grandmother at the event. Her faith was kind of the rock of who she was, and then followed right behind that was her children and her grandchildren, Sajevic said. I think its just a fitting tribute to see what has come of this camp and this building. She would be very happy with where things are. In 1974, George and Irene Holling provided the gift of a half section of land near Ashland to the Nebraska Synod of the Lutheran Church in America in memory of their daughter, Carol Joy Holling. The Carol Joy Holling Camp opened in 1979 with 356 campers. George Hollings great-nephew, Mike, spoke during the recent ceremony. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} George was a Kiewit executive for almost 60 years, and he knew a good project when he saw one, Mike Holling said. I think he would be really pleased to see all the facilities that have been developed here. When George passed away in 1988, the camp was viable; it was what you would expect at that time. But, I dont know that he ever could have imagined it would develop into the kind of facilities that we enjoy here today. Nationwide, the majority of law enforcement agencies still close records or make them hard to obtain. They claim they are personnel matters, privacy violations, or ongoing investigations that could be compromised. They are backed by strong law enforcement unions and the law enforcement bills of rights that protect the privacy rights of officers over the publics right to know. The National Decertification Index published by the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training compiles 30,257 decertifications from 45 state agencies, but the names are closed to the public. Sam Stecklow, a journalist with the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalistic group focused on public accountability, said in an interview some of the states where it has become easier to request records are Illinois, New York Florida, Utah, New York and some cities in Texas. He said Nebraska, Hawaii, Kansas and Virginia are closed to the public. There are some states that we havent even been able to work at all in because they ... require you to be a resident to make a request, Stecklow said. So we just havent really tried there. That includes Tennessee and Delaware and Virginia as well. A Fillmore County man who triggered a social media storm last fall after driving around Lincoln with a racist message on his pickup truck was sentenced to prison Tuesday for attempted manufacture of a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm. Fillmore County District Judge Vicky Johnson sentenced Austin J. Cordis, 21, of rural Ohiowa, to three to five years in prison. In exchange for a guilty plea, prosecutors reduced the charge from possession of a firearm while committing a drug violation and dismissed three other felony charges. The charges against Cordis were brought after investigators from the Fillmore County Sheriff's Office searched a farm where Cordis lived on March 13, 2020. According to an affidavit filed in Fillmore County Court, investigators located a large hydroponic marijuana-growing operation. In September, several people posted photos of a pickup truck driven by Cordis in Lincoln with a coarse expletive and the N-word in large red, white and blue lettering above "Trump 2020." Cordis later said that the pickup belonged to him but that he didn't write the message. An image of the pickup was shared on Twitter and retweeted by, among others, retired professional basketball player Rex Chapman, who has more than 947,000 Twitter followers. A federal judge in Maryland has rejected a plea agreement that called for 15 to 21 years in prison for a man who authorities say was the worlds largest purveyor of child pornography Colorado Springs, CO (80903) Today Lots of sunshine. High 92F. Winds S at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible.. Tonight A clear sky. Low 56F. Winds NW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. Bahrains Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) and Etihad Energy Services Company (Etihad Esco), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), will collaborate towards achieving sustainability goals. Both organisations signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) during a virtual ceremony, in the presence of Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of Dewa and Dr Abdul Hussain Bin Ali Mirza - President of SEA, a WAM report said. Through the MoU, both parties will exchange and share the best global experiences and practices in energy efficiency, renewable energy, to support sustainability efforts in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The MoU aims to support both parties in the implementation of sustainable energy initiatives to achieve the common goals. It also aims to enhance cooperation to address energy-related areas in the Kingdom of Bahrain. These include Energy Performance Contracting (Esco) Projects, Solar On-Grid and Off-Grid Installations, Facility Management and Electromechanical Services, IT Solutions and Technologies Including Command and Control Centres, IoT, Smart Automation and Network Operations, in addition to Capacity Building Training Services. Al Tayer said: " It is a pleasure to sign this strategic MoU between Etihad Esco and Sustainable Energy Authority. This collaborative work represents a unique opportunity to exchange expertise regionally and globally in the field of sustainability and energy efficiency. We look forward to strengthening cooperation and exchanging the best international experiences of energy efficiency and sustainability to achieve our common goals and to continue this sustainable development journey, for a better future." Dr Mirza said: "The Sustainable Energy Authority is committed towards a more sustainable future and will ensure rapid progress towards the Kingdoms National Renewable Energy Targets and National Energy Efficiency targets. SEA believes that collaboration with Etihad Esco will surely boost the energy efficiency and sustainable development process." -- TradeArabia News Service On the morning of March 3, 1991, a United Airlines jet approaching the Colorado Springs Airport after a brief flight from Denver crashed in Wi Family members of the six people who died mourn at the scene where their loved ones were killed early Sunday morning. A small makeshift memorial has started outside the trailer where the killings occurred at the Canterbury Mobile Home Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Monday, May 10, 2021. The panel for the Community Conversation on COVID-19 vaccines and herd immunity Wednesday, May 12, includes Dr. Emily Bates, Professor of Pediatrics, CU School of Medicine (top left); Dr. Kweku Hazel, Surgical Fellow at CU Anschutz (top right); Dr. Lisa Miller, Professor of Epidemiology, Director of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program, and the Associate Dean for Public Health Practice at the Colorado School of Public Health (bottom left); and Dr. Ross Kedl, Professor of Immunology and Microbiology, CU School of Medicine (bottom right). Cheyenne Mountain High School student Nicholas Hallee gets his COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Ashleigh Sims, R.N., on Wednesday in the schools gym on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 in southwest Colorado Springs. Younger teens are likely to become eligible for the vaccine later this week. (Photo by Jerilee Bennett, The Gazette) A CSPD officer is stationed at the end of the street where seven people were shot and killed early Sunday morning in Colorado Springs. Abu Dhabi Housing Authority (ADHA) in collaboration with Musanada has announced the launch of its new AED1.26 billion ($344 million) Al Mughira Housing Complex featuring a total of 410 villas in Al Dhafra region. Spread over a 2-million-sq-m area in the Al Mirfa City, the Emirati-style residential community boasts five-bedroom units along with other key amenities. Each of these residential units covers a total land area of 543 sq m, and consists of majlis (separate for men and women), food hall, two family living rooms, kitchen, store, plus two private rooms for a maid and a driver, among other facilities, said Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler's Representative in Al Dhafra Region, after unveiling the project. Sheikh Hamdan said the project was being implemented as per the directives of the President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, with the support of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. He was later briefed on the project and was shown the design plans and specifications along with the interior and exterior details of the project which includes integrated community facilities, such as schools, shopping malls, parks and open areas, supported by roads, street lights, rainwater drainage, and infrastructure work for communication lines, sewage networks, as well as water and electricity supply. Lauding the project, Falah Mohamed Al Ahbabi, the Chairman of Abu Dhabi Housing Council, said the project comes in translation of the UAE leadership's determination to continue to ensure decent life for all citizens with the ultimate goal of maintaining social welfare in the emirate. "Al Mughira provides an ideal residential community that combines the advantages of modern designs inspired from a quintessential Emirati environment," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. UI modernization requires more than funding Thanks to $2 billion in funding in the American Rescue Plan Act, states can start modernizing their legacy unemployment insurance benefits systems. State leaders, however, say that funding and federal involvement isn't enough. New Mexico modernized its UI system in 2013 and has tried to pursue continuous modernization and improvement since then, said Sue Anne Athens, CIO in New Mexico's Department of Workforce Solutions, at an event hosted by GovExec. Unfortunately, federal funds can't necessarily be used for continuous improvement, which can be a "constraint," she said. "I think there is this vision that there'll be a great modernized system that the feds can come up with," she said, but at the end of the day, the state owns the UI system. It owns the processes. It has the subject matter expertise on the ground." In Georgia, Labor Commissioner Mark Butler said, state workforce agencies funding cycles also present hurdles to IT modernization and management. Generally, state workforce agencies get less funding during economically prosperous times, when fewer people are applying for UI, he said. "We're the opposite of everything else in government," he said. "Our funding formula is probably 35 to 40 years old and it's mainly based on the number of claims being done." Right now, Georgia's workforce agency is "flush with cash," Butler said. "Since March of 2020, money has not been an issue." His office is using the resources to hire staff, but he's already thinking about when these funding resources might fade when the crisis ends, Butler said. Although New Mexico and Georgia aren't in need of UI tech overhauls, Athens and Butler said that some of the federal Labor Department tech portals that states access could do with some updates as well. "We're still tied to some of the federal systems, which are lacking in modernization," Athens said. Athens did say she would welcome federal help with identity management and fraud prevention, issues that have shot up during the pandemic with soaring numbers of fraudulent claims. This article was first posted to FCW, a sibling site to GCN. "Cutting the safety net out from underneath Iowans who are still out of work and looking for a job is no way to do it," Axne said. "Slashing their benefits only sends the message that Iowa isn't on the side of its workers and their families." Charlie Wishman, president of Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, also said cutting unemployment "isn't the answer" for Iowa's long-term workforce shortage. "Iowa needs to change its course economically, take steps to raise wages and benefits, make Iowa a good place to raise a family and actually invest in our education instead of defunding it," Wishman said in a statement. Some Democrats have pointed to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago saying those who receive unemployment payments search more intensely for work. The study said, though, that those who do not receive benefits are more likely to accept a job that pays considerably less than their previous job. The Iowa Association of Business and Industry, which represents about 1,500 employers in the state, lauded Reynolds decision. Iowa had a workforce shortage prior to the pandemic, Iowa ABI President Mike Ralston said in a statement. The continued extended benefits have only exacerbated the challenge and slowed our recovery. Rivera, who worked on a local dairy farm under an alias, has pleaded not guilty. He faces life in prison if convicted. Under the Iowa Supreme Court's COVID-19 rules, those inside courtrooms are supposed to be at least six feet apart from others and wear face coverings. Yates said in his ruling that the limited size of the Scott County courtroom did not leave space for members of the public or news media to attend, with the exception of one pool photographer. Court TV and the Law and Crime Network have informed court officials of their intent to broadcast a livestream, and local outlets might follow suit. The court is also expected to make the proceedings available for journalists covering the trial remotely on a Zoom feed. One exception is jury selection, which will take place at the River Center in Davenport to allow extra space for social distancing. Members of the public and media will be allowed to attend but jury selection cannot be broadcast or covered live under Iowa courtroom media rules. Laptops, cell phones and cameras will not be allowed. Jury selection is expected to last two days, while the trial could go for 10 more. Media will also not be allowed inside two remote viewing rooms set up inside the courthouse for family members, and will instead be expected to work from a staging area in the parking lot. Reporters are barred from conducting any interviews inside the courthouse under Yates' order and cannot contact him or his staff directly. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Theres a pretty good chance that a few wandering black bears coming down from Minnesota and Wisconsin will visit northeast Iowa in the coming weeks, according to Vince Evelsizer, furbearer and wetland wildlife research biologist with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. It has been an annual occurrence in this region each spring since 2014. Black bears are native to Iowa, but Iowa has been without a resident bear population for more than 100 years. Since 2002, there have been 43 confirmed black bears in Iowa, and two to five per year since 2014. As black bear populations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri are stable to increasing, it is possible that a small population could set up residence in Iowa. Within the next three to five years, I think we can expect to see cubs show up and a small breeding population become established, Evelsizer said. Most likely, that would be in areas of northeast, eastern and southern Iowa, areas with the habitat necessary to support bears. However, many gasoline retailers were saying Tuesday that they still have supplies, and some gas market observers were urging people to remain calm and avoid panic buying. There is no question that the Colonial Pipeline outage is becoming a significant event for the entire East Coast as it supplies over 50% of fuel supply to end consumers in many markets that it serves, said Lori Bruce, a spokeswoman for Wawa Inc., a major chain of convenience stores. However, I can share that Wawa has had no interruption of supply at its stores in our six states and plans on maintaining supply through this event, Bruce said. Henrico County-based GPM Investments LLC, the parent company of the Fas Mart convenience store chain and hundreds of others across the country, said Tuesday it has had spot outages of gasoline. As of this morning, we have spot outages in certain areas but nothing widespread at this time, said Arie Kotler, chairman, president and CEO of Arko Corp. the parent company of GPM. We are mostly branded fuel and have many brands and supply relationships, so we are able to pull resources from other markets. Sheetz, another major convenience store chain, said Tuesday that it is not experiencing any widespread gasoline outages. Vets were already struggling to meet the pre-pandemic demand, with veterinary schools unable to churn out enough doctors and techs to fill the void. Krahn left her North Carolina practice three months ago and now oversees nine veterinary and animal hospital clinics across Utah and Idaho under Pathway Vet Alliance. "All of my practices are booking out several weeks in advance. Clients are actually calling around and scheduling appointments at multiple locations," and even resorting to emergency care facilities, she said. Banfield Pet Hospital, one of the largest national providers of preventive veterinary medicine, had approximately half a million more pet visits in 2020 than in 2019. And its telehealth service more than doubled in volume from March through the end of last year. Thrive, another veterinary hospital primary care group, with 110 facilities across the U.S., reported a 20% increase in demand during the pandemic. Both repeated a common refrain: As humans spent more time with their pets, they were more in tune with their ailments big and small. "With COVID, a lot of people became powerless to the ones closest to them," said Claire Pickens, a senior director at Thrive, "but the one thing they still had the ability to control was caring for their pet." Work is moving at a steady pace on the new Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre (BIECC) in Sakhir with 30 per cent of the project already completed. The foundation stone for the BD84-million ($221 million) mega project was laid by HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince Prime Minister, in January last year. The project next to Bahrain International Circuit features exhibition halls and conference rooms fitted with the latest technology to host major shows and celebrations and seal trade transactions. The 149,000-sq-m facility will include 10 exhibition halls covering a total of 95,000 sq m and a 4,500-sq-m conference hall, in addition to attached stores and independent entrances and exits. It will also feature two VIP majlis to receive high-level visitors, in addition to control rooms, internal roads, services and parking for 1,600 cars, of which about 130 parking spaces will be reserved for VIPs. With the work in full swing, the expo centre is due for completion by the second quarter of 2022, said Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed bin Rashid Al Zayani after an inspection tour of the BIECC facility yesterday (May 11). Al Zayani, who is also the Board Chairman of Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Authority (BTEA), received a briefing on the latest developments in implementing the project. He praised the efforts of the Ministry of Works, Municipality Affairs and Urban Planning for its supervisory role supporting the implementation of the strategic project. The minister affirmed that the project is the biggest one carried out by BTEA and will provide an exemplary venue to host international events. The centre will further attract the organising companies of exhibitions and conferences to hold their international events in it, said Al Zayani. This will further promote the tourism sector in the kingdom so as to diversify revenues and achieve the aspirations of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, he added.-TradeArabia News Service It cuts through the heart of their property, Clarke said. For the last three years, theyve lived next to a construction zone. Construction of the $6.2 billion project has been slowed by court battles with environmental groups, who say the pipeline is marring the landscape and polluting the waters of Southwest Virginia. And for the past year, jury trials on just compensation have been put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic. Mountain Valley has said that about 85% of the properties it needed for the pipeline were acquired voluntarily, and in those cases there was no need to sue the landowners under eminent domain. So far, the company has paid approximately $40 million to Virginia landowners and $85 million to West Virginia landowners to acquire land rights for the project, according to company spokeswoman Natalie Cox. In his opening statements Tuesday, Mountain Valley attorney Wade Massie said an appraisal conducted for the company found the Chandlers home and land to be worth about $1 million. News of the pipeline diminished that value by about 15%, the appraisal found, which would mean the Chandlers are entitled to about $150,000 in just compensation. We dont know if Youngkin is the right candidate, but hes not obviously the wrong one the way some other choices would have been. As for the right circumstances, heres the danger for Democrats: With Trump out of office, Democrats dont feel the same urgency. If turnout falls to normal levels for an off-year election, that helps Republicans. More left-leaning Democrats wont feel as enthusiastic about a ticket led by an establishment figure like the pipeline-supporting McAuliffe; they might sit out. The Democratic establishment is pushing an all-Northern Virginia ticket, which might not play well downstate. Democrats might even be deprived of their diversity argument of fielding candidates who look like Virginia in nominating Miyares for attorney general, the party just nominated the first Latino for statewide office and might field the most diverse ticket ever in Virginia and Democrats seem unlikely right now to match that. Another factor: How many voters are simply worn out by all the dizzying transformations that Virginia Democrats have wrought and simply want to hit the pause button for a while? Dunn specializes in making first-aid salves and solar infused oils and helped participants make a couple of these products from herbs often located just a few steps from their backdoor steps. Akers discussed techniques for mushroom propagation with primitive equipment readily available in most home kitchens and/or workshops. A guided hike to seek out edible wild plants, weeds and flowers native to the camp area took in a wide trail around the nearly 200-acre facility, including the beaver pond. Although health issues this year prevented his being a guide, Milton Hundley, 82, of Eden led foraging and educational hikes for many years in the past. He began participating the second year and still comes every year. On the first night of the weekend event, the campers enjoyed a Night Owl Hike around the lake in search of owls. Saturdays events began early with a bird walk and talk followed by a choice of several foraging and workshop options. Saturday afternoon was spent preparing the foods. After the dinner, everyone enjoyed activities such as songs about catfish, wild snake tales and musical numbers. Sundays events culminated the weekend and included an introduction about first aid uses of wild plants and preparing and processing wild plant materials and dyes. DANVILLE, Va. As the weather warms, more residents head toward water adventures, especially along the Dan River. Thats one reason why the Danville (Va.) Life Save Crews Swiftwater Rescue team converged on a recent Saturday. Members spent April 24 a chilly, rainy day training on the Dan River. When emergencies occur, it is rarely a beautiful, sunny and 75 [degree] day, said medic Charlotte Newnam, who coordinated the days training. Anything can happen at any time, and we all have to be prepared to accomplish the task regardless of the elements, Newnam said in a news release. The training both in and out of the water involved many components. First, with river temperatures about 53 degrees, the team spent time in the water to get used to the different conditions. Since each part of the river has a different characteristic, those involved with the training learned how to approach each section. They also went over boat operations and maneuvers. The technicians assessed different current flows along the river and incorporated the use of eddies, Bryan Fox, the crews deputy chief, said in the release. Neighboring Virginia announced plans this week to vaccinate the 12-15 age group through its public schools. And RCS officials said they are open to the idea but need more time to put a plan in place. We would like to do this if possible, Ellis said, but that just happened yesterday so we would like to plan those. We just do not have them planned yet as this was just approved. For individuals 16 and older, including community members or staff who need vaccines, consent forms are available at http://bit.ly/RCSCONSENTFORM). The full schedule for the high school campus clinics and more information can be viewed at: http://bit.ly/RCSStudentVACCINE. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} All of the RCS clinics will be held between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Walk-ins are welcome, and IDs are not required, school officials said. Through it all, Vaughan said, Parrish put the employees first with his soft-spoken style. "I think the way that he values people, his decisions are made through that lens," Vaughan said. "It definitely affects his decision-making process and you can see it in many of the decisions over the last three years. Employees feel valued by him. He is approachable. He loves this city." During the pandemic, Parrish has had to juggle the challenges of helping administrators work from home, keeping trash collection going through outbreaks and quarantines, and the complications of maintaining social distance in some jobs where it's nearly impossible. Vaughan said he made sure everybody knew the city was open for business, keeping the website updated and helping the community in a variety of ways, large and small, including reaching out to the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation for help in paying for thousands of masks to give away to the public during the difficult early days of the pandemic. Parrish has also worked closely with council during a tough period for the Greensboro Police Department as it came under criticism in 2018 for its handling of the Marcus Smith case, where an unarmed Black man died after being excessively restrained by police. Most commencement speakers, Houston said, follow the same traditional script: They tell their own story, dispense some wisdom and advice and wish the graduates the best in their new lives after college. "I said, 'Why can't we tell them what we're going to do?'" Houston said in an interview this week. "Most of us know what our next steps are going to be." So college leaders decided each senior could record a 90-second video to be included in the virtual commencement. Seniors could talk about their own stories, their experiences at Bennett and what lies ahead for them. Bennett President Suzanne Walsh said "it's been a challenging and unusual year for them" the entire academic year was virtual so commencement needed a different approach. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} The graduating Bennett Belles believe they are best suited to speak about the experiences theyve had and offer the right kind of encouragement to each other and those who are following them," Walsh said in a statement. "And I agree wholeheartedly. The Colonial Pipeline launched the restart of its operations Wednesday evening following a six-day shutdown caused by a ransomware attack, but the pipeline's operators warned it will take several days for service to return to normal. "Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period," the pipeline company said in a statement. The Colonial Pipeline will move as much gasoline, diesel and jet fuel "as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal," the company said. The restart can't come soon enough. The shutdown sparked panic-buying and hoarding that has overwhelmed gas stations in the Southeast. A significant percentage of gas stations in Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina are without fuel, according to GasBuddy, which tracks fuel demand, prices and outages. A survey from the American Psychological Association conducted in March found 49% of Americans, regardless of their vaccination status, would feel uneasy returning to "in-person interaction" after the pandemic. Experts say it's natural to feel stressed about a return to normal life after more than a year of being told to social distance, avoid crowds and stay home. The Universal Postal Union (UPU) has announced that it was joining forces with Ian Kerr, the founder of the Postal Hub Podcast, to produce a monthly podcast called Voice Mail. Each episode of the UPUs Voice Mail offers a unique postal story from around the world. The podcast aims to speak to the people who deliver the mail, the decision-makers influencing the sector, and those who work so hard behind the scenes to help things move from A to B. Using personal reflections, anecdotes and insights, Voice Mail looks at how the postal sector forms an essential part of the multilateral relations between countries, as well as the United Nations and its efforts to support sustainable development. Voice Mails first episode tells the story behind the delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine. Thomas Ellmann, Vice-President, Life Sciences and Healthcare at Deutsche Post DHL Group discusses how the group supports distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine, and the sheer magnitude of this global effort. Ellmann describes the technology and infrastructure developed specifically for distributing the coronavirus vaccine, including the need to ensure extremely low temperatures for some vaccines. Voice Mail is a podcast that goes behind this vast infrastructure that spans the world and employs millions of people in every country to find the hidden stories explaining how this network touches all our lives, said David Dadge, UPUs Programme Manager for Communication and Events. Kerr is an experienced podcaster and the founder and host of the Postal Hub Podcast. He has a profound knowledge of the post and for many years worked for the Australian Postal Network. Kerr has contributed articles to Postal Technology International and Mail & Express Review. The global postal network has helped us stay connected during the pandemic. And now the delivery sector is at the forefront of distributing vaccines, said Kerr. There are so many stories that show how important the postal sector is to communities. Posties and post offices are everywhere, and are part of society's fabric. I'm looking forward to sharing more postal stories in future episodes of Voice Mail, he added.-- TradeArabia News Service This article was originally published by CalMatters and is part of the California Divide, a collaboration among newsrooms examining income inequality and economic survival in California. LOS ANGELES (AP) LeVar Burton has found another way to share his love of reading. The actor has launched the LeVar Burton Book Club in partnership with Fable, described on its app and website as a means to discover, read and discuss books, and help build human connections. As a lifelong advocate for literacy, the opportunity to launch my book club on Fables wonderful new platform is extremely exciting and timely, Burton said in a statement Tuesday. This partnership will help foster the importance of storytelling while sharing my love of reading. Burton, who helped young viewers love books with PBS Reading Rainbow and hosts the podcast LeVar Burton Reads, chose James Baldwins Go Tell It on the Mountain as his first Fable choice. Next up are Octavia Butlers Parable of the Sower and The Fire This Time, a poetry and essay collection edited by Jesmyn Ward. The actor who starred on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Roots is busy on another front this summer: He will step in as a guest host on Jeopardy! Carroll College is set to hold two commencement ceremonies on Saturday, honoring the classes of 2020 and 2021. Following the cancellation of their commencement ceremony last May due to COVID-19, the class of 2020 will have their time in the spotlight at 10 a.m. on Saturday. Following that, the class of 2021 will hold their ceremony at 1 p.m. Both ceremonies will be held at Nelson Stadium. "It was very important to us that we keep these two graduations distinct from one another," said Carroll President John Cech. "From the moment we had to cancel last year's in-person commencement, we have been very clear that we would have a ceremony on campus celebrating the class of 2020. We didn't always know exactly when it would occur, but we always acknowledged that they would be celebrated in their own right." Cech said the student leaders representing the class of 2021 have been very supportive of the class of 2020 and made it clear that the class of 2020 commencement ceremony in no way takes away from the class of 2021 commencement day. Any 2020 graduates who are not able to participate in Saturday's ceremony are invited to participate in any other commencement ceremonies during the next 10 years. When I was a boy, I remember hearing stories from my parents about the Great Depression and World War II. Back then a common saying was Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do, or do without. Women would draw a dark line up the backs of their legs with an eyebrow pencil to mimic the seam of silk stockings. There was no extra silk for stockings, it was used to make such things as parachutes for the war effort. One of those parachutes was worn by my uncle as he flew a dive bomber over Iwo Jima and Okinawa. As a nation, we pulled together, set aside our political beliefs, and sacrificed ourselves to fight against, and ultimately defeat, the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. During World War II, 419,400 United States Citizens died. Today we have a new challenge, one that requires us to pull together again. It isnt a rogue country, but it has killed millions of people. It is something that doesnt have feelings, it doesnt care about political affiliation, gender, wealth, borders or prestige. It is COVID-19. Seven groups asked the U.S. Board of Geographic Names on Tuesday to rename three geographic places in Montana now named after Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederated States of America during the Civil War, and change them in honor of Indigenous people and Chinese immigrants. A petition was submitted by the Montana Racial Equity Project, the Montana Human Rights Network, Forward Montana Foundation, Mai Wah Society, The Montana Wilderness Association, The Wilderness Society and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT). Those places include Davis Gulch, just south of Helenas city limits in Lewis and Clark County, and Jeff Davis Peak and Jeff Davis Creek, located in the southern stretch of the Bitterroot Range. The groups noted Davis, who served as president of the confederacy from 1861-1865, was an ardent defender of slavery and white supremacy. "Montana deserves better than to have three geographic features named in recognition of a white supremacist who, in his defense of slavery, led to the deaths of three-quarters of a million Americans," the petition states. The petition quotes him as saying "African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social and a political blessing." The meeting held in East Helena by Tactical Civics on April 6 was a recruitment event for people who have a "gut feeling" our country is headed in the wrong direction. While the reporter from the Independent Record was denied access, and commentary has been written and published in the IR, Tactical Civics Meeting Raises Questions, Helena IR April 16, 2021, I was able to attend and would like to make public what I understand were the primary points made during the 1-1/2 hour presentation and after some very serious reection, my thoughts. According to the speaker, Tactical Civics wants to put the United States back on track through two primary means: 1) Increase the number of representatives in Congress from 435 total (1 in 754,000 U.S. residents), to 1 in 50,000 citizens, (roughly 6,564 representatives). And require of those representatives to live in the states they represent, not live in Washington, D.C. 2) Bring back the Grand Jury process to investigate politicians who do not uphold the Constitution and local militia controlled by regional committees to enforce the will of the local committees/grand juries. And the meeting concluded with an appeal to attendees to do some soul searching and introspection to determine why exactly they want to join Tactical Civics. DECATUR Decatur Public School administrators will receive annual raises in the coming school year after a vote by the Decatur school board on Tuesday. Tuesday's meeting was the first with the four newest board members: Alana Banks, Kevin Collins-Brown, Jason Dion and Al Scheider, who were elected on April 6 and sworn in during a special meeting on May 3. Administrators, other than the superintendent, are given annual raises figured by a combination of the Consumer Price Index, which is 1.4% this year, and years of experience, typically a total of 2.16%. The total increase to the budget will amount to 3.3%, or $226,459. Administrator salaries total $7,024,106, which includes eight people on the retirement track. K-8 principals moved to a 240-day contract last year, and elementary principals are moving to 220 days for the 2021-22 school year. K-8 assistant principals will move from 195 days to 200 days contracts to be in line with middle school assistant principals. The increase accounts for the consolidation of buildings, the associated decrease in the total number of principals, and the addition of assistant principals at some elementary buildings. Three administrator positions remain unfilled: the director of buildings and grounds, assistant principal at Parsons School and dean of students at MacArthur High School. The raises for these positions were estimated. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} In other business, the board approved a contract with 1st Class Educator LLC to provide professional development to teachers in the areas of equity, creating culturally responsive climates and courageous conversations about diversity. The cost of $429,600 will be paid using CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act) funds, Title I and Title II funds. The company will provide 10 sessions to each building over the course of two years. Scheider voted against hiring an outside firm to provide the professional development, and also objected, based on his experience as a district employee until he resigned to serve on the board, that teachers were not given enough time for their work if they had to attend too much professional development. "I think that's something we need to look at closely," he said. "The amount of money we're paying for someone to come in from Texas or Seattle is quite huge, when I believe we have people who can provide professional development in these areas. I'm not trying to dismiss what is being worked on, but I'm very concerned about hiring people to do it from outside." Assistant Superintendent Jeff Dase, called to the podium to address the number of hours of professional development, said that between the hours built into the schedule and half-days, there are ample hours for these sessions and also for building-level sessions as well. The board also approved upgrades of technology, including 575 new MacBook Airs, 200 iPad Pros, and 100 desktop computers. The purchases will be paid for using CARES grant funds and the district's technology budget. A bid on the demolition of the Johns Hill Magnet School building and Quonset hut on the property was tabled during the March 23 board meeting over concerns about the Project Labor Agreement and the Minority Business Enterprise goals. Of the five bids received, the new low bid is lower than the previous low bid and also meets the Minority Business Enterprise goal. The board approved the bid from J.L. Sullivan Services Inc. for $1,061,198. The new Johns Hill building will be finished in time for the August start of school and the old building will be razed to make way for the north bus loop as part of the new campus. The bid also includes demolition of the Oak Grove building. Contact Valerie Wells at (217) 421-7982. Follow her on Twitter: @modgirlreporter Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SPRINGFIELD A man who was found guilty for acting as the lookout in a double homicide nearly three decades ago is asking the Illinois Supreme Court to find his mandatory life sentence without parole unconstitutional. A lawyer for Antonio House argued before Supreme Court Tuesday that his life sentence for a crime committed when he was 19 violates the so-called proportionate penalties clause of the Illinois Constitution. This clause in the constitution states: All penalties shall be determined both according to the seriousness of the offense and with the objective of restoring the offender to useful citizenship. Lauren Bauser, an assistant appellate defender who represents House, said the court should allow House to be resentenced because the record in this case demonstrates that Antonios mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole for a crime he committed as a teenager, as a teenage lookout, who wasnt present at the time of the killing, shocks the conscience. House was a member of the Unknown Vice Lords street gang at the time of the September 1993 murders of Stanton Burch and Michael Purham in Chicago. The killings were related to a gang conflict after Burch and Purham, who were members of a rival gang, took over a street corner for drug sales that previously was Unknown Vice Lords territory. House was arrested in October 1993 for participating in the armed kidnapping of Burch and Purham, and acting as lookout when the men were fatally shot. A jury found House guilty of two counts of first degree murder and two counts of aggravated kidnapping. He was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences, followed by 60 years in prison. Under Illinois law at the time, a conviction for murdering more than one person carried a mandatory life sentence without parole. Since his conviction and sentencing, House has appealed his case, focusing on two primary claims. First, he makes an innocence claim based on the fact that a key witness who testified she saw House kidnap Burch and Putnam has now recanted that testimony. This recanted testimony entitles him to a hearing on his claim of innocence, he argues. Second, House argues that recent U.S. Supreme Court cases demonstrate a consensus against the imposition of mandatory life sentences for juveniles. In addition, he argues that scientific advances in brain research indicate that evolving societal standards relating to juvenile sentences should also apply equally to older teenagers like 19-year-old House. On appeal, Houses innocence claim was dismissed by the 1st District Appellate Court, which is one level below the Illinois Supreme Court. However, the appellate court agreed with his argument that his mandatory life sentence without parole violated the proportionate penalties clause of the Illinois Constitution, and it vacated his conviction. Given (Houses) age, his family background, his actions as a lookout as opposed to being the actual shooter, and lack of any prior violent convictions, we find that (Houses) mandatory sentence of natural life shocks the moral sense of the community, the appellate courts 2015 opinion states. Our conclusion is not meant to diminish in any way of the seriousness of the crimes, specifically two convictions for murder and two convictions for aggravated kidnapping. We recognize (House) remains culpable for his participation. However, we believe that (House) is entitled to a new sentencing hearing in which the trial court has the ability to consider the relevant mitigating factors prior to imposing a sentence of such magnitude. The state appealed this decision to the Illinois Supreme Court, which accepted the case. In November 2018, the state Supreme Court issued a supervisory order that directed the 1st District Appellate Court to reconsider its decision vacating Houses sentence, in light of a different 2018 case, People v. Harris, on which the high court ruled. In People v. Harris, Darien Harris appealed his mandatory 76-year sentence for first-degree murder as unconstitutional because he was 18 years old at the time he committed the murder. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Harris sentence did not violate the Illinois Constitution or the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which bars cruel and unusual punishment. In reaching its decision in that case, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that, for sentencing purposes, the age of 18 marks the present line between juveniles and adults. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. The court concluded that, As an 18-year-old, (Harris) falls on the adult side of that line. In 2019, after reconsidering in light of People v. Harris, the 1st District Appellate Court reached the same decision to vacate Houses sentence. The state appealed the 1st Districts decision for a second time. The Illinois Supreme Court accepted the case, and it heard oral arguments on Tuesday. During oral arguments, Chief Justice Anne Burke asked the states attorney, Assistant Attorney General Gopi Kashyap, about Houses role in the murders. Isnt the real concern here that (House) received a mandatory life sentence and he really just acted as a lookout? Burke asked. Kashyap said House was not simply a lookout. He participated from the onset. This was a planned offense, it was a kidnapping and murder plot. It was not just his actions during the murder itself, Kashyap said. Both Kashyap and Bauser discussed the Illinois Supreme Courts 2002 decision in People v. Leon Miller, in which the court decided that a mandatory life sentence was unconstitutional when imposed on Leon Miller, who was convicted of two murders and was 15 years old at the time of the offense. Miller was found guilty for acting as a lookout while the murders took place. Kashyap argued that Houses case cannot be compared to Millers because Miller was a juvenile at the time of the murders. Miller was also unarmed at the time, while House was carrying a weapon, Kashyap said. But Bauser said the Illinois Supreme Court should use its decision in People v. Miller to guide its decision in Houses case because the court found that a lengthy sentence can violate the proportionate penalties clause, depending on the individual accountability and rehabilitative potential of a particular offender. Bauser also argued that U.S Supreme Court decisions in Roper v. Simmons (2005), Graham v. Florida (2010), and Miller v. Alabama (2012), which all involved juvenile offenders, require a sentencing court to consider the inherent qualities of youth when sentencing a juvenile in adult court. In the Graham and Miller cases, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a life sentence without parole imposed on a juvenile offender violates Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment. In Roper, the court ruled that a death sentence imposed on a juvenile violates the Eighth Amendment. In these cases, the U.S. Supreme Court emphasized the importance of considering a juveniles incomplete brain development and rehabilitative potential before imposing a criminal sentence that is a de facto or near life prison term. But the U.S. Supreme Court backtracked in Jones v. Mississippi, a case involving a 15-year-old convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole. The courts decision in April 2021 ruled that a sentencing court does not have to find a juvenile is incapable of being rehabilitated before sentencing him or her to life without parole. The Illinois General Assembly passed a law in 2019, the Youthful Parole Bill, that allows certain offenders under age 21 to be eligible for parole after 10 years. It also allows certain individuals convicted of murder to be eligible for parole after 20 years. However, the law does not apply retroactively. It also does not apply to individuals convicted of murdering more than one person, as House is. Lieutenant LaSheda Brooks, a judge advocate for the U.S. Navy and one of Houses daughters, authored a letter to the editor in the Chicago Sun-Times last week, advocating for the Illinois Supreme Court to rule in her fathers favor. Brooks notes that her fathers case is the first Illinois youthful sentencing case before the states Supreme Court since the U.S. Supreme Courts decision in Jones v. Mississippi. Like my father, Illinois sentencing laws for youth have matured. We no longer mandatorily banish people younger than 18 to life in prison without parole, Brooks wrote. But Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is asking our states Supreme Court to overturn the ruling and uphold my dads mandatory life sentence. Attorney General Raoul is fighting to keep my father locked away forever. That is not fairness. That is not what Illinois should stand for. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 GE Renewable Energy and Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions have signed a strategic partnership to localize critical phases of the manufacturing process of GEs Haliade-X offshore wind turbine and to support its commercialization. Based on the long-lasting relationship between GE and Toshiba in Japan and beyond, this strategic agreement will help GEs offshore wind technology to be more competitive in upcoming auctions in Japan. Financial terms and specific details were not disclosed. The two companies said that they will leverage their collective technology, manufacturing facilities and skills, construction, operation, and maintenance expertise as part of the agreement. GE Renewable Energy and Toshiba are well positioned to contribute to and benefit from the success of offshore wind in Japan. Toshiba brings local manufacturing capabilities, a highly skilled workforce, strong energy domain expertise including in wind power, and an in-depth knowledge of the Japanese offshore market. GE has the most powerful offshore wind turbine in operation, the engineering and project management experience needed to support complex offshore wind projects, and extensive experience in Japan. As part of the strategic partnership, GE will provide the Haliade-X technology, provide parts and components for nacelle assembly, and support Toshiba in jointly developing a local supply chain as well as completing assembly of the nacelles with best-in-class quality standards. Toshiba will assemble, warehouse, transport Haliade-X nacelles, provide preventative maintenance services and have critical sales and commercial responsibilities for the Japanese market. John Lavelle, President & CEO, Offshore Wind at GE Renewable Energy, said: GE and Toshiba have known each other for decades and have proven their successful collaboration though numerous partnerships. Toshiba is the strategic partner to help us bring the benefits of offshore wind to Japan. Their local manufacturing capabilities, experience in the energy sector, and outstanding reputation in the market make them an invaluable strategic partner. Together, we are well positioned to support Japans ambitions to be a leader in renewable energy and offshore wind in particular. Mamoru Hatazawa, President & CEO of Toshiba Energy Systems and Solutions Corporation, said, We are pleased to announce this partnership with GE. As a long-lasting business partner of GE for decades on power systems businesses, Toshiba is best suited to support GE to create another global leader in offshore wind market. GEs Haliade-X is the most powerful offshore wind turbine built and helps to make offshore wind a more cost-effective and competitive source of clean energy. Through this strategic alliance, Toshiba will actively participate in offshore wind projects by supplying reliable products and contribute to the spread of renewable energy in Japan. As part of its green growth strategy for becoming carbon neutral by 2050 the Japanese government plans to award 10 GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 with tenders of 1 GW per year. The plans calls for installing 30 to 45 GW of offshore wind turbines, including floating offshore wind turbines, by 2040 in part through the development of a competitive domestic supply chain. TradeArabia News Service As the preliminary 2020 census results continue to trickle out, one statistic may be surprising. The numbers are certain to show that the second-largest racial category in the United States is other, after white. And upwards of 97% of those who self-classify as other will in all probability be Latinos. In the 2020 census, Latinos are expected to account for more than 20% of the U.S. population more than 60 million people. But why do so many Latinos choose other? In a sense, those who select other as their race are reflecting dissatisfaction with the census approach to race. The decennial census only began counting Latinos in a systematic way four decades ago despite the fact they have been a significant presence in the United States since the 19th century when Mexico turned over to the U.S. vast territories in the West, including California, in 1848 and surrendered any further claims to Texas that same year, and Puerto Rico became an American colony in 1898. In every census since 1980, Latinos have been counted via a version of what the census calls the Hispanic ethnicity question instead of the census race question, which also appears on the form and provides 12 distinct potential answers white, Black, seven Asian American national origins, American Indian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander and other. Since 2000, respondents have been able to identify themselves by any combination of those choices. Latinos are presumptively considered to be of any race, in part a nod to 400 years of Spanish colonialism in the Americas during which Indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, and Europeans extensively mixed. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Today, however, it makes little sense to say Latinos are an ethnic group as opposed to a racial group. Even census terminology now ubiquitous in media coverage and government reports refers to so-called non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic Black people, which suggests everyone knows Latinos should not be categorized only as white or Black. Most Latinos recognize this truth. From 1980 to 2010, about 40% of them, according to my analysis, have outright rejected the census race options, instead choosing other as their race. When the next batch of 2020 census data is released this summer, we will likely learn that some 24 million to 30 million Latinos will have made other the nations second-largest race after non-Hispanic white. The fact that so many Latinos have rejected all racial categories in favor of other finally led the Census Bureau to extensively study how to reformulate its approach to ethnicity and race so that it would reflect how people see themselves and, specifically, reduce Latinos selection of other as their race. That internal research showed that, when given that option, virtually all Latinos were comfortable designating their race by checking a box that said Latino. Spurred by those findings, officials recommended eliminating the Hispanic ethnicity question on the 2020 census and making Latino one of the race options, but the Trump administration rejected the proposal in 2018. The utterly predictable result is that the 2020 census will show the nations second-largest race is other. Our decennial census has always included data collection on race, a nod to its centrality in American life and history, whether during slavery, the Jim Crow era or since the modern civil rights movement. Yet racial categories are far from static, continuing to evolve as conditions change. Until the census catches up to Latinos racial reality, we wont truly know how they are faring compared with other racial groups when it comes to factors as varied as educational inequality, deaths while in police custody, COVID-19 disparities and so many other fundamental social issues of our time. Laura E. Gomez is a UCLA professor and director of the law schools Critical Race Studies Program. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 When a group accomplishes something that's never been accomplished before, that demands a closer look. When that group is teenagers, the accomplishment becomes even more impressive. The Macon County-based Young Leaders in Action organization comprises more than 100 high school students from sophomores through seniors. The Macon County group beat out a field of 40 entries full of good works done by all kinds of agencies and organizations, most of them run by adults. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} At a gathering celebrating the honor, different teams from the Young Leaders In Action organization displayed poster boards of events and activities from throughout the year. The projects ranged from serving food at Decatur's Oasis Day Center, gathering donated books to help low-income students and even wandering grocery store aisles to hand out donated $50 gift cards to senior shoppers. Their efforts expose teens to the realities, challenges and opportunities to make change in the world. That's what education is all about, right? And they'll be moved to an important position for next year's Governors Cup. The Cup's organizers said they were so impressed with the YLIA and the high benchmark of success they set that students from the group will be invited to act as judges to help determine future cup winners. Well done, young adults. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Its like they knew they were special, Blaine said. In just a week of bringing Marvel home, Paxton has already taken her on a lot of walks along the trails near their home. Blaine has been capturing their matching, yet miraculous strides. The amount of emotions that were running through me at the time, it was just awesome because it was knowing that she was in the perfect place at the perfect time, Blaine said. Stephanie has already seen Marvel make a difference in the way Paxton shares his own story with his friends and neighbors. It gives him the opportunity to tell the kids, Oh shes missing a paw, shes like me, and like it gives him that voice, too, to advocate for himself, Stephanie said. As Marvel gets older, she may need a wheelchair or prosthetic of her own to get around. For now, the hope is someday Paxton will be able to run with his prosthetic, and Marvel will be able to run alongside him. The-CNN-Wire & 2021 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Please log in to keep reading. Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. ABINGDON, Va. Robyn Raines won approval to open her yoga studio on Walden Road in Abingdon at Tuesdays Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting, despite protests from nearby residents. The studio is set to be located in a barn along Walden Road in rural Abingdon and offer yoga classes seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Residents at Tuesdays meeting complained that the business would increase traffic flow, lower property values and change the neighborhood from an agricultural community to a business setting. Its country out there, and thats what I want it to be country, said Charles Townsend, who said he recently moved to the area from California. The supervisors voted 6-1 to approve the studio on a motion by Supervisor Phillip McCall, who said he used to use the barn on Raines land for farming purposes. Supervisor Randy Pennington voted against granting Raines a special exception permit to operate the business in an agricultural zone. The business is slated to include a new entrance for a gravel parking lot and use low-level lighting and low-impact soothing music as Raines put it. Councilman Neal Osborne said he sees little opportunity to make cuts, given the way city department budgets were reduced last year in anticipation of the pandemic. Vice Mayor Anthony Farnum compared the city staff to a championship football team and praised their efforts to develop a fiscally responsible budget. As excited as I am overall over the progress Bristol has made over the past four or five years, Im very excited over what well look like over the next five years, Farnum said. In her review of city finances, Chief Financial Officer Tamrya Spradlin said restaurant meal taxes were about $672,000 above projection for the period from Jan. 1 through March 31 although those projections were tempered last year due to COVID-19. Lodging taxes continue lagging below projections by $164,000. At the end of March, the city had an operating cash balance of more than $20 million, a $3 million improvement over March 31, 2020, and a far cry from 2017, when the city regularly borrowed money to pay basic expenses, Spradlin said. In other matters, the council approved allocating a pass-through $9.2 million in federal COVID relief funds to the school division. That vote was also 3-2, with Wingard and Mumpower opposing. Wingard said his issue is with the current federal spending madness and Mumpower said someone had to take a stand against the federal handouts. Osborne noted that if Bristol rejects the money, it would just be reapportioned to another school system somewhere else. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Virginia has already begun planning for the widened vaccine availability and are working to ensure students receive a second dose before going home for the summer. Avula has said success is tied to executed on-site vaccinations at schools, since it's a reachable access point for families. Adolescents, with the consent and accompaniment of a parent, will also be able to receive a dose at any location currently offering vaccinations such as federal retail pharmacies; health care providers; local health department clinics; and pediatricians. Once the CDC gives the OK, vaccinations could theoretically start immediately but it's unclear when school districts will advise parents on their options. Plans will differ with each locality. And just as they aren't for adults, vaccinations for kids are not mandated and will not be in Virginia. While theyre less likely to get sick from the virus, children can still spread the disease and contribute to community transmission, Avula said in an interview last week. He added that Michigan and Minnesota have had surging case counts these in the past month in large part due to high school and college students. What we found is, in fact, in many cases the job openings match with the job skills of the unemployed, and thats part of what we used to make our decision going forward, Lee said Tuesday. Fourteen business groups from across the state issued a statement thanking the governor for his actions to address the labor shortage. The list included the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and chambers in Bristol, Kingsport, Chattanooga, Nashville and Jackson. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} We thank Governor Lee for his prompt action to address an unprecedented labor shortage. Tennessee is open for business, but Help Wanted signs are posted across our state, according to the statement. While his Republican counterparts in the legislature and some prominent business lobby groups applauded the announcement, Democrats chided the move. This is dumb. Really dumb. And cruel to boot, Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, said on Twitter. This decision literally pulls money out of Tennessees economy. Itll slow down our recovery rather than speed it up. Never before have we had such a blank slate nominated for governor. Weve had other candidates who had not previously held political office, but they still had records of some sort Terry McAuliffe in 2013 had been Democratic national chairman, Mark Warner in 2001 had been on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, Linwood Holton in 1969 had run for governor four years prior. That means Youngkin, in the general election, can be whoever he wants to be. He will be hard for Democrats to depict as a Trump acolyte simply because theres no reason to believe that he is one. The bitter essence of Trumpism is defined by a public crudeness and a base appeal to the lowest emotions. In Youngkin, weve seen no evidence of the former, and it seems unlikely that he got to be CEO of The Carlyle Group, the worlds second biggest private equity firm, by ignoring facts. Youngkin may still be wrong on the issues, of course thats a matter of ideological taste but the reality is right now we have no idea where Youngkin stands on most issues. His website lists none at all. Does he believe Virginia should repeal the Clean Economy Act or its legalization of marijuana? Does he believe Virginia should pass a constitutional amendment to guarantee equal opportunities in schools? Does he believe Virginia should pass a bond issue to pay for school construction? What does he think Virginia should do to build a new economy in Southwest and Southside Virginia? We have no clue. The Virginia Mercury quotes conservative radio show host John Fredericks as calling Youngkin a shiny new penny. In this case, a lot of pennies his net worth is estimated at $367 million, which means he can self-fund a campaign like no Virginians have ever seen before. And because he has no record, he comes with no baggage except large bags of money. That should give Democrats pause. Representative image New York [US], May 12 (ANI): A broad coalition of UN member states and civil society organisations (CSO) is set to hold an online event on Wednesday to raise awareness and discuss the human rights situation prevailing in China Xinjiang province. "The international community has grown increasingly concerned about the #Human Rights situation in Xinjiang. This is why a broad coalition of @UN MS & CSO's are hosting an event to raise awareness & discuss the situation," said Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations. The civil society organisations taking part in the event include Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, International Service for Human Rights, and World Uyghur Congress. Fuming over the upcoming UN video conference on Beijing's crackdown on the Uyghur Muslims, China has called on members of the United Nations not to attend the event, saying it "is based on sheer lies and political bias". Address a press briefing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying on Monday said "The US, rallying a handful of countries like the UK and Germany, plans to hold the so-called virtual meeting on Xinjiang and falsely calls it a sideline event of the UN." China has been rebuked globally for cracking down on Uyghur Muslims by sending them to mass detention camps to undergo some form of forcible re-education or indoctrination. However, Beijing continues to deny all accusations. So far, the US, Canada, Netherlands, and the UK have described the situation in Xinjiang as genocide, after reports of forced sterilisations and forced labour. Last month, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had said the Chinese government is committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. The latest HRW report draws on newly available data from Chinese government documents, other evidence to assess Beijing's actions in Xinjiang. The report had said that the Chinese leadership is responsible for widespread and systematic policies of mass detention, torture, and cultural persecution, among other offenses. (ANI) Biogenix Labs, a G42 Healthcare company, has announced that it is providing Covid-19 testing services for the newly launched IATA Travel Pass, a digital platform that passengers travelling with Etihad Airways can use to seamlessly fly between Abu Dhabi and Chicago, New York, Washington, and Toronto until May 31. Launched at the beginning of April by the International Air Transport Association, the Travel Pass app offers simple and secure management of health-related requirements. The information on the Travel Pass can be shared with border authorities that require testing as a condition for international travel during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. By using the app, passengers will be able to easily manage their travel health credentials, take advantage of faster check-in facilities, and have access to free wi-fi while on board. Given the scale of operations and quick turnaround requirements of the Travel Pass app program, Biogenix Labs was selected as a testing partner thanks to its high throughput processing, 24/7 operations and secure handling of sensitive data. Biogenix Labs already supports travellers testing needs in compliance with the constantly evolving regulatory guidelines and is thus well-positioned to contribute to the Travel Pass initiative through its flexibility, agility, and rapid response. Ashish Koshy, CEO of G42 Healthcare, said: We are proud to be part of this pioneering project. Biogenix Labs is contributing to the lifting of travel restrictions using digital solutions and working with leaders in the travel industry to process verified information in a safe and secure manner. This collaboration is a testament to our labs capability and trustworthiness, and a major game-changer for the aviation industry, one that we hope will usher in a new phase of international air travel. Biogenix Labs was the first Covid-19 accredited laboratory in the UAE, supporting the population with their testing needs. It led the validation of non-invasive saliva testing resulting in approval and subsequent adoption by Department of Health, Abu Dhabi. The lab also pioneered the enablement of the safe return of sporting events, and has supported the 4Humanity vaccine trials across geographies, leading to national vaccination rollouts in multiple countries. To take advantage of the IATA Travel Pass benefits, passengers can download the app from the Apple Store and book an appointment with Biogenix Labs in Masdar City, where guests should inform the staff that they are participating in the IATA Travel Pass trial, presenting their passport along with their mobile device with the app installed. As soon as the test result is available, travellers will be able to view it on the app as well as via an SMS from the lab, making it much more convenient for passengers to manage their travel documentation. Biogenix Labs utilises the latest technology to provide the most accurate results in the shortest timespan and also provides testing services for passengers who do not wish to participate in the app trial as they can continue to follow the existing method of sharing PCR test results by presenting a printed copy at the airport check in. - TradeArabia News Service Washington, May 12 (PTI) The US has taken note of a Chinese diplomats statement warning Bangladesh against joining the Quad, the informal grouping of Australia, India, Japan and America to coordinate in the Indo-Pacific region, a top State Department official has said. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters at his daily news conference on Tuesday that the US has an incredibly strong relationship with Bangladesh. We have taken note of that statement from the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) ambassador to Bangladesh. What we would say is that we respect Bangladesh's sovereignty and we respect Bangladesh's right to make foreign policy decisions for itself, Price said. Responding to a question, he said that the United States is close with its partners on a range of issues from economic growth to climate change to humanitarian issues. When it comes to the Quad, we have said this before its an informal, essential, multilateral mechanism that right now convenes like-minded democracies, the United States, India, Australia and Japan to coordinate in the Indo-Pacific and fundamentally to push forward our goal of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, Price said. In a provocative remark on Monday, China's ambassador in Dhaka Li Jiming warned Bangladesh against joining the US-led Quad alliance, saying that Dhaka's participation in the anti-Beijing 'club' would result in 'substantial damage' to bilateral relations. Obviously, it will not be a good idea for Bangladesh to participate in this small club of four (Quad) because it will substantially damage our bilateral relationship, Li said at a virtual meeting organised by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh. Bangladesh's foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen described the Chinese envoy's comment as 'very unfortunate' and 'aggressive'. 'We are an independent and sovereign state. We decide our foreign policy,' he said. Story continues Initiated in 2007, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, Quad for short, is an informal grouping of the US, India, Australia and Japan. China has vehemently opposed the formation of the Quad with a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman emphasising in March that exchanges and cooperation between countries should help expand mutual understanding and trust, instead of targeting or harming the interests of third parties. The Quad member countries have resolved to uphold a rules-based international order in the Indo-Pacific amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the strategically vital region. The first summit of the Quad leaders was hosted by US President Joe Biden on March 12 and the virtual meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. The four Quad leaders have vowed to strive for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion, sending a clear message to China against its aggressive actions in the region. PTI LKJ CPS CALEDONIA, WISCONSIN It took nearly a full year on the market, but an 11-acre property with a fully furnished three-bedroom, three-bathroom house literally hanging over the edge of a fast-eroding bluff overlooking Lake Michigan sold in late April. The five-lot property sold for a little more than $250,000, according to county records, almost $200,000 less than the online listed asking price. But much of the land is little more than rubble and the fully furnished home is at risk of demolition by nature. It was one of the most challenging sales of RE/MAX Realtor Jo Ann Vetters career. But, after some creative listings; the seller compromising to cut the price when it became clear the erosion wasnt going to stop; a buyer willing to take a risk coming forward; and photos of the precarious property generating some laughs on social media, a deal was made. Erosion will continue to be a problem Feb. 3 Caledonia flyover (copy) Bluff erosion along the Caledonia shoreline can be seen on Feb. 3, 2020, from the cockpit of local certified financial planner Michael Haubric Its no secret: Lake Michigans coastline along Wisconsin and Michigan is eroding, sometimes dangerously quickly. In a matter of minutes during a massive storm in January 2020, up and down the coastline along southeast Wisconsin, dozens of feet of land disappeared into Lake Michigan, moving the bluff dangerously close to homes one house in White River Township, Mich., collapsed because of the storms and a home was rendered unlivable at about the same time. The shoreline has continued to erode since. The erosion has been blamed on climate change, the natural course of Mother Nature, constantly changing water levels and myriad other causes. It continues to be a problem, and experts expect the erosion to quicken in the near future. According to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers records, all five Great Lakes have seen rises in water levels over the past decade above the 100-year average. Its unlikely that local, state or federal governments to step in and rebuild the bluffs to protect those homes. Such a venture would cost millions in tax dollars across multiple municipalities, and theres no guarantee it would be effective Mother Natures persistence usually beats mans efforts. The best solution is to start planning ahead and basically put shoreline property owners on notice, Dick Norton, a professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Michigan, told the Wisconsin Examiner last year. You have built in a place thats naturally giving into the lake. There will come a time that you need to pick up your structure and move it back. Its easy to talk about in theory, but its really hard to do in practice. That doesnt mean property owners have no chance to sell their shrinking properties, although they may not make as much as they wouldve a couple years ago. Vetter said her clients certainly did not get what they hoped for 7009 Novak Road, for which the listing price was more than $400,000. It was very, very challenging to establish a price on it, Vetter said. At the Novak Road property, after last years storm, there was a small gate standing a couple feet from the bluff edge. A few weeks later, Vetter said the gate was nowhere to be found, likely consumed by the lake. No matter what, Vetter said that the buyer would have to deal with the fact that this house is imperiled. Photos of the house, looking like a disaster about to happen, appeared on TikTok and the Twitter account Zillow Gone Wild. When that attention came in recent weeks, Vetter could only laugh, especially knowing the sale had finalized more than a week before the Twitter post received attention. 2951373aaf2d4b6fd1d3183f9ca29771-uncropped_scaled_within_1536_1152.jpg A home at 7009 Novak Road, Caledonia, is threatened by lakefront erosion, but the property sold late last month. After months of unsuccessful pitches to people who wanted a lakefront home without the hassle of living on a cliff, Vetter changed tactics. She got the OK from the owners who had been in Arizona when the 2020 storm hit and have since chosen to not move back to Wisconsin and added a new listing. In addition to listings of a lakeside ranch home that needs some safety measures, she started listing the property as vacant land that just so happens to have a house on it. Thats when her luck changed. Now, instead of getting over-excited offers from wishful thinkers who wanted a lake house but hadnt realized the peril, the people who were calling me on it then were contractors looking for lakefront land, Vetter said. The offers were coming from people who were saying: I can come in and shore that up. The ultimate buyer, who declined to speak with on the record, fits that demographic. Hes currently seeking an estimate of how much it will cost to protect the bluff and the house on it. Theyve got their work cut out for them, Vetter said. ARTHUR Convicted Arthur child sex offender Christopher J. Landess will be close to 80 years old before hes eligible for release from prison after receiving two consecutive sentences. A Monday hearing saw Moultrie County Circuit Court Judge Jeremy Richey sentence the 52-year-old man to four years incarceration after he pled guilty to two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Richey ordered that sentence to be served after a 30-year sentence Landess had been given April 28 in Champaign County Circuit Court following his conviction there for the predatory criminal sexual assault of a child. With the combined sentences, Landess will be just short of 80 years old before he would be eligible for release from IDOC custody, said Moultrie County States Attorney Tracy Weaver. Please log in to keep reading. Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. Weaver, in a statement, said Landess had been caught and charged after he initiated sexual contact with two minor females at a location in Arthur. One child had then come forward to report an April 2020 incident to police and a second child had contacted law enforcement and described additional and separate occurrences initiated by Landess in Arthur and Champaign. A warrant had been issued for his arrest in May of 2020 and police investigations revealed he had fled to Montana where he was tracked down and arrested May 27. If he does live long enough to be released from prison, Landess is further ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Contact Tony Reid at (217) 421-7977. Follow him on Twitter: @TonyJReid Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 BRUSSELS (AP) In the latest setback to European Union efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance, a court on Wednesday annulled a ruling by the European Commission that a tax deal between Amazon and Luxembourg's government amounted to illegal state support. The EU's executive branch ordered the U.S. online retailer in 2017 to pay around 250 million euros ($300 million) in back taxes to Luxembourg. But judges at the EU's General Court said the European Commission didn't prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group." Amazon said it welcomed the courts decision, which is in line with our long-standing position that we followed all applicable laws and that Amazon received no special treatment, the company said in a statement. Were pleased that the Court has made this clear, and we can continue to focus on delivering for our customers across Europe. The European Commission's decision related to Luxembourgs tax treatment of two companies in the Amazon group: Amazon EU and Amazon Europe Holding Technologies. Margrethe Vestager, the EU official in charge of antitrust issues, argued at the time that Amazon had unfairly profited from special low tax conditions since 2003 in tiny Luxembourg, where its European headquarters are based. As a result, almost three quarters of Amazons profits in the EU were not taxed, she said. We will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps," Vestager said in a statement. Both Luxembourg and Amazon challenged the decision with the EU's General Court. Please log in to keep reading. {{featured_button_text}} Enjoy unlimited articles at one of our lowest prices ever. The EU has taken aim at deals concluded between individual countries and companies used to lure foreign multinationals in search of a place to establish their EU headquarters. The practice led to EU states competing with each other and multinationals playing them off one another. Judges at the General Court have backed the European Commission in several cases, but the EU's efforts to crack down on favorable tax deals suffered recent setbacks in cases involving Starbucks and Apple. Wednesday's ruling can be appealed to the 27-nation bloc's highest court, the European Court of Justice. The EU remains at odds with Amazon on other issues relating to competition. Last year, EU regulators filed antitrust charges against the e-commerce company, accusing Amazon of using its access to data from companies that sell products on its platform to gain an unfair advantage over them. In another judgment Wednesday, the General Court found the existence of a tax advantage in rulings granted by Luxembourg to companies in the Engie group, a French multinational electric utility company. Three years ago, the European Commission had found that Luxembourg allowed two Engie group companies to avoid paying taxes on almost all their profits for about a decade and said the country should recover about 120 million euros in unpaid tax. The Luxembourg government welcomed the Amazon decision and said in a statement that neither ruling calls into question the country's commitment to transparency in tax matters and the fight against tax avoidance practices. Kelvin Chan contributed to this story from London. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A Walnut Cove woman was convicted last week on charges that the car she was driving struck a traffic-control employee, who was thrown more than 100 feet and later died of his injuries at a local hospital. Paris Anjuli Pinnix, 33, of Summit Street in Walnut Cove, pleaded guilty on May 7 in Forsyth District Court to one count of misdemeanor death by motor vehicle and one count of failure to reduce speed. Judge Gordon Miller of Forsyth District Court gave Pinnix a suspended 75-day jail sentence and placed her on 12 months of supervised probation. During her time on probation, she cannot drive a motor vehicle. Her attorney, J.D. Byers, said Wednesday that its still not clear what caused the crash. There was no evidence presented that she was impaired at the time of the crash. Shes probably one of the most remorseful people Ive ever seen, Byers said. She was destroyed by this. He said Pinnix wanted to take responsibility for what she did and that she really feels for the family of the man she killed, Austin Reid Arrington, 23. But, they also made it pretty clear that when you go to the school system that you should work with them on what they feel comfortable with. We have been in constant communication with Tricia McManus ... that we will go with (parental) consent on school grounds, and I agree with that. Swift said the health department already has some people signed up for appointments anticipating that it will be available as soon as Thursday for 12- to 15-year-olds. Swift said he encourages those ages 12 to 15 to get vaccinated, in part because the 15- to 24-year age group has been experiencing an uptick in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Were going to have to live with COVID in the community for the foreseeable future, and I would think you would see parents wanting their kids (to be vaccinated) because it provides another level of safety. COVID-19 metrics North Carolina has reached a seven-month low in new COVID-19 cases amid a continuing drop-off in both vaccinations and testing. DHHS said in Tuesdays report there were 699 new cases statewide. Clarence Avant, a Climax native who went on to become a behind-the-scenes Grammy Award winning legend, will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Avant was named among the 2021 honorees on Wednesday. He will receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award, named for the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records. Now 90, Avant is a music executive, entrepreneur and film producer. His impact on the music industry was highlighted in the 2019 Netflix documentary The Black Godfather. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} A former chairman of the board of Motown Records, he attended the segregated Goshen and Dudley high schools in Greensboro. He moved to New Jersey as a teenager in 1947. Years later, he would manage acts but also serve as the first African American board member or executive at several record companies, including Motown Records. In 2014, he visited the city to receive the Trailblazer Award from the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. Avant has formed humanitarian bonds with former Presidents Obama, Clinton and Carter, Oprah Winfrey, and former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, to name a few. Remember a long time ago, far, far away, when many of us were spending hours on the phone and online, hunting down appointments to be vaccinated, even if we had to drive to other counties to receive our shots? It was almost like trying to score concert tickets. Now the state has more vaccine supplies than demand, so many more that it is turning them down tens of thousands, in fact and even considering giving back some of its inventory. Nearly 1.2 million doses of the vaccine are waiting for willing recipients in the state. Last week, vaccinations in North Carolina dropped to their lowest levels since December 2020, with only 55,000 having gotten their first shots as of Friday morning. Dr. Mandy Cohen, the states health secretary, sounded downright wistful for the good old days of pent-up demand. The demand for vaccine is definitely lower, Cohen told The Associated Press. We know were at that place where the folks who were incredibly eager, willing to drive 30 minutes, take time off work, weve gotten those folks vaccinated. Weve gotten half of adults vaccinated. But we know that we need to make this more convenient, particularly (for) those who cant take off from work. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Pony.ai, a Chinese startup that builds full-stack autonomous driving solutions, announced on Tuesday its Guangzhou-based smart logistics subsidiary was granted a freight road transport business permit from local authority of Nansha district, Guangzhou on April 21, marking a new milestone for Pony.ai's pursuit of achieving scale operation of autonomous trucks. The startup said the subsidiary has put autonomous trucks into commercial operation after gaining the permit. Pony.ai's autonomous trucks; photo credit: Pony.ai Pony.ai's endeavors are also encouraged by local government of Nansha district, who launched a document on April 28 to push ahead with the trials for commercial operation of autonomous technologies and encourage relevant companies to team up with e-commerce platforms and logistics service providers on the freight transport using autonomous vehicles. Pony.ai claimed on March 31, 2021 it would expand the scale of its Robotaxi service and announced the brand name of its autonomous truck business PonyTron. Pony.ai began deploying autonomous truck business in 2018. Last year, it set up truck business unit to further explore the commercialization of autonomous CVs and obtained Guangdong's first license that allows autonomous truck road tests. In PV area, Pony.ai launched the autonomous ride-hailing program PonyPilot as early as 2018, and then deployed the Robotaxi service in Guangzhou and California. The company announced in Feb. 2021 that the first batch of mass-produced self-driving cars armed with its latest generation self-driving system officially rolled off the production line. Those cars have been put into public road tests in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and joined the startup's Robotaxi fleet for scale operation. Marhaba Europe is set to return to Dubai this month with a delegation of almost 60 exhibitors from across Austria, France, Germany and Switzerland, presenting a united tourism front ahead of this years Arabian Travel Market. The two-day event, which will take place between May 14-15 at W Dubai, The Palm, will host close to 80 travel professionals from the GCC, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon who will meet with the European exhibitors. The schedule of B2B meetings aim to strengthen ties and encourage business between the countries across the travel sector, inviting attendees to interact with European airports, shopping facilities, local tourist boards, hotels, destination management companies and transport companies keen to network with local representatives and to bridge communication between the regions. Marhaba Europe will also host a Gala dinner on May vwhich offers a much welcome opportunity to network with industry professionals, with Ambassadors to the UAE from Austria, France, Germany and Switzerland set to be in attendance. Yamina Sofo, Director of Sales & Marketing, German National Tourist Office (GNTO), the regional office of German National Tourist Board (GNTB), said: As one of our top three overseas source markets, the GCC is vital for our restart activity in encouraging travel to Germany. Marhaba Europes return provides us with an ideal opportunity to re-engage and further develop B2B partnerships between the two regions which will support our continued efforts to position Germany as a destination of choice." Matthias Albrecht, Director GCC of Switzerland Tourism commented: When speaking to our GCC guests, we really feel that they are desperate to travel again to Switzerland and Europe; therefore, Mahaba Europe is a fantastic way to reconnect tourism professionals with each other, just at the right time to accommodate the desires of our customers. Robert Groeblacher, Director Middle East & South East Asia of Austrian National Tourist Office cited: Our four countries are among the most popular premium destinations by travellers from the Middle East. We are very proud to join forces again to connect the major touristic players in our countries with the local travel trade. Karim Mekachera, Regional Director Middle East & Turkey of Atout France, commented: First non-virtual event since the beginning of the pandemic, we, at Atout France, are very pleased to join our Europeans colleagues at Marhaba Europe to meet, exchange and network with the regional travel trade and start devising together the post-covid tourism new era. - TradeArabia News Service Boeing delivered just four 737 MAXs in April before an electrical problem grounded the jet again, halting further deliveries until a fix is approved. The setback frustrated Boeing's effort to begin to climb out of the pandemic downturn as air travel slowly recovers. The company's monthly update to its jet orders and deliveries figures, posted online Tuesday, otherwise showed marginal progress. Deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner, which resumed in March after a more than four-month halt due to a separate production quality issue, picked up in April. And while last year was dominated by order cancellations, Boeing for the third straight month showed a small positive net order total. However, as U.S. airlines look to a recovery in domestic travel, the 737 MAX is the Boeing jet in most demand, so the stoppage in deliveries is a major blow that drastically cuts much-needed cash flow. Due to a change in the manufacturing process, various panels and power control units on the MAX flight deck built since early 2019 are not properly grounded electrically, which can potentially affect operation of certain systems, including engine ice protection. Children 12 and up could get vaccinated against COVID-19 in Lincoln as early as this weekend. Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez said Tuesday that she ordered the city's full allotment of Pfizer vaccine, more than 8,000 doses, in anticipation that the Food and Drug Administration would approve the vaccine for use in children 12-15. It did so Monday, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still must sign off on it, something it's expected to do Wednesday. Once that happens, local health officials would have the green light to start vaccinating children as young as 12 with the Pfizer vaccine. "We're ready to have parents and guardians start scheduling appointments on Friday and Saturday at Pinnacle Bank Arena," Lopez said. She said people who have already registered their children in the state or county system would be the first ones called to schedule an appointment. Lopez said that with the doses she ordered, plus the ones the department already has on hand, there are enough to give more than 10,000 first shots this week, which could put a significant dent in the estimated 13,000-16,000 children in the county who are between the ages of 12-15. Lincoln city pools will once again have limited operations this year, but not because of COVID-19. Parks and Recreation Department Director Lynn Johnson said Tuesday that all nine Lincoln pools will open May 28, but they will operate with slightly limited hours because of a lack of staffing. Johnson said there are still about 30 openings for pool workers, leaving the city about 35% short of its needed workforce. Typically, by this point in the year, it has hired about 85% of its needed workforce, he said. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} "We do have a bit of a challenge in that we're having some difficulty ... in hiring enough qualified pool staff this year," Johnson said. Kayla Sellhorn, Parks and Recreation aquatics supervisor, said the shortage is even more acute for lifeguard positions because of limited training opportunities over the past year. Because of that, all pools will close one hour earlier than normal. Johnson said that while swim lessons and water exercise classes will again be offered this summer, as will private pool rentals, numbers may have to be limited because of the staffing shortages. The Department of Motor Vehicles is warning Nebraskans to not fall for illegitimate text messages purporting to be from a DMV office. These unsolicited messages are scams and are not sent by the Nebraska DMV or county treasurers offices, according to a press release. The text messages are often from unfamiliar phone numbers that claim the recipient either owes the DMV, or is owed, a large sum of money. The recipient is then directed to click a link. These links should not be interacted with, and the message should be deleted as soon as possible. The Nebraska DMV can under certain circumstances send text messages to customers, but only if the recipient voluntarily opts in. The DMV will also not send messages demanding payment or promising a refund. It is important to know the difference between scam attempts and legitimate contact with the DMV. The DMV will not send unsolicited text messages demanding money or offering money, said DMV Director Rhonda Lahm. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A 52-year-old Lincoln man has been arrested in connection with an alleged carjacking downtown last month. Scottie Hodtwalker was charged Tuesday with terroristic threats for the incident that occurred at about 12:45 a.m. April 20. Police said that's when a 28-year-old man waved down Lincoln police saying that someone had just rear-ended him at 17th and O streets, then stole his car when he got out to exchange insurance information. He said an SUV had cut him off, and, when he passed it, the driver turned his headlights on high and followed him until rear-ending him at a red light at 17th and O. When he got out to exchange insurance information with the driver, the driver got out and said something like "you were trying to f--- with me" and brandished a knife. As the victim ran east on O Street to get away, he saw his car driving away. It was found abandoned a short time later at the U-Stop at 2101 K St. Police say video surveillance there led them to Hodtwalker, who they arrested Friday. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Lincoln police say they arrested a Lincoln man Tuesday afternoon after a 20-year-old woman came to the Hall of Justice saying she had just been assaulted and the man was still following her. It happened shortly after 1:30 p.m. Officer Luke Bonkiewicz said Corey Dodds, 27, had elbowed the woman in the face while she was in his car, causing her lower lip to swell. She told police she called a friend for help, but Dodds followed her in his vehicle, then pulled out a knife and threatened to kill them, allegedly lunging toward the 66-year-old friend. Bonkiewicz said officers found Dodds circling the Hall of Justice. He allegedly resisted, but police ultimately arrested him on suspicion of terroristic threats, domestic assault, resisting arrest and obstructing an officer. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A Tecumseh man is in jail after a Lancaster County Sheriff's Office investigation concluded he was driving under the influence when his vehicle crashed and injured two passengers. On April 28, 30-year-old Justin Bartels was driving north on 27th Street with passengers Jessica Hancock, 21, and Brandon L'Heureux, 28, when the vehicle left the road at the intersection of Arbor Road. Hancock's injuries required surgery, and L'Heureux suffered a serious facial injury and fracture, investigators said. Bartels was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of causing serious bodily injuries while driving under the influence after lab results confirmed his blood-alcohol content was above the legal limit to drive, authorities said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. In San Luis Obispo, Benedetti was fatally injured in a shootout in an apartment in the Central Coast city, officials said during a news conference. He was a a 12-year law enforcement veteran and a detective in the city's police department. Jennifer and I extend our heartfelt sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of Detective Benedetti who made the ultimate sacrifice while in the line of duty," Newsom said in another statement. "His tragic death underscores the dangers that are routinely faced by those who courageously risk their lives to protect communities throughout California, and we will never forget his sacrifice. Benedetti and five other officers had been at the apartment for an investigation into items stolen in a string of late-night commercial burglaries in the city that's about 200 miles (321.87 kilometers) north of Los Angeles. Police said gunman Edward Zamora Giron had been lying in wait inside the apartment and fired at the officers before shooting and killing himself. He also had wounds sustained in the shootout. Police initially said that he had been killed by officers' fire. But we hope sooner than later, that those will be lifted as well, he said. The bottom line is, well go back to most broad strokes semblance of normalcy, if we continue down this path. California now requires people to wear a mask when gathering indoors with people who are not vaccinated. Fully vaccinated people can meet indoors without wearing a mask. They also don't have to wear a mask outdoors, except when attending large gatherings such as sporting events, festivals and concerts. California has a host of other rules for businesses and other public places. Those rules vary by county, with the more severe restrictions imposed on places where the virus is most widespread. Newsom has been under pressure to relax coronavirus restrictions as the number of new cases decline. He will likely face a recall election later this year, an effort fueled mostly by anger over his handling of the pandemic. Newsom's comments on Tuesday and his remarks on Wednesday seemed to conflict with what the state has planned for mask mandates. Just two months ago, Newsom criticized Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbot for lifting that state's mask mandate, calling it absolutely reckless. Walkers defense team, Jim McGough and Jerry Hug, had pointed out at trial that the woman could have been mistaken and couldnt identify the gun. They noted that Walkers access of her Facebook account so many times included clicking on any pictures she posted. And on Tuesday, Walker suggested his tampering charge had more to do with trying to make sure the woman didnt send an innocent man to prison. I just wanted you to know, Your Honor, I do take responsibility for this attempted tampering, Walker said. I just wanted to know why me. Prosecutor Ann Miller suggested the intent was more sinister than that. She told the judge Tuesday that Walker had an atrocious record. A documented 40th Avenue Crip, Walker had previously served time for attempted second-degree assault for his involvement in a drive-by shooting at a rival. His record also included felony convictions for a high-speed crash in which he fled the scene, Judge Derr said. And he has been the subject of lockdowns in jail. Dunns mother, Dawn Hollingsworth, sat with prosecutors during the hearing. She prepared cards thanking prosecutors for seeking justice. Dunns girlfriend the subject of the tampering listened by phone. She moved out of state out of fear of retaliation. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, the newest national airline of the UAE, will commence flights to its latest destinations - Kiev, Bari, Salalah and Muscat, starting from July. The flight to Ukraines capital city, Kiev will be operated three times per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from July 1; flights to Bari, Italy will be operated two times per week on Tuesdays and Saturdays from Spetember 21; routes to Salalah, Oman will be operated two times per week on Wednesdays and Saturdays from July 3; and flights to the capital of Oman, Muscat will be operated three times per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays from July 1. Since launching in January 2021, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi now operates to 22 destinations with further destinations to be revealed in the coming months. Tickets are already on sale on wizzair.com and the airlines mobile app, also available in Arabic, with fares starting as low as AED99 ($26.9). The new ultra-low fare routes between Abu Dhabi and the cities of Kiev, Bari, Salalah and Muscat will provide additional and affordable travel options for business and leisure travellers between the countries. The beautiful and historic city of Kiev is Ukraines most populous, bursting with retail and F&B options, striking architecture, cultural attractions and landmarks it is also Ukraines science and industrial hub. The city is a unique travel opportunity for all whether its for a weekend getaway or for work. For those who would like to enjoy a memorable holiday, the authentic and welcoming city of Bari in Italy features a bustling traditional harbour and beautiful beaches providing the perfect balance between sightseeing and relaxation. While the cities of Muscat and Salalah in Oman are the perfect escape for those searching for peace and mindfulness Oman boasts beauty, deep-rooted heritage and culture, golden sands, glowing crystal waters, clear blue skies, colourful birds and temperate weather. Kees Van Schaick, Managing Director of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, said: Were excited to offer these new routes giving travellers sustainable options to explore new places. Travellers will be dazzled by beautiful architecture found in every corner of Kiev, a wealth of history and gorgeous beaches in Bari, and the nature and diverse landscape found in Oman. Kiev, Bari, Salalah and Muscat are our next destinations in a series of new route announcements we have made, and will continue to make we are committed to providing Abu Dhabi residents and tourists with new travel options and destinations at affordable prices. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi has the youngest fleet composed of four brand new state-of-the-art Airbus A321neo aircraft, offering the lowest fuel burn, emissions and noise footprint. The airline has also introduced a new era of sanitised travel across its network, with enhanced hygiene measures to ensure the health and safety of passengers and crew. - TradeArabia News Service A Fillmore County man who triggered a social media storm last fall after driving around Lincoln with a racist message on his pickup truck was sentenced to prison Tuesday for attempted manufacture of a controlled substance while in possession of a firearm. Fillmore County District Judge Vicky Johnson sentenced Austin J. Cordis, 21, of rural Ohiowa, to three to five years in prison. In exchange for a guilty plea, prosecutors reduced the charge from possession of a firearm while committing a drug violation and dismissed three other felony charges. The charges against Cordis were brought after investigators from the Fillmore County Sheriff's Office searched a farm where Cordis lived March 13, 2020. According to an affidavit filed in Fillmore County Court, investigators located a large hydroponic marijuana-growing operation. In September, several people posted photos of a pickup driven by Cordis in Lincoln with a coarse expletive and the N-word in large red, white and blue lettering above "Trump 2020." Cordis later said that the pickup belonged to him but that he didn't write the message. An image of the pickup was shared on Twitter and retweeted by, among others, retired professional basketball player Rex Chapman, who has more than 947,000 Twitter followers. The opinion said the line between state and local matters has not been clearly established. However, in this case, the attorney general pointed to a previous opinion supporting the state's right to preempt local concealed handgun ordinances that were stricter than state law. "We think that a court would likely conclude that the regulation of concealed handguns under the Concealed Handgun Permit Act's shall-issue statutory scheme is a matter of statewide concern," Peterson said. In addition, the attorney general said that LB236 would not provide "adequate, sufficient and definite statutory standards" for county boards to consider before adopting an ordinance allowing permitless concealed carry. The committee amendment would require that boards seek the "advice and counsel" from the county sheriff before proceeding. The attorney general's opinion described that requirement as vague and lacking a uniform standard on which sheriffs should base their input. The opinion also said the bill could allow county boards to create exemptions to a criminal offense, namely carrying a concealed weapon. The attorney general noted that one way to address constitutional concerns would be to do away with concealed carry permits statewide. Lincoln Sen. Anna Wishart offered the Legislature one more chance to legalize medical marijuana and enact strict regulations over who could access cannabis and how it could be used. If lawmakers decided not to advance her measure (LB474), she said, voters will almost certainly be granted the opportunity to consider a ballot initiative next year asking them to enshrine the right to cannabis for medical purposes into the state constitution. Make no mistake, Wishart said on Wednesday morning, we will get the signatures to qualify the initiative for the ballot. Weve done it before in a global pandemic, and it will pass with overwhelming support in this state. Her warning went unheeded, however. Opponents used procedural motions to mount a successful filibuster, and shortly after 6 p.m., only 31 senators voted to invoke cloture, falling two short of the tally needed, effectively pushing LB474 off the agenda for the year. Wishart said she wont bring another bill forward next year shes sponsored legislation to legalize medical cannabis in each of her five years in the Legislature and instead will shift her focus to gathering signatures from voters across the state. The federal programs have come under increasing scrutiny around the nation as employers scramble to find workers. The programs include one that provides jobless workers with a $300 weekly federal benefit on top of state unemployment checks that average about $320. President Joe Biden, who included the extra money in his $1.9 trillion rescue package approved in March, Monday disputed that the $300 supplemental payment is to blame. But he also urged the federal Labor Department to work with states on renewing requirements that those receiving aid must search for jobs and take a position if offered. The job search rule was suspended during the pandemic, when many businesses were closed. Anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits, Biden said. In Nebraska, Ricketts reinstated work search requirements in July. The requirements apply to workers receiving regular unemployment and the additional $300 in federal pandemic unemployment benefits. They also apply to self-employed and "gig" workers receiving special pandemic unemployment benefits and to those getting extended weeks of benefits, also made available through the federal relief legislation. Nebraska Republican House members declined to say Wednesday how they voted when House Republicans removed Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from her GOP leadership position on a voice vote. But the tone of their answers pointed to a desire to move on. "For many of us who are friends with Liz Cheney and have stood by her, the ongoing re-litigation of the past has become a problematic distraction from our obligation to working people, who are proud of America, who want effective government, but who are struggling to get ahead," Rep. Jeff Fortenberry said in a written statement in response to a question asking how he voted. "I respect Rep. Cheney and defend her right as a congresswoman to speak her mind," Rep. Don Bacon said. "Right now, I believe the House GOP strategy must be forward-thinking, instead of continually re-litigating the past. "We should be united on messaging and vision and that is the role of the House Conference chair," Bacon said. Rep. Adrian Smith, Nebraska's third House member, his spokesperson told KSNB in Hastings in a statement that he hopes Congress can get back to the larger issues facing our nation like reopening the economy and connecting workers and jobs. On Friday, a statement from a Racine County Sheriff's Office public information officer issued a statement indicating that it plans to release no more information about what occurred pending the investigations of the deaths, both of which are being led by the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department. "The Racine County Sheriffs Office has released two statements to the media concerning two inmate deaths in the County Jail on Saturday, May 29, 2021, and Tuesday, June 1, 2021," Sgt. Michael J. Luell said in an email. "The investigations into the two deaths are being handled by the Kenosha County Sheriffs Office. The Racine County Sheriffs Office is cooperating fully with the Kenosha County Sheriffs Office, as-well-as the Milwaukee County Medical Examiners Office (which is reported to be performing the autopsies). In respect to the integrity of the investigative process, the Sheriffs Office is not providing any additional information or making public comments at this time." The fiancee of one of the men that she is "now left with more questions than answers" after the little information she has received from the Racine County Sheriff's Office. A 22-year-old Burlington man has a date in municipal court after allegedly driving a mini-bike on a sidewalk. The man says he had good reason to be in a hurry his fiancee was in labor. We are short three waitresses, two drivers, two dishwashers, a pizza cook and kitchen help, said Robert Greskoviak, owner of the Villa D Carlo restaurant along Kenoshas lakefront. While more businesses in southeastern Wisconsin reopen their doors and expand operations as the pandemic wanes, Help Wanted signs are cropping up like spring dandelions. Many employers say they are finding it more difficult than ever to find workers. Everyplace across the state this is an issue. There is no question: There is a shortage of workers, said Gov. Tony Evers during a Monday afternoon Zoom interview. At Cree Lighting in Racine, as of Friday, there were 60 open jobs on the assembly floor and another couple dozen professional jobs open. Those positions are filling up slower than ever. Having that many jobs open isnt unprecedented for Cree, especially after consolidating and expanding operations locally in the past six years. But Director of Operations Brian Kinnune said he doesnt remember a time its been so difficult to fill those positions. It has taken time in the past, but it has not taken the time this has taken. In a similar situation on a smaller scale, at Franks Diner in Downtown Kenosha, co-owner Kevin Ervin said: Weve put ads out there for cooks, dishwashers and servers. They have been able to fill them. But its taken a lot longer than normal. Great offer extended! Just $1 gives you full access for 6 months to exclusive content from The Journal Times and journaltimes.com. The incredible deal won't last lo Ervin said the eatery usually gets deluged with job inquiries this time of year. But now, the last few months its just been dribs and drabs. Job openings, worker shortages Work opportunities are coming back, finally, even if the workers havent arrived as quickly. Dennis DuChene, president of the Kenosha Area Tourism Corporation, corroborated that southeast Wisconsins restaurants and hotels are experiencing challenges with staffing. The unemployment situation is challenging for a lot of businesses. I couldnt tell you one place that isnt having staffing issues, DuChene said. Between 2019 and 2020 due to the novel coronavirus, the total number of tourism related-jobs in Kenosha, Racine and Walworth counties dropped by about 18%, from 14,921 to 12,173, according to a recently released state tourism report. Statewide, hospitality and tourism jobs decreased 22% from 2019 to 2020. As CNN reported last month, More than a year into the pandemic, the economic recovery has picked up speed. Employers added 916,000 jobs (in March) the largest gain since August and the unemployment rate fell to 6%. Several hard-hit sectors, including restaurant and bars, saw big improvements. Still, the US economy has 8.4 million fewer jobs than it did before the pandemic began. And 4.2 million people or 43% of the unemployed have been out of work for at least six months, which makes it harder for them to land new jobs. 051221-NWS-OPENINGS-1-JPG *March 2021 unemployment rates are preliminary On the local level, as of March of this year, unemployment in Kenosha County was at 5.2%, up from 4.4% March a year before and 4.1% in 2019, according to tentative numbers from the Job Center of Wisconsin. Racine Countys unemployment rate is at 5.9%, up from 4.7% one year ago and 4.3% in 2019. Similarly in Walworth County, the unemployment rate is at 4.7%, up from 3.8% a year ago and 3.6% in 2019. I think everyone is in the same boat, struggling to find help, said Tricia Nelson, who owns Bristol 45 Diner in Kenosha County with her husband. Were more fortunate than some who have had to cut hours or days because they cant find the help. The diner, which reopened May 26 after shutting down last spring, has been able to operate its usual hours but currently could use a busser/dishwasher and another server. Simple Cafe Simple Cafe, 525 Broad St. in Lake Geneva, will be closed on Wednesdays through at least the month of May because of a staffing shortage. In tourism-heavy Lake Geneva, Simple Cafe announced in April that it was closing on Wednesdays until more workers can be hired. Mars Resort, a lakeside eatery, followed suit soon after. We will be closing on Tuesdays indefinitely and limiting carry-out orders nightly based on available staff. We will re-open on Tuesdays once we find people that are qualified and want to work, Mars Resort posted on Facebook over the weekend. Simple Cafe co-owner Tom Hartz (who was Lake Genevas mayor from 2018-2020) said in late April that his restaurant, which typically has between seven to 10 cooks on staff, needed three more cooks. Hartz decided to close the restaurant one day a week because he felt his cooks were starting to burn out. Thats why we decided to close on Wednesdays, he said, so we can give them a break and give them some time where they can get their errands done, sleep late or just relax. The pay at Simple Cafe depends on a persons experience, according to Hartz: a dishwasher usually is paid $10 an hour while the current lead line cook earns $20 an hour. Bigger businesses left waiting, too Colbert Packaging Corp. in Kenosha a producer of packaging and specialty containers for the pharmaceutical and personal care industries also is struggling to fill positions as its business expands. Colbert makes packaging for COVID test kits and many other products at its facilities in Kenosha and Elkhart, Indiana. Since the pandemic began, Colbert added 40 new customers and has seen an increase in orders from existing customers who are responding to their own COVID-19 pandemic needs, said Colbert President John Lackner. Lackner said he has more than 20 openings that he needs to fill for three shifts, with pay starting at $14 per hour for full-time employees, additional pay opportunities after 90 days as well as benefits including health insurance, dental insurance and a 401(k). To assist with recruitment, Colbert offers an employee referral bonus; it also works with local high schools and has a youth apprentice program. Likewise, Cree recently increased its referral bonus, is connecting with high schools as far away as Gurnee, Illinois, and has seen its human resources department get creative (and old school) in its hunt for workers. Uline's massive warehouses off Highway 142 and Interstate 94. Uline's massive warehouses near the intersection of Highway 142 and Interstate 94 in Kenosha County. Cree declined to share what its starting rate for new hires is, but officials there said they offer a competitive rate compared to major nearby Kenosha County employers such as Uline (reported in September as $23 per hour) and Amazon ($15 per hour). In addition, Cree offers a pension, on-site health care, productivity incentives and cross-training opportunities. Where job postings alone on Indeed.com or other online job boards may have worked before, Cree more recently branched out in its hiring practices, finding success by spreading flyers in populated areas and by having employees strike up conversations with strangers at the supermarket who may be looking for work. We have had to put extra work into it, said Geoff Fry, Cree vice president of operations, said. We put the pedal to the metal. Were now seeing the results. Adam Rogan of the Journal Times; Stephanie Jones and Dennis Hines of the Lake Geneva Regional News; and James Lawson and Heather Poyner of the Kenosha News contributed to this report. Love 2 Funny 5 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Travellers journeys to the Seychelles continue uninterrupted as more visitors from the world over seek refuge in the spectacular island getaway. The islands remain safe for travel despite a rise in community Covid-19 cases which has prompted tighter health measures this week. The measures do not in any way affect a visitors journey and stay in the destination, which continues to offer everything from fun-filled vacations to idyllic getaways. Tourists have been getting their cameras and flip flops ready, and snorkelling gear out for some real toes-in-the-sand bliss. The local authorities are nevertheless urging all visitors to follow health and sanitary guidelines in place, to ensure their safety throughout their stay. Seychelles currently leads the world chart with the highest vaccinations administered, with over 62 per cent of all adults having received the two doses of the Sinopharm and Covishield shots. However, the country re-introduced certain measures such as delaying the commencement of the new school term, early closure of shops, bars and casinos, limiting gatherings on beaches to groups of four after a surge in cases in the community, which has been attributed to people letting down their guard over the Easter weekend. With only 10 per cent of the current active cases being visitors, the infection rate amongst guests testing positive upon exiting the country remains relatively low. Seychelles, nonetheless, remains the preferred destination for many and the health measures in place are a strong deciding factor when booking a holiday to the island nation. The Chief Executive of the Seychelles Tourism Board, Sherin Francis, has said that since the country re-opened its borders to all countries in late March, all tourism service providers and businesses have adopted strict Standard Operating Procedures, (SOPs), to ensure the safety of all guests. 587 of the 720 tourist accommodation establishments are Covid-safe certified. We are constantly improving and stepping up the safety measures and protocols in place to protect our guests and local population alike. Our tourists do check out those important details when considering their holiday, and they are choosing Seychelles because they are satisfied that we are doing our utmost to operate in a safe manner, she said. Seychelles started its mass vaccination campaign in January, in anticipation of the re-opening of the borders in March. To date, the destination has recorded over 20,000 visitors and seven airlines are currently providing reliable connections to different parts of the world. - TradeArabia News Service Part of the government's plan to house thousands of children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border involves about a dozen unlicensed emergency facilities inside military installations, stadiums and convention centers that skirt state regulations and don't require traditional legal oversight. Inside the facilities, called Emergency Intake Sites, children aren't guaranteed access to education, recreational opportunities or legal counsel. In a recent news release, the administration touted its "restoration of a child centered focus for unaccompanied children," and it has been sharing daily totals of the number of children in custody as well as a few photos of the facilities. This reflects a higher level of transparency than the Trump administration. In addition, the amount of time children spend, on average, inside the system has dropped from four months last fall to less than a month this spring, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Nonetheless, the agency has received reports of abuse that resulted in a handful of contract staffers being dismissed from working at the emergency sites this year, according to an official who wasn't authorized to talk about it publicly and insisted on anonymity. Attorneys say sometimes, even parents can't figure out where their children are. But prosecutors asked for what is known as an upward departure arguing that Floyd was particularly vulnerable with his hands cuffed behind his back as he was face-down on the ground. They also said Chauvin treated Floyd with particular cruelty, saying Chauvin inflicted gratuitous pain and caused psychological distress to Floyd and to bystanders. They also said 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. Cahill agreed with all but one of the prosecutors arguments. He said prosecutors did not prove that Floyd was particularly vulnerable, noting that even though he was handcuffed, he was able to struggle with officers who were trying to put him in a squad car. At least four of five Wisconsin House Republicans say they plan to vote to remove U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney from her House leadership post when Republicans convene to oust her on Wednesday. U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville, Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, Glenn Grothman, R-Glenbeulah, and Mike Gallagher, R-Green Bay, said they planned to vote for her removal. Many of them cited concerns with Cheneys ability to unify the Republican caucus and serve as the top messenger for the House GOP as Republicans work to take back leadership in both chambers. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy set a Wednesday vote for removing Cheney, saying it was clear that he and his GOP colleagues need to make a change. Cheney, R-Wyo., seems all but certain to be tossed from her No. 3 House GOP job after repeatedly challenging former President Donald Trumps false assertions pinning his November reelection defeat on widespread voting fraud. She also has criticized his role in inciting the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 as electoral votes were being formally certified, and she was among just 10 Republicans to support Trumps second impeachment. The Best Little Floorhouse in Texas Your choice for flooring in Central Texas! Your flooring is more than just the surface you walk on it's an integral part of your home. With over 35 years of flooring experience, The Best Little Floorhouse in Texas has the resources and knowled 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 LISBON, Portugal (AP) A prominent Venezuelan opposition activist said Wednesday that his movements recent offer to negotiate with President Nicolas Maduros administration was prompted by the countrys urgent humanitarian crisis and prolonged political stalemate. Leopoldo Lopez told the Associated Press that his opposition group has not yet received a response to its proposal from the Maduro government. The two sides have for years been locked in a standoff. Lopez is close to Juan Guaido, the opposition leader recognized by the U.S. and dozens of other countries as Venezuelas legitimate leader. Guaido on Tuesday offered to work with Maduros administration toward a National Salvation Agreement. Guaido said any agreement must be reached through negotiations involving the opposition, pro-government forces and the international community. Lopez, who was in Portugal after trips to Italy, the Vatican and the Netherlands to seek backing for Guaidos proposal, said the political crisis ... is at the heart of our problem. Nicolas Huss, the former CEO of Ingenico and Visa Europe, has been appointed as CEO of Hotelbeds. Huss is an experienced board-level executive and CEO with a very strong reputation in the payments, financial services and travel industries, where he has led significant growth, transformation and innovation. He brings to Hotelbeds extensive experience in leading technology and digital companies as well as a proven track record for driving organic growth. A French national, Nicolas has a truly international background and has lived and worked in many countries, including Spain where he was previously based for seven years. Nicolas Huss said: Im really looking forward to taking the reins at Hotelbeds, the market leader in its segment. Joan Vilas strategic vision and relentless drive to innovate and internationalise has created a wonderful company and a fantastic workforce with a truly dynamic culture. Together with Carlos Munoz and Andres Garcia-Tenorio, and the rest of the highly experienced Executive Leadership Team, we are well positioned to continue delivering mutual growth together with our valued supplier partners and clients. - TradeArabia News Service Officials at Tomah Health and Versiti Blood Center are asking the public to consider donating blood to meet demand heading into a busy time of the year. As we approach Memorial Day and the graduation season, it is urgent that we have a stable blood supply, which is currently not the situation, Versiti Blood Center account representative Emalea Cogdill said. Every day, Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin needs to see at least 800 donors to meet the demands of area hospitals, Cogdill said. With more people being vaccinated and getting out of their homes, Cogdill said attention has shifted away from blood donations. We need to do all we can to ensure that our community hospitals have the blood they need for their patients, Cogdill said. Tomah Health and Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin are joining forces by holding a two-day blood drive May 27 from noon to 5 p.m. and May 28 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Tomah Recreation Park, 1625 Butts Ave., Tomah. The drives are being held at Tomahs Recreation Park due to continued COVID-19 visitor restrictions at Tomah Health. Sue Berg of rural Westby has a love for the beauty of the Driftless Area and a love of mystery novels. Those two loves have come together for her first detective mystery called Driftless Gold. Released on April 22, the Jim Higgins Driftless Mystery novel is the first in a series of six. The series takes place in and around La Crosse, during the current time. The second book in the series will be released in December of this year. According to the Driftless Gold synopsis on Bergs website, Down a Drifless Road,: When a migrant worker is discovered partially buried in a shallow grave at a local gravel quarry, Lt. Jim Higgins is called to the scene. But things heat up when an antique gold coin in found in the dead mans pocket. Lt. Jim Higgins begins to unravel a murder that will take him back into Wisconsins early history. During the investigation, Higgins meets a local archeological savant and treasure hunter who tells him a wild tale about a U.S. Army payroll that was stolen on the way to Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien in 1866. The payroll has never been recovered. Is the coin on the dead man part of the stolen cache of valuable coins? Higgins hesitates to base his investigation on a wild tale, but he has nothing else to go on. In a race against time, Higgins struggles to identify the killerand find the elusive gold treasure. Poterucha says it will be important for providers to hear parental concerns and work to dispel any myths or refer them to accurate information. Its going to take a level of trust with the providers, the parents and the children, and were really trying to get those individuals who might be in the moveable middle, who might still be a little ambivalent about whether to get it for themselves or their kids, Poterucha says. Poterucha stresses that kids have unfortunately passed away (from COVID), kids have been hospitalized and always in the back of our mind is the concern about the variants. Group activities, such as sporting events and extracurriculars, can be a high breeding ground for infectious spread, as local middle and high schools have seen in recent weeks. In addition to concerns about transmission, both to other students and high-risk family or community members, long-haul COVID symptoms are possible and can be debilitating, Potercha says. With the approval of the vaccine for the 12 to 15 age group ahead of schedule late summer was an initial estimate Poterucha surmises the vaccine may be available to ages 2 to 11 by early fall. Even though he was found guilty of three counts, under Minnesota statutes he'll only be sentenced on the most serious one second-degree murder. Under Minnesota sentencing guidelines, he would have faced a presumptive sentence of 12 1/2 years on that count, and Cahill could have sentenced him to as little as 10 years and eight months or as much as 15 years and still stayed within the guideline range. But prosecutors asked for what is known as an upward departure arguing that Floyd was particularly vulnerable with his hands cuffed behind his back as he was face-down on the ground. They noted that Chauvin held his position even after Floyd became unresponsive and officers knew he had no pulse. With Tuesday's ruling, Cahill has given himself permission to sentence Chauvin above the guideline range, though he doesn't have to, said Mark Osler, professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law. He said attorneys for both sides will argue whether an upward departure is appropriate and how long the sentence should be. A pre-sentence investigation report will also be conducted. These are usually nonpublic and include highly personal information such as family history and mental health issues, as well as details of the offense and the harm it caused others and the community. According to Islamic teaching, fasting through daylight hours during the month of Ramadan, which ends tonight, brings Muslims closer to God. Fasting enables me to concentrate spiritually, said Muhammad Younus, of Lititz, a medical doctor who works as a drug safety epidemiologist for Pfizer. When you give up things you like, you find self-discovery, reflection and self-control. It purifies you, said Afsheen Karim, who is a family medicine doctor in Lancaster and the wife of Younus. It satisfies you after you fast (during daylight) for a whole month. During Ramadan, which is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, Muslims abstain from food and water for about 15 hours each day, from 4:30 a.m. until just after sunset. The holiday celebrates the time when God gave the first verses of the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims try to read the entire sacred text during the month, in addition to fasting and refraining from gossip and frivolous activities. Fasting is one of the pillars of Islam, along with professing faith in one God and the Prophet Muhammad as his messenger; praying; donating to charity; and visiting Mecca, Saudi Arabia, at least once during a lifetime. Eid al-Fitr, which starts Thursday, celebrates the beginning of the new month with family feasts, colorful clothes and celebrations. The special celebratory dessert that Karim, Sameera Syed and other Muslim families will make Thursday combines nuts, milk, fine vermicelli and sometimes dates into a luscious, sugary mixture. But this rich pudding dish, called sheer khurma, still may taste a little sour, as it marks the end of Ramadan. Many Muslims say they feel some despair leaving this time of prayer and reflection behind. Its a feeling of sadness when the month is ending, said Vinithia Moopen, a pediatrician with WellSpan Health in Lititz. We are filling our souls, not our stomachs. The day actually goes very fast, said Shakeel Amanullah, a partner at Pulmonary Associates of Lancaster and Moopens husband. I dont feel bogged down. I feel very light. God is saying, If you fast for my sake, I will reward you. When you fast, you establish and strengthen bonds with God, said Lititz engineer Mukaram Syed, who is Sameera Syeds husband. We look forward to this month. Logistics of fasting Still, how can someone concentrate while not eating or drinking most of the day? How can a surgeon operate on a patient? How can a student take tests? The answer seems to be spiritual fortitude, plus a slightly rearranged schedule. Moopen said many people dont know when shes not eating during the day. My office staff doesnt know Im fasting. People sometimes work through the day without breaks or lunch, so co-workers may not realize that some may be fasting for Ramadan. Its not difficult. My whole day of fasting doesnt affect my productivity, Younus said, noting that he tries to focus on harder tasks after breakfast. Its not a struggle, said Sameera Syed, medical director of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Lancaster. She starts seeing patients in the hospital at 7 a.m. and usually finishes around 3 p.m. "God is saying, If you fast for my sake, I will reward you. When you fast, you establish and strengthen bonds with God. We look forward to this month. - Mukaram Syed Her daughter, Nawal Syed, will graduate this year from Manheim Township High School. Its definitely an adjustment, the 17-year-old said. I feel less energized. The high school senior, however, cherishes fasting. Im always busy with school and friends, Nawal said. Fasting lets me reignite my religious connection. Her grades havent suffered, Nawals mother noted. She will start a combined bachelors and MD program at Drexel University in Philadelphia this fall. Nawal leaves for school by 7 a.m., so getting up earlier for breakfast before sunrise only changes her schedule a little. She and other Muslims say they may grab a short nap after breakfast and prayers on weekdays, before work or school. On weekends, many wake up early to eat and then go back to sleep. Others say they bring work home and focus after the evening meal. You make a little effort, Younus said. With the excitement of Ramadan, not eating becomes routine. Afternoon coffee or tea frequently popped up during conversations of what practitioners missed most during the month. I have missed coffee, Mukaram Syed said. The craving, however, seemed to disappear after a few days. Spreading goodwill Ramadan also focuses on charity. We believe that what we have is a gift from God, and we should share that with those in need, Moopen said. With COVID, there are a lot of people in the community struggling. She and Amanullah earmark a percentage of their income for donations. Amanullah also serves on the board of trustees at The Islamic Community Center of Lancaster. By fasting, you realize the blessings of God and appreciate people who dont have anything, he said. The Islamic Community Center of Lancaster, which shares space with the Lancaster Moravian Church, provided Friday and Saturday night meals for families to break their daily fasts. The organization brought in dinners from Muslim-owned businesses, and area residents, or anyone who was hungry, could come to the parking lot across from the mosque to pick up boxes of kabobs, samosas or shawarma. The center also has an open-door policy to anyone interested. During Ramadan, though, the mosque limits itself to worshippers. The pandemic has altered Ramadan prayers and celebrations. No services or meals took place last year because the center was closed when the holiday started April 23. This year, the mosque staggers prayer times to reduce capacity and allows no food inside, said Mukaram Syed, another board member. We have water, he said. Its the only time masks come off. The congregation tries to gather Friday afternoons for prayers, a sermon and a meeting. The mosque relies on lay members and has no paid staff. However, leaders have invited a noted Muslim scholar to lead prayers Thursday. Not every Muslim is required to fast. Young children and people with medical conditions or other extenuating circumstances are excused, Amanullah said. Yet some who dont fast wish they could. Mukaram Syed first tried fasting when he was 7. He started fasting on weekends but wanted to abstain from eating and drinking during the week, too. It was so cool, he recalled. Karim and Younus younger son, 7, tried fasting for the first time this year, not eating on one day of a weekend. Their older son, 9, refrained from eating and drinking during weekends. Im not worried about them, said Karim, the family doctor. They want to do it. Its been nearly a year since Marilyn Langeman joined around 80 fellow residents of Landis Homes for a silent, outdoor vigil following the death of George Floyd. A number of people who were there, afterward, said we need to continue our work, Langeman says. We decided to begin with education and examining our own racism that we maybe dont recognize. An anti-racism resident group formed at Landis and now meets monthly, primarily via Zoom. Members have added a related bookshelf to the library and have amassed a virtual mailing list of residents who are given updates with suggestions for books and online courses. There are people here who think that were overblowing it, were exaggerating, Langeman says. But there are many of us here who are interested. The same can be said of residents of some other Lancaster County retirement communities where similar groups formed last year. And the point isnt lost on those involved that this is happening in a type of community that both locally and nationally is predominantly white. Consider the racial breakdown of communities nationally for which leaders were surveyed in Diversity in Senior Living Communities: Insights into Creating a More Diverse Census. Residents in those communities were described as 95% white, 4% Black and about 1% Asian. That 2018 national study was by Love & Co. Inc., a Frederick, Maryland-based, senior-focused marketing firm. CEO Rob Love says hes pleased to hear of resident-driven initiatives in Lancaster County and says he is seeing similar pushes elsewhere. Residents have grown very active over the last couple years and particularly over this past year looking more at roles they can play and what they can do internally and externally in their greater community, Love says. His firms diversity study followed an increasing number of discussions and questions many coming from some Quaker-run senior living communities across the mid-Atlantic, he says. The residents at those communities reflecting the overall Quaker philosophy tend to be more welcoming and understanding and receptive to all facets of diversity, whether its race or sexual preference or whatever, he says. Some retirement communities are out of financial reach for many seniors regardless of race. A host of issues complicate matters further when race is considered. What can we do? Every culture is different when it comes to working with your aging families, says Jennifer Shutt, director of community services at Moravian Manor Communities. We are inclusive. We would like to be more diverse. We would love to have a very diverse population. Moravian residents also organized 8 minutes and 46 seconds of silence in June in response to the killing of George Floyd. After that there was just a push for us to talk about diversity and awareness, Shutt says. So we started to get a number of speakers together. The first was Kevin Ressler, president and CEO of the United Way of Lancaster County. He really gave his own, personal testimony (via Zoom), she says. The title of the program was Beyond Southern Sentiment. Racism Feels at Home in Lancaster. A question was posed: What can we do? Shutt says. Ressler gave some suggestions. The group continues looking for more. Shutt was also approached by Chris Kennedy a locally-based national consultant on issues related to aging to help her pilot an intergenerational program. For that, a few Moravian residents were paired with college students connected to Brightside Baptist Church in Lancaster. They shared life stories, worked on art projects and presented those to friends and family. We have very social-minded residents, and we also have very educated residents here, Shutt says. So when theyre looking at a topic, whether they agree or disagree, they want to learn more ... They also want to know how they can be part of the change. Making a difference Cynnie King is a member of the racial justice committee formed last year at Homestead Village. Were all seeking a sense of purpose and mission. Maybe thats particularly important as you move into retirement, King says. How do you hold onto that? And what does that look like as you move into the next chapter? She sees a need to develop honest, respectful and productive conversations. Its just like everywhere else. Theres a political spectrum here which creates its own sort of sensitivities, King says. You dont want to pull the community apart because of strong points of view. The racial justice committee and the life enrichment staff at Homestead Village have worked together to sponsor four interactive diversity and inclusion trainings provided by the YWCA; create a library of racial equity books and resources; hold a six-week learning series provided by QUEST; and hold conversations about cultivating diversity and identifying practical ways to encourage it. Also, through a Moving4Change! Initiative, Homestead Village residents raised $5,000 for Advantage Lancaster, which helps teens within the School District of Lancaster. The racial justice committee was certainly formed over the events of the past year. And they are on an education journey, says Homestead President Douglas Motter. But they also want to make a difference They are fundraising. And we encourage them to make those efforts. Weve supported it as part of our life enrichment budget. Promoting diversity In addition, Motter says, Homestead Village, like other local communities, is looking at how it can be more diverse. That includes taking very aware and deliberate steps toward a more diverse leadership and governance, being mindful of those who interact with perspective residents, he says. We cant control the applicants. But we can certainly adjust our approach to trying to be more inclusive in all aspects of our organization, Motter says. Youve got to start somewhere. Landis Homes is part of the broader organization Landis Communities, which currently also includes Steeple View Lofts, a 55-plus apartment community in downtown Lancaster; Mountain View Terrace, an apartment complex in New Holland for seniors with qualifying income; and Welsh Mountain Home, a personal care home. While most residents on the Landis Homes campus are white, about 5 percent of residents of other Landis Communities locations are people of color as are more than 16 percent of team members, says Landis Communities spokeswoman Beth Trout. Landis Communities leadership issued a statement after Floyds killing citing the need to be more aware of inequalities and create a more inclusive culture. The organization is working through a series of goals for putting words into action, she says. From a purely economic perspective, reaching a broader range of potential residents might not have an automatic bottom line payoff in a county where waiting lists are the norm for senior living communities. In Lancaster, its just an extraordinary hotbed of very successful communities, Love says. But its not really indicative of the country as a whole. Nationally, retirement communities tend to average 93% occupancy, he says. So casting a wider net could be beneficial on the fiscal front, he says. Race and retirement savings is getting a lot of attention. In March J.P. Morgan Wealth Management announced plans to hire 300 additional Black and Latinx advisers by 2025 and noted for those groups a lack of trust in financial institutions, lack of access to solutions and investments education, and systemic issues all lead to lower ownership of wealth-building products. The company also cites Federal Reserve data that indicates that only 34% of Black families have retirement accounts compared to 60% of white families and that the median retirement balance is $46,100 versus of $151,000 for white families. Many Black seniors know the struggle of using savings to take care of older relatives and children at the same time, says Jim Johnson, who is himself Black. Hes the William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at The University of North Carolinas Kenan-Flagler Business School. Im 67 years old and Ive had 10 family members to die in the last decade folks who are responsible for helping me get to where Im at today, Johnson says. So when my white colleagues were investing in retirement properties and horse farms, I was putting a roof on my 97-year-old uncles house because hes sitting with two pails in the middle of the living room. But there are some (Black seniors) who can afford to live in these communities, he adds. Why theyre not looking at them is the question. Johnson and some colleagues took a swing at answering that with a 2018 national study called Race and Residence in Continuing Care Retirement Communities/Life Plan Communities. They interviewed groups of Black residents who live in those communities and Black seniors who dont. Some of the latter dont want to. If Im going to have a reasonably healthy and happy retirement Im not going to sit around and listen to people who spew racist remarks on a daily basis, Johnson says. That was the biggest kind of response that we got. Ive lived this every day in my working life. Im not going to live it in retirement. On the flip side, Black study participants who were current and soon-to-be retirement community residents were seemingly un-phased by the lack of diversity, according to the study. Seniors who are affluent enough to afford such communities are typically those who are already used to being first of be it in school or their careers, Johnson says. Still, race fatigue is real, he adds. One Black resident of a retirement community resident interviewed for the study said she was frustrated by being asked to join the diversity committee with the assumption she could automatically speak for her race. Others were asked to be photographed for marketing materials before they even moved in. I need to know that youre not going to wear the hell out of me taking my picture for every magazine, Johnson says. I need to be able to go and sit down with my wife and eat my hamburger without 10 people coming up and saying, Oh, yall are so cute. The Love & Co. national study asked people about their preferences for retirement. Only 2% of Black respondents said retirement communities were their preference. Seven percent of white respondents and 7% of Asian respondents said so. About 14% of Hispanic respondents gave retirement communities as their preference. The study notes that results may indicate support for increasing marketing efforts to Hispanic populations located in the same vicinity as retirement communities. However, Love says he wonders if there was some sampling error perhaps related to the geographic locations from which Hispanic respondents were pulled. Love says time will make a difference. The average age of someone entering a retirement community today is 80, he says. For Blacks born in 1940, who reached adulthood before the civil rights movement of the 60s, there may be reluctance to be the first person of color to move into a community, he says. Now consider those born in 1960, who are now 60 and considering retirement. They really came of age after all the civil rights stuff. Not a perfect world by any stretch of the imagination, but at a place that was so different from 1940, Love says. If youre thinking of the people who are affluent enough to be able to afford a life plan community, theyve been much more integrated and its not as a big of a deal. Maybe I should say I hope, but I believe, that over time it will naturally change and evolve as the generations change, Love adds. But I wish there was some way we could have it move faster. The Lancaster Township nursing home facility long known as Conestoga View, site of the sixth-highest number of COVID-19 deaths among nursing facilities in the state, has a new owner. A spokesperson for Lakewood, New Jersey-based Imperial Healthcare Group, LLC, confirmed Tuesday the company has bought the nursing home and will keep the facilitys administration in place, but declined to provide any further details. The purchase price was $29.8 million, according to property records filed last week. The 446-bed nursing home also appears to have a new name. A person answering the phone at the nursing home facility Tuesday said the site had recently changed its name to Lancaster Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The Conestoga View website was down on Tuesday. According to property records, the seller, S&P Real Estate Company, is an affiliate of Montgomery County-based Complete HealthCare Resources-Eastern Inc., the company operating the facility since 1993. Phone messages left at Complete Healthcare Resources-Eastern and Lancaster Nursing and Rehabilitation Center were not returned. Chaim Charlie Steg of Lakewood, New Jersey, is listed as Imperials registered agent in business filings in New Jersey. When contacted by phone Tuesday, Steg declined to confirm the purchase of the Lancaster Township nursing home, but requested a reporter leave a message with him. Steg has become part-owner in at least 11 other Pennsylvania nursing homes, most of them in the Philadelphia area, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. Paula Sanders, a spokesperson for Imperial, declined to confirm Stegs involvement at Imperial. I'm not familiar with that, I'm just calling to tell you that Imperial Health Care Group is the licensee, Sanders said. Lancaster County built Conestoga View in 1969, continuing a tradition of providing nursing care for its poorest residents that began in 1799. However, by 2005, county officials had grown weary of spending more than $3 million annually to operate the 900 E. King St. facility and had expressed a desire to shrink the size of county government. So they sold the facility to Complete HealthCare Resources real estate affiliate, S&P Real Estate Co., for $13.3 million in cash and other considerations, according to LNP | LancasterOnline files and county records. Complete HealthCare was a logical buyer since it had managed the nine-story facility for the previous 12 years. The 2005 sale, approved unanimously by county commissioners, also drew immediate controversy. Questions about how the deal came together led to a grand jury investigation that produced guilty pleas from the commissioners to violations of the states open meetings laws in 2006. The facilitys reputation has also taken its recent hits. Since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 last year, 233 Conestoga View residents have contracted the virus, and 81 residents have died from it, according to the latest self-reported data to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Thats the sixth-most deaths of any nursing home in the state, according to the DOH data. An LNP|Lancaster Online investigation in June revealed disturbing conditions in Conestoga View in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Conestoga View housed three or four residents in each room, allowing the virus to spread easily, the investigation found. The facility also failed to implement testing and provide enough personal protective equipment, a widespread problem at health care sites early in the pandemic. Nursing Home Compare which gives nursing home facilities a hotel-style rating has given the formerly-named Conestoga View an overall rating of one-star. A one star indicates the facility performance is much below average. Created to give greater information to consumers when making a placement decision, the five-star rating system is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Unlike higher-rated facilities in the area, most Conestoga View residents depend on Medicaid to pay toward their housing. Nursing home residents have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pennsylvania as a whole, accounting for roughly 6% of the cases, but half of the deaths. Since the outbreak, 13,186 COVID-related deaths have occurred at Pennsylvania long-term care facilities, according to DOH. Conestoga View traces its history all the way back to 1799, when The Almshouse opened on East King Street to serve the areas poor, sick and mentally ill. The Lancaster County Home and Hospital was built at the same site two years later. An Earl Township breeder used a kitchen knife to carve out part of a puppys eye without anesthesia or pain medication, according to the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Ray Martin, 48, was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and neglect of animals. Martin heated up the kitchen knife and proceeded to burn and then cut out an English Bulldog puppys cherry eye, an inflamed or prolapsed gland of the third eyelid, without anesthesia or pain medication as his wife held the dog on the kitchen table, according to a news release from the SPCA. Martin claimed the puppy did not feel pain during the procedure because it did not vocalize, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Martin initially stated the procedure was done due to the inconvenience of taking the dog to a veterinarian, though he later stated it was because he had previously lost a puppy under anesthesia. SPCA had received a complaint from a veterinarian in July regarding an English Bulldog puppy that had been purchased from Martin and brought in for care for an eye problem, police said. Upon examination, the veterinarian determined that the puppy was missing a portion of the eyes anatomy. No surgical or veterinary records for this condition were provided to the dog's purchaser, according to the news release. Martin later admitted to having removed the cherry eye himself. Martin was arrested Wednesday by SPCA alongside Lancaster County Detectives. No animals were seized from Martin as the puppy in question has since been placed with a family who continue to provide for the dogs medical needs, according to the news release. This case of animal cruelty is especially horrific, said Nicole Wilson, Director of Humane Law Enforcement and Shelter Operations at SPCA. The offender in this case took this innocent puppys medical care into his own hands, using what was essentially a kitchen knife to simultaneously burn while cutting out an essential part of the puppys eye anatomy without considering the pain and suffering endured by this vulnerable animal." SPCA also noted that as the puppy ages, its eye will likely need ongoing medical treatment for the eye to maintain its basic health. There is also a likelihood of the dog developing chronic dry eye, which would require lifelong treatment, due to Martin's procedure, according to the affidavit. Anyone with information about this case or other cases involving animal cruelty is urged to call the Pennsylvania SPCAs Cruelty Hotline at 866-601-SPCA. Tips can be left anonymously. Martin is free on a $10,000 unsecured bail, court records show. He will face a preliminary hearing before Judge Jonathan Heisse on May 24. An Ephrata lawyer charged with threatening to kill government officials in Washington, D.C. has been disbarred. The state Supreme Court's order on Wednesday prevents Kenelm Shirk III from practicing law. Though effective June 11, the Supreme Court noted Shirk has resigned. Acting United States Attorney Bruce D. Brandler announced in February a single charge of threatening to murder Democratic U.S. senators against Shirk, 71. A grand jury indicted Shirk on Feb. 3. Shirk has pleaded not guilty. He is scheduled for trial Aug. 2 and has been in federal detention since since shortly after his arrest. Shirk's firm, Shirk Law Associates in Ephrata, had been the longtime solicitor for Akron Borough, but Akron dropped him after his arrest. Pennsylvania State Police said they arrested Shirk at a gas station near Shippensburg as he was on his way to the Washington area the night of Jan. 21, the day after President Joe Biden's inauguration. Police found an AR-15 rifle, two handguns, ammunition, rope, gloves and about $5,000 in Shirk's Subaru Forester and briefcase. Police took Shirk to WellSpan Chambersburg Hospital for an evaluation related to an involuntary commitment sought by his ex-wife. A nurse who evaluated him told police she had a strong gut feeling and instinct that this was more than just a guy who was having a bad day and angry about the election. ... Shirk made comments about shooting government officials in their front yard. Shirk's attorney, John Abom, told LNP|LancasterOnline in February that Shirk had been in a domestic incident with his ex-wife. "He, despite appearances, had no intent in going and hurting or killing anyone. Hes not a member of a group that is promoting insurrection or overthrow of the government, Abom said at the time. Though state police initially charged Shirk with two counts of making terroristic threats, the Franklin County District Attorney's office withdrew the charges when federal prosecutors filed the more serious felony. Shirk comes from a family with a history of community service and political involvement. His father, K.L. Shirk, who died in 2006, was an attorney and long active in the countys Republican party, serving as chairman of the party from 1964-71. Shirks grandfather was Lancaster Countys district attorney. Help India! As the Australian government has banned travel from India amid an exponential surge in Covid cases, concerned representatives of the Indian diaspora in the island nation expressed regret over the decision. Indian diaspora representatives and State and Federal Greens MPs questioned the decision saying that the Australian government did not block flights from the US and Europe when the Covid situation was going haywire in these countries. TCN News Support TwoCircles Representatives from across the Indian diaspora in Australia, together with State and Federal Greens MPs, called for an immediate end to the Coalition Governments India travel ban. Speakers during an online press conference shared the real impacts the Australian governments travel ban is having on Australian residents with family, friends and colleagues in India, together with how the discriminatory ban is perceived by the Indian Australian community. Speakers included Amar Singh, President and Founder of Turbans 4 Australia, Mehreen Faruqi Greens NSW Senator, Vikrant Kishore, Academic, filmmaker and co-founder of South Asians for Inclusiveness, Meraj Khan, Co-founder of the Humanism Project, and David Shoebridge, NSW Greens MP. On the occasion, Amar Singh, the President and Founder of Turbans 4 Australia said, It is appalling to see Indian Australians have been deserted by their Government, their own home. The COVID loans the Government is offering are $2,000 which doesnt even cover your quarantine, why isnt it $10,000?, Singh said, adding, Medical facilities in India require an Indian Passport or Photo ID, Australian citizens dont have them and are turned away. Vikrant Kishore, Academic, filmmaker and co-founder of South Asians for Inclusiveness said the blocking of flights, this new iron curtain, has been just heartbreaking. When things were going haywire in Europe and the USA, Australia never responded by blocking flights so people are asking: Why India? he questioned. Another speaker Meraj Khan, Co-founder of the Humanism Project said, People here are living with survivors guilt, people over there are affected because they cant get back to their partners. Not one single person back home has not been affected by COVID. Khan highlighted the unfair processing time for the partner visas for people in a relationship who have been separated already for the last 12 months. I feel the Australian Government must bring in an exemption to allow submitted and visa approved partners to come back and join their families, Khan said. Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi expressed sadness over the current situation in India. My heart goes out to everyone in India who is suffering the horrific impacts of the current wave of Covid-19, he said. Faruqi criticized the governments recent decision to threaten returning Australian citizens and permanent residents with jail time and called it absolutely horrific, discriminatory and racist. Healthcare is a human right. Your visa, citizenship or Covid status shouldnt change that. Australia should be flying people back home urgently and covering the cost of flights and quarantine. Any sick citizens or permanent residents should also be brought home for treatment, Faruqi said, and added, We must also do everything we can to provide aid and assistance to India at this time of dire need. NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said that Australian citizens in India are excluded from the Indian Governments vaccination scheme but are also blocked from coming home. Its a deadly catch-22, he said. It is so deeply distressing to the large and diverse Indian community in Australia that their family members cant get home and that as COVID rages in India they cant even get vaccinated, Shoebridge said. The cost of flights home is prohibitive as is the cost of quarantine, but the Australian citizens trapped there, for the most part, cannot work, he said, and added, Given the upcoming lifting of the border ban there needs to be a repatriation payment made available to citizens so they can get home. A man claims a Lancaster city police officer whos been sued twice in the past several years over excessive force claims shot him in the back with a Taser and then falsified a report to justify using the weapon, according to a lawsuit the man filed. The suit claims the officers body camera captured what really happened. Ivan Ruiz-Rivera, 50, filed the federal civil rights suit Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Hes seeking more than $350,000, plus punitive damages and other costs. The suit names Officer Jacob Bingham, another officer by last name only, along with numerous officers identified as John Does, and the city. The city settled the other two suits naming Bingham, and another officer, without admitting wrongdoing. The city declined comment on Ruiz-Riveras suit, citing its policy of not commenting on litigation. According to the suit and other documents, Bingham arrived at Ruiz-Riveras Belmont Street home in Sunnyside just after 5 a.m. on Dec. 6, 2019, for a report of a man named Ivan assaulting a woman near a red SUV. Binghams body camera footage, which LNP | LancasterOnline watched, shows him arriving in a patrol vehicle in the dark and looking in and around the SUV, but seeing nothing. Ruiz-Rivera, apparently still near his house, asks whos there, and when Bingham tells him its the police, Ruiz-Rivera tells him So what? Leave. Bingham responds, OK, well, I cant help if I get called somewhere, and asks, Where are you? Ruiz-Rivera, shirtless and sweaty, becomes agitated, telling Bingham, You guys caused enough (expletive) drama in my life in the past, and again tells the officer to leave. During their interaction, Ruiz-Rivera turns or walks toward his house and back toward Bingham a couple times, asking at one point, You guys want problems, right? with his arms outstretched. Bingham asks whos inside the home. Ruiz-Rivera, using an expletive, says your mother and tells Bingham to leave him alone. Ruiz-Rivera then walks toward Bingham, saying, Im gonna attack you, too. Bingham tells him hes going to get tased. Ruiz-Rivera says he doesnt care and turns to walk away, at which point Bingham fires the Taser into Ruiz-Riveras back. Ruiz-Rivera is then taken to the ground, handcuffed, arrested and taken to the police station. The rest of Binghams body camera footage shows him and other officers investigating outside and trying to talk to the woman inside the house. At one point, Bingham tells someone that he punched Ruiz-Rivera in the face. At another point, Bingham speaks by phone to the woman, who wont answer the door, and tells her that Ruiz-Rivera was arrested because he squared up to try to fight me. He calmly tells her police were there because someone reported that Ruiz-Rivera was abusing her. If I can see you, physically look at you, and see that you don't have physical injuries, then I can say I did my job, I talked to you and saw you and saw that you werent injured and then I can leave, he said. Ruiz-Riveras attorney, James E. Lee, of Philadelphia, acknowledged that his client was upset and disrespectful, but said that didnt warrant his treatment. Its clear from the body language that when they tased him, his back was turned and he was walking to his house, Lee said Monday. They tried to creatively state that he got into a fighting stance and turned around. While no charges were filed on the underlying domestic disturbance call, Ruiz-Rivera was charged with third-degree misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He pleaded guilty to a reduced summary-level grading of the charge last November and received no further penalty. Lee said Ruiz-Rivera pleaded guilty because police had threatened to charge him with other crimes. He just wanted to get it over with. But it doesnt mean the force used wasnt excessive, Lee said. According to the suit, Ruiz-Rivera was left bloodied, bruised, battered and mentally affected. Lee said his client had prong marks from the Taser prongs and was bleeding from the head. Binghams report said photographs were taken of Ruiz-Riveras injuries, which included the Taser prong entry points and a small cut on one ear; Ruiz-Rivera refused medical treatment. The suit also accuses the city of having a well-known and documented custom, policy and practice of not taking reasonable steps to properly train its police officers to not violate the constitutionally protected rights of citizens. Other suits Bingham, who was hired in June 2015, was named in a suit stemming from a February 2018 arrest in which he and Officer Timothy Sinnott stopped Damon Burnside at a gas station after claiming to smell marijuana. The suit indicates Sinnott was the aggressor. Burnside claimed he suffered torn tendons as a result of the encounter. He was charged with marijuana possession, but it was dropped; the suit said none was found. The city settled for $100,000 in January 2020. Bingham and Sinnott were also sued stemming from a March 2018 arrest. Ronald Brian Gray claimed Sinnott slammed his head into the ground three times and that Bingham stood on his legs while Sinnott handcuffed him during an arrest for marijuana possession outside his South Mary Street home. Gray suffered a hairline fracture in one of his knee replacements, neck and back contusions and has a scar on his head, the suit said. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor marijuana possession in May 2018. The city settled for $30,000 in May 2019. A Lancaster man chased another man into a public elementary school, then assaulted him with a wooden mop, according to Lancaster police. Josue Tirado-Acevedo, 30, was charged with criminal trespass, possession of an instrument of crime and simple assault after he entered Hamilton Elementary School at 1300 Wabank Road while chasing the man at around 5:39 p.m. on Feb. 26, according to an affidavit of probable cause. Tirado-Acevedo took a wooden mop handle and used it as an improvised weapon to assault the man, giving him a 2-inch laceration to the top of his head that required surgical glue to close, police said. The man also had a laceration on his hand. Tirado-Acevedo is the ex-boyfriend of the mans current girlfriend, police said. Tirado-Acevedo was seen on surveillance video chasing the man in a vehicle through the elementary school parking lot, according to the affidavit. The man used his employee access badge to flee into the school, but Tirado-Acevedo was able to follow him inside before the doors magnetic lock could secure. Surveillance footage later shows Tirado-Acevedo leaving the building with a broken mop handle, police said. It is unclear why Tirado-Acevedo began chasing the man. A preliminary hearing for Tirado-Acevedo has yet to be scheduled, court documents show. Tirado-Acevedo has previously pleaded guilty to harassment in 2020 and to retail theft in 2017, court records show. Information on Tirado-Acevedos sentences for those charges was not available. Lancaster County school district superintendents will join state lawmakers and education funding activists in a virtual forum on education funding at 2 p.m. Thursday. The forum, moderated by Democratic state Rep. Mike Sturla, of Lancaster, will feature presentations and discussions about how to make basic education funding more equitable in Pennsylvania. The public is invited to view the forum at RepMikeSturla.com. Sturla is expected to speak on his legislation that would accelerate full implementation of the states fair funding formula established in 2016. Currently, only new additional money allocated in each years state budget runs through the formula. Sturlas bill would establish a plan so all basic education dollars would flow through the formula in 10 years. Also expected to speak on their own school funding ideas are state Rep. Mark Longietti, the Democratic chair of the House Education Committee from Mercer County; Democratic state Rep. Chris Rabb; and Deborah Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center. The following Lancaster County school district superintendents were slated to attend virtually as of Tuesday afternoon: Damaris Rau, of School District of Lancaster; Mike Leichliter, of Penn Manor; Bob Hollister, of Eastern Lancaster County; Ella Musser, of Cocalico; Kevin Peart, of Lampeter-Strasburg; Erik Orndorff, of Pequea Valley; Michael Lausch, of Donegal; Mike Bromirski, of Hempfield; Robin Felty, of Manheim Township; and Dave Zuilkoski, of Conestoga Valley. Columbia Borough police CRIMINAL MISCHIEF COLUMBIA: Nelson Rafael Rodriguez Jr., 34, of Columbia, was charged with criminal mischief and public drunkenness after ripping the railing off of the front porch of a residence in the 300 block of South 4th Street and attempting to throw it through a screen door at 9:07 p.m. on April 28, police said. East Cocalico Township police DUI EAST COCALICO TWP.: Dennis Kohl, 47, of Ephrata, was charged with two counts of driving under the influence, a drug charge and two traffic violations after officers found him parked in the middle of the first block of North 3rd Street on April 4, police said. Kohl, who had methamphetamine and fentanyl in his system, fell asleep behind the wheel with his foot on the brake, police said. RECKLESSLY ENDANGERING ANOTHER PERSON EAST COCALICO TWP.: Gabrielle Gingrich, 26, of Stevens, was charged with recklessly endangering another person, three counts of driving under the influence and reckless driving after veering into oncoming traffic and striking a vehicle in the 800 block of North Reading Road at 10:01 p.m. on March 27, police said. Both vehicles took heavy damage, and the occupant of the struck vehicle had to be extricated by emergency personnel, police said. Gingrich, who had a BAC of 0.20% and also had marijuana in her system, was transported to the hospital along with the other driver, police said. East Lampeter Township police SHOPLIFTING EAST LAMPETER TWP.: An unidentified man left a Columbia Outfitters in Tanger Outlets on Lincoln Highway East carrying more than $2,000 in stolen merchandise while a second unidentified man distracted store employees at 6:15 p.m. on May 10, police said. Ephrata police DUI EPHRATA TWP.: Glenn L. Leicy Jr., 44, of Ephrata, was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident after striking a fire hydrant in the first block of Overlook Drive and then leaving the scene at 1:06 a.m. on April 8, police said. Officers found Leicy a few blocks away from the crash, police said. Lititz Borough police SHOTS FIRED LITITZ: Residents in the 800 block of South Cedar Street and the 500 block of West Sixth Street reported hearing gunshots at around 10:20 a.m. on May 9, police said. Officers responded and believed the noise came from a Warwick Township residence, police said. The information was passed along to the Northern Lancaster County Regional Police Department to investigate, police said. SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY LITITZ: A resident in the first block of East Lincoln Avenue found numerous empty beer cans in the alleyway to the rear of their residence at around 6:38 p.m. on May 6, police said. LITITZ: An unidentified person was seen hiding in a damaged vehicle in the 600 block of South Cedar Street at around 8:18 p.m. on May 8, police said. Officers determined that the vehicle was involved in a previously reported crash, police said. WEAPONS VIOLATION LITITZ: Dawan Lykel Allen Steward, 26, of Philadelphia, was charged with prohibited offensive weapon, driving under the influence of a combination of drugs and alcohol, possession of a small amount of marijuana and driving while operation privilege is suspended or revoked after he was found in possession of brass knuckles during a traffic stop in the 600 block of South Broad Street at 1:44 a.m. on May 9, police said. Steward was initially pulled over for an equipment violation and unsafe driving, police said. Manor Township police BURGLARY MANOR TWP.: Peter Jeremy Ruth, 31, of Manheim, was charged with burglary, criminal mischief and harassment after kicking a door in and entering a residence in the 200 block of Greyfield Drive at 12:44 a.m. on May 7, police said. Ruth entered the home and damaged property inside and threatened a person inside before fleeing, police said. HARASSMENT MANOR TWP.: Erick Veras, 30, of Mountville, was charged with harassment after throwing a person to the ground during an argument in the 100 block of Linville Drive at 4:04 a.m. on May 7, police said. New Holland police HARASSMENT NEW HOLLAND: Robert Morris Gast, 58, of New Holland was charged with harassment after repeatedly yelling obscenities at neighbors, banging on the common wall between their houses at late hours, harassing them as they sat on their porch and pointing a gun in their direction at his residence in the 200 block of Locust Street at 6:30 p.m. on May 10, police said. Northern Lancaster County Regional police CRASH PENN TWP.: A motorcyclist rear-ended a van in the 100 block of Fruitville Pike at 9:03 a.m. on May 11, police said. The motorcyclist was transported to a local hospital with unknown injuries, police said. THEFT WARWICK TWP.: Two unidentified women were seen stealing numerous laptops from a Target at 960 Lititz Pike on April 30, police said. PENN TWP.: Kevin M. Galvin, 59, of Manheim, was charged with retail theft after taking three Mothers Day flower pots from the Grocery Market Bargain Outlet at 703 Lancaster Road at 9:15 a.m. on May 8, police said. The Lancaster County election officials on Wednesday expressed dismay about problems with the vendor hired to print mail-in ballots for the May 18 primary election. Last week it was revealed that more than 2,700 voters received incorrect instructions on how to return their mail-in ballots, while approximately 100-150 voters in Mount Joy received the wrong ballots and return envelopes. Christa Miller, chief clerk of the board of elections, said both problems stem from the vendor the county uses to stuff ballot envelopes, Michigan Election Resources. Lets be clear, this is the vendors mistake, said Ray DAgostino, chair of the board of elections. Miller explained that Michigan Election Resources uses a camera processing system to match mail-in envelopes and ballots. When the camera detects a mismatch, it pauses the process and a worker is required to manually match the pieces. In the case of the Lancaster ballots, the errors were caused during that manual review. Miller said the county elections office is contacting residents who received the wrong materials. She briefed the commissioners on how her office will handle various scenarios with the ballots, whether that involves allowing a voter to cast a provisional ballot or reissuing a correct ballot. She said detailed instructions will be posted on the board of elections website. The commissioners said they were frustrated that the vendor had not kept detailed logs of the ballot matching process, making it difficult to determine exactly how many people many have received the wrong ballots or return envelopes. We are extremely disappointed and find this unacceptable, DAgostino said. The question now is how we get through it. DAgostino and Commissioner Craig Lehman suggested the county may seek a new vendor following the primary. In total, 26,865 county voters applied for a mail-in ballot for the primary, and about 5,000 had been returned as of Wednesday morning, with that number expected to grow as more mail is processed ahead of the 18th. Voters with questions are encouraged to call the election office at 717-299-8293. All mail-in ballots must be returned to the elections office by 8 p.m. on Tuesday. Voters wishing to deliver a ballot in person can drop theirs in the box located just inside the Chestnut Street entrance to the county building (150 N. Queen Street in Lancaster city). The Founding Fathers recognized a few things about democracy: Legislation is slow, and a slow group of legislators is worse in emergency response than the executive prerogative. Partisan squabbling and divergent priorities delay emergency responses and real people suffer. The executive (with input from the legislative) is the only branch in a position to swiftly ease suffering. Was Gov. Tom Wolfs response to the pandemic perfect? While I believe that anyone who says yes is a liar, I also believe that passing a state constitutional amendment to essentially strip the executive branch of one of its most basic and important functions is ridiculous. Pennsylvania will suffer more harm than good if emergency declarations are limited to 21 days and subject to approval of the state Legislature after that. I am not arguing against the Legislature being more involved in crisis responses, but the two proposed amendments cut too deep. Do you think its just and right to take power from a governor because hes a Democrat? Or because his response was viewed by some as disproportionate to the crisis? Someday, Pennsylvania will call on a Republican governor for help, and he or she may fail us. I hope that failure doesnt come during a crisis that claims over 580,000 American lives. On May 18, vote no on the two proposed state constitutional amendments limiting the governors emergency powers. (Vote yes on the amendment to the state constitution to enshrine discrimination protections to Pennsylvanians based on race and ethnicity.) Christopher DeWalt Strasburg Everyone should vote yes on the first two ballot questions on May 18. A yes vote on those two questions would essentially put the decision for the continuation of an emergency disaster declaration back into the hands of the state Legislature members you voted for. The governor would still have the ability to declare a disaster. But the Legislature would be able to determine if this is a statewide emergency or if it is a local emergency that is best handled locally. An example is Gov. Tom Wolfs statewide mask mandate, which will not be lifted until 70% of Pennsylvanians age 18 and older are fully vaccinated. Many counties are close to 50% vaccinated, except Philadelphia County. Philadelphia County is at less than 5% of its total population vaccinated. This means that one county with greater than 1.5 million people essentially allows the governor and his political party to hold the rest of the state to a mask mandate for a long time. But mask-wearing is a trivial example compared to businesses and jobs in rural counties that were kept shut down because large cities were COVID-19 hot spots. The political party is not the issue, in my view, but the power is. This will affect how future governors use a one-size-fits-all disaster declaration approach. This is especially important if a future governor does not consult experts and locally elected representatives about appropriate disaster relief. Proposed state constitutional amendments that limit executive power and put it in the hands of your local representatives deserve a yes vote! Allen Martin Warwick Township EIR LEAD EDITORIAL FOR WEDNESDAY, MAY 12, 2021 How Close We Are May 11, 2021 (EIRNS)In the latest revelation of how close the world has come to nuclear war, Daniel Ellsbergof Pentagon Papers famerevealed for the first time last week that the Joint Chiefs of Staff had prepared plans for nuclear war in 1958 during the Taiwan Straits Crisis, well aware that the outcome could be the total destruction of Taiwan itself. He warned that precisely such calculations were occurring today in the halls of power, pointing to the statement from the Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command Adm. Charles Richard, that nuclear war was a very real possibility. I do believe this is the month we have to be addressing the issue in public of whether we should go to nuclear war over Taiwan or Ukraine or Syria, insisted Ellsberg. Speaking to the power of individuals to change history, Ellsberg said that it is right to be a whistleblower when lives are at stake and that I think had Ed Snowden or Chelsea Manning been at a high leveland Im not talking about a cabinet secretaryhad they been an assistant, had they been with access to these documents, there would be in 1990, 1991, no Iraq War. We would not have spent 20 years in Afghanistan. These catastrophes can be changed by individuals putting the truth out. ... Individuals can tell the truth. And that can be very, very powerful.... Who will stand up today? Other potentially explosive situations exist, as the tense situation in Jerusalem shows. Removal of Palestinians from their neighborhoods, the clearing of the Al-Aqsa Mosque through the use of rubber bullets and tear gas within the holy building, rockets, and air strikes are building in intensity not seen for some years. Jordans Foreign Minister, speaking diplomatically in his meetings in Washington, D.C., was more direct in his remarks to the Arab League on May 11, where he warned that Israel is playing with fire. And the attacks on China and Russia continue, as they will continue until geopolitics is defeated, or nuclear war breaks out. Hypocritical attacks on China in the name of human rights ring hollower and hollower, but they repeat, nonetheless. The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline is being blamed on Russia with the same level of evidence (essentially zero) that was presented for attributing the SolarWinds hack to that nation. As the creative, most beautiful species, we inhabit a universe without limits. The beyond-stupid Malthusian dogma which states that population growth will unavoidably outstrip limited resources, recast in supposedly scientific form by the risible 1972 book Limits to Growth, and now serving as a religious-like axiom to green movements around the world, does not apply to any culture committed to scientific advancement, infrastructure development, improved powers of productivity, and advancing culture. Crushing war, sanctions and geopolitics, and establishing, around the world, platforms for health, energy, transport, water, education, and culture, will ensure that we can rise to new challenges, and make this planetand others!a habitation in keeping with the dignity of its inhabitants. Daniel Ellsberg: This Month We Must Discuss If We Should Go to Nuclear War over Taiwan, Ukraine or Syria May 11, 2021 (EIRNS)Celebrated whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, now age 90, used the occasion of the April 30-May 1 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his release of the Pentagon Papers, organized by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, to reveal that John Foster Dulles had proposed in 1958 that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff recommend to the President that a nuclear exchange with Russia and China be launched in the Taiwan Straits, even though that would mean that Taiwan and its people would be wiped out, for the sole geopolitical purpose of maintaining the United States position in the world. There is no question that what I have just said subjects me to the same charges as Julian Assange, as the publisher, or to Chelsea Manning, whose material was only secret, not top secret. This is top secret, Ellsberg declared, and stating that he was revealing the secret because, That discussion is going on, I have no doubt whatever, in the Pentagon right now.... I do believe this is the month we have to be addressing the issue in public of whether we should go to nuclear war over Taiwan or Ukraine or Syria. (Emphasis in original.) Citing the statement by the current Commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, Adm. Charles Richard, that the United States must be prepared to go to war with Russia and China, Ellsberg exclaimed, that Richard may be a very intelligent guy. I know nothing about him, except that he is sounding asinine. That is criminally insane. War with Russia and China, we are talking there, with any armed conflict, at a high risk of escalation to nuclear war. And if it goes to nuclear war ... we are talking about the near extinction of humanity. No, there should not be the slightest option, threat or thought whatever of armed conflict with Russia and China now or ever again, he insisted. And we have ... transcend that system. It will not happen, unless people in the government show the moral courage of Ed Snowden and Chelsea Manning ... and let us know what these inside plans are being. Without that, I think civilization will not survive the era of nuclear weapons. (Emphasis in original.) Ellsberg disclosed that in the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis over the Quemoy and Matsu Islands, then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had asked a meeting of the Joint Chiefs to recommend use of nuclear weapons against China. Citing the still-classified section of the RAND Corporation study, The 1958 Taiwan Straits Crisis, A Documented History, Ellsberg quoted Dulless message to the meeting: Nothing seemed worth a world war ... until you looked at the effect of not standing up to each challenge as noted. Ellsberg went on to say, that the issue there was in the RAND study: Would we, as the Joint Chiefs all recommended, use nuclear weapons to defend Quemoy and Matsu and Taiwan, and possibly using 7- to 10-kiloton weapons, with the expectation that the Russians, allies of the ... Chinese, would respond and would hit Taiwan? They were talking about, in other words, destroying Taiwan to save it, because our entire world position depended on it, Ellsberg exclaimedand that that is the discussion going on in the Pentagon right now. The RAND Corporation has made public two-thirds of that history, written by then-Pentagon staffer Morton Halperin, but despite requests, the other third, from which Ellsberg quoted, is still classified as top secret. Ellsberg made his impassioned call and revelation at the very end of Amy Goodmans interview of Ellsberg and Snowden during the two-day conference, Truth, Dissent & the Legacy of Daniel Ellsberg: A 50th Anniversary Conference Commemorating the Release of the Pentagon Papers. Drake To Receive Artist Of The Decade Honor At Billboard Music Awards Rapper Drake will receive an Artist of the Decade award at this months Billboard Music Awards ceremony in downtown Los Angeles, show producers announced today. The award is based on activity on the Billboard Hot 100 songs chart and the Billboard 200 albums tally, as well as social media data and touring revenue from Billboard Boxscore over the past decade. Drake already holds the title for most Billboard Music Awards, with 27. He took home 12 awards in 2019 alone. ADVERTISEMENT According to Billboard, Drake is the only male solo artist to spend more than 50 career weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart. He has also had nine number-one albums on the Billboard 200 chart and 33 top-10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, the most of any artist over the past decade. The Billboard Music Awards, hosted by Nick Jonas, will be presented May 23 at the Microsoft Theater. Help India! In many western media outlets, we are witnessing predominantly Christian spaces and culture being influenced by Hindutva ideology to propagate messages of hatred against Islam. What these outlets forget is that Hindutva, whose birth took place in the RSS ideology in India, views all non-Hindus, including a tiny Christian minority, in India as outsiders and as a threat to its social order. Abdul Raheem, TwoCircles.net Support TwoCircles When proto-fascist ideologies occupies the driving seat in media and hate is propagated on distasteful platforms under the pretext of news or freedom of expression, it should make us sit up and question this scheme of things. In many western (read Christian) media outlets, we are witnessing predominantly Christian spaces and culture being influenced by Hindutva ideology to propagate messages of hatred against Islam. What these outlets forget is that Hindutva, whose birth took place in the RSS ideology in India, views all non-Hindus, including its tiny Christian minority, in India as outsiders and as a threat to its social order. The same Hindutva is standing against every non-Hindu religion including Christianity in India. The same Hindutva has called for the destruction of Churches in India in the past. The same Hindutva demurring over the statue of Jesus. The same proto-fascist group burnt alive the Christian missionary Graham Staines along with his innocent children. It is the Hindutva ideology that elected the killer of Graham Staines to a parliamentary position. Despite all facts and figures, it is surprising to platforms founded by Christians serving the Hindutva agenda. Encouraging Hindutva ideology under the Clergy Collar is an act of back stabbing against the Christian community. It is standing against the emotions and feelings of the larger Christian community. Christians joining hands with Hindutva casually undermines the sacrifices of many God-fearing Christians like Graham Stain and Fr. Stan Swami. Misinformation at core of hatred against Islam What is often apparent on these hate-filled platforms is the demonization of Islam that takes place in one form or the other. These platform toss misinformation like Why Muslim parents teach their children to take the violent path? easily and a lot of people consume this information and believe it. Although these things are posed as questions. However, when one investigates the trend these are not questions but merely unjust, ahistorical and unfair criticisms directed against Islam and Muslims. While questioning is a tool of debate and discussion, and should be promoted but criticism, in its limited connotation, focus entirely on the demerits of something (here Islam) and judges it accordingly. However, one important aspect that all hatemongers forget is that Criticism is the only reliable form of autobiography. Unjust and unqualified criticism tells us more about the psychology of the critic than the people he or she criticizes. This criticism stems from an internal sense of dissatisfaction and a continuous effort to counter that feeling. An individual who uses this type of criticism is trying to improve a feeling of self-worth by negating the worth of the person on the other side. Criticism has its base in self-hate. When directed against Islam, and Muslims this criticism takes the shape of Islamophobia and is used to demonize all Muslims. From its earliest history till present, Islam always welcomes questions, discussions and debates. That is how people embraced Islam and it became the second-largest religion in a very short period. Dialogue, debate, and missionary work is the main reason why Islam spread so vast and wide and not by swords as falsely claimed by some. Wars are part of any religious groups and every war is either in defense of protecting the community or to gain/regain geopolitical control, and the same can be said about Muslims. Christian and Hindu wars are regarded as generic wars without any religious link, whereas the wars by Muslims, even in defence, are deliberately recorded as part of their religious expansion. Muslim wars were nonspecific battles like any other battles in history. Not a single authentic reference to the allegation that Islam spread through the sword, can be presented by hate-mongers and critics of Islam. Quoting examples from the early years of Islam, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) secured the control of Kaaba (Makka) from idolaters in a peaceful manner. No war was fought and no blood shed. He, however, kept the key of Kaaba with the same previous custodian who was a non-Muslim. That incident is evidence of the fact of the inclusive nature of Islam. The victory over Makka led many families to embrace Islam. The key bearers family became Muslim and till today devotionally uphold the key of Kaaba. Many Kings have come and gone, but the decision of the Prophet (PBUH) remains intact. Islam is constantly reviving the world through dialogue and discussion and not with the sword. It is universally acknowledged fact that Islam spread through its message of peace, love and respect for all. Those who converted to Islam did not do so with any material benefit in mind. Islam doesnt offer monetary benefits to converts. On the contrary, there are rules to be followed, which include praying five times a day, fasting for 30 consecutive days every year, compulsory charity, praying to only one God etc. These commands are the core of Islam. Why Islam has been an attractive religion for many can be understood from these examples? Leopold Weiss, was born to a Jewish Rabbinical Family of Berlin, Germany. He was in search of salvation from Europes high culture. He started studying the religions of the world, and one day he found the answer in Islam. In search of religion and meaning, he had hours-long discussions with Muslims, and exchanged thousands of letters to various Muslims across the globe, and learned a great deal about Islam. Today, the world knows him by the name Muhammad Asad. He was living in Germany, which is not a Muslim dominated country. However, he was attracted towards Islam by being in midst of a society that was under the influence of Christianity and European culture. No sword was hanging in the air to slay him if he did not accept Islam. Weiss became Muslim at the age of 26 and his memoir Road to Mecca has helped introduce Islam to countless people across the globe. Let me present another example of the assimilative power of the message of Islam from India itself. Balbir Singh, presently known as Mohammed Amir, was a diehard Hindutva worker. He participated in the demolition of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya in 1991. He is believed to have launched the first assault on the mosque. After a couple of years of soul-searching, he accepted Islam and sought the forgiveness of Allah for the mistake he committed. He, too, was not inspired by anything other than the peaceful message of Islam. There are countless references and stories from the early days of Islam to this day that show us the assimilative power of Islam, which has massively contributed to it becoming the fastest-growing religion in the world. Countering Islamophobia To counter the Islamophobic propaganda, it is a fact that no parent will teach their children to behead another human being. Holding banners and shouting slogans are expressions of disaffection against the injustice perpetrated against Muslims in many parts of the world. These protests cannot be read to be as violent calls for death of people, as falsely construed by the many sections in the media. There are double standards also at play which make Muslims the butt of unjust criticism. When a terrorist attack takes place in the West believed to be carried by a Muslim group, the entire Muslim world or those living in the West are pressurized to condemn it. However, when a Christian terrorist stormed a mosque in Christchurch in 2019 and killed 51 Muslim worshippers, Muslims didnt demand apologies from the Muslims. Similarly, the Muslim world didnt world demanded Hindus to condemn Brevevik because he was inspired by proto-fascist Hindutva ideology. No one insisted Hindus apologise after the Gujarat or Makka masjid blasts in India? All those people, including commentators and public speakers, who are standing against Islam cant fool the world with false propaganda. These old school tactics are aged and dont work anymore. All people of the world must heed to what the Holy Quran enjoins, which says, Your religion is for you, mine is for me (Chapter Al-Kafiroon: Verse no 109). This message should inspire us to spread peace and respect each other. History shows us that those who preach hate are forgotten and the world only remembers the good. The author can be reached at [email protected] May 12: Robert Smalls, while enslaved, stole a Confederate ship and freed a number of enslaved, 1862 May 12: Robert Smalls, while enslaved, stole a Confederate ship and freed a number of enslaved, 1862 Brought to you by the Black365 Calendar. Find out more at Black365.com ADVERTISEMENT Interested in Latinx History? Check out the worlds only Latinx Facts Calendar at LatinxCalendar.com Paris Court tries Anti-Racism Activist for Statue Attack A French activist for Black rights went on trial in Paris on Monday for defacing a statue of a historical figure from Frances colonial, slave-trading past, calling the protest a political act to denounce deep-seated racism. Franco Lollia said that rather than vandalize the statue, he improved it by spraying state Negrophobia in red paint on its pedestal. The statue outside parliament honors Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a 17th-century royal minister who helped author rules governing slaves in Frances overseas colonies. Among other cruelties, Colberts notorious Black Code allowed for slaves to be branded, have their ears cut off and be executed for escape attempts. ADVERTISEMENT Lollia told the court that, in his view, Colbert committed crimes against humanity. He said celebrating Colbert with a statue outside the National Assembly shows that the French state is viscerally Negrophobic even today and that the statues presence is spitting in the face of all people who look like me. Lollia, who is Black, called the trial an insult. I am sad to see that history seems to be repeating itself and our voices are still not heard, he said. I am really disappointed that the justice system is still so blind. The trial coincided with Frances annual commemoration of the abolition of slavery. Lollia noted that the day isnt marked with a national holiday, dismissing it as a bone for a dog that fails to adequately commemorate the horrors inflicted on millions of slaves. French President Emmanuel Macron marked the day of remembrance with a wreath-laying and a minute of silence at a Paris monument symbolizing broken chains. Inside the courtroom, Lollias defense team put France on trial, detailing and denouncing centuries of colonial atrocities. They argued that in the wake of the worldwide wave of fury galvanized by the killing a month earlier of George Floyd, Lollia shone a necessary light on slavery and Colberts role. Calling slavery the greatest injustice in the history of humanity, defense lawyer Guy Florentin said the paint on the statue represented the blood of victims demanding reparations. ADVERTISEMENT There was no degradation, it was just a bit of paint, he said. I would have left it as it was. The sweat-top and face mask that Lollia wore to the trial both had the words Anti-Negrophobia Brigade printed on them. The back of his T-shirt described Negrophobia as a weapon of mass destruction that doesnt admit its name and said: Lets arm ourselves to the hilt to fight it. The judge said video footage of the graffiti attack showed him hurling paint at the statue and spray-painting its base. It was a political act, Lollia said. It wasnt a degradation. It was a contribution. It was even an improvement. The charge of defacing property is punishable by a fine or community service. The prosecutor asked for a fine of 800 euros ($970). The judge said she would deliver her verdict on June 28. Lollias lawyers argued that he acted in self-defense. His attorney Georges-Emmanuel Germany said the judge should consider Frances past behavior as a criminal state in weighing Lollias act. You are not only the judge of the accused, the attorney said. You are also the judge of the behavior of the victim _ meaning the French state. Speaking outside the courtroom, Lollia said Frances colonial past is still feeding racial discrimination. Colbert is a major figure of this colonial past, this past where Black people were not recognized as human beings, he said. The system itself is Negrophobic from the moment it doesnt put into question the history, he said. France is capable of healing from its Negrophobia and from its state racism in general, but the French state must learn to face its history, and not only part of the history it likes. States Push Jobless From Virus Recession to Return to Work Eduardo Rovetto is hoping the state of Vermonts reinstated requirement that people who are collecting unemployment benefits must seek work to qualify will help him hire enough staff for his restaurant in the resort town of Stowe. After more than a year of coronavirus restrictions on his business, Piecasso Pizzeria & Lounge, hes expecting a breakout summer tourism season, but like employers across the country hes worried he wont have enough workers. ADVERTISEMENT Weve been getting many excuses as to why not to return, said Rovetto, who is offering a signing bonus of up to $600 to try to add 15 to 20 employees who agree to stay through the middle of October. Obviously, it was a legitimate one with COVID, but, you know, I think thats getting used less and less now. The vaccines are free, they are out there for anyone. Many employers are telling similar stories. Fourteen months after COVID-19 put hundreds of thousands of people out of work, the U.S. economy is rebounding and employers are desperate for workers. The challenge was highlighted Friday when employers nationwide added 266,000 jobs, far fewer than expected, and businesses reported they couldnt find people to fill the openings they have to keep up with the rapidly strengthening economic rebound. To encourage people to return to work, more states are making it harder for people to stay on unemployment. Many blame the easy benefits that followed the pandemic, including what is now a $300 a week supplemental federal payment on top of state benefits. The argument is that people make more money staying home than going back to work. Several states have begun requiring those receiving unemployment benefits to show they are actively searching for work, and a few will stop providing the additional federal supplement. Its not just the hospitality sector that is scrambling to fill positions. Alene Candles, based in Milford, New Hampshire, is looking to fill 1,500 positions for its facility there and another in New Albany, Ohio, to meet demand for the holiday season. Company representatives will be participating in a number of virtual job fairs this month. ADVERTISEMENT We have had more than 100 positions open since the start of the year, and just recently we increased sign-on bonuses to $1,200 for hourly positions in-part because we are competing with an entity that can print its own money the federal government and its $300 per week additional unemployment benefit, said CEO Rod Harl. I would love to welcome those searching for work to join our team. On Monday, the state of New Hampshire reopened its job centers for the first time since the pandemic hit to help people looking for work, but only a handful showed up in the first few hours at the largest one in Manchester. Labor experts say the shortage is not just about the $300 payment. Some unemployed people also have been reluctant to look for work because they fear catching the virus. Others have found new occupations rather than return to their old jobs. And many women, especially working mothers, have had to leave the workforce to care for children. The details and the timing of the state-led efforts to get people back to work differ, but they are coming from states led by both Republicans and Democrats. In addition to Vermont, states reinstating the work-search requirement include Arizona, Maine, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina. As President Reagan said, the best social program is a job, Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey said when announcing the resumption of the work-search requirement. This statement rings true today. Unemployment benefits are still available to Arizonans who need them, but now that plenty of jobs are available, those receiving the benefits should be actively looking for work. Montana, South Carolina and Arkansas are planning to stop accepting the $300 benefit. In announcing last week that beginning June 27 unemployed workers will no longer receive the $300 benefit, Montana Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte said it was doing more harm than good. Rachel Mata, an area manager for a Fayetteville, North Carolina-based staffing company, said its been increasingly difficult to find people for positions since the passage of the latest federal COVID-19 relief bill. We get candidates who will mention, `Hey, you know, why would I go to work when I get paid more on unemployment to sit at home? said Mata. At a recent job fair, only one candidate showed up, said Mata, whose company, Mega Force Staffing Group Inc., mainly focuses on manufacturing jobs. In other cases, candidates have gone through the staffing companys onboarding process, only to not show up on their start date. In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the heart of the states $20 billion tourism industry, restaurants and resorts are scrambling for summer help. Angelo Verdone, an assistant general manager at Seaside Resorts, said hotels are so short-staffed that managers are working double duty, cleaning rooms and doing maintenance. He is working some front desk shifts. Some applicants have responded to ads but failed to attend the interviews; others have gotten offers but did not show up to the job itself. Though the company has offered a $500 sign-on bonus for its $11-an-hour housekeeping role, it got no takers. Its not like theyre bad jobs, Verdone said. Most years, people are beating down the front door for the front desk jobs. William Spriggs, an economist at Howard University and the chief economist for the AFL-CIO, said the issue isnt as simple as the unemployed being able to receive more benefits. He says the economy has changed. He said he didnt think the job-search requirement is bad, but it wont solve the labor shortage. Matching workers to employers isnt as easy as people think, which is what some of these employers are finding out, Spriggs said. There might be a lot of jobs available, but in some cases they dont fit for the unemployed with specialized work skills. I am a master technician with 30 years experience. You think I am going to go work in a pet store? said Harry Chaikin, an out-of-work stagehand from Burlington, Vermont, who lost his job last year when the theater where he works stopped offering performances. Chaikin says he is eager to return to work when theaters resume normal performances. Hes receiving unemployment, including the $300 supplemental benefit, but hes still months behind in his rent. The sense of optimism I feel is that human nature being what it is, I know that sooner or later people are going to gather again in big groups to be entertained, and when that happens I will have work, he said. And people are still losing their jobs. Crystal Dvorak, 41, an audiologist in Billings, Montana, with two teenage daughters, weathered a furlough early in the pandemic, dipping deep into her savings, only to find out last month that she would lose her job when the clinic where she worked for nearly nine years had been sold. Gianforte announced on June 27 the $300 benefit would end, Dvoraks second day of unemployment. It had me in tears, she said. After learning that unemployment benefits would be discontinued and replaced with a return-to-work, one-time bonus of $1,200, Dvorak began applying for waitressing jobs, even though it could complicate her search. Knowing that change is coming, Im having to be open to other positions, she said. I have shown interest in more jobs in the last week than I have applied for my entire 25 years of working. _- Associated Press writers Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia, Iris Samuels in Helena, Montana, Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, and statehouse reporters across the country contributed. American President Joe Biden is making childcare and education a major concern of his administration. In his first address to a joint session of Congress on April 29, Biden proposed a $1.8 trillion spending plan to expand government support for children, families and education. The plan, called American Families Plan, includes $200 billion for free pre-school for 3 and 4-year-olds. The president said, research shows when a young child goes to school not daycare they are far more likely to graduate from high school and go to college or something after high school. He added, no matter what background they come from, it puts them in the position to be able to compete all the way through 12 years. Preschool, also known as pre-kindergarten or pre-K, is a program to help children with the beginning steps of learning and socializing. Daycare centers focus more on caring for children than learning. Rebecca Anguiano teaches preschool at an elementary school in Washington, D.C. The classes are bilingual. They are taught in both English and Spanish. She said students who attend two years of preschool have done better than those who have not. Anguiano said, If they miss those two years, its kind of catch-me-up for them. I definitely feel that starting earlyespecially at a bilingual schoolis key for a lot of success. Effective preschool programs The National Institute for Early Education Research says, at this time, only four American states and Washington, D.C., spend enough money to support preschool programs. The nations capital spends the most money per preschool student. It also has the highest percentage of students in pre-K classes. Seventy-nine percent of 3 and 4-year-olds attend preschool in Washington, DC. And nationwide, just 20 percent attend. Washington is one of the most expensive cities to raise a child. A 2018 study says childcare in the city can cost up to $2,000 per month for each child. In some places, parents choose to stay home with their children instead of having a job and paying for care. In 2018, research from the Center for American Progress showed that about 10 percent more mothers entered the workforce after the city started its preschool program. Student test scores have also gone up since the change. That year, Washington schools were among the few across the nation to see an increase in math and reading scores. Josh Axelrod has two children attending preschool in Washington, D.C. He said the program is a huge benefit to living in the city. Our experience... has been great, he added. Washingtons preschool program is not without its problems, however. Many elementary schools in the city do not offer preschool and some programs are better than others. There is also a very high demand for some preschool spots, which means that some children will not be placed into their neighborhood school. Others are not placed at all. Bidens proposal Bidens proposal comes at a time when preschool attendance has fallen by 25 percent in the past year, largely due to the pandemic. The administration says free preschool nationwide could save the average American family $13,000 and benefit 5 million children. And it proposes to pay for the plan by raising taxes on wealthy Americans. Republican opponents to the idea say it costs too much and that families will be making childcare decisions based on what the government wants. For the plan to pass, the president will need Republican support in an evenly divided Senate. Senator Josh Hawley is a Republican from the state of Missouri. He shared his opposition in an opinion piece on Fox Business. No family should be forced into a particular childcare arrangement by the government. And no parent should be treated worse by the tax code for choosing to do the work of raising kids at home, he wrote. Anguiano, the Washington, D.C. preschool teacher, sees universal preschool as a way to improve education equity. Many families from poorer areas cannot pay for private preschool, she said, keeping children away from school and parents away from working. I think expanding this nationwide, you will most definitely see not just an educational benefit for kids, but an economic benefit for families, Anguiano said. Im Jill Robbins. Dan Novak reported this story for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. Quiz- Biden Proposes Making Preschool Free for Children Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz __________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story graduate v. to earn a degree or diploma from a school, college, or university background n. the experiences, knowledge, education, etc., in a person's past bilingual adj. able to speak and understand two languages key n. something that is necessary in order to do or achieve something spot n. a particular position in a competition, organization, program, etc. particular adj. used to indicate that one specific person or thing is being referred to and no others arrangement n. the way that things or people are organized for a particular purpose or activity code n. a set of laws or regulations equity n. fairness or justice in the way people are treated benefit n. a good or helpful result or effect Ronald Garcia is a 39-year-old Guatemalan man who recently entered the United States illegally. He is currently at Casa Alitas, a shelter for immigrants in Tucson, Arizona. While there, he told about his border crossing. Garcia said he paid smugglers $20,000 to get him across the border. He said he had to sell all he owned to come to the U.S. Crossing into the United States illegally is a big business in Central and South America. Many people leave their countries due to the violence and poverty. They pay huge amounts of money and risk their lives to leave. Garcia said of his experience, They put me in a trunk where you couldnt breathe, and well, thank God (I survived), because they say that all those who are put there, they die. The U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) says illegal smuggling operations are big business. A RAND Corporation study estimated smugglers made between $200 million and $2.3 billion in 2017 transporting people into the U.S., mostly from Central America. USPB spokesman Mario Escalante said it is a dangerous business as well. He said smugglers sometimes abandon the migrants, steal from them, rape them and worse. Garcia agrees. "They ask for a quantity of money, and if they don't get it by the time and date they say, they'll kill you, he said. Henry Cuellar is a U.S. lawmaker from Texas. The congressional area he represents stretches from San Antonio to the border town of McAllen in southern Texas. Cuellar told VOA that smugglers also provide transport for illegal drug traffickers. But it is not just criminal organizations making money from immigrants. Private research business Dynamic Securities Analytics reports that the American financial industry also profits from the illegal business. They profit from fees connected to electronic payments made by undocumented immigrants. President Joe Biden supports extensive immigration reform. Biden has also warned migrants against making illegal border crossings. Former ambassador Roberta Jacobson is Bidens adviser on southern border issues. She told VOA that the administration is working with foreign intelligence sources to fight human smuggling operations. Im John Russell. Aline Barros and Celia Mendoza reported this story for Voice of America. Gregory Stachel adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor. __________________________________________________________ Words in This Story smuggler a person who transports (someone or something) from one country into another illegally and secretly trunk n. the enclosed space in the back of a car for carrying things quantity n. a large amount or number of something American television network NBC said Monday that it will not broadcast the Golden Globes award show in 2022. The move may lead to the end of one of Hollywoods oldest and most-watched awards shows. The NBC announcement may have been caused by growing criticism of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the organization awarding the Golden Globes. Film production companies, movie stars and other parts of the movie industry have criticized the organization for its lack of diversity. They also accused the Golden Globes of creating a corrupt environment. Also on Monday, Variety and Deadline Hollywood reported that actor Tom Cruise returned his three Golden Globes to the organization. He won those awards for his performances in Jerry Maguire, Magnolia and Born on the Fourth of July. In a statement, NBC said it believes the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is committed to change, but the changes needed cannot come quickly enough for next years show. However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right, the network said. We are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023, it added. The organization has been criticized following an investigative report in February by The Los Angeles Times. The story questioned the organizations record on diversity. HFPA has about 90 members and none are Black. It has promised to change and last week approved a plan to diversify its membership, but several big Hollywood studios, including Netflix, Amazon and Warner Brothers have threatened to end their relationships with the organization. Stating that he did not believe HFPAs new plan would be effective, Netflix chief Ted Sarandos criticized the lack of clear standards for how your members should operate. In a letter sent Sunday and shared with reporters Monday, WarnerMedia said it would cease its relationship with HFPA until it made changes. For far too long, demands for perks, special favors and unprofessional requests have been made to our teams and to others across the industry, WarnerMedia executives said in a letter. Criticism of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is not new, but has increased over the last six weeks. Members of the HFPA are mostly little-known journalists who make money from the yearly Golden Globes show. Mark Ruffalo is a Golden Globes winner. He said he cannot feel proud or happy about receiving the award. Scarlett Johansson said HFPA press conferences included sexist questions and possible sexual harassment. After the NBC announcement, the HFPA said its plan for changes would lead to new members, new leadership and several policy changes. The organization said in a statement, We invite our partners in the industry to the table to work with us on the systemic reform that is long overdue, both in our organization as well as within the industry at large. Last week, the organization approved plans to add at least 20 new members this year, with a focus on Black members. It also plans to increase its total membership by 50 percent in the next 18 months. Tina Tchen is the president of Times Up. She called the HFPAs plan nothing but false platitudes. These measures ensure that the current membership of the HFPA will remain in the majority, she said. Times Up was created in 2019 following the Weinstein case to support victims of sexual harassment in the movie industry. Im Susan Shand. The Associated Press reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for Learning English. Hai Do was the editor. ___________________________________________________________ Words in This Story diversity n. the state of having people who are different races or who have different cultures in a group or organization magnitude n. the size, extent, or importance of something standard n.a level of quality, achievement, etc., that is considered acceptable or desirable perk n. something extra that someone receives in addition to regular pay for doing a job favor v. a kind or helpful act that you do for someone journalist n. the activity or job of collecting, writing, and editing news stories for newspapers, magazines, television, or radio harassment n. to annoy or bother (someone) in a constant or repeated way overdue - adj. not appearing or presented by a stated, expected, or required time platitude n. a statement that expresses an idea that is not new We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, and visit our Facebook page. Volunteers from religious groups across the United States are organizing aid efforts to help India deal with its COVID-19 crisis. Aid organizations supported by Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and other religious groups are assisting in the efforts. Most of the groups have ties to Indian communities in the U.S. The aid includes oxygen and electrical equipment facing shortages in Indian hospitals. The groups have also raised millions of dollars for other needed supplies and gathered in prayer to provide spiritual support for suffering communities. Manzoor Ghori is the director of Indian Muslim Relief and Charities. In his words, Indias current crisis is both a human tragedy and a personal tragedy." He is one of many in Indian communities in the U.S. to lose relatives to COVID-19 in India. Ghori told The Associated Press he had so far lost five loved ones, including two nephews, to the disease. His organization has donated more than $1 million to the Indian aid effort. Among other things, the money went to support teachers and provided thousands of medical kits and more than 300,000 meals. Indias latest crisis has pushed the number of COVID-19 cases past 22.9 million, with more than 249,000 deaths. Kashyap Patel, an Atlanta-based doctor, said Indias pandemic has been catastrophic. At least 12 members of his family became infected and his 73-year-old uncle died. Patel volunteers in North America for the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha Hindu organization. It has provided 250 oxygen concentrators and several hundred thousand dollars in COVID-19 aid to support India's overloaded health system. It is challenging to find hospital beds," Patel said of the situation in India. "It is challenging to find oxygen, to find (modern) medicine. The U.S. office of Khalsa Aid, a British-based Sikh humanitarian organization, said it was sending another 500 concentrators and 500 electrical transformers this week to New Delhi. At a warehouse on New York's Long Island, workers prepared numerous boxes for shipping. In these last two weeks, many of us havent slept. Weve been running our day jobs at the same time, said one of the groups directors, Manpreet Kaur. Its been an intense period of time, but for us, its about giving back to the community," Kaur added. "And the people in India definitely need that support. In New Jerseys South Brunswick Township, members of the Shri Shirdi Saibaba Hindu Temple decided to organize their own aid effort. So far, the temple has raised about $3,000 to buy concentrators for two hospitals in New Delhi, temple founder Rajesh Anand said. In New York Citys Queens neighborhood, the Hindu Temple Society of North America has been raising money online. It has so far donated more than $50,000 to the India Development and Relief Fund in Washington, D.C., for oxygen concentrators and other medical needs. Support has also come from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which sent ventilators to Indian hospitals and personal protective equipment to rural communities. The group is also seeking U.S. and Israeli intensive-care doctors and nurses for a telemedicine training program. Michael Geller is the organizations director of communications and media. In the efforts that were making in India ... what we keep in mind is that with each action that we engage in, we can save one life, he told the AP. "And that one life represents an entire world of people who can be impacted, he said. Im Bryan Lynn. The Associated Press reported on this story. Bryan Lynn adapted the report for VOA Learning English. Hai Do 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 catastrophic adj. causing a lot of suffering or destruction concentrator n. a device to reduce the size of a substance and make it stronger challenge n. a difficult task or problem transformer n. a device that changes the characteristics of an electrical current definitely adv. without any question or doubt ventilator n. a machine that helps a person breathe engage v. to become involved in, or have contact with, someone or something impact n. a powerful effect something has on a person or situation When Alyssa Berg was in elementary school she joined a Lebanon-area Girl Scout troop. As it turned out, Miranda Smith, the daughter of her troop leader was a member of the Lebanon Strawberry Festival Court. Smith spent a lot of time with the troop and made a big impression on Berg. Looking back, Berg knows this is when she first dreamed of serving on the court herself. I wanted to attempt to be a Strawberry Princess my senior year because it was so much fun hanging out with her, Berg said. I really dont think she knows that or even remembers me. She was a senior and I was in fourth grade. She probably doesnt realize she inspired a little girl to be a Strawberry Princess, but she did. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Lebanon Express. Berg is one of five princesses on the 2021 Lebanon Strawberry Festival Court. Even though this years event will not be held because of the pandemic, the princesses are still staying busy representing the festival and the community. The court participated in the Walk-A-Mile-For-A-Child event and visited residents at The Oaks and Willamette Manor. The visit at Willamette Manor was outdoors, but the restrictions in place during their visit to The Oaks allowed the princesses to meet residents indoors. As the war and its impact on civilians deepens, world leaders have voiced their concern about the role of Eritrean forces in exacerbating what US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to spokesperson Ned Price, has described as a "growing humanitarian disaster." In a phone call with Abiy on April 26, Blinken pressed Ethiopia and Eritrea to make good on commitments to withdraw Eritrean troops "in full, and in a verifiable manner." CNN's efforts to reach Axum were thwarted by both Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers multiple times over several days. On one of the first attempts, the CNN team encountered what it later learned was the aftermath of a grenade attack, where a group of local residents were flagging down cars, warning passersby not to go any further. But before we reached the scene, a large army truck drove up and parked sideways, blocking the road. Our cameraman got out of the car and started filming only to be confronted by Ethiopian soldiers, who threatened the team with detention, demanding that we hand over the camera and delete the footage. But we refused and were able to conceal the footage until we were eventually released. Help India! The leaders appealed to the Muslim Ummah and all peace and justice-loving people of the world to work towards the freedom and fundamental rights of the people of Palestine by using all peaceful and constitutional means. Support TwoCircles TCN News New Delhi: Muslim community and religious leaders across the country in the joint statement on Wednesday called on the international community to take immediate steps for halting the Israeli aggression on Palestine. The joint statement was issued by Syed Sadatullah Hussaini President of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH), Maulana Khaled Saifullah Rahmani General Secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), Maulana Mahmood Madani General Secretary of Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, Dr Manzoor Alam General Secretary of All India Milli Council, Maulana Sajjad Nomani spokesman AIMPLB and Maulana Sufyan Qasmi from Darul Uloom Deoband Waqf. In the statement, they said the situation in Palestine is extremely critical. Israel has launched an air offensive on the Gaza Strip after Palestinian groups fired rockets into Israeli cities as a response to Israels violence in Jerusalem. Scores of Palestinian children and civilians have lost their lives in Gaza during these airstrikes and hundreds more have been injured The Israeli armed forces first attacked Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Mosque the third-holiest site in the world for Muslims. They initiated their aggression by way of evictions in the Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods through Israeli settlers who assault and detain Palestinians turning up to express solidarity with the families facing eviction from their own homes in their land. Jamaat-e-Islami Hind demands the international community, including the United Nations to immediately address these attacks and warn the Israeli government to desist from further aggression. The leaders offered their condolences to the family of Soumya Santosh, the woman from Kerala who died in the attacks on Israel. Expressing grief over the loss of lives during the Israeli aggression, they said, Our sympathy is with the mothers, sisters and brothers who have lost their young ones and the family members in the Israeli aggression. We also stand with the oppressed Palestinians who are facing the Israeli atrocities. They have appealed to the Muslim Ummah and all peace and justice-loving people of the world to work towards the freedom and fundamental rights of the people of Palestine by using all peaceful and constitutional means. India has always fought imperialist powers and supported countries in their struggle against imperialism and apartheid. We demand the government of India to come out publicly against the latest Israeli attacks and help the Palestinian people in their struggle against Israel, the statement added. Lewiston, ID (83501) Today Showers early, then partly cloudy for the afternoon. High 73F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 49F. SW winds shifting to ESE at 10 to 20 mph. FILE - In this Feb. 6, 2021, file photo, inmates yell from broken windows at the St. Louis Justice Center, known as the city jail, in St. Louis, Mo. St. Louis Corrections Commissioner Dale Glass will resign effective at the end of the month, the city announced Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Mayor Tishaura Jones said the resignation was not forced, but she cited "failed leadership" for problems that have included two jail riots and unsanitary conditions. Local featured Diboll student takes first at art competition for a drawing about mental health Contributed Ruby Enriquez, 11, took first place out of 700 students for a drawing she made about mental health. She hopes people who look at the picture will realize so many people struggle with mental health and there are others out there to help. Eleven-year-old Ruby Enriquez, a fifth-grader at H.G. Temple Intermediate School, took first place out of 700 students at the Texas Mental Health Creative Arts Contest this year, winning a $1,000 scholarship. Her piece, a vivid drawing featuring a broken-hearted person being pulled from the darkness into a rising sun by countless helping hands, explains how people can help one another in their struggle with mental health. Theres a dark side and a light side, and there are hands coming from the light side pulling a person up from the dark, Ruby said. It took me a while to think about it, but its like the people are encouraging them and helping. Though the last year hasnt been bad for Ruby, she saw other people hurt and learned that people can struggle with mental health, she said. She believes its important to try to understand someone and to recognize that theyre not alone a lot of people struggle. It was Rubys science teacher, Barbara Zwolinski, who saw the potential in Ruby and several other students in her class and encouraged them to participate in the contest. Im a fifth-grade science teacher and with the kids having to draw for science, it let me know we had some excellent artists in this district, she said. We draw for science to show our experiments and what we observe. Ive watched them all year do excellent art work. She saw the contest and thought the kids would do really well. Ruby has always colored shes been doodling since her mom put a pencil in her hand when she was very young, she said. Her favorite medium is pencils and colored pencils because she has more control over the piece. An art teacher from the middle school came in and helped the students perfect their pieces. The teacher encouraged Ruby to make a sunrise because a sunrise is a new beginning, Ruby said. Ruby struggled with the sunset a bit because she needed to get the right colors and make sure they blended like an ombre, she said. Though her piece did well, Rubys favorite things to draw are roses. Theyre complex and she can include a lot of detail. Shes most proud of a piece she did for her mom that featured roses and had clouds in the background, she said. Theyre just unique and I feel like theyre vibrant, she said. Then, with all the details, I like to make them really detailed. Puppy party Among those who havent been out making friends like they used to during the pandemic: Puppies! To help small dogs socialize, Central Bark doggy daycare is offering a free Puppy Hour this Saturday at 11 a.m., where puppies under six months can meet each other and explore a new place while their owners watch on Instagram. Puppy Hour is free, but space is limited, with groups capped at 10 to 12 pups. Call to reserve a space, (608) 663-8300. Proof of vaccinations required. Thats why Mononas Fourth of July celebration this year which, he notes, will have the biggest fireworks display in the county since Madisons Shake the Lake is canceled for the year will include a 5K race with an unusual twist. Lots of places have races, he said, and many switch things up by doing them zombie-style. But Monona will channel the vibe of Pamplonas running of the bulls, with half the runners acting as humans and the other half chasing them as bulls. There may or may not be a tomato fight at the end. Hopefully there will not be any actual (goring) on that day, Renner joked. And come October, Monona will partner with Variations Dance Studio to celebrate Halloween with an afternoon dance camp where all those whove wanted to learn the dance from Michael Jacksons Thriller video can learn it once and for all. Renners excited, not only because hell finally be able to show up at costume parties and do more than the first two moves of the dance, but because the event will provide fodder for the story hes hoping to tell about the town. We'll bring some food and we'll bring some drinks out for it and well probably shoot a video that we can then push out: Town of Monona gets together and does Thriller dance to scare local children. 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. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Everyone from GOP Sens. Mitch McConnell to Tim Scott to, of course, Josh Hawley have been parading to talk shows and press briefings claiming that Biden wants to put government in the middle of Americans' lives. They'll make your kids attend pre-kindergarten at age 3, attend community college after high school and make them buy electric cars when they reach adulthood, they insist. There are no such requirements in Biden's agenda. No one is going to be coerced into anything, Vermont's independent Sen. Bernie Sanders has pointed out. But a mom or a dad who is going to work in order to provide for the family wants to know that their kids are in quality, affordable child care that exists in almost every other major country on Earth. Weve got to do the same here. But facts have no room in the Republicans game plan. The more they can demonize Democrats for having some secret plan to enslave Americans in some sort of socialistic morass and get a sizable number of people to believe it, the better off they figure they'll be. Like Tucker Carlson's claim that the Democrats are scheming to have dark-skinned invaders from developing countries supplant Christian Americans. "Every time they import a new voter, I become disenfranchised as a current voter," he blustered the other day on his show. Budgets are blueprints for an organizations priorities. In the state of Wisconsin, our budget shows the people of the state what our leaders value and with the latest actions by the Republican-led Joint Finance Committee, Id venture to say they dont value the people of this state very much. Last week, the 12 Republican members of the states powerful budget-writing committee chose to eliminate nearly 400 measures proposed by Gov. Tony Evers, which translates into more than $3 billion in revenue sources. Of the items ditched by Republicans were Medicaid expansion, full funding of 4-year-old kindergarten, ending the dark store loophole, legalization of medical marijuana and a ban on vaping in schools. This is odd, as some of these ideas were proposed in past sessions by Republican members of the Legislature. What remains painfully obvious is the obstinate relationship between Republican leadership and the East Wing, and equally as frustrating, the lack of collaboration between Republican leadership in the Assembly and the Senate. At times it seems as though there are too many cooks in the kitchen. This often results in a mess and the hardworking people of the state are left holding the bag, literally and figuratively. Under continued questioning, the Republican legislator sheepishly admitted that he had not responded to a long list of concerns that had been raised about disenfranchisement of Black and Latino voters, among others. Like Republicans in Wisconsin and other states, he said there was no intent to suppress votes. Yet, there he was, championing legislation that the Texas Tribune explained restricted early voting rules and schedules to do away with extended hours and ban drive-thru voting. It also required large counties to redistribute polling places under a formula that could move sites away from areas with more Hispanic and Black residents. What was Cains response to the scrutiny? Under pressure, the Republican legislator announced, Id be totally fine with an amendment to maybe strike the word purity and say integrity or something. Bingo! When Republicans say integrity, what they mean is purity. And when they say they want to restore confidence and trust in our elections, what they really mean is that they want Jim Crow 2.0 elections. Miller says he believes the criticisms reflect inexperience with, or a lack of understanding of, the nature of military operations. 10:45 a.m. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney says Congress must find out why the federal government failed to coordinate an effective and timely response to the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Maloney made the comments Wednesday as she opened a hearing with former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, both of whom were involved in the response. Maloney says, It is our duty to understand what went wrong that day, to seek accountability and to take action to prevent this from ever happening again." Maloney says it's clear Trump is responsible for the Capitol riot. The House impeached Trump a week after the siege for telling his supporters that day to fight like hell to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The then-Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump in February. Republicans immediately tried to change the subject of the hearing to protests in several cities over the last year in response to the death of George Floyd. The top Republican on the panel, Kentucky Rep. James Comer, says Democrats continue to demonize tens of millions of Americans who support President Trump." Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Another bill the Senate passed would disallow ballot collection events any earlier than two weeks before an election. They would also have to be located near the local clerk's office and staffed by workers from there. That change is in response to the Democracy in the Park event held in Madison city parks last year where volunteers collected absentee ballots before the early voting period started two weeks prior to the election. The bill also would prohibit someone other than a member of the voters immediate family or a legal guardian from returning a completed absentee ballot for another person. Violators would be guilty of a felony. Trump argued in a lawsuit that no ballots should be counted that were collected at the Democracy in the Park events, or where election officials added missing information. On both of those claims, the Wisconsin Supreme Court said Trump had raised the issues too late and that his claims lacked evidence to back them up. Three dissenting conservative justices said the laws need to be clarified, leading to the bills up for a Senate vote. Investigators dont know yet how the shooter got the weapon, which Frabbiele described as a Smith & Wesson handgun. He said it was originally purchased by someone else in 2014 at a local gun store but was not reported stolen. The gunman had two 15-round magazines, one of which was empty, and police recovered 17 spent shells at the scene. The shooting occurred at a home in the Canterbury Mobile Home Park on the east side of Colorados second-largest city. Three children at the party, ages 2, 5 and 11, were not hurt. Two families were celebrating the birthdays of family members, and 10 people were inside the home when the gunman arrived and shot all six victims in quick succession before turning the gun on himself, Frabbiele said. The children inside were in close proximity to the shots fired, he said. Police received the first of three 911 calls from inside the home. Another was made by an adult who managed to escape. Three teenagers had left the party just before the shooting, Frabbiele said. They returned shortly after to discover what happened. Arriving officers found Jose Gutierrez gravely wounded inside; he told the officers the suspect was in the home, Frabbiele said. Gutierrez died later at a hospital. Kids in some places are already rolling up their sleeves. But much of the nation was waiting for Wednesdays recommendations from advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many states will be shipping doses to pediatricians and even to schools. Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize. TOPEKA, Kan.Gov. Laura Kelly says Kansas state government offices will return to normal operations in mid-June after more than a year of having many employees work remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. Kelly said Wednesday that state employees and visitors to their offices still will be required to wear masks and maintain social distancing. She says agency directors can allow people to work from home, particularly when social distancing is not possible. The changes take effect the week of June 13, which means Monday, June 14 for most workers. Later Wednesday, Mexico's Labor Department said it had launched an investigation of the case and promised to publish the results and take any measures needed to repair the situation. Mexico is still in the middle of a process of holding votes at workplaces to accept or reject existing unions. The process started in 2019 and ends in 2023, and will have to be repeated at every unionized factory and workplace in Mexico. Some experts have criticized the process, because employees are not allowed to choose between a new union and an old one. Instead, they are essentially asked to decide between the old union and none at all. Labor Secretary Luisa Maria Alcalde has acknowledged it is an uphill battle because some union leaders havent gotten the message that they can no longer operate behind the backs of workers. Fernando Salgado, the CTM assistant general secretary, did not respond directly to the accusations in April, but did say: We have had two fundamental values: equality and the respect we must show for freedom in union organizing. When the old North American Free Trade Agreement was approved in 1994, leaders promised it would boost Mexicos wages, something that never happened, in part because of unrepresentative unions. Headie One used his BRIT Awards performance to speak out against the negative stereotypes associated with drill music. The 26-year-old rapper took to the stage at the annual music awards ceremony on Tuesday (11.06.21) alongside AJ Tracey to perform their hit track, It Aint Different, and used his platform to reclaim the drill genre as a voice of unheard and disenfranchised youth. The performance featured sound bites of media quotes such as "some say it's a symptom of societal failings" and "a form of aggressive rap music", as Headie tore down the racist prejudices against the genre. Headie performed standing on a box designed by Virgil Abloh with smeared newspaper clippings highlighted in the colours of the Ghana flag, representing Headie's heritage. The rapper also wore a custom Louis Vuitton tracksuit also designed by Virgil. In a statement, Virgil said: "Supporting next generation's talent is a part of my ethos. Watching Headie One build his career in music while being a voice of evolution makes his art practice important in contemporary art." A Minnesota man who police said admitted to setting a fire at a Stoughton laundromat last weekend said he did it to rid himself of evil spirits and a government tracking device. Jonathan M. Reeves, 26, of Minneapolis, was charged Tuesday with arson. According to a criminal complaint, Reeves was standing near the main entrance of Viking Laundry, 1425 E. Main St., about 12:10 a.m. Sunday as two-foot flames shot out of a vent on the buildings east end. The complaint states Reeves told police, Yeah, I set it on fire, when asked about the building, and said he set the fire because he was cursed. After starting the fire inside the building, Reeves told police he went outside to watch the evil spirits burn. Nobody was injured in the fire. Bail was set for Reeves at $5,000 during a court appearance Tuesday, and Court Commissioner Jason Hanson ordered a competency evaluation to determine whether Reeves is mentally fit to assist with his defense. Assistant District Attorney Rachel Kibbe said Reeves has a pending charge of making threats of violence in Hennepin County, Minnesota, and there is also a warrant for him from Topeka, Kansas. She said Reeves doesnt know anybody in this area and has no ties to Dane County. A 29-year-old Madison man with a history of gun crimes including pointing a gun at a police officer was sentenced Monday to seven years in federal prison after pleading guilty in February to the armed robbery of a Near East Side coffee shop last year. Nathaniel W. Homestead also pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and ordered to complete three years of supervision after his prison sentence is up, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Western District of Wisconsin. During the robbery of Ground Zero Coffee, 744 Williamson St., on July 19, Homestead raised his shirt and revealed a handgun in his waistband, an employee gave him cash from the register, and he fled. Madison police arrested him a few blocks away and found the handgun in a backpack at a nearby beach. Homestead later told investigators he was motivated to rob the store to get money to quickly purchase drugs, and was under the influence of methamphetamine and crack cocaine at the time, the U.S. Attorneys Office said. Fitchburg police found nine shell casings and reported one vehicle hit by gunfire after responding to a call of shots fired late Tuesday near the border with Madison. Shots were reported in the 2800 block of Oregon Road near Park Street south of the Beltline at about 11:20, police said. No one has been reported injured in the incident. Anyone with information about the shooting and who has not already spoken with an officer is asked to contact Fitchburg police at 608-270-4300. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Juchems sent an email in February to Quade and the superintendent of the Grantsburg School District, which houses the online charter school, to outline the law and past court cases. Weeks passed, and he didnt receive a reply, so he followed up with a certified letter in March. As of the beginning of May, he hadnt heard from the principal or district administration, which he said was unusual. A district spokesperson said the district is working to resolve this matter, but otherwise declined to comment, citing the districts obligation to protect student confidentiality, which the student has waived, according to the ACLU. Ultimately its really silly and it seems against the efforts of education to actively block something thats about helping students belong, feel connected to school, develop leadership skills, Juchems said. It could lead to a lawsuit. Several iForward staff members came forward with concerns regarding Quades active role in blocking student efforts to start a club for LGBT students and allies but asked not to be identified for fear of retribution from the administration. University of Wisconsin System auditors identified a range of missteps in the bidding process for an information technology project at UW-Madison, including two perceived conflicts of interest and several violations of state procurement policy. UW-Madison last year was looking for a vendor to start its Administrative Transformation Program, a massive effort to move the schools administrative services, such as payroll, to a cloud-based system. The multiyear project, jointly sponsored by the university and the System, will eventually benefit all UW campuses but the work in getting it up and running has been primarily staffed by UW-Madison employees up to this point, university spokesperson John Lucas said. UW-Madison in late February canceled requests for all future bids just a few days before one of the losing vendors, Deloitte Consulting, alleged that two of its competitors, Huron and Accenture, helped craft part of the bid and were then selected for roughly $800,000 contracts despite Deloitte initially earning the highest score. UW-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank at last weeks Faculty Senate meeting also indicated it could be a possibility because living in residence halls is voluntary. But imposing such a requirement campus-wide is unlikely. The politics of this state makes that very difficult, Blank said, adding that those who skip the shot will likely be required to regularly test for COVID-19. UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas said Tuesday he had no information to share about the status of the discussion around a potential vaccine mandate for students living in dorms. System spokesperson Mark Pitsch said theres been no change to Thompsons position encouraging but not requiring students get vaccinated. Other schools Only a small slice of the roughly 6,000 colleges and universities nationwide plan to impose vaccination requirements, according to a running tally by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The single most important change that we made to the new proposal ... was the removal of one of the floors of the building at State Street, said Mark Goehausen, Cores senior development manager. It protects the existing rhythm of building heights on State and allows the building to fit in much more seamlessly with the rest of the State Street block. The project would still require demolition of buildings at 341 State St., 315 and 319 W. Gorham St., and 322 W. Johnson St. Most of the businesses at those properties have plans to relocate, some Downtown and others elsewhere in the city. Saving facades The proposal now preserves the facades of 315 and 317 W. Gorham St. and 322 W. Johnson St., which will be deconstructed and rebuilt into the new structure and serve as entries into first-floor retail spaces. While none of them are landmarked, we acknowledge that some of these buildings have unique and interesting designs that contribute to the downtown experience, Goehausen said. As such, we have decided to incorporate these existing facades into our overall building design. This will help the building keep the interesting, varied streetscape in place while incorporating both the old and the new. Even within the context of the Cold War, the competitive spirit led to excess. In 1989, about nine months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, policymakers were fretting that the Soviet Union could beat us in the race to develop high-definition TV. Politicians deploy the rhetoric of competitiveness for three reasons. First, it lends a kind of macho heft to what politicians and policymakers want to do anyway. Second, it appeals to team spirit. Conceptually, its basically nationalism stripped of its unpleasant connotations. The message is: We all need to get on board with this agenda to beat the other guys. Thats why Biden raised the supposed problem of reaching consensus. The upshot is we cant waste time arguing among ourselves. Third, it fuels the assumption that policymakers actually know what to do to make us more competitive. We cant just let the market work we need to invest in this or that, the way we invest in munitions factories during a war. This was the argument politicians made about Japan in the 1980s. We were in a race to win the future with Japan, and so we had to mimic their industrial policy. And this is how politicians talk about China today. Critchfield will remain at her position with the state board while the governor looks for a replacement and then she will step away from the board to focus on her candidacy. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Critchfield also serves as the spokesperson for the Cassia County School District, a role she intends to keep. For years, she said, shes represented the position of others and now she can express her ideas about how she thinks Idaho education should operate. Critchfield served on the Cassia County School Districts board of trustees for 10 years and has served as a volunteer on the state board of education since 2013. She has worked on a number of statewide initiatives and recently was the chairperson for Idahos Reopening Plan for school districts in 2020. I have considered running for this position for several years. This last year created an urgency in me. I have been at the state education table and observed, first-hand, whats needed in our K-12 system, starting at the top. The lessons we have learned during this pandemic have only intensified those needs. We must advance our students, back our local boards, involve our parents and provide high-quality teaching environments, Critchfield said. The missing ingredient, she said, is alignment within the system. The first flight from Denver landed in Twin Falls on Wednesday afternoon. Local officials spoke about how the flight will promote regional tourism and make traveling more convenient. TWIN FALLS Residents gathered in City Park Tuesday night to show their support for law enforcement at a Back the Blue event. Twin Falls County Commissioner Jack Johnson who used to work in law enforcement helped organize the areas first iteration of this event last year at a time when police departments around the country were under heavy scrutiny and protest following the death of George Floyd, who was murdered by a former Minnesota police officer. Multiple speakers at the event on Tuesday thanked the crowd for their continued support for law enforcement amid this national tension, including city Police Chief Craig Kingsbury. We know that nationally, there are police departments that dont have this kind of support from their community and we realize we are lucky and blessed to get that here, Kingsbury said. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Similarly, Idaho State Police Col. Kedrick Wills who drove to Twin Falls from Boise to attend the event told the crowd about a conference call he recently had with colleagues from departments in other states. His counterparts spoke of the challenges they were facing amid the national scrutiny and calls for their departments to be defunded. I hung up that phone and I was thankful that I live in Idaho, Wills said. I want a sentence higher than that, Chuang added. It's not going to be 21 minus 6 to 15. That's not going to happen. I don't have to follow what you all did. It's clear neither of you really understood what you were doing. Chuang also expressed frustration that prosecutors and defense lawyers still couldn't agree on certain facts of the case even after spelling them out in writing as part of the deal. I certainly think the process was such that I shouldn't defer to the parties' agreement when I'm not sure they really thought it out that carefully, he said. Defense attorney Brendan Hurson told the judge that his remarks give them a platform to negotiate further. If we can't get somewhere, then we would ask for some time to set a trial date, Hurson said. Chuang instructed the attorneys to provide him with a status report by June 25. Marques, a 35-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Ireland, was extradited to Maryland in March 2019, and pleaded guilty in February 2020 to conspiracy to advertise child pornography. He faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison before the plea deal. LANSING, Mich. (AP) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer threatened Tuesday to go after Enbridge's profits from a Great Lakes oil pipeline if the company defies her order to shut it down. The Democratic governor issued the warning in a letter to the Canadian energy transport company on the eve of a state-imposed deadline to halt operation of Line 5, which moves oil through northern Wisconsin and Michigan to refineries in Ontario. Enbridge repeated its intention to defy Whitmer's demand. A nearly 4-mile-long (6.4-kilometer-long) section of Line 5 divides into two pipes that cross the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Whitmer, backed by environmentalists and native tribes, says the segment is vulnerable to a catastrophic spill in the cold, swirling channel. She revoked an easement last November that Michigan had granted in 1953 for the pipes to occupy the lake bottom and ordered them closed by May 12. Enbridge insists the segment is in good condition and says its loss would cause economic damage in both countries, a position shared by the Canadian government, which filed a legal brief Tuesday in support of the company. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine has indicted a top opposition figure who is a close ally of Russia's president with treason and attempts to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea. Along with the Tuesday indictment of Viktor Medvedchuk, security service agents also searched his house in the capital Kyiv. Prosecutor-General Irina Venediktova said that charges under several articles were brought against Medvedchuk business partner Taras Kozak. The charges carry potential sentences of up to 15 years. Medvedchuk is accused of transferring oil and gas production licenses from one of the fields in Crimea to Russian authorities; Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. "Medvedchuk, as the organizer of illegal activities, having strong ties with the top leadership of the Russian Federation, began subversive activities against Ukraine, including in the economic sphere, Venediktova said at a briefing. Medvedchuk is also charged with disclosing secret data on the deployment of Ukrainian military units last year. The 66-year-old heads the political council of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform - For Life. It is the largest opposition group in the parliament, with 44 of the 450 seats. A new executive director and funding are poised to bring Uptown Martinsville back as the destination people want to be. And it all starts with a survey that asks local residents what they want to see in uptown Martinsville. Kathy Deacon came on board May 3 as the executive director of the recently formed Uptown Partnership, which is operating with a 3-year, $350,200 grant from the Harvest Foundation. The revival of Uptown depends on the input of people who are part of the community, Deacon said. That all starts with residents' sharing what they like about Uptown and what they would like to see change through the 24 questions of the Martinsville Community Market Survey. The survey will be open through May 20. The questions start on living Uptown, then go into reasons people go Uptown, which businesses they visit and what they would like Uptown to have. The survey will help UP understand fully at this point in time what are the communitys [needs], how does the community feel about uptown and what it will need to do to enhance people wanting to be here, Deacon said. An early recording of the name was from Lancaster County, Pa., in the mid-18th century. It also could be an altered spelling of the English Walwyn, from the Old English personal name Wealdwine, which means power-friend. What ideas do you have about the origin of Woolwine? Yard sale Reach Out Apostolic Tabernacle, 225 Brenda Drive (near the Stony Mountain Road intersection with U.S. 58), will have a yard sale beginning at 7 a.m. Saturday. Riddle answers Ann There are nine people in the Prunty family (each sister has the same one brother). WEDNESDAYS TRIVIA ANSWER: Todays information comes from the history portion of Woolwine VFDs comprehensive website: When Virginia was settled by Europeans, it was divided into shires (counties) in 1634 but those were much larger swaths of land than the counties we know now. The Isle of Wight Shire was a large territory running from the coast along the southern part of Virginia. TODAYS TRIVIA QUESTION: When did Henry County form, and when did Patrick County separate from Henry County? Reach The Stroller at 276-638-8801 ext. 243 and stroller@martinsvillebulletin.com. The gas panic gripping North Carolina over the past few days has plunged many people into a desperate search for stations that are open and now around a quarter of gas stations in the state are without fuel. Gas demand across the U.S. jumped 14.3% over the past seven days, and the average national price is now more than $3 a gallon, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy.com. North Carolina has been hit the worst. The closure of the Colonial Pipeline, a major fuel supplier, has caused 28% of the state's gas stations to run out, De Haan said. In Georgia and Virginia, it's just over 17%. The gas shortages are even worse in the Tar Heel State's two largest cities, according to De Haan. The biggest shortages were reported in the Raleigh/Durham area, with an estimated 72% of stations without gas Wednesday morning. In Charlotte, about 71% of stations are without gasoline. GasBuddy app currently shows gas availability is best on the northeast side of Charlotte and worst on the southeast side, while gas availability appeared to be best on Raleigh's south side. The Greenville/New Bern/Washington region is seeing shortages of around 69%. Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina has purchased future Catawba River Greenway property in McDowell County. It will connect the trail to the nearby river park and become part of the pathway from Morganton to Asheville. Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina bought a 12.7-acre property on the Catawba River in McDowell County for the purpose of adding onto Marions Catawba River Greenway, which is officially named the Joseph McDowell Historical Catawba Greenway. Once constructed, the trail will cross U.S. 70 West and connect the greenway to the McDowell County Catawba River Park. The section of greenway will also serve as part of the Fonta Flora State Trail, a planned 90-mile trail that will connect Morganton to Asheville. Plans to purchase the tract began in early 2021, when Friends of the Fonta Flora State Trail, or F3ST, approached Foothills Conservancy to assist in acquiring the property. The conservancy then received a conservation loan from a private donor to purchase the parcel from landowner Ford Miller. Now that it is in the hands of the conservancy, the land trust plans to sell the property to McDowell County in the near future for the development of approximately half a mile of greenway trail. New super hybrid rice variety breaks high yield record in S China's Sanya People's Daily Online) 17:58, May 11, 2021 Staff members measure the yields of a new super hybrid rice variety, May 9. (Photo courtesy of the Sanya branch of China National Seed Group Co., Ltd.) Chaoyouqianhao, a new super hybrid rice variety recently delivered a record-high yield of 1,004.83 kilograms per mu (1 mu is 667 square meters) in Sanya, south China's Hainan province. The new variety was developed by Yuan Longping, a renowned Chinese agronomist who developed the first hybrid rice strains, together with his team. Yield samples of the new variety were collected randomly from three fields at the Sanya Paddy Field National Park. They averaged 1,004.83 kilograms per mu and exceeded an expected output of 900 kilograms per mu. The hybrid rice breeding is part of a project initiated in December 2020, after which six experimental fields were set up in Hainan. The project aims to achieve a super high yield of 1,500 kilograms per mu in just two farming seasons. The successful growth and yields of the sampled rice crop prove that high-yield varieties, as well as green and simplified cultivation techniques are important factors that can make paddies highly productive and more efficient, said Xie Hua'an, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) The development is likely to exacerbate tensions between Democrats and Republicans who have different views about how pupils should learn about history inside the classroom. This is a bill of hatred," said Rep. James Gailliard, a Nash County Democrat. "This is a bill of classism. This is a bill of privilege. This is a bill of fragility. It has no place in the North Carolina General Assembly. Gailliard strongly opposes the measure that faces a Thursday deadline in order to be considered during the remainder of the two-year legislative session. This is really a 'Dont hurt my feelings bill. Dont tell me the truth about our history because it may hurt my feelings,'" Gailliard told his colleagues. "Were robbing kids if we dont give them the opportunity to study and to really learn their history. By not teaching them their history, were not showing them that injustice can be made into justice. Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt, a Republican, supports the proposal to suppress the promotion of such ideas. He and Speaker Moore said it was just coincidence that they had both quashed bills targeting transgender individuals. And they didnt kill them quietly. They went out of their way to do it publicly. Berger maintained, It had nothing to do with Apple. Whatever the reason, give Berger and Moore credit. They did the right thing. Give Cooper credit. He could have hogged the stage. Instead, he shared it. Give them all credit for working together and crafting an incentives package that brought in Apple. It amounts to $845.8 million over 39 years. Three years ago, it looked like North Carolina had missed its bite at Apple. But the Cooper administration kept talking to the company. The administration and the legislature worked together to write the incentive package into law. Staffers for both, usually sworn enemies, traded compliments at the end. With Apple, we saw a picture you dont see in other Southern states these days: The Governor and legislative leaders, Democrats and Republicans, Blacks and whites and Machelle Sanders, a former life-sciences executive who is the first Black commerce secretary standing together Black and Hispanic women may be more likely than white women to have a brain pressure disorder called idiopathic intracranial hypertension, according to a study published in the May 12, 2021, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The disorder may also be more common in women who live in low-income areas or in areas with more fast-food restaurants and convenience stores than grocery stores, also known as "food swamps." Idiopathic intracranial hypertension occurs when there is increased pressure in the fluid surrounding the brain with no other apparent cause. It causes chronic, disabling headaches, vision problems and in rare cases, permanent vision loss. It is most often diagnosed in women of childbearing age. Obesity is the primary risk factor for the condition. "We found that women with idiopathic intracranial hypertension were more than twice as likely to be Black than people who did not have the condition, even after we adjusted for their body mass index, so we believe that racial differences are not explained solely by obesity," said study author Venkatesh Brahma, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. "Our results provide some support for racial disparities that can be seen in this condition. Though at least some of this relationship is driven by the link between obesity and idiopathic intracranial hypertension with low-income neighborhoods and food swamps, it does not fully explain the differences, and other systemic health disparities are likely involved." The study involved women who were seen by a neuro-ophthalmologist at the university over eight years223 women who had intracranial hypertension and 4,783 who did not. Researchers looked at participants' health records and then used their addresses to determine information about the neighborhoods in which they live. Among the women with the condition, 48% were white, 47% were Black and 5% were Hispanic, while among the women without the condition, 77% were white, 20% were Black and 3% were Hispanic. After adjusting for other factors, such as age and low-income neighborhood, women with the condition were more than three times as likely to be Black and twice as likely to be Hispanic. However, after researchers adjusted for body mass index, women with the condition were no longer more likely to be Hispanic than white, while they were more than twice as likely to be Black. "Additional studies are needed to help us understand the link between race, ethnicity, access to healthy foods, exposure to unhealthy foods, other social determinants of health, and idiopathic intracranial hypertension," Brahma said. "Our findings suggest that multiple factors are likely involved." A limitation of the study was the participants may not be representative of all people with idiopathic intracranial hypertension due to the university's proximity to low-income neighborhoods. Explore further Brain pressure disorder that causes headache, vision problems on rise Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain New research from the Institute for Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London has suggested that policy makers should utilize mental health data from the aftermath of the Blitz as a means of establishing who is at the greatest risk of poor mental health following the spread of COVID-19. The research, which was published today in the Lancet Psychiatry, suggests that, while there have been examples of mental resilience in the face of a pandemic, people from areas of socio-economic deprivation, or who have lost family members, or work in high-risk occupations face an increased risk of experiencing mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD. By identifying these risk factors we are more able to provide targeted support to those most in need. Following the German raids over Britain in the 1940s, Government propaganda promoted London as a symbol of mental resilience that later became known as "Blitz spirit". Professor Edgar Jones of King's IoPPN said "The "Blitz Spirit" has become a by-word for a nation that faced down nightly bombing raids and emerged with its resolve and morale intact. The reality is that the worst affected parts of the UK saw significant increases in what we would recognize today as symptoms of PTSD and other common mental illnesses." By studying the available data, Professor Jones was able to identify crucial risk factors that arose during the Second World War, and now says that we should be on the lookout for similar warnings this time around. Professor Jones said "any area that has seen a particularly high rate of COVID-19 cases should be looked at closely. These are often areas of deprivation associated with worse health, poorer educational opportunities and crowded housing where you have a higher concentration of people working in low-paid "frontline" jobs or are more likely to have suffered economic hardship due to the pandemic." The UK's urban centers have been some of the worst affected areas in the last year with London, Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds seeing some of the highest rates of infection. The British Medical Association has since warned that the mental health consequences of the pandemic will be "considerable". Professor Jones went on to say "The Blitz was an undeniably traumatic experience for the nation, but there were opportunities for communities to come together to support one another. What we have seen in the last year of the pandemic is that people are facing equally traumatic experiences, but the lockdown and social distancing rules have meant that we haven't been able to recreate that sense of community and shared adversity in the same way." Professor Jones now says that the Government should introduce targeted interventions to offer mental health support in areas of socio-economic deprivation and high mortality where he says there is the highest potential risk, including an increase in funding for local authorities, with a particular focus on Black, Asian, and ethnic minority communities who have experienced some of the highest mortality rates as a result of the pandemic. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak More information: Edgar Jones, COVID-19 and the Blitz compared: mental health outcomes in the UK, The Lancet Psychiatry (2021). Journal information: The Lancet Psychiatry Edgar Jones, COVID-19 and the Blitz compared: mental health outcomes in the UK,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(21)00118-8 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other Brazilian states on Tuesday suspended immunization of pregnant women with the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine on the advice of the national health regulator after a reported death. The suspension was to remain in place until the health ministry establishes the cause of death of a woman in Rio de Janeiro who received the vaccine, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga told a news conference. Queiroga said the call was made by a team of experts and was based "exclusively on technical criteria." "It is not clear that the vaccine caused this blood clot. We are analyzing the details of the whole case to reach a conclusion and clarify what happened," said Jorge Kalil, a consultant for the National Vaccination Program, who took part in the press briefing. Brazil's health regulator, Anvisa, recommended late Monday the "immediate suspension" of AstraZeneca vaccines for pregnant women in line with its "constant monitoring of adverse events with anti-COVID vaccines used in the country." Franciele Francinato, coordinator of the National Vaccination Program, said pregnant women who had already received the first dose of AstraZeneca should hold off getting the second shot until the ministry issued new guidelines. The Rio de Janeiro municipal health secretariat said in a statement that authorities had decided to suspend application of the vaccine to pregnant women and new mothers in the state capital "until the investigation of the case of an adverse event in a pregnant woman is completed by the Ministry of Health." Other municipalities in the state adopted the same measure, and Sao Paulo state said it would also stop vaccinating women with comorbidities. In all, 22 of Brazil's 27 states have taken similar steps, reported news site G1. AstraZeneca said in a statement that pregnant and nursing mothers had been excluded from its vaccine tests, which it said was common practice in clinical trials. "There were no adverse effects related to pregnancy observed in studies on animals," it said. Several European countries have restricted AstraZeneca shots to older people only, after a link was made between the vaccine and very rare but often fatal blood clots coupled with low platelet levels. Denmark has abandoned the vaccine entirely and experts in Britain have recommended people under 40 be given an alternative. Brazil is immunizing the bulk of its population with China's CoronaVac, with limited doses of AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. The AstraZeneca shot represents about 26 percent of all doses administered in the country so far. The Latin American giant of 212 million people has given one shot to 15 percent of its population, and two shots to seven percent. It has been hit hard by COVID-19, with a death toll of more than 423,000, second only to the United States. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2021 AFP Prime Minister Justin Trudeau receives his first COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccination in Ottawa on Friday April 23, 2021. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press via AP) Canada's largest province said Tuesday it will stop giving out first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine due to concerns over its link to rare blood clots. Ontario's chief medical officer for health, Dr. David Williams, said the decision was made out of an abundance of caution because of increased instances of the rare blood clotting disorder linked to the shot. AstraZeneca is restricted in some European countries because of a potential link to extremely rare blood clots. "Over the last few days there have been increased reports," Williams said. "We are reviewing the data to consider options for the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for second doses and more broadly." In Canada, at least 12 cases have been confirmed out of more than 2 million doses given, and three women have died. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario Premier Doug Ford both received a AstraZeneca first dose in recent weeks. Williams said people who got the first dose of AstraZeneca "absolutely did the right thing." Dr. Andrew Morris, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Toronto and the medical director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Sinai-University Health Network, does not believe Canada should be using AstraZeneca any longer now that Canada has large supplies of other vaccines. "It's the right thing to do," he said. Morris said experts don't know yet what to do about people who got only the first dose. Health officials are awaiting results of a clinical trial in the United Kingdom looking at giving a different vaccine for the second dose. That would allow people who got AstraZeneca first to be given Pfizer or Moderna for their second dose. Alberta is also no longer administrating first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine but only because of a lack of supply. Pfizer and Moderna are sending more than enough doses to vaccinate every Canadian with two doses eventually. Trudeau said almost 50% of eligible adults in Canada have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine. Most of that is Pfizer and Moderna. Trudeau said by the summer, Canada will have enough vaccines so that every eligible resident will have gotten their first dose and by September it will have enough doses for everyone to be fully vaccinated. "A one-dose summer sets us up for a two-dose fall when we'll be able to talk about going back to school, back to work, and back to more normality," Trudeau said. Canada has lagged in vaccinating its population because it lacks the ability to manufacture the vaccines and like many countries has had to rely on the global supply chain for the shots. Trudeau's government bet on seven different vaccines manufactured elsewhere and secured advance purchase agreementsenough to get 10 doses for each Canadian. But initial supply chain difficulties forced Canada to extend the time between the first shot and the second by up to four months so that everyone can be protected faster with the initial dose. The hope is to get all adults at least one shot by the end of June. About 3% of eligible Canadians are fully vaccinated. Regulators have approved the Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for use in Canada. But plans to distribute the first 300,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are on hold after Health Canada learned part of them were manufactured at a Maryland facility where U.S. officials uncovered manufacturing violations. The U.S. has suggested it will share more AstraZeneca doses with Canada after loaning 1.5 million doses but it is not clear when that will happen. Canada started getting Pfizer vaccines from the United States only this month. Despite Canada's tightly woven commercial ties with the U.S., it has been getting Pfizer's vaccines from Belgium until now because U.S. authorities had kept supplies made in the U.S. for domestic use. The AstraZeneca vaccine, which is cheaper and easier to store than Pfizer or Moderna, is critical to global immunization campaigns. It is a pillar of the U.N.-backed program known as COVAX that aims to get vaccines to some of the world's poorest countries. Toronto, Canada's largest city, has been on lockdown for six months. A third wave of infections fueled by coronavirus variants has started to recede. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. ARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7, also called the UK variant. The green depicts viral DsRNA and red shows viral nucleocapsid protein these are both viral biomarkers, and indicate that the cell shown is infected by SARS-CoV-2. Credit: Dr. Guang Gao, UBC LSI IMAGING A new anti-viral drug could improve COVID-19 outcomes and survival ratesand is highly effective against multiple variantsaccording to a new study led by researchers at the University of British Columbia and Universite de Sherbrooke. The drug, called N-0385, blocks the SARS-CoV-2 virus from entering human cells through its favored cell gateways. The results of the study are under review for publication in a scientific journal and have been uploaded as a preprint. "In this study, we report a novel and highly potent small-molecule drug called N-0385, that acts as the most effective entry inhibitor to date," says Dr. Francois Jean, a project lead and professor in the department of microbiology and immunology at UBC. "We demonstrate that N-0385 is broadly protective against infection and mortality in mice, and believe N-0385 has potential as a viable early treatment option against emerging SARS-CoV-2 VOCs." Viable treatments for variants of concern (VOC) are urgently needed as they carry mutations in the virus spike protein that allow them to spread more easily, and cause more serious illness. VOCs may also be more resistant to antibodies produced by vaccines. Currently, three VOCs are being monitored by the World Health Organization. These include B.117, known as the "UK variant," B.1.351, first identified in South Africa, and P.1, identified in Brazil. "N-0385 works by blocking TMPRSS2, an enzyme responsible for cutting and priming the viral spike protein so that it can attach and fuse with the host cell membrane, and release the virus's genetic material," said Dr. Jean. "Importantly, we demonstrated that N-0385 is a broad spectrum (nanomolar) coronavirus antiviral, that impedes SARS-CoV-2 VOCs infection, including B.1117 and B.1.351," says Dr. Tirosh Shapira, a postdoctoral fellow in the Jean laboratory, and co-first author on the paper. "Protection was demonstrated in cultured human lung cells, but also in organoidsan advanced near-human model of infection differentiated from donor patients." The development and testing of N-0385 is a cross-border initiative funded via The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) COVID-19 research grants. The small molecule was developed by Drs. Richard Leduc, Eric Marsault, Pierre-Luc Boudreault and their team at Universite de Sherbrooke. The efficacy of N-0385 in human cells and human organoids was demonstrated by Dr. Jean's team at UBC FINDER, the state-of-the-art level three biocontainment facility founded by Dr. Jean in 2010. Researchers at Cornell University, led by Dr. Hector Aguilar-Carreno, and postdoctoral fellow and study co-first author, Dr. Abrrey Monreal, showed that a few, single, daily doses of N-0385 delivered via the nose significantly improved clinical outcomes and survival of genetically-engineered mice infected with SARS-CoV-2, without detectable toxic effects. "We hope that this, and related drugs, may have broader applications in combating other respiratory viruses that use the same means of entry into host cells, including established coronaviruses, influenza and other viruses," said Dr. Jean. The researchers are now testing other drugs that are similar in structure to N-0385 against SARS-CoV-2 and variants, as well as other emerging pathogenic viruses. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak More information: Tirosh Shapira et al. A novel highly potent inhibitor of TMPRSS2-like proteases blocks SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and is broadly protective against infection and mortality in mice, biorxiv (2021). Tirosh Shapira et al. A novel highly potent inhibitor of TMPRSS2-like proteases blocks SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and is broadly protective against infection and mortality in mice,(2021). DOI: 10.1101/2021.05.03.442520 Monks and nuns pray together during Buddha's Birthday celebrations at the Lin Chi Temple in Taipei, Taiwan, Sunday, May 9, 2021. Buddha's birthday is celebrated in East Asia on the eighth day of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying) Taiwan's president on Wednesday sought to reassure the public that the government is capable of withstanding a further outbreak of COVID -19 after 16 local cases were detected. The exact origins of the cases have not yet been discovered. "The challenge at this moment is still severe. Please be alert and follow the guidelines," President Tsai Yin-wen said in televised remarks. She called on people not to panic. Tsai said medical supplies were sufficient and vaccines would continue to be distributed. Taiwan had virtually eradicated domestic transmission of the coronavirus through strict mask wearing, case tracing, travel restrictions and quarantine measures. It has counted 1,210 confirmed cases to date, with the vast majority imported. Announcing the increase in cases at the Legislature on Wednesday afternoon, Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung said the latest outbreak was "not a joke." The island on Tuesday raised its emergency preparedness, banning indoor events with more than 100 people and outdoor events with more than 500 until early June. Stricter measures could be imposed if cases continued to rise and outlets found in violation would be fined, Chen said. Five of the cases were discovered in a gaming cafe in Yilan county on Taiwan's eastern coast. Another was found in New Taipei City, just outside the capital. None of the cases had any history of international travel. Health authorities are doing contact tracing to determine the source of the infection. A seventh infected person was already in quarantine and had been in contact with a cluster discovered in recent weeks linked to pilots working for Taiwan's China Airlines. Over 30 cases have been identified. Explore further Pilot blamed for first Taiwan virus transmission since April 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. (HealthDay)More than 90 percent of health care workers and two-thirds of the general population currently have hand dermatitis, according to a study presented at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Spring Symposium, held virtually from May 6 to 7. Monisha Madhumita and Ramesh Bhat, M.B.B.S., M.D., from the Father Muller Medical College in Mangalore, India, conducted a study among 291 health care workers and 291 healthy individuals from the general population to examine transepidermal water loss (TEWL), measured using a noninvasive, closed chamber system in a standardized environmental setting, and the presence of hand dermatitis. The researchers found that the prevalence of hand dermatitis was 92.6 and 68.7 percent among health care workers and controls, respectively, based on symptoms and clinical examination. Mean TEWL was higher for women, for intensivists, and in association with alcohol-based hand rub and frequency of handwashing (more than five times/day). Based on medical history and self-reported history, about 3 percent of health care workers and 2.4 percent of controls had a prior history of hand dermatitis. Overall, 99 percent of hand dermatitis cases were of an irritant nature; 6.8 percent used emollients. Skin irritation and dryness were the main challenge to the consistent practice of hand hygiene among health care workers (72.1 percent), while among controls, the main challenges were skin irritation and dryness and high cost (50.8 and 36 percent, respectively). "This research truly demonstrates the impact of increased hand washing and uptake of alcohol-based rubs on the hand skin health of health care professionals and the general public," Madhumita said in a statement. Explore further Hand washing focus in hospitals has led to rise in worker dermatitis More information: More Information Copyright 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Last month, the Arkansas Senate passed legislation prohibiting medical providers from offering gender-affirming hormones or surgeries to trans youth. If you were to read the billtitled the Save Adolescents From Experimentation Actyou might think the law was protecting children from physicians like Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who experimented on Jewish people. "It is of grave concern to the General Assembly," the text reads, that trans youth are being allowed "to be subjects of irreversible and drastic" treatments "despite the lack of studies showing that the benefits of such extreme interventions outweigh the risks." This language is at odds with the growing evidence that blocking people from accessing gender-affirming care creates increased risks for social isolation, suicide ideation and depression. Withholding puberty blockers from trans and nonbinary youth has also been found to negatively affect mental health. However, the hyperbolic language and imagery of brutal experimentation prevents medical providers from honestly confronting the various issues that do exist within the field. The punitive nature of the legislationin which doctors can lose their licensesfurther thwarts these efforts. As I discuss in my new book, "Trans Medicine," little scientific evidence exists to support the use of current trans medical treatments, therapy or decision-making that meets evidence-based standards. Randomized controlled trials have yet to be conducted. For this reason, providers often have trepidation about working with trans people, even if they recognize it is in the best interests of their patients to do so. A history of resistance Pointing out the lack of evidence in this medical field is nothing new. Providers of trans medicine have dealt with accusations of engaging in unnecessaryeven immoralexperimentation and "quackery" since the mid-20th century. Many of these charges came from other doctors. For example, in a letter to a colleague, Harry Benjamin, a well-known endocrinologist who worked during the 1950s, wrote, "I can't tell you how many of my fellows have called me aside for a heart-to-heart talk on this business of working with transsexuals. They worried about the gossip surrounding me and my office as a result of this type of work." As Benjamin suggestedand as the historical record reflectedscandal overwhelmed those providers willing to offer hormone therapy for trans people. After all, an individual who requested to change their gender presentation was understood as having a mental illness, best addressed by long-term therapy. The medical establishment has typically responded to such charges of quackery, even from other doctors by touting their specialized training, credentials and skills to deal with disease and illness. But for over 70 years, physicians and therapists who work with trans clients, young and old, have nonetheless been haunted by a very basic question: How might someone who is trained to manage illness and disease "treat" someone's gender identity, which is neither an illness nor a disease? Swimming in doubt The question seems simple. But it reflects the ambivalence many doctors and therapists have toward trying to apply standard medical or therapeutic models to gender identities. Take Margaret, a family care physician who had been working for about five years in trans medicine before we met one afternoon to discuss her experiences. (The names used in my research are pseudonyms.) "I don't always know if I am doing the right thing when I work with trans patients," she told me. "I haven't been trained in this area. So, if I have a patient who has high cholesterol or is a smoker, but wants to start estrogen, what do I do? To not offer estrogen seems harmful because that would help her be able to express her gender that reflects who she is. But what about the health risks? What am I supposed to do?" (There is mixed evidence on the relationship between taking hormones and heightened risks for heart attacks or strokes.) Health care experts are used to feeling like they have a good foundation of knowledge to make informed decisions, so this can be an uneasy space for doctors like Margaret to work in. Her experiences are not unique. After I spent time searching in the Kinsey Institute's archives, which house correspondence from mid-20th-century providers, interviewing physicians and therapists across the U.S. who work with trans youth and adults, and observing them at health conferences, it became clear to me that the uncertainty Margaret expressed permeates trans medicine. Alexis, a social worker I interviewed, told me one of the difficulties working with trans people is that each person is unique"There is this person and this person and this person," she explained. Trying to apply a standard model for decision-making onto trans experience is difficult. Trans people have complex ways of understanding their identities. The reason to pursue medical interventions varies from one person to the next. Not all providers comfortably lean on this flexibility in delivering gender-affirming care or therapy. Speaking before her colleagues at a health care conference, one physician urged them to remember, before starting their patients on hormones, that "what you are looking to get at is to make sure their gender identity is clear and there are no red flags." But there are no medical tests to confirm a trans identity. And "red flags" aren't defined or delineated in any literature or clinical guidelines. Barriers to understanding Once doctors have decided to pursue a course of treatment, the science isn't exactly settled. Part of that has to do with the fact that randomized controlled trials have been implausible, given that only 0.6% of the population identifies as trans or nonbinary. And physicians like Margaret might feel unqualified because most providers encounter only a single "diversity" day during medical residency programs. This day covers lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health careand, in the process, conflates sexuality and gender. Furthermore, there are few opportunities for providers to gain formal training in trans medicine or therapy. Clinical guidelinesor cookbooks for medical decision-makingfor trans medicine offer providers direction about which steps to take to initiate hormone therapy or surgical interventions. But, they rarely discuss how to work with trans and nonbinary people in gender-affirming ways or how to avoid creating roadblocks for trans people to access care. Still, important advances have been made. There is a small, but growing, number of studies published on the efficacy of surgical techniques or the effects of hormone therapy. The providers I interviewed acknowledged these studies help them assess how much of a hormone to prescribe. But these data did little to help providers decide when to initiate, continue, or block access to hormonesor how to interact with trans and nonbinary patients in a supportive and inclusive way. Supportnot punishmentneeded The providers I spoke with insisted that they're trying to do the best they can. But because of the lack of evidence and clinical experience, providers of trans medicine often lean on gut instinct to help them navigate through the murkiness of this medical field. This can lead to bias seeping into clinical encounters. Providers of trans medicine may not intentionally be prejudiced against certain trans and nonbinary people. But as I point out in my book, when they rely on gut instinct, classism, racism and homophobia can subtly influence their health decisions. Trans people who identify as women or men, rather than nonbinary, also have an easier time accessing gender-affirming care. The clinical experience of providers has, until recently, emphasized only people transitioning from woman to man or man to woman. Trans medicine is not exceptional, and how providers work their way through making decisions and offering gender-affirming care reflects how providers operate in most new areas of medicine. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the difficulty that medicine has responding to widespread uncertainty. There are viable solutions to the concerns raised by legislators. What if, instead of outright banning providers from offering gender-affirming care, more public funding was provided to support longitudinal studies? What if more opportunities were given to providers to gain formal training? This, in my view, would go a long way in alleviating the unease they experience over of the state of evidence in this medical field. Explore further Trans youth are coming out and living in their gender much earlier than older generations This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Jacob Conary, 15, listens to advice from a medical assistant after receiving his first shot of the COVID-19 vaccination, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in Auburn, Maine. Vaccination clinics in Maine recently opened up to 12 to 15-year-olds. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) U.S. health advisers endorsed use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in kids as young as 12 on Wednesdayjust as planned new guidelines say it's OK for people of any age to get a coronavirus shot at the same time as other needed vaccinations. The shots will let kids safely attend camps this summer and help assure a more normal return to classrooms next school year, concluded advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "And this is another way to get closer to ending this horrible pandemic," said adviser Dr. Camille Kotton of Harvard Medical School. The sprint to vaccinate millions of middle and high school students has already started in parts of the country, as a long line of kids rolled up their sleeves in suburban Atlanta for a first dose Wednesday. "It just felt like a flu shot, honestly," said Meredith Rogers, 14, from Decatur, Georgia, after getting her vaccination. Michelle Rogers, Meredith's mother, said she hoped the youth vaccinations would help bring some normalcy back. "A little apprehensive, but you know what? This is a step towards getting life back to normal so, we're all in," Michelle Rogers said with a slight fist pump. Pfizer's vaccine has been used for months in people 16 and older, and earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration cleared its use for those as young as age 12. But before rolling it out to the younger kids, much of the nation was awaiting recommendations from CDC's advisersand the panel concluded the same dose adults use is safe and strongly protective in those 12 to 15 years old, too. Melany Chepow smooths the bandaid for her daughter Kaiya Chepow, 15, after she received a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination at a Montgomery County, Pa. Office of Public Health vaccination clinic at the King of Prussia Mall, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in King of Prussia, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) The CDC rapidly accepted its advisers' recommendation. A key question: Is it OK to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the same doctor's visit as people receive some routine vaccinations? That's an urgent back-to-school concern especially for the 12- to 15-year-olds, who have missed out on regularly scheduled vaccines during the pandemicbut it's an issue for adults, too. The CDC until now has recommended not getting other vaccinations within two weeks of a COVID-19 shot, mostly as a precaution so that safety monitors could spot if any unexpected side effects cropped up. But the CDC said Wednesday it is changing that advice because the COVID-19 vaccines have proved very safeand that health workers can decide to give another needed vaccine at the same time for people of any age. "The need for catch-up vaccination in coordination with COVID-19 vaccination is urgent as we plan for safe return to school," CDC's Dr. Kate Woodworth told the panel, citing millions of missed doses of vaccines against tetanus, whooping cough and other health threats. The American Academy of Pediatrics on Wednesday also urged that kids 12 and older get the Pfizer vaccineand agreed that it's fine to give more than one vaccine at the same time, especially for kids who are behind on their regular vaccinations. Children are far less likely than adults to get seriously ill from COVID-19but they do sometimes die, and thousands have been hospitalized. By last month, those ages 12 to 17 were making up slightly more of the nation's new coronavirus infections than adults over 65, a group that's now largely vaccinated. The two-dose vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was studied in more than 2,000 kids ages 12 to 15. There were no cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated kids compared with 16 in the group given dummy shots. Kids also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than vaccinated adults. Gabrielle Turner, 14, receives a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination from Registered Nurse Lisa Leventhal at a Montgomery County, Pa. Office of Public Health vaccination clinic at the King of Prussia Mall, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in King of Prussia, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Side effects are the same as adults experience, mostly sore arms and flu-like fever, chills or aches that signal the immune system is revving up. CDC's advisers did caution that those temporary shot reactions may be even more common if people get a COVID-19 shot at the same time as another vaccination. President Joe Biden hailed Wednesday's vote, noting that means 17 million more people in the U.S. now qualify to get vaccinated. "I encourage their parents to make sure they get the shot," he said. "As I promised last week, we're ready. This new population is going to find the vaccine rollout fast and efficient." In addition to the mass vaccination sites and health department rollouts that were key for adults, many states will be offering kids more familiar optionsshipping doses to pediatricians and even to schools. Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize. As for even younger children, both companies have begun tests in youngsters ages 6 months to 11 years. Those studies explore if different doses are needed at the youngest ages, and FDA plans to hold a public meeting next month to debate exactly what evidence is needed. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Coronavirus vaccines using mRNA technology like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna appear able to "neutralise" the variant of COVID-19 behind India's outbreak, the EU's drug watchdog said Wednesday. There was "promising evidence" that such jabs could counter the B.1.617 variant of COVID-19, first found in India in October and now in dozens of countries around the world, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said. "The data seems to be rather reassuring on the fact that at least the messenger RNA vaccines will be able to neutralise this variant, at least to an extent that will guarantee sufficient protection," Marco Cavaleri, the EMA's head of vaccine strategy, told a news conference. The Amsterdam-based regulator was "monitoring very closely" the data emerging about the Indian variant, he added. Cavaleri said the EMA also believed rival vaccines using viral vector technology would be effective but they were waiting for "real world data" from the use of a version of AstraZeneca's vaccine in India. "So far overall we are pretty confident overall that the vaccines generally will be covering this variant," the Italian said. The EU has currently authorised four vaccines: mRNA vaccines Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, and the viral vector vaccines AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Messenger RNA genetic technology trains the body to reproduce spike proteins, similar to that found on the coronavirus. When exposed to the real virus later, the body recognises the spike proteins and is able to fight them off. Viral vector vaccines like AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson use genetically-engineered version of a common-cold causing adenovirus as a "vector" to shuttle genetic instructions into human cells. The viral vector vaccines have however been dogged by reports of rare blood clots. The EMA also has four vaccines under "rolling review" Russia's Sputnik V, China's Sinovac, US firm Novavax and Germany's CureVac. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2021 AFP Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Rheumatologists in Hong Kong joined hands to develop a set of consensus statements on COVID-19 vaccination for local adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. These timely statements would serve to be a guide for rheumatologists, other specialists, family physicians, specialty nurses, and the public regarding COVID-19 vaccination for patients with rheumatic diseases. Vaccination against SAR-CoV-2 is a new campaign and a high immunization rate is believed to be the key to end the pandemic. Currently, there are two COVID-19 vaccines available in Hong Kongthe inactivated virus vaccine CoronaVac (Sinovac) and the mRNA-based vaccine Comirnaty (BioNTech/Fosun). However, due to the paucity of experience in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, there are concerns from patients regarding the efficacy and safety of the new COVID-19 vaccines. This underscores the importance of input from rheumatologists in providing appropriate advice to patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases and other health-care providers on the COVID-19 vaccines. The Hong Kong Society of Rheumatology (HKSR) took the lead to develop a set of consensus statements for the use of COVID-19 vaccines in local adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Twenty-seven core members of the HKSR, including council members and rheumatologist-in-charge of most hospitals, met by teleconference on March 19, 2021, to discuss clinical questions related to COVID-19 vaccination in adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Important clinical questions were summarized and statements were drafted. A systemic literature search was subsequently conducted to identify and grade the relevant evidence and the strength of recommendations for each statement. A total of eight statements were finalized. Full members of the HKSR were invited to show their agreement to the statements in an on-line survey. Consensus of all the eight statements was reached after two rounds of voting. The eight statements with their grade of evidence and strength of recommendations are: Statement 1: "There is limited evidence to suggest that adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases have increased risk of COVID-19 infection."Grade of Evidence: CStrength of recommendation: B Statement 2: "Adults patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases may develop more severe COVID-19 infection than the general population."Grade of Evidence: CStrength of recommendation: A Statement 3: "Vaccination against COVID-19 is recommended for patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases that are under reasonable control. Local guidelines and precautions of the respective vaccines should be followed."Grade of Evidence: DStrength of recommendation: A Statement 4: "The immunogenicity of various COVID-19 vaccines in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases is currently uncertain. In view of the concomitant immunomodulating/ immunosuppressive medications, the efficacy of these vaccines might be compromised."Grade of Evidence: CStrength of recommendation: B Statement 5: "There is no evidence of increased risk of disease flares or adverse events in autoimmune rheumatic diseases, in the absence of other comorbidities, after COVID-19 vaccination."Grade of Evidence: CStrength of recommendation: A Statement 6: "There is currently no evidence that adjusting the dosage schedule of immunosuppressive drugs would enhance the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines."Grade of Evidence: DStrength of recommendation: B Statement 7: "In patients using heavy immunosuppressive or multiple treatment modalities, particularly those with long half-lives, a discussion with attending rheumatologists is suggested for the need to adjust dosage schedule on an individual basis."Grade of Evidence: DStrength of recommendation: B. Statement 8: "In patients receiving rituximab, COVID-19 vaccine is best administered shortly before the next due dose. When the underlying autoimmune rheumatic diseases are stable, postponement of rituximab infusion for 4 weeks might be considered."Grade of Evidence: DStrength of recommendation: B "This set of consensus recommendations was developed by more than 60% of the practicing rheumatologists in our locality. It took into consideration the limited existing evidence and local perspectives such as the availability of specific vaccines as well as the outbreak situation in Hong Kong. Our recommendations also emphasize patient-centered discussion and individualized decision," says Dr. Chi Chiu Mok, the lead of the project, of Tuen Mun Hospital. "Specific trials on various aspects of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with rheumatic diseases are expected to flourish in the coming months. The information in the current recommendations will likely need to be updated upon the emergence of new data." adds Dr. Ronald Yip, the President of the HKSR. Explore further Research shows mRNA vaccination is safe and effective, even with chronic inflammatory diseases More information: Ho So et al, The Hong Kong Society of Rheumatology Consensus Recommendations for COVID-19 Vaccination in Adult Patients with Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases, Journal of Clinical Rheumatology and Immunology (2021). Ho So et al, The Hong Kong Society of Rheumatology Consensus Recommendations for COVID-19 Vaccination in Adult Patients with Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases,(2021). DOI: 10.1142/S2661341721400010 Fig. 1: Estimated heritability of IDPs. From: Genome-wide association studies of brain imaging phenotypes in UK Biobank A team of researchers from the University of Oxford, Simon Fraser University and Genomics PLC, has conducted a genome-wide association study using the 2020 UK Biobank data release, using almost triple the discovery sample size of previous efforts. In their paper published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the group describes using the UK Biobank to examine the association of common variants to 3,935 image-derived phenotypes (IDPs). Nana Matoba and Jason Stein with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have published a News & Views piece in the same journal issue outlining some of the issues involved in using both MRI imaging and genetic association studies to identify neural disorders and also discuss the work done by the team on this new effort. One of the major ways that scientists discover the genetic nature of certain disorders is by looking for genetic differences between people who do not have a given disorder and those that do. But such work is extremely difficult, considering that any two people have approximately 4 million genetic differences from each other. To help with the effort, researchers have set up databases of genetic information and other data about very large numbers of people. One such database is the UK Biobankit currently holds health and genetic information for approximately 500,000 people across the United Kingdom. Scientists can use data in the Biobank for new research, and they can enter information back into it when new things are found. In this new effort, the researchers noted that the bulk of the genetic data in the Biobank is unrelated to the neuroscience fieldcollecting such data, they note, is typically more difficult. To remedy the situation, they embarked on a study to identify novel genetic associations regarding human brain structure and function, including those on the X chromosome. To that end, they used Biobank data from 39,691 people to conduct association studies with 3,935 IDPs and identified 8,446 significant associations to IDPs. They note also that their effort was one of the first to look for X chromosome variations. They suggest that the new associations should prove to be helpful to researchers looking to better understand genetic brain disorders. Explore further Using DNA sequencing data with electronic health records to find rare variants behind inherited diseases More information: Stephen M. Smith et al. An expanded set of genome-wide association studies of brain imaging phenotypes in UK Biobank, Nature Neuroscience (2021). Journal information: Nature Neuroscience Stephen M. Smith et al. An expanded set of genome-wide association studies of brain imaging phenotypes in UK Biobank,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-021-00826-4 2021 Science X Network Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Germany on Wednesday said people who are vaccinated, have recovered from COVID or can show a recent negative test will no longer have to quarantine after arriving from a coronavirus risk area, opening up swathes of Europe for summer travel. The new rules agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet cover popular holiday destinations such as Italy, Spain and Greece. But they leave out neighbouring France, which is considered an area of "particularly high risk of infection", meaning unvaccinated travellers would still need to quarantine upon return to Germany. Health Minister Jens Spahn said relaxing the rules made sense because Germany generally has "a very similar infection situation" to countries classed as risk areas, and it would make travel easier for families this summer. "This could be a solution for parents who are possibly already vaccinated and want to travel with their (unvaccinated) children," Spahn told reporters in Berlin. Until now, people entering Germany from risk areas had to self-isolate upon arrival and wait five days before taking a coronavirus test which, if negative, would end their quarantine. For unvaccinated people, the five-day rule still applies when coming from countries listed in the higher risk category such as France. But the fully vaccinated, or those who can produce a positive PCR test that is at least 28 days old to show they have recovered from COVID-19, will be exempt from quarantining even when coming from such "high risk" regions. Stricter entry regulations and mandatory quarantine remain in place however for anyone coming from regions designated as virus variant areas, such as India, South Africa and Brazil. Anyone travelling to Germany by plane must also still show a negative test before boarding, regardless of which country they are flying in from, Spahn added. The updated travel guidance comes as Germany has significantly ramped up its vaccination pace, with more than 33 percent of adults having received their first jab so far. The country is also seeing a drop in new infection numbers after tightening its coronavirus restrictions, with Spahn last week saying Germany's third COVID wave "appears to have broken". Germany added almost 15,000 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the total since the start of the pandemic to just over 3.5 million, according to the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. More than 85,000 people have died to date. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2021 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain Issued today, a new report from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology (ACC) on medical ethics and professionalism addresses important and timely topics in cardiovascular medicine including diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging; racial, ethnic and gender inequities; conflicts of interest; clinician well-being; data privacy; social justice; and modern health care delivery systems. The report is based on the proceedings of the joint 2020 Consensus Conference on Professionalism and Ethics and is published simultaneously in the AHA's and ACC's flagship journals Circulation and Journal of the American College of Cardiology, respectively. The AHA will present a live webinar and podcast series to amplify the report's details, dialogue and actionable steps for cardiovascular and health care professionals, researchers and educators. The six-episode podcast series, "HEARTBEATS from Lifelong Learning: Professionalism & Ethics," will be released weekly, starting on Tuesday, May 11, moderated by Co-chair of the Consensus Conference Report Ivor Benjamin, M.D., FACC, FAHA, a former AHA president, and featuring viewpoints from various cardiovascular thought leaders each week. On Thursday, May 13 at 11:00 am CT, Dr. Benjamin and former AHA President Robert A. Harrington, M.D., FAHA, will host a roundtable discussion webinar entitled, "Ethics and Professionalism: A Common Ground of Understanding." The podcast series and roundtable discussion will explore perspectives that support robust ethical personal and professional behaviors and organizational actions and policies within the context of the current health care and scientific environment, as outlined in the Consensus Conference Report. The recorded webinar will be available On Demand. The report's details and recommendations will be presented and discussed this weekend in a session titled "Diversity and Equity: The Means to Expand Inclusion and Belonging," on Saturday, May 15, at 8:00 am ET, during the American College of Cardiology's 70th Annual Scientific Session. The Consensus Conference Report presents a road map to achieving equity, inclusion and belonging among cardiovascular professionals that calls for continual assessment of the professional culture and climate, focused on improving diversity and achieving effective allyship. The report proposes continuous trainings to address individual, structural and systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, classism and ableism. The new report updates previous guidance the groups issued in 2004. The report's writing committee is a diverse group of cardiologists, internists and associated health care professionals and laypersons, organized into five Task Forces, each of which addressed a specific set of related topics. The five task forces addressed: conflicts of interest; diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging; clinician well-being; patient autonomy, privacy and social justice in health care; and modern health care delivery. Recommendations for championing equity in patient care also include an annual review of practice records to assess for differences in patient treatment by race, ethnicity, zip code and primary language. The report suggests each health care setting conduct an annual review to ask, "How is racism operating here?" This review would examine structures, policies and norms and identify opportunities for intervention and improvement. The AHA and the ACC reiterate their endorsement of the Principles of Professionalism published in 2002 in the Physician Charter on Medical Professionalism. Both organizations also reaffirm their commitment to social justice in the new recommendations. "As much as 80% of a person's health is determined by the social and economic conditions of their environment," said Dr. Benjamin, who is also director of the cardiovascular center, co-director of the NIH T32 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cardiovascular Sciences and professor of medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "To achieve social justice and mitigate health disparities, we must go to the margins and shift our discussions to be inclusive of populations such as rural and marginalized groups from the perspective of health equity lens for all." The report calls for a foundation of training in allyship and antiracism as part of medical school course requirements and experiences: a required course on social justice, race and racism as part of the first-year curriculum; school programs and professional organizations supporting students, trainees and members in allyship and antiracism action; and facilitating immersion and partnership with surrounding communities. A section of the report is focused on the need for psychosocial support of the cardiovascular workforce, recommending that health care organizations prioritize regular assessment of clinicians' well-being and engagement. Additional recommendations address the well-being of trainees and call for preventive and responsive mental health resources in post-graduate training programs. The resources should include an ombudsman program that allows for both confidential reporting of mistreatment and access to support. There is specific attention given to identifying "disruptive" or abusive behavior among medical teams and recommendations to ensure these behaviors are addressed regularly through professional training. Early career professionals and Fellows in Training were involved in this process. The report details additional opportunities to: improve efficiency of health information technology, such as electronic health records, and reduce the administrative burden; identify and assist clinicians who experience mental health conditions, alcoholism or substance abuse, the prevalence of which is 2-14% among clinicians; emphasize patient autonomy using shared decision-making and patient-centered care that is supportive of the individual patient's values; additional privacy protections for patient data used in research; guidance on maintaining integrity as new ways of delivering care emerge (e.g., telemedicine, team-based care approaches, physician-owned specialty centers); routine audits of electronic health records to promote optimal patient care as well as ethical medical practice; and expand and make mandatory the reporting of intellectual or associational interests in addition to relationships with industry. "We have seen the COVID-19 pandemic challenge the physical and economic health of the entire country, coupled with a series of national tragedies that have awakened the call for social justice," said Conference Co-chair C. Michael Valentine, M.D., MACC, FAHA, ACC past president and professor of medicine at the Heart and Vascular Center at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. "There is no better time than now to review, evaluate and take a fresh perspective on medical ethics and professionalism. We hope this report will provide cardiovascular professionals and health systems with the recommendations and tools they need to address conflicts of interest, racial, ethnic and gender inequities and improve diversity, inclusion and wellness among our workforce. The majority of our members are now employed and must be engaged as the leaders for change in cardiovascular care." "The delivery of cardiovascular care is evolving rapidly. Through this evolution, our professional obligations to patient-centered care must remain steadfast," said Dr. Benjamin. "How we engage and employ staff, receive payment, and provide and document patient care requires maintaining standards that are beyond reproach. We must maintain and promote integrity in all we do to protect public trust in science and medicine. Individuals and professional communities must take responsibility for evaluating and maintaining standards of care, while promoting an environment of diversity, equity, inclusion and excellence for all." Explore further Lack of diversity among cardiovascular health-care professionals continues Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Misleading claims about COVID-19 vaccines can negatively impact public confidence in immunisation uptake, a new UNSW Sydney study reveals. A new study published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE revealed over 103 million people globally liked, shared, retweeted or reacted with an emoji to misinformation and conspiracy theories about COVID-19 vaccines. In 2020, a social media post claiming, "a new vaccine for COVID-19 will alter a person's DNA and result in them becoming genetically modified" was circulated on Facebook accounts in Australia. Up until August 21, 2020, this false claim had attracted 360 shares and was viewed 32,000 times. The study, led by UNSW researchers, examined content between December 2019 to November 2020 which included news articles, social media posts, online reports and blogs. Associate Professor Holly Seale from UNSW Medicine & Health's School of Population Health and senior author of the study said the misinformation being shared by family members, friends and other people in the wider community network was concerning. "From previous studies, we've been able to link this misinformation with negative outcomes, including death," explained A/Prof Seale. Also of concern was the absence of fact-based information to counter the circulation of these conspiracy theories and rumours on multiple social media platforms, which has the potential to be misinterpreted as credible information. Additionally, the study identified numerous rumours and conspiracy theories that could negatively impact public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and the willingness to receive the vaccination. A national survey conducted among US adults in September 2020 on willingness to receive the COVID-19 vaccine found a 21% decline when compared with another national survey conducted in May 2020 among similar groups. This decline could be attributable to the exposure to COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on social media. In another study conducted among Australian adults, 24% were unsure or not willing to accept a COVID-19 vaccine. 89% of these individuals were concerned about vaccine efficacy and safety, and 27% did not believe a COVID-19 vaccine was necessary. The misinformation that was examined included content ranging from vaccine development to mortality due to receiving the COVID-19 vaccination. A post that was circulated widely claimed a Russian vaccine company omitted phase three clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine. This claim provoked concern and criticism from the scientific community that the vaccine was not tested for effectiveness or safety, which could result in global concern and vaccine hesitancy. Another post on social media suggested 160 doctors disapproved of the COVID-19 vaccine as it could change human DNA or that it could modify genes, cause cancers, and infertility. The most popular conspiracy theory circulating online was the claim that the COVID-19 vaccine could monitor the human population and take over the world. One theory proposed the COVID-19 vaccine would contain a microchip through which biometric data could be collected, and large businesses could send signals to the chips using 5G networks, thereby controlling humanity. To counter the misinformation and conspiracy theories around COVID-19 vaccines, the researchers suggest traditional methods of risk communication and community engagement needs be explored to track and fact- check misinformation as ways to immunise people against misinformation, thereby pre-empting potential vaccine program disruptions. "We only looked at the platforms that are open and free, which included Facebook, Twitter and other similar networks. But then there are the closed networks, such as WhatsApp and WeChat. We still have very little understanding about the role of misinformation, where it is originating from and what type of impact it's having, so there is a lot more research that needs to be done in this space." Credit: Lancet A study across 55 hospitals in Queensland, Australia suggests that a recent state policy to introduce a minimum ratio of one nurse to four patients for day shifts has successfully improved patient care, with a 7% drop in the chance of death and readmission, and 3% reduction in length of stay for every one less patient a nurse has on their workload. The study of more than 400,000 patients and 17,000 nurses in 27 hospitals that implemented the policy and 28 comparison hospitals is published in The Lancet. It is the first prospective evaluation of the health policy aimed at boosting nurse numbers in hospitals to ensure a minimum safe standard and suggests that savings made from shorter hospital stays and fewer readmissions were double the cost of hiring more staff. Despite some evidence that more nurses in hospitals could benefit patient safety, similar policies have not been widely implemented across the globe, partly due to an absence of data on the long-term effects and costs, as well as limited resources. In recent years, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland have mandated numbers of patients per nurse, but strategies to improve nursing levels remains debated worldwide. "Our findings plug a crucial data gap that has delayed a widespread roll-out of nurse staffing mandates. Opponents of these policies often raise concerns that there is no clear evaluation of policy, so we hope that our data convinces people of the need for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios by clearly demonstrating that quality nursing is vital to patient safety and care", says lead author, Professor Matthew McHugh of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, USA. In 2016, 27 public hospitals in Queensland were required to instate a minimum of one dedicated nurse for every four patients during day shifts and one for every seven patients for night shifts on medical-surgical wards. The research team collected data from those 27 Queensland hospitals that instated ratios and from 28 other hospitals in the state that did not, at baseline in 2016 and at follow-up in 2018 (two years after the policy was implemented). Only nurses in direct contact with adult patients in medical-surgical wards were includeddata from patients in birthing suites and psychiatric units were not assessed in the study. Researchers used patient data to assess demographics, diagnoses, and discharge details for patients, as well as length of hospital stay. These data were then linked to death records for 30 days following discharge, and to readmissions within seven days of discharge. The researchers sent an email survey to nurses in each hospital to ask about the numbers of bedside nurses and patients on their most recent shift. The responses were used to establish the numbers of nurses per patient and then averaged across wards and hospitals. Responses were received from 8,732 nurses (of a possible 26,871) at baseline in 2016, and 8,278 (of a possible 30,658) in 2018. The study includes baseline data for 231,902 patients (142,986 in hospitals that implemented the policy and 88,916 in comparison hospitals), and for 257,253 patients (160,167 in hospitals that implemented the policy and 97,086 in comparison hospitals) after the policy was brought in. Comparison hospitals had no change in staffing, with six patients per nurse in 2016 and the same ratio (1:6) in the follow-up period in 2018. Intervention hospitals averaged five patients per nurse at baseline in 2016, with a reduction to four per nurse after the policy implementation. To compare the changes in outcomes in the intervention and comparison hospitals over time, the researchers estimated the odds of dying within 30 days of admission and of being readmitted within seven days of discharge, and the additional length of stay, after adjusting for factors such as patient age, sex, existing health conditions and hospital size. They found that the chance of death rose between 2016 and 2018 by 7% in hospitals that did not implement the policy, and fell by 11% in hospitals that did implement the policy. The chances of being readmitted increased by 6% in the comparison hospitals over time, but stayed the same in hospitals that implemented the policy. Between 2016 and 2018, the length of stay fell by 5% in the hospitals that did not implement the policy, and by 9% in hospitals that did. Further analyses found that when nurse workloads improved by one less patient per nurse, the chance of death and readmissions fell by 7%, and the length of hospital stay dropped by 3%. Using their modelling to predict figures that would have been expected without the policy in place, the researchers estimated that there could have been 145 more deaths, 255 more readmissions and 29,222 additional days in hospital in the 27 hospitals that implemented the policy between 2016 and 2018. To calculate the financial impact of the staffing policy, the researchers used state data to estimate the cost of funding the 167 extra staff needed to reduce workload by one patient per nurse at approximately $33,000,000 (AUD) in the first two years. Based on Australian health economic data, they further estimated that preventing readmissions and reducing lengths of stay resulted in an approximate saving of $69,150,858 in the 27 hospitals across the two years following the mandate. "Part of the reluctance to bring in a minimum nurse-patient ratio mandate from some policy-makers is the expected rise in costs from increased staffing. Our findings suggest that this is short-sighted and that the savings created by preventing readmissions and reducing length of stay were more than twice the cost of employing the additional nurses needed to meet the required staffing levelsa clear return on investment. Often, policy-makers are concerned about whether they can afford to implement such a policy. We would encourage governments to look at these figures and consider if they can afford not to," says Professor Patsy Yates of the Queensland University of Technology School of Nursing, Australia. [1] The authors note that there are a number of limitations associated with the study. Hospitals in the research were not randomly assigned to comparison or intervention groups, as only 27 hospitals in the state were mandated to follow the policy. Furthermore, the hospitals included in both groups were not matched for size or patient demographics and health conditions, although this is accounted for in adjusted analyses. Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Amanda Ullman, University of Queensland, Australia, and Professor Patricia Davidson, University of Wollongong, Australia (who were not involved in the study), said: "Integrated workforce strategies are desperately needed to create a balance between population needs and availability of clinicians. The work of McHugh and colleagues provides important lessons in what it takes to ensure patient safety, and these lessons should be considered in the context of a broad workforce strategy. Building a robust nursing workforce is inextricably linked to patient outcomes and should be central to health services planning." Explore further Minimum nurse-to-patient ratios policy saves lives and lowers costs More information: Matthew D McHugh et al. Effects of nurse-to-patient ratio legislation on nurse staffing and patient mortality, readmissions, and length of stay: a prospective study in a panel of hospitals, The Lancet (2021). Journal information: The Lancet Matthew D McHugh et al. Effects of nurse-to-patient ratio legislation on nurse staffing and patient mortality, readmissions, and length of stay: a prospective study in a panel of hospitals,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00768-6 Credit: CC0 Public Domain New research at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests a link between psychosis and a genetic change that affects the brain's immune system. The study published in Molecular Psychiatry may impact the development of modern medicines for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Psychosis affects approximately 2-3% of the population and is characterized by a change in the perception of reality, often with elements of hallucinations and paranoid reactions. Most of the people affected are patients with schizophrenia, but people with bipolar disorder may also experience psychotic symptoms. The antipsychotics available today often have insufficient efficacy, and for patients, their life situation can be difficult. The average life expectancy of people with schizophrenia is approximately 15 years shorter than that of the general population, according to Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare. "It is not entirely known what biological mechanisms cause psychosis, but recent research suggests that immune activation in the brain's glial cells may be the cause. People with psychosis have elevated levels of kynurenic acid in the brain, a messenger that transmits information from the brain's immune system to the neurons," says Goran Engberg, Professor at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's corresponding author. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown that the protein GRK3 expresses itself via genetic changes in the immune system in patients with psychosis. Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet, the University of California, San Diego, U.S., and the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, U.S., have studied more specifically which parts of the immune system impact psychotic disorders. The study is based on extensive data from mice that lack the GRK3 protein in the brain, as well as an analysis of the genome from 70 people with bipolar disorder and 48 healthy control subjects. Results show that the loss of the GRK3 protein appears to increase the sensitivity of the immune system and triggers a cascade of effects in the brain, involving an increased release of the cytokine IL-1beta and kynurenic acid. "Our experimental data are confirmed through genetic studies where we see a link between psychosis in patients with bipolar disorder and decreased expression of GRK3, which leads to an increased amount of kynurenic acid in the brain," says Carl Sellgren. He is a senior lecturer at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's first author together with Sophie Imbeault, senior researcher at the same department. The data in the study provide a connection between immune activation and psychosis and thus presents a starting point for further study of novel antipsychotic drugs possessing immune modulatory functions. The drugs currently used in psychosis treatment were developed in the 1960s. "To develop effective, modern drugs, more knowledge is needed about the mechanisms in the brain that can trigger psychosis," says Sophie Erhardt, professor at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's last author. Explore further Possible mechanism for specific symptoms in bipolar disorder discovered More information: Carl M. Sellgren et al, GRK3 deficiency elicits brain immune activation and psychosis, Molecular Psychiatry (2021). Journal information: Molecular Psychiatry Carl M. Sellgren et al, GRK3 deficiency elicits brain immune activation and psychosis,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41380-021-01106-0 Credit: CC0 Public Domain For artificial intelligence (AI) to realize its full potential to benefit cancer patients, researchers will have to prove that their machine-learning successes can be consistently reproduced across settings and patient populations. That's why Case Western Reserve biomedical engineering researchers are increasingly focused on applying their novel algorithms to patient scans from multiple locations. Earlier this spring, for example, they published promising findings involving lung cancer diagnosis among 400 patients from three health care systems. And a 2020 study showed that their approach could predict recurrence in 610 early-stage lung cancer patients across four sites. "This is no small thingthis is an important next step in making AI useable for clinicians someday, and it's one of things we have to address head on," explained Anant Madabhushi, director of the university's Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics (CCIPD) said. "For instance, we know that even within a single hospital, one could have patients scanned on different CT scanners, resulting in images with differing appearance, so the AI has to be able to account for these differences." So if AI is ever going to be trustedand then routinely usedby physicians and clinicians, Madabhushi said, those end users must be convinced not only that computer diagnosis is possible, but that it can be reproducedand specifically work for their own patients. Next steps: re-proving reproducible results Researchers call this reproducibility or often "generalizability," the idea that a successful method, treatment or tool can work no matter when, where, or on whomor in the face of virtually any other variable. It has proven an elusive goal and has even called a "myth" by other researchers, who have identified several daunting hurdles. Those difficulties include differences in how CT machines produce images, variations in hardware and software and patient demographics. To that end, Madabhushi and his group are planning prospective clinical trials using the generalized AI signatures for lung cancer on CT scans that they have already identified. The researchers have been working with hospitals in Northeast Ohio to assess the real-world generalizability of these AI tools for problems relating to diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancers. Now, new published research builds on previous and ongoing work within CCIPD over the last few years in the area of developing generalizable AI models. What's new is the creation of a more formal framework for identifying stable and accurate features, while also validating the approach on much larger numbers of studies and institutions. The research by Madabhushi, biomedical engineering Ph.D. student Mohammadhadi Khorrami and collaborators appeared, respectively, in April 2020 in the journal Lung Cancer, and in March 2021 in the European Journal of Cancer. The difference: 'stable' features To this point, Anant Madabhushi and his group at the university's Center for Computational Imaging and Personalized Diagnostics (CCIPD) have successfully applied their AI determining which lung cancer patients would respond well to chemotherapy, immunotherapy or, in some cases, whether cancer would return or how long a patient might live. But in each case, those outcomes have only come from analysis of existing data and/or images after the fact and only for a single group of cancer patients. Now, instead of just teaching their computers to focus on features in the scans that differentiate between malignant and benign tumors, for example, they programmed the AI to also remember lesser features which are consistent from one scan to anothereven if those features were unrelated to the cancer itself. Key to this work was the evaluation of hundreds of image features by biomedical engineering Ph.D. student Mohammadhadi Khorrami, Madabhushi said. Khorrami considered not only how texture and shape of lung nodules could lead to a diagnosis of lung cancer and predict outcomes, but also how consistent, or stable, these features were across CT scanners and sites. "To do this, we identified a set of features that were most accuratebut at the same time stable across sites," Khorrami said. "So, when we evaluated the machine learning models with these accurate and stable features on external sites, these models did better when compared to ones created with only the most accurate features, the ones where the stability of features was not considered." Explore further Using Artificial Intelligence to prevent harm caused by immunotherapy More information: Mohammadhadi Khorrami et al. Distinguishing granulomas from adenocarcinomas by integrating stable and discriminating radiomic features on non-contrast computed tomography scans, European Journal of Cancer (2021). Journal information: Lung Cancer Mohammadhadi Khorrami et al. Distinguishing granulomas from adenocarcinomas by integrating stable and discriminating radiomic features on non-contrast computed tomography scans,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2021.02.008 Wanting to preserve the final Hurricane ever built, the manufacturer purchased PZ865 back from the Air Ministry before she entered RAF service. For the next 28 years, Hawker (and its successor companies) used PZ865 in various capacities, including as a company hack, air racer, display aircraft, and for aerial sequences in films, including the famous movie Battle of Britain. In 1972, a combination of limited resources and restricted hangar space at Hawker Siddeleys Dunsfold facility forced the company to conclude that it could no longer maintain its collection of historic aircraft. The intervention of Duncan Simpson, who was then the Hawker Siddeley Chief Test Pilot, and his astute manoeuvring behind the scenes, gained sufficient permission to allow the Hurricanes donation to the BBMF, which was then based at RAF Coltishall. In March 1972, before anyone could change their minds, Simpson flew PZ865 to Coltishall and handed the Hurricane over to the Flight. His arrival with this precious piece of British aviation history was unexpected, however. A BBMF Flight Sergeant greeted him as he climbed down from the aircraft saying, Afternoon Sir, what have we here? Duncan replied, Its a Hurricane, Flight Sergeant, a very special Hurricane, and Im handing it over to you. Look after it and make sure its flying right into the future so that future generations can see it. The BBMF has done just that and Duncan Simpsons wish to have this special Hurricane maintained in flying condition continues to be fulfilled more than 75 years after her first flight. The famous Hurricane went to Biggin Hill at the end of 2020 to undergo a Major servicing with The Spitfire Company, which currently holds the MOD contract for Majors on the BBMF fighter aircraft types. PZ865 has now emerged from the Major in a new color scheme as an all-black night fighter. Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study published in The Lancet today showed that a policy establishing minimum nurse-to-patient staffing ratios in hospitals in Queensland, Australia saved lives, prevented readmissions, shortened hospital stays, and reduced costs. The study, by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and the Queensland University of Technology School of Nursing, evaluated legislation enacted in 2016 as a safety measure. The new policy limited the average number of patients per nurse to four, similar to pending legislation in New York and Illinois. "The positive results in Queensland should inform policies in the U.S. and elsewhere," said lead-author Matthew McHugh, Ph.D., the Independence Chair for Nursing Education and CHOPR Director. The researchers collected extensive data before and after the legislation from about 17,000 nurses and analyzed of outcomes for more than 400,000 patients. They found that: There was a clear need for a safe hospital nurse staffing standard. Before the policy was in place, nurse staffing levels varied significantly across Queensland hospitals. In some facilities, nurses cared for as few as three patients on adult medical and surgical wards, while nurses at other facilities were responsible for as many as 10 patients each. The policy led to better nurse staffing in the intervention hospitals. While staffing levels remained the same before and after the policy in comparison hospitals, the medical-surgical nurses at the intervention hospitals saw average reductions in their workload of nearly one patient per nurse, with some having three fewer assigned patients after policy implementation. The staffing improvements stimulated by the policy led to better outcomes for patients. The researchers estimated that intervention hospitals had 145 fewer deaths, 255 fewer readmissions, and 29,222 fewer hospital days than if they had not implemented the policy. The policy yielded a good return on investment for the public. In addition to better quality of care and patient outcomes, the savings due to fewer readmissions and shorter lengths of stay in hospitals was about $70 million (AUD), more than twice the cost of the additional nurse staffing. The findings are consistent with a substantial body of evidence on the positive effects on patient outcomes when nurses have a reasonable number of patients in their care. There is similarly strong evidence that when staffing levels improve, nurses experience less burnout and job dissatisfaction, which are key drivers to costly turnover and result in nurses leaving their careers at the bedside. The study's release coincides with International Nurses Day. McHugh, who is also a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at Penn, said "These results are all the more relevant in the context of COVID-19, which has pushed an already strained and burned-out hospital nurse workforce to the brink. Minimum safeguards to ensure that there are enough nurses to provide high-quality care to every patient is a simple but effective public safety measure." QUT Faculty of Health Executive Dean, Distinguished Professor Patsy Yates, said the publication illustrated the value of research that had real-world impact. "This research is a clear example of good public health policy in Queensland being derived from evidence-based research," said Professor. "The result benefits the health system, nurses, patients and the public at large." Explore further New York State's hospital nurse staffing legislation predicted to save lives and money Researcher Robyn Stremler with a child who is wearing an actigraph. Credit: Lawrence S. Blomberg Faculty of Nursing Most hospitalized children experience significant sleep deprivationand light and sound are two major culprits. That's the finding of researchers at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) who measured, minute by minute, how well children sleep in the hospitalas well as their exposure to light and sound. The study was recently published in JAMA Network Open. "This is the first time we can show how much of an impact light and sound have on awakenings in particular," says lead author Robyn Stremler, an associate professor in the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing. "It has been assumed that when children are sick, they might be awake or have disrupted sleep due to pain or illness, but with these data, we are able to show that light and sound are the largest contributors to sleep problems and that sleep could and should be improved." Using actigraphy, a non-invasive way of measuring rest and activity cycles, Stremler and her team were able to objectively measure sleep by having patients wear a device on their ankle or wrist that contained an accelerometersimilar to how a Fitbit measures sleep. They then assessed waking and sleep periods over the course of multiple nights. Sound and light meters were time-synchronized to the actigraphy device and were placed at the child's bedside to measure any light and sound that occurred in the room around waking. After considering additional variables, such as the reason for the child's admission, how ill they were, whether they were residing in the pediatric intensive care unit, or PICU, and whether a parent or nurse was present in the room, the study found that light above 150 lux, or about the same brightness as an incandescent bulb, and sound over 80 decibels, which is equivalent to a sudden loud noise, had the most significant impact on sleep. "What we can see is that these disruptions are part of the hospital environment and are modifiablenot easily, but we can look at doing something about it," says Stremler, who is also an adjunct scientist at SickKids. One of the main reasons patients get woken up at night is so caregivers can monitor their temperature and blood pressure, or administer certain medications. The sicker the patient is, the more likely they are going to need frequent assessments. Stremler says that while there is a clinical imperative to check on these patients, there could be a greater effort to tailor care to each patient's situation. "Rather than, across the board, saying, "Every four hours, patients need to have their vitals assessed," can we look more critically at patients to see if that level of monitoring is necessary? Can we make different choices about when medications are given? We need to think about how we can preserve as much sleep as possible given that we know that more sleep benefits patients' physical and mental health and recovery." That said, Stremler notes it can be challenging to modify such assessments because they involve policy change and care co-ordination across many groups of caregivers in hospital. Stremler's previous research has shown that while nurses know that preserving sleep is particularly important for pediatric patients, they also emphasize it can be difficult to provide adequate care and ensure there are limited sleep disruptions. There may be other ways that hospitals can help to reduce light and sound within a patient's room. Hospitals designing new spaces, for example, can consider how loudly or often doors close, lighting options and the use of materials that can absorb sound. "We've suspected for some time that aspects of the environment were affecting sleep in young patients, but with this granular look at sleep intervals we are able to emphasize the importance of taking measures to reduce light and sound to improve sleep for patients who need it most," Stremler says. Explore further Pediatric ward noise at night exceeds recommended levels More information: Robyn Stremler et al. Objective Sleep Characteristics and Factors Associated With Sleep Duration and Waking During Pediatric Hospitalization, JAMA Network Open (2021). Journal information: JAMA Network Open Robyn Stremler et al. Objective Sleep Characteristics and Factors Associated With Sleep Duration and Waking During Pediatric Hospitalization,(2021). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.3924 Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Neighborhoods without opioid treatment providers likely serve as a widespread barrier to care for those who are ready to seek help, a new study has found. The study, led by researchers at The Ohio State University, appears today (May 12, 2021) in the journal PLOS ONE. "The study identified clear opioid treatment deserts that undoubtedly stand in the way of access to needed care and that likely exist throughout the state and the nation. These are areas where treatment providers should be setting up shopwe need a surge of resources into these areas," said Ayaz Hyder, an assistant professor in Ohio State's College of Public Health and leader of the study team. The team used 2013-2017 data from emergency management services agencies throughout Franklin Countyhome to Ohio's capital, Columbus. In 2017, Ohio had the second-highest drug overdose mortality rate in the nation46.3 deaths per 100,000 people. The researchers mapped 6,929 EMS runs during which medics administered the overdose drug naloxone to adult patients. They compared the locations of those runs to the distance and/or time to travel to the closest treatment provider that offered medication-assisted treatment services, including treatment with methadone or buprenorphine. An area was defined as a desert if the distance to a provider was a mile or more away (about two minutes by car) or more than 30 minutes away on public transportation. Previous research has suggested that the likelihood of someone staying in treatment for a complete cycle drops by as much as 50% when the treatment provider is more than a mile away. The median travel time by car in this study was two minutes. By public transit, it was 17 minutes. But the study found it was rather common for the distance to fall outside of the ideal proximity to longer-term treatment for opioid use disorder. The researchers also observed shorter travel times by public transit for white adults compared to Black adults. "We found large swaths of the county where people experienced an overdose but had no nearby option for treatment," said Hyder, who is a core faculty member of Ohio State's Translational Data Analytics Institute. Gretchen Hammond, a study co-author and a lecturer in Ohio State's College of Social Work, stressed the importance of recognizing and reacting to barriers based on distance to care. "Proximity mattersit is arduous to have to travel far to receive vital services," Hammond said. "We often overlook travel time and distance. We think because something is on the bus line that it is accessible. Not if that bus ride is 1.5 hours one way." Areas closer to major highways and main streets and the Columbus downtown area showed greater accessibility. But the research showed that treatment deserts were common elsewhere in the county. The researchers wanted to understand not only how far treatment might be by car, but by public transportationa mode used by many who are in recovery and a potential obstacle particularly outside of the city center. Even those with access to a car, or who know a family member or someone else who could drive them, may favor public transportation for appointments, Hyder said. "Even if you are in a high resource neighborhood there is still stigma attached to seeking treatment. If you want to seek treatment on your own, without telling friends or family, you might still be living in a treatment desert where nothing is accessible to you by public transit. "Access to treatment needs to be equitable and we need to eliminate the accessibility problem," Hyder said, adding that an increasing percentage of drug overdose deaths are among Black Americans. "Some of the treatment deserts that we're identifying are also in places where racism and discrimination are at play in terms of the resources available. That's another significant obstacle to access," he said. Since the initial study, Hyder and colleagues have been expanding on the model they used for the research and want to one day be able to offer treatment providers throughout Ohio and beyond a snapshot of where they should open new centers. Already, the research team has been able to advise treatment providers on locations within Franklin County where no recovery services have been available so that they can pursue options where there are pockets of need for accessible treatment services. The team is currently working in partnership with public health, health care and community organizations to translate overdose data to action by decision-makers as part of a strategy to address the opioid epidemic. "We've been able to say, here's a ZIP code where you can really make an impact," Hyder said, adding that he'd like to develop a public-facing map that allows both providers and addiction and mental health boards the opportunity to plan in ways likely to reach more people with opiate misuse disorders. Explore further Is opioid treatment available to those who need it most? In this Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020 file photo, Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies program, speaks during a news conference at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. At right is WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. As WHO faces allegations that unnamed staffers were involved in the systemic sexual abuse of women, Tedros has declared he was "outraged," and Ryan said, "We have no more information than you have." But an AP investigation has found that senior WHO management was not only informed of specific cases of alleged sexual misconduct in 2019, but was asked how to handle them. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP) A panel of independent experts who reviewed the World Health Organization's response to the coronavirus pandemic says the U.N. health agency should be granted "guaranteed rights of access" in countries to investigate emerging outbreaks, a contentious idea that would give it more powers and require member states to give up some of theirs. In a report released Wednesday, the panel faulted countries worldwide for their sluggish response to COVID-19, saying most waited to see how the virus was spreading until it was too late to contain it, leading to catastrophic results. The group also slammed the lack of global leadership and restrictive international health laws that "hindered" WHO's response to the pandemic. Some experts criticized the panel for failing to hold WHO and others accountable for their actions during COVID-19, describing that as "an abdication of responsibility." Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University said the panel "fails to call out bad actors like China, perpetuating the dysfunctional WHO tradition of diplomacy over frankness, transparency and accountability." The panel was led by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who were tapped by WHO last year to examine the U.N. agency's response to COVID-19 after bowing to a request from member countries. "The situation we find ourselves in today could have been prevented," Johnson Sirleaf said. Beyond the call to boost WHO's ability to investigate outbreaks, the panel made an array of recommendations, such as urging the health agency and the World Trade Organization to convene a meeting of vaccine-producing countries and manufacturers to quickly reach deals about voluntary licensing and technology transfer, in an effort to boost the world's global supply of coronavirus shots. The panel also suggested that WHO's director-generalcurrently Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopiashould be limited to a single seven-year term. As it stands, the WHO chief is elected to a five-year term that can be renewed once. The suggestion to limit the tenure of WHO's top leader appeared in part designed to ease the intense political pressure that WHO director-generals can face. Last year, the Trump administration repeatedly inveighed against the agency's handling of the pandemictaking aim at WHO's alleged collusion with China. An Associated Press investigation in June found WHO repeatedly lauded China in public while officials privately complained that Chinese officials stalled on sharing critical epidemic information with them, including the new virus' genetic sequence. Clark said the global diseases surveillance system needed to be overhauledwith WHO's role strengthened. "WHO should have the powers necessary to investigate outbreaks of concern, speedily guaranteed rights of access, and with the ability to publish information without waiting for member state approval," she said. Sophie Harman, a professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the panel's recommendations were unlikely to be entirely welcomed by WHO's member countries, and thus, unlikely to be implemented. "Which states would actually allow WHO in to investigate an outbreak without their permission?" she asked. Many doctors fatigued after treating COVID-19 patients said any reform of WHO should include an evaluation of its ability to properly assess the science of an emerging health threat. David Tomlinson, a British physician who has been campaigning for health workers during the pandemic in the U.K., said WHO "failed on the most fundamental aspect" in its scientific leadership of COVID-19. He said WHO's failure to acknowledge that much coronavirus transmission happens in the air has "amplified the pandemic." WHO has said coronavirus spread can happen in limited circumstances in the air but recommended against mask-wearing for the general public until last June. Clare Wenham, a professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics, said the report overall was good, but questioned its support for the U.N.-backed program for coronavirus vaccines called COVAX, which relies on a "donation" model. Of the millions of COVID-19 vaccines administered to date, developing countries have received just 7%, WHO said this week. "(COVAX) is not addressing one of the main problems, which is we need to rapidly ramp up production of the vaccines and distribution of vaccines," she said. "And it's still working on the model of a finite number that's only able be produced by a certain few manufacturing locations." Overall, she suggested politicians needed to budge more than technical institutions like WHO. "The problems aren't technical. The problems are political. The problems are about like: How do you get governments to behave and think about things beyond their own borders?" Wenham said. "I don't think that has been resolved." 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. A man performs rituals as bodies of people who died of COVID-19 are cremated at an open crematorium on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Karnataka state, India, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi) Coronavirus cases are exploding in Asia and the Pacific with over 5.9 million new confirmed infections in the past two weeks, more than in all other regions combined, the International Federation of the Red Cross said Wednesday. It warned that the surge is pushing hospitals and health systems to the brink of collapse. Seven out of 10 countries globally that are doubling their infection numbers the fastest are in Asia and the Pacific, it said. Laos took just 12 days to see its cases double, and the number of confirmed infections in India has doubled in under two months to more than 23 million, the Red Cross said in a statement. It said Oxford University's Our World in Data reported more than 5.9 million new COVID-19 infections in Asia and the Pacific during the two weeks. Official figures for much of the region are widely believed to be undercounts. "COVID-19 is exploding across much of Asia, overwhelming hospitals and healthcare. More people have been diagnosed with the disease in Asia over the past two weeks than in the Americas, Europe, and Africa combined," Red Cross Asia Pacific director Alexander Matheou said. "Right now, we need global solidarity for regional support with more medical equipment, support for prevention and urgent access to vaccines," he said. People carry wood as those who died of COVID-19 are cremated at an open crematorium on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Karnataka state, India, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi) Bodies of people who died of COVID-19 are cremated at an open crematorium on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Karnataka state, India, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi) While vaccination campaigns are underway in the region, the Red Cross said they are hampered by shortages, hesitancy and the costly logistics of reaching many areas across the region. "To bring this pandemic under control, we need greater global cooperation so that lifesaving resources, medical equipment, vaccines and money get where they are needed to help people most at risk. We're only safe when everyone is safe," it said. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Credit: CC0 Public Domain The ability to connect and feel a sense of belonging are basic human needs but new Swansea University research has examined how these are determined by more than just our personal relationships. Research led by psychologist Professor Andrew Kemp, of the College of Human and Health Sciences, highlights the importance of taking a wider approach to wellbeing and how it can be influenced by issues such as inequality and anthropogenic climate change. Professor Kemp worked with Ph.D. student Jess Mead and consultant clinical psychologist Dr. Zoe Fisher, of the University's Health and Wellbeing Academy, on the study which presents a transdisciplinary framework to help understand and improve wellbeing. Professor Kemp said: "We define wellbeing as positive psychological experience, promoted by connections to self, community and environment, supported by healthy vagal function, all of which are impacted by socio-contextual factors that lie beyond the control of the individual." The researchers say their latest findings, which have just been published in Frontiers in Psychology, are particularly topical as society looks to recover and learn from COVID-19. He said: "Our framework has already contributed to a better understanding of how to protect wellbeing during the pandemic and has led to the development of an innovative wellbeing science intervention, targeting university students and people living with acquired brain injury." Professor Kemp added: "We feel our invited paper is timely as it not only aligns with a post-pandemic future that requires societal transformation, but it also picks up on global efforts to promote planetary wellbeing. "Globalization, urbanization and technological advancements have meant that humans have become increasingly disconnected from nature. This continues despite research showing that contact with nature improves wellbeing." The research reveals the advantages to health and wellbeing derived from connecting to oneself, others and nature and emphasizes a need for focused efforts to tackle major societal issues that affect our capacity for connection. He added: "The poorest are disproportionally impacted by major societal challenges including increasing burden of chronic disease, societal loneliness and anthropogenic climate change. "Economic inequality has adverse impacts on the entire population, not just the poor, so improving economic inequality is fundamental to improving population wellbeing." Taking a transdisciplinary approach to the topic of wellbeing is something currently reflected across Swansea University, particularly since the opening of the Morgan Advanced Studies Institute (MASI) which is dedicated to supporting transformative interdisciplinary research. Explore further Nature draws out a happy place for children More information: Moving beyond disciplinary silos toward a transdisciplinary model of wellbeing: An invited review. Frontiers in Psychology. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.642093 Journal information: Frontiers in Psychology Moving beyond disciplinary silos toward a transdisciplinary model of wellbeing: An invited review. In this April 12, 2021, file photo, health worker collects nasal swab samples at a COVID-19 testing center in Hyderabad, India. The World Health Organization said Monday, May 10, that a worrisome variant was first detected in India may spread more easily. Scientists are still trying to figure out if it resulted in the terrifying surge of infections in the nation, and looking to see if this could this happen elsewhere. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File) A potentially worrisome variant of the coronavirus detected in India may spread more easily. But the country is behind in doing the kind of testing needed to track it and understand it better. On Monday, the World Health Organization designated the new version of the virus a "variant of concern" based on preliminary research, alongside those that were first detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil but have spread to other countries. "We need much more information about this virus variant," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for COVID-19. "We need more sequencing, targeted sequencing to be done and to be shared in India and elsewhere so that we know how much of this virus is circulating." Viruses mutate constantly, and the surge in infections here has resulted in more opportunities for new versions to emerge. But India was slow to start the genetic monitoring needed to see if those changes were happening and if they were making the coronavirus more infectious or deadly. Such variants also need to be monitored to see if mutations help the virus escape the immune system, potentially leading to reinfections or making vaccines less effective. For now, the WHO stressed that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing disease and death in people infected with the variant. In this May 10, 2021, file photo, health workers and volunteers in personal protective suits wait to receive patients outside a COVID-19 hospital that was set up at a Sikh Gurdwara in New Delhi, India. The World Health Organization said Monday, May 10, that a worrisome variant was first detected in India may spread more easily. Scientists are still trying to figure out if it resulted in the terrifying surge of infections in the nation, and looking to see if this could this happen elsewhere. (AP Photo/Ishant Chauhan, File ) Indian scientists say their work has been hindered by bureaucratic obstacles and the government's reluctance to share vital data. India is sequencing around 1% of its total cases, and not all of the results are uploaded to the global database of coronavirus genomes. When there isn't enough sequencing, there will be blind spots and more worrisome mutations could go undetected until they're widespread, said Alina Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard who is tracking global sequencing efforts. Ravindra Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said: "It has all the hallmarks of the virus that we should be worried about." First detected in the coastal Maharashtra state last year, the new variant has now been found in samples in 19 of the 27 states surveyed. Meanwhile a variant first detected in Britain has declined in India in the past 45 days. In this May 10, 2021, file photo, a man places wooden logs on the pyre during the cremation of people who died of COVID-19 at the Seemapuri crematorium in New Delhi, India. The World Health Organization said Monday, May 10, that a worrisome variant was first detected in India may spread more easily. Scientists are still trying to figure out if it resulted in the terrifying surge of infections in the nation, and looking to see if this could this happen elsewhere. (AP Photo/Ishant Chauhan, File) Indian health officials have cautioned that it is too soon to attribute the nation's surge solely to such variants. Experts point out that the spread was catalyzed by government decisions to not pause religious gatherings and crowded election rallies. Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who studies microorganisms at Christian Medical College at Vellore in southern India, said researchers need to figure out if the variant is capable of infecting those who previously had COVID-19 and, if so, whether it could result in severe disease. "I don't get why people don't see this as important," she said. Sequencing efforts in India have been haphazard. The country uploads 0.49 sequences per 1,000 cases to GISAID, a global data sharing effort, Chan said. The U.S., which had its own troubles with genetic monitoring, uploads about 10 in 1,000, while the U.K. does so for about 82 per 1,000 cases. In this May 6, 2021, file photo, an Indian health worker checks body temperature of a man during a door-to-door survey being conducted as a precaution against COVID-19 in Hyderabad, India. The World Health Organization said Monday, May 10, that a worrisome variant was first detected in India may spread more easily. Scientists are still trying to figure out if it resulted in the terrifying surge of infections in the nation, and looking to see if this could this happen elsewhere. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File) Late last year, Indian government institutions were ordered to buy domestic raw materials wherever possible, in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of turning India "self-reliant." This proved impossible, since all materials for sequencing were imported, resulting in more paperwork, said Anurag Agarwal, the director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. The obstacles were most pronounced between September and December, he said, but his lab was able to find workarounds and continued sequencing. Other labs didn't, and scientists said that should have been when India ramped up its sequencing, because cases were declining at the time. Even after a federal effort started in Jan. 18, bringing together 10 labs that can sequence 7,500 samples weekly, the actual work didn't start until mid-February due to other logistical issues, said Dr. Shahid Jameel, a virologist who chairs the scientific advisory group advising the consortium. In this May 6, 2021, file photo, a health worker takes a nasal swab sample of a person to test for COVID-19 as others wait for their turn outside a field hospital in Mumbai, India. The World Health Organization said Monday, May 10, that a worrisome variant was first detected in India may spread more easily. Scientists are still trying to figure out if it resulted in the terrifying surge of infections in the nation, and looking to see if this could this happen elsewhere. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade, File) In this April 25, 2021, file photo, people wearing masks as a precaution against the coronavirus wait to test for COVID-19 at a government hospital in Hyderabad, India. The World Health Organization said Monday, May 10, that a worrisome variant was first detected in India may spread more easily. Scientists are still trying to figure out if it resulted in the terrifying surge of infections in the nation, and looking to see if this could this happen elsewhere. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.) In this May 4, 2021, file photo, a laborer works on a truck at a vegetable market in Jammu, India. The World Health Organization said Monday, May 10, that a worrisome variant was first detected in India may spread more easily. Scientists are still trying to figure out if it resulted in the terrifying surge of infections in the nation, and looking to see if this could this happen elsewhere. (AP Photo/Channi Anand, File) In this May 3, 2021, file photo, a health worker takes a nasal swab sample of a woman to test for COVID-19 in Hyderabad, India. The World Health Organization said Monday, May 10, that a worrisome variant was first detected in India may spread more easily. Scientists are still trying to figure out if it resulted in the terrifying surge of infections in the nation, and looking to see if this could this happen elsewhere. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A., File) By then, India's cases had begun spiking. Jameel said India has sequenced around 20,000 samples, but only 15,000 were publicly reported because some were missing vital data. Until late last month, a third of the samples sent by states were unusable, he said. And now, the raging virus has infected many of the staff in the labs doing the work. "Many of our labs are facing this problem," he said. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Here are 10 key moments in the World Health Organization's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, following the publication Wednesday of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response's report: First alert The WHO office in China picks up a press release referring to cases of "viral pneumonia" on the website of the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission on December 31, 2019. WHO's epidemic intelligence service sees a media report on the international epidemic watch system ProMED about the same cluster of cases of "pneumonia of unknown cause" in Wuhan. Human-to-human transmission signs WHO says there is evidence of the virus passing between people on January 21, 2020. "It is now very clear from the latest information that there is at least some human-to-human transmission," its Western Pacific branch writes on Twitter following a field mission to Wuhan. The WHO says the next day that more analysis is needed to understand the "full extent of human-to-human transmission". Emergency declared WHO declares a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, sounding its highest alert. No deaths have yet been confirmed outside China, but there were 82 confirmed cases in 18 other countries. Disease named COVID-19 WHO names the new disease COVID-19 on February 11. WHO had earlier called it "2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease" while China used the name "novel coronavirus pneumonia". 'Pandemic' first used WHO describes COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11 with more than 100 countries reporting cases. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warns of the "alarming levels of spread and severity" and "alarming levels of inaction". Facemasks recommendation WHO changes its advice to recommend facemasks where virus transmission is widespread and physical distancing difficult on June 5. More than two months later, the WHO says children aged 12 and over should follow the same mask guidelines as adults. Airborne transmission WHO points to "emerging evidence" that the virus might spread by air further than previously thought on July 7. First vaccine approved The WHO gives emergency use listing to the first vaccine, from Pfizer-BioNTech, on December 31. AstraZeneca COVID-19 jabs gets WHO approval on February 15, 2021; Johnson & Johnson on March 12; Moderna on April 30; and Sinopharm on May 7. Origins investigation A joint report from a team of international experts and Chinese scientists, into the origins of COVID-19, becomes public on March 29, 2021. The team, which spent four weeks in Wuhan in early 2021, claim in their report that it is "likely to very likely" that COVID-19 reached humans through an intermediary animal, while all but ruling out a laboratory leak incident. Pandemic response panel The WHO-commissioned Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response issues its findings on May 12 after an eight-month investigation. It says the catastrophic scale of COVID-19 could have been prevented had the warning signs been heeded. The report blames a "toxic cocktail" of bad decisions, dithering and poor coordination, says the WHO could have sounded the alarm sooner, and urges rich countries to donate a billion vaccine doses by September. Explore further Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak 2021 AFP Credit: CC0 Public Domain Young people with diverse gender identities may be bullied and victimized up to three times more often than peers who identify as male or female, a new study of more than 4,464 adolescents in Illinois found. The students were part of a statewide survey of 8th- through 12th-grade youths in Illinois schools. "Transgender youths reported the highest rates of all forms of peer victimization, which were double to nearly triple those of males and up to 2.6 times higher than those of females," said social work professor Rachel Garthe of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who led the research. "Slightly more than half of transgender youths reported verbal abuse such as peers calling them names or spreading rumors about them. About one in three of these youths reported cyber victimization, and slightly fewer reported psychological dating violence," such as a romantic partner denigrating or trying to control them, Garthe said. Gender-expansive youthsstudents who don't identify as male, female or transgenderexperienced disproportionately higher rates of all forms of bullying and dating violence. Among these students, 41% experienced verbal abuse, nearly 32% were cyberbullied and 19% experienced physical violence, according to the study. Garthe said the findings, published in the journal Pediatrics, are very concerning and underscore the need for supportive policies and practices for students with diverse gender identities who may need help coping with psychological and physical violence from peers and romantic partners. Additionally, she said more programs are needed in schools that prevent these types of violence from being perpetrated. Equal numbers of male, female, transgender and gender-expansive students were included in the research. The study was novel in that it included a large sample of transgender individuals and the experiences of gender-expansive individuals were explored as a distinct group, Garthe said. The students in the current study were a subset of the participants in the 2018 Illinois Youth Survey, a biennial survey that gathers data on a variety of social, behavioral and health indicators from youths in schools throughout Illinois. The Center for Prevention Research and Development, a unit within the U. of I. School of Social Work, conducts the survey. Despite growing numbers of schools implementing anti-bullying policies that include protections based on sexual or gender identity, rates of victimization remain high among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youths, research has shown. However, LGBTQ students report feeling safer and more connected at school and experience fewer gender-related negative remarks from peers when resources such as LGBTQ-inclusive curricula are taught, according to the study. When anti-bullying policies with LGBTQ protections are implemented, students are less likely to be forced to use bathrooms that match their assigned sex or wear clothing incongruent with their gender identity or expression, Garthe said. "To enhance the effectiveness of these policies and further support these students, anti-transphobic education for teachers, administrators and students is needed, along with the use of pronouns that reflect individuals' gender identity," Garthe said. More information: Rachel C. Garthe et al, Dating Violence and Peer Victimization Among Male, Female, Transgender, and Gender-Expansive Youth, Pediatrics (2021). Journal information: Pediatrics Rachel C. Garthe et al, Dating Violence and Peer Victimization Among Male, Female, Transgender, and Gender-Expansive Youth,(2021). DOI: 10.1542/peds.2020-004317 Minister Troy launches public consultation on European Commission proposal to enhance the disclosures on sustainability matters including climate and environmental data Stakeholder Forum convened to discuss recently published proposal for Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive 12 May 2021 The Minister for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation, Robert Troy T.D., today launched a public consultation on the European Commissions recently announced proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive. The proposal, which revises the current rules on Non-Financial Reporting substantially increases the detail of the information which must be provided in particular through the development of new EU sustainability reporting standards To coincide with the public consultation, Minister Troy hosted a webinar to inform key stakeholders, including Irish businesses directly impacted, about the details of the proposal. It featured keynote remarks by Commissioner Mairead Mc Guinness and presentations by Elena Arveras of the European Commission DG FISMA and from Tomas Sercovich CEO of Business in the Community Ireland. Speaking after the webinar, Minister Troy said: We all know how important the next ten years are if we are to address the climate change and biodiversity crisis. Last month, the Government introduced the Climate Action Bill demonstrating our ambition and commitment in this regard. Its for good reason climate change is a top agenda item both here and internationally, and part of this includes discussing company reporting. Todays webinar brought together stakeholders from across the Irish business community to hear presentations on the recently published proposal. I would like to thank Commissioner McGuinness for taking the time to share her vision of the future of sustainability reporting, and Elena and Tomas for their very informative and insightful presentations. The proposal by the European Commission demonstrates the commitment of the European Union to addressing the challenges of climate change through innovative new sustainability reporting obligations. This is an important opportunity to reflect on what has been done and given the extraordinary global upheaval, forge an effective approach to raise the transparency of the environmental information provided by undertakings in all sectors and result in lasting change for the better. The public consultation on the proposal will be open until 23 June. Encouraging submissions to the public consultation, the Minister said: I would strongly encourage all stakeholders, particularly the Irish business community, to engage with the consultation and submit their views over the coming weeks. The input received from stakeholders will play an important part in the development of Irelands approach in the forthcoming negotiations on the proposal. It therefore is important that the Department hears your views on this significant topic. Notes to Editors Rules for the disclosure of non-financial information by certain companies, including environmental reporting, have been in effect in Ireland (S.I. No. 360/2017) since 2017 through the EUs Non-Financial Reporting Directive (Directive 2014/95/EU). The rules apply to companies that are large and have more than 500 employees. One of the areas of EU action on climate change contained in the European Green Deal is the objective of mainstreaming sustainability in EU policies. The Commission has reviewed the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) and proposed a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive on 21 April 2021 - see Sustainable finance package | European Commission (europa.eu). The proposal will amend the existing reporting requirements of the NFRD. The proposal: - extends the scope to all large companies (not just those with over 500 employees) and all companies listed on regulated markets (except listed micro-enterprises); - requires the audit (assurance) of reported information; - introduces more detailed reporting requirements, and a requirement to report according to mandatory EU sustainability reporting standards; and - requires companies to digitally tag the reported information, so it is machine readable and feeds into the European single access point envisaged in the capital markets union action plan. The Department is seeking the views of stakeholders by way of public consultation on the proposal in order to inform Irelands negotiating position. The public consultation is available on the Departments website at Consultation - DBEI (enterprise.gov.ie) and the deadline for responses is Wednesday 23 June 2021. ENDS The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment (DETE) plays a key role in implementing the Governments policies of stimulating the productive capacity of the economy and creating an environment which supports job creation and maintenance. The Department has lead responsibility for Irish policy on global trade and inward investment and a remit to promote fair competition in the marketplace, protect consumers and safeguard workers. For further information please contact Press Office, D/Enterprise, Trade and Employment, press.office@enterprise.gov.ie or (01) 631-2200 If you no longer wish to receive emails from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Press Office, please notify us by email to press.office@enterprise.gov.ie Israel, Hamas Trade Deadly Fire By The Associated Press GAZA STRIP - A confrontation between Israel and Hamas sparked by weeks of tensions in contested Jerusalem escalated Tuesday as Israel unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while militants barraged Israel with hundreds of rockets. The exchange killed a number of militants and civilians in Gaza and at least three Israelis.The barrage of rockets from the Gaza Strip and airstrikes into the territory continued almost nonstop throughout the day, in what appeared to be some of the most intense fighting between Israel and Hamas since their 2014 war. The fire was so relentless that Israels Iron Dome rocket-defense system seemed to be overwhelmed. Columns of smoke rose from many places in Gaza.By late Tuesday, the violence extended to Tel Aviv, which came under fire from a barrage of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. A 50-year-old woman was killed. The outgoing volleys set off air raid sirens across the city, and the main international airport quickly closed, forcing flights to divert.Hamas said it launched a total of 130 rockets, its most intense strike so far, in response to Israels destruction of a high-rise building in Gaza earlier in the evening. The sound of the outgoing rockets could be heard in Gaza. As the rockets rose into the skies, mosques across Gaza blared with chants of God is great, victory to Islam and resistance.One rocket struck a bus in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv. Medics said three people, including a 5-year-old girl, were wounded and the bus went up in flames.Since sundown Monday, 28 Palestinians including 10 children and a woman were killed in Gaza, most by airstrikes, health officials there said. The Israeli military said at least 16 of the dead were militants.Two women were killed by rockets fired from Gaza that hit their homes in the southern city of Ashkelon the first Israeli deaths in the current violence. At least 10 other Israelis have been wounded since Monday evening.After those deaths, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said officials decided to increase both the strength and rate of the strikes against militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.Egyptian officials said they were trying to broker a cease-fire, but the cycle of violence was gaining momentum. Even before the two Israeli deaths, the Israeli military said it was sending troop reinforcements to the Gaza border, and the defense minister ordered the mobilization of 5,000 reserve soldiers.Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, told reporters that the objective was to send a clear message to Hamas.Diplomats sought to intervene. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded a halt to the spiraling" violence, a U.N. spokesman said. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to the Israeli foreign minister to condemn the Hamas attacks and reiterate the important message of de-escalation, the State Department said.The barrage of rockets and airstrikes was preceded by hours of clashes Monday between Palestinians and Israeli security forces, including dramatic confrontations at Jerusalems Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a sacred site to both Jews and Muslims. The current violence, like previous rounds, including the last intifada, or uprising, has been fueled by conflicting claims over Jerusalem, which is at the emotional core of the long conflict.In a sign of widening unrest, hundreds of residents of Arab communities across Israel staged overnight demonstrations denouncing the recent actions of Israeli security forces against Palestinians. It was one of the largest protests by Palestinian citizens in Israel in recent years.In the central Israeli town of Lod, police fired tear gas and stun grenades after mourners threw rocks at officers during the funeral of an Arab man allegedly shot to death by a Jewish resident the night before. Thousands took part in the funeral, and police said the crowd set fire to a patrol car, a bus and a motorcycle. Two police officers were injured.Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007. Recent rounds of fighting have usually ended after a few days, often helped by mediation by Qatar, Egypt and others.Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes, including two that targeted high-rise apartment buildings where militants were believed to be hiding.One strike demolished a 12-story building in Gaza City that housed the offices of top Hamas officials. Israeli drones fired a series of warning shots at the roof to give people time to leave the building before it was destroyed. There were no immediate reports of casualties.At midday, an airstrike hit a building in central Gaza City, sending terrified residents running into the street, including women and barefoot children. The Islamic Jihad militant group confirmed that the strike killed three of its commanders.Another strike hit a high-rise as people were conducting dawn prayers, killing a woman, her 19-year-old disabled son and another man, residents said. Health officials confirmed the deaths.The Gaza Health Ministry said 28 people, including 10 children and the woman, have been killed and 152 wounded. Ashraf al-Kidra, a spokesman for the ministry, said Israels relentless assault was overwhelming the health care system, which has been struggling with a COVID-19 outbreak.The escalation comes at a time of political limbo in Israel.Netanyahu has been caretaker prime minister since an inconclusive parliamentary election in March. He failed to form a coalition government with his hard-line and ultra-Orthodox allies, and the task was handed to his political rivals last week.One of those rivals is Israels defense minister, who is overseeing the Gaza campaign. It was not clear whether the political atmosphere was spilling over into military decision-making, though the rival camps have unanimously expressed support for striking Hamas hard.The support of an Arab-backed party with Islamist roots is key for the anti-Netanyahu bloc. But the current tensions might deter the partys leader, Mansour Abbas, from joining a coalition for now. The sides have three more weeks to reach a deal.The current violence in Jerusalem coincided with the start of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan in mid-April.Critics say heavy-handed police measures helped stoke nightly unrest, including a decision to temporarily seal off a popular gathering spot where Palestinian residents would meet after evening prayers. Another flashpoint was the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where dozens of Palestinians are under threat of eviction by Jewish settlers.Over the weekend, confrontations erupted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is the third holiest site of Islam and the holiest site in Judaism.Over several days, Israel police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at Palestinians in the compound who hurled stones and chairs. At times, police fired stun grenades into the carpeted mosque.On Monday evening, Hamas began firing rockets from Gaza. From there on, the escalation was rapid.Gaza militants fired more than 500 rockets at Israel, with about one-third falling short and landing in Gaza, Conricus said.At midday, a barrage of some 10 rockets whizzed above the southern city of Ashdod, filling the skies with streaks of white smoke.A rocket that hit an apartment building in Ashkelon injured six people, according to Israeli paramedic service Magen David Adom. A building in Ashdod was also hit, lightly wounding four, Israeli police said.The military hit 130 targets in Gaza, including two tunnels militants were digging under the border with Israel, Conricus said. He did not address Gaza Health Ministry reports about the dead children.Seven of the deaths in Gaza were members of a single family, including three children, who died in an explosion in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun. It was not clear if the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike or errant rocket. First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus A.Guryanov meets the Vice-Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan On May 12, 2021 the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, Aleksandr Guryanov, met with the Vice-Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kairat Torebayev. During the meeting, the sides discussed current state of Belarus- Kazakhstan relations in a wide range of spheres, as well as prospects for holding an Intergovernmental Belarusian-Kazakh commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation in the near future. print version Ambassador of Belarus V.Brylev meets the Chairman of the National Assembly of Serbia On May 11, 2021, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Serbia Valery Brylev met with Chairman of the National Assembly of Serbia Ivica Dacic. During the conversation, the high level of Belarusian-Serbian relations was noted and the commitment of the two countries to strengthen friendly ties and mutually beneficial cooperation was reaffirmed. The parties expressed interest in intensifying interstate contacts. In order to develop inter-parliamentary dialogue Chairman of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia I.Dai confirmed the invitation to the senior officials of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus to visit Serbia. During the meeting the prospects for deepening the trade and economic cooperation between Belarus and Serbia, including the possibilities for the implementation of joint projects, were discussed. Other issues of bilateral cooperation were also considered, including mutual support within the framework of international organizations. The interlocutors expressed their readiness to make the necessary efforts to effectively promote the entire range of Belarusian-Serbian relations. print version 'Captured alive on May 8, killed on May 17 in alleged clash with Sabah police' FIVE ABU Sayyaf terrorists were killed following an a... The man who transformed the Vermont-based Orvis company from a niche fly-fishing supply company into a global retailer of outdoor supplies, apparel and protector of the environment has died. Leigh H. Perkins was 93. The Sunderland-based Orvis company says Perkins died May 7 in Monticello, Florida. The cause of death was not released. An online tribute published on the company's website said Perkins was a lifelong outdoorsman who hunted or fished more than 250 days a year into his 90s who had a reverence for nature and conservation. The company says that Perkins began donating 5% of pre-tax profits to conserving fish and wildlife. While Orvis is based in Sunderland, not far from the headwaters of the Batten Kill one of the most famous trout streams in the state the company's reach goes across the world. He followed that fly rod to all corners of the world and he made connections and relationships to both places and people across the globe, Simon Perkins, Leigh Perkins' grandson and the current president of Orvis, said Tuesday. Simon Perkins is the third generation of his family to lead the company. The court is often an overlooked part of government because the judicial branch is kind of the backstop. In order to have a functioning, healthy community, I think its important to have a good, healthy functioning court. He said he wants to make court a place where he can help Missoula community members who pass through the system. I think the courts role is to help people to try to get them into the direction that they need to go so that they dont need to keep coming back to court." For example, if someone has a substance abuse problem, Lerman said, he wants to make sure they have the resources provided to them in court to combat that. Because so few people in communities have interactions with the court, Lerman hopes he can create an environment in his courtroom where people can have positive interactions with the judicial system. As a municipal judge, Lerman also wants to focus on improving the accessibility of the court. This would include making Zoom access to hearings a permanent fixture, he said. Its been beneficial to Missoulas legal system and made hearings more accessible for the community, he added. In response, Hess stated there is a standard in terms of the length of time an appraisal is valid and that he did not think it was needed. Grant Carlton, Missoula's Open Space Program manager, said it was developed with property values in mind. "This was an additional sort of carve out to make life a little bit easier for the subdivider who recently purchased property," Carlton said. "This is consistent with other communities." He added: "We wanted to make an exception there and make the road a little bit easier, but only with sideboards of a year so the market doesn't change drastic. That was our design and our plan." Proponents of the change have called it "surgical" and feel it will speed up the process because there is a formulaic system in place issues regarding cash-in-lieu of parkland. However opponents, including Merritt, felt developers had not had significant input, among other issues. A federal judge ruled on Tuesday that a former Missoula man convicted of having gay sex would not have to register as a sex offender. Randall Menges, 45, was convicted of having gay sex in Idaho in 1994 after he had consensual sex with two 16-year-old boys. Menges was 18 at the time. He was convicted under Idaho's Crimes Against Nature law, which bans anal and oral sex between consenting adults, according to the lawsuit initially filed by Menges in December 2020. In its Tuesday ruling, the federal court stated Menges requirement to register is unconstitutional and that someone who is having consensual sexual contact with someone of the same sex does not pose a threat to public safety. After serving seven years in prison and being released on probation for the remainder of his sentence, Menges, who now lives in Butte, was required to register as a sex offender in Idaho. When he moved to Montana in the mid-2000s, the requirement to register followed him across state lines, according to court documents. Menges said it should have not required a lawsuit to find the registry requirement unconstitutional, but that hes happy its over. Im grateful to the court for putting an end to my nightmare, Menges said. Theyre not the killers and the diabolical demons that people paint them to be. Theyre hard-working animals and we share a lot of similarities with them in kind of our social nature. Asher said most people either really hate or really love wolves. She said the fictitious view of them most people hold is polarizing and leads to a lot of problems. But she said after really getting to know their behaviors she just likes them. Theyre a family group, Asher said in the film, explaining how they all work together to raise the pups, much like human families do. And you know, for wolves, theyre not domesticated and they have to eat, so that part I think is hard for people. She said wolves arent very scary. In fact once when she was surrounded by them, they ran away from her. She compared them to dogs, saying they have similar behaviors and body language. Theyre not as mystical as people think. For her, wolves represent the wild. She said she particularly loves listening to them howl. Every time I hear them I smile, she said in the film, as footage showed her mouthing along to a cacophony of wolf howls. Its an experience that is what true wild is. Arguments over Minuteman boil down to this: Given its age and the nuclear challenges posed by Russia and China, should it be phased out in favor of a new-generation ICBM? Or should it be refurbished at lesser cost, to be replaced later? Or should it be phased out, period, with no replacement? The debate reveals a longstanding American divide. On one side is the view that ICBMs are indispensable to the strategy for deterring any adversary from attempting a nuclear attack upon the United States or its allies. A key piece of the argument is that ICBMs in their 400 underground silos in five Great Plains states act as a warhead sink, or sponge, to absorb the first blow in a nuclear war; the argument is that an attacker would need to expend so many weapons destroying these silos that he would see little chance of winning and thus would be deterred from attacking in the first place. The opposing view is that ICBMs are overkill, given the large amount of firepower in the more elusive sea- and air-based segments of the nuclear arsenal, and that ICBMs make nuclear conflict more likely because an American president might feel compelled to launch one upon a warning of attack that turned out to be a false alarm. Once its launched from its silo, an ICBM cannot be recalled. These differences are more stark in light of expected stagnant defense budgets. A student walks between classes at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kan., on the first day of in-person learning Wednesday, March 30, 2021. The school, like other schools nationwide, has made extra efforts to keep kids at risk of dropping out engaged as classes went virtual due to the pandemic. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) PHOTO:AP Photo/Charlie Riedel US Schools Fight to Keep Students By The Associated Press KANSAS CITY - U.S. educators are doing everything they can to track down high school students who stopped showing up to classes and to help them get the credits needed to graduate, amid an anticipated surge in the country's dropout rate during the coronavirus pandemic. There isn't data available yet on how the pandemic has affected the nation's overall dropout rate 2019 is the last year for which it is available and many school officials say it's too early to know how many students who stopped logging on for distance learning don't plan to return. But soaring numbers of students who are failing classes or are chronically absent have experts fearing the worst, and schools have been busy tracking down wayward seniors through social media, knocking on their doors, assigning staff to help them make up for lost time and, in some cases, even relaxing graduation requirements. When students drop out, they typically look for an out, an opportunity to leave. And this has provided that, unfortunately, Sandy Addis, chairman of the National Dropout Prevention Center, said recently, referring to the pandemic. His group believes the dropout rate has spiked this year and will remain high for years. At one high school in Kansas City, Kansas, staff members have made thousands of calls to the families of at-risk students, said Troy Pitsch, who supervises high school principals in the city. If we lose a student, it is going to be after kicking and screaming and fighting tooth and nail for them, Pitsch said. Many districts were forgiving last spring when schools shut down abruptly, freezing grades unless students wanted to improve them. That made this year the first for which schools would feel the full effects of the pandemic on student performance and engagement. The early signs aren't encouraging. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization warned that the pandemic had put 24 million children worldwide at risk of dropping out of school. And the pandemic's effects could erase gains the U.S. made in reducing its dropout rate, which fell from 9.3% in 2007 to 5.1% in 2019, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Not finishing high school significantly hurts a person's earning potential, with dropouts bringing home an average of $150 less per week than graduates, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. To keep students on track, some local governments and school systems have waived certain testing requirements for graduation or changed grading policies so that missed assignments aren't as damaging. But such leniency carries the risk of watering down academic standards, said Russell Rumberger, a professor emeritus of education at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has written about dropouts. If they let you pass with a D and you dont have to do very much to do it, maybe technically you are getting a diploma, but you are not getting the same type of diploma you may have gotten prior to the pandemic, when the standards were higher," he said. A National Dropout Prevention Center report predicted a doubling or tripling of the number of students who were at risk of falling behind academically and not graduating. Among them for much of this school year was Jose Solano-Hernandez, a 17-year-old senior at Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas. In January, when he was at his lowest point following the deaths of one grandparent from COVID-19 and another from cancer in the same week, he estimated that he had missed eight assignments in each of his classes. I wouldnt make my parents proud, he recalled thinking as he struggled to learn virtually at night while working by day at a mechanic's shop. Solano-Hernandez has been slowly chipping away at his backlog of work since his school brought back him and other struggling seniors for extra in-person help more than a month before the rest of the student body returned at the end of March. He said the change brought relief" and he's now hopeful he'll graduate. Mary Stewart, the school's principal, said there was radio silence from hundreds of students in the fall. But the number who weren't accounted for shrank to about 40 by the spring after staff hunted down siblings and scrolled through Facebook searching for clues to their whereabouts. I went to a house of a young man the day before Thanksgiving and found that he had self-isolated in his room because of a mental health issue, she said. That is very common. Whatever happens in the community and in the world, we are a micro-system of that. The pandemic also has taken a toll on students at North Grand High School in Chicago. Principal Emily Feltes said some of her students took on jobs to support their families and others fell ill. Her students returned for part-time in-person instruction in April, but she's worried that dropout numbers will rise. We have done everything that we think that we can to try to re-engage kids to try to help them. And I know that my colleagues are all working really hard too," she said. But the reality is that this has been a worldwide and a national trauma." Persuading reluctant students to return isn't easy. At Orange County Public Schools in the Orlando, Florida, area, substitute teacher Patrice Pullen was assigned in December to oversee a group of 13 seniors who fell behind during virtual learning. She said it became clear on her first day that her most important job would be rebranding the students, who had come to see themselves as failures. You have kids and Im not exaggerating they had zeros. They had not turned in anything since August, since school started, she said. Now, eleven are on track to graduate and the other two are close to being on track. At Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia, the 185,000-student district saw the percentage of middle school and high school students earning Fs in at least two classes jump by 83% in the fall. The spring numbers returned to more normal levels as the district made several changes, including dropping the minimum number of assignments per quarter from nine to six and allowing teachers to accept late work on major assignments with minimal penalties, said district spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell. Still, she said, it is hard to say how many students disappeared or what will happen with dropouts. The pandemic was extraordinarily difficult on families emotionally, economically, and physically," Caldwell said. Some senators also criticized the bill because they said lawmakers haven't done enough to help on-the-ground workers who faced the pandemic directly, risking their own health because they had a job that needed to be done in-person. Lawmakers this year have rejected paid sick-leave requirements for businesses and additional coronavirus protections for meatpacking workers. Sen. Megan Hunt, of Omaha, proposed an amendment to the lawsuit bill that would have required businesses with 50 or more employers to allow unpaid sick leave for workers. Hunt said it would give wins to both employers and employees," but the legislative speaker declared the proposal not germane to the main bill, and lawmakers did not vote on it. Sen. Matt Hansen, of Lincoln, said the state is taking a serious misstep with liability protection for businesses, not directly for the people of Nebraska. Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. With more than 80,000 job openings and a labor shortage affecting all areas of the states economy, McMaster argued last week that the shortfall was created in large part due to the supplemental federal payments, which include an extra weekly $300 to unemployed workers. During an online meeting Tuesday with the director of the states jobless benefits agency and members of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, McMaster noted other governors, including Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, have taken similar action on unemployment assistance. The governor also said he saw the state as well-positioned to return to its pre-pandemic economic vibrance, particularly if businesses in the multibillion dollar tourism industry can staff up in time for the burgeoning summer tourist season. That is a task he said would be assisted by removing the unemployment benefit. Ships' speeds range from 13 to 25 knots (15-29 mph, 24-46 kph), according to an article on the Marine Insight website. The Coast Guard's navigation rules describe what must be considered in deciding a safe speed but those rules don't include speed limits. Ships should avoid the whales' core habitat at night because Rices whales may spend much of that time near the surface, the petition said. One tagged whale stayed within 15 meters (nearly 50 feet) of the surface at night, diving deep during the day, according to the report in January. That is within the draft depths of most commercial vessels. Such behavior significantly raises the risk of vessel strikes, the petition said. The groups also want all ships to keep an eye on the water in the proposed speed zone and to stay at least 550 yards (500 meters) from any whales they spot. In addition to nearly 9,100 square miles of core habitat, the groups want the rules to apply in a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) buffer zone around that habitat. The greening field near Warm Springs looks like a giant mole has burrowed through, leaving tall heaps of soil in its wake. Excavation work visible from Interstate 90 is a first step toward the states tackling Phase 3 of the cleanup of contamination along the Clark Fork River. Phase 3 addresses the river between Perkins Lane and the Galen Road within the stretch of river described as Reach A of the federal Superfund site. This first step involves digging down to rock beneath the excavated soil to create haul roads for the upcoming remediation work. Joel Chavez, project manager for the river work for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, said the excavated soil will be returned after the work is done. He said the land is private and there could be landowner compensation for lost grazing opportunities. Once the haul roads are no longer needed, they will be reclaimed, he said, unless the landowner wants to retain the road's footprint on his property. The DEQ is the lead agency for the Clark Fork site. It consults with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and coordinates with the state Natural Resource Damage Program. Theres nowhere to go but up. Our 67th Montana Legislative Session hit the lowest bar ever. We need to join together, do damage control and make sure such a reckless, overreaching, power-grabbing session never happens again in our beloved state. The 2021 session was unprecedented for its hybrid nature, part in person, part remote during the novel COVID-19 pandemic. Our do-nothing legislative COVID panel was the problem. No mask requirements, no physical distancing, few protections. Even more unprecedented was the far-right Republican abuse of power, double standards, hypocrisy, conflicts of interest, oppression and intimidation. Members of the public and Democratic and moderate-Republican legislators who spoke up against the abuse of power didnt stand a chance of civil discourse, or to move any legislation. That ratio worries me. It reflects the electorate. Montanans elected far-right extremists. Yet, I refuse to believe that most Montanans support their unconstitutional bills that deprive fellow Montanans of basic rights. Our state Constitution proclaims equality of opportunity and blessings of liberty, yet this far-right-controlled Legislature stripped civil liberties from women, LGBTQ and trans people. It removed local control for firearms, clean indoor air, carbon, affordable housing zoning and sanctuary cities. It dismantled our public health system thats worked well for 100 years since the last pandemic. It trampled Tribal rights. It limited access to health care and free, fair elections. It sidelined Montana hunters in favor of out of state trophy hunters. It undermined our independent Judiciary and the checks and balances that independence ensures. And this Republican Legislature offered a $1 million bribe if Montana University System Board of Regents stay away from court, so that the far right gets concealed guns at college. No more youth political activity on campus, but packing heat is just fine. How does nonsense like this find its way into law? Simple. In the last election, a significant majority of Montanans went to the polls, voted for everyone with an (R) after their name and voila, we get a Legislature chock-full of clueless anti-regulation, anti-government, anti-wildlife zealots. If youre one of those voters, youre as much to blame as the legislative loons who passed it. Your actions, and elections, have consequences. You might want to think about that, and what youve caused, before the 2022 elections roll around. The president wants 70% of the population to get the vaccine by July 4. This means 30%, or about 100 million people, will not be vaccinated; enough unvaccinated people to prevent herd immunity and ensure that the virus will keep circulating in the population. This raises serious issues. It means the virus isnt going away and we are likely to see a big bump in infections in the fall when millions of kids go back to school. With an infection rate of 20-30% and a mortality rate of 1%, this means an additional death toll of 200,000 to 300,000 people, not counting those left with long haul COVID or neurological consequences. It also increases the likelihood the virus will mutate into something more infectious or more deadly, or both. North Carolina is tied with only Alaska for having the lowest marriage age in the country at 14. This legislation would eliminate the ability for 14- and 15-year-olds to be married with no exceptions. Im thrilled we were able to find compromise on such a painful topic. As the mother of two teenage girls, this issue hits close to home for me. Its been quite a contentious road to get to where we are right now, but the passage of this legislation is proof that the legislative process works if you let it. Im thankful to all of those involved including Sens. Britt, Foushee, Berger, Rabon, and my fellow legislators who voted in favor of this legislation, said Sawyer Denker, Robert Robert Lewis Denker, 82, of Paducah passed away on Sunday, May 9, 2021 at his residence. Graveside services will be at 3:00pm on Friday, May 14, 2021 at Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah. Burial with military honors will follow. Visitation with the family will be from 1:00pm - 3:00pm on Friday at Lindsey Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may include contributions to Indigenous Outreach International Denker Missionary Fund,P.O. Box 10173, Jackson, TN, 38308-0102. Online condolences may be left at www.lindseyfuneral.com Lindsey Funeral Home of Paducah is in charge of arrangements. For particulate in the air, three sizes have been measured both for total particulate and for individual metals at the station including PM2.5, or smaller than 2.5 micrometers, PM10, and TSP, the largest size which includes everything under 30 to 40 micrometers. PM2.5 is analyzed by federal agency requirement, and the larger sizes were added voluntarily by the MR studies. In his analysis, Ganesan compared the trace metals averages detected at the Greeley School station with typical ambient levels in rural, urban and industrial parts of the country. These were based off PM10 particulate sizes. Measured in nanograms per cubic meter, Ganesan found that for lead, arsenic, and cadmium, Buttes levels were well below the typical rural levels in the country. Buttes level for copper, 50, was greater than the typical rural concentration of 10, but well below the urban level of 290. Buttes level for manganese, 12.4, was above the typical rural concentration of 1, but below the urban level of 20. Buttes level for zinc, 33, was above the rural concentration of 6, but well below the urban level of 103. It was the first time Mark Thompson, vice president of environmental affairs at Montana Resources, had seen the data presented that way. In Montana, one in three residents doesnt have broadband access. That's three times the national average. The numbers are worse in rural Montana where three in five lack broadband access. On Tuesday, Gov. Greg Gianforte said he planned to help close that gap by signing the ConnectMT Act that will tap $275 million from the federal American Rescue Act to subsidize the expansion of broadband throughout the state. Montana is the 46th ranked state for broadband access according to FCC data published in January. Only 12 of the states 56 counties have a rate of broadband access thats equal to the national average. Now we have a fund that will allow us to wire the state and close the digital divide, Gianforte said at the signing ceremony held in Hamiltons Ravalli County Economic Development Authority building. This is truly a huge milestone. Sponsored by Sen. Jason Ellsworth, R-Hamilton, the legislation passed both chambers with wide bipartisan support. The bill will create a grant program under the Department of Commerce to fund broadband projects statewide. Ellsworth said a task force will begin meeting in June. 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. WAPELLO -- The Louisa County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution of support, which called for a Sept. 14 referendum on a new local option sales tax (LOST) for the unincorporated area of the county, during its regular Tuesday meeting. In addition to the resolution of support, the board also approved a Letter of Bond Counsel Services with John Danos, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Des Moines. Danos will help guide the referendum issue through the election for a fee of $3,500. The county board, along with the city councils of Columbus Junction and Grandview, need to hold a new referendum to continue assessing the 1% sales tax in their jurisdictions after Dec. 31, 2022. Voters in those jurisdictions approved LOST referendum questions in 2006-2007 that contained the sunset date, while voters in other jurisdictions approved the referendums without any termination. According to previous discussions, Iowa law requires local government jurisdictions representing at least half of the countys total population of around 11,300 people to approve the resolutions of support before any referendum can be held. Dougherty said he is helping because Miller is married to his niece, but he said that finding help during the record attempt was not hard. He said many people had volunteered after learning of the trek on social media. Scott started thinking about it in September 2018, Dougherty said. His father was a Minnesota DNR ranger and he worked for many years at a camp. He has always been an outdoorsman and had a particular interest in paddling. In 2005 he paddled from St. Cloud, Minn., to Hudson Bay. Along with Miller, the team is comprised of friends Joel Ford, Perry Whittaker, and Adam Macht, all veteran canoeists. Dougherty said the record had been set by two men in a canoe and he felt the four-man team gave Team Mississippi Speed Record the edge. Also having the support boat means the team doesnt have to go ashore as often. Dougherty said the unknown factor is the river itself, as well as the weather. He said in going through lock and dams, there can be a wait. The previous night the team had to deal with 30 degree temperatures on the water. Still, the teams spirit was high Wednesday morning. In preparing for the attempt, they had trained in snow, sleet and rain. Palestinian health officials gave no breakdown on the death toll in Gaza, but Islamic Jihad confirmed that three senior commanders were killed in a strike on their hideout in a Gaza City apartment building. The Health Ministry said 10 children and a woman were also killed. Netanyahu said Israel had attacked hundreds of targets. The fiercest attack was a set of airstrikes that brought down an entire 12-story building. The building housed important Hamas offices, as well as a gym and some start-up businesses. Israel fired a series of warning shots before demolishing the building, allowing people to flee and there were no casualties. Israeli aircraft heavily damaged another Gaza City building early Wednesday. The nine-story structure housed residential apartments, medical companies and a dental clinic. A drone fired five warning rockets before the bombing. Israel said the building housed Hamas intelligence offices and the group's command responsible for planning attacks on Israeli targets in the occupied West Bank. Fighter jets struck the building again after journalists and rescuers had gathered around. There was no immediate word on casualties. The high-rise stood 200 meters (650 feet) away from the Associated Press bureau in Gaza City, and smoke and debris reached the office. 2. Dont worry (as much) about transmitting to others Throughout the pandemic, there have been two main reasons to avoid traveling. First, most obviously, is to avoid contracting the disease yourself. Second, and often underplayed, is to avoid spreading the virus to others. The available COVID-19 vaccines seem to be effective at stunting the spread of the virus, rendering the second issue less pressing for would-be travelers. According to the CDCs interpretation, Any travel-associated transmission risk is likely to be substantially reduced among those fully vaccinated with an effective vaccine. Again, this isn't to say that fully vaccinated travelers can't spread the virus, but rather that the risk is significantly reduced. It means that fully vaccinated people aren't being completely selfish or putting others at high risk by traveling. So you can (almost) take this off your list of concerns. 3. Dont expect certainty Between the two types of travelers those who plan everything in exacting detail and those who fly by the seat of their pants this tip is going to be tough to swallow for the former. The thrill of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine is giving way to apprehension for many would-be summer travelers, as uncertainty continues to swirl concerning when, whether and where to travel internationally. One You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Felipa Tabladillo, 86, receives a dose of China's Sinovac Biotech coronavirus disease vaccine at a drive-thru vaccination site for bedridden and persons with disabilities, in Makati, Metro Manila on May 7, 2021. REUTERS If the South African Post Office (SAPO) and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) is successful in stopping private courier companies from delivering packages under 1kg in South Africa, it can have devastating consequences. This is the warning from Nortons director, Anton Roets, who is representing PostNet and the South African Express Parcel Association (SAEPA) in a legal battle regarding this issue. The battle started in 2018 when the SA Post Office lodged a complaint against PostNet for transporting and delivering packages under 1kg. The SA Post Office argued that it is the only licensed provider which can deliver reserved postal services in terms of the Postal Services Act 124 of 1998. Reserved postal services include all letters, postcards, printed matter, small parcels, and other postal articles up to and including 1kg. ICASAs Complaints and Compliance Commission (CCC) ruled in late 2019 that PostNet had indeed contravened the Postal Services Act by transporting and delivering packages under 1kg. No one is permitted to transport or deliver reserved postage as set out in the Schedules to the Act, unless licensed to do so in terms of the Act, the CCC said. ICASA also sent PostNet a cease-and-desist order in October 2019 for violating the Postal Services Act 124 of 1998. This ruling and the cease-and-desist order shook the private courier industry as it prohibited private courier companies from delivering packages under 1kg in South Africa. The SA Post Office also confirmed that the law, and therefore the ruling, applies to all courier companies operating in South Africa. PostNet, alongside the South African Express Parcel Association (SAEPA), challenged the lawfulness, constitutionality, and validity of the ruling. SAEPA represents courier companies like FedEx, DHL, UPS, CourierIT, RAM, and Globeflight in South Africa. PostNet also approached the Gauteng High Court for interim relief against ICASAs desist order, pending the outcome of its main challenge. It argued that stopping the delivery of packages under 1kg will cause significant and irreparable harm to their business and to South African consumers. The Gauteng High Court ruled in favour of PostNet, which means it can continue delivering packages under 1kg until the main challenge is concluded. ICASA is opposing PostNets legal challenge against the CCC ruling. ICASA spokesperson Paseka Maleka said the regulators mandate was to implement what the law required, and it was doing exactly that. The law in terms of schedule 1 [of the Postal Act] is clear that letters and parcels between zero and 1kg are reserved for SAPO, he said. Commenting on the matter, Roets disputed that the Postal Services Act prohibits the delivery of packages under 1kg by private courier companies. He said the court needs to decide what the Act truly says and whether the Post Offices argument infringes on constitutional rights. If the Post Offices interpretation of the Act is correct, it will have various constitutional implications. It will infringe on freedom of expression, privacy, and dignity, he said. You will be required to use the services of a state-owned enterprise without certainty of when, and even if, the package will arrive. He said courier services deliver various important packages under 1kg to people, including passports, visas, or bank cards. Couriers are also used to deliver sensitive documents like letters which can be very important to people. I am now being compelled, according to the Post Offices argument, to rely on a state-owned enterprise to do it which may or may not get it there in the time that I want, he said. Roets said rationality should be taken into account when looking at this case. He cited former Post Office CEO Mark Barnes who said in their corporate plan that SAPO has regressed so far technologically, that it simply cannot offer a competitive service. Essentially what we are asked to do as South Africans is to rely on an enterprise which, itself said, cannot offer a competitive service. That does not sound rational to me. The growth of ecommerce where deliveries, logistics, and warehouses are important has created many jobs where a degree is not important. Commenting on this shift, Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, said the economy has shifted towards ecommerce and at-home. He said a lot of the hiring activity in the United States is happening around ecommerce, especially warehousing and logistics. Many of the ecommerce roles are accessible to people without a degree, he said. To gain insight into this trend, Adzuna looked at four million job vacancies from the last two months. Over half of the vacancies did not specifically require a degree to apply. This is good news to people who only have a school education and are looking for a job in the current market. He also highlighted that you do not have to be a Mark Zuckerberg to work at a technology company. Being educated to university level and having a computer science degree is not a stipulation for working at Facebook, Google, or Apple, he said. These tech giants are hiring in droves at the moment for administration staff, sales staff, marketing staff none of which require a degree. The situation is similar in South Africa which has seen a big ecommerce boom during the lockdown. PayFast MD Jonathan Smit said 2020 has been excellent for ecommerce in South Africa with the pandemic boosting adoption rates across the board. Ecommerce sales doubled its retail market share last year from the 1% to 2% in 2019 to 2% to 4% in 2020. We saw a 100% increase in online transactions between April and May 2020, which is in line with growth seen in established ecommerce markets across the globe, said Smit. This ecommerce growth quickly filtered through to the job market, with demand for warehousing and logistics professionals growing by more than 40%. Some IT roles have also shown strong growth. CareerJunction MD Paul Byrne said data warehousing roles were up 86% in terms of job advertisements over the last year. He added that a different skillset was required to perform well in the new remote working environment, which would drive requirements from companies in future. Many of these new roles, especially in ecommerce and IT, do not require a university degree to apply. A large number of jobs advertised by Amazon in South Africa, for example, only require a Grade 12 (Matric) or equivalent NQF Level 4 qualification. A few of the roles which do not require a university degree include customer service associates, recruitment coordinators, and virtual communities moderators. Prosus NV is redoubling its effort to narrow the valuation gap between itself and its giant holding in Tencent Holdings Ltd. The Dutch-listed-units dominance of the Johannesburg stock market via its holding company Naspers Ltd. limits the amount of its shares investors can own, causing a deep discount to its $229 billion-dollar stake in Tencent. Prosus is now attempting to more than double the number of its shares available for trading, making the stock more liquid and giving investors in Naspers a chance to shift their holdings to Prosus, the parent company said in a statement on Wednesday. Prosus will also launch a further $5 billion share buyback once the share-swap deal is complete, Chief Financial Officer Basil Sgourdos said in an interview with Bloomberg. The share offer we have announced today will extend Prosuss standing as Europes largest internet company, Chief Executive Officer Bob van Dijk said in a statement. The aim is to create a stable construct that maintains the groups operational, strategic and financial flexibility. Naspers has tried for years to achieve a valuation greater than the sum of its parts and stop being seen as merely a proxy for investing in WeChat-creator Tencent. Cape Town-based Naspers was an early-stage investor in Tencent and has gradually been eclipsed by the Chinese businesss soaring valuation. Naspers shares were up about 3% at 9:19 a.m. in Johannesburg, while Prosus stock increased around 2.9% in Amsterdam. Prosus is the holding company Naspers created in 2019 to diversify away from South Africa and give investors more direct exposure to its broad portfolio of tech businesses. The global e-commerce holding company makes up almost a fifth of the countrys main stock exchange, even after spinning off most of its assets into Amsterdam-listed Prosus NV. Many South African tracker funds are forced to cap the amount of Naspers stock in their portfolio, which limits growth potential for the shares compared with that of Tencent. Wednesdays transactions will reduce that weighting significantly. The transaction is expected to be implemented during the third quarter of this year. John Davis, senior telecom, media and internet analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said Prosus and Naspers plan to increase cross shareholdings may reduce the headwind of investors single-stock limits on the latter in particular, but increases the complexity and doesnt address the elephant in the room: the discount to Tencent. Prosus trades at less than the value of its Tencent stake let alone its other investments which continues to imply that the market thinks that Prosus isnt spending its Tencent gains effectively. Now read: Prosus on the hunt for acquisitions Cryptocurrency arbitrage has become extremely popular with South Africans looking for high-yield investment opportunities. Leading South African cryptocurrency investment platform OVEX offers a great platform to leverage the full benefits of these opportunities. OVEX founder Jon Ovadia explains that the concept of arbitrage was around long before cryptocurrency was conceived. If you bought oranges in Polokwane for R100 and sold them in Joburg for R120, that is a simple form of arbitrage, explains Ovadia. The reality is that arbitrage has been going on for centuries. How arbitrage works Crypto arbitrage involves the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies on exchanges in a way that allows for quick profit to be made. Countries with exchange controls like South Africa end up paying more to acquire internationally-traded cryptocurrencies than those who do not have such controls. This means that if you buy cryptocurrencies for cheaper in other countries, and then sell them in countries like South Africa, you have the opportunity to make an immediate profit. Why choose OVEX OVEX uses the TUSD stablecoin to enable easy crypto arbitrage trading. Its powerful platform also allows for instant trades, which removes the risk of price fluctuations between buying low and selling high. When the client buys USD from their bank to send overseas they are able to at the exact same time sell TUSD for a profit via the OVEX OTC (Over-The-Counter) desk, which will extend the client a credit line, said Ovadia. Through this functionality, OVEX can guarantee that the prices you see are the prices you get. Another way OVEX makes you more money is by removing the cost of a tax clearance certificate an expensive document that can cut into your profits. It achieves this by giving you free tax services through its network of qualified tax practitioners. You are guaranteed no trading losses, and OVEX charges a low, fixed 1% fee for your trades. This amazing offer is currently enabling thousands of OVEX clients to make up to R250,000 per year or more and you can be next. Click here to get more info about OVEXs Arbitrage Service. Huawei Cloud has helped the Automobile Association of South Africa (AASA) improve its efficiency across its systems and applications. AASA is a non-profit organisation with close to 5 million registered users and 700,000 subscribers. Its key services include road security, roadside assistance, and vehicle-related services to private consumers, transportation firms, road administration, police, and finance and insurance organisations. It therefore has multiple applications which are client facing, and service volumes peak on holidays and weekends. This results in website and app traffic placing a heavy strain on its online systems including hosted infrastructure in a local data centre. As the organisation has expanded, the need for computing resources increased, creating scaling, availability, and security challenges. How Huawei Cloud helped AASA turned to Huawei Cloud for assistance with this challenge, and has seen excellent results. Huawei Cloud IaaS manages the organisations compute, storage, database, and monitoring services, allowing AASA to run its workloads more efficiently. Additionally, through the services available across Huawei Cloud availability zones, AASA also has access to on-demand, zero-downtime upgrades when the latest security patches are released. Through face-to-face training and workshops with the Huawei Cloud South Africa team, we learned that Huawei Cloud is easy to use and can fully support our production environment, said AASA chief technology officer Jaco van der Merwe. Huawei has also reduced costs while increasing the reliability of AASAs systems. Since migrating to Huawei Cloud, AASA has been able to keep costs down through more flexible billing, said Huawei spokesperson Stone He. When more computing nodes are needed, Huawei Cloud automatically engages pay-per-use instances to expand resources to meet growing business demands. Weve helped AASA reduce costs by at least 10% per year. He also highlighted how Huawei Cloud makes the deployment of applications easy, as it does not require AASA to set up compute, storage, and network infrastructures. AASA enjoys hassle-free infrastructure and can easily scale up cloud resources whenever needed, He said. About Huawei Cloud Huawei Cloud is a leading cloud transformation companion for South African businesses. It offers leading cloud technologies thanks to Huaweis global R&D investments, and does not use third party vendor technology ensuring integrated infrastructure designed for the best possible performance. Huawei Cloud also offers local support with a consistent experience regardless of your business size. You have access to customised services and solutions that will meet your unique requirements, while allocated technical resources from idea to implementation are available as a value-add. Additionally, Huawei Cloud offers guaranteed cost savings without sacrificing performance, and this includes free migrations and POC credits. Click here to learn how Huawei Cloud can help your business. Click here to contact Huawei Cloud South Africa via email. The coronavirus pandemic has brought into stark relief the huge advantage that societies with high Internet penetration and widespread mobile broadband access have in a disaster situation. Our industry the telecommunications industry has never played as important a role as it does in this moment, said Jianpeng Zhang, ZTE SVP and the President of Global Marketing. Social distancing and remote working have helped governments around the world manage the spread of the virus, and the worlds telecommunications networks have allowed people to stay connect with one another. However, billions of people still do not have access to the Internet and found themselves at a major disadvantage as countries and economies locked down. While people in developing economies like those in Africa are disproportionally impacted by this digital divide, there are millions of people in the worlds richest nations who also do not have access to broadband. No-one should be behind in the digital world, Zhang said. At ZTE we recognise that responsibility, continue to innovate, and invest in solutions to help address this critical issue. For this reason, he said, ZTE has worked hard to make the total cost of ownership of 5G as affordable as possible. Every ten years there is a new technology generation introduced in the mobile industry, said Zhang. This presents an excellent opportunity for Africa to reshape the technology race. Zhang said that they were very excited to hear that South Africa is busy licensing radio frequency spectrum that operators could use to build 5G networks. We hope that the issues holding up the process can be resolved. It is a key issue for the future development of the country, and spectrum is a pre-condition to introducing 5G technology, he said. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa is currently in a legal dispute with Telkom, E.tv, and MTN over concerns raised with its proposed spectrum auction for this precious radio frequency spectrum. While the matter is being resolved, Zhang advised that networks should prepare themselves to roll out 5G in the meantime. He explained that 5G will require faster transmission networks to support the greater speeds it can offer compared to 3G and 4G. Operators will also need to perform upgrades on their core networks if they are to support key features of 5G such as end-to-end network slicing. Network slicing will allow operators to create customised ring-fenced segments within their network that can guarantee a certain service levels to subscribers who need it. This will unlock new sources of revenue for network operators and create new business models for communication service providers. 5G is not just the radio network, said Zhang. It is end-to-end, across all layers of a network and they should all be modernised to realise the full benefits of the new technology. This will require heavy investment, and Zhang advised that operators divide these investments into stages and execute them step by step. St. Helena isnt exactly a hotbed of radical politics, with one notable exception: the proudly radical Alex Shantz, an intelligent and articulate former school trustee. Alex is out with the new book Early Essays: Collectivism, Neo-Liberalism, & Napa Valley Politics, a collection of letters he wrote to the Napa Valley Register between 2010 and 2020. Alex says hes publishing the book now to outline a blueprint for police abolitionists during the upcoming recall election targeting Gov. Gavin Newsom. Public-public partnerships provide a policy pathway towards police abolition, Alex says. A public-public partnership is a partnership between a government and another public agency to serve public interests. Local governments and community colleges can partner to re-program police academies and re-institutionalize police departments. Would our town be better served by a St. Helena Peace Department? Find Alexs provocative book on Amazon. We publish information about wines grown from certified organic or Biodynamic vineyards that are generally made with sulfites (which are usually added in small amounts to preserve the wine). That includes these certification types: ORGANIC WINE CERTIFICATIONS Made with Organic Grapes Vineyards: certified organic Vinification : less than 100 ppm of sulfites (i.e. a normal range) Winery: certified organic facility Labeling : front or back label Ingredients: Organic Grapes Vineyards : certified organic Vinification: up to 350 ppm of sulfites (same as for any non organic wine) Labeling: back label only BIODYNAMIC CERTIFICATIONS Biodynamic Wine Vineyards : certified biodynamic Yeasts : native Vinification : less than 100 ppm of sulfites; no additives of any kind Winery: certified biodynamic facility Labeling: front or back label; Demeter logo may appear Made with Biodynamic Grapes Vineyards : certified biodynamic Yeasts : native or organic Vinification: less than 100 ppm of sulfites; limited number of additives permitted Winery: certified biodynamic facility Labeling: front or back Note : unlike organically grown wines, for which there is a category called "Ingredients: Organic Grapes," wines sourced from biodynamic grapes may not make any biodynamic claim on the bottle label. Bottle labeling is reserved for Demeter certified wines only. SULFITES IN CONTEXT According to U.C. Davis, t he average among all wines in the U.S. (as well as globally) is 80 ppm. WHAT THE USDA CALLS ORGANIC WINES Unlike any other nation, the U.S. oddly imposes a no sulfite restriction on wines in order for them to be called Organic Wine. These wines are also called NSA or NAS wines (which stands for "No Sulfites Added" or "No Added Sulfites.") From the above description, one can see that there are in fact three types of organically grown wines: 1. Organic Wine (less than 15% of all organically grown wine) 2. Made with Organic Grapes 3. Ingredients: Organic Grapes The vast majority of wines from organic grapes are labeled Made with Organic Grapes, Ingredients: Organic Grapes or are blended with nonorganic grapes and unlabeled. Fine winemakers do not generally make wine without sulfites and a number of large wine retailers like BevMo do not sell wine in the category of "USDA Organic Wine." With rare exceptions, this blog does not cover what the USDA calls "Organic Wine." We are hopeful that the USDA will revise the categorization of organically grown wines and make NSA or NAS wines a category of their own. This would put the U.S. in accord with the rest of the world, where "Organic Wine" means a wine from certified grapes made within limits on sulfites (generally under 100-150 ppm). During the month of May, the St. Helena Farmers Market is paying tribute to our essential pollinators. With help from Nimbus Arts, our Market Classroom has been transformed with a beautiful arch adorned with artwork by Anne Pentland. Join Market Educator Amanda Tuttle to learn about the birds, bees, butterflies, beetles, bats and other small pollinating mammals who are responsible for bringing us one out of every three bites of food. The simple truth is that we cannot survive without pollinators. Of the 1,400 crop plants grown around the world, 80% require pollination by animals. Its up to us to protect them. Pick up a free Milkweed plant from the Western Monarch Society of Napa County to help bring this beautiful butterfly back from the brink of extinction. Show your support with Save the Pollinators tees featuring original artwork by Nimbus Arts Andrea Cazares, available at our General Store. And be sure to take advantage of the benefits of pollination with the large selection of seasonal fruits and vegetables available from our vendors. Did you know that the prestigious Science Times has officially declared the bee to be the most important living being on planet Earth? Come visit one of our favorite vendors, A & Bee Provisions, for outstanding honey, delicious almond milk and other products produced in their orchards and pollinated by their honeybees. The City of St. Helena is forming a permanent Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee and taking other steps to promote tolerance for marginalized and underrepresented groups. The City Council authorized staff Tuesday to organize the committee, which will discuss and make recommendations on topics like housing, LGBTQ+ and gender issues, community engagement and racial justice. The committee will be appointed by the council and subject to the Brown Act, the states open meetings law. It will include a youth member. Preya Nixon, assistant to the city manager, proposed a robust and inclusive recruiting effort. The council also approved a slate of other initiatives, including an LGBTQ+ listening session, honoring the history of the Wappo at Wappo Park, create a plaque recognizing St. Helenas former Chinatown, and updating the city website to acknowledge and celebrate indigenous people. The work follows up on a council resolution passed last October calling discrimination and systemic racism a public health crisis and reaffirming the citys commitment to advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. In addition to prevention, the big concern Upvalley is getting faster response to put out small fires before they go wild. Cal Fire, the nations only state firefighting agency with its own air force, is introducing two significant improvements for response time in the county: more fire fighters, and more choppers. First, Cal Fire has formed a new 12-15 person fire crew to be Napa County-based and on duty 24/7 during peak season. Second, they've committed two water-dropping helicopters a Type 1 at the Napa Airport and a Blackhawk in southern Lake County, five minutes away from our airspace. Cal Fire stresses that helicopters most easily and flexibly access water from our county's smaller water sources, such as irrigation ponds and Lake Hennessey. The need for quick access to water sources is a reality that also helps explain the Cal Fire decision, with the Supervisors following, not to enter a public-private partnership with Growers/Vintners for Responsible Agriculture and contract with a private aerial firefighting company for the services of Fire Boss, which would have kept two planes on standby in case a wildfire broke out. Cal Fire told supervisors that Fire Boss was incompatible with its own aerial firefighting program, which uses different aircraft. The exhibit Two Artists/Two Islands, at the Napa Library during May and June, provides a fascinating peek into a faraway locale as well as one that is nearby but often overlooked. The show is a collection of photographs by Elizabeth Bush and paintings and drawings by Mark Mattioli that were inspired by visits to Mare Island and a 2014 trip to Cuba. 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. Special offer: $1 for your first 6 months! Collaborating for dual exhibitions is not unusual for this artistic couple who have done many shows together. In addition, they give encouragement to other artists who are exhibiting their work. If there is an art event in town, you'll find Elizabeth and Mark there. They have attended countless Art in the Library receptions and art talks, providing supportive words to the exhibiting artists, said library associate Stephnia Pramuk, who coordinates the Art in the Library program. When she had two recent cancellations due to the pandemic, Pramuk turned to them and found how strong their support is for the library and the Art in the Library program. I have long had an appreciation for their work, Pramuk said. I've enjoyed Elizabeth's photography in a number of presentations she has given for our Remarkable Journeys program. Napa County reported a milestone Tuesday, saying that more than half the eligible population age 18 and older is now fully vaccinated. Among people 65 and older, more than 90% have all of their recommended shots, the county said. Health officials acknowledge that desired "herd immunity" would require substantially more people to be vaccinated. On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration endorsed the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12 to 15, which could lead to an expanded vaccine-eligible population. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help We're offering our best deal ever with this Editor's Special. Support local news coverage by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register. There were nine new COVID-19 cases reported in Napa County on Tuesday, following 11 cases on Monday. The number of people hospitalized locally with COVID-19 dropped to just one on Tuesday, the lowest number of the year. People wanting to sign up for vaccination through county channels for other upcoming vaccination events should go to MyTurn at https://myturn.ca.gov/ If you do not have access to the Internet or need assistance with the States MyTurn tool, please call: 1-833-422-4255 (Monday-Friday 8 a.m. - 8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.) For more ways to register, please visit https://www.countyofnapa.org/3096/COVID-19-Vaccines or call the County of Napas Public Information & Support line at (707) 253-4540 Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Residents who want to be tested for COVID without charge should go to countyofnapa.org/test for more information. For more information on COVID-19 and actions, you can take to #stopthesurge, visit countyofnapa.org/coronavirus. Editors note: Because of the health implications of the COVID-19 virus, this article is being made available free to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. If youd like to join us in supporting the mission of local journalism, please visit napavalleyregister.com/members/join. Concerned about COVID-19? Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert and an adviser to President Joe Biden, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will likely update its guidance on face coverings in the near future, as a higher percentage of the U.S. population is vaccinated for COVID-19. The CDC on Tuesday reported that 46% of the U.S. population, and 59% of adults, have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The agency reported California's those rates were 52% and 65%, respectively. Given the timing for first and second doses, and the two-week period after the second dose before a person is considered to have full protection, those numbers suggest a majority of Californians will be fully vaccinated by June 15, which is six weeks from this past Tuesday. Newsom has said the June 15 date for dropping business restrictions would only be delayed if there were major setbacks to COVID-19 hospitalizations or vaccination. Data updated Tuesday by the California Department of Public Health on hospital admissions for COVID-19 showed only about 350 patients were in intensive care units with the virus statewide, which is the lowest total recorded since the start of the pandemic. But on March 23, a council vote to schedule a decision on a pay mandate for two weeks later was defeated 3-2. Vice Mayor Liz Alessio and council members Mary Luros and Bernie Narvaez rejected the supermarket-based mandate, saying its wording would leave out people doing similar work at Walmart, Target and other retail chains many of them significant food sellers in their own right who have faced similar risks from the coronavirus. On April 6 when the City Council was to have voted for or against a hazard-pay requirement council members narrowly approved an order to city staff to re-draft the ordinance to more precisely define which businesses would be covered by the mandate. Instead, the council ultimately voted on and passed a statement of support for essential workers in general, rather than an ordinance. In opposing the grocery-store mandate, Narvaez warned of the possibility that even a temporary raise could actually harm some employees, by pushing their income high enough to imperil their eligibility for federal and state aid like rent subsidies and free lunches at public schools. On Monday, he reiterated that concern. My expectation was as things get better with the situation with the pandemic, gradually the consulate would open more and more and more, he said. It was a big shock to suddenly get an email from them, about two weeks ago, saying effective on the 11th we will no longer be offering any consular services. For Anthony, this means his daughter, who was born before the pandemic, will not be able to travel to visit her grandparents in the United States in the foreseeable future. The embassy has made no statements on whether it is taking measures to beef up the consular staff with new employees from the United States. Embassy spokespeople could not be reached for clarification on how the mission will handle other jobs also filled by locals, such as security. An order signed last month by President Vladimir Putin called for creating a list of unfriendly countries whose missions could be banned from hiring Russians or third-country nationals. The list includes the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Poland and several other European countries, but the United States is the first for which the ban is being enforced. Newsom also wants to pay for an after-school program and six weeks of summer school for districts with high concentrations of low-income students, children learning to speak English and kids in foster care. The programs would be available for students up to 6th grade. For many families, schools are a place where they get food, they get health care, they get social services. Its acknowledging that schools are no longer a place where we just get educated, theyre really a community hub for many of our neighborhoods, said Assemblyman Phil Ting, a Democrat from San Francisco and chair of the Assembly Budget Committee. Those programs would eventually be available to about one in three public school students, or 2.1 million children, for an annual cost of about $5 billion once it's fully implemented, his administration said. Newsoms plan to establish universal access to transitional kindergarten would not mean parents have to send their 4-year-olds to school. But school districts would have to offer it, with more children becoming eligible for kindergarten each year until it's fully implemented in the 2024-25 school year. The Newsom administration says it will cost $2.7 billion per year by that time. "Most of his decline appears to have been about the pandemic and now that we're emerging out of that, voters are giving the governor generally better marks on the pandemic. He still doesn't have great job performance numbers," DiCamillo said. "If the focus then shifts away from the pandemic to the other issues facing the state, he's gonna have some work cut out for himself." The poll found that leading the Republicans in the race were former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and Rancho Santa Fe businessman John Cox, who lost handily to Newsom in the 2018 governor's race, although each had backing from just 22% of those polled. Former Northern California Rep. Doug Ose registered 14% support. Of Jenner's low support, DiCamillo said that despite the media attention, "there doesn't seem to be a significant constituency for her candidacy." "Even among Republicans, only 13% say they'd be inclined to vote for her," DiCamillo said. "It's a very poor showing." Jenner's leap into the race has ginned up plenty of national media attention and comparisons to the last major celebrity candidate, Arnold Schwarzenegger, quickly followed. Schwarzenegger, with his broad appeal across party lines, easily won enough votes to take Democratic Gov. Gray Davis' place as governor after he was recalled in 2003. Nevertheless, the foundation did Californians a service by laying out what could happen if tax-happy lawmakers were left to their own devices. Fortunately, there are pragmatic leaders, moderate Democrats and conservative Republicans to block the two-thirds majority votes mostly required. And Newsom is leery of any major tax hike, especially when he's fighting off a recall attempt and is up for reelection next year. "We're proposing no tax increases, we're balancing the budget," he asserted in January. Newsom hasn't said much about it since, but senior advisor Dee Dee Myers, who heads the governor's Office of Business and Economic Development, recently tried to quash the notion. "The governor's made clear he's not going to raise taxes," Myers told an economic summit sponsored by the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. "There will be no increase in income tax, no California wealth tax, not interested in raising corporate taxes or capital gains taxes." That sounds concrete. But David Kline, spokesman for the tax foundation, says his organization has learned to be skeptical. Azerbaijan shares documents on 8 Armenian POWs, COVID-19 in Armenia, Jun 19 digest Armenia acting justice minister expresses gratitude to US for supporting government's reforms agenda Philip Reeker: US will continue to press for the return of Armenian POWs and detainees Armenia 1st President: Russian peacekeepers won't leave Nagorno-Karabakh after 5 years Catholicos of All Armenians receives newly appointed Ambassador of Kazakhstan Armenia Parliament Speaker also attending ruling party's campaign meeting in Odzun (PHOTO) 160,000,000 children are involved in child labor around the world Dollar loses value in Armenia Biden, Johnson underscore close ties between US and UK Armenia attorney general forwards video recording of ex-FM's sensational statement to National Security Service Ex-President Kocharyan: Armenia must stand on its feet to conduct effective negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh Armenia 2nd President: Border with Azerbaijan needs to be constructed as soon as possible Armenia 1st President proposes to acting PM to publicize recording of their conversation about Karabakh Armenia President congratulates Portuguese counterpart on National Day of Portugal Iranian Ambassador to Armenia acting minister: Iran has already developed roadmap and timetable for joint programs People are brought in vans to Lori Province village for meeting with Armenia acting premier Karabakh rescue squad searching for remains of deceased servicemen in Fizuli and Jabrayil Karabakh President appoints new chief of staff Armenia 1st President doesn't rule out formation of coalition with Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan after elections Armenia former President Kocharyan: Only way to work with external partners is being straightforward, honest Acting US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs visits Armenian Genocide Memorial Armenia 1st President: If we Armenians miss this moment as well, very bad things will happen "I have the honor" bloc is in Armenias Syunik (PHOTOS) Horsemen lead Armenia acting PM Pashinyan motorcade in Lori Province village Armenia 2nd President Kocharyan: I have reasonable doubts that Shushi was deliberately handed over Azerbaijan provides documents on 6 captured Armenia soldiers health condition Police apprehend 16 ARF youths near Armenia government building Ex-President Kocharyan on acting PM idea to exchange son for Armenian captives in Azerbaijan: Primitive stupidity Armenia acting premier receives acting US assistant secretary of state ARF youth close off downtown Yerevan street Yerevan police forcibly apprehend protesting ARF members Armenia acting PM in Lori Province, he is accompanied by State Protection Service head (PHOTOS) ARF of Armenia presents facts about high treason Permit documents can now be submitted online at Armenia border checkpoints 76 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia World oil prices dropping Armenia interim government holding Cabinet meeting Daily Express: Brussels angry over upcoming Biden-Putin meeting Newspaper: Bright Armenia Party leader gives acting US deputy secretary of state sanctions list on Azeri authorities American billionaires pay little income tax Most livable city for 2021 is announced Newspaper: Artsakh President makes controversial decision WTO countries agree to intensify negotiations on easing access to coronavirus vaccines Armenia Ombudsman: Trials against Armenian POWs continue in Azerbaijan with gross violations of international law Ankara hopes Erdogan and Biden find common ground Acting US Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker arrives in Yerevan Candidate for Armenia PM: Heads of headquarters of Democratic Party are apprehended More on COVID-19 and tense election campaign in Armenia, June 9 digest Members of European Parliament call on Yerevan and Baku to start exchanging information for demining Members of Armenian opposition Adekvad Union post posters reading "Antinikol" near government building France says it will do everything it can to ensure Amazon is subject to minimum global tax UN warns of likelihood of mass deaths from hunger and disease in Myanmar Beijing accuses Washington of paranoid mania Stanislav Zas: There are still risks of escalation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border Trump supports Nigerian government decision to block Twitter access Erdogan announces visit to Shushi with his family Armenia ruling party MP Hamazasp Danielyan drops mandate Armenia ex-president shares promised record about acting PM Armenia acting PM ends campaign meeting in Gyumri with march, accompanied by many security officers "Armenia" bloc holding rally in Yerevan Opposition Bright Armenia Party leader inviting Nikol Pashinyan to a debate Nagorno-Karabakh issue discussed within the scope of Russian-Turkish consultations in Moscow 168.am: Armenia acting PM in Gyumri, snipers on roof of city council Armenian authorities forcing employees of educational institutions and nuclear power plant to attend campaign meetings Putin-Biden meeting in Geneva to take place in 18th-century villa Armenia opposition party leader: There are 1,837 Armenians who lost their extremities after war in Artsakh Bright Armenia Party leader slams discourse over transferring acting PM's son in exchange of POWs Leader of opposition Liberty Party says Armenia acting PM steals over $2,500 from budget every month Headquarters of political party running in elections applies to Prosecutor General's Office and Police of Armenia Armenia Ombudsman's Office, Central Electoral Commission hold discussion to guarantee citizens' suffrage Armenia acting premier, "support group" employees visit Shirak Province Tech Week Artsakh 2021 to be held in Stepanakert Armenia Elections Oversight Committee: Such development of events might lead to clashes 2 citizens apprehended for electoral bribery in Armenia's Gavar Republican Party of Armenia vice-president: Serzh Sargsyan disclosed an audio recording a little while ago Dollar continues dropping in Armenia Armenia High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs, Ukraine deputy FM express willingness for cooperation Turkeys Erdogan to visit Artsakhs Shushi Armenia health ministry: 5 of 11 children with acute gastroenteritis are discharged from hospital Azerbaijan MOD publicly admits that it is not well-established Armenia independent MP: Acting premier is leading country to events similar to those of March 1, 2008 Russia resumes air communication with Armenia Armenian man says Nikol Pashinyan 'liberated' Armenia's Etchmiadzin Shooting in Russia, casualties and shooter are Armenian Goris town deputy mayor on captured Armenia soldiers return: Negotiator was the Russian side "I have the honor" bloc member: We must achieve Azeri forces withdrawal from Artsakh territories by talks Armenia President receives Masdar's representatives Vanetsyan: It was assumed that Armenia would recognize Karabakh in case of war Lavrov: Turkey, Iran interests are considered when discussing unblocking of regional communications Armenia PM contender: 2 of 3 principles of Karabakh conflict have been violated Vanetsyan: Possibility of deeper Armenia-Russia integration should be considered after our coming to power Russia FM: Nagorno-Karabakh status issue has yet to be agreed upon Tuesdays fire at Yerevan landfill not put out yet Armenia Ombudsman: Manipulating issues of return of captives during election campaign increases tension Woman, 84, dies at Yerevan hospital after being attacked by stray dogs 99 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in Armenia Blinken to Menendez: US will continue to take a look at possible suspension of aid to Azerbaijan Security Council chief meets with head of Red Cross mission to Artsakh Armenia MOD: Disoriented, captured soldier is in Stepanakert World oil prices on the rise YEREVAN. As of Wednesday morning, 354 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 219,950 in the country, the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. Also, 16 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 4,272 cases. Five more cases of coronavirus patients dying from some other illnesses were recorded in Armenia in the past one day, and the corresponding overall death toll in the country is 1,050 now. The number of people who have recovered over the past one day is 403, the total respective number so far is 206,078, and the number of people currently being treated is 8,550which is a drop by 70 in one day. And 3,892 COVID-19 tests were conducted in Armenia over the past one day, while 1,023,251 such tests have been performed to date. YEREVAN. There are always expectations; but whether or not there will be a returning of the captives is another question. Independent MP Sofya Hovsepyan on Wednesday told this to reporters at the National Assembly of Armenia, when asked whether after Russian FM Sergey Lavrov's recent visit to the region there can be expectations that the issue of Armenian captives in Azerbaijan will be resolved quickly. "In fact, there was talk there of providing maps of [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] minefields, which Azerbaijan has long wanted to achieve. But as always, it wants to have them, but to do nothing in return. But our side concedes everything in turn, without making any demands, or makes, [but] which are not comprehensively applied. The Azerbaijani side violates the arrangements every time (); that is, we should not pin high hopes on the outcome of those talks, and we should be very harsh so as not to provide the maps and then receive the prisoners of war, but no documents should be given to them until the entire bunch of the [Armenian] prisoners of war returns," Hovsepyan said. She added that a clear demand must be presented that all the points in the trilateral statement that was signed must be implementedand in a very short time. "Its guarantor is the Russian side which, it seems, should not fail, and should not have demands from us because we have fulfilled virtually all the demandsand more (). The international community must make a clear assessment of all this and show its attitude to Azerbaijan. In fact, it turns out that Azerbaijan makes use of international funding, but when there is a clear demand from international organizations, it ignores them," added the Armenian lawmaker. And touching upon the security issues at the border villages of Armenias Syunik Province, Sofya Hovsepyan said: "We are obligated to address these issues and ensure security. () and [now] there is no safe area in Armenia at all. (). It would be right for them [the incumbent Armenian authorities] to just keep quiet and act, not to spread false information. Virtually no action has been taken in that regard." According to the information I received, now the Azerbaijanis have advanced to [village of] Ishkhanasars rear section, which is called "Sev Lake," and according to their GPSas they did in Shurnukh, Vorotan [villages], they claim that it is their territory. Vahe Hakobyan, former governor of Syunik Province and leader of the Reviving Armenia Party, on Wednesday told this to Armenian News-NEWS.am. "Since they [the Azerbaijanis] face no resistance at all from this side, at night they went up from the Kelbajar side, with more than 200 servicemen with full combat equipment, cut off the road from Sev lakes to Goris [town]; and according to the information I received, they have also surrounded our outpost there. When the light came on in the morning, they [the locals] saw that there were Azerbaijanis from all sides. They [the Azerbaijanis] have even advanced another 3 km toward Armenia from the GPS point they noted themselves. Now the Russians [the peacekeepers] have already reached [there]; they are negotiating, as far as I know," he added. Hakobyan noted that the Azerbaijanis will always advance like this. "If [this] tolerance continues, they will come, take [it], and cut [it] off from Khachik village. Its not just Syunik; Vayots Dzor [Province] will also fall into their appetite," he added. The former governor of Syunik noted that 30 percent of Sev Lake was already in Azerbaijanis hands, and now they have taken it completely, plus they have advanced 3 km into Armenia. According to him, most of the irrigation supply of the local community is from this area. "Apart from irrigation, the drinking water of Goris is there, too. They [the Azerbaijanis] have already taken the entire lake. If it stays that way now, Goris will be left without drinking water, and this could create a catastrophic situation," added Vahe Hakobyan. We had been raising the issue of Sev Litch (Black Lake) for months, and we were told that the conditions were unfavorable, and they failed to solve the issue of the relevant technical equipment for months in order for our soldiers to build trenches there so that we wouldnt face the current issue. This is what Deputy Mayor of Goris Menua Hovsepyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am, touching upon the fact that the enemy [Azerbaijan] has advanced a few kilometers in the territory of Black Lake. The problem is that the Azerbaijanis have advanced from the territory marked through GPS. They have trespassed the state border in the Sev Litch sector. Negotiations are underway. I have some doubt that well be able to thwart them, but we might be able to make it clear where they stand. If the authorities were consistent, we wouldnt face this issue now, Hovsepyan emphasized. The deputy mayor added that doesnt have any information about battles and news that the Armenian side has one injured party. According to Armenian presses, the Armenian side has one injured party. Earlier, Menua Hovsepyan had written on his Facebook page that the adversary has advanced in the territory of Sev Litch and is trying to position itself. The Ministry of Defense reported that early this morning, the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, with the justification of specification of borders, tried to carry out certain activities in one of the border sectors in Syunik Province. After the actions taken by the Armenian units, the Azerbaijani soldiers stopped working. Negotiations are currently underway to solve the created situation, the Armenian Defense Ministrys statement reads. Nanjing dispatches its first China-Europe freight train to a destination in Western Europe People's Daily Online) 17:31, May 11, 2021 A China-Europe freight train bound for Western Europe from Nanjing, in east China's Jiangsu province, departed for the city of Tilburg in the Netherlands on May 10, with the train set to become the first to depart Nanjing for a destination in Western Europe. The first China-Europe freight train connecting Nanjing and the city of Tilburg in the Netherlands is ready to depart from Nanjing, May 10. (Photo/Xinhua) The train is carrying 455 tonnes of goods packed into 100 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units), including electronic products, auto parts, daily necessities, and medical equipment. It will pass through Kazakhstan, Belarus, Poland, and Germany, before eventually arriving in the transportation hub of Netherlands where it will finally finish its 11,583-kilometer journey. It will take about 18 days for the train to arrive in Tilburg, which is only one-third the time it takes to ship items via the traditional maritime route. In 2015, a China-Europe freight train from Nanjing destined for the European continent departed from the city for the first time. By the end of March this year, the transcontinental freight service between Nanjing and Europe had imported and exported goods whose combined value added up to a total of $2.9 billion worth of goods. According to Nanjing Customs statistics, 455 trips were made along the China-Europe freight train route to and from Jiangsu province during the January-April period this year. (Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji) Armenian News - NEWS.am presents the daily digest of Armenia-related top news as of 12.05.21: The situation is tense at the moment at the Syunik Province section of the Armenia-Azerbaijan borderin the direction of Ishkhanasar village. Telegram channels even wrote about clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. Goris Deputy Mayor Menua Hovsepyan wrote on his Facebook that Azerbaijanis have advanced at the Sev Lake area and are trying to deploy. Later, Goris deputy mayor Irina Yolyan reported that Azerbaijani forces have passed Armenias state border in the Ishkhanasar sector, and advanced in the direction of Verishen settlement. According to her, hundreds are standing there. However, the Armenian MOD noted that on early Wednesday morning, the Azerbaijani armed forces tried to carry out certain work in one of the border sectors of Syunik Province, on the grounds of "border adjustment." "After the measures taken by the Armenian [army] subdivisions, the Azerbaijani military stopped that work. At the moment, negotiations are underway to smooth the situation on the ground. The information being disseminated in the press about the ongoing battles in the direction of Ishkhanasar [village] does not correspond to reality," the MOD statement also noted. Meanwhile, Yerkir.am media agency reported that since Tuesday, the Azerbaijanis have advanced their positions also in the direction of Vardenis town of Armenias Gegharkunik Province. Locals inform that the Azerbaijanis have advanced 3 km their military outposts up in the mountain and descended toward Verin Shorzha village where the villagers' pastures and grasslands are. Freedom House has issued a statement in response to reports of abuse of Armenian prisoners of war (POWs) and civilian captives detained by Azerbaijan after their recent armed conflict. We are deeply concerned by the reports of dehumanizing treatment and abuse, including torture, of Armenians captured and detained by Azerbaijan after the recent armed conflict, said Marc Behrendt, director of Europe and Eurasia programs at Freedom House. Also, it is noted that the fate of nearly 200 Armenians reportedly in Azerbaijani custody remains unclear amid reports of abuse and humiliation, months after their return was mandated in a cease-fire ending the two countries armed conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh [(Artsakh)]. The Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia decided the terms of the election campaign for snap parliamentary elections. The election campaign will be held from June 7 to June 18, inclusive. The CEC on Tuesday made more than a dozen decisions, which are conditioned by the recent amendments to the Electoral Code, whereby there will no longer be regional electoral lists, and solely a simple proportional representation electoral systemwith closed electoral listswill operate in the country. In particular, one of the decisions stipulated that the ballots will no longer have regional candidates, and no pen will be used and no marking will be made on these ballots. Voters will just select one of the existing ballots and put it in the envelope. It was also decided that the parties and blocs will no longer submit regional electoral lists. The respective election precincts will be formed by May 26, the parties and blocs planning to run in these elections shall submit their respective documents to the CEC by May 26 at 6 pm, and their registration shall be done by May 31. The deadline for parties and blocs for withdrawal is June 10, 6 pm. Online voting will start on June 1 and end on June 13. The forces fighting for power are actively forming pre-election headquarters, appointing their leaders. It is already known that the work of the pre-election headquarters of the Armenia bloc headed by the second president Robert Kocharyan will be coordinated by former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan. The office of the second president also informs that the headquarters will publish telephone numbers - e-mail address, through which the media and citizens can receive information about the activities of their alliance. Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili arrived in Armenia on an official visit. He was greeted by Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia Tigran Avinyan at Zvartnots International Airport. During his visit, Garibashvili is scheduled to have meetings with acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and acting Foreign Minister Ara Aivazian. At the Armenian Genocide Memorial Complex in Yerevan, the Georgian PM will pay tribute to the victims of the Armenian Genocide. On behalf of acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, an official dinner will be served in honor of Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili. As of Wednesday morning, 354 new cases of the coronavirus were confirmed in Armenia, and the total number of these cases has reached 219,950 in the country. Also, 16 more deaths from COVID-19 were registered, making the respective total 4,272 cases. The number of people who have recovered over the past one day is 403, the total respective number so far is 206,078. The situation in Gaza Strip is getting worse. Clashes between Palestine and Israel continue. Shelling does not stop, the civilian population continues to hide in bomb shelters. According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 43 people were killed, including 13 children and three women, another 296 were injured of varying severity as a result of Israeli shelling. In turn, the Israeli media report one dead and two wounded. The total death toll is 5. Later, Israeli warplanes launched an airstrike at a residential building in Gaza. The nine-story building houses apartments, manufacturing facilities, and a dental clinic, AP reported. By the order of Prosecutor General of Armenia Artur Davtyan, the Prosecutor Generals Office has set up a task force to increase effectiveness of prosecutorial oversight over registration and record-registration of publications, citizens reports and alarms about possible electoral crimes during the organizing and holding of the snap elections of the National Assembly of June 20, 2021, as well as consideration of reports and preliminary investigation of the materials to be prepared on the basis of those reports and the launched criminal cases. The Prosecutor Generals Office told Armenian News-NEWS.am that, taking into account the imperative to hold the elections without violations and in line with democratic principles, the task force will be personally led by the Prosecutor General of Armenia. The task force will conduct large-scale monitoring of the publications of mass media regarding electoral processes, explore the reports on electoral crimes that may be committed during the organizing and holding of the snap elections, will support the structural subdivisions and prosecutors of the Prosecutor Generals Office to consider the reports, prepare materials and conduct prosecutorial oversight over preliminary investigation of the launched criminal cases. To ensure effectiveness of the activities, the Prosecutor Generals Office will soon launch a hotline to quickly and effectively respond to alarms from entities involved in the elections. The task force will work closely with the Central Electoral Commission, local and international organizations that will be observing the elections, other law-enforcement authorities and media outlets that will provide coverage of the elections. Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has arrived in Armenia on official visit. The head of the Georgian government arrived at 26 Baghramyan Street from Zvartnots airport, where he was met by Acting Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. After the official welcoming ceremony, Nikol Pashinyan and Irakli Garibashvili had a face-to-face meeting. Addressing the guest, Nikol Pashinyan noted. Dear Prime Minister of the Republic of Georgia, Dear Irakli, I welcome you to Armenia. Our high-level meetings were deferred for a while due to the global pandemic. I am glad that we are resuming the top-level contacts. The agenda of our bilateral relations is very wide, ranging from transport communications to energy and road infrastructures. Indeed, the fight against COVID-19 is among the most pressing issues on our agenda. Armenia and Georgia are traditionally bound by close political intercourse, based on deep-rooted friendship and brotherhood between the two nations. I believe that the regional developments and prospects stand high on our agenda and we should discuss them in order harmonize our positions and strengthen the humanitarian, educational and cultural components. Our two nations should support each other for the sake of development. Welcoming you once again, I remain confident that we will have fruitful talks today. Thankful for the warm welcome, Irakli Garibashvili said: Mr. Prime Minister, thank you ever so much for the warm welcome. It is a great honor for me to meet you. You mentioned the global pandemic, which affects every nation and every country. Notwithstanding, I feel greatly honored to visit Yerevan. Our peoples are bound by close ties of friendship in addition to good-neighborly relations. Our interaction and friendship go far back to centuries. Therefore, we are keen to see peace, stability and development in Armenia and in the region, as a whole. You next referred to our hectic bilateral agenda. We should discuss ways of boosting trade and economic exchanges, promoting our cultural relations and strengthening cooperation in key areas, such as transport and logistics. This will bring us closer to each other from a regional perspective as well. I am greatly honored to be your guest. I am confident that we will have a fruitful meeting. Thank you. Nikol Pashinyans face-to-face meeting with Irakli Garibashvili was followed by an extended meeting of the two government delegations. Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan noted that regional security-related issues had been discussed with the Georgian Premier during their private talks, and in that context, views were exchanged on the situation in Armenias Syunik province. Both sides stressed that Armenia and Georgia are interested in maintaining peace and stability in the region, which is important for the development of cooperation. In this regard, Nikol Pashinyan condemned Azerbaijanis attempts to circumvent the trilateral statements of November 9, 2020 and January 11, 2021. The interlocutors were pleased to state that the centuries-old Armenian-Georgian friendly relations provide a solid groundwork for deepening mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. The development of transport communications, including railway infrastructure, was emphasized in the context of promoting trade and economic exchanges. The parties expressed reciprocated interest in initiating new joint programs and pledged to work more closely in this direction. Both sides stressed the importance of cooperation between Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Greece and Iran on the draft agreement for establishing an international Persian Gulf-Black Sea transport corridor. Taking the opportunity, Nikol Pashinyan and Irakli Garibashvili referred to their respective efforts aimed at lifting the restrictions caused by the global pandemic. PhD student Alisina Bazrafshans mentoring days began during college in Tehran. He continued that work while studying at Laney Graduate School, promoting the significance of higher education to underserved youth from refugee families in Atlanta. Alisina Bazrafshan began his journey with Laney Graduate School in 2016 after having studied at Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, Iran. He will graduate from Emory with a PhD in chemistry, leaving faculty and students with fond memories of a natural mentor. Laney Graduate School is recognizing Bazrafshans work and impact in that regard by naming him the 2021 Eleanor Main Student Mentor Award recipient. Named in honor of the late Eleanor Main, a transformative leader at Emory and a devoted advocate for graduate education, the award recognizes individuals who exemplify mentoring of the highest quality in graduate education. Shortly after arriving at Emory in 2016, Bazrafshan joined the Student Education Experience Development (SEED) program. Through it, Bazrafshan led multiple successful initiatives to promote the significance of higher education to Atlanta High School students with a focus on refugee high schoolers in the Atlanta region. From 2017 to 2019, he served as president of the SEED Program, increasing his impact within the Emory community and locally. During his presidency, Bazrafshan organized academic and professional development experiences for high school students interested in STEM that included campus visits, research workshops and financial planning seminars. During his time at Emory, he continued his work with the SEED program, most recently as vice president. Bazrafshan leveraged his expertise to develop the academic and professional proficiency of Emory undergraduate students in the laboratory. Undergraduate chemistry students and SEED members Ambika Natarajan and Muhammad Mukarram wrote a letter expressing their gratitude for his mentorship. Countless times we witnessed him sacrificing his time and energy in order to achieve the goals of our organization, they wrote in a joint statement. His enthusiasm and enjoyment of research led us both to pursue research as undergraduate students at Emory, and he was also supportive and encouraging when we encountered unexpected challenges in our respective projects. As Bazrafshans reputation as a well-respected mentor developed among his peers, faculty began to take notice. Alisina already came to the PhD program with the mentoring bug, says Khalid Salaita, associate professor of chemistry and program faculty for the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Enginnering. In fact, Ive heard wonderful stories of how Alisina mentored and tutored other students in Iran as a college student himself. Bazrafshans research at Emory included working in Salaitas lab. Bazrafshan investigated the design principles of fast and processive synthetic DNA motors, elucidated the growth mechanism of 2D peptide nanosheets and visualized cellular forces with high spatial resolution in the lab. Salaita says of the Eleanor Main Student Mentor Award, I cannot imagine a more deserving student for this recognition. Alisina sets the bar very high. After graduation, Bazrafshan will take his post as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University. Elliott investment supports Paper Source for a bright future of its own and in teaming with Barnes & Noble CHICAGO & NEW YORK & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Elliott Investment Management L.P. (Elliott) announces today that funds it advises have entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the assets and business operations of Paper Source Inc. The acquisition of Paper Source by Elliott allows the stationery and gift retailer to emerge from Chapter 11 with the support of a well-capitalized owner committed to the development and growth of the business. Following the Chapter 11 process, Paper Source will benefit from significantly less debt on its balance sheet. It will operate from approximately 130 stores across the US, from Papersource.com, as well as its wholesale division, Waste Not Paper by Paper Source. Elliott is also the owner of Barnes & Noble, the leading bookseller in the US with bookstores in every state. The businesses are highly complementary, with shared product ranges and a common commitment to excellent customer service. While the businesses will continue to operate independently, considerable opportunities exist for mutually beneficial retail partnerships. Barnes & Noble has enjoyed a strong performance since its acquisition by Elliott in September 2019, overcoming a number of pandemic-imposed challenges. Elliott now looks forward to the continued progress of both retailers. James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble, will have oversight responsibilities for both companies. James Daunt, CEO of Barnes & Noble said: I look forward to working closely with everyone at Paper Source. This is a wonderful brand, with a unique culture and community. With Paper Sources management team, we will support and accelerate the brands strategic growth initiatives. Alongside this, the opportunities for Paper Source to work with Barnes & Noble are tremendously exciting for both businesses. Winnie Park, CEO of Paper Source said: All of us at Paper Source are delighted with Elliotts investment in the brand and look forward to working with them, and with James and the team at Barnes & Noble. I am so grateful for the community who have supported Paper Source through both the pandemic and the Chapter 11 process our amazing teams, our incredibly loyal customers, landlords, and our partner and vendor community. Paul Best, Portfolio Manager and Head of European Private Equity at Elliott said: As the countrys leading specialty retailer of stationery, cards and gifts, we see tremendous future potential in Paper Sources business. We look forward to working closely with the management team to position the brand for continued growth coming out of the pandemic. About Paper Source Founded in 1983, Paper Source is a premier lifestyle brand that offers a curated selection of fine papers, gifts, crafts, party supplies, wrap, greeting cards and an exclusive collection of envelopes and cards. With a mission to inspire people to Do Something Creative Every Day, Paper Source offers a creative aesthetic with a unique color palette and proprietary designs that are hand-illustrated by an in-house art and design team, as well as over 1000 artists and makers around the world. Paper Source is an iconic brand with approximately 130 stores across the U.S., a direct-to-consumer eCommerce business, and a robust wholesale network. For more information, please visit www.papersource.com. About Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble, Inc. is the largest retail bookseller in the United States, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company has over 600 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, as well as the Nook Digital business and one of the Webs premier e-commerce sites, BN.com. General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be found on the Company's website at www.bn.com. About Elliott Elliott Investment Management L.P. manages more than $42 billion of assets. Its flagship fund, Elliott Associates, L.P., was founded in 1977, making it one of the oldest funds under continuous management. The Elliott funds' investors include pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations, funds-of-funds, high net worth individuals and families, and employees of the firm. Elliott Advisors (UK) Limited is an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management L.P. Bill and Melinda Gates. Kevin Mazur / Getty Images Good morning and welcome to 10 Things in Tech. If this was forwarded to you, sign up here. Let's get started. 1. Bill and Melinda Gates' first divorce hearing is scheduled for this Friday. The couple announced their divorce less than two weeks ago. Read more about the hearing here. 2. Jeff Bezos' space exploration company, Blue Origin, reportedly tried to poach SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell. According to a new book about Bezos, Shotwell turned the offer down because it "wouldn't look right." Read more about it here. 3. Meet Google's $55 million man, head of search Prabhakar Raghavan. Googlers told Insider about how Raghavan has re-shuffled executives at the search giant and become one of CEO Sundar Pichai's most important lieutenants. Here's our exclusive profile on Raghavan. 4. Tesla is reining in its expansion in China amid political tensions between Washington and Beijing. The automaker reportedly scrapped plans to expand its Shanghai factory, and will slow production in the country. Read about it here. 5. The Pentagon is reportedly considering severing its JEDI cloud contract with Microsoft to avoid hassle from Amazon. Amazon has mounted various legal challenges since the Trump administration awarded the defense contract to Microsoft. Read more about it here. 6. Uber avoided paying nearly $6 billion tax by using 50 Dutch shell companies, a research group reported. Uber has talked about its Dutch tax haven before, but not in detail. Read here why one researcher called the alleged scheme "the Champions League of tax avoidance." 7. Jeff Bezos wanted to make a huge splash for Amazon's climate pledge in 2019, and considered announcing it from a polar ice cap. This was revealed in a new book about the Amazon's CEO's career. Read more about it here. 8. Police issued a warrant for a YouTuber who snuck into SpaceX's Texas launch site. Caesar L. Galaviz filmed a Starship rocket while wandering around on the site for his vlog channel, "Loco VlogS." Here's why police have issued a warrant for his arrest. Story continues 9. Mental-health startups have raised a record $1.9 billion in 2021 due to the pandemic. Q1 2021 saw global funding for mental health startups increase 54% on Q4 2020. Read Insider's report on it here. 10. Sam Altman's SPAC is looking to raise $400 million instead of its original $1 billion target. The Y Combinator founder's SPAC is lowering its expectations less than two months after launch. Here's why that's a sign the SPAC craze is cooling off. Sign up for more Insider newsletters here. Read the original article on Business Insider Associated Press Attorneys for two prisoners facing death by electrocution under South Carolinas new capital punishment law are asking a federal judge to block their executions scheduled later this month, describing the electric chair as a particularly cruel and mutilating method of killing. Executing Brad Sigmon and Freddie Owens by electrocution later this month would cause the men to suffocate to death while they are cooked by the current, attorney Gerald King argued Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Bryan Harwell. The executions were scheduled less than a month after the passage of a new law compelling the condemned to choose between electrocution or a firing squad if lethal injection drugs arent available. Reuters Videos At a hearing of the House Natural Resources Committee, Representative Louis Gohmert of Texas noted he had heard from a former official of NASA that the orbit of the Moon around the Earth and the orbit of the Earth around the Sun fluctuates slightly.Indeed, variations in the celestial mechanics of the Moon's orbit had been known by the ancient Greeks. Astronomers today refer to these variations as an axial precession.But, Gohmert, in a hearing with an official of the National Forest System -- a nook of the U.S. federal government which, among other things, oversees the nation's timber supply, its management of wildfires, and the planting of undergrowth most beneficial to wildlife -- expressed concern about the effects of climate change and asked whether the forest service bureaucracy might do something to reverse those effects by altering the orbit of the Moon."Is there anything that the National Forest Service or BLM (the Bureau of Land Management) can do to change the course of the Moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the Sun? he asked, noting that an orbital adjustment would have a profound effect of the climate.Jennifer Eberlien, an associate deputy chief of the National Forest System, nonplussed at a question widely outside of her usual running lane, was at her diplomatic best."I would have to follow-up with you on that one, Mr. Gohmert," she replied. May 11Four employees from the PetSmart in Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood face felony animal cruelty charges in connection with the November death of a toy poodle named Kobe, court records show. Julie Miller, Shaphan Stonge, Elizabeth Doty and Heather Rowe all face various animal cruelty and neglect charges for their alleged roles in the poodle's death, which happened during a nail trim. Rowe, 27, and Stonge, 37, are both charged with two counts of neglect of animals and a felony count of aggravated cruelty to animals. Doty, 21, and Miller, 32, are both charged with two counts of cruelty to animals and neglect of animals, along with two felony charges of aggravated cruelty to animals for alleged torture and death of an animal. PetSmart officials said in a statement they were heartbroken by Kobe's death and indicated those involved have been fired. "After this terrible accident, we launched an internal investigation and found unintended failure to adhere to our pet safety processes," the statement read. "Additionally, we cooperated with an external investigation, terminated the responsible associates and facilitated an autopsy to help provide answers." AJ Ross, a CBS Sports reporter and Pittsburgh native, said she took 12-year-old Kobe to the PetSmart on Centre Avenue on Nov. 17. Because of covid-19 social distancing restrictions, she said she wasn't allowed to stay in the grooming area while groomers cut the dog's nails. "I thought, 'He's not getting the full works, everything will be OK,'" Ross said. She said she went next door to a Walgreens and returned to the pet store just minutes later. She said she was in line at the checkout, buying a toy and treats for Kobe, when she heard a manager paged over the intercom to the grooming area. When she went to that area, she said she found her dog lifeless on the grooming table. The groomers, she said, told her the dog had just collapsed. She took Kobe a few blocks away to an animal hospital where veterinarians and vet techs tried to revive him to no avail. Ross said she asked for a necropsy. She also demanded the surveillance footage from inside the store's grooming area. Story continues She said the footage showed Doty and Miller put two tethers around Kobe's neck, with each pulling in opposite directions. She said Kobe could be seen struggling and thrashing without response from either of the women, and at one point the dog was suspended above the table by the tethers. Ross reported the incident and what she saw in the surveillance footage to Humane Society Police Officer Angela Fry, who obtained a search warrant for the surveillance footage. Fry wrote in the complaint that the footage showed "exactly what Ross had described to me." That included, Fry wrote in the complaint, Rowe and Stonge entering the grooming area and the four employees standing around Kobe's body and talking. Rowe, Stonge, Koty and Miller were all charged Friday via summons, court records show. No attorneys were listed in the court documents, and preliminary hearings are scheduled for October. Fry said she showed the footage to Dr. Arielle Samson, of Humane Animal Rescue. Samson told her, according to the complaint, that the two tethers pulling Kobe's neck in opposite directions, coupled with his paws being off the table, crushed his airway. Samson said Kobe's flailing and struggling was a response to not being able to breathe. Fry wrote that she interviewed Miller, one of the groomers in the room with Kobe, in late December. She said groomers are trained to pick up dogs by the waist to attempt to keep them still during nail trims. She claimed Kobe was "growling and snarling," and she didn't notice he stopped making noise because she was focused on his nails. Protocol, she said, dictates that associates seek veterinary care for an animal in distress, according to the complaint. Ross adopted Kobe as a puppy in Myrtle Beach her first television job out of college. "I was really lonely, and I had this little furball to take care of," she said. "It was not so unbearable with him there." She said she isn't trying to target PetSmart by speaking out about what happened to Kobe, but rather she just doesn't want anyone else to go through the same thing. She referenced legislation from 2005 that would have required dog groomers in Pennsylvania to be licensed professionals. The bill never passed. "I really thought it would be something innocuous," she said of taking Kobe for a nail trim. "Now I don't have my dog anymore." Megan Guza is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Megan at 412-380-8519, mguza@triblive.com or via Twitter . Three white men accused over the death of African-American jogger Ahmaud Arbery pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to hate crime charges and attempted kidnapping. Arbery was shot dead in February last year as he was jogging in a residential neighborhood of Brunswick, Georgia, in an incident that further fuelled anger over allegedly racist killings of Black Americans. The three men, who later told police they suspected he was a burglar, chased him before one of the group fatally shot him. Gregory McMichael, 65, his son Travis, 35, and William Bryan, 51, appeared before a federal judge who explained the new charges brought against them two weeks ago. "There is absolutely nothing in the indictment that identifies how this is a federal hate crime," their lawyers said in a statement. The three men were earlier charged with murder and false imprisonment. Their trial is due to open on October 18. A prosecutor initially given the case concluded that Arbery's killers were legally armed under Georgia's open carry law and were within their rights to chase him under a citizen's arrest statute. Georgia on Monday repealed its citizen's arrest law, a move prompted by Arbery's death. Arbery, who would have turned 27 on Saturday, "was the victim of vigilante-style violence that has no place in our country or in our state," said Governor Brian Kemp as he signed the repeal. The deaths of Arbery and George Floyd, an African American murdered by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May last year, became emblematic of the Black Lives Matter movement against violence targeting African Americans. chp/dax/bgs/bfm KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan security forces mounted an operation to recapture a Taliban-held district outside the capital Kabul on Wednesday just before the start of a three-day ceasefire at midnight, a local official said. Taliban insurgents had killed or captured some government soldiers and forced others to retreat after storming the district centre, which lies in Wardak province less than an hour's drive from Kabul. Government forces have been struggling against stepped-up attacks by the insurgents as U.S. troops withdraw after two decades of fighting in the country. Wardak mayor Zarifa Ghafari said that if the district was not taken soon, fighting would reach the gates of Kabul in a few days. The defence ministry said on Wednesday special forces have been deployed in the area to retake the district after troops made a "tactical retreat" on Tuesday. A senior government official said they aimed to regain control before a three-day ceasefire announced by the Taliban for the Muslim religious holiday of Eid, which starts on Thursday. "We will have to do it today because after the ceasefire, it will give the Taliban enough time to dig in and will complicate the operations and increase our casualties," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The government carried out air strikes at the start of the operation, the defence ministry said. The insurgents have maintained a strong presence in Wardak and nearby Logar province to the south over the years. Afghan officials say the Taliban have used the provinces as launchpads for hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings on Kabul. The Taliban has staged a months-long campaign to expand its influence across the country as the United States has begun withdrawing troops from May 1 and closed some bases in keeping with a peace deal it signed with the Taliban last year. Afghan officials say since Washington announced plans last month to pull out all U.S. troops by Sept. 11, the Taliban have stepped up attacks. Story continues Critics of the decision to withdraw say the Islamist militants will try to sweep back into power. U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001 for sheltering the al-Qaeda militants involved in the September 11 attacks on the United States. (Reporting by Kabul bureau, Editing by Angus MacSwan) By Mahamat Ramadane N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - An African Union mission recommended on Wednesday that Chad's military share power with a civilian president, as one of three options towards restoring constitutional order following last month's killing of president Idriss Deby. A military council led by Deby's son Mahamat Idriss Deby seized power in April after his father was killed while visiting troops opposing a rebel insurgency. The African Union, which could suspend Chad over the military takeover, sent a fact-finding mission to develop strategies for a return to constitutional order and democratic governance. In a report, the mission recommended the AU's security council could support the military transition as it stands, while appointing a special envoy to ensure the military keep their promise to organise elections with 18 months. Another option would be to support the current military-led transition, while pressuring the junta to share power equally with a civilian government due to the security threats Chad faces from rebels and jihadi insurgents. A final option would be to pressure the military to hand over power to a civilian president alongside a military vice president, the report said. It said a transitional charter drafted by the military was "wholly inadequate" and encouraged the drafting of a new, more inclusive national constitution, and a swift plan for fresh elections. It also recommended that rebel forces be demobilized and invited to participate in dialogue on forming any new government. The military council, which has promised to hold elections within 18 months, has rejected talks with the rebels. Former colonial ruler France, which maintains a military presence in Chad, initially supported the council but has since called for a civilian-led unity government. Opposition politicians and civil society have denounced the military takeover as a coup. Several protests have turned violent in recent weeks, with at least 6 people killed and scores more arrested in clashes with security forces. Hundreds of protesters marched peacefully through N'Djamena on Wednesday carrying placards calling for calm during the transition process. Demonstrators were flanked by soldiers and police, who had authorized the event. (Reporting by Mahamat Ramadane; Writing by Cooper Inveen; Editing by Bate Felix and Giles Elgood) The American Rescue Plan is sending $543.8 million in federal aid to 47 Maryland colleges and universities, about half of which will be distributed to students as emergency cash grants. President Joe Bidens economic relief plan was passed in March and aims to cushion the financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan is injecting about $36 billion into public and private, nonprofit colleges and universities across the country, according to a statement from Marylands congressional delegation. In Maryland, 47 colleges and universities will receive an average of $11.5 million through the plan. About half of the funds will go toward helping students who are facing hunger, homelessness and other hardships, according to the statement. University of Maryland, College Park is set to receive the largest amount in the state at about $58 million, followed by Towson University at $49 million and Montgomery College at $40 million. The Community College of Baltimore County notably topped the list in fourth place, receiving about $37 million in federal aid. The community college has recently attracted federal attention for its wraparound services for students. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited the Catonsville campus last week where he highlighted the colleges on-site child care center and tuition support program. Marylands congressional delegation Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen as well as Congressmen Steny H. Hoyer, Dutch Ruppersberger, John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume, Anthony Brown, Jamie Raskin and David Trone touted the federal aid packages benefit for Maryland college students in a statement Tuesday. The success of our local colleges and universities is critical to the success of our economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the lawmakers said in the statement. The American Rescue Plan makes a historic investment that will ensure the doors to higher education remain open here in Maryland and provide struggling students with the resources they need to stay on track and complete their degrees. WASHINGTON The Biden administration dispatched a top State Department diplomat to the Middle East "immediately" to try to de-escalate the deadly conflict between Israel and Hamas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Wednesday. President Joe Biden faces growing pressure to help stem the violence and heightened international alarm over the spiraling death toll. The United Nations' special coordinator for the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, warned on Wednesday that the situation "is escalating toward full scale war." More than 80 Palestinians have been killed in the fighting, including 17 children and seven women, according to Gazas Health Ministry, and another 480 people have been wounded. Hamas, the Islamic militant group that seized power in Gaza in 2007, acknowledged that a top commander and several other militants were among the dead. A total of seven people have been killed in Israel. Among them were a soldier killed by an anti-tank missile and a 6-year-old child hit in a rocket attack. The fighting has also spilled out into the streets, with Arab and Jewish mobs savagely beating people and torching cars. Flights have been canceled or diverted away from the countrys main airport. How it started: What to know about the Sheikh Jarrah evictions Visualize: How Israel's Iron Dome defense system works "We are deeply engaged across the board," from the State Department to the White House, Blinken said. But critics say that's simply not true. "The Biden administration came into office with one overriding goal: Avoid Israel-Palestine," Peter Beinart, editor at large of Jewish Currents, a left-leaning magazine, and a journalism professor at the City University of New York. He noted that when Barack Obama came into office, he quickly appointed a high-wattage special envoy, George Mitchell, to jumpstart the peace process. "Biden has given the Israeli-Palestinian file to a deputy assistant secretary of state," Beinart wrote Wednesday in an essay on Substack, an online publishing platform. "The contrast with the Obama administration couldnt have been starker." Story continues Biden has not nominated an ambassador to Israel, and the Trump administration closed the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem, which had served as the White House's main channel of communication to the Palestinians. White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not answer questions Wednesday about whether the administration will reopen that diplomatic facility. She said Biden would nominate "a qualified, experienced ambassador to Israel" in the coming weeks, and the administration has made 25 high-level calls on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, 10 of which took place yesterday. Later on Wednesday, Biden told reporters that he had spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner (rather) than later," he said. The Israel-Palestinian conflagration poses a major test for Biden as he seeks to restore U.S. global leadership without losing focus on his domestic priorities of containing the COVID-19 pandemic and reviving the U.S. economy. "The Israelis and Palestinians are used to being treated as though they are the most important issue in the world, and you have a president whose first, second and third priorities are domestic," said Ilan Goldenberg, who worked on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at the State Department during the Obama administration. Biden's foreign policy advisers have been more focused on China than the Middle East, he noted. Khalil Jahshan, a Palestinian American political analyst and executive director of Arab Center Washington DC, said the crisis escalated quickly and seemed to catch many off guard, including the White House. "All of a sudden, the Palestine question is back on the screen, like it or not," Jahshan said. US ability to end conflict may be 'very low' The Biden administration enters the geopolitical fray after four years in which the Trump administration heavily favored Israel's expansionist settlement policies, an approach that fueled deep resentment among Palestinians, Jahshan said. To make matters worse, he said, "there's no love lost" between Biden and Netanyahu. Still, "the U.S. is the only country with leverage on Israel," he said, and Biden needs to pressure Netanyahu to pull back. Jahshan said the White House approach has been "haphazard" and conventional, applying "mild pressure on Israel at lower levels and pushing Arab allies to control the situation." Blinken said Hady Amr, Biden's deputy assistant secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, is heading to the region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a diplomat to try to calm the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. "The most important thing now is for all sides to cease the violence, to de-escalate and try to move to calm," he said. Aaron David Miller, who helped U.S. policy toward the Middle East across multiple administrations, said, "The Biden administration's capacity to bring this to an end ... is very low." Israel and Hamas seem determined to keep fighting, he said, and while Hamas is firing rockets at Jerusalem, the White House is loath to pressure Israel. "We're not going to say ... that Israel should stand down, not when Ben Gurion airport is closed and Israelis are living in shelters," said Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. If the conflict rages for two more weeks, he said, the White House may intervene more directly. "I think the default position is risk aversion," Miller said. Asked Wednesday whether the Israeli response has been proportional, given the high number of Palestinian casualties, Blinken said there is "a very clear and absolute distinction between a terrorist organization, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets in fact, targeting civilians and Israel's response defending itself." Smoke billows from Israeli airstrikes at a residential building in Gaza City on May 12. He said Palestinians "have a right to live in safety and security," but he did not mention that the conflict started with an effort by Israeli settlers to evict Palestinian families from their longtime homes in East Jerusalem. If US can't, who can? Eyes on Egypt, UN Goldenberg, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank, said the United States is an important player in the conflict, but "we need to be realistic about what we can do." He noted that American officials do not communicate directly with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group. "The most important mediators are Egypt and the U.N.," Goldenberg said. He said Biden needs to make it clear to Israeli leaders that the United States will back those mediation efforts and tell other international actors to steer clear. He predicted the Egyptians would forge a cease-fire. "The question is whether it happens in 48 hours or 50 days," Goldenberg said. "The early returns are not promising at all. ... This is a very dangerous moment." Contributing: The Associated Press This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Israel-Palestine 'full scale war' feared as US lacks ambassador Democratic presidential candidate and businessman Andrew Yang Matt Rourke/AP Yang released a statement expressing solidarity with Palestinians after backlash over a pro-Israel tweet. He said he mourns for "every Palestinian life taken before its time as I do for every Israeli." Israeli airstrikes have killed dozens of Palestinians this week, as rockets from Gaza killed at least 5 Israelis. See more stories on Insider's business page. New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang on Wednesday issued a statement that expressed sorrow over Palestinians and Israelis who've died as a result of a recent flare up in violence, which came after he faced backlash over a tweet explicitly expressing support for Israel. Yang, a Democrat, said he spoke to volunteers on his campaign on Tuesday and many were "upset with my recent tweet expressing solidarity with the people of Israel in conjunction with the violence in the region this week that has claimed the lives of innocents and children on both sides." "They expressed to me that they follow and support me for a number of reasons, one is that I am a clear-headed person who follows facts. The other is that I am a. human being who stands for universal values of fellowship and goodwill," Yang added. "They felt that. my tweet was overly simplistic in my treatment of a conflict that has a long and complex history full fo tragedies. And they felt it failed to acknowledge the pain and suffering on both sides. They were, of course, correct." He went on to say that he mourns for "every Palestinian life taken before its time as I do for every Israeli," and thanked those who've spoken to him about the issue. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Yang's initial tweet did not express any solidarity with Palestinians. "I'm standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists," Yang said. "The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere." Story continues He received praise from Republicans like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas over the tweet, but it also generated. a fair amount of backlash - including from fellow Democrats. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York excoriated Yang for his "chest-thumping" statement. As a result of Israeli airstrikes this week, 48 Palestians have been killed, including 14 children, per CNN. Meanwhile, militant groups in Gaza like Hamas have sent rockets toward Israeli, killing five in the process. At the heart of the violence is Israel's ongoing occupation of Palestinian territories and treatment of Palestinians, which human rights groups have increasingly decried as a form of apartheid. But more immediately, planned evictions of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem has exacerbated tensions. The UN on Tuesday warned that the recent violent could spiral into a "full-scale war." Read the original article on Business Insider FIle Image: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions Postmaster General Louis DeJoy during a hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee on 24 August 2020 in Washington, DC (Getty Images) Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Tuesday hit out at the New York mayoral hopeful Andrew Yang for scheduling a campaign event around the celebration of Eid after tweeting in support of Israel amid the escalating violence between Israeli forces and Hamas in Jerusalem. Mr Yang, in his initial tweet on Monday had said, Im standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists. The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere, he said. His tweet came even as 26 Palestinians including nine children have been killed in the ongoing airstrikes between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. The mayoral candidate was subsequently disinvited from the event where he was scheduled to distribute groceries to needy Muslim families in the Queens neighbourhood of Astoria. The organisers of the event decided that it was better if we did not attend and we were happy to abide by the reservations, Mr Yang told the media during a press conference. When asked if the invite was withdrawn due to his tweet supporting Israel, I believe so, Mr Yang responded. Ms Ocasio-Cortez, who has expressed her support for Palestinian people in past, slammed Mr Yang for trying to show up at the Muslim religious festivity after sending out a chest-thumping support for the Israeli aggression. She wrote: Utterly shameful for Yang to try to show up to an Eid event after sending out a chest-thumping statement of support for a strike killing 9 children, especially after his silence as Al-Aqsa was attacked. But then to try that in Astoria? During Ramadan?! They will let you know. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. MsOcasio-Cortez was not the only one condemning Mr Yang for his Monday tweet. Soon after he expressed support for Israel, the hashtag #YangSupportsGenocide began trending on twitter. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. However, his tweet drew support from prominent conservative voices including Donald Trump Jr. retweeting him. The Trump scion wrote: Do yourselves a favor and look at the quote tweets and replies to this tweet. Dems are now legit pro terror. Story continues This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The tension between Israelis and Palestinian security forces rose after a dramatic confrontation at Jerusalems Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, wherein Israeli police clashed with Palestinian worshippers as they were celebrating the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. During the clash, at least 200 Palestinians and 17 officers were hurt. Read More Trump continues his vendetta against windmills with statement warning of disasters for navigation Republicans accuse Democrats of rigging elections as divided Senate to consider voting rights bill Dr Fauci once again schools Rand Paul after GOP senator peddles Covid misinformation WASHINGTON Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testified Wednesday before a Senate committee about the threat of domestic extremism facing the nation. Both Cabinet members appeared during a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. Their testimony comes as the Department of Homeland Security launched a new strategy to collect and analyze intelligence about security threats from public social media posts. DHS officials said that they are trying to develop a warning system to detect posts similar to the ones that appeared to predict the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. To address the threats, Garland recently called on Congress to boost funding for the Justice Department to carry out a range of priorities, including combating domestic terrorism. In addition to foreign terrorism, Garland called domestic terrorism an emerging and accelerating threat in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee. "Both forms of terrorism are of extraordinary concern to me. We never want to take our eyes off of what happened on 9/11 and the risks that our country continues to face from foreign-origin attacks on the homeland," he said. "Likewise, we have a growing fear of domestic violent extremism and domestic terrorism. Both of those keep me up at night." Bidens 2022 budget request calls on Congress to provide $45 million more for the FBI to investigate domestic terrorism and $40 million more to U.S. attorneys to manage increasing domestic terrorism caseloads. The hearing comes more than four months after the Jan. 6 riot. More than 440 people have been charged so far with participating in the attack. (Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration moved Tuesday to ease gasoline shortages caused by a ransomware attack on the nations largest pipeline network, as concerns grew that spiking fuel prices and supply disruptions could hinder travel while the nation emerges from the coronavirus pandemic. The Environmental Protection Agency waived gasoline volatility requirements across 12 states and Washington, D.C., to help bring more fuel to areas normally well supplied by the Colonial Pipeline. The Department of Transportation also announced initial steps that could permit foreign tankers to transport gasoline and diesel to East Coast ports, despite 101-year-old Jones Act mandates to use American vessels. The actions are among several options President Joe Biden has to blunt the potential political fallout from fuel shortages and rising prices just as hes trying to jump start the economy after the worst pandemic in a century. Were going to move in lightning speed, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing. Filling stations across the East Coast were reporting outages four days after hackers stole data and locked Colonial Pipeline Co.s computers, prompting it to shut down operations. North Carolina and Virginia declared states of emergency as tanks ran dry. Airlines and airports were also trying to carefully manage jet fuel stockpiles. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the Federal Railroad Administration was enlisting railroads to ensure fuel could be transported inland from ports and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was directing pipeline companies to give priority to fuel shipments to where they are needed. We know that we have gasoline, we just have to get it to the right places, Granholm said. Its not that we have a gasoline shortage, its that we have this supply crunch. Things will be back to normal soon, she added. Were asking people not to hoard and know that were all over this. Story continues The Colonial Pipeline should be substantially operational by the end of the week or the weekend, she said, while arguing there was no cause for hoarding gasoline, and the administration will have no tolerance for price gouging. States most affected by the shutdown are North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and southern Virginia, Granholm said. The Biden administration issued an order on Sunday extending the amount of time truck drivers can spend behind the wheel when transporting fuel across 17 states and the District of Columbia. On Tuesday evening, the Transportation Department said 10 states could allow heavier-than-normal truck loads of gasoline and other fuels. It is hard for elected officials to do nothing when pump prices are rising, said Kevin Book, managing director of ClearView Energy Partners. The White House looks to be treading lightly. The staggered response so far reflects expectations, said Height Capital Markets analyst Benjamin Salisbury. Fuel waivers are a fairly standard response to supply disruptions with a lot of precedent. From Virginia to Louisiana, convenience stores and corner gas stations are turning away customers as tanks tap out amid panic buying. An extended pipeline disruption could have far-reaching implications for East Coast states dependent on the pipeline, prompting bigger government interventions. The EPA orders Tuesday allow the sale of gasoline that doesnt satisfy requirements meant to help combat smog in certain areas. An initial order allowed the sale of conventional gasoline in areas where reformulated gasoline is required across Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. A second order, issued Tuesday evening, went further by waiving low-volatility requirements governing conventional and reformulated gasoline in those initial areas as well as Alabama, Delaware, Georgia, some counties in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The moves give retailers the flexibility to market gasoline that might be available despite the Colonial Pipeline shutdown. I have determined that an extreme and unusual fuel supply circumstance exists that will prevent the distribution of an adequate supply of compliant gasoline to consumers, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a letter to local leaders describing one of the moves. Fuel waivers are commonly used to stem supply disruptions after hurricanes and other disasters. Its unclear, however, how much help they would be now, without a major pipeline to ferry the fuels to markets up and down the Atlantic Seaboard. Energy analysts say potentially greater benefits could come after the Colonial Pipeline restarts, by allowing refiners and blenders to market more varieties of fuel for regions short on gasoline. (Updates with details on new fuel waivers, from second paragraph.) For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. 2021 Bloomberg L.P. May 11Parishioners gathered in a tent outside St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Grand Haven on Monday evening to talk with Bishop David Walkowiak about the recent dismissal of "Father Bill" Langlois from the priesthood. "The bishop did a nice job," said Mike Burdick, a longtime parishioner and friend of the former priest. "He went through the whole process and why it was done." kAm|65:2 H2D ?@E 2==@H65 :? 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H2D 5@?2E65 E@ E96 |FD:=J :D 2 G6CJ 36?6G@=6?E 72>:=J[" qFC5:4D2:5]k^Am kAmqFC5:4D2:5 E92E 96 766=D 325 7@C 9:D 7C:6?5]k^Am kAm"x7 96 5:5 D@>6E9:?8 325[ E92E :D ?@E 8@@5[" 96 D2:5]k^Am kAm%96 A2C:D9:@?6C D2:5 E92E 96 H@F=5 4@?E:?F6 E@ DFAA@CE 9:D 7C:6?5[ 2D H6== 2D E96 G:4E:>]k^Am kAm"%96C6'D EH@ 3C@<6? 962CED 96C6[" qFC5:4< D2:5] "(6 ?665 E@ AC2J 7@C 3@E9] %96C6 ?665D E@ 36 962=:?8]"k^Am You may contact Becky Vargo at bvargo@grandhaventribune.com. The waterfront home features a dock on Toluca Lake, as well as a swimming pool, spa, gym and professional recording studio. (Anthony Barcelo) Kenya Barris, the creator behind the shows black-ish and #blackAF, cant get enough of the San Fernando Valley. He just shelled out $7.25 million for a Spanish-style spot in Toluca Lake, his fifth home in the area. Records show hes also owned properties in Valley Village, Encino and Studio City, where he paid $4.6 million for a Cape Cod-style residence last year. His newest place emphasizes amenities with a gym, six-car garage and professional recording studio spread across 6,500 square feet. The house enjoys a waterfront spot on Toluca Lake and takes advantage with a private dock, as well as a swimming pool and spa surrounded by lush landscaping. The exterior wears its Spanish style on it sleeve with clay tile, white stucco and an arched wood front door. Living spaces, however, are a different story; nearly devoid of color, they combine white walls and ceilings with dark, nearly black, hardwood floors. The primary suite sits upstairs and takes in views of the water below. One of five bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, it has a steam shower and opens to one of multiple decks overlooking the tropical backyard. A native of Inglewood, Barris is best known for creating black-ish, the ABC sitcom that has run for seven seasons and received a slew of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. In 2018, he signed a three-year deal with Netflix worth $100 million. Carl Gambino of Compass held the listing. Shavonda Hill of RE/MAX One represented the buyer. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. US President Joe Biden said Wednesday that Israel has a right to defend itself but after speaking with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he hopes violent clashes with Palestinians will end quickly. "I had a conversation with Bibi Netanyahu not too long ago," Biden told reporters. "My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later, but Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory." Biden said US diplomacy was in high gear with national security and defense staff "in constant contact with their counterparts in the Middle East -- not just with the Israelis, but also with everyone from the Egyptians and the Saudis to the Emiratis." Biden spoke as calls grew internationally for a de-escalation of violence after intense hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians that have left dozens dead and hundreds injured. The Israeli army has launched hundreds of air strikes on the Gaza Strip since Monday, while Palestinian militants have launched more than 1,200 rockets, according to Israel's army, in some of the worst violence in seven years. Coinciding with the aerial bombardments is surging violence between Arabs and Jews inside Israel. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had spoken by telephone with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, to urge an end to the rocket attacks. The rockets are being fired by Hamas, but the United States does not speak with the group, considering it a terrorist organization. The conversation between the top US diplomat and Abbas was the first high-level call between the United States and the Palestinians since Biden was sworn into office in January. Abbas's Palestinian Authority broke off contact with the previous US administration of Donald Trump in 2017, when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital. "I spoke with President Abbas about the ongoing situation in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza," Blinken posted on Twitter. "I expressed condolences for the loss of life. I emphasized the need to end rocket attacks and deescalate tensions." Story continues A readout of the call from the Palestinian presidency said Abbas had "stressed the importance of stopping the Israeli attacks on our Palestinian people everywhere, and putting an end to settler attacks and the aggressive Israeli measures against our people." - 'Harrowing' - Earlier, Blinken announced that Hady Amr, the State Department official in charge of Israeli and Palestinian affairs, was leaving Wednesday to the region to urge "de-escalation of violence." The diplomat also talked with Netanyahu, again pushing for both sides to step back from fighting. Blinken "reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence," said a State Department statement. The Pentagon said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had called his Israeli counterpart, Benny Gantz, and backed Israel's "legitimate right to defend itself and its people" while also urging steps to restore calm. Blinken described scenes of dead Palestinian civilians, including children, as "harrowing" but defended Israel's assault on Gaza in response to rocket fire by Hamas militants. "I think Israel has an extra burden in trying to do everything they possibly can to avoid civilian casualties, even as it is rightfully responding in defense of its people," Blinken said. But the diplomat said there was a "very clear and absolute distinction between a terrorist organization, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets -- in fact, targeting civilians -- and Israel's response defending itself." Biden's administration earlier appealed to ally Israel to reroute a flashpoint parade in Jerusalem and prevent evictions of Palestinians in the holy city, the immediate trigger for the new round of violence. Taking more nuance after the militantly pro-Israel administration of Trump, Blinken renewed US support for the eventual creation of an independent Palestinian state. "This violence takes us further away from that goal," Blinken said. "We believe Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live with safety and security and will continue to engage with Israelis, Palestinians and other regional partners to urge de-escalation and to bring calm." In a statement, the White House said that during his call with Netanyahu, Biden "condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups, including against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. He conveyed his unwavering support for Israel's security and for Israel's legitimate right to defend itself and its people, while protecting civilians." bur-st/bfm SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) Bosnian police have arrested a woman on suspicion of financially supporting her husband and other Bosnians who joined Islamic fighters in Syria and Iraq, authorities said Wednesday. Sena Hamzabegovic was arrested upon her arrival to Bosnia at the airport in the central town of Tuzla on Tuesday, Bosnia's security agency said in a statement. The prosecutor's office said they will seek detention for Hamzabegovic, who holds dual Bosnian and Swiss citizenship. The 61-year-old woman faces charges of financing terror activities. Hamzabegovic allegedly sent money and other means of support from 2013 to her husband, who held a prominent position in the Islamic fighters' group structures. The unidentified man remains at large. The prosecutor's statement said security agencies in Bosnia have worked in cooperation with foreign colleagues on Hamzabegovic's case over a longer period of time. No other details were immediately available. Hundreds of Bosnians in the past have joined Islamic fighters in Syria and Iraq. Many have been jailed upon returning and dozens still remain in camps in Syria. The Broward County School Board began the process of finding an interim superintendent following its approval of Robert Runcies $754,900 separation agreement Tuesday. Candidates will come from inside the district and must submit letters of interest by May 28. The nine-member School Board could make a decision on the candidate at a meeting it scheduled for June 15. The discussion on the temporary administrator came just hours after the School Board narrowly approved, in a 5-4 vote, Runcies exit agreement after nearly 10 years with the district. Runcie, 59, was indicted on April 15 of a perjury charge related to his testimony to a grand jury investigating whether Florida school districts were complying with state laws on school safety passed after the Feb. 14, 21018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland. Seventeen students and faculty members died in the tragedy. As part of the deal, Runcie will stay on the clock until Aug. 10 to help whomever the School Board chooses for the interim post. During the discussions about finding an interim superintendent, some on the dais, including Board Members Lori Alhadeff and Debra Hixon, said they wanted to open the process to candidates outside the district as well. It gives more opportunity for other people who would potentially qualify for the position, said Alhadeff, who was one of four board members who voted against Runcies severance package. Broward School Board members Ann Murray, left, and Debra Hixon attend a meeting where the Broward School Board approved, in a 5-4 vote, a $754,900 exit package for Superintendent Robert Runcie on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Fort Lauderdale. On April 15, Runcie was indicted by a grand jury on a perjury charge. His last day is scheduled to be Aug. 10, although he is expected to stop serving as superintendent once an interim replacement is named. The other seven board members said, however, the temporary job should go to someone already working in a leadership position within the school system who is familiar with procedures. Alhadeffs 14-year-old daughter, Alyssa, and Hixons husband, Chris, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas athletic director, were both killed in the shootings. The district is heading into a busy time, with an unprecedented large summer school program to catch up students who have fallen behind due to the coronavirus pandemic. We have an extensive bench of people who are more than capable, said Board Member Nora Rupert. Story continues Board Member Ann Murray agreed, saying that under the districts current leadership, Broward became a model for how to teach students both remotely and in-person. No one was as ready as we were when the pandemic hit, she said. The district did face serious challenges during the crisis, however, including having up to a third of its students fall so far behind they were at risk of failing. Runcie, who was hired by the district in 2011, advised the board Tuesday afternoon to appoint an interim superintendent and then focus on hiring his permanent replacement. Even though the job pays well he makes $356,201 a year districts nationwide are having trouble finding administrators who want the post. He pointed to the Houston public school district, which hasnt had a permanent superintendent in more than three years. Runcie said finding candidates to permanently replace him could take significantly longer than the board thinks. He urged them to not delay appointing an interim, so they can devote their attention to searching for a permanent replacement. I think that should be your focus, and make the interim process as simple as possible, he said. The School Board also on Tuesday discussed appointing an interim general counsel to replace Barbara Myrick, 72, whose last day is June 30. Both Myrick and Runcie offered to resign last month following their respective statewide grand jury indictments. Runcie was charged with perjury and Myrick with disclosing grand jury proceedings. They are both fighting the charges. Barbara Myrick, Broward County Public Schools general counsel, talks to School Board members after they approved her separation agreement Thursday, May 5, 2021. The board unanimously approved Myricks $226,000 separation agreement on Thursday. The School Board is scheduled to hold a meeting on June 3 to discuss writing a job description for the next general counsel. (ap) Declining vaccination rates in Pakistan have been linked to operations undertaken by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2011 to try to locate Osama bin Laden. A new study in the Journal of the European Economic Association, which is published by the Oxford University Press, argues that Pakistani distrust in vaccines can be tied directly to a CIA-led ruse in 2011 that used a vaccine clinic as a cover for agents to try to gather information on bin Laden's location. During the ruse, CIA agents worked with a local doctor to launch an immunisation plan in Pakistan. Their intention was to steal DNA samples from children living in an Abottabad compound they believed housed the man behind the 9/11 terror attacks. The agents reasoned that the presence of close relatives of bin Laden in the compound would likely indicate he was there as well. The doctor used by the CIA began administering hepatitis B vaccines despite having no authorisation from Pakistan's health authorities to do so. Reporting by The Guardian revealed the operation shortly after US special forces units killed bin Laden in 2011. After the operation was uncovered, the Taliban increased its propaganda efforts to undermine vaccines. Extremist groups in Pakistan have long worked to undermine medicine and vaccine services which are provided by the state and leapt on the opportunity to use the CIA's ruse to their advantage. The Taliban even took violent actions against other vaccination workers, alleging that they were engaged in espionage for the CIA. Researchers investigating the effects of the CIA operation on the number of children in Pakistan receiving doses of polio, DPT or measles vaccines have found the rate has declined. Data suggests the vaccination rate declined between 23 per cent and 39 per cent in districts with higher levels of elector support for an alliance of politically extreme parties. Areas where support for extremist political parties is lower showed less of a decline. Story continues "The empirical evidence highlights that events which cast doubt on the integrity of health workers or vaccines can have severe consequences for the acceptance of health products such as vaccines," Andreas Stegmann, one of the paper's authors, said. "This seems particularly relevant today as public acceptance of the new vaccines against Covid-19 is crucial to address the pandemic." Read More Psaki admits she is tired of wearing a mask and says White House understands Americans frustrations Revisionist history: GOP lawmakers deflect blame for pro-Trump insurrection after supporting election fraud claims Biden sends envoy to Israel to defuse tensions as protests break out across US by Giorgio Bernardelli Soumya Santosh, 30, was caring for an elderly Jewish woman who was also killed. Some 12,000 Indians work in Israel. For Father Nahra (Vicariate for Migrants), it is always the poor who suffer the most in any war. Tel Aviv (AsiaNews) A 30-year-old woman from Kerala was on a video call yesterday afternoon with her husband in India when one of the rockets fired by Hamas hit the flat where she worked as a caregiver attending to an elderly Jewish woman in the Israeli city of Ashkelon. Soumya Santosh died, killed instantly by the blast, in a war in which she found herself involved only for seeking a decent job in a distant country. She came to Israel seven years ago from her village in Idukki district, where she left her husband and son, who is now nine. Her situation is not unique. Many foreign caregivers and housekeepers work in the homes of elderly Israelis. About 12,000 Indians work in the country. Working conditions are tough. The residency permit is tied to work. If a person cared for dies, the caregiver has only a few weeks to find another job; otherwise, they become illegal and risk expulsion. Soumya Santosh worked for an 80-year-old Jewish woman. Probably, in order to remain close to her, she didn't run to a safer place when the alarm sirens rang out. Her husband in India with whom she was speaking on video call heard a roar that interrupted the communication. Soumya Santosh was killed instantly; her elderly charge was taken to the hospital but died from her injuries. She was Hindu but was married to a Christian. For this reason in our Indian chaplaincy some knew her, even if she did not participate in the activities, said Father Rafic Nahra, vicar for migrants and asylum seekers for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, speaking to AsiaNews. The Vicariate for Migrants is one of the few points of reference for Israels Indian community, many of whom hail from Kerala. Masses in Malayalam are celebrated in the shrines of the Holy Land but also in specially rented rooms in modern Israeli cities where there are no churches. This is the case for Ashkelon, where a Mass is held every third Friday of the month. For Fr Nahra, Soumya Santoshs death confirms that it is always the poor who suffer the most in any war. These people, who come from distant countries in search of a better life for themselves and their families, often show great loyalty to the elderly entrusted to them. They don't flee, because they love them. And, as is the case for them, even in many other situations, the poor have nowhere to go to take refuge when rockets rain down from the sky. There is also bitterness about what is happening between Gaza and Israel. There is so much anger right now, so much violence, notes Father Nahra. Young Arabs are on the streets to prove that they are not second-class citizens in this country. But this violence will get them nowhere. Swiss health workers busy fighting the pandemic are being encouraged to unwind with a computer game that offers not only distraction but also knowledge to battle Covid-19 in real life. Players of "Escape Covid-19" are guided through a series of scenarios that health workers at hospitals and long-term care facilities encounter on a daily basis. Each challenge -- from before leaving the house to their commute and especially on the job -- is geared towards helping frontline staff change their real-world behaviour to better protect against spreading the virus. Seated alongside emergency response workers fielding alerts at the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), Doctor Melanie Suppan demonstrates how it works. It starts off easy for the anaesthesiologist and IT enthusiast, who helped brainstorm and develop the game. In "Escape Covid-19", she wakes up with a cough and fever, and chooses to get tested for Covid and wait for the results before going to work, earning a thumbs-up. But once she has tested negative and gets into work, the game gets more complicated. "A trainee asks you in which situation(s) an N95/FFP2 mask should be worn instead of a standard mask." Faced with a long list of options, Suppan selects several, including "resuscitation" and "respiratory support", which are correct. But she also clicks on the use of nasal swabs, and an angry, red coronavirus appears to indicate she got that one wrong. "The idea is for this to be playful, fun, and lighthearted... not moralising," Suppan told AFP. - 'Real benefit' - Researchers at the HUG developed the "serious game", which is available online in French, German, Italian and English, to help healthcare workers internalise the best practices for avoiding outbreaks on the job. Professor Stephan Harbarth heads the infection prevention unit at the hospital and his team helped provide the protocol and procedural expertise underlying "Escape Covid-19". Story continues "Classical hospital hygiene and inter-hospital infection prevention are not always the most sexy of topics," he acknowledged. "We see that a playful game, along with other communication methods, is more effective in helping people change their behaviour." A study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research earlier this month indicated that the game was far more effective than regular information manuals in inspiring behavioural change among staff. It involved nearly 300 emergency room workers in Geneva who were either provided with written material about the proper procedures to follow or asked to play the computer game. "The study measured a real benefit," said Suppan. "Those who played the game were three times more likely to say they wanted to change their behaviour compared to those who received the regular material." - Get tested, stay away - Inciting behaviour change among health professionals is vital. Since the start of the pandemic, hospitals and care facilities have tragically become incubators of Covid-19 outbreaks. In the beginning, Harbarth said most of the focus was on protecting doctors and nurses from getting infected while caring for Covid-19 patients. But after a while it became clear that asymptomatic health workers were spreading the virus too, and often to non-Covid patients. "We realised we needed to be very careful that the personnel didn't become vectors, or mosquitos if you will, infecting patients," Harbarth said. There was a need to dramatically change attitudes among health professionals, who are accustomed to working long hours and not letting a cough or sniffle keep them away. Now, they were asked to stay away at the slightest symptom, and to get tested even without symptoms. "It is really a complete change of our normal paradigm," Harbarth said. "The game has helped us do that." In fact, he said, the game deserved some of the credit for the dramatic drop in hospital-sparked Covid infections in recent months. Looking forward, Harbarth said he hoped games would be more widely used to reinforce important medical messages, including on vaccination. "This is a huge challenge," he said, pointing out that not all hospital employees agree to get a Covid jab. "A playful game... might be a good tool for distributing accurate information." nl/rjm/nrh By Karolina Tagaris ATHENS (Reuters) - Europe's top human rights watchdog has urged Greece to end pushbacks of asylum-seekers on its borders, a practice that Athens denies carrying out. In a letter to Greek ministers dated May 3 and published on Wednesday, the Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner said there had been "numerous credible allegations" since at least 2017 of asylum-seekers illegally returned to Turkey or left adrift at sea but that Athens had simply dismissed them. UNHCR, the United Nations' refugee agency, has also gathered information pointing to several dozen pushbacks since January 2020, said the letter from Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic. "I urge you (Greece) to put an end to these practices and to ensure that independent and effective investigations are carried out into all allegations of pushbacks and of ill-treatment by members of security forces," Mijatovic said. The Council of Europe is guardian of the European Convention on Human Rights and creator of the European Court of Human Rights. In a response also published by Mijatovic's office, Greece said it had investigated the allegations and found them "largely unsubstantiated". "The actions taken by the Greek authorities, at our sea borders, are being carried out in full compliance with the country's international obligations," Greek ministers were quoted as saying in their response to the Council. They said Greece had rescued thousands of people since the start of Europe's migrant crisis in 2015 and officers had to do their job "against the backdrop of an unfavourable environment of intended misleading information emanating in most cases from the smugglers' networks". Mijatovic also said that living conditions in Greece's overcrowded island camps remained "substandard". Speaking to Reuters, she cited the case of a 28-year-old Somali man on the island of Chios last week who had died of a pulmonary condition and whose body was marked by suspected rat bites. "This is a tragic illustration of the horrific conditions in which thousands of people have been living for years on the Greek Aegean islands," Mijatovic said. (Editing by Gareth Jones) Chrissy Teigen has posted a formal apology to former target Courtney Stodden. (Evan Agostini / Associated Press) Chrissy Teigen has apologized for bullying Courtney Stodden a decade ago. But that doesn't mean the two are all buddy-buddy now. Stodden suspects Teigen is acting out of self-interest rather than sincere regret over sending comments like "I can't wait for you to die." "I accept her apology and forgive her," Stodden wrote Wednesday on Instagram, not long after Teigen posted her apology thread on Twitter. "But the truth remains the same, I have never heard from her or her camp in private. In fact, she blocked me on Twitter," the 26-year-old wrote. "All of me wants to believe this is a sincere apology, but it feels like a public attempt to save her partnerships with Target and other brands who are realizing her 'wokeness' is a broken record." This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Teigen had posted a midday Twitter thread addressing her history of bullying Stodden online. "Not a lot of people are lucky enough to be held accountable for all their past bulls in front of the entire world," Teigen wrote. "Im mortified and sad at who I used to be. I was an insecure, attention seeking troll." In late March, when Teigen a model, author and entrepreneur announced she was leaving Twitter because the negatives were outweighing the positives, Stodden called her out over a host of disparaging tweets sent around a decade ago. But Teigen didn't respond until after Stodden, who is nonbinary and uses they/them/their pronouns, talked about the situation in an interview published Monday by the Daily Beast. Stodden said Teigen didn't stop at tweets; she also sent cruel direct messages. "She wouldnt just publicly tweet about wanting me to take 'a dirt nap' but would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself," said Stodden, who became famous in 2011 for marrying then-50-year-old actor Doug Hutchison ("The Green Mile") when Stodden was only 16. "Things like, 'I cant wait for you to die.'" Story continues Stodden said Joy Behar and Courtney Love also joined in the name-calling. "People came out of the woodwork to beat up on a kid because she was in a situation that she shouldnt have been in," Stodden told the Daily Beast. "There were a lot of celebrities acting like playground bullies." Teigen, who returned to Twitter in mid-April after a three-week break, seemed remorseful Wednesday about her past behavior toward Stodden though her apology also seemed aimed at her social media following. Teigen focused on the need to make the apology public while saying she had reached out to Stodden privately. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. "I am ashamed and completely embarrassed at my behavior but that is nothing compared to how I made Courtney feel," the mom of two said in her thread. "I have worked so hard to give you guys joy and be beloved and the feeling of letting you down is nearly unbearable, truly. These were not my only mistakes and surely wont be my last as hard as I try but god I will try!! "I have tried to connect with Courtney privately but since I publicly fueled all this, I want to also publicly apologize," Teigen wrote. "Im so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am." Stodden, whose divorce from Hutchison was finalized in 2020, has recently been writing a memoir and running an OnlyFans and released a new pop single, "Pleasure." In recent years they alleged that they were "groomed" by Hutchison, who is now 60. "I have a lot of trauma from that entire chapter in my life, and thats the time where youre developing your brains developing, youre becoming a woman," Stodden told the Daily Beast, referring to attention in their teens for revealing attire, boundary-pushing behavior, heavy makeup, large breasts and marriage to a much older man. "And as Im forming," Stodden continued, "I am being mocked, overtly sexualized, abused not only in my home, but internationally and it really did a number on my self-confidence and my sense of worthiness, which I struggle with today." This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S. have dropped to an average of around 600 per day, marking the lowest level in ten months. Confirmed COVID-19 cases have declined to 38,000 per day on average, the lowest number since mid-September. This data represents a 85 percent decrease from the peak of over 250,0000 daily infections recorded in early January. It was almost a year ago in early July when coronavirus mortalities last reached such a low level. COVID deaths reached their highest point in mid-January at more than 3,400 a day. In over half of states, zero deaths or deaths in the single digits have been reported in recent weeks. In Kansas, no new deaths occurred between Friday and the following Monday. Massachusetts experienced no new coronavirus deaths for the first time in almost a year, the Boston Herald reported. Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, told the Associate Press that the mass vaccination drive has been critical in impeding the disease. The primary objective is to deny this virus the ability to kill at the rate that it could, and that has been achieved, he said. We have in in effect tamed the virus. Nearly 45 percent of the nations adults have received both vaccination doses, and over 58 percent have received at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the United States virus survival prospects improve, foreign countries like India are still struggling to control outbreaks and stabilize the COVID-19 epidemic there. I think we are in a great place, but I think India is an important cautionary tale, Justin Lessler, a professor of epidemiology at John Hopkins, told the Associated Press. If there is a right combination of vaccine hesitancy, potentially new variants and quickly rolling back control measures that comes together, we could potentially screw this up and have yet another wave that is completely unnecessary at this point, he remarked. More from National Review KABUL (Reuters) -An announcement by the Taliban that they would cease fire for three days for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr has been met by many Afghans with little but despair, just days after a bombing that killed at least 80 people, most of them schoolgirls. The insurgents said late on Sunday they were offering the pause in fighting so Afghans could celebrate Eid in peace. The truce is meant to come into force on Thursday morning, at a critical moment with U.S. forces in the process of withdrawing after 20 years. But many Afghans described the short holiday pause in fighting as a fruitless gesture. The Taliban observed a similar truce last year. "If a ceasefire had been declared some days ago, perhaps these schoolgirls would have been alive and celebrating Eid with their families," said Shah Wali, a Kabul shopkeeper, referring to Saturday's bomb attack on a girls school mainly attended by Shi'ite Muslim members of the Hazara ethnic minority. "It is a good and appropriate action, but not only on the three days of Eid... we want a permanent ceasefire," he told Reuters. The Taliban have condemned Saturday's bombing, which U.S. officials suspect may have been the work of a rival militant group, such as Islamic State. University student Shugufa Azaryoon, 22, said she did not welcome the ceasefire at all. Previous ceasefires had been used by Taliban fighters only to regroup and launch attacks after Eid, she said. PERMANENT CEASEFIRE HASHTAG The Afghan government wants the Taliban to agree to a more comprehensive ceasefire to promote political talks. The Taliban say they want to lay down their arms, but cannot do so permanently until a political settlement is reached. Meanwhile, the hashtag "AfghansWantPermanentCeasefire" trended in Afghanistan on Facebook and Twitter in the lead up to Eid, which marks the end of the Ramadan holy fasting month. Facebook user Sadaf Jamali wrote: "I kill people in Ramadan, I dont kill people in Eid, but after Eid I will (kill) them again...This is Talibans logic #AfghansWantPermanentCeasefire". Story continues Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Reuters that the social media trend was an "emotional thing" and that the group "respected" these emotions. "But a ceasefire is something bigger than emotion, it is related to the larger issue of our country," he said, adding that there would be no permanent ceasefire until the insurgent group's goal of restoring an Islamic government is achieved. A day before the ceasefire was to begin, Taliban insurgents launched an offensive and took control of a key district located an hour's drive from the capital Kabul. Washington, which is pulling its remaining troops out of Afghanistan over the next four months, had long said its withdrawal was conditional on the Taliban reducing violence, but now says it is leaving no matter what. U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad welcomed the announcement of the three-day ceasefire, but said on Twitter that "Afghans deserve much more: a political settlement & a permanent ceasefire." Government employee Saifullah Khan said the three-day ceasefire did not leave enough time to travel to spend the holiday with his family, who live in a village two-days' journey away. "I wish they had announced a longer ceasefire," he said. "Like hundreds of thousands of other Afghans I have to wait for a real and permanent ceasefire...only a miracle can make this possible." (Reporting by Kabul newsroomEditing by Peter Graff and Alistair Bell) May 11MYRTLE POINT Some Myrtle Point High School students were joined by a small crowd of demonstrators outside their own school Wednesday morning. A group of around 75 had gathered on the highway nearby and made their way to the high school to protest the school's compliance with state regulations requiring students to wear COVID-19 face coverings. "I ain't no sheep," said Maddie Nighswonger, an MPHS freshman who says she was disciplined by the school for removing her mask in class last week. The group of demonstrators had gathered to support Nighswonger and her brother, eighth-grader Kyzer Nighswonger, who said he faced the same discipline for the same action. Maddie Nighswonger said she removed her mask in class to stand up for what she believes is her right to go to school without a mask, and Kyzer Nighswonger said he took his off to support his sister. "I wish they understood and gave me my God-given rights," Maddie Nighswonger said, holding a sign on the side of Highway 42. "We're just going to lose them if we don't stand up now." Leisa Nighswonger, the students' mother, says the two were moved to an isolated classroom and benched on their sports teams for refusing to follow the mask rule. "They've been isolating them and punishing them, and taking sports away from them," Leisa Nighswonger said. After sharing the family's story with a group of community members opposed to public health regulations which meets in Bandon weekly, Leisa Nighswonger said the crowd gathered to ask the district to stand up to state officials by allowing students to attend in-person classes maskless. "The school board and the administration can resolve this issue," Leisa Nighswonger said. "They can step up. But they chose to sell out our children." But district Superintendent Nanette Hagen said in a statement that rejecting the state's mask mandate just isn't feasible, since ignoring the Oregon Department of Education's guidance could put the school's entire operating budget in jeopardy. Story continues "Our district staff and board members have our own personal thoughts and/or opinions on the mask mandate but have to act in a manner that is in the best interest of the school district we serve," Hagen wrote. "When all is said and done, we as a district, will not defy the Governor's Executive Order or the guidance from (Oregon Health Authority) and ODE that implements that Executive Order." Hagen said the district is bound by all the rules state regulators have put in place to prevent the transmission of the virus, like requirements for social distancing and frequent handwashing and improved air circulation. Still, that didn't stop Wednesday's demonstrators, armed with signs reading "unmask the kids" or "bravery over obedience" and without a face covering in sight, from asking the district to reconsider. "Justice for kids!" the crowd chanted towards the windows of the high school. "We the people!" "No more Nazis!" they called. (At least two in the crowd wore the Star of David with the word "unvaccinated" written inside, a reference to the symbols Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust.) Tanya DePoalo said she didn't know the Nighswongers personally, but felt compelled to attend the rally upon hearing about their choice to take their masks off. "I'm so thankful that the kids are standing up for themselves," DePoalo said. "Courage is important and valuable, especially in times of tyranny." She expressed concern that public health measures put in place to slow the spread of the virus could escalate to severe violations of citizens' rights. "This is how it started with the Nazis and the Jewish people," DePoalo said of state mandates. Leisa Nighswonger said she isn't deterred by some of the hateful messages she's received for raising the issue in the community. She's also removed her other two students from public school, and encourages parents and students to learn their rights. "It's child abuse, what's being done to my children," she said of the discipline the students faced for flouting the rule. "We do have rights over our children as parents." Hagen declined to comment on the Nighswongers specifically, but said that, under state guidance, students who exercise a "values-based" decision not to comply with mask rules are to be moved to comprehensive distance learning offsite or in isolated spaces on campus. "Obviously we cannot force a student to participate in (distance learning) when this occurs but we do at least afford them the opportunity," Hagen wrote. "Repeated acts of defiance such as non-compliance with directives could result in disciplinary action at some point." Sports, Hagen said, are governed by the Oregon School Activities Association, and students can be ineligible to participate if they don't comply with its requirements. As of midday Wednesday, the rally hadn't changed school inside the building, Hagen said. Administrators were at first reluctant to release students for their lunch break due to the demonstrators outside, but that concern dissipated when the group moved on. "With regard to the rally occurring today, that is a freedom we are fortunate to be able to exercise as citizens," Hagen wrote Wednesday. "My only hope is that the rally does not interfere with our students receiving an education today and that the behaviors of those involved in no way make our students feel unsafe while going about their day." Denton County prosecutors will seek an indictment in the kidnapping and killing of a University of North Texas student in 1997 against a Texas convict whose Oklahoma murder trial started this week. Jury selection began this week in an Oklahoma County District Court for 61-year-old William Reece, who authorities say is a serial killer. In the Oklahoma case, Reece is accused of abducting 19-year-old Tiffany Johnston on July 26, 1997, from a car wash in Bethany. Her body was found the next day. Oklahoma prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. Days before the Oklahoma abduction, Kelli Cox disappeared on July 15, 1997, after taking a tour of the Denton Jail with her UNT criminology class. She called her boyfriend about noon, but when he arrived to meet her he found only her car. Skeletal remains found in Brazoria County in 2016 were those of Cox. We will seek an indictment once his other case is resolved, said Denton County Assistant District Attorney Jamie Beck in a Wednesday email. There is no statute of limitations on a murder charge, so Denton County prosecutors have not yet sought an indictment against Reece. It was Reece who led authorities to Coxs body and the remains of another girl in Texas. The Oklahoman reported that prosecutors wrote in a legal filing before the Oklahoma murder trial that officers will testify that the defendant stated his reasoning for confessing to these crimes was that he wanted to clear his conscience and let the families have closure. Reece was sentenced to 60 years in prison in 1998 for an aggravated kidnapping in Harris County, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice records. While in prison, he was also sentenced to three years for theft in Brazoria County. He was charged in September 2015 with the murder and kidnapping of Johnston in Oklahoma. He was charged in that case after DNA evidence linked him to the crimes. In early 2016, Reece guided authorities to locations near Houston. He led them to a pasture in southeast Houston where the human remains of 17-year-old Jessican Cain were found in March 2016. On April 5, 2016, authorities found Coxs remains at a site in Brazoria County. Story continues Reece used a bulldozer both times to bury their bodies, according to The Oklahoman. The Texas convict also confessed to to the August 1997 disappearance and murder of Laura Smither, 12, of Friendswood. Smither disappeared while jogging, and her body was found a month later in Pasadena, according to multiple news outlets in Houston. This report contains information from Fort Worth Star-Telegram archives. Norfolk Fire-Rescue determined the cause of a fire that injured five people last month in the Colonial Place neighborhood. Battalion Chief Stephanie Ramsey said in an email Wednesday discarded smoking materials caused the fire on April 22. Officials did not specify the type of smoking items or how they were discarded. The blaze engulfed Lafayette Cove Condominiums, near the intersection of Mayflower Road and Delaware Avenue, around 3 a.m. The flames were under control by 5:10 a.m. Andrea Zourou and Stratos Zouros were two of the five people injured in the fire. The siblings and International students from Athens, Greece, attend Old Dominion University. Andrea and Stratos jumped out the window of their condo on the third floor. Don Stansberry, ODUs vice president of student engagement and enrollment services at the university, said the siblings sustained spinal, leg and back injuries. The pair had surgery and have been released from the hospital. Sierra Jenkins, 229-462-8896, sierra.jenkins@virginiamedia.com Missouri Republican lawmakers want Gov. Mike Parson to call a special session on election legislation, effectively acknowledging voter ID and other GOP-backed measures wont pass before Friday when the General Assembly adjourns. The House Elections Chairman, Rep. Dan Shaul, and six other Republican committee members on Wednesday sent a letter to Parson requesting the session and faulting the Senate for inaction on the bills. Their request received a boost from Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, whose office said he supports a special session if the General Assembly cant pass the legislation during the current session. The proposals would restore a voter ID law struck down by the state Supreme Court and more tightly regulate voting, part of a broad effort by Republicans nationwide to restrict ballot access following a presidential election featuring false and unsubstantiated allegations of fraud and corruption. A bill passed by the House in February would require voters to use forms of ID from a pre-approved list, such as a drivers license. Those without required photo ID can cast a provisional ballot that would only be counted if the local election department verifies the voters signature with one on file. Republicans have also advanced measures that would also raise the bar to get initiative petitions on the ballot. Thousands of additional signatures could be required from more areas of the state. In hearing from hundreds of constituents across the state, it remains clear the Missourians continue to support common sense legislation to ensure the security of elections, the GOP lawmakers wrote to Parson. A Parson spokeswoman didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. The Republican governor has shown a willingness to call special sessions over the past year. He called a special session last summer focused on violent crime and another in October on the budget. Ashcroft spokesperson JoDonn Chaney said in an email that Ashcroft feels that a special session on election reform would not be needed if the legislature would just pass the election bill that is before them in this current session. Story continues But if that is not the case, then the secretary would support a special session on election reform, Chaney said, adding that Ashcroft applauds Shauls work on the legislation. Shaul, of Imperial, and the other lawmakers who signed the letter pinned the need for a special session on the Senate. In their letter, they wrote these important issues are being held up in the Senate. Neither Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, of Columbia, nor Senate President Dave Schatz, of Sullivan, could immediately be reached for comment. Sen. Bill Eigel, a Weldon Springs Republican who leads a Conservative Caucus that sometimes clashes with Senate leadership, said elections bills were something all Republicans are interested in getting done. My expectation is actually the elections bill is hopefully going to come up today, Eigel said. I know that sometimes the House gets excited because the Senate is a little bit more deliberative about some of these issues ... Their desire to enforce election integrity is the same desire of the Senate. The roof crashed into the central nave. Several icons, the organ and furnishings saved. Most importantly the precious icon of the Mother of God, painted in Rome and donated to the Belarusians by Pope Clement VIII in 1598, the most revered image for the Catholic Church in this region, is intact. A restoration campaign is launched. Moscow (AsiaNews) - Yesterday, around 8 am, shortly before the start of Holy Mass, a fire broke out in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Budslaw, the most beloved shrine of Belarusian Catholics. According to witnesses, the fire started from the roof, which collapsed in the part of the central nave around 10 o'clock, before the firefighters managed to circumscribe and put out the fire, at around 15 in the afternoon. The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Belarus has appealed to all the faithful to help restore the church as soon as possible. The parishioners and collaborators of the sanctuary were able to save the sacred images, the books, the small organ and other furnishings. Above all, the precious icon of the Mother of God was saved, painted in Rome and given to Belarusians by Pope Clement VIII in 1598, the most revered image by the Catholic Church in this region. The Pope made this gift to congratulate the voevoda of Minsk, Jan Pats, on his return to Catholicism from Calvinism. The icon therefore symbolizes the loyalty to the Church of Rome on the part of the Catholics of this ancient territory of the kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, which then remained under the Russian and Soviet empires until freedom and independence in the last 30 years. The pilgrimage in honour of the Assumption, in mid-August, is the greatest act of devotion of Catholics in Belarus, who come on foot from all over the country, but also from Poland, Lithuania and even Russia. The sanctuary, built in the early 1600s, is located in the diocese of Vitebsk, in the north-eastern part of the country on the border with Russia, where most of the believers are of Orthodox confession, and therefore represents an outpost of Catholicism on earth Russian. The bishop of Vitebsk, suffragan of Minsk-Mogilev, Msgr. Oleg Budkevic, asked everyone to pray for the salvation of the Budslaw shrine, "which is not only the centre of our spiritual life, but also an exceptional monument of sacred art and architecture". In 1994, Pope John Paul II had awarded the church the title of minor basilica, and several times he had expressed the desire to be able to visit it. This trip was not possible due to the close relations with Russia. The pPpe confirmed his love for Belarus with the Apostolic letter Universae Bielorussiae in 1996, where he also remembered the basilica of Budslaw, and repeatedly sent his blessing to Belarusian Catholics, on the occasion of trips to Poland and the Baltic countries and visits of Belarusians pilgrims to Rome. (V.R.) ATHENS, Greece (AP) Europe's top human rights body has expressed deep concern at persistent allegations that Greek authorities have on several occasions illegally forced back migrants trying to clandestinely enter from neighboring Turkey. In a letter to government officials in Athens, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic also voiced dismay that Greece's reaction has been so far to simply dismiss (the) allegations" despite "the overwhelming body of evidence that has been presented in recent years. In the letter made public Wednesday, Mijatovic urged the Greek government to put an end to these practices and to ensure that independent and effective investigations are carried out. Citing testimony from migrants in Turkey, human rights groups have repeatedly accused Greece of engaging in so-called pushbacks a term that covers the prevention of people from entering the country to seek asylum, as well as the clandestine return to Turkey of people who have made it into Greece. Athens denies the claims, and in their answer to Mijatovic's letter, government officials on Tuesday said that the allegations have so far proved largely unsubstantiated. An independent investigation in Greece found last month that authorities have failed to adequately respond to pushback allegations. In her letter dated May 3, Mijatovic also said there had been an increase in reported instances in which migrants who have reached the Eastern Aegean islands from Turkey by boat, and have sometimes even been registered as asylum-seekers, have been embarked on life-rafts by Greek officers and pushed back to Turkish waters. Greece came to the forefront of Europe's immigration crisis in 2015, when more than a million refugees and migrants entered mostly on smugglers' boats from Turkey on their way to more prosperous Western European countries. Flows have since dropped drastically, particularly following the pandemic. But last year tensions with neighboring Turkey rose after Turkish authorities flung open the land border to thousands of migrants who headed towards Greece. Athens closed down the northeastern land border with Turkey and tightened patrols at sea, with the help of the European Union's Frontex border agency which has also been criticized over alleged pushbacks. Story continues Under a 2016 agreement with the EU, Turkey undertook to stop migrants leaving its shores for the Greek islands in return for EU funding. The Council of Europe is not an EU institution. Mijatovic also urged Greece to improve living conditions at reception centers for asylum-seekers on the eastern Aegean Sea islands, which see most of the arrivals from Turkey. ___ Follow APs global migration coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/migration Clinton Vos' phone started to ring more often four months ago. A used equipment trader in Newton, Iowa, Vos heard from farmers and dealership representatives, desperate for the tractors his company finds at auctions around the country. Corn and soybean prices were taking off, and industry players needed new implements after holding out for years through trade wars, floods and a pandemic. But implements were hard to come by, Vos said. Manufacturers haven't been able to ramp up production to meet demand. He heard new orders came with six-month waits. And farmers stopped selling their used equipment, aware they wouldn't be able to snag a replacement for a while. "I don't know if I've ever seen the market this strong," said Vos, a 35-year industry veteran and owner of Mid-Iowa Equipment. More: Iowa farmers are cautious about taking advantage of rising crop prices as drought concerns deepen during planting Deere & Co., one of the biggest agricultural equipment manufacturers, reported an $8.1 billion backlog in agricultural and turf equipment orders in November, a 32% increase over the same period the year before. For the quarter that ended in January, the company reported year-over-year sales were up more than 20% for agricultural and construction equipment. Yet it says it can't find enough workers to meet the current demand. Plant managers said they've added 480 employees this year in Waterloo, Iowa, where the company produces its large tractors. But they want to hire another 120 right now. And, come November, they project demand will necessitate 200 more hires if they can find enough able bodies. In Dubuque, Iowa, where the company produces forestry and construction equipment, Deere has hired about 50 workers this year. Plant managers said they're looking for 50 more. "We haven't seen as much interest as we have in the past," said Mark Onderick, the company's labor relations manager at the Dubuque plant. "In the past, it felt like we got just flooded." Story continues Drivetrain Operations operator working at the Waterloo facility. 'If Deere wants people, Deere gets people' Iowa's shallow labor pool is leaving other companies thirsty for workers as well. Spokespeople for Winnebago Industries, Sukup Manufacturing and HNI Corp. told the Des Moines Register, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, that they're struggling to find enough workers to meet their hiring targets. While labor shortages are not new in Iowa, where population growth hasn't kept pace with the national average for more than a century, experts were surprised by the degree of the problem at a time when so many people are out of work. Sixty-five thousand fewer Iowans held jobs in March compared with March 2020, just before the start of the pandemic recession, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Their ranks include 6,200 workers from durable goods manufacturing, the fourth-hardest-hit sector in Iowa during the downturn. Futures File: King corn pops to new highs Experts were particularly surprised to hear that Deere couldn't find enough employees. A household name, with union representation from the United Auto Workers and a starting hourly wage of $19, Deere has been one of the Midwest's premier manufacturing employers. "If Deere wants people, Deere gets people," said Ronald Cox, director of Iowa State University's Center for Industrial Research and Service. "Deere is Deere. This is Iowa. People leave other companies to go work for Deere. If Deere is having problems, it's much broader than them." Multiple issues could be driving the shortage. Some companies and politicians have blamed the federal government's COVID-19 relief packages, which provided direct checks to residents and boosted unemployment insurance payments. With an extra $300 a week from the federal government, some Iowans can earn more on unemployment than they would as new Deere employees. But a full-time job brings the promise of benefits like health insurance, retirement contributions and tuition reimbursement. And workers on unemployment must show they've made contact regarding at least two jobs a week to continue receiving payments. Despite so many laid-off workers, Iowa State University economist Peter Orazem said manufacturers may not be able to find the right types of job applicants. While the Waterloo metro shed about 4,800 jobs during the pandemic, the majority were in hospitality, education, health care and government. Another 87,000 workers across the state have dropped out of the labor force during the pandemic. These are Iowans who are no longer looking for work and, in theory, most of them do not qualify for unemployment insurance. Orazem said many of these workers may have retired early; are staying at home because they fear contracting COVID-19; or are looking after their children after declining to send them to school this year. Despite all of this, he was unsure why Deere can't hire more employees right now. "They pay well and have good benefits," he said. "... Those were the types of jobs you wanted when you graduated high school, to go work for John Deere. I am puzzled." Some workers wary of cyclical nature of Deere jobs When Deere held a job fair in Waterloo on March 6, it drew about 400 applicants. A month later, the company held another. Randy Venzke, the labor relations manager at the Waterloo plant, said about 80 applicants showed up for the second event. Then 50 showed up for a third. Just five showed up for a fourth. Jo Wilson, a Waterloo Works employee for ten years, marries the engine to the transaxle on the 7 Series Chassis Line. Like other managers at the company, Venzke wasn't used to a shortage of resumes. He recalled a drive to hire 550 employees in Dubuque in 2017. The company didn't need a fair back then, he said. It simply posted openings on online job boards and took out ads in the local newspaper. "We're kind of the premier employer," Venzke said. "Family members refer their relatives to come and work in the same place they have for generations." This year, the company has expanded its reach. It has tried to partner with chambers of commerce and churches. It's pitched stories to the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and KCRG-TV. It hired Two Rivers Marketing in Des Moines to target workers with Google and Facebook ads. It offered current employees bonuses for referring workers who maintain their employment for at least 100 days. "These are great jobs, great opportunities for the right people," Venzke said. "I'd love any ideas, any suggestions on how to generate more interest." The current struggles have made some Deere officials wonder about long-term prospects for operating big plants in Iowa communities. Operator Chris Smith installs a clamp that holds together hydraulic lines on an 8RT tractor chassis. The company is trying to prepare the next generation of workers, partnering with high schools and community colleges to promote its jobs and show students how they can qualify for positions with the company. Employers also are targeting military members whose service is ending. Still, the current demographics are staring them in the face. While the Des Moines and Iowa City metros grew about twice as fast as the United States overall during the past decade, according to census estimates, Waterloo's population remained flat, and Dubuque's grew about half as fast as the rest of the country. Overall, Iowa grew 4.8% over the decade, the 2020 census found, while the U.S. grew 7.4%. "It's going to be a pretty strategic risk to continue to manufacture in Iowa if we don't demonstrate that we have a manufacturing workforce that's sustainable," said Becky Guinn, the Deere factory manager in Waterloo. Lance Buhman applies the iconic John Deere decal to the hood of a 7R tractor. "Its going to have to be other people moving in to support it," said Mark Dickson, the Deere factory manager in Dubuque. "I don't know where theyre going to come from. Something's going to happen there, or it's just going to slow down. The demand can be there. But if there's not supply, eventually the demand goes down." Despite these broader challenges, there are still workers in the area. Some are looking at agricultural manufacturing jobs and turning them down, telling the Des Moines Register they're worried they will get laid off when the economy slows again. Indeed, manufacturing employment can be cyclical. Deere, for instance, gave notice to the state in 2016 that it was laying off 115 workers. The company issued a similar notice last summer, alerting the state it was laying off 35 employees, though company officials said they later hired those workers back. It also periodically uses buyouts to reduce workforce. Craig Trotter, a former Deere manager in Waterloo, said he moved out of the state after accepting a voluntary separation offer from the company in 2019. He said the offer precludes him and other employees from applying to Deere again. Brock Vandenwalker, of Cedar Falls, Iowa, whose father works at the Waterloo plant, said the fear of instability motivated him to take a job at a convenience store rather than apply to Deere. He also said many of the company's benefits don't kick in until after a seven-month probation period. Heidi Olson is one of two wheel-mount operators that work on the 7 Series Final Line. Travis McAtree, a truck driver based in Jesup, Iowa, said he, too, feared a Deere job could vanish if corn prices drop or an international dispute hurts farmer exports. Ryan Ginn of Cedar Rapids said he will keep his current job as a machinist at a slightly lower-paying employer because he feels it is more stable. Ginn said multiple former Deere employees have complained to him that managers changed their shifts and assignments more often there than at other factories. He said a friend suggested he form a backup plan if he opted for a job at Deere. "A lot of people have heard too many bad stories and just don't care to try," he said. "They just assume they will get used and laid off." Donna Brustkern, of Washburn, Iowa, whose father retired from Deere in the 1990s, is not in that camp. She applied for a job during the March job fair in Waterloo, had interviews with two company representatives and felt good about the conversations. But she said she never heard back from them. She currently works about 50 hours a week between jobs at a cabinet manufacturer and a McDonald's drive-thru. She said she could earn more and get better benefits working a 40-hour week with Deere. She said she can't help wondering whether she was passed over because she is a woman. Or because she is 54 years old. Or because she was convicted of a drug offense in 2003. "I have completely turned my life around," she said. "I live my life right and do right. I work hard every day I do my job, and I'm a good worker. Actually, I'm an excellent worker." Tyler Jett covers jobs and the economy for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at tjett@registermedia.com, 515-284-8215, or on Twitter at @LetsJett. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: John Deere tractors are hot, but company struggles to hire in Iowa WASHINGTON President Joe Biden announced a new round of judicial nominations Wednesday that underscored the administration's push to expand diversity on the federal bench as the White House moves rapidly to put its own stamp on the judiciary. Among the new federal judge candidates Biden will be sending to the Senate for confirmation: the first Native American federal judge in Washington State; the second judge from Puerto Rico to sit on the Boston-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit; and the second Black woman to serve on the New York-based 2nd Circuit. Biden is steadily filling judicial vacancies after his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, exerted an outsize influence on the judiciary during his four years in office. Trump managed to install more than 220 federal judges, but critics note the Republican's nominees were far less diverse than those named by past presidents in either party. Biden's third wave of judicial nominees includes three candidates for district courts and three for appellate courts, bringing to 20 the total number of judges he has named since taking office Jan. 20. There are currently 81 vacancies in the federal court system. Related: The biggest moments of Biden's first 100 days in office Jackson: Biden to elevate potential Supreme Court nominee to appeals court Diversity: Biden aims to put a Black woman on the Supreme Court, underscoring lack of lower court diversity Among Biden's latest nominees is Gustavo Gelpi, appointed by President George W. Bush to the U.S. District Court in Puerto Rico in 2006. Biden is naming Gelpi, a 55-year-old San Juan native, to the Boston-based appeals court, the second appointment of a Puerto Rican to that court in its history. The nomination comes months after the death of Juan Torruella, a groundbreaking judge who in 1984 became the first Puerto Rican named to the court. Gelpi has served as the Puerto Rico district court's chief judge since 2018. Story continues Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., praised Gelpi's past criticism of the Insular Cases, a series of Supreme Court decisions beginning in 1901 that limited constitutional protections for people living in U.S. territories. In one of those cases, the court referenced "alien races" in U.S. territories, "differing from us in religion, customs, laws, methods of taxation, and modes of thought." "The Biden administration deserves recognition for nominating a judge who has both denounced the racist underpinnings of the Insular Cases and criticized the Supreme Court and Congress for denying U.S. citizens residing in the territories the legal rights the rest of us take for granted," Grijalva said in a statement. "Judge Gelpi has been a leader in correctly interpreting relevant federal law consistent with the Constitution, which has gone a long way toward ending these injustices." Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "Judge Gelpi has led a distinguished legal career, and is widely regarded by several political factions in Puerto Rico as a fair and impartial jurist," said Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y., the first Puerto Rican woman elected to the House. When Torruella died, she said, "we lost a giant of the legal system," adding that she hopes Gelpi "continues his legacy as he makes history in his own right." Biden will also nominate Lauren King, a Seattle attorney, for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. If confirmed, King, a citizen of the Muscogee Nation, would be the third active Native American federal judge, and the first in Washington. Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, nominated to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit, right, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, nominated to be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the District of Columbia Circuit, are sworn in during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on pending judicial nominations, Wednesday, April 28, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington. Working with a Republican Senate majority at the time, Trump had a significant influence on federal courts, including with three appointments to the Supreme Court: Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaughand Amy Coney Barrett. That gave conservatives on the high court an ostensible 6-3 edge for the first time in decades. Barrett: Amy Coney Barrett steers the Supreme Court to the right, but not to Trump But Trump's appointments were more likely than past presidents to be white. About 16% of Trump's judicial nominees were Black, Hispanic, Asian or otherwise not white, according to the Pew Research Center. That compares with 18% for President George W. Bush and 36% for President Barack Obama. As a candidate, Biden vowed to change course by appointing federal judges "who look like America." Biden, who for years was the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, also promised to name a Black woman to the Supreme Court for the first time in U.S. history, should he get a chance. That promise partly served to highlight a lack of African American women appellate judges, the usual steppingstone to the Supreme Court. Four Black women serve as appeals judges out of more than 170 judgeships, according to the Federal Judicial Center, the research arm of the court system. In his first round of judicial appointments, Biden named U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in March. Jackson, who has met little resistance from Republicans or centrist Democrats in the Senate, is also considered a top candidate for the Supreme Court if an opening occurs under Biden. President Joe Biden speaks during a rally at Infinite Energy Center, to mark his 100th day in office, Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Duluth, Ga. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) White House officials have stressed the administration is pushing to grow diversity on the federal bench not only in terms of race but also professional experience. Some advocacy groups say the federal courts are stacked with former corporate lawyers, and that public defenders and other legal backgrounds are underrepresented. Two of Biden's latest appointments include candidates with deep experience as public defenders. Eunice Lee, who Biden will nominate to the New York-based appeals court, is an assistant federal defender with the Federal Defenders of New York. Veronica Rossman, named to the Denver-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, is senior counsel to the Office of the Federal Public Defender for Colorado and Wyoming. "Most of our nominees are coming from the public sector, or from the defense bar, or other non traditional backgrounds for federal judges," White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain told the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service earlier this year. "We're really focused on trying to fill those courts with qualified people and bring more balance to those courts." Other nominees announced Wednesday include: Angel Kelley, to be nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, has served as a state judge in Massachusetts since 2009. Kelley, who was previously an assistant U.S. attorney, would be the second African American woman judge and the second Asian American judge to serve on that federal court. Karen Williams, to be nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, has served as a magistrate judge since 2009. Williams, who is also a law professor at Rowan University, would be the first African American district court judge to sit in the New Jersey district court's Camden courthouse. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden names new federal judges including Puerto Rico's Gustavo Gelpi An 85-year-old woman with dementia thought she was giving her son power of attorney and ensuring he and his wife would take over her trust after she died, according to federal prosecutors. But she had no children and the man posing as her son was actually her exterminator. Karl Hampton, 63, and his wife, Deborah Hampton, 59, were arrested Wednesday in Tennessee on charges of wire fraud and money laundering after prosecutors said they weaseled their way into an elderly widows life and plundered $1.7 million from her bank accounts over the course of two years. The Hamptons are accused of spending the money on luxury goods such as a Lexus SUV and a diamond ring. Prosecutors said Karl Hampton also doled out upward of $1,000 a day on lottery tickets. A defense attorney representing the Hamptons did not immediately respond to McClatchy News request for comment on Wednesday. According to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday, Karl Hampton got to know the widow identified in court documents only as B.W. in January 2016 while working for Belle Meade Exterminating Company. At the time, he reportedly made $28,000 a year as a pest control technician. In early 2018, prosecutors said Hampton convinced B.W. that he was her son or godson and wanted to care for her personally and financially. He then methodically drained her accounts, in part by writing checks to himself and initiating bank transfers. B.W.s sister died at the end of 2017 and she stood to inherit half the estate, according to the complaint. Over the next 10 months, prosecutors said Hampton liquidated the sisters investment accounts by pretending to be B.W.s son or personal assistant, netting himself more than $270,000. By April 2019, prosecutors said Hampton had convinced B.W. to sign over power of attorney, name him in her will and appoint him as her trustee. Under the trust agreement, B.W.s niece would receive $300,000. The rest would be set aside in a secondary trust for Hampton, who reportedly quit his job soon after obtaining power of attorney. Story continues B.W. had a fall later in 2019 and was admitted to an assisted living facility after having hip surgery, prosecutors said. She was diagnosed with dementia, and the intake staff also noted she was malnourished. During that time, Hampton is accused of listing himself as the emergency contact and bankrolling B.Ws care using her personal credit cards without paying off the balance. In December 2019, prosecutors said Hampton took out a $500,000 line of credit in the widows name. He reportedly used the money to buy ownership in a pest control business in Franklin, Tennessee, where he lived with his wife. At least $21,000 of the stolen funds went to a down payment on a luxury Lexus, according to court documents, and another $21,452 was used to pay for a 4.3-karat diamond ring. Hampton also used stolen cash to play the lottery, prosecutors said, often spending between $1,000 and $1,500 per day on lottery tickets. Hampton is charged with wire fraud and money laundering and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. His wife is charged with money laundering and faces up to 10 years. You have an evil heart. Brother faces Charlotte woman who abused his elderly sister. Two elderly victims in Whatcom suspected of losing more than $50,000 in fraud schemes Widowed teacher scammed out of $228,000 for North Carolina solar farm, feds say WASHINGTON GOP House leaders' decision to limit debate during Wednesday's caucus meeting where Liz Cheney was ousted from leadership and then ditch secret ballots for an unrecorded voice vote angered lawmakers hoping they'd have one last opportunity to defend the Wyoming Republican. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Cheney spoke to the members before they were asked to verbally state their preference for keeping Cheney as chair of the House GOP Caucus or letting her go, according to those attending the closed-door meeting. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., formally introduced the resolution to unseat Cheney,and in a matter of minutes she was removed from her post. There were people ready to go to battle for her," Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a Cheney supporter, told USA TODAY after the caucus meeting. In this video frame grab taken from C-SPAN television, House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., speaks on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, onTuesday May 11, 2021. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., has set a Wednesday vote for removing Cheney from her No. 3 Republican leadership post after Cheney repeatedly challenged former President Donald Trump over his claims of widespread voting fraud and his role in encouraging supporters' Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol Instead, what could have been a moment of sincere give-and-take turned into an episode of "fake unity," he said. The vote to jettison a three-term lawmaker with one of the most conservative voting records in the House is at least a temporary victory for Trump loyalists who grew tired of Cheney's public excoriations about the former president's unfounded claims the election was "stolen" from him due to widespread voter fraud. Cheney referred to his claims as "the Big Lie" that helped stoke the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob. More: 'Just the Trump party:' Liz Cheney demotion proves Donald Trump's hold on Republican politics, experts say Had McCarthy stuck to GOP Conference rules and held the vote by secret ballot, there would have been a record of how many members sided with Cheney even if no names were attached. In February, the conference held a similar vote on Cheney after she was one of only 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump. The Feb. 3 vote was by secret ballot, included speeches from various lawmakers and lasted well over an hour. "People were able to air their differences," McCarthy, who backed Cheney then, told reporters when it was over. She survived that challenge to her leadership in resounding fashion: 145-61. Story continues Rep. Liz Cheney and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy disagreed when asked if Trump should speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference. By going from a secret ballot, where members might feel freer to vote their conscience, to a voice vote, where members vocally express their support or opposition, means there's no official evidence to indicate whether Cheney retained significant support Wednesday. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., who also did not support removing Cheney, told reporters after Wednesday's meeting there was a question of whether we could do a recorded vote but it was not agreed to. To me a debate is what the Republican Party is all about, Buck said. This discussion is all about disagreement and coming to the best solution I just think that we are healthier as a party, by having disagreements on issues. More: Cheney's warning on Trump after a secret vote: 4 takeaways from House GOP meeting Casey Burgat, director of the Legislative Affairs program at George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management, said all the signs point to Republicans wanting to paper over their differences. "The fact that it was voice vote. That it happened quick. They're trying to portray that it was widely accepted, that there weren't enough votes that wanted to voice opposition (to Cheney's ouster) or any pushback to the party about the process or the speed. It was all but assumed," he said. "We know that's not true." Cheney has refused to go quietly even as she faced tall odds of staying in leadership. More: Timeline: Liz Cheney's falling out with House Republicans Tuesday night, she was on the House floor calling out Trump once again and imploring her colleagues to reject his claims. "This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans," she said. "Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy." McCarthy's main criticism about Cheney was about the distraction he said she posed to the party's effort to recapture Congress next year. In a letter to Republican House members Monday, McCarthy wrote the party's "driving focus would be taking back the House in 2022" and "internal conflicts need to be resolved so as to not detract from the efforts of our collective team ... Having heard from so many of you in recent days, it's clear that we need to make a change." Burgat said it's not uncommon for parties to have deep divisions among members sometimes but that this episode has been different. "They're usually, in the pursuit of unity, discussed behind closed doors," he said. "What is rare is the sniping at each other through the media at the leadership level." Buck pushed back on McCarthys argument that Cheney needed to be removed because her ongoing feud with Trump distracted from GOP efforts to win next years elections. To suggest that the American people in 2022 won't consider the fact that we were unwilling to stand up to a narrative that the election was stolen, I think will be taken into consideration with their vote, he said. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Liz Cheney's allies criticize sudden GOP move to ditch secret ballots The parents of missing British girl Madeleine McCann are marking the 18th birthday of their daughter on Wednesday, just over 14 years since she disappeared on holiday in Portugal. Madeleine or "Maddy", as she is known in Britain, vanished from her family's apartment in the Algarve holiday resort of Praia da Luz in 2007. The disappearance, just days before her fourth birthday, sparked a massive search effort -- though no trace of her has ever been found -- and an international media frenzy. At the time, the now-defunct News of the World tabloid offered 1.5 million ($2.1 million, 1.7 million euros) for information leading to Madeleine's return and advertised the reward on a huge inflatable billboard. A 2011 inquiry into press standards heard that the then-editor of the UK's Daily Express newspaper decided the Madeleine McCann story was the only one he was interested in putting on the front page. Despite the high-profile nature of Madeleine's disappearance and media coverage since, Wednesday's anniversary is expected to be a muted affair. A source close to the family told AFP the McCanns were very private people and would only comment if there was a fundamental development in Madeleine's case. Her parents' priority, they said, was to protect Madeleine's younger brother and sister from the media spotlight, so they were only currently updating the public through their official website. A week before Madeleine's birthday, in a message coinciding with the 14th anniversary of her disappearance, Kate and Gerry McCann wrote of the years that had been "lost or stolen" with their daughter. They added they "hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again". German investigators have identified a convicted sex offender, named in the press as "Christian B.", as a prime suspect in the case. German prosecutor Hans Christian Wolters told AFP that the authorities had "several proceedings being brought against the suspect, but in all cases we do not yet foresee an end to the investigation". Story continues Reports in the British press earlier this month claimed that police in Germany had hoped to charge him with a 2004 rape, carried out only a 30-minute drive from where Madeleine went missing, within three months. Wolters said, however, that the three-month time frame was "unfortunately a false report". "Christian B.", who is suspected of raping an Irish tour representative, is currently serving a seven-year sentence in a prison in Hanover, northern Germany, for the rape of a 72-year-old American in Praia da Luz in 2005. London's Metropolitan Police continue to treat Madeleine's disappearance as a missing person inquiry and said investigations were ongoing. csp/phz/yad/lb In this image taken from Alameda Police Department body-camera video, officers pin Mario Gonzalez to the ground during an arrest on April 19 in Alameda. (Alameda Police Department) Attorneys for the family of Mario Gonzalez, a Latino man who died after an Alameda officer put a knee on his back and neck for more than four minutes, are asking the U.S. attorney general to conduct a federal civil rights investigation of the Bay Area city's police department. Julia Sherwin and Michael Haddad, who represent the 26-year-old's mother, brothers and 4-year-old son, sent a letter to Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland asking him to initiate a civil rights inquiry into Gonzalez's death and the policies and training of the Alameda Police Department, noting this is the second such death involving the department in recent years. "Mario died as a result of the officers' prone weight restraint on him," Sherwin wrote in the letter sent Monday to Garland. A similar death occurred in December 2018, Sherwin wrote. Shelby Gattenby, an Iraq war veteran, died while being detained by Alameda police after they pinned him in a prone position and used a stun gun on him multiple times. She said the department should have revised its policies and training after that incident: "If they had done that, Mario would still be alive." Before Gonzalez died, Alameda police were sent to a park April 19 in response to calls about an intoxicated man and a possible theft. One of the 911 callers told a dispatcher: He seems like hes tweaking. But hes not doing anything wrong; hes just scaring my wife. A second caller told a dispatcher about a man with a Walgreens basket with alcohol and said, It looks like he is breaking off the security tags. That caller added that the man had been loitering for half an hour. When police arrived, Gonzalez would not produce any identification, so the officers tried to force his hands behind his back to handcuff him, but he would not let his arms go limp. The officers determined that he was resisting, then pushed him to the ground, according to video from their body cameras. In the nearly hourlong body-camera video (caution: graphic content), Gonzalez appeared to be disoriented or drunk, looking dazed and struggling to answer officers questions. Story continues As they sought to restrain him, the officers repeatedly asked Gonzalez for his full name and birth date. Were going to take care of you, OK. Were going to take care of you, one officer told him. I think you just had too much to drink today, OK? Thats all. After learning his name, the officer added, Mario, just please stop fighting us. Gonzalez, who weighed about 250 pounds, was lying face-down on some wood chips and was heard shouting and grunting as the officers used their body weight to control him. One officer seemed to put an elbow on his neck and a knee on his shoulder. Gonzalez can be heard in the video telling officers, I didnt do nothing, OK? When Gonzalez stopped breathing, the officers rolled him over onto his back and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, but he was pronounced dead at a hospital. Gonzalez's death generated widespread outrage and comparisons to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. The cause of death is still under investigation, and the medical examiner of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office has convened a peer group to review the autopsy before releasing its findings. But several experts in police training have said Gonzalez could have been asphyxiated by the weight the officers placed on him. Seth Stoughton, a University of South Carolina law professor and former Florida police officer, said the dangers of positional asphyxia have been well known in policing and incorporated into training since the early 1990s. The technique of pinning a suspect to the ground should especially be avoided when there are risk factors, such as obesity or drug or alcohol use, as was true in the Alameda case, Stoughton said. He likened the situation to a boa constrictor killing its prey by depriving it of oxygen. In an image from body camera video, Alameda police attempt to take 26-year-old Mario Gonzalez into custody on April 19. The video goes on to show officers pinning Gonzalez to the ground during the arrest, which ended in his death. (Alameda Police Department) Gonzalez's death is also under investigation by the Alameda County Sheriffs Office and the county district attorneys office. The city of Alameda has identified the three officers placed on leave during the investigation into Gonzalezs death as James Fisher, Cameron Leahy and Eric McKinley. At a special session of the Alameda City Council on Saturday, members approved a plan to divert some 911 calls for mental health checks to the Fire Department or a community health team. They also explored the creation of a civilian police auditor and a ballot measure that would create a civilian police oversight panel. For the record: 10:59 PM, May. 11, 2021: A previous version of this article misspelled attorney Julia Sherwins first name as Julie. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. The fighting between Israel and Hamas escalated on Tuesday to levels not seen since the 50-day war in the summer of 2014. An Israeli airstrike targeting an apartment building in Gaza City left three senior members of the Islamic Jihad militant group dead, as well as 10 children and a woman, The Associated Press reports. Another airstrike destroyed a 12-story building that housed Hamas offices; because warning shots were fired, civilians were able to flee, and no casualties have been reported. At least 35 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the fighting began, AP says. Hamas started firing rockets into Israel on Monday, and in response to Tuesday's Israeli airstrikes, launched hundreds more into the country, killing three women and injuring dozens more. One rocket hit a bus in Holon, wounding three people, including a young girl. There have also been reports in cities across Israel of synagogues, Jewish-owned business, and cars owned by Arabs being set on fire. The current conflict began last week after Palestinians held demonstrations against Israel's planned evictions of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem. Over the course of several days, Palestinians and Israeli forces clashed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, a holy site for both Muslims and Jews. Police used tear gas and stun grenades inside the mosque, and the Palestinians in turn threw stones and chairs at officers. During a televised address Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel has fired at hundreds of targets, and Hamas and smaller militant groups "have paid, and I tell you here, will pay a heavy price for their aggression." He added that the "campaign will take time. With determination, unity, and strength, we will restore security to the citizens of Israel." Qatar, Egypt, and the United Nations are trying to work out a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. More stories from theweek.com George P. Bush applauds Liz Cheney's ouster, claims she doesn't 'stand up for conservative Republican ideology' The Republican theory of unemployment is classic Marx The problem with Ohio's $1 million vaccine lottery Californias new attorney general has vowed to focus on hate crimes in response to the spate of anti-Asian incidents recorded in the state. Rob Bonta, who is Filipino American, detailed his plan on Tuesday in his first press conference since he was sworn in to replace Xavier Becerra last month. A new bureau: Bonta is creating a new Racial Justice Bureau within his California Department of Justice to deal with hate crimes. The bureau will fall under the departments Civil Rights Enforcement Section and be composed of six new attorneys and a supervising deputy attorney general. Bonta said the bureau is a partial response to the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes over the past year, according to The Mercury News. Make no mistake, right now were in a full on state of crisis, a full on state of emergency, when it comes to hate violence against the Asian-Pacific Islander community, Bonta said, according to AP News. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Other hate-related and social justice issues: Aside from anti-Asian hate crimes, Bontas new bureau will deal with extremist groups, tackle bias in policing, issue guidelines for law enforcement, address campus climate issues and assist with reparations for descendants of slavery. The bureau will investigate groups such as white supremacist organizations when appropriate, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. It will also work with local police to share best practices for hate crime investigations and identifying implicit bias in policing. A new task force dedicated to studying reparations for African Americans is entirely new for the department, Bonta said. The Attorney General acknowledged that prosecuting hate crimes is difficult due to the high burden of proof required. He also believes that such crimes are vastly underreported. Taking on hate crimes will always be one of my top priorities as the peoples attorney, Bonta said, according to the Los Angeles Times. No part of California is immune to hate. Featured Image Screenshot via California Department of Justice Story continues Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! Seoul Will Now Test Cats and Dogs with COVID-19 Symptoms Japanese 'Twitter Killer' Found With 9 Severed HEADS Pleads Guilty to His Crimes Do You Speak English?: Asian American CNN Producer Arrested While Covering Daunte Wright Protest Beloved Filipino YouTuber Who Tested Positive For COVID-19 Dies of Heart Attack By Sarah Berman (Reuters) - Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou and her legal team are set to return to court for three more weeks of extradition hearings starting Aug. 3, following a fourth attempt by Mengs lawyers to introduce new evidence, a Canadian court heard on Wednesday. Meng, 49, was arrested at Vancouver International Airport on a U.S. warrant for bank fraud in December 2018. She is accused of misleading HSBC about Huaweis dealings in Iran, causing the bank to break with U.S. sanctions. Meng maintains she is innocent of the charges and has been fighting her extradition while living under house arrest in Vancouver. For more than two years, her lawyers have pushed to have the case thrown out because of alleged abuses of process that they say violated her rights. Last month Meng requested a delay in proceedings to allow her legal team to review new documents that could bolster her defense. The request followed a settlement between HSBC and Huawei in a Hong Kong court allowing company records to be released. Meng's lawyers told the British Columbia Supreme Court on Wednesday they plan to file their application to introduce new evidence on June 7. The case is expected to wrap on Aug. 20. (Reporting by Sarah Berman in Vancouver; Editing by Marguerita Choy) Clashes between Arabs, Israelis and army in Lod, East Jerusalem and West Bank. Hundreds of rockets rain down on Tel Aviv and Beersheba. Hundreds of Israeli raids on Gaza. Five Israelis died, at least 35 Palestinians, including 10 children. Criticism from the Arab League; US caution. Good chance for Netanyahu. Jerusalem (AsiaNews / Agencies) - "Civil war has broken out in Lod": this is the comment of Yair Revivo, mayor of the city, after the state of emergency declared by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, following clashes between Israeli police and Israeli Arabs city, under a rain of grenades and stones. The day before, a young Israeli Arab was killed in a demonstration. Overnight clashes continued between groups of Israelis, who threw stones at Arab cars, and Arabs who threw stones and set fire to Israeli shops and windows. At least 12 people were injured. According to the Times of Israel, this is the first time since 1966 that a state of emergency has been applied to an Arab community. More clashes and riots have broken out in other Israeli cities, in East Jerusalem and in the West Bank. This morning, a young Palestinian, Hussein Al-Titi, 26, was killed by an Israeli bullet during a demonstration in the Al-Fawwar refugee camp, near Hebron, which ended in clashes with the Israeli army. The situation has been tense for days, caused by the eviction of Palestinian families from Shaikh Jarrah (East Jerusalem), by the Al Aqsa invasion by policemen during Ramadan, by the continuous launch of rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli cities. Hamas, the militant group that governs the Strip, has already launched at least 210 rockets towards Beersheba and Tel Aviv today alone. In Lod, near Tel Aviv, two people were killed, including a 7-year-old girl. A 50-year-old woman was killed in the Rishon Lezion neighborhood (Tel Aviv) after a missile hit the building where she resided. Two women were killed by a missile in Ashqelon. The Israeli air force carried out hundreds of raids and bombed Gaza this morning. According to military sources, they killed several Hamas leaders, destroying a seven-story building that was the seat of "high-ranking members" of the group. Palestinian medical sources say at least 35 Palestinians have been killed, including 10 children. The Arab League accuses the Israeli government of wanting an escalation; the United States says Israel has the right to defend itself, but at the same time to stop the expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem. The US also blocked a motion in the Security Council. The outbreak of violence has also stopped the search for a new coalition to form a new government to replace that of Benjamin Netanyahu. If within three weeks, the opponent Yair Lapid fails to form one, perhaps new elections will be needed (the fifth in less than two years) and new possibilities for Netanyahu to cling to power, again escaping conviction for corruption. Wednesday, May 12, 2021 This article was first featured in Yahoo Finance Tech, a weekly newsletter highlighting our original content on the industry. Get it sent directly to your inbox every Wednesday by 4 p.m. ET. Subscribe Its been nearly a week since Colonial Pipeline was hit by a ransomware attack, taking out a critical gas pipeline that ferries gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel from Texas to New Jersey and causing dire gas shortages spurred by panic buying. According to the FBI, a criminal organization known as DarkSide launched the attack using ransomware, which encrypts victims files and promises the keys to unlock them in exchange for a ransom payment. The Colonial Pipeline attack isnt the first of its kind, but its scale is notable. The shutdown has sent the cost of gasoline soaring, with prices rising to their highest levels in nearly eight years, just when the economy is starting to recover from the coronavirus pandemic. While Colonial Pipeline said Wednesday that it has begun the process of restarting its service to the East Coast, the crisis isn't over. It will still take 15 days for the first drops of gas to make their way from Texas to New Jersey, according to Bloomberg. A sign reading "Out of Fuel" is taped to the window at an Exxon Gas Station on Boonsboro Road in Lynchburg, Va., Tuesday, May 11, 2021 (Kendall Warner/The News & Advance via AP) This is far from the last ransomware attack well see, but it should be the one that spurs the Biden administration into serious action. President Joe Biden needs to make fighting the rise of ransomware his top cybersecurity priority, as attackers increasingly go after crucial infrastructure like pipelines and even hospitals. This is the kind of thing [that] definitely keeps me up at night, Anton Dahbura, executive director of Johns Hopkins Universitys Information Security Institute, told Yahoo Finance. This should be one of our top priorities to really change the model for how critical systems are managed. And it really requires a coordinated significant effort to do that." Experts want the governments help Cybersecurity researchers have pleaded with the government to stanch the spread of ransomware attacks for years. And as the scope of the attacks has grown, they have spread from a way to scam consumers to a means to attack entire hospital systems. Story continues This is something we've been talking about for literally 20 years, Chris Painter, an affiliate of Stanford Universitys Center for International Security and Cooperation, told Yahoo Finance. We need to really treat this as a huge problem and not just say it's another kind of smaller, back burner issue. To be sure, Biden has taken cybersecurity more seriously than his predecessor. While former President Donald Trump eliminated the position of cybersecurity czar, Biden recently appointed 28-year National Security Agency veteran Chris Inglis to be the countrys first cyber director as he fills out his cybersecurity team. Tanker trucks are parked near the entrance of Colonial Pipeline Company Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) Congress has been taking action, too. Just two days before the Colonial Pipeline attack, on May 5, retired Army Major General John Davis, whos now vice president of security firm Palo Alto Networks public sector division, testified about the threats of ransomware before a subcommittee of the House Homeland Security Committee. Its no longer a criminal nuisance driven by profit motive, Davis testified, and now its impacting nation security, economic stability, and public health and safety of the national and international community on a massive scale. Davis serves on the Institute for Security and Technology Ransomware Task Force, which has pushed the Biden administration to oversee a government anti-ransomware campaign in coordination with the private sector to better prepare and fight back against cyberattacks. But Biden needs to move fast if hes going to stop the next big ransomware attack. According to the Department of Homeland Security, ransomware attacks cost the public and private sector billions a year in lost time and data. Cybersecurity firm Emsisoft estimated that ransom and total downtime for impacted organizations cost the U.S. more than $9 billion in 2019 but that number, the firm said, was likely far higher. And thats not taking into account the explosion in ransomware in 2020 amid the pandemic. According to The New York Times, the Biden administration is already preparing an executive order that will provide a series of safety standards for federal agencies and contractors. But that falls short of experts calls for a broader framework that would protect against or help mitigate another Colonial Pipeline-type incident. The risk is already massive While the Colonial Pipeline attack is top of mind at the moment, ransomware attacks have been crushing hospital systems and local governments across the U.S. Emsisoft found more than 560 health care organizations were hit with ransomware attacks in 2020 alone, according to a February 2021 report by the Department of Health and Human Services. Universal Health Services, a major health care system with locations in 38 states, spent $67 million recovering from a single ransomware attack, despite not even paying the ransom, the Wall Street Journal reported in February. The attacks on hospitals are particularly insidious in light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, highlighting the real-life dangers of cyberattacks. But it might be the pain Americans are feeling at the pump that will have them screaming for change as ransomware attackers get more creative at finding ways to disrupt the lives of everyday people. The problem with ransomware as a species of new activity, or relatively new activity is that it could have huge second or third order consequences, especially when it's going after critical infrastructure, Painter, of Stanford Universitys Center for International Security and Cooperation, told Yahoo Finance. And the disruption of that critical infrastructure will affect public health and safety and that's what we're seeing. Editor's note: This story was updated with news that the pipeline was being turned on. By Daniel Howley, tech editor. Follow him at @DanielHowley More from Dan: The chip shortage has finally come for Apple How to make your Facebook News Feed a less divisive place Should Facebook let Trump back on? New poll shows a slim majority want to lift the ban Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and reddit. Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news For tutorials and information on investing and trading stocks, check out Cashay. Charlie D'Agata tours the battlefield with General Scott Miller, the Commander of U.S. NATO forces in Afghanistan who is giving his first interview since the May 1 drawdown of American troops. Video Transcript - --was victim of that particular political mania. - All right, a change in the party. Major, thank you very much. - The top US general in Afghanistan says the next two weeks will be critical for the ongoing withdrawal of US-led coalition forces. In an exclusive CBS News interview, General Scott Miller spoke with Charlie D'Agata about the challenges US troops and Afghan forces face amid a wave of Taliban attacks. CHARLIE D'AGATA: Try managing this in 40-mile-an-hour crosswinds. Packing materials destined for US bases, just part of the heavy lift in the mission to draw down the last 2,500 or so US troops in Afghanistan, a historic turning point under the watch of General Scott Miller. SCOTT MILLER: It's going very well and, in some cases, ahead of schedule. CHARLIE D'AGATA: After almost 20 years of a continuous American presence here, dismantling it all is a mammoth task. It's not just about safeguarding the withdrawal of US troops, it's weapons, equipment, machinery, and entire infrastructure. All while trying to defend against Taliban militants determined to settle scores as US soldiers head for the exits. Have you had any trouble from the Taliban? Do you anticipate any trouble from the Taliban? SCOTT MILLER: To date, we've seen a couple incidents of Taliban activity against the coalition. We have the military means and capabilities here to defend ourselves, as well as the Afghan security forces. CHARLIE D'AGATA: Capabilities like US airstrikes, launched after a Taliban attack on a US base to the south and Taliban fighters advancing against Afghan forces. SCOTT MILLER: As 1 May commenced, we saw a pretty-- pretty large surge of Taliban violence across the country, in provinces we expected. CHARLIE D'AGATA: General Miller knows the Taliban playbook by heart. Just over a month after he took command, he drew his sidearm when a rogue Afghan bodyguard opened fire on their delegation, killing an Afghan lieutenant general and wounding a US brigadier general. A former Delta Force captain, Miller was one of the first American soldiers on the ground in the US invasion following 9/11. Now, America's longest war is being brought to an end by America's longest-serving commander in Afghanistan. Story continues Had you anticipated being here this long? SCOTT MILLER: Absolutely not. In 2001, I don't ever think I could project 20 years later and see that we'd be standing here. CHARLIE D'AGATA: General Miller paid tribute not only to the Americans who are still here, but the tens of thousands who came before, especially-- Reuters An agreement by wealthy nations aimed at squeezing more tax out of large multinational companies could hit some firms hard while leaving others - including some of the most frequent targets of lawmakers ire - relatively unscathed, according to a Reuters analysis. Finance ministers from the Group of Seven leading nations on Saturday agreed on proposals aimed at ensuring that companies pay tax in each country in which they operate rather than shifting profits to low-tax havens elsewhere. One proposed measure would allow countries where customers are based to tax a greater share of a multinational companys profits above a certain threshold. Idahos Republican legislators wasted weeks and weeks and weeks on silly legislation while ignoring one of the top concerns among voters: property tax relief. Had they spent as much time on property tax solutions as they spent on rooting out critical race theory, monument name changes and trying to cancel Powerball because of gun restrictions in Australia, they would have come up with fact-based, research-driven solutions after listening to testimony from tax experts, local officials and others affected by the issue. Scott McIntosh is the Idaho Statesmans opinion editor. Instead, after 18 weeks 18 weeks! in session, Rep. Mike Moyle, R-Star, ramrodded a complex, multifaceted property tax bill through both the House and the Senate in three days at the end of the longest session in Idaho history. What happens when you rush a complicated bill through the Legislature without considering facts, research, experts or testimony from city and county officials? You get bad legislation. In tossing a bone to those who recognize that raising the homeowners exemption is the best way to provide property tax relief to homeowners, Moyle raised it from $100,000 to $125,000. That seems like a good thing, sure, but had the Republican-dominated Legislature not capped the exemption in 2016, it would be worth $149,525 this year, according to the Idaho State Tax Commission. With dramatically rising residential property values, that means agriculture and commercial land will get let off the hook once again, and homeowners will pick up even more of the property tax burden than they already do. To make matters worse, Moyle made the states circuit breaker program more difficult to qualify for. The circuit breaker is a successful program in that it provides targeted relief to those who really need it. Moyle has been fond of talking about an elderly woman he knows whos been a victim of rising property taxes on her home. However, if her propertys assessed value is more than 125% the median value of homes in the county, tough luck to grandma. Thats because thats a new requirement Moyle tacked onto his bill. Grandmas property tax bill could actually increase under his legislation. Story continues Finally, Moyles bill is a complicated set of requirements for local city and county spending. Its impacts will be felt by nearly every level of government, from the biggest cities and counties down to your local fire department, library and mosquito abatement district. Yet, the bill got ramrodded through in three days with little to no input from those local officials to convey to legislators what those impacts may be. It contains a seemingly arbitrary 8% limit on budgets, 80% limits on annexation valuation, 90% limit on valuation of new construction numbers that appear to come from out of thin air, similar to the arbitrary 125% median value of homes to qualify for the circuit breaker and $125,000 for the homeowners exemption. No study, no testimony, no research, just some numbers Moyle apparently came up with last Tuesday to present to the Legislature. In Moyles mind, cities and counties just want more, as he put it to Betsy Russell of the Idaho Press, rubbing his fingers and thumb together, signifying money, as if city council members and county commissioners are just money-grubbers rather than public officials just trying to make sure a police car gets to your house in an emergency. A very quick look at Moyles bill shows that its full of problems that would actually do damage and in some cases make things even worse if enacted. But thats what you get when you pass legislation in three days when you had 18 weeks to pass something that actually would have been helpful, meaningful and effective. Gov. Brad Little has been on a tear lately trying to appease the right wingers of his party, pulling out of federal unemployment programs, signing a bill to make initiatives more difficult, even signing legislation that takes away a governors powers in an emergency. Hes playing political calculus here in these waning days of the worst legislative session ever. Unfortunately, Little on Wednesday signed the bill. In yet another remarkable letter of approval that sounded more like a veto letter, Little explained his misgivings. I do have significant concerns with the process leading up to the passage of House Bill 389 as well as its practical implications, Little wrote. I am supportive of the increase in the homeowners exemption from $100,000 to $125,000, but the near-exponential increases in home valuations mean the exemption will only slow the property tax increases for many Idahoans and not provide long-term relief. I am also supportive of updating the circuit breaker credit to ensure that our veterans, elderly, and lower-income populations can afford to stay in their homes, but I fear these changes may have unintended consequences for some individuals and families. I have always subscribed to the adage that our taxes need to be fair, simple, competitive, and predictable. When considered against these pillars of tax policy, House Bill 389 falls short. The bill is an aggregate of complex and nuanced changes to Idahos property tax code, and I am troubled that this was introduced in the waning days of the longest legislative session in Idaho history. I fear this bill actually does more harm than doing nothing. Little should have vetoed the damaging bill, so that legislators could go back to the drawing board and spend more than three days working on something that has such far-reaching implications and impact. Unfortunately, now were going to witness the negative effects of this bad legislation. Scott McIntosh is the opinion editor of the Idaho Statesman. You can email him at smcintosh@idahostatesman.com or call him at 208-377-6202. Follow him on Twitter @ScottMcIntosh12. Streaks of light are seen as Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon - ANAS BABA Source: AFP/ANAS BABA Source: AFP Israel's military was facing questions on Wednesday as to whether its Iron Dome missile defence system needed an upgrade, after five Israeli civilians were killed by rocket strikes. The system, which Israeli officials say has a 90 per cent interception rate, has already avoided heavy loss of life in Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and other cities which became a focal point for Hamas as it sought to overwhelm air defences. But on Wednesday, Israeli analysts said that for some time intelligence sources had been warning that Hamas had significantly improved its weaponry, to the extent that it could "pierce the Iron Dome shield." Iron Dome always had a weakness, the Jerusalem Posts intelligence, terrorism and legal analyst Yonah Jeremy Bob wrote in an article on Wednesday, referring to the systems success rate. Mr Bob stressed that this did not mean that the Iron Dome was no longer effective. Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip If Hamas has more of those longer-range rockets, this could impact Israels plans for this round of violence and especially the question of how long it wants it to last, he added. The scale of this weeks rocket barrages have been unprecedented, with around a thousand missiles fired at longer ranges to challenge the capabilities of the Iron Dome system. Ten percent of the time, you have to take into consideration that it wont do the job, retired Israeli Brigadier General Amir Avivi said of the Iron Dome. But Mr Avivi, who founded a group of retired military officers called Habithonistim to advocate for Israels security, insisted it was operating as intended. The system was designed for much bigger events, he said. Iron Dome can cope with a huge volume of rockets. Introduced into service 10 years ago, the Iron Dome system was developed by two Israeli defence firms with financial and technical assistance from the United States. Designed to intercept short-range rockets and mortars, the system uses radar to detect inbound threats and deploys interceptor rockets to detonate in the air to destroy incoming missiles. Story continues The Israeli military has deployed 10 batteries of the Iron Dome system across the country and credits the system with greatly reducing casualties from rocket attacks. The number of Israelis killed and wounded would be far higher were it not for the Israeli Iron Dome System, which has been a lifesaver, Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus said on Wednesday, speaking on a call with reporters from outside a rocket damaged home in Yehud, on the eastern outskirts of Tel Aviv. The house, 40 miles north of Gaza where the rocket was fired, was one of about 20 sites struck by Hamas and other militant factions in Gaza. An Israeli man walks past the remains of a rocket fire by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from the Gaza Strip The unprecedented intensity of the rocket fire, which in some cases was trained deliberately on individual towns and cities, marks a new tactic by Hamas and Islamic Jihad to try to overwhelm the Iron Dome system. Since the last major conflict in 2014, the militants have been increasing both the size of their arsenal and the capabilities of their rockets. According to our estimates were talking about between 20,000 and 30,000 rockets in Gaza today, rockets and mortars, said Lt Col Conricus. Weve seen a constant expansion in terms of range and also in terms of the size of the warheads, he said. They have an advanced arsenal of rockets, I think its on par with the fire capabilities of a few small European countries. Intense fighting between Palestinian militants and the Israeli army has continued since the weekend Produced using pipe and fertiliser using designs provided by Iranian military engineers, Israel has few options for disrupting the manufacture of rockets in Gaza, though weapons workshops are among several hundred sites the Israeli military says it has struck in densely populated Gaza this week. Israels aerial bombardment of Gaza the sixth one in my adult life at least is unlikely to produce a new outcome, said Steven Wagner, a lecturer in International Security at Brunel University London. Israels Iron Dome missile defence, while mesmerising, should also be a stark reminder of the asymmetry of this conflict, he said. Hamas ordnance is simple, cheap, and can still occasionally break through the multi-million dollar defence system funded by the United States. The sheer number of rockets in militant hands, produced at a cost of just a few hundred dollars each, could pose a costly threat for Iron Dome to address, with each interceptor rocket costing an estimated $50,000, according to Israeli military. Missile interceptions above the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon However, Israel says that its costly defence system is worth every penny. The rockets are not outsmarting the Iron Dome, the Iron Dome is outstanding in its capacity to adapt to new techniques and to new methods by the enemies, said Lt Col Conricus. And while the rockets have terrified Israeli civilians, Lt Col Conricus said their destructive power was limited: The rockets definitely terrorise but are they capable of causing significant military damage? Not quite. May 12Hawaiian Electric has filed a asking the state Public Utilities Commission to reconsider the operational and financial conditions it has attached to its approval of the Kapolei Energy Storage project. The PUC in late Aprilconsidered by many as key to keeping the lights on when Oahu's coal plant retires next fallbut with nine specific conditions. Hawaiian Electric on Monday objected to the conditions, citing four in particular as "highly problematic, " and said they should be reconsidered, removed or modified, or else the project may not be able to move forward as planned. The utility requested that the PUC promptly issue a modified decision so the developer, Plus Power, can bring the battery online in the summer of 2022. "All of us are aiming for the same goal, to get Hawaii off imported fossil fuels and to decarbonize our energy system, " said Scott Seu, president and CEO of Hawaiian Electric in a statement. "Most of the time we're in alignment with our regulators' direction and we don't take this action lightly, but this is one of the infrequent times we disagree on tactics. We're offering to be flexible and we hope the commission will make some adjustments that enable us to keep moving us toward our decarbonized future." The PUC is reviewing the motion, but had no comment at this time. The utility said it has demonstrated that the project would help lower customers' bills, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ensure the energy security and reliability of Oahu's grid, but without modifications to the PUC order, it "will be nearly impossible for the project to move forward." Either the PUC or Hawaiian Electric can declare the Kapolei project's Energy Storage Power Purchase Agreementfirst submitted for consideration eight months agonull and void. Some of the conditions, Hawaiian Electric said, are not actually related to the storage project, but "appear to be an assembly of directives on issues still being considered in other dockets " Story continues The project is a 185-MW lithium-ion battery project with 565 megawatt-hours of storage planned on industrial land. San Francisco-based developer Plus Power said it would connect to a critical Hawaiian Electric substation and provide load shifting and fast-frequency response services, plus improve grid reliability. If completed, it would be the largest stand-alone battery storage system in the state. Plus Power filed a motion as Kapolei Energy Storage I LLC and said it, too, was concerned with the "burdensome conditions " placed on Hawaiian Electric. It also warned that unless the PUC issues a clear approval in the next few weeks resolving the situation, the project could potentially be withdrawn due to "near-term financial obligations." The battery system is expected to compensate for the loss of AES Hawaii, Oahu's 180-megawatt coal plant, when it retires as required by law in September 2022. One of the victims of an April shooting in San Diego is speaking out about the experience of being shot by a "ghost gun" following a seemingly random killing by the same alleged gunman. Vincent "Vinny" Gazzani told NBC San Diego that he was on vacation with friends in California when he was shot in the arm and chest. "It's be incredible to be standing alive," Gazzani said. The 27-year-old from New Jersey said he and his companions had just stepped out of a pizzeria in the city's Gaslamp Quarter on the night of April 22 when suspect Travis Sarreshteh passed by the group. Moments before, Sarreshteh had allegedly randomly targeted and fatally shot 28-year-old valet worker Justice Boldin at a nearby hotel. "We were all kind of trying to pass this person, Travis, on the street, and I think it was like a narrow sidewalk where we were trying to pass him, he screamed, 'Everyone get out of the way,'" Gazzani said. "I think one of them maybe like brushed his shoulder or something when we were trying to pass and that's when he turned around and started firing into the crowd," he said. "It was like a horror movie," Gazzani said of being shot. "Your life flashes behind your eyes." Three other people were injured in the shooting, including two of Gazzani's friends. Police said all are expected to make full recoveries. Sarreshteh allegedly then strolled casually away, two men who later tackled him told NBC News San Diego. In his interview, Gazzani credits two passersby for springing into action Israeli Defense Force veterans Dvir Benesh and Shai Gino who were trained in first aid and medical staff at UCSD Hospital for helping him recover from his serious gunshot injuries. Gazzani suffered a collapsed lung in the shooting and was hospitalized for a week. He would likely be a witness in Sarresteh's murder trial, for which the suspect has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder and four counts of attempted murder, according to NBC News San Diego. Hundreds of soldiers are being sent to Indonesia's western provinces, in a move likely to inflame tensions with armed separatists. Video Transcript JESSICA WASHINGTON: Exhausted and afraid, this community was forced to flee from their homes. In May, a shoot out near their village in Elaga between security forces and an armed group, sparked fear among residents. This is Indonesia's Papua and this community is not the first to be affected by violence in the country's East. In April, an Indonesian special forces general was shot dead by a pro-independence group, prompting Indonesian authorities to step up their clampdown on such groups. ARGO YUWONO: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] INTERPRETER: Armed criminal groups burnt public facilities and killed people. We have to stop them. JESSICA WASHINGTON: There are thousands of Indonesian troops already in the region. This video produced by the Indonesian military shows 400 soldiers who have just completed what the military calls, special training, for duties in Papua. Some papuan rights groups say they are worried about the increase in troop numbers. RUTH OGETAY: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] INTERPRETER: There are more security personnel than people there, with uniforms, non-uniform, even those who sit with the vendors on the street. People feel afraid to go anywhere. JESSICA WASHINGTON: And Human Rights Watch says long standing concerns about abuses of indigenous Papuan people have gone mostly unaddressed. ANDREAS HARSONO: The problem is impunity is widespread over the last five decades in Papua. So I think the government needs to increase, needs to tell all those troops going to Papua, that if you abuse human rights, you have to be, you will be held accountable. JESSICA WASHINGTON: In 2019, thousands demonstrated in cities around Indonesia, demanding an end to racism against Papuans. And many also called for an independence referendum. The free Papua movement refers to the independence movement within the region, which does not see Indonesia as the legitimate authority in their homeland. Story continues Within the movement, there are many different groups and only some use violence. In April, the Indonesian government designated all armed groups in Papua as terrorists, without specifically naming any. MOHAMMAD MAHFUD: [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH] INTERPRETER: The government considers organizations and people in Papua who commit to mass violence as terrorists. JESSICA WASHINGTON: There are fears the vagueness of the changes will further stifle even peaceful protest in Papua. ANDREAS HARSONO: We are concerned that categorizing the Papuan armed group, without specific term, will increase the possibilities of human rights abuses. JESSICA WASHINGTON: Indonesia's easternmost provinces are resource rich, yet its people are the poorest in the country, with some of the highest rates of childhood stunting, infant mortality and illiteracy. Jessica Washington, Al Jazeera, Jakarta. - Usman Hamid is the director of Amnesty International Indonesia, who joins us by Skype from Jakarta. Good to have you with us. So tell us, why the concern about designating the Papuan separatists as terrorist groups? What will that mean for the human rights situation? USMAN HAMID: I think first of all, designations of terrorists to free Papuan movement is just showing the government failure to address root causes of proper problems. And it just shows it lacks of willingness to engage with the real roots of the ongoing conflict, the armed conflict in Papua and West Papua. And labeling armed groups in Papua as a terrorist organization, does nothing to help the Papuan people. Or if anything, it only increases the potential for further human rights violations. And based on our monitoring in Papua, military and police personnel allegedly often justify the killing of Papuan residents by claiming that they were members of the free Papuan movement or the armed criminal groups, without any clear evidence. The claims that are often denied by local residents and church leaders. So a terrorist label will only serve as further justification for such terrible human rights abuses. - Let me put to you the authority's line on this. And they say that basically, the actions taken by some of the Papuan separatists amount to the 2018 anti-terrorism's law and definition of terrorism. You know, they'll point to events like the separatists attack on April the 8th, which set fire to three schools and shot dead a teacher in Baoga village. USMAN HAMID: We condemn any acts of terrorist crimes by any parties, and including by the armed groups in Papua. And Amnesty International in no way rejects any investigation, arrests or prosecutions of members, of terrorist groups, including the armed groups, who have allegedly committed crimes. And indeed, authorities should conduct a swift investigation, an independent investigation into such crimes. So the perpetrators must be brought to trial according to the fair procedure of law and international human rights standard. However, terrorist designation will do nothing to protect the victims of the armed groups. And the designation would only allow security forces to use the law, the 2018 anti-terrorism law, which we have previously criticized for its potential violations of human-- - To be used to restraint human rights, I understood. Thank you so much. Sorry, we are running out of time, Usman Hamid. USMAN HAMID: No problem. by Vladimir Rozanskij Ilnaz Galyaviev, 19, killed nine people, including seven students. Showing mental disorder, the young man turned himself in to the police. He said he was born a god, but I didn't realise it right away. His father, Rinat Nurkhamatovich, wants to know What did he do? He's a good boy. For Orthodox Metropolitan John, like in the US, the minds of young people do not find a strong point of reference. Moscow (AsiaNews) Tatarstan's president has declared a day of mourning today in memory of those killed at Gymnasium No 175 in Kazan, the Republic's capital (picture 1). Yesterday, 19-year-old Ilnaz Galyaviev (picture 2) opened fire with a shotgun inside the building, killing nine people: four boys, three girls, 26-year-old teacher Elvira Ignatyeva and a high school employee. Another 21 people were hospitalised, six in intensive care. After shooting at the students, Galyaviev left the school with his hands raised, and was immediately arrested. He was armed with a Hatsan Escort Aimguard 12 gauge pump-action shotgun, like the one used by the Kerch shooter, 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov, who in October 2018 killed 21 people, wounding another 67, at the Kerch Polytechnic College on the Crimean coast. Last April, Galyaviev was expelled from at private university in Kazan, the Academy of Management TISBI, where he was enrolled in the fourth year, for failing to pay tuition fees. During the initial questioning, Ilnaz Galyaviev stated that he was born a god, but I did not realise it right away. Last summer the monster began to awaken in me, and I began to really hate, the young man said. He was charged him with multiple counts of murder. The head of the Investigative Committee of Russia (SKR) Alexander Bastrykin arrived immediately in Kazan from Moscow with a group of officers specialised in such cases. The Minister of Health, Mikhail Murashko, and the Minister of Education, Sergey Kravtsov, also came. Russian President Vladimir Putin summoned the head of Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov, to shed light on the situation at the Kazan gymnasium, and spoke with Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova and Minister of Emergency Situations Civile Yevgeny Zinichev. Following the tragedy, Putin ordered an urgent review of the countrys gun control laws. Russian schools activated the anti-terrorism protocol. The president of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, and several members of the local government visited the scene of the shooting. All emergency agencies sent staff to Gymnasium No 175. All the students were evacuated with some injuring themselves by jumping from windows to escape the gunman. Rumours about similar incidents in other Kazan schools popped up on the internet, but were quickly denied by the authorities. All educational establishments in Tatarstans capital were placed under their control and temporarily closed. The attackers father, Rinat Nurkhamatovich, was in shock. What did he do? He's a good boy; he's studying in his fourth year of college! According to him, his son is not religious and until now he had not expressed any kind of destructive thoughts. The Catholic parish priest of Kazan, Argentine-born Father Diogenes Urquiza, spoke to AsiaNews, expressing his closeness to the victims and their families. For him, this was an act of madness on the part of an isolated and evidently rather disturbed young man. Orthodox Metropolitan John (Roshchin), who is involved in intercultural and interfaith dialogue from Moscow, spoke to us, mentioning his time in the United States. In the US, he said, the tragedy of school shootings is very much in the news. Here (in Russia) we feel the problem of the current weaknesses of our society, in which the minds of young people do not find a strong point of reference. In America these events usually happen in spring or autumn, when unstable people are more prone to crises, and it seems that such dynamics are starting to manifest themselves here too. May 11An Iowa man who was an accomplice in a bank robbery that occurred in Mitchell in 2015 pleaded guilty to aiding abetting Tuesday during a court hearing. Nolan Kratky, 23, of Ames, Iowa, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting in the first degree robbery that took place in November 2015 at First Dakota National Bank on the north side of Mitchell. Kratky could face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison and a $50,000 fine for the class two felony. A grand jury indicted Kratky in early January. The 2015 robbery involved another man, Jose Campos, of North Sioux City, Nebraska, who demanded an undisclosed amount of money at First Dakota National Bank on North Main Street by forcing a bank teller to his vehicle with a knife. According to State's Attorney Jim Miskimins, Kratky was the driver of the vehicle that he and Campos, 22, used during and after the bank robbery. "Kratky was contacted by Campos to assist him in the robbery. He drove Mr. Campos to the north branch bank, and during the course of their travel he learned what Mr. Campos' intent was," Miskimins said. "Mr. Campos left the bank and got into the car that was being operated by Nolan Kratky. They drove away from Mitchell and returned to their homes." Kratky received a portion of the money that Campos robbed from the bank, Miskimins said. Attorney Zach Flood, who is representing Kratky in the case, reiterated that Kratky never left the vehicle throughout the entire duration of the robbery. Campos turned himself into authorities in 2020, nearly five years after the robbery. Shortly after, he was indicted by a grand jury. Campos was sentenced to serve five years in prison and pay restitution fees amounting to $100,000. While Campos was given a 25-year prison sentence by Judge Chris Giles on Jan. 19, he decided to suspend 20 years of the sentence, pointing to Campos' efforts to rehabilitate himself since the robbery and his act of turning himself in. Giles ordered a presentence investigation report to be completed prior to sentencing Kratky with the goal of learning more about him and his past. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 20. Kratky was recently released from jail after posting a portion of his $20,000 cash bond. "Mr. Campos was ordered to serve a significant amount of time in the penitentiary, but a lot of it was suspended. There are a lot of factors behind that even though this was a very dangerous situation... He has a tremendous amount of time hanging over his head, but I do not know anything about you," Giles said to Kratky, who was in attendance during Tuesday's hearing at the Davison County Public Safety Center. "It's very possible that you may get something like that from the court, but I don't know you and your situation. That's why I need a presentence report." DES MOINES, Iowa Inmates from all nine of Iowa's prisons have donated more than $11,000 to fundraisers supporting the families of two Anamosa State Penitentiary staff members killed while on duty in March, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections . In March, two prisoners were charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and second-degree kidnapping after nurse Lorena Schulte and correctional officer Robert McFarland were killed during a failed escape attempt. Iowa Department of Corrections spokesman Cord Overton said the department's business managers added up donations from inmates made to memorial accounts established for the victims. "Currently, more than $11,000 has been donated by the inmates through direct donations and fundraisers," he told the Press-Citizen, via email. "Donations have been made from all nine prisons." 'Senseless tragedy': Inmate attacks, kills nurse and correctional officer at Iowa prison Community members place flowers and balloons outside of the main entrance to the Anamosa State Prison, on Wednesday, March 24, 2021, a day after a nurse and correctional officer were killed while on duty, in Anamosa, Iowa. Incarcerated individuals can earn from 27 cents to $1.92 per hour in prison work programs, depending on their jobs and how long they have continuously worked, according to department pay scales. Overton said incarcerated individuals often participate in fundraisers throughout the year for causes such as Meals from the Heartland and Habitat for Humanity. The funding efforts show how much inmates were impacted by the killings, said Sue Hutchins, an advocate for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals in Iowa. Hutchins is the founder of Living Beyond the Bars, a nonprofit that provides reentry services for formerly incarcerated individuals and offers emotional support for their relatives and friends. She said she was in contact with several people serving life sentences who told her they were heartsick about the loss of Schulte and McFarland. "What that says to me, is that the people who are incarcerated in prison, that I have contact with ... they are very caring people, they feel awful about what happened, and their hearts go out to these family members," Hutchins said. Story continues 'Pure evil': 2 Iowa inmates face murder, kidnapping charges after failed prison escape She emphasized the story of Anamosa inmate McKinley Roby, who investigators say tried to help Schulte and McFarland and was severely injured during the attack. Speaking in March, Anamosa inmate David Bradford said he frequently interacted with McFarland and Schulte, and that both were friendly and considerate. They were some of the best people around there," he said. Eddie Walker, who was released from Anamosa in 2019, likewise said he knew the two. "They deserved to go home and continue their life," he said. State police say that inmates Michael Dutcher, 28, and Thomas Woodard, 39, also briefly held Anamosa dental assistant Lorie Matthes against her will. During a trial status conference Friday, the state said Dutcher and Woodard, who have pleaded not guilty, will be tried separately. They had both been scheduled for trial June 22, but prosecutors said Dutcher now will be tried on a different date which has yet to be announced. Follow Hillary Ojeda on Twitter at @hillarymojeda. This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa inmates donate to families of Anamosa penitentiary attack victims Palestinians fired hundreds of rockets into Israel on Tuesday as Israel continued to launch airstrikes on Gaza. The exchange followed days of violence in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Newsday columnist Dan Raviv joins CBSN's Elaine Quijano to discuss the conflict. Video Transcript ELAINE QUIJANO: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict reached a boiling point on Tuesday. Palestinians fired hundreds of rockets into Israel. In response, Israel launched a series of deadly airstrikes. The Biden administration is calling for de-escalation. But as Elizabeth Palmer reports, tensions on both sides could increase over the next few days. ELIZABETH PALMER (VOICEOVER): Just after 9:00 this evening, rockets fired from Gaza lit up the sky over Tel Aviv. Down on the ground, sirens wailed and people ran for cover. [SIRENS BLARING] One woman was killed in the attack. And tonight, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hamas and Islamic jihad would pay a heavy price. [EXPLOSIONS] The Palestinian citizens of Gaza have already paid a heavy price. All day, Israeli air strikes pounded the territory, officially targeting military installations. [EXPLOSIONS] But civilian buildings were destroyed, too. The Palestinians say more than 220 people were injured and 32 were killed-- [GIRL CRYING] --10 of them children. In retaliation, Hamas rained more than 400 rockets down on Israel. The damage they did was limited by Israeli interceptor rockets, the so-called Iron Dome, which blew most of them to pieces before they landed. There are now international calls for a cease fire. But as Islamic jihad members vowed revenge for the deaths of three of their commanders today, there appears to be a fierce determination on both sides to fight on. ELIZABETH PALMER: Tonight the United States and Egypt are using their considerable diplomatic muscle to try and calm the situation before it gets any more lethal. Elaine. ELAINE QUIJANO: Elizabeth Palmer, thank you. For more on this, let's bring in Dan Raviv. Dan is a columnist for "Newsday." He's also the author of "Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel's Secret Wars." Dan, welcome. It's good to see you again. Story continues So these tensions started in Jerusalem. And now we're seeing rockets over Gaza. Explain to our viewers how we got to this point. DAN RAVIV: Well, I think the main thing to keep in mind is that Hamas, the radical Islamic party that rules the Gaza Strip, wanted to make a connection between Gaza and Jerusalem. This is something new. As there was trouble in Jerusalem between Israeli police especially, also some right-wing Jewish settlers, and on the other side, Arab residents of East Jerusalem over some property where the Jews claim it's their property going back many decades, and the Arabs say they've lived there now since at least 1967. That was going to court. That was a big mess. And then riots broke out near the famous al-Aqsa Mosque. And here we are with the result barely a week later. What you see, damage now from rockets that came in from Gaza because Hamas wanted to show they are the heroes. They're going to save the Palestinian people by attacking Israel, even from far away Gaza. That is supposed to make the Palestinian Authority, which is in the West Bank, look kind of like nothing, like a bunch of losers. So that's something that Hamas wanted to do. And a lot of this is internal Palestinian politics with civilians on both sides suffering. You see the damage. ELAINE QUIJANO: Well, Dan, as we heard in Liz Palmer's piece, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is threatening more force if Hamas continues to fire rockets. Now, the last major clash between the two sides was the 2014 Gaza War. How serious are this week's escalations? And could we see this turn into something even bigger? DAN RAVIV: Well, if it's similar to what happened seven years ago, it'll go on for a number of days with Israel, and already Netanyahu is indicating this, one, it could do a lot of damage to Hamas. Knocking down those buildings in Gaza, I mean, one of those buildings looked like a pretty new and nice apartment building. The Israelis say it was used by the terrorists of Hamas. Others believe that, again, it's Israel trying to make Hamas look like a bunch of losers. Meantime, Hamas has rained more rockets down on the central core of Israel, including Tel Aviv and including parts of the outskirts of Jerusalem, more than Hamas ever managed to do. Their rockets are getting better and more numerous. Even the famous Iron Dome system that Liz Palmer mentioned in her report, it's great at knocking rockets out of the sky, but it can't keep up when Hamas manages to launch hundreds of rockets all at once. And that's what Hamas, largely with Iran's assistance, has built up now, lots of rockets, lots of money, lots of factories to build these terrorist weapons. And frankly, Hamas is hoping that, well, maybe it'll get control even of the West Bank eventually. You may remember, Elaine, there were supposed to be elections. The Palestinians were going to vote in both the West Bank and Gaza. But in the West Bank, the authorities decided to call it off. Apparently they thought that Hamas would end up winning, so they kind of chickened out. ELAINE QUIJANO: Dan, you mentioned the Iron Dome. Tell us a little bit more about that defense system. How does it work? What was it designed for? DAN RAVIV: Yeah. It's a great invention by Israeli scientists 10 years ago. And they were concerned, and I heard this from many of the Israeli scientists who took it as a mission to keep Israel out of war. They said that if they can have a system that would shoot down the mortar shells and cheap rockets that were coming in from Gaza, then the Israeli government wouldn't feel that it has to invade Gaza to respond to all the attacks. Now, that has been quite effective. But by now, Israel's enemies have come up with so many they can fire at once. Again, Iron Dome, as you can see, was intercepting most of them but couldn't get all of them. So it's not an answer forever. And by the way, so many people now say, how about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? What with politics so divided on the Palestinian side, as I mentioned, on the Israeli side, where Netanyahu didn't win the last election, is trying to stay in office, he's on trial for fraud charges, probably another coalition is going to replace him soon. These are all question marks. And I don't see peace talks happening any time soon. ELAINE QUIJANO: So let's dig into that just a bit more, Dan. Last week, Prime Minister Netanyahu failed to form a government for the third time in two years. Additionally, the Palestinian Authority postponed its elections this month, as you noted. How are these two political storylines impacting this situation? DAN RAVIV: Well, clearly not helping, right? No real change. Israel was established in 1948. The Palestinians never had a state. Jordan held the West Bank. Egypt held the Gaza Strip. We've had wars, including the Six Day War, in which Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza. Now, Israel got out of Gaza in 2005. Within two years, Hamas took over and sent suicide bombers into Israel. So Israel built a wall. So it's all ugly, it's all hostile. The Palestinians claim that in Gaza it's like a prison. In the West Bank, Jewish settlers are building new villages and settlements, expanding their villages. And these settlements are branded as illegal by almost every government on Earth. And so I just don't see much movement. They're sort of stuck, the Israelis and Palestinians side by side, Israel with a successful, pretty wealthy country, and the Palestinians with, well, hardly anything. ELAINE QUIJANO: So, Dan, given all of that, who is in charge? Who would actually be in charge of hammering out the details of any kind of cease fire at this point? DAN RAVIV: Right. This war right now is Israel versus Hamas. It has nothing to do really with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. And so do you talk directly to Hamas? You know, the US and Israel say, we don't talk to terrorist groups. And that's why, as Liz reported, the US is working with Egypt. And they're working on it right now. The statements we've had, say, from the White House is that the US wants de-escalation. Also in the past few hours, the White House said that the United States agrees that Israel has the right to defend itself and the president, in effect, is taking Israel's side saying Hamas is wrong to launch rockets at the core of Israel. So that would be US and Israel somehow persuading Hamas to stop all this. The Israelis say they're not ready to talk right now. They want to knock down some more buildings, they want to humiliate Hamas. Again, it doesn't lead to anything good. But the US just wants things to calm down. This is not a high priority for President Biden. ELAINE QUIJANO: All right. Dan Raviv for us. Dan, a tough story, but it is good to talk to you again. Thanks so much, Dan. DAN RAVIV: Sure thing. ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Wednesday that the United States and Britain should lift their block on the export of COVID-19 vaccines. Draghi told the lower house of parliament he shared the aim behind U.S. President Joe Biden's call for a waiver of patents on coronavirus vaccines, adding that a temporary suspension would probably not discourage pharmaceutical research. However, Draghi said the situation was complex and there were more simple steps that could be taken to ensure wider vaccine distribution to poorer countries, before any patent waiver could be agreed. "First of all we should remove the substantial block on exports that countries like the United States and Britain continue to maintain," he said. (Reporting By Gavin Jones, editing by Crispian Balmer) May 11A Harford County judge ruled last week that forensic evidence presented by a state police DNA expert during the 2019 murder trial of an Aberdeen man was valid, effectively denying him a new trial. Joseph Daniel Parrish has been seeking a new trial after he was convicted by a jury in October 2019 on charges of first-degree murder, witness retaliation and use of a firearm during the commission of a felony. Parrish was found guilty of shooting and killing a 61-year-old Jeffrey Coudon in at his Havre de Grace home. Coudon had been slated to testify against Parrish in a robbery case prior to the November 2018 shooting. Harford County Circuit Court Judge Paul W. Ishak ruled Thursday that the DNA evidence tested by Maryland State Police DNA expert Angela Spessard was in line with the state's new evidentiary and testimonial standards, known as the Daubert standards, that other states use. The Maryland Court of Appeals narrowly adopted the new standards last August, which a trial judge must use to weigh whether an expert witness's testimony or methodology is based on scientifically valid reasoning that can properly be applied to the facts at issue and, therefore, admissible, according to the Cornell Law School. If the judge had ruled the new standards hadn't been met, it could have resulted in a new trial for Parrish. Prosecutor Timothy Doory on Thursday walked Spessard through 10 points of the newer standard. Spessard said that the results of her testing were considered scientifically reliable and that the process relied on standards set by other organizations that were not impacted by the change to the law. "Using the Daubert standard, would that change any of the opinions you made at trial?" Doory asked. "No," Spessard responded. Defense attorney Shane Nolan argued that police mishandled the DNA before it got to Spessard, saying that it could have been contaminated by lackadaisical handling. He asked the judge to rule that the new standard was not met. Story continues Spessard attested to the fact that using unclean implements or surfaces can contaminate DNA evidence. Nolan said the police had testified at trial to their careless handling of the evidence. "[They] had all this DNA comingling in a carboard box for months on end," Nolan said. On Nov. 11, 2018, officers from Havre de Grace Police Department responded to the 200 block of North Washington Street for a report of an individual suffering from a laceration, according to the state's attorney's office. When they arrived, officers discovered Coudon, was suffering from gunshot wounds. Coudon was taken to the University of Maryland Shock Trauma in Baltimore, where he died three days later, on Nov. 14. According to court documents and testimony, Parrish, now 29, had robbed Coudon who was in a wheelchair in March of 2018. When Coudon indicated he would testify against him, Parrish shot him twice in his home and "left him to die," Doory said. Charges were filed in the robbery case, but without a victim, Doory said they were dismissed. Parrish had threatened Coudon, according to court documents, who bought a taser for protection. After Parrish had been arrested, that "shock-stick" was found in a backpack he directed Robert Lee Zeman III, his half-brother, to dispose of over a jail phone. Also in the bag was a bullet the same caliber as those that killed Coudon. Parrish has long maintained that he and Zeman were railroaded and that he was pinned as the culprit without sufficient evidence. He has also said that Doory acted unethically during the prosecution, a claim he repeated at Thursday's hearing after Ishak's ruling. "There is no link between me and the murder weapon," Parrish said. Parrish is now is scheduled to be sentenced on June 1. The Daily Beast Reuters/Phil NobleDays after the U.S. election, an old clip of Joe Biden went viral in the United Kingdom as people pondered what the end of the Trump era would mean for relations between Britain and America. Mr. Biden, a quick word for the BBC, a plummy voiced reporter could be heard saying. The BBC? Biden asked, before responding with a cheeky smile: Im Irish.To most viewers in Britain, it was seen as what it wasBidens jokey way of brushing off a reporter that he couldnt be bothered The Kansas City, Kansas Police Department is investigating after an adult male was found dead in the 4100 block of Sortor Drive on Tuesday. Officers responded to the scene about 1:30 p.m. and found an apparent homicide victim, Nancy Chartrand, a department spokeswoman, said in an email. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. The death marks the 10th homicide investigation the department has opened since Jan. 1, police said. The departments major case unit is leading the investigation. Authorities are encouraging anyone with information to contact the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477). The Kansas City Police Department is seeking the publics help with finding a 52-year-old man last seen Tuesday afternoon whose sudden disappearance is considered suspicious. Gilberto D. Gutierrez was last seen around 2 p.m. Tuesday near his farm in the area of Bannister Road and View High Drive in south Kansas City, police said. Police say his family is concerned for his welfare. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Authorities are encouraging anyone with information related to Gutierrezs whereabouts to call 911 or call the departments missing person section at 816-234-5136. WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on congressional testimony about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot (all times local): 3:20 p.m. A House hearing on the federal response to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has concluded after more than five hours of testimony that exposed stark partisan divisions. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform heard testimony from former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee. The hearing elicited little new information about the preparations and response to the Jan. 6 insurrection. A mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Joe Bidens presidential win. Five people died, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, and dozens of officers were injured trying to hold the crowd back. Republicans sought to shift the narrative on the violent insurrection, with some painting the Trump supporters who stormed the building as patriots who have been unfairly harassed. Democrats clashed with the former Pentagon chief while drilling into the governments unprepared response. The hearing unfolded as the House Republicans removed Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post after she rebuked former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in inciting the Capitol attack. __ HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE LATEST CONGRESSIONAL HEARING INTO THE DEADLY CAPITOL RIOT: Two senior Trump administration officials defend their actions during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in testimony before Congress, with former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller standing behind every decision he made that day. ___ HERE'S WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON: 12:30 p.m. Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen wont answer questions from Congress about whether then-President Donald Trump instructed him to take any action to try to advance Trumps unfounded claims of election fraud. Story continues Rosen would not answer Wednesday in response to questions from Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia at a hearing on the deadly Capitol insurrection. Rosen was asked specifically whether Trump had asked or instructed him to take any action at the Department of Justice to advance election fraud claims or to seek to overturn any part of the 2020 election results. Rosen would not answer, claiming there were ground rules he had abide by. Rosen said he was limited by the Justice Department on the topics he could discuss. He later said he would seek permission to answer the question. The Justice Department hasnt responded to questions about whether Rosen was instructed not to answer questions about his conversations with Trump. Election officials and judges across the country have found no evidence to support Trumps claims of election fraud. ___ 12:05 p.m. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is defending a woman who was shot and killed by the Capitol Police as she tried to break into the U.S. House chamber during the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying she was executed. At a House hearing on what went wrong that day, Gosar questioned former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen about the death of Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was part of the mob that attacked the Capitol. Babbitt was shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through a broken window while lawmakers were trapped inside. The Department of Justice has decided not to charge the police officer who shot Babbitt. The officers name hasnt been disclosed. Federal prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution. Gosar on Wednesday asked Rosen why Babbitt was executed and asked the name of the officer who killed her. Gosar called Babbitt a young lady, a veteran, wrapped in an American flag that was killed in the U.S. Capitol. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney says former President Donald Trump is responsible for the Capitol riot. The House impeached Trump for telling his supporters that day to fight like hell to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The then-Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump. ___ 11:45 a.m. Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department is still in the early days of its investigation of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Garland told the Senate Appropriations Committee that it has only been a relatively short period since the riot by supporters of President Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the November election. Thats especially true, he said, because of the large number of separate investigations and huge amount of video and other data that authorities are combing through as they pursue leads in the investigation that has so far resulted in about 400 arrests. Garland says the investigation is not over. He says, "We will pursue each lead until were confident that we will have reached the end. Garland and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were testifying to the Senate committee about their budget needs as both agencies confront a growing threat from domestic violent extremism. ___ 11:30 a.m. The chief of police in the nations capital says investigators believe there was pre-planning involved when two pipe bombs were left at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said Wednesday that investigators also believe the explosives were positioned out there by a lone individual. The two explosive devices were planted the night before the riot but only discovered on the afternoon of Jan. 6, shortly before the crowd descended on the Capitol. The FBI has said the bombs were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5. It is not clear whether that means the pipe bombs were unrelated to the next days riot or were part of the riot planning. Both buildings are within a few blocks of the Capitol. Contee says the investigation remains ongoing. ___ 11 a.m. Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen says he is proud of the Department of Justices response to the Capitol insurrection. Rosen testified Wednesday before a House panel examining the federal response to the deadly Jan. 6 riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Rosen insists the Justice Department took appropriate precautions ahead of the riot and put tactical teams and other elite units on standby. Rosen says Justice Department officials and federal law enforcement officials moved with urgency to assist the U.S. Capitol Police to clear the Capitol. The Justice Department has charged more than 400 people in connection with the riot. Trump was impeached by the House and then acquitted by the Senate. ___ 10:55 a.m. Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller says criticism about the response from the military to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is unfounded. Miller testified Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing about the federal governments response to the deadly riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Miller and other military officials have been criticized in the months following the riot, with congressional leaders and others questioning why it took hours for the National Guard to respond to the Capitol as the mob descended on the Capitol. Hundreds of people broke into the building as Congress was voting to certify Joe Bidens presidential win. Miller says he believes the criticisms reflect inexperience with, or a lack of understanding of, the nature of military operations. ___ 10:45 a.m. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney says Congress must find out why the federal government failed to coordinate an effective and timely response to the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Maloney made the comments Wednesday as she opened a hearing with former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, both of whom were involved in the response. Maloney says, It is our duty to understand what went wrong that day, to seek accountability and to take action to prevent this from ever happening again." Maloney says it's clear Trump is responsible for the Capitol riot. The House impeached Trump a week after the siege for telling his supporters that day to fight like hell to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The then-Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump in February. Republicans immediately tried to change the subject of the hearing to protests in several cities over the last year in response to the death of George Floyd. The top Republican on the panel, Kentucky Rep. James Comer, says Democrats continue to demonize tens of millions of Americans who support President Trump." by Mathias Hariyadi Two of them, mother and son, were beheaded. The local Christian community is calling on the government to catch the culprits. The chief of the local Protestant Synod notes that the East Indonesia Mujahideen are a small group, and the government should have defeated them already. Jakarta (AsiaNews) Muslim terrorists yesterday killed four Christians in the Poso area (Central Sulawesi). The victims, two men and two women, were ethnic Toraja. Indonesian authorities blamed the attack on the East Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT[*]), an extremist group linked to Islamic State (IS) group. Marten Solo and his mother Simson Susah were found beheaded in a field they owned. The bodies of Paulus Papa and Lukas Lesek were found about two kilometres away. Last November, MIT extremists murdered and beheaded four other Christians in Lemban Tongoa, a village in Sigi district. A spokesperson for Indonesian President Joko Jokowi Widodo condemned the incident, promising that the terrorists responsible for the attack would be caught. Rev Jetroson Rense, head of the Protestant Synod in Central Sulawesi, called on the government to take swift measures to ensure the safety of Poso residents. The authorities must arrest the culprits and bring them to justice, said the clergyman, adding that extremists are terrorising the local population. Rev Jacky Manuputty, secretary general of the Protestant Synod in Indonesia, told AsiaNews that terrorists use brutal methods such as beheading to intimidate Poso farmers and keep them away from their farmland. Rev Manuputty is surprised that the security forces have not yet managed to defeat a small extremist group like the MIT. [*] Mujahidin Indonesia Timur. MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke by phone and have agreed to meet in Reykjavik on May 20 on the sidelines of the Arctic Council, Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. They also discussed a potential summit, according to the readout of the call. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; editing by John Stonestreet) A pin on Rep Liz Cheneys lapel was modeled after George Washingtons battle flag (CSPAN) The night before her fellow Republicans voted to oust her from party leadership, Rep Liz Cheney wore a large pin on her lapel while she made a speech railing against the cult of Donald Trump. Whether her colleagues knew it or not, the lapel pin was loaded with meaning. Ms Cheneys mother, Lynne Cheney, gave her daughter the accessory. Shaped like a flag with yellow stars on a blue background, the pin was modeled after George Washingtons battle flag during the American Revolution, the elder Ms Cheney told CNN . The jeweler Ann Hand designed it for her in 2004, after she published her childrens book, When Washington Crossed the Delaware. A few weeks ago, as storm clouds began to gather in the House, Lynne gave it to her daughter. That connection to history, as well as to Liz Cheneys parents who include former vice president Dick Cheney speaks volumes about how the congresswoman sees her struggle. In a defiant speech she gave on Tuesday, Ms Cheney presented herself as an embattled patriot, defending a form of conservatism with deep roots in American history and a strong faith in democracy. Our duty is clear, Ms Cheney told her party. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent, and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar. For months, Ms Cheney has fiercely refuted former president Donald Trump s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and has criticized Republicans in Congress who have repeated them. Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed Communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure, she went on in the speech on Tuesday. We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen, and America has not failed. The next day, House Republicans voted to remove Ms Cheney from her position as their No 3 leader. To replace her, the caucus appears to be coalescing behind Elise Stefanik , a New York congresswoman who loudly supported Mr Trumps efforts to overturn the election. Story continues From the sidelines, Mr Trump cheered on the Republicans decision. Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being, the former president wrote in a spiteful statement . I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. As she emerged from the vote to oust her on Wednesday, Ms Cheney made it clear she doesnt see it that way. The nation needs a strong Republican Party, Ms Cheney told reporters. The nation needs a party that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism, and I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that thats how this party goes forward, and I plan to lead the fight to do that. Read More Liz Cheney vows to never let Donald Trump near the Oval Office again US hits China and others for repressing religious freedom GOP purged Cheney for 'unity,' but Trump bent on retribution In the latest trading session, Macy's (M) closed at $17.25, marking a -1.71% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.87%. Heading into today, shares of the department store operator had gained 2.87% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 1.76% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.61% in that time. Wall Street will be looking for positivity from M as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be May 18, 2021. The company is expected to report EPS of -$0.43, up 78.82% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $4.4 billion, up 46% from the year-ago period. M's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $0.76 per share and revenue of $20.84 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +134.39% and +20.16%, respectively. It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for M. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook. Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system. The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 6.2% higher. M is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). Valuation is also important, so investors should note that M has a Forward P/E ratio of 23.14 right now. This represents a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 23.14. Story continues We can also see that M currently has a PEG ratio of 1.93. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Retail - Regional Department Stores industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.25 as of yesterday's close. The Retail - Regional Department Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 5, which puts it in the top 2% of all 250+ industries. The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1. Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions. 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 Macys, Inc. (M) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. The Miami Springs doctor accused of attacking a Hispanic man at a Hialeah Publix denies using any racial slurs and insists she was the one victimized after the customer called her a Spanish vulgarity. Dr. Jennifer Wright, speaking for the first time publicly, told the Miami Herald this week that she was defending herself when she got into an altercation with customer Roger Salvo in the supermarket parking lot. What Id like to make clear is that none of things youve read about me or heard about me are true, Wright said in a Zoom interview. I was the actual victim that day. I went to Publix to buy my daughters 18th birthday cake and I was called a puta in line by a man who was much bigger than me, younger than me and taller than me. Everybody in Miami knows what puta means. I was threatened and I had to call 911. Puta means whore in Spanish. Wright spoke more than two months after she was arrested in a case that drew nationwide media attention, particularly because of the political undercurrents of the allegations. Wright, 59, works as an anesthesiologist at Mount Sinai Medical Center and says she has been unable to see patients since the arrest. This is not a hate crime, said her lawyer, Carlos Gonzalez. The version of events being pushed by the Hialeah police department and the state attorneys office is absolutely inaccurate. The arrest stemmed from an incident on Jan. 20 at a Publix in Hialeah, when Salvo, who is Hispanic, said Wright got too close to her in line. Wright began mumbling curses at him when he asked her to social distance, he claimed. A Hialeah police report said that Wright, in the parking lot, accosted him, calling him a spic, which is a slur for Hispanics, and said we should have gotten rid of you when we could. She also said, This is not going to be Bidens America, this is my America and we should have burned it all, the report said. Salvo also alleged that Wright scratched his car, punched him when he tried to call 911 and tried to stomp on his phone when it fell to the ground, police said. Wright eventually fled in a Jeep Wrangler. Story continues Wright has been an ardent public supporter of former President Donald Trump. Biden was inaugurated on the same day as the incident. A Halloween display outside the Miami Springs home of Dr. Jennifer Susan Wright in the fall of 2020. The display featured a mannequin made to look like presidential candidate Joseph Biden. The Miami-Dade State Attorneys Office charged Wright on charges of criminal mischief with prejudice, tampering with a witness and battery with prejudice, a hate crime enhancement that upgraded the charge to a felony. An independent witness corroborated Salvos version of events, authorities said. It is sad that in such a diverse, multi-ethnic community like Miami-Dade County, Covid precautions can trigger such alleged outbursts of ethnic hate. Hate crimes are always meant to demean and intimidate their intended targets, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a press release in March. I am proud that this victim would not be terrified into silence, allowing my Hate Crimes prosecutors to bring this case before our criminal courts. Gonzalez, in an interview and a court filing this week, said Salvo was the aggressor and cast doubt on the so-called independent witness who seems to have near-supernatural powers of observation. The defense says that Wright was wearing a mask in line and after Salvo called her a puta in line, he was lingering in the parking lot afterward. Wright claims she only walked by and told him she knew what the word puta meant. Dr. Wright merely wanted to stand up for herself and set an example for other women. Unfortunately, she misjudged Salvos reaction, according to the court filing. Exclusive: Miami Proud Boy, facing Capitol trespass charge, called it a glorified tour Wright claims it was Salvo who clenched his fist and brought it to within inches of Dr. Wrights face and later appeared to take another swing at her. Instinctively, Dr. Wright raised her hand in self-defense. When their hands touched, both dropped their phones, Gonzalez wrote, who added the doctor called 911 and fled. She also denies keying his car. The State Attorneys Office declined to comment on Gonzalezs court filing, which seeks to compel prosecutors to turn over any additional evidence in the case. So far, the defense says, only a brief video surveillance clip of the two inside the Publix has been released. Wright made only brief comments during a Zoom interview with her attorneys, Gonzalez and Ignacio Alvarez. Gonzalez also criticized Fernandez Rundle for the press release. I think the State Attorney is the one who made this case political, he said. Wright did, however, say that her and her familys life has been upended because of the media coverage. My family has been terrorized. Weve had people at my doorstep nightly putting things in my mailbox, leaving packages at my door, throwing dead animals in my pool, Wright said. Its been horrific. Wright declined to say what was in the packages. She added: I really look forward to a day in court. Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins's "The Underground Railroad" releases this week, the most ambitious series to tackle slavery in the United States since "Roots" in the 1970s. All ten episodes land on Amazon Prime Friday, the culmination of a project that took 116 days to film, some costing $1.5 million each, according to The New York Times. The series, funded by the e-commerce giant's video arm, comes after the debate over compensation for descendants of slaves was renewed by the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the United States last year following the police murder of George Floyd. The widely hailed "Roots," released in 1977, was the first major US television work to extensively document slavery. Since then, several feature films have tackled the subject, including "12 Years a Slave" and "Amistad." Jenkins, who won Best Picture for 2016's "Moonlight," shows the horrors of slavery through Cora, a young woman who escapes from a plantation in Georgia but is under constant threat of capture by a zealous "slave hunter" called Ridgeway. South African actress Thuso Mbedu stars as Cora. The series is adapted from Colson Whitehead's 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name, which reimagines the Underground Railroad -- a network of people who helped runaway slaves escape to freedom -- as an actual underground railway. "It had this very romantic and fantastical element to it that I thought was the perfect pairing of my aesthetic and the subject matter," said Jenkins in the series production notes. Violence is present as a relentless backdrop, but the 41-year-old director doesn't let it take over the whole narrative. The pace of the hour-long episodes is slow. Long shots and moments of silence dominate, with the power of the unspoken shining through. "This balancing act, the tension between hard and soft images, the need to tell the truth without being devoured by the barbarity of that truth, is without question the hardest undertaking I have ever attempted in my creative life," said Jenkins. Story continues Jenkins, who is Black, even asked himself whether it was wise to film the imagery of slavery that "for so long... has elicited feelings of shame, of trauma," he wrote. He said that even friends and family "made clear to me that I should not make 'The Underground Railroad.'" But Jenkins persevered, and a definitive answer came to him after filming began, while he was in a cotton field in Georgia "listening to my ancestors." "This series... is for them," he wrote. tu/cat/pdh/to The Minneapolis school board on Tuesday night reviewed a proposed budget for next year, the first year the district's sweeping comprehensive redesign will take effect. The board will vote on the proposal in June. Minneapolis Public Schools' 2021-2022 proposed budget projects $890 million in revenue and $935 million in expenses and is balanced using money from the second round of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds. The proposed budget does not include federal money coming to the district from the American Rescue Plan Act, which has not been awarded. Those additional funds can be added in with a board-approved budget amendment and could put next year's budget over $1 billion. District leaders called the American Rescue Plan money a "once in a lifetime" occurrence for education funding but emphasized that it is not an ongoing source. Those funds will need to be spent by September 2024 and the recommendation is to think of it as a one-time investment to "build capacity" to meet student needs, said Superintendent Ed Graff. "We know that these funds have an endpoint," he said. "We do not want to set ourselves up as an organization to have funding challenges beyond the life of this grant." The proposed budget assumes predictable staffing in all schools and an estimated enrollment decline of 1,349 students. It includes $353 million for school-by-school allocations, down $22 million from the previous year. It also includes about $8 million carried over from the first two rounds of federal relief funds. A five-year projection, presented to the school board in December, showed that the district's budget is likely to continue to be burdened by declining enrollment and rising costs that outpace revenue. "Our analysis finds that, regardless of whether the [district redesign] succeeds, the district is burdened by an unsustainable fiscal structure," read the report. Story continues By using the first two rounds of federal funds, Graff said the district can provide a stable transition for students during the implementation of the district redesign. If the trajectory of enrollment decline doesn't turn around, the district will have to adjust staffing levels, he said. Priorities in the proposed general fund budget include increases in funding for mental health support and middle school athletics as well as money set aside to add additional social worker, psychologist, nurse and counselor positions. Mara Klecker 612-673-4440 A 71-year-old man was found safe after officials said he texted his wife saying he was lost while hiking in Oregon. Joe Dean, 71, of Portland was found Monday morning by rescuers near the Horsetail Falls Trail, according to the Multnomah County Sheriffs Office. Officials said he was conscious and breathing when they administered first aid before Dean was put into a basket and taken down the trail to the parking lot. Dean was then taken to a hospital, police said, and was talking and able to walk with assistance. Authorities said Dean told them he was planning on hiking from Horsetail Falls near the Rock of Ages Ridge but lost the trail halfway through the hike. Dean texted his wife on Saturday afternoon that he was lost and was reported missing around 8:33 p.m., according to officials. Both the Oneonta and Horsetail Creek drainages suffered significant fire damage during the Eagle Creek Fire in 2017. The trails in these areas are not maintained, indistinguishable and overgrown. This area has been closed since the fire, the sheriffs office said. Around 65 rescuers looked through the trail and wilderness on Sunday and searchers used cell phone data to narrow down an area, believing that Dean was still alive based on data and information from his family and friends, according to police. Dean said he followed Horsetail Creek after getting lost and was equipped with thermal leggings, a jacket and balaclava but didnt prepare to stay overnight, according to the sheriffs office. Dean also said he was able to ration food but ran out of water. Deans son, William Dean, said hes elated his father, an experienced hiker, was found safe, according to ABC News. I thought today was quite do or die, William Dean said. Ive always said hes the person I want to be stuck out overnight with by accident so Im really glad he was able to get out of here. The trail where Dean was found is located around 35 miles east of Portland. Dangerous waves strand three men on rocks along California beach, officials say Shooting at Mothers Day party leaves one man dead, others wounded, California cops say Flock of rare condors descends on California womans home and wreaks havoc on her deck A Missouri bar is under fire for a viral video that shows a man denying service to military members he believed used a fake ID. The group of service members went to LOTO Lounge near Lake of the Ozarks when the man behind the bar crumpled one of their military identification cards and tossed it in the trash, according to a Facebook post by Noel Cook on May 7. When the group insists the ID is real, the man replied hell call my boys that have been to (expletive) Afghanistan. Weve been to Iraq and Afghanistan, a person responded. You dont even look old enough to know about (expletive) 9/11, he said. The man behind the bar was local musician Josh Weitkamp, who isnt an employee but personally connected to the business, the Lake Expo reported. Were obviously huge supporters of the military. What happened was a huge misunderstanding, an unidentified owner told the newspaper. What happened is not a reflection of how we feel about the military. The video posted by Cook, who lists himself as a member of the Air Force, had nearly 200,000 views by Tuesday. Warning: It includes graphic language. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Weitkamp refused to give the ID to anyone except a police officer, insisting the covering of real card wouldnt peel. At one point, Weitkamp told a member of the group You can do a lot more push-ups than me. What have you done for this country since World War II? Ive never been more heated about a non-racial interaction with someone and the straight disrespect he had for fellow service members ESPECIALLY when some of us (if not all) joined the military because of 9/11 and how it shaped our upbringing, Cook posted on Facebook. A few minutes later, an officer arrives and can be heard off camera. Have you been in the military, sir? Weitkamp asks the officer. Yes, he replies. Can you tell me if you can peel off the front of a military ID? Weitkamp asked. Yeah, actually, I remember mine being laminated, the officer replied. Osage Beach police told the Lake Sun Leader the officer confirmed the ID was real and the group left the bar. No one was arrested, the newspaper reported. Hitler Gang TikTok video with students making Nazi salute sent to Iowa teen, cops say Missouri drivers will likely pay more at the pump starting this fall after lawmakers passed a bill to raise the states gas tax for the first time in more than two decades. The measure, sent to Gov. Mike Parsons desk late Tuesday night, would add 2.5 cents to the current 17-cent-per-gallon tax beginning in October to pay for road and bridge repairs. It would rise over the next five years to a 12.5-cent-per-gallon hike. The bill passed the House 104-52 after surviving a number of attempted amendments by conservative Republicans that would have effectively scuttled the legislation with three days left in the session. Voters in recent years have rejected gas tax increases at the ballot box, most recently in 2018. The bill allows drivers to opt out by applying for a refund, supported by receipts. Proponents of the hike have long bemoaned the states highway and bridge repair needs. In 2019, the Missouri Department of Transportation reported $825 million in annual unfunded high-priority improvements. Missouris gas tax is the second lowest in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation, but it has the seventh-largest highway system and the sixth-most bridges. Kansas tax is 24 cents per gallon for gasoline and 26 for diesel. The bill would raise up to $514 million annually by 2027 for repairs by MoDOT and local governments. Its not clear how many would seek the refund. In South Carolina, 79,000 claimed a total of $3.4 million in gas tax refunds in 2020, four percent of what was available. If you do not want to invest in our roads and bridges, you do not want to pay those extra taxes, then you have the option of getting that rebate and taking your money back, said House Transportation Chair Becky Ruth, a Festus Republican. I dont know of any other tax that you can get 100% of your money back. Senate President Dave Schatz, a Sullivan Republican, has made raising the tax a priority for the session. Gov. Mike Parson has supported increases in the past. Story continues But in the House, Speaker Rob Vescovo, an Arnold Republican, has previously opposed it. After the bill passed the Senate this year, an unlikely coalition led by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and the Missouri AFL-CIO launched a campaign to get the increases through the House, touting economic benefits and jobs for construction workers. The groups released a report estimating the bill would create 17,000 jobs annually and have a $1.8 billion economic impact. The bills passage comes as Missouri is flush with record revenues thanks to an influx of federal pandemic aid. The state will receive $2.7 billion from the American Rescue Plan and expects more from a Biden infrastructure package. But Schatz said the one-time federal money doesnt come close to meeting the needs that have been delayed. Debate over the increases divided Republicans and heightened tensions between the chambers, where legislators were pushing to get their priorities across the finish line in the waning hours of the session. Rep. Jered Taylor, a Republic Republican, accused Senate leaders of threatening to kill his bill to nullify federal gun laws in Missouri, a proposal favored by Vescovo, if he amended the gas tax bill. After the vote, Schatz said the claims were patently false. The Houses most conservative and anti-tax lawmakers accused fellow Republicans of siding with the Democrats, all of whom supported the measure. Others criticized the bills supporters of raising a sales tax, usually disproportionately borne by lower-income people, and passing a refund that few would be able to go through the trouble of claiming. Were a Republican supermajority, said Rep. Cheri Toalson Reich, a Hallsville Republican. Why dont we act like it? The bill was nearly derailed by an amendment from Rep. Jason Chipman, of Steelville, to put the matter to another statewide vote next year. After that was overwhelmingly defeated, Rep. Tony Lovasco, of OFallon, proposed to split the bill and separate the gas tax from another provision to increase decal fees for alternative fuel vehicles. That briefly threw the House into disarray over how to handle the rare procedural move. Lawmakers ultimately voted to keep the bill together. This is an investment in our roads and bridges, Ruth said. When we talk about conservative values, taking care of roads and bridges is conservative. Its a duty that we have and something we do not need to pass on to our grandchildren. One of the first signs of the military coup that overthrew Myanmars democratically elected civilian government was a Facebook Live video of regional lawmaker Pa Pa Han being arrested, which was posted by her husband. Soldiers stormed Pa Pa Hans home around 3 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2021. While her young daughter wailed and her husband pleaded to see an arrest warrant, Pa Pa Han stalwartly grabbed her handbag and a coat and left with the soldiers. Other parliamentarians were simultaneously being roused from bed and arrested across Myanmar by soldiers who claimed election fraud had occurred in the November elections. By daybreak, Myanmar was under military rule. Ever since, thousands of people in Myanmar most of them young, many of them women have been protesting the coup daily and demanding the restoration of democracy. More than 770 civilians had been killed and over 3,738 detained as of May 6, according to the nonprofit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Myanmar, formerly called Burma, is a conservative country with rigid gender roles. A 2015 survey rated it Southeast Asias most traditional society when it comes to family structure, deference to elders, respect for authority figures and conflict avoidance. Yet Myanmars Generation Z activists, born between 1997 to 2012, are defying many of these social norms with their protests and busting gender stereotypes while theyre at it. Soldiers in fatigues stand behind barriers near big military vehicles A very traditional society One act of creative resistance on March 8 involved hanging womens sarongs on clotheslines above streets across Yangon. The young protesters suspected that many soldiers would avoid going underneath the clotheslines for fear that doing so would diminish their hpon a kind of mojo that belongs to only men. They guessed right: Soldiers sent to arrest the protesters climbed atop their army trucks to clear the clotheslines before passing underneath, giving protesters extra time to avoid arrest. Such beliefs around hpon reflect a pervasive concept in Myanmar that men are superior to women and born with special spiritual protection. In a 2015 Asia Barometer survey, 60% of Myanmar respondents agreed that if they could have only one child, a boy would be preferable, compared with 46% in the Philippines and 30% in Cambodia. Story continues Having grown up in Myanmar, I was raised to believe in these same gender roles and sexist superstitions. After being exposed to a U.S. liberal arts education, I came to question the gender inequality buried in traditions and Burmese culture. Now, as a psychologist who teaches about sex and gender, among other topics, I am tracking how Myanmars young protesters are rejecting sexism and subverting gender norms to their advantage. After the sarong tactic, some of those activists questioned whether using sarongs to deter the soldiers might itself have been sexist because it played into old misogynistic superstitions. Shortly after the March 8 protest, activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi wrote on Twitter that womens clothing should be flown proudly as our flag, our victory not used as a weapon. Gender violence in Myanmar Spousal rape and domestic violence is still legal and pervasive in Myanmar, and when it occurs people often blame the victims rather than the perpetrators. On April 20, a 17-year-old coup protester named Shwe Yamin Htet, who had just been released from jail after six days, reported on social media that a 19-year-old female protester detained with her had been beaten with a metal pipe and kicked in her groin and that her vagina was bleeding due to the kicking. Rather than express outrage at the assault, some on social media worried that publicizing the young womens sexual abuse would bring shame to her and asked Shwe to remove the post. She did not oblige. A few women have defied the odds to obtain power in Myanmar including the countrys deposed leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who came to power in 2012. Rather than seeing her as an inspirational symbol of womens leadership, however, researchers Mala Htun and Francesca Jensenius reported in their 2020 study that most people in Myanmar view Aung San Suu Kyi simply as an exception. Before the coup, women held 15% of political posts in Myanmars civilian government. Now, just one woman sits on the coup regimes 17-member state administration council. Aung San Suu Kyi, in a green dress, walks alongside many men The militarys history of oppression The military has run Myanmar as a dictatorship on and off since 1962. In addition to airstrikes and attacks with heavy artillery, it is known to use sexual violence as a weapon in its long-standing effort to crush separatist movements in the border regions of Myanmar. Self-identifying ethnic Burmese make up 32% of the population. For nearly six decades, several ethnic minority groups the Kachin, Karen and Karenni have been fighting for autonomy and self-determination. For just as long, the Myanmar army has violently suppressed them. Human rights groups report widespread and systematic rape in Karen state, in southwest Myanmar, over many decades. When women are captured by the military, soldiers use them as porters to carry shells during the day. At night, they may be gang-raped. In Kayah state, another conflict zone north of Karen, women generally do not go out alone even for basics like groceries, because the military is known to target women. The military oppression and gender violence so familiar to rural Burmese in conflict zones is now affecting the urban middle and working classes groups that were long sheltered from the countrys borderland conflicts. On April 24, soldiers were reported to have physically abused a transgender woman who spoke out against the coup online, forcing her to change into male clothing before arresting her. Womens political future in Myanmar Despite the risks, women continue to participate in the front lines of Myanmars fight for democracy. Some have been arrested, including Thin Thin Aung, co-founder of a leading independent news site called Mizzima, and union leader Myo Myo Aye. Others were shot dead, like Khukhu Cilena, of the womens rights group Women for Justice. [Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversations newsletter to understand the world. Sign up today.] After the coup, a group of pro-democracy advocates formed a parallel government called the National Unity Government led by the elected lawmakers, which is financially supporting the civil disobedience movement. Myanmars opposition lawmakers are also busting glass ceilings: Ethnic minority party affiliates make up 25% of its 32 members, women make up 28%, and one member identifies as LGBT a first in Myanmar. The National Unity Government and Generation Z offer Burmese society a vision of a more equitable, inclusive future should democracy prevail. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Ei Hlaing, University of Lynchburg. Read more: Ei Hlaing does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Latest census reflects China's changing demographic landscape Xinhua) 08:38, May 12, 2021 -- China released the results of the seventh national census on Tuesday. -- The country's population on the mainland maintained steady growth, reaching 1.41178 billion in 2020, an increase of 5.38 percent from 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday. -- Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, expects China's population to stay above 1.4 billion "for a certain period in the future." BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China's most recent national census data have revealed the demographic changes and trends of the world's most populous country, offering strong statistical support for its efforts in advancing high-quality development. China's population on the mainland maintained steady growth, reaching 1.41178 billion in 2020, an increase of 5.38 percent from 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday. Between 2010 and 2020, the education level of China's citizens improved continuously, the gender ratio became more balanced, changes in family-planning policy led to a rebound of new births, population mobility increased and the urbanization rate further elevated, the census data show. Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, told a press conference that such major changes reflect the historical course of economic, social and demographic development, but the census data also point to challenges that the country will be actively addressing. POSITIVE CHANGES China maintains its position as the most populous country on the planet, with its population on the mainland accounting for about 18 percent of the world's total. "China's advantage as a super-large domestic market will exist for a long time," said Ning. He attributed the basically steady growth over the past decade to China's large population base, which has ensured more than 10 million newborn babies every year, as well as a shift to the two-child policy, which resulted in a rebound in the number of births. A man holding his newly-born second child poses for a group photo with his wife and his first son, who shows the medical certificate of birth of his little sister. (Xinhua/Ji Chunpeng) In 2020, China's population aged between zero and 14 hit 253.38 million, an increase of 30.92 million from 10 years ago, or 1.35 percentage points in proportion to the total population. The country saw the male-to-female ratio hit a record low of 105.07 in 2020, the most balanced gender ratio since the first census in 1953. Over the past decade, China accomplished positive achievements in vigorously developing higher education and eliminating illiteracy among young adults. The number of people who had received or were receiving college-level education reached 218.36 million in 2020, while the illiteracy rate declined to 2.67 percent from 4.08 percent in 2010. "Talent dividends will gradually emerge following the improved education level," said Ning. The country also made steady progress in promoting new urbanization, with 901.99 million people living in urban areas on the mainland, accounting for 63.89 percent of the total population. There were also changes in the data-collection methods used in the census last year. Electronic data collection was adopted for the first time, allowing real-time reporting. Residents were also allowed to document their information online themselves. Big data and cloud technology, services and applications were used in data processing, improving the efficiency and quality of the census. Census takers prepare door-to-door visits at a community in Fengtai District of Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 10, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Xin) LOOKING FORWARD As China enters the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the country has to cope with various issues in order to achieve high-quality growth, including a slower rate of population growth and an increasing elderly population. The average annual population growth rate from 2010 to 2020 stood at 0.53 percent, slightly lower than the 0.57 percent recorded from 2000 to 2010, according to the NBS. Ning said the slight decrease in the annual growth rate was due to a mix of factors, including a continued drop in the number of women of childbearing age, couples delaying having children, and the rising cost of childbearing and parenting. "This is an objective outcome of China's economic development, particularly as the country's industrialization and urbanization reaches a certain stage," he said, noting that it is a universal issue and particularly evident in developed countries. He expects China's population to stay above 1.4 billion "for a certain period in the future," citing positive factors that will continue to support future growth. "China's population will peak in the future, but there remains uncertainty as to exactly when it will happen," Ning said. According to the latest census data, Chinese people aged 60 or above accounted for 18.7 percent of the country's total population in 2020, 5.44 percentage points higher than in 2010. An aging population is an important trend of social development, and it will be China's basic national condition for a long time, said Ning. He said China's increasing elderly population will reduce supply in the labor force, while increasing the burden on families' elderly care and the pressure on the supply of basic public services. But it can also promote the development of the "silver economy," expand the consumption of products and services for the elderly, and boost technical advances, he said. China will make overall plans and take specific measures to address its aging population as a major national strategy now and for a period of time in the future, said Ning, adding that in-depth data analysis will be carried out to provide statistical support for policy-making. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) While Baltimore has maintained stricter limitations during much of the pandemic than the state at large, Scott followed the governors lead last month when he announced that masks would no longer be required in most outdoor settings. Face coverings are still required in Maryland at large ticketed venues that are outdoors, such as stadiums, as well as at indoor businesses and on transit. Efforts to form a new Israeli government and oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have come to an almost complete halt amid the escalation with Hamas. Why it matters: Opposition leader Yair Lapid is six days into a 28-day mandate, and seemed on track to strike a coalition deal with Naftali Bennett, a right-wing kingmaker. But the latest crisis could make those efforts nearly impossible. Stay on top of the latest market trends and economic insights with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free Thats because a Lapid-Bennett government would be just short of a majority in the Knesset unless they can get the support of at least one Arab party. The Arab Joint List supported Lapid in getting the mandate but was expected to abstain from a vote on the new government. Lapid and Bennett were thus banking on the support of Mansour Abbas' Ra'am party an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood and sister movement of Hamas that broke from the Joint List. Abbas was negotiating with both Lapid and Bennett about forming a government, and with Netanyahu about preventing them from doing so. Netanyahu received the presidential mandate to form a government first, but failed. Driving the news: As the situation in Jerusalem and Gaza escalated on Monday, Abbas announced that he was suspending the coalition talks. Abbas faced harsh criticism in his party and in the broader Arab community in Israel for his willingness to join any Israeli government. The riots inside Israel also increased the criticism among Jews about the plans to form a government that would be dependent on an Islamist party. What they're saying: Lapid issued a statement on Wednesday stressing that the escalation is further proof of the need to replace Netanyahu as soon as possible. He said he would not allow Hamas to harm the democratic process in Israel and stressed the efforts to form a unity government would continue. Bennett also issued a statement on Wednesday stressing that Netanyahus Likud party had failed in running the country and was incompetently leading Israel into a disaster. Whats next: If the situation de-escalates quickly, Lapid, Bennett and Abbas could try to revive their talks. But if it continues into next week and beyond, it could make those talks impossible and lead Israel closer to a fifth election since 2019. Like this article? Get more from Axios and subscribe to Axios Markets for free. Reuters LONDON (Reuters) -When Dutch boat captain and engineer Ernst-Jan de Groot applied to continue working in Britain after Brexit, he became ensnared in a bureaucratic nightmare because of an online glitch and says he is now likely to lose his job. Under new immigration rules coming into force, de Groot faces the prospect of losing the right to come to Britain to work unless he can successfully apply for a visa through a government website by the end of June. Following its departure from the European Union's orbit at the end of December, Britain is changing its immigration system, ending the priority for EU citizens over people from elsewhere. A police lieutenant in Norfolk, Virginia, is telling his story after he was fired last month for donating to Kyle Rittenhouse's legal defense fund, according to a report. Lt. William Kelly was fired after a data breach revealed he anonymously donated $25 to the legal fund of Rittenhouse, an 18-year-old charged with fatally shooting two men at a protest last summer. He made the donation, along with a note of support proclaiming, "Youve done nothing wrong," according to reports. The note went on to say, "Every rank and file police officer supports you." VIRGINIA MOM CHARGED IN FATAL STABBING OF HER 10-MONTH-OLD BOY, CRITICALLY INJURING DAUGHTER Kelly was relieved of duty after an internal investigation found he violated city and department policies by sending the donation and the note. "His egregious comments erode the trust between the Norfolk Police Department and those they are sworn to serve," City Manager Chip Filer said in a statement on April 20. In an interview with Portsmouth's WAVY-TV Tuesday, Kelly called it "a simple donation." "They were simple words of encouragement from one person to another," he said. "I thought that my comments werent egregious ... I didnt think they were terrible. I didnt think it was going to be that big of a deal." Kelly, who went from beat officer to a lieutenant in Internal Affairs, has filed a grievance with the city to get his job back, according to the station. NORFOLK FIRES POLICE LIEUTENANT WHO DONATED TO ACCUSED VIGILANTE KYLE RITTENHOUSE "I believe in America everyone is innocent until proven guilty," Kelly said. "I believe there is a lot of video evidence that shows a case for self-defense and I think [Rittenhouse] should have his day in court." Kelly and his attorney Raymond Hogge argued that a picture showed Chief Larry Boone marching in uniform with protesters while carrying a Black Lives Matter sign. When asked if Kelly felt there was a double standard, he said it was "inconsistent." Story continues "The only real justification that I see here is that the City of Norfolk and the chief want to look woke,'" Hogge added. "This all about woke." Kelly noted he did regret using his city email to make the donation, according to the station. He added it was wrong, but not a fireable offense. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Kellys hearing date has yet to be set, WAVY-TV reported. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills Wednesday that lawmakers say will leave Florida better prepared for future flooding and sea level rise. The bills, SB 1954 and SB 2514, will among other things set aside hundreds of millions of state dollars for flooding infrastructure projects. The Republican-led efforts would redirect a significant portion of that money from an affordable housing trust fund to the storm hardening efforts. The Legislature delivered on my calls for meaningful, significant investments in resiliency, DeSantis said at a bill signing ceremony in Tarpon Springs, surrounded by lawmakers. Some of the bills major provisions: The legislation requires the Department of Environmental Protection to submit an annual plan for up to $100 million in local flooding and sea level rise projects. Local governments can apply for this state money, and the department will rank the applications. The agency will have to compile data every five years, which will help determine the risk posed to local communities by sea level rise. Using that data, environmental officials will devise their first vulnerability assessment for flooding under sea level rise across Florida. This will also be updated every five years. The University of South Floridas College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg will become the home of a new flood research hub. (Thomas Frazer, dean of the school and previously the states Chief Science Officer, attended the signing.) Much of the funding for the flood projects and sea level rise research will come from documentary stamp taxes. Lawmakers could redirect more than $100 million per year of that revenue from trust funds aimed at making housing more affordable. Floridas Legislature for most of the last decade has taken little action and entertained hardly any public discussion about sea level rise. Dubbed the Always Ready agenda, the slate signed Wednesday is lawmakers most robust plan ever to address the problem, said House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor. Story continues Standing near Tarpon Springs iconic Sponge Docks, he talked about nearby streets flooding during regular heavy rains. There is no question of if it will happen if we will have significant flooding in our state. The question is only, When? Sprowls said. He and Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, called for laws making the state more resilient months before the legislative session started in March. Leaders of several environmental groups expressed support for the states plan on Wednesday. Dawn Shirreffs, the Environmental Defense Funds Florida director, said in a statement that the bills will help Florida safeguard our communities from climate change impacts and help local communities invest in their resilience. But some environmental groups said the action was belated and not enough. While pushing this legislation, Sprowls has brushed aside criticism that state leaders are choosing to focus on expensive consequences of climate change rather than acting on causes. Critics say the state could take more proactive measures like strictly regulating fossil fuel emissions that contribute to warming. While its progress to see Governor DeSantis and Floridas Republican leadership at long last acknowledge the harm local communities are seeing because of climate change, this legislation does nothing to get at the root of the problem, Susan Glickman, Florida director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, wrote in a statement. As it backed the resilience plan this spring, the Legislature also supported bills that critics say will stop cities from moving on their own toward more environmentally friendly energy sources. Florida cannot be truly resilient if we continue to preempt clean, renewable energy progress, said Yoca Arditi Rocha, executive director of The CLEO Institute, a climate change advocacy group, in a statement. If the Governor wants to protect the state of Florida and Be Always Ready, he will veto harmful energy preemption bills and not waste billions in funds. She added: To put it in laymans terms, this is like mopping a flooded bathroom floor without turning off the faucet. Despite the criticism, Wednesdays signing had an air of celebration. DeSantis called it a really historic day. Smiling, he handed out the pens he used to sign the bills to the many attendees. A Jewish man was reportedly left bloodied and sought refuge in a New York City store Tuesday after being caught in the middle of clashes Tuesday between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel supporters outside the Israeli consulate as tensions continue to flare in the Middle East. Hundreds of pro-Palestinian supporters gathered outside the consulate in midtown Manhattan to protest the deadly attacks on the Gaza Strip in a rally titled "rally to save Palestine." They were met by counter-protesters showing support for Israel. The two groups eventually traded chants and blows. In response to the protest, the Israeli consulate sent staff members home early. In a video tweeted by journalist Andy Ngo, a New York City police officer is seen escorting a man with a bloodied face out of what appears to be the main branch of the New York Public Library and into a store across the street. The New York Police Department told Fox News the man was attacked around 7 p.m. As nearby officers observed a verbal dispute within a crowd, the man entered the crowd and was hit in the head with a metal chair, causing a laceration, police said. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment. No arrests have been made and an investigation into the matter is ongoing. In the video, as the man is being escorted by police, someone off-camera is heard asking what happened to him. A woman, also off-camera, replied that he said "very hateful comments." As the officer and the man run across the street, two people holding Palestinian flags can be heard yelling "run (expletive)" and (expletive) you!" while following the pair. Three officers are seen blocking the crowd from entering the store as the unidentified man stands on the other side of a store window and someone inside locks the front doors. The man showed a Jewish star necklace to cameras through a store window, the Post Millenial reported. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a Fox News inquiry on the matter. Story continues The tensions came as Israel and Hamas continue to trade airstrikes in some of the heaviest fighting since 2014 that has seen dozens of people killed, including children. Rockets launched from Gaza lit up the sky above Tel Aviv Tuesday as people ran for safety. Israel has continued to retaliate in the latest back-and-forth. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP On Wednesday, the Israeli Defense Forces said Israel has come under attack from more than 1,050 rockets. In response, it said it has struck a "number of significant terror targets and terror operatives across the Gaza Strip, marking our largest strike since 2014." CAIRO (AP) A fire broke out in an intensive care unit of an Egyptian hospital Wednesday, leaving at least two patients dead, an official said. The fire erupted overnight at a government-run hospital in the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh, said Ahmed el-Samahi, a spokesman for the Kafr el-Sheikh province. The hospital is treating those suffering from respiratory diseases. It was unclear if coronavirus patients were present in the ward. He said there were 16 patients in the unit when the fire broke out at 2:30 a.m. local time. He said the two dead had been in critical condition. Firefighters were able to put out the blaze, which was caused by an electric short-circuit, el-Samahi said. Safety standards and fire regulations are poorly enforced in Egypt and have been linked to many deaths. A fire in December in an intensive care unit at a private hospital in Obour, an outlying district of the greater Cairo area, killed seven coronavirus patients. Another fire in June last year in a private hospital in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria killed seven patients and injured one. The eight-member Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education on Monday unanimously denounced a new law signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt that implicitly bans the teachings of critical race theory from being included in the state's public school curriculum. Board member Ruth Veales, who is Black and Native American, argued the legislation was attempting to quiet discussions regarding race "in order to protect White fragility." "As a district that's over 80% students of color, this is definitely an insult," Veales, who is the longest serving board member going on 12 years, said at the meeting also livestreamed online. "It is a situation that is so egregious to me." Stitt, a Republican, signed House Bill 1775 into law on Friday. In part, the bill states that "no teacher shall require or make part of a course that one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex." Though the bill does not name "critical race theory," it does list several concepts that cannot be made part of a course by school employees, such as the belief "an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, bears responsibility for actions committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex." REPS. CAWTHORN, FOXX INTRODUCE BILL TO PREVENT FEDERAL FUNDS FROM BEING USED TO PUSH CRITICAL RACE THEORY The bill also prevents educators from teaching students that "any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex," or that "meritocracy or traits such as a hard work ethic are racist or sexist or were created by members of a particular race to oppress members of another race." But Veales took further issue with a statement made by the governor regarding the legislation. "When I listen to what the governor said in his speech, and to say that it is not right for White students to feel like they should be held responsible for the oppression that Black people and others have felt by cause of them," Veales continued at the school board meeting Monday. "But then let's talk about the generational wealth, all on the backs of my people, let's talk about that. And what about us as we sometimes don't know how we're going to make it from one day until the next." Story continues In a video statement released after signing Bill 1775, Stitt argued that the legislation "clearly endorses teaching to the Oklahoma academic standards, which were written by Oklahoma educators and include events like the Oklahoma City Bombing, the Tulsa Race Massacre, the emergence of Black Wall Street, Oklahoma City lunch counter sit-ins led by Clara Luper and the Trail of Tears." "We must keep teaching history and all of its complexities and encourage honest and tough conversations about our past. Nothing in this bill prevents or discourages those conversations," Stitt said. "We can and should teach this history without labeling a young child as an oppressor or requiring that he or she feel guilt or shame based on their race or sex. I refuse to tolerate otherwise." TENNESSEE BAN ON TEACHING CRITICAL RACE THEORY GETS STATE ASSEMBLY OK Veales, who represents district 5, on Monday also claimed that she experienced racism during her tenure on the Oklahoma City school board and called out Board Chair Paula Lewis for not allowing her to put certain items about racism on the board agenda in the past. "I have experienced racism on this board even when going to this board chair last March and asking for a space to talk about race on this board, and then for White fragility to come in and say 'I don't appreciate being called a racist,' rather than honoring the request to have a place to have these conversations," she said. "Yes, they are hard. They're very hard. And unless they are hard, theyre not effective. Silence is acceptance and even for myself as a Black woman, as a strong Black woman, feeling often times on this board that I am looked at as an angry Black woman because I speak out." The bill sets terms for K-12 public and charter school education and prohibits mandated gender or sexual diversity training or counseling for university students though voluntary counselling cannot be prohibited. The State Board of Education is to create rules, subject to approval by the state legislature. Stitt on Friday said taxpayer money cannot be used "to define and divide young Oklahomans." "Martin Luther King spoke of a day where people in America would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. House Bill 1775 codifies that concept that so many of us believe in our hearts, including me," Stitt said. "And as governor, I will not stand for publicly funded K-12 schools training impressionable minds to define themselves by their sex or their race." The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University both made announcements that their student diversity trainings can no longer remain mandatory once the new law takes effect, The Oklahoman reported. The Oklahoma GOP had called on the governor to sign the legislation in order to "ensure that children are not indoctrinated by dangerous leftist ideologies." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Groups that encouraged the governor to veto the bill included local Black clergy, the Tulsa Race Massacre Centennial Commission, Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Sean McDaniel, Millwood Public Schools Superintendent Cecilia Robinson-Woods and Midwest City-Del City Public Schools Superintendent Rick Cobb. Pizza Express is to reopen 347 sites on Monday (PA) Pizza Express has said it is to reopen all its sites in England, Wales and Scotland on Monday for the first time since Covid hit in March 2020. The 55-year-old chain has slashed around 2,400 jobs and closed 73 restaurants since the pandemic broke out and revenues were heavily impacted by the closure of hospitality for long periods. But Pizza Express reopened 143 sites for al fresco dining in April and said last month that it was looking to hire 1,000 new staff members. And on Wednesday the business shared the upbeat news that 347 of its UK venues - every venue except for those in Northern Ireland which are set to reopen a week later - will reopen on May 17, with the chain throwing in a bottle of Peroni on the house for returning diners to celebrate the landmark day. Pizza Express managing director, Zoe Bowley, said: Were overjoyed that after more than a year since the first lockdown, we will finally be able to have all of our pizzerias in England, Wales and Scotland open to serve customers." Bowley recommended booking online, but said the chain is open for walk-ins. The company said that all restaurants will open with heightened hygiene procedures - including a new digital menu and regular staff health checks. Pizza Express announced in November 2020 that it had completed a major programme designed to secure its long-term financial future. At the time, the chain said the recapitalisation had seen its debt slashed by over 400 million to 319 million, with 40 million of new cash immediately injected into the business. The chain also recently appointed former Wagamama boss David Campbell as its new chief executive, and former Asda chief Allan Leighton as its new chairman. To get your free bottle of Peroni or selected soft drink head to the Pizza Express website and download a voucher. Read More Pizza Express reveals new CEO and chairman as chain cuts debts by 400M-plus in recapitalisation Pizza Express to recruit 1,000 workers as restaurants reopen Public health officials and government leaders have pushed for the nation to achieve herd immunity a point where enough people have been vaccinated against the virus or recovered from it that the virus finds fewer people to infect. Some health experts believe that threshold is 80% of the total population. Others are starting to doubt whether herd immunity is possible with an increasing number of highly contagious variants of the coronavirus spreading. That just speaks volumes to the complete lack of any kind of moral character, and what happens when people become police They are willing to even sacrifice their own family in order to advance the interests of a police state. This week, Jamal Shakir Jr. filed a complaint against his uncle, a Los Angeles Police Department officer, who he claims ordered another officer to shoot him. Last year, the 23-year-old filmmaker took part in the George Floyd protests that took place all over downtown Los Angeles last summer and at one point allegedly urged some of the officers at the scene to take part in the demonstrations. TMZ reports, according to Jamals lawyer, Carl Douglas, Jamal came face-to-face with officer Eric Anderson, but the cop was in no mood to engage Jamal. Instead, according to Douglas, Anderson told another cop to fire some sort of non-lethal weapon presumably loaded with rubber bullets at the filmmaker. According to Douglas, Anderson ordered that two shots be fired, striking Jamal in the hand and the butt and damaging ligaments. Photo: Fox 11 LA Police brutality is always cause for alarm but what makes this story particularly scandalous is the fact that Douglas is his uncle. Shakir maintains that he still hasnt recovered from his injuries almost a year since the incident and continues to receive treatment. READ MORE: Tamika Mallory talks MaKhia Bryant on Red Table Talk: Shes a child and we saw her laying on the ground Video from Shakirs live stream shows him screaming in pain and dropping his phone. It then reveals that his hand was bloodied after he was hit. My own uncle told him to shoot me! he can be heard exclaiming on the stream as he was running away. Shakirs live video also captured his distraught pleas to his uncle, inquiring why he was on the wrong side of history. Our ancestors are turning over in their grave right now, Eric! he said in the footage, adding, Look, look, hes telling him who to shoot. Story continues Look me in my eyes! he continued shouting. You know how your daddy is feeling right now. That couldve been you! It is around that exact moment point that another officer appeared to shoot Shakir with a projectile. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA JUNE 2: Demonstrators talk to members of the LAPD during a march in response to George Floyds death on June 2, 2020 in Los Angeles, California. Floyd died while in Minneapolis police custody on May 25. (Photo by Brent Stirton/Getty Images) READ MORE: 3 NYPD officers charged with corruption; 1 regularly used Black slurs The young mans lawsuit is one of many legal claims against the city of Los Angeles alleging the use of force and violence against peaceful demonstrators. Several reports and audits have been conducted that substantiate these claims of excessive force and policy violations by LAPD. The LA Times has also routinely documented cases where activists were hospitalized due to serious injuries. I asked Eric if he was serious and he just stared at me for a second and then told me to go home. With no facial expression, no nothing, he told me to go home, Shakir said in a statement, adding that the two shots fired at him were definitely targeted. This young Black male activist called for his own blood, his own uncle, to think about the immorality of what he was doing, and the result was his uncle ordering the shooting of his nephew with rubber bullets, said Dr. Melina Abdullah, a BLM LA co-founder. That just speaks volumes to the complete lack of any kind of moral character, and what happens when people become police They are willing to even sacrifice their own family in order to advance the interests of a police state. It was one of the most outrageous things Ive seen, she said of the live stream footage. 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 Protester files lawsuit against LAPD uncle who ordered cop to shoot him during demonstration appeared first on TheGrio. Supporters of both Israel and Palestine clashed on the streets of New York City Tuesday, following violent attacks in the Middle East this week. New York police officers attempted to keep the groups separated, but videos posted to social media showed protestors breaking free in an attempt to physically assault one another. WHITE HOUSE SAYS ISRAELI ACTIONS WORK 'AGAINST' SOLUTION TO CRISIS Both the pro-Israel and pro-Palestine groups were relatively small, but their shouts and repeated attempts to attack one another drew a crowd in front of the Israeli consulate in Manhattan. A much larger group of pro-Palestinian supporters marched through New York City, carrying banners condemning Israeli actions. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio could not be immediately reached by Fox News for comment. Due to safety precautions, staff members at the Israeli consulate in New York City were sent home ahead of Tuesdays protest, the Times of Israel first reported. ISRAEL, HAMAS CONTINUE TO EXCHANGE FIRE AS DEADLY CONFRONTATION PERSISTS Rallies in support of Palestine have popped up globally, with several events scheduled in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe. Another "All Out For Palestine" protest is expected in New York Wednesday. Since Monday, Israel and Palestine have exchanged rocket fire, resulting in hundreds of injuries and the deaths of at least two Israelis and 32 Palestinians. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland urged Israelis and Palestinians to stop their aggressive retaliatory actions Tuesday night, warning against "a full-scale war." "Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation," he said in a statement. "The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working with all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now." The nationwide worker shortage that held down U.S. job growth last month boils down to this: Many workers are seeing their wages and savings swell but they have fewer places to spend that extra cash. Businesses that cant find enough workers are pushing their existing staffers harder, converting part-time employees to full time and asking full-time workers to put in lots of overtime. Thats providing more income to Americans who have already socked way three rounds of government stimulus checks totaling $3,200 since the COVID-19 pandemic began more than a year ago. In other words, workers who hunkered down at home the past year and built up savings, are itching to boost their spending as the economy reopens fully this spring and summer. But companies that cant find employees are churning out fewer products and services. Theyre setting aside restaurant tables that cant be served and hotel rooms that cant be cleaned. Theyre cranking out fewer cars, appliances and floral bouquets for special events. The labor shortages, combined with lingering supply-chain bottlenecks, means the economy, while poised to grow briskly this year, isnt firing on all cylinders. If it turns out that if you cannot meet demand.the economy cannot grow as rapidly as people had anticipated, says Bernard Baumohl, chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group. Did opening early help these states? States that lifted COVID-19 restrictions early got an economic boost. What happened next? What is crypto? Elon Musk, Snoop Dogg and Mark Cuban love Dogecoin. Should you? How to stay safe when investing in cryptocurrency Limiting number of hotel rooms Neema Hospitality, which owns 12 hotel franchises in Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, has seen sales and occupancy reach 75% of its pre-pandemic mark. Company President Sandeep Thakrar wants to add about 50 housekeepers, front desk clerks and other employees to a workforce of about 150 but receives about four applications for job openings that used to draw 20. The low number comes despite a 10% hike in starting pay. Story continues To cope, Thakrar has hired residential and commercial cleaning services that cost triple his usual labor expenses. About 20% of his employees also log five hours a week in overtime. Still, Thakrar has had to take 10% of the rooms at a hotel off the market several times this spring because they couldnt be cleaned. He recently shut down a third of a 90-room hotel in Pittsburgh. Weve never done that, he said. We make money when we sell the rooms. He worries such measures will become more common as the busy spring and summer season heats up. A smaller economy, higher inflation Baumohl, of the Economic Outlook Group, expects the economy to grow at a robust 8.7% annual rate in the current quarter but he says the worker shortages and delivery disruptions pose risks to that forecast. The dynamic of too many dollars chasing too few goods and services along with bigger pay increases to attract workers is also likely to push up consumer prices, further stoking an incipient run-up in inflation. U.S. employers added 266,000 jobs in April, the government reported last weekl, well below the nearly 1 million projected. Surveys out Tuesday bolstered the theory that worker shortages are to blame. Government data also showed a record 8.1 million job openings in March. And 44% of small businesses said they had job openings they couldnt fill in April, an all-time high for the third straight month, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. Several factors are likely behind the labor crunch, economists say, including jobless workers who wont take positions because theyre receiving enhanced unemployment benefits and people caring for sick relatives or children remote-learning from home. A booster for vaccinations: McDonald's is bringing this COVID-19 vaccine awareness message to its coffee cups, Times Square billboard Whatever the reasons, employers are raising wages and dangling bonuses to attract workers. They're also doling out more hours to existing employees. Total compensation for U.S. workers rose 0.9% in the first quarter, the largest gain in more than 13 years. More hours for workers In April, private-sector workers logged an average of 35 hours a week, matching Januarys level and the highest on records dating to 2006, Labor Department figures show. The number of people working part time because of slack work or business conditions fell by 632,000 as many part-timers were converted to full-time roles. And current employees are getting lots of overtime, which pays employees 1.5 times their normal wage for each hour they put in over 40. Forever Floral, which sells handcrafted, artificial floral bouquets online, wants to add about 40 employees to its staff of 140, says company founder Mehtab Bhogal. Bhogal has bumped up starting wages by 30%, forcing him to raise the pay of many existing staffers as well. It hasnt been fruitful. The Ogden, Utah-based company receives about five applications a week for a job opening, down from 75 to 100 before the pandemic, Bhogal says. So about 35 employees put in 15 to 25 hours in overtime each week. They generally reap 1.5 times their normal earnings for each extra hour, though Bhogal sometimes pays double, as he did in the weeks before Mothers Day. Its destroying our (profit) margins, he says. Gas shortages?: What you need to know about the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack, gas prices, shortages Mehtab Bhogal Extra money for employees Employees like the extra money. Allie Howell, 28, who works as a florist in the companys Ogden warehouse, has clocked 10 to 20 hours a week in overtime a couple of times a month and every week in the lead-up to Mothers Day. She sometimes works eight-hour shifts both Saturday and Sunday. Its hard, she says. But she adds, Its really nice to get those extra checks. The overtime pay has allowed her to earn 50% more than her regular weekly income and banked about $3,500 in recent months. She plans to use some of the money for a down payment on a new Subaru Forester and save the rest to eventually buy a house or help build a retirement nest egg. She also has squirreled away the $3,200 in stimulus money she has received the past year. Even with the overtime, Forever Floral cant fulfill customer demand, Bhogal says, forcing the company to pull many Facebook and Google ads to tamp down orders. If he had the workforce, he says he could double his sales and would have quadrupled his Mothers Day revenue. He also stocks just 30 varieties of flowers, down from a typical 140 or so. Compounding his travails are supply-chains snags that have delayed flower deliveries from India. Bhogal has raised prices 15% to maintain profits but that doesnt come close to offsetting his lost sales due to worker shortages. Its really frustrating, he says. You see all this money (from stimulus checks) sitting out there but you just cant grab it. Some businesses are going to even greater lengths to meet customer demand. Recruiters can't find recruiters Brand Builders, which stages events for the wine and spirits industry, posted a 95% sales declines early in the pandemic, forcing CEO Shannon Roberts to lay off most of her 10 employees and 378 contractors. Revenue is now 40% of its pre-pandemic level but the Middle River, Maryland-based firm has struggled to add one full-time and one part-time worker to its staff of three. Roberts has increased starting pay from $15 to $17 an hour but still gets only about a dozen applications for a job opening, down from 30 or 40 pre-COVID-19. She hired someone for the part-time administrative job but the employee didnt show up for her second day, not bothering to call or leave a message. Shannon Roberts Roberts recruited three friends to staff one wine-tasting. For another, she dispatched three Virginia contractors to Maryland for a weekend tasting, forcing her to pay for their hotel stay and causing her to lose money on the event. Her three staffers each put in 10 hours a week in overtime. Roberts pays them the legally required premium, plus an additional $5 to $10 an hour, shriveling her profits. I dont want to burn them out, she says. She often loses money on contracts just to keep clients happy as she awaits better times. She also turns down event requests because she doesnt have the staff. If she did, she says she could book an additional 15% in sales. Its extremely stressful, she says. I dont want to fail my clients. Were not even in our peak time, she adds. Even recruiting firms charged with helping companies hunt for workers cant find recruiters. Creative Alignments, which serves the technology and natural food industries, has been unable to add four recruiters to its staff of 30, says CEO Peggy Shell. So the Boulder, Colorado, firm paid 12 of the firms recruiters $1,000 bonuses for each of 14 searches. The company also has had to turn down search requests from eight clients. We were unable to help them, she says. Its like the cobblers children who have no shoes. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jobs near me: Worker shortages mean more pay, less growth HOUSTON Ronaldo Souza understands how nature plays out. A lion is the king of the jungle until a younger, more dangerous lion comes along and puts an end to his reign. However, Souza (26-9 MMA, 9-6 UFC) isnt ready to be banished from his position of one of MMAs most notable names quite yet. Despite recent struggles, his goal remains the same, and he expects to fight at least a few more times in the UFC. Recharged after a difficult 2020, Souza enters his UFC 262 fight vs. Andre Muniz this Saturday at Toyota Center with an increased level of motivation. I have to say something, Souza said at a pre-fight news conference Wednesday. Sometimes, young lions kill old lions. But sometimes, they die trying. I want to kill this guy. Im ready to win. Souza, 41, most recently competed at UFC 256 in December. The fight was his first in 13 months, a stretch in which three bookings fell through. When Souza finally stepped in the cage, he was knocked out by Kevin Holland in an unusual fashion. Holland, with his back on the canvas, swiped at Souza and recorded a vicious Knockout of the Year candidate in Round 1. It was horrible for me. Nobody expects that sh*t, but he did a great job and beat me (badly). I was bad after the fight, but I put my head up and continued to work, Souza said. That was crazy and will never happen again. The year was no good for me. I came off a bad loss, you know, a bad decision. I never lost three times in a row, even when I fought jiu-jitsu. It sounds crazy for me, but I put my head up and worked hard to win this fight. Related Shane Burgos 'got goosebumps' when offered Edson Barboza at UFC 262: 'This is the one' Edson Barboza expects 'big war' with Shane Burgos at UFC 262: 'It makes me very excited' Muniz (20-4 MMA, 2-0 UFC) perhaps doesnt have the name recognition of the average Jacare opponent, but that doesnt make him any less challenging of a task. He has a very good jiu-jitsu (game), Souza said. Hes a strong guy, a young guy and I know him because hes from Brazil. He fought against good fighters that I know. When they gave me that fight, I just accepted because Im not in a good position, but Im still alive. In 2017 Cheney watched Trump sign measures overturning a series of Barack Obama protections (AFP via Getty Images) Two paths diverged in a wood. In one direction lay Donald Trump and his millions of energised, in-your-face supporters, who backed his false claim the election was stolen. The other led towards Liz Cheney, her insistence the election was not rigged, but also a near guarantee that to embrace her would likely lose the backing of the former presidents most loyal fans, and with them the chance of recapturing the House of Representatives in 2022. And this time, it seems all but certain which path the Republican Party will opt for to stick with Trump, and ditch Cheney. On Wednesday, Republicans are due to hold a vote that will see Cheney lose her post as House Republican Conference Chair, the third most senior official in the chamber, and be replaced by Elise Stefanik, a congresswoman from New York. Across a range of issues, Cheney, 54, the daughter of the former vice president Dick Cheney, has a voting record and worldview that is far more conservative than that of 36-year-old Stefanik. And just a few few years ago, Stefanik was protesting Trumps insults of the families of military veterans and his bragging of sexually assaulting women. In 2016 she could barely mention his name, even though he was her partys nominee, and told the Times Union newspaper: Ive opposed his rhetoric numerous times toward women. That has all changed. In recent years, Stefanik has defended Trump in the most forceful terms, and was among the Republican members of Congress called upon to officially defend him during his first impeachment trial. She also, critically, supported his false claim the 2020 election was rigged and that Joe Biden was not the legitimate president. By contrast, Cheney was one of 10 Republicans in the House who voted with Democrats to impeach Trump, putting the blame for the 6 January storming of the US Capitol at his feet. Having hung onto her job earlier this year when members voted in February to keep her, it appears this week she will be sent packing. The change from then to now and hence the borrowing in the opening sentence of Robert Frosts poem The Road Not Taken is that the party appears to have recognised it has reached a fork in the road. Story continues With Trump still denouncing Cheney and backing Stefanik for her job, and with Cheney refusing to change her views or keep them to herself last week she published an op-ed in the Washington Post saying history would judge the partys actions the partys leadership appears to believe it has no alternative but to dispatch her. People such as the GOP leader in the House, Kevin McCarthy, who not so long ago himself denounced Trump for inciting his supporters to act the way they did, appear to have made a very simple calculation: they need Trumps supporters more than they do moderates, even if that means carrying the baggage of lies and dishonesty. Typically, a party which holds the presidency loses one of the chambers of Congress in the midterms, and with some redistricting already set to push seats towards the Republicans, retaking the House and everything that would go with that prize, must be its priority. Can we move forward without President Trump? The answer is no, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told Fox News last week. He added: Ive always liked Liz Cheney, but shes made a determination that the Republican Party cant grow with President Trump. Ive determined we cant grow without him. Larry Sabato, Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia, says Republicans are very focused on the midterms. The way McCarthy and his pals look at it, lying is a small price to pay in order to take control of the House in 2022 even if the lie undermines our entire democratic system and promotes the worst president in US history, he tells The Independent. Trump received 46-47 per cent of the national vote in two elections, and of that, 35-40 per cent is hardcore Trump. Turn the Trump base off, even a good part of it, and you lose. Plus, Trump himself would lead the parade to take down all of his enemies in the party. In her op-ed, Cheney, who represents Wyoming, said: Republicans need to stand for genuinely conservative principles, and steer away from the dangerous and anti-democratic Trump cult of personality. She added: The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution. Elise Stefanik has received the crucial support of Donald TrumpCopyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Yet, while Cheney has accused Trump of dishonesty, others have pointed out she has previously been promoting dishonesty herself, in particular backing claims made by her father and George W Bush in 2003, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction a falsehood that enabled the invasion of Iraq, with massive civilian casualties. Trump built a movement based on lies. The Cheneys showed him how its done, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wrote this week. Cheney was once seen as a future potential presidential candidate for her party. For now, it seems she is going to be fighting just to be reelected to the congressional seat. Truthfully, there's not a ton of room right now for any any Republican politician who's on the opposite side of Trump to get traction in the Republican Party, says Republican pollster Neil Newhouse. Bear in mind, Trump's approval among Republicans is still 85 to 90 per cent. He's still the leader of the party and the de facto head. That's not going to change anytime in the near future. While Trump was widely denounced for his false claims over the 2020 contest, he sought to use and weaponise the phrase big lie, that critics used for him. Last week, he said in a statement: The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE! McCarthy has all but admitted the party would prefer Trumps big lie to Cheneys truth and fidelity. Also speaking to Fox News, he said: Any member can take whatever position they believe in What were talking about is a position in leadership. As conference chair, you have one of the most critical jobs as a messenger going forward. Read More GOP fealty to 'dear leader' Trump testing party unity, Republican governor says Trumps new blog is a flop on social media, data shows Venezuela opposition leader calls for dialogue with Maduro May 11Rockland city councilors have given initial approval to a zoning change necessary for a Midcoast Habitat for Humanity housing development project to move forward. But a group of neighbors worries the development would have adverse effects on stormwater runoff in the neighborhood. The development project, slated for a 10-acre parcel on Talbot Avenue, would bring more than a dozen housing units to the city with a combination of single family homes and duplexes. The proposal is a collaboration between MaineHousing, Midcoast Habitat for Humanity and the Knox County Homeless Coalition. It's intended to create more affordable housing units in the region, where prices have steadily risen beyond affordability for a majority of residents. Approval of the zoning change, which would reduce the minimum square footage requirement for buildings on the lot, is the first hurdle the project needs to overcome. City councilors will vote on giving final approval to the change after a public hearing on June 14. The project will then go before the planning board for a review process and approval. City councilors agreed with Talbot Avenue area residents that there are existing stormwater drainage issues in the area and across the city as a whole which are creating flooding and erosion problems, especially around Lindsey Brook. But several councilors suggested that careful development can mitigate these problems. "Does Lindsey Brook need to be managed and reinforced in a myriad of places? Yes, it does. Do we also need to actively address the underserved population in our community that can't find a place to live? Yes, we do," city councilor Ben Dorr said. "Those two things don't need to be mutually exclusive. I think there is a way to actively work on both of those issues at the same time." Midcoast Habitat for Humanity formally submitted its proposal to the city last year after purchasing the land for $200,000. The site could feature eight approximately 500-square-foot one-bedroom homes, three duplexes with a two-bedroom unit on one side and a three-bedroom unit on the other. Both the small homes and duplexes would be rental units managed by the Knox County Homeless Coalition. Story continues The proposal also calls for four single-family homes which would be sold to qualifying Habitat for Humanity applicants. If approved, this would be the second subdivision development that Habitat for Humanity is taking on in Rockland. The organization is currently in the construction phase of a 12-home development on Philbrick Avenue in Rockland. Rockland, like many midcoast communities, has struggled to remain affordable. Median home prices in Knox County are about $30,000 more than the average homebuyer can easily afford, according to MaineHousing data from 2019. In Rockland alone, 52 percent of residents can't afford the median home price. While neighbors of the Talbot Avenue project say they agree that there needs to be more affordable housing in the city, they don't feel the proposed location is an appropriate spot given existing stormwater runoff problems that have created erosion and flooding issues around the area of Lindsey Brook. By adding a development to the currently uninhabited lot, neighbors say stormwater runoff issues downstream will be worsened because there are less surfaces for rainwater to be absorbed into. "I don't think we can handle [stormwater] runoff as it is right now, the idea that we're going to add to the crisis to me is highly problematic," Talbot Avenue resident Andrew Wisch said. "There have been some questions regarding those of us who have concerns around the project having a [not in my backyard] attitude around this, that we don't want this housing development in our backyard [...] Frankly, I'm most concerned about being able to preserve our backyards at all". Habitat is working to address these concerns, according to the project's engineer Michael Sabatini, by reducing setbacks to keep the homes farther away from neighbors as well as including a stormwater management plan for the site. "We understand the concerns we are hearing and we plan on addressing these concerns during the planning board process which I think is the more appropriate place to discuss stormwater, buffers and the like," Sabatini said. Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Getty A years-old relic of the Trump-Ukraine scandala dossier that was aggressively promoted by Rudy Giulianiis coming back to haunt him, just as federal law enforcement has ramped up its investigation into the former New York City mayor. The dossier, a collection of documents centered with wild corruption accusations against Joe Biden, Marie Yovanovitch, and other officials, was widely and almost instantly dismissed as irrelevant ramblings, conspiracy theories, and political smears when it emerged in 2019. But Giuliani pushed it anyway to the highest echelons of the Trump White House and to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Now, his efforts have been scrutinized by federal investigators, according to two people familiar with the matter. In a probe that began during former President Donald Trumps time in power, the feds have been investigating whether some of Giulianis activities during the Trump-Ukraine saga amounted to unregistered and illegal lobbying on behalf of foreign figures. Giuliani's legal team did not respond to requests for comment on this story. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorneys Office in the Southern District of New York declined to comment. But Giulianis pushing of the dossier is one of a number of activities under investigation by federal law enforcement. Another, The Daily Beast has learned, is his attempts to introduce a conspiracy-peddling Ukrainian prosecutor general to then-Attorney General William Barr. Last month, federal agents executed search warrants on Giulianis apartment and office, seeking access to his mobile devices and communications between the prominent Trump adviser and lawyer and roughly a dozen people, including Ukrainian former prosecutors who had served as sources for Giulianis various corruption allegations against the Biden family. The document reportedly prompted intrigue followed by disappointment when the State Department turned it over to House impeachment investigators. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) described the dossier to The New York Times as a series of hallucinatory propagandist suggestions. Story continues Feds Probing Rudy Giulianis Push to Get a Visa for a Shady Ukrainian Prosecutor In late 2019 during the Trump-Ukraine scandal, The New Yorker, which obtained a copy of the dossier, described one of its allegations as a byzantine conspiracy theory in which the U.S.-backed creation of NABU Ukraines anti-corruption prosecutorsin 2014 was somehow a scheme concocted by Ambassador Yovanovitch and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent to prevent Ukraine from investigating the Bidens. In another allegation described by the magazine, the dossier casts right wing boogeyman and liberal philanthropist George Soros as the orchestrator of Yovanovitchs appointment as U.S. ambassador in Kyiv. Rather than a single, coherent narrative, the dossier is reportedly a collection of various memos, public information and articles, and notes from Giulianis interviews with Ukrainian prosecutors like Viktor Shokin and Yuriy Lutsenko and filled with wild and unsubstantiated allegations against Yovanovitch, Joe Biden, and his son Hunter. Giuliani described the dossier to CNN more as an outline that he routed to the State Department. They told me they were going to investigate it, he told the cable news outlet in late 2019. Multiple former senior Trump administration and White House officials who had seen the dossier at the time privately describe the Giuliani-compiled research as a waste of time. They viewed it as a nuisance, a feckless attempt to bring down the Bidens. What these ex-officials did not predict was that it could one day be used in a federal investigation against Giuliani himself. According to one former Trump White House official, those in the White House who examined the pages and interview notes in 2019 almost across-the-board dubbed the research amateurish and unhelpful, with Trump officials discussing amongst themselves how they believed it was unlikely that anyone, foreign or American, would agree to pay Giuliani to produce thisif only because of the utterly shoddy nature of the work. Giuliani told the Times that the memos of his interviews were put together by a professional investigator who works for my company and that he passed them along to Secretary of State Pompeo in March of 2019a month before Yovanovitch was removed as ambassadorin the hopes that Pompeo would forward the material along to the FBI and it wont look like Im pushing the FBI to do it. Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, anyone seeking to politically influence the American public or government must register with the Justice Department. Giuliani has repeatedly denied that he has engaged in lobbying activity and says that all of his work on Ukraine was carried out on behalf of his client, President Trump. Federal investigators have also been looking into Giulianis relationship to Lutsenko, a former Ukrainian prosecutor general who helped feed Giulianis Biden conspiracy theories, and to what extent Giuliani participated in Lutsenkos quest to secure a meeting with then-Attorney General Barr, two sources familiar with the situation told The Daily Beast. Before he linked up with Giuliani, Lutsenko had tried to set up his own direct channel to senior Justice Department officials. In September 2018, he hired Bud Cummins, a lobbyist and former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, through unnamed intermediaries in an attempt to push his Biden corruption theories to high-level Justice Department officials, Cummins told ABC News. And in testimony before the House impeachment panel, Yovanovitch said that Lutsenko had repeatedly tried to get the U.S. embassy in Kyiv to "set up meetings with the Attorney General, with the Director of the FBI" but that he had refused to follow normal procedures and share his allegations with FBI legal attaches in the embassy. Lutsenko told The New Yorker that hed approached Giuliani because he thought the presidents attorney could secure a meeting with then-new attorney general to discuss an effort to recover millions of dollars looted from the country during its former pro-Russian government. According to Lutsenko, Giuliaini agreed to help. Giuliani claimed that he chose not to personally lobby Barr for the meeting, addingin a moment of apparent self-awarenessthat, I dont know what crime they would have made out of that. But the meeting never happened. And Lutsenko claimed in an interview with Ukrainskaya Pravda that when he followed up with unnamed advisers to Giuliani about why a meeting with Barr had not materialized, they told him that the meeting was impossible until I hired a company to lobby for the meeting, because, they say, this is the law in the United States. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. By Dmitry Madorsky KAZAN, Russia (Reuters) -A 19-year-old man was charged on Wednesday with multiple counts of murder over a school shooting in Russia that left nine people dead, as state investigators said that he was diagnosed last year with a brain disease. Ilnaz Galyaviev appeared in court dressed in black, accused of opening fire at School 175 in the city of Kazan in an attack that killed seven children and two adults and wounded many more. He behaved calmly and confidently and told the court he had no serious illnesses. He did not give a plea. A court ordered Galyaviev to be held in custody for two months pending trial. State investigators said he had fired at least 17 rounds and detonated an explosive device in the attack in the city 450 miles (725 km) east of Moscow. The Investigative Committee, which handles probes into serious crimes, said that Galyaviev's relatives had noticed him behaving aggressively and having a short temper this year. In a statement, it said that he had repeatedly sought medical treatment for severe headaches and that he was also diagnosed with a brain disease last year. The deadliest school shooting since 2018 when a student at a college in Russian-annexed Crimea killed 20 people has stunned the city of Kazan. Mourners brought toys and flowers to the school in tribute from the early hours on Wednesday. "(I came here) because this is such a disaster ... It's impossible to just remain indifferent," a woman who gave her name only as Albina said after coming to pay her respects at School Number 175. The head of Russia's Muslim-majority region of Tatarstan, where Kazan is the main city, has called it a national tragedy and the Kremlin has called for tighter gun controls. Russia has strict restrictions on civilian firearm ownership, but some categories of gun are available for purchase for hunting, self-defence or sport, once would-be owners have passed tests and met other requirements. Story continues Around 100 people, some of them wearing face masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic, gathered at a traditional Muslim funeral for Elvira Ignatieva, an English teacher who was among the victims. "She was protecting her children ... She was protecting (them) and didn't hide away," said Talgat Gumerov, a Kazan resident. Twenty-three people were still in hospital on Wednesday, including 12 children with gunshot wounds, the TASS news agency reported. Five children were in a serious condition and one of them was critical, it said. (Reporting by Dmitry Madorsky; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Timothy Heritage and Philippa Fletcher) A Scarborough B&B has been named the best in the world (Getty) Yahoo Lifestyle's editors are committed to independently selecting wonderful products at great prices for you. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. The UK is home to the best B&B in the world, according to Tripadvisors 19th annual Travellers Choice Awards. The Toulson Court Bed and Breakfast in Scarborough has taken this prestigious title for 2021. The charming B&B is run by couple Angela and James and is just a short walk from Scarborough Beach. Read more: What to do if you've booked an 'amber list' holiday It joins four more UK B&Bs, which have been named among the top 15 in the world. The Torcroft in Torquay and Dorset House in Lyme Regis were awarded the titles of second and third best in Europe and third and fourth in the world respectively. The Toulson Court Bed and Breakfast (left) is the world's best B&B while Dorset House in Lyme Regis (right) is the third best (Tripadvisor) Torlinnhe Guest House in Scotlands Fort William and Haven Cottage in Cumbrias Ambleside took the fourth and fifth spot in Europe and sixth and 12th in the world. These B&Bs have been praised for going the extra mile and delivering top-notch service even during the pandemic. As well as being home to award-winning B&Bs, UK hotels have also picked up a few gongs at this years awards. Read more: Why workations are the boost the travel industry needs Edgar House in Chester was named as the best romantic hotel in the UK, Torquays Haytor Hotel is the UKs best small hotel and The Hari in London was named as the best hotel in the UK overall. With foreign holidays to selected nations being given the green light from 17 May, the Tripadvisor Awards also offer a number of international hotel winners for us to dream about, too. Hotel Colline de France in Gramado, Brazil (left) and Arinna Cappadocia in Goreme, Turkey (right) (Tripadvisor) Hotel Colline de France, a French-style chateau in the Brazilian mountain resort town of Gramado, has been named as the best hotel in the world for 2021 while Arinna Cappadocia in Goreme, Turkey took the title of the best new hotel. The best hotels in the world for 2021, according to Tripadvisor Story continues Now that staycations are back on in the UK and the ban on overseas travel is days away from lifting, Brits will want to start getting plans in motion for what could possibly be the most longed-for holiday of their life, Tripadvisor spokesperson, Hayley Coleman says. Read more: The best UK seaside getaways to book right now This celebration of the best of the best hotels around the world should serve as the perfect guide for discovering places to stay that are fit for the trip of a lifetime. Subscribe to our newsletter Watch: Why Britons will get an extra bank holiday in 2022 The success of our local colleges and universities is critical to the success of our economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, the lawmakers said in the statement. The American Rescue Plan makes a historic investment that will ensure the doors to higher education remain open here in Maryland and provide struggling students with the resources they need to stay on track and complete their degrees. NEW DELHI (AP) A potentially worrisome variant of the coronavirus detected in India may spread more easily. But the country is behind in doing the kind of testing needed to track it and understand it better. On Monday, the World Health Organization designated the new version of the virus a variant of concern" based on preliminary research, alongside those that were first detected in Britain, South Africa and Brazil but have spread to other countries. We need much more information about this virus variant," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead for COVID-19. "We need more sequencing, targeted sequencing to be done and to be shared in India and elsewhere so that we know how much of this virus is circulating. Viruses mutate constantly, and the surge in infections here has resulted in more opportunities for new versions to emerge. But India was slow to start the genetic monitoring needed to see if those changes were happening and if they were making the coronavirus more infectious or deadly. Such variants also need to be monitored to see if mutations help the virus escape the immune system, potentially leading to reinfections or making vaccines less effective. For now, the WHO stressed that COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing disease and death in people infected with the variant. Indian scientists say their work has been hindered by bureaucratic obstacles and the governments reluctance to share vital data. India is sequencing around 1% of its total cases, and not all of the results are uploaded to the global database of coronavirus genomes. When there isn't enough sequencing, there will be blind spots and more worrisome mutations could go undetected until they're widespread, said Alina Chan, a postdoctoral researcher at Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard who is tracking global sequencing efforts. Ravindra Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said: It has all the hallmarks of the virus that we should be worried about. Story continues First detected in the coastal Maharashtra state last year, the new variant has now been found in samples in 19 of the 27 states surveyed. Meanwhile a variant first detected in Britain has declined in India in the past 45 days. Indian health officials have cautioned that it is too soon to attribute the nation's surge solely to such variants. Experts point out that the spread was catalyzed by government decisions to not pause religious gatherings and crowded election rallies. Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who studies microorganisms at Christian Medical College at Vellore in southern India, said researchers need to figure out if the variant is capable of infecting those who previously had COVID-19 and, if so, whether it could result in severe disease. I dont get why people dont see this as important, she said. Sequencing efforts in India have been haphazard. The country uploads 0.49 sequences per 1,000 cases to GISAID, a global data sharing effort, Chan said. The U.S., which had its own troubles with genetic monitoring, uploads about 10 in 1,000, while the U.K. does so for about 82 per 1,000 cases. Late last year, Indian government institutions were ordered to buy domestic raw materials wherever possible, in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's goal of turning India self-reliant. This proved impossible, since all materials for sequencing were imported, resulting in more paperwork, said Anurag Agarwal, the director of the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology. The obstacles were most pronounced between September and December, he said, but his lab was able to find workarounds and continued sequencing. Other labs didn't, and scientists said that should have been when India ramped up its sequencing, because cases were declining at the time. Even after a federal effort started in Jan. 18, bringing together 10 labs that can sequence 7,500 samples weekly, the actual work didn't start until mid-February due to other logistical issues, said Dr. Shahid Jameel, a virologist who chairs the scientific advisory group advising the consortium. By then, India's cases had begun spiking. Jameel said India has sequenced around 20,000 samples, but only 15,000 were publicly reported because some were missing vital data. Until late last month, a third of the samples sent by states were unusable, he said. And now, the raging virus has infected many of the staff in the labs doing the work. Many of our labs are facing this problem, he said. ___ Pathi reported from Bengaluru and Associated Press writers Danica Kirka in London and Chonchui Ngashangva in New Delhi contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. May 11GRAPELAND Grapeland Sandies standout Keizion Ashford advanced his athletic career Friday by choosing to play collegiate basketball at Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Ashford wrapped up his senior season with his first state title game appearance where he dropped 19 points, earned all-state honors and earned district defensive MVP. He joins the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers basketball program that is headed by Alex Huisman who is in his seventh season as head coach of the team. "[Signing] day was special for me," Ashford said. "Playing on the next level is something I've wanted since I was little." Though Ashford was recognized for his defensive play, he also offered another scoring threat for the Sandies. He averaged 14 points per game and four assists during Grapeland's 29-win season. On the defensive end, he averaged nearly four steals per game, which included a pair of 10 steal games against Slocum and Groveton, along with 13 total steals in their two match ups against Centerville. "This means everything to see Keizion get a chance on the next level," head coach Blake Doughty said. "I'm thankful to be a small part in his journey and have the opportunity to pour into this young man. I've watched him grow and I'm excited to watch him pursue his dream of playing college basketball over the next four years." Over 95% over Ashford's education expenses will be taken of at Iowa Wesleyan, which is an opportunity not a lot of athletes from any classification can say they have. "Keizion and I had in-depth conversations about the fact that him taking advantage of this opportunity opens the door for all these younger guys," Doughty said. "He's going to be an ambassador for this program and this community." Ashford and coach Doughty continued to emphasize how this can change the trajectory of his life. He enters college hoping to pursue a degree in sports science. He will be a part of Division III school in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC). The Tigers went 5-10 this past year in a shortened season. - By GF Value The stock of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA (NYSE:SQM, 30-year Financials) gives every indication of being significantly 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 $51.75 per share and the market cap of $13.6 billion, Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA stock is believed to be significantly overvalued. GF Value for Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA is shown in the chart below. Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA Stock Is Believed To Be Significantly Overvalued Because Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA is significantly overvalued, the long-term return of its stock is likely to be much lower than its future business growth, which is estimated to grow 4.82% 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. Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA has a cash-to-debt ratio of 0.44, which which ranks in the middle range of the companies in Chemicals industry. The overall financial strength of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA is 5 out of 10, which indicates that the financial strength of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA is fair. This is the debt and cash of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA over the past years: Story continues Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA Stock Is Believed To Be Significantly 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. Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA has been profitable 10 years over the past 10 years. During the past 12 months, the company had revenues of $1.8 billion and earnings of $0.621 a share. Its operating margin of 17.02% better than 81% of the companies in Chemicals industry. Overall, GuruFocus ranks Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA's profitability as fair. This is the revenue and net income of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA over the past years: Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA Stock Is Believed To Be Significantly Overvalued One of the most important factors in the valuation of a company is growth. Long-term stock performance is closely correlated with growth according to GuruFocus research. Companies that grow faster create more value for shareholders, especially if that growth is profitable. The average annual revenue growth of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA is -0.1%, which ranks in the middle range of the companies in Chemicals industry. The 3-year average EBITDA growth is -15.7%, which ranks worse than 85% of the companies in Chemicals 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, Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA's ROIC is 6.40 while its WACC came in at 6.75. The historical ROIC vs WACC comparison of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA is shown below: Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA Stock Is Believed To Be Significantly Overvalued In conclusion, the stock of Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA (NYSE:SQM, 30-year Financials) gives every indication of being significantly overvalued. The company's financial condition is fair and its profitability is fair. Its growth ranks worse than 85% of the companies in Chemicals industry. To learn more about Sociedad Quimica Y Minera De Chile SA 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. Shinhan's gift card for Tesla stocks retails for 30,000 KRW (or $26). Screengrab/Shinhan Stockcon Kakao Gift Young Koreans are upping their dating game, exchanging stocks instead of chocolates and flowers. The vouchers are issued by Korean stock corporations and list blue-chip stocks from Tesla to Netflix. Insider spoke to several young Koreans who said they had already treated their significant others to stock. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Some Korean couples have found a way to redefine romance - by gifting each other Tesla and other blue-chip stocks. It all started when securities brokerage and investment banking company Shinhan Investment Corp started listing "stock gift cards" on the KakaoTalk mobile app's "Kakao Gift" store around Christmas last year. Perhaps inspired by Kanye West's 2017 Christmas gift to Kim Kardashian, which included Amazon, Apple, Disney, and Netflix stock, KakaoTalk allows would-be wooers to purchase stock in Starbucks rather than simply a latte from the coffee chain. Daters can also select more expensive stocks, including Apple stock gift cards sold at 25,000 KRW ($22), or Tesla stock gift cards, which go for 30,000 KRW ($26). And you don't have to be financially savvy to lock in the shares - all the recipient needs to do is to create a brokerage account and register the gift card's code. According to statistics seen by Korean media outlet Chosun Ilbo, the Shinhan Investment bank sold more than 20,000 "stock gift cards" since the launch of the program on December 24, 2020. Shinhan noted that the stocks were most popular among customers in their 20s and 30s. South Koreans can now purchase gift cards of Tesla, Starbucks, and Apple stocks for affordable prices on a mobile app. Screengrab/Kakao Gift The Seoul Economic Daily reported that part of Shinhan's appeal included clever ads, which read that its stocks were selling for the price of a one-month subscription to Netflix or "the price of an Apple charger" - enticing customers to invest at a low cost. Local media outlet Straight News wrote that Tesla was the most-bought stock for gift-giving, followed by Apple, Starbucks, and Netflix. Story continues Chosun Ilbo separately reported that another stock provider, KB Securities, released its 10,000 KRW ($8.90) gift card offerings on March 29, which allows the gift recipient to register the gift card into a securities and stock investment app. Over 3.4 million gift cards of varying amounts were sold within the first 20 days of the company offering this service - netting it over 5 billion KRW ($4.5 million). Korean web users also pointed out that the stock gift cards listed by KB Securities could be used to buy a variety of foreign stocks - from Amazon to MGM and Nike. Speaking to Insider, college student Jung Seung-Hyun, 23, said that he had given his girlfriend four stock gift cards for her birthday in April, with investments in Starbucks, Netflix, Apple, and Tesla. "I think she appreciated it. It might not be the most traditionally romantic thing to do, but I figure that I'm helping her make a great investment," Jung said. Jung added that his girlfriend initially thought it was a scam but registered her account and locked in the shares anyway. "I didn't get beaten up by her, but she did say that I should increase the amount of cash I put into the gift card next time," he said. Meanwhile, designer Yang Ga-in, 28, told Insider said she was thinking of giving her boyfriend, who she says is a "big fan of Elon Musk," an anniversary gift that will spark joy - a Tesla gift card to "add to his stock portfolio." "It's not the only gift I'm giving him - I'm also baking him some cookies," she said to Insider. "But he's a very practical man, and while he may not say it, I think he will appreciate the stocks more than my baked goods. I think it makes sense - because cookies can be eaten in two minutes, but this investment will last much longer." Read the original article on Insider WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken held a phone call on Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and discussed their upcoming meeting on the sidelines of the Arctic Council ministerial in Iceland next week, the State Department said. Blinken repeated his call on Russia to release detained Americans in the country and he provided Lavrov with an overview of U.S. policy toward North Korea, the Department said in a statement. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) Across America, state legislators have risen up to curtail the emergency powers that their governors amassed during the coronavirus pandemic. This national movement is as bipartisan as it gets. In Massachusetts, Democratic legislators are fighting to rein in a Republican governor. In Kentucky, a Republican legislature has taken on a Democratic governor. Even Democrats are constraining a Democratic governor in New York, while Republicans in Ohio have imposed restrictions on their Republican governor. Altogether, 300 bills have been proposed in 45 states to limit the emergency powers of governors. Yet Pennsylvania the home of the Declaration of Independence stands as an outlier. Duly passed legislation to curb abuses was struck down by partisan state courts, leaving lawmakers few options. Voting on constitutional amendments The last hope for Pennsylvanians to restore democracy and preserve liberty comes next Tuesday, when the people will vote on state constitutional amendments: one to reduce the length of disaster emergency declarations from 90 days to 21 days with extensions subject to the approval of the states General Assembly, and a second to allow the General Assembly to terminate a disaster emergency declaration without the governors signature. Barring these constitutional amendments, Gov. Tom Wolf and his successors will indefinitely retain the power to control citizens down to the most absurd details of their lives. Over the one year and two months since Wolf unilaterally declared the first of a never-ending series of emergency disaster declarations, the rights of Pennsylvanians to gather, eat, earn a living, or even enjoy a handshake or a hug have not been treated as rights at all. They are now considered mere privileges sporadically granted and often revoked. Under his emergency disaster declaration, Wolf may grant people the liberty to go out and get a drink, but only if they order a meal as well snacks like chips or peanuts dont count. He still claims the power to close and reopen businesses at a moments notice regardless of guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and based on his own definition of what constitutes a life sustaining business. Restrictions are lifted and imposed with no basis in science or logic. Story continues Governor Tom Wolf announced that all COVID-related mitigation restrictions could be lifted by May 31. Masking would still be required until at least 70% of the Pennsylvania population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This is the definition of arbitrary power. Yet under the governors forever emergency, this democracy-defying, one-man rule is still in place. Never before have Pennsylvanians been micromanaged down to their movements and meals and citizens of all political stripes are chafing under the yoke. Last year, a bipartisan majority of the peoples representatives in Harrisburg voted to rein in the governor and reimpose the checks and balances he so swiftly suppressed. However, the state Supreme Court where the governors party holds a 5-2 majority struck down the resolution. Now, it takes fewer votes to impeach the governor than it does to prevent that same governor from dictating what side dish you are allowed order at the bar along with your ice cold Yuengling. COVID: COVID-19 concerns sent thousands of inmates home. Give clemency to those who deserve it. Perhaps Wolfs stranglehold on Pennsylvanias working families would be more tolerable if his actions actually helped. However, the governors thirst for power has caused immense collateral damage with no discernable benefit. In the first months of the pandemic, only six other states saw a larger rise in unemployment than Pennsylvania. The food service industry alone saw employment drop over 31% as Pennsylvania faced more government-mandated business closures than every state but Michigan. Paying the price for lockdowns Tragically, if unsurprisingly, Pennsylvania lost nearly 200,000 more jobs between March 2020 and March 2021 than during the entirety of the Great Recession. Even today, there are 415,000 fewer Pennsylvanians with jobs than in February 2020, and the states unemployment rate sits more than a point above the national average. Pennsylvanians continue to pay a steep price for Gov. Wolf's lockdowns while the state ranks in the top 11 of coronavirus deaths per capita. On the other hand, Florida, with its much more flexible pandemic restrictions, has had 20% fewer deaths per capita than Pennsylvania. COVID and schools: We're finally back to school after COVID-19 but it's complicated, confusing and strange The upcoming vote on the state constitutional amendments is really a referendum on the question at the heart of the American experiment: Who gets to decide how you live your life You, or a politician? You, or somebody else? Pennsylvania is poised to reaffirm its status as the birthplace of American independence. Next Tuesday, we will vote to reimpose checks and balances on unaccountable executive power. For all the small business owners, workers and families suffering under Wolfs punitive shutdowns, that day cannot come soon enough. Charles Mitchell is president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation. You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID: Pennsylvania latest state to fight governor on emergency powers U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy plans to announce a campaign for the U.S. Senate within the next month, challenging Republican Sen. Marco Rubio for his seat, according to a report by Axios. Murphys campaign team has not confirmed her run. In a statement sent to the Orlando Sentinel Tuesday night, campaign spokesperson Lauren Calmet said Murphy has not made a decision on whether to run for the U.S. Senate. Murphy, D-Winter Park, signaled she was considering a Senate bid in February and started a listening tour that month to hear constituents concerns. In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel at the time, Murphy said she was considering running in 2022 or 2024. Sources close to Murphy told Axios she plans to announce her candidacy in early June, giving her time to raise funds and garner support for the Democratic nomination ahead of the election. Lauren Calmet, a spokesperson for Murphys campaign, did not confirm Murphys bid for Senate when reached by Axios, the site reported. Murphys campaign would prove challenging against Rubio, who was readily re-elected in 2016, but it would signal a major congressional shift in Central Florida, the Orlando Sentinel previously reported. The Republican Legislature is slated to redraw district lines in 2022, and Murphys candidacy could result in the Legislature drawing Republican-leaning districts to avoid her or angle for her seat. Murphy previously called Rubio a career politician and criticized him for being out of touch with his constituents in the real world. [Rubio] has used the Senate as a stepping stone for his political ambitions as opposed to serving the people of Florida, she said. And I happen to believe that the people of Florida deserve a senator, at least one, who is more focused on what their issues are at their kitchen tables than on their next political position. Read the full report at Axios. krice@orlandosentinel.com Nearly 1 million more stimulus checks were disbursed this week in the latest batch of payments, according to the Internal Revenue Service, bringing the total number of payments in the third round to 165 million, including add-on payments for past stimulus checks. Approximately $388 billion in stimulus payments have been sent so far, about 86% of the $450 billion earmarked for stimulus payments, the IRS said in a press release on Wednesday. More than 500,000 payments were sent to people who previously didn't have information on file at the IRS but recently filed a tax return. The ninth batch of payments also included more than 460,000 "plus-up" payments for people who had their third stimulus check calculated based on their 2019 tax return, but are now eligible for a bigger payment. This could be the case for people whose 2020 income was lower than their 2019 income or who had a baby or a dependent added to their 2020 return that qualified them for a larger payment. Stimulus Check: USA government check, payment. Photo: Getty Creative About 500,000 of the payments were directly deposited into Americans' bank accounts, while the remainder of the payments were mailed as paper checks or prepaid debit cards. The IRS will continue distributing the payments on a weekly basis. Future payments will go to individuals who previously didn't have their information on file with the IRS but have filed a return along with people who qualify for the "plus-up" payments. This round is $1,400 per eligible individual plus a $1,400 bonus per dependent. Around 158.5 million households are expected to receive the third payment under the new stimulus deal, a tally that doesn't include plus-up payments, according to the White House. Heres what else you need to know about the third round of stimulus checks. Who gets a stimulus check? The third round of direct payments includes $1,400 per eligible individual plus a $1,400 bonus per dependent. Around 158.5 million households are expected to receive a payment. Story continues A single filer making up to $75,000 will receive the full payment, while those earning up to $80,000 will get a reduced amount. Joint filers making up to $150,000 will get the full $2,800, while those earning up to $160,000 will receive a smaller amount. Previously, the phase-out thresholds were $100,000 for single filers and $200,000 for joint filers in the House version. Read more: Here's what's in Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion 'rescue plan' that could help your wallet Eligibility will be based on your most recent tax return and your adjusted gross income. For the third round of checks, the IRS will use your 2019 or 2020 tax return to determine if you qualify for the direct payment. Social Security beneficiaries, Disability Insurance beneficiaries, Supplemental Security Income recipients, Railroad Retirement Board beneficiaries, and Veterans Administration beneficiaries all are eligible for the payment even if they didnt file a 2019 or 2020 tax return. Eligible taxpayers who used the IRS Non-Filer tool for the first round of checks will be treated as providing returns and will also receive payments. Additionally, Americans who qualify for the stimulus payment and have dependents will get an additional $1,400 per dependent. The bonus can be claimed for college students, disabled adults, and other adults who are dependents. Previously, parents or guardians could only claim the bonus for child dependents under 17. Deceased people may also receive a payment. Checks will go to all eligible taxpayers who were alive as of Jan. 1, 2021. Who doesn't get a check? Those without a Social Security number and nonresident aliens those who arent U.S. citizens or U.S. nationals and dont have a green card or have not passed the substantial presence test are not eligible for the direct payment. Married taxpayers who file jointly where one spouse has a Social Security number and the other doesnt will get one $1,400 payment, in addition to $1,400 for any child with a Social Security number. Taxpayers with Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN) aren't eligible for the payments. US President Joe Biden, with Vice President Kamala Harris, prepares to sign the American Rescue Plan on March 11, 2021, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images) How will the government send you the stimulus check? The IRS will use the direct deposit information you provided from the taxes youve filed for 2019 or 2020. You may be able to use the IRS Non-Filers tool to provide your information like the first round. But so far, the IRS has not announced whether that tool will be available if this stimulus bill is passed. The tool was for eligible U.S. citizens or permanent residents who had gross income below $12,200 ($24,400 for married couples) for 2019 and werent required to file a 2019 federal tax return. If you have no direct deposit information on file or if the account provided is now closed, the IRS will mail you a check or pre-paid debit card instead. If you received no payment and you think youre eligible or you got the wrong amount, youll be able to claim it on your 2021 tax return. How can I track my payment? Americans can now check the status of their third stimulus check using the IRSs online tracking tool Get My Payment. The tool allows Americans to follow the scheduled payment date for either a direct deposit or mailed payment. Its an online app that works on desktops, phones, and tablets and doesnt need to be downloaded from an app store. To use the tool, you need to provide basic information: Social Security number or Individual Tax ID Number (ITIN) Date of birth Mailing address The tracking tool will no longer show the status of the first or second round of stimulus checks the $1,200 payment under the CARES Act and the $600 payments under the December $900 billion stimulus deal. To find the status of those previous rounds, you must create an account. Read more: Here's how you should use your tax refund in 2021 If your payment is delivered by direct deposit, the tool will show when the direct deposit is expected to be made or when it was delivered along with the bank account it went into. If you receive the message Payment Status Not Available, the IRS may not have processed your payment yet or you may not be eligible for a payment. Yahoo Money sister site Cashay has a weekly newsletter. Will I get the dependent bonus for a newborn? If you had a baby in 2021 and meet the rest of the eligibility criteria, you can claim the additional $1,400 per child when you file your 2021 taxes. If you had a child in 2020 and your return has been processed, you should automatically get the additional payment. If you haven't yet filed your 2020 taxes or they haven't been processed by the IRS by the time the payments are issued, you can claim the dependent bonus on your 2021 taxes Do you have to pay back the stimulus check? No, you dont have to pay it back. It also doesnt reduce any refund you would otherwise receive. No, there is no provision in the law requiring repayment of an Economic Impact Payment, the IRS website said about the first round of checks. If your income dropped in 2020 compared with 2019, you may now be eligible for the payment or a bigger payment if you have already filed your taxes and they have been processed by the IRS. If your payment is too high based on your 2020 income and you still haven't filed your 2020 taxes, youre not responsible for paying back the difference. Denitsa is a writer for Yahoo Finance and Cashay, a new personal finance website. Follow her on Twitter @denitsa_tsekova Read more: Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard, SmartNews, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Reddit. By Peter Szekely NEW YORK (Reuters) - The man wanted in the weekend shooting of three bystanders, including a 4-year-old girl, in New York's Times Square was arrested near Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday after an intensive manhunt, New York police officials said. "While there is no joy today, there is justice," New York Police Commissioner Dermot Shea told a briefing, adding he had promised the girl's father the shooter would be found. The gunfire, in which police said the victims did not appear to be the intended targets, erupted late on Saturday afternoon in one of the most-visited tourist destinations in the country and with an always heavy police presence. All the victims are expected to make full recoveries. Police said they mounted an intensive investigation, which was still ongoing. "You can only imagine: It's daytime, shooting, Times Square, thousands of hours of video cameras to be reviewed, witnesses to be interviewed," said NYPD Chief Of Detectives James Essig. "And here we are four days later, with an apprehension." The suspect, Farrakhan Muhammad, 31, was taken into custody without incident by U.S. Marshals Service officers at a McDonald's parking lot in Starke with a woman believed to be his girlfriend who was driving their car, Essig said. Detectives determined that Muhammad was heading south and was spotted on a video camera in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he said. The suspect is being held by Starke police while officials seek to extradite him to New York, Essig added. The girl, who was shot in the leg, had come to Times Square with her family to buy toys, Shea said on Saturday. The other two victims were a 23-year-old female tourist from Rhode Island who was also shot in the leg and a 43-year-old woman from New Jersey who was shot in the foot, he said. Police believe the shootings came during a dispute between two to four people who had no connection to the victims. While gun violence and other crimes have jumped in New York and other American cities since the onset of the pandemic, the shootings in highly visible Times Square shocked officials. (Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Peter Cooney) We immediately just reconnected like there was no time that had passed at all, he said. And I think thats one of the most beautiful things about a person that has served and served in combat with other men is that there is such a bond there that isnt broken, and that they could never be broken. And that you do just really pick up right where you left off. Fourteen-year-old Parker Blanchette was surfing when he felt a punch on his leg. The teen is used to surfing at North Beach in Hawaii. He goes at least six times a week, KITV reported. He had been surfing for three hours May 3 when he hopped off his board after riding a wave, according to KHON. Thats when a shark sunk its teeth into his leg. Parker was about 30 feet offshore when a nearly 6-foot-long shark grabbed onto his leg, Hawaii News Now reported. The eighth grader didnt panic. He told the news outlet that the bite didnt even last a second. He pushed the shark away and got back to the shore. It felt pretty darn normal, the teen told KHON. I was just hopping off a wave and it felt like a little punch to my leg, and I immediately hopped on my board after seeing the blood. I paddled to shore. Parker called his mother and told her what happened. He acted like it was no big deal, but his mom knew how serious the injury could be. He said, Hey mom, I need you to come pick me up. I got bit by a shark and Im gonna need a couple of stitches, Amanda Blanchette, Parkers mom, told KITV. I got down here and it was more than a couple of stitches. The teen was rushed to the hospital where a surgeon told his mother he would need at least 100 stitches, KHON reported. To Parker, the shark bite is cool. Im gonna have a sick scar soon, Parker told Hawaii News Now. Its gonna look epic. Parker isnt going to let his injury keep him from surfing. He is ready to get back in the water even with his stitches. Even though theres a lot of sharks, dont be scared of the water, he told KHON. Were kind of in their area. My soul left my body. Shark startles 6-year-old playing in surf, Hawaii video shows Mako shark just freed off Outer Banks returns for bite of research boat, video shows Monster prehistoric shark tooth found buried in SC construction site. Take a look May 11An Androscoggin County man pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Lewiston District Court to two counts of murder in the deaths of a Turner couple earlier this year. Patrick Maher, 24, of Turner is accused of fatally stabbing Troy Varney, 52, and his wife Dulsie Varney, 48, in their home on Knight Farm Road in the early morning hours of Feb. 12. Superior Court Justice Valerie Stanfill ordered that Maher continue to be held without bail at the Androscoggin County Jail. The judge previously ordered that he undergo psychological evaluations to determine if he is competent to stand trial and what his mental state was at the time of the slayings. Deputies with the Androscoggin County Sheriff's Department responded to a 911 call about 1:32 a.m. on Feb. 12 for a report of a home invasion, the Maine State Police said at the time. When deputies arrived they found a man and woman who had both been injured, according to the court affidavit. The Varneys later died at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. Maher, who lived in an apartment the Varney's owned, was found in the house covered in blood on the floor next to Troy Varney, according to the court affidavit. He allegedly entered the home by breaking a living room window. Troy Varney owned and operated T.W. Varney Excavation in Turner and Dulsie Varney worked as a nursing instructor for Lewiston Regional Technical Center, according to the couple's joint obituary. Autopsies determined that the husband and wife died of stab wounds to their heads, torsos, arms and legs. Assistant Attorney General Megan Elam declined Tuesday to comment on Maher's case. Defense attorney Henry Griffin of Auburn said once the results of the psychological evaluations have been received, Maher would decide whether to proceed to trial or change his plea. Griffin also said that he did not expect the reassignment of the case to a new judge to delay a possible trial. Gov. Janet Mills on Monday nominated Stanfill to replace Leigh I. Saufley as chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Saufly left the court in April 2020 to serve as dean of the University of Maine School of Law. Stanfill, if confirmed, could be on the state's high court bench next month. If convicted, Maher faces between 25 years and life in prison. WASHINGTON A group of disgruntled Republicans who oppose Donald Trump are demanding that their party moderate its views or face the prospect of a third-party challenge. "The GOP is becoming a political pariah in its the quest by Republican extremists to subvert democracy," said Miles Taylor, a former Trump administration official who is organizing a public letter to be signed by more than 100 prominent Republicans. Taylor also known as "Anonymous," the administration official who wrote a critical book about Trump said the Republican Party "must re-embrace conservative principles, truth, and decency." According to people who have seen it, the letter, to be published Thursday, calls on Republicans to "either re-imagine a party dedicated to our founding ideals or else hasten the creation of such an alternative" i.e., a third party. More: Liz Cheney live updates: Cheney ousted from House GOP leadership position in closed-door vote More: 'Just the Trump party:' Liz Cheney demotion proves Donald Trump's hold on Republican politics, experts say The demand comes as House Republicans voted Wednesday to purge Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from her party leadership position. Cheney has criticized Trump and urged fellow Republicans not to echo his lies about alleged election fraud in 2020. Cheney's demotion shows that, if anything, Trump's hold on the GOP is strengthening. Taylor said his group of Republicans isn't holding their breath for a more moderate Republican Party in the era of Trump. That is "why we are laying out a more principled vision for the future of our Union, one that can unite Americans around shared ideals while defending our sacred institutions," he said. Former President Donald Trump was banned from Facebook after his comments on the Capitol riots in January. Trump criticized Taylor's involvement, saying in a written statement that the former "Anonymous" author is "putting together a group of RINOs and Losers" just to attack him. (RINO stands for "Republican in Name Only.") Story continues The signers of the letter include moderates who have have long had problems with the increasingly conservative Republican Party. They include former governors Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey and Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania. There are also former GOP members of Congress who criticized Trump's influence on the party, including ex-U.S. Reps. Barbara Comstock and Denver Riggleman of Virginia. Riggleman said many people don't want to start a third party but want the Republicans to reform themselves. He described the letter as "a call to action for making the party better or possibly doing something else." "The objective is to create a common sense coalition and policy driven movement that pushes back against disinformation like the the Big Lie" about the 2020 election, Riggleman said. The American political system makes it very difficult for third parties to succeed. For one thing, they are often fueled by specific individual leaders, rather than a group, as is the case now. Even then, Ross Perot's "Reform Party" did not last. Nor did the Progressive Party that nominated ex-President Theodore Roosevelt in 1912. Roosevelt split the vote with Republican President William Howard Taft, enabling Democrat Woodrow Wilson to become president. In past months, Trump himself has discussed the idea of leading a third party if Republicans refused to follow his lead. He has since said that a new party is no longer necessary. Trump allies mocked the idea that their Republican enemies could mount a third party, noting that many "Never Trumpers" are voting Democratic anyway. "These losers left the Republican Party when they voted for Joe Biden," said Trump spokesman Jason Miller. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Third way? Republican critics of Donald Trump talk about third party NYPD detectives identified Farrakhan Muhammad as a suspect in the Times Square shooting that left two women and a four-year-old girl injured (NYPD) A suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting in New York Citys Times Square on Saturday that injured a four-year-old girl and two adults. Farrakhan Muhammed was arrested by US Marshals and members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force in Starke, near Jacksonville, Florida. Shots were fired at approximately 5pm on Saturday as a result of an argument amongst a group of men near the intersection of West 44th Street and Seventh Avenue. Caught up in the gunfire were three innocent bystanders named as Marcela Aldana of New Jersey, Wendy Magrinat of Rhode Island, and four-year-old Skye Martinez of Brooklyn. All are expected to survive and were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at Bellue Hospital. Ms Aldana was shot in the foot, Ms Magrinat was hit in the thigh, and Skye was struck in the leg. Mr Muhammed, identified as a CD peddler by The New York Post, was arrested less than a day after his photo was released by New York Police Department. Police sources say he was aiming the weapon at his brother during the argument on the street. This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it. Mr Muhammed has been arrested several times over the past few years for harassing a woman over the phone in October 2018 and for aggravated harassment earlier that year; for assault in March 2020; and seven other times between 2007 and 2015 for robbery, grand larceny, and fraud. Additional NYPD officers have been deployed around the city as New York continues to reopen and welcome back tourists. One police officer on the scene that day has been hailed as a hero after she was captured on video running from the scene of the shooting, clutching Skye after she had been hit by a stray bullet. Officer Alyssa Vogel raced to the ambulance with the wounded four-year-old as the girls mother followed behind them. The man accused of opening fire in New York City's Times Square, injuring three bystanders, including a 4-year-old girl, was captured in Florida on Wednesday, law enforcement officials said. Farrakhan Muhammad, sporting a new haircut in a bid to alter his appearance, was captured in a McDonald's parking lot near Jacksonville, ending the days-log search, police said. Muhammad appeared in court virtually for the first time Thursday and requested a court-appointed attorney to help him through the extradition process, NBC New York reported. He is due back in court in Florida on May 20. His girlfriend, Kristine Vergara, also asked for a court-appointed attorney after she admitted to driving Muhammad south to evade police. Her bail was set at $500,000 Thursday. Farrakhan Muhammad (Citrus County Sheriff's Office) "We were all there Saturday night in Times Square when three innocent people were shot senselessly," NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea told reporters Wednesday. "While there is no joy today, there is justice." Police were apparently not thrown off by Muhammad's new haircut, that he got in between Saturday's shooting and his arrest on Wednesday. He did alter his appearance, NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said. "He shaved down his head on the side. Detectives believe he was shooting at his brother near West 45th Street and 7th Avenue, but missed, hitting the pedestrians in the busy tourist hub. Police officers respond to the scene of a shooting in Times Square on May 8, 2021, in New York. (David Dee Delgado / Getty Images) Muhammad was tracked by checking cameras that showed him leaving Times Square, going to a hotel on 42nd Street, that is being used as a homeless shelter, changing clothes and heading out with his girlfriend, two law enforcement officials said. Muhammad and his girlfriend were spotted Tuesday at a Walmart in Fayetteville, North Carolina, before they were eventually found in Florida, police said. The pair were confronted at a McDonald's in Starke, Florida, about 50 miles southwest of downtown Jacksonville, Florida. Law enforcement caught up with them as they ate in their car. Story continues Bradford County Sheriff's Office Col. Brad Smith said the arrest was "uneventful." Muhammad is being held at the Bradford County jail. Police released video of a person of interest hours after Skye Martinez was struck in the leg Saturday while shopping for toys with her family. Wendy Magrinat, 23, was struck in a thigh, and Marcela Aldana, 43, was hit in a foot, officials said. By Tuesday, the department identified Muhammad as the suspect in the shooting and circulated his photo on social media. The gun used in Saturday's shooting has still not been recovered and detectives are not clear yet on a motive. The alleged shooter and intended target both sell CDs in Times Square, police said. "What I can say is his brother confirmed that he was the intended target and the investigation is ongoing," Essig said. By Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States dispatched a senior diplomat on Wednesday to urge Israelis and Palestinians to calm the worst flare-up in violence between them in years, which has appeared to catch the Biden administration off guard as it pursued other priorities. In remarks welcomed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended Israel's right to protect itself and condemned rockets fired by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the Gaza Strip. He also said Israel had a particular obligation to avoid civilian casualties. Israel said it killed 16 members of the Hamas armed wing in Gaza in a barrage on Wednesday. At least 56 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said. The military action follows unrest involving Israeli police and Palestinian protesters near Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. "FULLY ENGAGED" Blinken, who spoke by telephone to Netanyahu, said he had sent Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr to meet with both sides. "He will urge, on my behalf and on behalf of President (Joe) Biden, a de-escalation of violence." Biden has yet to name an ambassador to Israel, a post his predecessor Donald Trump had filled before his inauguration. Other top state department officials handling the region are still awaiting approval from the Senate. Deflecting suggestions that the long-standing conflict has not been a priority, Blinken repeatedly described the administration as "fully engaged". "We are deeply engaged across the board. State Department, White House, senior officials, with the Israelis, Palestinians and other countries and partners in the region to call for and push for de-escalation," Blinken said. A senior State Department official, asked if Biden would speak with Netanyahu, said further "high level engagement" from Washington was to be expected. Story continues In his remarks, Blinken drew a distinction between "a terrorist organization, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets in fact targeting civilians, and Israels response, defending itself." However, he added: "I think Israel has an extra burden in trying to do everything they possibly can to avoid civilian casualties, even as it is rightfully responding in defense of the people." Netanyahu's office said: "Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked Blinken for the U.S. support for Israel's right to self-defense, a right that the secretary of state reiterated in this call." (Reporting By Humeyra Pamuk, Doina Chiacu, Simon Lewis and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Peter Graff) KINSHASA (Reuters) - The Ugandan and Congo armies are setting up an operations centre in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo for a joint offensive against Islamist rebels who have killed hundreds of people in the last year, Congo's government said. On Sunday a delegation from the Ugandan Peoples Defence Force (UPDF) including the commander of Uganda's ground forces arrived in Beni in Congo's North Kivu province to establish a coordination centre for the two armies, Kinshasa's communications ministry said on Wednesday. A Congo army spokesman was not immediately available for comment. A Ugandan army spokesman said he could not confirm the information given by Congo's government. On May 3 Congo introduced martial law in North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the hope of addressing worsening bloodshed in a swathe of territory along its border with Uganda. The countries were enemies during Congo's civil wars, which officially ended in 2003. Relations between the two have at times been strained since then. A militia with roots in Uganda, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), is believed to be responsible for much of the recent violence, killing around 850 people last year, according to U.N. figures. "The (Congolese army) and the UPDF are determined to fight the ADF," Congo's ministry of information said in a statement, without giving further details. The ADF has carried out a spate of reprisal attacks on civilians since Congo's army began operations against it in late 2019. In March the United States labelled the group a foreign terrorist organisation because of alleged links to the Islamic State group, although the United Nations has consistently played down the strength and nature of IS influence in Congo. In April, Congo said it was seeking over $4 billion in reparations from Uganda for its role in the conflicts between 1998-2003 that included supporting rebel groups. (Reporting by Stanis Bujakera with additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema and Djaffar Al Katanty; writing by Hereward Holland; editing by Mark Heinrich) By William Schomberg and Andy Bruce LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's pandemic-battered economy grew more strongly than expected in March as it gathered speed for a bounce-back from its coronavirus slump of 2020, official data showed on Wednesday. The 2.1% growth from February was led by the reopening of schools which, alongside COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, pushed up activity in the public sector and by retailers as consumers spent some of their lockdown savings. There was also a burst of work in the construction sector ahead of the expiry of a tax break for home-buyers. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected monthly growth of 1.3% for world's fifth-biggest economy. "Businesses and the government alike will feel this data marks a turning point," Ana Boata, head of macroeconomic research at trade credit insurer Euler Hermes, said. "With the ongoing easing of restrictions, confirmed this week by the prime minister, theres hope that this could be the start of a long hot summer for British businesses." Over the first three months of 2021, when the country was under a third lockdown, gross domestic product shrank by 1.5%, the Office for National Statistics said. Although a less severe hit than initially feared, Samuel Tombs, an economist with Pantheon Macroeconomics, said it meant Britain almost certainly remained the laggard among the Group of Seven rich countries for the fourth quarter in a row. However, British GDP looked on course grow by 5% in the April-to-June period "which should mean that the UK finally hands over the wooden spoon to another G7 economy." The BoE said last week it expected the economy would recover quickly as the country speeds ahead with Europe's fastest vaccination programme and coronavirus restrictions are lifted. Its forecast for 7.25% growth in 2021 would be the fastest since a Second World War rush to rearm although by comparison GDP collapsed by 9.8% in 2020, its deepest slump in over three centuries. Story continues "Despite a difficult start to this year, economic growth in March is a promising sign of things to come," finance minister Rishi Sunak said. "As we cautiously reopen the economy, I will continue to take all the steps necessary to support our recovery." Britain's economy remained 8.7% smaller than at the end of 2019. The BoE expects it will be back to its pre-pandemic size by the end of this year. (GRAPHIC: How is the UK economy's recovery faring?: https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/polling/qmyvmeawovr/Pasted%20image%201620804100462.png) MORE REOPENING AHEAD Prime Minister Boris Johnson allowed non-essential shops to reopen and outdoor hospitality to resume in April in England and there have been signs that the economy accelerated in response. Further relaxations are due to take place next week before the lifting of almost all remaining restrictions in late June. The ONS data showed Britain's dominant services industry grew by 1.9% in March from February, its strongest growth since last August, while manufacturing and construction also grew more strongly than expected by analysts in the Reuters poll. Separate trade figures showed Britain imported more goods from non-EU countries than EU countries during the first quarter for the first time since records began in 1997. The ONS warned it was too soon to say if this was the start of a trend or just short-term disruption. "Exports of goods to the EU continued to increase in March and are now almost back to their December level," ONS statistician Darren Morgan said. "However, imports from Europe remain sluggish." Business investment fell by almost 12% in the January-March period. The ONS said some companies brought forward investment plans to late 2020 to avoid disruption caused by leaving the EU's Single Market while others delayed plans for early 2021 to take advantage of a new tax break that launched in April. (Reporting by William Schomberg and Andy Bruce; editing by Michael Holden, Andrew Heavens and Toby Chopra) One of the plant's control panel rooms. - Mediadrumimages/Arkadiusz Podnie Ukrainian scientists are investigating a rise in nuclear activity inside an inaccessible chamber deep inside Chernobyl nuclear power station. Several Ukrainian scientists from the local research institute that studies the plant at Chernobyl warned at a conference in Ukraine last month that sensors were tracking a rising neutron count in Room 305/2, which hasn't been seen by human eyes or robots since the 1986 disaster. There are fears that a critical event could be sparked, such as radiation levels climbing 10 times higher than what is considered normal, or that the walls of the reactor hole - which are already damaged - could crumble further and the structure could fall down entirely inside its new cover. A giant 1.5 billion steel arch structure known as the New Safe Confinement was installed to cover the entire reactor in 2019, preventing rain or any outside elements from stoking fission reactions. The semi-circular steel structure is designed to protect the crumbling building - Mediadrumimages/Arkadiusz Podnie Evidence has been found that fission reactions are smoldering again in the debris contaminated by uranium fuel. Its like the embers in a barbecue pit, Neil Hyatt, a nuclear materials chemist at the University of Sheffield, told Science magazine, which first reported the story last week. The room is under the destroyed reactor and cannot be accessed because of deadly radiation levels and the concrete that was poured in there during the initial clean-up operation. One of Chernobyl power stations nuclear reactors exploded on 26 April, 1986, spewing radioactive material across Europe and bringing down parts of the giant building. As rescue teams and firefighters struggled to deal with the disaster, the mangled reactor melted down, turning uranium fuel rods and everything around it into a radioactive lava that flowed into the rooms underneath the reactor hall and eventually hardened into what is called fuel-containing materials. These rock-hard, intensely radioactive materials now pose a potential threat, according to scientists. Story continues It is still unclear why the neutron count has risen but one theory is that the confinement is causing the plant to dry out, thus prompting uranium fuel to decay, emitting neutrons. Ukrainian scientists are investigating whether the fission reaction is likely to fade or whether they will need to come up with a plan to combat it. An electronic workshop abandoned inside the power plant - Mediadrumimages/Arkadiusz Podnie Chernobyl is the oldest destroyed nuclear reactor in the world, and there is no sense what could happen to it. E But scientists say a fresh disaster is unlikely. Roman Godun, head of the safety department at the Kyiv-based Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants, said in a presentation last month that scientists estimate that 75 tonnes of fuel-containing materials inside that room - enough for critical composition. Nobody can be sure how much material is there, Mr Godun said. Ukrainian scientists, however, assure that the station, thanks to its new confinement, has all the systems in place to contain any critical event there. The new confinement was built to seal off the area and act as a tomb to confine any spike in radiation. The neutron count has since stabilised in most areas but it doubled in the past four years in Room 305/2 underneath the reactor, according to the Ukrainian scientists who have to rely on data samples taken nearby and mathematical models to make their conclusions. Mr Godun hopes for new robotic technology to drill into the room and install sensors to monitor radiation levels underneath the reactor to help forecasting. He warned, however, that the problem of access to the fuel-containing material cluster should be resolved in the near future. Ukraine is hoping to work out a plan later this year to deal with radioactive materials together with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which funded the construction of the new shelter and warned that the work to remove all the fuel-containing materials would take decades to complete. Once investigators determine a residents backup was caused by wet weather, theyll ask whether the resident would like the city to dispatch a cleaning service to their home. Kebede said he hopes the S.O.S. programs simplified process will let it reach more residents. He said that the program had so far helped five people, at the time of the May 5 interview. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whose personal finances are under scrutiny after several scandals, has failed to pay a small debt nearly seven months after a court order, documents showed Wednesday. An online database of civil county court judgments in England and Wales showed Johnson has yet to settle the debt of 535 ($757, 624 euros) following a ruling on October 26 last year. The judgment, confirmed by AFP and first reported by the fortnightly satirical and news magazine Private Eye, does not reveal details about the nature of the debt or the creditor. Johnson is named as the debtor and lists his address as 10 Downing Street -- the home of prime ministers since 1735 and one of the country's best-known residences. The 56-year-old leader's spokesman told reporters that his office was "looking into this issue currently". "I can confirm it's nothing to do with the refurbishment of the Downing Street estate, where all such bills have been duly paid, either by the government or the prime minister personally," he said. Johnson's finances have been increasingly in the spotlight in recent weeks, in part over the reportedly lavish makeover of his Downing Street flat. The Electoral Commission, which regulates party and election finance, is probing how he paid for the works following reports that a wealthy Conservative backer donated 58,000 which was not declared correctly. Johnson insists he has paid for the refurbishment's costs on top of an annual government allowance, and denied any wrongdoing. But the issue is also being investigated by several other watchdogs and officials. Britain's Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards is meanwhile probing how he paid for a luxury Caribbean holiday in late 2019. And newspapers reported earlier this month that Conservative donors were approached to cover the cost of a nanny for Johnson's one-year-old son Wilfred. Media reports said he was struggling with his finances since becoming prime minister, after having to give up previously lucrative roles as a newspaper columnist and after-dinner speaker. Story continues Johnson is reportedly already on a "last warning" from parliament's standards committee following numerous previous breaches of its code of conduct for lawmakers, which could lead to his suspension from the House of Commons. In 2019 he was found to have withheld details of a property he partly owned in southwest England. The previous year officials deemed he was late registering his financial interests on four occasions involving nine payments, according to The Times. Asked if Johnson had any other unpaid debts, his press secretary said: "You should not be concerned, no." jj/jit/kjl UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Getty EXCLUSIVE: The British Business Bank gave convertible loans to 1,140 companies in the pandemic, taking stakes in some. It refuses to say which companies received money, or how much. The government has repeatedly given millions in pandemic-related contracts to friends of ministers and Conservative MPs. See more stories on Insider's business page. The UK's state-run economic development bank has refused to say who received more than 1 billion ($1.38 billion) it gave out in taxpayer-funded loans to startup companies. The British Business Bank, the 100% government-owned bank for small and medium-sized enterprises, has disbursed more than 1.1 billion of convertible loan agreements to 1,140 companies as part of its "Future Fund" scheme. The scale of the loans would make the UK government - and by extension, the taxpayer - the largest venture capital fund in Europe, when comparing it to private funds. But the bank has denied repeated requests to identify its investments and refused Insider's direct request to disclose where the money went. A man who ran a pub near Matt Hancock's house got a 30 million contract despite having no experience The lack of transparency over who got the money, or what they did with it, is of concern because the government has repeatedly awarded lucrative contracts to friends of ministers in Boris Johnson's government. For instance, a man who ran a pub near health secretary Matt Hancock's house won a 30 million ($31.4 million) contract to provide personal protective equipment - despite having no experience in the industry - after sending WhatsApp messages to Hancock. British Business Bank In 2020, the government awarded 17.3 billion in contracts to companies supplying services to fight the pandemic. Of that, 10.5 billion was without competitive bidding, according to an analysis by the National Audit Office. Friends of Conservative politicians were 10 times more likely to receive government contracts than companies who applied through the Department of Health and Social Care, the NAO found. Story continues Even former prime minister David Cameron lobbied privately for financing work with the NHS for Greensill Capital, a bank in which he owned stock. Loans of up to 5 million which can be converted into stock "This is a vast sum of money - gone to goodness knows who, for goodness knows what reason," said Jolyon Maugham, founder of the Good Law Project, which has campaigned for transparency in government. "There's never, never, a good reason for ministers to cloak the identities of those receiving public money." The Future Fund is one of four schemes designed by the Treasury, which opened for applications in May 2020. The loans offered under the future fund ranged from 125,000 to 5 million, and could be converted in the future into stakes in the businesses owned by the government. At least 52 loans have been converted into equity in businesses, according to the Financial Times. A 375 million successor scheme, "Future Fund: Breakthrough," was announced in chancellor Rishi Sunak's January 2021 budget, with minimum investment round sizes of 20 million. The British Business Bank, which oversees the scheme, has repeatedly refused to answer media requests to name the companies who have received loans, and has not said which loans have been converted into stakes on behalf of the taxpayer. FOI request denied The bank also refused a request made under freedom of information laws by Insider to reveal the information. Doing so could "have a detrimental impact on [the businesses who have received the loans], for instance it could lead to speculation over a company's financial standing, which could negatively impact their sales and/or potentially affect their current or future business opportunities," the bank said. See also: A powerful group of anti-Trumpers is threatening to form a new party. Republicans fear it would doom the GOP and render it 'not politically viable'. The refusal comes despite business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng's assurance at a House of Commons' Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee meeting in April that he is "all in favour of transparency and openness in publications" around coronavirus business payments. One senior figure in the UK venture capital industry, who spoke with Insider on the condition of anonymity, said they were surprised that the British Business Bank was unwilling to disclose who it had funded - and to what extent. 'I don't think it's a good look' "I don't think it's a good look for them to not be transparent," the source said. Any company that applied to the Future Fund would have been sensibly trying to shore up capital to weather the pandemic, the end of which was impossible to predict. "Therefore, I wouldn't have thought sharing the names of companies funded would not reflect poorly on nor be negative for the companies". Some members of parliament agree. "At a time when the government is mired in cronyism and procurement scandals, it is astounding that they feel able to give 1.1 billion of taxpayers money to businesses with zero accountability to the public," said Chi Onwurah, the shadow minister for digital, science, and technology in the opposition Labour party. Darren Jones, Labour's chair of the BEIS committee, told Insider: "Ministers have assured my committee that data will be published in due course. It's right the businesses are told first but it's also right that we have full transparency and accountability over the use of public funds." Read the original article on Business Insider WASHINGTON (AP) The Biden administration on Wednesday took aim at China and a number of other countries for repressing religious freedom as it forges ahead with its aim of restoring human rights as a primary focus of American foreign policy. The condemnation was similar to that lodged by the Trump administration, which had been criticized for prioritizing religious freedom over other rights, and reflected continuity in the U.S. position that Chinas crackdown on Muslims and other religious minorities in western Xinjiang constitutes genocide. Yet, a senior official said religious freedom is just one element in the administration's broader human rights strategy. Much as his predecessor did, Secretary of State Antony Blinken used the release of the State Departments annual International Religious Freedom Report to lambaste China for severe restrictions on its citizens ability to worship freely. He also announced a travel ban on a former senior Chinese official the U.S. accuses of persecuting members of the Falun Gong religious sect. China broadly criminalizes religious expression and continues to commit crimes against humanity and genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups," Blinken told reporters as he unveiled the report for the calendar year 2020. The report itself said Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners in China all suffer from severe societal discrimination in employment, housing, and business opportunities. While Blinken did not spare China from criticism, his remarks were less extensive than those of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during previous religious freedom events. Pompeo was particularly harsh in his condemnation of China's treatment of the Uyghurs and other religious minorities, often devoting entire speeches to the subject. In his comments, Blinken also lashed out at abuses of religious freedom in Iran, Myanmar, Russia. Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, all of which were identified in the report as offenders. Daniel Nadel, a top official in the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom, said Wednesday's report did not represent a shift in the way the U.S. views human rights but rather a recognition that religious rights are equally as important as political rights. Its not a departure, certainly, from any prior concept, but its a clarification, because Secretary Pompeo did express his view that there was perhaps a hierarchy of rights concept. And thats a view that this administration does depart from," Nadel said. People gather at the site of a collapsed building in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes on Gaza City - AFP The US appeared to throw its support behind ally Israel on Wednesday, with its most senior diplomat emphasising Israels right to defend itself as violence escalated. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said there was a "clear distinction" between Hamas rocket launches against Israel and Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, as Washington firmly backed the Jewish state in the escalating conflict. "[There is] a very clear and absolute distinction between a terrorist organisation, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets - in fact, targeting civilians - and Israel's response defending itself," said Mr Blinken. President Joe Biden has not yet issued a statement on the conflict nor spoken to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, at least as far as has been made public. Rockets are launched from Gaza city, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, in response to an Israeli air strike on a 14-storey building in the city, - AFP Mr Blinken said the US would be sending an envoy to the Middle East to try and calm tensions in Israel and Gaza. He also said Israel has an extra burden to try to prevent civilian deaths, noting that Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli strikes. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also offered ironclad support for Israels right to self-defence during a conversation earlier Wednesday with Israels defense chief, Benny Gantz. "Secretary Austin conveyed the departments ironclad support for Israels legitimate right to defend itself and its people, and he strongly condemned the launching of rockets by Hamas and other terrorist groups that targeted Israeli civilians, a Pentagon spokesman said, without mentioning casualties among Palestinian civilians. The militant group Hamas unleashed a fresh barrage of deadly rocket fire towards Israel on Wednesday in retaliation for the levelling of a 14-storey building in Gaza, ruling out an imminent ceasefire. At least 65 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, while six people have been killed in Israel. Mr Biden, who has deprioritised the Israel-Palestinian peace agreement, has been urged by more progressive wings of the Democratic Party to play a more active role. Story continues Mr Biden and Mr Blinken are diplomatic veterans with longstanding ties to Israel but support for the Jewish state has eroded on the Left amid alarm over Mr Netanyahu's increasingly Right-wing turn. Bernie Sanders, Democrat Senator from Vermont who is outspoken on the issue, said: "The United States must call for an immediate cease-fire and an end to provocative and illegal settlement activity. President Biden needs to step in and deescalate to stop the carnage, tweeted Ilhan Omar. Palestinian children deserve advocates for their humanity, safety and security. The president is yet to even pick a nominee for the post of US ambassador to Israel. Palestinians had hoped that the new administration would take a mediating role after the exit of Donald Trump, who had adopted a policy of unstinting support for Israel and hostility towards the Palestinians. Mr Blinken repeated on Wednesday that the US remains committed to a two-state solution, which mirrors the official Biden administration position. This violence takes us further away from that goal, he said. The USs top diplomat later said he had spoken with Mr Netanyahu to reinforce his message. Its vital now to de-escalate, Mr Blinken said on Twitter. Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the body's Security Council held another emergency meeting on Wednesday without agreeing on a joint statement due to opposition from the US. During a first emergency meeting on Monday, the US also refused to back a text proposed by several member states calling on all parties to refrain from provocation. Yahoo Life is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. It's smart to have your vaccine card protected and handy as more places begin asking for proof of vaccination. (Photo: Amazon) If someone had said two years ago that a vaccine card would mean so much to us in spring 2021, we never would have believed it. Now your vaccine card is shaping up to become an essential life accessory. It belongs in that reminder list we repeat to ourselves when we leave the house ("phone, wallet, keys...vaccine card"). Okay, maybe not quite yet, but soon. We'll back up, for those who are not sure what we're talking about: When you get the Covid-19 vaccine, you receive a handwritten paper card that includes your name, the vaccine you received (Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson), and the dates the shot (or shots) were administered. This is an important piece of paper, so you need to treat it with care. It's not credit card or business card sized, so it doesn't fit in the card slots in standard wallets. You don't want to tuck it into a billfold because it might bend. Laminating might seem like the solution, but it's not. Why? Future booster shots, if needed, have to be recorded on this card. If it's laminated, the nurse will not be able to write on it. The solution is this clear card protector we found at Amazon. It's perfect for keeping your vaccine card safe, clean and accessible and it's on sale. Shop it: Clear Vaccination Card Protector, $5 for two (was $7), $8 for five, $10 for nine (was $10), amazon.com Slots for a lanyard or chain make this card case super easy to carry, whether around your neck or hanging from the rearview mirror. (Photo: Amazon) Certain airlines, schools and event venues might require proof of vaccination for entry in the future. Flights to particular states or countries already require proof of a negative Covid test. And while proof of vaccine may not be a requirement of flying, being able to show that you have a vaccine might save you some time and trouble; it could possibly eliminate the need for a test or allow you to skip certain forms. Story continues In terms of right now: Some businesses are actually offering discounts or free items when you show proof of vaccination. Krispy Kreme will give one free glazed donut a day to folks who show their vaccine card. Budweiser will "buy a beer" for a certain number of people who upload a photo of their card. On a more serious note, the CDC recommends snapping a photo of your vaccine cardand reminds us that we may need these cards in the future. At 4" x 3", this holder is slightly larger than most Covid-19 vaccine cards (size varies by state, so measure before you buy) and made of a thick, sturdy waterproof plastic that's clear in front and slightly textured in back for a good grip. A center slot and two side holes allow you to affix a lanyard or badge reel for easy, hands-free portabilityperfect if you need to present your card at work or at the airport. The plastic doesn't block barcodes or QR codes for scanners, so you can slip your work ID in there too. It's available in a 2-pack for $5 (was $7), a 5-pack for $8 and a 10-pack for $9 (was $10) so you can get them for family, friends or fellow employees. It's got more than 1,000 reviews from satisfied customers. Plenty of width inside for an easy fit, but a good tight seal up top, where you need it. (Photo: Amazon) The reviewer who posted the picture above shared how practical this purchase was: " ... As you can see, my COVID card easily fits inside, with extra room on the side and top. My card measures just a hair under 4 wide and 3 tall. If I needed to display or wear the card, to get into an event or facility, it comes with holes at the top to attach to a lanyard, or an eyeglasses type of chain. This holder would also be great for any type of employee badge or ID you needed to constantly display on your person ..." This reviewer says it still fits in their wallet even with the case on, "These sleeves were the perfect size for my vaccination card. I had to fold over the top of the sleeve, where the holes are, in order to fit in my wallet, but my card isn't bent. I like that these sleeves have a zip lock type seal. I wouldn't have to worry that the card could accidentally fall out. It'll help protect it from moisture too (although not meant to be fully submerged I'm sure!) ..." Another reviewer thought it was a smarter alternative to laminating, "These clear vaccination card packs are great. Two of them for this price was a real bargain. I don't want to laminate the card because who knows if we will have to add information on booster shots on the vaccination card in the future or any other information. With this card holder it keeps the card neat and clean but still allows access in the future if necessary ..." Grab this card holder before you misplace, bend or dirty your vaccine card. Shop it: Clear Vaccination Card Protector, $5 for two (was $7), $8 for five, $10 for nine (was $10), amazon.com Read More From Yahoo Life: Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day Want daily pop culture news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here for Yahoo Entertainment & Lifestyle's newsletter. Venezuelas opposition leader, Juan Guaido, on Tuesday proposed an accord with President Nicolas Maduro using sanctions relief as an incentive. We need to reach an accord to save Venezuela, Guaido said in a video posted on his Twitter account. He called for free presidential, parliamentary, regional and municipal elections, with international observers and support. The opposition has boycotted elections that international groups have said were rigged. Guaido also proposed massive humanitarian aid, Covid-19 vaccinations and the release of political prisoners. His proposal includes support from the international community and incentives for the regime, including the progressive lifting of sanctions. Recently, Maduro has made what some have interpreted as goodwill gestures toward the Biden administration. He signed a deal with the U.N. World Food Program to provide meals for over a million children, named two opposition lawmakers to the five-person national electoral board and moved six jailed Citgo executives to house arrest. Guaido is recognized by the U.S. and dozens of other countries as the Venezuelas rightful leader. He has made little progress in removing Maduro from power. The proposal represents a significant change in tone for Guaido, who has taken a hard-line stance in the past. The Biden administration has said its Venezuela policy is under review. Follow NBC Latino on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. A suspect who allegedly used anti-Asian, racist slurs and pushed a restaurant employee to the ground in Arlington, Virginia, last week has been taken into custody, authorities said Tuesday. An Arlington County Police patrol officer identified Jordon Bevan, 28, of no fixed address, as the suspect wanted in the assault of a Crystal City restaurant employee, according to police. The patrol officer recognized him from a previous interaction, they added. Authorities were dispatched to a report of an assault on May 4 in the 500 block of 23rd Street S, where they determined the suspect left the restaurant without paying his bill, Arlington County police said in a statement. NORFOLK POLICE LIEUTENANT FIRED FOR DONATING TO RITTENHOUSE'S DEFENSE FUND TELLS HIS STORY Police said two employees -- identified by FOX 5 of Washington D.C., as Henry Kim and his mother -- approached the suspect outside the establishment and requested he return to pay the tab. The suspect continued walking away and when Kim began recording him, he allegedly pushed the mom to the ground and ran off toward a local highway, police said. Bevan is accused of using racial slurs against the two workers, both of Asian descent, according to authorities. VIRGINIA MOM CHARGED IN FATAL STABBING OF HER 10-MONTH-OLD BOY, CRITICALLY INJURING DAUGHTER "He said 'You Asians, get out of my face. I dont want the coronavirus from you guys,'" Henry Kim told FOX 5. "I was a little bit frustrated, but at the same time its not the first this has happened to me." Kim said his mom is doing better after the incident at Bonsai Grill. "When she fell down, she was really hurt in the elbows and hands," Kim added. Bevan has been charged with defrauding an innkeeper, and felony assault and battery, the station reported. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The incident was reported to state police "as a possible hate crime," Arlington police said in a statement Saturday. A battle is brewing in Washington over how to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, and industry leaders want to make sure they have a say. According to a report in the New York Times, some digital currency companies have hired lobbyists, lawyers and consultants in an effort to gain greater influence over how much, or how little the industry is regulated. Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for the Times, joined CBSN's Elaine Quijano to discuss. Video Transcript ELAINE QUIJANO: A battle is brewing in Washington over how to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. And industry leaders want to make sure they have a say. According to a recent report in the "New York Times," some digital currency companies have hired lobbyists, lawyers, and consultants in an effort to gain greater influence over how much or how little their industry is regulated. According to the "Times," the global value of all cryptocurrencies is more than $2 trillion. Eric Lipton joins me now. He's an investigative reporter for the "Times" and the author of that piece Eric, welcome. Thank you very much for being with us. This really is a fascinating look at this still-emerging industry. What are some of the key reasons regulators want to rein in the cryptocurrency industry? ERIC LIPTON: Well, it started off as a really anti-establishment entity that, you know, didn't want to have anything to do with regulation. But it's gotten so big, it now is worth more than all of the US dollars in circulation globally. And it's so big that, to some extent, it's no longer even conceivable for US regulators to say, we're going to ban cryptocurrency in the United States. But at the same time, there's all kinds of activities that regulators are worried about, including the possibility that people are using cryptocurrencies for money laundering and other illicit activities. So the US government is trying to think about ways that it's going to regulate this sector. But the industry wants to do it in a way that doesn't harm their ability to continue to innovate and grow. Story continues ELAINE QUIJANO: So then on that note, tell us more about some of the key lobbying groups and firms getting involved in this. Who are they? ERIC LIPTON: I mean, they're-- you know, some of the biggest companies, like Coinbase or Ripple, are, you know, particularly active in lobbying. And then there's also, not surprisingly, this is Washington, there's all kinds of trade associations-- the Digital Commerce, the Blockchain Association-- there are new trade associations that are being created it seems like almost every week from the crypto industry. And then there's also consultants that are working, you know, not as lobbyists, but trying to influence public policy by talking to reporters or talking to editorial writers. There's all kinds of stuff going on. It's just the kind of thing that I see when I can tell this industry that's got a lot of cash to burn and wants to flex its muscles. That's what's going on right now in Washington with this space. ELAINE QUIJANO: So what are some of the challenges the cryptocurrency industry is facing right now as it tries to gain more influence in Washington? ERIC LIPTON: They're concerned that there's a real conflict between different federal regulatory agencies, like the Securities Exchange Commission or the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. And there's disagreement among the different federal regulators as to what the rules should be for cryptocurrencies. And the result is uncertainty in the corporate space about what's legal and not legal. And that uncertainty is undermining, you know, confidence in some of these cryptocurrencies, like XRP, which is a cryptocurrency that Ripple introduced. And Ripple, for example, is being sued by the Securities Exchange Commission, which is alleging that it illegally offered its XRP without getting-- and it's a security and not a currency. So there's a debate as to how to define these currencies, and based on those definitions, how they should be regulated. And those-- whatever choices are made there have enormous consequences for people who are investing in these cryptocurrencies and for people who use them to transfer money globally. ELAINE QUIJANO: So, Eric, where does the Biden administration fit into all of this? What can you tell us about how much support the industry has from the Biden administration, and how that could play into this regulation fight? ERIC LIPTON: What I think is happening is that for a certain number of years, it's been about, you know, that the federal government was pretty much, like, let's not-- let's sort of ignore cryptocurrency. It seems to like it's a hobby for some people that are just investing in it. You know, but now it's gotten so valuable, it's so big, and actually, there are major corporations and even banks that are starting to embrace it for moving money, transferring funds-- especially cross-border funds. And I think that, basically, the Biden administration is the first administration that recognizes that it has no choice but to confront this. And so while it isn't yet clear exactly where the Treasury Department, or the SEC, or the Commodities Futures Trading Commission is going to come down on it, it's clear that they're going to have to do something-- and the Federal Reserve. And I think what you see is that there's at least-- the people who are in places of power now are slightly more savvy, like Gary Gensler from the Securities Exchange Commission. They really understand cryptocurrency. So there's a fair amount of optimism that at least you have people that understand what cryptocurrency is. And so maybe they'll make wiser choices in how they regulate it. But there's no question there's going to be a lot of fighting, because the industry does not want stiff regulations. And there's no way that you're going to sort of move forward with regulatory-- you know, some regulatory answers unless it's going to be something that, I think, honestly, the industry doesn't want. ELAINE QUIJANO: Eric help us understand this as someone who's examined this. You think cryptocurrency has any chance of replacing or becoming more prevalent than even traditional currency? ERIC LIPTON: Well, I mean, we mostly hear-- in our conversation, I've been talking about individual companies like Bitcoin or, you know, XRP, or FTX-- there's all these different, you know, platforms and companies that have both currencies and then platforms in which you can trade them. A whole other half of this debate is what's called sovereign cryptocurrencies. Like, for example, China, the Bahamas, Norway-- the countries are starting to introduce their own cryptocurrency. So instead of paying with a dollar, a physical dollar, or even with a credit card and a debit card, soon enough, the United States-- and the Federal Reserve is experimenting with creating, essentially, a sovereign cryptocurrency-- like, a federally-sponsored cryptocurrency. That's a whole other half of this debate. And that debate is going to involve the big banks. They're going to be really intensely involved in choices made over what is the sovereign-- the government-backed cryptocurrency going to look like? The federal government is going to have to embrace that as well. It's just a matter of time. And the Federal Reserve is already experimenting with that. But that's like a sort of-- they're almost, like, two different categories of issues. One is the, like, private companies that have created their own currencies, and the second one is how the federal government's going to do its version of a cryptocurrency, which it's coming, just a question of when it starts in the United States. ELAINE QUIJANO: Right. And to hear that other countries are already looking at this as well, it really sounds as though this is something that a lot of folks are going to have to learn a lot more about in the coming months and years. ERIC LIPTON: We're in a revolutionary period-- ELAINE QUIJANO: Yeah, go ahead, Eric. ERIC LIPTON: Right now. We're in a revolutionary period right now in terms of currencies and electronic movement of money. And you know, it's sort of like, you know, the internet or the cell phone-- 10 years from now, you're going to look back at this moment, and we're going to have gone through a revolution in the relationship we have with our banks and how money moves. And it's going to be the biggest change in the space of money in 100 years, at least in the United States-- maybe even longer. And we are at-- the starting gun has gone off, and we are entering this period of massive transition. ELAINE QUIJANO: Hence all of the jockeying for influence in Washington that you just spelled out, and people trying to influence whatever it is that regulators may have in mind. Eric Lipton for us-- Eric, thank you so much. ERIC LIPTON: Thank you. The census tract that includes the neighborhood is more than 70% Black, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, and an additional 12% of residents are Asian both significantly higher than the surrounding Woodlawn community and Baltimore County as a whole. The neighborhood is also more educated than the county as a whole, with nearly half of residents having earned a bachelors degree or higher. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Human rights groups and Western nations led by the United States, Britain and Germany accused China of massive crimes against the Uyghur minority and demanded unimpeded access for U.N. experts at a virtual meeting on Wednesday denounced by China as politically motivated and based on lies. Chinas U.N. Mission sent notes to many of the U.N.s 193 member nations last week urging them not to participate in the anti-China event. And Chinas U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun sent text messages to the 15 Western co-sponsors of the meeting expressing shock at their support, urging them to think twice and withdraw it. He warned that if they dont, it will be harmful to our relationship and cooperation. At the meeting, Britains U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward called the situation in Xinjiang one of the worst human rights crises of our time. The evidence, from a growing number of credible sources including satellite imagery, survivor testimony and publicly available Chinese Government documents is of grave concern, said Woodward, who previously was the UK ambassador in China. The evidence points to a program of repression of specific ethnic groups. Expressions of religion have been criminalized and Uyghur language and culture are discriminated against systematically and at scale. In recent years, an estimated 1 million people or more have been confined in camps in Xinjiang, according to foreign governments and researchers. Most are Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group. Authorities have been accused of imposing forced labor, systematic forced birth control and torture. The Chinese government has flatly rejected the allegations. It has characterized the camps, which it says are now closed, as vocational training centers to teach Chinese language, job skills and the law in order to support economic development and combat extremism. China saw a wave of Xinjiang-related terrorist attacks through 2016. Story continues Organizers said there were 152 participants in Wednesday's event, including 51 countries, and speaker after speaker called on China to end its abuses against the Uyghurs. Germanys U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen thanked all the co-sponsors who came together despite some massive Chinese threats. He urged them to remain committed until the Uyghurs can live again in freedom, until they are no longer detained, no longer victims of forced labor and other human rights abuses, until they can exercise freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Heusgen appealed to China to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and tear down the detention camps. If you have nothing to hide, why dont you finally grant unimpeded access to the (U.N.) High Commissioner for Human Rights? he asked. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration will keep standing up and speaking out until Chinas government stops its crime against humanity and the genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang. And we will keep working in concert with our allies and our partners until Chinas government respects the universal human rights of all its people, she said. Uyghur human rights activist Jewher Ilhan spoke about her father Ilham Tohti, a noted economist who has called for autonomy for Xinjiang and is serving a life sentence on separatist-related charges. We dont even know if hes alive, she said. Hundreds of thousands, even millions of Uyghurs are still being targeted, said Ilhan, who now lives in the United States. The fate of my father and my community is in the worlds hands now. We all need to join together and take action to stop this humanitarian crisis from continuing. A Chinese diplomat countered, saying: I make it clear that China is here to tell the truth, it doesnt mean in any way we recognize this event. He then showed a short video and said: The truth is, its not about human rights in Xinjiang, its about using Xinjiang as a political tool to contain China. The U.S. and some of its allies make a presumption of guilt, and then fabricate so-called evidence. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth, whose organization recently concluded that Chinas atrocities amount to the crime against humanity of persecution, said the challenge is what to do about it. Beijing clearly calculates that through censorship, propaganda, intimidation, and threats it can somehow avoid accountability, he said, pointing many actions including its extraordinary lengths of disinviting people from Wednesdays event, its endless charade that has prevented Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet from visiting Xinjiang, and U.N. inaction. Roth expressed disappointment that Bachelet, who was invited to the event, turned down the invitation. Im sure shes busy. We all are. But I have a similar global mandate to defend human rights and I couldnt think of anything more important to do than to join you here today. I certainly wasnt deterred by the commute -- all the way to my laptop, he said. The good news is that the tide seems to be turning, he said, pointing to more countries condemning China's crimes. But he said more must be done. Roth called for a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution on Xinjiang, for moving discussions to the U.N. Security Council, for seeking avenues to justice including the use of universal jurisdiction, and for considering creation of an international investigative mechanism similar to those for Syria and Myanmar. The true test of the significance of todays event will be the follow-up steps that we all take, he said. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the persecution of the Uyghurs is a critical test" for the international human rights system to investigate allegations of massive violations" by a government against its own people and hold those responsible accountable. She called the silence, fear and timidity" of Bachelet's office and the U.N. Secretariat frankly unacceptable and a breach of their mandate, as are the silence of many states." Callamard said supporting a multilateral response to what is happening in Xinjiang is not about picking sides in a fight with China or supporting the U.S. or anyone else, it is about fighting for human rights." David Talukdar/Getty The Biden administrations decision to throw its weight behind a proposal for a temporary waiver of COVID-19 vaccine patents has been dubbed a game-changer in the fight against the pandemic. But major pharmaceutical companies and public health officials in Indiaone of the countries most devastated by the viruswarn that the move alone will do very little to speed up the global production and distribution of vaccines. Sudharshan Jain, secretary-general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA)an association of big Indian pharma companies based in Mumbaisaid that he sees the announcement as a positive yet limited step for equitable access to the vaccine, not just in India, but across the globe. Intellectual property rights are important to protect innovation, but it is imperative that these laws do not act as a hindrance to the accessibility of medicine needed to defeat this pandemic, Jain told The Daily Beast. But while Jain is optimistic about the recent developments, he said the patent waiver will not be enoughnot unless the U.S. is also ready for the transfer of technology and voluntary licensing. If the U.S. frees the patent, but the technology isnt passed on to manufacturers in India and other countries, then it will not make any difference to the global supply chain of the vaccine, he said. Biden Admin Goes to War With Big Pharma Over COVID Vax Patent Protections India, which is currently battling a second and a much more aggressive wave of COVID-19, is stuttering in its inoculation drive. In the past week, the country has reported an average of 390,000 new cases everyday. Only 2.6 percent of the countrys population has been vaccinated, according to a New York Times database. He stressed that the sharing of technologywhich is not yet on the tablewould be absolutely essential for our production capabilities to be realized, and to meet the global demand for the vaccine, adding that the know-how could be shared at a royalty, or other modalities could be worked out for it to work. Story continues India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally. The Indian pharmaceutical industry also caters to a large part of the global demand for various vaccines. And whats more important is that India sells these life-saving drugs at a much cheaper price than its Western counterparts, making them more accessible to poorer countries. But without access to the information and technology required to produce COVID vaccines, that potential is all but wasted. Last year, the Serum Institute of India (SII)the worlds largest vaccine manufacturer partnered with AstraZeneca to produce a billion doses of the Covishield vaccine at $3 per dose, the cheapest in the world. Compare that to the price at which the U.S. government has made deals with Pfizer and Moderna$19.50 and $37 per dose. But SII cannot go it alone. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Adar Poonawalla, CEO of SII, acknowledged that his company alone wont be able shoulder the burden of manufacturing vaccines for all of India, let alone a major chunk of the Global South. Poonawalla is currently holed up in London after allegedly receiving threats from politicians to secure vaccines. Over the last six months, some 60 member countries of the World Trade Organization, led by India and South Africa, had been calling for intellectual property rights on the vaccines to be set aside, at least temporarily, so that they could have better access to it. COVID-19 Vaccinations Are SlowingJust in Time for the Indian Variant KM Gopakumar, an Indian expert on trade and global intellectual property, acknowledged the significance of the Biden administrations announcement. He said that the U.S.s support for the original proposalwhich calls for a waiver on both intellectual property rights of vaccines and life-savings drugscould be a major boost in the global fight against the virus. But still, he explained, the White Houses support is only the first step in a series of long negotiations. We dont have a timeline of when the waiver will be officially adopted. And there are already WTO member states that have opposed such a waiver of intellectual property rights as it may set a new precedent for the future. So there will be a hard negotiation now before any final decision is made, he said. Dr. Anant Bhan, a global health policy expert based in New Delhi, agreed with Gopakumar. Although he thinks the newfound U.S. support could open up doors for manufacturers in India and other middle-income countries to produce the vaccine at an affordable price, he feels it wont have an immediate impact on Indias vaccination drive. The U.S. is taking an unprecedented stand, which of course is welcomed by everyone. But Im not sure how long it will take, Dr. Bhan said. It could take weeks or months, we dont know that yet. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. Acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma played snippets of "Toxic" by Britney Spears and "The Thong Song" by Sisqo while filming with Desus Nice and The Kid Mero. Who's involved: The TV hosts filmed a segment with Yo-Yo Ma for their Showtime series "Desus and Mero" at Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yo-Yo Ma is a world-famous cellist who has been performing at a young age and has won countless awards for his musical achievements. "Desus and Mero" is a commentary show featuring celebrity guests to talk about pop culture, current events and politics. Interview highlights: Nice and Mero asked Ma to perform a compilation of random songs on the cello including Britney Spears's "Toxic," "The Thong Song" and Ruff Ryders Anthem by the late DMX. Ma also performed "The Song of the Birds" by Pablo Casals which is one of the cellist's favorites. Ma showcases his comedic side in the interview by cracking jokes such as saying he "acts like he is 66" when he is only 65 or claiming that he wants to "hit the cello" as opposed to marijuana because playing the cello "takes him to a different mind space." Featured Image via DESUS & MERO on SHOWTIME Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! Demon Slayer Movie Submitted for Oscars 2021 Pixar Releases Asian-Led Shorts to Help Fight Anti-Asian Violence Daniel Dae Kim Speaks Out on Drastic Pay Cut He Got From Hawaii Five-0 Jay Park Sparks Debate After Calling Himself Historic Next to Bong Joon Ho and BTS Sarah Rogers/The Daily Beast / Photos Getty After a year of virtual shows and trying to figure out the meaning of phygital events, New York Fashion Week is back to its pre-pandemic proportions come falland then some. IMG, which runs New York Fashion Week: The Shows announced on Wednesday new changes that will affect the event, which is set to run in-person at Spring Studios from September 8 to 12. A lot of money is at stake: as Leslie Russo, president of IMGs fashion events and properties said at a press conference, NYFW generates around $900 million for the city every year when factoring in the tourism, local jobs, and tax revenue surge it provides. So it makes sense that for IMGand New York in generala successful comeback remains crucial. Do Fashion Weeks Have a Future, or Are Designers All on Their Own? In an attempt to woo designers (many of whom have enjoyed the pace of digital events) back to the runway, IMG cooked up two initiatives. First: creating the IMG Fashion Alliance, which will provide 11 American designers with investment, content, production and talent. In return, the brands pledge to show at NYFW through 2022. The class of designers are Sergio Hudson, who dressed Kamala Harris for inauguration night, Alexandra ONeill of Markarian, who outfitted Jill Biden for the same event, plus Telfar Clemens, LaQuan Smith, Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu, Joseph Altuzarra, Monse, and Rodarte. IMG also announced a brand new NYFW sponsor: Afterpay, a pay later service that enables shoppers to purchase products through four installments. The Australian tech company is only six years old, but it has already sponsored fashion weeks in its home country and London. (It has also been criticized for its late fees and the way it targets young shoppers.) Practically, the pairing makes sense: Afterpay co-founder Nick Molnar said that the company has around 17 million users in the U.S. alone. This announcement is about looking forward to the future in an incredible way, Molnar, Australias youngest billionaire, gushed in a press conference. Story continues Afterpays mission, Molnar added, is to bring millions of consumers globally to shop from the best fashion labels and brands in the U.S. LaQuan Smith, the 32-year-old designer and New York native known for his sexy, fleshy, party-ready designs (and celebrity clientele like Jennifer Lopez and Kylie Jenner), will take part in a see now, buy now fashion show this fall in connection with Afterpay. Anyone watching the runwayin-person or onlinecan shop it, automatically. After a devastating year, it makes sense that designers need to bounce back however they can. Such partnerships do promote emerging names, and are the price of doing business these days, even for creatives. But as NYFW becomes more about catering to the consumer rather than presenting a preview of future seasons, how is it different than a trade show or convention? The relevance of NYFW has long been debated. When anyone with an Instagram account can immediately see whats on the runway, rather than waiting months to view it in a magazine spread, has the event been democratized, or cheapened? It is an admittedly elitist perspective. A more urgent dilemma NYFW must face, and has failed to do so in a meaningful way: for all of its talk of sustainable practices, what is more wasteful than a biannual selling spree? We all want designers like LaQuan Smith to win. We want to support and make sure he gets his coin, said Jose Criales-Unzueta, a fashion writer and designer. So thats good if it helps the brand. But in terms of optics, Criales-Unzueta says, Afterpays name under NYFW does not help the institution. There is a popular opinion within fashion circles that NYFW is all about merchandise, all about pushing product out, and is very commercial, he added. It doesnt match up to the same level as London, Paris, or Milan, you dont have those names like Gucci, Fendi, or Prada who bring up a certain level of buzz. We know fashion people tend to be snobbish in that sense. Criales-Unzueta wonders if the Afterpay association gives an added layer of that commercial approach that could turn off certain editors, stylists, and influencers who bring clout to the shows. But post-pandemic, clout is not exactly the currency NYFW and IMG needits time for the real thing, actual money. And with so many fashion people engaged in transactional relationships with labels where they borrow or request certain clothes, it might be time for those at home to pick up some spending slack. That certainly seems to be the goal. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more. ALBANY New York officials sought to assuage fears of fuel shortages on Wednesday as concerns grow in the wake of a crippling cyberattack that shuttered one of the nations largest gas pipelines. Top officials with the Cuomo administration said they are working with the federal government to ascertain the potential impacts of the Russian-based ransomware attack that forced the Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Texas to New Jersey, to go offline. At this time, state regulators and authorities are closely monitoring distribution and pricing in New York and have received no indication of supply challenges or price impacts to New Yorkers as a result of the shutdown, Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos and New York State Energy Research and Development Authority CEO Doreen Harris said in a joint statement. The shuttered pipeline typically carries about 45% of the East Coasts total fuel supply and the disruptions have sent prices at the pump skyward in many states and sparked panic-buying in some areas. Southeastern states including Georgia and North Carolina saw a significant number of gas stations run dry as nervous drivers flocked to fill their tanks. The national average for gas prices reached $3 per gallon on Wednesday, the highest its been since October 2014. The Biden administration has taken steps to ease restrictions for gas-carrying trucks in an effort to boost supply. Seggos and Harris said that New York will continue to work closely with our federal and state partners, as well as fuel distributors, to monitor the issue and safeguard the supply chain for all New Yorkers. In response to the potential crisis at the pumps, Republicans in the state Senate called on Gov. Cuomo to proactively suspend New Yorks gas tax in an effort to provide some relief at the pump. The COVID-19 pandemic has already caused serious harm to our economy, said Senate Minority Leader Robert Ortt (R-Erie County). The price of gas plays a major role in our economy and in order to help our economy get back on its feet, its critically important to keep prices at the pump under control. Story continues New Yorks gas tax is among the highest in the nation and we implore you to suspend the gas tax immediately, he added. The Empire State currently has the seventh-highest gas tax in the country, at 43.12 cents per gallon. California has the highest fuel tax in the country at 62.47 cents per gallon. Earlier this week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp temporarily suspended the gas tax in the Peach State. Kemp signed an executive order Tuesday lifting the states gas tax through Saturday in an attempt to ease pump pressure. I believe she found a home here talking to mama, Scott said. Therere countless customers I could give you stories on. A person told Scott her mother was a walking, living anti-depressant. Mary Woodruff ran the store for 30 years and had a legacy of helping others, Scott said. So many people, she gave them food when they didnt have anything, Scott said. Mary Woodruff also gained national attention while charming famed journalist Al Roker during a Today show visit, which aired in February 2020. The two hit it off during the interview and Roker shared his affectionate impression of meeting her as well as a raving review of the pie, which he shared during the show. Roker had come across an article featuring the store in The Wall Street Journal and show producers reached out for the interview, Scott said. The pie shop is housed in a small, two-story cinderblock building Scotts father built with his own hands in 1952. The white-painted building was a grocery store for 30 years until 1982 and was used for other family businesses. Scott, her two sisters and two brothers grew up in the stores upstairs apartment and, in 1998, she opened the cafe and pie shop. The approved budget also includes a total of $62,775 for family health insurance plans for school board members at $6,975 per school board member. Edwards said the compensation and health insurance would be optional for all board members and the board chairperson. One of the things that we were trying to do is make it attractive for the average citizen of Lynchburg City Schools to join the school board, and often that requires a lot of time away from, if they are a working citizen, their jobs, their responsibilities, Edwards said. Many of them take vacation time to do the work of the school board and the chair has additional responsibilities and additional hours. City councilors Chris Faraldi, Jeff Helgeson and Randy Nelson voted against the resolution. ... I do not think that this is a time to magnify our fiscal challenges, even if it is even a modest amount of compensation, Nelson said. We can do it in the future, but I dont think we should do it now. Lance Allen, an Air Force veteran from Fauquier County, was eliminated in the third round of counting, after lagging with 15.17%. Northern Virginia business consultant Puneet Ahluwalia was eliminated after trailing in the second round, with 7.08%. Maeve Rigler, of McLean, president, CEO and owner of Securus Capital in Alexandria, was eliminated after finishing last in the first round, with 6.0%. More than 30,000 GOP delegates voted Saturday during the partys unassembled convention that featured 39 polling places around the state. The party used ranked-choice voting, in which delegates listed the candidates in order of preference. In each round of vote counting, the candidate with the fewest weighted votes was eliminated. The trailing candidates votes were redistributed among the remaining candidates, based upon the delegates second choice on their ballots. State party officials allotted a total of about 12,500 delegate votes to party units representing counties and cities across the state. The votes were weighted in order to reward localities that had higher GOP voter turnout in the most recent elections for governor and for president. That is why Bedford County, with a population of 79,000 people, had 228 delegate votes and Norfolk, a Democrat-leaning city of 243,000 people, got just 148. Beginning this Friday, the Thats What She Said band will be kicking off the summer concerts, which this year will be held in a new location at the Towson Courthouse Plaza, on 401 Bosley Ave. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m., the concerts will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Lynchburg-area community leaders showed a little love for hospital workers in parades Wednesday, part of a weeklong chain of events that mark the first time Centra Health has recognized National Hospital Week. The provider has celebrated International Nurses Day (which also landed on Wednesday) and other days recognizing different health departments in the past, spokesperson Stephanie McBride said. Its hard to acknowledge every week for every single department throughout the year and to do it well, she said. Hospital week is a way that we can celebrate everyone and do it well. Hosting events this week was the initial idea of Rick Grooms, Centras chief people officer who joined the provider last year from AnMed Health in Anderson, South Carolina, McBride said. National Hospital Week was a big week there, she said, and Grooms was eager to set up celebrations at Centra. Its good timing, too. Initial outpourings of community support for health care workers during the pandemic were encouraging, McBride said, and with COVID-19 numbers and cases starting to stabilize, it was important to keep up shows of appreciation. Back in 2009, Congress passed the Obama/Biden administrations $800 billion shovel-ready infrastructure plan as a way to stimulate the economy and create good-paying jobs fixing Americas crumbling roads, bridges, airports and shipyards. So why, just 11 years later, are our roads, bridges, airports and shipyards still crumbling and in need of trillions of dollars in new federal spending? The answer is that only $98.3 billion of the $800 billion stimulus bill was specifically designated for transportation infrastructure projects, and of that amount, only about $27.5 billion (or just 3.5 percent!) wound up actually being spent on them. Critics pointed out that President Obama couldnt find a single shovel-ready project in the country because they take years, and sometimes even decades, to get through the bureaucratic red tape. So if Congress manages to pass President Joe Bidens proposed $4.1 trillion infrastructure plan, where would all that infrastructure money be spent this time? Never before have we had such a blank slate nominated for governor. Weve had other candidates who had not previously held political office but they still had records of some sort Terry McAuliffe in 2013 had been Democratic National Chairman, Mark in 2001 had been on the Commonwealth Transportation Board, Linwood Holton in 1969 had run for governor four years prior. That means Youngkin, in the general election, can be whoever he wants to be. He will be hard for Democrats to depict as a Trump acolyte simply because theres no reason to believe that he is one. The bitter essence of Trumpism is defined by a public crudeness and a base appeal to the lowest emotions. In Youngkin, weve seen no evidence of the former and it seems unlikely that he got to be CEO of The Carlyle Group, the worlds second biggest private equity firm, by ignoring facts. Youngkin may still be wrong on the issues, of course thats a matter of ideological taste but the reality is right now we have no idea where Youngkin stands on most issues. His website lists none at all. Does he believe Virginia should repeal the Clean Economy Act or its legalization of marijuana? Does he believe Virginia should pass a constitutional amendment to guarantee equal opportunities in schools? Does he believe Virginia should pass a bond issue to pay for school construction? What does he think Virginia should do to build a new economy in Southwest and Southside Virginia? We have no clue. The Virginia Mercury quotes conservative radio show host John Fredericks as calling Youngkin a shiny new penny. In this case, a lot of pennies; his net worth is estimated at $367 million, which means he can self-fund a campaign like none Virginians have ever seen before. (Warners net worth is put at $215 million.) And because he has no record, he comes with no baggage except large bags of money. That should give Democrats pause. For more than 1,400 years, Yamabushi monks have been walking Japan's sacred mountains, believing that this harsh natural environment can bring enlightenment. In an ancient forest of towering cedars, all was silence except for the chirping of unseen birds. Suddenly I heard the tinkling of a bell. Through the mist, a dozen figures emerged, walking in single file. Led by the Tolkienian figure of a man with a long grey beard, they looked like ghosts, dressed all in white. They were Yamabushi: Japanese mountain worshippers. For more than 1,400 years, centuries before anyone spoke of "forest bathing", Yamabushi monks have been walking the sacred mountains of Dewa Sanzan (literally, "the Three Mountains of Dewa Province") in Yamagata Prefecture. But theirs is no pleasure hike. Through immersion in nature and rigorous self-discipline, the Yamabushi seek spiritual rebirth. Yamagata lies in Tohoku, the northernmost region of Japan's Honshu island. Much of Tohoku is isolated, mountainous and prone to some of Japan's heaviest snowfalls. It is the land that haiku poet Matsuo Basho described in his book Narrow Road to the Deep North (1689). The sacred status of the three mountains Mount Haguro, Mount Gassan and Mount Yudono dates to 593 AD when Prince Hachiko fled Japan's then-capital Kyoto following the assassination of his father, Emperor Sushun. Prince Shotoku, the Emperors nephew, advised Hachiko to flee to Mount Haguro, where it was said he would encounter Kannon, the Goddess of Mercy. Prince Hachiko built shrines on each of the three peaks so that the mountain gods would remain there, thereby ensuring peace and prosperity for the region. He established the mountains as a centre for Shugendo, a unique Japanese form of mountain worship that dates back to a time when mountains were considered to be deities. As it evolved, Shugendo incorporated elements of Shinto, Buddhism and Taoism. Shugendo is the religion of the Yamabushi. "Historically, the Yamabushi lived on the higher mountains of Japan. They would spend years on end in the mountains," explained Tim Bunting, Yamabushido Project Leader and Yamabushi Master Assistant. "For example, the Yamabushi who self-mummified to become Sokushinbutsu (Living Buddha) had to spend at least 1,000 days in the mountains." The self-mummification process involved severe fasting over an extended period, and the practice was outlawed more than 100 years ago during the Meiji Era (1868-1912). Today, there are some 6,000 Yamabushi in Japan. They believe that Shugendo's ascetic training in the harsh natural environment of the mountains can bring enlightenment. Japan is stepping up efforts to contain a rise in coronavirus infections by expanding and extending its third state of emergency of the pandemic. Stricter virus measures have been in place for Tokyo, Osaka, Hyogo and Kyoto prefectures since late April. As of Wednesday, the emergency declaration also covers Aichi and Fukuoka. It will remain in effect until the end of this month. Officials in the capital are reporting 969 new infections. That's the highest tally for a Wednesday since late January. Officials in Osaka confirmed 851 new cases, and said 50 people lost their lives. That's its second highest death toll for a single day. Still, health minister Tamura Norihisa says the prefecture may have turned a corner. Tamura said, "We are hoping that the number of new infections in Osaka has peaked, and is now falling due to the state of emergency and other measures." However in Tokyo, Tamura says the emergency measures haven't had a noticeable impact so far. The spreading infections continue to put the country's medical system under strain. There are now almost 1,200 COVID-19 patients in serious condition. Experts say variants are partly to blame for the surge. But a group of scientists in Japan say their research suggests the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may be effective against these new strains. They found that about 90 percent of recipients had enough antibodies to be considered effective against seven variants, including those first detected in the UK, South Africa, Brazil and India. The research group at Yokohama City University examined blood samples from 105 healthcare workers who had received both jabs. Yokohama City University Professor Yamanaka Takeharu said, "More than 90 percent had neutralizing antibodies. That's a promising result in terms of herd immunity." Health authorities confirmed about 7,000 new infections across the country on Wednesday. The government has been stepping up border controls as a counter-measure. Officials are planning to expand the current entry ban to include foreigners with resident status in Japan who have stayed in India, Pakistan or Nepal within 14 days of their arrival. The measure could start on Friday. Chanticleer Community Theater takes the mainstage of the Hoff Family Arts & Culture Center Friday for their first in-person live performance, Whine, Women and Song, a musical tribute to the ladies of song from the 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. Director Gary Bosanek is well known in the region. He has been seen in many local theaters as F.D.R. in Annie, Bert in 42nd Street with Papillion La Vista Community Theater, along with Grand Night for Singing and Nunsense A-Men at Bellevue Little Theater. In addition to community theater, Bosanek has performed for 36 seasons with Opera Omaha and served as wardrobe master for the Mannheim Steamrollers national tour of the NBC TV Special The Christmas Angel Ice Show. Bosanek, alongside stage manager Johnnie Richards and pianist Kim Hansen, will pay homage to the wonderful female legends of music. The songs are well-known for their beauty, charm, young ideas, and their angst. The six Whinettes are performed by Diane Jones, Kim Alger, Mary Sorensen, Vicki Molacek, Katie Miller, and Lauren Anderson Gilmore. We hope you enjoy The Whinettes as they take you down memory lane. Bosanek said in a press release. Sit back, relax, and remember as you listen to the music. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Hikes will run from June 5 to June 14 at the Hitchcock Nature Center and from June 5 to June 30 at Botna Bend. Activities are available all day at each park. The section of trail with activities is .25 to .3 miles long one way .5 to .6 miles long round-trip. The activities are aimed at those ages 3 to 5, but everyone is allowed to participate. The event is included with daily admission to the park. BioBlitz A community science project will take place on June 12 at 9 a.m. at the Hitchcock Nature Center, and Pottawattamie Conservation needs you there. Participants will use iNaturalist, a free smartphone app, to document the living organisms at Hitchcock Nature Center and have the opportunity to visit informative stations to learn more about the plant and animal species that call Hitchcock Nature Center home, a press release said. Staff will be available to help and participants will need to download the app on their own phone. It is suggested to show up no later than 11 a.m. to visit learning stations and prepare for data collection before stations and iNaturalist training begin at noon. Longfellow Elementary School is holding an auction to raise money for the family of Chelsea Craig, a first-grader who suffers from lymphoblastic leukemia. Chelsea was diagnosed on April 2 and is receiving chemotherapy at Childrens Hospital, according to Hailey Hiers, library clerk at Longfellow and one of the auction organizers. She is currently not well enough to attend school but receives instruction remotely, Hiers said. Our students and families, they always come around for all the kids we do fundraisers for, she said. Its a close community. In April, students and staff members sold Tootsie Pops to raise money for Chelseas family, Hiers said. On April 30, they had a car parade past the Craigs house and stopped to give them the money raised from their sales $1,121. Organizers who also include Longfellow health associate Kelly Keller, teacher Erin McCardle and counselor Donnette Kremke-Bastian thanked local businesses and individuals for donating goods for the auction. We have something for everyone, from fast food to salon services and sit-down dinners, car maintenance, pet care and self-care, birdhouses, coffee, ice cream/treats and, of course, summer fun for the kids!, they posted on the schools Facebook page. The improvements have also impacted Americans' concerns about the virus. The AP-NORC poll shows the public's worries about the pandemic are at their lowest level since February 2020, when the virus was first reaching the U.S. About half of Americans say they are at least somewhat worried that they or a relative could be infected with the virus, down from about 7 in 10 just a month earlier. As has been the case throughout the pandemic, there is a wide partisan gap in Americans' views of pandemic risks. Among Democrats, 69% say they remain at least somewhat worried about being infected with the virus, compared with just 33% of Republicans. Despite the overall positive assessments of Americans, Biden's advisers are well aware that the next phase of his presidency is potentially trickier. Vaccination rates have slowed, and the administration is grappling with how to persuade those who are reluctant to get the shots about their safety and efficacy. Biden's legislative agenda for the rest of this year also faces obstacles on Capitol Hill. Republicans are resisting his calls for passing a sweeping infrastructure package, and there's insufficient support among Democrats for overhauling Senate rules in a way that would allow the party to tackle changes to immigration policy, gun laws and voting rights on its own. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. In Hampstead, which also had three Town Council seats at stake, all the candidates tents and chairs were set up next to each other. Thomas, the incumbent, was holding his campaign sign with one hand and the top of his tent with the other as the wind blew. He said around noon there were about 70 people who had already voted. And theres usually a bigger turnout when theres controversy. BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) The sponsor of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline says it's pulling the plug on the contentious project after Canadian officials failed to persuade the Biden administration to reverse its cancellation of the company's permit. She found that interesting because she wasnt sure what she could do with studying bugs. Lo and behold, this whole world of applied entomology in agriculture kind of introduced me to it, and thats when I decided this is what I want to do, Daniel said. I liked the idea of looking at biological control, looking at natural predators. With her affinity for spiders, she thought it would be cool to do some research to see whether spiders eat any of the pests in fields. Then I found that Dr. Julie Peterson, field crops entomology specialist out here, had actually done her Ph.D. work with spiders, Daniel said. I thought this could be a potential opportunity to actually do some applied entomological research looking at spiders as potential predators of crop pests. Daniel sent Peterson an email of inquiry. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} As they say, the rest is history, Daniel said. I was accepted into the graduate program. Julie wanted me and got me into her lab. It was August 2016 when I started my masters program in entomology. She studied at the Lincoln campus from 2016 until December 2017, driving on weekends sometimes to North Platte to do her lab work. She moved to North Platte in January 2018. State senators have sent a cattle brand-reform bill partly reflecting industrywide meetings last fall in North Platte to the final stage of consideration. Lawmakers sent Legislative Bill 572 to final reading on a voice vote Monday after adopting two technical amendments. The bill retains its narrowed scope after Hastings Sen. Steve Hallorans efforts to address statewide brand-inspection issues drew fire from several major feedlots. The Agriculture Committee chairman had led three working group meetings including cattle and dairy growers and feedlot and sale-barn owners. They included October and November meetings at North Platte Community College. Proposed cattle-inspection language affecting registered feedlots was dropped before senators gave 26-4 initial approval to LB 572 on March 22. The bills final version would add new language on use of non-visual identifiers to prove ownership while retaining Nebraskas emphasis on physical brands. LB 572 also says calves of milk-producing cows would be inspected when dairies sell them at 30 days old or younger to be raised for beef. Little can be gleaned about gyagyagya10 from the image of abstract art posted as a profile photo and the lack of any sort of personal description. Indeed, none of the accounts in the network had fleshed-out profiles with recognizable names and authentic profile photos. Gyagyagya10s account came to life in mid-August at the same time as more than a dozen other accounts that also devoted themselves exclusively to promoting tweets by the Chinese Embassy in London and Ambassador Liu. Then, after Liu left his post at the end of Jan., they went quiet. The 62 accounts in the network retweeted and replied to posts by Chinese diplomats in London nearly 30,000 times between June and the end of January, the Oxford Internet Institute found. They exhibited unique patterns in the ways they amplified content. Like gyagyagya10, they often simultaneously posted identical quote-tweets and replies, and they repeatedly used identical phrases like Xinjiang is beautiful and shared future for mankind in their comments. Other users who engaged with the two diplomatic accounts did neither. People bring flowers to the memorial site set up outside Gold Spa on March 19 in Atlanta. Photo: Megan Varner/Getty Images The suspect arrested for the killing of eight people, including six Asian women, at Atlanta-area spas in March was indicted on murder charges by a Fulton County grand jury on Tuesday. Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis indicated that she will seek the death penalty in the case and will also pursue hate-crime charges. Robert Aaron Long, a 22-year-old white man, faces four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and one count of domestic terrorism, the AP reports. Willis filed notice that she will seek hate-crime charges in the case, saying some of the victims were targeted for being of Asian heritage. The shootings came amid a rise in anti-Asian violence across the U.S. and sparked a nationwide outcry over discrimination and attacks against Asians. Long is accused of attacking three Georgia spas on March 16 two in Atlanta and one in suburban Acworth. Tuesdays legal actions only apply to the shootings at Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta, which left four people dead: Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63. Long is facing additional murder charges in Cherokee County, where Xiaojie Emily Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54, were killed at Youngs Asian Massage in Acworth earlier on the same day. One person was wounded. A separate grand jury for Cherokee County will decide on charges in this shooting. Georgias hate-crime law, newly signed by Governor Brian Kemp in June 2020, requires a jury to determine whether a hate crime was perpetrated after an individual has been convicted on the initial charges. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the law permits enhanced criminal penalties to be levied against those who target their victims on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, sex, national origin, religion, or physical or mental disability. A Beulah man is on trial for murder after prosecutors said he stabbed a 72-year-old man 22 times and shot him three times before attaching cinderblocks to his body and dumping it in a well. Hubert Timothy Sprayberry, 59, is facing a murder intentional charge after James Edmund Clarkes body was discovered in Sprayberrys well with multiple stab wounds and gunshot wounds in December 2019. Assistant District Attorney Garrett Saucer said evidence during the trial at the Lee County courthouse in Opelika would show that Clarke, a weak, frail, older man, was killed by Sprayberry, and that intention was not a question during the case. How was he killed? He was stabbed 22 times. He was shot three times, Saucer said during his opening statement Tuesday. You dont stab somebody 22 times, shoot them three times in the head then tie multiple cinderblocks to their body to put them in a 20-foot [deep] well full of water and then plan on him getting out of it. Saucer said evidence would further show that Sprayberry was packing up his belongings and getting ready to leave town before the cops could find what he was hiding. I will be working daily with our mayor and fellow council members to bring new ideas to the table, he said via email. I look forward to bridging the gap between residents and the council and strive to get more residents involved with government affairs. I would also like to thank the outgoing members for their years of service to the town. Members of Lee Countys new planning body want to hear what citizens expect of them. Planning Commission member Danielle Fitch told the Opelika-Auburn News that the public is invited to Wednesdays 5:30 p.m. at the Lee County Meeting Center, across from the county courthouse in Opelika. We want to get some input from the public as to what they want regarding zoning in their area, said Fitch. The commission was formed recently by Lee County commissioners, partly in response to citizens in Beat 13 near Beulah who want to stop CreekWood Resources from opening a quarry there. The purpose of the new body is to look at land use issues and make recommendations to county commissioners to approve or disapprove. There are no parts of unincorporated Lee County thus far that are legally subject to zoning. Voters in each unincorporated beat, or voting precinct, must agree to be subject to Lee Countys Master Plan and any zoning rules. Washington, PA (15301) Today A mix of clouds and sun this morning followed by increasing clouds with showers developing this afternoon. High around 80F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Rain showers early with scattered thunderstorms arriving overnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. In an ongoing saga, United States intelligence officers stationed in foreign countries have been experiencing mysterious and debilitating head injuries that are suspected to be the result of vicious and clandestine energy attacks. Victims have developed symptoms consistent with Havana syndrome, including severe headaches, fatigue, and hearing loss among other effects. In one case from 2017, an intelligence officer stationed in Guangzhou, China experienced headaches, memory loss, sleep problems, and more. An MRI released by researchers revealed that the officer had 20 brain regions with abnormally low volumes, including regions involved in memory, emotional regulation and motor skills. These effects are suspected to be the result of targeted energy attacks using directed microwave energy, involving some kind of weapon which aims pulsed radiofrequency energy at its victims. Late last year, the National Academy of Sciences published a report entitled An Assessment of Illness in U.S. Government Employees and Their Families at Overseas Embassies which identified microwave energy as the likeliest culprit of the symptoms experienced by the officer in Guangzhou as well as others stationed around the world. "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 states. In a briefing to the senate Intelligence Committee this week, officials from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) made it clear that they believe these kinds of energy attacks to be ongoing, and revealed that there have been many more victims of these suspected microwave attacks than was previously known. This revelation was part of the reason that the senate briefing turned contentious, as senators demanded more information about the mysterious incidents from the CIA and accountability for how the agency has handled them CNN reported last week. The classified briefing was one of the most contentious in the committee's recent memory, according to the two sources familiar with the briefing. Related Video: Massive American Pipeline Shut Down in Cyber Attack According to reporting, the CIA bungled early cases in this rash of energy attacks and mishandled the initial stages of the investigation by failing to provide adequate medical care to victims, who were not taken seriously, and failing to coordinate a response with other government offices. In the heated senate briefing, some members of the Intelligence Committee suggested that the CIA had deliberately hidden key information from Congress. "There's a mysterious, direct energy weapon that is being used. And it is causing, in some cases, permanent traumatic brain injury. And yet the personnel involved -- there have been other attacks around the world -- have had a difficult time getting both the medical care and the financial help that they need from the CIA. And that is outrageous," Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a member of the Intelligence Committee, was quoted as saying. In part because of these missteps at a critical early juncture, the US government has a long way to go toward addressing the issue and putting a stop to the attacks, which seem to be spreading both in number and in area. The Senate Intelligence Committee released a bipartisan statement which acknowledged that the problem is not only not under control, its getting worse, stating that the "pattern of attacking our fellow citizens serving our government appears to be increasing." Some of the most recent cases revealed by the CIA in the briefing room took place not in China or Cuba, but in Europe, suggesting that the problem may be growing. In fact, federal agencies are even currently investigating a possible incident consistent with the greater rash of targeted energy attacks that took place near the White House. This incident, in which a National Security Council staffer developed symptoms in line with Havana syndrome, is only one of at least two such incidents currently being investigated on US soil. The new CIA director Bill Burns, appointed by President Joe Biden, has pledged to make investigating these attacks a priority, but its clear that its a monumental task with a lot of legwork yet to be done, and its starting out on contentious footing, with Congress demanding that the CIA take accountability for the sorry state of the investigation thus far. By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Nowadays one of the main buzz stories of the crude market has been focusing on Indian oil demand slumping as a consequence of the COVID-19 surge. As painful as Indias travails might be, the past weeks also seem to be giving traction to a new partnership, one that perhaps would aid the country in its quest of decreasing its massive oil imports bill. Considering its geographic remoteness from India, Guyana could be seen as one of the least viable alternatives to supply crude. Below the surface, however, there are many reasons indicating that Indias Guyana deal indeed would come to fruition. India needs new sources of supply, whilst the Guyanese government needs a reliable and long-term partner for its own equity, having so far failed to find a marketer for its crude. India has reached out to Guyana, lured by the opportunity of marketing the crude entitlement of the Guyanese government. Liza started producing in January 2020 and the first 3 entitlement cargoes were allotted to Shell. When the Shell tender ran out, newly elected President Irfaan Ali has directly contacted other Stabroek stakeholders and then opted for Hess, committing 2 Suezmax cargoes in January-February 2021. Simultaneously the new Guyanese authorities have launched a longer-term tender that would finally satisfy the new political elite unfortunately for Georgetown only the Russian oil firm Lukoil presented a qualified bid of the more than two dozen interested companies so the Ali Administration has relaunched the process once again, saying that it would seek direct negotiations instead of the tendering process. Related Video: COVID Threatens Oil Sands Supply from Canada Thus, the prize at stake are 5-6 Liza cargoes per year, of which at least two have already been taken and moved out. Of course, should an Indian company land the deal it would most probably go beyond the year 2021. Moreover, once ExxonMobil launches the 2nd phase of Liza (assumed to take place in 2022-2023) the number of cargoes would almost triple. Interestingly, the above-mentioned Liza cargo going to India was purchased and eventually refined by private refiner Hindustan Petroleum-Mittal Energy, however the talks on India potentially becoming Guyanas marketer were conducted on a governmental level, implying that there might be a place for one of Indias state-owned refiners in the suggested scheme. According to Indias High Commissioner to Guyana, it would be the national NOC, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), that would be involved in the purchase scheme. It is against this background that the Indian government has initiated negotiations with Georgetown. To back its claim, India has bought its first-ever Guyanese cargo in March 2021, the Suezmax-sized cargo arrived on April 08. There have been no new India-bound purchases of Liza since. Thus, Indias overall share in Guyanese exports remains rather slim most of cargoes have been split between Panama, the United States and China. As we will see below, Panama only acts a transhipment site and does not refine Guyanese crude, meaning that Lizas most likely market outlets are located on the US East Coast and in southern China. Related: Is The Global Oil Industry Relying Too Much On China? When checking various data providers on the final destination of respective Liza cargoes, Panama would come up as the most frequent one (averaged 78kbpd so far this year). In reality, none of the Liza cargoes actually end up in Panama, most of them are getting transhipped for further deliveries in the Pacific region. Thus, both Panama-bound Liza cargoes of April 2021 have eventually ended up in California one in Benicia (San Francisco) and the other in Long Beach (Los Angeles). In March 2021, two nominally Panamanian cargoes went to California and the other landed in Quanzhou, China. There are two main tenets in Indias interest in Guyanese crude. The first, economic, stems from Indias willingness to diversify its crude imports away from the Middle East. Despite its current COVID-triggered difficulties, Indias appetite for crude will continue to increase in the upcoming years. India has been voicing its discontent with OPEC pricing and production policies and securing a new stream would come in very handy for Indian refiners. The second link between Guyana and India might be less evident however still deserves to be noted the Indo-Guyanese represent the largest ethnic group in Guyana, making up almost half of the population. As opposed to the previous President David Granger (who was Afro-Guyanese and sought no overtures vis-a-vis India), Guyanas new head of state Irfaan Ali is Indo-Guyanese and this cultural affinity seems to be drawing the two nations together. Even if New Delhi and Georgetown manage to iron out all differences in the upcoming weeks and the Guyanese government is not hindered by political obstructionism, increasing the governments take to more than 1 cargoes every two month would require substantially increasing overall output levels, at least to stabilize it. Liza production has been hindered by recurring problems with the Liza Destiny FPSO, as recently as this April ExxonMobil was forced to cut down on production rates because of a discharge silencer, an element of the recently reinstalled gas compressor. Unfazed by the upstream helter-skelter, the Guyanese-Indian negotiations are poised to continue, primarily in an effort to find a mutually acceptable pricing formula. How to gauge the progress on the Indo-Guyanese talks? The next Liza cargo that should go to Guyanas government is due this June check out where it goes. By Gerald Jansen for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Central to the expansion of Chinese and Russian influence via Iran into the space in the Middle East vacated by the U.S. since former U.S. President Donald Trump initiated a pullback from the region is the ongoing rollout of a pan-regional power network. This complements and augments existing oil and gas development and transport links between Iran and Iraq and then into the rest of the Iran-controlled Shia Crescent of Power and beyond, further necessitating as it does the installation of extensive permanent infrastructure connected to the network and extensive permanent security personnel to protect these assets. In this context, Egypts Electricity and Renewable Energy Minister, Mohammed Shaker, stated last week that his country is seeking to strengthen its electricity exchange with its neighbours as part of plans to become a regional energy hub. There are two key factors relating to Egypt that make it an especially valuable addition to the extension of Irans sphere of influence in the Middle East, which almost exactly reflects Chinas geopolitical plans based around its One Belt, One Road (OBOR) multi-generational power grab plan. The first factor is that Egypt has long regarded itself as a leader in the Arab world, most notably highlighted in the modern era with the Suez Crisis in 1956 that ended the British occupation of the Suez Canal transport route, the formation with Syria in 1958 of the new sovereign entity, the United Arab Republic, and the various Arab-Israeli wars over the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s that featured Egypt as a central protagonist until a peace treaty was signed between Egypt and Israel in March 1979. Related Video: COVID Threatens Oil Sands Supply from Canada Although Egypt has since flirted with the U.S. this has principally been done to ensure a steady flow of money from Washington, to guard against Israeli meddling in the country, and most recently to counter the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in domestic Egyptian politics. The second factor is that Egypt is not just politically part of the Middle East but is geographically and politically part of Africa as well, which means in practical terms that it is an essential transit point for oil, gas, and anything else, that Iran (and China) might want to move into that continent from the Middle East. A case in point in this context is the extension of the existing oil pipeline that runs from Iraqs Basra into Jordans Aqaba. Only recently, Iraqi and Egyptian officials discussed the possibility of extending the pipeline to Egypt as this would be an important addition and a new outlet for Iraqi oil exports to North Africa, according to representatives of the two negotiating teams. The original idea for the Basra-Aqaba route was that it should run around 1,700 km and would not include Israeli land or sea territory. December 2019 saw an announcement from Iraqs Oil Ministry that it had completed the prequalifying process for companies interested in participating in the pipeline project. The first phase of the project will include the installation of a 700-km pipeline with a capacity of 2.25 million barrels within the Iraqi territories. The second phase will include the installation of a 900-km pipeline in Jordan between Haditha and Aqaba, with a capacity of one million barrels. For Iran, this will allow another alternate Iraq/Iran oil export line to the historically vulnerable Strait of Hormuz route, to add to the current plans for the Guriyeh-Jask pipeline and plans to roll out a pipeline to Syria as well. It will also provide another cover route for Iranian oil disguised as Iraqi oil, which can then be shipped easily both West and East. There are a number of options for this Iraq-Aqaba-Egypt pipeline route, even the favoured ones that avoid any Israeli land or sea threats, including a very short route following the same ground as one of the Arab Gas Pipeline flows: from Aqaba to Taba, and then if required up north to Arish and then west to Port Said. Related Video: Massive American Pipeline Shut Down in Cyber Attack In keeping with these broader aims, as part of his announcement last week, Egypts Shaker also confirmed that a study into an electrical interconnection project with Iraq was underway. This would augment Egypts existing power links with Jordan in the East, Libya in the West and Sudan in the South. Shaker added that his Ministry is considering raising the capacity of the electrical interconnection line with Jordan during the current year, with the aim of increasing power exports between the two countries that have been linked since 1999 through a line with a capacity of 400 megawatts (MW). Concomitant with this, Shaker underlined last week, is that Egypt is also looking at ways of raising the capacity of electrical interconnection with the countries of the Mashriq (an area of Western Asia and Eastern North Africa, comprising Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen) and the Arab Mahgreb (a broad trade and economic union, comprising Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia). Indeed, the Egypt-Jordan electricity link as long been a part of a larger project (the Eight Countries Electric Interconnection Project), with major parts of it already completed. Given these existing multi-layered links into Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, to name but three, Egypt will be linked into Iran as well by default. This is due to the fact that Iraq derives between 30 percent and 40 percent of all of its own resources for its power grid from Iran. The two countries only recently signed a two-year deal with Iraq to supply it with electricity, the longest such deal signed between them. Just after this, Irans Energy Minister, Reza Ardakanian, stated that Iran and Iraqs power grids have become fully synchronised to provide electricity to both countries by dint of the new Amarah-Karkheh 400-KV transmission line stretching over 73 kilometres, which also paves the way for increasing energy exports to Iraq in the near future from the current 1,361 megawatts per day now. He added that Iranian and Iraqi dispatching centres were fully connected in Baghdad, the power grids were seamlessly interlinked and that Iran had signed a three-year co-operation agreement with Iraq to help the countrys power industry in different aspects. At the same time, it was announced by the Iranian Electrical Power Equipment Manufacturing and Provision Company that Irans electricity exports to other neighbouring countries in the previous Iranian calendar year reached over 8 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), a mean average increase of 27.6 percent year-on-year. In the meantime, Iraqs Electricity Minister, Majid Mahdi Hantoush, announced that not only is Iraq currently working on connecting its grid with Jordans electricity networks through a 300-kilometre-line a project that will be finished within two years - but also plans have been finalised for the completion of Iraqs electricity connection with Egypt within the next three years. This, in turn, he added, would be part of the overall project to establish a joint Arab electricity market. By Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com The federal Canadian government has warned Washington of Michigan's plan to shut down a pipeline transporting Canadian crude to U.S. refineries risks worsening bilateral relations. In a legal filing, Ottawa said the shutting down of the Line 5 pipeline will harm relations between Canada and the United States, have a negative impact on jobs and gasoline prices, and violate a treaty from 1977, the Financial Post said. Earlier this month, Canada's Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan told Bloomberg that keeping Line 5 open is "nonnegotiable." "Line 5 is very different from Keystone XL and we fully support it, and we will defend it," O'Regan said. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the director of the state's Department of Natural Resources revoked Enbridge's easement for the operation of the twin Line 5 pipeline last November, citing repeated violations of the easement and the need to protect the Great Lakes. Michigan's notice required Enbridge to cease operations of the pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac by May of 2021. Ten days after the state's notice, Enbridge filed a federal complaint at a U.S. district court seeking an injunction to stop Michigan's order for closure of the Line 5 pipeline, arguing that the state's shutdown order violates U.S. federal law and the Constitution. Today is the last day for Enbridge to stop operating the pipeline, with Governor Whitmer threatening to seize the company's profits from Line 5 if it doesn't shut it down. Enbridge, for its part, has said it would only shut down the pipeline if a court or an energy regulator order it to do so. As per the Canadian government's statement, "This case raises concerns regarding the efficacy of the historic framework upon which the U.S.-Canada relationship has been successfully managed for generations," Reuters reports. The move by the Michigan Governor "threatens to undermine important aspects of that cooperative international relationship", the statement also said. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads from Oilprice.com: Qatar is in discussions with Chinese state energy giants to potentially make them equity partners in the worlds largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, in what could be a strategic choice to add huge potential LNG customers to its partners alongside Western majors, industry sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. In February, Qatar approved what would be the worlds largest LNG project in terms of capacity, North Field East Project (NFE), set to raise the tiny Gulf nations LNG production capacity from 77 million tons per annum (mmtpa) to 110 mmtpa. Apart from hosting the biggest project, which would help it to be the global LNG export leader, Qatar also has one of the lowest breakeven prices for its projects, which is set to contribute to its position as one of the worlds top LNG suppliers, analysts say. At a long-term breakeven price of just over $4 per million British thermal units, its right at the bottom of the global LNG cost curve, alongside Arctic Russian projects, Wood Mackenzie research director Giles Farrer said, commenting on Qatars LNG expansion project. Related Video: COVID Threatens Oil Sands Supply from Canada Traditionally, Qatar has partnered with the oil and gas supermajors such as ExxonMobil, Shell, and Total in its LNG projects. Those firms, plus Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Eni, are again invited to bid for a share of the huge expansion project. But this time, Qatar could add Chinese state giants such as PetroChina and Sinopec, to the partnerships, according to Reuters sources. In March this year, Qatar signed a ten-year LNG supply deal with Sinopec, aiming to solidify its position in China. A long-term agreement with China is a step to securing more of the Chinese LNG market, which is a key driver of global LNG demand growth. In recent weeks, Qatar has also signed LNG supply agreements with Pakistan and Bangladesh, which, apart from addressing growing demand in Southeast Asia, could be interpreted as Qatar growing closer to the China sphere of influence, according to Oilprice.com analyst Simon Watkins. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: A year of uncertainty surrounding Covid-19 restrictions has hit the tourism industry hard, with flight cancellations and airline bankruptcies becoming commonplace. However, with the proposal of vaccine passports and vaccine tourism being discussed worldwide, could this be what the travel industry needed to bring it back to life? In recent weeks, the number of visitors travelling to U.S. states such as Texas, Louisiana and Arizona has soared since the announcement that non-residents can legally receive a Covid-19 vaccine. These were the first American states to announce the move to allow tourists to get the vaccine. Since around March, wealthy Latin Americans, particularly from Mexico due to its proximity to the Southern U.S. states, have been travelling to cities across Texas in search of the vaccine, to beat the waiting time in their home countries. USA Today spoke of shuttle buses taking tourists directly from the airport to vaccination sites. Many are willing to take the two trips needed for both shots of the vaccine in order to beat the line at home, to ensure they are protected from the virus. Now New York is jumping on board the tourist vaccine bandwagon, going further than the Southern states by offering visitors to the city the one shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine, which will be available at some of New Yorks most popular sites. On May 6th, the City Of New York twitter announced Welcome to New York, your vaccine is waiting for you! We'll administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at iconic sites across our city. With State authorization, we can get vaccines to tourists and make sure they have a built in souvenir to bring home with them. Let's get it done! in an attempt to attract tourists back to the city after a year of lockdowns and restrictions. Related: Is The Global Oil Industry Relying Too Much On China? However, the U.S. is not the only country to offer this product to tourists. In April, the Maldives announced it would soon be offering vaccinations to tourists upon arrival as part of a three-pronged initiative, which aims to revitalise the small archipelagos tourism industry. The countrys 3V strategy aims to encourage the idea of visit, vaccinate, and vacation. In addition, the Romanian government is offering tourists free vaccinations at Romanias famous Bran Castle, known for being the home of Dracula, every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through May. Visitors will be given the Pfizer-BioNTech jab without an appointment should they so wish, also gaining free entry to the castle. Currently this is only available to Romanians, but it opens up potential possibilities for major tourist sites around the world to attract visitors back. Many countries are now discussing the possibility of a vaccine passport, a document proving youve had one of the approved vaccines, as being a prerequisite for international travel, meaning schemes like these could become increasingly popular. The number of tourists crossing international borders is expected to rise in the summer following optimistic vaccination efforts across several countries. Last week, the European Union announced plans to open its borders to vaccinated tourists in the summer months. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated, We propose to welcome again vaccinated visitors & those from countries with a good health situation. The news of increased travel thanks to the offering of vaccines around the world comes as good news for both the travel industry as well as the oil and gas industry whose demand levels were hit hard by the steep drop in travel in 2020. The demand for jet fuel and related products is likely to increase hand-in-hand with travel demand, giving hope to both industries. It seems that the combination of vaccine passports and the ability to access the vaccine early by visiting other countries or tourist sites could mean a sharp rise in travel over the coming months, with a positive knock-on effect across several other industries. By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: These delayed retirement credits ultimately raise your monthly checks by 8% for each year that you delay the start of your Social Security. They are the reason many retirees end up with more lifetime income if they claim benefits at the age of 70, rather than claiming it earlier. But the trick is that these benefits can be earned only until age 70. And, unfortunately, the Mass Mutual data suggests that 46% of Americans incorrectly believe they can continue to increase their benefits by waiting longer than 70. For seniors laboring under this misconception, this could lead to a needless delay in claiming retirement benefits. And those who wait may never get back the money they gave up by delaying the start of their checks, as retroactive benefits are available only for a maximum of six months. And those claiming spousal benefits could end up in an even worse situation if they don't understand the rules for earning delayed retirement credits. That's because those who are claiming spousal benefits on a husband or wife's work record actually cannot earn delayed retirement credits at all. So there's no reason to even wait until the age of 70. Don't miss out on Social Security benefits you're entitled to Before you wonder about the morality of the younger generation who are not part of an organized religion, consider that todays young people are uniquely conscientious less likely to fight, drink, use hard drugs, or have premarital sex than previous generations, according to Derek Thompson writing for The Atlantic. They may not be able to quote from the Book of Matthew, but their economic and social politics which insist on protections for the politically meek and the historically persecuted arent so far from a certain reading of the beatitudes. Govt-and-politics Omaha voters give Mayor Stothert a historic third term ANNA REED, THE WORLD-HERALD Mayor Jean Stothert, center, waves to drivers alongside supporters Hannah Sobczyk and Cameron Anglen at 72nd and Dodge Streets on Tuesday. Stothert, who in 2013 became the first woman to serve as the citys mayor, is the only mayor to be elected to three terms in modern Omaha history. ANNA REED, THE WORLD-HERALD Mayor Jean Stothert, left, and a group of her supporters wave to drivers at the intersection of 72nd and Dodge Streets in Omaha on Election Day on Tuesday. ANNA REED, THE WORLD-HERALD Mayor Jean Stothert talks with supporters Grace Updike, Brinley Reichmuth, Hannah Sobczyk and Lena Makui while waving to drivers at the intersection of 72nd and Dodge Streets in Omaha on Election Day on Tuesday. ANNA REED, THE WORLD-HERALD Mayoral candidate RJ Neary congratulated Mayor Jean Stothert on her victory early Tuesday night. Here, he talks with Clyde Deshazer, right, the owner of Youngbloods Barbershop, on Saturday. Preston Love Jr. is at left. ANNA REED, THE WORLD-HERALD Mayoral candidate RJ Neary, center, talks with Lillian Dacus, the owner of Belles House of Design, while on a tour of barbershops and salons in North Omaha with Preston Love Jr. on Saturday. Omaha voters chose experience over change Tuesday as they delivered a decisive reelection victory to Mayor Jean Stothert, who will soon begin a historic third term. Stothert held a 2-to-1 advantage over challenger RJ Neary in late Tuesday evening returns. Stothert, who in 2013 became the first woman to serve as Omahas mayor, now has four more years to oversee multiple city-defining projects, including a long-term plan to fix city streets, completion of the riverfront parks overhaul and redevelopments happening at the former Crossroads Mall and Civic Auditorium sites. Stothert, 67, is the only mayor to be elected to three terms in modern Omaha history. During a victory speech at A View on State, a venue in northwest Omaha, Stothert said her overwhelming victory validated the work she and her administration have done over the past eight years. And while Stothert said that many challenges lie ahead, we are so happy that voters decided that we are the best team to address them. Stothert thanked Neary and his family for the work theyve done to make Omaha a better place, saying his experience, his passion, and his ideas made him a very worthy candidate. The mayor said she has clear goals for her next term. The first, she said, will be to continue to guide Omaha out of the coronavirus pandemic and address the health, economic and social effects that have come with it. Rest assured, this former nurse will make sure that we can do everything we can to fully recover, Stothert said. Stothert said she will continue to make Omaha a safe place to live, and will work to make a very good Police Department even better. Addressing conversations on social justice and racial equity that arose from last summers protests, Stothert said theres more work to be done. We have a responsibility and we have an obligation to improve and do better, and I know we can, she said. Neary congratulated Stothert in a speech delivered early in the evening, when the ballot count showed an insurmountable lead for the incumbent. We came up short, but hopefully weve left Omaha a better place, Neary told supporters gathered at the Capitol District downtown. The final election tallies will change once a remaining batch of 8,700 by-mail ballots (that were turned in Tuesday) are verified and counted. The results of those, plus an additional few hundred provisional ballots, will be released Friday. Stothert wins third term as Omaha mayor; most City Council races appear settled Check out the results of the 2021 Omaha city general election and Douglas County West school bond issue. Neary, a 68-year-old commercial real-estate broker, had sought to portray himself as the better person to lead Omaha into the future as a city better equipped to keep and attract young talent. He talked about making Omaha better for the next generation, not just for the next election. He had pitched a vision of a more equitable city with a climate-action plan, more and better affordable housing, a strategy to fix pothole-plagued streets for good and a transportation system friendlier to pedestrians, cyclists and mass transit riders. Neary supported an independent police auditor and promised the most diverse cabinet ever. But he was pedaling uphill and into the wind against Stothert. The popular mayor had a voter-approved street improvement plan in her back pocket and the police union and police chief on her side. She has been front and center in Omahas efforts to weather the pandemic and last summers protests against police mistreatment of Black people. Neary, a Democrat in the officially nonpartisan race, thanked Stothert for running a clean campaign and for her service to Omaha. He said he was grateful to the people who had faith in his message and in him. Our message to make Omaha more safe, sustainable and equitable was heard, Neary said. Getting things done was heard. Being more inclusive and welcoming was heard. The campaign faced many obstacles, but the voters have spoken. The campaign was never about RJ Neary. It was about making Omaha a better place. Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts and his immediate predecessor in the Governors Office, Dave Heineman, both attended Stotherts victory party. The two offered praise for their fellow Republican as the first results came in Tuesday evening. Heineman noted that Stotherts large early lead in a city with 25,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans shows how well-respected she is, and that she puts the citizens of all walks of life in Omaha first. Ricketts said: We have got the best mayor in the country right here in Omaha, Nebraska, and she is going to be here for four more years. The mayors race came to a shocking halt in early March after Stotherts husband, Dr. Joe Stothert, died by suicide near the couples southwest Omaha home. Stothert, Neary and other challengers paused campaigning as the Stothert family mourned. Just 11 days later, she appeared with her children during an emotional press conference discussing her husbands death. It soon became clear that Stothert planned to forge ahead in the race. Along with managing the streets bond issue to shore up roads and working to continue to spur economic development, Stothert said she wants to enhance Omahas reputation as a city for anyone. Said Stothert: Ours will be an even more inclusive city, one that welcomes everyone and where everyone feels at home. District 4 In South Omaha, Councilman Vinny Palermo was headed to a second term representing District 4. He is owner and operator of Vinnys Tree Service. Palermo could not be reached for comment. He campaigned on his record of bringing improved streets to South Omaha and strong constituent service. Palermo is a Democrat. Becky Barrientos-Patlan, a Republican, is the founder and president of Burlington Road Neighborhood Association. Omaha voters chose experience over change Tuesday as they delivered a decisive reelection victory to Mayor Jean Stothert, who will soon begin a historic third term. Stothert held a 2-to-1 advantage over challenger RJ Neary in late Tuesday evening returns. Stothert, who in 2013 became the first woman to serve as Omahas mayor, now has four more years to oversee multiple city-defining projects, including a long-term plan to fix city streets, completion of the riverfront parks overhaul and redevelopments happening at the former Crossroads Mall and Civic Auditorium sites. Stothert, 67, is the only mayor to be elected to three terms in modern Omaha history. During a victory speech at A View on State, a venue in northwest Omaha, Stothert said her overwhelming victory validated the work she and her administration have done over the past eight years. And while Stothert said that many challenges lie ahead, we are so happy that voters decided that we are the best team to address them. Stothert thanked Neary and his family for the work theyve done to make Omaha a better place, saying his experience, his passion, and his ideas made him a very worthy candidate. 10:55 p.m. Omaha City Council races were largely settled late Tuesday night, although more votes remain to be counted on Friday. Voters reelected incumbent Pete Festersen over Sarah Johnson to represent the Dundee, Benson and Florence areas. Incumbent Vinny Palermo also was well ahead of Becky Barrientos-Patlan in South Omaha, 3,897 to 2,502. Incumbent Brinker Harding was reelected to the councils District 6 seat over challenger Naomi Hattaway with a nearly 2-to-1 margin as of Tuesday evening. In District 2 in northeast Omaha, incumbent Ben Gray appeared close to losing his seat to challenger Juanita Johnson. Johnson continued to build a lead over Gray as the returns came in 3,800 to 2,990 as of the final release of the evening. Don Rowe was solidly ahead of Patrick Leahy for the District 5 seat representing southwest Omaha, including the Millard area. District 5 was the only race in which a running incumbent didn't advance from the primary to the general election. In the District 3 race in central Omaha, Danny Begley appears likely to defeat Cammy Watkins. He led 6,107 to 5,145. Begley would replace Chris Jerram, who is stepping aside after serving in the seat since 2009. Under the agreement, state parties will get $12,500 each month from the DNC, up from the $10,000 they received during much of President Donald Trumps tenure. State parties will have no restrictions on the money, though most are expected to hire more staff. The deal also extends a data sharing arrangement among the DNC, state parties and other national committees, including Democrats Senate and House campaign committees. All participants get access to DNCs main voter file and then share whatever new information each gleans from individual voters during an election cycle. Democrats fought for years over such a model, establishing an exchange only after Trumps 2016 victory showed Republicans had used their own version to lap Democrats in using data to reach voters. A new additional program will boost payments to Democratic parties in GOP-dominated states, defined as meeting two of three measures: a supermajority Republican legislature, no Democrat in the governors office or U.S. Senate, or a congressional delegation that is at least three-fourths Republican. Democrats said 18 states qualify. They'll get an additional $2,500 in monthly support, plus be eligible for grants to fund specific programs, such as voter registration. Mays cried and apologized in addressing the court briefly before learning her sentence. I know that theres no words that I can say that would alter the families pain and comfort, she said. I dont ask for forgiveness because I dont think I could forgive anyone for doing what I did. Hospital officials reported the deaths to the VA inspector general and fired Mays after evidence pointed to her. An interview with Mays after her guilty plea was included in a lengthy report released after Tuesday's sentencing by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General detailing deficiencies at the hospital. In it, she said she administered insulin to patients she believed were suffering so they that could pass gently. She said she also had great stress and chaos in her personal and professional life, and that her actions gave her a sense of control. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarod Douglas called her actions predatory and planned, not reactionary. These men were not in need of mercy by the defendant, Douglas said. In the end it wasnt the defendants call to make. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Sean Parnell, a decorated Army veteran whose regular guest on Fox News programs helped make him a favorite of former President Donald Trump, announced his candidacy Tuesday for the Republican nomination for Pennsylvania's open U.S. Senate seat. Parnell, who unsuccessfully challenged Democratic U.S. Rep. Conor Lamb in western Pennsylvania last year, has spent weeks saying he was considering a run. On Tuesday, he updated his social media accounts, launched a new Senate campaign site and made his official announcement to a couple hundred people gathered outdoors at a suburban Pittsburgh restaurant. The campaign for an open U.S. Senate seat in the presidential battleground state could be the nation's most competitive next year. Both the Democratic and Republican fields are getting crowded, with a year to go until next years primary election. Parnell is an Army combat veteran who served in Afghanistan and went on to write a memoir on the war in Afghanistan and author two action novels. At the event, Parnell, 39, cast the opposition against President Joe Biden in warlike terms. Walmart spokesperson Scott Pope said we communicate with associates in stores where there has been a confirmed case. Any time you operate more than 5,000 facilities across the country there is the opportunity for variance in how a recommended process is executed, he said. Since April 2020, OSHA has released an updated list, including company names, of complaints related to COVID-19 that the agency has deemed valid. In Colorado, approximately 98% of workplaces with reported COVID-19 outbreaks did not appear on that list as of March. Twenty-one states have their own OSHA plans overseeing private businesses. They must meet all the federal standards but can impose stricter rules if they choose. In those states, the rate of complaints was five times higher than in states where the federal government exclusively oversees workplace safety. More complaints dont guarantee more inspections. In Oregon, which is among the states with the most COVID-19 complaints for Walmart, only one complaint led to an inspection. As of March 24, at least 10 Walmart locations in the state were linked to outbreaks with over five cases, including a Hermiston distribution center linked to 124 recorded cases, the consortium found. Chinese premier calls for social atmosphere that spurs innovation, creativity Xinhua) 08:44, May 12, 2021 Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, presides over a symposium on the special government allowance system in Beijing, capital of China, May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday called for unremitting efforts to foster a social atmosphere that respects science, knowledge and talent and spurs innovation and creativity. Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks while presiding over a symposium on the special government allowance system. Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the symposium. Several representatives of the allowance receivers spoke at the meeting, offering suggestions on improving the allowance system, supporting young talents and other matters. China's special government allowances are granted as rewards and honorary titles to outstanding talents that are deemed highly professional or skilled in their specialized fields of work such as scientific study, medical treatment, education and technical operation. Lauding the achievements the special government allowance system has made over the past three decades since its inception, Li called for more efforts in improving talent incentive mechanisms to pool wisdom and strength for China's high-quality development and modernization. More emphasis should be placed on the training of the basics in cultivating talents, Li said, calling for more support for basic research that might bring no fame and research that demands a long-term commitment. Li urged efforts to promote the spirit of science, craftsmanship and professionalism. He also called for more international exchanges and cooperation to boost innovation and creativity. He further emphasized a favorable environment for talents to grow and play their roles, and said various reforms must be deepened to remove restrictions. More outstanding young researchers should be encouraged to play leading roles in major scientific research projects, he said. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Lisanti, who also was on hand for the celebration last week, lauded Sheffield and his family as well as the mayor and council for their support. She noted that the Sheffields push to allow medical cannabis in schools had been extremely controversial, as marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, and state education officials frowned upon bringing any type of experimental medication into the school system. The federal programs have come under increasing scrutiny around the nation as employers scramble to find workers. The programs include one that provides jobless workers with a $300 weekly federal benefit on top of state unemployment checks that average about $320. President Joe Biden, who included the extra money in his $1.9 trillion rescue package approved in March, disputed that the $300 supplemental payment is to blame Monday. But he also urged the Labor Department to work with states on renewing requirements that those receiving aid must search for jobs and take a position if offered. The job search rule was suspended during the pandemic, when many businesses were closed. Anyone collecting unemployment who is offered a suitable job must take the job or lose their unemployment benefits, Biden said. In Nebraska, Ricketts reinstated work search requirements in July. The requirements apply to workers receiving regular unemployment and the additional $300 in federal pandemic unemployment benefits. They also apply to self-employed and gig workers receiving special pandemic unemployment benefits and to those getting extended weeks of benefits, also made available through the federal relief legislation. Nebraskas state motto Equality before the law means that the law must show the same fairness to all residents, whatever their background. The motto has an additional meaning: It places an obligation on public agencies to make sure they give no special treatment to elite individuals. Fremont police failed that important obligation through their mishandling in January of the breath testing of then-Dodge County Attorney Oliver Glass. A preliminary breath test for Glass registered at .20 2 times the legal limit. But police waited a good half hour before taking him to the Fremont police station, and even then failed to have him blow into a more advanced machine required in court to confirm preliminary readings. That needless failure hamstrung prosecutors in their recent case in which Glass faced possible conviction for second-offense aggravated DUI. (Concern arose after Glass allegedly showed up drunk to pick up his children from his estranged wife.) But the botched police investigation created major difficulties for successful prosecution. Veteran prosecutor Brenda Beadle acknowledged the problem in court and agreed to reduce Glass second DUI charge to a first-offense DUI. She also agreed to a defense request that the judge run the sentences for both the DUI and a probation violation simultaneously. The Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) has finally unveiled Ghanas first ever Professional Marketing Qualifications. The launch took place last week at the plush auditorium of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) campus. The colourful ceremony attracted over two hundred (200) guests physically with more than three hundred (300) others joining virtually on Microsoft Teams and another large audience following the event live on various social media platforms, from Ghana, across Africa and elsewhere around the globe. It will be recalled that CIMG, last year, promised to introduce its own programmes to train and certify professional Marketers locally, upon the passage of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1021) in August 2020. The launch, therefore, brings an end to the practice, where students had to find hard currency to pursue professional marketing education abroad, with its attendant unpleasant implications for the individuals and also the nation. This is ample demonstration of the Institutes resolve to making professional marketing qualifications accessible and affordable to all Ghanaians as a commitment to making a substantial contribution to national development. In his welcome address, the National President of CIMG, Dr. Daniel Kasser Tee intimated that; With the launch of the CIMG qualifications, students can now complete a Bachelors, Masters and Professional qualifications in about 4-5 years with very little resources. The programme is therefore highly attractive and competitive, whether as a standalone professional course or as an academic degree, making it an unparalleled novelty and innovation in our part of the world. He implored all partner Universities, serving as Accredited Study Centres (ASCs), to show commitment by encouraging as many students as possible to enrol on the programme, in view of the important role of marketing in building successful businesses. I call on captains of industry and chief marketing officers from the corporate world to provide the needed support, in cash or kind sponsorship, even if you are to purchase advertising slots in the study manuals and student handbooks, to ensure that CIMG succeeds in training Marketers with the requisite know-how to solve local problems, he concluded. Performing the launch was Mr. Benjamin Gyasi, Chief Director at the Ministry of Education, who delivered the keynote address on behalf of the Guest of Honour Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister for Education and MP for Bosomtwe constituency. He first congratulated CIMG on reaching such a significant milestone and challenged the leadership to continue working harder to improve the achievements made thus far. He indicated that it has always been a deliberate policy of government and the ministry to promote the interest of recognised professional bodies, which heavily depend on foreign programmes for their professional training to be able to wean themselves off, with local alternatives. This, he said, was partly the reason for promoting and ensuring the passage into law of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana Act, 2020 (Act 1021). This is ample testimony of His Excellencys desire to ensure that all professional bodies in Ghana are adequately empowered, legally, to put in place measures for self-regulation to guide the conduct of individual members and their professional practice. Mr. Gyasi concluded by saying that; It is my expectation, as we witness this launch today, that other institutions will emulate this worthy example of CIMG by forming partnerships and collaborations with others to review and modify their respective curricular to meet current trends and the demands of our time. This way, Ghana will be producing graduates who are practically oriented in finding practical solutions to the myriad of challenges the country is faced with. There were solidarity messages from the former Minister of Education and now Minister of Energy, Dr. Matthew Opoku-Prempeh, through the deputy Minister-designate for Energy and MP for Sekondi constituency, Honourable Andrew Egyapa Mercer, Professor Mohammed Salifu, Director General of Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC), through the Head of Public Affairs for GTEC, Dr. Lawrence Kwarteng-Ashia. The rest were the Vice Chancellor of UPSA Prof. Abednego Feehi Okoe Amartey, Mr. P. Kwasi Agyemang the CEO of the Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG) and Mr. Gillian Rusike, the Secretary General of the African Marketing Confederation (AMC) who delivered his message from Harare, Zimbabwe. Present at the ceremony were Professor emeritus Stephen Adei, a Fellow, Patron and past President of the Institute, Fellows and Patrons of the Institute, President of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, Deans and Heads of Departments from CIMG Accredited Study Centres, among others. A Brief About CIMG The Chartered Institute of Marketing, Ghana (CIMG) is a Marketing Professional body established in 1981 with the aim to lead in the development of world-class marketing professionals and practitioners for the effective practice of the profession in Ghana. It is also, the aim of the institute to promote the interest of both individual and corporate members through various interventions; the provision of marketing professional advice and services to corporate bodies and the promotion of marketing excellence through the institution of the CIMG Annual Marketing Performance Awards. The core values of the Institute are Creativity, Leadership, Integrity and Professionalism which it has been pursuing over the years with admirable success. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship at MIT has launched the Foundry Fellowship, a first-of-its-kind leadership program for accomplished entrepreneurs who are considering their role in shaping the future of the African innovation ecosystems in which they work and live. At an inflection point in their entrepreneurial journeys, Fellows will learn from MIT faculty, connect with investors, and expand their network of peer innovators. The Fellowship is open to entrepreneurs working and living in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda. Building on the MIT ethos of Mens et Manus (Mind and Hand), the Foundry is a place where entrepreneurs come together to reflect on their achievements and shape their futures as leaders in business, investing, and governance. The program includes an interactive online curriculum followed by a three-week immersive session that brings the cohort together to explore innovation-driven ecosystems. The Foundry Fellowship presents a unique opportunity to bring MIT resources and knowledge to these critical innovation ecosystems and, importantly, also offers MIT an opportunity to learn from successful leaders and their innovative solutions. Professor Fiona Murray, Faculty Director of the Legatum Center, described this opportunity to expand MITs innovation network [as] a moment for the Fellows to reflect on [their entrepreneurial] journey that also allows us to learn from them. They can use this experience as a stepping-off point as they move to the next stage of ecosystem-wide leadership. As a school dedicated to the development of principled, innovative leaders who improve the world, MIT Sloan looks forward to welcoming the Legatum Foundry Fellows to Cambridge and to the MIT community, said David Schmittlein, John C Head III Dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management. A Collaboration between the Legatum Center and The Mastercard Foundation Through this collaboration with the Mastercard Foundation, the Foundry Fellowship will deepen the impact of leaders who are solving complex problems, creating jobs, and bringing essential services to millions through innovation-driven business models. With the worlds fastest growing youth population, Africa is home to 4 of the worlds top 5 fastest-growing economies, has the fastest urbanization rate in the world, and has a rapidly expanding middle class predicted to increase business and consumer spending. Innovation and entrepreneurial solutions are a critical component to continued growth and prosperous people and societies across the continent. Africas entrepreneurs are building businesses that offer lessons in inclusion, sustainability, and value creation that extend far beyond the continent. As a global network of entrepreneurs, investors, and thought leaders, the Legatum Centers Foundry offers a platform for leaders to share their stories and consider new ways to extend their impact in their local ecosystems and around the world. Dina Sherif, Executive Director of the Legatum Center says, To propel Africa forward and remain competitive globally, we need innovation-led entrepreneurship and robust African entrepreneurial ecosystems. The Foundry Fellowship supports African entrepreneurs to transition to entrepreneurial leaders who work with various stakeholders to strengthen and improve their ecosystems. The Foundry Fellowship is a competitive program for outstanding entrepreneurial leaders working in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda. The Legatum Center will accept nominations from May 3 May 20, 2021. A nomination is not required to apply; entrepreneurs are invited to submit an application directly. All nominees and applicants must submit a completed application by 11:59 PM EDT on June 10, 2021 to be considered for the program. Nomination and application information is available at legatum.mit.edu/foundry-fellowship/. An initial cohort of 15 Fellows will be selected for this fully-funded program. Media requests for should be addressed to Courtney Schoon at [email protected] Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul says no innocent persons life will be lost in the fight against illegal mining (galamsey). The Minister, addressing the press at the Ministry of Information in Accra on Tuesday, May 11, disclosed that the Military air operation has been sanctioned where the soldiers will use the helicopter to track illegal mining activities. Showing a video at the Meet the Press, the Military were seen firing gunshots into river bodies where mining activities are carried out, although there was no presence of people in the areas when the air operation personnel fired the shots. There are fears over the Militarys air operation as part of their orders to remove persons and machinery in mining areas. Hon. Dominic Nitiwul, in response, has allayed the fears. He stated; No innocent persons life will be lost. The Military will continue to do what they have to do on the water bodies and 100 meters off it to ensure that all equipment seized are destroyed, but the Military will not target . . . to take lives but I cant guarantee because [incidents] accidents happen. He, however, issued a caveat stressing there will only be a loss of life should any person attempt attacks on the Military personnel deployed to protect the river bodies. A life will be lost if somebody attacks the Military..., he said. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul has hinted that the soldiers deployed to mining areas might have the orders to shoot illegal miners if need be. He made this conjecture while delivering a speech at the Ministry of Information's ''Meet the Press'' series on Tuesday, May 11. The Minister noted that there have been no arrest of the illegal miners since the Military began their operation as instructed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, President Nana Akufo-Addo, to remove all persons and machines in the mining communities. Dominic Nitiwul stated that no arrest has been made so far because, "most illegal miners took to their heels. The moment they see the Military, they took to their heels but the Military decided that, at this face, they will not be shooting anybody." He expounded, "So, they run off and so they couldn't get people to arrest . . . even the safety of the troops themselves, they decided that, if somebody is running into the forest, into the bush, you don't know what he is carrying, you don't know what he is doing; the only thing you could have done is to have shot him but they decided that this is not the time to do that." The Minister superficially added that, although the Military have resisted themselves from firing gunshots, "maybe in future, it may happen; I don't know but, for now, this is not the time to do that and so we couldn't make any arrest for now". Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The GNPC Foundation has attributed delays in the payment of stipends to medical scholars in Cuba, to a disagreement over the mode of payment of the stipends. According to the Executive Director of the GNPC Foundation, Dr Dominic Eduah, the students preferred to be paid cash in hand, although financial protocols do not allow that. He said the GNPC wanted funds transferred onto the financial cards of students instead. Speaking to Citi News after visiting the family of one of the medical students in Cuba who passed on, Dr Eduah said, GNPC tried at all times to make life comfortable for their scholars in Cuba. From the GNPCs angle, we want to state that we have been overly committed as far as our contract with the students is concerned. We have formed a monitoring team. We travel to Cuba every year but for COVID-19 we would have gone last year. We have been engaging students on their issues. Not that we have abandoned them. On the side of them being served low-quality meals, we beg to differ. The majority of the medical students who are on the GNPC scholarship say the harsh conditions they currently live in have been worsened by a delay in the release of their stipends. According to them, long delays in the payment of stipends, the lack of access to basic healthcare amid a global pandemic, and what they call the unresponsive attitude of the Ghanaian mission in that country, are to blame for their situation. They claim the situation led to the avoidable death of their colleague, Erasmus Klutse. Why stipends delayed A memo from the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat, dated March 18, 2021, and sighted by Citi News, however attributed the delay to the transitional formalities which are affecting the release of funds for the settlement of scholarship commitments. [The] Mission is therefore respectfully requested to take note of the development and disseminate the information to all scholarship beneficiaries. Students are advised to be prudent and eschew embarrassing actions in their respective countries, the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat said in the document signed by Registrar of Scholarships, Kingsley Agyemang. Source: class fm Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Deputy Majority Leader of Parliament, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin, has cautioned that until we weed out galamsey from our forests and water bodies, Ghana will have to import water from neighboring countries. Taking his turn on JoyNews PM Express hosted by Evans Mensah on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, the lawmaker indicated that as a country, until we root out illegal mining activities, we shall find it difficult getting water to drink in ten years to come. Evans, until we stop these galamsey activities, in ten years to come, we shall have no water to drink he stated matter-of-factly. The Effutu Member of Parliament who hitherto, was the board chairman of the Ghana Water Company Limited stated that the activities of illegal miners have affected Ghanas sources of water. In his submission, our forests cover, our water bodies, streams, rivers, lakes are at the mercy of these illegal mining activities, making it extremely difficult for Ghana Water Company to produce water in large quantities for the citizenry. He also stressed that galamsey has made it quite expensive for clean and quality water to be produced. He urged all Ghanaians to join in the fight against galamsey so as to prevent this looming calamity of the country having to spend hard cash to import water for domestic consumption. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video General Sergeant Kennedy Asomani, accused of collecting GH100,000.00 from forty-four persons under the pretext of enlisting them into the Ghana Police Service but failed, has appeared before An Accra Circuit Court. General Sergeant Asomani, now on interdiction, is said to have told the complainants that he was enlisting people through Protocol links to the Service. Accused is facing four counts of defrauding by false pretenses. He has denied the charges when his plea was taken in Twi language. The court presided over by Mrs. Priscilla Dapaah Mireku, admitted him to bail in the sum of GH100,000.00 with three sureties, one to be justified. Asomani has since refunded GH33,000.00 out of the amount in open court. The court has ordered prosecution to file their disclosures two days to the next adjourned date. Asomani is expected to reappear on June 8. Defense Counsel, Mr Benjamin Afari prayed the court to admit his client to bail as he was not a flight risk and that his client would not interfere in police investigations. According to Mr Afari, Asomani had credible persons who would stand as sureties for him, adding that accused had monetized some of his property to defray the cost. Defense counsel said when remanded into custody, accused would not be able to sell those properties. Prosecuting Police Chief Inspector John S.K. Gohoho prayed the court to attach strings to the bail condition such that it would compel accused to attend to court. Chief Inspector Gohoho informed the court that the Police had so far retrieved GH33,000.00 from the accused person. Prosecutions case was that the complainants, John Takyi, Eric Affum Apraku, Kissy Patterson and Daniel Oppong are a book seller, a Public servant, Fire Officer and Police Civilian Employee, respectively. Chief Inspector Gohoho said Asomani stationed with the Estate Unit of the Ghana Police Service headquarters is on interdiction. Prosecution said during year 2018 and 2019, accused persons went round introducing himself to a number of people including the four complainant that he was enlisting people into the Ghana Police Service through protocol links. According to prosecution, Asomani also told the complainant that he had and could help any of their relatives who wanted to be enlisted into the Ghana Police Service. Based on the assurance of the accused persons, Jasper Takyi one of the complainants, parted with GH62,500.00 on behalf of 25 people. Prosecution said accused collected GH8,500.00 from the Affum, the second complainant and GH20,000.00 from the Patterson and later Asomani collected GH6,500.00 from the Oppong, the fourth complainant, under the pretext that he was going to recruit their wards into the Ghana Police Service. Prosecution said Asomani could not honour his promise and went into hiding. On April 29, this year, Asomani was arrested by the complainants from his hideout at Kanda, Accra and handed over to the Police at Cantonments for further investigations. Prosecution said during investigations cash in the sum of GH33,000.00 was retrieved from Asomani. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Bono Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP), Kwame Baffoe, has told President Akufo-Addo and the Minister for Lands and Natural resources, Abu Jinapor that the fight against illegal mining popularly known as galamsey will be a fiasco if they do not tackle the fight from within the ruling government. According to him, some top government and party officials are deeply involved in the illegal mining business which is fast depleting the country's forest reserve and destroying so many water bodies. Speaking on Okay FM's 'Ade Akye Abia' programme, he explained that the fight against illegal mining which was initiated by President Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo has been thwarted by these so-called illegal miners who derive their authority from the government and some party officials. The vociferous regional Chairman added that he has personally visited some of these galamsey sites and can boldly say that some party and government officials are greatly involved in the illegal mining business. He said the canker will be very difficult to fight hence the President should rather concerntrate on protecting the various water bodies used by the Ghana Water Company Limited and being destroyed by Galamsey. "With what I've seen and what is following, I will only suggest that they concentrate on our water bodies so we get water to drink . . . it won't be a success . . . the President should rather concentrate on protecting our water bodies . . ." he said. Abu Jinapor will have to muster the courage in his quest to end it or he will fail like his fellow Ministers. Watch video below The 200 military personnel dispatched by the government to flush out illegal miners on Ghanas water bodies have destroyed nine excavators, 127 changfans, and one fuel pump.The exercise christened Operation Halt has also led to the arrest of two Chinese nationals.Outlining the scope of work of the team, the Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, warned that the armed military men will take action against persons who are found to have returned to the site.It is noted that since the operation commenced on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, to Thursday, April 29, 2021, the troops have destroyed a good deal of equipment including nine excavators and 127 changfans. Furthermore, the following items have been seized and would have been but for the fact that they will be used as exhibits in court for prosecution. The items include 824 plate batteries, one pump action gun case, a generator, a Huawei phone, a chainsaw machine, eight raincoats, fuel filters, non-citizen Ghana 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 also noted that they will be patrolling and operating in galamsey-endemic regions, where major river bodies and forest reserves have been polluted.This operation will be conducted on all major river and forest reserves in all galamsey endemic regions throughout the country to rip them of illegal mining activities. Source: Isaac Kwame Owusu/Peacefmonline.com/[email protected] Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The focus on future capital projects is necessary as Havre de Grace will compete for contractors with other municipalities, counties and states that will have tens of millions or billions of federal dollars that must be spent within three years. The COVID relief funds must be used by December 2024. The Bono Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe has hit hard at a supposed member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who is the crusader of the Fix The Country campaign against the Akufo-Addo government. According to him, the Fix The Country campaign is championed by one Vormenyo, a former Senior Legal and Policy Advisor for former President Atta Mills and former President John Mahama from 2009 and 2016. "So, those who are shouting fix the country especially one Vormenyo should have revealed his identity to Ghanaians very well. Why is he hiding his identity from Ghanaians? He is shouting 'fix the country' but I want to ask you whether you are aware that between 2009 and 2016, he worked at the office of the President. He was the senior legal and policy advisor for former President Mills and former President John Mahama, he asserted. He was of the view that the call for President Akufo-Addo to Fix The Country has a political tone. Speaking on Okay FMs Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Abronye DC as affectionately called, said that the conveners of the Fix The Country should be specific with the areas they think should be fixed. "When we talk of the bad economy, it is not only one thing but rather we are talking about the agriculture sector, trade and industry, the security side, and the road infrastructure. These comprise the economy and so if you say fix the country, which sector under this government led by President Akufo-Addo do you think needs to be fixed?" he quizzed. He stressed that Vormenyos paymasters are pushing him to shout fix the country, indicating why he has not been able to mention some of the specific things of the economy that were fixed under former President Mills and John Mahama that have been destroyed under President Akufo-Addo. First of all, those who are saying fix the country when the NDC was in power, the position of Ghana in the agriculture sector in the world was 78th and the sector grew 0.4 per cent for the entire 8 years of the NDC in power. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is not even 8 years in power but the Agriculture sector has grown by 6 per cent and Ghana is not one of the countries in Africa which has hunger issue, he argued. Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The former MP of Kumbungu, Ras Mubarak, is threatening to rally support on social media to boycott local businesses linked to members of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) if a move to organise the #FixTheCountry protest is not allowed. The police last week secured a court order to prevent the #FixTheCounry campaigners from embarking on a public protest on 9 May. The conveners described the move as an attempt by government to sabotage their campaign. Speaking to Beatrice Adu on The Big Bulletin, the former NDC MP said government must allow the organisers to demonstrate. I am sounding a word of caution that, if these things continue, there will be recriminations their businesses would suffer, he said. Mubarak added: We will make sure we use social media to galvanise Ghanaians to boycott certain businesses so that you dont have these cultures of silence being perpetuated. Let me sound a word of caution to organisations, businesses, media houses who are hounding out journalists for trying to hold the government to account that there will be recriminations. And one of the tools available to the ordinary Ghanaians is boycott Mubarak also condemned some government officials for asking Ghanaians to fix themselves in the wake of demand by the youth for government to fix the country. He said the recent attempt by the Chairman of the NPP, Freddie Blay, to link the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to the #FixTheCountry protest is an insult to Ghanaians. Source: asaaseradio.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Managing Editor of the Insight newspaper, Kwesi Pratt has endorsed the ''fix the country'' campaign by some Ghanaian youth. The campaign is geared towards putting President Nana Addo's administration on its toes to improve the living conditions of the populace. The youth have generated #fixthecountry on social media to convey their grievances to the President regarding how he is steering the affairs of the country. They complain about poor governance system adopted by the President in his second term. This agitation began after an announcement days ago that fuel prices would be increased which, following a public outcry, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has reduced the prices from 17 pesewas to 9 pesewas. Contributing to Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Mr. Pratt explained that the ''fix the country'' campaigners' reasons for embarking on their protest is justifiable. The group gave a reason that they were embarking on the demonstration like the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo did years ago when he joined thousands on the ''Kum Me Preko'' protest. They also listed a number of concerns like the irregular power supply, fuel price hikes and so forth that they would like the President to fix. To Kwesi Pratt, these concerns were also the concerns of the ''Kum Me Preko'' protesters for which the President was a part of. He also alluded to the President's criticisms of the late President John Atta Mills' administration where he (Nana Addo) told the late President to fix the economy because he was elected Head of State to resolve their plight of the citizens, not for him to complain about previous government's performance. "It scares and alarms that some people say they want to do what the President did and some people are annoyed. Why are you angry? What the President did, was it not a good thing at the time? If it was a good thing, why can't someone else replicate it?" "Didn't our President once say we should fix the country? He said it. Do you remember when he told Professor Mills to fix the country because he is the Head of State? It's the same thing they're saying. There's no difference," he stated. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Seasoned Journalist, Kwesi Pratt has slammed the Police for prohibiting the ''fix the country'' conveners from embarking on their demonstration. The conveners scheduled last Sunday, May 9, to have a protest march but the Police secured a restraining order from the High Court to stop them. The court order read that the conveners, their associates and all parties interested in taking the protest march were "prohibited from embarking on any demonstration on Sunday, 9th May, 2021 or any other date until the restriction on public gathering is lifted by the appropriate authority''. But Kwesi Pratt has questioned the Police's decision for going to court to restrict the demonstration. Kwesi Pratt didn't hold with the Police citing the COVID-19 restrictions as their basis for their action because, to him, if politicians could hold rallies regardless of the COVID-19 protocols, then the protesters too deserved the same treatment. ''The COVID would have been a legitimate concern, but from all observations, we see that in some instances these COVID protocols doesn't stop large gatherings . . . Were there not COVID protocols when we did political campaign? You saw the rallies that were done in this country during the political campaign. So, why is that when it is about political campaigns, the COVID protocols don't matter but when it's about demonstrations, COVID protocols matter? ''If we had applied the COVID protocols and it applies to all situations, all people, all institutions, all organizations, we would have known that justice is being served . . . But since we didn't do it before but applying it this way today, it has interpretations, it has repercussions and so on . . . So, why is it that when it reaches the turn of some people, we say the protocols don't apply and so on; no enforcement of the protocols? ''Even at the airport where we say it's an epicenter and must be critically checked because of the spread of COVID-19, we don't even enforce the protocols there, but when it comes to demonstration, we say we should enforce it. It's very disturbing," he said on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme. Mr. Pratt also took a swipe at the governing New Patriotic Party over the Police going to court for a restraining order because, in his explanation, a Court of Appeal had ruled that these tactics where the Police go for an ex parte to stop protesters isn't not a good thing and that the right thing is for them to go on notice. Ex parte refer to motions for orders that can be granted without waiting for a response from the other side. Mr. Pratt stressed that these tactics had been condemned by all parties including the New Patriotic Party long ago and so he "had confidence that when the NPP comes into power, these tactics won't be used again but still we're using these tactics that we all spoke against''. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Deputy Minister-nominee for Finance, John Kumah, has hit back at persons criticizing government officials for living a profligate lifestyle at the expense of poor living conditions of the average citizen and national development. Appearing on the Monday, May 10, 2021, edition of Citi TVs Point of View, the Ejisu Member of Parliament argued that despite the nation facing problems that require efficient and cost-effective spending, taking away the privileges of officials including MPs will not automatically translate into alleviating the plight of the average Ghanaian. I totally agree with you. What I am saying is that when these savings have been done, we will still come back to people are suffering because these are structural issues and we need long-term planning and ideas to resolve them. Sometimes, in your attempt to deprive certain opportunities for those who are serving, you may even be compounding the solution rather than allowing them to be able to drive well to go to work and do the same work, he said. In a back-and-forth argument with the host, Bernard Avle, the Deputy Minister argued that in the case of MPs, their job makes it incumbent for them to enjoy the privileges they enjoy. Let me tell you, the Member of Parliaments V8 is bought with his own money, its a loan. I dont get the point we are making. Are you saying that you are the same as the Member of Parliament? The car that he drives, he is buying it with his own money, he stated. Asked about the disparity in the end-of-term benefits of MPs and that of a nurse who may have worked for a decade, Mr Kumah retorted saying MPs by virtue of their work have a lot of duties bestowed on them. Bernard Avle: When he (an MP) leaves power after 10-years how much does he take home, is that the same as what the nurse who has served for 10-years take home? John Kumah: But you, at the end of the week, how many funerals do you attend? Benard Avle: Me? I dont have many funerals. Jonh Kumah: You dont even attend any. Yes, the Member of Parliament has to attend about 10 funerals. Bernard Avle: Is that part of your job description? John Kumah: Yes, it is. Bernard Avle: What are you talking about? Source: ghanaweb.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Fresh war has erupted over the burial of the late former president Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The former presidents widow, Grace Mugabe has been summoned by Chief Zvimba, the traditional leader for the area, to explain why she buried Mugabe improperly at his rural home in Zvimba. Some quarters have alleged that this part of a deliberate ploy to have Mugabes remains exhumed and reburied. The late president died in Singapore in September 2019. Following a protracted wrangle between his family and the government he was finally buried at his home village in Kutama, Zvimba in Mashonaland West. Read Full Story .... harare.com >>> : Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Founder and Leader of the Glorious Word Power Ministries International, Reverend Isaac Owusu-Bempah, has, in a new video during a church service on Sunday, 9th May 9, 2021 discounted a prophecy he gave way back in 2015 and explained that there is now no hindrance to Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia becoming President of Ghana. According to him, though God revealed it to him that there was a hindrance to the then running mate succeeding then candidate Akufo-Addo, He (God) also showed him what to do to avert it. There is a 2015 prophetic video of me going viral which was about our Vice President Bawumia. It was in 2015 that God through me gave that prophecy he said in the new video. He questioned the rationale behind the video being circulated six years after that prophetic word came to him. One thing is, that prophetic word was in 2015, the NPP came to power in 2016. We are in 2021, how many years? Six years. Why is it this time that some people are using that part of the message and spreading it? he queried. Rev. Owusu-Bempah emphasized that though God revealed that to him then, the same God also showed him what to do to prevent what loomed ahead of Dr. Bawumia. Then God said to me He was going to reveal to me what would hinder the prophecy from coming to pass. And I prayed about it and God showed me what I should do to avert it. We did it the man of God stated. He also said that God told him that Akufo-Addo's Presidency was intact and it was left with that of his running mate. And we worked on that of Bawumia. Brethren, I am saying that we worked on that one as well Prophet Owusu-Bempah reiterated. The man of God ended his sermon by saying that God reveals to redeem and He did just that as He (God) showed him what to do for Dr Bawumia and it was done. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has condemned National Security operatives for besieging the premises of Citi FM/Citi TV in a bid to arrest a journalist, Zoe Abu-Baidoo, after arresting her colleague, Caleb Kudah. Mr. Ablakwa insists the move by the security agency is outmoded and must be condemned by all well-meaning Ghanaians. According to him, this has not only exposed the growing intolerance, dwindling respect for human rights and wanton abuse of power by government officials; it has also brought to the fore the lack of sophistication and the continuous preference for buga buga outmoded security tactics. He, therefore, charged the security agency to find innovative ways to remotely block, hack, impede or prevent any information considered injurious to national security from being circulated in the cyberspace. Mr. Ablakwa also said recent actions of the National Security have exposed challenges within the countrys security apparatus to the world. National security should stop embarrassing us to the international community and even more worrying, they must stop exposing their pathetic cybersecurity vulnerabilities to criminals and potential enemies of Ghana for as the experts have warned, the next frontier of war is cyberwarfare. The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has also described the incident as unlawful and preposterous. The partys National Communications Officer, Mr. Sammy Gyamfi, said oppression of journalists and citizens by the despotic Akufo-Addo government must stop. According to the party, it wont allow the said acts to continue. The NDC condemns in no uncertain terms, the arrest of Caleb Kudah and the Gestapo invasion of the office of Citi FM by armed National Security operatives. About the raid and arrest A team of seven heavily-armed police officers besieged the premises of Citi FM and Citi TV in an attempt to arrest one of the stations journalists, Zoe Abu-Baidoo. Zoe was targeted in the raid after the police accused her of electronically receiving some video files from her colleague, Caleb Kudah. Mr. Kudah, also a broadcast journalist and Host of BackPage on Citi TV, had been accused of filming some abandoned cars at the Ministry of National Security, a supposed restricted security zone on Tuesday, and had sent the videos to Zoe via WhatsApp. The security operatives after arresting Caleb Kudah, subsequently raided Citi FM in an attempt to arrest Zoe. However, both Mr. kudah and Zoe Abu-Baidoo were released later in the day on Tuesday. Source: citinewsroom Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video After marrying his wife, Bill Gates would spend a long weekend every year at a cozy beach cottage in North Carolina with his old girlfriend. The billionaire Microsoft founder made sure the bizarre arrangement was part of the deal when he married Melinda French in 1994, he told Time magazine in a 1997 profile. We can play putt-putt while discussing biotechnology, Gates said of his private getaways with fellow nerd techie and ex Ann Winblad who is now happily married to actor Kevin Klines detective brother, Alex Kline, a source told The Post on Tuesday. Gates even sought Winblads approval before proposing to his wife. When I was off on my own thinking about marrying Melinda, I called Ann and asked for her approval, he said, adding that Winblad gave the other woman the thumbs up. Read Full Story .... nypost.com >>> : Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Credit: CC0 Public Domain The 'missing link' that helped our ancestors to begin communicating with each other through language may have been iconic sounds, rather than charades-like gesturesgiving rise to the unique human power to coin new words describing the world around us, a new study reveals. It was widely believed that, in order to get the first languages off the ground, our ancestors first needed a way to create novel signals that could be understood by others, relying on visual signs whose form directly resembled the intended meaning. However, an international research team, led by experts from the University of Birmingham and the Leibniz-Center General Linguistics (ZAS), Berlin, have discovered that iconic vocalizations can convey a much wider range of meanings more accurately than previously supposed. The researchers tested whether people from different linguistic backgrounds could understand novel vocalizations for 30 different meanings common across languages and which might have been relevant in early language evolution. These meanings spanned animate entities, including humans and animals (child, man, woman, tiger, snake, deer), inanimate entities (knife, fire, rock, water, meat, fruit), actions (gather, cook, hide, cut, hunt, eat, sleep), properties (dull, sharp, big, small, good, bad), quantifiers (one, many) and demonstratives (this, that). The team published their findings in Scientific Reports, highlighting that the vocalizations produced by English speakers could be understood by listeners from a diverse range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Participants included speakers of 28 languages from 12 language families, including groups from oral cultures such as speakers of Palikur living in the Amazon forest and speakers of Daakie on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu. Listeners from each language were more accurate than chance at guessing the intended referent of the vocalizations for each of the meanings tested. Co-author Dr. Marcus Perlman, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, commented: "Our study fills in a crucial piece of the puzzle of language evolution, suggesting the possibility that all languagesspoken as well as signedmay have iconic origins. "The ability to use iconicity to create universally understandable vocalizations may underpin the vast semantic breadth of spoken languages, playing a role similar to representational gestures in the formation of signed languages." Co-author Dr. Bodo Winter, Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, commented: "Our findings challenge the often-cited idea that vocalizations have limited potential for iconic representation, demonstrating that in the absence of words people can use vocalizations to communicate a variety of meaningsserving effectively for cross-cultural communication when people lack a common language." An online experiment allowed researchers to test whether a large number of diverse participants around the world were able to understand the vocalizations. A field experiment using 12 easy-to-picture meanings, allowed them to test whether participants living in predominantly oral societies were also able to understand the vocalizations. They found that some meanings were consistently guessed more accurately than others. In the online experiment, for example, accuracy ranged from 98.6% for the action 'sleep' to 34.5% for the demonstrative 'that'. Participants were best with the meanings 'sleep', 'eat', 'child', 'tiger', and 'water', and worst with 'that', 'gather', 'dull', 'sharp' and 'knife'. The researchers highlight that while their findings provide evidence for the potential of iconic vocalizations to figure in the creation of original spoken words, they do not detract from the hypothesis that iconic gestures also played a critical role in the evolution of human communication, as they are known to play in the modern emergence of signed languages. Explore further Finding iconicity in spoken languages She and Nasuta also stressed the need for people to keep wearing masks, washing their hands, maintaining social distance and staying home when sick to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. The school system is still conducting COVID testing, and partnered with the Maryland Department of Health to operate a pop-up testing clinic in April at Patterson Mill Middle/High School for members of the community who might have COVID-19 but are not experiencing any symptoms. A meteotsunami is a form of tsunami generated by atmospheric conditions that can strike any coastline adjacent to a sea floor with a long, shallow shelf. Credit: NOAASatellites, licensed under CC PDM 1.0 Rogue waves that strike without warning across the Mediterranean and elsewhere may become more frequent as the climate changes, early stage research suggests. A meteotsunami is a form of tsunami generated by atmospheric conditions, and it can strike any coastline adjacent to a sea floor with a long, shallow shelf. They are not as massive, nor as well-known, as ordinary tsunamis, which are caused by earthquakes in the ocean floor, and they are more localized. But they can damage property and endanger human life. A meteotsunami in the harbor of Ciutadella on the Spanish island of Menorca in 2006, for example, sent yachts crashing into each other and then dumped them on the harbor floor as it drained away, causing tens of millions of euros in damage. Meteotsunamis also feature in local legendsone meteotsunami in sixteenth century Croatia swept away the bridge that linked two sides of a village bringing them to their senses over a feud that had arisen between them. Researchers already understand the conditions that trigger such tsunamis, according to Professor Jadranka Sepic, an assistant professor and meteorologist at the University of Split, Croatia. At the coast, there must be a drop down to a shallow shelf of up to 100m deep that juts out at least a few tens of kilometers into the sea. Such a feature is found on the east coast of the United States and in the channel between France and England, for example. This shape has an effect on the speed of long-ocean wavesthose that travel over long distances rather than the wind-caused breakers that hit the shoreline every few seconds. When these 10km-long waves reach this kind of shelf they slow down to a speed of 50 to 110 kilometers per hour, depending on the depth. Crucially, this can be slow enough to match the speed of atmospheric gravity waves above them. If the two speeds coincide, and if the two sets of waves then synchronize, energy from the atmospheric wave siphons down into that of the wave in the water, 'and this wave in the sea grows bigger and bigger, kind of like a resonance," said Prof. Sepic. Atmospheric waves But what causes those atmospheric waves is less well understood, says Prof. Sepic. She leads a project known as SHExtreme to discover the processes behind them and whether they will be more common as the climate changes. "We know how the atmosphere and the ocean interact but we want to find out what exactly helps these processes in the atmosphere to develop, what kind of larger setting in the atmosphere allows for these smaller processes," she said. If they increase in incidence, she points out, then there will be a corresponding increase in the incidence of the biggest meteotsunamis. What's more, because of sea level rise, they will have a further reach than today. "The first thing is they will happen from a higher sea level so they will be more dangerous," said Prof. Sepic. "But the second thing we need to check is what will happen to these atmospheric waveswill they happen more often or less often? If they happen less often it could happen that these two events cancel each other but if we have more of these favorable atmospheric processes then there is a problem: you have a meteotsunami which is more likely to happen and which will start from a higher level." SHExtreme is collecting evidence of previous such waves and comparing them with the atmospheric processes going on at the time. To do so requires tidal data which has been collected by mechanical tide gages as far back as the 19th century, and is now mostly recorded through digital radar and pressure sensors on the sea floor. For the more historical work, however, there was a hitch. Tables of sea level data before around 2010 register the height only every hour. This is too coarse a measurement because a meteotsunami could roll in, do its damage and depart in just a few minutes. Research has shown that Mediterranean meteotsunamis tend to be stronger in the summer because of fast winds of dry air from Africa. Credit: Jorge Garcia / Unsplash Because of this, Prof. Sepic has had to find the original analog chartsmade by a needle wavering up and down a rotating cylinderfrom which the tables were compiled. She is working through these records for the whole of the Croatian coast. Colleagues, meanwhile, have done the same for Finland. Since 2010, the International Oceanographic Commission has been providing sea level height measurements taken around the globe every minute. So Prof. Sepic's team is prioritizing study of this period, looking for patterns in the data such as seasonal distributions and the breadth of coastline affected. Summer So far, the team has shown that Mediterranean meteotsunamis tend to be stronger in the summer. Despite calm conditions at ground level, fast winds of dry air from Africa can be racing through the atmosphere some 1,500 meters up and this is what seems to trigger the atmospheric waves. "At the surface it looks fine, but at high levels there is something happening that is more energetic," she said. Testing this theory for Spain's Balearic Islands coasts, she said 'we were able to show that, if you have this situation in the atmosphere, there is a very high chance that a meteotsunami will happenthis situation almost always generates these atmospheric waves." The next step is to consider the future. There are many simulations of how the atmosphere will behave under climate change. For the Balearic Islands, the worst-case scenario of one simulation revealed a 30% increase in the number of days favorable to meteotsunamis because of an increase in the number of days during which there are these high-level winds. "But the problem is we used only one climate simulationthis was like a prototype model," said Prof. Sepic. "You need to look at ten or 20 climate simulations." Looking at more simulations is something she plans to do in the next couple of years. Scientists in the United States think they have made a breakthrough in forecasting meteotsunamis, at least for Lake Michigan. In April 2018 the beach town of Ludington was drenched by a wave that damaged boat docks and homes, flooded intake pipesand could have carried away beach-goers if it had happened a little later in the year. "It's a gap in our forecasting," said Dr. Eric Anderson, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. His team reported in late March that, using photos taken by a local resident, and other data, they should, with existing forecasting tools, be able to predict such an event minutes to hours in advance. Prof. Sepic says that forecasting is already in place for the Balearics but they are 'often wrong," because they are based either on a statistical chance according to the atmospheric conditions or on models that cannot give precise forecasts of atmospheric waves at small scale. SHExtreme may change that. At the very least, Prof. Sepic said, 'we hope we will be able to show which parts of the European coast are in most danger now and also in the future." Explore further Study shows promise of forecasting meteotsunamis More information: Ivica Vilibic et al. Numerical Modelling of the Destructive Meteotsunami of 15 June, 2006 on the Coast of the Balearic Islands, Pure and Applied Geophysics (2009). Ivica Vilibic et al. Numerical Modelling of the Destructive Meteotsunami of 15 June, 2006 on the Coast of the Balearic Islands,(2009). DOI: 10.1007/s00024-008-0426-5 Indians of every region and class have seen their lives transformed and their livelihoods threatened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Credit: Sumita Roy Dutta via Wikimedia Commons India in the 21st century has emerged as a powerhouse of development: education rising and poverty falling, with pharmaceuticals and tech driving a booming economy. But the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the country in recent weeks, and the nation's deadly inequality has been compounded by broad government failures. Today, says UC Berkeley social anthropologist Aarti Sethi, virtually every family in India has experienced a direct loss from the pandemic. The country has been shocked to the core and staggered by grief, she saidand the death toll is still climbing. More than a quarter-million fatalities are listed, but the toll is likely far higher. Sethi grew up in India and obtained degrees from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University, both in New Delhi, before coming to the U.S. to pursue advanced degrees. In an interview, she paired cultural analysis with a poignant understanding of the Indian people. Her troubling conclusion: "It did not have to be this way." The message resonates in the Berkeley community, which has deep connections to India and the Indian American community. "Together we mourn these losses," campus leaders said in a statement on the surge of cases in India last week. "Together we can provide strength and solace to our community members in need." The interview with Aarti Sethi has been edited for length and clarity. Berkeley News: Tell me about the human impact of the pandemic during this incredible, tragic surge in Indian communities. Aarti Sethi: It's absolute carnagethat's what we are witnessing right now. The human devastation is indescribable. Everyone in India, everyone from India, everyone with family in India, everyone has lost someone. Many have lost many. And the tragic fact is that in the coming days and weeks and months, we will continue to lose many. The scale of the devastation is difficult to describe, as can be expected in a country of 1.3 billion people. In cities like Delhi or Bombay, there's an almost 40% positivity rate. The reigning emotion is desperation. The desperation of watching your loved one's oxygen levels fall. The desperation of making hundreds of phone calls for a hospital bed that doesn't exist. The desperation of reaching a hospital and waiting in a parking lot and watching your loved one die because there are 100 patients in front of you. This is being described as a situation in which the system has collapsed. We should be very clear: The central government has collapsedit has failed in its responsibilities to the people. But the people of India have not failed each other. The people of India are caring for each other with nothing at their disposal. People are coming together to enact private grace in a manner that is just humbling to see. "Private grace'what form does that take? It takes the form of putting your life and your body on the line for other people. It means that you have volunteers, groups of people who spend the whole day making phone calls, collecting lists of oxygen supply vendors. It means running makeshift oxygen facilities in gurdwaras, the Sikh places of worship. Mosques have opened their doors so that people who are desperate and have nowhere else to go can come and be oxygenated. People are running kitchens where those who are in lockdown or who are sick can be fed. The newspapers are filled with stories of human beings helping each other. There was a story of an ambulance driver who sold all of his wife's jewels, simply to purchase oxygen cylinders for the patients that he was ferrying to the hospital. This is not somebody with a lot of means at his disposal, but he is standing witness to the enormity of human suffering before him and doing what he can to assuage it. It takes the form of older people giving up hospital beds for younger people. It takes the form of a crematorium workerthese are workers who come from Dalit castes, the most marginalized sections of Indian societyworking 14, 15, 16 hours a day with no protective equipment, no vaccination and no priority for vaccination. You say that the state has failed, or is failing. What's gone wrong? It is a very important thing to place on the table: It did not have to be this way. Some of the longer-running issues, for instance, are the decades and decades of the lack of concern to build a vibrant public health system. India is the second-most populous country in the world, and one of the poorer countries in the world. It spends only 1.4% of gross domestic product on health. In health access, in maternal mortality, in child mortalityon all of these health indicators, India does very badly. India ranks 145 in the global health care access and quality (HAQ), far below its neighboring countries Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, below poorer countries, like Sudan. These longer-running issues came to a head because the government simply did not prepare. COVID was going to come to India. And when it came, the central government imposed one of the harshest lockdowns anywhere in the world. This was in March 2020. After that lockdown, the government went into self-congratulatory mode. But India had not beaten the wave. The evidence was there from around the world about what a second wave doesand the government did not pay heed. Its own scientists were warning about the impact of a second wave. They were ignored. There was a special committee of scientists that advised that India would need to ramp up its oxygen production capacities. But after India apparently beat COVID last year, from September 2020 to January 2021 there was a decrease of 37% in oxygen-supported hospital beds. India was exporting vaccines even in April this year. There is a category in the law called criminal negligence, and the central government is certainly criminally negligent. You mentioned the great inequality among India's 1.3 billion people. How did that contribute to, or magnify, the problems that now afflict the country? India is such a socially and economically unequal society, and that radically impacts the everyday lives of people. We've seen that in India, and in America, as well. Here, the impact of the COVID crisis was disproportionately experienced by communities of color. People working jobs where they could not afford to stay at home. Likewise in India: Last year when there was a lockdown imposed, there was absolutely no foresight given to how the vast majority of India's population, people who work in what is called the informal sector, were going to actually live. How will people who survive on daily wages and who cannot feed themselves or their families unless they go out to work every day, without any security of employment, or health insurance, or access to health carehow are those people going to survive? India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, is often classified as a populist, in the mold of Donald Trump in the U.S. or Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. Has the populist approach to governing had a negative impact on India's response to the pandemic? The short answer is yes. The reason why Narendra Modi is often placed in the same class as Bolsonaro and Trump is that they seem to share a certain style of governing, which centers on the cult of the leader. The charisma of the leader and his obsession with his personal cult overtakes all considerations of society. Social behavior is very closely pegged to political messaging in modern societies. So, the decision to allow and encourage the gathering of 3.5 million pilgrims at the height of the global crisis, simply because the prime minister wishes to encourage what he believes is his base. The insanity of the prime minister encouraging people in the hundreds of thousands to come for election rallies in the middle of a COVID wave in Bengal. The insanity of continuing with a project to renovate the Parliament building and a new house for the prime minister that is going to cost millions of dollars, as opposed to using those resources to create mass vaccinations and health facilities in the country. And the prime minister til now has not offered genuine, heartfelt condolences to the people of India for the deaths that are happening. What does this tell a nation? Populists often govern by turning people against each otherthat's how they galvanize support for their own power. Has Modi done that? Has that had a bearing on India's response to the pandemic? The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi's party, like many right-wing parties, operates by continuously creating internal 'others' and consolidating their supporters in opposition to the 'enemies of the people." This has characterized the entire functioning of this regime. Muslims especially have been made a target. There is a long history to the Hindutva projectits mission is to convert India into a theocratic Hindu nation. And its actions are fully in keeping with that. I'll give you an example: In the early days of the crisis last year, there was an Islamic religious event in which mosques in India hosted travelers from other parts of the world. This resulted in some COVID cases, but that was used to vilify and target the Muslim community continuously for months. Whereas, the fact that 3.5 million people had gathered on the banks of the River Ganges is not only considered unremarkable, but it was encouraged by the government. In spite of criticism in India and globally, Modi has been very popular. But with a disaster of this magnitude, will his popularity suffer? There is enormous public anger against the central government. They lost a huge election in the state of West Bengal last week. Despite the fact that the BJP is the richest political party in India today, and they have ensured that they are the richest through a series of actions to make election funding completely opaque. This tells you about the cult of Modithat hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on the election, not on COVID relief. Recently, the high court of Madras described the actions of the Election Commission as murderous. The high court in Allahabad, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, currently ruled by the savage BJP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, described the fact that patients are dying for lack of oxygen as "a criminal act, no less than genocide." These are very, very strong words for a court to use. Where does India go from here? All we can do is hope and pray that the ferocity of this wave will be contained as quickly as possible, that medical resources will get where they need to go as fast as possible. That people get a fighting chance to livethat's what we hope and pray for in the immediate future. All societies create ways in which death is lived with and absorbed. Societies have funerary rites in which a person transitions from being a person in that society to an ancestor and how society lets that person go. Only through this mode of grieving can the dead be let go. One of the most frightening things about COVID is the fact many of the normal routes and modes that allow a society to grieve are blocked. Usually, people grieve with relations around them, by talking to others, by being with each other. In a mass death, how will society grieve? The longer question is what a collective trauma of this magnitude does to a society. You're saying that the way people, as individuals and communities, come to terms with these deathstaken together, by the millionswill shape where the country goes in the years ahead. The experience of the survivors watching the person they love, their kin, burn on the funeral pyrethat survivor is carrying with them an entire political failure. They are carrying with them also the super-human effort of people in societydoctors and nurses and good Samaritans, all the everyday people who are just trying to save themselves and save each other. That cuts through all of the obfuscation and the disinformation and the callousness and the disregard. It is the only truth. There's no going back nowthere's no going back to anything. We just have to get through. But for society to recover from this will take a very, very, very long time. Explore further India warned to brace for new coronavirus waves Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The recent conviction of white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, for the murder of a black man, George Floyd, was widely welcomed in the US and elsewhere. The US police force has long been seen as helping to maintain the country's racialised system of inequality. In the face of that, Chauvin's conviction appears to be, as President Joe Biden put it, "a giant step forward in the march toward justice" for people of color. But the way police violence can work to uphold systems of power has deep roots in history that stretch much further than the US. My research on the role of such violence in previously colonized countries highlights how arguments made in the Chauvin case have long been used to defend oppressive policing. And this could help explain why the Black Lives Matter protests that followed Floyd's murder resonated in countries around the world. Solidarity protests against police brutality occurred in places including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabweall ex-British colonies. They also experienced calls to "decolonise" policing, to reform policing systems by limiting their use of force, reducing their ability to victimize poor, racial, ethnic and religious minorities, and making police more accountable. It may seem odd to think that police in various African countries, which are largely black, need to be decolonised. But these police forces often have their origins in colonial organizations that were not established to protect the public. Their purpose was, instead, to serve as "violence workers" to protect colonial regimes from perceived threats by their colonized subjects. Since post-colonial states largely retained the systems of colonial policing they inherited, many police forces continue to uphold state power by enacting extra-legal violence against the poor and other traditionally marginalized groups. My recent book, Colonial Terror, details how in India the British relied on police violence, such as torture and other forms of brutality, to maintain an oppressive system of rule. In making the police "a terror to the people", as the 1902 Indian Police Commission put it, they thus sent a clear message to Indians that the purpose of the police was to protect the colonial regime, not them. Police violence today is often explained by authorities as the actions of a few "bad apples"this was the defense made in the Derek Chauvin case. This effectively upholds the systems that produce and protect violence in policing. Similar arguments were common under British colonial rule. White police officers in India were occasionally punished for the use of extra-legal violence. But they were generally, at worst, simply dismissed from service. Imprisonment, on the rare occasions it was given, was largely reserved for colonized subordinates on the lowest rungs of the police hierarchy. This was despite the fact that such subordinates were "guided by the will of their superiors," who were "mostly Englishmen", as the Indian newspaper the Ananda Bazar Patrika observed in 1913. Victim blaming In the Chauvin trial, the defense also portrayed George Floyd as being responsible for his own death. In colonial contexts, "the displacement of colonial blame thesis" (through which colonized peoples were blamed for the violence enacted by the colonizers against them) was similarly used to shift blame for extra-legal violence by colonial police forces against colonized victims. Such displacement ranged from blaming victims for bringing "false charges" to inflicting injuries on them that were so severe they could result in death. In 1866, for example, an Adivasi man (from one of India's indigenous ethnic groups) named Bheem was tortured so severely by members of the Indian police that he was unable to walk. Although medical evidence supported Bheem's claim that he had been tortured, his torturers escaped conviction on the grounds that Bheem was a person of "no character", namely that he was immoral and inherently untrustworthy. In addition, Bheem and his witnesses were sentenced to four years' imprisonment for bringing false charges against the police. In these ways, the history of colonial policing shows the scale of the challenge the world faces in tackling violent, oppressive and institutionally racist policing. Perhaps Derek Chauvin's conviction is a turning point for the US, but as George Floyd's brother, Philonise, put it, people of color will have to keep fighting against police violence "for life." This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. A team from the UW-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network installs a new solar panel array at a seismic monitoring site in Enumclaw, Washington, on April 20, 2021. The seismometer, one of hundreds that provide data for ShakeAlert, is in the hole in the foreground. A trench brings cables to the newly installed solar panels, on the right, that power the system, and an aluminum box containing electronics that digitize and transmit the seismic data. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington When the Big One hits, the first thing Washington residents notice may not be the ground shaking but their phone issuing a warning. The U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Washington-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, and the Washington Emergency Management District on Tuesday, May 4, will activate the system that sends earthquake early warnings throughout Washington state. This completes the tri-state rollout of ShakeAlert, an automated system that gives people living in Washington, Oregon and California advance warning of incoming earthquakes. "For the first time, advance warning of imminent earthquake shaking will be a reality in our region. Even just seconds up to a minute of warning is enough to prepare yourself and take coveractions that may spare you from injury or even save your life," said Harold Tobin, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the PNSN, which conducts the seismic monitoring in Washington and Oregon. Once the system goes live on May 4, the first signs of an earthquake above a magnitude 4.5 or 5, about when the shaking becomes noticeable indoors, will trigger an alert and a reminder to drop, cover and hold on. Warning times range from a few seconds to tens of seconds depending on the user's distance to the epicenter. The launch will be silentthere will be no test on May 4. The PNSN operates a growing network of about 230 seismic stations in Washington and some 155 stations in Oregon that provide data for ShakeAlert. When four or more of these instruments detect unusual shaking, that motion is analyzed by computers, some of them on the UW campus, that quickly calculate the size and location of the event. An upgraded Pacific Northwest Seismic Network monitoring station in Enumclaw, Washington, on April 20, 2021. The newly installed solar panels provide power for the system that detects the first signs of an earthquake. Credit: Mark Stone/University of Washington People connected to the Wireless Emergency Alert system (the same system that produces AMBER alerts), will now get earthquake alerts for events of magnitude 5 or greater, using a similar interface. Alerts for events of magnitude 4.5 or above will be integrated into Android devices, where screens will also show the earthquake's approximate magnitude and location. When people get an alert, they should use the brief warning to seek immediate protection, following this safety advice. No downloads are requiredfind out how to get alerts. The ShakeAlert system, similar to existing early warning systems in Mexico and Japan, began sending alerts to Californians in 2019 and to Oregonians in March. With the addition of Washington state, the system will now issue warnings to millions of people at risk from the largest possible earthquake in the lower 48 statesa rupture of the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 700-mile fault that runs from California's Cape Mendocino to the tip of Canada's Vancouver Island (discovered in part through UW research). The alerts will also warn of potentially damaging earthquakes that are more likely to occur sooner, on one of two dozen crustal faults in the Puget Sound region alone, or deeper slips on the underlying ocean plate. The system works by detecting the first signs of an earthquake before the slower-moving but more damaging ground-shaking waves arrive. The PNSN began testing the ShakeAlert system with select Washington and Oregon businesses, utilities and organizations in 2015. Besides the individual alerts on phones, the system will be available for organizations or businesses to incorporate into their emergency plansfor instance, to close water valves, slow trains to prevent derailment, halt surgeries or pause sensitive equipment before the shaking starts. "Business in the pilot program have used these alerts to close valves for water natural gas, stop rotating equipment and alert employees. We have also partnered with Stanwood Elementary School, which has connected the system to its PA system so students can do earthquake drills that use ShakeAlert," said PNSN communications manager Bill Steele, who has coordinated the regional test users. Scientists at the PNSN are continuing to improve the system. About 65% of the planned seismic stations in the network are complete in Washington state. PNSN field teams will install more seismometers through late 2025 in places like the Olympic Peninsula and eastern Washington. "The network is successfully detecting earthquakes now, but that doesn't mean we can't make it even better. We're continuing to install seismometers and improve algorithms to make the alerts faster and more reliable, to give people more warning time and lower the chance of any missed events or false alarms," Tobin said. Initial development of the earthquake alert system by three West Coast universities, including the UW, began a decade ago and was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The buildout of the system was funded by Congress, with major grants administered by the USGS in 2015 and 2019, and completed by federal and state agencies working with a consortium of four West Coast universities: the UW; the University of Oregon; the University of California, Berkeley; and the California Institute of Technology. The Washington system also got state funding in the 2020-21 budget. Private support for Washington's system has also come from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Amazon, Puget Sound Energy and individual donors. Explore further Earthquake-warning system that could provide smartphone alerts to Pacific Northwest gets funding boost Pluridens serpentis is the 13th species of mosasaur to be identified in Morocco, but probably not the last. Credit: Andrey Atuchin A giant mosasaur from the end of the Cretaceous period in Morocco that could have reached up to eight meters long is the third new species to be described from the region in less than a year, bringing the total number of species up to at least 13. The high diversity of the fauna shows how mosasaurs, giant marine lizards related to snakes and Komodo dragons, thrived in the final million years of the Cretaceous period before they, and most of all species on Earth, were wiped out by the impact of a giant asteroid 66 million years ago. The new species, named Pluridens serpentis, had long, slender jaws with over a hundred sharp, fanglike teeth to grab small prey like fish and squid. Compared to related species, it had small eyes, suggesting poor vision. But the snout had dozens of openings for nerves, hinting at the ability to hunt by sensing water movements and changes in pressure. These nerves may have been sensitive to tiny variations in water pressure, an adaptation seen in sea snakes. "Typically, when animals evolve small eyes, it's because they're relying more heavily on other senses," said Dr. Nick Longrich, senior lecturer at the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, who led the study. The fact that Pluridens had so many nerves in the face may mean that it was using changes in water pressure to detect animals in low-light conditions, either at night or in deep, dark water. Mosasaurs may also have had other senses at their disposal. "If it wasn't using the eyes, then it's very likely that it was using the tongue to hunt, like a snake," he said. "Many aquatic snakes and lizardssea snakes, filesnakes, water monitors- flick their forked tongues underwater, using chemical cues to track their prey. Mosasaurs would have resembled whales and dolphins, so it's tempting to assume they lived like them. "But they're very different beaststhey're huge lizardsso they probably acted like them." While most of its relatives were small, just a few meters long, Pluridens got big, perhaps eight meters long. The largest individuals had thick, heavily built jawbones. "It's possible that big males were fighting with these jaws," said Dr. Longrich. "In some beaked whales, the males have massive jaws they use to fight with, and male sperm whales can be highly aggressive. Some Pluridens jaws show healing injuries, which suggests some violent fights." The Moroccan mosasaurs were wildly diverse. Some had small teeth for seizing fish and squid, others evolved blunt teeth to crush crustaceans, clams, and ammonites, while others had teeth designed to cut or tear apart other marine animalsincluding other mosasaurs. Pluridens brings the number of mosasaurs known from latest Cretaceous of Morocco up to 13, but the researchers suggest it's unlikely to be the last new species. Dr. Longrich said: "The diversity in these fossils is just astonishing. Far from declining in diversity, the mosasaurs seem to be peaking just before they went extinct. "We're not seeing any evidence that this group was struggling before they went extinctFrom an evolutionary standpoint, they were succeeding, they did everything right- but nothing can prepare you for an asteroid." Co-author on the study, Dr. Nour-Eddine Jalil from the Natural History Museum of Sorbonne University (France) said: "It's a new species of a large predator which, with its eight meter length, comes to confirm the diversity of the faunas of the seas just before the Cretaceous crisis. "Pluridens serpentis highlights the importance of the paleontological heritage of Morocco to help illustrate the history of life." Dr. Nathalie Bardet, a specialist in mosasaurs, particularly those from the Phosphates of Morocco, at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris, was also co-author on the paper. She said: "Working on this group of marine reptiles since more than 20 years, I never stop being surprised by the incredible diversity of these predators, who all lived there and shared the available space and food resources. "These latest discoveries show perfectly that the list of species present here is far from being closed and that the future still holds great surprises and discoveries." Explore further Dinosaur-era sea lizard had teeth like a shark More information: Nicholas R. Longrich et al, Pluridens serpentis, a new mosasaurid (Mosasauridae: Halisaurinae) from the Maastrichtian of Morocco and implications for mosasaur diversity, Cretaceous Research (2021). Journal information: Cretaceous Research Nicholas R. Longrich et al, Pluridens serpentis, a new mosasaurid (Mosasauridae: Halisaurinae) from the Maastrichtian of Morocco and implications for mosasaur diversity,(2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104882 Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona; Writer Daniel Stolte, University of Arizona On April 9, 2021, NASA's Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) spacecraft took one last look at Bennu, the asteroid from which it scooped up a sample last October. Slated for return to Earth in 2023, the mission is on track to deliver a sample of pristine material left over from the formation of our solar system into the hands of researchers on Earth. This image, the last one taken by the spacecraft, shows crescent Bennu with its night side merging with the complete black of space as the spacecraft pushed away from Bennu. For two years, OSIRIS-REx studied the asteroid, revealing the many secrets of this ancient body and delivering clues about its rubble-pile-like consistency and surface terrain, which turned out to be much rockier and more rugged than initially expected from the observations of ground-based telescope. On May 10, 2021, the spacecraft embarked on its return voyage to Earth. On Sept. 24, 2023, the spacecraft will jettison the sealed capsule containing the sample and send it onto a trajectory to touch down in the Utah desert. Explore further NASA spacecraft leaves its mark after grabbing asteroid Bennu samples Credit: CC0 Public Domain High levels of a naturally occurring chemical called arsenic have been a source of contamination of ground-based drinking water, such as well-water, for people in many countries around the world, including parts of the United States. Consuming arsenic-contaminated water is a serious public health issue, leading to severe health complications including skin, lung, bladder, kidney and liver cancers, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Now, engineers at the University of Missouri College of Engineering have designed a low-cost water filter that can remove arsenic from household drinking water and provide peace of mind for millions of people who are at risk of drinking arsenic-contaminated water around the world. In addition to arsenic, the researchers believe their filter design concept could also be used to eliminate other drinking water contaminants, such as lead. While the issue of arsenic-contaminated water has been studied before, the MU researchers believe this proof-of-concept filter design is first of its kind for single household use. Zhengyang "Phillip" Wang is the lead author on the study. Wang recently graduated from MU with a doctorate in environmental engineering and is now a postdoctoral scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. For nearly a decade, he has been interested in exploring the boundaries of how scientists can solve both existing and emerging environmental issues, especially water contamination. Wang believes an advantage of their filter concept is its longevityhe said it could last a couple months before needing to be replaced. "Even though some materials have been previously developed that can quickly remove arsenic, very few are commercially available today because they are expensive to purchase," Wang said. "So, with this study, we are proposing a filter design with a two-material approachfirst, arsenic in the water will be trapped by a fast-adsorbing material, then the trapped arsenic will pass to a second material designed for arsenic "storage." This design may also be cheaper to produce than the current filters available today, considering two materials can work together. Optimally, this process would occur overnight while people are sleeping, and provide people with safe, purified water the next morning." Arsenic-contaminated water is a serious problem in rural areas that are not connected to large public water systems, said Baolin Deng, a professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department and corresponding author on the study. "In the United States, especially in areas of the southwest such as Arizona and New Mexico, where groundwater is used as a primary source of drinking water, there is a potential for a high concentration of arsenic," said Deng, who also serves as director of the Missouri Water Resource Research Center. "In other parts of the world, such as Bangladesh, it is very notable. For instance, millions of people there might drink water with a high concentration of arsenic." The study, "Enhanced arsenic removal from water by mass re-equilibrium: kinetics and performance evaluation in a binary-adsorbent system," was published in Water Research. Explore further Moss capable of removing arsenic from drinking water discovered More information: Zhengyang Wang et al. Enhanced arsenic removal from water by mass re-equilibrium: kinetics and performance evaluation in a binary-adsorbent system, Water Research (2020). Zhengyang Wang et al. Enhanced arsenic removal from water by mass re-equilibrium: kinetics and performance evaluation in a binary-adsorbent system,(2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2020.116676 Compton Verney's homepage for the Cranach exhibition which opened in March 2020 Credit: Compton Verney When Museums closed their doors in March 2020 for the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK a majority moved their activities online to keep their audiences interested. Researchers from WMG, University of Warwick have worked with OUMNH, to analyze the success of the exhibitions, and say the way Museums operate will change forever.Caption: Compton Verney's homepage for the Cranach exhibition which opened in March 2020 Credit: Compton Verney The cultural impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been analyzed by researchers from WMG, University of Warwick in collaboration with OUMNH (Oxford University Museum of Natural History) who in the paper, "Digital Responses of UK Museum Exhibition to the COVID-19 Crisis March-June 2020," published in the journal Curator: The Museum Journal, have analyzed the success of online museum exhibitions, and investigated what the future of Museums holds. Researchers analyzed 21 museums who had temporary exhibitions due to open between March and June 2020, and decided to go ahead with the exhibition virtually. The analysis included noting how COVID was considered, how content was presented, and discussing themes of access, embodiment, and human connection. The research team found that in May-June Museums had more online content for their exhibitions, suggesting there was time to prepare the transfer of exhibition online. All exhibitions were different, with some hosting podcasts, some doing filmed walk-arounds and some hosting a virtual room where you click on exhibits. Although digital exhibitions were a success, researchers concluded online exhibitions do not provide the same social and embodied experience as the physical museum, as you miss the traveling there, welcome from staff, chatting with other visitors and the gift shop or coffee shop after. They did however highlight that extra material was provided for online content which isn't traditionally presented in the Museum, this included behind the scenes videos for example. Researchers say this suggests Museums were trying to give their audiences some exclusives that they would not receive from a normal visit. Lead author, Ph.D. Student Ellie King from WMG, University of Warwick comments: "The COVID-19 lockdowns have created a crucial turning point in the Museum sector, as they now see themselves working in a physical-digital overlap. It is interesting to note how in being forced to shut, museums focused their online provisions around existing physical exhibitions. "Museums and galleries will continue to adapt in light of a post-COVID world where practices, both digital and physical, will undoubtedly shift. It is important to see the digital exhibition world as an opportunity to provide unseen materials and attract audiences who may not be able to visit in person." Although it's likely there will be more online material generated by Museums and galleries from now on due to the pandemic, there is the issue of staff having the digital skills to manage a new arena of engagement. Professor Mark Williams, from WMG, University of Warwick explains: "One of the major tasks of converting to online is the financial implications, 30% of museums have changed staff tasks to provide services online. Despite this, there are concerns that staff teams are not fully equipped to handle such monumental changes. "This highlights the practical challenge of enabling the rise of digital content for museums, which will be dif?cult for the sector in such a stretched resource environment." Professor Paul Smith, Director at the Oxford Museum of Natural History adds: "The first COVID-19 lockdown imposed a real-time stress test on museums, and their ability to respond in an agile way to events. The paper highlights the creative ways in which some museums were able to adapt to the unique and unprecedented circumstances they faced." This research is part of a wider interest of the CiMAT team in WMG to engage with subject areas beyond engineering. Based on previous research into User Experience, the research group is seeking to apply concepts into areas of the arts and humanities. The research has blossomed with the collaboration between WMG and Oxford University Museum of Natural History. This research, which analyses how visitors experience museums online, is a welcome starting point. The researchers stress to Museums that with this rising atmosphere of change on the horizon, it is important they consider such conceptual issues and evaluate audience needs rigorously when developing online offerings to maintain such cultural importance. Explore further Technology and planning help museums manage outdated exhibitions More information: Ellie King et al, Digital Responses of UK Museum Exhibitions to the COVID19 Crisis, March June 2020, Curator: The Museum Journal (2021). Ellie King et al, Digital Responses of UK Museum Exhibitions to the COVID19 Crisis, March June 2020,(2021). DOI: 10.1111/cura.12413 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Mighty floods have carved out deep canyons on Earth. New research suggests this may have required less power than previously thought. Collecting such data, however, may be demanding. "We applied so much force that the raft almost folded up like a clam," says Willem van der Bilt. He recalls a quiet September day in northern Iceland in 2018. On a little lake named Astjorn, he and a colleague stood on a raft consisting of a metal platform on top of a rubber boat. A third colleague had been sent to shore, while the two researchers from the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research and the Department of Geoscience at the University of Bergen struggled to complete their job. Below them, a plastic tube had been pressed five meters into the lake sediments, deep enough to cut through five thousand years of deposited clay and sand. Deep enough to be stuck. This was the kind of work they had done many times before. Sediment samples from the bottom of the ocean and from lakes are one of the most important data sources for paleo climatologists. Layer by layer, mud and rotting plants settle at the bottom, the oldest material farthest down and younger material on topbuilding an archive of everything the water has held for thousands of years. This time, the conditions were unusual. The tube was stuck in volcanic ash, and the metal raft groaned and moaned. "We pressed on the sediment core with a car jack, while anxiously looking at the shoreline and asking ourselves: can we swim fast enough to reach it," says Willem van der Bilt. "It was quite terrifying." Found remnants of megafloods With a jolt, the tube with the core came out, and the raft held. Their effort was not in vain. Inside the tube, they found evidence of three major floods that have changed the landscape more drastically than one might thing they had the power to do. The floods were great, but notthatgreat. The results were published in the journalCommunications Earth & Environmenttoday, by Willem van der Bilt and colleagues from the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, the University of Bergen, Manchester Metropolitan University, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Utrecht University and Liverpool John Moores University. The researchers conclude that deep canyons and gorges may have been formed by less voluminous floods than previously thought. As an implication, running water can also do more harm than assumed. This makes the results important far beyond a sparsely populated region in northern Iceland. The riverside lake Astjorn was not part of their original travel plan. Willem van der Bilt calls it a side project of a side project. The scientists were in northern Iceland to do field work for another project. They had completed the job when they came over this little lake on the map. Once the idea was planted, they had no reason not to go there. They were already driving around with several meters' long coring equipment on the roof of their car. Astjorn is located downstream of one of the mightiest waterfalls in Europe, Dettifoss, in the river Jokulsa a Fjollum. The name means glacier river from the mountains. Through deep canyons, this river leads meltwater from the northern side of Europe's second largest glacier, Vatnajokull, to the ocean on the northern side of Iceland. Through the ages, whirling flood water has carved out gorges, in some places almost a hundred meters deep. But Astjorn is not part of the river, which is why it attracted Willem van der Bilt. The lakes they had already examined, are regularly fed with meltwater from Vatnajokull. Astjorn is located on a plateau at the side of and above Jokulsa a Fjollum, separated from the river plain by a high headwall. "It occurred to me that if the river should overflow, flood sediments would collect in the lake," he says. "Only afterwards did we realize that this a significant research setting on a particular topic: megafloods in Iceland." The barrier blocking the entrance to Astjorn lies 30 meters above the river plain. Not even the most energetic spring floods reach that high. Volcanoes, breaking ice dams and flushing glacier water are needed. A flood occurring once every thousand years requires ajokulhlaup. Flashfloods from the ice If there had been people on Iceland 3500 years ago, they might have noticed white smoke over Vatnajokull. Water vapor rose and condensed into clouds of tiny droplets. Hours, days or weeks later, the smoke had turned gray, and large lumps of ash settled in a depression in the ice surface. Glaciers are not immovable, and for Vatnajokull, neither is the ground below. There are active volcanoes, and during eruptions heat melts the glacier ice above. Huge lakes build up, dammed by the glacier. The water level rises, and when the ice dams eventually break, water rushes down through the rivers. Such floods are called glacial lake outburst floods, or by their Icelandic name, jokulhlaup, as if the glacier itself came running down the mountain. The flow of water can last for a few hours or days. This happened 3500 years ago and several times before and afteraltogether enough to carve out the canyon that splits the landscape surrounding Jokulsa a Fjollum. If the flood is really large, water can cross the barrier at the northern side of Astjorn. Like cement Back in the lab in Bergen, Willem van der Bilt opened the sediment core and split it in two halves. Three distinct, gray layers could be seen between silt, sand and remnants of plants. "It looked like cement," he says. "We could immediately see that these were flood sediments." The flood sediments are fine dust, ground from the volcanic bedrock below Vatnajokull. Laboratory analyses showed that they ended up in Astjorn during floods about 1350, 1500 and 3500 years ago. Paleo scientists often use carbon to date old material. In Iceland, carbon dating is complicated. The volcanoes spew CO 2 into the air, and as the surroundings take up carbon from this gas, the timeline is disturbed. But volcanic eruptions may also be used as a timekeeper. In the sediments in Astjorn were tiny glass particles that could be traced to specific, documented eruptions in Iceland. That the river had flooded these three times, was already known, but the volcanic particles made it possible to determine the time more accurately. An Icelandic Mississippi As they had found sediments from these giant floods in the normally disconnected lake Astjorn, they could calculate the amount of water that had carved out the canyon in Jokulsa a Fjollum. The number they came up with, was far smaller than previously assumed. Even though Astjorn and its surroundings was new territory for Willem van der Bilt, he soon discovered that other scientists had already examined the floods and the canyons of Jokulsa a Fjollum. Hydrological simulations of flood levels in the river existed, and it was known when different parts of the deep gorges had been formed. During the most extreme floods, the canyon has been excavated so intensely that the location of the Dettifoss waterfall has moved far upwards in the river. Such changes had been dated. Flood simulations made available, showed that water flows into Astjorn when the discharge in the river reaches 20000 cubic meters per second, about as much as in the Mississippi or the Brahmaputra. Such floods had dumped the cement-like sediments the researchers had foundfloods large enough to allow water to cross the threshold on the northern side of the lake. If the discharge exceeds 130000 cubic meter per second, water can also enter Astjorn from the south. A powerful waterfall would then flush away most of the sediments already there. Any signs of such an event were not seen in the five thousand years of data covered by this sediment core. Thus, Willem van der Bilt and his colleagues could conclude that the three floods, in their most violent seconds, had brought between 20000 and 130000 cubic meters of water through the gorges of Jokulsa a Fjollum. That is less than one third of the previous estimates of the current required to create those gorges. Obviously, the water has been scouring more efficiently than assumed. Water becomes a grinding machine When the lakes below Vatnajokull break through the ice dam, not only water, but also masses of sand and clay flow down the riverbed. "The river acts like sandpaper," Willem van der Bilt explains. The drifting sand allows flood water to grind off more rock than pure water could have done. What kind of mineral that meets the water, also matters. In Jokulsa a Fjollum lava has solidified to form basalt columns. When huge amounts of water flows around and above these columns, they break, topple over and are dragged away by the current. In this way, canyons and gorges are carved out more quickly than they would if the bedrock was to be eroded grain by grain. Willem van der Bilt's findings confirm what computer simulations have shown in recent years. Less water than assumed is needed to make significant marks in the landscape. This has also been observed in seasonal floods. This study is the first to document that it is also the case for megafloods occurring only once per millennium. Like another planet "Without the plants, Iceland would almost look like Mars," says Willem van der Bilt. Astjorn is surrounded by pasture, birch and willow, but under the green cover, the landscape resembles that of our neighbor planet. The canyons on Mars are signs of a past with megafloods, events we must compare to rivers on Earth to know the extent of. "I'd love to go to Mars on field-work, but I don't see that happening anytime soon," Willem van der Bilt laughs. Iceland can be reached in a few hours. There are few places in the world where geologists can get closer to the powers of nature. Floods of the extent described in the new study, do after all occur as frequently as one in a thousand years. Not many decades pass between the lesser outburst floods from Vatnajokull, and in 1996 a pretty large flood occurred. But even though the water came close in 1725, floods have never reached Astjorn in historic times. Willem van der Bilt's megafloods are marks in a sediment core and numbers from a computer model. Dry remnants of water that once flowed. Seeing a real megaflood from a helicopter would be something else. So, if it occurred again? "I'd go," he says. "From the safety of an aircraft, and knowing that people on the ground are out of harm's way, I'd love to see a piece of the action. I'd totally go." More information: Willem G. M. van der Bilt et al. Late Holocene canyon-carving floods in northern Iceland were smaller than previously reported, Communications Earth & Environment (2021). Willem G. M. van der Bilt et al. Late Holocene canyon-carving floods in northern Iceland were smaller than previously reported,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-021-00152-4 This endemism of the terrestrial malacological fauna in Catalonia was described more than 100 years ago in the Montserrat mountain. Credit: Vicenc Bros A study published in the journal Scientific Reports reveals the genetic structure of the land snail Xerocrassa montserratensis and it provides new scientific tools for the improvement of the conservation of this endemic and threatened species in Catalonia. This land mollusc, identified in the late 19th century in the Montserrat mountains, has a reduced geographical distribution limited to the province of Barcelona, and it is a protected species in the area of the natural parks of Montserrat and Sant Llorenc del Munt i l'Obac. The study is led by the lecturer Marta Pascual, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio), and signed by Cristina Catala (UB-IRBio), Vicenc Bros (Barcelona Provincial Council), Xavier Castelltort (University of Lleida), and Xavier Santos (Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic ResourcesCIBIO, Portugal). Both the paper and its publication received the collaboration of the team of the Office of the Natural Park of Sant Llorenc del Munt i l'Obac, and the economic support of the Technical Office of the Natural Parks from the Barcelona Provincial Council park network. An endemic species described more than 100 years ago in Montserrat The species Xerocrassa montserratensis, previously named Helix montserratensis, is a uniqueness of the terrestrial malacological fauna in Catalonia described by Joaquin Gonzalez Hidalgo in 1870 in the Montserrat mountain. Also, in the late 19th century, Artur Bofill had described two sub-species according to the morphological character of the shell: X. m. betulonensis and X. m. delicatula. This Catalan endemism, considered to be an excellent model in phylogeographical studies, is found in open spaces of typical bare stony slopes of conglomerate lithology, but not in forestal areas. Surprisingly, the species was detected in areas that had been previously burnt, "which would indicate a high ability to survive or colonize which is not described yet in the scientific literature," notes the expert Xavier Santos, from CIBIO. As part of the research study, the team applied the methodology based on the so-called DNA barcoding, which uses a short and standardized fragment of DNA in this case, the mitochondrial gen Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI) to facilitate the identification of species and detection of differenced evolutionary groups. This methodology allows researchers to classify most of the species with a high resolution, and in many cases, it provides a great intraspecific variability to detect barriers in the genic flow between populations. "Since these molluscs have a low mobility, from the from a scientific perspective it was quite interesting to determine whether this endangered species had a populational structure," says Marta Pascual, lecturer at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics. The snail is considered to be an excellent model in phylogeographical studies. Credit: Vicenc Bros The study enabled the researchers to test the hypothesis from a hundred years ago, which related the population of the mountain chain of Marina in the Catalan littoral mountain chain with populations in the upstream waters in the Besos River. The team identified genetic groups in areas where different sub-species had been described, a hypothesis that had been under doubts recently by several morphological studies. The results show that the genetically differenced groups are in those populations where the different sub-species had been described more than a century ago. Moreover, researchers also identified a new area where the groups are different Munts, in the Catalan transversal mountain chain, which should be studied in detail in future studies. "Our study provides information favoring the validity of these sub-species but we need to advance with the research studies and to conduct morphometric and genomic studies to determine whether there is a reproductive isolation among the different mitochondrial groups," says Marta Pascual. A genetic diversification situation during the Pleistocene According to the authors, the process of diversification of the genetic groups, combined with the specificity of their natural habitat, could be related to the geological and paleoclimate processes during the Pleistocene, which finally contributed to shaping the current genetic structure of the species. These processes could explain the origins of the vast radiation of species of the gender Xerocrassa in some Mediterranean islands, such as Crete or the Balearic Islands, as stated by the authors. "It is shocking to find that close populations are that genetically differenced, and at the same time, that a species with such a reduced distribution area can present genetically differenced groups at a mitochondrial level," notes Xavier Santos. The paper published in Scientific Reports provides new scientific knowledge to adopt management measures for the conservation of the genetic diversity of the species, now threatened by the impact of the massive human visits, unique habitats in many protected spaces, according to Vicenc Bros, from the Barcelona Provincial Council. Explore further Adaptive genetic markers identify the origins and dispersal of invasive species More information: Cristina Catala et al. Deep genetic structure at a small spatial scale in the endangered land snail Xerocrassa montserratensis, Scientific Reports (2021). Journal information: Scientific Reports Cristina Catala et al. Deep genetic structure at a small spatial scale in the endangered land snail Xerocrassa montserratensis,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-87741-7 That doesnt negate the fact that the [Asian American and Pacific Islander] community in Howard County is in fear and they are afraid and they have told me those concerns, so that is still their reality. So what Ive been trying to do is just support them and tell them that the police department is here for them, she said. If there is any situation where they feel that they are being targeted because of their ethnicity, they have to contact us so that we can try and negate that situation. Credit: m.mphoto/Shutterstock The blocking of the Suez Canal in March by a megaship named Ever Given delayed over 200 vessels laden with thousands of containers, serving as a reminder of the scale of the shipping industry and the global repercussions when something goes badly wrong at sea. Yet most people remain unaware of just how frequently the cargo carried by huge container ships doesn't make it to port at all. Several thousand containers are believed to be lost overboard each yearthe result of bad weather, poor stowage, inadequate supervision and even the size of the ship itself. The steel containers plunge quickly towards the seabed, with many rupturing under pressure or from the impact when they hit the ocean floor. If the material in the container is significantly denser than seawater, its dispersion will be localized and confined to the sea floor. But articles with a density close to or lower than seawater, including many common plastics, disperse to the ocean surface, where they're often carried thousands of miles onto far-flung beaches. In a previous study, my colleagues and I found evidence such plastics can survive in the ocean for up to 1,300 years. Our recent study tracked a spill of Hewlett-Packard inkjet cartridges, which is believed to have taken place 1,500km east of New York in 2014. Using social media to connect with beachcombers, we found the cartridges had spread as far south as Cape Verde and as far north as the Arctic Circle. Spills at sea Most container losses go unreported and undocumented because, at present, there's no obligation for lost cargo to be declared unless it's of a hazardous nature and likely to pose an immediate threat to the environment. This means that evidence of cargo from lost containers is usually restricted to groups of distinctive plastic items, noticed primarily by regular beachcombers. In 1997, for example, over sixty containers were lost from the Tokio Express after a giant wave tilted the vessel 60 degrees to the side as it was rounding Land's End in south-west England. One of the containers was filled with nearly 5 million pieces of nautical-themed Lego, which have been beaching along the coastline of Cornwall ever since. On this day in 1997, nearly 5 million bits of #Lego fell into the ocean when a huge wave hit the cargo ship Tokio Express, washing 62 containers overboard. We're still finding it 24 years later. Among the pieces lost were green dragons, highly prized among beachcombers. pic.twitter.com/mMEeAeQlup Lego Lost At Sea (@LegoLostAtSea) February 13, 2021 Depending on the location of a spill, cargo that floats on the sea's surfacewhich the UN estimates to comprise 15% of all marine litterprovides an opportunity for scientists to study ocean circulation. Currents tend to ferry and concentrate plastics into garbage patches in certain areas of the sea. This was the case in 1992 when a container of childrens' bath toys, including a consignment of rubber ducks, was lost in the center of the North Pacific. They were subsequently reported by beachcombers over a range of thousands of miles, allowing scientists to learn about the circulation of the surface waters of the North Pacific Ocean. 29K rubber ducks were lost at sea in 1992, and are still being found, revolutionizing our knowledge of ocean science pic.twitter.com/hkQeZ2fKxR The World (@World) November 8, 2015 Then, in 2014, small but distinctive Hewlett-Packard inkjet cartridges began to appear on the beaches of the Azores islands in the center of the North Atlantic. My colleague, Tracey Williams, posted calls for further sightings on an international beachcombing group on social media, with over 50,000 members. Reports soon came flooding in. Sightings were shared along the coasts of western Europe, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Bermuda and Florida. Some cartridges were found on the shores of the North Sea and the beaches of northern Norway. This extensive dataset on locations and timings revealed how buoyant plastic was transported across the North Atlantic Ocean by different currents, with cartridges spreading nearly 8,000km in less than four years at an average drift speed of 10cm a second. We then used PlasticAdrift, an oceanographic model, to simulate cartridge transport from the spill site. The model's outputs were very similar to observations made by our beachcombing "citizen scientists," but key discrepancies highlighted where the model could be improved and how beaching could be incorporated into oceanographic transport simulations. Ocean microplastics After gathering our data, we extended our study to examine the biofouling and weathering of the cartridge plastic. Over their relatively short exposure to the sea, the cartridges' polypropylene shell already exhibited considerable deteriorationa source of microplastics we know are widespread in our oceans. Electronic tags remaining on some cartridges also contained potentially hazardous chemicals, including brominated flame retardants and copper. The presence of these tags classify the spill as electronic plastic, and as such the cartridges should be regulated under more stringent electronic waste regulations. Regarding spills more generally, the International Maritime Organization has recently established an action plan for 2025 that will consider a compulsory means of declaring plastic litter derived from containers lost at sea. Such regulations will incentivise better stowage and provide scientists with a greater insight into the problem of ocean pollution from spillages. Explore further Social media and science show how ship's plastic cargo dispersed from Florida to Norway This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Bycatch is a serious problem within commercial fishing. Credit: Efraimstochter/Pixabay, CC BY-SA Capturing audiences worldwide with its no-holds-barred indictment of the fishing industry, Netflix's Seaspiracy is the latest documentary to draw attention to the plight of our oceans. With marine species at risk of extinction, degradation of coral reef habitats, and threats to nutritionally important fish species, public concern about ocean mismanagement is well founded. But does Seaspiracy hit the right mark? The film has been widely criticized for its sweeping generalizations and oversimplified solutions. While it's true that fisheries hurt marine ecosystems through degrading ocean habitats and driving climate change, they're also the source of huge social and economic value. Fisheries employ at least 40 million people and provide 17% of global animal protein intake. That means simply stopping seafood consumption is neither a fair nor realistic option for most people and places: not to mention the potential unintended consequences of shifting the pressure to produce food onto land-based systems. Instead, we need to recognize the complex trade-offs between fisheries and conservation, and work towards negotiating better solutions for people and nature. What might this more balanced approach look like? Our research proposes a new solution: commercial fishing companies and seafood consumers should pay compensation for the environmental impacts of fisheries. To illustrate this idea, let's take a look at the problem of bycatch. What's so bad about bycatch? Bycatch is the capture and death of marine life through large-scale fishing. It's the most serious global threat to migratory, longlived marine megafaunathe ocean's largest and most iconic creatures, including sharks, turtles and seabirds. Overall, fisheries harm at least 20 million individual creatures from endangered, threatened and protected species annually. This enormous damage to ocean ecosystems is rarely compensated foror even acknowledgedby fishing companies. Nor is the damage accounted for in the price of seafood once it reaches the supermarket. Dual benefits of bycatch levies. Credit: Hollie Booth How could bycatch levies help? One way to solve this is to nudge the behavior of fishing companies and seafood consumers through economic incentives. Bycatch levies, for example, could set a price on each unit of bycatch, which would be paid for by fishing companies or passed on to consumers via higher seafood prices. Particularly significant sources of bycatch include shrimp trawls, tuna longlines, and swordfish gill nets. That means bycatch levies would be higher for fishing companies using these practices, and seafood sourced via these methods could become more expensive. This approach would encourage fisheries to adopt fishing methods that result in less bycatch. Examples include circular hooks to reduce turtle capture, nylon lines that sharks can more easily escape, or safe live-release methods to help bycaught animals be returned to the ocean. Given that it's almost impossible to completely avoid bycatch, levies could also raise money to support conservation efforts for species particularly affected by bycatch: including restoring ocean habitats or supporting small-scale fishers to buy bycatch-reducing gear they otherwise couldn't afford. Examples of bycatch levies are hard to come by, mainly due to companies and consumers' unwillingness to foot extra costs. However, theoretical examples show that they're potentially able to create benefits for both people and nature. Investing bycatch levies in community-based conservation could create positive outcomes for fishers and people (photos from Aceh (left) and West Papua (right) in Indonesia). Credit: Hollie Booth A study on turtle bycatch in the US found that bycatch levies invested into turtle conservation could generate greater benefits for turtle populations per dollar than other measures, such as fishery closures. Based on this, a coalition of US-based tuna companies has begun to invest US$1 (0.71) per ton of longline-caught tuna into community-based turtle conservation projects in the Pacific Ocean, with positive and cost-effective outcomes for turtles as well as coastal communities. In the future, just as investors and consumers are demanding "deforestation-free" supply chains, so they could demand "bycatch-neutral" seafood. If widely adopted, this could generate billions of dollars for ocean conservation. The seven most commercially valuable tuna species are together worth about US$42 billion. If bycatch levies were valued at just 12% of this figurea reasonable amount, given that global bycatch rates are estimated to make up at least 10%-20% of total catchesthis could raise enough money to pay for conserving 20%30% of the world's oceans while creating a host of long-term benefits for biodiversity, food security and climate. Our findings make it clear that levies must be well-designed, responsibly deployed, and used alongside other measures, such as establishing marine protected areas and developing more selective fishing technology. Importantly, they would need to be supported by supply chain transparency, consumer demand for responsible seafood and increased fisheries monitoring. Of course, bycatch levies aren't the answer to all marine conservation issues. But they do represent a new approach to some of the environmental damage caused by fishing, in a way that enables both fishers and consumers to continue to enjoy seafood without a side of guilt. Despite what Seaspiracy may have us believe, saving the oceans doesn't have to mean shutting down fisheries. What it should mean is pushing fishing companies and seafood consumers to acknowledge the environmental consequences of their decisionsand to act accordingly. Explore further Study of US tuna fisheries explores nexus of climate change, sustainable seafood This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Researchers from University of Maryland, North Carolina State University, National Taiwan University, Oxford University, Kings College London, and Perceptronics Solutions, Inc. published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines how artificial intelligence (AI)-based text analysis of social media can monitor the extent to which brand reputation rises and falls over time. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Real-Time Brand Reputation Tracking using Social Media" and is authored by Roland Rust, William Rand, Ming-Hui Huang, Andrew Stephen, Gillian Brooks, and Timur Chabuk. Organizations' brand reputations can rise and fall based on brand-related events. For example, when Goya CEO Robert Unanue suggested that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was fraudulent, that controversial assertion likely offended a large segment of the population. How can we tell? This research team demonstrates that using artificial intelligence (AI)-based text analysis of social media can monitor the extent to which brand reputation rises and falls over time. What's more, merging this social media monitoring with the Rust-Zeithaml-Lemon customer equity drivers can show exactly which dimensions of brand reputation are changing. All marketers know that brands are important and that stakeholders' views of the brand are reflective of many different factors. Also, brand reputation may rise or fall over time, due to events that affect the brand. The fact that brand reputation is not constant makes it essential for companies to monitor their brands continuously, to determine whether a brand's reputation is changing, and to evaluate which aspects of the brand are causing these changes. Survey-based approaches exist, but surveying stakeholders on a daily basis is generally too expensive to be practical. Another approach is to infer what is happening to brand reputation by mining social media. Automatic, AI-based text analysis of social media posts is a realistic alternative. Because Twitter is widely used by people to express opinions about brands and is often monitored by the public, the research team chose it as the platform to explore and baseline results. By analyzing millions of Twitter tweets, they demonstrate that their brand reputation tracker accurately reflected major brand events in real-time. For example, when it was revealed that Facebook had improperly shared personal information with an outside company (Cambridge Analytica), the brand tracker reflected that right away with a decline in brand reputation. On the positive side, when Google added new features, its brand reputation ratings went up. Rust says that "It is one thing to know that brand reputation is improving or declining, but another thing entirely to figure out why. To ensure the actionability of our brand reputation tracker, we sorted the tweets according to the Rust-Zeithaml-Lemon customer equity drivers, which have been applied by many Fortune 500 companies. These three drivers, along with their sub-drivers, help managers know where to focus, making the brand tracker managerially relevant and actionable." The three main drivers of customer equity according to this framework are value, brand, and relationship. The value driver considers the rational or objective aspects of the brand, such as price, quality, or convenience. The brand driver considers the emotional or subjective aspects of the brand, such as attitude toward the brand, or perceptions of the brand's ethics. The relationship driver focuses on the aspects of the brand that create switching costs, such as loyalty programs or knowledge of the brand. Rand explains that "Our brand reputation tracker is unique in that it can reflect the impact of brand events in real-time and connect them in a more granular way to managerially specific drivers of brand reputation. Managers can use it to drive programs that enhance their brands' standing with customers, forging deeper relationships and ultimately delivering more revenues to their bottom line." Explore further New tool assesses brand reputation in real time and in the long term More information: Roland T. Rust et al, Real-Time Brand Reputation Tracking Using Social Media, Journal of Marketing (2021). Journal information: Journal of Marketing Roland T. Rust et al, Real-Time Brand Reputation Tracking Using Social Media,(2021). DOI: 10.1177/0022242921995173 Credit: CC0 Public Domain Working from home during the pandemic has been a major learning curve for organizations and workers alike, with mixed blessings. As the Government's roadmap for easing lockdown continues to gather pace, employers are now making plans for the 'new normal," with many favoring a hybrid model of flexible working between home and the office and very few suggesting a return to full-time office-based hours. Support for working from home in the long-term from business leaders has varied. David Solomon of Goldman Sachs has referred to working from home as an "aberration," while Joe Garner, Chief Executive of Nationwide has stated that 13,000 of its office workers can choose to work from anywhere in the UK. Professor Keith Cuthbertson, Professor of Finance at the Business School (formerly Cass) explains the ramifications of such a permanent shift in working patterns, and the likely effects we will see on wellbeing, the economy and society at large. Do employees enjoy working from home? Professor Cuthbertson said early evidence suggests a strong preferance for a flexible model, whereby workers can choose between home and office on a given day or week to fit in with organizational needs. "A survey of 5,000 UK working adults in early 2021 suggested substantial support for working from home," Professor Cuthbertson said. "Around 50 percent of those surveyed expressed a preference for working from home for between two and four days per week, while 20 percent would happily carry on working from home for five days a week. "Support for flexible working has grown partly because the pandemic has reduced a stigma previously connected with remote working: that it was a license to 'shirk.'" Using the extra hours in a day An undeniable benefit of flexible working for employees is a better work-life balance. Professor Cuthbertson explained the upside. "Work-life balance depends a lot on commuting time and the quality of the commute. "In the UK, commuting time is around 60 minutes per day and 80 minutes per day for a London commute. Rush hour commuting on congested rail and road journeys is not conducive to higher productivity. "People are therefore making more use of their time 'outside of the office." A survey of 10,000 working Americans last year found around 35 percent of time savings were reallocated to their primary job, 8 percent to a secondary job, 30 percent to increased leisure such as watching television and doing outdoor activities like exercisewith the rest dedicated to household chores and childcare. "Just from these figures we can clearly see benefits for workers." Organizations are still responsible for the work environment While employees see the tangible perks of working away from the office, Professor Cuthbertson believes there will be increased responsibility on employers. "Over the coming months there will be a rise in organizational costs, including new work scheduling, changes in office layout and more interactive communal areas. "Companies will also have to ensure that working conditions and equipment at home are adequate for their workers, and that fewer face-to-face interactions between employees and management do not lead to a worsening of promotion prospects. "New hires and underperformers may be encouraged to spend more time on average at their designated place of work than established workers, for example." How will working from home affect the economy? Reports have highlighted how central hubs like Canary Wharf are rapidly becoming deserted as a result of the pandemic shift. Professor Cuthbertson predicts further changes in living and spending patterns as a result of flexible working. "With substantial working from home there will be a lower footfall in city centers, replaced by greater online expenditure and accompanied by an increase in economic activity in the suburbs. "Towns and rural areas around big cities will benefit relative to city centers themselves. Firms may also migrate some of their primary workspace from city centers to towns and retail parks to take advantage of cheaper rents. "Some companies may allow working from home three or more days per week, which could result in employees relocating further afield where house prices and rents are less steep. "A reduction in city center office use may result in conversions to residential housing, as has been suggested recently with the City of London. Lower commercial rents, meanwhile, may attract creative start-ups where face-to-face interaction is more important. "Big cities will survive, but daily economic activity will be slashedparticularly in retail and hospitality. Public transport will generate lower revenues and may require increased subsidies, while local authorities will receive less in business rates which could provide a catalyst for changes in local taxation." Explore further Canadians say just as productive working from home CAMBRIDGE About 100 people logged on May 6 for an introductory meeting about the community mediation process the school district is sponsoring to resolve the mascot issue. Ninety people have signed up for facilitated interviews, Cambridge Board of Education President Neil Gifford reported Tuesday evening during the boards monthly meeting. People are really opening up and sharing, said school Superintendent Douglas Silvernell. Community conversations have been scheduled for three time slots daily from Thursday through Sunday, Silvernell said. The Thursday evening slot is reserved for training community facilitators but all others are open. To ensure safety and confidentiality, the news media is not allowed to observe or participate, officials said. Bridges, the mediation company the school hired, will issue a report before the school board votes to retire or retain the schools controversial Indian nickname and emblem at its June 10 meeting. The district is paying Bridges $15,750 for its services, but Silvernell said the cost will be covered in part by a $5,000 donation from a school alumnus. The donor is seeking gifts from other alumni, Silvernell said. SARATOGA SPRINGS A Saratoga Springs man was arrested on Friday after police said he attempted to force a person out of a car to steal it. Officers of the Saratoga Springs Police Department responded to the area of West Avenue and Washington Street at about 4:30 p.m. for a report of a man who was attacking cars, police said. Upon arrival, the officers saw a man, later identified as 19-year-old Colby C. Flood, in the roadway of West Avenue. Officers attempted to speak with Flood but he did not respond. Officers provided traffic control as other officers followed him as he moved around, according to a news release. Flood then began to run and jumped into the open passenger window of a vehicle on West Avenue. Once inside, Flood is accused of attempting to force a 48-year-old woman out of her car to take the vehicle. The driver was removed from the car and officers arrested Flood. The woman had minor injuries. Police do not believe Flood had any weapons. FORT EDWARD The Whitehall man on trial in Washington County Court for the sexual assault of a child was found guilty on Tuesday of three of the four charges, but not the top count of predatory sexual assault. A jury convicted 35-year-old Kenneth Reed on charges of aggravated second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, as well as a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child. The jury began deliberating on Monday at 2 p.m. and reached its decision late in the afternoon. The verdict followed a trial that began on May 3. Reed had been arrested in September for an incident that occurred on May 30. Police said he had sexual intercourse with a child younger than 11. The jury acquitted him on that count, but convicted him on the charges that said he touched the girls private parts. Reed caused a cut on her genitalia, which required her to be taken to the hospital. Reed was acquainted with the victim. The prosecution had presented evidence that semen was found on the girls underwear that contained DNA that matched the genetic profile of Reed or a male relative. Also, medical experts testified that the injury she sustained was not likely to have been caused by a fall. She said one reason given for the change was low test scores. However, she said test scores are low across the board in Granville not just for the special education population. Jenkins also said she wants to be an ally for the teachers. Their morale is low, she said. I want to be an advocate for our teachers and our parents because our community is feeling kind of beat down at the moment, she said. She said the district is cutting teaching positions at a time when it has money in its fund balance and $3 million in federal stimulus money heading to the district. Jenkins said her husband is a Granville native and the couple bought a house there because the district had fantastic programs and electives. However, those programs are being cut. Jenkins, who is teacher in Cambridges prekindergarten program, said she can talk and listen to anybody. Shirley Kunen Kunen is seeking her second term. She believes the top issue is to create an atmosphere that promotes opportunities for all students to reach their highest academic potential and self-development. LAKE GEORGE The search for trolley operators has come up short this year, forcing the Greater Glens Falls Transit system to reduce service ahead of what is expected to be a busy summer tourism season. With less than three weeks until weekend trolley service is set to resume on Memorial Day weekend, the transit system is still five operators short, said Scott Scopzyk, director of Greater Glens Falls Transit. We still have a need. We will be starting (trolley service) Memorial Day, but it will be a little shorter than normal, he said. Because of the shortage, the last trolley will depart Lake George at 6:15 p.m., nearly four hours ahead of the usual 10:30 p.m. departure. The reduced service is a blow to local businesses that have come to rely on the popular service to shuttle thousands of visitors and employees into the village, said Gina Mintzer, executive director of the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce. Certainly, it will be a big deal to our local restaurateurs and retailers who do rely on that trolley not only for their potential visitors and customers, but also for some of their employees, she said. Greater Glens Falls Transit needs trolley operators The Greater Glens Falls Transit system is having difficulty recruiting drivers needed to operate its popular trolley service, sparking concerns that the upcoming summer tourism season may face disruptions. Mapp said he would always be committed to what he referred the three Rs of aviation safety, security and service. One of my directives is to allow the airport to be a self-sustaining as possible, so we dont drain the resources of the community, he said. Mapp is looking forward to overseeing local projects, including the new solar farm. Nexamp Solar is leasing 50 acres of property at Warren County to install a 6.5-megawatt solar array. I think thats a very exciting project not only as a source of clean, renewable energy, but a source of income for the airport, he said. The airport has seen construction of four new hangars in recent years and work on a new snow removal equipment storage building is under way. Mapp said he hoped to end his career here. He and his wife have a 9-year-old child. Mapp is working on obtaining a pilots license and hopes to complete his training in Warren County. Mapp replaces Don DeGraw, who took a job at an airport in Florida earlier this year. Rachel Seeber, chairwoman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, said the county is excited to have a manager with Mapps experience and energy. We are very optimistic about the future of our fine airport and its ability to aid our business community, and we believe Robin will play a big role in the success we see on the horizon at Warren County airport, she said in a news release. Michael Goot covers politics, crime and courts, Warren County, education and business. Reach him at 518-742-3320 or mgoot@poststar.com. Love 6 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. These individuals were members of an organized criminal and illegal drug organization, Frosh said in a statement. They were violent and terrorized residents of the community in which they conducted their illegal activity. I appreciate the collaborative efforts of our law enforcement partners to help get these drugs and guns off the street and bring these individuals to justice. Their latest failure comes in the form of HALT, a law that is based on a complete fabrication, concocted by advocacy groups and passed by a state Legislature who the majority have zero regard for the lives and well-being of our members, said Mark Deburgomaster, NYSCOPBAs western region vice president. Jerome Wright, a statewide organizer with the #HALTsolitary Campaign, said assaults on incarcerated individuals or staff are unacceptable. But he said the question is how does the state prevent and reduce violence in prisons. Simply put, solitary confinement is torture, Wright continued. Its not only harmful and deadly itself, but also leads to violence as people deteriorate. The HALT Solitary Confinement Act will protect people from the terrible harms of long-term solitary, including severe psychosis and suicide, while still allowing (DOCCS) to separate people for extended periods of time in secure environments with therapeutic programming proven to actually address dangerous behaviors. For NYSCOPBA President Michael Powers, his main concern is what he views as a deteriorating situation in prisons. Even as the prison population declines, there are more assaults on staff and inmates in state correctional facilities. This is an important development that is months overdue, said David Grabowski, a Harvard health policy professor who has tracked the industry's struggles with the outbreak. Many of us argued that this information should have been published starting in December when the federal long-term care vaccination effort began. Nursing homes will now be required to submit weekly vaccination numbers for residents and staff to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That requirement will take effect within two weeks. Medicare officials say it may take two to four more weeks after that for the data to start flowing. The plan is to post facility-level information on the internet so residents and families can easily access the details from Medicare's Compare Care website. Residents of nursing homes and their families have every right to this basic information, said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., part of a bipartisan group urging the change. Fleisher said the agency will also gain greater insight into levels of vaccination across the entire industry. That would let health officials direct vaccines and support services to nursing homes lagging behind. TOKYO (AP) Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. returned to profitability for the fiscal year that ended in March, it said Wednesday, boosted by the strong performance of its sprawling investments as stock prices surged. Tokyo-based SoftBank reported a 4.99 trillion yen ($36 billion) profit, a dramatic reversal from the 962 billion yen loss logged during the previous fiscal year. It did not break down quarterly results. The annual net profit was the biggest for any company in Japanese history, surpassing Japan's top earner Toyota Motor Corp. But Son brushed off the achievement as a coincidence," while promising to keep pursuing his dream of innovation, not just monetary gain. Sales for the fiscal year totaled 5.6 trillion yen ($51 billion), up 7%. Sales of SoftBank's assets helped boost its bottom line by 5.6 trillion yen ($51 billion) from April to September 2020. The company sold holdings in U.S. mobile company T-Mobile, Chinese technology company Alibaba and Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Corp. SoftBank was the first to offer the Apple iPhone in the Japanese market. SoftBank also reduced its debt by 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) this fiscal year by repurchasing corporate bonds and repaying loans. Im also an Uber Eats driver. I also need gas for that, said Gatison, who added he probably wont deliver food Wednesday night because he doesnt want to wait in line again while the shortage continues. In North Carolina, 65% of gas stations were out of fuel, according to Gasbuddy.com, a technology firm that tracks real-time fuel prices across the country. Just outside Raleigh, two people were charged with assault after fighting and spitting in each others faces while arguing over their spots in line Tuesday at a Marathon gas station, authorities said. North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper urged people Wednesday to only buy gas if their tank is low, and to report any instances of price gouging. We will continue our efforts to help make sure there is an adequate supply of fuel, Cooper wrote on Twitter. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Georgians were also getting squeezed, with 43% of stations there out of gas, according to Gasbuddy.com. In Virginia, 44% of stations were out, and in South Carolina, 16% had no fuel. Along the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine through some of the most rugged and remote terrain in the Southeast, hikers depend on car and van shuttles to ferry them to and from the trail and get them back to civilization. More certified professionals and skilled trade workers will be needed to launch these programs and complete energy efficiency projects across the region. Atlantic City Electric plans to invest $600,000 in workforce development efforts to support local workers and new businesses. The company will also expand its existing workforce development programs to support careers in energy efficiency. Atlantic City Electrics energy efficiency programs are important for our South Jersey residents, said Albert Kelly, president and CEO of Gateway Community Action Partners. When it comes to equity for families with limited incomes these diverse set of programs make a difference. Opportunities to save money on their electric bill go a long way for families struggling to make their rent or to purchase groceries. We welcome the benefits of these programs which are consistent with our mission to provide services that improve the quality of life and promote self-sufficiency. We partnered with platforms such as DoorDash and Uber Eats, and we found that to be very successful, said Jamie Hoagland, marketing director for the Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall in the Orange Loop. We started that last summer, and were going to continue with that. Open-container permission has been pushed for at least a decade in Atlantic City. Last June, Mayor Marty Small Sr. signed an executive order permitting it until November or until COVID-19 restrictions were lifted by Gov. Phil Murphy, whichever came first. A continued push for the order to be made permanent eventually paid off when the governor signed it into law in August. Obviously, the open-container law has been very good for us, and thats also been very successful. Well do everything we can to keep that going. Also, were going to continue to push outdoor dining. Again, we already had that going for us, and then with COVID and the new rules, we were just poised for success with that. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} New York Avenues Bourre will also incorporate more outdoor concerts moving forward, said Meet AC President and CEO Larry Sieg. The takeover is due to end in November unless a new bill is passed. Working with DCA (the Department of Community Affairs) and the Governors Office, this bill also will put back civil service and allow unions to be able to arbitrate and get a seat at the table, Mazzeo said. DCA Commissioner and Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver has said in the past she believes the city needs state oversight for another four years. Officially, however, a DCA spokesperson said the department cannot comment on pending legislation. Comments in favor of the bill came from police and fire union representatives, who said they are grateful to lawmakers for moving to restore their workers rights. No one spoke against it. Support Local Journalism Your subscription makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Ed Donnelly, of the New Jersey Firefighter Mutual Benefit Association, said he knows some Assembly members have concerns that restoring arbitration rights to police and fire unions may result in increased costs to the city. But he said fiscal stabilization is one of nine factors an arbitrator might consider when awarding raises or benefits of monetary value. TRENTON Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a bill that seeks to address substitute teacher shortages. The legislation sponsored by Sens. M. Teresa Ruiz and James Beach to expand the pool of substitute teachers was signed into law Tuesday. The bill was introduced in August and was approved by the Senate in January and by the Assembly in March. Substitute teaching provides valuable experience to college students of all majors, offering an opportunity to serve their communities, learn more about our education system and earn money, said Ruiz, D-Essex, chair of the Senate Education Committee. This new law will expand eligibility to more higher education students in the state, ensuring we have the staffing we need in our classrooms and increasing job opportunities for those working towards a degree. Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the shortage of substitute teachers has been abundantly apparent, but the problem persisted before that. To attract more substitutes in the 2020-21 school year, many South Jersey districts approved temporary pay increases to more than $200 a day for certified substitutes. Under the law, a student enrolled in college who has completed 30 credits toward their degree can serve as a sub. Previously, the law required a sub to have 60 college credits. Government entities in Atlantic, Cape May and Cumberland counties have been awarded grants to pursue shared services, officials said Wednesday. The Murphy administration and the state Division of Local Government Services said 23 grants totaling $2.5 million have been distributed across the state. The goal of the program is to help local governments pursue shared services to reduce taxpayer costs, officials said in a news release. In the wake of the pandemic, local governments are looking for innovative ways to cut costs to offset unexpected expenses incurred this past year. Shared services are a proven way to accomplish this while preserving and even enhancing existing services, Lt. Gov. Sheila Oliver said in a statement. The LEAP grants being awarded today are specifically designed to help towns streamline resources to achieve taxpayer savings without sacrificing the quality of services their residents need. News organizations reported that police initially got a call from the infants father, who told them his fiancee was erratic and Ganoe had texted him with a disturbing message about what he would find when he got home. Officers had been to the apartment before the stabbings, Drew said. WILDWOOD CREST It looks increasingly unlikely that a legal pot shop will find a home in the Wildwoods. The Wildwood Crest Board of Commissioners introduced an ordinance Wednesday morning, banning any cannabis-related business in the borough at the south end of Five Mile Beach. The borough also joined a growing number of towns in seeking to keep cannabis off the beach and other public areas. Wildwood Crest had offered designated smoking areas on the beach. An ordinance set to go into effect June 7 will eliminate those areas, making the entire beach smoke-free. That goes for cannabis as well as tobacco. Commissioner David Thompson, the one dissenting vote on the ordinance, said the borough could create more problems by trying to ban smoking entirely. We have not given anybody a place to smoke, and thats going to create just as big a problem down at the beach blankets, Thompson said. I know the concern was, it theyre smoking cigarettes on the beach theyre going to smoke pot on the beach. Well, we should have the same concern if theyre going to smoke cigarettes down the front of the beach, theyre going to be smoking their pot down the front of the beach. Wesley Lowery, a former Post reporter now at CBS News, referred to Merida in tweeting Tuesday: The overqualified black candidate not even getting a serious call about the job, only for it to go to a white lady and be framed as a win for diversity is the entire story of newsroom diversity efforts. Buzbee said the AP made important strides in diversity and in opening paths to leadership while she was in charge. What I'm looking forward to is getting to know the (Post) staff and diving in and continuing that commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, she said. I think it is one of the highest priorities for every news organization going forward, and it is very much mine. The Post has made a sharp turnaround, particularly as a digital organization, since Bezos bought it. Its website has more than 80 million unique visits per month. But the Amazon founder's presence is closely watched; Trump continually pointed out the connection. Buzbee said she has been impressed with how the Post has maintained its independence in the news pages. Buzbee, originally from Olathe, Kansas, joined the AP as a reporter in Topeka. She was correspondent in San Diego, and then in 1995 joined the Washington bureau, where she eventually became assistant chief of bureau. Excluding so many people from the process of deciding to file for bankruptcy, including the vast majority of the board of directors, the chief financial officer, and the general counsel, is nothing less than shocking, the judge added. Phillip Journey, an NRA board member and Kansas judge who had sought to have an examiner appointed to investigate the groups leadership, was concise about Hale's judgment: 1 word, disappointed, he wrote in a text message. LaPierre pledged in a statement to continue to fight for gun rights. Although we are disappointed in some aspects of the decision, there is no change in the overall direction of our Association, its programs, or its Second Amendment advocacy, LaPierre said via the NRA's Twitter account. Today is ultimately about our members those who stand courageously with the NRA in defense of constitutional freedom. We remain an independent organization that can chart its own course, even as we remain in New York to confront our adversaries. Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that the case was an attempt by NRA leadership to escape accountability for using the groups coffers as their personal piggybank. But the NRAs attorneys said it was a legitimate effort to avoid a political attack by James, who is a Democrat. TRENTON Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has had the biggest cash haul and spent the most so far in this years gubernatorial primary, followed by Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli, who vastly leads his three GOP challengers, state officials revealed Wednesday. The Election Law Enforcement Commission released a snapshot of the candidates fundraising and spending less than a month ahead of the June 8 primary. Murphy is running unopposed in the Democratic primary after two would-be rivals got tossed from the ballot over faulty ballot petitions. He aims to become the first Democrat to win reelection in more than four decades. Ciattarelli is a former GOP Assembly member who ran but lost the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2017. Hes also a certified public accountant and started a medical publishing company. This year he has consolidated GOP support across the state, though he still faces challengers who deride Ciattarelli as insufficiently supportive of former President Donald Trump. Murphy raised $7.8 million, has spent about $7 million and has less than $1 million cash on hand. Ciattarelli brought in $5.7 million and spent $4.4 million, but he has $1.3 million on hand, more than any other candidate. No Democratic opponent, but Murphy launches $5M ad campaign before June 8 primary Despite having no Democratic opponents on the ballot in the June 8 primary, look for televis Gov. Phil Murphys executive order requiring masks in indoor public spaces remains in force. There are exceptions for children under 2, for eating and drinking, and when individuals need to briefly remove face coverings for religious or health reasons. But as more people are vaccinated against COVID-19 and the pandemic wanes there were just nine new cases of the novel coronavirus in Ocean County on Monday more people are asking: When can they bare their faces again? +10 NJ first lady urges COVID vaccines in communities of color: 'Leaving no stone unturned' ASBURY PARK - Tammy Murphy, wife of Gov. Phil Murphy, toured a vaccination clinic here Tuesday that has been on the front line of Asbury Park's battle against COVID-19, particularly in the quest to get the vaccine to communities of color. The Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey, which operates the clinic at the Asbury Park Senior Center on Springwood Avenue, in the predominately Black ... Stephanie Locricchio, of the Wellness Warriors Revolution, who advocates for parental control over their childs vaccinations, called on the crowd to stop obeying the mask mandate but acknowledged that doing so would require moxie. Even as an adult, to walk around maskless, to be different, to feel the discomfort that you feel when you walk in and you know you are being judged, Locricchio said. I have had every question you can possibly imagine. Ive had more run-ins than I care to talk about, some that Ive livestreamed and some that I have not. But it is not easy. It takes something. And the truth is that until we say enough, this is not going to stop. People keep asking me, when will it end? she said. It ends when we say its enough, its enough. Iran has intended the violations to pressure the other nations involved Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia into finding ways to offset the U.S. sanctions, so far unsuccessfully. The U.S. is not at the table for the talks that began in April, but the other members of the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, have been shuttling between an American delegation also in Vienna and the Iranian delegation. The pact is meant to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb, something the country insists it does not want to do. The government in Tehran has said it is prepared to reverse all of its violations but that Washington must remove all sanctions imposed under Trump including measures imposed over issues not related to its nuclear program. In addition to exceeding the purity of uranium enrichment past the 3.67% allowed, Iranian violations of the JCPOA have also included installing more advanced centrifuges and stockpiling more enriched uranium than permitted. There are countless cases in our state where a legal loophole facilitated murder, including the security guard forced to surrender personal firearms who killed his wife and two others with a gun he was permitted to retain for work (Man accused of killing 3 in Maryland ordered held without bond, May 9, 2016). There was the gunman who killed his estranged wife, her teen-aged Mount Airy neighbor and himself, shortly after a protective order against him expired (Gaithersburg man kills estranged wife and neighbor in Mount Airy, then himself during standoff, police say, April 2, 2020). NEW DATES SET FOR WWE AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND TOUR TEG Dainty announced the following updated details for WWE's return to New Zealand and Australia: WWE LIVE RESCHEDULED TO AUGUST 2022 TEG Dainty wish to advise that due to ongoing restrictions, WWE Live scheduled to take place in July 2021, has been postponed and will now take place on the following dates: Spark Arena, Auckland NZ Tickets for Saturday 31 July 2021 now valid for Thursday 04 August 2022 Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney NSW Tickets for Friday 30 July 2021 now valid for Friday 5 August 2022 Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne VIC Tickets for Thursday 29 July 2021 now valid for Saturday 6 August 2022 All tickets remain valid for the rescheduled dates. If you are unable to attend the new show date listed above, please contact your point of purchase for a refund before Wednesday 9 June 2021. If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here! Democrats and labor groups have criticized Reynolds' decisions as an uncaring political stunt that will make it more difficult for Iowans to stay housed, clothed and fed and to care for their children as the pandemic stretches on. U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne, the lone Democrats in Iowa's congressional delegation, said on Tuesday Reynolds' decision removes a vital safety net for Iowans still out of work and looking for jobs. Some Democrats have pointed to a 2020 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago that says those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits search less intensely for work, but are also willing to accept work that pays considerably less than their prior job. Asked Wednesday what Reynolds' decision will mean for those Iowans still struggling to find work, either because they arent qualified for the jobs available or they cannot find suitable child care, Grassley argued plenty of jobs are available, "and people ought to take those jobs." "In other words, the government is an unfair competitor to the small businesses that need to hire people, or maybe even big businesses," Grassley said. "We went to places that had 350 employees, and they would hire some more if they could." Angry residents also spoke out during the public comments portion at the beginning of the meeting. But the protest was directed at an empty seat; Parker was absent. Don Mewes said Parker's comments were "anti-police, anti-law enforcement, anti-citizen of Rock Island. We deserve better; we deserve protection." Rock Island resident Ray Lind called for Parker's resignation. "Seriously, he needs to resign," Lind said. "At the end of the day, this alderman has chosen a side. This is very easy to fix if he is courageous enough to move forward in the right direction. Instead, he feeds the ignorant, making them believe the police are the problem." Illinois Fraternal Order of Police Executive Director, Shawn Roselieb, who issued a statement April 30 demanding a retraction and apology from Parker, was in attendance to speak in support of the police department and discourage online criticism against police. "I challenge you to push away from the keyboard," Roselieb said. "I challenge you to stay off of social media. I challenge you to pick up the phone, make a phone call, meet in person with your police chief." Andrew DeFrieze spoke in support of Parker, saying Parker was right to question whether foot pursuits are necessary. "I wasn't allowed to visit in the beginning, and he called me on March 13 to say they were putting him on a ventilator," Kathy said. "The last thing I remember saying was, 'Bye. I love you.' And that was it." But there was a long way to go. The couple sat next to each other Tuesday at a table near a window in their Rock Island restaurant, Igor's Bistro, and did their best to piece together their timeline. For a couple of weeks in the intensive-care unit, the hospital staff rotated Rick from his stomach to his back, and the ventilator breathed for him. His vitals were constantly monitored. He was heavily sedated, fed by a tube and, eventually, a tracheostomy tube was inserted in his throat. All Kathy could do was her best to stay positive for the kids and do what she knew her husband would want keep their restaurant going. Before Rick got sick, the family was working hard to keep Igor's afloat. The Halloween-themed restaurant had pandemic nails driven into its coffins. Times were tough, but the family had survived before. Just a few months after opening Igor's in the spring of 2017, Rick had to have triple-bypass surgery. When the pandemic forced them closed, the family figured they could wait it out. KNOXVILLE, Iowa (AP) An Iowa woman who stabbed her estranged husband's girlfriend to death was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree murder. A Marion County jury deliberated for less than an hour before convicting Michelle Boat in the May 18, 2020, death of 46-year-old Tracy Mondabough, who was stabbed as she sat in her truck in Pella, The Ottumwa Courier reported. Boat acknowledged on Monday that she killed Mondabough, of Ottumwa. Her lawyer, Trevor Anderson, argued during the trial that the killing wasn't premediated and that jurors should convict Boat of the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. Andersen said Boat snapped after the sudden breakup of her 20-year marriage and amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, which left jobless and with only $6 at the time of the killing. Boat reacted when she saw her husband, Nicholas Boat, kiss Mondabough that day, he said. Illinois leaders are emphasizing a push to implement EV infrastructure as Rivian has invested billions into its production facility in west Normal. The Irvine, California-based electric vehicle company is expected to roll its first electric SUVs and trucks off the production line this June. This week Lion Electric Co. also announced plans to invest $75 billion in a production plant in Joliet. Pritzker set a goal to have 750,000 electric vehicles on Illinois roads by 2023, and last year he identified eight ways for the state to become a clean energy economy with targets to reach 100% renewable energy before 2050. The FHA designated 145,000 miles of interstate to install signs promoting alternative fueling stations, including Illinois interstates 39, 55, 70, 74, 80, 90 and 94. The Illinois Department of Transportation is rolling out its own blue sign program, which will place signs on exit ramps that will direct motorists to EV charging stations as well as nearby gas stations, restaurants, hotels and tourist attractions. In these cases, the U.S. Supreme Court emphasized the importance of considering a juveniles incomplete brain development and rehabilitative potential before imposing a criminal sentence that is a de facto or near life prison term. But the U.S. Supreme Court backtracked in Jones v. Mississippi, a case involving a 15-year-old convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole. The courts decision in April 2021 ruled that a sentencing court does not have to find a juvenile is incapable of being rehabilitated before sentencing him or her to life without parole. The Illinois General Assembly passed a law in 2019, the Youthful Parole Bill, that allows certain offenders under age 21 to be eligible for parole after 10 years. It also allows certain individuals convicted of murder to be eligible for parole after 20 years. However, the law does not apply retroactively. It also does not apply to individuals convicted of murdering more than one person, as House is. Lieutenant LaSheda Brooks, a judge advocate for the U.S. Navy and one of Houses daughters, authored a letter to the editor in the Chicago Sun-Times last week, advocating for the Illinois Supreme Court to rule in her fathers favor. The cards will be sent to eligible students who attend the 186 school districts and 51 participating non-public schools that applied to the education department. Mailings will continue through the summer as more districts and non-public schools submit eligibility information. The cards will arrive in white envelopes addressed to the childs name with an Austin, Texas, return address. The cards inside will be white, with black font, with IOWA P-EBT printed at the top, and will bear the name of the eligible child. Families must follow the included instructions to activate the card. For more information, call (515) 281-5294. RECORD REVENUE: State revenue collections grew $375 million in April a 75% increase over April 2019, according to the Legislative Services Agency. Much of the growth can be attributed to delays in 2019 tax payments last year due to the pandemic. However, the Iowa Department of Management reports the $1.1 billion in taxes paid in April was the largest amount collected in a single month. The pandemic has been a challenge for Iowa, Department of Management Director Michael Bousselot said. A recent Sun commentary addressed the lack of faculty diversity in higher education (The ivory tower of academia: Higher education lacks racial, ethnic and economic diversity, April 30). In Maryland, the proportion of faculty from underrepresented minority groups is 17%, far from the 45% of the general population. However, important efforts at University of Maryland, Baltimore County are yielding real results. Through the National Science Foundations ADVANCE program, for example, UMBC increased the number of tenure-track women faculty in STEM by 70%, with a 180% increase in the number of women full professors in STEM between 2003 and 2020. I hereby inform you that we have a colleague who has impregnated a girl from Beni, outbreak manager Mory Keita wrote to Yao. Keita told Yao a young woman and her aunt had come to Benis Hotel Okapi looking for WHO managers, with two armed police officers. The womans aunt said the young woman had been having an affair with Ngandu and was now pregnant. They asked WHO to cover the cost of the womans medical costs and for money to buy land, given that Dr. Jean-Paul will abandon the girl and she will be obliged to raise her child alone. Keita said he felt that Yao should be informed so that you would give us your directions for how to better manage this problem. One week after the email was sent, Ngandu signed a notarized contract confirming he would pay the young woman $100 a month until her baby was born, cover her pregnancy costs and buy her a plot of land. Keita and Achile Mboko, a WHO human resources staffer, signed as witnesses. Ngandu said he wasn't the father of the baby and the deal was a private matter. He said he agreed to it after his WHO colleagues, including Keita, advised me to settle out of court to avoid sullying the reputation of the organization and myself. The young woman declined to talk to the AP. Late last month, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman offered an olive branch to his countrys main adversary. Speaking on Saudi television, the kingdoms de facto ruler said he seeks "to have good relations" with Iran. That represents at least a rhetorical retreat for the Saudis, who are fighting a vicious and destructive war against Irans Houthi proxies in Yemen and were public supporters of former President Donald Trumps economic warfare against Iran. It was only three years ago that Prince Mohammed said that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes Hitler look good. Now President Joe Biden has made clear he will not give the Saudis a blank check. He has pursued a path for the U.S. to rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that would release billions of frozen revenues to Irans cash-strapped government. So one explanation for the Saudis attempt at rapprochement with Iran is that Americas regional allies are adjusting to a new president with a new foreign policy. "They are reading the tea leaves," said David Schenker, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy who served as assistant secretary of state under Trump. The Saudis "dont want to be left isolated or without U.S. support." Weve been trying to open a birth center in the Black Hills for the past five years, and it has needed to be here for a very, very long time, Applegate said. We dont have a good community resource for women and their families thats just giving education about pregnancy, labor, birth and breastfeeding. We dont have a community hub for any of that. If a woman is motivated, she can find somebody that can help guide her, but there wasnt one place in one building that encompassed all of that. Fewer Americans are reluctant to get a COVID-19 vaccine than just a few months ago, but questions about side effects and how the shots were tested still hold some back, according to a new poll that highlights the challenges at a pivotal moment in the U.S. vaccination campaign. Just 11% of people who remain unvaccinated say they definitely will get the shot, while 34% say they definitely won't, according to the poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That leaves a large swath of Americans in the middle who might still roll up their sleeves including 27% who say they probably will and 27% who say they probably won't if someone credible addressed their concerns. Read more: *** Here's an update on all developments. Scroll or swipe further for in-depth coverage. More than $488 million in CARES Act funding has been dispersed among 5,857 small business and health care providers in South Dakota as of May 10. The grants were awarded through the states Small Business and Healthcare Grant program announced by Gov. Kristi Noem in fall 2020. There have been two rounds of grants awarded as the state so far has received two rounds of COVID-19 funding from the federal government. Final decisions on the second round of grant applications will be made by May 19, according to Colin Keeler, director of financial systems and operations at the Bureau of Finance and Management. Keeler and BFM Commissioner and the state Chief Financial Officer Liza Clark appeared before the Joint Appropriations Committee Tuesday morning to update legislators on the programs progress, which is now wrapping up. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Ten thousand, three hundred and eighty one applications were submitted by businesses, nonprofits, and community health care providers, 5,857 of which have been deemed eligible and paid a total of $488,820,592. The maximum amount that can be awarded is $514,046,171, so 95% of that amount has already been paid out. Some recipients applied for both rounds and received two grants. There are still 37 applications left to be processed. Sheetz, another major convenience store chain, said Tuesday that it is not experiencing any widespread gasoline outages. As the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline continues, our teams at Sheetz are working to address any supply issues at our store locations, the chain said. As of now, there are no widespread outages at our stores, although certain grades of gasoline could be temporarily unavailable while our fueling teams replenish supplies. We apologize for any inconvenience caused to our customers and thank them for their patience while we navigate this situation. Some gasoline market observers such as the motorists club AAA urged people to avoid panic buying because it only exacerbates shortages. We realize people are concerned about this ... but they need to think about what they are doing, said Morgan Dean, a spokesperson for AAA Mid-Atlantic. Panic buying creates artificial demand that can lead to shortages and outages, he said, adding that people should consider fueling up only when their gas tank is a quarter full. He suggested that workers and businesses should also do what so many have done over the past year during the pandemic: Work from home if they possibly can to avoid burning gas by commuting. Juneteenth is a day that marked a turning point in the nations moral compass, but its also a reminder of Americas worst sin. I hope students and others will use a calendar day to advance their knowledge of Civil War history, and African American history, said Jason Melendez, a junior at James River High, during public comment. Sonia Smith, president of the Chesterfield Education Association, thanked the school board ahead of the vote for being forward thinking. It is my hope that CCPS employees, as well as citizens of this county, take the time to look up the history of Juneteenth and why it is indeed significant for all Americans to celebrate, not just for people who look like me, Smith said. As of Tuesday night, both Richmond and Henrico County public schools have June 18 marked as the last day of school. Hanover County Public Schools last day for students is June 17, and June 18 is a faculty workday. The $761.3 million budget includes addressing the longstanding issue of school employee salary compression to revert years of underpaying veteran employees, with only a slight pay difference between longtime employees and new hires. A political activist and seven followers who staged a protest outside the Henrico County home of former acting ICE director Tony Pham by placing crosses in his yard and chanting phrases and profanities with a bullhorn had charges against them dropped Wednesday after satisfying conditions mandated by county prosecutors. Misdemeanor charges of entering property with the intent to damage and dumping trash on private property were withdrawn against Nancy Nguyen and seven others who participated in the Sept. 8 protest that Henrico police said caused fear to Phams family. Nguyen is executive director and co-founder of VietLead, a political advocacy group in Philadelphia and New Jersey. Pham, who was named acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Aug. 25 during the closing weeks of President Donald Trumps administration, was not home at the time. Henrico Chief Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Michael Huberman said an agreement was reached earlier between the prosecution and defense for the defendants to meet certain restorative justice conditions in return for their charges being dropped. Asked for details about what was required, Huberman said, the actual terms of the agreement dont need to be disclosed ... because it was done outside of the court between the parties. A man who romanced at least eight women in three states, after he met them through dating websites, and allegedly conned out of $267,361 has been charged with mail fraud. Federal authorities accuse Eugene Johnson Jr., 39, of Leonardtown, Md., with running a scam from December 2014 to January 2018 in which he lied about having a romantic attachment to the women and then asked them for money after falsely claiming pressing financial needs. According to a five-page charging document filed in federal court in Richmond, Johnson allegedly used websites including Plenty of Fish to meet women in states including Virginia. After meeting the women online, Johnson, using aliases, obtained the telephone numbers of his victims and communicated with them over the telephone or via text messages. Among other things, he is accused of falsely stating he was an active duty U.S. Marine from Maine and the father of a child whose mother had died. Johnson falsely claimed that he wanted to marry each woman, buy a house with her, and raise his son and any children she might have together, states the charging document. If youre not going to focus on violent crime in the city, then we dont feel the need to fund it any longer, Hogan said at the time. Were giving all the funding to the city of Baltimore, to the mayors office, so it can be spent to try to do something about violent crime, rather than spent for a lunch where people sit around and talk about other issues. McLane said the existence of an equity audit means school officials are looking for racism, theyre going to find racism and then theyre going to try to fix it ... even though it wasnt there. McLane also said many parents are increasingly frustrated by the school divisions mask and social distance requirements. Overwhelming mountains of evidence show that this virus doesnt affect children absolutely no risk to them, she said, adding that Hanover residents who want the vaccine have access to it and that vaccinations shouldnt be encouraged in schools. The kids hate it, the parents hate it, McLane said about the safety protocols, and as time goes by, its harder and harder for [school officials] to justify with all that we know about the virus. During the board meeting, Gill said from an operational standpoint, equity in Hanover schools means to provide every student with the resources and materials so that each child can maximize his or her success it is not to limit the abilities or the opportunities of one in favor of another. School officials told the board that a team will be put together to examine next steps with regards to the findings. Art and music classes led by real teachers, trips to the cafeteria and the library these are just some of the ways Hanover County schools are slowly returning to normal for the 2021-22 school year. Hanover Countys School Board heard from school leaders Tuesday night that roughly 93.5% of the countys parents want their children back in school in September. The results of the preliminary parent survey from last month gave school officials the first glimpse of what enrollment will look like for next year, and how many may want to remain in the countys online school. Gov. Ralph Northam in February ordered Virginias school systems to start planning to provide in-person learning by March 15. Hanover was already doing that it was the only one of Virginias 132 school divisions to offer a five-day, face-to-face option since September. Back then, about 63% of the countys students opted to go back, and more 65% opted to go back when given the choice for the second semester, which began in February. Tuesday night, school Superintendent Michael Gill reminded the board that whatever plans school officials are considering now will likely change before September as guidance and changes from the state roll out through the summer regarding things like social distancing space requirements in classrooms or on buses, or the use of masks. By then, Virginia lawmakers will know the size of a likely revenue surplus for the fiscal year that will end June 30. Northam announced Wednesday that state revenues soared by almost 42% in April compared with the same month a year ago, when the states economy went into a partial shutdown in response to the public health emergency declared the previous month. Virginia is posting the largest monthly revenue increase in the 21st century this month, in sharp contrast with many other states, Northam said. Make no mistake this is the result of strong fiscal management and Virginians doing the right things to put this pandemic behind us, he said. People are getting back to work, businesses are investing, and we expect this surge to continue in the months ahead as our economy returns to full strength. Through the end of April, state revenues were more than $2 billion ahead for the first 10 months of the fiscal year, compared with the same period a year ago, with every major source of budget money surging income and sales taxes, fees on deeds and other court filings, state alcohol and lottery profits, and motor vehicle sales to boost the transportation trust fund. Sizable surplus Virginia Republicans think Glenn Youngkin is a winner that hes got the jock charisma of George Allen, the Judeo-Christian compassion of Bob McDonnell. Youngkin, an aspiring GOP governor, has two things these former GOP governors, havent: Despite a hearty endorsement from Donald Trump, Youngkin has no record on public policy. That could make him difficult to attack. And, having been in the high-end investment business for 25 years, Youngkin has a personal fortune of more than $300 million. That frees him to tell his story as he pleases. These are the defining characteristics of a largely undefined candidate who must achieve what has eluded Republicans for more than a decade: compete in the blueing suburbs. Having not won statewide since 2009, Republicans shut out in Richmond because of three years of anti-Trump backlash could become a curiosity if Election Day 2021 ends as so many have for the GOP: in tears. November will decide whether conservatives are dinosaurs, said Del. James Edmunds II, R-Halifax, whose Southside district with few industries and fewer people sticking around because jobs are scarce is an emblem of the Virginia countryside in which Republicans seem trapped because of their rigid positions on guns, abortion, voter access, taxes, racial equity and LGBTQ rights. Former President Donald Trump, who declined to weigh in on the nomination fight, swiftly endorsed Youngkin on Tuesday, calling the former CEO a patriot. Trump lost Virginia by more than 10 points in the 2020 presidential contest. Glenn is pro-Business, pro-Second Amendment, pro-Veterans, pro-America, he knows how to make Virginias economy rip-roaring, and he has my Complete and Total Endorsement! Trump wrote in a statement posted on his website. He called former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic front-runner, the Clintons bagman. Youngkin did not mention Trump in his speech Tuesday night. Virginia is the only state with a competitive race for governor this year. The contest is expected to attract significant spending and attention as a test of the post-Trump era. In Virginia, it will be a referendum on Democratic power, in particular, the partys handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Youngkin during his speech on Tuesday said Democrats have dragged the state far away from our shared values. As governor, I will defend our values, Youngkin said. We will protect religious liberty. We will protect free speech. We will protect the Second Amendment, and our right to keep and bear arms. American Jobs Plan act offers infrastructure aid Editor, Times-Dispatch: Virginians shouldnt have to worry about whether their water is safe to drink. But Virginia has been identified by the U.S. Geological Survey as having a high prevalence of corrosive groundwater. The type of plumbing you have in your home and the type of pipes that bring this water to your house can make the difference between exposure to toxic lead or not. When corrosive water comes into contact with lead or copper, it can leach these metals into the water we drink. Children especially are vulnerable. Even low levels of exposure have been linked to damage to the central and peripheral nervous systems, learning disabilities, shorter stature, impaired hearing, and impaired formation and function of blood cells. And sadly, lower-income and rural residents are more likely to come into contact with these toxins in their drinking water. This is why the U.S. Congress must act to pass President Joe Bidens American Jobs Plan, which invests billions of dollars in improving our nations drinking water infrastructure, including the replacement of all lead pipes and service lines. McAuliffe's will act on racial disparities Editor, Times-Dispatch: Now is a critical moment to address inequities and make real change for Black Virginians. We need a leader who not only recognizes that racial disparities exist in all aspects of society, but also is ready to act. I was honored to be in Richmond when Terry McAuliffe released his comprehensive Lifting Black Virginians plan, and I am thrilled with his determination to ensure communities of color have equitable access to opportunities. During his administration, McAuliffe expanded preschool for thousands of children in need because he knows that we must address inequities before they start. In his new plan to lift Black Virginians, McAuliffe makes it clear he will continue this effort, ensuring that every 3- and 4-year-old in need has access. Poor educational and health outcomes for Black communities stem from discriminatory policies that have prevented Black people from building and accumulating generational wealth. Other members of the work group are: Daniel S. Baeq, senior pastor of Bethel Korean Presbyterian Church in Ellicott City; Leticia Barr, a computer science teacher in Montgomery County who founded a website that helps parents navigate online issues; Officer Stella Dieu of the Howard County Police Department; Eugenia Henry, founder of H2O Clinical, a health care data company; Capt. Jeffrey Kloiber of the Maryland State Police; Chan Park, director of congressional affairs for Microsoft; Lien Cu-Ritzer, president of Ritz Construction; Chiling Tong, president of the national Asian/Pacific Islander Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship; Marcus L. Wang, co-founder of ZytoGen Global Genetics Institute in Baltimore, and Janelle Wong, a professor of American studies and Asian American studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. BLACKSBURG Courtney Martin has been stuck at her parents house for a year. She graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in hospitality and tourism management. Of course she never could have imagined that a pandemic would sweep across the country and blow up the leisure and hospitality industry that relies on group social environments and in-person interaction. Before she was set to graduate last year, she had a job lined up with a hotel company, but the company had to halt any job offers after states began adopting social distancing measures. So she returned home to Roanoke and worked in a restaurant in Salem until the economy started to improve. She tried to remain patient and optimistic. Her mother was sympathetic of her daughters circumstances. It wasnt the end of the world, Jackie Martin said. One year later, the job market is starting to look up for Courtney Martin. Shell move to Savannah, Georgia, in July to work for a hotel company, and shell be able to put her degree to work. Im excited to use my degree, she said. It all worked out. Lance Allen, an Air Force veteran from Fauquier County, was eliminated in the third round of counting, after lagging with 15.17%. Northern Virginia business consultant Puneet Ahluwalia was eliminated after trailing in the second round, with 7.08%. Maeve Rigler of McLean, president, CEO and owner of Securus Capital in Alexandria, was eliminated after finishing last in the first round, with 6.0%. More than 30,000 GOP delegates voted Saturday during the partys unassembled convention that featured 39 polling places around the state. The party used ranked-choice voting, in which delegates listed the candidates in order of preference. In each round of vote counting, the candidate with the fewest weighted votes was eliminated. The trailing candidates votes were redistributed among the remaining candidates, based upon the delegates second choice on their ballots. State party officials allotted a total of about 12,500 delegate votes to party units representing counties and cities across the state. The votes were weighted in order to reward localities that had higher GOP voter turnout in the most recent elections for governor and for president. That is why Bedford County, with a population of 79,000 people, had 228 delegate votes and Norfolk, a Democrat-leaning city of 243,000 people, got just 148. Some of these branded products have now become very well-known across the globe, and contribute to enhancing Vietnam's image in the international arena. Sadly, the fate of some of these Vietnamese brands has changed hands and now are no longer indigenous. In 1982, Vietnam's famous Phu Quoc fish sauce was overtaken by Viet Huong Fishsauce Company, based in the US of America. Since then, the US trademark registration agency has granted the trademark of Phu Quoc fish sauce exclusively for use to the US company. The image of the trademark of Viet Huong Company even has the words "Phu Quoc" written on it, with the logo of an anchovy and a map of Vietnam, with a sign indicating the location of Phu Quoc island district, now Phu Quoc City, in Kien Giang province. From 1997, the Vinamit Company started to bring dried jackfruit under the brand name Duc Thanh to the Chinese Mainland and registered for copyright protection for the Duc Thanh trademark in China. However, since the registration was only in Vietnamese, and not in Chinese, its distributor then decided to re-register the Duc Thanh trademark in Chinese. This distributor controlled the Duc Thanh market and quickly released a similar product. It took the Vinamit Company three long years to reclaim its brand name. ST25 rice, also known as Soc Trang fragrant rice, was the research result of engineer Ho Quang Cua after twenty years. From seed selection to planting, it required strict principles of organic rice production, to finally produce clean and healthy high yielding rice. The quality of ST25 rice has been recognized internationally when it won the title of "World's Best Rice 2019" in a contest in the Philippines, and the second prize at the contest "World's Best Rice 2020" held in America. Under the Decision 706/QD-TTg, dated 21 May 2015, by the Prime Minister, this rice brand was approved under a project to develop a Vietnamese rice brand by 2020 with a vision until 2030. During the integration era, businesses all understand that building and protecting trademarks and intellectual property are always vital. However, one had hoped that with ST25, Vietnamese rice would flourish. Unfortunately, five foreign enterprises quickly registered for trademark protection of the name ST25, in the US market, under the US Trademark Registration System (USPTO). The ST25 rice trademark registration dossiers are now under examination, and presently one file is about to be approved for trademark protection. The Australian business, T&L Global Foods Supply Pty Ltd, filed an application for trademark registration of ST24 and ST25, selling it as "the world's best rice". The application for trademark protection of this business is being appraised by the Australian Intellectual Property Office (IP Australia). The engineer Ho Quang Cua spent 20 years to develop a rare form of rice, which has now moved into unknown hands. Authorities say that it is the businesses themselves who have to protect their own trademark rights, because if you create it you must also protect it. This is a valuable lesson for both Vietnamese authorities and Vietnamese businesses to protect their brands in future. Nguyen Duy Nghia Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. More missile, satellite and rocket launches are planned at Vandenberg Air Force Base in 2021 than last year, and the installation will also officially change its name to Vandenberg Space Force Base. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Endangered "smiling angel" spyhopping Asia's longest river Xinhua) 08:47, May 12, 2021 -- The freshwater porpoise with no dorsal fin is native to China and has lived here for 25 million years. They are the only freshwater subspecies of the finless porpoise family and pulse through the middle and lower main streams of the Yangtze River. -- Before 2015, only two to three finless porpoises had been spotted in the Yichang section, but scenes of the rare mammals popping out and gulping for air are becoming more common in recent years. -- On Feb. 4, 2021, China revised its list of endangered wild animals, elevating the conservation of 65 types of wild animals, including the Yangtze finless porpoise, to the strictest level-one protection from second-highest. Aerial photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows two Yangtze finless porpoises swimming in the Yichang section of the Yangtze River, central China's Hubei Province. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) WUHAN, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A pod of the Yangtze finless porpoise has been seen spyhopping above the silvery surface of the Yangtze River, China's longest river, attracting shutterbugs and nearby residents who want to catch a glimpse of these beautiful creatures. The freshwater porpoise with no dorsal fin is native to China and has lived here for 25 million years. They are the only freshwater subspecies of the finless porpoise family and pulse through the middle and lower main streams of the Yangtze River. With its mouth fixed in a permanent grin, the rotund finless porpoise is known in China as a "smiling angel." "The finless porpoise we saw Monday afternoon here in Yichang might belong to one or two groups. The porpoise tend to chase after schools of fish, so the areas they appear in must be rich in fish and other aquatic resources," said Zou Li with the bureau of agriculture and rural affairs in the city of Yichang, central China's Hubei Province. "Before 2015, only two to three finless porpoises had been spotted in the Yichang section, but scenes of the rare mammals popping out and gulping for air are becoming more common in recent years," said Zou. "The fundamental reason for the increase in sightings is more plentiful fish stock in the whole Yichang section of the Yangtze River." Aerial photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows a Yangtze finless porpoise swimming in the Yichang section of the Yangtze River, central China's Hubei Province. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) The population of the aquatic mammal experienced a sharp decrease over the past decades due to overfishing and excessive human activities. The latest research on finless porpoise conducted by the Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs in 2017 showed that there was a wild population of just 1,012 still navigating the twists and turns of the longest river in Asia, even fewer than the giant panda. The annual decline of its population was 13.7 percent in the 2006-2012 period, while the drop slowed to 10 percent between 2012-2017. Two Yangtze finless porpoises are seen at the Yichang section of the Yangtze River, central China's Hubei Province, May 10, 2021. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) "However, the species is still extremely endangered at present, and the country needs to enhance protection for Yangtze finless porpoises," said Yu Kangzhen, vice minister of agricultural and rural affairs at the press conference of the 2017 survey, citing measures including regular inspections, promoting ex situ conservation and researching artificial breeding. In January 2018, a fishing ban was implemented in 83 aquatic nature reserves across Hubei to restore the ecological environment and protect the endangered species in the Yangtze River basin. Members of a finless porpoise protection team patrol on the Yangtze River in Anqing, east China's Anhui Province, Dec. 16, 2020. (Xinhua/Zhou Mu) To further preserve biodiversity along the river, China in January 2020 implemented a full fishing ban in 332 conservation areas in the Yangtze River basin. The move has later been expanded to a 10-year moratorium for the river's main streams and major tributaries from Jan. 1, 2021. On Feb. 4, 2021, China revised its list of endangered wild animals, elevating the conservation of 65 types of wild animals, including the Yangtze finless porpoise, to the strictest level-one protection from second-highest. A Yangtze finless porpoise is seen at the Yichang section of the Yangtze River, central China's Hubei Province, May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu) The slew of measures has brought the "smiling angels" back into the limelight. Staff at the local fishery administration in Yichang even filmed footage of the finless porpoise hunting fish shoal recently, the first such scene they have ever shot. "Such a scene indicates that the population of finless porpoise is recovering," said a staffer. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) The lawsuit, filed by alumni and supporters of the schools, argued the state systematically undermined the institutions even after the end of legal segregation and made it difficult for Bowie State University, Coppin State University and Morgan State University in Baltimore, and the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, to compete with the states other public universities for students and resources. When Shekinah was working as a nurses aide in northeastern Congo in January 2019, she said, a World Health Organization doctor offered her a job investigating Ebola cases at double her previous salary _ in exchange for sex " " This coast redwood Moon Tree in Monterey, California, was presented to the city in July 1976 to commemorate the bicentennial of the United States. It was a 2-foot-tall (0.60-meter) seedling grown by the Institute of Forest Genetics in Placerville, California, from one of Roosa's original seeds. NASA It's entirely possible a UFO has been somewhere near your home for decades. Yes, we mean a UFO from outer space, just not the flying saucer kind. The UFO we're talking about might be an "unidentified fir object." That's because a fir is one of several varieties of tree seeds that literally took a trip around the moon in the '70s and made its way back to be planted on Earth. Let's discover just how that happened. Advertisement Fly Seeds to the Moon The moon is often the stuff of inspiration and love. And trees are seen as imparting strength and wisdom. But what do you get when you combine the two? Philosophically who knows, but physically you get quite simply, Moon Trees! In 1971, Stuart Roosa, a former U.S. Forest Service smokejumper, joined NASA astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell on the Apollo 14 mission to the moon. Roosa took with him five different varieties of tree seeds onboard Apollo 14, including nearly 500 seeds of Douglas fir, loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum and redwood. He held the seeds in metal containers inside a canvas pouch as part of a joint NASA/U.S. Forestry Service project. Roosa and the seeds orbited the moon in the Kitty Hawk command module as Shepard and Mitchell walked on the moon's surface below. While the seeds never left the capsule or touched the moon, they became known as Moon Trees when they returned to Earth and were germinated and planted around the United States. Advertisement Touch and Go The point of the seed project was to determine whether there might be a difference in characteristics between the astronomical seeds and a batch of control seeds left on Earth. Almost immediately upon return, the experiment was in jeopardy because the seed bag was exposed to vacuum and burst during the decontamination process. The seeds were mixed up, and nobody knew if they would still be viable. But Forest Service geneticist Stan Krugman, who was in charge of the project, separated them by hand and sent them to Forest Service labs to be germinated. After a failed attempt at growing several trees in Houston, the remaining seeds were sent to the southern Forest Service station in Gulfport, Mississippi, and to the western station in Placerville, California. Many of the seeds germinated successfully and grew into seedlings. Some of the seedlings were planted along with the control seeds left on Earth. Now, nearly 50 years after the Apollo 14 mission, there's no discernable difference between the known plantings. Unfortunately, most seedlings were given away in 1975 and 1976 to state forestry organizations to be planted as part of the nation's bicentennial celebration. Others were sent to the White House, Independence Square in Philadelphia and even the Emperor of Japan. But they weren't cataloged and tracked so the "known list" is a best guess. You can find many of them across the U.S. and most are noted with a plaque. " " This map from NASA shows approximately where in the U.S. you can find living Moon Trees that were planted and still survive. NASA Now That's Interesting The U.K. wants your help finding Moon Trees there. Some of the NASA seedlings were planted abroad, including in the U.K. The Royal Astronomical Society and the U.K. Space Agency are on a mission to find as many as 15 moon trees believed to be in the country. HARTSVILLE, S.C. Hartvilles water park is set to offer season pass holders the opportunity to splish and splash this weekend. Jordan Braddock, the general manager of the water park on the edge of Byerly Park, was asked by Hartsville Mayor Mel Pennington IV to speak about the park before a presentation of a proclamation declaring May Water Safety Month. So, we are opening this weekend, Braddock said. Were opening on Saturday for our 2020 and 2021 season passholders. She added that the park had extended 2020 season passes until June 30 with the option to renew the passes from July 1 to July 15 at an unspecified discounted rate. Braddock added that the parks cabanas are almost completely booked for Saturdays. Braddock added that the park will be open weekends and Memorial Day only until June 11. We are opening a new kitchen, Braddock said. [It will be] a full scale kitchen ... It is beautiful. It will not be open this weekend but hopefully by next weekend we will be full running. She added that there would be food trucks available this weekend. Braddock said there would be new desserts to try out this year. COLUMBIA, S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster on Tuesday issued Executive Order 2021-23, which empowers South Carolina parents to decide whether their children should wear masks in public schools throughout the state. The governors order also explicitly prohibits any county or local governments in the state from relying on prior orders or using a state of emergency as the basis for a local mask mandate and bars all state agencies, local governments and political subdivisions from requiring what has commonly been referred to as vaccine passports for any reason. The order rules invalid any local ordinance that relies on previous action by McMaster for its authority. The Florence City Councils most recent masking ordinance mask specific reference to McMasters declaration of a state of emergency and may, therefore, be invalid. Also, the ordinance is specified to terminate when the state of emergency declaration by McMaster is ended. With regard to mask requirements in public schools, the governor has directed DHEC in consultation with the S.C. Department of Education to develop and distribute a standardized form a parent or legal guardian may sign to opt their child out of mask requirements imposed by any public school official or public school district. Andino was the agencys fourth executive director, running the elections agency since 2003. She earned $114,933 a year and was one of 26 agency heads to get a pay raise in the past year. Andino is not a Cabinet official under Gov. Henry McMasters administration. However, the governor appoints the five-member State Elections Commission board to four-year terms, and the board oversees the director. Gov. McMaster appreciates Ms. Andinos many years of service to our state and wishes her the best, said Brian Symmes, spokesman for the Governors Office. Andino came under fire in 2018, after McClatchy and The State reported that she was among a group of election officials who received expenses-paid trips to attend meetings as part of Election Systems & Softwares national advisory board. Andino reported on her state financial disclosures expenses paid by ES&S, which is the states vendor for voting machines and software, since 2009, but said she was not involved in the agencys decision to pick ES&S as a vendor. A letter Andino sent to lawmakers last year requesting stricter health measures frustrated Republican leaders after the legislature went to court to defend a voting measure that she asked to be removed. FLORENCE, S.C. Motorists in Florence were scrambling for gas Monday and Tuesday as stations began to run out of gasoline. Lines at the pumps rival those at some restaurant drive-thru windows in recent months. The gas shortage due to a ransomware attack that shut down on the Colonial Pipeline, a large supplier of gasoline along the East Coast has drivers in Florence anxious that by the end of the week they wont be able to find gas. GasBuddy, an app that tracks gas prices and demand, is reporting fuel outages along the East Coast that are being aggravated by panic-buying. Im scared I wont have enough gas to get to work. Thats my fear, said Yolanda Black, who had stopped at the BP at South Church Street and Pamplico Highway. Im going on vacation next week, and just for me traveling for vacation I dont know if Ill be able to get back and forth to work and vacation. I have faith things will work out. Keep praying. Im trying to get some gas so I can make sure I have enough to get to work, said Dennis McPhearson, who also was at BP at South Church Street and Pamplico Highway. Hopefully we can get this thing settled and get this pipeline up and get going. Im a truck driver, and I have to get to work. More important, you teach people that some victims are more worthy of justice than others. If you have been killed by someone who wanted your money, you are just as dead as someone who targeted you because you were gay. If you were raped, you are just as devastated and torn if your rapist was a stranger at a party as if he was a misogynist who wanted to brutalize women. It is true that motivation is a key factor in determining why a crime was committed, along with the likelihood of it being committed against a specific person, but to enhance a sentence because the person was a bigot on top of being a criminal places far too much power in the hands of those looking for the bigotry. I say this because we have seen, these days, the ease with which people throw around the term white supremacist. I have seen it in emails from readers who hate my columns, on social media against people who defend traditions like mascots that offend their neighbors, in op-eds and essays from folks who think mispronouncing ethnic names is bias, and I have heard it from the mouths of public officials who brand whole swaths of their constituencies with the racist label. State judge finds four aggravating factors could support upward departure at Derek Chauvin's upcoming sentencing | Main | "Representing juvenile lifers: do attorneys in parole hearings matter?" May 12, 2021 Getting antsy for US Sentencing Commission appointments after another slate of impressive judicial nominees from Prez Biden As detailed in this official press release, titled "President Biden Announces Third Slate of Judicial Nominees," Prez Biden announced a slate of six new judicial appointments ( three new Court of Appeals nominees and three new District Court nominees. As detailed in this Reuters article, headlined "Biden latest judicial picks stress public defender work," the new Prez is fulfilling calls to add professional diversity to a federal judiciary now dominated by prosecutors and BigLaw lawyers (see prior posts here and here). Here are some details: President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced his latest wave of judicial nominees with six picks who not only reflect his goal of diversifying the federal bench but also include three current or former public defenders for appellate court seats. The nominees include two attorneys currently with federal public defender offices, Eunice Lee for a seat on the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and Veronica Rossman for a spot with the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. They also include Chief Judge Gustavo Gelpi Jr of the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico for a spot on the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from three states plus the island territory. If confirmed, Gelpi, who in the 1990s served as an assistant federal public defender, would be only the second Puerto Rican to serve on the court and would replace the first, Juan Torruella, who died in October. Progressives and judicial reform proponents have long called for more judges on the federal bench with backgrounds as public defenders. More often, judges have tended former prosecutors or defense attorneys from major law firms. "President Biden has made clear that the days of public defenders being systematically passed over for top jobs on the federal bench are over," Christopher Kang, the chief counsel of the progressive group Demand Justice, said in a statement. He said no president has before nominated so many circuit judges with experience as public defenders. All five of Biden's nominations so far to the regional circuit courts have had such experience, and three spent the majority of the careers in such positions. I will be excited to see if and how a group of new federal judges with public defender experience will have a long-term impact on criminal justice jurisprudence coming from the federal courts. For those interested in short-term reform, however, perhaps it is even more important to see Prez Biden nominate a slate of diverse (and reform-minded) US Sentencing Commissioners. Back in February, I wrote a commentary, "Reviving the U.S. Sentencing Commission," which noted that the USSC has historically been dominated by persons with prosecutorial backgrounds; I also lamented that the USSC now needs six new confirmed members to get back to full strength and at least three new commissioners to even be somewhat functional. At that time, I did not reasonably expect to see needed nomination to the US Sentencing Commission until at least some Circuit and District Judge nominees were put forward. And, by late March, as reported in this post, there was seemingly serious talk of serious work on slate of nominees for the Sentencing Commission. But it is now mid May, and though Prez Biden has put forward 20 judicial nominations, we have still not yet heard anything more about getting the Sentencing Commission back to work. So ... color me antsy. A few prior recent related posts: May 12, 2021 at 05:46 PM | Permalink Comments The USSC never achieving a quorum would be the best possible result for federal defendants. Posted by: AFPD | May 13, 2021 9:35:35 AM If Biden makes "status-quo-minded" appointments, I would be inclined to agree, AFPD. But if Biden makes "reform-minded" appointments, there are a lot of possible (easy?) guideline reforms that could prove helpful to defendants. Most obviously, the safety valve -2 reduction in the drug guideline could/should be expanded to at least conform with the expanded statutory safety value passed via the FIRST STEP Act. A reform-minded commission might also look pursue pro-defendant reforms urged by many on both sides of the aisle regarding matters like acquitted conduct enhancements and mens rea requirements. I also want to believe that the USSC would look to bring some helpful modern direction to the CR guideline. I am not expected a very progressive USSC, but the drugs -2 reforms from not that long ago served as a huge reminder that the right kind of little change (made retroactive) can make a big difference. And there may be more bipartisan support for bigger positive changes now than ever before. And though pessimism in this space is always justified, I cannot just (yet) assume that a functioning USSC will be a bad development. Posted by: Doug B. | May 13, 2021 11:51:50 AM Fair points. My view is based on compassionate release. As long as there's no quorum, there is no "applicable" 3582 policy statement, and we basically have a federal parole system. This is doing an enormous amount of good for a lot of federal prisoners. Once the USSC has a quorum, I am sure they'll promulgate a new 1B1.13, which, even if good, won't be as a good as the status quo, which allows a judge to release anybody for anything she thinks is an "extraordinary and compelling" reason. I can't imagine any USSC, no matter how reform-minded, doing anything remotely that helpful. Posted by: AFPD | May 13, 2021 12:20:54 PM Your concern is well-founded on the CR front, AFPD, but I am hopeful that a new USSC will first take the time to carefully study what judges are finding now to be "extraordinary and compelling" reasons and assess whether more good than bad has come from judges having broad authority in this realm. (In addition, I sense the status quo still also includes a good number of judges not going beyond the current 1B1.13 terms, so any expansion of the CR terms in a new guideline would likely help a number of now-shut-out prisoners.) Posted by: Doug B. | May 14, 2021 9:00:09 AM Post a comment South China Morning Post A viral video clip showing a teenage Hong Kong schoolboy being slapped, kicked and forced to kneel on the floor in a classroom has led police to arrest four students on suspicion of assault. The beating took place at Caritas St Joseph Secondary School off Fung Shue Wo Road in Tsing Yi on May 27. In the eight-second video, the 13-year-old boy in school uniform is seen being slapped by at least three students and kicked from behind two times.Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trend Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is delivering his speech in the meeting with MIC. (Photo: SGGP) Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung reported that the total revenue of the ICT industry in 2020 was around US$130 billion, with a contribution of $5 billion to the national budget. Since most state management tasks of his ministry are closely linked to the IT infrastructure, this ministry must establish strong IT facilities both to fulfill current missions, to become the foundation for ministries, and to enter the global list of top ICT nations in 2025. In Industry 4.0, science-technology and innovation play a great role via digital transformation. Therefore, the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) must wisely lead Vietnam in its national digital transformation process in order to successfully form a digital Vietnam, where the digital government, economy, and society bloom to the fullest, said the Minister. To achieve that, Vietnam must master advanced digital equipment, offer a full 5G coverage nationwide in 2022, become a giant in cyber security, and set up a stable ecosystem of cyber safety products. In addition, in the fields of electronics - telecommunications - information technology - digital technology, Vietnam must gradually move from following available designs and assembling imported parts to have end-products (Made in Vietnam) to designing new models and creating novel products (Make in Vietnam). In 2025, the proportion of the second group must reach over 45 percent of the total manufactured goods. There will be 100,000 Vietnamese digital businesses at that time. To conclude the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that MIC should consider adding new content related to functions, missions, and power in the aspects of digital transformation, digital economy and society. There must be more priorities on brand building, copyright and intellectual property protection among ICT businesses, he added. Then he stated that innovation must be the foundation for the national digital transformation process to establish a digital Vietnam, strategically led by MIC. Lastly, the Prime Minister mentioned the importance of the mass media in propagandizing news to the public. Therefore, a suitable policy or mechanism in the communications field should be introduced to make this tool an effective resource of the state. This means precision and objectiveness in news gathering must be highly prioritized so that the community are aware of the good and bad in life, positively inspiring their daily activities and contributing to the general socio-economic development of the nation. By Phan Thao Translated by Thanh Tam LOS ANGELES (AP) As two police departments in California mourn the loss of their officers shot and killed in the line of duty in two separate incidents within 24 hours new details have emerged about the violence that occurred during a week meant to honor law enforcement nationwide. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) The state House approved Tuesday a proposal that would add South Carolina to a list of states calling for a convention to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The proposal passed 66-42. It would have South Carolina limit its call for the convention to a few items spending checks on the federal government, limiting the federal governments jurisdiction and power, and setting term limits for Congress. A group of a few dozen enthusiastic supporters waved signs at cars as they entered the Statehouse garage and then settled into the second floor lobby for several hours of debate Tuesday. Rep. Bill Taylor, who has pushed for the proposal for years, told members they have the power to change Washington, D.C., by voting for the resolution. They will never, ever, ever limit their own power, the Aiken Republican said of the federal government. Its human nature. The resolution is now sent to the Senate. With two days left in the session there isn't enough time for senators to take it up, but it will be waiting for them when they return in 2022. JERUSALEM (AP) Israel stepped up its attacks on the Gaza Strip, flattening a high-rise building used by the Hamas militant group and killing at least three militants in their hideouts on Tuesday as Palestinian rockets rained down almost nonstop on parts of Israel. BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) A judge said Thursday he will review under seal mental health records of Ahmaud Arbery to decide whether they can be used by defense attorneys to support their case that the slaying of the 25-year-old Black man was an act of self-defense. Guterres said in the April letter that joint consultations could not be held because of the COVID-19 pandemic so he held separate meeting with senior officials in the three countries. He said Sudan indicated a reduction in UNISFAs strength could be considered immediately, but should proceed gradually over a one-year period to allow time for both countries to comply with a 2011 agreement on temporary administrative and security arrangements. It would also enable both sides to consult with the African Union and the regional group IGAD on successor arrangements, he said. Guterres said South Sudan insisted that security concerns in Abyei and in neighboring Western Kordofan warranted UNISFAs continued presence. South Sudan rejected the establishment of joint institutions with the Sudan, arguing that previous attempts had resulted in two wars ... due to a lack of trust between the parties, Guterres said. He said Ethiopia believes the premature withdrawal of UNISFA would likely lead the security situation in the Abyei area to deteriorate -- a view echoed by the African Union. Guterres said because of the differences no options that would be minimally acceptable to the parties could be formulated. The cause of the border crisis is entirely due to reckless federal policy reversals executed within your first 100 days in office, the 20 Republicans wrote. It has led to the inhumane treatment of tens of thousands of children and undermined a fragile immigration system. Requests from the Department of Health and Human Services for states to house migrant children make it clear the Biden administration is leaving states on their own on to fix a crisis that it created, the letter said. We urge you to take action to end the humanitarian crisis and secure our southern border immediately, the governors said. U.S. HIGHWAY 52 INPUT SOUGHT: The Iowa Department of Transportation is seeking input on the proposed 2022 resurfacing on U.S. Highway 52 in the Winneshiek County towns Castalia and Ossian. Through traffic will not be detoured. Instead flaggers and pilot cars will be used. An online public meeting is now available to view at www.iowadot.gov/pim. To view the meeting and related content, click on U.S. 52 from the list of public involvement events. In the same proposal that calls for reneging on that promise, Jochum said, legislators make another promise to take over from counties the funding of mental health services when we have yet to fund the childrens mental health system approved four years ago. Just as with the backfill, she said, theres no guarantee that five years down the road, if state revenues dont keep up, that lawmakers wont renege on the promise to fund mental health services. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Dawson, R-Council Bluffs, downplayed the impact of phasing out the backfill over five to eight years. According to Department of Management data, cities received $52.5 million in backfill payments this year and counties got $29.5 million. On average, the backfill amounted to 1.43 percent of city budgets and 1.2 percent of county budgets, Dawson said. Democrats also questioned whether any female legislators were involved in negotiations between the House, the Senate and the governors office, suggesting that without their input gender equity issues in the tax code will not be addressed. In particular, Sen. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, wondered if any legislator was lobbying for the removal of taxes on menstrual products, which Reynolds proposed in the past. PIERRE, S.D. (AP) South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborgs trial on charges hes facing in a fatal crash could begin as early as August. At a status hearing Wednesday, Judge John Brow says he's aiming for the trial to begin in August or early September. Ravnsborgs attorney Tim Rensch of Rapid City requested 60 more days, citing the need to review key pieces of evidence, including interviews. Hyde County Deputy States Attorney Emily Sovell urged the court to move the trial ahead, KSFY-TV reported. Ravnsborg is facing several misdemeanor charges in the September crash that killed Joseph Boever who was walking along a highway near Highmore. They include careless driving, operating a motor vehicle while on a mobile device, and driving outside his lane. Each count is punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine. Ravnsborg earlier pleaded not guilty to all three charges. Support local journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. "Cutting the safety net out from underneath Iowans who are still out of work and looking for a job is no way to do it," Axne said. "Slashing their benefits only sends the message that Iowa isn't on the side of its workers and their families." Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Charlie Wishman, president of Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, also said cutting unemployment "isn't the answer" for Iowa's long-term workforce shortage. "Iowa needs to change its course economically, take steps to raise wages and benefits, make Iowa a good place to raise a family and actually invest in our education instead of defunding it," Wishman said in a statement. Some Democrats have pointed to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago saying those who receive unemployment payments search more intensely for work. The study said, though, that those who do not receive benefits are more likely to accept a job that pays considerably less than their previous job. The Iowa Association of Business and Industry, which represents about 1,500 employers in the state, lauded Reynolds decision. Iowa had a workforce shortage prior to the pandemic, Iowa ABI President Mike Ralston said in a statement. The continued extended benefits have only exacerbated the challenge and slowed our recovery. CAIRO (AP) Egypt on Tuesday announced plans to widen and deepen the southern part of the Suez Canal where a hulking vessel ran aground and closed off the crucial waterway in March. The head of the Suez Canal Authority, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, announced details of the plan in a televised ceremony in the canals city of Ismailia. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi and top government officials attended the ceremony. The plan includes widening the canals southernmost stretch by about 40 meters (yards) to the east, on the side of the Sinai Peninsula, Rabie said. That segment would also be deepened to 72 feet, from the current 66 feet in depth. That part of the canal is 30 kilometers (18 miles) long. The plan also includes a 10-kilometer-long extension of a second lane of the waterway that opened in 2015. That would bring the double-lane stretch of the canal to 82 kilometers, or 60 miles, allowing more vessels to pass through the canal. The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged, Japanese-owned ship, had ran aground in the single-lane stretch of the canal on March 23 before it was extracted six days later after a massive salvage effort by a flotilla of tugboats. Climate change is real. So is the need for our country to pursue sound conservation measures, building on current achievements. The Biden administration rightly emphasized those goals in a Jan. 27 executive order. But it needlessly created uncertainty and concern for agricultural producers by asserting an ambitious goal putting 30% of the nations land and water in conservation status by 2030 without providing any practical guidance on how it would be accomplished. The resulting information vacuum on this 30x30 proposal has enabled critics to claim that a supposed federal land grab lies ahead. The administrations silence on the issue has placed Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack in a difficult position as he tries to explain a policy that at this point is little more than an abstraction. Vilsack, a former Iowa governor who also served as agriculture secretary in the Obama administration, did provide needed reassurance when he publicly stated that the federal government will not seize private land. He also noted that U.S. ag producers are already using conservation measures in many cases. This is part of Trump Slump, a series of stories checking in on how things are going now for the people and products that were riding high during the last administration. Donald Trump aimed to drive public distrust in the media. He did a fair bit of that throughout his presidency, but he also sent the public to the media in droves. National newspapers and magazines capitalized on Trumps rhetoric and used it to entice and secure subscribers. Subscriptions to major newspapers were on a slow rise before Trump got into office, but they noticeably spiked in the wake of the 2016 election. And Trumps rhetoric certainly affected the way media outlets made their pitches to readers, too. Advertisement The phenomenon of papers covering the Trump presidency and attracting more subscribers as a result is so prevalent that its been colloquially named the Trump Bump. The Trump Bump was real, Rick Edmonds, a media business researcher and analyst at the Poynter Institute, told Slate. And it was clearly a factor, though not the only factor, in the New York Times and Washington Posts terrific growth in paid digital subscriptions. Ken Doctor, a news analyst who runs Newsonomics, noted advertising that used targeted language about fact-checking Trump worked to build subscriber numbers. The message many publications have leaned on, Doctor said, is trust us and well keep you informed, and be a counterweight against misinformation and disinformation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When the president pounded the fake news drum, media outlets advertised their ability to bring readers the truth. I used the Wayback Machine to bring up some of the extremely specific language they used. Shortly after Trump assumed the presidency, for example, the Washington Post adopted the slogan Democracy Dies in Darkness (I didnt need to spelunk the internet to remember that one), but it also advertised Real Journalism Matters on its subscriber page. The Intercept asked for support in 2017 by writing on its donation page, Our reporters go to extraordinary lengths to bring you the evidence you need to challenge official lies and the distorted media narratives they produce. In 2019, the New York Times asked readers to subscribe in order to Help Our Journalists Get to the Truth. Advertisement As Trump declared war on the press, the New Republic told readers, in 2017, to subscribe and arm yourself for a Trump presidency. The Intercept drew donors by saying protecting the freedom of the press has never been more important. The Nation appealed to readers, in 2018, with an Obama quote on their subscriber pagethe former president had endorsed the magazine as a crucible of ideas. Slate advertised Slate Plus to readers as a way to specifically, for example, hold Trump accountable in 2016 and support Michelle Goldbergs coverage of the Trump administration in 2017. Advertisement Advertisement And readers responded by clicking that subscribe button. The New York Times told Slate that they closed out 2017 with 3.4 million subscribers. By the end of 2020, and the end of Trumps term, they had 7.5 million. Subscribers to the Washington Post tripled over the course of Trumps presidency. The Wall Street Journal attracted about a million subscribers between January 2017 and March 2020. The Atlantic told Slate that it gained 400,000 new subscribers in 2020 alone. Advertisement When Trump left office, many pundits hailed the incoming Biden presidency as a return to normalcy. Yet for news, Edmondsthe media business analystsays, this has been a return to, sort of, boring. The constant vibration of news alerts has quieted. And the industry has too. As the Nieman Journalism Lab wrote in its 2021 journalism industry predictions: The Trump Bump is already waning. The question now is: How many of those readers will remain loyal and enter their credit card info again once the sense of alarm that moved them in the first place dissipates? Advertisement Not as many, it seems. On Wednesday, the New York Times reported the smallest subscriber increase in over a year. The paper gained only 301,000 new subscribers in the first three months of 2021. The Washington Post revealed that their traffic plummeted in February of 2021. CNN lost 45 percent of its viewers across February and March, though Don Lemon of CNN told the New York Times that he would rather have fewer viewers than have to deal with Trump. But Trump was good for the press business, and while Cameron Barr, the interim executive editor of the Washington Post, has issued the requisite statements (We intend to cover this president as aggressively as we covered his predecessors), its hard not to feel that the news of the day has gotten a bit flatter. But if Slates latest campaign is any indication, theres still plenty to worry about. Advertisement This is part of Trump Slump, a series of stories checking in on how things are going now for the people and products that were riding high during the last administration. Before he started citing Newsmax guests for lampshade seam violations, Claude Taylor was known for his billboards. The former Democratic campaign staffer is the founder of Mad Dog PAC, which he launched in 2017 to mount incendiary highway advertisementsincluding one that labeled the NRA a terrorist organizationfunded by the sale of anti-Trump tchotchkes. Advertisement But in the final year of Donald Trumps presidency, Taylor found a new calling: the Room Rater Twitter account, a goofy diversion for TV-news addicts whod gotten a window into the living rooms of homebound talking heads during the pandemic. Taylor now splits his time between trolling Republican officials with billboards in their home districts and judging the mise-en-scene of MSNBC. We checked in with Taylor in late April to find out how he managed to parlay two consecutive sociopolitical phenomenathe demand for cool #Resistance gear and politics nerds appetite for aesthetic criticism of an ex-senators kitcheninto successful fundraising pursuits, where all the money goes, and whether hes prepared for the era of anti-Trump resistance (and televised Zoom interviews) to end. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Christina Cauterucci: Let me just start with this: Have you felt any kind of slump post-Trump? Claude Taylor: On the PAC side of things, its always sort of cyclical. When were right around the corner from an election, things tend to heat up, and in the months after an election, things tend to quiet down. But were still pretty focused onwe have our folks that we like to go after, like Matt Gaetz. We now have two billboards up in Matt Gaetzs district, saying that Matt Gaetz wants to date, in quotes, your child. We just got the second one up right near the Navy base in the middle of Pensacola. Theyve been out for two weeks, and theyve just got an enormous amount of press. Its, I believe, the most press weve ever gotten from a single billboard. Advertisement So what youre saying is that Trump wasnt necessarily the only, or even main focus, of Mad Dog PAC? It was very much a large focus, if not a primary focus. But if you look at what weve done with our billboard campaigns, we spent a lot of time and effort going after Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham and Matt Gaetz and Jim Jordan. This morning, I just got approval for a Ron DeSantis billboard that Im sure is going to get quite a bit of attention. Advertisement Did you personally feel any kind ofI dont want to say letdown, but did you feel any sense of purposelessness, or anti-climacticism, when Trump left office? Advertisement I didnt feel any sense of letdown. I mean, the importance of beating Trump, just helping or just being part of the reality that Trump was no longer going to be president was so important that its far outweighed any personal feelings of, OK, my lifes going to change a little bit because Ive been in the anti-Trump business for four years. That was just so insignificant. My little organizations, I think, have always been quick to adapt and constantly evolving, so we will continue to evolve. So were focusing on [Marco] Rubio and Ron Johnson and Rand Paul, and we have our favorite House candidates like Matt Gaetz. Our primary activity on Mad Dog PAC has been putting up billboards. Since the election, we put up billboards against Ted Cruz and against Josh Hawley. Weve got plenty to do that doesnt involve Trump. Advertisement What were you doing before you started Mad Dog PAC? Im 57. When I was a young man, I worked in politics more directly. I worked in the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign. That brought me to D.C., where I was a low-level, midlevel on a good day, White House staffer. So I spent about five years in the Clinton/Gore universe. I pretty much got out of politics after that. I had developed an interest in photography, I opened up a retail photography gallery, which I operated in D.C. for near 18 years. I still sell online, but I earned a living as a travel photographer. I maintained an interest in politics and I was a donor. I did fundraisers for Obama. But I didnt really get fully reengaged until Trump came along. Advertisement Advertisement Was there a specific turning point for you? Not really. Like many people, I was just so aghast that Trump could be elected and the implications of what was going to happen because he was elected, and my business was winding down and I was ready to try to do something else, so I threw myself back to politics and it ended up being what I consider a small boutique PAC. Were not the Lincoln Project. Its just me and a few friends and volunteers. What made you decide to focus on these inflammatory billboards? Its been remarked upon that something like 15 percent, or 20 percent on a good day, of the U.S. is on Twitter, and I was active on Twitter. But I wanted to talk to red-state America. I wanted to reach people who werent on Twitter. I can assure you, most of the people driving by billboards in Pensacola are not on Twitter, and I wanted to talk to them. Advertisement Billboards are probably one of the most democratic forms of advertising there is. Im an analog sort of guy. Im very low-tech, even though the billboards are sometimes digital. But I just liked having a traditional form of advertising. I like having a highway with a 12-by-36-foot sheet of vinyl that says something. Advertisement How did you get started? I used some of my previous experience, some of it in merchandising, and I started developing an online shop, which helped us raise quite a bit of money by selling Fuck Trump coffee cups. And also Nancy Pelosi coffee cups and T-shirts. Back in the day, on the Clinton campaignyou know, campaigns have a chief of staff? I was the chief of stuff. I made the lawn signs and the buttons and the bumper stickers and stuff. I still had contacts in the printing unions. So I started making a lot of anti-Trump merch, which is good for fundraising, but theyre also nice ways to deliver a message. Advertisement So how much time were you spending on the PAC, lets say during its most busy period? It can be very much a full-time job. And a lot of it, frankly, is creating content for my Twitter account, so its pretty involving. And then Rate My Skype Room came along and now I just have no time at all. Tell me about why you started the Room Rater account. You were already spending a lot of time on the PAC, and it was the year leading up to the election. Did you feel like you still had too much free time? Advertisement Advertisement What were really talking about here is the beginning of the pandemic. And it was more of a response to that than anything. We were mostly stuck at home. People were developing this whole new way to do TV appearances, and I was on the phone a lot with my girlfriend, and were both news junkies. Were watching everyone do their TV hits. This is April last year, a month into things. And we just said, What do you think of this room? Like, Well, its not that good. He needs to add a plant or some art or something. And then one day it was just like, Well, lets make a Twitter account. Lets start rating peoples rooms. Advertisement Around the same time on the PAC side, because of the pandemic, I had shifted, because everyone was at home. No ones going to be driving past billboards. So I pivoted and we started putting all of the money we were raising into buying PPE for hospitals that were really hard hit in March of last year. Because of my contacts with sourcing products, I kind of had a supply chain set up already. So I just used it to get surgical masks and plastic face shields instead of Fuck Trump coffee mugs. I figured if I could just get 20 or 30,000 masks wed call it a day. Advertisement A month or two later, Native American communities sort of jumped out as being particularly in need and particularly hard hit for a lot of historic reasons involving poverty and lack of access to health care. So we shifted our focus from hospitals in the Eastwhich began to get their own PPEto supplying PPE to Native American communities. This was the same time that Room Rater was taking off. I basically use Room Rater as a fundraising platform for what became our focus, which was assisting Native American communities with PPE. Advertisement After some months, we had some communication with one of the Sioux tribes in South Dakota. They were like, You know what? We have quite a bit of PPE, but our teachers really need help. We developed this idea that what we were going to do is try to send art kits to specific native tribes. It was sort of a mental health thing and an education thing, because the kids are all at home and theyve got nothing to do. We found a vendor who made these backpacks that they could stuff with notebooks, colored pencils, and basic art supplies. We developed this art kit and we just sent another thousand to Navajo nation last week. I do get a sense of accomplishment that were actually doing something of value. Advertisement Advertisement How do you raise the money? Do you tweet out fundraising links? Yeah. We sell stuff. I developed a Room Rater shop. The first thing we had back at the beginning of Room Rater was this competition between John Heilemann, Steve Schmidt, and Claire McCaskill competing over who has the better room. I designed and sold Team Schmidt, Team Heilemann, Team McCaskill T-shirts. The Navajo Nation had reached out to us and asked us if we could supply them with a cloth reusable face mask for each citizen of Navajo Nation. We were like, How many is that? and they said, Its about 175,000 [masks]. So we did the T-shirts. The T-shirts worked, and we bought $140,000 in cloth face masks and sent them to Navajo Nation. Thats what Rate My Skype Room does. In my mind, at least at this point, its why its there. Advertisement Did you see a decline in donations after the election? No, we havent. A month or two ago, well after the election, we had a coffee cup that we sold, like a thousand coffee cups in a week. That allowed us to send $14,000 in art kits to South Dakota. Advertisement What mug was it? Its a Room Rater 10 out of 10 mug. Wow. But on the PAC side, for the Trump merch and the anti-Trump or anti-GOP donationshas that cash flow changed at all? Well, we closed off the Trump merchandise. Were not silly. We had a sale on that remaining Trump stuff. Do you ever accidentally tweet from the wrong account? Advertisement Oh God, like twice a day. I mean, doesnt everybody who has more than one account? Still, to this moment, I am constantly going back and forth between the two accounts and trying to keep them separate. Was Room Rater like a decompression valve for you during those really stressful months leading up to the election? Very much so. When it was clear [Room Rater] was going to get big, I was definitely looking at it as a fundraising vehicle because I had this real interest and what has sort of become a passion to try to support Native American communities. But at its inception, were all kind of stressed, and were all hunkered down, and were all counting our rolls of toilet paper. It very much was intended to be just some lighthearted content for the pandemic lockdown period. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have to ask: Is it stressful to watch so much cable news and broadcast news in general? Is your blood pressure just through the roof? Well, I actually do take pills for that, but I was a news junkie before. I watched too much cable television before I had a Twitter account documenting it. So I cant complain too much, because I watch more MSNBC and CNN than is healthy, but I did before this. So how much time would you say you spend on it every day? Well, again, its hard to separate the two accounts because Im going back and forth, but no more than about 16 hours. Seems healthy. So from my perspective, it seems like you are one of the few people who were really going full speed for the resistance, who also prepared yourself for post-Trump life by finding this new, extremely zeitgeisty thing to throw yourself into. Would you agree with that? I would. The degree to which this has resonated with people does continue to surprise me. How do you keep finding these weird things to devote your time to that become so successful? Im not sure I have a ready answer for that. A lot of what I do is kind of performance art. Billboards are a form of performance art. Theyre not just vote for so-and-so. You have to have a certain message, and we work really hard trying to come up with creative, ironic, offbeat, edgy stuff. I think thats why Matt Gaetz billboard got so much attention, because we were willing to go there. After days of escalating tension and violence, Israel and Palestine appear on the verge of all-out war. Israels bombing of Gaza has now killed at least 49 people, including 14 children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched thousands of rockets, at Israeli towns and cities, and while the vast majority have been intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, at least six Israelis have been killed. Its possible for outside observers to look at this as just another of this long-running conflicts periodic eruptions. The Israeli demolitions of homes in East Jerusalem that began this escalation are part of a long-running campaign, and there have been violent confrontations in the past over access to Al-Aqsa Mosque. The situation has escalated much faster and with more ferocity than expected, and theres a serious possibility of a repeat of something like the devastating 2014 Gaza War, but the conflagration still seems likely to die down in the coming days or weeks and return to the grim status quo without much lasting change for Palestinians or Israelis. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Still, the surrounding international context makes this round of violence feel different. With enough of an optimistic squint, it was still possible to view previous eruptions over the three decades since the Oslo Accords as deviations from the peace process, the dominant political paradigm holding that Israel and Palestine were moving in fits and starts toward the creation of two sovereign states. This weeks events, by contrast, are taking place in a world that is moving on from that paradigm, if it hasnt abandoned it completely. Yes, the two-state solution is still endorsed by the Biden administration and most American politicians from the center to the left (though not all of the left). But other longtime American adherents of what veteran Mideast negotiator Aaron David Miller once called the religion of the Mideast peace process are starting to lose the faith. Some prominent progressive Jewish commentators like the journalist Peter Beinart now openly advocate a one-state solution. A recent Carnegie Endowment paper called on the U.S. government to shift to a rights-based approach that prioritizes the rights and human security of Palestinians and Israelis over maintaining a peace process and attempting short-term fixes. Advertisement Advertisement At least some of this is a response to the Trump administration and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu governments obsequious embrace of each other, which probably did more to break down the bipartisan U.S. consensus on support for Israel than decades of left-wing activism. The Trump administration did use the words two-state solution, but Jared Kushners Peace to Prosperity plan imagined Palestinians with only limited sovereignty over a noncontiguous territory completely surrounded by Israelhardly a state by any recognized international standards. The Trump plan for the Israelis and Palestinians was dead on arrival, since the Palestinian leadership had not even engaged with the administration after its decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. Trumps more lasting legacy was the Abraham Accordsa series of deals, brokered by the U.S, normalizing diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab countries that had previously shunned the Jewish state. The premise of these accords was that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an unwelcome distraction from the regions bigger problems (Iran, in the view of those involved). Advertisement As the Washington Posts Ishaan Tharoor notes, the idea that the Palestinian issue could simply be sidestepped isnt looking great this week. Likely in an attempt to maintain at least some credibility with their own populations, the governments of Bahrain and the UAE, which normalized relations with Israel under the accords, have condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and affirmed their solidarity with the Palestinian people, but these regional allies made clear in the Trump years what their real priorities are, and helping the Palestinians achieve statehood is not that high on the list. Advertisement The Biden administration also seems to wish this situation would just go away. It has taken some steps to undo Trumps legacy, such as restoring the funding to the Palestinian Authority and the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that was cut by the previous administration, but avoided more provocative political moves like reversing Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital or of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. It has certainly steered clear of more aggressive moves such as making military aid to Israel conditional on its policies toward the Palestinians, an idea now endorsed by some congressional Democrats, though not most. Advertisement In contrast to Trumps bear hug, Biden has kept Netanyahu at a distance. He conspicuously did not call the prime minister during his first month in office and did not mention U.S. support for Israel in either his first major foreign policy speech or his first address to Congress. Biden has not yet named an ambassador to Israel or reopened the Jerusalem consulate, closed by Trump, which previously handled U.S. relations with the Palestiniansboth of which seem like questionable choices this week. This hands-off approach may be in keeping with Bidens desire to extricate the U.S. from long-running conflicts in the Middle East in order to focus on bigger priorities in Asia, but it is also a sign that the administration doesnt see much to gain from engaging in a concerted way with the Middle East peace process, given that the current Israeli government has no interest in engaging with it either. Advertisement Advertisement There were times in the past, even after the 2014 Gaza War, when Netanyahu expressed at least theoretical support for a Palestinian state under certain unlikely circumstances. Now, after hes worked to shore up his support from the right through a truly absurd number of national elections, even that pretext is gone from his rhetoric. But the problem isnt just Netanyahu. If anything, these days hes less the standard-bearer of the intransigent Israeli right than the main obstacle in its path. The reason Israel is still without a formal government a month and a half after its fourth election in two years is that the Israeli right is divided over whether to continue to serve under Netanyahua highly divisive figure currently on trial for corruption. Take him out of the equation and right-wing parties would hold a 72 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, a fairly comfortable mandate for continued settlement construction and opposition to territorial concessionsincluding some far-right violent extremists. Advertisement A potential government formed by the anti-Netanyahu change bloc would likely include Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liebermantwo of the most prominent advocates of the settlement movementand the more moderate Benny Gantz, currently the defense minister overseeing the bombardment of Gaza. Despite what some liberal supporters of Israel might hope, a return to the peace process is not just one election away. Advertisement Advertisement On the other side, Biden recently carried out an exchange of letters with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss concerns about the current situation. But the Palestinian Authority Abbas leadsitself one of the most tangible products of the peace process framework having been formed out of the Oslo Accords in the 1990sis looking awfully irrelevant this week as violence escalates between Israel and Abbas rivals, Hamas. In late April, Abbas moved to postpone Palestinian elections in which his Fatah party was likely to lose ground to Hamas. At least some of the decision by Hamaswhich controls Gazato escalate this crisis with its rocket barrage seems to have been motivated by a desire to portray itself as the legitimate defenders of Palestinian interests and Jerusalem. Advertisement An Israeli government with no interest in compromising on the occupation, a Palestinian government with little remaining legitimacy quickly losing ground to violent extremists, an international community with no interest in engaging: All of these factors make the notion of an agreement on anything more than a short-term cease-fire seem almost surreally fanciful. But just because the old paradigm seems out of date doesnt mean theres a new one to take its place. Studies suggest that the only things Israelis and Palestinians dislike more than the two-state solution are any of the suggested alternatives to it. Rather, were entering a new phase in which, as the political scientist Nathan Brown recently wrote, all the injustices and insecurities that afflict inhabitants of the region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea are now so deeply ingrained in daily life that no diplomatic framework can address them now. Its a world in which old phrases like peace process and two-state solution ring pretty hollow. To understand more about the Palestinian perspective on the current violent unrest, listen to this recent episode of What Next. In 1965, Gaylord Parkinson, the chairman of the California GOP, issued what Republicans now call their 11th Commandment: Thou shalt not speak ill of any Republican. Parkinson invoked this rule to protect Ronald Reaganat that time, the leading Republican candidate for governorwho had been falsely accused by a GOP rival of collaborating with communists. But now the party of Reagan has become the party of Donald Trump. This week, when a Reaganite conservative, Rep. Liz Cheney, stood up against Trumps lies about the 2020 election, GOP leaders ousted her from the chairmanship of the House Republican Conference. In doing so, they established a new set of commandments, redefining the party as a cult of Trump. Advertisement 1. You shall have no other gods before Trump. House Republicans purged Cheney not over policy but because Trump kept repeating that the election was stolen, and Cheney kept saying that it wasnt. Shes attacking the leader of the Republican Party, said Rep. Andy Biggs. You cant be the conference chair when you consistently speak out against the leader of our party, said Rep. Jim Jordan. Its impossible for this party to move forward without President Trump being its leader, said Sen. Lindsey Graham. Trump is the party, and anyone who contradicts him is out. Advertisement Advertisement 2. You shall not correct Trump. Cheneys Republican colleagues blame her for the ongoing dispute with the former president. They ignore Trumps persistent lying, which repeatedly forces her to speak out against him. Shes escalated her rhetoric, said former Rep. Mark Meadows, who led the right-wing Freedom Caucus before serving as Trumps chief of staff. She continued her tirade against President Trump, said Biggs. After Cheneys demotion on Wednesday, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie echoed that rationalization. In the Republican cult, Trumps provocations can never be acknowledged. Therefore, anyone who rebuts him must be the provocateur. Advertisement 3. You shall follow those who follow Trump. The Bible says when youre surrounded by sin and falsehood, you should dissent. The Republican Party, on the other hand, says you should conform. Cheney had no right, as the chair of the conference, to undermine the conference, said former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Rep. Jim Banks, the chair of the Republican Study Committee, agreed, insisting that Cheney must go because she didnt represent the views of the majority of our conference. Jordan concurred. In todays GOP, leadership positions are reserved for those who bow to the demagoguery of the rank and file. Advertisement 4. You shall reject any statement or person supported by Democrats. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar, Cheney warned her colleagues in a Tuesday night speech on the House floor. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former presidents crusade to undermine our democracy. When Fox News host Laura Ingraham showed Jordan that clip, he replied: You cant have the Republican conference chair reciting Democratic talking points. Meadows, likewise, said Cheney had to go because Democrats quoted her more than Republicans did. In the cult of Trump, reality is anathema because Democrats believe in it. Advertisement 5. You shall covet the House and think of nothing else. Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican whip, called for Cheneys removal because House Republicans need to be solely focused on taking back the House. Banks agreed that the partys single mission was to win back the majority, and any leader whos not focused on that needs to be replaced. On this view, all that matters is victory, even at the expense of democracy, and any internal dissent must be crushed. Advertisement 6. You shall bear false witness against the integrity of U.S. elections. On Monday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy decreed that Cheney would be demoted because the partys internal conflicts need to be resolved. To some Republicans, that means embracing Trumps lies. Gingrich, for instance, reaffirmed on Sunday that the 2020 election was designed to do exactly what [Trump] said: figure out how many votes the Republicans have, and then hold the ballots open until you can get enough votes to beat him. Gingrich told Fox News that in every one of the states was really close that Trump lost, you had those kinds of shenanigans Theres no question that those states were, in effect, stolen. Advertisement 7. You shall not admit that the election wasnt rigged. Other Republicans, while declining to say the election was stolen, also refuse to say it wasnt. When Banks was asked whether President Joe Biden won the election fair and square, he replied, I stand by my vote to object on Jan. 6. When Senate GOP Conference Chairman John Barrasso was asked who was right about the electionTrump or Cheneyhe groused that Joe Biden is in the White House, and theres nothing we can do about that right now. Barrasso accused Democrats of trying to make it even easier to cheat in elections. Advertisement 8. You shall dismiss inconvenient truths as subjective. While accusing Democrats of relativism about values, Republicans have retreated to relativism about facts. When Biggs was asked about Cheney being forced out for telling the truth of what happened in the election, he dismissed it as her vision of the truth. Biggs complained that she should have set aside her personal feelings and embraced what 90 percent of our conference believes. This elevation of belief over reality makes a mockery of the conservative slogan that facts dont care about your feelings. To protect Trumps lies, todays Republicans cling to their feelings and deflect unwelcome facts. Advertisement 9. Remember the Sabbath, but forget the insurrection. Principled conservatives believe in learning from history and defending institutions against anarchy. Thats why Cheney wants a full and focused investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. But other Republicans disagree. Each day spent relitigating the past is one day less we have to seize the future, McCarthy argued on Monday as he called for Cheneys dismissal. Another senior Republican, Rep. Devin Nunes, accused her of betraying her duties as conference chair by bringing up old news. 10. You shall not commit apostasy. Purging Cheney from her leadership post is just the beginning. Many Republicans think anyone who believes what Cheney believes should leave the party altogether. Banks says she abandoned the Republican team, and Gingrich says that in 2024, given the things shes said, shed almost be morally bound either to support the Democrat or to run as a third-party candidate against Trump. If youre a conservative who believes in truth and the rule of law, you can still serve in Congress. You just cant be a Republican. To understand what led up to Rep. Liz Cheneys ouster from leadership, listen to this recent episode of What Next. House Republicans on Wednesday morning fired their No. 3 leader, Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, for her persistence in pushing back against former President Donald Trumps continued claim that the 2020 election had been stolen from him, a lie that sparked a violent riot aimed at disrupting congressional certification of the presidential election results on Jan. 6. Her devotion to that cause had made her, in her colleagues eyes, a distraction, and an impediment to their return to power. Cheney, as conference chair, runs the weekly conference meeting whose sole item of business that day was her removal. She told members that she had tremendous affection and admiration for many of you in this room, but argued that we cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down that path lies our destruction, and potentially the destruction of our country. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Subscribe to the Slatest Newsletter A daily email update of the stories you need to read right now. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, she added, Im not your person. You have plenty of others to choose from. That will be their legacy. North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx introduced the formal resolution to boot Cheney. She felt it necessary, first, to clarify that she was not canceling Cheney for holding an inconvenient opinion. My resolution and what I think the result of this resolution will be has nothing to do with any members right to free speech or to vote her or his conscience, Foxx said. It has everything to do with leadership. My belief is that the result of my resolution will show that the conference has lost its confidence in your leadership, Liz. She then made an abrupt turn to viciousness. As the old saying goes: She who thinks she leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk. Liz, Im afraid youre a woman who is only taking a walk right now. You have lost your followers. (A version of this was a favorite saying of former Speaker John Boehners, whom the right also drove out of power.) Advertisement Cheney was removed by voice vote and, according to Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, it was probably three-quarters in favor of removing her, though obviously it was some people screaming louder than others. Someone made a parliamentary inquiry asking about the possibility of a recorded vote, and it was ruled out of order because the time had lapsed to ask for one, Buck said. The whole meeting was over and done within 10 or 15 minutes. Leaders didnt want a lengthy spectacle for members to live-text reporters about. Advertisement The broad majority of House Republicans who ousted Cheney do not feel torn about this. Even some of those who might privately feel that Cheney is right about Trump dont think its useful having a member of leadership so regularly voicing those opinions, and giving the media fodder for stories about Republican divisions, when theyre trying to take back the majority and hit the brakes on unified Democratic control of government. Advertisement You cant have a conference chair who recites Democrat talking points, Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said. He explained that this was a problem members had with Cheney well before Jan. 6 and her pushback to the stolen election narrative. Last summer, when the Russian bounty story came out, which we all knew was false, instead of like, critiquing the president, why not just call the White House and ask him? Jordan said. Instead, she has to go after the president. So, I mean, its been a pattern, and its time for a change. Buck, whos also a Freedom Caucus member but opposed House GOP efforts to object to Electoral College results, voted no on removing Cheney. And he did not buy Foxxs argument that this was not an instance of cancel culture. Advertisement Advertisement Liz didnt agree with President Trumps narrative, and she was canceled, Buck told reporters after the meeting. He said he understood the arguments that Republicans needed to be laser-focused on Biden policies heading into the midterms, but also felt that their inability to deal with Trumps narrative head-on would cost them, too. There are major issuesthe border, spendingthere are major issues, he said. But to suggest that the American people in 2022 wont consider the fact that we were unwilling to stand up to a narrative that the election was stolen, I think will be taken into consideration with their vote. There is a compelling argument that the Cheney saga, and the obsession over the No. 3 leadership position in the House minority, is the ultimate Beltway story that real-life voters dont care about. Advertisement Buck insisted that wasnt the case: I go home and talk to peoplereal peopleI get outside this Beltway and I talk to real people, and real people tell me, Why are you guys taking on Liz Cheney? There isnt much of a competition to replace Cheney as conference chair. Leaders have scheduled a candidate forum for Thursday and a vote for Friday. There is, so far, only one candidate: New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who formally announced her candidacy with a letter written in the put-on, Trumpy voice shes harnessed over the last couple of years. There has been consternation within the conference about the rush to coronate Stefanik despite her relatively moderate voting record. But Trump wants Stefanik, and the coronation is expected to proceed for the same reason that theres a vacancy: Trump owns the House Republican conference. Cheney, meanwhile, has no plans to resign from office or to not seek reelection. Now freed from her leadership duties, she has other things to take care of. I will do everything I can, she told reporters after the meeting, to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. To understand what led up to Rep. Liz Cheneys ouster from leadership, listen to this recent episode of What Next. This is part of Trump Slump, a series of stories checking in on how things are going now for the people and products that were riding high during the last administration. There may be few public figures as quintessentially American as Donald Trump, but the 45th presidents election in 2016 was also widely seen as part of a global political backlash against liberalism, globalization, and immigration. It was a wave that included the 2016 Brexit referendum, the growing influence of far-right populist parties in Europe, and democratic backsliding in countries like Brazil and India. Trump and his officials invited the comparisons. He called himself Mr. Brexit on the campaign trail and semi-endorsed far-right candidates like Frances Marine Le Pen; his ambassador to Germany and all-purpose global troll Richard Grenell said he saw it as his mission to empower other conservatives throughout Europe who are experiencing an awakening from the silent majority. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Someone with Trumps views becoming, for four years, the most powerful person on the planet, was this loose movements most significant victory. You would think that his loss in the 2020 election would set the whole project back. But thats not exactly whats happened. This is not to say that there havent been some adjustments. In Brazil, where right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro has been dubbed Trump of the tropics, the recent departure of foreign minister Ernesto Araujo seemed like a recognition of the new post-Trump political reality. Araujo, who referred to Trump as the savior of the West, fancied himself an anti-globalist intellectual, peppering his screeds against liberals, feminists, environmentalists, and China with references to the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein and postmodernism. But in a post-Trump world, having a figure like Araujo as Brazils global representative is less useful than it used to be. You dont need a guy who appeals to Trump in that role, and the foreign minister was facing an internal revolt from career diplomats who blamed his trashing of Brazils foreign policy for impeding the COVID-wracked countrys access to much-needed vaccines. Advertisement You would think that Trumps loss in the 2020 election would set the whole global right-wing movements project back. But thats not exactly whats happened. Bolsonaro, who has reshuffled his Cabinet as part of what some fear may be preparations for a Jan. 6style challenge if the 2022 election doesnt go his way, continues to downplay the coronavirus and push for a full reopening amid an alarming surge of deaths and a deadly new variant of the disease. But not all right-wing populist leaders shared Trumps reluctance to take COVID seriously. Hungarys Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who openly advocates for what he calls illiberal democracy, was dubbed Trump before Trump by former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Indeed his draconian immigration policies presaged many of those put in place by the U.S., and he was one of the first world leaders to endorse Trumps candidacy for president. But rather than seeing COVID as a threat to his agenda, Orban, who has been steadily eroding the independence of Hungarys media and judiciary, used the virus as a pretext to grant himself more sweeping emergency powers. (The emergency law has since been lifted, but many of Orbans new powers remain.) While Hungary, like much of Europe, is now struggling to contain a new wave of virus infections, it also leads the continent in vaccinations in part because of its decision to break with the rest of the EU to approve the use of vaccines made in Russia and Chinaa further distancing of Hungary from the European governments that have criticized its authoritarian drift in recent years, but one Hungarians might not mind if the vaccines turn out to be effective. Advertisement Advertisement At the beginning of this year, Orban joined with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Matteo Salvini, Italys former deputy prime minister, to create a new right-wing European political alliance that aims to, as Salvini put it, make Europe great again. The three are often considered the leading figures in Europes far right. Conspicuous in her absence in the group is Frances Le Pen, whose National Rally party is trailing the incumbent President Emmanuel Macrons party by only a few points in a potential runoff, according to recent polls of next years presidential elections. Le Pen, who once described Trump as an additional stone in the building of a new world, has been aided by the publics declining faith in Macrons handling of the coronavirus, with a series of long lockdowns and a stumbling vaccine rollout. Rather than drawing a clear distinction between his centrist party and the anti-immigrant, anti-Islam National Rally, Macron has been stealing the latters talking points, launching high-profile crusades against Islamo-leftism and woke forms of identity politics he portrays as unwelcome imports from the U.S. Even if she doesnt win, Le Pen is succeeding in shifting the terms of the debate in France. Advertisement Advertisement Some of the nationalist leaders in Trumps orbit may find it pretty easy to adjust to the new order. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoyed the staunch support of Trump even as he faced protests at home and condemnation abroad for his governments discrimination against Muslims and crackdowns on civil society. But Indias cooperation is key to enough of the Biden administrations foreign policy goalsfrom counterterrorism to climate change, to Chinathat hes unlikely to face too much pressure from the new president. It wont be so easy for all leaders to make that pivot. Few world leaders hitched their wagons to Trumps star quite as enthusiastically as Israels Benjamin Netanyahu, who touted the presidents support during election campaigns and lifted some of Trumps favorite lines to defend himself from corruption allegations. Netanyahu is currently fighting for his political life after a recent electionIsraels fourth in just two yearsleft him without enough allies to form a government. But the issue is more Netanyahu himself, and the criminal charges hes facing, than ideology. Israel has lurched dramatically to the right under Netanyahu, to the point that the far-right, racist, homophobic, Religious Zionist party, which includes a faction once designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. for its violent attacks on Arabs, now sits in the assembly and could potentially be part of a Netanyahu-led coalition government. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Then theres Vladimir Putin. The Russian president has tried to position himself as the leader of a global conservative backlash to Western-style liberalism, which he has declared obsolete. Hes embraced nationalist and Orthodox religious values at home and cultivated ties with far-right partiesLe Pens National Rally, Austrias Freedom Partyabroad. The Kremlins efforts on behalf of Trumps campaign were part of this project as well, and expectations for Putins admirer in the White House were high. (The Russian parliament burst into applause after his election in 2016.) But in many ways, the Trump years were, as former President and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev put it, a period of disappointment for Russia. The Trump administration didnt lift any Obama-era sanctionsin fact, it imposed new ones. And it provided offensive weapons to Russias foes in Ukraine and launched airstrikes on the Russian-backed regime in Syria. Advertisement If the U.S. is not actually going to be any more friendly to Russia, it may serve Putins anti-Western message better to have an unambiguous Russia hawk like Joe Biden in the White House. Putin seemed almost eager to shift back into confrontation mode last month after Biden agreed that Putin was a killer during a TV interview, accusing Biden of hypocrisy and challenging him to a televised debate. In general, a Trump-free world may be an unexpected boost to right-wing populists. Trump himself was deeply unpopular globally, even though his views on immigration, Islam, feminism, andmore recentlycoronavirus lockdowns had plenty of adherents. Trumps ideological allies may find these ideas to be an easier sell without the ugly American associations. This is part of Trump Slump, a series of stories checking in on how things are going now for the people and products that were riding high during the last administration. You know the sign. Its black background features various axioms of modern progressivism in rainbow colors: In this house, we believe: Black Lives Matter. Womens rights are human rights. No human is illegal. Science is real. Love is love. Kindness is everything. Alongside pussyhats, the kindness is everything sign will likely prove to be one of the most identifiable commercial artifacts from the #resistance movement. Its popped up in lawns throughout the nation and in foreign locales like the U.K. and Australia during President Donald Trumps tenure in the White House. It sparked numerous disputes with homeowner associations that were wary of any signage broadcasting even a whiff of political affiliation. Students in some school districts demanded that the sign be displayed on campus to foster a more inclusive learning environment, while parents in other areas made a fuss to get teachers to remove it from classrooms. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The sign has been everywhere, but the very first one appeared in Madison, Wisconsin, where a librarian named Kristin Garvey came up with the concept in 2016, the day after Trump was elected. The sense of loss I felt that day was more than Ive ever felt after an election, she told me recently. In her low spirits, she put her kids down for a nap and, she says, thought about the people who would be most affected by Trumps presidency. Garvey pulled together a number of quotes she found from activists, liberal politicians, and different social justice movements and inscribed them in Sharpie on a white poster board. I dont really know why I decided on a sign, she said. Maybe it shows my age more than anything. Advertisement But it quickly made its way to the internet: According to Garvey, a passerby took a picture of the sign and posted it to Facebook, where it was noticed by local activist Jennifer Rosen Heinz, who then recruited artist Kristin Joiner to stylize the copy with neon hues and pleasingly erratic fonts. The three women banded together to sell physical and digital versions, with proceeds going to the ACLU, Garvey said. Demand became so intense that they couldnt manage the franchise themselves, so they decided to hand the rights for the sign over to an organization that had the operational bandwidth and could really use the revenue. Advertisement That organization was the Wisconsin Alliance for Womens Health, a small nonprofit dedicated to advocating for policies that ensure the health, safety, and economic security of women in Wisconsin. Its founder and executive director, Sara Finger, recalls that she was in a hotel room in D.C. for a health care reform convention when she received a call from Rosen Heinz, offering up the image as a means to keep Fingers organization afloat. I didnt really have much of an expectation at the time about what that would look like, but I saw it as an incredible gift, and I went ahead and created the online stores and put things into motion, Finger told me. Since then, the sign has generated more than $300,000 for WAWH. Finger said the sign honestly saved us, because we were having a really hard time securing funder donations for advocacy work. Advertisement WAWH sells the sign on a number of e-commerce sites, handling the bulk of the transactions on CafePress and Zazzle. Finger provided Slate with monthly sales numbers for the sign on the two platforms: Demand really took off in January 2017, and sales jumped during particularly contentious cultural moments, including the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, and the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election. The signs popularity has been a sort of barometer for emotions among the resistance left. Advertisement Advertisement Given its success, the sign has perhaps unsurprisingly spawned a number of imitators. Search the terms kindness is everything or in this house and youll find a litany of listings on Amazon and Etsy selling copies or near copies. Garvey and Finger dont have a problem with copycats in principle, though they do have one objection: I dont want people to make money off of it. If theyre donating the money they make, then thats fine, Garvey said. These words arent my words. Theyre just the order I put them in. Advertisement Finger has taken to getting lawyers involved when its clear that a seller isnt earmarking the profits for a cause related to the values communicated through the sign. Those people who have completely co-opted it, the exact image, and have used it to benefit themselves have been frustrating, because thats not at the heart of what the sign stands for, she said. Her lawyers have contacted people requesting that they cease selling the sign if thats the situation, but charity-minded people can apply for authorization rights through the groups site. There are also a number of parodies of the sign spouting conservative axioms or mocking its allegedly simplistic platitudes. But Finger considers these versions to be merely inspired by the original. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Now that Trump has left the White House, sales are still chugging along, though theyre not quite what they used to be. There was a lull in demand between January and now, which Finger partly attributes to a sense of post-inauguration complacency. Garvey said shes hopeful but not outright confident about the signs longevity post-Trump. She thinks that the sign could be updated to include quotes related to the current wave of violent attacks on Asian Americans or the rapid proliferation of anti-transgender bills in state legislatures this year. I hope people dont think that just because we have a new president were done, she said. The original sign Garvey etched with Sharpie currently sits in the National Womans Party museum. She now has a copy displayed outside her own home. I dont know if people are getting sick of signs in their yards or not, she said, but I hope it stays. remaining of Thank you for supporting local, independent journalism! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. This story was originally published by Undark and has been republished here with permission. For four decades, David Taylor has relied on a ventilator to breathe, the whoosh, whoosh of the machine part of the background metronome of daily life. Then, on the night of Feb. 14, an Arctic blast began to overwhelm the Texas power grid. The next morning, the electricity flickered out in the Fort Worth home that the 65-year-old shares with his mother. Davids ventilator switched over at some point to a backup battery and kept running. A family member brought over a generator and spent several hours trying, unsuccessfully, to get it working in the subfreezing air. By nightfall, the one-story house had gone about 12 hours without power, other than an hour or so when the lights briefly turned on, recalled Davids 89-year-old mother, Dorothy Taylor. The temperature inside had dropped to the low 50s. David, who has muscular dystrophy, remained in bed beneath a pile of blankets. Dorothy kept one eye on the clock, unsure how much longer her sons backup battery would hold out. I couldnt wait till the last minute, she said. He would die within minutes. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Across Texas, other families were facing similar dilemmas. The ambulance provider MedStar, which serves the greater Fort Worth area, fielded more than 50 callsincluding Dorothysfrom Feb. 15 to Feb. 17 involving patients with life-sustaining medical devices and no power. A San Antonio emergency room doctor, Ralph Riviello, told Undark that around 18 to 24 people showed up at his hospital during the crisis, desperate to recharge medical equipment. Near Houston, a 75-year-old man froze to death in his truck; his family believes he ventured out to get a spare oxygen tank from the vehicle after losing electricity at his home. These are not just one-off tragedies. Some experts warn that complex home-based medical care is on a collision course with climate change, as severe weather events become more frequent nationwide. Advertisement While its difficult to attribute a single weather event like the Texas Arctic blast to climate change, these crises have become more frequent in recent years as the planet warms, highlighting the need to protect such vulnerable individuals, said Sue Anne Bell, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who studies the health effects of disasters. Thinking that youve had your once-in-a-100-year stormthats not a reality anymore, she said. Advertisement At the same time that climate change has fueled a rise in severe events, the power grid is aging. By the 2000s, there were 10 times more major power outages reported each year compared with the 1980s and early 1990s, according to an analysis of data from 1984 to 2012 by the nonprofit news organization Climate Central. They were mostly driven by severe weather, though changes in data collection likely contributed as well. Advertisement We have climate change coming, which is going to throw at us more of these curveballs, more of these unexpected events that can impact the infrastructure, said Joan Casey, an environmental epidemiologist at Columbia University who has studied the health impact of power outages. Casey is among a cadre of researchers, environmentalists, and physicians who are trying to draw attention to the growing threat of power outages for people with medical devices. They propose more research and data collection to better identify how many Americans face this risk, as well as to document the medical complications and deaths that result. Along with highlighting the need to update and weatherize the existing power grid, they suggest a range of public health strategies, including routine text alerts warning vulnerable individuals that power might be disrupted. And, in place of generatorswhich can be difficult and dangerous to usethey call for the adoption of battery storage that automatically kicks in when the lights go out. Advertisement Advertisement But for now, individuals like David and Dorothy Taylor are left fretting in the dark. That cold February night, Dorothy was unsure how much life remained in the ventilators backup battery. But she was not taking any chances. At around 9 p.m., she called the paramedics. Over the past several decades, Americans have increasingly benefited from in-home technology, which can extend life spans and enable more people to stay in their own homes. But the expanding array of such devicesincluding home oxygen machines, medication nebulizers, home dialysis, infusion pumps, and electric wheelchairsall depend on a reliable power supply. Federal officials collect and map where the 2.6 million people on Medicare with these medical devices live, providing the information as a tool for public health and emergency preparedness efforts through its emPOWER Program. Its unknown how many non-Medicare recipients also rely on this equipment, but data indicate that overall usage is increasing, Casey said. She was involved with a study published earlier this year in the journal Epidemiology which found that rentals of oxygen equipment had nearly tripled from 2008 to 2018, based on data from more than 243,000 Kaiser Permanente patients. Advertisement Advertisement In Texas, the February outages were so widespread that the solution was not as simple as going to a nearby home to plug in, said Riviello, who chairs the department of emergency medicine at the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio. There are a lot more people living at home with medical assistive devices that are being maintained because of these devices, he said. And I dont know that they always think of the what-if situations. Some research has documented the danger of power outages for this population. One study of the 2003 power blackout in the Northeastern United States found that 23 of 255 patients coming into a New York City hospital during a 24-hour period reported a medical device failure. Advertisement Shao Lin, a University at Albany physician-researcher who studies the health effects of extreme weather events, more recently assessed whether power outages affected hospitalizations among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, who may require oxygen machines and other devices to help them breathe. Lin and her colleagues compared hospitalizations in New York state when the power was out with normal days. They estimated that, on days without power, 23 percent of hospital admissions for COPD patients could be linked to the loss of electricity. Advertisement Advertisement When patients require oxygen, they dont have the luxury of time, she said: They have to go the ED [emergency department] or otherwise they die, right? The people die. In Texas, a blast of Arctic air, paired with chronic failures to weatherize the power grid, led to outages that rolled on for days. Slightly more than two-thirds of Texans lost power at some point from Feb. 14 to 20outages that averaged a total of 42 hours, according to a University of Houston survey conducted online with 1,500 residents. Advertisement Once the power is out, and medical devices are failing, the next stop is often a nearby hospital. The need for oxygen drove most of the 50-plus calls that MedStar responded to in the greater Fort Worth area, according to brief dispatch notes the ambulance service shared with Undark. No power, trouble breathing, no O2, reads one note, using an abbreviation for oxygen. No power out of oxygen can barely breathe, records another. There were a few other power-related calls: Asthma attack, no inhaler and no power to use nebulizer. After Dorothy called MedStar, she said, they came immediately. The ambulance couldnt make it up the steep, snowy driveway, instead parking at the bottom and carrying David down, said Tim Gattis, one of the paramedics that day. Theres like six of us hanging onto the cot, he said, as were sliding down the hill trying to get back to the ambulance with him. Advertisement Advertisement On a March afternoon, Dorothy and David gathered around the kitchen table to revisit that scary, frigid February night. David, who has difficulty speaking but can mouth some words that his mother understands, sat in a wheelchair at one end. Dorothy described staying with her son in the hospital overnight, trying to doze on a straight-backed chair with no arms. I dont leave him, she said. For each person who needs potentially life-saving help, there are ripple effects of strain on the health system and the broader community, Bell said. Its that individual, its his family, maybe his neighbors, maybe a persons primary care provider, she said. Its the emergency department physician. Some physicians and other clinicians advise people with medical devices to have an emergency plan if the power fails. But thats easier said than done, said Casey. Poorer people might not have somewhere else to go, might not have the money to purchase a generator, to have a backup power supply, she said. Advertisement So I also see this as an environmental justice issue, moving forward, she added. Clinicians may also suggest that these patients sign up for a registry, a list that municipalities or utilities compile of customers who use electricity for medical devices. In principle, registries allow officials to prioritize outreach and response to such individuals in the event of a power outage. They are also intended to prevent utilities from shutting off power if a person falls behind on paying their electric bill. Advertisement Still, these registries have been subject to renewed scrutiny as more people are impacted by power outages, said Marriele Mango, a project director at Clean Energy Group, a nonprofit advocacy organization in Vermont. A fraction of the people who qualify for these registries are registering, she said, citing various reasons, including language barriers and confusion about eligibility. Moreover, even if someone is listed on a registry, they may not receive advance notice of an outage, she said, citing media coverage showing that Pacific Gas and Electric failed to notify some device users in 2019 when it shut off power to a large swath of California as a wildfire prevention measure. Advertisement Casey, Mango, and other experts have proposed new research and programs that might help address the issue. One strategy, Casey said, would be to use location data from the emPOWER system and other mapping efforts to develop a text alert system to warn people when their power might go out. Another possible strategy, according to Casey, is for hospitals to set up a charging area on-site to allow patients with life-sustaining devices to get power without filling up the emergency room. In 2020, leading into the wildfire season, PG&E launched a program to get free backup portable batteries to lower-income residents who depend on medical equipment. But these portable batteries can only last so long; Davids was projected to provide power for just eight hours. Advertisement Advertisement Mango and Casey are co-authors on a recent paper, published in the journal Futures, that looks at a longer-term approachthe installation of battery storage either in someones home or at a community gathering area. The technology, which stores power on-site in case the electrical grid goes down, provides a more reliable power supply than portable batteries. Its designed to kick in automatically in the event of an outage, operating independently from the grid. When the battery storage system is paired with solar panels, as long as solar is available, Mango said, it can potentially keep recharging the battery. These battery storage units are still quite costly, although prices are declining, Mango said. A product review of one of the existing devices, the Tesla Powerwall, shows costs of $9,600 to $15,600, including installation. Some programs may help bring the cost down for residents with medical devices, such as incentives offered by the California Public Utilities Commission. Advertisement Battery storage is a cleaner option than diesel generators, and it doesnt pose the risk of inadvertent carbon monoxide poisoning that generators do, Mango said. Generators can also be difficult to operate or refuel, particularly for older or frail individuals. And, during power crises, people scrambling to buy and operate these generators can run into life-threatening trouble. Theyve never had to do it before, Mango said. Advertisement Advertisement One funding mechanism would be for Medicare to classify in-home battery storage as durable medical equipment. Then a physician could simply prescribe the battery along with the device itself, Mango said. It would be a huge step in the right direction to be able to get that in the hands of folks. Advertisement Casey is dubious that providing and paying for battery storage on an individual basis is feasible, though, given the price tag and the risk that lower-income and other populations would fall through the cracks. Its a Band-Aid sort of situation rather than solving the problem, she said. Establishing central charging stations backed up by battery storage in communities would reach broader groups, she said, and could offer other medical support amid a weather-related power crisis. But who, Casey asked, should be responsible for these stations? For instance, should a large health system like Kaiser Permanente establish charging stations to help patients in their communities? Thats starting to go way outside the hospital walls, she said. Its hard for me to say that they should. But we need to figure out whos responsible here. Because right now no one is, and thats clearly not working. Dorothy Taylor said that her home, where shes lived for nearly 50 years, is listed on her utilitys registry, a step that required physician paperwork to document her sons medical condition. But that did not keep the electricity humming as large sections of the state went dark. Since the February storm, Taylor has considered installing a generator. But it would be expensive, she said, and outages are rare, at least historically. Thats happened one time in the 47 years weve been living on this hill, she said. So what do you do? Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. In early February, vaccine fever was running high in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, about 80 miles from the U.S. border. Mexicos vaccination rollout had slowed down drastically while its northern neighbors picked up speed. Many of Monterreys wealthy residents were flying to cities like Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio to get their shots. Others, equally desperate, bought Pfizer shots from a local private clinic for $500 to $1,200. But on Feb. 17, the citys health authority responded to a complaint about the clinics operations, raided the site, and discovered the vaccines were fakes. Police found the pirated shots stored inside beer coolers with faulty expiration dates and different batch numbers from the Pfizer doses distributed by the federal government. Advertisement Mexico has long battled with a black market of stolen, adulterated, and expired medicines. The size of this illicit market is hard to measure, but estimates valued it in $550 million in 2012. Now, the coveted COVID-19 vaccines have joined the list of profitable drugs entering the market illegally through scams that endanger the lives of its victims. Advertisement Advertisement Since January, the countrys health regulatory agency, COFEPRIS, has issued six health alerts against the illegal sale of a long list of counterfeit AstraZeneca, Cansino, Moderna, Sinovac, Sinopharm and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. (Sinopharm and Moderna shots arent even available in Mexico.) The fakes are mostly sold online, particularly through social media, according to COFEPRIS, but the health agency also advices the population not to buy vaccines offered at any pharmacy, hospital, shop, or through the phone. Mexican officials have brought down at least 2,300 websites and social media pages offering essential health products since the pandemic started, ranging from COVID-19 tests, oxygen tanks, medicine like ivermectin, and COVID shots. For instance, in January, Mexican authorities brought down a fake Pfizer Mexico site that was offering doses for about $150. Advertisement COVID-19 vaccines shouldnt be for sale anywhere in Mexicoonly the government is authorized to vaccinate the population. The large demand for the shots and slow distribution, coupled with a pressing sense of urgency from the population and the high levels of impunity behind this illicit trade, are all creating prime conditions for a dangerous black market. Widespread access to a COVID vaccine couldnt come soon enough in Mexico, a country with the highest fatality rate of observed cases in the world. As of May 12, the pandemic has left an official death toll of 219,323, but as many as 329,965 according to excess deaths. In 2020 the economy experienced its sharpest decline since the 1930s, threatening to push millions of people further down into poverty. And while Mexico keeps buying and administering vaccines, the number of vaccinated people remains lowclose to 11 percent of its population has received at least one dose. Advertisement Advertisement Fake vaccines are like liquid gold, said Raul Sapien, president of the National Council of Private Security, CNSP in Spanish, an association of private security companies that follows this problem closely. The market of substandard and falsified medical products grew during the pandemic due to shortages in the global supply chains for them and high demand. Mexicos informal sector, which makes up one-quarter of its economy and 56.8 percent of workers, stepped up to fill the void. The sale of counterfeit products takes place in unregulated public markets across the country where all kinds of pirated goods abound, like San Felipe and Tepito in Mexico City. The authorities are aware of these hotspots, yet they are allowed to operate openly, in plain daylight, and without any legal consequences, says Sapien. Senators are proposing legislation that would sentence those who specifically commercialize counterfeit COVID vaccines to as many as 22 years in prison, but Sapien argues the same should go for the whole black market. Health is a human right, and someone who sells you a fake COVID shot is putting you in as much danger as someone who sells you a fake medicine, he said. Advertisement Another prominent case of vaccine fraud took place on March 17, when Mexican armed forces confiscated 5,775 doses of what looked like the Russian Sputnik V vaccine hidden inside a cooler, under iced Coca-Cola cans, which had been headed to Honduras on a private jet. The vaccines belonged to one of Central Americas wealthiest businessmen, Mohamad Yusuf Amdani, owner of Grupo Karims, a conglomerate of real estate, textile factories, and hotels in the region, including in Campeche, Mexico, where the jet was taking off, with Grupo Karims executives on board. A day after the seizure, Russian authorities announced the vaccines were fake, and Mexican officials followed suit after opening an investigation. But none of the people on the jet were detained in Mexico. Grupo Karims released a statement saying none of the executives on the plane have been charged with a crime and that they had no intention of smuggling the vaccines into Honduras illegally. Advertisement Advertisement After the seizure of the shots, local media revealed that between 1,000 and 4,000 Grupo Karims workers in Campeche had been vaccinated with an unknown substance purporting to be the Sputnik V vaccine. Grupo Karims has not confirmed or denied the vaccination of its workers or that the seized vaccines were fakes, and Mexican investigators have not revealed what was in the confiscated vials. When it comes to the identifying counterfeit medicines, the pharmaceutical industry plays a major role in picking out fake or robbed products, says Rafael Gual Director of Mexicos National Chamber of the Pharmaceutical Industry. Its the companies that keep track of counterfeit medicines by monitoring how their products are doing on the market and thus detecting anomalies. They often report to the authorities. Pfizer, for example, features a warning about the falsified jabs on its Mexican website (the real one) and offers the option to report the fakes. When trucks carrying medicines are intercepted by criminal groups on the highway and robbed, its the pharmaceutical industry, mostly distributors, who file police reports. Advertisement More than 8 million Mexicans consume stolen, manipulated, or expired medicines every year, which is a serious problem for everyone, said Gual, who isnt particularly worried about an increase of fake COVID-19 vaccines. As Mexico accelerates the rollout, the black market for the shots will end, he said. But estimates for when the countrys national vaccination plan will get to people 39 years old and under range from June all the way to March 2022. Long wait times and limited supply could mean more scams attracting the least informed or the most desperate. Advertisement And the market for fake medicines goes far beyond Mexico. In a 2017 report, the World Health Organization reported that in low- and middle-income countries, there is a a 10.5 percent failure rate for substandard or falsified medical products, costing these nations an estimated $30.5 billion a year. Ten and a half percent may seem low, but behind these figures are thousands of deaths and serious adverse effects on patients worldwide. So far, Mexican authorities have not announced negative consequences for the victims of COVID-19 vaccine scams but continue to emphasize on the many dangers of receiving a shot outside official channels. The Pan American Health Organization issued a warning for fake COVID-19 shots in Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil and called on the population not to put themselves at risk by buying vaccines in the market. These are Latin Americas largest economies, one reason they could be experiencing counterfeits. Pfizer has also identified faked shots in Poland. Advertisement Apart from further cracking down on the criminal networks that control the black market for counterfeit medicines and strengthening due process, Josue Bautista, president of the Mexican Association of Pharmacovigilance, believes more needs to be done to raise awareness about the potential harms of consuming fake medicinesharms that include both thinking you are getting protection or treatment when youre not, and the potential dangers of unknown substances entering your body. Everyone is susceptible to this kind of scams, Bautista said. His organization tracks the illegal sale of medicines and is also involved in campaigns to educate the population and make information accessible to those who COFEPRIS doesnt reach. He hopes information will prevent people from falling for scams and invite them to report these illicit activities. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Mexican authorities and the pharmaceutical industry urge the population to report fakes, but the fact is they are standing against a grim reality. Only 6 percent of all crimes in Mexico are reported and less than 1 percent are resolved. Public distrust in the justice system and a pervasive mix of impunity and corruption help keep this giant black market alive. About 80 people are believed to have received fake COVID-19 shots from the private clinic in Monterrey. They didnt get immunity to a deadly virus, but they were still lucky. They only got a costly shot of distilled water into their bodies. Six people were detained for this crime, but its possible others will be as bold as to follow their footsteps and get away with it. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. On the night of May 3, Nabeel, a resident of Delhi, was in an ambulance with his COVID-positive brother in search of an ICU ventilator bed. (Nabeel is not his real name.) The oxygen cylinder that was helping his brother breathe was almost out, but they couldnt find the necessary bed in hospitals around them. Nabeels phone was constantly buzzing with leads on where to go, but none materialized. Soon, both time and oxygen ran out, and his 32-year-old brother breathed his last breath in the ambulance on the outskirts of Delhi. Advertisement But this loss may not have been counted among the more than 4,000 COVID deaths a day the Indian government is officially reporting, with a total death toll of more than 250,000 as of Wednesday. Experts agree the real number is far higherperhaps three times that or more. One reason for the discrepancy is that people who die outside hospitals or on their way to a medical center are often not included in the official coronavirus death count. Advertisement Advertisement Its in the gray area of where and if [his death] will get recorded, says Jeevika Shiv, a lawyer and one of the many volunteers who was helping Nabeel with hospital options. In the last three weeks, we have found that there are different kinds of deathsinstitutional ones due to lack of oxygen, or people dying in isolationhow do you count them? There are other reasons why deaths go uncounted, too. Sometimes patients who died of COVID had false negative tests. And the Indian government, per reports, only considers deaths caused by COVID when they are directly connected to the coronaviruslike if someone dies of viral pneumonia. Against World Health Organization guidelines, cases where the virus has contributed to the death of a person with an underlying condition are not being included. Advertisement India is experiencing a devastating COVID surge with 3.7 million active cases and less than 3 percent of the 1.4 billion population fully vaccinated as of Monday. Both cities and rural areas have been hit and the already-weak health care infrastructure is crumbling. Crematoriums are full and in some cases, dead bodies are being dumped in the river Ganges. Meanwhile, the Indian government is busy spinning counternarratives and penalizing taking pictures at crematoriums. As a result, citizens such as Shiv are coming up with ways to track the real death count and ensure that those who are lost are not forgotten. Journalists and activists are interviewing undertakers at crematoriums and tracking paid obituaries in local newspapers. These citizen-led documentation initiatives could eventually become a proxy for the real number of deaths in what has become one of Indias biggest humanitarian crises. Advertisement Advertisement Shiv is part of a group of lawyers and researchers working on the launch of an online COVID-19 death tracker, starting with documenting COVID deaths caused by lack of oxygen supplies. Expected to be updated weekly, it will include details from media reports and isolated home deaths. The group is also receiving leads from individuals on such deaths and is working on verifying each of them before updating the online database. We want [the families] to feel like there is a space for them to come forward, said Shiv. Undercounting of deaths isnt a new challenge during a pandemic. Chinmay Tumbe, an urban historian and author of the book Age of Pandemics, says that even during the 1918 influenza pandemic deaths were undercounted. At the time, he says, that the number of deaths was estimated at 6 million in India, but Tumbes research suggests the real number was 20 million. How does he do this? One way is to look at how many more people are dying than normal. Advertisement To estimate the number of deaths during an 1817 cholera pandemic, Tumbe relied on the registry of deaths in burial grounds of South Park Street cemetery in Kolkata, which recorded a sudden spike in burial rates that sustained over the next 50 years. He believes the same process can be followed during the current pandemic. Advertisement Researchers can tell how many people have died during a pandemic by looking at the excess mortality spike even if the cause of death is registered as something else, said Tumbe, an economics professor at Indian Institute of Management and a researcher who will be working on estimating COVID-19 deaths in India. This means researchers would assume that the sudden spike that has followed a flat line would be due to COVID, though for such an analysis its better to wait until all the data is available as opposed to working on it in real time. Advertisement (That approach has also been used in the U.S. There, the official COVID-19 death count is said to be about 581,000, while a report from the University of Washingtons Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluations that examined excess mortality suggests the real number could be more than 900,000.) The real problem, Tumbe says, comes in when the death is not registered at all. In India, apart from willful underreporting [by the government], the other issue is that in many cases its almost impossible to register deaths, especially if the entire family has succumbed to the virus. Advertisement But, Tumbe says that every death leaves a tracewhether it is in the burial or the cremation ground, a lake where corpses are dumped, or obituaries. This is where some of the journalists in the western state of Gujarat come in. A bunch of local reporterssome traveling up to 100 mileshave been visiting cremation grounds, talking to workers, counting body bags, and more to calculate the real number of deaths, according to a BBC report. It said that one day in April, this team of reporters counted 200 dead bodies in Gujarats largest city, Ahmedabad.* That same day, the city reported just 25 deaths. Advertisement One journalist among them, Deepak Patel, posts details on Twitter every few hours with their estimates versus the governments data released, showing a major discrepancy between the two tallies. He also uploads images of paid obituaries in local language newspapers in his attempt to document the real extent of the disaster. There are others, too, estimating the real count to be five times of the official numbers, calculating based on Indias crematoriums running out of space and firewood. That said, Tumbe says state-specific data cannot be used to zoom out and scale for the rest of the country as the intensity of the pandemic has varied by region. Advertisement Advertisement Amid all the conversations about numbers, it may be easy to forget that each figure represents a person who dieda person who leaves behind family and friends. So as these efforts to create better data continue, so do projects to memorialize those who have died as individuals. Some have already launched online memorial websites and Instagram pages for people as an outlet for their loved ones to grieve. Advertisement Tarun Cherukuri, who founded a public policy organization, and a friend plan to launch an online memorial for families of COVID deceased. The idea, he says, is to record every name, capture their story and undertake a collective healing process, following principles of restorative justice like it was done in truth and reconciliation processes in Germany, South Africa, New Zealand. Similarly, entrepreneur Natasha Malpani Oswal is in the process of launching an online initiative titled In Loving Memory, where friends and family can submit a story related to the person who passed during this period as a way to honor their memory. We want to preserve the memory of people who have been lost, said Oswal. Because its so easy to just become a statistic. And if a death isnt counted in the first place, it cant even become that. Correction, May 13, 2021: This article originally misidentified Ahmedabad as Gujarats capital city. It is Gujarats largest city. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. The Istanbul Convention for a better future for all It has already had a positive impact on womens lives across Europe. A woman walks among dozens of red painted shoes placed on the ground as a part of an installation against violence against women in Brussels. (Source: AP/TASR) Font size: A - | A + Today marks the 10th Anniversary of the Istanbul Convention. Signed on 11 May 2011, this landmark convention of the Council of Europe aims to prevent and combat violence against women and domestic violence. It is the first instrument in Europe to set legally binding standards to prevent gender-based violence, protect victims of violence and punish perpetrators. The 10th anniversary is a good moment to reflect on what we have achieved so far and what challenges are still ahead. In that light, we welcome a debate on the merits and values of the Istanbul Convention and what we can do jointly to promote safety, respect and equality for women and girls. One of the first countries to sign The Slovak Republic joined the Council of Europe in 1993, one of the first international organisations that it joined after its independence, and it has been an active and valued member since then. On the 11th of May 2011, Slovakia was among the first countries to sign the Istanbul Convention. Since taking its place in the world as an independent country, Slovakia has a strong tradition of support for womens rights. However, Slovakia has not ratified the Istanbul Convention. The Istanbul Convention has been ratified by 34 member states, including our countries. It offers the most comprehensive legal framework to prevent and combat violence against women. The Convention asks for preventive actions and for support and protection of women who have been exposed to violence or are at risk of such violence. It calls for action against domestic violence, and also aims to protect women and girls from rape, sexual harassment, stalking, online violence and other acts. Thousands of women are killed each year Violence against women and domestic violence is a tragic and unacceptable reality in the whole of Europe. More than 3,000 women are killed each year in Europe by their intimate partners or family members and countless more are hurt and harassed. In Slovakia, 34 percent of women older than 15 years have suffered physical or sexual violence. Even 47 percent have experienced psychological violence by their partner, as a survey of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency shows. During the Covid-19 pandemic, we witnessed a significant increase of violence against women in many countries. Statistics of the General Prosecutors Office highlighted a 30 percent increase in reports of domestic violence in Slovakia in 2020. According to police, 12 women were killed by their partners in Slovakia last year. The National Line for Women Experiencing Violence recorded a fourfold increase in calls in the first half of 2020. The real goal of the Istanbul Convention It is therefore important to focus on the real goal of the Istanbul Convention of protecting women and girls and ensuring safe living environment and equal opportunities. The recent discussions in Slovakia have raised different points with regard to the ratification of the Istanbul Convention. There is no justification for violence against women. Whatever values you would find important, domestic violence cannot be part of it. In truth, what can be more negative for the cohesion in a country and solidarity amongst its people than domestic violence? How can we build a self-respecting society if emotional or physical traumas experienced at home remain silenced and stigmatised? How can we ensure a strong and prosperous future if part of the population is not able to fulfil its potential? Gender equality aims to create equal opportunities. It allows for stereotypes of men and women to be addressed and to allow all children to have equal opportunities. It is this diversity, these freedoms and rights that we seek to protect and promote. We acknowledge the progress made in Slovakia and the efforts made by the government, the President, the Public Defender of Rights, non-governmental organisations and many others. We welcome the recent decision of Prime Minister Heger to allocate 3 million to centres for victims of domestic violence. We stand ready to work jointly with partners in Slovakia to prevent and combat gender-based violence. We invite Slovakia to look at the Convention as an agreement with society that domestic violence is not acceptable and it cannot be seen as a private or a family matter. In November last year, EU member states signed the Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy. By signing, we promised to focus on protecting and empowering individuals. Let us consider this action plan as an additional motivation to take concrete actions. The Istanbul Convention has already had a positive impact on womens lives across Europe. It has improved legislation, support services, training of professionals and raised awareness. It is a successful instrument to prevent violence against women, to protect and help victims and to punish perpetrators. We call on Slovakia, as signatory, to ratify the Istanbul Convention and implement its provisions. By doing so, it would make a positive change for women and girls, for our mothers and daughters. For a better future, for all. Ghislain Dhoop, Ambassador of Belgium Rene Rosager Dinesen, Ambassador of Denmark Toomas Kukk, Ambassador of Estonia Jukka Pesola, Ambassador of Finland Christophe Leonzi, Ambassador of France Barbara Wolf, Ambassador of Germany Hilda O Riain, Ambassador of Ireland Mark Ungeheuer, Ambassador of Luxembourg Henk Cor van der Kwast, Ambassador of Netherlands Fernando Manuel de Jesus Teles Fazendeiro, Ambassador of Portugal Luis Belzuz de los Rios, Ambassador of Spain Mikaela Kumlin Granit, Ambassador of Sweden 11. May 2021 at 21:04 Dennik N has rejected Russias demand to withdraw a story on Sputnik V The Russian marketer of the vaccine threatened a lawsuit if demands were not met. Font size: A - | A + The Dennik N daily reported that it will not withdraw the story in which it reported about the findings of the State Institute for Drug Control (SUKL) concerning the Russian Covid vaccine, Sputnik V. The request was delivered by the Russian Fund for Direct Investment (RFDI), the main marketer of the vaccine, which has asked either for the withdrawal of the story or adding information about the test results in Hungarian labs. The RFDI claimed in the request that the story from April 8 contained incorrect and misleading statements about the vaccine by the Slovak regulator, and threatened a legal action if the daily did not meet its request by May 9. The story accurately quoted an official statement of the State Institute for Drug Control, said Matus Kostolny, editor-in-chief of Dennik N. It stands by its doubts about Sputnik and we see no reason to retract the story. The Sputnik saga The first batch of 200,000 doses of Sputnik V arrived in Slovakia on March 1, with then PM Igor Matovic and then health minister Marek Krajci (both OLaNO) welcoming it at the Kosice airport. As they announced, Slovakia had ordered 2 million doses that were supposed to be gradually delivered in the coming months. Yet, Slovakia has still not received any further supplies. President: Lab certification not the reason why Russians want Sputnik V back Read more Since Sputnik V has not been registered by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the Health Ministry issued an approval for the therapeutic usage of the vaccine, but let the Slovak medicines regulator check the vaccine. SUKL later issued a statement, claiming that it cannot say whether it is safe to administer the vaccine. Although the vaccine passed the tests, it could not issue a comprehensive statement due to the missing documents. The institute also said that the vaccine it tested was not the same as described in the prestigious Lancet magazine. The disputes over Sputnik V contributed to already tense relations in the ruling coalition, which resulted in a coalition crisis. The crisis ended only after Matovic resigned from the post and swapped posts with his then finance minister, Eduard Heger. Meanwhile, Matovic continued dealing with the Sputnik V agenda and even travelled to Russia to discuss it with the representatives of the RFDI. After his return, he announced that the Russians want to terminate the deal, and launched attacks on SUKL for its statement, claiming that it had harmed the reputation of the vaccine. He also said that they carried out tests in labs not certified by the EU. SUKL has been backed by several politicians, scientists, diplomats and even the president. It turned out later that the actual reason why Russians demanded that the vaccine be returned was because Slovakia had not paid. Head of medicines agency: we still don't have all data about the Russian vaccine Read more Matovic meanwhile travelled to Hungary to discuss tests being carried out in Hungary. Later, Russia asked for some vaccine samples to be tested in its own labs. Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky (OLaNO nominee) has repeatedly said that they were awaiting the results of both Hungary and Russia to decide on the administration of Sputnik V in Slovakia. Matovic wrote on May 10 that the results from Hungary are good, and the vaccine could soon be used in Slovakia. The Health Ministry responded that it has received no such information yet. Read more about the coronavirus developments in Slovakia: 12. May 2021 at 11:10 | Compiled by Spectator staff Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky (r) said that the roll-out of AstraZeneca will be restored. (Source: TASR) Font size: A - | A + This is your overview of news from Slovakia on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Learn about politics, business, and other notable events of the day in Slovakia in less than five minutes. This is a free-of-charge service for our readers. If you want to support us, become a subscriber and get access to more detailed news and interesting feature stories from Slovakia. Thank you. AstraZeneca stopped, Sputnik V soon to be launched People who were invited to make a vaccination appointment and were supposed to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine will be administered the vaccine by Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna instead. At the same time, it is now possible to administer the two vaccines to people aged 35+. The changes come shortly after the Health Ministry decided to suspend the vaccination with AstraZeneca. Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky (OLaNO nominee) explained the main reason for this was the lacking stock. Still, he stressed that it will be administered again as soon as there are enough vaccines in stores. Meanwhile, he has promised to soon make it possible to pick a preferred vaccine. This includes non-registered vaccines, particularly Sputnik V, which was delivered to Slovakia in early March. The roll-out of the Russian vaccine can start in June since Russia has officially signed approval for its use in Slovakia, Lengvarsky has confirmed. The announcement came only one day after the Dennik N daily reported on a request from the Russian Fund for Direct Investment to withdraw or correct its earlier story containing the assessment of the Russian vaccine by the Slovak medicines authority, the State Institute for Drug Control, threatening with a lawsuit if it fails to do so. The daily has rejected the request. Slovakia suspends the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine. What does it mean? (Q&A) Read more National emergency may end soon It is still unclear when the national emergency, and the related restrictions like the curfew and the ban on assembly, will end. Officially, it is set to expire on May 28, but if the parliament refuses to support the cabinets decision to prolong it, it could end as early as next Tuesday, May 18. Investments Minister Veronika Remisova, who also serves as the chair of the junior coalition party Za Ludi, suggested that all the cabinet needs to do is adopt the law on economic mobility that would enable the adoption of certain restrictions that are now bound to the national emergency when only a state of emergency is declared. This may happen later this week since the cabinet greenlighted the proposal to discuss the draft law in a fast-track proceeding. Meanwhile, the situation in Slovakia keeps improving, and there will be as many as four districts in the orange tier of the Covid automat from next Monday, May 17. Another 50 districts will be in the light red tier, 23 in the red tier, and two in the dark red tier. The country will no longer follow the national Covid automat alert system, only the regional one.

Despite the differing epidemiological situation throughout Slovakia, all schools are set to open across the country next Monday, Education Minister Branislav Grohling (SaS) announced. National emergency continues, but all schools will open next week Read more More Covid and vaccination news 404 out of 6,776 PCR tests carried out on May 11 were positive (5.96 percent), and of 60,948 antigen tests, 302 were positive (0.50 percent). 19 more people died of Covid, increasing the total number to 12,099. were positive (0.50 percent). more people died of Covid, increasing the total number to 12,099. The Indian coronavirus variant has been confirmed in Slovakia. The infected person, who lives in Bratislava Region, came from India and is now in home isolation, chief hygienist Jan Mikas said. in Slovakia. The infected person, who lives in Bratislava Region, came from India and is now in home isolation, chief hygienist Jan Mikas said. 6 6 percent of people aged 70-79 years have been vaccinated with the first Covid vaccine shot, while the share in the 80-89 age group is 54 percent. Out of the total population, 23 percent have received the first jab so far. have been vaccinated with the first Covid vaccine shot, while the share in the is 54 percent. Out of the total population, have received the first jab so far. The Health Ministry has published a map of districts with the share of residents vaccinated with the first Covid vaccine shot. The highest share is in Bratislava, and the districts of Banska Bystrica, Presov, Zvolen, Dunajska Streda and Humenne. The map of districts with residents vaccinated with the first Covid vaccine shot. (Source: Health Ministry) People travelling from Slovakia to Cyprus will not have to enter quarantine after May 13. They will have to show negative PCR test no older than 72 hours before the flight and then take another test after their arrival. Court will deal with the referendum The question of whether a referendum can be held on the shortening of an election term in Slovakia will be answered by the Constitutional Court. President Zuzana Caputova has decided to turn to the court just over a week after receiving a petition signed by more than 585,000 people calling for the referendum. Although the petition fulfilled the first requirement, which states that the referendum should be announced if supported by more than 350,000 citizens, there are several questions concerning its content. Not even experts and lawyers can provide a definite answer of what the constitutional bodies should do and how the result should be assessed, the president explained. The presidents task is to make a decision that will secure the constitutionality of the referendum and that will not be accompanied with any constitutional doubts, she stressed. The Constitutional Court will have 60 days to decide and if it finds no conflict with the Constitution, the president will announce the referendum as soon as possible so that it can be held in September. President turns to the Constitutional Court with referendum on snap election Read more Picture of the day olice officers witnessed a curious, yet dangerous, case near the town of Trnava, when a car was spotted transporting a wrecked car on its roof. The driver of what has been labelled the Trnava Doubledecker was fined and could even lose his driving licence. A car near Trnava was transporting a wreck of another car on its roof. (Source: Policia SR) In other news Former special prosecutor Dusan Kovacik , who faces charges related to corruption and other crimes, will stay in custody , the Specialised Criminal Court Judge Pamela Zaleska decided. He was detained on October 22, 2020. , who faces charges related to corruption and other crimes, will , the Specialised Criminal Court Judge Pamela Zaleska decided. He was detained on October 22, 2020. Finance Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) left for the USA, where he is to meet with the representatives of the U.S. Steel company in Pittsburgh . He hopes to make the Slovak plant both an economic and ecologic leader of the east, he wrote on Facebook. (OLaNO) left for the USA, where he is to meet with the representatives of the . He hopes to make the Slovak plant both an economic and ecologic leader of the east, he wrote on Facebook. The state will pay 333 per child to families in material need . This should concern some 45,000 children, according to Labour Minister Milan Krajniak (Sme Rodina). . This should concern some 45,000 children, according to Labour Minister Milan Krajniak (Sme Rodina). The National Criminal Agency (NAKA) may soon be left without top officials . After Branislav Zurian announced his resignation on May 11, his deputy Patrik Jurik also said he would leave. (Sme) (NAKA) may soon be . After Branislav Zurian announced his resignation on May 11, his deputy Patrik Jurik also said he would leave. (Sme) Carmaker Volkswagen Slovakia will fully restore its operation in the Bratislava-based plant on May 17 . Recently, it was forced to suspend the production of SUV models due to the lack of semiconductor components. its operation in the Bratislava-based plant . Recently, it was forced to suspend the production of SUV models due to the lack of semiconductor components. Mobile phone provider Orange has launched the 5G network in Bratislavas borough of Petrzalka and some parts of Banska Bystrica . To use it, a special data package is required. (Techbox) and some parts of . To use it, a special data package is required. (Techbox) PM Eduard Heger (OLaNO) and Health Minister Lengvarsky visited the University Hospital in Bratislava on the occasion of International Nurses Day, which falls on May 12. Visit to the University Hospital in Bratislava on the occasion of the International Nurses Day. (Source: SITA) More on Spectator.sk The Istanbul Convention for a better future for all Read more Lifted measures impact the labour market Read more Slovak National Theatre closes its historical building Read more If you have suggestions on how this news overview can be improved, you can reach us at editorial@spectator.sk. Immigrant students bring different ideas of family and gender roles, work ethic, concepts of cleanliness, and concepts of justice. Students are initially elated to be in a safer environment. Many come to the U.S. to avoid violence, escape gangs or famine. They werent given a choice. Families split up to provide a better life for the children. Parents may come to the U.S. and leave the children with grandparents until they can afford to send for them. It may take six months to a year for these students to overcome homesickness and missing family members. These children may not even recognize their parents or see them as their parents, creating conflicts at home. Parents may keep children out of school to assist as translators. Theres a power shift in the family dynamic. There is culture shock. Everythings different. Teachers are more respected in other countries. Students and their parents may feel its disrespectful to question the teacher. Parents dont respond to teachers because theyre uneducated or dont speak English. Theyre working several jobs and have little time to attend school functions. Forney is old enough that he said he can remember the polio shot being new. Now, everybody gets vaccinated with (the polio vaccine), he said, sharing a story about a man he knew who had suffered debilitating effects of polio because he had not gotten the vaccine. Like with the COVID-19 vaccine, he said, there was an initial reticence to get the polio vaccine, but the longterm effects of the polio disease were avoidable by becoming vaccinated. For people, young and old, the longterm effects of COVID-19 are also avoidable by becoming vaccinated. In my own contact with patience, and just talking to people who have had COVID, they have the brain fog, they say their legs are still aching. It isnt that, you know, that if you get this that you necessarily have the same capabilities that you had before, Im hopeful that things will continue to improve, but COVID can involve the brain, the kidneys, the lungs, many different body organs. That is why he said he encourages people to consider getting vaccinated. At Platte Valley Companies, incentives and encouragement have contributed to at least 50% of the companys more than 300 employees being vaccinated, CEO and President Kosman said. Platte Valley Companies has locations in Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 by BizReport Naming your LLC is very beneficial. But before you reap the perks of operating as a limited liability company (LLC), you will have to register your business entity. This step-by-step registration process usually begins by coming up with an LLC name. LLC name carries more weight than you can imagine. It is your legal business name that will appear in all your state's formal documents. In essence, you will be able to use this name in nearly every aspect of your business including setting up your business bank account, signing contracts, and representing yourself in any legal issue you may find yourself in. Thankfully, you have an opportunity to choose whatever name you would want to use as your LLC name. For that reason, you want to be as creative as possible and come up with the most unique and memorable name. However, your choice might be restricted by your state's legal rules and regulations. For example, most states will not allow you to include words or phrases for government affiliates such as bureau or institutions like banks as part of your LLC's name. That means you will have to conduct a thorough name search to ensure the name you have chosen is not being used by another business in your state. But our content is not all about name search. We have composed comprehensive content covering various aspects of naming your LLC right from the importance, rules, factors to consider, states to form your LLC among others. Importance of Good LLC Name A good LLC name gives a great first impression of your business: Your LLC's name is the first thing your customer sees and interacts with. For that reason, it has to convey the right message. A catchy LLC name is also memorable: That is, potential clients will remember your company whenever they want products or services that you offer. A good LLC name sums up everything a company is about: Most consumers don't have time to research and learn what your organization is all about. With a good LLC name consumers will learn what your company is all about with just a glance at an LLC name. A good LLC name is your unique take on the industry: A good LLC name is more than just a business name; it is the identity of the entire brand. Companies may sell similar products, but what will make customers choose one company over the other? A unique and memorable LLC name is one factor. With that said, forming an LLC name requires time and attention. You need to check which LLC name is available in your state so that you come up with a unique business name. The Rule Basics of Naming an LLC Depending on the state you are forming your business, there are rules and regulations that govern naming a limited liability company. However, we have managed to come up with some general rules and guidelines that will help you create a perfect name for your business. To come up with a great LLC name, you need to: Make It Legal This is the most important part when naming your limited liability company. One way to make your LLC's name legal is by avoiding any restricted word. For example, New York city forbids an LLC name that includes words like banking, bank, and bank unless your business is really one of them. Therefore, you cannot have an LLC name like "XY banking Ltd" unless you operate a bank. These restricted words are always listed on your state business website. Keep in mind that other states have restricted words as well, including words related to government affiliates like bureau, insurance among others. Secondly, your LLC's name must include an indication that your business is a limited liability company (LLC). For example, New York LLC naming requires that you either include the phrase 'limited liability company' or limited or abbreviations such as L.L.C., LLC or LC. For example, let us say your business name is XY. Your LLC name can be: XY Limited Liability Company XY limited XY L.L.C. XY LLC XY Ltd Make It Memorable Your LLC's name should be something that people can remember whenever they hear it. Memorable LLC name means that any time a potential customer needs the kind of services or goods that you offer your LLC's name will be the first to come to their mind. To offer you some tips, the most memorable LLC name is always a made-up word. For example SONY, NIKE, eBay, etc. Besides, a memorable LLC name cannot be a common name. With that said, your LLC's name cannot be a geographic term or a name that literally describes certain aspects. Consequently, you cannot use a long LLC name such as Clever Word Processing & Management Web Design L.L.C. or Central Word Processing Services Ltd. These can easily be forgotten. Make It Meaningful Your LLC name must show people what they expect. In essence, your LLC name must give people a clue of what you do, reflect your mission or values, and take into account what your prospects are searching for in the most simple and unique manner. Make It Original This is very important particularly if your LLC company is internet-based. The popular online companies have original names that are why they stand out from the rest of the competitors. Your LLC name must not be similar to any existing business name or have any likelihood of confusion with the existing business names within your state. For that reason, you require a thorough domain name search to ensure your chosen domain name is not being used by another business in your state. Make It Distinctive As a rule of thumb, you will not be allowed to use an LLC name similar to a business name that has already been registered under someone. For that reason, you need to brainstorm and compose a list of the LLC names out of which you would select the name for your LLC. The names should be distinctive and not in any way similar to the existing ones. Many states forbid names that may bring confusion in the near future, so come up with a unique and distinctive name. The good thing, most state agencies that offer business name formation services provide a searchable database of business names registered in the state (including the database of the US Patent of Trademark office). For each of the names on your list, conduct a thorough name search as you eliminate the ones that have already been taken by other businesses. Make It Domain Name Ready The right domain name can help or break your business. Domain names will help you maintain a business presence. Having said that, you need to make your business name domain name ready. To do that: Make a list of domain names Find a domain registrar Check if the domain names included in your list are available for purchase Best State to Form LLC: How to Choose an LLC Name The ease with which you will form an LLC will depend on your state of choice. In essence, dealing with your home state is very convenient since you are conversant with the office and the existing business law. However, some out-of-state LLC formation comes with more benefits than forming an LLC in your home state. For example, some states are known to offer cheaper LLC formation services and low tax charges than other states. Here are the examples of states with better LLC formation services: Alaska Alaska is one of the best LLC to create an LLC and many businesses are now making a switch to the state. This is because Alaska is a state that charges no income tax or sales tax. To be precise, Alaska offers one of the best tax benefits. For that reason, companies are sure to save a lot by filing their LLC in the state. Besides, you are guaranteed asset protection, single-member protection among other benefits. You can hire an attorney or use online LLC formation services to create your LLC in Alaska with a lot of conveniences thanks to the guidance from the secretary of state as you file your articles. Delaware Delaware has a solid reputation when it comes to business friendliness. They offer several LLC advantages right from great processing speed to protection. Even more, Delaware doesn't charge income tax yet charges one of the lowest franchise tax. But the best part is Dalawere's unique Chancery Court, which handles only business matters. With that, cases that involve business matters can be handled much faster in Delaware than in any other state. To name your LLC in Delaware, it is worth noting that you are not allowed by the state to include words like bank, banking, and Banc. Florida Forming an LLC in Florida comes with several benefits. To begin with, they offer helpful information and clarification as you form your LLC. Besides, they don't charge individual income tax and also offer a low average effective property tax rate. Florida secretary of state will walk you through as you file LLC articles whether you hire an attorney or opt for online LLC formation services. To form an LLC in Florida, your company name must not include reserved words such as a bank, banking, banc, and insurance. Nevada Nevada doesn't tax personal income, inheritance, or capital gains. Nevada doesn't have franchise tax, no requirements for the annual meeting or operating agreement, no information-sharing agreement with the IRS, or any other form of disclosure. With all these perks, they still offer one of the fastest processing speeds. South Dakota South Dakota doesn't charge both corporate tax and individual tax rates. This makes it a great option for those who would want to form a corporation as well. Even more, South Dakota offers one of the most robust personal and business protection from creditors. Wyoming Wyoming is another solid State to file your LLC. Like Nevada, there are no franchise taxes. Even better, they have a life proxy that allows a better anomaly than most states, including Nevada. Wyoming also offers great entity protection than most states you will find out there. Other benefits of forming an LLC in Wyoming are best asset protection, perpetual life, transferability of ownership, among others. Legal Name vs Brand Name A legal name is the official name of the individual or entities that own the business. This is the name you use on your business paperwork or state's government forms. In essence, registering a name for your LLC only establishes that name as your LLC's formal name but does not prohibit other companies in other states from using the same LLC name as their legal business names. However, a brand name when registered with USPTO becomes a national trademark that no one else can use. A brand name is actually a form of trademark that you can use to market goods and services. Registering a trademark gives you the right to use the brand name without the worry of infringement. There are federal and trademark laws established to protect your brand name from infringement once registered. Bonus Tips to Avoid Common Business Naming Mistakes Conduct a name search on your state's various databases to ensure your LLC name is not among the existing ones. Ensure the LLC name is not too long; for example, Central Word Processing Web Design L.L.C. Simple names are easier to read, memorize and navigate social media. A good example is Spider Web Design L.L.C. Your LLC name should not be misleading to the nation. For example, it should not imply a false government affiliation and for that reason, words related to government affiliations such as bureau, municipal, or board among others, should be avoided. The LLC name should not be difficult to spell or pronounce. Avoid relying on generic words or descriptors that can easily be forgotten Avoid LLC names that are likely to bring confusion with the existing words in the future. Don't forget to reflect your LLC name on other existing brand identities such as brand name or logo. Strictly follow your state naming law for your business. Conclusion When you are ready to create your LLC name, start by choosing the most business-friendly state, then come up with a list of LLC names based on the rules and regulations we have offered in this content. After that, conduct a thorough name search to sort out the names that are already in use. You can also search to see if your domain name is available. Thankfully, there are online LLC formation services that will help you keep things simple. If you can find the best service, you are sure to have a smooth ride on naming your business. Feel free to browse our website to learn the best LLC formation service. Frequently Asked Questions 1. Do I really need to buy the domain after creating an LLC? An LLC doesn't have to be in a domain name; it is not a legal requirement. However, if you decide to put LLC in the domain for your business, there is no way you can reserve a domain name without purchasing it. Thankfully, domain names are affordable. 2. What About Businesses with Similar Names in the Other States? Having companies with similar names in other states is usually not a cause of concern. An LLC name is registered with a state and expected to operate within the state. 3. How do I conduct a business name search? The websites of most state filing agencies include an online entity name search tool. You can use the online business name search tool and find out whether or not another business is already using the name you have chosen. 4. Does my LLC name matter? An LLC is mostly a form of liability protection not to protect your trademark. However, it can serve as a trademark to new businesses or rather small ones. For that reason, an LLC name is not a must-have for an organization. Tags: The Plano Police Department has addressed allegations about a May 2 altercation at the intersection of Preston Road and SH 121 that a protester pointed a gun at a motorist who confronted protesters who were standing in the street blocking traffic. These reports are false, the department stated Monday. A protester pointed an electronic control device at the male subject in an effort to protect the female from being further assaulted by the male. The department added that officers on scene confirmed the device was not a firearm. In a Monday statement released a little over an hour after the department announced that the object was not a firearm, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Plano Police Chief Ed Drain had told Paxtons office that the object was a pepper ball gun, and that in a separate conversation, the chief said the weapon was a taser. He pointed out that the department on Monday had now said the object was an electronic control device. Whatever it was, the police declined to pursue the leftist who brandished the weapon, and no charges are being pressed against him, Paxton stated. On Wednesday, Officer David Tilley of the Plano Police Department said that after video of the May 2 event began circulating, Drain met with other local police chiefs as well as members of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. People have questions about the May 2 protest. Plano Police have answers A May 2 protest that leaked from Frisco, where it was scheduled, into Plano, has garnered national attention thanks to viral video footage of We didn't know at the time what this item was, Tilley said. He was told at that meeting by members of the ATF, FBI, and some of the other police chiefs, that they believed that that was a pepper ball gun. There has since been a deeper dive into investigating the item, Tilley said, and he said the object the person was carrying matches the Defender Hand 10 Million Stun Gun LED Light and Safety Switch. Amid speculation that there was another weapon on the scene, Tilley said there is no evidence to show that any other weapon was there other than the stun gun. Tilley said he understood that the item looked like a handgun. It's not wise to pull a stun gun that looks like a pistol on somebody, because somebody might be armed and they may consider that to be a handgun and turn around and shoot you, he said. The person with the stun gun did have a legal right to carry it, Tilley said. Electronic control devices can be purchased without a permit or license, and the person who pointed the device did not commit a criminal offense by doing so, the department stated Monday. "While Justice Sleeps" by Stacey Abrams; Doubleday (384 pages, $28.95) In addition to being a politician and voting rights activist, Stacey Abrams also has written eight romantic suspense novels under the name Selena Montgomery. Abrams now debuts under her own name with While Justice Sleeps, a straightforward legal thriller with, naturally, more than a touch of politics added to the mix. While Justice Sleeps is a behind-the-scenes look at the law, in this case the Supreme Court. It shows both what works and what falls short, and examines the seduction of power and greed. Abrams doesnt break any new ground in While Justice Sleeps, but she keeps the story entertaining and the characters fairly believable, although occasionally the writing and plot are a bit dense. Supreme Court Justice Howard Wynn doesnt endear himself to many people he is curt, sometimes rude and makes powerful enemies, including the president, because he wont back down from his views. He also has an impeccable reputation for being ethical and honorable. Longview Superintendent Dan Zorn said he was excited to bring middle and all high schoolers back into class four days a week beginning this Thursday, while the state said it wont mandate COVID-19 vaccines to attend school yet. Zorn announced the move out of hybrid for the remaining grades 6-11 at Monday evenings board meeting, saying we are within the guidelines and the authorization the board gave me in September. The district said that by Wednesday the new case rate will drop below the 200 new cases per 100,000 people over two weeks. The last time the county was below 200 per 100,000 cases in 2021 was the two-week period from March 11-24, at about 185 cases per 100,000. By March 12, cases hit 200 per 100,000 again, then rapidly spiked to 383 per 100,000 by April 1. While the state and county release weekly COVID-19 case numbers that lag about nine days behind the current date, the school district tracks the current case numbers on a daily, rolling basis, using new daily cases reported by the county. In a situation like this, its important to deal with what is happening right now, said district spokesman Rick Parrish. This is the same way the district has been operating all along. It allows us to analyze the data each day. More students are using Longviews English language learning program, and the district is working to improve the experience. Director of state and federal programs Amy Neiman told the school board Monday night the numbers of students in the program appear to be rising. With the barriers posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the district is working to make sure students get the support they need. In 2020-2021, 23% of Longview students were Hispanic, 7% identified as two or more races, 2% were Asian, 1.5% were American Indian, 1% were Black and less than one percent were Pacific Islanders, according to state data. Neiman said the district aims to hire more full-time teachers and keep students immersed in class, rather than pulling them out of class for English lessons. She also is working to start a heritage language program, as the state will require all schools to have a dual language program by 2030. A Spanish heritage language program would provide literacy support while honoring a familys first language, she said. It is a strengths-based, after-school program that encourages parent involvement through sharing culture while providing literacy in the students first language. A pandemic-driven boom in home appliance sales will last longer than previously anticipated and extend into the second half of the year, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's head of the business said. Lee Jae-seung, president of the South Korean company's digital appliances business, told Reuters in an interview that he had originally expected the boom to subside after the first quarter of this year. But extended travel restrictions despite vaccine rollouts and consumers being flush with cash due to economic stimulus measures of governments plus limited spending avenues for them had stretched the boom, Lee said. A buoyant demand outlook from one of the prominent global home appliances makers brings supply-chain issues to the fore, specifically a shortage of semiconductors that has hurt many industries, particularly the automobile sector. Lee acknowledged that the global chip shortage is weighing on Samsung too, but said the appliance business has "secured enough to respond". It has done this by swapping chips to 12-inch wafer ones from 8-inch ones, undertaking software workarounds, and diversifying chip sourcing firms to two or more per chip from countries such as Japan, Taiwan and China, he said. ALSO READ: Intel CEO says chip shortage will persist for couple of years "When all market players are buoyed by rising demand, supply competitiveness is crucial in occupying the market early," Lee said Samsung is also globally expanding its 'Bespoke' brand customised appliances. For example, Korean fridge customers can choose from 360 colours for each door. Higher personalisation has led Samsung to increase subcontractor outsourcing similar to the auto industry, Lee said, which also allowed Samsung's appliances production to rise around 30%-50% without extensive investment. Samsung, though, is also in the process of adding new lines in most factories including in Mexico, the United States and South Korea to meet rising demand. ALSO READ: Samsung snatches back smartphone crown from rival Apple, Xiaomi in third place It will offer customised, connected refrigerators, kitchen appliances, air purifiers and vacuum cleaners as well as closets that produce steam to clean clothes and shoes and kill bacteria, in markets such as North America, Europe and Korea this year. Samsung does not disclose standalone home appliance earnings, but according to Eugene Investment & Securities, the business made an operating profit of about 400 billion won ($357.71 million) in the January-March quarter, more than a two-fold jump from about 140 billion won a year earlier. n/a Credit: NIST From the branching pattern of leaf veins to the variety of interconnected pathways that spread the coronavirus, nature thrives on networksgrids that link the different components of complex systems. Networks underlie such real-life problems as determining the most efficient route for a trucking company to deliver life-saving drugs and calculating the smallest number of mutations required to transform one string of DNA into another. Instead of relying on software to tackle these computationally intensive puzzles, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) took an unconventional approach. They created a design for an electronic hardware system that directly replicates the architecture of many types of networks. The researchers demonstrated that their proposed hardware system, using a computational technique known as race logic, can solve a variety of complex puzzles both rapidly and with a minimum expenditure of energy. Race logic requires less power and solves network problems more rapidly than competing general-purposed computers. The scientists, who include Advait Madhavan of NIST and the University of Maryland in College Park and Matthew Daniels and Mark Stiles of NIST, describe their work in Volume 17, Issue 3 (May 2021) of the ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems. A key feature of race logic is that it encodes information differently from a standard computer. Digital information is typically encoded and processed using values of computer bitsa "1" if a logic statement is true and a "0" if it's false. When a bit flips its value, say from 0 to 1, it means that a particular logic operation has been performed in order to solve a mathematical problem. Credit: NIST In contrast, race logic encodes and processes information by representing it as time signalsthe time at which a particular group of computer bits transitions, or flips, from 0 to 1. Large numbers of bit flips are the primary cause of the large power consumption in standard computers. In this respect, race logic offers an advantage because signals encoded in time involve only a few carefully orchestrated bit flips to process information, requiring much less power than signals encoded as 0s or 1s. Computation is then performed by delaying some time signals relative to others, determined by the physics of the system under study. For example, consider a group of truck drivers who starts at point A and must deliver medicine to point E as fast as possible. Different possible routes go through three intersectionscall them B, C and D. To determine the most efficient route, the race logic circuit evaluates each possible segment of the trip, such as A-B and A-D. If A-B takes more time to travel than A-D, whether it's because the path is longer or has more traffic, A-B will be assigned a longer delay time. In the team's design, the longer time delay is implemented by adding additional resistance to the slower segment. Race logic does indeed involve a race, but in this contest all the truck drivers initially drive in different directions. To determine which route to the final destination is fastest, they race over all possible routes through the different intermediate delivery points. In the new circuit, the NIST researchers inserted a group of time-encoded signals at the starting point, each acting as a different driver that speeds through the team's simulated hardware circuit. Whenever a driver arrives at one of her intermediate destination points in the race, the model system sends out new drivers (new time signals) who fan out in different directions to the remaining destinations. If a driver arrives at a destination that another driver has already been to, that driver drops out, because her path is no longer competitive. The winner of the racethe first driver to arrive at the end of the circuitindicates the solution to the particular puzzle that the hardware was programmed to solve. Credit: NIST Madhavan began pioneering work on race logic circuits while a graduate student at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2016. Those first systems used specialized circuits and silicon chips that were designed to simulate specific networks, such as DNA manipulation, and therefore could solve only a limited number of network-related problems. At NIST, Madhavan and his colleagues have begun work on more advanced race logic circuits. Simulations conducted by Madhavan, Daniels and Stiles showed that their design, which has not yet been incorporated into a working device, can handle a much broader class of networks, enabling race logic to tackle a wider variety of computational puzzles. These puzzles include finding the best alignment between two proteins or two strings of nucleotidesthe molecules that form the building blocks of DNAand determining the shortest path between two destinations in a network. "We showed how to use memory, which has not been used in previous implementations of race logic, to create a more general temporal computer," said Stiles. "Incorporating memory will allow us to treat a broad class of problems with the next race logic chip that we are planning to make," he added. More information: Advait Madhavan et al, Temporal State Machines: Using Temporal Memory to Stitch Time-based Graph Computations, ACM Journal on Emerging Technologies in Computing Systems (2021). Advait Madhavan et al, Temporal State Machines: Using Temporal Memory to Stitch Time-based Graph Computations,(2021). DOI: 10.1145/3451214 In this Tuesday Aug. 4, 2020, file photo, volunteer Wendy Dutler hands out computers during a drive-thru giveaway event in Dallas. Americans can begin applying for $50 off their internet bill on Wednesday, May 12, 2021, as part of an emergency government program to keep people connected during the pandemic. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File) Americans can begin applying for $50 off their monthly internet bill on Wednesday as part of an emergency government program to keep people connected during the pandemic. The $3.2 billion program is part of the $900 billion December pandemic-relief package. The government is increasing spending on broadband as the pandemic made stark that millions of Americans did not have access to, and could not afford, broadband at a time when jobs, school and health care was moving online. It's unclear how long the money will last but it's expected to be several months. Tens of millions of people are eligible, although the Federal Communications Commission, which is administering the program, did not specify a number. For example, your household is eligible if you receive food stamps, have a child in the free or reduced-price school lunch program, use Medicaid, or lost income during the pandemic and made $99,000 for single filers, or $198,000 for joint filers, or less. There are other eligibility requirements, toosee getemergencybroadband.org to find out if you qualify. The website, where people submit applications for the benefit, on Wednesday afternoon said the program was having "connectivity issues" due to "high demand." Submitting an application resulted in an error message. A phone number for the program played a message saying there was a "high volume of calls" and to try back later. The FCC said it is working to resolve issues and increasing resources to meet demand for the program. The agency did not say how long the fix will take. In this Friday June 5, 2020, file photo, fourth-grader Sammiayah Thompson, left, and her brother, third-grader Nehemiah Thompson, work outside in their yard on laptops provided by their school system for distant learning in Hartford, Conn. Americans can begin applying for $50 off their internet bill on Wednesday, May 12, 2021, as part of an emergency government program to keep people connected during the pandemic. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File) You can get the discount even if you owe your phone or cable company money. That's important because some people have been barred from low-cost plans offered by internet service providers when they owed their service provider money. More than 800 cellphone and home-internet companies are participating, including AT&T, Charter, Comcast, T-Mobile and Verizon. People in tribal areas are eligible for up to $75 off their bill. There is also a $100 reimbursement for desktop computers, laptops or tabletsin that case, you must pay between $10 and $50 of the cost of the device yourself and buy it through your broadband provider. The discount could apply to a household's whole bill, or you can use it to trade up to a more expensive offering and your bill is partly covered. The Emergency Broadband Benefit is a more robust, although temporary, program to help people afford internet than Lifeline, the FCC's other affordability program, which subtracts only $9.25 a month from phone or internet bills. A household can use both the Lifeline and EBB programs. The Biden administration has proposed $100 billion to get Americans connected, and even before that, billions of dollars are going to improve internet access. The FCC on Tuesday approved a $7.2 billion program for schools and libraries to connect students in their homes. The Treasury Department is also setting up a $10 billion fund for improving internet connectivity. The money for both came from the $1.9 trillion March pandemic relief package. There has also been hundreds of billions more in general funds sent to states that could be spent on broadband access. 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The sketch of inverse-design magnonics. Credit: Chloe Kim, Time Illustration Studio Magnonic devices have the potential to revolutionize the electronics industry. Qi Wang, Andrii Chumak from University of Vienna and Philipp Pirro from TU Kaiserslautern have largely accelerated the design of more versatile magnonic devices via a feedback-based computational algorithm. Their "inverse-design" of magnonic devices has now been published in Nature Communications. The field of magnonics offers a new type of low-power information processing, in which magnons, the quanta of spin waves, carry and process data instead of electrons. The end goal of this field is to create magnonic circuits, which would be smaller and more energy-efficient than current electronic ones. Until recently, the development of a functional magnonic device could take years of trial-and-error. Researchers from the University of Vienna and the TU Kaiserslautern have developed a new computational method to design new devices in a considerably shorter time. Moreover, the efficiency added through this novel inverse design method helps overcome a traditional problem with such devices: they were just suitable for one function only. Now, thanks to the proposed new concept, a primary device could, in principle, be easily modified to perform any function. Qi Wang, the first author of the study published in Nature Communications, suggested adopting a photonics method for the field of magnonics. Three basic principles help to explain the process, as is shown in the figure. First, the researchers decide on the functionalities of the device they want to design, e.g., a Y-circulator, one of the most common components for separating signal directions in systems engineering. This device guides spin waves from one port into another port according to the circulation condition: wave from port 1 should go into port 2, wave from port 2 into port 3 and from port 3 into port 1. Second, this "task" is translated into a computer language. Finally, the computer generates random structures and optimizes them step-by-step to reach the required functionality. This trial-and-error process is carried out at a very high speed and attains the best solution thanks to an intelligent algorithm. The end result is a design of a working device with the functionalities envisaged by the researchers. This, as Wang from the University of Vienna puts it: "[] opens the door to large scale magnonic integrated circuits, with any functionality and a high level of complexity." The proposed approach overcomes the hurdle of designing through experimentation and, instead, emphasizes the importance of researchers' imagination, who fix the parameters and objectives for the computer-designed devices. An example of this creative process comes from Philipp Pirro, scientist at the TU Kaiserslautern: "With inverse-design one could develop neurons like the ones in the brain, but made out of magnonic elements instead." The excitement about the possibilities of this approach comes from its capacity to create different functionalities. In their article, the scientists describe how they created a set of different devices. Thus, besides the mentioned Y-circulator, they realized a "multiplexer" that separates a wave with a specific frequency into one channel and a wave of another frequency into another channel. This kind of devices is used in our everyday life to get fast internet. The final demonstrated device is a "non-linear switch" that separates spin waves of different energies: it sends a wave of low power to one output and a wave of high power to another. However, Andrii Chumak, head of the research group at the University of Vienna, says, "Our study opens the new field of inversed design magnonics with great perspectives. This approach, for now, has been demonstrated numerically only. The next big challenge is to implement it in experiments." Reflecting on the potential of their findings, Qi Wang jokes: "If I would have had the inverse design approach at the beginning of my studies, I would have finished my Ph.D. way faster." Explore further An integrated circuit of pure magnons More information: Qi Wang et al. Inverse-design magnonic devices, Nature Communications (2021). Journal information: Nature Communications Qi Wang et al. Inverse-design magnonic devices,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22897-4 MIT researchers have created a new system that automatically cleans dirty data the typos, duplicates, missing values, misspellings, and inconsistencies dreaded by data analysts, data engineers, and data scientists. Credit: Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT researchers have created a new system that automatically cleans "dirty data" the typos, duplicates, missing values, misspellings, and inconsistencies dreaded by data analysts, data engineers, and data scientists. The system, called PClean, is the latest in a series of domain-specific probabilistic programming languages written by researchers at the Probabilistic Computing Project that aim to simplify and automate the development of AI applications (others include one for 3D perception via inverse graphics and another for modeling time series and databases). According to surveys conducted by Anaconda and Figure Eight, data cleaning can take a quarter of a data scientist's time. Automating the task is challenging because different datasets require different types of cleaning, and common-sense judgment calls about objects in the world are often needed (e.g., which of several cities called "Beverly Hills" someone lives in). PClean provides generic common-sense models for these kinds of judgment calls that can be customized to specific databases and types of errors. PClean uses a knowledge-based approach to automate the data cleaning process: Users encode background knowledge about the database and what sorts of issues might appear. Take, for instance, the problem of cleaning state names in a database of apartment listings. What if someone said they lived in Beverly Hills but left the state column empty? Though there is a well-known Beverly Hills in California, there's also one in Florida, Missouri, and Texas and there's a neighborhood of Baltimore known as Beverly Hills. How can you know in which the person lives? This is where PClean's expressive scripting language comes in. Users can give PClean background knowledge about the domain and about how data might be corrupted. PClean combines this knowledge via common-sense probabilistic reasoning to come up with the answer. For example, given additional knowledge about typical rents, PClean infers the correct Beverly Hills is in California because of the high cost of rent where the respondent lives. Alex Lew, the lead author of the paper and a Ph.D. student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), says he's most excited that PClean gives a way to enlist help from computers in the same way that people seek help from one another. "When I ask a friend for help with something, it's often easier than asking a computer. That's because in today's dominant programming languages, I have to give step-by-step instructions, which can't assume that the computer has any context about the world or taskor even just common-sense reasoning abilities. With a human, I get to assume all those things," he says. "PClean is a step toward closing that gap. It lets me tell the computer what I know about a problem, encoding the same kind of background knowledge I'd explain to a person helping me clean my data. I can also give PClean hints, tips, and tricks I've already discovered for solving the task faster." Co-authors are Monica Agrawal, a Ph.D. student in EECS; David Sontag, an associate professor in EECS; and Vikash K. Mansinghka, a principal research scientist in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. What innovations allow this to work? The idea that probabilistic cleaning based on declarative, generative knowledge could potentially deliver much greater accuracy than machine learning was previously suggested in a 2003 paper by Hanna Pasula and others from Stuart Russell's lab at the University of California at Berkeley. "Ensuring data quality is a huge problem in the real world, and almost all existing solutions are ad-hoc, expensive, and error-prone," says Russell, professor of computer science at UC Berkeley. "PClean is the first scalable, well-engineered, general-purpose solution based on generative data modeling, which has to be the right way to go. The results speak for themselves." Co-author Agrawal adds that "existing data cleaning methods are more constrained in their expressiveness, which can be more user-friendly, but at the expense of being quite limiting. Further, we found that PClean can scale to very large datasets that have unrealistic runtimes under existing systems." PClean builds on recent progress in probabilistic programming, including a new AI programming model built at MIT's Probabilistic Computing Project that makes it much easier to apply realistic models of human knowledge to interpret data. PClean's repairs are based on Bayesian reasoning, an approach that weighs alternative explanations of ambiguous data by applying probabilities based on prior knowledge to the data at hand. "The ability to make these kinds of uncertain decisions, where we want to tell the computer what kind of things it is likely to see, and have the computer automatically use that in order to figure out what is probably the right answer, is central to probabilistic programming," says Lew. PClean is the first Bayesian data-cleaning system that can combine domain expertise with common-sense reasoning to automatically clean databases of millions of records. PClean achieves this scale via three innovations. First, PClean's scripting language lets users encode what they know. This yields accurate models, even for complex databases. Second, PClean's inference algorithm uses a two-phase approach, based on processing records one-at-a-time to make informed guesses about how to clean them, then revisiting its judgment calls to fix mistakes. This yields robust, accurate inference results. Third, PClean provides a custom compiler that generates fast inference code. This allows PClean to run on million-record databases with greater speed than multiple competing approaches. "PClean users can give PClean hints about how to reason more effectively about their database, and tune its performanceunlike previous probabilistic programming approaches to data cleaning, which relied primarily on generic inference algorithms that were often too slow or inaccurate," says Mansinghka. As with all probabilistic programs, the lines of code needed for the tool to work are many fewer than alternative state-of-the-art options: PClean programs need only about 50 lines of code to outperform benchmarks in terms of accuracy and runtime. For comparison, a simple snake cellphone game takes twice as many lines of code to run, and Minecraft comes in at well over 1 million lines of code. In their paper, just presented at the 2021 Society for Artificial Intelligence and Statistics conference, the authors show PClean's ability to scale to datasets containing millions of records by using PClean to detect errors and impute missing values in the 2.2 million-row Medicare Physician Compare National dataset. Running for just seven-and-a-half hours, PClean found more than 8,000 errors. The authors then verified by hand (via searches on hospital websites and doctor LinkedIn pages) that for more than 96 percent of them, PClean's proposed fix was correct. Since PClean is based on Bayesian probability, it can also give calibrated estimates of its uncertainty. "It can maintain multiple hypothesesgive you graded judgments, not just yes/no answers. This builds trust and helps users override PClean when necessary. For example, you can look at a judgment where PClean was uncertain, and tell it the right answer. It can then update the rest of its judgments in light of your feedback," says Mansinghka. "We think there's a lot of potential value in that kind of interactive process that interleaves human judgment with machine judgment. We see PClean as an early example of a new kind of AI system that can be told more of what people know, report when it is uncertain, and reason and interact with people in more useful, human-like ways." David Pfau, a senior research scientist at DeepMind, noted in a tweet that PClean meets a business need: "When you consider that the vast majority of business data out there is not images of dogs, but entries in relational databases and spreadsheets, it's a wonder that things like this don't yet have the success that deep learning has." Benefits, risks, and regulation PClean makes it cheaper and easier to join messy, inconsistent databases into clean records, without the massive investments in human and software systems that data-centric companies currently rely on. This has potential social benefitsbut also risks, among them that PClean may make it cheaper and easier to invade peoples' privacy, and potentially even to de-anonymize them, by joining incomplete information from multiple public sources. "We ultimately need much stronger data, AI, and privacy regulation, to mitigate these kinds of harms," says Mansinghka. Lew adds, "As compared to machine-learning approaches to data cleaning, PClean might allow for finer-grained regulatory control. For example, PClean can tell us not only that it merged two records as referring to the same person, but also why it did soand I can come to my own judgment about whether I agree. I can even tell PClean only to consider certain reasons for merging two entries." Unfortunately, the reseachers say, privacy concerns persist no matter how fairly a dataset is cleaned. Mansinghka and Lew are excited to help people pursue socially beneficial applications. They have been approached by people who want to use PClean to improve the quality of data for journalism and humanitarian applications, such as anticorruption monitoring and consolidating donor records submitted to state boards of elections. Agrawal says she hopes PClean will free up data scientists' time, "to focus on the problems they care about instead of data cleaning. Early feedback and enthusiasm around PClean suggest that this might be the case, which we're excited to hear." Explore further Tool for nonstatisticians automatically generates models that glean insights from complex datasets More information: PClean: Bayesian Data Cleaning at Scale with Domain-Specific Probabilistic Programming. PClean: Bayesian Data Cleaning at Scale with Domain-Specific Probabilistic Programming. proceedings.mlr.press/v130/lew21a/lew21a.pdf Github: github.com/probcomp/PClean This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching. Chips shown in the tip of a hypodermic needle. Columbia Engineers develop the smallest single-chip system that is a complete functioning electronic circuit; implantable chips visible only in a microscope point the way to developing chips that can be injected into the body with a hypodermic needle to monitor medical conditions. Credit: Chen Shi/Columbia Engineering Widely used to monitor and map biological signals, to support and enhance physiological functions, and to treat diseases, implantable medical devices are transforming healthcare and improving the quality of life for millions of people. Researchers are increasingly interested in designing wireless, miniaturized implantable medical devices for in vivo and in situ physiological monitoring. These devices could be used to monitor physiological conditions, such as temperature, blood pressure, glucose, and respiration for both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. To date, conventional implanted electronics have been highly volume-inefficientthey generally require multiple chips, packaging, wires, and external transducers, and batteries are often needed for energy storage. A constant trend in electronics has been tighter integration of electronic components, often moving more and more functions onto the integrated circuit itself. Researchers at Columbia Engineering report that they have built what they say is the world's smallest single-chip system, consuming a total volume of less than 0.1 mm3. The system is as small as a dust mite and visible only under a microscope. In order to achieve this, the team used ultrasound to both power and communicate with the device wirelessly. The study was published online May 7 in Science Advances. "We wanted to see how far we could push the limits on how small a functioning chip we could make," said the study's leader Ken Shepard, Lau Family professor of electrical engineering and professor of biomedical engineering. "This is a new idea of 'chip as system'this is a chip that alone, with nothing else, is a complete functioning electronic system. This should be revolutionary for developing wireless, miniaturized implantable medical devices that can sense different things, be used in clinical applications, and eventually approved for human use." The team also included Elisa Konofagou, Robert and Margaret Hariri Professor of Biomedical engineering and professor of radiology, as well as Stephen A. Lee, Ph.D. student in the Konofagou lab who assisted in the animal studies. The design was done by doctoral student Chen Shi, who is the first author of the study. Shi's design is unique in its volumetric efficiency, the amount of function that is contained in a given amount of volume. Traditional RF communications links are not possible for a device this small because the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave is too large relative to the size of the device. Because the wavelengths for ultrasound are much smaller at a given frequency because the speed of sound is so much less than the speed of light, the team used ultrasound to both power and communicate with the device wirelessly. They fabricated the "antenna" for communicating and powering with ultrasound directly on top of the chip. The chip, which is the entire implantable/injectable mote with no additional packaging, was fabricated at the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company with additional process modifications performed in the Columbia Nano Initiative cleanroom and the City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) Nanofabrication Facility. Shepard commented, "This is a nice example of 'more than Moore' technologywe introduced new materials onto standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor to provide new function. In this case, we added piezoelectric materials directly onto the integrated circuit to transducer acoustic energy to electrical energy." Konofagou added, "Ultrasound is continuing to grow in clinical importance as new tools and techniques become available. This work continues this trend." The team's goal is to develop chips that can be injected into the body with a hypodermic needle and then communicate back out of the body using ultrasound, providing information about something they measure locally. The current devices measure body temperature, but there are many more possibilities the team is working on. Explore further Implantable transmitter provides wireless option for biomedical devices More information: Chen Shi et al, Application of a sub0.1-mm3 implantable mote for in vivo real-time wireless temperature sensing, Science Advances (2021). Journal information: Science Advances Chen Shi et al, Application of a sub0.1-mm3 implantable mote for in vivo real-time wireless temperature sensing,(2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf6312 The historical drawing attributed to the workshop of Enrico Ceruti that inspired the outline parameterization (a) and the geometric modeling adopted in the work (b). Credit: Politecnico di Milano How to predict the sound produced by a tonewood block once carved into the shape of a violin plate? What is the best shape for the best sound? Artificial intelligence offers answers to these questions. These are the conclusions that researchers of the Musical Acoustics Lab of Politecnico di Milano presented in a study that was recently published in Scientific Reports. In the article "A Data-Driven Approach to Violinmaking," the Chilean physicist and luthier Sebastian Gonzalez (post-doc researcher) and the professional mandolin player Davide Salvi (Ph.D. student) show how a simple and effective neural network is able to predict the vibrational be-havior of violin plates. This prediction is obtained from a limited set of geometric and mechanical parameters of the plate. The ability to predict the sound of a violin design, can truly be a game changer for violin makers, as not only will it help them do better than the 'grand masters,' but it will also help them explore the potential of new designs and materials. This research allowed us to take the first steps in this direction, showing how artificial intelligence, physical simulation and craftsmanship can all join forces to shed light on the art of violin making. Left: example of an historical violin. Credit: 2008 Stoel, Borman. Right: examples of three violins in the dataset. Credit: Politecnico di Milano Violins are extremely complex objects, and their geometry is defined by their outline, arching on the horizontal and vertical sections. The inspira-tion of this study came from a historical drawing on display at the Museo del Violino in Cremona. Politecnico di Milano researchers developed a model that describes the violin's outline as the conjunction of arcs of nine circles. Thanks to this representation and an efficient model of the curvature of the plate, based on the renowned 'Messiah' violin by Stradivarius, researchers were able to draw a violin plate as a function of 35 parameters. By randomly changing such parameters, such as radii and center position of the circles, arching, thickness, mechanical characteristics of the wood, etc., they built a dataset of violins, which includes shapes that are very similar to those used in violin making, but also designs that had never been seen before. Such shapes constituted the input for the neural network. Advanced tools for the modeling of vibrations were used for characterizing the acoustic behavior of each violin in the dataset. The next step was to understand if a simple neural network would be able to predict the acoustic behavior of a violin plate, starting from its parameters. The answer turned out to be positive, with an accuracy that came close to 98%, exceeding any expectations. This work offers an innovative and promising tool in the hands of Cremona violin makers and, in perspective, of the international community. By using a neural network, it will enable luthiers to predict how a tone-wood block will sound once carved into a plate. But it can also be used to design two violins with matching acoustic behavior even if built with different wood. In the future this research will allow us to select the best wood to be used for a particular violin, something that today is still based on purely aesthetic considerations. More information: Sebastian Gonzalez et al, A data-driven approach to violin making, Scientific Reports (2021). Journal information: Scientific Reports Sebastian Gonzalez et al, A data-driven approach to violin making,(2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-88931-z Provided by Politecnico di Milano South Hills (15301) Today Considerable cloudiness. Occasional rain showers this afternoon. High around 80F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Showers this evening then scattered thunderstorms developing overnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Multimedia Reporter Staff writer Harry Funk, a professional journalist for three-plus decades, has been on the staff of The Almanac since 2015. He has a bachelors degree in journalism and master of business administration, both from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Looking for in-depth reporting on labor issues? You're in the right place. Subscribe to The Chief and get stories that cover every side of civil service in New York City and beyond. You can sign up in minutes for immediate access. Shoppers may notice higher prices for chicken during their upcoming trips to the grocery store a trend that AgriLife Extension economist David Anderson said may last for several months. Chicken breasts and wings will be the cuts where higher prices are most noticeable, he said. Anderson said he doesnt think chicken supplies will run out, but he said some stores or restaurants may not be able to purchase as much as they normally would, and there may be some places looking for ways to sell less expensive and less popular parts of the chicken, such as thighs and drumsticks. Tighter supplies play a role in the rising prices, but Anderson said he thinks the situation is more demand-driven, especially since some of the most popular fast food chicken products use chicken breasts. Anderson said the tighter production end of the situation likely happened because chicken production slowed when demand dropped during the pandemic. Many restaurants closed for some time, but as people begin going out more, demand is rising. Anderson also said rising prices of chicken feed, like corn and soybean, may also be pushing prices up. But after a hearing that lasted 11 days, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale in Dallas said he was dismissing the case because the NRA had not filed its bankruptcy proceedings in good faith. The filing was less like a "traditional bankruptcy case" and more like cases "in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme," he wrote. Though a successful bankruptcy may not have ended the New York attorney general's enforcement actions, Hale added, they could have taken away the attorney general's ability to dissolve the nonprofit, which would have given the NRA a distinct litigation advantage. While the NRA's headquarters and much of its operations are in Fairfax, Virginia, the group was chartered as a nonprofit in New York and is incorporated in the state. In a statement after the ruling, the group said it wasn't giving up on relocating. "The NRA can still pursue establishing business operations in Texas, and the organization will continue to explore moving its headquarters there from Virginia," the statement said. "Texas is home to more than 400,000 NRA members." The group's CEO Wayne LaPierre said in a that while the NRA was disappointed in some aspects of the decision, it remains committed to its members and its future. The $36 billion released across the country Tuesday as a part of the American Rescue Plan Act was allocated to schools based on a formula that included the number of low-income students enrolled. Four-year public universities in Texas will receive the largest share of funding, with University of Houston, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley being allocated over $100 million each. Public community colleges in Texas will get an additional $430 million, including nearly $38 million for the Texas State Technical Colleges. This is the third round of funding released to two- and four-year schools by the federal government during the pandemic. Texas received around $1 billion in the first round of funding under the CARES Act, which was primarily used to combat abrupt losses from meal and housing reimbursements and canceled events as the pandemic began. A university spokesperson for the University of Houston said this new funding will continue to offset revenue losses and recoup costs of COVID-19 related measures. Joseph Pettibon, Texas A&M University vice president for enrollment and academic service, said the flagship university plans to use the money to invest in more technology in the classroom and enhancing broadband service on campus as more students rely on personal devices to do their work. But California will take the high road. Thats because in 2008, California voters did the right thing and created an independent, nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission. The commission was designed to take the line-drawing process out of the hands of politicians in Sacramento. The reform struck a blow to a system that has far too often subverted the will of voters and effectively disenfranchised millions of Americans. Under the new process, which is about to be tested for only the second time, its hoped redistricting will be fairer. No more using the latest super-sophisticated computer software to target voters from the opposition party often on a block-by-block or even house-by-house level to pack them into one single district to minimize their representation. Or to disperse them so that there are so few of them in each district that they cant elect candidates of their choice. No more slicing and dicing communities including Black and Latino communities to dilute their voting strength; no more bizarrely shaped districts drawn with the single goal of electing a member of Congress from a particular party. No more cynical deals between parties to protect incumbents against challengers. Helping people out of poverty benefits the United States When given the opportunity to do the right thing, I'd always imagined that people would take it. Another day is presented to us and the opportunity is given. The opportunity today is fight for those who are vulnerable and have no voice. Ten percent of the world lives with less than a dollar a day, that is about 900 million people living in extreme poverty. In 2020 President Donald Trump's Administration threatened to cut foreign aid by 21%. That is not reasonable when the international affairs budget is less than 1% of the U.S. federal budget. One percent is stretched out as much as it can be, but due to COVID-19 developing countries have been hard-hit, increasing the number of people living in extreme poverty. When helping people out of extreme poverty they do not turn to extreme measure to provide for their family, and when introduced to middle class lifestyle they become consumers. The U.S. benefits in advanced national security and boost U.S. jobs. The International Affairs Budget has been threatened several times, yet many companies to U.S. soldier have urged Congress to not only protect but increase the budget, because it is int he interest of all. I ask my neighbors to do the same, because it is the right thing to do. Nationwide, the loosening of gathering restrictions has encouraged businesses to start rehiring, but finding applicants has been challenging, especially for jobs that pay lower wages. This national problem came home to roost at the school board meeting as Heather Snead, the schools coordinator of food service and nutrition, requested that the board allow her to raise the wage for summer cafeteria staff from $9.35 an hour to $12.50. Im asking for this because Im having difficulty in staffing some of my summer feeding cafeterias, Snead said, adding that she was also having trouble retaining her current staff. They are offering around $11 an hour at places like Bojangles, plus a hiring bonus. Its hard for me to compete. Though Snead wasnt able to offer a total as to what increasing the wage would cost the school system through the summer, she did say federal pandemic relief money will likely assist with the cost. The board unanimously approved her request. Later in the meeting, Boone District Representative Donna Cosmato brought up similar concerns regarding stipends or pay increases for substitute teachers, while Blackwater District Representative Arlet Greer raised the same issue regarding better pay for retired bus drivers who continue to assist the school system. The meeting began with Schools Superintendent Bernice Cobbs giving appreciation awards to 16 retiring school employees, who received fist bumps and, in a few instances, hugs as they said their goodbyes to the school board and members of the school administration. I realize the administration has lowballed and deprioritized the Middle East and Israeli-Palestinian issue. But the lack of an ambassador to Israel and a consul general in Jerusalem is a serious problem during a crisis," Miller said. Some Democrats and other progressives are also voicing frustration. The United States must call for an immediate cease-fire and an end to provocative and illegal settlement activity. And we must also recommit to working with Israelis and Palestinians to finally end this conflict, Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, said in a statement. While it has categorically condemned Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and backed Israels absolute right to self-defense, the Biden administration has been either unwilling or unable to say whether the Palestinians meet the criteria to enjoy that same right of self-defense. It has also not modified long-held U.S. policy that the Palestinians are ineligible to take their grievances to the International Criminal Court because they are not a state. This apparent contradiction, along with what the Palestinians consider to be a weak response to Israel's threatened evictions of Palestinian families from east Jerusalem, which were a proximate cause of the latest tensions, have frustrated those looking for a new U.S. approach. LEXINGTON The Orthman Community YMCA will host an open house May 21 to celebrate the opening of the new YMCA Learning Center. The public is invited to the free event 6-8 p.m. May 21 to enjoy a meal of hamburgers and chips, play yard games and tour the new Learning Center. The center gives the YMCA more space to reach children and adults with learning, enrichment and fun. The new YMCA Learning Center was formerly a modular building at Sandoz Elementary School. It was moved to the YMCA property earlier this year, and YMCA staff members have remodeled it into a new program space. The YMCA Learning Center gives the Orthman Community YMCA room to grow and enhance current programs and have space for new programs, said YMCA CEO Riley Gruntorad. One of the biggest needs we face at the Y is space. As we continue to grow, we need more space for programs, staff meetings, board meetings, etc. Gruntorad said the YMCA management team put in countless hours of work, pulling up flooring, painting the walls, doors, trim and lots of cleaning and organizing. We are so excited for the future of our YMCA and the addition of this building, Gruntorad said. YORK Nathan Avers, 38, of Stromsburg, has been sentenced to 27 days in jail and two years of probation in a case where he broke into a womans residence in York, while she was asleep, and brutally attacked her in an assault which included biting her face. Avers was sentenced this week in York County District Court by Judge James Stecker. Avers earlier changed his plea in this case, which began with charges of burglary, assault by strangulation, third degree domestic assault and first degree criminal trespassing. A plea agreement was reached and Avers pleaded no contest to third degree domestic assault and first degree criminal trespassing. The other charges were dismissed. According to court documents, the case began when an officer with the York Police Department was dispatched in the middle of the night on the report that an assault had occurred on North Thompson Avenue. He says in his affidavit for arrest warrant, filed with the court, that when he arrived, he spoke with a woman who was crying and visibly shaken up. I could see bruising around both sides of her neck, a bite mark on her face, and her bottom lip was swollen with a small amount of blood on it. The bite in her face, I could see the indention of someones teeth in an oval shape with bruising. The Texas Legislature wrapped up this years lawmaking session on Sunday. Although members of the House and Senate touted wins for both Republicans and Democrats, tensions are rising between the legislative bodies amid criticism from Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. What would you grade this years legislative session? You voted: The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option. It was a few decades later that Muddy Waters wrote his song "The Blues Had a Baby and They Named It Rock and Roll." By the early 1950s, Cleveland disk jockey Alan Freed began using the term for a genre of music that already had seen a 1934 song titled "Rock and Roll," the 1947 Roy Brown tune "Good Rocking Tonight" and "Rock Me," by gospel artist Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Once Elvis Presley began cutting records at Sun Studios in Memphis, in 1954, the rock 'n' roll craze took off. Chuck Berry released "Maybelline" in 1955 and then appeared in early rock 'n' roll films such as "Rock Rock Rock." The St. Louis native and future Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee had a string of hit songs that propelled him to become known as the "Father of Rock and Roll." Until then, the United Kingdom scene consisted of music hall dance bands and folk music. Popularized by artists such as Lonnie Donegan, skiffle music took hold, a style influenced by blues and American folk songs. The influence of rock 'n' roll from the U.S. became further evident with English artists such as Cliff Richard, who recorded American hit songs such as "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly, "Be-Bop-a-Lula" by Gene Vincent and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On" by Jerry Lee Lewis. NEW YORK (AP) Amid growing pressure on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, NBC said Monday that will not air the Golden Globes in 2022. In a statement, the network said it believes the press association which is facing possible boycotts from Netflix, Warner Bros. and many Hollywood stars is committed to reform. However, change of this magnitude takes time and work, and we feel strongly that the HFPA needs time to do it right, the network said. "As such, NBC will not air the 2022 Golden Globes. Assuming the organization executes on its plan, we are hopeful we will be in a position to air the show in January 2023. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, long a subject of ridicule from even its own telecast hosts, has come under fire following an investigative report by The Los Angeles Times that recounted the organization's questionable record on diversity including, presently, no Black members among its approximately 90 voting members. The press association has pledged to thoroughly reform, and last week approved a plan to, among other things, diversity its membership. But that hasn't stopped several studios from threatening to pull out of the Globes. Last week, Netflix cast doubt on its future involvement with the HFPA. COLUMBIA Trustees at the University of South Carolina have refused to accept the resignation of the school's embattled president following a commencement address marred by allegations of plagiarism and misidentification of the school itself. Bob Caslen submitted his verbal resignation offer last weekend to the board, but it did not accept it, according to university spokesman Jeff Stensland. If the Board feels that I cannot provide leadership for the institution, I have offered my resignation, Caslen said in a statement provided to The Post and Courier, which first reported about his resignation offer. Caslen acknowledged taking two paragraphs without attribution from a speech by Adm. William McRaven, the Navy SEAL in charge of the mission to take out terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, in delivering an address to graduates Friday. He called it an oversight. He also referred to the school as the University of California during an address. NORTH The Town of North Council during their May meeting on Monday, May 10, went into executive session to discuss a legal issue regarding state/utility access and a personnel matter. No decisions were made during executive session, and no motions or decisions were made upon return from the session. Two citizens in the gallery left quickly when council went into executive session and did not return, both stating that they were concerned about getting gasoline because of the recent pipeline issue. Most gas stations in the Town of North were packed with at least 10 cars or more that evening. Further down Highway 321 at Fogles Piggly Wiggly gas station, there were at least 20 cars lined up for gas later that night. Regular and diesel gas prices have moved closer to $2.69 and $2.89 respectively at some locations and beyond. Mayor Julius Jones stated during the regular session, The search for a bank for the town is still going on (after First Citizens left. No one has come to search for a bank building. Jones stated he contacted state politicians for assistance in the search for a buyer for the bank. He next thanked citizen Mary Williams for her efforts in organizing a cleanup crew in the town. Today Sunny with gusty winds. High 92F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Tonight Partly cloudy. Windy this evening. Low near 45F. Winds NW at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Tomorrow Mostly sunny skies. High 76F. Winds E at 10 to 15 mph. Mayor Clemons earlier introduced the selected individual for the chief of police position during the meeting. Edgar D. Williams was appointed the chief of police for the Town of Norway, was approved by Council, was sworn in during the meeting and started work on Tuesday, May 4. Williams, after being sworn in, thanked the mayor and members of council, and they thanked him as well. Mayor Clemons gave the public works report during the meeting. The mayor mentioned many improvements needed for a water tank in the town, including repairs, a new ladder, and scrubbing away corrosion, etc. She mentioned both tanks needing repairs and refurbishment. The mayor and council are looking into a water tank maintenance company and a potential contract with the company. Council and the mayor are reviewing materials from the company and will be meeting in June regarding potentially using the company. She mentioned there were no issues for the month of April at the wastewater treatment plant. However, the HKT Alumni Association put up a gate on some property where a sewer lift station that is owned by the town is located. This was to prevent people from dumping old shingles and other garbage there, Clemons explained. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster issued an executive order Tuesday letting parents opt their children out of wearing masks in public schools, citing widespread coronavirus vaccine access for adults across the state. The order bans state and local government agencies from requiring people to show proof of vaccination in order to receive government services or access public buildings and facilities as well. Brian Symmes, a spokesman for McMaster, said he had not identified such instances of so-called "vaccine passport" requirements in the state. "We have known for months that our schools are some of the safest places when it comes to COVID-19," McMaster said in a statement. "With every adult in our state having the opportunity to receive a vaccine, it goes against all logic to continue to force our children especially our youngest children to wear masks against their parents' wishes." McMaster has directed the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, along with the state Department of Education, to put together standardized forms that parents and legal guardians can sign to exempt their children from mask requirements in any public schools. Herd immunity happens when enough people are protected from the disease either because they've been vaccinated, or they have natural immunity from a previous recent infection with that same bug. We'll reach herd immunity with COVID-19 if at least 70 to 80 percent of the eligible population has that protection mainly through vaccination. With 43 percent of the residents in South Carolina having received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine so far, we are well on our way, but there is also still a ways to go to reach that goal. But we can reach that benchmark if we have enough people to step up to the plate and get vaccinated, she said. The doctor said the state is challenged with the number of people who are not returning for their second shot, but solutions are being sought. We are finalizing in South Carolina a process for our vaccine call line centers to make outbound calls to those people who have not returned for their second shots to remind them how important it is to get that second dose, and to also help them schedule an appointment, or find a nearby walk-in clinic so that they can get it done, Traxler said. She said misinformation about the vaccines has contributed to vaccine hesitancy. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} RALEIGH (AP) State and federal officials are scrambling to find alternate routes to deliver gasoline in the Southeast U.S. after a hack of the nation's largest fuel pipeline led to panic-buying that contributed to more than 1,000 gas stations running out of fuel. There is no gasoline shortage, according to government officials and energy analysts, but if the pipeline shutdown continues past the weekend, it could create broader fuel disruptions. The Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of what is consumed on the East Coast, was hit Friday with a cyberattack by hackers who lock up computer systems and demand a ransom to release them. The attack raised concerns, once again, about the vulnerability of the nation's critical infrastructure. The pipeline runs from the Gulf Coast to the New York metropolitan region, but states in the Southeast are more reliant on the pipeline for fuel. Other parts of the country have more sources to tap. For example, a substantial amount of fuel is delivered to states in the Northeast by massive tankers. Keep scrolling for a gallery of photos of the panic-buying at gas stations in the Southeast US The full study can be found at: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-to-be-a-cop/34669 The rankings arent good news whether you consider regional differences in pay and other factors. They indicate South Carolina would be wise to take a look at the state of its law enforcement from the local to state levels, with an eye on how those serving us can be better served in one of the most dangerous and important careers. South Carolina is blessed with many good men and women pledged to serve and protect. They are among the nations 800,000 officers being honored during this week with good reason. Never has the pressure been greater on law enforcement professionals. In joining South Carolinians and Americans in paying tribute to officers past, present and future, we look back to 2004. At that time, Shirley Williams of Orangeburg was marking 48 years of marriage to a police officer. In writing to the editor, she noted that her husband, Gerald Williams, retired from the Orangeburg police force in 1994 after 25 years of service. She offered the following words written by her husband, saying "they come from his heart." "A police officer is supposed to be one chosen to serve, care, respect and protect their fellow man. This means serving the public the best way they can. Today Cloudy with periods of rain. High 79F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Tonight Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Tomorrow Scattered thunderstorms in the morning, then mainly cloudy during the afternoon with thunderstorms likely. High 81F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II has said his deputies weren't injured. Womble didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday. Lawyers for Brown's family, in addition to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, have called for a special prosecutor to step in. But under state law, Womble would have to agree to step aside. An independent autopsy commissioned by Browns family found that he was shot five times, including in the back of the head. The states autopsy has not been released yet. After last month's hearing, Judge Jeffery Foster declined to release the video publicly, but ruled the family should be shown less than 20 redacted minutes of five videos taken from body cameras and a dashboard camera. In total, the unedited and unredacted video runs about two hours. Foster said the video must remain from public view for at least 30 days to allow an independent state investigation to unfold but that he would consider releasing it after that. On Tuesday, shortly after the Brown family news conference, Wooten issued a statement reiterating that he would have preferred a public release of the video but that he respects the court's decision. Three deputies who were involved in the shooting remain on leave pending the probe by the State Bureau of Investigation. Four others initially put on leave were allowed to return to duty after the sheriff said they didn't fire shots. The FBI has also launched a civil rights probe. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Our legal system is based on the foundation of fair play, Black said. Its judgments and rulings have a profound effect on not only the accused and the accusers, but also everyone associated with them. The ripple effect is massive. Black said the tribunals decision made him proud of the years of work he put in to challenge his conviction and Hinckleys conduct. On the charges alleging Hinckley had made an extrajudicial statement to the press by sending a letter from Black to the Jackson Hole News&Guide, Kline maintained that Hinckley did not know how the paper got a hold of the letter from his personal case file. The tribunal did not find Hinckley violated those rules. During questioning, Hinckley and other witnesses, including the lead detective on the case, said that the Facebook and Verizon records would not have changed the outcome of the trial. Because he had reason to believe nothing substantial would be found in those records, Hinckley said the judges order for them, which went unanswered even as the case went to trial, was an improper order. His mistake, Gifford and Kline agreed, was telling the judge he would execute the order rather than filing a response outlining his issues with it. Open proceedings U.S. should focus on boosting own competitiveness, not obstructing others' development: spokesperson Xinhua) 08:52, May 12, 2021 BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The United States should focus on improving its own competitiveness, which can only be achieved through cooperation, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. "If it confronts or even oppresses the other side, it will only intensify hostility and eventually lead to losses on both sides," said spokesperson Hua Chunying at a press briefing. Hua made the remarks after Chas W. Freeman, Jr., former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, published an article entitled "Washington is playing a losing game with China," in which he said, "If the United States persists in confrontation, it will find itself increasingly isolated." Hua said that for some time, especially since the previous U.S. administration, the United States has tried every means against China, including threatening by force, political isolation, economic sanctions and technical blockade, interfering in China's internal affairs concerning Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, and coercing and inducing other countries to form an anti-China clique. "Their practice is neither legal nor moral, and will not succeed in the end, but will just harm the interests of the United States and its people," the spokesperson added. Hua said that China's strategic blueprint has always been open and transparent to the world. "We never aim to surpass the United States. Our goal is to constantly improve ourselves and surpass ourselves to become a better China, so that the Chinese people can live a better life. At the same time, China's development will contribute more to world peace and development." If there is competition, China will not shy away from it, said Hua. However, competition should be fair and just, following market rules, and the United States should not use its power to deprive other countries of their normal and legitimate development rights, she said. "I hope that the U.S. government will listen to the voices of justice from people of insight in the United States and the international community, including Mr. Freeman," Hua added. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Duluth, MN (55816) Today Partial cloudiness early, with scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. High 79F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early followed by scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 51F. Winds ENE at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Wyoming Secretary of State Ed Buchanan has no current plans to run for Rep. Liz Cheneys House seat in 2022, despite multiple speculative reports that he might enter the race, two sources with recent knowledge of his thinking told the Star-Tribune on Tuesday. But that does not rule out the possibility that he will enter the race in the future. Things can change obviously, one of the sources said. If Buchanan, a former state lawmaker and speaker of the House, were to run, he would be considered one of the biggest threats to Cheneys future. He has a lengthy political career in Wyoming and is one of the states top five elected officials. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} Cheney is already facing a crowded field of GOP primary challengers: state Rep. Chuck Gray, state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, Cheyenne lawyer Darin Smith and retired Army Col. Denton Knapp have all announced their candidacies. Buchanans office chose not to provide comment and Buchanan did not respond when contacted directly for comment. House Republicans voted Wednesday morning to remove Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyomings lone member of the chamber and an outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump, from her leadership position. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office, she told reporters after the vote. We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language, weve seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution, and I think its very important that we make sure whomever we elect is somebody who will be faithful to the Constitution. Cheney told reporters that Wednesdays vote showed where the Republicans are as a party right now. She said it was impossible to embrace the lie that the 2020 election was rigged and the Constitution at the same time. I think that the party is in a place that we have got to bring it back from, and weve got to get back to a position where we are a party that can fight for conservative principles, that can fight for substance, she said. We cannot be dragged backward by the very dangerous lies of a former president. CNN reported Cheney was ousted by voice vote after a meeting that lasted 20 minutes. WASHINGTON A combative Rep. Liz Cheney lashed out at leaders of her own Republican Party late Tuesday, accusing former President Donald Trump and his GOP supporters of following a path that would undermine our democracy. On the eve of a closed-door meeting when House Republicans seem certain to oust her from a leadership post because of her clashes with the former president, Cheney, R-Wyo., took to the House floor to state her case. "I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former presidents crusade to undermine our democracy, Cheney said. Support Local Journalism Your membership makes our reporting possible. {{featured_button_text}} She did not mention party leaders by name. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise, R-La., have called for her removal after she repeatedly rejected Trump's false claim that he lost the November election due to widespread fraud, and for his role in encouraging supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Transfer of Funds Help: This is one of the shorter scams on the list this week. The email contains one simple line, Hello, I am in search of an associate who will assist me with the transfer of an investment funds. Please contact for details. The email is from Ms. Katherien at suyu.su@pactera.com. FedEx Scam: It seems like every week there is a scam involving FedEx and this week is no different. This time the emailer wants you to take a short survey to claim your $100 FedEx Reward. This reward can supposedly be obtained by gift card which is one of the methods typical scammers use. Be wary of any emails containing the name FedEx and for this particular email look for the address newsletter@teckntech.com. Randomly Selected Millionaires: If you receive a very strange-looking email that has every words first letter capitalized then you might be reading reverend father Abraham Smiths email. In this email, the reverend father explains that he has started one of the largest private foundations in the world and it is called The Rev. Father Abraham Smith Foundation. Today the father wants to give you 5.3 million dollars! This is clearly fake but quite amusing. Look for the email address splendourmanny7@gmail.com. MOTHERS have been some of the hardest hit by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Globally, mothers have lost their jobs, largely as a result of care-giving demands as many were forced to leave their careers to be at home for their families. THE Government expects to spend $107 million on Covid-19 vaccines to allow vaccination of 85 per cent of the population, or about 1.2 million people. So said Minister of Finance Colm Imbert yesterday, at the Red House, Port of Spain. Dakota graduated from Bret Harte in 2013 and went to Davidson College, NC where she earned a bachelor's degree in Arab studies. After spending time studying in the Middle East and Europe, she is happy to be home, writing about the community she loves. Comment Policy Calaveras Enterprise does not actively monitor comments. However, staff does read through to assess reader interest. When abusive or foul language is used or directed toward other commenters, those comments will be deleted. If a commenter continues to use such language, that person will be blocked from commenting. We wish to foster a community of communication and a sharing of ideas, and we truly value readers' input. Do you have a news tip? Want to share good news story, or do you have information that should see the light of day? Then we want to hear from you. More here As the clock struck 5 a.m. to signal the end of the daily curfew, hundreds of people began showing up at all the facilities under the North Central Regional Health Authority (NCRHA) for their first shot of Sinopharm vaccines. My son, in his ever-increasing efforts to make sure Im relatively safe during this pandemic, sent me two packets of masks from the USA. His concern is especially so since I am over 80 and live alone. There is a very bright light shimmering at the end of the vaccine tunnel. Now that we appear to be approaching that wonderful day when everyone can be vaccinated, the people who are our sitting Opposition, the United National Congress, want to know the cost. This cost they query regarding vaccine purchase, be it Sinopharm/Johnson and Johnson, or otherwise, could negatively affect their political image. Always remember, political image is everything. PHOENIX The Arizona Supreme Court quickly dismissed a bid by 20 unnamed people trying to void the 2020 election returns and put themselves into office instead. Justice John Lopez, writing Tuesday for the full court, said election challenges are permitted only within five days following the official canvass of the results. That occurred on Nov. 30. This lawsuit was filed May 7. Failure of an election contestant to strictly comply with statutory requirements is fatal to his right to have an election contested, Lopez wrote, quoting a 1978 attorney generals opinion. The rationale for requiring strict compliance with the time provisions for initiating an election contest is the strong public policy favoring stability and finality of election results. But the justice said even if the plaintiffs had gone to court in time, they could not get what they sought. Nothing in the statutes petitioners cite grants them a private right of action to remove office holders and sit in their stead, he wrote. In fact, Lopez said, the only way to bring such an action is for someone to convince a judge that he or she is lawfully entitled to the office. There is no right of individuals to argue that the person holding the office is not there lawfully. Court records show that Nieves, a commercial grape grower, left Caborca, Sonora, in August 2011 with his wife and two children, headed to Chandler to go shopping. They went through one Border Patrol checkpoint, showing their visas. A drug detection dog did not alert. At a second checkpoint the agent said the dog detected an odor. Based on that, the vehicle was pulled over but nothing was immediately found. The agents then drove the vehicle to the Ajo Border Patrol station for a more thorough search, including checking the windshield wiper fluid. At least one field test indicated the possible presence of methamphetamine. That resulted in Nieves being interrogated. After he denied any knowledge of drugs, one agent told him that if he did not confess his wife would go to a prison in Kentucky, his son would go to a federal prison and his minor daughter would be placed into government custody. That resulted in a confession, one he later recanted as he told agents he had made the statement only so the agents would release his family. A group of scientists is making a case for the reintroduction of jaguars across a wide swath of Arizona and New Mexico, from the White Mountains to as far north as Flagstaff and as far west as Prescott. In a paper published Tuesday in the journal Conservation Science and Practice, 16 conservation biologists argue that restoring the endangered cat to more of its historic range would remedy the injustice of the animals being wiped out by humans almost 60 years ago. This is a special place where jaguars used to be and should be again, said Eric Sanderson, lead author of the paper. From a conservation perspective, this makes sense, so lets have a conversation about it. As the paper puts it: Our worlds natural heritage is diminished nearly everywhere; here is a model for who, where, how and why people should invest in restoring it. For the jaguar, Americas Great Cat, the question is when. Ultimately, the group hopes to convince the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revisit its 2018 recovery plan for the jaguar, which identified the area south of Interstate 10 in Southern Arizona and New Mexico as the only U.S. habitat for the species. According to the service, that land is only capable of supporting about six jaguars. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will be offered to youths from 12 to 17 years old beginning Thursday at Udall Park under a partnership between Tucson Medical Center and the Pima County Health Department. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the vaccine for ages 12 to 15 on Wednesday, making the younger age group now officially eligible. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer shots for this age group Monday pending CDC approval. Registration was set to begin at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 12, for TMC appointments that would start Thursday morning at the Udall Park vaccination site, 7200 E. Tanque Verde Road. Appointments are available online at vaccine.tmcaz.com. Minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian who can provide consent for the vaccine. Residents under 17 are only eligible for the Pfizer vaccine at this time. The Johnson & Johnson and Moderna vaccines are currently authorized for ages 18 and older. The state-run sites and private pharmacies will also offer Pfizer shots to this age group starting Thursday. The Republican governors threshold for lifting the mask mandate is statewide, so even areas with low vaccination rates will be able to go along with mask-free dining, shopping and working at offices and other businesses once highly vaccinated areas help reach the threshold. The eventual lifting of the requirement will also apply to schools, although school districts and businesses can opt to keep mask rules in place. BOSTON (AP) An outside audit three years ago of the pipeline company hit by a cyberattack threatening fuel supplies in the eastern United States found atrocious information management practices and a patchwork of poorly connected and secured systems, its author told The Associated Press. We found glaring deficiencies and big problems, said Robert F. Smallwood, whose consulting firm delivered an 89-page report in January 2018 after a six-month audit. I mean an eighth-grader could have hacked into that system. How far the company, Colonial Pipeline, went to address the vulnerabilities isn't clear. Colonial said Wednesday that since 2017, it has hired four independent firms for cybersecurity risk assessments and increased its overall IT spending by more than 50%. While it did not specify an amount, it said it has spent tens of millions of dollars. "We are constantly assessing and improving our security practices both physical and digital, the privately held Georgia company said in response to questions from the AP about the audit's findings. It did not name the firms who did cybersecurity work but one firm, Rausch Advisory Services, located in Atlanta near Colonial's headquarters, acknowledged being among them. Colonial's chief information officer sits on Rausch's advisory board. Misconduct records in Florida are sent to a database that is maintained by the states Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission and this is open for public inspection. Florida is one of the 11 states that provides an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index where offending officers names are public. GEORGIA-MOSTLY PUBLIC Under the Georgia Open Records Act, law enforcement misconduct records are available to the public unless the investigation into the misconduct is active and ongoing. HAWAII-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records in Hawaii are closed unless they relate to the firing of an officer or if the records in question pertaining to an officers suspension are part of a pending court case. These records are also destroyed after 30 months according to a police spokeswoman interviewed by the Honolulu Civil Beat. The Honolulu Civil Beat found a group of Honolulu officers falsified drunk driving tickets to get overtime but kept their jobs, despite 200 DUI cases being dismissed as a result. BRUSSELS (AP) European companies doing business with Iran could face legal troubles if they have terminated their contracts with Iranian banks or firms solely because of fears about possible U.S. sanctions, according to a legal opinion handed down Wednesday by a top EU court advisor. The case centers around then President Donald Trumps 2018 decision to unilaterally pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement. The move sparked a series of U.S. sanctions, some of them meant to prevent companies from doing business with Iran. To protect European interests and help Irans moribund economy, the EU introduced a blocking statute shielding companies in the 27-nation bloc. However, many big firms do more business in the United States than in Iran and some quickly severed ties rather than risk running afoul of U.S. sanctions. In Germany, Irans Bank Melli launched legal action against Telekom Deutschland after the telecommunications firm ended its contract with the Iranian banks branch in Hamburg without providing a reason. In Wednesdays legal opinion, Advocate General Gerard Hogan said that European companies should justify why they are cutting business ties with Iranian banks and enterprises to prove they aren't simply caving in under the threat of U.S. sanctions. We owe it to our patients to always show up for them, to treat them with dignity and respect, to appreciate their perspectives, and to validate their feelings when they are in our care, IU Health CEO Dennis Murphy said in a statement. We did not live up to these values with Dr. Moore and acknowledge that we have more to do to become a more diverse, inclusive and anti-racist health system, Murphy said. Murphy told the Indianapolis Business Journal that no staff members will be terminated, at the recommendation of the outside review panel, which included four Black members. He said a small number of staff members will be placed on administrative leave while they receive diversity training, then will be returned to their clinical roles. The hospital system has begun taking steps including conduct training for all employees to enhance compassion, encourage empathy and facilitate an optimal patient experience after receiving recommendations from the panel. Henry County spokeswoman Melissa Robinson said she couldn't comment on pending litigation. Hampton police referred a request for comment to the city manager, who did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment Wednesday. A county police spokesman spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Two of the city officers are still employed by the department, according to its website, and did not respond to emails sent to their department email addresses. A police body camera video provided by Rodriguez's parents' lawyers shows Rodriguez walking down the middle of a street naked as an officer shouts at him to get on the ground at least 10 times. Rodriguez turns around twice but keeps walking. He yells something at the officers, but it's bleeped out on the video provided by the lawyers. The officer then yells, I'm gonna tase you, and fires his stun gun, causing Rodriguez to fall to the ground. After that, the officers are heard repeatedly telling him to roll over onto his stomach so they can help him and also threatening to stun him again. One tries to turn him over and calls him a sweaty little hog. Rodriguez is heard yelling whenever he's stunned and is seen trying to sit up and scooting away from the officers while lying on his back. Rep. James Gailliard, D-Nash, called the proposal anti-American history," noting that the United States was founded on the backs of millions of slaves being exported into the country. This bill is a give me the microphone back' bill because we want to talk but we don't want to listen to everybody else," Gailliard said. Rep. Kandie Smith, D-Pitt, likened the proposal to book burning," while Rep. Ashton Clemmons, a Guilford County Democrat who previously worked as a local elementary school principal, said students need to feel uncomfortable in order to progress further in their learning. Fundamental to education is discomfort, Clemmons said. If you stay in your comfort zone, you are not growing. You are not learning. You fundamentally have to feel discomfort to learn something new. The North Carolina Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina opposed the measure. North Carolina is not alone in advancing proposals to try to curb ideas central to critical race theory, which highlights how historical inequities and racism continue to shape public policy and social conditions today. I definitely think that the increasing number of incidents is adding more fuel to the fire for NHTSA to do more, said Missy Cummings, an electrical and computer engineering professor at Duke University who studies automated vehicles. I do think they are going to be stronger about this. Tesla says on its website and in owners manuals that for both driver-assist systems, drivers must be ready to intervene at any time. But drivers have repeatedly zoned out with Autopilot in use, resulting in crashes in which neither the system nor the driver stopped for obstacles in the road. The federal agency could declare Autopilot defective and require it to be recalled, or it could force Tesla to limit areas where Autopilot can be used to limited-access freeways. It could also make the company install a stronger system to ensure drivers are paying attention. The auto industry, except for Tesla, already does a good job of limiting where such systems can operate, and is moving to self-regulate, Cummings said. Tesla seems to be heading that way. Its now installing driver-facing cameras on recent models, she said. Tesla has a system to monitor drivers to make sure theyre paying attention by detecting force from hands on the steering wheel. MIAMI (AP) A 28-year-old woman who wanted to promote her Instagram page attempted to blend in with students at a Miami-area high school, police said. Monday's stunt at American Senior High School landed Audrey Francisquini in jail, where she's facing charges of burglary, interfering with a school function and resisting arrest without violence, records show. Francisquini started handing out pamphlets printed with her Instagram account after sneaking onto the campus around 8:30 a.m. Monday, police said. She had a black backpack and carried a skateboard as she walked through the hallways, recording herself. School security tracked her down as she was wandering the hallways while students were in classrooms, an arrest report said. Francisquini told investigators she was looking for the registration office. Investigators said she headed toward the registration office, but did not enter. Instead she continued walking through the hallways, talking to students, news outlets reported. Security officers tried to catch up with her again, but she didn't stop. They notified the office of a security threat on campus, police said. 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. They can rejoin the active early voting list at any time, request a mail ballot for a single election or vote in person. But a ballot won't automatically arrive in their mailboxes. Republicans pushing the bill cited two primary rationales: the cost of mailing ballots to people who aren't using them and the risk of fraud from ballots that leave election offices and never return. Democrats said the costs are negligible and a worthwhile expenditure to make it as easy as possible for people to vote. They also say there is no evidence of unvoted mail ballots being used fraudulently, and it would be virtually impossible for someone to pull off. The fraudster would have to match the voter's signature, and election officials would catch on if the owner of the mail ballot requested a replacement or showed up to vote in person. Democrats said the measure would affect voters in both parties but would have a disproportionate effect on communities of color. There is ambiguity about when the measure takes effect. It was originally thought to apply to voters who sat out the 2018 and 2020 elections, which would affect about 140,000 people out of 2.7 million on the permanent list, according to an analysis of voter rolls prepared for voting rights advocates. But legislative lawyers recently wrote that courts would likely say that is a retroactive application of the law. In that case, it would first affect voters in the 2026 election who sit out 2022 and 2024. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. MILTON, Fla. (AP) A Florida man faces homicide charges after investigators following up on a tip about a missing woman found human remains buried in his backyard. The Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that they are working to identify the remains found in the yard of Johnny Edwards Malisham, 60. A tipster told the Butler County Sheriff's Office in Alabama on Sunday that Malisham killed Cynthia Hoover, 60, with a hatchet and then buried her body under a burn pit behind his home near Milton, WEAR reported. They alerted officials in Santa Rosa County, and they began searching the yard, the sheriff's office said on Facebook. Hoover was last seen March 8, and her ransacked car was found along Interstate 10 two days later, the report said. WEAR reported that the woman who tipped authorities said Malisham had tried to get her to help him with the body. The woman has known Malisham for about 15 years, an arrest report said. The woman told investigators Malisham asked her to be a lookout while he buried the body, and threatened her if she refused, the report said. She ran to her home when she heard Malisham dragging the woman's body, WEAR reported. Five years ago: A divided U.S. Supreme Court blocked the execution of an Alabama inmate so that a lower court could review claims that strokes and dementia had rendered him incompetent to understand his looming death sentence. (A federal appeals court ruled in March 2017 that Vernon Madison was incompetent, and could not be executed.) One year ago: House Democrats unveiled a coronavirus aid package totaling more than $3 trillion, including nearly $1 trillion for states and cities to avert layoffs and a fresh round of direct cash aid to American households. (The measure won House approval but Senate Republicans and the White House rejected it as too costly.) Dr. Anthony Fauci warned a Senate panel that cities and states could turn back the clock and see more COVID-19 deaths and economic damage if they lifted stay-at-home orders too quickly. German photographer Astrid Kirchherr, who shot some of the earliest and most striking images of the Beatles and helped shape their visual style, died at age 81 in her native Hamburg. Todays Birthdays: Composer Burt Bacharach is 93. Actor Millie Perkins is 85. R&B singer Jayotis Washington is 80. Country singer Billy Swan is 79. Actor Linda Dano is 78. Actor Lindsay Crouse is 73. Singer-musician Steve Winwood is 73. Actor Gabriel Byrne is 71. Actor Bruce Boxleitner is 71. Singer Billy Squier is 71. Blues singer-musician Guy Davis is 69. Country singer Kix Brooks is 66. Actor Kim Greist is 63. Rock musician Eric Singer (KISS) is 63. Actor Ving Rhames is 62. Rock musician Billy Duffy is 60. Actor Emilio Estevez is 59. Actor April Grace is 59. Actor Vanessa A. Williams is 58. TV personality/chef Carla Hall is 57. Actor Stephen Baldwin is 55. Actor Scott Schwartz is 53. Actor Kim Fields is 52. Actor Samantha Mathis is 51. Actor Jamie Luner is 50. Actor Christian Campbell is 49. Actor Rhea Seehorn is 49. Actor Mackenzie Astin is 48. Country musician Matt Mangano (The Zac Brown Band) is 45. Actor Rebecca Herbst is 44. Actor Malin (MAH-lin) Akerman is 43. Actor Jason Biggs is 43. Actor Rami Malek (RAH-mee MA-lihk) is 40. Actor-singer Clare Bowen is 37. Actor Emily VanCamp is 35. Actor Malcolm David Kelley is 29. Actor Sullivan Sweeten is 26. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. LONDON (AP) Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, sentenced to life for war crimes and genocide, will serve his sentence in a U.K. prison, the British government said Wednesday. Karadzic, 75, is one of the chief architects of the slaughter and devastation of Bosnias 1992-95 war. He was convicted by a U.N. court in 2016 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for atrocities including the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb troops at Srebrenica. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, later increased to life by appeals judges at the court in The Hague. He is currently in the courts detention unit, but will be moved to an unspecified U.K. prison. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Karadzic was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians. We should take pride in the fact that, from U.K. support to secure his arrest, to the prison cell he now faces, Britain has supported the 30-year pursuit of justice for these heinous crimes, Raab said. The conflict in Bosnia was Europes bloodiest since World War II, leaving 100,000 dead and millions homeless. John Teggart, whose father was one of those killed at Ballymurphy, said Johnson's decision to deliver his apology to political leaders was an insult" to the families of the victims. The apology was to third parties, it wasnt to the Ballymurphy families, he told the BBC. Thats not acceptable to the families and never will be." The new verdict comes as former soldiers press the U.K. government to ensure they arent prosecuted for conduct decades ago when they were sent to enforce the peace in Northern Ireland. More than 3,000 people died during decades of violence between mostly Catholic supporters of unification with the Republic of Ireland and mostly Protestant backers of continued ties with the United Kingdom. The Troubles ended after all sides in the conflict signed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which created a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. She was the most independent of our family and when Danese went to kindergarten she was late coming home because she was helping other children who didnt know where they lived get home, Mrs. Lewie said. There was a lot behind our house where Daddy would sometimes repair cars, and shed be under the car with him and Mother would get after her because she always got dirty. OPINION: Voting rights, migrant children and what the Big Lie are what letter writers are talking about today. Read today's letters to see what they are saying and share your thoughts at tucson.com/letters. If you're someone who wants to try a little bit of everything, flights are a great solution. Here are seven food and drink flights to get in Tucson, from places such as Reforma, The Screamery and Bawker Bawker. We know that many schools across the country are still in need of proper supplies to help protect students and faculty as they work to finish the school year strong, said Susan Gambardella, president of Kimberly-Clark Professional North America. Care underlies everything we do at Kimberly-Clark Professional, and we are proud to care for the communities where we operate and help assist the school districts where our employees live and work as they prepare for the upcoming school year, Gambardella said in a statement. Kimberly-Clark Professional has continued to care for and support communities by operating as an essential business throughout the pandemic, it said. The company launched a new standalone global PPE business unit, including new manufacturing of 100% made in the USA industrial N95 respirators, approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), to support critical infrastructure workers. Additionally, Kimberly-Clark is committing $2.5 million to COVID-19 relief efforts in India, including support to UNICEF of $2.2 million, to help secure critical medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators and the setting up of oxygen generation plants. MIAMI, Okla. It started with one coat rack sitting outside a restaurant, but that one humanitarian gesture soon put an Ottawa County community in the spotlight for its work to feed and clothe the homeless during frigid weather conditions at the height of a global pandemic. Just as two major ice storms were hitting the area, homeless individuals in Miami were seeking shelter and food. Homeless people were staying at a Miami church and at hotels, said Jennifer White, owner of the Dawg House, a gourmet hot dog cafe. About a week before the ice storms hit in February, a friend of Whites asked her if she would set up a coat rack at the diner for those needing a coat. Later she called me and explained the concept behind the Giving Wall, White said. White began hanging on one of the restaurants walls receipts for prepaid meals. Diners were able to come in and get warm and sit down to a warm meal at no charge. One thing led to another, White said. The next thing we knew it was up to three restaurants in Miami and other restaurants in neighboring towns were also involved. A recreation of an authentic studio environment where visitors will experience what it was like to be present at one of Dylans historic recording sessions. The Columbia Records Gallery, which will provide an in-depth look at the creation, performance and production of timeless Dylan songs such as Like a Rolling Stone, Tangled Up in Blue and Chimes of Freedom. A screening room that will showcase Dylan-related scripted films, documentaries and concert performances, including never-before-seen material unearthed from the archive. A multimedia timeline, written by award-winning historian Sean Wilentz, of Dylans life from his early years in Minnesota through the present day. The Parker Brothers Gallery, which will explore the creative process through the work of other innovative artists, in an initial exhibit curated by influential author Lewis Hyde. The news release said one sterling example of treasures to be found in the Bob Dylan Archive is a recording of Dylan performing Dont Think Twice, Its All Right in the autumn of 1962. This heretofore-unknown recording was made by Milton (Mell) and Lillian Bailey, friends and early champions of the young Dylan when he was a fixture in New Yorks Greenwich Village folk scene. For generations, our nations oldest and most historic small restaurants have been safe spaces for customers to share meals, ideas and their culture, American Express President of Merchant Services Colleen Taylor said in a statement. They are at the heart of our neighborhoods, serve our communities and help advance cultural and social change for those who live there. Many have stood the test of time, but the pandemic has tested them in ways they could have never imagined. The Backing Historic Small Restaurants program will help preserve these spaces not only for their legacy but also for their earned place in our nations future. Wanda Js has maintained a presence on Tulsas north side since the 70s, and the familys third generation runs the Greenwood location, which offers home-style comfort food in a historic setting. Im from the old school, Armstrong said. I go way back and I remember Greenwood when it was revitalized. ... Thats one reason why I opened the store down there, because I wanted it to be part of trying to revitalize (the area). Just being part of the community and putting input into the community is what Ive always been about. A former Muskogee man who saw his state life prison sentence overturned earlier this year pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to the same killing under a plea agreement that calls for him to serve a 27-year prison term. Jordan Batice Mitchell, 27, admitted in Tulsa federal court to killing Christian DeHart on Sept. 27, 2013. The 22-year-olds body was found in a garage in the 7100 block of South 77th East Avenue in Tulsa. Mitchell claimed in his plea agreement that he shot DeHart to death after he began fighting another individual. The plea did not elaborate as to why DeHart was shot multiple times, including once in the head. State prosecutors alleged Mitchell and another man plotted to rob DeHart, who died after being shot. Mitchells case is among hundreds that have been overturned by state courts after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July that the 1860s-era Muscogee Nation reservation was never disestablished by Congress. Tulsa County and the city of Tulsa will receive a combined $214.4 million from President Bidens American Rescue Plan, according to the U.S. Treasury Department. Tulsa County will receive $126.6 million over two years, and the city will receive $87.8 million over the same time period. The city and county were notified of their allocations Monday. Half of the funding will be allocated this month and the other half in May 2022. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan includes $350 billion for states, counties, cities and tribal territories to mitigate economic harm, including the loss of revenue, caused by the pandemic. Allocations are tied to population and unemployment rates. The funding is also being spent on the nations COVID-19 vaccination campaign, on reopening schools safely and for direct payments to citizens. Mayors Office spokeswoman Michelle Brooks said the city would review the Treasury Departments guidelines before commenting on how the funds will be allocated. Mayor G.T. Bynum indicated earlier this year that the city of Tulsa did not necessarily need the money. With more people without symptoms now being identified through the city school testing regime, the spread of the virus might be slowed in the city as a whole, said Caitlin Rivers, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. While she said she is not aware of studies that have looked at the real-world evidence of school testing on slowing transmission, she believes it would have some effect. A Tulsa fifth-grader is in the running to win national accolades from Google. On Friday, Julia Isley was named the Oklahoma state winner in the 13th annual Doodle for Google contest for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. This years theme was I am strong because Isleys pencil and Sharpie doodle, Stronger Together, focuses on multiple aspects of strength, including mental acuity with a woman teaching a boy, physical fitness with two volleyball players and strength of heart, with a girl tying her grandfathers shoes while he braids her hair. Strength isnt just about how many weights you can lift or how many push-ups you can do, she said. Its also about lots of other things too. At the state and territorial level, entries were judged on artistic merit, creativity and how well the contest theme was expressed. Students could use any medium they wanted to create their doodle, including clay, recycled materials, charcoal, collage or computer software. Votes from the public will be a factor in narrowing down the pool from 54 state and territorial winners to five national finalists. Voting is open online through Friday. A Tulsa Police Department lieutenant and former star of the reality television show LivePD confirmed that he is retiring from the agency after a nearly 25-year career. Lt. Sean Larkin said his retirement takes effect very soon and that he has weighed when to retire at multiple points since reaching the benchmark of 20 years of service in 2017. He said he was at a point in his life and career where he believed retirement was appropriate. I have other things going on other opportunities, he said. Larkin recently had been on a one-year sabbatical during which he filmed episodes for A&Es LivePD, on which he served as an analyst. At the time he also expressed interest in spending more time with his children. While at the Tulsa Police Department, which he joined in 1997, he worked in the Narcotics Unit before becoming a supervisor over the Organized Gang Unit and later the Crime Gun Unit. He became a regular feature on LivePD when it followed the Tulsa Police Department and later became one of the shows analysts. He also hosted his own show, PD Cam, which included breakdowns of police body camera footage. Organizers of a National Black Power conference convening in Tulsa just ahead of the Race Massacre Centennial say theyre hoping to build relationships with local Black community leaders and support them in any way possible. Part of that will mean spending as much money as we can at Black-owned businesses in the Greenwood area, organizer Nick Bezzel said. Bezzel, founder of the Elmer Geronimo Pratt Gun Club, was joined by Sheik Imam Akbar Bilal, spokesman of the New Black Panther Party for Self Defense, in front of Vernon AME Church on Wednesday to announce the plans. Members of the organizations, along with other invitees, will return to the church, 311 N. Greenwood Ave., on May 28 for a scheduled five hours to discuss reparations for the Black community and to remember the Race Massacre of 1921. The conversation will continue the next morning and into the afternoon at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Tulsa before leading up to the main event: a Second Amendment armed mass march on May 29. Bezzel stated the group is attempting to get a permit for the event from the city of Tulsa, but even if one is not granted, the group will move forward with the march in spaces where they are legally allowed to do so. Rogers County District Attorney Matt Ballard has said he believes the ruling in the case of Jimcy McGirt, a Seminole Nation citizen accused of sex crimes within Muscogee Nation boundaries, could result in people being freed from prison because of federal statutes of limitations. Cole did not reference specific cases in his statement but said he believes immediate issues are facing law enforcement because of the Supreme Courts ruling. Based on the McGirt ruling, the state appellate court has reversed numerous convictions, including those in death-penalty cases, where it has determined they must be pursued in federal or tribal courts. First-degree murder does not have a federal statute of limitations, but only one tribe the Sac and Fox Nation permits the use of capital punishment against its citizens. Most other crimes have a three-year statute of limitations in the federal court system. Cole, who himself is a Chickasaw Nation citizen, said his bill does not mandate how the Cherokee and Chickasaw nations should form their compact agreements with the state. The Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole nations are not a part of the bill but could be incorporated in the future if they express interest. True Americans love what President Joe Biden is doing to restore order and safety to our country during his first 100 days. Now all we're listening to are President Donald Trump supporters beat their chests over a man who lost fair and square. Lest we forget he was the first president to be impeached twice and kicked off major social media platforms. He downplayed the severity of the worst pandemic in a century and is directly responsible for the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. Those are among hundreds of other failures in his four excruciatingly long years as president. It's time to stop this endless complaining by deprogramming the Trump personality cult, especially the cult of QAnon. Think of how great America could be if it were filled with people who not love their country but also accept facts rather than conspiracy. Remember when the worst conspiracy we had to tangle with was whether someone was in a grassy knoll in Dallas? So let's round up all these far-right wingers into trucks and bring them back to school. Teach them to think critically and not believe everything they read on Facebook or OAN. Ho Chi Minh City reported positive socio-economic achievements in the first four months of 2021 despite the impacts of COVID-19, the municipal Peoples Committee said at a virtual meeting on Tuesday afternoon. According to Ho Chi Minh City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong, in the January-April period, the four key industries in the city scored an impressive overall growth rate of 11 percent over the same period in 2020. Particularly, total retail sales and consumer service revenue rose 7.9 percent, while merchandise retail trade increased nine percent. Accommodation and catering services posted a growth rate of 26.3 percent over the same period last year as well. Export turnover was estimated at US$15.5 billion, up nearly 14 percent. According to chairman Phong, in the past four months, there have been nearly 5,600 enterprises resuming their operations, marking an increase of over 95 percent. In spite of no international visitors to the city due to the ongoing pandemic, the city welcomed nearly 6.2 million domestic tourists, contributing a total revenue of nearly VND30 trillion ($1.29 billion), up 17 percent. Besides, the total tax revenue hit 38 percent of the estimate at more than VND140.3 trillion ($6.06 billion), increasing 15.7 percent year on year. Regarding the missions in May, the municipal chairman said that the COVID-19 prevention and control was still a top priority. Ho Chi Minh City chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong is pictured at a municipal virtual meeting on the local socio-economy, May 11, 2021. Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Press Center Regarding the improvement of the business environment and national competitiveness, the citys leader emphasized the need for stronger solutions. The leader of each unit will be accountable to the chairman of the municipal Peoples Committee for the improvement of the investment environment to support business operations, he said. Phong urged agencies at all levels to deal with projects that are facing difficulties in terms of site clearance and administrative procedures. There are businesses that have to rely on bank capital and pay high interest to lenders every day, the chairman said. Our delay will greatly affect them. You must put yourself in their shoes. Phong asked departments to streamline administrative procedures and proposed disciplinary measures for those failing to give a response after 15 days. If a department causes obstacles to a licensing process, it has to take responsibility, Phong underscored. If necessary, rewards and commendations can be stripped off any units that do not make drastic improvement. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! With giant Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup recently announcing that it will stop manufacturing smartphones, there are few domestic brands left to compete with foreign firms in the domestic market. According to German market research institute GfK, 3.51 million smartphones, mainly of Samsung and Oppo brands, were sold in Vietnam in the first 11 weeks of 2021. This figure proved the appeal of Vietnams smartphone market. However, after nearly three years in the market, the people behind Vingroups VinSmart smartphone business have come to the realization that the production of smartphones or smart TVs no longer brings breakthroughs and creates unique values for users. The firm thus decided to shut down smartphone and TV manufacturing, leaving behind its achievements in the field, including the honor as the Best Vietnamese phone brand at Tech Awards 2020 -- the leading prestigious technology awards in the country. In addition, VinSmart was also among the top five smartphone companies with the highest sales in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2021, accounting for ten percent of the entire markets turnover, according to research results published in early May 2021 by market research firm Canalys. Samsung came first with 33 percent, followed by Oppo with 18 percent, Xiaomi with 11 percent, and Vivo in the last place with nine percent. The only one left Before VinSmart, many other smartphone manufacturers had also suffered similar misadventures in Vietnam. Mobiistar was among the leading Vietnamese smartphone brands, with many of its products recording relatively high sales during the 2012-13 period. However, it exited the market in silence. The last time the firm announced a new smartphone was August 2018, when the Mobiistar X made a debut. Q-Mobile, F-mobile, Masstel, HKPhone, and Bavapen are a few Vietnamese smartphone brands known for taking the same undesirable path as Mobiistars. These were all famous brands in the transition period from feature phones to smartphones in Vietnam. According to many experts, the Bphone of Vietnams antivirus software developer and smartphone producer Bkav is currently the only Vietnamese smartphone brand noticeable on the market. Although the launches of new Bphone editions have always commanded attention from the online community, they have never hit a high consumption rate. Besides Bkav, some other domestic companies such as military-run Viettel Group and state-owned telecoms giant VNPT also make smartphones. But their products have failed to leave a significant impression in the market. COVID-19 is to blame The impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have made things tough for Vietnamese smartphone brands, experts claimed. Due to travel restrictions, the supply of raw materials to manufacture electronic components has become scarce. The speed at which components such as microprocessors are produced is thus slow. As a result, technology and electronics firms around the world have had to compete with one another to satisfy their need for components. Needless to say, big orders belonging to manufacturing giants such as Apple and Samsung win priority. Consequently, small brands which depend entirely on those supplies are hurt. The leader of a cellphone company in Vietnam, who preferred to stay anonymous, said that Vietnamese smartphone brands have long depended on components manufactured abroad, mainly in China. Strong investments in technology by component manufacturers in Vietnam in recent years have been just a drop in the bucket. While firms have to compete with each other with new technology and product launch speed, alongside traditional factors such as marketing and selling prices, Vietnamese smartphone brands dependence on overseas supplies has always made them much slower than their foreign competitors in terms of technology, the leader commented. That disables the advantage of playing on home soil. Mai Trieu Nguyen, director of Mai Nguyen Mobile Technology Co. Ltd., which operates the Mai Nguyen mobile device retail system, shared the same point of view. Many businesses cannot get the source of goods at the schedule they desire, but have to wait for a long time, said Nguyen. This severely affects their production and business plans. Fierce price competition On the other hand, the price competition is extremely fierce among smartphone companies in Vietnam, according to experts. According to a research by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspapers reporters, the selling price of a smartphone in Vietnam is made of the manufacturers cost and an added fee to its retail distributors, which can account for as much as 30 percent of the total cost. Marketing and advertising activities also often incur expensive costs. Therefore, they have to accept either high selling prices or losses to sell their products. Meanwhile, foreign brands, especially from China, with a large production scale and market, have a better pricing advantage. Competition in the mobile phone industry is very high and fierce in Vietnam, especially in the low-priced segment under VND4 million [US$173], said Nguyen The Kha, director of telecommunications and mobile at FPT Shop, the retail chain of Vietnamese technology firm FPT. This price segment is dominated by Chinese firms. They enjoy the advantage of large-scale production, which results in good prices. Vietnamese smartphone companies will face many difficulties if they want to compete for market share in this segment. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! An elderly French-Vietnamese woman vowed on Tuesday to pursue her legal fight to obtain compensation for health problems which she says were caused by exposure to the toxic herbicide "Agent Orange" during the war in Vietnam. Earlier this week, a French court rejected a lawsuit filed by 79-year old Tran To Nga against 14 chemical companies, but she told reporters she would appeal. "I am disappointed, I am angry, but I am not sad," said Tran To Nga, whose news conference was broadcast on Reuters TV. "We are going to carry on because our cause is just. Truth is on our side," she added. U.S. warplanes dropped about 18 million gallons (68 million litres) of Agent Orange - so-called because it was stored in drums with orange bands - between the early 1960s and early 1970s to defoliate jungles and destroy crops. Tran, who worked as a journalist and activist in Vietnam in her 20s, has said she suffers from effects including Type 2 diabetes and a rare insulin allergy. Her lawsuit, first filed in 2014, sought compensation from chemical firms including U.S. companies Dow Chemical and Monsanto, now owned by Germany's Bayer. Those multinational companies had argued they could not be held legally responsible for how the U.S. military had decided to use their product. So far, only military veterans from the United States and other countries involved in the war have won compensation over Agent Orange. In 2008, a U.S. federal appeals court upheld the dismissal of a civil lawsuit against major U.S. chemical companies brought by Vietnamese plaintiffs. The United States has said there is no scientifically proven link to support the claims of dioxin poisoning of many Vietnamese plaintiffs. Check out the news you should not miss today: COVID-19 updates -- Vietnam on Wednesday morning reported 33 local coronavirus infections in Hanoi, Vinh Phuc, Da Nang, Bac Giang, Lang Son, and Nam Dinh, increasing the countrys tally to 3,571, according to the Ministry of Health. -- Forty students and eight teachers of Co Le Middle School in the northern province of Nam Dinh have been sent to quarantine after a sixth grader, who is son and brother of two COVID-19 patients, tested positive for the coronavirus. -- Those who conceal, fail to report timely or make false reports of their or others status of COVID-19, as well as intentionally spreading the disease, will face a fine of up to VND20 million (US$865), according to a recently regulation enforced by Da Nang. -- A total of 892,454 people in Vietnam had been given COVID-19 vaccine shots by Monday, the Vietnam News Agency reported, quoting Tuesday's report from the National Expanded Program on Immunization. Society -- Minister of Information and Communications and Chairman of the Vietnam India Friendship Association Nguyen Manh Hung on Tuesday presented 100 ventilators to help Indian people fight the COVID-19 pandemic during his virtual meeting with Indian Ambassador to Vietnam Pranay Verma, according to the Vietnam News Agency. -- The Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime under the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security, in collaboration with police in the northern province of Ha Nam, has recently arrested Tran Van Lam, 23, who allegedly created a Facebook page where he thought up charity projects to scam donors out of more than VND6.6 billion (US$285,683). -- Many streets in Hanoi were seriously flooded on Tuesday night, with traffic almost paralyzed after a heavy rain. World news -- Scores of bodies are washing up on the banks of the Ganges as Indians fail to keep pace with the deaths and cremations of around 4,000 people a day from the novel coronavirus, Reuters reported on Wednesday. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Owners of two online game centers in Hanoi have been fined a combined VND30 million (US$1,296) for going against authorities order to suspend operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Each of the two venues was handed a fine worth VND15 million ($648) on Tuesday. Police inspected an online game center at 72 Tran Dai Nghia Street in Dong Tam Ward, Hai Ba Trung District on Monday evening and discovered one employee and 12 guests at the place. Another team of officers examined another game center at 124 Vinh Tuy Street in Hai Ba Trung District on the same night, uncovering one employee and four customers. Authorities in Hanoi have decided to shutter all karaoke parlors, bars, discos and game centers from April 30 and movie theaters, massage parlors, spa services, and gym centers from May 5 to curb the spread of COVID-19. The capital has recorded 155 local COVID-19 transmissions since Vietnam was hit by the fourth wave of infections on April 27. As of Wednesday afternoon, the country has documented 3,593 COVID-19 cases, with 2,618 recoveries and 35 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The woman told police Murray struck her with a closed fist and choked her four or five times, according to the charging documents. Officers noted in the charging documents that they saw red marks on the womans neck consistent with strangulation, a red mark on her cheek where she said she had been struck and red spots in her eyes caused by a severe case of burst blood vessels that is another sign of strangulation. These were confirmed by medics who took her to Carroll Hospital. Da Nang police have arrested a man for helping foreigners enter Vietnam in the guise of experts, in the context of Vietnam having closed its borders to international arrivals to avoid COVID-19 spread since last year, except for certain cases. Officers under the municipal Department of Public Security captured Nguyen Tran Anh Tuan, 34, who hails from the south-central province of Binh Thuan, on Wednesday afternoon. They also searched Tuans house and several company headquarters involved in the case. According to preliminary information, police officers inspected some apartments at The Point Villa on Truong Sa Street in Ngu Hanh Son District on April 26 and discovered 14 South Korean nationals who were staying there for the wrong purposes compared to those stated in their visas. The foreigners said they had contacted a South Korean man who claimed to be a company director in Vietnam via some advertisements on such social media networks as Naver, KakaoTalk, and Telegram in early February. In order to enter Vietnam, they only needed to send passport photos and paid US$2,500 each, while the rest would be taken care of by the South Korean man. The man then contacted Tuan, who owned three companies in Vietnam, namely J.D.K., DK Global, and Guppo. The three companies sponsored the group of South Korean citizens so that they could enter Vietnam as experts. Tuan also faked the signature of Gan Gwang Eun, director of Main Trade and Service Company, to sponsor three of the South Korean nationals. Tuan received a total of $2,400 when the job was done. Vietnam has sealed its borders since March last year but it still grants entry to diplomats, foreign experts, and Vietnamese repatriates. The country requires all arrivals from outside the country to undergo different forms of quarantine to stem the spread of COVID-19. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! HANOI -- Vietnam is seeking the transfer of mRNA technology to domestically manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, state media reported on Tuesday, as officials warned of supply issues until the end of the year. MRNA vaccines, like that developed jointly by BionTech and Pfizer, prompt the human body to make a protein that is part of the virus, triggering an immune response. "Given the currently limited supply to Vietnam, especially as the COVID-19 situation is showing complicated developments, the health ministry has met with a World Health Organization representative to facilitate the negotiations on transferring of mRNA technology," the Vietnam News Agency reported. Governments are looking to build up local vaccine production after manufacturing setbacks slowed rollouts in some countries. Vaccine makers have come under growing pressure to free up their patents to aid poor countries. BioNTech and other COVID-19 vaccine makers have said they were already transferring vital production knowledge to other parts of the world. On Monday, BioNTech announced plans to set up a regional centre and a new vaccine factory in Singapore. Vietnam has been praised for its record in containing COVID-19 outbreaks quickly through targeted mass testing and a strict, centralised quarantine programme. But a new outbreak emerged late last month and has already reached 26 of its 63 provinces, with a daily record 125 cases reported on Monday, although infections are still relatively low at 581 in the past two weeks. Vietnam said last week it aims to administer all of its almost one million AstraZeneca doses, most of which came via the global COVAX scheme, by May 15. "The health ministry is trying to obtain more vaccines, and we expect to receive more by the end of 2021, but it won't be enough for community immunity," Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam said in a statement on Tuesday. "At least from now until the end of 2021, Vietnam will have to take anti-COVID-19 measures as if it hasn't received any vaccines." The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has urged related units to drastically prevent people from flashing laser pointers, flying kites or operating other flying objects near airports, which cause great danger to flight navigation. The CAAV has had several reports of laser lights played near Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi, Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, and Da Nang International Airport in central Da Nang City recently. In addition, flying kites and drones near the airdromes has been increasing, according to the CAAV. On May 9 and 8, administrators at Noi Bai and Tan Son Nhat had to deal with two separate kite-flying events. Laser lights can disorientate pilots. Those aimed at the cockpit are potentially dangerous, even though they do not directly hit the pilots eyes. Meanwhile, kites can collide with airplanes which are moving at high speed during their landings and take-offs, possibly resulting in accidents. The CAAV thus requested airport operators to coordinate with local authorities to detect and prevent the aforementioned acts in time, while strictly punishing organizations and individuals violating aviation safety regulations. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Jeopardized by the complex developments of local COVID-19 outbreaks, Vietnamese immigrants in Cambodia are bracing immense risk to repatriate by swimming across An Giang Provinces Binh Di River, which separates Vietnam and Cambodia. The phenomenon was confirmed by Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Quang Diem, head of border guard at Long Binh Border Gate, An Phu District, An Giang Province, on Tuesday. The border post has detected 30 cases of people swimming their way into Vietnam in the past few months, the majority of whom are Vietnamese immigrants who moved to Cambodia for job opportunities. All detected illegal entrants have been sent back to quarantine, Diem stated. In light of the detection, officers at the border post are required to keep an eye on immigrants who swim through the Binh Di River. They are also instructed to keep a safe distance and film the incidents upon detecting such cases. According to Diem, the Binh Di River stretches 70 to 100 meters in width, depending on the location. The river is also occupied by floating rafts of water hyacinth and aquaculture cages of fishing households in Khanh An, Khanh Binh Communes, and Long Binh Town. Illegal entrants usually swim across the Binh Di River, then hide in the water hyacinth clusters or fishing cages to avoid detection by authorities. The wave of illegals from Cambodia who sneak into Vietnam through the Binh Di River will persist in the near future due to the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic in neighboring countries, he added. Video shows border guards finding an illegal entrant to Vietnam hiding in water hyacinth clusters on Binh Di River in An Giang Province, Vietnam. Video: Quang Diem / Tuoi Tre Vietnam is tightening border security to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infection from border jumpers. The Southeast Asian country has sealed its borders since March last year but it still grants entry to diplomats, foreign experts, and Vietnamese repatriates. The country requires all arrivals from outside the country to undergo different forms of quarantine to stem the spread of COVID-19. Many border jumpers have been found trying to sneak into the nation to duck such quarantine over the past few months. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Childrens Television, regional news, news media and the bargaining code with digital players were winners from last nights Federal Budget 2021. The Morrison Government pledged commitments for the media sector and acknowledged challenges the pandemic has created for the arts sector. Amongst the measures announced last night were: $15 million to the AAP Newswire in support of public interest journalism in regional Australia; $4.2 million to implement the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code; $85.4 million for eight national collecting institutions; and $11.9 million over four years to boost quality childrens television content. This represents the ACTFs operational funding being locked in for 4 years. ACTF currently receives $2.9 million annually from the Commonwealth Government, on a year by year basis. Continued support for public interest journalism in regional Australia The Government will provide additional funding of $15 million over two years to the Australian Associated Press Newswire (AAP), starting in the 2020-21 financial year. The funding will support AAPs continued provision of newswire services, consisting of regional, national and international news, to regional media outlets across Australia. This allows regional media businesses to concentrate on covering local news stories that are important to their communities. The funding is consistent with the objectives of the Public Interest News Gathering (PING) Program to support regional journalism and builds on the Governments existing support to the newswire service. The measure will bring the total support to AAP to $20 million. AAPs existing PING agreement will be updated to reflect the increase in funding and new grant activities. The first payment of $7.5 million will be paid before 30 June 2021. News Media Bargaining Code The Australian Government has introduced the world-leading News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code to address the bargaining power imbalance between Australian news media businesses and digital platforms, and to support a diverse and sustainable news media sector in Australia. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has several important functions under the Code, including registering news businesses, and maintaining a register of arbitrators. Additional funding of $4.2 million over three years from 2020-21 will be provided to ACMA in this Budget to enable the regulator to discharge its responsibilities. Creative and Cultural Sector As part of our plan to secure Australias recovery, the Government has invested almost $300 million to support the successful reopening of Australias creative and cultural sector. These measures include: $50.8 million to extend the Temporary Interruption Fund used by the screen industry until 31 December 2021. The fund is helping to support local film and television producers secure finance and start filming again. $75 million to reinstate the Producer Offset Rate for film set to 40 per cent as an ongoing measure for Australian film of creative and cultural significance. $20 million to various arts organisations including $10 million for the music charity Support Act, and $5 million to support national performing arts touring. More support for our National Cultural Institutions The Government will provide additional funding of $85.4 million to our National Collecting Institutions to improve their financial sustainability and enable them to undertake a variety of capital works so that we can continue to preserve and enjoy Australias cultural heritage. Additional funding of $32.4 million over two years will be provided to eight National Collecting Institutions to improve their financial sustainability and enable them to deliver public services and programs. The Australian National Maritime Museum, Bundanon Trust, Museum of Australian Democracy, National Film and Sound Archive, National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Museum of Australia and National Portrait Gallery of Australia will be the beneficiaries of this funding. Childrens Television Further funding of $11.9 million over four years from 2021-22 and $3.0 million ongoing, will be provided to the Australian Childrens Television Foundation (ACTF) to support the development and distribution of quality Australian childrens content. This is in addition to the funding of $20.2 million over two years provided in the 2020-21 Budget. ACTF has played a pivotal role in the success of iconic Australian programs, such as Round the Twist and Dance Academy, and more recent productions including Bluey, Hardball and Little J and Big Cuz. This funding will enable ACTF to support producers of childrens content to transition as the Government modernises the regulatory and funding framework that underpins Australian content. It will also assist ACTF to continue their role in helping producers capitalise on interest from streaming services to commission and acquire quality Australian childrens content. Updated. Related New UK miniseries The English, created by Hugo Blick (The Honourable Woman, Black Earth Rising, The Shadow Line) will screen in Australia on Amazon Prime. Filming has now commenced in Spain on the 660 high-octane epic western led by Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins Returns, A Quiet Place) and Chaske Spencer (The Twilight Saga, Banshee). The series is set in the mythic mid-American landscape in the year of 1890, and follows Cornelia Locke (Emily Blunt), an Englishwoman who arrives into the new and wild landscape of the West to wreak revenge on the man she sees as responsible for the death of her son. Upon meeting Eli Whipp (Chaske Spencer), an ex-cavalry scout and member of the Pawnee Nation by birth, they join together and discover a shared history which must be defeated at all costs, if either of them are to survive. The cast will also include Rafe Spall (The Salisbury Poisonings, Jurassic World: The Fallen Kingdom), Tom Hughes (A Discovery of Witches, Victoria), Stephen Rea (The Shadow Line, The Honourable Woman), Valerie Pachner (The Kingsman), Toby Jones (Marvellous, Detectorists), Ciaran Hinds (The Terror, The Woman in Black), Malcolm Storry (The Princess Bride, Doc Martin), Steve Wall (Raised by Wolves, The Witcher), Nichola McAuliffe (Tomorrow Never Dies, Doctor Who), Sule Rimi (Black Earth Rising, Strike Back) and Cristian Solimeno (Avenue 5, Guilt). Hugo Blick said, The chance to make a Western with Emily Blunt and the cast is so delicious Im still wondering if its one of those weird dreams we were all having during lockdown. If not, a thrilling, romantic, epic horse-opera is heading to your screen sometime next year, and I couldnt be more excited. Greg Brenman, CEO of Drama Republic, said: Hugo Blick has created a compelling, modern love story set against the epic landscape of a Western. The English is a true adventure that will tell us as much about the times we live in today as the period in which it is set. Brad Beale, Vice President, Worldwide Licensing for Prime Video, said: We cant wait to break new ground and bring The English to Prime Video. We know Hugo Blicks incredible tale of love, loss, and revenge brought to life on-screen by the talented Emily Blunt, Chaske Spencer, and the entire cast of The English will captivate Prime members across the globe. Greg Brenman will executive produce for Drama Republic alongside Hugo Blick and Emily Blunt. Mona Qureshi will executive produce for the BBC. The producer is Colin Wratten (Killing Eve, The Witness for the Prosecution). The English has been commissioned for the BBC by Charlotte Moore, Chief Content Officer, and Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama Commissioning. Amazon Studios is coproducing in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, in association with All3Media international. IllumiNative are consulting with production on the series. Related Tyler, TX (75702) Today Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. Hot and humid. High near 90F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low 74F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Alumni now have a central social media source for information on all Flyer events, conversations and news. Hosted by the UD Alumni Association, the Facebook page brings together information once offered by 35 alumni community pages. It can be found at facebook.com/UDaytonAlum. Quentin Marsh 11, UD community alumni leader in Rochester, New York, encouraged Flyers to like and follow the page. This is a great resource to learn how to go, give and lead with the UD community, he said. This is a great resource to learn how to go, give and lead with the UD community. The page is also open to parents and friends who, along with alumni, want to engage in ongoing, digital conversations with the University about what is most important to them in the space where they are, said Anita Brothers, director of alumni relations and engagement. This page will allow us to more broadly connect with alumni from across the globe and bring engagement opportunities to them no matter where they are, she said. Virtual event offerings also mean alumni have more opportunities to participate. For example, on Dec. 16, wine specialist Bill Whiting 90 along with Allison Leigh 05 from the Office of Mission and Rector led the virtual wine tasting Marianists and Bordeaux: A Perfect Pairing. More than 180 people attended. The page also appeals to recent graduates, who received wise words in December from young alumni. Among them: Everyone you meet has something brand new to teach you, and Remember, you are a Flyer for life. Germany is one of the EU countries where vaccinations are accelerating. (Getty Images) Several EU countries are now vaccinating their population against COVID-19 faster than the UK. After a sluggish start to their vaccine rollout, many EU nations have picked up the pace. Malta now has the fastest rate in the EU, with a seven-day average of 1.31 doses per 100 people every day, compared to 0.71 in the UK. Other countries like Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium are also vaccinating at a faster pace than Britain, according to a graph from Our World in Data. These are the EU countries vaccinating faster than the UK, and their seven-day average of new doses per 100 people: Malta 1.31 Cyprus 1.14 Finland 0.93 Greece 0.91 Hungary 0.91 Lithuania 0.86 Germany 0.85 (10 May) Belgium 0.84 Portugal 0.80 Spain 0.83 (10 May) Italy 0.77 Poland 0.74 Seven-day average of new doses per 100 people. (Our World in Data) The UKs cumulative rate of vaccinations per 100 people of 79.07 is still higher than most EU countries. Only Malta has a higher overall rate with 88.99 as of Tuesday. There was a significant reduction in the vaccine supply in the UK last month but vaccinations have begun to pick up again, with those aged 38-39 the latest to be invited for a jab. The European Commission and EU countries came under fire for missteps in their vaccine rollout that lagged badly behind Israel, Britain and the US. The bloc was criticised for being slower to negotiate contracts with vaccine manufacturers, and the EU's executive and drug regulator faced increasing pressure for what some consider slow vaccine approvals. A vaccination centre in Portugal. (Getty Images) The focus on vaccinations as a critical tool to stopping the virus come amid concerns that the so-called 'Indian' variant is spreading at a worrying level in the UK. Earlier this week, Dr Christina Pagel, director of the Clinical Operation Research Unit at University College London, warned that recent data shows transmission of the India variant is incredibly concerning. Read more: People aged 38 to 39 can book COVID vaccinations from Thursday When could UK children be given a COVID vaccine? Speaking at a Downing Street press conference on Monday, Englands chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty admitted the UK must be very careful about the new variant. Story continues He said it is possible the Indian variant is more transmissible than the Kent variant but added that scientists think the variant is less likely to be able to escape vaccination than some other variants. Watch: Do coronavirus vaccines affect fertility? Ring Factory families, especially those who live in neighborhoods such as Glenwood that are across Route 924 from the school, objected to the plans, though, as it would mean their children would have to get on a bus rather than walk to school. They also noted that Ring Factory has been part of the fabric of their community since it opened in 1990. Those families will be able to remain in their neighborhood school, as the May 6 map shows children who were going to shift from there to Homestead-Wakefield will stay put. While Iran and Saudi Arabia do not share many common political values and have been indirectly competing for more power and influence in the region through actions in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen, recent developments suggest room for rapprochement, Daily Sabah writes. Recently, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) stressed the use of diplomatic efforts to defuse tensions between the two regional powers as he said in an interview broadcast on Saudi state television that he hopes to build a good and positive relationship with Iran that would benefit all parties. We have Saudi interests in Iran, and they have Iranian interests in Saudi Arabia, which are to drive prosperity and growth in the region and the entire world, he added. Two days later, Irans Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, said at a press briefing in response to MBSs remarks, With negotiations and a constructive outlook, the two important countries in the region and the Islamic world can put their differences behind them and enter a new phase of cooperation and tolerance to bring stability and peace to the region. Although these initial signs of new common understandings between the two countries require more solid steps towards establishing concrete trust, they show the two countries desire to reduce the tension and pursue a more diplomatic approach. Houthis are top concern Looking at the two countries' rivalry in the region, Saudi Arabia cannot do much in Iraq or Syria and they both have almost the same amount of influence in Lebanon. However, Yemen is the Saudis' top priority, and Iran is using the power of its ally in Yemen, the Houthis, as a pressuring tool in the U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations. The Saudis want to find a way to end the Yemen war and stop the Iran-backed Houthi militias missile and drone attacks on its land. Iran also wants Saudi Arabia to pull back its pressure campaign to stop lobbying for sanctions against Iran. This makes Yemen more suitable for any de-escalation steps between the two countries. Warring parties in Yemen hold strong relations with the regional actors as the internationally recognized government of Yemen receives full support from Saudi Arabia, and the Houthis also obtain unlimited support from Iran. Therefore, any talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran will inevitably have a positive effect on accelerating the peace process in Yemen, especially after it has been proven through the past six years that the military option is not a successful solution to end the war and stop "the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. Secret talks Secret talks between Saudi and Iranian officials were held recently in Iraq hosted by Iraqs Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, on April 9. Iraqi and Iranian officials said the discussions included concerns about the war in Yemen. Khatibzade, during a weekly press briefing in Tehran, said that he had come across reports relating to Tehran-Riyadh talks, adding that "What is important is that the Islamic Republic of Iran has always welcomed dialogue with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and considers it in the interest of the people of the two countries, as well as peace and stability in the region." On April 21, the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism held a hearing to examine Washingtons policy toward Yemen, where it featured the U.S. Special Envoy for Yemen Timothy Lenderking. During the hearing, when asked by Senator Chris Van Hollen about reports of dialogue between Saudi and Iranian officials regarding Yemen, Lenderking said, I'm eager to learn more about those meetings myself ... the more that these two countries can reduce tensions, the better. This change of tone between the two countries came as a result of U.S. President Joe Bidens determination to end the war in Yemen. But it seems that Biden is using Yemen as a pressuring tool on both Saudi Arabia and Iran. In his first month in office, Biden blocked several arms sales to Saudi Arabia and ordered the release of an intelligence assessment that found MBS had likely ordered the killing of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. He also removed the Iran-backed Houthis' designation as an international terrorist group. This new U.S. approach in the region, with no key ally, pushed the two counties to get closer and start resolving their issues regardless of their longstanding disputes. Support for the U.N.'s proposed nationwide cease-fire in Yemen and other regional security arrangements are expected to come of the talks. The talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia are more likely to continue with more rounds to break the ice and build trust. And as long as these two countries remain major players in Yemen, cooperation between them appears to be the more logical solution to ending the war in the country. As patients struggle to find available hospital beds, life-saving drugs and medical oxygen, a flourishing black market is fleecing hapless people across the country, Deutsche Welle reports. When Anumeha Kumar, who works as a bank clerk in the southern city of Hyderabad, contracted the coronavirus and had to be admitted to a hospital for treatment of severe COVID symptoms, her family was forced to shell out almost 43,000 Indian rupees (480/$585) to get hold of the antiviral drug remdesivir through the black market. "We had no other option as she was in need of this and it was not available anywhere. All pharmacies said they had run out of stock and we tried everywhere," Pradeep, her brother, told DW. The original price for the 100 milligram vial of the drug is anywhere between 1,000 and 5,400 rupees. In India, remdesivir has widely been used to treat patients with severe symptoms. In the central city of Indore, Rattanjeet Lal, a 45-year-old taxi driver, had to drive around for more than 10 hours in search of an oxygen cylinder for his wife last week, as her oxygen levels dropped sharply. "I finally managed to get a 30-liter oxygen cylinder for almost 60,000 rupees, for a price that is almost three times as much as it costs in normal times," Lal told DW. Indians turn to black market for vital supplies Both Kumar and Lal are among the countless number of people nationwide who have had to turn to the black market to secure essential medical supplies, as the second COVID wave ravages India. Desperate people have been taking to social media to beg for beds, oxygen or medication. Against this backdrop the black market is thriving, with dealers hoarding vital supplies and creating an artificial shortage. They then sell them to hapless people at exorbitant rates, fleecing poor patients. This kind of pandemic profiteering has aggravated patient distress and even led to a loss of lives. "People are taking desperate measures to try to keep loved ones alive. In some cases, they are turning to unproven medical treatment or otherwise to the black market for life-saving medications that are in short supply," Anil Bhan, a surgeon, told DW. Despite India's status as the "pharmacy of the world," the biggest producer of generic drugs has been unable to meet the demand for antiviral medications such as remdesivir and favipiravir. Given that demand has been outstripping supply in the country, police and other investigating agencies have had to crack down on black marketeers. In the capital, New Delhi, which has been confronting a massive shortage of medical oxygen, police raided a building in a posh neighborhood and seized over 400 oxygen concentrators last week. "We have arrested several people under sections of the Essential Commodities Act and Epidemic Diseases Act. The hunt is on for the mastermind of this racket, who is a celebrity," said Atul Thakur, a senior police official. Profiteering amid the pandemic So far, police have registered over 110 cases and arrested more than 100 for cheating people by promising to help them with vital drugs and medical oxygen. Fifty-two other cases have been filed against black marketing and hoarding. Even private ambulance operators have been charging exorbitant prices to shift COVID patients to hospitals. And private hospitals don't have a good record either, with many swindling vulnerable people and charging desperate families hundreds of thousands of rupees. "I was asked to pay cash upfront for a bed and finally when my mother was discharged after a week, the hospital gave me a bill of nearly 200,000 rupees, which is too much," Paneer Selvan, a mechanic from Tamil Nadu state, told DW. Rajan Shukla, a public health official, described it as "daylight robbery." "Given the unprecedented circumstances aggrieved families face, they have no option but to pay to these ruthless marketers," he said. 'You are looting people,' says court Many hospitals have also flouted rules on price caps by overcharging for personal protective equipment kits, treatment in intensive care units and hospital rooms, among others. In some states, courts have had to intervene over the pricing in hospitals. On Monday, the Kerala High Court expressed concern and said that private hospitals were looting patients. "We found unconscionable billings, Rs 22,000 for PPE kits. Look at the bills! We saw that the humble rice gruel is charged at Rs 1,300," the court observed. "Imagine the plight of a citizen who earns Rs 1,000 and sees a bill of Rs 200-300,000. We are seeing infections rising rapidly. This is not an isolated case. Anyone can catch the infection now. You are looting people. Think about it, we have to intervene now." The fleecing continues even after the death of a patient. With crematoriums in many severely affected cities overflowing, reports suggest that families have had to pay higher prices for the cremation of their loved ones. On Monday, dozens of dead bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims washed up on the banks of the Ganges river in northern India. Locals said such sights have become frequent in recent days, ever since officials started dumping bodies into the river after running out of firewood at the crematoriums or because grieving families were unable to pay the high cremation fees. "At certain places, we received complaints that the public caretakers were asking for a lot of money for doing one cremation. We are looking into it," said a municipal corporation official in Bihar's Buxar district. As a result of the clashes between the Palestinians and the Israeli police in early May, about 300 people have already been injured. The cause of the conflict is the eviction of Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the celebration of Al-Quds Day. Regional expert Israel Shamir believes that, although the truth is for the Arabs, unequal forces can hardly turn the tide in their favor, especially given the normalization of relations between the Gulf countries and Israel. The coronavirus pandemic has frozen many wars in the Middle East. In Yemen, Libya, Syria, there have been no serious clashes for a long time. But quarantine does not apply to Palestine. After all, this is perhaps the most difficult and long-standing conflict in the region. Almost every year on Al-Quds Day (a day of solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for independence), there are clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in the Gaza Strip or the West Bank. One of the major events took place in 2018 - then, after the March of Return, 119 civilians in Gaza were killed, and another 13,300 were injured by bullets and gas. The reason for the violence is the eviction of the Palestinians The current tension began in East Jerusalem on May 7 in two places at once - at the holy Temple Mount for the Israelites and in the Sheikh Jarrah region. Unlike the conflict three years ago, this crisis is caused not only by the celebration of Al-Quds, but also by two other circumstances. First, an Israeli court ruled that several families in the Sheikh Jarrah area should be evicted. When the Israeli police began to implement this decision, Palestinian protests began. The second "wick" was the celebration by the Jews of the Day of Jerusalem - the anniversary of the transfer of a part of the city to Israel's control after the 1967 Six-Day War. The coincidence of the march of the Israelis with the last day of Ramadan has heated the situation to the maximum. The Palestinians were particularly angered by the behavior of the Israeli police, which did not allow them to enter the Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day and began shooting at parishioners of one of the main Muslim shrines, the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israelis used flashbangs and tear gas, and 200 policemen began storming al-Aqsa courtyards and even indoor prayer halls, forcibly driving believers out of the mosque. Who's to blame? Israeli-Russian writer and publicist Israel Shamir holds Israel responsible for the violence. "The Israelis are going to annoy the Palestinians and provoke their reaction. They are doing this to create a big conflict and so that Netanyahu can stay in power, as some say. Or the Jews already have a feeling that now they can do absolutely everything, including taking over Al -Aksu, build a third temple and the like. We cannot accurately assess what exactly the Israeli authorities mean. But at a minimum, they try to irritate and provoke a Palestinian reaction, which they succeed, "he said in an interview with Vestnik Caucasus ". In such a situation, the Palestinians cannot help but react, Shamir said: It is difficult for the Palestinians not to react when the Jews throw dozens of Palestinian families from Jerusalem areas into the streets as part of their program of this happens at the end of the month of Ramadan, when people are already very tired of long fasting. " On May 10, street clashes with the police reached a new level. About 150 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel. Most of them fell on open ground or were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. Hamas's military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigade, claimed responsibility for the rocket attacks. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group also reported its attacks on Israel. In the evening, the Israel Defense Forces began to retaliate against Hamas's military infrastructure. According to the IDF, the strikes hit two missile launchers, two military bases and a tunnel. In total, over three days of clashes, 300 people, mostly Palestinians, were injured. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks of the need for a tough reaction. His government will not allow radicals to undermine the peace in Jerusalem, he said. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Staye blamed Tel Aviv for what was happening: "I consider the Israeli government fully responsible for what the prayers in the holy Al-Aqsa were subjected to," said Staye. to evict people from Sheikh Jarrah, to evict the original owners of the land from their homes. " International response Jordan, as the custodian of Muslim shrines in East Jerusalem, criticized the behavior of the Israeli security forces. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after talks with the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, promised to do everything possible to mobilize peace to stop Israel's "terror" against the Palestinians. Assessing Israel's attacks in Jerusalem as 'terror', I expressed (in a conversation with Palestinian leaders) the harshest condemnation of these dastardly attacks, which hurt the conscience of not only Muslims, but all of humanity. I stressed that we will do everything possible to mobilize the whole world, especially the Islamic one, to stop the Israeli terror and occupation, "Erdogan wrote in his telegram channel. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed the skirmishes in Jerusalem with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Russia, along with other members of the Quartet of Middle East mediators - the US, EU and UN - expressed concern over the violence and called on the Palestinians and Israelis to show restraint. On May 10, members of the UN Security Council discussed the escalation in East Jerusalem. At the time of the meeting, clashes were still ongoing there. UN Secretary General's spokesman Stefan Dujarrick said the organization "is following with greater concern the security situation, which threatens with further escalation, continued violence and loss of life" and "strongly condemns" the shelling of Israel from the Gaza Strip. What's next? Despite the resistance of Palestine, it hardly has a serious chance in an unequal struggle, said Israel Shamir. "It's hard to say what will happen next. Gaza fired 250 rockets at Israeli territory. But no one was hurt from them. Although they can set off fireworks, they cannot do real harm. At the same time, from one Israeli strike, allegedly in response, immediately dozens of Palestinians are dying. The forces are completely out of proportion. It is very difficult to come up with something in this situation, when other Arab countries, one after another, sign peace treaties with Israel and go to meet it in everything. " On September 15, with the mediation of former US President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdel Latif al-Zayani signed the Abraham Treaty to normalize relations. Morocco followed the example of the Gulf countries. Although the new head of the White House is not as pro-Israel as Trump, Washington continues to support Israel. "Although there seems to be no Trump, and Trump was a more ardent Zionist than Biden, the current American authorities are still pro-Jewish, they still support Israel," Shamir added. In 2017, Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US Embassy there. According to international law, the Middle East settlement should take place on the basis of the "two states" principle. East Jerusalem should become part of Palestine, and West Jerusalem should be part of Israel. Angola on Wednesday approved the emergency use of Russias one-shot Sputnik-Light COVID-19 vaccine, the Russian Direct Investment Fund, the sovereign wealth fund responsible for marketing the vaccine abroad, said in a statement, Reuters reports. Developed by Moscows Gamaleya Institute, the slimmed-down vaccine, which the RDIF said is 79.4% effective against COVID-19 and costs under $10 a dose, has been earmarked for export and has been billed as a way to help vaccine supplies go further in countries with high infection rates. Bahrain and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) have reached an agreement in principle on producing Russias Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus infection in the kingdom, Bahrains Ambassador to Moscow Ahmed Al-Saati said at a meeting with Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation Anton Kobyakov. "As things stand, we have conducted talks with the Russian Direct Investment Fund and reached agreements in principle to begin manufacturing the Russian jab. In order to do so, we are planning to build a special medical center on the territory of the kingdom jointly with the Russian side," the press service of the Roscongress Foundation quoted him as saying on Wednesday. During the meeting, the parties also discussed the participation of the Bahraini delegation in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in June. In relation to that, the presidential aide reiterated that last year Moscow and Manama marked the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties and have been dynamically cultivating them in many spheres to date. "The interaction within the framework of key business events, such as SPIEF, undoubtedly, will strengthen the established ties and will promote widening the relationship, along with the continued development of business and cultural dialogue between Russia and Bahrain," TASS cited him as saying. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday spoke to Israel's Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and expressed his concerns over the escalating violence between Israel and Palestine, including the rocket attacks by the latter. According to U.S. Department of State spokesperson Ned Price, both leaders discussed the violence in Jerusalem, in particular on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount and in Sheikh Jarrah. Blinken reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence, which has claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children. The Secretary also emphasised the need for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in safety and security, as well as enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy. Ashkenazi and Blinken acknowledged the steadfast partnership between the United States and Israel, and committed to working together on challenges ahead, said Price. This comes as the tensions between Israel and Palestine are rapidly escalating, with ramping up of rocket attacks and airstrikes from both sides, ANI reported. Crimean police have detained a man who on social media threatened that he was going to blow up a school in an attempt to test just how effectively Russias security services operate, a source in the Crimean law enforcement informed said. "A man was detained in the Krasnogvardeysky District [of Crimea], who, according to the law enforcement, posted a message on social media, in which he said that he wanted to test the work of the special services by attempting to blow up a school," TASS cited the source as saying. On Tuesday, a graduate of Public School 175 in Kazan went on a shooting spree at his former educational institution. According to local officials, seven children and two adults were killed in the attack, and 23 people were injured. The shooter is now in custody. Residents of Kerch, a city in Crimea where another deadly shooting took place in October 2018 in a college, brought flowers and toys to an improvised memorial on Tuesday located in the city center in honor of the victims of yesterdays Kazan school shooting. Banyas, Howards Class of 2022 Student Government Association president, said in his online campaign materials that his main priorities are getting civic education and financial literacy included in social studies, increasing support for mental health and pushing the school system to continue to join the Green Schools Alliance, a worldwide effort to address climate change in schools. Banyas, who is also co-president of the schools Tri-M Music Honor Society and vice president of the Math Honor Society, has also said he will hold town halls and will post weekly videos discussing relevant issues. Georgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Davit Zalkaliani has responded to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his post on Twitter, saying Georgia 'strongly condemns' violence and rocket attacks against civilians. He said that there is no alternative to the de-escalation of tensions in the region, Agenda.ge reported. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have escalated as Palestinian militants in Gaza fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which responded with ramped up airstrikes on the coastal enclave, as unrest spread to cities and towns beyond Jerusalem. Israeli bombing raids across Gaza have killed at least 35 people, including 12 children, according to Palestinian health officials, who also said 220 people have been injured, as of Tuesday evening. The Israeli military said it had killed more than 15 militants. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev expressed his condolences to President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin over the recent shooting in a Kazan school. "Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich, I am deeply shocked by the news of the death of children and adults in a shooting at one of the schools in Kazan. On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I express my sincere condolences to you, relatives and closed ones of the dead, and wish the injured soonest recovery," the letter said. Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva also expressed their condolences to President of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov. "Dear Rustam Nurgaliyevich, it is with deep sorrow that we received the news of the death of children and adults as a result of a shooting at the school No 175 in Kazan. Sharing the grief of the irreparable loss, we express our sincere condolences to you, relatives and closed ones of those who died, and wish the injured soonest recovery," the letter said. Israeli military chief Aviv Kochavi decided on Tuesday to extend Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip "with no time limit" amid the tensions with Hamas, a Palestinian movement that runs the strip. The Israeli military issued a statement, saying that following a security assessment, Kochavi has ordered to beef up the forces around the Gaza Strip with more infantry and armored brigades, and continue striking the sites belonging to Hamas and other militant groups, Xinhua reported. It came after at least 26 Palestinians, including nine children, have been killed since the Israeli attack began on Monday. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz has approved the recruit of some 5,000 reservists to enable the operation, his office said in a statement. Hamas expanded the range of its rockets on Monday afternoon, firing projectiles also toward Ashdod, a city in southern-central Israel. Heavy barrages were fired at Ashdod and Ashkelon, injuring at least four Israelis, according to the Magen David Adom emergency health service. A Hamas spokesman said in a statement that its combatants fired 137 "heavy rockets" at the two places within five minutes. The group warned it will renew the fire and expand its range even further if Israel does not change its policy in East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a flashpoint site where Israeli police have been clashing with Palestinians over the past weeks. More than 1,000 rockets have been fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip since the beginning of escalation, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Wednesday. "Some 850 rockets have crossed the Israeli border and 200 landed in the Gaza Strip," Israels Channel 7 reported citing the army spokesman. Since Monday, five people have been killed in a rocket attack carried out from Gaza. Two women died on Tuesday in Ashkelon, and another woman in the evening in Rishon LeZion. The Israel Defense Forces continued airstrikes on Gaza at night, ruining the houses of three top Hamas leaders. A total of 500 targets have been hit in Gaza. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the radical Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip, said early on Wednesday it had launched 100 rockets towards the Israeli city of Beersheba, Palestines Dunya Al Watan news portal reported. The attack came in response to Israels air strikes on residential houses in the Gaza Strip, it said. Israeli military chief Aviv Kochavi decided on Tuesday to extend Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip "with no time limit" amid the tensions with Hamas, a Palestinian movement that runs the strip. The Israeli military issued a statement, saying that following a security assessment, Kochavi has ordered to beef up the forces around the Gaza Strip with more infantry and armored brigades, and continue striking the sites belonging to Hamas and other militant groups, Xinhua reported. The number of people killed by Israeli missile strikes in the Gaza Strip since Monday has risen to 35, the Al Mamlaka TV channel reported on Wednesday citing the coastal enclaves health ministry. According to the ministry, Israeli strikes killed three Palestinians on Wednesday night. Earlier, 15 people were killed on Tuesday. The overall death toll since Monday stands at 35, including one woman and 12 children. The number of injured Gaza residents has reached 233. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the "spiraling escalation" in Israel and Palestine must be brought to a rapid end. Guterres "is deeply saddened to learn of increasingly large numbers of casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. "Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force. The indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars towards Israeli population centres is unacceptable," added Dujarric. Project for Pakistan and Uzbekistan transit trade and export goods to Pakistan through the territory of Afghanistan launched on Tuesday in Islamabad, Associatd Press of Pakistan reports. According to the Press Release from Ministry of Commerce, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Pakistan together with Pakistani transport company Best Trans Pvt. Ltd. and Uzbek freight forwarding company Asad Trans for the first time implemented pilot trans-Afghan logistics project for the direct delivery of Uzbek export goods to Pakistan through the territory of Afghanistan. The project launched as the joint action of the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Islamabad with the support of the Ministry of Commerce of Pakistan, the partners of Asad Trans and Best Trans Pvt. Ltd. since January of this year began working on a project for direct delivery through Afghanistan of Uzbek goods to Pakistani cities according to the suppliers warehouse importers warehouse scheme. According to Press relase ,the implementation of the specified transit transportation of Uzbek goods is the implementation of trans-Afghan transport and logistics projects initiated by the President of Uzbekistan. Successful implementation of the project provides to significantly reduce of the cost of transportation of Uzbek goods, including shipping at Uzbek-Afghan border, and subsequently at Afghan-Pakistani border in accordance with TIR CARNET Convention dated on 1975, members of which are Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan, release said. Police in Bonn, Germany, said that they had stepped up security at a local synagogue after several suspects were arrested for vandalising it. According to the police, several young people attacked the entrance to the synagogue and set a fire there. When the police arrived they found the door had had its glass shattered and discovered leaflets written, presumably, in Arabic. The officers additionally found a burned Israeli flag that had probably been torched by the criminals. The police later arrested three suspects, aged 20, 20, and 24, and also found a car they allegedly drove. The police are also looking for a young woman, aged 18-22, in dark clothes with braided hair. "Currently, the synagogue's security, which was in place before, has been increased", the police said, refraining from specifics out of "strategic concerns". Meanwhile, police in Berlin declined to tell Sputnik whether they had boosted security at synagogues in the German capital. "Synagogues are traditionally under protection, [and] we cannot tell the press if this protection has been increased out of security concerns", Sputnik cited the police as saying. They did mention arresting 10 people during an anti-Israel protest on 9 May after a group of teenagers attacked law enforcement officers near the Hermannplatz subway station. Sixteen officers were injured during the operation. The Bonn attack took place amid an ongoing escalation in hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians. Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed situation in Jerusalem and the general environment in the zone of the Arab-Israeli conflict in a phone conversation on Wednesday, the NTV channel reported. The Turkish president pointed out that a "similar stance of Turkey and Russia on the issue [of status] of Jerusalem is an important message" in the context of resolving this issue. He noted the importance of statements by the Russian Foreign Ministry regarding settling the Jerusalem problem based on UN decisions and the two-state solution. Putin also confirmed in a phone conversation that Moscow is ready to supply the Sputnik V vaccine to Turkey. Moscow calls on the parties to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to show restraint and refrain from any steps that can be fraught with escalation of the situation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday. According to the Russian diplomat, the situation in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip is extremely explosive. "Moscow is seriously concerned over these dangerous developments. We strongly condemn attacks on civilians regardless of their ethnic or religious identity. We call on the parties to show restraint and refrain from steps fraught with further escalation of tension. We think it essential to observe the status quo concerning Jerusalems holy sites committed to paper in the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty, as well as United Nations resolutions on this city," she said. She stressed that Moscow would continue efforts towards lasting and comprehensive Palestinian-Israeli settlement. "As a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and a member of the Middle East Quartet of international mediators and in cooperation with regional and international sides, Russia will do its best to achieve comprehensive and lasting settlement in line with the UN Security Council resolutions envisaging the establishment of two states - Palestine and Israel coexisting in peace and security," TASS cited her as saying. An exchange of missile strikes between Israel and Palestinian radicals from the Gaza Strip followed an outburst of unrest near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalems Old City in early May. More than 700 people have been hurt in riots in recent days. Clashes between the Palestinians and the Israeli police were triggered by an Israeli court ruling to seize dwelling houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood from Arab families who have been living there for more than 50 years in favor of Jewish resettlers who had reportedly owned these buildings before 1948. The houses allocated by Jordan as the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem are located some 500 meters from Al-Aqsa. Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow is ready to supply the Sputnik V vaccine to Turkey, the Kremlin press service said on Wednesday. "The sides continued the discussion on the current situation and the prospects of cooperation in battling the coronavirus pandemic. Vladimir Putin confirmed Russias readiness to ensure the Sputnik V vaccines supplies to Turkey. In the coming days, a Turkish delegation will arrive in Moscow to discuss this issue," TASS cited the statement as saying. Putin also sent his best wishes to Erdogan and the Turkish people on the occasion of the upcoming conclusion of the Holy month of Ramadan, according to the Kremlin press service. The leaders also agreed to continue regular bilateral dialogue at various levels. Russias COVID-19 case tally climbed by 8,217 over the past day, reaching 4,905,059, the anti-coronavirus crisis center told reporters on Wednesday. In relative terms, the growth rate reached 0.17%. The lowest growth rates were registered over the past day in the Republic of Altai, in the Jewish Autonomous Region (0.02%) and the Tuva Republic (0.03%). Over the past day, 2,718 COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Moscow, 734 in St. Petersburg, 642 in the Moscow Region, 201 in the Rostov Region, 131 in the Voronezh Region and 121 in the Irkutsk Region. Currently, 272,199 people are undergoing treatment in Russia. Russia has documented 8,614 recoveries from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the overall recovery count to 4,518,529. The share of recovered patients has remained at 92.1% of the total case count. In the past 24 hours, 2,394 recoveries were documented in Moscow, 933 in St. Petersburg, 585 in the Moscow Region, 205 in the Pskov Region, 192 in Crimea and 182 in the Saratov Region. The number of COVID-19 fatalities in Russia over the past 24 hours has increased by 355 compared to 329 the day before. In all, 114,331 patients died of the infection. According to the crisis center, the provisional lethality of the disease (the final one can be determined only after the end of the epidemic) has remained at the level of 2.33%. Over the past 24 hours, 39 fatalities have been registered in St. Petersburg, 15 - in the Samara and Rostov regions each, 13 fatalities - in the Leningrad Region and 12 fatalities were recorded in the Krasnodar and Sverdlovsk regions each, TASS reported. I have not yet told my daughter and I have to really think through how Im going to approach that conversation, Keenan said. These are kids who are still not back in school five days a week yet [due to the coronavirus pandemic]; to layer this on top of everything these kids have been through this year, its heartbreaking. Any year this would be difficult, in spring of 2021 its hard to find the words for just how hard this is for these kids. Turkey will gradually ease lockdown restrictions after the Eid holiday as coronavirus cases and fatalities continue to ebb nationwide, the country's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday. "Hopefully, by bringing the pandemic under control, we will take normalization steps in a controlled manner after Eid," Erdogan said in a video message celebrating the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday that will start on Thursday. According to Erdogan, "good days are ahead even though we are having a bitter holiday due to the problems caused by the pandemic." He recalled that last Eid, Turkey was hoping to overcome COVID-19, but the new waves across the world in the following months affected the country. The Turkish leader said that restrictions became a necessity with rising rates of cases and deaths, as the country is under full lockdown until the end of the Eid holiday on May 17. Stressing that Turkey will continue to fight against the novel coronavirus, he said the country will use every method, including vaccination, to overcome it. Erdogan noted that the government extended a helping hand to all those affected by the pandemic by providing support packages. "We are determined to ensure that our country takes its deserved place in the global political and economic system that will be reshaped after the pandemic," Anadolu agency cited the head of state as saying. Turkey began a 17-day lockdown on April 29 that will last until May 17, also covering this weeks Eid al-Fitr holidays. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has slammed the recent shooting in a Kazan school as an act of senseless violence, spokesman for the Secretary General Stephane Dujarric told a briefing on Tuesday. "The secretary general is deeply saddened by the report of deaths of nine people, including seven children, in a shooting today outside of a school in the city of Kazan in the Russian Federation. He strongly condemns this act of senseless violence and expresses his deepest condolences to the families of the victims as well as to the government and people of the Russian Federation. He wishes those injured a speedy and full recovery," he noted. On Tuesday, a former student of Kazans school No. 175 returned there and opened fire at people and pupils. According to the Tatarstan authorities, nine people died in total, seven kids, a teacher and a staff member, while 21 people were injured. The shooter was detained. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the "spiraling escalation" in Israel and Palestine must be brought to a rapid end. Guterres "is deeply saddened to learn of increasingly large numbers of casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza," spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement. "Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force. The indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars towards Israeli population centres is unacceptable," Anadolu agency cited Dujarric as saying. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli authorities have harassed and attacked worshippers in the midst of prayers inside Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest in Islam, and have threatened to evict dozens of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. Tension spread from East Jerusalem to the Gaza Strip after Palestinian groups in Gaza vowed to retaliate for the raids on Al-Aqsa, and potential resident removals in Sheikh Jarrah. Micro, small and medium sized enterprises in Georgia impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic are to benefit from EUR 85 million in financing support, approved today by the World Banks Board of Executive Directors, Mirage News reported. The new Relief and Recovery for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) project aims to help businesses and create jobs by expanding and strengthening programs that support MSMEs and by promoting digitalization of Georgias economy. Through this latest support package, the World Bank will boost job creation and support firms that are the backbone of Georgias economy and key to a resilient recovery, said Sebastian Molineus, World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus. This includes helping firms gain easier access to finance and funding investments in financial infrastructure that will promote technology adoption and the use of digital financial services. The project will support at least 6,000 MSMEs across the country, increasing businesses chances of survival, preserving productive assets, and helping firms adjust to the new economic and public health challenges. The global pandemic has severely affected the private sector, especially micro and medium enterprises in Georgia, so to support them is vital, as well as to encourage the creation of new enterprises that will enable the country to accelerate economic growth, said Lasha Khutsishvili, Minister of Finance of Georgia. Once again, I would like to thank the World Bank for the support in fighting the pandemic, as well as in developing the countrys economy. The project aims at alleviating the financial constraints of firms and helping them adjust their business to a post-COVID-19 scenario. One component of the project will strengthen and expand MSME support programs implemented by Enterprise Georgia (EG). The direct support for micro and small firms will come in the form of grants offered by EGs Micro and Small Entrepreneurship support program. History of giants in the gene: Scientists use DNA to trace the origins of giant viruses 2003 was a big year for virologists. The first giant virus was discovered in this year, which shook the virology scene, revising what was thought to be an established understanding of this elusive group and expanding the virus world from simple, small agents to forms that are as complex as some bacteria. Because of their link to disease and the difficulties in defining them--they are biological entities but do not fit comfortably in the existing tree of life--viruses incite the curiosity of many people. Scientists have long been interested in how viruses evolved, especially when it comes to giant viruses that can produce new viruses with very little help from the host--in contrast to most small viruses, which utilize the host's machinery to replicate. Even though giant viruses are not what most people would think of when it comes to viruses, they are actually very common in oceans and other water bodies. They infect single-celled aquatic organisms and have major effects on the latter's population. In fact, Dr. Kiran Kondabagil, molecular virologist at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, suggests, "Because these single-celled organisms greatly influence the carbon turnover in the ocean, the viruses have an important role in our world's ecology. So, it is just as important to study them and their evolution, as it is to study the disease-causing viruses." In a recent study, the findings of which have been published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, Dr. Kondabagil and co-researcher Dr. Supriya Patil performed a series of analyses on major genes and proteins involved in the DNA replication machinery of Mimivirus, the first group of giant viruses to be identified. They aimed to determine which of two major suggestions regarding Mimivirus evolution--the reduction and the virus-first hypotheses--were more supported by their results. The reduction hypothesis suggests that the giant viruses emerged from unicellular organisms and shed genes over time; the virus-first hypothesis suggests that they were around before single-celled organisms and gained genes, instead. Dr. Kondabagil and Dr. Patil created phylogenetic trees with replication proteins and found that those from Mimivirus were more closely related to eukaryotes than to bacteria or small viruses. Additionally, they used a technique called multidimensional scaling to determine how similar the Mimiviral proteins are. A greater similarity would indicate that the proteins co-evolved, which means that they are linked together in a larger protein complex with coordinated function. And indeed, their findings showed greater similarity. Finally, the researchers showed that genes related to DNA replication are similar to and fall under purifying selection, which is natural selection that removes harmful gene variants, constraining the genes and preventing their sequences from varying. Such a phenomenon typically occurs when the genes are involved in essential functions (like DNA replication) in an organism. Taken together, these results imply that Mimiviral DNA replication machinery is ancient and evolved over a long period of time. This narrows us down to the reduction hypothesis, which suggests that the DNA replication machinery already existed in a unicellular ancestor, and the giant viruses were formed after getting rid of other structures in the ancestor, leaving only replication-related parts of the genome. "Our findings are very exciting because they inform how life on earth has evolved," Dr. Kondabagil says. "Because these giant viruses probably predate the diversification of the unicellular ancestor into bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, they should have had major influence on the subsequent evolutionary trajectory of eukaryotes, which are their hosts." In terms of applications beyond this contribution to basic scientific knowledge, Dr. Kondabagil feels that their work could lay the groundwork for translational research into technology like genetic engineering and nanotechnology. He says, "An increased understanding of the mechanisms by which viruses copy themselves and self-assemble means we could potentially modify these viruses to replicate genes we want or create nanobots based on how the viruses function. The possibilities are far-reaching!" ### Reference Authors: Kiran Kondabagil and Supriya Patil Title of original paper: Coevolutionary and Phylogenetic Analysis of Mimiviral Replication Machinery Suggest the Cellular Origin of Mimiviruses Journal: Molecular Biology and Evolution DOI: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1093/ molbev/ msab003 Affiliations: Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India About Dr. Kiran Kondabagil from IIT Bombay Dr. Kondabagil is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He is also the Principal Investigator of the Molecular Virology Lab in the department. He has been a Post-doctoral Fellow and Assistant Professor at The Catholic University of America, Washington DC. He has about 9 journal articles, 3 book chapters, and 8 patents to his name. His chief areas of interest are bacteriophages, molecular microbiology, and gene targeting. This story has been published on: 2021-05-11. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Tension between Israel, Gaza militants threatens to further escalate as death toll mounts Xinhua) 08:59, May 12, 2021 Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system launches interception missiles to shoot down rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, leaving marks in the sky over the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, on May 11, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/JINI via Xinhua) Israel and Palestinian militant groups in Gaza threaten to further escalate the violence as the casualties on both sides keep rising. GAZA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The tit-for-tat trade of fire between militant groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel has been mounting on Tuesday, leaving 28 Palestinians and three Israelis killed and dozens of others wounded from both sides. Palestinian militant groups, including the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), fired hundreds of rockets from the besieged coastal enclave at Israeli towns and cities in southern and central Israel. In response, Israeli fighter jets and drones bombed military posts and facilities belonging to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militants. The fighter jets also destroyed apartments and high-rise buildings that belong to the two groups in the Gaza Strip. Photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows explosions following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) The tension between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza started when the militants fired a barrage of rockets at Jerusalem in response to the clashes that broke out at al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli police forces. Since Monday, the buzz of the Israeli fighter jets and drones mixed with the sounds of the bombs were heard all over the Gaza Strip, as gray and black smokes could be easily seen billowing into the sky as result of the Israeli bombings or the firing of rockets by Gaza militants. The current wave of violence between Israel and Gaza militant groups is the first of its kind since the last large-scale air and ground offensive that Israel waged on the Palestinian enclave for 50 days in 2014. Palestinians inspect the rubble of a 12-storey tower destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, on May 11, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) Hamas spokesman in Gaza Fawzi Barhoum said in a press statement that Hamas is determined not to pull back from the equation of escalation. "If Israel strikes, the armed resistance strikes back," he vowed. On Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets struck a 14-floor high-rise building in western Gaza city after the Israeli army asked its inhabitants to evacuate. However, Hamas warned Israel against targeting populated houses and buildings. A burnt-out car hit by a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip is seen in southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, on May 11, 2021. (Tomer Neuberg/JINI via Xinhua) After destroying the building, the al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas' armed wing, claimed responsibility for firing 130 rockets from the Gaza Strip at Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel. The group said in a short text message that firing the rockets was in response to Israel's targeting of the high-rise building and many other apartments in the Gaza Strip. "Targeting homes and buildings on purpose expressed how brutal the criminal occupation is," Barhoum said, adding that the Palestinian armed resistance "will protect the Palestinian people and will keep defending them." An Israeli injured by a rocket fired from the Gaza strip is evacuated in central Israeli city of Holon, on May 11, 2021. (Gideon Markowicz/JINI via Xinhua) (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Last spring, after the coronavirus first shuttered school buildings, the topic of graduations was an important one for many in the community especially for parents with seniors in the Class of 2020. The system decided to cancel the in-person events and instead streamed prerecorded ceremonies. The judge criticized a provision of the plea deal that wouldn't give Marques credit for six years he spent in custody in Ireland while fighting extradition after his 2013 arrest in Dublin. Chuang said he can't tell the federal Bureau of Prisons to refrain from counting those years when Marques likely is entitled to get credit for that time. Caslens rise to the presidency had met with criticism. Student and faculty leaders had opposed the retired general and West Point superintendent, arguing he lacked qualifications, such as a doctoral degree or university research experience, and knew little about the school. Caslen served as superintendent from 2018 to 2013. Democrat Troy Carter was sworn into office Tuesday as the new representative of Louisiana's 2nd congressional district. Carter won a special election to succeed former Rep. Cedric Richmond (D) who resigned in January to join the Biden Administration. The U.S. House now has 219 Democrats, 212 Republicans and four vacancies. However, the number of vacancies will return to five later this week when GOP Rep. Steve Stivers (OH-15) steps down. Dates have been scheduled for special elections in four of these seats. Although the candidates aren't yet known in all cases, all of these seats are expected to stay with the incumbent party. As a result, once the House returns to full strength (assuming no other changes along the way), the composition should match the results of the 2020 House elections: 222 Democrats, 213 Republicans. Date District 2020 Information June 1 NM-1 D + 16% Deb Haaland (D) resigned in March to become Secretary of the Interior. Nominees are State Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D) and State Sen. Mark Moores (R) TBA TX-6 R + 9% Ron Wright (R) died in February. Two Republicans advanced in the May 1 all-party primary, ensuring a GOP hold. They are Wright's widow, Susan, and State Rep. Jake Ellzey. A date for the runoff has not yet been set. November 2 OH-11 D+60% Marcia Fudge (D) resigned in March to become Secretary of HUD. Primaries will be held August 3. November 2 OH-15 R+27% Steve Stivers (R) to resign May 16 to become CEO of Ohio Chamber of Commerce. Primaries will be held August 3. Jan. 11, 2022 FL-20 D+57% Alcee Hastings (D) died in April. Primaries will be held November 2. Note that redistricting will not directly affect any of these elections. That is, they will all be contested using the current district boundaries. Getty Images En espanol | Most small business owners age 55 and older expect that they'll make as much money or more this year than they did in 2020. That's according to the 2021 Small Business Survey, released recently by TD Bank. The poll of 754 businesses with up to $5 million in revenue 407 of them owned by 55-and-older entrepreneurs found that 35 percent of 55-plus owners expect their revenue to increase in 2021, while 47 percent predict that they'll do the same as last year and only 10 percent expect a decline. Fifty-six percent of older business owners expect to expand their operations and/or hours of business, compared with 32 percent who plan to scale back. An additional 35 percent are considering expanding their product lines and services to increase revenue or profits. Employment is looking stable as well, with 82 percent of 55-plus business owners expecting to maintain their workforces and 7 percent expecting that they'll hire more workers. Just 4 percent expect a decrease in staffing. I like him personally, McConnell said later of Biden, softening his tone somewhat. I want to do business with the president. But he needs to be a moderate. He said he was going to be a moderate during the campaign. I havent seen that yet. Why we need a state song is also a puzzle. Hardly any Marylander can sing one, much less all nine of the old songs verses. Even if the legislature were to come up with a decent set of lyrics set to a tuneful melody, it is unlikely that it could pass without offending someone on the political left or on the political right and others on purely musical grounds. WENN/Instar/Mario Mitsis Celebrity The 'This Is the End' actor recalls taking desperate measures to relieve himself and being tempted to join Scientology when meeting the 'Mission: Impossible' actor. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Tom Cruise may have CCTV footage of Seth Rogen peeing in a Snapple bottle. The 39-year-old actor and his producer pal Judd Apatow met the Hollywood icon in the mid-2000s, shortly after Tom and Katie Holmes had welcomed their daughter Suri, and he has recalled details of their "odd" encounter, which included the "Mission: Impossible" star making a "tempting" Scientology pitch and Seth taking desperate measures to relieve himself before going inside. "I was driving up to his house. I had to pee so bad. I was nervous to meet him anyway. I didn't want to meet him and be like, 'Hi, nice to meet you. Can I pee? Can I use your bathroom?' " Seth told "The Howard Stern Show". "It was going to be an awkward first interaction, so he had this really long snaking driveway leading to his house ... I stopped halfway up the driveway, kind of in the woods, above Sunset Boulevard, and I peed in a Snapple bottle in my car. And then I sealed the bottle and left it there." However, Seth soon realised that his act of desperation may not have gone unnoticed. "As I was leaving the meeting, I was snaking back down the driveway and, as I was passing the exact spot that I peed in, I noticed a red light in the woods. And there was a security camera literally pointed exactly at where I was peeing," he explained. Seth subsequently joked that the tape is now being kept in a file "of Tom Cruise's blackmail." During their meeting, the group also discussed Tom's faith in Scientology, with the "Top Gun" star reportedly feeling as though his beliefs had been unfairly undermined by rumours and speculation. Seth shared, "I'll never forget the wording he used ... 'It's like with Scientology,' he said, 'If you let me just tell you what it was really about ... just give me like 20 minutes to, like, really just tell you what it was about, you would say, 'No f**king way. No f**king way.' " The "This Is the End" actor admitted he worried he was too "weak-willed" not to be tempted by the religion so was thankful Judd intervened. "Thank god Judd was like, 'Eh, I think we're good. Let's just talk about movies and stuff,' " Seth recalled. "If I was there alone, I would be singing a very different tune right now." WENN/Adriana M. Barraza/Apega Movie The 'Selma' actor was surprised by the praise he received from the 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial' helmer for his first directorial project 'The Water Man'. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Actor David Oyelowo was left speechless after receiving glowing feedback for his feature-length directorial debut "The Water Man" from his filmmaking idol Steven Spielberg. The "Selma" star steps behind the camera for the new project, about a boy who embarks on a quest to find the mythical title character of the film when his mother falls ill with cancer, and he sent the finished movie to Spielberg in the hopes of impressing the Hollywood icon behind his childhood favourite, "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial". However, Oyelowo, who also portrays the kid's dad, didn't expect the director to be so full of praise for his work. "I managed to get my film to him. He watched The Water Man and wrote back to me, and said, 'You're a fine director and a really good storyteller,' " he recalled on America's "The Drew Barrymore Show" as he shared the story with the child star of "E.T." "I was just like, 'Oh, my goodness! Life is so weird!' " Winning Spielberg's approval was a big bonus for Oyelowo, who was already feeling blessed to have another Hollywood mogul on board as an executive producer in Oprah Winfrey, his co-star in "The Butler" and "Selma", which she also produced. "My relationship with her began with us playing mother and son (in The Butler), and that relationship sort of bled beyond being in front of the camera," he explained. "She just continued to be a sort of mother figure in my life, a great source of advice for me, advocacy for me, encouragement for me. We share a sensibility and she's just been one of my life's greatest blessings..." "And then in terms of The Water Man, it was something... I told her I was passionate about, and she said, 'Look, I'm gonna do everything I can to help you realise this dream.' " "The Water Man" co-stars Lonnie Chavis as the young lead, with Rosario Dawson playing his movie mother. The cast also boasts Alfred Molina and Maria Bello. Instagram Celebrity The actress-turned-talk show host reveals she moves from Los Angeles to New York to keep the family unit intact as the father of her two children lives in the Big Apple. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Drew Barrymore decided to leave her Los Angeles roots and move to New York so her two children could maintain a close relationship with their father. The "50 First Dates" star refused to allow her 2016 marriage split from Will Kopelman to destroy their family unit with their daughters Olive, eight, and Frankie, seven, so when her ex relocated to the Big Apple, she decided it was in her kids' best interest to do the same. "I thought when I had kids, I wanted this really stable home," Drew told Oprah Winfrey on her "Your Life in Focus" virtual series. "Two parents was the goal." "I ended up finding myself in divorce," she continued. "Their dad moved to New York, I didn't want my children to be away from their father and I love his family. We're very close, and even though we had a divorce, we said, 'Let's not misstep. Let's just carry on like we are a family because we are a family.' " "For the first time in my life I thought, 'I know what family is and I'm not giving up on that,' " added Drew, who famously endured a troubled childhood and was emancipated at 14. However, having to abandon her dream California home, which she had lived in for two decades, was tough for the actress-turned-talk show host. "It was the home I built for myself. I'd had it for 20 years. It was the home I swore would be my kids,' " Drew said. "It was as hard as the divorce itself... I was doubling down on the giving up of the dream." It was only after settling down in New York that Drew realised the location of her home no longer mattered. "I've now figured out what the definition of home is. It's wherever we are, it's wherever I am with my kids," she smiled. Drew feels so strongly about her new outlook on life, she's had those exact sentiments tattooed onto her forearm. She recently had the inking done live on her "The Drew Barrymore Show" and subsequently showed off the finished work, which reads, "home is where we are," alongside an image of a bird. "Wherever life takes you, if you're lucky enough to be alongside people you love, then to me, that became the definition of home," she explained at the time. Drew's extended family is set to grow a little bigger in the near future - Kopelman recently became engaged to Alexandra Michler, Vogue's director of fashion development. WENN Celebrity The 'Cactus Flower' actress discusses her struggle with mental health issues, revealing that she became depressed after winning Golden Globe and Academy Awards for her 1969 movie. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Goldie Hawn battled depression at the height of her career. The 75-year-old actress rose to fame after receiving the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the 1969 film, "Cactus Flower", but Goldie admits that time in her life wasn't the happiest as she was battling mental health issues behind the scenes. "I became depressed," she tells "Good Morning Britain". "I was 21 and I was rising to success. I know it sounds terrible, but it's a very, very difficult thing (and) I didn't necessarily want that..." "I had a lot of these issues, where I couldn't even go outside in public. This is something I worked through. I went to a doctor. I went to a psychologist." The actress landed her first starring role after moving to California to pursue a career in dance in 1966 and things skyrocketed from there, even though Goldie had no intention of becoming a star. "I didn't want to be a big deal," she adds. "I wanted to go home... I didn't have delusions of grandeur on any level, I was extremely realistic. The problem was that I was a dancer and then things changed." And now things are better for Goldie, the "Overboard" star wants to help others, "For every one of us, we may have a different reason why we feel low, depressed, anxious... a lot of these things. If you really are unhappy, we do need to be able to tender ourselves to go to a doctor (sic). Don't be embarrassed. Mental health is real... We should never be ashamed to say, 'I'm feeling sad.' " Movie The stage musicals due to return to the Great White Way when New York's famous theatre district reopens this coming fall following a shutdown due to pandemic have been revealed. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - The cast of "Hamilton", "The Lion King", and "Wicked" will return to Broadway to perform in front of live audiences again. Producers of the hit show, created by Lin-Manuel Miranda, announced on Tuesday (11May21) it will return to Manhattans Richard Rodgers Theatre when Broadway reopens 14 September. Fellow Tony Award-winning musicals "The Lion King" and "Wicked" announced they will also return to their respective homes, at the Minskoff Theatre and at the Gershwin Theatre, on the same day. Cast members from each production; Krystal Joy Brown from "Hamilton", Alexandra Billings from "Wicked", and L. Steven Taylor from "The Lion King" - all appeared on ABCs "Good Morning America" on Tuesday to announce the news. "This rare alliance between three of Broadways fan-favorites sends a message that Broadway is united in it's commitment to ending a devastating period of hardship for the tens of thousands who make their living directly on Broadway shows and the tens of thousands in dependent industries," read a joint press release, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. "Hamilton", "The Lion King", and "Wicked" have been Broadways most popular shows. New York's famous theatre district was particularly hard-hit during the coronavirus pandemic, which saw 31 productions shut down since last March (20), including eight shows in previews and another eight in rehearsals. Tickets for the shows are now on sale at ticketmaster.com. Also, musicals "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations" will be among the first wave of shows returning to Broadway in September (21), when theatres re-open following the pandemic lockdown. Broadway venues have been dark since March, 2020, but in recent days, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced restrictions will be lifted in September and shows will be able to return. "Mrs. Doubtfire" - the stage musical revamp of Robin Williams beloved comedy about a cross-dressing nanny, will begin previews on 21 October (21) at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, with an official opening night on 5 December. The musical played just three preview performances in 2020 before the industry-wide shutdown. Directed by Jerry Zaks, the show stars Rob McClure in the title role. Temptations musical "Ain't Too Proud" has also announced plans for it's return to the Broadway stage - it will resume performances on 16 October at the Imperial Theatre. The production opened in March 2019 and was nominated for 12 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Casting for the Broadway return will be announced in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, the first national touring production of "Ain't Too Proud - The Life and Times of The Temptations" will launch at the end of 2021. WENN/Adriana M. Barraza Celebrity Opening up about the cruel treatment they got from other celebrities when they were 16, the ex-wife of Doug Hutchison claims Joy Behar labeled them a 'slut' and Courtney Love called them a 'whore'. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Courtney Stodden is not done outing Chrissy Teigen for her cruel treatment of them. Months after branding the "Lip Sync Battle" co-host a bully, the ex-wife of Doug Hutchison made a shocking revelation that the former took her online meanness to another level by privately DM'ing them to kill themselves. The 26-year-old, who came out as non-binary in April, made the accusation in a profile piece published by The Daily Beast on Monday, May 10. When asked about them recent calling out the wife of John Legend for being cruel to them in the past, they recalled, "She wouldn't just publicly tweet about wanting me to take 'a dirt nap' but would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself. Things like, 'I can't wait for you to die.' " Chrissy, however, was not the only celebrities Courtney called out in the interview. "And not only her, but Joy Behar had a field day with calling me a 'slut.' Courtney Love told me I was a 'whore,' " they continued. "There were a lot of celebrities acting like playground bullies. Some of the worst treatment I got was from women, and we're not going to get anywhere if we keep holding each other back." On how such treatment affected them, Courtney confessed, "There have probably been five times that I've felt like I wanted to kill myself - and made the actions to go ahead and do it. So, there's been a lot of dark moments in my life." They added, "There have been a lot of evenings where I've felt - and still feel - alone." Courtney believed their tragic life and their feeling empty were caused by their "father not being around." They further explained, "I think that if my father was around, I wouldn't feel so helpless in these circumstances, with so many of these Hollywood predators. But he's not there." When pressed if any of the celebrities they named had apologized for their past treatment to them, Courtney spilled, "You know, one of the biggest surprises is that all of the celebrities who shamed me - other than Perez Hilton, who stood up and was kind - they have not sought to apologize or sent any kind of love my way." "The majority of love and apologies have come from reporters and also people online who tell me that they appreciate me and love me, and that I'm a source of strength for them," Courtney went on sharing. "And that means everything to me." Courtney came forward with their accusation that Chrissy used to bully them in late April. Through a video shared on Instagram, the TV personality called out the cookbook author by stating, "You shamed a minor. An abused minor who was married to a predator at the time. I didn't even realize that and she's shaming me. It broke me. So, shame on you, Chrissy." WENN/Michael Wright Celebrity The 'Call Me by Your Name' star was recently spotted dining out with several friends on Grand Cayman, where he has been staying while he's under investigation for alleged sexual assault. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Armie Hammer is apparently seeing someone new in the Cayman Islands. The actor is reportedly now dating a dental hygienist while he is facing rape allegations stemming from a 2017 incident with a former partner. "He is dating a dental hygienist on the island," a source tells PEOPLE of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." star's dating life amid the sexual assault accusation. "They were recently on a 'staycation' out East, the other side of the island from where they live." The source goes on gushing about the new lovebirds, "They seem happy and comfortable with each other. They seem to have lots of friends and she introduces him to any friends who haven't met him before when they are out." There is no word on the identity of Armie's new girlfriend yet. He was recently spotted for the first time in the island since being hit with rape allegations. The 34-year-old looked "super chill" while dining out with several friends, two older people and three other women, at Macabuca on Grand Cayman earlier this month. Per Page Six's report, an eyewitness said that the mood was "super chill" and "casual." In some pictures obtained by the outlet, "The Social Network" star could be seen paying attention to one of his pals while she was talking. For the lunch, he opted to go with a gray T-shirt, a pair of shorts and sunglasses. Armie has been staying on the island after the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed he's being investigated in a sexual-assault case. In a March press conference, the actor's ex Effie accused him of "mentally, emotionally and sexually" abusing her during a four-year on/off relationship. Effie said that the alleged abuse escalated to rape in April 2017, when she was 20 years old. She detailed that during the attack, the "Rebecca" leading man "repeatedly slammed" her "face against the wall" and left her bruised. Armie's attorney Andrew Brettler has denied the accusation, claiming, "Her own correspondence with Mr. Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations." The lawyer argued, "As recently as July 18, 2020, (Effie) sent graphic texts to Mr. Hammer telling him what she wanted him to do to her. Mr. Hammer responded making it clear that he did not want to maintain that type of relationship with her," adding, "With the truth on his side, Mr. Hammer welcomes the opportunity to set the record straight." Instagram Celebrity An armed-man suspected of an attempted break-in leads police on a wild chase that ends up with his arrest near the Maybach Music Group label founder's property. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Rick Ross' mansion in Georgia was surrounded by cops following a high-speed chase in pursuit of a man who is suspected of an attempted break-in at another residence. The man led police on a wild chase that ended up with his arrest near the rapper's property. Deputies say they responded to what they believe was a domestic-related incident and spotted the suspect's vehicle before it took off. Officials said the vehicle halted on Old National Highway and Georgia Highway 138 and the suspect fled on foot with his gun. Deputies had to swarm the property and was allowed entry by a guard through the security gate because the suspect fled into a wood line onto the rapper's estate. Officials searched the property and found the suspect, who was taken into custody at gunpoint. Deputies later searched the premises for the weapon. No one was injured in the arrest, while the unidentified suspect is currently being held in Clayton County Jail. According to officials, Rick, whose real name is William Leonard Roberts II, was not home during the incident. The 45-year-old hip-hop star and music mogul has often flaunted his luxurious home, which was formerly owned by Evander Holyfield and rests about 20 miles from Atlanta. Rick's Georgia estate is also featured in comedy movie "Coming 2 America". The property served as the set for the fictional Zamunda, home of Eddie Murphy's Prince Akeem Joffer. "That entrance foyer with the big two-story interior and double-winding staircase was perfect," said production designer Jefferson Sage of using the property as the palace. "Off of that, there were two beautiful big rooms with giant windows and 18-foot ceilings. We used five key spaces that we turned into Zamunda." Rick even allowed his bedroom to be filmed as the King's primary bedroom. "They changed the wallpaper in the dining room so I asked them to keep it up there," the "Hustlin' " emcee said about the filming on his property. "They also created that huge dining room table for a dining scene that seats 50-60 people, and they left that for me as a gift. It's humungous." Netflix TV Ahead of the Netflix drama's premiere, Halston's niece Lesley Frowick warns fans against believing everything they see onscreen, claiming she and her relatives were not consulted on the show. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - The family of late American fashion guru Halston has taken aim at Ryan Murphy's new biographical drama series, branding it a completely "inaccurate" and "fictionalised" version of the designer's life. Ewan McGregor stars as the hard-partying womenswear icon in upcoming Netflix drama "Halston", which chronicles his meteoric rise to fame in the 1970s and his eventual downfall, before he passed away from AIDS complications in 1990, aged 57. The show premieres on Friday, May 14, but Halston's niece, Lesley Frowick, who serves as CEO of his archives, has warned fans not to believe everything they see onscreen after claiming she and her relatives were not approached by TV mogul Murphy before production began. "The Halston Archives and Family were not consulted on the upcoming Netflix series," reads a statement released on behalf of the family. It goes on to brand the miniseries "an inaccurate, fictionalised account" of Halston's life, and adds, "The Halston Archives remains the only definitive and comprehensive source on the man and his legacy." Frowick's press release emerges after another Halston relative, Brook Drummond, took to social media to distance the family from the show, which she described as a "Real Housewives take on someone who was superbly elegant and sophisticated and who made enormous contributions to American fashion and culture". She added, "His impact was immeasurable and I hope people remember him that way and hold him up instead of reveling in sensationalized fiction about his life." Murphy has yet to respond to the backlash. "Halston" also stars Krysta Rodriguez as Liza Minnelli, Rory Culkin as director Joel Schumacher, and Gian Franco Rodriguez as the designer's partner, Venezuelan-born artist Victor Hugo. WENN/Charlie Steffens Celebrity Showrunner Tom Fontana praises the veteran actor, who died at his home in Los Angeles on May 10, for being 'one of the great storytellers' he has ever known. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - "St. Elsewhere" star Norman Llyod has died, aged 106. The veteran actor, producer and director, who also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's "Saboteur", Charlie Chaplin's "Limelight", "Dead Poets Society" and "The Practice", passed away at his home in Los Angeles on May 10. Lloyd, who was the sole surviving member of Orson Welles' Mercury Theater, made his movie debut as the villain of Hitchcock's 1942 film "Saboteur". He would go on to direct many of Hitchcock's dramas on TV. Back in 2014, Lloyd was honored by the Los Angeles City Council for his 82 years in show business as well as for reaching the age of 100. The Council proclaimed that November 8, the veteran actor's birthday, as "Norman Lloyd Day." He was best known as Dr. Daniel Auschlander on "St. Elsewhere" - a role he played for the show's entire six-season run in the 1980s. Upon learning about Llyod's passing, "St. Elsewhere" showrunner Tom Fontana remembered him as "one of the great storytellers I've ever known." In an interview with Variety, the TV producer added, "He just had great stories about Chaplin and [Orson] Welles and Bertolt Brecht and Charles Laughton. He worked with everybody." The creator of "OZ" further claimed that the veteran actor "was completely open to any new adventure." He elaborated, "Here's a guy who had worked with Hitchcock and Welles and yet here he was with us doing this crazy show and breaking all the rules. He totally embraced it. He was the biggest cheerleader for the writers. He was totally game for the serious stuff and the crazy funny stuff." While he goes on national television to talk about bipartisanship, the real Larry Hogan is a partisan bully who has vetoed important legislation like police reform and overseen one of the weakest pandemic recoveries in the nation, Yvette Lewis, chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, said in the partys press release. WENN/Ivan Nikolov Celebrity After Dayanna Rodas begged him to come back in a viral TikTok video, the 'Grown Ups' actor finally meets with her during the restaurant's Milkshakes Monday event in Long Island, New York. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Adam Sandler has made a sweet return to IHOP. After being accidentally turned away in late April by Dayanna Rodas when he visited the breakfast restaurant chain with his daughter, the "Grown Ups" actor fulfilled the waitress' social media request for him to come back. On Monday, May 10, Dayanna shared a TikTok video that compiled pictures of her with Adam at an IHOP event in Long Island, New York. The event, dubbed Milkshakes Monday, was actually a tribute to the 54-year-old actor as a result of her viral video. In the caption of the slideshow, the waitress wrote, "Couldn't have been more excited!!! Thank you Adam Sandler." In the clip which has American Authors' "Best Day of My Life playing in the background, both Dayanna and Adam wore "IHOP" masks. Adam himself has also shared his participation at the event via his social media account. Making use of Instagram, he shared a photo of his dog and simply wrote, "Thank u IHOP for Milkshakes Monday." Adam made the epic return after poking fun at Dayanna's viral video days earlier. Making it clear he had no hard feeling over the incident, the "Uncut Gems" actor shared a tweet on May 3 that read, "For the record, I only left the IHOP because the nice woman told me the all-you-can-eat deal didn't apply to the milkshakes." It turned out that IHOP took the "50 First Dates" actor's lighthearted tweet pretty seriously. In a response to the actor's tweet, the company wrote, "You know what, @AdamSandler, you may be onto something here. In your honor, we'd like to declare May 10th, 2021 #MilkshakeMonday at IHOP. More sweet details to follow." IHOP reacted to Adam Sandler's tweet. Days later, the restaurant tweeted the announcement that on May 10, they would have a charity promotion where they offered all-you-can-drink milkshakes. They also declared that a portion of the sales will be donated to the nonprofit organization Comedy Gives Back. IHOP announced that they offered all-you-can-drink milkshakes. IHOP announced, "A comedy icon (we can't mention for legal reasons) has come up with a lot of sweet ideas over the years, but all-you-can-drink milkshakes takes the shake. Drink up Long Island, because it's officially #MilkshakeMonday." The restaurant added, "All proceeds go to @ComedyGivesBack #YouKnowWhoWeMean." Dayanna became viral on TikTok after sharing a security camera footage that captured the moment she told Adam he had to wait 30 minutes to be seated. In her clip, the actor could be seen politely leaving the restaurant. In the caption of the post itself, the waitress begged the star, "Pleaseee come back." Movie Teaming up with 'Spotlight' Oscar-winning filmmaker, the 'Jason Bourne' actor portrays a father who is flying from Oklahoma to France to exonerate his daughter. May 12, 2021 AceShowbiz - Matt Damon takes on a gritty mission in "Stillwater", which has had its first official trailer released online for sneak preview. Courtesy of Focus Features, the video centers on Damon's Bill Baker, a father and oil worker from Oklahoma who is hell-bent on getting his daughter out of jail. In the trailer, Bill is determined to prove his love for his estranged daughter Allison, portrayed by Abigail Breslin, when she is arrested for murder in France. The young girl is accused of killing her girlfriend. Bill appears to face a dead end as he fights against an apathetic system and xenophobic locals who believe his daughter is guilty and resent his interference. As the pressure mounts, he must decide just how far he's willing to go. The logline of the dramatic thriller says, "A daughter's last hope. A father's only chance." Meanwhile, according to the official synopsis, " 'Stillwater' follows an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter." The movie is directed by Tom McCarthy, who won an Academy Award for writing 2015's "Spotlight" and also received an Oscar nomination for Best Director for the same movie. He also penned the script of the upcoming movie along with Marcus Hinchey, Thomas Bidegain and Noe Debre. Supported by Camille Cottin, Lilou Siauvaud and Deanna Dunagan in the cast, the crime drama film is scheduled to open in U.S. theaters on July 30 after pushed back from its initial release date of November 6, 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. WENN Celebrity The Victoria's Secret model is heartbroken as she's unable to say goodbye to her beloved grandmother who passed away while she was miles away from home. May 13, 2021 AceShowbiz - Shanina Shaik is mourning the death of her grandmother. The Victoria's Secret model shared a throwback picture of herself with her late relative on her Instagram page on Tuesday (11May21) as she revealed she hadn't been able to give her grandma a final hug before her passing. "I lost my Nana this morning," she wrote. "We were so very close. Growing up, I would spend most of my weekends and summers with her. She would take me to all my castings and modelling jobs. She loved to laugh and spend her time with our family. The hardest part about today, was being so far from Australia - I couldn't say goodbye and give her one last hug." "Heaven accepted a fun loving angel today. Always in my heart," Shanina concluded. Models Georgia Fowler and Olivia Culpo and hotel heiress Paris Hilton were among the stars sending Shanina messages of condolences in comments on her post. Austin Mahone, Pixie Lott, and Larsa Pippen also offered their support for the grieving model. Due to her jet-setting lifestyle, Shanina Shaik was away from her family most of the time but she always tried to keep contact with them who resided in Australia and made sure to pay tribute to her relatives on special days like birthday and Father's Day. Last year on Father's Day, she posted a throwback picture of her young self with her father. "I'll would like to take this opportunity to celebrate my dad. Love you daddy. I love our special bond and long chats on the phone," so she wrote. REDDING, Calif. - Shasta County Supervisors voted 4-to-1 to approve Nolda Short as the countys next Auditor-Controller. Incumbent Auditor-Controller Brian Muir is set to retire next month. But thats not the only thing that happened at the meeting Tuesdays meeting. The recall effort was front and center among many of the people attending the meeting. Inside the Board of Supervisors Chambers, some people wore masks and held signs showing support for Supervisors Joe Chimenti, Mary Rickert, and Leonard Moty, while others did not. People also coming out to speak in favor or against the ongoing recall efforts. Please don't try to twist this when you're fighting our recall effort, said one public speaker who supports the recall. We will fight for our community. I will fight for my children's future. I will fight for my fellow citizens, for my neighbors, for my family, and I will do it within the law. What's so great about America is that we do have democracy and we can get supervisors out if we want to just by voting, said Kristen Plate, who is against the recall efforts. I think it just creates such an enormous burden on our county to have a recall. Shasta County Office of Elections said recall supporters have not yet submitted their blank petitions for approval. Election officials said recall proponents have until May 17 to submit their petitions for approval. Supervisors Rickert, Moty, and Chimenti filed their responses to the Notice of Intents last week. OLIVEHURST, Calif. - One person was arrested for multiple weapon charges when deputies served a search warrant on Monday, Yuba County Sheriffs Department said. Deputies served a search warrant in the 4700 block of Arboga Road on Monday as part of an ongoing investigation into a drive-by shooting that happened on Sunday at the 1800 block of Beverly Ave. in Olivehurst. There were no injuries in the shooting but an occupied residence and vehicle were hit during the incident. Deputies located 23-year-old Jorge SotoMayor-Sanchez and three handguns. SotoMayor-Sanchez was arrested and booked into the Yuba County Jail with a bail of $25,000. Due to the serious humanitarian situation in India caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, SKODA AUTO is planning an aid package in cooperation with the Volkswagen Group consisting of in-kind and financial donations totalling one million euros. In doing so, the Czech car manufacturer is taking responsibility as a regional employer and for the members of the SKODA family at this difficult time. Thomas Schafer, CEO of SKODA AUTO, says, We are in contact with our colleagues in India every day. They know best what is most urgently needed at the moment. We are working hard to secure the appropriate relief supplies, including oxygen tanks, and transport them to India as quickly as possible. We are grateful that we can help our Indian friends on the ground this way. In these challenging circumstances, the SKODA family stands together. The second wave of coronavirus has India firmly in its grip. The sudden spike in infections is effecting a shortage of hospital beds, medical oxygen and antiviral medication straining the overall healthcare system. As a local employer in Pune, Aurangabad and Mumbai, SKODA AUTO has a responsibility in the country. The Czech car manufacturer is therefore donating around one million euros at short notice to help improve the situation. The support will consist of medical supplies and a monetary donation to the German Red Cross. This is intended to meet as many different aid needs as possible in the crisis region. Among other things, SKODA AUTO is procuring medical equipment and materials such as oxygen generators and liquid oxygen tanks, which are necessary for inland transport. The brands purchasing and logistics departments are working tirelessly to acquire the relief supplies at short notice and deliver them to the crisis region as quickly as possible, despite the difficult conditions caused by the pandemic. The Indian Red Cross is expected to handle the distribution locally. Gurpratap Boparai, Managing Director SKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Private Limited (SAVWIPL), says The country is going through an unprecedented situation with the unexpected rise in COVID-19 cases, leading to extreme stress on the healthcare facilities in India. SKODA AUTOs generous donation, both material and financial support will provide some relief to those affected. SKODA AUTO leads the Volkswagen Groups activities in the Indian market and has a long-standing relationship of trust with local partners. Indias largest luxury carmaker Mercedes-Benz India today, announced an organizational change in its Sales & Marketing function effective from 17th May, 2021. Pradeep Srinivas will be taking the responsibility of Marketing and Customer Journey function from Amit Thete. After heading the marketing, events and customer journey function, Amit Thete will be moving to head the crucial Sales Operations function. In his new role, Amit will be responsible for managing Mercedes- Benz Indias Vehicle Preparation Centre (VPC), outbound logistics and dealer stock management. The new role of Sales Operations will be a significant catalyst for Mercedes-Benzs future growth and customer centricity. Prior to his new role, Pradeep Srinivas was responsible for e-commerce, data management and systems function in Mercedes-Benz India. He played a key role in setting up the e-commerce business for Mercedes-Benz India in October 2019 and its subsequent mainstreaming in the companys sales process. Santosh Iyer, Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Mercedes-Benz India, commented, Amit has played an important role in showcasing the brands transition into modern luxury by executing some of the best campaigns, product launches and also by curating highly successful experiential events like MercedesTrophy and Luxe Drive. He now moves into another crucial function of sales operations that is integral to the overall sales division. We are equally excited to welcome Pradeep into the pure Marketing function after successfully setting- up the e-commerce business and data management for the brand. With his strong domain expertise in data analytics and customer journey mapping, we are confident Pradeep will play a crucial role in managing the upcoming transition foreseen in the marketing function. Providing new challenges and opportunities has been an enriching experience for our talents leading to their professional progress and higher contribution. Such transitions are also necessary for the organization to encourage innovation and drive efficiency. We wish both our executives the very best for their new roles and responsibilities. Mr. Iyer added. The Federal Council Bern, 12.05.2021 - Switzerland is strengthening its cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in developing countries. On 12 May, the Federal Council decided to invest CHF 25 million in bilateral cooperation over the next five years. The collaboration with the IMF to provide technical assistance to developing countries will be extended for a further five years, allowing Switzerland to continue its tailored, flexible technical help in key economic areas. The IMF is one of the most important global providers of advisory services on economic policy. Working closely with the IMF brings Switzerland considerable added value and consolidates its profile among the international financial institutions. The IMFs technical assistance has already supported previous recipient countries in growing their economies sustainably. The projects have helped to establish functional, efficient and effective systems of public financial management as well as developing a stable, productive financial sector. In Colombia, Peru, Tunisia and Ukraine, for example, the programme led to the introduction of a property price index, which allows housing bubbles to be recognised early. A strategy was developed in Albania to mitigate currency risks associated with the economys heavy dependence on the euro. These interventions help to strengthen financial stability and resilience to financial crises. Address for enquiries EAER Communications info@gs-wbf.admin.ch +41 58 462 20 07 Publisher The Federal Council https://www.admin.ch/gov/en/start.html Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research http://www.wbf.admin.ch Federal Department of Finance https://www.efd.admin.ch/efd/en/home.html Federal Department of Foreign Affairs Bern, 12.05.2021 - The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) is extremely concerned about the ongoing escalation of violence in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territory. It reiterates its call on all parties to respect their obligations under international law. The FDFA strongly condemns the firing, from the Gaza Strip into Israel, of missiles that have killed and injured a number of civilians. Indiscriminate attacks on the civilian population and infrastructures are illegal under international humanitarian law and must stop. The FDFA also deplores the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. This operation has resulted in several deaths and injuries and the destruction of civilian infrastructure. All necessary precautions must be taken to avoid civilian casualties. The principles of proportionality and of distinction in the conduct of hostilities must also be respected in accordance with international humanitarian law. "This escalation must stop immediately in order to avoid further casualties," said Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis, head of the FDFA. He reiterated his call on all parties to respect their obligations under international law, in particular international humanitarian law, and to protect the civilian population and infrastructure. Switzerland is convinced that only a two-state solution negotiated by both parties in accordance with international law and internationally agreed parameters, including UN Security Council resolutions, can lead to lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians. In this context, the FDFA reiterates its support for the preservation of the historical status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The FDFA is closely monitoring developments and maintaining contact with all parties to work towards de-escalation as a matter of utter urgency. Address for enquiries FDFA Communication Federal Palace West Wing CH-3003 Bern, Switzerland Tel. Communication service: +41 58 462 31 53 Tel. Press service: +41 58 460 55 55 E-mail: kommunikation@eda.admin.ch Twitter: @SwissMFA Publisher Federal Department of Foreign Affairs https://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home.html Alton, IL (62002) Today A mix of clouds and sun. High 89F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Do you need to grow more hay for next winter? One way to get that extra hay might be to fertilize your hay meadow this spring. There may still March beef and pork exports set records for value, while beef muscle cuts also set an export record. Beef exports totaled 124,808 metric tons in March, up 8% from a year ago and the second largest in the post-BSE era (since late December 2003), according to an analysis from the U.S. Meat Export Federation. Beef export values broke the $800 million mark for the first time at $801.9 million, up 14% year-over-year. Beef muscle cut exports set new monthly records for both volume (98,986 mt, up 13% from a year ago) and value ($718.3 million, up 17%). Over the first quarter, beef exports pulled even with last years pace at 333,348 mt, valued at $2.12 billion. For beef muscle cuts, first quarter exports increased 4% to 262,914 mt, valued at $1.9 billion (up 5%). The USMEF says record beef exports were shipped to China, Honduras and the Philippines in March. Pork exports for March came in at 294,724 mt, up 1% from last years strong total, and set a new value record at $794.9 million (up 4%). Pork muscle cuts also set new monthly records for both volume (247,660 mt, up 2% from a year ago) and value $689.2 million (up 4%). For the first quarter, pork exports were 7% below last years pace in both volume (782,620 mt) and value ($2.07 billion). Pork muscle cuts followed a similar trend at 659,420 mt (down 7%), valued at $1.79 billion (down 8%). March pork exports were led by strong performances in Japan, Mexico, the Philippines and Central America, including new records in Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Nicaragua. Exports were also record-large to the Dominican Republic for the second consecutive month. While the 2020-21 school year has been rough on students of all ages, it has been particular On June 19, Alabama will no longer be participating in federally funded unemployment assistance programs established to help Americans during the coronavirus pandemic. The state gave notice to the federal government Monday that it was opting out of these programs, which include assistance for workers not normally eligible for state unemployment, additional benefit weeks past Alabamas limit of 14 weeks of unemployment assistance and an additional $300 per week in unemployment benefits on top of Alabamas maximum of $275 per week. Heres what Alabamas decision means for you: What programs are the state opting out of? The three main programs Alabama will no longer participate in are Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC.) PUA is the federal program that provides unemployment benefits to workers not normally eligible for unemployment. These workers include self-employed individuals, employees who receive 1099s, gig workers, certain part-time workers and those who work for charities or local governments, explains Alabama Labor Department spokeswoman Tara Hutchison. PEUC is the federal program that kicks in once a beneficiary exhausts their state unemployment benefits up to 14 weeks in the case of Alabama. State residents who used up their 14 weeks of unemployment could enroll in PEUC. FPUC is the program that added an extra $600 on top of Alabamas maximum weekly unemployment payment of $275. That lasted until July 2020 but was reinstated in January at $300 per week in addition to Alabamas weekly maximum payment. What happens on June 19? If you currently receive PUA or PEUC benefits, your last week of compensation will be the week ending June 19 (a Saturday.) If you receive benefits from the state unemployment program, you will continue to receive that benefit minus the $300 added from FPUC. Are there any exceptions? No, all beneficiaries will stop receiving federally funded unemployment benefits. How many people are affected? Last week, Alabama paid 80,000 people on all programs combined, including regular unemployment. Since the pandemic began in March 2020, the state has paid out $5 billion in all programs. How may I be eligible for state unemployment? If you havent exhausted the 14 weeks maximum of state unemployment, one of the requirements is that you must be searching for work while being on unemployment, Hutchison said. Filling out online job applications, going on job interviews and filling out in-person job applications all fulfill this requirement, and the state Labor Department may ask for proof, according to Hutchison. She advised those filing unemployment keep a journal or diary in case the agency does not immediately ask for proof that an applicant is seeking work. Delta Air Lines will resume nonstop flights to New York City, beginning June 7. Daily service between Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport (BHM) and LaGuardia Airport (LGA) will use a 76-seat CRJ-900 aircraft, the carrier said. The flights will resume as New York is lifting many of its capacity restrictions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As the demand for travel is growing, we are happy that our customers will have more options and more convenience as they return to the skies and reconnect with friends and family, Ronald Mathieu, Birmingham Airport Authority president and CEO, said. Delta will offer nonstop service between Birmingham and Atlanta and Detroit, in addition to New York, for a total of 11 daily departures beginning in June. Ellen DeGeneres will soon end her popular daytime talk show, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The host said The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which premiered in 2003, will wrap up in 2022 when its 19th season ends. THR said she told her staff on Wednesday and that DeGeneres will discuss the decision with Oprah Winfrey during Thursdays show. When youre a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, its just not a challenge anymore, DeGeneres told THR. DeGeneres previously told The New York Times that her wife Portia de Rossi had encouraged her to move on from the show. Read the full Hollywood Reporter story. The show has received 171 Daytime Emmy Award nominations and has won 61 Daytime Emmy Awards. It earned widespread acclaim and adoration as a show that reflected the hosts perceived positive persona, where she would give money and other items away to people in need and dance with her celebrity guests, including President Barack Obama. While extremely popular among fans and celebrity guests, the show was embroiled in controversy when a BuzzFeed News story reported allegations it was a toxic work environment, prompting an internal investigation. DeGeneres apologized on the show, as ratings began to dip. DeGeneres told the THR in this latest interview that the allegations were very hurtful, but that they arent the reason shes ending the show. From the time Xavier McGraw was a toddler, there was something special about Legos. With most of his toys, says his mother, Julia McGraw, he would spend a few minutes playing and then move on to the next. But Legos were a different story. He wouldnt give up until he finished, she says. He would sit on the floor until it was done. What got me was his patience level with it. As he grew up in Birmingham, Xavier progressed to more and more difficult Lego building sets. Mama, thats a baby kit! he would say, scoffing at the ones for his own age group. When he learned that there was such a thing as Legoland in Winter Haven, Fla., it sounded like a dream to him. He begged his parents to go, but its not an inexpensive vacation. So Julia asked her son how he might contribute. I can build Legos! he said and he did. Thinking outside the box, literally, Xavier started making Santa Claus ornaments. His mom helped him start Facebook and Instagram pages for his fledgling business, Built by Xavier, through which he sells what Julia calls his Lego art. Julia figured family members and a few friends would purchase ornaments, but then he sold out of them. Soon, he had money to help pay his way to Legoland in 2017. Get more good news like this by subscribing to This is Alabamas free weekly newsletter. One of Xavier's favorite things to build is the University of Alabama "A," even though he's leaning toward attending Alabama State University one day. (Photo courtesy of Julia McGraw) While there with his parents, Xavier took a robotics class. Thats where it really clicked for me, his mom says. This toy her son had always enjoyed was honing some actual skills that would serve him well in life. Theres a whole Lego world I didnt know existed until this little boy came into my life. And Xavier now knew he had a way to earn money for things he wants. After Legoland, I asked him if he wanted to keep going, his mom says. And he said, I kind of like having money in the bank. Since going to Legoland, Xavier has bought himself an iPhone and is close to having enough money for a new Xbox. But making money isnt what its all about. Creating with Legos is kind of relaxing to me, he says. Sometimes you have to have some patience. If you mess up, you have to do it again. Despite his experience and skill, he says he still messes up all the time. Xavier stands beside his contributions to the Brickland exhibit at McWane Science Center in downtown Birmingham. (Photo courtesy of Julia McGraw) Now 12 years old, Xavier is a young man of few words. Hes a low-key kid until hes comfortable, Julia says of her only child. A sixth-grade honor student at W.J. Christian K-8 School in Birmingham, his favorite subject is math. He enjoys playing video games with his friends especially Minecraft, which, like Legos, is based on building and driving his Traxxas high-speed remote-controlled car. Hes a smart little kid, his mom says. Two summers ago, she signed him up for Lego engineering camp at Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa. He was nervous because I put him in the junior high group, she says. I told him, baby, Im not paying for you to sit in there learning things you already know. He ended up having a blast. This year has been a busy one for Xavier so far. He was honored to be asked to participate in the Brickology exhibit at the McWane Science Center in downtown Birmingham, where some of his work is displayed as the only kid builder alongside that of local adult builders. The exhibit is going on now through the summer. He made and sold 100 red heart necklaces for Valentines Day and is gearing up to start making ornaments, nutcrackers and gingerbread houses to sell this Christmas. His next goals are building the Lego treehouse and visiting the Legoland theme park in New York. Xavier's grandparents found a curio cabinet that would fit all of his creations, including the 5,000-piece Taj Mahal. (Photo courtesy of Julia McGraw) Recently, he finished his largest and most expensive Lego set yet, the Taj Mahal, which has about 5,000 pieces and took him about 20 days to complete. He saved up for it the Taj Mahal retails for about $350 and it now resides in a curio cabinet his grandparents bought and refinished for his work. My parents are his number-one fans, says Julia. They went all over Alabama looking for a curio it would fit in. Built by Xavier is a family business in which everyone plays a part: his grandparents handle shipping, Dad (Calvin) helps out with deliveries and Mom does everything else. We call ourselves his unpaid interns, Julia jokes. Xavier just builds. He works on his Lego creations all over the place in their house, he says, but hes always careful to pick up his pieces. Remarkably, with the thousands of plastic bricks her son has played with over the years, Julia says, Ive never stepped on a Lego. A group of at least 100 Republican former officials is threatening to form a separate party if the GOP does not separate itself from former President Donald Trump, according to multiple media reports. The Call for American Renewal, first reported by Reuters and NBC News, is expected to be detailed in a letter released Thursday. It is being organized by Miles Taylor, a former Trump administration official who penned the then-anonymous New York Times op-ed I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration, in 2018. The current letter calls for resistance of the rationals against the radicals and reportedly includes involvement from former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, past administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, the first secretary of homeland security; former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters; and former GOP Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Reid Ribble of Wisconsin and Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma. Other names tied to the letter have not been released. The letter is expected to call for a recreation of the Republican party with distance from the former president or the creation of a new political group. You can read more here and here. An Alabama man and three others from Texas have been sentenced to federal prison for drug trafficking in the southeastern part of the state. Muta Bolden, 36, of Dothan, was sentenced Tuesday to more than 10 years for his role in the crimes, according to Middle District of Alabama Acting U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Stewart. Bolden was also ordered to serve five years of supervised release after he completes his prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Boldens three co-defendants were previously sentenced for their roles in the crime. They include: Alberto Diaz, 44, from Rio Grande, Texas, sentenced to 130 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release Jesus Pina, Jr., 40, from San Juan, Texas, sentenced to 108 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release Kenneth Nicholas De La Cerda, 27, from Rio Grande, Texas, sentenced to 60 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. An Alabama man and three Texas men were sentenced to federal prison after 25 kilos of cocaine were delivered to Dothan in Houston County in 2019. (Dothan Police) The investigation began in February 2019 when the DEA and Dothan police received information that a shipment of cocaine was being brought into Houston County. Working on that tip, authorities set up surveillance and watched as Bolden met up with Diaz and De La Cerda in Ashford. Following that conversation, they all left separately. Diaz and De La Cerda eventually traveled to the Flying J Truck Stop in Dothan where they led an 18-wheeler being driven by Pina to another location. Bolden later joined Diaz and De La Cerda at the truck, and roughly 25 kilos of cocaine were taken from the back of the trailer Pina was hauling. A short time later, authorities took all four suspects into custody. Authorities at the time said the drugs had an estimated street value of more than $800,000. Each of the four were sentenced after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Federal guidelines called for significant sentences for Diaz, Pina, and Bolden due to their extensive criminal histories and the quantity of illegal drugs that were attributed to each of them. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brandon Bates and Joshua Wendell prosecuted the cases, which were investigate by the DEA and Dothan police. District Attorney W. Crosby Parker announced that Iconic Facce pled guilty yesterday to two indicted counts of robbery. https://t.co/gSqApsFNwf WXXV 25 (@WXXV25) May 11, 2021 A serial bank robber who used money she had stolen from bank robberies to pay for plastic surgery will serve 15 years in prison for robbing a Gulfport bank. Iconic Facce, of Ashford, Alabama, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of robbery, District Attorney Crosby Parker said in a press release. Judge Randi Peresich Mueller sentenced her to a total of 30 years in prison, with 15 years to serve. Facce admitted to robbing BanCorpSouth on Cowan Road on March 22, 2019. In the robbery, Facce entered the bank and gave a bank teller a note that read, you have 1 minute to give the money do not be wrong are (or) die, the release said. Facces abandoned Cadillac was later found near the bank. Authorities arrested Facce in the robbery at George Bush International Airport in Houston following a trip to Mexico for what authorities believed was for plastic surgery. The witnesses told police the suspect had a swollen face consistent with cosmetic surgery. The bank tellers later positively identified her as a suspect. As the investigation continued investigators were able to determine Facces cellphone service provider, and obtain phone data, including geo-location information, the release said. The data confirmed Facce had been in the area of the bank at the time of the robbery. Facce had served time in other bank robberies. On Jan. 29, 2009, she robbed a bank in the north district of Alabama. She served 51 months in prison for that crime. We commend the Gulfport Police Department and their steadfast work in identifying , locating, and apprehending this defendant, Parker said. " Their work is evidenced by this defendant requesting to plead guilty prior to the trial date. The sentence handed down by the the Court holds the defendant accountable for her actions and assists in providing closure to the victims of this crime. ___ (c)2021 The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.) Visit The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.) at www.sunherald.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. An Alabama man who is a self-proclaimed witch has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the disappearance of 21-year-old mother Leila Cavett, Hollywood police announced late Tuesday. Her body has not been found. Shannon Ryan, 39, who was charged last month by Miramar police with child neglect after federal charges were dropped, also faces a charge of tampering with evidence by Hollywood police. Cavett, who was living in Atlanta and visiting South Florida, went missing July 25. Her 2-year-old son was found wandering alone July 26 in a Miramar apartment complex. Investigators soon realized that Cavett, who was originally from Jasper, Alabama, had disappeared. In the following days, her truck was found in the parking lot of a Hollywood Walmart. The FBI stepped in to help with the investigation, and Ryan was arrested on Aug. 16 on a kidnapping charge. Ryan, of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, told investigators at the time that he was going to buy her truck for $3,000 and had arranged to meet Cavett in Florida. He also said he knew Cavett from Alabama. On Aug. 9, Shannon had posted an hour-long video describing his relationship with Cavett, and said she had shown up at his door in Alabama one day and that he invited her in and helped her. On his Facebook page with the name Magnetic Kundalini, Ryan wrote that he is devoted to Witchcraft, Knowledge of Self, Kemetic Kundalini & Chakra meditation, Kemetic Science, Health, wellness, fitness, mentorship. The FBI released a timeline of Cavetts whereabouts at the end of August. The last time she was seen was at a RaceTrac gas station in Hollywood at about 10:30 p.m. on July 25. Ryan told investigators she had left the gas station in a car with two men. Surveillance cameras only captured Ryans Lexus. In October, the FBI confirmed that they were searching Monarch Hill Landfill, a north Broward landfill, in connection with her disappearance. In Tuesdays arrest report, Hollywood police say Ryan was caught on video buying carpet cleaner and trash bags. He also searched Google for does bleach and alcohol make chloroform. The report also details how his cell phone and surveillance placed him in the apartment complex where her son was abandoned. Ryans defense attorney could not be reached Tuesday night. Hollywood said the FBI is helping with the investigation. ___ (c)2021 Miami Herald Visit Miami Herald at www.miamiherald.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is defending a woman who was shot and killed by the Capitol Police as she tried to break into the U.S. House chamber during the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying she was executed. At a House hearing on what went wrong that day, Gosar questioned former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen about the death of Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was part of the mob that attacked the Capitol. Babbitt was shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through a broken window while lawmakers were trapped inside. The Department of Justice has decided not to charge the police officer who shot Babbitt. The officers name hasnt been disclosed. Federal prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution. Gosar on Wednesday asked Rosen why Babbitt was executed and asked the name of the officer who killed her. Gosar called Babbitt a young lady, a veteran, wrapped in an American flag that was killed in the U.S. Capitol. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney says former President Donald Trump is responsible for the Capitol riot. The House impeached Trump for telling his supporters that day to fight like hell to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The then-Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump. Alabamas job creators are thankful that Gov. Kay Ivey recently submitted Alabamas 30-day notice to President Biden that it is time to get back to work. As Chairman of the Alabama Workforce Council, I know Alabama employers are finding it increasingly difficult to find workers to fill available jobs. Survey after survey of businesses in Alabama reveal that there is an abundance of jobs available, and real wages have increased in Alabama over the past year. Despite this, employers are having trouble filling open positions. Since Alabamas economy began feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, over one million Alabamians have filed an initial unemployment claim. To respond to the sheer scale of the nationwide economic dislocations linked to COVID-19, the U.S. Congress created several new unemployment compensation programs to help people that were out of work due to the pandemic. At that time the programs were a good idea and were certainly needed. However, now the COVID-19 spread has been contained. Over 1.5 million Alabamians have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and two-thirds of Alabamians over the age of 65 have been fully vaccinated. There are currently more than 1,300 health providers offering COVID-19 vaccinations in Alabama, and all Alabamians over the age of 16 are eligible for the vaccine. As Governor Ivey said, This is absolutely now a managed pandemic. We are very fortunate in Alabama that our economy is rebounding so quickly. Alabamas March 2021 unemployment rate of 3.8 percent is well below the national unemployment rate and it is the lowest in the Southeastern United States. Among the 50 states, Alabama currently ranks in the top 10 when it comes to economic momentum. Economic development activity across Alabama generated nearly $5 billion in new capital investment and almost 10,000 new job commitments in 2020. Paradoxically, the federal programs designed to serve as a lifeline for Alabamians and our economy during the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have put Alabamas full economic recovery at risk. Continuing to depend on this extra federal assistance is harming our recovery, in part because so many of our employers are unable to operate at full capacity due to labor shortages. A growing number of other states are coming to the same conclusion and have also announced they are ending their participation in these federal programs. The bottom line is that Alabama could not afford to continue participating in these programs. Doing so would reverse the recovery that Governor Ivey has so painstakingly fostered. That is why Governor Ivey announced on May 10 that Alabama will cease participation in the extended federal unemployment compensation programs. Alabamas economic success and low unemployment rate, particularly in the face of a global pandemic, is a testament to the soundness of Governor Iveys decision to pragmatically reopen Alabamas economy. There are definitely people who still need unemployment benefits, and they should receive eligible assistance. They should also know that the state offers an abundance of training, education and employment assistance so they can reenter the job market quickly and gain the skills and credentials they need to find family-sustaining employment. Through AlabamaWorks (www.alabamaworks.com), our state offers an effective and unified network of services designed to recruit, train and empower a highly skilled workforce driven by business and industry needs. The human and economic toll taken by this pandemic is unquantifiable, and the full impact may never be truly known. Nevertheless, the resiliency of Alabamas people is one inspiring story to tell in a saga otherwise devoid of good news. Alabamians have endured this temporary new normal for over 14 months, and now it is time to return to the real normal in our economy, as well. Getting Alabamians back to work the best solution to keep our economy growing. Thank you, Governor Ivey. Tim McCartney, formerly of McCartney Construction in Gadsden, is the Chairman of the Alabama Workforce Council. First ketchup. Then chicken. Now, Chick-fil-As sauces. An email distributed to customers warned that industry-wide shortages thanks to the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the chains famous sauces. This notification can also be seen for those who have Chick-fil-As app installed and in a banner on the companys website. Due to industrywide supply chain shortages, some items, like sauces, may be unavailable. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience, the short notification stated. In the email to customers, it further elaborated that sauces will be restricted to one per entree, two per meal and three per 30-count order of nuggets. When you order through the app, it cuts you off when you reach your sauce limit. This includes packets of Heinz ketchup, which is experiencing a shortage of its own. However, 8 oz. bottles of sauce are still available through Chick-fil-As app as of Tuesday. You can also buy sauce by the bottle at some retail locations, including Target and Walmart. With all of these stores, the individual location might vary in stock and availability, so be sure to double check before heading out to get some. Other consumer goods affected by the pandemic range from toilet paper to pet food. But, if you are a fan of Grape-Nuts cereal, that shortage is thankfully over. A Florida man faces homicide charges after investigators following up on a tip about a missing woman found human remains buried in his backyard. The Santa Rosa Sheriffs Office said Tuesday that they are working to identify the remains found in the yard of Johnny Edwards Malisham, 60. A tipster told the Butler County Sheriffs Office in Alabama on Sunday that Malisham killed Cynthia Hoover, 60, with a hatchet and then buried her body under a burn pit behind his home near Milton, WEAR reported. They alerted officials in Santa Rosa County, and they began searching the yard, the sheriffs office said on Facebook. Hoover was last seen March 8, and her ransacked car was found along Interstate 10 two days later, the report said. WEAR reported that the woman who tipped authorities said Malisham had tried to get her to help him with the body. The woman has known Malisham for about 15 years, an arrest report said. The woman told investigators Malisham asked her to be a lookout while he buried the body, and threatened her if she refused, the report said. She ran to her home when she heard Malisham dragging the womans body, WEAR reported. According to the woman, Malisham later told her he drove Hoovers car to I-10 and abandoned it. He then threw her keys in the river. She said he called her to pick him up, but she refused. So he called another woman who brought him home. Investigators said the other woman is elderly and did not remember much about the incident. Carol Miller, who lives two houses away from Malisham, told WEAR he often cut grass for the neighbors and was friendly. She said she could not believe it when she saw investigators digging up his backyard. They just let us know John was safe. We never thought yeah, hes safe in jail, she told the television station. He now faces up to life in prison, Santa Rosa Sheriff Bob Johnson said. Obviously you take a life, you need to forfeit a life, he said. Malisham remains in the Santa Rosa County Jail. Jail records do not list an attorney for him. The 87th Headliner Award winners honoring the best in U.S. journalism were announced today, and Alabama Media Group won awards in three categories. In the category of online investigative reporting for digital partnerships with other news outlets, first place went to Mauled: When Police Dogs Are Weapons, a joint reporting project by the staff of The Marshall Project, AL.com, the Indianapolis Star and the Invisible Institute. The year-long investigation was published in print and online by dozens of outlets. Police dogs bite thousands of people every year in the United States. The injuries can be physically and financially devastatingand sometimes deadly. The series identified and tracked individual cases, mostly based on court records, eventually building a nationwide database of more than 150 severe incidents. Many were captured on video from police bodycams or shot by bystanders. Most of the victims were accused of minor offenses or were not suspects at all, and were frequently left with grievous injuries and lifelong scars. The Mauled series began at AL.com, where reporter Challen Stephens was looking into a series of violent encounters involving one dog and its handler in a small Alabama town. Realizing that the problems with K-9s was happening across the country, AL.com reached out to The Marshall Project to broaden the investigation into the world of police dogs, where maulings are common and oversight is rare. At AL.com, reporter Ashley Remkus and photographer Joe Songer also worked on the project throughout 2020. Alabama Media Group also won two second place awards. In the category of local interest column on a variety of subjects, AL.com columnist Kyle Whitmire won second place for his columns appearing on the states largest digital news site. In the category of journalistic innovation, Connor Sheets won second place with his story Commissary Slips, which appeared on Reckonsouth.com, a start-up news site for younger Southerners focused on stories and people unheard in traditional media. The National Headliner Awards were founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City and it is one of the oldest and largest contests recognizing outstanding work in journalism. Were honored to be recognized for the work and its impact here in Alabama, " said Kelly Ann Scott, editor and vice president of content for Alabama Media Group. We hope this work shines a light on issues so we can come together and find a way forward here in Alabama and in the South. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists. A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the National Rifle Associations bankruptcy case, leaving the powerful gun-rights group to face a New York state lawsuit that accuses it of financial abuses and aims to put it out of business. The case was over whether the NRA should be allowed to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, where the state is suing in an effort to disband the group. Though headquartered in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a nonprofit in New York in 1871 and is incorporated in the state. Judge Harlin Hale said in a written order that he was dismissing the case because he found the bankruptcy was not filed in good faith. The Court believes the NRAs purpose in filing bankruptcy is less like a traditional bankruptcy case in which a debtor is faced with financial difficulties or a judgment that it cannot satisfy and more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme, Hale wrote. His decision followed 11 days of testimony and arguments. Lawyers for New York and the NRAs former advertising agency grilled the groups embattled top executive, Wayne LaPierre, who acknowledged putting the NRA into Chapter 11 bankruptcy without the knowledge or assent of most of its board and other top officers. Excluding so many people from the process of deciding to file for bankruptcy, including the vast majority of the board of directors, the chief financial officer, and the general counsel, is nothing less than shocking, the judge added. Phillip Journey, an NRA board member and Kansas judge who had sought to have an examiner appointed to investigate the groups leadership, was concise about Hales judgment: 1 word, disappointed, he wrote in a text message. Lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that the case was an attempt by NRA leadership to escape accountability for using the groups coffers as their personal piggybank. But the NRAs attorneys said it was a legitimate effort to avoid a political attack by the Democrat. LaPierre testified that he kept the bankruptcy largely secret to prevent leaks from the groups 76-member board, which is divided in its support for him. The NRA declared bankruptcy in January, five months after James office sued seeking its dissolution following allegations that executives illegally diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts and other questionable expenditures. The NRA does not get to dictate if and where it will answer for its actions, and our case will continue in New York court, James tweeted after the ruing was made. No one is above the law. Shannon Watts, who founded Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said in a series of tweets that the bankruptcy dismissal comes at the worst possible time for the NRA: right as background checks are being debated in the Senate. It will be onerous if not impossible for the NRA to effectively oppose gun safety and lobby lawmakers while simultaneously fighting court battles and mounting debt, said Watts, whose organization is part of the Michael Bloomberg-backed Everytown for Gun Safety. Two former Trump administration officials are facing tough questions at a congressional hearing on their roles in the sharply criticized response to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. Wednesdays hearing is the latest in Congress attempts to grapple with the Jan. 6 riots that sent then-Vice President Mike Pence and hundreds of lawmakers into safe rooms as a pro-President Donald Trump mob smashed windows, destroyed art and furniture, beat police officers and ransacked the Senate chamber in an attempt to stop the constitutionally mandated counting of the Electoral College votes to certify Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., opened the hearing by saying Congress has a duty to get to the root of what went wrong that day, which she called the worst attack on our republic since the Civil War. The federal government was unprepared for this insurrection, even though it was planned in plain sight on social media for the world to see. And despite all the military and law enforcement resources our government can call upon in a crisis, security collapsed in the face of the mob, and reinforcements were delayed for hours as the Capitol was overrun, Maloney said. Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen defended their actions before Maloneys panel. It is the first time Miller and Rosen have spoken publicly about their planning and response to the Jan. 6 attack. Miller defended his decisions around that day, saying he was concerned about the optics of sending uniformed troops to the Capitol and pushing back against criticism from some in Congress that it took more than four hours after the first rioters entered the building for federal troops to arrive and begin regaining control. I fervently believe the military should not be utilized in such scenarios, other than as a last resort, and only when all other assets have been expended, Miller said. I stand by every decision I made on Jan. 6 and in the following days, Miller said. Rosen testified that the Justice Department prepared appropriately ahead of the riot, including having tactical and special units on standby in the area. The Department of Justice acted with the utmost integrity and urgency to support our institutions of government to the very best of our abilities when the legislative branch came under attack, Rosen told the committee in his opening statement. Both Rosen and Miller told lawmakers they did not speak with Trump the day of the attack. I had all the authority I needed and knew what had to happen, Miller said. Miller said he did speak with Pence hours into the insurrection, but that the conversation did not play a role in his decision to deploy the District of Columbia National Guard. The vice president is not in the chain of command, he did not direct me to clear the Capitol, Miller said. Unlike in states and territories, in Washington, D.C., the president, not local authorities, decides whether to deploy the local National Guard. I think the lack of direct communication from President Trump speaks volumes, Maloney said. The former officials were joined by D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee, who has criticized what he has described as the militarys lackadaisical response to the riots. Contee said intelligence agencies warned of the threat of violence through an email to various police agencies the day before the attack, without follow-up to ensure it reached the correct people. I think that a situation like this certainly warrants more than an email being sent out, he said. The process has been changed since to include a phone call, Contee said. Maloney said the Justice Department and FBI have not produced any documents requested by congressional committees to help understand planning and reasoning around Jan. 6. Were still in the dark about what exactly went wrong, Maloney said. That many details are unresolved was clear Wednesday as members of the House committee continued to disagree on the basic facts of what occurred Jan. 6. Democrats argued with witnesses about the timeline of when additional help was requested. Witnesses disagreed with one another, and with the timeline released by the Department of Defense on who made the request for federal assistance and when. Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar emphasized that no firearms were confiscated, argued that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknicks death wasnt caused by rioters and took issue with an officers killing of rioter Ashli Babbit. Babbit was shot as she attempted to enter the House chamber while lawmakers were still evacuating. Firearms were confiscated from protesters on Capitol grounds, according to court records. Gosar also criticized the governments efforts to find track down those who entered the Capitol, saying law enforcement enlisted Americans to turn in their own neighbors who participated in the violent attack. The FBI has released photos of suspects it is pursuing. The DOJ is harassing peaceful protesters across the country, Gosar said. Maloney said FBI Director Christopher Wray was sent multiple invitations to appear before the committee with Miller and Rosen, and she rescheduled the hearing twice in an attempt to accommodate his schedule. Wray has agreed to appear before the committee in June, Maloney said. Congress is considering creating a bipartisan commission to study the causes and circumstances around the Jan. 6 attack, similar to the commission created after 9/11, but has reached an impasse with Republican leaders who insist the scope of the investigation also include unrelated violence during the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer. Democrats are hoping for an agreement soon, so the commission can be included in a bill approving $2 billion in new Capitol security spending that could be voted on in the House as soon as next week. Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee heard from Attorney General Merrick Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about the Biden administrations efforts to crack down on violent domestic extremism. The FBI has reported a spike in activity by anti-government groups and white supremacists, and Wray has testified that suspects espousing such views played major roles in the Jan. 6 riot. The Department of Homeland Security reported last year that violent white supremacy was the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland. Garland and Mayorkas were pressed about their departments efforts to combat a rise in hate crimes and what Wray has described as the metastasizing threat posed by domestic terrorism. The FBI has about 2,000 ongoing domestic terror probes, up from about 1,400 at the end of 2019. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., asked Mayorkas to make public an internal review he launched to assess the dangers of domestic extremism in his own agency, saying the need for such a probe sends chills down my spine. Mayorkas said he would make public the results of the review, which he said was needed to address potential threats related to domestic violent extremism within his agency. Lawmakers were keen to learn more about the status of the Justice Departments investigation into the Jan. 6 riots. The Justice Department has brought more than 400 cases against suspected Capitol rioters on charges including disorderly conduct, assaulting a police officer and conspiracy. But lawmakers have questioned what more law enforcement could have done to prevent the riot, which left hundreds injured and five dead including a police officer. Garland said the Justice Department is still in the early stages of its investigation into the riot and declined to say when it might be completed. I cant tell you how long this will take, Garland said, citing the large number of suspects and massive amount of digital evidence prosecutors and agents are reviewing. We will pursue each lead until weve reached the end. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., asked Garland why the Justice Department seemed to be more zealously pursuing alleged Capitol rioters than those who vandalized property and terrorized cities like Portland (Oregon), Minneapolis and Washington, D.C. amid racial justice protests last year. The senator was echoing criticism by Republicans that the Justice Department seems to be ignoring vandalism and acts of violence and destruction of federal property by followers of the leftist antifa movement. Garland said the Justice Department took such crimes seriously but was focusing on the Capitol attack because the riot was the more dangerous threat to democracy he had seen in his long career as a prosecutor and federal judge. This was an attempt to interfere ... with a fundamental element of our democracy, Garland said. And if there has to be a hierarchy of things we prioritize, this would be the one we prioritize, Garland said. Garland also noted that the Trump administration was overseeing federal investigations and prosecutions during the unrest of last summer. He told Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that federal prosecutors and agents in such places as Portland and Minneapolis were pursuing potential cases against those who engaged in violence or destroyed property. I have not heard any suggestion that such investigations were suffering from insufficient resources, Garland said. ___ 2021 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. The Alabama Surface Mining Commission has issued a notice of violation to Warrior Met Coal after two local creeks ran black for weeks with dark colored sediment near the companys Mine No. 7 in Brookwood, Tuscaloosa County. The coal company was not fined by the mining commission for the violation but could still face penalties from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management. The pollution in the creek was first reported by nearby residents, who lodged complaints with ADEM and the Surface Mining Commission on April 26. According to state records, ADEM inspected the site and collected water samples on April 27, and the mining commission inspected the site on May 6 and 7, informing Warrior of the violations on May 7. The mining commission cited Warrior for failure to maintain a sediment basin at the mine. ADEM water samples showed suspended solids above the limit set in the mines operating permit. ADEM released a copy of the inspection report of the site on Wednesday. According to ADEM documents, the source of the pollution is a coal preparation plant at Warriors Mine No. 7 in Brookwood, where the coal, extracted hundreds of feet below ground is washed, separated from rocks, and broken down to uniform pieces for transport and sale. Refuse from that process is captured in a sediment waste pond, which is supposed to settle out solid particles and discharge clean water into an unnamed tributary of Texas Creek, which flows into Davis Creek and then the Black Warrior River near Holt Lake. ADEM is actively reviewing the Met Coal information and data obtained as a result of the inspection and will take appropriate enforcement action, ADEM External Affairs Chief Lynn Battle said in an email to AL.com on Wednesday. The mining commission is requiring Warrior Met Coal to begin dredging the leaking waste pond, fill portions of the pond with a fabric liner and coarse refuse material to catch the sediment, and conduct daily water monitoring of the creek for 90 days. Warrior Met Coal issued a statement Wednesday saying it had been notified that a single water sample was found to be out of compliance, that it had been abated, and that the pond cited in the mining commission notice of violation was scheduled for routine maintenance which is currently underway. Black Warrior Riverkeeper Nelson Brooke said the state actions did little to hold Warrior responsible for damage to Davis and Texas Creeks, which enter the Black Warrior River near Holt Lake, upstream of Tuscaloosa. To me, it falls far short of holding them accountable, Brooke said. Its just steering the company toward doing what it should have already been doing. The company, in its statement, said: We are continuing to work with ASMC on a plan to ensure the continued water quality of sampling locations and immediate downstream areas in our communities. Warrior Met Coal remains committed to high standards for water quality, as reflected by the companys track record of a 99.8% water quality compliance rate and positive record of reclamation and release of previously used lands. The ADEM inspection report published Wednesday stated that coal fines -- small, dust-like particles of coal created when coal is washed and prepared for market -- were visible at the outfall and in Davis Creek downstream, and that the suspended solids in the discharge water (131 mg/L) exceeded the permit limit of 70 mg/L. In a remediation plan filed with ADEM, Warrior Met Coal blamed a seep at the sediment waste pond for the pollution that entered the creek. Warrior Met Coal says it began dredging the waste pond on Monday and plans to have the liner installed by June 15. The remediation plan also calls for the company to install turbidity curtains, or silt curtains, in Texas Creek. Those are impermeable barriers to trap sediment, with floating barriers on top and weights at the bottom. Brooke said those curtains are not designed to be used in flowing creeks. Theyre meant to be in slack water, like on the edge of a water body or a lake or a pond, not in a stream, Brooke said. So Im not sure who came up with that plan, but it doesnt sound like a very good one. Brooke said the companys remediation plan also did not address the oil sheen and chemical smell he observed in the creeks. He said water samples that he collected at the site showed e. Coli levels that were unsafe for human contact and very high conductivity, which he said can be harmful to snails, crawfish, mussels and other macroinvertebrates living in the creeks. We still think that they should be shut down until they can get everything to where it needs to be, Brooke said. They shouldnt be allowed to discharge until they get it worked out. A Shelby County man is behind bars, accused of trying to kill a police officer with his own weapon. Allen Dwight Horton, 23, is charged with attempted capital murder, attempted murder of a police officer and second-degree assault. The incident happened Saturday, May 8, in Columbiana, according to court records made public Wednesday. The officer had been called to a report of a person acting erratically, said Columbiana Police Chief Jeff Bowers. Horton, police said, was not committing any crime so the officer was giving him a ride to his grandmothers house. Charging documents against Horton said the man was in the back of a Columbiana Police Department cruiser when the officer noticed the back door was not closed properly. The officer pulled over to properly close the door, and thats when Horton allegedly reached though the open plexiglass window that serves as a barrier between the cruisers front and back seats and grabbed the officers back-up weapon. When the officer opened the opened the back door, records state, Horton pointed the Glock handgun at the officer and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed. Because Horton was not under arrest, he was not handcuffed and the shield was open. Horton is also charged with second-degree assault after he reportedly punched a paramedic in the face, knocking the paramedic to the ground. Horton was arrested Tuesday and remained held Wednesday in the Shelby County Jail on bonds totaling $135,000. Bowers said hes grateful to God that the situation ended without the officer or Horton injured. We are extremely thankful,' the chief said. As much as our officers train, nothing can train you for something like this. I think the officer handled it the best he could. A Bessemer couple has been sentenced federally for possessing pill presses used to make fake prescription drugs. Earnest Lee Coleman, 44, and his wife, 38-year-old Tashana Lynn Sims, were sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Annemarie Axon, according to a joint announcement by Northern District of Alabama U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations, Miami Field Office Special Agent in Charge Justin C. Fielder. Coleman was sentenced to 78 months 6 years - in prison and Sims was sentenced to 36 months probation. Coleman pleaded guilty to possessing punches, dies, and plates with the intent to defraud or mislead, being a felon in possession of a firearm, possessing controlled substances with the intent to distribute them, holding for sale and dispensing a counterfeit drug, and adulteration of a drug. Sims pleaded guilty to illegally possessing punches, dies, and plates. The couple entered their guilty pleas in February. According to their plea agreements, in April 2018, an international mail package from China was intercepted en route to 3300 Berkley Avenue in Bessemer, the home of Coleman and Sims. The package contained two metal dies and a metal mold designed to be used to produce pressed pills. Authorities searched the Bessemer home, finding controlled substances, multiple firearms, and a pill press, powders and dyes used to make fake drugs. In October 2019, authorities again searched the home, finding an additional pill press, punch and die, and firearms. Coleman and Sims ran a counterfeit prescription pill operation out of their home in Bessemer in which Coleman used acetaminophen, fentanyl, heroin, and paverine to make pills similar in appearance to legitimate pharmaceuticals with markings such as Lortab, Adderall, Soma, Xanax, Ecstasy, Oxycodone, and OxyContin. Coleman sold or traded these pills to obtain other drugs. The defendants used dangerous drugs to make counterfeit pills that looked like legitimate prescription drugs, misleading potential buyers and exposing them to unacceptable risks, Escalona said. My office will continue to prosecute those who take advantage of the opioid crisis to prey on vulnerable victims. The FDA investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Austin Shutt and Jonathan Cross prosecuted Counterfeiting unapproved and potentially dangerous opioids poses a serious threat to the U.S. public health and cannot be tolerated, said Special Agent in Charge Justin C. Fielder, FDA Office of Criminal Investigations Miami Field Office. The FDA is fully committed to doing our part to disrupt and dismantle illegal prescription drug manufacturing and distribution networks. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin on Tuesday said he will not resign after the Easter Sunday fatal shooting of Desmon Montez Ray Jr. by police. Black Lives Matters Birmingham chapter on Monday called for the resignations of Woodfin and Police Chief Patrick Smith, saying their handling of the police killing of Ray is unacceptable. The 28-year-old Ray was fatally shot in the north Birmingham alley just before 11 p.m. that Sunday night, April 4, after the citys 911 dispatchers received a call about a domestic dispute taking place inside a vehicle. Woodin addressed the media on a range of topics Tuesday, including the Ray case. The sentiment I have every day when I wake up, and I know the chief of police shares the same sentiment, when our police officers interact with citizens and our citizens interact with Birmingham police officer, we want everyone to go home safe,' Woodfin said. The citizen and the police. In this situation on that night, unfortunately that did not happen. The mayor again sent his condolences to the Ray family. But I also want to state there are real issues in America right now. These issues have persisted for quite some time where unarmed Black men have been shot by white officers,' Woodfin said. I want to make myself very clear this is not one of those instances and this is not the case. I look forward to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation completing their investigation and turning over the findings to the District Attorneys Office, as well as city of Birmingham being provided the opportunity to see what is in that report, as well as his family getting the details of what happened that night,' he said. I also want to make this point very clear - I will not be resigning. Ray was killed after officers responding to the call spotted the vehicle in the 200 block of Ninth Avenue West and tried to stop it, but the driver later identified as Ray refused to stop, police said. Police pursued the vehicle until it crashed into a chain link fence in the 200 block of Ninth Avenue West. Police Chief Patrick Smith said Ray then exited the vehicle, confronted the officers and fired one round in the officers direction. Officers returned fire, at least eight shots, and Ray was struck, police said. Police officials one week ago today released three videos from that night a neighbors Ring camera footage and body-worn camera footage from the two officers first to Ray, including the officer who fired the fatal shots. The chief said at that press conference that dashcam footage was not available because either the cruiser was not equipped with a dashcam or the equipment was outdated and not retrievable. Ray and the officer who fired the fatal shots are both Black. Rays family members, and Black Lives Matter, have called for all unedited videos to be release and for the officer or officers involved in the shooting to be held accountable. The State Bureau of Investigation is leading the probe and will turn the findings over to the Jefferson County District Attorneys Office. Now that the Colonial Pipeline is once again running, whats next for motorists in the Southeast? The Colonial Pipeline a critical source of gasoline and diesel fuel for the East Coast was set to restart around 5 p.m. Eastern time today. The pipeline was forced to take systems offline last Friday in response to a ransomware attack. Yet even with full service restored, it could take up to two weeks for gasoline to replenish dry filling stations. Following this restart it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal, Colonial said in a statement announcing the restart. Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period. Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal. Latest Update - Colonial Pipeline Return to Service: https://t.co/WkosDxQ0CV pic.twitter.com/mWTuJBVHVM Colonial Pipeline (@Colpipe) May 12, 2021 And not a moment too soon. Service stations in several states are increasingly running out of gasoline due to panic buying. Patrick De Haan, an analyst with GasBuddy.com, said about 7 percent of gas stations in Alabama are without gasoline as of Wednesday afternoon, with North Carolina and Virginia seeing widespread problems. Metro areas, such as Atlanta, Raleigh and Charlotte are seeing significant shortages. The New York Times is reporting that stations in Southern states were selling two to three times their normal amount of gasoline on Tuesday, according to the Oil Price Information Service, an organization that tracks the oil sector. The surge in demand also sent gas prices to their highest level nationally since 2014, at a time of year when the price at the pump trends higher in anticipation of Memorial Day and summer travel plans. More people are expected to hit the road in coming weeks as COVID-19 restrictions loosen around the country, freeing cooped up Americans with plans to get away. Gasoline Outages by state, percent of all stations without gasoline, as of 3pm CT: AL 7% DC 12% DE 2% FL 14% GA 45% KY 2% LA 0% MD 13% MS 6% NC 68% NJ 1% SC 45% TN 18% TX 0% VA 49% WV 5% Patrick De Haan (@GasBuddyGuy) May 12, 2021 The Biden Administration has taken steps to get more gasoline on highways to stations, but that move is complicated by a shortage of truck drivers, according to The Washington Post. The pipeline, which transports 2.5 million barrels of gasoline and petroleum products per day, is the largest fuel transmission line from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast, stretching some 5,500 miles. Colonial Pipeline shut down its systems as a proactive measure after a ransomware attack by a criminal group identified by federal authorities as DarkSide. According to The Washington Post, Colonial Pipeline doesnt plan on making a ransom payment to hackers in exchange for restoring stolen data. The company is working with cybersecurity company FireEye to rebuild its systems and recover backups. Today, President Joe Biden also signed an executive order dealing with cybersecurity. The Hill is reporting the executive order requires the establishment of baseline cybersecurity standards for all software sold to the federal government. All software used by the government must meet those standards within nine months. At the same time, it mandates the use of encryption and multifactor authentication by the federal government, with agencies required to get a waiver from the National Security Council if encryption is not fully implemented in six months. It also lays out how federal agencies will share cyber threat information, and creates a playbook for responses future cyber breaches. The former band director at Chilton County High School accused of having a sexual relationship with a student has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge. Ashlee Elizabeth Steinman, 29, issued her guilty plea Tuesday. She was initially charged with the felony crimes of school employee engaging in a sex act with a student and using her official position to gain access to the student and carryout the illegal relationship. Steinman was arrested Feb 9. The investigation began when Clanton police received a report of the possible relationship between Steinman and the 18-year-old student, said CJ Robinson, chief deputy district attorney of the 19th Judicial Circuit which includes Chilton County. According to the schools website, Steinman had been the band director at Chilton County since 2017. She was previously a graduate teaching assistant at Troy University and a substitute teacher at Alexander City Schools in 2015. She is a graduate of Russell County High School and Troy University where she obtained her masters degree in music education. The charge of an employee engaging in a sex act with a student is a Class B felony with a range of punishment of two to 20 years. Steinman, represented by attorneys James J. Ransom III and Anna M. Sparks. pleaded guilty to one count of a school employee distributing obscene matter to a student, which is a misdemeanor. Under the plea agreement, according to court records, Steinman received a one-year suspended sentence, with two years of probation. She is to have no contact with the male victim. Additionally, records show, Steinman was ordered to immediately sign termination papers with the Chilton County school system, immediately surrender her teaching certificate and attend 10 hours of counseling with mental health facility. The end result is definitely bittersweet. I think Ashlee Steinman used her official position to target a young man and perform sexual acts with him. However, what we believe and what we can prove are sometimes different things,' Robinson said. Ultimately, this young man can close this chapter of his life and proceed with pursing a bright future in college. Every decision on this case was carefully made with direct input from the victim, his family, and law enforcement. An Alabama woman who pleaded guilty last year to murder for killing a man accused of raping her is out of jail. Brittany Smith was released from Jackson County Jail after serving 18 months. She will serve 18 months of house arrest, according to the terms of her plea deal, which gave her credit for time served in jail awaiting trial. According to The Jackson County Sentinel, Smith isnt allowed to leave her home unless given permission by the court or community corrections. She will be allowed to do court referral, mental health and anger management. Five years of supervised probation will follow the house arrest period. Smith pleaded guilty on the eve of her scheduled trial to killing Todd Smith, no relation, in the kitchen of her home in Stevenson on the morning of Jan. 16, 2018 just hours after Brittany said Todd raped and strangled her. If Smith had been convicted at trial, she would have faced up to life in prison. Her story drew national media attention and raised questions about how abused women are treated in the Alabama criminal justice system. At the Stand Your Ground hearing, Brittany testified that Todd had raped and choked her hours before the deadly shooting on Jan. 16, 2018. And a nurse testified that a sexual assault exam performed after the shooting found more than 30 injuries on Brittanys neck, chest, breast, legs, arms and feet. There were hand-print marks around Brittanys neck, finger-shaped marks on her inner thighs and bite marks on her neck and chin. Smith argued that she killed Todd in defense of herself and her brother, Chris McCallie. She testified that when her brother came over to confront Todd about the rape, the men fought. She told a judge that she fatally shot Todd while he held her brother in a headlock and threatened to kill them all. Holt denied Brittanys request for immunity from prosecution under Alabamas self-defense law, saying she had not proven that the killing was legally justified. That decision set off a series of appeals. Brittany and her lawyers unsuccessfully urged the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the states Supreme Court to overturn Holts Stand Your Ground ruling. The defense also lost appeals to have Holt removed from the case, alleging she was biased against Brittany. The judge denied those allegations. Update: The charge has been upgraded to capital murder An Alabama infant reported missing two days ago has been found dead and his father is now charged with manslaughter. Just hours after Caleb Michael Whisnand, 32, and the babys mother pleaded publicly for the babys safe return, the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office Wednesday night announced the arrest in the death of the five-week-old. Sheriffs Capt. Leigh Persky said Whisnand is being held in Caleb C.J. Whisnand Jr.s death on $100,000 bond in the Montgomery County Detention Center. The arrest came after a Wednesday afternoon press conference where the elder Whisnand and the boys mother, 28-year-old Angela Nicole Gardner, made a plea for their sons safe return. Authorities said the babys remains were found shortly after the press conference. Gardner has not been charged with any crime. Authorities have not said how C.J. died and said more details will be released Thursday at a 9:30 a.m. press conference. At the time of his arrest Wednesday, Whisnand was already under indictment in an unrelated case on charges of meth and heroin possession, reckless endangerment and possession of drug paraphernalia. Sheriffs Capt. Trent Beasley said earlier Wednesday authorities about 10:45 p.m. Monday received a 911 call from Whisnand from the Circle K on Wetumpka Highway about a missing child. According to Margaret Hope, C.J.s grandmother and Gardners mother, the couple lived with Whisnands parents. Gardner was about to leave Whisnand, Hope said, and I think thats the reason he took the baby. Hope said the baby was found dead in a wooded area. He knew he done killed that baby and he had to come up with some excuse,' Hope said. The disappearance of the infant has been shrouded in mystery and secrecy since the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, in the early-morning hours of Tuesday, issued a missing child alert in C.J.s disappearance. The alert said C.J. had been missing since Saturday, however sheriffs officials said they were notified of his supposed disappearance Monday night. Authorities provided no additional details about C.J.s disappearance except to say that multiple agencies were involved in the search and that investigators were reviewing video surveillance footage from the area of the convenience store where Whisnand made the 911 call. Hope said Whisnand took C.J. while Gardner was asleep and the family has been looking for him since then. She didnt get to have her son on Mothers Day or Monday,' Hope said. Angela is a great mother, and she is overprotective of her kids. She was so happy when she gave birth. I was there when she gave birth to the baby. I cant believe the SOB killed her baby. Whisnand and Gardner spoke to the media in what was a somewhat bizarre public appearance. I dont remember a lot, but I did remember I was breaking up, ya know, with the cops, Whisnand said. If anybodys got anything, any places that I could have gone, you know who you are. Please, find him please,' Gardner said. Whisnand and Gardner initially said the last time they remember seeing C.J. was Saturday night when the infant was in the bed with his parents and Gardners 2-year-old son in another room. But moments later, Gardner said she was home with her 2-year-old and the baby was with Whisnand on Monday. They provided no explanation for the difference in days, or where C.J. was between Saturday night and Monday night. He went to go pay gas at the gas station and realized he was gone,' Gardner said of her fiance. He let the police know, and me know, that he was missing. Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, the Elmore County Sheriffs Office, the Wetumpka Police Department and the Montgomery Police Department, assisted in the search and investigation. Whisnand said during the press conference he had no idea who might have taken the child. If we knew, we would have already went there, he said. Whisnand also had said it would mean a lot to have C.J. found safely. It would mean everything to us. The family aint the same without family, thats for sure,' Whisnand said. Its been taking a toll on everybody. Whisnand was indicted in Elmore County in February for possession or receipt of a controlled substance, reckless endangerment, possession of drug paraphernalia and illegal possession of prescription drugs. He lists addresses in Montgomery and Wetumpka, and court records identify Gardner as his fiancee. Documents state that on June 15, 2020, Whisnand was behind the wheel of a Chevy pickup truck that a police sergeant witnessed run off the road. The sergeant turned around and was eventually able to catch up to the truck. Whisnand veered into oncoming traffic, records state, and crossed the double yellow line, swerving at the last minute to avoid a collision. Whisnand drove off the roadway and slammed on his brakes. Gardner was in the front seat and her child Tolouse, who was an infant then but is now 2, was in a car seat. Whisnand told the officers he was on methamphetamine and had not slept in two to three days. Subject was showing the signs of still being under the influence of the drug with profuse sweating, twitching and constant movement, and he stated he was dehydrated,' the officer wrote. Whisnand was arrested and charged with both misdemeanors and felonies, including being in possession of methamphetamine and heroin. Records state he was also in possession of Gabapentin, and anticonvulsant and nerve pain medication used to treat seizures and pain caused by shingles. He was released from jail on June 16, 2020. His trial on those charges is set for October. An Alexander City man has been charged in connection with weekend shootings that wounded two Montgomery police officers and another man. Demetruis Renard Keith, 28, is charged with three counts of attempted murder and one count of second-degree assault. He is being held in the Montgomery County Detention Facility on bonds totaling $195,000. Court records also list his name in previous arrests as Demetrius Renard Keith. Montgomery officers responded to the 300 block of Lower Wetumpka Road at on a report of a person shot at 2:18 p.m. Saturday. The victim, according to charging documents, was shot in the chest, thigh and wrist. He was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Authorities in search of the suspect then went to the 3000 block Tyler Court, which is in a neighborhood nearby. The suspect now identified as Keith was in a storage shed behind a house, and police used a robot to find him before sending in officers. There was an exchange of gunfire and both Keith and the officers were struck. Keith was hit in the left elbow. One Montgomery officer was struck in the leg and another, a corporal, was shot in the torso. Both are recovering. The suspect and the officers were taken to separate hospitals. The second-degree assault charge is for the shooting of the first man. The three attempted murder charges are for the wounding of the two officers, and for shooting at a third officer, records state. Documents state Keith fired at a sergeant but missed. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agencys State Bureau of Investigation is leading the probe and announced the warrants against Keith. ALEA Corporal Jeremy J. Burkett said additional charges are expected. Keith has prior convictions for robbery, burglary and marijuana possession. Cambodia receives 3rd batch of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine Xinhua) 09:02, May 12, 2021 A staff member transfers a batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, May 11, 2021. A plane carrying a third batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine that Cambodia acquired from Chinese biopharmaceutical company arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua) PHNOM PENH, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A plane carrying a third batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine that Cambodia acquired from Chinese biopharmaceutical company arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday. "The vaccine's arrival today is another testament to the unbreakable iron-clad friendship between our two countries," Cambodia's Health Ministry secretary of state Yok Sambath told reporters while receiving the vaccine at the Phnom Penh International Airport. Sambath expressed her profound thanks to China for providing the vaccine to Cambodia timely, saying that both China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are very safe and effective. The Southeast Asian nation has received COVID-19 vaccines from China and the WHO's COVAX Facility. The country launched an anti-COVID-19 inoculation drive on Feb. 10. To date, more than 1.82 million out of the country's 16 million population had been vaccinated against the virus, a government report said. The kingdom logged 480 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, pushing the national case total to 20,223, with 131 deaths and 8,170 recoveries, the Ministry of Health said. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) News featured Virtual instruction here to stay in Dougherty County School System Special Photo Candace Bui-Watson said teaching online allows her to devote 100 percent of her time to instruction. Special Photo Students solve math problems through an online blackboard as part of the Elevate K-12 program, which has been in use in Dougherty County Schools for several years. Special Photos A veteran in online instruction, Candace Bui-Watson is teaching virtual math classes this year from her home in Illinois to students at Merry Acres Middle School in Dougherty County. EDITORS NOTE: Part of an ongoing series about the future of education in southwest Georgia. ALBANY While there has been a lot of discussion about a shortage in the nursing field, the medical profession is not the only one that is suffering from a lack of qualified employees as the Baby Boom generation retires. Schools also are feeling the pinch as they scramble to meet the needs of students, particularly in certain subject areas. While the COVID-19 pandemic did not cause the current crunch, the events that unfolded in education during that time will reverberate in the future, Dougherty County Schools Superintendent Ken Dyer said. Looming retirements also will have an impact moving forward. The shortage became apparent years before the pandemic hit, with more than 100,000 teaching positions either vacant or staffed by unqualified personnel in the 2017-2018 school year, according to the Learning Policy Institute. Nearly every state reported a shortage of instructors in math, science and special education, with teacher turnover and a decline in individuals pursuing education as a career was noted. Between 2009 and 2017, 340,000 fewer students enrolled in educator preparation programs, largely driven by financial concerns, the organization said. The cost of comprehensive preparation, burden of student loan debt and lack of competitive compensation played a role in individuals making the decision to pursue other careers. The Learning Policy Institute noted that COVID-19 worsened the situation, with some teachers choosing to seek early retirement out of safety concerns and 43% of states during the 2020-2021 school year reporting shortages in math, 42 percent in science and 44 percent in special education. The Dougherty County School System did not experience the trend of teachers retiring due to concerns about returning to campus, Dyer said. The school system initiated virtual learning for an extended period of time and, when schools re-opened, initiated a hybrid system with some students staying at home while others returned to their campus. Facing those trends, virtual instruction by teachers who may live on the other side of the country is the present, as well as likely the future. For several years Dougherty County has turned to virtual teaching through the Elevate K-12 program, a program that staffs classrooms with teachers in other locations. For the current school year, students here have been instructed in math by Candace Bui-Watson in Illinois and Patti Delmonte, who lives in Florida. While Bui-Watson has taught through Elevate K-12 for a number of years and is in her second year teaching sixth-graders in Dougherty County at Merry Acres Elementary School, instruction in the age of COVID has brought unique challenges. Previously, students were all in a classroom and could participate more easily, she said. She could see the entire classroom and all students saw her via the internet. But with students at other locations, that is not always the case. Some remote students learning at home also have other issues, such as being alone with younger siblings during the daytime. It is difficult because you cant see if theyre sleeping or not, Bui-Watson said. I have students who say, I have to do laundry. I will contact the parent and say, Maam, your child is in school, he cant do laundry now. We do have that. She also cant observe students to see when they have an ah-ha moment when they master a concept or are scratching their heads in confusion. One advantage through Elevate K-12 is that a classroom has the same instructor for an entire school year instead of a series of substitute teachers, she said. The teachers get a sense of students learning styles and personalities, knowing which ones are just naturally quiet but on task and which need additional help. Bui-Watson also keeps track of which students are paying attention by posting a math problem for students to solve on an online blackboard. In other instances, she helps struggling students solve a problem. There are different things we can do to keep them engaged, she said. One way Bui-Watson and Delmonte have bonded with students is by turning her camera outside to display the heavy snow in Illinois. She also asks students about their lives and culture in southwest Georgia. One subject that Delmonte, who is teaching high school math this year at Dougherty High School, has found students always mention is a favorite restaurant. Another is their shoes. We have to remember as teachers that we are all humans first, Bui-Watson said. We have to remember (that) comes first, especially during a pandemic. The delivery of instruction also has improved in the second year of the pandemic, the teachers said. The technology is much better now, Bui-Watson said. They have microphones, so we can hear them, Delmonte said. I think the key is to use all the tools we have to keep the students engaged. I definitely think theres going to be more (online teaching) going forward. I definitely think were heading in that direction. Bui-Watson, who has taught virtually since 2014, said that not having to deal with the distractions of a classroom helps her to be a better teacher. I found with Elevate Im able to concentrate on teaching rather than anything else, she said. When I teach, Im able to put 100 percent into teaching. Using IMDb and Metacritic scores, Stacker counts down from 25 the best mythological movies that cinema has to offer. Click for more. 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. Vote View Results Real estate tech-focused venture capital house Fifth Wall is back in the market with its third flagship fundraise, less than two years after closing its sophomore fund on more than $500m. I used to say, to anyone foolish enough to listen to my rants, that socialism was and is a product which was rushed to market without adequate field testing. And what testing was done has been resolutely ignored. Upon reflection, it has become clear to me that, while true, this metaphor oversimplifies matters. Because it implies that socialists havent learned any lessons during the long, bloody history of their bad idea. This is not the case. From a product development perspective, the goal should be to continually improve the product, so more people will desire it. The socialists believe as an article of faith that their product is already perfect. As a result, theyve taken all of the wrong lessons to heart. Not being a Marxian, and certainly not a Marxist, scholar I cannot argue eloquently as to the finer points of dialectical theory. I can only observe the performance of Marxist philosophy as it has been applied to real world situations. Trust me, it is not a pretty sight. For simplicity, well use the term socialism to encompass communism, socialism, progressivism, liberalism, Marxism, Maoism, and any other flavor of collectivist nonsense. They are all just different parts of the same scary water slide which inevitably empties into a totalitarian nightmare, not the workers paradise. Switching names is an old grifters trick, pulled when word gets around and the scam needs a fresh start. It's similar to how used cars became previously owned, and trailers became mobile homes, then manufactured housing. This dodge buys time to swindle more marks before they get wise again. Socialism, in its modern sense, was born with the French Revolution, which was inspired in part by the American Revolution. The French radicals on what was known at the time as the far left misread our founding, thinking that simply getting rid of their king would usher in an ideal regime. While our Founding Fathers realized that King George was more trouble than he was worth, they were wise enough to recognize the trap of trading one tyrant for another. They understood that any government is a necessary evil, but an evil nonetheless. Our Constitution views government as a dangerous, insatiable beast, to be chained, starved, and vigilantly watched. In contrast, the French revolutionaries were entranced by the power of the beast, blind to its perils. The radical and rapid transformation of society the French Revolution brought about filled socialists with a reverence for the potential of governmental coercion. The lesson they learned was that power must be seized and wielded before it can be used against them. Napoleon Bonaparte eventually beat them at their own game during a decadent lull after the Great Terror by being even more ruthless. Decades later, the socialism which infests North America today was in an early form busy setting up small Utopian communities across the U.S., with names like New Harmony. The expectation was that these seeds would grow to engulf America in a popular socialist wave. The vast majority failed within a few years. If the communities incorporated a religious component, they tended to last a bit longer. These Utopias tended to draw the lazy and alienate the industrious, along with corroding stable family life. People drifted away from these isolated, dysfunctional communes until they became weed-choked ghost towns. The lesson socialists drew from this debacle is that people are too stupid to know whats best for them. A condition that the socialists reasoned could be fixed, given time and the proper tools. This cadre-knows-best attitude has been a constant feature of the Left since. With the lessons cherry-picked from the French Revolution and the stillborn America Utopian movement firmly in mind, the Marxists smuggled Vladimir Ilych Lenin into Russia with the aid of the desperate German high command near the end of World War I. They realized that people needed to be stampeded into socialism by fear. Thus, the Soviet Union was birthed in fire, blood, and terror. Knowing without a doubt that their cause was just, the socialists eventually slaughtered all who resisted them until the survivors got the message and kneeled to the new god. Then these saviors of humanity were confronted by the same problems which had plagued the smaller Utopias of the nineteenth century, multiplied by a million. Socialism is simply not a practical way to run a society, large or small. If people arent rewarded proportionally to their efforts, they wont exert themselves any more than they absolutely have to. Whats more, the more ambitious among the populace will flee the workers paradise given half a chance, regardless of the risk. The answer, concluded the socialists, is to tightly control all aspects of their new society. Counterrevolutionary thought and behavior (a particularly elastic and useful term) must be punished harshly. Do what youre told, or you will serve as an example to others. The actual result was waste, inefficiency, corruption, despair, and famine. But the truth would undermine the infallibility of the state and encourage more jailbreaks from the nation-sized prison that the Soviet Union had become. So, lies were harnessed in service to the socialist truth. There is plenty to eat. Your government is just. The new five-year plan will bring vast improvements. Conditions are much worse in the capitalist West. The lesson learned is that facts are dangerous, and should be buried. Living in deceit is a small price to pay for continued power. The business model of the Soviet Union was replicated and exported to troubled spots around the world, by war, subversion, and revolutionary fervor. Cynical revolutionaries didnt think twice about the carnage as long as they ended up in charge. Willfully blind leftists in the West much preferred sweet propaganda to the bitter truth. Still, the Soviet Union and its slave states in Eastern Europe eventually collapsed under the weight of their own flaws, brought about in no small degree by poor comparison with the capitalist West. The lesson the remaining socialists learned from the fall of the Iron Curtain is that the West must be destroyed. By its simple existence, capitalism proves that there is an alternative to socialist tyranny. You dont have to compete if the competition has been eliminated. The Left has bet the farm on a bad idea. But its the only idea they have to sell. They are in unenviable possession of the ideological equivalent of the Ford Pinto or the Chevrolet Corvair. So, theyll lie, cheat, steal, and worse. Anything they have to do, to keep from facing the truth. Its tragic, really. Socialists started out with what they thought to be the true salvation of mankind. With each failure of their system, more and more excuses were cobbled together to salvage their faith from the wreckage. They have learned their lessons well. Seize and wield power ruthlessly. Never depend upon people to do what you want them to do. Force them to. Facts are your enemies. Useful lies are your friends. Dont bother competing on the merits. Remove the competition. Hmm. The above seems to be lifted directly from the play books of the Democrat party, the mainstream media, and the big tech industry. I wonder why. A. Welderson wishes to remain anonymous, preferring morning coffee not fortified with the saliva of some triggered SJW barista. Fame is fleeting; hepatitis is forever. Image: Pixabay / Pixabay License To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Last week, City Journal reporter Christopher Rufio, shared leaked documents from a Disney Parks employee which display critical race theory to the extreme. Employees of Disney are now being trained on topics such as, systematic racism, white privilege, and a slew of other racially charged ideologies. Disneys diversity and inclusion program, titled, Reimagine Tomorrow, displays a clear bias against whiteness. It has implemented a series of antiracist training modules which host a number of political materials that specifically stereotype individuals based on the color of their skin. From Allyship for Race Consciousness, to What Can I Do About Racism? these modules focus less on embracing everyones individuality and more on forcing white people to admit that America has a racist history racist infrastructure, and fill out a white privilege checklist to re-educate them. There are a number of suggested reading materials which include propagandist pieces like, Your Kids Are Not Too Young To Talk About Race, and 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice (which has been updated to include 103 things). The latter was written by a white woman who claims that it intends to, fix what we broke and left broken. The work isnt done until Black folks tell us its done, but it reeks of white guilt and virtue signaling. Included in this list are donating to BLM chapters, joining a white space to discuss biases that white people have, joining a Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) group, participating in reparations, decolonizing ones bookshelf, watching Roots, and other Black movies, encouraging anti-racism programs in schools and the workplace, plus many more. The author, Corinne Shutack, offers no credentials or sources to support herself or her list, and the comments section is full of varying responses from people of all colors. Suggesting that white people watch black movies to end racism assumes that people like me -- who were raised in diverse areas -- do not already do this. Decolonizing a bookshelf encourages people like me to get rid of classic works of literature and forget my history and my heritage to replace it with modern progressive lies. Asking someone like myself -- who was born and raised in poverty and never owned slaves -- to pay reparations to people who have never been slaves is the most problematic issue on this list. Im half Irish. Most of my ancestors came here in the early 1900s, after slavery. Those who were here before that were poor and may have even been white slaves. Disneys attempt at wokeness completely ignores the rich history of poor hard-working Americans who immigrated here from all over Europe. Many of these individuals suffered just as much bias and struggle as minorities. In reality, it wasnt black or white for most of the 1900s. People were Italian, Irish, Spanish, French, Russian, Austrian, and so on. Italians and Eastern European immigrants were highly discriminated against, and to ignore that and indoctrinate a new class of workers into the fallacy that white people are all the same, have never struggled, and didnt earn everything they have is absurd. Looking at Disneys White Privilege self-assessment is even more absurd. It details a long list of boxes that are to be checked to measure ones white privilege. The first item on this list merely states: I am white. Along with this are statements like, I am heterosexual, I have never been raped, I have had an unpaid internship, I graduated college, I do not have any physical disabilities, I have never attempted suicide, I have never had an addiction, and so on. How working to graduate college, working for FREE, or not being raped pertains to ones color is unclear, but black, Asian, and Latino workers are not required to fill out similar questionnaires. Only white people are being singled out to answer this slew of very personal questions -- many of which address ones physical and mental health and have nothing to do with ethnicity or the honest history of this country. It doesnt ask: have you ever been homeless? A question I can check off my list. I guess my white privilege failed me in my early adulthood when I was thrust out on my own due to circumstances I couldnt control. To make these training protocols more enraging, Disneys CEO sponsored priorities initiative launched affinity groups (also known as Business Employee Resource Groups (BERGs) which are racially segregated for minority employees only, to better allow them culturally-authentic insights. How brilliant! Resegregation to achieve diversity. Im sure that wont cause unforeseen issues in the years to come. I urge anyone being directed to these kinds of harassment programs (that is truly what they are) in the workforce to speak with a legal professional right away. Any employer singling out their workers for who they are needs to be corrected in their obvious bias. There is no awakening in wokeness. It is all political. And it is made to divide us so we are more easily controlled. There was once a time that politics was meant to be kept out of polite society. But manners have long since gone out the window. Businesses also once cared about catering to as many people as possible, and work was a place for employees to clock in and do their job. Thanks to wokism, Disney has decided to move forward with an inclusive and diverse business model that judges people by the color of their skin instead of the content of their character. The proper term for this is discrimination, and it cannot be tolerated. Image: S Woodside To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. There has been much news coverage of the rising COVID-19 deaths in India. Our World in Data reports as of May 9th, the seven-day average daily deaths in India had reached 3,829. This is an alarming number, but India has a population of 1.4 billion people. Thus, when the numbers are adjusted relative to population as in the following chart, Indias deaths per million is only slightly ahead of the recent low in the U.S. Notice that Brazil was included due to its similar late surge in deaths. The MSM has reported little about the COVID problems in Brazil compared to India. Indias sustained low death rate for most of the pandemic was most likely because they authorized the widespread use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) at the onset; both as a prophylactic and for when symptoms first develop. Of course, India has a major advantage since it produces nearly three-quarters of the worlds supply of HCQ. Neither the U.S. nor Brazil allowed comparable widespread use of HCQ. With HCQ still widely available in India, something else must have changed to bring about the recent spike in deaths. Did they become complacent and cease prescribing HCQ? It was recently reported that in addition to HCQ, India started distributing a new home COVID Kit costing about $2.65 per person. It includes Zinc, Doxycycline, and Ivermectin. Was distribution of their new kit delayed, produced in insufficient quantity, or is the kit less effective? These remain open questions. The next chart adds death trends for the European Union (EU) and United Kingdom (UK), both of which are known to have restricted HCQ. South Korea was added as a known early and widespread user of HCQ. This comparison should help demonstrate that widespread HCQ use made a difference. Note that although the UK and EU had similarly harsh mask and lockdown policies, the results are far apart. The UK appears to have reached herd immunity whereas the EU is doing far worse than the U.S. It should also be noted that U.S. may count COVID-19 deaths differently. The CDC changed the rules on March 24, 2020, without using proper procedures or peer review. This unique new system elevates COVID as the primary cause regardless of other medical issues likely to have been counted previously as the primary cause of death. Had the old rules still applied, U.S. COVID deaths would possibly have been around 94% lower. The Brits now tiny numbers indicate their pandemic is finished. Ours could have been comparable using the old reporting rules. Florida and Texas apparently figured that out. What about the vaccine's contribution? The following chart compares the share of each population that is fully vaccinated. The U.S. and UK lead while the EU, Brazil, India, and South Korea trail behind. Interestingly, South Korea has the fewest vaccinated, but lowest deaths. Perhaps their HCQ protocol worked better. However, it is likely more vaccinations would have helped India and Brazil. The available statistical data provided no conclusive cause for Indias recent surge in deaths. However, it did raise other questions and a serious concern about Brazil. The next chart makes that clear. It portrays the total cumulative deaths for these same six countries. (Note: a cumulative total may flatten, but can never go down). Brazil with its population of 214 million comes in at number three while India with a population 6.5 times larger reports fewer total deaths. Although the cause of the recent surge in deaths in India remains elusive, the data did open another question whether the high COVID death rates could have been significantly reduced had other countries followed India and South Koreas early treatment protocols using HCQ. It was known by mid-April 2020 that inflammation is the primary cause of COVID deaths (usually as pneumonia) and that HCQ and several common corticosteroids have anti-inflammatory properties proven to calm the sepsis-like cytokine storm overreaction of the bodys auto-immune system that causes the potentially deadly inflammation. However, to be effective, HCQ and other anti-inflammatories must be administered well before symptoms reach a level requiring hospitalization. This finding reinforces why an early treatment protocol is essential. However, my own doctor confirms there is no early treatment approved to treat COVID-19 in the U.S. (and probably most western countries) except quarantine with instructions to go to the hospital when symptoms worsen. This (perhaps criminal) omission is one more reason deaths got so high. A new anti-viral drug called Molupiravir is nearing completion of clinical trials. It is intended as a five-day outpatient treatment similar to Tamiflu commonly prescribed to combat the effects of influenza. It would lack the unwarranted controversy surrounding the off-label use of HCQ making it ideal for an early treatment protocol. Until the CDC authorizes an early treatment protocol, we are on our own. However, there are several inexpensive, safe, common vitamins/drugs proven effective against COVID-19 that are available over the counter. Examples include vitamin D3, Zinc, Glutathione, Quercetin, and even low-dose aspirin. There are others, and with some research, you can be your own first responder. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Kamala Harris got fact-checked on a junk statistic she cited in her big keynote speech about all that work on "root causes" she says she's doing to halt the border surge from Central America. It's pretty embarrassing. According to left-wing "fact-checker" PolitiFact: For more than a decade, an interesting statistic about the cost of corruption has been bouncing around the global-economics community, showing up in statements and reports from organizations like the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. Most recently, it came out of the mouth of Vice President Kamala Harris. "Around the world, we know that corruption inhibits shared prosperity," Harris said May 4, at a conference on the Americas, where she touted the Biden administrations plans to address the root causes of immigration. "In fact, the global cost of corruption is as much as 5% of the world's GDP." "Five percent," she repeated for emphasis. Politifact wrote that no one knows whether that figure is true. It was a figure cited several years ago by a United Nations official, averaging together the output of Western democracies, communist dictatorships, Islamist-fanatic dumps, and third-world hellholes and dividing it by the total corruption. In her 13-minute keynote address on May 4 to the Council of the Americas, an establishment organization with a leftward tilt, but many knowledgeable people nonetheless, that was her big revelation. It must have sent eyes rolling, given that it's highly irrelevant to the three countries she's supposedly focusing on: El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. The denizens of COA would know the corruption in the Northern Triangle countries is a whole lot more. Honduras, for instance, has a president who's been indicted by the U.S. Treasury for involvement in the drug trade. That's a fish head that stinks from the top and goes all the way down. Harris hasn't exactly decided to have a talk with him. But just for a moment, let's take Kamala at her word. In the example of Honduras, GDP was last reported at $25 billion. Five percent of $25 billion is $1.25 billion. Joe Biden, however, is making much of that up with a $4-billion U.S. aid donation spread over four years for the three countries, according to his action plan. Combine it with the aid from the United Nations, the European Union, the foundations, and the big corporate investors Kamala cited, and all the corruption should be covered, right? Actually, the corruption should expand, given that much of it flows from foreign aid, according to the sources of corruption listed by the 2020 annual Corruption Perceptions Index for Central America, put out by Transparency International. Harris might want to read it. Start with Harris's call to big corporations to invest in those nations and deliver extra aid. According to the center-left Council on Foreign Relations, big corporations are actually specific perpetrators of the Northern Triangle's persistent corruption problem: A broader pattern tends to hold across the countries of the Northern Triangle: big, well-connected firms that finance campaigns and live off government contracts oppose anti-corruption. But with more autonomous medium-sized firms, theres hope. They have little to gain from the monopolistic status quo, and much to gain from a more level playing field. In Guatemala, these firms generate over 35 percent of GDP and 80 percent of jobs, but they lack a powerful lobbying arm like the megafirms of CACIF. The Biden administration should look for ways to empower and organize these firms. Selecting them as partners in the implementation of USAID development projects and helping them organize an anti-corruption policy agenda could be a start. Taking the dirty money out of politics Illicit campaign finance has been called the original sin of the Northern Triangles corruption: it entrenches corrupt actors in the public and private sectors and strengthens the bond between them. Thats why the CICIG and MACCIH both made it a priority to investigate dirty money in politics. In fact, these were the investigations that shifted elite backlash into high gear. That alone should be proof of how much influence the corrupt stand to lose through thorough campaign finance reform. As long as dirty money continues poisoning elections, corrupt legislators will win elections and block further reforms. Honduras, according to Transparency International's 2020 annual Corruption Perceptions Index, scored a record low "24/100" on the Americas chart, just two points above bottom-of-the-barrel-Nicaragua (22/100) and rock-bottom Haiti (18/100) and Venezuela (15/100). Its global ranking was 157 of 180 countries surveyed. Guatemala got a score of 25/100, ranking 149 of 180 countries; and El Salvador got 36/100, ranking 104 of 180 countries. Transparency International notes that most of the corruption in these countries involves government officials dipping into the only place where money still exists that foreign aid money pile that Joe wants to flood these countries with more of. All three of the countries can only dream of just 5% corruption cited by Kamala in her big revelatory figure. Of course, if corruption were all it took to make a place poor, a corruption-filled city like Chicago would be holding out the begging bowl. Corruption is a big deal, though, and yes, chases out honest foreign investment. Honduras, for one, has seen a plunge, based on United Nations statistics. Based on these reports cited above, such investment also ushers in crony capitalism that the Bidenites are not above partaking in the states themselves. Obviously, Harris has never heard of Hernando de Soto and his Mystery of Capital, a seminal book that points to missing property rights and malleable rule of law as far better predictors of who gets rich, who stays in the shanties or in the country hovels, and who emigrates. Harris's speech is loaded with fallacies. She cites the poor of Central America as driving the border surge, but statistics show that it's the lower middle classes, not the destitute, who are coming. The dirt-poor of Central America don't have a spare $10,000 to pay cartel human-smugglers to bring them on into the States; their major quest is for food. They're taking their United Nations foreign aid for food insecurity, for one. If you read the U.N.'s report on that, it sounds as though they've got the problem covered. The lower middle classes, however, do have access to cash to pay human-smugglers, as well as cell phones, which enable them to utilize social media in their quest to hire human-smuggling professionals, as I wrote about here and here. They even leave Yelp-style reviews after they are "serviced" in order to help others obtain the best in customer service. Kamala's search for "root causes" is an amazingly shallow analysis. That's all she's done as border czar, citing a throwaway United Nation statistic by a foreign official that doesn't stack up to facts, nor show any relevancy? It sure sounds like it, given the actual efforts, however bad, being done by Samantha Power's USAID agency, if you look at the comparison in activity. Most of the USAID website, especially the interesting bits about how much cash is being doled out where, is down, so maybe Harris couldn't get any info. Harris's thesis lands on the rocks, given the uselessness of her presented knowledge. She even fails to understand who actually is coming. Were she to go to the U.S. border, as she refuses to do, she'd learn from Texas officials at the Rio Grande that the human waves rolling on in these days are not just from Central America, but in large growing numbers from Venezuela, where locals are fleeing the effects of socialism with all its destruction of democracy, human rights, and wealth. Will she address the "root causes" of that? Nope, she's still on the search for "root causes" and obviously not doing her homework. She's making speeches to people who know more than her and continues to look for all those "root causes." She's asking the United Nations and the leaders of foreign countries about this surge instead of the people actually leaving. Now it's record numbers of migrants flooding in. She can't learn anything from any of them about those root causes over at the border? Illegal immigration is a highly personal decision made by migrants as individuals, but she's still thinking she can get her answers from the so-called authorities, instead of asking the people who would know. She's not exactly serious about those root causes, given that she's mostly making 13-minute speeches. She's a lazy person using about the same industry she used to pass her bar exam as a young law school graduate. That involved flunking out at least once. Image: Council of the Americas, shareable video, screen shot. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Joe Biden has created a mess in America in virtually every possible way. First off, let us talk about the economy. How could the world's leading economists be so inaccurate in their projections for the most recent jobs reports? Sleepy Joe was supposed to "Build Back Better" with a cool million new American jobs, but that projection was over 700K short of what had been projected. In addition to the low jobs number, the administration had to also admit that the unemployment rate had ticked up to 6.1%. Now, let us talk about the untold dangers facing millions of families living along the U.S. southern border. Twenty twenty-one will see the largest number of migrants cross the border in the last 20 years. It wouldn't be as bad if the people making the trek were really all women and children seeking asylum, but we are well aware that gang-bangers, drug dealers, terrorists, and other criminals exist in large percentages among the millions projected to enter the U.S. over the next few years. While the idea of sovereign protected borders may be more than the current administration can comprehend, we must hope that these people at least realize that America has now reached crisis mode regarding the invisible borders that protect us in the cyber-sphere. If they needed any evidence, this past weekend's Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, perpetrated by the DarkSide ransomware gang, successfully crippled the supply chain for fuel and drove up energy costs. Perhaps even more frighteningly, it may have been a real-time blueprint for techniques to be executed during a future cyber-war. The hack occurred just as the Department of Justice was beginning a 120-day review of critical cyber-security threats. This wide-ranging initiative, announced days ago by Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, is set to examine cryptocurrency hacks, major supply chain attacks similar to the SolarWinds hack, and the cyber threat from Russia and China. "We are launching this week, under my direction, a review of how the department is looking at exactly this set of challenges," Monaco said in virtual remarks at a cyber-security event last week. "We want to bring forth actionable recommendations in a 120-day time frame on what can we be doing better, working with our partners across borders, to address these threats." Cryptocurrency attacks are part of the review because of their increased frequency over the past few years. Initially, hackers used to take over computers remotely in order to mine cryptocurrency. Now they have gotten smart enough to jump right into victims' digital wallets, or steal cryptocurrency sitting on computer clipboards waiting to be used in a transaction. Last month's big news at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) was Jen Easterly's nomination as director. Easterly was formerly a cyber-security and counterterrorism official at the National Security Agency (NSA) during an era in which America saw a major surge in international cyber-attacks. During her time with the NSA, a secret map was released to the public that noted approximately "600 corporate, private or government victims of Chinese Cyber Espionage" that had been hacked within a five-year period. These intrusions pierced "all sectors of the U.S economy, including major firms like Google and Lockheed Martin, as well as the U.S. government and military," according to reports. In the aftermath of the Colonial DarkSide attack, we can probably expect more Russian and Chinese hacks. But these threats are also joined by newer ones, including recent attacks against Mac users, who for years falsely believed that their systems were immune to hacking threats. The Biden administration must perform better in every facet beginning with the dying economy, then the border, and then cybersecurity. The administration's unrestrained folly, especially over the past week or so, is surely being noticed by the moderate voter base that will decide next year's midterm election. Julio Rivera is a business and political strategist, the editorial director for Reactionary Times, and a political commentator and columnist. His writing, which is focused on cyber-security and politics, has been published by websites including Newsmax, Townhall, American Thinker, and BizPacReview. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. I hate it when my post title and subtitle are both questions. However, when it comes to the situation in Israel, while it's obvious what's happening there, it's a little harder to divine the bigger mean. What's happening is that Hamas has fired over 1,000 rockets into Israel's populous Western seaboard, while Arabs are on a rampage in the Tel Aviv suburb of Lod. The Israeli military has responded with hundreds of targeted strikes. As matters stand, this seems to have gone from terrorism to open war, but that depends on who's defining things. Also, if this is a war, will it last for a while or be resolved quickly with a clear outcome? As to why it started, aside from the Ramadan angle, a good case is that the Arabs have been emboldened by Biden's hostility to Israel and his pro-Palestinian tilt, along with his manifestly weak leadership. I can only hope that my Zionist friends who voted for Biden have the decency to feel guilty. The latest report from the Times of Israel describes escalating military action from both Hamas and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF): Hamas launched a massive barrage of rocket fire on southern and central Israel in the early hours of Wednesday morning, killing a man and his daughter and sending hundreds of thousands of people, from Tel Aviv to Beersheba, fleeing to bomb shelters. The large-scale fusillade of rockets was apparently launched in response to the Israel Defense Forces destroying a building in Gaza and killing two senior Hamas operatives in a targeted strike. According to the IDF, over 1,050 rockets and mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip toward Israel since the outbreak of fighting on Monday evening, with 200 failing to clear the border and landing inside the enclave. IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said the Iron Dome air defense system had an interception rate between 85 and 90 percent of rockets heading toward populated areas. In response, the IDF launched strikes on upwards of 500 targets in the Gaza Strip, aimed at Hamas personnel, weaponry and infrastructure, Zilberman said. Because Facebook won't let me quit (and I've tried), I still follow several Israeli and Israel-supporting accounts on Facebook. These are some of the images from Israel as the indiscriminate rocket barrage rains down on civilians: As you look at the following post, keep in mind that aiming random rocket fire into Tel Aviv is the same as firing rockets into New York or Los Angeles. It's an attack on civilians in a major metropolitan area: Even though Israelis have lived under the threat of genocide since 1948, making them an extraordinarily tough people, when your babies are at risk, fear is inescapable: This map gives you a sense of the vast scope of the rocket attack. Again, to put it in context, imagine China raining rockets on the entire Eastern seaboard in America: Meanwhile, on the ground, the Arabs have gone on a rampage, and armed Jewish defenders are taking a stand, although they appear not to have fired. As I noted above, Lod is a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city, and it's home to the international airport. Again, for an equivalent sense, it's as if the illegal aliens in Los Angeles suddenly started an uprising around Los Angeles International Airport, which is on the Western edge of Los Angeles. Or it's Kenosha, except BLM is truly genocidally inclined: Lod Mayor Yair Revivo says he's asked the prime minister to declare a state of emergency in the Jewish-Arab city in central Israel. He calls for the military to be deployed in the city, saying "this is too big for police." "This is Kristallnacht in Lod," he says, in reference to the Nazi pogrom against German Jews in 1938. [snip] "All of Israel should know, this is a complete loss of control This is unthinkable. Synagogues are being burned. Hundreds of cars set alight. Hundreds of Arab thugs are roaming the streets Civil war has erupted in Lod The Orthodox-nationalist community here has guns. I'm imploring them to go back home but they understandably want to protect their homes. Petrol bombs are being thrown into [Jewish] homes. The situation is incendiary." My question was, do I think this is an open war? My answer is currently "yes." So that means the real question is whether Israel will be able to gain control quickly enough to stop it or whether we are about to witness a long war fought between a nation that is loath to kill its enemy and a Mafia territory that is desperate to slaughter its enemies. And as to that, I have no answer. I'll close with this post from Elisha Wiesel, son of Elie Wiesel. It explains what the Israelis defend in the land they have occupied continuously for over three thousand years, making them the true indigenous people. In contrast, the Arabs in the region mostly arrived within the last 150 years. They are the genocidal colonizers. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Leftists defamed Trump, saying he put "kids in cages." That he was following and then ended Obama's policy was irrelevant. They don't care now that Biden has over 19,000 kids in cages. For leftists, children are useful for propaganda. The plight of five little girls abandoned in the desert reveals the heartlessness behind the Biden border policy. Just as Obama had put unaccompanied minors in cages (that is, he crammed them together in crowded, unhealthy quarters), Biden is doing the same thing only on a greater scale, because he's erased the border entirely. Thousands of unaccompanied minors are being marched through the unforgiving desert toward America. Americans first understood that when they saw a trafficker drop two little girls, aged 3 and 5, over a 14-foot-tall border wall: While the Border Patrol was quickly able to locate the children, a six-year-old boy abandoned in the desert wasn't so lucky. He had been alone for a while before a Border Patrol agent who happened to be driving along a remote road noticed him: Then, on Sunday, a Texas rancher discovered five little girls abandoned on his land. All were under seven years old, with a two-year-old and a crawling baby among their number: Take a good hard look at the #BidenBorderCrisis These young girls were found outside a ranch near Quemado, Texas in #TX23. The Del Rio Sector border patrol tell me they are uninjured, healthy, and in good spirits. @POTUS enough is enough lets work together solve this crisis. pic.twitter.com/mt5P7ysN9g Tony Gonzales (@TonyGonzales4TX) May 9, 2021 Last night I shared a heartbreaking photo of young children found by a farmer on his land in Quemado. While we thank God they were found alive, these tragic scenes are happening more & more. Today I visited with him & talked about the border crisis. We need a solution now. pic.twitter.com/Zzvk4UgAGc Tony Gonzales (@TonyGonzales4TX) May 10, 2021 There are coyotes in Texas (not just the human kind, but the carnivores, too)... In each case, it appears that the children's parents handed them over to smugglers. I've been struggling to figure out what could have motivated them to do so. Parents send their tiny children alone into the wilderness only when the children will almost certainly die if they remain in their homes. That's not the case here. Even Democrats concede that what we're seeing here are economic migrants. So again, why would parents hand babies, toddlers, and small children to strangers, people who will abandon the children, throw them over walls, or sell them for sex? I could think of only two reasons, both of them horrific. The first is that the parents are using their children as anchors (or, more accurately, grappling hooks by which they can then pull themselves after the children). Biden has made it clear that, if the kids come across the border, he will reunite them with their parents not in their native country, but here, in America, even though the children and parents will all be here illegally. The second reason is that the parents are using the children as a wedge to break down the American border. They understand that there's a battle royale being waged in America over whether we have a border at all. They also know that, in America, "it's for the children" is a rallying cry for the left even though children invariably suffer under leftist policies. And for those thinking I'm exaggerating or wrongly imputing foul motives to those parents who pack their infants off with smugglers, you already know that many people view their children as useful. In the West Bank and Gaza, the Arabs use children as human shields. They position them near the guns they fire and the munitions they store. They put these children in the path of bullets because they know that the Israelis will do anything to avoid killing children, including putting their own troops at risk. And if the Israelis conclude that they have no option but to fire, then the Arabs can use the dead and injured children for propaganda purposes. It's a win-win for everyone except the children. If Biden and his ilk cared about the children, they would do what Trump did: close the border except for well maintained checkpoints and then enforce America's immigration laws. This would allow people to enter the country in an orderly fashion, families to stay together, and people to stop sending their children as grappling hooks. Alternatively, even with the open border, Biden could still protect the children (and stem the flow) either by (a) locating their families in Latin America and returning the children to their parents or (b) announcing that all unaccompanied minors will be treated as orphans and put up for adoption. The parents would have no rights in the children and could not use them as a legal means to enter America. But Biden won't do anything to protect these children. Just like the parents who sent them away, Biden understands that the children are useful tools. These are cold, cruel, truly evil people. Image: Abandoned girls on the Texas border. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. The Supreme Court was originally envisioned as a nonpartisan third branch of the government. With lifetime appointments and a mission to defend the Constitution, it was believed that the Court would remain above the political fray. But about 50 years ago, the court decided that with penumbras and emanations, it could discover things in the Constitution that are not actually written there. Justices were no longer merely interpreting the Constitution; they were rewriting it, under the guise of interpretation, to suit the political leadership that had appointed them. With this foray into politics, the Supreme Court inevitably became part of the swamp. The justices are no longer scholars who understand the Constitution and its supporting documents; now they're political players. That's why Supreme Court appointments have become so contentious. As political players, the justices have used their newfound power to "discover" a whole host of "rights" that are not actually written in the constitution. They've discovered: A right to privacy A right to abortion A right to same-sex "marriage" A right for the government to seize private property for the benefit of private enterprises A right for the government to regulate commerce within states The issue isn't whether any of these things is good or bad. The issue is that the voters, via their elected representatives, should have been allowed to make these decisions. While the justices have been busy inventing new rights, they've been missing in action when it comes to actually defending those rights which are written in the Constitution. They had a chance to defend our right to free and fair elections. Yet with evidence of massive fraud in the 2020 election, they chose not to get involved. The right to bear arms is a key element of the Bill of Rights. Yet 230 years after this right was codified in the Constitution, it's still a controversial issue. While the Court dances around the edge of this issue, it refuses to make a clear and unambiguous statement that this is a fundamental individual right, which no state has the right to restrict. Even though the Constitution says it, the court will not reaffirm it. Court support for our even most sacred right, freedom of religion, has softened in recent years. In South Bay Pentecostal Church v. Newsom, the Supreme Court held that California could not continue to order the closure of churches during the pandemic. However, a reading of the ruling reveals that only three justices (Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch) held that freedom of religion trumps a state's emergency orders. Three other justices (Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Barrett) simply held that the state could not place more severe restrictions on churches than it did for other businesses. The Court reached the right decision, but only three justices held that our rights to free exercise of religion could not be restricted! The Court failed to recognize any fundamental difference between churches and any other business. Presumably, had California not penalized churches more than other businesses, the court would have found that A-OK. Apparently, in the Court's eyes, God-given rights are subject to governmental oversight. None of this has gone unnoticed by the citizenry. A recent Ipsos poll found that 63% of adults now support term limits for Supreme Court justices. Clearly, the people have noticed the Court's relocation to swampland and want to take back control. In his attempts to avoid controversy, Justice Roberts has instead demonstrated that the Supreme Court, like the rest of the federal government, needs to be taken to the woodshed. John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Star, Idaho. He is a retired engineer with 40 years of experience in the areas of product development, quality assurance, organizational development, and corporate strategic planning. He currently writes at the American Free News Network (americanfreenewsnetwork.org). He can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com. Image: Pixabay. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. The 1957 film, The Three Faces of Eve, was about dissociative personality disorder, then known as multiple personality syndrome. It was a hard film based on an actual case of a woman who suffered from the condition. It is not much of a leap to describe the Republican Party as currently constituted as suffering from the same malady. There are the true small-government, liberty-loving constitutionalists like Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan, Tom Cotton, Matt Gaetz, Ron Johnson, Josh Hawley, Elise Stefanik, Steve Scalise, Rand Paul, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ted Cruz, Louie Gohmert, and John Kennedy. Then there are the squishes, who are afraid of their own shadows when it comes to fighting the Democrats the elected officials who are there only to hold power, not to exercise it for their constituents. Those would be Kevin McCarthy and his go-along to get-along bunch, the Pelosi-ites like Rob Portman, Lindsey Graham who bends with the prevailing winds of the day. Most of the Republicans fall into this category. Then there are the never-Trumpers: Mitch McConnell, Romney, Ben Sasse, Adam Kinzinger, Pat Toomey, John Katko, Jamie Beutler, Dan Newhouse, David Valadao, Peter Meijer, Tom Rice, Fred Upton, Anthony Gonzalez, Richard Burr, Susan Collins (of course), Bill Cassidy, and Lisa Murkowski, along with the execrable Liz Cheney, the left's new favorite congressperson. No doubt about it, the Republican Party is suffering from multiple personality disorder. Thanks to Donald Trump, we can all clearly see who among our officials actually represents the American people who elected them; which members of Congress are interested only in keeping their seats; and those who passively align themselves with the Democrats to push our republic into a version of communist China with a social credit system, struggle sessions, and mandatory submission to an all-powerful government that would make Mao and Stalin proud. Far too many of them are sitting still for this. The Republican Party is in serious disarray; it's fractured. Yellow-bellies like Kevin McCarthy are the majority, and the open NeverTrumps are traitors to their constituents. Where do they all seem to work together? When confirming Biden's dismal appointees to high office within his illegitimate administration. They are all awful! William Burns for CIA has numerous links to the Communist Party of China; Susan Hennessey to the DOJ is a confirmed rabid Russia hoaxer. Lisa Monaco probably ordered the raid on Giuliani. On this one score, their three faces meld into one insipid like-mind that cravenly submits to the most radical administration in U.S. history. Republicans never fight as the Dems do. They capitulate. The Democrats never capitulate; they fight like the thugs they are. Under the Biden administration, those of us who continue to embrace Trump's America First policies that engendered the best economy for all demographics, who support securing our southern border, who were thrilled by the energy independence that Trump brought about and the de-regulation that energized so many small and large businesses, are even more deplorable to the left now than we were in Hillary Clinton's view. Wanting a free and economically powerful America is anathema to the left. The left means to indoctrinate our kids rather than educate them. Leftists' totalitarian agenda demands "equity" rather than equality; skin color reigns supreme. They mean to cripple this nation; no more oil exploration, no more secure borders, no more law and order, no more freedom of speech or assembly, no more Second Amendment. The left means to destroy America as founded, and, though interrupted by Trump's presidency, the Soros-Obama plan is back in play. China owns Biden, and he is speeding up America's decline in service of the communist nation and the globalists. The left is by nature miserable. Leftists will not rest until everyone is as miserable as they are. And because our ruling class is thoroughly removed from reality, they believe that their prescriptions for the rest of us will never affect their oh, so privileged lifestyles. The left suffers from dissociative identity disorder, too: "a mental illness that involves disruptions or breakdowns of memory, awareness, identity and/or perception." That pretty much sums up too many members of our political class, left and right. Think Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer. Think Joe Biden. When the right does not fight back against the left's anti-American grand plan its absurd erasure of biological sex, its primacy of criminals over law-abiding citizens the right is as certifiably mentally ill as the left. That the Republicans are not, as a whole, standing up against the pandemic nonsense mask mandates and lockdowns is so disappointing. They should be fighting for the essential "my body, my choice" when it comes to vaccines! Why are they not, as a cohesive group, opposing the very notion of vaccine passports? Why can't the Republicans in Congress learn from governors like DeSantis? They don't. They are cowering in the corners of their congressional offices, terrified of the left media. God forbid they be criticized by a mindless hack at the NYT or on CNN or MSNBC. The Republican Party is suffering from an identity crisis. What is a Republican? For what principles do these people stand tall? We know who the good guys are, but they are a minority. Why aren't all of the elected Republicans on the same page? Bottom line? Conservatives are not being well-served by their elected officials. Most of them will throw us, their constituents, under the bus to avoid negative press. That, and continued acceptance and admission to the D.C. party circuit, motivates all those do-nothing Republicans every day of the week. Let's vote all the nebbishes out and elect some fervent pro-American reps and senators. And let us support the good ones already there. We all know who they are. Image via Max Pixel. To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. May 12 this year falls on a Wednesday as it did in 1948, 73 years ago, when President Harry S. Truman called a meeting to address the situation in Palestine. At that meeting were the president's key domestic aids, including Clark M. Clifford and the top officials from the State Department, including secretary of state George C. Marshall. An account of that meeting opens Counsel to the President, a Memoir, by Clifford, with Richard Holbrooke as a collaborator. An account of that meeting also appears in the volume of Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, dealing with the Near East. The FRUS volume contains Secretary Marshall's memorandum of the May 12, 1948 meeting. This is a most remarkable document, for it includes a comment by Marshall that, arguably, makes General Douglas MacArthur's "insubordination" to the president child's play. You will find, in this memo, Marshall's statement indicating that if President Truman were to recognize a Jewish State in Palestine, Marshall would not vote for him in the November 1948 election. George C. Marshall sworn in as Secretary of State by Harry S. Truman. Library of Congress. President Truman convened the meeting to convince Secretary Marshall to accept his decision to recognize the Jewish State when the British mandate on Palestine ended, May 15, three days later. As Marshall's memorandum of the meeting shows, he was adamantly opposed to recognizing a Jewish State, which he called "a pig in a poke." Because May 15 fell on the Sabbath, the Jewish Agency in Palestine declared the establishment of Israel before sundown on Friday, May 14. President Truman recognized the State of Israel shortly thereafter, but only in terms of de facto recognition. The Soviet Union, acting shortly after the United States, was the first country to confer de jure recognition of Israel, recognition that goes beyond the fact of a nation's existence to its legitimacy. Sadly, the 73rd anniversary of the establishment of Israel sees the renewed outbreak of violence by Palestinian terrorists against Israeli civilians. How else to refer to the firing of hundreds of rockets by Hamas, in Gaza, against the Israeli population, some rockets reportedly reaching Jerusalem? At The New York Times, the Hamas acts of terrorism are brushed aside for a generic tone, the May 11 lead story carrying this headline: '"VIOLENCE ERUPTS / BETWEEN ISRAELIS / AND PALESTINIANS." "Violence erupts" as if by spontaneous combustion, not lethal intent from Hamas? Source. One thinks immediately how different the situation was with President Trump in the White House. The Trump administration gave unqualified support to Israel, including moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and recognizing Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Critics of Mr. Trump predicted a violent reaction by Palestinians to these moves. Instead, the Trump administration also fostered good relations between Israel and the Gulf States, Morocco, and Sudan. "Violence" did not "erupt" on the Temple Mount, or from rocket barrages fired by Hamas in Gaza. The immediate response from the Biden State Department to the Hamas aggression seems not to be critical of Israel. The New York Times quotes State Department spokesman Ned Price as calling the rocket attacks on Israel "an unacceptable escalation." Price was further quoted as calling for avoiding violence while acknowledging "Israel's legitimate right to defend itself." (This obvious comment is to be compared with a remark by Philip Jessup in a State Department cable, July 1948, that Israel's establishment was "extra-legal." This writer believes that it took seven decades and the Trump administration to recognize Israel's right to self-determination in all aspects.) A Times May 11 story also quoted State Department spokesman Price as rejecting the assertion by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) that Israel was engaged in "ethnic cleansing" in Jerusalem. Mr. Price commented, "That's not something our analysis supports." (He might have dismissed Omar's lie in two words: "That's nonsense.") But what will Biden do next? Will he be persuaded by the anti-Israel Democrats, led by Mr. Obama and Susan Rice and Sen. Sanders, to adopt the even-handed policy that encouraged Arab intransigence for nearly seven decades until the Trump presidency? On Saturday, May 15, 1948, the State of Israel was invaded by Arab states, including Egypt, Syria, and Jordan, with the intent to abort her at birth. On May 15, 2021, the goal of ending Israel's existence has not dissipated in extremist Arab circles. In August 1948, James G. McDonald, the U.S. representative in Israel (later our first ambassador to Israel), sent a cable to Clark Clifford noting that U.S. policy seems to enable the Arab belligerents indefinitely to call the tune. President Trump put an end to that policy, and with positive results. Will his successor maintain the Trump policy on the Middle East, or, in pettiness, will he return to the failed policy over seven decades of letting intransigent Arabs call the tune? To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here. Have any questions? Please give us a call at 907-561-7737 Kothapalli Geetha: Her Inspirational Journey:- Kothapalli Geetha is the former Lok Sabha MP from Araku constituency and she represented the constituency during 2014-19. She was born Kothapalli Jacob and Lizzamma on February 4th, 1971. Geetha completed her Bachelor of Arts in the year 1989, Bachelor of Education in the year 1990, both from Andhra University. She got married to PR Koteswara Rao in the year 1989 and the couple has a son and a daughter. After serving the people as a public servant, she submitted her resignation to serve the tribals through politics. She represented the ruling YSRCP party but she later floated her own party Jana Jagruti party in the year 2018. She floated her own political party after challenging caste politics. Kothapalli Geetha later joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Amit Shah and Ram Madhav, Kothapalli in 2019. Kothapalli Geetha turned out a pioneer and is focused on improving the conditions of the tribals and the regions. She worked hard to bring big foreign investments to the region. Her social service brought her enough followers. Kothapalli Geetha contested from the Visakhapatnam Lok Sabha seat and lost in the polls. (Images Source: Facebook.com/Kothapalligeethaofficial) She is quite active across the circles of social media and is a strong criticizer of the problems that are faced by the people. Her recent attacks on the ruling YSRCP brought her wide recognition and Kothapalli Geetha is raising her voice against the odds of the YSRCP government. She even made open allegations about the harassment from the leaders of the ruling YSRCP. She is currently active in BJP and is serving the people through BJP. Kothapalli Geetha is in plans to serve the people through politics and is waiting for the 2024 polls to contest in the elections. (Image source from: health.economictimes.indiatimes.com) Expert panel approves Bharat Biotech's children's vaccine for trials:- Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has been recommended by the expert panel for the second and third phase of clinical trials for the children aged between 2 and 18 years. The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) has granted the permission to conduct the phase 2,3 clinical trials on the children. 525 students are selected across the country and the trials will take place at AIIMS New Delhi, AIIMS Patna and Nagpur's Meditrina Institute of Medical Sciences as per the reports. The Centre informed Supreme Court that the Indian government provided no financial aide for the research or the development of Covaxin and Covishield in the country. The Expert Committee of Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) deliberated upon the application seeking the permission about the clinical trials. The safety, immunogenicity and reactogenicity of Covaxin will be verified among the children during the trials. Several meetings are conducted by the Subject Expert Committee through a meeting that was dated February 24th. Bharat Biotech was asked to submit a complete a revised clinical trial protocol. Covaxin is developed by Bharat Biotech in association with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The clinical trials are expected to be completed this year and the vaccination would be available for children early next year if things go as per the plan. (Image source from: Indiatoday.in) 3,48,421 new coronavirus cases reported in India:- The tally of coronavirus is higher in the country from the past few weeks. A total number of 3,48,421 cases for coronavirus are reported in the country in the last 24 hours taking the total tally of cases to 2,33,40,938. The total number of Indians who recovered from coronavirus reached 1,93,82,642. 4205 people passed away in the last one day in India and this is the highest death toll in a single day in India. The total number of reported deaths in the country are said to be 2,54,197. There are 37,04,099 active cases for coronavirus in the country currently. There are 3,55,338 discharges in the country in the last 24 hours and the total number of people who took up the vaccination for coronavirus reached 17,52,35,991. The Indian variant of coronavirus is now spotted across 44 countries of the globe as per the reports from the World Health Organization (WHO). On the occasion of World's Nursing Day, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished saying "International Nurses Day is a day to express gratitude to the hardworking nursing staff, who is at the forefront of fighting COVID-19. Their sense of duty, compassion and commitment towards a healthy India is exemplary" through his twitter page. A strict lockdown has been imposed in Telangana and it started today from 10 AM. Bharat Biotech's coronavirus vaccine Covaxin is recommended by the expert panel for the 2nd and 3rd phase of clinical trails for children aged between 2 and 18 years. As per the reports from the Indian Council of Medical Research, a total number of 19,83,804 samples are tested in India yesterday alone. The total samples tested for coronavirus in total are said to be 30, 75,83,991. EA Play Live is returning for 2021, promising the latest details on upcoming games from the renowned publisher. Last year, EA teased details on future titles its currently working on. Like the new Dragon Age game. While it didnt share much information about the new series title, it did show off some concept artwork to satiate the players eagerly awaiting for a new game in the storied RPG franchise. This year, players can probably expect to see and hear details about both new games and games that have already been announced or teased. This includes the new Dragon Age title. Though, EA hasnt hinted at anything it plans to show off during the event. Advertisement Like last year with EA Play Live, the 2021 event will happen more towards the later middle part of the Summer. EA Play Live 2021 will take place on July 22 Theres still a lot up in the air about this years EA Play Live, such as exact timing, but EA has now made the date public. The event will be hosted on July 22 so theres still more than a couple of months left to go before things jump off. This will also be a virtual event. As many of these types of events have been for the past 12 months. EA is holding the event about one month later this time around. As last years was held in June. EA also hasnt shared the schedule for this years event just yet. Though it probably wont be too long before it makes a formal announcement about what viewers will see. Advertisement That hasnt stopped EA fans from excitedly speculating on what the studio may announce. And really, anything is possible. EA has multiple new titles in the works from some of its biggest franchises. The showcase will follow E3 Surprisingly, EA set the date of its virtual showcase this year for after E3. In 2020, EA Play Live was broadcast around the same time as E3. With it happening more than a month later this year, EA is saving its biggest announcements, showcases, teases and more for its own event rather than at E3. In fact EA wont even be attending E3 2021. Sony will also be skipping the event and opt for continuing to showcase all the new stuff coming to its PlayStation platform at its own digital event where it claims all the attention. Advertisement EA is likely doing the same thing here. Florence and Claras rescue anniversary: after one year at our sanctuary have their hearts healed? 12 May 2021 It was a year ago today that Animals Asia rushed to a city north of Hanoi, Vietnam to rescue two moon bears from a roadside restaurant. When our rescue team arrived, they were shocked to find the grown bears living in tiny cages in the restaurants carpark, surrounded by piles of rubbish, noise and car fumes. The two female bears were around 16 years old and had been in their cages since they were very young. As the restaurant was so close to the Vietnam-Laos border, its likely that the pair were smuggled into the country as cubs to be sold on the black market. They were Nowhere Bears. Bears who live in the shadows, in small, cramped and unhygienic conditions, hidden from the world. Unnamed, unseen, unloved. A change of heart The bears owner explained to our team that although he bought the bears to extract and sell their bile for traditional medicine, he hadnt done so for two years as the demand for bear bile had fallen and that he had begun to find the process cruel and had to turn away when the bears were having their bile extracted. This gives us hope that the tide is turning in Vietnam in the attitudes towards the practice of bear bile farming. Healing Hearts It was only as the rescue team arrived to save the bears that they realised it was International Nurses Day. They decided that in tribute to the millions of people who dedicate their lives to caring for others, to name the bears after pioneering nurses Florence Nightingale who was the founder of modern nursing and Clara Barton who founded the American Red Cross. The road to recovery When Florence and Clara arrived at our Vietnam sanctuary we gave them full health checks to assess their physical condition. Both bears had arthritis and hypertension, which is often caused by the stress of living in cramped conditions for so many years. Florence had terribly itchy skin and had bald spots from scratching herself. Our vet team wrote health plans for each bear and administered medication to ease their ailments, which was monitored closely over the following months as they eased into their new lives at the sanctuary. Love is all you need Although Florence and Clara had spent their whole lives living within inches of each other, they hadnt physically met before. We werent sure how they would react when they came face to face with each other for the first time. At first, Clara was the more inquisitive of the two, wanting to play with Florence, but Florence was cautious and kept to herself for a while. The pair were integrated into a bear house with other bears at the sanctuary and the whole group got on well straightaway. As the months have passed Florence and Clara have gained confidence and adapted to their new surroundings brilliantly. They have become more and more curious and playful. We were overjoyed a few months later to find them playing in the enclosure, wrestling and tumbling around like old friends! Since then, the duo have made up for lost time and play-wrestle nearly every day. Their friendship has developed into a beautiful bond, they follow each other around and are always together. It is an absolute joy to watch them grow as individuals and as best friends. They have also improved physically, with Florences once itchy and balding fur now thick, glossy and picture perfect. The best bit is that she has even stopped her anti-itch medication: after a bit of help from our bear care team, her body is finally healing itself. Lets bring them all home Thanks to you, Florence and Clara are no longer Nowhere Bears. They are recognised, have an identity and are loved and cherished for the exceptional individuals they are. They have helped heal each others hearts while warming ours. With your help, we gave Florence and Clara kindness in action. But there are hundreds of Nowhere Bears who still live in the hard to reach places of Vietnam. Will you join us in bringing the rest of these isolated and lonely bears home? Read more: Healing Hearts rescue story: BREAKING: Healing Hearts Rescue underway Watch Florence and Clara and some other bears settling into life at our Vietnam bear sanctuary Purchase an online subscription to our website for $7.99 a month with automatic renewal. Each online subscription gives you full access to all of our newspaper websites and mobile applications. To cancel you may contact Customer Service @ 256-235-9253 or email JPAYNE@ANNISTONSTAR.COM For a limited time, for NEW SUBSCRIBERS ONLY a NEW ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION is just $59.99 for the first year. Existing customers do not qualify for the specials! After the first year, well automatically renew your subscription to continue your access at the regular price of $69.99 per year. Please note *Your Subscription will Automatically Renew unless you contact Customer Service To Cancel* (ANSA) - ROME, MAY 12 - Premier Mario Draghi told question time Wednesday that a gradual approach to reopening Italy after the COVID crisis was needed. "A gradual approach is needed according to the epidemiological trend," he said. The premier also said that before thinking of waiving vaccine patents, "it is better to remove the US and UK export block, boost production and identify new sites also in poor countries". He also said "we must speed up on unblocking (vaccine) exports alongside the reflection on liberalizing patents". Draghi said he agreed with US President Joe Biden on the importance of waiving patents but stressed that research and development should not be de-incentivised. Draghi also said that "between the end of June and the start of July we will have vaccinated with at least one dose all the fragile and the over-60s". He said tourists from the US, Japan and Canada will be allowed into Italy without having to quarantine if they have COVID vaccine certificates. Italy should be reopened to domestic and foreign tourism "as soon as possible", Draghi said. The Italian government is "exerting intra-European pressure to return to an effective resettlement of migrants" amid a wave of migrants washing up on Italy's shores, Draghi told question time. He said Italy was talking to France and Germany to relaunch the Malta Pact on migrant distribution and relocation. At the same time, the premier stressed that "no one" would be left to drown in Italian waters. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also said that the EU migrant redistribution mechanism should be reactivated. Draghi also said that "we must do more on workplace deaths" after no fewer than six workers lost their lives over the last week. Draghi reiterated the government's condolences for the deaths of 22-year-old mother Luana D'Orazio and the five other workers who died in workplace accidents. Over 2,000 additional workplace safety inspectors will be hired adding to the 4,500 now on duty, he said. It is "fundamental" for those wishing to hold weddings to be patient and avert joyful occasions becoming potential risks due to COVID-19, Draghi said. He said Monday's meeting of the COVID 'control room' would address the issue and a gradual approach was needed. There will be a new COVID aid decree next week, Draghi said, saying it would contain further help for the wedding sector on top of current funding of 200 million euros per year. Draghi also said the rules on the EU stability pact "were and are inadequate" and should be changed to help boost growth coming out of the COVID pandemic. (ANSA). As many as 15 suicide attacks and dozens of other attacks have been carried out in the country by the Taliban since the start of Ramzan on April 13, the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Afghanistan said on Tuesday. A total of 255 civilians were killed and 500 more were wounded in the attacks during this period and the Taliban were responsible for 200 blasts and 15 suicide bombings during Ramzan, TOLOnews reported the interior ministry as saying. "I thank all security forces. They prevented over 800 incidents and arrested over 800 terrorists who will be trailed and law will be implemented," Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday. The number of civilian deaths increased by 20 percent during the last month (April 13 to May 12) compared to a month before, according to the data obtained by TOLOnews. This comes after the Taliban on Sunday night announced that they would observe a three-day ceasefire for the festival of Eid. Later on Monday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also instructed all Afghan forces to observe the ceasefire during Eid. US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad on Tuesday had welcomed the announcements by the Taliban and the Afghan government to uphold ceasefire in the country during the festival of Eid. "I welcome the announcements by the Taliban and the Afghan government to observe an Eid ceasefire. Violence has been horrific in recent weeks, and the Afghan people have paid the price," Khalilzad tweeted. Amid the ongoing drawdown of US troops from Afghanistan, the war-torn country has seen a spike in the incidents of violence in recent weeks, leading to casualties of Afghan security forces and civilians. (ANI) (ANSA) - ROME, MAY 12 - The Italian government is "exerting intra-European pressure to return to an effective resettlement of migrants" amid a wave of migrants washing up on Italy's shores, Premier Mario Draghi told question time Wednesday. He said Italy was talking to France and Germany to relaunch the Malta Pact on migrant distribution and relocation. At the same time, the premier stressed that "no one" would be left to drown in Italian waters. (ANSA). Clay Center, KS (67432) Today Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. Hot and humid. High 93F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 76F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. Police are continuing to search a cafe in Gloucester for the body of a suspected teenage victim of serial killer Fred West. Gloucestershire Police said forensic assessment work was ongoing at the Clean Plate cafe in Southgate Street in connection with the disappearance of 15-year-old Mary Bastholm. The force had received possible evidence from a TV production company to suggest the body of the missing teenager could be buried at the location. Mary went missing on her way to catch a bus to visit her boyfriend in Gloucester in January 1968. Serial killer West, who died in prison in 1995 aged 53, was previously suspected over Marys disappearance. Along with his wife Rose, West tortured, raped and murdered an unknown number of women over a 20-year period. It is understood that a film crew working for ITV at the location contacted police and is offering officers full co-operation. The production team, who have been in contact with Marys family, are looking into claims that Fred and Rose West had more victims beyond those they were charged and convicted over. Gloucestershire Police said forensic assessment work would continue until Monday, before a more considered decision was made to the extent of excavation. In a statement, police said West had been interviewed for a total of 110 hours and had denied murdering Mary. Mary Bastholm, who was 15 when she was reported missing on January 6 1968 and has never been found (PA) During the course of the investigation into Mary Bastholms disappearance over 250 different lines of enquiry were pursued, a spokesman said. Following a complete review of the missing person file during the West inquiry, over 100 people were interviewed. Some people in the original enquiry, who may have been of assistance, were found to have died. Despite these enquiries no evidence was found at the time to support arresting Fred West in connection with Mary Bastholm. Fred West was questioned about her disappearance in interview but he denied any involvement. He said that Heather West was his last victim and that he had committed no other murders. During his last interview at Gloucester police station on May 13 1994, Fred West denied he had anything to do with the murder. Fred West took his life in prison before he could stand trial (Handout/PA) Police also defended the decision in 2012 not to excavate the cafe as there was insufficient evidence Mary was buried there. The reasons behind the 2012 decision were documented in an open letter from former chief constable Tony Melville, a spokesman said. In the letter he addressed all the points that had been raised. He also stated that if any fresh evidence came to light, Gloucestershire Police would welcome the opportunity of reviewing it and taking appropriate action. Potential new evidence has come to light recently and we are currently carrying out extensive enquiries as a result. We plan to continue forensic assessments at the location until Monday, before a more considered decision around the extent of excavation can be made. Family liaison officers have now been put in place to provide support and updates to Marys family. In a statement, her family said: We are aware of the ongoing developments around Marys disappearance and are being kept up to date and supported by Gloucestershire Police family liaison officers. The teenagers family requested privacy so they can grieve for Mary. It is understood that Marys brother Peter Bastholm died last year. Speaking in 2014, he had called on Rose West to reveal what happened to his sister. He told Sky News at the time: I think Rose knows exactly what happened to Mary because I assume she and Fred discussed it between themselves. Whether she will ever disclose it, I really dont know. Marys disappearance in 1968 was at a time when Fred West, who often did jobs in the street where she worked as a waitress in a cafe, was abducting girls in Gloucester. West is said to have confessed to killing Mary in conversation with his son, Stephen, but never admitted it to police. Marys body was not found during the 1994 excavation of the Wests home, now known as the House of Horrors, on Cromwell Street in Gloucester. West was charged with 12 murders, but took his own life in a Birmingham prison before his trial. Rose West was convicted of 10 murders in November 1995 and is serving life. Television presenter Rachel Riley is waiting to hear whether she has won a damages fight after suing a former aide to Jeremy Corbyn for libel. Ms Riley, 35, a numbers expert on the Channel 4 show Countdown, sued Laura Murray, 32, over a tweet posted two years ago. Mr Justice Nicklin has finished overseeing a three-day trial at the High Court in London, and said he would deliver a ruling on a date to be fixed. The judge heard evidence from Ms Riley and Ms Murray earlier in the week and on Wednesday lawyers representing both women made final legal submissions. Both women posted tweets after Mr Corbyn, who was then Labour leader, was hit with an egg while visiting a mosque in March 2019. The judge heard that Ms Murray had tweeted in response to a tweet by the television presenter. Laura Murray (Dominic Lipinski/PA) Ms Riley initially posted a screenshot of a January 2019 tweet by Guardian columnist Owen Jones, about an attack on former British National Party leader Nick Griffin, which said: I think sound life advice is, if you dont want eggs thrown at you, dont be a Nazi. She had added Good advice, with emojis of a red rose and an egg. Later, Ms Murray tweeted: Today Jeremy Corbyn went to his local mosque for visit My Mosque Day, and was attacked by a Brexiteer. Rachel Riley tweets that Corbyn deserves to be violently attacked because he is a Nazi. This woman is as dangerous as she is stupid. Nobody should engage with her. Ever. Ms Riley says she was being sarcastic in her tweet, she did not call Mr Corbyn a Nazi, and Ms Murrays tweet caused serious harm to her reputation. Ms Murray was stakeholder manager in Mr Corbyns office when he was Labour leader and went on to be the partys head of complaints. In her defence to Ms Rileys claim she said what she tweeted was true and reflected her honestly held opinions. Mr Justice Nicklin ruled at an earlier hearing that Ms Murrays tweet was defamatory. He concluded that the tweet meant Ms Riley had publicly stated Mr Corbyn had been attacked when visiting a mosque; that he deserved to be violently attacked; by doing so she had shown herself to be a dangerous and stupid person who risked inciting unlawful violence; and that people should not engage with her. He has been asked to consider whether serious harm was caused to Ms Rileys reputation, and whether Ms Murray has a defence of truth, honest opinion or public interest. William Bennett QC, representing Ms Riley, told Mr Justice Nicklin that what Ms Murray tweeted was not reasonable and had significantly harmed Ms Rileys reputation. He said damages were difficult to measure. Lawyers said outside court that they expected the judge to decide on a damages figure if he decided Ms Rileys reputation had been significantly harmed and concluded that Ms Murray had no defence. Ms Riley, who studied mathematics at Oxford University, had told the judge she was Jewish and had a hatred of anti-Semitism. She said she spoke out against anti-Semitism and thought the Corbyn-led Labour Party was fostering anti-Semitism. Ms Murray told the judge that her job had involved her working with the Jewish community to try to find solutions to the problem of anti-Semitism which was becoming evident within parts of the Labour Party membership. Teenagers are getting stuck in toddlers swings across London as part of an unusual TikTok craze. London Fire Brigade (LFB) said it had responded to 21 instances of people trapped in swings this year all linked to the challenge on the video-sharing app. Twelve incidents took place in the past month. The bizarre trend sees teenagers attempt to force themselves into the swings metal frames. Firefighters were called to Ruislip in north-west London on Saturday to help a 14-year-old girl stuck in a swing. Crews had to dismantle the swing and use pressure to expand it around the girl so they could free her. LFB said the firefighters involved were conscious they were being filmed by the girls friends but they hadnt previously been aware of the challenge. In another incident, a person was helped out of a swing by firefighters in a play area in Sutton, south London, while being filmed by a group of teenagers. Fire services across the UK have spoken out about the number of calls they have received to assist people in similar situations. They are urging teenagers to think twice before taking part in the challenge and wasting firefighters time. LFBs assistant commissioner for fire stations, Jane Philpott, said: Our firefighters attend a wide variety of challenging incidents and far be it from us to judge the precarious positions some people find themselves in. But in their quest for TikTok fame, people have been potentially diverting our crews from more serious incidents and that isnt something we want to see. Each job our firefighters do attend takes time and we are hoping to prevent further callouts to such incidents by issuing this warning. We would ask people to please just think twice before taking part in this challenge think of the injuries you could cause yourself, the damage to the swings which have to be cut apart, and most of all the fact youre tying up resources which could be needed for a genuine emergency. It might be a fun story for your friends, but wasting the time of emergency services is serious. Last year firefighters assisted 52 people stuck in swings, up from 32 in 2019. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee unanimously passed a bill that would ban U.S. federal workers from downloading the popular app TikTok onto U.S. government devices, Senator Josh Hawley, a bill sponsor, said in a press statement on Wednesday. The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a similar measure in August 2020. Representative Ken Buck has introduced a similar bill in the House. The app, which is popular with teens eager to show off dance moves, has come under fire in the United States because of concerns over its Chinese owner, ByteDance. TikTok has sought to distance itself from Beijing with mixed success. Hawley called the company "an immediate security threat." "This should not be a partisan issue and I'm glad to see my colleagues in the Senate act together to address Beijing's covert data collection campaign," Hawley said in a statement after the vote. (Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Alexandra Hudson) Express your opinion! Fill out this form to submit a Letter to the Editor. Submit After our 2nd year of being in business, it did not take long to figure out that people absolutely love talking about health insurance! Kidding of course. However, for as much as people do not WANT to talk about it, the truth is that you MUST talk about it. Why? Read more Online Access for Print Subscribers. Do you have a print subscription with the Argus-Press? If yes, then click here to enjoy complimentary access to our Online Content! We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Submit Angelo Fichera writes for SciChecks COVID-19/Vaccination Project, which aims to increase exposure to accurate information about COVID-19 and vaccines, while decreasing the impact of misinformation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Argus Observer. Hitting back over criticism of his party for holding huge poll rallies, Mr Nadda said the Congress too held massive rallies in Kerala Mr Nadda alleged there seemed to be a communication gap between the Congress Party and the states it shared power as in April, the Congress top brass were seeking decentralisation of vaccinations. PTI New Delhi: A day after the Congress Working Committee blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for mishandling the Covid-19 crisis, BJP president J.P. Nadda, in a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday, said he was saddened but not surprised by the conduct of the Congress during these challenging times as it did not do the right thing, instead only did wrong politics over the global pandemic. In a four-page letter, Mr Nadda said under Mr Modi, Indias fight against Covid is driven by unwavering belief in the principles of science, support to innovation, trust in our Covid warriors and cooperative federalism, while pointing out that the conduct of top Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, will be remembered for duplicity and pettiness. He also added, though, that there are certainly a few members of your (Congress) party who (like several other selfless citizens) are doing commendable work in helping people, (but) their hard work gets eclipsed by the consistent negativity spread by the more senior members of the party. Mr Nadda also accused Congress leaders, including a chief minister, of trying to actively create vaccine hesitancy during the once-in-a-century pandemic. Mr Nadda accused the Congress of misleading people, creating false panic and even contradicting their stands just based on political considerations. Hitting back over the criticism of his party for holding huge poll rallies in April even as Covid-19 cases surged across the nation and also over the construction of the Central Vista project, Mr Nadda said the Congress leaders too held massive election rallies in Kerala, causing a spike in the Covid cases and were now grandstanding about poll rallies elsewhere. Responding to the CWCs charge of the Modi government abdicating its responsibilities on vaccinations, Mr Nadda alleged there seemed to be a communication gap between the Congress Party and the states it shared power as in April, the Congress top brass were seeking decentralisation of vaccinations. Even when the second wave was on the rise, your partys leaders were happier being seen at super-spreader political events in North India where there was no regard for masks or social distancing. This is not the era when such information can be erased from public memory, wrote Mr Nadda. The BJP leader said the Centre had so far distributed 16 crore vaccines to the states and 50 per cent of them were being provided even now free of cost, and asked Mrs Gandhi if the states where her party was in power would also give free jabs to people as those ruled by the BJP and its allies have done. He also said the poor had been provided with food and DBT (direct benefit transfer) distribution. Mr Nadda said the Modi government had engaged with all stakeholders, including CMs, in fighting the pandemic, and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda had also acknowledged that. On the Congress allegation about the BJP government mishandling the crisis, Mr Nadda wrote: There are other aspects that also need greater thought. For instance, the data from February and March would reveal which states had failed to track the rising cases. Why are mortality rates in states such as Punjab so high? These are questions you must ask your own chief ministers. Defending the ongoing Central Vista project, he said there is a new trend in the Congress to put all the blame on this while noting that the need for a new Parliament building had been raised during the tenure of the Congress-led UPA government. Since the 3rd phase of vaccination began amidst a ferocious 2nd wave of Covid-19, India has been facing acute shortage of vaccines Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over vaccine shortage on Tuesday, saying the Centre should share the vaccine formula of the two manufacturers with other capable pharmaceutical companies to scale up production in the country. PTI New Delhi: With state governments running out of both varieties of vaccines and having to either shut down vaccination centres or ration them, several states and Union Territories, including Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha, are planning to float global tenders to procure vaccines and ramp up the inoculation drive. Many of them blamed the Centre for the shortage and said that its new policy is forcing states to compete with each to procure vaccines rather than help each other. The Maharashtra government indicated on Tuesday that it would buy vaccines from the global market to cater to its needs. Delhis deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia too said the AAP government will float a global tender for procuring coronavirus vaccines. Maharashtra health minister announced that the state will give priority to those in the 45-plus age category and needing a second dose. Addressing a press conference, he alleged that the BJP-ruled Centre is "forcing" state governments to invite global tenders for vaccine procurement. The Central government wants the states to compete and fight with each other in the international market for vaccines, Mr Sisodai alleged. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over vaccine shortage on Tuesday, saying the Centre should share the vaccine formula of the two manufacturers with other capable pharmaceutical companies to scale up production in the country. The World Health Organization, India and South Africa have have all called for patents to be temporarily suspended, especially by the US. According to the Centres Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy, Covid-19 vaccination is free at government vaccination centres that receive doses from the Centre for eligible population groups comprising healthcare workers, frontline workers and people above the 45 years of age. However, states and private hospitals have to procure vaccines to immunise persons in the age group of 18 to 44 years. Since the third phase of vaccination began amidst a ferocious second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, India has been facing acute shortage of vaccines. The Centre on Tuesday asked states and UTs to ensure all beneficiaries who have taken the first dose are prioritised for the second doses during the vaccination drives. The decision came as huge crowds were reported at several places after the government opened vaccination for the 18-plus population. The Odisha government, meanwhile, has formed committees for the supervision of the proposed global e-tendering process to procure Covid-19 vaccines. The Karnataka government too decided to procure two crore vaccine doses through global tender to meet the increased demand and to facilitate vaccination of the age group of 18-44 years, deputy chief minister and state Covid task force head C.N. Ashwath Narayan said on Tuesday. The Telangana Cabinet Tuesday decided to invite global tenders for the procurement of vaccines to inoculate the states entire population. Officials said the Andhra Pradesh government will float a global tender in a day or two for the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines from foreign manufacturers to complete the vaccination process as quickly as possible. Uttar Pradesh government had earlier this month floated global e-tenders to procure four crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines from licensed manufacturers. The officials took the cue from the Uttar Pradesh government, ruled by BJP, which was first among the states to moot global tenders There is no clarity among the officials of both the Telugu states on whether they can import vaccines directly from the manufacturers in other countries or wait for approval from the relevant Central agencies. Representational image/PTI Hyderabad: State governments seem to be queuing up to float global tenders for procurement of the Covid-19 vaccine. A day after AP Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy directed officials to float global tenders for the vaccine, the Telangana state Cabinet which met here on Tuesday also took a similar decision. Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao asked officials to procure the vaccine from abroad as domestic supplies are inadequate. The move is more political. Ignoring the fact that the production of vaccine is very less, the Opposition parties are blaming the state governments for the short supply. So we have come up with the idea of global tenders, sources in the AP government told this correspondent. The officials took the cue from the Uttar Pradesh government, ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was first among the states to moot global tenders. Odisha, too, announced global procurement. With the news of states attempting to procure vaccines with global tenders, several agencies were said to have approached the officials with proposals. A representative of a Paris-based vaccine manufacturer assured that it could immediately make available 38 million doses. There is no clarity among the officials of both the Telugu states on whether they can import vaccines directly from the manufacturers in other countries or wait for approval from the relevant Central agencies. Officials are clueless on whether these vaccines should be put to some basic trials to verify their effectiveness in Indian environs. In the first place, we are not sure if the Centre will allow vaccines other than Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik V, a health official in the Telangana state government admitted. The officials, however, were planning to complete the paper work relating to the global tenders with the assistance of trained staff working in World Bank projects and expect some clarity from the Centre in the next few days. In the meantime, the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister urged the Prime Minister to allow manufacture of Covaxin by all those companies capable of producing vaccines, along with Bharat Biotech. At present, the Centre has allowed only Bharat Biotech to produce the vaccine though it was developed with the assistance of the Indian Council for Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, Pune. You please direct Bharat Biotech to transfer technology and ICMR-NIV to provide the viral strain to whoever comes forward to produce vaccine, Reddy said adding that the move would accelerate the vaccination programme at the earliest. The Max, Boeings best-selling plane, was grounded for 20 months after two crashes that killed 346 people. Deliveries of the jet resumed in November after Boeing updated a flight-control system, but now about 100 Max jets are idled because of an issue with electrical grounding of some parts. It has taken Boeing far longer than expected to come up with a fix. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. You are the owner of this article. Fourth-grader Sammiayah Thompson, left, and her brother, third-grader Nehemiah Thompson, work outside in their yard on June 5, 2020, on laptops provided by their school system for distant learning in Hartford, Connecticut. As of May 12, 2021, Americans can begin applying for $50 off their internet bill as part of an emergency government program to keep people connected during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Jessica Hill/AP) No fewer than 10 billion reais, which translates to $1.9 billion at current exchange rates, will be spent on redevelopment. This money will also bring forth a brand-new pickup truck from the Chevy brand in the guise of a ute.The model will complement the Chevrolet pickup family, said GM of South America president Carlos Zarlenga. It will also debut a completely innovative concept for the brand in the light commercial vehicle segment.What kind of innovative concept hes talking about is anybodys guess because unibody trucks are relatively common in Central and South America. Whats more, U.S. customers already have two of them in the guise of the Honda Ridgeline and Hyundai Santa Cruz. Not long now, Ford will enter the compact ute segment with the Escape-based Maverick that will be manufactured alongside the Bronco Sport in Hermosillo, Mexico.General Motors didnt mention the name of the all-new model, but we do know the pickup is under development as we speak. GM do Brasil further mentions that the ute will join the rejuvenated family of global vehicles that currently comprises the Onix, Onix Plus, and Trax-replacing Tracker.We also know the yet-to-be-named ute serves as a replacement for the Montana, which is alternatively known as the Tornado or Utility, depending on the market. Based on the old underpinnings of the Opel Corsa and Chevrolet Agile, the Montana comes exclusively as a two-door regular cab.Rendered by Brazilian pixel artist Kleber Silva with styling cues from the Trailblazer and Blazer with the RS equipment group, the newcomer isnt likely to be exported to the United States because of the Global Emerging Markets platform on which its most likely based.As a brief refresher, the GEM was developed exclusively for markets of the developing world. Over in the United States, the automakers low-cost platform is called VSS-F, and it succeeds four platforms in total: the Gamma, D2, E2, and the Epsilon II. Pop star Demi Lovato has an idea of where to look for them and, even better, how to make contact with them. She will share some of that knowledge with the rest of the world by means of a new unscripted series calledwhat else?Unidentified With Demi Lovato. It will air on PeacockTV, TV Line reports.The unscripted series will have four parts, playing out like a reality show or documentary of some sorts. The announcement notes that Demi will star (shes also one of the producers, alongside music manager Scooter Braun), opposite her sister Dallas and her best friend Matthew, the skeptic. The series will see them talk to experts in the field, alien abductees, and scientists, as well as investigate recent eyewitness encounters, uncover secret government reports, and conduct tests at known UFO hot spots.If you giggled at the idea of Demi Lovato single-handedly (more or less) uncovering state secrets, youre about to have a fit with whats next. The goal of the show, PeacockTV says, is to help Demi make contact with the aliens so that she can make peace with the aliens and ultimately save ourselves. From what, it doesnt say.In October last year, Lovato was on social media, hawking an app that was compared to Facebook for UFO sightings , which she claimed to have been using to communicate peacefully with aliens. Also then, she name-dropped Dr. Steven Greer, a self-titled world authority on UFOs, ET intelligence and making contact with aliens. She also spoke about the need to make peaceful contact and force authorities to acknowledge the existence of aliens so that our planet was saved from certain destruction.Maybe the upcoming show will solve the riddle of this destruction talk and how the aliens can help with it. PeacockTV is yet to announce an air date, but Demi promises more details will come to light soon. News has emerged that Amazon billionaire Bezos is the owner of Oceancos secret project Y721, also known as Project 721. Oceanco is a well-known luxury yacht yard, which has also delivered the record-breaking (and stunning) Black Pearl , one of the worlds largest sailboats and superyachts, as well as one of the most technologically advanced vessels in the world.In fact, unconfirmed reports claim that Y721 is based on Black Pearl, with a three-deck structure and three giant masts for hybrid propulsion. If that turns out to be the case, Y721 is much bigger than the platform it draws inspiration from, standing at a whopping 417 feet (127 meters) in length. Bloomberg reports that once completed, it will be one of the biggest superyachts built in the Netherlands, if not the whole world.With an aluminum and steel construction, the triple-masted superyacht will come with its very own shadow vessel. Size isnt everything when the budget is limitless, and an owner like Bezos cant have a superyacht without a helipad. Since a helipad was an impossibility with the masts on Y721, Oceanco will build a 246-foot (47-meter) support vessel that will carry the helipad, along with the everyday toys a billionaire needs to feel at home.The same media outlet says that construction on Y721 will be completed in the next months, with delivery set for 2022. The price on the superyacht alone is in the $500 million region; no word on the price tag on the shadow vessel, which is a yacht on its own.While Bezos clearly placed the order before the international health crisis of 2020, very much like Roman Abramovich did (hes building himself the $610 million Solaris superyacht ), news of it only got out now. It does nothing in terms of putting to rest the conversation about how the developments of 2020 and 2021 have only made the worlds richest richer while everyone else became poorer. Lamborghini customers in the New York area are now getting a special treat that has the potential to exceed even the greatest expectations. A new VIP Lounge that includes a customization studio was recently unveiled in New York City. As expected, this Lamborghini NYC flagship is set up in an excellent location, in the center of the Chelsea district, on the west side of Manhattan.According to the brands official announcement, the luxurious, 5,380 square-foot (500 square meters) Lounge has a gallery-style structure, with 2 floors. Here, everything is set up for guests to be able to experience the Lamborghini lifestyle.Not only will they have various private rooms to choose from, as well as the services of an exclusive concierge, but they can also enjoy the delights of Italian cuisine. Thats right, this Lamborghini Lounge features a full-service kitchen and theres an Italian chef ready to demonstrate that Italian cuisine is an art.But thats just part of creating the right ambiance. The real magic happens in the Ad Personam design study, a unique customization studio that had previously been available only at SantAgata. New York customers will be able to literally create the Lamborghini of their dreams , by choosing their favorite materials and color palettes.On top of that, VIP visitors at the New York City Lounge will be granted exclusive access to never-before-seen limited-edition Lamborghini models And, since this is meant to be a space that truly reflects Italian heritage, premium partner brands will also make their mark on the sumptuous interiors. Bang & Olufsen sound systems, Living Divani furniture and La Dolce Vita kitchen furnishings are some of the elements that contribute to the Lounges high-end design.Together with the opening of their NYC flagship, the company also announced the debut of the limited-edition Excalibur Huracan STO, created by Roger Dubuis in collaboration with the Italian brand.The NYC Lamborghini Lounge is open to customers by invitation only, starting this spring. SUV The generation change might've seen the body-on-frame construction making room for an aluminum unibody approach, but the British machine is still a terrain tamer. However, the treatment seen here simply places the vehicle in another league.Gone is the all-around independent suspension of the showroom model, with the Landie now packing solid axles at both ends. Of course, the ride height has been significantly increased.The said setup supports beadlock wheels that keep the super-sized rubber in place, with the balloon-type tires required by the cold environment tackled by the vehicle.And while the meaty fenders won't keep all the snow from flying onto the body, these certainly help with keeping the white stuff in check.The front bumper has been adapted to the project's requirements and now holds a winch, as well as extra lights, with the latter also joined by hardware sitting above the windshield.The pair of antennas at the back cover the communication needs of a polar explorer, while skipping the spare wheel simply couldn't be done in the case of such a contraption.Now, digital artist Abimelec Arellano has added this Land Rover Defender to his Arctic Truck collection. That also includes models that belong to thegenre and yet are less likely to travel to remote parts of the world, at least under normal circumstanceshow about a Rolls-Royce Cullinan Speaking of which, if hitting the North Pole isn't necessarily your thing, you have to keep in mind that certain road connection alterations and perhaps some additional accessories could see this Land Rover turned into a dune basher or perhaps a machine ready to deal with some other type of extreme terrain. Its not just us that have a sweet spot for the Fox-Body, one model year-only 1993 Ford Mustang SVT Cobra, it seems. Mattels Hot Wheels brand now has a very exclusive, 48-hour window of opportunity for pre-ordering its own take on the ultra-rare Cobra R version. But theres a catch, of course. 10 photos Getting through and beyond economic recovery requires a steady grip, focus and expertise, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said in a news release. Michael brings that and more to the City of Chicago. Time and time again, Michael has demonstrated his passion for inclusive economic development and investment while simultaneously creating eye-catching and memorable marketing initiatives that center the authenticity of our residents. The exercise consists of various operations over land and at sea, which will be performed between May 11 and May 16, with the purpose of strengthening the cooperation for Indo-Pacific security.After the initial staff exercise , ARC-21 will continue with a field training exercise thats set to begin at Kirishima Maneuver Area. The training includes casualty evacuation, simulated fire support coordination, expertise exchange on different combat matters and combat service support between JSDF and U.S. military personnel.For the culminating field training event, ships from each nation will perform a multilateral amphibious air assault on an established target area. Together, they will prepare landings and air assaults and will conduct various maneuvers, communication drills and air defense exercises. USS New Orleans (LPD 18), part of Amphibious Squadron 11, is one of the ships that are participating in ARC 21, as well as an Osumi-Class landing ship and two guided-missile patrol boats from the JSDF.USS New Orleans (LPD 18) is a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship. It was the second to be assigned to Amphibious Squadron 11, in 2019, joining the USS Green Bay (LPD 20) that has been deployed 4 years earlier. Its equipped with an advanced command and control suite and it provides cargo lift and carrying capabilities. This allows a rapid transfer of personnel and equipment, via a landing craft and Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft, which is essential in amphibious assault operations.During the culminating event of ARC-21, first, reconnaissance Marines and JSDF soldiers will monitor the target. Then, a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft from the USS New Orleans ship will carry French infantry forces, for the actual air assault. Additional JSDF forces and Marines will provide fire support throughout the assault. The Department of Trade and Industries (DTI) is trying to grow the Philippine industry by asking various businesses from around the world to invest and do business in the country. In return, theyll be provided with incentives, including income tax holidays and more. Recently, theyve been in talks with South Korea, specifically, firms that may be interested in producing EV parts and semiconductors locally. More investments are good news for our economy. But, there is one part of the DTIs meeting with the South Korean embassy that was particularly interesting. Industry Development and Trade Policy Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino S. Rodolfo used Hyundai as an example during the meeting with the embassy. Another example if Hyundai decides to assemble the Hyundai Ioniq in the Philippines and say THN Autoparts or Bolim decides to add another wiring harness facility dedicated to EV, both Hyundai and THN/Bolim will get to enjoy the same incentives as the semiconductor firms. After the ITH period, purchases of Hyundai of wiring harness from THN or Bolim will be allowed an additional 50% deduction from taxable income. And so with power and labor costs, Hyundai can also enjoy 100% additional deduction for training the workers in their factory, said Rodolfo. Wait, does this mean Hyundai will produce the Ioniq locally? Well, its not confirmed, but it hints at the possibility. If you think about it, Rodolfo could have just mentioned Hyundai to cite an example for the South Korean embassy. However, he also said a specific model, and that is the Ioniq. It could be a coincidence, or it could be an indication of what Hyundais plans are. At the moment, Hyundai produces the Ioniq in two locations, South Korea and Malaysia. For reference, the units sold by Hyundai Philipines are made in South Korea. Because of that, the vehicle isnt exactly affordable due to excise taxes. By assembling it in the Philippines, they can cut costs and benefit from various incentives from the government. This could make the Ioniq one of the most affordable hybrid vehicles to own locally. Remember, Hyundai already has an assembly center in the Philippines. The facility initially assembled the Eon and the H350, followed by the Accent in late 2019. Hyundai could then expand the production line to assemble the Ioniq. It wouldnt be too expensive to do so either with the DTIs new incentives. For now, nothing is certain yet. Whether Rodolfos statement points at Hyundais plans or was it just used as an example, we still dont know. But, the possibilities are exciting. Copyright 2020 by Mountain Times Publications. Digital or printed dissemination of this content without prior written consent is a violation of federal law and may be subject to legal action. Israeli officials have argued behind the scenes that the Biden administration shouldn't intervene over the recent escalation in violence between security forces and Palestinians at a holy site in Jerusalem, according to Israeli officials. Why it matters: This is the first major crisis between Israel and the Palestinians that the Biden administration has had to deal with. Despite their resistance to any U.S. role in the crisis, the Israelis took the steps requested by the U.S. to de-escalate the situation. After four years of close to no criticism by the Trump administration for its actions in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the Israeli government is now faced with a U.S. government that is much more critical. At least 215 Palestinians were injured during clashes with Israeli police on Monday at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, including 153 who were hospitalized, according to AP. The big picture: President Biden has thus far viewed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a very low priority in comparison to other foreign policy issues. The White House was not interested in spending much political capital or time on the issue, and was seeking to avoid a fight with Israel over the Palestinian conflict. But the Jerusalem crisis that erupted over the weekend prompted many members of Congress and progressive organizations to weigh in and demand that the White House intervene. Driving the news: The Biden administration has been monitoring the escalation in Jerusalem in recent days and raised its concerns with Israel both privately and publicly. The issue was mainly being dealt with by the State Department, but the White House weighed in on Sunday when national security adviser Jake Sullivan called his Israeli counterpart Meir Ben Shabbat. The White House said Sullivan raised concerns about tensions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem, where 300 Palestinians are under threat of eviction from their homes. Sullivan also "encouraged the Israeli government to pursue appropriate measures to ensure calm during Jerusalem Day commemorations" being held on Monday, according to a White House summary of the call. The other side: The language used in the White House summary was quite mild and moderate, but the Israelis responded with their own version of the call that gave an impression the conversation was much more difficult. Israeli officials said Ben Shabbat told Sullivan during the phone call that Israel believes the Biden administration and the rest of the international community should stay out of the crisis in Jerusalem and avoid pressing Israel. Ben Shabbat told Sullivan that international intervention is a reward to the Palestinian rioters and those who back them who were seeking international pressure on Israel," according to an Israeli official briefed on the call. The Israeli official said Ben Shabbat told Sullivan that Israel is handling events in Jerusalem "from a position of sovereignty and responsibility regardless of Palestinian provocations." The Israeli national security adviser told his U.S. counterpart that if the U.S. and the international community want to help in restoring calm, they should put pressure on the inciting elements on the Palestinian side, the Israeli official said. The White House said Sullivan assured Ben-Shabbat that the U.S. will remain fully engaged in the days ahead to promote calm in Jerusalem. The latest: In the hours since the call took place, the Israeli government took the steps the Biden administration requested. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the closure of the Temple Mount to Jewish visitors and later ordered the re-routing of an annual parade so that it would not pass through the Muslim Quarter and the Damascus Gate, two potential flashpoints in the old City of Jerusalem. Whats next: The United Nations Security Council is meeting for a closed session later on Monday to get updates about the Jerusalem escalation. Amman, Jordan A month after the royal family feud that rocked Jordan, internal tensions have softened but the long-term effects of the crisis are yet to be seen. Driving the news: In the last two weeks, 16 of the 18 Jordanians arrested in the crackdown on former Crown Prince Hamzah bin Hussein and his associates have been released. Prince Hamzah was publicly accused in April of plotting to destabilize the kingdom. The two who remain in jail are Bassem Awadallah, a former chief of the royal court and envoy to Saudi Arabia, and Sharif Hassan Ben Zaid, a member of the royal family and a dual Jordanian-Saudi citizen. Although Prince Hamzah is still under house arrest, he appeared with the royal family on an official engagement recently, temporarily answering the viral question: #whereistheprince. Behind the scenes: Two former prime ministers, Taher Al-Masri and Abdel Rauf Rawabdeh, told Axios they are playing a role in trying to solve the royal dispute, as is former Prime Minister Aoun Khasawneh. Rawabdeh, a respected figure from the northern city of Irbid, said the country was moving in the right direction and stressed the prisoners were released on the sole initiative of His Majesty the King." But Al-Masri told Axios that he and others counseled the royal court to close the entire file and release all, but our advice wasnt fully accepted." If the Awadallah and Ben Zaid cases proceed to trial, Al-Masri warned, it will make it more difficult to end the trial, and also make it difficult not to call Prince Hamzah to testify. It will also make problems with a number of neighboring countries," Al-Masri said, hinting at Saudi Arabia. Between the lines: Saudi Arabia sent a delegation in the first days of the crisis to seek the release of Awadallah, who has served as a consultant to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. The Saudis have denied any role in the royal feud. Awadallahs lawyer, former military judge Mohammad Al Afif, said he visited Awadallah in jail on Monday and found him in good spirits. He said the case was still under investigation and estimated it would take up to a month for a trial to begin at the state security court. What's next: Once the trial begins some of the public will believe what is presented and some will not. This is not good for the country," Al-Masri told Axios. Avanesian said that only about 12,000 people making up 0.4 percent of Armenias population received a first vaccine dose as of Monday. This figure is definitely not satisfactory and we are trying to increase the pace [of vaccinations,] she said, answering questions from Facebook users at the RFE/RL studio in Yerevan. Asked when the country could achieve herd immunity against COVID-19 at this rate, she said: We will probably need one year to reach the threshold where we can bid farewell to COVID-19. Of course, that depends on a number of factors. We cannot say how many people will be applying [for vaccine shots] in the next one or two months. We are doing everything to make vaccination accessible, added the minister. The vaccination campaign was launched on April 13 weeks after Armenia received a total of 67,000 doses of the AstraZeneca and Sputnik V vaccines. The AstraZeneca jab was made available to all adults willing to take it while Sputnik V is administered only to frontline workers and chronically ill persons under the age of 55. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian complained about the slow pace of vaccinations on April 29, telling his ministers to get vaccine shots and thus set an example to skeptical citizens. The health authorities set up mobile vaccination facilities at shopping malls and on major streets in Yerevan in the following days. Avanesian said that although the daily number of inoculated people has grown since then more time is needed to raise public awareness of the vaccination campaign and its importance. Armenia also received on May 1 100,000 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine donated by China. In Avanesians words, the health authorities started on Monday distributing them to policlinics across the country in preparation for their use. The minister also revealed that the Armenian government is now negotiating with the U.S. company Novavax on the purchase of its coronavirus vaccine. She did not specify the possible volume and timeframes of its delivery. Armenia faced earlier this year a third wave of coronavirus infections blamed by health experts on the authorities failure to enforce their sanitary safety rules. Despite the continuing lack of such enforcement, the daily number of new cases has fallen for the last two weeks. The Armenian Ministry of Health reported 243 single-day coronavirus cases on Tuesday morning, sharply down from over 1,000 cases repeatedly registered in the first half of April. The ministry has recorded just over 5,300 coronavirus-related deaths since the start of the pandemic. GILBERT, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) - India continues to be a world hotspot for COVID-19 and hospitals are dealing with a lack of resources like oxygen in particular. A local company is selling life-saving devices to help give patients in Southeast Asia a fighting chance. At Diamond Medical Equipment in Gilbert, they have 85 oxygen concentrators that will help save 85 lives in India. A device that's badly needed as the country struggles with low vaccination rates and an overwhelmed hospital system. "My heart goes out to them and I want to do everything I can for them," said Diamond Medical Equipment's Owner, Mike Factor. Factor said the oxygen concentrator transforms room air into 95% pure oxygen for COVID-19 patients. "And the oxygen will go through a patient usually through a nasal cannula," said Factor. He said he was approached by two local physicians to send the devices to India. The doctors linked him up with a corporation who bought the devices from him and plans to fly the machines to India on Wednesday morning. "I hope it saves lives," said Factor. PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - In an effort to get as many Arizonans vaccinated as possible, Embry Health is launching a seven-day vaccine blitz across the state. From Tuesday, May 11 through Tuesday, May 18, Embry Health will be vaccinating people at more than 70 drive-thru locations. Mobile clinics will also be hitting the road, bringing the vaccine to you if there is no location nearby. Embry Healths goal is to vaccinate 30,000 people throughout Arizona within seven days. Anyone over the age of 18 can receive their first or second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during that week. Walk-ins are welcome, but if you would like to schedule an appointment, please click/tap here. Embry Health is also partnering with employers throughout Arizona to provide their staff COVID-19 vaccines by hosting private events held right at their place of work. Companies of all sizes can host an event. To learn more about hosting an event, please email sales@embryhealth.com. Embry Health operates the widest network of COVID-19 test locations in Arizona and will soon be opening testing sites in Colorado and New Mexico. Embry Health also operates mobile testing clinics. PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - The company Whistleout is looking for a chief adventure officer to take a tour of Arizona and get paid a thousand bucks! In addition to the $1,000 payment, the chief adventure officer will also receive $500 for travel expenses and a new smartphone to document their trip. 13 beautiful places to visit in Arizona Arizona isn't just desert. You could live here your whole life and still not have seen all of its beauty. "This person, all they need to do is explore their state. Go to a national park, a state park, a mountain," said Sherri Riggs, a WhistleOut trends researcher. "We're really looking for someone who'd rather go outside on an adventure than sit on couch and watch Netflix. If you are itching for an adventure, if you rock climb or you like to backpack or you have some exciting experiences being outdoors, we want you to apply and we want to tag along for your adventure." Whistleout wants to motivate people to get outside and explore. "With this adventure and this new cellphone you're going to get, we just want you to take some pictures and document your experience. Upload them on your social media page. We'll probably take some of those photos too on our social media. Use hashtag #whistleoutside just to be able to share it with everyone," said Riggs. There are some ways to stand out. "If you were to describe what adventure you'll going to be on, what those photos would look like and what the content you'd create is going to look like, I think that would definitely help us separate and make your application a little bit more distinct," said Riggs. The deadline to apply is May 21. The winner will be announced on May 28. To apply, click/tap here. Assemblage of wall sculptures, the treasures of Longmen People's Daily Online) 10:25, May 12, 2021 Why does a Buddha statue make a peace sign pose? What kind of smile can last through 1,000 years? The year 2020 marks the 1,560th anniversary of the excavation of Longmen Grottoes. Irgashev Shakhrukh, a young man from Russia, arrived at a place connected with a long history and started his journey at the Longmen Grottoes. Themed on Assemblage of Wall Sculptures, the Treasures of Longmen'', the new episode of the docuseries Viewing China From Afar Season III produced by People's Daily Online West USA Inc. narrates Shakhrukhs journey into the past. The Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, central Chinas Henan province, became a man made landmark during the Northern Wei dynasty of China more than 1,500 years ago. It is one of the three largest grottoes in China along with the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang and Yungang Grottoes in Datong. Longmen Grottoes is the most complex one of the three. Because its excavation lasted 1,400 years, there are still more than 2,100 cave niches, 100,000 statues, and 3,600 inscriptions on steles. Longmen Grottoes ranks first among all the major grottoes in China due to its large quantities of niches, statues and inscriptions. At the end of 2020, Shakhrukh embarked on a tour of the World Heritage Site led by a local guide named Zhang Ping. Shakhrukh was particularly interested in how the craftsmen at the time used tools to carve thousands of buddha statues with various poses on the rocks. The work of carving these statues lasted for 1,400 years, which spanned more than a dozen dynasties. More than 100,000 buddha statues with different aesthetic styles and artistic characteristics of each period have become the "history books of stone" reflecting the history and culture. The Longmen Grottoes was built near a mountain and river. The scale of the landmark is magnificent. There are 45 main caves in existence, among which the most wonderful carvings are those of the Northern Wei and Tang dynasties. No matter where you stand in the grottoes, you can see her smiling at you. There is also a buddha statue that is particularly eye-catching. This is the trending "peace sign pose" Buddha statue, which is also called the "cutest buddha statue in history". The Buddha statue sits on a square platform with its right hand stretched forward. The two fingers held up are like a victory sign "V", so it is called the "buddha with a peace sign pose". How impressive is the Buddha's "Smile of a Thousand Years"? How was the trending "peace sign pose" buddha statue formed? With this episode "Assemblage of Wall Sculptures, the Treasures of Longmen", Shakhrukh reveals the mystery of the Longmen Grottoes, a historical work that dates back 1,460 years ago. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) He never had the chance to meet Pope Francis, but he treated everyone he encountered as if they were special. He didnt have a South Lawn to pounce around on, but he enjoyed rolling in the grass in my tiny backyard. He found great joy in digging his way under the fence and exploring the neighborhood while I frantically searched for him. Baltimore lawyer Barry Glazer causes stir across the pond with purchase of Princess Dianas bicycle COVID-19 vaccines did not impact placentas during pregnancy, according to study Amdur co-founded the Chicago Furniture Bank in 2018 shortly after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania. He and two friends James McPhail and Andrew Witherspoon had won a contest, run by their alma mater, to start a business dedicated to making the world better. Inspired by a furniture bank in Philadelphia, they built their proposal on the proposition that every person should be able to sleep in a bed. Visitors to the furniture bank would not only get good furniture, nearly free, but theyd get to pick it out themselves. Andrew Wright 90, of Princeton died peacefully Sunday, June 6, 2021, at his home. Born May 20, 1931, at Mohegan, he was the son of the late Andy David Wright and Millie Murry Mullins. Mr. Wright was retired from Westvaco Corporation with 28 years of service and a member of Roger Street Commu John Woodard The Pandemic taught us 2 things of significance to our Country's future. The first was that they could release a virus and impair our country without firing a shot, and second, the American public found that their medicines are made in China. Foolish us, who thought that American Pharmaceuticals were made in the United States. So why is nothing being done to correct this problem of health and wellness?Trump caused trouble for the Chinese Communists and was in a position to take some corrective measures. But whether you believe the election was stolen or not, it is clear that when Trump lost, the Chinese breathed a sigh of relief. In the words of a crude speaking old friend, China has us by the short hairs and there is nothing we can or will do about it.So, what was done to create this condition and who is responsible for it?Over the years, numerous manufacturing companies have moved their facilities from the United States to China, costing American's thousands and thousands of jobs. Companies such as Bali Bra left the US towns which looked like ghost towns when they were gone. The counties lost an enormous tax base which caused many people to flee and start over elsewhere. States like Pennsylvania were particularly hard hit. Not because of one industry but several all of whom pulled up stakes for the same reason. And why you ask, because of the lure of cheap non-union labor. I don't care how many bras women buy, the fact is the Union wages and work rules gave companies the justification to leave. Another reason was the actions of a New York Global Business Consulting firm known as McKinsey and Co. They spent the time and money to develop their relationships in China and then when a Company wanted to leave the United States, who did they call? McKinsey.Now, practically everything that is sold in our stores is made in China, from upper end clothing from companies such as Paul Frederik, to coffee makers and everything in between.So, what are we going to do about it? We are going to have to elect someone like Donald Trump and give him a Congress that he can work with. Anything less and China will continue to produce everything we purchase while we continue to Underwrite our own Trade Deficit through ever higher taxes.Isn't it funny that there is so much consternation among segments of our society about the role of slavery during the founding of our country? Yet China uses slave labor to produce the products that we buy at Walmart, Target and other big box stores and we say nothing about that!The bottom line of this article is that we need to elect a leader that will put American Citizens ahead of others. And we need to begin the return of our manufacturing plants. Pres Trump had begun to do just that but he was fought all the way. I understand that Trump had some mannerisms that turned some people off. But in considering the difference between Biden and Trump, I would take Trump any day.I hope that those who read this article will remember it when they go to the polls and elect a new House and Senate in 2022 and elect a new president in 2024. The future of Civilization in America may be on the ballot. By Rev. Mark Creech Christian Action League May 7, 2021 Most doting parents have grand ambitions for their children, like the mother who was asked about her two kids in elementary school and answered: The doctor is in the third grade, and the lawyer is in the first! Thats what came to my mind recently while listening to Paige Brydon at a press conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. Brydon spoke in favor of proposed legislation in the Tarheel state that would ban elective abortions based on sex, race, or the presumption an unborn child has Down Syndrome. Brydon said that at age 24, she became pregnant, and the father didnt want anything to do with her or her baby. She knew she was without the kind of support she needed to keep the child. So, with great anguish, she terminated her pregnancy. A few years later, she happily married and became pregnant again with her first child, a boy! We were so excited! Surely, we were going to have the next President of IBM! said Brydon. But upon his delivery, we discovered Miller [the boys name] had Down Syndrome. We were floored. In my heart, I thought it was Gods retribution for the abortion. But Brydon said as Miller grew, her love and appreciation for him daily intensified as she observed this amazingly sweet, funny, albeit slow little fella. Miller was so full of life. She added: He has danced at the White House, lapped the NASCAR track, has been on magazine covers, made numerous television appearances, and now is a part of Bear Food a gourmet peanut butter business, which was developed by Millers brother, Mac, to provide job skills to special needs adults. Then Brydon shared a story about Miller, which I thought, had profound significance. She told it so marvelously well; Ill share it here with you just as she did with the press. She said: Rewind with me to a Christmas pageant held at our church several years ago. Miller was around 20-21 years old a young adult. As usual, during one portion of the Christmas pageant, the little children of the church appeared dressed as angels to sing Christmas carols. As they were singing, a rough-looking homeless man walked into the sanctuary. Clearly, he had not bathed or changed clothes for quite a while, but was proclaiming now he was drug-free. All of the adults were thinking maybe for about 3 hours Yet as he watched these precious children sing and heard the heavenly sound of their voices, he started weeping hard weeping and started shouting, Its so beautiful! Its so beautiful! He then fell face down in the front of the church, crying so hard his body shook. The congregation and pastors were stunned. Certainly, we werent going to kick him out, but something needed to be done. I could also see uncertainty and fear rising in the children. I closed my eyes and earnestly prayed, Oh Lord, please send someone forward who will know what to do. Please, Lord When I opened my eyes, I saw Miller, and in all of what screams, brokenness moving toward the man. He knelt on the floor beside him, placed one hand in the air, praying, and with the other hand, started gently rubbing the mans back. Miller wasnt rattled; he wasnt afraid. He didnt back up or back off. He was kind, and gentle, tender, and exhibited a rare form of love and acceptance that we hardly ever see these days. The gentleman slowly quieted down, took some deep breaths, and a wonderful peace came over his body. There was a pause, and then the normal people moved in. We were stunned! That day, I became acutely aware of Millers purpose on this earth so much more than mine. See, I thought God had sent me a special needs child, so I could teach him how to live. The truth is, I was the one with special needs, so God sent Miller to teach me how to live. As the kids were growing up, how many times has a harried mother or father said to them, I hope you have a child just like you. Of course, the statement is always made in the negative. Nevertheless, if we are judicious about the matter and see our children through Gods eyes, we would understand that a child is an unspeakable gift no matter the circumstances. I would suggest that whats wrapped up in the package of a child is so remarkable; we mustnt ever disregard it in any way or situation. Our expectations for how things ought to be, even our dreams for our childrens futures, are not always what God has planned. His designs are so much better and superior to our own. He can do far more than we could ever think or imagine. Moreover, our child should be so fortunate to have a child just like the one weve been given. Parents must seek to faithfully raise their children in the ways of God, love them unconditionally, pray for them regularly, and leave the rest to Him. And Mom or Dad, while youre doing this, be careful to listen for the voice of God. You might learn something important about yourself. Happy Mothers Day! The Electoral College has voted. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple judges the former president appointed, have rejected his claims. The Trump Department of Justice investigated the former presidents claims of widespread fraud and found no evidence to support them. The election is over. That is the rule of law. That is our constitutional process. Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution. Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. The Daily Haymaker is reporting: The states local governments have been surviving for years on pass-through payments from Raleigh and DC. Quite often, these payments are not forever gifts. They often have an expiration date leaving the recipients at the local level scrambling to find a replacement for said money when the spigot gets turned off. According to the state treasurers office and the Local Government Commission, the chickens may be finally coming home to roost (as far as that practice goes): A Tuesday morning walkout led by about 50 Kirbyville High School students over the uncertain future of their principal has left more questions than answers The demonstration came amid swirling rumors regarding Kirbyville High School Principal Holly Farias future in her position. To voice their discontent regarding the potential that she would not return to that role, a group of students walked 1 mile from their campus to the district office. But a couple hours after the demonstration ended, Kirbyville Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Georgia Sayers assured students across three lunch periods that the district did not terminate Farias, who was absent from campus on Tuesday. Sayers also later told The Enterprise that the principal would remain in the same capacity even though the duration of her absence was undetermined as of Tuesday afternoon. However, thats been called into question by at least one Kirbyville High School parent who said she spoke with Sayers in-person just before students arrived at the districts administrative building, Daisy Mordente said Sayers told her that the district demoted Farias, and the Kirbyville High School principals future had all been decided. (Sayers) was very clear that (Farias) would not be coming back as the principal, Mordente told The Enterprise. It was from my understanding when I left the (district office), it was a decision that was made by the school board not the superintendent(Sayers) put her arms up and said But I didnt say that When The Enterprise reached out to Sayers to clarify whether Farias would remain on campus as principal she said, I am not at liberty to discuss personnel issues. Kirbyville CISD Board President Chad George confirmed to The Enterprise late Tuesday evening that Farias has been placed on administrative leave. He referred further questions to Sayers. Mordente said she drove to see Sayers after running into the start of the walkout. She was on campus dropping off paperwork for her two children. When front office personnell couldnt give her a clear answer as to why the students were walking out, she went to speak with Sayers in person. Kirbyville High School students marched all the way down to Main Street, where the district office is located, and spent about 30 minutes chanting their support of Farias outside of the district building. Sayers eventually came outside, and told students she would address Farias future during lunch before telling the students to return to campus. Kirbyville Police Chief Paul Brister said the Kirbyville High School resource officer initially notified him Tuesday morning that students were walking off campus. Brister and other officers blocked off streets to ensure the students would be safe walking to and from the district building. Mordente, whose kids participated in the walkout, said the walkout was caused by an 8 a.m. assembly involving the entire high school student body. During that assembly, she said, students were told that Farias would no longer be on campus and the time limit is uncertain. Students were told that (Farias) was not going to be there and many of them were upset. They went outside and ended up trying to come down to the central office to speak their peace, Sayers said.A lot of the kids assumed it meant (Farias) was terminated. She is not terminated. I think this is where all the passion came from. Sayers, however, declined to comment whether the district put Farias on administrative leave and said, I cannot comment on personnel issues. When asked if Farias would be back next school year, Sayers said, (Farias) has a contract with the district until next year and fully expects Farias to see out the end of the contract. The Enterprise reached out to Farias, but she declined to comment on the situation. The Kirbyville CISD board will hold a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. May 28 at Kirbyville High School. jorge.ramos@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/byjorgeramos More than a few employers think that overly generous federal unemployment benefits are discouraging laid-off employees from returning to work. A goodly number of workers retort that if those employers would increase their paltry wages, theyd have all the workers they need. Its a burning issue right now in the American economy, and the state of Montana is shifting the debate in a dramatic way. Montana Gov. Gov. Greg Gianforte announced this week that he will soon be cutting off those $300 per week federal unemployment benefits, which come on top of each states own payments, well before they would expire. He is even offering Return to Work Bonuses as a favor to employers in Big Sky Country, and its not petty cash. Its $1,200 for laid-off workers who take a job now and remain employed for at least four weeks. Incidentally, Gianforte is using federal funds for this special incentive. Gianforte believes he can do something this bold because Montanas unemployment rate has fallen to 3.8%. Thats a pretty amazing number, much better than the national average of 6% which if you think about it, is pretty good too just a few months after Covid vaccinations began. In Gianfortes opinion, the vast expansion of federal unemployment benefits is now doing more harm than good, so hes saying thanks but no thanks to Uncle Sam. All that makes sense, but Gianforte is not ending the federal benefits until June 27 when everything he is saying seems to justify pulling the plug now. Still, its pretty rare when states say no to free money from the feds. And of course the key word in that sentence is in quotation marks because there truly is no free lunch. Everything costs something, or has costs that may not be readily apparent. While both political parties have their strengths and weaknesses, it goes without saying here that Gianforte and the Montana Legislature are very Republican. In fact, the U.S. Labor Department, currently run by Democrats appointed by President Joe Biden, said it was disappointed (huh?) by Montanas decision. As a department spokesman put it, Weve seen no evidence of lower rates of workers re-entering the workforce or higher rates of businesses worried about employee availability. Again, maybe so, maybe not. You could point to examples bolstering either argument, but also consider this: Even if your combination of state and federal unemployment benefits doesnt quite equal your working wages, wouldnt you be more inclined to stay at home if you still made about 80% of what you did before? Many people would, and theyre not necessarily being lazy. Its just human nature to take the easy option sometimes, and many laid-off people feel they will be going back to work soon for a long stretch. More Information States with lowest jobless rates (as of the month of March) Nebraska - 2.9% South Dakota - 2.9% Utah - 2.9% Vermont - 2.9% New Hampshire - 3.0% Idaho - 3.2% Iowa - 3.7% Kansas - 3.7% Alabama - 3.8% Montana - 3.8% Wisconsin - 3.8% Indiana - 3.9% All other states above 4% Texas - 6.9% Louisiana - 7.3% Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics See More Collapse For now, in the weirdness of this pandemic, a lot of people just want to get by on the state and federal money and ride the wave as long as they can. And if the combination of state and federal unemployment benefits is even higher than your previous take-home pay, it takes a lot of resolve to walk away from that and return to the job. If that job youre going back to is not particularly great, as many entry-level positions are, thats another reason to be in no hurry to rush back. Standard unemployment benefits avoid that temptation because in most states they are less and sometimes quite less than your working salary. But elections have consequences, and the Democrats who control Congress and the White House are more inclined to be generous in this regard than Republicans, who occasionally act as if they believe in fiscal discipline (usually when the president is a Democrat). So far Montana is the only state that will forgo federal benefits, but it will be interesting to see if other red states copy its move. The extra $300 per week in federal benefits last until Sept. 6, which coincides neatly with plans by the less-motivated to enjoy an extended summer vacation since someone else is paying for it. Hey, this was our first pandemic in more than a century, and no one was ready for it. Years from now, well look back on a lot of things we did or didnt do and wonder, What were they thinking? Near the top of that list will be the times when the federal government basically paid people not to work, and millions of pleasantly surprised folks said, Well, if you insist. TTaschinger@BeaumontEnterprise.com Update 9:55 a.m.: Texas DPS has reported that both men have been arrested in Silsbee. Original story: Southeast Texas authorities are looking for two men considered armed and dangerous who escaped from the Tyler County jail late Tuesday night. According to a news release from the Texas Department of Transportation, Blaze Hicks, 29, and Christopher Mobley, 36, were last seen just before 11 p.m. at the jail. Hicks was in jail on charges of murder, aggravated kidnapping with a deadly weapon and unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, according to the release. Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox He has family in the Silsbee area and is 5-feet, 6-inches tall and weighs about 150 lbs with brown hair and blue eyes. Mobley was in jail on charges of assault on a family or household member. He is 6-feet tall and weighs about 200 lbs and has brown hair and eyes. Anyone with information on either of these people should call the Tyler County Sheriffs Office at 409-283-2172 or Crime Stoppers at 936-639-TIPS. Tuesdays Port Arthur ISD Board of Trustees meeting began with the swearing-in of newly elected trustees, including Taylor Getwood, the youngest person ever elected to the board. Incumbents Dianne Brown, Debra Ambroise and Brandon Bartie joinned Getwood for the swearing-in by attorney Melody Carrier. SMYRNA, Del. (AP) A Delaware prison inmate serving a life sentence for murder has charged with killing a convicted child rapist with whom he was sharing a cell. Delaware State Police said John Cameron, 55, was arrested Wednesday at the states maximum-security prison on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder. A trip to the Jefferson County Courthouse will no longer require a mask. The county commissioners on Tuesday morning voted unanimously to rescind the courthouse reopening plan, which set forth the mask requirement and others in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19. Of course, CDC says if you have both doses of the vaccine, you dont need to wear a mask, which would be at least 60% of our employees, I think, Judge Jeff Branick said before the vote was taken. The guidelines originally were put in place May 19, 2020, and also included social distancing and other mandatory precautions. Related: Local leaders look to further relax COVID-19 precautions While the requirements have been lifted in the approved order, Branick acknowledged that there still is a present risk of COVID-19s spread. As a result, residents still are encouraged to follow good hygiene and social-distancing practices. The vote comes some two months after the city of Beaumont dropped a similar masking requirement. At the time, the Beaumont City Council voted against making them a requirement and instead opted to highly recommend residents wear masks. New cases of COVID-19 remain low across Southeast Texas. Top hits: Get Beaumont Enterprise stories sent directly to your inbox As of Friday, the most recent day local public health expert Dr. Praphul Joshi released his semi-regular coronavirus report, the county had seen 112 new cases over the preceding seven days. Of those, only two were reported in county residents who are 65 years or older, which he said is clearly reflective of the vaccines efficacy. In early to mid-January, it wasnt uncommon for the county to average 112 new cases in one day. Nearly 60% of the countys population in that age range is fully vaccinated. Nearly 30% of all the countys residents 16 and older have been fully vaccinated. kaitlin.bain@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/KaitlinBain Kim Brent/Beaumont Enterprise After some 50 Kirbyville High School students walked out of class Tuesday morning in support of Principal Holly Farias, rumors have swirled regarding her future with the district. Students say they were first told that she would not be back on campus and later that she had not been terminated, while a parent said she was told Farias would not be back as principal. Update 10:05 p.m.: Kirbyville CISD Board President Chad George confirmed that Kirbyville High School Principal Holly Farias has been placed on administrative leave. He referred further questions to District Superintendent Georgia Sayers. Original story: A Tuesday morning walkout led by about 50 Kirbyville High School students over the uncertain future of their principal has left more questions than answers The demonstration came amid swirling rumors regarding Kirbyville High School Principal Holly Farias future in her position. To voice their discontent regarding the potential that she would not return to that role, a group of students walked 1 mile from their campus to the district office. But a couple hours after the demonstration ended, Kirbyville Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Georgia Sayers assured students across three lunch periods that the district did not terminate Farias, who was absent from campus on Tuesday. Sayers also later told The Enterprise that the principal would remain in the same capacity even though the duration of her absence was undetermined as of Tuesday afternoon. However, thats been called into question by at least one Kirbyville High School parent who said she spoke with Sayers in-person just before students arrived at the districts administrative building. Read more here. Local featured DA hires district judge candidate A candidate to become the next magisterial district judge in Bedford was hired to serve another role in the Bedford County district attorneys office. The Bedford County commissioners on Tuesday approved the hiring of Kevin R. Diehl of Bedford to serve as the Multidisciplinary Investigation Team (MDIT) coordinator at an annual salary of $28,000. The move was based on the recommendation of District Attorney Lesley Childers-Potts. The role is involved in coordinating responses to child abuse cases. Diehl is the lone candidate appearing on either ballot in this springs primary election to become the next judge of Magisterial District Office 57-3-02, although another candidate, Jodi Tew of Bedford, has announced a write-in campaign. If elected, Diehl would take office next year. Diehl in February retired from his job as a Bedford County probation officer, a role he had since 2004, to announce his candidacy for the judge seat. Court appointed employees, including probation officers, are prohibited from campaigning for political office. Prior to being a probation officer, Diehl worked as a systems advocate in the district attorneys office from 2001 to 2004. Diehls hiring was retroactive to April 19. He replaces Nancy Diehl, whos tenure in the office ended in April. The commissioners also approved the end of employment of Assistant District Attorney Deanne Paul, effective April 27. Paul, a former assistant district attorney in Blair County, was hired in August. Childers-Potts did not immediately respond to a message for additional comment Tuesday afternoon regarding the personnel changes in the office. Other personnel moves approved by the commissioners included naming Lisa Conklin as a permanent deputy warden at the Bedford County Correctional Facility, and Russell Suder as captain of security. Waterline contract awarded In separate action, the commissioners approved the construction contract for Phase V of the Hyndman Borough Waterline Replacement project. Greenland Construction of Clearfield was awarded the contract for $240,000 following the bidding process. The county will use Community Development Block Grant funds from 2018 and 2019 to pay for the work. Terry Stacey, CDBG administrator, said the work will replace about 1,520 feet of waterline in the borough. The commissioners also were updated on three ongoing recreational trail projects in the county. Jim Edwards, a member of the Bedford Fulton Recreation Authority, said work on the Old PA Pike Trail along the stretch of abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike in Breezewood is about to begin. Right now, the first part is to make everything safe so you dont fall in a hole when you walk down the trail, Edwards said. The authority hopes to develop the existing 8.5-mile trail into a paved pathway for biking and hiking, with lighting and restoration of the two tunnels, which often are held as one of the main attractions of the trail. Brian Sell, representing the Shuster Way Heritage Trail, told the board that the group leading efforts on the trail is hoping to get permitting done for the next phase of the trail this year, with construction possibly to follow in 2022. The next phase of the trail project is to extended it from Fort Bedford Park north to Old Bedford Village. Sell said the hope is for the trail to eventually continue from the village to Weber Lane in Bedford Township. The 1.75 mile trail currently connects the Omni Bedford Springs Resort to Bedfords downtown district. Sell said between 10,000 to 15,000 people used the trail dating back to last year. Donald Hedge updated the board on the rail trail that begins in Tatesville and continues into the Broad Top region. Hedge said Broad Top Township is in talks with four property owners to secure the final 4,200 feet of the about 13.5 mile trail. Hedge said the township hopes the trail will eventually span to Warriors Path State Park, and potentially connect into the Raystown Lake trail system. Theres a pretty bright future if we can pull this together, Hedge said. Commissioner Barry Dallara said the countys growing trail system is among the best in the region. We certainly dont take a back seat to anyone, he said. Prior to the start of the commissioners meeting, the county election board, which is made up of the three commissioners, met and approved pay increases for Election Day poll workers. Precinct poll workers will be paid as follows: judge, $140 plus $20 to return the ballot box; majority and minority inspectors, $135 plus $20 for the box; clerks, $130; constables, $130; students $75. Poll workers also get paid $10 per hour for training, as well as mileage. After an incredibly difficult year in which the pandemic kept us all close to home and staying apart, lifesaving vaccines are bringing us back to life and heading toward a summer of fun and venturing out, Pritzker said during a news conference at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. Philippine Coast Guard personnel aboard their ship, the BRP Cabra, monitor Chinese vessels anchored at Sabina Shoal, in the South China Sea, May 5, 2021. Manila said Wednesday that patrols had spotted nearly 300 Chinese militia ships in and around its exclusive economic zone earlier this week, amid bilateral tensions over the lingering presence of such vessels in Philippine-claimed waters of the South China Sea. Manila has been lodging daily protests with Beijing since last month after China refused to remove the more than 200 ships which, the Philippines said, were spotted in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in March. A report about the latest sightings in the Spratly Islands was submitted to the relevant agencies for potential further diplomatic action, Philippine National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said. In its latest maritime patrol on 9 May 2021, the Area Task Force-West reported the presence of a total of two hundred eighty-seven (287) Chinese Maritime Militia (CMM) vessels scattered over various features of the municipality of Kalayaan, both within and outside the EEZ of the Philippines, Esperon said in a statement Wednesday. The Kalayaan municipality is a chain of islets and reefs that the Philippines administers as part of its southwestern Palawan province. Esperon said bigger groups of CMMs were seen at some Chinese-built artificial islands, while others were seen near islands occupied by the Philippines. On May 9, Philippine patrols had spotted two Chinese Houbei-class missile warships at Mischief Reef, and three other warships at Fiery Cross Reef, he said. China has turned both reefs into artificial islands with harbors for its vessels. The patrols also found four China Coast Guard ships at Scarborough Shoal, and one each at Second Thomas Shoal and off Thitu Island, Esperon said. Thitu called Pag-asa Island by the Philippines hosts a small civilian community and a marine detachment. Earlier this week, Philippine armed forces chief Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said the military planned to ask President Rodrigo Duterte for funds to build a logistical hub on Thitu. Our objective is to drive away Chinese maritime militia and other Chinese vessels from our exclusive economic zone, Sobejana told CNN Philippines on Monday. Last month, Sobejana said the Philippines was considering building structures in Manila-claimed areas in the South China Sea. He had accused China of doing the same, despite a 2002 agreement barring new or expanded construction in disputed waters. 34 Chinese vessels still at Whitsun Reef Meanwhile, Manilas patrols also spotted Chinese fishing boats and a small number of Vietnamese ones, officials said. Between May 3 and May 10, Philippine patrols observed two Chinese vessels harvesting shells inside the lagoon at Scarborough Shoal, in contravention of Beijings unilateral fishing ban supposedly in effect from May 1 to August 16, Esperon noted. In 2012, the Chinese seized Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground within the Philippine EEZ, after a two-month standoff with the Philippine Navy. The Philippine government continues to strengthen its presence in the WPS [West Philippine Sea] with a view towards law enforcement, deterrence of illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing (IUUF), and protection of the welfare and safety of our fisherfolk, said Esperon, who is also head of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea. The latter are encouraged to sail and fish in the WPS. The West Philippine Sea is Manilas designation for territory it claims in the South China Sea. The task force will continue to assert our territorial and sovereign rights as upheld by the 2016 arbitral ruling, Esperon said. A July 2016 international arbitral award declared the Philippines claim to its EEZ in the South China Sea valid over Chinas sweeping territorial claims in the maritime region. The Philippines went to an arbitral court after China refused to with its vessels from Scarborough Shoal. Beijing has refused to recognize the award. Esperon said that 34 Chinese vessels were still at Whitsun Reef, where Manilas discovery of 240 such boats in March resulted in the latest spat with Beijing. Whitsun is located within the Philippine EEZ, and Beijing also claims the reef in the Spratly Islands as part of its South China Sea territory. Meanwhile, Philippine Coast Guard ships, backed by vessels from the fisheries bureau, drove out three suspected Chinese militia vessels at Sabina Shoal on May 7-8, according to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS). A Chinese coast guard ship illegally shadowed and challenged vessels of the Philippine coast guard and the fisheries bureau on May 4, the NTF-WPS said. This [May 4] incident, along with the continued illegal incursions of foreign vessels sighted near Philippine-held islands have been submitted to relevant agencies for possible diplomatic actions, said Esperon. The Philippines, he said, shall not yield an inch of our territory. The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment on Esperons statements. A national tragedy The controversy over the presence of Chinese ships in the Philippine EEZ has led to criticism of Dutertes alleged softness toward China, despite territorial disputes. The president had recently defended his stance, saying his government owed a debt of gratitude to Beijing for supplying the country with COVID-19 vaccines amid a global supply crunch. Then last week, he said it would be impossible to compel Beijing to respect the arbitral award, and called it just a piece of paper that he would throw in a wastebasket. Dutertes attitude toward Beijing is a national tragedy, Albert del Rosario, who was the countrys top diplomat when Manila took China to court, said last week. Grand larceny is how Antonio Carpio, a former supreme court justice who helped argue and win the South China Sea case, described Dutertes statement on the arbitral award. Six Asian governments Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam have territorial claims or maritime boundaries in the South China Sea, in addition to Beijings sweeping claims in the waterway. While Indonesia does not regard itself as party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesias EEZ. Evacuees break their fast during dusk at a temporary shelter in Datu Paglas, a town in Maguindanao province, southern Philippines, May 12, 2021. Dozens of families have sought shelter here after BIFF militants attacked the town at the weekend. Philippine government forces killed five suspected members of a Filipino militant group with links to Islamic State extremists in new clashes in the south, officials said Wednesday, as people in the largely Muslim region prepared to end their holy month of fasting. Government troops were conducting a dawn patrol on Wednesday near Datu Paglas, a remote town in Maguindanao province, when they encountered an undetermined number of Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), said Lt. Col. John Paul Baldomar, a local spokesman for the Philippine Army. There was a running gunbattle that followed. We have no casualties, Baldomar told BenarNews. The troops recovered four dead bodies belonging to the extremist group, one high-powered firearm and other war materials. The clash occurred a day after President Rodrigo Duterte met with troops in the south as well as officials of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), as he urged them to do more to crush the BIFF and other allied militant groups. While Duterte was delivering his exhortations to the military on Tuesday, however, troops during a separate patrol clashed with another group of militants, killing one suspect identified as Kopang Sahak, the military said. Sahak was a sub-leader of the Daulah Islamiyah-Maguid Group operating in the remote area of Dapiawan, a sparsely populated village also in Maguindanao, officials said. Daulah Islamiyah is the local name for Islamic State (IS). The military had dismissed the Maguid group as being composed mostly of fringe militants who were engaged in banditry and other crimes, such as extortion. The BIFF is divided into several factions, one of which has also pledged allegiance to IS while the others are focused on their separatist ideology, officials say. BIFF is an offshoot of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which ended a decades-long separatist insurgency when it signed a peace deal with Manila in 2014. The MILF now controls the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. We continue to mount our offensives to neutralize the remaining members of the Daulah Islamiyah-Maguid Group in the area, Army Maj. Gen. Juvymax Uy, commander of the Joint Task Force Central. Since January this year, 11 Daulah Islamiyah militants have been killed during a series of military operations in the region, he said. The latest skirmishes took place as Filipino Muslims were getting ready to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan. This year, the holiday falls on Thursday in the Philippines. In his comments on Tuesday, Duterte called on the BARMM to help rein-in the BIFF or, he warned, the military would launch an all-out war against the militants. I am begging you to help me because otherwise, if I give the order for an all-out offensive, it will be bloody and it will be sad. I dont want that, Duterte said during a surprise visit to the region. On May 8, dozens of BIFF gunmen occupied a town market in Datu Paglas for six hours before government troops were able to retake the town after a gunbattle. No one was reported injured on either side, however. But, as of Wednesday, dozens of local families were still sheltering at temporary evacuation site. In 2019, BIFF was blamed for a series of bomb attacks, including on a town market and at a restaurant in the town of Isulan that injured eight and 18 respectively. This effort will raise donations to help Central Oregons creative artists musicians, visual artists, performers and creative workers by offering grants and a platform to bring attention to the talent that needs help to continue thriving in this community throughout the pandemic and beyond. More Info Among those welcoming the news: Hamilton playwright and son of Puerto Ricans, Lin-Manuel Miranda. In a statement, he called the fellowship an important means of supporting Puerto Rican artists in their journey to tell more stories. This collaboration to amplify the work and voices of these creators, both in Puerto Rico and across the U.S. diaspora, will further enrich and enhance the literary experience for all of us. * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. This year, NatureWatch welcomes reports of the first sightings of ruby-throated hummingbirds with the number seen, date, location and your name. Please email Naturewatch41@gmail.com. Francesca Paris is The Eagle's data and public records reporter. She was previously the North Adams reporter. A California native and Williams College alumna, she has worked at NPR in Washington, D.C. and WBUR in Boston. Find her on Twitter at @fparises. My heart breaks. My country is at war, Gadot posted in a statement on Twitter on Wednesday. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free and safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days. Amanda Burke covers Pittsfield City Hall for The Berkshire Eagle. An Ithaca, New York native, she previously worked at The Herald News of Fall River and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise. Find her on Twitter at @amandaburkec. Investigations editor Larry Parnass, investigations editor, joined The Eagle in 2016 from the Daily Hampshire Gazette, where he was editor in chief. His freelance work has appeared in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Hartford Courant and CommonWealth Magazine. Danielle Klebes paints a mural on a wall on Marshall Street in North Adams as part of the O+ Festival in 2019. Two local artists have been selected to create "selfie" murals in the city's cultural district. The murals will be installed in June. President Joe Biden, left, hosts a virtual meeting Tuesday with a group of governors, including Gov. Charlie Baker, about vaccination efforts in their states. The administration of Gov. Charlie Baker has been reaching out to pediatricians to ensure they play a role in providing shots to those between the ages of 12 and 15. Boyertown Junior Womans Club members present check in the amount of $8,200 to Boyertown Community Library. From left to right: Debbie Brumbach, BJWC member; Bridgit Petrauskas, BJWC Vice President; Susan Lopez, Boyertown Community Library Director; Judy Wetzel, BJWC President. Pa. says cameras are slowing down drivers in work zones, including Interstate 78 and Route 61 in Berks County The trauma of 2020 in which Black Americans saw continual images of police violence including the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and the protests and conflicts that followed, rates of stress, depression and anxiety rose in many communities and for individuals as well. As a direct result, Black Americans now are seeking mental health therapy at increased rates, experts observe. According to The New York Times, despite past skepticism and hesitancy to seek therapy for mental health problems, Black people are changing long held attitudes about getting treatment. Weve seen everything that the nation has seen from afar, from folks in civil unrest and devastation, despair, Jamil Stamschror-Lott, who co-founded Creative Kuponya, an art-based therapy facility in Minneapolis with his wife Sara, told the Times. He said the events of the past year have left a great deal of pain and trauma. Mistrust of therapeutic treatment among African Americans, according to researchers, is rooted in historical mistreatment of the population by the medical establishment. The group is also more likely to be misdiagnosed than others and health care services in many Black communities have been of lower quality. RELATED: Lizzo Talks Mental Health In A TikTok Video But now, there seems to be a change in how Black people view seeking mental health treatment. I think people are starting to see therapy for exactly what its always been, which is more of an insight, building, more of an opportunity to see things in a different perspective, reframing, Dr. Douglas E. Lewis Jr., a clinical and forensic psychiatrist in Decatur, Ga., told the Times. Its something that everyone could benefit from, not just people who may be diagnosed with a severe persistent mental illness. He added that many African Americans are going through what he called a shared trauma after seeing consistent media coverage of Blacks experiencing death and injury at the hands of law enforcement, which gives way to more anxiety and mental stress. Were being inundated with these things repeatedly, Lewis said, and what I think increases and compounds these issues is that Black Americans in the United States already experience difficulties that seem to be linked to race already in their daily lives. Safe spaces for African Americans to discuss what they are dealing with are also beginning to open up. Str8 Mental, a monthly virtual group targeted at Black men to help them deal with their issues and is led by Black therapists is one of them. Oftentimes as Black men, because we have not been taught to open up and discuss what were dealing with, we often think were dealing with those things alone, Brad Edwards, a community organizer for Dear Fathers, the platform where Str8 Mental is found, told the Times. These guys are really forming bonds. Its purely strangers coming together, being an open vulnerable safe space and pouring into each other. Public figures are also making efforts to encourage seeking therapy among Black people. Actress Taraji P. Henson announced last October the launch of a Facebook Watch show focused on mental health in the Black community. She created the Boris Lawrence Foundation in 2018 to help achieve better mental health among African Americans. Im looking forward to bringing this new talk series to Facebook Watch, where I can continue to create conversation around an issue that is near and dear to my heart, Henson said when she announced the show. Lewis said it is good that more attention is being paid to improving mental health in the Black community, but more work is needed. We should all be working toward maintaining our mental health, said Lewis, particularly when were facing increased visibility of police aggression seemingly without any justice. Please click here to check out these resources and guides for mental health and therapy for your own use. Two elementary schools in Oklahoma are claiming that Black Lives Matter is a political statement, and therefore, against their dress code. The New York Times reports that two Black boys were removed from their classrooms at Charles Elementary and Will Rogers Elementary in Ardmore, Okla., after being sent to school by their mother, Jordan Herbert, last Tuesday (May 4) wearing matching Black Lives Matter tees. Herbert told the newspaper her sons, Bentlee, 8, and Rodney Herbert, 5, were taken out of their classrooms because the shirts violated a political expression dress code rule the schools have. Herbert claims, however, that she had previously spoken to Kim Holland, superintendent of the Ardmore School District, regarding the shirts when the principal of Bentlees school had told her to speak to him regarding the schools dress code. He told me when the George Floyd case blew up that politics will not be allowed at school, Herbert said on Friday, referring to Holland. I told him, once again, a Black Lives Matter T-shirt is not politics. RELATED: Student Involved In Viral Racist TikTok Video Finds Religion After Getting Expelled Additionally, during an interview with the Daily Ardmoreite, Holland said, Its our interpretation of not creating a disturbance in school, then subsequently implying that Donald Trumps presidency is the opposite of the slogan Black Lives Matter. I dont want my kids wearing MAGA hats or Trump shirts to school either because it just creates, in this emotionally charged environment, anxiety and issues that I dont want our kids to deal with, Holland said. Most of it has not been an issue until this lady here has been angry about it. I wish she werent so upset. According to the dress code outlined in the districts Elementary Student Handbook, there is no mention of politics, only sayings or logos on shirts or tops that should be in good taste and school appropriate. According to the Times, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma argues that banning the shirts is a violation of the boys First Amendment rights. In a letter obtained by the newspaper, if the school district does not reverse its policy and allow students to wear Black Lives Matter clothing, it must be prepared to prove in federal court how wearing the garments create a substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities, the ACLU said. Anything less than that would be found to be a violation of the students First Amendment rights. Despite the spotlight this has brought on herself, her sons and the school district, Herbert says it wasnt her intention to be disruptive and create an attention-seeking ordeal. I dont see Black Lives Matter disrupting anything, Herbert said to the Times. Ohana comes down to the generosity of the man himself, the Frames frontman Glen Hansard tells Variety. Everybody on the bill, Ed chose. One of the things I love about Ed, and I feel similarly about the way I operate, is that youd be surprised what music a guy in a worldwide successful rock band listens to. It wouldnt necessarily be the music you think. Going along to Ohana illustrated how broad Eds taste is, and the cross-section of music that he was picking out of the sky. It was great for me to be involved. I felt very welcomed. And I feel welcomed by Pearl Jam fans, which I dont take for granted. It isnt lost on me. If you want to visit with the Obama family, they have one simple rule: You must be vaccinated for COVID-19. During an interview with Gayle King in an interview that aired Monday (May 10) on CBS This Morning, former First Lady Michelle Obama explained her reasoning behind the rule. "You wanna hang out with us? Get your vaccine," Mrs. Obama said to King. "Get all of it. Finish it up. And then we can talk. So I urge everybody out there within the sound of our voices, please, please get the vaccine. It's time. RELATED: Barack Obamas Sweet Message To Michelle Obama Is Giving Us All The Feels On Mothers Day When King responded by saying some Americans are "scared" or simply refuse to get the coronavirus vaccine, Obama urged them to consider the research and science behind the vaccines safeness. "All I can say is that I have tried to live a life where I don't lie to people," Obama, who received her shot in March, said. "And the science behind a vaccine is the same science that's behind aspirin and insulin." BET.com's THE GLAM GAP is a weekly video series spotlighting Black entrepreneurs and influencers in the beauty, fashion, and lifestyle space. Neishea Lemle is seldom seen without the rings that spell out her nickname, Shay, on her left hand. She does it for two reasons: because people sometimes have trouble pronouncing her full first name (sounds like knee-shay), and because theyve become part of her signature style, which she describes as prissy tomboy chic, with an edge. The celebrity stylist and costume designers 11-year fashion career began with her working in corporate. However, when her friend, Nefertiti Nguru, whod always admired her personal style, began directing a film, she asked Lemle to be the costume designer. That project helped her realize her true calling, and she began assisting more experienced stylists and costume designers. Eventually, she moved to Los Angeles to hone her skills, build contacts, and gain more access to Hollywood projects. Since then, Lemle has styled musicians and actors, including Luke James, Amanda Seales, and Eris Baker of This is Us fame. Shes also worked on shows and movies such as Grown-ish, BlackAF, Empire, and Hidden Figures. However, her most affirming moment so far came when she styled Baker for the 2019 Emmy Awards in an ethereal gown with a headpiece that shed customized herself. That appearance landed Baker on multiple best-dressed lists, catapulting her into the teen style-star stratosphere. It was a very proud moment that made me believe in myself more, like, I can actually do this for real, she says. Lemle is excited to see more Black creatives getting high-profile opportunities and seats at key tables where decisions are made. However, she realizes thats only the beginning. I feel like were getting a little bit of footing, but it could be more, she says. We have to hire more Black people, more Black creatives. We need to support Black entrepreneurs. We need to make sure theres access for Black people to have more opportunities. The style expert also realizes how much talent goes untapped in underserved communities, especially those with predominantly Black populations. Generally, those individuals are shut off from access to internships, mentors, and other conduits that can lead to success in fashion and other creative pursuits. To that end, Lemle hopes to see more resources, scholarships, and enrichment programs made available to them soon. Lemle also believes that brands should hire more diverse creative teams, and that Black creatives need to cast down their buckets, as Booker T. Washington once said. As Black people start creating more of their own content, lets hire our own people. Lets teach them. Lets get them in and train them. With that, more opportunity will arise. More Black people in decision-making positions can only benefit the fashion industry as a whole, according to Lemle. Black culture has always been at the forefront of fashion... Everything that we start, you see it trend in high fashion magazines or in white spaces. When they say its great, then it becomes a thing. But weve been doing it for years. To prove her point, she recalls the story of style innovator and visionary designer, Dapper Dan, who was once shunned by luxury designer houses, including Gucci, but who now has a Harlem-based atelier, in partnership with that brand. Lemle also notes that certain trends, such as bamboo earrings, which were once considered ghetto or low class, are now on designer runways, on the pages of high fashion magazines, and are embraced by celebrities of all races. It cant be denied that Black style and hip-hop culture influence the masses. The clothes, shoes, and accessories now seen in stores would likely be of a totally different flavor were it not for the inspiration of Black style. For that reason, Lemle says, I think black culture is fashion. Follow Neishea Lemle on Instagram @neishea and watch THE GLAM GAP episode below! Written by BET Staff News Distanced trial opens in BG manslaughter case Tracy Boyd Jury selection began Tuesday in the case of a Bowling Green man who prosecutors are attempting to hold responsible for two overdose deaths. Justice is being balanced with safety in the courtroom jury trials were allowed to resume only last week after the COVID-19 pandemic brought them to a halt last year. The Kentucky Supreme Court issued an order in February allowing jury trials to resume May 1. A significant portion of the states population has been vaccinated against COVID, but jurors and courtroom personnel are expected to abide by restrictions mandated by the states high court. Potential jurors for the trial of Tracy Boyd have been divided into smaller groups during the jury selection process. Altogether, four groups of prospective jurors were brought separately into the courtroom over the course of Tuesdays proceedings to be questioned by Warren County Assistant Commonwealths Attorney Adam Turner and Boyds attorney, Alan Simpson. The states high court is requiring 6 feet of distance between all jurors in the courtroom at all times, and masks have been mandated as well. In-person viewing by the general public is also subject to social distancing and capacity limitations set out in other orders issued by the state court. Two weeks have been set aside for Boyds trial on two counts of second-degree manslaughter, three counts of first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance and a count of engaging in organized crime. Boyd is charged in the overdose deaths of Joshua Kinkade and Matthew Dobring. Kinkade, 32, was found dead Nov. 22, 2019, at a residence on Parkhurst Drive. Dobring, 38, died two days later in Louisville. Autopsies showed the presence of fentanyl, methamphetamine and other substances in their systems, court records said. A jury is expected to be seated and attorneys opening statements given Wednesday. Boyd was indicted last year by a grand jury on the two manslaughter counts, along with drug trafficking offenses, and three subsequent indictments have added more trafficking charges and the organized crime court. Two co-defendants have already pleaded guilty and are anticipated to testify at the trial. Stephanie Silvano pleaded guilty to a count of reckless homicide and three counts of first-degree possession of a controlled substance. Scott Bernauer pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and first-degree possession of a controlled substance. Silvano and Bernauer admitted guilt in Kinkades death, and both co-defendants await sentencing. Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter @jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com. Call ahead to confirm events. Due to COVID-19, many events have been canceled but hosting organizations might not have updated their entries. Email Blast Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Daily News Headlines & Events Email Blast Would you like to receive a digest of each day's headlines & events from The Daily News by email? Signup today! The Amplifier Headlines & Events Email Blast Would you like to receive a weekly digest of headlines & events from The Amplifier by email? Signup today! Daily News Hosted Events The Daily News is a proud host of community enrichment events. Join our Daily News Events mailing list to learn about the next event we are planning. Sign up now. Manage your lists I was going to stop after season 16, DeGeneres said in the interview. That was going to be my last season and they wanted to sign for four more years and I said Id sign for maybe for one. They were saying there was no way to sign for one. We cant do that with the affiliates and the stations need more of a commitment. So, we [settled] on three more years and I knew that would be my last. That was the plan all along. Spearfish, SD (57783) Today Mainly sunny to start, then a few afternoon clouds. A stray severe thunderstorm is possible. High near 95F. Winds SSW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. Low 51F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. LEWISTON - Two nursing and two social work majors are the initial group of Lewis-Clark State College students to receive scholarships from the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health Scholarship Program, college officials have announced. Abigail Austin, a junior from Greenleaf, Idaho, and Morgan Wood, a sophomore from Cambridge, Idaho, are the two nursing students, while seniors Jarrod Hansen of Sandpoint and Megan Hughes of Coeur dAlene are the social work students who have received $4,000 scholarships for the fall 2021 semester. All four students have perfect 4.0 grade point averages. The Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health is partnering with LC State to award $1 million in scholarships over the next 10 years to students from Idaho majoring in health care-related fields. The foundation will give LC State $100,000 a year over the next 10 years to help address the shortage of health care professionals working in rural areas of Idaho and increase the number of first generation college graduates. These scholarships will make a tremendous impact on these students, and Im confident that these students will make a tremendous impact in their future health care careers, LC State President Cynthia Pemberton said. We are sincerely grateful for the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Healths investment in our students. Austin is on schedule to graduate in December 2022 with a BSN degree. In the summer months, she works at Grace Assisted Living & Memory Care in Caldwell and also as a camp counselor for Camp Rainbow Gold that provides special camps and activities for pediatric oncology patients and their families. Austin, herself, was diagnosed with leukemia as a young child. The funds from this scholarship will enable me to focus more of my time and energy on the important aspects of being a student, like studying and learning, Austin said. I am super excited and honored to have been chosen for the 2021-2022 Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation scholarship award! Thank you so much for providing me with financial support; your recognition is very much valued and appreciated. Wood is wrapping up her freshman year and plans to follow her mother, who is also a nurse and inspired Wood to pursue a nursing degree. Wood said she wants to be able to give back to small communities like the one she grew up in. She said she isnt sure what she wants to specialize in, but is interested in learning more about pediatrics and working in the emergency room. My main goal in life is to help people, and that is why I am on my way to becoming a future nurse, Wood said. I am filled with joy and excitement with this news (of the scholarship) and can't express how thankful I am for this opportunity. By supporting students like me, you are allowing us to achieve our dreams and earn a degree. I hope someday that I can give back to others and help them achieve their dreams the way you did for me. Hansen is a 35-year-old military veteran and is married with two children. He enters his final year with his future sights set on obtaining a graduate degree in social work. His goal is to counsel and mentor couples and families in a therapeutic mental health setting. Although the GI Bill and VA benefits are helpful, they are not enough to appropriately support a family of four living in Sandpoint with only one parent working and the other attending school, Hansen said. This scholarship has given us some much-needed peace of mind, especially in these times of dealing with COVID. These funds will be used wisely and with loving and caring intentions. They will help me pursue my goal of helping struggling families seek peace, safety, and equality. Hughes is a single mother with a 14-month-old daughter. She says she has a passion for helping to create healthy families and relationships. This extra help will take significant financial worries off my plate, Hughes said. It will also help me afford childcare for my daughter so that I can I perform well in my internship responsibilities. Before I found out about this award, I didn't know how I was going to accomplish my senior year. Now, I know that I can do it. That is what this scholarship means to me. I am so grateful for the support in completing my bachelor's in social work, and I am so excited to give back to my community when I finish school. To meet the Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health Scholarship eligibility requirements, a student must be an Idaho resident, have at least a sophomore class standing (completed 26 or more credits) and be majoring in one of LC States health care programs, which are nursing, radiographic science, kinesiology, social work or medical assistant. An accumulative college grade point average of 3.25 or better also is required for the $4,000 annual scholarship. Students would be eligible for an extra $1,000 if they maintain a 3.75 GPA or better. Priority to receive the scholarship is based on financial need. The scholarship is renewable for up to three years as long as the student continues to meet the requirements. LC States Financial Aid Office oversees the screening of the applicant, rewarding of scholarship money, and reviewing eligibility at the start of each semester. The Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health is a nonprofit private foundation established by Blue Cross of Idaho in 2001. The Foundation is dedicated to addressing the root causes to some of Idahos most pressing health issues. Its work focuses on communities, education and health care. **UPDATE 5/17/21** The woman critically injured in last Tuesday's nine-car crash on Interstate 84 has died. Additional information on the deceased will be released by the Ada County Coroner's Office. This incident remains under investigation by the Idaho State Police. BOISE - Idaho State Police Troopers are continue to investigate a crash that involved nine vehicles and blocked or delayed traffic on Interstate 84 for much of the day on Tuesday, May 11 in Boise. At this time, one Boise woman remains hospitalized with what are reported to be life-threatening injuries. Three others were transported to nearby hospitals with reportedly minor injuries. The investigation into the cause of the crash remains ongoing. What Happened: On Tuesday, May 11 at approximately 7:34am, Idaho State Police Troopers were dispatched to a report of a multi-vehicle crash including a semi on fire on Interstate 84 near the Cloverdale overpass. When Troopers arrived, they found a semi hauling 65,000 pounds of lumber on fire in the median, with debris and wreckage from the crash blocking nearly all eight lanes of travel in both east and westbound lanes. At this time, it appears the incident began in the eastbound lanes when the driver of a red Toyota Tacoma pickup, a 28-year-old man from Parma, made a sudden lane change, hitting the semi loaded with lumber. That semi sideswiped an eastbound passenger vehicle before crashing through the concrete median, catching fire, and hitting a westbound semi that jack-knifed. Investigators believe flying debris from one of the semis hit the roof of a westbound Toyota Camry. The impact appears to have knocked the driver unconscious, but her vehicle continued forward. The Camry was located .45 miles past the initial crash scene still in a westbound lane. The driver, a 27-year-old woman from Boise, was taken to the hospital with what are reportedly life-threatening injuries. Three others were transported to nearby hospitals with what are reported to be minor injuries; the driver of the red Toyota Tacoma, a 28-year-old man from Boise who was the driver of the semi hauling lumber, and a 40-year-old man from Nampa who was driving an eastbound white Toyota Tacoma pickup. In all, the chain reaction from the initial impact involved six eastbound vehicles and three westbound vehicles including a semi in each direction. Traffic Impact: Clearing vehicles from the scene remains ongoing. At this time (3:25pm), two lanes of travel remain blocked in each direction. All but one lane of travel each way was blocked for most of the morning and all eastbound lanes were blocked for more than an hour before crews were able to open two lanes in each direction shortly after noon. The blockage caused traffic back-ups for miles both east and westbound. Delays continue at this hour while road crews work clear debris and repair the roadway. Multi-Agency Response: Idaho State Police would like to thank the other emergency response agencies who immediately came to the scene to assist those involved and aid in the investigation and scene management. Troopers' gratitude goes out to Boise and Meridian Police, the Ada County Sheriff's Department, Ada County EMS, Boise and Meridian Fire, the Idaho Transportation Department, and responding tow companies. This incident remains under active investigation by the Idaho State Police. Multiples, along with its consortium partners, will acquire 100% business of Zydus AH through a slump sale transaction Private equity platform Multiples Alternate Asset Management (Multiples) led consortium, through an SPV controlled by them, have signed a Business Transfer Agreement (BTA) and other Ancillary Agreements to acquire Animal Healthcare Established Markets Undertaking (Zydus AH). The consortium including Multiples, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and RARE Enterprises, is buying the animal health business of Zydus AH focused on India and certain other countries on a going concern basis via a slump sale from Zydus Animal Health and Investments Limited (ZAHL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Cadila Healthcare. The lump sum consideration for the transaction is fixed at Rs 2921 crores on a cash free and debt free basis, subject to certain closing date adjustments and other conditions. Zydus AH is the second largest and one of the fastest growing animal health businesses in India. The business enjoys a leadership position across a wide spectrum of therapeutic and nutritional products for livestock and poultry animal segments. It employs approximately 700 people and has one manufacturing facility in Haridwar. Multiples, along with its consortium partners, will acquire 100% business of Zydus AH through a slump sale transaction. The transaction is subject to closing conditions and receipt of all statutory and other approvals and is expected to be completed within a period of 90 days. Pankaj Patel, Chairman, Cadila Healthcare Ltd., said, Over the last 3 decades Zydus AH has grown to become a pioneer and market leader in the Indian animal health industry. With Multiples and its consortium partners, committed to growing the business, we are sure that Zydus AH will continue to grow and strengthen its position in the industry. The company is ramping up the production of its recently launched CoviPath PT-PCR kits in its Bengaluru facility Thermo Fisher Scientific has pledged $10 million as its contribution to Indias fight against COVID-19. As COVID-19 cases continue to escalate, this support aims to offer cash and urgently needed products to help the country in bringing the health crisis under control. As part of the commitment, the company is directing more than $1 million to non-governmental and nonprofit organizations that are directly serving the people impacted by the pandemic. The remaining $9 million donation is extended in the form of COVID-19 testing products, personal protective equipment, and other critical supplies from across the businesses. In light of the severity of the situation in India, Amit Chopra, managing director, India and South Asia, Thermo Fisher Scientific said, We are deeply concerned with the surge in COVID-19 cases in India. We realize our responsibility goes beyond serving our customers and extends to the actions we take to support our communities. At Thermo Fisher, we are leveraging our partnerships to swiftly mobilize resources to respond to the escalating testing and vaccine production needs in the country .In addition to these, we are partnering with several NGOs and remain steadfast in our commitment to serve our colleagues, customers, and society in India. Furthermore, the company is ramping up the production of its recently launched CoviPath PT-PCR kits in its Bengaluru facility to support the ongoing testing drive in the country. We deeply appreciate the generous support and encouragement from Thermo Fisher Scientific during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their commitment and support of 4.6M VTM tubes will strengthen the system of collection, transportation, and storage of COVID test samples. This will greatly mitigate the pain and suffering of those most impacted, said Mr. Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Government of India. With more than 22 million internet users and over 11 million social media users in Kenya, access to digital data is on the rise in the country that continues to be a technological hub on the African continent. Photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels Focus on the facts, not the fake Social media users in Kenya and South Africa trust science, but still share Covid-19 hoaxes The Covid-19 pandemic has led to widespread disinformation circulating on social media globally. This includes false information about the virus, its origins and possible cures for the disease it causes... Ramping up crisis communication due to Covid How to avert a brand crisis on social media in 48H Industry gurus Victor Dlamini and Mike Stopforth will be delivering a hard-hitting talk at the Nedbank IMC Conference, this year, entitled "How to avert a brand crisis on social media in 48 Hours"... Fintech is filling the financial gap How a year of lockdown reshaped online retail Derek Cikes, commercial director at part-payment platform Payflex, outlines some of the key pandemic-led changes to the retail landscape over the past 365 days... Staying one step ahead How to keep up with digital marketing trends in 2021 With 2020 drawing to a close, it brings the end to one of the most tumultuous and unpredictable years in recent history. People's personal and professional lives have been turned upside down, and the global economic outlook has never looked so uncertain... There has been a growing rise to the dependence on social media for news, a decline of the traditional media, influencer marketing, and brands moving online to reach a wider audience.However, with the plethora of data and information now available online, how can businesses be certain that the data they are accessing is authentic and not fake news? If Kenya, in general, has trust issues when it comes to the information that users want to receive, how can credible SaaS companies help businesses go beyond the data to create actionable change based on genuine insights?Containing a crisis in our digital age is one thing, but seeing how a crisis can cause panic that gives rise to misinformation and fake news is another, and the Covid-19 pandemic proved this throughout 2020. According to the 2020 Misinfodemic Report from Meedan, there has been an increase in false claims linked to Covid-19 in Kenya. When there is a deliberate fabrication of news information that aims to deceive people, one has to then ask: how do we combat this?This is where partnering with a trusted Software as a Service (SaaS) company that provides media monitoring , like Meltwater, will benefit you greatly. Media monitoring plays a vital role in helping to discern between what is fact and what is fake. Social media, for all the benefit that it brings, can also be the fuel that spreads negative news and misinformation. Having the ability to monitor content on news or social media can help businesses identify information that has the potential to be dangerously untrue.Experts within the PR & Communications field would tell you about the great benefits of having media monitoring as a tool for maintaining brand reputation and monitoring misinformation. Much like an unwatched flame, the worst you can do is let fake news spread; thats a direct route to seeing the fires of a widespread story about your business that isnt true. If you are considering a SaaS company that can help you with this, consider Meltwater, who provide the added benefit of delivering email alerts as soon as you are mentioned in the news or on social media. This will give you the upper hand to refute fake news timeously and provide facts promptly.Social media provides a platform for information to spread faster. It was reported that 33.8% of social media users in Kenya have come across misinformation online. As an example, lessons can be learned from past events in understanding the role social media as a communication tool has on a country. A survey found 90% of Kenyans encountered fake news regarding the 2017 elections, and with the upcoming general elections in August 2022, it is even more important for industries to separate the facts from the fake news.There were a number of industries hit hard by Covid-19, such as travel, hospitality, and agriculture. Most prominently, the retail sector was also significantly impacted. With mandatory movement restrictions, the usual trip to the local grocery store wasn't exactly feasible. However, this did give rise to an increase in virtual foot traffic for e-commerce businesses, with the likes of Jumia having the ability to keep up with the increase in demand.For others, on the other hand, the Covid-19 pandemic presented itself as a crisis that required businesses to think fast and act quickly in accelerating their digital transformation efforts while maintaining online customer service. An essential tool that businesses in Kenya can leverage to keep their heads above a crisis is social listening.Given how nationwide and global lockdowns changed not only consumer behaviour but consumer interactions with brands and businesses, analysing the relevant social data from your customers and target market is now even more important to your crisis communication plan. No matter the size of your business or the industry you find yourself in, knowing what your customers say about you on social media is important, and how you engage with them is vital for customer service.As of January 2020, there were 52.06 million mobile connections in Kenya , and this number is expected to increase in 2021. With growth like this in the mobile space in Kenya, financial services firms are sure to take advantage of how technology can fill the financial gap in providing products and services much faster and more personalised to the customer.Kenya has already proven itself to be a top fintech hubspot, thanks to the success of innovations such as phone-based money transfer services. Fintech seems to be a technological enabler for the emerging digital economy we see in Kenya, as we see a continued rise in digital lenders and more fintech companies coming forth to meet consumers needs. However, how is this new digital space being regulated?The challenge in answering this question perhaps lies in understanding that fintechs rapid growth will naturally give rise to new challenges that have not been dealt with before, with the biggest being cyber security and data protection. Fintech presents exciting opportunities but also has its own risks and regulating the emerging innovations from fintech include the protection of both customers and their data.The technological hub that is Kenya is booming, and doing so quickly and if businesses want to see success in the coming year, look towards partnering with software solutions that provide you with the accurate information and insights needed to keep your business ahead of the curve, competition and a crisis. There has never been a better time for businesses to seek collaboration with SaaS companies than now.The overall digital landscape in Kenya has changed, and as one of the most innovative hubs in Africa, how can businesses partner with Saas companies to stay ahead of the curve, and competition?For one, it is important to realise that the outdated systems of the past will definitely get left behind in todays fast paced digital world. From scaling your business to expanding on your ever-evolving needs, only the tools and systems built to meet the demands of today will keep you ahead of the rest while adding value to your business. 2020 showed us how important it is for businesses to be agile and adaptive to changing circumstances, and in 2021, staying one step ahead means being open to transformation that can happen in the blink of a business eye.Meltwater recently acquired leading social media intelligence company, Linkfluence, a French SaaS company that uses artificial intelligence to mine social media for consumer insights. Investments in acquiring some of the top software out there is just one reason why Meltwater is a global leader in media intelligence, and why we are well positioned to help businesses navigate todays digital landscape. Meltwater, a leading global provider of media intelligence and social analytics Software-as-a-Service solutions, has been admitted to trading on Euronext Growth Oslo (ticker code: MWTR). We founded the company because the world is drowning in data and we saw a need for a software that could cut through the noise online and help people stay on top of their competitors, customers, and industry in real time. Twenty years in, we realise that this need is much bigger than we ever dreamt about, said Jrn Lyseggen, founder and Executive Chairman of Meltwater.He started the company in shack number 15 on Tjuvholmen, Oslo in 2001. Today, as the world's first online media monitoring company, Meltwaters algorithms analyse 500 million documents and perform more than 12 trillion searches every day. Meltwater utilises its patented artificial intelligence (AI) system to turn unstructured news and social data into unique insights for approximately 28,000 customers, globally.The company offers a fully integrated offering that cuts across and bridges a variety of use cases such as public relations, communications, marketing, lead generation and customer relations.Meltwaters Norwegian heritage is central to our identity as a company, and so its only fitting that we are listing on Euronext Growth in Norway. On this day, I want to thank the talented teams in each of our 50 offices around the world and our clients, who trust us to be their partners in delivering the insights they need to make better, more informed decisions. Special thanks go to our investors for joining us on this journey and seeing the promise of Meltwater, our people and our technology, said John Box, CEO of Meltwater. Im incredibly excited about the next chapter and listing on Euronext Growth gives us the opportunity to strengthen our position as a global leader and reach the next level in this rapidly growing industry.The total IPO transaction raised gross proceeds amounting to NOK 3,480 million (~ EUR 328 million)1. The admission and issue price of Meltwater shares was set at NOK 43.50 per share. Market capitalisation was NOK 12,644 million (~ EUR 1,193 million) on the day of listing.The offering, which attracted strong interest from Norwegian, Nordic and international high-quality institutional investors, was substantially oversubscribed, Meltwater announced.I am honoured to welcome Meltwater to Oslo Brs and Euronext Growth. At Oslo Brs, we are proud to attract an international tech company such as Meltwater and we take this as a reflection of our position. With today's listing, more than 10 percent of the total market capitalisation at Oslo Brs is within technology, media, and telecoms the highest level ever, said ivind Amundsen, President and CEO of Oslo Brs., IR and Communications, Meltwater+ 47 913 10 458Meltwater provides social and media intelligence. By examining millions of posts each day from social media platforms, blogs and news sites, Meltwater helps companies make better, more informed decisions based on insight from the outside. The company was founded in Oslo, Norway, in 2001 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, with 50 offices across six continents. The company has 1,700 employees and 28,000 corporate customers, including industry leaders in several sectors. Learn more at meltwater.com This communication may contain certain forward-looking statements relating to the business, financial performance and results of the Company and/or the industry in which it operates. Forward-looking statements concern future circumstances and results and other statements that are not historical facts, sometimes identified by the words "believes", "expects", "predicts", "intends", "projects", "plans", "estimates", "aims", "foresees", "anticipates", "targets", and similar expressions. Any such forward-looking statements are solely opinions and forecasts reflecting views as of the date set out on the cover of these materials, which are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual events to differ materially from any anticipated development, including the risk factors set forth in the Information Document prepared by the Company in connection with the Listing, available at https://newsweb.oslobors.no/message/519564 under the heading Vedlegg. No liability for such statements, or any obligation to update any such statements or to conform such statements to actual results, is assumed. Furthermore, information about past performance given in this communication is given for illustrative purposes only and should not be relied upon as, and is not, an indication of future performance. On 12 March 2021, the minister of communications and digital technologies published the proposed South African Postbank SOC LTD Amendment Bill. The Bill seeks to amend the shareholding arrangements for the Postbank by virtue of a new holding company, to facilitate its establishment and registration as a bank controlling company (BCC) in terms of the Banks Act. Is South Africa ready for a state-owned bank? The proposed amendments to the South African Banks Act will pave the way for a state-owned bank to be established on equal footing with privately owned banks... Massive liability Effectively, this amendment bill will allow for the separation of the Postbank from the South African Post Office and the conversion of the Postbank into a fully-fledged bank with its own banking licence, making it a new state-owned bank in South Africa, together with the proposed intention to allow the Postbank to offer more financial services to the public.The government has been cited as stating that the need for the creation of such a bank was necessary, but the reasons given are extremely vague, chief amongst those, as stated by the president, being that many other developing countries have these institutions.Currently, it is not an unknown reality that there is no state-owned enterprise which functions efficiently in this country. Most are bedevilled by maladministration and corruption. Further to this, there has been concern on whether the banks systems are reliable in grant payments as it has been reported that the Postbank had experienced growth during the countys lockdown, primarily as a result of accounts opened for beneficiaries of the Covid-19 unemployment relief fund which, as known, was riddled with controversy of maladministration.Over 6.3-million unemployment grant disbursements and credit transactions were apparently processed by the Postbank to the value of R3.2bn. If hundreds of billions of state rands, currently administered mostly by private banks, could be channelled for administration by a state-owned bank, heaven knows how much of it would go missing under the current governments administration. It is evidenced, by the VBS saga, what havoc the willy-nilly handing out of a banking licence or creation of this entity could wreak.Little reason has been given for the creation of such a bank, save as to be a potential positive disruptor to our financial system, according to the minister of finance. This proposed bill may be construed as the governments attempt to transfer monies, currently administered by the private and commercial banks, into a state-owned financial institution. The risks associated with such an undertaking are unimaginable. Accordingly, by National Treasurys own admission, the establishment of such an institution could be a massive liability that the country can ill-afford. Every company within the private sector, ought to be informed and aware of this move by the state. One wonders what the true motive for the creation of this bank is. Andrea Chang Andrea Chang is the deputy Food editor for the Los Angeles Times. She joined the newspaper in 2007 and has covered food, technology and retail; she was also an assistant editor in the Business section. Chang graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and has written for the St. Petersburg Times, the Oregonian and the Mercury News. She grew up in Cupertino, Calif., and will happily eat anything except fresh ginger. This job expired on 24 May 2021. Pam Kragen Pam Kragen is a feature writer who specializes in writing human interest, dining, theater and opera stories. She joined The San Diego Union-Tribune staff in October 2012 after 27 years at the North County Times, where she served as the Arts & Features Editor, as well as the papers longtime arts writer and theater/opera critic. She is the president and co-founder of the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in journalism from San Diego State University and completed fellowships in theater criticism at the University of Southern California and opera/classical music criticism at Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Journalism. She reports from the U-T's North County office in San Marcos. Chinese envoy calls for efforts to stabilize Iraq Xinhua) 11:04, May 12, 2021 UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday called for efforts to stabilize Iraq and ensure peaceful elections. Iraq remains in the grip of a grim security situation, which necessitates unwavering international support for the country's counter-terrorism efforts, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. Remnants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group continue to launch attacks in Iraq, which have caused civilian casualties in the hundreds so far this year. The international community should assist Iraq in effectively tackling the problem of foreign terrorist fighters and securing the hard-won gains in counter-terrorism, he told the Security Council. On the basis of full respect for Iraq's judicial sovereignty, it is necessary to give play to the role of the UN team investigating IS crimes in Iraq and support Iraq in bringing the terrorists to justice, he said. A peaceful Iraq is contingent on a favorable regional setting. China encourages the parties concerned to respond positively to the UN secretary-general's appeal, uphold the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, fully respect Iraq's sovereignty and territory integrity, and join in a collective effort to build a secure and stable future for Iraq, said Zhang. "Any military operations to take place on the soil of Iraq must have the prior consent of the Iraqi government. Iraq should not become a victim of geopolitical maneuvers," he added. It is necessary to support Iraq in fulfilling an all-important political agenda of this year, namely the upcoming general elections. Iraq has taken active steps to press forward with the preparations, and marked progress has been achieved, he said. "We encourage the Iraqi government to continue its effort to ensure peaceful and smooth elections that fully reflect the will and aspirations of the Iraqi people." Iraq has twice written to the president of the Security Council on election-related issues. The United Nations should play a positive and constructive role in the smooth conduct of the Iraqi elections, he said. China has provided the Iraqi High Electoral Commission with a video teleconferencing system and office computers. China will soon be delivering the second tranche of office supplies for the elections as part of its aid package, said Zhang. Greater unity is vital to a stable Iraq. China welcomes the agreement between the federal government and the Kurdistan regional governments on the 2021 budget bill achieved through dialogue and consultation. China hopes the sides can maintain the current momentum in their continued search for lasting solutions to issues of mutual concern, he said. China commends Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's appeal for a national dialogue and looks forward to all parties taking a positive and constructive part in the dialogue, he added. Iraq needs support in its response to the COVID-related challenges, said Zhang. "We've seen some recent spikes in new cases in Iraq, which is very worrying. The international community should keep up its support for Iraq's response, focusing on the equitable distribution of vaccines." Since the start of the pandemic, China has sent a medical expert team and multiple shipments of supplies to help Iraq combat the disease. In addition, China has helped build a PCR laboratory and sent two batches of vaccines in close succession to help Iraq tide over the crisis, he said. China encourages and welcomes all countries in a position to offer help to Iraq to do so to the best of their abilities. China supports the renewal of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. China will, along with the international community, continue to support Iraq in its quest for lasting peace, development, and prosperity, he said. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Ukaigwe was reported missing to Chicago authorities on April 18 after traveling to Kentucky to visit a childhood friend, police said in a statement. Kentucky State Police were notified about the disappearance and located a body in a wooded area near a cemetery in Radcliff on May 1. The following was originally published as part of The Dissenter Newsletter. Former UK diplomat-turned whistleblower Craig Murray was sentenced to eight months in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh for contempt of court resulting from his coverage of the trial of former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. A three-judge panel determined on March 25, 2021following a two-hour trial in Januarythat information published by Murray in a number of his blog posts was likely to lead indirectly to people being able to identify witnesses in Salmonds sexual assault trial. This process, known as jigsaw identification, refers to the possibility that a person may piece together information from various sources to arrive at the identification of a protected witness. In doing so, the judge ruled that Murray violated a court order prohibiting the publication of information that could likely lead to the identification of the alleged victims in Salmonds case. Murray is a broadcaster, human rights advocate and journalist, who has extensively covered the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and is known to support other whistleblowers. He also strongly supported Salmond and the Scottish campaign for independence. He denied the charges, arguing he went to great pains to cover the prosecution without identifying the witnesses. The trial and eight-month prison sentence was heavily criticized by a number of veteran Scottish journalists and lawyers. Hugh Kerr, a former vice chair of Scottish Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists, was a Labour Party Member of the European Parliament before he joined the SNP. He told The Dissenter that he considered both the verdict and the sentence in Murrays case to be disgraceful. [This decision represents] a real threat to civil liberties, Kerr argued. A key point, of course, the women who are meant to be threatened with jigsaw ID all remained anonymous, Alex Salmonds life was destroyed, and Craig Murrays life is about to be destroyed too. I know that Craig shall appeal not only to the Supreme Court but also to the European Court of Human Rights. He will do so with the support of many people in Scotland and many people around the world, Kerr added. It is believed to be the first instance in Scottish legal history where jigsaw identification has led to an individual being imprisoned, a statement released on behalf of Murrays family declared. Award-winning investigative journalist John Pilger said, In these dark times, Craig Murrays truth-telling is a beacon. He is owed our debt of gratitude, not the travesty of a prison sentence which, like the prosecution of Julian Assange, is a universal warning. Craig Murray has compiled a remarkable record of courage and integrity in exposing crimes of state and working to bring them to an end, Professor Noam Chomsky stated, contending Murray fully merits our deep respect and support for his achievements. Court Felt It Had No Choice But To Imprison Murray A significant fine is how this court normally deals with media contempt, even those that actually interfere with the course of justice, Roddy Dunlop QC, Murrays lawyer, told the High Court on May 7. To rule otherwise, in this case, would be harsh to the point of being disproportionate. In mitigation, Dunlop informed the court that Murray is 62 years old, the father to a newborn child, and suffers from pulmonary health conditions, which will worsen if incarcerated. There was also no risk of repeating the crime and Murrays intent was never to violate the anonymity order. Murrays legal team highlighted sentences handed down in other cases, such as the English contempt of court case against Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), the far-right co-founder of the English Defense League. In 2017, Yaxley-Lennon filmed and published a video online of criminal defendants on trial for rape, in which he described them as Muslim child rapists. He was given a three-month suspended sentence for contempt of court that was conditioned on him not prejudicing any other pending trials. One year later, Yaxley-Lennon published another video in explicit defiance of a reporting ban regarding three related sex-assault cases. He was ultimately sentenced to 9 months in prison. At The More Serious End Of the Scale Murrays case is at the more serious end of the scale, Judge Lady Leeona J Dorrian said on 11 May, when addressing the other cases raised by the defense. Dorrian, who also presided over Salmonds trial, headed the panel of senior Scottish judges that heard Murrays contempt of court case. In reading out the courts sentence, Dorrian said that Murrays actions created a real risk that complainers [in sex offense cases] may be reluctant to come forward in future cases, particularly where the case may be high profile or likely to attract significant publicity. The publication of jigsaw identification strikes at the heart of the fair administration of justice, and therefore notwithstanding the previous good character of [Murray] and his health issues, we do not think we can dispose of this case other than by way of a sentence of imprisonment, Dorrian added. As part of his defense, Murray submitted examples of mainstream outlets which he argued published even more jigsaw identification. In effect, an argument of selective prosecution could be inferred. But the judges in Murrays case considered that to be irrelevant to whether what [Murray] published constituted a contempt of court. A Politically Motivated Stitch-Up Murray was critical of the prosecution of Salmond which he described as a politically motivated stitch-up, a fact which appears to have irked the judges in his case. As with many of the articles with which these proceedings are concerned, the respondent does not merely identify information, put the material before the public, and ask questions arising from it. He acts as arbiter, presenting the matter on the basis that his belief, opinions and interpretation of the information, assuming that is the right word to use, is the full truth, the judges noted in their opinion [PDF] on March 25. For his part, Murray contends the charges against him are politically motivated as a result of his support for Salmond. Salmond was acquitted by a jury on all 14 counts of sexual harassment and assault brought against him. However, that fact was considered irrelevant by the court when deciding the contempt of court case against Murray. Before Salmond was tried in March 2020, evidence had already emerged of a potential conspiracy against the former leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP). Emails and text messages between members of the Scottish civil service, the SNP bureaucracy, and some of Salmonds alleged victims revealed an apparent conspiracy to destroy Salmonds political career and reputation. A number of legal and journalistic observers, such as Scottish lawyer Gordon Dangerfield, Scotlands former Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill MP, and Murray himself called attention to this evidence. The High Court of Scotland, which reviewed the investigation and handling of Salmonds case, determined that the process was unlawful, procedurally unfair and tainted by apparent bias, a year before the trial commenced. Salmond, along with Murray, is known to be a fierce proponent of Scottish independence and his prosecution comes at a time of splits within the SNP about the direction of the party and how the matter of independence is being approached by the current leadership of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. A number of well-known Scots joined with Salmond to form the pro-independence Alba Party in February 2021. However, the overall politicized nature of Salmonds case did not feature in Murrays contempt of court trial. Murrays Intentions And Motives Deemed Irrelevant The contempt of court offense is one of strict liability, which means Murrays intentions or motivations were deemed irrelevant by the court. The question which must be asked is whether in its context the material was such as was likely, objectively speaking, to lead to identification of the complainers, the court determined. Also of significance was the courts decision to apply a wide test when deciding whether Murray committed contempt of court. Though the defense argued that the threshold should be whether the public at large was likely to be able to piece together the identification of a protected witness, the court disagreed. If the material would be likely to enable a particular section of the public to do so that would be sufficient. In other words, if someone who knows the complainants in Salmonds case is likely to be able to piece together their identity from a combination of Murrays articles along with their own specific knowledge that is enough for Murray to have violated the court order. Two other chargesone alleging that Murray violated a court order barring the reasons given for the dismissal of a juror and the other alleging that two articles he published created a substantial risk of prejudicing the jurywere both dismissed by the court. According to Kerr, Dorrian, who presided over both Salmonds trial and Murrays contempt of court proceedings, has led the campaign to get rid of juries in the cases of sex offenses in Scotland. The Scottish government has been looking into specialized legal proceedings in sex offense cases, whereby complainants might be able to give evidence via video link as a matter of course and where judges would give the final verdict as to guilt or innocence. Kerr considered this to be a very worrying development, which would have deprived Salmond of a jury and likely resulted in a conviction. Appealing To The Supreme Court Although the court originally gave Murray 48 hours to surrender himself to authorities, they extended that to three weeks after Dunlop requested more time so an appeal to the Supreme Court could be lodged. The decision means that Murray will not be able to attend in person as a witness in the ongoing Spanish criminal case against UC Global Director David Morales, who is being prosecuted for his role in the alleged illegal surveillance of Assange, his lawyers, and their privileged communications. In a twist of irony, Dunlop, who is Scotlands most senior lawyer known as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, was among the attorneys representing the Scottish government when Salmond successfully sued them in the High Court. Dunlop and one of his colleagues, threatened to resign if their client, the Scottish executive, didnt concede the lawsuit, once it became apparent that they withheld evidence that they were obligated to disclose to Salmonds lawyers. We have a very serious problem in Scotland at present, veteran journalist Mark Hirst told The Dissenter. In Hirsts view, the Crown Office is an institutionally corrupt prosecuting authority which is abusing their power and acting in an evidently biased and political manner. Hirst, a longstanding friend of Murray, said he knows through his own discussions with senior lawyers and serving police officers that there is concern the Crown Office are bringing the entire legal system in Scotland into utter disrepute. Major reform is needed or we will see other journalists and political activists falling victim to malicious proceedings, Hirst concluded. *Correction: The article was updated to accurately reflect Hugh Kerrs position as the former vice chair of Scottish Executive Council of the National Union of Journalists. The post Whistleblower Craig Murray Sentenced To 8 Months In Prison Over His Reporting On Former Scottish First Ministers Trial appeared first on Shadowproof. As more reports surface of breakthrough COVID cases, in and outside the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today said it will change how breakthrough cases are reported, effective May 14. According to a statement on the CDCs website, the agency said to help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance it will stop reporting weekly COVID breakthrough infections unless they result in hospitalization or death. The news followed another change, announced late last month, in how PCR tests should be administered to the fully vaccinated. Both changes will result in lower overall numbers of reports of breakthrough cases in the U.S. A breakthrough case is recorded if a person tests positive for SARS-Cov-2 two weeks after receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson (J&J) shot or completing the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccination. Why the changes matter In April, the CDC issued new guidance to laboratories recommending reducing the RT-PCR CT value to 28 cycles but only for those fully vaccinated individuals being tested for COVID. In an RT-PCR test the gold standard for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA is extracted from the swab collected from the patient. It is then converted into DNA, which is then amplified. CT, or cycle threshold, is a value that emerges during RT-PCR tests. A CT value refers to the number of cycles needed to amplify viral RNA to reach a detectable level. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, a patient is considered positive for COVID if the CT value is below 35. In other words, if the virus is detectable after 35 cycles or earlier, then the patient is considered positive. Dr. Anthony Fauci recommends a CT value of 35. Globally, the accepted cut-off for CT value for COVID ranges between 35 and 40, depending on instructions from manufacturers of testing equipment. If the benchmark were to be lowered to 24 it would mean that CT values in the range 25-34 would not be considered positive, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research, as reported by The Indian Express. A benchmark of 35, therefore, means that more patients would be considered positive than we would get if the benchmark were 24. In other words, lowering CT threshold parameter may lead to missing infectious persons. CDC wont report new breakthrough numbers this week Because the change in how the CDC will report breakthrough cases is still being implemented and wont take effect until May 14, the CDC did not report new numbers this week. According to the latest available numbers, as of April 26, the CDC reported 9,245 people had tested positive for COVID at least two weeks after getting their final COVID vaccination. About 9%, or 835, people required hospitalization and 132 died. Of the hospitalized patients, 241 were said to be asymptomatic or having an illness not related to COVID, and 20 deaths were reported as asymptomatic or not related to the disease. The latest numbers are from 46 U.S. states and territories. Its not clear which four states didnt submit breakthrough case figures to the CDC. These surveillance data are a snapshot and help identify patterns and look for signals among vaccine breakthrough cases, the CDC said in an April 27 statement. As CDC and state health departments shift to focus only on investigating vaccine breakthrough cases that result in hospitalization or death, those data will be regularly updated and posted every Friday. According to the CDC, actual vaccine breakthrough numbers are likely higher as the surveillance system is passive and relies on voluntary reporting from state health departments and may not be complete. In addition, some breakthrough cases will not be identified due to lack of testing. This is particularly true in instances of asymptomatic or mild illness, CDC added. The CDC said vaccines are still effective, noting the breakthrough cases represent a small percentage of those who have been vaccinated. Most-vaccinated country returns to lockdowns, as breakthrough cases surge The island of Seychelles, which has fully vaccinated more of its population against COVID than any other country in the world, has re-implemented lockdown measures similar to those imposed in 2020 as infections surge. According to Bloomberg, 62.2% of the islands adult population has received two doses of COVID vaccines. That compares with 55.9% for Israel, the second most vaccinated nation. Sinopharm and AstraZenecas Covishield are the two vaccines being administered in the Seychelles. Despite all the exceptional efforts we are making, the Covid-19 situation in our country is critical right now, with many daily cases reported last week, Peggy Vidot, the nations health minister, said at a press conference Tuesday. On a per capita basis, the Seychelles outbreak is worse than Indias raging surge. Peaking at an average of just more than 100 new cases a day is a big deal in a country with a population of fewer than 100,000 people, The Washington Post reported. Of those cases, 84% are Seychellois and 16% are foreigners, Daniel Lucey, clinical professor of medicine at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, said in a blog post. Just under two-thirds of those are either unvaccinated or have only had one dose, and the remainder have had two doses, Lucey added. A comparison between Sinopharm, Covishield and unvaccinated infected persons could be done using genetic sequencing and data on the severity of their infections, Lucey said. Given the widespread international use of these two vaccines there are global implications to what is happening now in the Seychelles. Officials at a press conference gave little detail on what could be behind the infection surge other than to say people were taking fewer precautions against the virus than before and the surge may be due to celebrations after Easter. California experiencing thousands of breakthrough COVID infections Between Jan. 1 and April 28, California public health officials recorded 3,084 breakthrough cases of COVID, The Sacramento Bee reported. As more time passes and more people are fully vaccinated, it is likely that additional post-vaccination cases will occur, the California Department of Public Health said in a statement. Post-vaccination cases are recorded if a person tests positive for SARS-Cov-2 two weeks after receiving J&J or completing the two-dose Moderna or Pfizer vaccination. The state health department did not have information on hospitalizations and deaths attributed to breakthrough cases. The Defender previously reported on breakthrough cases in Washington, Florida, South Carolina, Texas, New York, California and Minnesota. On August 18, 2020, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a petition by researchers at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) seeking federal approval to release their genetically engineered (GE) Darling 58 (D58) American chestnut tree into U.S. forests. Researchers claim the transgenic D58 tree will resist the fungal blight that, coupled with rampant overlogging, decimated the American chestnut population in the early 20th century. In fact, the GE American chestnut is a Trojan horse meant to open the doors to commercial GE trees designed for industrial plantations. The D58 would be the first GE forest tree approved in the U.S. and the first GMO intended to spread in the wild. (GE canola plants were discovered in the wild in 2010 but that was unplanned.) "This is a project to rapidly domesticate a wild species through genetic engineering and accelerated breeding, and then to put it back into ecosystems to form self-perpetuating populationsan intentional evolutionary intervention that has never been attempted before with any species," explain scientists at the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and International Center for Technology Assessment (ICTA), which are nonprofits based in Washington, D.C. "The Southern U.S. is global ground zero for the forest products industry and we see genetically engineered chestnut trees as this industry's sneaky way of opening the floodgates for 'frankentrees' that will harm forests, biodiversity and local communities across the region," explains Scot Quaranda of Dogwood Alliance, a nonprofit based in North Carolina that works to protect Southern U.S. forests. "Our natural forests that support wildlife and the economic sovereignty of rural communities will rapidly be replaced with tree plantations for wood pellets, paper and more, leaving environmental and climate injustice in their wake." The GE American chestnut faces an uphill battle due to decades of opposition to GE trees by Indigenous peoples, scientists, students, activists, foresters and others, including a GE tree ban by the Forest Stewardship Council and a United Nations decision that warns countries of the dangers of GE trees and urges use of the precautionary principle while addressing the issue. By October 19, 2020, the close of the public comment period on the petition, 109 organizations, representing millions of members, plus an additional 123,426 individuals had registered their opposition to the D58. The next step is the creation of a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) by the USDA recommending action on the petition. The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) estimates this could take up to a year to complete. Following this, another public comment period will be undertaken to review the draft EIS, after which the agency will develop a final EIS with a decision on the petition. D58 Safety Studies 'Invalid,' Warn Scientists While American chestnut trees are known to live hundreds of years, D58 trees have only been growing since 2017, calling into question the ESF petition assertion that "Darling 58 has been studied in detail and no plant pest or environmental risks have been observed." In a report on the GE American chestnut she co-wrote, Dr. Rachel Smolker from Biofuelwatch explains, "Given the long lifespan of trees and varying environmental conditions they face, we cannot extrapolate from tests done on very young trees under controlled lab and field conditions. How GE trees might behave in the diverse and changing context of natural forests over long periods of time is unknown and likely to remain unknown even after they are released." Scientists at CFS and ICTA warn of problems with the D58 safety studies, writing, "Given the young age of Darling 58 trees and corresponding dearth of tissue samples, conclusions from most of the animal experiments described in the Petition are too preliminary to depend upon." In studying ESF's assessment of the impacts of inserting the blight-resistant oxalate oxidase (OxO) transgene into the chestnut genome, both CFS and ICTA further point out that some D58 studies did not, in fact, use material from transgenic D58 trees, rendering them invalid. "Petitioners did experiments to study how bumblebees might be affected by Darling 58, but did not have enough Darling 58 pollen for the experiments so used non-transgenic pollen instead, to which they added purified OxO from barley seeds. Other important initial studies on animals reported in the Petition are of limited use because they involved feeding leaves from the Darling 4 instead of Darling 58 even though Darling 4 has much lower levels of OxO in leaves again invalidating the conclusions for risk assessments." The Darling 4 was an earlier version of the American chestnut genetically engineered with the OxO transgene. While researchers have argued that a strict regulatory process will ensure the safety of the D58 GE tree, a 2019 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine titled, "Forest Health and Biotechnology: Possibilities and Considerations," raises flags: "Forest health is not accounted for in the regulations for the use of biotechnology or for other approaches to mitigating forest tree insect pests or pathogens. There are no specific regulations or policies that those agencies apply to biotech trees." Profit Motive Trumping Morality? Proponents argue that there can be no downside to releasing a tree engineered to resist an introduced blight. But like fire suppression, which has led to devastating wildfires due to an unnatural buildup of flammable materials in the forest, the future impacts of even a well-meaning action can become catastrophic, especially in combination with the unpredictable effects of climate change and extreme weather. Yet, researchers are engineering trees with the conviction that because they can, they should. In her book Can Science Make Sense of Life?, Dr. Sheila Jasanoff, Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School, explains the implications of this arrogance. "For life scientists and their enthusiastic promoters, the arc of the technologically possible, often coincident with the promise of financial gain, increasingly defines the boundaries of the morally permissible." Researcher William Powell, whose GE American chestnut research has received both financial and technical support from companies with a vested interest in the approval of the GE American chestnutincluding Monsanto, ArborGen and Duke Energydefends his approach. In an article in the Conversation, Powell says, "One of the key advantages of genetic engineering is that it's far less disruptive to the original chestnut genomeand thus to its ecologically important characteristics. The trees remain more true to form with less chance of unforeseen and unwanted side effects. Once these genes are inserted, they become a normal part of the tree's genome and are inherited just like any other gene." However, in a briefing paper published by the Federation of German Scientists, Dr. Ricarda Steinbrecher, a molecular geneticist, and Antje Lorch, a biologist, counter that the genetic engineering process is inherently risky. The paper states, "It is well documented that the processes of plant transformation give rise to many mutations throughout the plant genome as well as at the insertion site of the transgene. Any robust risk assessment study needs to take several generations into account, for example to assess the stability and heritability of the transgene, unintended side effects and changes due to transformation impact." Why the American Chestnut? The D58 American chestnut is the culmination of decades of effort to open the doors to GE trees in the U.S. by biotechnology and timber companies. In 1999, Monsanto joined with timber companies from the U.S. and New Zealand to form a "forestry biotechnology joint venture," which later became ArborGen, one of the world's leaders in GE tree research and development. GE tree research was originally focused on trees and traits valued by the forest products industry; trees like poplar, pine and eucalyptus, and traits like insect resistance, herbicide tolerance, faster growth or altered wood composition. American chestnut seedling. Anne Petermann Other early associationsincluding the Tree Genetic Engineering Research Cooperative at Oregon State University, launched in 1994brought together university researchers with timber and biotechnology giants as well as the U.S. Forest Service to develop genetically engineered trees for industrial timber plantations. These efforts were met with widespread opposition and sabotage, leading the industry to conclude that they needed a charismatic "test tree" to try to win over the public opinion relating to GE trees. A 2007 published paper explains, "There is opposition to commercial application of trees, engineered specifically for fast growth and increased yields, by those whose stance is that the value accrues only to 'big companies.' It will remain for traits that have broad societal benefits, such as conservation for acceptance to be gained." The D58 is seen as a positive example for the beleaguered biotechnology industry of the benefits of 'biotechnology for conservation.' Duke Energy also sees the American chestnut for its value as a greenwashing tool. Duke Energy invested millions into the GE American chestnut through the Forest Health Initiative. Its hope was to use the American chestnut to help "green" its devastated mountaintop removal mining lands. Naturalist and author Bernd Heinrich has one such grove growing on his land in Maine. In a New York Times op-ed in 2013, he wrote, "I have been enjoying American chestnuts for several years now, harvested from some trees that are now part of my forest of 600 acres in western Maine. I planted four seedlings in the spring of 1982. Beyond all my expectations, the trees thrived, and some are now 35 feet tall. In my small corner of western Maine, the American chestnut is now promising to again become a significant component of the ecosystem." Once dominant in Eastern U.S. forests, the American chestnut was highly valued for its beautiful and rot-resistant wood, and abundant nuts. While few actually remember the tree, which largely disappeared from the landscape by the 1920s, a public relations effort was launched in the early 2010s with articles appearing in numerous major publications heralding the return of this "mighty giant" through the wonders of genetic engineering. Millions of American chestnut stumps, meanwhile, continue to send up shoots that occasionally grow into trees large enough to produce nuts, and in some locations, wild American chestnuts are spreading on their own, showing at least some evolving blight tolerance. Another decades-long program by the American Chestnut Cooperators' Foundation is successfully breeding pure wild American chestnuts that are naturally blight-resistant. In spite of examples like this, GE chestnut proponents have declared the American chestnut functionally extinct, and insist that its survival hinges on the release of unproven and risky genetic engineered American chestnut trees into forests. But Lois Breault-Melican, a former board member of the American Chestnut Foundation who publicly resigned from the TACF over the organization's support for the GE American chestnut, points out that this argument ignores the risks posed to organic and other chestnut growers: "These growers are concerned about the potential GMO contamination of their orchards caused by the unregulated and unmonitored planting of genetically engineered American chestnut trees. If the USDA approves these GE American chestnuts, the integrity of chestnut orchards would be forever compromised." Indigenous Sovereignty Concerns Indigenous peoples in the regions of proposed D58 releases have expressed concern that unregulated distribution of a GE tree would violate their sovereign right to keep their territories free from GMOs. They insist that Indigenous peoples be consulted in the process of reviewing the D58 American chestnut. "Today, there remain large areas of traditional and treaty lands on which much is forested and managed as sovereign territory of many different Native American Peoples," explains BJ McManama of the Indigenous Environmental Network. "These forests are not only a source of economic self-determination but hold great cultural significance to include sacred sites where trees are an element of sustenance, knowledge and familial identity. Every living being within the forests [is] related in some form and nothing within these lands lives in isolation; therefore, changing or altering the original instructions of any one or any part of these elements threatens the natural order established over millennia." The Eastern Band of Cherokee, members of the Lumbee Tribe of central North Carolina and Seminole Peoples from unceded Florida territory joined the Campaign to STOP GE Trees for an October 2014 gathering in the mountains of North Carolina to protest GE trees as a form of colonization. Their concerns were focused on the GE American chestnut trees. Lisa Montelongo, a member of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, explained, "I'm very concerned that GE trees would impact our future generations and their traditional uses of trees. Our basket makers, people that use wood for the natural colors of our clay workthere would be no natural life, no cycle of life in GE tree plantations." Following the camp, the Band's Tribal Council passed a unanimous resolution prohibiting GE trees from their lands: Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians (EBCI) Tribal Council Resolution No. 31 (2015): "We commit to rejecting biomass, genetically engineering the natural world, carbon trading, carbon offsets and carbon sequestration schemes as they are false solutions to the climate change." Concerns were focused on the inability of the tribe to keep the GE American chestnut tree off of their lands if it were released into surrounding forests, which they describe as a violation of the Free, Prior and Informed Consent mandate under the UN's Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Global Impact of the Genetically Engineered D58 American Chestnut Tree In the end, the potential deregulation of the D58 is not about restoring a "mighty giant" to Eastern U.S. forests. Its approval is about paving the way for the deregulation of all GE trees, toward the creation of an oxymoronic future "bioeconomy" where biodiverse forests are replaced with specially engineered trees for the manufacture of fuels, chemicals, textiles, plastics and other goods in a "green" version of "business as usual." Implicit in this scheme is a massive increase in the consumption of wood. This in turn will drive accelerated conversion of carbon-rich native forests, critical for climate regulation, and other ecosystems for conversion to fast-growing plantations that include GE trees with traits to expedite their use as feedstocks. Existing non-native plantations of eucalyptus, the most common plantation tree, are already notorious for their devastating social, ecological and climate change impacts. But new research out of Oregon State University is attempting to "green" these plantations with claims that eucalyptus trees can be genetically engineered to be infertile, through a process to "knock out LEAFY," the gene believed to control flower formation. The research claims this would prevent eucalyptus trees from invading native ecosystems, though it does nothing to address the ability of eucalyptus to spread asexually through vegetative propagation. American chestnut tree, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Canadian Biotechnology Action Network This new technology also does nothing to address the serious problems caused by industrial plantations of eucalyptus. These impacts, outlined in detail by the World Rainforest Movement, include depletion of fresh water; forced displacement of Indigenous groups, rural communities and subsistence farmers; and catastrophic wildfires. In fact, the addition of GE trees to these plantations could exacerbate known impacts and/or lead to new, unknown and potentially irreversible problems. Another attempt to "green" GE trees for the bioeconomy involves the development of trees specially engineered to store extra carbon as a supposed climate change mitigation tool. But a new article in Yale Environment 360 challenges schemes like this that focus on tree planting for climate mitigation. Echoing the findings of the World Rainforest Movement and others, the article reports "a growing number of scientists and environmentalists are challenging this narrative on tree-planting. They say that planting programs, especially those based on large numerical targets, can wreck natural ecosystems, dry up water supplies, damage agriculture, push people off their landand even make global warming worse." In addition, they say, "Tree planting can distract from the greater priorities of protecting existing forests and reducing fossil fuel use." The attempts to greenwash genetically engineered trees with their unpredictable and irreversible impacts are being opposed globally by a broad coalition of scientists, Indigenous peoples, agronomists, peasant farmers, foresters, teachers and others, as well as organizations focused on protecting forests, human rights and climate justice. GE trees have no place in an ecologically and socially just future. Author's note: Following the initial publication of this article, Reuters reported that a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed on April 21 between the Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians (EBCI) and the American Chestnut Foundation. The MOU, described by EBCI members as highly controversial, would allow the planting of GE American chestnuts on Cherokee land. Anne Petermann is the executive director of Global Justice Ecology Project. She has been working on issues related to protecting forests and defending the rights of Indigenous peoples since 1990 and co-founded the first global campaign against genetically engineered trees in 2000. In the years since, she has presented the social and ecological dangers of genetically engineered trees at conferences, with community groups, and at the United Nations and other international fora on five continents. She currently coordinates the Campaign to STOP GE Trees, which she co-founded in 2014. Follow her on Twitter: @AnneGJEP. This article first appeared on Truthout and was produced in partnership with Earth | Food | Life, a project of the Independent Media Institute. Israeli jets and Palestinian militants have traded fresh airstrikes and rocket fire as the UNs Middle East envoy warned of an escalation towards a full-scale war. One person was killed and two injured after an anti-tank guided missile struck a vehicle patrolling near the border between Israel and Gaza on Wednesday morning. Mortar shells fired across the border hampered efforts by medical teams to reach the scene. Hamas said it had carried out the attacks. Meanwhile, the Gaza health ministry said the death toll in Gaza had reached 48, including 14 children, with more than 300 wounded. Six people in Israel have been killed. In the worst descent into violence since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas, the Israeli military has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza and Palestinian militant groups have fired multiple rocket barrages at Israeli cities. Israels Channel 12 said Egyptian mediators were trying to broker a ceasefire agreement. However, Benny Gantz, Israels defence minister, said military operations would continue. Israel is not preparing for a ceasefire. There is currently no end date for the operation. Only when we achieve complete quiet can we talk about calm, he said. We will not listen to moral preaching against our duty to protect the citizens of Israel. Jonathan Conricus, a spokesperson for the Israeli army, said he expected the fighting to intensify. Asked about a possible ceasefire, he said: I dont think my commanders are aware, or particularly interested. The UN envoy Tor Wennesland said leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation after a day of ferocious confrontations and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, promising to intensify attacks on Gaza. The cost of war in Gaza is devastating and is being paid by ordinary people, said Wennesland, who is expected to brief the 15 members of the UN security council on the crisis on Wednesday, its second such meeting in three days. Despite strong resident protests, the US Environmental Protection Agency and Florida agencies have approved controversial release of millions of genetically-modified or gene edited killer mosquitoes into the Florida Keyes. At the same time the controversial Presidential Science Adviser nominee of Biden is involved in development of the CRISPR technology being used to genetically modify everything from the mosquitoes to the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus mRNA vaccines to gene-edited salmon. How Bill Gates, the Pentagon and the eugenics lobby come together now is alarming to put it mildly . On April 30 the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District and the Oxitec biotechnology company announced they will begin release of what will ultimately be some 750 million genetically manipulated or gene-edited Aedes Aegypti mosquitos using CRSPR gene editing technology. The Aedes Aegypti makes up only about 4% of the mosquito population in the Keys. The release is bitterly opposed by residents and environmental groups who demanded a referendum in last years election ballot, but which the Mosquito Control Board refused, curiously. Oxitec and the Board claim the release is to kill off the presence of the Aedes Aegypti mosquito which is believed to carry dengue fever, Zika and other diseases. The project, which sounds positive in the press statements, is alarming in many respects. First, the refusal to allow a citizen vote on the controversial GMO release. Second, there exists no cost-benefit analysis of the risks versus benefits of releasing millions of mosquitoes whose genetic traits are mutating in often unpredictable ways. Is it worth the risk that an ever more robust variety of mosquito will mutate from the project? No one can say. Traditional mosquito control techniques have worked well until now. The CEO of Oxitec, Grey Frandsen, has a dark history with the US State Department in the Balkans, as an advisor to the US Navy, and as a Fellow of the George Soros International Crisis Group that played a key role in the destruction of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. With no previous experience in biotechnology, Frandsen appears as CEO of Oxitec in 2017. Oxitec, a UK company, is now owned by Third Security, a US venture capital firm in Radford, Virginia headed by Randal J. Kirk who also owns the gene-edited salmon producer, AquaBounty. Brazil failure At another trial by Oxitec for the same Aedes Aegypti gene-edited mosquito in Bahia, Brazil, in a test to see if the gene-edited mosquitoes would mate with local mosquitoes carrying Zika, malaria or other mosquito-borne diseases, following an initial reduction of the target population of mosquitoes, after some months the population which had been greatly suppressed rebounded to nearly pre-release levels, according to a study published in Nature Reports journal. A team of scientists from Yale University and several scientific institutes in Brazil monitored the progress of the experiment. What they found was that after an initial period in which the target mosquito population markedly declined, after about 18 months the mosquito population recovered to pre-release levels. Not only that, the paper noted that some of the mosquitos likely have hybrid vigor, in which a hybrid of the natural with the gene-edited created a more robust population than the pre-release population which may be more resistant to insecticides, in short, resistant super mosquitoes. That Brazil Oxitec study concluded, It is unclear how this may affect disease transmission or affect other efforts to control these dangerous vectors. In short, the genetic mutations were unpredictable. Another 2020 scientific study revealed that the sterile insects revert back to being fertile, resulting in resistant GMO populations persisting in the environment. The study, published by scientists in China, Germany and the USDA in the United States, shows that spontaneous mutations in laboratory flies can arise, leading to genetic resistance to the intended trait. In other words, super flies, or mosquitoes. Moreover, it is not as if the incidence of dengue fever or Zika in the Florida Keys is a grave problem. According to the official CDC report, there was not one incidence in all the US in 2020 of Zika from the indigenous population and only 4 from foreign travelers. As to the far milder and rarely fatal dengue fever, with symptoms similar to flu, in 2020 there were some 26 cases in the Florida Keyes. That was the first outbreak in almost ten years. Suspiciously, it was a small outbreak of dengue fever in 2010 that Oxitec used to argue for release of its gene edited mosquito in Florida. The new outbreak in 2020 was also suspiciously convenient for Oxitecs effort to release the gene edited mosquitoes in Florida, which was approved in 2020. Oxitec, Gates and DARPA What further draws suspicions about the entire gene edited mosquito release in Florida is the fact that the Oxitec project is being supported by two highly controversial agenciesThe Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Pentagons Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or DARPA. Gates not only a major financial backer of the gene-edited COVID-19 vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna, and the largest private donor to the WHOhas funded gene-editing research for more than a decade. Gates is well aware of the malevolent potential of gene-editing technology. It can be used as a bioweapon maker. In 2016 Gates declared, the next epidemic could originate on the computer screen of a terrorist intent on using genetic engineering to create a synthetic version of the smallpox virus. In July 2017, John Sotos, of Intel Health & Life Sciences, stated that gene editing research could open up the potential for bioweapons of unimaginable destructive potential. In 2016 Gates foundation gave $1.6 million to the PR firm, Emerging Ag, to block a broad effort to get a UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) moratorium on gene drive technology until its safety could be established. According to emails obtained by ETC Group, Emerging Ag recruited more than 65 experts, including a Gates Foundation senior official, a DARPA official, and scientists who had received DARPA funding. They were successful. Entomological Warfare? DARPA has been working for several years on genetic editing of mosquitoes. Through its Insect Allies program, DARPA has been working, using CRISPR gene-editing and gene drive technologies, on manipulating the Aedes Aegypti mosquito. The US Department of Defense has spent at least $100 million in the controversial technology known as gene drives making the US military a top funder and developer of the gene-modifying technology. Gene drives are a powerful and dangerous new technology and potential biological weapons could have disastrous impacts on peace, food security and the environment, especially if misused, said Jim Thomas, co-director of ETC Group, an environment safety group. The fact that gene drive development is now being primarily funded and structured by the US military raises alarming questions about this entire field. Entomological warfare is a type of biological warfare that uses insects to transmit diseases. The Pentagon, using DARPA research, has allegedly performed such entomological tests secretly in the Republic of Georgia and Russia. Is the DARPA development, together with Gates foundation and Oxitec, of the gene edited mosquitoes a covert program in entomological warfare? The Pentagon presently has top security bio laboratories in 25 countries across the world funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under a $ 2.1 billion military program Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP). They are in former Soviet Union countries such as Georgia and Ukraine, the Middle East, South East Asia and Africa. Among their projects, Phlebotomine sand fly species were collected under the heading, Surveillance Work on Acute Febrile Illness, in which all (female) sand flies were tested to determine their infectivity rate. A third project, also including sand flies collection, studied the characteristics of their salivary glands. This is weaponization research. The controversial person picked by the Biden Administration to become the first Cabinet-level science advisor, Eric Lander, came from the MIT-Harvard Broad Institute. Lander is a specialist in gene drive and gene editing technologies and played a major role in the flawed US Human Genome Project. This is not the kind of science we need to be supporting. It is rather part of what is obviously a larger eugenics agenda and Bill Gates is again playing a key role. F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine New Eastern Outlook Barnes was fatally shot in Humboldt Park on May 2, according to authorities. Barnes, 34, and a 40-year-old man were on the sidewalk in the 800 block of North Ridgeway Avenue the same block where Barnes lived when someone walked up and shot both men, police said at the time. Barnes was shot in the left shoulder and right leg and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The 40-year-old was shot in the right arm and lower abdomen but was in good condition, police said. No one has been arrested in the double shooting. Images Sorry, there are no recent results for popular images. Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. Between June and August of last year, Carter electronically submitted claims in Maryland for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which allowed benefits for contractors and self-employed workers under the CARES Act, the complaint alleges. In one filed under his name, Carter said he owned a landscaping business and listed a Baltimore residential address, but the mailing address for the debit cards was the Homewood address, the complaint said. Safety continues to be a priority for Elmhurst University, the school said in a statement Wednesday. While continuing to be vigilant to safety concerns, we also are taking this time to review our protocols and explore ways to further improve our preparation and response to these types of emergencies. We extend our thanks and appreciation to the law enforcement professionals at the Elmhurst Police Department. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 814-368-3173 or email nfinnerty@oleantimesherald.com. First doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will no longer be given out to the general public, Manitoba's vaccine team medical lead Dr. Joss Reimer announced on Wednesday. Advertisement Advertise With Us First doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine will no longer be given out to the general public, Manitoba's vaccine team medical lead Dr. Joss Reimer announced on Wednesday. From now on, only people who cannot access other vaccines will be given first doses. Most doses will be reserved for those requiring their second doses within the recommended time frame. The announcement comes after Alberta and Ontario announced they were stopping usage of the vaccine following blood clots being detected in some people who were given the vaccine. All Manitobans aged 18 or older are now eligible to book vaccination appointments at pop-up sites and super sites. Manitoba hit a sad milestone on Wednesday as three more deaths linked to COVID-19 were announced, bringing the province's death total to 1,000 since the pandemic started. Of the three deaths, one was a woman in her 50s in the Prairie Mountain Health region. Her death is linked to the B.1.1.7 variant of concern. There were 364 new cases of COVID-19 announced on Wednesday, including 34 from Prairie Mountain Health. The Brandon Sun Efforts are underway to clean a much-loved angel statue in the Brandon Municipal Cemetery after it was vandalized sometime before Mothers Day. Advertisement Advertise With Us Efforts are underway to clean a much-loved angel statue in the Brandon Municipal Cemetery after it was vandalized sometime before Mothers Day. The angel statue, affectionately named "Rosie," stands approximately five feet tall near the middle of the cemetery, in an area with mostly low-lying tombstones. A stone angel in the Brandon Municipal Cemetery was vandalized recently. As of Tuesday, the vandalism had been covered up with matching paint by a good Samaritan. (Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun) The statue is named after the person it was erected in memory of. Photos posted to the People of Brandon Facebook group on May 8 show red writing scrawled on both the angels wings and on one of its feet. The vandalism struck a chord with Jo-Ann Pasklivich, who said she was upset and knew she had to do something when she saw it. "I had gone to the cemetery on Mothers Day to visit my mother and I could see the vandalism from the road," she said. "I just thought this is wrong on a day like (Mothers Day)." Pasklivich said she tried using hand sanitizer and other cleaning solutions to remove the writing, but then went to Canadian Tire to get spray paint the same colour as the stone to cover the vandalism. A photo posted to the People of Brandon Facebook group showing the vandalism to the angel statue. (Facebook) "I dont know if Rosie was a mom or not, but I just know it was wrong to be there on Mothers Day," she said. "I just thought lots of people were going by and looking at (Rosie) and looking at what had happened and I just thought she shouldnt be looked at for that reason," Pasklivich said. The red writing was covered with paint when the Sun visited on Tuesday afternoon. Pasklivich said the writing didnt mean anything to the average person, but likely did to the person who wrote on the statue. The statue stands as a "pillar of strength" for many people who visit the cemetery, Pasklivich said, and is very prominent among the other tombstones. "The person who chose it and placed it there had a great deal of love and respect for her to put the angel statue there," she said. "Ive lived in Brandon all my life, and it was always a drawing point because of the section shes in and how you see her." Memories Chapel is working on a project to clean and restore the statue after the vandalism, said funeral director Greg Hildebrand. The statue itself is unique because of its size and location in the cemetery, he said. "There are some other stones that have angels on them, but I think just the way that one is situated it just grabs the heart," he said. When reached on Tuesday, Hildebrand said hes working on contacting the deceaseds next of kin before doing any work on the statue. There are special cleaners that can be used, or the vandalism could be sand-blasted off. "I think its nice to see that the community cares. When people see defenceless headstones defaced, it really strikes at the heart because that is how we honour our future, our past generation and when that is damaged and taken away from us, I think many people take that personally," he said. While vandalizing a tombstone is a crime, the Brandon Police Service hasnt received an official complaint about the incident and is not investigating, said public information officer Sgt. Kirby Sararas. Other tombstones in the cemetery have been vandalized before, said City of Brandon director of parks and recreation services Perry Roque, but not for some time. Roque said he was unsure of the motive for the most recent incident. "The cemetery is a park-like setting and we do have a lot of people using the cemetery for walking and peaceful reflection and things, so theres usually lots of people around there, which is probably why we havent had anything happening in a long time." Roque confirmed the city is planning to clean the statue, but didnt have a timeline on Tuesday. dmay@brandonsun.com Twitter: @DrewMay_ There were no deaths from COVID-19 reported on Tuesday by the province. However, Brandon saw 100 active cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. Of the 63 deaths in the Prairie Mountain Health region that are COVID-19 related, 23 originated in Brandon. Advertisement Advertise With Us There were no deaths from COVID-19 reported on Tuesday by the province. However, Brandon saw 100 active cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday. Of the 63 deaths in the Prairie Mountain Health region that are COVID-19 related, 23 originated in Brandon. The province reported 329 new active cases. With data correction, the net new number of cases Tuesday was 328. There are 42,779 lab confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba as of Tuesday. In Prairie Mountain Health, there are 326 B.1.1.7 variants of concern and 100 unspecified cases of variants of concern. Currently, there are 2,960 cases of COVID-19 in Prairie Mountain Health, with 34 new cases identified. There is one person in intensive care, and 13 active hospitalizations. There was a possible public exposure in Brandon at the YMCA on 231 Eighth St. on May 1 from 10 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. and at the AR Training Centre at 609 Ninth St., Unit 1 in Brandon on April 23-30 and May 1-7. There were no times specified on the government website. In Manitoba, there are 4,611 cases of variants of concern with 1,810 active cases and 24 deaths associated with the variants and 24 deaths associated with the variants of concern. The five-day COVID-19 test positivity rate for Tuesday is 12 per cent provincially and 14.2 per cent in Winnipeg. The following is the breakdown of cases in the province: 24 cases in the Interlake-Eastern health region; eight cases in the Northern health region; 34 cases in Prairie Mountain Health; 28 cases in the Southern Health-Sante Sud health region; and 235 cases in the Winnipeg health region. There are 3,837 active cases of COVID-19 in the province with 37,945 people who have recovered. There are 154 people in hospital with active COVID-19 as well as 60 people in hospital with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require care, for a total of 214 hospitalizations. There were 48 people in intensive care units with active COVID-19 as well as 11 people with COVID-19 who are no longer infectious but continue to require critical care, for a total of 59 intensive care unit patients. The province conducted 2,920 laboratory tests Monday, bringing the total number of lab tests completed since February 2020 to 701,643. Just under 1,000 people have died in the province from COVID-19. On the South Valley Dakota Nation Governance Facebook page, 27 active COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday. Three people were in hospital and two were in intensive care units. To date, there have been 87 confirmed cases of COVID-19, 21 cases of variants of concern, one death and 59 people who have recovered from COVID-19. kkielley@brandonsun.com VACCINE AGE LIMIT LOWERED For the second day in a row, the province has lowered the age of eligibility for vaccines. On Tuesday, people 24 years of age and older were eligible to receive the vaccine at supersites and pop-up clinics in the province, according to Manitobas vaccine eligibility web site (gov.mb.ca/covid19/vaccine/eligibility-criteria). As well, First Nation, Metis and Inuit people 18 years of age and older are eligible for the vaccine. This includes people who are 18 and older who are pregnant, clients of the community living disABILITY services aged 18 and older. Those 18 and older who work as police officers and firefighters, in a health-care setting, including outpatient settings, a vaccine warehouse, alternative isolation accommodations and congregate living facilities are eligible for the vaccine. Direct-care providers in homeless shelters, family violence shelters, emergency placement shelters and second-stage housing, congregate group care settings in Community Living disABILITY Services or the child and family services sector who are 18 and over are eligible for the vaccine. At the 3 p.m. question period for the province Tuesday, Canadian Press reporter Steve Lambert tweeted: "The health department has confirmed what the premier mentioned in QP today vaccines will be available to all 18+ tomorrow. (Age was dropped from 30 to 24 today) Details in the weekly Wednesday tech briefing. #mbpoli #covid19mb." ENFORCEMENT INCREASES FINES The province issued more than $70,000 in fines for violation of public health orders for the week of May 3-9. In an effort to discourage violations of public health orders, Manitoba enforcement officers issued 97 warnings and 60 tickets in that time frame. A breakdown of the tickets and fines are as follows: 50 tickets worth $1,296 each were issued to people for various offences Nine tickets worth $298 each were issued to people who refused to wear a mask indoors in public places One ticket was issued to a business for $5,000 Gatherings in private residences made up the bulk of the tickets issued, as 47 were handed out for a total of $60,912 in fines. Three tickets totalling just under $4,000 were issued to people failing to self-isolate. Large gatherings and rallies were on Manitoba Justices radar screen as followup and investigations took place once they became aware of them, with 32 tickets issued totalling $41,472. This includes two tickets from the Winkler rally on May 1, eight tickets from the rally at The Forks in Winnipeg on May 2 and 22 tickets from the Law Courts rally on May 3. Investigations are ongoing and additional charges are expected. In order to strengthen the provincial public health orders, the province has taken steps to amend the Preset Fines and Offence Descriptions Regulation and the Provincial Offences General Regulation under the Provincial Offences General Regulation under the Provincial Offences Act. Those steps include increasing provincial fines for people who receive more than two or more tickets for failing to wear a mask from $298 to $486. People receiving fines for two or more tickets who were fined $1,296 in the past will now see the fine increased to $2,542. The fine for failure to pay a ticket has increased from $50 to $100. Travellers arriving at Winnipeg International Airport are still being greeted by Commissionaires Manitoba and reminded to self-isolate. There are almost 3,300 enforcement personnel across the province capable of enforcing public health orders, a release from the province said. Since April 2020, there have been 4,105 warnings and 1,354 tickets issued, with a total of $1.8 million in fines to businesses and individuals. kkielley@brandonsun.com TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran's state television reported Wednesday that the country's former firebrand president will run again for office in upcoming elections in June. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iran's state television reported Wednesday that the country's former firebrand president will run again for office in upcoming elections in June. Broadcast footage showed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad marching accompanied by supporters to a registration center at the Interior Ministry where he filled out registration forms. Ahmadinejad in recent years has tried to polish his hardline image into a more centrist candidacy, criticizing the government for mismanagement. The Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad has previously been banned from running for the presidency by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2017, although then, he registered anyway. Khamenei says he will not oppose the nomination of any candidate, although the electoral council may still block Ahmadinejad's candidacy. In either case, the populist's return to the political scene may energize discontent among hard-liners who seek a tougher stance against the west particularly Israel and the U.S. Iran opened registration on Tuesday, kicking off the race as uncertainty looms over Tehrans tattered nuclear deal with world powers and tensions remain high with the West. President Hassan Rouhani can not run again due to term limits, yet with the poll just a month away no immediate favorite has emerged among the many rumored candidates. There also appears to be little interest in the vote by a public crushed by sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, many view the countrys hard-liners as ascendant even as the U.S. under President Joe Biden tries to find a way to re-enter the atomic accord. Whoever wins the June 18 vote will take over from Rouhani, a relative moderate within the Islamic Republic whose two four-year terms began with Iran reaching the nuclear deal. His time in office now draws to a close with the accord unraveled after the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from it under President Donald Trump in 2018. It turned out that the operation required fresh blood. And the bank found it in Boris Collardi, who performed one of the most audacious manoeuvres in Swiss banking in 2018 when he abruptly left as CEO of Zurich private-banking nemesis Julius Baer and decamped to the shores of Lake Geneva to join Pictet. On the face of it, Collardi is everything that the typical Pictet stakeholder is not. More bon vivant than ascetic financier, Collardi, 46, stands apart as the first outside partner in decades. He also brought serious star power and a dose of bonhomie to the Pictet franchise that values uniformity over individualism, down to the subdued colour palette of the partners perfectly tailored suits. In its entire history, only 43 individuals all men, all white have risen to the rank of Pictet managing partner, creating a bond more enduring than your typical marriage. Credit:Bloomberg His ascent to the Pictet partnership not only made him one of the youngest people in recent history to hold that title, it also tipped the scale for the first time to a majority of members in the group who arent descendants of the founding families. In Collardi, the partners identified a peer who could pick up from Best, a longtime acquaintance who had introduced the new hire to the other partners. And Collardi was already well versed in Asia, where Pictet was keen to tap into an affluent class of newly minted billionaires preparing to pass on their wealth to the next generation. But Collardi also had to adjust to the new reality of no longer being the undisputed leader. Instead, he is now one voice among seven, where every decision is made in unison. The weekly meetings are presided over by senior partner Renaud de Planta, who declined to comment for this story. Collardi also accelerated an overhaul of the investment and trading platforms, replacing some of the longest-serving portfolio managers with investment advisers half their age. Up until a few years ago, the firm was so old-fashioned that managing partners were expected to be addressed as Notre Sieur, a formal French title for sire. By the end of 2020, Pictets wealth bankers had swelled to 1,098 from 740 just five years earlier, an expansion not dissimilar to absorbing a full-blown acquisition. The changes echo the overhaul that Collardi enacted at Julius Baer. Over the course of a decade, he turbocharged the storied private bank, sending it on a breakneck expansion from Sao Paulo to Singapore, doubling assets under management as a result. But despite his meteoric rise, Collardi remained, by his own account at the time of the move, only an employee. Pictet, by contrast, offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become an entrepreneur with extra financial legroom but without the daily grind of running a publicly-listed company. Making Pictet partner brings a stake in a steady business whose owners share in more than 500 million francs in annual profit. Up until a few years ago, the firm was so old-fashioned that managing partners were expected to be addressed as Notre Sieur, a formal French title for sire. The challenge facing the partners is that in order to grow, they need to aggressively target Asia, the epicentre of wealth creation. But that requires the embrace of new and potentially riskier investment assets, chief among them structured products, which use derivatives to track the performance of an underlying asset. Former Julius Baer CEO Boris Collardi has helped drag Pictect into the 21st century since joining the company. Credit:Bloomberg Collardi spent more than a year trying to win backing from the other partners to push Pictet to sell its own products in that asset class. The others werent convinced, priding themselves in their track record of never having endured a defaulted loan. The project was watered down in early 2020 and Pictet settled for the less-risky option of being a broker selling other banks structured products. While Pictet has steadily grown over the years, it has so far avoided the tense transitions to a modernised corporate structure embraced by other well-known former partnerships, notably Goldman Sachs and Lazard. Pictet may still be much smaller than publicly-listed wealth managers, but the bank packs a punch when it comes to profitability. Pictet long managed to achieve a return on equity above 40 per cent, a number thats unheard of for any modern bank. While the figure has come down to between 16 per cent and 21 per cent in the past half decade, its still a cut above UBS, Credit Suisse and Julius Baer. The transformation in 2014 into a limited partnership removed the risk of the partners bearing the full brunt of losses. As a result of the change in legal status, Pictet began publicly disclosing performance data. They are in the old world of Geneva private bankers, and the new world of globalised finance, where they want to be present internationally, they want to grow, they want to present themselves as modern, but not too much. Two worlds that are on a collision course. Pedro Araujo, a senior researcher at the University of Fribourg, who has studied Switzerlands elite families. Suddenly, Pictet was forced to reckon with its haphazard organisation that often put personal relationships before a systematic structure. Until then, it wasnt unusual for bankers to act independently with no uniform approach to clients, for example sending out correspondence using their own fonts and letterheads. Among historic quirks, some employees didnt have a formal work contract joining the bank was a social compact with a benevolent patriarchy holding a protective hand over its flock. Pictet embarked on a long march into the 21st century, guided by one of its partners. A former McKinsey executive, Remy Best was attuned to performance metrics and organisational optimisation. Fresh from turning Pictets asset management arm into a metric-minded profit generator, Best next set his eyes on wealth management, long a protected sanctuary at Pictet because it used to bring in the bulk of money. The bank took a hard look at which private wealth customers were bringing in the lions share of revenue, realising that some were costing Pictet too much, while others still should be targeted more aggressively to buy more services. Bests forensic approach caused a stir among employees. Pictets private bankers hadnt previously been required to disclose their clients, or say how much money they were making for the bank. Personal customer relationships gave way to faceless scorecards measuring net new money, return on assets, and whether bankers met growth targets. In its entire history, only 43 individuals all men, all white have risen to the rank of Pictet managing partner. Each time a partner joins the reigning fellowship, he is required to purchase a substantial stake of the company. To finance the transaction, existing partners provide a loan to their newest member, who pays them back over time. A departing partner must start selling his share back to the bank. To support this ebb and flow of stakes, the bank aims for a minimum 20 per cent return on equity. During a presentation in February, a cherished Pictet ritual held online for the first time this year, de Planta laid out last years key numbers. The bank was buoyed like many others by the market volatility the pandemic provided from the boom in investing revenue to a rebound in variable compensation for employees and a record number of assets under management as clients sought safety. Four Cook County sheriffs deputies were taken to a hospital after being punched in the head and face by a man about to appear before a judge in bond court at the Skokie courthouse Wednesday, according to the sheriffs office. During the height of her popularity, Elizabeth Holmes appeared on the cover of Time and appeared on stage to discuss her company with the likes of Bill Clinton. Amy Saharia, a lawyer for Holmes, claimed that Masters opinions are based on emails and customer complaints and are not a scientifically valid way to reach conclusions. To appeal to the jury, Holmes lawyers also revealed they will argue that the idiosyncrasies of Silicon Valley hyperbole, prediction and confidence mean investors knew what they were getting into. Visionaries and their missions have long been idolised in the 50 square miles that encompass the unofficially defined valley. Theranos developed blood testing technology using a fingertip pin-prick instead of a needle and syringe. The brilliant jerks have been venerated and rewarded throughout the valleys history, says Margaret OMara, a historian at the University of Washington. Steve Jobs is one iconic example of a founder who had a certain amount of swagger, although had a beautiful product to back it up. Bill Gates, renowned for his unapologetic competitiveness before his philanthropic years, is another. Exaggeration is a function of trying to convince investors and customers of the necessity of a product that they dont know they need, she says. So when these models are held up to the Elizabeth Holmes of the world, who need to convince people to invest money in their company and buy your product, it lends itself to a bit of hype. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush compares it to Hollywood, where pizzazz and exteriors create almost mythical entrepreneurs and startups. In the past decade weve seen several people built up even bigger than their ideas, he says. It was only when Holmes began to market her product, an Edison device that acted like a mini blood testing lab, that questions began to be raised about Theranos promises. But, for patients and doctors who say they received inaccurate test results, and investors who lost their cash when Theranos folded in 2018, puffery can only take a company so far. A precocious child brought up by wealthy parents her father was a vice-president at Enron in Washington, Holmes often told relatives she wanted to be a billionaire when she grew up. Not a president? they would ask. Because then the president will want to marry me, would come her response. Her parents were supportive, buying her toolkits instead of Barbie dolls, but those who knew her do not recall her being an academic star, claiming her parents backdoored her into Stanford University where she studied mechanical engineering. It was at Stanford that her idea for Theranos blossomed. With her talent for persuasion, Holmes convinced her professor, Channing Robertson, to let her conduct research with his PhD students. She was named a Stanford Presidents Scholar and was given a grant which she used to travel to Singapore to research SARS. Upon her return she decided to drop out, like Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, to start her own company. She spent her nights drawing up and filing patents for a new blood testing system and her days rebuffing warnings from academics in the medical field that her idea may not be feasible. Impressed with his student, Professor Robertson came onto the board. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Holmes also enlisted the help of Balwani, her confidante and would-be lover, to help start the company. Balwani had made his money helping create a software company called CommerceBid and had no experience in biology or medical devices. Holmes quickly crafted a brand that would be considered the Apple of blood tests, securing more than $US700 million in investment. It was only when Holmes began to market her product, an Edison device that acted like a mini blood testing lab, that questions began to be raised about Theranos promises. Stephanie Seitz recalls the feeling that something wasnt right with Theranos after her medical centre, Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and Health Sciences, said they wanted to strike up a partnership with the technology company, keen to be part of the buzzy start-up before it got too big. Seitz, who has a background in lab testing, says: It didnt make sense that you could just do all this blood work from a finger prick. When pushed, Theranos was not as forthcoming as other lab test companies about how it got its results, another red flag. Theranos offered Southwest College and similar centres in Arizona in California coupons to try and get more people buying their lab tests, while Holmes appeared on the cover of Time and appeared on stage to discuss her company with the likes of Bill Clinton. Doctors loved the coupons as it meant patients could shave costs, but some, including Seitz, began noticing that some of the results seemed wrong. Some thyroid labs were out of the ordinary, she says. They began telling patients to get tests from different companies because they didnt think they could trust them. They would return as normal, she says. I could have changed their medication and possibly caused a side effect because of it. Loading One big name, Walgreens, was left facing shareholder and consumer legal action after it placed Edison machines in some of its shops in California and Arizona. Meanwhile, Holmes had told investors that Theranos would generate more than $US100 million in revenues, break even in 2014 and generate some $US1 billion in revenues in 2015 when, in truth, the defendants knew Theranos would generate small amounts in either year, US prosecutors claim. The company would come to be worth nothing within three years time. Telegraph, London Those Who Wish Me Dead MA, 100 minutes Angelina Jolies screen career can be summed up in four words dont mess with me. Imperiousness is her thing, although I havent taken her quite so seriously since 2015 when she gave us By the Sea, her severely debilitated version of a European art film. She and Brad Pitt co-starred as a couple trying to mend their troubled marriage in an unnaturally quiet Mediterranean village where they concentrated on doing very little. She was seen mainly in close-up looking soulful in a sunhat. Angelina Jolie plays a daredevil firefighter in Those Who Wish me Dead. Credit:Courtesy of Warner Bros But shes back on form in Those Who Wish Me Dead, which pits her against a Montana wildfire. She plays a smokejumper one of those fire fighters who parachute from light planes to get closer to the blaze. And theres more. Shes also trying to save the life of a 10-year-old boy who is being pursued by two assassins with a taste in black suits and ties that makes them look like escapees from Men in Black without the sense of humour. Malcolm Turnbull says only the threat of losing seats or power would drive the federal government to adopt what he believes to be a credible international position on carbon pollution reduction as he voiced disappointment in the lack of clean energy commitments in the budget. Id say only the prospect of electoral defeat, whether thats at the hands of the Labor Party, which would seem implausible, or independents who are supporters of climate action, Mr Turnbull said in response to a question about what would prompt more government action after a speech at a conference hosted by the Smart Energy Council. NSW Energy & Environment Minister Matt Kean with former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull at the Smart Energy conference on Wednesday. Credit:Steven Siewert Mr Turnbull likened what he called climate denialism in the Coalition to the prevalent false view in the United States Republican Party that President Joe Biden had stolen the presidential election from Donald Trump, saying both narratives were driven by right-wing ideology reinforced by conservative media, including outlets owned by the Murdoch family. Mr Turnbull said Australia could increase its commitments to reduce carbon pollution and have cheaper energy as a result if it was not for entrenched coal support in the government. Thanks for following along today. Labor leader Anthony Albanese delivered his budget reply. It was a disciplined speech, sticking closely to many of the messages that the party has run before everything from the slogan on your side to a commitment to a establish a national integrity commission but it did contain some new promises. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Ages David Crowe has the full report on Mr Albaneses speech, but its worth reading his full analysis too. Crowe argues Mr Albanese is playing it too safe when boldness is needed. In federal politics the day was otherwise dominated by the news released overnight that the government had contracted to buy 25 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. That, experts have told our reporters Rachel Clun, Liam Mannix and Emma Koehn, will help ensure the Australian population get their first doses by the end of the year. And there was dramatic news out of NSW, where Berejiklian government minister Gareth Ward has moved to the crossbench and denied allegations of sexual violence. Police are investigating. We will be back tomorrow. See you there. Gambling giant The Star says construction of a Metro West train station on land the company owns in inner Sydney will jeopardise its plans for a 140-metre tower near its casino in Pyrmont. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed on Wednesday a station for the governments flagship Metro West rail line would be built between Pyrmont Bridge Road and Union Street in Pyrmont close to The Stars casino as the cost of the project firms at $27 billion. Another station would be constructed at Hunter Street in the CBD. Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Transport Minister Andrew Constance confirm the sites of the new train stations for Metro West. Credit:James Alcock The Star last year proposed building the high-rise complex on the Union Street site south of the casino, and a 110-metre tower at the northern end of its existing site at Pyrmont. A spokesman for The Star said the casino operator had first learned of the confirmed location for the Metro West stop when staff were notified of a property acquisition process via email on Wednesday morning. Since Annie Withrow gave birth to her first child last year a baby boy named after a bay in her home state of Alaska she has been anxiously waiting for the moment she could introduce him to her parents. But her hope that it might happen this year is becoming more and more remote. Perth couple Annie Withrow and Krishan Shah with their son Kalsin Shah. The 36-year-old, who lives in Perth with her husband Krishan Shah and son Kalsin, was one of many across the country left frustrated and despairing on Tuesday when predictions contained in the federal budget indicated international borders might not reopen until mid-2022. My expectation was [my parents in Alaska] wouldnt meet him till he was a year old, but that was before I knew how bad it was all going to get, said Ms Withrow. There were major delays on Brisbanes buses and trains in the wake of a short but intense storm that changed the city skyline to green as it approached, then left hints of yellow in the aftermath. Beenleigh, Cleveland and Gold Coast line trains were suspended just after 5.30pm due to an overhead power line issue caused by the storm. Delays were up to 70 minutes, TransLink said. The sky over Brisbane City about 5.15pm on Wednesday, as the storm started to blow over. Credit:Toby Crockford Ferny Grove trains were also delayed by up to 15 minutes due to a storm-related signal issue. There was also lesser delays for Shorncliffe, Redcliffe, Caboolture, Sunshine Coast and Airport trains. Inbound buses on Coronation Drive in Milton were delayed by up to an hour due to congestion. All buses travelling through Brisbane CBD were delayed up to 20 minutes due to the wet weather. Victorian teachers will be banned from having sex with former students for at least two years after the students finish their secondary education, under a shake-up of rules governing teacher behaviour. The new rules, which will come into force next term, will apply to more than 135,000 registered teachers across the state, and those caught breaching them could be struck off. A code of conduct review raised concerns over teachers grooming students during their final years of school. Credit:Eamon Gallagher The ban is included in a new code of conduct created by professional regulator the Victorian Institute of Teaching. The institute was prompted to update the code for the first time in more than a decade after two inquiries into child sexual abuse the Betrayal of Trust Inquiry in Victoria and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse highlighted the risk of grooming by teachers. The Treasurers annual budget lunch for the National Press Club was a full house after last years cancellation. Amazon, Westpac, BHP were all there to glad-hand Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who recounted a post-budget encounter with a tough critic his four-year-old son Blake, who was told to shush by his mother Amie during the budget address. Loading Blake later told him attending last nights budget was the most boring thing hes ever done. Good news for Frydenberg jnr that his father had booked him and the family on a return flight to Melbourne on Wednesday evening. But at the function, Qantas took its regular two tables, honouring a tradition of hosting federal departmental secretaries including Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy, Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo, and DFATs Frances Adamson. But a notable omission was Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, who didnt make it down from Sydney. Joyce wouldnt have needed to glad-hand in Canberra, given how just one week ago he had trousered millions of dollars in state incentives and tax relief after sending state premiers Daniel Andrews, Gladys Berejiklian and Annastacia Palaszczuk into a tailspin for floating the idea of moving Qantas and Jetstars headquarters interstate. A report into the tragic death of seven-year-old Morley Primary School student Aishwarya Aswath found she succumbed to a bacterial infection on April 3. Health Minister Roger Cook provided a summary of the reports findings and recommendations to Parliament on Wednesday and said it was clear Aishwarya and her parents did not receive the right level of care from the Perth Childrens Hospital emergency department on the night of her death. The report finds that it appears Aishwarya succumbed to an infection related to group A streptococcus, which is associated with very poor health outcomes and high mortality, he said. The report makes it clear that Aishwarya and her parents should have received better care; they did not get the help they asked for. On April 28, Chicago police and federal agents interviewed Adams, who said that he and his roommate, Miller, would go to gun shops in the area, and Miller would send him money to purchase weapons. Adams said he believed Miller was selling the firearms on the street in Chicago. Beni: When Shekinah was working as a nurses aide in north-eastern Democratic Republican of Congo in January 2019, she said, she was offered a job from a World Health Organisation doctor at double her salary in exchange for sex. Given the financial difficulties of my family [] I accepted, said Shekinah, 25, who asked that only her first name be used for fear of repercussions. She said a Canadian doctor, who often bragged about his connections to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, allegedly made the same proposition to several of her friends. When a staffer and three Ebola experts working in Congo informed WHO management about sex abuse concerns regarding the Canadian doctor, they were told not to take the matter further, The Associated Press has found. Shekinah sasy the doctor offered her a job investigating Ebola cases at double her previous salary. Credit:AP WHO has been facing widespread public allegations of systemic abuse of women by unnamed staffers, to which Ghebreyesus declared outrage and emergencies director Dr Michael Ryan said, We have no more information than you have. For our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here. Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size It is easy to forget that Chinese researchers from Wuhan discovered the origins of the 2002 SARS outbreak. In a remote cave in the south-western province of Yunnan, virologists identified a colony of horseshoe bats with virus strains that jumped to humans and went on to kill hundreds of people around the world. They made their discovery in 2017 almost 15 years after the first SARS outbreak. Around the same time as the researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology were searching for the bats, another group of Chinese researchers were working on a far less credible theory that SARS had been weaponised by foreign countries and introduced to China. The claim was published in a 2015 book, The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons, written by scientists from a military university and civilian researchers. The conspiracy theory attracted little attention and was discredited by the legitimate scientific community in China. But the book, available online for $9.99, continued to make its way around fringe websites and bookstores. When COVID-19 hit and Wuhan was identified as the epicentre of a new pandemic, everything changed. The books price surged tenfold as scarce physical copies were swept up by online conspiracy communities who seized upon its bogus central claim about the origin of SARS. They claimed it was evidence that China was trying to turn the tables on its enemies in the murky field of bio-warfare. A security person moves journalists away from the Wuhan Institute of Virology after the WHO team arrived in February. Credit:AP Indeed, the book is now one of the key references for what is the Wuhan lab bio-warfare theory, which posits that after foreign powers manufactured SARS and introduced it to China in 2002, Beijing developed the technology as a bio-weapon that was either accidentally or deliberately released in 2019, infecting 159 million people and killing 3.3 million worldwide so far. Ever since the novel coronavirus broke containment lines in China, a propaganda war has raged about its origins. Media networks, in China and closer to home, have sometimes been co-opted into these campaigns. Beijing has repeatedly claimed without evidence that the virus may have come from frozen food imported into China and called for inspectors to be sent into the United States and Europe to investigate claims COVID-19 originated there. Advertisement A joint China-World Health Organisation investigation, hampered by Beijings lack of transparency, said in February it was most likely to have been transmitted through an intermediate animal host and may have been spread through frozen wild animals in the Wuhan market. The Trump administration, on the other hand, enthusiastically promoted the theory that the virus leaked out of the Wuhan Institute of Virology: regarded as the least likely scenario of those examined by WHOs medical experts. The stakes are high: substantial evidence of a Wuhan lab leak would damage Chinas international standing and its pursuit of global influence. As far back as last April 2020, the Australian intelligence community was concerned that the Trump administration was vulnerable to circular intelligence, which is when a government tip triggers a story that ends up being referenced in an intelligence briefing. This concern was heightened when News Corp Australia tabloid The Daily Telegraph ran a lengthy front-page story on May 4 2020 about a 15-page dossier that laid the foundation for the case of negligence being mounted against China. Loading The Telegraph story alleged that China destroyed evidence at Wuhan research facilities and was soon being quoted in the US by national security experts on Fox News. It was followed up by Trumps trade adviser Peter Navarro who said China spawned the virus. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo then claimed there was enormous evidence of a Wuhan lab leak. The document was, in fact, a non-paper compiled by the US State Department which contained no classified information, referenced news reports and was merely a timeline of events, according to multiple senior Australian government sources who have read the document. It could not have come at a worse time; Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne had called weeks before for an independent investigation into the coronavirus and the headlines made it seem as if Canberra had aligned with the Trump administration to push the Wuhan lab theory at the expense of other lines of inquiry. Advertisement Last Saturday, another document obtained by the US State Department landed on the front page of The Australian. Chinese military scientists discussed weaponising SARS coronaviruses, the headline read. News Corp investigative reporter Sharri Markson wrote the stories in the Telegraph and The Australian. She is also writing a book investigating the evidence for a laboratory leak that will be published by Murdoch-owned HarperCollins this year. The paper Markson describes in her article in The Australian is in fact the book that came out in 2015, Unnatural Origin of SARS. The article said the book was evidence that senior Chinese scientists were training the military in biological warfare five years before the COVID-19 outbreak. The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons, written by scientists from a military university and civilian researchers (2015). This is a war mentality, teaching Chinese students the best conditions under which to release a bio-weapon, Markson said on her Sky News show the following day. This is very dangerous stuff. Within hours, some Australian MPs jumped on Marksons report as evidence of Chinas intentions. Senator Matt Canavan, a former Coalition frontbencher, said The Australian had done an amazing job uncovering documents that show Chinese plans for biological warfare. Appearing on Marksons Sky News show on Sunday night, James Paterson, the chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, said the paper showed that biological weapons are of a great deal of interest to the highest levels of the Peoples Liberation Army. But Paterson did not entirely embrace the books premise, cautioning that the environment was ripe for disinformation. He said until China allowed an independent investigation, conspiracy theories would flourish. The article in The Australian reported the US State Department obtained the document in May, 2020, as it conducted an investigation into the origins of COVID-19. Advertisement Robert Potter, the Canberra internet security analyst who verified the authenticity of the document in Marksons story, said he told The Australian that the book was available on Amazon, Twitter and WeChat. It had been covered by some pretty right-wing people, [including] some of the Miles Guo crowd, he said, referring to the exiled Chinese billionaire who has partnered with Steve Bannon in an attempt to overthrow the Chinese Communist Party. And that was all part of my findings, he said. It's pretty much what's on the can. It is a conspiracy theory document written by some people who have some affiliation with the Chinese government. The theory is ridiculous. It is like saying I can divine US military secrets by reading some random book from Amazon. Adam Ni, China Policy Centre Markson said she never claimed the book was secret, pointing out that she reported it had been circulating among dissidents since Pompeo made a passing reference to it in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece in February this year. She said it provided an insight into how 18 senior military scientists affiliated with a defence university were thinking about weaponising coronaviruses. Highly respected China analyst Luke de Pulford said this document raised very serious questions that need urgent answers about how Chinese scientists at military academies are thinking about bio-weapons, she told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Feel free to contact him. Asked for his views on the importance of the book, de Pulford, the co-ordinator of the International Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group of up to 200 MPs concerned about Chinas rising power, was equivocal. I make no claims about the significance of the paper thats a question for the China analysts, and there are at least two schools of thought on it, he said. Whats beyond doubt is the papers provenance. Its legitimate and poses questions which deserve thorough probing. Advertisement New Corps Fox News followed up on Marksons story on Sunday, questioning US Republican Homeland Security Committee member Ron Johnson on whether the article showed China was preparing biological weapons for World War III. Does that shock anybody? It certainly doesnt shock me, said Johnson. Steve Bannon, former Trump adviser and founder of the right-wing Breitbart news network, hosted Markson on his podcast to discuss the Wuhan lab theory. Credit:AP Markson then was a guest on Tuesday on the War Room podcast hosted by Bannon, Trumps former chief strategist and chair of far-right media network Breitbart. She told him it was absurd that the Wuhan lab theory was being treated as a conspiracy and claimed it had been marked as a cold case by Western intelligence agencies. It has taken such a long time, you know, and it really wasnt until Trump left office for people even to begin to comprehend that this might not have a natural origin, she said. Out of office, some individuals close to Trump, including Pompeo, have publicly linked COVID-19 to Chinas bio-weapons program and promoted the importance of the 2015 book. American intelligence services are still probing the Wuhan lab leak theory and the Australian government also has not ruled it out. Some officials within both governments, who were not authorised to speak publicly, put the probability of a leak as high as 40 per cent, while they consider the possibility that it jumped directly from an animal host in nature to humans at 60 per cent. But there is no line of inquiry suggesting it was deliberately leaked. Advertisement Defund the police may be the lefts most damaging political slogan since the dictatorship of the proletariat. It leaves the right with an economic message which seems more practical and a powerful cultural message around defending flag, family and fireside traditional values. Loading Blair said moderate figures on the left often steered clear of cultural and identity debates because they didnt understand them and worried about tripping up or saying the wrong thing. As a result they didnt recognise a culture war was happening, decided not to participate or played at the back as quietly as possible. The right knows they are onto something on cultural issues, said the former PM. They are revelling in it and setting traps for the left all over the field, which the left is falling into one by one. Blair sealed a landslide election victory in 1997 and won two other polls before quitting in 2007 amid low ratings and fallout from the Iraq war. His essay was published a week after UK Labour suffered major losses at a series of council elections. It was also thumped during a byelection in the traditional Labour stronghold of Hartlepool - a sign that the Conservatives still enjoy strong support from traditional blue-collar voters who overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the 2019 general election. Matthew Goodwin, a professor of politics at the University of Kent, earlier this week calculated the centre-left vote was at its lowest level in the UK since 1935, lowest in Austria since 1911, lowest in Germany since 1932 and lowest in Sweden since 1908. It is at its lowest ever in France, Italy and the Netherlands and second-lowest on record in Finland, Goodwin said. UK Labour is still in disarray after its former leader Jeremy Corbyn, the most left-wing figure to ever lead the party, presided over a catastrophic defeat at the 2019 poll. Outlining the principles of how to arrest the lefts electoral woes, Blair warned against keeping your head down. There is a big culture battle going on. Progressive folk tend to wince at terms such as woke and political correctness, but the normal public knows exactly what they mean, he said. Loading And the battle is being fought on ground defined by the right because sensible progressives dont want to be on the field at all. The consequence of this is that the radical progressives, who are quite happy to fight on that ground, carry the progressive standard. The fact that it ensures continued right-wing victory doesnt deter them at all. On the contrary, it gives them a heightened sense of righteousness, like political kamikaze. Blair said the left needed to understand that voters do not like their country, flag or history to be disrespected. The left always gets confused by this sentiment and assume this means people support everything their country has done or think all their history is sacrosanct, he said. They dont. But they query imposing the thinking of today on the practices of yesterday; theyre suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme; and theyre instinctively brilliant at distinguishing between the sentiment and the movement. They will support strongly campaigns against racism; but they recoil from some of the language and actions of the fringes of the Black Lives Matter movement. You could go through the entire litany of modern causes and find the same - from Extinction Rebellion to trans rights to Reclaim the Streets - in the same way. People like common sense, proportion and reason. They dislike prejudice; but they dislike extremism in combating prejudice. Labour has not governed in the UK for more than six consecutive years except for Blairs decade years in office. Blair described current leader Sir Keir Starmer as intelligent and capable but said he had failed to cut through. The Labour Party is now scratching its collective head and wondering why the replacement of an extremist with someone more moderate isnt achieving the miracle renaissance, Blair said. But the Labour Party wont revive simply by a change of leader. It needs total deconstruction and reconstruction. Labour leader Keir Starmer visits a pub last summer. Credit:PA Blair finished the essay by suggesting the party search for a new governing coalition comprising other centrist minor parties. Gaza City: Israel killed a string of senior Hamas military figures on Wednesday and pounded three multi-storey towers as it hammered the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and militants in the territory fired rocket barrages. Dozens have died in the worst violence since a 2014 war, with no resolution in sight. The fighting has taken on many hallmarks of that devastating 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas, but with a startling new factor: a burst of fury from Israels Palestinian citizens in support of those living in the territories as well as counter-violence by Jewish Israelis. Smoke and fire rises following Israeli airstrikes on a building in Gaza City on Wednesday. Credit:AP In response, Israel deployed border guards in two mixed Arab-Jewish cities that saw unrest in previous days, including the burning of a Jewish-owned restaurant and a synagogue, the fatal shooting of an Arab man and attacks on Arab-owned cars. It was a rare use of the paramilitary force, which normally puts down protests by Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Palls of gray smoke rose in Gaza, as Israeli airstrikes struck apartment towers and blasted multiple Hamas security installations. In Israel, hundreds of rockets fired by Gazas Hamas rulers and other militants at times overwhelmed missile defences and sent air-raid sirens and explosions echoing across Tel Aviv, Israels biggest metropolitan area, and other cities. Washington: House Republicans ousted congresswoman Liz Cheney from her post as the chambers No. 3 Republican leader, punishing her after she repeatedly rebuked former president Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in inciting the January 6 Capitol attack. Meeting behind closed doors for less than 20 minutes on Wednesday (Thursday AEST), Republican lawmakers used a voice vote to remove the Wyoming congresswoman from her leadership post, the latest evidence that challenging Trump can be career-threatening for a Republican, even one from party royalty. A defiant Liz Cheney made clear that she would own her banishment from leadership ranks. Credit:AP A daughter of former vice-president Dick Cheney, the congresswoman is an old-school Republican establishment pillar, and her demotion stands as a striking, perhaps defining moment for the Republican Party. Both inside the private meeting and later to reporters, a defiant Cheney made clear that she would own her banishment from leadership ranks as a badge of honour and try to steer the party away from a former president she considers a threat to democracy. Two dead whales dislodged from underneath a Royal Australian Navy ship as it berthed in San Diego at the weekend. The incident was confirmed by the Australian Department of Defence in a statement on Wednesday. The Royal Australian Navy can confirm that as HMAS Sydney was berthing alongside Naval Base San Diego in California two deceased whales dislodged from her hull beneath the surface, it said. The US Navy and the Royal Australian Navy are cooperating with the NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] Fisheries and other agencies to review the incident. At this time, there is no reason to believe the three men had anything whatsoever to do with the handling of, or knowingly using explosive devices, attorney Tara R. Devine said in a news release. But we do know demolition was actively occurring in the area as part of bridge work. We will be hiring some of the best experts in the country to assist us in our investigation and hopefully bring peace of mind to Inmer, Rafael and Guillermos family. HARRISBURG >> The Pennsylvania House of Representatives on June 9 passed legislation authored by State Rep. Wendi Thomas (R-Bucks) to increase the amount of the burial benefit provided to those who perform burials with military honors for deceased veterans at any one of the Commonwealt Passenger vehicle wholesales in India declined by 10 per cent to 2,61,633 units last month as compared to March this year as COVID-19-led restrictions across various states impacted demand, auto industry body SIAM said on Wednesday. in March 2021, stood at 2,90,939 units. There were no in April 2020, due to coronavirus-led nationwide lockdown. "As expected, the COVID wave has impacted the sales of vehicles in the month of April 2021. Sales of passenger vehicles fell by about 10.07 per cent, compared to March 2021, due to various restrictions in states which have been experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases," SIAM Director General Rajesh Menon said. As per the latest data by Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), two-wheeler dispatches to dealers declined by 33 per cent to 9,95,097 units last month, as compared to 14,96,806 units in March. Motorcycle sales saw a dip of 33 per cent to 6,67,841 units, as against 9,93,996 in March this year. Similarly, scooter sales fell 34 per cent to 3,00,462 units, from 4,57,677 units in March. Three-wheeler sales also declined by 57 per cent to 13,728 units, as compared to 31,930 units in March this year. Vehicle sales across categories declined by 30 per cent to 12,70,458 units last month, as against 18,19,682 units in March. (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.) on Wednesday announced appointment of V S Parthasarathy and a Swiss national, Martin Mueller as independent directors on its board. Parthasarathy was till recently Group CFO and CIO of Mahindra & Mahindra while Mueller is a former partner at global consulting giant McKinsey. Mueller and Parthasarathy have also joined the board of Allcargo's wholly-owned subsidiary ECU Worldwide, the company said in a statement. ECU Worldwide is a Belgian multinational, operating Allcargo Group's global operations with presence in over 160 markets and is the world's largest less-than-cargo load (LCL) consolidator. "With Partha and Martin joining our Board... I expect this intellectual and diversified combination of cross-functional leadership and professional expertise will help us immensely as Allcargo prepares to move forward in its journey of excellence leading to meet our vision for the future, said Shashi Kiran Shetty, Founder and Chairman, Parthasarathy as CEO for the mobility business, and in Group CFO and CIO roles, has served the Indian conglomerate in diverse leadership roles for more than two decades, the statement said. He has over three decades of rich professional experience across varied domains spanning HR, finance, M&A, IT and global operations. Mueller, a graduate from Switzerland's university of St. Gallen, specialises in strategic growth of organizations with experience across Europe, APAC and the Middle East, among others. He comes with a rich experience in the logistics industry, having advised several leading global logistics corporations over the years, according to the statement. A part of the Avvashya Group, operates out of more than 300 offices in 160 plus countries and is supported by a network of franchisee offices across the world. Low-cost carrier said on Wednesday that it will commence a programme to get its entire workforce vaccinated free of cost. Accordingly, has tied up with various hospitals in different cities for the vaccination programme. "The airline will pay the cost for both dozes of vaccination," it said. Besides, has planned to allow vaccinated employees to take two days' leave over and above the entitled threshold. At present, the airline has 4,481 employees in its workforce, who will get vaccinated. --IANS rv/arm (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.) Mid-sized motorcycle maker on Wednesday said it has decided to shut down its two facilities between May 13-16 in order to safeguard its employees amid the second wave of pandemic in the country. The company, which is a part of Eicher Motors, would utilise the shutdown to undertake maintenance activity at its plants. "In light of the unprecedented situation owing to the spread of COVID-19, and with an objective to prioritise safety and well-being of its personnel, the company has decided to temporarily halt production operations at its facilities in Chennai," said in a statement. The company's manufacturing operations across Thiruvottiyur, Oragadam and Vallam Vadagal facilities will remain shut between May 13 and May 16, 2021, it added. Given local lockdowns across states and Union Territories impacting retail operations, the company does not foresee any significant impact on ability to cater to demand, stated. The company continues to monitor the situation closely and will take appropriate actions as the situation progresses; and in line with the directives being issued by the government and administrative authorities, it added. Royal Enfield has issued advisories to all dealerships in the country to adhere to local regulations and follow local administrative orders, as may apply, it said. All other employees across the company offices, including corporate offices in Chennai and Gurgaon continue to work from home, until further notice, it added. Earlier this week, Yamaha Motor (IYM) announced it would suspend production from May 15-31 at its two plants in the country. On May 9, two-wheeler market leader Hero MotoCorp extended shutdown of its plants across India by another week till May 16 in view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the country. The Indian industry has recorded a 9.4 per cent growth in the January-March quarter of 2021, helped by a consumption-led growth and value growth by increased prices of products, especially of staples, said data analytics firm The rural market continued to perform with strong growth of 14.6 per cent during the period and the metro markets have registered a positive growth after two quarters. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry sales growth from the traditional trade channels jumped to double digits, while growth in e-commerce normalised down to single digits in the January-March quarter. " industry in India has built growth momentum by growing at 9.4 per cent in the quarter ending March 2021 after growing at 7.3 per cent in the previous quarter (October-December 2020), over the same quarter of the previous year," said Snapshot for Q1 2021 released by NielsenIQ's Retail Intelligence team. Commenting on it, NielsenIQ South Asia Lead Diptanshu Ray said: "This is backed up by staples, essential non-foods and indulgence categories. However, he also cautions that the beginning of the second quarter may bring some new dimensions, as the situation is dynamic across the country. "Now that lockdowns have resurfaced, and with last-mile delivery boost up, the e-commerce channel will continue to be dynamic, it said. According to the report, the metro cities have registered a positive growth of 2.2 per cent in the January-March quarter after two-quarters of the declining trend versus the year-ago period. "Rural markets continue to further build on the growth momentum - growing at 14.6 per cent in the Mar quarter after a 14.2 per cent growth it posted in the Dec quarter, it said. Moreover, expects a good expected monsoon this season, making it the third consecutive year of rural rejoice. This had a boost up effect on the earnings of agrarian households and kept rural sentiments upbeat. Besides, rural centric schemes as bigger outlay for MGNREGA, rise in wages and increase in MSP of key crops have been instrumental in keeping FMCG consumption in rural markets buoyant. "We also saw the Large and medium-sized bouncing back in Rural India, it added. While talking about the consumption growth during the January-March quarter, said it was uniform for both foods and non-foods Foods basket got a boost from the pricing uptick - mainly in staples categories like Edible Oils and Packaged Tea. Consumption growth witnessed for certain categories in non-staple Foods categories as well such as Biscuits, Coffee, Cheese, Ketchup because of increased in-home consumption. "There are green shoots of personal care categories' growth coming back while Snacking and Impulse Foods basket maintained growth trajectory," it said. On the other hand, the Non-Foods categories basket saw a dip in average pricing. "This is due to the increased contribution of larger packs in the consumer basket and rise in consumer promotions in Essential Home Care and Personal Care categories," it 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.) Has the storm passed for Holding Ltd.? That will be the question for executives and investors as the Chinese e-commerce giant reports on Thursday in the wake of a government crackdown on co-founder Jack Mas empire. Profit and revenue for the quarter are sure to be less consequential than any concrete evidence about whether the regulatory issues are resolved. Alibaba has agreed to a record $2.8 billion penalty from Beijing and vowed to change certain practices deemed anti-competitive, including a requirement that merchant sell exclusively on its platforms or not at all. Executives also thanked regulators and pledged to support merchants -- all in a bid to put the regulator troubles behind it. On Monday, Alibaba held its annual staff and family event at its sprawling Hangzhou campus, where kids played in ball pits and drew doodles while the companys animal mascots posed for photos with employees in cosplay outfits. Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang hosted a wedding ceremony for dozens of young couples, according to a corporate video. No matter when you have good times or challenges, lets have passion and love, and make our lives and work better, he told them. Ma was spotted in a blue t-shirt at the festivities, according to photos online, making a rare appearance following a period of enforced hibernation during the worst of Alibabas troubles. But several key issues remain unresolved. Alibabas finance affiliate, Co., is still wrangling with regulators over its future. Beijing is debating how it will regulate the use of data, which is core to Alibabas competitive advantage. And finally, the government is considering whether to compel Alibaba to shed media assets, which have supported its brand -- and Mas. The firm has lost roughly $260 billion in value since rising to a record in late October. Its Hong Kong shares rose as much as 4.4% Wednesday, paring losses since the fine was announced to about 1%. For the record, the financial results are expected to be strong. Revenue for the March quarter is projected to rise 58% to 180.4 billion yuan ($28 billion) -- recovering from a Covid low -- although net income will take a hit from the fine. Here are the key things investors will quiz management about. - Ants Uncertain Future Alibaba owns a third of Ant, the company at the center of Beijings fintech crackdown. Its report card this week will provide a peek into how the affiliate performed during the three months ended December -- when its record initial public offering was called off as regulatory scrutiny swung into high gear -- as the fintech firms results lag one quarter behind Alibaba. Just days after the antitrust watchdog handed down its fine on Alibaba, financial regulators ordered Ant to turn itself into a financial holding company that will effectively be supervised more like a bank. The company will need to open its payments app to competitors, increase oversight of how that business fuels its profitable consumer lending operations and cut the outstanding value of its money-market fund Yuebao. That overhaul has already prompted some investors including Fidelity Investments and Warburg Pincus to slash their valuation estimates for Ant, which had once targeted a record $35 billion for its dual listings in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Now, the firms value could plummet to as low as $29 billion from $320 billion previously, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Francis Chan. Data Horde Chinas crackdown on its internet behemoths extend well beyond rooting out practices like forced exclusivity agreements and predatory pricing. Attempts to loosen the stranglehold of Alibaba and its peers over the vast reams of data theyve accumulated may have even more far-reaching implications and the government is said to be exploring a number of models and actions to force the corporations into opening up their data hoards. Beijing is pouring money into digital infrastructure, drafting new laws on data usage and building new data centers around the country with the goal of positioning China as a leader in transforming the world economy over the next few decades. Xi Jinping declared his intention in March to go after platform that amass data to refine their services and create better products that allowed them to create natural monopolies that squeeze out smaller competitors. Media and Deals Like other Chinese tech giants, Mas firm has previously carried out a series of mega mergers and acquisitions through a so-called Variable Interest Entity Structure, which operated on shaky legal grounds. That practice has now come under scrutiny from the State Administration for Market Regulation, which began reviewing years-old deals. Since December, its issued a series of fines to firms for not seeking antitrust clearance, a move that may chill future dealmaking and hamper Alibabas ability to gobble up promising startups or simply buy out competitors that threaten its dominance. Alibaba was ordered in December to pay 500,000 yuan in December for a 2017 deal involving its stake in department store operator Intime Retail Group Co. Other such deals may also come under the spotlight, including its takeover of food-delivery service Ele.me and investment in hypermart operator Sun Art Retail Group Ltd. In the worst-case scenario, Alibaba could be forced to unwind those investments, if theyre found to have violated anti-monopoly laws. Meanwhile, the Chinese government wants Alibaba to sell some of its media assets, including the South China Morning Post, because of growing concerns about the technology giants influence over public opinion in the country, a person familiar with the matter has said. The company has a major stake in the Twitter-like Weibo and owns Youku, one of Chinas biggest streaming services, as well as the SCMP, the leading English-language newspaper in Hong Kong. Moving On For Alibaba, the $2.8 billion fine was less severe than many feared and helps lift a cloud of uncertainty hanging over Mas empire. Following the fine, Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai told investors the company was happy to get the matter behind us, and that its unaware of any other probes into its businesses. Now, the attentions of Beijing appear to be turning to its rivals. Days after bringing the Hangzhou-based giant to heel, the antitrust watchdog summoned 34 of the countrys most influential tech firms and ordered them to learn from Alibabas example. They were told to pledge compliance with regulations and given one month to rectify their business practices, a deadline that expires this week. Food delivery behemoth Meituan has been the most visible target. Authorities announced in April they were beginning a probe into for alleged abuses like forced exclusivity, the same charges leveled against Mas firm. The food delivery firm and fast-growing Pinduoduo Inc., which recently over took Alibaba in annual users for the first time, were also criticized by the Shanghai Consumers Council this week for hurting consumer rights. Meanwhile, Beijing is preparing to slap a fine of at least $1.6 billion on Tencent Holdings Ltd., Reuters has reported, adding that its music streaming business is under particular scrutiny. Financial regulators also see Asias largest company as deserving increased supervision after the clamp down on Ant, people with knowledge of their thinking told Bloomberg in March. The fine on Alibaba -- although a record high -- is manageable for the company and demonstrates that Beijing seeks change and not disruption, in our view, UBS Global Wealth Management Chief Investment Office said in its May report. It also gives a glimpse into what other firms under the regulatory microscope can expect in terms of penalty amount and restructuring changes. Budget carrier has said it will start a company-sponsored vaccination drive for all its employees from May 17. The drive will commence from Delhi and Gurugram, which is SpiceJet's headquarters, and will cover the airline's employees across all the stations on its network, a release said on Wednesday. said it has around 15,000 employees. Other carriers like Air India, Vistara, IndiGo and GoAir and AirAsia India have already rolled vaccination drives for their employees. The first ones to get vaccinated will be the frontline employees of the airline including airport staff and in-flight crew, said. The vaccination program will be undertaken as per government rules and guidelines and basis the availability of the vaccine, SpiceJet said. The airline will also make efforts to facilitate vaccination for the families of employees going forward, it added. At SpiceJet, the health and safety of our passengers and employees is our topmost priority. Vaccination is a key step towards fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and it's important that essential workers like airline employees are vaccinated on priority, said Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet. He said that the company will ensure that each and every member of the SpiceJet family gets vaccinated as quickly as possible. We have drawn up a detailed schedule for this company-sponsored initiative which would be undertaken as per government rules and guidelines, added Singh. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor After Anderson was identified as one of the alleged gunmen, Chicago police obtained a warrant to track the GPS information on a Facebook profile he was associated with, according to the complaint. Beginning on April 26, pings from the Facebook account placed whoever was using it in the area of Miami, Florida, the complaint stated. By Makiko Yamazaki, Kane Wu and Scott Murdoch TOKYO/HONG KONG (Reuters) - Corp's board is set to appoint as financial adviser to work on a strategic review for the Japanese conglomerate as it faces a possible private equity bidding war, people familiar with the matter said. Last month, became the target of a potential takeover bid and other bids could be forthcoming. Investment banks have pitched to Toshiba's independent directors for an advisory role, the people, who could not be named as the information has not yet been made public, told Reuters. A spokesman in Japan declined to comment. also declined to comment specifically on the appointment of UBS, but said in a statement to Reuters that the appointment of advisers would help increase the transparency around its decision-making. "The board is independently appointing financial and legal advisers, and will strategically consider ways to increase our corporate value from an independent standpoint," it said in an emailed statement. One of the sources said that will also communicate with Toshiba shareholders. It will have a separate role from Goldman Sachs, which is an activist defence adviser for Toshiba's management team. An announcement of the appointment could be made as soon as Friday at Toshiba's earnings briefing, the person said. Toshiba has faced calls from its leading shareholders to explicitly seek offers from potential suitors and undergo a strategic review following a $20 billion buyout bid from CVC Capital Partners last month. The future ownership of Toshiba, however, remains uncertain after CVC later said it would "step aside and await guidance" from the company after the Japanese conglomerate dismissed the bid as lacking in substance. U.S. buyout firm Bain Capital is also considering a bid to take Toshiba private, Reuters reported last month, and has entered discussions with banks to secure funding for its potential deal. Bain had declined comment. KKR & Co Inc and Canada's Brookfield Asset Management are also interested in Toshiba, sources have said. KKR and Brookfield had previously declined to comment on reports of potential bids. A senior executive at one of Toshiba's main lenders said last month that several private equity funds had contacted his bank for potential financing to take the company private, but no talks are in progress. CVC had approached Bain about a joint bid before its offer was made public but Bain was not interested, the first person said. Bain has successfully tackled a major complex deal that involves Toshiba. In 2017, it led a consortium with partners including South Korean chipmaker SK Hynix and Apple Inc to win an intense and long-fought battle for control of Toshiba's chip unit, now called Kioxia Holdings. Toshiba retains around 40% of Kioxia. (Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo and Kane Wu and Scott Murdoch in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Takashi Umekawa; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Susan Fenton) Ltd, a Tata Group company and leading air-conditioner manufacturer, on Wednesday reported a 49 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 239 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. Its consolidated net profit was Rs 160 crore in the January-March quarter of the last fiscal. Total income in the January-March quarter jumped 25 per cent to Rs 2,683 crore as compared with Rs 2,150 crore in the year-ago period, said in a regulatory filing. Voltas' revenue from unitary cooling products for comfort and commercial use was up 20 per cent at Rs 1,437 crore, compared with Rs 1,199 crore a year ago. said the cooling products business made good recovery, after easing of the lockdown situation, and achieved overall volume growth of 18 per cent. Revenue from electro-mechanical projects and service also increased 37 per cent to Rs 1,104 crore, against Rs 805 crore a year ago. Revenue from engineering products and services was at Rs 98 crore, compared with Rs 95 crore in the corresponding quarter of last year. The company's board of directors recommended a dividend of Rs 5 per share for the year 2020-21. Shares of Voltas Ltd settled 3.93 per cent lower at Rs 970.55 apiece on the BSE. (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.) Amid multiple states reporting a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine, Serum Institute and have submitted to the Centre their production plan for the next four months, informing they can ramp it up to 10 crore and 7.8 crore doses respectively by August, official sources said on Wednesday The sources said the Union Health Ministry and the office of Drugs Controller General of India had sought from both the firms their production plan for June, July, August and September. The Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's indigenously developed Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, being manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, are currently being used in India's inoculation drive against coronavirus. Dr V Krishna Mohan, the Whole-time Director of Bharat Biotech, is learnt to have conveyed to the government that the production of Covaxin would be raised to 3.32 crore in July, and to 7.82 crore in August which will be maintained in September too. Similarly, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India, has communicated that the production of Covishield would be ramped up to 10 crore doses each in August and will be maintained at that level in September, the official sources said. We confirm that the quantities mentioned will be fulfilled under all circumstances. Also, we are trying our best by utilising all our resources to increase our production capacity of Covishield. In view of this, the production during June and July may also increase by some quantity," Singh said in a communique to the health ministry. An inter-ministerial group, comprising Rajneesh Tingal, Joint Secretary in the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Dr Mandeep Bhandari, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health, which was constituted for facilitating the capacity augmentation of domestic vaccine manufacturing, had visited the production facilities of both the and in April. Several states and UTs including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana have decided to opt for global tenders for procurement of anti-coronavirus shots with the domestic supply falling short to meet the rising demand. Meanwhile, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said has informed the Delhi government that it cannot provide "additional" Covaxin doses to the national capital. The stock of Covaxin in Delhi has finished and as a result around 100 vaccination centres set up in 17 schools have been closed, he said. The Ministry of Science & Technology had said in a statement on April 16 that the production capacity of indigenously developed Covaxin will be doubled by May-June 2021 and then increased nearly 6-7 fold by July-August 2021. Zomatos initial public offering will test Indian investors appetite for unicorns, as the aggregator operates in a competitive market, said a note by Anand Rathi Research. Food consumption in India was about $670 billion in 2019--driven by home-cooked food. Food services, defined as non-home-cooked food or restaurant food, contribute around 10 per cent to the consumption market. This is lower than the United States and China where food services contribute about 54 per cent and about 58 per cent of total consumption. In FY20, generated marketplace gross order value of about $1.54 billion, around 2.3 per cent of the market and we believe that the company is in the early phases of broad market adoption, said research analyst Shobit Singhal in the note. The note comes after filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on April 28, taking the first step towards becoming a public company. The proposal to raise Rs 8,250 crore, or over $1.1 billion, through its initial public offering (IPO) makes this one of the largest by a consumer internet company in India. Singhal said the cost to switch between similar offerings was low, and the entry of technology giant Amazon in the business could threaten the duopoly of and Swiggy, who together have a 90 per cent market share in food delivery in India. Amazon, which started its food delivery service, Amazon Food, in Bengaluru last year in four zip codes, has expanded to 62 zip codes now. Food delivery is free to its prime members. Even as it is limited to one key market in India, Amazon Food is vigorously trying to undercut competition, Singhal said. Zomato said in its prospectus it expected to use Rs 5,625 crore from the net proceeds to fund its organic and inorganic growth, which includes customer and user acquisition, delivery and technology infrastructure, and acquisitions. Singhals research note said Zomatos initial plan to expand into international markets like the UK, Dubai, Philippines, Qatar and many other countries did not work out. It had a two- pronged approach: launch its own product and buy out the competition. This did not work out and it wrote off its overseas investments. Now it has decided to focus only on the India market, it said. The on Wednesday directed the government in Uttar Pradesh to respond to the allegations of mismanagement in availability of oxygen, beds and medcines required for the treatment of serious Covid-19 patients. Justices Ritu Raj Awasthi and Manish Mathur of the Lucknow Bench of the High Court was dealing with the PIL which also said that audit of the oxygen and supply of medicines in the State was required to be done so that they are properly utilised. We direct the counsel for the opposite parties to seek instructions in the matter, said the bench which declined the submission of the state government not to entertain the PIL as the High Court at Allahabad was already seized of the same issues in a suo motu matter. The PIL before the Lucknow Bench has been filed by one H P Gupta and the bench after going through the sudmissions made by the lawyers of the parties fixed May 18 as the next date of hearing. Apart from raising plight of the Covid patients, the petitioner's counsel Dr V K Singh submitted that a make shift hospital be established in the new premises in the high court at Gomti Nagar with all facilities in order to cater need of the lawyers, their family members, judicial officers and staffs. In the PIL, the petitioner alleged failure of the government to tackle the situation in prompt and effective manner. Since the government has failed in protecting the life of its citizens for want of proper, timely and effective treatment in hospitals and otherwise, it is necessary that the court should intervene in the matter and issue stringent directions to the government authorities to take immediate and effective steps to deal with the situation the petitioner's lawyer submitted. The petitioner also demanded installation of Pressure Swing Adsorption ( PSA) oxyen plant from PM care fund in Uttar Pradesh to ensure supply of oxygen at the earliest time . (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.) Health minister on Wednesday urged states to understand the limited availability of vaccines and not create unrealistic and impractical expectations while ensuring judicious use of doses to minimise wastage. The government is making all efforts to ramp up vaccine production in the country. Vaccines are scientifically distributed among you and we both know how much you have and what is in the pipeline. Please understand the seriousness of this issue, Vardhan said. The health minister was holding a meeting with eight states that have been showing a higher number of daily cases, positivity rate and mortality. The states were Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab, Odisha, Haryana, Bihar, Jharkhand and Telangana. ALSO READ: Will raise monthly production of vaccines to 100 mn doses by August: Serum He said vaccine production in the country would touch around 80 million in May and 90 million in June. is our big weapon in the fight against Covid19... India is the fastest country globally to reach the landmark of 17 crore (170 million) doses in 114 days. Asking states to prioritise the second dose, Vardhan said 70 per cent of their stock must be reserved for that. While 136 million have been administered the first dose, the second dose has been administered to only 38 million. He said in order to increase the supply, the foreign vaccines which had been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or international regulators such as the USFDA, EMA, UK MHRA and PMDA Japan may be granted emergency use approval in India. ALSO READ: Procure vaccines from all available sources: Major oppn leaders write to PM Also, in a presentation at the meeting, Sujeet K. Singh, director, National Centre for Disease Control, made a granular analysis of the Covid trajectory. Singh said the apparent shift of Covid19 towards lower age groups is driven by the fact that higher age groups had been vaccinated in considerable proportion by now. India has recorded a dip in the active cases for the second consecutive day. Theres a decline of 11,122 cases from the previous active case load. Around 348,000 new cases were registered as on Wednesday morning against 3,55,338 single-day recoveries. We have to keep up this pace with renewed and stringent focus on containment measures for addressing the present surge. Stringent adherence to implementation of micro-containment zones has helped, the health minister said. Vardhan said the government had supported states by providing them PPE kits, drugs such as Remdesivir, N95 masks and ventilators. We will continue to do this. We are with you in your needs. Make sure these things get utilised well, he said while praising the states for their dedication and patience in their fight against the pandemic. Chief Minister on Wednesday said her government is ready to provide land and all the required support for manufacturing Covid-19 vaccines. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee also called for liberal and proactive import of vaccines. "Production of vaccines in the country is extremely inadequate... Globally, there are many manufacturers now... it is possible to identify the reputed and authentic manufacturers and speedily import vaccines from them from different parts of the world," she said. CM writes to PM Narendra Modi, urging to 'speedily import vaccines' from global manufacturers She suggests PM Modi to 'encourage world & national players (vaccine manufacturers) to open up franchise operations'. pic.twitter.com/Ss2sQLX2xi ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2021 "Liberal, proactive and discerning import of vaccination is the paramount need today," the chief minister added. Banerjee said world players could also be encouraged to open up franchise operations in India. "We, in West Bengal, are ready to provide land and support for any manufacturing/franchisee operation for authentic vaccine manufacturing," the TMC boss said in the letter to Modi. The on Wednesday said if the Union government had started door-to- door programme for senior citizens a few months back, then lives of many of them, including prominent persons, could have been saved. A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni asked the Union government why not pro- actively start this programme when the lives of senior citizens, who are unable to go to centres to get inoculated, are concerned. The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by two lawyers Dhruti Kapadia and Kunal Tiwari seeking door-to-door facility for senior citizens above the age of 75, specially-abled persons and those who are bed-ridden or wheelchair-bound. The court reiterated its earlier order of April 22 in which it asked the Union government to relook at its decision to not initiate a door-to-door vaccination programme. "It has been three weeks and the government (Union) is yet to inform us of its decision. The government should have taken a decision one way or the other," the court said. It directed the Union government to file an affidavit by May 19, when it would hear the matter further. The court noted that many foreign countries have already started door-to-door vaccination facilities. "In India, we do many things late and things travel to our country very slowly," Justice Kulkarni said. Why not start this (door-to-door vaccination) pro- actively when the lives of senior citizens are concerned? the court asked. "Speaking off the cuff, if we had a door-to-door vaccination programme sometime back, then so many of our senior citizens, including prominent members of society from various walks of life, who have lost their lives to COVID-19, could have been saved," Justice Kulkarni said. The court further said it had seen photographs of senior citizens and many wheelchair-bound persons waiting outside vaccination centres in long queues. "This was very heart-rending and not a good sight. They must be already suffering from so many ailments and now they face the risk of being infected with COVID-19 also (while) waiting in such crowds," the bench said. The court noted that senior judges of the HC had a meeting with Birhanmumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Chahal on Tuesday where he said the civic body was planning to start ward-wise vaccination camps from next week, which would have the capacity to inoculate 70,000 people per day. "If such camps are starting, then maybe senior citizens and people who cannot step out of their homes can be identified and the staff can go to their homes and vaccinate them," Chief Justice Datta suggested. The bench directed the BMC to file an affidavit stating details of the same and by when it would begin and what steps the corporation plans to take for the next few days with regard to the vaccination programme. The court noted that the availability of vaccines was also a problem. To this, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh told the court that the Covishield vaccine would be made available in a few days. The court also sought to know from the civic body about what measures it plans to take for the vaccination of homeless people, beggars and those living on streets. "They are also a significant population and are spreaders of the coronavirus, the HC said. As states impose fresh lockdowns of varying durations and intensity to arrest the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study shows that medium-duration travel bans are counterproductive--they trap in cities that are COVID-19 hotspots long enough to expose them to the virus, which they then carry to their home districts. These findings are based on the study of return migration out of Mumbai between March and August 2020, covering the first national lockdown and the subsequent "unlock" phases. The study also took into account the epidemiological data on the rise in infections in the home districts of the migrant workers. The study by the University of Chicago's Energy Policy Institute, whose pre-print (non-peer reviewed) version has been published, reached the same conclusion for other developing countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Indonesia, Philippines and China. The researchers used simulations to project the growth of infections in what they called "rural sinks", or the home districts, of the migrant workers. These showed that shorter travel bans corresponded to fewer infections. During longer bans, infections fell in source cities, again limiting the spread of the pandemic. "For intermediate durations, we risk a situation where we force people to stay in a region of rapidly increasing COVID (cases), and then we allow them to leave at a time when many of them are likely to be infected. This is what creates the finding of intermediate bans being potentially counterproductive," said Anant Sudarshan, a co-author of the study and the executive director (South Asia) of the Energy Policy Institute. Various states have imposed curbs of different durations and intensity, triggering migrant movements--albeit smaller than last year's. Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray announced a 'mini lockdown' in the state on April 13. The initial lockdown was for 15 days and came into effect from 8 p.m. on April 14. The lockdown shuttered public places, activities and services and only essential services were exempted. The fresh restrictions once again triggered a 2020-like return migration from Mumbai-- headed to railway stations before and after the announcement, though in smaller numbers. A few days later, on April 19, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a six-day lockdown in Delhi. On May 9, the Delhi government extended the lockdown till May 17. Even before Thackeray had announced fresh restrictions in Mumbai, Bhopal saw many returning from Mumbai and Delhi in buses, fearing that they would get trapped again as during the 2020 lockdown. Reverse migration "The Mumbai travel bans yield a natural experiment with a common infection source and three distinct travel resumptions," the research paper said. Mumbai has one of the biggest migrant populations in the country: Around 43% of its population originates from another state or district, as per the 2011 Census data cited by the paper. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown on the evening of March 24, 2020, that came into effect from midnight, to limit the spread of COVID-19. Maharashtra, like all states, put a ban on travel by bus, train or flight, trapping millions of migrant workers. Distressed by the loss of jobs and incomes and with no security net, migrant workers began walking home in large numbers. The travel restrictions were lifted in phases, the research noted, thus providing examples of what different durations of travel bans can do to the pandemic's spread across India. These three phases represent the short, medium and long term scenarios in the study: The duration of March 25-May 8 was considered as a short-term ban. Interstate migrants were allowed to return to their home states from early May. The Maharashtra government used buses, from the first week of May, to transport migrant workers to the state's borders. The first outbound train for migrants (Shramik Special) left Mumbai on May 8 for Basti in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The period from March 25-June 5 was considered medium-term. Migrants leaving for districts within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region were allowed to return starting June 5. The period from March 25-August 20 was considered as a long-term Finally, the state allowed the resumption of inter-district bus services on August 19, 2020. The Maharashtra government told the Supreme Court in June 2020 that about 1.2 million migrant labourers had gone home and more than 500,000 had been ferried by state transport buses. In the same hearing, the Central government said that 5.72 million migrants had been moved to destinations in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh by trains. Need to estimate 'ideal' ban duration A study of these different phases of travel relaxation and the caseload in home districts of migrant workers revealed that the infections rose when the bans were of an intermediate duration. "The analysis takes into account average levels and trends of infections in these districts and then looks for 'spikes/sudden changes' around the time the ban is lifted," Sudarshan said. The challenge for governments is to decide how long is long enough, he said. "Before restricting travel, governments should ask themselves whether they can realistically prevent movement for very long. If the answer is no, then imposing the ban may be equivalent to delaying travel and creating a situation where people leave later, while carrying more infections," he said. The research applies to countries with a lot of migrant labour, Sudarshan emphasised, adding that it did not imply that lockdowns are not helpful more broadly. The paper stops short of defining an ideal duration because the theoretical model of disease spread shows that the effect of different durations depends on how the disease is progressing inside the hotspot. "This is exactly why we argue it's dangerous to impose these bans in the first place, since it's hard to predict how long a ban is going to be long enough the key question is, when a little restriction is worse than no restriction, we should be very cautious going down this path." Patna-based epidemiologist Tanmay Mahapatra told IndiaSpend that travel bans need to be viewed with an eye on multiple factors, and duration is only one of them. "The findings of the paper are interesting but I would like to add that it has to be interpreted with caution," he said, adding that other factors that must be considered include "the status of the epidemic during the travel ban, testing and case management, COVID-19 appropriate behaviour at both source and destination and the readiness of local authorities to implement the restrictions". As India plans for its third wave of COVID-19 infections, it needs to figure out how best to implement travel bans, said Mahapatra. "This second wave has shocked us so much that simple solutions such as [travel] bans and lockdowns will not help anymore. They have to be part of the overall response along with early identification and case management," he said. The problem is that competitiveness, at least in the way its usually invoked, is a mirage. As economist and columnist Paul Krugman wrote in 1994, as a practical, empirical matter the major nations of the world are not to any significant degree in economic competition with each other. Comparisons are interesting, and bragging rights can be important. But asserting that Japanese growth diminishes U.S. status is very different from saying that it reduces the U.S. standard of living and it is the latter that the rhetoric of competitiveness asserts. India on Tuesday reported a net reduction of 11,122 in active cases to take its count to 3,704,099. Indias share of global active cases now stands at 20.69 per cent (one in 5). The country is second among the most affected countries by active cases. On Wednesday, it added 348,421 cases to take its total caseload to 23,340,938. And, with 4,205 new fatalities, its Covid-19 reached 254,197, or 1.09 per cent of total confirmed infections. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor The has sought information from health experts about 'black fungus' being detected among COVID patients in the country, Health Minister K Sudhakar said on Wednesday. Addressing reporters at Chikkaballapura, he said, "I had a discussion with the technical advisory committee and the clinicians to submit a detailed report on black fungus in two days. Based on that, we will take a call." The minister was replying to a query on media reports that the cases of black fungus or mucormycosis, a rare fungal infection, are on the rise among COVID-19 patients in some states, including Karnataka. He said the government wants to learn about the disease and its treatment. To another question on the rising double mutant variants of COVID, Sudhakar said he has ordered genealogical studies and its sequencing. "Some have called it Indian variant also. It is behaving more erratically than the British variant. We are monitoring its movement as well. Some other countries are also studying it," the minister said. On improving health infrastructure and medical care in Taluk level, the minister said the process to recruit 2,480 doctors and specialists in Taluk level had been going on for the past four-five months, which has now reached the final level. "In the next two days, a gazette order will come for their recruitment. Due to this, there will not be any shortage of physicians and doctors in Taluk level. We will appoint doctors at Taluk level in four days," the minister said. Besides this, the state has 50 oxygenated beds and six ventilators in each Taluk hospital. Karnataka has shown the declining trend in the COVID cases for the past two days reporting less than 40,000 infections from over 50,000 cases a few days back. To bring the spread of COVID under control, the has imposed a lockdown-like stringent restriction in the state from May 10 to May 24 morning following the advice of the ministers, technical advisory committee and the opposition leaders. (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.) Pediatric researchers are investigating whether Covid-19 is becoming more severe for children now that variants are causing localized flare-ups, even as U.S. cases overall decline. By early April, the rate of Covid-19 cases in young kids and early teens began surpassing that of those 65 and older, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest CDC data suggest the trend is continuing. At the same time, hospitalizations for children with Covid-19 arent falling as much as for those 18 and up. That has researchers concerned that variants may be affecting youths in new ways, including a rare inflammatory disease that has been linked to Covid-19 infection. The big concern is that weve left a whole population of children unprotected, said Adrienne Randolph, a critical-care doctor at Boston Childrens Hospital who is leading the CDC-funded research. Cases of the rare disease, called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, totaled more than 2,000 in February and surpassed 3,000 by April 1, according to the CDC, which will soon update its tally. Vaccine manufacturers clinical trials have mostly focused on adults, and now almost 72% of those 65 and older are fully inoculated, according to the CDC. Meanwhile, young children dont yet have access to shots, and companies are still studying the effects on them. Pfizer Inc.s vaccine has been available for teens 16 and older, and won authorization Monday for ages 12 to 15. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The vaccines have been found to work well in adults against the current virus mutations, including the B.1.1.7 variant identified in the U.K. Still, pockets of unvaccinated people are giving the variant room to spread, which may be especially worrisome for children. That variant, which is more contagious than the original virus, became the most dominant strain in the U.S. in early April and now makes up almost 60% of cases, according to the CDC. In Colorado, which has one of the countrys highest infection rates, Sam Dominguez, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Childrens Hospital Colorado, started to see an increase in cases of the rare inflammatory disease at the end of April. MIS-C typically appears about a month after a Covid-19 infection. It can be deadly, but its also rare. It can inflame different parts of the body, including the heart, lungs, brain and gastrointestinal system, according to the CDC. Symptoms vary from abdominal pain to diarrhea or bloodshot eyes. Most cases occurred in children between 1 and 14, with a median age of 9, according to the CDC. Like the rest of the country, Colorado saw a surge in Covid-19 cases between November and February. Cases started ticking up again last month. B.1.1.7 is the dominant variant. Were watching it very carefully, Dominguez said. I think thats a really important question: Does B.1.1.7 cause more MIS-C? Newer variants are emerging as well. A Colorado public health official said Thursday that a strain called B.1.617.2, first found in India, has been identified in Mesa County, according to the Denver Post. Mortality, thankfully, is low but that doesnt mean theres not morbidity, Randolph said. Some have go to rehab, some go home on oxygen. Randolph had been studying MIS-C and severe Covid-19 as part of an earlier study backed by $2.1 million from the CDC. The work was renewed May 4 and will look at whether the virus is taking a bigger toll on children, Randolph said. She plans to go back through data over the past few months as she and her team collect new reports some 50 pages long from a nationwide network of pediatric health centers. If they find worrisome patterns, theyll report findings as soon as we can, she said. Randolph has found that children with severe Covid-19 tend to have underlying conditions that make them susceptible, just like adults. But pediatric MIS-C patients tend to be healthy and without Covid-19 symptoms. The study will also examine vaccine effectiveness in children. Pharma major Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd on Wednesday announced that it has entered into a royalty-free, non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreement with Eli Lilly and Company for the manufacture and commercialization of baricitinib in India. The drug baricitinib has received restricted emergency use approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Ministry of Health, India, for use in combination with remdesivir for the treatment of suspected or laboratory confirmed Covid-19 in hospitalized adults requiring supplemental oxygen, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This partnership comes at a critical juncture in the fight against the pandemic in India and adds to the company's existing range of Covid-19 therapeutics covering the full spectrum from mild to moderate and severe conditions of the disease, and a vaccine, the Hyderabad-based company said. "From the start, we have been determined to explore every possible avenue against COVID-19. Our collaboration with Lilly will help us make yet another treatment option available to patients in India," said Deepak Sapra, Chief Executive Officer, API and Services, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. In another development, Dr Reddy's announced the launch of Ertapenem for Injection, 1 g/vial, a therapeutic equivalent generic version of INVANZ(ertapenem for injection) for injection, 1 g/vial, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). "We are pleased to bring this important product to market at this time," says Marc Kikuchi, CEO, North America Generics, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. "We're excited to extend our strategic partnership with Gland Pharma whose hard work, in collaboration with the team at Dr. Reddy's, has enabled the execution of this launch." "We are delighted about this collaboration, as it brings together Dr. Reddy's experienced marketing and distribution capabilities and Gland Pharma's robust development and manufacturing capabilities. Gland Pharma has an exclusive API supply arrangement for this product and a dedicated manufacturing facility in Hyderabad for Ertapenem Injection. With the launch of this product we see increased capacity utilization of this dedicated Penem facility," said Srinivas Sadu, MD and CEO of Gland Pharma Ltd. --IANS ms/in A fire broke out at a hotel- turned-Covid care centre in Gujarat's Bhavnagar town in the wee hours Wednesday, officials said, adding nobody was hurt. Altogether 61 patients were shifted from the facility to other hospitals after the "minor fire and smoke", an official said. There were 68 patients at the facility when the fire broke out. The remaining seven will be shifted soon, he said. The hotel, around 170 km from the state capital, was converted into a Covid care centre by a private hospital. The fire was minor and was doused immediately, the official said. Smoke engulfed the third floor of the "Generation X Hotel" facility, where the patients were kept, said senior fire officer of Bhavnagar fire brigade, Bharat Kanada. "The fire was caused by a spark in a TV shortly after midnight. It was brought under control quickly. However, thick smoke filled the top floor of the three-storey hotel, making it difficult for the patients to be kept there," he said. "As a precaution, 61 patients were shifted to other hospitals with the help of fire personnel. The remaining seven will also be shofted soon," he said. Bhavnagar Collector Gaurang Makwana said all the 68 patients at the centre were safe and the "minor fire" was brought under control immediately. Sixteen COVID-19 patients and two nurses died in a blaze at the four-storeyed Welfare Hospital in Bharuch in the state on May 1. The High Court on Tuesday criticised the state government over the Bharuch hospital fire, saying it was contemptuous on its part to not remain vigilant and avoid such incidents, and cited many orders passed in this regard. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A sessions court in on Wednesday said it will pronounce the verdict in the case on May 19. The former Tehelka editor-in-chief is accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague inside the elevator of a luxury hotel in in 2013. The additional district court was to pronounce the verdict on April 27 but judge Kshama Joshi had adjourned the verdict to May 12. The court on Wednesday said the latest adjournment was due to lack of staff due to the coronavirus pandemic. The court is working with only 15 per cent staff, it added. The police registered an FIR against Tejpal in November 2013 following which he was arrested. He has been out on bail since May 2014. The Goa crime branch had filed a charge sheet against Tejpal. He faced trial under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty), 354-A (sexual harassment), 354-B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 376(2)(f) (person in position of authority over women, committing rape) and 376(2)k) (rape by person in position of control). He had earlier moved the Bombay High Court, seeking a stay on the framing of charges against him, but his petition was dismissed. (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 worlds biggest rice exporter is heading for record shipments this year that will help to keep rising food prices in check, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Indian exports of the planets most consumed staple may climb to an all-time high of 16.2 million tons this year, up about 12% from 14.5 million tons in 2020, said Shirley Mustafa, a Rome-based senior economist at the UN agency. Ample Indian exports have greatly contributed to ensuring access to affordable rice in international at a time when prices of maize, soybeans and wheat have surged, and the Covid-19 pandemic has made some sections of the global population poorer, Mustafa said in an email May 6. Indias rice production is seen increasing to an all-time high of 120.3 million tons in the year ending June, from about 118.9 million tons a year earlier, according to the latest estimate from the nations farm ministry. - The average price of Indian basmati rice sold overseas in the 11 months ended Feb. 28 was about 13% lower than a year earlier, while the non-basmati variety was down 8%, according to government data. India will give away about 8 million tons of rice and wheat in May and June to people covered under the nations food program to ease hardship caused by the resurgence of Covid across the country, the government said last month. India has also started selling rice and wheat in the open market for domestic use at below procurement costs to help consumers get food at affordable rates, Sudhanshu Pandey, the top bureaucrat at the food ministry, said on Monday. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday informed that the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, first found in India in October last year, had been detected in sequences uploaded "from 44 countries in all six regions". "As of 11 May, over 4500 sequences have been uploaded to GISAID (platform of data sharing mechanism for influenza) and assigned to B.1.617 from 44 countries in all six regions, and has received reports of detections from five additional countries," WHO said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic. The WHO report also said that it has received "reports of detections from five additional countries. The variant B.1.617 first identified in India last year has been classified as a "variant of global concern", with some preliminary studies showing that it spreads more easily, a senior WHO official had said on Monday. "B.1.617 virus variant that was first identified in India has been classified as a variant of interest by WHO," said Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Technical lead COVID-19 at WHO. Dr Kerkhove added that WHO needs much more information about this B1617 variant and all of the sub-lineages. "Our Epi teams and our lab teams internally, there is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility of B1617, as such we are classifying this as a variant of concern at the global level," she said. The B.1.617 variant is the fourth variant to be designated as being of "global concern". India reported 3,29,942 new COVID-19 cases, and 3,876 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry informed on Tuesday. Maharashtra reported 46,781 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, an uptick from 40,956 a day ago, and 816 deaths, the health department said. The caseload increased to 52,26,710, while death toll reached 78,007, it said. On Tuesday Maharashtra had reported 40,956 COVID-19 cases, 793 deaths and 71,966 recoveries. Of 816 fatalities, 387 had occurred in the past 48 hours, 193 last week and the rest even before that but were added to the tally on Wednesday. As many as 58,805 patients were discharged from hospitals taking the total of recoveries to 46,00,196. Maharashtra now has 5,46,129 active cases. The state's COVID-19 recovery rate increased to 88.01 per cent from Tuesday's 87.67 per cent, while the fatality rate stood at 1.49 per cent, the department said. The positivity rate is still 17.36 per cent, it added. Mumbai city saw2,104 new cases, an increase from 1,717 a day ago, taking its tally to 6,81,233. The state capital's fatality count rose to 13,972 with 66 new deaths. The Nashik division reported 6,494 new cases and 137 deaths. The majority of infections were reported from Nashik city (1,225) and Ahmednagar district (2,381). Out of 137 fatalities in Nashik division, 41 and 34 people died in Nashik city and rural parts of Nashik district, respectively, while 22 patients died in Ahmednagar district. The Pune division reported a surge in cases with Pune rural area accounting for 4,363 cases out of 12,903. Other districts and main cities in the division also reported cases in four digits - 2,021 in Pune city, 3,152 in neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad, 1,276 in Solapur rural and 1,958 in Satara district. Out of 125 deaths in the division, 40 were reported from Pune city, 33 in Pune rural, 31 in Solapur rural and 16 in Satara, the department said. The Kolhapur division reported 5,073 new cases and 72 deaths. Kolhapur and Sangli districts contributed 1,599 and 1,375 cases, respectively. Kolhapur and Sangli districts reported 26 and 18 deaths, respectively, while 15 deaths were reported in coastal Sindhudurg district. Aurangabad division added 2,159 cases while 61 succumbed to the infection, 25 of them in Jalna district. The Latur division added 2,908 COVID-19 cases of which 1,258 came from Beed district alone. Out of 108 deaths in the division, 50 were reported from Beed, 20 from Osmanabad, 18 from Nanded and 12 from Latur district. Akola division reported 5,042 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,553 in Buldhana district and 1,099 in Amravati. Also, 65 deaths were reported in the division of which Yavatmal, Akola and Amarawati districts accounted for 14, 13 and 12fatalities, respectively. The Nagpur division's caseload went up by 5,384, including 1,466 in Nagpur city and 1,131 in rural parts of Nagpur district. The city also accounted for 35 of 119 deaths in the division. With 2,52,167 tests conducted in the state during the day, the tally rose to 3,01,00,958. Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally is as follows: Positive cases: 52,26,710; new cases 46,781; death toll 78,007; discharged 46,00,196; active cases: 5,46,129; people tested so far 3,01,00,958. (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.) With out of bounds, Egypt, Russia and South Africa remain the only popular international travel options for Indian amid the coronavirus pandemic. These countries do not have a quarantine requirement for Indian On Tuesday, joined the growing list of countries banning visitors from India due to ongoing second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. The island nation has been a popular leisure destination for Indian travellers who accounted for 21 per cent of all arrivals between January-May. We are receiving and processing applications for all categories, including leisure The destination offers opportunities to enjoy a holiday outside of an urban environment i.e. on safari in the many game parks or to visit rural areas that have now become very popular. Strict adherence to the health and safety protocols are maintained to limit the risk of exposure. The country is at alert level 1 and restaurants and hospitality facilities are open," said Andrea Kuhn, South Africas consul general in Mumbai. Among those who travelled to South Africa recently include participants of adventure reality show Khatron ke Khiladi, which is being filmed in Cape Town. Travel industry sources, however, point out that demand for travel has slumped due to ongoing second wave of pandemic. There are non stop flights between Delhi-Moscow under an air travel bubble but flight options to Egypt and South Africa are limited. Maharashtra governments requirement for institutional quarantine of travellers from South Africa is another deterrent. There are no inquiries or overseas travel bookings for the past two weeks. People are scared to travel now. Those who were lucky, flew out to Dubai and London before imposition of the travel ban, said Jyoti Mayal, president of Travel Agents Association of India. Dubai which has been another popular destination curbed travel from India last month. Seychelles which earlier decided to allow only vaccinated travellers has imposed a ban for Indian visitors. Many other countries are permitting only their own citizens or limited categories of visa holders to travel from India while some like Canada have suspended non-stop flights. On Tuesday, the Health Protection Agency of tweeted on Tuesday that starting May 13 tourist visas for visitors from South Asian countries will be temporarily halted. The safety measure has been put in place in view of second wave of pandemic in India and rise in cases in other countries in the region. A curfew too has been imposed in parts of Maldives and congregational prayers in mosques have been temporarily stopped. The island nation has been a major attraction for celebrities and commoners alike from India and was among the very few international destinations that were open to Indian tourists from year. India has been the second largest source market for Maldives. The islands have received over 400,000 tourists since start of January. Russia has been the biggest source market followed by India, Ukraine, Germany and Kazakhstan. Last month the Maldives government imposed curbs on Indian visitors by banning their entry on populated islands. However, Indians could still visit the resorts. The second wave of pandemic however led to drop of traffic from India, resulting in flight cancellations by Indian carriers. Canada's Ontario stops administering of first doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine due to increased blood clot reports Xinhua) 11:20, May 12, 2021 A medical worker checks a man's information at a vaccination clinic in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on May 11, 2021. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, announced on Tuesday it will stop administering of the first doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, effective Tuesday, due to increased reports of blood clots. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) OTTAWA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Ontario, Canada's most populous province, announced on Tuesday it will stop administering of the first doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, effective Tuesday, due to increased reports of blood clots. "This decision was made out of an abundance of caution because of increased instances of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia," said Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health David Williams at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. At least 12 cases of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia have been confirmed out of more than 2 million doses given. Three women have died in connection with the condition. Ontario is preparing guidance for people who already received the first dose of AstraZeneca on what to do next, Williams said. Ontario reported there are 49,280 doses of the shot remaining in the province out of over 707,000 received. Tuesday morning, Ontario reported 2,073 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 additional deaths. Hospitalizations in the province stood at 1,783, with 802 people in ICU due to COVID-related illness. Ontario's announcement comes hours after Alberta province said it won't give out more first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the time being because there aren't any confirmed shipments coming. The AstraZeneca vaccine was being offered to individuals aged 40 and up at numerous pharmacies in Ontario. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged provinces today to maintain strict public health measures until COVID-19 case counts are much lower than they are now so that Canadians can enjoy a "one-dose summer." Trudeau told a press conference that with the steady supply of vaccines now streaming into the country, there will be enough shots to immunize every eligible Canadian with at least one dose by the end of June. He said tough public health restrictions, like the lockdowns in Ontario, should be kept in place for the foreseeable future to drive COVID-19 case counts to more manageable levels. "We can have a better summer, a one-dose summer." Trudeau said provinces should begin to lift public health restrictions only once 75 percent of the adult population has had at least one vaccine dose. He said that a one-dose summer would be followed by a "two-dose fall," when many more Canadians will have access to a second booster COVID-19 shot. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, 40 percent of the adult population has had one shot already. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) In the letter, obtained by the Tribune, the board ordered Moore to immediately take down the political and campaign content he posted to the wards Facebook, and create his own political Facebook site without city funds and with a disclaimer that it is not an official city of Chicago account and does not represent the policies of the city or City Council. The on Wednesday dismissed a plea of activist Gautam Navlakha, seeking bail in the Elgar Parishad- case of Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra. A bench of justices UU Lalit and K M Joseph dismissed the appeal of Navlakha against the Bombay High Court order denying him bail in the case. On March 26, the top court had reserved its verdict on a plea of Navlakha seeking bail in the case. The top court had on March 3, sought response from the NIA on the plea of Navlakha seeking default bail in the case, claiming the charge sheet was not filed within the stipulated time period. The FIR against him was re-registered in January 2020, and Navlakha surrendered before the NIA on April 14, last year. He had spent 11 days in the NIA's custody till April 25, and since then he is in judicial custody in the Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai. According to police, some activists allegedly made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements at the Elgar Parishad meet in Pune on December 31, 2017, which triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima in the district the next day. (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.) Industry body TAIPA has written to DoT seeking priority of telecom field personnel, amid a growing chorus for inoculation of these workers in the backdrop of the severe second wave of the pandemic. Earlier this week, industry association COAI had approached Health Ministry requesting for of frontline telecom workers on duty manning networks around the clock, as there is "fear in the minds of these professionals". On Wednesday, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA), in a statement said it has written to Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash urging for the inclusion of telecom field personnel under the 'frontline workers' category for priority in COVID-19 jab. Citing the second wave of COVID-19 "which is more intense than to previous one", TAIPA has sought the intervention of the Department of Telecom (DoT) to get priority for telecom frontline staff. "Even in absence of any vaccination, the frontline telecom workers have continued to perform their routine activities such as operation and maintenance of telecom infrastructure, diesel filling at sites, fault repairs, etc., under duress, psychological pressure and also despite grave risks posed to them and their families. They have been working in the toughest of times across all types of zones including the COVID-19 hotspots," T R Dua, Director-General, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) said. It is therefore "essential" that they are accorded the status of frontline workers for priority in COVID-19 vaccination, across the country, he added. The call for priority vaccination for frontline telecom staff comes at a time when a massive rise in infections during the second deadly wave of the pandemic has led to hospitals in several states reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen, beds, and other critical infrastructure. India saw a record rise in COVID-19 deaths with 4,205 fresh fatalities taking the country's death toll to 2,54,197, while 3,48,421 new coronavirus infections were reported, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The total tally of COVID-19 cases in the country now stands at 2,33,40,938. The vaccination drive in India was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers getting inoculated and the vaccination of frontline workers started on February 2. Subsequently, it was opened for different age groups. While people have rushed to register for the jab, certain States have flagged limited availability of vaccines. (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.) Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday announced Rs 25 lakh compensation to the families of 43 doctors who had lost their lives while on Covid-19 patient treatment duty. Stalin also announced incentives to those medical service personnel who were involved in treatment of Covid-19 patients. As per the incentive scheme for the three months -- April, May and June -- when the second wave of Covid-19 spread, doctors will be paid Rs 30,000, nurses and trainee doctors Rs 20,000, and others like sanitary workers, people working in CT scan department, ambulance workers Rs 15,000. Stalin also extended greeting to the nurses on the International Nurses Day that falls on May 12. --IANS vj/skp/ (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.) If you havent heard of B.1.617 yet, chances are you soon will. This particular Covid-19 variant is at least partly behind the overwhelming second wave in India, the current global epicenter of the pandemic. The World Health Organization has now raised B.1.617 from a variant of interest to a variant of concern. Authorities like Public Health England are already treating it as the latter, meaning theres something worrying about one or more of the criteria on which a virus is judged--including how fast it transmits, how many it kills, and whether it evades detection or makes vaccines less effective. The stakes underlying these threat thresholds have risen beyond guessing the true extent of the unfolding disaster in India. Whether daily fatalities and new cases are, as officially reported, around 4,000 and 400,000, respectively, or closer to 25,000 deaths and between 2 million and 5 million infections, as Brown University School of Public Healths Ashish Jha estimates, the rest of the world needs to help the country combat this menace. Out of pure self-interest. Of the many changes in the pathogen, the two of greatest concern affect a portion of the spike protein, called the receptor binding domain, thats key to the virus getting into human cells. A new study has found that an entry driven by the B.1.617 spike protein was partially resistant against neutralization by antibodies elicited upon infection or vaccination with the Comirnaty/BNT162b2 vaccine. Thats the official name for the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. Although not in use in India, its one of the main lines of defense in developed countries. India, too, needs to do its part. Even as it struggles to provide hospital beds, oxygen and antivirals to its gasping citizens, New Delhi must step up genome surveillance to figure out--for itself and the rest of the world--what exactly is going on. Plans being laid for reopening and economic recovery everywhere could depend on it. ALSO READ: Indian double mutant variant of Covid-19 less severe for vaccinated: Study The efficacy of vaccines in dealing with variants isnt a new concern. Researchers have fretted about everything from B.1.1.7 in the U.K. and B.1.351 in South Africa to P.1 in Brazil and B.1.429 and B.1.232 in California. (Yes, the naming system is completely bonkers.) So far, the news has been mostly good. As Sam Fazeli, a pharmaceuticals analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, recently noted, there is some evidence from nonhuman studies that booster shots will neutralize both the original virus and its altered version. As for reports of breakthrough infections in Israel, or vaccinated people being struck by the new variant, as Fazeli notes, we shouldnt worry too much as long as symptoms are mild or nonexistent and hospitalization isnt required. A small-scale study of 123 doctors, nurses and other medical staff at a specialized diabetes treatment center in New Delhi discovered that of the 113 employees vaccinated (107 with the required two doses), 18 got infected with Covid-19, though only one person had to be hospitalized. The individual was later discharged, I learned from one of the researchers. Its not known if this group was exposed to B.1.617. Thats just one more thing we dont know amid the reigning chaos in India. People are scrambling to find a hospital bed or an oxygen cylinder. Or--if theyre well--a vaccine shot. Crematoriums are full, and scared villagers are dumping bodies into the river, just as their forefathers did during the 1918 Spanish Flu, a scene economic historian Chinmay Tumbe describes in his book, 'The Age of Pandemics'. Simply allowing the to run its course in a population of 1.4 billion would be morally reprehensible. It would also be dangerous: The longer it takes to tame Indias second wave, the higher the risk of a variant that does escape vaccine protection. One-sixth of humanity cant be ignored without a massive hit to a global economy that's impatient to reopen. Ask Silicon Valley managers supervising large software projects for global corporations: Their engineering teams in India are in disarray. Or take last weeks Group of Seven meetings in London, billed as the first face-to-face powwow in two years. Two members of the Indian contingent, invited as guests, tested positive, leading to self-isolation for Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the foreign minister. A PR disaster for the host, but also a reminder that it cant be business as usual for the world until the Indian situation comes under control. For neighboring Asian economies, the risk is far greater. Thailand has extended its ban on travelers from India to Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan. Australia was so alarmed it controversially refused entry for even its own citizens coming home from India. Hong Kong got spooked when 51 passengers on a single flight from New Delhi early last month tested positive for 43% of them, the disease showed up two weeks into their mandatory hotel quarantine. The city decided to conduct genome sequencing to gauge the threat. More recently, a 29-year-old Indian engineer coming into Hong Kong from Dubai was charged by authorities for allegedly giving misleading information after 1,200 residents had to be quarantined because of the variant threat he represented. ALSO READ: Covid-19 pandemic: 80% of Indians may be vaccinated by March 2022 Singapores largest active cluster, at one of the citys big hospitals, is being chalked up to B.1.617.2. This sub-lineage of the Indian variant is more infectious and causing larger clusters than before, the Straits Times reported Education Minister Lawrence Wong as saying. As countries help India with everything from vaccine stocks to oxygen, they should in return ask for honest reporting of case and fatality data--and much greater genomic scrutiny of the emerging variants than is currently being conducted. In a country that takes pride in being the worlds pharmaceutical capital, local labs are more than capable. But they simply cant assess the threat by sequencing a little more than 11,000 samples out of 22 million-plus cases. Prime Minister Narendra Modis administration could have done many things differently to prevent overwhelming the countrys patchy health system. Where it can still catch up is in its duty to discover and tell the truth to its own people and the rest of the world. Especially about B.1.617. Experts on Wednesday said transmission of through water is not a concern, after bodies of suspected COVID-19 patients were fished out of the Ganga and Yamuna. Satish Tare, professor at IIT-Kanpur, said dumping of dead bodies in the Ganga or its tributaries or sub-tributaries is a serious matter, particularly at a time when the country is grappling with the COVID-19 crisis. The Ganga and Yamuna are key sources of drinking water for many villages, local bodies along the rivers. The professor, however, stressed that dumping of bodies will not have a significant effect on transmission. Tare said dumping bodies in the Ganga or its tributaries is not new, but it has come down significantly in the last 10-15 years. Dumping of bodies primarily leads to pollution of rivers, he said. Even if the bodies of suspected COVID-19 patients were fished out, there is a lot of dilution that happens (during the flow of water). The effect may not be significant, he said. "If the water is passed for water supply, then it passes through the system. Normal treatment takes care of it, said Tare, who teaches environmental engineering, water quality and wastewater treatment. He, however, added that there are patches where people draw water directly from the river. But even during this people do exercise caution. Tare is also associated with the National Mission for Clean Ganga, the apex body under the Jal Shakti Ministry that deals with the cleaning of Ganga, its tributaries and sub-tributaries. On Tuesday, the Bihar government fished out 71 bodies from the Ganges in Buxar district, where these were found floating in the river, triggering suspicion that the abandoned corpses could be those of COVID-19 patients. According to Ballia residents in Uttar Pradesh, at least 45 bodies were seen floating at the Ujiyar, Kulhadia and Bharauli ghats in the Narahi area. However, the district authorities did not tell the exact number of bodies found there. On Monday, residents in Hamirpur district spotted five bodies floating in the Yamuna, creating a scare that these were of COVID patients. The bodies were later fished out and cremated. Following this, the Centre on Tuesday asked states along the Ganga to ensure strict vigilance and check future incidences of people dumping bodies in Ganga and its tributaries after 71 corpses were fished out of the river body in Bihar. In a letter to the District Ganga Committees which are chaired by district magistrates/ collectors, the National Mission for Clean Ganga also asked the authorities to dispose of unidentified dead bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims in accordance with safety protocols. "Ensure strict vigilance along length of the river within territorial jurisdiction of the district to prevent and check such future incidences of people dumping dead bodies in Ganga and its tributaries and of any other activities hazardous for river Ganga and health and hygiene of the area, the NMCG Director General Rajiv Ranjan Mishra said in a letter to the chairpersons of the District Ganga Committees. It has also asked to submit an action-taken report (ATR) to the NMCG in the next 14 days, the letter said. Responding to a question on this in a briefing on May 7, V K Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog said, Spread of transmission through water is not a concern. Not to worry. Principal Scientific Adviser K VijayRaghavan said there is no worry about transmission through such mediums. "Primary transmission happens when people speak, or when two people are in close proximity and if the droplets drop on any surface come in contact with the other person then it can spread through water, he said. "But mostly it spreads through aerosol. It also depends on airflow. There is no need to worry. It dilutes in the water to an extent that there is little danger of transmission, Raghavan 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.) The reports terming B.1.617 variant of as an Indian variant are without any basis and that the World Health Organization has not called it so while classifying it as a variant of concern, the clarified on Wednesday. has not associated the term Indian Variant with B.1.617...The word Indian has not been used in its report on the matter, the ministry said. The South-East Asia in a tweet said it does not identify viruses or variants with names of countries they are first reported from. We refer to them by their scientific names and request all to do the same for consistency. A report on the study of the variant by Indian Sars-Cov-2 Genomic Consortia and Cambridge University said the virus emerged in Maharashtra towards end-2020 and has spread throughout India and to at least 40 countries. But, a scientist said one can never know the country of origin but only the country where the virus was first sequenced. With Bharat Biotechs inactivated virus-based Covid19 vaccine Covaxin now set for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials on children in the 2-12 years age group, the stage is set for a paediatric range to hit the market. Experts believe this is a critical step to ensure break in transmission. Apart from Covaxin, two more vaccine candidates would be available for paediatric use in India. Zydus Cadilas ZyCoV-D has been tested on children above 12 years and on Monday the USFDA authorized use of Pfizers mRNA vaccine on kids as young as 12 years. has already conducted trials on children 12 years and above. Chairman and Managing Director Krishna Ella had said last year: Our vaccine is safe, and built on time-tested and proven technology. It can be given to a six-month-old or a 60-year-old. T Jacob John, senior virologist and former head of the departments of clinical virology and microbiology at Christian Medical College, Vellore, said, Covaxin is an inactivated virus based vaccine. It is the same technology as the injectable polio vaccine and the hepatitis A vaccine. These vaccines are given to infants and have proven to trigger immunogenic response in children. Covaxin should also work on children above 2 years. However, this needs to be backed up by data and hence trials are necessary. John added that if the world wanted to get rid of the coronavirus, vaccinating children was an important step as they are a link in the transmission process. Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila too is prepping up with data on adolescents. Clinical trials of ZyCoV-D have included children 12 years and above. We would have sufficient data on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine on children by the time we seek approval from the regulator. Moreover, this is a needle-free vaccine, which may make it more acceptable to children, Sharvil Patel, managing director of Cadila Healthcare, said. Cadila Healthcares ZyCoV-D would be administered through a needle-free injection system (NFIS). Typically, in an NFIS, a jet of fluid is accelerated to high speed, providing it significant penetrating power through a fine-diameter nozzle when placed against the skin. Patel thus said the vaccine might have higher acceptance among children scared of needles. ZyCoV-D is stable at room temperatures, making the logistics of the vaccine easier. Pfizer too got the nod on Monday to use the vaccine on children as young as 12. Bill Gruber, senior vice president of Pfizer, has told agencies that this was a watershed moment in our ability to fight back the Covid19 pandemic. Pfizer is now in discussion with the Indian government for bringing its vaccine to India. India has adopted a more liberal policy to allow foreign vaccines that are approved by regulators like the USFDA, UK-MHRA etc to come to India without conducting bridging clinical trials. Companies can simultaneously conduct bridging studies when the vaccine is available here, and then submit the data. This paves way for Pfizers vaccine to be used on adolescents here too. Pfizer did not comment till the time of going to press. Paediatric vaccine is also a sizeable market. A Mumbai-based analyst said, It is estimated that 350-400 million in India are below 18-years of age. Considering two doses Covid vaccine regimen, this would translate into 700-800 million doses potential demand easily. According to an estimate by Unesco, around 321 million Indian children were asked to stay home when the lockdown began end of March last year. A week after the (RBI) announced some relief measures for institutions (MFIs), the lenders have urged the central bank to provide additional support. In a letter to RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, MFI association SaDhan has sought a special liquidity facility of at least Rs 15,000 crore to be provided by all-India financial institutions such as National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). Of this, at least 40 per cent of the funds should go to MFIs with an asset size of Rs 500 crore. The fresh rise in infections has resulted in loacalised lockdowns, adversely impacting the borrowers ability to pay back. Due to increase in lockdowns and impact on incomes of clients, the repayments of MFIs are being affected adversely which leads to severe liquidity and sustainability issues if not supported with sufficient funding and asset classification support from banks and DFIs, said P Satish, executive director, SaDhan. They have also sought an emergency credit line of up to 25 per cent of their outstanding loans with lending banks. This will enable MFIs to mobilise around Rs 15,000 crore. Thirdly, they have asked the central bank to monitor the flow of funds from banks to MFIs under the on-tap TLTRO scheme so that there is timely flow of liquidity to the sector. If the sector could be supported with Rs 25,000 crore under this funding window, it would immensely help MFIs in coping with their liquidity and funding challenges, the letter said. Also, they have asked the RBI to introduce Partial Credit Guarantee Scheme 3.0, which provides the much-needed nudge to banks in these uncertain times to lend to MFIs, especially small and mid-size institutions with relatively lower ratings. The letter said that banks and institutions such as NABARD and SIDBI should look at providing a moratorium of six months or a year to MFIs, after assessing their cash flow position. As collections fall, sustainability of MFIs will become a problem and this may in turn have an impact on their ratings, which will further impede their chances of raising funds. Many rating agencies have also raised the issue of the adverse impact of the deadly second wave of Covid on MFIs. Last week, ICRA said the MFI industry is witnessing a reduction in collections and the recovery seen in Q4FY21 is being challenged. It has estimated a sequential drop of 8-10 per cent in collections in April 2021, saying it may dip further if cases continue rising and more restrictions are imposed. Acuite Ratings and Research has said while the industry was in a gradual recovery phase from Q3FY21 through an improvement in delinquencies and disbursements the second wave has started to disrupt that nascent recovery. Given the wider coverage of the virus across semi-urban and rural areas in this cycle, the risks of a sharper impact on the lives and livelihoods of the borrower is higher in the near term. It expects 30-day delinquencies to increase by 30 per cent by June 2021 even if cases start to fall from mid-May, and may more than double if there is no respite from the pandemic and local lockdowns continue till Q1-end. Recently, the RBI had come up with some measures for the sector. The RBI said it will provide Rs 10,000 crore for three years at the repo rate to small banks to lend to individuals, and small and medium enterprises, etc. It also incentivised SFBs to lend to MFIs by granting priority sector lending status to such exposures. delivered 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine as a gift to on Wednesday to help it cope with a shortage. Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people, is in desperate need after India banned exports of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India because of its own devastating surge in infections. Chinese Ambassador to Li Jiming formally handed over the Sinopharm vaccines in Dhaka on Wednesday. has already approved the Chinese vaccines after the World Health Organization has recently listed the Sinopharm for emergency use globally. Bangladesh received about 7 million doses from the Indian institute, but its deal had called for 30 million doses to be delivered by June. Bangladesh already suspended administering the first dose of vaccines. Some few hundreds of thousands of people are due their second dose but would be left out if new doses do not arrive soon. Bangladesh has attempted to diversify its vaccine sources, asking the United States for 4 million doses from its stock and signing a deal with Russia to produce Sputnik-V vaccines locally in Bangladesh. (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.) For those who filed electronically on or after March 15 and included the unemployment exclusion on their state and federal returns, no additional filing changes are required. If an eligible taxpayer filed electronically on or after March 15 but did not include the exclusion, an amended return must be filed to adjust their AGI. Israel unleashed a relentless aerial attack on the Hamas-ruled Strip after a massive rocket barrage over the countrys commercial heartland, as the death toll climbed and the sides edged closer to all-out war. Forty-three people have been reported killed in and six in Israel since the most serious fighting since 2014 exploded on Monday night. More than 1,000 rockets have been fired from the Palestinian enclave, and Israel has carried out about 500 raids, the Israeli military said on Wednesday. Three Palestinians have died in confrontations with Israeli security forces in the West Bank. Hamas will receive blows here that it did not expect, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday after the first fatalities on the Israeli side. Israel, which had initially targeted military facilities in Gaza, has widened its net to assassinate several key Hamas intelligence figures and military commanders. The escalation set off a flurry of diplomatic efforts to defuse the violence involving Egypt, the U. S. and United Nations. The UN Security Council said it would hold a second emergency session Wednesday to address the crisis. U. S. President Joe Biden directed National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to reach out to their Israeli counterparts. The hostilities spilled over from weeks of clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in contested Jerusalem. The holy city, home to Jewish, Muslim and Christian shrines, lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and competing claims to it have underpinned the latest confrontation. Tensions have also been stoked by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbass cancellation of Palestinian elections, over Hamass objections. The violence has set off a wave of protests by Israeli Arabs in support of the Palestinians, and unprecedented clashes with Jews and destruction of property in several cities. A state of emergency was declared on Tuesday in the central city of Lod, where Jews and Arabs live in a mixed community, after Arab assailants set synagogues, shops and cars on fire following the killing of an Arab resident by a Jewish man amid rioting a day earlier. Israel strikes back Israel said it killed 16 members of the Hamas military wing in a air strike on Wednesday and Palestinian militants rained rockets into Israel as global concern mounted over their most intense hostilities in years. Israel's Shin Bet security service said the brigade commander for Gaza City was among senior members of the Islamist militant group Hamas who had been killed. This is just the beginning. We'll hit them like they've never dreamed possible," Netanyahu said in a statement. As hostilities between Israel and continue to escalate, rocket sirens are going off across southern and central Israel while dozens of explosions have also been reported. The health ministry run by the Hamas group reported that so far, 32 Palestinians have been killed and 220 people injured in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza since the outbreak of hostilities, The Times of Israel reported. Meanwhile, sirens went off in communities near Gaza, in Beersheba where dozens of explosions were reported. Loud booms were reported near Tel Aviv as Hamas launched a massive barrage of rockets at the city. Amid the escalating conflict, the Hamas' military wing said it has launched 110 rockets at the city and at the nearby Ben Gurion airport. Several rockets were also fired at Ashkelon, Modiin and Tel Aviv. Two people were seriously injured when a rocket hit their home in the city of Lod. The house has been completely destroyed while the wounded have been shifted to a hospital. On the other hand, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF)said it has attacked "a number of significant terror sites and terrorists across the Gaza Strip", reported The Times of Israel. "It is 3 am and more rockets are being fired at Tel Aviv. Families are being woken up and rushed to bomb shelters," it tweeted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who declared a state of emergency in Lod as intense rioting has erupted in the Arab-Jewish city, is set to visit the area after midnight (local time). "I have been receiving updates all day on what is happening here in the city and I view it extremely gravely. It is anarchy from rioters that we cannot accept," he said, while promising to restore law and order. The Assaf Harofeh hospital said it is treating 12 people wounded in the clashes in Lod, including two in serious condition, The Times of Israel reported. This comes as the tensions between Israel and are rapidly escalating, with ramping up of rocket attacks and airstrikes from both sides. Three people have been killed in rocket strikes from Gaza towards Tel Aviv. The United States has expressed serious concern over the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, calling for de-escalation of tensions between both countries by establishing a two-state solution. Over 630 rockets were fired at Israel from Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon, 200 of which were intercepted by Iron Dome missile defence batteries while 150 others fell short of their targets and landed inside the Strip, according to the army. The country has been embroiled in conflict over the impending eviction of dozens of Palestinians from East Jerusalem's neighbourhood. Over 70 Palestinians in total are set to be evicted from Sheikh Jarrah in the coming weeks to be replaced by right-wing Jewish Israelis. The Palestinians live in houses built on land that courts have ruled were owned by Jewish religious associations before the establishment of Israel in 1948. As Chinese President Xi Jinping's hard-line policies beyond Chinese shores are squandering Beijing's soft power, doubts are emerging over Xi securing an unprecedented third term. The G7 last week called on Xi on everything from actions on Taiwan, incursions in cyberspace, human-rights abuses, fallout from its Belt and Road Initiative. The same week, Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong received another 10-months in jail for his role in 2019 anti-government protests, writes William Pesek for Nikkei Asia. At the same time, he suspended a ministerial economic dialogue with Canberra, with his government hitting Prime Minister Scott Morrison's for a "Cold War mindset" and "ideological discrimination". Pesek wrote that China's inner circle is miffed about Morrison's questions, which everyone should be asking - on COVID-19 and its demands for a seat on the G7 table despite being irresponsible for the pandemic. Much of South Asia avoids getting at Xi's bad side. After South Korea welcomed a US-designed Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, missile-defense system, Chinese tourism flows to Seoul disappeared. Xi had a once-in-lifetime opportunity to grow Beijing's soft power at America's expense amid trade wars between then US President Donald Trump. However, he blew it and China's image in polls has lost ground since 2018. As the COVID-19 ravaged the world, Xi's belligerence deserves considerable blame - with Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Galwan border clash with India, Canada and more. Meanwhile, current US President Joe Biden is pivoting the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue against China, much to Xi's chagrin, with additional resistance from China. Pesek for Nikkei Asia wrote that despite the common view that the Chinese President does not care what the world thinks, press freedom in China is racing in the wrong direction and Xi himself seems to fear Google and Facebook. These actions signal insecurity and a dearth of savvy that a leading power needs to exploit at the moment and thus not a great report card a year out from Xi's plan to secure yet another term. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Motor executive Greg Kelly denied helping ousted boss hide earnings, saying at his trial in Tokyo on Wednesday that his only goal had been to retain a chief executive who could have been lured away by a rival automaker. Ghosn escaped to Lebanon in December 2019 hidden in carry-on luggage on a private jet that flew out of Kansai Airport, while he awaited trial on charges of financial wrongdoing, including understating his compensation in financial statements. Kelly and Ghosn, who also denies the charges, have both said they are victims of a boardroom coup by former colleagues worried the latter would push through a merger between and Renault SA, its largest shareholder. Taking the witness stand for the first time since his trial began in September, Kelly said, "I didn't conspire with Mr. Ghosn or other people," according to a court pool report. Dressed usually in a dark suit and red striped tie, Kelly has sat quietly through months of testimony from witnesses such as former Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa, former vice president in charge of legal affairs Hari Nada and Toshiaki Ohnuma, an official who oversaw details of Ghosn's compensation. Prosecutors have used that testimony to accuse Kelly of being an accomplice in a scheme to hide 9.3 billion yen ($86 million) of Ghosn's earnings over eight years through deferred payments. That was prompted by rules introduced in 2010 by financial regulators to force company executives earning more than 1 billion yen a year to disclose their compensation. Both Nada and Ohnuma, the head of Nissan's secretariat office, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and did not face charges. Kelly, who has been on bail in Japan since his release from jail at the end of 2018, faces prosecution alone after Ghosn fled. Kelly's wife, Dee, who lives with him in Japan, has attended most court sessions, sitting in the public gallery near her husband and taking notes. On Wednesday, Kelly also denied knowing details of Ghosn's remuneration before 2010, apart from being aware that Ghosn had cut the amount to keep it below the disclosure threshold. He said Ohnuma was responsible for discussing compensation details and that any final decision was made by Ghosn. If convicted, Kelly could face a jail term of up to 15 years and a fine of 10 million yen. Japan's conviction rate is about 99%, but a ruling may not come until next year. Ghosn also faces two separate breach of trust charges that he enriched himself at Nissan's expense through $5 million in payments to a Middle East car dealership, and temporarily transferred personal financial losses to his employer's books. The trial of the American father and son, Michael Taylor and Peter Taylor, accused of helping him escape, begins in Tokyo on June 14, after U.S. authorities extradited the pair in March. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 22-year old Indian national and a Singaporean of Indian descent were charged by a court here on Wednesday under the Official Secrets Act for unauthorised communication about an apartment inspection. Damandeep Singh allegedly received the information while having reasonable grounds to believe that it was communicated to him in contravention of the Official Secrets Act, said the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB). He received the information from Kalayarasan Karuppaya, an Indian-origin higher estate executive with the Housing and Development Board (HDB), the public housing authority. The 44-year-old Singaporean allegedly leaked information on HDB's impending inspections of a flat at Kim Tian Road, off the central business district, to Singh, a registered tenant of the unit, according to a Channel News Asia report. Kalayarasan was not authorised to communicate the information to Singh, said CPIB. He did so on three occasions in May, August and September 2019. They were charged on Wednesday over unauthorised communication about flat inspections, said the report citing a CIPB release. Each man faces three charges for offences under the Official Secrets Act. If convicted, they could be jailed for up to two years and fined up to 2,000 dollars (USD 1,504) for each charge. adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach towards and other criminal activities, said the CPIB. International Nurses Day is a day observed every year on May 12 to honour nurses. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) celebrated the day for the first time in 1965. In 1953, a US health, education and welfare department official, Dorothy Sunderland, proposed to President Dwight D. Eisenhower to proclaim a "Nurses' Day" which he did not approve. In 1974, May 12 was chosen to celebrate the day as it is the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing. Who was Apart from being a nurse, Nightingale was a social reformer and a statistician. She came into prominence for her contributions as a nurse during the Crimean War. During the war, she was serving as a manager and trainer of nurses and she was instrumental in organising care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. Due to her efforts, nursing got a favourable reputation and she became an icon of Victorian culture. In 1860, the foundation of modern nursing was laid with the establishment of Nightingales nursing school at St Thomas Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world which later became part of Kings College London. Due to her pioneering efforts, the Nightingale Pledge which is taken by new nurses, and the Medal which is the highest international recognition for nurses, were named in her honour. She also made efforts for improving the health condition of all sections of British society, advocated for better hunger relief for India, and helped in abolishing prostitution laws in Britain that were considered harsh for women. It was only fitting that the International Nurses Day was named after Nightingale. Significance of the day In 2020 and 2021, we have seen the devastations caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. In almost two years since the pandemic began in 2020, the world has seen over 160 million coronavirus cases and over 3 million deaths worldwide. The pandemic has burdened our health infrastructure unlike ever before. However, despite the magnitude of the situation, our health workers doctors, nurses and others have been at the forefront fighting the virus and saving lives. Nurses are the backbone of our healthcare system who have been risking their lives for months. Despite their importance to our health infrastructure, there is an urgent shortage of nurses worldwide despite them constituting more than half of the health workers, according to the World Health Organization. According to ICN, more than 1.6 million health workers in 34 countries were infected by Covid-19 as of 31st December, 2020. Amid this backdrop, the International Nurses Day 2021 assumes great significance to express our deep gratitude for nurses and health workers around the world. The theme for the 2021 is Nurses: A Voice to Lead - A vision for future healthcare. Amid escalating tensions with Palestinians, has banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza Strip through the Erez border crossing starting from Tuesday until further notice. " has banned foreign journalists from entering Palestine's Gaza Strip through the Erez (Beit Hanoun in Arabic) border crossing starting from Tuesday until further notice, the nation's Ministry of Defense Crossing Points Authority said on Tuesday," according to Sputnik News. Erez is the only crossing which is generally used by civilians to reach the Palestinian enclave, Sputnik reported. "Journalists are prohibited from traveling through the Erez checkpoint until further notice," the authority said in a statement. The decision came amid the escalation of tensions between Israeli security forces and Palestinians in the Old City of Jerusalem, including near the Al Aqsa Mosque. On Monday, the Hamas movement demanded that withdraw its military from the areas of Al-Aqsa and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Earlier on Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that more than 200 rockets were launched from Gaza toward Israel. In response, Israel struck 130 targets of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group, including two tunnels, a Hamas intelligence facility, and weapons manufacturing and storage sites. Shortly after, the IDF wrote on Twitter that it has destroyed "a squad of Hamas terrorists operating anti-tank missiles in Gaza" and vowed to continue operations against what it described as terrorist activities, Sputnik reported. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In an open letter, a group of eminent global business and policy leaders has urged US President to demonstrate a decisive American leadership in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The group of 16 business and policy leaders raised concern over the rampant spread of the virus in places like India and the Philippines, and the likelihood of mutations perpetuating the world if left unchecked. The US must act now to leverage rapidly increasing US domestic vaccine production, export ever-larger volumes of our surplus supplies, and go to work on the massive technical and logistical challenges to vaccine development on a global scale, it said. The US support for the intellectual property waiver being promoted by the WTO would make a little difference and could do harm. It does not consider the proper materials, equipment, training and infrastructure necessary to manufacture the vaccine safely and successfully (in addition to being a potential disincentive for future innovation), the letter said. Observing that the world has come to rely upon the US leadership at times of great strife, the letter said that the ability of the American government, working in tandem with the private sector, to deliver innovative solutions that save lives and restore peace and stability is the very foundation of the US soft power. Today we have a generational opportunity to mobilise vaccine efforts around the world. Our friends and allies will not forget easily if we sit on surplus stockpiles of the most proven vaccines as their citizens suffer and die, said the letter initiated by Maurice R Greenberg, chairman and CEO of C V Starr & Co. Prominent signatories to the letter are Ken Langone, chairman of the Board of Trustees of NYU Langone Health; William Cohen; Noel V Lateef from Foreign Policy Association; Carla A Hills; John D Negroponte; John F Maisto; Alexander Feldman and Suzanne Clarke from the US Chamber of Commerce. Your administration has committed USD 4 billion to Covax, the multilateral effort headed by the WHO to get vaccines into the arms of people in disadvantaged nations. You have also announced your intention to donate 60 million doses of our supply of AstraZeneca vaccine for global deployment. While these actions are a laudable and necessary start, by themselves they are far too small in scale to turn the tide of the global pandemic. We must do more, the letter said. This is not only a matter of geopolitics. With the virus teeming unchecked in places like India, the Philippines and elsewhere, it becomes increasingly possible for dangerous variants to evolve that are resistant to the existing vaccines. Such variants will know no borders, they added. China reported the first COVID-19 case in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019 and since then, the deadly contagion has become a pandemic, affecting more than 159,305,473 people and causing over 3,312,199 deaths worldwide. The government has extended suspension on operation of flights till May 31 as cases continue to rise at an alarming rate in the Himalayan nation. The deadly virus has so far infected 413,111 people and claimed 4,084 lives in the country, which has a population of approximately 29.5 million. The suspension period of schedule flights has been extended till May 31, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a notification on Tuesday. However, two weekly flights on the Kathmandu-Delhi sector -- one of Airlines and the other of Air India -- will remain operational under an air bubble arrangement between and India, it said. Nepal had decided to halt all domestic flights from May 3 midnight and all flights from May 7 midnight until May 14 to check the rapidly growing spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, prohibitory orders in Kathmandu Valley that have been in place since April 29 to contain the spread of the have been extended until May 27. (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.) Two senior Trump administration officials plan to defend their actions during the Jan 6 riots at the US Capitol when they appear before Congress, with former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller standing behind every decision he made that day. Miller will tell the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday that he was concerned before the insurrection that sending troops to the building could fan fears of a military coup and cause a repeat of the deadly Kent State shootings, according to a copy of prepared remarks obtained by The Associated Press. His testimony, in the latest in a series of congressional hearings centered on the riot, is aimed at rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to arrive even as pro-Trump rioters violently breached the building and stormed inside. Miller will be joined by former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, who is also testifying for the first time about the Justice Department's role in the run-up to the riot. Miller will say he was determined that the military have only limited involvement, a perspective he says was shaped by criticism of the aggressive response to the civil unrest that roiled American cities months earlier, as well as decades-old episodes that ended in violence. The Defense Department has an extremely poor record in supporting domestic law enforcement," including during civil rights and Vietnam War protests in the 1960s and 1970s and the fatal shooting 51 years ago of four students at Kent State University by Ohio National Guard members, Miller says in his prepared remarks. I was committed to avoiding repeating these scenarios," he says. Miller also denies that former President Donald Trump, criticized for failing to forcefully condemn the rioters, had any involvement in the Defense Department's response. Miller will be the most senior Pentagon official to participate in hearings on the riots. The sessions so far have featured finger-pointing about missed intelligence, poor preparations and an inadequate law enforcement response. The Capitol Police have faced criticism for being badly overmatched, the FBI for failing to share with sufficient urgency intelligence suggesting a possible war at the Capitol, and the Defense Department for an hourslong delay in getting support to the complex despite the violent, deadly chaos unfolding on TV. Our hearing will provide the American people the first opportunity to hear from top Trump Administration officials about the catastrophic intelligence and security failures that enabled this unprecedented terrorist attack on our nation's Capitol, the committee's chair, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said in a statement. Rosen, for his part, is expected to tell lawmakers that the Justice Department took appropriate precautions ahead of the riot by putting tactical and other elite units on standby after local police reports indicated that 10,000 to 30,000 people were expected at rallies and protests. Miller's testimony will amount to the most thorough explanation of Pentagon actions after months of criticism that it took hours for the National Guard to arrive. In his prepared remarks, he defends his resistance to a heavy military response as being shaped in part by public hysteria about the possibility of a military coup or concerns that the military might be used to help overturn the election results. Fearful of amplifying those suspicions as well as the possibility a soldier might be provoked into violence in a way that could be perceived as an attack on First Amendment activities he says he agreed in the days before the insurrection to deploy soldiers only in areas away from the Capitol. No such thing was going to occur on my watch but these concerns, and hysteria about them, nonetheless factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our Armed Forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification, Miller says. My obligation to the Nation was to prevent a constitutional crisis. Although he says the Defense Department should not play a lead role in domestic law enforcement, he felt it important to initiate planning discussions out of concern about a lack of coordination and information-sharing between other agencies. Democrats have signaled that they intend to press Miller on why it took so long for the National Guard to arrive despite urgent plans for help. In his prepared testimony, Miller contends that those complaints are unjustified, though he also concedes that the Guard was not rushed to the scene which he says was intentional. (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.) (I)n tossing aside Cheney, the daughter of the former vice president and as close as it gets to GOP royalty, and promising a big tent to win back power, McCarthy is hollowing out a cadre of lawmakers intent on governing while he is elevating the people and personalities most loyal to Donald Trump, The Associated Press notes in this perspective piece. In one stroke, he is amplifying the former presidents false claims about the election and seeking to mend his own tattered relationship with Trump, reasserting himself as Trumps man in the House. UK PM | Photo: Reuters UK Prime Minister on Wednesday announced a "full and independent" public inquiry into his government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, set to begin in the first half of 2022. In a statement to members of Parliament during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) session in the House of Commons, Johnson said the inquiry will be able to take oral evidence under oath and put the government's response to the crisis last year under the microscope. The move follows calls from the Opposition for such a probe, with demands for it to include consultation with families affected by the pandemic over the past year. According to Johns Hopkins university data, the deadly virus has so far infected 4,455,446 people and claimed 127,890 lives in the UK. I can confirm today that the government will establish an independent public inquiry on a statutory basis, with full powers under the Inquiries Act of 2005, including the ability to compel the production of all relevant materials, and take oral evidence in public, under oath, Johnson said. We will consult the devolved administrations before finalising scope and detailed arrangements, so that this Inquiry can consider all key aspects of the UK response. This process will place the state's actions under the microscope, he said. Pointing to the scale of the undertaking which would impose significant burden on the National Health Service (NHS), the UK PM said the right moment for the inquiry to begin would be in Spring 2022. He once again reiterated his message of caution as the UK prepares for its next level of easing the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions from next Monday, to remain vigilant against variants of concern -- including that first detected in India. Johnson said: The patience and hard work of the British people has combined with the success of the vaccination programme to reduce deaths and hospitalisations to their lowest levels since last July, and from Monday, England will ease lockdown restrictions in line with step 3 of our roadmap. This will amount to the single biggest step of our journey back to normality. But after everything we have endured, we must be vigilant because the threat of this virus remains real and new variants pose a potentially lethal danger, including the one first identified in India which is of increasing concern here in the UK. So caution has to be our watchword. The Commons statement came as the NHS announced that it had hit another big milestone in its COVID vaccination programme, with the delivery of 45 million jabs in England. It marks the next stage of expansion for the COVID-19 vaccination drive, with people aged 38 and 39 now being sent text messages to book their first doses from Thursday. With nearly three quarters of people in their 40s having already received their first jab, the NHS is opening up to people aged 38 and 39 from tomorrow. We must not forget that behind the huge numbers of people jabbed, there has been a huge amount of hard work from our staff, aided by incredible volunteers across the country, said NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis. Our incredible vaccination programme has already saved thousands of lives and has helped to significantly reduce hospital and infection rates, allowing us to begin safely easing restrictions, added UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock. The NHS currently vaccinates using three vaccines Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and Oxford/AstraZeneca. People 39 and under without an underlying health condition will be offered the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines in line with updated Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) guidance last week, in response to reports of extremely rare cases of blood clots associated with the vaccine, which is being produced in India as Covidshield. The U.S Department of Defense will remove Chinas Corp from a government blacklist, a court filing showed, marking a noteworthy reversal by the Biden administration of one of Donald Trumps last jabs at Beijing before exiting office. The filing stated that the two parties would agree to resolve their ongoing litigation without further contest, bringing to an end a brief and controversial spat between the hardware company and Washington that had further soured Sino-U.S. ties. A spokeswoman said the company is watching the latest developments closely, without elaborating. Shares in the company rocketed over 6% in Hong Kong as news of the decision spread. The companys share price has tumbled roughly 20% since it was placed on the blacklist in January in the waning days of the Trump administration. Department of Defense officials werent immediately available for comment after U.S. business hours. The department had designated the firm as having ties to Chinas military and placed it on a list that would restrict U.S. investment in the company. Seven other were also placed under similar restrictions. went on the offensive by filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government, calling its placement unlawful and unconstitutional and denying any ties to Chinas military. In March, a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the blacklisting, citing the U.S. governments deeply flawed process for including it in the ban. Soon after that victory, Reuters reported that other Chinese firms placed on the same blacklist were considering similar lawsuits. Xiaomi was among the more high-profile Chinese technology that former President Donald Trump targeted for alleged ties to Chinas military. Trump had made countering the rise of Beijing a centrepiece of his administrations economic and foreign policy. Xiaomis local smartphone rival Huawei Technologies Co Ltd was also put on an export blacklist in 2019 and barred from accessing critical technology of U.S. origin, affecting its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors. The measures effectively crippled the companys smartphone division. Later, the U.S. Department of Defense placed similar restrictions on Chinas Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, a firm key to Chinas national drive to boost its domestic chip sector. Prof. Doug Fuller, who tracks Chinas semiconductor sector at the City University of Hong Kong, says that Xiaomis win was low-hanging fruit for the Biden administration in its efforts to correct the excesses of Trumps policy as his term ended. I think it is a sign that Biden will be a bit softer, he said. Calling Xiaomi a Chinese military company was always ridiculous. For firms tied to more legitimate defence concerns, or Xinjiang, however, it will be more difficult. Cairo, May 12 (AP) Egyptian authorities impounded a massive cargo vessel that blocked the last month amid a financial dispute with its owner, the canal chief and a judicial official said Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie said the hulking Ever Given would not be allowed to leave the country until a compensation amount is settled on with the vessel''s Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. The vessel is now officially impounded, he told Egypt''s state-run television late Monday. They do not want to pay anything. There was no immediate comment from the vessel''s owner. Rabie did not say how much money the canal authority was seeking. However, a judicial official said it demanded at least $900 million. The state-run Ahram daily also reported the $900 million figure. That amount takes into account the salvage operation, costs of stalled canal traffic and lost transit fees for the week that the Ever Given blocked the canal. The official said the order to impound the vessel was issued Monday by a court in the city of Ismailia, and that the vessel''s crew has been informed Tuesday. He said prosecutors in Ismailia also opened a separate investigation into what led the Ever Given to run aground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media. Rabie said negotiations were still ongoing to reach a settlement on compensation. He warned last week in an interview with The Associated Press that bringing the case before a court would be more harmful to the vessel''s owner than settling with the canal''s management. Litigation could be complex, since the vessel is owned by a Japanese firm, operated by a Taiwanese shipper, and flagged in Panama. The Panama-flagged ship that carries some $3.5 billion in cargo between Asia and Europe ran aground March 23 in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Asian Sinai Peninsula. The vessel had crashed into the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez. On March 29, salvage teams freed the Ever Given, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the world''s most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce. The vessel has since idled in Egypt''s Great Bitter Lake, just north of the site where it previously blocked the canal. The unprecedented six-day shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers, added to strain on the shipping industry already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic. Rabie, the canal chief, told state-run television there was no wrongdoing by the canal authority. He declined to discuss possible causes, including the ship''s speed and the high winds that buffeted it during a sandstorm. When asked whether the ship''s owner was at fault, he said: Of course, yes. Rabie said the conclusion of the authority''s investigation was expected Thursday. (AP) CPS India's flexible segment has a total stock of 36 million sq ft currently and is likely to grow 10-15 per cent annually over the next three years on rising demand from corporates, according to CBRE. Property consultant CBRE South Asia Pvt Ltd has released its report -- 'The Future is Flex' that highlights emerging trends and future expectations in India's flexible space segment. CBRE expects India's flexible stock to grow by 10-15 per cent (year-on-year) from the current 36 million sq ft in the next three years driven by hybrid space demand, expansion across cities and sustained funding. As of Q1, 2021 calendar year, Bengaluru holds a stock of 11.6 million sq ft, the maximum in the country, followed by Delhi-NCR at 6.6 million sq ft and Hyderabad at 5.7 million sq ft. Apart from Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru, the demand for flexible workspace in cities like Pune and Chennai are also expected to see growth in the coming years. In 2020 alone, over 75,000 seats were leased in flexible spaces across India. "The pandemic influenced the way businesses function, and their overall strategies. Businesses are evaluating new working models that keep workplace flexibility at the centre, balancing employee benefits and business profitability," said Anshuman Magazine, Chairman, India & South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE. He said these models would not only ensure flexible working, but also ensure employee safety once offices resume normal operations. "The demand for physical office spaces will continue to rise as employees look forward to normal work days; with mass vaccination propelling further sectoral growth," he added. Ram Chandnani, Managing Director, Advisory & Transactions Services, India said, "we are witnessing an accelerated change in performance, expectations, and role of the workplace. Firms have been successful in changing their strategies to ensure seamless functioning, while effectively leveraging potential changes in work styles." "While for many the work from home culture may continue, the demand for physical workspaces is expected to be driven by flex offerings," Chandnani said. The report highlighted that Tier 2 and 3 are also expected to witness an increase in demand for flexible space. (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.) By Sonali Paul MELBOURNE (Reuters) - rose on Wednesday, extending overnight gains, after industry data showed a drop in U.S. crude inventories, which reinforced OPEC's robust demand outlook, and as the shutdown of the biggest U.S. fuel pipeline headed into a sixth day. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 21 cents, or 0.3%, to $65.49 a barrel at 0013 GMT, adding to a 36 cent rise on Tuesday. Brent crude futures climbed 15 cents, or 0.2%, to $68.70 a barrel, adding to a 23 cent gain on Tuesday. "Crude oil gained as investors continue to bet on a bright outlook for demand. A weak U.S. dollar also lent support," ANZ Research said in a note. Data from the American Petroleum Institute industry group showed U.S. crude oil stocks fell by 2.5 million barrels in the week to May 7, according to two market sources. The drop was slightly less than expected. Eight analysts polled by Reuters had estimated, on average, that crude stocks fell by 2.8 million barrels. The drawdown came before the Colonial Pipeline was hit by a cyberattack last Friday which forced the pipeline, which transports more than 2.5 million barrels a day of fuel, to shut down. The operator said it hopes to restart a large portion of the network by the end of the week. In the meantime, the market remained on edge, as gasoline stations from Florida to Virginia began running out of fuel on Tuesday as drivers rushed to top up their tanks and pump prices rocketed. U.S. unleaded gasoline prices hit an average $2.99 a gallon, the highest since November 2014, the American Automobile Association said. were also supported by the latest outlook from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which stuck to a forecast for a strong recovery in world oil demand in 2021 with growth in China and the United States outweighing the impact of the coronavirus crisis in India. OPEC said it expects demand to rise by 5.95 million bpd this year, unchanged from its forecast last month. However, it cut its demand outlook for the second quarter by 300,000 bpd due to soaring COVID-19 infections in India. "India is currently facing severe COVID-19-related challenges and will therefore face a negative impact on its recovery in the second quarter, but it is expected to continue improving its momentum again in the second half of 2021," OPEC said in its monthly report. (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) (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.) Oil prices jumped on Wednesday, putting Brent on track for its highest close in almost two years on signs of a speedy economic recovery and upbeat forecasts for energy demand. Brent futures rose $1.12, or 1.6 per cent, to $69.67 a barrel by 10:44 am EDT (8.14 pm IST), while US West Texas Intermediate crude rose $1.10, or 1.7 per cent, to $66.38. Gains soon after the release of the weekly inventory data put WTI on course for its highest close since October 29, 2018 and Brent for its highest close since May 28, 2019. Those price gains came despite a smaller than expected US weekly crude inventory draw and a surprise increase in the gasoline stockpile. At this time of year we should be burning through a lot of gasoline and thats not what this report is showing, Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho, said, noting he did not think theres a skew to the data due to the Colonial (pipeline) outage. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude inventories declined 0.4 million barrels last week versus an expected 2.8 million barrel draw. Cadila Healthcare rose 2.60% to Rs 646.10 after the company's subsidiary announced plans to sell its India focused animal health business to Multiples Alternate Asset Management led consortium. Zydus Animal Health and Investments (ZAHL), a wholly owned material subsidiary of Cadila Healthcare, has entered into a business transfer agreement (BTA) and other ancillary agreements to sell and transfer its Animal Healthcare Established Markets Undertaking (Zydus AH) to Multiples Alternate Asset Management led consortium. The deal is to sell one of the two business undertakings of ZAHL, called Animal Healthcare Established Markets Undertaking on a slump sale basis as a going concern, for a lump sum consideration of Rs 2,921 crore on a cash free and debt free basis, subject to certain closing date adjustments and other conditions. The consortium, including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) and RARE Enterprises (RARE), has agreed to purchase the Undertaking through an SPV controlled by them, in the name of Zenex Animal Health India. The transaction involves transfer of immovable assets, movable assets, inventory, brands and intangible assets, contracts, licenses and permissions, business records, employees along with employee benefit funds, insurance policies, other assets and assumed liabilities. ZAHL has another animal healthcare business undertaking which is expected to commence animal health business in the US and certain European countries and this business undertaking is not part of the transaction. Zydus continues to develop the animal health business products for those markets and at present, this business is in the development and investment phase. Pankaj Patel, chairman, Cadila Healthcare, said, "Over the last 3 decades Zydus AH has grown to become a pioneer and market leader in the Indian animal health industry. With Multiples and its consortium partners committed to growing the business, we are sure that Zydus AH will continue to grow and strengthen its position in the industry." Dr. Arun Atrey, managing director, ZAHL said, "The Zydus AH business has a very strong franchise in the market and is extremely well positioned to take advantage of the continued industry growth in India and select exports markets. We expect this process to be seamless for our customers, suppliers and other stakeholders, with no disruption to our operations." Cadila Healthcare is a global pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of healthcare therapies. The company reported 40.6% rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 512.50 crore on a 6.2% rise in net sales to Rs 3,753.70 crore in Q3 FY21 over Q3 FY20. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) For manufacturing and commercializing baricitinib in India Dr Reddys Laboratories announced that it has entered into a royalty-free, non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) for the manufacture and commercialization of the drug, baricitinib, in India. The drug baricitinib has received restricted emergency use approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), Ministry of Health, India, for use in combination with remdesivir for the treatment of suspected or laboratory confirmed COVID-19 in hospitalized adults requiring supplemental oxygen, invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). This partnership comes at a critical juncture in the fight against the pandemic in India, and adds to the company's existing range of COVID-19 therapeutics covering the full spectrum from mild to moderate and severe conditions of the disease, and a vaccine. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britvic, a leading branded soft drinks businesses in Europe, has selected Infosys as its strategic partner for end-to-end IT services across applications and infrastructure. As Britvic's strategic partner, Infosys will provide end-to-end IT services and deliver a technology-driven approach to fulfill Britvic's business goals and strategic digital transformation roadmap. Infosys will also simplify and streamline its cloud infrastructure and operations leveraging Infosys Cobalt while improving service delivery through analytics, automation and process maturity. Neal Johnson, IT director operations & infrastructure at Britvic, said, "Britvic's aim is to be the most dynamic, creative and admired soft drinks company in the world which means IT needs to transform the way service and operations are delivered - with Infosys we have a strategic partner to take our operations to the next level by leveraging automation and digitalisation, thereby, offering a seamless digital experience for our enterprise users. This partnership will also help us innovate faster, be more agile and to transform quickly by leveraging Infosys's thought leadership as a market leader in IT services for Consumer Goods companies. Infosys is a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting. On a consolidated basis, Infosys reported a 2.3% decline in net profit to Rs 5,076 crore on 1.5% increase in revenues to Rs 26,311 crore in Q4 March 2021 over Q3 December 2020. Shares of Infosys fell 0.65% to Rs 1,322.05 on BSE. The stock traded in the range of Rs 1,320.15 to Rs 1,334.30 so far. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Power stocks were trading in the positive zone, with the S&P BSE Power index rising 42.33 points or 1.59% at 2710.98 at 09:49 IST. Among the components of the S&P BSE Power index, Siemens Ltd (up 7.76%), Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (up 3.07%),Torrent Power Ltd (up 2.91%),NHPC Ltd (up 2.83%),NTPC Ltd (up 2.8%), were the top gainers. Among the other gainers were K E C International Ltd (up 1.97%), ABB India Ltd (up 1.71%), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (up 1.3%), Adani Transmission Ltd (up 0.61%), and Adani Power Ltd (up 0.51%). On the other hand, Adani Green Energy Ltd (down 2.35%), Tata Power Company Ltd (down 1.6%), and Thermax Ltd (down 1.22%) moved lower. At 09:49 IST, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 333.62 or 0.68% at 48828.19. The Nifty 50 index was down 87.75 points or 0.59% at 14763. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was up 80.49 points or 0.36% at 22686.66. The S&P BSE 150 Midcap Index index was up 12.8 points or 0.18% at 7214.58. On BSE,1551 shares were trading in green, 825 were trading in red and 111 were unchanged. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Were excited about moving to the new spot, which is just perfect for the Farmers Market and gives us more space, said Derek Berg, co-president of the Chamber. Moving from our old spot also gives back more parking to the businesses downtown when were there. On a consolidated basis, UPL's net profit surged 73.6% to Rs 1,361 crore on 14.86% jump in revenue from operations to Rs 12,796 crore in Q4 FY21 over Q4 FY20. The Q4 FY21 revenues rose on the back of 18% Y-o-Y (year-on-year) volume growth and price increase of 1%. Profit before tax soared 69.14% to Rs 1,683 crore in Q4 March 2021 as against Rs 995 crore in Q4 March 2020. EBITDA spurted 31% to Rs 2,839 crore in Q4 FY21 as against Rs 2,169 crore in Q4 FY20. EBITDA margin improved to 22.2% in Q4 FY21 compared with 19.5% in Q4 FY20 due to strong margins and cost synergies. On an annual basis, the company's net profit climbed 60.46% to Rs 3,495 crore on 8.21% rise in revenue from operations to Rs 38,694 crore in FY21 over FY20. Commenting on the Q4 results, Jai Shroff, the chief executive officer (CEO) of UPL, said: "2020 was certainly a challenging year for each one of us, and the world as a whole. Despite being an incredibly tough year, UPL delivered growth through continuously innovating and transforming, and adapting to the constantly changing situation as best it can. Our financial performance in FY2021 has demonstrated the resilience of our model in COVID times. Despite the situation, we have delivered on our stated commitments of Revenue and EBITDA." "UPL is focused on driving sustainable agriculture and achieving transformational growth through innovative technology, as we tap new growth markets and opportunities. We aim to lead the agri- solutions space through differentiated products, bio-solutions, digitization and collaborations across the food value chain," he added. Revenues in India rose 23% to Rs 851 crore in Q4 March 2021 over Q4 March 2020. Revenue growth in Latin America jumped 40%, supported by the catch-up of a delayed season in Brazil. However,the depreciation in the Brazilian Real more than off-set the volume and price increases. Europe continued to maintain strong volume growth. Revenue in the region grew 17% YoY in Q4 FY21. The sales from North America was impacted due to supply constraints. Asia registered a strong growth while the AMEANZ region was flat over last year. During the year, the company reduced the gross debt by Rs 5,039 crore and net debt by Rs 3,140 crore. The gross debt and net debt as at 31 March 2021 was Rs 23,774 crore and Rs 18,922 crore, respectively. The board has recommended a dividend of Rs 10 per equity share. UPL is a global provider of sustainable agriculture products & solutions. Through OpenAg, UPL is focused on facilitating progress for the entire agricultural value chain. Shares of UPL gained 1.10% to close at Rs 691.60 on BSE. The scrip traded between Rs 680.75 to Rs 702.15 so far during the day. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin was on Tuesday recommended by an expert panel for phase II/III clinical trial on those aged between two to 18 years, official sources said. The trial will take place in 525 subjects at various sites, including AIIMS, Delhi, AIIMS, Patna and Meditrina Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur. The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) on Tuesday deliberated upon Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's application seeking permission to conduct phase II/III to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of Covaxin jabs in children aged 2 to 18 years. "After detailed deliberation, the committee recommended for conduct of proposed phase II/III clinical trial of whole virion inactivated in the 2 to 18 years age group subject to the condition that the firm should submit the interim safety data of phase II clinical trial along with DSMB recommendations to the CDSCO before proceeding to phase III part of the study," a source said. Earlier the proposal was deliberated in the SEC meeting dated February 24 and the firm was asked to submit a revised clinical trial protocol. Covaxin, indigenously developed by in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), is being used in adults in India's ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive. (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.) After Samsung, consumer electronics major has announced not to attend the (MWC) in-person in Barcelona this year. A spokesperson told The Verge on Tuesday that the company will attend virtually instead of in person and has informed the GSM Association, the organiser of MWC. The in-person event is still scheduled to happen in June, despite the ongoing pandemic that has devastated several countries like India and Brazil in the second wave. Several big tech companies like Google, Nokia, Ericsson, Sony and Oracle have already decided not to attend the event in person. Earlier this week, said it will not showcase its products and technologies "offline" at the mobile technologies trade fair, to be held between June 28 and July 1 in Barcelona. "The health and safety of our employees, partners and customers is our number one priority, so we have made the decision to withdraw from exhibiting in-person at this year's MWC," the company said in a statement. "We look forward to participating virtually and continuing to work with GSMA and industry partners to advance new mobile experiences." MWC is considered one of the top three tech events in the world, along with the Consumer Electronics Show in the United States and IFA in Germany. It has been held in Barcelona usually between end-February and early March each year, but the tech expo was canceled last year due to Covid-19, and this year, it was pushed back to June. --IANS na/ (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus ex-founder Carl Peis technology start-up Nothing is set to launch its first product in June this year. Named Ear 1, it is a pair of true wireless earbuds that will debut the brand in global consumer technology market. The earphones are also touted as the beginning of a long and exciting journey that will eventually expand in other product categories, including smart electronics that are expected to arrive later this year. "Our mission is to remove barriers between people and technology to create a seamless digital future that looks, lives, and feels like nothing... It (Ear 1) is the starting point that will define the artistry, confidence, and craftsmanship that will carry our products and services for years to come," Carl Pei, Chief Executive Officer, and Co-founder of Nothing said in a blogpost. Pei, in the blog, explained the reason for choosing earbuds as the first product in Nothing's portfolio. "...we believe the earphones market was begging for differentiation, space where we can elevate design and deliver value from day one. Additionally, as an area of hyper-growth, the earphones market will provide a fertile backdrop as we strengthen our capabilities and prepare to enter new product categories," he added. Nothing has raised $22 million from a clutch of investors, including GV (formerly Google Ventures), Casey Neistat (YouTube personality and Beme co-founder), Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and Reddit Chief Executive Officer Steve Huffman. Indias entrepreneur Kunal Shah, Founder, CRED, also invested in Nothing, although the amount has not been disclosed. Facebook-owned has announced to let users add up to four pronouns to their profiles, which they can then display publicly or only to their followers. It's another way to express yourself on and the feature is now available in a few countries today with plans for more. The company, however, did not specify which countries have this feature at the moment. "Now you can add pronouns to your profile with a new field. It's another way to express yourself on and we've seen a lot of people adding pronouns already, so hopefully this makes it even easier. Available in a few countries today with plans for more," said Vishal Shah, VP of Product at Instagram. People can fill out a form to have a pronoun added, if it's not already available, or just add it to their bio. The news comes at a time when a coalition of 44 US Attorneys General has signed a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging not to launch "Instagram for Kids", citing mental health and privacy concerns. The "Instagram for Kids" app will allow children under the age of 13 to begin using the popular photo-sharing app. However, the attorneys general urged to abandon its plans to launch this new platform. Currently, children under 13 are not allowed to have an Instagram account unless it is explicitly written in the profile description that the account is being managed by a parent or guardian. --IANS na/ (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Dr Reddy's Laboratories has entered into a royalty-free, non-exclusive voluntary licencing agreement with US-based pharma major Eli Lilly and Company for the manufacture and sale of the drug, Baricitinib. Baricitinib has received 'restricted emergency use approval' from the health ministry's central drugs standard control organisation for use in combination with Remdesivir for treatment of suspected or confirmed COVID-19 patients who require supplemental oxygen, invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). Deepak Sapra, Chief Executive Officer, API and Services, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, said: "From the start, we have been determined to explore every possible avenue against COVID-19. Our collaboration with Lilly will help us make yet another treatment option available to patients in India." Lilly has also issued licences to Cipla, Lupin, Natco and Sun Pharmaceutical to manufacture and sell the low-cost versions of its new COVID-19 drug Baricitinib in India. Dr Reddy's has also tied up with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Russia's sovereign wealth fund that has bankrolled Sputnik V and is in charge of marketing it abroad, for manufacturing and sale of the vaccine in India. Dr Reddy's also managed the clinical trials of Sputnik V in India. The vaccine has received approval from drug regulators in India and the country will start receiving the doses of Sputnik V from May. As per Dr Reddy's Laboratories CEO Deepak Sapra, 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. It has also collaborated with DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) to develop an anti-Covid drug, 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), which has also received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). The drug has been developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Hyderabad. INMAS-DRDO scientists had in April 2020, during the COVID-19 first wave, carried out laboratory experiments with the Centre's help for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad. The researchers found that this molecule works effectively against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and impedes viral growth. Dr Reddy's stock has risen Rs 4.05 or 0.076 per cent to Rs 5,300 on the National Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Meanwhile, India reported 3,48,421 new COVID-19 cases and the highest 4,205 deaths in the last 24 hours, as health ministry data shows. Also read: Cipla, Lupin, Sun Pharma to make, sell low-cost versions of Lilly's COVID-19 drug Also read: India approves Roche's antibody cocktail to treat COVID-19; Cipla to distribute the drug The power ministry is monitoring the supply to 73 major identified oxygen plants across the country, out of which 13 oxygen plants supply oxygen to the Delhi-NCR region. The ministry has said it is taking proactive measures amid the second wave of coronavirus. The power supplies to all such plants is reviewed every day at the level of the secretary, ministry of power, along with the concerned energy secretaries of the states, CMD, POSOCO on a case by case basis. All issues related to 24x7 power supply to oxygen plants are discussed in real-time and interventions are planned and executed immediately by the state discoms aided by POSOCO and Central Electricity Authority. Also read: Bharat Biotech has declined to supply any more vaccines to Delhi, says Manish Sisodia A 24 hours oxygen plant control room (OPCR) and an internal control group (ICG) has been set up at REC Limited, which are tasked with maintaining liaison with the oxygen plant nodal officers for ensuring 24X7 power supply to these plants. Advisories have been issued to the states for best practices adoption to all electricity lines feeding the plants. This includes building of suitable redundancies, and isolation of feeders supplying electricity to the oxygen plants. Some corrective measures advised included resetting of relays at the Barotiwala plant (Himachal Pradesh) and Kerala Mineral & Metal plant (Kerala) and laying of a 132kV underground cable for the oxygen plant at Salequi (Uttarakhand) in the stretch prone to bird fault. Power System Operation Corporation (POSOCO) has also been tasked with carrying out a technical audit of the power supply of each oxygen plant, particularly those supplying oxygen to NCR. The ministry has also written to Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Haryana, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, pointing out the remedial measures that need to be taken by them to ensure uninterrupted power supply. Additional 20 plants have been audited and the technical audit results are being shared with the respective states for urgent action. The technical audit of the rest of the plants is likely to be completed in the next seven days. Also read: Black fungus: Supply of key drug to be ramped up for mucormycosis treatment Drug major AstraZeneca on Tuesday said it has pledged $250,000 (over Rs 1.8 crore) in humanitarian aid to India to support relief activities amid the second wave of COVID-19 sweeping across the country. The aid to India is part of the $1 million which the British-Swedish multinational has earmarked for relief initiatives across communities which have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. "Today, AstraZeneca pledges $1 million in humanitarian aid to support relief activities in India as well as other communities around the world hardest hit by the pandemic. "This includes directing $250,000 direct relief to support their efforts in India, which includes the distribution of oxygen concentrators, medicines, other supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) to provide treatment and care for those with COVID-19," AstraZeneca said in a statement on Twitter. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to cause devastation around the world, with India currently facing an incredible humanitarian crisis from a surge of cases and related deaths, it noted. "To date, approximately 10 per cent of India's population of 1.3 billion has received one dose of our vaccine -- known in India as Covishield -- accounting for 90 per cent of all vaccination," AstraZeneca said. The company's partner in the country, Serum Institute of India (SII), already produces more COVID-19 vaccine doses than any other organisation globally, it noted. Access to COVID-19 vaccination is a critical component in tackling the pandemic, in India and beyond, the drug major said. It is why AstraZeneca has devoted its time, resources, and energy to develop a vaccine that is available at no profit during the pandemic and supplied equitably to as many people as possible, it added. "We thank AstraZeneca for their unwavering support. We are working together to scale up and committed to provide more vaccines to India by July. This will help us to protect countless lives against this devastating virus," SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot noted that the company remains steadfast in its continued commitment to changing the course of the pandemic for the people of India. "We hope that through increasing vaccinations, humanitarian relief efforts, and critical donations of medicines and needed equipment, India will steadily recover from this crisis. We stand united with the people of India, as we work tirelessly to bring this pandemic to an end as quickly as possible," he added. Also read: Unrest among AstraZeneca investors over CEO pay package Maharashtra government has once again extended the lockdown in the state to curb the spread of coronavirus pandemic. The restrictions will now stay in place till May 31. Maharashtra had restricted public mobility and several other activities in April as the state became a hotbed of COVID-19 infections amid the second wave of the pandemic. The restrictions were supposed to end at 7 am on May 1. But as cases continued to rise, these restricions were extended till May 15. After its Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the state government decided to continue the lockdown till the end of this month. All existing restrictions will continue to apply during this period. This means non-essential establishments, private offices and shops selling other than essential goods will continue to remain closed. ALSO READ: COVID-19 second wave: Most of India should be under lockdown for 6-8 weeks, says ICMR head During the Cabinet meeting, the Maharashtra government approved Maharashtra Mission Oxygen project, aimed at making the state self-sufficient in oxygen production under which special incentives will be offered to manufacturers. The programme is meant to ensure a production of 3,000 metric tonnes of oxygen per day in the state, said a statement from the Chief Minister's Office. At present the production capacity in the state is 1,300 metric tonnes per day while the demand is 1,800 metric tonnes on account of coronavirus pandemic. Maharashtra, as well as several other states, have imposed lockdowns or similar restrictions as the country battles a severe second wave of the coronavirus. India saw a record rise in COVID-19 deaths with 4,205 fresh fatalities taking the country's death toll to 2,54,197, while 3,48,421 new coronavirus infections were reported, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The total tally of COVID-19 cases in country now stands at 2,33,40,938. ALSO READ: Maharashtra to stop Covaxin inoculation for 18-44 age group, to divert 3 lakh jabs to 45+ category The active cases have reduced to 37,04,099 comprising 15.87 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 83.04 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,93,82,642 while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.09 per cent, the data stated. The 4,205 new fatalities include 793 from Maharashtra, 480 from Karnataka, 347 from Delhi, 301 from Uttar Pradesh, 298 from Tamil Nadu, 214 from Punjab, 199 from Chhattisgarh, 169 from Rajasthan, 144 from Haryana, 132 from West Bengal, 118 each from Gujarat and Uttarakhand, 108 from Andhra pradesh and 103 from Jharkhand. A total of 2,54,197 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 77,191 from Maharashtra, 20,010 from Delhi, 19,852 from Karnataka, 16,178 from Tamil Nadu, 16,043 from Uttar Pradesh, 12,593 from West Bengal, 10,941 from Chhattisgarh and 10,918 from Punjab. ALSO READ: Nearly 98% Indians under lockdown or other similar restrictions Vorderer said the continuing redevelopment of the housing and business community to update it from its time of major growth in the 1950s and 60s will remain important under his leadership. He also said the states pension crisis will continue to put burdens on municipalities such as Oak Lawn, and he expects that will come to a head during his tenure, though he said there are no easy fixes. Regional collaboration will be an important part of encouraging investment in the community, he said. The Centre on Wednesday slammed the labelling of the B.1.617 COVID variant as the "Indian variant". Issuing a statement, the health ministry clarified that the World Health Organization (WHO) has never associated the word "Indian" with the variant. "Several media reports have covered the news of World Health Organisation (WHO) classifying B.1.617 as a variant of global concern. Some of these reports have termed the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus as an "Indian Variant". Also Read: Around 20 people in France detected with Indian COVID-19 variant, says health minister "These media reports are without any basis, and unfounded," read the statement issued by the ministry. The statement further cleared that the WHO did not associate the term "Indian Variant" with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in its 32-page document published on Tuesday, May 11. "In fact, the word "Indian" has not been used in its report on the matter," the ministry noted. Meanwhile, the WHO also put out a tweet clarifying that it does not "identify viruses or variants with names of countries they are first reported from", it rather refers to them by their "scientific names". "WHO does not identify viruses or variants with names of countries they are first reported from. We refer to them by their scientific names and request all to do the same for consistency," read the tweet from the global health organisation. WHO does not identify viruses or variants with names of countries they are first reported from. We refer to them by their scientific names and request all to do the same for consistency. @PTI_News@PIB_India@ANI@timesofindia@htTweets@IndianExpress@the_hindu@MoHFW_INDIA a WHO South-East Asia (@WHOSEARO) May 12, 2021 The WHO in its report said the B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was first detected in India in October 2020. The report further stated that it has "increased transmissibility" and has been found in 44 nations. The Maldives, which saw an influx of Indian tourists in the last few months, has closed its borders to India. The island nation has also tightened curbs for its citizens. The Health Protection Agency of Maldives tweeted on Tuesday, May 12, that beginning May 13, all tourist visas for visitors from South Asian nations will be temporarily halted. The preventive measure has been put into effect in the wake of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in India as well as the surge in cases in other countries in the region. Also Read: COVID-19 crisis in India: Wealthy Indians escape country by private jets as infections spiral The government has also imposed a curfew in parts of Maldives, whereas congregational prayers in mosques have been temporarily stopped. Many celebrities and commoners alike have been flocking the island nation for holidays as the Maldives was among the very few places outside India that were open to Indian tourists. The Maldives government last month imposed restrictions on Indian visitors by prohibiting their entry on the island nations' populated islands. However, Indians could still go to the resorts. Also Read: India announces $40 mn line of credit to boost sports infrastructure in Maldives As of Monday, Maldives had the most new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the past five, seven and 14 days, while active cases leaped from 4,978 to 11,629 on May 11. Meanwhile, around 36.6% of the population of over 500,000 has been administered two doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Vitamin C, zinc and protein supplements are flying off the virtual shelves of nutraceutical startups as the ferocious second wave of COVID-19 has led to a spike in demand for immunity boosters. Neutraceutical startups, including food delivery startup Zomato which forayed into this category recently, have marked products with combinations of these micro and macro nutrients either as bestsellers or as being sold out on their platforms. Fitday, launched in last April, has seen a 28-30 per cent demand surge in the last 5-6 weeks for immunity boosters, with a major focus on vitamin C, zinc and protein products, its founder Suresh Raju said. Oziva co-founder Aarti Gill said, "Our vitamins and minerals category, which we launched only two months ago, is bringing sales of Rs 50 lakh per month now." The Mumbai-based startup's annual revenue is around Rs 180 crore. Zomato has also marked its zinc and vitamin C supplements as bestseller, but did not respond to Business Today's queries. Also read: Covaxin stock for 18-44 year age group over in Delhi; capital awaits Centre's help These over-the-counter products are certified by FSSAI or Ayush ministry as they are not considered as drugs, and fall under the food supplements category. The demand for these products has spiked as it is common knowledge now that doctors prescribe vitamin C and zinc supplements in COVID recovery and to boost immunity. "We are seeing a demand for vitamin D3 and iron, too, along with vitamin C and zinc. We saw this kind of spike in the first wave too. Over a period of time, it will reduce and stabilise like last time. Protein herbs is another category that is in high demand," said Gill. There seems to be a correlation between the number of COVID-19 cases in a city and the demand for these supplements from that city, Gill added. "Hyderabad is the top buyer for Oziva products. But for vitamins and minerals, Delhi and Bengaluru, where COVID caseloads are high are the top buyers." Meanwhile, Hyderabad-based Fitday said it is also seeing demand from city's hospitals and clinics to provide the supplements to their COVID patients. "We manufacture some of our products for which we import some ingredients. We are facing a supply challenge as well because of import restrictions that are in place. Customers voluntarily ask for these products and we are unable to keep up with that demand," said Raju. Fitday said it made Rs 3 crore in last year from sale of products manufactured by its parent firm Genomelab. The platform also sells products from other brands. Also read: Covid-19 vaccinations to triple; 14 crore doses to be produced in a month by July Eid-ul-Fitr is one of the most important festivals among the Muslim community as it marks the end of the holy month of Ramzan, when Muslims fast for one whole month. This festival is celebrated with much fervour across the community. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Muslim bodies including the Shahi Imam of Delhi's Fatehpuri Mosque have urged people to observe the festival at their homes this year. Eid falls on the first day of the 'Shawwal' month in Islamic calendar and no fast needs to be observed on this day. The last roza (Sehri) will be observed on May 13 at 04:03 am and Iftar will take place at 07:04 pm in Delhi. The exact date and time of Eid-ul-Fitr are different across the globe depending on sighting of the moon. But as people in UAE, Qatar and other Arab states could not spot the moon on Tuesday night, Eid is expected to fall either on May 13 or May 14 this year. In India, the moon is usually sighted a day after Saudi Arabia. Depending on the sunset time, different Indian cities can attempt to get a glimpse of the moon that will mark the beginning of the Shawwal month. Also read: International Nurses Day 2021: Wishes, images, theme and more The International Nurses and Midwives Day is celebrated every year on May 12 globally to appreciate the nurses' efforts. This day is also marked as the anniversary of Florence Nightingale, founder of modern nursing. As hospitalisations increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses are playing a crucial role in taking care of each and every patient regardless of boundaries. Even if a patient needs immediate attention or just a few encouraging words, nurses are there for them round-the-clock. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 9 million more nurses and midwives are required by 2030 so that all countries can attain Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number three on health and well-being. Here are some messages, wishes, and quotes that you can share to express gratitude towards nurses "In all cultures, the midwife's place is on the threshold of life, where intense human emotions, fear, hope, longing, triumph, and incredible physical power enable a new human being to emerge. Her vocation is unique."- Sheila Kitzinger You warm the hearts of many with your kindness and compassion. You are a great nurse and wonderful person. Happy Nurses Day! "The character of the nurses is as important as the knowledge she possesses."- Carolyn Javis Your tender care, love and understanding has made a difference in lives of so many! Hope you have the same smiling day as you make of others! "When a person decides to become a nurse, they make the most important decision of their libes. They choose to dedicate themselves to the care of others."- Margaret Harvey Save one life and you're a hero. Save a hundred lives and you're a nurse. "The trained nurse has become one of the great blessings of humanity, taking a place beside the physician and the priest."- William Osler May all the care and kindness you give to others come back to warm your heart. Happy Nurses Day! "As a nurse, we have the opportunity to heal the heart, mind, soul and body of our patients, their families and ourselves. They may not remember your name but they will never forget the way you made them feel. "- Maya Angelou Happy Nurses Day! Your caring ways brings a SMILE to those you help. You are truly appreciated! "Speak tenderly; let there be kindness in your face, in your eyes, in your smile, in the warmth of your greeting. Always have a cheerful smile. Don't only give your care, but give your heart as well."- Mother Teresa International Nursing Day images International Nursing Day 2021 Theme Theme of the World Nursing Day this year is 'A Vision for future healthcare'. World nursing day 2021: Here's how Twitter thanked nurses Sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik uploaded one of his previous artworks on Twitter. In this artwork, Pattnaik paid tribute to Florence Nightingale. Pattnaik shared his artwork and tweeted, "#InternationalNursesDay We salute our nurses for their tireless efforts during #COVID19Pandemic times... Tribute to #FlorenceNightingale who has inspired millions of people for serving humanity. One of my sand art." #InternationalNursesDay We Salute our nurses for their tireless efforts during #COVID19Pandemic times....Tribute to #FlorenceNightingale who has inspired millions of people for serving humanity. One of my SandArt . pic.twitter.com/d9gfb8hV2P Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) May 12, 2021 Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi, Goa Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, BJP National Vice President Baijayat Jay Panda and Congress leader Rahul Gnadhi thanked the nurses for their contribution in these tough times. #InternationalNursesDay#ThankYouNurses for going the extra mile in your efforts to nurse the world to health during #COVID19 Your commitment to provide efficient & effective care founded on professionalism, skills & deep compassion is awe inspiring. @MoHFW_INDIApic.twitter.com/9hDT2dHyyJ Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) May 12, 2021 On #NursesDay, we salute our Nurses for all their hardwork and sacrifices. Standing at the frontline, between the Covid menace and us, our Nurses have truly been caregivers. Thank you, #CoronaWarriors. pic.twitter.com/W8KOCmerSy Pralhad Joshi (@JoshiPralhad) May 12, 2021 My sincere gratitude to all the nurses who have worked with such diligence, going beyond their call of duty, working tirelessly to try & save each & every life. The nation & humanity are in your debt. On this occasion of International Nurses day I #ThankYouNurses pic.twitter.com/1nwHfVhzKs Sachin Pilot (@SachinPilot) May 12, 2021 My wishes to those who are nursing away pain and suffering from this world. We salute your contribution and admire your altruistic spirit. Thank you, Nurses. #InternationalNursesDay Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) May 12, 2021 #InternationalNursesDay is a special day to express gratitude to the nurses working round the clock to keep a strong fight against the pandemic. We are extremely grateful to the nurses and their families. pic.twitter.com/GQiC8mt9JQ Dr. Pramod Sawant (@DrPramodPSawant) May 12, 2021 On #InternationalNursesDay, i express deep gratitude to all our hardworking nurses for their tireless service & dedication to save human lives during this #COVID pandemic. Heartfelt tributes to the nurses & frontline workers who have lost their lives in this war. pic.twitter.com/LSh0rRbKE4 Baijayant Jay Panda (@PandaJay) May 12, 2021 United Nations also thanked nurses across the world for their dedication to care for others. Amid #COVID19, nurses around the world are showing courage & dedication and suffering personal sacrifice to care for others. Show solidarity on Wednesday's #InternationalNursesDay & every day. https://t.co/xiQBakGfpYpic.twitter.com/cVXpIXRuAD United Nations (@UN) May 11, 2021 IPL team Punjab Kings also thanked nurses for their service and hailed them as 'silent heroes'. To the silent heroes who work tirelessly and serve fearlessly We are indebted to you #InternationalNursesDay#SaddaPunjabpic.twitter.com/q6qk5ibJln Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) May 12, 2021 Also read: Mother's Day 2021: Wishes, WhatsApp, Facebook status, greetings, quotes, images Also read: 'Vaccinate yourself as soon as you can', says Virat Kohli; gets first shot of COVID-19 vaccine Share of Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals rose over 16 per cent to hit a 52-week high of Rs 268 after the company reported a 126 per cent jump in net profit . Profit rose to Rs 447.89 crore in Q4 against Rs 197.55 crore in the year-ago period. The share ended 10.90 per cent higher at Rs 255.85 against the previous close of Rs 230.70 on BSE. Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals Ltd share stands higher than 5 day, 10 day, 20 day, 50 day, 100 day and 200 day moving averages.The stock has gained 99 per cent in one year and risen 12.27 per cent since the beginning of this year. Market cap of the firm rose to Rs 10,647.89 crore. Revenue from operations increased 17 per cent to Rs 1,640.76 crore for the quarter ended March 2021 compared to Rs 1969.09 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue rose due to higher sales of non-urea fertilisers whereas urea turnover reduced due to a fall in gas prices. The company aims to be a PAN India player by expanding to high potential states. It is also targeting a marketing network comprising of around 1000 dealers and 7000 retailers. Further, the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on May 10, 2021, recommended a final dividend of Rs. 4.50 per equity share of Rs. 10 each of the Company. The dividend shall be paid within the prescribed time after the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting, subject to the approval of the shareholders of the company. Meanwhile, Sensex and Nifty ended lower for the second consecutive session. While Sensex fell 471 points to 48,690, Nifty lost 154 points to 14,696. Sensex and Nifty were likely to open lower as Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange fell 24.5 points, or 0.16 per cent to 14,825. On Tuesday, benchmark indices snapped their four-session winning streak amid negative global cues. While Sensex tumbled 341 points to 49,161, Nifty slumped 91.60 points to 14,850. Kotak Bank was the top loser on Sensex today, shedding 3 per cent, followed by HDFC, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra, HUL and Titan. Here's a look at stocks which may remain in news today Reliance Industries: Reliance Jio widened its mobile subscriber base to 414.9 million in February, with healthy addition of 4.2 million users, according to TRAI data. Dr Reddy's Laboratories: The pharma major has inked a licensing pact with Eli Lilly and Company to produce Baricitinib in the country for treatment of COVID-19. The Hyderabad-based firm said it has entered into a royalty-free, non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreement with Eli Lilly and Company for the manufacture and commercialisation of the drug in India. JM Financial: The holding company said the challenges posed to the economy due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic may impact its income, liquidity position as well as demand for its financial products. On account of the uncertainties around COVID-19, the financial services firm's total provisions by March 2021 stood at Rs 383 crore. Kalpataru Power Transmission: The power generator firm reported a multifold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 187 crore in Q4 due to higher revenues. Net profit in the year-ago period was Rs 13 crore. ABB Power Products and Systems India: The heavy electrical equipment said it has closed its manufacturing facility in Peenya, Benguluru, from Monday onwards in view of COVID-19 restrictions in place in Karnataka. Godrej Consumer Products: The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 366 crore in Q4. Consolidated sales rose nearly 27% to Rs 2,706 crore. Localised lockdowns could impact frontline servicing and replenishment of outlets, it said. Asian Paints: The firm will report its March quarter earnings on Wednesday. It had reported a 62.28% rise in its consolidated profit to Rs 1,265.35 crore in Q3, while revenue stood at Rs 6,886.39 crore, up 25.43%. Tata Motors: The auto firm has extended its warranty and free service period till June 30 for passenger vehicle customers whose tenures are due on April 1 and May 31, considering the ongoing curbs across the country due to the second wave of coronavirus. Siemens: The company reported over 90% rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 334.4 crore in March quarter, on the back of higher revenues. Total income rose to Rs 3,540 crore against Rs 2,722.1 crore in the same period a year ago. The company follows the October to September financial year. Loading the player... 'Outright lies': China on reports that its military scientists probed weaponising COVID-19 in 2015 China on Monday termed as "outright lies", the media reports that its military scientists investigated weaponising coronaviruses five years before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and said it is an attempt by the US to smear the country. The US State Department reportedly obtained the "bombshell" documents, which were written by Chinese military scientists and senior public health officials in 2015 as part of their own investigation into the origins of COVID-19. PM Modi cancels G-7 summit visit in June over COVID-19 situation Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not travel to the UK to attend the G-7 summit in June due to the coronavirus situation in the country. The Prime Minister was slated to be a special invitee to the summit in Cornwall at UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's invitation. The summit was scheduled for June 11-13. Covaxin recommended for phase 2-3 trials on those aged between 2-18 years Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin was on Tuesday recommended by an expert panel for phase II/III clinical trial on those aged between two to 18 years, official sources said. The trial will take place in 525 subjects at various sites, including AIIMS, Delhi, AIIMS, Patna and Meditrina Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur. SEBI makes dividend distribution policy mandatory for top 1,000 listed firms To strengthen corporate governance practices and disclosure requirements, Sebi has notified new rules, including that top 1,000 listed firms will have to formulate a dividend distribution policy. COVID-19 impact: Foxconn iPhone India output slumps 50% Production of the Apple iPhone 12 at a Foxconn factory in India has slumped by more than 50% because workers infected with COVID-19 have had to leave their posts, two sources told Reuters. The Foxconn facility in the southern state of Tamil Nadu produces iPhones specifically for India, the world's No.2 smartphone market. Tamil Nadu is one of the worst hit states in the second coronavirus wave engulfing India. Centre places fresh orders to procure vaccines; delivery to be completed by July As several states face vaccine crunch despite the Centre placing bulk orders with two vaccine makers Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech, the government has issued fresh orders to procure vaccines from these companies. Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said advance orders for May, June and July have been placed. Highlights Oxygen concentrators can be confusing to buy. Buyers should check capacity before buying. There are several scams going around, avoid them. The number of new Covid-19 cases in India might have come down to 3.29 lakh but, the situation remains to be of concern. There are number of patients dealing with breathing issues as hospital beds, oxygen cylinders and other facilities remain difficult to find. Oxygen concentrators, that provide temporary relief, also remain in high demand. The challenge is that only till a few months back, not many people knew about them or understood them properly. Now, most of them have to buy one. The interested buyers need to understand that any medical equipment can be confusing and should be bought only after proper advise. The oxygen concentrators are the same. They come in different sizes, have varied flow rates and serve distinct purposes. On top it, there are a number of scams happening across the country which buyers need to be aware of. So, just buying one oxygen concentrator isn't enough. The buyers should know what they are spending on. CAPACITY IS IMPORTANT The efficiency of an oxygen concentrator depends on its capacity. They come in different sizes 5L and 10L available more accessible. A 5L oxygen cylinder can provide 5 litres of oxygen in a minute, while the 10L concentrator can provide 10 litres of oxygen in a minute. The first should be enough for patients with mild symptoms and basic requirements but, we will advise you to buy 10L concentrators better efficiency. Also, the buyers need to keep in mind that a 5L concentrator will not be enough if there are more than one patient at home. At the same time, if the patient has to travel or has to be admitted in a hospital, the 5L portable oxygen concentrators can be handier during the journey. They pack a batter and don't need a power source all the time. CONCENRATION LEVEL IS EVEN MORE IMPORTANT All oxygen concentrators have different oxygen concentration level. Some of them promise has 87 per cent oxygen, while others promise the same up to 93 per cent. The Covid-19 affected patients usually need 90 to 94 per cent of concentrated oxygen. So, it will be best if you opt for the concentrator that can deliver around 93 per cent oxygen concentration. Many sellers try to pass off the lower concentration level machines for a higher rate. The buyers need to be check this before paying. This is important because if the level is 80 and the concentrator can supply 10 litre oxygen per minute, it won't be really helpful. OPT FOR QUALITY There are a number of brands and websites that are selling oxygen concentrators in the country. Not all of them promise quality. The buyers should look to buy from authorised sellers and retailers. If the weight of the concentrator is less than 14-15kgs, there is a high chance that it of poor quality. The price should also expose poor quality products. Chinese and Indian brands with 5L per minute capacity are selling for around Rs 50,000 to Rs 55,000. Philips sells only one model in India, and its market price is around Rs 65,000. For a 10L Chinese brand concentrator, the price is around Rs 95,000 to Rs 1.10 Lakhs. For an American brand concentrator, the price is between Rs 1.50 lakh to Rs 1.75 lakh. If the prices are off this range, then that's a red flag. DOGE THE SCAM The biggest challenge for buyers and patients right now is to not fall for a scam. Multiple cases have already been exposed where sellers were trying to charge extra money or were selling low-quality products at a high rate. The best possible solution may be purchasing through e-commerce platforms. But, even that's not entirely safe. The Delhi police recently arrested a man who took over Rs 1 lakh via bank transfers for two oxygen concentrators but, never delivered them. Another one in Mumbai used the GST number of a reputed textiles firm in the invoices that he issued to fool people. There have been other reports where customers have been asked to pay in advance on WhatsApp or social media but were not delivered the products. Some got fault concentrators. Many sellers are also trying to sell humidifiers hello Dedakj as oxygen concentrators. Read the details very carefully before buying. We would once again like to highlight that you should only look to purchase an oxygen concentrator from a trusted website or source. Also, please consult your doctor or hospital to understand the exact needs of the patient and make the purchase accordingly. Experian, the global information services company, has today announced a new global approach to work. The aim is to take the learnings from the experience of Covid-19 lockdown and create a working environment which suits everyones situation. Experian is committing to promote more individual choice by creating a new hybrid model, where employees will be encouraged to 'work your way'. Through the lockdown, Experian moved its global operations to remote working with very limited disruption. Most employees will be offered increased flexibility, with the majority moving to a hybrid model, some working fully remotely, and some in the office. Experian which operates in 45 countries around the world believes this will continue to boost productivity and improve the work / life balance options for its 17,800 global employee base. What the Covid-19 crisis has reminded us, beyond everything else, is that we are all individuals living very different lives. Thats prompted Experian to go down the route of offering a flexible working culture, giving employees the choice to work remotely, in the office, or a mix of both if they prefer. Jacky Simmonds, Chief People Officer at Experian said: We are embracing the technology of connectivity more than ever before, making investments in the right digital tools to ensure that our people can work productively from anywhere. When youre working in a global business like ours, its been great to get more facetime with colleagues around the world technology can deliver that for us, but its taken a pandemic for us to really embrace it. Many of us are also keen to meet up in person regularly and stay in touch with colleagues beyond the virtual. Our ultimate aim is to ensure our people can bring more balance to their lives while preserving our hugely vibrant culture and living up to our purpose as an organisation. We can all look forward to this exciting new chapter in the Experian story. About Experian Experian is the worlds leading global information services company. During lifes big moments from buying a home or a car, to sending a child to college, to growing a business by connecting with new customers we empower consumers and our clients to manage their data with confidence. We help individuals to take financial control and access financial services, businesses to make smarter decisions and thrive, lenders to lend more responsibly, and organisations to prevent identity fraud and crime. We have 17,800 people operating across 45 countries and every day were investing in new technologies, talented people and innovation to help all our clients maximise every opportunity. We are listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and are a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Learn more at www.experianplc.com or visit our global content hub at our global news blog for the latest news and insights from the Group. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210511005979/en/ Those who cannot receive the vaccine due to medical or religious reasons can seek an exception to the requirement, according to the letter. Those who are not vaccinated and do not have an exception will not be allowed to register for fall classes. Ogletree Deakins and KPMG Law in Germany1 are forming a global alliance to provide businesses with global workforce solutions. This alliance will be instrumental in expanding immigration and employment law reach for both organizations and will enable KPMG firms outside of the US2 to bring the US capability and services of Ogletree Deakins to their clients around the world. The alliance is in response to growing client demand for a technology-powered, globally unified approach to business challenges faced in the areas of immigration and global mobility, labor and employment, and the associated tax, compensation, and benefits issues. This non-exclusive alliance with Ogletree Deakins does not include KPMG in the US or entities that it owns or controls, which do not provide legal services3. As businesses expand and look to shore up recovery in the post-pandemic world, there is increasing pressure for multinational organizations seeking to get the right people in the right places at the right time, and in compliance with the requirements of any given jurisdiction, said Thomas Wolf, Head of Global Immigration Services for the KPMG organization. Ogletree Deakins labor, employment and immigration experience in the United States is a perfect fit for KPMGs organization of firms as we expand our global legal services practice4 and our global mobility services offerings around the world. We are excited to join forces with Ogletree Deakins to offer clients even deeper global coverage for their pressing employment and immigration legal matters. Both Ogletree Deakins and KPMG Law in Germany are leaders in utilizing technology and innovation to enhance client service, including in the areas of artificial intelligence, data analytics and knowledge management. By combining the strengths of both organizations, this new alliance will provide clients with an increased breadth of technology solutions. KPMG Law in Germany is part of the broader KPMG Law / Global Legal Services network across KPMG firms, with 2,800 lawyers in 81 jurisdictions. Ogletree Deakins is an international labor and employment firm and has established an extensive network of lawyers practicing in 53 offices across North America and in Europe to meet our clients needs. Our alliance with KPMG Law in Germany will benefit clients by complementing our US labor, employment and immigration offerings with end-to-end workplace solutionsincluding tax, compensation, global immigration, and related advisory and consulting services, over a truly global footprint. Our firm shares a vision with the KPMG network for client service, innovation and cutting-edge technology solutions, and we are already working together on a next generation mobility services platform, said Matt Keen, managing shareholder of Ogletree Deakins. About Ogletree Deakins Ogletree Deakins is one of the largest US labor and employment law firms representing management in all types of employment-related legal matters. Premier client service, as outlined in the firms Client Pledge, is one of the firms top priorities and a cornerstone of its core values. U.S. News Best Lawyers Best Law Firms has named Ogletree Deakins a Law Firm of the Year for 10 consecutive years. In 2021, the publication named Ogletree Deakins its Law Firm of the Year in the Litigation Labor & Employment category. Ogletree Deakins has more than 900 attorneys located in 53 offices across the United States and in Europe, Canada, and Mexico. The firm represents a diverse range of clients, from small businesses to Fortune 50 companies. More: ogletree.com. About KPMG International KPMG is a global organization of independent professional services firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services. We operate in 146 countries and territories and in FY20 had close to 227,000 people working in member firms around the world. Each KPMG firm is a legally distinct and separate entity and describes itself as such. KPMG International Limited is a private English company limited by guarantee. KPMG International Limited and its related entities do not provide services to clients. More: kpmg.com _______________________________ 1 The agreement will be initially signed by KPMG Law Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH (KPMG Law in Germany), which is associated with KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprufungsgesellschaft, the German member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative, a Swiss entity. Other non-US member firms are expected to join this non-exclusive alliance over the next several months. 2 KPMG Law in Germany was established in 2007 and is an independent corporate law firm associated with KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprufungsgesellschaft and affiliated with the KPMG International Cooperative. This non-exclusive alliance with Ogletree Deakins does not include the KPMG US member firm or entities that it owns, or controls, which do not provide legal services. For cases where KPMG in the US clients require immigration and/or employment and labor law services, Ogletree Deakins may contract with these clients separately. 3 For cases where KPMG US clients require immigration and/or employment and labor law services, Ogletree Deakins would contract with these clients separately. 4 Certain member firms of the KPMG global organization, including KPMG in the US, do not provide legal services. For the purpose of this press release any commentary will be on general concepts only and is not in any way intended as legal advice or views on laws of any jurisdiction. Some or all of the services described herein may not be permissible for KPMG audit clients and their affiliates and related entities. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210509005026/en/ China does not have a national property tax levied on property ownership, which could generate billions of yuan in revenue for local governments. Photo: VCG China has sent a clear signal about its plans to push forward with a long-awaited property tax, as equally long-standing concerns about market speculation come to the fore again amid price increases and local governments seek more revenue sources. On Tuesday, officials from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the State Taxation Administration, and the national legislatures budgetary affairs commission held a seminar to solicit opinions from experts and local government officials on piloting property tax reform, an official statement said (link in Chinese). The seminar is a sign that work on the new property tax is accelerating, fiscal and tax experts told Caixin. Liu Jianwen, a law professor at Peking University, said that the government wont pilot the property tax before the relevant law is passed, due to the principle that new taxes should be introduced only after laws governing them are enacted Others hold different views. It is likely that a pilot program will be launched in a few cities this year, as it will take a long time to finalize the legislation, said Shi Zhengwen, a professor specializing in tax law at the China University of Political Science and Law. He also said that the top legislature can authorize the State Council, Chinas cabinet, to carry out a pilot program. Conducting a pilot program can help accelerate the legislation by addressing problems that may occur after the new tax is officially launched, Shi said. It appears the authorities intend to launch a pilot before issuing the relevant law as the legislative process has encountered some difficulties, said Liu Yi, a Peking University professor specializing in fiscal policies. The finance ministry will probably take the lead in designing the pilot program, while the top legislatures budgetary affairs commission will lead the legislation, Shi said. Read more Five Things to Know About Chinas Proposed Property Tax China does not have a national property tax levied on property ownership, which could generate billions of yuan in revenue for local governments. Instead, the country levies national taxes during construction and transfer of properties. Debate on introducing such a tax has raged for years. Some analysts have said it would discourage property speculation as well as provide local governments with a stable source of revenue, encouraging them (link in Chinese) to improve public services. But the idea has been met with suspicion from some local officials, who worry the new tax would cause property values to fall and hurt demand for land. Land sales are a major source of local government revenue. The recent seminar comes just weeks after Wang Jianfan, director of the tax policy department of the finance ministry, said that the authorities will actively and steadily promote property tax legislation and reform. Concerns about rising housing prices have come to the fore again this year. In March, 62 of the 70 surveyed large and midsize cities reported month-on-month price rises in new residential properties, the most since June 2019, data from the National Bureau of Statistics show. In recent months, Beijing has worked to cool the market by cracking down on illicit borrowing for down payments, overhauling how local governments sell land, and clamping down on speculation in the school district housing market. Tang Ziyi contributed to this report. Contact reporter Guo Yingzhe (yingzheguo@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com) Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. (Bloomberg) Sinovac Biotech Ltd.s vaccine is wiping out Covid-19 among health workers in Indonesia, an encouraging sign for the dozens of developing countries reliant on the controversial Chinese shot, which performed far worse than western vaccines in clinical trials. Indonesia tracked 25,374 health workers in capital city Jakarta for 28 days after they received their second dose and found that the vaccine protected 100% of them from death and 96% from hospitalization as soon as seven days after, said Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin in an interview on Tuesday. The workers were tracked until late February. Sadikin also said that 94% of the workers had been protected against infection an extraordinary result that goes beyond what was measured in the shots numerous clinical trials though its unclear if the workers were uniformly screened to detect asymptomatic carriers. We see a very, very drastic drop, in hospitalizations and deaths among medical workers, Sadikin said. Its not known what strain of the coronavirus Sinovacs shot worked against in Indonesia, but the country has not flagged any major outbreaks driven by variants of concern. The data adds to signs out of Brazil that the Sinovac shot is more effective than it proved in the testing phase, which was beset by divergent efficacy rates and questions over data transparency. Results from its biggest Phase III trial in Brazil put the shot known as CoronaVacs efficacy at just above 50%, the lowest among all first-generation Covid vaccines. In a separate interview with Bloomberg Tuesday, Sinovacs CEO Yin Weidong defended the disparity in clinical data around the shot, and said there was growing evidence CoronaVac is performing better when applied in the real world. But the real-world examples also show that the Sinovac shots ability to quell outbreaks requires the vast majority of people to be vaccinated, a scenario that developing countries with poor health infrastructure and limited access to shots cannot reach quickly. In the Indonesian health worker study, and another in a Brazilian town of 45,000 people called Serrana, nearly 100% of people studied were fully vaccinated, with serious illness and deaths dropping after they were inoculated. In contrast, Chile saw a resurgent outbreak after vaccinating over a third of the population of 19 million one of the fastest rates in the world, but not fast enough to stop the spread of the aggressive variant sweeping Latin America. The earliest group of people vaccinated in Chile are old people. Less than 15 million of doses given to Chile means only 7 million people can get our shots. That equals to only 36% of a population of 19 million, said Yin. Its normal that the country sees a resurgence of infections as social activities increase among the younger people who are mainly not inoculated. Among people vaccinated with CoronaVac in Chile, 89% were protected from serious Covid that requires intensive care, said Yin. The vaccines protection is likely to vary from place to place due to virus variants, but Sinovacs shot appears to be holding up well against the new mutations of concern, he said. A key question for all Covid vaccines is whether they can prevent or deter actual transmission of the virus. Yin said Tuesday that Sinovac does not yet know if its shot a traditional inactivated vaccine can stop or reduce the virus from being contracted in the first place, but the fact it is preventing serious illness and death is more important. The mRNA shot developed by BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. has been shown to be over 90% effective in preventing transmission in Israel. While non-mRNA vaccines are unlikely to be that effective in preventing transmission, the growing body of evidence that Sinovacs shot works is a boon to Chinas mission of supplying the developing world in a bid to increase its influence and standing. Its also somewhat of a vindication amid criticism that Chinese vaccine developers disclosed less data and were less transparent about severe adverse events compared with western companies. The results from real world application and the scientific data we have from clinical trials will allow the world to judge our vaccine comprehensively, said Yin. We encourage our partners and governments in countries where our vaccine is being used to release such data as soon as possible. Indonesia was one of the earliest countries to place its bets on a Chinese vaccine. In January, President Joko Widodo became the first major world leader to receive the Sinovac shot in a bid to quell skepticism at home and abroad. Since then, Southeast Asias largest economy has administered more than 22 million doses, mostly Sinovac, as it seeks to reach herd immunity for its 270-million strong population by year-end. The minimum efficacy rate should be above 50%, so beyond that, the best vaccine is the one you can get as soon as possible, as every shot given can prevent deaths, Health Minister Sadikin said. It isnt only about getting the highest efficacy rate, but inoculating people quickly. While neighboring Malaysia and Thailand are seeing a resurgence in cases, Indonesias rate of new infections and deaths has stabilized since a January peak. But with its massive population still mostly unprotected, the upcoming Eid holiday could cause cases to rebound by as much as 60% as people gather with family and travel home despite government restrictions, Sadikin warned. Contact editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com) Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. In Taiwan, indoor gatherings will be limited to fewer than 100 and outdoor events to 500 for the next four weeks (Bloomberg) Taiwan and Singapore are reimposing pandemic restrictions as the return of a small number of virus cases challenges some of the worlds most successful places at containing and snuffing out Covid-19. In Taiwan, indoor gatherings will be limited to fewer than 100 and outdoor events to 500 for the next four weeks, Taiwans Centers for Disease Control said Tuesday in a statement. Its the first time the island has tightened anti-Covid measures since it began easing curbs in the middle of last year. The government reported seven new cases in the community and four in travelers from overseas. Singapore is also tightening restrictions amid a sudden recurrence of local infections, limiting social gatherings and upping border curbs. The city-state was rated the best place to be in the coronavirus era by Bloombergs Covid Resilience Ranking. Lawrence Wong, the co-chair of Singapores virus task force, said Tuesday that companies looking to bring in foreign workers from higher-risk nations could face delays of more than six months because of the heightened vigilance. The country has also begun testing all hospital staff in an attempt to fence off infections after a cluster of cases emerged at a medical center. Singapore and Taiwan are among the handful of places in the world that virtually eliminated Covid domestically, along with Australia, New Zealand and China. The return to tighter curbs risks disrupting months of largely normal social activity in Taiwan and Singapore. Zero Tolerance While having a zero tolerance approach to infections has meant very few deaths in these places, theyre now lagging behind countries like the U.S. and Israel in vaccinations, which could put them at a disadvantage as parts of the world start to open up to international travel. After an initial outbreak of cases very early in the pandemic, Taiwan managed to basically keep the virus out, even going more than eight months without a single domestic infection between April and December. The island has had just over 1,200 cases and 12 deaths since Covid-19 first emerged. Taiwan never internally imposed stringent restrictions like lockdowns. Businesses, government offices and schools remained open throughout much of the pandemic, although municipal authorities canceled their usual large-scale Lunar New Year holiday celebrations in February as a precaution. Malaysia Resurgence In recent weeks, health authorities in Taiwan have been battling a steady rise in infections centered on a hotel used to quarantine pilots for local carrier China Airlines returning from overseas. Investors showed their concern by selling Taiwanese shares, with the benchmark Taiex index falling almost 3.8% Tuesday, the biggest decline among Asian markets. The Taiwan dollar weakened by the most since March 26. Elsewhere in Asia, cases are also reappearing. India is now the epicenter of the global crisis, recording more than 329,000 new cases Tuesday. Malaysia is tightening curbs on peoples movements across the country after daily cases exceeded 3,000 this month for the first time since February. The detection of a case with Indian Covid-19 variant added to the risk, and Malaysia is struggling with the pace of vaccinations. Less than 3% of the population completed vaccination series as of May 9, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That tally trails Indonesia and Singapore and puts Malaysia at risk of falling short of its vaccination target for the year. The absence of widespread infections and an export-driven economy meant Taiwan avoided the impact of the pandemic experienced in most of the rest of the world. The economy grew 3.1% last year, driven by a surge in demand for Taiwans computer chips but also supported by a rebound in consumer spending. The government has hinted in recent weeks it may raise its 2021 gross domestic product forecast to above 5% from its current estimate of 4.6%. Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Follow the Chinese markets in real time with Caixin Globals new stock database. With registered capital of 1.6 billion yuan, the company is 97% owned by the Jilin provincial governments financial department and is the only trust firm in the northeastern province. Another chairman of troubled Jilin Province Trust Co. Ltd. was found guilty of corruption, extending the state-owned companys streak of scandals involving every chairman since 2001. Gao Fubo, chairman of the Jilin-based trust company between 2007 and 2015, was convicted of corruption, bribery and embezzlement, a local court said Tuesday. The court handed Gao a 20-year jail term, a fine of 5.1 million yuan ($794,540) and confiscation of 500,000 yuan of personal assets. Gao is the third chairman of Jilin Trust to be convicted on corruption charges, and a fourth is awaiting trial. Gaos predecessor, Zhang Xinbo the companys chairman between 2001 and 2007 was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for corruption in 2009. The lengthy series of corruption scandals underscores governance issues at Jilin Trust, which completed a corporate restructuring in 2001, according to financial industry insiders. With registered capital of 1.6 billion yuan, the company is 97% owned by the Jilin provincial governments financial department and is the only trust firm in the northeastern province. This is not individual issues but problems stemming from the system, said a financial industry source in Jilin. The provinces long tradition of rotating officials between local government departments and financial institutions undermines the professionalism of financial institutions and offers opportunities for corruption, the source said. The turmoil in Jilin Trust also sheds light on internal governance flaws in Chinas trust industry, which has become a focal point of the countrys financial risk crackdown in recent years. In 2019, regulators punished nearly one-third of Chinas 68 trust companies for violations including illicit off-balance-sheet lending and illegal real estate investments, levying at least 22 million yuan in fines, according to Caixin calculations based on public records. Gao arrived at Jilin Trust in 2007 to assume the post from Zhang after spending several years as deputy director of Jilin Province Rural Credit Bank. He was removed in October 2015 and placed under investigation in October 2018. According to a court document released Tuesday, Gao when he was chairman of Jilin Trust received 21.4 million yuan of bribes between 2010 and December 2012 from a local developer that was a Jilin Trust client. He also accepted 71.6 million yuan of bribes from nine individuals between 2000 and 2017, some of it during his tenure as a senior official of Jilin Province Rural Credit Bank, according to the court document. Between 2017 and 2018, Gao sent 1.1 million yuan of bribes to a former senior Jilin provincial official in a bid to avoid investigation and punishment, the court said. Gaos successor, Li Wei, was investigated by the provinces anti-graft authorities less than two years after he assumed the post in 2015 and was sentenced to five years in jail for bribery and abuse of power last year. Another former Jilin Trust chairman, Tai Ge, who succeeded Li in 2018, was also charged with corruption, bribery and abuse of power and will face trial, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said Tuesday in a separate statement. Tai was placed under investigation in September 2020. Prosecutors accused Tai of accepting a huge amount of bribes during his tenure as general manager and chairman of Jilin Trust as well as during his days leading Bank of Jilin before joining the trust company. Timmy Shen contributed to the story Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com) Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Follow the Chinese markets in real time with Caixin Globals new stock database. Zhengzhou Zoo in Henan province fed animals specially made zongzi on Wednesday, ahead of the Dragon Boat Festival on June 14. Zongzi, also known as sticky rice dumplings, is a traditional food for the festival made of different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Each year, zoos and safari parks across the nation prepare zongzi stuffed with special ingredients suitable for different animals to celebrate the festival Jun 10, 2021 05:44 PM That first year, we literally drove around to different Walmarts collecting bikes and helmets, so it was a little chaotic, said Tom Norton, President of the Rotary Club of Hinsdale. But the morning that we first gave bikes away, everybody was kind of nodding, going boy this is better than birthdays and Christmases and everything else rolled into one. Become A Subscriber A subscription opens up access to all our online content, including: our interactive E-Edition, a full archive of modern stories, exclusive and expanded online offerings, photo galleries from Caledonian-Record journalists, video reports from our media partners, extensive international, national and regional reporting by the Associated Press, and a wide variety of feature content. During her time on the board, Martini said she is most proud of her work in helping slow down development to preserve the countys natural resources. She said she was part of the Mavericks, a self-titled group that consisted of several Republican women. Martini said their efforts led to the purchasing of land to help bolster the countys forest preserves. Do you have an athlete in mind that contributes to the team or sport, holds sportsmanship and team spirit, has epic playmaker moments and/or in general makes the the sports fun? If yes, please make your nominations for our edition of Athlete Spotlight. CLICK TO NOMINATE This car needs little introduction. You, your relative, your friend, or at least someone you know own one. Its a vehicle that transcends so... In this image taken from video by the FDNY, pedestrians hurry away from the scene of a shooting in Times Square, Saturday, May 8, 2021, in New York. New York City police say three innocent bystanders including a 4-year-old girl who was toy shopping have been shot in Times Square and officers are looking for suspects. All the victims are expected to recover. (FDNY via AP) A crowd gathers outside the Pasquotank County Sheriff's office in April in Elizabeth City, as family members of Andrew Brown Jr. watch a portion of the officer body camera footage of his killing. They later viewed much more of the footage on May 11. Calvin Adkins / Carolina Public Press. The lack of a written constitution provides the freedom to make and implement quickly sweeping changes when sufficient members of the nations Parliament agree circumstances so warrant. The government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson, confirmed in power with an enormous House of Commons majority in the general election of December 2019, was able to achieve this legislation without difficulty. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and consider subscribing for only $7 per month to get access to more articles and news as it happens. Opening The Mahindra XUV300 has come a long way. With very little being changed since its inception, it shows the original cars package is exceptionally beyond relevant. When the BS6 transition happened, Mahindra continued with the petrol and diesel offerings, however, only the latter got the automatic gearbox option back then. Now, its the petrol models turn to give some left-leg freedom to its users. So without any further ado, let get going with what theres to know about this petrol automatic. Appearance Exterior Over the years, Mahindra hasnt messed around with the XUV300s styling as such. This is proof enough that it looks contemporary even today, especially with the advent of newer segment entrants. But truth be told, XUV300s nose is a handsome one with all the detailing. At the same time, the rear section looks more like an afterthought. One that doesnt gel well with the front, but certainly is far from ugly. All things said and done, this is one compact SUV that you wouldnt mistake for being a raised-hatch. Appearance Interior For starters, the XUV300 hasnt seen any updates since its launch. So as a recap, the dual-tone interiors lend a fresh, attractive, and airy ambience unlike some of its dark-cabin segment contenders. Not only is the quality of materials good, but it feels robust enough to take on the test of time head-on. We took a special liking to the lavish use of silver trim to highlight the centre console and steering. Likewise, the large comfortable front seats combined with favourable ergonomics and good all-around visibility make for a soothing experience. Although space isnt a concern in the front, the same cant be said about the rear. Having the longest wheelbase in the segment hasnt translated into the best knee- and head-room. Sadly, its just acceptable, so to say. Plus, the 257-litre boot isnt as accommodating as youd want it. A first for the XUV300 is the BlueSense Connected car technology that gets 40 connected car features including location-based services and control for various other car features. Meanwhile, theres a seven-inch touchscreen with a simple interface to work around with, leather seats, sunroof, cruise control, navigation, heated mirrors, dual-zone climate control, and projector headlamps with LED DRLs. Safety is taken care of by the dazzling five-star NCAP safety rating, seven airbags, ABS with EBD, hill-hold function, four disc-brakes, front parking sensors, tyre pressure monitoring, and child-seat anchoring. Performance Drive At launch, the XUV300 only had manual gearbox options for its petrol and diesel engines. Shortly thereafter, the diesel received an AMT automatic gearbox, and late last year, it was the petrol models turn to witness its share of self-shifts. This AutoShift AMT box is mated to the 109bhp/200Nm 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol motor. Surprisingly, theres hardly any buzz from this motor at idle. But above all, its the gear shifters queer design that requires some studying before you get on the move. The shift stick moves in a + pattern, with A (Auto) and M (Manual) options to the left, N (Neutral) to the right, R (reverse) just below it, and pull it back and forth over the + and - to take care of the up-and down-shifting chores. Agreed that it needs some getting-used-to, owing to the lack of D (drive) and P (Park), but it feels intuitive overall. Tapping the gearstick once to the left slots the box into Auto mode, after which, letting go of the brakes will get have the XUV300 creep ahead without any throttle inputs. This comes in handy in stop-and-go traffic. Nonetheless, applying some throttle is advisable if youre on an incline as it tends to stutter otherwise. On the go, theres more than enough grunt for most slow speed stunts and once past the 2,000rpm mark, theres a noticeable gush of usable power that flows in till the 5,000rpm redline. But you cant term it as an interrupted power delivery on account of the AMT pause that occurs each time the gears shift. Theyre even more pronounced when the throttle is fully depressed. Yet, given the systems soft-spot for shifting around the 2,500rpm mark, we were able to contemplate these pauses for the better. Alternatively, tapping the lever twice to the left for M (Manual) mode allows one to shift gears themselves; like for emergency overtakes. Overall, this motor lightens the work of both city and highway duties while still maintaining convenience for the left foot. Since no other mechanical tweaks have made it to the XUV300 other than the addition of the AMT gearbox, the ride and handling is the same deal. Just to remind you, regardless of the speed, the XUV300 offers a plush ride owing to good damping from its shock absorbers. Better still, even the harsh bumps are well subdued, with only acceptable levels of NVH felt inside. To sum it up, the unfazed ride invokes peace-of-mind motoring, an experience thats amplified by the solid stopping power from having discs on all four corners. Sure, the steering may sound slow as a consequence of it having almost three turns from lock-to-lock, but its response is governed by three settings - Normal, Comfort, and Sport. While you may need to rewire your brain-ware to detect the minute differences between the first two, they make the steering light and reasonably direct. In contrast, Sport adds extra heft to the steering, which although feels artificial, makes spirited driving around bends fulfilling. Conclusion With the competition heating up persistently in the compact SUV segment, its better off late than never, that Mahindra ventured into the petrol-auto slice of the pie. Plus, the fact that it also throws in some connected-car tech into the brew will undoubtedly work for those folks who love owning all the latest features. The only real drawback is the restrictive space at the rear. So, will the two-pedal turbo-petrol XUV300 penetrate the market the way Mahindra sees it? Well, we certainly feel so. Pictures by Kapil Angane Mahindra XUV300 7.96 Lakh Onwards Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | XUV300 Mahindra XUV300 | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra | Mahindra XUV300 | XUV300 I guess they dont like kids. said my 7 year old son as we went to see the flattened pump track and jumps in the undeveloped and unmaintained Lebanon Creek Park area at Quilchena/Tanager in Upper Mission. The built features respected the trail that was there and they were a great area for the local kids to build something and play without being on the street and also be close to home. It was great. It was cool to see the evolution of this through COVID. Gone. Hundreds of hours of kids and Dads and Moms sweat equity into creating a pretty cool area for kids to be kids (adults too as I rode it with my boys) and not be in front of a screen and make something from imagination and hard work. Litter? Nope. I saw a water bottle once. Noise? Kids laughing and yelling... as they should. A couple people have corroborated that an angry NIMBY is the cause (its known who)... that the RDCO acted on that rather than seeing and valuing this for what it was is just plain terrible. Whats the lesson here? That the grumpy man means more than the harmless and the net good fun for dozens of neighbourhood kids? Whats the RDCO and city telling us? Terrible traffic? City: sorry, shoulda thought of that before you moved there. Kids cant go to CLE? City: shoulda thought of that too. Kids planning and building and riding jumps and getting dirty and healthy and not becoming graffiti artists? RDCO: Holy smokes, well be right there! That was my social media post about. Basically, a really great area that was dead space in the Lebanon Creek Park had, for many years, been a bit of an ad-hoc bike park, and upon the complaining of some notoriously angry man, it was demolished. Clearly, the need was there. Kids and adults generally dont look for hard work to do. And, trust me, it was hard work. It was such hard work that the strong men and women from RDCO needed heavy equipment to demo it they wouldnt dare do as kids and use shovels. Whats the response I get from RDCO? That we should drive 30 min to the Mission Creek Bike Skills Park is the response. How is this in keeping with all that we say this city is? That you need to drive somewhere far to let your kids play? Not great when you have a little kid and an older one. They also said that as it was not safe. So, the answer is to demo it rather than teach or modify? Its laughable that they claim to know what theyre doing when the Mission Creek Bike Skills Park is about as soulless as Ive seen. Heres the nugget that really upset me yesterday: I saw that theyre actually sabotaging the features and berms that were built not demolishing, sabotaging with no markings or warnings. This is very, very, dangerous. Anyone whos not in the know could get hurt. Its laughable that the RDCO talks safety and they do this. Sean Irg Climate change is real at least for Unifor, a union representing 12,000 oil patch workers. Many Conservatives recently declined to support their leader Erin OTooles when he proposed that climate change is a reality, But Unifors oil patch workers not only agree with OToole about climate change. The union has actually called for a very ambitious climate target a target even bigger than the Liberal governments. Prime Minister Trudeau just announced a new target of 40 to 45% below 2005 levels by 2030. Unifor wants to see a full 60% reduction by 2030. Unifors members see the future and it is green. But these workers also want real help in making the difficult transition to a lower carbon economy. Since 2019 an estimated 180,000 oil and gas workers have lost their jobs. Many more jobs will evaporate in coming yearspotentially as many as 450,000 jobs by 2050. These highly skilled energy workers shouldnt have to go it alone as they look for work in the new lower carbon economy. The recently announced federal budgetwith its emphasis on creating clean-tech jobs and and building carbon-reducing infrastructureprovides a great opportunity to smooth the road for workers leaving the oil patch. (See infrastructure.gc.ca on planned infrastructure projects.) The government can now take steps to invest in alternative industries like wind and solar, for example, and to locate them where possible in oil-and-gas based communities. It can also stimulate growth in other sectors. Unifor suggests, for example, that more jobs should be created in fields like care services. And the federal government can provide benefits and funding for retraining programs as workers transition away from oil and gas. The Liberal government has promised a Just Transition Act, and the federal Minister of Natural Resources Seamus ORegan says he is fully committed to it. Its time to act on that commitment. Its also time for provincial governments Alberta in particular to face reality. Premier Kenney and his party should quit burying their heads in the oil sands. They, too, should see that the future is green and commit to a humane, caring and necessary job transition strategy. Their fellow Albertans future is at stake. To leave oil patch workers to fend for themselves is hurtful and unjust. Its time to plan for their successful transition into the new green economy. Diane Eaton, Kelowna Photo: Google Street View The Chakalaka Bar and Grill near Ladysmith has been fined $2,300 for continuing to operate despite a court order to close until it has a COVID-19 safety plan approved by Island Health. On Monday, as anti-maskers protested outside the Victoria courthouse, restaurant operator Panayiota Giannikos was also fined $4,000 and found in contempt of court for failing to disconnect drinking water and sewage-disposal systems to about 20 recreational vehicles on the property, located at 13230 Trans Canada Highway. Island Health first visited the property in September 2020 to investigate concerns about recreational vehicle hookups. On April 23, a B.C. Supreme Court justice granted an interim injunction to close Chakalaka Bar and Grill until it had a COVID-19 safety plan approved by Island Health. The restaurant was also to remain closed until it was inspected and found to be in compliance with provincial health orders. Island Health said the restaurant failed to carry out daily employee health checks or ensure two-metre physical distancing. At the April 23 hearing, the court also ordered Giannikos to disconnect the drinking water and the sewage-disposal systems under the supervision of a qualified professional engineer. Unauthorized alterations had been made to the drinking-water system, in contravention of the Drinking Water Prevention Act, to extend it to RVs on the property. Island Health deemed the drinking water and sewage systems as a health hazard under provincial health orders. On Monday, court heard that the health authority went back to the property and found court orders were being ignored. Giannikos was found in contempt of the court order prohibiting the continued operation of the restaurant. The fine for not disconnecting the water and sewer systems to the RVs has been suspended until June 1, which means Chakalaka Bar and Grill has an opportunity to avoid it. Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - In this April 20, 2021, file photo U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the House Republican Conference chair, speaks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Denton Knapp, a retired U.S. Army colonel from California, says he will challenge Cheney in next year's Republican U.S. House primary in Wyoming. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) A combative Rep. Liz Cheney lashed out at leaders of her own Republican Party late Tuesday, accusing former President Donald Trump and his GOP supporters of following a path that would undermine our democracy. On the eve of a closed-door meeting when House Republicans seem certain to oust her from a leadership post because of her clashes with the former president, Cheney, R-Wyo., took to the House floor to state her case. "I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former presidents crusade to undermine our democracy, Cheney said. She did not mention party leaders by name. But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise, R-La., have called for her removal after she repeatedly rejected Trump's false claim that he lost the November election due to widespread fraud, and for his role in encouraging supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Today, we face threat America has never seen before," she told the nearly empty House chamber. "A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence. Top Republicans have asserted their chief objection has been that as No. 3 House GOP leader, Cheney should be focusing on messages that would help the party win House control in next year's elections, not on internal party divisions over the former president. Photo: The Canadian Press Some herds of Alberta's provincial animal are heavily contaminated with selenium from old coal mines, says research from a retired senior government biologist. Jeff Kneteman said Alberta Environment has known about the problem in bighorn sheep for years. But it has yet to commission any studies about the effects on the three herds and how far the contamination has spread through the local ecosystem. "There was no interest," said Kneteman, who left government in March 2020. "Why wasn't any of this stuff ever followed up?" The research comes to light as the United Conservative government tries to persuade Albertans that the province's regulatory and monitoring systems are capable of ensuring an expansion of coal-mining in the Rocky Mountains can be done safely. An Alberta Environment spokesman said the government is aware of the issue. "Alberta Environment and Parks has engaged with researchers and mining companies and their consultants in the (area) regarding selenium levels in bighorn sheep," said John Muir in an email. Kneteman's work dates from 2015. It was his thesis for a master's degree and not provincially funded. He was investigating selenium, a naturally occurring element associated with coal mines that is healthy in small doses but toxic in excess. Kneteman's study looked at what levels of selenium were normal for animals, including bighorns, deer, elk and caribou, by considering 85 different herds from across North America. Two herds in northwest Alberta stood out those on the sites of the Smoky River, Gregg River and Luscar coal mines. "(Levels in) bighorn that occupied coal mines were miles away from everybody," he said. Both herds averaged well outside the safe range for selenium. One of them almost doubled that level. "They're getting it from the coal mines," Kneteman said. "We found no evidence of elevated selenium in Alberta in any of the other populations that we sampled." The Rockies are naturally low in selenium. As well, when bighorns from one of the coal-affected herds were transferred to Nevada, their selenium levels dropped to normal within a year. Muir said a consultant found selenium levels to be high but below those that would produce toxic effects. Selenium is known to damage reproduction. That effect was present, said Kneteman. "The sheep on the mines have the lowest reproductive potential and reproductive output that we've ever measured in Canada." The province's 2015 draft management plan for bighorns found that the ratio of lambs to ewes was lower at coal mines than native range every year from 2008 to 2013. Referring to unpublished government data, that plan says: "High selenium levels in blood samples from bighorns feeding in reclamation areas associated with a coal-mine site ... are of concern to sheep managers. "No examination of possible population effects attributed exclusively to selenium toxicity has been undertaken to date." Research suggests selenium is widespread in the ecosystem in question. Kneteman previously found elevated levels in dippers, small birds that feed on aquatic insects. Other studies have found excessive selenium in at least three area waterways. "(Selenium) is throughout the system," Kneteman said. Although his data is years old, there's little reason to believe things have improved, he said. "(Selenium) hasn't declined at all since the first measurements in the late '90s," he said. "The assumption could be made it's the same today as it was in 2015. Why would we expect it to have changed?" The province's 2019 five-year monitoring plan mothballed all the area's water-monitoring stations. Since last spring, Alberta has sold tens of thousands of hectares of exploration leases for new coal mines along the summits and eastern slopes of the Rockies. In response to public concern, Energy Minister Sonya Savage has paused all work on the most sensitive landscapes, stopped further lease sales and struck a panel to hear concerns from Albertans. She has asked Albertans to have faith in the province's regulatory agency and monitoring programs and has referred to Alberta Environment's "stringent environmental protections." Muir said the province is monitoring selenium levels in wildlife, fisheries, soil and vegetation. Kneteman said he tried repeatedly to get his former department to study a toxin from resource development contaminating the animal that is supposed to symbolize the province. "No one's made any measurements, which is maybe dereliction," he said. "The only reason we've got any measurements is that I went and got them. There wasn't any effort to find out what was going on." Photo: The Canadian Press Albertas justice minister says he was wrong to accuse Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus government, Albertas Opposition NDP, and the media of rooting for COVID-19 to buckle his provinces health system. "I would like to offer an apology for my recent comments on my personal Facebook account," Kaycee Madu wrote on Twitter Tuesday night. "Alberta is facing an unprecedented public health crisis. My comments were wrong, as all Canadians want this global pandemic to end as soon as possible. "I fully support the premiers recent call to avoid the divisive political rhetoric during what we all hope is the final period of this pandemic and will continue the important work of government in protecting Albertans from this virus." The apology came a day after Madus spokesman, Blaise Boehmer, told reporters in a statement that Madu was standing by his accusations, adding, "The minister wont apologize for stating the obvious." Earlier Tuesday, prior to Madus apology, Trudeau rejected the accusations. "Its a shame to see people pointing fingers and laying blame and suggesting that anyone in Canada wants anything else than to get through this pandemic as safely as possible everywhere," Trudeau said in Ottawa. Premier Jason Kenney, also asked about Madus comments prior to the apology, said he hadnt seen them but said, "COVID has caused us a lot of us at various times to say things we regret, and I just encourage everybody whatever side of the political spectrum theyre on to give each other a break right now." Trudeau noted he reached out to Kenney and Alberta's big city mayors last week to offer further support if called upon. Kenney declined the offer. "Every step of the way the federal government has been there to support Canadians, with $8 out of every $10 in pandemic support coming from the federal government," said Trudeau. Photo: CTV News Indigenous leaders are calling for an investigation into the conduct of Mounties on Vancouver Island after two members of a small First Nation were shot by police in the last three months. A Tla-o-qui-aht woman was badly injured after being shot multiple times Saturday when police responded to a report of a disturbance at a home in the community of Port Albion, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island. The shooting follows the death of Julian Jones, a 28-year-old Tla-o-qui-aht man, who was shot and killed by RCMP officers on Meares Island in late February. Judy Wilson, the secretary-treasurer of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, said the conduct of the RCMP detachments in the communities of Tofino and Ucluelet needs to be investigated in the wake of the most recent shooting. "This tragedy, this trauma, it will stay with the family and the children for generations to come," she said. She said the victim is a mother of two and suffered gunshot injuries to her spine, leaving questions about her future quality of life. "There should be a review. How are they handling these calls to the community?" Wilson said. The Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation is a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth tribal council. Tribal council president Judith Sayers said her members have been left with a lot of questions and few answers from police. "Can you imagine having had your daughter, or your brother, or someone you know shot and you don't know why? You don't know what the circumstances were until an investigation is complete," she said. "There's got to be more details provided and I'm sure that can be done without impugning the investigation." Sayers said police forces across Canada need to re-evaluate their use-of-force protocols and training, particularly when it comes to working with Indigenous or other communities they may have little experience with. Officers may feel alone or unwelcome in a community where they don't know many, or any, people and police training needs to work with Indigenous groups to help officers understand and respect the community they're entering, Sayers added. The RCMP declined to comment on the requests by Indigenous leaders, citing an investigation by the Independent Investigations Office. The police watchdog, which investigates all officer-related incidents that result in serious harm or death, is investigating both of the shootings. For the first time in its history, the watchdog allowed an Indigenous community member to act as a civilian monitor in its investigation into the death of Jones. The monitor is able to look at any aspect of the investigation, interview investigators and submit a report at the end on its competency and outcome. He drove to the Car-X on Ogden Avenue, where a mechanic practically diagnosed the problem before looking under the car. With his car hoisted on the lift, Arl was shown the spot where thieves had sawed off the catalytic converter. It would cost $1,200 for a new one. Photo: The Canadian Press House Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney from her post as the chambers No. 3 GOP leader on Wednesday, punishing her after she repeatedly rebuked former President Donald Trump for his claims of election fraud and his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Meeting behind closed doors for less than 20 minutes, GOP lawmakers used a voice vote to remove Cheney, R-Wyo., from the partys No. 3 House position, a jarring turnabout to whats been her fast-rising career within the party. She was Congress highest-ranking Republican woman and is a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and her demotion was the latest evidence that challenging Trump can be career-threatening. Cheney has refused to stop repudiating Trump and defiantly signaled after the meeting that she intended to use her overthrow to try pointing the party away from the former president. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office, she told reporters. Cheneys replacement was widely expected to be Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who entered the House in 2015 at age 30, then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Stefanik owns a more moderate voting record than Cheney but has evolved into a vigorous Trump defender whos echoed some of his unfounded claims about widespread election cheating. Photo: The Canadian Press COVID-19 vaccination bookings will be available to all British Columbians 30 and older beginning Wednesday evening. B.C.'s rollout of vaccines has ramped up in recent weeks, as the supply of vaccines from the federal government has increased. On Monday, the age-based rollout dropped to include those who are 40 and older, and Tuesday evening, those 36 and older also became eligible. Starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday, those 30 and older will also become eligible. British Columbians who want a vaccine are still required to register here, and public health will reach out by text, email or phone call to book an appointment when a person becomes eligible. These invites can take up to a day after a person becomes eligible. Across B.C, more than 2.2 million doses of vaccines have been administered, including 110,000 second doses. Of these, more than 343,000 have been administered in the Interior. As more people have become vaccinated, new COVID-19 cases have been trending down in recent weeks. Photo: The Canadian Press Britain's trade minister says his country expects to kick-start talks on a free-trade pact with Canada in the fall and suggests it might differ in scope from what is now in place. Ranil Jayawardena says first the British government must hold consultations on what should be in an agreement before it can sit down with Canadian negotiators on the terms of a long-term deal. In March, Canada ratified a temporary trade agreement with the U.K. after it left the European Union at the end of last year. The deal maintained preferential access to the U.K. market for Canadian exporters and businesses, and eliminated tariffs on 98 per cent of goods exported from this country. Jayawardena says he believes the existing agreement should give both countries a head start in talks, rather than beginning from square one. Speaking virtually at an event hosted by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, he also identifies access for agricultural products as a potential stumbling block in talks. Photo: Saskatoon Police The skyrocketing cost of lumber is fuelling a trend that has authorities across the country warning builders to keep their guard up. Canadian authorities have been warning this year about the rise in lumber thefts, which has some people quipping on social media that wood has become as desirable as gold. Det. Sgt. Tosha Ternes of the Saskatoon police said the city has seen a huge jump in thefts at construction sites since 2018. Weve driven out to these areas that are getting hit and it is a gold mine with valuable stuff laying everywhere, Ternes said in an interview. The thefts are mainly happening on weekends between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. when fewer people are around, she said. Ternes also noted that some construction sites have been hit three or four times. One site lost $2,700 worth of lumber in one night. Thieves came back to steal appliances then went after flooring that was still in its packaging. "People are going back to the same place knowing that there is stuff there," she said. "Our Aspen Ridge and Brighton areas in the east side of Saskatoon are new areas right now and they are getting hit a lot. Thousands of dollars in lumber, tools and everything." Earlier this month in another part of Saskatoon, $1,000 worth of lumber was stolen from a construction site. Ternes said a resident called police to report a suspicious vehicle. When officers responded, they noticed the lumber in the back of an older model van. "A lot of the times if you see that much lumber with the prices and the vehicle isn't that expensive, it's kind of odd on how they could afford all that lumber when their vehicle isn't really in good working order," she said. The lumber was later returned to its rightful owner. A man, who Ternes said was known to police, was apprehended and charged with theft under $5,000. In Guelph, Ont., last month, the owner of a Home Hardware wasnt so lucky. Guelph police spokesman Scott Tracey said a man in a stolen pickup truck rammed through the gates of the store around 4 a.m. and stole about $10,000 worth of lumber. Surveillance footage of the theft on April 12 went viral. "He spent over an hour, actually, loading up lumber onto the back of the truck," Tracey said. The man is still at large, he said, and the stolen lumber and truck have not been recovered. In the Maritimes, Mounties issued a news release last weekend asking for people with information on the theft of about $1,500 worth of lumber to come forward. RCMP in Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., said the lumber was being used to put up a sign on the Trans-Canada Highway near Bishop's Falls. Lumber prices have also affected forests in British Columbia, with municipal officials in North Cowichan saying that they suspect tree poaching is on the rise. Photo: The Canadian Press NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh holds a press conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the federal government to halt arms sales to Israel amid escalating violence in the region. At a news conference today and again during question period, Singh says Canada must apply pressure to ratchet down the spiralling conflict in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank and to prevent more arms from being used in clashes he says breach international law. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is asking all parties to end the violence, saying rocket attacks against Israel as well as violence at an iconic mosque are "unacceptable." Yesterday, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole put out a statement condemning rocket attacks by Hamas militants as "indiscriminately targeting civilians." Dozens have died after Palestinian militants launched rockets from Gaza and Israel unleashed new air strikes against them this week, in an escalation triggered by soaring tensions in Jerusalem and days of clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque a site sacred to Jews and Muslims in the holy city. Government data shows Canada sent $13.7 million in military goods and technology to Israel in 2019, or 0.4 per cent of total arms exports, suggesting an embargo would have limited leverage. Across Canada, and around the world, lately there have been a number of public protests against the wearing of masks. Since I've never attended one of these rallies, and since I'm not arrogant enough to speak on behalf of the thousands of people who actually have, I offer this piece as a suggestion as to what is really going on. I suggest that these protests aren't about masks. Or rather, they are not only about masks. I suspect that the majority of the people who attend may, in fact, be sick and tired of being told what to do by politicians and health officers who, most of the time, don't really know what they're doing or why. Back in the spring of 2020, masks were not only not recommended by Theresa Tam, Canada's chief health officer, and by Patty Hajdu, Canada's health minister, they were, in fact, strongly discouraged. Now masks are so essential to keeping us all alive that a person can be fined, fired, or even jailed, for not wearing one. And the very act of protesting against them is illegal. Quite a flip-flop, even by a politician's standards. Also last spring, our officials told us that border closures don't work and were, in fact, racist. So, full airplanes from China and Italy were landing daily in Canada, likely bringing thousands of new cases. Justin Trudeau was more worried about "playing nice" with his friends in the Chinese government than he was about the safety of Canadians. Now, a full year later, border closures and extra rules for returning travelers are apparently so necessary to protect us all that serious fines and/or incarceration are being imposed. Then there is the whole vaccine procurement fiasco. Mr. Trudeau was, and unfortunately still is, in charge of obtaining sufficient vaccines to protect all Canadians but, by all accounts except his own, has failed miserably in this task. Canada is the only country in the world, other than the UK, that is OK with having a time lag between first and second doses of at least four months - in spite of numerous studies and in spite of recommendations from the professionals who actually researched, developed, tested, and produced these vaccines. Apparently Mr. Trudeau, Ms, Hajdu, Mr. Horgan, and Dr. Tam are smarter than 95% of the world and the scientists at Pfizer and Moderna. Mr. Horgan is responsible for safety in seniors care homes, both public and privately funded. Those are the homes where many hundreds of seniors have died, many all alone and scared. So he wants to distract us from that horrific spectacle by telling me that if I drive to Vancouver, I am putting our entire society at risk. But I can drive to Calgary and then fly to Vancouver - somehow that's OK. Maybe if Mr. Horgan took care of his own responsibilities, the ones that he is being paid for, then I would probably cut him some slack when he imposes draconian restrictions on my freedom. People say, "Well, it's a hard job and he's doing his best." So what? His best is clearly not good enough. He's the guy who wanted so badly to keep his job for another four years that he forced an election on us in the middle of the pandemic. What does all this have to do with anti-mask protests? Simple. Masks are just the symbol. I assert that many people in Canada have lost faith in the federal and provincial governments' ability to work through this pandemic. I have given up looking for logic in their announcements or their regulations. They don't trust me just as much as I don't trust them. When trust between government and citizen breaks down, there is not much left to hold our society together. So masks, in and of themselves, aren't a big deal, really. At least not a big enough deal, in my opinion, to get a thousand people out to a protest. I believe the real issue is that many people don't want to take orders that make no sense from people who clearly don't trust us and, even more importantly, don't know what they're doing. Mr. Trudeau said the other day that he was "disappointed" with the protesters in Montreal. Well, guess what? They are disappointed in you, too! He is the one who has let us all down and he has the gall to say that we "disappoint" him! The hypocrisy is breathtaking! He apparently doesn't understand who pays his salary. The other reason that I don't mind the anti-mask protesters (for the most part) is that they are, at least, standing up for our civil rights. Our rights have taken quite a beating in the last 15 months and people are worried that most of them won't come back even after the world goes back to "normal". Once a society gives up a right or a privilege, it is unlikely to ever come back. We give them up at our peril. Seems like there is always a "war" going on. War against communism. War on drugs. War against climate change. War on homelessness. War on terrorists. War on poverty. War against COVID. There always seems to be something that we need to be frightened of, always something that the government needs to protect us from, to "keep us safe". Always some bandwagon the media needs to jump on in order to sell headlines and advertising. Always another reason to increase taxes or hire more bureaucrats or build more "programs". Always another reason to get neighbors to narc on their neighbors. You think this can only happen in America? Guess again. Check out Trudeau's latest budget to "build back better." I still haven't worked out the "logic" that says that COVID is an "opportunity" to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars to rebuild Canada in Trudeau's image. No one really says what was wrong with Canada in 2019 that was so terrible or why it needs the "great reset". If you believe that everything that Tam, Henry, Trudeau, and Horgan are doing is the correct approach, that is your right. I respect your opinion and your right to hold that opinion. You may not like the protesters but the majority are doing what they believe is best. Apparently we're not allowed to have a counter opinion any more, not supposed to question the government. People from all walks of life are getting "cancelled" every single day for questioning "authority" and "established facts" on any number of topics, from polar bears to gender to climate change to masks. A society that feels that it has to resort to fines and incarceration in order to get their citizens to obey random rules has seriously lost its way. You could be right. I could be a "full-of-s**t-alt-right-Trump-lover". And those protesters might be crazy anarchists looking for attention. But I am not willing to take that chance. Some people think that they should all be locked up or, at the very least, given a hefty fine. Some think that losing civil liberties "would never happen in Canada." Perhaps. But what are you going to do, or who are you going to call, when the government takes away a right that you personally want to keep? One that you think is important? What is going to be your recourse then? Not gonna happen? Then you're right and I'm wrong. I'm just not that confident. Lloyd Vinish, Kelowna The Major Case Squad is investigating the death of a woman in Madison County early Saturday morning. Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription, or activate your access, to continue reading. Senegalese president appreciates China's vaccine support in fight against COVID-19 Xinhua) 11:27, May 12, 2021 Screenshot captured from a video on Feb. 25, 2021 shows Senegalese President Macky Sall (L) receiving his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by China's Sinopharm in presidential palace in Dakar, Senegal. (Xinhua) DAKAR, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Senegalese President Macky Sall said on Tuesday evening that he appreciated China's gesture of solidarity by providing vaccine support for his country in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Through his social media, the Senegalese president welcomed the "important donation" offered by China to Senegal which includes a batch of Sinopharm vaccine. According to a press release from the Chinese Embassy in Senegal, through this important donation, China reaffirms its friendship and solidarity with its brother Senegal as well as its attachment to China-Senegalese cooperation. The Chinese Embassy in Senegal announced that the donation would be arriving in Senegal by the end of this week. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday granted emergency approval for China's Sinopharm vaccine, making it the sixth vaccine to receive validation from WHO for its safety, effectiveness and quality. It is also WHO's first authorization for a vaccine from a developing country. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) During the virtual court hearing, Cook County Assistant States Attorney Alexzandria Johnson said Notali entered the Little Caesars Restaurant at 7201 W. Dempster St. in Niles on the evening of May 10 and presented a note to the cashier that read, Can I have $100? I have a gun. Sinoma to expand Lucky Cement's WHR capacity 12 May 2021 Pakistans Lucky Cement has signed an agreement with Sinoma Energy Conservation for the expansion of its two waste heat recovery (WHR) units in Pezu, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The capacity of the two plants is expected to advance by around 4MW. The companies have worked together since 2008 on the original WHR lines at Pezu with a generating capacity of 10MW each, as well as the 15MW Karachi EFG power plant project and a waste heat boiler extension in Karachi. Published under This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions Chatham, VA (24531) Today Cloudy early with scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High around 80F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Variable clouds with thunderstorms, especially late. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Hopefully President Biden will make nuclear deals with Iran and North Korea. However, it is equally to be hoped that he does not repeat the fatal flaw of the first Iran deal. It imposed a waiting period for the inspection of suspected sites. This would have allowed them to move the materials for making a nuclear weapon--such as enriched uranium--to a second site during the waiting period for the first site; then when the second site would come under suspicion, it would have a waiting period during which the material could be moved to a third site; and so on. That is why a future President may cancel the deal again. Alvin Blake We know that the kind of support for caregivers, unpaid caregiving, is something that is a big deal in Northwest Indiana and really the nation, Bohacek said. Without unpaid caregiving support, those family members who provide most of the care for their senior family members or those with disabilities, those systems of care that we have in place, they wouldnt be adequate enough to meet the needs. With this extra investment, we can definitely find ways to provide compensation and support and care for the caregivers themselves. Paul Fridenstine has been named chief financial officer (CFO) of Parkridge West Hospital, Parkridge North ER and the four-campus Parkridge Valley behavioral health system. In this role, Fridenstine will oversee all financial aspects of each campus. Mr. Fridenstine has accumulated 25 years of accounting experience with more than 13 years spent in healthcare. Having worked in both acute care and behavioral health settings, Paul brings a wealth of experience to our campuses, and we are excited to welcome him to our team, said Tim Grant, MD, MBA, CEO of Parkridge West, Parkridge Valley and Parkridge North, and CMO of Parkridge Health System. We are poised for strong growth, and Pauls background and depth of healthcare knowledge will be key to helping us achieve our goals. Prior to joining Parkridge Valley, Mr. Fridenstine served as CFO at Oakwood Springs, a 72-bed behavioral health hospital in Oklahoma City. Before that, he was controller at AllianceHealth Midwest, a 255-bed hospital in Midwest City, Ok., and served as controller at Byrd Regional Hospital, in Leesville, La., before being promoted to assistant CFO. Mr. Fridenstine earned a Bachelors of Science in Business Accounting from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Business Administration Healthcare Management from West Texas A&M University. A man who was found not guilty in the 2000 strangulation death of an East Ridge woman has died in Detroit of a drug overdose, family members of the victim have been told. The defense for Jason Sanford had put on no proof in the February 2019 trial. Sanford spent two and a half years in jail awaiting trial in the Cold Case. Near the end of the trial, a Michigan man gave a deathbed statement that his first cousin had admitted killing Sarah Davis Perry. The jury heard the videoed statement from Mitchell Penterics, who visibly struggled through the two-hour deposition with effects from his spreading cancer. His cousin, Sanford, was taken to Michigan from the Hamilton County Jail to sit in on the statement. Sanford stood trial in the courtroom of Judge Tom Greenholtz. Judge Greenholtz had sent the case on to the jury on the single charge of first-degree murder though defense attorney Amanda Dunn said pre-meditation had not been proven. Attorney Johnny Houston also defended Sanford. Penterics said he moved to Chattanooga in 1999. He said, "I had won a lawsuit and I just wanted to get out of Michigan." He said he went to computer school and took a job at Convergys, where he met the eventual murder victim Sarah Davis Perry. He said he introduced her to Sanford, who had joined him in Chattanooga. He said Sanford and Ms. Perry began living together, though he said their relationship was "rocky. They fought a lot." Questioned by District Attorney Neal Pinkston, he agreed they both had drug problems. The witness said in the evening of June 15, 2000, that Sanford came over to his residence and told him, "I killed Sarah. I need money for a bus ticket." He said he eventually agreed to provide the money and take Sanford to the Greyhound station. He said Sanford gave no other details of the slaying. Penterics said he did not call police because "I just didn't know what to do." He said he "stayed in Chattanooga another year or so" before returning to Michigan. He said he had a "cordial" relationship with Sanford once they both were again in their home state. Penterics, who later died, said he was diagnosed with rectal cancer in 2011 and it spread to other parts of his body, including his brain. The jury had also heard a jail call in which Sanford discussed with his mother and his cousin ways to get his cousin to remain quiet about knowledge he had of a 2000 murder. Sanford told Penterics, "Keep your chin up and your mouth shut." That came just a few days after Sanford was charged with the strangulation murder of the 21-year-old Ms. Perry in East Ridge. Her body was found stuffed in a garbage can under a bridge at Spring Creek. In the phone call, Penterics told Sanford, "I don't know how to tell you this, but it's really bad. Unfortunately, they got me to say something. I said something bad. I shouldn't have said it. I just feel really bad." He said police had threatened him and wanted him to wear a wire and try to get Sanford to talk. He said he refused to do that. Police in the DA's Cold Case Unit afterward learned that Penterics had become terminally ill. It was hastily arrange to take his deposition at his Michigan home with Sanford and his attorney present. In a call from the jail to his mother, Sanford discussed how she could call the mother of Penterics concerning the cousin's telling on him. Sanford said, "Be careful how you say it, but let them know." He also said, "My lawyer seems to feel that he is going to stick to his guns and tell the same story." The mother said, "That makes me sad." Sanford replied, "Me too." The jury also heard a tape of detective Brian Ashburn of the Cold Case team interviewing Sanford. The detective said, "Now is the time to lay it all out on the table. We didn't come all the way up here from Tennessee just to drive around." The detective had interviewed the cousin the day before, and he arrested Sanford at the end of the interview with him. Sanford denied any involvement, saying, "I don't remember seeing her after she got out (of Valley Psychiatric Hospital)." He said, "I wanted nothing more than to be away from her." Ms. Perry, who had two children, left the facility against the wishes of the staff on the evening of Tuesday, June 13, 2000. She was seen alive for the last time on Wednesday morning. The garbage can that her body was stuffed in was taken from Fine's Body Shop on that Wednesday night. The body was discovered and Sanford left town on Thursday, the 15th. A witness who had not been questioned by police earlier testified that she saw a man she identified as Sanford drive slowly past her and then back by in an older white pickup truck. She said she afterward saw the same pickup at the creek and the garbage can was no longer in it. She said she could tell it had been dragged under the bridge. Attorney Dunn said the witness, Mary Ruth Boyd, said the man had shaggy hair. She produced a booking photo taken a couple of months before the slaying that showed Sanford with a short haircut. She said Sanford did not have a white pickup truck and no other witness tied him to that type vehicle. She also noted that semen found in the victim did not match that of Sanford. Dr. Stephen Cogswell, assistant medical examiner, said Ms. Perry was strangled to death with some type of ligature (cord or similar item) and possibly also suffocated, according to the autopsy by Dr. Frank King. He said from the marks on her neck that someone had come up behind her. He said she had a broken nail on her left thumb, indicating a possible struggle. Ladies of London followed Caroline Stanbury and her fabulous friends as they lived the high life in Englands capital city. For three seasons, Bravo cameras gave fans a peek at the group of Brits and Americans as they navigated life as busy moms, wives, businesswomen, and trendsetters. Caroline hasnt been on reality TV since the series wrapped in 2017. But she would absolutely return if given the chance. Former Ladies of London star Caroline Stanbury | Michael Tran/FilmMagic A lot has changed for the Ladies of London star Caroline was married to Cem Habib for 17 years, but they announced their split in December 2019. Nearly one year later, she announced her engagement to former Real Madrid player Sergio Carrallo. So I have been wanting to share this moment with you all ! 5400 meters up on the holy lakes I said YES ! @sergiocarrallo she wrote on Instagram alongside a video and pics of Carrallos proposal during a trip to the Himalayas. Caroline Stanbury and Sergio Carrallo have been documenting their relationship on Instagram Caroline first revealed her relationship with Sergio with a social media post in July 2020. The Ladies of London alum posted a sweet selfie of the pair, and she wrote in the caption, Chapter 2. Since then, the couple has been traveling the world together and theyve been documenting the trips on Instagram. Their destinations have included Greece, South Africa, and her home in Dubai. Meanwhile, Caroline has been co-parenting her three children with her ex. She and Cem are the parents of daughter Yasmine and twin boys Zac and Aaron. When they announced their split, the former couple said they would maintain their strong family unit. They also said they would continue their relationship as good friends. The Ladies of London star says shes living in a different world Caroline recently appeared on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen to give fans an update on her life. She said shes living in Dubai and loving it, and its a very different world. When Cohen asked about her hot fiance, she said that he is amazing and hes sitting next to me. Thats when Sergio made a surprise appearance on the Bravo late night talk show. The Bravolebrity says that she and Sergio are planning a November wedding. RELATED: Ladies of London: Caroline Stanbury Didnt Think the Bravo Series Was Healthy for Annabelle Neilson Later on the WWHL After Show, Caroline revealed that her daughter has started showing an interest in Ladies of London. I actually came home the other day and found my daughter in bed with a girlfriend of hers in my bed watching it. So they kind of sneak and watch it, she said. My sons arent interested. Theyre 10. Caroline Stanbury would absolutely return to reality TV Cohen also asked Caroline during her WWHL appearance if she would be open to returning to reality TV. She said she would absolutely do reality TV again because she loves it. However, her high society family might not agree. According to The Daily Dish, Carolines family was quite apprehensive about her appearing on Ladies of London. But they still made cameos. She says her familys response to her being on the Bravo show was Oh my god, dont tell anyone. They also asked her if anyone would actually see this. Caroline Stanbury hasnt talked to this Ladies of London co-star since the show ended While looking back on her reality TV experience on Life After Bravo, Caroline revealed that she hadnt talked to Caprice Bourret since she told her to leave her house in season 1. Caroline says that Caprice was the first one to be cast, and she had the attitude that Ladies of London was her show. I think Caprice came on kind of like this is my show,' Caroline said. You cant have that kind of attitude, its no ones show. Watch What Happens Live airs Sundays through Thursdays on Bravo. Christina Haack has plenty going on with her HGTV hit Flip or Flop and the upcoming season three premiere of her solo show, Christina on the Coast. The mom of three kids Taylor, 10, and Brayden, 5, from her previous marriage to Tarek El Moussa; and Hudson, 1, with soon-to-be-ex-husband Ant Anstead Haack is getting ready to cash in on her pricey California mansion. Christina Haack of Flip or Flop | Noel Vasquez/Getty Images Christina Haack renovated Newport Beach home with Ant Anstead According to Realtor.com, Haack bought the 4,804-square-foot Newport Beach home on her own in 2018 for $4.1 million before she married Anstead. The two worked on the mansions renovations, which were often featured on Christina on the Coast. Their wedding was held in the homes backyard in December 2018. Haack and Anstead split in September 2020, with the Flip or Flop star putting the house on the market in April 2021. Listing the property with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties for $6 million, Haack now has a buyer for the five-bedroom, four-and-a-half bathroom home, as reported by People. Some features of the manse include a master bedroom with 20-foot-high ceilings and attached activity studio, master bath with a soaking tub and double rain shower, commercial grade kitchen with walk-in pantry, and motor court with security gate. The outdoor oasis boasts a pool, Baja step and waterslide, and turf lawn. Christina Haacks Newport Beach, CA home kitchen | Grant Rivera/Apex Visions Christina Haacks Newport Beach, CA home master bathroom | Grant Rivera/Apex Visions RELATED: HGTVs Christina Anstead Says Being Quarantined With Her Three Kids is Messy and Chaotic Yet More Relaxed Flip or Flop star fell in love with Southern state Last fall, Haack ventured to Tennessee with her kids and was instantly won over by the wide open spaces and Southern kindness. I fell in love with Tennessee when I took the kids out there in October to visit my friend and nutritionist Cara Clark, who had recently moved out there, Haack said. Tennessee is gorgeous and the people out there are so nice. Staying at a farmhouse rental, Haack and her family took in all the local sites and enjoyed their lush surroundings. Being out there on all that land reminded me of my favorite childhood memories, which were staying summers on my grandparents farm, the HGTV star remarked. I felt so carefree and loved taking out their quads and hanging with my cousins on all the land I love taking the kids to the country restaurants and listening to live music. All the restaurants are so kid-friendly, which I love as well. Christina Haack bought vacation property in Tennessee Returning to Tennessee on New Years Eve while her kids stayed with their dads, Haack went house hunting and spotted an ideal vacation home. This insanely beautiful modern farmhouse had been on the market one day, so we went and saw it and I immediately fell in love and made an offer, she explained. Its on 23 acres, super private and has everything I could imagine and more. Christina Haacks Tennesse Farmhouse | Solomon C. Davis/SHOWCASE PHOTOGRAPHERS RELATED: Which Flip or Flop Star Has the Highest Net Worth Christina Anstead or Tarek El Moussa? Haack plans on remaining in Newport Beach but will utilize the Tennessee property as a second home. The reality star brought her three kids to their new farmhouse to celebrate Easter. Taking all the family there for Easter, she recalled, doing an egg hunt in the woods and riding around on our Rzr [ATV] laughing and having fun-filled my heart with so much joy. Fans will get a glimpse of her new Tennessee property on the third season of Christina on the Coast, which premieres on June 3. Today, George Clooney is one of the most desirable actors working in Hollywood. The Oceans 11 star is well-known for his roles in Gravity, O, Brother, Where Art Thou?, Tomorrowland, Hail, Caesar!, The Midnight Sky (which he also directed), and more. Clooney is a six-time Academy Award nominee and two-time winner for Syriana and Argo. AFI Life Achievement Award Recipient George Clooney attends American Film Institutes 46th Life Achievement Award | Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Turner In other words, Clooney and Hollywood are intimately connected, and let us not forget that his aunt, Rosemary Clooney, was a famous vocalist who remains renowned for her big band numbers and takes on holiday classics. Thus, when Clooneys father ran for political office, the opposing team used the Tinseltown badge against him. George Clooney talks Hollywood vs. The Heartland During a chat with Norman Lear for Interview Magazine, Clooney explained what happened when his father, Nick Clooney, ran for political office a while back. He shared: Thats right. My father just lost an election in Kentucky last year, and all the ads said Hollywood vs. the Heartland. Of course, my father grew up and lived his whole life in Kentucky and has very little to do with Hollywood. But that doesnt matter because thats the way they could label it. Clooney | Interview Magazine RELATED: George Clooney Made a Cameo in The Golden Girls to Keep His Health Insurance Clooney went on to explain that the most powerful phrase one can scream in Kentucky is That guys a liberal! before going on to explain his own political beliefs. George Clooney is a liberal Clooney told Lear: The greatest thing you can pull out if you want to win is just scream, That guys a liberal! And I just keep going back to the idea that, yeah, Im a liberal. I believe in all the qualities of being a liberal. Clooney | Interview Magazine Clooney went on to explain why he identifies as a liberal recounting history from many years ago and noting the social issues that have played a part in greatly shaping liberalism and conservatism. Clooney said: I keep going back to all the great social events in our countrys history, starting with the Salem witch trials, where the conservative view was that theyre witches and should be burned at the stake, and the liberal view was theres no such thing as witches. Women wanted to vote, and liberals thought that would be okay. Blacks wanted to sit in the front of the buswe didnt see anything wronger with that. We thought Vietnam was wrong. We thought Nixon trying to steal an election was a mistake. Over the years, over the history of our country, liberals have stood on many of the right sides of the issues Clooney | Interview Magazine RELATED: George Clooney Earned $3 For This Passion Project That Earned 6 Oscar Nominations George Clooney is a liberal. And though Clooneys fathers political beliefs are not made clear here, it may not have mattered in the end, for the opposing party was able to use Hollywood against him. Aspiring foodies and amateur chefs have long turned to Food Network for cooking inspiration. With thrilling competitions and iconic celebrity hosts, its no wonder that the network and its hundreds of shows gather millions of viewers per episode. Though opportunities like Food Network Star allow regular folks to make an appearance on the big screen, most of the programs feature professional chefs hosting their own unique cooking shows. Love them or hate them, these famous faces always have a kitchen hack to offer. Longtime Food Network personality Giada De Laurentiis, for example, has a secret ingredient that ensures her chocolate tarts rock. Giada De Laurentiis | Ethan Miller/Getty Images De Laurentiis draws inspiration from her Italian heritage These hot Italian sausages are reminiscent of the kind youll find on street corners in Italy https://t.co/CX2TlhsMRw pic.twitter.com/8XjyBTv0rv Giada De Laurentiis (@GDeLaurentiis) April 29, 2020 RELATED: Food Network Star Giada De Laurentiiss Family Was Filthy Rich Long Before Becoming a Celebrity Chef Born into a family of movie stars and producers, its no wonder that De Laurentiis eventually found herself on TV. According to Biography, she lived in Italy until she was seven years old and inherited her parents television talents and passion for authentic cuisine. After graduating from UCLA, De Laurentiis traveled back abroad to study at Paris world-renowned culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu. Her top-notch education qualified her to work at some of the top restaurants in the United States. After getting her feet wet in the culinary industry, she branched off to start her own catering company. Food and culture magazines were soon turning to her for cooking advice, and Food Network saw her bright personality and talent through her written words. Her debut with the Network, Everyday Italian, set the tone for the cuisine and culture she would bring to set. Though her Italian roots undoubtedly lend some credibility to her recipes, she has been the subject of teasing from the likes of Ellen DeGeneres for her over-pronunciation of Italian dishes. Still, while she certainly wont let viewers forget shes Italian, De Laurentiis is still full of many surprises. Her secret ingredient adds pop to her tarts RELATED: Food Network Star Giada De Laurentiis Sweet and Salty Marshmallow Treats Are Great Day-After-Halloween Snacks Popsugar fittingly highlighted one of De Laurentiis popular dessert recipes. Dubbed chocolate pop tarts, the small treats feature a very special ingredient: pop rocks! The dish pays homage to childhood wonder, both through this secret addition and its punny name. With such innovations as these, its no wonder that De Laurentiis has found tremendous success in her line of cookbooks. Her recipe collections have spanned so many volumes that you could use a different book for each night of the week! Between her statuses of cook, author, and restaurant owner, its clear that De Laurentiis wears many different (chef) hats. Though she certainly made the right choice in pursuing her culinary dreams, her road to success hasnt been without its share of drama. De Laurentiis has a history of surprising taste-testers RELATED: Food Network Star Giada De Laurentiis Rep Confirms She Spits Out Food During Filming As the kind of chef who puts pop rocks in chocolates, its unsurprising that De Laurentiis food often takes tasters aback. Talk show hosts frequently welcome the star to promote her new books and restaurants, and De Laurentiis will often lead them in a cooking demonstration. Unfortunately, with live TV, anything can happen. According to Mashed, one of her many Ellen appearances included a collaborative cooking effort between De Laurentiis and Nicole Kidman. Although the finished focaccia looked delicious, Kidman ended up spitting out her bite, calling it tough. Matt Lauer also had to do a discreet spit-take during a De Laurentiis appearance after he failed to realize that her chicken was for display only and extremely underdone. Between the pop rocks and the dissatisfied samplers, one cant help but wonder if De Laurentiis cooking is as good as it looks. At the very least, however, we can turn to her for the language lessons that accompany each recipe. When Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) searches for his familys betrayer in The Godfather, he believes Clemenza (Richard Castellano) is the one. Yet it turns out to be Tessio, the slithering caporegime played by Abe Vigoda (1921-2016). After his brief plea for a reprieve, Tessio heads off to his death. Vigodas film debut in The Godfather did wonders for his career. (He was 51.) Around the time The Godfather: Part II (1974) hit movie theaters, Vigoda began playing Detective Phil Fish on Barney Miller. He ran with that for three years, and he followed it with another two seasons in the spinoff Fish (1977-78). But after an appearance in season 7 (1981) of Barney Miller, Vigoda went nearly three years without being seen on-screen. And when he missed Barney Millers 82 wrap party, a reporter mistakenly wrote that he was dead. Vigoda had fun with that for decades prior to his death at 94. Abe Vigoda was mistakenly reported dead twice in the 80s Abe Vigoda as Sal Tessio and Al Pacino as Michael Corleone in The Godfather | Paramount Pictures / CBS via Getty Images RELATED: The Godfather III: Why Sofia Coppola Played Mary Corleone Instead of Winona Ryder In the pre-internet days, news consumers relied on print media and news broadcasts for information. And fact-checking in real time was much more of a challenge for the average person. So when a People Magazine reporter wrote that the late Abe Vigoda wasnt at the Barney Miller wrap event, people naturally thought hed died. However, Vigoda wasnt dead; he was simply in Canada, he recalled in a 2008 CNN interview. Vigoda had gone up north to do a play in Alberta, and the report on him dying stuck after People corrected it. (Maybe it was his slouching characters, or Vigodas trademark sunken-eyed look.) But reporters wouldnt stop declaring Vigoda dead. In 87, a New Jersey TV reporter made the same blunder, The Washington Post reported in 16 (following Vigodas actual death). And, following the standard protocol, the station corrected the report the following day. At that point, you couldnt blame anyone for believing Vigoda had frowned his last frown. But the man (then quite vigorous and fit in his 60s) still had three more decades to go. In that time, Vigoda learned to have fun with the repeated death notices. Vigoda had a blast with his early death notices over the years BARNEY MILLER Smog Alert | Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Photo Archives Those death notices probably affected Vigodas career more than his choice of doing a play in Canada in the 80s. But he didnt let it get to him. In the late 80s, he appeared on David Lettermans show and agreed to breathe on a mirror to prove he was among the living. Vigoda also posed with the People Magazine issue that had declared him dead. By the time the internet started doing what it does, Vigoda got a hand from unnamed sponsors who started and maintained a website (abevigoda.com) that supplied up-to-the-minute updates on whether Vigoda was alive or dead. If youre wondering, the answer is yes, the website is still up and running. (Abe Vigoda is dead, it read when checked at press time.) But as long as people watch movies, theyll watch The Godfather, so Vigoda wont ever be gone. Being on TV can bring with it some unwanted attention. Just ask Jinger Duggar. When she was a teenager, Jinger and her family appeared on the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting. Because she and her sisters were in the public eye, people were constantly asking about us girls, she recalls in her new book, The Hope We Hold (co-written with her husband, Jeremy Vuolo). Some of the would-be suitors went to great, and sometimes unsettling, lengths to express their interest, the Counting On star shared. Jinger Duggar says complete strangers would send her and her sisters letters RELATED: Jinger Duggar Says It Was Funny When People Branded Her the Rebel Duggar Some of the guys who expressed an interest in getting to know Jinger and the other older Duggar sisters (who include Jill Duggar, Jessa Duggar, and Jana Duggar) were known to the family through their church or homeschooling groups. But others were complete strangers who mailed letters and packages to our post office box, she says. Now 27 and a mom of two daughters, Jinger said she was not surprised she and her sisters received unwanted attention. But that didnt make it any less uncomfortable. I understood it came with the territory when youre a teenage girl on a reality show, but sometimes, it was crazy, and a little creepy, she writes, adding that some of the letters came from men in prison. At one point, at least 25 guys had asked about me or my sisters within a couple of months alone, she writes. Counting On star Jana Duggar received a bizarre gift from one stranger Some men whod seen the Duggars on TV werent content to just send letters. While Jinger says she was sure some were sweet and well-meaning, others didnt take no for an answer. One person even traveled from Canada to the Duggar familys home in Arkansas to ask if he could marry one of Jingers sisters. Needless to say, he was still single when he drove home, Jinger says. Another man mailed Jana the strangest packages, she recalls. He sent a sample-sized Yankee candle wrapped in box after box like a Russian doll, for instance. He even invited her on a trip to Disney World, provided she pay her own way. Jeremy Vuolo and Jinger Duggar | Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Discovery Channel RELATED: Is Counting On Canceled? Outraged Viewers Petition TLC to End Duggar Familys Show After Josh Duggar Arrest Jingers parents Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar had strict rules when it came to dating. Her father would meet and talk to any guys who wanted to get to know his daughters. If they earned his approval, hed then ask his daughters if they were interested. Jinger almost always said no. While she wanted to get married eventually, she didnt want that to be the end-all, be-all of life, she writes. However, Jingers feelings began to change after her siblings started to get married and start families of their own. Eventually, her sister Jessa Duggar and brother-in-law Ben Seewald introduced her to a friend of theirs named Jeremy. Jinger and Jeremy married in 2016 and now have two children named Felicity and Evangeline. Like all musicians, Miley Cyrus writes about her life, love, and fame. While she doesnt always reveal the specific inspiration behind each song, she made it clear with her hit single, Malibu. Marking its anniversary in 2021, she acknowledged the well-known love that influenced it. Miley Cyrus released Malibu in 2017 Cyrus entered her Younger Now era with the single Malibu. Released on May 11, 2017, it debuted at No. 64 and went on to peak at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Fans found it to be a shift from her previous sounds and a return to her country roots, as seen primarily via her TV personality in Hannah Montana. As for the songs meaning, its fairly simple.Theres something about Malibu that is very freeing for me, Cyrus told Billboard at the time. For me, this is paradise. She added its not just about the place and the person she was singing to. It means surround yourself with love and nature and be happy. She was engaged to Liam Hemsworth As Miley Cyrus finally confirms that her engagement to Liam Hemsworth is back on, see the all-important ring https://t.co/FT6IFLUz5R pic.twitter.com/aWN86PnmeB BazaarUK (@BazaarUK) October 28, 2016 Cyrus spoke about then-fiance Liam Hemsworth in the Billboard interview, referring to their life in Malibu and his love of the ocean. The pair first met on the set of their 2010 movie The Last Song (which was, appropriately enough, filmed by the beach in Georgia). They got engaged in 2012. Hemsworth and Cyrus broke up in 2013. They spent years apart during Cyrus Bangerz and Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz eras. But they stayed friends. Cyrus and Hemsworth got back together in 2016. They remained engaged for a while longer before tying the knot in December 2018. Cyrus and Hemsworth split up in 2019 Miley Cyrus on June 06, 2019, in Malibu, California. | Presley Ann/WireImage RELATED: Liam Hemsworth Has Officially Filed For Divorce From Miley Cyrus In the first half of 2019, Cyrus and Hemsworth attended several events together. From the outside, their relationship looked perfect. But in August, Cyrus went on vacation, and rumors of infidelity spread. That month, they announced their separation and intent to divorce. Cyrus quickly clarified that there was no cheating. She released her breakup anthem, Slide Away, which pointed to deeper problems between the two stars. Both moved on, and Cyrus remarked on the importance of their relationship in her life when the subject arose. She celebrated Malibus anniversary in 2021 Here is a video of me writing it in my home studio. Miley Ray Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) May 12, 2021 RELATED: Miley Cyrus on Her Divorce From Liam Hemsworth: Its Like a Death When You Lose a Love That Deep Cyrus and Hemsworth left Malibu (the place) before they were ready to. In November 2018, while she was filming Black Mirror in South Africa, their home burned down in the Woolsey fires. She had to say goodbye to a house, a studio, and a life shed built. And eventually, the love that inspired her song. Today is the 4 year anniversary of Malibu, Cyrus wrote on social media in May 2021. A song about a place and person that at the time I loved very much. That love was reciprocated beyond what I could describe here with freedom & escapism. I lost that home along with many others in 2018. Starzs P-Valley is one of the biggest hits on television. Based on Katori Halls play of the same name and set in Chucalissa, Mississippi, P-Valley follows the women who work in the mega-popular strip club, The Pynk, and the clubs gender-non-conforming owner, Uncle Clifford (Nicco Annan). Uncle Clifford has a ton up her sleeve to keep the club from slipping further into debt. However, the entire dynamic of The Pynk shifts when Autumn (Elarica Johnson), a mysterious newcomer running from her past, arrives at the clubs doors. Autumns presence immediately puts Mercedes (Brandee Evans), the clubs headliner, on edge. Season 1 was full of intrigue, drama, and sisterhood. Now, Emmy Award winner Niecy Nash says she wants to star on the show. P-Valley | Starz RELATED: P-Valley: Fans Just Discovered Why Shannon Thornton Who Plays Ms. Mississippi Looks So Familiar What will P-Valley Season 2 be about? In addition to Autumn, Uncle Clifford, and Mercedes, P-Valley also focused on Keyshawn/Miss Mississippi (Shannon Thornton), Gidget (Skyler Joy), and Lil Murda (J. Alphonse Nicholson), who were also pillars at The Pynk. With Autumn now co-owning The Pynk with Uncle Clifford, things are about to change drastically. She came in getting her a** smacked on the dance floor and now, she has some ownership in the club, Hall explained to ELLE. The power dynamics at the club have completely changed and to see Uncle Clifford and Hailey fight over the throne will be stuff of legends. We know that the writers have a lot up their sleeve for the forthcoming season, so were going to have to see how it all pans out. RELATED: P-Valley Was Rejected by Tons of Networks Before It Landed on Starz P-Valley Season 2 will begin filming this summer P-Valley will begin filming season two in Atlanta this summer. According to Starzs casting call for the show, the production team is looking for adult actors with dancing experience who look like they are in their twenties. The casting call also asks that these men, women, and non-binary actors be comfortable with nudity and sexual scenes. Amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, filming for the show will begin one year after it first premiered, which means we wont likely see any new episodes until the top of 2022. Still, this means we might get some really thrilling cameos. Niecy Nash Says She Would Love to Star in 'P-Valley' https://t.co/9yfQmyF7KD B. Scott (@lovebscott) May 10, 2021 Niecy Nash wants to star in P-Valley Celebrities are also loving P-Valley. Hall explained that Cardi B inspired the show, and the rapper has also expressed interest in appearing on the series. Now, Claws actor Niecy Nash has also revealed that shed love to appear at The Pynk. I would love to be on P-Valley, I think its a great show, she told Page Six. I dont necessarily have to be a stripper. For my significant other, it is her favorite show, so I would like to be on it just because of that. The When They See Us actor might not want to showcase her dance moves on the screen, but that doesnt mean she isnt practicing in private. I always practice moves, she said. Im married, and I wanna stay that way. The filing lists five reasons for the courts order to be corrected because its ruling is contrary to law by not correctly applying the statutory language in the relevant statutes given that, in large part, the 1980 law at the center of the case was repealed. But, the commissioners argue the law wasnt repealed but amended. Margaret Josephs has been gracing The Real Housewives of New Jersey with her presence since 2017. Over the last few years, much of Josephss storyline has centered around the elaborate renovations she and her contractor husband have taken on. RHONJ fans have commented how Josephss renovations seem never-ending, and some have even gone as far as criticizing her design tastes. As a fashion designer, Margaret Josephs has not taken kindly to these insults. Read on to learn more about Josephss story and how she has recently clapped back at her haters. Margaret Josephs | Charles Sykes/Getty Images Becoming a real housewife of New Jersey Margaret Josephs debuted on The Real Housewives of New Jersey in 2017. At the time of Josephss arrival, the RHONJ cast was already well established going into their eighth season. However, Margaret quickly found her place among the other housewives and has become a staple personality over the last four seasons. When shes not fighting with the other housewives, Josephss storylines tend to revolve around her home renovations and design decisions. According to IMDb, Josephss life has always been designed-focused. After being raised in Westchester, New York, by Hungarian immigrants, Josephs attended the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She earned a degree from FIT in fashion design. She went on to become a dress designer in New Yorks Center. This ultimately led to Josephs creating her own fashion line. Just like her loud and proud personality, Josephss design style has always been bold. However, not everyone is as supportive of this bold approach as Josephs would like. Cultivating a bold design style Related: RHONJ: Which Cast Member Has The Highest Net Worth? Margaret Josephs married her first husband, Jan Josephs, in 1994. The couple had one child together before divorcing in 2013. The same year, Josephs married her second husband, Joe Benigno. Much to Josephs liking, Benigno works as a contractor. With this skill set, Benigno has proven to be the perfect partner for Josephs and all of her renovation and design schemes. With the couples love for design and architecture, Benigno and Josephs live in a 115-year-old house. While some of the other housewives cant understand why they would choose to live in such an old home, Josephs had been very vocal about the love she has for her home. Josephs is very invested in her home and the whole renovation and design process. This abundant passion has allowed Josephs to take any criticism that comes her way in stride. Clapping back at the haters RELATED: Margaret Josephs Says She Had a Lot of Hope for Jackie Goldschneider and Teresa Giudices Conversation With her bold fashion sense, Josephs loves to throw crazy colors and patterns into every room in her house. This bold approach has drawn some haters to criticize Josephs overall design taste. Josephs recently sat down with Caroline Moss, the podcast host of Gee Thanks, Just Bought It! (available on Apple). During the interview, Moss asked Josephs how she deals with the hate she receives regarding her house renovations. Josephs wasnt shy with letting Moss know how she claps back at all the haters. In her response to Moss, Josephs made sure to let the audience know that she is professionally trained and has very expensive fashion taste. She is a real housewife, after all. Josephs states, I buy high-end designer stuff. I mean, my wallpaper is Missoni and Thibaut. I buy Jonathan Adler. My upholstery is custom. No chintzy in the house People are like, Oh, it looks cheap. It looks disgusting. People who dont know dont know. Thats what it is it doesnt even faze me. But I think people who say, Your house is old. Its shitty. Yeah. Its 115 years old. I value architecture. I find it entertaining. Like, Andy Cohen loves my house. That makes me happy. Someone who I value their opinion, if they love my house, then it makes me happy. Over the years, Josephs has learned that the best way to clap back at the haters is to simply continue to do what she does best and pay them no mind at all. Photocatalytic biomass conversion is an ideal way of generating syngas (H 2 and CO) via C-C bond cleavage, which is initiated by hydrogen abstraction of O/C-H bond. However, the lack of efficient electron-proton transfer limits its efficiency. Conversional gasification of biomass into syngas needs to be operated at high temperature (400-700 C). Recently, a group led by Prof. WANG Feng from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), in collaboration with Prof. WANG Min from Dalian University of Technology, proposed a new method to realize photocatalytic conversion of biopolyols to syngas at room temperature with high efficiency. The researchers prepared surface sulfate ions modified CdS catalyst ([SO 4 ]/CdS), which could simultaneously increase both the electron and proton transfer, thereby facilitating the generation of syngas mixture from biopolyols with high activity and selectivity. In situ characterizations combined with theoretical calculations demonstrated that the surface sulfate ion [SO 4 ] was bifunctional, serving as the proton acceptor to promote proton transfer, and increasing the oxidation potential of the valence band to enhance electron transfer. Compared with pristine CdS, [SO 4 ]/CdS exhibited 9-fold higher CO generation rate and 4-fold higher H 2 generation. Through this method, a wide range of sugars, such as glucose, fructose, maltose, sucrose, xylose, lactose, insulin, and starch, were facilely converted into syngas. This study reveals the pivotal effect of surface sulfate ion on electron-proton transfer in photocatalysis and provides a facile method for increasing photocatalytic efficiency. Merck achieved strong business results in the first quarter. Group sales increased by 6.0% to 4.6 billion compared with the year-earlier quarter mainly thanks to the high organic growth of the Life Science business sector. Group EBITDA pre, the companys most important financial indicator used to steer operating business, soared by 27.9% to 1.5 billion in comparison with the year-earlier quarter. As already communicated on May 4, 2021, the company is raising its forecast for fiscal 2021. Merck expects Group sales in a range between 18.5 billion and 19.5 billion and forecasts EBITDA pre of between 5.4 billion and 5.8 billion. In the first quarter, we demonstrated great strength in a challenging market environment. Our businesses are shaping the future of science and technology in high-growth markets. This company is poised for sustainable growth, and we will continue to deliver outstanding results for patients, researchers and customers worldwide, emphasized Belen Garijo, Chair of the Executive Board and CEO of Merck. Organic growth driven by all three business sectors Organically, sales increased by 12.2%, to which all three business sectors contributed. This growth was offset by negative foreign exchange effects of -5.8%, which were primarily attributable to the U.S. dollar, the Brazilian real and the Japanese yen. Portfolio changes lowered Group net sales by -0.4%. Organic growth of EBITDA pre amounting to 36.3% was offset by negative foreign exchange effects of -8.3%. Relative to net sales, the EBITDA pre margin was 32.6% in the first quarter of 2021. The operating result EBIT rose by 45.7% to 1.0 billion; Group net income increased by 63.7% to 747 million. Earnings per share pre soared by 45.3% to 2.18. In the first three months of 2021, net financial debt decreased by -6.3% to 10.1 billion. Healthcare: Oncology and Fertility franchises increase organically by more than 20% In the first quarter of 2021, net sales of the Healthcare business sector decreased by -3.6% to 1.6 billion. An organic sales increase of 3.5% was more than offset by negative foreign exchange effects of -5.9% and a portfolio effect of -1.2%. In the first quarter of 2021, the Oncology franchise generated organic growth of 20.1%. Sales of the immuno-oncology medicine Bavencio more than doubled organically compared with the year-earlier quarter. This growth was mainly attributable to approval in the United States in June 2020 as a first-line maintenance treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma. Sales of the oncology medicine Erbitux also increased significantly, delivering organic sales growth of 9.8% in the first quarter compared with the year-earlier quarter. The favorable development in China was the main growth driver. Sales of the Neurology & Immunology franchise declined organically by -4.3%. Mavenclad, for the oral short-course treatment of relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis (MS), generated organic sales growth of 26.1% in a market segment of high-efficacy MS therapies that continues to be impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. The medicine Rebif, which is indicated for the treatment of relapsing MS, saw an organic decline of -17.1%. In the first quarter, the Fertility franchise generated organic growth of 22.0%, continuing the positive recovery trend from the second half of 2020. The favorable development was thanks in particular to rebound effects in the North America and Asia-Pacific regions in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic. Sales of the Cardiovascular, Metabolism and Endocrinology franchise declined organically by -4.2% in the first quarter of 2021. Among other things, sales of the diabetes medicine Glucophage were impaired by the volume-based procurement regulation that has been in effect in China since 2020. EBITDA pre of Healthcare rose by 12.9% to 533 million compared with the year-earlier quarter. Life Science: Process Solutions grows organically by 38.3% In the first quarter, the Life Science business sector increased sales by 20.4% to 2.1 billion. Organically, sales grew by 26.7%. The impact of negative foreign exchange effects was -6.2%. The Process Solutions business unit, which markets products and services for the entire pharmaceutical production value chain, generated organic sales growth of 38.3%. This increase was mainly driven by continued high demand as well as the additional business related to the pandemic relief effort. The Research Solutions business unit, which provides products and services to support life science research for pharmaceutical, biotechnological and academic research laboratories, generated organic sales growth of 24.0% in the first quarter. This business unit also benefited from additional, pandemic-related demand. The Applied Solutions business unit, which offers a broad range of products for researchers as well as scientific and industrial laboratories, generated organic sales growth of 8.0% in the first quarter. EBITDA pre rose by 43.5% to 793 million. Electronics: Semiconductor Solutions and Surface Solutions drive organic growth In the first quarter, net sales of the Electronics business sector declined by -4.3% to 861 million in comparison with the year-earlier quarter. Organically, net sales increased by 0.2%. However, the impact of negative foreign exchange effects on net sales was -4.5%. The Semiconductor Solutions business unit grew organically by 3.7% in the first quarter of 2021 thanks to strong demand in most business fields. Organic sales growth was somewhat muted compared with the year-earlier quarter as running project orders and larger shipments in the Delivery Systems & Services business of Semiconductor Solutions will lead to sales contributions only in later quarters. In the first quarter of 2021, sales of the Surface Solutions business unit rose organically by 4.6%. Among other things, the recovery in demand for automotive coating applications remains a key growth driver. The organic decrease of -7.1% in the Display Solutions business unit was mainly attributable to declining prices due to continued competitive pressure in the Liquid Crystals business. The OLED business grew organically in the first quarter. In comparison with the year-earlier quarter, EBITDA pre of Electronics declined by -4.1% to 274 million in the first quarter of 2021. This was due to negative foreign exchange developments. Excluding this foreign exchange effect, EBITDA pre would have increased organically by 2.4 %. Merck raises forecast for sales and EBITDA pre As regards the Covid-19 pandemic and the negative effects thereof, Merck assumes that the business recovery that started in the second half of 2020 will continue in fiscal 2021. At present, the company does not assume that further disease waves will have a negative effect comparable to that seen in the first half of 2020, especially on the Healthcare and Electronics business sectors. For the Life Science business sector, Merck continues to expect significantly positive contributions owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in the Process Solutions business unit. The increasing availability of Covid-19 vaccines and the associated immunization of the population is likely to contribute to a further stabilization of the societal and economic situation. Nevertheless, the present forecast is subject to a higher degree of estimation uncertainty than was the case in previous years. Following a strong first quarter of 2021, the company is raising its forecast for Group net sales. For 2021, Merck expects organic growth of 10% to 12% to which all business sectors, yet first and foremost Life Science, should contribute. Previously, Merck predicted strong organic growth. The company expects negative foreign exchange effects of between -2% and -4%. Overall, Merck forecasts net sales of 18.5 billion to 19.5 billion for fiscal 2021. For EBITDA pre, Merck has increased its forecast and now expects an organic increase in EBITDA pre of between 16% and 20%. This is based on EBITDA pre of 4.84 billion in 2020, adjusted for the reversal of the Biogen provision. Previously, the company had expected organic growth in the high single-digit to low teens percentage range. All three business sectors should contribute to the forecast increase, especially Life Science. The forecast foreign exchange development is likely to adversely affect Group EBITDA pre by between -2% and -4% in fiscal 2021; it is expected to be seen mainly in the Healthcare and Electronics business sectors. Overall, Merck expects EBITDA pre of 5.4 billion to 5.8 billion for fiscal 2021. The company expects earnings per share pre in a range between 7.50 and 8.20. Gov. Kevin Stitt signed House Bill 1775 into law on May 7 after it passed the House of Representatives and Senate by veto-proof margins. The bill is intended to prevent distress among students when learning about history and race but detractors say it whitewashes history. Chickasha, OK (73018) Today Cloudy early, becoming mostly sunny this afternoon. Hot and humid. High near 95F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds. Low 73F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. A sign is displayed at the Bethany Pointe Health Campus, Saturday, April 11, 2020, in Anderson, Ind. Multiple residents at the Indiana nursing home have died from COVID-19. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings) (Darron Cummings/AP) Dear Publisher, Each year, Christianity Today honors a set of outstanding books encompassing a variety of subjects and genres. The CT Book Awards, along with our Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year, will be announced in December at christianitytoday.com. They also will be featured prominently in the January/February 2022 issue of CT and promoted in several CT newsletters. (In addition, publishers will have the opportunity to participate in a marketing promotion organized by CTs marketing team, complete with site banners and paid Facebook promotion.) Awards Categories: 1. Apologetics/Evangelism 2. Biblical Studies 3. Children and Youth 4. Christian Living/Discipleship 5. The Church/Pastoral Leadership 6. Culture and the Arts 7. Fiction 8. History/Biography 9. Marriage and Family 10. Missions/Global Church 11. Politics and Public Life 12. Spiritual Formation 13. Theology/Ethics 14. The Beautiful Orthodoxy Book of the Year* *Beautiful Orthodoxy is the core philosophy guiding CTs ministry. It describes a mission, across all our publications, to proclaim the truth, beauty, and goodness of the gospel in a gracious, non-antagonistic tone. Learn more about our cause of Beautiful Orthodoxy here and here. Nominations: To be eligible for nomination, a book must be published between November 1, 2020 and October 31, 2021. We are looking for scholarly and popular-level works, and everything in between. A diverse panel of scholars, pastors, and other informed readers will evaluate the books. Publishers can nominate as many books as they wish, and each nominee can be submitted in multiple categories. To enter your nominations, you will fill out and submit a nomination form, listing each book you are nominating and the categories for whey they are nominated. You will also find information on entry fees and how to pay them, either by check or credit card. There is a $40 entry fee for each title submitted in each category. There are no refunds, so please make sure your nominations were published between November 1, 2020 and October 31, 2021. (Note: Beautiful Orthodoxy is a special add-on category. Books nominated here must have first been nominated in one of the main categories. They will be eligible to win more than once. The add-on fee for Beautiful Orthodoxy nominations is $20.) To submit the nomination form, please download it to your computer. After filling it out in Adobe Reader, hit the Submit button or save the file and email it as an attachment to bookawards@christianitytoday.com. If paying by check, please include a copy of your nomination form with the check. As for the books themselves: We are asking that publishers email PDF versions of books they wish to nominate, rather than mailing physical copies to Christianity Today. These PDFs should also be sent to bookawards@christianitytoday.com. Finalist Books: If your book is chosen as one of the four finalists in any category, we will contact you and ask that you send a copy of the book directly to the four (or five) judges assigned to that category. Depending on certain pandemic-related factors, we might ask you to send physical copies or PDF versions. In either case, we will provide the pertinent email or mailing addresses for each judge. Deadline: The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, August 6, 2021. Thank you! -Christianity Today editors As a pastor and author, John Piper has long been known for singing the song of Gods glory with uncommon passion. His newest book, the massive Providencewritten more than three decades after his signature volume Desiring Godconfirms that Piper has even more Scripture-soaked verses to belt out. At this stage of his ministry, it might be helpful to imagine Piper playing the role of C. S. Lewiss character Digory Kirke from The Chronicles of Narnia. Piper, though, is Kirke at the age of his greatest influence, when he has grown from the boy Digory to the aged professor who welcomes the Pevensie children to stay at his estate to find in his wardrobe a portal to a new world. Professor Kirke, the reader discovers in later volumes, has been to Narnia before and knows of the other world the children discover. Upon their return, he is eager to hear about their travels and point them further up and further in, so they can better see and understand that world and its maker. Piper, like Kirke, shows todays reader just how much he has seen of Gods gloryand how much comfort and transforming truth there is to be had in the doctrine of providence. A divine seeing to it In the introduction, Piper opens the door to see God and his world anew, offering four invitations to study Gods providence. These are invitations to worship and know the God who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, and to find assurance that through his providence he will graciously give us all things, very much including Christ himself (Rom. 8:32). What follows are 700 pages divided into 45 chapters, grouped in three parts. The first part gives definition to Pipers understanding of providence. This doctrine conveys the idea of purposeful action as God upholds, directs, disposes, and governs all creatures, actions, and things. Piper arrives at this definition not wanting to develop anything new. He works from the classical Reformed articulation of providence, citing key confessions of faith, including the Westminster Catechism and Confession (documents familiar to students of Piper given his famous edit of and to by in the catechisms answer to the first question regarding the chief end of manwe are to glorify God by enjoying him forever). Further, Pipers definition is consistent with how the later Reformed tradition organized the doctrine in terms of preservation (God sustaining the world), government (ruling it according to his will), and concurrence (using the ordinary workings of nature to accomplish his purposes). Piper cites Charles Spurgeon to show how his definition distinguishes between providence and fate, and in fact he sounds a lot like Calvin (who cites Paul, Augustine, and Basil) in the Institutes: We make God the ruler and governor of all things. The plans and intentions of men, are so governed by his providence that they are borne by it straight to their appointed end. That Piper means to write from within the Reformed tradition is significant, for the Reformers saw the doctrine of providence as a means of comfort and assurance in response both to the teachings of Rome in their day and to attacks on their well-being. The second part of Providence explores the ultimate goal of Gods providential rule. In other words, it reveals Pipers answer to the question, Where is God taking the world? Here the reader is treated to a full biblical theology of providence working from creation to the New Covenant and concluding with the glorification of Gods people. Piper underscores that this plan of God for Israel and for the saving, global impact of Jesus on all nations is one plan, not something that evolves or changes over time or under different circumstances. Article continues below Piper shows that while his understanding of providence draws upon classical Christianity, the Reformed tradition, and Jonathan Edwards, he does emphasize aspects of the doctrine that provide unique and needed answers to 21st-century questions. God, he assures us, is taking the world to a day when he will exalt himself, not to distract humanity from what is ultimately satisfying, but for the sake of displaying it and inviting us into the enjoyment of it. In short, there is no conflict between glorifying God, our joy through Jesus Christ, and Gods delight in our enjoyment of him. Bringing these things together is the ultimate goal of providence. The third, and longest, part of Providence examines the nature and extent of the doctrine. By nature, Piper is referring to the question of how God influences what he governs. By extent, he has in mind the scope of Gods governance. Following the Bible and Edwards, Piper asserts that the world is God-entranced and that nothing in nature happens without Gods wise and just and gracious providence. In these chapters, marked by poetic language and an inspirational use of story, there are wide-ranging reflections on bears, the wind, and the thought of a days worth of un-thanked providences. Providence considers the nature and extent of Gods relationship to Satan, kings and nations, and life and death, concluding that there is no sphere of life where providence is suspended or limited in its ultimate or decisive dominion. Part Threes largest section deals with Gods providence over sin and sinful human choices. Rather than seeing this as a topic to avoid, Piper labors to show why Gods actions are the ultimate hope for sinners and their victims. He explains, Whatever verb I use to describe Gods relation to human choices, I always mean a kind of divine seeing to it (providence) that never means God sins, or that man is not accountable for his choices. To be specific, God can see to it that sin happens without himself sinning or taking away the responsibility of the sinner. In this section, like much of the volume, Piper engages the biblical text as his primary source and ultimate authority; he aims to stop where Scripture stops and acknowledges the limits of finite human minds to comprehend the mysteries still kept hidden of how God acts. Yet this is not to say he operates without theological influence. The idea that Gods providence permits evil without willing it is consistent with the tradition of the early church in the works of Tertullian for one and Augustine for another, with Anselm and Aquinas carrying it forward to the Reformation era. Aquinas, leaning on Augustine, states, God therefore neither wills evil to be done, nor wills it not to be done, but wills to permit evil to be done; and this is good. Pipers views of the compatibility of human freedom and Gods sovereignty follow Calvin, the Reformed confessions, and Jonathan Edwardss Freedom of the Will. The remaining sections address the nature and extent of providence in conversion, Christian living, and the future. While not addressing much of the modern eras drifting theology by name, Pipers arguments stand up well to refute the claims of deism, process theology, Protestant Liberalism, and open theism, not to mention other worldviews and world religions. Further, his admonitions toward joy- and love-filled Christian living in response to the nature and character of God serve well to address many of the questions evangelicals are asking or need to be asking. And his ten examples of the effects of knowing and loving Gods providence are a recipe for renewal among those who call themselves born-again and Bible-believing followers of Christ. Article continues below A pivotal doctrine Piper closes with a full chapter on the hope shared by all who long for the return of Jesus Christ. This should move the reader to praise, much like the Puritan poet George Herbert at the end of his poem Providence: All things that are, though they have sevral ways, Yet in their being join with one advise To honor thee: and so I give thee praise In all my other hymns, but in this twice. Throughout church history, the recovery and defense of the doctrine of providence has proved pivotal. From early church stability in response to heresy, to medieval certainty in response to philosophical quandaries, to Reformation comfort in response to a lack of assurance, to theological refutation in response to modern innovation and deconstruction, the doctrine of providence has served and preserved Gods people. In our age of conflict, doubt, pessimism, and confusion, a recovery of the doctrine of providence is needed. Pipers Providence allows readers to see God at work bringing hope and a grounding to weather the waves of cultural tumult. As Calvin wrote in the Institutes, providence provides comfort by reminding that when the world appears to be aimlessly tumbled about, the Lord is everywhere at work. For decades, Piper has pointed to a big God of beauty and mystery, and in this big volume, he points yet again, extolling both beauty and mystery in providence for the present and future. Professor Piper, here in the Shadowlands, writes with joy of a real other world where God is known in fulland welcomes us all to go further up and further in. Jason G. Duesing serves as provost and professor of historical theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is a coeditor of Historical Theology for the Church and the author of a new childrens book, The Moon Speaks. [ This article is also available in espanol, , , ] Man stabs wife in brutal attack in argument over attending church on Mothers Day Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A Texas mother was repeatedly stabbed in a brutal attack by her husband during an argument over attending church on Mothers Day and he is now on the lam, police say. In a statement released Monday, the Nacogdoches County Sheriffs Office said they are now seeking help from the public in apprehending the womans husband, 43-year-old Rodolfo Madera Gonzalez, for aggravated assault with a weaponfamily violence, which is a first-degree felony. Authorities said they responded to a call about a woman who had been stabbed on Sunday evening in the 300 block of Cr. 6108. Gonzalez was later identified as the suspect who stabbed his wife several times with a screwdriver. The suspect in the investigation was identified as Rodolfo Madera Gonzalez who got into an argument with his wife on Mothers Day because she wanted to go to church. The argument escalated, and Gonzalez is accused of stabbing his wife with a screwdriver numerous times in the front and back of her body, the police statement said. Gonzalezs wife was rushed to a hospital where she's in stable condition. Her husband reportedly escaped in what police believe to be a 2007 Gray Dodge Ram half-ton pickup truck bearing Texas license plate number BS9-9021. He's also accused of violating a protective order. Nacogdoches County Sherriff Jason Bridges told The Christian Post Wednesday that they are unable to release more specifics about the case because it remains an active investigation. There was an argument she wanted to go to church, an argument erupted. Im sure there were some other things involved but he ended up stabbing her. We cant release any more information on the case because it is an ongoing criminal investigation and we are still attempting to get the suspect into custody, Bridges said. He condemned Gonzalezs actions, saying the attack was brutal. We have a mother that was stabbed by her husband. Regardless of what the argument was over or wasnt over, it was a brutal attack and it shouldnt happen no matter what theyre arguing about, he said. A recent report released by the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice shows that domestic violence incidents in the U.S. increased by 8.1% following the imposition of lockdown orders during the 2020 pandemic. The studies used data, from logs of police calls for service to domestic violence crime reports, emergency hotline registries, health records, and other administrative documents. While the authors of the study couldnt say exactly what factors were driving the increase in domestic violence incidents, they believe the lockdowns along with the economic fallout from those actions plus stress from unemployment and increased financial insecurity likely played a role. Our analysis confirms the initial fears we had at the outset of the pandemic, Alex R. Piquero, chair of the University of Miami Department of Sociology and the reports lead author, said in a statement. While further research is needed to help us better understand the web of factors underlying this rise in domestic violence, our findings demonstrate that the pandemics isolating impacts increased risk for potential victims. Thomas Abt, director of the National Commission on COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, noted that the pandemic has thrown many of the most vulnerable people in our society into especially challenging circumstances, so these findings should not surprise us. Policymakers and researchers should work to further understand the impacts of the pandemic and provide additional resources for domestic abuse prevention and victim services, particularly to those who are most isolated and at risk, he added. Anyone with any information about Gonzalez's whereabouts is being asked to contact the Nacogdoches County Sheriffs Office at 936-560-7777 or Crime Stoppers at 936-560-4636. School chaplain reported as terror threat for opposing LGBT curriculum challenges firing Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A school chaplain lost his job at a Christian school and was reported to the government's counter-terrorism watchdog, Prevent, after telling students they were not compelled to "accept an ideology they disagree with," his lawyers say. The Rev. Bernard Randall, 48, is taking Trent College to court for discrimination, harassment, victimization and unfair dismissal. He says he preached a sermon on the biblical view of gender identity and same-sex relationships after being approached by students who were confused and upset by some of the material being taught in a new LGBT-inclusive curriculum at the school. The curriculum was introduced at the independent school after a visit by Elly Barnes, founder of Educate & Celebrate, an LGBT education charity. Barnes held training with staff on how they could "embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric of your school," he says. Randall said he became alarmed when staff were instructed during the training session to chant "smash heteronormativity," and told that gender identity is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. He says that when he raised concerns, he was told by the head teacher that he would be involved in any decision on whether the school would implement the Educate & Celebrate program, but he discovered at the following staff training day in January 2019 that it had already been adopted. When he asked why he had not been included in discussions, he says it was because he "might disagree." In a sermon called 'Competing ideologies,' Randall presented the Christian view on gender identity, encouraged debate and told the students, aged 11 to 17, that no characteristic in the Equality Act was more protected than another. He also told the students that they could make up their own minds about gender identity and sexuality. The following week, he was told that his sermon had hurt people's feelings and that he was being suspended pending an investigation. He was also reported to Prevent, which deals with terrorism threats, and the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), the point of contact for child protection allegations. In August 2019, he was informed by the school that he was being dismissed for gross misconduct. Although his dismissal was overturned on appeal, he says he was forbidden from speaking on topics "likely to cause offense or distress to members of the school body," and was told not to "publicly express beliefs in ways which exploit our pupils' vulnerability." He says the school also required that he submit a draft sermon in advance for approval and that an observer be present during services. Randall said he was "terrified" and unabled to sleep when he found out he had been reported to Prevent. What was I supposed to tell my family? Being reported as a potential terrorist, extremist and a danger to children are arguably the worst crimes you could be accused of," he said. "When I found out that they had reported me without telling me, my mind was blown trying to comprehend it. I had gone to such lengths in the sermon to stress that we must respect one another no matter what, even people we disagree with. I am not ashamed to say that I cried with relief when I was told that the report to Prevent was not going to be taken further. "Yet I ended up being told that I had to support everybody else's beliefs, no matter what, while my Christian beliefs, the Church of England's beliefs, were blatantly censored." He continued, "I don't think the Church of England is an extremist organization. "I was doing the job I was employed to do. I wasn't saying anything that I should not have been able to say in any liberal secular institution. Everyone should be free to accept or reject an ideology. Isn't that what liberal democracy means?" Randall was placed on furlough during the first national lockdown in March 2020 but was later made redundant last December. "My story sends a message to other Christians that you are not free to talk about your faith. It seems it is no longer enough to just 'tolerate' LGBT ideology," he said. "You must accept it without question and no debate is allowed without serious consequences. Someone else will decide what is and what isn't acceptable, and suddenly you can become an outcast, possibly for the rest of your life. "I one hundred percent see what has happened to me in Orwellian terms. Truth matters, but increasingly powerful groups in our society do not care about the truth. "My career and life are in tatters. I believe that if this is the Cross that I have to carry to help prevent others from experiencing the same as me, I have no choice but to pursue justice." East Midlands Employment Tribunal is expected to hear his case on June 14. Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is defending Randall, said: "When an ordained Church of England minister can't give a simple sermon in a Church of England school without being reported as an extremist and hounded out of his job then who is safe? "For many years Bernard Randall has worked in education motivated by his love for God and others," Williams added. "When someone like him is pursued and punished it's an attack on us all. It's time to stand up and speak up for these freedoms. "Is this the kind of behavior we expect from those with the care and protection of our children? Now is the time for ordinary people to wake up and contend for vital freedoms," she continued. "All those that said it couldn't happen punishing and criminalizing a Christian minister for preaching from the Bible need to take a long, hard look at the story of Bernard Randall. "Who are the extremists in this story? The moderate school chaplain with an intelligent, mild-mannered and thoughtful sermon or Educate and Celebrate encouraging staff to smash heteronormativity?" Originally published at Christian Today Woman killed after attending church without husband for first time in 36 years Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment An Illinois husband is now grieving after his wife was killed in a hit-and-run accident after she attended church without him for the first time in 36 years on Mothers Day. Annette Odneal, 62, had just attended service at Abounding Life Church of God in Christ Sunday when she was killed as she left the service. What am I to tell my grandkids? O.B. Odneal, her surviving husband, told WGN. This is hard for me to explain. Posen Mayor Frank Podbielniak said the grandmother was pulling out from the church building at about 12:30 p.m., at Mozart Avenue and 147th Street, when the driver of a stolen Dodge Charger crashed into her vehicle, killing her upon impact, according to the Chicago Tribune. She was transported to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn where she was pronounced dead at 1:33 p.m. It was a traumatic accident, Podbielniak noted. The impact was so grave just horrible. Police say a 17-year-old boy who was driving the stolen Dodge Charger remains hospitalized with a broken femur. He is expected to be taken into custody as soon as he's released from the University of Chicago Medical Center. The driver of the Charger will be charged, likely with reckless homicide, Podbielniak added. Abounding Life Church of God in Christ did not immediately respond to calls from The Christian Post Wednesday for comment, but a woman who identified herself as Annette Odneals daughter-in-law said the family was busy making funeral arrangements and described the loss as tremendous. Its been all over the place. Its been hard, she said. In an earlier interview with WGN, Cierra Odneal, Annettes daughter, said her mother didnt deserve to die the way she did. She didnt deserve what happened to her, she said. She was on her way to my house. I just saw her on Saturday, and I never thought it would be the last time seeing my mom. She further added in an interview with the Tribune: She was very into church and the Lord. She prayed for everybody, she loved everybody, she did right by everybody. Anthony Odneal also described his mother as rich in faith and said her death was particularly difficult because she was killed on Mothers Day. Hes now demanding justice. If it were your mother, youd want the same. Yall took her from us on Mothers Day, he said. O.B. Odneal told ABC7 that his wifes death had ripped his family apart. "My kids, my son, my daughter, and my grandkids, she won't ever see them grow up and be grown," he said. "It's horrible. It's just horrible. They tore the family apart." The family could not immediately say what led Annette to attend church without her husband for the first time on Sunday. A vigil to remember her life was held at Abounding Life Church of God in Christ on Tuesday. The fluke the birds are suspected of eating comes from freshwater snails introduced to Lake Michigan circa 1870, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services website, and scientists have yet to figure out how to get rid of it. They dont typically pose any risk to people, pets or commercial poultry, a release the DNR issued. Opportunity for Christians to influence corporations tomorrow Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Our friends over at the Free Enterprise Project, an institution that has been engaging with businesses over anti-Christian and anti-conservative corporate activism, recently released their 2021 Investor Value Voting Guide. Their guide provides investors with details about which shareholder proposals are on the ballot at annual meetings this year and how to vote your values, whether they be religious or political. Traditionally, the shareholder meeting process has had little input from conservative Christians, who do not vote against resolutions that are hostile to their worldview, let alone put forward their own proposals. Instead, the secular left has taken charge. It's this status quo the Free Enterprise Project is trying to remedy: In response to the liberal left's outsized influence over corporate proxy ballot matters, the Free Enterprise Project (FEP) has issued its second annual Investor Value Voter Guide to educate investors who want to vote in line with conservative, libertarian, and religious values. In contrast to the tendency among many Christian and conservative investors to disengage from corporate governance, the FEP has set out to make corporate engagement as easy as possible by putting out this full guide, as well as regular updates on the main items on the agenda for the coming week. There are several items that deserve your attention this Thursday. If none of the major corporations holding meetings tomorrow are in your portfolio, or you are not interested in the issues at hand, there will be more annual meetings next week, and the week after that, and the week after that, and so on. Investors of conscience ought to seriously consider attending some of these meetings. As 1st Corinthians 4:2 says, "Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. The role of corporate management is to be faithful stewards for their shareholders. Investors buy partial ownership of a company, and the management of a publicly traded company is there to fulfill the obligations their position entails. That is the task that they have been entrusted to uphold, and in many cases, they cannot be faithful if they are dragged down the rabbit hole by activists. The heavy hitters in this weeks lineup are UPS, Intel, and Charles Schwab, and all of them will be holding their annual meetings on Thursday. Many of the proposals on the ballot would undermine the companies fundamental purpose of being faithful stewards of their shareholders investments. The transformation of public corporations into activist fronts is, in part, the consequences of Christian investors failing to assert their values. Increasingly, that issue is what is on the ballot at annual meetings. You can read more about the proposals here. UPS is one of the largest shippers of consumer goods in the world. They represent a large proportion of the real economy. Intel is the worlds largest manufacturer of semiconductor chips, meaning they provide a substantial share of the underlying physical assets that drive the digital economy. Charles Schwab is, as of October 2020, the 3rd largest asset manager in the United States, with just under 30 million active brokerage accounts. It is one of the most influential and powerful financial institutions in America, representing the world of finance that underlies both the physical and digital economy. Chips that power the device you are reading this article on are manufactured by Intel, bought with money from accounts managed by Schwab, and shipped by UPS. Together, these companies constitute a microcosm of the American economy. Given the enormous influence these corporations have on public life, and what is on the ballot, investors with traditional religious and political values should seriously consider whether they can sit this out. In theory, annual meetings set the agenda of public corporations over the coming year. Since the beginning of the pandemic, shareholder meetings have moved entirely online, which removes huge hurdles to participation. Nobody needs to fly out and attend a meeting in person or designate someone else to do so for them. If you are a shareholder, its very simple: you click the links provided for whichever company you own shares in, you enter the control number that you received by email, you vote on the proposals in question along your values (this is where the Free Enterprise Projects recommendations come in) and then, if you feel so inclined, you can submit a question to leadership about corporate activism that runs counter to your values. They might not answer you, but at least you are demonstrating to them that there is another faction, one that is not interested in anti-conservative and anti-religious activism. When Christians fail to be witnesses to corporations, the result is not corporate neutrality its everyone else filling the vacuum and asserting their own agenda, which in many cases is antithetical to Christian values. To state the obvious: Corporations have an enormous influence on everyones lives. Are you happy with how that's working out? If not, vote. Abstaining from corporate elections and then denouncing those corporations is no different from abstaining from political elections and then denouncing the new government and its policies. As a politician is obligated to faithfully protect the rights and interests of a countrys citizens, corporate management is obligated to be faithfulstewards of shareholder investments. That is their legally defined fiduciary duty. Its in the name: Fiduciary comes from the Latin fiducia, which means trust. In keeping with Pauls words in 1st Corinthians 4:2, corporate executives are to be faithful caretakers of the assets that have been entrusted to them. Whenever corporate policies are proposed that are contrary to their responsibilities, shareholders have a right to vote them down. The proposals on the ballot tomorrow would ultimately undermine and distract from that main obligation. Whether or not you agree with the political values that may underlie any of these proposals, they are not part of the task that corporate management has been entrusted to. UPS annual meeting is at 8AM EST, Intels is at 11:30AM EST, and Charles Schwabs will be at 2:30PM EST. Simply click the links to go to their virtual meetings. The set of proposals at UPS is the most egregious of the bunch. The Free Enterprise Project recommends voting against proposals 5, 7, 8, and 9. (The following quotes are from the Free Enterprise Institutes summary.) These proposals would turn the company into a charity, reorienting UPS away from its fiduciary duty to be a faithful steward of its investors money, and cripple its lobbying efforts, undermining its ability to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, to quote the Constitution. They would impoverish it and us in the name of climate change, an issue that is not within the ability, let alone fiduciary obligation, of UPS to fix. And, finally, it would add explicit racism and sexism into all of [their] employment decisions, an ideological objective that distorts a reasonable principle employing individuals with different perspectives can improve corporate function into a social agenda that has nothing to do with UPS fiduciary duties. For Intel, the Free Enterprise Project recommends voting against proposals 5 and 6, which the Free Enterprise Project says will force the company to adopt race-based employment decisions, and [] inject racism into every other aspect of Intel's work life. Hiring purely on the basis of racial identity groups pushes corporations into serving activists, not shareholders. In the case of Charles Schwab, the Free Enterprise Project recommends voting against proposal 4, which would end sensible lobbying at Schwab, undermining, just as with UPS, their ability to protect themselves against government overreach. There is a good chance that you are invested in the stock market already (about 55% of people are) so while the corporations holding meetings on Thursday may not be in your portfolio, it is likely some others are. That is why the Free Enterprise Institutes list, which highlights each week of proxy season which corporations are having meetings and what the problematic proposals are, is so helpful. It has never been easier to engage. Subscribe to the list, vote, ask questions. Be salt and light in the marketplace. Controversial televangelist Ernest Angley dies at 99 Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Members of Grace Cathedral in Ohio wept openly in the sanctuary as leaders announced the death of their controversial founding pastor, televangelist Ernest Angley Friday. He was 99. First off, wed like to thank all of you for praying for Rev. Angley, and Rev. Angley made so many sacrifices for all of us, and he showed us so much love, began Grace Cathedrals Rev. Steve Millar in a Friday night service broadcast on Facebook. But Rev. Angley, because of his decline this past week, around 4:30 today went to Heaven. Rev. Angley was our father, our pastor. He was an author, he announced through sniffling as audible weeping erupted from the congregation in the background. Millar said that Angley, who never remarried after his wife, Esther Lee Angel Sikes, died in 1970, is reunited with her. Angley was dear to our hearts, but we know hes in Heaven now with his wife, Angel, and [her death] was over 50 years ago, Millar stated. Now he can see his wife [and] he doesnt have any ache and pain in his body. On Sunday, as the church celebrated Mothers Day and continued mourning the passing of their founder, Rev. Chris Machamer noted that Angley was also reunited with his mother too. The Lord called his servant home, and it was such a quick calling. Rapidly, his health went down. And in a matter of a couple of days, he was in Heaven, Machamer said during the livestreamed service. He snapped his finger to indicate how quickly Angley died. I was just thinking as they were singing the last song, Rev. Angleys mother had such a great impact on his life growing up down through the years. And its been many, many decades since hes been able to see his mother. But hes seeing her now. Angleys church operates campuses in Cuyahoga Falls and Akron, Ohio. His weekly one-hour program The Ernest Angley Hour is broadcast both nationally and internationally. While he has ministered to millions over the years, Angley also attracted attention due to multiple controversies. In 2017, the church was forced to close its Cathedral Buffet after a U.S. District Court ordered the congregation to pay $388,000 in back wages and damages to more than 200 congregation members who had worked at the restaurant. Even though Angley won an appeal, the restaurant did not reopen. A report in 2019 also presented 23-year-old recorded evidence suggesting Angley had sexual relations with a man. The scandal, which began in 1996, led to a significant drop in membership at his church. It is unclear how many members remain. The allegations came to light after a longtime associate pastor suddenly resigned and told friends and family that Angley had touched him inappropriately for seven years. Angley and two other members of his ministry addressed the allegations during a church service on July 13, 2014, a recording of which was reviewed by The Beacon Journal. "I'm not a homosexual. God wouldn't use a homosexual like he uses me. He calls me his prophet, and indeed I am ," Angley reportedly said in the recording, according to The Journal. "They called Jesus a homosexual. Did you know that? And still do because he was with men. Oh, Mary Magdalene and a few women. But you can't stop the people's lies," Angley was quoted as saying. Angley, who was also accused of inappropriately touching the genitals of male members, denied touching them at the time but admitted to inspecting their "privates" and asking them to come in for follow-up inspection sessions following vasectomies. "I've helped so many of the boys down through the years. They had their misgivings. Sure, I'd have them uncover themselves, but I did not handle them at all," he said in the recording of the service. "I would tell them how that would work. And they'd have to watch it. I'd have some of them come back to me that I felt needed to. And I would tell them, I would look at them, their privates I, so I could tell how they were swelling. Former church members explained at the time that church members were often threatened and bullied into following Angleys orders, which included life-changing decisions that broke up some families. The former members accused the pastor of controlling what they read, what they watched on television, who they married and when. Pam Cable of Akron, who left the church in 1988, told The Beacon Journal at the time that the man is a monster. "He's a monster. And I can't understand why all these years have gone by and nobody's ever really been able to do anything about him, she said. The people in Akron, Ohio, have a Jim Jones sitting in their backyard. ... These people in his congregation would drink the Kool-Aid if he told them to. They would. 'Historic night': Saddleback Church ordains first female pastors Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Saddleback Church, the California-based megachurch headed by Pastor Rick Warren, announced that they ordained their first three female pastors, despite being affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, which prohibits female ordination. In an announcement posted to their Facebook page on Friday, Saddleback said that they had a historic night on Thursday when they ordained their first three female pastors. We ordained our first three women pastors, Liz Puffer, Cynthia Petty, and Katie Edwards, Saddleback Chuch said in the post. We commissioned three new elders, Anthony Miller, Jeremiah Goley, and Jason Williams! And we appointed Pastor Johnny Baker as the new global leader of Celebrate Recovery! As of Saturday afternoon, the Facebook post garnered around 575 likes and over 360 loves, but it has also garnered some critical comments from those opposed to female ordination. The Christian Post called Saddleback Church on Saturday afternoon for comment and to confirm whether the church will continue to be part of the Southern Baptist denomination. The church was closed at the time, however. Owen Strachan, a theology professor at Grace Bible Theological Seminary, posted a comment labeling the ordination as an example of unbiblical developments, adding that the time to leave is NOW. Now is the time to leave and find a sound congregation. Do not delay. There is no spirit of competition in what I write here; what Saddleback is doing grieves me, and I have no doubt grieves many in the congregation, posted Strachan, himself getting more than 140 likes and loves as of Saturday afternoon. Churches that affirm women pastors are opposing the Word of God, and opposing the Word of God means opposing God himself, Strachan added. To justify his stance, Strachan cited 1 Timothy 2:9-15, which includes the verse in which Paul writes: I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet. In recent years, there has been much controversy over the SBC's stance against the ordination of female pastors, with some churches and individuals leaving the denomination over the position. In 2020, before the lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some SBC pastors demanded that Hosanna Wong, teaching pastor at EastLake Church in Chula Vista, California, should not be a featured guest of the SBC Pastors' Conference. APA issues guidelines calling traditional masculinity harmful to men, boys Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The American Psychological Association has issued new guidelines spelling out how "traditional masculinity" is "harmful" to men and boys for the purpose of helping the psychologists who work with them. The guidelines have already drawn considerable criticism. The professional guidelines, which reportedly took 13 years to develop, are the first of their kind that the group has published for clinicians for working with men and boys. The APA relies on 40 years of research "showing that traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful and that socializing boys to suppress their emotions causes damage that echoes both inwardly and outwardly," the January 2019 press release explains. Among the assertions the APA makes are that "the more men conformed to masculine norms, the more likely they were to consider as normal risky health behaviors such as heavy drinking, using tobacco and avoiding vegetables, and to engage in these risky behaviors themselves." What is gender in the 2010s? Ryon McDermott, a psychologist at the University of South Alabama who helped draft the mens guidelines asks in the report. Its no longer just this male-female binary. The role of the clinician, he says, can be to encourage men "to discard the harmful ideologies of traditional masculinity (violence, sexism) and find flexibility in the potentially positive aspects (courage, leadership)." McDermott and his team are working on a "positive-masculinities scale" to capture peoples adherence to the pro-social traits expected from men, something that has not yet been measured systematically. "Traditional" masculinity is never defined precisely in the report. But the authors do say it is "marked by stoicism, competitiveness, dominance and aggression [and] is, on the whole, harmful." Thus far, some reactions, spanning the political and professional spectrum, have dismissed the APA as an untrustworthy and ideological organization. Christian thought leader and author Rod Dreher likened the report to totalitarian social engineering, believing the people behind it to have ill motives. "To be fair, its not all PC codswallop, but given the social justice warrior jargon throughout, I suspect this is mostly about psychologizing the gelding of American males," he commented on his blog Monday, saying he did not trust McDermott, who is quoted prominently, as to what constitutes "healthy" masculinity. "The more I think about it, the more Soviet this seems to me. Dissent from gender ideology (transgender, as well as progressive ideals of masculinity and femininity)? Well, experts say you must be insane," Dreher added in a follow-up comment. Others were quick to point out the political nature of the organization. Conservative writer and radio host Ben Shapiro observed Monday that the APA "has been an openly political body for years. These guidelines are just the latest symptom. " Likewise, commentator Erick Erickson said the new guidelines have "way more to do with the left capturing an institution than in legitimate medical concerns." The Atlantic's Jesse Singal, who is known for his in-depth reporting on gender dysphoria, weighed in that it is not good for an organization like the APA to get far ahead of the evidence just to make a point many progressives desire to be true but remains debatable. Evolutionary psychologist and a University of New Mexico professor Geoffrey Miller was also not impressed. "The APA using its army of clinical psychologists to wage a pseudo-therapeutic war against traditional masculinity, patriarchy, male stoicism, and rigid gender norms," he commented on Twitter. Writing for National Review, David French commented that schools already go too far in suppressing healthy aspects of masculinity in boys. "Male children are falling behind in school not because schools indulge their risk-taking and adventurousness but often because they relentlessly suppress boys and sometimes punish boys essential nature, from the opening bell to the close of the day. Especially in fatherless homes, female-dominated elementary-school experiences often mean that boys are exposed to few if any male role models, and male restlessness is therefore viewed almost entirely as a problem to be solved rather than a potential asset to be shaped," he wrote. The report explains that men commit the overwhelming majority of homicides, are the group most at risk of being victims of violent crime, are 3.5 times more likely to commit suicide, and their life expectancy is almost 5 years shorter than women's. Rigid gender norms and traditional notions of masculinity are in part to blame, the APA appears to conclude, and urges psychologists to steer men them away from them. "Getting that message out to men that theyre adaptable, emotional and capable of engaging fully outside of rigid norms is what the new guidelines are designed to do. And if psychologists can focus on supporting men in breaking free of masculinity rules that dont help them, the effects could spread beyond just mental health for men," the report quotes McDermott as saying. Dreher pointed out that these assertions do not paint the entire picture, noting that it is not just men who are murdering but black men and that it is mostly white men who are taking their lives. "This suggests that there is something particular going on within black male society," he said. "And the suicide rate being so unusually high among working-class, middle-aged white males tells us that something is going on with their own social psychology. That black and Hispanic working-class middle-aged men who suffer from the same hardships as whites are not killing themselves suggests that their social psychology has certain strengths that whites lack." "Its interesting to parse these differences and think about what they mean. The point here is that this APA press release citing the violence of men as a reason to demonize traditional masculinity is playing fast and loose with the statistics." Costi Hinn names new wave of prosperity preachers, says they are not like his uncle, are businessmen Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Correction appended Costi Hinn, nephew of famed faith healer Benny Hinn, recently shared his experience of being in the prosperity gospel circle where he used donations for his lavish lifestyle and said the movement is now operating in the young Christian culture. The pastor has become well-known for exposing some of the pitfalls of the lifestyle and teachings of his famous uncle and the prosperity gospel. In the latest PreachersNSneakers Podcast episode, Hinn sharing candidly about growing up in that lavish lifestyle, where he once had a decked out Hummer, and it was then that he was around the next generation of prosperity gospel pastors. "Back then, a lot of these guys that are on your account, that are younger, their dads were pretty decent preachers, just good guys, they weren't real wild. They weren't rolling in Bentleys and all that. They would never hit the news as a prosperity preacher. But this whole next generation of guys that are almost like Christian TED Talk motivational speaker types, they really hit it in the business world, Hinn explained. It's almost like gospel business and so it's a different world. They stay away from the white suits, like my uncle, they are not speaking in tongues everywhere and throwing their jackets at people and doing massive crusades. They're appealing to culture in a way that is 'sexy or trendy' and that's really attractive to culture. Hinn named the young megachurch pastors that he grew up around before he came out of the prosperity gospel life. Among them were Judah Smith, Chad Veach, John Gray, his friend Rich Wilkerson Jr. and Carl Lentz. He said his life got flipped upside down after he was married and realized prosperity preachers were living off poor people and manipulating rich people. "It doesn't matter who you're with on your Instagram account. It doesn't matter what kind of car you're driving, what kind of stage you're on, how big the screen is behind you. If you've got reflective lights and audio engineers making you sound like you're Joel Osteen every week, I don't care who you are. God can work at any time in any place in any way, Hinn, who serves as executive pastor of discipleship at Redeemer Bible Church in Arizona, said. "Yes, the church should use media. Yes, we should strive for excellence. Yes, we should care for our pastors. But we're not celebrities. Our ministry and faithfulness is not dependent on crowd-pleasing. It's dependent on God-pleasing." Hinn talked about having to deal with PTSD after coming out of that lifestyle. He battled guilt when doing anything that remotely felt luxurious because of how badly he abused the ministry funds in the past. "Wealth is not a sin; God has blessed you with that wealth. You're allowed to enjoy things, but here's how I would say it: Wealth is not a sin, wealth is a responsibility, he said. "God knows what you need before you ask and He cares for you, food, clothing, shelter. God is saying, Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added. So don't worry about getting stuff, worry about God. "With this preachers and sneakers prosperity gospel world, they're telling everybody, Just claim it, just believe it, it's going to happen. Forget the past, look forward, your blessing's coming, your burdens are preparing you for your blessing, he echoed and then advised: Give them the hope of the gospel, tell them to be content. Don't fail the heart test. The minister testified that God turned his mess of a story and salvation from the prosperity gospel into a book and a ministry that reaches people all over the world and although he is grateful for the blessings, financial gain is not why he shared his story with the world. I didn't save myself and go now I'm going to turn this into my blessing. No, in fact, there are so many things that have happened in my life that have been very hard and they have not amounted to physical blessings, Hinn said. His faith, he said, is in God and he knows that his abundant life will come to full fruition in eternity with Jesus. The Instagram account @preachersnsneakers launched in 2019 and is popular for calling out famous pastors for their taste in expensive shoes, as well as other gear, some of which cost approximately $4,000 per pair. Correction: May 20, 2020: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Costi Hinn is a pastor at Mission Bible Church in California. While he formerly served as a pastor there, he now serves as a pastor at Redeemer Bible Church in Arizona. Democrats slam 'unjustifiable' Hamas rocket attacks on Israel: 'Must be condemned' Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment American politicians on both sides of the aisle have voiced support for Israel after Hamas missile attacks on Monday were met with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip following a day in which hundreds of rioters were injured in clashes with police in Jerusalem. Islamic militant group Hamas fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, killing at least three people and wounding dozens. An Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson called the Hamas airstrikes a blatant, severe attack." In response, airstrikes by IDF targeting militants in Gaza killed at least 28 people, including 10 children and some civilians. Dozens of the Hamas-fired missiles were intercepted by Israels Iron Dome air defense system. RAW FOOTAGE: This is the moment the Iron Dome intercepted a barrage of rockets over Tel Aviv and central Israel. pic.twitter.com/8jl8OTgWCl Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2021 Hamas also fired missiles into Jerusalem for the first time since 2014, as the city was celebrating Jerusalem Day and the unification of the Holy City. The Hamas attacks came after a weekend of escalating tension and violence in Jerusalems Old City, the home to some of the holiest sites for Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Israelis and Palestinians both claim Jerusalem as their capital. U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin, R-Calif., defended Israels retaliation against the Hamas missile attacks and assured that the U.S. stands with Israel. Israel has every right to defend itself against violence and the barrage of rockets from Hamas, McCarthy tweeted on Monday. The United States unequivocally stands with our ally Israel and the Jewish people. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who has been historically supportive of Israel, also tweeted in Israels support after the missile attacks. Israel unequivocally has the right to defend itself & its people, & I condemn today's unjustifiable attacks by Hamas against innocent civilians, Hoyer tweeted. Israelis & Palestinians both deserve a future of peace & security, & I hope both sides take positive steps to promote that end. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued a statement calling out politicians and the Biden administration, who have at times falsely, shamefully, and without justification singled out Israel for blame. "The United States must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people and government of Israel, and I will work with my colleagues to ensure they have the support they need as they defend their sovereignty and respond to these attacks, Cruz wrote. Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and candidate for mayor of New York City also tweeted in support of Israel. I'm standing with the people of Israel who are coming under bombardment attacks, and condemn the Hamas terrorists, he wrote. The people of NYC will always stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel who face down terrorism and persevere. Cruz commended Yang for opposing the rabidly pro-Hamas & anti-Israel attacks of two Democratic congresswomen. President Joe Biden has not made a statement regarding the attacks. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that the White House has serious concerns about the situation and is closely monitoring the violence. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Meir Ben-Shabbat, on Sunday. Psaki stated that Sullivan "reiterated concerns about the potential evictions of Palestinian families from their homes, and they agreed that the launching of rocket attacks and sending incendiary balloons from Gaza towards Israel is unacceptable, and must be condemned." Some Democrats, however, such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. and Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have criticized Israels retaliation against the Hamas attacks. Omar called Israels airstrikes that killed civilians an act of terrorism. Tlaib, a Palestinian American, tweeted that the aid Congress sends to support the IDF should be conditioned, accusing Israel of committing human rights violations. The Israel military called up 5,000 reservists for active duty as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Israel would increase both the intensity of the attacks and the rate of attacks, NBC News reported. IDF tweeted on Tuesday that for the past 18 hours, Hamas, an Iran-supported Palestinian terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip, had fired one rocket into Israel every three minutes as the attacks continued. IDF responded to the Hamas attacks by bombing over 100 targets in Gaza, including a Hamas commanders home. The traditional Jerusalem Day Flag March had to be rerouted Monday due to the riots and violence near the Temple Mount and a weekend of escalating tension. Hamas said the rocket attacks were in response to Israeli crimes and aggression in Jerusalem. Fathers must take charge of their sons' sexual education, resist 'toxic' sex ed: scholar Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment WASHINGTON Fathers must take stewardship of their sons' sexual lives and understand that nefarious forces have long been at work to dismantle the family, warns Pat Fagan, a Catholic scholar of marriage and family. During a panel discussion at the Watchmen on the Wall National briefing on Thursday, Fagan, director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, which is based at The Catholic University of America, unpacked the history and key players who advocated for abolishing the family unit, particularly the push to take down fathers. "When we have weak men, our children are not protected," Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council who moderated the panel, said in his opening remarks. He further noted that there is an all-out "assault" on masculinity. Alongside two other panelists, Fagan began his comments by noting that "on every single outcome the federal government researches, the more people worship the more you get of the positive things on every single outcome: education, happiness, income, savings, longevity, health," he said. "Family structure, same thing," he added. When mom and dad are married raising their own kids together, the statistics reveal the best results. "In total, on every single outcome in this country, and this should be used in every debate at every level of government. The in-tact married family that worships God weekly on everything, does best, adults and kids, no exception. And those who deny it, don't know the data," Fagan said. The same holds true internationally, he continued, "including, most especially, sexual satisfaction." "The Left has sex totally wrong, totally wrong," he emphasized. Two sexual revolutions have ravaged families over the centuries, the scholar elaborated. When the Christian faith first spread across Europe what traveled with it were in-tact families and marriages. "Marriage was for life, divorce was not present. I'm sure some did it, but everybody knew to be a Christian was to be married [for life]. And with that came tremendous strength. And now with the retreat from marriage and the guidance of the social sciences we can see how much weaker that means. So the old rise of Europe as an international power and a great civilization depended on marriage, which was Christ's gift," Fagan continued. The French Revolution was the beginning of the modern assault on the institution of marriage, which at one stage there was a prostitute on the high altar of the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris with an orgy party occurring around her consisting of the revolutionary leaders, he explained. In subsequent decades, Marx and Engels with their international socialist endeavors identified the family and religion as the main obstacles that stood in their way. In 1919, when Vladmir Lenin took over Russia, marriage was abolished; it was reinstituted a decade later due to the social chaos. And that same chaos, which the contemporary Left is presently pushing, will grow in the United States and will destroy the social fabric, he stressed. In 1923, Marxist intellectuals in Germany set up the Institute for Social Research, also known as the "Frankfurt School," and many of them eventually migrated to Columbia University in New York. They were asked by Lenin how the West could be defeated from within since the proletariat was supposedly never going to rise up. They figured out that to undermine Western society, the family and marriage had to be chief targets. Among their ranks were feminist Marxists like Kate Millett, author of Sexual Politics, and Shulamith Firestone, author of The Dialectic of Sex, both of whom were influential thought leaders and instrumental in groups like the National Organization for Women and other feminist groups. Fagan recounted how, around the time of the founding of NOW, they convened for several weeks and began their meetings with Millett, who chaired the gatherings, asking: "Why are we here today?" to which they would respond "To make revolution." "What kind of revolution?" she replied. "The Cultural Revolution," they would say in response. "And how do we make Cultural Revolution" Millett then asked. "By destroying the American family!" the women said. "How do we destroy the family?" she pressed them. They replied: "By destroying the American Patriarch." The chanting continued as the women resolved to destroy the father by taking away his power. They would do that by destroying monogamy by promoting promiscuity, eroticism, prostitution, and homosexuality. "These were all brilliant women, Oxford degrees, Columbia degrees," Fagan said of the NOW founders. Through their efforts and influence, women's studies centers were established at elite universities and proliferated throughout the nation. He emphasized: "The man is the target. The father in the family, father is the target. Take him out and the family collapses, society collapses. We can see that happening. This is by design. What will it collapse into? Exactly what Lenin asked for." "How do you collapse the West from within? Short answer: Destroy the father. How do you that? Sex gone wild. Us guys are suckers for it. Every single one of us in this room knows that," he told the crowd. "It's very easy to be tempted. It's very easy to fall." Amid the breakdown of manhood and the scourge of fatherless homes, Christians must be about solutions, the panelists asserted. "The way forward is articulated by our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity who came to save us, but who also came to reveal man to himself," Fagan said. Jesus changed the paradigm of the Old Testament, and raised the standard, he said, forbidding both divorce and even looking at a woman lustfully. "Followers of Christ, you and everyone you preach to, are called to ... celibacy. You are called to celibacy, all your children, everyone else. Some, a few, for life. The majority 'til marriage." "What we need now," he said, "are fathers who will take over the sexual education and formation of their sons, and they'll have to take it over themselves in the home, because everything else out there is toxic, in the schools and all the rest. So they've got to step up to the plate ... we need warriors." Such warriors, he continued, are the ones who will go to the school systems hellbent on indoctrinating their sons with ungodly sexual dogma and refuse to allow them to be corrupted and say: "He's mine, and I'm going to make a man of him. A real man who will be a fantastic husband, and I'll teach him how. He will be a great lover of his wife, sexually and in every other way, and then will be a great father. And that's my vocation, that's my calling. I brought him into life sexually. Nobody else here can claim that." "You say it to the school board, you say it the principal, you say it to the teacher: He's mine. Keep your hands off him," Fagan stressed. "Preach that," he emphasized to the pastors in the audience. Is the Bible anti-woman? Fox News anchor Shannon Bream responds to misconceptions, explores powerful biblical wisdom Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Fox News @ Night host Shannon Bream is on a mission to shed light on the incredible women who appear throughout the Bible and to respond to any misconceptions people might have about the treatment of females in the New and Old Testaments. Breams new book, The Women of the Bible Speak: The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today, is one of the most popular and bestselling books in America right now. SUBSCRIBE: LISTEN TO EDIFI WITH BILLY HALLOWELL ON YOUR FAVORITE PLATFORMS I feel like the Lord brought me this opportunity and Im so grateful, Bream recently told the Edifi With Billy Hallowell podcast. The anchor and legal analyst said she was deeply inspired as she dove into biblical stories and noticed some fascinating similarities between womens struggles then and now. Listen at the 18-minute mark to hear Bream break down her take on women in the Bible: When I really started to dig into them I found such solace and encouragement in these womens stories, she said. Their problems really arent that different from what were facing. Queen Esther is among the women whom she explored. Esther, who became queen of the Persian Empire, faced some difficult and life-threatening circumstances, yet persevered. The queen, who was Jewish, stood up and bravely defended her people from annihilation. I love the story of Queen Esther she was an orphan. She was raised without parents, Bream explained. The Jewish people are about to be annihilated. I forgot how many twists and turns there were getting to the end of her story. As for those who believe the Bible is anti-woman, Bream said she hopes to show them evidence that will change their minds, as she covers stories in the Old Testament and the events surrounding Jesus and His treatment of women in the New Testament. We see in the New Testament that women were part of His inner circle they were valued in His sight, Bream said. And He went to people, men and women who were outcasts. She specifically mentioned Jesus showing mercy to the woman who was about to be stoned for adultery as well as His conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. In both instances, Jesus shows love, kindness and compassion for these women. He esteemed women and respected them, and I think thats all through the Old and the New Testaments about how God favors these women and uses them, Bream said. You can see how God weaves together these stories for good. Bream addressed her Christian faith as well, telling Edifi that she needs the strength of my Savior every day. She said she started becoming stricter with her quiet time and Bible reading during the COVID-19 pandemic, refusing to dive into her phone or email until she spent time reading and in prayer. Bream, who grew up in a Christian home, made her faith her own back in middle school. She then said she realized Jesus is the one who is going to cover my sins. She has been a Christian ever since, adding that its been a rollercoaster, but that God has been with her throughout all of the dark valleys and the good times. Check out Breams new book, The Women of the Bible Speak for more on this topic. Lubbock and the flow of authority Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Sixty-two percent of the voters in Lubbock, Texas, recently demonstrated the proper flow of authority in a true democracy when they approved an ordinance to prohibit abortion within the city limits, thereby making Lubbock a sanctuary city for the unborn. Mark Lee Dixon, leader of Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn, hopes to see the effort to restrict abortion at the local level become a national movement. The reason is that higher jurisdictionsranging from many state legislatures to courts, all the way up to the Supreme Court, have failed to take action on behalf of the unborn. In a nation ruled by a monarch or dictator, localities would have no authority to ban abortion if unrestricted abortion were the policy at the top. But in a true democracy, as Lubbock showed, the buck of authority stops at a precinct ballot box. Thus, in tyrannical states power gravitates toward the top, but in a genuine democracy authority flows to the bottomcommunities themselves. The local took the decision when higher jurisdictions who should have addressed the abortion issue failed to do so. No dictator has the authority to limit the voting of the local. Therefore, the people exercised their authority. Thats the way the American Founders intended it. The courts exist to protect citizens by enforcing justice. However, courts in many jurisdictions fail citizens when they refuse to act in justifiable situations. Ironically, on another extreme, courts fail when they commit judicial incursions by sanctioning abortion and defining marriage. The Lubbock vote was significant also because it shows the importance of community action to the survival of democracy. Ironically, the citizen-led exercise of authority in Lubbock comes at the same time a head of state across the world in China has had himself declared the helmsman. Xi Jinping wrapped himself in the mantle of absolute power once claimed by Mao Zedong. This one man is now president of the nation, controller of the one party allowed in Chinathe Communistand leader of the military. In a socialist system, be it Fascism and national socialism on the right (e.g., Hitler and Mussolini) or Communist socialism on the left (Stalin, Kim, Pol Pot, Xi Jinping) power will always and inevitably gravitate through Hegelian tactics or be cruelly forced to the top. Xis elevation to greater power should come as no surprise. Historian William Federer writes: For most of the six thousand years of recorded human history, power has been held in the hands of the few. In fact, he notes, before the creation of the United States most of the world was ruled by monarchs. Federer draws imagery of power from J.R.R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings. The evil Lord Sauron desperately wants the great ring in which power resides and is drawn irresistibly to it: One ring to rule them all, one ring to find them, one ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them. That is the pull of power, which rules through manipulation, intimidation, condemnation, and domination. So, wrote Will and Ariel Durant in their opus, The Lessons of History (Simon and Schuster, 1968): Power naturally converges to a center... Hence, the centralization of power in the monarchy ... Raw power is seized by whomever has the political and/or military muscle. Authority is granted from the higher to the lower, and only to people under authority. In contrast to raw power, real authority leads and is sustained through relationship and servanthood and strengthens those who look to it for leadership rather than making them slaves. The American Founders were concerned that the authority of the people is not usurped by power-grabbers. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter, wrote this: What has destroyed the liberty and the rights of man in every government that has ever existed under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating of all cares and powers into one body. In 1950, Harry Truman, a stark realist, could see encroaching dangers in American society and culture, and said, If we dont have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the rights of anybody except the state. The Lubbock vote is thus far more than a single-issue action. It should inspire us to a fundamentally American understanding of power and authority, based on the Judeo-Christian worldview and its values, and awaken us to the authority and strength of the small. "It is when a people forget God that tyrants forge their chains, said Patrick Henry. The God to which he refers is biblically revealed as favoring the small and seemingly insignificant. Through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, Isaiah writes of the Lord: For this is what the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is holy, says: I dwell in a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly in spirit is order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.' (Isaiah 57:15) The same theme is echoed in 1 Corinthians 1:26-30 ... Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the worlds eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important... If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord. (NLT) Way to go, Lubbock: you are much bigger than you realize! Most pastors strongly oppose legalizing recreational marijuana, survey finds Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Most pastors feel strongly that marijuana should remain illegal even as an increasing number of states legalize medical and recreational use and public perception shifts regarding the plant-based drug, a new study of over 1,000 Protestant pastors has found. The study released Tuesday from the Nashville-based Lifeway Research found that fewer than one-in-five pastors (18%) say marijuana should be legalized throughout the United States for any purpose. About 76% of pastors either somewhat or strongly disagreed with the idea of legalizing marijuana for any purpose, including 59% who disagree strongly. Only 6% said they are not sure. There are about as many opinions on marijuana as there are ways to consume it, said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. When asked about legalizing all such uses, the majority of pastors are strongly opposed. The study of 1,007 Protestant pastors was conducted from September 2, 2020, to October 1, 2020. The results show that mainline pastors (43%) are more likely to believe marijuana should be legalized for any purpose than evangelical pastors (10%). Methodist (37%) and Presbyterian Reformed (35%) pastors are more likely to back legalization than Restorationist movement pastors (21%), Lutherans (15%), Pentecostals (10%) and Baptists (7%). Seventy-eight percent of pastors agree that getting high smoking marijuana is morally wrong, while 17% disagree and 5% said they are not sure. Overall, evangelical pastors are almost twice as likely as mainline pastors to see smoking marijuana to get high as morally wrong (89% to 47%). Public opinion regarding pot legalization has rapidly changed over the years. A recent Gallup Poll found that 68% of Americans supported marijuana legalization, the latest record high. Additionally, a report from Pew Research found that most Christians support marijuana legalization, with 53% of Catholics and 60% of Protestants (including just over 50% of evangelicals) saying they support legalization. Currently, recreational marijuana is legal for adults in 17 states and Washington, D.C., while medical marijuana is legal in 36 states. Pastor Craig Gross, who sells and promotes marijuana for Christians through a new venture called Christian Cannabis, told The Christian Post that marijuana use should not be an issue if used by responsible adults. He believes marijuana should be treated similarly to alcohol. The third day, God created the plants before He created us, Gross said. This was created before us for us. Yes, it can be abused. Yes, it can be taken the wrong way. Do I think a kid should use this? No. There have been so much studies on that, on the underdeveloped mind. Im talking about legal, responsible adults. Gross also said he believes the Church should try to stay ahead of the conversation on marijuana. My end goal with Christian Cannabis is that it shouldnt take me 18 years to see these kind of conversations with this topic, he stated. Well be way too late if we wait 18 years. The time is now. Start this conversation. Its going to be legal, where you have a church and people in your church are going to have questions. But many evangelical and Christian leaders have voiced their opposition to pot use and legalization. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Conventions Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, recently said he opposes marijuana use. Most of the young evangelicals I know seek to minister to friends who have been harmed by marijuana culture, he told The Wall Street Journal. This isnt theoretical to them at all. In an op-ed for The Christian Post, John Stonestreet and Roberto Rivera of BreakPoint cited a report highlighting the links between cannabis, psychosis and suicide, especially with teenagers and young adults. They warn that America has been sold dangerous lies about marijuana. Despite what we know about the effects of marijuana use on teenage brains and the genetic-related danger to some, we are committed to playing Russian Roulette with young lives, the authors warned. And media outlets loudly proclaim legalization as inevitable and part of our expanding freedom, even while stories about the hazards go underreported. Teacher's free online resources is helping those living in remote areas learn English. At a breakfast stall in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, a sixth grader had her eyes fixed on the mobile phone. As customers went in and out of the stall owned by her mother, the girl continued to be focused, watching the online English lessons on the mobile phone, unperturbed by the noises around her as she confidently practiced aloud. When Du Shu saw a video of this scene, she was impressed. The online lessons are the work of Du, 36, in which she offers free educational resources, especially to those living in remote areas and who have little access to quality resources in school. A native of Shenyang in Liaoning province, Du received a master's degree in English at the University of International Business and Economics in 2010. Now, she works as an English teacher at education consultancy Just Show English in Beijing. In 2014, she started writing English books for children, especially picture books with interesting stories. Du and her colleagues wrote the stories, and award-winning illustrators were invited to create content based on the plot. They also made accompanying videos for the books, along with original music. "Our books mainly cover topics about everyday concerns. In one story, a group of monkeys obtained cellphones one day. All of them looked at their cellphones all the time without talking to others, and their family relationship nearly broke down as a result," Du says. "We want to tell students of today that we still need to pay attention to the happiness with our family members, instead of focusing on electronic products all day." Their works were exhibited at the 2016 Bologna Book Fair, and one of their series Just Show Rhyme Books won a prize at the 2017 Nami Island International Picture Book Illustration Concours for its illustrations. "Our books were prominently displayed at the book fair, attracting many foreign publishers. And we felt really excited to gain recognition from the international community," Du says. When online lessons became increasingly popular in 2019, Du started a program to make free English lessons, so as to offer quality educational resources to students living in remote areas. Having worked as an English teacher for years, Du studied the learning methods of many students of English in Beijing, and found that many of them achieved progress through repeated practice. She says a similar practice pattern can also be effective for other English learners, so she designs online lessons helping students complete such practices every day, and hopes those who live in remote areas would benefit from such a pattern as well. "I believe through such daily practice, students can have a good foundation on which they can improve their English-language abilities in listening, speaking, reading and writing, and thus improve their English proficiency," Du says. She also says she has made more than 1,500 classes on social media platform Sina Weibo, enabling students to learn English for two to three consecutive years. "The lessons can help a student with zero knowledge in English learn until they can read English easily," she says. "In future, I will make more such lessons to help them continue improving various English abilities, and finally form a learning system that enables students to achieve a high level of English proficiency." Nearly 320,000 people follow Du on Weibo, and some people show her their progress in the form of videos. Sometimes, Du responds to them by giving them suggestions. "I used to feel anxious as I couldn't find a proper way to make my children start learning English, but Du gave us some effective suggestions," says Sina Weibo user Ningmengxiaoxian'er, a mother of two children from Laixi in Shandong province. "Although my children don't have access to international schools, reliable training agencies or foreign teachers as we live in a less-developed city, they can still learn English from Du and see a more colorful world." Du says she can contribute to achieving equality in education. "Through this program, we want to tell students who live in remote areas that even though they have little access to quality education resources, they can still learn with my free lessons." She devotes a lot of time to the program, and uploads up to two online lessons each day. "I find my value in this program. My existence has benefited more people, and helped some children open the door to the outside world," Du says. "This is the happiest thing for me." Vatican weighs in on US bishops debate over denying communion to pro-abortion politicians Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment The Vatican sent a letter to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops giving advice and warnings regarding a possible move by the American leadership to deny communion to pro-abortion Catholic politicians. In recent times, there has been much debate within the Catholic Church about whether to deny communion to elected officials who support or advocate for abortion despite identifying as Catholic. Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Catholic Church, sent a letter to USCCB President Archbishop Jose H. Gomez on the issue, which was first reported by America magazine on Monday. Ladaria warned that having a blanket policy to deny communion to pro-abortion politicians could present problems when seeking to maintain unity in the Church. the formulation of a national policy was suggested during the ad limina visits only if this would help the bishops to maintain unity, wrote Ladaria, as reported by America magazine. The congregation notes that such a policy, given its possibly contentious nature, could have the opposite effect and become a source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger church in the United States. The cardinal recommended that the bishops talk with politicians within their jurisdiction who adopt a pro-choice position regarding abortion legislation, euthanasia, or other moral evils, as a means of understanding the nature of their positions and their comprehension of Catholic teaching. Following dialogue among themselves and the politicians, Ladaria explained that if they draft a document on the matter, it would need to express a true consensus of the bishops on the matter, while observing the prerequisite that any provision of the conference in this area would respect the rights of individual ordinaries in their dioceses and the prerogatives of the Holy See. it would be misleading if such a statement were to give the impression that abortion and euthanasia alone constitute the only grave matters of Catholic moral and social teaching that demand the fullest accountability on the part of Catholics, added Ladaria. In June, the USCCB will hold a national meeting to consider a draft document that, if approved, would recommend that pro-abortion Catholic politicians be denied communion. Even if the document is approved, however, it would only recommend the denial of the Eucharist, with local dioceses still being allowed to make their own rules on the issue. Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of California released a pastoral letter earlier this month in which he directly told pro-abortion Catholic politicians that they should not receive communion. Your Catholic ideals inspire you in your work to help those who experience discrimination, violence, and injustice, and you deserve the gratitude of your fellow Catholics and our nation for this service. But we cannot empower the weak by crushing the weakest, wrote Cordileone. If you find that you are unwilling or unable to abandon your advocacy for abortion, you should not come forward to receive Holy Communion. To publicly affirm the Catholic faith while at the same time publicly rejecting one of its most fundamental teachings is simply dishonest. On the other hand, Bishop Robert McElroy of San Diego said in February that denying communion to Catholic officials over their support for abortion was a very destructive idea. I do not see how depriving the President of other political leaders of Eucharist based on their public policy stance can be interpreted in our society as anything other than the weaponization of Eucharist, stated McElroy, as reported by CRUX Now. ND gov. vetoes penalty for colleges that award funding to abortion providers Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum has vetoed part of a bill that would have penalized higher education institutions that direct government grant money to abortion providers. Last Friday, Burgum signed Senate Bill 2030, which includes a clause prohibiting colleges and universities from providing challenge grant funding to entities that provide abortions unless the abortions provided are necessary to prevent the death of the woman. However, Burgum vetoed a section of the bill that would have created a penalty of $2.8 million for any institution of higher learning found to violate the grant ban. The section would have also penalized any individual who signs a contract that violates the bill with a class B misdemeanor, carrying a punishment of up to 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine. In his official veto message obtained by The Christian Post, Burgum explained that the penalty was, among other issues, void of due process and egregious in its amount. The State Board of Higher Education is simply instructed to deduct the $2.8 million without providing the institution with formal notice, an opportunity for hearing, or a determination by an objective fact finder, wrote Burgum. leaders of our higher education institutions have shared that their faculty, researchers and grant officers are unwilling to take such a personal risk, thereby jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in research funding and putting jobs, careers and faculty recruitment at severe risk across our university system. In the statement, Burgum reaffirmed his administrations support for strong pro-life public policies, adding that taxpayer funding should not go toward funding abortions. Burgum stated that the sections of the bill he left intact were meant to clarify that higher education institutions are ineligible to receive challenge grant funding from the state unless they ensure that the grant dollars won't go to abortion organizations. Introduced in January, SB 2030 passed the House of Representatives on April 7 in a vote of 66 yeas to 25 nays. The bill passed the state Senate on April 26 with a vote of 35 yeas to 11 nays. According to The Star Tribune, the bill was primarily designed to prevent North Dakota State University from providing grant funding to Planned Parenthood for sex education. The legislation had its share of critics, among them the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education. FIRE argued that SB 2030 conflicted with First Amendment protections for public universities. FIRE takes no position on the pro-life vs. pro-choice debate, but notes that this bill is viewpoint-based discrimination at its most obvious, wrote FIRE legislative fellow Josh Smith in April. After all, the funding restrictions only target pro-choice organizations and viewpoints, leaving pro-life organizations and speakers unaffected. The North Dakota Catholic Conference, which supported the legislation, explained in a statement after the veto that the pro-life provisions and the challenge grants remain intact. With the veto of Section 5 of the bill, there is no new language requiring the institutions to never partner with an abortion provider, the conference stated. However, the discussions about SB 2030 alerted the institutions to existing pro-life laws which they must follow. Governor Burgum expressly called attention to these already existing laws in his statement. The conference added that the North Dakota University System will now have to decide whether to help our students by accepting the challenge grants or do business with abortion providers. We call on them to choose life, the Catholic conference stressed. Parents outraged after first grade teacher reads book promoting transgenderism to students Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment A school district in Washington state is facing criticism after a teacher at one of its elementary schools read a book promoting transgender advocacy to her students. Young Americas Foundation, a conservative youth advocacy organization, received a tip that Jennifer Miller, a first grade teacher at Geneva Elementary School in Bellingham, Washington, located North of Seattle, read her students a childrens book titled, I am Jazz. The book, co-authored by LGBT activist Jessica Herthel and trans-identified reality TV star Jazz Jennings, tells the story of a 2-year-old boy who begins the process of "transitioning" to look more like a girl with the approval of his parents. According to Amazon's description of the book, I am Jazz tells the story of a transgender child based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids everywhere. In a Feb. 16 email to Miller, a concerned parent asked Miller: Did you read this book to 1st graders today? Miller responded in the affirmative. Yes I did read this book, she replied in a Feb. 17 email. As a district we are working hard to support all members of our school community and promote inclusion through understanding and compassion. Kara Zupkus, a spokeswoman for Young Americas Foundation, said in a Friday interview with The Christian Post that the concerned parent reached out to their tipline last week. The parent was very angry and frustrated that he hadnt heard anything from the school board and that his concerns werent being addressed, Zupkus said. While Miller expressed a desire to answer any questions the parent had or talk about any concerns in her response email to the parent, Zupkus told CP that the conversation that resulted from that exchange did not make much headway. As they continued to disagree about the appropriateness of exposing young children to I am Jazz, the parent ended up pulling his kid out of this teachers class, Zupkus said. When the parent reached out to the school board president, she just responded with a very standard form response, such as, We have received your response, thank you for your inquiry. And beyond that, she never returned the parents email, Zupkus added. After investigating the school board president further, Young Americas Foundation discovered that she owns a sex toy shop called Wink Wink. Zupkus explained that the parent also reached out to Bellingham Public Schools Superintendent Greg Baker. When Baker asked to talk about the matter over the phone instead of by email, the parent agreed, as long as he was allowed to record the conversation. Since Baker declined to allow the parent to record the conversation, they never spoke. The fact that first grade students were exposed to a book promoting LGBT advocacy is an example of the sad state of affairs for public education Zupkus said, predicting that this incident would inspire other students and other parents to push for school choice because, she added, we cant allow things like this to keep happening in our public schools. Its insanity. Theyre really pushing a leftist agenda with no apologies. And parents need to hold their school board members accountable. They need to hold their teachers accountable, the superintendent, everyone needs to be held accountable, she continued. So it really is up to the parents when it involves children this young to get involved. Responding to the controversy in a message proclaiming that Diversity enhances a strong and healthy community, Baker slammed the hate speech and harassment based on our values as a district and our commitment to equitable, diverse, and inclusive education. He defended use of the book as consistent with our values in the strategic plan, The Bellingham Promise." He praised its message that all people are unique and wonderful. Out of respect to families and childrens privacy, as well as to comply with federal privacy law, we arent able share details about our communications with families," Bellingham Public Schools Communications Manager Dana Smith said in a statement to The Christian Post. "However, we are confident that when families contact us with concerns, we respond in a timely manner. Bellingham Public Schools is not the first school district to draw the ire of outraged parents for exposingtheir children to I am Jazz. In 2015, an elementary school in Maine faced criticism after a guidance counselor at the school read the book aloud to first grade students. In response to concerns from parents, the superintendent of the school district released a statement stressing that If a topic is considered sensitive, parents should be informed. I am Jazz is one of several childrens books designed to expose young children to LGBT advocacy and progressive ideology in general. Other examples of progressive childrens literature include A is for Activist,Woke Baby and The GayBCs. In response to what she described as the progressive literature craze, conservative YouTube personality Lauren Southern wrote her own childrens book, The ABCs of Morality, to counter the progressive phenomenon. The book made it to Amazons list of top 20 new releases and reached No. 1 on its list of Movers & Shakers in Books just a day after its release. Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Given the global pandemic, this seems like a particularly bad time to run a survey on church membership. Nevertheless, Gallup recently released a poll suggesting that the number of Americans who belong to a church, synagogue, or mosque has fallen below 50% for the first time since 1937, when the organization began tracking those numbers. In fact, more than half the respondents to this poll didnt merely give up their church membership. They gave up their religion, and now identify as none, as in no religious preference. Or, as my colleague Shane Morris put it in a recent podcast conversation with writer Samuel James, these folks havent just left the room of denominational preference, theyve left the house of collective faith. A number of separate but related cultural trends are at work. For example, an organization called The Witness, an online community of African American Christians, recently launched the hashtag #LeaveLoud. Through podcast episodes and online articles, The Witness encourages black Christians to not only leave predominantly white or multiethnic churches if theyve been dishonored, but to be vocal about it, inside and especially outside the church. Of course, there are such things as abuse or crooked doctrine which warrant leaving a congregation. Specifically, plenty of our African American brothers and sisters have been neglected or hurt by fellow Christians, either directly or indirectly. And, depending on the context, church leaders should be made aware of things that justify a departure. Still, much of what we are seeing is part of an Im-leaving-church-and-please-watch-me-leave movement. Being noisy about joining the exvangelicalism movement is not only a popular thing to do, its a way to be popular. In fact, after a few years of watching people leave loud, I see at least a few troubling themes emerge. Almost without fail, a person leaving a church loud will cite bad or hurtful behavior by the people or leadership at the church. And of course, no one wants to stick around where they are mistreated. However, in a culture that has widely embraced moralistic therapeutic deism, many think that being morally challenged, or anything that falls short of all-out affirmation, counts as personal harm. This Gallup poll also points to interpersonal strife as a significant reason for leaving the church. However, the number of people leaving a particular church over interpersonal strife is lower than the number leaving an entire faith tradition over interpersonal strife. According to the poll, the primary driver of plummeting church memberships is people renouncing religion altogether. Resurrecting the metaphor, people are leaving the house while blaming folks in one particular room. To publicly denounce a particular congregation, not to mention a particular denomination (not to mention an entire faith tradition), because of how people behaved is to misunderstand what Christianity is. It is first and foremost a commitment to Jesus Christ which, second, involves a set of claims about reality. Claims of who Jesus is and what Christianity teaches must be evaluated on their own merit, but many churches have failed to prepare young people to do this. Considering these two factors makes me wonder if leavers who blame people in the Church for their own leaving are in reality just upset with God. So many "exvangelicals" and progressive Christians who begin by lamenting the bad behavior of fellow churchgoers end up rejecting the Bibles moral claims about sexuality, or Gods judgment of sin, or the lordship of Jesus. The more that the wider culture finds Christian teaching outdated and outrageous, the harder it is to distinguish between the various motivations of those who leave the church, and/or the faith. What is clear is that it is essential, at least for anyone who intends to persevere in the faith, to know what the Faith is. For example, Scripture is clear that followers of Christ should live peaceably with everyone, as far as it depends on you. Anyone who takes that teaching seriously, not to mention the many others that directly apply to our lives within the Body of Christ, will find it difficult to leave loud, or to justify leaving over silly disputes, or to neglect praying for those who have left. Originally published at BreakPoint Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Despite its popular title, Jesus parable of The Sower implies that fruitful evangelism depends not so much on the one who sows the seed but on the soil it lands on. My experience as an evangelist confirms this: the fruits of preaching seem to depend on place as much as proclamation. And in terms of hard soil for the Gospel, Western Europe has long been seen as a region where sown seeds of faith fail to take root. Happily, I sense things are changing. At least locally, Europes hard ground seems to be breaking up with a new receptivity for the Gospel. Personally, I can testify to a growing interest in the Good News. In recent years, weve had a million people attending my Ten Commandments mission series and had evangelistic events filling the largest venues available. Reduced to a virtual presence by Covid, I found myself with so many invitations for Easter Day 2021 that I ended up preaching virtually at 747 churches and at 120 prisons. And its not just me. A remarkable work of the Spirit is occurring amongst Europes Iranian migrants and refugees to the extent that, in Britain at least, many churches have one or two families of converts. Across the continent God is working amongst the 12 million Roma or gypsy peoples so that as many as a third are now Pentecostal Christians. And in France modern atheisms birthplace evangelicals have gone from 50,000 to over 700,000 in a lifetime. Spiritual soil in Europe is more promising for the Gospel than for generations, perhaps centuries. Whats going on? Ultimately, of course, this is a work of Gods Spirit and Im grateful for that. Yet I believe that a big part of whats happening is that secularism the religion of non-religion which hardened the continent against the Gospel from the French Revolution onwards, is crumbling as people are increasingly disillusioned by its failure as a belief to live by. Why has secularism failed? I think its because it has been found to be inadequate for our heads, lives and hearts: what we think, what we do and what we feel. Take how we think. Here secularism has shown a failure ofexplanation. Everybody wants to know why things are the way that they are and there is a demand for some big story that gives meaning to existence. Secularism promised that it would replace the inadequate and childish explanations of religion with better ones based on science. Yet while we have seen enormous technological progress, science has failed to answer the big questions of existence. Life, consciousness and even the universe itself remain mysteries. Thinking people are finding secularism barren and unsatisfactory. In contrast, the Gospel holds out the richest and most meaningful of answers: we are made by God, loved by him and, if we choose, eternally redeemed by him. If secularism has been inadequate for how we think, it has been even more so for how we live and here I find three failures. First, it has displayed a failure of ethics. This is of course inevitable: you cant get a meaningful morality out of a meaningless universe. The results are troubling. As individuals, men and women are left with no guidance on how to live. As societies we are seeing many problems. Politics, set free from God-given rules, is becoming an amoral game of winner-takes-all in which the weak are crushed. Equally unchecked by morality, the brutal and simplistic certainties of nationalism and racism are flourishing in the vacuum left by secularism. Secularisms rejection of moral absolutes has also led to a more subtle but no less frightening threat: an aggressive culture of wokeness with zealous inquisitors anxious to punish anyone who does not conform to political correctness. In contrast, the Gospel not only sets out the solid ground of right and wrong but proclaims a just, gracious and loving God who seeks to save the lost. Second, secularism has shown a failure of expectation. It is a gloomy creed devoid of purpose and hope, and offers no guidance on goals and ambitions. What are we to live for? The answer is silence. Secularism offers no more than wishful thinking, either for lives shadowed by the grave or a world haunted by threats. In contrast, the Gospel offers true hope for this life and the next. Third, with secularism there has been what could be called a failure ofempowerment. Many people feel that their existence is dominated by unseen forces, whether fate, chance or spiritual powers. Against such oppression, secularism is helpless. The Gospel, however, is not: Jesus is Lord over all powers. The breakthroughs with the Roma communities have occurred because in Christ they found a power which could liberate them from enslavement by other forces. Secularism has failed minds and lives but also hearts, where it has shown a failure of excitement. No one sings songs, flies banners or holds festivals about secularism. It is the dullest, driest and depressing of beliefs. Yet, in glorious contrast, the gospel joyfully holds out to everybody Gods love, peace and hope. Secularism has failed and across Europe the baked, dry soil it has produced is crumbling. We have a receptive time for sowing. But what seeds are to be sown? After all, there are other sowers walking the fields, seeking to plant New Age mysticism and other faiths. Yet the only creed that offers truly satisfactory answers to the challenges of life, death and eternity is an authentic Christianity. Here in Europe we live in interesting days. We Greeks to whom European culture is in permanent debt have a word for such a time. It is a kairos moment: a time of favour and opportunity that requires action. Lets take it, for Christs Kingdom. House church leader arrested by Chinese authorities on 'spurious' fraud charges Email Print Img No-img Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment Amid an ongoing crackdown on Christians and their churches, communist authorities in China have arrested an elder of a house church in southwestern Guizhou province in a trumped-up fraud case, according to reports. Zhang Chunlei, an elder of Love (Renai) Reformed Church in Guiyang, was arrested on suspicion of fraud on May 1, the day Chinas new administrative measures on religious clergy went into effect, the United Kingdom-based nonprofit Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported. In its newsletter, the house church decried the arrest as a serious trampling on the Christian faith. We know that he has been treated so unfairly because of his faith. The so-called charges against him for scamming brothers and sisters are simply unfounded; the suspected fraud is outright absurd! the church insisted. Zhang was first placed under administrative detention for illegally operating as an association on March 16, hours after police raided a Christian retreat at a privately rented property in Guiyang attended by some members of his church. That day, at least five church members were administratively detained while a dozen family homes were searched. Computers, phones and documents were confiscated from the homes while several church members have been summoned and questioned by police, according to CSW. Zhang was arrested after he went to the police station to negotiate the release of his church members, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog International Christian Concern reported in April. While three other Christians from his church were released after three days of administrative detention, Zhang didn't walk free on March 28 when he finished his detention. Instead, he was charged for fraud on the same day, ICC reported. CSWs founder and President Mervyn Thomas said in a statement that Zhang spent over six weeks in detention on charges that are "corempletely unfounded." Thomas called Zhang's fraud charges "equally spurious." We call for his immediate and unconditional release, and for all charges against him to be dropped," Thomas said. Last month, Chinese rights lawyer Sui Muqing told The Epoch Times that Zhangs wife, Yang Aiqing, was taken away by police on April 21 after being subpoenaed, along with Zhangs son and younger brother. Zhangs son and brother were released the same day, while Yang was detained in handcuffs and shackles for 24 hours before her release. Love Reformed Church is an unregistered Protestant church that was forcibly shut down by the authorities in September 2018, months after revised administrative regulations on religion came into force. Last week, police arrested a preacher from the heavily-persecuted house church in southwestern Sichuan province, Early Rain Covenant Church, for allegedly disturbing public order by officiating a members funeral. Preacher Wu Wuqing was arrested by officers from Damian Police Station in Chengdu citys Longquanyi District on Friday afternoon, hours after the funeral service, ICC reported. In April, authorities harassed house church leaders across China, including elder Zhang from Guiyang Renai Reformed Church, preacher Zhang Peihong at Shanghai Lancun Zhongyue Church, and preachers Qie Jiafu and Huang Chunzi at Beijings Zion Church. Authorities in China are also continuing their crackdown on Christianity by removing Bible apps and Christian WeChat public accounts as new highly restrictive administrative measures on religious staff went into effect last week. Father Francis Liu from the Chinese Christian Fellowship of Righteousness said in a tweet that some Christian WeChat accounts, including Gospel League and Life Quarterly, were no longer available online, ICC reported at the time. According to recently-released reports, religious persecution in China intensified in 2020, with thousands of Christians affected by church closures and other human rights abuses. CCP officials are enforcing strict controls on religion under the direction of President Xi Jinping, according to a report released in March by China Aid. Open Doors USAs World Watch List ranks China as the 17th-worst country in the world when it comes to the persecution of Christians. The organization notes that all churches are perceived as a threat if they become too large, too political or invite foreign guests. The U.S. State Department has labeled China as a country of particular concern for continuing to engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom. BANGKOK (AP) After Myanmars military seized power by ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, it couldnt even make the trains run on time. State railway workers were among the earliest organized opponents of the February takeover, and they went on strike. Health workers who founded the civil disobedience movement against military rule stopped staffing government medical facilities. Many civil servants were no-shows at work, along with employees of government and private banks. Universities became hotbeds of resistance, and in recent weeks, primary and secondary education has begun to collapse as teachers, students and parents boycott state schools. One hundred days after their takeover, Myanmars ruling generals maintain just the pretense of control. The illusion is sustained mainly by its partially successful efforts to shut down independent media and to keep the streets clear of large demonstrations by employing lethal force. More than 750 protesters and bystanders have been killed by security forces, according to detailed independent tallies, and there have been numerous arrests and human rights violations. The junta might like people to think that things are going back to normal because they are not killing as many people as they were before and there werent as many people on the streets as before, but ... the feeling we are getting from talking to people on the ground is that definitely the resistance has not yet subsided, said Thin Lei Win, a journalist now based in Rome who helped found the Myanmar Now online news service in 2015. She says the main change is that dissent is no longer as visible as in the early days of the protests before security forces began using live ammunition when marches and rallies in major cities and towns could easily draw tens of thousands of people. At the same time, said David Mathieson, an independent analyst who has been working on Myanmar issues for over 20 years, Because of the very violent pacification of those protests, a lot of people are willing to become more violent." We are already starting to see signs of that. And with the right training, the right leadership and the right resources, what Myanmar could experience is an incredibly nasty destructive, internal armed conflict in multiple locations in urban areas. The junta also faces a growing military challenge in the always restive border regions where ethnic minority groups exercise political power and maintain guerrilla armies. Two of the more battle-hardened groups, the Kachin in the north and the Karen in the east, have declared their support for the protest movement and stepped up their fighting, despite the government military, known as the Tatmadaw, hitting back with greater firepower, including airstrikes. Even a month ago, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet was describing the situation as grim, saying Myanmars economy, education and health infrastructure have been brought to the brink of collapse, leaving millions of Myanmar people without livelihood, basic services and, increasingly, food security. It was not surprising that The Economist magazine, in an April cover story, labeled Myanmar Asias next failed state and opined it was heading in the direction of Afghanistan. The U.N.s Bachelet made a different comparison. There are clear echoes of Syria in 2011, she said. There too, we saw peaceful protests met with unnecessary and clearly disproportionate force. The States brutal, persistent repression of its own people led to some individuals taking up arms, followed by a downward and rapidly expanding spiral of violence all across the country. A hundred days after its takeover, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday renewed his call on Myanmars military to respect the will of the people and act in the greater interest of peace and stability in the country, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Guterres also encouraged the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which includes Myanmar, to swiftly implement its commitments including a demand to immediately end violence and start a dialogue mediated by a special ASEAN envoy. And he urged the international community to support regional efforts to bring an end to the repression by the military, Dujarric said. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations with long experience working with Myanmar, said, The most immediate step is for the government and the opposition to start a dialogue to end the violence and bloodshed. There has to be a negotiation on humanitarian access to keep the economy and ... health care system from collapsing. Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has so far shunned all suggestions of talks from the United Nations as well as ASEAN. He attended a specially called ASEAN summit meeting in Indonesia in April where leaders adopted a five-point consensus". But within days of returning, Hlaings junta brushed aside the initiative. He said Myanmar would give careful consideration to constructive suggestions made by ASEAN Leaders when the situation returns to stability in the country since priorities at the moment were to maintain law and order and to restore community peace and tranquility." Myanmars resistance movement, meanwhile, has organized widely and swiftly underground. Within days of the junta takeover, elected parliamentarians who were denied their seats convened their own self-styled Parliament. Its members have formed a shadow National Unity Government with guidelines for an interim constitution, and last week, a Peoples Defense Force as a precursor to a Federal Union Army. Many cities, towns and even neighborhoods had already formed local defense groups which in theory will now become part of the Peoples Defense Force. Aside from being morale boosters, these actions serve a strategic purpose by endorsing a federal style of government, which has been sought for decades by the countrys ethnic minorities to give them autonomous powers in the border areas where they predominate. Promoting federalism, in which the center shares power with the regions, aligns the interests of the anti-military pro-democracy movement with the goals of the ethnic minorities. In theory, this could add a real military component to a movement whose armaments are generally no deadlier than Molotov cocktails and air rifles though homemade bombs have been added to its arsenals in recent weeks. In practice, at least for the time being, the guerrilla armies of the Kachin in the north and the Karen in the east will fight as they always have, to protect their own territory. They can give military training to the thousands of activists that are claimed to have fled the cities to their zones, but are still overmatched by the governments forces. But on their home ground they hold an advantage against what their populations consider an occupying army. That may be enough. The only thing that the military is really threatened by is when all of these disparate voices and communities around the country actually start working against it, not as a unified monolith, but all working against the militarys interests, said the analyst, Mathieson. And I think thats the best that we can hope for moving forward, that the people recognize that all efforts have to go against the military. And if that means fighting up in the hills and doing peaceful protests and other forms of striking back against the military in the towns and the cities, then so be it. Its hard to gauge if the army has a breaking point. Mathieson said he's seen no signs the junta was willing to negotiate or concede anything. The Tatmadaw is remarkably resilient. And they recognize that this is an almost existential threat to their survival." ___ Associated Press journalist Jerry Harmer contributed to this report. The head of the Federal Aviation Administration expressed absolute confidence in the Boeing 737 Max on Wednesday and said fixing the latest problem in the troubled jetliner will be straightforward." FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson gave no date, however, for when roughly 100 grounded Max jets might be approved to fly again. Airlines that own the planes are waiting for Boeing to fix a production flaw involving improper electrical grounding of some components. Dickson testified before a House subcommittee that holds power over FAA spending. Lawmakers quizzed Dickson about the Max, drones, disruptive passengers and other topics. All Max jets were grounded worldwide for 20 months after two deadly crashes. A few months after FAA and regulators in other countries approved Boeing's changes to a key flight-control system implicated in the crashes, about 100 recently built Max jets including ones owned by Southwest, American, United and Alaska were grounded in early April by the electrical issue. Dickson said the FAA is still looking into how changes on the Boeing production line led to the electrical-grounding problem, and whether the issue is more widespread. However, he said the fix would be straightforward, and issued a broad defense of the plane. I have absolute confidence in the safety of this airplane, Dickson said. It is performing as well or better overall than any other airplane out there. Dickson said he based that assessment on daily discussions between the FAA and Boeing and regular checks with airlines. Boeing says that since returning to service late last year, Max jets have made 30,000 flights for 21 different airlines without incident. Last year, after accusations that the FAA was too cozy with Boeing, Congress enacted changes at the agency, including money to hire and retain technically skilled people, and increased protections for whistleblowers at aircraft-making companies. Dickson said the FAA is putting the changes into effect and has hired more safety experts. The agency still relies on Boeing employees to perform many safety-related duties Congress didn't change that but it has taken back some work it was outsourcing, including some safety analysis. A bill opposed by both environmental and some oil interests that would have given a nuclear waste company in West Texas a big break on state fees failed to receive a vote in the Texas House before a key deadline on Monday. House Bill 2692, which also would have banned the most dangerous type of radioactive waste from entering Texas for disposal under state law, was blocked from advancing by a point of order brought by state Reps. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, and Harold Dutton, D-Houston. It was sent back to committee and has failed to be voted out a second time before Monday, the last day House committees could report measures and have a chance of passing. State Rep. Brooks Landgraf, R-Odessa, whose district includes Andrews County, where the nuclear waste company Waste Control Specialists operates, had sought in the legislation to stop a plan to build a 332-acre site in West Texas near the New Mexico border to store the riskiest type of nuclear waste: spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants, which can remain dangerously radioactive for hundreds of thousands of years. But opponents of the bill including Craddick, whose district is nearby said the legislation wasnt strong enough to stop the federal government from forcing Texas to take the dangerous materials. Opponents believe the primary purpose of the legislation was to give the company a break on fees it pays for its existing lower-level radioactive waste disposal facility. This legislation would have not added the protections needed to prevent a high level radioactive waste ban in Texas, Craddick wrote in a statement saying he killed Landgrafs bill. Walking back on a promise to the Permian Basin is not an option. Craddick and Dutton who is known for bringing successful points of order blocked the bill on the grounds that the bills analysis does not adequately explain the legislation. Landgraf appeared taken aback by the opposition and apologized to the House for taking up time on what he thought would be a bipartisan bill to ban high-level nuclear waste from coming to Texas. It was never my intention for this bill to be a contentious issue, Landgraf said. He said that stakeholders agreed to the language in the bill in March. Waste Control Specialists has been disposing of the nations low-level nuclear waste, including tools, building materials and protective clothing exposed to radioactivity, for a decade in Andrews County. The company is currently pursuing, with a partner, a federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission license to store spent nuclear fuel on a site adjacent to its existing facility, a plan that both environmentalists and some oil companies that operate in the region have long opposed. Landgrafs bill would have reduced some state fees on the existing lower-level waste facility. With states in Texas radioactive waste compact, which currently include only Texas and Vermont, the bill would have eliminated a 5 percent fee that now goes to Texas and cut the fee on waste from other states from 20 percent to 5 percent. In a written statement, Waste Control Specialists president and chief operating officer David Carlson said the company remains committed to working closely with our community, our regulators, and the State of Texas to ensure the facility remains viable, safe, and an asset to the state and the states economy, and thanked Landgraf for his work on the legislation. Environmental and consumer groups opposed the bill along with the states GOP, which called it a bad bill and terrible for communities in an April 29 tweet from the partys official account. Adrian Shelley, director for Public Citizen, an Austin environmental and consumer advocacy group, said the fee reductions were his primary concern because it would have left the state with less money to clean up the site if an accident ever occured. The bill, front and back, was pretty concerning, he said. Its not the first time elected officials have blocked a fee reduction for the company in the Legislature. In 2019, Gov. Greg Abbott vetoed a widely supported bipartisan bill to protect domestic violence survivors because an amendment was erroneously added to delay an increase to a surcharge and state fee paid by Waste Control Specialists. Opponents said they are concerned that the idea to reduce fees on the facility is not dead; until the Texas Legislature adjourns on May 31, lawmakers may still file last-minute amendments or emergency legislation. We expect [Waste Control Specialists] will try to sneak it in somewhere, somehow, again, like they did last session, when they snuck it on to the domestic violence bill, said Karen Hadden, the executive director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, an alliance of businesses and organizations that opposes the nuclear waste facility. In a statement to the Tribune, Landgraf said he has other important work to focus on this session. It is highly unlikely that a statutory ban on the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in Texas, or any other provisions contained within HB 2692, will be achieved this legislative session, Landgraf said. -- This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/11/texas-nuclear-waste-bill-blocked/. The House GOP Conference voted on Wednesday morning to boot Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her position as conference chairwoman, the number three position in the partys leadership. The voice vote, held during a private meeting in the basement of the Capitol, was the second attempt to remove Cheney for her insufficient loyalty to former President Donald Trump this year. Cheney survived the first vote, in February, by a wide margin. What changed between February and May? Cheney lost the support of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who continues to court Trump and has visited the former presidents home in Florida. The voice vote means that there will be no written record of who voted for or against Cheneys removal. A vote to replace Cheney has not been set, but the job is expected to go to New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is running unopposed for the gig. Stefanik, who was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress when she took office in 2015, has played a crucial role in recruiting and supporting female candidates for the GOP. A record number of Republican women were elected last year, many with the help of Stefaniks PAC. Stefanik, who worked in George W. Bushs White House before running for Congress and was once a critic of Trumps, transformed into an loyal foot soldier for the president in recent years. Less than a week ago, the Congresswoman appeared on Steve Bannons podcast, where she offered support for an audit of the Arizona election results. Stefanik, though, will face her own headwinds. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas issued a memo cautioning against elevating Stefanik to the role, which is responsible for leading the partys messaging. In his letter Roy warns of the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats. Cheney, for her part, has spent the last several days crafting the messaging around her defenestration, and that message is that Republicans are canceling her for speaking out against Trump. Last night, Cheney delivered a speech defending her actions during a Freedom Caucus-organized gripe fest about cancel culture on the House floor. We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen. And America has not failed, Cheney said. Freedom only survives if we protect it. We must speak the truth. The election was not stolen. America has not failed. pic.twitter.com/H4KrMxkPdy Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) May 12, 2021 Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar, Cheney said. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former Presidents crusade to undermine our democracy. Cheneys supporters including Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), conservative activist Bob Vander Plaats and commentator Ana Navarro have all been sharing Cheneys talking points. And so have Democrats who may see Cheneys ouster as a chance to drive a wedge between those Republicans still bear hugging Trump and those ready to put the former president and all that he represents behind them. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), former Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill and Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), have picked up the theme, which is reportedly being driven by Nancy Pelosi. I think the removal of Liz Cheney is going to be a black mark on the Republican Party for a long time to come, Hoyer, Pelosis number two, said Tuesday. She told the truth. She keeps telling the truth, they cant take the truth because Donald Trump is not a friend of the truth. An international fashion design competition kicked off on May 10 in Jinan, east China's Shandong province. The event seeks to revive traditional Chinese clothing, help build high-end fashion brands, and foster industrial chains in the sector. The competition is open to university faculties and students majoring in fashion design, as well as independent fashion designers and those working for major fashion brands around the world. Competition entries are required to embody the principles of Confucianism and represent design concepts found in traditional Chinese clothing. A series of forums will also be held to discuss the design techniques used to make Lujin cloth, which is a traditional handmade floral cotton fabric found in Shandong province. Other forums will discuss the concept of Confucian clothing as well as how traditional Chinese clothing and how colors and styles indicate different levels of propriety. In addition to the main venue in Jinan, the competition will include parallel sessions in Qufu and Shanghai, connecting Confucius' hometown with China's fashion hub. Combining these historical regions aims to give the world a taste of unique Chinese clothing and the cultural connotations behind them. As one of the birthplaces of Chinese civilization, Shandong is home to a fine Confucian tradition spanning everything from ancient ritual music to exquisite clothing. For this reason, it has long enjoyed advantages in the textile and garment industry. As such, the competition has pooled resources to develop and support an outstanding and new generation of Chinese designers, help build fashion brands inspired by Chinese culture, and facilitate the industrial transformation and upgrading of the textile and garment industries in Shandong. All designs for the competition should be submitted online. The final deadline for submissions is July 16 this year, and the winners will be unveiled at the awards ceremony in late September. The National Rifle Association had a clever plan to avoid the state of New Yorks efforts to shut it down over allegations of executive self-enrichment: Declare bankruptcy and reincorporate in the Lone Star state. But Tuesday, after a weeks-long trial, a federal judge has called bullshit on the NRAs Texas two-step. U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge Harlin Hale ruled that the NRAs bankruptcy petition was not filed in good faith and represented, instead, an effort to gain an unfair litigation advantage against the state of New York and to avoid accountability in the state where the non-profit gun group has been chartered since the late 1800s. The question the court is faced with, Hale wrote, is whether the existential threat facing the NRA is the type of threat that the Bankruptcy Code is meant to protect against. The court believes it is not. The ruling was met with satisfaction by Letitia James, the attorney general in New York. The NRA does not get to dictate if and where it will answer for its actions, James wrote on Twitter. We sued the NRA to put an end to its fraud and abuse, and now we will continue our work to hold the organization accountable. In January, the @NRA filed for bankruptcy in an attempt to evade accountability in New York, despite claiming to have plenty of financial reserves. We sued the @NRA to put an end to its fraud and abuse, and now we will continue our work to hold the organization accountable. NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) May 11, 2021 The NRAs legal troubles are rooted in its profligate spending on executive perks, ranging from designer suits to private plane travel to yacht vacations in the Bahamas. Wayne LaPierre, the gun groups longtime CEO, has already repaid more than $300,000 in excess benefits. The NRA has accused its former top lobbyist of receiving at least $1 million in excess compensation. As a non-profit, the NRA is obligated to spend its money in the furtherance of its mission, and not for the enrichment of insiders. In an unusual move, the Department of Justice weighed in against granting the NRAs bankruptcy at the end of the trial earlier this month. The record is unrefuted that Wayne LaPierres personal expenses were made to look like business expenses, testified Lisa Lambert, a trustee with DOJ. The NRAs financial dirty laundry has come to light, in part, thanks to a high-profile legal battle between the gun group and its longtime PR firm Ackerman McQueen, which ran NRATV, and employed former NRA president Oliver North, who was accused of seeking to oust LaPierre in a coup. That internecine battle has left the NRA with a schism among its board members, one of whom testified in court that the NRA essentially operates as a kingdom rather than a corporation: Waynes kingdom. In a statement, LaPierre recognized defeat, but vowed to press on: The NRA remains committed to its members and our plan for the future, he said. Although we are disappointed in some aspects of the decision, there is no change in the overall direction of our Association. We remain an independent organization that can chart its own course, even as we remain in New York to confront our adversaries. The NRA will keep fighting, as weve done for 150 years. NEW YORK (AP) Silenced for 14 months by the pandemic and dealing with labor strife, the Metropolitan Opera will make a brief return Sunday. Music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin will conduct members of the Met orchestra and chorus in a program with soprano Angel Blue, tenor Stephen Costello baritone Justin Austin and bass-baritone Eric Owen. The 45-minute program of works by Terence Blanchard, Mozart and Verdi will be performed twice Sunday night before audiences of 150, which will include first responders and Met audience members selected by lottery. The concert will be at the Knockdown Center in Queens rather than the Metropolitan Opera House. The Met has not performed since March 11, 2020, because of the pandemic, canceling 276 performances plus an international tour scheduled for next month. The Met hopes to resume with a Verdi Requiem on Sept. 11 to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Next season is scheduled to start on Sept. 27 with the Met premiere of Blanchards Fire Shut Up in My Bones. However, the Met has locked out stagehands represented by Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, who planned a rally for Thursday outside Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company's contract with Local 802 of the American Federation of Musicians, which represents the orchestra, expires July 31. The Met reached a tentative agreement Tuesday on a four-year contract with the American Guild of Musical Artists, which represents the chorus. Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Imag As vaccinations on the mainland continue an upward trend, more and more visitors are heading to a popular destination: Hawaii. And most of them are coming from California. During Mothers Day weekend, 78,816 tourists arrived in Hawaii, the state reported on its travel dashboard. Westend61/Getty Images Millennials are an easy target, mocked for everything from their love of rose (it's delicious!) to living with their parents (you try entering the job market during the Great Recession). But now, according to a new study from the University of Texas at Austin, millennials can take the blame for something positive: lowering crime rates. Crime has steadily declined since 1990, though not for reasons you might think. In a new study from UT's prestigious LBJ School of Public Affairs, and recently published in "Journal of Quantitative Criminology," researchers found that it's not crime reduction efforts but millennials themselves who are responsible for the drop. Though there is some debate about what birth years define the millennial generation (the general consensus is 1980 to 1995), the UT study defines it as those born after 1985. Frank Hersom has been in Conroe long enough to have shopped at Wahrenbergers Hardware Store in downtown and gotten a haircut at Shepards Barber Shop when now-owner Leon Apostolo was just a teen. Frank and Merlynn Hersom moved to Conroe in 1975. They said back then, Conroe was still a small town. Now the couple has taken on the task of updating a Texas Historical Commission Historical Resources Survey for Conroe and others areas of Montgomery County. The last Historical Resources Survey was done in 1980 by the Montgomery County Historical Commission. According to Larry Foerster, Chairman of the Montgomery County Historical Commission, ideally these surveys should be done every 10 years. The project identifies homes, businesses and structures with historical importance. According to the Texas Historical Commission, architectural and archeological surveys identify significant properties in neighborhoods, communities and entire counties. Published inventories of such sites can be indispensable in raising a communitys awareness of its cultural heritage and in its planning efforts. Its a pretty ambitious project, Foerster said. Ive been interested in doing this for years. It needs to be done, but finding the manpower is always a challenge. Enter the Hersoms who became involved in the project through their church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Theyve done extensive family history research and were interested in diving into Conroes history. Frank Hersom has been getting his hair cut at Shepards Barber Shop since the 1970s and he also shopped at Wahrenberger Hard Ware store in its final years. It had everything you needed in it (Wahrenbergers) and it was stacked to the ceiling, Hersom said. I only got to go in it a few times before it closed. They first met with Foerster about the project in December and have completed 16 or 17 surveys so far. Their first focus is on Conroe. There are about 180 properties to be recorded in Conroe. Then the idea is to train others to do the survey and branch out in other areas of the county. The forms are set up by the Texas Historical Commission and the agency offers training tips on its website. Their first property was 805 Cable Street in Conroe. They were disappointed to arrive and find an empty lot, which does happen on sometimes in doing the project. Theyve made interesting discoveries about their construction while studying the columns at the old Capital Drug Store on Main Street and the Hicks Building on Simonton Street. Hersom also enjoyed reporting on Shepherds Barbershop, regarded as the oldest continuous barbershop in Texas. They say one of the most interesting properties theyve surveyed is the old Wahrenberger Funeral Home property at Main and Phillips streets. It contained three different structures each with its own address. According to research by the Hersoms, the first funeral home was a brick building at 428 N. Main Street. Eventually, a building designed for funerals was constructed at 103 W. Phillips Street, adjacent to the building used initially. John Wahrenberger hired his brother-in-law, Alfred Heaton Beck, to secure a morticians license and operate the first white funeral home in Conroe. A lot of times they are able to interview the owner of the structure or someone who has a personal history with the property. In the case of the Wahrenberger Funeral Home, they were able to interview Martha Adams Gandy who lived upstairs in the funeral home when she was a girl. Gandy moved to Conroe in 1937 as Wahrenberger was completing the first structure designed as a dedicated funeral home. According to research from the Hersoms, when her father, Thomas Adams, was hired to operate the facility, she and her family moved into the second floor of the funeral home. I was around 9 years old when we moved in, said Gandy in their interview. Living above a funeral home never bothered me but I remember a number of friends didnt like the idea of coming over and playing at my home. Forester said the couple is extremely thorough and hes blessed to have them leading the project. He said these surveys serve several purposes. Part of the goal is long term. This information will be useful when we are ready to apply for a National Historical District designation, Foerster said. It may also help as the city shows interest in rejoining the Main Street America program. Foerster said the surveys will also help to place both state and county historical markers at landmarks across the county. The hope is that the Hersoms will be able to train others to do some of the surveying. Individuals or organizations interested in helping with the project may contact Forester at foerster@dfcllp.com. Visit Historic Resources Survey | THC.Texas.gov - Texas Historical Commission for more about the Historical Resources Survey project. Visit https://www.montgomerycountyhistoricalcommission.com/ for more about the local organization. shernandez@hcnonline.com SEATTLE (AP) A person died in a fire at a senior housing building in Seattles Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, fire officials said. The Seattle Fire Department said on Twitter that fire crews responded to the blaze around 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, The Seattle Times reported. A few minutes later, the department said the fire was out and contained to one unit. A spokesperson for the Seattle Housing Authority confirmed the fire began at Michaelson Manor, a 57-unit building operated under the citys Senior Housing Program. Firefighters found the victim in the room where the fire started, fire officials said. The housing authority spokesperson declined to share details about the victim, citing tenant privacy concerns. Police are investigating. GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) An Alabama woman, who authorities believe stole money from a bank to pay for plastic surgery, pleaded guilty to robbery and will serve 15 years in prison. Iconic Facce, from the southern Alabama town of Ashford, entered her plea Monday to two counts of robbery, news outlets reported. She was sentenced to 15 years in prison for both counts to run concurrently. Facce admitted to robbing a Gulfport bank in March 2019. According to court documents, she gave a teller a handwritten note that read, you have 1 min to give the money do not be wrong are (sic) die. The banks surveillance system captured the robbery. No weapon was seen or shown, according to WLOX-TV. News outlets reported that an abandoned Cadillac was later found near the bank. Investigators traced it back to Facce and determined she was the suspect in the footage of the robbery. Photo lineups were presented to two bank tellers, and both identified Facce. Assistant District Attorney Ian Baker said investigators used geolocation data from Facces phone to determine she was in the area of the bank within the timeframe it was robbed. The phone was last located the next day at the Huntsville International Airport, Baker said. A week later, Facce was arrested at a Houston airport upon returning from Mexico. Authorities said they believed the trip was for plastic surgery, according to the Biloxi Sun Herald. Witnesses told police the suspects face was swollen in a way that was consistent with cosmetic surgery. WLOX reported that the case was scheduled for trial beginning June 28, but Facce requested to enter a guilty plea beforehand through her attorney. Facce previously served 51 months in prison for robbing a north Alabama bank in 2009, according to the Sun Herald. NEW YORK (AP) A Brooklyn man who prosecutors say twice pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and encouraged deadly lone-wolf attacks in New York Citys subways and elsewhere was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison. Zachary Clark's penalty was announced in Manhattan federal court by Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald. The judge said she wanted to send the message that provide or attempt to provide materials or support to a foreign terrorist organization and you will spend a very long time in jail. The bearded Clark, in an orange prison jumpsuit and black glasses, tried along with his lawyer to persuade Buchwald that he had reformed himself behind bars since his November 2019 arrest, in part by attending drug and anger-management programs. But the judge remained unconvinced. I have no confidence Mr. Clark can be a productive and law abiding citizen, Buchwald said as she ordered supervision for life once he is freed. Clark, 42, pleaded guilty in August to attempting to provide support to the Islamic State group. The 20-year sentence was the maximum. Prosecutors had requested it, noting that he posted maps and images of the subway system online in encrypted chat rooms, encouraged Islamic State supporters to attack it and urged lone-wolf attacks in the United States and elsewhere. In a release, Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers said Clark provided specific instructions to others about bomb-making and how to carry out knife attacks. Prosecutors say Clark's guidance included posting a manual entitled: Make a bomb in the kitchen of your Mom. Zachary Clark will no longer spend his time in chat rooms supporting terrorist ideals, but behind bars in federal prison for the next 20 years, William F. Sweeney Jr., head of New Yorks FBI office, said. Dermot Shea, commissioner of the New York City Police Department, said Clark claimed in his online propaganda to aspire to be a martyr on U.S. soil and credited his arrest on law enforcement's anti-terror intelligence sharing, joint investigation, and prosecution, which results in prevention. In court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Hellman countered defense claims that Clark made no secret of online pronouncements by saying he never used his real identity and utilized encrypted platforms because he was aware of law enforcement scrutiny and hoped to avoid it. Claims that Clark rejected radical violent ideology before his arrest were belied by the evidence, Hellman said. He added that law enforcement authorities were left to wonder who was radicalized as a result of materials Clark posted online. Defense attorney Jonathan Marvinny urged the judge to reject the parade of horribles suggested by the prosecutor and recognize that his client was trying to turn his life around after disavowing the Islamic State group. Given a chance to speak, Clark told the judge: To say I'm sorry would be a great understatement. I take full responsibility, he added. IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) Prosecutors dropped a misconduct charge against a Des Moines police officer accused of interfering with an investigation into a fellow officer who is his girlfriend, saying Wednesday that the evidence showed he didn't commit a crime. Des Moines Police Officer Rodney Briggs had been charged with non-felonious misconduct in office and placed on administrative leave in February. A criminal complaint alleged that he used his police identification to try to obtain video from a school district of an unspecified incident involving his girlfriend that police in the Des Moines suburb of Altoona were investigating. Briggs told Southeast Polk School District employees that he was conducting his own investigation, saying his girlfriend was being targeted by Altoona police and facing potential ruin. An Altoona officer sought the charge against Briggs, a serious misdemeanor that carried fines and could have devastated his policing career. The Polk County Attorney's Office dropped the case last week in the interest of justice, after deposition testimony showed Briggs was making an open records request for the video as a private citizen. While he mentioned his police position in making the request, he did not use his authority to require the school employees to do anything, an element needed to support the criminal charge, prosecutor Maurice Curry said in a court filing. County Attorney John Sarcone said Wednesday that Briggs' girlfriend is also a Des Moines officer a fact not mentioned in the complaint and that she was ultimately not charged. He didn't immediately release details on the incident in question. An attorney for Briggs said the evidence showed he was in plain clothes and driving his personal vehicle when he showed up at the district office in Altoona to request the video. Briggs told them he was familiar with the Iowa Open Records Act because of his prior service on the school board in Ames and his role as a police officer. He was directed to make the request in writing, and did so using a form provided by a state agency that oversees compliance with the law. District employees testified that they did not believe Briggs was acting in any capacity with the Des Moines Police Department and did not require them to perform any act. Rodney is grateful that the charges against him are dismissed in this matter," said his attorney, Matthew Sease. "However, it is unfortunate that charges were ever filed when each witness was emphatic that Rodney was not in any way acting in his official capacity, but instead was making an open records request as every Iowan has a right to do. Sarcone said that his office had probable cause to charge Briggs in February, but responded when exculpatory information emerged during the discovery process. We did what we would do in any case where we could not establish the elements of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt: We dismissed it, Sarcone said. In light of the dismissal, the Des Moines Police Department will reinstate Briggs to his regular duty assignment, spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said. An internal investigation, launched in February, is still ongoing, he said. Parizek referred questions about the incident involving Briggs' girlfriend to the Altoona Police Department, where Chief Greg Stallman didn't immediately return a message. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) Israel on Wednesday pressed ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing as many as 10 senior Hamas military figures and toppling a pair of high-rise towers housing Hamas facilities in airstrikes. The Islamic militant group showed no signs of backing down and fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities. In just three days, this latest round of fighting between the bitter enemies has already begun to resemble and even exceed a devastating 50-day war in 2014. Like in that previous war, neither side appears to have an exit strategy. But there are key differences. The fighting has triggered the worst Jewish-Arab violence inside Israel in decades. And looming in the background is an international war crimes investigation. Israel carried out an intense barrage of airstrikes just after sunrise, striking dozens of targets in several minutes that set off bone-rattling explosions across Gaza. Airstrikes continued throughout the day, filling the sky with pillars of smoke. At nightfall, the streets of Gaza City resembled a ghost town as people huddled indoors on the final night of Islam's holiest month of Ramadan. The evening, followed by the Eid al-Fitr holiday, is usually a time of vibrant night life, shopping and crowded restaurants. There is nowhere to run. There is nowhere to hide, said Zeyad Khattab, a 44-year-old pharmacist who fled with a dozen other relatives to a family home in central Gaza after bombs pounded his apartment building in Gaza City. That terror is impossible to describe. Gaza militants continued to bombard Israel with nonstop rocket fire throughout the day and into early Thursday. The attacks brought life to a standstill in southern communities near Gaza, but also reached as far north as the Tel Aviv area, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) to the north, for a second straight day. The military said sirens also wailed in northern Israel's Emek area, or Jezreel Valley, the farthest the effects of Gaza rockets have reached since 2014. The Israeli army also shared footage showing a rocket impact between apartment towers in the Tel Aviv suburb of Petah Tikva early Thursday, apparently sparking a large fire. It said the strike left people wounded and caused significant damage. We're coping, sitting at home, hoping it will be OK, said Motti Haim, a resident of the central town of Beer Yaakov and father of two children. It's not simple running to the shelter. It's not easy with the kids. Gazas Health Ministry said the death toll rose to 69 Palestinians, including 16 children and six women. Islamic Jihad confirmed the deaths of seven militants, while Hamas acknowledged that a top commander and several other members were killed. Rescuers pulled the bodies of a man and his wife from the debris of their home that was hit by rockets in the latest Israeli airstrikes early Thursday, relatives said. A total of seven people have been killed in Israel, including four people who died on Wednesday. Among them were a soldier killed by an anti-tank missile and a 6-year-old child hit in a rocket attack. The Israeli military claims the number of militants killed so far is much higher than Hamas has acknowledged. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said at least 14 militants were killed Wednesday including 10 members of the top management of Hamas and four weapons experts. Altogether, he claimed some 30 militants have been killed since the fighting began. More raids conducted early Thursday were aimed at several strategically significant facilities for Hamas, including a bank and a compound for a naval squad, the military said. While United Nations and Egyptian officials have said that cease-fire efforts are underway, there were no signs of progress. Israeli television's Channel 12 reported late Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Security Cabinet authorized a widening of the offensive. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the indiscriminate launching of rockets from civilian areas in Gaza toward Israeli population centers, but he also urged Israel to show maximum restraint. President Joe Biden called Netanyahu to support Israels right to defend itself and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to try to calm tensions. The current eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed Israeli police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police. A focal point was the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound that is revered by Jews and Muslims, where police fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters who threw chairs and stones at them. Hamas, claiming to be defending Jerusalem, launched a barrage of rockets at the city late Monday, setting off days of fighting. The Israeli military says militants have fired about 1,500 rockets in just three days. That is roughly one-third the number fired during the entire 2014 war. Israel, meanwhile, has struck over 350 targets in Gaza, a tiny territory where 2 million Palestinians have lived under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took power in 2007. Two infantry brigades were sent to the area, indicating preparations for a possible ground invasion. In tactics echoing past wars, Israel has begun to target senior members of Hamas military wing. It also has flattened three high-rise buildings in a tactic that has drawn international scrutiny in the past. Israel says the buildings all housed Hamas operations centers, but they also included residential apartments and businesses. In all cases, Israel fired warning shots, allowing people to flee, and there were no reports of casualties. The fighting has set off violent clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel, in scenes unseen since 2000. Netanyahu warned that he was prepared to use an iron fist if necessary to calm the violence. But ugly clashes erupted across the country late Wednesday. Jewish and Arab mobs battled in the central city of Lod, the epicenter of the troubles, despite a state of emergency and nighttime curfew. In nearby Bat Yam, a mob of Jewish nationalists attacked an Arab motorist, dragged him from his car and beat him until he was motionless. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it thwarted a Palestinian shooting attack that wounded two people. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the suspected gunman was killed. No details were immediately available. Still unclear is how the fighting in Gaza will affect Netanyahus political future. He failed to form a government coalition after inconclusive parliamentary elections in March, and now his political rivals have three weeks to try to form one. His rivals have courted a small Islamist Arab party. But the longer the fighting lasts, the more it could hamper their attempts at forming a coalition. It could also boost Netanyahu if another election is held, since security is his strong suit with the public. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. The International Criminal Court has launched an investigation into possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas. In a brief statement, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she had noted with great concern the escalation of violence and the possible commission of crimes. The ICC is looking into Israeli actions in past wars in Gaza. Israel is not a member of the court, does not recognize the ICCs jurisdiction and rejects the accusations. But in theory, the ICC could issue warrants and try to arrest Israeli suspects while they are traveling overseas. Conricus, the military spokesman, said Israeli forces respect international laws on armed conflict and do their utmost to minimize civilian casualties. Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group fires rockets from residential areas. Emanuel Gross, a professor emeritus the University of Haifa law school, said Israel should take into consideration the concerns of the ICC. But he said he believes the military is on solid legal ground while rockets are striking Israeli cities. Thats the real meaning of self defense, he said. If you are attacked by a terrorist group, you defend yourself. ___ Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report. China on Tuesday held a symposium on work related to real estate tax reform, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on its wesbite. Attended by officials from the MOF, the Commission for Budget Affairs with the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development as well as the State Taxation Administration, the meeting heard suggestions on pilot programs on property tax reform from municipal government officials and experts. China will push for real estate tax legislation, according to the Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, approved by the NPC in March. Scott Bauer/AP MADISON, Wis. (AP) Gov. Tony Evers said Wednesday that the federal government's decision to send Wisconsin $700 million less in coronavirus relief dollars than first estimated could mean there will be less money for broadband expansion and the state's pandemic response. Evers' administration had expected $3.2 billion in stimulus aid. But the administration learned on Monday that it will receive only $2.5 billion in two payments a year apart. BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) A former Bremerton police detective caught on camera stealing cash during a search of a suspected drug dealers house pleaded guilty to theft and other charges and was sentenced to inpatient drug treatment. Jeffery Inklebarger, 52, pleaded guilty to theft, perjury and forgery, The Kitsap Sun reported. Kitsap County Deputy Prosecutor Tim Lewis said Inklebarger was sentenced last week to the treatment program because his crimes were found to have been motivated by a prescription pill addiction. MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Derek Chauvin could face a much harsher prison sentence after a judge found several aggravating factors in George Floyd's death. Chauvin, 45, was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter for pressing his knee against Floyd's neck for about 9 1/2 minutes as the Black man said he couldn't breathe. Breaking down Chauvin's potential sentence is complicated, but it starts with Minnesota statutes that call for him to be sentenced on only the most serious charge second-degree murder, which has a maximum penalty of 40 years. Legal experts said the practical maximum Chauvin would face is 30 years. And that's an upper limit that Judge Peter Cahill put within reach in a ruling announced Wednesday. He sided with prosecutors' arguments that Chauvin committed particular cruelty in Floyd's death and abused his authority as a police officer. Cahill is scheduled to sentence Chauvin on June 25. Here's a breakdown on the nuances in Minnesota sentencing and how they affect Chauvin's case: WHY WON'T WE SEE MULTIPLE SENTENCES FOR CHAUVIN? Because all the charges stem from one act, carried out against one person. Multiple sentences are typically handed down in cases when there are convictions for multiple victims, or multiple crimes against one victim. For example, if a defendant is convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman two crimes against one victim a judge would issue a sentence on each count, and could rule that they be served at the same time or consecutively, said former Hennepin County chief public defender Mary Moriarty. That's not the case here, Moriarty said. This case involved three different theories of the same behavior toward the same person. IS THERE ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF THIS? In another high-profile murder case involving a Minneapolis officer, Mohamed Noor was convicted of third-degree murder and manslaughter in the 2017 shooting death of Justine Ruszczyk Damond. Noor was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison on the third-degree murder conviction, but no penalty was issued for manslaughter. If Noor's murder charge is tossed out on appeal, which is pending, he would then be sentenced on that lesser count. Likewise, if Chauvin's second-degree murder count is ultimately dismissed, he would be brought back to court for resentencing on the top remaining charge. WHY IS IT UNLIKELY CHAUVIN WILL GET THE 40-YEAR MAX? Minnesota has sentencing guidelines that were created to establish rational, consistent sentences and ensure sentences are neutral without considering factors such as race or gender. The guidelines say that even though they are advisory, presumptive sentences are deemed appropriate and judges should only depart from them when substantial and compelling circumstances can be identified and articulated. For second-degree unintentional murder, guidelines say the presumptive sentence 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. Prosecutors sought an upward departure for Chauvin, citing several aggravating factors including that Chauvin was a uniformed officer acting in a position of authority, and that his crime was witnessed by multiple children including a 9-year-old girl who testified that watching the restraint made her sad and kind of mad. WHAT HAPPENED WITH AGGRAVATING FACTORS? Cahill's decision was nearly a clean sweep for prosecutors. He agreed that Chauvin had abused his authority as a police officer and that he treated Floyd with particular cruelty. He also cited the presence of children when the crime was committed and the fact that Chauvin was part of a group with at least three other people. The only point prosecutors failed to prove, Cahill wrote, was that Floyd was any more vulnerable than any other murder victim. SO WHAT'S REALISTIC? Because Cahill found aggravating factors, he's now allowed to sentence Chauvin above what the guidelines recommend for a person with no criminal record convicted of second-degree murder. Still, experts have said the max will be 30 years double the high end of the guideline range. If Cahill were to sentence Chauvin to anything above that, he risks having his decision reversed on appeal. Mark Osler, a professor at University of St. Thomas School of Law, said the Minnesota Supreme Court set a standard maximum for upward departures in the 1981 State v. Evans case, finding that generally, when an upward departure is justified, the upper limit will be double the presumptive sentence length." The court stressed that doubling the guideline range is only an upper limit and shouldn't be automatic. The justices also left room for the rare case in which a judge would be justified in going even higher. Mitchell Hamline law professor Ted Sampsell-Jones said last year's State v. Barthman opinion reaffirmed the Evans rule and sent a signal that sentences exceeding a doubling of guidelines should be in fact extremely rare and almost never happen. DOES ANYTHING ELSE GO INTO SENTENCING? Osler said attorneys for both sides will now present arguments on whether an upward departure is appropriate and how long they believe the sentence should be. Cahill will also pore over a pre-sentence investigation report, which is usually nonpublic. It's typically prepared by a probation officer and includes highly personal information such as family history and mental health issues. It also includes details of the offense and the harm it caused others and the community. TIME ACTUALLY SERVED? No matter what sentence Chauvin gets, in Minnesota it's 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. That means if Chauvin is sentenced to 30 years, he would likely serve 20 behind bars, as long as he causes no problems in prison. Once on supervised release, he could be sent back to prison if he violates conditions of his parole. WILL WE HEAR FROM CHAUVIN? That's hard to say. He has the right to make a statement during his sentencing hearing, but Moriarty said that can be tricky. While judges want people to take responsibility and be remorseful and can take that into consideration in sentencing a defendant also wouldn't want to say anything that could jeopardize a possible appeal. Chauvin also faces new federal charges, alleging he violated Floyd's civil rights. Thats the hard part because I think everybody, including family, wants to hear him say something about how he is sorry, she said. ___ Find APs full coverage of the death of George Floyd at: https://apnews.com/hub/death-of-george-floyd TAMPA, Fla. (AP) A Florida woman faces a possible life sentence for selling drugs that led to a man's fatal overdose. Joamary Rosario, 30, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Tampa federal court to knowingly and intentionally distributing a substance containing a mixture of heroin, acetyl fentanyl and fentanyl to an individual who died as a result of using the substance, according to court records. A sentencing date wasn't immediately scheduled. Rosario and her supplier delivered 10 plastic bags of the drug mixture to the man's Tampa Bay area hotel in November 2018, according to a plea agreement. The man used one bag of the mixture that night and died of an overdose, officials said. A friend found the man's body the next morning and called 911. Law enforcement officers reported finding the unused bags of drugs in the man's hotel room, along with his cellphones. Investigators found drug-related text messages and then posed as the man to order more of the same drugs, officials said. Rosario was arrested a few hours later after arriving at the hotel with several bags of the drug mixture, authorities said. FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) Teachers and other employees of the Fort Wayne Community Schools will receive payments of up to $2,000 for working during the pandemic, the school board has voted. The board on Monday unanimously approved applying about $7 million in federal coronavirus relief dollars to employee stipends of $1,000, $1,500 or $2,000, The Journal Gazette reported. MADISON, Wis. (AP) Republican legislative leaders moved Wednesday toward joining a federal lawsuit demanding that states be allowed to use federal coronavirus relief money to cover tax cuts. Senate President Chris Kapenga and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos began circulating a paper ballot among members of the joint committee that handles operational tasks for both houses asking for authorization to join the lawsuit and split costs between the houses. TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Kansas state government offices will return to normal operations in mid-June after more than a year of having many employees work remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Laura Kelly announced Wednesday. But Kelly said state employees and visitors to their offices still will be required to wear masks and to maintain social distancing. She also said agency directors can allow people to work from home, particularly when social distancing is not possible, provided there is no disruption to agency operations. The changes take effect the week of June 13, which means Monday, June 14 for most workers. The governor directed most state employees to work remotely last spring. Her administration did not have a number or percentage for how many of the 17,500 employees directly under her control still are not working in their offices at least one day a week. DeAngela Burns-Wallace, head of the state Department of Administration, said in a memo to other agency heads and human resources directors: We should start from the stance of having state employees working in our offices still is a preferred norm." She said in her memo that the state could move ahead because of widespread availability of rapid and accurate coronavirus testing and the ability of all state workers to get vaccinated by the end of this month. The Kansas Organization of State Employees called the reopening policy flexible and cited its safety precautions in backing Kelly's move along with an affiliated union, the American Federation of Teachers-Kansas. The plan allows for agencies to determine their own remote work policies and accommodations and includes thoughtful workplace protections for health risks the virus poses to state workers and their families, AFT-Kansas President Sarah LaFrenz said in a statement. Top Republicans in the GOP-controlled Kansas Legislature said the decision was overdue. House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., an Olathe Republican, responded to Kellys order by saying, Its about time. He said people, businesses and nonprofit groups deserve a state government that is fully open. And Senate President Ty Masterson, an Andover Republican, said: Most Kansans have been back to normal for weeks, if not months, and it seems unnecessary to continue to impose mask and distancing rules. In Missouri, Republican Gov. Mike Parson ordered all state employees to return to working in their offices Monday, without requirements for masks and social distancing. Only about a third of the states 33,000 employees still were working remotely. In Kansas, Republican lawmakers have been critical of the Democratic governor for months over her handling of the pandemic. They've argued that restrictions she imposed early on were tougher than they needed to be and unnecessarily damaged the economy. Kelly has defended her actions as crucial when state officials feared that a big, early surge in COVID-19 cases would overwhelm hospitals and Kansas scrambled to find personal protective equipment and testing supplies. Burns-Wallace's memo said notices of mask-wearing requirements will remain posted at entrances to state buildings and stations that check people's temperatures will remain in place. Meanwhile, Kansas Department of Health and Environment data released Wednesday showed that an average of 3,558 people more a day had received their first vaccine shots during the seven days ending Wednesday. That's only 19% of the peak average of 18,533 a day for the seven days ending April 7. The department said less than 1.16 million of the state's 2.9 million residents or 39.7% had received at least one vaccine shot. The Stormont Vail health system in northeast Kansas, which has been running a mass vaccination clinic at Topeka's largest events center, said Wednesday that it will take appointments only for Fridays, starting next week. The health system also said it also was opening appointments to any Kansas resident 12 or older. ___ Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna CAIRO (AP) Two protesters were killed when Sudanese security forces dispersed a demonstration late Tuesday in the capital of Khartoum, a local medical group said. The violence broke out when dozens of protesters made their way late in the day to the sealed-off area outside the militarys headquarters to commemorate a deadly break-up of a protester camp two years ago. The protesters have demanded justice for those killed in the 2019 violence. Security forces closed off major roads and streets leading to the government and military headquarters in Khartoum ahead of the protests. The Sudanese doctors committee said security forced fired live bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters, killing at least two people and wounding more than 15 others, some of them in critical condition. The committee is the medical arm of the Sudanese Professionals Association, which spearheaded the popular uprising that led to the militarys ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April 2019. Sudan has since then been on a fragile path to democracy and is ruled by a military-civilian government now rules the country. The military said in a statement it regretted the violence in Tuesdays demonstration outside its headquarters, vowing to investigate and bring those responsible before justice.. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok called for an urgent meeting with his defense and interior ministers, Khartoum governor and the countrys chief spy. Video footage circulated online showed protesters holding Sudanese flags. At some point, a mother of one of those killed in 2019 read a statement blaming that incident on Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, commander of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and deputy head of ruling sovereign council. A spokesman for the RSF did not respond to phone calls seeking comment. The June 2019 disposal of the Khartoum protest camp coincided with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Over 120 people were killed in that dayslong crackdown, according to protest groups. The government established an independent committee in 2019 to look into the crackdown, but the panel repeatedly missed its deadlines for reporting, angering the victims families and protest groups. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) More than 20 hospitals want a slew of documents from a drug manufacturer made public after a Tennessee judge ruled against the company without a trial in a lawsuit over the opioid epidemic, saying the company intentionally withheld records and lied at least a dozen times. The hospitals, which are in Tennessee and Virginia, filed a motion last week to intervene and make documents from Endo Pharmaceuticals available to them and the public from legal discovery in the case in Sullivan County Circuit Court. The hospitals in 2019 filed their own lawsuit pending against Endo and other pharmaceutical companies in Tennessee in Greene County, and it's been transferred to federal court. The hospitals are now asking a judge to order the release of the documents in the Sullivan County case. The plaintiffs in that case include northeastern Tennessee district attorneys and a baby born with neonatal abstinence syndrome due to exposure to opioids during the mother's pregnancy. The hospitals contend they want to avoid running into the same problems the judge cited against Endo. Accordingly, the hospitals, and the public as a whole, have a social and economic interest in gaining expeditious and ready access to the Endo documents and materials produced in this case through the efforts of the Court and the plaintiffs without having to face the burdens, roadblocks and misrepresentations encountered all over again in what has become a nationwide litigation strategy by Endo. Last month, Chancellor E.G. Moody entered the default judgment against Endo, a rare move to rule against the opioid firm before a civil trial over its role in the epidemic. Moody wrote that there was a coordinated strategy by the company and its attorneys to delay proceedings, deprive plaintiffs of information and interfere with the administration of justice. The judge said the company produced almost 400,000 more documents after the discovery period closed, despite saying in February 2020 that it had not withheld anything. Many of the records that the company knowingly withheld were highly relevant and in some cases directly contradict testimony by Endos witnesses, the judge wrote. The company has said that it plans to appeal the judges orders in the Sullivan County case, calling them procedurally, factually, and legally deficient. Endo did not respond to a request for comment on the hospitals' motion to release the documents publicly. The judge has set a July 26 start to a trial over how much in damages to award in the case. Attorney Gary Brewer, who is representing the hospitals, said theres an overpowering reason to unseal Endos documents. They just dont want the public to know what theyve done, Brewer said in a phone interview. And theyve made a fortune out of selling these pills. CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) Democratic U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin is joining first lady Jill Biden and actor Jennifer Garner during a visit to West Virginia on Thursday. Biden's office announced Wednesday that she and Manchin will arrive at Yeager Airport in Charleston before joining Garner at a coronavirus vaccination center and deliver remarks at Capital High School. China's most recent national census data have revealed the demographic changes and trends of the world's most populous country, offering strong statistical support for its efforts in advancing high-quality development. China's population on the mainland maintained steady growth, reaching 1.41178 billion in 2020, an increase of 5.38 percent from 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday. Between 2010 and 2020, the education level of China's citizens improved continuously, the gender ratio became more balanced, changes in family-planning policy led to a rebound of new births, population mobility increased and the urbanization rate further elevated, the census data show. Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, told a press conference that such major changes reflect the historical course of economic, social and demographic development, but the census data also point to challenges that the country will be actively addressing. POSITIVE CHANGES China maintains its position as the most populous country on the planet, with its population on the mainland accounting for about 18 percent of the world's total. "China's advantage as a super-large domestic market will exist for a long time," said Ning. He attributed the basically steady growth over the past decade to China's large population base, which has ensured more than 10 million newborn babies every year, as well as a shift to the two-child policy, which resulted in a rebound in the number of births. In 2020, China's population aged between zero and 14 hit 253.38 million, an increase of 30.92 million from 10 years ago, or 1.35 percentage points in proportion to the total population. The country saw the male-to-female ratio hit a record low of 105.07 in 2020, the most balanced gender ratio since the first census in 1953. Over the past decade, China accomplished positive achievements in vigorously developing higher education and eliminating illiteracy among young adults. The number of people who had received or were receiving college-level education reached 218.36 million in 2020, while the illiteracy rate declined to 2.67 percent from 4.08 percent in 2010. "Talent dividends will gradually emerge following the improved education level," said Ning. The country also made steady progress in promoting new urbanization, with 901.99 million people living in urban areas on the mainland, accounting for 63.89 percent of the total population. There were also changes in the data-collection methods used in the census last year. Electronic data collection was adopted for the first time, allowing real-time reporting. Residents were also allowed to document their information online themselves. Big data and cloud technology, services and applications were used in data processing, improving the efficiency and quality of the census. LOOKING FORWARD As China enters the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the country has to cope with various issues in order to achieve high-quality growth, including a slower rate of population growth and an increasing elderly population. The average annual population growth rate from 2010 to 2020 stood at 0.53 percent, slightly lower than the 0.57 percent recorded from 2000 to 2010, according to the NBS. Ning said the slight decrease in the annual growth rate was due to a mix of factors, including a continued drop in the number of women of childbearing age, couples delaying having children, and the rising cost of childbearing and parenting. "This is an objective outcome of China's economic development, particularly as the country's industrialization and urbanization reaches a certain stage," he said, noting that it is a universal issue and particularly evident in developed countries. He expects China's population to stay above 1.4 billion "for a certain period in the future," citing positive factors that will continue to support future growth. "China's population will peak in the future, but there remains uncertainty as to exactly when it will happen," Ning said. According to the latest census data, Chinese people aged 60 or above accounted for 18.7 percent of the country's total population in 2020, 5.44 percentage points higher than in 2010. An aging population is an important trend of social development, and it will be China's basic national condition for a long time, said Ning. He said China's increasing elderly population will reduce supply in the labor force, while increasing the burden on families' elderly care and the pressure on the supply of basic public services. But it can also promote the development of the "silver economy," expand the consumption of products and services for the elderly, and boost technical advances, he said. China will make overall plans and take specific measures to address its aging population as a major national strategy now and for a period of time in the future, said Ning, adding that in-depth data analysis will be carried out to provide statistical support for policy-making. BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) Attorneys for a white father and son charged with chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery asked a judge Wednesday to allow evidence of the slain Black man's past problems to be presented when their clients stand trial for murder. Four law enforcement officers took the witness stand at a pretrial hearing and detailed prior encounters with Arbery, including two arrests, that defense lawyers ultimately want a jury to hear. They also sought permission to introduce evidence Arbery suffered from a mental illness. They're trying to make it like he's on trial, the slain man's father, Marcus Arbery Sr., told reporters outside the Glynn County courthouse. But he ain't. Prosecutors argued that Arbery's criminal record and other prior problems should be kept out of the trial, saying they are irrelevant to the defendants' decision to arm themselves and ultimately shoot a man who was trying to run away. Travis McMichael and his father, Greg McMichael, pursued the 25-year-old in a pickup truck after they spotted him running in their neighborhood Feb. 23, 2020. A neighbor, William Roddie Bryan, joined the chase and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times at close range with a shotgun. Defense attorneys argue the three men committed no crimes. They say the McMichaels suspected Arbery was a burglar after he was recorded by video cameras inside a home under construction. Travis McMichael's lawyers say he shot Arbery in self-defense. Prosecutors say nothing was stolen from the construction site and Arbery was merely jogging. Jason Sheffield, one of Travis McMichael's lawyers, told Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley on Wednesday that Arbery's past arrests and other incidents include not only theft crimes. He said they also show Arbery when confronted by police or other authority figures would become angry and aggressive, physically and verbally. His intent and his motive is something that is central to this case, Sheffield said. Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski argued Arbery's past had no bearing on the McMichaels' decision to pursue him since they knew nothing about him prior to the fatal chase. It doesn't matter what Mr. Arbery's thoughts were... It doesn't matter what his actions were," Dunikoski said. He was running away from these men. Attorneys for the McMichaels want the jury to know about several incidents from Arberys past, including that he was on probation at the time he was killed. Arbery pleaded guilty to charges he carried a gun onto a high school campus in 2013, a year after he graduated. Rodney Ellis, police chief for the Glynn County school system, testified at Wednesday's hearing that Arbery tried to evade officers on foot and stopped only when two of them pointed guns at him. Officer Robert Mydell of Glynn County police testified about Arbery's 2017 arrest on charges that he tried to steal a TV from a Walmart store. Court records show he pleaded guilty to shoplifting. Two other officers testified they recalled encounters with Arbery, saying he became angry when questioned. He was not charged with crimes in either instance. And a local convenience store manager, Crystal Wilson, told the judge about a young Black man who several times stole food. Wilson said she recognized it was Arbery after seeing his photo in the newspaper after his death. The judge did not rule on that evidence Wednesday, instead asking both sides to submit written briefs within 20 to 40 days. The judge and lawyers planned to return to court Thursday to delve deeper into whether Arbery's mental health could be relevant to the case. Sheffield said jurors should be allowed to decide whether mental illness may have played a role in Arbery engaging in hand-to-hand combat with Travis McMichael before he was shot. Dunikoski said defense attorneys are essentially seeking to tell a jury: "Mr. Arbery wasnt right, he had some mental issues ... therefore its his fault they had to kill him. The judge chose not to hear testimony Wednesday on Arbery's mental health, expressing concern about discussing private medical records in open court. All three men are charged with malice murder and other counts. Jury selection is scheduled to begin Oct. 18 in Brunswick, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Savannah. The case sparked a national outcry during a year of protests over killings of unarmed Black people. The Justice Department on April 28 added hate crime charges against the McMichaels and Bryan, who all pleaded not guilty to the federal counts before a U.S. magistrate judge Tuesday. Prosecutors asked the judge to set aside until the trial a legal motion on whether jurors may see text messages and social media posts they contend show a lack of racial goodwill by all three defendants. They include a text message exchange from 2019 in which Travis McMichael twice uses a racist slur for Black people. Dunikoski told the judge Wednesday prosecutors only intend to use that evidence if it becomes relevant" during the trial. ST. LOUIS (AP) A federal judge says a Missouri county cannot enforce ordinances that target panhandlers and violate their free-speech rights, and has awarded $150,000 to a homeless man who was cited 31 times. Robert Fernandez has also been arrested four times in St. Louis County for soliciting without a license. County police officers repeatedly arrested and detained (Fernandez) for engaging in protected First Amendment speech, pursuant to an unconstitutional ordinance defendant implemented and enforced, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. wrote in his decision Tuesday. The judge said the county cannot enforce an anti-vagrancy ordinance, one barring people from standing in a road to solicit, and another covering solicitor licensing, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. Limbaugh noted that the county required a soliciting license only for those seeking property or financial assistance or selling or taking orders for certain items. The judge wrote that the county had not supported its claims that the ordinances promoted safety for traffic and pedestrians. Limbaugh said the ordinances were not applied to people who advocated for a political cause, solicited votes or were seeking petition signatures. One of Fernandezs attorneys, Bevis Schock, said Limbaugh didnt stop the county from having ordinances that improve safety for pedestrians and drivers "but the way the county wrote this one (ordinance) was obviously an attempt to restrict speech by poor people. They said it was OK for a politician to stand on the side of the street and ask for money, but not Robert Fernandez. I dont think that helped their case, Schock said. Limbaugh also awarded Fernandezs attorneys $138,515. St. Louis County Counselor Beth Orwick told the Post-Dispatch that the county is reviewing the decision. CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) A judge has overturned a man's conviction in the 1980 fatal shooting of an off-duty Hammond police officer because prosecutors failed to disclose evidence to the man's attorneys that could have helped clear him. Lake County Criminal Court Judge Salvador Vasquez set aside 58-year-old James Hill Jr.'s murder conviction Tuesday after his attorney and a prosecutor filed a joint motion asking the judge to release Hill from prison on his own recognizance pending a resolution in the case. Hill, of Gary, was convicted in August 2018 of murder in perpetration of a robbery in the November 1980 killing of 33-year-old Officer Lawrence Pucalik. Prosecutors said Hill, then 17, waited in a getaway car while two accomplices entered a Hammond hotel, demanded money from a clerk and shot Pucalik, who was working as a security guard. Hill has denied involvement. Hill's attorney, Scott King, and Lake County First Assistant Deputy Prosecutor Peter Villarreal listed several evidentiary issues in their motion, including newly discovered videotaped statements that weren't previously disclosed to the defense, The (Northwest Indiana) Times reported. Their motion also cited DNA found on a towel in the alleged getaway car that eliminated Hill and two co-defendants as its source. Both sides agreed that the evidence that wasn't disclosed was exculpatory or could have been used to test the credibility of witnesses, and that as a result, the state had been required to disclose it. Upon discovering that said evidence was not disclosed to Hill prior to trial, the prosecutors office conducted a thorough investigation in an effort to determine why the evidence was not disclosed, the joint motion states. The investigation revealed that the states failure to turn over evidence was the result of oversight and not intentional. Hills attorneys do not have evidence to suggest that the failure to disclose the evidence was intentional, the filing states. Lake County Prosecutor Bernard Carter said Hill is entitled to a new trial and that his office plans to request a date for it during a June 9 status hearing. Hill was originally sentenced to 47 years in prison in Pucalik's killing, but Vasquez reduced it to 40 years last June after the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld Hills conviction in November 2019 but found that the judge didnt follow guidelines that were in place at the time of Pucalik's killing. Hill's two co-defendants in the case are Pierre Catlett and Larry Mayes. Catlett's murder trial is set to begin Aug. 30, while Mayes was declared medically incompetent to stand trial in March 2014 and charges against him were subsequently dismissed. COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) A federal judge rejected a plea agreement on Wednesday that called for 15 to 21 years in prison for a man authorities described as the worlds largest purveyor of child pornography. Eric Eoin Marques is entitled to withdraw his guilty plea from last year if the judge departs from the sentencing range prosecutors and defense attorneys recommended. But U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang isn't bound by the terms of the Justice Departments plea deal. It's too flawed, and I also don't agree with the outcome, Chuang said. The judge said he's inclined to give Marques a longer sentence for operating a web hosting service that enabled users to anonymously access millions of illicit images and videos, many depicting the rape and torture of infants and toddlers. The judge criticized a provision of the plea deal that wouldn't give Marques credit for six years he spent in custody in Ireland while fighting extradition after his 2013 arrest in Dublin. Chuang said he can't tell the federal Bureau of Prisons to refrain from counting those years when Marques likely is entitled to get credit for that time. The judge said he isn't prepared to impose a sentence of 15 to 21 years if Marques does get credit for those six years. I want a sentence higher than that, Chuang added. It's not going to be 21 minus 6 to 15. That's not going to happen. I don't have to follow what you all did. It's clear neither of you really understood what you were doing. Chuang also expressed frustration that prosecutors and defense lawyers still couldn't agree on certain facts of the case even after spelling them out in writing as part of the deal. I certainly think the process was such that I shouldn't defer to the parties' agreement when I'm not sure they really thought it out that carefully, he said. Defense attorney Brendan Hurson told the judge that his remarks give them a platform to negotiate further. If we can't get somewhere, then we would ask for some time to set a trial date, Hurson said. Chuang instructed the attorneys to provide him with a status report by June 25. Marques, a 35-year-old dual citizen of the U.S. and Ireland, was extradited to Maryland in March 2019, and pleaded guilty in February 2020 to conspiracy to advertise child pornography. He faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison before the plea deal. Marques created and operated a free, anonymous web hosting service, called Freedom Hosting, on the darknet between 2008 and 2013. The darknet is part of the internet but hosted within an encrypted network. It is accessible only through anonymity-providing tools, such as the Tor browser, and allows users to access websites without revealing their IP addresses. Marques attorneys have questioned how federal investigators were able to pierce the Tor networks anonymity and trace the IP address of the server to a web hosting company in Roubaix, France. This anonymity is notoriously difficult for government investigators to penetrate, they wrote. Defense attorneys said they received an initial answer to that question when the government revealed vague details of how they discovered the IP address and location of the server. It appears that this disclosure was delayed, in part, because the investigative techniques employed were, until recently, classified, they wrote in December 2019. Investigators found what appeared to be more than 8.5 million images and videos of child pornography on the Freedom Hosting server, including nearly 2 million images that were new to authorities, according to a court filing that accompanied Marques' guilty plea. Marques was living in Ireland at the time of the offenses. He used the encrypted server in France to host more than 200 websites that site administrators and users used to upload and download child pornography. In 2013, FBI agents in Maryland connected to the network and accessed a child pornography bulletin board with more than 7,700 members and more than 22,000 posts. Agents downloaded more than 1 million files from another website on the network, nearly all of which depicted sexually explicit images of children. In July 2013, Irish authorities searched Marques' home and vehicle and detained him. When investigators entered his home, Marques moved toward his computer but was subdued before he could turn it off, authorities said. After his release from custody, Marques purchased a new laptop and logged into his server to lock out the FBI and other law enforcement, the filing says. Authorities seized nearly $155,000 in U.S. currency from Marques. During an August 2013 extradition hearing, Marques said his business had been very successful and profitable. In an April 28 court filing, a prosecutor said a government witness was prepared to testify at Wednesday's sentencing hearing that law enforcement had identified Marques as the largest purveyor of child pornography in the world and that he made approximately $3.6 million in U.S. currency from his servers. ___ This version corrects that the judge set a June 25 deadline for a status report from attorneys, not a status conference for that date. ATLANTA (AP) Police officers who encountered a naked man walking down a Georgia street repeatedly fired their stun guns at him and pinned him to the ground by kneeling and standing on him, ultimately and wrongfully causing his death, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the man's parents. Fernando Octavio Rodriguez, 24, was walking home after attending the Imagine Festival, an electronic music event held at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Hampton, when officers responding to a 911 report of an unclothed man approached him shortly after 10 p.m. on Sept. 20, 2019. Over the next 10 minutes officers stunned him at least 15 times and pinned Fernando to the ground by kneeling and standing on Fernandos back, neck, head, arms, and legs, thereby depriving Fernando of oxygen," the lawsuit says. Rodriguez was unresponsive when paramedics arrived and he died at a hospital just over 48 hours later. A medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by asphyxia due to physical restraint in prone position with compression of chest" and said his injuries occurred during physical altercation with law enforcement, the lawsuit says. The officers violated Rodriguez's constitutional protections against the use of excessive and unreasonable force and wrongfully caused his death, the lawsuit says. It was filed Tuesday by Rodriguez's parents against Henry County, the city of Hampton, two county police officers and three city police officers. Henry County spokeswoman Melissa Robinson said she couldn't comment on pending litigation. Hampton police referred a request for comment to the city manager, who did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment Wednesday. A county police spokesman spokesman did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Two of the city officers are still employed by the department, according to its website, and did not respond to emails sent to their department email addresses. A police body camera video provided by Rodriguez's parents' lawyers shows Rodriguez walking down the middle of a street naked as an officer shouts at him to get on the ground at least 10 times. Rodriguez turns around twice but keeps walking. He yells something at the officers, but it's bleeped out on the video provided by the lawyers. The officer then yells, I'm gonna tase you, and fires his stun gun, causing Rodriguez to fall to the ground. After that, the officers are heard repeatedly telling him to roll over onto his stomach so they can help him and also threatening to stun him again. One tries to turn him over and calls him a sweaty little hog. Rodriguez is heard yelling whenever he's stunned and is seen trying to sit up and scooting away from the officers while lying on his back. About six minutes after Rodriguez was first shot with a stun gun, the officers roll him over and handcuff him. They then pin him down with their feet and knees on different parts of his body and push his face into the road. About 15 minutes after Rodriguez was first stunned, one of the officers says his pulse rate is through the roof" and another officer asks Rodriguez if he's still breathing. An officer says twice, He's quit breathing. Another says, Are you serious? Even after they were aware that he was not breathing, they didn't stop to render aid as they should have, said Jess Johnson, a lawyer for Rodriguezs parents. Throughout the encounter, the officers are heard speculating that Rodriguez is on drugs. Johnson said he has not seen a toxicology report but he believes Rodriguez was under the influence of something and needed medical attention. After the paramedics arrive, one asks, Has he got a good chest rise? One of the officers responds, I have no idea, man. We got him to this point and we just didn't touch him no more. Paramedics later reported Rodriguez was unresponsive, not breathing and pulseless when they arrived, the lawsuit says. They put him on a stretcher and were able to revive him. But he died early on Sept. 23, 2019, at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, where doctors said he was suffering from respiratory failure, renal failure, anoxic brain injury, cardiac arrest and acute blood loss anemia, the lawsuit says. The officers violated Rodriguez's constitutional rights by stunning him and pinning him to the ground when he wasn't resisting or trying to evade arrest and by continuing to pin him to the ground after he became unresponsive and stopped breathing, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages and legal fees. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation was called in to take over the case and a spokeswoman said the investigative file was submitted to the Henry County District Attorney in January 2020. A spokeswoman for District Attorney Darius Pattillo said the case remains under investigation by their office. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Tensions between Black lawmakers and conservative House Republicans over a stalled bill seeking to prohibit teaching of divisive concepts about racism and sexism continued to churn Wednesday in a separate debate over which principles to promote in civics and history classes. The Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus is seeking the ouster of House Education Committee Chairman Ray Garofalo for pursuing legislation to put limits on classroom conversations about racism and for holding an hourslong contentious hearing about the bill. Republican House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, who won his leadership job with the support of Black lawmakers, has so far refused to remove Garofalo, a St. Bernard Parish Republican. Garofalo is trying to survive the controversy and has been avoiding scenarios where he could get into direct questioning with Black lawmakers. The dispute has derailed tax debates and threatens to keep legislative leaders from achieving their goal of a tax overhaul this session. And it bubbled up again in the House Education Committee on Wednesday. Garofalo didn't chair his committee's hearing, but he rankled Black lawmakers when he continued to show up in the room for votes on contentious issues including on a measure to require teaching American exceptionalism and other specific founding principles in public school history and civics courses. I truly do not understand how the chairman can be in another room and not presiding and then come in the room to vote, said Rep. Ken Brass, a Vacherie Democrat and member of the Legislative Black Caucus. Garofalo didn't respond to the criticism in the committee hearing. He returned to the room to vote for the civics and history bill by Rep. Valarie Hodges, a Denham Springs Republican. He also showed up to support a failed amendment to Hodges' bill that would have prohibited the state education board from approving content standards or recommending instructional materials that provide that a particular sex, race, ethnicity or national origin is inherently superior or inferior to another. Brass suggested Hodges' proposed amendment was Garofalo's stalled bill in disguise. The amendment failed on a 6-6 vote, but it further ratcheted up agitation in the committee. I'm not offended. I want to say I'm more appalled, that a similar debate over teaching race in classrooms was surfacing, said Shreveport Rep. Tammy Phelps, a Democrat and Black lawmaker. Garofalo's legislation which hasn't moved out of his committee would prohibit teaching in public schools or colleges that the United States or Louisiana is systematically racist or sexist, among a long list of requirements about how to handle discussions of race, sex and national origin in the classroom. It would bar giving students or employees information that teaches, advocates, acts upon or promotes divisive concepts. Garofalo and supporters said they were trying to stop any teaching of critical race theory, which examines the ways in which race and racism have influenced politics, culture, governmental systems and laws. Garofalo has said critical race theory fuels hate. Hodges' bill to require teaching of national sovereignty, American exceptionalism, globalism and the United Nations, immigration policy in public school civics and history classes won the House committee's support in an 8-5 vote without the amendment about race, sex and ethnicity included. The measure heads next to the full House for debate. It also would require textbooks to promote the benefits of capitalism, private property, constitutional liberties, the value of a constitutional republic and traditional standards of moral values. Hodges said her bill seeks to restore honest and patriotic education that cultivates in our children a profound love in our country. Opponents said decision-making about what should be taught in schools should be left to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which opposes the bill. After the debate, Republican Rep. Mark Wright, the committee vice chairman who was running the hearing for Garofalo, forgot to turn off the microphone when talking with another lawmaker and said on the hearing broadcast: This is a ridiculous day. ___ The bill is filed as House Bill 352. ___ Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte. AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) A committee of the Maine Legislature has approved a proposal designed to provide better access to information about pesticides on school grounds. The Legislature's Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry voted in favor of the proposal on Tuesday. The proposal requires schools to submit pest management activity logs and post public inspection results. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Missouris gas tax could soon rise for the first time in 25 years after the state's Republican-led Legislature passed a gradual increase that is projected to raise hundreds of millions of new dollars for roads and bridges. Republican Gov. Mike Parson, who has made infrastructure a priority, praised lawmakers on Wednesday for shepherding the contentious measure to passage and indicated he is likely to sign it into law. This bill provides much needed funding for road and bridge repairs, and we are excited to move forward on these critical infrastructure projects, Parson said in statement. The bill would raise Missouri's 17-cent-a-gallon gas tax among the lowest in the nation by 2.5 cents a year, starting Oct. 1, until the tax hits 29.5 cents per gallon in July 2025. That would make Missouri's rate closer to the national average for states. Drivers could get a refund if they save their gas receipts and submit them to the state an unusual provision modeled after one in South Carolina. The measure also would increase electric vehicle fees by 20% annually for five years, with fees varying by the size of the vehicles. Since 2013, at least 29 states some led by Republicans, others by Democrats have raised fuel taxes. But that momentum slowed during the pandemic. Missouri's increase would be the first since Virginia lawmakers passed a gas tax increase in March 2020, shortly before the coronavirus shutdowns. The Missouri House voted 104-52 to pass the measure late Tuesday night after a heated debate among divided Republican lawmakers. Fifty-seven Republicans, including House Majority Leader Dean Plocher, joined with Democrats in voting for the bill. Fifty-two Republicans, including House Speaker Rob Vescovo, voted against it. The measure, sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz, passed that chamber in March with Republicans similarly split. The Missouri Department of Transportation has estimated that the state faces a $745 million annual funding gap for roads and bridges. I dont know how much longer we can keep kicking that can down the road, said Republican Rep. Becky Ruth, who helped craft the legislation. We have an opportunity to invest, make an investment in our roads and bridges, help economic development, bring jobs here and make roads safer. Once fully implemented, the gas tax hike could generate more than $500 million annually for state, county and city roads. But it's unclear how much of that governments will get to keep after some people request refunds. Critical House Republicans argued the tax hike would impact low-income families the most since the tax rate is the same regardless of income, and pointed out that it might be more difficult for people who don't own smartphones to track receipts for a refund. Several said the tax increase should be put on the ballot so voters can weigh in, but that proposal failed 102-48. Other Republicans framed support or opposition to the tax hike as a test of conservativism. GOP Rep. Dottie Bailey said to colleagues who back raising the gas tax without going to voters: Dont even call yourself a Republican. This is why people hate government, she said. Republican Rep. Justin Hill predicted the GOP would face a voter backlash in the 2022 elections. This is how you lose a super majority, Hill said. Tax increases are widely unpopular among Missouri voters. Since voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1996 requiring all tax increases over a certain amount to go to a statewide vote, not a single general tax increase has passed. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Missouri's gas tax would increase for the first time in decades under a bill passed late Tuesday by the GOP-led Legislature. If signed by Republican Gov. Mike Parson, the contentious proposal would raise the state's 17-cent gas tax to pay for road and bridge maintenance. The House voted 104-52 to pass the measure, which divided Republican lawmakers. I dont know how much longer we can keep kicking that can down the road, said Republican Rep. Becky Ruth, a supporter. We have an opportunity to invest, make an investment in our roads and bridges, help economic development, bring jobs here and make roads safer. Under the bill, the gas tax would increase 2.5 cents a year until the tax hits 29.5 cents per gallon in 2025. Drivers could get a refund if they save their gas receipts. Finding money to maintain the state's aging roads and bridges has been a top priority for Parson and fellow Republican Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz. But even with support from top Republicans, the proposed tax increase faced steep opposition in the GOP Legislature. Critical House Republicans argued the tax hike would impact poor families the most and framed support or opposition to the tax hike as a test of conservativism. Several said the tax increase should be put on the ballot so voters can weigh in, but that proposal failed 102-48. GOP Rep. Dottie Bailey said to colleagues who back raising the gas tax without going to voters: Dont even call yourself a Republican. This is why people hate government, she said. Tax increases are widely unpopular among Missouri voters. Since voters approved a constitutional amendment in 1996 requiring all tax increases over a certain amount to go to a statewide vote, not a single general tax increase has passed. The measure also would increase electric vehicle fees by 20% over five years. Fees vary depending on the size of electric vehicles. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) The Missouri Senate on Wednesday voted to limit when police can use chokeholds in a rare step by state lawmakers to take action in response to police violence. The bill's 31-2 bipartisan passage in the GOP-led Senate came just days before lawmakers' Friday deadline to send legislation to Republican Gov. Mike Parson, a former sheriff. China has seen an increasing number of foreign residents while continuing to open up in the past decade, the latest population census shows. A total of 845,697 foreigners were living on the Chinese mainland in 2020 when the seventh national census was conducted, up about 250,000 from a decade ago. Around 402,000 of them are male, according to the report of the once-in-a-decade survey, which was published on Tuesday by the National Bureau of Statistics. China started to track the population of foreigners in the sixth national census in 2010 and found 593,832 foreigners working and studying on the mainland. Duan Chengrong, a demographic researcher in Beijing, said the inclusion of foreigners in China's national census had followed an increase in the number of foreign nationals in the new century. Duan, vice-dean of the Center for Population and Development at Renmin University of China, said the increase in the number of foreigners over the past decade is a telltale sign of the sustained expansion of population of foreigners on the mainland as the country continues to open up. He said the number could have been more if the COVID-19 pandemic had not occurred. Census workers made home visits to collect data nationwide from October and December, when the outbreak was largely under control in China. But epidemic prevention and control measures had barred normal international passenger flow. The latest census counted about 1.43 million overseas residentsa group comprising foreigners as well as people from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and the Chinese province of Taiwanon the mainland by November. The coastal province of Guangdong has the largest number of overseas residents at about 418,000, followed by Yunnan province and Shanghai. Shanghai has a total of about 164,000 overseas residents, according to the census. The city authority said that 18 percent of the foreign residents working in Shanghai are deemed as high-end talent from overseas, and both the number and quality of foreign talent introduced to Shanghai were ranked first in the country. As the first city on the Chinese mainland dedicated to encouraging the establishment of regional headquarters of multinational companies, Shanghai is now home to 767 regional headquarters of multinational companies and 479 research and development centers. The city also leads in the introduction of visa policies to attract and retain international talent to work and set up business in the city. However, the census data also shows that the number of Taiwan residents on the mainland was less than a decade ago. Cheng Po-yu, vice-president of the Taiwan Youth Council Beijing Association for Taiwan Enterprises, said that is partly because Taiwan businesses operating on the mainland are becoming more inclined to hire local workers, which led to a decline in the number of workers deployed from Taiwan. "The labor force on the mainland is getting increasingly skilled in recent years, and more professional and efficient," he said. Cheng noted that a growing number of young people from Taiwan have come to the mainland for education and started micro-businesses in recent years. TRENTON, N.J. (AP) New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has had the biggest cash haul and spent the most so far in this year's gubernatorial primary, followed by Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli, who vastly leads his three GOP challengers, state officials revealed Wednesday. The Election Law Enforcement Commission released a snapshot of the candidates' fundraising and spending less than a month ahead of the June 8 primary. Murphy is running unopposed in the Democratic primary after two would-be rivals got tossed from the ballot over faulty ballot petitions. He aims to become the first Democrat to win reelection in more than four decades. Ciattarelli is a former GOP Assembly member who ran but lost the Republican gubernatorial nomination in 2017. He's also a certified public accountant and started a medical publishing company. This year he has consolidated GOP support across the state, though he still faces challengers who deride Ciattarelli as insufficiently supportive of former President Donald Trump. Murphy raised $7.8 million, has spent about $7 million and has less than $1 million cash on hand. Ciattarelli brought in $5.7 million and spent $4.4 million, but he has $1.3 million on hand, more than any other candidate. Unlike 2017, when Murphy face significant primary challengers and loaned his campaign more than $16 million, he's accepting public matching funds. So is Ciattarelli. They're the only two candidates in the race who qualified. Murphy's and Ciattarelli's fundraising totals include matching funds, according to the commission. On the GOP side, Hudson County pastor and former real estate developer Phil Rizzo has raised about $560,000, and former unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Hirsh Singh has about $500,000, with the lion's share of his money coming from personal funds. New Jersey's public matching fund program dates to 1974. It permits candidates to get $2 in public cash for every $1 raised. Candidates must have raised $490,000 to qualify for the funds, and theres a cap of $4.6 million. Spending for candidates getting public money is limited to $7.3 million in the primary. Matching funds are financed through donations from state income tax forms and through the general fund. Jeff Brindle, the commission's executive director, estimates that the program cost taxpayers about the price of a large latte. The public financing program has served the public well, costing an average of $4.18 per taxpayer in 2017. In exchange, voters benefited by having a gubernatorial campaign focused mainly on issues and less subject to special interest influence, Brindle said. The primary will be held June 8, and unlike voting last year, which was done almost entirely by mail-in ballots because of the COVID-19 outbreak, voters can cast ballots in person. The new early in-person voting law Murphy signed earlier this year won't be in effect. It's expected to provide for early in-person voting in the November election, however. MOSCOW (AP) Relatives wept and hugged as the nine people killed in a school shooting in the Russian city of Kazan were buried Wednesday, which was declared a day of mourning in the predominantly Muslim republic of Tatarstan. A huge pile of flowers grew at a makeshift memorial outside School No. 175 in the city 430 miles (700 kilometers) east of Moscow where the gunman opened fire on Tuesday, sending students diving under their desks, running from the building or even jumping from windows on upper floors. He also detonated a homemade bomb. In addition to the seven students and two employees who died, another 23 people remained hospitalized from the attack at the school, which enrolls children from the first to 11th grades. At the funeral of Elvira Ignatyeva, a 26-year-old English teacher, relatives and friends hugged each other and cried as she was laid to rest. She loved children, said her uncle, Talgat Gumerov, speaking to reporters in a quavering voice after the burial, which was carried out the day after her death in accordance to Islamic tradition. Investigators gave no motive as to why Ilnaz Galyaviyev, 19, who was arrested in the shooting, carried out the attack at his former school. He appeared in court Wednesday, charged with murder, and was ordered to pre-trial detention for two months. Officials said he legally owned a firearm. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the head of the countrys National Guard to revise firearms regulations for civilians. But independent media pointed out that hardly any measures tightening control over gun ownership have been implemented since Putin gave a similar order three years ago after 21 people died in a school shooting in the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday that Putin's new task is a good reason to look into how old orders are being implemented. Russian media said the gunman had called himself a god on the messaging app Telegram and promised to kill a "large amount of people on Tuesday morning. Rustam Khairullin, the imam of a mosque, had sons aged 9 and 14 at the school. The 9-year-old was hospitalized with wounds to his chest and arm from an explosive set off by the attacker. The older son, Akhmad, who was in a classroom targeted by the attacker, was unhurt. We heard an explosion, ran to the window and saw two classes running, the youth said. In two or three minutes, the bandit came to our class. The teacher took the first blow and then he started shooting at children. Attacks on schools are rare in Russia. The deadliest school attack in Russia took place in 2004 in the city of Beslan, when Islamic militants took more than 1,000 people hostage for several days. The siege ended in gunfire and explosions, leaving 334 dead, more than half of them children. In 2018, a teenager killed 20 people at his vocational school before killing himself in the Crimean city of Kerch. In the wake of that attack, Putin ordered authorities to tighten control over gun ownership. Guns are tightly restricted in Russia. Civilians over 18 can obtain permits for hunting or sports firearms after medical checks ensuring they don't use drugs or psychoactive substances. It is illegal to own handguns, guns that shoot in bursts or that have magazines with more than a 10-cartridge capacity. Most of the proposed measures to tighten gun control such as raising the minimum age for gun possession, more frequent medical checks for obtaining or renewing a gun permit, and stricter punishments for gun violations were never implemented. In particular, a suggestion that people who have a license for firearms notify the authorities about their travel raised an outcry and was quietly scrapped, along with a proposal to raise the minimal age for gun ownership from 18 to 21. Moreover, legislative changes have been in the works to ease some regulations. A bill lowering the minimum age for possessing hunting weapons from 18 to 16 successfully passed the first reading in the lower parliament chamber last year. In the meantime, law enforcement regularly reported thwarting planned school attacks and detaining teenagers allegedly involved in plotting them. Security forces said some of them had weapons or homemade explosives, while others were members of social media communities dedicated to notorious school shootings in the U.S., such as the 1999 killings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. On Wednesday, State Duma lawmakers supported a bill banning people with multiple criminal convictions and those caught for drunken driving from obtaining gun permits. It is unclear, however, how the measure would have prevented the Kazan shooting, since there was no indication the suspect had a criminal record. Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said on Telegram on Tuesday that Galyaviyev received a permit for a shotgun less than two weeks ago. Authorities did not specify what kind of gun he used, but confirmed he bought it legally. The statement said Galyaviyev had sought medical help for severe headaches but did not say what the diagnosis was, adding only that his family noted he had been exhibiting a short temper and aggressiveness" since the start of the year. According to media reports, Galyaviyev was expelled from his vocational school in April after not showing up for classes and exams for weeks. Khinshtein said the school that was attacked had no security aside from a panic button. Officials in Kazan said a person had been stationed at the door during the day and that she had hit the panic button to alert law enforcement. Calls to update security in schools came from a number of Russian regions, but it wasn't immediately clear whether any drastic changes have begun. At the same time, some lawmakers are urging more restrictions on the internet, Russia's main outlet for dissent. State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said Tuesday that suggestions were aired to eliminate anonymity in the internet, which would allow, supporters of the idea believe, to drastically decrease amounts of content promoting violence." But Telegram founder Pavel Durov said Galyaviyev made his account about the attack open to public only 15 minutes before it happened, and his posts were too vague to act on. The inevitability of such events doesn't make them less tragic. But they should not serve as a pretext for organizing a witch hunt or turning the society into a concentration camp, Durov wrote on his account. ___ Associated Press journalists Daniel Kozin in Kazan and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. CAIRO (AP) A fire broke out in an intensive care unit of an Egyptian hospital Wednesday, leaving at least two patients dead, an official said. The fire erupted overnight at a government-run hospital in the Nile Delta city of Kafr el-Sheikh, said Ahmed el-Samahi, a spokesman for the Kafr el-Sheikh province. The hospital is treating those suffering from respiratory diseases. It was unclear if coronavirus patients were present in the ward. OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) Openly carrying guns and other weapons are now prohibited at the Washington state Capitol and public protests statewide, under a measure signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Jay Inslee. The new law, which had an emergency clause and took effect immediately upon Inslee's signature, bars people from carrying weapons, either on their person or in their vehicle, while attending a permitted demonstration at a public place or while being within 250 feet of the perimeter of a permitted demonstration. The bill adds permitted demonstrations, the Capitol and the western part of the Capitol campus surrounding the legislative building to the list of designated places where firearms are already prohibited statewide, including restricted areas of jails, courtrooms, taverns and commercial airports. "This is a common-sense approach that extends our existing prohibition to open-carry firearms in limited situations to ensure an individual cant use a weapon to intimidate other citizens, Inslee said before signing the bill. Aoibheann Cline, the state director for the National Rifle Association, said that the NRA "will continue fighting this injustice on all available fronts. The right of self-protection should never be denied whether at home, on the road, or in the public square, Cline said in a written statement. While openly carried guns have been banned in both the public galleries of the Senate and House chambers and in public hearing rooms at the Capitols legislative office buildings since 2015, people can still openly carry weapons in the main public areas of the Washington Capitol and on the grounds of the Capitol campus. Permitted concealed weapons have been banned from the Senate public gallery since 2018, but they are allowed in the House public gallery. The Capitol building has been closed to the public since last March because of the coronavirus pandemic. But the Capitol campus grounds are open and have drawn protests, including people carrying weapons to oppose coronavirus restrictions, and then, after the election, the outcome. Under the measure, a person must knowingly be in violation of the law in order for the criminal penalty to apply, and the prohibition does not apply to concealed carry of a firearm by someone with a valid concealed pistol license. Violation of the law will be a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000, or both. Guns are allowed in statehouses in some form in 21 states, according to a February review by The Associated Press. Last week the Oregon Legislature passed a measure that bans guns from the state Capitol. PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Oregon lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that gives tenants who are struggling with financial hardships due to the pandemic more time to pay past-due rent. Currently, tenants have until July, but under Senate Bill 282 tenants will have until Feb. 28, 2022. The bill passed in the House with a vote of 39-17 and goes to the governor. The measure protects renters from the long-term impacts of not making payments on time by barring reporting to consumer credit agencies and removing back rents from consideration when submitting future rental applications. The measure also bars potential landlords from screening out applicants based on COVID-era evictions and prevents pandemic evictions from appearing on a tenants record. Additionally, the bill relaxes occupancy limits as lawmakers say some Oregon residents have needed to stay with friends and family due to financial or safety situations during the pandemic. However, the bill does not extend the current eviction moratorium past June 30 and does not forgive back rent. In March, more than 17% or nearly 158,000 Oregon renters who answered a survey said they were not caught up on their rent payments, based on the U.S. Census Bureaus most recent Household Pulse Survey. In addition, 11% of Oregon renters who answered the survey said they have no confidence that they will be able to pay the next month's rent. Opponents of the bill have argued that the measure would hurt landlords and is a band-aid solution for tenants. Yes, we all agree that there needs to be more affordable housing, but putting this responsibility on the backs of the private sector is not the solution, Val Thorpe, an Oregon rental property owner wrote in her testimony on the bill. Landlords are the backbone of affordable rental units and they also need help. During a special session in December, lawmakers established a $200 million relief fund for landlords and tenants with most of the money set aside for tenants. Lawmakers have also pointed out that Oregon is in line to receive $100 million from federal rental assistance funds approved late last year, along with more than $200 million in federal funds from President Joe Bidens pandemic recovery plan. Housing continued to be a top priority during the legislative session with lawmakers presenting 17 housing-focused bills in March that included $535 million in new state investments for increasing affordable housing, addressing homelessness, and supporting homeownership. ___ Cline is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues OELWEIN, Iowa (AP) A person has died after being run over by a sport utility vehicle in a northeastern Iowa parking lot, authorities said. The incident happened around 6 p.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of the American Legion post in Oelwein, television station KCRG reported. The Iowa State Patrol said the accident occurred when a person crouched in front of the SUV was hit when the vehicle pulled out of its parking spot. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Eager to raise Indianas lagging vaccination rate, state health officials have announced that residents aged 12 and older will be eligible to receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine beginning Thursday. The state announcement, which came in tandem with a federal vaccine advisory Wednesday, offers hope that the next school year will present a return to normal, although State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box noted that the state has no plans to mandate the vaccine for anyone, including students. As of Wednesday afternoon, 30 Indiana counties were without Pfizer vaccine sites, said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, the state health departments chief medical officer. Health departments in those counties are expected to receive doses Thursday. We all want that normalcy, and the best way to get there is to increase the number of people who are fully vaccinated, Weaver said. Indianas COVID-19 hospitalizations are declining following a spike in late April, although the number of admissions each day is still more than 100, Box said. Health officials attributed some of the new hospitalizations to the state's proximity to Michigan, which in recent weeks has been a national hotspot for infections and hospitalizations. The State Department of Healths weekly tracking map showed three of the five Indiana counties that border Michigan with orange risk the second highest of the four ratings. One other nearby county also has an orange rating, while 10 more northern Indiana counties have the next highest yellow rating. Virus variants have increased significantly over the past two weeks, representing nearly 42% of Indiana's most recently sequenced samples, Box said. Indiana has reported almost 1,900 coronavirus variant cases as of Wednesday. About 40% of Indiana residents who are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine have been fully immunized, according to state health officials, up from 33% two weeks ago. But the average number of people receiving shots has declined from almost 56,000 a day in mid-April to fewer than 32,000, and Weaver said Indiana administered roughly 19% fewer vaccine doses last week compared to the previous week. Indiana ranks 41st of the 50 states according to percentage of total population that has been fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Unvaccinated people account for 99.3% of Indiana's coronavirus cases. Health officials said vaccination rates must improve. "Were working on those who have been on the fence or who remain hesitant, and were doing that one shot at a time," Box said. We have made incredible progress as a state and our fight against this pandemic, but we still have a journey ahead of us and we dont want to give up any ground. The health department reported 10 new coronavirus-related deaths in the past week, raising the state's pandemic toll to 13,445. Indianas seven-day moving average of deaths has remained below 10 for more than a month compared to the peak of 103 a day in mid-December. Indiana hospitals reported 851 COVID-19 patients as of Tuesday a drop from the more than 1,000 patients a day earlier this month, but still above the average 600 patients a day in March. ___ Casey Smith is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. MIAMI (AP) A 28-year-old woman who wanted to promote her Instagram page attempted to blend in with students at a Miami-area high school, police said. Monday's stunt at American Senior High School landed Audrey Francisquini in jail, where she's facing charges of burglary, interfering with a school function and resisting arrest without violence, records show. Francisquini started handing out pamphlets printed with her Instagram account after sneaking onto the campus around 8:30 a.m. Monday, police said. She had a black backpack and carried a skateboard as she walked through the hallways, recording herself. School security tracked her down as she was wandering the hallways while students were in classrooms, an arrest report said. Francisquini told investigators she was looking for the registration office. Investigators said she headed toward the registration office, but did not enter. Instead she continued walking through the hallways, talking to students, news outlets reported. Security officers tried to catch up with her again, but she didn't stop. They notified the office of a security threat on campus, police said. An officer spotted her walking across the faculty parking lot and told her to stop. She continued walking, the report said. Authorities tracked her down through her Instagram page and arrested her later Monday at her home in North North Miami Beach. The school system will be conducting a thorough review of the incident, Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesperson Jaquelyn Calzadilla told the Miami Herald. They will be looking into how she was able to sneak into the school and elude security several times. Records did not list a lawyer for Francisquini. CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden has cleared of wrongdoing a Cedar Rapids police officer who earlier this year fatally shot a man suspected of stabbing a woman to death. The prosecutors office found Officer Kyzer Moore was justified in shooting Arnell States, 39, of Cedar Rapids, on Feb. 20 as States ran from a hotel where two women had been attacked, KWWL reported Wednesday. ILION The longstanding Remington gun factory in the Mohawk Valley has reopened eight months after its previous owner closed the plant and laid off hundreds of workers. New plant owner Roundhill Group LLC said in an email to the Times Telegram that the company has called back 230 workers to the Ilion factory. Phil Smith of the United Mine Workers of America said 120 hourly workers are among those who have been called back to work. Global brands seek to tap Chinese market via national-level trade fairs People's Daily Online) 11:32, May 12, 2021 Global brands, by making full use of China's national-level trade fairs, including the just-concluded China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE), are moving faster to tap the market potential of the country. Edrington Group, an international spirits company based in Scotland, reached a sales agreement concerning its single malt whisky distillery sub-brand Macallan together with a company based in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province, on the first day of the CICPE, a deal whose total worth is valued at more than 100 million yuan ($15.56 million). Photo shows visitors at the first China International Consumer Products Expo. (Photo/chinanews.com) "It is indeed a pity that we had never attended any expo or fair in China before, for example the China Import and Export Fair and the China International Import Expo (CIIE)", said Charles Soong, managing director of Edrington Shanghai Ltd. Soong added that the company is currently planning to join the next CIIE following its participation in the first-ever CICPE this time around. From Soong's perspective, the Chinese market, within the backdrop of its strong recovery after the outbreak of COVID-19, will continue to remain pivotal to multinational giants. The French jewelry brand K&IReNE has expressed the same sentiments. Shi Shasha, chief public relations officer for the brand, believes that it is of great importance for luxury brands to tap into the full potential of the Chinese market. Shi disclosed that the company has signed up for the fourth CIIE to be held later this year. "We have always been optimistic about the Chinese market, and have participated in several of these large-scale open trade shows," said Lan Xiao, an executive with the Thailand-based conglomerate CP Group in China. Lan further pointed out that the CICPE provides a vital platform for brands to interact with consumers, while the CIIE focuses on investment negotiations and strategic cooperation between enterprises in different regions. Despite their differing emphases, both the CICPE and the CIIE reflect China's efforts in expanding international business cooperation, said Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute under China's Ministry of Commerce. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) House Republicans are formally asking the Illinois Attorney General to investigate the Pritzker administrations handling of the COVID-19 outbreak that killed 36 residents last fall at the Illinois Veterans Home in LaSalle. A letter House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, sent Attorney General Kwame Raoul said the outbreak was avoidable. The (Inspector General for the Illinois Department of Human Services report) is very troubling and saddening, Durkin said. Based on the findings made in the report, it is clear that the transfer of COVID-19 to vulnerable patients at LaSalle Veterans Home was avoidable. Caring for our aged veterans in our state facilities should always rise to the highest standard of care. That standard of care for our heroic veterans was not met. He said the report laid out actions and inactions at the home including the abdication of duties of Governor (J.B.) Pritzkers chosen agency director and failures on even basic precautions such as placing COVID-19 positive veterans with COVID-19 negative veterans. Durkin wrote that neglect of the elderly and the disabled violates state law and in this case, our veterans were under the direct care of the executive branch. I ask that your office open an investigation on this issue and if appropriate prosecute to the fullest extent, the letter states. Other Republicans who signed the letter include state Reps. Dan Swanson, R-Woodhall; Tom Bennett, R-Pontiac; Avery Bourne, R-Raymond; Dan Brady, R-Bloomington; Tim Butler, R-Springfield; C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville; Tom Demmer, R-Dixon; Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst; Ryan Spain, R-Peoria; David Welter, R-Morris; and Keith Wheeler, R-Oswego. The Attorney Generals Office didnt immediately respond to a request for comment. . Total cases in west-central Illinois counties as of Tuesday, according to individual county health departments, and vaccination rates, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health, were: Brown County 703 total, 689 recovered, seven deaths Fully vaccinated: 21.61%; 65 or older: 72.62% Cass County 2,000 total, 1,943 recovered, 34 deaths Seven new cases. Fully vaccinated: 34.67%; 65 or older: 74.45% Greene County 1,422 total, 1,367 recovered, 48 deaths Fully vaccinated: 24.92%; 65 or older: 58.88% Jersey County 2,684 total, 2,611 recovered, 49 deaths Fully vaccinated: 34.17%; 65 or older: 79.3% Macoupin County 4,851 total, 4,526 recovered, 111 deaths 10 new cases. Fully vaccinated: 31.81%; 65 or older: 78.79% Morgan County 3,971 total, 3,821 released from restrictions, 102 deaths Eight new cases. Fully vaccinated: 33.76%; 65 or older: 77.01% Pike County 1,757 total, 1,705 recovered, 48 deaths Fully vaccinated: 25.35%; 65 or older: 67.35% Sangamon County 18,656 total, 234 deaths Eight new cases. Fully vaccinated: 40.05%; 65 or older: 85.99% Schuyler County 721 total, 689 recovered, 17 deaths Five new cases. Fully vaccinated: 32.34%; 65 or older: 69.57% Scott County 479 total, 476 recovered, one death Two new cases. Fully vaccinated: 26.13%; 65 or older: 63.84% Statewide, 1,562 new cases of coronavirus disease and 26 deaths were reported Tuesday, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. There have been 1,357,953 cases and 22,261 deaths in Illinois. As a lengthy, bitter fight over mask requirements for students neared its conclusion, the chairperson of a Florida school board announced that she would agree to lift a mandate that had been in place since September even though she preferred leaving it in place until the end of the academic year. Parents hurled insults in response. Communist! Democrat!, opponents of making children wear masks in school shouted as board chair Wei Ueberschaer and the district superintendent explained at a May 3 meeting that they still considered masks advisable. This is Santa Rosa County, America, not China! Moments later, the Santa Rosa school board voted unanimously to make masks optional for all grades effective immediately, joining dozens of other U.S, communities in declaring that masks were or would soon no longer be mandatory for students. The debates have been emotional and highly divisive around the country, in some cases leading to the involvement of police. A few beleaguered school boards, caught between the demands of anti-mask parents and the appeals of employee unions, eliminated student mask rules only to reverse or revise the decisions. Where many see a continued need to protect children who aren't vaccinated against COVID-19, opponents argue that masks make students uncomfortable and mandates impinge on freedom. The mask is a personal choice, and I wore it at the beginning, but I just decided that it wasnt about the mask anymore, said Cynthia Licharowicz, a Milton, Florida, parent who opposed Santa Rosa Countys rule. "So I decided to take it off, and I wanted my child to have the same choice. The dustups highlight competing risk narratives 14 months into the pandemic: Even as a number of U.S. schools remain closed to minimize infections, districts in states from Alabama to Wyoming decided to ditch student mask mandates. Many more are likely to do the same before the next school year starts, despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance that schools should prioritize universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing. Some public health experts are alarmed. While the Food and Drug Administration this week approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 12, its unlikely that many young adolescents will be vaccinated before the end of the academic year. Data from the CDC shows infection rates among U.S. residents ages 14-17 are now higher than for all Americans, while the rates among children 6-13 are getting closer to the national average. We know that masks work to reduce transmission, Gigi Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said. This is really not the time to remove one of the best tools we have to reduce transmission. In Arkansas, a law will make it illegal by the end of the summer for schools or any government entity to require masks. On Wednesday in South Carolina, schools Superintendent Molly Spearman dropped a statewide student mask mandate but said Gov. Henry McMaster had no legal basis for an order letting parents choose for their children whether or not to wear masks. Spearman said districts could continue to apply their own mask rules. Many parents in school districts where masks have become voluntary are concerned. I am so frustrated....I dont see any harm in wearing masks, and there is potential harm in not wearing a mask, said Christie Black, the mother of a kindergartner and a third grader in Mesa, Arizona, who was puzzled by the decision of the state's largest school district to make masks optional indoors starting earlier this month. Theres little U.S. data about the spread of the coronavirus in schools where students didn't wears masks since most reopened schools required them, said Adam Hersh, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Utah. Mask supporters point to worrying examples, including high transmission at a maskless summer camp in Georgia. Evidence from earlier in the pandemic found children less likely than adults to be infected with the coronavirus and less likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19. The CDC has said that while schools haven't been associated with substantial spread, outbreaks in schools not following infection-prevention measures tend to result in increased transmission among teachers and school staff rather than among students. Black continues to send her two children to school with masks but says they flung their masks off as soon as they saw classmates no longer covering their faces. I feel like because the governor and the school board caved to peer pressure, its now up to my children not to cave to peer pressure, Black said. It just feels like we're more concerned with our own freedom and rights than doing whats best for the most vulnerable. In Santa Rosa, east of Pensacola, mask opponents dominated public debate even though surveys of parents and teachers showed divided opinions in the 28,000-student district. A small majority of teachers wanted to require masks at least through the end of the school year, while a small majority of parents wanted the requirement lifted immediately. The school boards April 20 discussion about the issue nonetheless grew so heated that sheriffs deputies escorted multiple attendees out of the meeting, including at least one who was shouting profanities at board members. Jennifer Hensley, a Santa Rosa County parent and middle school teacher, was the only member of the public at the meeting who spoke in favor of keeping the mask mandate versus the 18 who spoke against the requirement. She said she was worried about the health of her fellow teachers and of her 15-year-old daughter, who has an autoimmune disorder. The atmosphere was so charged, Hensley recalled later. I don't think they were expecting that level of emotion to be involved. Critics of the mask policy started organizing months earlier. Hailei Smead, a mother of three students, runs a Facebook group called Santa Rosa County Parents SPEAK UP that was created in September to oppose mask requirements and has nearly 900 members registered. Smead said her fifth-grade daughter was repeatedly isolated in the school office for refusing to wear a mask and eventually obtained a medical exception allowing her to forego a face covering. Smead declined to state the medical reason. Its not societys job to protect every other individual, Smead said. Its your own job to protect yourself and your own family. Santa Rosa County district leaders emphasized they were following public health guidance, but state officials undercut that position even as public pressure built locally. On April 29, Florida Surgeon General Scott Rivkees rolled back a series of health advisories that had been cited by the Santa Rosa district. So the school board called the May 3 meeting at which its five members voted to revoke the mask mandate. I still strongly recommend the use of face masks, especially for those who are not fully vaccinated, board chair Ueberschaer said before the vote, raising her voice to be heard over shouting parents. My hope is that the families will have a conversation with their children that face masks are now a personal choice, and that students should respect the choice of their peers. Some of the insults hurled at Ueberschaer, a longtime school volunteer who is of Asian descent, included references to China. It truly does make me sad that face masks have morphed from a virus-prevention strategy to a political statement," she said. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) Tennessee's health agency announced Wednesday that the state will begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds. Earlier this week, federal regulators recommended using the two-dose vaccine in 12- to 15-year-old kids. A federal advisory panel that met Wednesday also signed off on the recommendation, paving the way for shots to be given to many of the nations adolescents. NEW ORLEANS Children as young as 12 can expect to start getting Pfizers coronavirus vaccine Thursday in Louisiana. The state health officer made the announcement Wednesday after federal advisers endorsed the vaccine for children aged 12 to 15. Dr. Joseph Kanter said that we are very excited about the opportunity to protect additional age groups and their families with this highly safe and effective vaccine. Kanter says the health department expects to release its formal notice Thursday morning and any clinic or other outlet that has Pfizer vaccine can start giving it to kids 12 and up immediately after that. More than 1,500 clinics, hospitals and pharmacies in Louisiana have the Pfizer vaccine. It is the only coronavirus vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people this young. ___ THE VIRUS OUTBREAK: US coronavirus deaths hit lowest level in 10 months CNNs Dr. Sanjay Gupta worries about muddled pandemic message Britain PM Boris Johnson: Inquiry into UK's handling of virus to start next year An 88-year-old American artist finishes year of pandemic daily doodles Follow more of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine ___ HERES WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING: CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia has reached a supply agreement for 25 million doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine. Moderna said Thursday that the deal includes 10 million doses of vaccine against the initial coronavirus strain to be delivered in 2021 and 15 million doses of an updated variant booster to be delivered in 2022. The vaccines have yet to be approved by the Australian regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Pfizer and AstraZeneca are the only coronavirus vaccines approved for use in Australia so far. All three vaccines require two doses. Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he expects the first Moderna vaccines to arrive in Australia in the last three months of 2021. ___ ANNAPOLIS, Md. Maryland is allowing all Indoor and outdoor venues to resume normal operations this weekend. Gov. Larry Hogan Hogan says the remaining capacity and distancing restrictions for the COVID-19 pandemic will be lifted on indoor and outdoor dining Saturday. Hogan says the restrictions also will end for all other indoor entertainment venues and conventions and for outdoor entertainment, art and sports venues, though the mandate for mask use remains in place. The governor said Wednesday that the states indoor mask mandate will be lifted when 70% of Maryland adults receive at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. As of Tuesday, the state had 65.4% vaccinated. The governor says that our plan is to get everything back to normal by Memorial Day. ___ NEW YORKU.S. health advisers have endorsed use of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine in kids as young as 12. The Food and Drug Administration earlier in the week cleared the expanded use of Pfizers shots, citing evidence the shots worked as well in those 12 to 15 years old as those 16 and older. Kids in some places are already rolling up their sleeves. But much of the nation was waiting for Wednesdays recommendations from advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many states will be shipping doses to pediatricians and even to schools. Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize. ___ TOPEKA, Kan.Gov. Laura Kelly says Kansas state government offices will return to normal operations in mid-June after more than a year of having many employees work remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. Kelly said Wednesday that state employees and visitors to their offices still will be required to wear masks and maintain social distancing. She says agency directors can allow people to work from home, particularly when social distancing is not possible. The changes take effect the week of June 13, which means Monday, June 14 for most workers. The largest union for state employees expressed support for Kellys move, saying her policy would be flexible and contained safety measures. Kansas House Speaker and Olathe Republican Ron Ryckman Jr. responded to the Democratic governors move by saying, Its about time. ___ SALT LAKE CITY -- Utah will terminate its participation in the federal governments pandemic-related unemployment assistance program. Utah is the latest of several states ending the $300 weekly federal benefit paid on top of state benefits. Gov. Spencer Cox said Wednesday that those extra federal benefits will end in Utah on June 26. About 28,000 Utah residents are receiving the $300 benefit, and $12.4 million is being paid out by the federal government each week. Utah has one of the nations lowest unemployment rates of 2.9%. The Department of Workforce Services says there are at least 50,000 job openings in the state. ___ HONOLULUA former CEO of a Hawaii company accused of defrauding banks of money meant to assist businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic is pleading not guilty. Martin Kao, ex-CEO of Martin Defense Group LLC, formerly known as Navatek LLC, is charged with bank fraud and money laundering. A spokeswoman says he stepped down in November. Authorities say he defrauded banks of more than $12.8 million through the Paycheck Protection Program. According to an indictment, Kao transferred more than $2 million into his own personal accounts. Congress authorized the program to provide emergency financial assistance through forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and other expenses. Defense attorney Michael Green entered the not guilty plea during a brief arraignment via telephone Wednesday. Trial is scheduled for July. Green says he anticipates the trial will be postponed because the case involves thousands of pages of discovery. ___ LAS VEGAS -- The Las Vegas area has been added to places in Nevada where authorities have detected cases of a potentially worrisome strain of the coronavirus found in India. The Southern Nevada Health District reported Tuesday that a woman in her 20s who had not traveled recently and was not vaccinated against COVID-19 tested positive for the variant subtype. She didnt require hospitalization. A district spokeswoman said Wednesday there were no additional cases to report. Eight other cases of the Indian variant were previously identified in northern Nevada, including four confirmed last week in the Reno area. ___ SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the state will not require people to wear masks in almost all circumstances after June 15. Newsoms comments came in an interview with Fox 11s Elex Michaelson. Newsom announced last month the state would lift nearly all of its coronavirus restrictions on June 15 if the states case numbers continued to improve. But at the time, Newsom said the mask mandate would stay. On Tuesday, Newsom said there would be no mandates for wearing masks, except for large indoor gatherings where people from around the world are mingling. California has required people to wear masks in public places since June 18, 2020. ___ ATLANTA Dozens of school districts around the country have eliminated requirements for students to wear masks, and many more are likely to ditch them before the next academic year. Where many see a continued need to protect children and teachers who arent vaccinated against COVID-19, opponents argue that masks make students uncomfortable and mandates impinge on freedom. At some school board meetings, theres been emotional and highly divisive debates. Most public health experts say its too early to relax mask rules since few children are vaccinated and they spend hours indoors at school. Even as some U.S. schools remain closed to minimize infections, districts in states from Alabama to Wyoming decided to ditch student mask mandates. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidance says schools should prioritize universal and correct use of masks and physical distancing. ___ ALBANY, N.Y. Gov. Andrew Cuomo expects youth ages 12 to 15 in New York could get vaccinated this week. Cuomo says the states vaccine advisory task force and state health commissioner will have to review safety data and decide whether to recommend the vaccine. Its unclear when exactly New Yorks task force will make its decision. But Cuomo says, we could have full authorization for vaccinations to begin for 12 to 15 year olds here in New York as early as Thursday. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also says health officials plan to start vaccinating children age 12 to 15 on Thursday. In California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup is reviewing the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations emergency use authorization for children ages 12 to 15. Its expected to make its decision Wednesday. ___ MILAN The tiny Republic of San Marino on Wednesday announced a plan to offer vaccines to tourists, on the heels of its successful vaccination campaign with the Russian Sputnik V. Tourists can get vaccinated if they reserve two stays of at least three nights, with the second coming three to four weeks after the first for the second jab. The program launches on Monday. Under the rules, residents of neighboring Italy are not eligible. San Marino is separately negotiating with the Italian government about vaccinating cross-border workers, representing about 20% of the daytime population. The countrys tourism secretary, Federico Pedini Amati, says the program is only possible because they have reduced the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 to close to zero. On Tuesday, just one person was being treated for the coronavirus. San Marino has vaccinated about 75% of its 34,500 residents. The tiny republic is on the border between the Italian regions of Emilia Romagna and Marche, near the Adriatic coast. ___ NEW YORK Deaths from the coronavirus in the U.S. have tumbled to an average of about 600 per day, the lowest level in 10 months. In more than half the states, the number of lives lost per day has dropped to single digits on average and hit zero on some days. Kansas reported no new deaths Friday through Monday. Massachusetts recently had a day of no reported deaths. Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, says vaccinations have been crucial even as the nation struggles to reach herd immunity. Confirmed infections have fallen to about 38,000 daily on average, the lowest mark since mid-September. They have plummeted 85% from a peak of more than a quarter-million cases per day in early January. The last time deaths were this low was early July. The coronavirus deaths in the U.S. topped out in mid-January at an average of more than 3,400 a day, just a month into the biggest vaccination drive in the nations history. The U.S. has reported 32.7 million cases and more than 582,000 confirmed deaths, the most in the world. ___ ATHENS, Greece Greeks will no longer need permission from the government to leave their homes starting Friday, as government leaders relax restrictions ahead of the tourism season. The permission forms were first introduced in late March to enforce limits on non-essential travel. The measure will be phased out Friday along with a ban on domestic travel between Greeces administrative regions, while a nightly curfew will be shortened by another 90 minutes. Tourism services and museums will reopen. Akis Skertsos, the governments top official for coordination and an aide to the prime minister, says coronavirus infection levels have continued to decline in May despite the gradual lifting of restrictions. He says a European Union system to check vaccination certificates and coronavirus tests was due to start next month, adding travelers would have to carry medical certificates in English until the system launches. ___ KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia The International Federation of the Red Cross says coronavirus cases are surging in Asia, with more than 5.9 million confirmed infections over the past two weeks. Thats more than in all other regions of the world combined. It warns that the surge is pushing hospitals and health systems to the brink of collapse. The Red Cross says seven out of 10 countries that doubled their infection numbers the fastest are in Asia and the Pacific. Laos took just 12 days for its cases to double. The number of confirmed infections in India has doubled in under two months to more than 23 million, the Red Cross said in a statement. Its calling for regional support with more medical equipment, prevention efforts and urgent access to vaccines. The Red Cross says vaccination campaigns in Asia are hampered by shortages, hesitancy and the costly logistics of reaching many areas. HONG KONG (AP) Hong Kong police said Wednesday they are investigating a top national security officer after a police raid found him at an unlicensed massage business. The person under investigation is Frederic Choi, head of the police National Security Department that was set up last year after Beijing decided to impose a new set of laws on Hong Kong against subversion, secession, collusion and terrorism. Commissioner of Police Chris Tang said Choi has been put on leave during the investigation. Tang provided few details about the raid. I think the work of the National Security Department will not be affected by the investigation of an allegation against an individual officer, because we are a team and work as a team, Tang said at a news conference. While operating an unlicensed massage business is an offense that can result in up to six months' jail and a 50,000 Hong Kong dollar ($6,440) fine, patronizing such establishments is not illegal. The National Security Department was set up following the implementation of the new security law last year, which came as Beijing aimed to silence dissent in the semi-autonomous territory following months of anti-government protests. Choi, who is also a senior assistant commissioner, joined the citys police force in 1995. In February, he received an award for his contributions to national security from the citys leader, Carrie Lam. He was sanctioned by the U.S. earlier this year together with six other national security officers for undermining the autonomy of Hong Kong, a former British colony that was handed over to Beijing in 1997. LONDON (AP) U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson apologized Wednesday for the deaths of 10 civilians during military operations half a century ago in west Belfast, a day after a coroners court determined that they were innocent victims. Johnson told the first minister and deputy first minister of Northern Ireland in a telephone call that the events of August 1971 in the Belfast neighborhood of Ballymurphy were tragic. The prime minister apologized unreservedly on behalf of the U.K. government for the events that took place in Ballymurphy and the huge anguish that the lengthy pursuit of truth has caused the families of those killed, the prime minister's Downing Street office said.. The killings occurred as the British Army confronted protesters during the early days of the sectarian conflict that became known as The Troubles. High Court Justice Siobhan Keegan ruled Tuesday that all of the victims were entirely innocent" and weren't engaged in paramilitary activity at the time they were shot. The dead included a mother of eight, a Catholic priest and a World War II veteran. Their families had fought for decades for a new inquiry to clear the names of their loved ones after earlier inquests proved inconclusive, fueling suggestions that the victims were somehow responsible for the shootings. John Teggart, whose father was one of those killed at Ballymurphy, said Johnson's decision to deliver his apology to political leaders was an insult" to the families of the victims. The apology was to third parties, it wasnt to the Ballymurphy families, he told the BBC. Thats not acceptable to the families and never will be." The new verdict comes as former soldiers press the U.K. government to ensure they arent prosecuted for conduct decades ago when they were sent to enforce the peace in Northern Ireland. More than 3,000 people died during decades of violence between mostly Catholic supporters of unification with the Republic of Ireland and mostly Protestant backers of continued ties with the United Kingdom. The Troubles ended after all sides in the conflict signed the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which created a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. The prime minister restated the governments intention to deliver a way forward in Northern Ireland that focuses on reconciliation, delivers for victims of the Troubles and ends the cycle of reinvestigations, Downing Street said. He stressed the importance of working hard to keep the gains made through the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and of all parties doing their utmost to help the victims families find out what happened to their loved ones, so that future generations are not burdened by the past." The shootings occurred from Aug. 9 to Aug. 11, 1971, amid protests over the governments decision to implement a new policy allowing suspected militants to be interned without trial. As soldiers moved into Ballymurphy to arrest suspected members of the Irish Republican Army, they clashed with protesters. Keegans ruling was a harsh indictment of military conduct during the protests, finding that the victims werent acting in a threatening manner, the state had failed to justify the shootings and that investigations had been inadequate. The new inquest was ordered in 2011. It ultimately heard more than 100 days of testimony during hearings that stretched from November 2018 to March 2020. WASHINGTON (AP) The Justice Department has begun an internal review to determine how to remove any extremists from within federal law enforcement following the arrest of current and former police officers for their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday. Garland, in response to a question during a Senate hearing on domestic extremism, described a review that was in its early stages and is complicated by the need to avoid violating the First Amendment rights of Justice Department employees. The deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, has met with the heads of all of our law enforcement agencies to determine how we can carefully vet our own employees, he told the Senate Appropriations Committee. It was a notable disclosure considering that the Justice Department is charged with enforcing federal civil rights laws and oversees the FBI, which is the lead agency in charge of investigating the growing threat posed by violent domestic extremists. It is also potentially tricky legal ground because of the risk of intrusion on personal beliefs that are protected under the Constitution. Garland described those competing interests as "being mindful of First Amendment free associational rights, but at the same time being careful that we dont have people in our ranks who commit criminal acts or who are not able to carry out their duties. The Department of Homeland Security last month announced a similar review aimed at determining the extent of any presence of violent extremists within its ranks. Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who also testified at Wednesday's hearing on the broader efforts by their agencies to address the growing threat from extremism, told the committee that the results of that analysis would be publicly released. The attorney general's disclosure of an internal review came in response to a question from Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin about the arrest of a retired New York Police Department officer, Thomas Webster, in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in which supporters of President Donald Trump sought to force Congress to overturn the results of the November election. Webster, who was captured on video tackling a police officer and striking him with a metal flagpole, was charged with six counts. Durbin said Webster's arrest raises a painful question: whether there are others in state, local or federal law enforcement who might be capable of extremist behavior. Garland suggested that federal grants could be issued to local and state police departments to help them vet potential officers. Also during the hearing, he described the broader Capitol insurrection investigation, with more than 400 arrests to date, as far from complete as authorities comb through video and other evidence. This investigation is not over, he said. We will pursue each lead until were confident that we will have reached the end. At times during the hearing, Republicans sought to shift discussion to the increasing number of migrants apprehended at the southwest border or press Garland on whether the Justice Department was improperly making the Capitol investigation a priority over other matters, including violence during last summer's social justice protests. The attorney general called the Jan. 6 attack an attempt to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power, a fundamental element of our democracy," and thus worthy of attention. I have not seen a more dangerous threat to democracy than the invasion of the Capitol," he said. At least 10 of the people charged for involvement in the insurrection were current or former law enforcement officers at the time of their alleged offenses. An Associated Press survey of law enforcement agencies nationwide found that at least 31 officers in 12 states are being scrutinized by their supervisors for their behavior in Washington either in the riot itself or the march and protest that preceded it. Officials are looking into whether the officers violated any laws or policies or participated in the violence. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Human rights groups and Western nations led by the United States, Britain and Germany accused China of massive crimes against the Uyghur minority and demanded unimpeded access for U.N. experts at a virtual meeting on Wednesday denounced by China as politically motivated and based on lies. Chinas U.N. Mission sent notes to many of the U.N.s 193 member nations last week urging them not to participate in the anti-China event. And Chinas U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun sent text messages to the 15 Western co-sponsors of the meeting expressing shock at their support, urging them to think twice and withdraw it. He warned that if they dont, it will be harmful to our relationship and cooperation. At the meeting, Britains U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward called the situation in Xinjiang one of the worst human rights crises of our time. The evidence, from a growing number of credible sources including satellite imagery, survivor testimony and publicly available Chinese Government documents is of grave concern, said Woodward, who previously was the UK ambassador in China. The evidence points to a program of repression of specific ethnic groups. Expressions of religion have been criminalized and Uyghur language and culture are discriminated against systematically and at scale. In recent years, an estimated 1 million people or more have been confined in camps in Xinjiang, according to foreign governments and researchers. Most are Uyghurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group. Authorities have been accused of imposing forced labor, systematic forced birth control and torture. The Chinese government has flatly rejected the allegations. It has characterized the camps, which it says are now closed, as vocational training centers to teach Chinese language, job skills and the law in order to support economic development and combat extremism. China saw a wave of Xinjiang-related terrorist attacks through 2016. Organizers said there were 152 participants in Wednesday's event, including 51 countries, and speaker after speaker called on China to end its abuses against the Uyghurs. Germanys U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen thanked all the co-sponsors who came together despite some massive Chinese threats. He urged them to remain committed until the Uyghurs can live again in freedom, until they are no longer detained, no longer victims of forced labor and other human rights abuses, until they can exercise freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Heusgen appealed to China to respect the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and tear down the detention camps. If you have nothing to hide, why dont you finally grant unimpeded access to the (U.N.) High Commissioner for Human Rights? he asked. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Biden administration will keep standing up and speaking out until Chinas government stops its crime against humanity and the genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang. And we will keep working in concert with our allies and our partners until Chinas government respects the universal human rights of all its people, she said. Uyghur human rights activist Jewher Ilhan spoke about her father Ilham Tohti, a noted economist who has called for autonomy for Xinjiang and is serving a life sentence on separatist-related charges. We dont even know if hes alive, she said. Hundreds of thousands, even millions of Uyghurs are still being targeted, said Ilhan, who now lives in the United States. The fate of my father and my community is in the worlds hands now. We all need to join together and take action to stop this humanitarian crisis from continuing. A Chinese diplomat countered, saying: I make it clear that China is here to tell the truth, it doesnt mean in any way we recognize this event. He then showed a short video and said: The truth is, its not about human rights in Xinjiang, its about using Xinjiang as a political tool to contain China. The U.S. and some of its allies make a presumption of guilt, and then fabricate so-called evidence. Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth, whose organization recently concluded that Chinas atrocities amount to the crime against humanity of persecution, said the challenge is what to do about it. Beijing clearly calculates that through censorship, propaganda, intimidation, and threats it can somehow avoid accountability, he said, pointing many actions including its extraordinary lengths of disinviting people from Wednesdays event, its endless charade that has prevented Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet from visiting Xinjiang, and U.N. inaction. Roth expressed disappointment that Bachelet, who was invited to the event, turned down the invitation. Im sure shes busy. We all are. But I have a similar global mandate to defend human rights and I couldnt think of anything more important to do than to join you here today. I certainly wasnt deterred by the commute -- all the way to my laptop, he said. The good news is that the tide seems to be turning, he said, pointing to more countries condemning China's crimes. But he said more must be done. Roth called for a U.N. Human Rights Council resolution on Xinjiang, for moving discussions to the U.N. Security Council, for seeking avenues to justice including the use of universal jurisdiction, and for considering creation of an international investigative mechanism similar to those for Syria and Myanmar. The true test of the significance of todays event will be the follow-up steps that we all take, he said. Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the persecution of the Uyghurs is a critical test" for the international human rights system to investigate allegations of massive violations" by a government against its own people and hold those responsible accountable. She called the silence, fear and timidity" of Bachelet's office and the U.N. Secretariat frankly unacceptable and a breach of their mandate, as are the silence of many states." Callamard said supporting a multilateral response to what is happening in Xinjiang is not about picking sides in a fight with China or supporting the U.S. or anyone else, it is about fighting for human rights." MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. - A Florida fisherman was recovering today after being stabbed with the bill of a swordfish during a fight with another man, a sheriff's spokeswoman said. Police arrested Frank Ashmus, 46, and Garth Spacek, 42, Thursday after the two fishermen allegedly started fighting near a dock in Madeira Beach, a small city on Florida's Gulf Coast. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina House Republicans approved a plan on Wednesday to prohibit public schools from embracing certain ideas that critically examine how race and racism influence American politics, culture and law. The measure passed by a vote of 65 to 48 and now heads to the Senate. If approved, it would go to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's desk. This bill does not change what history can or cannot be taught, said Rep. John Torbett, a Gaston County Republican. "It simply prevents schools from teaching discriminatory concepts. The bill aims to provide dignity and nondiscrimination in schools by prohibiting teachers from expressing support for a series of seven ideas, including the belief that the United States was founded by members of a particular race or sex to oppress people of another race or sex. If approved, House Bill 324 would prevent schools from endorsing the view that any individual should feel guilty simply because of their race or sex or that the person's race or sex makes them inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, even if unconsciously. The proposal does not prohibit teachers from introducing these ideas so long as they make it clear that the school isn't endorsing such concepts. Democrats and racial justice advocates accuse Republicans of trying to rewrite history and deprive pupils of a fulfilling curriculum. Rep. James Gailliard, D-Nash, called the proposal anti-American history," noting that the United States was founded on the backs of millions of slaves being exported into the country. This bill is a give me the microphone back' bill because we want to talk but we don't want to listen to everybody else," Gailliard said. Rep. Kandie Smith, D-Pitt, likened the proposal to book burning," while Rep. Ashton Clemmons, a Guilford County Democrat who previously worked as a local elementary school principal, said students need to feel uncomfortable in order to progress further in their learning. Fundamental to education is discomfort, Clemmons said. If you stay in your comfort zone, you are not growing. You are not learning. You fundamentally have to feel discomfort to learn something new. The North Carolina Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina opposed the measure. North Carolina is not alone in advancing proposals to try to curb ideas central to critical race theory, which highlights how historical inequities and racism continue to shape public policy and social conditions today. Arkansas, Idaho and Oklahoma have implemented various versions of a ban already this year. Other attempts have been floated in New Hampshire, Missouri and Louisiana over the past few months, though those measures are unlikely to pass. Torbett said he hopes the bill brings people together, rather than dividing them. This bill does not change in any way what history can and cannot be taught, Torbett said. What it does, it tells our children what we honestly owe them, and grandchildren, and what we owe them is that education system that unites and not divides. The proposal brought forward by Republicans came as a last-minute substitute during a Tuesday education committee hearing that entirely scrapped an older version of the bill that sought to clarify charter school reopening guidance. Republican leaders who control both chambers are considering a host of measures ahead of Thursdays crossover deadline. Policy bills that dont pass at least one chamber by the deadline otherwise face long odds to be considered again before 2023. ___ Follow Anderson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BryanRAnderson. ___ Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. A federal judge dismissed on Tuesday a bankruptcy case by the National Rifle Association that would have allowed it to reorganize as a nonprofit in gun-friendly Texas, dealing a blow to the gun rights group that is facing a lawsuit in New York that could put it out of business. The NRA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January and announced it planned to move to Texas. But legal experts said the announcement was more a legal maneuver to avoid an aggressive lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James than a physical relocation. In August, James had accused NRA leaders of fraudulently using the group's funds for decades and aimed to put the group out of business. Republican state officials, including Gov. Greg Abbott, had welcomed the NRA's plan to relocate, emphasizing the state's business and gun-friendly environment and embracing the gun rights group's stance that it was fleeing a "toxic political environment" in New York. MORE POLITICS NEWS: TEXAS COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES RECEIVE $2 BILLION IN FEDERAL STIMULUS MONEY But after a hearing that lasted 11 days, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale in Dallas said he was dismissing the case because the NRA had not filed its bankruptcy proceedings in good faith. The filing was less like a "traditional bankruptcy case" and more like cases "in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme," he wrote. Though a successful bankruptcy may not have ended the New York attorney general's enforcement actions, Hale added, they could have taken away the attorney general's ability to dissolve the nonprofit, which would have given the NRA a distinct litigation advantage. While the NRA's headquarters and much of its operations are in Fairfax, Virginia, the group was chartered as a nonprofit in New York and is incorporated in the state. In a statement after the ruling, the group said it wasn't giving up on relocating. "The NRA can still pursue establishing business operations in Texas, and the organization will continue to explore moving its headquarters there from Virginia," the statement said. "Texas is home to more than 400,000 NRA members." The group's CEO Wayne LaPierre said in a that while the NRA was disappointed in some aspects of the decision, it remains committed to its members and its future. "We remain an independent organization that can chart its own course, even as we remain in New York to confront our adversaries," LaPierre said in a statement. "The NRA will keep fighting as we've done for 150 years." Hale said the NRA's conduct during the case continued to give him concern. He cited secrecy and a lack of transparency from the group's leaders, including LaPierre, who filed for bankruptcy without the knowledge or support of most of the group's board and top officers. LaPierre he kept the move a secret to prevent leaks from the group's 76-member board, which is split in its support of him. Charles Leddys Presidian Hotels and Resorts has quickly become a major player on the San Antonio-area hotel scene. But Leddy, the 44-year-old Presidian CEO, has a grander version for the collection of 10 chain hotels he manages, which include brands like Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Hyatt Place. Hes eyeing several hotels in downtown San Antonio hed like to buy, renovate, then manage. Hes in the process of raising as much as $100 million to bankroll the deals that would be his first in the heart of the city. And hes looking at other areas of Texas for possible boutique hotel acquisitions or to build new hotels from the ground up. Leddy said he expects to finalize his first purchase by the end of the year. He relishes the idea of putting his own stamp on Presidian properties that will be unique. Theres not a lot of imagination that comes into opening a more standard hotel property, he said. Maybe you get to pick the finishes, but at the end of the day it needs to look like that brand. On ExpressNews.com: Opening during a pandemic? No problem for luxury hotel On the other hand, Leddy said, creating a boutique hotel is a creative process. There is so much joy in coming up with a vision, he said. The ultimate aim is to fuse together great architecture, food and service into a unique experience for guests. Presidian now manages and Leddy has a controlling interest in two boutique-type hotels in addition to the 10 chain properties. The first breaks a self-imposed rule that all his hotels should be in Texas so he can maximize time with his wife, Kelly, and their two children, Drake, 5, and Anderson, 3. The Springs Resort & Spa in the Colorado community of Pagosa Springs came into the Presidian fold in 2018 because of Leddys fond memories of family vacations there. His family took yearly trips to the hotel starting when he was a young boy. Its a tradition he continues today. The Springs is certified in Guinness World Records for containing the worlds deepest geothermal hot spring. The mother spring feeds 25 of the resorts hot therapeutic mineral pools and a mineral water lap pool. The second hotel, the Estancia del Norte across from the North Star Mall, opened last month. It was one of the toniest hotels in San Antonio when it opened in 1978 as the La Mansion del Norte. In recent years, however, it had lost its original luster as well as its name. The Doubletree by Hilton San Antonio Airport was just one of the citys many chain hotels. The Estancia del Norte is affiliated with Hiltons Tapestry Collection, but is not a chain hotel in the traditional sense. Hilton gives Tapestry Collection owners wide latitude in the design and management of their lodging establishment because it wants each property to be unique. Leddy said he hopes the hotel will become a fixture in the community not just a place for overnight guests to stay. Presidian dates to 2000, when it was founded by Leddys father Drake, a lawyer, accountant and real estate developer. The younger Leddy has gone his own way in building a career. With degrees in business administration and accounting, his resume includes work as an investment banking analyst at Stephens Inc. in Arkansas, a consultant at McKinsey & Company in Seattle and heading two units at Starbucks Corp. charged with coming up with new products and concepts. He joined Presidian in 2013 after his father developed health issues. He became CEO in 2016, at which point he reorganized the company, starting from scratch without any hotel properties. It now employs 500 workers. Leddy spoke recently to the Express-News about his company and vision for the future. The following transcript is edited for brevity and clarity. Marvin Pfeiffer, San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer On ExpressNews.com: New San Antonio restaurant coming from Don Strange of Texas and ex-Bohanans chef to new hotel near airport Q: Your newest hotel is the Estancia del Norte, a remake of the old DoubleTree Airport Hotel. It is a fancy boutique hotel in an area filled with cookie-cutter chain hotels, including one you operate, the Hilton San Antonio Airport. Why did you decide to acquire it? A: Its a property that Ive always loved. I grew up in San Antonio. Ive known that property my whole life. And I always felt it had a lot of potential because of its Spanish-style architecture and grand courtyard. Just beautifully built. Number two, a lot of people told me I couldnt do it. And that was the motivation. Because I believed we could. The hotel is in the airport market thats tired, no one wants to spend time at the airport, everybody wants to be downtown or at the Rim and the property is old. They said it was just too much work to renovate it. But I saw this beautiful, unique piece of architecture. Q: How did the pandemic affect your company? A: It slowed down everything. We had to lay off many employees. Every hotel project that was in the pipeline that we had not started yet was stopped. We decided not to do it or its been delayed. The fund to buy hotels was not an idea before the pandemic. The fund was actually a product of better understanding the type of work we like to do. But from the experience weve had the last several years or so, the Springs resort, the Estancia del Norte, we have been able to create some unique experiences. We feel there is a lot more opportunity for that. Q: Is the hotel market coming back in San Antonio? A: Downtown is still hurting. But when you go into the outlying areas, we are actually seeing at least occupancy return relatively close to where they were before the pandemic. The problem we are seeing is that rates are not where they were. And so gross revenue is down more than 20 percent from 2019. But its great to see that occupancy is coming back. Q: Were you able to rehire employees? A: We have hired everyone who wanted to come back as business recovered. We also have an organization called Presidian Cares. It is caring for our own associates who are in need. So, we have a web or an email address that any associate can write to if theyre in need. And we respond to everyone. So the need could be to pay medical bills or funeral costs. Or just basic necessities. It could be Christmas is coming around and we dont have money to buy presents. Q: The San Antonio hotel market has suffered a lot during the pandemic. Average occupancy plunged to under 40 percent in the city in 2020.What is the long-term future for the market? A: San Antonio is one of the most culturally unique markets in the entire country. We have the River Walk, the proximity to the Texas Hill Country, the history, the Alamo. Fiesta San Antonio. You could not do Fiesta anywhere else but San Antonio. So in a market like San Antonio, where people are coming because they want to see the city, we need more places where people can go and experience San Antonio. So I believe in the lodging industry in San Antonio. If I go to a different market that doesnt have the same natural kind of cultural, unique aspects related to it, I have a harder time getting really excited about the lodging industry in those markets. I think San Antonios just going to become more and more of a place where people want to experience our unique city. Q: Tell us more about the funding you are raising. Would you buy existing properties like the ones you are eyeing on the River Walk and renovate them or build new hotels? A: So, the easiest thing is existing properties. We are currently still working through the details as it relates to what we will be allowed to do. It could be a combination of new and existing properties. While, I have several properties in mind on the River Walk, it could be anywhere in Texas. We are really focused on that boutique-type experience for travelers. Q: How big do you want to grow your company? A: I have set a (maximum) number of 30 hotels. But its a number that Ive set where, if I ever got to that number, its my signal that Ive grown the company larger than I wanted to. Because I believe that if you get to be too big, you lose community. You lose the ability to know your employees. You lose the ability to know people. You start getting so large that the personal relationship you can have is diluted. I can go to any of my properties, and I know my staff. And they know me. Q: How could Presidian change in the future? A: We manage hotels for third parties. So at some point I may decide that we dont want to manage some of the hotels that we do . But as we grow, I may decide that I want to shift our focus to the properties where we feel like were making the most impact. Properties so unique when a guest comes in, they have a memorable experience in some form. So we always want to have a client edge, have a little bit of edge when you go to one of our properties. Theres something about the property that gives it a little bit of a different feel, right. Whether its in the service or the architecture. Q: One of the properties you are building is a TownePlace Suites by Marriott on Interstate 35? Ive stayed at those hotels. They offer decent extended apartment-type accommodations, but I dont see how they are unique. They are part of a chain with many locations. How does that fit into your vision of shifting toward operating boutique hotels? A:We are building the hotel on the Olympia Hills golf course. So weve built out the pool area behind that hotel. So, youre looking right out on the golf course. They do a lot of weddings at Olympia Hills. And so this is a place where people can stay. And then from our hotel, they drive a golf cart to the wedding venue. And they can drive it back and enjoy the patio and drinks and the pool. And you see, that hotel has some edge. randy.diamond@express-news.net The Nation's Weather for Thursday, May 13, 2021 _____ NATIONAL SUMMARY High pressure will largely be in control of the weather pattern across the country tomorrow, leading to fairly tranquil conditions with no major storm systems. Following a frosty start to the day across parts of the Great Lakes, Ohio Valley and interior Northeast, the afternoon hours will feature milder weather than the past few days. Unusually cool air will persist in the Southeast despite some sunshine, with temperatures up to 15 degrees below normal. A zone of showers and thunderstorms is forecast to set up across most of Florida, as well as southern Alabama and Georgia. Spotty storms will erupt across the northern High Plains and mountains of the interior West. Heat will continue to swelter the Southwestern states amid dry, sunny weather. SPECIAL WEATHER No new information for this time period. WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS No new information for this time period. DAILY EXTREMES National High Wednesday 98 at Needles, FL National Low Wednesday 15 at Gould, CO _____ Copyright 2021 AccuWeather We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form A. Transportation. There's a strong need for a long-term mobility plan, especially on U.S. 19 and State Road 44. B. Resiliency. Crystal River needs blueprints for the future, especially focusing on sea level rise and health of bay waters. C. Downtown. Areas within the city's CRA need more projects like the Town Square. D. Revitalization. Abandoned shopping centers and older structures like the mall need a makeover. E. Residential neighborhoods. Interconnecting communities and maximizing the potential in Crystal River neighborhoods is the key to happy living. Vote View Results Express Entry: 557 PNP candidates invited in newest draw Canada invites 176 more candidates than previous PNP-only draw. Shelby Thevenot Mohanad Moetaz Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Canada invited 557 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residence on May 12. Express Entry candidates needed a score of at least 752 in order to receive an Invitation to Apply (ITA). They also needed to have previously received a nomination from a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). Any time someone gets a provincial nomination through an Express Entry-linked PNP, they automatically get 600 points added to their score. This is why the score requirement was so high. Without the nomination, the lowest-scoring candidate would have had a score of 152. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) publishes a cutoff time for the tie-break rule as an administrative requirement, regardless of whether there was an actual tie. In the new draw, candidates who had the minimum score were only invited if they submitted their Express Entry profile before April 29, 2021 at 10:18:12 UTC. Having Canadian experience prior to landing gives PNP candidates an edge in the labour market, said David Cohen, Senior Attorney of Campbell Cohen. Studies have shown about two thirds of PNP candidates who become permanent residents have work prior experience in Canada, and the majority are employed in their first year. Get a Free Express Entry Assessment Express Entry in 2021 Since the start of the year, Canada has only invited Express Entry candidates through the PNP, and the Canadian Experience Class (CEC). This is largely because the COVID-related travel restrictions do not allow approved permanent residents to come to Canada from abroad, and the government is aiming to admit record-breaking numbers of new immigrants over the next three years. In 2021 alone, Canada is set to welcome 108,500 new immigrants through Express Entry-managed programs. So far, IRCC has invited 62,328 Express Entry candidates to apply for permanent residents. PNP-only and CEC-only draws have vastly different CRS requirements. This is because PNP candidates have the 600-point award attached to their score. CEC candidates are invited in high numbers, and they are not competing for invitations from other programs, so there is more room for IRCC to invite lower-scoring candidates. What is Express Entry? Express Entry manages the applications for Federal High Skilled programs, which include the: Canadian Experience Class, Federal Skilled Worker Program, and the Federal Skilled Trades Program. Some PNPs also use the Express Entry system to invite candidates to apply for a provincial nomination. If you are eligible for Express Entry, and enter your profile into the pool, you will get a score based on the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). The CRS awards you points based on your skilled work experience, education, age, official language skills, and other factors. IRCC invites the highest-scoring candidates to apply for permanent residence through regular Express Entry draws. After you apply, an IRCC immigration officer makes a decision on your application. If you are approved, the last step is to complete the landing process and officially become a Canadian permanent resident. Who was invited? The following is a hypothetical example of someone who may have been invited in the new draw. Marco is 34 with a masters degree and has been working as a database analyst for ten years. He wrote the IELTS and scored a 7.5 in listening and a 6.5 in every other category. Marco entered the Express Entry pool in January 2020. He also submitted an Expression of Interest profile to the Canadian province of Saskatchewan through the International Skilled Worker: Saskatchewan Express Entry stream. He entered the Express Entry pool with a CRS score of 360. Shortly after submitting a profile to Saskatchewan, Marco was invited to apply for provincial nomination. After being nominated, his Express Entry CRS score increased to 960. Marco was then invited to apply for permanent residence in the new Express Entry draw. Get a Free Express Entry Assessment CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. Mendicino gives speech on modernizing Canadas immigration system Canada's Immigration Minister outlines steps IRCC is taking to improve the country's newcomer efforts. Mendicino gives speech on modernizing Canadas immigration system Canada's Immigration Minister outlines steps IRCC is taking to improve the country's newcomer efforts. Mendicino gives speech on modernizing Canadas immigration system Canada's Immigration Minister outlines steps IRCC is taking to improve the country's newcomer efforts. Kareem El-Assal Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Canadas Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino delivered a keynote address on May 12 called Modernizing Canadas Immigration System. Mendicino gave the speech at a virtual event hosted by the Canadian Club of Ottawa. Since 1903, the Canadian Club has hosted prominent speakers to discuss the countrys most important issues. Immigration has been a critical issue well before Canadas founding in 1867 and is emerging as an even more important one during and after the pandemic. In late-October, Mendicino tabled Canadas Immigration Levels Plan 2021-2023. The plan calls for the highest levels of immigration in Canadas history to support the countrys post-coronavirus economic recovery. Canada is now aiming to welcome at least 401,000 immigrants per year, and early statistics show it is on pace to achieve this target in 2021. Under his watch, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has been pursuing an ambitious agenda throughout the pandemic, even despite travel restrictions. For example, it held the largest Express Entry draw ever on February 13 and launched six new permanent resident streams on May 6. Find Out if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration Mendicino began his speech by noting that despite COVID-19 challenges, IRCC has kept immigration corridors open to allow essential travelers to enter the country safely. Moreover, Canada continues to provide humanitarian assistance, and is currently the worlds number one destination for resettled refugees. Looking ahead, Canada needs to end paper-based applications, said Mendicino. Canada is heading towards a modern immigration system. Currently, Canadas immigration system is bogged down by paper and is outdated. All applicants will eventually be able to make their submissions online and track IRCCs progress. For instance international students will only need to complete one single online application. New Canadian citizens will be able to take their oaths online. The minister said that some 50,000 new Canadians have participated in about 9,000 virtual citizenship ceremonies over the past year. Mendicino stressed the importance of moving away from the aging Global Case Management System (GCMS). Last month, the Canadian government proposed a nearly $430 million investment to modernize its information technology infrastructure. The investment will allow IRCC to process applications much more quickly. The state-of-the-art platform will be the cornerstone of Canadas modernized immigration system. Mendicino said a major goal of the new platform is to inspire the confidence of Canadas immigration applicants. A central part of Canadas current immigration strategy is to transition those already in the country to permanent residence. This encourages them to settle in Canada and make long-term contributions to Canadas prosperity. Mendicino hopes that Canadians will look back at these efforts and appreciate the major contributions essential workers and newcomers in general have made to help the country combat COVID-19. Find Out if Youre Eligible for Canadian Immigration CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on almost every facet of life around the world, causing companies to review their business strategies. The result is that while the crisis has presented challenges, it has also provided an opportunity for organizations to evolve and embrace a new reality where digital processes prevail. Beyond the deployment of teleworking tools, companies are investing in other types of technology that allow them to conduct business activity anywhere, at any time. As organisations pursue digitalisation strategies, electronic invoicing, or e-invoicing, is considered to be a fundamental instrument for optimising business processes. What is e-invoicing? E-invoicing is essentially the automated, digital exchange and processing of invoice-related documents such as bills and payments among different entities, typically buyers and suppliers. E-invoice frameworks are sets of standards and policies, increasingly implemented by governments, designed to allow different organisations to exchange e-invoices regardless of the specific ERP systems they use for payments and accounting. For example, in India e-invoicing obligation has been extended to companies with an annual turnover exceeding INR 50 Crores (US$6.65 million), from April 1st 2021. In France, e-invoices are mandatory for the business-to-government (B2G) sector. Whats next for e-invoicing in the Middle East? In order to support Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 programme, the General Authority of Zakat and Tax (GAZT) enacted on 4 December, 2020, new regulations regarding the implementation of e-invoicing. The regulations will apply to all resident taxable persons in the Kingdom. Businesses have one year to deploy the required technology and adapt their systems to comply with the new digital standards. The e-invoicing mandate aims to curb the shadow economy, increase adoption of tax returns, harmonise business processes with global practices, improve KSAs ranking on relevant international indicators, as well as promote fair business competition and consumer protection. Saudi Arabia is not the first country in the Middle East and it wont be the last to implement an e-invoice mandate. We know Qatar, Oman and Bahrain are looking to implement mandatory e-invoicing, and Egypt has already a pilot in progress, says Luis Ortega, managing director, MEAA, at Pagero. Through e-invoicing businesses can achieve savings of up to 80% of invoicing costs through automating their processes, Ortega adds. It too serves the tax authorities for tax reporting and avoiding tax evasion purposes, helping to reduce the current VAT gap estimated between 20-30% (equiv trillion euros). E.g. countries Chile and Mexico have reduced VAT gap by 50% by introducing e-invoicing initiatives. Businesses connect to e-invoice networks not only to exchange documents but also to be able to report, in real time, invoices to tax authorities in different countries. The electronic invoice is the first step of digitalization. Pagero provides buyers and sellers with connectivity and the technology to digitalise and automate the exchange of orders, delivery documents, invoices and payments. Companies that operate using the Pagero Network have a partner that ensures regulatory compliance with government mandates and tax issues globally. For example, Pagero and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have been working together during 13 years, when the Swedish government introduced requirements for e-invoicing. HPE is currently using Pagero services in 28 EMEA countries and India, entailing a broad variety of business compliance requirements as well as a number of customer-specific layout demands. With the help of Pagero, we have been able to fulfil our invoicing-related tax and legal requirements in all 29 countries where we use them as our e-invoicing service provider, says Mihai Chiriac, program manager of the EMEA & APJ e-invoicing program at HPE. Thanks to this cooperation, HPE has standardised their e-invoicing procedure, reduced invoice turnaround, and found the simple way to comply with local business regulations worldwide. If you would like to find out more e-invoicing and how this can benefit your business, please get in touch with Luis directly at luis.ortega@pagero.com Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access You will receive 5-day a week delivery of the Citizen Tribune newspaper to your home or business, plus full, ad-free access to CitizenTribune.com as well as full access to the Electronic Edition of the newspaper. ONLY $13.99 per month for the first 3 months! Only $16.00 per month after promotional period. Or ONLY $169.99 for a full year Only $198.95 per year after promotional period. All of the eight leading Democrats vying to win the June 22 primary interviewed with The New York Times to win the papers coveted endorsement. Just one winner was announced: Former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. But while one candidate walked away with The Times endorsement, others managed to make headlines, though not all for the right reasons. Several candidates completely bombed the question of what is the median sales price of a home or apartment in Brooklyn? However, former U.S. Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan perhaps bombed this question the most when he said the median price was around $100,000 (the real answer is $900,000). The Times said Donovan later emailed to clarify that his $100,000 assessment was in reference to the assessed value of Brooklyn homes I really dont think you can buy a house in Brooklyn today for that little, he told The Times. Former Citigroup executive Ray McGuire and Maya Wiley were also way off. McGuire said the median sales price was likely somewhere in the $80,000 to $90,000 range, if not higher. And Wiley said the price was probably about $1.8 million. Dianne Morales also estimated the price was half a million, while Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams said the figure likely stood at about $550,000. The median housing price question sent the Twitter world into a frenzy. How can you fix the citys housing crisis if youre this oblivious? said Democratic consultant Monica Klein of Donovan and McGuires gaffes. I mean, do u even watch House Hunters? quipped southern Brooklyn Council Member Justin Brannan in response to Kleins Tweet. Candidates also put their foot in their mouths with other questions. McGuire declined to say whether he would release his tax returns when pressed repeatedly by the editorial board. Were reviewing that. I think were already in response to what has been asked. Were going to continue to review the submission of the tax returns, McGuire said when asked if he would release his tax returns. What does that mean? Asked Times editor Nick Fox. Is that yes? Do you mean you will release them at some point? Asked Times Editor Eleanor Randolph. Im saying Ill continue to review that. At the appropriate time, well take that under consideration, McGuire explained. Scott Stringer would not provide the names of candidates he was considering for commissioner roles. I have had an opportunity in our campaign to talk to a lot of advocates around the country. I dont have a particular name, he said when asked by Times Editorial Board member Jesse Wegman to provide the board with some names of the kind of people you would you would want as commissioner? Andrew Yang was blasted by Fox for his rather vague answers to the boards questions about policing, especially on the question about his view on the role of police unions in the city and how he would work to manage them as part of his efforts to reform the NYPD as a whole. On the question of working with police unions Yang said: My goal would be to, frankly, to try and align the unions and say, look, its not good for the city or you or the public that were spending hundreds of millions of dollars in this direction or that crime rates are up and clearance rates are down. So lets figure out how we can work together to achieve some of these goals and hopefully that theyll be open to at least some of the changes and proposals that Im going to be championing. Fox quipped: Ive got to say, I really find your answer rather vague. There are statutory obstacles to police accountability. There are contractual obstacles to police accountability. You have a union that has been an obstacle to change every step of the way. And they have intimidated mayors for years and years. And just to say, well, youre going to talk to them and theyre going to come around its not very persuasive. While the candidates shied from revealing who, if anyone, would be their number two on the ballot, Garcia was the only candidate to tell the editorial board point blank that she was in the race to win alone. I do not have a No. 2. I would not be in this race if I did, she said. Garcia did not hold back on her criticism of her former boss Mayor Bill de Blasio when asked what she thought his biggest mistake was. The biggest mistake: not having a plan to reopen the schools, not having a plan for the vaccines. Those are some of the more recent ones. Being in Iowa when the lights went out. Those are some of the ones that come to mind, Garcia said. Since January, when Marty Baron announced his retirement as editor of the Washington Post, the media beat has hummed with speculation about his replacement: Would it be an internal candidate? Or one of a bevy of editors from the New York Times? Or Ben Smith? So it was impressive yesterday when the Post appointed someone who hadnt appeared in the guessing game: Sally Buzbee, the executive editor of the Associated Press. Online, the unexpectedness of the hire sparked a mini-debate as to whether media reporting is bad or not; Nieman Labs Hanaa Tameez asked why we had to suffer through so many think pieces that ended up being way off? Management at the Post certainly maintained a high wall of secrecy around the process, blinding not just outside media reporters but the papers own staffers, some of whom, the Daily Beast reported recently, were irked by their lack of insight. At one point, the papers union wrote to Fred Ryan, the publisher, requesting input into the decision. Given the confidential and sensitive nature of the executive editor search, he replied, we do not plan to broadly address the search process with employees. Maybe not so impressive after all. The news of Buzbees hire was broken, in the end, by Paul Farhi, a media reporter at the Post. (I was just telling @farhip that Im looking forward to finding out who the next executive editor of the Washington Post will be via the bot in our Slack telling us that his story about it published, Elahe Izadi, Farhis colleague on the media desk, tweeted. Thats how I found out.) Ryan told Farhi that he valued Buzbees experience atop an international news organization given that the Post is in the process of expanding overseas, with plans for new hubs in London and Seoul and bureaus in Sydney and Bogota; Ryan also told staff, in a memo, that he looked carefully for someone who shares our values of diversity and inclusion, and who is committed to prioritizing them in our news coverage as well as our hiring and promotion. The decision won plaudits from journalists with ties to the Post and the AP: Laura Helmuth, a former Post staffer who now leads Scientific American, wrote that she was so happy (and frankly, relieved) for my former colleagues; Julie Pace, the APs Washington bureau chief, made the case that there is simply no better newsroom leader and mentor than Sally, and hailed her, too, as a role model for moms working in journalism. This is normally the part where everyone fires off kiss ass tweets to the new boss, Devlin Barrett, a Post reporter who formerly worked at the AP, tweeted, but honestly, even knowing what it makes me look like? Sally is a tremendous editor. ICYMI: Whats the difference between freelance writers and gig workers? Buzbee, who is fifty-five, will be the first woman ever to lead the Post. Farhi noted on Twitter that six of the papers ten most senior editors are now women, as are the heads of other major news organizations such as ABC News, MSNBC, Reuters, and the Financial Times. (There are many more examples, as the replies to Farhis tweet attest.) The fact that this is not a big deal is kind of a big deal, he wrote. Many observers praised the path-breaking nature of Buzbees appointment, though some also pointed out that Buzbeelike many other senior women in journalismis white, and that there is much diversity work still to be done. Responding to Farhis tweet, Wesley Lowery, a former Post reporter who vocally criticized Barons leadership, called Buzbees hire unquestionably a big deal, though he wrote elsewhere that the overqualified black candidate not even getting a serious call about the job, only for it to go to a white lady and be framed as a win for diversity is the entire story of newsroom diversity efforts. (He was referring to Kevin Merida, a former Post editor who was reportedly not courted aggressively to succeed Baron, despite his strong credentials and enduring popularity among the papers staff. Last week, Merida was named executive editor of the LA Times.) In addition to the secrecy of the Posts search, Buzbees name may have been absent from the post-Baron media chatter because the AP is often absent from general media chatteras it noted in its own story on Buzbees departure, the AP is both ubiquitous and somewhat invisible, since it sells its journalism to thousands of outlets that use it on their websites, front pages and broadcasts. This is an oversightthe AP is one of the biggest news organizations in the world, and it routinely does important work with an impressive range of scale; as Fenit Nirappil, a former AP reporter who is now at the Post, put it yesterday, the AP doesnt get enough love in this industry given that its a massive global multimedia operation adept at ambitious and reader friendly work while championing state-level accountability reporting. It is also very traditional in its tone, a fact that didnt always serve its day-to-day coverage of the Trump era all that well. Heres the first question that springs to my mind: The AP is well-known as our most buttoned-down straight-news organization, whereas Baron succeeded in straddling those old-school values with newer forms of journalism characterized by voice, attitude and swagger, Dan Kennedy, a journalism professor at Northeastern University, wrote yesterday. Will Buzbee be able to adapt? A similar question sprung to my mindexcept Id note that Baron failed to establish consistent rules as to how much of a voice his reporters were allowed to develop, especially on social media. Buzbee has only ever worked for the AP. Itll be interesting to see how much of its culture comes with her to the Post. Buzbees past statements about journalism offer cause for optimismshe told CJR in 2017 that some journalists dont understand what a dangerous weapon polling is, and argued ahead of the early stages of the 2020 primary campaign that reporters should ignore horserace polls altogetheras well as reason for skepticism: when CNNs Brian Stelter asked her last year if the AP wasnt labeling Trumps lies as lies because doing so might inject emotion into its coverage, Buzbee replied that she didnt want to put any filter, or any sort of off-putting thing there, that keeps [readers] from going to good, old-fashioned, factual journalism. (The AP has recently been more blunt in labeling Trumps election lies, as several media-watchers have noted.) According to Farhi, on a staff call at the Post yesterday, Buzbee avoided speculating on how her leadership might change the paper, though she did emphasize a focus on deep, factual journalism, and pledged to run a newsroom where a wide, very wide diversity of voices are heard and have influence. After Baron announced his retirement, I wrote that a strong successor would understand that ensuring the latter is integral to the former, and that factual journalism neednt be old-fashioned. That challenge now falls to Buzbee. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Below, more on the Buzbee hire: Some background: Buzbee is originally from Olathe, in Kansas. After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1988, Buzbee began her career as an AP reporter in Topeka, Farhi reports. She was also a reporter in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Washington. She made the jump to editing in 1996 as assistant bureau chief in Washington. Beginning in 2004, she was APs Middle East regional editor in Cairo, supervising coverage of the Iraq War. She also holds an MBA from Georgetown University. Buzbee is originally from Olathe, in Kansas. After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1988, Buzbee began her career as an AP reporter in Topeka, Farhi reports. She was also a reporter in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Washington. She made the jump to editing in 1996 as assistant bureau chief in Washington. Beginning in 2004, she was APs Middle East regional editor in Cairo, supervising coverage of the Iraq War. She also holds an MBA from Georgetown University. The role of Bezos: Jeff Bezosthe Posts billionaire owner, who also owns Amazonalso took part in the search for Barons successor. (Baron was already in the job when Bezos bought the paper, in 2013.) Buzbee will inherit a newspaper in good financial healthbut not everyone is sanguine about Bezoss involvement. I have no reason to believe Sally Buzbee isnt a great choice, Judd Legum, who writes the newsletter Popular Information, tweeted yesterday, but the fact that the billionaire CEO of one of the worlds most powerful companies picks the top editor of one of the worlds most important news orgs is not a good thing. Last month, Hamilton Nolan, CJRs public editor for the Post, asked what would happen should Bezos at some point decide to abandon his hands-off approach. Bezos is, despite all appearances, not a robot, Nolan wrote. And he can snap. Jeff Bezosthe Posts billionaire owner, who also owns Amazonalso took part in the search for Barons successor. (Baron was already in the job when Bezos bought the paper, in 2013.) Buzbee will inherit a newspaper in good financial healthbut not everyone is sanguine about Bezoss involvement. I have no reason to believe Sally Buzbee isnt a great choice, Judd Legum, who writes the newsletter Popular Information, tweeted yesterday, but the fact that the billionaire CEO of one of the worlds most powerful companies picks the top editor of one of the worlds most important news orgs is not a good thing. Last month, Hamilton Nolan, CJRs public editor for the Post, asked what would happen should Bezos at some point decide to abandon his hands-off approach. Bezos is, despite all appearances, not a robot, Nolan wrote. And he can snap. On foreign reporting: In 2019, Mya Frazier reported for CJR on concern, among some veterans of the APs overseas bureaus, on changes to the agencys foreign-reporting model, including the shrinking of its global footprint as bureaus are quietly closed; the phasing out of the salaried expat package for correspondents; and the reliance on local stringers and staffers, who often are paid far less than full-time American correspondents once were. Buzbee told Frazier that she gets a little prickly that someone in the US thinks they should have a salary out of whack with the very talented people in the country where they are working I admit it might be unfair for the people who arent getting expat packages anymore, but it was a two-tier system. Buzbee added: I think the old twotier system sucked. In 2019, Mya Frazier reported for CJR on concern, among some veterans of the APs overseas bureaus, on changes to the agencys foreign-reporting model, including the shrinking of its global footprint as bureaus are quietly closed; the phasing out of the salaried expat package for correspondents; and the reliance on local stringers and staffers, who often are paid far less than full-time American correspondents once were. Buzbee told Frazier that she gets a little prickly that someone in the US thinks they should have a salary out of whack with the very talented people in the country where they are working I admit it might be unfair for the people who arent getting expat packages anymore, but it was a two-tier system. Buzbee added: I think the old twotier system sucked. What next for the AP?: Gary Pruitt, CEO and president of the AP, told David Bauder, an AP media reporter, that management will immediately begin scouting a replacement for Buzbee, and that he expects the search to take several months. In the interim, Bauder reports, Brian Carovillano, a vice president and managing editor, will lead the APs news team, while David Scott, who holds the same title as Carovillano, will handle operations. Buzbee will assume her role at the Post at the beginning of next month. Other notable stories: ICYMI: The Miami Herald, The Appeal, and media unions ongoing fight Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop. Stay up to date on COVID-19 Get Breaking News Sign up now to get our FREE breaking news coverage delivered right to your inbox. BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio -- A plan to build a 20,000-square-foot Aldi store off the north side of Ohio 82 west of Broadview Road has been approved by the Planning Commission and City Council. The store will stand on a parcel measuring about 7 acres immediately east of Seneca Boulevard and Weeping Cherry Village apartments, across from Hope Community Church. Councilwoman Jennifer Mahnic said construction might start in late June or early July. The citys Building Department is now reviewing the permit applications. I am enthusiastic that Aldi is bringing this opportunity to Broadview Heights, Mahnic said in an email to cleveland.com. So many residents have asked for this business specifically. They provide additional grocery options for our residents, as well as some unique shopping experiences. In a somewhat vague statement to cleveland.com, an Aldi official either denied knowledge of the Broadview Heights project or expressed reluctance to share information about it. Currently, we do not have information about a potential ALDI store opening in Broadview Heights, Ohio, said Corey Stucker, vice president of Aldis Hinckley Division. Related to this project, council on May 3 introduced a tax-increment financing (TIF) agreement that would help the city pay for infrastructure improvements -- including construction and reconstruction of roads, sidewalks, traffic lights, parking lots, sewers, water lines, utilities and landscaping -- in the area of the Aldi store. Under the TIF, a percentage of new property taxes generated by improvements to the Aldi site and 10 neighboring lots would go toward municipal infrastructure improvements for a certain number of years. Mahnic said council may approve the TIF in June. Mayor Sam Alai, according to minutes of a March 15 meeting of councils Safety/Service Committee, said he believed the TIF would pay for a new traffic light at the entrance to both Aldi on the north side of Ohio 82 and Community Hope Church on the south side. The traffic light was part of the original Aldi plan when it was introduced last year. Facade factors The Planning Commission gave Aldi preliminary approval Jan. 27, according to meeting minutes. At the time, commissioners expressed concern about what they viewed as a flat, bland appearance of the building facade facing Seneca, under the original site plan. They asked the developer to break up the rear facade and use the same building materials on the back of the building as on the front and sides. Also, Commissioner Ken Emling requested that the developer hide any rooftop units and/or metal-stud framing on the roof. Adam Pychewicz -- project manager with ms consultants inc., the Columbus firm that is developing the Broadview Heights store for Aldi -- said anything exposed on the roof would be screened. He said ms would take another look at the rear facade. Pychewicz also agreed to extend ornamental fences lining Seneca along Aldis northern property line, as requested by the owners of Weeping Cherry Village. On April 14, before the commission gave Aldi final approval, Emling thanked ms for improving the building facade. Traffic lite Commissioners also didnt want the Aldi traffic light to operate on a red-yellow-green cycle continually, due to historically light traffic at certain times in the area. Greg Modic -- of Petros Development Corp., which owns the Aldi site through a limited liability company called BH XINGS LLC -- said the light would flash yellow and red in the evenings. Vehicles approaching the light would trigger it to switch to a red-yellow-green cycle. Modic said that once the area was developed further, with more commercial buildings to the east, then the Aldi traffic light might become a red-yellow-green signal 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On March 15, councils Safety/Service Committee asked whether the developer might move the traffic light to Seneca and Ohio 82, then allow Aldi customers to access the signal through a connecting driveway to Seneca. Councilman Glen Goodwin said a traffic light just east of Seneca might make it harder for drivers to exit Seneca onto Ohio 82, especially during peak hours as traffic backs up on Ohio 82 eastbound. However, city Engineer Gary Yelenosky said topography and existing utilities would make placing the traffic light at Seneca difficult. He added that the traffic light at Aldis would help drivers exit Seneca, presumably by stopping traffic on westbound Ohio 82. Mahnic asked whether traffic from Seneca could access the traffic light at Aldi. Yelenosky said no, there would be no driveway connection between Seneca and Aldi. An access drive will, however, connect the Aldis parking lot with Primrose Schools, a preschool, to the east. Councilman Brian Wolf asked if Aldi might adhere to new, stricter stormwater management requirements council is now considering but has not yet approved. Yelenosky said Aldi looked into that, but decided against it because it would increase their costs by 25 percent. He said the stores stormwater management plan does exceed existing code. Absorbing Broadview Heights The estimated cost of store construction is $2.8 million, according to the application. Construction was expected to finish in October, the application noted. The store will employee about 15 workers, with an annual estimated payroll of $680,000. Aldis 96-space parking lot would lie both in front of the store, near Ohio 82, and to the east of the new building. According to the companys website, the first Aldi store opened in 1961 in Germany. Aldi has stores in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland. The first U.S. store opened in 1976 in Iowa. Today, Aldi has more than 2,000 stores in 36 states and employs more than 25,000 workers. Northeast Ohio communities with Aldi stores include Brooklyn, Brunswick, Cleveland, Fairview Park, Lakewood, Macedonia, Medina, Middleburg Heights, North Randall, Parma, Seven Hills and Strongsville. Read more from the Sun Star Courier. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Animal Protective League has teamed up with Home to Home, a national organization that links those who must surrender their pets with prospective new owners. Its an effort to ensure that animals do not needlessly end up in a stressful shelter setting. Home to Home facilitates communication between current owners and those looking to adopt. The service is for dogs, cats and other animals. Home to Home is free to use for both those re-homing a pet and people searching for a loving companion. The organization prohibits any exchange of money between parties. Animals receive, and provide, plenty of love at the Cleveland APL, but a forever home is always the best possible outcome. (Photo Courtesy of Stan Lindholm, Cleveland APL volunteer photographer) Persons needing to find a new home for a pet should first visit Cleveland APLs Home to Home page to fill out a brief form and pet profile, upload a photograph and submit the information. Those seeking a furry friend can search the site. Once the two parties connect, they can discuss pet needs and other considerations. Its another positive option for pet owners who find themselves in a situation where they need to find a new home for their pet, said Ayse Dunlap, director of operations with the Cleveland APL. Why not let the owner make the best decision possible and find the right match for them? Before surrendering a bright-eyed friend to a shelter, owners who can no longer keep a pet should consider Home to Home, which allows the current owner to communicate with prospective new parents. (Photo Courtesy of Olivia Houck, APL volunteer photographer) According to Dunlap, bypassing a potentially unnecessary shelter stay is a best-case scenario. Although the Cleveland APL is dedicated to helping all pets in need, they can only accept as many animals as there are kennels -- meaning some owners will need to wait to surrender animals. Owners who are waiting can use Home to Home to find the perfect place for their pet. If they are successful, they can then cancel the appointment to surrender their furry friend to the APL, thereby opening up one more critical space at the shelter. Although Dunlap emphasizes that the APL provides top-notch care to all guests, she concedes, Its still a shelter. Its still an animal in a cage. Its a noisy place. Its not a cozy couch; its a kennel. A warm bed in a loving home beats a shelter every time. (Chris M. Worrell, special to cleveland.com) Shelter staff will monitor the Home to Home website to ensure that all rules are followed and will intervene when help or advice are needed. The APL will also generate interest by featuring furry friends on the shelters Facebook page. Because not all pets are immediately appropriate for placement, the APL will continue to accept animals that need a bit of extra care and attention prior to adoption. We all need someone to snuggle with, and Cleveland APL's Home to Home website features an array of adoptable animals. (Photo Courtesy of Mike Petcher, Cleveland APL volunteer photographer) We see the immense stress people are under when they need to surrender their pet to us, noted Sharon Harvey, president and CEO of the Cleveland APL. While the Cleveland APL is a wonderful facility and our team gives each animal the best possible care, a shelter isnt a home and can be a stressful place for them, she said. Surrendering a beloved pet can cause anxiety and suffering for all. Home to Home helps owners proactively engage in the adoption process, while preserving shelter resources and ensuring a smooth transition for animals who have become accustomed to a warm, loving setting. No one organization can solve everything and help everyone, said Dunlap. If there are other organizations we can partner with that give owners and pets more options, more resources and more good outcomes we are more than willing to embrace those solutions. PARMA HEIGHTS, Ohio -- Less than a week after Mayor Michael P. Byrne announced that he wont seek re-election, City Council President and Council-at-Large Representative Marie Gallo has announced her intention to run this fall for city leader. If elected, Parma Heights first female council president would become the citys first female mayor. Ive always thought about running for mayor, said Gallo, 42, a Strongsville native who has called Parma Heights home for 20 years. Ive always been prepared for it, especially being in the role of council president for the past eight years. I have the legislative experience as a former clerk of council for 10 years leading up to my appointment to City Council. Over the past five years, Ive gained administrative experience. A City Council member since 2010, Gallo worked for Cuyahoga County before joining the City of North Olmsted as its human resources director. I bring a different perspective to the table, Gallo said. Ive pursued aggressively more additional responsibilities over the past years at a very high level in North Olmsted. We have more than 200 employees I deal with, and I also oversee and have overseen several departments -- information technology, the senior center, youth and family services. Having been City Council president for eight years, Gallo said her experience acting as a liaison between the administration and council would be a huge benefit if shes elected mayor. Already pledging their support toward Gallos mayoral run are numerous council members. Marie is genuine and a careful thinker, Ward 3 Councilman Tom Rounds said. Shes led council with the same confidence I could see her leading our city. Her work experiences have also given her insight into balancing budgets, working with multiple departments and negotiating with unions. Marie is open, approachable and dedicates her time and effort to what she is committed to. I think she is the person to continue the work that has moved us in a positive direction. Ward 4 Councilman Rick Haase said Gallo has a wealth of experience and knowledge. Shes worked tirelessly as a member of City Council, as well as having served as a former council clerk, Haase said. And, as a human resources professional, shell bring a different perspective to the role, which obviously requires exceptional people skills. Issues Gallo said the next mayor will face include flooding around the community, as well as infrastructure upgrades, safety and services. Parma Heights Finance/Personnel Director Katie Iaconis said the 2022 mayor salary is currently at $66,178 annually; however, that figure could be increased slightly before the end of the year. As far as Byrnes announcement not to seek his fourth term as mayor, Gallo said she supports his decision. After working with him for so long, Im was very happy for him, Gallo said. Hes served over a decade as the mayor and hes lived the role of mayor. He knows its a 24/7 commitment. While Im disappointed hes leaving as a mayor, I fully support his decision. I will miss him, she said. The deadline for mayoral candidates to file their petitions with the Cuyahoga County Board of Election is Aug. 4. I plan on campaigning very hard, Gallo said. I know I bring a lot to the table and will work very hard for the residents. Read more news from the Parma Sun Post. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A new poll found that most Americans who remain unvaccinated still have concerns that need to be addressed, and the World Health Organization said a variant from India is a global concern. Cleveland.com is rounding up some of the most notable coronavirus news making headlines online. Heres what you need to know for Wednesday, May 12. Poll finds most unvaccinated Americans need convincing An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found most Americans who have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine still have questions about side effects and how the shots were developed. Only 11% of those who have not been vaccinated definitely plan to get the shot, while 34% said they definitely wont, the poll found. Another 27% say they probably will, while 27% say they probably wont. Those Americans have concerns that have not been addressed, the poll found. The poll did find that the overall number of Americans who refuse to get the vaccine which includes those whove already been vaccinated -- is decreasing. One in five American adults said they probably or definitely wont get the shot, compared to one in three back in January, the poll found. WHO classifies coronavirus variant discovered in India as global concern The World Health Organization said this week that a coronavirus variant that is partly responsible for a surge of infections in India is a global concern. Preliminary data has shown the variant, known as B.1.617, spreads more easily than the original form of the coronavirus. The WHO officially elevated B.1.617 variant to the status of variant of concern. Variants of concern are strains that are found to be more contagious, more deadly or more resistant to treatments or vaccines, according to WHO guidelines. The WHO has also classified strains from South Africa, Brazil and the U.K. as variants of concern. India is in the midst of a surge of coronavirus infections, and reported a single-day record of more than 414,000 infections on Friday. Uber and Lyft to provide free or discounted rides to get the vaccine The ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft will provide free or discounted rides to locations offering the coronavirus vaccine, the White House announced Tuesday. The initiative, which is intended to help more Americans get vaccinated, will launch sometime in the next few weeks and run through the Fourth of July. President Joe Biden has set a goal of getting 70% of Americans vaccinated by then. Lyft said its promo code will offer $15 off each trip to and from a vaccination location. That amount should cover most, if not all, of the cost of each ride, the company said. Uber has not yet released the details of its program. The White House said people will be able to select a vaccination site near them and book a ride. Uber and Lyft will also promote the program in their apps. Study finds testing wastewater for COVID-19 is effective Researchers from the University of Virginia found testing wastewater for the presence of COVID-19 is an effective way to predict a rise in infections in nursing homes and other congregate living settings. The study, published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, says the data suggests wastewater testing could also help predict outbreaks at colleges and universities when students return to dormitories in the fall. The researchers evaluated the effectiveness by testing the wastewater in buildings where there were known to be coronavirus infections. They found wastewater testing can also detect small numbers of asymptomatic cases. The Ohio Department of Health previously identified wastewater testing as one way to predict COVID-19 outbreaks in a community. The ODH notified communities if they observed sustained increases in the volume of coronavirus fragments found in raw sewage. Your coronavirus vaccine questions answered: Are you contagious if you have side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine? Are you less immune to the coronavirus if you dont have vaccine side effects? Can I still get my second dose of coronavirus vaccine if I develop COVID-19 symptoms after the first? Can you mix and match two doses of coronavirus vaccine from different manufacturers? Can you request one coronavirus vaccine if you have concerns about the other? Coronavirus vaccine misinformation permeates social media: Here are the facts to counter six false claims How will local drug stores keep the coronavirus vaccine on site if it needs to be cold? How will they avoid waste? If Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are for people 16 and older, what does that mean for children? What about minors with pre-existing conditions? If the coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective, how will you know if youre in the other 5%? Is it OK to take over-the-counter or prescription pain medication before getting a COVID-19 vaccine? Should cancer patients get the coronavirus vaccine? Should you get the coronavirus vaccine if youve had a bad reaction to the flu shot? Should you get the second vaccine if you contract COVID-19 after your first coronavirus vaccine dose? What can families do safely if parents are vaccinated but their kids arent? What if you contract COVID-19 in between your two coronavirus vaccine doses? Who should skip the second shot of coronavirus vaccine? Weve got answers Why do I need to keep a mask on if Ive been vaccinated for coronavirus? Will your COVID-19 vaccine be less effective if you need to wait longer for the second dose? CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A New Years Eve 2018 triple slaying in which a U.S. Army soldier is charged with murder began when a man attacked the soldiers cousin, a prosecutor said during opening statements delivered Wednesday. When Tevin Biles-Thomas and his cousin Devaughn Gibson arrived at a party at an AirBnB rental, someone immediately grabbed Gibson by his shirt collar and pushed him up against the refrigerator, sparking a firefight that left three people, including Gibson, dead. Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Gregory Mussman told jurors that Biles-Thomas was the first to pull his gun and the first to open fire on DelVaunte Johnson and Toshaun Banks, ultimately killing them both. Johnson returned fire in self-defense before he was killed and shot and killed Gibson, Mussman said. From grabbing a shirt to guns, Mussman said. Defense attorney Joseph Patituce told jurors in his opening statement that prosecutors dont have enough evidence to prove that Biles-Thomas fired a single shot that night, let alone to convince the jurors to convict Biles-Thomas of murder. The comments came during opening statements in the trial of Biles-Thomas, a 26-year-old U.S. Army soldier who is also the brother of U.S. Olympic gymnast Simone Biles. Biles-Thomas is charged with murder, voluntary manslaughter, felonious assault and perjury, and faces life in prison if he is convicted. Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge Joan Synenberg is overseeing the trial that began with jury selection Monday in a courtroom set up in the Huntington Convention Center as the court continues to navigate the coronavirus pandemic. The shooting came on New Years Eve 2018, when a small group of people including real estate agents and their girlfriends rented an apartment above a pizzeria on Dennison Avenue near Fulton Road to throw a party. Someone invited some friends, and a second group of people that included Johnson, Banks and several other people who Patituce said were members of a gang named the Muddy Gang, showed up and got rowdy, Mussman said. Biles-Thomas, Gibson and another man showed up together later, and the fight ensued. Mussman said it was either Johnson or Banks who grabbed Gibson in the kitchen. The states case against Biles-Thomas relies heavily on testimony from two people at the party who identified Biles-Thomas as the shooter based on his clothing. Investigators never found the gun they accuse Biles-Thomas of using in the shooting. Macquise Taboo Lewis told detectives that the shooter was wearing a blue jean jacket and Timberland boots, and then picked Biles-Thomas from photographs taken from a security camera mounted at the back door because he was seen in the video wearing Timberlands. A woman who was shot in the arm during the gunfight said the shooter was wearing a black swishy jacket, and picked Biles-Thomas picture from a photo lineup. Mussman also said Biles-Thomas actions after the shooting raised suspicions. Biles-Thomas left the scene and returned to Georgia the next day without checking up on Gibson or the other man who accompanied them to the party, Mussman said. He denied firing any shots when he was questioned by a Cleveland homicide detective, and testified to the grand jury that ultimately indicted him that he did not shoot. Prosecutors then charged Biles-Thomas with perjury. Mussman told jurors that they must decide if Biles-Thomas purposely killed Johnson and Banks and was therefore guilty of murder, or if he acted in a sudden fit of rage once his cousin was attacked and opened fire, and was guilty of manslaughter. The state submits evidence will show it wasnt self-defense, Mussman said. Patituce in his opening statement blamed the shootout on the members of the muddy street gang who attacked Gibson. Patituce said testimony from witnesses will show that one of the hosts of the party wanted to kick members of the gang out of the party but didnt because he feared they were armed, and that the attack on Gibson was almost like a set-up. Banks told his pregnant girlfriend to go outside 10 minutes before Gibson and Biles-Thomas showed up to the party, and then Gibson was shoved up against the refrigerator within 30 seconds of his arrival at the party, Patituce said. Patituce in his opening statements also sought to sow doubt about Lewis credibility. Lewis, who Patituce also identified as a Muddy Gang member, picked up Johnsons gun from the floor and threw it in a lake after the shooting. Prosecutors charged him with felony tampering with evidence, and on Monday allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing official business charge in exchange for his testimony against Biles-Thomas. Lewis was also arrested on a felony weapons charge out of Warrensville Heights in August while he was on bond in connection with the tampering charge. Prosecutors dismissed the case against him while reserving the right to refile the charges in the future, and did not ask for Lewis bond to be revoked after his arrest. Patituce also said that the woman who identified Biles-Thomas as the shooter said the gunman pulled his gun out of a pocket on the front of his jacket. Patituce displayed a still photo from the security video that showed Biles-Thomas arriving at the party and said his jacket did not have a front pocket. Patituce said jurors will have to rely on the actual evidence presented at trial, which he said is not enough to convict Biles-Thomas. No speculation, no conjecture, he said. Thats all [prosecutors] have. CLEVELAND, Ohio Two men have been into custody in connection with the fatal shooting of a 25-year-old man earlier this month in the Slavic Village neighborhood. Trevon Green, 22, was arrested by members of the Northern Ohio Fugitive Task Force on Monday. Green was found at an apartment building in the 4400 block of Granada Boulevard in Warrensville Heights, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. Elantra Murphy, 23, was arrested Tuesday morning at a home in the 900 block of Whitby Road in Cleveland Heights. Both men were taken into custody without incident. The U.S. Marshals Service says both men are suspects in the fatal shooting of Marquel Cobb, 25, on May 3 in Cleveland. Cleveland police say the shooting occurred just after midnight in the area of Fleet and Broadway avenues. Cobb was taken to MetroHealth Medical Center with gunshot wounds to his chest, but he died of his injuries. Police say a juvenile, whose age was not released, also was wounded in the shooting. The juvenile survived his injuries. One young man is dead and another seriously injured, so many more could have been hurt or killed by these suspects acts of violence and their lack of regard for human life, U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott said in a statement. Violence perpetuated by suspects like this has such a grave impact in our communities, hopefully these two suspects will remain behind bars for a long time. More crime-related content on cleveland.com: Cleveland Community Police Commission calls for DOJ to re-open investigation into Tamir Rice shooting Two former Ohio State students join legal fight against university over Dr. Richard Strauss sexual abuse Four men wanted for stealing more than 20 cars in Bay Village over three-month span, warrants say Cleveland man charged with murder in deadly Memorial Day 2020 shooting 12-year-old boy shot in Clevelands Cudell neighborhood, police say Three boys arrested after breaking into North Ridgeville Academic Center, bringing BB gun into gym, report says Jury selection set to begin in trial of Olympic gymnast Simone Biles brother charged with murder in Cleveland New Years Eve party shooting Man charged in fatal shooting of man, woman in Clevelands Stockyards neighborhood CLEVELAND, Ohio The U.S. Department of Agricultures Food Safety and Inspection Service has issued several recall notices including products from two Ohio-based companies - in recent weeks. The products should be thrown away or returned to place of purchase: More Than Gourmet, Inc., an Akron business, recalled less than 7,000 pounds of ready-to-eat beef and veal broth and stock products that might be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically hydraulic oil. The items were produced March 1, April 7 and April 8. The products subject to recall bear establishment number 27446 inside the USDA inspection mark, and they were shipped to retailers and distributors nationwide. The affected items: 12-ounce plastic squeeze bottle of Kitchen Accomplice Organic Beef Bone Broth Concentrate (lot codes MFGA21060A5613, MFGA21060B5613 and MFGA21098B5613). Use by/Sell by dates are 3/1/2023 and 4/8/2023). 16-ounce plastic cup of More Than Gourmet Demi-Glace Gold Classic French Demi-Glace (lot code MFGA21097A0205). Use by/Sell by date is 4/7/2023. The FSIS reports the problem was discovered after identifying a malfunction in a piece of processing equipment. For details, email sales@morethangourmet.com. Bellisio Foods Inc. of Jackson recalled less than 4,000 pounds of frozen not-ready-to-eat (NRTE) spaghetti with meat sauce product due to misbranding. The product contains soy, an allergen not declared on the product label. The items, produced April 22, are 8.5-ounce paperboard trays with lid packages containing Michelinas Spaghetti with Meat Sauce (lot codes J1112N8, BEST BY 22APR2022, and UPC code of 7 17854 10503 9). The products bear establishment number EST. 18297 and were shipped to retail locations nationwide. For details, email kcummings@bellisiofoods.com. Super World Trading Inc. of Brooklyn, New York, recalled more than 26,000 pounds of ready-to-eat (RTE) imported Siluriformes (catfish) products. The products were imported from China, a country ineligible to export processed Siluriformes to the United States. The products subject to recall - regardless of product date are 4.23-ounce (120-gram) plastic tray and cover packages containing Golden Spoon Hot Pot Fish Chips. The products do not bear an establishment number nor a USDA mark of inspection. They were shipped to retail and wholesale locations nationwide. Consumers can email superworldtrading@yahoo.com. More info For details on recalls and food-safety questions, call the USDA meat and poultry hotline, 1-888-MPHotline (674-6854) or chat via Ask USDA 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays. Consumers also can email questions to MPHotline@usda.gov. For consumers who need to report a problem with a meat, poultry or egg product, the electronic consumer-complaint monitoring system is online. I am on cleveland.coms life and culture team and cover food, beer, wine and sports-related topics. If you want to see my stories, heres a directory on cleveland.com. Bill Wills of WTAM-1100 and I talk food and drink usually at 8:20 a.m. Thursday morning. And tune in at 7:05 a.m. Wednesdays for Beer with Bona and Much, Much More with Munch Bishop on 1350-AM The Gambler. Twitter: @mbona30. Get a jumpstart on the weekend and sign up for Cleveland.coms weekly In the CLE email newsletter, your essential guide to the top things to do in Greater Cleveland. It will arrive in your inbox on Friday mornings - an exclusive to-do list, focusing on the best of the weekend fun. Restaurants, music, movies, performing arts, family fun and more. Just click here to subscribe. All cleveland.com newsletters are free. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- It was an ironic twist of fate that considering the world over the last year was stuck at home living its own Groundhog Day-like experience, streaming services offered a number of loop movies where characters experience the same day over and over again before discovering some level of self-fulfillment. Taking a different approach to the same feeling is Northeast Ohio native Brandon LaGankes new film Drunk Bus, which highlights the worst kind of literal loop -- working a dead-end job with no end in sight. For his co-directing debut alongside partner John Carlucci, the Kirtland native and former Hudson resident tapped into his Kent State University past where for a student job he drove a late-night bus shuttling drunk students to and from campus. Starring Charlie Tahan (Ozark) and featuring Kara Hayward (Moonrise Kingdom), Drunk Bus, which won both Best Feature and the Audience Award at the 2020 San Diego Film Festival, currently appears in the Cleveland Institute of Arts Cinematheques virtual screening room. The hilarious and heartwarming film gets quite meta for LaGranke considering Pineapple, the punk-rock, heavily-tattooed Samoan security guard who protects the driver in the movie, was literally his bodyguard nearly 20 years ago when he drove the bus loop. We caught up with the 2001 Hudson High School and 2005 Kent State University graduate during a recent phone call to his West Orange, N.J. home. Brandon, this is crazy. Pineapple is actually Pineapple from your Kent State days? Yeah. I met Pineapple in Dunbar Hall, which is a Kent dorm. He was my next-door neighbor, and we instantly became friends. The next year when I started driving the bus, he was looking for a job. I asked him to be my security guard. I was also in a punk band with Pineapple. Our big gig was a sub shop EuroGyro in Kent. That was our big break. I think we played two more shows, one was at Annabells in Akron. So, yeah, hes playing himself in the movie. While he did have some minor roles, Pineapple really didnt act before this. Part of the seven-year stretch it took to get the movie made was getting him ready for this role. OK. Wow. Mind blown. So, lets go back. How did you get involved in filmmaking? My story started with my cousin Rob, who lived in an apartment above my grandmothers barn in Kirtland. We used to just watch movies constantly. Wed also make our own movies that were terrible. At Kent State, I originally studied journalism and then I moved into advertising. I graduated with a mass communications degree. Right after college, I followed a girl, my wife, to New York City where I worked for an ad agency for seven years. On nights and weekends, Id cut film. I wanted to be a film editor at first. Thats what led me into filmmaking. I figured I could do better than the footage I was getting. I just grinded it out, made short films, music videos and hooked up with my partner, John Carlucci, who was also working at that ad agency. Thinking back to your Kent State University bus driving days, did you ever consider it would be a good film setting? Its something I always thought was an interesting job even when I was doing it. Id go to work at 9 p.m. and clock out at 4 a.m. It was this really weird job that was the highest-paying student job on campus besides nude modeling. When John and I were thinking about making a movie, I kept coming back to the concept of Drunk Bus. I had no idea at the time wed be where we are now but its awesome. Pineapple and I reminisce about it all of the time. I have a lot of friends in Kent and throughout the Cleveland area. They think its awesome. Speaking of the area, its cool to see comedian-writer-musician Dave Hill in the film, as well as a heavy nod to Devo. For me, Devo has been a huge influence. Ive worked with a lot of celebrities and athletes but I think Mark Mothersbaugh would probably be like my fanboy-cant-talk moment if I met him. Whats up with Kent State University being replaced with Kent Institute of Technology (KIT)? We originally were going to shoot in Kent. We scouted there and rode the buses, but I think it ended up just being a budget thing. It was actually cheaper to shoot in Rochester, N.Y. than it was in Northeast Ohio for some reason. Finally, what makes the film work is its not your typical college movie. There are also a few earned moments of gravity -- one of which involves suicide -- that sort of transcend the genre. Was that intentional? John and I grew up on John Hughes, Kevin Smith and a lot of great filmmakers who dont only create humorous material but that have a lot of heart in their projects. We really wanted this to have that sort of nice middle ground of comedy and heart. We definitely didnt want to go like Road Trip or college humor. Thats also why we called it Drunk Bus because it gets you in the tent, but its a very different type of film. Some people have said they wish the suicide thing wasnt part of the movie. For some audiences, it goes a little too far, but we wanted to push the limit a little bit and make sort of a late-night dark comedy. Theres a lot of genre-bending in this movie. Thats why its lit so dark. Our director of photography (Luke McCoubrey) has a horror film background. We wanted to play with a lot of different genres and just make it this interesting ride. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Its one thing to participate in guerrilla filmmaking and another to clandestinely shoot a film that could land you in jail or worse. Take for instance There is No Evil, which is the latest work of subversive Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (The White Meadows and Manuscripts Dont Burn). Shot in secret and smuggled out of Iran, where its currently banned, the new movie -- which beginning May 14 appears in the Cleveland Institute of Arts Cinematheques virtual screening room -- follows four unrelated stories that touch on the morality and psychological consequences of capital punishment. Also on May 14, Cleveland Cinemas (Cedar Lee, the Capitol and Chagrin Cinemas) through its virtual screening room is showing Kim A. Snyders new film Us Kids. The Peabody Award-winning documentarian recently turned her cameras on a generation of youth leaders determined to raise awareness regarding gun violence in schools. Following Emma Gonzalez and others, Us Kids chronicles the March For Our Lives movement that over the course of several years branched out into addressing racial justice and a growing public health crisis. Virtual screening rooms continue to offer movie lovers a safe way to view first-run films online during a pandemic. Half the proceeds from the virtual films go back to the local theater. Costs vary for each film, which is accessible for either 48 or 72 hours. Heres a look at new and current films streaming this weekend through Cinematheque and Cleveland Cinemas: OPENING FRIDAY The Brothers New documentary The Brothers tells the story of brothers Aldo and Ilmar, both born in Cuba. The former is a pianist living in Havana, the latter a violinist who calls New York City home. While separated by the U.S.-Cuban divide, a shared love of music keeps the sibling close. The film captures the momentous reunion of these estranged siblings and their electrifying first performances together. Appearing in the movie are Joshua Bell and the Harlem Quartet. (Cinematheque) Drunk Bus During his days as a Kent State University student, Brandon LaGanke worked as a late-night bus driver hauling drunk partiers back to campus. The filmmaker turned that experience into the narrative of his feature film debut, the aptly titled Drunk Bus. Starring Charlie Tahan (Ozark), the heartwarming movie won both Best Feature and the Audience Award at the 2020 San Diego Film Festival. (Cinematheque) Enfant Terrible New German Cinema wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his unique circle of misfit friends and artistic collaborators are the focus of new dramatization Enfant Terrible. Currently Oskar Roehlers film has a 100 percent critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (Cinematheque) RK/RKAY Known as the godfather of Indian independent film, veteran actor, writer and director Rajat Kapoor is back with new movie RK/RKAY. The meta film, which has garnered comparisons to Being John Malkovich and The Purple Rose of Cairo, features Kapoor in multiple roles. (Cinematheque) The Story Of A Three-Day Pass Actor, filmmaker, playwright, novelist and composer Melvin Van Peebles (Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song) made waves in 1968 with his memorable film The Story Of A Three-Day Pass. The newly restored movie, which was shot in France, focuses on an African-American soldiers weekend romance with a white French woman. (Cinematheque) There is No Evil There is No Evil is the latest work of subversive Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (The White Meadows and Manuscripts Dont Burn). Shot in secret and smuggled out of Iran, where its currently banned, the new movie follows four unrelated stories that touch on the morality and psychological consequences of capital punishment. (Cinematheque) Us Kids Peabody Award-winning documentarian Kim A. Snyder recently turned her cameras on a generation of youth leaders determined to raise awareness regarding gun violence in schools. Following Emma Gonzalez and others, Us Kids chronicles the March For Our Lives movement that over the course of several years branched out into addressing racial justice and a growing public health crisis. (Cleveland Cinemas) STILL SHOWING 2021 Oscar Nominated Short Films For those folks who want to be up on this years Oscar-nominated Animated, Live Action and Documentary short films before the April 25 ceremony, each category can be purchased individually. The 2021 Oscar Nominated Short Films are not suitable for younger viewers and would probably be rated PG-13 (Animated) and R (Live Action, Documentary). (Cinematheque and Cleveland Cinemas) About Endlessness Venerable Swedish director Roy Andersson (A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence) continues his penchant for examining the human condition and existentialism in his new dreamy film About Endlessness. Taking viewers to Hitlers bunker, the mind of a tormented priest and to a contemporary cafe, the movie features mesmerizing art-directed sketches and vignettes. In addition to the feature, there will be an exclusive pre-recorded discussion between Andersson and Palme dOr-winning/Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ruben Ostlund (The Square, Force Majeure). (Cinematheque and Cleveland Cinemas) Band of Outsiders Jean-Luc Godards tragicomedy Band of Outsiders is perhaps the most accessible film from this auteur. The 1964 classic -- which includes the Madison dance number and the race through the Louvre -- follows three reckless young people (Anna Karina, Sami Frey, Claude Brasseur) hoping to plunder a suburban villa. (Cinematheque) Berlin Alexanderplatz Fresh from a screening at CIFF45 Streams, Burhan Qurbanis new film Berlin Alexanderplatz follows an undocumented West African immigrant living in Berlin who falls in love with a drug dealer, a sex worker and other societal outcasts. The movie is adapted from Alfred Doblins 1929 novel, which was also the basis for a 1980 Rainer Werner Fassbinder miniseries. (Cinematheque) Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts More than 70 years after his death, sharecropper-turned-artist later in life Bill Traylor is the subject of Jeffrey Wolfs new documentary. Bill Traylor: Chasing Ghosts tells the story of the self-taught African-American artist who was born into slavery in rural Alabama in 1853 and witnessed the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow segregation and the Great Migration before dying in 1949. He later drew or painted more than 1,000 Black experience works, which in 2018 received a major exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. (Cinematheque and Cleveland Cinemas) The Columnist The black comedy and fun satire The Columnist involves a female newspaper columnist, fed up with social media death threats and horrific comments, taking revenge on her critics. Ah, a journalists revenge fantasy. (Cinematheque) The County Boasting a classic western vibe, Grimur Hakonarsons new film The County finds a widowed Icelandic dairy farmer going against a corrupt and powerful local cooperative that may have played a part in her husbands death. (Cinematheque) Emily @ The Edge Of Chaos Physics and Metaphysics for Dummies could be the alternate title of Wendy Apples new documentary Emily @ The Edge Of Chaos about recently deceased humorist Emily Levine. The successful TV writer, producer and Ted Talk superstar explores the universe and the human condition through the lens of science, pop culture and recent events in this film version of one of her hilarious live performances. (Cinematheque) F.T.A. Obscure documentary F.T.A. was the lefts answer to Bob Hopes USO tours. Filmed during the height of the Vietnam War protests, the recently-restored movie documents Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and a troupe of entertainers traveling stateside and through Southeast Asia presenting an anti-war musical-comedy revue to soldiers. (Cinematheque) The Great Green Wall As part of an Earth Day celebration, the Cinematheque is screening Jared P. Scotts environmental documentary The Great Green Wall. The film features an epic, music-driven journey of hope, hardship and perseverance along Africas Great Green Wall, which is being created along the southern border of the Sahara to fight climate change, desertification and mass migration while providing jobs, food and a future for millions of Africans. (Cinematheque) Her Name is Chef Featuring six bad-ass, inspiring, sheroes of the kitchen, Peter Ferriero new documentary Her Name is Chef allows foodies an insiders view into what it takes for women to become a chef in a male-dominated world. Hosted by Leia Gaccione, the film focuses on the trials, tribulations and achievements of Elizabeth Falkner, Fatima Ali, Hillary Sterling, Esther Choi, Juliet Masters and Caroline Schiff. (Cleveland Cinemas) Hope Starring Stellan Skarsgard (Breaking the Waves, Good Will Hunting, Chernobyl), director Maria Sdahls new film Hope finds a successful artist couple, who have grown apart over the year, forced to come together for the family after the wife is diagnosed with terminal cancer. The adult drama was on the short list for this years Academy Award Best International Feature Film category. (Cinematheque) In Silico When esteemed auteur Werner Herzog says after viewing Noah Huttons new nonfiction work In Silico that hes never seen anything like it, audiences best pay attention. The latest film from the Lapsis filmmaker documents an ambitious, ten-year project in which a brilliant neuroscientist, Henry Markram, aspires to replicate the brain via supercomputers. What follows are naturally philosophical, ethical and scientific questions. (Cinematheque) Just Dont Think Ill Scream Director Frank Beauvais eclectic debut movie, Just Dont Think Ill Scream, is a collage film that strings together clips from B-movie and 70s horror flicks to create a tortured monologue to mirror the filmmakers post-breakup blues. (Cinematheque) Kuessipan Adapted from a Naomi Fontaine novel, Kuessipan finds two lifelong First Nations teenage friends whose relationship is tested when one dates a white boy. The Canadian film, which is directed by Myriam Verreault, offers a glimpse into Quebecs Innu community. (Cinematheque) Looking For a Lady With Fangs and a Moustache Looking For a Lady With Fangs and a Moustache is the latest work by Bhutanese director Khyentse Norbu (The Cup) is a tale of spirituality in the modern world. A skeptical Tibetan businessman, hoping to open the finest coffee shop in Kathmandu, is forced to become a believer while seeking a higher power. (Cleveland Cinemas) Meeting the Beatles In India In 1968, Paul Saltzman -- who was studying transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi -- unexpectedly crossed paths with the Fab Four. Now the Emmy Award-winning Canadian filmmaker has turned this experience into new documentary Meeting the Beatles In India, which is narrated by Morgan Freeman and includes never-before-seen personal photos. (Cinematheque) My Wonderful Wanda Director Bettina Oberlis award-winning new film My Wonderful Wanda tells the story of a poor middle-aged Polish woman who leaves her young children in Poland ostensibly to play caretaker to a wealthy, elderly stroke victim but invariably becomes more to an odd, drama-ridden family. (Cinematheque) Paris Calligrammes Ulrike Ottinger (Joan of Arc of Mongolia) turns the camera on herself with new documentary Paris Calligrammes. The veteran German artist and filmmaker uses archival audio clips and vintage visuals to resurrect the old Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood and the Latin Quarter. (Cinematheque) Rififi Blacklisted director Jules Dassins 1955 classic Rififi is about Paris jewelry thieves who join together for one big job. This influential film is known for its famously tense, wordless 30-minute robbery sequence. (Cinematheque) Stray Elizabeth Los imaginative new film Stray is a mostly wordless documentary that follows a stray dog living in Istanbul alongside other homeless canines, as well as Syrian refugees. In addition to the feature, theres an exclusive Q&A with Lo. (Cinematheque and Cleveland Cinemas) A Tale of Autumn The last film Cinematheque is screening as part of its Eric Rohmers Tales of the Four Seasons series is A Tale of Autumn. The 1998 film, which features Rohmer regulars Marie Riviere and Beatrice Romand, is a wry romantic comedy in which two friends of a Rhone Valley winegrower and widow try to find her a new husband. (Cinematheque) A Tale of Springtime Cinematheques new Eric Rohmers Tales of the Four Seasons series begins with the recently restored A Tale of Springtime. The 1990 film features romantic intrigue, ambiguous motivations and ambivalent behavior. (Cinematheque) A Tale of Summer A Tale of Summer is the third of Eric Rohmers Tales of the Four Seasons series, which the Cinematheque is celebrating screening a different film every week. The latest movie is the funniest of the collection about a recent university graduate who becomes involved with two young local women while waiting for his sort-of girlfriend to join him. (Cinematheque) A Tale Of Winter The next film in Cinematheques new Eric Rohmers Tales of the Four Seasons series is the newly restored A Tale Of Winter. Described as a contemporary fairytale, the 1992 film follows a young woman who on summer holiday falls in love with a cook and returns home bearing his child but losing touch with her lover. (Cinematheque) Test Pattern Shatara Michelle Fords debut feature, Test Pattern, taps into the zeitgeist touching upon everything from health care inequities, the #MeToo movement, policing and race in America. The award-winning feature focuses on the relationship between a young Black woman and her white boyfriend as he drives her in search of a rape kit after she is sexually assaulted by another man. (Cleveland Cinemas) This is Not a Burial, Its a Resurrection The award-winning This is Not a Burial, Its a Resurrection stars the late Mary Twala Mhlongo (Black Is King), who plays an elderly Mosotho woman preparing her own funeral when she decides to resist the construction of a new dam and reservoir that will force the resettlement of her village. The film currently has a 100 percent critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (Cinematheque) To the Ends of the Earth Director Kiyoshi Kurosawas (Cure and Pulse) latest project is the black comedy To the Ends of the Earth, which stars J-pop icon Atusko Maeda. A Japanese TV reporter takes her travel show to Uzbekistan, where while searching for a mythical fish her life quickly unravels into a self-discovery journey. (Cinematheque) Tu Me Manques Suicide related to the destructive self-loathing cocktail of fear and shame is what filmmaker Rodrigo Bellott deftly explores in his new transformative movie Tu Me Manques. Originally staged as a 2015 play of the same name in Bellotts Bolivian homeland, the movie centers around a grieving and conservative father flying from South America to New York City hoping to find answers as to why his closeted gay son committed suicide. Wet Season The follow-up to the 2013 Camera dOr winner Ilo Ilo, Anthony Chens latest effort Wet Season involves an unhappily married, Singapore-based language teacher undergoing IVF treatment. Through love and humor, the woman finds herself drawn to a promising student whose parents seem to have abandoned him. (Cinematheque) What Happened Was Tom Noonans directorial debut, What Happened Was, which won the top prize at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival, was recently restored. The film depicts the awkwardness associated with first dates when two lonely co-workers spend an uneasy Friday night together. (Cinematheque) CLEVELAND, Ohio An attorney hired as a special investigator found no evidence to support most of the bullying complaints filed by Cuyahoga Countys independent watchdog against the chair of the committee overseeing her department. Of the 11 allegations Director of Internal Audit Monica Houston leveled against Audit Committee Chair Mike Abouserhal, 10 were found to be unsubstantiated, according to the attorneys report, obtained by The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com through a public records request. In the only substantiated complaint, the report stated it was reasonable to conclude that Abouserhal may have asked Houston to meet at his home to prepare for a February 2020 committee meeting, because hed held similar meetings at his home with one of Houstons predecessors. Houston had said she was uncomfortable with the request; Abouserhal denied making it. In an email to cleveland.com, Houston stated that she was disappointed that the Audit Committee has paid for and accepted a report that at best is incomplete. Houston said the report amounts to nothing but hearsay and clearly was written with the goal of absolving Chairman Abouserhal. Abouserhal told cleveland.com he was pleased with the investigations findings, and that they should allow the committee and department to move forward with their duties. The findings from the attorney, who is with Clevelands Littler law firm, were based on interviews with 10 witnesses, including Houston, Abouserhal, other committee members, and Houstons predecessor, Cory Swaisgood. Houstons complaint said she experienced aggression, coercion, and belittling when interacting with Abouserhal, and that he subjected her to unrealistic expectations. Among other things, Houston said Abouserhal pressured her to take action contrary her findings related to payments the county made to high-speed internet provider OneCommunity, payments that were reviewed as part of a criminal investigation into the countys IT Department. Though Abouserhal and Houston disagreed about how Houstons findings should be presented to the prosecutors office, Houston acknowledged during an interview with the attorney that Abouserhal never asked her to report misinformation, the report stated. Abouserhal, in a previous interview with cleveland.com, framed the issues as professional disagreements that I thought we had worked through. The attorney concluded that much of Houstons complaint appeared to boil down to differences in opinion about the roles and responsibilities of the internal audit director and committee chair. Houstons allegations are sincere from her perspective she believes her role as director is independent and answers to no one, other than County Council; thusMr. Abouserhal is a micro-manager and attempting to usurp the Directors authority, the report stated. But Swaisgood and an unidentified committee member told the attorney they view Abouserhals role as Houstons supervisor. So, from their perspective, Mr. Abouserhals expectations and directness is reasonable and consistent with that role, the report stated. The attorney concluded: I have found no evidence of slander, ridicule, or maligning; threats, intimidation, or coercion; or sabotage or work interference. Nor have I have found any evidence that Mr. Abouserhal has conducted himself with any motive other than to further the work with which the Audit Committee is charged. Houstons department is one of two good-government watchdog agencies established by the County Charter and independent from the administration of County Executive Armond Budish. The department is overseen by the seven-member Audit Committee, comprised of the County Council president (or his or her representative) and four volunteer members, plus the county executive and fiscal officer who are non-voting members. Abouserhal is one of the volunteer members. On his LinkedIn page, he describes himself as a retired part-time consultant who previously served as assistant commissioner of finance at Cleveland Public Power and executive director of the Ohio Lottery Commission. The county Prosecutors Office paid Littler $10,000 to conduct an outside investigation of the complaint because the office serves as counsel for Houstons department and the Audit Committee. The countys Human Resources Department did not investigate Houstons complaint because Abouserhals position is unpaid, and hes not a county employee. CLEVELAND, Ohio Ohio transit advocacy group All Aboard Ohio has asked the federal government to open an inquiry into the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authoritys procurement process for new railcars. The advocacy group said Wednesday that it submitted the request to the Federal Transit Administrations inspector general after it was told by sources at GCRTA and at a railcar manufacturer that RTA twice denied deadline extensions sought by one or more manufacturers, who wanted more time to respond to RTAs pending request for proposals. All Aboard Ohio is concerned the denials could suppress competition among bidders, potentially driving up taxpayer costs for what is expected to be a roughly $240 million effort to replace the agencys aging railcar fleet. Its an undertaking the group describes as the most expensive capital project in RTAs history. We urge greater competition among rail industry suppliers to ensure better final products for our members, many of whom are users of GCRTA. Just as important, competition among bidders promotes more value to federal, State of Ohio and Cuyahoga County taxpayers, All Aboard Ohio stated in its request, which the group published on its website Wednesday afternoon. An RTA spokeswoman on Wednesday issued the following statement to cleveland.com: We are still in the confidential process of this procurement. RTA is committed to preserving the integrity of this procurement, and therefore we are not able to comment on certain details. RTAs procurement process is modeled after FTAs best practices and complies with state and federal regulations...Our procurement process requires that we treat all vendors consistently and equally. Specific timelines and milestones guiding the process are designed to be fair and reasonable to all potential proposers and bidders. RTA issued its request for proposals on Feb. 22, meaning companies interested in supplying the new fleet will have had about 12 weeks to prepare and submit proposals ahead of the May 19 deadline. But All Aboard Ohio stated that at least one rail car manufacturer was unable, until April, to obtain a tour of RTAs railcar facility. Such a tour would help a manufacturer tailor its proposal to RTAs specific needs. The request states that deadline extensions for such projects are considered a best practice by the FTA, and are common among transit agencies. It lists four other instances in recent years which agencies in California, New York, and Illinois extended deadlines to obtain more competition among bidders on vehicle replacement projects. We hope that FTAs [inspector general] will be able to determine why FTAs best practices are not being followed here, the request states. All Aboard Ohio further suggests that RTA extend its deadline by one month. RTA initially wants to buy 18 railcars, with options to buy dozens more over the coming years. It plans to use federal money to finance some of the purchase. Rather than buying two different kinds of cars one for use on the heavy-rail Red Line, and the others for use on the light-rail Green and Blue lines RTA opted to seek a standardized fleet that could be used on all three lines. Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer on April 29 submitted a public records request for correspondence related to the deadline extensions, but RTA hasnt responded. CLEVELAND -- It was only a matter of time. The national wave of election-law changes proposed by Republican state legislators finally made its way to Ohio. Last Thursday, Ohio House Republicans introduced House Bill 294, otherwise known as the Election Modernization and Security Act. According to one of its sponsors, state Rep. Bill Seitz of Cincinnati, The bill would allow for more secure and safe elections while ensuring Ohioans voices are heard at the ballot boxes. In the name of safety and security, the sweeping bill proposes a wide variety of changes: (1) prohibiting placement of ballot drop boxes anywhere but at a county elections board office, (2) limiting those ballot drop boxes to three per county, (3) eliminating in-person absentee voting the Monday before Election Day, (4) requiring voters to put their absentee ballot in the return envelope, not the ID envelope and barring them from fixing it if they mess that up, (5) requiring voters to mail their absentee ballot applications no later than ten days before the election instead of three, (6) requiring legislative authorization for the Ohio secretary of state to pay for absentee ballot postage, and (7) considering ballot harvesting the practice of collecting the completed ballots of others and dropping them off in bulk to election offices to be election fraud. On their face, many of the measures seem drafted to achieve the stated goal of more safety and security. Theoretically, ballot drop boxes can be tampered with, leading to the ballots contained within them being altered and/or destroyed. Therefore, it makes some sense we would want those boxes to remain close to the elections office, which is, theoretically, more secure. Eliminating in-person absentee voting the day before Election Day will allow county boards of election more time to prepare for and thereby more time to ensure the safety and security of Election Day. Ballot harvesting seems like an activity which could be ripe for election fraud. Someone could conceivably collect the ballots of others and then alter those ballots. Assuming these measures are, indeed, drafted to ensure a more safe and secure election, I still have a question. My question is, why is the safety and security of elections an issue for Statehouse Republicans? What evidence is there that Ohio elections are unsafe or insecure? In short, why is this legislation necessary? On Jan. 5, 2021, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose issued a press release regarding the results of county post-election audits for the 2020 presidential election. A post-election audit is a comprehensive review of the results of one or more contests in an election to ensure that the results reported by the board of elections are accurate. In counties that used a percentage-based audit, the results showed a 99.98% accuracy rate in the presidential election. According to Secretary LaRose, The incredible accuracy of the results as reflected in the post-election audits should make every Ohioan proud not only of their bipartisan election officials, but of the system we have in place. Ohio ran a fair and accurate election. If the Republican state secretary of state said in January of this year that we ran a fair and accurate election last year, why a mere four months later would a Republican legislator introduce a myriad of election law changes that he says would allow for more safe and secure elections? There seems to be a disconnect there, right? It can be reasonably argued that safety and security is not a destination, but a journey. The dangers of fraud and outright attack on our elections are ever-present and ever-changing. Accordingly, safety and security must also continually be assessed and altered. No disagreement from me on that. Thats a fair point. However, that begs the question: How do we determine what the dangers are? Shouldnt that determination be evidence-based? Laws should be solving a problem or preventing one. Regardless, the problem should have some basis in our current reality. So what is the reality? Are Ohio elections unsafe and insecure or not? Eric Foster is a columnist for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com. It appears that Ohio elections are safe and secure. In 2017, then-Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted, who is now the lieutenant governor, conducted investigations of voter fraud and concluded that it happens, but it is rare. In 2012, 2015, and 2016, Husted found 820 voting irregularities and referred 336 cases for prosecution. Ohio voters cast 14.4 million ballots in those elections. That means cases referred for prosecution represented only 0.002% of the ballots cast, The Columbus Dispatch reported. What about issues with absentee ballots? Many of the proposed changes in the Election Modernization and Security Act are related to those ballots and their processing. Secretary LaRose said last May that he had not seen any documented cases of ballots being stolen from mailboxes in Ohio. Not one. What about ballot harvesting? That one is a no brainer. I couldnt find any case of prosecution for ballot harvesting in Ohio. However, that might be because ballot harvesting is already illegal in Ohio. In conclusion, voter fraud is rare. Absentee ballot tampering is nonexistent. And ballot harvesting is already against Ohio law. So what is this legislation accomplishing? It doesnt appear much at all. Then why is this legislation looking for a problem being introduced? The reason is one word: Trump. President Donald Trumps claims of rampant election fraud before and after his 2020 election loss have driven GOP-led proposals to change election laws in almost every state. Due to his efforts, election integrity has become the rallying message for Republicans. To be fair, the integrity of our elections is a noteworthy goal. However, the Republicans pursuit of integrity is only one-half of the election integrity coin. Ensuring the integrity of an election certainly involves addressing safety and security concerns, where they actually exist. However, ensuring the integrity of an election also involves ensuring that the election accurately represents the will of the electorate. This is the other half of the coin. This half requires removing any unnecessary barriers to voting and actively encouraging every voting-age American to vote. Republicans are all about the former, but rarely do they mention the latter. Its fair to note that, conversely, Democrats rarely mention the former, but they are all about the latter. However, in a world guided by facts and evidence, the safety and security of our elections at least as detailed by Ohio Republicans is not really an issue worthy of legislative tinkering. There can be a balance struck between maintaining the safety and security of our elections and ensuring that every American who wants to vote, can. Scratch that. There must be a balance struck. However, in order to achieve this balance, we must start with the proposition that we want everyone to vote. Our elected officials represent everyone in their district, city, or state. Therefore, we want everyone involved in the process of selecting their representative. That is when a representative democracy is at its best. When safety or security issues actually arise, we can, and should, adjust the laws to address them. However, any change should be made with the goal that we do not want to create a barrier to the voting booth. Barriers take our representative democracy backwards, not forwards. This is what lawmaking should look like in the area of election laws. Sadly, it does not appear that that was the process prior to the introduction of the Election Modernization and Security Act. And for that reason, the law, as introduced, should not be passed. Eric Foster, a community member of the editorial board, is a columnist for The Plain Dealer and cleveland.com. Foster is a lawyer in private practice. The views expressed are his own. To reach Eric Foster: ericfosterpd@gmail.com Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this opinion column to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- In the treaty formally ending the Revolutionary War, Britain abandoned its claim to territory northwest of the Ohio River. Suddenly, the victorious Americans, who did not yet have a functioning government, had title to a vast wilderness the size of France from which five new states would eventually emerge. Ohio was at the center of this transaction. Because Revolutionary War soldiers were, at best, paid irregularly, in June 1783, 288 officers from New England asked Congress to be compensated with bounty lands in Ohio. A major general would get 1,100 acres, a brigadier 850 acres, a colonel 500 acres and noncommissioned officers and privates 100 acres. The officers request was viewed positively, but little happened until Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance in 1787. This landmark measure -- endorsed by George Washington -- was to ensure that the new territory would be settled in an orderly manner. It laid out conditions for governance. Each new county had to be surveyed and laid out into townships. Slavery was forbidden and one section of every township was for education. The prime mover in this endeavor was the Ohio Company of Associates, formed in Boston in 1786. It was an ambitious, speculative venture led by the Rev. Manasseh Cutler, who had been a chaplain in the Continental Army. The Ohio Company pioneered the territorys first permanent settlement at Marietta on the Ohio River. The Ohio Company and its investors possessed 1.5 million acres of land, with Cutler and his partner Rufus Putnam each receiving 4,600 acres. The deal offered to prospective settlers was simple: Cross the Allegheny Mountains, clear trees from land purchased for $1 per acre, build a log cabin, and fight off the marauding Delaware and Shawnee who had been displaced from their ancestral lands. That done, put in a crop, and you and your family, enjoy your new life. The promise of pioneer life on the frontier was so powerful, it triggered a land rush. People called it Ohio fever. Over the next two decades, thousands including many veterans from the Revolutionary War settled in Ohio. By 1820, there were 25,000 veterans or their widows in Ohio receiving government pensions of about $90 a year. Two of my three-times-great grandfathers were Revolutionary War soldiers who settled in Gallia County near the southernmost part of the state. One of them, William Williams, came from Virginia. He was drafted at the age of 25 while living in the Shenandoah Valley. In pension documents that still exist, he served as a private for 18 months and was present at battles in North Carolina. Asked by the pension examiner about his discharge papers, Williams declared he had sold them for five gallons of whiskey. Interestingly, he signed his approved pension application with an X, a clear indication he could neither read nor write. The Williams family arrived in Ohio in 1817. A second veteran, William Loucks, came in 1805. Born in Philadelphia in 1750, he volunteered in 1777 and served as a teamster or wagoner transporting ammunition. He, too, got a pension and signed his application with a large X. What Ive learned from a foray into Revolutionary War history is that theres always been wealth inequality in America. It was a well-educated elite who wrote the Declaration of Independence and led the revolt against the British crown. Ordinary soldiers were mostly poor and uneducated. Nonetheless, whether rich or poor, Ohio was the promised land for Revolutionary War soldiers. Many came and very few returned East. Barry D. Wood is a writer and economics journalist in Washington, DC. His work can be viewed at econbarry.com. Have something to say about this topic? * Send a letter to the editor, which will be considered for print publication. * Email general questions about our editorial board or comments or corrections on this opinion column to Elizabeth Sullivan, director of opinion, at esullivan@cleveland.com. Israel was shaken to the core at the end of April when an overcrowded exit ramp at a Lag bOmer celebration on Mount Meron in the countrys north became a death trap, after people lost their footing, tumbling on top of one another, resulting in the deaths of 45 people, including Yossi Kohn, a yeshiva student from a Cleveland suburb. It was the worst civilian disaster in Israels history. The day after the Mount Meron disaster, the countrys newspapers prominently featured the photos of the dead, as did Israeli television, which mentioned Kohn as being from Cleveland. I had been in Tel Aviv that evening and took the train home with a group of ultra-Orthodox passengers, who in retrospect were probably on their way to Mount Meron. I woke up to the news of the disaster and couldnt help wonder about the fate of those who were on the train with me. In a crowd of 100,000, the odds they were among the dead or injured is mathematically small, but the same could have been said about all of those who died. The Israeli media carried heartwrenching stories about the victims including two families each of whom lost two sons that night. Mount Meron is the site of the tomb of a second century rabbi, Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, which has become a pilgrimage site every Lag bOmer. The holiday is celebrated by secular Israelis as well as the observant with bonfires, but the pilgrimage to Mount Meron appears to overwhelmingly attract an ultra-Orthodox crowd. Within hours of the disaster, the Israeli media began asking questions about who was responsible. What has become apparent is that this was a disaster foretold. The State Comptroller, an official government watchdog, issued reports in 2008 and 2011 warning about safety concerns in the jumble of buildings atop the mountain where construction had been carried out without permits. The police did make an effort to exert some authority there, but it appears the major concern among government officials was limiting crowd size to prevent the spread of COVID-19 among the revelers a legitimate concern even though the pandemic is largely under control here. According to media reports, ultra-Orthodox politicians had applied pressure to increase the number of people permitted on Mount Meron rather than limiting the numbers. Mount Meron has been a kind of no-mans land that was nearly devoid of government oversight on Lag bOmer. That may have given the ultra-Orthodox groups organizing festivities there free rein, but 45 people, including one Ohioan, died there that night. Safety experts who inspected the disaster scene were astounded by the deficiencies that had been tolerated there. Although probing questions have been asked by the mainstream media, many members of the ultra-Orthodox public expressed no anger, believing this was the will of the Almighty and should not be questioned. There is something admirable in the faith that such an approach demonstrates, but its not a standard by which a country can be run. This is a variation on a theme from earlier this year, when some ultra-Orthodox institutions stayed open in disregard for COVID-19 health regulations, which I wrote about in October. Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, Israeli society has to address its relationship with the ultra-Orthodox community head-on, through a tough commitment to the rule of law, I wrote. After the Mount Meron disaster, thats more apparent than ever. I say that not out of animosity for the ultra-Orthodox community. As is tragically apparent from the scenes at Mount Meron, they have been the victims of the absence of enforcement of the law. Cliff Savren is a former Clevelander who covers the Middle East for the Cleveland Jewish News from Raanana, Israel. To read more of Savrens columns, visit cjn.org/savren. Beachwood, OH (44122) Today Partly cloudy skies this morning will give way to occasional showers during the afternoon. High 82F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Mainly cloudy. Low 67F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Flash This year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The CPC has taken the centenary as an opportunity to strengthen dialogue and exchanges with political parties around the world and share experience in governance. Chinese ambassadors to African countries have carried out exchanges and dialogues with political parties of the host countries. ChinAfrica has compiled the dialogues and exchanges. The following is an excerpt of the activities. Chinese Ambassador to Namibia Meets With Secretary General of the Southwest Africa Peoples Organization (SWAPO) Party Sophia Shaningwa On April 6, Chinese Ambassador to Namibia Zhang Yiming met with Sophia Shaningwa, General Secretary of the SWAPO Party, the ruling party of Namibia, and exchanged views on strengthening exchanges and cooperation between the two parties. Zhang said that the CPC and the SWAPO Party have a long history of friendly relations, dating back to the 1960s. This year is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, and China is willing to take this opportunity to strengthen the exchange of experience in governance and cooperation between the two parties. Zhang also thanked the SWAPO Party for issuing a statement on the 46th Session of the Human Rights Council in February this year on issues related to Xinjiang and Hong Kong, and for supporting Chinas position on related issues, which fully reflects the close relationship between the two parties and the two countries. Shaningwa said that the SWAPO Party and the CPC are comrades and brothers in need, and that mutual support on major issues embodies the deep relationship between the two parties. The SWAPO Party has always believed that the development of friendly relations with the CPC is beneficial to both peoples and it is willing to continue to deepen exchanges and cooperation. In particular, the vaccines donated by China arrived in Namibia in March and the vaccination program was launched with Chinas support, which highlighted the trust of the Namibian side in the Chinese vaccine and strengthened the confidence of the people in overcoming the virus. After the meeting, Zhang handed over the embassys donation of masks and other supplies to the SWAPO Party, and Shaningwa expressed her gratitude to the Chinese embassy for its generous support in a timely manner. Ambassador to Mauritius Pays a Farewell Visit to Joe Lesjongard, Chairman of the Militant Socialist Movement (MSM) and Minister of Energy and Public Utilities On March 31, Chinese Ambassador to Mauritius Sun Gongyi paid a farewell visit to the Chairman of the MSM and Minister of Energy and Public Utilities Joe Lesjongard. The two sides exchanged views on the cooperation between the two ruling parties and the cooperation in the field of energy. Sun said that the CPC and the MSM have long maintained friendly cooperation, and under the new situation, China is willing to continuously strengthen the exchange of experience in governance between the two parties. He thanked the Ministry of Energy and Public Utilities for its long-standing support to the Chinese embassy and believed that with the joint efforts of both sides, the practical cooperation between China and Mauritius in energy and other fields would be deepened for the benefit of both peoples. Lesjongard said that the MSM is willing to continuously strengthen exchanges and mutual understanding with the CPC. He thanked China for its long-term support and assistance in energy and public utilities and hoped to strengthen pragmatic cooperation in clean energy and water resources management. He welcomed more Chinese enterprises to invest in relevant industries in Mauritius. Lesjongard thanked Ambassador Sun for his efforts in promoting the development of Mauritius-China relations during his tenure. He hoped to continue to strengthen cooperation with the Chinese embassy and jointly promote the continuous development of bilateral relations. Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Meets With Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Freddie Blay On March 25, Chinese Ambassador to Ghana Lu Kun met with Freddie Blay, Chairman of the NPP, the ruling party of Ghana, and exchanged views on the relationship between the two parties and issues of common concern. Lu welcomed Blay and his delegation to the embassy, thanked the NPP and Blay for their positive contributions to the development of China-Ghana relations, and introduced the latest achievements of China-Ghana cooperation in various fields. Lu said that as this year marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, and Ghanaian President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has also successfully commenced his second term, China-Ghana relations are at a new starting point. China is willing to work with the Ghanaian side to strengthen exchanges and mutual understanding, enhance friendship and mutual trust, and promote the relationship between the two parties and two countries to a higher level. Blay thanked Lu for his introduction and spoke highly of the glorious achievements of the CPC over the past century. He highly praised the fruitful results achieved in the development of Ghana-China relations, especially the close friendship between the two parties since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Blay said that the CPC is a strong political party that has not only been able to bring the miracle of development to China and help its people get rid of poverty, but also been able to unite 1.4 billion Chinese people to resist disasters and epidemics, which is very admirable. The NPP and the Ghanaian Government are willing to further strengthen ties with the CPC and the Chinese Government and benefit the people of both countries with more fruits of cooperation. After the meeting, on behalf of the embassy, Lu donated anti-epidemic materials to the NPP. Flash A Chinese envoy on Tuesday called for efforts to stabilize Iraq and ensure peaceful elections. Iraq remains in the grip of a grim security situation, which necessitates unwavering international support for the country's counter-terrorism efforts, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. Remnants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group continue to launch attacks in Iraq, which have caused civilian casualties in the hundreds so far this year. The international community should assist Iraq in effectively tackling the problem of foreign terrorist fighters and securing the hard-won gains in counter-terrorism, he told the Security Council. On the basis of full respect for Iraq's judicial sovereignty, it is necessary to give play to the role of the UN team investigating IS crimes in Iraq and support Iraq in bringing the terrorists to justice, he said. A peaceful Iraq is contingent on a favorable regional setting. China encourages the parties concerned to respond positively to the UN secretary-general's appeal, uphold the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, fully respect Iraq's sovereignty and territory integrity, and join in a collective effort to build a secure and stable future for Iraq, said Zhang. "Any military operations to take place on the soil of Iraq must have the prior consent of the Iraqi government. Iraq should not become a victim of geopolitical maneuvers," he added. It is necessary to support Iraq in fulfilling an all-important political agenda of this year, namely the upcoming general elections. Iraq has taken active steps to press forward with the preparations, and marked progress has been achieved, he said. "We encourage the Iraqi government to continue its effort to ensure peaceful and smooth elections that fully reflect the will and aspirations of the Iraqi people." Iraq has twice written to the president of the Security Council on election-related issues. The United Nations should play a positive and constructive role in the smooth conduct of the Iraqi elections, he said. China has provided the Iraqi High Electoral Commission with a video teleconferencing system and office computers. China will soon be delivering the second tranche of office supplies for the elections as part of its aid package, said Zhang. Greater unity is vital to a stable Iraq. China welcomes the agreement between the federal government and the Kurdistan regional governments on the 2021 budget bill achieved through dialogue and consultation. China hopes the sides can maintain the current momentum in their continued search for lasting solutions to issues of mutual concern, he said. China commends Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's appeal for a national dialogue and looks forward to all parties taking a positive and constructive part in the dialogue, he added. Iraq needs support in its response to the COVID-related challenges, said Zhang. "We've seen some recent spikes in new cases in Iraq, which is very worrying. The international community should keep up its support for Iraq's response, focusing on the equitable distribution of vaccines." Since the start of the pandemic, China has sent a medical expert team and multiple shipments of supplies to help Iraq combat the disease. In addition, China has helped build a PCR laboratory and sent two batches of vaccines in close succession to help Iraq tide over the crisis, he said. China encourages and welcomes all countries in a position to offer help to Iraq to do so to the best of their abilities. China supports the renewal of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. China will, along with the international community, continue to support Iraq in its quest for lasting peace, development, and prosperity, he said. Enditem Flash Visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said Russia welcomes the initiative by the United States for holding a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June. Lavrov, who arrived in Azerbaijan on Monday for a two-day visit, made the remarks at a joint press conference following a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov. Lavrov said that as two nuclear powers, Russia and the United States shoulder special responsibility for the stability of the world. He also said that considering the U.S. withdrawal from many arms control treaties, the question of arm control and global strategic stability should be the main topics for the expected summit. On the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Lavrov stressed that the statement signed on Nov. 10 last year by the top leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia should be observed in order to keep the peace and stability in the region. Bayramov, for his part, elaborated his stance on the relevant issues, indicating that Azerbaijan is interested in normalizing of the relations with Armenia on the basis of respecting international law and each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The two ministers also exchanged views on the promotion of unblocking regional communications, the acceleration of resolving the issue of maps of minefields in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. This oak 19th-century cave a liqueur holds four decanters and 16 liqueur glasses. It is decorated with silvered mounts of hunting dogs. The 11-inch-high box sold at New Orleans Auction Galleries for $4,250. 2021 by Cowles Syndicate Inc. Celebrate the Class of 2020 Submit a profile of your favorite graduate to have them featured in our Virtual Graduation 2020 special section. Tout their accomplishments, share their photos, and wish them well! Submit profile Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 12) The Supreme Court en banc on Wednesday issued a unanimous decision that modifies the interpretation of requirements of psychological incapacity as a ground for declaration of nullity of marriage. The high court said psychological capacity is a legal concept, not a medical one, therefore the testimony of a psychologist or psychiatrist as evidence is not mandatory. "It refers to a personal condition that prevents a spouse to comply with fundamental marital obligations only in relation to a specific partner that may exist at the time of the marriage but may have revealed through behavior subsequent to the ceremonies," it said in a statement. The Supreme Court added, "It need not be a mental or personality disorder. It need not be a permanent and incurable condition. Therefore, the testimony of psychologist or psychiatrist is not mandatory in all cases." Justice Marvic Leonen, who penned the unanimous decision, said the totality of the evidence must show clear and convincing proof to cause the declaration of nullity of marriage. Article 36 of the Family Code states that marriages shall be void from the beginning if one of the parties was psychologically incapacitated to comply with the essential marital obligations of marriage. It can also be considered void even if the incapacity manifests after the wedding. In the Philippines the only country in the world besides the Vatican City where divorce is prohibited there are only two options for separation: Annulment and legal separation. The Coastal Point is a local newspaper published each Friday and distributed in the Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Dagsboro, Frankford, Selbyville, Millsboro, Long Neck and Georgetown, Delaware areas. You are here: World Flash At least nine people, including seven children, were killed after a gunman shot randomly in a school in Kazan, capital city of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan on Tuesday, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov said. Four boys, three girls, one teacher and one school staffer lost their lives in the armed attack in the No. 175 school, Minnikhanov said. According to TASS news agency, 21 people have been hospitalized, including 18 children and three adults. Eight of them remain in serious condition. A total of 714 children and about 70 employees, including 52 teachers, were in the school when the attacker walked through the main entrance of the building and opened fire immediately with an officially registered gun. According to an eyewitness, an explosion was heard before the shooting began. People were evacuated from the school in about 20 minutes, but several children jumped out of the window on the third floor. The attacker, who was identified as 19-year-old Ilnaz Galyaviev, has been detained. He graduated from this school four years ago. Galyaviev will go through a comprehensive psychological and psychiatric examination to determine, among other things, the motives for his actions. Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed deep condolences to the relatives of the victims and ordered to urgently tighten the control of civilian weapons. Classes will be canceled in all schools in Kazan on Wednesday and all educational institutions in Tatarstan will be inspected. The republic has declared a day of mourning on Wednesday. Columbia, SC (29201) Today Partly cloudy early followed by scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High near 90F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Cloudy skies after midnight. Low 72F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. The National Academy of Sciences elected three Penn State faculty to its membership this year, which is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer nationwide. Nina Jablonski, Jainendra K. Jain and Peter Meszaros Evan Pugh University Professor of Anthropology, Evan Pugh University Professor and Erwin W. Mueller Professor of Physics, and Eberly Chair Professor, emeritus, of Astronomy and Astrophysics respectively were recognized for their research and contributions to their fields. Jablonski researches human diversity through the evolution of skin and hair, Jain specializes in theoretical condensed matter physics, specifically composite fermion predictions, and Meszaros focuses on theoretical astrophysics, including the study of gamma ray bursts, neutrino astrophysics, cosmology, cosmic waves, gravitational waves and neutron stars, according to the release. Jablonski, Jain and Meszaros were among 120 members and 30 international members elected this year, and Jablonski was among a record 59 women the most elected to NAS in a single year its website said. According to the release, the total membership in the academy is now 2,461 active members and 511 international members. NAS was established by former President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 with the purpose of providing independent, objective advice to the nation on matters related to science and technology, according to its website. MORE PENN STATE COVERAGE Assistant Professor of Political Science Christian Sorace has been selected for a Fulbright award to spend six months in Mongolia on a research project titled Electoral Urbanization. Sorace, who joined the Colorado College faculty in 2017, will research how democratic elections shape urban redevelopment projects in post-socialist Mongolia. I will focus on the demolition and redevelopment of the ger districts in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, the name of which derives from the prevalence of gers, which are circular, collapsible felt tents, also known as yurts, he says. Despite their name and superficial resemblance to slums, ger districts are socio-economically diverse places, comprised of houses, businesses, and mixed-use plots of land; what defines them is the absence of heat, plumbing, and sewage infrastructure. Sorace will spend Spring 2022 in Mongolia, researching the question: What factors are responsible for the uneven results of ger district redevelopment? Although the general downturn of the Mongolian economy, which debilitated the construction industry, is in part responsible, my hypothesis is that the temporality and incentives of electoral competition interrupt and directly politicize processes of large-scale urban redevelopment projects, writes Sorace. It is a widely held view among ger district residents that construction starts and stops according to electoral rhythms and that newly elected officials have little incentive to complete the projects of their predecessors. The second part of his project examines how the fate of urban redevelopment projects influences perceptions of Mongolias political system. Each day on their way to work or dropping their children off at school, ger district residents are confronted with the unfinished urban ruins of redevelopment projects. I hypothesize that erratic, opaque, and uneven urban redevelopment undermine peoples trust in democratic institutions. Sorace speaks Chinese fluently and Mongolian at an advanced level, and is the author of Shaken Authority: Chinas Communist Party and the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake (Cornell University Press, 2017), and the co-editor of Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi (Verso/ANU Press 2019) and Proletarian China: A Century of Chinese Labour (Verso forthcoming). His articles have appeared in Comparative Politics, The China Quarterly, The China Journal, Critical Inquiry, Public Culture, and positions: asia critique, among other journals. He also is the editor of the Arts section of the open-access quarterly Made in China. Among the courses he teaches are Politics of China, Reading Marx in the Time of COVID-19, Utopia and Dystopia, Power and Everyday Life, and Introduction to Comparative Politics. Sorace earned a Ph.D. in government from the University of Texas, Austin; an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Previously, he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Australian National Universitys Australian Centre on China in the World. Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday. 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! Are you a current print subscriber to Columbia Gorge News? If so, you qualify for free access to all content on columbiagorgenews.com. Simply verify with your subscriber id to receive free access. Your subscriber id may be found on your bill or mailing label. Flash Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday elaborated China's position on Afghan situation when holding talks with foreign ministers of countries including Uzbekistan and Tajikistan who came to China to attend the second China + Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers meeting in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi province. Wang said that the current evolution of Afghan situation has drawn great attention from the international community. The Chinese side believes that foreign troops should withdraw from Afghanistan in an orderly and responsible manner to prevent any hasty action from adversely affecting and seriously interfering with the peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan. He said that it is necessary for neighboring countries of Afghanistan, including Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, to coordinate their positions in a timely manner, speak with one voice, and fully support the Afghan domestic peace process to overcome difficulties and move forward. China put forward the following propositions: The peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan should firstly implement the principle of "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned". This is in line with the requirements of UN Security Council's relevant resolutions and is the political prerequisite for peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. Second, Afghanistan should form inclusive political arrangements to make sure that all ethnic groups and parties could participate in political life in the future and enjoy equal political rights. This is the right direction to achieve peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. Third, Afghan national governance structure in the future should conform to the country's unique national conditions and development needs, and should not simply copy foreign models, so as to avoid inadaptation and new turbulence and chaos. This is a realistic choice to achieve peace and reconciliation in Afghanistan. Wang pointed out that regional countries and the international community hope that the future Afghan government could implement the moderate Muslim policy and avoid extremist tendencies, oppose all forms of terrorism and not allow the resurgence of terrorist forces in Afghanistan, develop good-neighborliness and friendship with neighboring countries and become a positive factor in promoting regional peace and stability. As close neighbors of Afghanistan, Central Asian countries should make due contribution to the final settlement of the Afghan issue, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization should also play its due role for the long-term peace and stability in Afghanistan, Wang stressed. China's Qinghai donates anti-pandemic supplies to Kyrgyzstan Xinhua) 14:27, May 12, 2021 Photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows a staff member carrying anti-pandemic supplies donated to Kyrgyzstan in northwest China's Qinghai Province. (Xinhua/Zhang Manyi) XINING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A batch of anti-pandemic supplies donated to Kyrgyzstan by northwest China's Qinghai Province left the city of Xining, the provincial capital, on Tuesday. The consignment of medical supplies worth 369,000 yuan (about 57,416 U.S. dollars) includes medical masks, protective suits and thermometers. The supplies are expected to arrive in Kyrgyzstan in early June via the China-Europe freight train service. Ying Xiuli, from the Foreign Affairs Office of Qinghai Province, said that the rail service, as an economical, fast and safe mode of transportation, has played an important role in connecting China with the world amid the pandemic, which brought uncertainties to sea and air transportation. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Flash The United States should focus on improving its own competitiveness, which can only be achieved through cooperation, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said Tuesday. "If it confronts or even oppresses the other side, it will only intensify hostility and eventually lead to losses on both sides," said spokesperson Hua Chunying at a press briefing. Hua made the remarks after Chas W. Freeman, Jr., former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, published an article entitled "Washington is playing a losing game with China," in which he said, "If the United States persists in confrontation, it will find itself increasingly isolated." Hua said that for some time, especially since the previous U.S. administration, the United States has tried every means against China, including threatening by force, political isolation, economic sanctions and technical blockade, interfering in China's internal affairs concerning Hong Kong, Taiwan and Xinjiang, and coercing and inducing other countries to form an anti-China clique. "Their practice is neither legal nor moral, and will not succeed in the end, but will just harm the interests of the United States and its people," the spokesperson added. Hua said that China's strategic blueprint has always been open and transparent to the world. "We never aim to surpass the United States. Our goal is to constantly improve ourselves and surpass ourselves to become a better China, so that the Chinese people can live a better life. At the same time, China's development will contribute more to world peace and development." If there is competition, China will not shy away from it, said Hua. However, competition should be fair and just, following market rules, and the United States should not use its power to deprive other countries of their normal and legitimate development rights, she said. "I hope that the U.S. government will listen to the voices of justice from people of insight in the United States and the international community, including Mr. Freeman," Hua added. Offer a personal message of sympathy... By sharing a fond memory or writing a kind tribute, you will be providing a comforting keepsake to those in mourning. If you have an existing account with this site, you may log in with that below. Otherwise, you can create an account by clicking on the Log in button below, and then register to create your account. The Murray Center hosted the annual Stronger than Fiction Film Festival on Tuesday at Stephens Lake Park Amphitheater in Columbia. MU students majoring in Documentary Journalism brought the films to the premiere that they had been working on for a whole year. Twenty documentaries were divided among two days to be played Monday and Tuesday. Armaja LaRue-Hill won best film. Documentaries are available for viewing online through Sunday. Because of COVID-19, the two-day film festival was held outdoor instead of inside Missouri Theatre. Even though the temperature dropped below 50 degrees, audience members stayed with their blankets and down jackets to enjoy the student films. The Stronger than Fiction film festival was held Tuesday The audience sits on the hill of the amphitheater Lights go on after the festival ends Marian Bouchot answers questions about her film Audience members watch a documentary Armaja LaRue-Hill receives the award for the best film Victoria Heinsohn introduces herself and her film All directors of the documentarians in the festival took pictures together I've been a reporter and editor at Missouri community newspapers for 35 years and joined the Columbia Missourian in 2003. My emphasis at the Missourian is on local government and elections. You can reach me at swaffords@missouri.edu or at 573-884-5366. Follow this search Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Flash Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday held talks with his Tajik, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz counterparts, respectively, in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi province. Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, and Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Chingiz Aidarbekov are in China for the second China plus Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers meeting. While meeting with Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Wang said that as brothers, good neighbors, and "iron friends," China and Tajikistan should earnestly implement the consensus reached by the two heads of state. The two sides should continue enhancing the "gold content" of bilateral relations, consolidate the foundation of political mutual trust, upgrade the scale and quality of cooperation, and push China-Tajikistan relations for a new development stage. Echoing Wang's remarks, Sirojiddin Muhriddin said that Tajikistan regards China as its most reliable strategic partner. Tajikistan is ready to expand cooperation with China regarding the Belt and Road (B&R) and would continue to support the one-China principle. During his talks with Abdulaziz Kamilov, Wang said that China-Uzbekistan relations maintain a sound and stable development momentum, which brings benefits to the two peoples. He said that as the phone call between the two heads of state pointed out the direction for relations between the two countries in the post-epidemic period, China is willing to share development opportunities with Uzbekistan and expand general cooperation. Abdulaziz Kamilov said Uzbekistan attaches great importance to relations with China and fully supports China in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Uzbekistan hopes that China and Uzbekistan will strengthen cooperation in poverty reduction, interconnection, combating the "three evil forces," and jointly promote B&R construction. Wang said that the friendship between China and Kyrgyzstan from generation to generation is the general trend and the people's will when meeting with Chingiz Aidarbekov. He said that China is willing to do its best to provide support and assistance for Kyrgyzstan to achieve stability and development. China is also willing to expand B&R cooperation, promote the development strategies of the two countries, and expand new areas and open up new prospects for bilateral cooperation. Chingiz Aidarbekov said, as China's good neighbor, brother, and partner, Kyrgyzstan firmly supports China on Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Taiwan issues, which involve China's core interests. The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Apple enterprise management company Jamf has announced its pending $400 million acquisition of zero trust cloud-based security company, Wandera. Apple security with zero trust Security remains of critical concern to the many enterprises deploying Apple equipment during the time of COVID-19, and as the mobile device management (MDM) services industry becomes more competitive, many providers are attempting to bolster services with security protection. Arguably the biggest Apple-focused MDM provider, Jamf is enhancing its security story with this purchase. It will add Wanderas Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) mobile threat defense and data policy features to the solutions it provides. Wanderas cloud-hosted protection has been designed to help teams work anywhere, any time, and on any managed platform/device. Its capable of restricting access to sensitive apps and data from unsecured or infected devices and of making application access visible, which helps identify the use of unauthorized apps. Zero trust is a buzz word in cybersecurity. The idea is that conventional perimeter security models create an illusion in which all users and devices inside the fence are trusted. That's fine in principle, but in practice, anyone who gets inside the network can roam freely, spreading malware and exfiltrating data. Zero trust is an approach in which every device is verified, key data and systems segmented, and network activity monitored to spot anomalous activity. Its an agile model of security for a remote and distributed age that exposes threats within the permiter. The addition of ZNTA to the Jamf portfolio matches a prediction in Gartners Market Guide for ZNTA, which claims 60% of enterprises will phase out VPNs in favor of a ZTNA solution by 2023 in part in response to remote working. Security for remote and hybrid workplaces We know why this is happening, of course. Apples growing enterprise market share makes its devices a tempting target for financially motivated hackers. IDC's 2020 U.S. enterprise survey says average penetration of macOS devices is around 23%, compared with 17% in 2019 up almost a third. Its not just Macs: iPhones account for 49% of the smartphone installed base among enterprises, while most businesses using tablets use iPads. Of course, while Cupertinos execs celebrate growth in that space, security and security awareness remain big problems for all concerned. Jamf and Wandera should help with this, enabling IT admins to better manage devices and ensure device security lines up with company security policy. Wandera CEO and co-founder Eldar Tuvey says his company was founded to make security simple in a zero-trust world, and believes the combined service will give customers much better security. Together, we accelerate our customers ability to seamlessly and securely keep their employees connected, no matter where they are, he said. Jamf becomes one-stop enterprise shop for security and MDM The future of work is remote and distant. While we can expect some reactionary attempts to force workers back to the office, they wont succeed. Why? Because enterprises that accept hybrid workplaces will gain competitive edge through enhanced productivity, lower operating costs and improved staff retention. These changes also expose the limitations of perimeter security protections such as VPN or malware protection. Security is becoming smart, looks to network and activity monitoring, and is based on zero trust models. That, in part, is what Wandera to Jamf: network security, data policy enforcement, and mobile threat defense. The combination of Wandera and Jamf will provide our customers a single source platform that handles deployment, Application Lifecycle Management, policies, filtering, and security capabilities across all Apple devices while delivering Zero Trust Network Access for all mobile workers, said Jamf CEO Dean Hager. Onward to JNUC This isnt the first security-focused purchase Jamf has made to ramp up its Apple enterprise offerings. Earlier this year, it acquired security tools from cmdSecurity, which adds intelligent edge security monitoring to Macs. It purchased Digita Security in 2019, shortly before the launch of Jamf Protect, and acquired NoMAD in 2018. I have no great insight into the company's plans, but I imagine Apple sysadmins will learn how Jamf plans to implement its two most recent acquisitions at the companys next JNUC conference, which takes place online Oct. 19-21. Please follow me on Twitter, or join me in the AppleHolics bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe. VOCs, CBD, 1,4-dioxane, talc, inclusion, transparency, PFAs in cosmetics, formaldehyde, allergens and elements of the Safe Cosmetics Act are among the top current areas of focus for the Personal Care Products Council (PCPC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDAs) Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN). These and other industry concerns were highlighted during the PCPCs virtual summit, held May 11-13, 2021. VOCs, Cannabis, 1, 4-Dioxane and Packaging VOCs: During the session, Tom Myers, executive vice president of legal and general counsel for the PCPC, emphasized the many challenges the personal care industry is facing. This is the busiest time on the regulatory front, with California and New York leading the way. Myers described current initiatives including collaborations with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to set emission level standards for products such as dry shampoos, fragrance and other sprayswhich, for some companies, means reformulation. The PCPC was able to limit some categories and levels, he noted. In addition, he underlined what he believes was perhaps the biggest achievement in this collaboration: ensuring the goals set forth in the regulation are achievable from a technical perspective. He added the PCPC will continue working with CARB on VOC rulemaking. See related: Will VOC Limits Change for Fragrance, Hair Care? Cannabis: Californias Proposition 65 also appeared on Myerss challenges for the industry, especially in light of the states Jan. 3, 2020, listing of both cannabis (marijuana) smoke and delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) as reproductive toxins requiring warning labels. Cannabis smoke is not a concern to cosmetics, he said, but THC is, as it [may be present in] CBD, which is a potential ingredient for use in cosmetics. However, he added, The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) stated dermally applied products do not require a Prop 65 warning for trace and unquantifiable levels of THC, which can be present in CBD. 1, 4-Dioxane: On the East Coast, Myers emphasized limits set by the state of New York for 1,4-dioxane levels due to concerns over human health and its persistence in the environment. In personal care and household products, the limit is 2 ppm as of Dec. 31, 2022 and 1 ppm by Dec. 31, 2023. In cosmetics, the maximum allowed is 10 ppm, as of Dec. 31, 2022. Note the state defines cosmetic and personal care product differently and therefore set limits for each. Cosmetics are as defined per the Food, Drug & Cosmetics Act, while personal care product is defined as any product intended for cleaning or cleansing part of the body, such as the skin and hair, and including but not limited to, hair shampoo, hair conditioner, soap, bath gels and other bath products New York is the first [state] of its kind to set these limits for cosmetics and personal care and will [require] reformulation, he said. Myers emphasized that PCPC is working to ensure this law, like others, is fair and equitable. Packaging: On the environmental front, Myers see the next big area of concern being plastics and packaging. Our industry is the most forward-leaning on packaging [in part because the] consumer demands it, he said. Also, he added that personal care companies have made incredible strides in this area but there are regional rules to follow. On the environmental front, Myers see the next big area of concern being plastics and packaging. Transparency, Inclusivity and the Science of Beauty Transparency: Lisa Powers, executive vice president of public affairs and communications, underscored the PCPCs efforts to ensure member companies are clear in their communications with consumers. Now more than ever, trust is vital and [communication must occur] in a clear, authentic and transparent mannerThe PCPC has made great efforts to ensure its member companies understand the importance of communicating transparently. Inclusivity: In addition, she highlighted the historic movement within the past year toward social equity and focus to eliminate discrimination due to, for example, hair textures and styles. We are firmly committed to finding approaches to shape a more inclusive future, she said, adding the PCPC aims to create a safer and more beautiful world. Science: Furthermore, safety and science continue to be in the spotlight especially in the past year with the focus on public health. We firmly believe in the science of beautyeveryone has the right to know what is in their products but also to understand them, to make informed choices. Moving forward, Powers see the cosmetics and personal care industrys resilience and ability to be the force for change. We want to foster justice and equity,and address diversity, equity and inclusionand we are committed to these goals, she said. Finally, she commended the industry for pulling together in the face of the pandemic. We felt the impact [of the pandemic] but we continued giving backWe are a generous industry and it will continue to give back [to us] in the future. See related: 5 Cosmetic Giants Combating COVID-19 VCRP, Talc, PFAs, Formaldehyde, Allergens and CBD Within the past year, as might be expected, the FDA was heavily focused on COVID-19 and food safety, but also honest labeling in cosmetics, according to Susan Mayne, director of CFSAN. She underscored several current cosmetic initiatives, including: the voluntary cosmetic registration program (VCRP), talc, PFAS in cosmetics, formaldehyde, allergens and CBD. VCRP: Mayne reiterated how the VCRP works, encouraging companies to register their manufacturing/packaging location and cosmetic formulations in commercial distribution in the United States. Cosmetic companies can participate in both parts of the program or only one, she explained. As previously reported, the VCRP assists the agency in carrying out its responsibility to oversee cosmetics marketed in the United States. Since product filings and establishment registrations are not mandatory, voluntary submissions provide the best estimate of information available about cosmetic products and ingredients, their frequency of use, and businesses engaged in their manufacture and distribution. The information provided also supports the Cosmetic Ingredient Review expert panel in its assessment of cosmetic ingredients to ensure they are safe for use. Talc: The FDA continues in its efforts to monitor cosmetics containing talc for asbestos, Mayne noted, reiterating the March 2019 safety alert issued by the FDA regarding positive asbestos findings in some products, which were voluntarily recalled. In March 2020, the FDA released final reports from sampling data showing that 43 samples tested negative for asbestos while nine tested positive. Challenges currently faced by the Safe Cosmetics Act include increasingly sophisticated ingredients with the potential to cause structure and function effects in the body. The agency formed an ad hoc interagency working group to obtain scientific data on topics related to testing methodologies, terminology and criteria that can be used to characterize and measure asbestos and other potentially harmful elongate mineral particles that may present as contaminants in talc. It also continues its sampling efforts. The final results will be released late in 2021, said Mayne. If testing reveals asbestos, the public will be made aware of it and the FDA will work with companies to address the issues. PFAs: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAs) in cosmetics are also of concern to the FDA, although numbers reported in the VRCP indicate the number of formulations containing any of the 21 types of PFAs has decreased. Science continues to advance in this area and will continue to collaborate and conduct research on the gaps, said Mayne. She added the FDA created a web page about PFAs to help the public better understand these materials. Formaldehyde: According to Mayne, since 2010, the FDA has been assessing formaldehyde for potential effects including sensitization and causing cancer. It continues to do, as shown by a recent report warning consumers that hair-smoothing products can release formaldehyde. The FDA [also] has communicated with the public to understand how to look for formaldehyde in products, Mayne said. Allergens: The FDA also is focused on potential cosmetic allergens, i.e., monitoring adverse events, researching mechanisms of action and assessing whether consumers understand themand the best approaches for outreach. The agency is working with trade associations regarding labeling and public health concerns and encouraging voluntary compliance with labeling. A web page regarding allergens in cosmetics also was developed to educate the public and create awareness. CBD: While CBD appeared on Maynes list of FDA priorities, she unfortunately did not get into specifics at this time. See related: Into the Weeds; Walking the Regulatory Line of CBD in Cosmetics Safe Cosmetics Act Finally, Mayne outlined elements and challenges posed by the currently proposed Safe Cosmetics Modernization Act. The primary elements include: Mandating the registration and listing of products and ingredients; Giving explicit authority to establish GMPs by regulation; Mandating serious adverse event reporting; Mandating access to records including consumer complaints during routine or for-cause inspections; Mandating recalls; Requiring the disclosure of known cosmetic allergens on product labels; Requiring ingredient reviews; and Requiring sufficient resources to implement these protections. The challenges currently faced include the FDAs limited legal authority, competing agency priorities, and the significant changes occurring over the past 15 or more years. Regarding the latter, Mayne points to companies manufacturing more globally; utilizing animal alternatives for testing; and developing increasingly sophisticated ingredients with the potential to cause structure and function effects in the body (i.e., nanotech, active ingredients, microbiome and probiotic products, CBD, etc.). See related: Microbiome Claims; Should Pre-, Pro- and Postbiotic Skin Care Be Regulated? You are here: World Flash Philippine soldiers clashed with suspected terrorists in the southern Maguindanao province early on Wednesday morning, leaving four dead, an army officer said. Major General Juvymax Uy, the commanding general of the army's sixth infantry division in central Mindanao, said the fighting broke out around 5:00 a.m. local time between the army forces and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) gunmen on the outskirts of Datu Paglas town. Uy said the terrorists were among those who stormed the public market of Datu Paglas town on Saturday morning that triggered a gunfight with the troops. Uy said the terrorists withdrew, prompting the military to launch a pursuit operation. The BIFF, composed of around 200 men, is blamed for bombings and other atrocities in the Central Mindanao region in the southern Philippines. Continue Reading Below Advertisement Amid the craziness, a wild saga which some have compared to the twists and turns of Tiger King, Big Cat Rescue founder and probable inventor of the phrase hey there all you cool cats and kittens, Carole Baskin sounded off on the absurd events and *checks notes* how everyone has been spending their stimmy? "Well my first reaction was oh my gosh, thats Texas again for you' because this has been happening more frequently since Tiger King," Baskin told local Houston news outlet, KPRC-TV. It really did make me wonder if people were spending their stimulus package checks on tigers because I didn't used to see this as often as I'm seeing it now." Continue Reading Below Advertisement After channeling her inner Suze Orman for the entire Houston metropolitan area, the Netflix star also shared a friendly reminder that despite their reputation for hyping up Frosted Flakes cereal and bouncing on their tail throughout Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood abode, tigers can actually be pretty darn dangerous. Clearly somebody knows where this tiger is, and the best thing they can do is reach out to law enforcement and let them know, the former Dancing With The Stars contestant explained to KHOU, another local station, noting that whoever was hiding the big cat was probably in danger. They always grow up to be who they are, which is apex killers," she continued. It could easily have killed an adult and even more easily killed a child." So folks, take it from the flower crown-enthusiast and apparent financial advisor, don't use your stimmy to buy yourself a pet tiger unless you want to quickly become a snack and not in the zoomer calling you hot kinda way. For more internet nonsense, follow Carly on Instagram @HuntressThompson_ on TikTok @HuntressThompson_, and on Twitter @TennesAnyone. The Islamic militant group Hamas launched rockets at Jerusalem Monday after hundreds of rioters were injured at the Temple Mount in clashes with Israeli police. Palestinians claim about two dozen people, including nine children, were killed and over 100 were injured after Israel responded with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. During the Jerusalem Day escalation, Hamas militants fired over 200 rockets into Israel in what an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson called a blatant, severe attack, NBC News reported. Some of the rockets were fired into Jerusalem, marking the first missile attacks aimed at Jerusalem since 2014. While no one was injured, air sirens were set off. Israeli Parliament had to stop its session to evacuate due to the missiles. Source:The Christian Post Crossville, TN (38555) Today Cloudy early, then off and on rain showers for the afternoon. High 76F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then mainly cloudy overnight with thunderstorms likely. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Flash The United States and Ukraine held naval drills together in the Black Sea, Ukraine's navy reported Tuesday. According to the navy's press service, an island-class patrol boat and an anti-submarine helicopter of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, a flagship of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, and a Legend-class cutter of the U.S. Coast Guard took part in the drills. The drills were held to "ensure security" in the Black Sea, and improve the compatibility of the U.S. and Ukrainian navies for joint maritime operations as part of multinational tactical groups under the standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the navy added. Yes, I am sure my money is invested in companies I trust. I'd like to invest in more ethical companies but I don't know how. I'd like to invest more in ethical companies but I don't think the returns are as good. I don't know where my money is invested. Vote View Results A graduate of the University of Denver, John Miller worked for six years as a reporter and editor in New Mexico before returning to Colorado in 2020. He has covered domestic terrorism, economic development and the opioid epidemic, among other subjects. Follow John Miller Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today 99 cent introductory offer Includes everything we offer online for 24-7 news. This option allows you to read unlimited stories at ctnewsonline.com, and access our e-Edition (digital replicate of the daily newspaper). $7.99 per month after the introductory offer. This service comes with a complimentary CT Select Card allowing for local discounts. Rates are subject to change. NEW ORLEANS (AP) A Louisiana man whose seriously ill son gained fame in New Orleans for his devotion to the Saints football team was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday for drug trafficking and for fraudulently capitalizing on his son's illness with a phony charity. Jordy Robertson, 37, was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Wendy Vitter, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Robertson is the father of Jarrius Robertson, whose boisterous enthusiasm for the Saints and unbridled optimism while fighting a rare liver disease, won the hearts of team members and fans. Jarrius has been often described as a Saints super fan in local media. Amid the publicity, which included an appearance at the ESPYs, Jordy Robertson established a charity to raise money for his sons liver transplant. But prosecutors said the childs expenses had been covered by Medicaid and the hospital. Prosecutors said Jordy Robertson also continued to raise money through his It Takes Lives to Save Lives charity, purportedly to raise awareness about organ transplants for children. But he used the money for himself. Jordy Robertson pleaded guilty in 2019 to wire fraud and drug trafficking charges. In addition to the prison sentence, he was ordered to pay $116,216 in restitution to people who made donations. A federal complaint filed in 2019 said the investigation of Jordan began in 2017 when the Drug Enforcement Administration was tipped that Robertson was involved in cocaine trafficking in Garyville, a community west of New Orleans. Mr. Robertsons criminal activities showed a blatant disregard for the generosity of others," U.S. Attorney Duane Evans said in a statement Tuesday. Jarrius Robertson, who was 17 by the time his father entered his plea in 2019, has never been implicated in wrongdoing. Then-U.S. Attorney Peter Strasser said Jarrius was a victim. Think about the emotional toll it has to take on him to see his own father use him to commit a crime, Strasser told reporters outside the federal courthouse in September 2019. WASHINGTON (AP) The two players in the most important relationship in Washington finally are ready for a face-to-face meeting. President Joe Bidens sit-down on Wednesday with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and other congressional leaders comes as the White House accelerates its efforts to reach a bipartisan infrastructure agreement or at least aims to show its trying. But McConnell is plainly stating in advance that hes not interested in the plan as proposed. The president's meeting with McConnell, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is the first formal gathering of the big four congressional leaders since the president took office a late start after a tumultuous new year. But the timing is crucial for White Houses outreach on Bidens two-pronged $4 trillion American jobs and families plans. At the center are Biden and McConnell, two stalwarts of the Senate who have traded expressions of friendship but whose ability to find political common ground seems limited. In a Washington controlled by Democrats by the slimmest of margins, it's unclear if they actually need each other to accomplish their political goals. Republicans have balked at the size of Biden's proposals a sweeping plan that moves beyond roads and bridges to dramatically expand the social safety net and at the presidents plan to pay for it with tax increases on the wealthy and corporations. But in recent days, Biden has deliberately and publicly opened the door further to compromise, explicitly saying that he was willing to negotiate the size of the overall package and the size of the tax hike. That echoes what White House staffers have been telling their Capitol Hill counterparts in the last week, according to administration officials. But it takes two to compromise. McConnell will arrive at the White House on Wednesday cleareyed about what Biden wants, according to a Republican familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations, and about whether the president truly needs his help to pass the legislation. Just days before the meeting, the Republican leader said his goal was simply, and essentially, to halt the Democratic presidents agenda. McConnell said 100% of my focus is stopping the Biden administration, a comment that evoked his vow early in the Obama presidency to make the Democrat a one-term president. I like him personally, McConnell said of Biden later, softening his tone somewhat. I want to do business with the president. But he needs to be a moderate. He said he was going to be a moderate during the campaign. I havent seen that yet. Biden has long showcased his relationships with Republicans and made his ability to work across the aisle central to his governing ethos. But a growing number of Democrats believe it is wasted energy to try to work with a party that, in their view, too often turns obstructionist. Biden chuckled ruefully when told of McConnells remarks. Look, he said that in our last administration, Barack, that he was going to stop everything and I was able to get a lot done with him, Biden said. Bidens most notable deal-making success with McConnell came in the Obama-era fiscal showdowns during the rise of the tea party. As vice president, Biden was a trusted emissary to Capitol Hill for Obama, who had a chilly relationship with the Republican leader. The feeling was mutual for McConnell, who during the 2012 fiscal cliff crisis cut out White House negotiators to deal directly with Biden. Is there anyone over there who knows how to make a deal? the Republican wrote in his memoir, recalling a voicemail he left for the then-vice president. Rohit Kumar, a former deputy chief of staff for McConnell, said that a lot of trust had been established but noted that deals would be harder in the current, more polarized climate. "Its not that they cant find the political middle its that their parties circles have gotten further apart, Kumar said in a recent interview. White House aides were not surprised by McConnells declaration of defiance but believe that some common ground still is possible. Public polling suggests that the infrastructure plan, much like the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief law enacted in March, is popular with voters. But the COVID-19 bill did not receive a single GOP vote. Steve Ricchetti, a senior White House adviser, said Wednesday's meeting is meant to focus this conversation to where the priorities are and the space to find common ground. From there, he said, it will become clearer in coming weeks "when there will be a real accelerated and pretty comprehensive dialogue on all of the elements. Biden and McConnell have so far had a relationship of necessity: What's unclear now is whether the president will need the senator's GOP votes. McConnell will carry a message that makes clear Republicans are unwilling to change the 2017 tax law, which they view as their signature domestic policy achievement, to pay for the investments, according to the Republican familiar with his thinking. Biden and McConnell have had a few brief encounters, including at the presidents joint address to Congress two weeks ago, and at least two phone calls, aides said. Aides said Biden would urge the Republicans to find some areas of agreement. He plans to stress to them that democracy itself is on trial and that the nation needs to prove that it can take care of its own as it grapples with the pandemics twin health and economic challenges. The way the president is thinking about it is that you could spend the entire meeting talking about areas of disagreement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. Or you could spend it seeking opportunity for common ground, and he is going to choose the latter. The president has hosted a trio of key Democratic senators at the White House already this week, including moderates Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, both of whom the White House needs to keep on board for the massive spending bill. And on Thursday, Biden will meet with six Republican senators, including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the ranking GOP member on the Environment and Public Works Committee, to hear their plans for a smaller and more narrowly defined infrastructure bill. Aides said to expect Biden to host more Republicans in the weeks ahead of a soft Memorial Day deadline the White House set for gauging how feasible a bipartisan bill may be. Missing no opportunity, Biden buttonholed Louisiana senators John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy on an airport tarmac during a visit to their home state last week I made the point -- not exactly in these words -- that everybody is for infrastructure, nobody is happy with crappy, Kennedy recalled of the conversation. Theres a way to do this deal if the president will limit it to infrastructure and then lets have a frank discussion about how to pay for it. Bidens response? He listened, Kennedy said. ___ Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report. HARTFORD Marriage licenses would no longer require information on the race of people under legislation unanimously approved Tuesday by the House of Representatives. The bill, which passed 146-0 after a brief debate, next heads to the state Senate. I dont believe that ones race should be recorded with respect to a marriage license, said Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said that in recent years he became aware of the section on marriage licenses for racial designations. I find that this requirement that someone declare their race in order to marry is offensive, he said. Two loving people get together and want to join themselves in a legal ceremony, they should not be barred because they fail to disclose their race. If anything, it prevents people who love each other from doing that. It would also codify outdated racially restrictive covenants on property deeds that for decades have been overruled by legal precedent, but remain offensive and are historic reminders of efforts to keep Blacks out of white neighborhoods. The bill would allow property owners to go to their local city and town halls and record on the land records the removal of the wording from deeds. It would also allow condominium associations to remove restrictive covenants from their association bylaws. I was appalled that certain things appear in our land records, such overt racial statements, Fishbein said. To preclude the transfer of land based on someones skin color or ancestry, this is a good step forward. State Rep. Anthony Nolan, D-New London, said hes grateful that lawmakers are finally getting around to deleting remnants of systematic racism that persists in the state. These are the things that we need to rid our community of, he said. In other action scheduled for a long evening, the House scheduled action to extend Gov. Ned Lamonts emergency authority until July 20. It is currently set to end on May 20, the day after the states restaurants and other businesses will be allowed to fully open. During the late afternoon, the House debated a proposed amendment to the state Constitution to allowed no-excuse mail-in ballots for elections. Prior to provisions adopted last year and extended this year, allowing absentee ballots by all voters, the Constitution limited mail-in voters only to those being absent from the state on Election day; are sicks; claim physical disability, or religious restrictions. Republican opposition, however, was mostly unified against the measure, which would require 75-percent approval in the House and Senate this year to get the issue on the statewide ballot for voters in 2022. Otherwise, simple majorities would force the issue to be voted upon in the General Assembly elected in 2022, delaying the possibility of the question coming before voters in 2024. Republicans led by Rep. Gale Mastrofrancesco, R-Wolcott, offered amendments that would require voters to present photo IDs to vote; and require verified signatures for all absentee ballots. Its apathy that we need to fight, said Rep. David Labriola, R-Oxford. Democrats, who have a 97-54 majority in the House, rejected the amendments in 93-53 and 95-53 votes, respectively. Republicans around the country have introduced similar bills in the wake of the loss of President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Its sad for the voters of the state of Connecticut, Mastrofrancesco said after the second amendment failed. Were doing this to protect their vote. Were getting the impression that people are cheating, said Rep. David Rutigliano, R-Trumbull, who got an absentee ballot application at his home last year for someone who formerly lived there and who appears to have never voted there. Rep. Geraldo Reyes, D-Waterbury, chairman of the legislative Black and Puerto Rican Caucus, said the state needs to make it easier for people to cast ballots. There was record turnout for the 2020 election in the state, when no-excuse absentee ballots were used because of the pandemic. Constitutions were made to be amended, he said. Shortly after 6 oclock, Rep. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton, introduced an amendment that would change the way contested elections would be settled, shifting the authority to the Judicial Branch from the legislature. It was based on a 2018 election for a seat representing Stratford, where 76 voters in a dual district, received the wrong ballot and an evenly divided legislative committee deadlocked over Democratic Rep. Phil Young, who was reelected in 2020. Republicans complained that majority Democratic leaders stonewalled a request for another special election in 2019. Perillos amendment was rejected 95-53, as was a subsequent proposal to create a bipartisan commission to draft future election laws. After more than four hours of debate, the resolution passed 104-44 and next heads to the Senate, where it is expected to pass. Nine Republicans joined Democrats, including Rep. Laura Devlin of Fairfield, Rep. Terrie Wood of Darien, Rep. Tom ODea of New Canaan and Rep. Joseph Zullo of East Haven. But because the 75 percent wasnt reached, it would have to come before the next legislature, for eventual inclusion on the 2024 statewide ballot. House Majority Leader Jason Rojas, D-East Hartford, said the bill would allow state voters to join 34 other states that have mail-in voting. Its a companion piece to an early voting amendment to the Constitution that recently passed the House and is pending in the Senate. Rojas said the pandemic has underscored the advantages of mail-in balloting. I think they deserve the choice, Rojas said, stressing that fraud is rare among state voters. We should take comfort in knowing that what were doing today is moving the state in a positive direction. Its empowering our citizens to vote for themselves. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT WATERBURY A child was found asleep and unharmed in the backseat of a vehicle that was stolen Tuesday night from a local gas station, police said Wednesday. Shortly after 9 p.m. Tuesday, police were dispatched to a report of a stolen motor vehicle a 2020 Chevrolet Equinox from the Shell gas station at 618 West Main St. The caller told police that their infant child was inside the vehicle during the theft. When officers got to the scene, the woman told officers she contacted On-Star and was told her vehicle was in the area of Highland Avenue at Chase Parkway. Officers responded to the area and found the vehicle in the parking lot of Webster Bank at 326 Highland Ave. The infant child was found sleeping in their car seat inside the vehicle, police said. The child was unharmed and an ambulance was dispatched to the scene for an evaluation. Police said the individual accused of taking the vehicle with the child inside it showed up at the gas station in a gray Infiniti. He was wearing a dark colored hooded sweatshirt during the incident. Anyone with information is asked to call detectives at 203-574-6941 or Crime Stoppers at 203-755-1234. This is the second time a vehicle has been taken with a child inside it in Connecticut this month. A 5-year-old girl was found unharmed during the early morning hours of May 3 inside a vehicle that was stolen from a Wolcott convenience store late on May 2 while she was asleep in the backseat, police said. An 11-year-old boy who was also in the vehicle jumped out before the driver took off. The alleged suspects in this incident remain at large. NEW YORK (AP) Now that a judge has rejected the National Rifle Associations bankruptcy bid, blocking its plan to reincorporate in Texas, the gun rights group is back to fighting a lawsuit that threatens to put it out of business. Harlin Hale, a federal bankruptcy judge in Dallas, dismissed the NRA's case Tuesday. He ruled the organization's leadership sought Chapter 11 protection in bad faith without informing most of its 76-member board and did so to gain an unfair advantage in its fight with New York regulators. What does that mean for the NRA and America's long-running battle over guns? Here's a look at where things go from here. NEW YORK'S LAWSUIT Hales ruling ensures New York Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit seeking the organizations dissolution can continue. James, a Democrat, said Tuesday that discovery is ongoing. The case is expected to go to trial next year. The rot runs deep, which is why we will now refocus on and continue our case in New York court," James said. James sued the NRA in August 2020, alleging executives diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures. NRA chief Wayne LaPierre and three others who have worked for the organization were also sued. The NRA countersued, alleging James who once called the NRA a terrorist organization was motivated by political hostility. That case is pending. In filing for bankruptcy protection in January, the Virginia-headquartered NRA made clear it sought to escape regulatory oversight in New York, where it was chartered as a nonprofit in 1871. James has regulatory power over nonprofits incorporated in the state. The NRA had sought to move litigation to a state where it thought it could get an "even shake, board member Charles Cotton said at the time. Aside from putting the NRA out of business, James also wants LaPierre and the other defendants removed from leadership and ordered to repay money they are accused of illegally spending, plus penalties. Clearly the NRA is in need of oversight and reform, if not dissolution, James said Tuesday. Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine is also suing the NRAs foundation, seeking to have a court-appointed monitor supervise its finances. The organization is also embroiled in ongoing litigation with its former advertising agency. An NRA lawyer said it filed for bankruptcy in part because it feared the lawsuits would result in death by 1,000 cuts. SELF-DEALING ALLEGATIONS James lawsuit highlights misspending and self-dealing claims involving LaPierre from his wife's hair and makeup to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself. There are individuals and officers who are using the NRA as their personal piggy bank and they need to be held accountable, James said Tuesday. LaPierre, who's led day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions on private travel and personal security, and accepting expensive gifts from vendors, including African safaris and use of a 107-foot (32-meter) yacht. The lawsuit said LaPierre, 71, spent NRA money on travel consultants, luxury car services and private jet flights for himself and his family, including more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas. LaPierre has defended himself, testifying last month that cruising the Bahamas on a yacht was a security retreat because he was facing threats after mass shootings. He conceded not reporting the trips on conflict-of-interest forms, testifying: Its one of the mistakes Ive made. Phillip Journey, an NRA board member skeptical of LaPierre's leadership, said testimony at the bankruptcy trial about the organizations operations could be fresh ammunition for James lawsuit or a potential criminal inquiry. They were just waiting for all of these transcripts to be completed, all of these exhibits to be admitted," said Journey, a Kansas judge. I figure they're going to go throw them in front of a grand jury and see what pops out. SIGHTS STILL SET ON TEXAS The NRA remains interested in moving to Texas and has powerful allies who'd be happy to see it set up shop there. But doing so through another bankruptcy attempt would be fraught with risk, and James says she has the authority to block efforts to abandon its New York incorporation. Hale dismissed the NRAs case without prejudice, meaning the organization can refile but he warned a second bankruptcy petition would prompt him to take a hard look at the NRA's lawyers unusual involvement in the group's affairs. The judge wrote that the lawyers' actions raised concerns the group couldn't fulfill its fiduciary duty, which might lead him to appoint a trustee. That would hand the organization's reins to an outside official selected by the Biden administration's Justice Department. The NRA could still pursue other steps to incorporate in Texas, where it claims to have about 400,000 members. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said on Twitter that he supports the move. But neither Abbott's office, nor that of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's voiced support in past, responded to questions about the NRA's possible path to Texas. FUTURE OF GUN DEBATE Even as it filed for bankruptcy protection, the NRA claimed it was in its strongest financial condition in years but the coronavirus pandemic and mounting legal costs have hurt. The organization, which in January reported total assets of about $203 million, liabilities of about $153 million, and $31 million in bank loans, said in court papers it saw revenues drop about 7% because of the pandemic. To cut costs, it laid off dozens and canceled its national convention. Gun-control groups have seized on its troubles and a recent spate of mass shootings as prime opportunity to advance new legislation. Yet the NRA has promised to continue to fight on all fronts. Even with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, gun-control legislation faces barriers. The fact that the NRA is a shadow of its former self doesnt mean all of a sudden the nations gun-violence problem is going to solve itself, said Adam Skaggs, chief counsel at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "But certainly, the days where the NRA could wield power and exert unprecedented influence in our legislatures and our political system, I think those days are numbered. In March, the House passed two bills requiring background checks on all firearms sales and transfers and allowing an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases. But the legislation faces a tough road ahead, with some Senate Republican support required for passage. Meanwhile, Journey, who requested that a court-appointed examiner investigate LaPierre, worries what will become of the group's non-lobbying work. Hes particularly concerned dismantling the organization will mean the end of things like firearms safety programs. I think some organizations may be able to pick up some of the pieces," he said, but most of it will simply go away. ___ Bleiberg reported from Dallas. ___ On Twitter, follow Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak and Jake Bleiberg at twitter.com/JZBleiberg COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Legislation adding a firing squad to South Carolina's execution methods amid a lack of lethal-injection drugs is headed to the desk of Gov. Henry McMaster. On a routine vote Wednesday, the state Senate concurred with a version of the legislation, approved last week by House lawmakers. McMaster has not yet said when he will sign the bill into law, although his office said it would happen as soon as the bill was ratified, which could happen in a matter of days. The measure, intended to jump-start executions in a state that once had one of the busiest death chambers in the nation, will require condemned inmates to choose either being shot or electrocuted if lethal injection drugs arent available. The state is one of only nine to still use the electric chair and will become only the fourth to allow a firing squad. South Carolina last executed a death row inmate 10 years ago. The Senate already had approved the bill in March, by a vote of 32-11. The House made technical changes to that version; had the Senate not accepted them, both versions could have gone to a conference committee. Before Wednesday's vote, Sen. Gerald Malloy offered several amendments, including one that would prohibit a number of other execution methods from being added to the state's options in the future, such as drowning, dismemberment or keelhauling, a centuries-old form of punishment in which a sailor is thrown overboard and dragged under a ship. It lets us know where we have been, and where we should not go, the Hartsville Democrat said, before the amendment was tabled. The bill's chief sponsor, Sen. Greg Hembree, said he had witnessed a handful of executions during his time as a prosecutor, adding that he appreciated the gravity of the debate. It's heavy, it's hard, and it's gruesome, the Horry County Republican said, also acknowledging he felt the law was sure to be litigated. There are several South Carolina prisoners in line to be executed, but lawsuits against the new death penalty rules are likely. Corrections officials have said that three of the state's 37 death row inmates are out of appeals. South Carolina first began using the electric chair in 1912 after taking over the death penalty from individual counties, which usually hanged prisoners. The other three states that allow a firing squad are Mississippi, Oklahoma and Utah, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Three inmates, all in Utah, have been killed by firing squad since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1977. Nineteen inmates have died in the electric chair this century, including a South Carolina inmate in 2008. South Carolina cant put anyone to death now because its supply of lethal-injection drugs expired, and it has not been able to buy any more. Currently, inmates can choose between the electric chair and lethal injection; since the drugs are not available, they choose injection, therefore avoiding execution. The bill retains lethal injection as the primary method of execution if the state has the drugs, but requires prison officials to use the electric chair or firing squad if it doesnt. Some prosecutors have been willing to accept life sentences in recent cases because of the states inability to carry out executions by lethal injection. Prosecutor Barry Barnette said in 2017 he told the families of the seven people murdered by serial killer Todd Kohlhepp that he couldnt guarantee Kohlhepp could be executed if he were convicted because South Carolina doesnt have a functioning death penalty. Kohlhepp instead received seven life sentences without parole. The lack of drugs, and decisions by prosecutors to seek guilty pleas with guaranteed life sentences over death penalty trials, have cut the states death row population nearly in half from 60 to 37 inmates since the last execution was carried out in 2011. From 2000 to 2010, the state averaged just under two executions a year. The reduction also has come from natural deaths, and prisoners winning appeals and being resentenced to life without parole. Prosecutors have sent just three new inmates to death row in the past decade. ___ Jeffrey Collins contributed to this report. ___ Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. BRIDGEPORT A local man free on bond and awaiting trials in three state courthouses was arrested again Tuesday following an alleged struggle with police. Shakeil Fautner, 26, of Iranistan Avenue, was charged with interfering with police, criminal possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm without a permit, possession of narcotics with intent to sell and breach of peace. He is a one-man crime wave, Senior Assistant States Attorney Nicholas Bove said during Fautners arraignment Wednesday afternoon. He urged Superior Court Judge Peter McShane to set a high bond. The judge noted that Fautner had been free after posting $345,000 in bonds in seven cases in three courthouses. These are serious charges, the judge continued of the new arrest, that require a serious bond. Fautners lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Caroline Gallucci, urged the judge for leniency but McShane ordered Fautner held in lieu of $200,000 bond and continued the case to May 24. According to police, at about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, officers responded to a disturbance at a business on Iranistan Avenue. When officers got there, a store employee pointed to Fautner who was standing in the rear of the store. Police said the officers ordered Fautner to leave the store and as he walked outside, he spat on a police car. Officers ordered Fautner to stop walking but he continued on, police said. Officer Jason Goncalves attempted to grab Fautners left arm but Fautner pulled away and both men fell to the ground, police said. Goncalves and Fautner struggled on the ground while another officer managed to handcuff Fautner, police said. During a search of Fautner, police said they found a loaded handgun in his pocket along with a plastic bag containing six folds of a suspected narcotics stamped King of Death. While being processed in the police department, police said Fautner allegedly told an officer, I will shoot you in the face with a .223. Fautner was released from prison last year after serving a sentence on assault and drug charges. He was was arrested on numerous charges since then in Milford, Seymour and Bridgeport including gun charges, assault and robbery charges, according to court records. File photo / TNS A 21-year-old Hartford man pleaded guilty in federal court in New Haven Tuesday to charges he stole a federal law enforcement agencys vehicle with ammunition, raid jackets and a bullet-proof vest; before being caught with distribution quantities of fentanyl and marijuana. Jose Nunez-Torres, also known as J-Money, pleaded guilty to one count of theft of government property and one count of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, the U.S. attorneys office for the District of Connecticut said. Al Drago/AP SEATTLE (AP) Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, says she will vote to retain Rep. Liz Cheney in Republican leadership. Cheney, who also voted to impeach the former president, is expected to be ousted from her position this week. TOKYO (AP) Toyota reported Wednesday its profit more than doubled in January-March from a year earlier to 777 billion yen ($7 billion), as the Japanese automakers sales recovered from the pandemic. Toyota Motor Corp.'s profit in January-March 2020 was 327 billion yen. Quarterly sales rose 11% on year to nearly 7.7 trillion yen ($71 billion) from 6.9 trillion yen a year earlier, the company said. The pandemic has dented sales and demand in many businesses, but Toyota has shown resilience while riding out a global shortage of semiconductors thats slammed many automakers. In the fiscal year that ended in March, Toyotas profits rose 10% to 2.25 trillion yen ($20.6 billion) from 2.04 trillion yen the previous year. Sales for the fiscal year slipped nearly 9% to 27 trillion yen ($248 billion). Cost-cutting efforts helped keep it in the black, said the manufacturer of the Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models, which is based in Toyota city, central Japan. Toyota is forecasting a 2.3 trillion yen ($21 billion) profit and 30 trillion yen ($276 billion) in sales for the fiscal year through March 2022. The company expects vehicle sales to recover both in Japan and abroad. Toyota and Lexus brand vehicle sales are projected at 9.6 million vehicles for this fiscal year, up from nearly 9.1 million units for the last fiscal year. The company said it expects to sell 2.8 million electric vehicles, up 130% from a year earlier. Toyotas strong China sales are supporting its bottom line, as the company aggressively pushes sales of EVs, Roman Schorr at Fitch Ratings said in a recent commentary. Operating Officer Kenta Kon told reporters that despite a dent in sales from the pandemic, demand recovered toward the latter part of the fiscal year. Toyota said in a statement it had learned to respond to crises, especially in encouraging quick action on the ground, learning from experiences during the global financial crisis, the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan, and flooding in Thailand later that same year. The company said it is determined to stay in the black, despite recent surging COVID-19 infections in Japan. ___ Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama The man who transformed the Vermont-based Orvis company from a niche fly-fishing supply company into a global retailer of outdoor supplies, apparel and protector of the environment has died. Leigh H. Perkins was 93. The Sunderland-based Orvis company says Perkins died May 7 in Monticello, Florida. The cause of death was not released. An online tribute published on the company's website said Perkins was a lifelong outdoorsman who hunted or fished more than 250 days a year into his 90s who had a reverence for nature and conservation. The company says that Perkins began donating 5% of pre-tax profits to conserving fish and wildlife. While Orvis is based in Sunderland, not far from the headwaters of the Batten Kill one of the most famous trout streams in the state the company's reach goes across the world. He followed that fly rod to all corners of the world and he made connections and relationships to both places and people across the globe, Simon Perkins, Leigh Perkins' grandson and the current president of Orvis, said Tuesday. Simon Perkins is the third generation of his family to lead the company. Christopher Saunders, a project coordinator for the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife, who describes himself as a passionate fly fisherman, said the legacy of Leigh Perkins is considerable for both the sport of fly fishing and Vermont. Saunders said Vermont was a cradle of the fly fishing industry, but over the years the focus of the world moved west. Perkins made sure fly fishing in Vermont remained prominent. To this day people still make pilgrimages to go to Orvis and fly fish on the Batten Kill river and surrounding areas, Saunders said. He obviously was committed to more than the bottom line, Saunders said. There was a lot of focus on education. In 1966, Perkins began what the company describes as the worlds first fly-fishing schools, first in Vermont and then elsewhere. Saunders said those schools helped introduce thousands of anglers to fly fishing. Perkins was born in Cleveland in 1927, but went to college in western Massachusetts. His mother imbued him with a love of the outdoors and hunting and fishing. Orvis, founded in 1856 by Charles F. Orvis, was a niche business with 20 employees and $500,000 in annual sales when Perkins bought it in 1965. Over the next 27 years, Perkins transformed it into a retail and mail-order business with sales that topped $90 million. Since then, the company estimates it's grown fourfold. Perkins is survived by his wife Anne, four children, a number of stepchildren, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. CT Division of Criminal Justice / Contributed ROCKY HILL A 47-year-old Rocky Hill woman was taken into custody last week on allegations of Medicaid health insurance fraud dating back to 2017, the state Division of Criminal Justice announced Wednesday. Ella Rosario, also known as Ella Connors, was arrested on May 7 by inspectors from the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Chief States Attorney. She was charged with first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community, conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny by defrauding a public community and health insurance fraud, officials said. CARBONDALE, Illinois (AP) Police misconduct records are either secret or difficult to access in a majority of states - 35 of them plus Washington, D.C. But the breeze of openness is blowing. Seven big states have opened records in recent years - California, New York, Illinois, Colorado, Massachusetts, Oregon and Maryland. Now 15 states have laws that allow these records to be mostly available to the public - up from 12 a few years ago. Legal experts say transparency of police misconduct records is one of the keys to police reform. David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, put it this way: One thing that has changed is greater transparency. We have seen a number of jurisdictions enhancing and changing the way police misconduct records have been handled. You cant have real accountability with the public unless you are willing to share information. ___ This reporting was funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. ___ The modest uptick in openness is the result of a combination of court decisions and reform laws passed since the murder of George Floyd. New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon and Maryland enacted laws in the past year opening records that were previously closed. California passed a law opening some records in 2018. In Illinois, the Invisible Institute won a court decision in 2014, Kalven v. City of Chicago, granting public access to misconduct records by striking down exemptions law enforcement agencies had claimed when denying public record requests. New York state repealed section 50-a of the states civil rights law last year and this year made more than 300,000 police misconduct records public. Indiana passed a bi-partisan police reform bill last month that publishes the names of officers decertified for misconduct. However, there are still barriers to accountability, even in some of the states that have begun to open up. In Illinois, a widely touted police reform law passed this year included a provision that closed the state Professional Conduct Database of officers who resigned, were fired or were suspended for violating department policy. Not only are the names withheld but also the supporting documents. To get statewide records, a person would have to contact each of the almost 900 police departments and request these misconduct records individually. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill into law in 2020 that created a database to track police misconduct statewide and force agencies to check the database before hiring an officer. But the legislature closed the database to the public. Indianas bipartisan law passed this spring required an Internet listing of the names of all officers disciplined, but closes the much more plentiful investigations that dont end in punishment. Colorado opened records but its law was not retroactive and required requesters to have specific information about the misconduct. Oregon created a database of officers disciplined but did not open records of investigations that didnt lead to discipline. In New York, after the repeal of 50-a, the public records group MuckRock filed a public record request for police misconduct records from the Town of Manlius Police Department in New York and was told to pay $47,504 to see them. Beryl Lipton, projects editor at MuckRock says in New York the police unions have done solid work of trying combat the release of materials, with many agencies refusing to release records while those court battles played out; still others have claimed that the law does not apply retroactively to existing records, and the courts have landed on either side of that point. Last month, state Supreme Court Justice Ann Marie Taddeo issued an order agreeing with the Brighton Police Patrolman Association that the repeal of 50a was not retroactive. The order would close all misconduct records before the summer of 2020. Two other Supreme Court justices in other parts of the state have ruled it is retroactive, so a decision of the state Court of Appeals may be required. Nationwide, the majority of law enforcement agencies still close records or make them hard to obtain. They claim they are personnel matters, privacy violations, or ongoing investigations that could be compromised. They are backed by strong law enforcement unions and the law enforcement bills of rights that protect the privacy rights of officers over the publics right to know. The National Decertification Index published by the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training compiles 30,257 decertifications from 45 state agencies, but the names are closed to the public. Sam Stecklow, a journalist with the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalistic group focused on public accountability, said in an interview some of the states where it has become easier to request records are Illinois, New York Florida, Utah, New York and some cities in Texas. He said Nebraska, Hawaii, Kansas and Virginia are closed to the public. There are some states that we havent even been able to work at all in because they ... require you to be a resident to make a request, Stecklow said. So we just havent really tried there. That includes Tennessee and Delaware and Virginia as well. Stecklow said many more states release the names of officers only in the rare instances where complaints are sustained rather than the much more frequent instances where the department decides not to punish the officer. I think its important to make a distinction regarding sustained vs. not sustained cases, he said. Many states will allow the release of records about a case in which discipline is imposed, but that is a very small minority of police misconduct investigations. Stecklow said if state legislatures wanted to settle the question of requesting misconduct records, they could easily do so. They could very easily amend FOIA and explicitly say you know a record that either contains an allegation of police misconduct, or an investigation into an allegation of police misconduct or a disciplinary record regarding misconduct is always public, Stecklow said. ___ Kallie Cox is the editor-in-chief of The Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and can be reached at Kcox@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @KallieECox. William H. Freivogel is a professor at Southern Illinois University and member of the Missouri Bar. Zora Raglow-DeFranco, a law student at Case Western, contributed to this report. This story is part of a project on police accountability funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) The state House approved Tuesday a proposal that would add South Carolina to a list of states calling for a convention to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The proposal passed 66-42. It would have South Carolina limit its call for the convention to a few items spending checks on the federal government, limiting the federal governments jurisdiction and power, and setting term limits for Congress. A group of a few dozen enthusiastic supporters waved signs at cars as they entered the Statehouse garage and then settled into the second floor lobby for several hours of debate Tuesday. Rep. Bill Taylor, who has pushed for the proposal for years, told members they have the power to change Washington, D.C., by voting for the resolution. They will never, ever, ever limit their own power, the Aiken Republican said of the federal government. Its human nature. The resolution is now sent to the Senate. With two days left in the session there isn't enough time for senators to take it up, but it will be waiting for them when they return in 2022. About 15 states have passed similar resolutions, and the Constitution requires two-thirds of states, or 34, to call for the convention. Supporters have pointed out whatever amendments are suggested by the convention would have to be passed by three-fourths of the states 38 legislatures or special conventions. About 15 states have passed similar resolutions, and the Constitution requires two-thirds of states, or 34, to call for the convention before it could occur. Supporters have pointed out whatever amendments are suggested by the convention would have to be passed by three-fourths of the states 38 legislatures or special conventions. Calling the convention is only the first step, said Rep. Weston Newton, a Republican from Bluffton. The only convention called in nearly 250 years of the nation so far the one that wrote the current Constitution from scratch was initially proposed just to make changes to the original government charter of the U.S., the Articles of Confederation. Supporters of the proposal barely pushed aside an amendment that would have had the resolution last for just two years. They said it would have killed the proposal because backers could never get to 34 states in that short of a time. Instead, the resolution was limited to 10 years. Democrats and several Republicans opposed the constitutional convention proposal. Democrats said there was no way to protect amendments that provided the rights to free speech, the prohibition of slavery and the guarantee of full citizenship and rights to anyone born in the country. "You cannot limit the scope of a constitutional convention. Everything is on the table," said Rep. Cezar McKnight, a Democrat from Kingstree. Some Republicans said the convention could alter the country in ways that the founding fathers would oppose, like revoking the Second Amendment assuring the right to bear arms or protections for practicing religion. Dont fool yourself into thinking if we have a constitutional convention if will just be about a couple of conservative amendments," said Rep. John McCravy, a Republican from Greenwood. "Oh no it cant be limited. ___ Follow Jeffrey Collins on Twitter at https://twitter.com/JSCollinsAP. Gov. Ned Lamont on Wednesday announced children between the age of 12 and 15 can now officially begin receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The announcement came shortly after the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccine be used in that age group. The Food and Drug Administration had expanded the vaccines emergency use authorization on Monday to include 12 to 15-year-olds. The governors office said the expansion will allow roughly 170,000 adolescents to get the vaccine with parental permission. The vaccine is safe, effective, and saving lives, Lamont said in a statement. Expanding the vaccination program to this age group is going to be incredibly beneficial in terms of getting our schools back to normal and encouraging safe, summer enrichment activities. The announcement from the governor comes after state officials said speculatively that vaccine distribution could start this week for children age 12 to 15 on Thursday following the FDAs expanded authorization. The final decision hinged on the recommendation from the CDC. Wednesday also marks one week before most of the states remaining COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted, except the requirement that people wear maks indoors. New York and New Jersey leaders have also announced similar plans for doing away with restrictions next Wednesday, May 19. During a news conference at Quassy Amusement & Waterpark in Middlebury, Lamont confirmed the schedule for those restrictions to be lifted is going forward unchanged. (May)19th everything opens. Maybe do a little bit of masking indoors for a little bit longer, Lamont said, speaking from an outdoor podium erected in front a carousel. But if your friends arent vaccinated, tell them to wear a mask outside a little bit longer, he added. The states outdoor mask mandate ended on May 1. Lamont declined to say when the indoor mask mandate would be lifted. Theres not a firm metric but obviously its a lot easier to get things going indoor if everyones vaccinated, he said. That comes as Connecticuts one-day positivity rate fell to 1.05 percent on Wednesday, one of the lowest in months. Hospitalizations declined by a net 28 patients to bring the total to 243 cases statewide. Another five fatalities attributed to COVID-19 brought the states official death count to 8,161. Meanwhile, the CDC reported that as of Tuesday nearly 46 percent of Connecticuts 3.6 million residents are now fully vaccinated, among the highest in the country. More than 1.6 million Connecticut residents are now considered fully-vaccinated, or about 45.9 percent of its population, according to the CDC data released Wednesday. Connecticut, which previously led the nation in terms of population fully vaccinated, fell slightly behind Maine, which has a little under 47 percent of its residents vaccinated. Earlier in the week, Acting FDA head Dr. Janet Woodcock called the expansion to 12 and 15 year-olds a significant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, in a press release announcing the age-group expansion. Todays action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic, her statement said. During his Monday COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Ned Lamont noted that about half the states 16 and 17-year-olds have received at least a first shot of the vaccine a statistic he cited as a good sign for the 12- to 15-year-old expansion. If we can do as well with that age group as were doing with the 16- and 17-year-olds, it is going to be a very good summer, Lamont said. Connecticut is also among the handful of states where more than 70 percent of adults have received at least one shot of a vaccine, nearly two months ahead of the July 4 goal President Joe Biden set for the nation. Just over 71 percent of the states adult population have received at least one shot, according to the CDC, with just under 58 percent of the total state population having received at least one shot. Compared with other states, Connecticut sits below Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont for the percentage of adults who have received at least one shot. The Northeast in general, and the New England states in particular, stand out for high vaccination rates, especially when compared to much of the Southeast, the CDC data shows. West Virginia, a state with about half of Connecticuts population (and nearly four times as large in territory) that was touted as an early example of vaccine success is lagging in comparison. Like Connecticut, the state was among the earliest targeted by a federal plan to vaccinate residents and staff of nursing homes and other longterm care facilities. As of Monday, only about 37 percent of West Virginas population have received a shot. But some communities in Connecticut are also lagging compared to the rest of the state. In Bridgeport and Hartford, among the largest cities in the state, less than a quarter of the population have been fully vaccinated, according to the states latest data as of last week. In Mansfield, a town of a little more than 25,000 in Tolland County, roughly 30 percent of residents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, the lowest vaccine coverage in the state. The data shows lower vaccine coverage rates in municipalities tends to coincide with communities identified as having an underserved population, according to the state data. Now more than a 15 months into the pandemic, the state House of Representatives voted to extend Lamonts emergency authority under public health and civil preparedness emergency declarations until July 20. The measure, which extends his powers that were set to expire on May 20, passed along party lines. A second measure, which received unanimous support, would limit renewals of the March 2020 emergency declarations to 60 days when the legislature is in session, or 180 days otherwise. NAFCU Vice President of Legislative Affairs Brad Thaler Monday called on senators to support a resolution to use the Congressional Review Act to nullify the Office of the Comptroller of the Currencys true lender rule. The chamber could vote on the resolution this week. The true lender rule allows banks and federal savings and loan companies to provide their charter to online lenders so they can deliver high-cost loans with annual rates over 100 percent, evading state consumer protections and usury caps and promoting predatory payday lending. Several states have filed suit against the OCC to try to overturn the rule. Rather than pursuing problematic options like the OCCs True Lender rule to increase access to credit, we would suggest Congress consider consumer-friendly alternatives such as expanding credit unions ability to offer [payday alternative loans (PALS)], Thaler wrote to the Senate. Too many Americans are unbanked, underbanked, or underserved by financial institutions, and do not have the access that they need to financial services. Credit unions stand ready to help with financial literacy education and access to loans and other financial products, including PALs, but many are limited in their ability to add underserved areas to their fields of membership. Weve had the pleasure here at PixelSpoke of serving as judges for both the CUNA Diamond and the MAC Awards this year. That means that over the past few months, weve reviewed upwards of 200 entries, including videos, radio ads, annual reports, email campaigns, and more. So, what have we learned? From our end of things, its been eye-opening to get more insight into the vast array of marketing initiatives for which many of you are responsible. We focus so much on websites, it can be easy to forget that your website is only one component of your marketing mix. Still, we found that many of the best practices weve arrived at for credit union websites apply to other mediums as well. When we think about the few entries that really rose to the top amongst the hundreds that we reviewed, here are our top 5 takeaways: Both 2020 and 2021 have been years of massive change, with more to come, and change is hard. So why, in the middle all this, should a credit union take this moment to also change its own brand? Why is 2021 the year for branding? If fact, three of the most important reasons to invest in your brand are at work right now: Consumers have changed Competition has changed, impacting your position in the market Your own team members have changed, and need to get realigned Theres plenty of evidence for the first two points, and they are linked. In addition to the uncertainty, inequity, and loss of income caused by the pandemic, we also witnessed massive acceleration in digital channel adoption, and expectation. This adoption of digital channels and higher technical and personalized expectations have eroded the position of midsize financial institutions over big banks. Big banks are now at near parity in overall satisfaction, and midsize FIs have fallen behind on key areas such as new account opening, self service, and convenience (according to J.D. Power research). In the meantime, nonbank competition has gone from nibbling to gnawing at the sector. Its the third reason internal alignment around a clear brand purpose that offers the path to success through tumultuous times. Credit unions with weak brands become unmoored amidst a sea of change, while credit unions with strong brands are able to manage forward with clarity and cohesion. Todd Kern, CMO of the recently rebranded Frontwave Credit Union, shares a story about asking his executives, Hey if this [pandemic] had happened 5 years ago, would we have been ready? What he heard back was resounding doubt. He attributes their cultural readiness to handle the pandemic to strong internal alignment they had just achieved around their new authentic and highly distinct brand. This makes 2021 a critical year for dialing in and dialing up what makes your credit union the best version of itself. Think about everything your credit union family has been through over the past five quarters, all the adaptations and innovation, all the loss and frustrations. No doubt as we enter the next phases of recovery, we will find that some things will never be the same as they were before. But a strong brand will unify everybody in the organization, and also guide each person in their individual role within it. There is no other initiative thats better able to align and inspire people, and drive organizational change, than a branding process when its done well. Imagine if every person in your organization used the same framework for making decisions from everyday member interactions to big strategic commitments. Programs, products and policies alike. If you could say Our employees have become raving brand advocates, like Trailhead Credit Union can. Or, Our staff who live the brand every day make the difference in our success, like Redwood Credit Union. Imagine what that would do for your members experiences, and your internal teams experience too. Maybe this is why a recent study of national CMOs found that Brand Strategy was ranked #1 among the most vital marketing capabilities going in to 2021, overtaking even analytics, marketing operations and digital commerce. Launching a branding initiative is yes, creating more change thats true. For some organizations like Trailhead and Frontwave, something as foundational as a new name is part of the package. For others, like Redwood, its about an elevated articulation of whats already there. But all of these organizations used a branding initiative as a key strategic driver of performance, and understood that full internal alignment was part of the equation. With all of us looking ahead to better days, now is the time to make sure everybody on your team is looking in the same direction. To hear more inspiring stories of credit unions leading the pack in performance because of strong branding, check out The Battle for Brand Leadership: Redefine Your Value Proposition, Purpose & Culture to Drive Sustainable Growth and Consumer Relevance in 2021. Photo: Barry Winiker/Getty Images Amidst the barrage of questions the New York Times editorial board recently put to city mayoral candidates was one from Mara Gay that elicited a number of wild and wildly wrong responses: Whats the median sales price for a home in Brooklyn? Ray McGuire, the former Citigroup executive who lives in the San Remo building on Central Park West (where currently available apartments start at $4.2 million, and maintenance fees can run $10,000 a month) put the average around $80,000 to $90,000. Shaun Donovan, who ran President Obamas Department of Housing and Urban Development for five years after working as a housing official in New York City, guessed $100,000. (He later said that he was referring to assessed values.) The median price currently sits at $900,000, and I regret to inform you that Andrew Yang was the only candidate who had the correct answer. Park Slope resident Kathryn Garcia, whom the Times endorsed, was close at $800,000. At the other end of the spectrum was Maya Wiley, who said $1.8 million. Amazing lol pic.twitter.com/VKU21y8Hzc Edward Ongweso Jr (@bigblackjacobin) May 11, 2021 Its difficult to fathom how anyone could believe home prices are so low in Brooklyn never mind two people who want to be mayor of a city with significant housing issues. But that aside, the conversation left us wondering this: What can you get in New York City for under $100,000? There are currently just seven units on StreetEasy that fit the bill, six in the Bronx and one in Queens. (In Brooklyn, $100,000 will just barely buy you a parking spot.) And while, say, a bright, pleasant-looking studio apartment in a co-op building in the Highbridge for just five figures certainly sounds like a steal, most of New York Citys cheapest homes for sale have lingered on the market. Because at this lowest end of the price range, apartments tend to have specific limitations on who can actually buy. Heres a look at a few of the very few homes available in the Donovan-McGuire price range. Prewar Charm in Highbridge Starting at $60,000 With parquet floors and original moldings, the two studio units in this Summit Avenue co-op building look quite lovely and are a short walk from Yankee Stadium. But not only is this an income-restricted building, both available units cannot be financed (monthly maintenance is about $500), meaning a buyer would have to both earn $95,520 or less ($109,200 for a family of two) and have $60,000 or $70,000 in cash to purchase one of these units. At 550 square feet, this studio is just $145 per square foot far, far cheaper than the citywide median of $763. It has exposed brick and a renovated bathroom with a barn-style sliding door. But it is also both an income-restricted and all-cash sale; the unit has been on the market for 109 days, and the price was dropped by $10,000 nearly two months ago. This co-op unit in Queens is a rarity in this lowest of price ranges: It is not income-restricted, and does not require an all-cash sale. So what does $100,000 get you in North Corona? The listing only features photos of the buildings brick exterior, but other, pricier units in the co-op look just fine, if not a little dim. While this is yet another income-restricted sale in a Highbridge co-op, its the closest opportunity to a traditional home-sale situation of the four: Only 10 percent down is required, with limited financing available, per the listing. Maintenance is about $500, so depending on mortgage terms, this nearly all-white studio with high ceilings could cost around $1,000/month. This is another anomaly in the $100,000 price range in that it is a straightforward sale: There are no income restrictions and the apartment can be financed. The deck off of the main living space is admittedly a bit narrow, but there is a view of the nearby reservoir in Jerome Park. This 550-square-foot one-bedroom appears to do a lot with very little space and includes a kitchen thats large enough for a small dining-room table. But like other Bronx co-ops in the five-figures, not just anyone can buy it: The unit is income-restricted, and offers must be all-cash. Kankakee, IL (60901) Today Sun and clouds mixed. High 86F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Elizabeth City, NC (27909) Today Partly cloudy this morning with thunderstorms becoming likely this afternoon. High 84F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Elizabeth City, NC (27909) Today Partly cloudy skies this morning. Thunderstorms likely during the afternoon. High near 85F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Fred Shults age 86, of Dalton, passed away Tuesday, June 8, 2021 at Hamilton Medical Center. He is preceded in death by his parents, Raymond and Audie Shults and brother, D.O. Shults. He was a member of South Cohutta Baptist Church and the Antique Car Club. He is survived by his loving wife Emeralds in the Rough: From ambient to folk, these latest spring releases shine the brightest NEW PALTZ, N.Y. The Ulster County Fair is on this summer after being nixed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Ulster Count The following items are based on information provided by officials in law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Part of the SUNY New Paltz campus is shown on July 2, 2020. Advertisement New Zealand Dollar Outlook: The turn through the middle of the month hasnt been kind to the Kiwi . But thats not really a surprise , given that May seasonality studies suggested rough waters for the New Zealand Dollar Pullbacks in both NZD/JPY and NZD/ USD rates must be viewed in the bigger context: both pairs remain in their triangle consolidations. According to the IG Client Sentiment Index , the New Zealand Dollar has a mixed bias in the near-term. New Zealand Dollars Wings Clipped The New Zealand Dollar hasnt had a great month of May thus far, and shifts across global financial markets in recent days following the April US non-farm payrolls report and the April US consumer price index have catered to a general risk-off mood. And while this has left the high beta, growth-sensitive New Zealand Dollar exposed to a near-term pullback, that doesnt mean that the Kiwi isnt in good shape longer-term. Technically speaking, both NZD/JPY and NZD/USD rates remain within their triangular consolidations; if the Kiwis wings have been clipped, its just a flesh wound (and not in the ironic Monty Python sense). NZD/JPY RATE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: DAILY CHART (March 2020 to May 2021) (CHART 1) The recent pullback in NZD/JPY rates is fairly insignificant; in fact, it was on Monday this week that the pair just set a fresh yearly high. It thus may be considered that the pair has merely run into ascending triangle resistance and the initial bullish breakout attempt has been rebuffed. Overall, considering that the ascending triangle formed after an uptrend, the expectation is for bullish resolution ultimately. Despite the setback, NZD/JPY rates are pulling back into their daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, which otherwise remains in bullish sequential order. Daily MACD is narrowing even as it remains in bullish territory, while daily Slow Stochastics are just starting to ease from overbought territory. More losses may materialize within the ascending triangle; a break of the daily 21-EMA could foretell a drop towards 78.00 this week. NZD/USD RATE TECHNICAL ANALYSIS: DAILY CHART (March 2020 to May 2021) (CHART 2) Given the uptick in US Treasury yields, NZD/USD rates have proved weaker than their NZD/JPY counterpart. NZD/USD remains below its March and November 2020 uptrend, which constitutes the pandemic trendline. But like NZD/JPY, the pair appears to be consolidating within the confines of a triangle, this version of the symmetrical variety. The preceding move was an uptrend, so resolution to the topside is eyed. For now, NZD/USD is below its daily 5-, 8-, 13-, and 21-EMA envelope, which is otherwise still in bullish sequential order. Daily MACD is trending lower but remains above its signal line, while daily Slow Stochastics are continuing to pullback from overbought territory. There remains a cluster of support levels nearby: the 50% Fibonacci retracement of the 2014 high/2020 low range at 0.7153; the 76.4% Fibonacci retracement of the 2017 high/2020 low range at 0.7065; the December 2020 low at 0.7006; and symmetrical triangle support thereafter. IG Client Sentiment Index: NZD/USD RATE Forecast (May 12, 2021) (Chart 3) NZD/USD: Retail trader data shows 36.80% of traders are net-long with the ratio of traders short to long at 1.72 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 8.86% lower than yesterday and 15.29% lower from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 6.08% lower than yesterday and 12.50% lower from last week. We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-short suggests NZD/USD prices may continue to rise. Traders are further net-short than yesterday and last week, and the combination of current sentiment and recent changes gives us a stronger NZD/USD-bullish contrarian trading bias. --- Written by Christopher Vecchio, CFA, Senior Currency Strategist Ashland, KY (41101) Today Cloudy early, then off and on rain showers for the afternoon. High 81F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Showers this evening then scattered thunderstorms developing overnight. Low 67F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Sunbury, PA (17801) Today Considerable clouds this morning. Some decrease in clouds later in the day. High around 85F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy this evening with showers developing after midnight. Low 61F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. The Tower Health logo on a lighted sign at the 5th Ave entrance to the Reading Hospital. At the Reading Hospital, part of Tower Health, in West Reading Thursday night April 15, 2021. @ChescoCourtNews on Twitter Michael P. Rellahan has been a staff reporter and editor at the Daily Local News since 1982. He has covered all kinds of news over the years but is now assigned to report on court and legal news, as well as Chester County government news and politics. Visitors ushered into the inner sanctum of Greensill Capital's offices on the Strand in central London could have been forgiven for thinking they were meeting a world statesman. Behind the desk of founder Lex Greensill was a wall of photos of the Aussie son of a sugar-beet farmer in the company of political leaders including Barack Obama and David Cameron. Yesterday, Mr Greensill was again in the company of politicians, but in less salubrious circumstances. He was being grilled over a webcam by the Treasury Select Committee about the collapse of his finance group, which became a political cause celebre after former Prime Minister David Cameron who was an adviser to Greensill Capital desperately lobbied Cabinet members, senior Treasury mandarins and senior staff at the Bank of England on behalf of the company. While David Cameron's brazen behaviour has stolen the headlines, what has escaped attention is the shattering impact of the debacle at Greensill Capital. Pictured: Cameron (left) and Greensill in Saudi Arabia in January 2020 Brazen Cameron, who stood to make tens of millions if the group made it to the quoted markets rather than collapsed, will himself be in the dock before MPs tomorrow. But while the ex-PM's brazen behaviour has stolen the headlines, what has escaped attention is the shattering impact of the debacle at the UK-based group. It has sent shock waves across the globe, with serious repercussions in countries from Australia to the U.S., Germany and Switzerland. Not only has it triggered one of the most toxic and far-reaching financial crises of our time, it has also exposed an enormous and terrifying failure in enforcement over the British financial system. The implosion of Lex Greensill's organisation far eclipses other recent business collapses, such as that of the investment scheme London Capital & Finance (LCF), which went into administration in January 2019 with investors losing hundreds of millions. It is more far-reaching even than the disintegration of disgraced fund manager Neil Woodford's Equity Income Fund, which was suspended with 3.7 billion of investors' money trapped in it. Indeed, to my mind the Greensill affair has echoes of the Lonrho scandal of 1973, which led to Prime Minister Ted Heath lashing out in the Commons against the 'unacceptable face of capitalism', and was among the factors that led to Heath's decisive defeat by Harold Wilson's Labour in the 1974 election. The lasting legacy of Greensill will not be Cameron and his opportunism, but the damage the company has wrought across the world. In Britain, Lex Greensill's enterprise which stands at the epicentre of a labyrinthine, global financial structure threatens the future of steel and metals production, and brings free-market capitalism into disrepute. It has cast a terrible pall over Credit Suisse, the Zurich-based bank. This is because, in echoes of the 2007-09 financial crisis, Credit Suisse took on dodgy Greensill credits loaned against invoices, then sliced and diced them into neat packages of securities, and sold them on to unsuspecting investors. They were comforted at the time by the fact that they were insured by the global insurance giant Tokio Marine. But then the insurer withdrew its cover and the value of the loans imploded. In Germany, the collapse of Greensill Bank, which had billions of euros in deposits, triggered a criminal probe by regulators. In the United States, the businessman and Republican Governor of West Virginia, Jim Justice, has launched legal action against Greensill in the Manhattan federal court, claiming his mining enterprise Bluestone is the victim of 'material misrepresentations'. Lex Greensill was being grilled over a webcam on Tuesday by the Treasury Select Committee about the collapse of his finance group There is a huge claim against the company from Japan's multi-billion investment fund Softbank. And in the town of Bundaberg, in Queensland, Australia, Lex Greensill's spiritual home, his sprawling enterprise has been put into insolvency with debts of 3.6 billion. Also in Australia, New York's Citibank is seeking wind-up orders against two steel and metals companies controlled by the controversial magnate Sanjeev Gupta, after billions of dollars of Greensill loans were secured against plants owned by him. Credit Suisse is also seeking to lay claim to steel assets in Australia. Meanwhile, Gupta's GFG Alliance empire employs 30,000 people across several continents, including up to 5,000 at his Liberty Steel group in Britain and the jobs have seldom looked more precarious. What is so shocking about all this global mayhem is how it was allowed to happen. How did Greensill Capital, with its opaque financing model, grow into a financial group making tens of billon pounds worth of loans, in plain sight of UK regulators, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), without anyone blowing the whistle? Loopholes Greensill's bank, enthusiastically backed by the late Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood, exploited gaping loopholes in City regulation. The safety net put in place by the Tories after the financial crisis of 2007-9 in which dodgy loans were sold round the world was meant to have sealed the system tight so it could never happen again. Cameron, who stood to make tens of millions if the group made it to the quoted markets rather than collapsed, will himself be in the dock before MPs tomorrow Yet it turns out that only one small subsidiary of Greensill Capital, its securities arm, was policed by the FCA. As for the Bank of England, under City reforms pushed through by former Chancellor George Osborne, it was given responsibility for financial stability and produces regular reports which are meant to provide an early warning of potential fissures in the system. Yet no red alerts as to the risks posed by Greensill's high-risk financing methods were made public. This, in spite of fierce warnings about Greensill Capital from former City Minister Paul Myners in dozens of questions put down in the House of Lords starting in June 2019 long before the name Greensill became famous as a result of David Cameron's role. It is particularly embarrassing for the UK authorities that, while they have sat on their hands, their counterparts across Europe have been very active. In Germany, the collapse of Greensill Bank, with hundreds of millions of euros of debt, is the subject of a formal investigation by the Frankfurt regulator BaFin and a criminal inquiry by prosecutors. Catastrophic Credit Suisse, meanwhile, has cleared out a cadre of its top officials, and raised new capital on the Swiss stock market to repair its balance sheet. Former Lloyds Bank chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio has been drafted in to clean up the mess. The Swiss financial regulator FINMA has already begun interviewing the executives responsible for catastrophic damage to the reputation of Swiss banking. In Britain, however, calls in this paper and elsewhere for a full inquiry into the regulatory failures behind the Greensill collapse have largely been ignored. The Tory majority on the Treasury Select Committee, headed by Mel Stride (which grilled Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey over the collapse of the less globally significant LCF), initially ruled out holding hearings. It was only after David Cameron's questionable activities as an adviser made damaging headlines that the committee decided to take evidence from Lex Greensill, the Bank of England and others. And it has taken until now for a formal inquiry by UK enforcers to be launched into a debacle which unfolded under their noses. But far more outrageous is that this unstable financial conglomerate was given free rein to trample over businesses and consumers across the globe and no one in London, where it was based, did a thing about it. There is a poetic justice in the 'Butcher of Bosnia' being transferred to a British prison to serve out his life sentence for war crimes. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was both an architect of the ethnic conflict that claimed 100,000 lives, and the memorable face and voice denying to the world but justifying in the same breath the cruel ethnic cleansing which culminated in the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in July 1995. A fluent English speaker and a qualified psychiatrist who understood and enjoyed mind games, the debonair Karadzic, with his mane of greying hair, took particular pleasure in humiliating a succession of British mediators and peacekeepers trying to end the conflict. For three years, Karadzic was a fixture in news bulletins, eloquently denying responsibility for the hell into which Bosnia was descending, for the slaughter and for the very existence of concentration camps where Bosnian Muslims were being systematically starved and tortured. Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic walks with his war-time commander Ratko Mladic on Mount Vlasic in Serbia in 1995 A woman who fled the genocide in Srebrenica, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, arrives in Tuzla John Major, then British prime minister, and leaders of other EU states bestowed enormous prestige on this small-town Balkan hoodlum by negotiating with him. Karadzic's sudden rise to global notoriety 30 years ago was predicted by none of his contemporaries as he was growing up in communist Yugoslavia under Tito's dictatorship after 1945. The Second World War had seen brutal civil wars erupt between competing ethnic groups, including Bosnia's Serbs and Muslims, but Tito required everyone to 'forget' the brutalities between 1941 and 1945 in the interests of a united Yugoslavia. Karadzic's family had moved to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, from the countryside where, in his student years, he mixed medical studies with a fascination for medieval Serbian poetry, particularly from the era of conflicts between Christian Serbs and the invading Muslim Turks. This was the seedbed of his obsession with 'cleansing' Bosnia's Muslims from where they had lived for centuries. The opportunities provided to Karadzic to continue his medical studies abroad prestige courses in New York and at London's Tavistock Clinic suggest he was probably sponsored by Tito's sinister secret police, the KOS. There were clues to his future career as a sadistic warlord in the 1980s. One of his patients in Sarajevo told me how Karadzic prescribed him pills to treat his suicidal feelings which actually increased the temptation to jump out of his tower-block window. The patient threw the pills out and when he next saw Karadzic, the psychiatrist beamed at him maniacally and said: 'So... my treatment is working.' Even as a doctor he saw other human beings as play things. After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, Karadzic emerged as one of the leading 'post-communist' politicians. His 'poetic' Serbian nationalism combined with his contacts with the ethnic Serbs running the secret police and army catapulted him into the new political elite as Yugoslavia imploded. Abandoning 'multi-cultural' communist slogans, political leaders such as Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia turned on a torrent of nationalist rhetoric to retain power. Karadzic makes an appearance at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands Karadzic appears before the Appeals Chamber of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals during a ruling on an appeal of his 40 year sentence for war crimes In Bosnia, Karadzic by then president of the Republika Sprska, one of two entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina was key to setting Serbs, Muslims and Croats at each others' throats. With his military commander, Ratko Mladic, Karadzic mobilised Serbs to expel by force the Muslims from land shared with the Serbs for 500 years. Mladic was the hands-on killer but it was Karadzic's skills as a propagandist which drew local Serbs into a web of sectarian murder. When Nato finally intervened to stop the slaughter in 1995, Karadzic abandoned 'his people' and disappeared to the Serbian capital Belgrade, where he worked as a faith healer until he was finally tracked down by The Hague's war crimes tribunal in 2008. In March 2016, he was given a 40-year sentence for the genocide at Srebrenica raised to life on appeal by the prosecution. Those 13 years of apparent impunity after being the voice of ethnic cleansing remain a mystery. Was he protected in the Serbian capital by the same secret police which had sponsored his rise in 1990? Karadzic continues to haunt the survivors of his war against Muslim civilians. That trauma won't be ended by the news that he will be living out his last years in a British prison in accordance with the Government's sharing of the burden of criminals convicted at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. It is a modest punishment for a cynical and ruthless political adventurer such as Karadzic whose poisonous legacy leaves Bosnia still scarred and divided. Mark Almond is Director of the Crisis Research Centre, Oxford Butcher of Bosnia will be left to rot in a British jail By David Barrett and Jason Groves for the Daily Mail The 'Butcher of Bosnia', Radovan Karadzic, will serve the rest of his life sentence for war crimes and genocide in a British jail. The Bosnian Serb leader was convicted in 2016 of atrocities including the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, regarded as one of the worst atrocities committed in Europe since the Second World War. He will be transferred to the UK in the next few weeks, the Mail understands, and is set to die in a British prison. Radovan Karadzic will serve the rest of his life sentence for war crimes and genocide in a British jail A final decision is yet to be made on which jail will house Karadzic, who was once the world's most wanted man, but the front-runner is believed to be Frankland high-security prison in County Durham, which already holds another war criminal, former Liberia president Charles Taylor. Karadzic, 75, will be moved to this country as part of Britain's 'commitment to international law and justice', a source said. 'Karadzic was convicted of genocide for crimes committed almost 30 years ago. This demonstrates the long arm of international justice and Britain's role in it,' the source added. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Britain had a 'moral duty' to ensure war criminals such as Karadzic faced justice. He added: 'If we want to deter these types of crime from happening, if we want to give justice to the many thousands of victims, I think it is right we do our bit.' Prisoners convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the UN court that dealt with related war crimes and other war crimes tribunals are distributed between supportive member states. The UK holds four convicts, while Germany and Austria hold seven convicts each, Norway six, Spain five and France four. It is effectively Britain's turn to take responsibility for enforcing the sentence of the court. A prisoner in a high-security jail costs the British taxpayer around 100,000 a year. Special measures will be put in place to protect Karadzic from revenge attacks by other inmates, particularly Islamist terrorists. He is expected to require close supervision by prison wardens, although it has not yet been decided whether he will require a special 'jail within a jail', sources said. Karadzic was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2016 at a tribunal hearing in The Hague, and sentenced to serve 40 years, later increased to life. Following the end of the Bosnian war, the psychiatrist-turned-politician evaded justice for more than a decade before he was arrested in 2008 in Belgrade. He was working as a doctor of alternative medicine under an assumed name, wearing his white hair in a plaited top-knot. He is currently being held in the UN detention centre in the Netherlands. As well as Taylor, Frankland also holds Lee Rigby murderer Michael Adebolajo, Soham killer Ian Huntley and Levi Bellfield, who murdered Milly Dowler in 2002. For many of us, corded landline telephones went out of fashion last century, replaced by more convenient, portable handsets - but for the royals they are still very much in vogue. After moving to Windsor Castle to isolate in March 2020, the Queen has been pictured conducting her weekly meetings with Prime Minister Boris Johnson using an old-fashioned rotary dial phone. Earlier this week, the Duchess of Cambridge updated her and Prince William's new YouTube channel with a video of her chats with entrants to her photography contest Hold Still. Kate, 39, was pictured clutching a black corded landline phone to her ear as she casually chatted away to finalists beside a window in her London home, Kensington Palace. While the Duchess has previously been spotted with an iPhone mobile - when she read out questions submitted for her Early Years Q&A in an Instagram video shared in November - both her and William, 38, tend to use the old fashioned landline when it comes to conducting engagements. Yesterday the Duchess of Cambridge updated her and Prince William's new YouTube channel with a video of her chats with entrants to her photography contest Hold Still, via a corded landline Kate (left) and William (right) tend to use the old fashioned landline when it comes to conducting engagements In March last year, during the first coronavirus lockdown, William was photographed speaking to phone to Mind Charity's CEO Paul Farmer about the importance of mental health from a desk in the Palace which also housed a black corded phone. The Duchess of Cornwall has also been photographed several times throughout the pandemic keeping in touch with people from her and Prince Charles' Scottish home, Birkhall, via a corded handset. Royal expert Phil Dampier told FEMAIL that Her Majesty has likely used the same telephone for years - and has an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality. Royal expert Phil Dampier told FEMAIL that Her Majesty has likely used the same telephone for years - and has an 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' mentality 'The Queen doesn't believe in change for change's sake and if she is comfortable with something she keeps using it for years,' he said. Dickie Arbiter, the Queen's former press spokesman, added that Her Majesty is 'very frugal' and sees no point in changing something if it works. 'It fits the ambiance if you're living in a medieval castle, why put something modern in? The white phone fits,' he told FEMAIL. 'It's a rather old fashioned Bakelite telephone, and as far as she's concerned, it works, why change it? 'You'd be very surprised at how many people actually have corded telephones how many people have old fashioned homes because they want old fashioned phones, because it looks good, it looks better than anything modern. I think at the end of the day it's about choice.' The Duchess of Cornwall has been photographed several times throughout the pandemic keeping in touch from her and Prince Charles' Scottish home, Birkhall, via a corded handset (pictured in April last year) He added that while we haven't seen the Prince of Wales on a telephone for a long time, he does still use one. 'We've seen [Charles] going the video route but everyone's been Zooming and Skyping because that's the way people have been communicating during the lockdown,' Dickie explained. 'It's not to say that he doesn't use a corded telephone, he does use a corded telephone, but we've only seen him Zooming because that's what's been required, same way we've seen the Queen Zooming very recently. 'The conference call on the telephone is, I suppose, a thing of the past really. We're now doing videocalls. When you can't come face-to-face with somebody, and the Queen does like coming face-to-face because she thrives on meeting people and chatting to people, the alternative is Zoom, Google meeting, Microsoft Teams, Skype, take your pick - at least you can have a meaningful conversation with somebody you can actually see.' Dickie pointed out that landlines are 'a lot safer' than mobiles: 'A landline is not so accessible because you need to put a wire tap on it, so that's not so easy.' Dickie said although we haven't seen the Prince of Wales on a landline telephone for a long time, he does still use one, visible in the back left of this photo of a room at Clarence House (Charles is pictured beside Justin Trudeau) Most members of the Royal Family have embraced video calls in recent years, particularly since the start of the pandemic when face-to-face meetings weren't possible (pictured clockwise from top left) the Duchess of Cornwall, the Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, Sophie, Countess of Wessex, Princess Alexandra and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who teamed up to call nurses around the world for International Nurses Day in a show of solidarity and thanks for the healthcare profession amid the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic) Phil, author of Prince Philip: A Lifetime of Wit and Wisdom, also observed that the royals spend a lot of time on the phone and want to be 'relaxed'. 'Prince William and Kate might use corded phones in photos to appear more in tune with the general public, particularly older people who still use them,' he went on. 'And there might also be a security element if landlines are considered safer and not web enabled.' Phil said they may even choose to use corded telephones for health reasons. 'Some research has shown cordless phones might pose a health risk if used extensively,' he explained. 'I certainly get a headache if I use one so I too prefer old fashioned ones.' Last year the share of households in the UK with a landline that can be used to make and receive calls fell to 73 per cent, with 22 per cent of households not having a landline at all, according to Statista data. The extraordinary story of Italy's last Queen, who plotted against Mussolini, wanted to shoot Hitler and only reigned for 35 days, is to be brought to life by her grandson in a Crown-like series. Queen Marie-Jose married Crown Prince Umberto of Italy, Prince of Piedmont, in 1930 and spent the Second World War as a conduit for communications between her husband's country and the rest of Europe. One British diplomat in Rome wrote of her: 'The Princess of Piedmont is the only member of the Italian Royals with a good political judgement.' The rest of the family supported Benito Mussolini. Eventually Marie-Jose, who was educated in an Essex convent during the First World War, plotted against the fascist dictator, attempting to negotiate a peace deal with the US through a secret meeting with the future Pope Paul VI and supplying the Italian Resistance with both money and arms. When Adolf Hitler invaded her homeland of Belgium, she quickly organised a meeting with the dictator to plead for better treatment of her brother, King Leopold III, who was under house arrest at the Royal Castle of Laeken, and for his starving people. Despite his rebuff, he was said to be impressed with the Queen's beauty - praising her eyes as 'the colour of the German sky' - while Marie-Jose later admitted she might have killed him if she had had a pistol, saying: 'I think I would have had the strength to do it.' The extraordinary story of Italy's last Queen (pictured), who plotted against Mussolini, wanted to shoot Hitler and only reigned for 35 days, is to be brought to life by her grandson in a Crown-like series Queen Marie-Jose married Crown Prince Umberto of Italy (pictured together), Prince of Piedmont, in 1930 and spent the Second World War as a conduit for communications between her husband's country and the rest of Europe One British diplomat in Rome wrote of her: 'The Princess of Piedmont is the only member of the Italian Royals with a good political judgement.' The rest of the family supported Benito Mussolini (pictured with Adolf Hitler) The unlikely royal consort was known as 'the May Queen' because she and her husband, then King Umberto II, reigned for only a month before Italians voted to abolish the monarchy, for its disastrous support of Mussolini. Umberto's father, Vittorio Emanuele III, abdicated on the eve of the June constitutional referendum in the hope that his 'more popular' son would keep the House of Savoy on the throne. However, even with the artistic and independent-minded Marie-Jose by his side, republicans narrowly won the vote. Born Princess Marie-Jose Charlotte Sophie Amelie Henriette Gabrielle of Belgium on 4 August 1906, the last Queen of Italy was the youngest child and only daughter of the future King Albert I of Belgium and Duchess Elisabeth of Bavaria. She had a passion for arts and music, studying the violin under The King of the Violin Eugene Ysaye, and found life in the court of Savoy stiflingly boring. Eventually Marie-Jose (thought to be pictured during her engagement photo shoot with her prince) plotted against the fascist dictator, attempting to negotiate a peace with the US through a secret meeting with the future Pope Paul VI and supplying the Italian Resistance with both money and arms When Adolf Hitler invaded her homeland of Belgium, she quickly organised a meeting with the dictator to plead for better treatment of her brother, King Leopold III, who was under house arrest at the Royal Castle of Laeken, and for his starving people. Pictured, Marie-Jose with Umberto before ascending to the throne Marie-Jose was noted to be a beautiful child, with a strong personality. She was encouraged to develop her musical and artistic talents, and was allowed quite a degree of freedom for a Kings daughter. She wed Umberto, who she met while studying in Florence, in 1930. The pair were promised to each other as children after a union was arranged by their parents. The princess' marriage prospects had been widely speculated on throughout her upbringing, since she was one of the few eligible daughters from a reigning Royal Family. At the time of their marriage, Umberto was Crown Prince of Italy, with Marie-Jose taking the title Princess of Piedmont. Even before her wedding day, she showed that she wouldn't bow down to fascists after she was asked to change her name by Mussolini to the more Italian sounding Maria Giuseppa but refused. The royal duo were married in a lavish ceremony at Pauline Chapel at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, Italy, before heading to the Vatican to meet with Pope Pius XI. Despite his rebuff, he was said to be impressed with the Queen's beauty - praising her eyes as 'the colour of the German sky' - while Marie-Jose (pictured in 1930) later said she might have killed him if she had had a pistol. 'I think I would have had the strength to do it,' she said Yet their special day, much like most weddings, didnt go to plan, with Umberto causing a scene before the ceremony even began. The prince insisted on seeing his bride ahead of the service, to check that the wedding dress he helped design matched his requirements. But when found that the sleeves had been sewn incorrectly, he ordered that they be changed, slowing down the big day. In the end, the offending sections of the dress were removed and the princess, who served for a while with the Red Cross in Libya, instead wore white gloves to cover her arms. The royal couple went on to have four children and during World War II when Mussolini was in power and fighting the Allies, Marie-Jose remained a conduit for communications between Italy and the rest of Europe. While a refugee in Switzerland she made it clear she supported the partisans who were fighting the occupying Nazi troops in Italy and helped arrange supplies of arms, money and food to them. The Belgian royal family vacationing in the Swiss Alps. Pictured left to right: Queen Elizabeth, King Albert, Arnold Lunn, and Princess Marie-Jose of Belgium The last Queen of Italy holding her only son, Vittorio Emanuele, Duke of Naples, when he was aged two But her friendship with anti-fascist intellectuals soured relations with her difficult father-in-law King Victor Emmanuel III. 'You know, I don't have much to do with the House of Savoy, she confessed to a journalist in 1940. It's not a family, it's a fridge. When the referendum in 1946 ruled for the monarchy to be abolished she and her husband went into exile in Portugal where they separated but never divorced. Neither of the couple believed in divorce due to their Catholic upbringing, and as such, were only unofficially separated. Marie-Jose once said in an interview of her marriage to Prince Umberto: 'We were never happy.' They couple lived apart - with the Queen heading to Switzerland - until Umbertos death in 1983, but still attended the occasional event together. Following her husband's passing, Marie-Jose was finally allowed to return to Italy. When the referendum in 1946 ruled for the monarchy to be abolished she and her husband went into exile in Portugal where they separated but never divorced. Pictured, on their wedding day When living in Switzerland, she spent her time pursuing her passion for music, setting up a musical foundation, Foundation du Prix de Composition Reine Marie-Jose, which still gives awards today. Marie-Jose also resided in Mexico for several years with her daughter, Princess Marie-Beatrice, and her grandchildren. She died in 2001 in a Geneva clinic aged 94 after falling ill with cancer. After her death, Mussolinis son claimed the royal and the promiscuous dictator had an affair. In a letter reproduced by the weekly magazine Oggi, he recalled his mother saying that there was a 'brief period of intimate romantic relations between my father and the then princess of Piedmont'. When asked about the unconfirmed rumours in her lifetime, the Queen said in 1993: 'He was a lion. I, too, am a lion. And we both feared one another.' Marie-Jose (pictured around 1930) eventually returned to Italy in 1983 after her husband had died The outpouring of grief following Marie-Jose's death is said to have paved the way for male members of the royal family to return to Italy (having been exiled after the last King was deposed), with her grandson Emanuele Filiberto returning in 2002. Emanuele Filiberto, who is known as the 'Pasta Prince', due to his previous career running food trucks in LA, is currently making a Crown-like series about his grandmother, according to The New York Times. It is understood shooting for the series will begin in 2022, with the prince working alongside highly respected director Yi Zhou, reported Deadline. Earlier this week, Marie-Jose's great-granddaughter Vittoria Cristina Chiara Adelaide Maria opened up about how she's been named heir to the now defunct Italian throne. The 17-year-old influencer has been bumped up the royal food chain by her grandfather Vittorio Emanuele di Savoia, the son of the last king of Italy. In a formal decree, 'Duke of Savoy, Prince of Naples and by the grace of God direct heir to Head of the Royal House of Savoy' abolished male primogeniture, which is preference in inheritance that is given by law, custom, or usage to the eldest son and his issue. Speaking to the publication, Vittoria said: 'It was the best gift [my grandfather] could give me.' When asked if she felt Italy was ready to accept her as a queen, or the head of her family, the Paris-based teenager said: 'Italy is not really progressive, but they will learn.' Mainland exposes Taiwan authority's nature of seeking "independence" Xinhua) 14:28, May 12, 2021 BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A mainland spokesperson Tuesday slammed Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority for its latest attempt to hype up the "Taiwan independence" narrative in the international community. Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, pushed back against the DPP authority in response to a query on Tsai Ing-wen's remarks at the "Copenhagen Democracy Summit 2021." Swindling the international community under the guise of "democracy" has been the DPP authority's stock-in-trade, said Zhu, noting the nature of the move is to seek "Taiwan independence." "This will not change the fact that Taiwan is a part of China's territory," said Zhu. She urged relevant countries to abide by the one-China principle and not provide a stage for the DPP authority's political farce. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) An Australian man has put a viral 'McDonald's coffee hack' to the test and declared it the best TikTok tip ever. Melbourne man Brad Canning headed straight to his closest McDonald's restaurant after seeing the viral trend on the social media platform. The trick is said to make the 'best ice coffee shake' and is done by buying a vanilla thickshake and an espresso shot and combining the two. Scroll down for video Melbourne man Brad Canning headed straight to his closest McDonald's restaurant after seeing the viral coffee trend on TikTok The trend calls for a McDonald's thickshake and an espresso shot to be combined The hack originated in the UK, and Australian McDonald's restaurants already have a coffee thickshake, so Brad added his own twist to make it unique. Taking a single espresso shot and a large chocolate thickshake Brad made a mocha thickshake. He told Daily Mail Australia the $8.25 drink was 'delicious'. 'Okay, final thoughts, probably the best life hack ever,' he said, slurping down the drink. The video started with the influencer, who has 4.5million likes on the platform, racing to his car, after seeing the hack online. 'To say that I ran to my car is an understatement,' he said. 'I don't even have shoes on, I am trying this right this second.' His video was likes 15,000 times in just two days - but not everyone was convinced. 'That does look good - but they already have coffee shakes - I wonder which one is nicer,' one woman asked. One woman said there was no point to the hack because Australia already has coffee shakes. Taking a single espresso shot and a large chocolate thickshake Brad made a mocha thickshake, and told Daily Mail Australia the $8.25 was 'delicious' The influencer filmed himself trying the shake for the first time And decided it was delicious - describing it as the best life hack ever But others defended the man's decision to make a mocha shake, tweaking the hack. Others said the 'coffee syrup' used in the shakes isn't as good as the hack version. 'Nothing compares to an espresso shot in a vanilla shake,' one man said. Others loved the idea - tagging their friends and asking to try 'asap'. 'Oh, now I have to go to Maccas right now,' laughed one woman. Others said the video maker was living in the past. 'I have been doing this for years, nothing new here,' one man said. 'I started doing this last time they got rid of the coffee shakes,' one woman commented. Others said they would go for a double or triple shot of coffee in a shake, but Brad said one shot was enough. A winding coastal walk on the top of a cliff face leads to one of Victoria's most beautiful beaches. Fairy Cove at Wilson's Promontory has been attracting adventure-starved tourists while Australia's international borders remain shut, with any reopening beyond New Zealand's trans-Tasman and other 'safe' travel bubbles now unlikely until mid-2022. Visitors have compared the secluded beach, a three-hour drive 214km south-east of the Melbourne CBD, to island paradises such as the Seychelles. A video of the cove captured by travel agent turned travel blogger Caitlyn, who posts as 'The Wanderlust Times', shows stretches of pure white sand flanked by sparkling turquoise ocean. A winding coastal walk on the top of a cliff face leads to one of Victoria's most beautiful beaches (pictured) Fairy Cove at Wilson's Promontory (pictured) has been attracting adventure-starved tourists while Australia's international borders remain shut Fairy Cove at Wilson's Promontory, 214km south of Melbourne CBD The beach can be reached by a walking trail raised on wooden planks that takes 45 minutes each way if you walk at a moderate pace. Down on the sand, the cove is filled with giant boulders, rock pools and native wildlife. Caitlyn warned there is a 'bit of an incline' on the way up, but promised you will be welcomed with 'amazing views over the whole national park' once you reach the top. She said she was one of only three visitors to the 'hidden gem' beach, meaning it hasn't become a mainstream attraction for Australians just yet. The beach can be reached by a walking trail raised on wooden planks that takes 45 minutes each way if you walk at a moderate pace The walk has an incline on the way up, but you will be welcomed with incredible views (pictured) once you reach the top Her clip, which has drawn almost 600 'likes' since it was uploaded to Instagram on March 26, has sparked stunned responses. 'Wow, how beautiful,' one viewer wrote. 'This really is enchanting, it looks like the Seychelles!' said a second, while a third couldn't believe the blueness of the water. Others said they were shocked that such an exotic beach existed in Victoria. Queen Letizia of Spain cut an elegant figure as she attended the Children and Youth Literary Awards Ceremony in Madrid. The Spanish royal, 48, oozed radiance and style as she donned a stylish emerald pleated dress during the literary awards ceremony in Madrid's 19th century Casa de America building yesterday. The mother-of-two teamed her patterned dress with a pair of black stilettos and sported a stylish black handbag by her side. Queen Letizia of Spain,48, oozed radiance and style as she donned a stylish emerald pleated dress as she attended the Children and Youth Literary Awards Ceremony in Madrid The Spanish royal teamed her patterned dress with a pair of black stilettos and sported a stylish black handbag by her side The royal presented the winners with their awards and also delivered a speech Letting her brunette locks rest gently against her shoulders, the former journalist accessorised her look with a pair of silver stud earrings and a statement gold ring. Putting safety first and in keeping with Covid-19 guidelines, Letizia could also be seen wearing a mask. During the ceremony, which is also known as 'the Gran Angular' and 'El Barco De Vapor' literature awards, Letizia met with members of staff and greeted attendees upon her arrival. She also spoke with the Spanish Minister of Education Isabel Celaa before going on to make a speech and present the winners with their awards. The scenes come just days after the royal attended the ceremony of the delivery of the National Flag to the ACAVIET (Aviation Academy of the Army) in Colmenar Viejo in Madrid. Putting safety first and in keeping with Covid-19 guidelines, the Spanish royal could be seen wearing a mask The Spanish royal made a speech before she presented the winners with their awards During the awards ceremony, the Spanish royal greeted attendees and also met with the Spanish Minister of Education Isabel Celaa (left) Letizia wore her face mask in line with coronavirus guidelines as she met with members of staff Letting her brunette locks rest gently against her shoulders, the former journalist accessorised her look with a pair of silver stud earrings and a gold ring Pictured: Queen Letizia and Spanish Minister of Education Isabel Celaa (left) hand over the 'Gran angular 2021' award to Spanish writer Chiki Fabregat The royal appeared in high spirits as she attended the literary awards ceremony in Madrid's 19th century Casa de America building Last month, the Spanish royal and her husband King Felipe VI presented the Cervantes Prize on World Book Day in Madrid to mark International Book Day. Their attendance at the Istituto Cervantes in Alcala de Henares came just a day after Letizia and Felipe were joined by their daughters Princesses Leonor, 15, and Sofia, 13, for the launching ceremony of a new submarine. The family were gathered together at Navantia, a Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company in Madrid, to preside over the launching ceremony of the S-81 Isaac Peral. The Isaac Peral, named after a 19th century Spanish submarine designer, is one of four vessels that will enter service in the Spanish Navy in the coming years. The most popular baby names for Australian parents in 2021 have been revealed - and it's two traditional monikers that have taken out the top spot for girls and boys for the eighth time in a decade. Trend-watchers McCrindle Research found Charlotte to be the favourite name for girls and Oliver to be the top name for boys after collating and analysing the most commonly chosen names in all Australian states and territories over the past year. Both have been named number one for eight of the past 10 years, with only Olivia and Jack overtaking them for girls and boys on two occasions in the past. There were two surprising new entries in the top 10 for girls and boys: Matilda (10th) and Elijah (10th). The most popular baby names for Australian parents in 2021 have been revealed - with Charlotte taking out the top name for girls and Oliver for boys (stock image) The top 10 baby girls' names in Australia in 2021 1. Charlotte (1,556 occurrences) 2. Amelia (1,473 occurrences) 3. Olivia (1,456 occurrences) 4. Isla (1,397 occurrences) 5. Mia (1,287 occurrences) 6. Ava (1,237 occurrences) 7. Grace (1,083 occurrences) 8. Chloe (1,010 occurrences) 9. Willow (982 occurrences) 10. Matilda (971 occurrences) Advertisement The top 10 baby boys' names in Australia in 2021 1. Oliver (2,138 occurrences) 2. Noah (1,844 occurrences) 3. William (1,500 occurrences) 4. Jack (1,414 occurrences) 5. Leo (1,326 occurrences) 6. Henry (1,290 occurrences) 7. Charlie (1,228 occurrences) 8. Thomas (1,193 occurrences) 9. Lucas (1,158 occurrences) 10. Elijah (1,126 occurences) Advertisement The top 10 girls' names for 2021 included the likes of Amelia (2nd), Olivia (3rd), Isla (4th) and Mia (5th). The top baby boys' names also featured Noah (2nd), William (3rd), Jack (4th) and Leo (5th). The name Matilda (10th) made its first appearance in the top 10 this year at the expense of Harper, while Elijah (10th) made an entrance into the list for boys, replacing James. The baby girls' names with the greatest rise from 2010-2020 Willow (current rank 9; up from 65) Ivy (current rank 14; up from 53) Hazel (current rank 25; up from 63) Aria (current rank 28; up from 55) Audrey (current rank 31; up from 46) Violet (current rank 34; up from 58) Elsie (current rank 38; up from 53) Florence (current rank 39; up from 58) Advertisement The baby boys' names with the greatest rise from 2010-2020 Leo (current rank 5; up from 86) Elijah (current rank 10; up from 48) Theodore (current rank 13; up from 83) Hudson (current rank 14; up from 79) Archer (current rank 23; up from 68) Harvey (current rank 24; up from 60) Arlo (current rank 33; up from 62) Hugo (current rank 34; up from 63) Advertisement McCrindle also highlighted the monikers that have enjoyed the greatest rise between 2010 and 2020 and the names that have suffered the biggest fall in the past 10 years (stock image) McCrindle also highlighted the monikers that have enjoyed the greatest rise between 2010 and 2020 and the names that have suffered the biggest fall in the past 10 years. Willow, Hazel and Violet for little girls have all made significant leaps in the top 100 for girls, while Leo, Theodore and Hudson have become more popular for little boys born between 2010 and 2020. Names that have experienced the biggest fall in rank over the past decade include Sarah, Maddison, Lara, Dylan, Matthew and Luke. It was also bad news for lovers of the name Claire or Dylan; both of which have also suffered two of the biggest falls of the past decade. The baby girls' names with the greatest fall from 2010-2020 Summer (current rank 71; down from 44) Maddison (current rank 82; down from 57) Lara (current rank 88; down from 48) Claire (current rank 90; down from 39) Sarah (current rank 91; down from 69) Advertisement The baby boys' names with the greatest fall from 2010-2020 Riley (current rank 47; down from 41) Daniel (current rank 58; down from 40) Matthew (current rank 75; down from 52) Luke (current rank 81; down from 49) Dylan (current rank 97; down from 61) Advertisement McCrindle researchers highlighted that the 'botanical' name trend is still a huge inspiration for parents of girls. Of the top six girls' names that most significantly increased in popularity in the 2010s, three had a botanical theme: Willow, Ivy and Violet. Meanwhile, the British Royal Family continue to capture the hearts of Australians, with thousands of parents opting to call their children Charlotte, William, Archie, Harry, George, Louis, Elizabeth and Charles after the key members. 'Among these new, emerging names we see the trends of girls' names ending in a vowel or vowel sound, and botanic influences and colours,' social researcher from McCrindle Ashley Fell said. 'We also see celebrity influences, with Luna growing in popularity since John Legend and Chrissy Teigen's daughter, Luna, was born in 2016.' Ashley added: 'There is also the trend of shortening names and adding an "ie" on the end (for example Elsie, Millie and Sadie). Shorter boys' names ending an "o" (Leo, Hugo and Arlo) are also on the rise for Generation Alpha'. To find out more about the top 100 names for baby boys and baby girls, you can visit the McCrindle website here. A little-known boutique luxury resort hidden in an 'enchanting' rainforest in Australia has been crowned the most romantic hotel in the world. Narrows Escape Rainforest Retreat in Montville, a rural town in the Sunshine Coast hinterland of Queensland, has ranked number one as the 'best romance hotel' in Tripadvisor's annual Travellers' Choice Awards for Hotels of 2021. Nestled in seven acres of a tropical forest, the resort featuring six villas describes itself as a 'little slice of paradise' offering couples 'little extras' like fine dining, a jacuzzi, log fireplaces and a verandah to soak in the natural surroundings. The six cabins are tailored to suit different budgets and experiences. Narrows Escape Rainforest Retreat in Montville, a rural town in the Sunshine Coast hinterland of Queensland, has been crowned the most romantic hotel in the world The resort describes itself as a 'little slice of paradise' offering couples 'little extras' like fine dining, a double spa bath, log fireplaces and a verandah to soak in the natural surroundings Top 10 hotels in Australia for 2021 1. Element on Coolum Beach - Coolum Beach, Australia 2. Kingsford Smith Motel - Brisbane, Australia 3. Beach Club - Hamilton Island, Australia 4. Korte's Resort - Rockhampton, Australia 5. Quest Sale Serviced Apartments - Sale, Australia 6. Treasury On Collins - Melbourne, Australia 7. MACq 01 Hotel - Hobart, Australia 8. Julie-Anna Inn, Bendigo - Bendigo, Australia 9. Quest Ipswich Serviced Apartments - Ipswich, Australia 10. Ovolo Woolloomooloo - Sydney, Australia Advertisement Rates for the couples' packages include a four-night 'honeymoon heaven' from $2,799, a two-night 'lovestruck' from $1,600, a three-day 'romantic cocoon' from $1,499 or a 'luxe trekking' experience for two nights from $1,900. And the retreat is not just for couples. The resort offers other deals such as a two-night 'girls getaway' for friends from $1,680 and a two-night 'babymoon' for expectant mothers from $1,480. Judges determined the rankings based on a range of criteria, including Tripadvisor reviews, location, room service and the romantic experiences offered onsite. And it's no surprise Narrows Escape earned a perfect five-star rating after receiving more than 600 reviews from satisfied guests. Rates for the couples' packages include a four-night 'honeymoon heaven' from $2,799, a two-night 'lovestruck' from $1,600 The cabins offer couples 'little extras' like a log fireplace to keep warm over winter The resort featuring six villas describes itself as a 'little slice of paradise' offering 'little extras' 'Stayed with my partner for three nights here, this was heaven. Every detail has been thought of and provided with love and care. The bed was cozy, the room was perfect and the location was so beautiful,' guest Jason wrote. Emilie gave the hotel a five-star rating, saying: 'We had the most perfect time for our anniversary. We honestly could not fault anything. Everything was perfect.' Describing the resort as 'mesmerising', Bec said: 'We enjoyed our restful stay at Narrows - it was everything and more than we expected.' Chris also shared his review after a 'relaxing, secluded and a romantic getaway' with his wife. 'The whole experience was amazing from the moment we arrived, the cabins are a great size with modern furnishings in a beautiful rainforest beside the creek,' he said. The resort is surrounded by seven acres of a stunning rainforest many described 'enchanting' Couples can soak in the natural surroundings as they enjoy the feast on the verandah The beautiful villas come with spectacular views of the rainforest and natural surroundings And another guest added: 'My partner and I wanted to start our holidays together with something intimate and special - Narrows Escape delivered this and more! We were given the villa we requested and the room completely enchanting.' Every year, Tripadvisor combs through the millions of reviews from its global travellers to find the hotels that people raved about most, and this year is no different. 'From COVID-19 to bushfires and floods, 2020 was definitely the year of weekend getaways and domestic staycations in Australia,' Tripadvisor spokeswoman Jane Lim said. 'This year, with travel bubbles in place and more on the way, we're all excited to finally get back to travel. 'Tripadvisor's Best of the Best awards celebrate the best hotels around the world - big, small, romantic and more, inviting travellers to get inspired and start planning their epic return to travel once it's safe again.' The millennial founders of a fledgling Australian beauty brand have made $12,000 overnight from their cult skincare product. Melbourne couple Darnelle Echazar, 21, Brandon Moncur, 23, in August 2020 launched Dreamiskin, a company selling cosmetic razors that leave the face silky soft by shaving off tiny hairs and dead skin cells. The sustainable blades with an easy-grip handle have been flying out of stock since Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis promoted it on Instagram. Over 400 pre-orders have been placed after the 32-year-old starred in a video uploaded to the brand's account, which shows her scraping 'peach fuzz' from her complexion. Scroll down for video Married At First Sight star Martha Kalifatidis (left) sparked a sell out of Dreamiskin's $25.99 facial razors (right) after promoting them on Instagram Melbourne couple Darnelle Echazar, 21, and Brandon Moncur. 23, who launched Dreamiskin in August 2020 Ms Echazar, a criminal justice student, previously told Daily Mail Australia about the inspiration for the business, which typically takes in an average of $15,000 a month. She said she was tired of hearing horror stories about cheap home dermaplaning, a treatment that is supposed to skim 'peach fuzz' without any pain but causes burns and irritation when performed with a poor quality blade. Together with her crane operator boyfriend, she sourced a sustainable model with an easy-grip handle and safe but effective blade which they launched online during Covid lockdown in late August. 'We couldn't possibly have conceived the success and learning we have already had,' Ms Echazar said. Melbourne couple Darnelle Echazar and Brandon Moncur are making $15,000 a month selling eco-friendly cosmetic razors (pictured) Their brand, Dreamiskin, is based on $25.99 three-packs of sustainable facial razors made from wheat straw - a biodegradable alternative to the cocktail of plastic that razors are typically made from. Professional dermaplaning at a skin clinic will set you back between $150 and $200. But so long as you're careful, the same result can be achieved with an over-the-counter facial razor like Dreamiskin for a fraction of that price. Disposable cosmetic razors are sold in chemists like Priceline for as little as $10, and from Dreamiskin's website the cost is even less, working out at just $8.66 a piece. As Ms Echazar points out, 'not all women can afford to spend upwards of $100 on a single treatment', especially in the midst of a pandemic that has put hundreds of thousands out of work. Described as 'the ultimate pain-free beauty tool', the razor (pictured) claims to exfoliate skin, create a seamless base for makeup Sales of dermaplaning tools skyrocketed during lockdown, with Priceline reporting record sales of Revlon's $9.95 Face Defuzzer in particular. Beauty journalist Zoe Foster Blake has raved about the benefits of face shaving on Instagram, confirming it exfoliates, brightens, evens skin tone and makes skin 'freakishly smooth'. And while the cosmetic queen was talking about professional dermaplaning, DIY treatments have been shown to produce many of the same benefits. Described as 'the ultimate pain-free beauty tool', the Dreamiskin razor claims to exfoliate skin, create a seamless base for makeup and improve the absorption of skincare products, making the face appear younger and brighter. Ms Echazar and Mr Moncur promote their razors through micro-influencers, people with between 1,000 and 100,000 social media followers who endorse products to their audience While it's relatively straightforward to use, it's important to push gently on skin, holding it taut and shaving in a downwards direction, never against the hair follicle. Shaving against the grain can cause irritation, razor bumps and in some cases, even razor burn. Like all 'Gen Z' entrepreneurs, Ms Echazar and Mr Moncur are naturals at harnessing the remarkable selling power of social media. That understanding led them to collaborate with celebrities like Martha and micro-influencers such as Hannah Schroder, a beauty vlogger who promotes the razors to her 38,500 followers. Model Cara Delevingne has become the latest celebrity to join the digital art world by auctioning off a racy NFT for charity. The society sweetheart, 28, from London, has shared a 30-second long video, which is set to go on sale tomorrow, as she poses nude in front of an exotic sunset and discusses her love for her vagina. In the short film, the actress, who identifies as pansexual and has dated stars including Ashley Benson and Paris Jackson, explains: 'My vagina - I own it. It's mine and no one else's. I choose what I do with it. And no one can take that away from me.' Cara teamed up with controversial artist Chemical X for the artwork, which comes in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) - a kind of unique digital asset that has exploded in popularity so far in 2021. An NFT is a unique digital token encrypted with an artist's signature and which verifies its ownership and authenticity and is permanently attached to the piece. It allows 'original' versions of popular online content - like viral memes and tweets - to be sold as if they were physical pieces of art. Model Cara Delevingne, 28, from London, has become the latest celebrity to join the digital art world by auctioning off a racy NFT for charity In the artwork, she begins by saying: 'My first word was mine. To me, that means something that is most mine - my vagina.' Speaking of the artwork, Cara said: 'I want this to remind people of how incredibly powerful they are, what a beautiful thing their bodies are and to take pride in that.' The NFT entitled Mine, is one of five being launched tomorrow by Chemical X at ThisIsNumberOne.com, which is the first NFT platform in the world to use Bitcoin to mint art. All of Cara's proceeds from the work will go to charity - in the form of her Cara Delevingne Foundation, which supports women's rights, the LGBTQ community, mental health and environmental causes. All of Cara's proceeds from the work will go to charity - in the form of her Cara Delevingne Foundation, which supports women's rights, the LGBTQ community, mental health and environmental causes What are NFTs? What is a NFT? A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a unique digital token encrypted with an artist's signature and which verifies its ownership and authenticity and is permanently attached to the piece. What do they look like? Most NFTs include some kind digital artwork, such as photos, videos, GIFs, and music. Theoretically, anything digital could be turned into a NFT. Where do you buy them? At the moment, NFTs are most commonly sold in so-called 'drops', timed online sales by blockchain-backed marketplaces like Nifty Gateway, Opensea and Rarible. Why would I want to own one? There's an array of reasons why someone may want to buy a NFT. For some, the reason may be emotional value, because NFTs are seen as collectors items. For others, they are seen as an investment opportunity similar to cryptocurrencies, because the value could increase. When were NFTs created? Writer and podcaster Andrew Steinwold traced the origins of NFTs back to 2012, with the creation of the Colored Coins cryptocurrency. But NFTs didn't move into the mainstream until five years later, when the blockchain game CryptoKitties began selling virtual cats in 2017. Advertisement Other collaborators on the project include iconic DJ and producer Fatboy Slim, pop legend Dave Stewart of Eurythmics and British electronic music duo Orbital. A solo work by Chemical X makes up the inaugural 5 works. NFTs - sometimes pronounced 'nifties' - are a unique digital token encrypted with the creator's signature which verifies its ownership and authenticity and is permanently attached to the piece. The tokens are similar to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in that they live on blockchain networks - a decentralized, distributed ledger that records transactions of digital assets. But unlike traditional cryptocurrencies, NFTs are non-fungible, meaning that one cannot be exchanged for another. The digital assets have collectors value, and can represent items including still images, GIFs, videos, music and more. More than $10 million in NFT transactions are now taking place daily, according to the website DappRadar. The exchanges happen in cryptocurrencies on specialist sites such as Nifty Gateway and OpenSea, on the fringes of the art world. Sales of NFTs are made in Ether, a cryptocurrency that has a fluctuating value. The phenomenon is now becoming more mainstream with traditional auction houses keen to cash in, lending the craze, and digital artists, even more credibility. In March, Twitter boss Jack Dorsey's first tweet - 'just setting up my twttr' - sold as an NFT for just over $2.9million. It was snapped up by Sina Estavi, the CEO of Malaysia-based blockchain company Bridge Oracle. Valuables' parent company Cent confirmed Dorsey's tweet-turned-NFT was sold to Estavi, who told Reuters he was 'thankful' when asked for comment about the purchase. It was bought using the cryptocurrency Ether, for 1630.5825601 ETH, which was worth $2,915,835.47 at the time of sale, Cent CEO and founder Cameron Hejazi said. The actress identifies as pansexual and has dated a host of stars including Ashley Benson (pictured together in 2019) Cara's decision to sell an NFT comes weeks after she sparked rumours she has reunited with ex-girlfriend Paris Jackson. The pair were seen showinf off matching red rose tattoos before heading off to Oscars parties as each other's dates. It's unclear if Paris and Cara are dating once again after putting on an amorous display in March 2018, just a few months after meeting at the MTV VMA Awards. Olly Alexander might not be a household name, but that looks set to change following his dazzling performance at last night's BRIT Awards. The 30-year-old, best known to audiences as Ritchie Tozer from Channel 4's It's A Sin, joined Sir Elton John, 74, on stage to perform the Pet Shop Boys' track of the same name. The song, which has been released as a single to support the Elton John AIDS Foundation, has stormed straight to the top of the iTunes charts. It is the latest success for Olly, who has performed at Glastonbury as the frontman of pop group Years & Years and has racked up roles in the likes of The Riot Club and on the West End opposite Dame Judi Dench. Now he is preparing to release his first album as a solo act - no doubt buoyed by the fresh excitement and interest off the back of last night's star turn. Olly Alexander with his close friend Sir Elton John. The pair have been widely praised for their cover of the Pet Shop Boys' It's A Sin which they performed at last night's BRIT Awards Olly will be best known to audiences as Ritchie Tozer from Channel 4's It's A Sin, pictured with co-star Nathaniel Curtis as Ash Olly with his mother Vicki, who raised him as a single parent after her split with his father Born in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, Olly moved around a lot as a child thanks to his father's work in marketing for amusement resorts. The family spent time in Blackpool, where his father worked for The Pleasure Beach, before moving to Gloucestershire where he was singled-out at his primary school for being different. 'I remember being in primary school and I had long hair and people would call me a girl,' he told GQ in February. 'I knew that was bad for boys. I didnt like the things that other boys liked: I just wanted to play with the girls and watch movies. Which obviously straight boys do as well.' The musician and actor is known for his flamboyant fashion sense. Pictured, at the GQ Men of the Year Awards in 2018 Living on the Welsh border, Olly attended secondary school in Monmouthshire where he continued to stand out thanks to his mop of curly hair and flair for flamboyant clothes which continues to this day. Olly revealed he took to wearing a choker or makeup or non-uniform days while 'trying to figure out who he was'. Today the artist regularly turns heads on red carpets and on stage with his unique take on fashion. Last night he opted for a skin-tight lace stretch halter top and matching flared trousers for his performance with Sir Elton. At 13, Olly's parents split and he was raised solely by his mother, Vicki. The pair are close. Olly proudly shares snaps of his mother on Instagram and the pair appeared together on Celebrity Gogglebox in 2019. But as a boy, Olly felt he couldn't confide in his mother about the trouble he was having at school. Olly has played Glastonbury and has had chart-topping hits with pop group Years & Years 'Id never tell her about that stuff,' he told Pop Justice. 'Its weird my mum read an interview where I said Id had a terrible time at school and she wasnt aware. 'It was surprising to me that she didnt know. I guess I was quite good at not talking about it.' Just like his character in It's A Sin, Ritchie Tozer moved to London at 18 to pursue acting and found success on screen and on stage. His first gig was 2008 four-part BBC children's drama Summerhill, which he followed up with a string of films including Bright Star (2009), Tormented (2009) and Gaspar Noes Enter The Void (2009). In 2014 he appeared in all-star British film The Riot Club alongside a string of big names including Sam Claflin, Max Irons, Douglas Booth, Jessica Brown Findlay and Tom Hollander. But soon Olly found himself dedicating more and more time to Years & Years, the musical act he joined after co-founder Mikey Goldsworthy heard him singing in the shower. Following a group of friends living in London throughout the eighties, It's A Sin, which premiered in January, weaves its way through a decade of hedonism and horror for the young gay men as the AIDS crisis seeps into their life of parties, burgeoning careers and young love In 2015 the band's debut studio album, Communion, debuted at No.1 on the UK Albums Chart and produced hit single King, which reached No.1 on the UK Singles Chart. That same year the band won the BBCs Sound Of 2015 poll. The band has performed at Glastonbury on a number of occasions, with Olly using the platform to champion LGBT rights and causes. Years & Years' second studio album, Palo Santo was released in 2018 produced a top 10 hit. The end of touring the album coincided with Russell T Davies casting his latest drama, It's A Sin, and Olly said he 'jumped at the chance' to join the cast. Following a group of friends living in London throughout the eighties, the series, which premiered in January, weaves its way through a decade of hedonism and horror for the young gay men as the AIDS crisis seeps into their life of parties, burgeoning careers and young love. Olly Alexander strikes a pose on the red carpet at last night's BRIT Awards in London The show was met with critical and popular acclaim and became the most binge-watched show in Channel 4's history. Now Olly is turning his attention back to music and is preparing to release his first record as a solo act after band mates Goldsworthy and Emre Turkmen left the group. 'Ive been working on an album for what feels like a million years,' Olly told British Vogue. 'But its only really been 18 months, and its finally almost finished.' The artist has also become an outspoken advocate for LGBT rights and has spoken openly about his struggles with depression, self-harm, eating disorders and anxiety. In November 2020, Alexander won the LGBT Celebrity of the Year award at the British LGBT Awards. The husband of BBC broadcaster Rachael Bland, who died from breast cancer in 2018, says he refuses to feel guilty about finding love again with an NHS nurse. Steve Bland, who replaced Rachael as one third of the podcast You, Me and the Big C following her death, told ITV's Lorraine show that people often asked him if he felt guilty about dating again. The 40-year-old, dialling into the show from his home in Cheshire, said: 'It's one of the most common questions I get asked: 'Do I feel guilty?' He said: 'Why should I? I'm 40-years-old and I've got the rest of my life ahead of me.' Scroll down for video Happy: Steve told Lorraine: 'We need to break down the taboo' of dating after loss and said his new partner Amy found it tricky to date someone who'd lost a previous partner Speaking to the Lorraine show from his home in Cheshire, Steve Bland said he was commonly asked if he felt guilty for moving on with his life and finding love again following the death of his late wife Rachael Bland in 2018 from breast cancer Referencing the son, Freddie, six, that he shares with Rachael, he said: 'Rachael wanted me to be happy and wanted Freddie to be happy. 'We need to break down the taboo and stop worrying about being judged for it. We're trying to be happy and to make the most of life.' Steve met Amy, an advanced nurse practitioner at a cancer conference in Manchester in 2019, after he gave a talk about his late wife and her death from primary triple-negative breast cancer. The broadcaster, who's running the 2021 Virgin Money London Marathon for Macmillan, told Lorraine that dating after loss wasn't always easy for the person in the relationship who hasn't lost someone. 'It's about looking forward and can be a tricky balance, it's something Amy and I have talked about it. There's a lot of focus on the widow/widower. Rachael was high profile and it's really difficult to feel like you're not living in their shadow. Steve met his new partner Amy (pictured together), an advanced nurse practitioner in 2019 at a cancer conference in Manchester The former BBC radio presenter Rachael (right with Steve and Freddie) was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2016 and died in 2018 While Amy (pictured with Steve's son Freddie) does not relish the limelight, it was out of respect to her that Steve decided to go public with their relationship in 2020 He also praised Damien Lewis and Helen McCrory for going public with a conversation they'd had about dating after loss before Helen's death from cancer aged 52 on April 16th. Bland, who accidentally mixed up Rachael and Amy's names during his chat with Lorraine, said: 'It's amazing they talked so openly about it; that does wonders for breaking down taboos.' The new series of You, Me and the Big C airs tomorrow. Steve took over from Rachael as a presenter, alongside Deborah James and Lauren Mahon, following her death. Rachael (pictured) was a BBC Radio 5 Live broadcaster who also hosted the podcast You, Me And The Big C, a role that Steve has now taken over He told Lorraine: 'It's going back to where the podcast began. Just the three of us. It's about living in general.' Speaking in 2020 about getting togethor with new love Amy, he told the Daily Mail: 'We took our time but, of course, my life revolves around Freddie so it's difficult to get to know someone properly without involving them in his life, too'. 'Going out in the evening is a military operation for a lone parent, organising babysitters, and my parents are a huge help, looking after Freddie when I go to London for work, but I don't want to put upon them too much, so Amy would mostly come to us.' A business owner was slammed as 'narrow minded' and 'rude' last night after he 'self-sabotaged' his own bakery by refusing to take expert advice on Channel 4's The Money Maker. Alex Jacob, from Sussex, appeared on the programme last night seeking help from investor Eric Collins in order to to save his bakery The Sussex Kitchen, which was on the verge of collapse amid the Covid-19 crisis. Eric's rescue plan included exclusive focus on their home delivery service and an intensive digital marketing campaign with an aim of reaching profits of 100,000 per month within a year. However Alex was critical of the suggestions and struggled to take the advice, with many viewers saying he was 'smug', 'spoilt' and 'lazy' during the show. Alex Jacob, from Sussex, was slammed as 'narrow minded' and 'rude' last night after he 'self-sabotaged' his own bakery by refusing to take expert advice on Channel 4's The Money Maker At the start of the programme, Alex explained the award winning artisan bakery made its money selling craft breads and cakes wholesale to cafes, hotels and restaurants. However the coronavirus pandemic affected the business by 'removing 90 per cent of his clients' and Alex was forced to adapt by launching an online shop. He was just about able to hold the company and 25 staff together during the first lockdown but the bakery was on the brink as further lockdowns were announced. Alex explained: 'If we didn't get investment, we could be bankrupt within a month.' Eric's rescue plan included exclusive focus on their home delivery service and an intensive digital marketing campaign with an aim of reaching profits of 100,000 per month within a year (pictured, Eric's new packaging for products) Alex gave Eric a tour of the bakery, and deemed the online shop a 'necessary evil' during the Covid-19 pandemic. However Eric said it could be the key to getting his business back on track, and offered him 150,000 for a 40 per cent of the company. The baker turned down the offer, saying: 'For that amount of money, I wouldn't give up that size stake in a company I've spent 10 years building up.' Instead, they decided on a 75,000 convertible loan, which Alex could use as working capital but had the ability to convert into a stake in the company later. However Alex refused to take the advice and get on board with his suggestions, with many viewers saying he was 'smug', 'spoilt' and 'lazy' during the show Alex explained: 'Loan conversion is more appeal to me, because it allows me to get to know him before I invite him to be part of the company.' Eric told him he wanted to shift from wholesale to the online business, moving from 15,000 turnover a month to 100,000 a month. To help drive the online business, he was keen to involve some of the other staff, including a pastry chef Ellie. Meanwhile Eric suggested Alex drastically needed to improve his marketing, explaining: 'To get to 100,000 per month turnover, he is going to have to be a brand that consumers know and love and look forward to. Eric told Alex he wanted to shift from wholesale to the online business, moving from 15,000 turnover a month to 100,000 a month (pictured, the Sussex Bakery site) 'You can have the best bread in the world but if you can't excite people, its never going to be enough.' Alex and Ellie joined Eric to visit another bakery in London to see how they had managed to shift from wholesale to online during the pandemic with a successful social media strategy. Ellie was impressed by their hard work, telling her boss: 'We really what we need, this is the authenticity for people to see. This is us, The Sussex Kitchen. We could do this as well.' But Alex said he was unconvinced, explaining: 'I don't think it's necessarily that transferable. To help drive the online business, Eric was keen to involve some of the other staff, including a pastry chef Ellie (pictured) 'It strikes me as being urban-centric. If I see anyone high amount of followers on Instagram, it's urban, they have retail space that people know, and they can walk around. These are things I'd be fighting against.' By December 2020, Ellie and the staff began pitching products that could be picked up by the business to help the online shop. But Alex immediately dismissed their efforts, telling his staff: 'I think it's important that we get what we have and make sure we do that properly before we start diversifying into other areas, even if it is a good laugh.' Ellie was left gutted, saying: 'It's just frustrating that he asked us all to do the product of the month and he was too busy to look at them. They ended up in the bin.' But Alex was unconvinced by suggestions to enhance his social media strategy and marketing, and said he thought it 'wouldn't translate' to his own bakery She said it didn't feel as though Alex wanted to grow the business, and added she felt tempted to move on and find 'someone who would appreciate our work.' By the time the third lockdown came, Eric began questioning why Alex hadn't put into place his suggestions for a new marketing strategy. Instead, Alex decided to invest by signing a 10 year lease on a new building which he said was for 'shipping'. Alex also confessed they hadn't changed the packaging on their online shop products, before he revealed Ellie had also decided to leave the company. Having worked together for several months, Eric was aghast by how little of his plan Alex had put into place Eric was aghast, suggesting she had been 'central' in his plan to personalise and market the brand. As a last resort, Eric introduced Alex to a digital marketing company who could plan a social media strategy for him. Alex admitted he had no knowledge of the digital world and didn't use social media, saying: 'It feels like a lot of effort to get people to buy bread.' As part of the marketing scheme, Eric organised for new packaging to ship online orders out in. Alex later confessed they hadn't changed the packaging on their online shop products, before he revealed Ellie had also decided to leave the company By the end of a two week long campaign, Alex said he 'wasn't going to hold his breath' about the success. Presenting the results, the team said they had found new customers on the site had increased by 47 per cent, while sales overall had increased by over 20 per cent. They told him that if he continued with the marketing campaign, the forecast for the brand would be 500,000 turnover by the end of the year. However when he was asked what his thoughts were, he said: 'I don't really understand any of it.' Several days later, online orders were booming and Alex and Eric met to discuss the 75,000 loan. Viewers were left stunned by Alex's attitude throughout the programme and called him 'smug' and 'narrow minded' Alex said he had given the online shop more thought and decided he was 'converted' to giving it a 'good push'. Eric decided to give Alex back 100 per cent control of his business, with the baker repaying the 75,000 loan. But viewers were unconvinced Alex could be success and questioned his attitude during the programme. One person wrote: 'So Alex has kind of bottled it. He just doesn't care, typical self centred smug rich kid.' Another wrote: 'I would have strangled Alex the Baker with his stupid grin. Get a move on the man is trying to help you.' A third commented: 'What a great show. Alex unfortunately was a dinosaur reluctant to change. What a shame.' Naked Attraction viewers were left more than unimpressed after a contestant insisted he was 'tired of being superficial,' before insisting he preferred his women to have no pubic hair. In last night's episode of the Channel 4 show, host Anna Richardson met 33-year-old fashion entrepreneur Tansel from London, who was looking to settle down and hoped that losing his clothes would help him find the right girl. Theres no shortage of women around me but Im tired of the superficialness,' he explained. 'Im ready to meet the one.' However, when the coloured screens slowly revealed the more intimate areas of the naked women, Tansel couldn't help but mention their pubic hair - and even told a woman who was clean-shaven: 'I get a sense of cleanliness.' And many who tuned in were left outraged by the comment, with one writing: 'Is calling the clean shaven women hygienic an indirect dig at the woman with the pubes?' Tansel (pictured), 33, from London, left Naked Attraction viewers more than unimpressed after he revealed he preferred women with no pubic hair in last night's episode of the Channel 4 show Come the end of the episode viewers were in for a shock when Tansel decided to pick Lucy - the only contestant with pubic hair (pictured, together) In one scene, Tansel said to a contestant who clean-shaven: 'I get a sense of cleanliness' - leading a viewer to question whether it was an indirect dig at the woman with pubic hair. Pictured, social media reaction from those who tuned in Speaking to Anna about his personal preferences, Tansel said: I prefer without personally as you can appreciate whats there and thats lovely.' As he walked past each cubicle, he frequently referred to women without pubic hair as being well kept.' Very well kept, I get a sense of cleanliness,' he commented about one contestant. 'This lady has got a good sense of hygiene.' Then, when it came to observing the one woman in the lineup with pubic hair, he noted: As I said, I normally prefer without but for some reason it goes. Speaking to Anna about his personal preferences, Tansel said: I prefer without personally as you can appreciate whats there and thats lovely.' Pictured, together Taking to the comments section, one person penned: 'Likes "hygiene" but dislikes pubes erm, thats what they are for' (pictured) And many who tuned in were quick to take to social media to express their shock over Tansel's regular comments. 'Why does he think that pubic hair isnt hygienic??? Thats literally its purpose. Educate yourself,' urged one, while a second penned: 'Likes "hygiene" but dislikes pubes erm, thats what they are for' A third wrote: 'Appreciates no pubes - but has a beard,' while a further noted: 'Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes" Immediately followed by "I don't like hair.' However, come the end of the episode viewers were in for a shock when Tansel decided to pick Lucy - the only contestant with pubic hair. Despite having a cheeky kiss, they decided to remain nothing more than friends. Advertisement An army of staff are hard at work cleaning the priceless artefacts at Windsor Castle as it prepares to open its doors to the public next week. The State Apartments, which are furnished with some of the finest works from the Royal Collection, will welcome visitors for the first time in five months when lockdown restrictions ease on Monday. The public State Apartments include the Grand Reception Room and St George's Hall, where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle introduced son Archie to the world in May 2019. These are separate from the Royal Family's private apartments, where there Queen, 95, remains in residence following the death of the Duke of Edinburgh last month. Staff dust the 1.8m high Malachite Urn in the Grand Reception Room. The vase was presented to Queen Victoria in 1839 by Tsar Nicholas I after the visit of his eldest son, the future Alexander II, to England. Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, reported that the vase was considered to be the 'finest in the world'. It was one of the few objects in the Grand Reception Room to survive the fire of 1992, though considerable restoration work was required to restore it to its former glory A member of staff dusts a marble bust in St George's Hall, the largest room in Windsor Castle. This is the room where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle presented their son Archie to the world days after his birth in May 2019 A member of staff installs a marble bust of Queen Victoria in the Inner Hall, which was restored and opened up to visitors in 2018. Queen Victoria commissioned the bust of herself as a birthday present to Prince Albert in 1855 The Queen typically only spends a few weeks of the year at Windso but moved to the Berkshire royal residence at the start of the first lockdown last spring. She has only spent brief periods of time away in last year. Yesterday she attended the State Opening of Parliament in London. Windsor Castle has been closed to visitors since December last year due to lockdown restrictions. Now staff from the Royal Collection Trust, which looks after the art in the Royal Collection and manages the public opening of the Queen's official residences, are busy polishing, dusting and shining ahead of the reopening on Monday. Photographs show staff dusting the the 1.8m Malachite Urn in the Grand Reception Room that vase was presented to Queen Victoria in 1839 by Tsar Nicholas I after the visit of his eldest son, the future Alexander II, to England. Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, reported that the vase was considered to be the 'finest in the world'. It was one of the few objects in the Grand Reception Room to survive the fire of 1992, though considerable restoration work was required to restore it to its former magnificence. Members of staff at Windsor Castle dust the suits of armour that flank the Grand Staircase at Windsor Castle A member of staff dusts a 17th-century bronze bust of Charles I in the Grand Reception Room at Windsor Castle A member of staff installs a marble bust of Emperor Napoleon III in the Inner Hall. Queen Victoria welcomed Emperor Napoleon III in the Inner Hall when he arrived at Windsor during his State Visit in 1855 Elsewhere staff are pictured installing marble busts of Queen Victoria and Emperor Napoleon III in the Inner Hall,which was restored and opened up to visitors in 2018. It was in the Inner Hall that Queen Victoria welcomedEmperor Napoleon III when he arrived at Windsor during his State Visit in 1855. Queen Victoria commissioned the bust of herself as a birthday present to Prince Albert that same year. The Royal Collection Trust suffered a financial blow due to the pandemic and will be hoping for a boom in visitor numbers to boost its coffers. Its income derives from visitor admissions to tourist attractions such as Windsor Castle, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the summer opening of Buckingham Palace, and the Queen's Galleries in London and Edinburgh, and related retail sales. The trust maintains and displays the large collection of royal artefacts from artwork to furniture held in trust by the Queen for her heirs and the nation, and carries out other charitable work. Perched on ladders, Royal Collection Trust staff carefully dust the Malachite Urn in the Grand Reception Room Their baby girl is due in the 'summertime' and as such, speculation is mounting as to what Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will call their daughter. One name is currently a frontrunner when it comes to betting odds, with UK gambling site Ladbrokes revealing Philippa is now the most popular prediction following Prince Philip's death last month. Fans believe the Duke of Sussex, 36, will pay tribute to his late grandfather and include a variation of the Duke of Edinburgh's name in his daughter's title. The odds on Philippa have been slashed to 3/1, while Diana, after Prince Harry's mother, is 5/1 and Elizabeth, in honour of the Queen, is 10/1. Their baby girl is due in the 'summertime' and as such, speculation is mounting as to what Prince Harry and Meghan Markle (pictured with son Archie) will call their daughter One name is currently a frontrunner when it comes to betting odds, with UK gambling site Ladbrokes revealing Philippa is now the most popular prediction following Prince Philip's death last month. Pictured, Prince Harry and his grandfather in 2014 Jessica O'Reilly of Ladbrokes said: 'Royal fans are increasingly hopeful that Harry and Meghan will name their daughter Philippa, and we've been forced to cut the odds accordingly as it's the only name punters are backing right now.' She added: 'It certainly wouldn't be a huge surprise if Diana is used, though it seems more likely it will be a middle name. Elizabeth is also proving a popular bet, with royalists thinking it could be an olive branch from the couple to Her Majesty.' If the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did pay tribute to the Duke of Edinburgh, they wouldn't be the first royal couple to do so. Betting odds revealed for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's daughter's name Philippa 3/1 Diana 5/1 Elizabeth 10/1 Allegra 10/1 Alexandria 12/1 Grace 16/1 Emma 16/1 Rose 16/1 Alice 16/1 Victoria 16/1 Advertisement Prince Philip's granddaughters Princess Eugenie and Zara Tindall both paid tribute to their beloved grandfather by naming their newborn sons after him. But in a tragic turn of events, the Duke of Edinburgh never had the chance to meet the two great-grandsons who were named in his honour. Princess Eugenie and husband Jack Brooksbank, who married in October 2018, named their first child, a son born in February, August Philip Hawke Brooksbank. A month later her cousin Zara Tindall and her husband Mike welcomed a boy, Lucas Philip Tindall. Due to lockdown restrictions, it is thought that Eugenie and Zara never had the opportunity to introduce their newborn sons to their grandfather before his death on April 9 at the age of 99. Meghan and Harry revealed during their bombshell Oprah Winfrey interview in March that their second child is a girl and is due to be born this summer. Prince Harry joined his wife for the second half of the much-anticipated interview on CBS to reveal the news, excitedly telling the chat show host: 'It's a girl.' He said his first thought was 'amazing' when he learned they were having a girl, adding: 'Just grateful. To have any child, any one or any two, would have been amazing. 'But to have a boy and then a girl, I mean what more can you ask for? Now we've got our family, we got the four of us and our two dogs.' Fans believe the Duke of Sussex, 36, will pay tribute to his late grandfather and include a variation of the Duke of Edinburgh's name in his daughter's title. Pictured, Meghan Markle Asked if they were 'done' with two children, Harry said 'done' and Meghan said: 'Two is it.' The girl will not be entitled, at this stage, to be an HRH nor a princess title due to rules set out more than 100 years ago by George V - but this is the same as what would have happened before they stepped back from senior duties. The baby is entitled to be a Lady, but Harry and Meghan will again opt to style their second-born a plain Miss, with the surname Mountbatten-Windsor. Harry and Meghan first announced on Valentine's Day that they are expecting a second child, saying they were 'overjoyed' at the pregnancy. Their news echoed Princess Diana's announcement of her own second child - Prince Harry - which was printed in newspapers on Valentine's Day in 1984. A spokesman for the couple said at the time: 'We can confirm that Archie is going to be a big brother. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are overjoyed to be expecting their second child.' A divorced mother who suddenly found herself living alone after her children all went to live with their father has revealed she spent thousands of dollars on lifelike human dolls to help her deal with the loss. Stay-at-home mother Liz Watson, 42, from Clifton, Virginia, has been a self-proclaimed 'reborn' mother since 2016, after discovering the hobby online and in YouTube videos - and she has since built an entire nursery for her collection of 'reborn' baby dolls. The pricey models are made from silicone and vinyl and are created to mimic real human babies, and Liz says that they help to fill the hole left behind by her two oldest children from her first marriage, who moved miles away from her to live with their father Steve. Following a complicated divorce from her first husband Steve in January 2010, Liz eventually made the difficult choice in February 2013 to move herself and her two oldest children from that marriage to a different part of the country to live with her now-husband, Jeff, and their shared 18-month-old daughter Journey. Obsessed: Divorced mother Liz Watson, 42, has revealed she's spent thousands of dollars on lifelike 'reborn' dolls to fill the void left by her kids when they went to live with their father Mom and baby... doll: The mother-of-three split from her first husband Steve in 2010, and three years later she moved herself and her two eldest children from Kansas to Virginia Brood: Her two teenage kids from her first marriage, Dylan and Asher, struggled with the move and went back to Kansas with their dad - leaving her devastated However her two oldest children struggled with the move and so Liz made the heart-breaking decision to allow them to move back to their father's house in Kansas, in June 2016. Liz says that she felt a sense of loss that she had never experienced before and began to feel anxious about how much of her children's lives, Dylan, 15, and Asher, 13, she would miss out on. This is when Liz decided to branch out into the world of reborn baby dolls, and so her collection began. She bought her first ever reborn in December 2016 - just five months after her children moved back in with her ex-husband. Since buying her first ever reborn, Liz's collection has grown over the years and she is now the proud mother to nine reborn baby dolls who all have their own names: Juniper Anne, Willa Jane, Nixon Grey, Benedict Arthur, Jax Ethan, Crevan Ridge, Paisley Rye, Isla Blu, and Oaklyn Elise. Liz's dolls have an age range between newborn to 12 months old, however her preference is to adapt their ages according to the clothes they fit into, as the sculptors who produce the reborn dolls do not have an age in mind when manufacturing them. Although reborn dolls have a reputation for being unnerving and creepy for some, Liz found that they helped her throughout an extremely difficult period in her life, providing comfort and relief to her as well as allowing her to step back in time and relive some of her happiest moments of when her own four children were babies themselves. Despite having a large collection of reborns, Liz is unable to put a definitive price tag on how much money she has spent so far. The average reborn doll can range from $350 to $1,500 with the price dependent on the artist that creates them. Filling the void: Liz, who also has an 18-month-old daughter with her new husband Jeff, found out about lifelike 'reborn' dolls five months after her teenagers went to live with their father Calming: She says that caring for the dolls, which cost anywhere between $250 and $1,500, has helped to fill the void left behind by her children Liz has dedicated an entire room in her house to creating a functioning nursery for her reborn dolls which includes a crib, a wardrobe, a changing table, and shelving to store diapers, baby toiletries and accessories. She uses this space to care for her reborns, as well as finding solace in the room herself. 'Making the decision for Dylan and Asher to live with their father was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made,' said Liz. 'It was like giving my children up for adoption. In the back of my head, I had haunting thoughts like, "Will they even remember that they spent half of their childhood living in my home?" and, "Will my other two children remember the times we shared and grow up being close to their older brother and sister?" 'Every day it feels like death. Every day, I think about the moments that I've missed. It haunts me. 'It keeps me up late at night with panic attacks sometimes. 'The dolls really give me comfort because I connect them with the feelings I had of being a mother to my two older children when they were young. 'I know these dolls won't grow up, they won't get taken from me, a divorce will not affect my ability to care for them. I know they will never leave me. 'You always hear people talk about how time flies by so quickly and it isn't until you've watched your kids grow up in the blink of an eye, that you realize how true this actually is. 'My time as a mother of babies is over and in some ways, I wish it weren't. 'Although it's obviously not exactly the same, my reborn dolls help me relive that part of my life. Desperate: Liz still struggles to cope with the distance from her children, sharing, 'Every day it feels like death. Every day, I think about the moments that I've missed. It haunts me' Helping hand: However she says that her collection of reborn dolls has helped her to forget about all of the things she is missing in her kids' lives Emotional: 'The dolls really give me comfort because I connect them with the feelings I had of being a mother to my two older children when they were young,' she said 'I have one room in my house set up like a real nursery and it includes a crib, a wardrobe, a changing table, and shelving. 'The other part of the room can function as a guest bedroom although it is mostly just used as my happy place. 'I very rarely take my dolls out in public, but I have done it a few times. Most times people don't even realize that the doll in the car seat is not real. 'Once I had a man behind me in line at a grocery store staring at one of my reborn dolls sleeping away in his car seat and he asked how I managed to get back in shape so quickly after just having had a baby. 'Another time, I drove through a fast-food drive thru and noticed the employee staring at me strangely. It wasn't until I drove off that I realized he was probably disturbed by the fact that I had what he thought was a real baby sprawled across my front seat. 'From that point on, I never drove around in the car with my reborn unless it was in a car seat and buckled in properly. 'In my experience, the people I have met in the reborn community all seem very loving, accepting, kind, and empathetic. 'Some have reborns to help them cope with something difficult, such as traumatic experiences, while others simply enjoy them as a beautiful form of art. 'There are also those that just love dolls, who always have and always will. I fit in to all three of these categories. Going all out: Liz has even set up a fully-functioning nursery for the dolls - despite admitting her current husband isn't a fan of them Backlash: She says that some of her friends and family also find the dolls 'creepy' and 'strange' 'Many collectors, including myself, tend to feel alone in this hobby because there aren't many people within close proximity that love these dolls like we do or understand how these dolls enrich our lives. 'Many outsiders see the dolls as creepy and the collectors as strange. Having the reborn community is a blessing to me and to so many other collectors because it gives us a place to belong, to not feel judged, and to share our joy that we have because of our dolls.' Liz admits that even some of her closest friends and family members find her reborn dolls somewhat unsettling, while others are shocked at how their bodies naturally react when touching the dolls. 'Most of my close friends and family know about my collection of reborn babies. Most of them think that it is a strange hobby and some even find them creepy,' she said. 'However, everyone that spends a good amount of time with me can clearly see how happy they make me and they have accepted that they are a part of my life. 'Some have even been surprised that when they hold the dolls, their body immediately responds as if holding a human child. For example, patting its back or rocking gently back-and-forth. 'I would say in general, most people in my life think these dolls are very strange and yet also very amazing at the same time. I do actually have a few friends that love them and wish they could afford one of their own. 'Initially the realism of these dolls induced an amount of stress on my husband. They somehow released the same stress he felt with the pressure to protect and provide for our own 'living' children. 'He supports me in the hobby the best that he can. He has allowed me to convert one of the rooms in our house to a nursery for my reborns and he doesn't complain much when I continually add dolls to my collection. 'I like that he tries to participate. He doesn't necessarily understand the hobby, but he knows that he enjoys several hobbies and that I deserve to enjoy one as well.' Sophie, Countess of Wessex looked a vision in blue today as she joined her husband Prince Edward to visit Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey to mark International Nursing Day. The royal, 56, opted for a midi navy dress with a pretty pleated pattern and zip detailing for occasion. The couple were received by Her Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey, Mr. Michael More-Molyneux and met with NHS staff and key workers at the hospital which is just four miles from their home Bagshot Park, where they live with their children Lady Louise Windsor, 17 and James, Viscount Severn, 13. Sophie, Countess of Wessex looked a vision in blue today as she joined her husband Prince Edward to visit Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey to mark International Nursing Day The royal, 56, opted for a midi navy dress with a pretty pleated detail and zip detailing for occasion The Queen's youngest son Prince Edward, 57, teamed pond green chinos with a powder blue shirt and tweed jacket for the day out The mother-of-two kept her blonde locks loose and free and stayed Covid-safe with a disposable facemask. Opting for a natural make-up look, Sophie teamed a gentle lick of black mascara with a light layer of foundation for the day out. Sophie also sported gold tree of life earrings and an alligator skin style clutch bag for the day out. Keeping warm from the British spring, Sophie later put on a grey coat and grabbed a blue and white striped umbrella to stay out of the rain. The mother-of-two kept her blonde locks loose and free and stayed Covid-safe with a disposable facemask Sophie also sported gold tree of life earrings and an alligator skin style clutch bag for the day out Keeping warm from the British spring, Sophie later put on a grey coat and grabbed a blue and white striped umbrella to stay out of the rain Meanwhile, the Queen's youngest son Prince Edward, 57, teamed pond green chinos with a powder blue shirt and tweed jacket for the day out. It comes a day after Prince Charles personally thanked staff who cared for his late father at St Barts Hospital before his death. The Prince of Wales, 72, was on a visit to the historic hospital in the City of London yesterday when he got the chance to meet privately with some of the team that cared for the Duke of Edinburgh when he was transferred for heart surgery in March. Opting for a natural make-up look, Sophie teamed a gentle lick of black mascara with a light layer of foundation for the day out Sophie looked delighted to chat to NHS staff on International Nursing Day today The couple were received by Her Majesty's Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey, Mr. Michael More-Molyneux and met with NHS staff and key workers Sophie Countess of Wessex and Prince Edward visit to Frimley Park Hospital, today Royal officials declined to say who, saying the hospital wanted to protect their identities, but confirmed the group included a nurse, a consultant and a therapist. Philip, who died last month at the age of 99, spent four nights at St Barts, after being transferred from the private King Edward VII Hospital on 1st March. He subsequently underwent a successful procedure for a pre-existing heart condition, before being moved back to the King Edward VII. A traveller mother reveals the struggle of raising her daughter according to tradition on tonight's Here Come the Gypsies, explaining the pressure to make sure her child is always dressed to the nines. Lavinia, a Romani gypsy mother-of-two who lives in Dorset, explained that it's important for traveller women to always look their best, regardless of age, and that includes her two-year-old daughter Valentina. 'Gypsy girls are more homebound,' the mother-of-two said. 'They help their mum, clean up and just be more homely, they learn to cook from a young age. 'Part of the gypsy culture, they like to be seen out,' she continued, adding that if a girl looks her best, people will say that she's 'well looked after'. But getting Lavinia to adhere to that wordlview is mean feat, with her mother struggling to get her to dress up in a frilly frock and heeled sandals for a beach photoshoot in tonight's epsiode, airing at 9pm on Channel 5. The struggle started with Lavinia kneeling on the floor, begging Valentina to get dressed, while her daughter paraded around in a nappy. 'Come on, you come to me quickly,' she started, while Valentina grunted. When her first command didn't receive an enthusiastic response, Lavinia tried to entice her daughter with a shiny yellow bow and silver glittery shoes with a block heel. 'Should we put this in your hair? Oooh,' she said, showing the bow to Valentina, prompting her daughter to let out a scream. 'Excuse me?' Lavinia said, changing her tone. 'It takes a long time for us to get ready, especially when she needs something nice on, should I say,' the mother-of-two told the camera crew. Traceller mother-of-two from Dorset Lavinia, left, had to coax her two-year-old daughter Valentina into wearing a party dress for a photoshoot on tonight's Here Come the Gypsies, airing at 9pm on Channel 5 The toddler was more interested in finishing her lunch - a half eaten cheeseburger, and started to cry when her mother propped her on her lap to put her in the yellow and gold dress. 'It's not the end of the world, Valentina,' Lavinia said, trying to soothe her. 'We're going to have some lovely photo down at the beach,' she added, talking to her daughter, who threw the remnants of the cheeseburger on the floor. 'You're cheeky,' Lavinia admonished her daughter, showing her what she had done. The mother-of-two explained the photoshoot was important for her family, because it's their way of making memories. Valentina, who is already a beauty pageant competitor, and is pictured here with her pet mini horse, was not really interested in the glitzy dress her mother wanted her to wear 'She's two going on 22,' she joked, talking of Valentina. A bit later, Lavinia tried to get Valentina's help to prepare her for her photoshoot, handing her daughter the yellow bow, saying: 'You're gonna hold it for mommy?' Instead, the two-year-old, looking unconvinced, unceremoniously threw the bow on the floor. The same happened with a glittery silver shoe, which Valentina sent swinging, prompting Lavinia to tell her: 'You're a devil.' Lavinia, a Romani traveller who lives in Dorset with her husband Danny, her son Young Danny, eight, and her daugther Valentina, two, pictured, says traveller women pay a lot of attention to their looks in order to 'outdo' each other All ended well for the mother-of-two, who finally managed to get her daughter in the outfit in time for the photoshoot, which was taking place on a local beach. There, a photographer hired for the occasion tried to catch Valentina's attention while the toddler frolicked in the sand. But once again, the young girl seemed more interested in doing her own thing, running to the waves in her expensive outfit. 'Danny,' Lavinia told her son, 'Get Valentina to look at you. Get her to look at you and get her to do the blow kisses. 'He's trying his best, bless him,' she added, as her son tried to capture his sister's attention. Passers-by who had come to the beach to get some sun laughed at the scene, with Lavinia trying to get her daughter to pose for the pictures. 'I'm panicking because I feel I won't have any nice photos because all she's doing is digging up the sand and she's picking up the seashells. But the professional photographer didn't disappoint and managed to capture some good pictures. 'Oh, you did get some good ones, ' a reassured Lavinia said. Speaking to the camera, Lavinia said: 'I didn't even think I would get anything from what I was looking at. The pictures he's actually got capture her character so well, I'm so over the moon.' Here Come the Gypsies airs tonight at 9pm on Channel 5. Queen Letizia Queen of Spain isn't shy about rocking high street pieces in her royal wardrobe, and today she showed off her style credentials in an eye-catching two piece from Zara. The mother-of-two, 48, and her husband King Felipe VI travelled to Oliva, near Valencia, to present Spanish poet Francisco Brines, 89, with his Cervantes Prize 2020. Brines won the Miguel de Cervantes Prize for Literature in the Spanish Language 2020 and the sovereign had the special attention to deliver it to him in his home, due to his fragile health. The Cervantes Prizes are traditionally handed out during an annual ceremony in Alcala de Henares on 23 April. Letizia commanded attention for the occasion in the orange tunic with an asymmetric hem, teamed with matching trousers - a look recycled from her 2019 visit to Argentina. Queen Letizia of Spain commanded attention in an orange tunic with an asymmetric hem, teamed with matching trousers from Zara - a look recycled from her 2019 visit to Argentina - as she arrived at the presentation of the Miguel de Cervantes Prize 2020 Felipe VI and Letizia, both wearing masks, presented Brines, centre, with his award and applauded him Opting for the monochrome look, she accessorised with a chic clutch in a matching shade, and teamed the ensemble with towering nude slingbacks. Her brown locks were styled in a neat bun, and she scaled back on accessories to keep the focus on her statement top. She was wearing little jewellery, save from a pair of small golden hoop earrings and her favourite ring. She brought the drama with a smokey eye and mascara bringing the attention to her hazelnut gaze, and a touch of blush to compliment her natural glow. Queen Letizia of Spain, 48, and her husband King Felipe VI, travelled to Oliva, near Valencia, to present Spanish poet Francisco Brines, 89, with his Cervantes Prize 2020. Pictured arriving at the poet's house, talking to Valencia's regional President Ximo Puig, left and Spanish Culture Minister Jose Manuel Rodriguez Uribes, right King Felipe VI looked smart in a grey suit with a pink shirt and burgundy tie. The pair were both wearing white facial coverings in keeping with Spain's Covid-19 rules. It was because of the pandemic that Francisco Brines couldn't travel to receive his prize during the official ceremony, in spite of being awarded the most prestigious literary honour in the country. The award, which is the highest recognition awarded to the creative work of Spanish and Latin American writers, comes with a money prize of 125,000 and is granted by the Spanish Minister of Culture. The royal couple looked in good spirits as they chatted with local officials before meeting with the poet in his home This year, it was awarded to Brines for awarded him the prize for "his poetic work that goes from the carnal and the purely human to the metaphysical, the spiritual, towards an aspiration for beauty and immortality,' a statement read. 'He is the intimate poet of the 1950s generation who has delved most deeply into the experience of the individual human being in the face of memory, the passage of time and vital exaltation,' it went on. Letizia and Felipe VI travelled to Brines' home this morning, where they presented his with the award and applauded his work. It has been a busy week for Letizia so far. Yesterday, she stole the show at the Children and Youth Literary Awards Ceremony in Madrid. The former journalist was photographed in deep conversation with the poet, who won the highest literary award in the country Francesco Brines, centre, proudly put his medal on for a picture with his Queen and King today in Oliva She oozed radiance and style as she donned a stylish emerald pleated dress during the literary awards ceremony in Madrid's 19th century Casa de America building yesterday. The mother-of-two teamed her patterned dress with a pair of black stilettos and sported a stylish black handbag by her side. During the ceremony, which is also known as 'the Gran Angular' and 'El Barco De Vapor' literature awards, Letizia met with members of staff and greeted attendees upon her arrival. She also spoke with the Spanish Minister of Education Isabel Celaa before going on to make a speech and present the winners with their awards. Brines was caught in an animated conversation with Letizia after the royal couple presented him with his award Letizia scaled her look back with a neat bun and little jewellery for the special engagement today The scenes come just days after the royal attended the ceremony of the delivery of the National Flag to the ACAVIET (Aviation Academy of the Army) in Colmenar Viejo in Madrid. Last month, the Spanish royal and her husband King Felipe VI presented the Cervantes Prize on World Book Day in Madrid to mark International Book Day. Their attendance at the Istituto Cervantes in Alcala de Henares came just a day after Letizia and Felipe were joined by their daughters Princesses Leonor, 15, and Sofia, 13, for the launching ceremony of a new submarine. The family were gathered together at Navantia, a Spanish state-owned shipbuilding company in Madrid, to preside over the launching ceremony of the S-81 Isaac Peral. The Isaac Peral, named after a 19th century Spanish submarine designer, is one of four vessels that will enter service in the Spanish Navy in the coming years. A Massachusetts high school senior who was earned herself a highly sought-after spot at Harvard University has now also earned viral fame after publicly sharing the heart-rending college admissions essay she wrote about the death of her mother. In what began seemingly as a focused essay on grammar, Abigail Mack, 18, detailed in her Common App essay why she hates the letter 'S', before explaining that, since she lost her mother to cancer, the 'S' in 'parents' has haunted her. But it also motivated her to keep busy, filling her schedule with AP classes and extracurricular activities and now, thanks to her stellar record and a well-written essay, she's headed to Harvard in the fall. Taking off: Abigail Mack, 18, is headed to Harvard University in the fall, and this month has gone viral after reading the Common App essay that helped get her in Poignant: Abigail said that she hates the letter 'S' since losing her mother to cancer Abigail read her essay in a series of TikTok videos which have gone viral, with the first part racking up 18 million views. 'I hate the letter "S,"' Abigail wrote. 'Of the 164,777 words with "S," I only grapple with one. To condemn an entire letter because of its use .0006 percent of the time sounds statistically absurd, but that one case changed 100 percent of my life. 'I used to have two parents, but now I have one, and the "S" in "parents" isn't going anywhere. '"S" follows me. I can't get through a day without being reminded that while my friends went out to dinner with their parents, I ate with my parent. 'As I write this essay, there is a blue line under the word "parent" telling me to check my grammar; even Grammarly assumes that I should have parents, but cancer doesn't listen to edit suggestions. 'I won't claim that my situation is as unique as one in 164,777, but it is still an exception to the rule an outlier. The world isn't meant for this special case,' she wrote. Haunting: The Massachusetts high school senior said that the 'S' in 'parents,' in particular, follows her 'I can't get through a day without being reminded that while my friends went out to dinner with their parents, I ate with my parent,' she explained Harsh: She wrote that her grammar-checking app kept suggesting she correct the word 'parent' to 'parents,' but 'cancer doesn't listen to edit suggestions' 'The world wouldn't abandon "S" because of me, so I tried to abandon "S." I could get away from "S" if I stayed busy; you can't have dinner with your "parent" (Thanks again Grammarly) if you're too busy to have family dinner. Any spare time that I had, I filled. I became known as "the busy kid" the one that everyone always asks, "How do you have time?"' She packed her schedule with morning meetings, classes, after school meetings, volleyball practice, dance class, rehearsal in Boston, and homework. She explained: 'I couldn't fill the loss that "S" left in my life, but I could at least make sure I didn't have to think about it. There were so many things in my life I couldn't control, so I controlled what I could my schedule. 'I never succumbed to the stress of potentially overcommitting. I thrived.' It became challenging to juggle all of her commitments, but she soon found a 'rhythm.' 'But rhythm wasn't what I wanted,' she said. 'Rhythm may not have an "S," but "S" sure liked to come by when I was idle. So, I added another ball, and another, and another. Soon I noticed that the same "color" balls kept falling into my hands theater, academics, politics. 'The world wouldn't abandon "S" because of me, so I tried to abandon "S,"' she wrote, explaining how she kept herself busy 'I couldn't fill the loss that "S" left in my life, but I could at least make sure I didn't have to think about it,' she wrote 'I never succumbed to the stress of potentially overcommitting. I thrived,' she said Soon, she 'stopped running away from "S" and began changing a double "S" paSSion' 'I'm not perfectly healed, but I'm perfect at navigating the best way to heal me,' she concluded 'I wanted to come into contact with these more and more, so I further narrowed the scope of my color wheel and increased the range of shades in my primary colors,' she wrote. 'I stopped running away from "S" and began changing a double "S" paSSion. Passion has given me purpose. I was shackled to "S" as I tried to escape the confines of the traditional familial structure. 'No matter how far I ran, "S" stayed behind me, because I kept looking back. I've finally learned to move forward instead of away, and it's liberating. "S" kept got me moving, but it hasn't kept me going.' She admitted that life is 'convoluted,' though, and while it's great that her motivation has propelled her forward, it's also stopped her from looking back and she wishes she could claim that she's been more courageous than that. 'I'm not perfectly healed, but I'm perfect at navigating the best way to heal me. I don't seek out sadness, so "S" must stay on the sidelines, and until I am completely ready, motivation is more than enough for me.' Abigail, who used the Common App to apply to eight schools, was also accepted to Northwestern, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Dartmouth. Woohoo! Abigail decided to attend Harvard, and filmed the moment that she saw that she had been accepted Options: Abigail, who used the Common App to apply to eight schools, was also accepted to Northwestern, Notre Dame, Georgetown, and Dartmouth Parent: Abigail, pictured with her dad, advises other high schoolers to 'pour their passion' into their applications She has decided to attend Harvard, and filmed the moment that she saw that she had been accepted. There was a lot of screaming I didnt have a voice for about a week afterwards and I was on the verge of tears,' she told BuzzFeed. Though she hasn't picked declared a major or decided on a career path yet, Abigial said she is planning to study humanities and social sciences with a possible focus in French and foreign policy, and is newly interested in politics. 'When the Black Lives Matter demonstrations were occurring this past summer, I realized how passionately I felt about politics. I knew that I could no longer stand idly by and watch as the world made leaps forward without me,' she said. She joined in the 2020 election cycle as a fellow on Senator Ed Markeys re-election campaign, and was also involved in phone banking for President Joe Biden. Abigail suggests that other high school seniors applying to college 'pour their passion' into their applications. 'Your college application is a culmination of everything youve done in high school. Youve already put in the work, so the hardest part is done. Now, you just have to put pen to paper, share what youve accomplished, and, most importantly, illustrate how you plan to make a difference going forward in your own, unique way,' she said. HOLIDAY VIBES If the travel traffic light system has left you too nervous to book a holiday abroad this summer, heres another form of escapism. Swap black and dreary for bright and cheery by wearing a print that transports you to sunnier climes. TRAVEL AGENTS Our desire to travel again has been captured by designers, many of whom sent vivid colours and textures down this years spring/summer catwalks. Versace in particular shouted optimism with bejewelled starfish. If fun has been in short supply, this dress Im wearing from Stine Goya, which has women dancing across the front, has it in spades. Camilla Ridley-Day shared advice for embracing this season's escapism prints trend at any occasion. Pictured: Dress, 310, Stine Goya at featherand stitch.co.uk; earrings, 140, monicavinader. com; sandals, 89, Carvela at kurtgeiger. com SAY IT LOUD Its surprising what a confidence boost this type of print can give; youll certainly make an entrance and everyone will want to talk about what youre wearing. And a print that is this busy doesnt draw attention to one particular area, so forget any worries over lockdown pounds. ALL AT SEA Polish brand Cosel is dedicated to women who love nature, and features vibrant styles like this Turks dress (below) in a coral reef design. Bodens skirt is a classic easy-to-wear style that works well in this boat print. As for Rixos mermaids on a sealike silk, they look as though they might swim off into the sunset. NOW SHOP THE TREND... Lady Kitty Spencer has said she looks forward to a 'happy marriage and happy children' but says she wants to 'protect her heart' by not discussing her love life. Princess Diana's niece, 30, is engaged to South Africa-born multi-millionaire, Michael Lewis, 62, but has never publicly spoken about her fiance - who is five years older than her father Charles Spencer. Speaking to the summer issue of Town & Country, which is out today, the model cousin of Princes William and Harry said: 'It's not that I don't place an importance on love. It's because, for me, love is the most important thing in the world, and I will protect it with all my heart by not making it a topic of discussion. 'You open yourself up to other people having opinions, and it just isn't relevant to anybody's life but mine and my family's. Lady Kitty Spencer has said she looks forward to a 'happy marriage and happy children' but says she wants to 'protect her heart' by not discussing her love life Despite staying tight-lipped on her beau, Kitty added: 'I just look forward to a really happy home life: a happy marriage and happy children. And I feel very at peace that things play out the way they should.' Kitty's fiance Michael has three adult children and was previously married to a woman named Leola in 1985. It's not yet known whether Lady Kitty will convert to Judaism, Mr Lewis' faith, before the big day. In August 2019, Lady Kitty was seen kissing Lewis after leaving Club 55 in St Tropez. In June, she was pictured showing off a large diamond ring on her engagement finger at London's Cash & Rocket Masquerade Ball. Just like Diana, the London-born daughter of Diana'a brother Charles Spencer and Victoria Aitken, grew up in the Spencer family seat Althorp in Northamptonshire. Princess Diana's niece, 30, is engaged to South Africa-born multi-millionaire, Michael Lewis, 62, but has never publicly spoken about her fiance - who is five years older than her father Charles Spencer. While Kitty is often spotted looking glamorous in the public, her brother Louis, 27, who is set to inherit their father's title, keeps a lower profile. 'Primogeniture can be a tricky topic, because as times are changing, attitudes are as well. We've grown up understanding that it's Louis to inherit, and Louis will do an incredible job,' Kitty added. Speaking of her childhood, she went on: 'We have such an emotional attachment to Althorp. The Summer issue of Town & Country is on sale from 13 May 2021 'That's where we would have our Easter-egg hunts and our Christmases; I have my little vegetable patch, I learnt to ride a horse there, I learnt to ride a bike and to rollerblade. 'It's so lovely to look back on the history and think everybody else probably learnt to ride a horse there, too.' The Spencer siblings - including twin sisters Eliza and Amelia, 28. - all tuned heads when they attended the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. The Spencer siblings - including twin sisters Eliza and Amelia, 28. - all tuned heads when they attended the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. (L-R): Eliza, Louis, their mother Victoria, and Kitty Overnight, Kitty's Instagram following, which leapt from 37,000 to a staggering half a million 'I woke up the next day and looked at my phone and thought, "Whoops, did I take someone else's by mistake?". It was very weird, and a little bit overwhelming.' Speaking about her relationship with her siblings, Eliza and Amelia, she added: 'We are a bit of a tripod. It's been horrible to be separated this year. 'They are in South Africa, which is only an hour ahead, and with two flights going there a day, you usually have the comforting thought of, "I could always be there in the morning if I needed to be." Princess Diana's niece jetted off to the French Riviera earlier last summer Pictured, in Nemi in a 1,750 D&G dress 'It's been awful to be completely shut off, and thinking, come what may, we can't be there for each other...' Despite usually living a jet-set lifestyle, Kitty has travelled much less this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Last summer, Kitty shared an insight into her very luxurious trip to the French Riveriea and Italy's Amalfi Coast and Capri, showing off delicious meals and idyllic beaches on her Instagram page. Kitty has had a global outlook from a young age, growing up between Althorp and Cape Town, South Africa. As well as studying at the University of Cape Town, she later studied art history and Italian in Florence, On being a student in Italy, she added: 'Everything felt so simple and carefree, but you're still being stimulated in a culturally rich environment. 'It's just pure pleasure and learning, and being surrounded by every type of beauty. If I'm lucky enough to live to the age of retirement, Florence is where you'll find me.' The Summer issue of Town & Country is on sale from 13 May 2021 Sinking back into the vast hotel bed, my lover and I carelessly allow flakes of croissant to fall on the sheets someone else can clean that up as we interrupt breakfast for a kiss. As a married mum of three teenagers, with all the cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring and general dogsbodying that comes with that role, its during illicit moments like these when I am happiest and most carefree. I have been seeing Tom for the past eight years. Its hardly surprising, then, that I am literally counting down the days until the hotels finally reopen next week by which time it will have been 16 long months since I last saw Tom, an IT consultant who lives 300 miles from me and, at 50, is six years my senior. Sylvia Turner who has been married to Martin for 16 years, began an affair with Tom, 50, an IT consultant after meeting at a conference in Dubai in 2013 (file image) Lockdown has been cruel to people like us with unsuspecting husbands, wives, and children at home. We are wholly reliant on anonymous hotels to steal precious evenings and weekends together. Its a wonder I havent gone crazy, cooped up at home with my husband of 16 years, whose best shot at romance these days is occasionally remembering to put petrol in the car and a son and two daughters so attached to their phones I cant remember the last time they looked me in the eye. For years, the prospect of my hotel trysts with Tom every few months were the one carrot getting me through the day-to-day drudgery of domestic life. My most precious memory is from the spa in Londons Mandarin Oriental Hotel, one of our favourite haunts and a world away from my suburban existence. Thanks to Toms work sometimes picking up the bill, we stay in grand hotels sometimes we get upgraded to a suite, which would cost thousands of pounds a night. While my husband, Martin, hasnt bought me flowers in 12 years, Tom always requests a bouquet of roses for me in the room. It will come as no surprise to learn that, as in many long-term relationships, there is a lot of unresolved hurt and bubbling resentment in my marriage and thats the reason I feel little guilt, or remorse, for having led this double life for eight years. I had no idea, almost two decades ago, when we moved to be near Martins family in the South-West that his mother would feel entitled to interfere in every single aspect of our lives and criticise everything I do. It caused endless rows in the early years, not least because he would always take her side. Sylvia who is mother to three teenagers, said she has no desire for her children to grow up as victims of divorce and so has no plans to leave her husband (file image) So, while you might imagine Id feel guilty for cheating on my husband, what I actually feel is fury with him for not standing up for me and that rage drowns out any remorse. I have no desire for my children to grow up as victims of divorce, to lose their home and comfortable lifestyle, so I have no plans to leave my husband, but I think I am entitled to some happiness too. Difficult though it may be for some to understand, while I wouldnt go as far as to say its an act of revenge, I do feel my affair is justified. You might imagine its hard for me not to spill the beans, to want to unburden myself to my husband, but Ive become an expert at keeping it secret. Im used to biting my tongue with my mother-in-law. Now, when she criticises me I simply detach and relish the thought of how furious shed be if she knew I had a wealthy lover who took me to fancy hotels. A thrill ran right through me when our eyes met It wasnt always this bad, of course. For several years I tried to improve our relationship, suggesting couples counselling, but Martin, who is quite old-fashioned, wouldnt hear of such navel-gazing. Then along came Tom, who never tires of telling me how beautiful and clever I am and makes me feel cherished and special. When we check in at our hotel, the first thing I do is take a long bath with a mound of bubbles a luxury I rarely get at home and Tom will sit on the edge of the tub while we sip champagne and catch up on one anothers news. Then we go to bed and I can feel his entire focus is on me, on the pleasure we give one another. Afterwards, Im careful not to moan about my husband and children, as Tom doesnt want to hear about the humdrum of my home life, any more than I want to hear about his wife and adult kids. Sylvia who is a freelance business consultant, said before the pandemic she didn't have any difficulty coming up with excuses to join Tom because her work involves travel (file image) But the past year has been hard. I work as a freelance business consultant from our spare room, while my husband has a successful company in the financial services industry, run from the office until March last year. For too long, he has been working from home, invading my space, his booming voice on endless calls reverberating around the house. Before the pandemic, my work involved a fair amount of travel, visiting clients and attending conferences, so Ive never had any difficulty coming up with a ruse to join Tom on his work trips. We were first introduced at a conference in Dubai, back in the spring of 2013. He made me laugh. Hes great at impersonations. We were flirtatious all evening there was an obvious attraction between us but the closest we got on that first night was befriending one another on Facebook. It didnt feel like a line had been crossed at that stage. Soon after, however, Tom sent me a direct message saying he was going to Italy for work and would love it if I came, too. With a bubble of excitement and nerves in my stomach for the first time in years, I booked a flight. As I put in my credit card details, I was shaking. Not so much feeling anxious about Martin finding out I honestly felt he deserved to have his feelings disregarded the way mine are. But my children, who have done nothing wrong, were a different story. We mothers feel perpetual guilt. Id never leave my husband ... my infidelity is what makes our marriage survive I told Martin I was off on a work trip and he didnt question it for a second. His eye is not on the ball and, sadly, he trusts me. I banished any thoughts of my kids from my mind as I boarded the flight. Over the past eight years Ive become a master at compartmentalising my emotions when Im with Tom, Im not a mother, nor a wife, Im just me. Its only what a million men before me have done husbands travelling on business have long had affairs and blind eyes have been turned all round. Why should it be so different for me? Tom was at the airport in Italy when I landed. The thrill that ran through me as our eyes met was exhilarating. Sylvia said she still has sex a couple of times most weeks with her husband, but Tom makes her feel attractive (file image) He was tanned and, although at 5 ft 10 in not exactly tall, he towered over my 5 ft 3 in, while the T-shirt and shorts he wore showed off his well-muscled body. My husband was good-looking when we married, but has let himself go over the years and has a typical dad bod, complete with beer gut and moobs. It may surprise you to learn that were still intimate. We have sex a couple of times most weeks. I think its an important part of any marriage and we have needs. Ive always gone to the gym and run 10km (six miles) a week, not that my husband notices any more. Tom does, though, and when Im with him I feel attractive again. When Tom and I arrived at the hotel that first time, there was a beautiful table set for dinner on our balcony. The mood was so relaxed and our chemistry so electric that climbing into bed with him felt entirely natural, despite the fact he was the first man, other than my husband, Id slept with in 15 years. The sex was fabulous. Not because he was introducing me to anything I hadnt experienced between the marital sheets, but because it was exciting being with someone new the feel and smell of him were unfamiliar and that was a huge turn-on. The feel of someone new was such a turn-on Also, there was no danger of teenage feet bursting in to disturb us. It had been so long since Id been totally in the moment like that. I realised that night this was something I could no longer live without. I made it clear to Tom I was happy to be his plus-one on any future trips and he seemed thrilled. Some might think me selfish for pursuing this personal pleasure, cheating on my husband and lying to my children. I would argue, however, that it has benefited us all. A few times a year, pre-pandemic, I got to indulge my own needs and desires, for between two and five days at a time any longer is tricky to explain and this much-needed boost enabled me to be the best wife and mother I can be when I am at home. Because I would never contemplate leaving Martin for Tom. When I married, like my parents who have been together over 60 years, I fully intended it to be for life and never imagined I would be the sort to cheat. Tom has no intention of leaving his wife either. Despite the affair, we are both committed to our marriages. Sylvia said she intended to be married for life and never imagined that she would be the sort to cheat (file image) How to tell if your other half is having an affair and what to do about it Marital therapist Andrew G. Marshall reveals the key signs to watch for. How many do you recognise? Your partner is normally lovely, but now it feels like youre about to have your head bitten off. They guard their phone like its the Crown Jewels. They couldnt stop talking about someone at work. Now they dont mention them. They have opinions that seem to come out of nowhere. Excuses just dont add up. You have defended them to your family and friends, who all think your partner might be having an affair. And heres what to do... Do listen to your gut instinct. Do turn detective. Its fine to give them a chance to come clean, but gathering evidence is best and there will always be evidence, whether its credit card records or text messages. Do pick your moment to confront them. You need time to thrash things out. Do lay the evidence out calmly. If youre calm, they will be more inclined to tell you the truth. If they start blustering or arent prepared to speak, say: I would much rather you told me than I had to discover it myself. Don't expect them to tell you everything in one go. Youre going to want a level of detail that will surprise them, but theyll be too ashamed to answer in full. Don't make any decisions straightaway. Don't forgive them in the first five minutes. That will stop them giving you information. But dont throw them out, either. If you do, they will spend time thinking things over with the other person, and take the information you want to know with them. Don't beat yourself up for wanting to know it all. They may say: How can we move forward if you cant forget? But learning the truth is part of the healing process. Do be kind to yourself. Try to tell as few people as possible because you cant untell them. Dont confide early on in your children, even if they are grown up. Sometimes I counsel couples where one has forgiven the other, but their teenager hasnt. Andrew G. Marshall is author of How Can I Ever Trust You Again? Advertisement For a start, theres so much at stake: houses, mortgages, joint finances and, of course, our children and the impact it would have on them. Yes, Ive fantasised about an idyllic, five-star life with Tom, far away from my husbands family, and, of course, on bad days at home I do long to run away with him for ever. But Im old and wise enough to know that the grass is rarely greener elsewhere. Without the luxury of room-service dinners, and hotel maids turning down our bed at night, I would soon undoubtedly discover things about Tom that would drive me equally insane. The irony is not lost on me that one of the things I love about Martin is his strong moral compass, which means Ive never had to worry about him being unfaithful. I would be upset and angry if he was. Unlike Martin, Ive been a good spouse, tolerating his family and doing everything in my power to keep our family unit happy and together. I am a great mother and I dont deserve to be cheated on.Toms wife must surely know about me, though. He says not, but we women have a sixth sense for these things. I suspect she turns a blind eye because this is not the first time he has strayed. You would think I would worry about us getting caught, but its strange what that heady feeling can do to you. When we book into a London hotel, we prefer to stay in our room, to make the most of the limited time we have together. And I would never want to risk bumping into someone I know. Sylvia said she doesn't worry about her family reading messages to her lover because her phone is password locked (file image) I imagine telling Martin about the affair one day. I believe he will forgive me. But the thought of my children finding out and hating me the potential looks of disgust on their faces makes me wince is the one thing that brought me very close to ending the affair three years ago. I didnt tell Tom. I honestly dont want to dump domestic stuff in the midst of our carefree carry-on, and my reluctance didnt last long. Before you jump to judge me, Id like to point out that Im far from alone in needing this escape. I know a number of mums at my childrens private school who have what they refer to as Friday Boys, men they met at the gym who they check into hotels with, when theyre open, for a bit of Friday afternoon delight. And theyre looking forward to next week, too.Theyre lucky their lovers live close by, as I havent even seen Toms face since our last hotel trip, to New York, in January 2020. We text one another regularly. No one ever looks at my phone, which is password locked, so I dont worry about my family ever reading the messages, but Id be too worried about someone walking in the room to risk FaceTiming him. And, as much as I miss him, there is nothing to talk about. We have both been on sleep, work, eat, work, repeat mode and I dont want him to think I am now this boring person, leading a dull life. Besides, I dont rely on him for emotional support. It would bore him senseless if I discussed the issues I have to deal with. Our relationship works because it is light and fun. Everything with him feels different, fresh, exciting, and Id hate to change that. In the coming months, once travel abroad gets the green light, we hope to go to somewhere fabulous to celebrate Tom turning 50 last year. We have a five-star London hotel booked for next week. As my client meetings havent really got off the ground yet, I cant use my usual excuse, so my husband thinks Im meeting up with girlfriends Ive known since university whom hes never likely to bump into. So come next Friday, I shall be off, suitcase in hand and a huge grin on my face, all too ready to swap languishing in lockdown for sensuous suite living, once again. I simply cannot wait. Names and some details have been changed to protect identity. Sylvia Turner is a pseudonym. Interview by Helen Carroll. CBS anchor Gayle King will examine the Queen's private life and her future without late husband Prince Philip for a new TV special that will air just weeks after his death - and two months after the network sent shockwaves through the heart of the Royal Family by broadcasting Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's bombshell interview with Oprah. The 66-year-old, who counts Oprah Winfrey as her best friend, will host an hour-long show, The Queen Carries On: A Gayle King Special, on Friday night, when she will be joined by the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, former President Barack Obama, and the Queen's childhood friend and maid of honor Lady Ann Glenconner. The special will 'look at [Her Majesty's] extraordinary life and reign', focusing on the 'challenges and controversies, romance and heartbreak' that she has faced during her 69 years on the throne - including the recent death of Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years - a press release from CBS revealed. As well as the tragedy of Philip's passing, the release also dredges up some of the very damaging allegations made by Harry and Meghan during their sit-down with Oprah on March 7, including claims that the Royal Family turned a blind eye to the Duchess' mental health struggles. Oprah's best friend Gayle King is set to delve into the Queen's private life for a new CBS special that will air two months after the network broadcast Harry and Meghan's bombshell interview Tragedy: The Queen Carries On: A Gayle King Special will air on May 14, and will focus on Her Majesty's life and reign, as well as the death of Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years CBS noted that the Queen is 'facing one of the most challenging chapters of her reign' after the death of her husband, and Harry and Meghan's decision to quit the Royal Family The release did not mention the fact that those allegations were made during an interview that was broadcast by CBS. '[The Queen is] now 95 and facing one of the most challenging chapters of her reign,' the statement says. 'She just lost her husband of 73 years, Prince Philip, whom she called her "strength and stay." Her grandson, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle moved to California and are no longer working members of the royal family. 'They recently made allegations that The Palace did not support Meghan's struggles with her mental health or protect them from a predatory press.' During the sit-down, which was filmed in California, near the $14.5 million Montecito mansion where Harry, 36, and pregnant Meghan, 39, are living with son Archie, the Duchess alleged that she reached out to the Royal Family to get professional help after struggling with suicidal thoughts, but was told that she 'couldn't' because it 'wouldn't be good for the institution'. The Duchess of Sussex told Oprah she 'couldn't be left alone' and told her husband she 'didn't want to be alive anymore' before claiming the Buckingham Palace HR department ignored her plea for help because she wasn't a 'paid employee'. In another painful dig, Gayle's new CBS special will also touch on the 'collapse of the fairy tale marriage of Diana and Charles' - and the aftermath of Diana's 'tragic death' 20 years ago. 'The CBS News special spans the milestones of her journey from princess to Queen, her public and private challenges, her relationship with Prince Philip, the collapse of the fairy tale marriage of Diana and Charles, and her role as grandmother to the two boys Diana left behind after her tragic death in Paris,' the release continues. Harry and William are due to reunite for the second time since the Oprah sit-down in order to pay tribute to their late mother by unveiling a statue of Princess Diana on July 1, which would have been her 60th birthday. It is unclear whether the special will examine the strained relationship between Harry and his brother Prince William, which is said to have grown even more tense in the wake of the Oprah interview. Interviews: The special will feature insight from guests including Sir Paul McCartney, who will speak about his 'lifelong connection' with the Queen (pictured right together in 1996) Former President Barack Obama will also appear in the special, and is seen describing the Queen as 'someone who has seen the sweep of world history' in a preview clip Friendly: Barack and Michelle were said to have had a close relationship with the Queen during Obama's time in the White House; they are also good friends with Prince Harry Royal author Tina Brown (left), historian Amanda Foreman (center), and royal commentator Wesley Kerr (right) also appear, as well as the Queen's childhood friend Lady Ann Glenconner Throughout the special, Gayle will interview a variety of guests who have varying relationships with the Queen, including Beatles star Paul, who will discuss his 'lifelong connection' with her, and former President Obama, who worked closely with the monarch during his time in the White House. As well as having a close personal relationship with the Queen, Obama and his wife Michelle are also understood to be good friends with Harry and Meghan. 'She is somebody who has seen the sweep of world history,' he tells Gayle during a preview clip from the special - which also features sit-downs with royal author Tina Brown, royal commentator Wesley Kerr, and historian Amanda Foreman - while Sir Paul says of the monarch: 'I think the thing about the Queen is that she's royal, so you look up to her, because she's royal, but she's very down to Earth.' The new CBS special about the Queen, which will air five weeks to the day after the death of her husband, comes two months after the Royal Family was left reeling from Harry and Meghan's explosive interview with Gayle's best friend Oprah, 67. The tell-all chat with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex aired on March 7, when Prince Philip remained in hospital with a pre-existing heart condition. He died a month later. The explosive interview sent shockwaves through the royal family, with Prince William later speaking out during a school visit to insist the Firm 'is very much not racist.' Of the bombshells dropped during the interview, Meghan and Harry's accusation that a member of his family expressed 'concern' over how 'dark' Archie's skin color would be was the most shocking. 'At the time it was awkward. I was a bit shocked,' said Harry, who refused to share further details about the conversation or with whom he had it. The Duke also hinted at a deep-rooted rift between the brothers during his chat with Oprah, saying the relationship was now just 'space', and adding: 'Time heals all things, hopefully.' On March 7, CBS aired an interview with Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Gayle's best friend Oprah, during which the Sussexes made several damaging allegations about the Royal Family The fallout from the interview for the Royal Family was swift and long-lasting, however CBS is said to have made millions by selling the rights to broadcasters around the world Harry, 36, and Meghan, 39, also spoke candidly about the Duchess' struggles with depression, with the former actress admitting there was a point where 'I just didn't want to be alive anymore'. But though she says she asked the Royal Family for professional help several times, she was told she couldn't pursue it. 'I said that, "I've never felt this way before, and I need to go somewhere." And I was told that I couldn't, that it wouldn't be good for the institution,' Meghan said. Other striking revelations included Prince Harry's claim that his father had stopped taking his calls, while Meghan contradicted reports that she had made her sister-in-law Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, cry leading up to her wedding saying it was actually Kate who had made her cry. Tensions between the Sussexes and the Royal Family are understood to have been at an all-time high in recent weeks in the wake of the primetime sit-down, with Harry facing an uncomfortable reunion with his relatives when he returned to the UK for Prince Philip's funeral last month. But while the interview caused serious controversies for the Royal Family, CBS is said to have made millions by selling the rights to broadcasters around the world - and the network certainly made the most of its footage, eking out multiple teaser clips ahead of the broadcast, while Gayle shared several behind-the-scenes tidbits from her best pal Oprah on CBS This Morning. During the network's pre- and post-interview coverage, Gayle gave long, opinionated commentary on how the Royal Family allegedly treated Meghan, and at one point, she and and her co-hosts even claimed that the Duchess of Sussex had been 'vilified' and 'oppressed' by The Firm. However that did not stop CBS from facing bitter backlash over its decision to air the interview while the Duke of Edinburgh was still in hospital recovering from heart surgery. Gayle later claimed that the network had a contingency plan not to air it if his condition worsened, but many believed that Harry and Meghan should have called for the broadcast to be postponed out of respect for Prince Philip and the Queen. Meghan Markle's makeup artist and friend Daniel Martin has praised the diversity seen in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle on the royal's wedding day, though he admitted he may have been the only Asian male at the ceremony. Martin reflected on his role as Meghan's makeup artist on her big day during an interview with People in honor of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's upcoming three-year anniversary on May 19. When asked if he felt like he had more of a platform to represent Asian American and Pacific Islander community after the wedding, he said it was a 'great question' but not something he thought about at the time. Memories: Daniel Martin reflected on his role as Meghan Markele's makeup artist on her wedding day in honor of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's three-year anniversary on May 19 Looking back: The makeup artist praised the 'diversity' seen in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle that day, saying the ceremony 'completely changed the world' Big moment: Martin said he was particularly moved by Kingdom Choir's gospel performance at the royal wedding ceremony 'It's so wild because if you really think about it, if we break it down in such a way on such a top-level, that family represents colonization. And here's someone of color who is married into it,' he told the magazine. 'My participation in it as an Asian American, I didn't really think about it. For me, it was just helping my friend feel as beautiful and comfortable on her wedding day.' Martin added that while he 'never thought about it in that context,' it was an 'incredible opportunity' to show people 'we are a global society' and 'anything is possible.' The celebrity makeup artist said he was particularly moved by Kingdom Choir's gospel performance at the royal wedding ceremony. 'I just remember being in the church. I was sitting in the back where the choir was at. When they started singing, it literally resonated through our bodies,' he recalled. Recollection: While looking back at the most diverse royal wedding ceremony in British history, he admitted that he doesn't 'remember seeing another Asian male' in the church Diverse guest list: Martin said he saw a few Asian women at the ceremony, including Priyanka Chopra (left) and Janina Gavankar (right) 'I remember sitting there and taking it in. "Wow, what an incredible opportunity to have such diversity in this particular church." That type of music, those voices had never been sung in that church before. 'The centuries of the family, the centuries of people who started in that church or who had services in that church were predominantly Caucasian. And then, here's this one moment where this harmony of humanity happened that completely changed the world at that moment.' Looking back at the most diverse royal wedding ceremony in British history got Martin thinking about the other Asian guests in attendance and what it meant for him to witness that history-making moment. 'I literally only saw one other [Asian] person and she worked for the palace,' he said. 'And Priyanka [Chopra] and Janina [Gavankar] in terms of Asian women, but I don't remember seeing another Asian male.' Martin also opened up about how he will likely be referred to as 'Meghan Markle's makeup artist' for the rest of his life. It's a mystery: Martin said he won't reveal the exact products he used on Meghan on her wedding day, which has added to the curiosity Association: Martin said he and the Duchess of Sussex often discuss how he will be referred to as 'Meghan Markle's makeup artist' for the rest of his life 'It's wild that we're coming on three years [since the wedding] and I will forever get asked. And I think it's not bad, he said. Martin has spoken in detail about how he achieved Meghan's natural glow and subtly smokey eye on her wedding day, but he has refused to reveal the exact products he used, which has only added to the curiosity. 'It's because I've never spoken publicly about what it is I used on her [for the wedding]. That's always going to be the mystery,' he said. 'That's always going to come up, but it is all good. I'm just really fortunate that I was part of that celebration of my friend's wedding. That's just, I guess that's just how it is.' Martin said his life-long association with the Duchess of Sussex following her nuptials is something they have discussed in detail. 'Meghan and I, we talk about this all the time. I'm always going to be that person, how some people are, I'm always going to be Meghan Markle's makeup artist for the rest of my life. Which is totally fine because we're friends,' he said. 'I think if we didn't have a personal connection, it would definitely be different.' Esther Walker (pictured) says hugs are intrusive, awkward and physically unpleasant NO By Esher Walker Personally, I hate hugs. Cant stand them. Even the thought of one makes me physically recoil and twist in my seat. I find them intrusive, weird, awkward and physically unpleasant. I dislike the feel of someone elses unfamiliar body contours, the strange washing powder scent, the softness of the flesh and the suggestion of hair. Its not a question of someone being attractive or not, its just the fact of their body being crushed up against mine. It could be Brad Pitt or Brad Pitts extremely ugly cousin. No thanks, to either. Of course, I hug my children (Im not totally strange), but never my sisters. I think my poor husband suspects I insisted on getting two cats so he can get some of the many cuddles he requires hourly from them and not me. I didnt get the appeal when I was younger I never hugged my friends in that squealy way teen girls often do and I still dont get it now. I watched the adaptation of The Pursuit Of Love, starring Lily James and Emily Beecham, and grimaced at how much their characters Linda and Fanny drape themselves over each other. Why cant they keep their hands to themselves? Barf. Here are my strategies for avoiding embraces: 1) Shout Hello! across the room, wave with both hands and hope the potential hugger gets the message; 2) Very suddenly need to attend to a child or a drink or anything else when a hug might be looming; 3) In an emergency, I will shriek I dont do hugs! Rigid as a hatstand, I pray for it to be over I am not exaggerating, I dislike them that much. All of my friends know this and dont come near me, for which Im so grateful. The chink of light coming through the heavy, grey, cloudy sky of the past year has been the no-hugs diktat. I bumped elbows joyfully! I waved with unbridled enthusiasm! I was delighted to have this social nicety (read: nuisance), which I must constantly negotiate, removed from my life. Because not being a hugger is really awkward. People either take offence and think its something to do with them (Its not its me!) or think you are completely weird. Most usually, both. The last year has meant I have neither given offence nor been thought of as a cold-hearted freak. So its with a heavy heart that I see Britain going back to the hug danger zone, where every partygoer is either a threat I need to neutralise or submit to with good grace, standing there, rigid as a hatstand, waiting for it to be over. As it happens, cinemas open up on the same day as hugs are allowed. Coincidence? I think not. Youll find me and all the other hug refuseniks hiding there not hugging, but waving. YES Libby Purves (pictured) argues the empty social cheek bump or air kisses are oddly creepy and alienating By Libby Purves Now, Im not saying Ill hug everyone in this liberation week. Every friendship and family habit is individual, and some relationships have grown up physically restrained. But when it comes to those who, pre-pandemic, were the regular huggables in my life old mates everywhere, from Brighton to Lincolnshire they had better be braced for the embrace: here I come! Apart from anything else, I claim an extra five months of being immunocompromised by chemo before lockdowns even started, so Ive had 18 months of treating everyone but my husband as a potential plague rat. As it happens, I hate the empty social cheek bump or air kiss, finding it oddly creepy and alienating. Anyone approaching me in this mimsy fashion meets either a swerve or, if I like them a lot, a pair of outstretched arms and a warm chest. Because a hug now, thats special. Thats honest. That says: I accept all of you, body and mind. We are kin. Frankly, those miserable wincing spirits who reject anything beyond an elbow bump are missing out. Though a lot of them, I suspect, either live smugly in a cosy relationship, or have far too many one-night stands, or else fling themselves lovingly on any cat, dog or pet rabbit who will put up with it. For we are animals ourselves, inhabitants of warm mammalian bodies which are drawn to the primitive huddle with other bodies. Humans are not brains on sticks we need touch A human is not a cold brain on a stick. When we move close to another person, without the remotest sexual intention, our breathing eases. Our hearts want to beat in time with theirs. The body knows best. So follow the science. Touch starvation is real and accepted by psychiatrists. If infants dont get hugged and carried they do not thrive physically or emotionally research during the 1990s Romanian orphanage scandal reinforced that woeful fact. But adults dont outgrow the need entirely, any more than we outgrow hunger, or the reassurance of a smiling face and a warm drink. A good hug is proven (in weird laboratory conditions, but never mind that) to reduce blood pressure. It promotes the benevolent hormone oxytocin. It even bolsters the immune system, so the bitter irony of the past year has been that, in order to control a nasty disease, contact was confined to households and those living alone were starved of it. At least until mid-June, when mercifully the support-bubble rule was invented. It may have saved lives. So hug on. Maybe this is even the time to change a non-embracing habit and tell a good friend or relative youve missed them so much that the only answer is: Come here, you! Queen Maxima of the Netherlands was the picture of glamour tonight as she attended a concert with her family to mark her 50th birthday. Maxima, who will celebrate the milestone birthday next Monday, looked like she just stepped off a red carpet in a glitzy gown with a nude illusion as she stepped out with her husband, three daughters and mother-in-law Queen Beatrix to attend a concert organised in her honour in The Hague. Princess Catharina-Amalia, 17, Princess Alexia, 16 and Princess Ariane, 13, all donned sparkly outfits to accompany their parents at the concert, titled: Queen Maxima: a life full of music at the Carre Theatre. The Dutch royal family stepped out for a glamourous evening to attend a concert in honour of Queen Maxima's 50th birthday. Pictured: Princess Ariane, 13, Princess Alexia, 16, Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, 53 and Princess Catharina-Amalia, 17, the Hague Princess Ariane and Princess Alexia put on a stylish display for their glamourous evening. Queen Maxima had picked a dress with blue stripes and a nude illusion collar The country has undertaken multiple celebrations and music performances to mark their Queen's milestone. Maxima wrapped up from the evening breeze with a beige shawl, which matched her clutch bag. The Dutch Queen, who is known for her love of accessories, was sporting beautiful jewels, starting with a diamond hairpin in her blond locks, which had been styled in a straight blow-dry. She also picked a matching necklace, bracelet and dropped earrings in silver mounted with emeralds. All smiles! Known for her very expressive face, Maxima looked delighted as she posed Queen Beatrix, 83, right, Maxima's mother-in-law joined her family for a night at the theatre and wore a stylish black cape Maxima's eldest daughter Catharina-Amalia picked a dramatic black dresse with pink, blue and white flowers and a black shawl. She was seen chatting with her grandmother, Queen Beatrix, right Her makeup was equally glam, with some bronzer to compliment her natural glow, mascara and eyeshadow bringing the focus on her hazelnut gaze, and a deep pink lipstick bringing structure to her lovely smile. Maxima's three daughters also dressed up for the high society family night out. The eldest and heir to the throne, Princess Amalia, picked a dramatic black gown adorned with blue, pink and white flowers. She was wearing open toe platforms, and had picked a black shawl to complete the outfit, as well as a cubic clutch bag. Her blonde locks, styled in a wavy blow-dry, revealed a pair of flower-shaped dropped earrings mounted with black gems. Princess Ariane picked a lovely cream dress with a coral flower detail, and a beige shawl and clutch. Pictured with Princess Alexia Alexia had picked a black clutch bag, in which she kept her face covering, a mandatory requirement to enter the theatre Her makeup was very natural, with just a dash of blush and mascara to compliment her beautiful feature. Her sister Alexia, who will soon be studying at the United World College Atlantic in Vale of Glamorgan, stole the show in a beautiful turquoise crepe dress. The garment's colour went perfectly with the red locks she shares with her father. Fitted at the dress with an elastic belt, the skirt of the dress was made of layers that cascaded down the princess's legs. She was donning heeled black sandals and a greens shawl of the same hue of her dress. She was also wearing a natural makeup, with a dash of mascara and a doe-eye line of eyeliner and some lip liner to put the emphasis on her smile. Alexia's green dress complimented her redhead hair perfectly and the teenage princess stole the show Her clutch bag was black, to match her shoes, and she was wearing beige and white bracelets and a turquoise ring. The youngest of the family, Princess Ariane, joined in on the glamour with a darling cream dress with flower details in coral pink. Just like her sisters and mother, she sported a shawl, which she harmonised to the rest of her outfit with a cream clutch bag. Princess Beatrice was wrapped in a black cape revealed an electric blue blouse and black trousers underneath. Her blonde hair were coiffed in a neat blow-dry, and she was wearing a tasteful dash of makeup to compliment her porcelain complexion. Doting father Willem-Alexander, who was wearing navy blue striped suit with a crisp white shirt and purple tie posed proudly next to his women. The family were headed to a concert organised in Maxima's honour, celebrating her life with a musical performance. A beautiful black and white portrait of Queen Maxima of the Netherlands taken in New York in 1999 has been released as a stamp to mark her 50th birthday The four remaining stamps celebrate Maxima's legacy as a monarch, from Willem-Alexander's investiture ceremony in 2013, top left, to her More music in the Classroom campaign, top right, her humanitarian work in Jakarta, bottom right and her role as a core member of the royal family, as Queen Beatrice's daughter-in-law, bottom left The country is preparing to celebrate Queen Maxima's 50th birthday next week. Maxima will turn 50 on Monday May 17, and her subjects have been honouring her legacy in the weeks leading up to the celebration. For the occasion of the monarch's big day, the Dutch Post Office have released a new sheetlet of stamps consisting of five never-before-seen pictures of the mother-of-three. The biggest stamp is a retro black and white close-up snap where a young Maxima shows a strand of blond hair during a trip to New York in 1999. Four other pictures in colour honour King Willem-Alexander's wife royal duties and engagements, including her commitment to the More Music in the Classroom campaign. In the main stamp, which is named 'Koningin Maxima - 'Queen Maxima in Dutch,' the Queen appears as a young woman, from the time before her royal life. Maxima, then a 20 something, reveals her profile, with freckles on her cheeks, and strands of blond hair falling down to her shoulders. Tomorrow will be a very sad day for me. Sadder, than I ever imagined it would be, even though I had long known it might happen eventually. Two weeks ago I had a call from Caroline, the long term partner of Brian Murray, and mother of his three children. Brian, who was only 74, had died. I was shocked and deeply upset at the news and surprised to find tears streaming down my face. Grieving the death of a former husband is strange. Particularly if you are happily remarried with a family of your own as I am. Theres no correct way to react. Some people may not give two hoots for past loves; others, like myself, are often surprised at the depth of feeling that exists even decades after a marriage is over, even if, as Brian and I, you never had children together. The fact remains that you once loved this person and they were an important part of your life. And now they no longer will be. Jenni Murray (pictured) said the news that her ex-husband Brian Murray died at only 74, left her shocked and deeply upset Its 50 years since I married my handsome Robert Redford look-alike, and more than 40 since our divorce, but we remained friends. He was my first love, the first man with whom I set up house and thought I would be with for the rest of my life. It was not to be, but those years we spent together were full of excitement, energy and ambition. We helped each other grow up and get on and, even though we proved to be incompatible in the long run, I dont think we ever stopped caring deeply for each other. Brian and I had met at university. He was studying architecture and was required to spend a year in practice. I, a bit behind him in age, decided to spend a year out between my second and third years. We travelled to Israel for his benefit, where some wonderful architecture was being practised. Then we spent the rest of the year in Paris to improve my French. In Paris we got engaged and planned our wedding. It was 1971, a time when living in sin, as we had been doing, was considered a disgrace, particularly by my mother. I was only 21 and returned to university as Mrs Jenni Murray rather than Miss Jenni Bailey. Paris was great for me, but tough for Brian whose French was non-existent, apart from a perfectly pronounced Un ballon rouge et un sandwich pate, sil vous plait. He always got his glass of red wine and pate sandwich, but astonished the waiters when he couldnt carry on any conversation. Then, I had a months course at the University of Montpellier. Brian came down to join me for the last couple of days. To my astonishment, out for a farewell dinner with fellow students, I caught him chatting animatedly with some of the French students perfectly. Amazing to go from virtually zero to fluent in only a month. Jenni (pictured) said things in her marriage to Brian began to fall apart after they bought their first house We graduated together and moved to Bristol which is where I got my start in broadcasting in BBC local radio. It was when we bought our first house that things started to fall apart. It needed an awful lot of work. Brian was perfectly qualified to design the renovations, but things went very slowly. The crunch for me came when I was given the job of renovating the ornate cornices and ceiling roses. Ever the perfectionist, Brian insisted I do it with a toothbrush and a bucket of warm water. Night after night, standing at the top of a ladder, while trying to build a career as a broadcast journalist was just too much. I walked away to a tiny flat and, after six years of marriage, we agreed to a very civilised DIY divorce. Ive never understood how people whove loved each other and grown together can remain angry and bitter. We became great friends. When my second husband and I needed a new property surveyed, it was Brian who did the job. We would socialise with each other, I got to know Caroline and met Brians children as he met mine. And now we all feel grief at his loss. Tomorrow I shall go to the funeral. Caroline invited me. There should be so many old friends and relatives there to mourn him, but we are three days short of the relaxing of the 30 guests rule. It will be a small but heartfelt gathering. Brian Murray: RIP. Am I the only one who hated The Pursuit Of Love? Jenni admits she was left disappointed by the new BBC serial of Nancy Mitfords The Pursuit of Love. Pictured: Lily James as Linda I had so looked forward to the new Sunday night BBC serial of Nancy Mitfords The Pursuit of Love as an entertaining replacement for Line Of Duty with no violence and no acronyms. Despite all the disappointment some have expressed at the revelation of Ian Buckells as H, I loved LOD to the very end. This time, I was the disappointed one. Andrew Scotts demented dancing made me laugh, but everyone else seemed desperately over the top and just a bit hysterical, especially Dominic West who barked out every line. But I quickly began to wonder if Id become profoundly deaf. I couldnt hear a single word uttered by Lily James and Emily Beecham, playing Linda and Fanny. I reached for the hearing aids. Still nothing. Is it the fault of the sound recordists or have young actors never been taught to articulate and project? I do wish senior police officers would stop trying to reassure us that being murdered is thankfully incredibly rare as was said in the cases of Sarah Everard and PCSO Julia James. Twenty-one women have been killed since early March and WIs in East Kent are meeting in the afternoon rather than the evening because women are so frightened. Its clearly not rare at all. I read that listening to Dave Brubeck or Miles Davis would help you choose fresh fruit over doughnuts and leafy greens over pizzas. I tried it. Two chocolate digestives later, I decided it didnt work. The Queen really is a lifesaver Jenni said it was lovely to see the Queen (pictured) smiling after she was pictured sat alone at Prince Philip's funeral So lovely to see the Queen smiling after that sad picture of her sitting alone at Prince Philips funeral. Like her, I did lifesaving with the Girl Guides and loved it. My mother, the Queens contemporary, was learning to swim when she volunteered to be the guinea pig for another girl to practise. She was dropped, nearly drowned, but was saved by my gran. My mother never went inside a swimming pool again. Oui to the word police How sensible of the French to have an Academie to enforce the rules on language. No woke playing about with masculine and feminine. Le and la are not sexist, it says, and amis or amies are traditional and correct, not to be expressed as ami.e.s. How I wish we had such a guardian of English. The day Mayra Zulfiqar graduated was one of the proudest of her life. That is clear from a photograph taken as she was about to receive her 2:1 law degree at the University of West London in 2019. In the picture, Mayra, on stage in cap and gown, is clutching a mobile phone in her outstretched hand, proudly taking a selfie a poignant moment that captured the hope and excitement of a young woman with so much to look forward to. It was this picture she chose for her profile on the networking platform LinkedIn. After graduating, Mayra won a place on a legal mentorship programme with a law firm in Reading. Career success beckoned for the 24-year-old, who spoke five languages. Mayra Zulfiqar, 24, (pictured) who lived in West London, was found dead on the upper floor of a house in Lahore last week She was an excellent mentee, says Gracie Duncan, head of legal services at Duncan Blackett Law. She was a lovely girl, very quietly spoken, very keen to learn and get into the profession. About two months ago, after the mentorship programme was postponed because of the pandemic, Mayra took an extended holiday to attend a cousins wedding in Pakistan. Last week, she was found dead on the upper floor of a house in one of the most expensive districts of Lahore, where she had been staying with a friend. Mayra had been shot, becoming another statistic in a country ranked as one of the most dangerous in the world for women, where they are all too often victims of domestic violence, sexual abuse, acid attacks and honour killings, and where conviction rates are shockingly low. So how did pretty, clever, popular Mayra Zulfiqar end up in such a scenario, thousands of miles away from her West London home? Our inquiries in Lahore have pieced together the events that culminated in her murder. They begin at the police station responsible for covering the upmarket neighbourhood where Mayra was staying. It was there, some time last month, that she gave a statement to the station house officer. The statement in Urdu, which Mayra spoke has been translated into English for the Mail. Mayra who spoke five languages, had won a place on a legal mentorship programme with a law firm in Reading. Pictured: Mayra graduating She says that on April 17, at about 4.30am, a man she was acquainted with turned up at her residence, kidnapped her at gunpoint and drove her to another part of the city. Along the way, she alleges, he tried to rape her but she managed to push him away, get out of the vehicle and call 15 the police helpline on her mobile phone. While she was speaking to the police, her attacker snatched the phone. As soon as he snatched my mobile, she stated, I started to shout and called for help. People started to come towards me. As bystanders gathered, her assailant panicked and fled the scene in his car. Before doing so, though, he warned her: I will kill you. Mayra, who took a taxi back to her house after the ordeal, said it was not the first time he had tried to enter her residence at gunpoint and appealed for police protection because she feared for her life. Please take strong action against the accused and provide me with security, she pleaded. The man alleged to have kidnapped Mayra turned himself in on Friday and is in custody, meanwhile a second suspect is still in hiding. Pictured: one of the suspects Two weeks later, she was found in a pool of blood in her room, with bullet wounds to her neck and arm. The man alleged to have kidnapped her for legal reasons we will call him Mr X has emerged as one of the prime suspects. The 28-year-old turned himself in on Friday and is in custody. A second suspect, aged 26, whom we will call Mr Y, is still in hiding. The Area Assistant Superintendent told us Mr X has a criminal record but declined to give details. Neither man is believed to have been at the scene of the crime; police are investigating whether a contract killer was hired to pull the trigger. As to the motive for the crime, the main line of inquiry is that both Mr X and Mr Y had allegedly tried to force her to marry them but she had rejected their advances. In Pakistan, a deeply patriarchal society, almost every week brings news of wives strangled, daughters shot and sisters drowned for a perceived slight to honour. Mayra (pictured) who flew to Pakistan for a cousin's wedding, hadn't intended to stay long but remained to avoid the ten-day quarantine in Britain Recently, there were nationwide protests demanding police reform after the Lahore Police chief made a public statement suggesting that a woman who had been gang-raped on a highway in Punjab was herself at fault because she should not have been travelling without her husbands permission on a motorway late at night. And last month, prime minister Imran Khan caused outrage after he appeared to blame how some women dress for a rise in rape cases, saying: This entire concept of purdah [covering up or segregating] is to avoid temptation. Not everyone has the willpower to avoid it. Violence against women, in other words, is commonplace. Mayra, who flew to Pakistan for the wedding with her mother, never intended to stay quite so long. Her parents run a market stall in Feltham, West London, and her mother returned home shortly before Pakistan was placed on the travel red list. But her daughter decided to remain to avoid the ten-day quarantine in Britain, hoping that Pakistan would soon be removed from the red list. Mayra's uncle Mohammad Nazeer, who lives in Lahore (pictured), was aware of the escalating harassment and danger she was facing Her uncle, Mohammad Nazeer, lives in Lahore but she was staying with a friend in the top half of a two-storey house in the exclusive area called Defence, home to many retired army officers hence the name as well as politicians, bureaucrats and tycoons. The districts gentrification has, however, been accompanied by a rise in crime, and guards now patrol the homes of some of the wealthiest residents. How Mayra came to be targeted by the wrong crowd in Lahore is not known, although she had reportedly begun partying with the sons and daughters of the citys elite, a milieu in which guns, drugs and violence towards women are said to be prevalent. In recent weeks, neighbours had witnessed several alarming incidents outside the house she shared with her friend. Once, men brandishing knives were seen threatening Mayra from the street. On another occasion, she was seen rushing inside the building in tears after being dropped off by a car. I saw her being forced inside a car really late at night in front of the main gate, said one resident. Mayra confided in her uncle about the escalating harassment and danger she was facing. Mayra (pictured) enjoyed a meal out with friends before starting her daily Ramadan fast, the day before she was found dead She told him all about Mr X, the marriage proposal and the threats she claimed to have received from him and the other suspect, Mr Y, who are said to have competed with each other for her hand in marriage. My niece Mayra visited my residence and told me she was feeling threatened by them, he said. I comforted her. His detailed account is contained in what is known as a First Incident Report to police. Mr Nazeer said he planned to confront Mr X and his alleged accomplice but never got chance; he was too late to save her. On Sunday evening of last week, devout Muslim Mayra enjoyed a meal out with friends before starting her daily Ramadan fast. Mayra was seen returning to her house in a red Mercedes at about 11pm. In the morning, a maid working in the house called the emergency services after discovering Mayras lifeless body in her room, with her mobile phone near by. She had been shot once in the neck and once in the arm, and bruises were found on her right hand and left foot. It was initially thought she might also have been strangled but this is now understood to have been ruled out. Officers have been examining security video from buildings around the house. Mayras friend, who was living in the room next to hers, is assisting police in their investigation, which has received extensive press coverage in Lahore because Mayra was from Britain. How cruel is this world? someone has posted on an Instagram page called Justice for Mayra. If someone rejects you, it doesnt mean you got [sic] the right to hurt people. Mayra's (pictured) parents are thought to have flown from London to Lahore to attend her funeral service, which was held within 24 hours of her death in keeping with Islamic tradition Mayra had a masters degree in international and business law from the University of West London and had earlier obtained a bachelor of laws from Middlesex University, which involved studying for a time in Dubai. Khulood Sharif, who shared a dormitory with her on the Dubai campus, spoke to her recently. She was excited about Eid, everything seemed normal, she said. I still cant believe this has happened to her. Mayra was lovely and full of fun. She was brilliant, intelligent and very kind and friendly. And she would always support her friends. On Wednesday, friends gathered outside Twickenham School, where Mayra was once a pupil, for a vigil in her honour. She would have done anything for anyone, said one of the small crowd who turned up to lay flowers and candles. Mayras parents are thought to have flown from London to Lahore to attend her funeral service, which was held within 24 hours of her death in keeping with Islamic tradition. Her three brothers remained at the family home. Her family have set up a GoFundMe page and all donations will be made in Mayras name to charity. We need justice for my beloved sister, her brother Faizan Muhammad wrote on the fundraising site. My only sister was taken away from us at only the age of 24 years old. She still had the rest of her life to live [and] see the world and had big plans and dreams for the future. One of those dreams was to work as a commercial arbitrator and perhaps, eventually, even open her own law firm. No one who knew and loved Mayra Zulfiqar doubted she would succeed. Additional reporting: Imtiaz Hussain and Kunwar Khuldune Shahid, in Lahore Hats off to Farrow & Ball. The British paint company has just been sold to a Danish group for a cool half a billion quid. You do have to admire a business that can make so much money from tepid, insipid and impractical products sold at inflated prices, with revolting names. More than that, Farrow & Ball have convinced the nation that their infinite varieties of beige are somehow elegant and tasteful. It's hilarious. How extraordinary that the British public is willing to fork out 84 for a five-litre tin of washed-out colour called 'tallow', 'drop cloth', 'off white', 'clunch', 'lamp room gray', 'blackened' or 'pigeon'. And those are the less repulsive ones. I cannot suppress a shudder at the thought of 'down pipe', 'dead salmon', 'mouse's back' or, most famously, 'elephant's breath'. Have you ever smelt an elephant's breath? It's only marginally better than the stench from the other end. And 'mouse's back' that sounds like covering your walls with dead vermin . . . which, come to think of it, would be preferable. Who would have thought that colours so flimsy and diluted would become the badge of the aspirational middle classes? It's a marvel of branding, and if the Danes think it's worth 500 million, good luck to them. Farrow & Ball are ascendant in the art of pasteurised colour that has nothing going for it but its brand name. The public has been hypnotised into a belief that this paint transforms an ordinary semi-detached in Redditch, Worcestershire, into an icon of upper-class splendour, redolent of the grandeur of Highclere Castle and Chatsworth House. Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen (pictured) reveals the origins of Farrow & Ball as the paint brand sells to a Danish group for a cool half a billion quid It's all a delusion. The truth is quite the opposite. Far from being a reflection of Georgian Britain, their paints are everything an 18th-century duchess would despise. They are oh, the shame the colours of the servants' quarters. John Farrow and Richard Ball began their business in the 1940s, supplying paints to the National Trust for restoration projects on the stately homes of England. These grand country houses were abandoned by the aristocracy after World War II, as crippling death duties made it impossible for families to continue passing them down through the generations. By the time the aristos moved out, many of these posh piles were in pretty poor shape. Farrow & Ball paints were created to restore the faded paintwork. What no one seemed to realise was that the surviving colours in these places were insubstantial, wraithlike perceptions of the sublime shades of Gloriana from 200 years earlier. All that remained was a ghost of the original brilliance. Farrow & Ball devised paints with an inbuilt stonewash, under the wholly mistaken belief that the Georgians appreciated understatement. In fact, what the 18th-century nobility wanted was non-stop party-time, overspilling with excess and show. They lived like oligarchs, and were about as understated as the Kardashians. The idea that they could be associated with 'elephant's breath' and 'mouse's back' would have the Georgian upper classes spinning in their urns. Upstairs in their mansions, they were all about ruby red and cobalt blue, imperial yellow and iridescent violet.Downstairs, where the servants lurked, the walls were daubed with anything that was left over what were known as 'estate colours'. The paint was slapped on and left to fade for a couple of centuries. It was this worn-out mishmash that Farrow & Ball misinterpreted as the palette of Olde England, and sold to us under the banner of 'good taste'. Who would have thought that colours so flimsy and diluted would become the badge of the aspirational middle classes? Pictured: A cosy library painted in Calke Green by Farrow & Ball This is typical of the post-war British instinct for timidity, the nannyish idea that 'nobody wants to be looking at you or your clothes, dear, so stop making an exhibition of yourself'. The brand really took off in the 1990s, as the perfect partner for the obsession with grunge and natural-look make-up. It was the antithesis of 1980s flamboyance, a reaction to a decade of intense over-coloration that was the heyday of the Sloane Ranger. Farrow & Ball is part of what I call the John Lewis Ethos, the crushing belief that one should eradicate any visible element of taste from our attire and our interiors. We feel we should remove anything showy, under the misapprehension that understatement is posh. It isn't it's the hallmark of poverty, both intellectual and financial. The fact that the impoverished look is so much more expensive than almost any other paint is the final, exquisite irony. This inverted snobbery results in what John Betjeman described as 'ghastly good taste'. It's not bad enough to be vulgar, it's not good enough to reflect any credit on the owner it has a neutrality about it that is absolutely captured by the Farrow & Ball palette card. And the keynote of that card is beige, a colour which takes its name from the French name for the underbelly wool of a lamb or a goat. This wool was so soft that any dye could only make it coarser. So it was left uncoloured, preserving its featherdown texture. No one liked to mention that the special shade of beige brown was caused by natural staining. The underside of a lamb or a goat is soaked every day in the animal's own urine and faeces. F&B home painting by the numbers 500 million: Price agreed by Danish group Hempel to buy the company. 1.2 million: Number of Instagram followers. 84: Price for 5 litres of Farrow & Ball white paint. 16: Price for 5 litres Dulux white paint. 25,000: Cost of David Cameron's shepherd's hut, painted in 'Mouse's Back'. 132: Number of shades. 1946: Year the company was founded in Dorset by John Farrow and Richard Ball. 3: Number of coats advised. 87 million: Revenues in the year to March 2020. Advertisement When you opt for beige, you are deliberately choosing the colour of farmyard excrement. Think about that, next time you don your Marks & Spencer mac. We never used Farrow & Ball paints on my BBC interior design show, Changing Rooms. I really cannot see the point of taking a room and making it beige. Also, we were working against the clock, and we didn't have time for the finicky fussiness of paints that had to be coaxed carefully on to the brush. It was for this reason that, in 2017, the company caved and changed its formula, adding up to 20 per cent more pigment to make the paint more opaque and, therefore, easier to apply. I don't have the patience to go through alchemical preparations, just to make sure the bloody stuff stays on the wall. I appreciate that before the Industrial Revolution, interior designers had to spend years at art schools in Florence to perfect their technique, but technology has advanced since then. Nowadays, we have fantastic thixotropic paints, rich in bright acrylics, that practically paint the walls by themselves. You can rock out of bed late on Sunday morning and get stuck straight into a makeover. And we did, all through the lockdowns. In the past year, Britain has spent an incredible 55 billion on home improvements. We have the highest rate of home ownership in the world, and that means we are able to do what we want with our walls. That's what Carrie Antoinette, the wilful fiancee of Boris Johnson, was doing when she redecorated No 10. She was throwing out the appalling Farrow-&-Ballness inflicted on the place, and bringing in a bit of British craft and chutzpah. That is to be applauded. Look, I know there's a terrific affection for Farrow & Ball. People imagine it is manufactured in a Beatrix Potter factory by small woodland creatures, dressed in poke bonnets, that greet each other every morning with warm little squeaks. But somewhere in head office there's an evil genius of a ginger cat, whose name is probably Mr FarrowBall. That cat has made the most ridiculous heap of money by selling us paints with unfathomable names, paints that are extraordinarily difficult to use. Mr FarrowBall the cat has trapped us in a world of beigeness. Thankfully, that world is changing. Interior design goes in cycles, and we're leaving the puritanical, Roundhead era of the early 21st century behind. The trend for colours now is rich and juicy and rumpy pumpy. We are beginning to relive the true spirit of George IV, really indulging the chinoiserie, the exotic and the eccentric. As for 'mouse's back' and 'elephant's breath', the Danes are welcome to them. People have long debated whether a Jaffa Cake is a biscuit or cake - but McVities have now brought a new dimension to the argument by releasing a Jaffa Cake Donut. A unique twist on the original McVitie's Jaffa Cakes, the new Jaffa Jonuts, available in Tesco stores across the UK from Sunday, are a combination of two irresistible snacks. They feature the much-loved Jaffa Cakes' layers of crackly dark chocolate, light springy sponge and the tangy orange flavoured filling, now in a doughnut-shaped ring. The treat will be available either as an individually wrapped ring for 60p or in packs of four for 1.99. A unique twist on the original McVitie's Jaffa Cakes, the new Jaffa Jonuts, available across UK stores from Sunday, are a combination of two irresistible snacks featuring the much-loved Jaffa Cakes' layers of crackly dark chocolate, light springy sponge and the tangy orange flavoured filling, now in a doughnut-shaped ring As the original cake sits in the biscuit aisle, the unconventional McVitie's snack has been at the centre of many a debate, with the latest innovation sure to spark further discussion between Jaffa Cakes fans across the nation. It comes following the release of new flavours earlier this year, including the 'berry cool' range, Original Orange, Playful Pineapple, plus the recently launched Cheeky Cherry and Party Passion Fruit flavours. Emma Stowers, Brand Director for McVitie's at pladis UK&I, told FEMAIL: 'We love hearing Jaffanatics debate about our Jaffa Cakes, and the launch of our Jaffa Jonuts is sure to spark further conversation! 'We're excited to offer a new twist to our fans, as the fusion between Jaffa Cakes and doughnuts brings an exciting and original taste experience to those who love a treat.' As the original cake in the biscuit aisle, the unconventional McVitie's snack has been at the centre of many a debate, with the latest innovation sure to spark further discussion between Jaffa Cakes fans across the nation. Earlier this year, the Edinburgh-based company shocked fans after revealing the chocolate is actually on the bottom of the cake. A UK social media user known as David claimed to have asked the Jaffa Cake team to confirm which side of the treat is the top via Facebook Messenger. In screenshots that have since been shared widely, they said: 'Hi David, our Jaffa Cakes go through a reservoir of chocolate, so the chocolate is the bottom, Thanks Jaffa Cake' to which David quickly replied: 'WTF'. The post was then shared to the Facebook group Family Lockdown Tricks and Tips, where many disagreed with the news. Earlier this year, the Edinburgh-based company shocked fans afte r revealing the chocolate is actually on the bottom of the cake McVitie's have previously weighed in on the debate, revealing that it's not just Jaffa Cakes but all their sweet treats that have the chocolate on the bottom. Marketing director Kerry Owens previously told MailOnline: 'When we make our McVitie's chocolate biscuits whether that be Chocolate Hobnobs, Chocolate Digestives, or even Jaffa Cakes they go through a reservoir of chocolate on the production line. 'This essentially "enrobes" the bottom in chocolate - so we can confirm that the chocolate is officially on the bottom of the biscuits.' A rash that appears on the arms of some people who receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is harmless, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at data from 16 Americans who developed so-called 'Covid arm,' in which people experience itchy and swollen skin, sometimes accompanied by red lumps or hives. They found that the reaction is simply a response from the immune system to the shot that fades within a week. The team, from Yale University School of Medicine, in New Haven, Connecticut, says that no serious events were reported in their patients and that there is no reason why those who get the rash after the first shot shouldn't receive the second dose. A new study looked at 16 patients who experienced a rare side effect, dubbed 'Covid arm' that appears as a red and swollen splotch after receiving the Moderna vaccine (left and right) Almost all patients were treated with topical steroids, oral antihistamines, and cool compresses and one was given an antibiotic, and all rashes disappeared within a week The official term used by dermatologists and allergists to describe the side effect is 'delayed cutaneous hypersensitivity.' Cutaneous means affecting the skin, hypersensitivity mean an unwanted reaction produced by the immune system and delayed because it typically occurs days after the shot is given. The rash is typically red and swollen, and sometime painful to the touch, and always appears on the arm in which the vaccine was administered. Such reactions have also been found in people who've received tetanus vaccines, the chickenpox vaccine and the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine. But Covid arm has only occurred in people who received Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, not Pfizer's, and has been reported in their clinical trials. In a previous interview, Dr Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told DailyMail.com that he likens the side effect to the immune system being in a military-style boot camp. 'The boot camp is a gradual process. In the beginning, the antibodies or the fighting soldier cells that you develop aren't fully trained,' he said. 'Then they're being trained and in that process of training, they get very excited or anxious or angry, because they're working hard and they become very good over time.' That 'angry' feeling from the solider can manifest as Covid arm. For the study, published in JAMA Dermatology, the team looked at 16 patients referred to Yale New Haven Hospital's Dermatology Services between January 20 and February 12, 2021. All received the Moderna coronavirus vaccine and just one had a history of reactions to other vaccines. Four had seasonal and/or food allergies and four were allergic to certain antibiotics including Cefalexin and TMP-SMX (Trimethoprim / Sulfamethoxazole). The remaining eight had no allergies of any kind. Of the 16 patients, 15 developed 'Covid arm' after the first dose and one only after the second dose. Reactions typically occurred about seven days after receiving the dose with most appearing hardened and swollen with fluid. Less commonly, some of the rashes were ring-shaped. Patients were treated with topical steroids, oral antihistamines and cool compresses, and the rash disappeared after about five days. Twelve patients also developed reactions after the second dose, 11 of whom also had reactions the first time. The reactions not only appeared sooner, about two days after being given the dose, but also disappeared more quickly, after about three days. None of the patients needed to be hospitalized and only one required an antibiotic for cellulitis, a potentially serious bacterial skin infection. 'Findings of this case series study indicate that the localized injection-site reactions to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine are a delayed hypersensitivity reaction,' the authors wrote. 'These reactions may occur sooner after the second dose, but they are self-limited and not associated with serious vaccine adverse effects.' Vaccinated people have been posting on Reddit whether or not they have had side effects have receiving coronavirus vaccines Meanwhile, some vaccine recipients have taken to a group on the social media site Reddit to talk about their side effects, or lack thereof, after getting the jab. Thousands of posts on r/CovidVaccinated detail symptoms after receiving the first or second dose of the coronavirus vaccine. 'I had my second dose of Moderna on Monday. Yesterday (the next day) was awful! I knew it might be, but I was still pretty surprised by how bad it was,' wrote one user. 'I had a fever and intense chills from 9 am til 4 pm...It was pretty brutal. I can't imagine what it must be like for folks who got covid so I'm glad to be vaccinated!' Another person detailed their experience after the first Pfizer dose: 'Had my first dose 4/29. Immediate headache, fatigue, brain fog. One week of bad headaches, constant fatigue, constant napping.' However, others said their appointments were overall pleasant. 'For the first dose my arm was just a little sore and that was the only thing I felt,' someone wrote after getting the Pfizer shot. 'For the second dose I was more sore for the rest of the day, took a nap because I was feeling pretty tired and waking up the next day I felt totally fine!' Another user posted about getting the Moderna jab: 'My experience with this vaccination was that it was harmless as a flu shot to me and also had the benefit of lowering my stress about the whole situation. ' Nearly enough American adults plan to be vaccinated against COVID-19 - or already have been - for the U.S. to reach herd immunity, a new survey suggests. The latest YouGov/Economist poll found that 69 percent of adults have had a first dose, are fully vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated against the virus that claimed the lives of more than 580,000 people in the U.S. since the pandemic began. And the share of adults who say they will not get vaccinated has fallen to its lowest level in at least 10 months: 17 percent. Even among the groups that have been skeptical about getting vaccinated, the level of uptake is on the rise, with 61 percent of Republicans saying they have had or will get the vaccine, up from about 40 percent in January. The results are promising signs that the U.S. could reach the 70 percent herd immunity threshold initially proposed by public health experts. Already, average daily deaths in the U.S. are on course to hit their lowest point since the pandemic began in America in March 2020, falling to 620 a day on Tuesday as the share of adults fully vaccinated rises to 45 percent and health officials authorize Pfizer's shot to be given to kids ages 12-15. However, there are emerging threats on the horizon. Two-thirds of cases in the U.S. are now estimated to be caused by the more rapidly spreading UK variant, and cases caused by the variant devastating India are slowly ticking up (although they account for less than one percent of U.S. infections, according to the CDC). The latest YouGov/Economist poll found that 69 percent of adults have had a first dose, are fully vaccinated or plan to get vaccinated against COVID-19 With the more infectious U.K. variant now dominant in the U.S., the bar for herd immunity is rising - likely requiring more than 80 percent of Americans to be vaccinated. And despite the growing share of the population who wants the vaccine, the number of people actually getting them each day has declined sharply since mid-April. Average daily vaccinations in the U.S. peaked at about 3.3 million a day around April 15, but had fallen to fewer than two million by May 8. Declines likely came about after the vast majority of people who were eager to get inoculated had already done so. Public health officials worried that perhaps the U.S. had vaccinated up to the threshold of who is hesitant to get the shots earlier than expected. But the YouGov/Economist survey is just the most recent to show the share of Americans who say they don't want vaccine is shrinking. And the share who want the shot is rising. The U.S. may not see over three million shots a day any time soon, but the survey suggests the overall vaccination rate could continue to steadily rise. Republicans and Independents in the U.S. have been more reluctant about vaccination compared to Democrats. In August, about 60 percent of Democrats already wanted to get vaccinated, compared to about a third of Independents and Republicans. Interestingly, the rate of uptake dipped to its lowest point among liberals in October, around the time former President Trump tested positive for COVID-19. Vaccine confidence declined slowly but steadily among Independents and Republicans in January, around the time of President Biden's inauguration. But confidence is on the rise among all groups now. About 61 percent of Republicans and 52 percent of Independents now say they will get or have gotten the shots. As of Tuesday, 87 percent of Democrats surveyed want the vaccine. However, a previous YouGov/Economist survey found that 80 percent of people who don't want a COVID-19 vaccine said nothing will change their minds. Current numbers for vaccine uptake put U.S. adults right at the lowest suggested bar for herd immunity. More infectious variants then could put herd immunity out of reach for the U.S., if those who say they've dug their heels in against the vaccine don't change their minds. Cecil Lockhart of Welch, West Virginia, 95 (pictured), became the oldest organ donor ever in the U.S. after he passed away on May 4 and his liver was transplanted into a woman in her 60s A 95-year-old man has made history as the oldest organ donor ever in the U.S. Cecil Lockhart of Welch, West Virginia, a great-grandfather of six, passed away on May 4 of natural causes. He was a registered organ donor and his liver was donated to woman in her 60s who is 'doing well,' according to a press release from the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE), which coordinated the transplant. The previous record for oldest organ donor was set by a 93-year-old. Lockhart's family said he was inspired to become an organ donor more than a decade ago after his son, Stanley, died in 2010. At least 75 people received tissue from Stanley through donation, and two had their sight restored when they were given his corneas. Cecil's family said he wanted to continue his son's legacy. 'He was a generous person when he was alive, and we are filled with pride and hope knowing that, even after a long, happy life, he is able to continue that legacy of generosity,' daughter, Sharon White, said in a statement. 'When my brother was a donor after he passed away a few years ago, it helped my dad to heal. And today, knowing his life is continuing through others really is helping us through our grief too.' Lockhart was born in Short Pole, West Virginia - a tiny town about 105 miles south of Charleston - in 1926, the sixth of seven children. According to CORE, he worked a coal miner for more than 50 years and served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a corporal. 'Just as he fought for our country's freedom 75 years ago in World War II, he would be proud to know that he's fighting for someone else today, as an organ donor,' his son-in-law, Bill Davis, said. At Lockhart's funeral, the family asked that all in attendance register to become organ donors in his memory, according to Davis. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), since 1988, more than 30 percent of U.S. deceased organ donors have been aged 50 or above. Lockhart was inspired to be an organ donor after his son, Stanley, died and had his tissues transported into 75 people and two people had their sight restored. Pictured: Lockhart (second from right) with his wife, Helen (third from left) with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren WHAT IS THE LIVER DONOR PROCESS? 1. Make sure the donor's and recipient's blood are compatible 2. HLA (HumanLeukocyte Antigens) testing to make sure the tissues between the donor and recipient are compatible 3. The donor and recipient are not required to be the same age, sex or race 4. Screen the donor for any health treats, including hepatitis viruses or HIV 5. After the donor is declared brain-dead, the liver is removed and placed in clean fluid, and stored in a refrigerator 6. The liver is transplanted into the recipient within 24 hours of recovery Source: UI Health Advertisement Officials find that more and more people who register to be organ donors upon their death are middle-aged or senior citizens. In 2021, 39 percent of donors have been age 50 or older, an eight percent increase from two decades ago, UNOS data show. 'Too often, people mistakenly believe there is an age limit associated with being an organ donor,' UNOS Chief Medical Officer David Klassen said in a statement. 'The truth is, no one is ever too old or too young to give the gift of life. Every potential donor is evaluated on a case-by-case basis at the time of their death to determine which organs and tissue are suitable for donation. Cecil's generous and historic gift is a perfect example of that.' Recent research has suggested that some parts of the body age faster than others, meaning our organs can outlive us. One study from the University of Liverpool in the UK found that the success rate of transplanted hearts and pancreases worsened after the donors were above age 40 and for livers between ages 30 and 50. However, there were no differences in transplanted lungs until the donors were above age 65 and there were no differences in corneas throughout life. Dr Michael Snyder, a professor of genetics at Stanford University, told the BBC that our organs are like car parts. 'Over time, the whole functioning of a car declines, but some parts wear out faster than others,' he said. 'If your engine is starting to go you can fix that - if later the body wears out you can fix that, and so on.' Lockhart is survived by his wife of 75 years, Helen Cline Lockhart; his daughter, Sharon White; his son, Brian Lockhart; three grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. There are currently more than 107,000 patients are on the national transplant waiting list with a new person added every 10 minutes, according to UNOS. Advertisement The U.S. is on track to hit the lowest Covid death rate since the pandemic took hold in America in March 2020. New COVID-19 deaths may fall as low as 1,500 in a week by early June, according to new predictions from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That would be the fewest since the week ending in March 29, 2020, just three months after the first U.S. case was identified in Washington. Already, average daily deaths have fallen to a low seldom seen since coronavirus arrived in the U.S. The seven-day rolling average of fatalities has fallen to about 620, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. It hasn't been that low since July 6. The trends in Covid numbers, coupled with the CDC forecast indicates that vaccinations are having a big impact in the U.S. despite concerning variants, and that the country may look forward to a more 'normal' summer. Experts are closely watching the rapid rise of ore infectious variants that, they say, could threaten the U.S.'s progress if the downward trend in vaccinations continues as the nation reopens. Nearly 60 percent of adults have had at least a first dose of Covid vaccine and 45 percent are fully vaccinated. The CDC on Wednesday recommended that children between 12 and 15 get Pfizer's vaccine, which was authorized by the FDA for the age group earlier this week (despite the fact that children rarely die of COVID-19). That might help pick up the slowing pace of vaccinations, which has dropped from more than three million shots a day to about two million shots a day, potentially leaving holes in American immunity that might allow more infectious variants to take hold in communities. B.1.1.7, the coronavirus variant first detected in the UK, is now causing two out of every three COVID-19 cases in the U.S., according to the CDC. This variant is more contagious than older strains of the coronavirus, allowing it to out-compete these other strains and become dominant - especially in some U.S. states with higher case numbers. The CDC is also now tracking B.1.617, a new variant associated with the recent surge in India. It's making up less than one percent of U.S. cases now, but this number may quickly grow. So far, Covid cases are declining in America any way. For the past two days, the seven-day rolling average of new infections has dipped below 40,000 - a first since September. Still, as variants continue to spread rapidly, U.S. health officials have emphasized the urgency of vaccination. The COVID-19 vaccines already in use work well against the variants. The CDC predicts a decrease in COVID-19 deaths over the month of May, with weekly fatalities falling as low as 1,500 by early June. Weekly deaths haven't fallen that low since the week ending in March 29 - just three months after the U.S. identified its first case B.1.1.7 is now causing two-thirds of cases in the U.S., while other variants are also gaining ground. The variant that emerged in India, B.1.617 is creeping up toward causing 1% of cases Thus far, the pace of vaccinations seems to be driving cases, hospitalizations and deaths down faster than variants are spreading. According to the latest CDC predictions, the trend is expected to continue into June. After the U.S. saw more than 3,000 deaths per day during the peak of the winter surge in January, the CDC now predicts that this number may fall below 300 in the coming weeks. The agency's ensemble forecast predicts that newly reported deaths will decrease from 4,800 this week to a minimum of 1,500 in the week ending June 5. By that same date, total Covid deaths will be between 591,000 and 602,000, according to the forecast. As of Wednesday, 583,000 Americans have died of COVID-19. This forecast follows recent declines. Covid deaths went from an average of 1,000 per day in late March to 700 per day in April, though the number has stayed relatively steady throughout this month. The CDC also predicts that deaths will decline in 15 jurisdictions, which include states and territories. Michigan, a site of much concern after its hospitals filled with COVID patients earlier in April, may see its weekly deaths drop from 500 to 200. A drop in deaths usually follows a drop in cases, and cases are way down right now. Despite fears of a fourth surge, the U.S.s average daily case count has fallen from 70,000 on April 11 to 38,000 on May 11 - a decline of almost two-fold. The country has not seen such low case numbers since early September, between the end of the summer surge and the start of the holiday surge. Public health experts attribute this trend to the coronavirus vaccines. The Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are highly effective - even in the face of new, more contagious variants. As of May 12, 46 percent of the total U.S. population has had at least one vaccine dose, according to the CDC. One in three Americans are fully vaccinated. The senior population is particularly well-protected by vaccines, as this group was a priority early in the U.S. rollout. So far, 84 percent of Americans over age 65 have had at least one dose and 72 percent are fully vaccinated. Protecting seniors is key to lowering the COVID death rate, as older adults are more likely to suffer from severe disease and die from the coronavirus. The vaccination pace has slowed in recent weeks due to falling demand for shots. In mid-April, the U.S. administered over three million doses each day; now, the number is closer to two million. Some states, cities, and pharmacy chains have made vaccines available on a walk-up basis so that the shots are more easily accessible. If vaccinations continue at the current pace, enough people may still be covered for broad reopenings this summer. The latest tactic aimed at increasing vaccination rates is to start giving shots to younger children. Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was recommended for 12- to 15-year-olds by the an advisory committee to the CDC on Wednesday after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded its emergency authorization on Monday. CDC head Dr Rochelle Walensky is expected to sign off on the endorsement as early as this afternoon, triggering the rollout of the shot to younger teens in states across the U.S., likely to start on Thursday. That will expand eligibility for Covid vaccination to some 17 million people who were previously excluded. It's up to states whether or not to make At least one state, Georgia already began vaccinating children ages 12-15 on Tuesday. The rest are expected to follow suit, despite hesitation among some experts, parents and politicians who point out that the risk that a child who gets COVID-19 will die of the infection is exceedingly low (about 0.2 percent). U.S. health officials continue to encourage vaccination for a widening swath of Americans, especially as a protective tool against the new variants that are now widely circulating in the country. The U.S. identified its first B.1.1.7 case in Colorado in late December. Now, the majority of cases in the country are caused by this more-transmissible variant. By late April 66 percent of U.S. were caused by B.1.1.7, according to new data from CDC released yesterday. The number represents cases from April 10 to April 24. The CDC reports variant case numbers with a two-week delay because genomic sequencing, the process of identifying a coronavirus case's entire molecular identity and matching this with known variants, takes at least a week. As a result, the true share of B.1.1.7 cases in the country is likely even higher than what the CDC now reports. How did B.1.1.7 go from a couple of cases in December to thousands of cases each day? The variant spreads more easily than older versions of the coronavirus, enabling it to outcompete the strains that were prevalent in the U.S. before this variant arrived. Studies have estimated B.1.1.7 is between 40 percent and 70 percent more contagious. This has led some experts to describe the variant as almost a 'second pandemic' on top of the old-strain coronavirus pandemic, able to cause its own distinct outbreaks. Michigan has been the state hardest-hit by this 'second pandemic.' Three out of four COVID-19 cases in Michigan were caused by this variant in the month of April, driving the state's recent surge and filling hospitals. Other states with high B.1.1.7 numbers are Tennessee (80 percent of cases), Georgia (76 percent), Minnesota (75 percent), Texas (71 percent), and Ohio (71 percent). There may be other B.1.1.7-heavy states not represented in the CDC's data, though. The agency only reports variant numbers for those states that meet a genomic sequencing target: 300 sequences in four weeks. 23 states are not meeting this target. While the U.S. has significantly ramped up sequencing efforts in recent months, many genetic experts worry that it's still not enough to keep a close eye on emerging variants. B.1.1.7 isn't the only variant concerning U.S. public health officials right now. B.1.617, first identified in India, has been associated with the country's recent surge, culminating in record-breaking days with over 400,000 new cases. The CDC and World Health Organization both recently designated B.1.617 as a 'variant of concern' because, like B.1.1.7, it's more contagious. And some common COVID-19 treatments, such as monoclonal antibodies, may be less effective for patients infected with this variant. Luckily, vaccines still work against it. B.1.617 has now been identified in over 40 countries, including the U.S. According to yesterday's CDC update, it's causing about 0.7 percent of cases in the country as of April 24. Another dangerous variant, P.1, has driven rising cases in Brazil and other South American countries. This variant is now causing five percent of cases in the country, according to the CDC. Sequencing expert Trevor Bedford recently wrote on Twitter that 'it's clear P.1 has been gaining ground' in the U.S., with more rapid growth than even B.1.1.7. Meanwhile, the second-most prevalent variant in the U.S. after B.1.1.7 is now B.1.526, a variant first identified in New York City. It's causing 14 percent of cases in the country. The CDC classifies B.1.526 as a 'variant of interest,' a lower-priority classification than 'variant of concern.' Still, it's more contagious and less responsive to common COVID-19 treatments. What can you do to protect yourself against these dangerous variants? The same precautions that public health officials have recommended throughout the pandemic apply: wear a mask, avoid crowds, and get vaccinated if the vaccine is available to you. While the COVID-19 vaccines now in use may not be as effective against some variants as they are against older coronavirus strains, all data show these vaccines are still great at protecting against severe disease and death. America's vaccination program was key to turning around the recent surge in Michigan and preventing case rises in other parts of the country. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky encouraged vaccination while testifying before a Senate committee on COVID-19 efforts yesterday. 'We must remain diligent and committed to our surveillance and prevention efforts because the emergent of variants could set us back,' she said. Any American who is undecided about receiving the coronavirus vaccine should 'look at India,' a Biden administration official said on Wednesday. Andy Slavitt, the White House senior advisor for COVID-19 response, said the general public should compare the downward trends in the U.S. to the spikes seen in the Asian country. While India recorded its highest single-day death toll on Wednesday, the U.S. recorded a seven-day rolling average of 619 per day, the lowest figure seen since July 6. 'Look at the data, look at India, and see the results of what happens when you can't get vaccinated,' he said on MSNBC. 'So we're going to just continue to make it easier and easier for people to one, get the questions answered, and two, take away every inconvenience that would possibly get in the way.' Andy Slavitt, the White House senior advisor for COVID-19 response, said during an appearance on MSNBC on Wednesday (pictured) that any American who has not decided about getting vaccinated yet should look at coronavirus data from India India is facing a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines during its deadly second wave, recording its highest single-day death toll of more than 4,200 on Wednesday Meanwhile, the U.S. has been seeing declining cases and deaths, and recorded on Wednesday a seven-day rolling average of 619, the lowest figure seen since July 6 Officials believe a coronavirus variant that first emerged in India is at least partially responsible for the country's second coronavirus wave. Known as B.1.617, the variant has become the most common in India, making up an estimated two percent of all cases, according to outbreak.info. However, it has three sublineages, one of which accounts for about 20 percent of cases in the country. B.1.617 has been called a 'double mutant' by India's Ministry of Health because it has two mutations on parts of the virus that help it hook onto our cells. On Wednesday, India recorded more than 360,000 new cases and more than 4,200 deaths, the country's highest single-day death toll. And, in an odd twist of fate, India is facing a vaccine shortage after making and exporting more vaccines than any other country. Slavitt says also recommended that vaccine hesitant people talk to their doctors as well as family and friends people they know who have been vaccinated. 'We know that some people make very quick decisions about whether to get a vaccine or not and some people want a little more time to consider whether they should or not,' he told MSNBC. The Indian variant, known as B.1.617, is believed to be partially behind the surge (above) and has been called a 'double mutant' because it has two mutations on parts of the virus that help it hook onto our cells Slavitt touted several programs rolled out by the White House to meet President Joe Biden's goal of getting 70% of Americans at least one shot by July 4, with 46.2% doing so to date 'There's no right or wrong way to do this. If you have a question you want answered, ask your doctor. If you want to talk to one of the 150 million people who have been vaccinated and see their experience, do that.' Slavitt also touted many of the outreach efforts the Biden administration has made in getting people vaccinated. This includes a number that Americans can text their ZIP code to, GETVAX or 438829, to find appointments and Uber and Lyft offering free rides to and from vaccination sites. Officials hope the moves will help meet President Joe Biden's goal of ensuring at least 70 percent of adults get at least one dose by July 4. 'We consider this a wartime effort, so, we will absolutely be pouring it on,' Slavitt said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) advisory committee has voted to recommend Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine be administered to children ages 12 to 15 - and soon may be giving the shot to even younger kids. The companies are currently studying how well their vaccine works in children between ages six months and 11 years old. In an interview on CBS This Morning, Dr William Gruber, Pfizer's Senior Vice President of Vaccine Clinical Research and Development said data for those aged two to 11 could be available by the fall, and soon after be authorized. 'This affords an opportunity to protect the adolescent against COVID-19 although they less commonly have severe disease, they can end up in the hospital,' he said. 'And importantly, it allows adolescents to get back to being adolescents, to be able to to engage in sporting activities, to be able to go back to school, to be able to engage in drama club or gather in groups.' It comes as 14 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted 'yes' to give the shot to younger teens with one member recusing herself. The vaccine was authorized for Americans aged 16 and older in December 2020 and Pfizer has been in trials for teens since October of last year. With the formal recommendation from ACIP, and emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) given on Monday, it paves the way fro , most states to begin giving out the shot to adolescents on Thursday Dr William Gruber, Pfizer's Senior Vice President of Vaccine Clinical Research and Development, said on CBS This Morning (pictured) that children ages 2-11 could be given the vaccine by fall if it receives approval It comes as the CDC's advisory committee recommended that Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine be administered to children ages 12 to 15. Pictured: A teenager receives a shot in a clinical trial of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Expanding vaccine availability to younger teenagers will make about 17 million additional Americans eligible for vaccination, a step that some see as critical to reaching herd immunity and improving safety as children return to school. However, some parents and experts have questioned whether vaccinating children is really for their own benefit, or if it is risking the effects of a new vaccine in kids in order to protect adults, when only 0.1 percent of U.S. Covid fatalities have been in people under 18. 'This is one more step to gaining immunity and bringing the pandemic closer to an end,' Dr Jose Romero, chair of the ACIP and Arkansas' health secretary, said in a statement. 'We still need to vaccinate the rest of the world, but we have made significant steps and are on the road.' In Pfizer's phase III clinical trial, about 2,200 teenagers were enrolled in the U.S. compared to 40,000 for the aged 16 and older trial. Half of the group received two doses of the vaccine three weeks apart and the other half were given two placebo injections. A total of 18 cases of COVID-19 were reported in the placebo group while no cases were reported in the vaccine group. This means that the vaccine was 100 percent safe and effective in 12-to-15-year-olds, according to the researchers. What's more, side effects were similar to those seen in the larger trial among 16-to-25-year-olds, including pain at the injection site, tiredness, fever and headaches. At the time, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the hope was 'starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year. Researchers plan to track participants for two years to collect information long-term protection, effects and safety. Now that the FDA has authorized the Pfizer vaccine and the CDC has issued its formal recommendations for children ages 12-15, states can begin giving the shots to tweens. Children (in dark blue) make up only 0.1 % of U.S. Covid fatalities, but now account for 24% of all new coronavirus cases last week New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the shot could get authorization in his state by Thursday, once the CDC's committee gives the go-ahead. Louisiana health officials told WWL-TV that they will support the FDA's decision, and New Orleans health officials announced the authorization and coming availability for those 12 and up, signaling the state and city will follow suit. And Texas is reaching out to local pediatricians to get them to sign up to give the vaccines to kids and talk to local parents, but won't start giving the shots until the CDC gives its seal of approval, reported Bloomberg Law. Georgia blazed ahead on Tuesday, however, immediately opening vaccinations to tweens. The state falls in the bottom quarter of the U.S. for its Covid vaccination rates. States are broadly expected to expand access to Pfizer's Covid vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds, if they and their parents decide they should get the shots. According to an Axios/Ipsos poll, parents are currently split about 50/50 on whether or not they want their children to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Insurance claims for mental health issues among Americans between ages 13 and 18 nearly doubled between January and November of 2020, compared to the same period in 2019, according to a recent Fair Health report. Parents, teachers, pediatricians and the CDC all agree that children desperately need to be back in school to protect their mental health and ensure they don't fall behind educationally. The CDC has said in no uncertain terms that schools - K-12 schools as well as colleges and universities - could safely reopen prior to the availability of vaccines for students, but only so long as they could keep kids in masks and maintain social distance in classes. Currently, Pfizer's vaccine is only available under emergency use authorization, a form of temporary approval granted with a lower bar of proof in crises, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week, the company applied for full FDA approval. Getting full approval will require a massive data set and a much longer review, so it probably won't come for months. Until then, K-12 schools are unlikely to require the vaccine. President Joe Biden encouraged parents to get their children vaccinated during an address on Wednesday (pictured) Biden encourages parents to get their children vaccinated after a CDC panel recommended Pfizer's COVID shots for people as young as 12 "The vaccine for kids between the ages of 12 and 15 [is] safe, effective, easy, fast and free. My hope is that parents will take advantage" pic.twitter.com/tZJwqYkUKU CBS News (@CBSNews) May 12, 2021 According to NPR, the Biden administration has been planning a 'back to school' vaccination campaign. Some of the steps include allowing pediatricians and general practitioners to administer vaccines and lowering eligibility for who van be vaccinated at pharmacies. In addition, the administration plans have COVID-19 vaccines offered as part of annual physicals many children are required to complete before the new school year. During a address on Wednesday afternoon, President Joe Biden encouraged parents to get their children vaccinated. 'The vaccine for kids between the ages of 12 and 15 [is] safe, effective, easy, fast and free. My hope is that parents will take advantage,' he said. Andrew Brown Jr. had a decades-long history of violent confrontations with police, including a 2016 incident during which he fought officers and was tasered, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal. The black dad-of-seven - who was shot dead last month when sheriff's deputies surrounded his car in Elizabeth City, North Carolina - had a rap sheet dating back to his teens and spent at least eight stints behind bars. Court documents seen by DailyMail.com reveal he faced more than 100 charges over three decades, ranging from misdemeanors for breaking and entering, making threats and assault with a deadly weapon, to six felony drug convictions. Furthermore, Brown, 42, was charged with resisting a public officer - otherwise known as resisting arrest or obstructing a police officer - on at least six separate occasions from 1997 to 2016. Andrew Brown Jr, 42, had racked up a more than 100 charges for offenses committed over the course of 30 years that ranged from misdemeanors to six felony drug convictions. He is pictured above in booking photos in 2007, 2016, and 2020 DailyMail.com can reveal that Brown was just 16 when he recorded his first criminal conviction for first degree trespass in 1995. He is pictured above in a booking photo for a 2013 offense The 42-year-old father-of-seven, was shot and killed in his car on April 21 in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, while police were executing arrest warrants for drug offenses In two of those instances he was accused of using his car to flee, foreshadowing the deadly April 21 encounter when he was blasted in the back of the neck while apparently trying to drive away from deputies executing a drug-related search warrant. Grieving family members say Brown was unarmed and have labeled his death - the latest in a series of high-profile, deadly encounters between cops and African Americans - an 'execution'. The fatal incident was captured on multiple bodycam videos but so far a judge has resisted demands to make the full two-hours of footage public, only allowing grieving relations to watch snippets in private. After watching six different clips Tuesday, family members continued to insist that Brown had his hands on the wheel - 'visible at all times' - prior to the shooting outside his home. It was only when Pasquotank County deputies opened fire that he tried to drive away, putting his BMW into reverse to back up, and never posing any sort of threat to them, said the family's attorney, Chance Lynch. 'At no point did we see any police officers behind his vehicle. At no point did we see Mr Brown make contact with law enforcement,' he told reporters. Lynch described what followed as a 'massacre by a firing squad,' and called on the deputies involved to serve long prison sentences. Brown was struck four times in the arm and once in the back of the neck, according to an independent autopsy commissioned by his family. 2007: Brown Jr. was jailed at least eight separate times for various charges. Court documents above show he was charged for 'communicating threats' in 2006 2013: There was a warrant issued for Brown's arrest on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting a public officer, and eluding arrest in June 2013 2016: He was charged once again with resisting a public officer in an incident in July 2016 during which he allegedly fought with law enforcement officers which resulted in him being tazed, according to documents Rap sheet: Brown's confrontations with police date back to 1997 when he was twice charged with resisting a public officer, a class 2 misdemeanor in North Carolina punishable by up 60 days in jail. He was hit with the same offence in 2001, 2003 and in 2010 Contesting the family's version of events, Pasquotank County District Attorney Andrew Womble has said that officers started shooting only when Brown drove into them. 'As it backs up, it does make contact with law enforcement officers,' Womble told a previous court hearing. 'The next movement of the car is forward. It is in the direction of law enforcement and makes contact with law enforcement. It is then and only then that you hear shots.' Judge Jeffrey Foster ruled last month that the footage should not be released for at least another 30 days, citing concerns its disclosure could compromise an investigation that has now broadened to include state and federal authorities. DailyMail.com can reveal that Brown was just 16 when he recorded his first criminal conviction for first degree trespass in 1995. That same year he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and robbery, though the case was later dismissed, according to state records. By 1996 he had racked up the first of dozens of drug offences, beginning with possession of marijuana. Between April 1999 and April 2010 he was convicted of multiple felonies for possession and intent to supply cocaine and a range of other narcotics charges. 2020: Most recently, Brown Jr. had a warrant out for his arrest for allegedly selling drugs from an Elizabeth City motel room on November 13, 2020 2010: An arrest warrant was issued against Brown on charges for resisting an officer during traffic stop on July 18, 2010 Pictured above is Brown's indictment on a 2016 'habitual felon' charge, listing his then-history of felonies. The case was ultimately discontinued At the time of his death, Brown was facing a string of further felonies and the possibility of another lengthy prison spell relating to a November 2020 arrest for allegedly selling fentanyl or heroin from a motel room. He was arrested again in neighboring Dare County earlier this year for intent to manufacture and sell drugs although the case was discontinued. Brown was also arrested for a number of assaults beginning in his teens, several of which targeted his female partners. Brown's family were allowed to watch snippets of redacted footage on Tuesday but could not take copies He was hit with a permanent restraining order in 2007 for continuing to threaten Josette Brickhouse, a woman he dated for 15 years, in breach of a protection order. 'Yes I know he had a record and he had a past but none of that should have mattered. It's heartbreaking what they did to him,' Brickhouse told DailyMail.com. 'They shot him down like an animal. He didn't deserve to die that way. That was murder. They need to be arrested for murder.' Brown's confrontations with police date back to 1997 when he was twice charged with resisting a public officer, a class 2 misdemeanor in North Carolina punishable by up 60 days in jail. He was hit with the same offence in 2001, 2003 and in 2010, when he served the full 60 days for resisting arrest and fleeing from an officer during an attempted traffic stop. The career criminal was convicted of the exact same offences three years later, along with possession of drug paraphernalia, and spent another 60 days in custody. The most violent clash took place in July 2016, however, when he was shot with a taser during an encounter with Pasquotank sheriff's deputy, Jay Winslow. According to documents obtained by DailyMail.com, Brown was 'continuing to fight with investigator Winslow and other law officers despite commands to stop fighting, resulting in the defendant having to be tazed.' Brown had also been involved in numerous civil court cases, including demands for child support and several domestic violence complaints in which he has been both the victim and the alleged perpetrator In February, he applied for a protection order accusing another long-term ex-partner, Patrice Revelle, of pouring ice tea over him, stabbing him in a 'private area' and hitting him in the arm with a bar Brown's application for the protective order against his partner of 13 years was ulimately denied He was booked for various charges including felony possession of cocaine and schedule II narcotics but the case was ultimately dismissed. Brown has also been involved in numerous civil court cases in his native Pasquotank County, including demands for child support and several domestic violence complaints in which he has been both the victim and the alleged perpetrator. In February he applied for a protection order accusing another long-term ex-partner, Patrice Revelle, of pouring ice tea over him, stabbing him in a 'private area' and hitting him in the arm with a bar. The application was denied. Bodycam footage does not automatically qualify as a public record in North Carolina and under Foster's April 28 ruling, Brown's family were only allowed to privately view redacted footage from five devices and one dashboard cam. Their attorneys labelled the decision 'very disappointing', adding in a statement: 'In this modern civil rights crisis where we see Black people killed by the police everywhere we look, video evidence is the key to discerning the truth and getting well-deserved justice for victims of senseless murders. Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in North Carolina in April after a judge refused to release body cam footage of Brown Jr. being shot dead by police to the media. Pictured: A protester faces a line of law enforcement officers in riot gear with his arms raised Judge Jeffrey Foster ruled that the footage of Brown's fatal confrontation with police should not be released for a further 30 days, citing concerns its disclosure could compromise an investigation 'Just look at the murder of George Floyd - if the world had not seen that clear and disturbing footage, there might not have even been an ounce of accountability for those officers. 'We refuse to be discouraged and vow to keep the pressure on these agencies until we get to the truth. We will not stop saying his name. Andrew Brown Jr.' In the wake of Brown's death, footage emerged of a large group of deputies traveling in a military-style vehicle to his $50,000, three-bed home, a few minutes from downtown Elizabeth City, a majority-black coastal city in eastern North Carolina. Another video revealed deputies surrounding Brown's bullet-riddled BMW, which had crashed into a tree, in the immediate aftermath. Attorneys for the seven Pasquotank County deputies involved argue the 8:30am shooting was justified. Four of the officers who did not open fire have already been reinstated but investigator Daniel Meads, Deputy Sheriff Robert Morgan and Cpl. Aaron Lewellyn remain on administrative leave. A search warrant released in the wake of the fatal encounter described Brown as a known drug dealer who regularly trafficked 'crack cocaine, cocaine, heroin/fentanyl and methamphetamine' from his home. Seven Pasquotank County deputies were at the scene of the shooting and three remain on administrative leave Investigators recorded camera evidence of an informant making 'controlled purchases' of meth and cocaine, according to the document, which was signed off by Superior Court Judge Jerry Tillett on April 20 - one day before the deadly shooting. Prominent civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, who is also representing the family, said the release of the warrant was an attempt to assassinate Brown's character. 'The people who killed Andrew Brown, they want to protect their identity and protect their rap sheet,' Crump told MSNBC. 'But they want to blast Andrew Brown's rap sheet out there because that's the playbook - to assassinate the character of black people once they kill us because they want to say, 'They're not worthy of your consideration, America.' Crump and Cherry-Lassiter did not respond to calls and emails from DailyMail.com requesting further comment on Brown's criminal history. Advertisement Eileen Hollis doesn't remember how old she was when she saw her first dead body, but it was young, she says, 'really young.' Now the 31-year-old mortician from Syracuse, New York has decided that she will one day take over the family business in the same home where she was raised. 'It was a straight up My Girl and Six Feet Under type of deal,' she laughs. With pink hair and cat-eye glasses, Hollis doesn't look the part of your stereotypical funeral director but she has done more than 1,000 funerals in her four-year career. Recently, she's become a viral sensation on TikTok, where she shares her passion for all things six feet under. From the embalming process, to the weird smells, mortuary makeup tips, and what it's like to deal with death all day long no topic is off limits. She answers questions like, What happens if someone dies wearing contact lenses? How do you get makeup to look natural when the skin is stiff? Is it true you break people's bones to position them in a coffin? Where do tampons go and who takes them out? - The latter to which she replied: 'What's a little more blood? I don't think we would even notice it.' Funeral director, Eileen Hollis, 31, poses on her wedding day next to her parents outside the family funeral home that she will one day take over and live in with her own husband and children. Hollis' father Charlie (left) owned and operated the mortuary for forty years while raising his family in the upstairs floors of the giant Victorian mansion. 'It was a straight up My Girl and Six Feet Under type of deal,' said Eileen #DeathTok is a popular and fast growing corner of the social media hub with over 18 million views from those with a morbid fascination for death. Eileen Hollis is its latest breakout star with 409,000 followers who flock to her videos for her straight forward talk about death packed with unflinching details. From the embalming process, to the weird smells, mortuary makeup tips, and what it's like to deal with death all day long no topic is off limit As a funeral director, Hollis is responsible for planning the arrangements as well as preparing the body which involves cleaning, embalming, dressing, cosmetology and casket placement. She is also an embalmer and has done more than 1,000 funerals in her career. She insists that she's never been squeamish, except for when it comes to smells. 'The respirator is my godsend because I can't smell anything. And if I can, then it's time to change the cartridges,' she told DailyMail.com As a funeral director, Hollis is in charge of every detail from planning arrangements to preparing the body which involves cleaning, embalming, dressing, cosmetology and casket placement. Her goal is to take the stigma out of death, debunk myths, and educate people on their options: do you want to be cremated? Embalmed? Composted? To that purpose, no question is too ghastly or trivial. In one video, she discusses the post-mortem phenomena called the 'purge,' which is when a build-up of pressure in the body causes fluids to exit out the various orifices- ears, nose, mouth, rectum. In another clip, Hollis gives a play by play of the embalming process while doing her morning skincare routine. She remains unruffled, nonchalant, and refreshingly insouciant despite the ghoulish subject matter. 'Because my hands are so small I got to reach in and hold someone's brain,' she tells the camera while holding a face serum that unnervingly looks a lot like blood. Using a dropper, she draws the red product from its bottle and finishes her thought, 'So that was interesting.' She also shares tricks of the trade, like how she uses 'mortuary wax' to restore traumas like gunshot wounds, and 'skin slip,' which is when the superficial layers of the skin slide off. Or how she uses root touch-up spray to 'dye' a person's hair. In the absence of photographs, she'll use images on the deceased's social media to match skin color. And she doesn't hesitate to talk about the more macabre elements of her job. Like how she wires a mouth shut, or uses ridged eye caps, 'similar to contacts' to keep eyelids closed. Hollis's vast knowledge comes by way of her father, Charlie Hollis, who has run the Hollis Funeral Home out of their Victorian-era mansion as a one-man operation for the last 40 years. (Her mother works as a seamstress). Eileen and her two siblings - one is a burlesque dancer, the other is a librarian - were raised in the floors above the mortuary. 'Growing up,' said Hollis, 'I truly never understood what the extent of a funeral service is and what it means.' She remembers hearing quiet murmurs and the smell of cigarette smoke. She told DailyMail.com: 'I just knew that my dad threw parties downstairs for people.' 'Everyone thinks that we're crazy for getting into this business, but I don't think it's any crazier than becoming a doctor or a social worker or a lawyer,' she told DailyMail.com. Hollis gives her followers an inside look of the funeral home that she grew up in. The rambling Victorian-style mansion was built in 1892. The downstairs area features two viewing rooms, a casket showroom, a cremation product room as well as an embalming room in the basement. Hollis, along with her parents and two siblings lived in the upstairs portion of the house while her father worked downstairs Despite having grown up with dead bodies in the basement, Hollis says her childhood was 'pretty normal.' Piano lessons, dance rehearsals, sleepovers with friends, and high school shenanigans, she said, 'Sometimes I would forget that I lived in a funeral home' 'Growing up,' said Hollis, 'I truly never understood what the extent of a funeral service is and what it means.' She remembers hearing quiet murmurs and the smell of cigarette smoke. She told DailyMail.com: 'I just knew that my dad threw parties downstairs for people' Eileen Hollis' father, Charlie ran the Hollis Funeral home as a one-man operation for the last 40 years. Eileen says her motivation for going into the family trade was because she wanted to carry on her father's legacy. He spent years working to buy back his business from a predatory funeral corporation that bought up local mom and pop mortuaries in the 1990s. 'After all that, I would die if I saw his legacy crumble,' she told DailyMail.com. Hollis was working as a dance instructor when she decided to go to mortuary school in 2014 As she got older, Hollis remembers spying on her guests, crawling under the row of chairs in the visitation room and 'ghostbusting spirits' if she ever felt unsafe. 'The funeral home was my playground.' All things considered, she had a normal childhood. Piano lessons, dance rehearsals, sleepovers with friends, and high school shenanigans, she said, 'Sometimes I would forget that I lived in a funeral home.' 'Sometimes I would have to go downstairs and knock on the embalming room door where my dad would peek his head out the door I wouldn't see a dead person, but you could see their legs and stuff.' 'It was just such a normal part of our life live that I never thought too deeply into what the business is,' she told DailyMail.com. The 31-year-old undertaker insists that her unconventional upbringing never affected her social life. In fact, she laughs, 'I wasn't the first girlfriend who had a family funeral home when I started dating my husband.' Currently Hollis lives with her husband in 'a tiny Hobbit house' close to the family mortuary. One day, when Eileen takes over the business, she and her husband will move into the upstairs with their own family. 'We are in no rush to get into that funeral home,' she says. 'But he knows that we're going to live there and he's fine with it.' Despite her passion for the family trade 'funeral directing' wasn't her first career choice. In fact she studied dance and worked as an instructor for the Syracuse City School District before she began shadowing her dad for extra money. For Hollis, carrying on her father's legacy was the biggest motivating factor in joining the family business. In the 1990s, Charlie Hollis misguidedly sold his business to a corporate funeral company that bought up local mom and pop mortuaries, only to drive them into the ground. 'It's really, exactly like what happened in Six Feet Under,' said Eileen. After 'a lot of blood, sweat, and tears,' Charlie Hollis was finally able buy back his company and business is better than ever before. 'After all that, I would die if I saw his legacy crumble.' Hollis debunks the myth that morticians 'break bones' but explains how they 'break rigor mortis' instead by flexing limbs to position a corpse in its casket and help distribute the embalming fluid throughout the body. In another video, Hollis confirms the 'myth' that the hands of a deceased person can seemingly 'grasp' onto the undertaker when the flexor tendons on their wrists are accidentally 'activated' - causing 'the hand to slightly crawl in' In another video, Eileen Hollis explains why they don't use a refrigeration system in their funeral home: 'Syracuse, New York is freezing for the majority of the year.' She also adds that a chemically embalmed body can last for a few weeks and that putting it back in a freezer would create condensation and mold. 'In the summer, we install a very good air conditioner that spews out all the cold air, but thats mostly so I dont die when I'm in my PPE' Hollis poses with her father on her wedding day underneath the clock that hangs outside their funeral home. It bares an inscription in Latin: 'Tempus Fugit Momento Mori,' which translates to 'Times fly, remember death' Eileen Hollis showcases all the various hair products she uses to perfect a corpse's coif while explaining the tricks she uses to dye the hair of a deceased person. It's possible she says, 'but it's a little bit tricky' because box dyes don't work nor do old-fashioned rinses. That being said, Eileen uses root touch-up spray, finished with hair spray to keep the color from flaking She enrolled in mortuary school in 2014. The two-year program requires students to pass two national board exams in both arts and science before they can receive their diploma. The 'arts' portion of the test covers the business and religious elements of funeral directing while the 'science' section focuses on the embalming process, cosmetic and restorative arts. Some of the classes include gross anatomy, which entails working on a cadaver. 'We really went through each layer of the body, from the top layer of skin all the way down to the bone,' explained Hollis, who became more convinced that she picked the right profession after taking that first class. 'I love the human body. It's so fascinating. And as a former dancer, um, I just loved it even more.' All mortuary students are then required to complete a year-long residency with a funeral home and pass a state funeral law exam before they can officially receive their mortician's license. 'It's crazy. It was a lot of work, a lot more work than I thought I was going to do,' said Hollis. 'The apprenticeship is where you really learn everything they did not teach you in school. Like just tons of little crazy situations and how you can problem solve, a lot of funeral directing is thinking on your feet and thinking fast.' Hollis is also an embalmer, which is a certain skill that not all funeral directors have. Embalming is a process that temporarily disinfects and preserves the body by replacing the blood with formaldehyde and draining the organs. She spares no details in describing the procedure on her TikTok. She insists that she's never been squeamish, except for when it comes to smells. 'The respirator is my godsend because I can't smell anything. And if I can, then it's time to change the cartridges,' she told DailyMail.com. Emotionally, the worst part of her job 'is witnessing infant death.' But the most rewarding part is giving families closure. She told DailyMail.com: 'Death care isn't just about caring for the dead, it's about caring for the living so much more.' The most challenging aspect of funeral directing is the unpredictable work schedule. Hollis has to be on-call 24 hours a day, which is why she says, 'living above the funeral home makes it so much easier.' Every experience is always new and no two bodies are ever alike, that's what keeps Hollis thinking on her toes. 'Maybe someone really loves a red lip and a lot of blush, or maybe there's a little old lady that drew her eyebrows on really thin and not in the place that eyebrows grow at all,' she says. The worst cases are those who died from a traumatic death like a motorcycle accident, or homicide, or those who underwent an autopsy. 'That can be a lot too. Your whole abdominal cavity is opened because they're studying to see how you died.' 'So it's a bit shocking but that makes me want to work harder to then do my favorite thing which is putting them back together and making them look like themselves.' Eileen shows how bodies are first placed on a wood base with a cardboard top before they are sent off for cremation. Hollis said that her goal in creating the TikTok is to take the stigma out of death, debunk myths, and educate people on their post-mortem options Charlie Hollis finds treats delivered in the casket from a casket maker in upstate New York. Eileen calls it #casketcandy Some of the more ghoulish clips from Eileen Hollis' TikTok explain the procedure for wiring a jaw shut, which is done with something called a 'needle injector.' The device looks similar to a gun and involves anchoring two tacks in the upper and lower jaw. In another clip, Hollis shows off the tools of the trade: an aneurism hook, an incision spreader, arterial hemostat, angled scissors, and S-curve needles Hollis says that Glossier mascara and brow pencil are her favorite products to use on the dead. She also says that finishing powder is a 'must have' especially when working with restorative wax. The mermaid shaped makeup brushes by Tarte Cosmetics (left) have a starring role throughout her TikTok feed. An embalming machine (right) replaces blood with formaldehyde in order to preserve the body. The process requires Hollis to first drain all the blood from the body and aspirate the organs Do dead bodies fart? Can you preserve tattoos? What does embalming fluid smell like?: A mortician's cheerful answers to GRAVE questions What is embalming? 'Embalming is the art and science of temporarily disinfecting and preserving a human body. The point is to make the dead appear more suitable for a public or private visitation.' Where does the blood drain from an embalming? Is it thin or normal after death? 'The blood drains down the embalming room table and into a toilet that we like to call 'the hopper,' which feeds into the sewer system. The consistency of blood depends on your body's condition, how you died and what underlying conditions you have medically. The blood itself can be thick or thin, colors range from a deep red to a bright red, there could be loads of blood clots or none at all.' How can moisture be absorbed through the skin if the person is dead? 'Your skin doesn't stop being skin after you die, it's still porous, it doesn't absorb as fast because your skin is a bit fixated from the formaldehyde but after every embalming I like to put on this Kalon Massage Cream.' Why do people have greasy hair in the casket? 'Your hair is made up of keratin and when you are embalmed, the formaldehyde coagulates the proteins in the hair, so it makes your hair feel kind-of crunchy. Not just for the dead, but sometimes for myself too, when I'm done embalming sometimes my hair will feel crunchy.' Can you fart in the afterlife? 'Yes, but not everyone that goes into the light poops.' Is it true you break people's bones if they die with their hands up in the air? 'False, we don't break your bones but we do 'break' the rigor mortis.' How long is cremation? 'Typically cremation takes about one to four hours. It really depends on how much you weigh.' Can a recently deceased have an allergic reaction? 'No, when we die our vital functions shut down. Our brain isn't operating. Our immune system is fighting nothing because...we're dead.' Can you preserve your loved one's tattoos? 'Yes this is 100% a thing.' How soon after do you have to do the embalming process? 'If your family desires an embalming it should be done ASAP. Embalming an hour or two after death is key because your blood hasn't coagulated yet, it's still free flowing. It just distributes the formaldehyde solution a little bit better throughout your body.' How do you make the makeup look natural if the skin is stiff? 'Yes chemically embalmed skin feels stiff and a little bit cold to the touch. To make their skin look lifelike, a little bit dewy and hydrated, I layer on products, we have mortuary creams.' How do you cover heavy bruising? 'There's a couple of steps when handling heavy bruising. We'll use a bleaching agent to bleach out the purple and once you successfully get the color out, then you can go in with a cream based foundation.' Do you buy your own products? Or do you get a spending limit from the job? 'The funeral home pays for all supplies.' What does embalming fluid smell like? 'It smells like toxic chemical h***. It's extremely dangerous and extremely cancerous.' Do you use a different mask every time you embalm? Does it smell like chemicals and such? 'Nope, just my respirator. If I smell a single thing, it's time to pop off the cartridges and and replace them.' Do you follow superstitions while working with a corpse? 'My dad always says if you get a deceased person that comes to you with crossed legs, then don't get out of your work clothes because you're about to get another death call. My personal favorite that I've been doing this since I was a little kid is holding your breathe when you pass a cemetery because if you don't, you risk sucking in the soul of a recently deceased person.' Has anyone ever asked to have a smile on their face with teeth showing? 'No.' What happens to 'boy parts'? 'I don't do anything with anyone's parts except wash them. Sometimes I remove catheters, no one's out here mutilating your body. Heck our funeral home doesn't even remove silicon breast implants, because somebody paid really good money for them.' Have you ever had to work on a close family or friend? 'Yes, I have and my dad definitely has. For me, it's an honor to care for everyone I love, I'm going to embalm my dad.' Do you have to order special caskets for large people? 'There is something for everyone.' Why are noses stuffed with cotton? 'We use cotton to plug up the orifices because there is a post mortem change called purge, which is the evacuation of fluids from the body.' Why is plastic wrap used on a body underneath clothing after a traumatic death? 'What you're feeling is not plastic wrap, what you're feeling is coveralls, they are basically just a plastic romper. At our funeral home we use them for every embalming case that is having a visitation. Plastics create a barrier between the body and their clothes because they will sometimes leak.' What is the one thing that people say in your profession that is always a lie? 'People love to claim that a dead body can just sit up. Yes the body can make small twitches immediately after death, but you don't have the capacity to just sit up.' Does being around dead bodies make you more or less afraid of death? 'I would definitely say that being a funeral director and caring for the deceased and their families has made me very comfortable with the reality of death.' Is it normal for the deceased person's hair dresser to come in and do their hair one last time? 'Super duper common at our funeral home. Honestly we encourage it because who knows your hair better than your hair dresser?' If you get a trans person's body that hasn't transitioned yet, do you do the makeup to their gender or biological sex? 'I just go with the gender they identify as, it's not rocket science.' Can a family member come in and dress their family once they are embalmed? 'Yes, you can absolutely come in and help dress. Your funeral director just needs to be there to supervise and help.' What happens if I died with makeup on? 'If you're having a direct cremation, I'll just leave it on you. But if you're having a traditional service and desire to be embalmed and placed in a casket, our funeral home will remove your makeup. I wash your body a few times during the embalming process so you're fresh as a daisy. And once you're all dressed, I'll redo your makeup however you want, with whatever you want. You can bring your own makeup bag!' Is it possible to decline working on children and babies? 'I would say this profession isn't for you. You can pick and choose but I just don't think we should pick and choose.' Do you have to embalm if the person is being cremated? 'Nope. You are never legally required to be embalmed. However funeral directors have a right to require it if you're having a pubic visitation.' What is the purpose of lip and face wax? 'The purpose of mortuary wax in general is to restore trauma. Mortuary wax can be used to restore something like a gunshot wound. It can cover up dehydrated lips. It can restore skin slip- that is when the superficial layers of the skin lift away and slide right off. That can happen on your arms, hands, under your eyes, your whole entire face.' How would you suggest being less scared of death? 'Don't ignore death, it is the one thing that we all have in common.' How do you reattach a head that has been decapitated? 'With a decapitation the head is reattached to the torso before you embalm and both need to be embalmed separately, and that's just because there are lots of vessels that are destroyed. To provide some structure for attachment you can use a metal or wooden dowel.' Advertisement On a lighter note, Hollis retold a story of how she was cleaning the funeral home when she suddenly heard a beeping sound coming from within the embalming room. (Just prior, she had completed watching a Netflix series about the Unabomber and was on high alert). 'I was like, 'Okay, did someone plant a bomb? Is it our air conditioner?' I really had no idea! I thought maybe our house is really old. Or maybe something is gonna blow up,' she said. The beep got louder as she approached the body and when she leaned over to listen, 'Sure enough it was a pacemaker trying to revive them!' she laughs. Despite her cheery attitude, Eileen Hollis spends a lot of time thinking about death. The profession hasn't precluded her from existential dread and the fearsome questions of mortality. 'Just because I'm a death care worker doesn't mean that I'm excused from any of these like scary life questions and fears. Absolutely not.' 'I've been thinking about death since I was in the second grade. I used to stay up at night and have a really hard time falling asleep.' She hopes that talking about it more will help people feel more comfortable when faced with it themselves. 'Don't ignore it,' she advises on TikTok. 'It's the one thing that we all have in common.' Working so closely with death hasn't informed Hollis' idea of 'an afterlife' any more than her Catholic upbringing did: 'They taught us about purgatory and the way my mind envisioned it, it was just total darkness and that really, really F'd me up.' 'Now I like to think of the afterlife like the Beetlejuice waiting room.' It's no surprise that the undertaker has already planned out her own funeral in meticulous detail. Failing her first preference (which is something called alkaline hydrolysis), she wants to be cremated with a portion of her ashes 'hanging in a disco ball urn' placed in her favorite graveyard at the Syracuse Oakwood Cemetery. She clarifies: 'When I say disco ball, I mean a stone disco ball monument, something that my husband can stick tiny little mirrors to, or something that the ball can hang from.' In a profession that is mostly dominated by men, Hollis says that TikTok has provided her with a community of like-minded morticians that are similar in age. 'I'm thankful for it because they really helped me a voice,' she told DailyMail.com. 'Because funeral stuff is taboo, nobody really likes to think about their own mortality or face the reality. You won't die thinking about it.' Outside the Hollis Funeral Home hangs a giant clock bearing an inscription in Latin: 'Tempus Fugit Momento Mori.' It translates to 'Times fly, remember death.' 'I just want people to remember that we're not going to be around here forever and to enjoy your life, enjoy the good, enjoy everything it has to offer you, but always respect the dead.' Darian Convery could never imagined that his passing headaches were anything to be too concerned about. After all, he was a fit and ambitious 24-year-old police officer in Wagga Wagga, on the NSW border with Victoria, planning to become a detective with his entire life ahead. But when the headaches intensified and he developed blurry vision while on duty, he decided to see a doctor. The doctor thought it was most likely sinusitis, but booked a CAT-scan to be safe. But his headache just got worse and his scan was brought forward by three days to Friday, April 21. Doctors ordered him straight to hospital, where he was taken straight to emergency for further testing. Darian Convery, 24, a NSW Police officer based in Wagga Wagga, started experiencing a nagging headache in March. He is pictured far right with friends in Mudgee a week before he was diagnosed 'He called me extremely distressed and said the doctors had told him he was no longer allowed to drive,' his mother, Janelle, told Daily Mail Australia. 'I left work on the Central Coast in what I had on and raced to Wagga Wagga to be by his side.' After she made the five and a half hour journey through the night, Janelle arrived at Darian's bedside and they nervously awaited the results of blood tests and more scans. By midday, doctors came back into his room to deliver devastating news - the apparently fit life-long non-smoker had lung cancer. It was terminal. 'I felt like I had been winded, I couldn't speak. We sat there in utter disbelief,' Janelle said. 'He is fit, he runs 10km a week, swims, goes to the gym. 'Apart from the headache, he had no other symptoms.' A later PET scan showed Darian's tumour in his left lung had spread into his lymph nodes and brain, explaining the headaches and affected vision. He was diagnosed with stage four non-small cell adenocarcinoma, an aggressive type of lung cancer that develops slowly and typically shows no symptoms until advanced stages. When symptoms do occur, they include often-dismissed: a persistent cough, pain in the chest, and shortness of breath. Darian (far right) has never smoked and maintained a healthy lifestyle, running 10kms a week, and regularly swimming and going to the gym Doctors have told him the cancer is terminal and he will require drugs for the rest of his life. Pictured: colleagues visiting the constable in hospital Doctors told Darian the cause of his troubled vision was one of the 15 tumours they had found in his brain - and the cancer was so advanced it was 'not survivable'. 'It killed me,' Janelle said. 'He has never smoked, never drunk, or touched drugs. He has lived the perfect life of a 24 year old. 'To have to face your own mortality at 24 is gut wrenching.' In the space of two weeks, the family's lives have been turned inside out as they deal with the shock while also working to pack up Darian's life in Wagga Wagga and bring him back home to the family base in Newcastle. He has been placed on several medications, including an immunotherapy drug, which will suppress the growth of his tumours and prevent them from spreading, buying him precious time with family. A GoFundMe campaign has been launched to help the family cover his immunotherapy treatment, which costs $12,500 a month and will be required for the rest of Darian's life. Seasoned oncologists have been left baffled by the young cop's case as he did not suffer shortness of breath and had no family history of cancer. Darian pictured with his grandfather when he graduated from the NSW Police Force academy in 2018 Darian spent two years in West Wyalong after graduating before transferring to Wagga Wagga last year 'What he has is extraordinarily rare. They have not seen it in anyone so young, and have never seen it spread so far in such a short amount of time,' Janelle said. His devastated friends and colleagues have rallied to support the constable, who has spent the past three years serving as a police officer. After graduating in 2018, he spent two years in West Wyalong, a rural town in the state's south west, before transferring to Wagga Wagga in November last year. 'Joining the police force was all he wanted to do,' Janelle said. 'He has always been empathetic, non confrontational, and enjoyed talking to people. For him, it was the perfect fit.' Although he is still struggling to come to terms with his devastating diagnosis, Janelle said Darian has been very brave and reminds her they need to take things 'one step-at-a-time' rather than think about the worst. 'Our whole lives have been ripped apart,' she said. 'We have been plunged into the complex world, of diagnosis, prognosis, and everything that I never thought I would have to experience as a parent. 'You see these people who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and live to be 90, and live a completely normal life. 'It is just so unfair.' The father of a London based woman murdered in Pakistan has begged for help catching her killer on TV as it emerged police are probing whether a hitman was hired to shoot her. Mayra Zulfiquar's father, Mohammed, pleaded with Prime Minister Imran Khan saying that the 24-year-old law graduate dreamed of 'doing something for Pakistan' by opening a legal practice to help poor people. 'She was passionate to do something for Pakistan. I want justice, PM Imran Khan she was your daughter too,' Mr Zulfiquar said. Ms Zulfiquar was found shot dead at an apartment in Lahore on May 3 with police identifying two prime suspects - Zahir Jadoon and Saad Butt, 28 - friends-turned-love-rivals who had allegedly both proposed to the London based woman. Mayra Zulfiquar, 24 a law graduate, was shot dead in Pakistan on May 3 and police now believe she may have been killed by a hitman Father Mohammed appeared on Pakistani TV today, pleading for 'justice' from Prime Minister Imran Khan - saying his daughter has been 'betrayed' 'She was called here [to Pakistan] and betrayed before being cruelly murdered,' as Mr Zulfiquar put it during his TV appearance. Butt has since turned himself over to police and been arrested, but officers now say he has an alibi because he was captured at his home on CCTV at the tiishme Ms Zulfiquar's murder took place. Investigators are still seeking to question Jadoon, but believe he was in Islamabad, some 170 miles to the south of Lahore, on the day of the murder. That has led cops to question whether a third party was hired to carry out the killing. 'It's a cold-blooded murder but neither of the accused were present at the crime scene,' a police source told The Times. Meanwhile two female friends of Jadoon and Butt alleged their group is 'psychotic' - connected to 'guns, drugs, alcohol' and virtually immune from prosecution because they are the children of politicians, business tycoons and army generals. It is thought that Ms Zulfiquar was introduced to the group while visiting Pakistan for a wedding two months before she died, and their wild lifestyle may have played a role in convincing her to stay in the country. Zahir Jadoon, one of the two main suspects, shows off with an AK-47 in a Facebook photo as friends allege he is involved with a 'psychotic' group of people But one female friend told The Times that women who are ensnared by the group are routinely exposed to violence, saying a friend of hers escaped threats by Jadoon after rejecting his advances. A second alleged that one male member of the group had fired bullets at another's house after finding out that he was dating his ex-girlfriend. They say it is unlikely that both Butt and Jadoon had proposed to Ms Zulfiquar, as was previously reported, and said it is more likely that 'they just wanted her [sexually].' Jadoon's Facebook profile gives a glimpse into his world, and shows him posing with expensive watches, cars, a horse, and an AK-47 assault rifle. Police have previously revealed Jadoon was in a relationship with Ms Zulfiquar and had rented the house where she was killed so that they could spend time there away from her family. Jadoon is reported to have been staying at the upper portion of the house, which was reportedly adjacent to Mahira's room, although an initial probe found he had not spent time with her during her time in Pakistan. Superintendent Sayyed Ali of Punjab police, who is responsible for Lahore's up-market Defence district of Lahore where the house is located told MailOnline: 'From our initial enquiries Butt was romantically interested in Mayra even though she was involved with Zahir. 'He had rented a house so that they could spend time together and, in the weeks, leading up to the murder, were seen frequently with each other going out and about.' Referring to Butt, Superintendent Ali added: 'Police have had previous dealings with him in the past and we are looking for him all over Lahore and across the rest of Pakistan because he could be anywhere.' 'But it is a mystery to us why Zahir has also absconded and we are also looking for him because he will be able to provide us with a lot of information as to what actually happened. It is thought Ms Zulfiquar (left) got involved in a love triangle with Jadoon (pictured together left) and his friend Saad Butt (right) who has turned himself over to officers 'If he is innocent, then we don't understand why he has gone missing. But I can promise you, we will find both men.' Mayra had been in Pakistan for just two months before she died. She had gone out for a cousin's wedding but decided to stay after the country was placed on the UK's Covid travel red list, a family member told Mail Online. Police said they have opened a first information report (FIR) on the case after receiving a complaint from Ms Zulfiquar's uncle, Lahore resident Mohammad Nazeer. The FIR said Mr Nazeer was aware of two men who had been acting aggressively towards Mayra and threatened her with 'dire consequences' if she refused them, and had vowed to speak with the pair. But on Monday he got a call from Mayra's father in London to say she had been shot to death. Police were informed of the attack by an anonymous tipster and rushed round to the apartment to find Mayra in a pool of blood. It is thought they then informed Mayra's father, who made the call to her uncle. Mayra's parents are thought to have flown from London to Lahore today to attend her funeral service which was held within 24 hours of her death in keeping with Islamic tradition, Sky News reports. Ziaur Rehman, who runs a market stall in Feltham, told the site: 'Her father called me on Monday and asked me to come to his house. 'He was crying, I sensed there was something wrong, then I went there and the news was shocking. 'Her mother she is really struggling now, she is not well at all.' Sayyed Ali, an operations superintendent at Punjab Police, told Pakistani newspaper Dawn that Mayra had been found in a pool of blood of the floor of her bedroom, with her mobile phone near her body. 'We are also after two suspects and will share further details at a later stage,' Mr Sayyed added. 'We have seized the mobile phone for forensic analysis.' Mr Sayyed also said police are analysing footage from nearby CCTV cameras in the hope of finding suspects. Another senior police source told the BBC that addresses in Islamabad and Lahore are being targeted in raids. Ms Zulfiquar's parents are expected to arrive in Lahore from their home in London later this week. Zahir Jadoon, had rented the house (above) where Ms Zulfiquar was killed so they could spend time there away from her family, police confirmed to MailOnline In a statement, Duncan Blackett Law said Ms Zulfiqar had been briefly enrolled on its legal mentorship programme before it was postponed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak and she was an 'excellent mentee who demonstrated a keen interest in commercial law'. Gracie Duncan, of Duncan Blackett Law, told the Daily Mail: 'She was a lovely girl, very quietly spoken, very keen to learn and to get into the profession. I am very shocked to learn what has happened to her.' The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said in a statement: 'We are supporting the family of a woman who died in Pakistan and are urgently seeking more information from the local authorities. 'Our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time.' According to a family source who spoke to Mail Online, Mayra had decided to stay in the country after Pakistan was placed on the UK's Covid red list of countries - meaning she would have to pay 1,750 for a stay in a quarantine hotel on her return. Mayra had allegedly complained to relatives about the cost of the ten-day quarantine, saying she preferred to sit it out in Pakistan in the hope that it would be removed from the red list next month. A family source said: 'She didn't want to come back and pay all that money to quarantine in Britain so decided to stay in Lahore, where she was living with her grandmother. 'She was angry that it was too much money for ten days in a grotty hotel. Instead, she thought she'd have more fun in Lahore and was having a lovely time after making a new group of friends.' The family source also revealed that Mayra had made three complaints to local police about being harassed by Saad Ameer Butt, one of two men who have been arrested. The source added: 'A local gangster who is closely connected to the police in Lahore took a shine to her but despite reporting him for harassment, they did nothing. The police are very corrupt over there and don't take crimes against women seriously.' Her murder is believed to have taken place in a house rented by one of her friends in the Defence area shortly after 4am. Ms Zulfiqar (pictured) is understood to have gone to Pakistan around two months ago to attend a cousin's wedding, but chose to stay in the country afterwards Devout Muslim Mayra had just shared a meal with her pals before starting their Ramadan fast for the day. Neighbours reported hearing screaming and at least two-gun shots before police arrived to find Mayra's body in an upstairs bedroom, which had also been trashed. Mayra had ambitions to be a lawyer and start her own law firm. Prior to travelling to Pakistan for the wedding, she did an internship with a legal company in Dubai. Her mother and father, Muhammad flew to Pakistan on Tuesday morning just hours after finding out about Mayra's death. They have three other sons who have remained at the family home and are being consoled by friends and relatives. The family source said: 'As you can imagine, the family is devastated. Mayra was a beautiful, fun, intelligent girl and a dutiful daughter and sister. 'The parents had to go to Pakistan to make sure that the police find her killer because they felt helpless sitting in London while waiting for news.' The brother of Ms Zulfiqar has announced that he is holding a fundraiser for his sister following her murder in Pakistan. Faizan Muhammad said he feels 'obligated' to do so, with the fundraiser considered a Sadaqah Jariyah - defined as a charitable gift that benefits both the giver and receiver. 'I don't usually like doing this but I feel obligated to do it right now,' said Faizan Muhammad. We need justice for my beloved sister Mayra Zulfiqar who died abroad in Pakistan Lahore on Monday 3rd of May (May Allah grant her shahada). 'My only sister was taken away from us at only the age of 24 years old. She still had the rest of her life to live, see the world and had big plans and dreams for her future. 'It may seem like a lot but every little helps, even if you can donate just 1.00 in shaa Allah!' Referencing Ramadan, which is set to end on 12 May, he added: 'I request that you make special Dua magafrat for my Mayra and that Allah grants me and my family sabr and strength. 'May Allah accept all your duas especially in the last 10 days of Ramadan.' Mahira was murdered at her rented house in Lahore's Defence Housing colony of Punjab province, where she was staying with her friend, Iqra. Iqra has shared a heartfelt message with a Jam Press reporter on the ground: 'She was full of life and being honest with her friends. 'Indeed, a helpful girl in many ways. We're broken to lose her too early.' Prosecutors in Missouri say inmate Kevin Strickland, 62, who has been in prison for more than 42 years, is innocent and must be released immediately A Missouri inmate who has spent more than 42 years in prison for a triple murder must be immediately released because he had no part in the crime and was wrongly convicted, a prosecutor demanded this week. Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Missouri, Jackson Countys presiding judge, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas and members of the team that convicted Kevin Strickland, 62, four decades ago all agree that he deserves to be exonerated. Strickland has been in jail since he was just 18 for a triple murder in 1978 - despite confessions from the real killers that he wasn't involved. The sole witness also recanted her original statement, saying she was mistaken when she identified him as being one of the shooters and that she had been pressured by detectives. On Monday, a letter written by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker expressed overwhelming support for Strickland's release, saying that the evidence used to convict him as a teenager has since been 'eviscerated.' Peters Baker's attorneys also filed a petition urging the Missouri Supreme Court to free him at once. 'This is a profound error we must correct now,' Peters Baker said in the letter, obtained by Kansas City Star. Strickland is pictured at the time of his arrest in 1978, when he was 18. A witness who identified him as a suspect later recanted Strickland (right) argued that he had an alibi for the night of the murders: he was watching TV with his older brother (left) and talking on the phone with his girlfriend Strickland remains at the Western Missouri Correctional Center in Cameron. He spends much of his time in a wheelchair because of medical problems that make it difficult for him to stand for more than a few minutes at a time. If he is exonerated, he will have suffered the longest wrongful imprisonment known in Missouri history. 'We are grateful to Jean Peters Baker and the Jackson County Prosecutors Office for their support of Mr. Stricklands innocence and their work reviewing his case,' stated Missouri Innocence Projects executive director Tricia Rojo Bushnell. 'The evidence of Mr. Stricklands innocence is clear, and we applaud the prosecutors office for fulfilling their duty as ministers of justice to ensure that justice is donein this case, doing everything possible to help exonerate an innocent man.' Strickland was convicted in 1979 of capital and second-degree murder stemming from a triple homicide at this home in Kansas City, Missouri The real culprits in the murders, Kilm Adkins and Vincent Bell, pleaded guilty and each served 10 years in prison Then 18, Kevin Strickland, far right, stands for a lineup April 26, 1978, at the Kansas City Police Department. Cynthia Douglas, the lone eyewitness to the shooting, identified Strickland at the lineup, but later told relatives she was pressured into doing so Strickland, of Kansas City, was 18 when he was arrested for the shooting deaths of Sherrie Black, 22; John Walker, 20; and Larry Ingram, 21, and prosecutors say the case was 'thin from its inception,' resting almost entirely on the dubious identification of a traumatized shooting survivor Cynthia Douglas. Stricklands first trial in 1979 ended in a hung jury, but he was convicted at a second trial by an all-white jury of one count of capital murder and two counts of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 50 years. Prosecutors said they wouldn't charge Strickland with any crimes if the same case was before them today. Strickland has been in jail since he was just 18 (pictured in a recent mugshot) Four months later, Vincent Bell, 21, pleaded guilty to charges stemming from his involvement in the triple homicide, followed by Kilm Adkins, 19, who was likely the sole shooter. Bell identified his two other accomplices, who were never arrested or charged, and argued that Strickland was innocent. 'Im telling you the truth today that Kevin Strickland wasnt there at the house that day,' Bell stated in court. Bell and Adkins each served 10 years in prison and were released about three decades ago. Before his death in January, Bell speculated that Douglas, the surviving witness, possibly mistook Strickland for one of his actual accomplices because the two men looked alike. Strickland maintained that he had an alibi because at the time of the murders he was watching TV at home with his older brother and talking on the phone with his girlfriend. A letter written by Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker (foreground) and published on Monday expressed overwhelming support for Strickland's release The Kansas City Star reported in investigation published in September that for decades, two men who pleaded guilty in the killings swore Strickland was not with them and two other accomplices during the April 25, 1978, killings. The testimony of Douglas, the only eyewitness to the murders, was crucial. However, she later said detectives pressured her into identifying Strickland as the gunman. She tried to recant for years before dying in 2015. Prosecutors at trial claimed Strickland carried a shotgun during the murders and elicited testimony that no fingerprints on the weapon could be compared. But new forensic testing done this year shows one fingerprint found on the gun is not Strickland's. The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office began reviewing Strickland's conviction in November after speaking with his lawyers and reviewing The Star's investigation. Strickland's case was the first tied to the murders to go to court. It is unclear how long the Missouri Supreme Court will take to rule on the petition to release Strickland. Advertisement Proof vaccines still work against the Indian variant? 33 fully inoculated care home staff test positive in Delhi but NONE get severely ill AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine appears to be protecting people from the Indian variant of the virus, reports suggest. There are concerns the Indian variants, which have started spreading in the UK, could make jabs less effective and risk vaccinated people getting sick anyway. But in a case of 33 care home workers getting infected after vaccination in Delhi, India, none became seriously ill with the virus, the Financial Times reports. In the UK's second wave around one in 13 people who tested positive for the virus ended up in hospital, suggesting at least two of the 33 might have done so. Although the figure suggests the vaccine may struggle to prevent infection, it also hints that it will stop serious Covid and death, providing massive insurance against future outbreaks. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson today admitted the Indian variant spreading in Britain, known as B1617.2, is 'of increasing concern' as data showed it is already dominant in at least four parts of the country Bolton, Blackburn, Bedford and South Northamptonshire, with cases also surging in London. Pfizer said it believes its jab will work against the strain and SAGE advisers think it will protect against all known variants but real-world data is lacking. More than 36million people in the UK have had at least one dose of a vaccine and 18.4m are totally vaccinated. Most of the remaining lockdown rules are set to end next week. Reports of people getting infected in India after vaccination have worried some corners because it suggests the strain can slip past immunity. But experts say this is likely just a result of the sheer size of the outbreak. Vaccines are known to fail for a small proportion of people and, the more people getting exposed to the virus, the more people this small proportion will be equal to. For example if 1,000 vaccinated people came into contact with the coronavirus and the vaccine's failure rate was one per cent, you would expect 100 cases. But if a million vaccinated people encountered the virus with the same failure rate there would be 10,000 cases but the vaccine isn't performing any worse. In reality the jabs are thought only to prevent 60-85 per cent of infections but more than nine out of 10 deaths. Advertisement India's Covid variant is now dominant in four local authorities in England and its rapid spread could jeopardise plans to ease lockdown, experts fear. Analysis by one of the UK's biggest variant trackers warns the strain is focused in hotspots Bolton and neighbour Blackburn with Darwen, where outbreaks have grown by 93 and 86 per cent in a week, respectively, with more than half of lab-checked cases proven to be the Indian strain. The mutant B.1.617.2 virus is also thought to be behind half of all Covid infections in London, Bedford and South Northamptonshire, although outbreaks in these areas are still small. Boris Johnson said in a statement to Parliament today that the variant was 'of increasing concern', warning that a strain that could slip past vaccines would have 'potential to cause even greater suffering than we endured in January'. No10's top scientists fear it may be more transmissible than the currently dominant Kent variant (B.1.1.7) with one Belgian scientist suggesting it could be 60 per cent faster-spreading and that it could be behind a gradually rising infection rate in Britain. The UK today confirmed another 2,284 positive tests, up seven per cent on last Wednesday's figure, along with 11 more deaths. Another 485,260 vaccines were given out yesterday, of which 350,000 were second doses. Early lab trials suggest the current vaccines will still protect against the Indian variants but there are concerns that a faster rate of spread could lead to a bigger outbreak, giving more opportunities for people to get reinfected. AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine appears to be protecting people from the Indian variant of the virus, reports suggest. And Pfizer said in a report there was 'no evidence' its shot would need to be updated to fight off the current variants. Environment Secretary George Eustice has refused to rule out local lockdowns from next month when the national restrictions are expected to end, adding that officials were 'closely monitoring' several outbreaks that had cropped up in recent weeks. But the Prime Minister stayed optimistic about ending lockdown, saying he expects to scrap advice for people to work from home in June and adding that he anticipates town and city centres will be 'full of bustle again' soon. Public Health England has launched surge testing in Bolton to root out cases of the B.1.617.2 variant, but no other area has yet seen enhanced surveillance. Data show that seven out of England's 10 Covid hotspots are in the North of England with three in the Midlands (Erewash, Bedford and North Lincolnshire), while the places where positive tests are rising fastest are scattered across the country. There are not yet conclusive links to the variant. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has called for over-16s in Bolton and wider Greater Manchester area to be offered Covid vaccines earlier to quell the rise in cases of the Indian variant. Customers at a bar in Tyneside, the North East, have also been urged to get tested because of an outbreak. There are three Indian variants but only B.1.617.2 has sparked major concerns because cases have doubled in the past week, with 520 spotted since the first positive sample was detected in late February. It now makes up six per cent of cases nationally, a leap from fewer than one per cent last month. Some scientists have criticised Boris Johnson's plan to push on with lockdown easing on Monday, warning the rising cases and spread of the Indian variant suggest he should 'absolutely' hit the pause button until further research is carried out on its impact on the jab. India's Covid variant is now dominant in five local authorities in England, official data reveals. There are mounting concerns that it is more infectious than the currently dominant Kent strain Data show that seven out of England's 10 Covid hotspots (inset) are in the North of England with three in the Midlands (Erewash, Bedford and North Lincolnshire), while the places where positive tests are rising fastest are scattered across the country Cases in Bolton have begun to rise in recent days as the variant takes hold in the area Blackburn with Darwen is also seeing virus cases beginning to tick up, reversing a four-month long trend of plummeting infections Bedford, where the variant may make up more than 70 per cent of cases, is also seeing a rise South Northamptonshire is starting to see its Covid cases rise, official data shows Boris Johnson said in a statement to Parliament today that the variant was 'of increasing concern', warning that a strain that could slip past vaccines would have 'potential to cause even greater suffering than we endured in January' In other coronavirus developments today: England's coronavirus vaccine programme will open up to people under 40 tomorrow, it was revealed, with 38 and 39 year olds allowed to book jabs at sites that offer either Pfizer or Moderna jabs; Boris Johnson faced an immediate backlash after he announced a formal public inquiry into No10's handling of the coronavirus crisis will not start until Spring next year; Greece will be added to the UK's 'green list' in June, allowing holidaymakers to return home from the country without quarantining, Greece's tourism minister revealed; The NHS Test and Trace app may have prevented around 284,000 Covid infections between October and December, a University of Oxford study suggested; The catastrophic scale of the coronavirus pandemic could have been prevented if a 'toxic cocktail' of dithering and poor coordination hadn't hindered the global response, a panel of experts concluded. Sanger Institute figures on the variants aim to exclude cases from international travellers and surge testing, revealing how troublesome variants spread in the community. For this reason their data do not include every case of the Indian variant identified. It is also impossible to sequence a strain from every swab because some contain too few virus particles. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE INDIAN VARIANTS? Real name: B.1.617 now divided into B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3 When and where was it discovered? The variant was first reported by the Indian government in February 2021 but the first cases appear to date back to October 2020. Its presence in the UK was first announced by Public Health England on April 15. There have since been at least 520 cases spotted in genetic lab testing. What mutations does it have? It has at least 13 mutations that separate it from the original Covid virus that emerged in China. The two main ones are named E484Q and L452R, although the most common version in Britain (.2) does not have E484Q. Scientists suspect L425R can help it to transmit faster and E484Q helps it get past immune cells made in response to older variants. There is also a mutation called T478K but researchers don't yet know what it does. Is it more infectious and can it evade vaccines? Research is ongoing but British scientists currently believe it spreads at least as fast as the Kent variant and potentially faster, but it is unlikely to slip past vaccine immunity. SAGE advisers said in a meeting last week: 'Early indications, including from international experience, are that this variant may be more transmissible than the B.1.1.7 [Kent] variant.' Dr Susan Hopkins, a boss at Public Health England, said: 'We are monitoring all of these variants extremely closely and have taken the decision to classify this as a variant of concern because the indications are that this is a more transmissible variant.' Expectations are that the current Covid vaccines will still protect people against the Indian variants. Early research by the Gupta Lab at Cambridge University found there was a small reduction in vaccine effectiveness on the original Indian variant, but it found the jabs worked better against it than they did on the South African strain. The team have not yet tested the .2 strain, which is the most common in the UK. A paper published by SAGE advisers recently suggested two doses of the Pfizer vaccine is good enough to protect against all known variants, and it is likely the others will provide very strong defence against severe illness, even if there is a risk of reinfection. Professor Sharon Peacock, of PHE, claimed there was 'limited' evidence of E484Q's effect on immunity and vaccines. How deadly is it? Professor Peacock said: 'There isn't any evidence that this causes more severe disease. There's just not enough data at the moment.' Scientists say it is unlikely that the variant will be significantly more dangerous than the Kent strain. This is because there is no evolutionary benefit to Covid becoming more deadly. The virus's sole goal is to spread as much as it can, so it needs people to be alive and mix with others for as long as possible to achieve this. Although there have been claims that the Kent variant is more deadly than the virus it replaced the Government claimed it was around 30 per cent there is still no conclusive evidence to show any one version of Covid is worse than another. Is the variant affecting children and young adults more seriously? Doctors in India claim there has been a sudden spike in Covid hospital admissions among people under 45, who have traditionally been less vulnerable to the disease. There have been anecdotal reports from medics that young people make up two third of new patients in Delhi. In Bangalore, under-40s made up 58 percent of infections in early April, up from 46 percent last year. But this could be completely circumstantial older people are more likely to shield themselves or to have been vaccinated and there is still no proof younger people are more badly affected by the new strain. The risk of children getting ill with Covid is still almost non-existent. Why is it a 'variant of concern' and should we be worried? Public Health England listed the variant as 'of concern' because cases are growing rapidly and it appears to be equally infectious or potentially even more than other strains in Britain. Last time a faster-spreading variant was discovered it caused chaos because the outbreak exploded and hospitals came close to breaking point in January, with almost 50,000 people dying in the second wave. But there is currently no reason to be alarmed. Scientists believe our current vaccines will still work against the variant, preventing people from getting seriously ill or dying in huge numbers. If it spreads faster than Kent it could make it harder to contain and make the third wave bigger, increasing the number of hospital admissions and deaths among people who don't get vaccinated or for whom vaccines don't work, but the jabs should take the edge off for the majority of people. A vaccine that can make vaccinated people very sick en masse would be a real crisis for Britain and could 'cause even greater suffering than we endured in January', Boris Johnson warned today but there are not yet any signs the Indian variant will be the one to do this. How many cases have been detected in the UK? According to data by PHE released on Friday, there are, at present, 520 confirmed cases of the B.1.617.2 variant in the UK, from 202 over the last week. The report also showed 261 cases of B.1.617.1 and nine cases of B.1.617.3. The cases are spread across the country, with the majority in two areas the North West, mainly in Bolton, and London. PHE said around half of these cases are related to travel or contact with someone who has been abroad. Surge testing is expected to be deployed where there is evidence of community transmission. Is B.1.617.2 variant driving the second wave in India? India reported 412,262 new Covid-19 cases and 3,980 Covid-19-related deaths on Thursday both new single-day records. In the past 30 days, the country has recorded 8.3million cases. However, it remains unclear whether the new coronavirus variants are driving the second wave. Experts say large gatherings, and lack of preventive measures such as mask-wearing or social distancing, are playing a key role in the spread of the virus. Although India has the world's biggest vaccine making capacity, the country has partially or fully immunised less than 10 per cent of its 1.35billion people. Advertisement Bolton had the most cases of the Indian variant in England over the week to April 24, their data showed. There were 47 samples spotted (55 per cent of all cases in that area). It was followed by neighbouring Blackburn with Darwen, with lab sequencing spotting 19 genetic matches (55.7 per cent). Ten were also found in Bedford over the same period (53.8 per cent) and five in South Northamptonshire (76.9 per cent). But University College London mathematician Professor Christina Pagel cited other Sanger Institute data suggesting the strain may already be responsible for more than 65 per cent of cases in the hotspots. She found 75 per cent of those in the community in Blackburn with Darwen were down to the variant, and as many as 73 per cent in Bedford and 69 per cent in Bolton. Department of Health data shows Covid cases were ticking upwards in all three areas in the week to May 9, a reversal on a four-month trend of plummeting infections. Surge testing was only launched in Bolton four days ago, but officials say it will take about a week before it shows up in the statistics. Bolton has registered 707 new Covid cases over the two weeks since April 24, which means the true number of cases of the Indian variant spotted there could be in the region of 400. Cases jumped by 93 per cent in the space of a week. There were 241 Covid cases in Bolton over the week to May 1, and 466 in the week to May 8, a surge of 93 per cent. And Blackburn with Darwen had 229 infections over the same time period, indicating they may have more than 130 cases of the strain. This was a jump of 86 per cent. When official data was broken down to a more granular level it showed that five of the ten worst-hit neighbourhoods in the country were in Bolton. This is despite more than 50 per cent of people in the same postcode areas having already been vaccinated. Dr Gabriel Scally, an epidemiologist at Bristol University and Independent SAGE member, warned the Indian variant becoming dominant in some areas was a cause for concern. 'Its coming to dominance in the local area shows it has the potential to out-compete other strains of the virus,' he told MailOnline. 'It also reminds us that when lockdown ended last summer, we now know that there were several local authorities which still had high levels of virus infections. They formed the nucleus of the resurgence of the virus at the end of the summer. 'We are in difficulty if it becomes ingrained in some local authorities, particularly if those share characteristics such as a high level of deprivation, overcrowding, BAME, because we know that all those factors are associated with transmission of the virus.' He criticised the Prime Minister's decision to push on with stage three of lockdown easing, which will allow pubs and restaurants to serve indoors again. 'There is some concern the fourth test seems to be being set aside at the moment,' he said. Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, warned the Indian variant was 'really taking off' at present and may be sparking the rise in cases nationally. He said: 'In the last seven days there have been 15,895 cases reported which is a 12 per cent increase on the previous seven-day period. This represents the largest week-on-week increase since early January. 'Looking at public data from the COG-UK website, which suggest an increasing proportion of the cases they sequence are the Indian variant B.1.617.2, this may suggest the increase in infections may be due to the spread of this variant. 'As discussed at the Downing Street press briefing on Monday, this variant has been increasing rapidly in recent weeks. 'There has been a lot of debate about when and if a further wave of infection will happen in the UK. The reports today suggest that this wave may have already begun. 'That hospitalisations have yet to increase would be consistent with the view that the vaccine is still effective at reducing the risk of severe disease and gives hope that this new wave, if it indeed continues, will be less damaging to the NHS.' And Professor Pagel warned that the situation was 'not looking good at all' with the Indian variant. She tweeted: 'In England, within two weeks to May 1, B.1.617.2 went from one to 11 per cent of cases. A massive increase. She added that the roadmap should 'absolutely' be slowed until 'we either know for sure it's not more transmissible or vaccine resistant, or we've stamped out the outbreaks or we've got further in the vaccine programme'. Speaking in the Commons, the Prime Minister stressed the need for caution and vigilance as lockdown was eased, adding that the end of restrictions was not the end of the pandemic. 'The World Health Organization has said that the pandemic has now reached its global peak and will last throughout this year,' he said. 'Our own scientific advisers judge that although more positive data is coming in and the outlook is improving, there could still be another resurgence in hospitalisations and deaths. 'We also face the persistent threat of new variants and should these prove highly transmissible and elude the protection of our vaccines, they would have the potential to cause even greater suffering than we endured in January.' Mr Johnson confirmed on Monday that England would be steaming ahead with easing further restrictions on May 17, in a positive sign that No10 does not consider the Indian variant to be a significant concern. The irreversible roadmap has four tests that must be met before moving to each stage, including that the risks are not 'fundamentally changed' by variants and that cases are not rising in a way that risks more hospitalisations and deaths due to the virus. From May 17 current plans will see restaurants, pubs and bars again allowed to serve customers indoors, foreign holidays permitted, and Britons allowed to have visitors indoors for the first time since last year. Scotland has already slammed the brakes onto plans to ease restrictions in Moray when the rest of the nation takes a further step to freedom on Monday because of a growing outbreak but this is not thought to be down to the Indian variant. But Mr Eustice today did not rule out whack-a-mole lockdowns for some areas should cases begin to spike. He said scientists were unsure what was driving the flare-ups in cases predominantly in the North of England but suggested people may have become 'too lax' with Covid rules, or the highly-infectious Indian variant could be driving the cases. Asked if local restrictions could be reimposed in England to squash local outbreaks during a round of interviews today, he said: 'We can't rule anything out.' He told Sky News: 'But our plan that's been set out by the Prime Minister, the reason we're being incredibly cautious about exiting lockdown, is we want this to be the last. 'We want to try and avoid having to get into a tiered system and regionalisation. We tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we had to go for a full lockdown.' The average infection rate in the UK has fallen by 15 per cent to 40.1 per 100,000 people in the fortnight up to May 4, according to latest statistics. But analysis shows that 28 local authorities in England, four in Scotland and two in Northern Ireland are recording double the national case rate. Public Health England has divided the Indian variant into three sub-types. Type 1 and Type 3 both have a mutation called E484Q but Type 2 is missing this, despite still clearly being a descendant of the original Indian strain. Type 1 and 3 have a slightly different set of mutations. The graphic shows all the different variants that have been spotted in Britain This map shows the spread of the Indian variant across the UK. It is focused in key hotspots, and around Greater London Public Health England data show how infection rates have been rising for the past fortnight in some areas of the North West and central England ANDY BURNHAM CALLS FOR OVER-16S IN GREATER MANCHESTER TO GET VACCINES AMID RISING CASES OF THE INDIAN VARIANT Andy Burnham has called for over-16s in Greater Manchester to be offered the Covid vaccine amid rising cases Andy Burnham has called for over-16s in Greater Manchester to be offered the coronavirus vaccine amid rising cases of the Indian variant. The mayor of the region - which includes hotspot for the strain Bolton - said he had asked the No10's top scientists to consider rolling out jabs faster in the area due to the 'worrying' increases in cases. Mr Burnham said: 'Greater Manchester has submitted for consideration to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) a request that we have permission to vaccinate all over-16s in Bolton and more widely in Greater Manchester so we can move quickly beyond the age progression.' Sanger Institute figures show the Indian variant is now the dominant strain in Bolton. There were 47 samples spotted in the week to April 24, the latest date available, 55 per cent of all infections. And Department of Health data reveals that cases in the borough have spiked by 93 per cent in a week. These are mostly concentrated in younger age groups with rates still low among over-50s, who have all been offered at least one dose of the Covid vaccine. Early results show immunity sparked by the jabs is still effective against the Indian variant, although scientists say more studies are needed. The Department of Health said in a statement no decisions had been taken on whether to offer under-18s vaccinations. 'We continue to follow the advice of the independent JCVI to vaccinate the most vulnerable people in society first,' they said. 'The priority order is primarily based on age, which is the biggest factor determining mortality.' Advertisement Quizzed about the hotspots this morning, Mr Eustice told Sky News: 'We are not sure what could be driving it, whether it's particular variants that have taken hold of people being a bit too lax about restrictions that are in place. 'We are not sure about that but we are monitoring the situation closely.' Asked if it meant restrictions could be imposed, he said: 'We can't rule anything out. We want this to be the last (lockdown) and want to avoid going back into a tiered system. 'We know that in the end, we had to go for full lockdown.' On local lockdowns, he added: 'We tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we had to go for a full lockdown.' 'We've got our confidence now in the vaccination programme, that's rolling out and that is delivering... 'It is also reducing transmission rates as well as reducing hospitalisations and mortality. 'That's got to be our focus.' SAGE minutes from their meeting on May 5, and published yesterday, show Number 10's top scientists are already raising concerns over the Indian variant. They wrote: 'There has been a significant recent increase in prevalence of the B.1.617.2 variant, including some community transmission. PHE is currently prioritising case finding and containment for this variant. 'Early indications, including from international experience, are that this variant may be more transmissible than the B.1.1.7 variant.' PHE said it was monitoring the situation closely in the North West, and intervening to prevent onward transmission of the variant. They added that all positive cases in the region are being sequenced, to look out for any future outbreaks. Dr Andrew Furber, the regional director for public health in the North West, said: 'The gradual easing of restrictions is going well but we must all remain alert as the more opportunities we have to meet others, the more chances the virus has to spread. We should not become complacent.' He added: 'Going forward, variants are likely to be part of how we live with Covid. 'So it's vital that we adapt and respond to the changing nature of the virus in a way that works for our region and our diverse communities. 'Taking a targeted and community led approach has proven to effectively suppress and contain variants in other areas of the UK, so we will continue this approach as we carefully progress through the roadmap.' Surge testing launched in part of Worcestershire after South Africa strain found Surge testing will take place in part of Worcestershire after a cluster of South African variant Covid cases were reported. NHS Test and Trace is providing additional testing and genomic sequencing targeted in certain areas in Redditch, Worcestershire. People who live or work in the targeted areas have been strongly encouraged to take a COVID-19 PCR test, whether they are showing symptoms or not. Dr Kathryn Cobain, Director of Public Health for Worcestershire, said: 'As part of our proactive sequencing checks, we have identified cases of a COVID-19 variant of concern in Redditch. 'The best way to stop infection remains to stick to the rules wash our hands, wear a face covering and keep our distance from others. 'It is also important to be tested, if you live within the identified Redditch areas we are checking.' The area includes the districts of Webheath, Southcrest and Smallwood. Advertisement Officials have also called for anyone who visited Allard's Lounge, Tynemouth, between April 23 and May 3 to get a PCR test after the Indian variant was detected there. PHE said 'one of the cases in an outbreak linked to the premises has been identified as having the Indian variant.' Wendy Burke, the area's director of public health, sought to reassure residents, however, saying that Covid cases remained low overall. 'We want to ensure we keep it that way and especially as we move to the next stage of the road map, with restrictions set to ease again on 17 May and allow for indoor mixing,' she said. 'This additional testing is really important to help to control the virus, reduce transmission and help North Tyneside return to normal. 'We continue to work very with Public Health England to monitor outbreaks, especially as variant cases begin to circulate across the country.' A Belgian scientist has claimed the Indian Covid variant that is surging in Britain could spread up to 60 per cent faster than the dominant Kent strain. Professor Tom Wenseleers, a biologist and biostatistician at the KU Leuven university, said on Twitter he had analysed how the two strains compared and found the Indian variant to be faster spreading. The B1617.2 variant is the most common version of the Indian strain in the UK it has been spotted at least 520 times and experts fear it could take over as the dominant version of coronavirus. Scientists on the SAGE Government advisory panel said in a meeting last week: 'Early indications, including from international experience, are that this variant may be more transmissible than the B.1.1.7 [Kent] variant.' And chief medical officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty said at a Downing Street briefing last night: 'Our view is that this is a highly transmissible variant, at least as transmissible as the B117 variant. It is possible it is more transmissible but we'll have to see.' England's Covid vaccine drive will open up to under-40s TOMORROW The coronavirus vaccine programme in England will open up to people under the age of 40 for the first time tomorrow. NHS England said around a million adults aged 38 and 39 will be invited to come forward for their jab from Thursday morning. They will be offered either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine on the back of guidance from medical regulators last week. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said under-40s should be given an alternative to the AstraZeneca jab due to its link to rare blood clots. The NHS Digital bulletin said 38 and 39-year-olds already booked in for a first dose of the British vaccine will have their appointment cancelled. People who qualify for a jab will invited via a text from 'NHSvaccine', which includes a web link to the health service's online booking service. Those who can't access the internet can call 119 instead to get an appointment at one of 1,600 sites administering the vaccines across England. So far more than a quarter of the entire UK population - 18.1million - has been fully vaccinated against Covid and more than half - 35m - have received the first dose. NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said the success of the rollout was owed to 'careful planning and precision of NHS staff'. Advertisement In a tweet posted yesterday Professor Wenseleers, who has published other papers on Covid variants including one about the Kent strain in the journal Science, said: 'The Indian data estimates that B.1.617.2 has a 10% per day growth [advantage] over B.1.1.7 (translates to a ~60% transmission advantage).' He posted graphs showing that the variant had rapidly pushed aside other types of the virus in parts of India including Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal, where it is believed to be linked to an explosion in cases. UK data also suggest that the variant is surging in Britain, accounting for an increasing proportion of cases and up to 40 per cent in London. Professor Pagel said it may be 'outcompeting' the Kent variant and Public Health England admitted it 'may have replaced it to some extent'. It comes as it was revealed today that Spain will not demand any British holidaymaker presents a covid passport or proof of a negative test on arrival from May 20. But with no sign of the UK adding the country to its 'green list' of destinations, travellers will still have to self-isolate for ten days when they get home and at least two PCR tests. British holidaymakers will be able to freely enter the country from next week as long as the UK's Covid infection rate remains below 50 cases per 100,000 people. It is currently at 21.3. Spain will remain on Britain's 'amber list' of destinations until at least June 7, when the Government carries out its next review, but experts are predicting it may not go green until the end of June at the earliest. That means that any Briton heading there before then has to quarantine for 10 days at home on return and take two PCR tests on days two and eight of their self-isolation. It came as Greece said it was confident it would go green on June 7, with tourism minister Haris Theoharis saying they were 'disappointed' not to be on the list with Portugal from Monday, May 17. Green list status means Britons returning from those 12 countries don't have to quarantine but must have a negative lateral flow test in the 72 hours before they return home and a PCR test on day 2 after they get back. Boris Johnson will give evidence under oath to a public inquiry into the Government's handling of the coronavirus crisis if he is asked to do so, Downing Street has confirmed. The Prime Minister announced at lunchtime that a formal probe into the response to the pandemic will start in Spring 2022 as he said key players will be put 'under the microscope'. The PM said witnesses will give evidence 'in public and under oath' as the nation tries to 'learn lessons' to ensure the UK is 'better prepared' for a future health crisis. Number 10 said this afternoon that Mr Johnson would be willing to give evidence under oath should he be invited to do so. 'The Prime Minister will conform to what is required for the inquiry, yes,' the Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said. The proposed timing of the inquiry sparked an immediate backlash as Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said it should start 'as soon as possible' as he demanded to know why it cannot get under way 'later this year'. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group which has long been calling for an inquiry, said that 'Spring 2022 is simply too late to begin'. Mr Johnson defended the timing as he said it is not possible to begin until next Spring as there is a risk of 'diverting or distracting' ministers and officials while they are still trying to manage the UK's recovery. The terms of reference have also yet to be thrashed out with the devolved administrations. Mr Johnson said he hoped the inquiry could be completed in a 'reasonable timescale' but expectations are it will take years. The Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war went on for seven years, while the Bloody Sunday inquiry took around 12 years. Should a similar timeline be repeated for the Covid inquiry it could potentially take the sting out of any criticism of Mr Johnson's government for being too slow to lock down the country. The report will almost certainly not be published before the next general election, which is currently set to take place in 2024. Boris Johnson will give evidence under oath to a public inquiry into the Government's handling of the coronavirus crisis if he is asked to do so, Downing Street has confirmed. Pictured: Mr Johnson elbow bumps actress Helena Bonham Carter, at Westminster Abbey's annual service for the Florence Nightingale Foundation today, to mark nurses' contribution to the community The proposed timing of the inquiry sparked an immediate backlash as Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, said it should start 'as soon as possible' as he demanded to know why it cannot get under way 'later this year' Could spread of Indian variant jeapordise plans to ease lockdown? Strain is now DOMINANT in four areas and may be behind 12% spike in Covid cases nationally India's Covid variant is now dominant in four local authorities in England and its rapid spread could jeapordise plans to ease lockdown, experts fear. Analysis by one of the UK's biggest variant trackers warns the strain is focused in hotspots Bolton and neighbour Blackburn with Darwen, where outbreaks have exploded with numbers of positive tests from all variants rising 93 and 86 per cent in a week, respectively more than half have been proven to be the Indian strain. The mutant virus is also confirmed to make up more than 50 per cent of infections in Bedford and South Northamptonshire, although outbreaks in the two areas are still small. And up to half of all cases in London are thought to be down to the B.1.617.2 variant. Boris Johnson said in a statement to Parliament today that the variant was 'of increasing concern', warning that a variant that could slip past vaccines would have 'potential to cause even greater suffering than we endured in January'. Experts warned today the variant may be behind the 12 per cent spike in Covid cases across the country, after the number of cases in the last week rose to 15,895 from 14,165 in the week before. It comes after a Government minister refused to rule out tiered lockdowns in England when national restrictions come to an end next month. Environment Secretary George Eustice added they were 'closely monitoring' several outbreaks that had cropped up in recent weeks. Advertisement Mr Johnson told MPs this afternoon: 'Amid such tragedy the state has an obligation to examine its actions as rigorously and as candidly as possible, and to learn every lesson for the future which is why I've always said when the time is right there should be a full and independent inquiry. 'So, I can confirm today that the Government will establish an independent public inquiry on a statutory basis, with full powers under the Inquiries Act 2005 including the ability to compel the production of all relevant materials and take oral evidence in public under oath. 'In establishing the inquiry, we will work closely with the devolved administrations.' The PM said critics should be 'mindful of the scale of that undertaking' to hold an inquiry as he said he anticipated it would not start until Spring next year. Mr Johnson said 'we must not inadvertently divert and distract the very people on whom we all depend in the heat of our struggle against this disease', as he warned of the threat posed by Covid variants and a potential spike in cases this Winter. He added: 'So I expect the right moment for the inquiry to begin is at the end of this period, in the Spring of next year, Spring 2022.' Mr Johnson also declared that a UK Commission on Covid Commemoration will be set up to look at how to commemorate the victims of the pandemic. Sir Keir said: 'Can I clearly welcome the independent inquiry into the pandemic and the establishing of a UK commission on Covid commemoration. 'Both are necessary, both will play an important part in learning the lessons and commemorating those we have lost.' The Labour leader said the inquiry 'will only work if it has the support and confidence' of bereaved families as he urged the Government to consult them at the earliest opportunity. On the timing issue, Sir Keir said: 'The principle is that the inquiry should be as soon as possible. As soon as possible. 'Now, I understand that an inquiry, a statutory inquiry, will take time to set up, of course it will. But why can it not be later this year? Why can it not start earlier?' Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats who first called for an inquiry in April last year, said: 'From the failed test, trace and isolate system to the crisis in our care homes, Boris Johnson and his Government have no end of questions to answer so I welcome this inquiry in spite of it being 13 months after the Liberal Democrats first called for it. England's Covid vaccine drive will open up to under-40s TOMORROW with bookings only available for 38 and 39 year olds at sites with stocks of Pfizer and Moderna The coronavirus vaccine programme in England will open up to people under the age of 40 for the first time tomorrow. An NHS Digital bulletin showed those aged 38 and 39 will be invited to come forward for their jab from Thursday morning. They will be offered either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine on the back of new guidance from medical regulators last week. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said under-40s should be given an alternative to the AstraZeneca jab due to its link to rare blood clots. The NHS Digital bulletin said 38 and 39-year-olds already booked in for a first dose of the British vaccine will have their appointment cancelled. People who qualify for a jab will invited via a text from 'NHSvaccine', which includes a web link to the health service's online booking service. Those who can't access the internet can call 119 instead to get an appointment at one of 1,600 sites administering the vaccines across England. So far more than a quarter of the entire UK population - 18.1million - has been fully vaccinated against Covid and more than half - 35m - have received the first dose. Advertisement 'This Coronavirus inquiry must have the teeth necessary to hold this Government's feet to the fire on their wrong-doings. 'Lessons must be learnt from the mistakes that were made throughout this crisis and the Government must be held to account for their handling of the pandemic.' In a statement, Jo Goodman, co-founder of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said: 'It's a huge relief to hear the Prime Minister commit to the statutory inquiry that bereaved families have been calling for one with the power to compel witnesses. 'But there are still further steps needed to ensure we all get the answers we need as a country. 'First and foremost any inquiry must involve bereaved families from the start, helping to choose the chair as well as determining the terms of reference. Whilst we welcome the Prime Minister's assurances that bereaved families will be consulted on this, the devil will be in the detail. 'Secondly, Spring 2022 is simply too late to begin. 'It sounds like common sense when the Prime Minister says that an inquiry can wait until the pandemic is over, but lives are at stake with health experts and scientists warning of a third wave later this year. 'A rapid review in summer 2020 could have saved our loved ones who died in the second wave in winter.' Downing Street said this afternoon that Mr Johnson would be willing to give evidence under oath to the inquiry if he is asked to do so. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister will conform to what is required for the inquiry, yes.' The spokesman also said there is no deadline for selecting a chairman to lead the probe. Number 10 declined to say whether the inquiry will report back before the next general election. The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman said: 'The timescale is down to the chairman, that is something that we will want to agree with the chairperson when they are appointed. 'Some inquiries have had timescales and, as is sadly the case, sometimes inquiries don't stick to those timescales, but we will make clear when we set out terms of reference whether there's a timescale, and obviously we will want to discuss timing with the chairperson as and when we pick them.' Mr Johnson had a meeting of the Covid-O committee this morning to iron out the details of the inquiry and who will run it. In the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Johnson committed to starting the inquiry 'within this session' of Parliament a Parliamentary session usually lasts around a year. Downing Street had been reluctant to commit to a timeframe for the inquiry, saying it was too busy focusing on the pandemic and citing 'the Government's workload'. The inquiry will explore the chain of events that led to the deaths of more than 127,000 people since the pandemic began, with 20 per cent more care home residents dying than in a normal year. England's national lockdown will ease even further from next Monday with indoor socialising, overnight stays, restaurant dining and holidays all back on the cards. Another 2,474 positive tests were announced in the UK yesterday along with 20 deaths. Mr Johnson greets Sergeant Sebastian Mwaura from the Defence Medical Group, at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday Boris Johnson elbow greets a nurse at Wednesday's annual service for the Florence Nightingale foundation Public Health England has divided the Indian variant into three sub-types. Type 1 and Type 3 both have a mutation called E484Q but Type 2 is missing this, despite still clearly being a descendant of the original Indian strain. Type 1 and 3 have a slightly different set of mutations. The graphic shows all the different variants that have been spotted in Britain Dominic Cummings to lift lid on Number 10 in second meeting with MPs in May Dominic Cummings could confirm Boris Johnson and the Government pursued a strategy of 'herd immunity' before the first coronavirus lockdown last March when he gives evidence to MPs this month. Mr Cummings is due to be grilled on the Government's response to the pandemic by a joint session of the health and science select committees on May 26. Downing Street will be on red alert ahead of his appearance amid a bitter briefing war between the PM and his former chief aide. Reports suggested that Mr Cummings could use his appearance to discuss whether 'herd immunity' was ever an official Government strategy. In a session on March 17, Cummings branded Whitehall a 'disaster zone' and said bureaucracy 'destroys' effective operations and 'drives out' the best people in the government. In a brutal assault on Mr Hancock and his department, Mr Cummings said the PPE and therapeutics efforts were a 'smoking ruin'. Advertisement Mr Johnson said in Parliament yesterday: 'I have made that clear before I do believe it's essential we have a full, proper public inquiry into the Covid pandemic.' The full public inquiry will likely mean hearing from many witnesses from different parts of government and the health service to find out how well they coped with Covid. NHS and care staff may air grievances about shortages of masks, gloves and aprons at the start of the outbreak. The PPE scandal left some hospital workers wearing bin bags to try and protect themselves or wearing the same masks for longer than they should have. The care home sector said during the first wave that the government was failing to supply PPE as promised, risking further outbreaks in the already-crippled industry. And Government insiders will shed light on the decisions that led to each of the UK's three lockdowns. Mr Johnson has been criticised for being too slow to act in March last year and again in the autumn, when scientists called for a lockdown weeks before one was announced in November. Public Health England's lack of available testing capacity which made it almost impossible for anyone to get tested in the first wave will likely come under fire. The PM may be laying out his own timeline and terms for an inquiry in a bid to look proactive instead of having one thrust upon him by angry MPs, according to ITV's Robert Peston The announcement of the inquiry comes as Number 10 is on red alert ahead of Dominic Cummings, the PM's former chief aide, appearing in front of MPs later this month. Earlier this year Mr Cummings branded the Department of Health a 'smoking ruin' and he has vowed to spill the beans on Downing Street's response to the crisis when he gives evidence to the health and science select committees on May 26. Mr Cummings could be one of the figures most dangerous to Mr Johnson in an inquiry because of the access he had behind the doors of Number 10. Boris Johnson last night announced a major loosening of lockdown rules for next Monday Giving evidence to MPs on March 17, Mr Cummings branded Whitehall a 'disaster zone' and said bureaucracy 'destroys' effective operations and 'drives out' the best people in the government. He said at the time: 'It's not coincidental that the vaccine programme worked the way that it did. To do that we had to take it out of the DoH, we had to have it authorised very directly by the PM and strip away all the normal nonsense that we can see is holding back funding therapeutics No10 took it out of the Department of Health.' He went on: 'In spring 2020 you have a situation where DoH was just a smoking ruin in terms of procurement and PPE and all of that. 'You had serious problems with the funding bureaucracy for therapeutics on Covid. So that was the kind of context for it. 'Patrick Vallance then came to No10 and said this shouldn't be run out of the Department for Health, we should create a separate task force. 'We also had the EU proposal which looked like an absolute guaranteed programme to fail debacle. 'Therefore Patrick Vallance, the Cabinet Secretary, me and some others said obviously we should take this out of the DoH. Obviously we should create a separate task force.' Mexican authorities are looking into whether armed members of a cartel mistakenly kidnapped and killed three siblings whose bodies were later found on the side of a road in the western state of Jalisco. Jose Gonzalez 29; Ana Karen Gonzalez, 24; and Luis Angel Gonzalez, 32, were abducted Friday night from their home in the Guadalajara suburb of Tlaquepaque by gunmen who were wearing bulletproof vests with the initials of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Jalisco state prosecutor Gerardo Octavio Solis Gomez said Monday. CNN Espanol reported that the woman and her two brothers were forced into a vehicle and driven away. Jose Gonzalez (left), his brother Luis Angel Gonzalez (right) and sister Ana Karen Gonzalez were kidnapped Friday from their home in Tlaquepaque, a suburb in the western Mexican city of Guadalajara. The Attorney General for the state of Jalisco said an investigation is underway as authorities seek to find out if members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel were responsible for the abduction. The Gonzalez siblings were found dead Sunday on the side of a road in the town of San Cristobal de la Barranca Ana Karen Gonzalez, one of three siblings who were reportedly kidnapped from their home in Jalisco, Mexico, last Friday. She and her two brothers were found dead Sunday Authorities in the western Mexico state of Jalisco cordon off the area where the bodies of Jose Gonzalez 29; Ana Karen Gonzalez, 24; and Luis Angel Gonzalez, 32, were found Sunday, two days after they were abducted from their home by an armed gang Shortly after the incident, armed men returned and wounded their next door neighbor's bodyguards. The two security agents were assigned to the Jalisco state prosecutor's office. The federal agents and the other person survived because they were traveling in an armored van, Solis Gomez said at a news conference. Solis Gomez said authorities also are investigating whether the siblings were directly targeted. 'We know that these organized crime groups have to act fast and there's always a chance that they made a mistake,' he said. People participate in the March for Peace and Justice in Guadalajara on Wednesday to protest the murders of Jose Gonzalez 29; Ana Karen Gonzalez, 24; and Luis Angel Gonzalez and other victims of kidnappings and murders Demonstrators gathered Wednesday in Guadalajara, the capital of the western Mexican state of Jalisco, in protest of people who have been kidnapped and murdered The bodies of the Gonzalez siblings were found bundled in bedding and dumped on the side of highway in San Cristobal de la Barranca on Sunday morning. A message left by the cartel with the bodies included a warning to the government. Solis Gomez said it did not appear to be a ransom attempt, because there was never any attempt to contact their family. The abductions came as hundreds of people fled villages in the northern part of Jalisco to escape shootouts between drug gangs, and thousands of white-clad demonstrators marched through the state capital, Guadalajara, to protest the killings of the three young people. The killings caused outrage among students in Guadalajara, many of whom joined the protest march Tuesday to demand justice in the case. Wearing white, the protesters lit candles as a way to remember the thousands killed or disappeared in Jalisco after years of gang-fueled violence. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel, based in the state, is one of Mexico's most powerful and has a reputation for extreme violence. It is currently fighting one of its own break-away factions in Guadalajara. Last June, the criminal organization launched a war-like assault before dawn and wounded Mexico City's police chief, Omar Garcia Harfuch, while he was in his armored vehicle on his way to work. Mexican students hold a sign depicting Jose Gonzalez (left), Ana Karen Gonzalez (center) and Luis Angel Gonzalez (right) who were kidnapped Friday and found dead Sunday in Jalisco Demonstrators form a cross with votive candles after a march to demand justice for the kidnappings and murders of Jose Gonzalez 29; Ana Karen Gonzalez, 24; and Luis Angel Gonzalez Farther north, near Jalisco's border with the neighboring state of Zacatecas, the Jalisco state human rights commission said Monday that about 600 residents fled their villages after gun battles broke out between rival gangs. The area has been plagued by turf battles between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the rival Sinaloa Cartel, but it came to a head Friday when gunmen armed with assault rifles and home-made armored cars battled in the border region. The fleeing villagers first took shelters at church buildings in the town of Teocaltiche, where Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro visited Monday and pledged increased security. 'The confrontations between criminal groups have shattered this town's peace,' Alfaro said. The situation got so bad that the local priest, Reverend Manuel Sandate, was leading near daily prayers for peace. Many of the villagers have gone to live with relatives. The rights commission said that if a solution to the violence wasn't found soon, the villagers risked becoming displaced people who might need housing and food support. Two transgender women have been sentenced to five years in prison in Cameroon for 'attempted homosexuality'. A local social media celebrity known as Shakiro, who is also identified as Loic Njeukam, and Patricia, also identified as Roland Mouthe, were jailed on Tuesday for a variety of offences. They were first arrested for the clothes they were wearing in a restaurant, their lawyers said. Two transgender women including social media star Shakiro (pictured) have been sentenced to five years in prison in Cameroon for 'attempted homosexuality' Shakiro, who is also identified as Loic Njeukam, and Patricia, also identified as Roland Mouthe, were jailed on Tuesday (pictured together) Human rights activists say their detention is part of the growing criminalization of sexual minorities and transgender people in Cameroon. The two received the maximum sentence of five years in prison and fines of 200,000 CFA francs (260), their lawyers told Reuters. Besides 'attempted homosexuality,' they were convicted of public indecency and failing to carry identification. 'This is a political decision,' said one of the lawyers, Alice Nkom, who vowed to appeal the verdict. Human rights activists say their detention is part of the growing criminalization of sexual minorities and transgender people in Cameroon. Pictured: Shakiro Besides 'attempted homosexuality,' they were convicted of public indecency and failing to carry identification 'It's Yaounde (the central government) that said these people must not bring homosexuality to Cameroon.' A government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cameroon is one of more than 30 African countries where same-sex relations are illegal. Alice Nkom, a lawyer representing members of the country's LGBT community, said the verdict is a 'political decision' Its courts have previously sentenced people to multi-year prison sentences for their alleged homosexuality. Human Rights Watch said last month that Shakiro and Patricia's arrests seemed to be part of 'an overall uptick in police action' against sexual minorities. Fifty-three people have been arrested in raids on HIV and AIDS organizations since May 2020, with some reporting having been beaten and subjected to forced 'anal examinations' to confirm accusations of homosexuality, the rights group said. Astrazeneca has become the latest blue-chip giant to suffer an investor uprising against pay as a 'shareholder spring' rages in the City. At the drug maker's annual general meeting, almost 40 per cent of votes were cast against an 18million package handed to boss Pascal Soriot. Although the pay plans passed, the results brought Astra close to defeat. Soriot, who received 15.4million last year, is one of Britain's top-earning executives but claims he is underpaid compared to the bosses of other big drug makers. The Frenchman, 61, has won plaudits for leading AstraZeneca through a stunning turnaround since taking over in 2012, as well as for rolling out its Covid vaccine at no profit. But the latest pay rise has divided investors, with some warning it could tarnish the company's image and others only going along with it reluctantly. There was also a protest outside AstraZeneca's Cambridge headquarters, where the firm was accused of putting profit before lives. The British-Swedish company is currently producing the jab at cost, meaning it will not make any money from it during the pandemic. But campaigners claim the firm can start to make a profit on the vaccine from July, if it wishes. At Astrazeneca's annual general meeting, almost 40 per cent of votes were cast against an 18m package handed to boss Pascal Soriot The uprising by investors marks the latest rebuke to a major firm following similar revolts at Rio Tinto, Pearson, BAE Systems and Glencore, prompting talk that a repeat of 2012's shareholder spring is under way. Soriot is STILL holed up in Sydney Pascal Soriot is expected to return to the UK next week after five months in Australia. The Astrazeneca boss has been running the firm from his home in Sydney since December having travelled there for Christmas. Bolt hole: Astrazeneca boss Pascal Soriot has been running the firm from his home in Sydney since December having travelled there for Christmas It means the 61-year-old, who was born in France but is also an Australian citizen having first moved there in 1990, has not stepped foot in his London home or the Cambridge headquarters of the drugs giant since before the rollout of his companys vaccine started in January. The firm insists that he was unable to return until next week due to travel restrictions and that Soriots ability to manage has not been hampered by having to communicate by video conference or phone. But some investors say he should have returned to Europe and more publicly defended the firm as its handling of vaccine production came under sustained fire from EU leaders. Advertisement Aviva Investors and Standard Life Aberdeen were among those who opposed Mr Soriot's pay hike, while Jupiter Asset Management pledged its support. All three shareholder adviser groups ISS, Glass Lewis and Pirc urged against the proposals and the Investment Association issued an 'amber-top warning', indicating concern. Under the changes agreed, the maximum amount Soriot can receive in bonuses has been increased by 2.3million to 11.9million, on top of his 1.3million salary and 267,000 worth of benefits and pension contributions. His total package can also rise by a further 4.3million if Astra's shares rise 50 per cent, taking his earnings as high as 17.8million. It marks the second year in a row that his pay has been hiked. Astra said Soriot was worth the cash, pointing to the 'remarkable turnaround' since he took over, with supporters agreeing the changes to prevent him from being poached. Soriot had grumbled that he was 'the lowest-paid CEO in the whole industry' after bosses of rival biotech firms earned more, such as Regeneron boss Len Schleifer who bagged nearly 96million last year. Richard Buxton, of Jupiter Asset Management, said this was why his firm backed Astra, saying: 'If the board feels there is a real risk of losing Pascal... and so they've got to up the ante, then I'm prepared to trust the board.' Soriot's pay has been a controversial in the past as well, with shareholders revolting against his packages at the company's 2014, 2017 and 2018 annual general meetings. Lee Wild, head of equity strategy at Interactive Investor, said: 'The numbers are undeniably eye-watering, but Soriot and his team achieved massive global success. That's worth something. And Soriot's track record at Astra is enviable.' He pointed to Astra becoming a 100billion company last year overtaking arch-rival Glaxosmithkline and its takeover of rare disease specialist Alexion Pharmaceuticals for 28billion. Wild added: 'Losing him could cost them far more than a few million quid a year.' Astra shares fell 1.1 per cent, or 86p, to 7632p yesterday. Mr Soriot is expected to return to the UK next week after five months in Australia, where he has been running the firm from his home in Sydney since December having travelled there for Christmas. Protesters demanding that AstraZeneca share its Covid-19 vaccine technology have clashed with police outside the pharmaceutical giant's Cambridge headquarters The demonstration, organised by Global Justice Now, is demanding the pharmaceutical firm share Covid vaccine blueprints with the World Health Organization It means the 61-year-old, who was born in France but is also an Australian citizen having first moved there in 1990, has not stepped foot in his London home or the Cambridge headquarters of the drugs giant since before the rollout of his companys vaccine started in January. The firm insists that he was unable to return until next week due to travel restrictions and that Soriots ability to manage has not been hampered by having to communicate by video conference or phone. But some investors say he should have returned to Europe and more publicly defended the firm as its handling of vaccine production came under sustained fire from EU leaders. Puerto Rican boxer Felix Verdejo and an alleged accomplice, Luis Antonio Cadiz, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the murder of the former world champions pregnant lover and their unborn child. Verdejo and Cadiz entered their pleas during virtual hearings that were held from the San Juan prison where they have been held since last week when both suspects turned themselves in to federal authorities in San Juan after the body of Keishla Rodriguez was found in a lagoon. The kidnapping and killing of the 27-year-old woman sparked outrage over violence against women in the United States territory. According to a court document reviewed by DailyMail.com, Verdejo, also 27, reached out to Cadiz on April 27 and offered to pay him so that he could help terminate Rodriguezs pregnancy. Keishla Rodriguez was expecting a child with Puerto Rican boxer Felix Verdejo. She met him April 27 outside her home to show him results that she was expecting a baby and was allegedly attacked by the former world champ in his car before she was drugged and dumped in a lagoon in San Juan. Her body was recovered May 1 Felix Verdejo pleaded not guilty during a virtual court hearing held Tuesday in San Juan, Puerto Rico, over the kidnapping and murder of his pregnant lover, Keishla Rodriguez. The 27-year, who represented Puerto Rico at the 2012 Summer Olympics, could receive the death penalty if he is found guilty On the morning of April 29, Rodriguez reached out to her mother, Keila Ortiz, to inform her that she would be meeting Verdejo at her home to present him the results of a blood test that confirmed she was pregnant. The mother warned her that Verdejo was dangerous, claiming that he had threatened her in the past because she did not want to proceed with his desire to abort the pregnancy. Instead of going to her apartment alone, Verdejo was accompanied by Cadiz and met Rodriguez outside her residence where she boarded the boxers SUV. Verdejo, who maintained a friendship with Rodriguez dating back to their days in middle school, punched her in the face and then injected her with an unknown substance that he had purchased from drug dealers at the Luis Llorens Torres residential complex in Santurce, Cadiz told the FBI. Verdejo and Cadiz then allegedly used wires to bound her hands and ankles, and affixed a concrete block to her. Keishla Rodriguez's family was reported missing April 29 after she failed to shop up for work at a pet grooming shop and was found dead two days later in a lagoon in Puerto Rico Keishla Rodriguez was expecting a baby with Puerto Rican boxer Felix Verdejo, who she was friends with since middle school They later drove toward the Teodoro Moscoso Bridge and dumped Rodriguezs body into the San Jose Lagoon, at approximately 8:30am. Cadiz told the FBI that Verdejo stood on the bridge and used his gun to shoot at Rodriguez. Verdejo and Cadiz have each been charged with kidnapping resulting in death, carjacking resulting in death and killing of an unborn child. Verdejo, who represented Puerto Rico at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, was charged with utilizing and carrying a gun during and in connection to a violent crime during a court hearing Monday. A judge approved a request from federal prosecutors and denied both defendants bail. Verdejo and Cadiz could each face the death penalty. Rodriguezs death sparked protests in Puerto Rico, which declared a state of emergency in January over its deep-rooted problem of violence against women. The island has seen sustained levels of violence that on average result in one woman's death per week, a 2019 report from non-profit advocacy groups Proyecto Matria and Kilometro Cero said, echoing a problem in other Caribbean and Latin American countries. Five drunk men have been hauled off a plane at Heathrow after allegedly disobeying the captain's orders. The suspects, aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s, were arrested after they were said to have been drunk on the aircraft. Police rushed to Terminal 2 following reports of the disruptive passengers on the flight to Zurich. The suspects, aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s, were arrested after they were said to have been drunk on the aircraft (file photo) Do YOU know what happened? Email james.gant@mailonline.co.uk or tips@dailymail.co.uk Advertisement The five men were arrested and taken to a west London police station where they remain in custody. A witness told MailOnline: 'A Swiss international flight from Heathrow to Zurich after taxiing out returned as armed police came on board to escort five rowdy lads off the aircraft.' A Met Police spokesman said: 'Police were called at 18:55hrs on Tuesday, 11 May to Heathrow Terminal 2 following reports of disruptive passengers onboard a flight. 'Officers attended and five men aged in their 20s, 30s and 40s were arrested on suspicion of disobeying captain's orders and being drunk onboard an aircraft. 'They have been taken to a west London police station where they remain in custody.' A white New York City police officer once bragged about trying to scare Black people for kicks by randomly pointing his gun at them while on the job, federal prosecutors said Tuesday in announcing corruption charges against the officer and two others who worked together at the same precinct. The corruption charges link to a tow-truck bribery scheme, where officers allegedly accepted cash to direct business towards a specific company. In court papers, prosecutors quoted a text that Robert Smith allegedly sent following his retirement in 2020 recounting how he would point his gun out his car window at people he described using a version of the N-word. He would 'watch their reaction and drive away,' he allegedly wrote. 'Hilarious.' Three officers from the 105th Precinct in Queens have been arrested on corruption charges They were charged with five counts of using interstate facilities to commit bribery, as well as two counts of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act (105th Precinct pictured) He allegedly used the N-word multiple times, expressed his support for the Ku Klux Klan, and threatened to 'shoot' his tow truck contact if he were to become a 'rat', or informant. Smith allegedly wrote that he shaved his head after retiring. 'Now the real [S]mith will shine. I even shaved my head. Klan,' Smith wrote, according to prosecutors. Smith also exchanged messages about committing numerous robberies and shakedowns, or 'shakes' as he called them, prosecutors said. 'Bro I robbed everyone,' they said he wrote. On video, he described himself as 'the perp that got away' and 'one of the most corrupt cops in the 105,' referring to the 105th Precinct in Queens, where the three defendants served, prosecutors added. The court papers accused Smith and current officer Robert Hassett of hatching a scheme starting in September 2016 to take thousands of dollars in bribes (indictment pictured) The texts and videos were not cited as evidence in the bribery case in federal court in Brooklyn. But prosecutors used them to argue that Smith should be denied bail. The three officers were arrested on Tuesday morning at their homes on Long Island, according to WNBC. They were charged with five counts of using interstate facilities to commit bribery, as well as two counts of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act. Smith pleaded not guilty on Tuesday at an arraignment where a judge agreed he should remain behind bars. His lawyer declined comment afterward. The court papers accuse Smith and current officer Robert Hassett of hatching a scheme starting in September 2016 to take thousands of dollars in bribes to summon a specific tow truck company to car accident scenes, instead of using a system meant to distribute the business at random. Cash was either collected directly or placed into mailboxes to be collected, according to prosecutors. The tow truck company they allegedly used has not been identified. The scheme was suspended in June 2017, according to the court papers, before starting up again in November 2019. Smith allegedly began considering recruiting a second current officer, Heather Busch, to the scheme in January 2020, and she allegedly decided to join the kickback scam after he retired last March. They allegedly took bribes to summon a specific tow truck company to car accident scenes, instead of using a system meant to distribute the business at random (NYPD tow pictured) Smith and Hassett also are accused of using restricted police databases to run the names of car accident victims and provide the information to a person who sold it to physical therapy businesses and personal injury attorneys to solicit business beginning in January 2020. Hassett allegedly accessed the database to obtain the names, which the person who received the information paid for in cash to Smith, who would allegedly split the money with Hassett. The middleman paid the officers about $7,000 for information on more than 100 people, the court papers said. Smith, 44, is additionally facing charges that he allegedly agreed to transport 2.2 pounds of heroin for drug traffickers after his retirement, as well as possessing a firearm during the commission of the crime. He allegedly began soliciting for opportunities to transport illegal narcotics beginning in January 2020. When the cop allegedly met with an individual about the transport, he asked the individual to confirm that the organization that was trafficking drugs didn't 'have no rats or nothing.' Smith could face life in prison on the drug trafficking charge, while the other officers face up to five years in prison on each bribery count (Brooklyn precinct pictured) Smith was dismayed by the delay in getting involved with the organization, according to court documents, and told the individual over text, 'I lived up to my end of the deal putting you onto heather [Busch]. Now it's your turn!' Smith was allegedly referring to getting Busch involved in the tow truck scheme. Smith allegedly met with two individuals about an opportunity in June 2020 and accepted a bag containing a kilogram of heroin from a person in Brooklyn in July. He brought the bag to an individual in Queens and was paid $1,200 in a deal to carry his gun and retired police identification for the task, prosecutors said. 'As alleged, the defendants shamelessly violated their oaths of office and the public trust by trading their badges for cash payments,' acting U.S. Attorney Mark Lesko said in a statement. 'This Office will vigorously pursue corrupt public servants like these defendants, who exploited their positions as police officers for personal gain,' Lesko added. In the statement announcing the charges, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said, 'There is zero tolerance in the NYPD for corruption of any kind' FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge William Sweeney also commented in the statement, saying, 'Behavior like the type alleged today is a disgrace. It erodes public trust in law enforcement and tarnishes the reputations of the many thousands of officers who honorably serve our communities on a daily basis.' In the statement announcing the charges, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said, 'There is zero tolerance in the NYPD for corruption of any kind.' Smith could face life in prison on the drug trafficking charge, as well as up to five years in jail for each bribery count and a mandatory consecutive sentence of five years to life in prison on the firearm charge. Hassett, 36, and Busch, 34, meanwhile face up to five years in prison on each bribery count, as well as up to five years in prison for the conspiracy to violate the Travel Act counts. The NYPD told The Washington Post that Hassett and Busch have been suspended without pay. They were both released on bail after pleading not guilty, while Smith has been held without bail. Court documents state all three officers are due back in court on May 19. Buddy Franklin's illustrious career is 'coming to the end' because the AFL great's once-thundering left boot has deserted him due to injuries he can't shake off. That's according to Port Adelaide Hall of Famer Kane Cornes, who highlighted two worrying incidents during the Swans' narrow defeat to Melbourne on Saturday night at the MCG. Franklin went goalless for the first time since 2018 and at times looked sluggish during his side's nine-point loss, with Cornes suggesting it may signal the beginning of the end for the Sydney and Hawthorn champion. Buddy Franklin (pictured) struggled in the Swans' clash against Melbourne on Saturday at the MCG. It was the first time since 2018 that Franklin had been kept goalless Cornes told Nine's Footy Classified two incidents highlighted Franklin was far from his best. The first was when Franklin's kick at goal from just on the 50-metre arc and fell short. 'When has Buddy never made the distance from 52 metres out at the MCG?,' Cornes questioned. 'It's never really happened, he's never had a problem with his penetration, he's looking to pass the ball off.' Kane Cornes said was concerned he saw Franklin's career 'coming to the end pretty quickly' Cornes then rolled footage showing Franklin chosing not to kick for goal from his favoured left pocket less than 50 metres out. 'This is Buddy's spot, how many goals has he kicked of his 955 goals, a significant portion have come from this spot,' said Cornes. 'He doesn't even have a shot from 50 metres out, so something is clearly up with his body.' The Melbourne clash was Franklin's first game back after sustaining a knee injury in the round five Sydney derby against the GWS Giants. Franklin was looking to 'pass the ball off' in the Swans' clash with Melbourne on Saturday night Cornes did mention that Franklin has rarely featured for the Swans in recent years making it hard to clarify what's hindering his performances. 'He's only played the 14 games in the last three years so he's hardly played, so it's hard to judge.' Cornes said he believed that Franklin was still carrying an injury. 'He looks injured to me, or he looks like at times to be coming to the end pretty quickly,' he said. Footy pundit Craig Hutchison agreed Franklin wasn't at his best. 'He was kicking it better pre-injury, I suspect he's still injured,' Hutchison said. Franklin is contracted with the Swans until the end of 2022 after signing a record nine-year, $10million deal in 2013. Two women have been captured on camera brawling in an underground carpark after an argument spiralled out of control. The wild incident unfolded in the Coles carpark at Greenacre, in Sydney's southwest, as the shoppers were returning to their cars. One women could be heard screaming at a man holding a trolley, before she lashed out and struck him in the face. Two women were captured on camera (pictured, in between the two poles) brawling in an underground carpark in Greenacre, Sydney's southwest The man's female companion retaliated and grabbed hold of the woman, before the pair started wrestling each other to the ground. Onlookers intervened to break-up the fight, pulling the women apart from each other's grasp. The women are believed to be known to each other but it is not clear what sparked the melee. Police have taken statements, Daily Mail Australia was told, and investigations are continuing. An outdoor adventurer was treated to the stunning sight of bright orange jelly fish swarming his jet ski in the middle of the ocean. Brodie Moss discovered hundreds of blue blubber jellyfish floating around his watercraft while cruising along the pristine waters of Australia. In shocking footage posted online, he slowly submerged his camera underwater to reveal a blanket of dome-shaped jellies gently bobbing along the waves. The massive swarm of blue blubber jellyfish surrounded a jetski in middle of the ocean (pictured) The massive swarm of jellyfish slowly pulsed in the water as their white oral arms - resembling cauliflower to catch prey- trailed behind them. Collection Manager of Sessile Marine Invertebrates at Queensland Museum Dr Merrick Ekins, told Daily Mail Australia he predicts the jellyfish were found around Sydney because of their distinct reddish-brown colour. 'They turn a red colour when they are in the Sydney area due to the algae in the water,' he said. 'When they are in the northern parts of the ocean, they turn a blue colour because of the different algae in the water.' Dr Ekins said it wasn't unusual for the blue blubbers to congregate in the one area as they usually 'aggregate for feeding or mating.' 'It's more likely they were feeding as the movement from activities such as fishing helps scare away their predators,' he said. 'But also a strong wind and current could have pushed them to that specific spot as they're strong swimmers.' Brodie revealed the blubbers managed to sting him while he admired them from the watercraft. 'I was wearing a full wetsuit and gloves but got stung on my neck and feet,' he said. Adventurer Brodie Moss put camera underwater to reveal hundreds of jelly fish (pictured: stock image of jelly fish) Dr Eksins said the sting of the blue blubbers is not dangerous to humans. 'If they get you on the soft part of your skin around the neck of arms it'll sting but it's not dangerous like our other jellyfish species,' he said. The stunning video, that emerged online on Tuesday, shocked many who watched it online. 'Stuff of nightmares but also somewhat beautiful,' a TikTok user said. 'This is stunning, I'm completely jealous,' one said. 'Someone found the shortcut to heaven,' another commented. Thousands of Australian welfare recipients will be forced onto the cashless Centrelink debit card under a huge expansion of the scheme in the federal Budget. Immigrants will also be barred from accessing most kinds of welfare for four years after they are granted residency in Australia. The cashless Centrelink cards cannot be used to buy items like alcohol, gambling and cigarettes, but only on necessities like groceries. The cards have been trialled since 2016 in East Kimberley and Goldfields in Western Australia, Ceduna in South Australia, and the Bundaberg-Hervey Bay region of Queensland. Under the controversial scheme, 80 per cent of welfare recipients' Centrelink payment goes directly onto the card rather than into their bank account, preventing it being wasted on unnecessary spending. Pictured: People queue to enter Centrelink at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid mass unemployment Under the scheme, a further 25,000 people will not be allowed to buy alcohol with the cashless Centrelink card (stock image) Treasurer Josh Frydenberg unveiled a plan in Tuesday's Budget to make the scheme permanent in the four trial locations, while extending it to 25,000 people in the Northern Territory and Cape York. The Budget included a $30million package to upskill people at the first four trial sites, including a jobs fund to boost employment opportunities. Funding will also go towards improving drug and alcohol rehabilitation services in the cashless debit card sites. Lawford Benning, executive chairman of indigenous organisation MG Corporation in the East Kimberley, said local leaders were blindsided by the decision to make the card permanent. 'We all want to be equally consulted or have that opportunity to play a part in making our community safe this got sprung upon us,' he told the ABC. 'I've learned now and I believe it is a punitive model that is enforced, I believe, on vulnerable people.' But Ian Trust, executive chairman of Aboriginal services group Wunan Foundation, said the move was necessary to escape the 'safety net' of welfare into employment. Pictured: Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handing down the 20221-22 budget on Tuesday evening Funding will also go towards improving drug and alcohol rehabilitation services in the cashless debit card sites. Pictured: The cashless debit card He told the ABC that locals need more incentives to take up short-term work like fruit picking to earn their own money which they can spend however they choose, and transition from the welfare system. Mr Frydenberg also announced new migrants who are granted residency from January 1, 2022, will be forced to wait four years to access family tax benefits, paid parental leave, and carers payments. Under the current system, migrants can immediately access family tax benefit A, wait one year for family tax benefit B, and access paid parental and carers leave after two years. The measure is projected to impact 13,200 people and about 45,000 families during the budget year, and will save about $460.2 million from 2022 until 2025. Pictured: People queuing to get Centrelink benefits amid mass unemployment during the Covid-19 pandemic People who are granted residency prior to January next year will be exempt from the changes. Due to international travel restrictions, Australia will focus on granting residency to migrants already in the country, including partners and families. A further $464.7million will be directed to increasing the capacity of offshore detention facilities, such as Christmas Island, to remove unlawful no-citizens from the country. According to the Guardian, about $278.2million will be spent on upgrades across the network to boost its capacity from 1,000 people to 1,500 - the average number of people in detention. Stockton police officer Jimmy Inn, 30, was shot and killed on Tuesday while responding to a domestic disturbance An officer in the Northern California city of Stockton was fatally shot Tuesday while responding to a domestic violence call involving an armed man, who also died. The Stockton Police Department identified the slain officer during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon as 30-year-old Jimmy Inn, a six-year veteran on the force. Stockton Police Chief Eric Jones told reporters that the incident began unfolding at 9.45am, when a call came in about a domestic incident involving a woman who was seen bleeding and with her shirt torn following a suspected assault in the 4400 block of La Cresta Way. Inn responded to the scene at 10.07am and was standing in front of a house when he was shot and mortally wounded. 'It was a violent, blatant and very sudden assault on our officer,' Jones said. Another officer on the scene exchanged gunfire with the unnamed shooter, who briefly went back inside the house, only to return with an eight-year-old child in tow. The police chief said the suspect then began to strangle the child, but a bystander was able to tackle the man to the ground. The second officer issued commands to the suspect to surrender, which he allegedly ignored. The officer then opened fire and struck the gunman. The entire confrontation was said to have lasted only a couple of minutes. KCRAs video from the scene showed a police SUV with what appeared to be bullet holes in its driver-side front window. Neighbors told the station they heard 10 to 15 gunshots ring out. A Stockton, California, police officer's shot-up cruiser sits along Le Cresta Way on Tuesday, following a dead shooting that left the officer and a gunman dead A Stockton Police evidence technician photographs the scene of the officer-involved shooting. The officer was killed while responding to an alleged domestic dispute Police say the gunman tried to strangle a child before Officer Inn's colleague shot him dead Inn and the gunman were taken to an area hospital, where both were pronounced dead from their injuries. Inn joined the Stockton Police Department in 2015 and was a member of the Field Operation Division. Inn, a six-year veteran, leaves behind his wife, who is also a police officer, and two stepchildren He leaves behind his wife, Tela, who is also a Stockton police officer, a 12-year-old stepdaughter and a 14-year-old stepson. 'He gave the ultimate sacrifice,' Jones said of Inn, whom he described as optimistic and very well-liked by his colleagues. 'He came to work every day putting his life on the line.' Prior to the press conference, Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln posted a video on Twitter addressing the deadly officer-involved shooting. 'At this moment our community grieves the loss of one of our very own Stockton police officers,' he said in the video. 'This is a time for us to come together, to surround and support one another and to pray for the strength, healing, comfort and peace for all that have been impacted by this great tragedy.' Police cordon off the scene of the fatal shooting in Stockton. Neighbors reported hearing 10 to 15 gunshots In San Luis Obispo, a central California city about 250 miles south of Stockton, Detective Lucas 'Luca' Benedetti was shot and killed while serving a search warrant Monday evening. Detective Steve Orozco was injured in the San Luis Obispo shooting, police said. He was released from a hospital and is expected to recover from his wounds. The deaths occurred during National Police Week, an annual event that honors law enforcement officers who were killed or disabled in the line of duty. Farmers overrun by millions of mice have begged the government for help - only to be told there is no money left in the Budget. Homes and farms across NSW have endured masses of rodents within the past few months leaving the majority of their stocks completely destroyed. NSW Farmers and the Country Women's Association met at State Parliament on Tuesday to detail just how much their lives have been put on hold to cope with the endless stream of mice. They asked for $25,000 per farm to help buy and set up mouse baits to kill the rodents and save their crops and homes. But Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall said after spending billions of dollars on the drought crisis, it wasn't possible to offer the same support to those fighting the mouse plagues and they would have to make do with workshops instead. 'The proposal that I've read in media reports would cost anywhere between $600-700 million. After spending nearly $4.5 billion in drought support, I don't have that money on my fingertips,' he told the ABC. Lisa Minogue, a farmer from Barmedman, in central NSW said the mice kept coming and couldn't be stopped, and the smell they left behind was 'horrific'. 'You can pick up all the mice you see but there is always more,' she said. 'I did 38 loads of washing in three days. My house is pretty much packed up in boxes.' Dubbo farmer Tracey Jones shared an alarming video of mice falling out of her auger when her son went to the clean the machinery. 'When you clean out the auger and it rains mice!' she captioned the video as countless rodents flew out of the pipe to land on the dirt. Tracey Jones, who lives in Dubbo, shared an alarming video of mice falling out of her auger when her son went to the clean the machinery. Ms Jones said the mouse plagues were devastating for her family that relies on grain farming for its livelihood. 'People out here are struggling badly with them in our houses,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'My 90-year-old mother in law is living out of an esky because it's the only way she can mouse-proof her food. 'Mice are in everything, rooves and walls eating wiring, cupboards and pantries eating, nesting in and soiling in food and clothing, in cars and machinery chewing through wiring. 'The smell of dead mice is overwhelming, it's everywhere.' Farms across New South Wales have been overrun with plagues of mice in recent months (pictured property in Gilgandra) She said the financial burden was ever worse. 'We are trying to sow winter crops, an almost impossible task with mice eating the grain straight from the ground,' Ms Jones said. 'We're trying to fill grain contracts made before the plague with mouse infested grain. 'I know it has certainly had a psychological impact on my husband and living with mice crawling through the walls and ceiling all night keeping you awake would drive anyone up the wall.' Some farmers estimated losses of between $50,000 and $150,000 due to grain and fodder being destroyed, NSW Farmers Grains Committee Chair Matthew Madden said. 'Farmers and rural communities are still in the midst of combatting a ceaseless mouse plague that is continuing to impact the northern and central west regions and rapidly spreading and growing through the south,' he said. Farmers have collected scores of rodents across Australia (pictured above) who have been causing havoc with stock In early February, Ben Storer filmed the mice as he drove through the horde in a ute on his family farm in Warren in central northern NSW (pictured) He said if this same problem was seen in an inner-city suburb like Balmain, it would have been fixed long ago. A survey on farmers around the state found that more than 80 per cent had suffered significant damage to machinery and infrastructure from mice. It was also found that 75 per cent of farmers couldn't access bait when they needed it most. CWA chief executive Danica Leys said the plagues of rodents also had drastic impacts on farmers' mental health. 'People are having issues with sleeping, which we all know as a significant impact on mental and physical health,' she said. 'There are plenty of reports of people being bitten and mice also make their way into rain water tanks causing contamination of domestic water storages with different bacteria such as salmonella. 'And it's not just farm businesses. Regional hotels, retail and food businesses, bakeries, supermarkets, child care centres and aged care homes have also felt the impact of this mouse plague. 'All of these financial and health impacts follow unprecedented drought, catastrophic bushfires and most recently floods across large regions. It is time for the state government to act.' Dead mice are seen at a property in Coonamble in central west NSW, Tuesday, February 2, 2021 Mr Marshall said he found it odd the farmers met at a time when government ministers were unable to attend but said there were several workshops being set up to help those combat the mice. 'No amount of money could ever wipe out the mice impacting farmers in parts of the State,' he said. 'The most effective way to manage mouse populations is to reduce the availability of food and shelter in combination with pesticide bait control. 'The feedback I have heard from farmers on the ground is the need for increased tools to combat these pesky rodents. 'That is why we have secured the experience of Australia's leading expert to provide tailored on-farm advice alongside a series of workshops to ensure people are equipped with the knowledge they need to effectively manage mice.' 'The NSW Government has also successfully lobbied the Commonwealth's APVMA to allow off-label use of zinc phosphide and worked to ensure there is no shortage of baits.' A woman has been found guilty of murdering her 91-year-old grandmother after swapping her pills with ones prescribed to her uncle, who died from cancer. Alaine Dawn Sturniolo, 39, was convicted of murder in the WA Supreme Court on Tuesday, following a three-week trial over the January 2012 death of Dawn Baldwin. Sturniolo's uncle lost his battle with cancer in June 2011 and the mother-of-two used his morphine medication to poison her elderly grandmother, ABC reported. Ms Baldwin died seven days after she collapsed at her house in Wembley Downs, Perth. Alaine Dawn Sturniolo (pictured), 39, was convicted of murder in the WA Supreme Court on Tuesday, following a three-week trial over the January 2012 death of Dawn Baldwin Seven months before the death, Sturniolo took to Facebook to air her distaste for her grandmother. 'What is the one thing you wish you could change about your life - debt, and my grandmother's life status mwahahahahahaha.' Another Facebook post the following month read: 'Something I hate - grandma'. Sturniolo landed herself in court after she told three people about what she had done. Police had only charged her in 2018 after her sister's new partner provided officers with information that led to an investigation. Sturniolo denied the allegations she killed her grandmother. Sturniolo's uncle lost his battle with cancer in June 2011 and the mother-of-two used his morphine medication to poison her elderly grandmother She admitted she hated her grandmother as a teenager but said by the time the elderly woman had died, she had gotten to know her and no longer felt the same way. Sturniolo was 'in disbelief' when her grandmother died as 'she was still meant to be there'. The 39-year-old cried in court as the jury delivered their verdict. They had been deliberating for about six hours over two days. She has been remanded in custody and will be sentenced in July. Soap operas like Home and Away should include stories of coercive control in an effort to combat domestic violence, according to the parents of Brisbane murder victim Hannah Clarke. Sue and Lloyd Clarke, whose daughter Hannah and three children were set alight and killed by her ex-husband, also discussed a long-term plan for 'gated communities' which would allow women in fear of their partners a place to escape. Appearing on SBS's Insight program, the Clarkes joined victims of abuse, case workers and police in discussing coercive control in relationships and the prospect of new laws to deal with the problem. Hannah Clarke (pictured with children Trey, Aaliyah and Laianah) was murdered by her estranged husband Rowan Baxter, who exhibited controlling behaviour in their relationship Hannah Clarke (pictured, right, with her grandmother, left) and children Trey, Laianah and Aaliyah were doused in petrol and set alight by her ex-husband in February 2020 Ms Clarke and her three children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4 and Trey, 3, were set alight by her ex-husband Rowan Baxter at the Brisbane suburb of Camp Hill in February 2020, following the end of a relationship in which Mr and Mrs Clarke said Baxter's behaviour became more and more controlling. 'He would demand sex every night,' Mrs Clarke said when asked whether she noticed that Baxter's control over her daughter Hannah had become problematic. 'If Hannah refused sex every night he would sulk for days but then it was Catch 22. 'If Hannah agreed to have sex with him and didn't seem to enjoy it, again he would sulk for days. 'He took up Brazilian ju-jitsu and would say, 'I could choke you out and snap your neck,' just to let her know he was in control.' The burnt-out car of Hannah Clarke is removed from the scene at Camp Hill, Brisbane in 2020 As a direct result of Hannah's death, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced in February a taskforce headed by former president of the Queensland Court of Appeal, Justice Margaret McMurdo, to investigate specific coercive control laws. The taskforce will consult survivors of domestic violence, service providers and the wider community, and report back to the government in October. 'If we have coercive control laws so the police can question and ask, is he tracking your phone? Is he controlling what you wear? Is he controlling the finances?' Mrs Clarke said. 'If we have a checklist and the police can see, well yes, this is coercive control. Even if we have to lock the perpetrators up for a couple of nights, take away their sense of entitlement.' The Clarkes also discussed some of their plans through the Small Steps for Hannah foundation they set up in memory of their daughter, including visiting schools to address mothers and daughters, and also fathers and sons. 'I would like to see ads on TV,' Mrs Clarke said. 'I'd like to see a coercive control situation put into one of the soap operas like Home and Away or Neighbours... because even today so many young people don't understand what coercive control is. If it's shown to them on a platform they understand, it could be very helpful.' Lloyd and Sue Clark embrace during a vigil for Hannah Clarke and her three children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3 in February 2020 Lloyd and Sue Clark light candles for their daughter and her children on the first anniversary of their deaths Mr Clarke said the Foundation had a 10-year-plan to create 'gated communities' for woman escaping coercive control and domestic violence. 'So that once they leave the perpetrators, they've got some sort of protection, where it's harder for the perpetrator to get in. There are some out there but we need so many more, particularly in the rural communities.' Mrs Clarke became emotional when she spoke about how she is trying to recover after the horrific death of her daughter, including volunteering forthe Beyond DV organisation where she had helped Angie, an abuse survivor who also appeared on the show. Sue and Lloyd Clarke discussed coercive control and plans to help abused women on Insight 'To see the women get their freedom and get their life back on track, that's healing for me,' Mrs Clarke said as she began to cry. 'To know you can have a life after domestic violence and even though Hannah couldn't have that now, it's lovely to see other women and that helps me so much.' Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced in last night's budget a further $1.1 billion to help women and children experiencing domestic violence and coercive control to access emergency accommodation, legal assistance, counselling and financial support. 'We will improve the family law system to better protect children, give victims of domestic violence greater access to justice and reduce time spent in court,' Frydenberg said. Madeleine McCann's parents will remember their daughter 'quietly' on her milestone 18th birthday today on an occasion they describe as 'particularly poignant'. Kate and Gerry will lay presents and cards in her bedroom which is understood to remain as a shrine to her and unchanged since she was snatched 14 years ago. They will hold a small celebration for her at home in Rothley, Leicestershire, with their sixteen-year-old twins Sean and Amelie. Madeleine's great aunt and uncle Janet and Brian Kennedy, who also live in the village, will pray for her too on the day she would become an adult. Kate and Gerry (pictured in 2017) will lay presents and cards in her bedroom which is understood to remain as a shrine to her and unchanged since she was snatched 14 years ago They will hold a small celebration for Madeleine (pictured) at home in Rothley, Leicestershire, with their sixteen-year-old twins Sean and Amelie The disappearance of Madeleine McCann Madeleine McCann, known as Maddie, disappeared from a holiday apartment in Portugal's Praia da Luz on May 3, 2007. She was on holiday with her parents, Kate and Gerry McCann; her two-year-old twin siblings; and a group of family friends and their children. She and the twins had been left asleep at the apartment, while the McCanns and friends dined in a restaurant 55 metres (180 ft) away. The parents checked on the children throughout the evening, until Kate discovered she was missing at 10pm. What followed is widely regarded as one of the most reported on missing person investigations in the world. Portuguese authorities closed their enquiries in July 2008 but Maddie's parents continued with private detectives. Scotland Yard launched their own investigation - Operation Grange - in 2011 and enquiries are ongoing. Advertisement Retired head teacher Brian, 81, said: 'They have asked the family and supporters to remember Madeleine's birthday quietly and to continue to hope for a definitive outcome to the continuing investigation.' In an anniversary posting last on May 3, Kate and Gerry said: 'This year it is particularly poignant as we should be celebrating Madeleine's 18th birthday.' They continued: 'As we have said repeatedly, we need to know what has happened to our lovely daughter, no matter what. 'We are very grateful to the police for their continued efforts. We hang on to the hope, however small, that we will see Madeleine again.' Ex GP turned medical worker Kate, 53, and heart doctor Gerry, 52, have brought carefully chosen gifts and coming of age cards for their daughter. They will be kept for her, either in boxes or on display in her room where she last slept five days before she vanished from a holiday apartment in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in May 2007. The pretty pink room with glow stars on the ceiling is thought to have been left frozen in time and is crammed with many yet to be opened Christmas and birthday presents, photos and goodwill messages from around the world. It has provided a sanctuary over the years for devout Catholic Kate and her husband, although Gerry previously said in an anniversary TV interview: 'Soon there will be the practical issue of what to do with a ''spare'' room one of the twins may need. 'But that was the room she left and it would be familiar to her. It would be hard to dismantle it.' A family friend said: 'There will be prayers and quiet reflection with the twins and presents and a special cake for Madeleine's 18th birthday.' Three-year-old Madeleine was taken after being left sleeping alone with her younger twin siblings while her parents were dining with pals at a nearby tapas restaurant. Kate had last seen her at 7.15pm on May 03, 2007 - just 12 days before her fourth birthday - as she tucked her into bed and kissed her goodnight after reading her and the toddler twins a story at their Algarve holiday flat. Madeleine McCann's parents said they 'hang on to hope, however small' that they will see their daughter again as they mark the 14th anniversary of her disappearance alone The pretty pink room at the couple's house (pictured) with glow stars on the ceiling is thought to have been left frozen in time and is crammed with many yet to be opened Christmas and birthday presents, photos and goodwill messages from around the world After Gerry checked on the sleeping kids at 8.30pm the McCann's left them alone on that fateful night to join their seven friends at the resort bar. Gerry returned to ground floor Apartment 5A to look in on the three children at 9.05pm. When it was Kate's turn at 10pm, after their friend Matthew Oldfield had briefly made a second check for her at 9.30pm without looking fully into the bedroom, she found to her horror Madeleine was missing. Kate, in her 2011 memoir Madeleine recalled that moment, writing: 'I started screaming. ''Madeleine's gone! Someone's taken her.'' I was hysterical.' She told of her mixed emotions: 'Nausea, terror, disbelief, fear. Icy fear.' Kate also described in her bestseller the moment her much longed for IVF first child was born, writing: 'Our daughter was perfect. 'The most wonderful thing I had ever set eyes on. I thanked God over and over again for bringing her into our lives.' In her latest anniversary message she said: 'Every May is tough - a reminder of years passed, of years together lost, or stolen.' Convicted paedophile and rapist Christian Brueckner, 44, remains under investigation as the prime suspect in Madeleine's abduction. The samurai sword murder case against Hannah Quinn was 'fanciful to say the least', says the judge who also found the crown prosecutor misled the court during the trial. Quinn, 26, was last week spared jail for helping her samurai sword-wielding boyfriend Blake Davis after he killed home invader Jett McKee in August 2018. She was acquitted of murder after the Crown closed its case in her NSW Supreme Court trial after Justice Natalie Adams ruled there was no case to answer. In written reasons about Quinn's application for legal costs, the judge said she raised concerns about the strength of the crown case before the trial. Hannah Quinn (centre), 26, was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order after she was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact Davis was in possession of the samurai sword (pictured) - a legal weapon - as it was a gift from his brother on his 18th birthday She then ruled inadmissible evidence the Crown sought to rely on, including suggestions that Quinn and Davis were dealing a significant amount of drugs before Mr McKee's death and while on bail. 'The "Crown case theory" that the two accused agreed to either kill or inflict grievous bodily harm on Mr McKee on an inner-city street full of onlookers in broad daylight in order to send a message to anyone else who tried to rob their drug empire was fanciful to say the least,' Justice Adams said in her reasons published on May 7. The only evidence of what had occurred inside Davis' home stemmed from Quinn's police interview, in which the Crown alleged Quinn was lying. Crown prosecutor Christopher Taylor had also sought to rely on evidence of a neighbour known as PHS who was said to have seen Quinn, Davis and Mr McKee emerge from the Forest Lodge unit. But PHS had given statements to police that were inconsistent with each other and with other witnesses' evidence. The bloody scene in August, 2018 after McKee was killed with a samurai sword During a conference a week before the November 2020 trial, she accused Mr Taylor of making her 'change my freakin statement' when he sought to clarify inconsistencies in 2019, and stated she didn't want to give evidence at trial. While Mr Taylor 'no doubt' denied the allegation of pressuring the witness, it was serious and raised the question of whether Mr Taylor could even appear at a trial in which PHS was a witness, the judge said. PHS also disclosed having developed PTSD and becoming suicidal as a result of questioning by police and Mr Taylor in 2019, and having been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Blake Davis fatally struck Jett McKee (pictured) in the head with a samurai sword after the ice-fuelled intruder fled his Forest Lodge unit in August 2018 'Despite all of those significant difficulties, nothing was disclosed to the defence about this conference,' Justice Adams said. The defence and court learned of the issues when PHS's mother emailed Justice Adams' chambers on November 10. The Director of Public Prosecutions was ordered to hand over its notes of the conference but Mr Taylor initially implied there were no notes. After questioning, he then said the DPP claimed legal privilege over them. Justice Adams said it was 'very troubling' that Mr Taylor had misled the court about the existence of the notes but proceeded on the basis Mr Taylor was ignorant of relevant subpoena law and practice, 'rather than (making) a deliberate attempt to mislead the court'. She also said it was regrettable PHS had not been called to give evidence at a committal hearing where she could have clarified the unreliable and internally inconsistent evidence. While contested by the Crown, Quinn's costs application was successful, meaning 70 per cent of her legal bills will be paid out of the state's consolidated fund. Most of that money will end up with Legal Aid, which funded almost all of Quinn's defence. The Office of the DPP declined to comment on the decision or Justice Adams' reasons. Davis, 31, was also tried for murder but was found guilty of manslaughter. He is serving a five-year jail term, pending a conviction appeal. A manhunt is underway for a carer who allegedly punched a teenage boy outside a library while pushing a man in a wheelchair. Police released CCTV of the man outside the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne on January 20 around the time of the alleged attack. The man allegedly stopped pushing the wheelchair and approached the 15-year-old boy and his four friends in the forecourt of the Swanson Street library about 2.30pm. Investigators were told a conversation took place before the man allegedly punched the victim in the face before leaving the scene. Police believe this man captured on CCTV pushing a wheelchair could assist with their inquiries into an alleged assault of a teenage boy earlier this year The boy, from the Melbourne suburb of Hampton, needed surgery for his extensive facial injuries. Police made public appeal for information about the alleged attack and help tracking down the man pushing the wheelchair. He is described as a Caucasian man in his late 30s, and was wearing a blue shirt with a red logo, a dark blue cap, and sunglasses Police would also like to speak with the second man in the wheelchair also wearing a blue shirt, who may have witnessed the alleged assault. Anyone with information is urged to contact police. The tax savings over a four year period can be revealed after Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handed down his budget on Tuesday evening For all the hype about generous $7.8billion tax cuts in the big-spending budget, most consumers won't see the extra dollars for over a year. Australians will have to wait for their tax return to be processed before they benefit from the rebates. These include a rebate of up to $1080 in the 2021-22 tax year for individuals and up to $2160 for couples. So while most of our pay packets won't look different right away, there is an extra sweetener to come come tax time in 2022. 'Taxpayers can expect to see the benefit of the tax cut when they lodge their tax return for 2021-22, so 1 July 2022 at the earliest,' said Mark Chapman, Director of Tax Communications, H&R Block. 'So, in other words, taxpayers shouldn't expect to see the benefit any time soon. 'The reason for this is that the cut takes the form of an offset, and these are all claimed via your tax return.' Meanwhile, the Stage 3 tax cuts are due to come into effect in 2024, introducing one flat tax rate on earnings between $45,000 and $200,000, benefiting Australias highest earners. The extension of the low and middle income tax offset will mean Aussies can enjoy a bumper tax return in 2022 Passing tax benefits onto consumers in our tax returns is seen as the best way to inject money into the economy When the workers submit their returns, those on a salary of about $90,000 stand to benefit the most from the Morrison government's tax cuts in terms of dollar figures. Middle income earners paid at about that level will receive $7,020 in tax relief in total over the four years from 2018 to 2022, federal budget documents said. A working couple who both make $90,000 will be rewarded with $14,040 in tax cuts in total over that period when compared with 2017 tax tables. Low income earners on $40,000 will have saved $3,080 in total. Higher income earners on $120,000 will get $6,720 in tax relief over the same period. Those earning more than $140,000 will take home an extra $5,400 when compared with tax settings from 2017-18. These numbers come as a result of the federal government's flagship tax policy announced tonight, combined with the permanent relief the government introduced last October. HOW MUCH TAX RELIEF YOU WILL GET OVER THE FOUR YEARS FROM 2018-22 Income Tax saving $40,000 $3,080 $60,000 $6,480 $80,000 $6,480 $90,000 $7,020 $100,000 $6,720 $120,000 $6,120 $140,000 $5,400 $160,000 $5,400 $180,000 $5,400 $200,000 $5,400 Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced on Tuesday night that the government will extend the lower and middle income tax offset for ten million Australians for a further year. Workers will receive a $1,080 offset when they submit their tax returns for the 2021-22 financial year. The wealthiest Australians will be rewarded for their patience in years to come, with the Morrison government planning to permanently lower tax brackets again in 2024. After the 'stage three' tax plan kicks in some 95 per cent of Australians will pay 30 per cent tax or less, official documents said. 'Australia's economic recovery is now underway and we must keep the momentum moving,' Mr Frydenberg said in his speech this evening. Middle income earners will receive up to $7,020 in tax relief between 2018 and 2022, this year's budget has confirmed Ten million Aussies get tax cuts worth $1,080 as thousands of free training places and extra cash for your super are unveiled in the Federal Budget - but you won't be able to go overseas until 2022 By Charlie Moore for Daily Mail Australia Ten million Australians will get a big tax cut worth up to $1,080 as part of a federal budget designed to cement the nation's rapid recovery from last year's Covid-induced recession. But the sweetener comes alongside grim news that overseas holidays will be off the cards until mid-2022 except for travel bubbles with safe countries such as New Zealand as the deadly disease continues to ravage the world. The budget's flagship policy is an extension of the lower and middle-income tax offset which gives Aussies who earn less than $126,000 a big boost when they submit their tax returns. Australians earning between $48,000 and $90,000 will get the maximum amount of $1,080 while those earning between $37,000 and $48,000 and between $90,000 and $126,000 will get a smaller amount depending on their salary. Amie Frydenberg hands her children Gemma and Blake a piece of chocolate as they listen to their dad Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg handing down his third Federal Budget Combined with the permanent tax cuts announced in the October budget, it means an Aussie earning $90,000 will pay $7,020 less tax over the four years from 2018 to 2022. Those earning between $60,000 and $80,000 will pay $6,480 less compared to 2017 tax settings. Working parents will get a further boost as the budget slashes childcare fees for second and subsequent children and scraps the maximum subsidy amount, which will save 250,000 families an average of $2,200 a year. Meanwhile, some 300,000 Australians who earn less than $450 a month from a single employer will get superannuation payments for the first time and thousands of young Aussies will have access to free training courses under an extension of the JobTrainer scheme. In his speech in parliament on Tuesday night, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg warned 'the pandemic is far from over' with the world recording 800,000 cases a day, which is why hotel quarantine will be in place for another year even with everyone offered a vaccine by December. But with 75,000 more Aussies in jobs than the before the pandemic, the Treasurer said Australia was 'well on the way to recovery'. 'Jobs are coming back, the economy is coming back, Australia is coming back,' he declared. The chaos on two of Britain's busiest railways is threatening to wreck May Bank Holiday plans. Cross-country services were brought to a near-standstill for a fourth day yesterday and rail users were warned not to travel again today. Insiders said the fiasco could easily drag on for several more weeks, potentially derailing mini-breaks and day trips planned by thousands for the Bank Holiday at the end of the month. Chaos was sparked after cracks were found under some of Hitatchi Rail's trains, which it leases to the rail operating firms. A total of 182 Class 800 trains were taken out of service including 93 on Great Western Railway, which runs to beauty spots in the South West, and 65 on London North Eastern Railways, which serves the East Midlands, the North and Scotland. Cross-country services were brought to a near-standstill for a fourth day yesterday and rail users were warned not to travel again today [Stock photo] An announcement is expected today on whether any of the trains can be returned to service. Last night it emerged ministers are demanding that Hitachi picks up the multi-million-pound passenger compensation bill so that taxpayers are not lumbered with it. Ministers have bailed out the railways since the start of the pandemic, meaning taxpayers not rail operators could be on the hook for the refunds. Thousands are in line to claim and the bill could be as high as 2million a day. The Government said Agility Trains, a consortium led by Hitachi, would have to 'fully compensate the taxpayer'. The cracks in the trains' yaw dampers - the area where the suspension system attaches to the body - that led to the disruption were detected on May 8 during an inspection of a train at GWR's Stoke Gifford depot near Bristol Ministers have been bailing out the railways since the start of the pandemic, meaning taxpayers could be on the hook for the refunds due to affected customers. But last night a Government spokesman said: 'We expect those who have the contractual performance and train availability obligations, including Agility Trains, to fully compensate the taxpayer. 'We are currently assessing options to ensure taxpayers do not bear the burden.' Thousands of passengers are in line to claim refunds and the compensation bill may be as high as 2million a day. Hundreds of services have been cancelled since the cracks were discovered on some trains during tests in the early hours of Saturday. They were found on the chassis area of Hitachi Class 800 series trains. Hitachi has repeatedly refused to say how many have been found to have cracks. It comes after rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris ordered the rail operators involved to 'urgently set out a comprehensive plan' to end the disruption. It is believed that plan could receive a final sign-off on Wednesday. A Hitachi Rail spokesman said: 'We continue to engage round the clock with the ORR, operators and industry experts to finalise the service recovery plan for the Class 800 and Class 385 trains currently not in service. 'We want to reassure passengers who are planning to travel on Class 800 or Class 385 trains that they will only operate once they have completed the appropriate precautionary safety assessments. 'Our investigations have given us a thorough understanding of the issue and we are making progress with our partners to return trains to service safely. 'We continue to thank passengers for their patience and apologise for any disruption caused.' A dishonest and greedy witness who was blackmailing millions of dollars from alleged tax fraudsters caught an investigative journalist 'hook, line and sinker' in his plan, a jury has heard. Clive Steirn SC said in his closing argument in defence of veteran reporter Stephen Barrett that he was 'hoodwinked' by property developer Daniel Hausman. The 63-year-old journalist was allegedly manipulated with the promise of a sensational scoop about millions owed to the Australian Taxation Office involving then-deputy commissioner ATO Michael Cranston and his son Adam. Clive Steirn SC said in his closing argument in defence of veteran reporter Stephen Barrett (pictured) that he was 'hoodwinked' by property developer Daniel Hausman Barrett has pleaded not guilty to acting in a joint criminal enterprise to blackmail three accused masterminds behind the $105million tax scandal. The Crown has argued Barrett played the role of interested investigator but was threatening to expose the ploy so Hausman and an inside-man Daniel Rostankovski could blackmail the trio initially out of $5million. They later planned another attempt for more than $20million. At no stage was Barrett ever told of the extortion plan, or that the first had been successful, Mr Steirn said. Crown prosecutor Patricia McDonald SC previously pointed to secretly recorded phone calls between Barrett and Hausman, saying it proves the accused had knowledge of the scheme and did not adequately pursue documentation or proof for a story. In seducing Barrett, Hausman made out to be a Robin Hood-type figure trying to retrieve money owed to 'mum and dad investors' who had been duped, and played on this human interest angle to maintain the journalist's intrigue, Mr Steirn said. In seducing Barrett, Hausman (pictured) made out to be a Robin Hood-type figure trying to retrieve money owed to 'mum and dad investors' who had been duped A pivotal moment in the case is a law firm meeting in February 2017 that was previously bugged by police and attended by Adam Cranston and other key figures. Barrett testified he was there to flush out the truth of the matter and had been asked to show his media credentials to the group, and then 'just walk out'. The plan did not include him listening in to the final stage of the meeting whereby they made 'the demand' for money, because then he would realise he had been tricked, Mr Steirn submitted. In earlier evidence Hausman said he initially paid the journalist about $2000, or $3000, for his role, but could not remember exactly how much or when. 'Do you really accept for a moment that Barrett would involve himself in this, for about $2000, or $3000? ... It's just nonsense ... it's completely illogical,' Mr Steirn said. Hausman had to 'stick to the script' as part of a bargain deal with prosecutors to reduce his own jail sentence, with Mr Steirn telling the jury he is an unreliable witness. Michael Cranston was acquitted in February of misusing his position to help his son and no longer works as deputy commissioner at the ATO. The defence is due to finish its closing address on Wednesday. Advertisement Violence erupted in London yesterday as pro-Palestine protesters clashed with police during a demonstration against the continued conflict in the Middle East. Dozens more people, including as many as ten children, have been killed overnight as Israel and Hamas fired retaliatory missile strikes, with the UN's Security Council due to meet today to discuss the continuing crisis. Activists waving flags, banners and placards, featuring messages including 'Hands Off Jerusalem', took to the streets of the English capital on Tuesday to call for an end to the growing unrest. Former Labour Jeremy Corbyn was also in attendance, addressing thousands of demonstrators who gathered in the city. But it is understood tensions flared when police attempted to escort away a small group of pro-Israel counter-protesters. At one point, footage appears to show a demonstrator seemingly deliberately landing on top of two counter-protesters. Apparently jumping down from above the activist plants both feet on the back and neck of the two counter-protesters before being accosted by officers. The demonstration in London, held opposite Downing Street, attracted thousands following recent protests in Jerusalem against the eviction of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah. Supporters of Palestine attend an emergency 'Rally for Jerusalem' outside 10 Downing Street yesterday Huge crowds gathered to protest in the capital yesterday, with a large police presence also enforced At one point, footage appears to show a demonstrator seemingly deliberately landing on top of two counter-protesters. Apparently jumping down from above the activist plants both feet on the back and neck of the two counter-protesters before being accosted by officers A Pro-Palestinian protestor holds a banner outside the Israeli Embassy in London as he awaits for a crowd of demonstrators to arrive Former Labour Jeremy Corbyn was also in attendance, addressing thousands of demonstrators who gathered in the city. Pictured: Video footage from Tuesday evening showed three plumes of thick, black smoke rising from a Gaza residential block as it toppled over following an Israeli air strike. A large residential tower block in Gaza has collapsed today after one of several dozen Israeli cross-border air strikes on Tuesday night, as Hamas vowed to turn Israel into 'a hell' Pictured: People gather at the site of a collapsed building in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on May 11, 2021. Hamas Islamists said they had fired 130 rockets towards Tel Aviv on Tuesday, unleashing a massive barrage on Israel's economic hub, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on 12-storey tower near Gaza's coast It comes as officials in Gaza said 32 Palestinians - including ten children - have been killed in the latest clashes. The Israeli military claimed at least 16 of the dead were militants, while seven deaths have been attributed to the same family, including three children. Some may have been the result of errant Hamas missiles. In Israel, three women have been killed - one in her 60s and another in her 80s - during Hamas rocket attacks earlier on Tuesday, and a third victim aged 50 on Tuesday evening when a rocket hit a building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. The renewed confrontation, following weeks of tensions and clashes in the contested Jerusalem, was sparked on Monday evening when Hamas - the Islamist group that rules inside Gaza - fired a barrage of missiles towards Jerusalem. Then on Tuesday afternoon, former U.S. President Donald Trump posted to his website, saying that America 'will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself' as he criticised President Joe Biden over the growing crisis. Earlier, the White House had said Biden was being briefed on the escalating situation. Israel's Iron Dome defence system continued to struggle with the volume of rockets being fired from Gaza on Tuesday evening, after an Israeli air strike caused a 13-storey residential building to collapse in Gaza City. And the mayor of the Israeli city of Lod called for army back-up to help secure the area, saying 'civil war' was breaking out as residents clashed following the funeral of an Arab man killed yesterday by a Jewish local. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier 'deplored' the deaths of the two women in Israel, adding that the country's military would 'further increase both the intensity and the rate' of its own air strikes against Gaza. 'Hamas will be hit in ways that it does not expect,' Netanyahu said, before the announcement of the third woman's death in Israel. 'We have eliminated commanders, hit many important targets and we have decided to attack harder and increase the pace of attacks.' The cross-border violence has been fuelled by Israel's evictions of Muslim communities living in east Jerusalem which led to angry riots breaking out on Temple Mount over the weekend, with hundreds left injured on Monday as riot police shot rubber bullets and fired tear gas at protesters. Police officers escort a small group of pro-Israeli counter-demonstrators during a pro-Palestinian protest outside Downing Street Police enforcement including armed policemen arrived outside the Israeli Embassy in Kensington after a pro-Palestinian demonstration Supporters of Palestine attend an emergency 'Rally for Jerusalem' outside 10 Downing Street Buses were surrounded by protesters, holding up signs reading 'Gaza, stop the massacre' The demonstration in London, held opposite Downing Street, attracted thousands following recent protests in Jerusalem against the eviction of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah A group of people holding a Palestinian flag climbed over a London red bus during a pro-Palestinian demonstration A group of Neturei Karta Orthodox Jews joins a protest outside Downing Street against the escalation of violence Smoke fills the air as protesters waving Palestine flags attend the demonstration in London Pro-Israeli people holding banners and placards gather outside Britain's PM Office Pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather to protest against Israeli air raids on Gaza Strip as police take security measures Pro-Palestinian demonstrators holding banners and Palestinian flags gather to protest against Israeli air raids Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold up banners and signs as they gather to protest against Israeli air raids on Gaza Strip Thousands of activists descended on the capital to call for an end to the growing violence in the Middle East Residents of the collapsed residential block and the surrounding area had been warned to evacuate the area around an hour before the air strike, according to witnesses, and there were no reports of casualties two hours after it collapsed. Shortly after the attack, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group said they would respond by firing rockets at Tel Aviv, which they did. Air raid sirens and explosions were heard around the city, and the skies were lit up by the streaks of multiple interceptor missiles launched towards the incoming rockets. Pedestrians ran for shelter, and diners streamed out of Tel Aviv restaurants while others flattened themselves on pavements as the sirens sounded. The Israel Airports Authority said it had halted take-offs at Tel Aviv airport 'to allow defence of the nation's skies'. Video broadcast on Israeli Channel 12 television showed interceptor missiles rising above the runways. 'We are now carrying out our promise,' Hamas's armed wing said. 'The Qassam Brigades are launching their biggest rocket strike against Tel Aviv and its suburbs, with 130 rockets, in response to the enemy's targeting of residential towers.' The sound of the outgoing rockets could be heard in Gaza. As the rockets rose into the skies, mosques across Gaza blared with chants of 'God is great,' 'victory to Islam' and 'resistance.' One rocket struck a bus in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv. Medics said three people, including a five-year-old girl, were wounded and the bus went up in flames. Israel said it had sent 80 jets to bomb Gaza, and dispatched infantry and armour to reinforce the tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of the last ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks, in 2014. More than 2,100 Gazans were killed in the seven-week war that followed, according to the Gaza health ministry, along with 73 Israelis, and thousands of homes in Gaza were razed. Weve had our first female Time Lord now there are calls for gender balance among Doctor Whos intergalactic arch-enemies, too. Christopher Eccleston, who played the ninth Doctor, says producers should replace Cybermen with Cyberwomen. In the show, the evil cyborgs turn humans into more Cybermen. The actor, who starred for one series in 2005, also wants the show to look at history from a female perspective. Christopher Eccleston, who played the ninth Doctor, called for gender balance among Doctor Whos intergalactic arch-enemies and said producers should replace Cybermen (pictured) with Cyberwomen He said Jodie Whittaker, who took over the role in 2017, should also meet key figures such as suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. Eccleston, 57, told Doctor Who magazine: Its great that we have a female Doctor... we should take that further in the way we look at history. Look at it through a female lens. Although a Cyberwoman did appear in spin-off series Torchwood in 2006, there has never been one in Doctor Who. Eccleston added: Its high time we had a Cyberwoman I think we really need to address that. The Doctor with a Cyberwoman that dynamic, feminine element of himself... his flirtatious nature... would be great with a Cyberwoman. Jodie Whittaker was cast as the first female Doctor in 2017. He said Jodie Whittaker (pictured), who took over the role in 2017, should also meet key figures such as suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst Eccleston also said that it was very important for him to portray the Time Lord with his own Salford accent. He said: One of the reasons why I didnt like the show when I was a kid was I couldnt put myself in that role. I know Tom Baker is a Scouser but he certainly didnt sound like one to me. The series seemed to be saying that if youre white and youre middle class, you have ownership of intellect and science. The Remember Me campaign shifted up a gear yesterday thanks to a stunning 100,000 gift from businessman Mohamed Mansour taking the cash raised by the Mail's drive past 1million. Making his pledge, the Egyptian tycoon said he felt 'privileged and compelled' to support the multi-faith memorial to Covid victims at St Paul's Cathedral after seeing the grief caused by the pandemic. Mr Mansour, who runs his empire from London, said the lasting tribute in the heart of the capital would become a 'national place to mourn for everyone and for every faith'. His generosity has seen the total raised since the Mail first launched the fundraising drive smash through the 1million mark. The Remember Me campaign shifted up a gear yesterday thanks to a stunning 100,000 gift from businessman Mohamed Mansour taking the cash raised by the Mail's drive past 1million Making his pledge, the Egyptian tycoon (pictured) said he felt 'privileged and compelled' to support the multi-faith memorial to Covid victims at St Paul's Cathedral after seeing the grief caused by the pandemic In addition to the money already collected by the cathedral itself, a total of almost 1.5million has now been pledged towards the 2.3million needed for the memorial. The permanent memorial will feature a grand oak portico with the words 'Remember Me' engraved in several languages and is open to those of all faiths and none. Inside, a chapel will display screens showing a virtual book of remembrance which it is hoped will bear the names and pictures of those lost directly or indirectly to Covid. Faith leaders from Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh organisations around Britain have already given their support for the space. Giving his heartfelt backing, Mr Mansour said: 'I have been moved by the scale of the tragedy of the death toll from Covid and the 130,000 people who have died, the largest toll since the Second World War grandparents, mothers, fathers and children must never be forgotten. 'Running a global business from London my staff and I have seen the pain of grief for so many which is why I and hundreds of Daily Mail readers feel privileged and compelled to donate.' The permanent memorial will feature a grand oak portico with the words 'Remember Me' engraved in several languages and is open to those of all faiths and none The businessman oversees his family's global conglomerate the Mansour Group and founded Man Capital, its UK investment arm which is based in Knightsbridge. He was forced to help rebuild his family's fortune after it was lost when Egypt's then president Gamal Abdel Nasser took away his late father Loutfy's cotton trading company in 1964. It meant his childhood home was confiscated and his father forced to start from scratch, only to suffer the same fate again in Sudan in the 1970s. Mr Mansour rebuilt the family's fortune alongside his brothers and today the group has 60,000 employees in 100 countries and recently contributed $11million to support efforts against Covid. Mr Mansour's endorsement yesterday followed generous pledges from entrepreneur Matt Moulding, Apprentice star Lord Sugar and philanthropists Sir Michael Hintze and Sir Tom Hunter. It is hoped the memorial will be ready in time for the second anniversary of the pandemic next March. We must never forget their sacrifice: Families of three nurses who lost their lives back By Inderdeep Bains and Kamal Sultan for the Daily Mail The families of three nurses who dedicated their lives to the NHS and died when they contracted Covid after refusing to retire have backed the Mail's campaign to ensure they are 'never forgotten'. The devastated yet proud families of Margaret Tapley, Alice Kit Tak Ong and Sophie Fagan support plans for a memorial at St Paul's Cathedral to ensure all NHS heroes like these women are remembered for years to come. Mrs Tapley, 84, was a great-grandmother and auxiliary nurse who dedicated more than 40 years to helping patients. The families of three nurses who dedicated their lives to the NHS and died when they contracted Covid after refusing to retire have backed the Mail's campaign to ensure they are 'never forgotten'. Pictured: Margaret Tapley She died on April 19 last year nine days after her last shift. Mrs Tapley, from Stanford in the Vale, Oxfordshire, 'gave her whole life to the NHS', said her granddaughter Hannah Tapley, 22. Supporting the Mail's campaign, she added: 'So many people have been through similar experiences so having that extra support and somewhere to go is so important for everyone.' Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, died when she caught Covid early in the first wave after dedicating more than 44 years to the NHS. Despite her age, she refused to stop working full-time in two busy GP surgeries in north London. The mother-of-one died on April 7 last year. She arrived in the UK in the 1970s from Hong Kong to work for the NHS because she believed it was 'the best in the world'. Alice Kit Tak Ong, 70, died when she caught Covid early in the first wave after dedicating more than 44 years to the NHS Her daughter Melissa Ong, 38, said: 'Mum loved her job, it was her life. She could have retired because she was 70 but she just loved her work so much and wanted to carry on.' Backing the Mail's campaign, she said: 'It would be great to have somewhere permanent to go, for myself, my family, for my mother's friends and all her patients. There were so many who sent lovely messages and would like to remember her.' Sophie Fagan, 78, who was described as 'part of the healthcare fabric in Hackney' spent more than half a century serving patients before she became unwell. Sophie Fagan, 78, who was described as 'part of the healthcare fabric in Hackney' spent more than half a century serving patients before she became unwell. The grandmother, who began nursing in 1966, had been working as a care co-ordinator at Homerton Hospital in north-east London. It was here she died after contracting the virus in April 2020. She had refused to retire and was still working in her role supporting carers in the week before she died. Mrs Fagan had arrived in England from India in 1961 to begin her nurse training. Her devastated daughter-in-law Deni Fagan said she was the 'most amazing mother and grandmother'. Backing the Mail's campaign, she said: 'The lives of so many families like ours were completely changed by the pandemic and it is really important to remember that with a memorial like this.' A 15-year-old girl in Washington DC pleaded guilty to the murder of an Uber Eats delivery driver, whose car she stole and crashed, killing him as he fought. The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to the March 23 murder on May 5, a court spokesman told The Washington Post on Tuesday. In return for pleading guilty to murder, other charges - armed carjacking, robbery and aggravated reckless driving - were dropped. She will be sentenced on June 4 and, as part of the deal, will serve a maximum of six years, until she is 21. Court proceedings for minors are closed to the public, so it's not clear if her light potential sentence is because she's a minor, but it's very likely. A second girl, aged 13, is yet to resolve her case, and a hearing is scheduled for May 17. She cannot be charged as an adult. The 15-year-old could have been, but it would have been a high bar for prosecutors to meet, the Post said, and prosecutors would have had to prove that she couldn't be rehabilitated. Two girls (left center), ages 13 and 15, who were charged with the murder and carjacking of Pakistani immigrant, Mohammad Anwar (right), 66, killed last month while working at his job delivering food in Washington, DC The two teenage girls were arrested immediately at the scene (pictured) The pair attacked a Pakistani immigrant, Mohammad Anwar, 66, while he was working with Uber Eats delivering food in Washington, DC. One of the girls is from the DC and the other is from neighboring Fort Washington, Maryland. Anwar, who lived in suburban Springfield, Virginia, moved to the United States in 2014, his family said. They got in to his car at the Navy Yard Metro station about 4:30pm. Anwar then drove a short distance to the streets close to Nationals Park before a struggle broke out with the two girls, one of whom was armed with a taser. A video of the incident shows the encounter unfolding in a minute and a half, ending with Anwar's Honda Accord on its side, the girls climbing out and a fatally injured Anwar sprawled and motionless on the sidewalk. The 90-second clip begins with Anwar struggling to regain control of his car after the two girls made their way inside. 'They're thieves,' he is heard saying, as he attempts to pull the girl out of the driver seat of the parked car. 'This is my car!' The graphic video clip begins with Anwar attempting to pull one of the suspects out of the driver seat The girl then accelerates while Anwar is still hanging off from the left side of the car, sending the vehicle speeding down the road. At one point, the car is seen smashing into a metal fence (right) from its left side, crushing the delivery driver between the barrier and car door The Honda flipped on its side after hitting something and causing Anwar to be ejected onto the sidewalk Two National Guardsmen who were in the area removed the juvenile suspects from the overturned car (pictured) and detained them until police responded to the scene and arrested them The teen suddenly accelerates, sending the car speeding down the 1200 block of Van Street SE with Anwar still clinging on to the driver side's door. At one point, the car is seen smashing into a metal fence from its left side, crushing the delivery driver between the barrier and car door. As the car continues to speed off into the distance, a screeching sound is heard followed by a loud crash. The bystander filming the incident runs over to the site of the crash to find the car rolled over and the two girls climbing out of the wreckage. Anwar's body can be seen lying motionless on the corner on the sidewalk, as witnesses scramble to get help. Two National Guardsmen who were in the area removed the juvenile suspects from the overturned car and detained them until police responded to the scene and arrested them. Anwar was eventually rushed to a hospital but could not be saved. Disturbing video footage shows two teenage suspects climbing out of the wreckage National Guard troops pulled the girls, ages 13 and 15, from the victim's overturned car. One of them is pictured in an orange sweatshirt just steps away from the victim's body He was thrown on to the sidewalk and sustained fatal injuries, including head trauma and broken bones. He was described in a GoFundMe post as 'a hard-working Pakistani immigrant who came to the United States to create a better life for him and his family'. The GoFundMe campaign, launched on behalf of his family, had raised more than $1 million to cover the costs of a funeral and to provide for his survivors. 'Anwar was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend who always provided a smile when you needed one,' the family said. 'Words can not describe how our family is feeling currently. Devastation, confusion, shock, anger, heartache, and anguish are just a few that come to mind.' They are yet to comment on the plea deal. The mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, tweeted then deleted a 'tone deaf' message advising people on how to prevent auto theft, five days after Anwar's killing. Bowser's official Twitter account posted a Metropolitan Police Department video about preventing car thefts with the caption: 'Auto theft is a crime of opportunity. Follow these steps to reduce the risk of your vehicle becoming a target. Remember the motto, #ProtectYourAuto.' The tweet drew outrage from critics who called it tone deaf in light of Anwar's death. One critic tweeted: 'Horrible timing on this clearly scheduled tweet. And even if Mohammed Anwar wasn't dead, carjackings are a plague in DC there isn't a lot you can do [with regard to] risk reduction besides simply not driving a car.' Bowser's official Twitter account posted a Metropolitan Police Department video about preventing car thefts, five days after Anwar's murder. It has since been deleted Nurses' 'tireless' work during the coronavirus pandemic has seen a surge in nurses joining the ranks in the NHS, officials have said. To mark International Nurses Day, health leaders have praised nurses' 'remarkable response' to the crisis. The NHS in England said due to the 'Nightingale effect' there are now thousands more nurses working in the health service after being inspired by the work of nurses during the pandemic. Meanwhile nursing leaders said the spotlight on nurses during the crisis has 'shattered stereotypes'. To mark International Nurses Day, health leaders have praised nurses' 'remarkable response' to the crisis (file photo) The NHS in England said due to the 'Nightingale effect' there are now thousands more nurses working in the health service after being inspired by the work of nurses during the pandemic. Pictured: The NHS Nightingale Hospital at the Excel Centre in London in January The Royal College of Nursing said the pandemic has helped to dispel old-fashioned views such as nursing is a predominately female or a 'vocational' role. Media reports have shown nurses on the frontlines of the crisis, battling to save the lives of patients. Meanwhile their 'vital' role in the mass Covid-19 vaccination campaign has also been a point of interest. The head of the NHS in England said it was 'no surprise' the high profile of the profession during the pandemic had inspired others to join. NHS England said there were more than 11,000 more nurses, midwives and health visitors working in the NHS in England in January compared with January 2020 as well as an additional 5,195 healthcare support workers and assistants. Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said: 'Nurses, healthcare support workers and assistants have been at the forefront of the NHS's extraordinary response to the coronavirus pandemic. Sir Simon Stevens, NHS chief executive, said: 'Nurses, healthcare support workers and assistants have been at the forefront of the NHS's extraordinary response to the coronavirus pandemic.' He is pictured being vaccinated in March 'Their skill, professionalism and tireless work has made sure that the NHS treated all those Covid patients who could benefit and millions with other conditions. 'Nurses' dedication has also played a vital part in the hugely successful rollout of the NHS vaccination programme that has combined speed and precision in a way unrivalled around the world. 'Of course, nursing is not always easy but it is one of the most rewarding careers you can have so it is no surprise that given the profession's high profile over the last year many more people have been inspired to join the NHS's ranks by the so-called Nightingale effect. 'On International Nurses Day I want to say thank you on behalf of the whole country, to them and to and all their colleagues who have played a part in the remarkable NHS response to Covid.' The NHS said a record 330,631 nurses were employed across NHS organisations in England in January 2021. NHS England chief nursing officer Ruth May said: 'Nurses have played a leading role in the fight against Covid and we are delighted to continue welcoming thousands of new nurses from all walks of life into the NHS, where they will have the opportunity to make a real difference. 'I would encourage anyone looking for a varied and rewarding career to consider joining us in the health service where there is an array of opportunities for those with and without healthcare experience.' Meanwhile a survey of 1,500 UK adults, commissioned by the RCN, found more than half (54 per cent) said media coverage of the nurses' work during the pandemic has helped to improve their recognition of nurses' skills. NHS England chief nursing officer Ruth May (pictured with Prince Charles and Camila in March) said: 'Nurses have played a leading role in the fight against Covid and we are delighted to continue welcoming thousands of new nurses from all walks of life into the NHS, where they will have the opportunity to make a real difference' RCN acting chief executive and general secretary Pat Cullen said: 'Outdated notions of nursing and nurses have failed to match the reality of a professional life defined by high-level technical, emotional and cognitive skills. 'Unfair stereotypes have inhibited efforts to improve the standing and attractiveness of nursing as a career at a time when there are tens of thousands of nursing vacancies in England alone. 'This poll suggests the amazing work that the public has seen nursing staff doing in the media during the pandemic has transformed that perception. 'This will give nurses a much-needed boost at a time when they are on their knees after a year of unprecedented challenges.' Australia will bolster its defence force, provide more funding for its spies and help exporters find new markets in a massive push back against China. Canberra-Beijing relations have deteriorated since last year when Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an independent inquiry into the origins of coronavirus which was identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan. China has blocked key Australian exports including coal, seafood, beef and barley - and has been blamed for a series of ongoing cyber attacks on Australian institutions. Some analysts have warned there could be war in the Pacific region in the next five years if China tries to 'reunify' Taiwan by reclaiming the self-governing island of 25 million people. In the face of this potential threat, the 2021 federal budget contained a series of measures that help Australia defend its national security and project power beyond its shores. On Monday, Nationals senator for Queensland, Matt Canavan, warned part of the reason Australia was spending up big were the dangerous times faced by the Asia-Pacific region. 'We have a high debt to GDP than we have ever had since the end of World War Two and without being too dramatic, we could be on the edge of World War Three with the all the tension in our region,' he told the Today show. 'We should put ourselves in a position so we are strong enough to withstand the tensions and threats that could be coming our way.' Spies Australia's secret intelligence service, ASIO, will get $1.3 billion over the next ten years. The government says the cash will boost its ability to protect Australia from security threats. 'This investment will significantly enhance ASIO's capability to identify and respond to threats in a more complex security environment. Australia's secret intelligence service, ASIO, will get $1.3 billion over the next ten years. Pictured: Australia's spy chief Nick Warner pictured meeting Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte 'It will also enable ASIO to better leverage Australian industry to help respond to challenges posed by rapid technological change,' the budget says. Due to the secret nature of the service, it was not revealed how the money would be spent. The staffing levels of ASIO are also kept secret from the public. Help for exporters Thousands of exporters around the nation - from coalminers and farmers to fishermen and winemakers - have been crippled by Beijing's blocks on Aussie products Before the pandemic about one third of Australia's exports went to China and some companies almost exclusively sold into the world largest market. The government is advising Aussie companies to find new markets such as Indonesia, India and Vietnam to avoid being stung again in the future. Farmers and other exporters will be helped to find other markets. Pictured: A wheat farmer in Parkes, NSW Some $198.2 billion over the next four years will help companies diversify their exports markets, increase Australia's contribution to global efforts to reform the World Trade Organization and enhance Australia's capability to engage in WTO dispute settlement. Australia has appealed China's ban on barley exports to the WTO and is considering doing the same with the ban on wine, which it believes is unjustified. The cash will also 'expand Australia's advocacy and cooperation with partners internationally in pursuit of a free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific,' the Budget says. Furthermore, a Global Resources Strategy will be set up at a cost of $20.1 million over two years to help the resources industry develop new markets. The Strategy will establish new initiatives to support Australian resources industries and build relationships across governments and businesses to identify new investment opportunities in existing and new export markets. The government will boost the number of staff in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade by 87 to support these measures. Cyber security Last year Scott Morrison called an extraordinary press conference in which he declared that a foreign state was launching a series of ongoing cyber attacks on Australian institutions such as banks, businesses and hospitals. Mr Morrison did not name China but sources said Beijing was behind the campaign. China was not named by the PM as being behind cyber attacks. Pictured: President Xi Jinping In this year's budget, the government will provide $42.4 million over two years to improve security arrangements for critical infrastructure assets, including those designated as Systems of National Significance such as Qantas airline and energy companies. The government is also spending $43.8 million over three years to expand the Cyber Security Skills Partnership Innovation Fund. The Fund invests in projects to improve the quality and quantity of cyber security professionals in Australia. Defence The Defence Force will receive a $747million funding boost to improve ADF training facilities, weapons training simulation, and firing ranges in the Northern Territory. The areas to benefit from the upgrade are Robertson Barracks Close Training Area, Bradshaw Field Training Area, Kangaroo Flats Training Area and Mount Bundey Training Area. Mr Morrison said the funding will not only protect Australians in the event of battle, but will also provide jobs and the local economy in the Top End. The Defence Force will receive a $747million funding boost to improve ADF training facilities, weapons training simulation, and firing ranges in the Northern Territory. Pictured: Troops in Iraq 'We continue to invest more than $270 billion [over ten years] across Australia, ensuring we have a capable defence force to meet a changing global environment, while backing thousands of ADF men and women with the newest technology and training,' he said. The budget also contained a $66.1 million commitment to upgrade the RAAF Base Williamtown runway to accommodate long-range aircraft and facilitate international flights. This runway is part of the Newcastle Airport, and will support a dual purpose use for both Defence and civilian aircraft. 'We are committed to position Defence to increase our strategic competition, now and into the future,' Defence Minister Peter Dutton said. In June 2020, Scott Morrison announced he would spend $270 billion over ten years on defence Last week, the Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Industry Melissa Price announced $155 million in infrastructure works at HMAS Cairns to support the introduction into service and sustaining of the new Arafura Class Offshore Patrol Vessels. Last June the federal government announced it will spend $270billion over the next ten years on beefing up the Australian Defence Force with state-of-the-art equipment including long-range missiles and new artillery systems amid strategic and political tensions with China. The main aim of the beef-up, which will include hiring 800 extra soldiers, is to deter aggression against Australia and its allies - but the Prime Minister also wants to prepare the defence force for war in case tensions escalate. More than half of $270billion will be spent on improving Australia's air and maritime forces, including buying new AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles from the US. The missiles, which were designed in America in 2014, cost around $5million each and can hit a target 370km away, giving Australia significant new range. They will be attached to F/A-18F Super Hornet planes and can also be paired with other defence aircraft. Troops will be trained how to use the weapon next year. The government is also considering buying a range of other weapons and defence systems including the surface-to-air Missile, the High Mobility Rocket Artillery System and the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System. In addition, between $5billion and $7billion will be spent on undersea surveillance systems, and up to $17billion will go towards buying more fighter aircraft. Up to $11billion will be spent on remotely-piloted and autonomous combat aircraft, including air teaming vehicles. More than half of $270billion will be spent on improving Australia's air and maritime forces, including buying new AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles from the US And between $8 and $11.5 billion will buy long range rocket fires and artillery systems including two regiments of self-propelled howitzers. In May 2020 Australia unveiled The Loyal Wingman unmanned drone, its first military aircraft to be built on home soil in 50 years. The drone will fly alongside fighter jets including Strike Fighters, Super Hornets and Growlers to provide support and intelligence and can hold several systems including a radar, an infrared search and track system and a defensive laser system. Billions will also be spent on space capabilities and cyber security as Australia faces ongoing attacks on institutions and companies from a 'state actor' which intelligence sources believe is China. The shift in focus on the Indo-Pacific comes as Australia pulls out of the Middle East with the training mission at the Taji Military Complex in Iraq concluded. A desperate search is underway for a missing 10-month-old baby who was last seen being put in the back of a station wagon outside a medical practice in Canberra. Hoang Vinh Le was reported missing on April 9 outside a clinic in O'Conner in the city's north being loaded into an Isuzu MU-X Wagon with New South Wales registration CF 72 YI. The Australian Federal Police have launched an urgent investigation into the child's whereabouts, and believed he is with his mother Lyn Kim Do, 21, and father Hoang Thanh Le, 28. The pair, who are Vietnamese and Australia nationals, are believed to be in the Bankstown or Liverpool areas in Sydney's west. Hoang Vinh Le was reported missing on April 9 outside a clinic in O'Conner in the city's north being loaded into an Isuzu MU-X Wagon The Australian Federal Police have launched an urgent investigation into the child's whereabouts, who is believed to be with his mother Lyn Kim Do (left) and father Hoang Thanh Le (right) The AFP and Federal Circuit Court of Australia are urging for public help into finding the baby or his parents, who they believe could have headed into the Temora area of New South Wales any time after April 9. Ms Do and Mr Le are also believed to have gone through the West Wyalong area in the NSW Riverina region. Ms Do has been described as being about 150cm tall, with pale skin, black eyes and black shoulder-length hair. Mr Le is around 160cm tall with pale skin, black eyes, short black spiky hair, speaks with an Australian accent and answers to the name Sam Le. The AFP want anyone with information about the whereabouts of Hoang, Ms Do or Mr Le to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. Liz Cheney on Tuesday refused to back down ahead of a vote to oust her from GOP leadership, calling Donald Trump a 'liar on a crusade to undermine our democracy'. Cheney, who voted to impeach the former president for his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, is expected to be ousted from her No. 3 Republican leadership post Wednesday. She said Tuesday: 'Our freedom only survives if we protect it. Today, we face threat America has never seen before. 'A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him.' A combative Cheney lashed out at leaders of her own Republican Party late Tuesday, speaking on the House floor, adding: 'Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president. 'This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar.' She did not mention party leaders by name. Scroll down for Cheney's speech in full Liz Cheney on Tuesday refused to back down ahead of vote to oust her from GOP leadership, calling Donald Trump a liar 'on a crusade to undermine our democracy' The former president spent two days holed up in Trump Tower in Manhattan before he was pictured leaving Tuesday, along with his heavy security detail House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has set a Wednesday vote for removing Cheney from her No. 3 Republican leadership post in a closed-door meeting. He sent a letter Monday to GOP lawmakers saying it was clear that he and his fellow Republicans 'need to make a change.' McCarthys letter did not mention Cheney or Trump by name. But the move comes after Cheney repeatedly challenged Trumps false assertions pinning his November re-election defeat on widespread voting fraud and criticized Trumps role in encouraging supporters January 6 attack on the Capitol. Trump was acquitted by the Senate. In a defiant last stand Cheney added Tuesday: 'Our duty is clear: Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. Cheney, who voted to impeach the former president for his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, is expected to be ousted from her No. 3 Republican leadership post Wednesday 'Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution.' The Wyoming Republican told the nearly empty House chamber: 'I will not participate in that. 'I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former presidents crusade to undermine our democracy.' Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, another of the 10 Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Trump, says she will vote to retain Cheney in leadership. Some other Republican lawmakers are said to be concerned Rep. Elise Stefanik, the front runner to replace Cheney, is not conservative enough to be the GOP Conference chair. 'Ignoring the lie emboldens the liar: Read Liz Cheney's speech in full Thank you very much. I'd like to thank very much my friend, colleague, Mr. Buck, for yielding me time this evening. I know the topic, Mr. Speaker, is cancel culture; I have some thoughts about that, but tonight, I rise to discuss freedom and our constitutional duty to protect it. Mr. Speaker, I have been privileged to see firsthand how powerful and how fragile freedom is. 28 years ago, I stood outside a polling place, a schoolhouse in western Kenya. Soldiers had chased away people who were lined up to vote. A few hours later, they came streaming back in, risking further attack, undaunted in their determination to exercise their right to vote. In 1992, I sat across the table from a young mayor in Russia. And I listened to him talk of his dream of liberating his nation from communism. Years later, for his dedication to the cause of freedom, Boris Nemtsov was assassinated by Vladimir Putin's thugs. In Warsaw, in 1990, I listened to a young Polish woman tell me that her greatest fear was that people would forget. They would forget what it was like to live under Soviet domination. That they would forget the price of freedom. Three men, an immigrant who escaped Castro's totalitarian regime, a young man who grew up behind the Iron Curtain and became his country's minister of defense, and a dissident who spent years in the Soviet gulag have all told me it was the miracle of America, captured in the words of President Ronald Reagan, that inspired them. And I have seen the power of faith and freedom. I listened to Pope John Paul II speak to thousands in Nairobi in 1985. And 19 years later, I watched the same pope take my father's hand, look in his eyes, and say God bless America. God has blessed America, Mr. Speaker. But our freedom only survives if we protect it. If we honor our oath, taken before God in this chamber, to support and defend the constitution. If we recognize threats to freedom when they arise. Today, we face a threat America has never seen before. A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol in an effort to steal the election has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. He risks inciting further violence. Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president. They have heard only his words but not the truth. As he continues to undermine our democratic process, sowing seeds of doubt about whether democracy really works at all. I am a conservative Republican and the most conservative of conservative principles is reverence for the rule of law. The Electoral College has voted. More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple judges the former president appointed, have rejected his claims. The Trump Department of Justice investigated the former president's claims of widespread fraud and found no evidence to support them. The election is over. That is the rule of law. That is our constitutional process. Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution. Our duty is clear. Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy. As the party of Reagan, Republicans have championed democracy, won the cold war and defeated the Soviet communists. Today, America is on the cusp of another cold war. This time with communist China. Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure. We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen and America has not failed. I received a message last week from a Gold Star father who said standing up for the truth honors all who gave all. We must all strive to be worthy of the sacrifice of those who have died for our freedom. They are the patriots Katharine Lee Bates described in the words of "America the Beautiful," when she wrote, "oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life." Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, this is at the heart of what our oath requires: That we love our country more. That we love her so much that we will stand above politics to defend her. That we will do everything in our power to protect our Constitution and our freedom that has been paid for by the blood of so many. We must love America so much that we will never yield in her defense. That is our duty. Thank you. Advertisement U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of 10 Republican U.S. House members who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, Capitol insurrection, says she will vote to retain Rep. Liz Cheney in Republican leadership The infighting comes as Republicans struggle to find their path forward after four years of Trump's presidency left a legacy of division. The debate continues as to whether to embrace the former president or denounce him - with Trump's allies winning the race to define the GOP. That battle will accumulate on Wednesday, when the referendum on Cheney's position as the Number Three in GOP leadership becomes a loyalty test to Trump. Her ouster is all but a foregone conclusion but the first cracked appeared on Tuesday against Trump's endorsed candidate to replace Cheney - Elise Stefanik. Republican Rep. Chris Roy of Texas argued electing Stefanik into leadership would undermine GOP attempts to win control of the House in the 2024 midterm election. 'We must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats' agenda once sworn in - that is, that we do not make the same mistakes we did in 2017,' Roy wrote in a letter sent to all GOP lawmakers that was obtained by Dailymail.com. 'Therefore, with all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats,' he noted. Roy opposed conservative efforts to overturn the election results and defended Cheney after she was criticized for being one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. But he now concedes her time has come and she will exit leadership when House Republicans gather Wednesday morning in the basement of the Capitol. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the front-runner to replace Liz Cheney in party leadership Stefanik, one of Trump's most public defenders, is campaigning hard to replace Cheney and has the endorsement of McCarthy, Trump, and power conservative Rep. Jim Jordan. But other conservatives - including some in the powerful House Freedom Caucus - worry she is not far enough to the right for them. Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, holds a far more conservative voting record than Stefanik, who brushed off concerns about her credentials Tuesday. 'We have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others,' the New York Republican told reporters on Capitol Hill. McCarthy, meanwhile, is facing anonymous grumbling for his handling of the matter. 'Kevin McCarthy has p***ed off enough members of his own conference that he's going to have to go back to his former days as a whip to try to figure out where his votes are' to become speaker, an unidentified GOP lawmaker told Politico's Playbook on Tuesday. 'I'd be worried if I was him.' He remains the frontrunner to become House speaker should Republicans win back control of the chamber in next year's election but there is chatter the drama in the GOP - not just Cheney and Trump but over conservative firebrands Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene - have left him in a tough spot. McCarthy will address Wednesday morning's meeting - as he addresses every GOP meeting - with a look to the future. 'Leader McCarthy speaks at every conference meeting and what the conference's priorities should be at every meeting,' a McCarthy spokesperson told DailyMail.com. Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, who strongly defended Cheney when she faced a recall in February, will now vote against her. 'House Democrats under Speaker Pelosi have been ruthless in advancing their radical progressive agenda, and Rep. Cheney can no longer unify the House Republican conference in opposition to that agenda. We need to take back the House in 2022 and permanently retire Pelosi,' he told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. Other Republicans brushed off the squabbling and predicted the GOP would come together. Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise told CBS News on Tuesday that, after the vote: 'You're going to see a very united front.' Cheney, a member of a prominent GOP family and the highest ranking woman in Republican leadership, survived a February attempt in 145-61 in a secret-ballot vote. But Wednesday is not expected to go so well. Punchbowl DC, an insidery newsletter, predicted she would only garner 20 votes of support. As Republicans focus on winning back control of the House, they are increasingly turning to Trump, who still has a strong and vocal base of MAGA supporters who are expected to be active in next year's primary and general election. A few Republicans have defended Cheney, including Senator Mitt Romney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, but most are looking ahead to 2022. Grumbling has begun among Republicans about the way House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy has handled the situation with Cheney and other drama in the party Kevin McCarthy has embraced Donald Trump as Republicans seek to win back control of the House of Representatives Trump repeatedly attacked Cheney after she voted to impeach for his role in the Capitol riot and, last week, blasted her as a 'warmonger.' She has given as good as she has gotten. Last Monday, Cheney she slammed Trump for 'poisoning our democratic system' as he continued to falsely spout that the 2020 election was stolen from him. The 2020 contest showed no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Several recounts in states confirmed Joe Biden's win. Multiple courts threw out Trump's legal challenges. Several Republicans said Trump should have done more to rein in his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. McCarthy even called him out on the House floor the day, saying Trump bears responsibility for the riot. Trump erupted in fury. McCarthy flew down to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's residence in Palm Beach, to make peace. He called Trump a force in the GOP. 'He could change the whole course of history,' McCarthy told The New York Times. 'This is the tightest tightrope anyone has to walk.' Australia could be able to produce enough jabs on home soil to immunise the entire nation in as little as six months, without waiting for European governments to approve the trade. A new partnership between biotech giant BioCina and the University of Adelaide could give Australia the capability to make mRNA vaccines such as the Pfizer and Moderna jabs here. The venture would see the acquisition of a purpose-built Pfizer biologics manufacturing plant in Adelaide, according to The Australian. From January through to March restrictions on sending the Pfizer jab - which is made in Belgium - abroad were tightened due to a serious shortage in the European Union, making it difficult for Australia to get their ordered dosages at the start of the rollout. Bringing manufacturing Down Under will prevent further delays. BioCina boss Ian Wisenberg said Australia could 'hit the ground running' as the manufacturing plant is ready for use. Australia could become completely self-reliant with its Covid vaccination program in six months. Pictured: A nurse receives a Covid jab 'We are supremely confident that given the green light we could begin manufacture within six months to a year,' Mr Wisenberg said. 'In a country like Australia we are talking about 20 million people, or 40 million doses, which is not a lot in terms of production. We see no reason why we could not be producing 100 million doses within that same six to 12-month timeframe, which could also be of benefit to other nations in the Asia-Pacific. 'This is a tremendous opportunity to support the sovereignty of producing vaccines locally and to short-circuit the problems we have encountered with supply chain.' BioCina bought the Pfizer plant in Thebarton back in August 2020. On Tuesday it was revealed the government's Budget will provide funding to the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources to work with the Department of Health to develop an onshore mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability. The funding will be for continuing negotiations with existing manufacturers and approaching the Australian market to establish manufacturing capability. The technology could also be used for flu jabs and other future vaccines. However, the government is refusing to reveal how much funding will be provided. Staff prepare Covid vaccines in the pharmacy area at the Olympic Park Vaccination Centre on Monday The Budget says: 'Funding for this measure is not for publication (nfp) due to commercial in confidence sensitivities.' Meanwhile, the Covid vaccine rollout for all Australians who want their two doses is likely to be completed by the end of the year. That's the bold prediction of Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and his department, underpinning much of the government's economic recovery plan. So far 2.7million doses have gone into the arms of Australians, but the rollout's weekly pace will need to triple if Mr Frydenberg is to be believed. 'The vaccine is likely to be rolled out by the end of this year to all those Australians who want that vaccine,' he said on Tuesday. 'There is the assumption they will get two doses by that time.' He noted it was based on 'those who seek to have the vaccine' rather than the entire Australian population. Benjamin Netanyahu has declared a state of emergency in the central city of Lod as police accused Arab residents of waging 'wide-scale riots'. The Israeli Prime Minister's statement came after an Israeli Arab was killed there the previous night as violence soared between Israel and the Palestinian territories. Netanyahu himself is understood to have gone to the city, which is in the suburbs of economic hub Tel Aviv near the Ben Gurion airport, to call for calm. Mayor Yair Revivo had ramped up the drama by declaring 'civil war has erupted', the military should be deployed and compared it to Kristallnacht under the Nazis. Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured in Lod) has declared a state of emergency in the central city as police accused Arab residents of waging 'wide-scale riots' Netanyahu himself is understood to have gone to the city (pictured), which is in the suburbs of economic hub Tel Aviv near the Ben Gurion airport, to call for calm Israeli forces detain a man as violent confrontations erupt following the funeral of Palestinian Musa Hassune who was killed by an Israeli gunman's fire in Lod The city of 77,000 people, including 47,000 Jewish Israelis and 23,000 Arab Israelis, had been the scene of violent clashes on Monday, local police confirmed. But on Tuesday night, as protests multiplied across East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank and also Israeli Arab cities, the situation spiralled in Lod. The police said: 'Wide-scale riots erupted by some of the Arab residents and endangering communities. Vehicle were burnt and damage caused to property.' The government said reinforcements had been deployed to Lod after Israeli media reported three synagogues and several businesses were set on fire. The police added: 'Sixteen border police platoons (have been) mobilised in areas in order to deal with the violence.' Mayor Yair Revivo had ramped up the drama by declaring 'civil war has erupted', the military should be deployed and compared it to Kristallnacht under the Nazis Israeli Jews walk past a torched car after clashes with Israeli Arabs and police in the Israeli mixed city of Lod Jacob Simona stands by his burning car during clashes with Israeli Arabs and police in Lod There were also violent scenes in Israeli Arab areas including Acre, Wadi Ara and Jisr A-Zarqa, where eight people were arrested, police said. Weeks of tensions boiled over when Israeli riot police clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Nightly clashes since then at the compound, which is holy to both Muslims and Jews, and elsewhere in east Jerusalem have left at least 700 Palestinians injured. On Tuesday Palestinian militants Hamas and the Israeli army traded their heaviest fire for several years, with rockets fired at Tel Aviv after an Israeli strike destroyed a tower block in Gaza. Police in Lod on Tuesday fired tear gas and stun grenades after mourners threw rocks at officers during the funeral of an Arab man allegedly shot dead by a Jewish resident the night before. Police in Lod on Tuesday fired tear gas and stun grenades after mourners threw rocks at officers during the funeral of an Arab man allegedly shot dead by a Jewish resident the night before Thousands took part in the funeral, and police said the crowd set fire to a patrol car, a bus and a motorcycle. Two police officers were injured Mayor Revivo said earlier on Tuesday he had asked Mr Netanyahu to declare a state-of-emergency in the state in central Israel Thousands took part in the funeral, and police said the crowd set fire to a patrol car, a bus and a motorcycle. Two police officers were injured. Mayor Revivo said earlier on Tuesday he had asked Mr Netanyahu to declare a state-of-emergency in the state in central Israel. Mr Revivo said the clashes were 'too big for the police' and called for the military to be deployed. 'This is Kristallnacht in Lod,' he said, in reference to the pogrom against Germany Jews carried out by Nazi Germany in 1938. 'I have called on the prime minister to declare a state of emergency in Lod. To call in the IDF. To impose a curfew. To restore quiet There is a failure of governance 'This is a giant incident an Intifada of Arab Israelis. All the work we have done here for years [on coexistence] has gone down the drain.' 'All of Israel should know, this is a complete loss of control This is unthinkable. Synagogues are being burned. Hundreds of cars set alight. Hundreds of Arab thugs are roaming the streets 'Civil war has erupted in Lod The Orthodox-nationalist community here has guns. I'm imploring them to go back home but they understandably want to protect their homes. Petrol bombs are being thrown into [Jewish] homes. The situation is incendiary.' The mayor also claimed Israelis were leaving their homes with guns out of fear for their lives and Islamists were allegedly inciting the city's youths. Mr Revivo said the clashes were 'too big for the police' and called for the military to be deployed The shooting early on Tuesday in Lod came at a time of heightened tensions following weeks of unrest at a contested holy site in Jerusalem and heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip The fighting has spilled over into Israel's Arab sector, with protests taking place in dozens of communities across the country. Pictured: Lod on Tuesday 'We haven't done anything to you,' he pleaded, as he begged for calm in the city. 'Every minute, a car or a synagogue or a school is going up in flames Our new city hall was broken into and set alight. 'You don't understand what's happening here. This is worse than the missiles from Gaza,' Revivo said. He said 'there's been nothing like this in the history of Israel,' according to The Times of Israel. The shooting early on Tuesday in Lod came at a time of heightened tensions following weeks of unrest at a contested holy site in Jerusalem and heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The fighting has spilled over into Israel's Arab sector, with protests taking place in dozens of communities across the country. Thousands of people took part in the funeral in Lod. Israeli police have arrested three people suspected of involvement in the shooting. A woman has allegedly been sexually assaulted at a Melbourne train station by a man who pulled down his pants and began performing a sex act on himself. Transit Crime Investigation Unit detectives in Victoria said the female victim was waiting at the Huntingdale Railway Station, in Melbourne's southeast, just after midnight on March 3 when the unknown man approached. 'He exposed himself and masturbated in front of the woman before walking onto the platform and boarding a Pakenham-bound train which investigators believe he may have exited at Noble Park or Dandenong,' police said. Police have released CCTV footage of a man they would like to speak to after a woman was allegedly sexually assaulted at a Melbourne train station Transit Crime Investigation Unit detectives in Victoria said the female victim was waiting at the Huntingdale Railway Station, in Melbourne's southeast (pictured), just after midnight on March 3 when the unknown man approached The shocked passenger was sitting alone at the time of the alleged sexual assault on a step just outside the station. Investigators have released CCTV images of a man they want to speak to. Police said: 'He is perceived to be Indian in appearance and was wearing a blue polo shirt, grey track pants and black shoes.' Anyone who may have any information is urged to contact police immediately. For 24-hour sexual assault support call: 1800 RESPECT (1800 656 463). A Kiwi 'mountain man' who claimed police tried to make him look as bad as the Christchurch mosque shooter for staying in his car during lockdown restrictions has had his conviction overturned on appeal. Fraser Wright Maddigan, 45, was spoken to three times by New Zealand police after leaving his Christchurch home and driving 600km to Te Anau, where he was arrested during a lockdown. Maddigan was fined $1000 and also ordered to pay $130 court costs on April 2, 2020, for breaching the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act by deciding to self-isolate in his Honda Civic during a state of emergency. New Zealand police arrested a 'mountain man' who claimed to be self-isolating in his car during a Covid lockdown. Although he was convicted and fined, the man won his appeal Maddigan's lawyer, David Slater, said because his client's home life had become difficult, 'he hit upon the idea of isolating himself in his vehicle'. The court heard Maddigan left Christchurch to drive south, where he had worked as a pest controller, and ran into trouble after being pulled over by police three times in two days. When he was told by Te Anau police to go home at 8.30pm on the second night, Maddigan decided to sleep in his car but claimed he had taken Covid precautions when paying for petrol and doing grocery shopping. He even ate dinner in his Honda. The next morning at 9.30am, when heading home, police arrested Maddigan and took him to Invercargill - where he was denied bail before his court hearing. At that hearing he was convicted and admonished by Judge Bernadette Farnan, who said Maddigan took 'a belligerent attitude to police' - and fined him. In April 2020, Maddigan told stuff.co.nz, 'the mountains are my home' and asked 'how the f*** do you get in such trouble just for living in the mountains?' New Zealand police walk through an empty street in Christchurch during a Covid lockdown in March 2020 Maddigan then appealed to the High Court, claiming his original conviction failed to take into account he was trying to return home as asked when arrested. On Tuesday he told Gerald Justice Nation, 'I believe the prosecutor chose to hide this crucial evidence in an attempt to convince the judge I was equally as bad as the mosque shooter', stuff.co,nz reported. Justice Nation ruled Maddigan's initial trial included 'a miscarriage of justice' when he was remanded in custody in Invercargill over the minor charge he was facing. '[The] legislation did not allow Judge to deny bail,' the court judgement read. 'Maddigan had given up his right to defend the charge, in part, to avoid being remanded in prison.' 'Accordingly, his conviction and fine had to be quashed. Proceedings to go back to the District Court.' Passengers on a packed Jetstar flight have been ordered to get coronavirus tests after sharing the plane with a returned traveller who later tested positive. Anyone who was on board Jetstar flight JQ771 from Adelaide to Melbourne on May 4 should isolate and get tested for coronavirus regardless of symptoms, health authorities said on Wednesday. The man, in his 30s, may also have exposed hundreds of train commuters to the virus in Melbourne after he rode with hundreds leaving a Friday night AFL game. Victoria's Health Department issued the urgent alerts for the flight and two train services following the Melbourne man catching the virus while in hotel quarantine in South Australia. He flew into Melbourne on May 4 and continued to his home in Wollert in the city's north. He later dined at an Indian restaurant in the CBD he travelled to by train last Friday night May 7 - not developing symptoms until the following day. Anyone who attended Melbourne's Flinders Street station (pictured) on May 7 must watch out for symptoms On Tuesday, officials announced passengers on his flight, JQ771 from Adelaide to Melbourne on May 4, must now also get tested and isolate. On Wednesday, Victoria's Health Minister Martin Foley said the were in the process of ruling out potential exposure sites. Mr Foley said the chance Covid had spread to any of the other 100 passengers on the Jetstar flight was 'improbable' - but some have already continued travelling on to other states. Health officials have also expressed concern about the decline in Victorians using the QR code check-in system, which has created a headache for contract tracers who are tracking the man's movements. Two train services have been listed as Tier 2 exposure sites. Anyone who caught the 5.28pm Craigieburn to Southern Cross service on Friday May 7 or the 10.20pm Flinders Street to Craigieburn service on the same night must get tested and isolate immediately until they receive a negative test. The return train is understood to have been carrying hundreds of crowd members from a Richmond and Geelong AFL game in the city earlier that night. 'This advice applies for people in any carriage, who got on and got off at any station,' the alert states. 'If you travelled around this time but are unsure about which service you caught, please get tested.' 'If you were at the stations around these times but didn't get on the train, monitor for symptoms.' Curry Vault Indian Restaurant and Bar (pictured) in Melbourne's CBD has been forced to close its doors for two weeks after an infected case dined there on the night of May 7 Flinders Street, Southern Cross and Craigieburn stations have also been declared Tier 3 exposure sites - which means anyone who was at any of these stations on May 7 must monitor for symptoms. The stations were among a list of potential exposure sites released on Tuesday night. The list included Curry Vault Indian restaurant in Melbourne's CBD, where the infected case dined last Friday night. The restaurant has been declared as a Tier 1 site - the most serious, which means anyone there between 6:30pm and 9:30pm must isolate for 14 days, regardless of the test result. The three household close contacts of the man have tested negative. While 18 people who were at the Curry Vault have been tested with three already returning negative results. Anyone who caught the 5.28pm Craigieburn to Southern Cross service or the 10.20pm Flinders Street to Craigieburn service on the night of May 7 must isolate until they return a negative test. Pictured is a Melbourne train Commuters who attended Southern Cross station (pictured) on May 7 should also watch for symptoms There were approximately 100 passengers on board the Jetstar flight from Adelaide to Melbourne with the man Victoria's COVID-19 response commander Jeroen Weimar has expressed concern about the drop in residents checking into venues via the QR code check-in system. Some of the diners at Curry Vault Indian restaurant on Friday night did not check-in. 'Based on information provided, we think there are likely to be more people in that restaurant than are on the QR code system at the moment. But we don't know who they are,' Mr Weimar said. 'That's why it's so important that we all maintain the basic behaviours. 'Wear a mask in public transport and in taxis and when you can't isolate, use the QR system wherever you go.' Curry Vault Indian Restaurant and Bar has been forced to close for at least 14 days. The latest setback comes after the restaurant lost more than $100,000 in 2020 due to multiple lockdowns. 'It's very concerning, it's such a terrible feeling when innocent people caught up in this,' restaurant owner Kailash Sharma told the Herald Sun. 'We are closed for a deep clean until 10pm tonight and all affected staff members have self-isolated. High exposure sites in Melbourne TIER 1 (isolate for 14 days, regardless of result) TIC Group / Pact Retail Accessories - Front office - 214 Blackshaws Road, Altona North - 12:01am to 11:59pm - Thursday, May 6 Curry Vault Indian Restaurant and Bar - 18-20 Bank Pl, Melbourne - 6:30pm and 9:30pm on Friday, May 7 Indian Gate Spices and Groceries - Unit 14 C/560-590 High Street - 5pm and 6pm on Saturday, May 8 Woolworths Epping - Cooper Street and High Street - 5:40pm and 6:38pm on Saturday, May 8 TIER 2 (Get tested and isolate until a negative test): TIC Group - Rear warehouse section -214 Blackshaws Road, Altona North - All day, Thursday May 6 7/11 Epping - 705 High Street - 6:30pm and 7:30pm on Thursday, May 6 7/11 Epping - 705 High Street - 11:10am and 11:40am on Saturday, May 8 Craigieburn to Southern Cross train service 5:28pm 6:07pm, Friday May 7 Flinders Street to Craigieburn train service 10:20pm 11:05pm, Friday May 7 TIER 3 (monitor for symptoms) Craigieburn Railway Station 5:23pm 5:28pm, Friday May 7 Flinders Street Railway Station 9:50pm 10:50pm, Friday May 7 Southern Cross Railway Station 6:07pm 6:22pm, Friday May 7 Advertisement 'I'm just so shocked this has all happened. We've been closed for almost a year and now this. The infected man, aged in his 30s, arrived home in Wollert in Melbourne's north on Tuesday May 4 before developing symptoms over the weekend. He was tested on Monday after his condition worsened and tested positive on Tuesday. The man had arrived in Australia from India, travelling through the Maldives and Singapore before arriving in South Australia. The latest case has put New South Wales and Queensland on high alert. An online declaration form will be mandatory to apply for Victorian visitors heading into those states, which applies from 6am on Wednesday, May 12 in NSW and 1am Thursday, May 13 in the Sunshine State. 'People arriving in New South Wales from the Greater Melbourne area must complete a declaration (form) which confirms they have not attended a venue of concern,' NSW Health said. 'If any travellers have attended any of the identified venues, they must contact NSW Health immediately.' The message from NSW Health (pictured) confirming people arriving in the state from the Greater Melbourne Area from 6am onwards from May 12 must complete a declaration form stating they have not attended a venue of concern Some of the identified venues in Greater Melbourne include the likes of Bayside City, Frankston City, Knox City and Mornington Peninsula Shire. A similar announcement emerged from the Queensland Premier on Tuesday night. 'From 1am Thursday 13 May, anyone arriving into Queensland who has been to any of the locations in Greater Melbourne must go into hotel quarantine for 14 days,' Ms Palaszczuk said. 'Anyone in Queensland prior to 1am Thursday who has been to any of the locations is also asked to quarantine at their home or arranged accommodation and also get a Covid-19 test.' The infected Melbourne man was staying in a room adjacent to a positive case in the Playford medi-hotel and is believed to have contracted the virus in the final days of his quarantine following his last test. South Australia's Chief Public Health Officer Professor Nicola Spurrier said the man was not believed to be infectious when he caught the flight back to Melbourne. The man tested negative to his mandatory tests while in hotel quarantine and authorities believe he only became infectious after landing in Victoria. Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley confirmed the man's re-test again came back positive on Tuesday afternoon but said his three household close contacts have returned negative tests. A man has tested positive for coronavirus at his Melbourne home after serving his mandatory two weeks hotel quarantine in South Australia Testing will continue across NSW after a man in Melbourne returned a positive reading for Covid in Victoria in Tuesday (pictured testing at Bondi Beach in Sydney's east) He also confirmed there are three tier one areas of exposure, which mean anyone at the venues must immediately self-isolate, get tested and quarantine for 14 days. There were also three tier two exposed venues, where anyone present must immediately get tested and isolate until they return a negative result. Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton says it was 'absolutely the case' that the man contracted the virus while serving his hotel quarantine in South Australia but said there were positives that his close contacts had produced negative tests. 'The early encouraging sign is the household close contacts are all negative given he would've been infectious likely since the 6th [of May].' Face masks remain mandatory on public transport in NSW (pictured commuters at Wynyard Station in Sydney's CBD) A Sydney man who attempted to import more than $9million worth of cocaine from America in car audio equipment has been jailed for at least 10 years. Van Dung Le, 33, on Tuesday faced Victoria's County Court, where he was sentenced to a total of 15 years and six months in prison. Le had pleaded guilty to conspiring to import 15.94 kilograms of cocaine, worth $9.4million, to Melbourne in February 2019. Sydney man who attempted to import more than $9million worth of cocaine from America in car audio equipment has been jailed for at least 10 years Le had pleaded guilty to conspiring to import 15.94 kilograms of cocaine, worth $9.4million, to Melbourne in February 2019 (the audio equipment pictured) Van Dung Le, 33, on Tuesday faced Victoria's County Court, where he was sentenced to a total of 15 years and six months in prison Judge Claire Quin said Le's motivation was 'clearly financial gain' and that he played a substantial role in the drug importation. American authorities allegedly found the cocaine alongside 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine and 3.73 kilograms of heroin, before repackaging and reloading the lot for their Australian counterparts to monitor. Police at the time said it marked the largest ever seizure of ice bound for Australia, as well as the largest ever meth bust in the US. Judge Claire Quin said Le's motivation was 'clearly financial gain' and that he played a substantial role in the drug importation American authorities allegedly found the cocaine alongside 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine and 3.73 kilograms of heroin Le, from Hinchinbrook, in Sydney's southwest, also pleaded guilty to handling the proceeds of crime worth more than $145,000 and trafficking 356 grams of cocaine Le's co-accused, 28-year-old Chi Chong Vu, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the trafficking of cocaine Audio equipment was used to smuggle the cocaine into Australia (pictured) Le, from Hinchinbrook, in Sydney's southwest, also pleaded guilty to handling the proceeds of crime worth more than $145,000 and trafficking 356 grams of cocaine. He will be eligible for parole after serving 10 years in prison. Le's co-accused, 28-year-old Chi Chong Vu, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the trafficking of cocaine. Vu was released on a recognisance order after serving 471 days in custody. Judge Quin said he had a limited, one-day role in the offending. The most senior Republican in the House was facing fresh questions about his living accommodations on Tuesday night, as it appeared he had possibly broken a House ethics rule, or violated Washington DC housing regulations. Kevin McCarthy has insisted he did nothing wrong in renting a room from GOP pollster Frank Luntz, a friend of his for 30 years. On Tucker Carlson's show Tuesday, it emerged that Luntz's 7,000-square-foot penthouse, with 12 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, could not, under DC building regulations, be rented out room-by-room. McCarthy suggested that, thanks to Democrats running the House, and tighter COVID rules, he was forced from his office couch, where he usually sleeps, to a Luntz-owned apartment in D.C.'s Penn Quarter neighborhood downtown. A spokesman for the 56-year-old California representative told Carlson, who says Luntz is a secret liberal: 'Because of the pandemic, McCarthy has rented a room in Washington at a fair market price from Frank.' Yet on Tuesday it emerged on Carlson's show that under DC rules, McCarthy would have to rent the entire property, which analysts told Fox News would be worth $25,000 a month. If he did not pay that, he would be judged under House ethics rules to be receiving a gift - something which is not permitted. The Washington Post reports the bylaws of the condo building prohibit owners from renting less than the entire space. It reads: 'No portion of any Unit (other than the entire Unit) shall be leased for any period. No Unit within the Buildings shall be rented for transient or hotel purposes No lease shall be for a term of less than six months.' Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night continued asking questions about McCarthy's situation According to online records, Luntz is the registered owner of four apartments in this Penn Quarter building, which The Washington Post said had been combined to create a penthouse Carlson has for the past week been insisting that senior Republicans were disconnected from their supporters partly because they listen to 'conventional liberals' like Luntz, whom he accused of serving 'left-wing corporations'. According to online property records, Luntz is a registered owner of four apartments in the building. The Washington Post reported that the four had been combined to create the luxurious penthouse, where the property management fees alone on the units are $4,976 per month, according to Redfin.com. Luntz, 59, runs a Republican polling and communications company, but in January declared that he no longer felt able to call himself a Republican. His stance has enraged Carlson, with the Fox News host blaming Luntz for driving a wedge between Republican voters and their leaders. It is unclear why Carlson is attacking McCarthy. McCarthy is playing a key role in the moves to oust Wyoming Senator Liz Cheney from her coveted party leadership role, in retaliation for her voting to impeach Donald Trump. McCarthy is renting a D.C. apartment from high-profile GOP pollster Frank Luntz (pictured), who has been accused by Tucker Carlson of lobbying on behalf of 'liberal' causes Frank Luntz (right) and Kevin McCarthy (left) with Tony Blair in September at the White House Last week Carlson revealed that McCarthy was living at Luntz's home. Some members of Congress rent or buy property in Washington, D.C., for when the body is in session, while others - like McCarthy previously did - sleep on their office couches. Most avoid staying with friends out of concern for ethics rules forbidding the acceptance of gifts. Carlson said that Luntz, who is not a registered lobbyist, 'lobbies on behalf of the world's most left-wing companies,' citing Google, Nike and Delta airlines. He said he was 'effectively a Democrat'. 'He also advises the leadership of the Republican Party. 'In real life, his views bear no resemblance whatsoever to the views of actual Republican voters. 'So the question is - how did someone like this wind up with so much influence in the Republican Party? Why do they listen to someone like Frank Luntz, rather than their own voters?' Frank Luntz & Kevin McCarthy. Not only are they friends. They are roommates. pic.twitter.com/nYGXxV5bya Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 4, 2021 Carlson said that Luntz was 'effectively a Democrat', who was advising Republican leaders Carlson said that Luntz works for companies that oppose the Republican Party. Carlson said that the Republican leaders' affiliation with Luntz is partly due to his being 'particularly close' to McCarthy, who Luntz described as 'a personal friend'. 'So Luntz is the personal friend of the top-ranking Republican in the House. 'Turns out, we didn't know half of it. 'Not only are they personal friends - they are room mates. Kevin McCarthy lives in Frank Luntz's apartment in downtown Washington DC.' McCarthy, who married his high school sweetheart, Judy, still lives in the first house they bought together in Bakersfield, California. The home is where they raised their two children, Connor and Meghan. McCarthy's arrangement in Washington appears unusual, but his spokesman said he paid the going rate, to avoid conflict-of-interest charges. Carlson added: 'The top Republican in the House lives with a Google lobbyist? Come on. 'Even by the sleazy and corrupt standards of politics in Washington, that didn't seem possible. In fact, it sounded like a joke.' He said that McCarthy's spokesman had laughed at the suggestion that he lived with Luntz - before ringing back to confirm it was true. Carlson has been taking aim at the veteran GOP pollster 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 aren't as wide as thought. Carlson has also 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. McCarthy and his wife Judy are pictured at a state dinner for Emmanuel Macron of France The Fox News host attacked 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: 'They're 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. 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. 'He's a decent man. He's been through hell himself, on several occasions.' Qantas won't be resuming international flights until December at the earliest, after previously suggesting it would be catering to travel bubbles in October. The national airline had hoped to help Australians travel abroad to government approved countries including New Zealand and Singapore as soon as October, but that date has been pushed back. 'We remain optimistic that additional bubbles will open once Australia's vaccine rollout is complete to countries who, by then, are in a similar position, but it's difficult to predict which ones at this stage,' a Qantas spokeswoman said Wednesday. 'We will keep reviewing these plans as we move towards December and circumstances evolve.' The Federal Government announced on Tuesday night that international travel wouldn't resume to normal levels until mid-2022, with Qantas' announcement a further blow to would-be nomads. Qantas announced it won't be resuming international flights until December at the earliest after previously suggesting it would be catering to travel bubbles in October Australia's borders to the outside world will remain virtually shut through to mid-2022 according to federal budget forecasts released on Tuesday evening Qantas confirmed in its statement that the revision was the result of the Federal Government's announcement in Tuesday's budget that hard borders wouldn't be eased for a year. 'The Federal Government has revised its anticipated timeline for the completion of Australia's vaccine rollout to end-2021 and its timeline for significantly reopening our international borders to mid-2022,' the Qantas spokeswoman said. 'In light of these two dates, the Qantas Group will adjust its planned international flights from end-October 2021 to late December 2021. (Trans Tasman flights are unchanged.) 'This planning assumption will allow the Qantas Group and Australia to be ready to take advantage of pockets of tourism and trade opportunity as they emerge in a post-COVID world.' During its half-year trading update in January, Qantas stated both it and Jetstar would resume international flights by October 31, pushing back their initial target of July. The plan from October 31 was to resume flights to and from its major destinations, including London, Singapore and Los Angeles. The airline had projected mid-2021 as the target for its international schedule's resumption, but the unforeseen complications and continuation of the global pandemic further delayed its return. Qantas confirmed in its statement that the revision was the result of the Federal Government's announcement in Tuesday's budget that hard borders wouldn't be eased for a year Overseas travel for Australians is unlikely until at least mid-2022, according to federal budget documents revealed on Tuesday evening Government forecasts released in federal budget documents on Tuesday say that inbound and outbound international travel into Australia 'will remain low through to mid-2022.' But officials assume there will then be a 'gradual' return to normal travel after that point. 'Safe travel zones' will be established, as Australia has done with the New Zealand travel bubble. Last year the government predicted international borders would be open in October 2021 after the whole adult population has been offered a vaccination. However, this timeline has now been pushed back as Australia's vaccination rollout falls behind due to supply shortages and vaccine hesitancy. Even when the borders open, Treasury officials admit the number of Aussies travelling overseas won't return to pre-pandemic levels for some time. Tonight's forecast is only a government assumption which could be wrecked at any point by a serious Covid outbreaks or mutant virus variants. Government forecasts released in federal budget documents on Tuesday say that inbound and outbound international travel into Australia 'will remain low through to mid-2022' At the weekend, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the border would remain closed 'indefinitely' to protect the Australian way of life. 'We sit here as an island that's living like few countries in the world are at the moment,' he said. 'We have to be careful not to exchange that way of life for what everyone else has.' Australians have been banned from leaving the country since March 2020 unless granted special exemptions. Only citizens, permanent residents and some visa holders have been allowed to enter under some of the strictest Covid-19 border rules in the world. Advertisement Israeli and Palestinian supporters clashed in New York City on Tuesday evening amid escalating violence overseas between the two bitter enemies which has left at least 38 people dead in the Middle East. Footage taken outside the Israeli consulate in Manhattan shows protesters fighting over barricades as police struggle to keep the two groups apart. Consulate workers were sent home earlier in the day due to safety fears. Other video clips show fights breaking out in the streets of New York City as punches are thrown. One man was pictured covered in blood after he was hit with a chair during the bitter confrontations. Elsewhere, demonstrations took place in Washington DC and Los Angeles as hostilities between Israel and Hamas escalated overnight. Additional protests are expected across the U.S. on Wednesday. Activists waving flags, banners and placards in support of both Palestine and Israel took the streets Tuesday. Tensions flared when the two groups met during their counter demonstrations. Officials said overnight that 35 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and three in Israel in the most intensive aerial exchanges for years. The White House said on Tuesday that Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself from rocket attacks but applied pressure on Israel over the treatment of Palestinians, saying Jerusalem must be a place of coexistence. Former president Donald Trump posted to his website, saying that America 'will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself' as he criticized President Joe Biden over the growing crisis. Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes in Gaza into the early hours of Wednesday local time, as the Islamist group Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups fired multiple rocket barrages at Tel Aviv and Beersheba. One multi-story residential building in Gaza collapsed and another was heavily damaged after they were repeatedly hit by Israeli air strikes. Israel said it attacked Hamas targets, including intelligence centers and rocket launch sites. It was the heaviest offensive between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in Gaza, and prompted international concern that the situation could spiral out of control. Scroll down for video Manhattan, New York: A police officer tries to separate pro-Palestinian from pro-Israel demonstrators during a rally near the Consulate General of Israel on Tuesday Manhattan, New York: A pro-Palestinian protestor, right, scuffles with pro-Israel demonstrators, left Manhatten, New York: People attend an Emergency Rally For Palestine on Tuesday Manhattan, New York: A Pro-Palestinian supporter argues with Israeli supporters during a protest near the Israeli Consulate in following a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence Manhattan, New York: The recent clashes between Palestine and Israel have prompted international calls for calm and raised fears that the situation could ignite into a wider conflict Manhattan, New York: A pro-Palestinian protestor (R) is pulled back by police officers during a scuffle with pro-Israel demonstrators (L) during a rally near the Consulate General of Israel Manhattan, New York: Activists waving flags, banners and placards in support of both Palestine and Israel took the streets Tuesday. Tensions flared when the two groups met during their counter demonstrations Manhattan, New York :Israeli and Palestinian supporters clashed in New York City Tuesday amid escalating violence between the two enemies which has left at least 38 people dead in the region Manhattan, New York: Footage taken outside the Israeli consulate shows protesters fighting over barricades as police struggle to keep the two groups apart Manhattan, New York: Consulate workers were sent home earlier in the day due to safety fears Manhattan, New York: A man is covered in blood and led away by police after being hit with a chair by protestors as people attend an Emergency Rally For Palestine U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland tweeted: 'Stop the fire immediately. We're escalating towards a full scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation. 'The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now,' he wrote. Into the early hours of Wednesday morning, Gazans reported their homes shaking and the sky lighting up with Israeli attacks, outgoing rockets and Israeli air defense missiles intercepting them. Almost a thousand of people are gathered in front of the consulate general of Israel to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza and Al-Aqsa mosque and take streets in New York City, United States on May 11 Almost a thousand of people are gathered in front of the consulate general of Israel in New York to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza and Al-Aqsa mosque A man with a Palestinian flags signals to crowds outside the Israeli consulate on Tuesday Almost a thousand of people are gathered in front of the consulate general of Israel to protest Israeli attacks on Gaza and Al-Aqsa mosque in New York City, United States on May 11 Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march from the Israeli consulate in Midtown Manhattan to Times Square demanding an end to the aggression against Palestinians on May 11 Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take part in a protest near the Israeli consulate in Midtown Manhattan Pro-Palestinian demonstrators scuffle with police officers during a protest near the Israeli consulate in Midtown Manhattan Elsewhere, demonstrations took place in Washington DC and Los Angeles as hostilities between Israel and Hamas escalated overnight. Additional protests are expected in NYC Wednesday Manhattan, New York: Officials said overnight that 35 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and three in Israel in the most intensive aerial exchanges for years Manhattan, New York: Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes in Gaza into the early hours of Wednesday local time, as the Islamist group Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups fired multiple rocket barrages at Tel Aviv and Beersheba Israelis ran for shelters or flattened themselves on pavements in communities more than 70 km up the coast and into southern Israel amid sounds of explosions as interceptor missiles streaked into the sky. Hamas's armed wing said it fired 210 rockets towards Beersheba and Tel Aviv in response to the bombing of the tower buildings in Gaza City. In Tel Aviv, air raid sirens were heard around the city. For Israel, the militants' targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with the Islamist Hamas group, regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. The violence followed weeks of tension in Jerusalem during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and around Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the compound revered by Jews as Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. These escalated in recent days ahead of a - now postponed - court hearing in a case that could end with Palestinian families evicted from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers. There appeared no imminent end to the violence. Manhattan, New York: One multi-story residential building in Gaza collapsed and another was heavily damaged after they were repeatedly hit by Israeli air strikes overnight Tuesday Manhattan, New York: Israel said it attacked Hamas targets, including intelligence centers and rocket launch sites Manhattan, New York: It was the heaviest offensive between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in Gaza, and prompted international concern that the situation could spiral out of control Manhattan, New York: People attend an Emergency Rally For Palestine in Manhattan, New York on Tuesday Manhattan, New York: Into the early hours of Wednesday morning, Gazans reported their homes shaking and the sky lighting up with Israeli attacks, outgoing rockets and Israeli air defense missiles intercepting them Los Angeles, California: Justice for Palestine rally in Los Angeles on Tuesday Los Angeles, California: Israelis ran for shelters or flattened themselves on pavements in communities more than 70 km up the coast and into southern Israel amid sounds of explosions as interceptor missiles streaked into the sky Washington DC: Hamas's armed wing said it fired 210 rockets towards Beersheba and Tel Aviv in response to the bombing of the tower buildings in Gaza City. In Tel Aviv, air raid sirens were heard around the city Washington DC: People gather to protest attacks by Israeli police with tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades on Palestinians at Masjid al-Aqsa and show solidarity with residents of Sheikh Jarrah who have been targeted by Israeli forces Washington DC: A demonstrator holds a sign in front of a wooden tank during a pro-Palestine rally outside the U.S. State Department Washington DC: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march up Washington, D.C.'s 17th Street in the direction of the White House on May 11 Washington DC: Neturei Karta members -- Haredi Jews against Zionism -- stand in solidarity with Palestine at a demonstration outside the U.S. State Department Washington DC: A pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag atop a mock wooden tank near the White House Washington DC: Demonstrators hold signs at a pro-Palestine rally in May 11. Palestinians and their supporters demanded President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken stop Israel's eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem Washington DC: A child carries a sign in solidarity with Palestine near the White House. Palestinians and their supporters demanded U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken stop Israel's eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem Washington DC: Pro-Palestine demonstrators wave a large Palestinian flag at the intersection of H and 16th streets. Palestinians and their supporters demanded U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken stop Israel's eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem Washington DC: A pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag atop a mock wooden tank near the White House Washington DC: Mariam Aboughazala, right, leads chants with fellow pro-Palestinian demonstrators as they take part in a protest titled 'Stop Jerusalem Expulsions, save Sheikh Jarrah' near the White House Washington DC: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march in a protest titled 'Stop Jerusalem Expulsions, save Sheikh Jarrah' from the U.S. State Department Washington DC: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take part in a protest titled 'Stop Jerusalem Expulsions, save Sheikh Jarrah' outside of the White House in Black Lives Matter Plaza Protests were held in front of the White House amid the escalating violence in the Middle East The United States was delaying U.N. Security Council efforts to issue a public statement on escalating tensions because it could be harmful to behind-the-scenes efforts to end the violence, according to diplomats and a source familiar with the U.S. strategy. State Department spokesman Ned Price urged calm and 'restraint on both sides', saying: 'The loss of life, the loss of Israeli life, the loss of Palestinian life, It's something that we deeply regret.' He added: 'We are urging this message of de-escalation to see this loss of life come to an end.' Israel said it had sent 80 jets to bomb Gaza, and dispatched infantry and armor to reinforce the tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of the last Israeli ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks, in 2014. More than 2,100 Gazans were killed in the seven-week war that followed, according to the Gaza health ministry, along with 73 Israelis, and thousands of homes in Gaza were razed by Israeli forces. Manhattan, New York: For Israel, the militants' targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with the Islamist Hamas group, regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States Manhattan, New York: The violence followed weeks of tension in Jerusalem during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and around Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the compound revered by Jews as Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary Manhattan, New York: Violence escalated in recent days ahead of a - now postponed - court hearing in a case that could end with Palestinian families evicted from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers Manhattan, New York: There appeared no imminent end to the violence in the region Manhattan, New York: The White House said on Tuesday that Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself from rocket attacks but applied pressure on Israel over the treatment of Palestinians, saying Jerusalem must be a place of coexistence Manhattan, New York: The United States was delaying U.N. Security Council efforts to issue a public statement on escalating tensions because it could be harmful to behind-the-scenes efforts to end the violence, according to diplomats and a source familiar with the U.S. strategy Video footage on Tuesday showed three plumes of thick, black smoke rising from a 13-story Gaza residential and office block as it toppled over after being demolished by Israeli air strikes. The Israeli military said the building, in Gaza City's Rimal neighborhood, housed 'multiple' Hamas offices, including ones for military research and development and military intelligence. The existence of one Hamas office, used by political leaders and officials dealing with the news media, was widely known locally. Residents in the block and the surrounding area had been warned to evacuate the area before the air strike, according to witnesses and the Israeli military. Manhattan, New York: State Department spokesman Ned Price urged calm and 'restraint on both sides', saying: 'The loss of life, the loss of Israeli life, the loss of Palestinian life, It's something that we deeply regret.' He added: 'We are urging this message of de-escalation to see this loss of life come to an end' Manhattan, New York: Israel said it had sent 80 jets to bomb Gaza, and dispatched infantry and armor to reinforce the tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of the last Israeli ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks, in 2014 Manhattan, New York: Supporters of Palestine, including a group of Hasidic Jewish men are seen as people attend an Emergency Rally For Palestine in Manhattan Manhattan, New York: People attend an Emergency Rally For Palestine in Manhattan, New York Tuesday Pro-Palestinian demonstrators take part in a protest titled "Stop Jerusalem Expulsions, save Sheikh Jarrah" outside of the White House in Black Lives Matter Plaza after marching from the U.S. State Department building in Washington, U.S. May 11, 2021. REUTERS/Leah Millis A second residential and office building in the same neighborhood was heavily damaged in Israeli attacks shortly before 2 a.m. on Wednesday. Residents and journalists working in the building had already left. On Tuesday Gaza health ministry officials put the death toll at 32, but a Hamas-affiliated radio station later said three more people, including a woman and a child, were killed shortly before 2 a.m. on Wednesday in an Israeli air strike on an apartment above a restaurant. Israeli political leaders and the military said they had killed 'dozens' of militants, and hit buildings used by Hamas. Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Israel had carried out 'hundreds' or strikes, and that 'buildings will continue to crumble.' Gaza's health ministry said that of the 30 reported dead, 10 were children and one was a woman. A baby girl nearly lost her leg as a deadly flesh-eating bacteria devoured her limb after her parents thought she just had the flu. Tania O'Meara's daughter Eden was just 11-months-old when she was struck down with Strep A - an infectious bacteria that attacks and destroys flesh. The Melbourne toddler had a series of colds and flus but her mum knew something more was wrong and took her to hospital. She then spent the next 23 days in intensive care, undergoing four surgeries but thankfully was able to keep her leg. 'The problem with Strep A is it's often masked by your common flus and colds,' Ms O'Meara told Daily Mail Australia. Tania O'Meara's daughter Eden was just 11-months-old when she was struck down with Strep A - an infectious bacterial disease She said both she and her husband 'knew something was wrong' because Eden wasn't recovering from her medication and was becoming unresponsive in her behaviour. A clot in her leg caused her whole limb to start swelling and she was rushed to the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne. 'We were told that in order to stop the bug infecting her leg they were going to amputate,' Ms O'Meara said. 'You're not concerned about limbs when her life is in jeopardy. If she loses a limb then she loses a limb but as long as we get to take her home. 'For six days while she was in hospital we didn't know if she was going to make it.' Thankfully for Eden and her family she was able to keep her leg but underwent multiple surgeries to remove the dead flesh from her calf. Her mother said her 'saving grace' was that she was a big baby so she had flesh to lose. Ms O'Meara said one of the most distressing parts of the whole ordeal was that she noticed her baby girl becoming a 'blank canvas'. Thankfully for Eden and her family she was able to keep her leg but underwent several surgeries to remove the dead flesh on her calf WHAT IS STREP A? Strep A is part of a group of bacteria that can cause different infections It can cause cold like symptoms, sore throats and fevers Other symptoms include enlarged lymph nodes and vomiting In extreme cases it can cause flesh eating diseases, toxic shock syndrome and other infectious diseases like kidney and heart problems Antibiotics are used to treat the condition if possible. Vaccines are being trialled Advertisement 'She was awake but she wasn't there. We were very scared that she may not be the same Eden anymore,' she said. But the medication started to work, and Eden slowly returned to her normal self and was able to leave hospital for her first Christmas Day. Two years on, Ms O'Meara said her little girl had nearly fully recovered. 'She still has a few issues with her hearing and gets swollen legs from the clot but within the next three of four years we should hopefully see the back of it,' she said. Eden will also have to undergo another reconstructive surgery on her leg as she continues to grow. 'Her hearing seems to be stabilising and while she was afraid of people for a very long time she's starting to build relationships with other kids,' her mother said. 'She's finally kicked the disease's a**e. She wouldn't be alive without the hospital staff and researchers, I can't thank them enough.' The Murdoch Children's Research Institute is about to start trialling vaccines for Strep A. The illness infects about 750 million people and kills 500,000 every year. It can also cause toxic shock syndrome, flesh-eating diseases, post-infectious illnesses including kidney and heart diseases. Ms O'Meara said news of a potential vaccine could be life changing. The mother-of-two who tragically fell to her death on Mother's Day from a scenic waterfall has been named as Cairns woman Milada Zak. The 58-year-old was in the company of her children and one of their partners at Windin Falls near Cairns, Far North Queensland, at about 1pm on Sunday when it's believed she slipped and was knocked unconscious, before the rushing water washed her across the edge and down the 50m drop. Her friend Zoe Nielsen posted a tribute to Ms Zak on Facebook which read: 'At home, a candle burning, staring into the void, in total disbelief. My heart is filled with so much sadness... so lost for words. Milada Zak is the mother of two named as the woman who fell from Windin Falls on Mother's Day Ms Zak's (right) friend Zoe Nielsen (left) posted a heartfelt tribute to her friend on Facebook 'Rest in peace my dear, beautiful friend Milada.' Another friend, Elisabeth Hussey, wrote: 'One of the most beautiful and kindest souls I've ever met. She was an amazing mother, friend and local who is loved and missed by so, so many.' On one photo a friend describes Ms Zak as 'the earth mother'. Ms Zak's own account reveals she was a regular visitor to the region's densely forested parks. In one shot she is pictured at what she described as her favourite spot, Behana Gorge, south of Cairns, where she would often walk her two dogs. Ms Zak pictured at one of her favourite spots, Bethana Gorge south of Cairns, Queensland Ms Zak pictured with her dogs in the Far North Queensland environment she loved Recent heavy rain in Far North Queensland has raised questions as to whether the popular spot, with its natural infinity pool, should have been open to hikers. The hashtag #windinfalls on Instagram reveals many visitors perched dangerously on the rocks at the edge of the falls in the quest for the perfect selfie. Cairns Police have taken possession of a video of the incident which they are currently reviewing. On Sunday witness Blake Thomas told Daily Mail Australia that he saw Ms Zak's limp body getting knocked around in the whitewater. 'She was in a pool, getting pushed back and forth ... the water was like rapids. It took her and threw her off the cliff,' the 25-year-old said. Milada Zak, 58 was believed to be crossing Windin Falls in Cairns, Far North Queensland, at about 1pm on Sunday when she slipped and was washed down the falls Mr Thomas said Ms Zak, who was at the tourist hotspot with her two children and her daughter's boyfriend, fell for a few seconds before she hit the water below. 'I saw her floating ages away at the end and watched the rescue helicopter retrieve her. Very eerie,' he said. A fellow walker called police but it took a rescue helicopter, officers on foot and a drones three hours to find her body at 4pm. Mr Thomas said Ms Zak was not trying to get in the pool when she slipped because the water was so rough after days of torrential rain. Horrified onlookers blocked the entrance to the pool to ensure others hoping to catch a glimpse of the picturesque site didn't interfere with the rescue operation. The 90-minute trek to the waterfall is only accessible through the Old Cairns Track in the Wooroonooran National Park. Mr Thomas said there needs to be more warnings at the site, 'or at least a safety rope or bars'. Windin Falls pictured A witness who saw her fall from the cliff said the water in the infinite pool was rough on Sunday (stock image) 'Exercise extreme caution and stay back from the edges,' the Tourism Tropical North Queensland website warns. 'There is a natural infinity pool at the top of the falls that drops deep into the valley below.' Mr Thomas said there needs to be more warnings at the site 'or at least a safety rope or bars'. A report will be prepared for the Coroner. Prospective home buyers are turned off by mouldy walls and properties riddled with insects - but they are more likely to go to the hammer if the real estate is in a prime location. New research for Finder's First Home Buyers Report 2021 has revealed the property 'pitfalls' sellers should be aware of when they put their house on the market. More than half of the 1,028 people surveyed indicated they would walk away from a house with mould and two in five people would be uninterested in a property if there were insects. Those keen to enter the property market are also unimpressed by unpleasant smells (38 per cent) and noisy neighbours (38 per cent). Prospective home buyers are turned off by mouldy walls and properties riddled with insects, according to Finder's First Home Buyers Report 2021 (stock) Two in five people surveyed would be uninterested in a property if there were insects (stock) WHAT TURNS PROSPECTIVE BUYERS OFF A PROPERTY? Damp/mould: 51 per cent Signs of insects: 41 per cent Noisy neighbours: 38 per cent Unpleasant smells (eg: from smoking indoors): 38 per cent Lack of natural light: 35 per cent Untidy rooms: 19 per cent Evidence of pets/pet smell: 18 per cent Outdated interior: 12 per cent Other: 1 per cent None of the above: 3 per cent Source: Finder's First Home Buyers Report 2021, which surveyed 1,028 first home buyers Advertisement Richard Whitten, home loans expert at Finder, said there are ways prospective home buyers can 'remedy' the potential deal breakers of a property. 'If you can think outside the box to remedy the issue, this could be a way to pick up a bargain property, because demand might be low,' he said. 'You could reduce noise by installing soundproofing or install a skylight to improve natural light. 'High fences or plants could also help with soundproofing or privacy.' Mr Whitten also encouraged buyers to arrange inspections before buying property. Almost half of the respondents who were interviewed for the research said they are most excited by a location that is within their budget (stock image) How can you get rid of mould from your home? According to the NSW Department of Health, to banish mould from your home for good, it's essential to identify the source of the problem - washing it away with a sugar soap and warm water won't cut it. A leak in the roof, poor ventilation, condensation and plumbing problems can all cause mould to develop, by creating a damp environment where bacteria thrives. Reducing moisture in the home is the key to banishing mould once and for all. Insulating walls to prevent condensation, improving ventilation by opening doors and windows, heating the house with an electric heater and using range hoods in the kitchen and fan extractors in the bathroom will help to minimise mould in the home. Sunlight and warmth also combat the growth of moulds, especially in bedrooms. Advertisement Proximity to public transport is a priority for residents in NSW and Victoria (stock image) 'Getting pest and building inspections is a wise step for home buyers. It gives you peace of mind and a better understanding of the property you're buying,' he said. Almost half of the respondents who were interviewed for the research said they are most excited by a location that is within their budget. Proximity to public transport is a priority for residents in NSW (45 per cent) and Victoria (44 per cent) but less important to those in Queensland (28 per cent). A low crime rate and the likelihood that property prices will grow in the area are important to one in four first home buyers. Advertisement US border agents encountered fewer minor migrants along the United States border with Mexico in April although overall apprehensions reached a 15-year high last month, according to a report released Tuesday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Data showed that the border patrol agency encountered 178,622 undocumented immigrants seeking to enter the United States in April, surpassing March's total by 5,274. Interdictions at the 1,954 mile border in April were more than 10 times that of April 2020, when 17,106 individuals were stopped by border patrol agents. Meanwhile, border agents encountered 17,171 unaccompanied children, down 9 percent from 18,890 in March when a record number of unaccompanied migrant children entered U.S. custody along the southern border. However, encounters at the border drastically increased during former President Donald Trump's nine months in office and continued to worsen under the administration of his successor, President Joe Biden. 'CBP continues to see a large influx of illegal migration along the Southwest Border,' said the acting CBP commissioner, Troy Miller. 'In order to disrupt criminal organizations that have little regard for human life, CBP is leading the way alongside external law enforcement partners through Operational Sentinel. Day after day, CBP rescues migrants abandoned in harsh terrain, left for dead with no food or water. CBP is committed to enhancing the security of the U.S. border and helping save the lives of vulnerable migrants.' Asylum-seeking migrants surrender in Yuma, Arizona, to the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing over from Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection released its latest monthly report Tuesday which showed that 178,622 undocumented immigrants were stopped while trying to enter the United States in April, surpassing March's total by 5,274 A U.S. Border Patrol officer with the Del Rio Sector rescues two boys from Honduras on April 15 after they were abandoned by a human smuggler at an island on the Rio Grande Wilton Obregon broke down in tears in front of an off-duty U.S. Border Patrol officer who found him wandering along on the side of a road in a desert area of Texas on April 1 after he had been abandoned by a group of migrants he was traveling. His mother had sent him alone to the United States weeks after they had been expelled to Mexico. According to a May 7 CBS News report, 2,121 unaccompanied minors who at one point had been deported with their families migrated alone through the United States-Mexico border between January 20 and April 5 Asylum-seeking families prepare to disembark from an inflatable raft after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States from Mexico on April 22 in Roma, Texas El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez provides snacks to the two girls from Ecuador who were abandoned by human smugglers and dropped over a 14-foot high border wall in New Mexico on March 30. The girls were reunited with their parents in New York on April 17 Due to President Biden's openness towards refugee seekers, migrants of all types - single adults, families, and unaccompanied children - have sought to take advantage of a perceived easier treatment to try and enter the United States with the help of human smugglers or by themselves. The CBP report showed that in April the number of single adults trying to enter the country across the southwest border from Mexico rose from 97,074 in March to 111,301. People arriving in family units, often with very small children, decreased to 50,150 in April after the agency documented 54,285 units the previous month. Border agents encountered 17,171 unaccompanied children, down 9 percent from 18,890 in March. Under the Biden administration, the minors are allowed to stay in the United States with relatives. However, those numbers were still far higher than in the months before Biden took office on January 20, and critics say he has sparked a 'crisis' on the border. CBP said 62.5 percent of those it detained were sent back across the border on the basis of Covid-19 pandemic controls. It did not say how many of the rest were allowed to stay and how many may have been denied entry based on other protocols or laws. Asylum-seeking migrants' families wait to be escorted to the location where they turn themselves in to the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande and reaching the shore of Roma, Texas, on April 22. A report released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection showed that in April the number of single adults trying to enter the country across the southwest border from Mexico rose from 97,074 in March to 111,301. People arriving in family units, often with very small children, decreased to 50,150 in April after the agency documented 54,285 units the previous month. Border agents encountered 17,171 unaccompanied children, down from 18,890 in March According to a May 7 CBS News report, 2,121 unaccompanied minors who at one point had been deported with their families migrated alone through the United States-Mexico border between January 20 and April 5. Border agents in Texas encountered 715 unaccompanied children who were previously expelled from the U.S. under Title 42, a policy that the Trump administration relied on to immediately deport migrants. One of the children, Milton Obregon, of Nicaragua, was found April 1 by an off-duty border officer as he wandered along a desolate road near the Texas desert after he has been abandoned by a group of migrants he had crossed over from Mexico with. The 10-year-old is awaiting at a shelter in Texas to be reunited with his family in Miami. Recent border data obtained by The Associated Press showed that 21,000 children are currently in the custody of the U.S. government. An Army base in Texas has more than 4,500 minors as of Monday. A CBP officer escorts Jaime Ruelas at the Pharr International Bridge on April 27 after the 57-year-old Mexican national was stopped while trying to cross into the United States. Ruelas, a permanent resident from Edcouch, Texas, had an outstanding arrest warrant on aggravated child sexual assault Agents from the Rio Grande City Border Patrol station detained 145 undocumented immigrants in Starr County, Texas, after they were stopped for crossing from Mexico via the Rio Grande on April 6. At least 24 unaccompanied children were traveling with the group. A CBP report released Tuesday showed that border agents encountered 17,171 minors who migrated without their parents or a family member across the U.S.-Mexico border in April, down from 18,890 in March U.S. border agents inspecting a freight train in Hebbronville, Texas, found 37 undocumented immigrants on April 5. CBP data for the month of April shows that four-fifths of the migrants who were stopped for unlawful entry are from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador Migrants and asylum seekers are seen after spending the night in one of the car lanes off the San Ysidro Crossing Port on the Mexican side of the United States-Mexico border in Tijuana on April 24 Four-fifths of the migrants are from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Many from the three Central American countries say they are escaping poverty and pervasive violence in their countries, and ask for asylum when reaching the US. Biden has deployed Vice President Kamala Harris to try and negotiate deals with the leaders of those countries to slow the flow of migrants northward. But the administration has admitted that addressing the root causes of migration, poverty and violence, will take a long time. In addition, it has struggled to resettle the tens of thousands of children who crossed the border without parents of family. Stephen Miller, who led Trump's harsh crackdown on all immigration, said in a tweet that the CBP numbers 'show the border catastrophe is raging even further out of control.' Mohamed Hadid, 72, has sold his half-built Bel Air mega-mansion that is being demolished Mohamed Hadid has sold his half-built Bel Air mega-mansion that is being demolished after he said he had 'no funds' to pay to tear it down. Hadid, the father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, has sold the home for $8.5 million after he was ordered to demolish the estate over safety concerns, the New York Post reported. The gargantuan property, which had increasingly become an weight around Hadid's neck, had mushroomed over a decade of construction into a $50 million estate, according to various reports of its value. Hadid, a purported billionaire, had argued in court in 2019 that he was so broke he could not afford the $5million it would take to tear it down after his own architect said he was worried the building 'will slide down the hill and kill someone.' California's Supreme Court rejected the real estate tycoon's appeal to review his case to overturn the decision to tear the home down last summer - calling the property a 'clear and present danger' to his neighbors. The property is being offered as a receivership sale. The current structure will be demolished by the receiver, following close of escrow at no additional cost to the buyer,' the home's listing reads. Hadid, the father of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, has sold the home for $8.5 million Hadid, a purported billionaire, had argued in court in 2019 that he was so broke he could not afford the $5million it would take to tear it down His own architect had said he was worried the building 'will slide down the hill and kill someone' California's Supreme Court rejected the real estate tycoon's appeal to review his case to overturn the decision to tear the home down last summer The home is being demolished 'at no additional cost to the buyer,' the home's listing reads Judge Craig Karlan is seen inspecting Mohamed Hadid's half built mega mansion in Bel Air The half-finished mansion is situated on Strada Vecchia Road in the 'sought-after' neighborhood of Lower Bel Air and is surrounded by some of the city's 'most celebrated estates,' the listing reads. Hadid had started out building the mansion, on spec - without a buyer arranged - about 10 years ago, reports Los Angeles Magazine. The listing called it 'a rare opportunity to build a world class estate featuring views of the city and surrounding canyon.' The home is located near the exclusive Bel Air Country Club as well as' the world-renowned restaurants and boutiques of downtown Beverly Hills.' Attorneys for neighbors who had filed a civil lawsuit against Hadid, 72, had asked for a receiver to be appointed to take over the demolition of the house. That receiver would charge Hadid an upfront fee of $500,000, according to Hadid's attorney Bruce Rudman. Rudman said in 2019 that his client can't even afford that sum. 'He doesn't have the money,' he added. Ariel Neuman, attorney for the neighbors who want the giant 30,000 sq ft 'eyesore' torn down, scorned Rudman's claim that Hadid is broke. 'It's amazing to me because he (Hadid) just bought a multi-million home in Beverly Hills,' Neuman told the court. 'We don't accept this explanation. We don't accept Mr. Hadid's word for anything.' Broke billionaire Mohammed Hadid surfaces after alleged claim by his attorney that he doesn't have $500,000 Gigi Hadid, Mohamed Hadid and Bella Hadid attend the Victoria's Secret After Party at the Grand Palais on November 30, 2016 in Paris, France Rudman argued that Hadid could get bank financing to knock the house down and build another on the same site - which would cost about $30 million - but only if the city's Building and Safety Department would guarantee permits to build the new house, something the city refused to do. He said: 'With just the current house demolished and no permits for a house to be built in the future, the bank would foreclose (on the current loans Hadid took out to build his colossal mansion) and the property would have to be sold.' Gigi Hadid and Bella Hadid attend the LOVE & YouTube LFW party in 2019 in London Rudman added that Hadid could also get bank financing to pay the $1-$2 million for retro-fitting the mansion's current support piles which Hadid's own structural engineer, Carl Josephson, found are deficient because they were not driven deep enough into the bedrock. But again, the city rejected the developer's proposal of retro-fitting the support piles, saying the problem can only be solved by tearing down the whole building to get to the piles and replace them. 'If these piles failed and if this house came down the hill, I am positive in my mind that it would inflict severe damage on the (neighbors') properties below, if not destroy them,' a judge had said, noting that he was 'struck' by the 30-40 degree steepness of the hill on which the house sits. 'Are these piles structurally safe? What would happen if there was a 6.0 earthquake?' Rudman had insisted that while the house's foundation does not comply with building codes, 'the building is not unsafe'. A Royal Australian Navy ship has been blamed for the death of a mother fin whale and her calf after their bodies were found stuck to the hull when the vessel arrived in California. The whales were discovered after the HMAS Sydney docked at a naval base in San Diego on Saturday morning. The Australian and US navies will assist a local investigation into the causes of the whales' deaths. The mother fin whales is 20 metres long while her calf is less than 8 metres. They were likely feeding near the surface when they were hit by the ship, experts say. A fin whale is pictured tied to mooring at the Naval Base in San Diego after two carcasses appeared when the HMAS Sydney docked on Saturday morning 'The U.S. Navy and the Royal Australian Navy are cooperating with the NOAA Fisheries and other agencies to review the incident,' an Australian defense department spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia. 'The Navy takes marine mammal safety seriously and is disheartened this incident occurred.' The HMAS Sydney, a 146-metre destroyer which has been participating in training exercises in the US since April, extends some seven metres underwater and travels at such a speed that it may not have noticed hitting the two mammals. The larger whale will be taken out to sea and sunk while an autopsy will be carried out on the calf. Fin whales are commonly found off the Californian coast, particularly San Diego, with the mammals moving south for warmer waters to feed. Hundreds of AFL fans who caught the train to and from the Richmond vs Geelong game on Friday night may have been exposed to coronavirus. The AFL has contacted more than 50,000 fans who attended Friday's Richmond-Geelong match, amid fears hundreds may have been exposed to COVID-19 on the train. The Craigieburn to Southern Cross service between 5.28pm and 6.07pm on Friday has been listed as a tier two exposure site, along with the Flinders St to Craigieburn service between 10.20pm and 11.05pm. AFL fans who attended the Richmond v Geelong match on Friday night at the MCG have been warned they may have been exposed to Covid Victoria's Health Minister Martin Foley said a large number of people may have been exposed on the train or at the station. 'It's in the many hundreds, particularly the later train back, because it was after the AFL game,' he told the media on Wednesday. The AFL says it sent text messages on Wednesday morning alerting all of the 54,857 people who attended the match, while club members would also have received an email alert. Authorities are also working with metro trains to contact passengers, and have urged anyone who was on the train to isolate and get tested. The Covid scare comes after a returned traveller from India tested positive Craigieburn and Southern Cross stations last Friday night have also been listed as tier three exposure sites. The state has not recorded any further positive results after a Melbourne man tested positive on Tuesday, with more than 21,000 tests conducted in the past 24 hours. It means Victoria has gone 75 days without a local case. The man, in his 30s, flew into Adelaide from India via the Maldives and Singapore on April 19 before Australia's flight ban on returnees from India began. Mr Foley also warned that people will soon face tough penalties if they don't use QR check in codes at venues, after some patrons at a new exposure site failed to use the system. The new positive case dined out at the CBD restaurant Curry Vault on Friday, but many people who were there at the same time failed to use the QR system. Fans who travelled to and from the Richmond v Geelong clash on the train may have been exposed to Covid Authorities are chasing down patrons and staff at the restaurant, using takeaway records and financial transactions. Of the 18 patrons that have been tested, three have so far tested negative, and another 14 patrons have since been contacted. The Health Minister Martin Foley has described the incident as a 'wake-up call'. 'A number of patrons did use the QR code, but clearly not all of them,' he told the media on Wednesday. 'So far we have just had the one positive case, but the next day or two will be critical,' Mr Foley said. There are a further 17 primary close contacts of the positive case, linked to shops in Altona North. Victorians could return to tighter restrictions if evidence emerges the man infected others in the community. Cars lined up at the Northern Hospital, Melbourne after a returned traveller from India tested positive The department is awaiting the results of genomic testing to confirm how the man was infected. After completing quarantine in South Australia at the Playford Hotel, he returned to his home in suburban Melbourne's Wollert early last week and developed symptoms on Saturday before testing positive on Tuesday. SA authorities are examining whether the man contracted the virus before his arrival and had an unusually long incubation period, or caught it from a person in a neighbouring hotel room. Victoria's Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton suspects the man picked it up in the hotel, and not in India or during his international flights. All three of the man's household contacts have tested negative, with Professor Sutton describing this as an 'early encouraging sign'. Pictured: Andrew Laming Disgraced MP Andrew Laming claims he is the real victim of two women he relentlessly harassed online, one to the point of near-suicide. The Queensland politician sensationally backtracked on his apology to the two women to accuse them of a 'carefully choreographed' media campaign against him in a tone-deaf email. The ex backbencher was accused in March of snapping a picture of former colleague Crystal White while she was bending over to put drinks in a fridge in 2019, and for hiding in the bushes to photograph schoolteacher Sheena Hewlett. In a career-ending move, the 54-year-old Brisbane MP also accused Alix Russo for misappropriating funds at a homeless charity and was forced to apologise after trolling her so badly on Facebook that she considered taking her own life. Since his parliamentary apology where he conceded Ms Russo and Mrs Hewlett were 'highly regarded individuals', Mr Laming emailed Liberal National Party branch members in his electorate of Bowman claiming the women's complaints were 'petty'. 'It is extraordinary that I am left to prove my innocence, based on petty allegations trumped-up to be criminal in nature,' he wrote, according to The Australian. Mr Laming has been accused of 'trolling' women on social media and has been ordered to complete an awareness course Mr Laming accused Alix Russo (left) of misappropriating funds at a homeless charity, while Sheena Hewlett (right) said she was forced to contact police after claiming Mr Laming hid in the bushes and took photos of her in a public park 'This blizzard of media accusations was carefully choreographed to never result in a formal complaint, most likely because they wanted to avoid a fair assessment of these complaints at all costs.' Mr Laming also made more highly defamatory allegations about the women, despite undergoing 'empathy training' at the behest of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and promising to 'own his mistakes'. Mrs Hewlett is the wife of a Redland City councillor in Laming's electorate and Ms Russo is the founder of a charity for local homeless people. Ms Russo told The Australian she wished Lamming would 'leave us alone'. 'He has a history of harassment,' she said. 'The prime minister saw the evidence and believed us and now [Mr Laming] is trying to rewrite history.' After the incidents were aired on 9 News, Mr Morrison slammed Mr Lamming's behaviour as 'disgraceful' and ordered him to undergo empathy and cultural sensitivity training - which he completed just weeks ago. Brisbane woman Crystal White (pictured) accused Mr Laming of snapping a picture of her bottom and underwear at a landscape supply business in 2019 On Tuesday, Liberal MP's voted against Labor's bid to expel Laming from his position as chair of the Employment, Education and Training committee. When asked about the emails to branch members, he told The Australian: 'My personal explanation in Parl (parliament) is my answer.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted Andrew Laming for comment. During Question Time, Laming said he was 'misrepresented' by the opposition as a 'taxpayer funded troll'. 'To misrepresent the work that I've done on Facebook responding to comments of others has been characterised as harassment,' he said. Mr Laming claimed in a now-deleted Facebook post that he did not even know what he was apologising for - and accompanied his comment with laughing emojis 'To refer to me and misrepresent me as a "taxpayer-funded troll" for my online work, with all posts remaining online and visible to the public, is a misrepresentation and a reflection on my character.' On March 28, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced that Laming would not be re-contesting his seat of Bowman. 'Andrew is not re-contesting the next election for the LNP, we'll find a new candidate and that will be up to the preselectors,' he said. Mr Frydenberg said the decision was made after Mr Laming spoke with Prime Minister Scott Morrison. 'The Prime Minister spoke to Andrew and made it very clear what was expected of our MPs,' Mr Frydenberg said. The Queensland LNP backbencher issued a statement in March revealing he would undergo sensitivity training ordered by Prime Minister Scott Morrison (pictured) In a statement released hours after the treasurer's comments, Mr Laming confirmed: 'I will not be contesting the next federal election in any capacity. 'I will step down from all Parliamentary roles effective immediately and complete both the counselling courses I committed to; as well as additional clinical counselling, and ask for privacy while that is completed. Screen grabs of Mr Laming's now-deleted Facebook post in which he laughed off the apology he made to Alix Russo and Sheena Hewlett in parliament 'The common thread of the last week has been not demonstrating anything close to understanding how my actions affect others. I intend to own those mistakes.' After the apology, the veteran backbencher backtracked on social media and claimed he 'didn't know' what he was saying sorry for. 'In this climate - I willingly apologise - I didn't even know what for at 4pm when I did it,' Mr Laming wrote on a Facebook post, which has since been deleted. Laming was forced to say sorry after telling a charity worker Ms Russo on Facebook: 'Unfortunately for you, I make the rules and you follow them.' Ms Russo, a single mother who said the trolling left her suicidal, told Nine News: 'I want to be alive, I don't want to be attacked anymore.' 'This man has to stop. He cannot continue abusing his community like this.' Sheena Hewlett, a schoolteacher, said Mr Laming - who was elected to federal parliament in 2004 - asked for her teaching timetable then hid in bushes while taking photos of her in 2019. The incidents were reported to police. A statement issued by Mr Laming in March, where he issued 'an unreserved public apology' A screen shot of one of Andrew Laming's online comments to charity worker Alix Russo Mr Laming's social media response to his own apology was accompanied by several laughing emojis - which he claimed were accidentally posted by his phone when he put it in his pocket, news.com.au reported. Queensland Labor MP Kim Richards has since come forward claiming Mr Laming 'weaponised social media to attack women'. 'It's just been constant. I blocked him years ago for my own mental health,' she said. 'The character assassination, the personal nature of the way he's posting, is harassing and bullying by its very existence.' Ms Richards said locals in Redlands have been left 'fearful' of Mr Laming due to his conduct online. Nominations for the LNP preselection for Mr Laming's seat close on Wednesday. Lifeline 13 11 14 The co-owner of multimillion-dollar accessories label The Daily Edited has quietly sold her stake in the business after her ex business partner took her to court. Alyce Tran and Tania Liu launched The Daily Edited in 2014 after meeting three years earlier while working at a Perth law firm, building it into a $25million fashion powerhouse with stores in Sydney and New York, in addition to their online offering. But Ms Liu launched legal action against her business partner in the NSW Supreme Court in December 2019, claiming Ms Tran spent thousands of dollars of the business' money on herself in breach of her duties as a company director. Ms Tran earlier said in a statement to Daily Mail Australia she is 'strenuously defending' the claims made against her and has 'filed a cross claim that raises a number of substantial issues against Ms Liu'. Alyce Tran (right) and Tania Liu (left) launched The Daily Edited in 2014 after meeting three years earlier while working at a Perth law firm Ms Tran (pictured in March) revealed on Wednesday that she has sold her stake in the business On Wednesday, Ms Tran told the Sydney Morning Herald she had made the decision to sell her stake in the business to Ms Liu. 'I have given a lot to this business in terms of my time and life and ideas - with product, I have left no stone unturned in terms of the range,' she said. It is not known how much Ms Tran's stake was sold for - but the sale will signify the end of the pair's court action. Ms Liu confirmed it would mark the conclusion of the litigation actions between the pair, as well as with Ms Tran and The Daily Edited. 'It will be business as usual at [the company] in the coming weeks while we work through a transition stage,' Ms Liu said. Ms Tran completed her final day with The Daily Edited on Tuesday and hosted farewell drinks. Phoebe Burgess poses for a mirror selfie with a The Daily Edited phone case Ms Liu launched legal action against her business partner in the NSW Supreme Court in December 2019, claiming Ms Tran spent thousands of dollars of the business's money on herself in breach of her duties as a company director She admitted it was 'hard to maintain a sense of normality in the business' amid the court battle with her business partner. But she wishes Ms Liu all the best for the future. 'I am a very positive person so I never want to have any bad energy out there,' Ms Tran said. Ms Tran plans to continue building her existing homewares business, In the Roundhouse, while Ms Liu will continue expanding The Daily Edited both locally and internationally. The former business partners initially started off with a clothing line in 2011 - but after the business failed, they looked into blogging. Eventually, the pair quit their day jobs as lawyers to start the online leather goods business to provide a service that high-end fashion houses have always done, but apply it in an affordable way. Launching with just 50 pieces, the pair listed their leather goods up for sale on Instagram before it was all snapped up within a week. St. Joseph District Court Judge Jeffrey Middleton, seen in an older photo, threatened to bring the 'fool' in who had logged into court under a crass name A Michigan judge ripped into a 'fool' who logged into his virtual court appearance as 'Buttf**ker 3000.' St. Joseph District Court Judge Jeffrey Middleton presided while the man, Nathaniel Saxton, appeared over the Zoom conference on Tuesday on a count of possession of drug paraphernalia in the city of Three Rivers, Law & Crime reported. After the exchange, Saxton, who previously worked at a horse trailer factory, blamed the screenname on his sister while the angry judge noted that he almost had him put in jail for contempt of court. 'Then we'll bring this fool in,' the judge says at the start of the court appearance. The 'Buttf**ker 3000' name is seen on the screen as Saxton peers into his video chat box, the video shows. 'Good morning, sir, what's your name?' Middleton asks. Saxton realizes the judge is talking to him and identifies himself. 'My name is Nathaniel Saxton, sir,' he says. Scroll down for video The video shows Saxton, bottom right, had appeared in court as 'Buttf**ker 3000' After he was scolded by the judge, top left, and banished from the court, he reappeared with the name 'Nathaniel Saxaon' - misspelling even his own name The judge retorts: 'Your name is not Buttf**ker 300, you yo-ho, logging into my court with that as your screen name?' 'What kind of idiot logs into court like that?' the judge continues, as one woman who username identified her as Kaitlyn Torzewski in the virtual courtroom puts her hand over her mouth. 'What's your name again?' the judge asks again. Saxton, red with embarrassment, appears confused while trying to figure out how to fix the awkward standoff. 'Nathaniel Saxton sir, but I don't believe that I typed anything like that in,' Saxton says. 'Well, that's what it says,' the judge responds. Saxton then tries to apologize while the judge interrupts and says: 'Yeah, you should.' 'I'm going to put you in the waiting room, you can sit in limbo for a while and think about what you call yourself on line,' the judge says. After Judge Middleton banishes Saxton, another man is heard laughing on the Zoom conference before he then lays into the next man telling him to take his hat off during his video appearance. Eventually, Saxton makes his reappearance as 'Nathaniel Saxaon' - misspelling his own name in the Zoom room. 'Your honor, if I may explain, my sister was the one who set up my Zoom account or whatever,' Saxton says, noting that it was an inside joke. He adds: 'It's not what you think, I'm embarrassed. I'm sorry.' The judge then proceeds to hear a few of the cases before returning once more to Saxton's. His drug paraphernalia charge was described in court as a violation of a city ordinance and punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. Saxton initially pleaded not guilty but changed his mind after the judge told him the normal fine for the charge is $200. Prosecutor John Barnes had said he was found with a used syringe that tested positive of meth residue. The judge then slapped him with the $200 fine for taking 'responsibility' for the syringe before asking him if his sister was with him. 'No, unfortunately, she is not,' Saxton responds. 'Tell her she almost got you put in jail for contempt of court,' the judge says. Saxton apologizes again, before the judge simply says: 'Okay.' Another person who entered the courtroom's name showed up as 'Paula's iPhone.' An elderly widower has captured Australia's hearts after he was spotted placing 350 Mother's Day notes on graves. Allan Snow, 92, visited a cemetery in Moreton Bay, just north of Brisbane, on Sunday to honour hundreds of women by pegging notes to their plots. On the yellow pieces of paper, attached to a wooden stake, the message read: 'Nobody can take the place of a mother'. It's a special ode to women like his wife Muriel who died three years ago. Malcolm Murdoch witnessed the charitable act while visiting his mother's grave and took to Facebook to say thank you to the kind stranger. Allan Snow, 92, was spotted placing Mother's Day notes next to graves at Deception Bay cemetery on Sunday (pictured) The yellow pieces of paper, attached to a wooden stake, read:' Nobody can take the place of a mother'. 'This elderly gentleman was walking up and down the rows placing a little tribute to the mums buried there,' Mr Murdoch wrote. 'As he approached us I told him how wonderful he was and he became very emotional. I do not know what his story was but he managed to tell us he had 350 to put out and off he went. 'So if you are wondering where the little tribute came from now you know this man cared enough about our mums to do this for people he does not know. 'Made me very humble to witness this. Thank you sir you are a true gentleman.' The post quickly went viral, racking up more than 5,000 reactions, as residents identified the kindhearted man as a local legend, affectionately known as 'Old Snowy'. Nina Phillips, a friend of Mr Snow's, said he regularly visits Deception Bay cemetery since his wife Muriel passed away. 'He made all these [notes] by hand and wanted to put them on every mother's grave,' she said. Dozens of others flocked to the comments to share poignant stories about their beloved community member. The kindhearted man was identified as local legend 'Old Snowy' (pictured) after a local visiting the grave shared a picture of the charitable act online One woman said he has a passion for cooking fruit cakes and delivers little packets to nursing homes with short poems attached. A man said Snowy used to own a petrol station and worked as a mechanic, and would give him and his friends water everyday as they walked 19km past his business. 'He does a number of things for people's graves every year from flowers to tributes. He is an absolutely amazing guy,' another added. 'He's a great man. He has been apart of the community for a very long time,' a fifth person wrote. Many others offered their thanks to the 'wonderful gentleman' after discovering the sweet messages on their mother's graves. Aside from leaving messages by her resting place, Mr Snow writes a tribute to his wife in the Courier Mail every year on May 4. Although the message remains the same, the amount of time changes. 'Four lonely years, 1460 days, no hugs or kisses,' it reads. 'Miss you so much. 'All my love, til we meet again. Allan.' Donald Trump has said the United States should follow the United Kingdom's lead and introduce 'photo ID to eliminate any corruption and fraud' in elections. Posting to his new web site, From the desk of Donald Trump, the former president shared his thoughts on voting laws Tuesday, saying 'all States should pass Voter ID laws'. That would mean the US would 'never again have an election rigged and stolen from us' he said, adding: 'The people are demanding real reform!' Trump wrote: 'The Government of the United Kingdom is proposing that anyone who wants to vote in a British election should show photo ID to eliminate any corruption and fraud and 'ensure the integrity of elections.' 'This is exactly what we should do in the United States, unlike the Democrats who want to abolish Voter ID laws with passing their horrible HR 1 Bill. 'All States should pass Voter ID laws along with many other fair and comprehensive election reforms, like eliminating mass mail-in voting and ballot harvesting, so we never again have an election rigged and stolen from us. 'The people are demanding real reform!' The former president, pictured leaving NYC Tuesday, posted to new site, From the desk of Donald Trump, Tuesday Sharing his thoughts on voting laws, he said 'all States should pass Voter ID laws'. That would mean the US would 'never again have an election rigged,' he added Trump's claims about widespread election fraud have been debunked, but voting security still remains an important issue for Republicans and others. Republicans mounted an aggressive case Tuesday against Democrats sweeping election and voter-access legislation, pushing to roll back proposals for automatic registration and 24-hour ballot drop boxes in an increasingly charged debate. The legislation, a top priority of Democrats in the aftermath of the divisive 2020 election, would bring about the largest overhaul of U.S. voting in a generation. It would touch nearly every aspect of the electoral process, would remove hurdles to voting erected in the name of election security and curtail the influence of big money in politics. Though it is federal legislation, Republicans are fighting a national campaign against it rooted in state battles to restrict new ways of voting that have unfolded during the pandemic. Just Tuesday, the Arizona Legislature sent the governor a bill that would make it easier to purge infrequent voters from a list of those who automatically get mail-in ballots Trump pointed to the UK's example to 'ensure the integrity of elections'. Republicans mounted an aggressive case Tuesday against Democrats election and voter-access legislation, pushing to roll back a number of proposals In the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been forced to defend his plans which will require voters to prove their identity before casting ballots, despite condemnation from civil liberties groups and senior lawmakers there. The identification will be required 'for all voters at polling stations'. Campaigners have warned that people without ID would be disenfranchised as a result of the move, especially those in marginalized groups. But Johnson said on Monday that it was 'complete nonsense' to suggest he was trying to suppress the votes of those who do not back his Conservative party by introducing the identification requirement. Liz Cheney had earlier on Tuesday refused to back down ahead of a vote to oust her from GOP leadership, calling Trump a 'liar on a crusade to undermine our democracy' for his comments called the election rigged. Republicans are fighting a national campaign against it rooted in state battles Cheney, who voted to impeach the former president for his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection, is expected to be ousted from her No. 3 Republican leadership post Wednesday. She said Tuesday: 'Our freedom only survives if we protect it. Today, we face threat America has never seen before. 'A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him.' A combative Cheney lashed out at leaders of her own Republican Party late Tuesday, speaking on the House floor, adding: 'Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president. 'This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar.' House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has set a Wednesday vote for removing Cheney from her No. 3 Republican leadership post in a closed-door meeting. Trump also shared his thoughts on an offshore windmill farm approved near Martha's Vineyard in a blog post to his website Tuesday Data analyzed by NBC shows it is attracting a far smaller audience that his old social media Trump also shared his thoughts on an offshore windmill farm approved near Martha's Vineyard in a blog post to his website Tuesday. He wrote: 'Wind is an incredibly expensive form of energy that kills birds, affects the sea, ruins the landscape, and creates disasters for navigation. 'Liberals love it, but they can't explain why. In any event, Martha's Vineyard, an absolutely wonderful place, will never be the same.' Trump had used the site Monday to tantalize his supporters with the promise of a 'bombshell' election fraud case to come in Michigan, likening Joe Biden to a thief who has raided a jewelry store and vowing: 'the diamonds must be returned'. But data analyzed by NBC shows it is attracting a far smaller audience that his old social media. The new webpage, launched earlier this month, allows his fans to repost the statements to their Facebook and Twitter feeds since he was suspended from the platforms over the January 6 Capitol riot. But not many appear to be doing so, according to analytics company BuzzSumo. In fact, it has only seen around 212,000 engagements since launching. Just one of Trump's tweets - where he had 88 million followers - would receive more than that alone. Scott Morrison has warned state premiers to keep Australia's domestic borders open even while the international ones are closed for another year. The prime minister said walling off states risked the economic recovery outlined in the federal 'pandemic Budget' handed down on Tuesday night. More than $53 billion in new spending was unveiled in the 2021-22 Budget to get the country out of its coronavirus-induced slump. Australia's international border will stay shut to everywhere except New Zealand (pictured) well into 2022 but Scott Morrison wants the state ones open Mr Morrison fears the spending spree could be all for nothing if states close their borders each time there is a small outbreak interstate. State and territory leaders are already on high alert after new coronavirus cases in NSW and Victoria in recent days. 'It is important we keep Australia... as open as possible, because it's those closures internally that can really risk Australia's economic recovery,' Mr Morrison told ABC News on Wednesday. 'We need to keep creating that confidence, keep providing that support. 'Australians have done incredibly well throughout the course of this pandemic and we need to keep going. 'We need to keep going further. And this plan for our recovery will ensure we stay on that course.' Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is one of the most stubborn premiers when it comes to closing state borders State and territory leaders are already on high alert after new coronavirus cases in NSW and Victoria in recent days, and Perth (pictured) two weeks ago Mr Morrison said the international border closures was 'the reason our economy has been able to perform strongly'. 'We have allowed our domestic economy continue to grow,' he added. 'That is what is driving or jobs growth. It is important we secure Australia from the incursion of Covid-19.' Several leaders from the business sector disagreed and believe the international border closure will hamstring national economic recovery. 'We need the skilled workers, we need the international students, we need the migrants and the long-term working holidaymakers to help boost our economy, provide the skills and the export earnings that we need,' Property Council of Australia chief executive Ken Morrison told The West Australian. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Jenny Lambert added: 'The community seems to be coming to expect that we can continue to grow economically, even though we're a closed shop at the moment. 'That can't continue. There's no way economically that continues.' NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian would like to see Australia's borders re-opened before the 'disappointing' mid-2022 date outlined in the budget. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg predicted in Tuesday night's Budget that Australians would be banned from leaving the country for all but essential reasons until the middle of next year. 'I'm always very ambitious. I'm probably more ambitious than what was there,' Ms Berejiklian said, referring to the mid-2022 date at a press conference on Wednesday. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is 'more ambitious' about a return date for the resumption of international travel than the federal Budget outlined - which stated borders could reopen in mid-2022 Quokka's ticking? The tourism industry has been holding on, and now Qantas has again been forced to put back dates for international flights The key to that happening would be accelerating the vaccination program, she believes. Poll Do YOU want the borders to re-open? Yes No Do YOU want the borders to re-open? Yes 232 votes No 365 votes Now share your opinion 'I would like to see us really work as fast as we can to get our population vaccinated and that's why the NSW government was the first to step up and say "let the states help", which we're doing.' Officials assume there will then be a 'gradual' return to normal travel after mid-2022, but there are fears that airlines will be slow to come back to Australia, choking supply of flights and making tickets prohibitively expensive. The long delay in allowing visitors was also likely to bankrupt tourism-related businesses, among those few that have been able to survive. The lengthy delay in opening the international borders came despite Mr Frydenberg saying there was an 'assumption' that most of the Australian population would be vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of 2021. Gladys Berejiklian hopes speeding up vaccinations will lead to Australia's borders reopening before mid-2022. Emergency services and health workers are pictured above receiving their COVID-19 vaccination at the Olympic Park Vaccination Centre in Sydney A passenger wearing a facemask arrives at Sydney International Airport on May 1. The international border will remain closed until at least mid-2022, Australians have learned in Tuesday night's Budget Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk added her voice to the chorus of disappointment - and used it as a chance to lobby for federal government help building regional quarantine centres to replace the current hotel system. 'Last night, the budget revealed international borders will not open for another year,' Ms Palaszczuk said. 'That's another Christmas before families see each other again. 'Regional quarantine reunites families sooner.' Meanwhile Qantas announced it would cancel all international flights other than to New Zealand scheduled from October 31 through to December 20. Australians have reacted with despair at the revelation they will be unable to see their families overseas until the middle of 2022 Opposition leader Anthony Albanese said it was the Coalition government's fault the borders could not re-open sooner. 'They are closing our border until mid-next year because they haven't got their act together on the two essential jobs they had this year to get right - the vaccination roll-out and quarantine,' Mr Albanese told the Today show on Wednesday. Australians who will be absent from key family events abroad because of the continuing ban - or miss seeing their young relatives grow up - took to social media to vent their fury at the lengthy delay as other countries open up. The seemingly never-ending ban, despite a very small number of Covid cases that could be handled by the health system, left many wondering whether the days of affordable overseas flights was gone forever. 'It's infuriating. I haven't seen my parents and sister in years,' one Australian separated from their family overseas wrote following the Budget announcement. Another noted the irony of the travel ban being extended a full year after Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it was time for Australia 'to get out from under the doona'. 'People like me who rely on the border to be open for their regular job to function, its been hell,' another wrote. 'Really don't know what I can do to keep going. It's so hard to keep positive.' The Treasurer on Wednesday said the government's 'assumption' international travel would restart again in mid-2022 was based on Australia successfully containing localised outbreaks. 'We have made an assumption, based on the best medical advice, that we can contain those outbreaks and that we won't see another repeat of the Victorian-like lockdown,' he said. 'The key assumption is that we will continue to be successful in suppressing the virus, because first and foremost this is a health crisis.' Mr Frydenberg on Tuesday night defended his decision to keep the border shut long after the rest of the world returns to normal, and passed responsibility for the decision to health bureaucrats. 'We're being conservative and cautious,' he told 9News. 'We'll only move on borders when the medical advice says it is safe to do so.' As yet, the medical advice the government is relying on says it is not safe to do so despite there being only two people in Australia in intensive care due to Covid-19. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's budget contained the 'assumption' overseas travel will not return until 2022 A dog owner has warned other animal lovers to be careful in a popular park after her pet died from eating fox baits. Maria Stretton and her husband took their beloved six-year-old dog named Baxter to Centennial Park and the adjacent Queens Park and Moore Park in Sydney's eastern suburbs. But on Thursday she noticed Baxter, a beagle-staffordshire bull terrier cross, was ill and immediately took him to the vet. Ms Stretton said Baxter showed signs of liver malfunction, not poisoning, but his condition worsened as the days went on. Six-year-old Baxter tragically died on the weekend after he ate fox bait at Sydney's Centennial Park She decided to take him back to the vet on Saturday but he suffered a heart attack and died on the way there. A post-mortem confirmed Baxter had eaten fox bait and he was sadly unable to be saved. Ms Stretton told Daily Mail Australia she knew some locals were trying to get rid of foxes in the area but had no idea why the bait were left in such a busy park. 'It's super hard [to deal with Baxter's death] and my four-year-old boy is asking about him a lot,' she said. 'We didn't know there was fox baiting out there, if so he would have stayed on the leash at all times.' She said she reached out to park authorities but hadn't heard back and struggled to speak about Baxter without breaking down in tears. 'We can't do anything for Baxter but we can help other families,' she said. She and her husband had taken the beloved pooch around Centennial Park and the adjacent Queens Park and Moore Park in Sydney's eastern suburbs Amid her grief, Ms Stretton put a call out on social media warning other dog owners in the area to avoid the parks. According to the Centennial Parklands website, no fox baits are used in the area, so locals fear it was the work of a heartless stranger. 'Centennial Parklands does not use fox baits. We have a fox control program led by a licenced feral pest management specialist that includes den fumigation and soft-jaw leg hold traps,' the website says. 'We do not undertake any fox control work where members of the public or dogs could be affected, the program is targeted to fenced-off bushland remnant areas and depot. There is no dog access to these areas. 'The parklands ensures animal ethics, environmental and safety considerations are part of the fox control work.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted the park for further comment. A man has died in hospital after allegedly being assaulted in the carpark of an apartment block in Sydney's east. Emergency services were called to an apartment block in Rushcutters Bay ajust before 2pm on Wednesday afternoon following reports of an alleged assault on a man found unresponsive in the building's basement. Paramedics worked on the man at the site on Kings Cross Road before he was taken to St Vincent's Hospital in a critical condition. He died a short time later. A man was arrested at the scene and is currently being interviewed by police in relation to the alleged assault. New South Wales Police confirmed a crime scene has been set up and they are investigating the circumstances around the man's death. Anyone with information on the incident is being urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or Kings Cross Police Station. A hero police officer who was left fighting for life after being poisoned while investigating the Salisbury Novichok attack is now suing his former force in the High Court. Det Sgt Nick Bailey, 41, came into contact with the killer chemical compound as he looked into the circumstances of Sergei and Yulia Skripal sudden illnesses. He had visited their home as part of the investigation after they were found unconscious on a public bench in the middle of Salisbury on March 2018. It was there he touched a front door handle which had been smeared with the nerve agent. Mr Bailey fell seriously ill and was left fighting for his life in hospital as he battled against the effects of the poison. He returned to work in 2019 but a year later he quit, saying he could no longer do the job. His court action is a personal injury claim against the Chief Constable of Wiltshire Police Kier Pritchard. Det Sgt Nick Bailey, 41, came into contact with killer agent during investigation He is suing Wiltshire Police's Chief Constable Kier Pritchard, seen with then-PM Theresa May Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury It comes just six months after his wife Sarah tweeted he was still 'fighting for part of his pension'. According to the Mirror, his lawyer, Patrick Maguire, said: 'Our client experienced a trauma which had a devastating effect on his family and forced him to leave the job he loved.' The family of Dawn Sturgess is also suing Russia over her death after she and her partner Charlie Rowley were poisoned after they found the Novichok. Mr Bailey said he was leaving the job on Twitter last year in an emotional statement. Personnel in hazmat suits secure a tent covering a bench in Salisbury where the Skripals sat Dawn Sturgess, left, and Charles Rowley, right, were both poisoned. Ms Sturgess sadly died. He said: 'After 18 years in the Police Force I've had to admit defeat and accept that I can no longer do the job. 'I wanted to be a Police Officer since I was a teenager, I couldn't envisage doing anything else, which is why this makes me so sad. 'Like most Police Officers, I've experienced my fair share of trauma, violence, upset, injury and grief. 'We deal with it, take it on the chin and keep going because that's our job. But we're still human and the impact this has shouldn't be underestimated. 'The events in Salisbury in March 2018 took so much from me and although I've tried so hard to make it work, I know that I won't find peace whilst remaining in that environment. Nick Bailey was played by Rafe Spall in BBC drama The Salisbury Poisonings in June 2020 Spall portrayed DS Bailey in The Salisbury Poisonings, which was a three-part BBC One drama 'Policing will remain in my heart and I feel honoured and privileged to have been part of Wiltshire Police.' At the time Angus Macpherson, police and crime commissioner for Wiltshire, where Det Sgt Bailey worked, said throughout his career the officer has symbolised 'dedication and a sense of public duty'. Two members of the Russian security services are suspected of carrying out the attack. Wiltshire Police have said it would be inappropriate to comment on the ongoing court action. Det Sgt Bailey's story was retold in BBC drama The Salisbury Poisonings which aired last June, with Rafe Spall playing him in the three-part series. A woman has taken to social media to ask for help identifying what animals may inhabit a gigantic nest she discovered in her attic. Auckland resident Kiri Vertongen posted photos to a local Facebook page on Monday and asked if the hive-like structure looked familiar to anyone in the group. The images of the sizeable nest quickly sent members into a frenzy, with many users sharing their horror in the comments. New Zealand woman Kiri Vertongen stumbled upon the mysterious nest in her attic on Monday 'I think you need an exorcist for that', one woman suggested. 'Burn the house down', a second user instructed, while another group member compared the 'utterly terrifying' nest to something from a horror film. 'How do I un-see these photos? Instructions please,' one said. 'I'd be calling a real-estate agent,' another user joked. Jonathon from the Auckland-based pest control company 'Smash'd Em Pest Control' was able to identify the abandoned nest as previously belonging to German wasps. He explained as the cooler weather hits, the workers and their Queen dies and the fully mature nest is disbanded. Auckland resident posted photos to her community Facebook group and asked members to identify what insects may inhabit the gigantic nest 'If there are no guards around the nest then it is empty. No other German wasps will reinfest it as it breaks down over time', the expert said. 'If you are seeing wasps flying in and out then it would be best to get it treated.' The insects are commonly found across New Zealand but typically inhabit forested and rural areas. 'German wasps, also known as yellow jackets in other countries, are quite dangerous,' Jonathon told Newshub on Tuesday. 'They aggressively defend their nests and [can] swarm very quickly.' The pest control expert said it was common for such a sizeable nest to be found at this time of year and urged residents to keep their distance. Ms Vertongen (right) posted an update to her original post to inform group members the nest had been confirmed as 'dormant' 'Wasp nests have guards posted 24/7 which are just itching to attack something,' Jonathon explained. 'Being able to sting continuously, wasps have no problem going for you repetitively very uncomfortable indeed.' He advised always calling a professional to remove a nest, as they had the tools, experience and appropriate clothing for the job. Ms Vertongen posted an update to her original post to inform the group the giant nest had thankfully been confirmed as 'dormant'. 'Thanks everyone for your input and a good laugh,' she wrote. Advertisement Protests have broken out around the world in support of Palestinians amid the violent clashes with Israel in the Gaza Strip. The disputed area is under the most intense bombardment since 2014, with Israel unleashing a huge firestorm on the territory in response to Hamas missiles. Thousands in New York, Washington DC, London, Istanbul and other major cities across the globe have taken to the streets to show their support for Palestine, often directing their protests at Israeli embassies and buildings. The renewed confrontation, following weeks of tensions and clashes in contested Jerusalem led by Israeli security forces, escalated on Monday evening when Hamas fired a barrage of missiles towards Jerusalem. It continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning, with more rockets being fired by the Islamist group into Tel Aviv, and by Israel into Gaza. The Palestinian death toll was at 36 on Wednesday morning, with ten children among the dead, while five Israelis are believed to have been killed in the conflict so far. The United Nations has warned the two sides they risk a 'full-scale war' if there is not an urgent ceasefire. LONDON, UK: Supporters of Palestine attend an emergency 'Rally for Jerusalem' outside 10 Downing street in London as protests broke out around the world against Israel NEW YORK, US: Almost a thousand of people gathered in front of the consulate general of Israel to protest attacks on the Gaza Strip JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA: Demonstrators gather outside the Israel Trade office in South Africa on Tuesday as violence escalated between the rival powers ISTANBUL, TURKEY: Protesters set fire to an Israeli flag during a demonstration in front of the Israeli Consulate in Turkey as people around the world took to the streets WASHINGTON DC, US: Pro-Palestine demonstrators wave a large flag in front of the White House as they called on Joe Biden and Antony Blinken to stop Israel's eviction of Palestinian families from the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem BERLIN, GERMANY: A group of Palestinians gathered by the Brandenburg Gate in the German capital to stage a protest against attacks by Israeli forces LOS ANGELES, US: People hold up signs and wave Palestinian flags during a protest against Israel and in support of Palestinians outside the Israeli Consulate in LA ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS: People holding banners and Palestinian flags stage a demonstration to protest Israeli attacks on Palestinians at Masjid al-Aqsa in Jerusalem KARACHI, PAKISTAN: The West Bank is under the most intense bombardment since 2014, with Israel unleashing a huge firestorm on the territory in response to Hamas missiles BEIRUT, LEBANON: A protest led by refugees in Lebanon saw many take to the streets to criticise the latest escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT: Banners, flags and placards were held aloft by protesters outside the National Assembly Building on Tuesday MADRID, SPAIN: Protests throughout the world have broken out in response to the renewed escalation of conflict between the rivals in the Middle East RABAT, MOROCCO: Police try to hold back protesters holding up a peace sign as they staged a demonstration in support of Palestine KHARTOUM, SUDAN: Many waved Palestinian flags to show their support amid the violence which has seen dozens killed in the West Bank LAHORE, PAKISTAN: Supporters of Islamic political party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) shout slogans as they march during a demonstration held in Lahore to protest against Israel's air strikes TUNIS, TUNISIA: People holding Palestinian and Tunisian flags stage a demonstration to protest attacks by Israeli police in Gaza HEBRON, WEST BANK: Palestinians respond to Israeli intervention during clashes in the West Bank on Wednesday amid the violence GAZA CITY: Smoke and flames rise on Wednesday after Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes amid the renewed conflict in the disputed zone In New York City, Israeli and Palestinian supporters clashed during the demonstrations as police struggle to keep the two groups apart. Footage taken outside the Israeli consulate in Manhattan shows protesters fighting over barricades after workers had been sent home over safety fears. Other video clips show fights breaking out in the streets of New York City as punches are thrown. One man was pictured covered in blood after he was hit with a chair during the bitter confrontations. Elsewhere, demonstrations took place in Washington DC and Los Angeles as hostilities between Israel and Hamas escalated overnight. The White House said on Tuesday that Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself from rocket attacks but applied pressure on Israel over the treatment of Palestinians, saying Jerusalem must be a place of coexistence. Former president Donald Trump posted to his website, saying that America 'will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself' as he criticized President Joe Biden over the growing crisis. NEW YORK: A police officer tries to separate pro-Palestinian from pro-Israel demonstrators during a rally near the Consulate General of Israel in New York on Tuesday NEW YORK: A pro-Palestinian protestor, right, scuffles with pro-Israel demonstrators, left NEW YORK: A Pro-Palestinian supporter argues with Israeli supporters during a protest near the Israeli Consulate following a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence NEW YORK: A pro-Palestinian protestor (R) is pulled back by police officers during a scuffle with pro-Israel demonstrators (L) during a rally near the Consulate General of Israel in New York, New York NEW YORK: A man is covered in blood and led away by police after being hit with a chair by protestors as people attend an Emergency Rally For Palestine in Manhattan Violence also erupted in London as pro-Palestine protesters clashed with police during a demonstration against the continued conflict in the Middle East. Activists waving flags, banners and placards, featuring messages including 'Hands Off Jerusalem', took to the streets of the English capital on Tuesday to call for an end to the growing unrest. Former Labour Jeremy Corbyn was also in attendance, addressing thousands of demonstrators who gathered in the city. But it is understood tensions flared when police attempted to escort away a small group of pro-Israel counter-protesters. At one point, footage appears to show a demonstrator seemingly deliberately landing on top of two counter-protesters. Apparently jumping down from above the activist plants both feet on the back and neck of the two counter-protesters before being accosted by officers. The demonstration in London, held opposite Downing Street, attracted thousands following recent protests in Jerusalem against the eviction of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah. Meanwhile in Germany, the Jewish community called for protection to be ramped up after Israeli flags were burnt in front of synagogues amid escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence. Police arrested 16 people in two separate incidents at synagogues in the cities of Bonn and Muenster, where Israeli flags were set on fire late Tuesday. Josef Schuster, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, blamed Hamas for the escalating conflict in Israel and said tensions were spilling over. 'Israel and Jews as a whole are subjected to hatred and incitement, particularly on social media. The threat to the Jewish community is growing,' he said. Pointing to the flag-burning incidents, he said 'the protection of Jewish institutions must be raised'. 'We expect from the people in Germany solidarity with Israel and the Jewish community,' added Schuster. LONDON: Supporters of Palestine attend an emergency 'Rally for Jerusalem' outside 10 Downing Street on Tuesday LONDON: At one point, footage appears to show a demonstrator seemingly deliberately landing on top of two counter-protesters LONDON: Former Labour Jeremy Corbyn was also in attendance, addressing thousands of demonstrators who gathered in the city LONDON: Police officers escort a small group of pro-Israeli counter-demonstrators during a pro-Palestinian protest outside Downing Street LONDON: A group of people holding a Palestinian flag climbed over a London red bus during a pro-Palestinian demonstration LONDON: A small group of pro-Israeli people holding banners and placards gather outside Boris Johnson's office in Downing Street The global protests come as Hassan Kaogi, head of the Hamas military intelligence security department, and his deputy, Wail Issa, head of the military intelligence counterespionage department, were killed by Israeli fighter jets, the IDF said. Yair Revivo, mayor of the Israeli city of Lod, called for army back-up to help secure the area, saying 'civil war' was breaking out as residents clashed following the funeral of an Arab man killed by a Jewish local. Greta Thunberg sparks anger with Israel posts Climate activist Greta Thunberg has been criticised on both sides for her Twitter posts about the conflict in Gaza. The 18-year-old retweeted messages by Malala and Naomi Klein which accused Israel of committing 'war crimes' After she was criticised by pro-Israeli supporters, the activist backtracked and said: 'To be crystal clear: I am not 'against' Israel or Palestine. Needless to say I'm against any form of violence or oppression from anyone or any part. 'And again - it is devastating to follow the developments in Israel and Palestine.' This prompted a backlash by pro-Palestinian supporters who slammed her for trying to remain neutral on such a divisive issue. One response, liked 20,000 times, read: 'I understand you weren't alive in the last 70 years, but if you don't fully understand the matter and just wanted to express your neutrality about this injustice, it's better to not have spoken about it.' Another wrote: 'If you're still neutral, then you're part of illegal occupation and oppression. By that means, you're also endorsing the killing of innocent Palestinians. Shame on you.' Advertisement 'This is Kristallnacht in Lod,' said Revivo, in reference to the Nazi pogrom against German Jews in 1938. 'I have called on the prime minister to declare a state of emergency in Lod. To call in the IDF. To impose a curfew. To restore quiet. 'There is a failure of governance. 'This is a giant incident - an Intifada of Arab Israelis. All the work we have done here for years [on coexistence] has gone down the drain.' Revivo said his city was spiraling out of control. 'All of Israel should know, this is a complete loss of control,' he said, according to The Times of Israel. 'This is unthinkable. Synagogues are being burned. Hundreds of cars set alight. Hundreds of Arab thugs are roaming the streets. 'Civil war has erupted in Lod. 'The Orthodox-nationalist community here has guns. I'm imploring them to go back home but they understandably want to protect their homes. Petrol bombs are being thrown into [Jewish] homes. The situation is incendiary.' On Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared declared a state of emergency in Lod, and reinforcements were sent to the area after clashes broke out. Netanyahu on Tuesday said he 'deplored' the deaths in Israel, adding that the country's military would 'further increase both the intensity and the rate' of its own air strikes against Gaza. 'Hamas will be hit in ways that it does not expect,' Netanyahu said, before the announcement of the third woman's death in Israel. 'We have eliminated commanders, hit many important targets and we have decided to attack harder and increase the pace of attacks.' The homes of three Hamas commanders were destroyed overnight on Wednesday. A significant barrage begun at 3am local time, with Israel firing into the Gaza Strip. 'In response to HUNDREDS of rockets in the last 24 hours, the IDF has struck a number of significant terror targets and terror operatives across the Gaza Strip, marking our largest strike since 2014,' the IDF confirmed. 'We are currently striking more terror targets in Gaza.' AMMAN, JORDAN: The global protests come as Hassan Kaogi, head of the Hamas military intelligence security department, and his deputy, Wail Issa, head of the military intelligence counterespionage department, were killed by Israeli fighter jets, the IDF said WASHINGTON DC: Demonstrators hold signs backing Palestine and opposing Israeli aggression gather outside the US State Department ISTANBUL: Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, waving Syrian opposition flags, shout slogans during a protest against Israel near the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul JOHANNESBURG: Demonstrators gather outside of the Israel Trade office in Sandton during a protest against Israeli attacks on Palestinians WASHINGTON DC: A woman standing on a mock wooden tank speaks to pro-Palestine protesters near the White House ISTANBUL: Protesters set an Israeli flag on fire during a demonstration against Israel in front of the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul WASHINGTON DC: U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib speaks in support of Palestine at a demonstration outside the State Department ISTANBUL: Thousands gathered in a show of support for Palestine in Turkey as the worst violence since 2014 broke out between the rivals JOHANNESBURG: A group of South Africans hold banners during a demonstration to protest Israeli attacks on Palestinians On Tuesday afternoon, Trump posted to his website, saying that America 'will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself' as he criticised Biden over the growing crisis. Earlier, the White House had said Biden was being briefed on the escalating situation. Israel's Iron Dome defence system continued to struggle with the volume of rockets being fired from Gaza on Tuesday evening, after an Israeli air strike caused a 13-storey residential building to collapse in Gaza City. The cross-border violence has been fuelled by Israel's evictions of Muslim communities living in east Jerusalem which led to angry riots breaking out on Temple Mount over the weekend, with hundreds left injured on Monday as riot police shot rubber bullets and fired tear gas at protesters. Advertisement A Government minister today refused to rule out tiered lockdowns returning when England's national measures are planned to end next month. Environment Secretary George Eustice revealed No10 was 'closely monitoring' several localised coronavirus outbreaks that have cropped up in recent weeks. Analysis shows that while national infections have continued to stay flat, there are 12 boroughs where cases have doubled in a week. Mr Eustice said scientists were unsure what was driving the flare-ups predominantly in the North of England but suggested people may have become 'too lax' with Covid rules, or the highly-infectious Indian variant could be driving cases. Scotland has already refused to ease restrictions in Moray when the rest of the nation takes the next step to freedom on Monday because of the area's growing outbreak. Asked if local restrictions could be reimposed in England to squash local outbreaks during a round of interviews today, he said: 'We can't rule anything out.' He told Sky News: 'But our plan that's been set out by the Prime Minister, the reason we're being incredibly cautious about exiting lockdown, is we want this to be the last. We want to try and avoid having to get into a tiered system and regionalisation. We tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we had to go for a full lockdown.' Most social distancing restrictions in England are to be lifted on June 21 as part of the final step in No10's roadmap out of lockdown. Boris Johnson this week raised hopes that an end to Covid measures may be sight, suggesting social distancing could be scrapped completely by next month. The tiered system last summer was heavily criticised for being too convoluted, with people in neighbouring streets often living by a completely different set of rules. The Prime Minister himself admitted they were 'confusing' as he struggled to explain the difference between restrictions imposed in the North East in September. Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, said the rise in cases in the past fortnight suggested a new wave of infections may have already begun. He cited data showing there was 15,895 cases reported by the Department of Health nationally up 12 per cent in a week. He speculated the Indian variant could be playing a role but said there was still too little evidence to say for certain. Scientists in Belgium have said the B.1.617.2 variant may be 60 per cent more infectious than the current dominant Kent version. Where could be in line for local lockdowns? Scotland yesterday held back Moray from lockdown easing plans, stopping the borough from being allowed to enjoy extra freedoms from Monday. But two parts of England currently have bigger coronavirus outbreaks than Moray: Erewash in Derbyshire (187.2) and Bolton (133.5). Erewash has seen cases rise by around 10-fold in the space of a week, according to Department of Health statistics. Health chiefs in the Midlands say Erewash's spike in cases is down to a cluster of infections at a secondary school in Long Eaton. Derbyshire's director of public health Dean Wallace warned the Covid figures looked so bad because infection rates were so low, meaning 'any increase' can skew the figures. But he said it was a 'timely reminder that Covid hasn't gone away' and urged the borough's 115,000 residents to 'use their judgement to keep everyone safe' when restrictions are eased on Monday. Bolton is also being hit by an increase in coronavirus cases, which experts fear may be linked to the spread of the highly-infectious Indian variant. Officials have ordered surge testing in the Greater Manchester borough to flush out cases of the mutant B.1.617.2 strain. Testing data shows it makes up around half of all cases spotted in Bolton. But other experts monitoring the outbreak say the true figure could be closer to 70 per cent. Infection rates have also spiralled in other parts of the nation, with 12 boroughs having seen cases double over the same time period. After Erewash, Fylde saw the biggest week-on-week increase in Covid cases (184 per cent) but, overall, the Lancashire borough's outbreak remains tiny. Just 17 positive tests were spotted in the week ending May 6. Advertisement In other coronavirus developments today: Spain will not demand any British holidaymaker presents a covid passport or proof of a negative test on arrival from May 20; Boris Johnson could lay out plans for a judge-led public inquiry into the UK's coronavirus response in a speech today; The Indian Covid variant that is surging in Britain could spread up to 60 per cent faster than the dominant Kent strain, a scientist claimed; Britain should give away a fifth of its Covid vaccines to help poorer countries protect their citizens, UNICEF said; Nurses' 'tireless' work during the coronavirus pandemic has seen a surge in nurses joining the ranks in the NHS, officials said; Dozens more bodies of Covid victims in India washed up on the banks of the Ganges, as ambulance drivers were spotted dumping corpses into the water. The average infection rate in the UK has fallen by 15 per cent to 40.1 per 100,000 people in the fortnight up to May 4, according to latest statistics. But analysis shows that 28 local authorities in England, four in Scotland and two in Northern Ireland are recording double the national case rate. Quizzed about the hotspots this morning, Mr Eustice told Sky News: 'We are not sure what could be driving it, whether it's particular variants that have taken hold of people being a bit too lax about restrictions that are in place. 'We are not sure about that but we are monitoring the situation closely.' Asked if it meant restrictions could be imposed, he said: 'We can't rule anything out. We want this to be the last (lockdown) and want to avoid going back into a tiered system. 'We know that in the end, we had to go for full lockdown.' On local lockdowns, he added: 'We tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we had to go for a full lockdown.' 'We've got our confidence now in the vaccination programme, that's rolling out and that is delivering... 'It is also reducing transmission rates as well as reducing hospitalisations and mortality. 'That's got to be our focus.' Scotland yesterday became the first home nation to impose a de facto local lockdown, holding back Moray from being allowed to enjoy extra freedoms from Monday. Environment secretary George Eustice revealed No10 was 'closely monitoring' several localised coronavirus outbreaks that have cropped up in recent weeks But two parts of England currently have bigger coronavirus outbreaks than Moray: Erewash in Derbyshire (187.2 per 100,000) and Bolton (133.5) in Greater Manchester. Professor Hunter said the figures suggested another wave of Covid was brewing. But he insisted that even if there is another surge in cases it will be 'less damaging to the NHS' because of how well the vaccines are working. He added: 'In the last seven days there have been 15,895 cases reported which is a 12 per cent increase on the previous seven day period. 'This represents the largest week on week increase since early January. Fortunately at yet there is no sign that hospitalisations have started to increase in the UK. 'Looking at public data from the COG-UK website, which suggests an increasing proportion of the cases they sequence are the Indian variant B.1.617.2, this may suggest the increase in infections may be due to the spread of this variant. 'There has been a lot of debate about when and if a further wave of infection will happen in the UK. The reports of today suggest that this wave may have already begun. 'That hospitalisations have yet to increase would be consistent with the view that vaccine is still effective at reducing the risk of severe disease and gives hope that this new wave, if it indeed continues, will be less damaging to the NHS.' Erewash has seen cases rise by around 10-fold in the space of a week, according to Department of Health statistics. Health chiefs in the Midlands say Erewash's spike in cases is down to a cluster of infections at a secondary school in Long Eaton. Derbyshire's director of public health Dean Wallace warned the Covid figures looked so bad because infection rates were so low, meaning 'any increase' can skew the figures. But he said it was a 'timely reminder that Covid hasn't gone away' and urged the borough's 115,000 residents to 'use their judgement to keep everyone safe' when restrictions are eased on Monday. There is concern that the Indian Covid variant spreading rapidly in the UK could be behind some of the sharp increases seen elsewhere. The mayor of Greater Manchester has urged the Government to fast-track every adult in the region for a Covid vaccine to stop the spread of the strain there. Andy Burnham has made the public request following a spike of cases in Bolton among the under-25s which has seen cases double in a week. Most social distancing restrictions in England are to be lifted on June 21 as part of the final step in No10's roadmap out of lockdown. Boris Johnson, pictured leaving 10 Downing Street this morning, this week raised hopes that an end to Covid measures may be sight, suggesting social distancing could be scrapped completely by next month Holidays to Spain with NO test or vaccine passport needed to get into the country Spain will not demand any British holidaymaker presents a covid passport or proof of a negative test on arrival from May 20, it was revealed today. But with no sign of the UK adding the country to its 'green list' of destinations, travellers will still have to self-isolate for ten days when they get home and at least two PCR tests. British holidaymakers will be able to freely enter the country from next week as long as the UK's Covid infection rate remains below 50 cases per 100,000 people. It is currently at 21.3. Spain will remain on Britain's 'amber list' of destinations until at least June 7, when the Government carries out its next review, but experts are predicting it may not go green until the end of June at the earliest. That means that any Briton heading there before then has to quarantine for 10 days at home on return and take two PCR tests on days two and eight of their self-isolation. It came as Greece said it was confident it would go green on June 7, with tourism minister Haris Theoharis saying they were 'disappointed' not to be on the list with Portugal from Monday, May 17. Green list status means Britons returning from those 12 countries don't have to quarantine but must have a negative lateral flow test in the 72 hours before they return home and a PCR test on day 2 after they get back. Advertisement Officials have already ordered surge testing in the Greater Manchester borough to flush out cases of the mutant B.1.617.2 strain. Testing data shows it makes up around half of all cases spotted in Bolton. But other experts monitoring the outbreak say the true figure could be closer to 70 per cent. Currently the vaccination programme is only open to people over 40, but sources say the scheme will be expanded to under-30s later this week. The original tiers system was designed to contain Covid outbreaks within regions and bring them back under control. But critics said the restrictions had little effect, with large swathes of the North remaining under virtual lockdown for months on end. Eventually, the tiers also failed to halt the revival of the virus across the country. Even Cornwall, which was the only significant area in Tier One at one point, eventually succumbed. Local officials blamed the tiers system for outbreaks in the area, with the director of public health saying a 120 per cent rise in case numbers was 'directly related to the relaxing of the restrictions that we had under Tier One in early December.' The tiers system also proved politically toxic, with Tories in so-called Red Wall seats in the North complaining that it fuelled perceptions that ministers did not care about the North-South divide. Ministers clashed with Mr Burnham amid claims the North was being locked down to protect the South. Meanwhile, a Belgian scientist has claimed the Indian Covid variant that is surging in Britain could spread up to 60 per cent faster than the dominant Kent strain. Professor Tom Wenseleers, a biologist and biostatistician at the KU Leuven university, said on Twitter he had analysed how the two strains compared and found the Indian variant to be faster spreading. The B1617.2 variant is the most common version of the Indian strain in the UK it has been spotted at least 520 times and experts fear it could take over as the dominant version of coronavirus. Scientists on the SAGE Government advisory panel said in a meeting last week: 'Early indications, including from international experience, are that this variant may be more transmissible than the B.1.1.7 [Kent] variant.' And chief medical officer for England, Professor Chris Whitty said at a Downing Street briefing last night: 'Our view is that this is a highly transmissible variant, at least as transmissible as the B117 variant. It is possible it is more transmissible but we'll have to see.' In a tweet posted yesterday Professor Wenseleers, who has published other papers on Covid variants including one about the Kent strain in the journal Science, said: 'The Indian data estimates that B.1.617.2 has a 10% per day growth [advantage] over B.1.1.7 (translates to a ~60% transmission advantage).' He posted graphs showing that the variant had rapidly pushed aside other types of the virus in parts of India including Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal, where it is believed to be linked to an explosion in cases. UK data also suggest that the variant is surging in Britain, accounting for an increasing proportion of cases and up to 40 per cent in London. University College London mathematician Professor Christina Pagel said it may be 'outcompeting' the Kent variant and Public Health England admitted it 'may have replaced it to some extent'. Public Health England has divided the Indian variant into three sub-types. Type 1 and Type 3 both have a mutation called E484Q but Type 2 is missing this, despite still clearly being a descendant of the original Indian strain. Type 1 and 3 have a slightly different set of mutations. The graphic shows all the different variants that have been spotted in Britain It comes as it was revealed today that Spain will not demand any British holidaymaker presents a covid passport or proof of a negative test on arrival from May 20. But with no sign of the UK adding the country to its 'green list' of destinations, travellers will still have to self-isolate for ten days when they get home and at least two PCR tests. British holidaymakers will be able to freely enter the country from next week as long as the UK's Covid infection rate remains below 50 cases per 100,000 people. It is currently at 21.3. Boris Johnson last night announced a major loosening of lockdown rules for next Monday Spain will remain on Britain's 'amber list' of destinations until at least June 7, when the Government carries out its next review, but experts are predicting it may not go green until the end of June at the earliest. That means that any Briton heading there before then has to quarantine for 10 days at home on return and take two PCR tests on days two and eight of their self-isolation. It came as Greece said it was confident it would go green on June 7, with tourism minister Haris Theoharis saying they were 'disappointed' not to be on the list with Portugal from Monday, May 17. Green list status means Britons returning from those 12 countries don't have to quarantine but must have a negative lateral flow test in the 72 hours before they return home and a PCR test on day 2 after they get back. Advertisement The husband of a British woman murdered during a horrifying burglary in Greece has told of the 'nightmare' ordeal - saying he begged the thieves not to hurt his family as they put a gun to his baby daughter's temple. Charalambos Anagnostopoulos, 33, a helicopter pilot, was asleep at his home near Athens on Tuesday alongside wife Caroline Crouch, 20, a student, and their 11-month-old daughter when a gang of thieves broke in around 5am. Mr Anagnostopoulos, known as 'Babis', told the police that the masked raiders - armed with handguns - tied him up on the floor and tied Caroline to the bed before demanding 'where's the money?' in broken Greek. He said the couple had a large amount of cash at home because they had recently bought a plot of land and needed to pay builders for work, and he revealed his hiding spot - inside a Monopoly box - quickly in order to spare his loved ones being tortured. But the thieves demanded more money and jewellery, then pointed a gun at his infant daughter's temple before suffocating Caroline when she started screaming, according to Greek media. 'I heard my wife screaming for help tied to the bed while I was tied to the floor,' Babis is said to have told police. 'We screamed not to be hurt. 'The baby was crying, my wife was crying and someone or some people were looking for the house to find more money and jewelry. Suddenly they left the room and I couldn't hear my wife's voice anymore.' Speaking to Greek TV outside the family home later the same day, Babis added: 'I wish no one ever goes through what we went through last night. It was a nightmare. 'We begged the thieves not to harm us. We told them where the money was and asked them to leave us alone. The police will catch them.' Caroline Crouch, 20 (right), has been killed at her home in Athens, Greece, that she shared with husband Babis Anagnostopoulos (left) and their infant daughter (pictured) Police say a gang of burglars broke into Caroline (left) and Babis's (right) home, tied him up, tortured and killed her, then stole 33,000 in cash and jewellery and fled Babis was today seen briefly returning to his home to pick up personal possessions whilst accompanied by three police officers, according to Greek newspaper Proto Thema . The publication ran a news video on its website showing the moment he was questioned by journalists as he got into his car to leave Police were called to the scene by Mr Anagnostopoulos who managed to get to a phone and dial the emergency number with his nose. Police have described the crime as the 'most heinous' they have ever investigated, and say it was carried out with a 'brutality' that is rare in Greece. A 250,000 reward for information has been offered, and investigators are thought to be working on the theory that the gang was well organised, likely surveilled the couple before the raid, and somehow knew they were keeping a large amount of cash at home. Officers are questioning friends, neighbours and relatives of the couple to see if anyone was spotted hanging around the house in the days before the raid, or whether anyone had given away information about them keeping money in the house. Police are also investigating similar burglaries to see if they were perhaps carried out by a single gang, including a raid in the nearby Chalandri suburb of Athens back in December. During that break-in, men speaking 'broken Greek' smashed their way into the lower floor of a house then forced the couple to reveal the location of their money while threatening their daughter with a knife. Police have described the crime as the 'most heinous' they have ever investigated, and say it was carried out with a 'brutality' that is rare in Greece. Pictured: the house (right) where the murder took place The burglars walked through a path (pictured) to the back of the house to access the property before the attack took place Investigators say Tuesday's raid began around 4.30am when the gang approached the couple's house (pictured) and broke a security camera outside Forensic marks seen on the door and windows in the rear yard of the house where the burglars are believed to have entered The rear of the house shows the attic bedroom where the couple were asleep next to their child when the burglars entered One of the witnesses in that crime described the men as being Roma. Another theory being worked on by police is that the most-recent burglary was committed by a gang who have spent time in jail, but may have been recently released and returned to their old activities. Investigators say Tuesday's raid began around 4.30am when the gang approached the couple's house and broke a security camera outside. They then removed security pins from a basement window and climbed inside the property, where they found the family's dog downstairs. Police say the husky was strangled using its own leash before its body was hanged from a stair banister. The men then made their way upstairs to an attic bedroom where the couple were asleep next to their child. Babis was attacked first - with the men tying him to a bed post and covering his mouth with duct tape. They then set upon Caroline, a trained martial artist, and tied her up using a t-shirt. Caroline, who is thought to have been born Greece but has a British passport, began dating Babis in 2017, married him in 2019, and gave birth in June last year Caroline was a student at the University of Piraeus, according to Greek media, though it is unclear what she studied. Pictured: Caroline and Babis with their daughter Police have cordoned off the couple's home in the Glyka Nera neighbourhood of Greece and are scouring it for evidence Officers believe the gang likely targeted the couple, and may have had them under surveillance before striking For around an hour they tortured the couple, demanding the location of the family's money and jewellery. It is thought that Babis quickly gave up the location of money he was holding for building works by pointing the thieves to a Monopoly box. But this failed to satisfy the masked raiders, who demanded more money and jewellery. According to news site Ta Nea, Babis told police that the men - speaking in broken Greek - had told Caroline that they would hurt the baby if she did not give them the location of the safe. The men then pointed a gun at the infant, the site reports, causing Caroline to scream for help. She was then suffocated to keep her quiet, possaibly using a blouse or pillowcase. A medical examiner has said he believes Caroline would have suffered a 'slow and torturous death' and if she did fight back against the robbers, her DNA will be found on her finger nails. Grigoris Leos told the To Vima newspaper: 'This crime has a noticeable difference with several others that take place after a robbery, as many times the robbers do not intend to kill. 'But in this case we are talking about a young girl and we are talking about people who were determined to kill this girl and if it is confirmed for a suffocating death we are talking about a slow and torturous death. Therefore, the perpetrator wanted to lead his victim to death.' Mr Leos added: 'They chose a type of killing that requires contact between the perpetrator and the victim. 'All this will have very rich genetic material, the perpetrators will have left fingerprints and if the girl really resisted, genetic material will be found on her nails, as well as in the dog that was killed.' After taking the family's valuables, the men fled. Babis told police that the trio spoke a foreign language among themselves, though he was unable to identify it. At around 6am, Babis managed to reach a phone and called police, who rushed to the scene which has since been cordoned off. Babis and his daughter were taken to hospital, while officers began examining the house for evidence. Social media profiles reveal Caroline and Babis met in 2017 and were married in July 2019 in a ceremony in Portugal. Caroline, who appears to have ties to the UK through her father's side of the family, then gave birth to their first child in June last year. Police say hooded men broke into the home in the Glyka Nera suburb while one stood guard, strangled the family dog, tied up the husband, then tortured and suffocated his wife Caroline was killed in front of her infant daughter after thieves broke into the home she shared with her husband The pair lived in Athens, where Babis worked as an 'air taxi' pilot flying out of Athens international airport and a smaller airfield in nearby Megara. Caroline was a student at the University of Piraeus, according to Greek media, though it is unclear what she studied. According to The Times, Caroline grew up on the Greek island of Alonnisos. A family friend quoted in the paper said she had a British father and a Filipino mother. 'I don't know if she was born on the island or just raised there,' she said. 'She was a very beautiful girl and she was a very active child, doing lots of swimming and scuba diving. 'Her mum was a sweetheart and she was so proud of her daughter. Her mum was saying just a few days ago how happy she was to be able to visit Caroline in Athens once in a while.' Caroline married Babbis in May 2018. In an Instagram post in July last year, Babbis wrote: 'Happy Birthday to my awesome wife, closest friend, and best mom our daughter could have.' A post a month earlier announced the birth of their daughter. Babbis said it was the 'best day in a man's life'. Police say it appears the robbers were experienced, and likely surveilled the couple for some time before the raid. Investigators are now reviewing local CCTV cameras to see how the burglars got away and whether they were in the area before the raid. They are also interviewing the couple's neighbours and friends to see if anyone gave away information about the pair keeping large amounts of cash in the house. An encounter from a thousand years: Warriors of Qin and Han dynasties 14:37, May 12, 2021 By Wei Deng ( People's Daily Online In 2020, while facing the raging pandemic, China took the lead in containing the coronavirus and became the only country in the world to achieve positive economic growth. At the same time, the Russian young man Malinin Stepan studied in the Shaanxi Province of China. In April 2021, in the short video Viewing China From Afar: An Encounter From a Thousand Years: Warriors of Qin and Han Dynasties produced by Peoples Daily Online West USA Inc., Stepan shows us the major symbols of two important dynasties in Chinese historyTerracotta Warriors of the Qin and Han dynasties, and experiences ancient China from more than 2,000 years ago through the micro-expressions of these warriors. Encountering an army from over 2,200 years ago? Meeting a song and dance group from over 2,000 years ago? Stepan was curious about the different stories hidden in Xian, one of the most important ancient capitals in China. Under the direction of a local guide, Stepan went to Emperor Qin Shi Huang's Mausoleum Site Museum, where a huge underground army unfolds. Chariots and infantry were all lined up. None of the life-sized soldiers looked the same. The weapons they held ranged from crossbows to spears, and they rode chariots or horses. Their clothes and decorations showed their different ranks and identities. Stepan visited the Pit 1 and it contains the main array of chariots and infantry with about 6,000 life-sized terracotta figures. The museum exhibits a total of three pits with over 8,000 pieces of terracotta warriors. Differing from the grim underground army of the Qin terracotta warriors was the Han terracotta army in the Yangling Mausoleum of Han Dynasty, the tomb of an emperor of the Han Dynasty. Stepan discovered that the Han warriors were full of joy, singing and dancing and looked happy. According to the guide, this is another mysterious underground kingdom where Liu Qi, the Emperor Jing of Han is buried. He created the first prosperous period in Chinese history, the "Rule of Wen and Jing. Society was peaceful and life was prosperous at the time. The Han terracotta army represented the appearance of social ecology during the Han Dynasty time period. As Stepan said at the end of the story, the reason why cultural relics are precious is because they all have their own stories and have witnessed the brilliance of different eras. He hopes to continue to explore and find the hidden surprises and characteristics of ancient China in the Shaanxi Province, an ancient land where China had many major dynasties. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) Aishwarya's parents had begged for her to be assessed by doctors after her eyes became cloudy and her hands turned cold A young girl who died after being left in a hospital waiting room for two hours was 'let down,' authorities have admitted. Aishwarya Aswath, 7, spent two hours waiting in the emergency department at Perth Children's Hospital after presenting with a fever and being triaged in the second-least urgent category during the Easter weekend. Aishwarya's parents had begged for her to be assessed by doctors after her eyes became cloudy and her hands turned cold. She died soon after she was finally seen. The incident was investigated by Western Australia's Child and Adolescent Health Service (CAHS) and its report was delivered to Aishwarya's parents on Wednesday. Health Minister Roger Cook said it appeared Aishwarya had died of sepsis after contracting an infection related to group A streptococcus. He said the family was 'let down', 'deserved better', and 'did not get the help they asked for'. Describing the report as 'confronting and extremely distressing', Mr Cook said it was clear Aishwarya and her parents should have received better care. 'They did not get the help they asked for,' he told parliament. 'I wish to apologise unreservedly for this failure and for the heartbreak and devastation Aishwarya's death has caused her family and her community.' Aishwarya's death followed months of concerns about understaffing, treatment delays and record ambulance ramping at Perth's hospitals Health Minister Roger Cook said the report makes clear that 'Aishwarya and her parents should have received better care. They did not get the help they asked for' Aishwarya Aswath spent two hours waiting in the emergency department at Perth Children's Hospital after presenting with a fever and being triaged in the second-least urgent category Mr Cook said the report included 11 recommendations, all of which the government had agreed to implement at PCH within the next six months. 'The report makes clear that Aishwarya and her parents should have received better care. They did not get the help they asked for,' he said. 'I will do everything in my power to ensure it will never happen again.' They include improvements to the triage process policy and staff education, improved clinical supervision, and development of a 'clear pathway' for parents to escalate their concerns to staff. The report also recommends developing an established sepsis recognition diagnostic tool, and a review of staff awareness of culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Aishwarya's death followed months of concerns about understaffing, treatment delays and record ambulance ramping at Perth's hospitals. Four emergency doctors were off sick on the night in question. Mr Cook has ordered an independent inquiry into the PCH emergency department, in line with another of the recommendations. Health Minister Roger Cook said the family was 'let down', 'deserved better', and 'did not get the help they asked for' 'This independent inquiry will include any matters of specific concern identified by Aishwarya's family,' he said. 'Perth Children's Hospital continues to be a leading hospital that performs objectively well against safety and quality measures.' Labor last week used its parliamentary majority to block calls for an independent inquiry into Aishwarya's death, which had been sought by her parents. The grieving couple went on a hunger strike outside the hospital earlier this month amid frustration about their wait for answers. Mr Cook said the CAHS inquiry involved a panel of 10 people, four of whom were independent. The McGowan government has promised a significant expansion of emergency departments and the hiring of additional staff. Opposition Leader Mia Davies last week said WA's health system was 'stretched at the seams'. 'It is an utter tragedy when we know the family were in the exact right place they needed to be to seek assistance for their child,' she said. An aristocratic family are advertising for a live-in manager to work at a medieval castle on an island 500 yards off the British coast. St Michael's Mount is a tidal island in Marazion, Cornwall, and is one of the region's biggest tourist hotspots. The St Aubyn family, who have lived at St Michael's Mount since 1647, donated it to the National Trust in 1954 but retained a 999-year lease allowing them to continue living on site. They are now advertising for a Castle Officer to work at the island's medieval castle, which can be accessed by boat or via a man-made causeway that is passable between mid and low tide. An aristocratic family are advertising for a live-in manager at a medieval castle (pictured) on an island 500 yards off the British coast The St Aubyn family, who have lived at St Michael's Mount since 1647, donated it to the National Trust in 1954 but retained a 999-year lease allowing them to continue living on site St Michael's Mount is a tidal island in Marazion, Cornwall, and is one of the region's biggest tourist hotspots James and Mary St Aubyn moved to St Michael's Mount with their four children in 2013 and still live on site today. There are around 30 others living on the island which is usually visited by around 350,000 people every year - although this number has reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic. The St Aubyn estate is now looking to recruit a Castle Officer who will be responsible for the safety and security of the castle and its contents. The candidate will manage practical operations at the site on a day-to-day basis and will also be required to carry out maintenance duties, inlcuding moving furniture, hanging pictures and cleaning. Greeting conservation-related visitors, liaising with contractors and researching the castle's display collections are also part of the job description. The officer is expected stay at the property for at least five nights a week in order to 'assist the St Aubyn family in both the private and public areas of the castle'. The estate is currently advertising for a Castle Officer to work at the island's medieval castle, which can be accessed by boat or via a man-made causeway (pictured) that is passable between mid and low tide James (pictured alongside the Queen in 2013) and Mary St Aubyn moved to St Michael's Mount with their four children in 2013 and still live on site today The application website reads: 'We are a small team with a wide range of responsibilities. We are looking for someone who is excited to further build on their experience and make the most of all learning opportunities. 'You will be able to demonstrate the highest levels of discretion, be compassionate with a tactful demeanour, have a strong motivation to be based in West Cornwall and above all be a strong team player where flexibility is essential.' The package is described as 'a live in position with accompanying salary'. Castle steward Duncan Murdoch told the BBC: 'The best thing about living here is having a sea view from every window. 'The worst thing is not being able to get a pizza delivered to your door.' The St Aubyn family are currently looking to recruit for a role at the medieval castle at St Michael's Mount There are around 30 people living on St Michael's Mount and it is usually visited by around 350,000 people every year - but this number has reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic The castle (pictured) dates back to 1135 when construction is said to have begun when a Benedictine priory was founded there The castle dates back to 1135 when construction is said to have begun when a Benedictine priory was founded there. The island, which is situated 500 yards off the coast, can be reached by ferry boats to and from Marazion. It takes its name from St Michael who supposedly appeared to a group of fishermen in 495 AD. Nikhil Kamath, the billionaire co-founder of India's largest trading brokerage, has lifted the lid on the impact of Covid on his country An Indian call centre worker turned high-flying stock broker has opened up on what life has been like in his home city as Covid grips the nation. Nikhil Kamath dropped out of school when he was just 14, and went on to become India's youngest billionaire after turning his life savings into a stockbroking empire valued at over $3billion. The 33-year-old, who is spending lockdown at his home in Bangalore in India's south, said the nation's second wave has caused enormous strain on the nation's medical capabilities. 'The situation has been bad across the world. For us the second wave didn't hit when the rest of the world did - it had a delayed onset,' he told Daily Mail Australia. India's coronavirus deaths crossed 250,000 on Wednesday in the deadliest 24 hours since the pandemic began, as the disease rampages through the countryside, overloading a fragile rural healthcare system. Deaths swelled by a record 4,205 while infections rose 348,421 in the 24 hours to Wednesday, carrying the tally past 23 million. While Mr Kamath believes the Indian Government 'hasn't done a horrible job' handling the crisis, he does believe it could have done 'better'. 'India wasn't prepared as we could have been - bear in mind we are a very large population,' he said. 'It might have been easier if there was one tenth of the people. We don't have the capacity to cater to all the citizens of the country. 'But everybody is coming together and all working together, from the private sector and the government, from temporary hospitals and oxygen supplies.' Kamath (pictured with wife Amanda Puravankara) has insisted the Covid crisis in India is 'not as bad' as the media portrays - despite deaths from the virus passing 250,000 Mr Kamath insisted things are 'peaceful' in Bangalore, where he lives, despite horrific images of bodies floating down the Ganges River as the nation struggles to deal with a Covid explosion. Pictured are hospital workers in Siliguri carrying the dead body of an infected local Lacking beds, drugs and medical oxygen, hospitals have been forced to turn away droves of sufferers, while tales of desperate relatives searching for someone to treat dying loved ones have become sickeningly commonplace. Many victims die without a doctor on hand to issue a death certificate, and even when a doctor is available, COVID-19 is not specified as the cause of death unless the deceased was tested for the disease, which few have been. If you go outside it's very quiet on the streets, but things are largely peaceful Mr Kamath also said the Government 'could definitely have done more' in how it prepared for the second wave of Covid. 'The problem is a lot larger than other countries. Our limited recourses and medical capabilities are probably not as good as they could have been,' he said. 'I think the timing of when it affected different countries has been different.' Mr Kamath also believes the global media has made the Indian Covid crisis appear more dire than it is. 'It's not as bad as the foreign media has put it. The Indian media has been positive in their narrative, the truth lies in between somewhere,' he said. 'The Indian media has played it down and the other media has played it up - but it's not as bad as the rest of the media is portraying it as. Mr Kamath believes the global media has made the Indian Covid crisis appear worse than it is A woman mourns after seeing the body of her son who died from coronavirus outside a mortuary of a Covid hospital in New Delhi While horrifying photos of public cremations, bodies floating down the Ganges River and people dying in the streets have been laid bare to the rest of the world, Mr Kamath says it wasn't necessarily a true depiction of what the nation is going through. 'If you go outside it's very quiet on the streets, but things are largely peaceful,' he said. 'Every city has a certain crematorium or burial ground. If you were going to go into the streets, you don't see cremations happening on the streets - it's an exaggeration.' He said the situation is worse in 'tiny pockets' of India's larger cities where the concentration of Covid-positive people is higher. 'Lockdown has led to lower a lower number of cases and less chaos,' he said. 'It is bad but it's not like 'the world is ending' kind of bad, but there are many people suffering,' he said. Despite the nation experiencing skyrocketing rates of Covid infections, Mr Kamath said the cases are relative to the population. 'Out of the 1.5billion we have, if you look at the fatality rate and at the positive people in the country - it's much much lower,' he said. India's youngest billionaire said he supported Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's controversial travel ban between the two countries Mr Kamath said Indians 'haven't given up in the face of a problem'. A man is pictured above running past a crematorium in New Delhi Mr Kamath, who himself contracted Covid in March, also weighed in on Scott Morrison's decision to ban all Australians from coming home from India. 'It makes sense with the strain [of Covid] we have,' he said. '[The Government] is doing a good job in protecting your population against the strain, so it makes sense as the risk is so high.' Mr Kamath said the 'narrative is harsher than the intention' in relation to the Government's threat of jail time and hefty fines if Australians in India try to come home. He claimed that while India's Covid crisis continues to unfold, the nation's people 'haven't given up in the face of the problem'. 'Everyone is fighting back, the government is coming together to fill the gap. Within a month or two I think the problem will be behind us,' he said. 'We've been locked down for a large degree for a fortnight now and things will look up now. It's not spreading at the rate it did when we weren't in lock down.' Although the infection curve may be showing early signs of flattening, new cases are likely to fall off slowly, top virologist Shahid Jameel said. 'We seem to be plateauing around 400,000 cases a day. It is still too early to say whether we have reached the peak,' he said. Despite his positive outlook on the pandemic, Mr Kamath was last week touched by the virus when his longtime driver died in intensive care. 'Thankfully he was able to get the care he needed,' he said. 'A lot of people I know have had Covid and I know many people who have been affected and died. Mr Kamath revealed his longtime driver died last week from Covid, but insisted 'lockdown has led to lower a lower number of cases and less chaos' Mr Kamath, who grew up in a middle class family with a banker father and music teacher mother, worked at a call centre in his youth and a stockbroking company for three years and saved up roughly $190,000. In 2010, Mr Kamath and his brother Nithin put the money toward founding Zerodha - now India's largest trading brokerage - with 2,000 employees and offices across the country. Mr Kamath said his interest in trading started when he was 17 after watching his father invest. 'I had an active interest in stocks, that had been inculcated by my father and brother who were already investing at the time. And once you start making a little bit of money trading, you get more interested, and it has continued ever since,' he said. The 33-year-old, who said his company remained largely unaffected by the pandemic, has turned his attention towards relief efforts. Last month he forked out $1million to lease 20 ambulances from automobile vendors to help underprivileged Indians get to hospital. 'There's a toll-free number people can call. The free service has 20 ambulances on the ground which respond to calls and provides people with oxygen and transport,' he said. 'Everybody is getting behind causes like this in India and people are stepping forward to help.' Mr Kamath's philanthropic efforts also extend beyond the pandemic. He has pledged $100million over the next three years towards climate change. The Indian government has been forced to reassure its citizens that 5G has not caused the second wave of coronavirus following a spate of conspiracy theories circulating on social media. Officials pointed out that there are no 5G networks in India as the country only approved 5G trials last week and they won't start for months. The government described the conspiracy theories as 'baseless and false' and urged the public not to be 'misguided' by the rumours. It comes as the nation's health officials said a record number of 4,025 people have been killed by Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll past 250,000 as it battles a surge in infections. The Indian government has reassured its citizens that 5G has not caused the second wave of coronavirus which is ravaging the country and led to a record number of deaths. Pictured: Relatives wearing PPE perform rituals during a cremation of a Covid-19 victim in New Delhi on Tuesday It comes as the nation's health officials said a record number of people have been killed by Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll past 250,000 as it battles a surge in infections India's Department of Telecommunication said in a statement: 'Several misleading messages are being circulated on various social media platforms claiming that the second wave of coronavirus has been caused by the testing of the 5G mobile towers. 'These messages are false and absolutely not correct... the general public is hereby informed that there is no link between 5G technology and the spread of Covid-19 and they are urged not to be misguided by the false information and rumours spread in this matter.' The department also slammed the conspiracy theories as having 'no scientific basis' and pointed out that the testing of the 5G network has not yet started in India after the country only approved trials on May 4 - and they won't start for months. 'Hence, the claim that 5G Trials or networks are causing coronavirus in India is baseless and false,' the department added in the statement. A prominent message circulating on social media states that the radiation from cell phone towers 'mixes with the air and makes it poisonous and thats why people are facing difficulty in breathing and are dying', reports Coda Story. The department reassured citizens this is not the case. 'Mobile towers emit non-ionizing Radio frequencies having very minuscule power and are incapable of causing any kind of damage to living cells including human beings,' it said in a statement. Earlier this year, India introduced a new law which gives the government considerable powers to order content to be taken down from social media platforms and require providers to identify their users. In February, the Indian government asked Twitter to ban over 1,000 on the grounds that they were spreading information about the large-scale farming protests at the time. The government alleged the accounts were not by farmers themselves - but by accounts backed by Pakistan and Sikh separatists. India has continued to be ravaged by Covid-19, with the country today announcing another record 4,205 deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing its overall death toll past a quarter of a million The daily coronavirus cases rose by a staggering 348,421, taking the overall number of cases past 23 million, according to health ministry data But the move was controversial among human rights groups, with the Internet Freedom Foundation denouncing the blocking of pro-farmer accounts as 'government censorship'. Meanwhile last month, the government successfully called on Facebook to remove social media posts calling for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to resign amid a surge of Covid-19 cases. India has continued to be ravaged by Covid-19, with the country today announcing another record 4,205 deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing its overall death toll past a quarter of a million. The daily coronavirus cases rose by a staggering 348,421, taking the overall number of cases past 23 million, according to health ministry data. Even with these depressing figures, experts believe the official numbers grossly underestimate the real scale of the epidemic's impact, and actual deaths and infections could be five to ten times higher. Meanwhile a leading virologist has said it was too early to say if infections had reaching a peak. Shahid Jameel told the Indian Express newspaper: 'It is still too early to say whether we have reached the peak. 'There is some indication of the cases plateauing. But we must not forget that this is a very high plateau. We seem to be plateauing around 400,000 cases a day.' A woman covers her nose as smoke and fumes rise from the burning funeral pyres of the patients who died of the Covid-19 coronavirus from her house near a makeshift crematorium in Delhi India, with a population of 1.4 billion people, currently accounts for one in three of the reported deaths from coronavirus around the world, according to a Reuters tally, overwhelming hospital and medical staff, as well as mortuaries and crematoriums. Drugs and medical oxygen are in short supply. The brutal second wave of COVID-19 infections has spread from the cities to small towns and the countryside, ripping through a fragile health system ill-equipped for a crisis of this scale. On Tuesday, authorities warned that nearly 90% of districts in the country are seeing a high positivity rate, sparking fears the coronavirus is spreading to India's rural areas faster than it did during a surge last year. Rural parts of India are also running short of wood for traditional Hindu cremations and scores of bodies are washing up on the banks of the Ganges river which flows through the most populous areas of the northern plains. Akhand Pratap, a resident of Ghazipur district in sprawling Uttar Pradesh state, said that 'people are immersing bodies in the holy Ganges river instead of cremation because of shortage of cremation wood'. Even in the capital, New Delhi, many COVID victims are abandoned by their relatives after cremation, leaving volunteers to wash the ashes, pray over them, and then take them to scatter into the river, rituals usually conducted by the family. The relative of a COVID-19 patient carries an oxygen tank at a Sikh shrine, or gurdwara, where oxygen is made available by various Sikh religious organizations in the outskirts of Delhi on Monday Infections have swelled in India since February in a disastrous turn blamed on more contagious variants as well as the government's decision to allow massive crowds to gather for religious festivals and political rallies. In a report published Wednesday, the World Health Organization said the B.1.617 variant first identified in India had been detected in at least 44 countries so far. The global health body has classified it as a 'variant of concern' that requires heightened tracking and analysis. Vaccines are also running short, especially in Maharashtra state around the financial centre of Mumbai, and in the capital, Delhi, two of India's hardest-hit regions. With nearly four million cases still active, health care systems remain strained with limited hospital beds, oxygen and medicine. Many states have imposed their own restrictions to curb infections, and the southern state of Telangana became the latest to announce a 10-day lockdown on Tuesday. India's second wave of the pandemic has increased calls for a nationwide lockdown and prompted more and more states to impose tougher restrictions that have hurt businesses and the wider economy. A co-founder of 'Students for Trump' has been sentenced to 13 months in prison for posing as a lawyer to scam people he found online with bogus legal advice. U.S. District Judge Valerie E. Caproni in Manhattan slammed John Lambert as a 'cold-blooded fraudster'. The judge rejected defense efforts to portray him Lambert as a naive victim of a co-conspirator whose 'youthful exuberance' made him think he could create a fake persona to learn the law and help others. 'This crime took a lot of thought,' she said. Lambert had pleaded guilty to wire fraud in August 2019. On Tuesday the judge ordered forfeiture of over $46,000 and restitution of more than $21,000 and expressed disappointment that Lambert so far had not tried to get a job to begin repaying victims. John Lambert, pictured above, has been sentenced to 13 months in prison for posing as a lawyer to cheat people he found on the internet out of thousands of dollars Caproni said Lambert's work to promote former President Donald Trump on college campuses was 'a wonderful thing' because it kept young people engaged in government. But she added that the leadership skills he used to do good in that role were used to do harm when he created a fake Manhattan law firm to lure victims online. Lambert, 25, of Bristol, Tennessee, was a 'cold-blooded fraudster who cared not a whit about the victims of his fraud,' the judge said. Prosecutors said Lambert from August 2016 through April 2018 advertised himself on the internet as a prominent New York attorney and graduate of an elite law school who had worked with hundreds of clients, including 'tech moguls' and 'entrepreneurs,' in Europe and the United States. Lambert, using the alias 'Eric Pope,' lured at least six individuals and corporations into paying him to resolve credit issues, draft a will, resolve a dispute with a former employee and help with corporate and intellectual property law, prosecutors said. 'This man is the worst of the worst in my opinion,' a victim whose named was redacted wrote in a pre-sentence letter to the judge. The victim, who drained a 401K account to pay Lambert, was berated by Lambert during a phone call and was told 'I was irrational for ever questioning such an esteemed attorney from New York,' according to the letter. Lambert, 25, of Bristol, Tennessee, was a 'cold-blooded fraudster who cared not a whit about the victims of his fraud,' the judge said [Lambert] told me that I was insane for ever questioning him and that I should be ashamed of myself for questioning his integrity. 'He berated me on the phone and told me that I was irrational for ever questioning such an esteemed attorney from New York and started demanding that I send him a huge amount of money or that he would not do anymore work for me. 'In truth he had never done one bit of work for me, the victim wrote. Before he was sentenced, Lambert told the judge he had 'sincere regret' and wanted to apologize to victims. 'My life will be forever marked by this poor choice,' Lambert said. He added that he was spending 'countless hours in prayer to rid myself of the demons.' Gary Peters, Lambert's lawyer, said after the sentencing that he was disappointed that his client, currently enrolled in college, was going to prison. Lambert began 'Students for Trump during the 2016 Presidential campaign. After Trump's 2017 inauguration, Lambert became disappointed with some of the new president's early moves and stopped participating with the group. Peters said Lambert 'just dropped out.' Eye-catching artwork by David Hockney that was commissioned by re-elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been widely ridiculed on social media. The work, produced by the world-renowed British artist, 83, is part of Mr Khan's new 7million tourism campaign to encourage sightseers back to the capital as Covid restrictions ease. Branding it 'brilliant', Mr Khan unveiled a redesigned version of the Piccadilly Circus Underground sign on Twitter, and promised there would be 'lots more to come very soon'. But the plan appeared to have backfired as thousands of Twitter users were left dismayed, shocked and appalled in equal measure - with many showcasing their own doodles to rival Hockney's piece. Re-elected London Mayor Sadiq Khan shared this tweet of world famous artist David Hockney's new display that will feature in Picadilly Circus Tube Station But social media users struck back at the newly commissioned artwork, sharing their own creative and kooky efforts at redesigning the iconic tube station signs Others joked that they would like to see their own attempts commissioned by the recently re-elected mayor Mr Hockney's new artwork is the first in a series of commissioned pieces that come under Mr Khan's 7million 'Let's Do London' campaign. Pictured: A Twitter user's own design The 'Let's Do London' campaign, announced by Sadiq Khan in the aftermath of his recent election victory, has been dubbed the 'biggest' domestic tourism effort the capital has ever seen. As part of the 7million splurge, Mr Khan gave the green light to David Hockney's latest yellow and purple artwork which will be displayed throughout one of London's busiest tube stations. Mr Khan tweeted: 'Brilliant work from David Hockney in Piccadilly - the first of a series of major art projects we've commissioned as part of our brand new Let's Do London campaign. 'Lots more to come very soon!' Twitter users poked fun at Mr Khan's tweet proclaiming the 'brilliant' new artwork that will be shown in Piccadilly Circus tube station Other creative examples included a rework of the classic Oxford Street tube station, while the Hammersmith & City line was also given a once over by Twitter users The 7million Let's Do London campaign has been dubbed the capital's 'biggest ever domestic tourism campaign'. Pictured: One Twitter user's satirical take on Cockfosters tube station But social media commentators were less than impressed with the internationally renowned artist's latest piece - with some comparing it to something their children might have produced. Daniel Moore said: 'I like some of Hockney's stuff, especially his photography but this looks like a 7-year-old won a competition.' Freddie Collier wrote: 'If you had said this was a children's competition to redesign the logo and this was the winner I'd have equally believe it.' Social media users were less than impressed with the new artwork that will be displayed in Piccadilly Circus tube station Others tried to create their own masterpieces, while some people questioned the decision to hand a commission to a wealthy artist with no obvious connection to London. Ben Stephens said: 'Ah it's a shame London isn't packed with creative artists who've had a really tough year and could've used both the money and exposure this would provide, while also being a brilliant showcase for the city's diversity, pride and passion.' While @lessgrumpy replied: 'He's from Bradford and has lived in LA since 1964. What's his relevance to London? Give the commission to a young London artist.' Labour incumbent Mr Khan formally signed in for a second term on stage at Shakespeare's Globe earlier this week, as he unveiled the 7 million 'Let's Do London' campaign as an immediate priority And some were left wondering if this was the best use of resources considering the recent surge in knife crime in the capital. @holdenlily said: 'Lovely, so much more important than reopening police stations or putting more police on the streets. Or any other initiative that would make us Londoners feel safe in our city.' Even Specsavers felt the need to comment on the now viral tweet, simply posting: 'See me' The newly commissioned piece was the first in a series of major art projects promised by the Labour mayor. Funding for the Let's Do London campaign comes from a 6million boost from City Hall, with a further 1million in investment from London's cultural and creative industries. Some Twitter users questioned the decision to hand a commission to a rich artist with no obvious connection to London, as others wanted to see a larger police presence in the capital Mr Khan wrote in Metro: ' As Mayor, Im firmly committed to leading from the front when it comes to coordinating and driving our recovery. 'Im making jobs a top priority for my second term, with my administration determined to do everything in its power not only to protect employment, but to create the new and well-paid jobs that give families the security they need. 'This means banging the drum for London to attract jobs, tourism and investment to our city. And it means backing our businesses large and small. 'Focused on providing immediate and vital support to our world-famous cultural, nightlife, retail and hospitality businesses, Lets Do London will seek to tempt domestic visitors and Londoners back into the heart of our city.' Londoners gather at Piccadilly Circus to view David Hockney's new video artwork made on his iPad which features an animated sunrise Londoners have gathered at Piccadilly Circus to view David Hockney's new video artwork made on his iPad which features an animated sunrise. The artist's work, titled Remember You Cannot Look At The Sun Or Death For Very Long, appeared on the Piccadilly Lights screen this evening. It will also appear on screens in New York, Los Angeles, Seoul and Tokyo. It was created by Hockney, 83, on an iPad during lockdown and represents a message of hope and collaboration as the world emerges from the pandemic. The piece was drawn by Hockney in the early mornings in Normandy, France, where he has lived since 2019. The two and a half minute sequence transforms from a dark scene with long shadows to a brilliant image of bright sun rays spread dramatically across the scenery. The world-renowned artist started experimenting with drawing on an iPad in 2009, and has praised the medium for not requiring an extensive clean up. Hockney said: 'What does the world look like? We have to take time to see its beauty. 'That's what I hope my work will encourage people to do when they see it on the large screens.' The video will be shown every evening throughout May at the same time. Londoners have gathered at Piccadilly Circus (pictured) to view David Hockney's new video artwork made on his iPad which features an animated sunrise The artist's work, titled Remember You Cannot Look At The Sun Or Death For Very Long (pictured), appeared on the Piccadilly Lights screen this evening People are seen gathered at Piccadilly Circus to watch Remember You Cannot Look At The Sun Or Death For Very Long by Hockney tonight The world-renowned artist (pictured) started experimenting with drawing on an iPad in 2009, and has praised the medium for not requiring an extensive clean up It will also appear on screens in New York, Los Angeles, Seoul and Tokyo. Pictured: The artwork on the screen in London People watch the global premiere of a Hockney's artwork (pictured) which is being screened on the Piccadilly Lights in London Hockney's video shows an animated sunrise and was created on his iPad. Pictured: The artwork on the screen in London Hockney, 83, said: 'What does the world look like? We have to take time to see its beauty.' Pictured: The installation in London today Hockney said he hopes his artwork will encourage people to 'take time' to see the world's beauty. The video will be shown every evening throughout May at the same time Dominic Raab accused Russia of sheltering criminal cyber gangs who are working to undermine Western democracy today. The Foreign Secretary lasted out at Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime and Communist China as he revealed the level of threats facing the UK and its allies. In a speech this morning he revealed 80 UK schools, colleges and universities were hit by ransomware attacks when they prepared to return to face-to-face teaching in March. And he cited the ongoing major ransomware attack linked to Russian cyber criminals that has hit petrol supplies across a large swathe of the United States. The Colonial Pipeline, which supplies 40 per cent of the fuel for the East Coast, was shut down for a fifth consecutive day today. 'Lets be very clear about it; when states like Russia have criminals or gangs operating from their territory they cannot wave their hands and say nothing to do with them,' he told the National Cyber Security Centres CYBERUK conference. 'Even if it is not directly linked to the state they have a responsibility to prosecute those gangs and those individuals, not to shelter them.' The Foreign Secretary lasted out at Vladimir Putin's autocratic regime and Communist China as he revealed the level of threats facing the UK and its allies. He cited the ongoing major ransomware attack linked to Russian cyber criminals that has hit petrol supplies across a large swathe of the United States. Pictured: Russian leader Vladimir Putin Mr Raab accused Russia, China, North Korea and Iran of working to 'sabotage, steal and ransack the international system'. He said that 723 major incidents and 700,000 online scams had been halted in the UK in the past year. 'Some of this activity is aimed at theft and extortion, but it all too often is simply focused on sabotage and disruption. It is worth saying these actors are the industrial scale vandals of the 21st century. But that doesn't mean it is random,' he added. 'These hostile state actors, the criminal gangs, want to undermine the very foundations of our democracy.' Mr Raab warned that cyber attacks pose a real risk on a daily basis, while the UK uses its capabilities to defend citizens and safeguard international collaborations. The Foreign Secretary told the conference there is a need to clarify how rules around cyber activity are enforced. And he called for a wider agreement on how to respond to those states who commit malicious cyber attacks. The attack on Colonial Pipeline, which runs from Texas to New Jersey and transports 45 percent of the East Coast's fuel supply, is the largest assault on US energy infrastructure in history and has sent shockwaves across the industry It came as a major ransomware attack on a key petrol pipeline in the US was linked to a Russian military intelligence unit by the FBI. President Biden on Monday said there wasn't evidence that Russia was involved, despite the FBI pointing the finger at DarkSide, which has gone after numerous US and European companies but refrained from going after Russia. The FBI on Monday confirmed that DarkSide was responsible for the attack on Colonial Pipeline that has experts fearing widespread gas shortages and significant price hikes. The cybercrime outfit - which insists it has no political connections - has already boasted that it has been paid millions of dollars in ransom from 80 companies across the US and Europe. A driver in Norfolk, Virginia, looks on as a fuel station announces they only have diesel People in Virginia were filling every container available with fuel amid panic over possible shortages The governors of Florida, Virginia and Georgia all declared states of emergency last night in a bid to protect fuel supplies, with some gas pumps already dry in Atlanta and other cities. Panic buyers streamed into gas stations across south eastern states as the key pipeline that supplies the area was threatened by the attack. The region is particularly vulnerable because it has fewer refineries and pipelines to deliver fuel, compared to the Northeast, which is less at risk. The Southeast is also less equipped to quickly import large quantities of oil from other countries, according to The Wall Street Journal. The worst shortages were in North Carolina, where 9.7 per cent of all stations in the state were without fuel, according to Gas Buddy Tracker. Virginia was second hardest-hit, with 7.9 per cent of gas stations empty, followed by Georgia with 6.5 per cent and South Carolina with 4.3 per cent. In five states - Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia demand was up by a collective 40.1 per cent on Monday. Ron DeSantis, Republican governor of Florida; Ralph Northam, the Democrat governor of Virginia, and Brian Kemp, Georgia's Republican governor, announced their state's measures on Tuesday. Their moves came a day after the governor of North Carolina took the same step. A man filmed punching 'tiny' teenage girls in the head and then dragging one by her hair has been attacked in prison due to the incident's media attention, a court has been told. Double Bay man Jesse Leilan Mackenzie, 29, was allegedly one of three men involved in the violence inflicted upon two girls, aged 15 and 16, in Pyrmont in March. A bystander's footage of the incident quickly spread after the incident, allegedly showing Mackenzie punch both victims in the head and drag the 15-year-old by her hair towards a ledge. Double Bay man Jesse Leilan Mackenzie, 29, (pictured) was one of three men allegedly involved in the 'sickening' attacks on two teenage girls aged 15 and 16 'I've never seen such disgraceful footage,' NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller said in March. Police allege Mackenzie threw the younger girl by the hair down an embankment, though his Legal Aid lawyer argues he stumbled or fell and ended up below the victim. 'They (the co-accused) start kicking to the victim, but that is where Mr Mackenzie's involvement stops when he is on the ground,' Tamara Grennan told Sydney's Central Local Court on Tuesday. Mackenzie sought to join his co-accused on bail, entering a guilty plea to affray and continuing negotiations on assault charges. He'd already spent more than nine weeks in custody, lost his full-time job and had a significant decline in his mental health, the court was told. The media attention that came with the matter also led to a number of assaults, including one where he had his shoulder dislocated and boiling water thrown on him. 'He ultimately understands that is a place he never wants to go again,' Ms Grennan said. Release would also open a 'world' of rehabilitation opportunities to address the alcohol abuse that had 'fuelled' the offending behaviour, she said. Three men have already been charged and remain before the courts after an alleged assault involving three teenage girls in a Pyrmont park in March Police opposed bail, citing fears of further serious offences and the risk of danger to the community. 'These (teenagers) are tiny in stature and it was a prolonged series of attacks,' Sergeant Chris Manning said. 'If he is to be released, there would be a significant concern for members of the public, given the almost helplessness of the complainants of this matter.' Sergeant Manning said the attacks could only be described as sickening. 'I have to say that is a description with which I could only wholeheartedly agree,' magistrate Clare Farnan said. Mackenzie and the other men had engaged in conduct where the young girls 'were absolutely no threat to them, in a physical sense', she said. While accepting he'd been subject to violence in custody, Ms Farnan said Mackenzie remains an unacceptable risk to the community. His history of violence included him receiving a community corrections order eight days before the Pyrmont incident. 'When one looks at his record ... I have to say it would be a surprise (if) Mr Mackenzie would receive less than a full-time custodial sentence,' Ms Farnan said. Mackenzie is due to face court again on May 26. He will eventually be re-sentenced on the prior matters of violence. A search has been launched to trace the family of a fallen British hero who died in France following 'the forgotten Dunkirk' more than 80 years ago. The 51st Highland Division soldier evaded capture during the battle of St Valery-en-Caux in Normandy and was hidden by a French family, but was later discovered by the Germans and shot. The Second World War battle on June 12 1940, known as 'the forgotten Dunkirk', led to around 10,000 mainly Scottish soldiers from the 51st Highland Division being captured. They continued the fight on the Continent in support of the French after the Dunkirk evacuations had been completed, but a flotilla of ships sent to rescue the troops was unable to reach them due to fog and the proximity of German artillery above the town. Patrick Prieur is taking on his late father's quest to find the family of the man, whose name was Keller Len Scott. The man's grave is marked as 'Known unto God' Following the commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the battle last June, St Valery resident Patrick Prieur contacted veterans charity Poppyscotland and other organisations for help to trace the relatives of a soldier who was sheltered by a local family. He is taking on his late father's quest to find the family of the man, whose name was Keller Len Scott. Mr Prieur, 65, whose grandparents and father remained in the town throughout the war, said: 'A soldier from the 51st Highland Division was hidden by a local family in the village. A piece of paper with the name of a fallen hero who died following 'the forgotten Dunkirk' more than 80 years ago The 51st Highlanders (pictured) were 20,000 British troops who were left behind after Dunkirk to slow down the German advance 'The forgotten Dunkirk': The battle of St Valery-en-Caux On June 12, 1940, Just days after the legendary evacuation of 300,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force from the beaches at Dunkirk, 20,000 of our troops were left fighting for their lives in France. The 51st Highland Division were under orders from the War Office to fight on, bolstering the French for as long as they could to prevent a total over-run of France by Hitler making a heroic last stand when all seemed lost. They were massively outgunned. With just a few rounds of ammunition per man, the Highlanders' chances of survival seemed almost nil. This was the forgotten army. The division's commander, General Victor Fortune, saw the odds were impossible. He sent a desperate signal to Downing Street, saying, 'It is sheer murder to keep us on a 19-mile front 24 hours longer.' Churchill sent back, 'We will fight on, whatever happens.' Continuous fighting ensued for ten days, until the division was surrounded at St Valery-en-Caux. Abandoned on foreign soil, thousands of British troops lay down their arms and went into captivity. At least one British soldier put a gun to his head rather than be taken prisoner. One thousand men were killed in the battle, and 5,000 wounded. A further 11,000 men of the 51st Highland Division were also captured. They spent the rest of the war as PoWs. Apart from a handful of escapees, they did not return home until the war was over. Advertisement 'They bonded, and the family learned that he was a married man, with a wife and two daughters waiting for him to return home. 'For several weeks, the soldier remained hidden, but regretfully he was eventually discovered by German troops and marched through the town to the municipal cemetery. 'After being forced to dig his own grave, he was positioned against the cemetery wall and shot. 'His death deeply upset the townspeople, who had been aware of his hiding, and especially my father, who was only 11 at the time. 'In later years, the Franco-British military cemetery was built, and his body was moved there. 'His grave is marked as 'Known unto God', and my father and other villagers tended to it for decades after the war ended. 'My father had been gifted a piece of paper on which the soldier's name was written, 'Keller Len Scott', and this became his prized possession. 'He desperately wanted to find the soldier's family to tell them what had happened to their beloved and where he was laid to rest, but, having very little information, he struggled. 'In 2014 my father passed away and, being eager to finish what he started, I recently contacted Poppyscotland and the Highland Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Association to ask for help.' Michelle McKearnon, head of engagement at the Highland Reserve Forces' and Cadets' Association, said they were only able to get so far with their research into the soldier's identity, and appealed for help. She said: 'We believe the name order on the piece of paper may have been written in military fashion, with the surname preceding any given names, so the family name might be Keller. 'We're now at an impasse, struggling to find additional information through our own resources, so we need the knowledge of the wider community to continue our efforts.' Last year, pipers from across the world took to their doorsteps at 10am on June 12 to perform Heroes Of St Valery in an event organised by Legion Scotland, Poppyscotland and Royal Caledonian Education Trust: Scotland's Armed Forces Children's Charity, and pipers are being urged to take part again this year on the same date at 10am. Dr Claire Armstrong, chief executive of Legion Scotland, said: 'As we approach the 81st anniversary of the battle, we hope to identify this Scottish hero, give him the recognition he deserves, and bring peace to his family.' Legion Scotland have committed to ensuring St Valery is now marked annually, alongside other national remembrance events including Armistice Day, Remembrance Sunday and VE Day. Around 1,000 troops died in the battle of St Valery-en-Caux, with more than 11,000 of them captured by German troops and kept as prisoners of war Tony Blair railed at 'woke' culture today as he admitted he is 'not sure what you can say' about many topics. The former PM made the frank confession as he warned that Labour risks being destroyed by its refusal to stand up to perceived political correctness. Mr Blair was discussing mental health with his ex-spin chief Alastair Campbell on ITV's Good Morning Britain when he made the comments. 'I am afraid I am of an age where I am now terrified if I talk about any of these subjects that I am going to say something that I should not say,' he said. When presenter Susanna Reid intervened to say it felt 'like a minefield', Mr Blair said: 'It is a minefield on virtually everything. If you are of a certain generation you are not sure what you can, what you can't say, whether you can make a joke about something.' The remarks came after Mr Blair delivered a scorching assessment of Labour's condition, saying it needs 'total reconstruction' and Sir Keir lacks a 'compelling economic message'. The leader's failure to 'clarify' a cultural message also means the party is being 'defined by the ''woke'' Left', according to Mr Blair. The verdict, in an article for Labour bible the New Statesman, came as Sir Keir desperately tries to stabilise after a disastrous set of elections and a botched reshuffle. The latest YouGov polling has given Sir Keir a net rating of minus 48, with two-thirds of voters saying he is doing badly. It is even worse than the minus 40 Jeremy Corbyn was recording at a similar point in the last parliament - before Boris Johnson secured his historic Commons majority. Angela Rayner has risked fuelling raging infighting by admitting to 'robust' discussions with Sir Keir, who tried to sack her last week before backing down and offering her a more high-profile job. Meanwhile, Ed Miliband went on the airwaves to defend Sir Keir this morning and suggested he supported calls for a more left-wing agenda. Tony Blair today warned that Labour is being destroyed by the 'woke Left' as Keir Starmer's ratings plunge amid a vicious civil war The verdict, in an article for Labour bible the New Statesman, came as Sir Keir (left today) desperately tried to stabilise after a disastrous set of elections and a botched reshuffle. Ed Miliband (right) went on the airwaves to defend Sir Keir this morning and suggested he supported calls for a more left-wing agenda The latest YouGov polling has given Sir Keir a net rating of minus 48, with two-thirds of voters saying he is doing badly Mr Miliband said Labour needed to be 'bolder' and branded Britain 'unfair, unequal and unproductive'. In his article, Mr Blair said of Sir Keir: 'He lacks a compelling economic message and the cultural message, because he is not clarifying it, is being defined by the 'woke' Left, whose every statement gets cut-through courtesy of the right.' He added: 'The Labour Party won't revive simply by a change of leader. 'It needs total deconstruction and reconstruction. Nothing less will do.' He warned that political parties have 'no divine right to exist' and progressive movements are facing 'extinction across the Western world'. Mr Blair went on: 'A progressive party seeking power which looks askance at the likes of Trevor Phillips, Sara Khan, or JK Rowling, is not going to win. 'People are suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme.' Mr Blair warned that voters do not like 'their country their flag or their history being disrespected'. '''Defund the police' may be the left's most damaging political slogan since ''the dictatorship of the proletariat'',' he said. 'People do not like their country, their flag or their history being disrespected. People like common sense, proportion and reason.' In interviews last night, deputy leader Ms Rayner referred to her 'very frank relationship' with Sir Keir. She claimed she was appointed to her new roles because she wanted to be more 'front-facing' in the reshuffled top team, after she was stripped of her roles as party chairwoman and campaign co-ordinator over the weekend. Amid accusations the Labour leader was trying to make Ms Rayner a scapegoat, it was announced late on Sunday she would be given a new role shadowing Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove. She admitted that members of the public did not know what Sir Keir 'stood for' before they went to the polls, as Labour looks to reconnect with voters after the party's crushing defeat in the Hartlepool by-election. During an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Ms Rayner said: 'I'm not going to discuss the robust conversations that me and Keir have and have always had. 'We have had a very frank relationship and I welcome that, actually, I think it's really constructive. 'And we came to a decision over the weekend of where both of us felt I could make the best opportunity and the best of my skills in supporting his leadership, and that's what I want to do in my new role.' Pressed on whether the Labour leader had tried to sack her, Ms Rayner said: 'I'm really happy in the role I have got and I think the general public are not so much interested in my job but actually interested in their jobs.' Sir Keir has been coming under pressure from the hard-Left to return to Jeremy Corbyn policies, despite him having overseen the party's worst general election defeat since 1935. Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if the Labour Party should be bolder and back proposals similar to US President Joe Biden's one trillion dollar green investment plan, Mr Miliband said: 'We propose a 30 billion green infrastructure plan, absolutely we should be doing that. 'We should be bolder, of course we should be bolder. 'Thinking about the country is the right thing for our party in the following sense, which is this country needs big economic change, that's what Keir Starmer believes in, that's what he talked about in his Queen's Speech yesterday. 'He believes we are an unfair, unequal and unproductive country, and that's got to change. Sir Keir and Ms Rayner (pictured taking the knee together) have been trying to paper over their differences Sir Keir suffered another blow yesterday as it emerged Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris has stood down as his parliamentary aide 'Now that is the right thing for the country and the right way to unite our coalition.' Sir Keir suffered another blow yesterday when it emerged close aide Carolyn Harris stepped down from her role as parliamentary private secretary amid reports she was involved in the bitter briefing war between the Labour leader's office and Ms Rayner. The Times reported that the resignation of the MP for Swansea East, who is also deputy leader of Welsh Labour, came amid allegations she had spread 'baseless rumours' about the deputy leader. In a statement, Ms Harris said: 'Stepping back from this role is the right thing at this moment, coming as it does after some trying personal times and an ever-increasing workload as deputy leader of Welsh Labour. 'I have enjoyed every minute, and look forward to supporting Keir the best way I can in the months ahead.' Following the final results of Thursday's English council elections, the Tories gained 294 councillors across the nation, while Labour lost 267. Ms Rayner told the BBC: 'What I heard on the doorstep is that they didn't know what Keir Starmer stood for, so that's what I think our challenge is, actually. 'It's not people briefing, saying we think Keir thinks this, we think Keir thinks that, but actually about what are we doing, what are our policies?' She said this was partly because the Labour leader had 'put the country first' and acted as a 'constructive opposition' to the Government during the pandemic. Asked if she had any ambition of becoming Labour leader, she told the BBC: 'I want to get Keir into Number 10 to be prime minister because I know he can do a better job. 'I rule out at the moment anything that doesn't get us into that prospect of me being the deputy prime minister, that's what I want.' A former police worker who became 'obsessively jealous' of his ex-partner while he underwent sex change therapy has been banned from seeing her for 10 years. Nicholas Melville, 35, sought emotional support from his mother as he was transitioning from female to male but when that failed his behaviour became abusive towards his partner, Caroline Worsfold. Melville pleaded guilty to using controlling and coercive behaviour against Ms Worsfold, Caernarfon Crown Court heard. Melville, who was formerly called Nicola when their relationship began, would bombard her with emails and even accuse her of sleeping with the taxi driver if she went on a night out. Today, a judge banned Melville from seeing Ms Worsfold for 10 years and gave him a two-year community order. Prosecutor Simon Mintz said Melville, a former Merseyside police force employee, had been in a two and a half year relationship with Ms Worsfold, 37, of Buckley, until December 2018. The court heard the relationship between Nicholas Melville and Caroline Worsfold lasted from June 2016 to December 2018. The transitioning happened 'during the course of the relationship', said the prosecutor. Ex-police worker Nicholas Melville is banned from contacting his ex-partner for 10 years at Caernarfon Crown Court (pictured) after admitting coercive and controlling behaviour But he showed controlling behaviour from the early days. Mr Mintz said Melville would 'interrogate' Ms Worsfold about seeing her friends and became 'furious' when she went on a night out, accusing her of sleeping with the taxi driver. The court heard Melville caused problems on a camping trip to France where friends described Ms Worsfold as 'withdrawn'. Ms Worsfold was working at Wrexham Maelor Hospital and also going to university to study for a nursing degree. The prosecutor said that when Melville bought her a car it would have been seen as a 'generous gesture' but he would use it as his own and take the keys. He said she felt 'in fear', adding: 'Her fear was he would approach from fields at the rear of her home.' Ms Worsfold suffered recurring nightmares, anxiety and carried a personal attack alarm, the court heard. In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ms Worsfold said Melville's behaviour left her in fear, caused a general loss of trust and led to anxiety. His victim Caroline Worsfold said in a victim impact statement read to the court that Melville's behaviour left her in fear, caused a general loss of trust and led to anxiety (stock image) Sion ap Mihangel, defending, called it 'a sad case for all concerned' and 'not a typical' one. He said Melville had had to pay privately for his 'treatment' abroad and when he returned to the UK there was no support. Mr ap Mihangel said: 'He does not have close family contacts. He does not speak to his mother. 'The reaction he expected once he had gone through the operation was not what he expected. 'Then things spiralled and he was clutching at someone who did not feel the same.' Melville is still self-medicating with testosterone. 'He's still going through the process. There's another operation he has to go through,' said his barrister. But, after a long career in the police force, he has a new job with a different employer. The judge Her Honour Judge Nicola Jones pointed out that Melville had denied using controlling and coercive behaviour at first. He even 'turned the tables' and accused his victim of such actions. In fact, the judge said he had caused his victim 'serious alarm or distress'. But he eventually admitted the charge which spared Ms Worsfold the need to go through the intimacies of their relationship at a trial. He had served his community in the police force and had had an 'exemplary character'. The judge ordered Melville, now of Rainford, St Helens, to do 30 days of rehabilitation activity to build his 'emotional resilience'. She also imposed a 10-year restraining order banning Melville from contacting or approaching Ms Worsfold directly or indirectly, including on social media. He is also banned from visiting an address in Buckley or the Wrexham Maelor Hospital unless it's to the Accident & Emergency Department for a medical reason. Finally, the judge told Melville: 'Put this relationship behind you.' A Maori lawmaker has been kicked out of New Zealand's parliament for performing a haka while accusing the opposition of inciting racism. Rawiri Waititi, a member of the Maori party whose face is covered in traditional tattoos, rose several times during a debate session on Wednesday in Wellington to oppose what he called 'Maori bashing' from political opponents. After being told to sit down, Waititi performed a haka - a traditional Maori dance often performed at times of conflict - which led to him being expelled. It comes three months after Waititi was kicked out of parliament for refusing to wear a tie - which he referred to as a 'colonial noose' - instead preferring to wear pendant necklace called a hei tiki. TPM and Teanau Tuiono leave the chamber after Rawiri Waititi cut off making point of order about the Houses litigation of race issues the past fortnight. pic.twitter.com/wZJ6tIsVRt Thomas Coughlan (@coughlthom) May 12, 2021 Maori MP Rawiri Waititi was kicked out of New Zealand's parliament after performing a haka (pictured) and accusing opposition parties of 'inciting racism' Rules stating that lawmakers must be in 'business dress' including neck ties have since been changed to allow men to go without. Waititi's most-recent protest came as parliament debated plans for a Maori Health Authority to improve healthcare for indigenous New Zealanders. The plans are supported by Jacinda Ardern's Labour, but the opposition Nationals have accused her of pursuing a 'separatist agenda' and of creating a two-tier system that treats people differently based on race. Mr Waititi rose several times during Wednesday's debate session to oppose that line of argument, accusing the Nationals of 'bashing Maori to gain votes' in what he said amounted to 'racist rhetoric'. Mr Waititi's protest came amid a debate on healthcare for indigenous New Zealanders, during which he argued that only indigenous peoples could speak out on the issues Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer also tried to raise a question about what she called 'racist' attacks on Maori, but was shut down. Moments before he was ejected, Mr Waititi told lawmakers: 'When it comes to views of indigenous rights and indigenous peoples, those views must be from those indigenous peoples for the indigenous rights of our people. 'They can't be determined by people who are not indigenous. 'If we find this thing, this attitude acceptable in this House a constant barrage of insults to tangata whenua [Maori people] then I find this House in disrepute.' Told to sit down by speaker Trevor Mallard, Mr Waititi instead stepped into the aisle alongside Ms Ngarewa-Packer and performed a short haka. Mallard then ordered Mr Waititi out of the house. He was followed by Ms Ngarewa-Packer who gave a pukana - a wild facial expression that often accompanies haka dances - as a parting shot. Mr Waititi was previously kicked out of parliament for refusing to wear a tie, preferring to wear a traditional pendant necklace called a hei tiki (pictured) Green MP Teanau Tuiono, also a Maori, then walked out of the house in solidarity. But Waititi's latest stance isn't supported by all Maori lawmakers. After Waititi left, Labour Party Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis pointed out the relatively small support base for the Maori Party. 'Don't ever think that a party that gets 1.2% of the vote actually represent the views of Maoridom,' Davis told lawmakers. Speaking outside parliament, Mr Waititi added: 'This has incited racism with venom towards Maori, because of this type of propaganda and rhetoric we won't stand for it any more. 'The opposition leader has been constantly bashing Maori to gain the votes of her Pekeha [non-Maori New Zealander] constituents. That's all it is.' A gay Iranian man has been reportedly beheaded by his brother and two cousins after they discovered he had been exempted from military service due to his sexuality. Alireza Fazeli Monfared, 20, was allegedly taken by the three male members of his family to the village of Borumi, western Iran, and murdered. Afterwards, the three killers allegedly called Alireza's mother to tell them they had 'finished him off'. Alireza had applied for an exception from the compulsory Iranian military service for being gay so that he could leave the country and move to Turkey to live with his partner Aghil Abyat, according to 6Rang, the Iranian Lesbian and Transgender Network. But when the exception card arrived at his home in the city of Ahvaz, Alireza was not home and instead his half-brother is said to have discovered his sexual orientation after finding the card. Alireza Fazeli Monfared, 20, (left, right) was allegedly taken by the three male members of his family to the village of Borumi, western Iran, and murdered Victim: Alireza Fazeli Monfared At 7pm on Tuesday Alireza spoke to his mother on the phone for the last time, Abyat told IranWire. Shortly afterwards, his half-brother arrived at Alireza's home and said their father needed to see him and drove him to Borumi during the night. It was here that his sibling and two male cousins allegedly murdered and beheaded Alireza, before dumping his body by a palm tree. 'There was no news of him until Wednesday, when Alireza's stepbrother called his mother and told her: 'We've finished him off',' Abyat said. 'In other works, he confessed to murdering Alireza,' Abyat claimed. 'They found his body under some palm trees. It's now with the medical examiner and his mother has been hospitalised because of the shock.' Three men - believed to be Alireza's half-brother and two cousins by Iranian media - were arrested and they are facing trial for the murder. Alireza had a difficult relationship with his half-brother who would often complain to their father about how Alireza looked and how he dressed, saying he 'dishonoured' and 'shamed' their family. Abyat said that before his death, Alireza had plans to sell his mobile phone and travel to Turkey to join him. BBC Persian reported on Friday that they had acquired leaked audio recordings in which Alireza said he his life is 'threatened by the family'. In Iran, gay men are excepted from military service under Paragraph 7 Sectopm 5 of the military's bylaws. Therefore, any mention of this paragraph in an exception card - which will have been the case for Alireza - would indicate that the recipient is gay. Alireza had applied for an exception from the compulsory Iranian military service for being gay so that he could leave the country and move to Turkey to live with his partner Aghil Abyat 'Alireza's killing as a result of his sexual orientation being stated on his military service [exemption] card has once again provided proof for our warning several years ago about the risks caused by the military service exemption process for gay Iranian men and underlines the need for legislation to prevent these safety risks,' the NGO 6 Rang said in a statement. The group had previously warned in 2016 that the exemption process allows police, educational institutions, employers and relatives to 'identify gay men with only one glance at the military service exemption card'. Scores of activists and friends of Alireza have paid tribute to him since learning of his death. 'Nothing is more difficult than to expect to see somebody you love in a few days, and suddenly you hear he is dead,' said Abyat. 'Nothing is more difficult than to never be able to see him, or hear his voice, forever. This is an excruciating pain that will remain in my heart to the end of time.' Human rights activist Gissou Nia tweeted: 'RIP Alireza Fazeli Monfared. Brutally killed and disposed of by his family because of his sexuality. 'Cultural attitudes in society towards homosexuality are a literal life or death problem. What compounds the problem is when the laws of a state do not provide any protection.' 'LGBTQI persons face abuse at home but legal protection against abusive family members is slim,' Nia added. 'The law gives parents extensive discretion in disciplining their children. Filing a complaint against abusive family can further endanger LGBTQI persons, so abuse is often unreported.' The Centre for Human Rights in Iran has condemned the killing, describing it as a 'despicable murder'. 'The despicable murder of Alireza Fazeli Mondared, 20, in Iran - reportedly for his sexual orientation - is the result of the Iranian government continuing to perpetuate falsities about homosexuality,' the NGO said in a statement. 'No human should be discriminated against or harmed for their sexual orientation.' In Iran, homosexuality is punishable by execution. It is thought that thousands of gays have been executed in the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. As a result, homosexuals are often targeted in 'honour killings' as their families believe they have brought shame to them. A 2020 6Rang report found that six in 10 gay people in Iran have been assaulted by members of their family, while almost 50 per cent have been publicly sexually assaulted. Coronavirus can cause erectile dysfunction months after a man has recovered from the illness, according to a study. Miami University scientists scanned the penis tissue of two recovered Covid patients aged 65 and 71 who were struggling to get erections. And, in what they claimed was a world-first, they found the virus was still lingering in there more than six months after they had been ill. One of the men was seriously ill and admitted to hospital but the other only had mild Covid, suggesting anyone infected may be at risk. Experts not involved in the study said it was the first evidence that Covid had been found in the penis. The virus is known to be able to damage blood vessels and internal organs, and this research suggests it can block blood flow to the genitals, making it difficult to have sex. It may do this by triggering swelling and dysfunction in the linings of blood vessels that run through the body and into the penis. Dr Ranjith Ramasamy, who carried out the small study, said: 'We found that men who previously did not complain of erectile dysfunction developed pretty severe erectile dysfunction after the onset of Covid infection.' The Covid virus (indicated by the blue arrows) is seen in tissue inside the penis. Scientists zoomed in to 10 nanometers - or 0.000001 of a centimetre - to spot it and said its presence may raise the risk of erectile dysfunction The virus was also spotted in a separate patient. Miami University scientists checked samples from two men with erectile dysfunction who had had Covid for the virus Dr Ramasamy, a urologist at MU, added: 'This suggests that men who develop Covid infection should be aware that ED could be an adverse effect of the virus. 'They should go to a physician if they develop ED symptoms.' The study was likely too small to prove a definitive link between Covid and erectile dysfunction because it only included two men it is not clear whether the virus enters the penis every time someone catches it. And it is also not yet known whether the coronavirus being in the penis was causing the problem or whether it was a side-effect of damage elsewhere in the body. Both of the men were past middle-age and one had high blood pressure and heart disease, which increase the risk of erection problems. They did not have erectile dysfunction before their bout of Covid. HOW COULD COVID CAUSE ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION? More than one in five men who catch Covid may be affected by erectile dysfunction afterwards, estimates suggest. Scientists have suggested several theories to explain why the dysfunction may be happening. The virus - SARS-CoV-2 - is known to cause inflammation, which restricts blood flow. Blood vessels leading to the penis are small and narrow, meaning that any inflammation could impede a man's ability to get an erection. Dr Channa Jayasena, a consultant in reproductive endochronology at Hammersmith Hospital in London, has suggested the issues may also be linked to disruption in hormone levels. The virus can cause levels of testosterone to dip, which in turn could impact a man's sexual arousal. Experts say that anyone suffering from ED after a Covid infection should see their doctor. Advertisement But their tests were compared against samples from two other men who also had ED but had not been infected with the virus. Levels of an enzyme involved in triggering an erection (eNOS) were lower in the Covid patients. The Covid patients also had evidence of dysfunction in their blood vessel linings called endothelial dysfunction while the uninfected men did not. Scientists zoomed in to 100nanometres - about 0.000001 of a centimetre - on the tissue to search for the virus and also carried out PCR tests to detect Covid, which were positive. A medical student working on the study, Eliyahu Kresch, added: 'These latest findings are yet another reason that we should all do our best to avoid Covid. 'We recommend vaccination and to try to stay safe in general.' Professor Allan Pacey, a male fertility expert at Sheffield University, said the study was the first time that the virus had been found in the penis. 'There has been much debate about whether Covid can affect various aspects of the male reproductive system, including the erectile tissue of the penis,' he told MailOnline. 'Last month a small study from Italy showed that men recovering from Covid were six times more likely to suffer with erectile dysfunction. 'This study now provides the first evidence that the virus can be found in the penis, albeit in only two men. 'This is not really a surprise, and should provide another reason why people should continue to wear masks as well as get vaccinated when their turn comes.' The Miami study is not the first one to make the connection between Covid and erectile dysfunction. But in a press release describing the findings, they claimed it was the 'first to demonstrate Covid present in penis tissue long after recovery'. Research in Italy last month found it could happen to one in three men who get the virus. Scientists in Rome asked 100 men who had recovered from Covid, with an average age of 33, whether they were suffering with arousals. As many as 28 per cent said they were. For comparison, the rate was nine per cent among those who didn't catch the virus. Scientists have suggested the virus binding to ACE-2 receptors, which are present in the testes as well as the lungs, could lead to ED. 'One of the devious ways the virus gets into the body is by its spike protein binding to a receptor found at quite high concentrations not only in the lungs but in the reproductive organs,' said Dr Channa Jayasena, a consultant in reproductive endocrinology at Hammersmith Hospital, London. 'When Covid binds to these receptors, they can no longer perform their normal function.' Experts have also pointed to inflammation restricting blood flow as another possible cause, and to lower testosterone levels in those recovering from an infection. The Miami University study was published in the World Journal of Men's Health. An NYPD transit cop charged with murder of his eight-year-old broke down after a recording of the 911 call he made on the day of the boy's killing was played in court. The chilling emergency call on January 17 last year was played at a pre-trial hearing in Suffolk County Supreme Court on Tuesday. Michael Valva, 41, has been charged in the murder of his son, Thomas, who was allegedly starved, beaten and locked outside their Long Island home. He died of hypothermia after sleeping in an unheated garage on a freezing night on January 17. Valva and his fiancee, 42-year-old Angela Pollina, have been charged with second-degree murder in Thomas' death. Michael Valva breaks down and cries during his hearing in Criminal Court in Riverhead, New York on May 11 Michael Valva, 41, has been charged in the murder of his son, Thomas, who was allegedly starved, beaten and locked outside their Long Island home. Thomas Valva is pictured above Valva's fiancee, 42-year-old Angela Pollina, has been charged with second-degree murder in Thomas' death. There has been no trial date set Valva was given custody of Thomas and his brother in September 2017 despite desperate pleas from Thomas' biological mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva, and concerns from school officials that they were being abused. During the 911 call, Valva can be heard telling an operator that his son had 'stopped breathing,' before saying: 'He fell down and banged his head.' 'I don't know if he's breathing or not His heart stopped. He banged his head pretty good.' The chilling emergency call on January 17 last year was played at a pre-trial hearing in Suffolk County Supreme on Tuesday Authorities were dispatched to the home where Thomas had been living at about 9.40am on January 17, 2020 after his father said the boy had fallen in the driveway and lost consciousness while running for the school bus Michael Valva listens to the judge during his hearing in Criminal Court in Riverhead, New York. May 11 'His belly is filling up, like it's filling up with air.' The operator responds: 'Are you sure he's not breathing?' to which he replies: 'I don't know, to be honest.' As emergency responders arrived at the scene, Valva can be heard saying: 'He banged his head. 'He was OK. I got him dressed.' According to Valva's lawyer John LoTurco, it was the first time Valva had heard the 911 call. 'That was an emotional moment for him and I imagine for Angela as well,' the lawyer said. Valva was given custody of Thomas and his brother in September 2017 despite desperate pleas from Thomas' biological mother, Justyna Zubko-Valva, and concerns from school officials that they were being abused. Valva's house is pictured above Thomas was one of six children in Mike and Angela's care who were living at the home at the time the little boy died. Thomas' brothers have since been placed in the custody of their mother while Pollina's daughters were placed in the custody of their biological fathers Valva is still facing 25 years to life in prison for the death of his son if he is found guilty. Authorities were dispatched to the home where Thomas had been living at about 9.40am on January 17, 2020 after his father said the boy had fallen in the driveway and lost consciousness while running for the school bus. Responding officers found Valva performing CPR on Thomas in the basement. The little boy was rushed to Long Island Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead. Prosecutors allege he had been forced to sleep in the garage, despite it being 19F outside, with no blankets. Thomas' cause of death was determined to be hypothermia. Angela Pollina is presented for indictment by the Grand Jury, for second-degree murder of Thomas Valva, 8, at Suffolk County Court, in Riverhead, New York. February 6, 2020 According to police, cameras and microphones that had been set up in Mike Valva's home captured audio of him and Angela taunting Thomas as he froze to death. The audio files allegedly recorded the couple discussing the fact that Thomas was suffering from hypothermia, had been washed with cold water, couldn't walk and was 'face-planting' on the concrete. They laughed as they said 'he's hypothermic' and that he had 'face-planted' the floor. Pollina remarked: 'You know why he's falling?'. Valva replied: 'Because he's cold.... boo f*****g hoo'. Thomas' death has since prompted an investigation into the social services department and how it dealt with abuse allegations against the couple and the children who lived with them. A separate task force will examine how the department handles cases of children with developmental disabilities. Following his death, Thomas' brothers were placed in the custody of their mother. Pollina's daughters were placed in the custody of their biological fathers. Air France and Airbus are to face a manslaughter trial for the 2009 Rio to Paris crash in which 228 people including five British passengers died, Appeal Court judges ruled today. The decision on Wednesday follows a 12-year fight for justice by families of those who lost their lives in the worst air disaster in French history. Flight AF447 plunged into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, after pilots panicked and failed to deal with malfunctioning equipment during a storm. Air France and Airbus are to face a manslaughter trial for the 2009 Rio to Paris crash in which 228 people including five British passengers died. Pictured: rescuers retrieve debris from the jet in the Atlantic Ocean Prosecutors accused Air France of failing to provide sufficient training in how pilots should react in case of malfunction. Pictured, Captain Marc Dubois (left), and co-pilot Pierre-Cedric Bonin Undersea equipment including remote controlled submarines took two years to find the full wreckage of the Airbus A330 at a depth of 13,000 feet. An inquiry led to investigators concluding that the crash was caused by Air France pilot error, and technical problems with the Airbus. Despite this, judges initially dismissed the case against both the airline and the plane manufacturer in August 2019. 'This decision was reversed today,' said a legal source at the Paris Appeal Court. 'Subject to another appeal, the companies will go on trial for negligence and recklessness leading to manslaughter.' Since the ruling, Airbus has indicated it will appeal. Flight AF447 plunged into the Atlantic on June 1, 2009, after pilots panicked and failed to deal with malfunctioning equipment during a storm The decision on Wednesday follows a 12-year fight for justice by families of those who lost their lives in the worst air disaster in French history. Pictured: Air France memorial Prosecutors accused Air France of failing to provide sufficient training in how pilots should react in case of malfunction of the Pitot tubes, which enable pilots to monitor their speed. The pilots provably reacted incorrectly when the plane stalled after the speed sensors froze over. Before today's ruling, Daniele Lamy, a campaigner for victims' families, said: 'We are not seeking revenge but justice for the dignity of families and victims.' Ms Lamy said that 'impunity' for those responsible 'may lead to another catastrophe.' France's BEA crash investigation agency said in a detailed chronology of the crash that commands from the controls of the 32-year-old junior pilot on board had pulled the nose up as the aircraft became unstable and generated an audible stall warning. Among those who died on the Airbus was Graham Gardner, an oil worker from Gourock, in Renfrewshire (left), and Arthur Coakley, an engineer from Whitby in North Yorkshire (right) This action went against the normal procedures which call for the nose to be lowered in response to an alert that the plane was about to lose lift or 'stall'. Among those who died on the Airbus was Graham Gardner, an oil worker from Gourock, in Renfrewshire, and Arthur Coakley, an engineer from Whitby in North Yorkshire. Alexander Bjoroy, an 11-year-old boarder at Clifton College in Bristol, died, as did PR executive Neil Warrior. Other victims included three young Irish doctors, returning from a two-week holiday in Brazil. Since the disaster, pilot training on dealing with technical breakdown is said to have been stepped up by Air France. A soldier who grabbed the bottoms of two female colleagues while they were on parade to 'lighten the mood' has been found guilty of sexual assault and jailed for two months. 'Smirking' Trooper Phillip Ewart, 29, of the Household Cavalry pinched the women within minutes of each other as they stood by his side at Windsor Barracks. When asked to explain squeezing the women's behinds, he told Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire that it was just 'banter' and he would have done it to a male colleague as well. But after deliberating for two and a half hours, the court martial board found Tpr Ewart guilty of two charges of sexual assault. Sentencing him to 60 days in military prison, Assistant Judge Advocate General Alistair McGrigor told Tpr Ewart: 'You said there was no element of sexual intention but the court found there was an element of sexual gratification on your part.' In a statement one of his victims told the court that the incident had affected the way she works because other troopers 'judge her.' She said: 'I think that because of this I cannot work in the same way I did before. I also think that other troopers will think and talk differently around me. 'I am worried this will happen again and there is nothing I can do to prevent it from happening again.' Trooper Phillip Ewart (pictured arriving at Bulford Military Court) of the Household Cavalry was found guilty of two charges of sexual assault Defending, Chris Jenkins labelled Tpr Ewart's behaviour 'ill judged' and described him as an 'idiot'. Mr Jenkins said: 'Trooper Ewart behaved like an idiot, (the acts) were done as an ill-judged foolish attempt to make a nuisance of himself out on parade.' He added: 'He thought because his guy friends would think it funny then they probably would too. It is because he is an idiot that he thought that would be transferred on to his female friends.' Mr Jenkins said Tpr Ewart felt 'sick to his stomach' when the women did not take his actions as a joke. Bulford Military Court had heard that all three troopers were serving in the training wing of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment when the incident happened. Referred to as 'trusted guardians of the monarch,' the regiment is one of the most senior in the British Army. The court martial heard the troopers had been called out on Sunday morning parade, but as they lined up, one of Tpr Ewart's victims - who cannot be named for legal reasons - told the court he grabbed her behind. 'I did not feel explicitly comfortable at first but we were on parade so I thought I will deal with the matter afterwards,' she said. Tpr Ewart (pictured arriving at Bulford Military Court) denied groping the women and claimed he had just 'tapped' them 'He shrugged his shoulders when he smirked and then faced the front away from me. A few minutes later he did the exact same thing to (the other trooper).' His second victim said: 'I felt really shocked and disgusted which is why I directly faced the left and asked what just happened. 'I asked it directly to Trooper Ewart and I said it quite aggressively because of how I felt and no one said anything. 'I was just in shock and so much emotion came over me - I was really overwhelmed - that I just burst out crying.' A witness, Trooper Monja Danischewsky, told the court Tpr Ewart quipped after the incident that he was 'only trying to lighten the mood'. The court heard the soldier had later sent the second woman a Whatsapp message after the incident to apologise and explain that he needed to remember he did not work in a male dominated environment. In court, Tpr Ewart denied groping the women and claimed he had just 'tapped' them. He told the hearing he thought he had a friendship with both of them which meant it was okay for him to touch their bottoms and that his male colleagues had a 'similar sort of banter.' The trooper also told the court there was no specific reason for one of the incidents other than 'she was there.' When asked to explain his behaviour, he said: '(I was) just being an idiot to be honest. It was a joke taken the wrong way. Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard that all three troopers were serving in the training wing of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment when the incident happened 'It was nothing more than a brief tap and there was no sexual motivation behind it at all.' He added: 'It was just a wrong time, wrong place, heat of the moment thing. There was no specific reason other than she was there. 'It could have been a male colleague. There was no difference between male and female at all.' Tpr Ewart went on to say it was due the 'nature of the friendship' he believed he had with both of them that he thought it was okay to grab their bottoms. He said: 'I would not have dreamt of doing that to someone I had just met five minutes ago. 'I (did it) as (I would) with my male colleagues mucking around and having the same kind of banter.' Prosecuting, Sol Hartley challenged Tpr Ewart on his claim that he did it for a joke. 'If this was just for amusement you could have tapped them on the back or on the shoulder couldn't have you?' he asked. 'You could have flicked their ear but you did not flick their ear you grabbed their buttocks and you did that because it was sexual and degrading for those two didn't you?' A woman has been charged after allegedly walking down a busy street in Sydney while carrying a burning Israeli flag in protest at escalating violence in the Middle East. Police were conducting patrols at Lakemba in Sydney's south-west on Tuesday night when they were alerted to an unauthorised protest of about 200 people in a reserve on The Boulevarde. Officers contacted the organiser to assist with the safe facilitation of the protest, but about 9:30pm spotted a woman allegedly weaving through traffic while holding a burning Israeli flag. Police took the flag off her, and as it was being extinguished the woman allegedly ran from officers. The woman (pictured above) caught the attention of police after waving a burning Israeli flag in Sydney's south-west on Tuesday night With police (pictured) attempting to calm the situation, the woman tried to flee the scene in Lakemba, in Sydney's south-west - she was later charged She was detained a short time later before being issued with a move-on directive. On Wednesday, the woman, 48, was issued with a court attendance notice for behaving in an offensive manner in or near a public place and wilfully preventing free passage of a person or vehicle. She is due to appear at Bankstown Local Court on July 8. The protest comes as tensions flare in the Middle East, sparking the worst violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2019. The Gaza health ministry said 23 Palestinians, including nine children, have been killed and 107 wounded by Israeli strikes in the enclave since clashes surged on Monday. Israel disputes the account, saying it had killed at least 15 fighters from Hamas - the dominant force in Gaza - and allied factions. It said at least six people were reported wounded in southern Israel. Palestinian protesters (pictured) running from stun grenades fired by Israeli security forces outside the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City on May 8 - the situation is threatening to turn into all out war The UK may pull out of plans to buy a million doses of AstraZeneca's experimental Covid antibody drug, it was claimed today. Ministers announced an order for the doses from the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant in November and said the final deal would depend on clinical trial results. But Britain is now considering a U-turn, two sources familiar with negotiations told Bloomberg. The UK's agreement was non-binding and it is having massive success with the vaccine rollout, with two thirds of adults now immunised and deaths and hospital admissions expected to be suppressed by the jabs in any third wave. Officials are reconsidering the possible role of the antibody cocktails, known as monoclonal antibodies, which inject infected patients with the immune cells it would take them weeks to make naturally. Britain is already on a mission to find antiviral drugs to fight the virus at home, with Boris Johnson pledging simple Covid drugs will be available by autumn this year. AstraZeneca's trials in the UK have not yet finished and the results are expected in the coming weeks. The Department for Health and Social Care and AstraZeneca did not respond to comment requests before publication. The UK may pull out of plans to order 1million doses of AstraZeneca's antibody drug, it has been revealed Monoclonal antibodies are lab-produced molecules that mimic human antibodies disease-fighting proteins made by the immune system Monoclonal antibody treatments are different from vaccines because they are used to treat people already ill with the virus rather than protecting them before infection. But treatments based on the disease-fighting proteins, which are more expensive than jabs, have also shown promise in preventing infection. They work by pumping antibodies natural virus-fighting molecules into people to boost their immune system. AstraZeneca's AZD7442 treatment uses an IV drip to infuse a combination of two antibodies into a patient's blood stream. Using two long-acting antibodies (LAABs) is thought to make the treatment better against different strains of the virus. It is developed by harvesting working antibodies from people who have already had coronavirus and cloning them in a lab. A phase III trial on 5,000 people including 1,000 from nine sites in the UK began in November. Speaking at the time, Business Secretary Alok Sharma confirmed Britain had made a preliminary agreement with AstraZeneca for 1million doses pending trial results. He said: 'I am very proud that the UK is the first country in the world to begin this invaluable study, and that a fifth of trial volunteers will be from Britain a testament to our fantastic life sciences sector and the willingness of our people to come forward to help others... 'That is why we have procured 1million doses of AstraZeneca's long-acting antibody treatment if it meets robust safety and effectiveness standards.' Despite the UK reconsidering its order, the US announced an agreement with AstraZeneca in March to increase its order by 500,000 doses, taking its total up to 700,000. There are currently three monoclonal antibody treatments that have been given emergency use authorisation in the US. But there is not yet robust data showing their efficacy against new variants, which have become dominant in many parts of the world. Antibodies are super-specific to the shape of the virus that triggered them, and ones developed to fight the original Wuhan variant, for example, are less effective against the South African, Brazilian or Indian strains of the virus. Monoclonal antibody therapies approved in the US include pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly's bamlanivimab and etesevimab. Another treatment approved by American regulators and made by the firm Regeneron was used on Donald Trump last year during his Covid battle, and may have helped the former President recover. No antibody therapies have so far been approved in the UK, where the only hospital treatments for Covid patients are steroids for people already on ventilators or with dangerously low oxygen levels. NHS doctors can also give hospitalised coronavirus patients arthritis drugs alongside the steroid dexamethasone, which studies have shown can cut the risk of dying by up to half. The treatment is different to a vaccine because it does not train the body to develop immunity and a vaccine can't be used when someone is already sick. Vaccines usually inject someone with a part of the virus so their body can learn how to fight it in a safe environment by being exposed to it for real. The antibody therapy would be limited and would not lead to the body making more of its own antibodies. Monoclonal antibodies are already being used to treat tetanus, Ebola and diphtheria and are described as 'one of the most powerful tools in modern medicine'. A friend of Lady Lavinia Nourse caught her in a 'compromising position' with a young boy in the 1980s, a jury heard today. Lady Lavinia, the widow of a Court of Appeal judge, was caught lounging with the boy's head between her legs, the friend told jurors today. The friend told the court she believed the boy, who was 'not fully clothed', to be 'six or seven years old'. Lady Lavinia, from Newmarket, Suffolk, is on trial at Peterborough's Nightingale court charged with historical sexual abuse in the 1980s. The charges, which all relate to one alleged victim, are five counts of indecently assaulting a boy and 12 counts of indecency with a child. The 77-year-old, who was married to the later Court of Appeal judge Sir Martin Nourse, denies 17 counts of sexually abusing a boy under the age of 12. A court had earlier heard how Sir Martin, who died in 2017, 'may have known' his wife was sexually abusing a young boy, but 'looked the other way'. Lady Lavinia Nourse (pictured outside court yesterday) is on trial at Peterborough's Nightingale court charged with historical sexual abuse Today a friend of Lady Nourse told the court about a weekend that she had visited the defendant in the 1980s and claimed she found her friend in a compromising position with the young complainant. The woman described her discovery as like a 'flash of lightning' but said she never spoke to her friend about it afterwards. She said she was friends with Lady Nourse for 'many decades', after they were introduced by a mutual friend in the 1970s. She said: 'We were friends for many decades. We both had very difficult childhoods, and I swore I would stand by her as much as possible. 'I had been at the house for the weekend, and almost every Saturday and Sunday, Lavinia used to retire after lunch for a rest. 'On this particular day, I was just about to leave to go back to London, so I thought I would just go and say goodbye. Lady Lavinia, from Newmarket, Suffolk, was married to Sir Martin Nourse (pictured), who died in 2017 aged 85 'I didn't knock before I opened the door, I don't know why. I believe these things happen in a particular way, and I suppose it must have been some instinct of mine. 'What I saw, I can only equate to a flash of lightning for an instant everything is very clear and very sharp. 'Lavinia had a dress or some kind of robe on, but her legs were bare and they were around a young boy, of about six or seven years old. 'The boy was between her legs, lying on his side in a motionless position - with his head right up against her genitals. He was not fully clothed, but he did have some sort of garment on, I believe it was a dressing gown or something like that. 'I could not see whether Lavinia had any underwear on I had the impression that she didn't, but I can't confirm. Nothing was happening that I could see, there was no activity between the two of them. 'I backed out immediately and shut the door. I was in a panic, I was just so shaken. It seemed so inappropriate to me, so bizarre, for a woman to be in that position with a child. 'I can't imagine that position for a woman with a child. I find it, quite frankly, extraordinary. 'I had never seen anything like it before. I certainly wouldn't have been in a position like that myself, nor anybody else I know. The whole layout of the situation just seemed to me very strange.' The woman said she never mentioned it to Lady Nourse afterwards but there was then a period of about two years where she did not see or speak to Lady Nourse or her husband. She added she spoke to a psychiatrist about what she allegedly saw. Earlier jurors in the trial had heard from one of Lady Lavinia's alleged victims who claimed Sir Martin, who died in 2017, was aware of the abuse. Jurors were today played a recording of a conversation which the alleged victim had around three years ago with a woman who knew him as a child. The complainant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, claimed that Lady Lavinia's husband had 'looked the other way' when the alleged abuse took place. Referring to the widow, he added: 'You know she screwed me up'. Lady Lavinia Nourse, pictured circa Spring 1997. Lady Lavinia and Sir Martin Nourse married in 1972 Giving evidence today, the man said he 'carried the shame throughout my childhood' and had therapy following nine years of alleged abuse in the 1980s. 'I realised the shame I carried for this wasn't mine to bear,' he said. 'It belonged to that woman sitting over there [the defendant], who abused me throughout my childhood. It's her shame.' The man added that when he confronted Lady Lavinia years later, in 2018, she tried to lay the blame on him for instigating it. He said: 'The last thing I ever wanted to do was to go to the police in respect of these allegations. I wanted her to take responsibility for her actions, I wanted her to beg for my forgiveness. 'She did none of those things the first thing she said was it was my fault. She has subsequently adopted the position that she doesn't remember anything. So I went to the police. 'I cannot accept that she has no memory of sexually abusing me between the ages of about three or four, up to the age of 11 or 12.' The court heard that Lady Lavinia had also bought the alleged victim a copy of Penthouse magazine in 1985 containing nude pictures of singer Madonna. She allegedly made the purchase for him when he was a boy after he asked her if he could have a copy. Jurors heard from a woman well known to the victim, who went with him for moral support in January 2018 to confront Lady Lavinia. The woman said: 'We went to see her so he could speak to her about what happened. She was shocked, I don't think she was expecting it. The defendant claims that the alleged incidents of abuse did not happen, Jennifer Knight QC, prosecuting, said 'She seemed to be blaming him for what happened that's how I interpreted it. To me, it seemed like she was remembering stuff that had happened, but she was clear in her mind that it was his responsibility, not hers.' The man added that, years after the alleged abuse, he experienced difficulties in his relationship with his wife, which led him to tell her. 'It's fair to say the root of my problems is I was sexually abused,' he said. Speaking in court today, the complainant's ex-wife recalled feeling 'physically ill' when he told her what had allegedly happened to him in childhood. The woman, who is separated from the man, described him as having 'a temper' and said the issues in their marriage got worse after they had children of their own. She said: 'Things were tricky in our relationship. There were issues throughout, but it definitely got worse as we had children.' The complainant's ex-wife recalled him getting 'very angry' with her on more than one occasion, when she tried to bring their young son into their bed when he was having trouble sleeping. She said: 'Our son was in a travel cot in the same room as us, and he woke up in the night and wouldn't settle. I went to bring him into our bed so I could try and comfort him, and my husband got very angry with me. 'It was really horrible. Nothing like that had ever happened before, I had no idea why he reacted in that way. I felt disgusted, I felt angry, I was very sad.' Shortly after the incident, the pair began having couples' therapy. But after the birth of another child, the woman said she noticed a further deterioration in their relationship and recalled an incident where he put his hand around her throat in order to stop her from bringing their son into bed with them. She said: 'There was one particular night where our son was crying and having trouble sleeping, so I went into his room, and when he wouldn't settle I thought I would bring him in with the two of us. 'I was in the hallway and my husband came out of our room, and when he saw me he out his hand around my throat to stop me from going into our bedroom.' Not long after, she said she had a conversation with her husband and told him she did not feel their marriage was sustainable, she told the court. She said: 'During this conversation, I told him I felt our marriage was over. 'He said he would go back to our couples' therapist and tell her something he had never told anybody before. 'It sounds completely dire, and frankly I was terrified to know what he would say after that. 'I asked him what he was talking about, and he couldn't make eye contact with me. 'He said, "what if I told you there was abuse of a sexual nature in my childhood". 'It was horrible. I felt like I was physically unwell, like the room was fading in and out.' The court heard that Lady Lavinia previously had a PR company which had organised the premieres of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express and Phantom Of The Opera, and organised the Queen's 60th birthday celebrations. Lavinia Nourse yesterday arrived at Knights Chamber where she is charged with 17 counts of sexually abusing a boy under the age of 12 Lady Lavinia was first interviewed by officers in 2019. The defendant claims that the alleged incidents of abuse did not happen. Lady Lavinia and Sir Martin Nourse married in 1972 and had two children together. The couple moved to the Grade-II listed Dullingham House in Newmarket, Suffolk, in 1994. The 18th-century manor was listed for sale in June 2018 for 2.75million. The pair were described by The Telegraph as 'gregarious' and often threw soirees at their country estate with friends. Sir Martin was born in Cambridge in 1932. His father was a GP and his maternal grandfather was Sir Charles Henry Sargant, a High Court judge in Chancery and a Lord Justice of Appeal. Inspired by his mother's father, he went on to attend Winchester College before going on to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge after two years' national service. In a distinguished career spanning decades, he specialised in the Commercial Court and Chancery Division at the Court of Appeal, and retired in 2006 but continued to sit in the court part-time. One of his most notable cases took place in 1979, when he gave the Inland Revenue permission to sue the estate of the late Selfridges billionaire Sir Charles Clore. The trial, which is set to last two weeks, continues. A small aircraft crashed into a minister's house in Mississippi Tuesday night, killing the pastor and all three people in the plane. According to The Christian Post, a Mitsubishi M-2B-60 crashed into the home of Gerry Standley, the assistant pastor of Wayside Holy Temple church. The pilot was identified as the 67-year old Louis Provenza, while the passengers include the 23-year old Anna Calhoun and two-year old Harper Provenza. The pastor's wife, daughter and grandson were able to get out of the house which caught fire. They only suffered minor injuries. Miranda Williams set up a GoFundMe account to help the Standleys pay for the funeral, bills and replacement of the belongings lost in the fire. Williams said in the fundraiser page that the minister and his wife just celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary last month. "Gerry was an Assistant Pastor for his Church and also worked for Warren Paving full time, to help provide for their family. Melinda is the Division Manager for Hattiesburg Police Department's 911 Communications Center," she added. Gerry's niece, Charlisha, also organized a fish fry on Friday to raise money for her uncle's family. "Even though I am hurting, I'm still trying to do the best I can to help my family because we need it," she said. Cobrin Varnado, Gerry's brother, stated that the pastor loved everyone and was loved by all, too. "We can't replace him. We can't do what he did, but his young brothers, his sons, his nephews, we can come together and uphold the family like he would. He was a remarkable man. I admire him so much just from his relationship with God, his relationship with his wife, his family. He connected with everyone. Everyone loved him, he loved everyone. It's going to be tough to be without him," Varnado shared. To honor his memory, the family and friends of the minister will gather on Saturday afternoon for a candlelight vigil and balloon release. Those who would want to support the Standleys in this time of need can donate to the GoFundMe page Miranda created. Other casualties The pilot was a neurosurgeon at United Regional Physician Group. "We are so very saddened about the loss of Dr. Louis Provenza. He has touched the lives of so many and will be greatly missed," the medical group stated. Calhoun was a biology student at Midwestern State University in Texas. The people in the flight were traveling to the city for a graduation ceremony of a family member at University of Southern Mississippi (USM). "My heart breaks for our student and her family, and for our community members and their family," USM President Rodney D. Bennett said. The cause of the crash has yet to be determined. The investigation is handled by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), Hattiesburg American reported. NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson revealed that the plane took off from Wichita Falls and was preparing for landing at Bobby L. Chain Municipal Airport when it crashed at 11:22 p.m. in Hattiesburg on Tuesday. Authorities were reportedly not aware of any distress call from the Mitsubishi aircraft but air traffic recordings have yet to be reviewed. A knife-wielding sex attacker has been jailed after his brave schoolgirl victim fought him off then took the picture that sent him down for nearly 14 years at court. The courageous 15-year-old fought off Nathan Rawson, 25, after he forced her into bushes at knife-point as she walked across fields in Leeds, West Yorkshire. The teen suffered a serious cut to her hand during the struggle but had the presence of mind to use her mobile to take pictures of her attacker, which led to him being brought to justice. The youngster said she feared Rawson was about to 'murder her' as she recalled how she fought for her life that day at court. Rawson was jailed for more than 13 years after pleading guilty to a string of earlier offences, including kidnapping, unlawful wounding and two counts of burglary. The quick-thinking schoolgirl managed to take this photo of Nathan Rawson after he had forced her into a bush at knife-point in Leeds Nathan Rawson is pictured running away from his victim, 15, after she fought him off and took his picture Leeds Crown Court heard Rawson targeted the girl as she walked across fields near to Torre Close, Burmantofts, on February 15, 2019. The victim was listening to music on her headphones when he walked up to her and grabbed her by the waist. He then showed the girl a knife and ordered her to go with him. Rawson forced her to go into bushes with him then pushed her shoulders downwards. Fearing she was going to be killed, the girl grabbed hold of the knife when she saw the handle of the blade sticking out of his clothing. There was a struggle and the teenager cut her hand on the weapon but managed to take it from him and ran. She took out her mobile phone to call police as she fled but Rawson chased after her demanding she return the knife. But the quick-thinking teenager used her phone to take pictures of Rawson, who was later identified after investigating officers used these same images. Nathan Rawson, 25, was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison after he admitted to a string of offences including kidnapping, unlawful wounding and burglary Rawson ran off and the victim ran to a street where she called an ambulance and asked residents for help. The victim retraced her steps from the incident as she returned to the crime scene with a detective who filmed her as she described her ordeal. The footage was to be used at Rawson's trial but was played in court at his sentencing hearing after he admitted responsibility for the attack. He was given an extended prison term of 13 years and eight months after being told he represents a serious public danger. Investigating officers were able to identify Rawson (shown) from the pictures taken by the 'plucky' teenager after she was attacked During filming, the girl told the officer: 'I went with him and did what he said. 'My knees were shaking really badly. I dropped my bag and kept on walking. 'While we were walking I asked him not to hurt me and he said he wouldn't do anything. 'I didn't know what his intentions were.' The victim then showed the officer the area where Rawson forced her to go into the bushes. She continued: 'That's when I saw the handle of the knife and thought 'I've got to do something now'. 'I grabbed the knife and started pulling. 'I managed to snatch it out of his hand and that's when he started to back off a bit. 'After that I ran back up from where I came.' The youngster continued to provide a commentary of the terrifying events, adding: 'A couple of seconds later he came back up. 'He was standing there and asked me to give him his knife back and I said 'no'. 'I realised I had my phone in my right hand and quickly managed to take a picture of him. 'He told me not to take a picture of him and started running off.' Julian Jones, prosecuting, said Rawson was quickly identified as a suspect when officers recognised him from the images the girl had taken. He has a previous conviction for sexually assaulting a woman after stalking her through the streets in a similar offence committed in February 2016. Rawson denied the offences and went on to commit burglaries in the Burley area of Leeds in June and August of 2019 while on bail. Both burglaries involved him breaking into properties in the middle of the night as victims were asleep in bed. In the first offence he stole computer and electrical equipment worth 1,100 from a house on Hessle View. The victim later found the stolen equipment for sale at an exchange store. It was discovered that Rawson's then girlfriend, Sophie Sedgwick, had sold the stolen items. Rawson also broke into a house on Stanmore Grove as the woman who lived there was in bed. A bank card was stolen which was used by Sedgwick to buy items at a shop. Rawson pleaded guilty to kidnapping, unlawful wounding, committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence, possession of an offensive weapon and two counts of burglary. Rawson must serve a custodial sentence of eight years and eight months, of which he must spend at least two-thirds in prison before he is eligible to apply to the parole board for release. He must then spend a further five years on licence. Sentencing, The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Guy Kearl QC said: 'There can be no doubt that this was a terrifying incident for her, as it was for the victim in the 2016 incident. 'It seems to me you had clearly planned this attack, going out in the morning with a knife. 'You knew the location where you would take her. This was not something that was done by chance, nor was it opportunistic.' Sedgwick, who appeared in the dock beside her former partner, pleaded guilty to two offences of handling stolen goods and fraud. The court heard Rawson was living with Sedgwick at Nutting Grove Terrace, Farnley, when he committed the offences. Taryn Turner, mitigating for Rawson, said: 'Nothing I say on behalf of the defendant is intended to downplay the effect that this would have had.' Ms Turner said her client maintains that his intention was to rob the teenager of her phone to fund his use of cocaine. The barrister added: 'She was a plucky individual who saw him off. 'He didn't follow her and he left the scene. He knows a significant custodial sentence must follow.' Dozens of dogs have burned to death after Molotov cocktails were used to set fire to a shelter for abandoned pets in Russia. More than 30 dogs - mostly elderly and infirm - were killed in the blaze which began around 2am at the shelter in Yekaterinburg, a city near the Ural Mountains. Owner Galina Volkova, who lives at the shelter, said she battled through thick smoke and managed to save around 30 dogs - but was unable to rescue others before the building was overcome by flames. More than 30 mostly elderly and infirm dogs have died after a shelter in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg was attacked with Molotov cocktails overnight The shelters' owners, who live there alongside the animals, said they battled through smoke and flames to save around 30 dogs but the rest perished before they could be helped Ms Volkova herself needed hospital treatment after repeatedly entering the burning building to help get the animals out. Police are now investigating the blaze as arson, with Ms Volkova's husband Sergei saying bottles filled with gasoline and bolts have been found in the rubble. 'It actually was arson,' said Sergei. I simply (have no words). It smells like gasoline.' Video taken at the scene reveals the shelter going up in a blaze, which also killed a number of goats being kept there. More footage then reveals the charred remains of the building later the same day. A local animals rights group Zoozashchita said: 'It is scary to even think what the animals experienced. 'What kind of person do you need to be to do this? 'We are shocked. Molotov cocktails were found here. 'The worst thing is that the owners of the shelter also live there with the dogs. They too could have died.' Dasha (left) and Nika (right) were among the dogs killed in the fire, which is thought to have started after Molotov cocktails were thrown at the shelter Stepka was one of the dogs who died in the fire at the shelter, which was designed to house pets who had been abandoned by their owners Advertisement The Blackpool Tower Ballroom is one step closer to reopening its doors and welcoming back Strictly Come Dancing after undergoing a 1.1million refurbishment. The iconic ballroom, located in the Grade 1 Listed Blackpool Tower, is hoping to re-open on June 21, providing the Government's latest road-map out of lockdown goes to plan. The venue, which dates back to 1894 and is known by millions as the home to Strictly Come Dancing's annual ballroom special, has undergone the most extensive programme of work and deep clean for more than 60 years. The work has also uncovered some incredibly rare and unusual finds all discovered in the angel figures adorning the ballroom ceiling. These have included newspapers dating back to 1911, old cigarette packs which would be museum pieces today and even an old walking stick, believed to date back to the early fifties. Last year, BBC's Strictly Come Dancing cancelled its annual Blackpool special due to the Covid pandemic. The iconic Blackpool Tower ballroom is one step closer to being reopened after an extensive 1.1million refurbishment During the work, the team uncovered historic newspaper cuttings and cigarette packets behind fibrous ornate plaster work Pictured: Fibrous plasterer Lucas Withey working on the ornate ceiling during the restoration of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom Strictly usually travels to Blackpool for one weekend towards the middle of the series in November, with the remaining celebrity couples getting the chance to perform in the legendary Tower Ballroom. Taking advantage of the lockdown, a team, including some of the most highly skilled craftsmen in the country dedicated more than 21,000 hours, over a period of six months to restore the historic venue. Workers each climbed an average of 85 flights of scaffolding daily to restore the famous Blackpool Tower Ballroom to its original glory. The team has discovered signatures under the murals that adorn the ornate plasterwork ceiling showing the last time anyone was in this space was in 1957. These historic works took place following a fire in the building which caused severe damage to the ballroom. At the time, these works were estimated to cost over half a million pounds and took 17 months to complete. Strictly usually travels to Blackpool for a weekend towards the middle of the series in November, with the remaining celebrity couples getting the chance to perform in the legendary Tower Ballroom but it was cancelled last season due to coronavirus. Pictured: Alex Scott MBE and Neil Jones performing at the Tower Ballroom in 2019 during the show's last visit to the venue The venue, which dates back to 1894 and is located in the Grade 1 listed Blackpool Tower (pictured), has undergone the most extensive programme of work and deep clean for more than 60 years after receiving funding for works from Historic England The work was led by Hayles and Howe, specialists in ornamental plaster work and scagliola. It has been made possible thanks to a lifeline grant of 764,000 as part of the Government's unprecedented 1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, together with funding from Blackpool Council, taking the total investment to 1.1million. The grant, awarded to Blackpool Council by Historic England, has supported the venue to carry out comprehensive repair and restoration work on the ballroom's period plasterwork ceiling. Keith Langton, project manager, said: 'I thought Buckingham Palace had the wow factor which obviously it absolutely did. 'But working here at The Blackpool Tower Ballroom has literally blown me away. This really is something else. 'It is a project I will never forget and perhaps even a project for me to retire on. 'Everyone wants to end their career on a high and I don't think I could get a better high than working at the Ballroom. Project manager Keith Langton, pictured viewing the work, said this was one of the most impressive projects of his career Workers such as specialist painter Peter Baker (pictured) climbed average of 85 flights of scaffolding daily in six month period Pictured: Fibrous plasterer Lucas Withey working on the ornate ceiling during the restoration of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom 'It has been an absolute pleasure and honour!' He has, however, warned of the desperate need to recruit more young craftspeople into what he describes as a 'rare trade.' Keith added: 'We are just not seeing enough young people coming through. 'Fibrous plastering the key trade being used on the refurbishment - is becoming a rare trade and we just cannot allow this to happen. 'Without people being skilled in this way, buildings like this would be forced to close. It is essential more young people take up careers in this sector. 'Literally everywhere I go, in this country and abroad, I make it a priority to pass on as many skills as possible to as many people as possible hopefully inspiring them all along the way!' Detail on the ornate ceiling of the iconic ballroom which is usually host to the Strictly Come Dancing special once a year A team, including some of the most highly skilled craftsmen in the country dedicated more than 21,000 hours to the project This the longest period of time in its history the ballroom has been closed, with the exception of the fire in 1956/7. Historic England has worked closely with the expert team leading the work on site. Tamsin Cooke, Heritage at Risk Projects Officer at Historic England, said: 'It really is incredible to see the work which has gone on here which is exactly as it would have been carried out when the ballroom was built all those years ago, those traditional methods are still being used today. This is a very historical moment for Blackpool. 'This is an extremely rare and precious building. Only one in 40 Listed Buildings are given Grade 1 Listed status. 'Blackpool is a real icon of British seaside. And the ballroom is a real jewel in Blackpool's crown! 'The Culture Recovery Fund grant awarded by Historic England for the repair work has been a great opportunity. The work, led by Hayles and Howe, specialists in ornamental plaster work and scagliola, has also uncovered some incredibly rare and unusual finds all discovered in the angel figures adorning the ballroom ceiling. Pictured: specialist Lucas Withey Pictured: Fibrous plasterer Ethan Brown cleaning sculptures above the stage during the restoration of the Tower Ballroom 'This is a huge grant for Historic England to award but we are extremely excited about the opportunity to make a difference to such a well-known and well-loved location not just for today's visitors but for generations to come. 'It is so important to preserve buildings such as this and a ballroom which dancers and families world-wide enjoy so much!' Kenny Mew, General Manager of The Blackpool Tower, said he cannot wait to re-open the ballroom. He added: 'The works which have been carried out really are something very special. This is a once in a lifetime project that I feel incredibly fortunate to have been involved in. 'We cannot wait to reopen our doors and invite the public to experience the splendour of The Blackpool Tower Ballroom first hand, whether they are taking to the dancefloor, enjoying afternoon tea or simply taking in the incredible surroundings. 'Due to the Coronavirus pandemic the ballroom has now been closed for over 12 months, we are hoping to re-open on June 21, if the Government's continued road map out of lockdown goes to plan!' Culture Minister Caroline Dinenage added: 'The Blackpool Tower Ballroom has been at the heart of British dance for more than a century, annually hosting the Strictly Come Dancing Blackpool special. 'I am delighted that, thanks to the Culture Recovery Fund, the ballroom has been fully restored and is getting ready to reopen and host fantastic dances and events once more.' Strictly Come Dancing will be back with a bang this winter, and is expected to return to Blackpool as part of its 13-show run. The famous dancing competition's annual trip to Blackpool is also on the schedule, after being scrapped last year in light of the coronavirus pandemic. BBC bosses are currently in talks with Strictly staff and professional dancers including Katya Jones, 31, ahead of its nineteenth season. Ghislaine Maxwell's trial will start in November on charges that she recruited teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse over a 10-year period. Jury selection can occur in mid-November and opening statements will begin on November 29, US District Judge Alison J Nathan said. The order was issued a day after prosecutors told the judge that both sides would be ready for trial in November, though defence lawyers preferred it begin on November 8 while prosecutors wanted it to start on November 29. Judge Nathan said jury selection can occur in the week of November 15. Ghislaine Maxwell's trial will start in November on charges that she recruited teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse over a 10-year period. Pictured: Maxwell with Epstein in 2005 The judge recently scrapped a July 12 trial date after defence lawyers complained that sex trafficking charges added in March left them insufficient time to investigate and prepare for trial. Maxwell, 59, has been jailed at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn since last July, when she was arrested at a New Hampshire estate. Judge Nathan has denied bail three times, twice rejecting a 28.5 million dollar (20.1 million) proposed package that would have required Maxwell to remain in a New York City dwelling with 24-hour armed guards. The judge said she believed Maxwell was a risk to flee despite the US citizen's claims that she was willing to renounce her citizenship in the UK and France to prove her willingness to appear for trial. Maxwell's lawyers released a photo of Ghislaine Maxwell with a bruise under her left eye. It is not clear how she got the bruise, but Maxwell told lawyers it might have come from shielding her eyes during the nighttime checks Maxwell has pleaded not guilty to charges that she recruited teenage girls from 1994 to 2004 for Epstein to sexually abuse during encounters sometimes described as sexualised massages. Prosecutors say their case hinges primarily on the evidence of four women who were abused, including two who say they were recruited when they were 14. Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in jail in 2019 before he could face trial in a sex trafficking case in New York Defence lawyers have challenged the charges on numerous grounds, although Judge Nathan has rejected most of them. They have succeeded in severing perjury charges from those alleging sex abuse. Epstein killed himself in August 2019 in a federal Manhattan jail as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. It emerged earlier this month that prison guards are shining a torch into Ghislaine Maxwell's cell every 15 minutes while she sleeps for her own safety. Judges asked prosecutors to explain why the accused madam was being monitored in such a way after the regime was revealed by her lawyer a week ago. Prosecutors told Manhattan federal court Judge Alison Nathan Wednesday that she was on an 'enhanced security schedule'. 'MDC staff conduct flashlight checks every fifteen minutes because the defendant, while not on suicide watch, is on an enhanced security schedule,' prosecutors wrote in a letter. They said it was necessary because of the nature of her charges, the potential stress she faces in a high-profile criminal case and because of a need to ensure her safety in a cell where she is alone. Maxwell, 59, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges over her alleged role in procuring four teenage girls for Epstein to abuse between 1994 and 2004 Earlier this month, Maxwell's lawyers released a photo of Maxwell with a bruise under her left eye. It is not clear how she got the bruise, but Maxwell told lawyers it might have come from shielding her eyes during the nighttime checks. Maxwell, 59, has been held without bail since July on charges alleging she recruited teenage girls from 1994 to 2004 for Epstein to sexually abuse. She has pleaded not guilty. A superseding indictment in March added a fourth teenage girl to the allegations and extended the years of the alleged conspiracy to 2004. British soldiers were more than twice as likely to die during the peak of the Afghanistan War compared with their American counterparts, a study has found. The Costs of War report, commissioned by The Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, analysed the number of casualties suffered by US forces alongside its allies during the Afghanistan War. Despite the number of US fatalities significantly outweighing other nations, in real terms, Brits sent to fight in Afghanistan were more likely to die, the university said. The report's author, Jason Davidson, told the Guardian Americans 'do not fully understand' the sacrifices made by the Allied forces during the Afghanistan War. The damning report follows the recent announcement that US troops are set to withdraw from Afghanistan, 20 years after the initial invasion. A new study has found British forces were more than twice as likely to die at the peak of the Afghanistan War compared to US troops. (Pictured: British Paratroopers from the 3rd Battalion regiment search for weapons in Salavat, Panjawi Province, Afghanistan in 2008) Over the course of two decades, more than 240,000 people have died, millions of refugees have been displaced and over 3,000 allied soldiers lost their lives. The Costs of War is a project that tracks the overall impact of the Afghanistan War, with their latest analysis coming 10 days after US forces started handing strategic bases back to the Afghan Army. Although the Americans suffered a significantly higher total number of fatalities (2,316), comparing the total number of deaths with troop deployment figures by nation shows the UK and Canada suffered significantly higher real term losses. Allied fatalities in Afghanistan (October 2001 to September 2017) Country Number of fatalities As % of Peak Deployment United States 2,316 2.3 per cent United Kingdom 455 4.7 per cent Canada 158 5.4 per cent France 86 2.1 per cent Germany 54 1 per cent Italy 48 1.2 per cent Source: 'The Costs of War to United States Allies Since 9/11', Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs The report's author also conceded that Americans are yet to 'fully understand' the sacrifices made by other NATO countries' forces during the conflict. Mr Davidson said: 'Its something that not only doesnt get attention from those who are critics of the allies. 'It doesnt even get the attention that it deserves from those who are generally cheerleaders for allies, like the current administration. 'I would like to see more American policymaker acknowledgment and discussion with the public of the costs that Americas allies have incurred in these wars.' The Rhode Island university's findings mirror those published by UK-based Action on Armed Violence, who said in December that the War on Terror was '12 per cent deadlier for UK personnel' compared with US forces. More than 2,300 US soldiers died during the Afghanistan War (pictured: American soldiers in Deh Afghan in 2006) Overall, the Action on Armed Violence study found the Afghanistan War accounted for more than 70 per cent of British casualties during the 'War on Terror' era. One finding in the aforementioned report reads: 'The War on Terror was proportionately deadlier for UK personnel than it was for US personnel.' A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: 'British Forces and their allies served with dedication, distinction and courage in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every life lost is a tragedy for their family, friends, and for our nation. 'Comparisons of fatalities across different force structures and locations are uninformative as the US provided a large number of non-combat personnel whos exposure to risk was considerably lower. 'It is important to also consider the complex environment our troops were operating in, which statistics alone do not always do justice to.' The United States, alongside coalition allies including Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany and France, invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 in an attempt to oust Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, who was the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks. President Joe Biden has publicly announced his plan for all US forces to be removed from the country by September 11 this year. By December 2020, there were approximately 4,000 US troops still in Afghanistan - down from a peak of over 100,000 in 2010. Earlier this month, the Taliban launched an attack in the Helmand province, just two days after US forces ceded control of the Antonik camp to the Afghan Army. The offensive came after militants launched assaults around the country following a missed US deadline to withdraw troops from the country, as agreed in talks with the Taliban last year. Attaullah Afghan, the head of Helmand's provincial council, said the Taliban launched their offensive on Monday, May 3, attacking checkpoints around the outskirts of Lashkar Gah and taking over some of them. A nanny who was sacked after complaining her employer's boyfriend had refused to quarantine following a trip to Paris has been awarded more than 38,000. Janine O'Harris, 47, said French banker Nicolas Granatino dismissed her on the spot a day after she voiced her concerns about self-isolation rules. She was awarded more than 38,000 by an employment tribunal after claiming unfair dismissal from her 35,500-a-year job in June last year. The tribunal heard how Ms O'Harris had concerns about Covid exposure because she suffers from asthma and her partner has diabetes. She raised this with her employer Domitille Rambaud, a store director at upmarket Italian fashion house Brunello Cucinelli, but a day later she was paid notice and asked to leave. Ms O'Harris claims she was told Mr Granatino, the ex-husband of German multimillionaire heiress Katrin Radmacher, didn't need to self-isolate because he 'had antibodies.' But after returning from Paris in June 2020, the employment tribunal accepted that he should have quarantined for 14 days in line with Covid rules. Instead, he continued to attend work and 'objected to polite questioning' about his lack of self-isolation, it was alleged. Janine O'Harris (above) was sacked after complaining her employer's partner refused to quarantine following a trip to France Mr Granatino is a former investment banker who brought in a salary of 300,000 per year, before he became an Oxford researcher. Mr Granatino made case law when he challenged a pre-nup agreement following his divorce in 2006 from German socialiate Ms Radmacher - who is thought to be worth more than 100m thanks to an inheritance from her family paper firm. The hearing in 2010 ruled for the first time in a British court that a pre-nup signed in Germany was valid in England. He had agreed to make no claim on her fortune but was awarded 1million and the use of a 2.5million home until their daughter was 22. He went back to court and tried to claim that the pre-nup - a contract entered into before marriage - had no status in English law, but lost. Speaking today, Ms O'Harris claimed her concerns about the virus were brushed aside after it was alleged Mr Granatino had 'antibodies.' 'But obviously this all happened last year when nobody knew whether people had the antibodies or not,' she said. Ms O'Harris had concerns about Covid exposure because she suffers from asthma and her partner has diabetes, placing them both at higher risk from the virus. Pictured left: Her employer, Domitille Rambaud, and right: Nicolas Granatino Mr Granatino is the ex-husband of German multimillionaire heiress Katrin Radmacher (pictured). 'I told them I think if you look at the health and safety regulations you'll find you have to quarantine.' She added that Mr Granatino had been flying home from Paris shortly after the Government announced quarantine rules for those returning from France. 'I brought it up with Domitille again that morning and said 'Look, I've seen the news he should be quarantining',' she said. 'But she must have told him because he came back at lunch time and said you are dismissed you can leave now.' Central London Employment Tribunal heard it was said Mr Granatino would look after the children following the dismissal, but the couple then hired another nanny. Sitting in London, employment judge Tim Russell said Ms O'Harris claimed she had been 'unfairly dismissed' by her employers on June 10, 2020. 'The Respondent's partner, Mr Granatino, refused to self-isolate when returning from France in June 2020 against government guidelines at the time,' he said. 'He gave no substantive reasons beyond stating that he was protected by antibodies. Ms O'Harris claims she was told Mr Granatino, the ex-husband of German heiress Katrin Radmacher, didn't need to self-isolate because he 'had antibodies.' Pictured: Central London Employment Tribunal 'He went to work as normal and objected to polite questioning by the Claimant as to his refusal to adhere to the rules. 'He may have believed he had had Covid-19 and or had some other reasons to ignore the Government health guidelines but the Claimant was concerned as to her own health as an asthma sufferer and that of her own partner who has diabetes as an underlying condition as well as the Claimant's mother whom she cared for. 'She was genuinely and legitimately worried about her and her family's health and safety as a consequence of the actions of the Respondent and her partner. 'But having raised these concerns directly with her employer household she was, the very next day, dismissed. 'There was no fair dismissal procedure, no conduct or capability issues were raised, formally or informally and no disciplinary hearing took place. 'There was a complete absence of process. In this case the complete lack of any procedure and the timing of the dismissal and false reason simply confirms the real reason for the dismissal as well as the unfairness of it. 'The Claimant was dismissed because she made her health and safety complaint. 'But it was a concern she was quite entitled to have, a complaint that she was perfectly entitled to make and there is no suggestion that she made it in other than a thoughtful and reasonable way.' Ms Rambaud claimed the dismissal was nothing to do with the nanny's discussion about the quarantine period. Instead, she claimed she had concluded that Ms O'Harris did not like her husband being at home observing her and that her relationship with the children was not as positive as it should be. She also claimed that Ms O'Harris was inflexible in her work. Ms O'Harris argued that following her dismissal due to the pandemic it was difficult to find alternative employment and she had been left without a reference. She had worked for them for just over two years but had been with another family for eight years before that. Ms O'Harris signed on with three agencies since being sacked and the tribunal lauded the fact she had not claimed benefit but was living on savings and being helped by her partner whilst she looked for work. Making the award, Employment Judge Russell added: 'Finally, although the vaccine roll out has begun it is legitimate to find that it may be another six months before she can get viable employment once more. Miss Radmacher had fought a four-year court battle to withhold the vast majority of her fortune from Mr Granatino 'That this situation arises to the detriment of the Respondent is in a large part due to the unfairness of the dismissal in the first place. 'In that the Respondent then inherits the problem job market on remedy just as the Claimant has faced it in practice. 'No doubt exacerbated by the absence of a guaranteed favourable reference.' They awarded her her annual salary of just over 35,000 plus a compensatory award totalling 38,292.65. Miss Radmacher had fought a four-year court battle to withhold the vast majority of her fortune from Mr Granatino. He had claimed that the contract was unfair because he had not realised the true extent of his wife's vast fortune. Mr Granatino demanded a 9.2million pay-out and was initially given 5.5million, but that was later reduced to 1million in the Court of Appeal. The Supreme Court told him in 2010 that he would receive just 70,000 a year from his ex-wife for the next 14 years, until their youngest child turned 22. The then Court President Lord Phillips said that the law could not prevent a couple deciding how to arrange their affairs should they come to live apart and that all English courts should follow the precedent. 'In future it will be natural to infer that parties who enter into an ante-nuptial agreement to which English law is likely to be applied intend that effect should be given to it,' he said. But the decision came only after serious division among the judges of the country's leading court. Fellow Supreme Court justice Baroness Hale - whose profile rose in 2019 when she ruled that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's prorogation of Parliament was unlawful - called the ruling undemocratic and damaging to marriage. She added that it was wrong that it should have been made by a court comprising eight male judges and only one woman. In a strongly-worded statement of dissent, Lady Hale said there were six legal reasons why the ruling was wrong, one being that it was 'inconsistent with the continued importance attached to the status of marriage in English law'. She said her fellow judges were treating married couples in the same way as unmarried people and added that it was 'wrong to equate married with unmarried parenthood'. 'Marriage still counts for something in the law of this country and long may it continue to do so,' she said. Lady Hale also said the ruling was unfair to the poorer partner in a marriage 'usually, though by no means invariably, she'. The controversy spread outside the court, with bishops warning that the decision undermined marriage and lawyers said that judges had usurped the rights of Parliament and elected MPs to make the law. Brenda Long, a partner at law firm Blandy & Blandy, said: 'This ruling means the judiciary has overstepped its prescribed role of interpreting law and actually created law instead,' she said. UK exports to the EU in March almost returned to December levels as trade bounced back from a dip following the end of the post-Brexit transition period. Office for National Statistics data published this morning showed exports to the bloc stood at 13.6billion in December 2020 before then falling to 7.9billion in January this year. The number climbed to 11.6billion in February 2021 before increasing again to 12.7billion in March. Meanwhile, imports to the UK from the EU were outstripped by those from the rest of the world for the first time in the first quarter of 2021. The ONS said it is 'the first quarter since records began in January 1997 that imports of goods from non-EU countries are higher than from EU countries'. UK exports to the EU in March almost returned to December levels as trade bounced back from a dip following the end of the post-Brexit transition period The numbers showed that in the first quarter of 2021 the UK's total trade deficit narrowed by 8.4billion to 1.4billion Imports from the EU in December last year stood at 22.7billion, dropping to 15.8billion in January and then rebounding to 17billion in February and 17.8billion in March. In the first quarter of 2021 the total imports of goods, excluding precious metals, were 14.5billion - 12.3% per cent - lower than in the final quarter of 2020. Non-EU imports to the UK in March this year stood at 19.3billion compared to the EU's 17.8billion. 'The falls in imports were seen with both EU and non-EU countries, while falls in exports were only seen with the EU,' according to the ONS. The trade statistics come with a health warning because they are the first numbers published which cover the period since the end of the post-Brexit transition. The UK and the EU began trading on new terms from January 1 this year after finally agreeing a trade deal in December. The ONS said: 'However, with only one quarter of data available, and the ongoing pandemic and recession, it is too early to assess the extent to which this reflects short-term trade disruption or longer-term supply chain adjustments. We will continue to assess this over the coming months.' The numbers showed that in the first quarter of 2021 the UK's total trade deficit narrowed by 8.4billion to 1.4billion. Office for National Statistics data published this morning showed that exports to the bloc stood at 13.6billion in December 2020 before then dipping to 7.9billion in January this year Imports to the UK from the EU were outstripped by those from the rest of the world for the first time in the first quarter of 2021 Imports dropped by 17.3billion to 138.4billion and exports fell by almost 9billion to 137billion. The ONS said exports to the EU increased by 1billion - 8.6 per cent - in March while imports from the bloc increased by 0.8billion - 4.5 per cent. Both of the increases were driven by a boom in car imports and exports. Darren Morgan, ONS director of economic statistics, said: 'Exports of goods to the EU continued to increase in March and are now almost back to their December level. 'However, imports from Europe remained sluggish in the first three months of the year, being outstripped by non-EU imports for the first time on record.' Viewers then blasted Aly for interrupting and accused him of unfair treatment Discussion got heated over accusations of 'slush funds' and unallocated $9B He grilled the Albanese about the budget on The Project on Wednesday night The Project's Waleed Aly has been slammed for a fiery interview with opposition leader Anthony Albanese over the 2021 federal budget. Mr Aly grilled the Labor leader on the Channel 10's panel show on Wednesday night, provoking a furious response from viewers. The TV host was accused of interrupting Mr Albanese after the discussion got heated when Mr Albanese accused the government of using 'slush funds' and misusing unallocated $9billion in the budget. Waleed Aly Pictured_ was accused of interrupting Albanese during the heated interview 'They've also set-up these little slush funds. They've set up with 21 separate funds, they have $4 billion attached to them,' Mr Albanese said. 'And there is $9 billion in the budget over the next short little while which is decisions taken, but not announced. 'It is your money, taxpayers, but they won't tell you what it will be spent on and you have got to suspect it will be very much devoted to the political map rather than people's needs. Mr Aly cut in to say: 'That's a common line item in the budget, though.' 'I have never seen anything like it. I have been here a while. It is not common to have $9 billion,' the Labor leader shot back. 'The amount, you can argue. It is not a scandalous line item. That's a common one,' Aly replied. 'It is not actually, but we'll keep going,' Mr Albanese said as Mr Aly continued to talk about the NDIS. 'Billions has been added to the NDIS, which you were saying was a Labor legacy,' he said. 'They cut $4 billion in the budget just a little while ago. So put some of that back. That's true. Some of the areas,' Albanese remarked. 'More than some. They put more than $4 billion back,' Mr Aly argued, shortly before the interview ended. Labor leader Anthony Albanese (pictured) accused the government of having 'slush funds' The debate divided social media users, with some condemning the journalist's interviewing style. 'Waleed, just a suggestion that you might let a guest answer the questions you pose. That interview did you no favours,' one person said. 'Just ask questions, don't talk him down,' another person remarked. 'I love Waleed and The Project but seriously that Albo Interview was ridiculous. So Simon Birmingham had a light and fluffy interview and Albo got a full on interrogation,' said another. 'Albo talking facts and sense, Waleed trying to cut him off and cut him down... And failing miserably,' said one Twitter user. 'No [Waleed] you are so wrong! Stop defending $10b hidden funds in Morrison LNP Budget,' someone else said. Others said Albanese was desperate to find something wrong in the budget. 'Oh dear. Albo clutching at straws, he knows Labor is doomed at the next election,' someone commented. Miles Taylor, one of the organizers spoke to CNN on Wednesday More than 100 Republicans will sign a letter on Thursday declaring that if the Republican Party does not break with former President Donald Trump and change course, they will back the creation of a third party. The letter, titled: 'A Call For American Renewal,' is an exploratory move toward forming a breakaway party, two of its organizers said. The group, which includes former officials at both state and national level, is dismayed by what it says is a modern Republican Party driven by its allegiance to Trump, who continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him. 'The Republican Party is broken. It's time for a resistance of the 'rationals' against the 'radicals,' said Miles Taylor, one of the organizers. It was an extremely symbolic and powerful moment ... Liz Cheney is one of the few Republicans that still maintains her spine in a sea of spinelessness, Former Trump staffer @MilesTaylorUSA says on Cheneys defiant speech as she faces ouster from GOP leadership. pic.twitter.com/cxbt2L7wND New Day (@NewDay) May 12, 2021 Over 100 Republican officials will sign a letter on Thursday declaring that if the Republican Party does not break with former President Donald Trump (left with one of the petition organizers Miles Taylor) and change course, they will back the creation of a third party 'The Republican Party is broken. It's time for a resistance of the 'rationals' against the 'radicals,' said Miles Taylor, one of the organizers, explaining the letter, headlined: 'A Call For American Renewal' Taylor added: 'This is us saying that a group of more than 100 prominent Republicans think that the situation has gotten so dire with the Republican Party that it is now time to seriously consider whether an alternative might be the only option, 'I'm one of those in the group that feels very strongly that if we can't get the G.O.P. back to a rational party that supports free minds, free markets, and free people, I'm out and a lot of people are coming with me.' The letter is timed for release just hours after House Republicans booted Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from her post as the Party's No. 3 leadership position following her own denunciation of those who put forward the 'lie' that the election was stolen from Trump. Taylor commented Wednesday morning on Cheney's speech, delivered to colleagues in a brief floor speech Tuesday night. 'It was an extremely symbolic and powerful moment that showed exactly where the GOP stands,' Taylor told CNN. He called her 'one of the few Republicans that still retains her spine in a sea of spinelessness.' Among the signatories are governors, members of Congress, ambassadors, cabinet secretaries, state legislators and Republican Party chairmen. Taylor, while serving in the Trump White House, wrote an anonymous opinion piece in the New York Times in 2018 headlined: 'I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.' The group first raised the threat in February here, following the deadly January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters to try to disrupt congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election victory He declined to outline the exact changes the group will demand from the Republican Party. The group first raised the threat in February here, following the deadly January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters to try to disrupt congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election victory. The letter highlights the wide intraparty rift over Trump. The preamble to the full statement, which is expected to be released on Thursday, reads: 'When in our democratic republic, forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism arise, it is the patriotic duty of citizens to act collectively in defense of liberty and justice'. House Republicans oust edRepresentative Liz Cheney from her No. 3 party leadership position within the chamber Most Republicans remain fiercely loyal to the former president. The letter signatories, who include former ambassadors, governors, congressional members and Cabinet secretaries, want the Republican Party to return to 'principled' leadership and reject division and conspiracy theories, or face a new party dedicated to fighting for Republicans such as Cheney and against fearmongering and lies. Backers of the reform group include former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, George W. Bush-era Transportation Secretary Mary Peters. Backers of the reform group include former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge (left), former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman (center), George W. Bush-era Transportation Secretary Mary Peters (right) Also involved are former House members Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania (left), Barbara Comstock of Virginia (center), Reid Ribble of Wisconsin (right) Also involved are former House members Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Barbara Comstock of Virginia, Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, and Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma. Former CIA agent Evan McMullin who ran for president as an independent candidate in 2016, is also involved. They may face an uphill battle in getting any current Republican officeholders to sign on - including Cheney herself, who in February rejected the idea of a third party, saying it would empower Democrats. A spokesman for Trump, Jason Miller, said: 'These losers left the Republican Party when they voted for Joe Biden.' Evan McMullin said if the Republican Party does not reject lies and extremism, part of it 'will have no choice but to part ways with it and build something new. We're excited about that prospect. Former house member Mickey Edwards of Oklahoma and former CIA agent Ewan McMullin who ran for president as an independent candidate in 2016, are also involved The letter comes as Trump loyalists have flexed their muscle in Congress even after the president's defeat and the Jan. 6th riot. Just 10 House Republicans voted to impeach Trump; House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago weeks after holding an angry phone call with him while the Capitol was under siege. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, delivered a blistering speech where he said Trump 'provoked' the riot. But within months, the Senate Republican campaign arm presented Trump with a 'Champion of Freedom' award that didn't previously exist. Advertisement Prince William today paid tribute to Sergeant Matt Ratana as he visited the custody suite in South London where the Metropolitan Police officer was shot dead seven months ago. The Duke of Cambridge met some of Sgt Ratana's colleagues at Croydon Custody Centre to hear about their memories of working with the officer who was with the force for 29 years until he was killed last September. William observed a moment of reflection for the 54-year-old who was shot by a suspect who had his hands handcuffed behind his back. The Duke laid a wreath and also held a private meeting with his partner, Su Busby. The Duke was joined by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick during his visit this morning, and told her: 'I've wanted to come here for a while'. She replied: 'It's going to mean a lot to people.' After leaving the flowers on the bench, which features a small plaque engraved with the words 'In memory of Sergeant Matt Ratana', William stepped back and bowed his head for a few moments. Prince William speaks with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick at Croydon Custody Centre this morning The Duke of Cambridge lays a wreath in memory of Sergeant Matt Ratana during a visit to Croydon Custody Centre today Prince William observes a moment of reflection for Sergeant Matt Ratana at Croydon Custody Centre in South London today Prince William speaks today to colleagues of Sergeant Matt Ratana who shot and killed on duty at Croydon Custody Centre William meets the Met's first welfare and wellbeing support dog, Dexter, who helps officers deal with stressful incidents William, 38, who took part in the engagement without his wife Kate, also then joined a group of staff and officers to hear more about what the Metropolitan Police is doing to support the mental health of its workforce. He heard about initiatives such as Operation Hampshire, which helps those who have been injured or assaulted whilst at work, and the Mental Health Network which works to break down the stigma of mental health. This supports and directs officers and staff to both internal and external support, including a volunteer peer-support service run by a team of 1,200 trained 'blue light champions'. He also met the Met Police's first welfare and wellbeing support dog, Dexter, who helps officers deal with stressful and traumatic incidents they come across on duty. The visit took place during Mental Health Awareness Week. Inspector Wil Ajose-Adeogun, Sgt Ratana's line manager and close friend, said: 'Meeting the Duke today brought back many fond memories of Matt, his enormous energy, his sense of duty and his overwhelming kindness. 'He was not just our colleague, he was our dear friend. His personality was the life and sound of Croydon Custody Centre and we all miss him dearly.' The Duke told Ms Dick today: 'I've wanted to come here for a while' - and she replied: 'It's going to mean a lot to people' Prince William speaks to colleagues of Sgt Ratana as he visits Croydon Custody Centre in South London this morning During today's visit, William learned about what the Metropolitan Police is doing to support the mental health of its workforce Prince William today paid tribute to Sergeant Matt Ratana as he visited the custody suite with Commissioner Ms Dick today Later, when chatting to the officer's former colleague and friend Sergeant Steve Braithwaite, William said: 'Clearly he was the heart and soul of the police station. 'He liked his hugs as well, apparently. He left behind a legacy and touched a lot of lives.' Sgt Ratana, a coach at East Grinstead Rugby Club, had served in a number of London boroughs and teams before transferring in 2015 to Croydon, where he was a custody sergeant. Speaking after the visit, Sgt Braithwaite said: 'Prince William asked how we deal with death, and I said we would usually get drunk and make morbid jokes, to get through it, but we haven't been able to do that because of lockdown and he said 'Let me know when you do' and he would join us one day.' Describing his reaction when he learned his friend had died, he said: 'I felt numb. It was horrific. It's been really tough. 'Even now I'm still a bit numb and not got to grieve and still think he will come round the corner again and give one of his big bear hugs. The atmosphere was tough here for a while, but it has got better slowly.' Sgt Ratana (above, including with his partner Su Busby, right) was remembered as a 'gentle giant' and 'irreplaceable figure' A bench in memory of Sgt Matt Ratana in the grounds of Croydon Custody Suite in South London is pictured today Dame Cressida said after the royal visit: 'The awful killing of Sergeant Matt Ratana sent shockwaves through the Met and I know we continue to mourn his loss. 'Matt left a powerful legacy across the Met and I was proud to welcome His Royal Highness to Croydon Custody Centre and to meet some of Matt's colleagues and friends. 'Police officers put themselves in harm's way to keep people safe every day and they can be exposed to very harrowing and traumatic experiences. 'I am extremely proud of the men and women across the Met who support colleagues who have experienced trauma, breaking down the stigma of mental health and ensuring those who need help are supported.' On November 13 last year, Louis de Zoysa, 23, was arrested on suspicion of murdering Sgt Ratana. This came after his condition, originally critical, had later 'stabilised' and police said it was 'no longer considered life-threatening'. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick paid tribute to Sgt Ratana at a funeral in Shoreham-by-Sea last November The Haka is performed as the hearse leaves the funeral service of Sgt Matt Ratana in Shoreham-by-Sea last November However, no one has been charged over the shooting in the early hours of September 25. Sgt Ratana was killed as he prepared to search a handcuffed suspect. He was taken to hospital but died from his wounds. Dame Cressida was among those who paid tribute to the New Zealand-born officer at a funeral held at a chapel in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, in November last year. Previous tributes to Sgt Ratana following his death remembered the police officer as a 'gentle giant' and 'irreplaceable figure' who was part of the 'police family'. An inquest opened at Croydon Coroner's Court on October 1 last year heard that Sgt Ratana had suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and died at St George's Hospital in Tooting. Former U.S. State Secretary Mike Pompeo served as a keynote speaker during this year's commencement exercises at Regent University. Over the weekend, Regent University celebrated this year's graduating class of over 2,500 students at a commencement ceremony held virtually. The Class of 2021 was addressed by keynote speaker former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who called upon the new graduates to fight for religious liberty amidst constant "attack from our government" with "enormous vigor." According to CBN News, Regent University's 41st commencement ceremony launched with the performance of the National Anthem by the school's alumna, Joy Windham. The celebration was presided over by Pat Robertson, an evangelist and Republican presidential candidate who founded the school in 1977 and serves as its chancellor today. The 91 year old Robertson is also known for his work as an advocate for conservative Christian ideology through his appearances on The 700 Club and as chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network. As Regent grads were celebrated virtually, they also received a graduation package in the mail that contained gifts to help them celebrate their big milestone. Regent University's Class of 2021 is the largest in the school's history, with over 2,500 undergraduate and graduate degrees conferred over the weekend. The school, which is based in Virginia Beach, Virginia, currently provides more than 150 degree programs and concentrations across its eight graduate schools and undergraduate programs. Regent is recognized as a school that offers one of the nation's top-ranked online bachelor's and master's degree programs. During the commencement exercises, Regent grads listened to keynote speaker former U.S. Secretary Pompeo as he reminded the students that the founding of America is "deeply rooted in Judeo-Christian values," the Christian Post reported. Pompeo said, "being a good follower of Christ is becoming less synonymous with being a good American, even though you know the history." Pompeo encouraged the young Regent grads to seek the "strength of Christ" because he believed they need it "to achieve your goals and to live in a country where you can exercise your right to worship your God as you see fit." The former U.S. State Secretary warned against the "growing threat" to religious liberty "right in our backyard." The 57 year old Republican declared, "No society can retain its legitimacy or a virtuous character without religious freedom." Pompeo called upon Regent grads to exercise religious liberty with "enormous vigor," saying that "There's no country that denies religious freedom, that can ever rightly claim to be good in some other way. We must defend it here at home...The effort to undermine our right to practice our faith is at the very pointy end of their atheistic spear." Robertson also encouraged the Regent grads to "do all things through Christ who strengthens you" despite adversity and despite moments in life where it seems it is "not worth anything." The chancellor reminded them of Apostle Paul's words and called upon them to fulfill Regent's mission of "Christian leadership to change the world." Advertisement The peaceful protestor who was the victim of a shocking two-footed attack close to Downing Street was a 68-year-old grandfather, MailOnline can reveal. Former Bank of England economist Jonathan Hoffman, 68, said he was terrified as he and fellow pro-Israel protesters were spat upon and assaulted in Whitehall - and thinks they would have been lynched without the ring of police officers who moved into protect them. Around 3,000 pro-Palestine protesters clashed with police during a demonstration against the explosion of violence in the Middle East. Mr Hoffman was among a group of around a dozen pro-Israel friends who were set upon to as they launched a smaller counter-demonstration in which they unfurled the Israeli flag. Police moved in to protect them and as they were being escorted away the disturbing attack happened. A man was captured on video jumping from above with both feet aimed directly onto Mr Hoffmans head and shoulders - an action which could have caused spinal injuries. But Mr Hoffman, who was filming from a camera around his neck, said he only realised he had been jumped on two-footed when he saw the video on MailOnline this morning showing the man leaping into his group. At one point, footage appears to show a demonstrator seemingly deliberately landing on top of two counter-protesters Apparently jumping down from above the activist plants both feet on the back and neck of the two counter-protesters before being accosted by officers Video shot by Mr Hoffman, who was wearing a camera around his neck at the time, shows the moment he crashes to the floor (pictured) after being landed on by a pro-Palestinian protestor After being helped up by police and fellow demonstrators, who asked about his welfare after the incident, Mr Hoffman (pictured right) and other pro-Israel protesters were helped away by officers (pictured right) Mr Hoffman was among a group of around a dozen pro-Israel friends who were set upon to as they launched a smaller counter-demonstration in which they unfurled the Israeli flag. Pictured: A group of pro-Israeli demonstrators in London yesterday Why are violent clashes taking place in Jerusalem? When did the protests start? From the beginning of Ramadan in mid-April, Palestinians clashed nightly with Israeli police, who put up barriers to stop evening gatherings at the walled Old City's Damascus Gate after iftar, the breaking of the daytime fast. Palestinians saw the barriers as a restriction on their freedom to assemble. Police said they were there to maintain order. Why did the violence flare up again? An Israeli Supreme Court hearing was due on May 10 in a long-running legal case about whether several Palestinian families would be evicted and their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood near Damascus Gate that was given to Israeli settlers. Some settlers have already moved into the street affected - living next door to the Palestinians facing possible removal. As the court hearing neared, Palestinians and left-wing Israelis began holding larger demonstrations, saying more evictions could cause a domino effect throughout the overwhelmingly Palestinian neighbourhood. Sheikh Jarrah also contains a site revered by religious Jews as the tomb of an ancient high priest, Simon the Just, leading to frequent tensions between Palestinian living there and religious Jews visiting it. International attention The case, in which a lower court ruled that the land in question belonged to Jews in East Jerusalem before the 1948 War, has gathered domestic and international attention, amid criticism of Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem. On Sunday U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan spoke to his Israeli counterpart to express 'serious concerns about the potential evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood,' the White House said. read more And United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed 'his deep concern over the continuing violence in occupied East Jerusalem, as well as the possible evictions of Palestinian families from their homes,' U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Sunday. What next? On Sunday the Supreme Court hearing on the evictions was postponed, pushing at least one flashpoint past the end of Ramadan and allowing more time for a resolution. A new session will be scheduled within 30 days. read more Monday is Jerusalem Day, Israel's annual commemoration of its capture of East Jerusalem during the 1967 war. The event usually sees a march through the walled Old City by Jewish pilgrims, including ultra-nationalists, which could be another flashpoint. Why is Jerusalem so sensitive? Politics, history and religion. At the heart of Jerusalem's Old City is the hill known to Jews across the world as Temple Mount - the holiest site in Judaism - and to Muslims internationally as The Noble Sanctuary. It was home to the Jewish temples of antiquity. Two Muslim holy places now stand there, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place in Islam. Christians also revere the city as the place where they believe that Jesus preached, died and was resurrected. Israel sees all of Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital, while the Palestinians want the eastern section as a capital of a future state. Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem is unrecognized internationally. Advertisement A new second video shot by Mr Hoffman himself and obtained by Mail Online shows him stumbling to the ground. Mr Hoffmans own video captures him falling and he then is helped up by bystanders and an officer shouts to his colleagues to stop and let him up, let him up. He told MailOnline: It was a very scary time and the mob were calling us murderers, spitting at us and threatening us. The police were absolutely superb in protecting us and put a cordon around us and took us to safety. The crowd were screaming at us and trying to attack us. But the police were great and helped us away. I didnt know that somebody had jumped on me until I saw MailOnline this morning. I thought I had fallen over. I was very scared and thought I would be trampled or crushed in a stampede. I was helped up and I am told two girls from the anti-Israel protest helped. Mr Hoffmans group had unveiled a banner which read: If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel. Palestinians carried banners pleading for the siege of Israel to be ended and for the occupation to be ended by Israel. The demonstration in London, held opposite Downing Street, attracted thousands following recent protests in Jerusalem against the eviction of Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah. Asked if their decision to stage their London demonstration might have unfairly intimidated their rivals, Mr Hoffman said: We have a democratic right to protest just like they have. Ours was a peaceful protest and if it wasnt for the police, we would have been lynched. There was so much hate against us. It was intolerable. Former Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn attended the rally and told the crowd: I've been horrified at the images on our screen from Al-Aqsa Mosque. 'The way forward is this the occupation must end, the settlements must be removed and Palestine must be recognised. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign announced another protest at the London Israeli Embassy this weekend In a statement, it said: We will be marching to the Israeli Embassy on Saturday to demand an end to Israel's grave violations of human rights and international law. None of us are free until all of us are free. Yesterday, violence erupted in London as pro-Palestine protesters clashed with police during a demonstration against the continued conflict in the Middle East. Activists waving flags, banners and placards, featuring messages including 'Hands Off Jerusalem', took to the streets of the English capital on Tuesday to call for an end to the growing unrest. It comes as officials in Gaza said 32 Palestinians - including ten children - have been killed in the latest clashes in the Middle East. The Israeli military claimed at least 16 of the dead were militants, while seven deaths have been attributed to the same family, including three children. Some may have been the result of errant Hamas missiles. In Israel, three women have been killed - one in her 60s and another in her 80s - during Hamas rocket attacks earlier on Tuesday, and a third victim aged 50 on Tuesday evening when a rocket hit a building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. The renewed confrontation, following weeks of tensions and clashes in the contested Jerusalem, was sparked on Monday evening when Hamas - the Islamist group that rules inside Gaza - fired a barrage of missiles towards Jerusalem. Then on Tuesday afternoon, former U.S. President Donald Trump posted to his website, saying that America 'will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself' as he criticised President Joe Biden over the growing crisis. Earlier, the White House had said Biden was being briefed on the escalating situation. Supporters of Palestine attend an emergency 'Rally for Jerusalem' outside 10 Downing Street yesterday Huge crowds gathered to protest in the capital yesterday, with a large police presence also enforced Former Labour Jeremy Corbyn was also in attendance, addressing thousands of demonstrators who gathered in the city. A group of Neturei Karta Orthodox Jews joins a protest outside Downing Street against the escalation of violence Israel's Iron Dome defence system continued to struggle with the volume of rockets being fired from Gaza on Tuesday evening, after an Israeli air strike caused a 13-storey residential building to collapse in Gaza City. And the mayor of the Israeli city of Lod called for army back-up to help secure the area, saying 'civil war' was breaking out as residents clashed following the funeral of an Arab man killed yesterday by a Jewish local. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier 'deplored' the deaths of the two women in Israel, adding that the country's military would 'further increase both the intensity and the rate' of its own air strikes against Gaza. 'Hamas will be hit in ways that it does not expect,' Netanyahu said, before the announcement of the third woman's death in Israel. 'We have eliminated commanders, hit many important targets and we have decided to attack harder and increase the pace of attacks.' The cross-border violence has been fuelled by Israel's evictions of Muslim communities living in east Jerusalem which led to angry riots breaking out on Temple Mount over the weekend, with hundreds left injured on Monday as riot police shot rubber bullets and fired tear gas at protesters. Pictured: Video footage from Tuesday evening showed three plumes of thick, black smoke rising from a Gaza residential block as it toppled over following an Israeli air strike. A large residential tower block in Gaza has collapsed today after one of several dozen Israeli cross-border air strikes on Tuesday night, as Hamas vowed to turn Israel into 'a hell' Pictured: People gather at the site of a collapsed building in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on May 11, 2021. Hamas Islamists said they had fired 130 rockets towards Tel Aviv on Tuesday, unleashing a massive barrage on Israel's economic hub, in retaliation for an Israeli strike on 12-storey tower near Gaza's coast Residents of the collapsed residential block and the surrounding area had been warned to evacuate the area around an hour before the air strike, according to witnesses, and there were no reports of casualties two hours after it collapsed. Shortly after the attack, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group said they would respond by firing rockets at Tel Aviv, which they did. Air raid sirens and explosions were heard around the city, and the skies were lit up by the streaks of multiple interceptor missiles launched towards the incoming rockets. Pedestrians ran for shelter, and diners streamed out of Tel Aviv restaurants while others flattened themselves on pavements as the sirens sounded. The Israel Airports Authority said it had halted take-offs at Tel Aviv airport 'to allow defence of the nation's skies'. Video broadcast on Israeli Channel 12 television showed interceptor missiles rising above the runways. 'We are now carrying out our promise,' Hamas's armed wing said. 'The Qassam Brigades are launching their biggest rocket strike against Tel Aviv and its suburbs, with 130 rockets, in response to the enemy's targeting of residential towers.' Two same-sex couples have formed as the Gentoo penguins at a London aquarium go through their annual mating season. With Sea Life London Aquarium set to reopen to visitors on Monday, guests should be able to witness all the couples among colony performing their mating rituals. Among them are two all-female couples - Marmalade and Chickpea, and Marama and Rocky. Sea Life London Aquarium set to reopen to guests on Monday as lockdown eases and visitors will be able to observe the fascinating penguin mating ritual which this year features two lesbian couples. Pictured: Lesbian penguins Marmalade and Chickpea at the London Aquarium Mating rituals among the penguins involve one - usually a male - gifting a pebble to a potential mate. Pictured: Marmalade and Chickpea engaging in the pebble exchange at the aquarium A history of same-sex penguin couples Penguins have been observed to engage in homosexual behaviour since at least as early as 1911. The explorer George Murray Levick was so shocked when he learned this in 1915 that his findings were not published for almost a century. Same-sex sexual behaviour has been observed in numerous penguin species, including King penguins at Berlin Zoo, African penguins at Toronto Zoo, Gentoo penguins at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, and Chinstrap penguins at Central Park Zoo in New York. The two male penguins at Central Park Zoo in New York - Roy and Silo - even successfully incubated another pairs egg, resulting in a chick named Tango. Advertisement General manager Catherine Pritchard said: 'Without a doubt, our Gentoo penguins are one of our most loved creatures and we're so pleased that we're able to reopen our doors in time for guests to be able to witness their amazing courtship rituals. 'Gentoo penguins are the ultimate romantics, and their dating techniques are truly unique - so much so that as humans, we could certainly learn a thing or two from their passion and commitment to finding a mate. 'As well as our male-female penguin couples, this breeding season we also have two female same-sex couples who are also going through their nesting rituals.' Mating rituals among the penguins involve one - usually a male - gifting a pebble to a potential mate. The pebbles are then used to build a nest for laying eggs during the incubation period, which can last for up to 35 days. The birds at the aquarium are closely monitored during mating season, with aquarists keeping an eye on their nesting progress and regularly weighing the birds. Ms Pritchard said: 'Our expert care team are monitoring the penguins' progress and we're hoping that we're lucky enough to add a new chick to the colony when we welcome guests back.' Same-sex penguin couples are relatively common and sometimes adopt eggs that are abandoned by other couples. Pictured: Heterosexual penguins Elton and Honey take part in the pebble exchanging ritual Pictured: As the London Aquarium on South Bank in the capital prepares to open on Monday, these penguins are making sure they're fed as their annual mating season gets underway Gentoo penguins have near-threatened status in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species so the birds at Sea Life London play a critical role in marine conservation. The charismatic waddlers have a lifespan of around 15 to 20 years and can grow up to 2ft 5ins. According to the National Geographic, Gentoo parents, which often form long-lasting bonds, are highly nurturing. At breeding time, both parents will work to build a circular nest of stones, grass, moss, and feathers. The mother then deposits two spherical, white eggs, which both parents take turns incubating for more than a month. Hatchlings remain in the nest for up to a month, and the parents alternate foraging and brooding duties. The venue is set to reopen after being closed for four months as part of the country's nationwide lockdown introduced to tackle a surge in coronavirus cases. The NHS Test and Trace app may have prevented around 284,000 Covid infections between October and December, a study suggests. Research by the University of Oxford found between 100,000 and 900,000 cases in England and Wales were prevented by the app's exposure notifications. Experts said the results show the benefits of using contact tracing apps, particularly in countries waiting for 'full protection from vaccines'. The study said the contract tracing app sent around 1.7million exposure notifications in the last three months of 2020, as a result of 560,000 app users testing positive. It estimated around six per cent of app users that receive a close contact notification will go on to report a positive test themselves a similar rate to manual testing. The NHS Covid-19 app uses Bluetooth on smartphones to keep an anonymous log of other app users that an individual comes into contact with, informing them if they have been near someone who tests positive for the virus and what to do next. It has come under severe criticism since it was first introduced in September last year. The risk threshold on the app was set too high from then until November, resulting in 'shockingly low' levels of alerts being issued during the period. A proposed update to app which would have pooled location data and given it to health officials was delayed last month because it breached Apple and Google's privacy guidelines. The study comes after it was announced yesterday that the app will be used for the controversial vaccine passports allowing inoculated people to travel from next Monday. The NHS Test and Trace app may have prevented around 284,000 Covid infections between October and December, a study led by the University of Oxford has suggested. Pictured: Maps show app uptake (left) and infections per 100,000 during the time period (right) while graph show how many local authorities took up the app at each percentage point (left) and how cases changed over time (right) The NHS Covid app (pictured)uses Bluetooth on smartphones to keep an anonymous log of other app users that an individual comes into contact with, informing them if they have been near someone who tests positive for the virus and what to do next The study said the contract tracing app sent around 1.7million exposure notifications in the last three months of 2020, as a result of 560,000 app users testing positive How the NHS app's algorithm determines risk level For each encounter with an infected person, a score is generated. This score is based on a series of equations. The first aspect is how long a persons pent within one metre of the infected patient. This is inputted unaltered into the algorithm. Time spent more than one metre but less than two meters away is also used, but is divided by the square of the distance. Each individual interaction is added up over the course of the day. For example, if it is a work colleague who you interact with four times, each of the four interaction scores is added up to give a daily total. This dai;y total is then multiplied by a factor depending on how infectious a person was when the encounters occurred. The number it is multiplied by will be larger if it is the first day a person has symptoms, compared to a week afterwards. Should this score exceed 120, a person will now be told to self-isolate. The 120 figure is a result of the threshold being lowered from 900 to 120. The algorithm looks at the daily risk for every app user who an infected person came into contact with from 2 days before symptoms first appeared, up to a maximum of 10 days after symptoms first appeared. Source: NHS Advertisement Using a mathematical model, the study estimated the probability that notified contacts would be infected and quarantine quickly, predicting between 108,000 and 450,000 cases of Covid were averted with 284,000 given as a mean number. They also compared areas with similar demographics but with differing levels of app uptake, which also showed the number of cases averted increased as app uptake went up. The research predicted between 317,000 and 914,000 cases could have been averted during the study period with a mean of 594,000. The authors suggest that although the two estimates differ they agree in the sense that the contact-tracing app holds value in reducing virus transmissions. Their research also found that the average number of contacts traced by the app was more than double that of manual contact tracing, but the two systems can be complementary as they could help trace different contacts. Dr Chris Wymant, a member of Oxford University's Big Data Institute, led the research, which was published in the science journal Nature. The authors wrote: 'We estimated that for every percentage point increase in app users, the number of cases can be reduced by 0.8 per cent (modelling) or 2.3 per cent (statistical analysis). 'These findings provide evidence for continued development and deployment of such apps in populations that are awaiting full protection from vaccines.' It comes after Downing Street yesterday announced the app would also be used to display vaccination status from next week, instead of being limited to just venue check-ins and contact tracing. Official guidance from the Government published online states: You can access your Covid-19 vaccination status through the free NHS App from May 17. You can access the app through mobile devices such as a smartphone or by tablet. Proof of your Covid-19 vaccination status will be shown within the NHS App. We recommend you register with the app before booking international travel. Demonstrating your Covid-19 vaccination status allows you to show others that youve had a full course of the Covid-19 vaccine when travelling abroad to some countries or territories. A full course is currently two doses of any approved vaccine. Advertisement Liz Cheney told Donald Trump to 'bring it on' after she was ousted from House Republican Leadership on Wednesday, staying defiant in her criticism of the former president. In a closed-door meeting in the basement of the Capitol, Republicans voted to oust Cheney after she repeatedly called out Trump's false claims he won the election and criticized his role in the January 6 insurrection. Trump gloated over the win and called for her defeat in the 2022 midterm election. Given that Cheney's homestate of Wyoming is a solid red, Trump and his allies would have to support a primary challenge to her next year. 'Bring it on,' Cheney said in response. Her comments came during an interview for NBC's Today Show. It was taped Wednesday shortly after the vote and will air Thursday morning. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., has been one of Cheney's more vocal critics and is expected to play a role in the 2022 primary election in Wyoming. Cheney has said she will run for another term next year and vowed to stay active in the future of the Republican Party. She said this was the 'opening salvo' in the battle for the soul of Republican Party. 'This is the, I think, opening salvo in that battle, and it's a battle we have to win, because it's not just about the Republican Party. It's about the country,' Cheney said. Rep. Liz Cheney told Donald Trump to 'bring it on' after she was ousted from GOP leadership, making her remarks in an intervie with NBC's Today Show House Republicans planted themselves firmly in Trump's camp on Wednesday when they removed Cheney from leadership, booing her after she spoke to GOP lawmakers in the closed-door meeting. It was a yes to remove Cheney and a no to keep her, a GOP lawmaker said of the vote, saying it sounded as if three quarters of Republicans shouted yes. It was all over in less than 15 minutes. There was an immediate declaration of war after her ouster, when Cheney told reporters on Capitol Hill: 'I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. 'We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution. And I think it's very important that we make sure whomever we elect, is somebody who will be faithful to the Constitution,' she added. Trump celebrated Cheney's fall. 'Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being,' he said in a statement after the vote. He called her a shrill for Democrats: 'She is a talking point for Democrats, whether that means the Border, the gas lines, inflation, or destroying our economy. She is a warmonger whose family stupidly pushed us into the never-ending Middle East Disaster, draining our wealth and depleting our Great Military, the worst decision in our Country's history. I look forward to soon watching her as a Paid Contributor on CNN or MSDNC!' Trump has not ruled out another residential bid in 2024. Before the GOP vote, Trump released a statement trashing Cheney, calling her a 'poor leader' and 'a person with absolutely no personality or heart.' Cheney said her mission now is to return the Republican Party to its conservative credentials. 'The nation needs a strong Republican Party. The nation needs a party that is based on fundamental principles of conservatism. And I'm committed and dedicated to ensuring that that's how the party goes forward, and I plan to lead the fight to do that.' 'We've got to get back to a position where we are a party that can fight for conservative principles that can fight for substance, we cannot be dragged backward, by the very dangerous lies of a former President,' said the Republican congresswoman from Wyoming. After the vote, Cheney told reporters: 'I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again, is anywhere near the Oval Office' Rep. Liz Cheney vowed to keep fighting for the Republican Party after her ouster from leadership Before Republicans removed her from party leadership, Cheney kept up her criticism of the former president, bashing him to GOP lawmakers in their closed-door meeting in a sign she knew her fate was sealed. 'If you want leaders who will enable and spread [Trump's] destructive lies, I'm not your person, you have plenty of others to choose from,' Cheney told them. And she vowed to keep fighting. 'I promise you this, after today, I will be leading the fight to restore our party and our nation to conservative principles, to defeating socialism, to defending our republic, to making the GOP worthy again of being the party of Lincoln,' she said. She ended with a prayer, and told lawmakers she was praying for them. There were a few boos after Cheney spoke to the meeting, according to lawmakers in the room. GOP leader Kevin McCarthy was only the other lawmaker that spoke and, in brief remarks, told the party it was time to move on. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Cheney supporter, said of the voice vote: 'The ironic thing was it was to show unity.' He said he was surprised at how quickly it went down. 'It was definitely not what I expected.' Rep. Ken Buck, a conservative congressman who used to work for Cheney's father, Dick Cheney, said the congresswoman was canceled for speaking out against Trump. 'Liz Cheney was canceled today for speaking her mind and disagreeing with the narrative that President Trump has put forth,' he said. He said lawmakers in the room 'wanted to move on. They wanted to adjourn. They weren't looking for a recorded vote.' McCarthy will now push to unit the party and focus on the 2022 midterm election where the GOP will try to win back control of the House. McCarthy then plans to run for speaker and is counting on Trump's large, active base of supporters to help return the party to power next year after Democrats took the House, Senate and White House in the 2020 election. He's made repeated trips to Mar-a-Lago and speaks to Trump on the phone frequently. House Republicans planted themselves firmly in the camp of Donald Trump on Wednesday when they removed Rep. Liz Cheney (pictured Wednesday) from their leadership team after her criticism of the former president House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., arrives as House Republicans meet at the Capitol for the vote House Republicans push off vote on Elise Stefanik's bid to replace Cheney until Friday as she's forced to assure right-wing Freedom Caucus group of her conservative credentials House Republicans put off a vote on Rep. Elise Stefanik's (pictured Wednesday) bid to replace Liz Cheney House Republicans put off a vote on Rep. Elise Stefanik's bid to replace Liz Cheney as the No. 3 GOP leader amid pressure from right-wing lawmakers that she vouch for her conservative credentials. The move to delay a formal vote on Stefanik comes after Former President Donald Trump who Cheney accused of provoking a violent attack on the Capitol 'in an effort to steal the election' gave the New York lawmaker his public endorsement. The vote to remove Cheney came on a voice vote, after her base of support within the conference plummeted. But Stefanik, an upstate New York lawmakers who came to Congress with a more centrist background and worked for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, has been facing blowback from conservative lawmakers who hold powerful sway in the GOP Conference. Now, she is scheduled to meet Wednesday night with members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, which will be seeking assurances. Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), a Trump loyalist, told reporters about the meeting following Cheney's ouster. The confab comes after conservative GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas cast Stefanik's ascension as a risk to the party's mid-term goal of recapturing the House. 'We must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats' agenda once sworn in - that is, that we do not make the same mistakes we did in 2017,' he said. He warned against what he termed a coronation of a 'spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats.' Stefanik also met with the group Monday. In a sign of the constraints she is facing even with backing from Trump, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Minority Whip Steve Scalise, she agreed to serve a single term. In a letter to colleagues Wednesday, she stressed her 'ability to listen.' She also sought to unify her party against the 'radical Socialist Democrat agenda of President Biden and Speaker Pelosi.' Stefanik wrote to colleagues and called for 'unified leadership' to fight the 'Far-Left media narrative' 'A unified leadership team is the key foundation as we work to regain the Majority,' she wrote, in a letter that also referenced the Chinese Communist Party, 'biased media,' and 'Far-left Socialist dismantling of America.' Conservative outside group Heritage Action gave her a conservative scorecard of 56 percent compared to 82 per cent for Cheney, in an indication that Cheney's had little to do with ideology and was instead tied to loyalty to Trump and GOP concerns about mixed messaging. Last week, Trump endorsed Stefanik, writing: 'Liz Cheney is a warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership. We want leaders who believe in the Make America Great Again movement, and prioritize the values of America First. Elise Stefanik is a far superior choice, and she has my COMPLETE and TOTAL endorsement for GOP Conference Chair. Elise is a tough and smart communicator!' Advertisement House Republican Whip Steve Scalise sent a note to GOP lawmakers after Cheney's ouster to ask them to focus on the days ahead, including defeating the agenda of President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 'We, as a conference, must remain focused on stopping Speaker Pelosi and President Biden's socialist agenda. We stand with hard-working Americans,' he wrote. 'That means we must lead the fight in Congress to expose and defeat Biden's plan to pass devastating tax increases and trillions more in wasteful spending plans. I want each of you to take a leadership role in exposing the magnitude and devastating details of the Democrats' socialist plan,' he added. With Cheney out, Republicans will have to replace her as GOP Conference Chair, the Number Three leadership position. Rep. Elise Stefanik is the frontrunner for the job but is facing questions about her conservative credentials. She will meet with the House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday to reassure the right-wing of the party. The vote to fill Cheney's former position will take place on Friday but could be pushed into next week as several GOP lawmakers said they would like to speak to Stefanik before the leadership election. Stefanik also sent a letter to GOP lawmakers calling for unity as the key to win back control of the House. The letter served as her formal declaration for the position. 'A unified leadership team is the key foundation as we work to regain the Majority,' Stefanik wrote. 'If we get our message out, we will win and save America.' She listed her goals as a 'disciplined, unified message' from leadership, going on the offense 'every single day,' and 'empower all our members to shine.' After the meeting, Pelosi called Cheney a 'leader of great courage, patriotism and integrity.' 'For the sake of our democracy, reasonable Republicans across the country must take back their party,' Pelosi said in a statement. Meanwhile, Cheney plans to run for re-election in Wyoming and she has a political operation in place headed into the 2022 midterms. And she plans to keep holding her fellow Republicans accountable. 'A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him,' she said in a speech on the House floor Tuesday evening 'This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar,' she noted, wearing a pin given to her by her mother that evokes Gen. George Washington's battle flag. 'I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy.' Ahead of the vote on Wednesday morning, Trump released a statement calling Cheney a 'warmonger'. 'The Republicans in the House of Representatives have a great opportunity today to rid themselves of a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart,' he wrote. 'As a representative of the Great State of Wyoming, Liz Cheney is bad for our Country and bad for herself. Liz Cheney on Tuesday refused to back down ahead of vote to oust her from GOP leadership, calling Donald Trump a liar 'on a crusade to undermine our democracy' Ahead of the vote on Wednesday morning, Trump released a statement calling Cheney a 'warmonger'. Trump spent two days holed up in Trump Tower in Manhattan before he was pictured leaving Tuesday, along with his heavy security detail 'Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being,' Trump said in a statement after the vote House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy arrives for Wednesday morning's meeting in the basement of the Capitol Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz arrive for the meeting 'Almost everyone in the Republican Party, including 90% of Wyoming, looks forward to her ousterand that includes me!' As Trump cements his hold on Republicans, polls show the GOP is with him. The latest Morning Consult/Politico poll found 50% of Republican voters think Cheney should be removed from her leadership role, while only 18% think she should keep it. There are few Republicans who vocally oppose Trump. One is GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who has spoken out against the former president and supported Cheney. Kinzinger also spoke up against McCarthy, writing on Twitter in a long thread on Wednesday morning: 'Kevin wants to be speaker. He made the determination that if he appeased the Trump crowd, he could raise money and take the credit, when he was up for speaker. 'Liz may lose, and MAGA-lago may celebrate. But I predict that the history books of the future will not celebrate. They will say this was the low point of the Republican Party. 'The loser former guy, who has thin skin and snowflake like personality will solidify his momentary leadership, and we will solidify our position as a once honorable party that was marred by lies.' Rep. Elise Stefanik, a vocal Trump supporter, is the front runner to replace Liz Cheney in the Republican leadership; the vote on Stefanik looks to be held on Friday More than 100 Republicans - led by 'Anonymous' Trump critic - sign letter threatening to form third party unless it breaks with former President More than 100 Republicans will sign a letter on Thursday declaring that if the Republican Party does not break with former President Donald Trump and change course, they will back the creation of a third party. The letter, titled: 'A Call For American Renewal,' is an exploratory move toward forming a breakaway party, two of its organizers said. The group, which includes former officials at both state and national level, is dismayed by what it says is a modern Republican Party driven by its allegiance to Trump, who continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him. 'The Republican Party is broken. It's time for a resistance of the 'rationals' against the 'radicals,' said Miles Taylor, one of the organizers. Miles Taylor pictured with Trump Taylor added: 'This is us saying that a group of more than 100 prominent Republicans think that the situation has gotten so dire with the Republican Party that it is now time to seriously consider whether an alternative might be the only option. 'I'm one of those in the group that feels very strongly that if we can't get the G.O.P. back to a rational party that supports free minds, free markets, and free people, I'm out and a lot of people are coming with me.' Among the signatories are governors, members of Congress, ambassadors, cabinet secretaries, state legislators and Republican Party chairmen. Taylor, while serving in the Trump White House, wrote an anonymous opinion piece in the New York Times in 2018 headlined: 'I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.' Advertisement On Tuesday, one Republican lawmaker spoke out against Stefanki as not being conservative enough for the job. Republican Rep. Chris Roy of Texas argued electing Stefanik into leadership would undermine GOP attempts to win control of the House in the 2024 midterm election. 'We must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats' agenda once sworn in - that is, that we do not make the same mistakes we did in 2017,' Roy wrote in a letter sent to all GOP lawmakers that was obtained by Dailymail.com. 'Therefore, with all due respect to my friend, Elise Stefanik, let us contemplate the message Republican leadership is about to send by rushing to coronate a spokesperson whose voting record embodies much of what led to the 2018 ass-kicking we received by Democrats,' he noted. Roy opposed conservative efforts to overturn the election results and defended Cheney after she was criticized for being one of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. But he now concedes her time has come and she will exit leadership when House Republicans gather Wednesday morning in the basement of the Capitol. Stefanik is campaigning hard to replace Cheney and has the endorsement of McCarthy, Trump, and power conservative Rep. Jim Jordan. But other conservatives - including some in the powerful House Freedom Caucus - worry she is not far enough to the right for them. Cheney, a Republican from Wyoming, holds a far more conservative voting record than Stefanik, but angered Republicans when she repeatedly and publicly challenged Trump's false claim the presidential election was rigged. Stefanik, in contrast, was one of Trump's most public defenders. And Stefanik brushed off concerns about her conservative credentials. 'We have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others,' the New York Republican told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday. The vote for Cheney's replacement is expected to happen later this week. Cheney, a member of a prominent GOP family and the highest ranking woman in Republican leadership, survived that February attempt in 145-61 in a secret-ballot vote. But Wednesday changed her fate. As Republicans focus on winning back control of the House, they are increasingly turning to Trump, who still has a strong and vocal base of MAGA supporters who are expected to be active in next year's primary and general election. Cheney became an outspoken critic of Trump in the wake of the January 6th MAGA riot on Capitol Hill that left five people dead. She voted to impeach him for his role in inciting the rioters - Trump was acquitted by the Senate - but has made it clear she intends to speak out against his influence on the party. 'The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution,' she wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post last Wednesday. And she called on other Republicans to join her in speaking out against Trump's false claim he won the presidential election. 'History is watching. Our children are watching. We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process. I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be,' she wrote. Last Monday, Cheney slammed Trump for 'poisoning our democratic system' as he continued to falsely spout that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump's office sent out a statement saying: 'The fraudulent presidential election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as the big lie!' Cheney snapped back. 'The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,' she tweeted. 'Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.' The 2020 contest showed no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Several recounts in states confirmed Joe Biden's win. Multiple courts threw out Trump's legal challenges. Kevin McCarthy has embraced Donald Trump as Republicans seek to win back control of the House of Representatives Several Republicans said Trump should have done more to rein in his supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6th. McCarthy even called him out on the House floor the day, saying Trump bears responsibility for the riot. Trump erupted in fury. McCarthy flew down to Mar-a-Lago, Trump's residence in Palm Beach, to make peace. He called Trump a force in the GOP. 'He could change the whole course of history,' McCarthy told The New York Times. 'This is the tightest tightrope anyone has to walk.' Less than one-fifth of Republican voters want Liz Cheney to remain in her leadership role, according to a new poll released Wednesday as the GOP conference holds a meeting to do just that. The Morning Consult/Politico survey shows 50 per cent of registered Republican voters think Cheney should no longer serve as GOP Conference chairwoman, while only 18 per cent feel she should keep her post. Thirty-one per cent of the 627 Republicans polled say they don't have an opinion on Cheney's fate in leadership. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy scheduled a vote Wednesday, which will likely result in Cheney's ouster from her No. 3 post in the House. GOP leadership has tried to pave the way for New York Representative Elise Stefanik to take her place, though some far-right factions of the party prefer a more conservative replacement. While Republicans want to see Cheney go, Democrats and independent voters feel differently. A new poll shows only 18% of Republican voters want Rep. Liz Cheney in GOP leadership while 50% want lawmakers to vote her out of her post as GOP Conference chairwoman Wednesday GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney is facing a vote for her ouster from leadership on Wednesday Of all 1,994 registered voters polled by Morning Consult/Politico, 42 per cent said Republicans should let Cheney keep her role while 27 per cent said they should remove her. When broken up to Democrats, 62 per cent wanted her to keep her job and only 12 per cent wanted her booted. Cheney was one of the 10 Republicans in the House and the highest-ranking GOP defector to vote for Donald Trump's impeachment after the January 6 Capitol attack. Since then, she has only upped her criticism of the former president and further isolated herself from the majority of the party who still feel Trump is key to winning back a majority in the House in 2022. Trump has shot back criticisms at Cheney several times, calling her a 'warmonger' in statements from his Save America political action committee account. He also endorsed Stefanik to replace her as conference chairwoman. The former president sent a statement Wednesday morning ahead of the vote further expressing his support for ousting one of his biggest critics. 'The Republicans in the House of Representatives have a great opportunity today to rid themselves of a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart,' Trump wrote. 'As a representative of the Great State of Wyoming, Liz Cheney is bad for our Country and bad for herself,' he continued. 'Almost everyone in the Republican Party, including 90% of Wyoming, looks forward to her ousterand that includes me!' New York Representative Elise Stefanik is the front-runner to replace Liz Cheney in party leadership During remarks from the House floor on Tuesday, Cheney refused to back down as she faces the impending vote for her ouster. She called Trump a 'liar on a crusade to undermine our democracy' and attacked fellow leadership of her own Party, without naming them, for not standing up to the former president. 'Our freedom only survives if we protect it. Today, we face a threat America has never seen before,' Cheney said. 'A former president who provoked a violent attack on this Capitol, in an effort to steal the election, has resumed his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him.' The Wyoming representative added: 'Millions of Americans have been misled by the former president.' 'This is not about policy. This is not about partisanship. This is about our duty as Americans. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar.' House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy scheduled the meeting and vote to oust Cheney on Wednesday and has helped pave the way for Stefanik to take her place In a defiant last stand Cheney added Tuesday: 'Our duty is clear: Every one of us who has sworn the oath must act to prevent the unraveling of our democracy. 'Those who refuse to accept the rulings of our courts are at war with the Constitution.' She told the nearly empty House chamber: 'I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy.' McCarthy set a Wednesday vote for removing Cheney in a closed-door meeting. He sent a memo Monday to GOP lawmakers saying it was clear that they 'need to make a change.' The letter did not mention Cheney or Trump by name. Advertisement These surviving photos from a lost set taken by Ministry of Defence photographers using the original colour Kodak film give an incredible glimpse of World War Two. Pictures range from women making cannon shells at an underground factory in Merseyside to crews playing cards aboard a T-class submarine and carrying out tank manoeuvres in Hampshire's New Forest. Another image shows an 18-year-old firing a three-inch mortar as women from a small engineering company in Cornwall were treated to a day out to celebrate producing their one millionth mortar bomb. Despite colour photography only being invented a few years before World War Two, the collection still manages to capture candid snapshots of life at home and abroad in vivid detail. Kodachrome is regarded as the first 'modern' colour photographic process by using a subtractive process of red-orange and blue-greens to add in colours as the photo was being taken all of its predecessors for colour pictures used additives to transform black-and-white images. Images such as these are so rare because Kodachrome was imported into Britain from the USA and was in very short supply during World War Two. Kodachrome remained the most popular material for photography for 75 years following its invention in the mid-1930s, but was gradually discontinued after the turn of the century as digital photography came to the fore. Most of the images in this set were captured by a select band of photographers serving with the British armed forces. Around 3,000 were taken overall, with approximately 1,500 of them passed to the Imperial War Museums (IWR) for preservation in 1949 - the rest became lost. The Ministry of Information (MOI), a government department created at the end of the First World War and again in the Second World War, wanted a collection of colour images for documentation purposes and to use in publications able to reproduce colour, such as magazines in the United States. The collection, known as the 'TR Series', is included in a new book from the IWM called Britain At War In Colour, which will be published tomorrow. A Churchill MK II tank and crew from the 43rd Battalion, Royal Tank Regiment, on manoeuvres in Hampshire's New Forest. The heavily armoured Churchill was designed as an 'infantry tank' but suffered from teething problems before it was considered ready for combat. The crews here are wearing their famous black berets, adopted by the original Tank Corps in the 1920s Eighteen-year-old Eileen Oats, seen in the red head scarf, fires a three-inch mortar at an army test range in Cornwall in 1943. The teenager and other women were all workers from the J&F Pool Ltd, a small engineering company in Hayle, and were treated to a day out to see the weapons in action as a reward for producing their one millionth mortar bomb Crew members entertain themselves with a card game while aboard a T-class submarine, which was built for long oceanic voyages. As a result, crews were faced with extended periods of time in cramped conditions and, unlike the German U-boats, there were no large convoys to attack with targets few and far between. The names of these five men were not recorded A worker milling breech blocks for Sten submachine guns at a small engineering works in the south of England in 1943. The components were then sent on to a glass factory for polishing before shipment to the Royal Ordnance factory at Fazakerley, near Liverpool. Each Sten gun cost about 15 shillings (30 in today's money) and required five hours to produce Airborne troops exit a General Aircraft Hotspur glider. The use of gliders to transport men and heavy equipment was deemed an essential component in the development of Britain's airborne forces. The all-wooden Hotspur was intended as an assault glider, able to carry two pilots and eight men, but was only ever used for training 'Lumber Jills' working at the Women's Timber Corps training camp at Bulford, near Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk in 1943. Instructor Peggy Barnett is seen guiding two of her trainees. The Women's Timber Corps was part of the larger Women's Land Army and was set up in April 1942 in response to a shortage of timber for items such as pit props and telegraph poles Women at work in an underground munitions factory at New Brighton on the Wirral, Merseyside, in 1945. The factory was located in underground tunnels and caverns originally used by smugglers and then re-discovered during the construction of the New Brighton Palace amusement arcade in the 1930s A brand new de Havilland Mosquito FB Mk VI at de Havilland's factory at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, in 1943. The Mosquito, known as the 'wooden wonder' on account of its construction, was a radical design. This particular aircraft served with 23 and 108 Squadrons in the Mediterranean, but was written off in a landing accident in Malta in May 1944 A Royal Navy gunner cradles a three-inch anti-aircraft shell on the quarter deck of the destroyer, one of the ships of Escort Group B7, in Londonderry in November 1943. The turret behind houses a QF 4.7-inch gun, the standard armament on most British destroyers A member of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) checks equipment aboard an RAF Air Sea Rescue launch in November 1942. In her hand is a brass fire extinguisher, while in front is a 'Walker's Excelsior IV Patient Log', a nautical instrument used to measure speed and distance travelled, and a plumb line HMS Howe passing through the Suez Canal on her way to the Far East on July 14, 1944. Commissioned in June 1942, she was the last of the five King George V-class battleships to be completed, by which time one of them, HMS Prince of Wales, had been sunk by the Japanese Churchill tanks of 'B' squadron, 51st (Leeds Rifles) Royal Tank Regiment, 25th Tank Brigade, in Italy in July 1944. 25th Brigade first saw action in Italy in May 1944 when its three regiments supported the Canadian 1st Division's attack on the 'Hitler line' Leigh Sales has accused Scott Morrison of having a history of 'blame shifting' and 'ducking responsibilities' when it comes to Government scandals and blunders. During a wide ranging interview on ABC's 7.30 Report, Sales questioned the prime minister about his response to the 2019/20 bushfires, Brittany Higgins' alleged rape and the bungled Covid vaccine rollout. 'When it comes to taking responsibility, [Australians] have seen vaccine stumbles, not your fault, "it's a supply issue". Quarantine, "mostly a problem for states". Bushfires, "I don't hold a hose". Brittany Higgins, "I was in the dark",' she said. 'Covid deaths in aged care, "mostly the fault of state governments". Christian Porter, "I don't need to drill into the particulars". Minister's breaching standard, "I reject that anybody ever has". During an interview on ABC's 7.30 Report, Sales questioned the prime minister about his response to the 2019/20 bushfires, Brittany Higgins' alleged rape and the bungled Covid vaccine rollout Mr Morrison defiantly responded: 'That's your narrative, Leigh, but that's not one that I share' when grilled over the Government's scandals 'Does it add up to a tendency to blame shift and duck responsibility wherever possible?' Appearing to prove Sales' point, Mr Morrison defiantly responded: 'That's your narrative, Leigh, but that's not one that I share'. Sales hit back, telling the PM she had simply 'spelt out the facts'. 'There will be an opportunity for Australians to express their view when the election finally comes,' Mr Morrison said. 'Right now Im fighting the virus and keeping Australians in jobs and Im seeking to provide the best possible support for their health in response to the COVID crisis. Ill get on with my job and Ill let you get on with yours. 'At the height of the pandemic where we looked into the abyss, my government took action we saved lives and we saved livelihoods.' He continued to spruik the Government's commitment to mental health and ADF funding, action on floods in north Queensland, and disaster relief preparation. Mr Morrison also said Tuesday night's budget suggestion that the population would be fully vaccinated by the end of 2021 was merely a goal and not not a certainty. 'There is a general assumption of a vaccination program likely to be in place and by the end of this year,' he said, Sales questioned the prime minister about his response to Brittany Higgins' alleged rape in a minister's office in Parliament House in 2019 'But what that means is that there is an understanding that over the course of this year, the vaccination program will continue to roll out. And will reach as many Australians as we possibly can.' When Sales questioned Mr Morrison on the slow rollout: 'Does the buck stop with you on the success or otherwise of the vaccine rollout?' 'Leigh, everything stops with me. Im the Prime Minister at the end of the day, he said. 'The Budget rests on many things. It is important we get it done. The vaccination program, as it set out in the budget papers, assumes its likely this will be in place by the end of the year. 'That could happen with two doses, one dose. It could be months either side of that and that will not have a material impact on whats in this Budget and it would be a mistake to think it did.' Bodycam video shows Andrew Brown Jr. did not drive into the deputies who shot him dead, according to the attorneys for the black man's family, after a judge allowed them to watch more footage of his killing at the hands of law enforcement. Chance Lynch, a lawyer who viewed the footage in private with Brown's family Tuesday, said it shows Brown was sitting in his stationary car with his hands on the wheel when officers 'ambushed' him and opened fire. He said the 42-year-old black man's hands were 'visible at all times' and he at no point posed a threat to law enforcement or made contact with them. Brown's car was stationary until deputies started shooting at him, at which point he did 'the opposite' of driving at the officers, putting his car in reverse to back away from the gunfire, Lynch said. Lynch called for 'a long prison sentence' for the deputies responsible, as he described the black man's death as a 'massacre by a firing squad.' 'What we saw was a massacre by a firing squad. We want justice. We want arrest, conviction, and a long prison sentence,' said Lynch in a press conference after the viewing. Brown, a 42-year-old black man, was shot multiple times and killed on the morning of April 21 by Pasquotank County sheriff's deputies. The father-of-10 was inside his car outside his house in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, when the officers were serving him drug-related search and arrest warrants. Brown's family have repeatedly described his death as an 'execution', saying he had his hands on the steering wheel of the car and was shot in the back of the head. His death came just one day after Derek Chauvin was found guilty of George Floyd's murder. Bodycam video shows Andrew Brown Jr. (center) did not drive into the deputies who shot him dead, according to the attorneys for the black man's family, after a judge allowed them to watch more footage of his killing at the hands of law enforcement Chance Lynch (center), a lawyer who viewed the footage in private with Brown's family Tuesday, said it shows Brown was sitting in his stationary car with his hands on the wheel when officers first opened fire on him Calls have been mounting for authorities to release all the bodycam footage of the incident. To date, no footage has been released to the public or the media. Brown's family and attorney had previously been shown just a 20-second clip from one deputy's body camera. On Tuesday, they were finally allowed to view around 18 minutes of the roughly two hours worth of bodycam and dashcam footage of the incident. The footage was from one dashcam and five bodycam videos. They were not allowed to make copies or recordings of it and the footage was heavily redacted, with the faces and name tags of the deputies involved blurred out. The family's lawyers say the footage contradicts statements by the local district attorney, who said in court that deputies didn't start firing until after Brown's vehicle struck them twice. Lynch's description matches what another family attorney said after seeing the shorter 20-second clip. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten II has previously said his deputies weren't injured in the incident. 'We did not see any actions on Mr. Brown's part where he made contact with them [deputies] or tried to go in their direction,' Lynch told reporters. 'In fact, he did just the opposite. While there was a group of law enforcement that were in front of him, he went the opposite direction.' Lynch, who slammed Brown's death as 'absolutely, unequivocally, unjustified,' said the bodycam footage also shows deputies found no weapons on Brown as they searched his vehicle after pulling the fatally injured black man from the car and lying him face down. During a court hearing last month over the sheriff's request to release the video, District Attorney Andrew Womble said Brown's car was backing up when it first 'made contact' with law enforcement officers, then came to a stop before moving again. 'The next movement of the car is forward. It is in the direction of law enforcement and makes contact with law enforcement. It is then and only then that you hear shots,' Womble said. Lynch hit out at Womble over his version of events questioning 'what footage' the DA saw and telling him they weren't born 'last night.' He said the 42-year-old black man actually did 'the opposite' of driving at the officers, turning his car to go 'the opposite direction' as he described his death as a 'massacre by a firing squad' Khalil Ferebeee, Brown's son, said after watching the footage that his father 'did not deserve to die' 'I'm not sure what footage the district attorney has seen. I can only go off what he said and what he has insinuated,' he said. 'We have a saying where I'm from and that saying is 'I was born at night but I not last last night'.' Brown's family are calling for Womble to be removed from the case citing a conflict of interest between the prosecutor and the sheriff's office, saying he had worked 'directly' with the deputies involved for many years. Under state law, only Womble has the power to decide if he should step aside. Lynch described the footage he had seen as showing Brown being 'ambushed' and said the father-of-10 appeared to be 'surprised' and possibly on his cellphone at the time. 'He appears to be surprised and also appears to be on his phone,' he said. 'At all times his hands were visible. At all time's you can see he was not a threat.' He said at least one shot was fired before Brown moved his car and that he actually put his car in reverse - away from the direction of officers. 'There was a shot fired. When the shot was fired he put the car in reverse putting several feet if not yards away from the police who were there,' he said. The results of an independent autopsy released by attorneys for Brown's family shows he was shot five times; four times in his right arm and once in the head Brown's car is seen after his fatal shooting in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, on April 21 It is later seen being taken from the scene. Brown's family are calling for DA Womble to be removed from the case Lynch said Brown then turned his wheel to the left away from the officers in front of his car and that no officers were ever seen behind the reversing car. 'While there was a group of law enforcement in front of him, he went in the opposite direction,' he said. 'He turned his wheel to the left to turn it away from the law enforcement officers. 'At no point did we see any of the police officers behind his vehicle. At no point did we ever see Mr. Brown make contact with law enforcement.' Instead, he said deputies may have reached out and touched the car as Brown tried to drive away, but that he didn't initiate the contact. Lynch said that Brown went in the opposite direction of a group of officers in front of his vehicle, and that a second shot was fired as he turned to the left to go across his yard. Lynch also said there were 'so many shots' fired at Brown's car that they struggled to determine the exact number. After a final shot was fired, Lynch said Brown lost control of his car which went across the street crashing into a tree. There were at least six bullet holes on the side of the vehicle, the windows were shattered, at least one bullet hole in the front windshield and around six in the back windshield. The deputies laid Brown's body face-first flat on the ground, Lynch said. He had a bullet hole in the back of his head. Brown's son Jha'rod Ferebee told reporters his father 'did not deserve to die at all.' 'He did not deserve to get killed in any way, shape or form. He did not pose any threat at all,' he said. Attorney Bakari Sellers called for the 'arrest, prosecution, conviction and a long prison sentence' to be brought against the deputies involved in Brown's death, calling on prosecutors to 'throw away the key.' The family renewed their calls for the full release of all footage to the public. Under North Carolina law, bodycam footage is not a public record and cannot be released without a court order. The moment a 'militarized' sheriff's vehicle carrying armed deputies rushed to Brown's home At a court hearing on April 27, Judge Jeffery Foster denied a media petition to release the footage publicly for at least 30 days, saying it might impede the ongoing investigation. He said he would consider releasing it after this date if the investigation has been completed. A decision is therefore expected on whether the footage will be publicly released around May 27. Sheriff Wooten has also called for the full footage to be publicly released and North Carolina's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, urged for its swift release. 'It was my hope that we will be able to release the video publicly so everyone could see for themselves what happened,' Wooten said Tuesday after the family viewed the limited footage. Wooten and county leaders are calling for the state laws to be changed so that unredacted body camera footage can be released to families within five business days of a police incident that results in death or serious injury. While denying the public release of the footage, Foster had ordered that around 20 minutes of the two hours worth of footage would be disclosed to the family within 10 days of the April 27 court hearing. But the family were left with a further wait after the judge then took nine days to issue the written ruling from the April 27 court hearing. Foster finally handed the ruling down on May 6, meaning the 10-day time limit started from then. He approved the disclosure of video one in its entirety (3 minutes and 1 second). He has also approved 1 minute 40 seconds from the almost 35 minute-long video two, 4 minutes 50 from the 32 minute long video three, 4 minutes 30 seconds of the 17 minute long video four and 4 minutes 40 of the 30 minute long video five. All footage approved for release comes from the beginning of each respective recording. Ten deputies were on the scene of Brown's death but just five had bodyworn cameras activated. After viewing the 20-second clip from one deputy's body camera, an attorney for Brown's family said it showed an 'execution'. Attorney Chantel Cherry-Lassiter said it shows deputies shot Brown as he sat with his hands on the steering wheel of his BMW. An independent autopsy commissioned by his family said Brown was shot five times, including once in the back of the head. The state autopsy is yet to be released. A copy of Brown's death certificate says he died from a gunshot wound to the head. The delay in releasing the footage has sparked outrage across North Carolina, with protesters taking to the streets since his death demanding transparency over the black man's death. While law enforcement have released few details about Brown's death, police instead released court documents about the search warrant that brought them to Brown that day describing him as a drug dealer. Jha'rod Ferebee (left) and Khalil Ferebee (right) speak during the funeral for their father Andrew Brown Jr. at the Fountain of Life church last week Reverend Al Sharpton leads a prayer with Andrew Brown Jr.'s sons Khalil Ferebee and Jha'rod Ferebee at Brown's funeral It's a move that sparked more outrage with the family's attorney Ben Crump accusing authorities of protecting the officers while they 'assassinate the character' of Brown. The identities of the officers involved in the shooting were finally released in late April as the three officers who Wooten said did shoot at Brown - investigator Daniel Meads; deputy Robert Morgan and Cpl Arron Lewellyn - remain on administrative leave. Pasquotank County Sheriff Tommy Wooten announced four other deputies - Lt Steven Judd; Sgts Michael Swindell; Kenneth Bishop and Joel Lunsford - were cleared to return to active duty after the investigation revealed they did not fire their guns. All seven had initially been placed on administrative leave after Brown's death. Meanwhile two others - Deputy Sheriff William Harris and Lt. Christopher Terry - resigned in the aftermath and Deputy James Flowers retired. The FBI has launched a civil rights probe into the shooting, while state agents are conducting a separate investigation. Audrey Nicole Francisquini, 28, is accused of conducting the elaborate ruse at American Senior High School in Hialeah on Monday An ex-cop turned cruise line worker sneaked into a high school prom disguised as a teenage skateboarder to try and get students to follow her Instagram, it is claimed. Audrey Nicole Francisquini, 28, has been slapped with multiple charges over the incident which occurred at American Senior High School in Hialeah on Monday morning. The aspiring influencer allegedly wore a backpack and carried a skateboard in order to appear a decade younger than her actual age. She is accused of stopping multiple students to give them printed pamphlets with her Instagram name on it, and is said to have tried crashing the school's prom, according to CBS12. Investigators have not shared details of that Instagram account, although DailyMail.com has tracked down an Instagram belonging to Francisquini whose stories show her dressed in a skateboarder-style t-shirt, shorts and mis-matching trainers. Her posts see her ranting about Joe Biden, designer clothes, her ex-partner and the sheriff's office she used to work for - sometimes while wearing a Satan mask. Francisquini was arrested on Monday after being spotted by a school staffer who asked her to report to their registration office, only to begin wandering the halls of American Senior. The wannabe social media star also filmed herself inside the school and shared the footage to her Instagram Stories, it is alleged. These have since disappeared. The aspiring influencer allegedly wore a backpack and carried a skateboard in order to appear a decade younger than her actual age. Francisquini is pictured on her Instagram account Security officers say Francisquini initially asked to go to the registration office before she began wandering the halls of the school (pictured). She was arrested shortly afterwards Francisquini was confronted by security and was told to leave the campus, but she allegedly refused to do so, according to an arrest report. School administrators were subsequently advised of a 'potential threat on campus', prompting Francisquini to flee the school via the faculty parking lot, it is claimed. Police used the aspiring influencer's Instagram account to track her down before she was arrested at her home. Francisquini made her first court appearance Tuesday, wearing an orange jumpsuit and mask. She has been charged with burglary, trespassing, and resisting arrest. On Tuesday, Francisquini looked far from being a glamorous influencer as she made her first court appearance clad in an orange jumpsuit and face mask Francisquini's elaborate plot to procure more Instagram followers looks to have failed. She has just 388 followers on her Instagram page, which consists mainly of photos of street art and a young boy who appears to be her son Francisquini's elaborate plot to procure more Instagram followers looks to have failed. She has just 388 followers on her main Instagram page, which consists primarily of photos of street art and a young boy who appears to be her son - and angry rants. However, it seems Francisquini is eager to capitalize on her newfound notoriety, appearing to have created a second account featuring her new police mugshot. 'Goal 30K [followers]. Content coming stay tuned,' the account's bio reads. Meanwhile, Monday's arrest is not Francisquini's first brush with the law. She previously worked as a deputy with DeKalb County Sheriff's Office in Georgia, where she was charged in January 2017 after allegedly hacking into another female cop's phone. She then maliciously posted the woman's private nude photos to her Instagram and Snapchat accounts, it is alleged. The outcome of that case has not been shared, and DailyMail.com has contacted DeKalb County Sheriff's Office for further information. Francisquini later left that job after being put on administrative leave. She now reportedly works with Carnival Cruise Lines. Advertisement Desolate construction zones, stray building materials and abandoned heavy machinery: This is what remains along parts of the US-Mexico border nearly four months after President Biden ordered all construction on the wall to stop. More than 450 miles of the border wall was erected under the Trump administration, which included replacing hundreds of miles of existing fencing and constructing 80 miles of new steel barriers. But Biden, who had vowed not to build 'another foot' of Trump's flagship wall, signed an executive order that immediately paused all construction when he took office on January 20. Nearly four months on and as Biden faces a growing migrant crisis, DailyMail.com has captured eerie drone footage and images of what parts of Arizona and Texas now look like after the once bustling construction sites were ordered to shutdown. Dozens of trucks and diggers that once crawled over rocky mountainsides are now parked in deserted construction zones in remote parts of Arizona. Huge piles of steel fencing and other construction materials, including pipes, lie stacked on the ground. A long stretch of rural land was carved out in the Patagonia Mountains of Arizona, just outside Nogales, in preparation for the border wall before construction was halted Drone footage captured by DailyMail.com shows the abandoned construction sites along the US-Mexico border nearly four months after President Biden ordered all construction on the wall to stop. Pictured is a deserted construction site in the Pajarito Mountains in Arizona More than 450 miles of the border wall was erected under the Trump administration, which included replacing hundreds of miles of existing fencing and constructing 80 miles of new steel barriers. Pictured above is the border wall running through Arizona's Pajarito Mountains Biden, who had vowed not to build 'another foot' of Trump's flagship wall, signed an executive order that immediately paused all construction when he took office on January 20. Pictured above is the half-built wall near Guadalupe Canyon in Arizona A section of border wall that was being replaced in Del Rio, Texas, has been left unfinished and construction equipment has been abandoned in the wake of Biden's executive order DailyMail.com has captured eerie drone footage of what parts of Arizona and Texas now look like since the once bustling construction sites were ordered to shutdown. More than 450 miles of the border wall was erected under the Trump administration, which included replacing hundreds of miles of existing fencing and constructing 80 miles of new steel barriers The footage also shows large portions of the half-built wall snaking through the mountainside and sections that have already been cleared to make way for the barriers. Remnants of the old border wall that was in the process of being replaced also lie discarded in areas ranging from the Coronado National Monument to Guadalupe Canyon and the Pajarito and Patagonia Mountains. Evidence of how construction was immediately abandoned is also clear in places like Del Rio, Texas, where small barricades have been erected around half-finished sections of the wall and large diggers remain motionless. The town was supposed to include a two mile section of the border wall. So far, just a couple of hundreds yards have been erected. Diggers remain on site and trenches that had already been dug are unfilled. Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez, who oversees Del Rio, is now demanding answers given the condition the wall was left in. 'We have a fence protecting the fence and a temporary fence to protect our borders,' Martinez told DailyMail.com. 'The original fence protected our community. I'd like to see it complete or put it back to the way it was. 'You can't leave it like this forever. Is there a plan?' Construction materials lie stacked on the ground in the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona Construction materials lie abandoned on the ground near Guadalupe Canyon in Arizona where the border wall has only been half built This stretch of land had already been cleared in preparation for the border wall to be erected. Steel barricades can be seen above lying by the side of the path after Biden halted construction The border barrier in this stretch of the Guadalupe Canyon in Arizona can be seen half built. Other stretches of the rural area had already been cleared out before the order was given to halt construction Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez, who oversees the Texas border town of Del Rio, is now demanding answers given the condition the wall was left in Diggers remain on site and trenches that had already been dug remain unfilled in Del Rio, Texas Del Rio was supposed to include a two mile section of the border wall. So far, just a couple of hundreds yards have been erected. Pictured above is an abandoned digger that has been fenced off after Biden paused construction Martinez said construction on the portion of the wall in Del Rio started in June last year but abruptly stopped when Biden was sworn in. 'As soon as this administration took over the job stopped,' Martinez said. 'The contractors were given about a week to make sure these locations were safe to the public... work has not continued since. 'These sections of fences were left unfinished.' Sergio Galindo, who supplied construction materials for parts of the Del Rio wall, said he had been working on it for about three months before it stopped. 'It looks really bad. You've got an old section of the fence... you've got a couple hundred feet of new fence, you got a few more hundred feet of temporary fence and then another mile and a half of old fence,' he said. At the time construction stopped, Galindo said there was at least 120 labor contractors on the job. 'All of a sudden it was down the pipeline,' he said. Biden's order to stop construction left billions of dollars of work unfinished - but still under contract. There has been no word yet from the White House on what Biden plans to do with contracts for wall construction that had already been awarded but have yet to be completed. Portions of the half built wall can be seen above near Guadalupe Canyon in Arizona. The stretch of already flattened land goes through jaguar sanctuaries, national forests and lands important to Native American communities This construction site in the Patagonia Mountains of Arizona lies abandoned in the wake of Biden's executive order. Heavy machinery and building supplies remain in the area Huge piles of streel fencing remains stacked up in Arizona's San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge where construction of the border wall was already underway Construction materials, including pipes and cement barricades, lie abandoned in this site near Arizona's Guadalupe Canyon Huge piles of steel fencing and other construction materials, including pipes, lie stacked on the ground in parts of Arizona Heavy machinery, including dozens of trucks and diggers, that once crawled over rocky mountainsides are now parked in deserted construction zones in remote parts of Arizona Large amounts of construction materials are deserted in the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge near Guadalupe Canyon Construction materials lie abandoned on this site in Arizona's Patagonia Mountains following Biden's executive order Prior to Trump leaving the White House, the government had spent $6.1 billion of the $10.8 billion in work it signed contracts to have done, a Senate Democratic aide told the Associated Press at the time. The full amount under contract would have extended Trump's wall to 664 miles. Of the 1,954-mile US-Mexico border, barriers currently cover 706 miles of it. In his 2016 presidential run, Trump had originally vowed to build a 'big, beautiful wall' on the border that would be 1,000 miles long. It comes as the Pentagon said late last month that it was canceling all border wall construction projects paid for with military funds. Trump had ordered the diversion of billions of dollars in Pentagon money to pay for the wall after being denied funding by Congress. 'Consistent with the president's proclamation, the Department of Defense is proceeding with canceling all border barrier construction projects paid for with funds originally intended for other military missions,' deputy Pentagon spokesman Jamal Brown said last month. Brown said the returned funds would be used for deferred military construction projects. A border wall construction site appears to be deserted near Guadalupe Canyon in Arizona Construction machinery lies abandoned on a long stretch of rural land that was already carved out in the Patagonia Mountains of Arizona The Biden administration has announced two new border-related projects. One will address soil erosion in a 14-mile stretch of barrier construction by the Trump administration near San Diego, California. The other will see holes in the Rio Grande Valley levee system left by the wall construction project filled in. Since Biden took office, there has been a rush of people trying to illegally get into the country and the number of children in detention centers has doubled over the last two months. Now, there are 21,000 children in US custody. Under the Biden administration, minors are allowed to stay in the United States with relatives. Neither the President nor Vice President Kamala Harris has visited the border in the four months since taking office. It comes as US residents who live along the border are begging the government to put a stop to the illegal crossings. A Texas farmer found five abandoned girls, all aged under 7, from Honduras and Guatemala on his land on Sunday. Jimmy Hobbs, the 75-year-old farmer and his wife Katie gave an interview to Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales which was posted on Twitter after the pair submitted photos and videos to social media groups that campaign for tighter border control. Three young migrants hold hands as they run in the rain at an intake area after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday night in Roma, Texas Migrants line up at an intake area after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday in Roma, Texas These five little girls from Honduras and Mexico were found on Sunday by a Texas onion and watermelon farmer Jimmy Hobbs, who was making a round of his land in Quemado, which borders the Mexican state of Coahuila. The photo was posted on Twitter by Congressman Tony Gonzalez on Sunday after first being shared on border Facebook groups The youngest of the girls is so little she can't walk yet. She was naked when the farmer arrived and the girls didn't have any diapers for her either. She is shown being cradled by one of the farm workers' wives They also called on the wife of one of their workers, who speaks Spanish, to comfort the girls. They are now in CBP custody, along with 21,000 other kids Gonzalez also shared a gut-wrenching image of the girls lying in dirt. In one of the videos she shared, Katie fumed in the background: 'These children dumped out on the side of the river here on our farm. 'If this doesn't make you mad and make you want to take to the streets, I don't know what will. They have no mother, no father, no nothing. This is one of our workers' wives right here taking care of this tiny one. No one with these children.' Hobbs is an onion and watermelon farmer who has lived on the land he owns his entire life. The farm is in Quemado, Texas, which sits on the border with the Mexican state of Coahuila. He said that he believes the girls would have died if he hadn't found them, and that the situation at the border is the worst it has been in the 75 years he has lived on the farm. He and his wife warned that there will be 'thousands more' who get into perilous danger and die this summer trying to illegally cross the border as temperatures rise and President Biden continues to shrug off the crisis and leave it to Vice President Kamala Harris to handle instead. Meanwhile US border agents encountered 9 percent fewer minor migrants trying to cross the border last April after record numbers in March but overall apprehensions reached a 15-year high. Data showed that the border patrol agency encountered 178,622 undocumented immigrants seeking to enter the United States in April, surpassing March's total by 5,274. Border agents encountered 17,171 unaccompanied children, down 9 percent from 18,890 in March when a record number of unaccompanied migrant children entered U.S. custody along the southern border. That figure is still well above the previous high of 11,475 reported in May 2019. Israel's Iron Dome protected citizens from terrorist attacks by the Palestinian Hamas group. Hamas' rocket barrage that rained down on the region on Monday night is no match for Israel's Iron Dome short-range missile defense system. The Hamas terrorist group fired up to more than a thousand rockets from Gaza targeting Jerusalem and southern Israel. Videos making the rounds on social media showed how Israel's Iron Dome protected the citizens below the skies when the short-range missile defense system targeted the Hamas rocket barrage. According to Breitbart, the Iron Dome of Israel was able to fire missiles from batteries, intercepting the rockets from Hamas' barrage and destroying them mid-flight to prevent them from landing and detonating in the cities below. Some of the rockets launched by the Hamas terrorist group landed in Israel and caused damage, but no one was reported to have been killed by the attacks. The Israel Defense Forces reported that a total of 1,050 rockets was fired at Israel in a period of 40 hours. "This is why we need to defend ourselves," the IDF said. The Iron Dome was developed by Israeli defense technology company Rafael with financial and technical support from the U.S. Following its successful development and deployment, the U.S. has purchased Iron Dome batteries to defend the country from similar threats. According to the Washington Post, the Iron Domes that were used to respond to the most recent Palestinian terrorist attack in Israel was first used in 2011 to prevent short-range rockets and artillery like those fired by the Hamas group in Gaza. The technology relies on a radar system and analysis to determine if an incoming rocket is a threat and intercepting it if the system finds that it is indeed one. The interceptors, which are fired from a launch site or a mobile unit, are used to detonate the incoming rocket mid-air. A separate Breitbart report also showed that several high-ranking commanders of the Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror groups were slain in Israeli raids on Tuesday in what was called the "Operation Guadian of the Walls." The IDF eliminated over 100 targets in the Gaza Strip between Monday and Tuesday following the Hamas rocket barrage. At least 23 people perished in the Israeli attacks, reportedly including nine minors. About 107 Palestinians were injured. Former President Donald Trump took to his new microblog to speak out on the Palestinian terrorist attack on Israel, once again criticizing the Biden administration for his "weakness and lack of support for Israel" which is "leading to new attacks on our allies" and causing the world to become "more violent and more unstable." "Israel's adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel was attacked," the former president wrote. "America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself." Ex-U.S. ambassador to Israel Martin S. Indyk told the New York Times that President Biden has a "conflict management, rather than conflict resolution" approach to the conflicts in Israel. He urged the president to "become more active" by appointing an American ambassador to Jerusalem, building a consulate in Jerusalem and "[establishing] a dialogue with the Palestinians." The White House said on Tuesday that U.S. officials have "private, lower-level contacts" with Palestinian leaders, including Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas' senior adviser, Hussein al-Sheikh. Editor's note: Updated report to correct details regarding the Iron Dome's efficiency in intercepting Hamas' rockets. We apologize for the mistake. A New Orleans serial killer who had already been sentenced to life in prison for murdering a botanist after Hurricane Katrina has pleaded guilty to killing three more women in a bid to avoid the death penalty. Joseph Brant, 51, entered his pleas to three counts of first-degree murder on Tuesday, admitting that between 2007 and 2008, he sexually assaulted and shot dead Kirsten Brydum, 25; Jody Johnson, 47, and another woman who was never identified. In exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors have agreed to not seek the death penalty against Brant, who is currently serving an 11-year on a burglary conviction in Texas, which will be followed by a life term in Louisiana for the stabbing to death of 32-year-old Jessica Hawk. Serial killer: Joseph Brant, 51, has pleaded guilty to three first-degree murder charges for the killings of three women in New Orleans between 2007 and 2008 Brant confessed to sexually assaulting and killing Jody Johnson, 47, in January 2008. He also admitted to forcing Kirsten Brydum, 25 (right) to perform oral sex on him at gunpoint, and then shooting her dead in September 2008 Tuesday's hearing was marked by wild outbursts and interruptions from the defendant, who mocked his two attorneys as 'these white boys' and called one of them 'a f***ing two-legged dog.' Brant, who is black, only agreed to sign the plea form after a black public defender agreed to join the hearing. Brant is due back in court on June 1, when victim impact statements will be presented. Brant is currently serving an 11-year sentence for a burglary conviction in Texas 'Me and my sister look alike,' Jana Wood, Johnson's sister, told Nola.com. 'I want him to think hes seeing a ghost. I just want him to know how much he took from me.' This week's pleas come three years after Brant made a detailed confession in 2018, in which he admitted to preying on women for sex and then brutally killing them in the tumultuous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005 and left chaos in its wake for years to come. During a prison interview on February 6, 2018, Brant told investigators that on October 17, 2007, he solicited an unnamed woman for sex, pulled a knife on her after she rejected his advance, then strangled her to death while trying to rape her. Brant said he then placed the woman's body inside a stolen car abandoned by the train tracks, doused her with gasoline and set her alight in order to cover up the murder, reported The Advocate. That victim has not been named and is known only as 'Jane Doe.' On January 11, 2008, Brant said he saw Jody Johnson, a former cheerleader from Georgia struggling with a painkiller addiction, walking in the 7th Ward and solicited her for sex. In 2016, Brant pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges stemming from the August 2008 killing of Jessica Hawk. Hawk, a 32-year-old botanist, was found dead inside her home He drove the woman to Piety Street, where he forced her to perform oral sex on him at gunpoint. Afterwards, Brant got the victim out of the car, shot her in the head and set her body on fire. On August 11, 2008, Brant stabbed Jessica Hawk, a 32-year-old botanist, inside her home on Chartres Street in Bywater. The fourth and final victim was Brydum, a 25-year-old activist from San Francisco, whom Brant spotted riding her bicycle in the Upper 9th Ward in September 27, 2008, and forced her to perform oral sex on him at gunpoint. After shooting the woman in the head, Brant said he was driving to get gasoline to burn the victim's body when he got into a car accident, which spoiled his plans. Brydum's body was discovered in the 3000 block of Laussat Place. Brydum was an organizer of a monthly San Francisco gathering at which people exchanged goods and services called the Really Really Free Market. She had arrived in New Orleans two days before her body was found. 'She was just an amazing individual that did things all directed at helping our planet peacefully coexist,' her close friend Frank Lindsay told Nola.com. Her final journal entry described arriving in New Orleans on September 25, where she was to spend just 36 hours before returning to San Francisco. Brydum, Brant's final victim, was an activist visiting from San Francisco who had arrived in New Orleans two days before her death 'Right now I'm rolling into New Orleans. I really don't know what to expect,' Brydum wrote. 'The sun is setting on the bayou-licked lands and I am truly fortunate.' Brant confessed to the Hawk slaying in 2013 and three years later pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder and obstruction of justice. A judge sentenced him to life in prison, to be served after he completed his previous sentence for the burglary conviction in Texas. Brant was nearing the end of his sentence in that case in early February 2018 when he told his attorneys he wanted to provide information on other unsolved killings in New Orleans in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and serving any additional sentences in a Louisiana prison. Brant was indicted on three counts of first-degree murder stemming from the killings of Brydum, Johnson and 'Jane Doe,' but three years of setbacks followed, caused by the defendant's courtroom outbursts, a mental health evaluation and the coronavirus pandemic. Despite confessing in 2018 to committing sex crimes against the victims, in court on Tuesday Brant denied those claims, saying that he 'only' kidnapped Brydum and did not force himself on her or any of the other women. 'His delusional semantics aside, he raped Kirsten and his other victims,' Brydum's friend Ben Rosenfeld told the newspaper. 'The suffering he inflicted, and basic sexual assault awareness, require that we remember that.' Priti Patel is 'considering her options' for the future of the independence police complaints watchdog, her deputy said today as he came under fire over its 'dodgy' report into Scotland Yard's discredited celebrity paedophile probe Policing Minister Kit Malthouse faced a barrage of angry questions over the actions of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), whose conduct is being examined by MPs. He was taken to task over a report by the IOPC into Operation Midland, the bungled Met probe into into baseless allegations of child abuse against VIPs including Tory former ministers. The 2019 review of Scotland Yard's handling of complaints by 'Nick' - fantasist Carl Beech - recommended no officers face punitive action because they acted honestly even while making mistakes. Tory MP Tim Loughton said that the IOPC investigation had been a 'whitewash' and a dodgy report that fails to grasp the seriousness of what has happened with Operation Midland'. Asked if the Home Secretary might take action over the report Mr Malthouse said: ' At the moment she is considering her options.' But asked what the options were he added: 'I dont have that to hand im afraid'. Policing Minister Kit Malthouse faced a barrage of angry questions over the actions of the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), whose conduct is being examined by MPs. Tory MP Tim Loughton said that the IOPC investigation had been a 'whitewash' and a dodgy report that fails to grasp the seriousness of what has happened with Operation Midland'. Operation Midland led to high profile former politicians being investigated on suspicion of child sex offences. They included the former Cabinet minister Leon Brittan. Carl Beech's ludicrous allegations were deemed 'credible and true' by the Metropolitan Police. He was later jailed for perverting the course of justice. Operation Midland led to high profile former politicians being investigated on suspicion of child sex offences. They included the former Cabinet minister Leon Brittan. He was accused by Beech, whose ludicrous allegations were deemed 'credible and true' by the Metropolitan Police. Beech was later jailed for perverting the course of justice. The fiasco not only cost the taxpayer millions of pounds but also severely damaged the reputations of other innocent public figures, including Field Marshal Lord Bramall, Edward Heath and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor. The exchange came the day after Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick appeared in front of MPs. She came under fire over her role in Operation Midland yesterday as she admitted 'many mistakes' were made but stood by her decision to investigate Carl Beech's 'credible' claims. The Scotland Yard Commissioner told MPs public confidence in her force had been damaged by the disastrous multimillion-pound inquiry into an alleged VIP paedophile ring based on the lies of fantasist Carl Beech, known as 'Nick'. During a grilling by MPs, the officer appeared unclear about her role in the scandal, claiming first that she left the force before Beech was interviewed by detectives before clarifying she was Assistant Commissioner at the time. But she defended the decision to investigate Beech's claims, even though it turned out he was a 'very, very capable liar' who had the ability to 'lie in a credible manner', she said. Her use of the word credible echoes former Detective Superintendent Kenny McDonald in 2014 when he said he and senior officers believed Nick's allegations to be 'credible and true'. Advertisement A writer behind Netflix's smash period drama Bridgerton is selling his lavish Los Angeles home for $4 million 25 years after buying it for just $600,000. Oliver Goldstick, 60, an award-winning television writer and producer whose other credits include 'Pretty Little Liars, 'Ugly Betty' and 'Desperate Housewives,' hopes to sell his four bedroom Los Feliz property for the seven-figure sum, with many of its features as luxurious as those found in the lavish stately homes of the TV drama whose second series he is currently working on. The 4,500-square-foot Mediterranean-style home, known as Casa Amarilla, boasts three floors, high ceilings and spacious rooms, including a 1,000-square foot master bedroom with its own spa-like bathroom. The award-winning writer for Bridgerton is selling his spacious 4,500-square-foot Mediterranean-style home in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles for nearly $4 million The property includes a 40-foot pool and a yoga room, with stunning views of downtown Los Angeles and Catalina Island The gigantic master bedroom, pictured, offers over 1,000 square feet of space, and has its own self-contained living room The room comes complete with a huge bed, reading area and writing desk Goldstick described his family's home - which he bought 25 years ago - as a 'secret' which offers a break from the hustle and bustle of LA The property - which Goldstick bought in 1996 for $600,000, includes a spacious backyard and lots of outdoor space Goldstick's has a manicured lawn and ivy on its walls. He described the property as the perfect place to spend lockdown Ornately tiled steps lead from the property inside, with Goldstick saying the home is extremely private, and well set-back form the street it sits on 'The house is like a secret from the street, and I love that,' Goldstick told Mansion Global. 'You have no idea looking from the outside that it's many levels with high ceilings and magnificent views.' 'It's totally private,' he added. 'You sit in the bathroom and you're looking over the city. It is pretty extraordinary.' There are two additional bedrooms on the top floor of the mansion, which provided Goldstick, his partner and their two teenage sons plenty of space during quarantine. 'There are a lot of big, gracious rooms,' said Dorothy Carter, the agent for Douglas Elliman who is listing the property, 'but there's also a lot of flex-space as well.' The mansion has a chef's kitchen, which opens up into a cozy family room, according to the Sacramento Bee. It also has a formal dining room with nine-foot ceilings, a loft above the living room, a home-office with its own bathroom, a minstrels' gallery and multiple patios overlooking the celebrity city. The property offers plenty of views of Los Angeles, from several different porches. On a clear day, you can see Catalina Island from the house, according to owner Oliver Goldstick It has a yurt nestled into the hillside, which Goldstick and his family are currently using as a gym and yoga studio The property's four large bedrooms are spread across three floors, with celebrity neighbors including Angelina Jolie The house's sitting room offers glorious views of Downtown Los Angeles and magical Californian sunsets Goldstick has put couches on his property's terraces, enabling him and his family to enjoy an enviable al-fresco lifestyle On clear days, Goldstick said, you can see all the way to Catalina Island. 'You don't feel like you're that high above the city until you're inside,' he said, 'and then you realize, 'Oh it really does open up the entire city.' The exterior of the home has manicured landscaping, a 40-foot in-ground pool and a yurt nestled into the hillside that Goldstick and his family currently use as a gym and yoga studio. 'This warm, beautifully-preserved historic home, dating back to the silent-screen era is a rare find,' the Douglas Elliman listing reads, saying it is an easy walk to the 'trendy shops of Vermont and Hillhurst, the trails of Griffith Park, and a brief commute to most of the studios of the downtown.' The mansion, with its own dancing and party space, has been the site of many weddings, fundraisers and concerts over the years, and Goldstick's family has hosted more than 100 people inside at a time for concerts and other events. Goldstick said he could be relaxing in his bath in his master bathroom and still see the city. The house has its own 'party space', and can easily host 100 guests at a time Goldstick's walk-in closet is Moorish-themed, and includes ample space for clothes, as well as shoes Goldstick said the size of the property, and the way its rooms are spaced out, made it a stress-free place to spend lockdown with his partner and their two teenage children Goldstick's shaker-style kitchen includes immaculate marble counters, as well as an industrial cooker The house dates back to the 1920s, when silent film stars and famed producer Cecil B DeMille bought property in the area The master bathroom has exquisite stained-glass windows, and offers plenty of space to relax in A designated dining room has a nine-foot tall ceiling, and plenty of space to seat eight for dinner Families can play chess while watching the sun set over Los Angeles from the comfort of their home The top floor offers yet more expansive living space, as well as two further bedrooms It was built in 1923 by silent film stars, like many other homes in the area, much of which was previously owned by film director and producer Cecil DeMille. Other Los Feliz residents include Kristen Bell, Jon Hamm, Colin Farrell, James Cameron and Angelina Jolie. Goldstick and his partner bought the house for $600,000 in 1996, and have resided there for over 25 years, while Goldstick worked on his shows, for which he has received several awards including a Golden Globe, Writers Guild Award, three People's Choice Awards, GLAAD Award, NAACP Image Award and a Peabody Award, according to IMDB. His work on the ABC Family show 'Pretty Little Liars' made it an international success, and Bridgerton has become Netflix's highest-rated series ever, with 82 million viewers after it debuted on Christmas Day 2020. The first season of the period drama, set in the Regency era which spanned from 1811 to 1820, tells the story of London heiress Daphne Bridgerton, played by Phoebe Dynevor, and her attempts to bag a suitable husband. She concocts a scheme with rakish bachelor Lord Simon Hastings, played by Rege-Jean Page, to fake a romance to make them appear more desirable, but matters are complicated when the pair fall in love with one another. Producers are currently working on the second season of Bridgerton, which will tell the story of Daphne's older brother Anthony, played by Jonathan Bailey, and his attempts to find a love. Hollywood icon Dame Julie Andrews narrated the show, and voiced the part of mysterious gossip columnist Lady Whistledown, whose true identity was later revealed to be one of the show's main characters. The series is based on the Bridgerton romance novels by US author Julia Quinn. The first season of Bridgerton - which has become Netflix's biggest ever show - told the story of Lord Simon Hastings, played by Rege-Jean Page (left) faking a romance with Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor, right) to appear more desirable to others Bridgerton writer Goldstick's property is located in the Los Feliz section of Los Angeles, home to many other celebrities Former President Donald Trump celebrated the removal of Liz Cheney as the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives on Wednesday morning, mocking her as a 'bitter, horrible human being.' The message was posted on his website minutes after Republicans held a secret ballot removing her as chair of the House Republican Conference. Her opponents say her vociferous criticism of the 45th president is distracting from party attacks on Democrats and President Joe Biden's agenda. 'Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being,' said Trump. Donald Trump weighed in on Liz Cheney's future as Republicans began assembling for a vote to remove her from her post, condemning her as a 'warmonger' 'I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our country. 'She is a talking point for Democrats, whether that means the Border, the gas lines, inflation, or destroying our economy.' He accused her family of being a warmonger and made a prediction that she would continue sniping from the sidelines. 'I look forward to soon watching her as a paid contributor on CNN or MSDNC,' he added. Minutes earlier she was removed from her leadership position, as widely anticipated. Liz Cheney delivered a fiery address on the eve of a vote to remove her as the third most powerful Republican in the House of Representatives for her stance on Trump However, she promised to continue her campaign against Trump. 'I will do everything I can to make sure the former president never gets anywhere near the Oval office,' she said. It sets the scene for a protracted war. As well as removing her from House leadership, Trump aides are believed to be considering who to back as a Republican primary challenge in Wyoming ahead of next year's mid-terms. Minutes before the vote, Trump also released a statement setting the scene for her removal. In an earlier statement, Trump urged Republicans to drop Cheney, accusing her of being a warmonger and a 'person with absolutely no personality or heart.' 'The Republicans in the House of Representatives have a great opportunity today to rid themselves of a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart,' said Trump. 'As a representative of the Great State of Wyoming, Liz Cheney is bad for our country and bad for herself. 'Almost everyone in the Republican Party, including 90% of Wyoming, looks forward to her ousterand that includes me.' In a fiery speech on the House floor on Tuesday night, Cheney again condemned Trump for falsely claiming that November's election was stolen from him. 'Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar,' she said. 'I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence, while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy.' As Trump cements his hold on Republicans, polls show the GOP is with him. The latest Morning Consult/Politico poll found 50% of Republican voters think Cheney should be removed from her leadership role, while only 18% think she should keep it. There are few Republicans who vocally oppose Trump. One is GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who has spoken out against the former president and supported Cheney. 'Liz may lose, and MAGA-lago may celebrate,' he wrote on Twitter ahead of the vote. 'But I predict that the history books of the future will not celebrate. They will say this was the low point of the Republican Party.' athan Bakewell, then aged 26, was given a life sentence, only to be released The enraged sister of a woman who was raped and then murdered is calling for serious convicted offenders to be jailed until the day they die in prison. Anne-Marie Culleton was just 20 when Jonathan Bakewell, then aged 26, strangled her to death in her bed in a Darwin flat back in 1988. He broke into her apartment where she was asleep before violently raping and attacking her. Bakewell then callously stuffed Anne-Maree's body face-down in the shower, with the water scalding hot in a bid to remove possible evidence. Eileen Culleton (pictured) wants to see serious convicted offenders jailed until the day they die in prison In 1988, Eileen's sister Anne-Maree Culleton (pictured) was murdered in her own apartment by Jonathan Bakewell He was originally sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole - but he successfully appealed and was freed in 2016. The lack of justice angered Anne-Maree's sister Eileen Culleton, who is now determined to see killers and rapists like Bakewell never re-introduced into society. 'Rapists are laughing in the faces of victims,' she said. 'It's disgraceful. The only way to guarantee community safety is to keep rapist-murderers locked up for life.' Eileen's quest for justice began on November 25 last year, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. A petition addressed to every state Attorney-General and also the federal Attorney General, secured more than 5000 signatures. Her timing couldn't be better, with NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman set to soon make a ruling from a submitted report in relation to sentencing for murder and manslaughter cases. 'I have received and am carefully considering the Sentencing Council's report on sentencing for homicide offences,' he told 7NEWS.com.au. 'There is no crime more heinous than murder. It not only takes the lives of its victims, it forever alters those of loved ones and affects the entire community.' Following his release in 2016, Jonathan Bakewell (pictured right after his arrest in 1988) has breached parole four times and has previously boasted about his ability to 'fool drug tests' Jonathan Bakewell strangled Anne-Marie (pictured) to death in her bed before stuffing her body face-down in the shower, turning the temperature to scalding hot in a bid to remove evidence Bakewell, now 59, was released from custody on September 8 in 2016 after winning an appeal in the High Court of Australia. He has since breached parole four times, and on March 30 this year was again jailed after cannabis was detected in his bloodstream. An unremorseful Bakewell has previously boasted about his ability to 'fool drug tests'. I witnessed a truly terrifying moment of television this morning. A moment that exposed the true insidious nature of the appalling cancel culture enveloping our world. It came on Good Morning Britain, the show from which I recently cancelled myself after refusing to apologise for disbelieving Meghan Markle's behemoth of bullsh*t during her Oprah whine-athon. And it emanated from the mouth of Tony Blair, a man who won three terms as British Prime Minister. Blair has many faults, not least his career-defining, reputation-slaying decision to unite with President George W Bush on the catastrophic war in Iraq. But one thing I've always admired in him is his willingness to speak his mind, however sensitive the subject. Until now. Scroll down for video Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is 68, added: 'I am afraid I am of an age where I am now terrified if I can talk about any of these subjects that I am going to say something that I should not say. It is a minefield on virtually everything. If you are of a certain generation, you are not sure what you can or what you can't say. Or whether you can make a joke about something you cannot make a joke, so I will leave it at that' This morning, he was quizzed by his own former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell, the man temporarily sitting in my vacated GMB seat, about comments he had written about him in his memoirs. Campbell, who suffers from depression, told Blair: 'You said that there are two types of crazy people, there are crazy people who are just dangerous, and there are crazy people who are creative and give you energy and ideas, and that's Alastair's type of craziness.' Then Campbell took his old boss and close friend to task for his use of language. 'Do you accept that's a tad stereotyping of mental health?' he scolded. Initially, Blair tried to make a joke of it. 'Yes,' he replied, 'but it's probably better than if I'd put you in the former category.' But then Blair, who is 68, added: 'I am afraid I am of an age where I am now terrified if I can talk about any of these subjects that I am going to say something that I should not say. It is a minefield on virtually everything. If you are of a certain generation, you are not sure what you can or what you can't say. Or whether you can make a joke about something you cannot make a joke, so I will leave it at that.' I was absolutely stunned. Blair also said: 'The correct course for progressives on culture questions is to make a virtue of reason and moderation. To be intolerant of intolerance saying you can disagree without denouncing. To seek unity. To eschew gesture politics and slogans' Here was one of the most famous world leaders for the past 50 years bowing to the woke mob and admitting he dare not say what he thinks for fear of being cancelled. Blair may as well have taken both knees to them while he was at it and begged for pre-emptive mercy lest he say anything in the rest of the interview that might upset them. There were several ironies to this humiliating spectacle. The first is that Campbell has previously called himself 'crazy'. In an interview with UK tech firm Plexal, he said: 'There is no better feeling than that energy that you have when you're a bit kind of crazy and a bit manic.' So, he only seems to object to stereotypical mental health language when it is other people using it, the same kind of hypocrisy we see all the time from those woke warriors Meghan and Harry who love to preach about equality and climate change from their Californian mansion and private jets. The second irony is that Blair has just penned a brilliant piece in New Statesman magazine about the dangers of cancel culture in which he urged liberal leaders to stand up to it and stop 'being backed into electorally off-putting positions' on cultural issues like transgenderism. Blair wrote: 'A progressive party seeking power which looks askance at the likes of JK Rowling is not going to win. Progressive politics needs to debate these cultural questions urgently and openly. It needs to push back strongly against those who will try to shout down the debate.' Blair has just penned a brilliant piece in New Statesman magazine about the dangers of cancel culture in which he urged liberal leaders to stand up to it and stop 'being backed into electorally off-putting positions' on cultural issues like transgenderism Blair explained the inherent self-harming danger of intransigent wokery in a way that should make President Biden sit up and take notice as he's repeatedly dragged towards it by people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 'There is a big culture battle going on,' Blair said. 'Progressive folk tend to wince at terms such as 'woke' and 'political correctness', but the normal public knows exactly what they mean. And the battle is being fought on ground defined by the right because sensible progressives don't want to be on the field at all. The consequence of this is that the 'radical' progressives, who are quite happy to fight on that ground, carry the progressive standard. The fact that it ensures continued right-wing victory doesn't deter them at all. On the contrary, it gives them a heightened sense of righteousness, like political kamikaze.' Blair was quizzed by his own former Downing Street communications chief Alastair Campbell (seen above on GMB this morning) Blair perfectly articulated why the woke mentality is so alienating to most voters: 'People do not like their country, their flag or their history being disrespected,' he said. 'The left always gets confused by this sentiment and assume this means people support everything their country has done or think all their history is sacrosanct. They don't. But they query imposing the thinking of today on the practices of yesterday; they're suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme; and they're instinctively brilliant at distinguishing between the sentiment and the movement. They will support strongly campaigns against racism; but they recoil from some of the language and actions of the fringes of the Black Lives Matter movement. You could go through the entire litany of modern causes and find the same from Extinction Rebellion to trans rights to Reclaim the Streets in the same way. People like common sense, proportion and reason. They dislike prejudice; but they dislike extremism in combating prejudice. They support the police and the armed forces. Again, it doesn't mean that they think those institutions are beyond reproach. Not at all. But they're on their guard for those who they think use any wrongdoing to smear the institutions themselves. And they expect their leaders to voice their own opinion, not sub-contract opinion to pressure groups, no matter how worthy.' Blair concluded: 'The correct course for progressives on culture questions is to make a virtue of reason and moderation. To be intolerant of intolerance saying you can disagree without denouncing. To seek unity. To eschew gesture politics and slogans. And when they're accused of being insufficiently supportive of the causes which is inevitable to stand up for themselves and make it clear they're not going to be bullied or pushed around. This will lose some votes among a minority with loud voices; but it will bind the solid but often silent centre to them. And, of course, it will allow the causes themselves to be effectively pursued, as the last (UK) Labour government did with its own revolution in gay rights and the pathway to equal marriage and the forced conversion of the Conservative Party on the issue.' Blair's lengthy article was one of the best things I've ever read about the menace of woke cancel culture, and all the more powerful coming from a liberal leader who enjoyed huge electoral success. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are pictured during their Oprah interview He knows that with the exception of Biden's 2020 election win over Donald Trump, which was almost entirely down to the pandemic and Trump's woeful leadership during it, most liberal parties around the world have been losing power and support. And he also knows it's the hard-left woke nonsense that is driving many traditional liberal voters to vote for populists like Trump in 2016 and Boris Johnson in the UK in 2019. Biden, and every other liberal leader, should heed his warning as a matter of urgency. But perhaps the biggest powerful message Tony Blair could have possibly sent about woke cancel culture was contained in his own abject surrender to it on Good Morning Britain today. If someone who's run a country like Britain for ten years, a place built on freedom of speech and expression, is now too scared to even speak out about things like mental health, race or gender, lest he upsets the woke mob, then the mob's battle is nearly won. Shame on you, Mr Blair. This is not a time for such surrender, it's a time to practice what you preached in your New Statesman piece and take the fight to these insufferable, intolerant, increasingly oppressive woke numpties. I met an 80-year-old Australian lady on my morning walk in West London a few days ago who stopped me to say I had her full support over the Princess Pinocchio debacle. 'I loathe these self-righteous so-called woke people telling us what to do, say and think all the time,' she declared. 'You can't have an opinion or joke about anything anymore or they get mortally offended and want you ruined. They're sucking all the fun out of life.' I couldn't have put it better myself. Enough of this crap. If we don't rise up to stop the ever more frenzied woke insanity, it will drown us all in a tidal wave of opinion-devoid, humour-defunct, preaching, virtue-signalling blandness and that's not a place I think most of us want to wash up. I'm heading for the culture war beach with my metaphorical bayonet to stop these imbeciles from wreaking even more damage on society. Who's with me? Advertisement A total of 186 migrants arrived in Britain by small boat yesterday in the second busiest day for Channel crossings of the year so far. May is on track to see the most crossings of 2021, with 636 migrants making the treacherous journey in the first 12 days, with more 2,744 detained since the year began. The whole of March saw a record-breaking 831 crossings. April 28, the busiest day of the year, saw 209 cross the waters in nine boats. Yesterday's first arrivals were seen huddled on the back of Border Force cutter Speedwell at around 6.30am with their large grey rigid hulled inflatable boat in tow. The men and women all wore orange lifejackets and face masks as they disembarked at Dover Marina, Kent for processing. May is on track to see the most crossings of 2021, with 636 migrants making the treacherous journey in the first 12 days Migrants are pictured arriving into Dover marina, escorted by Border Force officials earlier this month Border Force officials were seen helping one woman off the boat after she was picked up making the crossing earlier in May More men were later brought in around 9am on smaller Border Force vessels due to the size of the large RHIB used. Children under the age of 10 wearing thick winter coats were among a group brought in around 11am. The last boat carrying almost 30 migrants was intercepted late in the day and brought in for processing around 5pm. French authorities also prevented 96 migrants from making the dangerous voyage in seven boats, according to the Home Office. At around 7am, 29 migrants including five women were dropped off at Dunkirk after their boat was discovered stranded on the riprap of the breakwater near Malo-les-Bains dyke Four migrants in difficulty were also rescued by the Notre-Dame-de-Risban cruiser eight miles off Calais. They were returned shortly after 9.30am. On Monday around 50 migrants are thought to have been caught by officers making the treacherous 21-mile crossing from France, meaning more than 2,500 people have been prevented from making the journey across the Straits of Dover so far this year. On Sunday, Border Force intercepted 81 migrants on three inflatable dinghies while French authorities caught 70 in two boats. On Saturday, UK officials detained 49 migrants in three small boats. All those captured by Border Force were brought into Dover harbour where they were handed over to immigration officers as nearly 200 migrants were intercepted by UK officials last week. Last year, 8,410 migrants were detained making the crossing compared to 1,850 in 2019. Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, told MailOnline earlier this week: 'Until it's made beyond doubt that such arrivals will not be granted asylum, numbers will go on increasing. That's as clear as day.' Around 50 migrants were said to have been caught by officers on Monday, meaning more than 2,500 people have been prevented from making the journey across the Straits of Dover so far this year. Pictured earlier this month In March, Priti Patel announced plans to overhaul Britain's immigration regime by giving border guards patrolling the Channel greater powers to turn back migrant boats. The crackdown will be dependent on France and other countries accepting the return of migrants. 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. According to official figures more than 2,500 migrants have been detained already this year. Pictured earlier this month The National Crime Agency has issued an alert to the UK maritime industry, warning them that organised crime groups may target them to obtain small boats for people smugglers. The alert warns that since global Covid-19 lockdown measures were imposed in March 2020 the number of migrants attempting to enter the UK using small boats has rocketed. The NCA says UK law enforcement detected in excess of eight thousand migrant arrivals throughout 2020 and that this has led to a rise in demand for vessels to aid migrant Channel crossings, with demand likely to continue as weather conditions improve through spring and summer. It says organised crime groups are known to target legitimate sellers of vessels and equipment such as outboard motors and life jackets, both in person and online. There are also incidents recorded of boats and equipment being stolen. The NCA has conducted a number of operations targeting those who supply boats to people smugglers, but the agency is asking those in the industry to report concerns or suspicious activity relating to the purchase of boat equipment. Dr Karl has revealed why a young Brisbane dentist woke up from tonsil surgery to discover she had an Irish accent, despite never visiting the country in her life. Angie Yen, who was born in Taiwan but raised in Australia, was shocked to realise her accent suddenly changed as she sang in the shower eight days after the surgery. Scientist Karl Kruszelnicki said the condition - Foreign Accent Syndrome, which has been recorded about 100 times in history - was likely caused by a brain disorder. He hit back at critics who claimed Ms Yen's accent sounded fake or inconsistent, explaining the accent was not real but rather a 'distorted version of the patient's existing language.' Australian dentis Angie Yen (left) woke up with an Irish accent, despite never visiting the country in her life. Dr Karl (right) said she likely had Foreign Accent Syndrome 'It is usually caused by a brain disorder. This can be from head injury, stroke or surgery. It can also be related to diabetes, immune disorders or other unknown causes,' the popular scientist captioned a video directed to Ms Yen on TikTok. 'It's not a real foreign accent, but rather a damaged form of the person's native language and accent. 'To speak clearly requires incredibly precise control of the lungs, larynx, tongue, lips, jaw and mouth. Even a tiny amount of alcohol can make you slur your words.' Dr Karl said the disorder could be fixed through speech training, potentially through an acting school or a speech pathologist; which would be covered by Medicare. Ms Yen (pictured) woke up from an operation on her tonsils to find she was speaking with an Irish accent eight days later Ms Yen has documented her traumatic experience with Foreign Accent Syndrome on TikTok with daily vlog updates. In a video posted on Wednesday, Ms Yen revealed she was struggling to pay for treatment despite having 'top cover' private health insurance. 'It's un-nerving to suddenly lose control of one's voice and to be locked into a single speech modality. I hope the acting classes help,' Dr Karl told Ms Yen. Ms Yen, who documented her transformation over two weeks, showed the Irish accent progressively getting stronger as she recovered from surgery. The accent didn't kick in until eight days after the operation in a phenomenon even her doctors couldn't explain. She claims she went to the hospital and spoke to her specialist after the accent persisted but was told to 'sit tight' and 'let the body heal'. 'I woke up this morning and I was speaking with my Aussie accent, and I called one of my friends and confirmed that my Aussie accent was back but during the phone call, within five to 10 minutes, she could see the deterioration of my accent back to Irish,' she said on day two. 'I don't know what to do, this is something that's very different. I'm not even trying, I'm completely freaked out. I thought it was going to go away when I woke up this morning.' Ms Yen believes she is suffering from Foreign Accent Syndrome, a condition that has only been recorded just over 100 times in history and usually occurs after a brain injury Ms Yen has embraced her Irish accent, attaching the nation's initials and a four-leaf clover to her Instagram bio The following day Ms Yen said there were 'no traces of Aussie twangs anymore' and she had gone 'full Irish'. 'I still can't believe I woke up with an Irish accent yesterday. I've never been to Ireland. I grew up in Australia. My Aussie accent is gone.' Ms Yen posted another video to her TikTok nine days after first noticing the Irish accent, saying it wasn't as 'thick' any more but said she was still very upset. 'In terms of how I am coping, I am definitely still in the third stage of grief, and the last two days were not pretty,' she said in the video. 'Yes I know I need medical attention and to see doctors but it's a struggle to even find the right person to look into me and tell me what's wrong and get me back to my old self,' she said in her latest video. She said she's found a neurologist who specialises in stroke rehabilitation who is willing to meet with her and help diagnose the problem, without confirming it is FAS. Several commenters accused Ms Yen of fabricating the story, but she angrily rejected the claim and said she hopes people 'learn something from her journey.' 'Unfortunately it's not fake. I bloody damn hope that my Aussie accent is coming through, as it's what I've had for the last 20 years,' she replied to one critic. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Ms Yen for comment. Advertisement A diamond-dealing Russian multimillionaire and his model wife have began a divorce fight in the British courts over their multi-million pound family fortune. Russian businessman Dmitry Tsvetkov, 40, and his wife Elsina Khayrova, 33, set up home in a lavish 22million mega-mansion in Surrey with their two young children. But they have now 'fallen out' and are battling over family property worth millions of pounds including 'expensive Cartier jewellery' and 'supercars' produced by Ferrari and Bentley, as well as paintings by the likes of Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Marc Chagall, London's High Court heard. In addition to their mansion, the couple are thought to have five apartments in London worth a total of 18million, lavish properties in Cyprus and a 2million penthouse in Dubai - in a portfolio worth around 42million in total. This week, the estranged couple both bid to sue each other in the High Court for 'delivery up of property' they insist is theirs whilst gearing up for a divorce battle. Russian businessman Dmitry Tsvetkov (left, outside the High Court in January 2010), 40, and his wife Elsina Khayrova (right, at Morton's Club London in June 2018), 33, set up home in a mansion in Surrey with their two young children The mansion in Surrey boasts its own pool, spa, wine cellar and cinema and underground car park with space for ten cars The interior of the luxurious 22million mega mansion which is where the couple set up home with their two young children Mr Tsvetkov, who came to the UK from Russia and became a British citizen in 2010, hit the headlines in January in a court row over a 15million diamond with then-business partner Rustem Magdeev in a Graff boutique in Cyprus. His wife Ms Khayrova is the daughter of Russian politician Rinat Khayrov, who is thought to earn 105,000-a-year as a member of President Putin's party. Their family mansion boasts its own pool, spa, wine cellar and cinema and underground car park with enough space for ten cars. In the diamond court row, Mr Magdeev's lawyer Stephen Robins claimed that financial documents showed Mr Tsvetkov had bought a 30,000 Hermes crocodile skin bag for his wife on expenses. But the couple have now turned on each other and Mr Tsvetkov has left the family home, the court heard. Mr Tsvetkov's lawyer Ashley Cukier is accusing Ms Khayrova of taking her husband's passport after he departed and refusing to give him it back. Elsina Khayrova (left) with Blaire Fraser at Blaire's Birthday Soiree at The Caledonian Club in London on January 9, 2020 [left] and at the Mary Katrantzou London Fashion Week lunch at Mark's Club in London on February 23, 2016 (From left) Elsina Khayrova, Alina Uspenskaya and Vera Khristofferson attend the ArtSocial Christmas Gala in London on November 29, 2019 Botagoz Aubakirova (left) and Elsina Khayrova (right) attend 'Russian Brunch' at Annabel's in London in March 2020 Paul Mitchell QC, for the wife, denied she has her husband's passport and asked for 'delivery up' of millions of pounds worth of the valuable possessions the couple enjoyed, including cars, jewellery and works of art. The court also heard the couple were in a dispute over 'questions of title in respect of supercars' and artworks, some of which were bought from the Christie's auction house. Mr Mitchell said: 'No one has actually, until this morning, put in issue at all the ownership of the works of art and the vehicles... there is no suggestion she is not the legal owner of them.' Referring to the paintings, Mr Mitchell asked: 'Why should Mr Tsvetkov be enjoying these paintings when they belong to my client?' He told Judge Nigel Lickley QC that Ms Khayrova has invoices proving she paid for the items and that they belong to her alone, something her husband denies. But Judge Lickley, delivering his ruling after a short High Court hearing, dismissed both the husband and the wife's applications for delivery up of the contested property, telling them they must sort their differences out in the divorce courts. A cinema room at the mansion in Surrey is one of the many extravagant features within the 22million property A swimming pool is also part of the 22million estate in Surrey which is where the Russian couple set up home One of the bathrooms at the 22million property in Surrey which is where Mr Tsvetkov and Ms Khayrova set up home 'The parties are married, but in the process of divorcing,' he said. 'The husband seeks recovery of passports in his name that he says were delivered to the family home after he left and were retained by Ms Khayrova and he needs his passports back. 'Ms Khayrova says that she doesn't have the passports and an issue arises as to where the passports are. 'Ms Khayrova cross-applies for delivery up of assets which total many millions of pounds, including expensive Cartier jewellery, works of art by famous painters and expensive motor cars. 'The purchase documents for the property are in her name and she in entitled to at least assert that the property is hers. Mr Tsvetkov hit the headlines in January in a court row over a 15million diamond with then-business partner Rustem Magdeev in a Graff boutique in Cyprus Mr Tsvetkov (pictured in the light blue suit on the right), next to Francois Graff, at the opening of a Graff store in May 2015 'I am told by counsel for the husband that it is not as simple as that. There are divorce proceedings that will decide how the family property is distributed.' The judge went on to dismiss both the husband and the wife's applications, saying: 'This is not the appropriate forum to resolve the matters here today.' He told the couple: 'Evidence would be necessary, I would need to hear from you both.' 'You will be advised by your lawyers what the appropriate steps are in due course,' he concluded, telling them they could both afford to pay their own court costs and adding 'these are people of considerable means and assets.' Their battle will now be carried on in the divorce courts at a later date. Boris Johnson's former top adviser on the Union has backed calls for Westminster legislation to prevent another independence referendum. Former-Tory Scottish MP Luke Graham said a law should be passed which states such votes can only be held after at least 20 years have passed since the last one. It would mean a referendum would not be until 2034 at the earliest. Mr Graham said the law should also set out that a vote will only be permitted in specific circumstances, such as if a party secures a majority after pledging to hold one. It comes after the Mail revealed yesterday that former Tory MSP Adam Tomkins - a constitutional lawyer who has previously advised the UK Government - called for ministers to consider whether to 'legislate rather than litigate' if the SNP presses ahead with its plan for a rerun of the 2014 referendum. Former-Tory Scottish MP Luke Graham (pictured) said a law should be passed which states such votes can only be held after at least 20 years have passed since the last one. It would mean a referendum would not be until 2034 at the earliest Issues around the constitution are reserved to Westminster. Former Tory MP Mr Graham said the UK Government should consider legislation to ensure a referendum takes place once in a generation. Mr Graham led Mr Johnson's Downing Street Union unit until earlier this year. The unit was established to try to counter calls for Scottish independence and to stop the break up of the UK. He said: 'A precedent was created with David Cameron that, if you get a majority in the Scottish parliament who say they want to break away from the UK then you should have a referendum, and that has obviously set us on a particular path. 'It would be better to articulate exactly when these things should happen and who is involved. Mr Graham led Mr Johnson's Downing Street Union unit until earlier this year. The unit was established to try to counter calls for Scottish independence and to stop the break up of the UK. Pictured: Mr Johnson today 'The Scottish parliament have obviously passed (draft) legislation to try to define their own mandate and way to hold referenda elections and I think it would be good for Westminster to update that again. 'We need to be quite careful, though, that you don't fall into the trap of looking like you are moving the goal-posts deliberately. So timing of this needs to be very carefully thought through so it doesn't look like we've got a knee-jerk response to a pro-independence majority.' Mr Graham said legislation should be introduced in the 2022/23 parliamentary term, as the focus should remain on the coronavirus recovery.' Setting out what he thinks the legislation should say on the timing of another referendum, Mr Graham said: 'Realistically it has to be at least 20 years before you get into that routine. Mr Graham said the law should also set out that a vote will only be permitted in specific circumstances, such as if a party secures a majority after pledging to hold one. Pictured: Nicola Sturgeon 'And it shouldn't say you will hold one every 20 years, it should just be if there is a new majority or demand. 'What is really important that does go into any legislation is that you have got to get two-thirds of the vote when changing the constitutional position of the country.' Mr Graham said he believes there is currently 'a lot of thinking going on' about issues such as legislation on an independence referendum. Most Americans see social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter as a driving force to divide rather than unify the nation, a new survey released on Sunday revealed. An NBC News poll that was conducted in April showed that up to 64% of the 1,000 respondents said social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter do more to divide the nation than bring people together. Only 27% of respondents believe that it brings people together. According to Faithwire, the new poll that surveyed a thousand respondents showed that 77% of Republicans, 54% of Democrats, and 65% of independents believe that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are divisive. Up to 70% of White respondents and 65% of Latino respondents believe the same. However, Black respondents were divided, with 42% claiming social media is more divisive and 40% claiming it is unifying. The new poll also revealed that 61% of young adults and 71% of seniors believe that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are in fact fracturing the country rather than bringing its people together. Among social media users who use the sites at least once a day, 49% of respondents believe it enhanced their lives, while 37% of respondents believe the behavior made their lives worse. Only 32% of respondents said social media made their lives better, while 24% said these platforms made their lives worse. According to the New York Post, the COVID-19 pandemic has also impacted how users interact with social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Up to 43% of users believe their screen time has increased because of the pandemic, while 49% believe it stayed the same. Only 8% thought their screen time had decreased as a result of the pandemic. Analysis published by the Pew Research Center in April found that the majority of Americans often use YouTube and Facebook, while social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are most often used by young adults aged 30 and below. YouTube was found to be the most commonly used online platform in the survey, with 81% of Americans admitting that they use the video sharing site. The rate has increased from just 73% in 2019, most likely due to the pandemic that forced people to stay indoors and learn new things through video content. The Pew Research Center also found 84% of adults ages 18 to 29 said they use social media sites, while 81% of those aged 30 to 49 said the same. Social media is not only seen as divisive more than unifying, as it has also been found to contribute to mental health struggles among the youth. USA Today reported that a study released in March showed how social media can affect a young person's mental health, especially in the midst of a pandemic. "Of course it's a double-edged sword. Once we look at how and why they use social media, our understanding of the role social media plays in their lives becomes more nuanced," survey lead Vicky Rideout explained. "While social media may bring them some tragedies, it can also bring them hope and empowerment." A world-leading veterinary surgeon who had bipolar disorder was found hanged at his holiday home in Finland, an inquest has heard. Dr Nick Short, from Reading, Berkshire, would 'go quiet' and disappear at times when his mental stress came to the forefront, a coroner was told earlier today. He had recently retired from the Royal Veterinary College, London, as the Head of Electronic Media, a role he had filled for almost 20 years, before he was found hanged earlier this year. Dr Short's body was found on February 15 in an outbuilding at his holiday home in Hanko, Finland, alongside a note just two days before his 62nd birthday. Dr Nick Short, from Reading, Berkshire, would 'go quiet' and disappear at times when his mental stress came to the forefront, a coroner was told earlier today In the opening of his inquest today, the assistant coroner for Berkshire, Alison McCormick, heard that the vet had suffered from bipolar mood effective disorder throughout his life. Following an autopsy in Finland, doctors confirmed Dr Short, who was married and a father, had died as result of hanging. During his time at the prestigious veterinary school, Dr Short was the driving force behind WikiVet - a free resource to veterinary professionals around the world. Dr Short graduated from the University of Bristol and then completed an MSc in Tropical Veterinary Medicine at the University of Edinburgh before he co-founded Vet Aid in 1988 along with two other veterinary colleagues. Vet Aid assists some of the poorest communities in Africa that depend on animals for their survival. It raises awareness in the UK, through veterinary school workshops and presentations and, as well as this, Vet Aid offers students at veterinary schools to volunteer through there Extra Mural Studies program each year. He worked as a volunteer vet, Government adviser and consultant around the world and he was supporting Vet Aid in the UK before his tragic death. He had recently retired from the Royal Veterinary College, London, before he was found hanged earlier this year In an online remembrance book, friend Pete Wedderburn said: 'I met Nick in 1985, thirty six years ago. 'He was working in Swaziland at the time, as an enthusiastic and idealistic young vet. He never lost that idealism and his enthusiasm continued too, only diminished at those sad times when his bipolar disease quietened him. 'He was lovely and loving, gentle and kind, thoughtful and intelligent, altruistic and selfless, a model of who a good human being should be. It is a paradox that while it was depression that took him away from us, my memories are only of Nick laughing, smiling and being cheerful. 'Perhaps it was his care for others that meant that when he was depressed, we often didn't know it: instead of complaining, Nick just went quiet and absent. 'Now, of course, we wish we had known more about his pain. We wish we might have been able to do more to help him, we wish so much that he was still here. 'Our thoughts are with Malla, the girls, and Nick's extended family. If we, his friends, feel such pain at his loss, how much more awful it must be for them. 'We were lucky to be in your orbit Nick. You left the world a better place than it was when you arrived: from Vet Aid to WikiVet and much more, you did so much for others.' Friend Jerry Salt added: 'Since meeting Nick when we started at vet school at Bristol all those years ago, he has enhanced my life and opened my eyes to so much that I would otherwise never have seen. He never changed for me in all that time. 'Nick's legacy rightly lives on with his charitable work in Africa and his academic enterprises from eLearning to WikiVet itself. Life will never be quite the same knowing that we'll never meet again.' The family did not want flowers at the funeral, instead asking mourners to donate to Bipolar UK, a 'charity close to Nick's heart'. Similarly, grieving friend Louise Curtis, said: 'Nick truly was my idol. I told him this once but I'm sure his vast modesty didn't let the words in. 'I hope he knew how many people thought highly of him and how loved he was. 'We met when he was designated as my tutor in my second year as a student at RVC. He continued to be my biggest support and source of inspiration throughout my time at RVC and afterwards, as we worked closely together for Vet Aid. 'The huge number of contacts and relationships Nick had built with people all over the world never ceased to amaze me. That is a testament in itself to how highly he is thought of. 'His passion and kindness was completely inspirational. He had so much more to give to this world and I hope to help carry on his legacy through Vet Aid. 'He has influenced my career and life ever since we met and will continue to do so, always.' Sitting at the inquest opening in Reading, Berkshire, Ms McCormick confirmed the full inquest will be heard on June 21. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details. Mixing and matching Covid vaccines could lead to more side effects, scientists say. British guidance says people should be given two doses of the same jab because of a lack of data on alternating doses. But there are ongoing trials of giving one type for the first dose and a different type for the second, to see if it makes them work better or could help countries smooth out bumpy supply chains. Oxford researchers found people jabbed with AstraZeneca then Pfizer, or the other way around, were more likely to report symptoms like fever, chills or headaches. There is not yet any data showing whether the mixed dosing regimes made the jabs more effective. Experts say side effects could indicate a stronger immune response but add that this is not a clear link. Despite Britain not currently advising mixing and matching, other countries, such as France, have offered AstraZeneca recipients a top-up with Pfizer's vaccine because of blood clot scares. There have been several cases where NHS vaccinators have ended up administering the wrong second dose but it is not believed to cause any safety issues. More than 35.5million Britons have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine and 18.4m have been fully vaccinated. Oxford scientists found that alternating Covid vaccine types for the first and second doses appeared led to more people claiming they felt side effects (Pictured: A nurse fills a syringe with vaccine) The Com-COV study found alternating jabs sparked an increase in side-effects. The above table shows the rate of different side effects by group, which each included about 110 people. ChAd refers to AstraZeneca's vaccine, and BNT to Pfizer's jab. Most notable are more reports of fatigue and malaise (tiredness), fever, headache, joint pain and muscle ache The decision to delay doses has allowed the UK to achieve one of the most successful vaccine programmes in the world. More than 35million Britons - over half the entire population - have already been given at least a one dose and a further 18m are fully jabbed Professor Matthew Snape, a vaccinologist and chief investigator on the study, told a briefing that the team 'don't know yet' whether higher rates of side effects mean the vaccine is triggering a stronger immune response. 'The full picture will become apparent when we have the antibody readout as well, and then we can see whether or not this had led to an improved immune response,' he said. 'We know that at individual level that doesn't always apply, but you'd like to think that if you'd had a really strong vaccine reaction and had fever and so on that means you have a better immune response. COVID VACCINES OPEN TO 38 AND 39-YEAR-OLDS FROM TOMORROW The coronavirus vaccine programme in England will open up to people under the age of 40 for the first time tomorrow. NHS England said around a million adults aged 38 and 39 will be invited to come forward for their jab from Thursday morning. They will be offered either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine on the back of guidance from medical regulators last week. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said under-40s should be given an alternative to the AstraZeneca jab due to its link to rare blood clots. The NHS Digital bulletin said 38 and 39-year-olds already booked in for a first dose of the British vaccine will have their appointment cancelled. People who qualify for a jab will be invited via a text from 'NHSvaccine', which includes a web link to the health service's online booking service. Those who can't access the internet can call 119 instead to get an appointment at one of 1,600 sites administering the vaccines across England. So far more than a quarter of the entire UK population - 18.1million - has been fully vaccinated against Covid and more than half - 35m - have received the first dose. NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said the success of the rollout was owed to 'careful planning and precision of NHS staff'. Advertisement 'That correlation isn't as robust as you might expect.' The Com-COV trial, full name Comparing Covid Vaccine Schedule Combinations, is the first in the world to look at mixing coronavirus jabs. A total of 463 people aged between 50 and 69 were enrolled in this part of the research and received their jabs four weeks apart. Results showed 37 of 110 people who got the AstraZeneca then Pfizer dosing regime experienced chills (33 per cent). And out of the 114 participants who got Pfizer then AstraZeneca, 47 (41 per cent) said they had a fever as a side effect. For comparison, the rate of fever in people who got two doses of the AstraZeneca jab was just 10 per cent (11 of 112). And among those who got two doses of the Pfizer it was 21 per cent (24 out of 112). 'These data suggest that the two vaccine schedules in this trial might have some short-term disadvantages,' the team wrote. 'Regardless, it is reassuring all symptoms were short-lived and there were no concerns from the limited data available.' Data presented in the academic paper suggested fatigue and malaise, fever, headache, joint pain and muscle ache were all reported more often from people who had a mixed vaccine schedule. Professor Snape said last month: 'The risk with mixing is you're going to see suboptimal immune responses, or a response that is not as good as in the original vaccine course. 'I, personally, would be surprised if that was the case, [but] we just don't know what the outcome will be yet.' The results were published in a letter to prestigious journal The Lancet, ahead of the release of the full data next month. He suggested there was a risk that mixing vaccines could lead to more workplace absences, which was important to consider for key workers like nurses and doctors. Side effects were reported as only mild or moderate in the vast majority of cases and the scientists said they identified no safety concerns with mixing the jabs. Of people involved in this arm of the study, 212 were women and 117 were men. Around a quarter took paracetamol to reduce symptoms. Professor Matthew Snape said they were yet to establish if alternating doses made vaccines more effective Clinical trials show both the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccine can trigger side effects including fever, headache and muscle soreness, but that these are short-lived. These figures are just one arm of the Com-COV study, which is also looking at alternating doses using the Moderna and Novavax shots. Scientists also plan to test blood samples for Covid antibody levels, to see whether the alternated jabs sparked a stronger immune response. AstraZeneca's vaccine was 76 per cent effective at blocking symptomatic Covid infections in clinical trials, compared to 92 per cent for Moderna's and 95 per cent for Pfizer's. Experts point out these results are 'very good' for any vaccine, adding the World Health Organization only set the bar at 50 per cent and annual flu jabs are often only around 40 per cent effective. AstraZeneca's and Novavax's jabs uses a cold-modified virus containing Covid spike proteins to teach the immune system how to fight off the disease. While Pfizer and Moderna's jab uses mRNA instructions for building proteins to trigger production of the spike particle. Six Flags has responded after an autistic mother alleged that she was 'body shamed' and 'threatened' by a park manager and police officer over the length of her shorts at Frontier City, a Six Flags theme park in Oklahoma City. Six Flags claims their decision to remove her had more to do with her behavior towards the officer than it did her shorts. They also say she had multiple chances to cover up or change, but they had no choice but to remove 'after she refused to stop her unruly and offensive behavior, targeted at the police and other park guests.' Bailey Breedlove from Colorado shared a video of the altercation with the female officer about her 'too short' shorts on Facebook and TikTok, where it has gone viral, after visiting the park on April 30 with her 11-year-old daughter, who was brought to tears over the confrontation. 'My experience there was traumatizing,' the mom wrote in her post, explaining that she and her family were welcomed into the park at 5pm without any issue until a few hours later. Bailey Breedlove from Colorado visited Frontier City, a Six Flags theme park in Oklahoma City, on April 30, where she said she was confronted by police The mother shared a video of the altercation with the female officer about her outfit on Facebook and TikTok, where it has gone viral In her post, she claimed that her 11-year-old daughter was 'yelled at by a park police officer' for rolling down a hill on wheeled sneakers She said the officer then 'grabbed her arm' and told her that her denim shorts were 'too short' before calling the park manager for backup Breedlove claimed her daughter was 'yelled at by a park police officer' for rolling down a hill on her Heelys skate shoes. She said the same officer then 'grabbed her arm' and told her that her denim shorts were 'too short.' 'I committed no crime and proceeded to walk to my boyfriend as I am autistic and have a hard time talking to officers,' she recounted. '[The officer] followed me yelling and calling for backup. 'Then your incompetent manager showed up and began body shaming me. I was told I needed to go buy new shorts, which I am not obligated to purchase anything I don't want to.' Breedlove claimed that when she agreed to buy new shorts so her family could 'enjoy their vacation,' she was 'threatened with criminal trespassing' and 'then pushed and escorted toward the entrance.' Breedlove's daughter was crying hysterically during the altercation, which the mom said was 'traumatizing' Breedlove alleged that the manager 'began body shaming' her and told her she needed to 'buy new shorts' The mom claimed she was 'threatened with criminal trespassing' before being 'pushed and escorted' out of the park Breedlove added that the officers refused to show her their badges and that she was 'terrified [she] was about to go to jail over a pair of shorts' 'I was then pushed and escorted toward the entrance. Accepting this, we were about to leave and were blocked by your female officer from leaving and she pulled out her cuffs and demanded my ID,' she added. 'When we asked for probable cause, their answer was "because they are the police."' Breedlove said they started recording the altercation so they would have a video of the 'unlawful tactics.' The clip she shared on social media shows her sitting down next to her daughter while the manager tells her she is being 'disorderly.' He and the officer both ask for her ID, so he can request a criminal trespass order. 'Look at this. Look at what you are doing to my daughter,' the mom says, pointing to her child, who is sobbing next to her. 'They wouldn't provide us with badge numbers and I was terrified I was about to go to jail over a pair of shorts,' she wrote in her post. Breedlove shared in her post that she has been banned from all Six Flags parks for five years, but she insisted she will never return Breedlove later shared photos of herself wearing the shorts in question on TikTok Breedlove claimed she's already spoken to the Oklahoma City police and was told it was not an Oklahoma City police officer who confronted her 'Your officers had my 11-year-old daughter crying hysterically thinking her mother was about to be arrested. Your policies are vague and confusing and the way you body shame and discriminate is unlawful. 'I paid a lot of money at your park for our family vacation and I believe I deserve a refund for the trauma caused to my family over a pair of shorts on a hot day,' she added. 'I will not be letting this go as this is 2021 and not middle school. The Oklahoma police department has been contacted as well as an attorney. 'I have a five-year ban now but will not be returning to any of your parks if this is how you treat [women] and law-abiding citizens and visitors. You should be ashamed with yourselves.' Breedlove later shared an update, saying she has spoken to the Oklahoma Police Department captain and was told it was not an Oklahoma City police officer who had confronted her at the park. Pictured: The Frontier City theme park, which is where the incident took place The theme park say it has 'the right to refuse admission' for failure to comply with dress code After the incident, Six Flags released a statement to the Star-Telegram, stating that 'guests wear attire appropriate for our family-friendly environment.' The statement also says that the theme park 'expect guests to behave in a family-friendly manner.' In the statement, the park accuses Breedlove of using offensive language, which can not be seen in her video. 'Disruptive or offensive behavior or the use of profanity or abusive language or gestures will not be tolerated and may result in a guest being removed from the park,' the statement says. Six Flags does say that Breedlove was 'initially stopped because her shorts exposed a significant portion of her buttocks.' 'She was given multiple opportunities to change or cover up, but refused. Instead, she responded with profanity and offensive conduct, including further exposing her buttocks,' the statement continues. 'The guest was removed from the park after she refused to stop her unruly and offensive behavior, targeted at the police and other park guests.' The statement concludes by saying, 'The video clip this guest has posted on the internet does not fully portray her behavior during this incident.' Breedlove does not appear to have publicly responded to Six Flags' statement as of Wednesday morning. Frontier City does have a water park as part of its design, where guests are encouraged to wear proper swimwear. The park's dress code, however, states 'Guests must change into regular clothes (shirts, shorts, and shoes) before returning to the main park.' Footage has emerged of Israelis singing in a bomb shelter as fighting between the Jewish state and Hamas intensified today amid warnings of all-out war. The video was taken in Tel Aviv overnight as the city was targeted by a barrage of hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza. It shows a large group of people standing in what appears to be a basement car park being led in song by Shuli Rand, a well-known Jewish actor and musician. The song he is singing is called Between Holiness and Secularity, and the lyrics that appear in the video translate as: 'Please save me and please keep me from harm.' What's happening now in the Holy Land... A bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. Posted by Shifra Chana Hendrie on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 Footage has emerged of Israelis in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv overnight singing as the city was targeted by 201 Hamas rockets The man leading the song is actor and musician Shuli Rand (left), while the lyrics that can be heard in the video translate as: 'Save me and keep me from harm' The footage emerged amid the worst fighting between Israel and Hamas since the 2014 Gaza War, which left more than 2,000 people dead. Rockets were first fired on Monday as Hamas carried out a threat to strike Israel unless it withdrew security forces from the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after days of clashes with Palestinian protesters there. Since then, Hamas says it has fired more than 1,000 rockets at Israel with the bombardment continuing today - while Israel has carried out dozens of missile strikes of its own. At least 48 Palestinians, including 14 children and three women, have died in the strikes so far, according to the Health Ministry, with hundreds more wounded. Six Israelis, including three women and a child, have been killed by rocket fire with dozens more hurt. Tel Aviv found itself targeted overnight as Hamas said 210 rockets had been fired at the city, which is Israel's most-populous. Hamas said it fired 210 rockets at Tel Aviv - Israel's most-populous city - overnight, some of which struck homes including this one in Yehud This image shows rockets being launched from Gaza City towards Tel Aviv in retaliation for the destruction of a tower block by the IDF on Tuesday The strike was in retaliation for a multi-storey block of apartments that was blown up in Gaza, Hamas said. Israel said the tower block housed an office used by Hamas leadership, and that residents had been told to evacuate before it was hit. Also overnight, rioting broke out inside Israel itself as Israeli Arabs clashed with police in the city of Lod. Heavy clashes broke out following the funeral of an Arab man who was killed the previous night, the suspect a Jewish gunman. Israeli media reported that the crowd fought with police, and set a synagogue and some 30 vehicles on fire. Then, in the early hours of Wednesday, a rocket fired from Gaza landed in Lod killing an Israeli Arab man and his daughter - identified locally as 16-year-old Nadin Awad. Her cousin, Ahmad Ismail, told public broadcaster Kan that he was near Nadin when she was killed alongside her father Khalil Awad, 52. 'I was at home, we heard the noise of the rocket. It happened so quickly. Even if we had wanted to run somewhere, we don't have a safe room,' Ismail told Kan. Israeli rockets are pictured landing in Gaza amid the worst fighting between the two sides since the 2014 Gaza War The Israeli President Reuven Rivlin described it as a 'pogrom' carried out by a 'bloodthirsty Arab mob,' after Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab city. Netanhayu made a pre-dawn tour of the city to declare a state of emergency. 'We will not tolerate this; we need to restore calm,' Netanyahu said in Lod. 'If this isn't an emergency situation, I don't know what is. We are talking about life and death here.' The United Nations has warned the two sides they risk a 'full-scale war' if there is not an urgent ceasefire. 'Stop the fire immediately. We're escalating towards a full-scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation,' Tor Wennesland UN Special Envoy to the Middle East tweeted. A transgender woman who calls herself Iconic Facce has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for robbing a Mississippi bank to pay for her plastic surgery in Mexico. Facce - formerly known as Jimmy Lewis - robbed BancorpSouth in Gulfport on February 22, 2019, by approaching a teller and telling her she had 'one minute' to hand over cash 'or die'. She stole $4,800 and used the money to fly to Mexico where she used it to fluff up her cheeks, perfect her pout and thin out her nose. When she returned to the U.S. on March 30, she tried to quietly get through Houston Airport without being noticed but she forgot one key giveaway - her swollen, puffy cheeks and bandaged nose. That's what gave her away to the officers, who were waiting at the airport to pick her up then extradite her back to Mississippi. They had found her by tracing the cellphone she used on the day of the robbery which they then followed to the airport, to Mexico, and back again. Facce - formerly known as Jimmy Lewis - robbed BancorpSouth in Mississippi on February 22, 2019, approaching a teller and telling her she had 'one minute' to hand over cash 'or die' This is how Facce looked when she entered the bank in February 2019 before robbing it. She'd undergone gender reassignment surgery - which she paid for with other stolen cash - but she wanted to change her face This is what she looked like when she was picked up at the airport, ten days after the robbery in March 2019, after returning from Mexico. Cops spotted her immediately, thanks to her bandaged nose This week, after a two-year legal saga, she admitted robbery and was sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2019, Mississippi police released surveillance footage and stills of her prowling the bank, wearing sunglasses, a wig, a striped shirt and pants, before approaching the teller. She then handed the female teller a note which read: 'you have 1 minute to give the money do not be wrong are [sic] die'. From June 2007 to January 2008, Lewis was said to have robbed banks in Alabama by passing threatening notes in Cleveland, Decatur and Lenoir City in Tennessee. She was arrested in 2008 in Los Angeles on arrival with a flight from Mexico when one of her aliases was spotted by border agents. According to police reports, Lewis threatened the life of a teller, saying in a note: 'No games, no jokes and get your hands up. Don't mash any alarms. 'Don't move or she's had it.' Lewis was sentenced to 51 months behind bars and probation for the robbery. Parents in America's wealthiest suburb have released a campaign ad to oust members of a Virginia school district board after it pledged to push Critical Race Theory onto their children. On Tuesday, 'Fight for Our Schools' - a group made up of dozens of parents from the wealthy enclave, where the median household income is $142,299 - released the campaign ad on Twitter. It starts with a voiceover that says after a year where parents and students struggled with school closures and distance learning, the Loudoun County school board put their focus on 'infecting our schools with critical race theory'. It accuses board members of 'plotting war' against parents who oppose it, and for labelling them as racists in a Facebook group. Loudoun County Sheriff's office is investigating various allegations of harassment between opponents and supporters of CRT in the community's public schools. Critical Race Theory (CRT) asserts that 'institutions are inherently racist and that race itself... is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of color', according to Texas A&M University professor Tommy Curry. Numerous public and private schools across the US have recently opted to incorporate CRT into their teachings, but the decision has sparked fierce debate. While Loudoun County Public Schools have not officially made it compulsory to use CRT in their classrooms, they have pledged to push for 'equity' and have started using many CRT 'buzzwords and concepts'. Parents in America's wealthiest suburb have released a commerical to promote a group it formed to oust members of a Virginia school district board after it pledged to push Critical Race Theory onto their children. Six of the Loudoun County school board members, including Beth Barts (front, left), Atoosa Reaser (front, second from left), Ian Serotkin (back, second from left), Denise Corbo (front, right), Leslee King (front, second from right) and Brenda Sheridan (front, far right) are named in the campaign ad The commercial was released on Twitter by the group Fight for our Schools - made up of dozens of parents in Loudoun County school district - who want to oust board members for pushing Critical Race Theory onto their children in the classrooms This is the first shot of the commercial against the Loudoun County school board's attempt to infuse critical race theory into its curriculum The commercial said the school board is 'infecting our schools with critical race theory' Incorporating CRT into the schools is a hotly debated topic that media figures including Tucker Carlson are discussing On the same night the campaign ad was released, several parents blasted the school board members, including a black mother who said that the idea of CRT is 'racist, abusive and discriminates against one's color'. 'CRT is not an honest dialogue. It was a tactic used by Hitler and the Ku Klux Klan on slavery very many years ago to dumb down my ancestors so we could not think for ourselves,' she said. Another parent also slammed the school board members, saying they had made Loudoun County 'ground zero' in the 'national fight against critical race theory'. 'Every single one of these parents would step in front of a train for their kids, and they will step in front of you too,' he said. 'This is the fight of our lives. We are going to go the distance, and at the end of the day, we are going to win.' On the same night the campaign ad was released, several parents blasted the school board members, including a black mother (left) who said that the idea of CRT is 'racist, abusive and discriminates against one's color'. Another parent (right) also slammed the school board members, saying they had made Loudoun County 'ground zero' in the 'national fight against critical race theory'. The Loudoun County school board wants to include critical race theory into the curriculum, but its proposal attracted negative feedback and many parents want them to be removed Monica Gill - who teaches AP Government in Loudoun County, Virginia - told Fox News this week that the school district's push for 'inclusion' has fueled further division in her community Only a handful of parents in Loudoun County publicly said they supported CRT in schools. The contentious school board meeting and fiery battle in Loudoun County heated up after Monica Gill, who teaches AP Government in Loudoun County, told Fox News in mid-April that the school district's push for 'inclusion' has fueled further division in the community. 'We're told that we're living in a county that's suffering from systemic racism and I think that whole notion has done nothing but damage our community and our school since they began pushing equity'. She told the network that teachers were told they needed to 'disrupt and dismantle this systemic racism.' 'I can tell you, one thing that's for sure, it has been disruptive because there are parents who disagree with this ideology, there are teachers who disagree with it, there are students who disagree with it and it is harmful,' she stated. There is a slide available on Loudoun County Public School's Equity Partner's websites, 'Racial Equity Tools', which details characteristics of 'White Supremacy Culture' According to Fox News, school board members have been identified as members of the 'Anti-racist parents of Loudoun County' Facebook group. There have been claims that one member of the group planned to dox parents in the community who were opposed to CRT by asking volunteers to help 'gather information' on them. That claim has not been substantiated. However, the Loudoun County Sheriff's office confirmed to Fox News that an investigation into various allegations of harassment between opponents and supporters of CRT in the community's public schools. The District Administrative Offices For Loudoun County Public Schools is pictured. Loudoun County is the richest county in the US with a median household income of $142,299 Meanwhile, Loudoun Public School held an equity meeting last month, during which local teacher Andrea Weiskopf implied that opponents of CRT were racist. 'Over the past few weeks, a small group of Loudoun residents have put their racism on display for the nation,' she stated. 'It is the duty of the school board to acknowledge such overt and blatant racism against the students under your care'. Numerous public and private schools across the US have recently opted to incorporate CRT into their teachings, but the decision has sparked fierce debate. In New York City, Andrew Gutmann made national headlines after he pulled his daughter from an elite Manhattan private school over its anti-racism policies says the resulting backlash opened his eyes to the 'cancer of cancel culture'. Gutmann, who previously spoke out about efforts to 'brainwash' his daughter at The Brearley School, said he'd been shocked to learn how 'pervasive and entrenched critical race theory had become in our schools', in a New York Post op-ed. 'Nor did I comprehend just how many parents were dealing with the same issues as our family, with close-minded administrations and racist, age-inappropriate and indoctrinating curriculums.' Republican leaders and President Joe Biden clashed over how to pay for an infrastructure plan, even as both sides kept open the possibility of reaching one after a White House meeting. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell laid down a marker on rolling back elements of the Trump tax cuts to pay for an infrastructure package calling it a 'red line' in remarks at the White House Wednesday. Biden has called for rolling back corporate tax rate cuts and setting them at 28 per cent, rather than the lower 21 per cent set by the Trump tax cuts in 2017. He has also called for hiking the top income tax rate and capital gains tax rates to pay for other programs. 'We both made clear to the president. Thats our red line,' McConnell said, referring to a rollback of the 2017 tax cuts 'Were not interested in reopening the 2017 tax bill,' said McConnell, standing alongside House Minority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy outside the White House after an Oval Office meeting with Biden. 'We both made clear to the president. Thats our red line,' McConnell said. McCarthy called the meeting 'productive,' then said he brought up rising gas prices, the border crisis, jobs, and getting millions of kids back to school all challenging areas where the parties have clashed. With markets tanking Wednesday over a new inflation report, McConnell called it a 'direct result of flooding the zone with an extraordinary amount of money' a shot at Biden's $1.9 trillion infrastructure plan (although Congress passed other big laws last year that President Trump signed). McConnell said of state and local governments: 'They've never seen anything like what's headed their way with this mountain of money that's coming in.' Then he added: 'Hopefully we can capture some of that to make this infrastructure package go forward in a way that everybody would like to see it go forward.' It was not clear if he was talking about a recisions package of money already appropriated by Congress. 'I think there's an opportunity that we can work together on infrastructure,' said McCarthy. Then he added: 'as long as [it's] not anything about tax increases, and it's dealing with infrastructure. Biden said he was 'encouraged' by what he called a 'solid meeting with the Republican leader in the House, and with Mitch' in reference to McConnell. Their talk came hours after the House GOP deposed Liz Cheney as its conference chair. 'I'm encouraged that there is room to have a compromise on a bipartisan bill that's solid and significant and the means by which to pay for it without dropping all of the burden on middle class and working class people.' Then Biden brought up rising gas prices, and referenced 'user fees' touted by Republicans. 'If everything is paid for by a user fee, then the burden falls on working class folks who are having trouble,' he said. 'It matters if you make $40,000 a year.' Earlier, as the meeting was underway, Biden joked that that partisanship is a 'snap' as he met for the first time with the Big Four congressional leadership to try and reach a 'compromise' on infrastructure. At the top of the meeting, Biden told reporters gathered for a quick photo op: 'We're going to talk a lot about infrastructure today to see if there's any way we can reach a compromise that gets the people's work done and is within the bounds of everyone agreeing.' 'That's the purpose of this meeting, not much more to say right now. We're going to get going, that's it,' he wrapped up. 'How do you expect to do that, sir?' one reporter was able to get out before being escorted from the Oval Office. 'Easy just snap my fingers it'll happen,' Biden jested and snapped. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joined Biden to 'discuss policy areas of mutual agreement,' according to the White House preview of the meeting. McCarthy was joining the meeting immediately after dethroning Liz Cheney from her Republican leadership post for refusing to back Donald Trump's claims Biden's election win was illegitimate. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with the Big Four congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday. From left to right: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Harris, Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer 'It's a snap!': Biden joked that it would be a 'easy' to reach some sort of bipartisan agreement on infrastructure. 'Easy just snap my fingers it'll happen,' Biden jested and snapped his fingers when asked about his approach to bipartisanship The White House said Biden invited the group to 'discuss policy areas of mutual agreement' as he tries to garner bipartisan support for his $4 trillion spending proposals on infrastructure and so-called 'human infrastructure' Schumer and Pelosi members of the president's own party have spoken with Biden several times since he took office House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (left) joined the meeting immediately after holding the vote to oust GOP Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney from her post for not supporting Trump election fraud claims 'When I ran, I said I wasn't going to be a Democratic president I was going to be a president for all Americans,' Biden said before the meeting. 'What the bottom line here is, we're going to see whether we can reach some consensus on a compromise on moving forward.' Biden's spokesperson Jen Psaki also defended Biden's ability to work with both parties even after McCarthy has made it clear he prefers Cheney's replacement be New York Representative Elise Stefanik, who objected to the election results and maintains that stance. 'How can the president work with Kevin McCarthy who's poised to anoint to a position of leadership of the Republican Conference someone who does not believe in the legitimacy of the last election?' NBC News' Peter Alexander asked the White House press secretary during a briefing Wednesday. 'The president is no stranger to working with people who he disagrees with or who he has massive fundamental disagreements with,' Psaki said. 'The facts are on our side,' she continued, 'and more than 80 judges across the country threw out lawsuits attempting to overturn the outcome of the election.' MCarthy is helping clear the way for Cheney's replacement to be New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who on January 6 objected to the election results White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden reaching out to McCarthy despite him backing election fraud claims. 'The president is no stranger to working with people who he disagrees with or who he has massive fundamental disagreements with,' she said 'What the president believes his role is is to lead by example and to offer an alternative of leadership to the American people, which is reaching his hand across the aisle, offering to work with members of both parties on addressing issues the American people have concerns about.' The briefing with reporters took place in conjunction to Biden's meeting with the Big Four. Biden is seeking to use his first time sitting down with the top four congressional leaders to garner bipartisan support for his massive infrastructure proposals, which includes nearly $4 trillion in new spending on real and so-called 'human infrastructure'. Biden has also instructed Congress to send him a deal on police reform. This is the first time the Big Four have gone to the White House to sit down with the president since the disastrous meeting with Donald Trump in October 2019. That meeting quickly devolved into a tense back-and-forth between Pelosi and Trump resulting in an infamous photo with the Speaker angrily pointing her finger at the then-president. Biden regularly speaks with Pelosi and Schumer members of his own party but has not yet met with GOP leadership. While McConnell and Biden's seemingly cordial relationship spans decades in Congress, McCarthy's rapport with the president is more of a mystery. The minority leader arrives at the White House just after leading the vote to oust Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from her GOP Conference chair post for refusing to fall in line with the party backing Donald Trump's claims the election was stolen and 'rigged' against him. Cheney was one of the 10 Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 Capitol attack. In a quick voice vote Wednesday morning, scheduled and spearheaded by McCarthy, Cheney was booted from her No. 3 position among House Republicans. Cheney was voted out of her No. 3 leadership position further solidifying the party's belief they need Donald Trump to win back the majority in the House in 2022. Cheney said: 'I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again, is anywhere near the Oval Office' McCarthy scheduled the meeting to boot Cheney from her No. 3 spot in House leadership, which happened rather swiftly with a voice vote meaning there is no record showing which way the Republican representatives voted She says her new mission is to make sure Trump 'never again is anywhere near the Oval Office.' Biden is aware his best chances of clinching a deal in Congress is through rank-and-file members, and not in party leadership, which could be why he has prioritized meetings with non-leadership members since taking office. The White House legislative affairs team, according to NPR, has conducted more than 500 phone calls or meetings with lawmakers and Hill staffers regarding Biden's job plans. This is the first time Biden is inviting McConnell and McCarthy to the White House. The president's massive American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan equates to nearly $4 trillion in new spending, and will be mostly funded through individual and corporate tax hikes. A Tory MP was warned not to help a parliamentary worker after she made sexual assault allegations against a Labour politician, a tribunal heard today. Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen claims the woman confided in him about allegations she was being sexually harassed by Labour's Mike Hill. But Mr Bridgen claims Labour MP Kate Hollern warned him not to get involved. At the time Ms Hollern was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jeremy Corbyn - then leader of the Labour party. Today, speaking at the tribunal, Mr Bridgen accused Ms Hollern of 'intimidation' and labelled her actions 'appalling'. Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen (pictured) claims the woman confided in him about allegations she was being sexually harassed by Labour member Mike Hill The alleged victim, a former Westminster employee, claimed then-Hartlepool MP Mr Hill sexually harassed and assaulted her over a 16-month period. The woman, known only as Ms A, alleged the Labour politician harassed her and tried to start a sexual relationship, despite her rebuffing his advances. She alleges the MP rubbed a part of his body against her at his flat in London and again at his office in Westminster. The woman also claims Mr Hill groped her breasts and touched her bottom, a hearing at the Central London Employment Tribunal was told. He is also said to have texted the woman in the early hours of one morning, saying he wanted to be with her, that he 'loved her' and even wanted to marry her, she claimed. Mr Hill later text her that he 'craved her body', a witness statement submitted to the tribunal said. Mr Bridgen claims Kate Hollern MP (pictured) tried to stop him from helping the alleged victim. At the time Ms Hollern was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Corbyn when he was leader of the party She said Mr Hill made her feel 'scared, extremely confused, violated and powerless' and that she felt Mr Hill had a 'Jekyll and Hyde' personality. The woman claims when she told Mr Bridgen about her allegations, Ms Hollern, who she also confided in, tried to stop him from helping. In her witness statement Ms A said: 'Andrew Bridgen called me to tell me that Kate Hollern had approached him in parliament and pulled him to one side. 'Mr Bridgen told me Ms Hollern tried to warn him off from helping me by using scare tactics. 'Ms Hollern said that many in the Labour Party were of the opinion that Mr Bridgen and I were having an affair and she advised him to keep away from me as it would be a shame if it got out in the papers as he had a lovely wife and new baby - Mr Bridgen told her she was talking nonsense and to go away.' During a virtual hearing today, Mr Bridgen said he had been made aware of the allegations but claimed he was told not to get involved. He told the tribunal judges: 'She [Ms A] confided in me that she was being sexually harassed and assaulted by Mr Hill. I was particularly upset about it at the time. 'She didn't want me to take any action on her behalf. 'I watched her mental health and wellbeing disintegrate. For Kate Hollern to come and try and intimidate me, I totally believe it was to isolate Ms A from any help and support. 'I felt that was pretty appalling, I felt it was malicious and I don't respond well to intimidation like that I can assure you.' Ms A also said Ms Hollern spoke to her after seeing her crying and told her many women in parliament had made sexual harassment claims but nothing was done about it. The woman said: 'Ms Hollern advised me...in terms of the sexual harassment she said that many people in parliament had put in complaints in the past of sexual harassment and nothing was ever done about it, which deterred me from seeking any further advice on this at that time.' Mr Hill was suspended from the Labour Party in September 2019 over the allegations, but was reinstated in October of that year to fight the general election in December. Mr Hill (pictured) was suspended from the Labour Party in September 2019 over the allegations, but was reinstated in October of that year to fight the general election in December. But his later resignation as Hartlepool MP in March of this year triggered last week's by-election But his later resignation as Hartlepool MP in March of this year triggered last week's by-election. The election saw the former red wall seat taken by the Conservatives for the first since its creation in 1974. During the tribunal, Ms A claimed the first two incidents of sexual assault took place a month apart in Mr Hill's flat, then a third incident happened a month later at his office. She said: 'He was behind me and rubbing himself against my bottom and he had his arms wrapped around me and was feeling my breasts. 'I was crying and shaking because of this experience. I was distressed and confused and felt physically sick. 'He never acknowledged his unwanted sexual conduct. Nor did he attempt to apologise for his behaviour. I confronted Mr Hill...and he still did not apologise. 'Mr Hill's unwanted sexual conduct was very traumatic and left me feeling extremely vulnerable. His behaviour affected my sleep patterns thereafter...I suffered a panic attack.' He also brushed his hands against her breasts and said 'I just want a cuddle love', the woman alleged. She also said he touched her bottom. Ms A added: 'He one told me that I 'must be frigid or something'...and that there must be 'something wrong' with me. 'I felt scared, extremely confused, violated and powerless and that the situation he put me in kept me paralysed and fearful like a caged animal.' The woman also claims she was harassed after these alleged incidents and said she was 'gaslighted' by the MP, who denies all the allegations of sexual misconduct. She said she told Mr Bridgen: 'Mr Hill was sexually harassing me and because I would not have sex with him Mr Hill was making my life hell.' Tom Perry, counsel representing Mr Hill, put it to the woman that these alleged incidents had not taken place and asked her if she was making the claims out of spite. During the tribunal, Ms A, a Parliamentary worker, claimed the first two incidents of sexual assault took place a month apart in Mr Hill's flat, then a third incident happened a month later at his office. Pictured: Westminster Palace She replied: 'If I had wanted to I could have absolutely ruined Mr Hill's career, but I never did that despite everything Mr Hill put me through. 'I was giving him an opportunity to stop the sexual harassment. The sexual relationship he wanted wasn't going to happen.' When asked why she did not report the full number of incidents she alleged took place at the first opportunity, the woman tearfully replied: 'I had tried to block all that out. I just tried to push it to one side. 'I felt ashamed and embarrassed. But it wasn't my shame to carry.' Ms A reported the incidents to police in June 2019, but said she did not proceed with the complaint because officers would have to take her phone and laptop for six months. She said in court documents that she suffered from PTSD and chronic depressive disorder after an incident at a previous job, which made her vulnerable to the MP's alleged advances. The woman also detailed the extent of the trauma she allegedly suffered. In the statement she said: 'I have been receiving specialist therapy and I have learned that other sufferers of coercive/narcissistic abuse did what I did which was for a time at least, to try and keep the abuser 'on side'. 'I continue to rely on psychiatric medications to support me to manage those symptoms. At times the depression is so intense all I can think about is ending my life. 'Not a day goes by when what was done to me does not interfere with my life or limit the life I lead in some way. 'Sexual assault has cost me profoundly in many ways and has set my life on a completely different course from the on I would have taken, had I not been assaulted. 'I have lost so much and many of those losses cut right to the core of who I am and can never be undone.' The hearing continues and is due to last eight days. The UK has agreed Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic should be transferred to a British prison to serve the rest of his sentence for his role in the Srebrenica genocide, despite his fears that he'll be killed by Muslim prisoners. Karadzic, 75, was convicted of war crimes during the Balkan conflict of the 1990s and handed a life-sentence after 8,000 men and boys were massacred in the Srebrenica genocide. Britain was heavily involved in his conviction, with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab acting as one of the young lawyers to draft the legal procedure to transfer him to the UK. The reason he has now agreed to allow Karadzic to serve out the rest of his sentence in Britain is because the country is on the list of UN members taking in those found guilty of war crimes. And the Government wants to demonstrate its support for the order by bearing the cost of Karadzic's incarceration. The cost per prisoner in a 'male dispersal' prison, home to Category A offenders, stands at some 69,085, Ministry of Justice statistics for 2019/20 show, but the cost of keeping them in highly specialised 'control units' can tip 1million a year. This means the cost of keeping him could surpass millions. Criminology expert Professor David Wilson, who is a former prison governor, told MailOnline:It seems an odd decision to house him here and there are going to be some high costs attached to it. Karadzic will go into the high security estate, beyond them there are particular control units for a handful of people who have to be kept under even greater control. It will depend on how the prison service decides to manage Karadzic, they may think he is suitable for the high security estate. These control units are definitely more costly than 70,000 a year and the spaces are very rarely used. They are going to have to work out if he is going to be a risk or be at risk. Prisoners that go in them are those who other prisoners think they should attack for various reasons. One can be the case they want the notoriety of that. There are a number of Eastern European prisoners in the prison population, some of those may be politically allied or opposed to Karadzic. He particularly targeted the Muslim population. It may be that there are some prisoners that may like to attack Karadzic because of the crimes he has committed. Karadzic's lawyer, Peter Robinson, told the Guardian the move would compromise his client's safety, drawing comparisons with Bosnian war criminal Radislav Krstic, who was subjected to a 'revenge attack' in 2010 by three Muslim inmates who slashed him with blades while he was serving 35 years in Wakefield jail. Former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic (right), 75, was convicted of war crimes during the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. He was later jailed for life 'We objected because of what happened to General Krstic in the UK and because of the difficulties faced by Liberian president Charles Taylor,' he said. 'With a high percentage of Muslims among the prison population, we feel Karadzic will be in danger, and to keep him safe will require measures tantamount to solitary confinement.' A source told The Times: 'Karadzic won't be spending much time outside his cell. There'll be plenty of inmates who'd want to attack him.' Mr Raab said Karadzic 'helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians'. He added: 'We should take pride in the fact that, from UK support to secure his arrest, to the prison cell he now faces, Britain has supported the 30-year pursuit of justice for these heinous crimes.' Karadzic is currently serving time in a UN detention unit in the Netherlands. As well as genocide, Karadzic was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the 44-month Serb siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and for overseeing a campaign of ethnic cleansing that drove Croats and Muslims out of Serb-claimed areas of Bosnia. In hiding for over a decade after the war, he was arrested and handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in July 2008. In 2016, Karadzic was found guilty of genocide for the Srebrenica massacre by judges at a UN War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. The former psychiatrist was originally jailed for 40 years for ordering the 1995 killings, Europe's worst atrocity since the Second World War. The widows of murdered men said at the time even decades behind bars would not give them justice. FROM NATIONALIST TO GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES: HOW RADOVAN KARADZIC WAS SENTENCED TO LIFE IN JAIL June 19, 1945: Born in Savnik, Yugoslavia, in what is now the Republic of Montenegro. July 12, 1990: A founding member of the Serbian Democratic Party in Bosnia-Herzegovina. March 27, 1992: Becomes president of Serbia's National Security Council. April 6, 1992: Bosnia is recognized as an independent state by the United Nations. May 12, 1992: Elected president of the three-person presidency of the Serbian republic in Bosnia. December 17, 1992 - July 19, 1996: Serves as sole president of Serb Republic in Bosnia. He is also supreme commander of the armed forces. July 1, 1991 - November 30, 1995: According to his UN indictment, Karadzic participates in war crimes in order to gain control of parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina that have been proclaimed part of the Serb Republic, using terror tactics and a campaign of persecution and deportations. April 1, 1992 - November 30, 1995: Bosnian Serb forces engaged in a 44-month siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital. July 11 - 18, 1995: Bosnian Serb forces killed thousands of Bosnian Muslim men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica. 1996: Karadzic vanishes from public eye. 2003: Bosnia's top international official freezes bank accounts and other assets of Karadzic's close relatives who are suspected of helping him hide. July 2005: Karadzic's wife makes public appeal for him to surrender 'for the sake of your family.' He publishes a book of poetry in Serbia, titled 'Under The Left Breast Of The Century.' A spokeswoman in The Hague expresses outrage that he is free to do so. July 21, 2008: Karadzic is arrested on a Belgrade bus while posing as New Age healer Dr. Dragan Dabic and disguised by a thick beard and shaggy hair. July 30, 2008: Karadzic is flown to International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia's detention block. July 31, 2008: A clean-shaven Karadzic makes first appearance in tribunal courtroom. Refuses to enter pleas to charges. October 26, 2009: Karadzic trial starts, but he boycotts the hearing. October 7, 2014: Final day of trial. Judges begin lengthy deliberations. March 24, 2016: Judges find him guilty of war crimes and genocide in the Srebrenica massacre March 20, 2019: Karadzic has his sentence for genocide increased to life behind bars, meaning he will almost certainly die in prison. May 5, 2021: British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab says Karadzic will be moved to a UK prison. Advertisement UN appeals judges in The Hague previously upheld the convictions for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity and increased his sentence from 40 years to life imprisonment. Karadzic showed almost no reaction as presiding judge Vagn Joensen of Denmark read out a damning judgment. The former political strongman had appealed against his 2016 convictions for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as his sentence for masterminding atrocities in his country's devastating 1992-95 war. The former leader is one of the most senior figures tried by The Hague war crimes court. His case is considered as key in delivering justice for the victims of the conflict, which left more than 100,000 people dead and millions homeless. Judge Joensen said the trial chamber was wrong to impose just a 40-year sentence, given what he called the 'sheer scale and systematic cruelty' of Karadzic's crimes. Applause broke out in the public gallery as Judge Joensen passed the new sentence. Mothers of victims, some elderly, wept with apparent relief after watching the ruling read on a screen in Srebrenica. Bosnian Serb wartime military commander Ratko Mladic was also awaiting an appeal judgment of his genocide and war crimes conviction, which earned him a life sentence. A ruling in an appeal against his conviction is to be announced next month in The Hague. Both men were convicted of genocide for their roles in the slaughter by Serb forces of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Bosnia's eastern Srebrenica region in July 1995. Prosecutors had appealed against Karadzic's acquittal on a second count of genocide, which saw Serb forces drive out Muslims and Croats from Serb-controlled villages in a 1992 campaign. Judges rejected that appeal. At an appeals hearing in 2018, prosecution lawyer Katrina Gustafson told a five-judge panel that Karadzic 'abused his immense power to spill the blood of countless victims. Justice requires that he receive the highest possible sentence - a life sentence'. Karadzic has always argued that the Bosnian Serb campaigns during the war, which included the bloody siege of the capital Sarajevo, were aimed at defending Serbs. In 2016 Bida Smajlovic, who lost her husband and brother in the atrocity, said: 'He killed so many children and will perhaps live long enough to regain freedom. 'Where he is is not really a prison. It is warm, he eats, he even looks good. My pain and my loneliness endure and nothing will change that, nothing can reduce my suffering.' The 63-year-old's husband was one of three brothers who died at Srebrenica. Thousands of bodies were dumped in mass graves by Bosnian Serb forces in the massacre, in which Muslim women were separated from the men and boys, during the Bosnian War. Another Smajlovic widow, Sajma, wept as she saw Karadzic on television at the time of his original sentencing. 'As soon as I see him it angers me,' she said, adding that she had taken tranquillisers to cope with the pain of the sentencing. A 1996 file photo shows International War Crimes Tribunal investigators clearing away soil and debris from dozens of Srebrenica victims buried in a mass grave near the village of Pilica, some 32 miles north east of Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina While in hiding Karadzic made himself unrecognizable growing a thick beard and long, grey hair, and became known to the locals as 'Santa' Karadzic could get Ian Huntley-style protection from attack Child killer Ian Huntley has the maximum level of protection possible as he serves his sentence behind bars. Millions have been spent paying for three teams of two officers to make sure he is not attacked by other prisoners who want to target him over his crimes. The security detail is understood to take turns to stand guard outside his cell. They also accompany him anywhere he goes in the prison system. The intense level of protection is equivalent to 52,000 man hours per year. It works out to a huge staff bill of some 1million a year. Advertisement As he sat down after hearing his sentence, Karadzic slumped slightly in his chair, but showed little emotion. He was also found guilty of crimes against humanity in several municipalities of Bosnia as well as murder and persecution. Judges also convicted him of deportation, unlawful attacks, inhumane treatment, taking hostages, extermination and found criminally responsible for a campaign of sniping and shelling in the siege of Sarajevo. Giving its verdict, presiding judge O-Gon Kwon said the campaign in which the city of Serbs, Muslims and Croats was shelled and sniped at by besieging Bosnian Serb forces, could not have happened without Karadzic's support. He also said Karadzic and his military commander, General Mladic, intended 'that every able-bodied Bosnian Muslim male from Srebrenica be killed.' However, he was acquitted of another count genocide in connection with the municipalities. Peter Robinson, part of Karadzic's legal team, said: 'He's astonished. He feels the trial chamber took inference instead of evidence in reaching the conclusions that it did.' But UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hailed the conviction of Karadzic for genocide as a 'historic day for international criminal justice.' In a statement, he said: 'This judgment sends a strong signal to all who are in positions of responsibility that they will be held accountable for their actions and shows that fugitives cannot outrun the international community's collective resolve to make sure they face justice according to the law.' UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein hailed the verdict as 'hugely significant'. Bosnian Muslim women pray as relatives of victims of Srebrenica genocide visit sites of 1995 mass execution of their loved ones, on July 13, 2020 Bosnian Serb wartime leader Karadzic (R) and his general Ratko Mladic on Mountain Vlasic, in April 1995 BRITAIN'S HISTORY OF TAKING IN WAR CRIMINALS Britain has a history of housing war criminals within its prison system. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is currently serving a 50-year sentence in the UK after aiding rebels who committed atrocities in Sierre Leone. And four men - including former Bosnian-Serb general Radislav Krstic -convicted of war crimes in the former Yugoslavia have also spent time inside British prisons. Krstic was stabbed by three Muslim prisoners while serving time at Wakefield jail in 2010 and moved to a Polish prison four years later. Britain has also offered to jail Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of Yugoslavia. He died in 2006 while still on trial for war crimes and genocide. Advertisement He said: 'It... strips away the pretence that what he did was anything more than political manipulation, and exposes him for what he really was: the architect of destruction and murder on a massive scale.' Param-Preet Singh, senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch said in a statement: 'Victims and their families have waited for over two decades to see Karadzic's day of reckoning. 'The Karadzic verdict sends a powerful signal that those who order atrocities cannot simply wait out justice,' Singh said. Meanwhile in Bosnia, which has remained divided since the war, posters displaying Karadzic's photo and saying 'We are all Radovan' were plastered on walls in several towns in the Serb part of the country. Dozens of people gathered in a park in the Bosnian Serb town of Doboj to offer support to Karadzic. In Sarajevo, Amra Misic, 49, said: 'I took a day off to watch the verdict as I was waiting for this for 20 years. I wish him a long life,' she said, referring to the fact that Karadzic is 70 years old and sentenced to 40 years. Some residents of Belgrade criticised his sentence, reflecting widespread mistrust in the UN war crimes tribunal. Bosko Solic said: 'This is a fascist decision!' adding 'there is no justice and he was convicted for nothing.' Another retiree, Djordje Katic, says he is 'not surprised' that Karadzic has been convicted by the tribunal. Toys and other belongings of children who were killed in the 1990s war in Bosnia are displayed in Sarajevo as their parents wait for broadcast of the verdict in the case of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzi Katic insists the court 'could sentence him to as many years (in prison) as they wished. What else can I say?' Karadzic is the highest-ranking person to face reckoning before the UN tribunal in The Hague over the war two decades ago in which 100,000 people died as rival armies carved up Bosnia along ethnic lines that largely survive today. Among the main charges was that Karadzic controlled Serb forces that massacred 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995 after overrunning the supposed UN-designated 'safe area'. Karadzic once headed the self-styled Bosnian Serb Republic and held the title of supreme commander of its armed forces. The only more senior official to face justice before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was the late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in custody a decade ago before a verdict was reached. Mladic, the general who commanded Bosnian Serb forces, was the last suspect to be detained over the Srebrenica slaughter and is also in a UN cell awaiting judgement. Karadzic sits in the courtroom on the first day of his defense against war crime charges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague October 16, 2012 Speaking before the verdict, Munira Subasic, whose son was among the victims of Srebrenica, said: 'I expect justice to win tomorrow and that he (Karadzic) will be sentenced for the killings. 'The verdict is very important to show new generations, especially those in Serbia who have been poisoned with hatred already, what really happened in Bosnia. The Srebrenica massacre and the Serb siege of Bosnia's capital Sarajevo were events that turned world opinion against the Serbs and prompted NATO air strikes that brought the war to an end. Karadzic defended himself through his 497-day trial and called 248 witnesses, poring over many of the millions of pages of evidence with the help of a court-appointed legal adviser. Prosecutors say he conspired to purge Bosnia of its non-Serb population. Rejecting the charges, Karadzic sought to portray himself as the Serbs' champion, blaming some of the sieges and shelling on Bosnian Muslims themselves. But opponents of the ICTY argue its prosecutors disproportionately targeted Serbs, with 94 out of 161 suspects charged from the Serbian side, while 29 were Croat and nine Bosnian Muslim. The 75-year-old had appealed against his 2016 convictions for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, as well as his sentence for masterminding atrocities in his country's devastating 1992-95 war - Europe's bloodiest conflict since the Second World War Prosecutors were also criticized for not bringing charges over the atrocity-ridden war against two other leaders of that era who have since died - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic. 'If you had got prosecutions of those three (including Milosevic) then you'd get a really good picture of the way the violence was produced but we're not getting it,' said Eric Gordy, an expert on the court at University College London. The ICTY, set up in 1991 at the outset of federal Yugoslavia's violent break-up that killed 130,000 people through the 1990s, was meant to deter future war crimes and promote reconciliation - but its judgments remain divisive. The government of Croatia - an ex-Yugoslav republic now in the European Union - previously asked the ICTY to revise a ruling that named Tudjman, the country's founding president, as an accessory to a plan to commit ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Many Serbs, both in Bosnia and Serbia, regard the court as a pro-Western instrument, maintain that Karadzic is innocent and believe his conviction would inflict grave injustice on all Serbs. Serge Brammertz, prosecutor at the tribunal, worries that its work did little to help heal the war's deep wounds, given that ethnic nationalists continue to dominate power in much of Bosnia. 'I'm not convinced everyone has really understood the wrongdoings from the past,' he said. 'Many people in all the former Yugoslavia are still using a rhetoric that is still closer to what we heard in court than we should expect.' Psychiatrist, poet and mass murderer: The warlord who spent 13 years on the run and disguised himself as a new age healer From psychiatrist and poet to leader of the Serbian resistance in Bosnia, Radovan Karadzic ultimately chose a brutal path. Born in 1945 into a poor family in Savnik, Yugoslavia, Karadzic moved to Sarajevo in 1960 to study medicine. By 1971 he was practicing psychiatry in the ethnically mixed Bosnian capital, writing poetry and a children's book. In 1985, he was tried for embezzlement of public property while building a family house and served 11 months in jail. Karadzic is pictured, left, while in hiding and, right, as the leader of the Serbs resistance But by 1990, with nationalism on the rise, Karadzic shifted his focus to politics, forming the Serb Democratic Party (SDS) that led to his election to parliament in the first democratic elections after the fall of communism the same year. WITNESS ACCOUNTS OF HORRORS CAUSED BY KARADZIC 'They made 20 prisoners dig their own graves before cutting their throats. Two men would kick us in one part of the body and another would use a baton to beat you over the head until you became unconscious,' - Ahmet Zulic, held at Betonirka detention centre in Sanski Most, testifying at Karadzic's trial in 2009. 'I was shot from the left side, but the bullet passed through me and killed the little one. It was against his cheek and it came out of his head,' - Dzezana Sokolovic, who was shot during the siege of Sarajevo in 1994, with the bullet killing her son Nermin. 'The last two that remained were my son and another boy. His hands were tied behind his back. First they killed the guy in front of him and then they shot him once and a second time and then I started screaming' - Nura Alispahic, whose son's murder in Srebrenicva was broadcast on national television. 'When we heard the news that Srebrenica had fallen, that's why we had to leave, because everybody would be killed. Some old people stayed behind and ended up being killed. They could not get away.' - Protected witness 'KDZ039' [Identity protected], who survived Srebrenica massacre in 1995, at the 2009 trial 'A single man survived among thousands' - Protected witness of the Srebrenica massacre, via Prosecutor Julian Nicholls at the 2009 trial 'I don't know exactly, Mr Karadzic, who was killing with what intentions in mind. As far as I could see, some persons really enjoyed torturing others.' - Ex-Bosnian Serb army soldier Drazen Erdemovic who participated in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre Advertisement As the Yugoslav republics were breaking away one by one, first Slovenia, then Croatia, Karadzic warned non-Serbs in Bosnia not to declare independence from Serb dominated Yugoslavia, telling them clearly what would happen if they did. 'Do not think that you will not lead Bosnia and Herzegovina into hell, and do not think that you will not perhaps lead the Muslim people into annihilation because the Muslims cannot defend themselves if there is war,' he said in October 1991. Karadzic, who saw himself as a historic figure who would unify all Serbs in a common country, led the Serb resistance to the majority vote for Bosnia's independence in 1992 and declared himself the leader of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnian Serbs armed and backed by the Yugoslav Army conquered some 70 per cent of the country, laying siege to its capital and killing and expelling non-Serbs from the territory they controlled. The conflict took over 100,000 lives and forced over two million people from their homes. On July 11, 1995, Serb troops overran the Muslim enclave. Some 15,000 men tried to flee through the woods toward government-held territory while others joined the town's women and children in seeking refuge at the base of the Dutch UN troops. The outnumbered Dutch troops could only watch as Serb soldiers rounded up about 2,000 men and later hunted down and killed another 6,000 men in the woods. The bloodshed marks Europe's worst massacre since the Holocaust. So far, remains of some 7,000 victims have been excavated and identified through DNA technology but the bodies of more than 1,000 more victims have yet to be found. Karadzic was indicted by the UN war crimes tribunal in 1995, one of the 11 counts relates to genocide in Srebrenica. He went into hiding and evaded arrest for 13 years before he was caught in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2008, where he hid masked as a New Age healer. Karadzic lived under the guise of Dr Dragan Dabic, an identity he had stolen from Bosnian Serb who died during the war in Sarajevo in 1993. As Dr Dabic, he practiced alternative medicine and ran his own website where he advertised his expertise in 'human quantum energy'. Over the years, he made himself unrecognizable growing a thick beard and long, grey hair, and became known to the locals as 'Santa'. While Karadzic's wife Ljiljana remained in their family house in the former Serbian stronghold of Pale, east of Sarajevo, he had a girlfriend called Mila, who worked with him in his 'alternative medicine business'. Karadzic lived in an apartment in a grim suburb called New Belgrade, and often frequented a local bar called The Madhouse, where he would drink underneath a portrait of himself. The bar was popular among Serbian nationalists, and Karadzic would come in several times a week for wine, kebabs and sliwowitz [plum brandy]. Karadzic (pictured) lived in an apartment in a grim suburb called New Belgrade, and often frequented a local bar called The Madhouse, where he would drink underneath a portrait of himself Decision: Applause broke out in the public gallery as Judge Joensen passed the new sentence After having a few drinks, he would reportedly often grab a gusle - a single-stringed musical instrument - and sing to fellow guests. Despite the fact that the walls were adorned with his own portrait, neither the landlord nor the regulars recognised the 'Butcher of the Balkans' - or so they claimed after his arrest. While he hid as Dr Dabic in New Belgrade, Karadzic remained one of the world's most wanted men, and international special forces, including Delta Force, the SAS and Seal Team 6 (who would capture and kill Osama bin Laden). In his book about the hunt for Karadzic, The Butcher's Trail, Julian Borger tells of a botched Delta Force operation which involved a soldier dressed in a gorilla suit - flown in from the U.S. for the mission. Karadzic reacts at the court room of the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals in 2019 in The Hague, Netherlands, while waiting to hear the final judgement on his role in the bloody conflict The plan was to lie in wait for Karadzic's convoy in the hopes that a man in a gorilla suit jumping out on a Serbian mountain road would come as such a shock to Karadzic's men that they would slow down - allowing for the U.S. forces to open fire and arrest him. However, the scheme never came to fruition as Karadzic and his convoy never materialized, Borger writes in the book. Karadzic was finally caught in 2008, after 11 years on the run, while traveling from one Belgrade suburb to another. He defended himself during his trial, which started in 2009, denying the crimes and claiming he was a 'man of peace.' Reality star Carol Baskin has blasted Texas senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn as the search for a pet tiger on the loose in Houston stretches into its fourth day. Baskin, who shot to fame in the Netflix documentary Tiger King, says the senators are to be blamed for the current caper because they did not sign her Big Cat Public Safety Act last year. The federal bill, which was passed in the House of Representatives, seeks to prohibit private individuals from owning tigers and other large animals as domestic pets. Texas state laws currently allow big cats to be kept as pets - although the City of Houston has its own separate rules barring people from doing so. 'This has become kind of commonplace in Texas,' Baskin claimed during an interview with CNN on Wednesday morning. 'I really hope Sens. Cruz and Cornyn will sign on to the Big Cat Public Safety Act because if they they had last year, when the house passed this bill, this wouldn't have happened.' Carol Baskin blasted Texas senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn during a CNN appearance Wednesday as the search for the tiger on stretched into its fourth day While Baskin has been an advocate for big cats, Tiger King fans took to Twitter after making memes mocking the reality star for weighing in on the new saga in Texas. The nine-month-old Bengal tiger, named India, has been at large in Houston since Sunday when its alleged owner, Victor Hugo Cuevas, 26, bundled the animal into the back of his white Jeep Cherokee while fleeing from police. He was later caught and arrested, but there is still no sign of his predator pet. A Houston Police Department told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that there had been no further leads on the big cat's whereabouts - but that they'd issue updates on Twitter as soon as they have any. Cuevas is a suspect in the July 2017 murder of student Oseikhuemen Omobhude, 20, who was shot dead outside a sushi restaurant in Richmond, west of Houston. The nine-month-old Bengal tiger, named India, has been at large since Sunday when its alleged owner, Victor Hugo Cuevas, bundled the animal into the back of his white Jeep Cherokee while fleeing from police Victor Hugo Cuevas, 26, is a suspect in the July 2017 murder of student Oseikhuemen Omobhude, 20, who was shot dead outside a sushi restaurant in Richmond, west of Houston Police lost track of the Jeep during the high-speed pursuit, before they apprehended Cuevas the following evening at his parent's home, but there was no sign of the tiger. Footage on social media showed the animal wandering around a west Houston neighborhood on Sunday, prompting the large-scale search for the predator. Cuevas has not disclosed whether he has a friend hiding the tiger inside of a home. However, on Wednesday, Cuevas' lawyer, Michael Elliott, insists that the big cat does not belong to his client. He told ABC that the tiger actually belongs to a man named 'D', or Deandre, who has been is now sending Cuevas death threats. 'You are dead kid,' one of the unverified texts purportedly read. 'You don't know nothing,' another stated. The people in that neighborhood were in extreme danger, says Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin after a tiger was seen on the loose in Houston. Children running and screaming ... that would have triggered every instinct in that cat to kill. https://t.co/4ICpaF5ODS pic.twitter.com/mDfMgOn1Ni CNN (@CNN) May 12, 2021 Baskin blasted Texas senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn for failing to sign the Big Cat Public Safety Act Cuevas' lawyer, Michael Elliott, insists that the big cat does not belong to his client. He told ABC that the tiger actually belongs to a man named 'D' who has been is now sending Cuevas death threats Social media users poked fun at Carole Baskin after seeing her weigh in on the saga on CNN Meanwhile, attorney Michael Elliott says it is bizarre that the tiger has not yet been found and alluded to some sort of cover up in his interview with ABC. 'This is Houston... They have police in every corner, Motorola radios, Fox (helicopter) in the air. How often do you see people running in an SUV that doesn't get caught? Something doesn't match up here,' he stated. Residents in West Houston were alerted to the presence of the tiger on Sunday. Waller County Sheriff's deputy Wes Manion discovered the big cat on the loose in the street, and tried to shepherd it away from residents. Video footage shows him drawing his weapon and aiming it at the tiger as it appears to be stalking him. 'Last thing I wanted to do was shoot the tiger,' Manion told KHOU. 'It didn't seem super aggressive.' Waller County Sheriff's Office Deputy Wes Manion approximates the size of the tiger, Monday, May 10, 2021, in Houston The tiger, identified by a neighbor as a Bengal, approaches a man with a weapon trained upon it in menacing fashion A tiger was on the loose in the quiet residential neighborhood of Ivy Wall Drive in West Houston on Sunday night. It has still not been found four days on 'Houston's own Tiger King,' said another poster, with a picture of Cuevas with the tiger Further footage shows Cuevas arrive and start dragging the tiger back inside a house, which he had been renting for six months. Manion asked angrily why the tiger was on the loose, and Cuevas is seen on video telling him: 'We're with the zoo'. Manion orders Cuevas to get the tiger back into his house and Cuevas grabs the tiger's collar and walks it into a house. A short time later he allegedly bundled the big cat into his Jeep and sped off with police in pursuit. TIGER HAS A NAME: New info on Houston's missing tiger. Attorney claims "India" is nine-months-old and is not his client's big cat. Latest updates here>>> https://t.co/6zUpFPbEzF pic.twitter.com/lfYFjUlw25 KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) May 11, 2021 After being apprehended at his parents' home, Cuevas appeared in court in Harris County on Tuesday where a magistrate set a $50,000 bond on a felony evading arrest charge. Cuevas has been charged with the July 2017 murder of University of Houston dental student Oseikhuemen Omobhude, 20, outside the Bella Terra shopping mall in Richmond, west of Houston, ABC7.com reported. According to eyewitness accounts, Omobhude was approached by two men on motorcycles and shot several times in his car. He was able to drive a few hundred yards to seek help at a nearby Buffalo Wings Restaurant, but later died at Memorial Hermann Katy Hospital. The motive for the shooting is still unclear, and it is also unknown why Cuevas was on bail after being accused of such a serious crime. Cuevas was arrested two weeks after the murder at an airport while returning from Mexico, KHOU11 reported. He was charged with first-degree murder three years later in 2020 and is currently out on a $125,000 bond. A second man was also arrested in connection with the shooting. Cuevas is on bail for the 2017 murder of Oseikhuemen 'Ose' Omobhude, 20, who was shot in the parking lot of a popular sushi restaurant Ceuvas is seen in his 2017 mugshot after he was arrested in relation to the murder of student Oseikhuemen Omobhude On hearing of Saddleback's decision to allow women to become pastors, some Southern Baptist ministers had conflicting opinions. The Resolution on Ordination and the Role of Women in Ministry, passed by the SBC, draws on Paul's conduct in the ancient Roman church in its disapproval of women holding in pastoral positions. But it was a startling turn of events when the SBC started ordaining female pastors for the first time on the 8th. The congregation even christened the evening as a "historic night" because three women had been ordained as ministers. Notwithstanding, Saddleback's audacious step has sparked controversy among SBC pastors and Bible scholars. The Southern Baptist Convention's president, J.D. Greear, called the vote by the California-based Saddleback Church to appoint three women as official ministers "disappointing." He encouraged the denomination to "stand on the bedrock of God's Word - whether the issue be the role of pastor or any other issue," reports Christian Post. Greear, who also pastors The Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, wrote on his blog on Monday that while he has "long respected Saddleback's ministry impact and heart for getting the gospel to the nations," he disagrees with their decision, calling it "disappointing." He then quoted Pastor James Merritt, stating that it's possible to affirm both "that God calls men and women to vital ministry in the church" and "that God's Word clearly reserves the office of pastor/elder/overseer for qualified men." For him and his church, the complementarian view was not merely an option, but "rather a biblical truth to be celebrated." Greear is not the sole leader of the Southern Baptists to disagree with Saddleback's recent initiative. Jack Graham, pastor of the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, posted on Twitter: "I strongly oppose the ordination of women pastors as clearly taught in the Scriptures and practice NT churches. It is a big deal I assure you and a growing problem in the SBC." Jason Keith Allen, President of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, dubbed Saddleback's decision a "disappointing" deviation from the Scriptures. He tweeted Sunday: "This is a disappointing departure from the clear teaching of Scripture, the BF&M, & long-held SBC consensus & practice. I Tim 3 & Titus 1 list qualifications, not suggestions. Let's hold fast to Scripture." Albert Mohler Jr., President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, observed that many SBC churches such as Saddleback have endorsed women as preachers or pastors. He said that the denomination would make known to all associated churches the standards of denominational cooperation. "In an increasing number of cases, it is now clear that some churches, including quite large and well-known churches, are placing women in the office of pastor in direct violation of our confession of faith. Further, a number of churches that are at least listed as Southern Baptist welcomed and advertised women preaching in the morning service," he said. "The Southern Baptist Convention must not be unclear about our theological convictions and the ground of our cooperation. We cannot afford to be. Attempts to deny the issue will not work. Right now, Southern Baptists will decide if we will redefine the doctrine of the Southern Baptist Convention. I do not believe that Southern Baptists will allow this to happen. I do not believe that Southern Baptists will retreat from the truth," he added. On the flip side, Pastor Dwight McKissic, who leads the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Texas, argues on Twitter that the subject is not as straightforward as conservative pastors suggests. Responding to Allen's tweet, he wrote: "If the Scripture is 'clear' as you say, then Graham, Warren, & whoever let a woman preach in SWBTS, wouldn't have done so." "My point is, the SBC has never, ever declared Saddleback's, Billy [Graham] or the Texas pastor where Beth Moore preached yesterday, wrong. Therefore, it's technically not true, thus, inaccurate for Dr. Allen, or anyone else to claim the SBC officially forbids a woman from preaching," he added. Bible scholar Beth Moore, who hit the headlines earlier this year as she withdrew from the SBC, stirred controversy in the course of 2019 when she said that while complementary theology does not actually lead violence in the Church, very few women in authority led directly to the church sexual abuse scandal. She also argued that the SBC set so many limitations on female positions in churches, and that it actually hindered promotion of the gospel by obsessing over the issue. Moore later released an apology statement for her involvement in making complementarian theology a "matter of 1st importance." He was joined by Jordan Short, 20, Michael Wilson, 20, and two youths aged 14 and 17 in the churchyard and attacked him Four men have been found guilty of killing an 'extremely likeable' father-of-two who was kicked to death for his 11,000 gold Rolex watch. Steven McMyler, 34, was attacked in the grounds of Wigan Parish Church in Bishopgate in the early evening of August 6 last year. Shortly before, joiner Mr McMyler had been in a nearby town centre pub when a fellow drinker, Lewis Peake, 29, learned he was was wearing the 18-carat Submariner watch. Peake first tried to persuade two boys, aged 12 and 13, outside The Raven pub to help him rob Mr McMyler and offered them 100 each, a court heard. Lewis Peake, 29, Michael Wilson, 20, and two youths aged 14 and 17 were found guilty of killing Steven McMyler in Wigan parish churchyard after they tried to take his 11,000 gold Rolex watch. When the offer was rejected he persisted with his plan as, by chance, Jordan Short, 20, Michael Wilson, 20, and two youths aged 14 and 17 entered the churchyard after arriving by train from Liverpool, the court was told. Mark Ford QC, prosecuting, said the defendants were 'opportunistic predators' who saw an opportunity to take advantage of Mr McMyler who was alone and worse for wear from drinking. He said they did not intend to kill him but 'certainly did not hesitate to use violence as a group'. The court was told Short delivered the fatal kick to Mr McMyler's head, who later died in hospital. He will face trial at a later date because he is currently unwell. However, on Wednesday jurors at Manchester Crown Court convicted Peake, Wilson and their teenage co-defendants of manslaughter after finding they had deliberately helped or encouraged the attack. All four were also found guilty of conspiracy to rob. When arrested, Peake denied he was involved with the robbery and claimed he was a victim after the Liverpool group took 200 from him after the youngest defendant, then aged 13, hit him over the head with a bottle. Barristers for the teenage defendants told the jury their clients were 'in the wrong place at the wrong time' and played no part in the robbery, while Katy Thorne QC, for Wilson, argued there was no evidence that anyone knew Short was going to kick Mr McMyler. Mark Ford QC, prosecuting, said the defendants were 'opportunistic predators' who saw an opportunity to take advantage of Mr McMyler who was alone in the churchyard and worse for wear from drinking The trial heard Mr McMyler had opted for a 'clean break' by travelling to Thailand, but decided against it when he realised he needed to self-isolate for a fortnight because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He returned from London to his home on the afternoon of August 6 and still had his suitcase with him. The court heard Peake later returned to the attack scene as Mr McMyler lay unconscious 'with his face purple', and did not check on him as he made off with his phone and suitcase. The watch has never been recovered. Earlier in the trial, the jury was ordered by Mr Justice Turner to return not guilty verdicts on charges of murder against the four defendants. Peake, from Bolton; Wilson, from Kirkby, and the two youths, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, will be sentenced on June 11. US pharmaceutical company Moderna has agreed to deliver 25 million Covid vaccine shots to Australia by the end of next year. Moderna will deliver 10 million doses this year and 15 million booster shots next year - provided the Therapeutic Goods Administration approves both jabs. 'We appreciate the partnership and support from the government of Australia with this first supply agreement for doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and our variant booster candidates,' Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement. 'As we seek to protect people around the world with our COVID-19 vaccine and potentially our variant booster candidates, we look forward to continuing discussions with Australia about establishing potential local manufacturing opportunities.' The federal government is yet to comment on the deal. This month, Moderna released positive results from trials of a modified vaccine aimed at the South African and Brazilian Covid-19 variants, and of a third dose of its initial vaccine. Moderna's vaccine is 94 per cent effective at protecting from infection. Moderna will deliver 10 million doses this year and 15 million booster shots next year provided the Therapeutic Goods Administration approves both jabs So far, Australia has delivered 2.5 million vaccine shots, versus the roughly 50 million jabs needed to vaccinate the entire population So far, Australia has delivered just 2.5 million vaccine shots, versus the roughly 50 million jabs needed to vaccinate the entire population. After a series of problems with vaccine delivery and the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for those under 50, the government is now in talks to manufacture promising mRNA vaccines domestically. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters in the federal budget lockup on Tuesday that all willing Australians would receive two doses by December 31. That will require the weekly pace of the rollout to triple. But Scott Morrison is keen to point out it is not a concrete commitment. 'There are assumptions that go to the rollout. They are not policy settings,' Mr Morrison said on Wednesday. 'We will continue to roll the vaccine out, as we have been, and accelerating it from next week. We will continue to do everything we possibly can to ensure we're progressing that vaccination program.' Labor health spokesman Mark Butler asked in parliament why a clear answer could not be given on when all Australians would be vaccinated. Health Minister Greg Hunt said the government was seeking sufficient doses this year to guarantee supply for the population to be offered vaccination. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg (right, with Scott Morrison) told reporters in the federal budget lockup on Tuesday that all willing Australians would receive two doses by December 31 People wait in line to be vaccinated for COVID-19 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Melbourne As of Wednesday, there had been 2.81 million jabs given, including 76,379 in the past day nationally. The government will spend an extra $1.9 billion over the coming year to boost its vaccine supply to 170 million doses and speed up the rollout. The budget also contained funding to expand the Howard Springs quarantine centre, but there was no money for a Victorian quarantine proposal. The prime minister is not ruling out financially backing the Victorian project. 'The Victorian government has put forward a very good proposal and we're working through the detail of that right now,' he said. 'We will see how we can work together on that initiative.' The Northern Territory's Howard Springs facility, which is housing Australians returning from overseas, is slated to cost $487 million over two years as it expands to 2000 places. Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner today attempted a public display of unity as they tried to dispel claims of division at the top of the Labour Party. Sir Keir tried to sack Ms Rayner last week in the wake of the party's poor 'Super Thursday' election results before backing down and offering her a more high-profile job. The pair went on a joint visit this afternoon to The Construction Skills Centre in London where they met students and posed for awkward photographs together as they appeared to share a joke. The visit came after Jeremy Corbyn blasted 'weak' Sir Keir for blaming him for Labour's election meltdown, and demanded the party returns to his 'popular' hard-Left policies. The former leader tore into Sir Keir for 'dumping' on him in the wake of the dire results - which moderates blamed on 'Long Corbyn' in a grim reference to coronavirus. Mr Corbyn - currently suspended from the parliamentary party in a row over his handling of anti-semitism among activists - said he bore 'no responsibility' for the crisis. Extraordinarily, the 71-year-old told ITV News that Sir Keir's woes were because he had distanced himself from the Socialist policies of the last general election. That contest saw Labour plunge to its worst defeat since 1935. The intervention came as Sir Keir reels from the elections drubbing and a botched reshuffle. The latest YouGov polling has given him a net rating of minus 48, with two-thirds of voters saying he is doing badly. It is even worse than the minus 40 Mr Corbyn was recording at a similar point in the last parliament. Meanwhile, Tony Blair has delivered a scorching assessment of Labour's condition, saying it needs 'total reconstruction' and Sir Keir lacks a 'compelling economic message'. The leader's failure to 'clarify' a cultural message also means the party is being 'defined by the ''woke'' Left', the former PM wrote in an article for Labour bible the New Statesman. Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner today attempted a public display of unity as they tried to dispel claims of division at the top of the Labour Party. Sir Keir tried to sack Ms Rayner last week in the wake of the party's poor 'Super Thursday' election results before backing down and offering her a more high-profile job The pair went on a joint visit this afternoon to The Construction Skills Centre in London where they met students and posed for awkward photographs together as they appeared to share a joke Sir Keir and Ms Rayner visited The Construction Centre Skills Centre in London this afternoon The pair met with students at the construction centre, as they put on a display of unity after the cabinet reshuffle The visit came after Jeremy Corbyn blasted 'weak' Sir Keir for blaming him for Labour's election meltdown, and demanded the party returns to his 'popular' hard-Left policies 'It is a minefield on virtually everything': Tony Blair rails at 'woke' culture admitting he is 'not sure what you can say' about many topics Tony Blair railed at 'woke' culture today as he admitted he is 'not sure what you can say' about many topics. The former PM made the frank confession as he warned that Labour risks being destroyed by its refusal to stand up to perceived political correctness. Mr Blair was discussing mental health with his ex-spin chief Alastair Campbell on ITV's Good Morning Britain when he made the comments. 'I am afraid I am of an age where I am now terrified if I talk about any of these subjects that I am going to say something that I should not say,' he said. When presenter Susanna Reid intervened to say it felt 'like a minefield', Mr Blair said: 'It is a minefield on virtually everything. If you are of a certain generation you are not sure what you can, what you can't say, whether you can make a joke about something.' The remarks came after Mr Blair delivered a scorching assessment of Labour's condition, saying it needs 'total reconstruction' and Sir Keir lacks a 'compelling economic message'. The leader's failure to 'clarify' a cultural message also means the party is being 'defined by the ''woke'' Left', according to Mr Blair. Advertisement In his strongest attack on Sir Keir yet, Mr Corbyn said: 'I think it's a bit rich to start blaming me for stuff that's been done over the past year that I've had absolutely no part of whatsoever. I do think that dumping on somebody because they're not there anymore is a bit weak. 'Do I take responsibility for it? No.' Mr Corbyn insisted the policies from the 2019 election - such as reinstating free movement with the EU and offering free broadband for everyone in the country - had been vote-winners. In contrast Sir Keir had ended up 'agreeing with the whole government strategy' on coronavirus. 'We had a set of popular policies in the last manifesto - green industrial revolution, investment in the economy, equality legislation, national education service - as a party, ditching all of that, we'll be in an even worse position,' he said. 'People didn't feel confident in what the policy offer was, and rather bizarrely, the leadership launched the local election campaign on the basis of national policies. Whereas of course it's a local election. 'But I think there's the feeling that Labour had done too much agreeing with the government when many people's experience of COVID is one of fear. We ended up being seen as a party that basically agreed with the whole government strategy.' Explaining his own low popularity ratings, Mr Corbyn reprised his condemnation of the media, saying it had been worse than Arthur Scargill received during the miner's strike in the 1980s. 'The mainstream media has monstered me for the past five years; monstered me and John McDonnell and Diane Abbott and others in a quite extraordinary way,' he said. 'We've had even more abuse than Arthur Scargill had and he led the miner's strike.' The remarks came after Ms Rayner risked fuelling raging infighting by admitting to 'robust' discussions with Sir Keir, who tried to sack her last week before backing down and offering her a more high-profile job. Meanwhile, Ed Miliband went on the airwaves to defend Sir Keir this morning and suggested he supported calls for a more left-wing agenda. The latest YouGov polling has given Sir Keir a net rating of minus 48, with two-thirds of voters saying he is doing badly Mr Miliband said Labour needed to be 'bolder' and branded Britain 'unfair, unequal and unproductive'. In his article, Mr Blair said of Sir Keir: 'He lacks a compelling economic message and the cultural message, because he is not clarifying it, is being defined by the 'woke' Left, whose every statement gets cut-through courtesy of the right.' He added: 'The Labour Party won't revive simply by a change of leader. It needs total deconstruction and reconstruction. Nothing less will do.' He warned that political parties have 'no divine right to exist' and progressive movements are facing 'extinction across the Western world'. Mr Blair went on: 'A progressive party seeking power which looks askance at the likes of Trevor Phillips, Sara Khan, or JK Rowling, is not going to win. 'People are suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme.' The verdict, in an article for Labour bible the New Statesman, came as Sir Keir (left today) desperately tried to stabilise after a disastrous set of elections and a botched reshuffle. Ed Miliband (right) went on the airwaves to defend Sir Keir this morning and suggested he supported calls for a more left-wing agenda Mr Blair warned that voters do not like 'their country their flag or their history being disrespected'. '''Defund the police' may be the left's most damaging political slogan since ''the dictatorship of the proletariat'',' he said. 'People do not like their country, their flag or their history being disrespected. People like common sense, proportion and reason.' In interviews last night, deputy leader Ms Rayner referred to her 'very frank relationship' with Sir Keir. She claimed she was appointed to her new roles because she wanted to be more 'front-facing' in the reshuffled top team, after she was stripped of her roles as party chairwoman and campaign co-ordinator over the weekend. Sir Keir suffered another blow yesterday as it emerged Swansea East MP Carolyn Harris has stood down as his parliamentary aide Amid accusations the Labour leader was trying to make Ms Rayner a scapegoat, it was announced late on Sunday she would be given a new role shadowing Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove. She admitted that members of the public did not know what Sir Keir 'stood for' before they went to the polls, as Labour looks to reconnect with voters after the party's crushing defeat in the Hartlepool by-election. During an interview with the BBC on Tuesday, Ms Rayner said: 'I'm not going to discuss the robust conversations that me and Keir have and have always had. 'We have had a very frank relationship and I welcome that, actually, I think it's really constructive. 'And we came to a decision over the weekend of where both of us felt I could make the best opportunity and the best of my skills in supporting his leadership, and that's what I want to do in my new role.' Pressed on whether the Labour leader had tried to sack her, Ms Rayner said: 'I'm really happy in the role I have got and I think the general public are not so much interested in my job but actually interested in their jobs.' Sir Keir has been coming under pressure from the hard-Left to return to Jeremy Corbyn policies, despite him having overseen the party's worst general election defeat since 1935. Asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if the Labour Party should be bolder and back proposals similar to US President Joe Biden's one trillion dollar green investment plan, Mr Miliband said: 'We propose a 30 billion green infrastructure plan, absolutely we should be doing that. 'We should be bolder, of course we should be bolder. 'Thinking about the country is the right thing for our party in the following sense, which is this country needs big economic change, that's what Keir Starmer believes in, that's what he talked about in his Queen's Speech yesterday. 'He believes we are an unfair, unequal and unproductive country, and that's got to change. Sir Keir and Ms Rayner (pictured taking the knee together) have been trying to paper over their differences 'Now that is the right thing for the country and the right way to unite our coalition.' Sir Keir suffered another blow yesterday when it emerged close aide Carolyn Harris stepped down from her role as parliamentary private secretary amid reports she was involved in the bitter briefing war between the Labour leader's office and Ms Rayner. The Times reported that the resignation of the MP for Swansea East, who is also deputy leader of Welsh Labour, came amid allegations she had spread 'baseless rumours' about the deputy leader. In a statement, Ms Harris said: 'Stepping back from this role is the right thing at this moment, coming as it does after some trying personal times and an ever-increasing workload as deputy leader of Welsh Labour. 'I have enjoyed every minute, and look forward to supporting Keir the best way I can in the months ahead.' Following the final results of Thursday's English council elections, the Tories gained 294 councillors across the nation, while Labour lost 267. Ms Rayner told the BBC: 'What I heard on the doorstep is that they didn't know what Keir Starmer stood for, so that's what I think our challenge is, actually. 'It's not people briefing, saying we think Keir thinks this, we think Keir thinks that, but actually about what are we doing, what are our policies?' She said this was partly because the Labour leader had 'put the country first' and acted as a 'constructive opposition' to the Government during the pandemic. Asked if she had any ambition of becoming Labour leader, she told the BBC: 'I want to get Keir into Number 10 to be prime minister because I know he can do a better job. 'I rule out at the moment anything that doesn't get us into that prospect of me being the deputy prime minister, that's what I want.' The son of legendary New York City police whistleblower Frank Serpico has died of an apparent drug overdose inside his Manhattan apartment. He was 41. Police were called on Monday afternoon to a luxury condominium building in the heart of the Financial District, where they discovered Alexander Serpico unresponsive. He was pronounced dead a short time later. Drug paraphernalia was said to have been found near Serpico's body in his apartment on the 21st floor at 75 Wall Street. Alexander was the only child of retired NYPD detective Frank Serpico, 85, whose heroic work exposing crooked cops saw him labelled a rat and left to die by his fellow officers after he was shot in the face by drug dealers. His life was later immortalized in 1973 film Serpico, starring Al Pacino as the defiant cop whistleblower. Alexander Serpico, 41, the only child of legendary police whistleblower Frank Serpico, was found dead inside his Wall Street apartment on Monday. The elder Serpico, now 85, is pictured at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2017 Al Pacino famously portrayed the hero cop on film in 'Serpico' in 1973 Police have not said how long Serpico had been dead before the apartment building manager accessed his unit and made the grim discovery, reported New York Daily News. The city medical examiners office will determine Serpico's official cause of death. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts, Serpico worked as a film editor specializing in movie trailers, television promos and commercials. According to his IMDB page, he worked as an editor on NBC's Saturday Night Live between 2009-2014. Frank Serpico 's exploits as an anti-corruption crusader were portrayed in the 1973 film Serpico, starring Al Pacino (pictured in 2004) In 2017, Serpico delivered a speech in New York City in support of Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality Serpico was labeled a 'rat' by his colleagues on the force for speaking out against grift Frank Serpico (left) was portrayed by Al Pacino (right) who does bear a resemblance to the cop While the younger Serpico appears to have lost his life to drugs, his father spent his life fighting crime and corruption in New York City's police force. As a plainclothes cop in the early 1970s, Frank Serpico had dared to reject bribes and turn in dirty cops, prompting his colleagues to label him a 'rat' for his perceived betrayal. On February 3, 1971, Serpico found himself trapped in the doorway of a suspected drug den in Brooklyn and was shot in the face. Two other officers on the scene ignored his pleas for help and refused to radio in '10-13' to indicate that an officer was in need of assistance. Serpico survived the shooting, which left him deaf in one ear, and went on to offer dramatic testimony before the city's Knapp Commission, the special panel that investigated widespread police graft. Alexander graduated from the School of Visual Arts and worked as a film editor specializing in movie trailers, television promos and commercials Alexander's body was discovered inside his 21st-floor apartment at this luxury condominium building at 75 Wall Street Serpico received the NYPD's highest award, the Medal of Honor, but he retired from the force a month later and left for Europe, with a bullet fragment still lodged in his head. He later returned to the US and settled in upstate New York, where in 2015 he unsuccessfully ran for a seat on a town board. Serpico still speaks out about police corruption and violations of civil liberties. In 2017, he delivered a speech in New York City in support of Colin Kaepernick's protest against police brutality. As of Wednesday morning, the elder Serpico has not publicly commented on his son's death. A suspected pedophile linked to the unsolved Delphi Bridge murders of two young girls has been beaten up in jail after allegedly molesting a nine year-old girl. James Chadwell II, 42, reportedly lost a fight with Quentin Jackson Jr., 25, on May 4 at the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office and Jail in Indiana, staff there said. Chadwell suffered from minor injuries to his face as a result, and was treated by the jail's medical staff, according to the sheriff's office. It remains unclear what prompted the fight between the two men, but, the Journal & Courier reports, it began just about an hour after Jackson was booked into the jail for allegedly having nude photos on his phone of his underage girlfriend. James Chadwell II, 42, (right) suffered minor injuries in his prison fight with Quentin Jackson Jr (left) on May 4, just about an hour after Jackson was booked in prison for allegedly having nude photos of his underage girlfriend on his phone The fight occurred at the Tippecanoe County Sheriff's Office and Jail in Indiana, where Chadwell is being held on kidnapping and assault charges Chadwell, pictured before his arrest, is still being looked at in connection with the 2017 Delphi Bridge murders, although he has not been named a suspect She is now 17, it was reported. The age of consent in Indiana is 16, but it remains an offense to have nude photos of anyone under the age of 18. Jackson is accused of enticing the teenage to send him the photos before storing them on his phone. Deputies have investigated the fight, according to the Journal & Courier, and the case will be sent to the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor's Office for review and possible charges. Chadwell already faces a slew of charges and several years in prison after he was arrested on April 19 for allegedly kidnapping a nine year-old girl by inviting her into his Lafayette home to pet his dogs. Once inside, prosecutors said, Chadwell allegedly took her into his basement where he attacked, strangled and sexually assaulted her before she was rescued by police. The incident happened just 20 miles from where Abigail Williams, 13, and her friend Liberty German, 14, were found dead after going for a walk along the deserted Delphi Historic Trails in February 2017. The case was never solved, but detectives said they are continuing to look into Chadwell. They have yet to declare him an official suspect. The teenage girls were reported missing when they failed to show up after a parent came to pick them up from a hike along the Delphi Historic Trails on February 13, 2017. Police investigating the 2017 murders of Libby German (left) and Abby Williams (right) in Delphi, Indiana, have confirmed they are 'looking into' Chadwell Sheriff Toby Leazenby and Sgt Kim Riley pictured briefing journalists on the Delphi Bridge murders in 2018. The killings have become one of America's most notorious unsolved mysteries The girls were reported missing when they failed to show up when a parent came to pick them up from a hike along the Delphi Historic Trails on February 13, 2017. Their bodies were discovered in a secluded wooded area off the main trail the next day A search was launched to find the teens and, the next day, their bodies were discovered in a secluded wooded area off the main trail. Their cause of death has never been released by authorities, but chilling images and audio of their final moments have turned the case into one of America's most infamous unsolved crimes. Investigators believe the girls were approached by an unknown man while they were walking along a disused railway bridge on the scenic route. The case has long focused on a man captured on camera on Libby's phone walking along the abandoned railroad bridge on the day they went missing. Libby is believed to have recorded her and Abigail's final moments on the device. Days after the killings, authorities released two grainy photos of the suspect found on her phone, with the sinister images causing a sensation. The man was dressed in blue jeans and a blue jacket. A 2017 police sketch of the man police believed approached the two teenage girls as they were walking on the trail and told them to 'Go down the hill' Authorities released grainy photos of the suspect, seen wearing a blue jacket and blue jeans Investigators later released a brief video of the man walking, as well as audio clip from her phone which they believe she recorded 'during possible criminal activity'. In it, the suspect is heard telling the girls: 'Go down the hill.' That man has never been identified, with Delphi Police remaining tight-lipped on how the girls died. They have refused to release other material recorded on Libby's phone during the girls' final moments, amid fears it is too disturbing to share. Meanwhile, Chadwell remains in prison after being charged over last month's alleged kidnapping. He allegedly hit the girl he invited into his home multiple times in the head and strangled her, according to court documents. 'Chadwell was also choking her with his hands on her neck and also using his arm in a headlock, to the point where she passed out,' prosecutors say. When the girl came-to, she said most of her clothes were off and Chadwell took her down to the basement where he forced her to perform sexual acts, the documents state. The girl told police Chadwell had warned her that if she screamed or told anyone what happened he would kill her. The girl was reported missing by her mom at around 7pm - around 30 minutes after she said she had last seen her at their home near Sagamore Parkway. When officers were searching the neighborhood for the missing girl, Chadwell allegedly told them the girl had entered his home earlier but had left, the documents state. Police said they asked Chadwell if they could search his home and he said yes. Officers then found the girl 'visibly distraught and crying, with her clothing on the floor beside her' in Chadwell's basement, which was locked with a chain lock, the documents state. She had suffered multiple injuries and was covered in bruises, strangulation marks and had a dog bite mark on her leg. In an interview with Inside Edition last week, Chadwell's brother, Ashley, said he was 'absolutely' capable of killing the two girls Police said she told investigators she thought she was going to die. Chadwell has been in and out of prison since he was a teenager, his brother, Ashley, told Inside Edition last week, saying he is 'absolutely' capable of committing the heinous murders. 'He's shown numerous times not only to his friends, but his family as well that he has that evil kind of streak to him,' Ashley said, noting that his brother once even tried to drown him. 'He's a monster,' he said of his brother. 'He's an absolute evil person.' Anyone with information on the Delphi case is asked to contact abbyandlibbytip@cacoshrf.com An Alabama University Hospital doctor has lost both of her parents to Covid-19 in India within 15 days. Pathology fellow Aysha Mubeen announced the tragic news on Twitter, saying 'I have lost both my parents in a matter of 15 days in India. 'My precious, beautiful mummy and papa who made me who I am, have left me forever', she said. 'Life will never be the same'. Alabama University doctor, Aysha Mubeen, has lost both of her parents to Covid-19 in India within 15 days Pathology fellow Mubeen announced the tragic news on Twitter, saying 'I have lost both my parents in a matter of 15 days in India' (pictured, Mubeen receives the Covid-19 vaccine in December) She described the Covid-19 pandemic as 'a personal tragedy' and said her fingers had trembled as she typed out the grim message Mubeen described the Covid-19 pandemic as 'a personal tragedy' and said her fingers had trembled as she typed out the grim message on Twitter. It is the first announcement she made about either parent's death on Twitter. Messages of support rushed in on the post and several users shared their experience of losing a parent during the pandemic. One heartbreaking response read: 'I don't know you, but I felt like sharing this. I also lost my mother on April 27 (a day after I flew into India) and my father on May 1. In a week, everything fell apart. I wish you peace and the strength to tide over this tragedy'. Another told Mubeen her parents 'must have been so very, very proud of you... their love for you stays'. It was not immediately clear if Mubeen, who lives and works in the US, had been able to visit her parents in India since the pandemic started early last year. Mubeen (pictured as a child) credited her parents with making her 'who I am' in the heartbreaking Twitter post One user told Mubeen they too had lost two parents to Covid-19 in India in a matter of days and wished her 'peace and the strength to tide over this tragedy' It was not immediately clear if Mubeen, who lives and works in the US, had been able to visit her parents in India since the pandemic started early last year Alabama University's Pathology department responded to the heartbreaking post, telling Mubeen 'your family is here for you, you are not alone' Mubeen studied medicine at Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Aligarh, northern India, before she moved to the US and become a resident pathologist at the University of Florida, in Jacksonville. She joined the University of Alabama's Pathology department in October. Alabama University's Pathology department responded to the heartbreaking post saying: 'we are so devastated by this unimaginable loss. Please know your family is here for you in this time of overwhelming grief and sadness. We are here for you, you are not alone'. The sad news comes as India's health officials said a record number of 4,025 people have been killed by Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll past a quarter of a million as it battles a surge in infections. The daily coronavirus cases rose by a staggering 348,421, taking the overall number of cases past 23 million, according to health ministry data. The sad news comes as India's health officials said a record number of 4,025 people have been killed by Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll past a quarter of a million On Tuesday, India recorded another 3,876 Covid-deaths in the previous 24 hours, and a further 329,942 cases The recent surge in cases has overwhelmed hospitals and medical staff, as well as mortuaries and crematoriums Even with these depressing figures, experts believe the official numbers grossly underestimate the real scale of the epidemic's impact, and actual deaths and infections could be five to ten times higher. India, with a population of 1.4 billion people, currently accounts for one in three of the reported deaths from coronavirus around the world, according to a Reuters tally, overwhelming hospital and medical staff, as well as mortuaries and crematoriums. In the capital, New Delhi, many COVID victims are abandoned by their relatives after cremation, leaving volunteers to wash the ashes, pray over them, and then take them to scatter into the river, rituals usually conducted by the family. Drugs, medical oxygen, and vaccines are in short supply. Many states have imposed their own restrictions to curb infections, and the southern state of Telangana became the latest to announce a 10-day lockdown on Tuesday. In New Delhi, many COVID victims are abandoned by their relatives after cremation, leaving volunteers to wash the ashes, pray over them, and then take them to scatter into the river Advertisement Britain's Covid cases rose slightly for the seventh day in a row today, amid fears the rapid spread of the Indian variant could jeopardise lockdown-easing plans. Department of Health bosses recorded 2,284 positive tests up 6.5 per cent in the space of a week. But deaths are continuing to fall. Officials posted only 11 laboratory-confirmed deaths, compared to 27 last Wednesday. It comes as data suggested Indias Covid variant linked to an explosion of cases on the sub-continent is now dominant in four local authorities across England, including in Bolton and Blackburn, where outbreaks have nearly doubled in size in a week. Experts fear the mutant B.1.617.2 strain, thought to be 60 per cent more infectious than the highly-transmissible Kent variant, is behind the up-tick in cases nationally. But early lab trials suggest it is still susceptible to vaccines, and more than two in three adults or 35.47million have already had at least one jab. Figures today showed another 135,000 first doses were dished out yesterday, as well as 350,000 top-up jabs. It means 18.4million Britons have now been fully vaccinated against the disease. Some 67.8 per cent of adults have had a first jab, while 35 per cent have had their second. Englands coronavirus vaccination drive will open up to under-40s for the first time tomorrow, with around one million 38 and 39 year olds invited to book appointments to get either the Pfizer or Moderna jab. MINISTER HINTS TIERED RESTRICTIONS ARE STILL ON THE CARDS AMID RISE OF COVID HOTSPOTS A Government minister today refused to rule out tiered lockdowns returning when England's national measures are planned to end next month. Environment Secretary George Eustice revealed No10 was 'closely monitoring' several localised coronavirus outbreaks that have cropped up in recent weeks. Analysis shows that while national infections have continued to plunge, there are 12 boroughs where cases have doubled in a week. Mr Eustice said scientists were unsure what was driving the flare-ups predominantly in the North of England but suggested people may have become 'too lax' with Covid rules, or the highly-infectious Indian variant could be driving cases. Scotland has already refused to ease restrictions in Moray when the rest of the nation takes the next step to freedom on Monday because of the area's growing outbreak. Asked if local restrictions could be reimposed in England to squash local outbreaks during a round of interviews today, he said: 'We can't rule anything out.' He told Sky News: 'But our plan that's been set out by the Prime Minister, the reason we're being incredibly cautious about exiting lockdown, is we want this to be the last. We want to try and avoid having to get into a tiered system and regionalisation. We tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we had to go for a full lockdown.' Most social distancing restrictions in England are to be lifted on June 21 as part of the final step in No10's roadmap out of lockdown. Boris Johnson this week raised hopes that an end to Covid measures may be sight, suggesting social distancing could be scrapped completely by next month. The tiered system last summer was heavily criticised for being too convoluted, with people in neighbouring streets often living by a completely different set of rules. The Prime Minister himself admitted they were 'confusing' as he struggled to explain the difference between restrictions imposed in the North East in September. Advertisement In other coronavirus developments today: Boris Johnson faced an immediate backlash after he announced a formal public inquiry into No10's handling of the coronavirus crisis will not start until Spring next year; Greece will be added to the UK's 'green list' in June, allowing holidaymakers to return home from the country without quarantining, Greece's tourism minister revealed; The NHS Test and Trace app may have prevented around 284,000 Covid infections between October and December, a University of Oxford study suggested; The catastrophic scale of the coronavirus pandemic could have been prevented if a 'toxic cocktail' of dithering and poor coordination hadn't hindered the global response, a panel of experts concluded. Boris Johnson said in a statement to Parliament today that the Indian variant was 'of increasing concern', warning that a variant that could slip past vaccines would have 'potential to cause even greater suffering than we endured in January'. It comes after a Government minister refused to rule out tiered lockdowns in England when national restrictions come to an end next month. Environment Secretary George Eustice added they were 'closely monitoring' several outbreaks that had cropped up in recent weeks. Public Health England has launched surge testing in Bolton to root out cases of the B.1.617.2 variant, but no other area has yet seen enhanced surveillance. For the South Africa variant, by comparison, door-to-door swabbing has been ordered in dozens of boroughs. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has called for over-16s in Bolton and the wider region to be offered Covid vaccines earlier to quell the rise in cases. Customers at a bar in Tyneside, the North East, have also been urged to get tested after a case of the variant was linked to the premises. There are three Indian variants but only B.1.617.2 has sparked major concerns because cases have more than doubled in the past week, with 520 spotted since the first positive sample was detected in late February. It now makes up six per cent of cases nationally, a leap from fewer than one per cent last month. No10's top scientists fear it may be more transmissible than the currently dominant Kent variant (B.1.1.7), which triggered the brutal second wave. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation last week said under-40s should be given an alternative to the AstraZeneca jab due to its link to rare blood clots ahead of Britain extending the roll-out to under-40s from next week. The NHS Digital bulletin said 38- and 39-year-olds already booked in for a first dose of the British vaccine will have their appointment cancelled. People who qualify for a jab will invited via a text from 'NHSvaccine', which includes a web link to the health service's online booking service. Those who can't access the internet can call 119 instead to get an appointment at one of 1,600 sites administering the vaccines across England. India's Covid variant is now dominant in five local authorities in England, official data reveals. There are mounting concerns that it is more infectious than the currently dominant Kent strain Data show that seven out of England's 10 Covid hotspots (inset) are in the North of England with three in the Midlands (Erewash, Bedford and North Lincolnshire), while the places where positive tests are rising fastest are scattered across the country Cases in Bolton have begun to rise in recent days as the variant takes hold in the area Blackburn with Darwen is also seeing virus cases beginning to tick up, reversing a four-month long trend of plummeting infections Bedford, where the variant may make up more than 70 per cent of cases, is also seeing a rise South Northamptonshire is starting to see its Covid cases rise, official data shows The coronavirus vaccine programme in England will expand under-40s for the first time tomorrow. Currently the national booking service shows the scheme is only open people over 40 Holidays to Spain with NO test or vaccine passport needed to get into the country Spain will not demand any British holidaymaker presents a covid passport or proof of a negative test on arrival from May 20, it was revealed today. But with no sign of the UK adding the country to its 'green list' of destinations, travellers will still have to self-isolate for ten days when they get home and at least two PCR tests. British holidaymakers will be able to freely enter the country from next week as long as the UK's Covid infection rate remains below 50 cases per 100,000 people. It is currently at 21.3. Spain will remain on Britain's 'amber list' of destinations until at least June 7, when the Government carries out its next review, but experts are predicting it may not go green until the end of June at the earliest. That means that any Briton heading there before then has to quarantine for 10 days at home on return and take two PCR tests on days two and eight of their self-isolation. It came as Greece said it was confident it would go green on June 7, with tourism minister Haris Theoharis saying they were 'disappointed' not to be on the list with Portugal from Monday, May 17. Green list status means Britons returning from those 12 countries don't have to quarantine but must have a negative lateral flow test in the 72 hours before they return home and a PCR test on day 2 after they get back. Confirming free entry into Spain, tourism minister Reyes Maroto said: 'It will allow the opening of the British market so they can come to Spain. They (Britons) could come from May 20 onwards without a PCR if the incidence rates are below the range currently under review, which is around 50 cases per 100,000 people.' Advertisement NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis said the success of the rollout was owed to 'careful planning and precision of NHS staff'. He added: 'With nearly three quarters of people in their 40s having already received their first jab, the NHS is opening up to people aged 38 and 39 from tomorrow. 'We must not forget that behind the huge numbers of people jabbed, there has been a huge amount of hard work from our staff, aided by incredible volunteers across the country. We are incredibly grateful for their efforts. 'When you get that text - book your appointment - and join the millions who have already been jabbed, protecting both yourself and your loved ones.' Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: 'Our incredible vaccination programme has already saved thousands of lives and has helped to significantly reduce hospital and infection rates, allowing us to begin safely easing restrictions. 'Vaccines are our way out of the pandemic and I'm delighted we are now inviting people aged 38-39 to get their jabs. I urge everybody to get the vaccine as soon as they are eligible to protect yourself and your loved ones.' The vaccine rollout is currently in phase two - which includes people between 20 to 49 - and is moving down by age. The Government says it is on track to fully vaccinate every adult in Britain by the end of July. Everyone in phase one of the scheme, which included elderly people and patients with underlying health conditions, has already been offered a vaccine. Uptake is thought to be around 90 per cent in the over-60s UK-wide, while coverage in the over-50s is above 50 per cent and still climbing. Over-50s only started to be invited last month. The bulk of vaccines given out in Britain so far have been AstraZeneca, which was being produced domestically and is easier to store than the American jabs, which need to be kept at extremely low temperatures and transported using special equipment. But as the rollout progresses tomorrow officials have been told to turn to the Pfizer and Moderna shots. The JCVI - which advises the Government on how best to vaccinate the population - said younger people are should be offered an alternative to the UK jab because of its link to blood clots. So far regulators have spotted major blood clots in 242 people given the AstraZeneca vaccine, of whom 49 died. But they are occurring more in younger adults, with a rate of around one in 60,000 under-40s. Experts said the infection rate in the UK is now so low that the risk of the rare clots outweigh that of Covid in younger adults, who often only suffer mild illness. They will be offered the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines instead, so long as there is enough supply and it won't delay the rollout. Anyone, no matter what age, who has been given their first dose of the AstraZeneca jab and didn't suffer the complication is being urged to come forward for their second. A royal aide who accused Meghan Meghan of bullying will quit as chief executive of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's Royal Foundation at the end of this year. Jason Knauf, former communications secretary to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, was today praised by Prince William and Kate as an 'integral part of our team'. Mr Knauf, who will have spent seven years working for the royals, is thought to have reluctantly quit because his husband has taken up a diplomatic position overseas. Earlier this year, he was at the centre of claims that Meghan had bullied palace staff, and made a formal complaint about her behaviour that prompted an internal inquiry. Mr Knauf alleged that Meghan bullied several female members of their team, forcing at least two to quit, with The Times newspaper revealing the claims in early March. This prompted Buckingham Palace to launch an inquiry, but a spokesman for Harry and Meghan denied the claims, calling them a 'calculated smear campaign'. Royal Foundation chairman Jason Knauf, the former communications secretary to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, attends the couple's wedding at Windsor Castle on May 19, 2018 Harry was said to have known of the complaint made by Mr Knauf and have had a meeting with him in which he begged him not to pursue it. The Sussexes deny this. Mr Knauf, who said today that working for the Cambridges had been the 'privilege of my career', joined Kensington Palace as communications secretary in February 2015. He then led a review of the foundation from March 2019, three months before Harry and Meghan split from it, before becoming chief executive that September. Today, Mr Knauf said: 'Working with The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has been the privilege of my career. I will always be grateful for the opportunity I have had to support their leadership in the UK and internationally. 'The months ahead will be the busiest time in the Foundation's history with the first awards for The Earthshot Prize and more progress on our early childhood work. We have a lot to do with our amazing team and all of our partners.' The Duke and Duchess of Sussex during a visit to Canada House in London on January 7, 2020 And William and Kate said in a joint statement: 'Jason has been an integral part of our team since 2015. We are immensely grateful for his hard work and commitment, both at the Royal Foundation and previously as our Communications Secretary. 'Since taking over as chief executive, Jason has driven positive change, making our vision for our charitable work and the causes that matter most to us a reality. 'We are sad to see him go but wish him all the very best in his future career. We look forward to launching the recruitment search shortly and welcoming a new chief executive later on this year.' While leading the foundation, Mr Knauf has overseen the development and launch of the Earthshot Prize, which asks people to find solutions to help the environment. He has also been involved in the development of Kate's growing work on early childhood, and steered the foundation's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Prince William and Kate are pictured together at Kensington Palace in London last month This included establishing a response fund which saw 1.8million granted to causes supporting frontline workers and the mental health needs of Britain in August 2019. Lord Hague, chair of the Royal Foundation, said: 'The Royal Foundation has benefited significantly from Jason's leadership over the past two years. 'Working with The Duke and Duchess and the rest of the Foundation team, he has delivered impact on the issues that their Royal Highnesses care most about while steering the organisation through the Covid-19 pandemic and ensuring that support reaches those who have been most affected. 'I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Jason and wish him well in the future. As the search for a new chief executive begins, I am looking forward to continuing to build on the inspiring work that has been done over recent years.' A foundation spokesman said: 'The process for recruiting a new chief executive will begin in the coming weeks and Jason's successor will be announced in due course. 'Jason will remain in post until the end of 2021 before a planned international relocation that has necessitated his decision to stand down.' A California family has launched a frantic search for an American teenager who disappeared while vacationing in the western Mexican state of Jalisco, home to one of the nation's deadliest cartels. Manuel Reyes, of Hayward, traveled to the Jalisco municipality of Lagos de Moreno in April to visit his ill grandmother and decided to spend some time with his sister, too. On Sunday, the 19-year-old went out with his friend Jesus Ramos. According to Univision 14, the 19-year-old spoke to his sister shortly before he went missing and said he would be returning to her home soon. 'I called him and asked him, what time are you going to arrive, I am waiting for you and it is late,' said Reyes' sister, who asked not be identified. 'He told me that he was on his way, that he was buying something to eat.' The woman said that she and Reyes were supposed to meet Sunday to go out. Manuel Reyes (pictured), of Hayward, California, traveled to Jalisco, Mexico in April to visit his ill grandmother and decided to spend some time with his sister, too. He was last heard from Sunday when he told his sister he was going with his friend Jesus Ramos to buy food in the town of Lagos de Moreno Jesus Ramos (pictured) was with 19-year-old Manuel Reyes when the pair went to buy food in Lagos de Moreno, Mexico, on Sunday. Ramos posted a photo on his Facebook page at 1:29am local time Monday. The have not been heard from since Ramos, who has also been reported missing, posted a photo of another individual, Reyes and himself on Facebook on Monday at 1:29am local time. A caption written in Spanish that read, 'cousins some yesterdays ago,' suggest that Ramos and Reyes could be related. Maria Guadalupe Contreras told the network that she is certain Reyes and Ramos were abducted by armed men and pleaded for their release. Reyes had told her he would be flying back home to California Thursday. 'I know that he is alive. I do not feel that he is dead,' Contreras said. 'I know that he is alive and I ask God to give him back to me safely and to those men who have him, please let go of him, have compassion with him and me, touch their hearts because if they're parents they will one day experience something worse than me.' Reyes' sister fears that a criminal organization may have confused his sibling and Ramos with other individuals that may be involved in unlawful acts. Jesus Ramos and Manuel Reyes during the latter's visit to Mexico in April. Both disappeared after they went out to buy food Sunday in Lagos de Moreno, a city in the western state of Jalisco Manuel Reyes had told his mother he would be returning back to his home in Hayward, California, on Thursday Government data released in April showed that 85,053 people have been reported missing since 2006 when the administration of President Felipe Calderon launched a military response against the country's criminal syndicates. At least nine people have been kidnapped in the state of Jalisco through the first three months of 2021, according to a monthly report by independent watchdog group Alto al Secuestro [Stop Kidnapping]. Figures for April have not been reported. Jesus Ramos, one of two males reported missing in Jalisco, Mexico Jalisco ranked as the third deadliest state in Mexico with 2,621 homicides in 2020. As of April 2021, the state was third with 668 murders. The western state is the home base of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The criminal group is listed as one of the nine drug cartels that poses a major threat to the United States by flooding its streets with fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana. The organization is led by Nemesio 'El Mencho' Oseguera, the most wanted drug trafficker in Mexico. The United States government is offering a $10 million bounty for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of El Mencho. A New York City commuter had his face slashed and spat on in the fourth random subway attack in the space of three hours on Wednesday morning. The unnamed victim was seated on a bench at the Times Square station on the southbound platform for the No. 1, 2 and 3 lines when he was approached by an unidentified man at 9.11am. He told police the assailant began talking to him, at which point he removed his headphones and asked: 'Are you talking to me?' This enraged the attacker, who spat in the man's face and then slashed him across the face with a sharp object and fled on foot, police said. The victim was raced to Mount Sinai Hospital, where he is in a stable condition. Just one of the attackers had been arrested by early Wednesday afternoon. The horrifying and unprovoked attack was one of four on commuters on Wednesday. Just two hours earlier, an MTA worker at the same station was punched in the face, while in Brooklyn, at Pennsylvania Avenue Station at10.35am, a woman was stabbed in the back. In Queens, at 8,45am a woman was hit with a skateboard on an F train. The four attacks came just days after a young girl and two women were shot while queueing to enter a store in Times Square. They are the latest in a spiraling wave of violence that has seen crime rates spike by 30 per cent in 12 months and threatens to overshadow New York's 'great reopening'. NYPD crime figures show felony assault was up 35.6% in April from last year, murder has increased by 15.8% and robbery had soared 28.6%. NYPD crime figures show felony assault was up 35.6% in April from last year, murder has increased 15.8% and robbery had soared by 28.6% Times Square - the heart of New York City's tourist district - has been plagued by crime in recent months, with three innocent bystanders shot there on Saturday The city's subway system has become a flashpoint for violence, with four attacks in less than three hours on Wednesday morning A man was slashed across the face as he waited on the southbound 1, 2, 3 train platform at 9.11am. Less than two hours earlier, an on-duty MTA officer was punched in the face at the same station Minutes after Wednesday's spree of subway violence, Mayor Bill de Blasio posted a link on Twitter to his news conference declaring: 'Open Streets are here to STAY.' Open Streets, which began in Spring 2020, opened up 100 miles of New York City streets exclusively for pedestrians. 'You are a disgrace,' one person responded. 'This happened this morning rush hour... But pls tell us your subways are safe so that we keep getting slashed with knives.' Another said: 'Only the brave would visit Times Square right now.' Times Square station was the location of two of this morning's attacks. An MTA worker was punched in the face on the same platform the slashing occurred, just over two hours earlier at 7:45am. The attacker, described as 5 foot 8 tall in his 20s or 30s and wearing dark clothing, screamed at the 47-year-old on-duty MTA worker, pushing and then punching her in the face, before fleeing down the platform. She refused medical attention. In a third incident, a woman was hit with a skateboard on an F train around 8:45 am at the 75th Avenue Station in Queens. An arrest was quickly made in the incident. And in Brooklyn, a woman was stabbed in the back and right shoulder during a robbery around 10:35 am on the platform at Pennsylvania Avenue Station. The woman was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, while the attacker got away on foot. Police leaders in the city say the epidemic of random street and subway attacks is returning New York to its 1980s nadir, when lawlessness and murder were commonplace. Although assaults were commonplace in the 1980s, a crackdown on the crooks saw crime levels drop making neighborhoods that were previously known as no-go areas, safe to walk around, even at night. But now, there are fears the city is returning to the bad old days. Areas of the city which were generally thought to be safe, such as Midtown Manhattan, Chelsea and the leafy Upper West Side, have all been locations on random assaults in 2021. Minutes after the violent crime spree on New York subways, Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted 'open streets are here to stay' 'You are a disgrace,' one person responded. 'This happened this morning rush hour... But pls tell us your subways are safe so that we keep getting slashed with knives' Another person commenting on this morning's Times Square attacks said: 'Only the brave would visit Times Square right now' A woman was hit with a skateboard on an F train around 8:45 am at the 75th Avenue Station in Queens. A person was arrested soon afterwards In Brooklyn, a woman was stabbed in the back and right shoulder during a robbery around 10:35 am on the platform at Pennsylvania Avenue Station In an essay written exclusively for DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio and fellow officials for New York City's descent into lawlessness. 'As the city burns, more lives are lost, and devastated families mourn, these buffoonish 'leaders' continue to say the police are the problem not the solution,' wrote Mullins. NYPD figures from April show the overall crime index rose 30.4% compared to the same month last year. This was driven by a 166% increase in shooting incidents, a 35.6% increase in felony assault, and a 66% increase in reported thefts. Murder rates in the city have gone up by 15.8% year-on-year, robbery is up 28.6% and rape has increased by 53%, according to official figures from the NYPD. Unprovoked attacks are leaving some residents on edge and even looking for self-defense classes. 'I carry pepper spray because we are now a lawless city and need to police ourselves,' Upper West Side resident Jacqueline Bolier told the DailyMail.com last month. 'The attackers are generally mentally disturbed people with nothing to lose. There are no mental hospitals and no foot patrols taking place by police.' A woman, identified as Desteny S. (left) was slashed across the face at a store where she is employed as a manager in Manhattan on March 26. Judith Thomas (right) another victim of a random attack, displays facial bruises after she was punched in upper Manhattan on Tuesday, April 6, 2021 in New York Narayange Bodhi was commuting to his security job when the suspect punched him in the head in a random attack in March Hate crimes against Asian people has shot up 400% from last year. In March, an Asian woman was knocked to the ground and viciously beaten on her way to church in Manhattan. The video shows the victim, 65, being pushed to floor and kicked in the head by an unidentified passer-by during the vicious daylight attack. She had been walking towards the man in the moments before he attacked her. He reportedly told her: 'F*** you, you don't belong here.' The suspect stomped on her head and face at least three times. Last month, a man was arrested and charged with an assault on a 68-year-old man Asian man on the subway, accused of shouting racial insults. The suspect had been arrested nine times before. Another Asian man, 66, was also punched in the face in an apparent random attack. In that incident, an unknown man believed to be homeless approached the victim, began yelling at him and then struck him in the face with a closed fist. It comes amid national outcry over anti-Asian violence, which has skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic. Last month, the NYPD revealed that it had recorded a 1,300 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic. Many activists blame the antagonism toward Asians on former president Donald Trump, who frequently called COVID-19 the 'China virus'. A toddler, later identified to be 4-year-old Skye Martinez, was shot in the leg while waiting to enter a store in Times Square with her aunt Danae Romero, 16 A hero NYPD officer clutches a young child who has just been shot in Times Square on Saturday and spirits them to safety On Saturday, three innocent bystanders, including a four-year-old girl, were hit by stray bullets in Times Square in broad daylight, in a shocking shooting that sent tourists stampeding in panic. One of those injured, Wendy Magrinat, 23, says onlookers began filming her with their mobile phones rather than help in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. She was on a sightseeing trip from Rhode Island when she was shot in the leg while standing with her husband Yoel, their two-year-old daughter Elise, and her mother, stepfather and eight-year-old sister. Farrakhan Muhammad, 31, was arrested in Florida on Wednesday for allegedly firing bullets into a crowd in Times Square, hitting two women and a young child Magrinat said she started screaming: 'I don't want to die, please help me! The pain was too much, and I dropped to the floor. 'I understand people get in shock. But if you're in shock, you shouldn't be recording. But that's how people are right now.' Danae Romero, 16, said she was waiting in the queue at the same store with her four-year-old niece Skye Martinez when the shooting began. Romero said the pair ran for their lives - but described how Skye was struck by a stray bullet. 'She didn't feel anything. Even when we noticed when we were at the corner, she wasn't crying,' Romero told the NY Post. Romero said Skye, who is from Brooklyn, had managed to stay calm throughout the ordeal, and was in a stable condition in hospital. 'She's pretty tough, I guess,' Romero told the Post. 'She's always been happy. There aren't many times when she cries and stuff,' she said. A third victim, New Jersey woman, 43-year-old Marcela Aldana, was shot in the foot. All victims are expected to recover. The prime suspect in the shooting, Farrakhan Muhammad, was arrested by US Marshals and members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force in Jacksonville, Florida, on Wednesday. An NYPD cop filmed saving the life of a wounded toddler hit by a Times Square gunman's stray bullet has described the moment she ran the child to safety. Officer Alyssa Vogel was hailed a hero after a video showed her clutching Skye Martinez as the shots rang out Saturday. The "Liebe Gewinnt" or "Love Wins" campaign has been supported by priests and dioceses across Germany with this week's blessings in towns like Berlin, Munich, and Cologne, which is host to Germany's largest archdiocese, as well as rural regions. One of the more than 100 German priests, who this week challenged the Vatican by blessing same-sex couples, said the Catholic Church has lost its touch with the "living reality" of the LGBT+ people. In a statement obtained by Thomson Reuters Foundation, Christian Olding, a priest in the western city of Geldern, said: "If we say that God is love, I cannot tell people who embrace loyalty, unity and responsibility to each other that theirs is not love, that it's a fifth-or sixth-class love." "I look forward to the blessing. We're going have all forms of relationships: classic heterosexual marriages, divorced and remarried couples, unmarried couples and yes, also same-sex couples," he added. "We're going have the whole diversity of love." In March, a petition in support of blessing same sex partners was supported by more than 2000 bishops, theologians and other representatives of the Catholic Church in Germany and Austria. "When someone says that something cannot be discussed anymore, I find that unreasonable and inappropriate," argues Olding suggesting the Church had 'lost touch' with her LGBT+ adherents. He added that as a priest living in the center of society, he does not want to be isolated from the everyday realities of people. 86% of Germans believe homosexuality should be tolerated according to the Pew Research Center, a US think tank. The Vatican's Official Stance The Vatican's doctrinal office said in March that priests cannot bless same-sex relationships in place of marriage, amid ministers in countries like Germany doing so. This enraged liberals inside the 1.3-billion-member Church. The March blessings prohibition, which Pope Francis endorsed, caused outrage inside the Church and shocked many because he has become more tolerant of gay persons than any other pontiff. The Pope has also spoken with gay parents and urged them to educate their children in the Church. In 2013, he made the now-famous comment about gay people finding God and wanting to follow the Church's laws, "Who am I to judge?" The Church believes that although homosexuality is not intrinsically immoral, same-sex sexual intercourse is. The official statement, titled "Responsum of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to a dubium regarding the blessing of the unions of persons of the same sex," is published on the website of the Vatican and signed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Prefect Luis F. Cardinal Ladaria, S.I. The Explanatory Note of the Responsum explained the genuine intention of the Catholic Church to accept and assist homosexual people to "understand and fully carry out God's will in their lives" for "God loves every person and the Church does the same." The document continued by stating that refusing homosexual people the blessing of their same sex marriage is not discriminatory but merely "a reminder of the reality of the liturgical rite" and the very essence of the sacramentals. It says that doing so is "not licit" because such blessings "belong to the category of the sacramentals." Sacramentals, according to the Responsum, are literally means by which an individual is called to live a holy life and to "praise God" when pleading for His protection in order to live the call to holiness. More specifically, sacramentals "have been established as a kind of imitation of the sacraments," and that "blessings are signs above all of spiritual effects that are achieved through the Church's intercession." The Responsum emphasized that same-sex unions are not "legitimate objects of an ecclesial blessing" since their nature is "not ordered to the Creator's plan," which is a man and a woman united in marriage for procreation as God defined from the dawn of creation. As a result, the Catholic Church has no authority to override what God defined as His plan for marriage and the human race. Also, for better understanding of the general public, the "Article of Commentary on the Responsum ad dubium, 15.03.2021" can be found on the Vatican website and other relevant sources. In a nutshell, the commentary said that the Catholic Church lacks the authority to bless same-sex relationships for these three reasons: Scripture, natural law, and Church teaching. Advertisement The Russian school shooter who gunned down nine students and staff in Kazan yesterday suffers from a brain disorder and was recently dismissed from a local technical college for poor grades, the court heard today. Ilnaz Galyaviev, 19, rampaged through his former school armed with a rifle and homemade bombs, causing pupils to leap to safety from third-floor windows. The seven students and two staff were laid to rest on Wednesday in the majority Muslim Russian region of Tatarstan, as Vladimir Putin called for tighter gun laws. Family members wearing black and students of Elvira Ignatieva - a 26-year-old English teacher who reportedly died while shielding pupils from the gunman - laid flowers and read the Koran at her grave during a funeral ceremony. Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said Wednesday that Galyaviev suffered from a brain disorder and had repeatedly sought medical attention for severe headaches. Ilnaz Galyaviev, the suspect in the shooting at School No. 175, sits inside a defendants' cage during his remand hearing at the Sovetsky district court in Kazan People react next to the grave of Elvira Ignatieva, an English language teacher who was killed in the school massacre in Kazan on Tuesday English teacher Elvira Ignatieva, 26, was killed in the massacre. She had worked at the school for the last four years after graduating from university and was nominated for 'teacher of the year' in her district in 2018 The seven students and two staff were laid to rest on Wednesday in the majority Muslim Russian region of Tatarstan, as Vladimir Putin called for tighter gun laws Galyaviev, a former pupil, is purportedly seen on chilling footage walking towards the school with a gun in one hand and a bag in the other before he launched the appalling assault 'His family has also noticed aggression and a quick temper in his behaviour since the beginning of this year,' she said. The gunman was detained within an hour of the attack and he was seen in interrogation footage leaked online claiming he was God and that he had 'a monster' inside him. All the children killed were in Ignatieva's eighth-grade class and believed to be aged 13 and 14. The second staff member killed was a teaching assistant for younger students. The English teacher had worked at the school for the last four years after graduating from university and was nominated for 'teacher of the year' in her district in 2018. 'My niece was like a shining star: she took off, lit up and faded away,' her aunt Anna Ignatieva told AFP, crying and wearing a black scarf. Ilnaz Galyaviev, 19, rampaged through his former school armed with a rifle and homemade bombs, causing pupils to leap to safety from third-floor windows Mourners lay flowers at the grave of English teacher Elvira Ignatyeva during an emotional day in Kazan on Wednesday Flowers and toys left to commemorate victims of the shooting at School No. 175 are seen outside the representative office of the Republic of Tatarstan in Moscow Terrified pupils were seen leaping out of third floor windows in a desperate bid to escape the carnage unfolding inside the school Twenty children including some who sustained injuries while attempting to escape the school building were hospitalised, regional authorities said on Wednesday. Three adults were also hospitalised. Eight students were being treated for gunshot wounds and two were in a critical condition. Horrific videos showed young children covered in blood lying on the grass outside the building in the aftermath as their weeping parents and teachers bandaged their wounds. After the attack Putin offered condolences to the families of the victims and urged lawmakers to make the process of legally obtaining a firearm more strict. The shooting also prompted calls among pro-Kremlin lawmakers for even tighter regulation on the internet, which opposition figures in Russia say authorities use to suppress political dissent. Twenty children including some who sustained injuries while attempting to escape the school building were hospitalised, regional authorities said on Wednesday A Russian flag flies at half-mast on top of the Sovetsky district court in memory of victims of the school shooting The gunman was detained within an hour of the attack and he was seen in interrogation footage leaked online claiming he was God and that he had 'a monster' inside him The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, called on lawmakers to discuss the possibility of removing internet anonymity, requiring users to identify themselves to be allowed online. Authorities have claimed that young Russians are being increasingly exposed to negative influences online, especially from the West. The Russia-born founder of encrypted messenger Telegram, Pavel Durov, said Wednesday that his team had 'acted quickly' to block the gunman's account, one hour after receiving initial complaints over his channel. Russia has relatively few school shootings due to normally tight security in education facilities. Buying firearms legally is also not easy, although it is possible to register hunting rifles. Officials noted that Galyaviev had undergone security and psychological tests to gain a license for the weapon. Galyaviev was later pictured in the police station, tied up in an iron cage, where he reportedly told officers that he was 'god' and that he 'hated everybody' Footage showed the teenage suspect, named locally as Ilnaz Galyaviev, being pinned to the ground outside by a police officer. Before the attack he posted a chilling photo to social media, calling himself 'god' and saying he wanted to rid the world of all human beings Two young girls are seen outside the school after the attack, one has blood on her legs and hands as she receives treatment (left) and the damaged interior of the school (right) A shotgun which was recovered from the suspect One pupil said that they were ordered to lock their classroom doors by the headteacher over the loudspeaker system before they heard shooting erupt. He said he saw a cleaner and a guard who had been shot while trying to prevent the gunmen from gaining access to the school were more than 700 children and 52 teachers were at work. The youngster told local media: 'We were sitting on the third floor, we had a history lesson. 'Suddenly, in the middle of the lesson, the headmistress starts shouting into the loud speaker so that no one would open their doors. 'The class teacher quickly closed the door and literally five seconds later a big explosion went off, either on the first or on the second floor. 'We stayed together and did not open the door to anyone, but they burst into it - shots were heard, banging on the door, as if someone was trying to knock it out. 'After some time, we heard the riot police and the the deputy head shouted to us to open it. 'Firefighters came in and took us out. 'I don't know who did the shooting, and nobody knows. 'Some say they are terrorists, others say that they are eleventh graders. 'I don't know who they killed, but they killed the cleaner and the guard for sure - they tried to keep them out of the school.' A 15-year-old boy told local media: 'Everyone started panicking and saying 'shut the doors.' About a minute later the headteacher started yelling: 'We're shutting the doors!' 'We got out about 15 minutes later, not out of the windows. I wanted to do that, but the teacher closed the window immediately and said no.' Galyaviev left two unexploded devices inside the school building and reportedly told officers he left another device planted in his house. Students are evacuated from the school in Kazan by ladder after shooting began The aftermath of the shooting shows plaster, dust and wood scattered across the floors Teachers and pupils were evacuated from the school by ladder Paramedics and police at the school in Kazan on Tuesday after the attack which left dozens of children wounded A large crowd gathered outside the school including worried parents as gunshots were heard in the neighbourhood A woman wipes away tears as she stands outside the school in Kazan on Tuesday Kazan is the capital of mainly Muslim Tatarstan, an oil-rich region on the Volga River In a chilling message posted online before the attack, he wrote: 'Today I will kill a big amount of bio trash and will shoot myself.' Photos from his social media accounts showed Galyaviev wearing a mask emblazoned with the word: 'God.' Other messages read: 'As god, I want everyone to admit they are my slaves. 'You have to do absolutely everything that I want. I want each of you to kill 10+ and kill themselves. There should be no one living, this is the universe's mistake.' He also wrote: 'I came to this world as a human to get rid of all of you.' Reports say he told police that he learned how to make bombs on the Internet. He also said that 'he hates everybody', and 'wanted everybody to know he is a god.' His shocked father Rinat when found by the media said: 'What has he done?' He was later detained. Reached by phone he said: 'I am at the police station right now, don't bother me please.' A mother embraces her child after the school shooting on Tuesday Concerned locals, including parents, wait outside the school as ladders are propped up to third floor windows A tactical response team is seen in the grounds of the school surveying the building. It was not clear if there was a shooter or shooters still at large Members of the security forces stand guard at the entrance to the school on Tuesday Ambulances, army and police trucks are seen outside the front of the school on Tuesday A crowd, including concerned parents, is gathered outside the school as dozens of emergency vehicles arrived at the scene Around 20 ambulances were on the scene, including members of the security forces. All the other schools in the city were closed for the day as a precaution. School shootings are rare in Russia. One of the last major shootings of its kind took place in Russian-annexed Crimea in 2018 when a student at a college killed 19 before turning his gun on himself. Kazan is the capital of the Muslim-majority region of Tatarstan and located around 450 miles east of Moscow. The BBC has today made a grovelling apology to Sir James Dyson for incorrectly labelling him a 'prominent Conservative supporter'. The broadcaster made the erroneous claim within its report of tax texts sent between the billionaire British investor and Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It attempted to support the claim that Sir James was a Tory-backer by saying the entrepreneur had made a 11,000 donation to the Conservative party. But it was later revealed that the donation, from the James Dyson Foundation, was actually to the Wiltshire Engineering Festival - an event for school children. Now the broadcaster has apologised after accepting that, while the event was organised by a Tory MP, it is not affiliated to the Conservative party. In an apology, posted on the BBC's website, it said: 'We accept that Sir James Dyson is not a prominent Conservative supporter as was stated in some of our coverage of his text messages with the Prime Minister. The BBC has today made a grovelling apology to Sir James Dyson (pictured) for incorrectly labelling him a 'prominent Conservative supporter' The broadcaster made the erroneous claim within its report of tax texts sent between the billionaire British investor and Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured) 'The James Dyson Foundation made a charitable gift to support the Wiltshire Engineering Festival for school children. 'We accept that this does not signal affiliation to any political party and we would like to put the record straight.' Text exchange between Boris Johnson and Sir James Dyson over the tax status of his employees Dyson: 'We are ready. But nobody seems to want us to proceed. Sadly, James' Johnson: 'I will fix it tomo! We need you. It looks fantastic' Johnson: 'Rishi says it is fixed!! We need you here' Dyson: 'Thanks! I will give the ventilator our all. James' Dyson: 'Dear Boris, I'm afraid that we need a response to our letter below from Rishi please? We really need Rishi to answer the letter we sent (attached) - now. Or to make the position clear. Rishi has fixed the Country Day Count issue but not Work Days. The former is now covered under an 'Exceptional Circumstances' umbrella, Work Days are not. So, he has freed up your ability to be in the UK but not to work there - even in support of this National emergency.' Johnson: 'James I am first lord of the treasury and you can take it that we are backing you to do what you need.' Just two weeks later, Chancellor Rishi Sunak told MPs that those coming into the UK to offer help during the pandemic would not see a change in their tax status. Advertisement The BBC also clarified elements of its original article, which highlighted texts sent between Sir James and Mr Johnson last year. Sir James had, at the personal request of the Prime Minister, offered the support of his vacuum firm to produce ventilators at the start of the Covid pandemic. He later wrote an official letter to the Treasury asking for the tax status of his staff to remain the same if they moved from Singapore to the UK to produce vital ventilators during the pandemic. The inventor followed this up with a series of texts to the Prime Minister, which were later disclosed by the BBC. But, in its apology to Sir James, the broadcaster said it had not included the fact that the Prime Minister had directly contacted the inventor to ask for support in making ventilators. The BBC also said it had not reported the fact that doing so had cost the company 20million, nor that the texts between Sir James and the Prime Minister had later been forwarded to Whitehall officials. The statement added: 'We are sorry that these facts were not always reflected in our coverage, and we apologise for not doing so.' Today Sir James slammed the 'twisted' reporting of his donation to the Wiltshire Engineering Festival - organised by local MP Michelle Donelan - as 'shameful'. But he said he had ultimately accepted the BBC's apology. In a statement sent to MailOnline, he said: 'The BBC now acknowledges that it was wrong and has issued an apology which I accept. 'To justify its claim that I am a prominent Conservative supporter the BBC shamefully twisted our charitable gift to school children to suit their political narrative. 'The Prime Minister asked Dyson to help at a time of crisis, in the national interest, and we did just that. 'We dropped everything and focused on the national effort. Far from any gain, the project cost us 20million - a sum we voluntarily bore. He added: 'I am proud of the efforts of every Dyson person who contributed and we would do precisely the same again. 'It was deeply disappointing, for me and for the hundreds of Dyson people who gave it their all, to have our efforts developing an emergency ventilator mischaracterised and used for political mudslinging.' Two weeks after the text exchange, Chancellor Rishi Sunak told MPs that those coming into the UK to offer help during the pandemic would not see a change in their tax status It emerged in April that Sir James had written an official letter to the Treasury asking for the tax status of his staff to remain the same if they moved from Singapore to the UK to produce vital ventilators during the pandemic. But in a private text, seen by the BBC, Mr Johnson told Sir James that he 'will fix it' himself. He then added 'Rishi says it is fixed!! We need you here'. Just two weeks later, Rishi Sunak told MPs that those coming into the UK to offer help during the pandemic would not see a change in their tax status. Sir James said some of Dyson's brightest minds had turned their attention to creating ventilators after a personal request by Mr Johnson at the start of the pandemic. He said the company had dedicated 450 engineers to the project and had absorbed around 20million in costs - without asking the Government for support. According to a Dyson spokesperson, the company created 10,000 ventilators but they were not required due to changing treatment methods. The company then concluded the project in May last year, having been told their help would no longer be needed. A spokesperson for Sir James, a prominent supporter of Brexit, added that the entrepreneur had spoken at party conferences for Labour and the Conservatives, both times about engineering. Claudia Conway appears to have called an end to trolling mom Kellyanne on social media as the teenager wished her a belated happy mother's day, saying that 'time teaches you maturity'. The 16-year-old TikTok star and ex-American Idol contestant tweeted her mother's day message on Wednesday. 'Hope everyone has a lovely day and a happy late mother's day to all the mamas out there, including my own,' Claudia's tweet read. 'Time teaches you maturity and forgiveness. Life is beautiful; don't waste it.' Claudia Conway, 16, tweeted the belated mother's day message on Wednesday The teen appeared to address her history of trolling her mom Kellyanne Conway on social media by saying: 'Time teaches you maturity and forgiveness'. They are pictured above during Claudia's appearance on American Idol Claudia's veiled message comes after the teenager repeatedly shamed her mother, who was President Trump's senior counselor, on social media and, on several occasions, accused her of abuse. Some of her social media videos regarding her mother have sparked concerns about the teen's safety, as well as calls and emails to authorities. Earlier this year, police in her hometown of New Jersey launched an investigation after Claudia accused her mother of posting a topless photo of her on Twitter. Claudia later backtracked and said Kellyanne wasn't to blame. She also blamed her mother for giving her COVID-19 late last year and lying about it. The teen, who is the daughter of Kellyanne and George Conway, shot to fame on TikTok last year due to her vocal stance against her mom's former boss President Trump. She was a contestant on American Idol last month before being voted off in the early stages. During her audition, Claudia addressed her relationship with her mother. Earlier this year, police in her hometown of New Jersey launched an investigation after Claudia accused her mother of posting a topless photo of her on Twitter. Claudia later backtracked and said Kellyanne wasn't to blame The teen also blamed her mother for giving her COVID-19 late last year and lying about it. 'I'm Claudia Conway. I'm 16. My mother is Kellyanne Conway. She worked for Donald Trump. And my dad is George Conway. He's a lawyer he worked against Donald Trump,' she said. 'I had to move to DC when I was 12 and I hated it. When your mom is working for the President of the United States who you very much disagree with, it's hard.' Jusge Katy Perry immediately asked her: 'Are you okay?' 'No,' Claudia replied. 'No but yes.' Claudia said it was 'hard' growing up with her mother working for Trump and that she believed her 'feelings had been suppressed' before she joined social media and started posting about her own views. 'Most of my life, my feelings had been suppressed so then I got social media and I was like, 'Well, yeah. Now my voice is being heard,' she said. As she was voted off the show, Perry praised Claudio for 'taking control of your life'. Some American Idol viewers called her appearance the 'worst sort of exploitation of a minor' on reality TV. Her belated mother's day message comes a month after Claudia posted a video of herself in a hospital bed attached to an IV drip. She later appeared to confirm her illness, asking 'y'all rocking w appendicitis?' A California teacher who refused to return to in-person learning has infuriated parents by canceling her virtual lessons to jet off to her son's wedding in Mexico. The kindergarten teacher, who works for the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) in the East Bay, sent an email to families Monday telling them her online classes will be canceled for several days while she is on her trip 'due to travel and limited family activities'. During those days, the children will be required to work on their own using 'supplies and activities' provided in advance, she said. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, which has not identified the teacher due to concerns of harassment, the same teacher has chosen not to return to the classroom since the district reopened in-person learning last month. Under district rules, it is voluntary for teachers to return to in-person learning and the teacher is within her right to choose not to, with no need for a medical waiver. Similarly, it is voluntary for parents to send their children back to reopened classrooms on a hybrid schedule. It is not clear how many families with students in the teacher's class opted in favor of sending their children back to school. DailyMail.com has reached out to the district for information. A California teacher who refused to return to in-person learning has infuriated parents by canceling her virtual lessons to jet off to her son's wedding in Mexico The kindergarten teacher, who works for the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) in the East Bay, sent an email to families Monday telling them her online classes will be canceled for several days of her vacation 'due to travel and limited family activities' In the email, the teacher said she would be traveling to Mexico for around 12 days in May for her son's 'long deferred wedding' on May 19. She said she would continue to teach the children remotely during the trip but, for at least two days, her lessons would be canceled altogether. 'I will be traveling to Mexico for my son's long deferred wedding on May 19th, (after school) for approximately 12, (+/-), days,' she wrote. 'While I will be teaching from Mexico, some days will contain asynchronous lessons due to travel and limited family activities,' she wrote, pointing to May 20. She also cited her return date as a day when classes would be canceled but could not yet confirm the date to parents due to her mother's health. 'All supplies and materials will be provided ahead of time for any class activities that will take place while I am out of the country. Please contact me ahead of time if you have any concerns. Wishing you a sunny week ahead,' the teacher wrote. The email sparked outrage among parents who questioned why the teacher will not return to the classroom due to COVID-19 but is happy to jet off on a plane to a foreign country. One parent sent the email onto California education advocacy group Reopen California Schools, which posted a screen grab of the memo on Twitter while slamming the teacher's actions as 'unreal.' A stock image of a child remote learning. The district reopened schools for in-person learning from April 19 'UNREAL!!! Teacher for @WCCUSD in CA cancels class time and assigns homework instead to attend son's wedding in Mexico. Half the teachers for WCCUSD, including this one, were allowed to stay remote for 'health' reasons,' the group tweeted. Social media users jumped on the matter hitting out at the teacher's 'hypocrisy'. 'So she's afraid to teach cause of COVID, but can leave the safety of her home to attend a wedding,' one person tweeted. 'The hypocrisy is unbelievable! And how is attending a wedding, abroad, with presumably lots of people, safer than teaching in person, especially since children are not vectors and schools are not super spreaders?' chimed in another. As well as drawing the ire of parents who want to get their children back to the classroom after a year of remote learning, the teacher also appears to have violated policy around annual leave. Under district rules, teachers must take a leave of absence when they leave the country. One parent sent the email onto California education advocacy group Reopen California Schools, which posted a screen grab of the memo on Twitter District spokesperson Robert Jordan confirmed to the Chronicle that 'any travel outside of the country for any reason requires a leave of absence.' The incident is being looked into, Board of Education Trustee Mister Phillips said, confirming that 'there are protocols for employees to take time off. I do not know if they were followed in this situation.' All 54 WCCUSD schools started welcoming students back for in-person learning from Mondays to Wednesdays on April 19 - more than one year after the pandemic shuttered schools and plunged much of the nation into lockdown last March. The district's 'Voluntary Spring In-Person Intervention and Instruction plan' is voluntary for both staff and students with the district saying its 'ability to serve students in-person during the spring is based on staffing capacity'. Where a teacher continues to choose to work remotely, a classroom aide supervises students in person in the classroom. The district said it had identified its top five percent highest needs students and made sure it had enough staff in place to meet the needs of them. The plan had been approved last month by staff members. Social media users questioned why the teacher will not return to the classroom due to COVID-19 but is happy to jet off on a plane to a foreign country Reopening schools has been a source of tension for months as parents and lawmakers pushed for a return to classroom learning, while teachers and teachers' unions put up roadblocks. In March, Governor Gavin Newsom said he was allocating 10 percent of the state's supply each week to teaching staff in an effort to get schools back up and running. Now, more than 50 percent of the population in California have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Yet, many schools continue to offer hybrid teaching and some schools are still closed altogether. Research has shown that both the grades and mental health of students suffered from at-home learning, particularly among already vulnerable children. An October article by the American Psychological Association cited concerns about 'how kids will cope psychologically with the ongoing loss of access to the friends, teachers, and routines associated with going to a physical campus'. Governor Gavin Newsom allocated 10% of the state's supply each week to teaching staff in an effort to get schools back up and running Howard University professor and psychologist Celeste Malone warned that children of color and less well-off backgrounds were at the greatest risk of facing mental health challenges by missing out on classroom learning. 'Communities of color typically have reduced access to mental health providers, but these kids need support more than ever right now,' she said. 'They are more likely to have parents who are essential workers and experiences of grief and loss because of COVID, plus they are seeing persistent police brutality and unrest.' Meanwhile, teachers' unions said staff were at risk of contracting COVID-19 by returning to the classroom. There is no official death toll for teachers during the pandemic but the American Federation of Teachers, one of the biggest unions, said it knows of around 530 school staffers who died from COVID-19 last year. California Governor Gavin Newsom passed a $6.6 billion package earlier this year to get schools back up and running in the state. The package included $2 billion to help districts resume in-person learning by April 1. The governor said it was not essential for teachers to be vaccinated before they returned to in-person learning. This matched the federal stance, with Joe Biden making it a priority in his first 100 days to have most schools reopened and the CDC saying there is little evidence of the virus spreading in schools. Paris has said it will delay a EU financial services deal with Britain until Boris Johnson grants European fishermen fair access to UK waters, sources say. 'We've made a link between the two,' the source said. The post-Brexit dispute over access to the UK's fishing grounds last week saw France and the UK send patrol vessels to Jersey as French trawlers protested there. A second source, an EU diplomat, said Britain was failing to adhere to the terms of a deal governing its post-Brexit trade ties with the EU. There can be no progress in other areas if these are not resolved, the person added to Reuters. The post-Brexit dispute over access to the UK's rich fishing grounds last week saw France and Britain send patrol vessels to the Channel island of Jersey as French trawlers protested there (pictured) 'It's not just France and it's not just fishing,' said the European diplomat. 'Britain must fully apply the agreements it signed up to, which is not the case right now.' Britain's huge financial services sector was largely cut off from the EU, its biggest export customer, on December 31 when the UK left the bloc. A new UK-EU trade deal does not cover financial services and direct access to the single European market for financial firms in the City of London has yet to be decided by the bloc under a process known as equivalence. Paris has said it will delay a EU financial services deal with Britain until Boris Johnson grants European fishermen fair access to UK waters, sources say. Pictured: The Jersey protest last week Britain and the EU have agreed in principle on a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between financial regulators. But it has yet to be formally ratified by the bloc's 27 member countries, including France. 'We will resume our equivalence assessments once the regulatory cooperation framework is in place and do so on a case-by-case basis, taking into account the UK's regulatory intention,' the EU's financial services chief Mairead McGuinness said on Tuesday. Banks in Britain say they do not expect the EU to grant meaningful direct access soon and the time is better spent on making the City more globally attractive. Britain's huge financial services sector was largely cut off from the EU, its biggest export customer, on Dec.31 when the UK completed its departure from the bloc. Pictured: Jersey last week French fishermen say Jersey, a self-governing British Crown Dependency, unilaterally imposed restrictions on the waters they could fish in when it issued licences in April. Jersey has since proposed delaying post-Brexit restrictions on French fishermen until the end of July, French Seas Minister Annick Girardin told parliament on Tuesday. 'New proposal by Jersey: We're not there yet,' the minister later tweeted. A California man who was repeatedly snapping driving in the rear seat of his Model 3 Tesla while it was on autopilot has been arrested for reckless driving. Param Sharma, 25, was held overnight in Santa Rita jail on Monday after a police officer spotted him in the backseat as he entered the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza in Oakland on Monday. California Highway Patrol were alerted to Sharma's stunts after someone posted a video of him in the rear of his Model 3 Tesla earlier this month. They also received multiple calls about a similar car on Monday. Sharma allegedly jumped into the front seat after he was pulled over and the officer made his way to the window. He was charged with two counts of reckless driving and disobeying a Peace Officer. 'It's not something we see often, and we're hoping this doesn't become a trend,' the California Highway Patrol told DailyMail.com. It's illegal in California for autonomous vehicles to operate without humans behind the wheel. The Tesla Autopilot is intended to assist a fully attentive driver and is not fully autonomous or a 'self-driving' car. Before enabling Autopilot, a driver must agree to 'keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times' and to always 'maintain control and responsibility for your car.' Param Sharma, 25, was held overnight in Santa Rita jail on Monday after a police officer spotted him in the backseat as he entered the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza in Oakland on Monday California Highway Patrol were alerted to Sharma's stunts after someone posted a video of him in the rear of his Model 3 Tesla earlier this month Highway Patrol officers also received multiple calls about a similar car on Monday before arresting Sharma Despite his actions being both dangerous and illegal, Sharma appeared to get a kick out of being caught on camera and sported a wide grin as he was snapped being overtaken by a fellow driver in Berkeley on May 4. A video of the incident was later posted to YouTube. In another picture, taken at a toll plaza to the San Francisco Bay Bridge on May 3, he could be seen with his foot resting on the steering wheel while he sat comfortably in the rear. Once Sharma was released after his arrest on Monday, he bragged that he would get home using the same method for which he was arrested - sitting in the backseat of a Tesla while the autopilot was engaged. This time though, he was in a friend's car and the pair were seated in the back, he said. 'I'm gonna go in the back seat right now. You feel me? I'm waiting for my car to charge,' Sharma told KTVU. Sharma also told KTVU that his antics were not to show off, but to prove that self-driving cars were not just part of the future, but the present. On his Instagram page, Sharma has posted a series of photographs of himself from the backseat while the car is in motion. In one image, his leg is up on the center console as he relaxes in the back. Param Sharma, 25, was arrested on Tuesday but he said he will continue his antics Sharma puts his foot on the center console while the autopilot feature of his Tesla takes him to where he wants to go Sharma is riding in the backseat of his Tesla while the car drives on Interstate 80 on Interstate 80 in the Bay Area He also doesn't believe that what he is doing is dangerous. 'I've been brake-checked before really hard, and the car stopped,' Sharma told KTVU. 'The car came to a complete stop. Elon Musk really knows what he's doing and I think people are tripping and they're scared.' There have been at least five crashes involving Teslas while the autopilot function was engaged which resulted in investigations by the National Transport Safety Board and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The most recent crashed happened on April 17 in Texas when two friends took a new Model S 'out for a spin,' and the car veered off of the cul-de-sac and plowed into trees then caught fire. An NTSB report says there was no one in the driver's seat. Two friends died in a Tesla crash in mid April in Texas after the vehicle smashed into a tree and burst into flames with 'no one in the driver's seat' In mid-March, a Tesla Model Y hit a patrol car in Lansing, Michigan while driver had the vehicle's advanced driver-assistance system, known as Autopilot, Michigan state police told the Washington Post. Despite the scrutiny after the crashes, Tesla, delivered nearly half a million vehicles in 2020, said it expects that figure to rise more than 50 percent this year, the Washington Post reported. And the company's stock has been on a tear, rising more than 350 percent over the past year. 'The rate of growth will depend on our equipment capacity, operational efficiency and capacity and stability of the supply chain,' the company said in its quarterly letter to investors. Factories in Berlin and Austin, Texas, are on track to start producing this year, and the company said production of its Semi will start in 2021. Also, first deliveries of the new Model S should start shortly. A woman spent hours lying in a coffin to rehearse her own funeral at a bizarre ceremony in the Dominican Republic. Mayra Alonzo, 59, organised her funeral rehearsal at her home in the city of Santiago at the end of April. Friends and family bid a tearful goodbye to Alonzo, with some appearing to do a better job of fake crying than others, who were seen smiling and snapping photos on their phones. A woman spent hours lying in a coffin to rehearse her own funeral at a bizarre ceremony in the Dominican Republic. Mayra Alonzo (pictured), 59, organised her funeral rehearsal at her home in the city of Santiago at the end of April Friends and family bid a tearful goodbye to Alonzo, with some appearing to do a better job of fake crying than others, who were seen smiling and snapping photos on their phones Alonzo arrived at the funeral in a hearse, dressed head to toe in white and lay in a white coffin that she had rented for the day. She wore a floral crown and had cotton in her nostrils at times, replicating the treatment of a corpse in a mortuary. The party cost 710, according to Listin Diario, a Dominican news site, with the money going to pay for the coffin, as well as refreshments for the dozens of guests. Alonzo arrived at the funeral in a hearse, dressed head to toe in white and lay in a white coffin that she had rented for the day She wore a floral crown and had cotton in her nostrils at times, replicating the treatment of a corpse in a mortuary The party cost 710, according to Listin Diario , a Dominican news site, with the money going to pay for the coffin, as well as refreshments for the dozens of guests Alonzo described the event as a 'dream come true' and thanked her friends, family and neighbours for helping her to organise it. 'If I die tomorrow , I don't want anyone to do anything because I've done it all in life,' she said, referring to whether she'd have a real funeral. She reportedly advised her loved ones not to die anytime soon, saying that being inside the coffin was very warm and lonely. Alonzo described the event as a 'dream come true' and thanked her friends, family and neighbours for helping her to organise it Social media users were baffled by the event, with some criticising Alonzo for holding a fake funeral at a time when so many lives are being lost due to the coronavirus Alonzo said it was the deaths during the pandemic that inspired her to celebrate her life with the fake funeral Social media users were baffled by the event, with some criticising Alonzo for holding a fake funeral at a time when so many lives are being lost due to the coronavirus. 'Some things shouldn't be messed with. There are so many people that have lost loved ones because of Covid-19,' one social media user wrote. However, Alonzo said it was the deaths during the pandemic that inspired her to celebrate her life with the fake funeral. Jill Biden is joining White House efforts to woo Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, bringing him on her plane for her trip to West Virginia on Thursday to hang out with her and actress Jennifer Garner. Manchin, a moderate senator, is a key vote for Democrats in the 50-50 Senate. President Joe Biden will need his support on his two massive legislative packages - his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan - with its focus on infrastructure - and his $1.8 trillion American Families Plan with its focus on social programs. The senator will join Dr. Biden and Garner on Thursday when they visit a vaccination center and deliver remarks at Capital High School in Charleston, W.Va. Manchin will fly from Washington D.C. to his home state with Biden, the first lady's office announced on Wednesday. Jill Biden is joining White House efforts to woo Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, bringing him on her plane for her trip to West Virginia on Thursday Actress Jennifer Garner, a West Virginia native, will also be on the trip; above Garner is seen with Senator Joe Manchin at the ribbon cutting at The Greenbrier for the gala opening of the Casino Club on July 2, 2010 The trio also was originally scheduled to visit Arnoldsburg Elementary School in Clay County but that portion of the trip was canceled because of COVID-19 quarantine in the school district. Garner grew up in Charleston and she has previously testified before Congress in support of education programs for preschoolers in poverty. The actress was originally scheduled to travel with Dr. Biden to Alabama last month, to promote the administration's COVID relief efforts for early childhood education, but that trip was scrapped because of severe weather. Biden and Garner have also worked together as board members on the Save the Children charity organization. Garner campaigned for Joe Biden in last year's election, hosting an event on Instagram with Jill Biden. Jennifer Garner and Jill Biden have worked together on the board for Save the children - above Dr. Biden, Bvlgari Group CEO Jean-Christophe Babin, Joe Biden, and Garner attend the 5th Annual Save the Children Illumination Gala at the American Museum of Natural History on October 18, 2017 in New York City Jennifer Garner also has testified before Congress on education issues - above she speaks about high-quality, early-childhood education at a event on Capitol Hill last year President Biden is also wooing moderate Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. He hosted both Sinema and Manchin at the White House for separate meetings this week. Manchin told reporters his hour-long conversation with the president was 'encompassing.' 'We talked about everything, we really did. It was a great conversation,' he said. Given the evenly split Senate, Biden can't afford to lose a single Democratic vote on his massive spending packages. By meeting with Manchin and Sinema, he's giving them a voice and a chance to influence what ends up in the final legislative package. The trip with the first lady sweetens the deal for Manchin. The trip will likely receive heavy media coverage in the state. Police in Las Vegas have arrested a man for allegedly beating to death his girlfriend's two-year-old son, who has been missing for nearly a week. Terrell Rhodes, 27, was taken into custody on Tuesday and booked into the county jail on a count of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Amari Nicholson. Rhodes will face additional charges for allegedly grabbing an officer's service weapon during his arrest, before the confrontation ended apparently without any shots being fired. Scroll down for video Terrell Rhodes, 27 (left), has been charged with first-degree murder for the beating death of his girlfriend's son, Amari Nicholson, 2 (right) During Rhodes' initial court appearance on Wednesday, a prosecutor said there was evidence that the man struck the toddler numerous times. Police found blood on a wall and Amari's soiled clothing. In a Facebook messenger exchange with a friend, a screengrab of which has been circulating on social media, a woman said to be Amari's mother, Tayler Nicholson, wrote: 'my bf [sic] beat my baby to death because he peed his pants.' A judge ordered Rhodes held without bail. He is due back in court on May 17. During Rhodes' first court appearance on Wednesday (pictured), prosecutors said the man had struck Amari multiple times, and they found blood on a wall and the boy's soiled clothing Prior to this arrest, Rhodes, seen above standing next to Amari's mother, Tayler Nicholson, claimed that the boy's paternal relative had picked him up on May 5 Amari was in Rhodes' care while his mother, Nicholson, was away in Colorado. It is unclear whether police have recovered the boy's body It remains unknown whether police have recovered Amari's body, but as of Wednesday no announcements have been made to that effect. On May 5, police received a report that Amari had gone missing from the Emerald Suites hotel in the 3600 block of Paradise Road, where the toddler had been in Rhodes' care. The child's mother was in Colorado at the time. Rhodes told police that a woman showed up on his doorstep claiming to be a sister of Amari's biological father and said she was there to pick him up. He repeated the same story during an interview with Fox 5 Las Vegas, as he stood beside his girlfriend, Amari's mother. In a Facebook Messenger exchange with a friend, a screengrab of which is seen left, a woman said to be Nicholson wrote: 'my bf [sic] beat my baby to death because he peed his pants.' Following Rhodes' arrest, Nicholson posted this message on Facebook, denying any knowledge of her son's murder Amari's paternal relatives vehemently denied having the boy, and police soon zeroed in on Rhodes as the primary suspect in his disappearance. Rhodes bridled at the implication that he had something to do with Amari's going missing, telling 8NewsNow: 'Whats really sickening is that people is making assumptions, thinking that I had something to do with itWe aint never do nothing like that to him.' His girlfriend sounded a similar note when speaking to Fox 5. 'All this hateful energy, pointing fingers at me and [Rhodes] can be put into trying to find our baby and bring him home,' she said. 'We're hurting enough. We're all distraught over this.' Rhodes was arrested on Tuesday after police identified him as the primary suspect But on Tuesday, she told the station that her boyfriend had 'just confessed' to killing her son. Before she deleted her Facebook, Nicholson posted a status update that read: 'My baby is gone & is never coming home. I never knew He [sic] did this he never said anything to me about his involvement. I trusted him and he betrayed me. He took my whole world from me ... my son come before anybody!! I never knew anything.' Court records reveal that Rhodes has a prior criminal history, which includes convictions for felony burglary, felony robbery and battery to commit robbery. A Times Square CD seller accused of shooting three people has been arrested almost 1,000 miles away after his getaway car reportedly ran out of gas due to shortages caused by a pipeline hack. Farrakhan Muhammad, 31, was arrested while eating fries at a McDonald's parking lot in Starke, near Jacksonville in Florida, on Wednesday. Spectrum NY1 reported that Muhammad's attempted escape came to an end due to fuel shortages caused after Russian hackers targeted the Colonial Pipeline. The fuel line supplies much of the United States east coast, with ongoing disruption caused by the hack causing gas shortages and panic buying across much of the south east. An estimated 10 per cent of Florida gas stations have run out of fuel. NYPD detectives told a press conference Wednesday that they obtained intelligence shortly after Saturday's shooting which suggested that Muhammad was heading south. US Marshals in Starke, Florida, shared this photo of Muhammad after his arrest on Wednesday The mugshot on the left was used to try and track down Muhammad, and showed him with longer hair and a large beard. He shaved his hair down in an attempt at a disguise, police say, and was apprehended with a new look, right He was later spotted traveling through Fayetteville, North Carolina, and eventually picked up another 436 miles away in Starke. ABC News correspondent Aaron Katersky tweeted a photo of Muhammad's arrest, with police saying he'd shaved his long hair short in an attempted disguise. Muhammad's apprehension came four days and 975 miles way from the scene of Saturday evening's shooting. He had been staying with his girlfriend since. She was driving the car when Muhammad was arrested, but has not been charged with any crime. Cops said the suspected shooter had shaved his hair to try and disguise himself. This map shows the 975 mile trip Muhammad took from New York after Saturday's shooting, which ended when his car ran out of gas because of fuel shortages, police sources say Officials told NBC4 he had been found with his girlfriend, and apprehended without incident. It is unclear if she knew he was the suspected Times Square shooter. The two apparently left New York City together after the shooting, according to one senior law enforcement official, though it's not clear if the woman knew he was wanted in the Times Square gunfire at that point. Muhammad's brother - who was also in Times Square at the time of the shooting - has since confirmed to the NYPD that he was the intended target, journalists were told on Wednesday. Muhammad was arrested after being caught in a car with his girlfriend and their two dogs in the parking lot of this McDonald's in Starke, Florida, on Wednesday morning NYPD detectives checked cameras that showed him leave Times Square after the gunfire and go to a hotel near West 42nd Street, NBC reported. There he changed clothes and was seen leaving with his girlfriend. Muhammad was caught in partnership with the U.S. Marshals Service, according to the Wall Street Journal, and will be extradited back to New York at a later date. A NYPD spokesman told a press conference Wednesday that Muhammad was determined to be fleeing south in the wake of the shooting, and was picked up as he traveled through Fayetteville, North Carolina. Detectives said they have yet to track down the gun used in the shooting, and have appealed for further information. A suspect said to be Farrakhan Muhammad has been arrested on suspicion of Saturday's shooting in Times Square, which left three people injured Muhammad, who sold CDs in the famed Manhattan plaza, was believed to have been targeting his brother, who he'd just gotten into an argument with, when he opened fire, sending hundreds of people fleeing for their lives. Four-year-old Skye Martinez, 23-year-old Wendy Magrinat and 43-year-old Marcela Aldana were all injured in the attack. The shooting occurred at around 5 p.m. Saturday night in front of the Minskoff Theater. It normally hosts the hit musical Lion King, but which is currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Upon hearing gunshots, many victims have said they felt panic and confusion, with dramatic footage showing frightened crowds scattering as they realized what was happening. Magrinat said onlookers began filming her with their mobile phones rather than help in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. This graphic shows how the Colonial Pipeline hack is affecting the US, with those in the southeast hardest hit by the attack She was on a sightseeing trip from Rhode Island when she was shot in the leg while standing with her husband Yoel, their two-year-old daughter Elise, and her mother, stepfather and eight-year-old sister. Magrinat said she started screaming after she had been shot in the leg: 'I don't want to die, please help me! The pain was too much, and I dropped to the floor. 'I understand people get in shock. But if you're in shock, you shouldn't be recording. But that's how people are right now.' Danae Romero, 16, meanwhile, said she was waiting in the queue at a toy store with her four-year-old niece Skye when the shooting began. Romero said the pair ran for their lives - but described how Skye was struck by a stray bullet in her calf. 'She didn't feel anything. Even when we noticed when we were at the corner, she wasn't crying,' Romero told the Post. Instead, she sat there, as Police Officer Alyssa Vogel sprinted down the tourist spot. stopping at Skye and immediately applying a tourniquet to her leg. Body camera footage shows Vogel then scooped up the child, and ran her to a nearby ambulance. Cop Alyssa Vogel was filmed running from the tourist hotspot with four-year-old Skye Martinez in her arms on Saturday after gunman Farrakhan Muhammed, 31, opened fire (right). On Monday, Vogel said she was just doing her job In an interview with DailyMail.com, Vogel said she thought any police officer in that situation would have done the same thing She said she wanted to get Skye the help she needed and treated her as her own child. 'I think any officer that would've responded to a job just like that would've done the exact same thing,' Vogel previously told DailyMail.com. In an interview with Good Morning America on Monday, Vogel said the only time Skye was uncomfortable was when she and another cop tightened a tourniquet around her leg on the way to the hospital. 'This little girl is the strongest person I have ever seen for somebody just been shot, she was just standing there obviously scared but she wasnt crying or anything. She only yelled when we tightened the tourniquet. 'She was very calm for someone who was in a very traumatic situation,' she said. Vogel previously told The New York Post: 'I kept telling her [the child's mom] to breathe, that I know what she's going through because I have a baby myself. It was very difficult for her, very traumatic. She saw her daughter just get shot. 'I kept telling her to breathe and that her daughter was going to be OK. I kept trying to calm her down because she was obviously very scared. Former school teacher Vogel joined the NYPD four years ago. Her father, husband and brother are also cops. 'I just wanted to join the police department and help people.' The shooting began Saturday night in front of the Minskoff Theater that hosts the hit musical Lion King, but which is currently closed due to COVID-19 restrictions Crosstown traffic was shut down indefinitely following the shooting, as police investigated the incident that left three injured Police presence increased in Times Square in the days that followed the shooting The shooting came amid criticism from the Sergeants Benevolent Association and mayoral candidates. They Saturday's shooting was proof of the need of more funding for the NYPD, who had their budget slashed by $1billion last summer by Mayor Bill de Blasio. He was celebrating his 60th birthday when the shooting occurred Saturday night, but later tweeted he was glad the victims were in stable condition. 'The perpetrators of this senseless violence are being tracked down and the NYPD will bring them to justice,' he wrote. 'The flood of illegal guns into our city must stop.' Violent crime has skyrocketed in New York City over the last few years. Data from the New York Police Department shows there have been over 2,600 grand larceny arrests in April alone and 1,630 assault cases. Those figures are up 62 and 35 percent, respectively, from the same time last year. Violent crime has skyrocketed in recent months, with shooting at their most frequent since 1998 Shootings, meanwhile, are at their most frequent since 1998. 'Live from Times Square Disney in NYC the center of the world and the 'Happiest Place on Earth' where 4 year old girls are shot in broad day light, only feet away from a police precinct,' the SBA tweeted about the incident that night, including a photo of the Times Square Mickey Mouse. 'Tourists avoid NYC dont become a victim, please go to the real Disney in Florida.' Tourists were just starting to come back to the Big Apple following a 18-month break in travel thanks to COVID-19, mayoral front-runner Andrew Yang said, who added that the Big Apple 'cannot afford' to listen to left-wing calls to defund its police department. 'When I talk to New Yorkers, I get a very different message every single day. Nothing works in our city without public safety, and for public safety we need the police. 'My message to the NYPD is this: New York needs you, your city needs you. We need you to do your jobs professionally, responsibly and justly. I will have your back.' His rival Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain who edged ahead of Yang in a recent poll, slammed Yang for only now picking up on the rise in crime, which he said has been prevalent in poorer neighborhoods for years. 'You know what, Andrew? These shootings have been happening blocks from my house for years and blocks from the houses of poorer New Yorkers for years. 'It is time for us to recognize it when it is in every square block of our city. Shame on you for not realizing that,' he said. One of Adams' campaign promises is to reinstate the disbanded NYPD anti-crime unit which de Blasio canceled last year amid criticism of its violent tactics. NYC Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang has pledged to establish a new 'anti-violence plain clothes unit to reduce guns and gun violence'. 'The police will be key to our recovery,' he said. Times Square has remained a popular tourist destination despite a rise in crime In a news conference following the shooting, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said that his officers have been taking guns off the streets at an 'alarming rate over the past two years.' 'It's time now that we have consequences for those,' he added, seeming to refer to bail reform policies that see many suspects, including those caught with illegal firearms, walk free without posting cash bond. 'How many more kids do we need to be shot before we realize that bad policies have consequences?' said Shea. 'We need action, and we need policies regarding laws to have consequences.' Detectives started looking into Muhammad as a possible suspect for the shooting after they approached a man on West 31st St in Manhattan on Sunday believing that he looked like him, The Post reported. 'I'm his brother,' the man told the detectives. Police then released Muhammad's mugshot and were asking for any help in locating him, as he fled the scene immediately after the shooting. He had previously been arrested on suspicion of assault. Actor Kevin Sorbo encouraged all Christian churches to unite in the public sphere by supporting "faith-based and God-glorifying films" in a world with an increasing hostility against Christianity. In an interview on Abby Johnson's hit podcast, "Politely Rude," he said that "80% of the time, people who recognize him in public would politely ask for him to make more movies like" God's Not Dead." "It's amazing - pastors will stop me and say, 'You can reach so many people. I'm a pastor of a small church.' And I go, 'I don't care how small your church is. We need your support," he said. He goes on that any of his movies cost between $3 and $4 million. "That's the catering budget on 'Pirates of the Caribbean' or 'Avengers.' Those are $300 million movies," he pointed out. "The only way we can get these [faith-based films] out there is if we have the magic that we had for 'God's Not Dead,' where a $2 million budget makes $140 million movie. That was powerful word of mouth, and we need that. We need churches of all sizes to say 'Hey, go see these movies.'" Over the span of his three decades, the actor who has been in front of the camera now appears in the documentary "Before the Wrath" It's defined in the film's press notes as being about the true events around the time of Christ, with scholars in the Middle East discovering fresh information that suggests the Rapture is coming fast. Sorbo said the documentary, which was the No. 1 pick in the 'documentary' segment on Amazon, was an "amazing, educational look at the book of Revelation." "It's a combination of pastors and priests and rabbis and experts on the Bible and whatever doctorates they may hold, plus mixed with 2,000 years ago, where it's during Jesus' time," he shared. "It goes back and forth ... it's really cool how they did this, and how they tied it into the Old Testament and the New Testament." "What's cool about it is that anybody can watch it, even dummies like me can really get educated on the breakdown of the Second Coming of Christ," he said. Contrary to popular belief, Christian Post said there is no "hysteria" in the documentary. Sorbo said that "it's just an interesting, educated look at the final chapter of the New Testament. And it's fascinating. " According to host Johnson, the book of Revelation creates a "healthy fear of the Lord in churches." With the concept of God being "squishy and whitewashed," she believes that the majority of Americans today see Him only as a deity of compassion, overlooking his other attributes such as justice and righteous judgment over wickedness. "And that's true. God is love, but God is also just right. And I think the book of Revelation shows us that justice, and that helps bring about a sense of fear, a sense of respect of the Lord, and I feel like that's something that we're really missing in our society today," she said. Sorbo also asserted that there is a "ever-increasing anger toward Christians" in today's society. "I don't really quite understand it, but you know they deny God. They hate God. They resent God. I played one in 'God's Not Dead;' I was a college professor that was so angry about something he didn't believe in, and you see that play out all the time," he said. "Atheism is a faith; to believe in absolutely nothing - if only Christians could be that strong in their own faith because that's pretty powerful," he added. Sorbo also stars in the faith-based film "The Girl Who Believes in Miracles" and harps on the newly published documentary "Against the Tide: Finding God in an Age of Science." The latter film, said Sorbo, is about a young girl who hears her pastor saying, "If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains." She begins to pray, and in her city, miracles begin to happen. AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine appears to be protecting people from the Indian variant of the virus, reports suggest. There are concerns the Indian variants, which have started spreading in the UK, could make jabs less effective and risk vaccinated people getting sick anyway. But in a case of 33 care home workers getting infected after vaccination in Delhi, India, none became seriously ill with the virus, the Financial Times reports. In the UK's second wave around one in 13 people who tested positive for the virus ended up in hospital, suggesting at least two of the 33 might have done so. Although the figure suggests the vaccine may struggle to prevent infection, it also hints that it will stop serious Covid and death, providing massive insurance against future outbreaks. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson today admitted the Indian variant spreading in Britain, known as B1617.2, is 'of increasing concern' as data showed it is already dominant in at least four parts of the country Bolton, Blackburn, Bedford and South Northamptonshire, with cases also surging in London. Pfizer said it believes its jab will work against the strain and SAGE advisers think it will protect against all known variants but real-world data is lacking. More than 36million people in the UK have had at least one dose of a vaccine and 18.4m are totally vaccinated. Most of the remaining lockdown rules are set to end next week. Cases of the vaccines failing and people getting severe Covid have still been 'very, very rare' even in the face of the country's colossal outbreak, according to Indian virologist Dr Shahid Jameel (Pictured: A woman getting vaccinated in Mumbai today) Reports of people getting infected in India after vaccination have worried some corners because it suggests the strain can slip past immunity. But experts say this is likely just a result of the sheer size of the outbreak. Vaccines are known to fail for a small proportion of people and, the more people getting exposed to the virus, the more people this small proportion will be equal to. For example if 1,000 vaccinated people came into contact with the coronavirus and the vaccine's failure rate was one per cent, you would expect 100 cases. But if a million vaccinated people encountered the virus with the same failure rate there would be 10,000 cases but the vaccine isn't performing any worse. In reality the jabs are thought only to prevent 60-85 per cent of infections but more than nine out of 10 deaths. India recorded 348,421 more cases of Covid and 4,205 deaths today, May 12, according to the World Health Organization. The nation is thought to have passed the peak of a devastating second wave that saw nearly eight million people infected in three weeks as hospitals ran out of oxygen, people died in the street and bodies were cremated in car parks. Cases of the vaccines failing and people getting severe Covid have still been 'very, very rare', according to Indian virologist Dr Shahid Jameel. Dr Jameel told the Financial Times: 'Breakthrough infections are happening because the numbers are so high. 'It is also a fact that a very large majority of breakthrough infections are leading to asymptomatic or mild disease, which can be controlled at home.' Dr Muge Cevik, a virologist at St Andrews University in Scotland added: 'Getting infected after vaccination does not tell us anything. It could well be within the expected margin of vaccine efficacy.' India's Covid variant, feared to be behind the country's outbreak, has now become dominant in at least four local authorities in England and is spreading rapidly. Analysis by one of the UK's biggest variant trackers warns the strain is focused in hotspots Bolton and neighbour Blackburn with Darwen, where outbreaks have grown by 93 and 86 per cent in a week, respectively, with more than half of lab-checked cases proven to be the Indian strain. The mutant B.1.617.2 virus is also thought to be behind half of all Covid infections in London, Bedford and South Northamptonshire, although outbreaks in these areas are still small. No10's top scientists fear it may be more transmissible than the currently dominant Kent variant (B.1.1.7) with one Belgian scientist suggesting it could be 60 per cent faster-spreading and that it could be behind a gradually rising infection rate in Britain. Early lab trials suggest the current vaccines will still protect against the Indian variants but there are concerns that a faster rate of spread could lead to a bigger outbreak, giving more opportunities for people to get reinfected. Pfizer said in a report there was 'no evidence' its shot would need to be updated to fight off the current variants. Public Health England has launched surge testing in Bolton to root out cases of the B.1.617.2 variant, but no other area has yet seen enhanced surveillance. Data show that seven out of England's 10 Covid hotspots are in the North of England with three in the Midlands (Erewash, Bedford and North Lincolnshire), while the places where positive tests are rising fastest are scattered across the country. There are not yet conclusive links to the variant. Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has called for over-16s in Bolton and wider Greater Manchester area to be offered Covid vaccines earlier to quell the rise in cases of the Indian variant. Customers at a bar in Tyneside, the North East, have also been urged to get tested because of an outbreak. There are three Indian variants but only B.1.617.2 has sparked major concerns because cases have doubled in the past week, with 520 spotted since the first positive sample was detected in late February. It now makes up six per cent of cases nationally, a leap from fewer than one per cent last month. India's Covid variant is now dominant in five local authorities in England, official data reveals. There are mounting concerns that it is more infectious than the currently dominant Kent strain Data show that seven out of England's 10 Covid hotspots (inset) are in the North of England with three in the Midlands (Erewash, Bedford and North Lincolnshire), while the places where positive tests are rising fastest are scattered across the country Cases in Bolton have begun to rise in recent days as the variant takes hold in the area Blackburn with Darwen is also seeing virus cases beginning to tick up, reversing a four-month long trend of plummeting infections Bedford, where the variant may make up more than 70 per cent of cases, is also seeing a rise South Northamptonshire is starting to see its Covid cases rise, official data shows Sanger Institute figures on the variants aim to exclude cases from international travellers and surge testing, revealing how troublesome variants spread in the community. For this reason their data do not include every case of the Indian variant identified. It is also impossible to sequence a strain from every swab because some contain too few virus particles. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE INDIAN VARIANTS? Real name: B.1.617 now divided into B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3 When and where was it discovered? The variant was first reported by the Indian government in February 2021 but the first cases appear to date back to October 2020. Its presence in the UK was first announced by Public Health England on April 15. There have since been at least 520 cases spotted in genetic lab testing. What mutations does it have? It has at least 13 mutations that separate it from the original Covid virus that emerged in China. The two main ones are named E484Q and L452R, although the most common version in Britain (.2) does not have E484Q. Scientists suspect L425R can help it to transmit faster and E484Q helps it get past immune cells made in response to older variants. There is also a mutation called T478K but researchers don't yet know what it does. Is it more infectious and can it evade vaccines? Research is ongoing but British scientists currently believe it spreads at least as fast as the Kent variant and potentially faster, but it is unlikely to slip past vaccine immunity. SAGE advisers said in a meeting last week: 'Early indications, including from international experience, are that this variant may be more transmissible than the B.1.1.7 [Kent] variant.' Dr Susan Hopkins, a boss at Public Health England, said: 'We are monitoring all of these variants extremely closely and have taken the decision to classify this as a variant of concern because the indications are that this is a more transmissible variant.' Expectations are that the current Covid vaccines will still protect people against the Indian variants. Early research by the Gupta Lab at Cambridge University found there was a small reduction in vaccine effectiveness on the original Indian variant, but it found the jabs worked better against it than they did on the South African strain. The team have not yet tested the .2 strain, which is the most common in the UK. A paper published by SAGE advisers recently suggested two doses of the Pfizer vaccine is good enough to protect against all known variants, and it is likely the others will provide very strong defence against severe illness, even if there is a risk of reinfection. Professor Sharon Peacock, of PHE, claimed there was 'limited' evidence of E484Q's effect on immunity and vaccines. How deadly is it? Professor Peacock said: 'There isn't any evidence that this causes more severe disease. There's just not enough data at the moment.' Scientists say it is unlikely that the variant will be significantly more dangerous than the Kent strain. This is because there is no evolutionary benefit to Covid becoming more deadly. The virus's sole goal is to spread as much as it can, so it needs people to be alive and mix with others for as long as possible to achieve this. Although there have been claims that the Kent variant is more deadly than the virus it replaced the Government claimed it was around 30 per cent there is still no conclusive evidence to show any one version of Covid is worse than another. Is the variant affecting children and young adults more seriously? Doctors in India claim there has been a sudden spike in Covid hospital admissions among people under 45, who have traditionally been less vulnerable to the disease. There have been anecdotal reports from medics that young people make up two third of new patients in Delhi. In Bangalore, under-40s made up 58 percent of infections in early April, up from 46 percent last year. But this could be completely circumstantial older people are more likely to shield themselves or to have been vaccinated and there is still no proof younger people are more badly affected by the new strain. The risk of children getting ill with Covid is still almost non-existent. Why is it a 'variant of concern' and should we be worried? Public Health England listed the variant as 'of concern' because cases are growing rapidly and it appears to be equally infectious or potentially even more than other strains in Britain. Last time a faster-spreading variant was discovered it caused chaos because the outbreak exploded and hospitals came close to breaking point in January, with almost 50,000 people dying in the second wave. But there is currently no reason to be alarmed. Scientists believe our current vaccines will still work against the variant, preventing people from getting seriously ill or dying in huge numbers. If it spreads faster than Kent it could make it harder to contain and make the third wave bigger, increasing the number of hospital admissions and deaths among people who don't get vaccinated or for whom vaccines don't work, but the jabs should take the edge off for the majority of people. A vaccine that can make vaccinated people very sick en masse would be a real crisis for Britain and could 'cause even greater suffering than we endured in January', Boris Johnson warned today but there are not yet any signs the Indian variant will be the one to do this. How many cases have been detected in the UK? According to data by PHE released on Friday, there are, at present, 520 confirmed cases of the B.1.617.2 variant in the UK, from 202 over the last week. The report also showed 261 cases of B.1.617.1 and nine cases of B.1.617.3. The cases are spread across the country, with the majority in two areas the North West, mainly in Bolton, and London. PHE said around half of these cases are related to travel or contact with someone who has been abroad. Surge testing is expected to be deployed where there is evidence of community transmission. Is B.1.617.2 variant driving the second wave in India? India reported 412,262 new Covid-19 cases and 3,980 Covid-19-related deaths on Thursday both new single-day records. In the past 30 days, the country has recorded 8.3million cases. However, it remains unclear whether the new coronavirus variants are driving the second wave. Experts say large gatherings, and lack of preventive measures such as mask-wearing or social distancing, are playing a key role in the spread of the virus. Although India has the world's biggest vaccine making capacity, the country has partially or fully immunised less than 10 per cent of its 1.35billion people. Advertisement Bolton had the most cases of the Indian variant in England over the week to April 24, their data showed. There were 47 samples spotted (55 per cent of all cases in that area). It was followed by neighbouring Blackburn with Darwen, with lab sequencing spotting 19 genetic matches (55.7 per cent). Ten were also found in Bedford over the same period (53.8 per cent) and five in South Northamptonshire (76.9 per cent). But University College London mathematician Professor Christina Pagel cited other Sanger Institute data suggesting the strain may already be responsible for more than 65 per cent of cases in the hotspots. She found 75 per cent of those in the community in Blackburn with Darwen were down to the variant, and as many as 73 per cent in Bedford and 69 per cent in Bolton. Department of Health data shows Covid cases were ticking upwards in all three areas in the week to May 9, a reversal on a four-month trend of plummeting infections. Surge testing was only launched in Bolton four days ago, but officials say it will take about a week before it shows up in the statistics. Bolton has registered 707 new Covid cases over the two weeks since April 24, which means the true number of cases of the Indian variant spotted there could be in the region of 400. Cases jumped by 93 per cent in the space of a week. There were 241 Covid cases in Bolton over the week to May 1, and 466 in the week to May 8, a surge of 93 per cent. And Blackburn with Darwen had 229 infections over the same time period, indicating they may have more than 130 cases of the strain. This was a jump of 86 per cent. When official data was broken down to a more granular level it showed that five of the ten worst-hit neighbourhoods in the country were in Bolton. This is despite more than 50 per cent of people in the same postcode areas having already been vaccinated. Dr Gabriel Scally, an epidemiologist at Bristol University and Independent SAGE member, warned the Indian variant becoming dominant in some areas was a cause for concern. 'Its coming to dominance in the local area shows it has the potential to out-compete other strains of the virus,' he told MailOnline. 'It also reminds us that when lockdown ended last summer, we now know that there were several local authorities which still had high levels of virus infections. They formed the nucleus of the resurgence of the virus at the end of the summer. 'We are in difficulty if it becomes ingrained in some local authorities, particularly if those share characteristics such as a high level of deprivation, overcrowding, BAME, because we know that all those factors are associated with transmission of the virus.' He criticised the Prime Minister's decision to push on with stage three of lockdown easing, which will allow pubs and restaurants to serve indoors again. 'There is some concern the fourth test seems to be being set aside at the moment,' he said. Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, warned the Indian variant was 'really taking off' at present and may be sparking the rise in cases nationally. He said: 'In the last seven days there have been 15,895 cases reported which is a 12 per cent increase on the previous seven-day period. This represents the largest week-on-week increase since early January. 'Looking at public data from the COG-UK website, which suggest an increasing proportion of the cases they sequence are the Indian variant B.1.617.2, this may suggest the increase in infections may be due to the spread of this variant. 'As discussed at the Downing Street press briefing on Monday, this variant has been increasing rapidly in recent weeks. 'There has been a lot of debate about when and if a further wave of infection will happen in the UK. The reports today suggest that this wave may have already begun. 'That hospitalisations have yet to increase would be consistent with the view that the vaccine is still effective at reducing the risk of severe disease and gives hope that this new wave, if it indeed continues, will be less damaging to the NHS.' And Professor Pagel warned that the situation was 'not looking good at all' with the Indian variant. She tweeted: 'In England, within two weeks to May 1, B.1.617.2 went from one to 11 per cent of cases. A massive increase. She added that the roadmap should 'absolutely' be slowed until 'we either know for sure it's not more transmissible or vaccine resistant, or we've stamped out the outbreaks or we've got further in the vaccine programme'. Speaking in the Commons, the Prime Minister stressed the need for caution and vigilance as lockdown was eased, adding that the end of restrictions was not the end of the pandemic. 'The World Health Organization has said that the pandemic has now reached its global peak and will last throughout this year,' he said. 'Our own scientific advisers judge that although more positive data is coming in and the outlook is improving, there could still be another resurgence in hospitalisations and deaths. 'We also face the persistent threat of new variants and should these prove highly transmissible and elude the protection of our vaccines, they would have the potential to cause even greater suffering than we endured in January.' Mr Johnson confirmed on Monday that England would be steaming ahead with easing further restrictions on May 17, in a positive sign that No10 does not consider the Indian variant to be a significant concern. The irreversible roadmap has four tests that must be met before moving to each stage, including that the risks are not 'fundamentally changed' by variants and that cases are not rising in a way that risks more hospitalisations and deaths due to the virus. From May 17 current plans will see restaurants, pubs and bars again allowed to serve customers indoors, foreign holidays permitted, and Britons allowed to have visitors indoors for the first time since last year. Scotland has already slammed the brakes onto plans to ease restrictions in Moray when the rest of the nation takes a further step to freedom on Monday because of a growing outbreak but this is not thought to be down to the Indian variant. But Mr Eustice today did not rule out whack-a-mole lockdowns for some areas should cases begin to spike. He said scientists were unsure what was driving the flare-ups in cases predominantly in the North of England but suggested people may have become 'too lax' with Covid rules, or the highly-infectious Indian variant could be driving the cases. Asked if local restrictions could be reimposed in England to squash local outbreaks during a round of interviews today, he said: 'We can't rule anything out.' He told Sky News: 'But our plan that's been set out by the Prime Minister, the reason we're being incredibly cautious about exiting lockdown, is we want this to be the last. We want to try and avoid having to get into a tiered system and regionalisation. We tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we had to go for a full lockdown.' Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the first time face-to-face next week on the sidelines of an Arctic Council meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland. The planned meeting comes after Blinken held a phone call Wednesday with his Russian counterpart where he claimed Washington will issue aggressive responses to threats from Moscow. The meeting between Blinken and Lavrov is aimed at preparing for a planned summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Although no date has yet been made public for the possible meeting between the two, Biden has said it is his 'hope and expectation' that they will meet in Europe during the G7 Summit next month. The State Department said in a statement that Blinken reaffirmed during his Wednesday call Biden's 'resolve to protect U.S. citizens and act firmly in defense of U.S. interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies.' Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for the first time face-to-face next week on the sidelines of an Arctic Council meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland The planned meeting comes after Blinken held a phone call Wednesday with Lavrov (right) where he claimed Washington will issue aggressive responses to threats from Moscow Blinken also brought up the cases of two Americans detained in Russia on what the U.S. says are unjust charges. Relations between the two counties have plummeted in recent months, and Wednesday's call came as tensions are running even higher over numerous issues including the most recent allegations that a Russian-linked criminal network issued a cyber attack on a key American oil pipeline. The attack has led to several states experiencing a gas shortage and mass panic with people heading to gas stations to fill several backup tanks of fuel. Other tensions over the last few months stem from Russia building up its troop presence along its border with Ukraine and allegations of Russian meddling in U.S. elections. The meeting between Blinken and Lavrov is aimed at preparing for a planned summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin Blinken visited Ukraine last week where he underscored the administration's resolve to stand with the country as it copes with intensified Russian activity along the border and Russia's stepped-up support for separatists in the eastern part of Ukraine. Apart from Ukraine, the Biden administration last month took a number of steps to retaliate for what it said were malign Russian activities in the United States, including expelling Russian diplomats and hitting the country with additional sanctions. Russia has retaliated in kind with diplomatic expulsions of its own. Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday he believes claims that Joe Biden isn't the legitimate president are 'over with' just after the GOP leader facilitated the vote to oust Liz Cheney from her leadership role for not backing claims of voter fraud. 'I don't think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election, I think that is all over with,' McCarthy told reporters outside the White House following the first Big Four meeting with Biden. 'We are sitting with the president today,' he continued. 'From that point of view I don't think that's a problem.' The comments come across as confusing considering the vote to remove Cheney from leadership was mostly weighing on the fact she did not fall in line with former President Donald Trump's claims Biden's win was illegitimate. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy joined Biden to 'discuss policy areas of mutual agreement,' according to the White House preview of the meeting. McCarthy arrived at the White House immediately after dethroning Liz Cheney from her Republican leadership post. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (left) said Wednesday that he believes Joe Biden is the 'legitimate' president 'I don't think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election, I think that is all over with,' McCarthy told reporters outside the White House. 'We are sitting with the president today' The comments are confusing considering McCarthy's meeting with Biden and other congressional leaders came after he facilitated a vote Wednesday to remove Liz Cheney (pictured) as GOP Conference chair for refusing to back claims Biden's election win was illegitimate Establishment Republicans, including McCarthy and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, are now paving the way for New York Representative Elise Stefanik to take the No. 3 spot among GOP House members. Stefanik was one of Trump's biggest defenders during his second impeachment trial and she was one of the lawmakers who most vehemently opposed certifying the election results for Biden on January 6. Reporters questioned Biden's spokesperson Jen Psaki on how the president felt he could reach any sort of deal with McCarthy after he voted Cheney out and pushed for Stefanik's rise. MCarthy is helping clear the way for Cheney's replacement to be New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who defended Donald Trump in his impeachment trial and on January 6 objected to the election results Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with the Big Four congressional leaders at the White House on Wednesday. From left to right: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Harris, Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer 'The president is no stranger to working with people who he disagrees with or who he has massive fundamental disagreements with,' White House Press Secretary Psaki said during her daily briefing on Wednesday. 'The facts are on our side,' she continued, 'and more than 80 judges across the country threw out lawsuits attempting to overturn the outcome of the election.' 'What the president believes his role is is to lead by example and to offer an alternative of leadership to the American people, which is reaching his hand across the aisle, offering to work with members of both parties on addressing issues the American people have concerns about.' The briefing with reporters took place in conjunction to Biden's meeting with the Big Four. Biden joked on Wednesday that partisanship is a 'snap' as he touted ahead of the Big Four congressional leadership meeting that he would try and reach a 'compromise' on infrastructure. The White House said Biden invited the group to 'discuss policy areas of mutual agreement' as he tries to garner bipartisan support for his $4 trillion spending proposals on infrastructure and so-called 'human infrastructure' At the top of the meeting, Biden told reporters gathered for a quick photo op: 'We're going to talk a lot about infrastructure today to see if there's any way we can reach a compromise that gets the people's work done and is within the bounds of everyone agreeing.' 'That's the purpose of this meeting, not much more to say right now. We're going to get going, that's it,' he wrapped up. 'How do you expect to do that, sir?' one reporter was able to get out before being escorted from the Oval Office. 'Easy just snap my fingers it'll happen,' Biden jested and snapped. Biden held his first sit down with the top four congressional leaders to garner bipartisan support for his massive infrastructure proposals, which includes nearly $4 trillion in new spending on real and so-called 'human infrastructure'. Biden has also instructed Congress to send him a deal on police reform. 'When I ran, I said I wasn't going to be a Democratic president I was going to be a president for all Americans,' Biden said before the meeting. 'What the bottom line here is, we're going to see whether we can reach some consensus on a compromise on moving forward.' White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended Biden reaching out to McCarthy despite him backing election fraud claims. 'The president is no stranger to working with people who he disagrees with or who he has massive fundamental disagreements with,' she said This is the first time the Big Four have gone to the White House to sit down with the president since the disastrous meeting with Donald Trump in October 2019. That meeting quickly devolved into a tense back-and-forth between Pelosi and Trump resulting in an infamous photo with the Speaker angrily pointing her finger at the then-president. Biden regularly speaks with Pelosi and Schumer members of his own party but has not yet met with GOP leadership. While McConnell and Biden's seemingly cordial relationship spans decades in Congress, McCarthy's rapport with the president is more of a mystery. The minority leader arrives at the White House just after leading the vote to oust Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from her GOP Conference chair post for refusing to fall in line with the party backing Donald Trump's claims the election was stolen and 'rigged' against him. Cheney was one of the 10 Republican House members who voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 Capitol attack. In a quick voice vote Wednesday morning, scheduled and spearheaded by McCarthy, Cheney was booted from her No. 3 position among House Republicans. Cheney was voted out of her No. 3 leadership position further solidifying the party's belief they need Donald Trump to win back the majority in the House in 2022. Cheney said: 'I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again, is anywhere near the Oval Office' She says her new mission is to make sure Trump 'never again is anywhere near the Oval Office.' Biden is aware his best chances of clinching a deal in Congress is through rank-and-file members, and not in party leadership, which could be why he has prioritized meetings with non-leadership members since taking office. The White House legislative affairs team, according to NPR, has conducted more than 500 phone calls or meetings with lawmakers and Hill staffers regarding Biden's job plans. This is the first time Biden is inviting McConnell and McCarthy to the White House. The president's massive American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan equates to nearly $4 trillion in new spending, and will be mostly funded through individual and corporate tax hikes. Snap has blocked messaging apps YOLO and LMK after an Oregon mom sued them over the suicide of her 16-year-old son who suffered months of abuse from anonymous bullies. The social media platform announced Tuesday it is temporarily removing the third-party apps 'out of an abundance of caution' while it investigates the concerns of safety. The move came one day after Kristin Bride filed a federal lawsuit against Snap, Yolo and LMK, claiming the apps are partly responsible for driving her son Carson to suicide. Carson killed himself on June 23 after being subjected to months of cyberbullying via Yolo and LMK, including sexual comments and taunts about a time he fainted in school. The suit, filed in California, alleges the executives of the tech firms put 'profits over the mental health of young people', violated consumer protection law by failing to meet their own terms of service and policies and said the apps should be deemed 'dangerous products.' Snap has suspended messaging apps YOLO and LMK after an Oregon mom sued them over the suicide of her 16-year-old son, who suffered months of abuse from anonymous bullies. Pictured Carson Bride, who committed suicide in June YOLO and LMK allow users to send each other questions anonymously. They are not owned by Snap, the company behind the app Snapchat, but the two apps do rely on its Snap Kit. Snap Kit is a set of tools launched by Snapchat in 2018 allowing smaller developers and companies to tap into its network. The apps then exist as a third-party app on Snapchat. Yolo - which stands for 'you only live once' - was one of the first apps built through Snap Kit in 2019 and became an instant hit with young social media users. Snap announced in a statement on Tuesday that it was blocking the apps. 'In light of the serious allegations raised by the lawsuit, and out of an abundance of caution for the safety of the Snapchat community, we are suspending both Yolo and LMK's Snap Kit integrations while we investigate these claims,' a spokesperson said. The suit had called for Snap to immediately ban Yolo and LMK from its platform, as well as other apps that lack safeguards against cyberbullying, reported the Los Angeles Times. Carson had just finished his sophomore year of high school in Portland, Oregon, when he hanged himself last June. His family later learned he had been targeted by bullies on Yolo. The cyberbullies were constantly taunting the teen, calling him a virgin and saying they had printed out his picture to throw darts at. Snap announced Tuesday it is temporarily removing the third-party apps 'out of an abundance of caution' while it investigates the concerns of safety Kristin Bride filed a federal lawsuit against Snap, Yolo (left) and LMK (right) Monday claiming the apps are partly responsible for driving her son to suicide WHAT ARE YOLO AND LMK? YOLO and LMK are social media messaging apps that allow users to send each other questions anonymously. Yolo - which stands for 'you only live once' - became an instant hit with young social media users after it launched in 2019. By February 2020, the company had raised $8 million. Neither Yolo or LMK are not owned by Snap, the company behind the app Snapchat, but the two apps do rely on its Snap Kit. Snap Kit is a set of tools launched by Snapchat in 2018 allowing smaller developers and companies to tap into its network. The apps then exist as a third-party app on Snapchat. Yolo was one of the first apps built through Snap Kit. Advertisement The messages were 'meant to humiliate him, often involving sexually explicit and disturbing content,' according to the lawsuit. But, because the app allows users to be anonymous, Carson could not determine who the perpetrators were. He could also not reply to the messages because, per the app's features, a reply automatically makes the original message public which would have caused him further humiliation. His family later learned he had been searching how to find out the real identity of people on the anonymous messaging app. His last online search the morning he died was: 'reveal Yolo username online.' 'The high school students who anonymously cyberbullied Carson will live with this tragedy for the rest of their lives,' Bride said in a statement. 'However, it is the executives at Snapchat, Yolo, and LMK irresponsibly putting profits over the mental health of young people who ultimately need to be held accountable.' The suit alleges Snap, Yolo and LMK violated consumer protection law by failing to live up to their own terms of service and policies. Both Yolo and LMK claim to have zero-tolerance policies to abusive content while Snap claims it reviews all its third-party apps and removes any that violate its policies around harassment and bullying content. The suit claims Yolo failed to live up to those commitments by allowing Carson to suffer online abuse for months. YOLO (above) and LMK allow users to send each other questions anonymously. They are not owned by Snap but exist as third-party apps on Snapchat after being built through Snap Kit Carson's mom claims the company then ignored her emails when she reached out to the company following her son's suicide. The suit claims LMK and Snap also failed in meeting their own policies. The suit also claims the apps facilitate bullying to an extent that they should be considered dangerous products. It points to research linking anonymous harassment and teen suicide. Bride brought the suit together with the Tyler Clementi Foundation, a nonprofit set up by the family of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi, who committed suicide in 2010 after being bullied online. They are seeking to represent all users of Snapchat, Yolo and LMK as a class - around 93 million US users, 90 percent of which are aged 13 to 24. The suit is seeking damages for the alleged harms and misrepresentations. It comes as part of a wave of efforts to hold social media companies accountable for content on their platforms. Call the toll-free 24-hour hotline of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (1-800-273-8255); TTY: 1-800-799-4TTY (4889) A fourth man was allegedly drugged by a woman he met in a Las Vegas casino who then stole a $40,000 Rolex and $400 cash. Ashley Trahan, 33, of Las Vegas, has now been arrested in connection with the latest alleged robbery. Her arrest comes just weeks after Windy Rose Jones, 23, was taken into custody accused of drugging three men and robbing them in Sin City casinos between February and April. Police have not suggested any link between the two women. In a scam reminiscent of J-Lo's hit movie Hustlers, about a group of strippers that drug and steal from men, the latest victim claims he had been enjoying drinks with Trahan, but woke up to find his valuables had gone. According to a police report, the man said he had been gambling at the Lift bar at the Aria Resort and Casino at 3am on March 29 when he met a woman who said her name was 'Kayla'. He said after they had chatted bout the video gambling machine he was playing and went to the bathroom, leaving his drink behind. 'When (he) returned, he stated he felt very weird and had a hard time walking and believed he had been drugged,' the police report, obtained by the Las Vegas Review Journal, said. Police say Trahan escorted the incapacitated man, who has not been identified, back to his room at the Aria. When he woke the next morning, he realized the $40,000 Rolex he'd been wearing was missing, as was $400 cash and a $184 casino ticket. Windy Rose Jones, 23, left, has been charged with three counts of felony grand larceny for the alleged robberies of $127k worth of watches. In a strikingly similar case, Ashley Trahan, 33, right, is accused of drugging a man and robbing him of a $40,000 Rolex after meeting him at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas in March Trahan initially denied having been at the Aria on March 29, but after police showed her surveillance footage she accepted she was there but denied drugging the man He told police there'd been 'no talk of prostitution or trading sexual favors for money' with the woman. Trahan was arrested by Las Vegas police last week after she was spotted speeding in a school zone in the Southern Highlands community. She had outstanding warrants for attempted murder and attempted robbery relating to a separate case. Trahan initially denied being 'Kayla', but after police showed her surveillance footage she accepted she had been at the Aria on March 29, She said he was a lawyer, and had given her a business card. She went on to claim that the man was on drugs on the night, and that she hadn't administered them. She also claimed to have had a room at the Aria, where rooms cost anywhere from $150 to $600, but police confirmed that was not the case. Trahan was booked on suspicion of committing grand larceny of valuables worth more than $25,000 at the Clark County Detention Center last week. She's been released from custody and has not yet been charged. Two of Jones' alleged victims were drugged and robbed after spending the night with her at The Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas In a striking similar case, Jones, 23, who has advertised on prostitution websites, is accused of stealing watches valued at a total of $127,000 from three victims. The first victim, targeted on February 21, woke up to find his Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch worth $37,000 gone. He told Las Vegas Metropolitan Police that $1,500 in cash was also missing. Around a month later, on March 24, a second man brought Jones back to his room, it is alleged. He woke up the next morning to find his $45,000 Rolex Daytona watch had disappeared, as well as his iPhone 12. Following investigations, police were able to identify Jones after finding multiple photos of her on different prostitution related ads online. 'The photos showed Jones with a large lion tattoo on her upper leg,' police said. Jones was arrested on April 4 and booked at Clark County Detention Center on two counts of felony grand larceny. After her arrest, she was linked to a third case of drugging and stealing an expensive watch - this time a $45,000 Rolex. She did not speak to investigators but police confirmed the existence of the lion tattoo on her leg. No criminal complaints have been filed in either case and Jones is currently out of custody. Jones is scheduled to appear in Las Vegas Justice Court in both cases in May for a status hearing on the filing of criminal complaints. Police say they believe the robberies involved prostitution, although it is unclear if Jones had arranged sex in exchange for money with the two men she is now accused of stealing from. Two of the men she is said to have targeted said she had a distinctive lion tattoo on her thigh. Detectives arrested her after spotting a similar inking on the sex sites, according to the The Las Vegas Review Journal. Jones' first alleged victim said they went his hotel room to drink margaritas and that his memory of what happened next is blank. He claims while the two were in the room waiting for room service the topic of sex never came up, the police report says. The man said he fell asleep shortly after finishing his margarita and woke up the next morning to find $1,500 in cash missing from his wallet and his Audemars Piguet Royal Oak watch worth $37,000 was also gone. The police report said the man was a 'victim of a grand larceny and possibly being drugged'. The man described the woman he only knew as 'Rosa' as having distinctive tattoos, including a lion tattooed on her thigh. Jones' alleged second victim made similar claims, and also feared he may have been drugged. Advertisement President Joe Biden said he hoped for a swift end to violence between Israelis and Palestinians on Wednesday soon after he spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel says militants have fired more than 1,000 rockets into its territory while the death toll on both sides has increased to at least 70. The United Nations has warned that the region is lurching to 'all-out war', but Biden struck an optimistic note when he was asked about the conflict after delivering remarks on the COVID-19 pandemic. 'My expectation, hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later,' he said. 'But Israel has a right to defend itself when you have 1000s of rockets flying into your territory.' President Biden (left on Wednesday) addressed the growing Israel-Gaza conflict on Wednesday and said Israel had a right to defend itself when it had 'thousands of rockets' flying into its territory. His words echoed Secretary of State Antony Blinken (right) who also said Israel had a right to protect itself as he dispatched an envoy to the country in an effort to prevent hostilities spiraling further Minutes later the White House published a summary of the conversation. 'He condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups, including against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv,' it said. 'He conveyed his unwavering support for Israel's security and for Israel's legitimate right to defend itself and its people, while protecting civilians.' His words echoed Secretary of State Antony Blinken who also said Israel had a right to protect itself as he dispatched an envoy to the country in an effort to prevent hostilities spiraling further. In comments welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Blinken said: 'We fully support Israel's legitimate right to defend itself. We've condemned and I condemn again the rocket attacks in the strongest possible terms.' He urged both sides to deescalate and that he was sending Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr to the region immediately to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Secretary of State Antony Blinken affirmed Israel's right to defend itself and announced he was sending an envoy to the region on Wednesday, as fighting continued for a third day Another multi-storey building was destroyed in Gaza on Wednesday evening by an Israeli air strike, prompting Hamas to retaliate with 130 rockets of its own, as the deadly fighting in the middle east continued on Wednesday. Pictured: Smoke rises from Al-Sharouk tower hit by an Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City on May 12, 2021 'We're deeply concerned about what we're seeing there,' he said. 'Images that came out overnight are harrowing and the loss of any civilian life is a tragedy.' Fighting erupted on Monday night after weeks of rising tension triggered clashes at a holy site revered by Muslims and Jews. Since then the United Nations has warned of a 'full-scale war' in the region as Hamas fires rockets from bases in Gaza while Netanyau has threatened to 'inflict blows' that the militant group 'has not dreamed of.' Israeli strikes killed several of the Islamist group's top commanders, and destroyed another multi-story building in Gaza City on Wednesday. Israeli fighter jets dropped two bombs on the 14-storey Al-Sharouk tower, which housed the bureau of the Al-Aqsa television channel, and is the third tall structure in Gaza City levelled since the bombing campaign began Monday. The Israeli prime minister issued the threat as he visited a hospital in the city of Holon today, paying tribute to those wounded in fighting between the two sides that is now at its worst point since the 2014 Gaza War. Referencing the deaths of Hamas commanders earlier in the day - including Brigadier General Bassem Issa and Jamal Zabda, head of the group's rocket unit - Netanyahu vowed: 'This is only the beginning.' His comments came despite international calls for urgent deescalation and as Israel braces for more missile strikes overnight to avenge the deaths of its commanders. In just two days of fighting, Hamas has fired more than 1,000 rockets at Israel, while the Jewish state has carried out counter-strikes against what it called military targets. But the civilian death toll is quickly mounting, with at least with at least 65 Palestinians including 14 children and three women killed as of Wednesday evening, alongside seven Israelis including one child and one soldier. Senior politicians around the world have demanded both sides step back from the brink. America's President Biden 'will nominate a qualified, experienced ambassador to Israel over the coming weeks,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Wednesday. 'Our objective here is deescalation as we look to protecting people in the region.' Biden's British counterpart Boris Johnson condemned the spiraling conflict, saying he was 'urging Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint' on Wednesday morning. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for an urgent meeting of the Middle East Quartet in order to halt violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Heavy smoke and fire rise from Al-Sharouk tower as it collapses after being hit by an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City on May 12, 2021. An Israeli air strike destroyed a multi-storey building in Gaza City today Pictured: Rescuers and people gather in front of the debris of Al-Sharouk tower that collapsed after being hit by an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City, on May 12, 2021 Israeli artillery fires shells at the Gaza border on Wednesday after the defence chief vowed to bring 'total, long-term quiet' to the Gaza Strip A fire rages at an oil refinery in the southern town of Ashkelon which has been heavily targeted by hundreds of Hamas rockets fired since Monday Black smoke billows after a series of Israeli airstrikes targeted Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip early on Wednesday. According to military experts, the plumes of smoke seen rising suggest the Israelis are deploying bunker buster bombs, targeting underground infrastructure A Palestinian man looks out at a destroyed tower block in Gaza this morning following a night of heavy bombardments by the Israeli Air Force Rockets are launched towards Israel from Rafah, in the southern the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on May 12, 2021 An Israeli artillery unit fires toward targets in Gaza Strip, at the Israeli Gaza border, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, as the IDF ramps up its operation against Hamas Smoke and fire rise above buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, during an Israeli air strike, on May 12, 2021 Ms Psaki said that the Biden administration has 'had more than 25, high-level calls and meetings by senior US officials with senior officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and their partners and other stakeholders. 'A lot of it is happening, privately through diplomatic channels, it's happening with officials in the region we're in regular dialogue, multiple times per day as I noted with the Egyptian and Qatari officials, who have significant influence over Hamas - and our objective here is deescalation as we look to protecting the people to reach out.' Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken also called Netanyahu to reaffirm America's support for Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks. The country's State Department said he also repeated U.S. calls for a de-escalation of violence and the Biden administration's belief that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in safety and security. Blinken announced earlier he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to make similar appeals in person to Israeli and Palestinian officials. He also said that Israel had an 'extra burden' to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to the attacks. According to the State Department, Blinken also told Netanyahu that as he and President Joe Biden have said in the past, the administration believes Israelis and Palestinians should 'enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy.' He also 'emphasized the need for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in safety and security, as well as enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy,' in an apparent effort for the Biden administration to demonstrate that it cares about Palestinian rights, according to Politico. Also on Wednesday, speaking alongside United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Russia's Lavrov said: 'Today we've come to the common opinion that the most pressing task is to convene the Quartet of international mediators - Russia, the United States, the UN and the EU.' Israeli police announced Wednesday that they are imposing a nighttime curfew on the central city of Lod, that was the scene of unrest in recent days Police said in a statement that officers would enforce the ban on people entering Lod, residents leaving their homes, and people in public spaces starting at 8 p.m. Lod has seen two nights of violent protests, including the torching of dozens of vehicles, a synagogue, and violent clashes between Arab protesters and police. Israeli authorities declared a state of emergency in the city and deployed Border Police forces. Hamas has confirmed that Bassem Issa, commander of its Gaza City Brigade, was among those 'martyred' today. Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, named another three slain Hamas officers: Jamaa Tahla, responsible for the improved accuracy of the group's rockets; Jamal Zabeda, chief of 'special projects' in the munitions department; and Hazzem Hatib, head engineer in the munitions wing. The militants have launched more than 1,050 rockets at Israel since Monday, killing six civilians, including an Arab-Israeli girl in the city of Lod in the early hours of this morning. Along the Gaza border, an Israeli soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile, the military said. The Israeli Defence Forces announced that 21-year-old Staff Sgt. Omer Tabib was killed this morning by an anti-tank missile fired by Hamas into Israel Israeli troops shield their ears and faces as the howitzer pumps shells towards Gaza at the border on Wednesday A Palestinian woman walks in front of a destroyed building on Wednesday after it was shelled by the Israeli Defence Force Smoke rises during an Israeli air strike on suspected Hamas targets in Gaza City on Wednesday Palestinian rescuers evacuate an elderly woman from a building following Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip on Wednesday Israeli men carry Torah scrolls from a synagogue in the city of Lod which was torched last night amid rioting. Netanyahu personally visited the central city in the early hours of Wednesday to declare a state of emergency Pictured: Palestinians wave the Hamas flag during the funeral of Rashid Abu Ara, 16, who was killed during clashes with Israeli troops in village of Aqaba near Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank on May 12, 2021 Palestinians perform funeral prayers for a Palestinian man who was killed during an air strike in central Gaza City on May 12, 2021 in Gaza City. Over 50 people have so far been killed in the conflict Hamas militants and their allies have fired more than 1,000 missiles at Israel, though many have been shot down by the Iron Dome defence system, while others have landed inside Gaza. The Israeli towns of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Yehud have been struck, as well as the most populous city, Tel Aviv. In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Air Force has targeted suspected Hamas strongholds in Gaza City as well as the southern settlements Rafah and Khan Yunis Terrifying footage shows Hamas rocket blow up a bus, yards from civilians Terrifying video footage has emerged of a rocket launched by Hamas militants blowing up a bus in Israel as civilians watched on in horror. Video shows the city bus erupting in flames, with black smoke billowing from the burning vehicle, in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, last night. In other videos, dozens of Israel's Iron Dome defence system's missiles can be seen lighting up the night sky yesterday as they shot down a bombardment of rockets fired by Hamas militants. Residents of Tel Aviv, Israel's most populous city, hid in their houses and under shelters as scores of rockets were seen flying overhead before they were struck down by Israeli missiles. Video shows the city bus erupting in flames, with black smoke billowing from the burning vehicle, in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, last night Advertisement 'The army will continue to attack to bring a total, long-term quiet. Only when we reach that goal will we be able to speak about a truce,' Defense Minister Benny Gantz said today from the southern town of Ashkelon where two Israeli women were killed by Hamas rockets on Tuesday. The United Nations has warned the two sides they risk a 'full-scale war' if there is not an urgent ceasefire. 'Stop the fire immediately. We're escalating towards a full-scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation,' Tor Wennesland UN Special Envoy to the Middle East tweeted. Just after daybreak, the Israeli Air Force unleashed dozens of strikes within the course of a few minutes with what appeared to be bunker buster bombs targeting underground Hamas infrastructure. The Israeli Defense Forces later dispatched two infantry brigades to the area of a downed militant drone, indicating preparations for a possible ground invasion. Boris Johnson condemned the spiraling conflict this morning hours after his former counterpart Donald Trump blamed 'weak' Joe Biden for allowing things to escalate. 'I am urging Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint,' the prime minister said. 'The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties.' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab spoke to the Israeli foreign minister on Tuesday and will speak to the Palestinian prime minister on Wednesday, MPs were told in Westminster. Despite international condemnation for the bloodshed, the worst since the 2014 war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for ceasefire, vowing last night to 'step up' attacks. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in turn that 'if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it'. The tensions began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Muslim neighborhoods ignited protests and clashes with police. On Monday, a riot on Temple Mount left hundreds of Palestinians wounded before Hamas started launching rockets. The International Criminal Court at the Hague announced this morning it was looking at possible 'crimes' committed as the ferocious cross-border engagement entered its third day. 'I note with great concern the escalation of violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in and around Gaza, and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute (which founded the ICC)', Fatou Bensouda tweeted. More than a hundred Hamas rockets were launched at Israel's most populous city, Tel Aviv, last night after a tower block in Gaza suspected of being a Hamas headquarters was destroyed by an Israeli air strike. Palestinian women check the damage inside their apartment on Wednesday morning after it was bombed by the Israelis Smoke billows from an Israeli bombardment at sunrise on Khan Yunish in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday A Palestinian father carries his children away from their home to head to a safer neighbourhood after a bombardment warning on Wednesday Palestinians assess the damage caused by an Israeli air strike in the town of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 12, 2021. Heavy exchanges of rocket fire and air strikes, and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns, fuelled fears today that deadly violence between Israel and Palestinians could spiral into 'full-scale war' A Palestinian man takes pictures of the aftermath of a bombardment on Wednesday morning as a mound of dirt lies in the street beside mangled cars in Gaza City Smoke billows from an Israeli air strike on a tower block in Gaza as it collapses. The destruction of apartment apartment towers was among several tactics used during the 2014 war that are now the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes. Israel is not a member of the court and has rejected the probe. Israelis sing to keep their spirits up in a Tel Aviv bomb shelter Footage has emerged of Israelis singing in a bomb shelter as fighting between the Jewish state and Hamas intensified today amid warnings of all-out war. The video was taken in Tel Aviv overnight as the city was targeted by a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza. It shows a large group of people standing in what appears to be a basement car park being led in song by Shuli Rand, a well-known Jewish actor and musician. The song is called Between Holiness and Secularity, and the lyrics that appear in the video translate as: 'Please save me and please keep me from harm.' What's happening now in the Holy Land... A bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. Posted by Shifra Chana Hendrie on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 Footage has emerged of Israelis in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv overnight singing as the city was targeted by 201 Hamas rockets Tel Aviv found itself targeted overnight by rockets as Hamas said 210 rockets had been fired at the city, which is Israel's most-populous. The strike was in retaliation for a multi-storey block of apartments that was blown up in Gaza, Hamas said. At least 65 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said. Advertisement The IDF have assassinated several senior militant commanders, including Hassan Kaogi, head of the Hamas intelligence department, in their airstrikes. In a statement, the army said it carried out a 'complex and first-of-its-kind operation.' Those targeted, it said, were 'a key part of the Hamas 'General Staff'' and considered close to the head of the group's military wing. Hamas later confirmed it had lost several of top brass, including its military chief in Gaza City, Bassem Issa. The Israelis accuse the Palestinian fighters of using their own people as human shields, but the civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip have only hardened the position of the extremists who have launched hundreds more missiles. In Israel's central city of Lod, a girl and her father were killed in the early hours of Wednesday by rocket fire from Gaza. Israel's foreign ministry identified the girl as 16-year-old Nadin Awad, an Arab Israeli. Her cousin, Ahmad Ismail, told public broadcaster Kan that he was near Nadin when she was killed alongside her father Khalil Awad, 52. 'I was at home, we heard the noise of the rocket. It happened so quickly. Even if we had wanted to run somewhere, we don't have a safe room,' Ismail told Kan. Lod also saw riots after thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man killed by a suspected Jewish gunman the previous night. The crowd fought with police, and set a synagogue and some 30 vehicles, including a police car, on fire, Israeli media reported. Paramedics said a 56-year-old man was seriously hurt after his car was pelted with stones. The Israeli President Reuven Rivlin described it as a 'pogrom' carried out by a 'bloodthirsty Arab mob,' after Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab city. 'The sight of the pogrom in Lod and the disturbances across the country by an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob, injuring people, damaging property and even attacking sacred Jewish spaces is unforgivable,' Rivlin said. Yair Revivo, mayor of the city, last night called for army back-up to help secure the area, saying 'civil war' was breaking out. 'This is Kristallnacht in Lod,' said Revivo, in reference to the Nazi pogrom against German Jews in 1938. 'I have called on the prime minister to declare a state of emergency in Lod. To call in the IDF. To impose a curfew. To restore quiet. There is a failure of governance. 'This is a giant incident - an Intifada of Arab Israelis. All the work we have done here for years [on coexistence] has gone down the drain.' Netanhayu made a pre-dawn tour of the city to declare a state of emergency. 'We will not tolerate this; we need to restore calm,' Netanyahu said in Lod. 'If this isn't an emergency situation, I don't know what is. We are talking about life and death here.' A thick black column of smoke and red flames rise into the sky over Gaza on Wednesday during Israeli bombardments A Palestnian family flee their home on Wednesday to head to a safety from Israeli airstrikes as rubble fills the street A fire rages at sunrise in Khan Yunish in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning as Israel's bombardment of Hamas targets continues Israeli artillery in action as the escalation continues between Israeli army and Hamas at the Gaza border A colossal crater blown into a Gaza street is seen on Wednesday beside wrecked shops and homes in nearby tower blocks An overturned car lies in the street filled with debris after a tower block was levelled in Gaza by Israeli warplanes last night Smoke billows over Gaza on Wednesday as the Israeli bombardments continued throughout the night and into dawn A Palestinian boy walks past rubble on a street in Gaza City on Wednesday after bombardments by the Israeli Air Force throughout the night Display mannequins from a damaged clothing shop are scattered amid the debris outside the heavily-damaged Al-Jawhara Tower in Gaza on Wednesday morning Cars are wrecked by rubble after buildings collapsed last night in Gaza during the Israeli barrages An Israeli security officer comforts a man in the town of Holon near Tel Aviv during rocket attacks by militants in Gaza on Tuesday night Two Palestinian women survey the damage to their bombed out flat in Gaza City on Wednesday morning Footage released by the IDF shows precision airstrikes on densely populated Gaza IDF announced they had killed at least four Hamas commanders on Wednesday. They included Gaza City Brigade chief Bassem Issa; Jamaa Tahla, responsible for the improved accuracy of the group's rockets; Jamal Zabeda, chief of 'special projects' in the munitions department; and Hazzem Hatib, head engineer in the munitions wing. TRUMP: 'WEAK' BIDEN TO BLAME FOR CONFLICT Former US President Donald Trump blamed his successor Joe Biden's 'weakness' for the renewed clashes in the Middle East. Writing on his website Trump, he said: 'When I was in office we were known as the Peace Presidency, because Israel's adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel was attacked. 'Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because Biden's weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies. 'America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself. 'Unbelievably, Democrats also continue to stand by crazed anti-American Rep. Ilhan Omar, and others, who savagely attack Israel while they are under terrorist assault.' Advertisement Asked whether the actions of the police against protesters may have played a role, he shut down the suggestion, saying: 'These events have no excuse; this is fundamental hate.' It comes after the PM, speaking after two women were killed in Hamas strikes yesterday, said he 'deplored' the deaths in Israel, adding that the country's military would 'further increase both the intensity and the rate' of its own air strikes against Gaza. 'Hamas will be hit in ways that it does not expect,' Netanyahu said. 'We have eliminated commanders, hit many important targets and we have decided to attack harder and increase the pace of attacks.' The homes of three Hamas commanders were destroyed overnight on Wednesday. A significant barrage had begun by 3am, with Israel firing into the Gaza Strip. 'In response to HUNDREDS of rockets in the last 24 hours, the IDF has struck a number of significant terror targets and terror operatives across the Gaza Strip, marking our largest strike since 2014,' the IDF confirmed. 'We are currently striking more terror targets in Gaza.' In Israel, five people including three women have been killed. One of the three women was in her 60s and another in her 80s, and died during Hamas rocket attacks earlier on Tuesday. The third woman, aged 50, was killed on Tuesday evening when a rocket hit a building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system is activated to intercept a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip towards the southern Israeli city of Ashdod on Wednesday Missiles are fired from Israel's Iron Dome defence system to shoot down Palestinian missiles fired at the southern city of Ashdod on Wednesday A rocket is intercepted by the Iron Dome over the southern Israeli city of Ashdod. The IDF say they have been able to intercept around 85 to 90% of the missiles Mourners carry the coffin of Israeli Arab Khalil Awaad and his daughter Nadine,16, during their funeral in the village of Dahmash near the Israeli city of Lod on Wednesday. They were killed last night by rockets fired from Gaza A picture taken with a drone shows the funeral of Palestinian man Hussien al-Titi, who was killed during stone-throwing clashes with Israeli forces, at Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank People inspect the rubble of a damaged building which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Wednesday Palestinians react over the death of relatives outside a hospital in Beit Lahia following a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip early on Wednesday The mother of Palestinian Rasheed Abu Arra, who was killed during clashes with Israeli forces, reacts during her son's funeral in the town of Aqqaba near Tubas, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday The renewed confrontation, following weeks of tensions and clashes in the contested Jerusalem, was sparked on Monday evening when Hamas fired a barrage of missiles towards Jerusalem. It continued into the early hours of Wednesday morning, with more rockets being fired by the Islamist group into Tel Aviv, and by Israel into Gaza. On Tuesday afternoon, Trump posted to his website, saying that America 'will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself' as he criticised Biden over the growing crisis. An Israeli military helicopter and fighter jet fly over Ashkelon in southern Israel on Wednesday Earlier, the White House had said Biden was being briefed on the escalating situation. Israel's Iron Dome defence system continued to struggle with the volume of rockets being fired from Gaza on Tuesday evening, after an Israeli air strike caused a 13-storey residential building to collapse in Gaza City. Residents of the collapsed residential block and the surrounding area had been warned to evacuate the area around an hour before the air strike, according to witnesses, and there were no reports of casualties two hours after it collapsed. Shortly after the attack, Hamas - the Islamist group that rules inside Gaza - and the Islamic Jihad group said they would respond by firing rockets at Tel Aviv, which they did by firing 210 rockets towards Beersheba and Tel Aviv in response to the bombing of the tower buildings in Gaza City. Air raid sirens and explosions were heard around the city, and the skies were lit up by the streaks of multiple interceptor missiles launched towards the incoming rockets. Pedestrians ran for shelter, and diners streamed out of Tel Aviv restaurants while others flattened themselves on pavements as the sirens sounded. The Israel Airports Authority said it had halted take-offs at Tel Aviv airport 'to allow defense of the nation's skies.' Video broadcast on Israeli Channel 12 television showed interceptor missiles rising above the runways. 'We are now carrying out our promise,' Hamas's armed wing said. 'The Qassam Brigades are launching their biggest rocket strike against Tel Aviv and its suburbs, with 130 rockets, in response to the enemy's targeting of residential towers.' A column of thick black smoke rises into the sky over Gaza City on Wednesday morning as the Israeli bombardment rages on An Iron Dome aerial defence system battery is seen in the foreground as fire rages early on Wednesday at Ashkelon's refinery, which was hit by Hamas rockets Thick columns of black smoke rise into the sky over Gaza on Wednesday amid renewed Israeli bombardments Smoke rises across the horizon over Gaza on Wednesday as the Israeli Air Force continued pounding targets in the city An Israeli man walks past the remains of a rocket fire by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas from the Gaza Strip in the southern town of Ashkelon Clouds of dark smoke are seen rising over Gaza City on Tuesday night after an Israeli air strike A fire rages inside Ashkelon's oil refinery on Wednesday morning in the southern Israel after it was struck by Hamas rockets Devastation in Gaza on Wednesday after Israeli air strikes continued to target the Hamas leadership who live among innocent civilians Pictured: Smoke rises from the streets of Gaza after Israeli air strikes were launched amid tit-for-tat strikes against Hamas Rockets are launched towards Israel from Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement on Wednesday A man pulls his luggage while passing the rubble of a destroyed building which was hit by Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, Wednesday The mother of Palestinian Rasheed Abu Arra, who was killed during clashes with Israeli forces, mourns her son alongside other women, in the town of Aqqaba near Tubas, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Wednesday People walk amid the rubble of a destroyed residential building which was hit by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Wednesday The sound of the outgoing rockets could be heard in Gaza. As the rockets rose into the skies, mosques across Gaza blared with chants of 'God is great,' 'victory to Islam' and 'resistance.' One rocket struck a bus in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv. Medics said three people, including a five-year-old girl, were wounded and the bus went up in flames. Israel said it had sent 80 jets to bomb Gaza, and dispatched infantry and armour to reinforce the tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of the last ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks, in 2014. More than 2,100 Gazans were killed in the seven-week war that followed, according to the Gaza health ministry, along with 73 Israelis, and thousands of homes in Gaza were razed. The U.N. Security Council will hold emergency consultations Wednesday on the escalating violence between Palestinians and Israelis. The U.N. Mideast envoy, Tor Wennesland, is expected to brief the 15 council members virtually at the closed meeting, which is being called at the request of China, Tunisia and Norway. China holds the council presidency this month and its U.N. mission confirms plans for the second emergency meeting in three days. It is an indication of growing international concern about the conflict and where it might lead. Smoke rises over Gaza City on Wednesday as Israel continues to strike suspected Hamas strongholds A wounded Israeli man in Giv'atayim, Tel Aviv, Israel, on Wednesday after a rocket attack struck a residential area Palestinian boys walk past the wreckage of a clothing store in central Gaza on Wednesday A crater in a street in Gaza on Wednesday morning after Israeli bombardments throughout the early hours Smoke billows from an Israeli air strike on the Hanadi compound in Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on Tuesday night Smoke and flames rise after Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes in Gaza City in the early hours of Wednesday A heavily damaged house is pictured in a residential area in the city of Yehud, in central Israel, on Wednesday following a rocket strike launched by militants in Gaza Smoke rises form an oil refinery in the southern Israel on Wednesday after it was targeted by Hamas rockets Palestinians wave the Hamas flag during the funeral of Rashid Abu Ara, 16, who was killed during clashes with Israeli troops in village of Aqaba near Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday Palestinian special operations forces fire Kalashnikov assault rifles in salute for Ahmed Daraghmeh, a member of Palestinian intelligence services who was killed by Israeli forces the previous day at the Zaatara (Tapuach) junction south of Nablus in the West Bank Palestinians wave the Hamas flag during the funeral of Rashid Abu Ara, 16, who was killed during clashes with Israeli troops in village of Aqaba near Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank on May 12 The U.N.'s most powerful body has not yet taken any action. China, Tunisia and Norway proposed a draft statement at Monday's meeting expressing 'grave concern' at escalating tensions and calling on Israel to cease evictions. Egypt was been trying to broker a cease-fire into Tuesday, but the cycle of violence was gaining momentum. Even before the Israeli deaths, the Israeli military said it was sending troop reinforcements to the Gaza border and the defence minister Benny Gantz ordered the mobilisation of 5,000 reserve soldiers. But contrary to Egypt's efforts, Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged Palestinians to 'build up power' on state television, saying 'Zionists (Israel) only understand the language of force'. Iran and Israel consider one-another arch enemies, with Iran refusing to recognise the existence of Israel as a state since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Iranian state TV on Tuesday quoted Khamenei as saying that it was a duty of every state to take a stand and condemn this 'evil, criminal, brutal and cruel' action by Israel. Khamenei also said Palestinian need to be empowered in order to 'force' Israel to accept their rights. 'They should make themselves powerful, resist and confront so as to force the other party to withdraw from crime and surrender to what's right and fair,' Khamenei said. Iran backs anti-Israel militant groups across the region, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip. In the U.S., the White House said on Tuesday that Biden was being briefed daily on developments in Jerusalem and Gaza, and has directed his team to engage intensively with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials as well as leaders throughout the Middle East. Press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday that Biden's team is communicating a clear and consistent message in support of de escalation. 'That is our primary focus,' she said, adding that Biden supports Israel's 'legitimate right to defend itself and its people' and at the same time condemns ongoing 'rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups including against Jerusalem.' She added that the Biden administration 'will also continue to support a two state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict.' But on his own website, Trump posted a message saying that 'America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself.' Trump criticised Biden, saying: 'Because Israel's adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel was attacked. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tours Lod early on Wednesday. He declared a state of emergency in the central city as police accused Arab residents of waging 'wide-scale riots' Burnt out cars in the Israeli city of Lod this morning after rioting by Arab Israelis, prompting Netanyahu to declare a state of emergency 'Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because Biden's weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies.' Tuesday also saw a pipeline belonging to an Israeli state-owned energy company hit in a rocket attack from Gaza, an Israeli government official and an energy sector official told Reuters. Video broadcast by Channel 12 showed flames rising from what appeared to be a large fuel vat near the Israeli Mediterranean city of Ashkelon, south of Tel Aviv. Operations at a power plant in Ashkelon were not interrupted, Channel 13 TV said. In Israel, residents of Ashkelon have been running to shelters as air raid sirens wail. 'At around 5am, we were woken by sirens. We had to hide in the wardrobe because there is no shelter in the house,' said Shelly Belayev, whose building was heavily damaged, its facade blackened and an apartment devastated. 'There was a very strong explosion, I have never heard a sound like it. I quickly realized the missile fell here,' she said. 'I went outside, I was in shock.' Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system is activated to intercept a rocket launched from the Gaza Strip over the southern Israeli city of Ashdod People gather at the site of a levelled tower block in Gaza City last night after an Israeli airstrike An Israeli girl is comforted by her father next to their damaged home in the city of Yehud, central Israel, after it was struck by a rocket from Gaza last night Israeli security forces walk past extinguished burnt vehicles in Holon near Tel Aviv, last night after rockets were launched towards Israel from the Gaza Strip controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement Pictured: Rockets are launched from Gaza city, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, in response to an Israeli air strike on a 12-storey building in the city, towards the coastal city of Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021 Pictured: Smoke and flame rise after Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes in Gaza City, Gaza on May 12, 2021 Pictured: Streaks of light are seen as Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, May 11, 2021. Rocket fire was so relentless that Israel's Iron Dome rocket-defence system seemed to be overwhelmed on Tuesday Pictured: Smokes rise from buildings as Israeli fighter jets continue to pound a Palestinian building called 'Hanady' at Al-Rimal neighbourhood in the Gaza Strip, on May 11, 2021 Pictured: Israeli firefighters check out damaged vehicles in the Israeli town of Holon near Tel Aviv, on May 11, 2021, after rockets are launched towards Israel from Gaza. Hamas has vowed to turn Israel into 'a hell' after rockets fired from Gaza killed two Israeli women today following a night of cross-border strikes Pictured: A bomb drops near a Palestinian building called 'Hanady' at Al-Rimal neighbourhood as Israeli fighter jets continue to pound in the Gaza Strip, on May 11, 2021 By late Tuesday, the violence extended to Tel Aviv, which came under fire from a barrage of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip. The outgoing volleys set off air raid sirens across the city, and the main international airport quickly closed Since the sirens began late Monday, barrages of rockets launched from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave have rained down on the coastal city, located just north of the Gaza Strip. The deluge continued on Tuesday, with Hamas' armed wing the Qassam Brigades saying it had fired 137 rockets on Ashkelon and nearby Ashdod within just five minutes during the afternoon. Islamic Jihad, an ally of Hamas, announced on Tuesday that two of its commanders were killed during continued Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. Sources within the group said the strikes in central Gaza, also 'wounded eight people, including a woman and her two children.' On Tuesday, Israel Defence Forces (IDF) claimed it had killed a top Hamas Commander in a statement , saying: 'We just killed the commander of the Hamas anti-tank missile unit, Iyad Fathi Faik Sharir. He was in charge of carrying out anti-tank missile attacks on Israel. Our aircraft are currently striking additional terror targets'. Other high-profile Hamas targets are also said to have been killed. One was identified as Samah Abed al-Mamlouk, who the IDF said was in a hideout along with other operatives. He is said to have been in charge of the Islamic Jihad's rocket arsenal. A wounded Palestinian boy is transported to hospital after an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Tuesday afternoon Fire billows from Israeli air strikes in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Tuesday morning. At least 26 Palestinians - including nine children - were killed, most by airstrikes, health officials in Gaza reported. Rockets are fired from Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, towards Israel on Tuesday Smoke billows and sparks fly from Israeli air strikes in Gaza City on Tuesday as Israel and Hamas exchanged heavy fire Palestinians flee with their children as civilians are evacuated from a building being targeted by an Israeli bombardment in Gaza A huge explosion from an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Tuesday causes sparks to fly into the air as a cloud of black smoke rises above the city Israeli firefighters extinguish a car which caught on fire after a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip, in Ashkelon, southern Israel Smoke and flames billow into the air as Israeli warplanes drop bombs on the Gaza strip on Tuesday morning. It comes after militants launched more than 200 rockets at Israel, injuring six civilians Another - Hassan Abu al-Atta - was also killed. He is thought to have been a deputy commander of Islamic Jihad's Gaza Brigade. He was killed when the IDF struck an eight-storey building in Gaza's Rimal neighbourhood. The United Nations said it was 'deeply concerned' over the escalation of violence in the region, warning Israel that Palestinians must be allowed the freedom to congregate and protest. 'We condemn all violence and all incitement to violence and ethnic division and provocations,' spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. He added: 'No force should be used against those exercising their rights peacefully.' When use of force is necessary, it should comply fully with international human rights standards, he added. Colville said the office of UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet was particularly concerned about the impact of the violence on children. 'Detained children should be released,' Colville said. 'Things need to calm down.' Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt says his new law banning critical race theory will allow history to be taught without labeling a 'young child as an oppressor' - as members of one of the state's public school boards say the decision is protecting 'white fragility'. Under the new law, which was introduced by Stitt last Friday, Oklahoma City public school teachers are prohibited from teaching certain concepts of race and racism, including critical race theory. The Oklahoma City Public Schools Board of Education unanimously voted on Monday to denounce the law, which is officially known as House Bill 1775. The move came after Stitt said last week that the US, now more than ever, needs 'policies that bring us together, not rip us apart'. 'As governor, I firmly believe that not one cent of taxpayer money should be used to define and divide young Oklahomans about their race or sex. That is what this bill upholds for public education. Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt introduced the new law last Friday that bans critical race theory from being taught to children 'We must keep teaching history and all of its complexities and encourage honest and tough conversations about our past. Nothing in this bill prevents or discourages those conversations. 'We can and should teach this history without labeling a young child as an oppressor or requiring that he or she feel guilt or shame based on their race or sex. I refuse to tolerate otherwise.' Among the concepts that will be prohibited are that individuals, by virtue of race or gender, are inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. The bill, which takes effect on July 1, also prevents colleges and universities from requiring students to undergo training on gender or sexual diversity. During the school board meeting, all eight members took turns criticizing Stitt's bill. The board is made up of eight members, including five who are white and three who are black and Latina. Ruth Veales, one of the black board members, argued that the legislation was attempting to shut off conversations about racism to 'protect white fragility'. 'As a district that's over 80 percent students of color, this is definitely an insult,' Veales said. 'It is a situation that is so egregious to me. 'When I listen to what the governor said in his speech, and to say it is not right for white students to feel like that they should be held responsible for the oppression that black people and others have felt because of them, but then let's talk about the generational wealth off the back of my people. Let's talk about that.' Board member Ruth Veales (left) slammed the ban on critical race theory as protecting 'white fragility'. Fellow board member Meg McElhaney (right) called the bill 'racist', 'cowardly' and a form of 'micromanaging' Pictured left to right, top to bottom: Board Chair Paula Lewis, Vice chair Mark Mann, Gloria Torres, Carrie Coppernoll Jacobs, Lori Bowman and Carole Thompson Fellow board member Meg McElhaney, who is white, called the bill 'racist', 'cowardly' and a form of 'micromanaging'. Mark Mann, who is the only male board member, described the bill as 'disgusting'. 'To think that in 2021 we could have a bill like this introduced, let alone heard in a committee, voted on and passed and signed by the governor, is absolutely appalling,' he said. The push back from the Oklahoma City school board comes amid a national debate over critical race theory. Critics say the theory reduces people to the categories of 'privileged' or 'oppressed' based on their skin color. Defenders, however, argue that the theory examines the ways in which race and racism influence American politics, culture and the law, and say it is vital to eliminating racism. The Oklahoma bill is similar to measures signed into law in Utah and Arkansas. Another similar measure stalled out recently in Louisiana but its author has said he intends to try and revive it. Tennessee and Arizona have also introduced similar bills. South Dakota's Gov Kristi Noem recently signed a bill that opposes the teaching of critical race theory. And Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also recently said parents should oppose the theory. During the school board meeting on Monday, all eight members took turns criticizing the bill that was introduced just days ago by Gov Stitt As recently as Tuesday, parents in Virginia released a commercial to oust members of their school board after it vowed to push critical race theory onto their children. The parents formed the group, Fight for Our Schools, to push back against the Loudoun County school board Multiple examples have emerged in recent weeks across the country of teachers and parents saying their children are being forced to learn critical race theory. As recently as Tuesday, parents in Virginia released a commercial to oust members of their school board after it vowed to push critical race theory onto their children. The parents formed the group, Fight for Our Schools, to push back against the Loudoun County school board. They argue that the board is 'infecting our schools with critical race theory' and 'plotting war' against parents who oppose it'. Loudoun County Sheriff's office is investigating various allegations of harassment between opponents and supporters of the theory in the community's public schools. While Loudoun County Public Schools have not officially made it compulsory to use critical race theory in their classrooms, they have pledged to push for 'equity' and have started using many of its 'buzzwords and concepts'. Meanwhile, a New York City parent made national headlines after he pulled his daughter from an elite Manhattan private school over its anti-racism policies. Andrew Gutmann, who wrote a letter about his decision to pull his daughter from the Brearley School, said the backlash he faced in the aftermath opened his eyes to the 'cancer of cancel culture'. The White House defended the administration's medical experts as a 'north star' on Wednesday, the day after Republican lawmakers tore into Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky over health guidelines that remain in place even as more and more Americans get vaccinated. 'How we we've approached things is that we believe that health and medical experts should be our North Star,' White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at her daily briefing. She admitted even she was tired of wearing a mask but expressed confidence guidelines would be revised as needed. 'So here's what we also know, as more people get vaccinated, there will be less and less need for certain restrictions, and the CDC has said they will continue to evaluate the science and update their guidelines,' she said. 'Sometimes people may feel that slow,' she noted. 'We understand. It's frustrating. I'm tired of wearing a mask too. We understand how the American people are feeling.' White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended the administration's medical experts as a 'north star' and said health guidance must be listened to Walensky came under fire from Republicans at a Senate hearing on the pandemic response on Tuesday. 'I always considered the CDC to be the gold standard. I don't anymore,' Maine Senator Susan Collins said to her. Collins, who was reelected to her fifth term in November, told Walensky that she 'used to have the utmost respect for the guidance from the CDC' but now feels it has issued 'conflicting, confusing guidance' that contradicts health officials. 'I used to have the utmost respect for the guidance from the CDC. I always considered the CDC to be the gold standard. I dont anymore,' she lectured the agency head. She accused the agency whose leaders repeatedly said they operate based on the science and the available data of 'exaggerating' the risk of transmission of COVID-19. 'So, here we have unnecessary barriers to reopening schools, exaggerating the risks of outdoor transmission, and unworkable restrictions on summer camps. Why does this matter?' Collins continued. 'It matters because it undermines public confidence in your recommendation, in the recommendations that do make sense, in the recommendations that Americans should be following.' Republican senators tore into CDC Director Rochelle Walensky during a hearing Tuesday on the pandemic response, claiming the agency has been inconsistant and confusing 'I always considered the CDC to be the gold standard. I don't anymore,' Maine Senator Susan Collins said The attack by Collins, an influential senator who sometimes cooperates with Democrats, came as her state's Democratic governor joined a zoom call with President Joe Biden to talk about vaccine distribution and the pandemic. At one point, Maine Gov. Janet Mills joked about people in her state responded to the CDC's initially recommended 6-foot social distancing guidance. 'Some people asked, why so close?' she quipped. Walensky who in March warned about a feeling of 'impending doom' as U.S. infections rose spoke with optimism about vaccines approved for young people aged 12-15 even appearing to suggest they lobby their parents for the shot. She made the statement when asked about government approval to extend the emergency use authorization for Pfizer for children aged 12-15. 'I recognize some parents want to see how it goes, but I am encouraging all children to be vaccinated,' she said during the hearing. 'And I am also encouraging children to ask for the vaccine.' 'I have a 16-year-old and I continue he wanted to get the vaccine. He wants his life back,' she said. Officials are eyeing young people as a cohort that can help boost the nation's overall vaccine rates with a substantial number of adults still saying they aren't sure they want to get the shots. 'The American people have just lost patience with us, with you guys,' Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy said. 'I would ask you to be aware of their frustrations and get a little real time into updating these things' Republican senators repeatedly pressed Walenksy and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci at Tuesday's hearings over continued restrictions. They called mask mandates unreasonable as more Americans get vaccinated. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician, also piled on the CDC. He told Walensky Tuesday that the American people 'are starting to disregard what you say is true.' 'The American people have just lost patience with us, with you guys,' Cassidy said. 'I would ask you to be aware of their frustrations and get a little real time into updating these things. I am sorry to be so frustrated.' The GOP attacks are the latest sign of ongoing political divides over mask mandates, school policies, and vaccines. Public polling has consistently showed greater vaccine hesitancy over getting the vaccine among Republicans. The CDC recently relaxed its guidelines over masks and other distancing, saying people who are fully vaccinated can do activities outside unmasked and even interact with unvaccinated people in the home. It also eased up on its recommendations for outdoor activities, and coronavirus advisor Jeff Zients said on a call with governors Tuesday that renewed guidance was being considered. The hearing was held just as the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer vaccines for children 12 and older. Previously, no one under the age of 16 was authorized to receive any of the coronavirus vaccines. Walensky stood behind the current CDC guidance and pointed to immunocompromised communities but got personal when talking about kids being able to attend summer camp, claiming her 16-year-old son counts down the days until camp. 'I want our kids back in camp,' she said. 'We now have 38,000 new infections, on average, per day. Last May 11th, it was 24,000. And we sent a lot of kids home and camps were closed. The camp guidance is intended to get our kids to camp and allow them to stay there.' Florida State Senator George Gainer said spanking students is OK if they misbehave, but teachers should not 'leave no marks' A Florida state senator has backed a school principal condemned for spanking a six year-old girl in front of the child's stunned mother. George Gainer, who represents a district in Northern Florida, said he was regularly spanked while growing up in Jackson County, claims it did him no harm, with a school superintendent in his district insisting smacking works better than suspensions. 'It's all right to spank them, but don't beat them' he told the Palm Beach Post. 'It's OK if the intention is to teach them a lesson, but don't leave no marks.' Corporal punishment, defined as the 'use of physical force with intention of causing a child to experience pain so as to correct their misbehavior' is legal in Florida. But only 19 school districts - many of which are in Gainer's district - allow the practice today. 'There's definitely a place for corporal punishment in the school system, but not beating,' Gainer said. 'You have to know when to hit them and how hard to hit them.' 'Once a child figures out you won't spank them,' he said, 'you've lost all control.' The comments come after a Florida principal was cleared of wrongdoing after a viral video showed her spanking a six-year-old girl with a paddle in front of her mom as punishment for damaging a computer. Florida school principal Melissa Carter, left, was seen in a viral video last month spanking a six-year-old child with a wooden paddle State Attorney Amira Fox's office said last week that Carter (pictured), head of Central Elementary School in Clewiston, would not face charges over the incident, despite the Palm Beach Post reporting that the district has a policy against corporal punishment State Attorney Amira Fox's office said last week that Melissa Carter, head of Central Elementary School in Clewiston, will not face charges over the incident and that no crime was committed. The punishment did not cause harm or amount to child abuse and that its investigation found the child's mom, Fabiola Rivera, had consented to her daughter being spanked by the school staffer. The 19 states that allow paddling in schools Today, there are only 19 states that allow paddling in schools, although many districts within those states have banned it. They are: North Carolina South Carolina Georgia Florida Alabama Tennessee Kentucky Indiana Mississippi Louisiana Arkansas Missouri Kansas Oklahoma Texas Arizona Colorado Wyoming Idaho Advertisement According to the Palm Beach Post, however, officials in the Hendry County School District, where the spanking was said to have taken place, ended their practice of paddling in 2016. Under Florida State law, local school boards are given the power to prohibit physical punishment if they have 'adopted a written program of alternative control or discipline.' Only 19 school districts in the state allow spanking today, the Palm Beach Post reported, five of which reported using corporal punishment less than 10 times in the 2019 - 20 year. Others, however, appeared to resort to it nearly every day, according to a Palm Beach Post-USA Today investigation. It found that Florida school officials used corporal punishment a total of 1,034 times during the 2019 - 20 school year. Columbia County, north of Gainesville, appeared to be the school spanking capital of the state, according to the report, doling out 201 instances of corporal punishment last year, 195 of which were recorded in the district's eight elementary schools. Five Points Elementary in the county recorded the most of any single school, the investigation found, with 42 spankings. Another district, Washington County schools recorded the second-highest use of corporal punishment, using it 120 times during the 2019 - 20 school year. Meanwhile, Spanking was used 115 times in neighboring Jackson County, and 87 times in Holmes County. Many of these counties are more rural, and Ted Roush, the superintendent of the Suwanee County School District in Northeast Florida, said it is more acceptable in those communities. 'In our neck of the woods, a lot of people will say 'Tell me what he did?' and if they agree the punishment is deserved they'll say 'Give him a couple of whacks and send him back to class rather than sending him home to sit in front of a computer for two days,' he said. 'That might horrify someone in Miami-Dade County, but many parents in our area are going to have a different type of norms and standards.' Spanking is allowed as a form of corporal punishment in 19 school districts, but representatives of the Southern Poverty Law Center say it disproportionately affects black kids and those with disabilities But community activist Treshika Melvin, said the practice is 'antiquated' and unnecessarily cruel to the children. It causes children to suffer physical injury and mental trauma, according to Southern Poverty Law Center spokeswoman Bacardi Jackson. 'That beating a child is not necessarily child abuse is part of the rationale that they suffer no long-term harm,' she said. 'That just doesn't line up to the science.' Additionally, she said the practice disproportionately affects black kids and those with disabilities She pointed to statistics showing black boys are twice as likely to receive corporal punishment than white boys and black girls are three times more likely to be spanked than white girls in school. Data from the Florida Department of Education seems to support that claim, with black, Hispanic and mixed-race students accounting for more than half of those were paddled in Jackson County last year, despite only making up 27 per cent and 4 per cent of the county's population respectively In Levy County, west of Gainesville, more than one-third of the paddlings administered last year were to black, Hispanic or mixed-race students, even though the county is 80 percent white and only 8.5 percent Black and 7.5 percent Hispanic. The Southern Poverty Law Center is now lobbying federal officials to end the practice throughout the country, despite it being legal in 19 states. Photos from a mid-air plane collision over Colorado on Wednesday morning demonstrate how miraculous it was that nobody was injured in the crash that left a gaping hole in one of the aircrafts after its roof was torn off. The collision capped off a strange week in aviation, which included an incident of a door being blown off a plane in Michigan. Wednesday's incident saw two small planes collide above Cherry Creek State Park in the morning in Aurora, Colorado. South Metro Fire Rescue says the collision happened at 10:25am, when the aircrafts were just four miles north of Centennial Airport. Somehow, nobody was injured or killed in the crash. Photos show the damage sustained to a cargo plane after a crash on Wednesday morning The cargo plane collided with a single-engine plane, which crash-landed in a field Despite the clear damage, nobody was injured in either of the planes or on the ground 'You expect a lot worse, this was amazing,' Arapahoe Sheriffs Deputy John Bartmann told KDVR. A single-engine Cirrus SR22 owned by Independence Aviation crash-landed south of the Cherry Creek Reservoir after the collision. The parachute of the plane was deployed, which helped bring it down, according to the Arapahoe County Sheriffs Office. Both people on the plane managed to walk away without any injuries, though Bartmann said the plane was 'significantly damaged.' The second plane, a Swearingen Metroliner SA226TC cargo plane that was being operated by Key Lime Air, managed to land at Centennial Airport. Only the pilot was on board for that plane and they too walked away without any injuries. The roof of the cargo plane was torn off, with its body fully exposed before the tail Investigators quickly scrambled to the Cherry Creek Reservoir to investigate the accident The small plane was a single-engine Cirrus SR22 owned by Independence Aviation The cargo plane was a Swearingen Metroliner SA226TC operated by Key Lime Air 'Weve had several plane crashes in our jurisdiction. Never have we seen a parachute be deployed and bring the plane down safely,' Bartmann added to KKTV. There was a huge hole seen in the cabin of the cargo plane, right before the tail of the aircraft, after it landed. Air traffic control chatter suggested that there may have been a problem with the Cirrus SR22 prior to the crash. 'Cirrus 6 Delta Juliet did you overshoot the final?' air traffic control asked. 'Cirrus 6 Delta Juliet do you require assistance?' That was followed by, 'Cirrus 6 Delta Juliet if you hear this transmission we have emergency vehicles in your direction.' South Metro Fire Rescue were among those who responded quickly to the crash The Colorado Sun reports that air traffic control communication gave the Metroliner clearance to land on Runway 17 left and the Cirrus clearance to land on Runway 17 right, parallel to one another, around the same time. The communication was given on different frequencies. The Cirrus pilots were warned about the Metroliner nearby, but it's not clear what ultimately caused the crash. FlightAware data shows the Metroliner was flying from Salida, while the Cirrus took off from Centennial Airport and was on its way back after flying up to Fort Collins. The pilot for the Metroliner may not have even realized the crash occurred, saying, 'Looks like the right engine failed so Im going to continue my landing.' The parachute of this plane was deployed, which helped bring it down safely Nobody on the ground was injured either, although debris from the crash can likely be found in the state park. The sheriff's office is utilizing drones to search for debris and they are telling people not to touch plane parts if they are spotted, but to call the sheriff's office instead. CBS4 obtained a statement from the FAA, which is investigating the crash. 'A Cirrus SR-22 and a Swearingen Metroliner SA226TC collided in midair approximately four miles north of Centennial Airport in Denver, Colo., around 10:25 a.m. local time today,' the statement says. 'The pilot of the Cirrus deployed the aircrafts parachute and landed in a nearby neighborhood. The pilot of the Swearingen landed at Centennial Airport. Two people were onboard the Cirrus and one person was onboard the Swearingen,' the statement continued. They wouldn't say more about the condition of the three people. 'We have no reports of people on the ground being injured. The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. Neither agency identifies people involved in aircraft accidents,' the statement concludes. The NTSB also tweeted that they were on their way to the scene, with initial reports suggesting the planes collided during landing procedures. Key Lime Air released a statement to The Denver Channel, pledging to participate in the investigation into the crash. 'We are participating in an active investigation of the incident with the FAA and NTSB. As information comes to light, if authorities deem it appropriate to share with the public, we will do so,' the company said in the statement. 'We cannot express the gratitude we have, company-wide that no one was injured. We thank all those who have reached out with concern for our company and its people.' The mid-air collision comes exactly a week after another harrowing incident in aviation. Last week, an emergency exit door flew away before a flight from Minneapolis to Michigan Boutique Airlines, a private aircraft company, was operating the small, eight-person plane 'We were just about to take off, probably going I don't know 100 miles per hour and the door just flew off,' passenger Tom Yon told a local news outlet Pictured: A diagram showing where the emergency exit door was supposed to be located Last week, an emergency exit door flew off a plane prior to a flight from Minneapolis to Ironwood, Michigan. Boutique Airlines, a private aircraft company, was operating the small, eight-person plane. 'We were just about to take off, probably going I don't know 100 miles per hour and the door just flew off,' passenger Tom Yon told KBJR 6. 'There was a loud bang and the door flew off and the noise and the wind and everything.' Yon temporarily lost his carry-on bag out the plane, which returned to the gate instead of taking off. Nobody appeared to be injured in that incident. The two pilots who were staffing the Boutique Airlines plane have since been fired. They failed to finish a pre-flight checklist, causing the door to open moments before take-off, according to KBJR 6. Open Doors, which has been working to provide support and encouragement to Christians in places where persecution exists and is even rampant, shared how the faith of some North Korean believers get passed onto their families. "Parents can't risk telling their children about their faith" in North Korea, the organization said. Christian parents wait until their children reach an appropriate age before informing them of their Christian faith. Others, such as Lee Joo-Chan's parents, never experience that liberty. How Lee met Christ Before Korea was divided, Lee's mother was raised in the Christian faith. The oppression of Christians began when Kim Il-Sung took control of North Korea after the war. "I knew my parents were different. Everybody called them Communist parents, because they took care of the sick, the poor and the needy. At night, they read from a secret book, which I wasnt allowed to read from," Lee said. "But I heard them whisper the words, and I knew it was their source of wisdom. I also knew that if I ever talked about this to someone else, our family would be taken away." In the late in the '90s, he fled his homeland. After a while, she re-emerged from hiding, too. He paints a vivid picture of their encounter. "It was a very emotional moment to meet her in China. For the first time, my mother could tell me all these things that she had kept a secret from me for over 30 years," he said. She led Lee to an abandoned chapel where she told him about their family's secret. By the age of nine, she was acquainted with her parents' belief in Christ, as well as with the principles of service and sacrificial love during the Japanese occupation of Korea. She discussed how Christ came to the earth and how he laid down his life for everyone. As she spoke to Lee about the Christian faith, she told him that he could also become God's child and for the next three hours, she passionately prayed for him and the people of North Korea. Lee's mother and brother, who had also traveled to China, later returned to North Korea. They had no idea anyone had deceived them when they crossed the river and were confronted by four concealed troops. One of them fired his rifle at Lee's mother, killing her instantly. His brother was hacked with bayonets to death. Lee was on the opposite side of the river when the killings unfolded. He also discovered that his father and other siblings had all been captured and killed. The young man who had been prayed for by his mother was allowed to go to South Korea, finally satisfying his mother's dream by becoming a minister for Jesus. Reasons why Christian parents just can't talk about Christ to their kids According to Open Doors, there are three reasons why North Korean parents have avoided sharing the gospel with their children. Ongoing indoctrination North Koreans are indoctrinated from birth to death and from morning to evening. Propaganda is dumped on them 24 hours a day via television, radio, newspapers, and even loudspeakers. The phrase "Thank you, Father Kim Il-Sung" is one of the first words North Korean parents are mandated to teach their children. They also read about the "Kim family and their wonderful deeds" at school. They're taught to prostrate in front of sculptures and pictures. Through books and animation films, Christians are demonized as wicked agents who abduct, torment, and murder innocent North Korean children before selling their blood and organs. "I was afraid every day for my life in North Korea," Lee Joo-Chan recalls. North Korea, known for its persecution of Christians, has ranked first on Open Doors' World Watch List for 18 straight years. However, children are not often conscious of their surroundings. They will unintentionally sing a song or share a Bible story with their friends. At school, teachers can inquire if the students' parents read from a particular black book. Hence, it is incredibly risky to spread the gospel. They have nobody to tell them Thousands of North Korean children have been homeless after their Christian families were either killed, arrested, or suffered other hardships. It is possible to get to China, but also impossible to return. Many children have lost their family to North Korea's strict policies of loyalty, resulting in generations of trauma and sadness. Seemingly accidental, but divinely ordained The persecution watchdog also shared that North Korean children often learn the gospel by accident. Kim Sang-Hwa, for example, found a Bible hidden in a secret closet. She soon asked her father about it, who told her of his faith but warned her not to tell anyone else. Choi Yong Sook, who grew up in North Korea, was first exposed to Christian beliefs by conversations overheard by her two grandfathers. Her grandparents and father were later arrested for being members of a Christian network. They were able to talk their way out of trouble, but they had struggled greatly in jail. The family was then exiled to a small town. But life was difficult, and Choi had never been taught about God. She only rediscovered the Lord after being imprisoned for attempting to flee North Korea. It happened when she overheard an elderly lady praying. She tried to imitate her by praying for her liberation first to her father, then to her grandfather. She soon realized that the most powerful Being was God, so she pleaded to him for her freedom from jail. She was able to flee to China after being imprisoned for many months. There, she had the opportunity to learn and read the Bible. "Then I realized my grandfather had been right all along. God existed and had answered my prayers," she said. Choi's first visit to a Chinese church was a life-changing moment. She converted to Christianity and now declares, "I am the fruit of my grandfathers' prayers." In the organization's report, it's worth noting that "God works through the generations." Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is under investigation on suspicion he made false statements to a parliamentary commission. Kurz denied the allegations on Wednesday, telling a news conference that the investigation by the Economic and Corruption Prosecutor's Office is centred on statements he gave during a parliamentary probe focused on his coalition partner party's leader. The probe triggered the collapse of Kurz's previous government in 2019. The chancellor suggested the new probe would likely lead to a criminal charge and that he would comply with questioning should the case go before a judge, Austria's APA news agency reported. He said he had no thoughts of resigning. The parliamentary commission had been investigating the so-called Ibiza affair, which led to the downfall of then-vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is under investigation on suspicion he made false statements to a parliamentary commission It came after a video surfaced showing Strache appearing to offer favours to a purported Russian investor in return for her supporting his far-right Freedom Party. It was allegedly recorded on the Spanish island of Ibiza shortly before Austria's 2017 election. Following the government's collapse, new elections were held and Kurz was re-elected, this time forming a coalition with the Greens. The video offered various angles of inquiry, including whether appointments to posts at state-owned companies were made correctly, although Strache says he was drunk and not speaking seriously. Opposition lawmakers in the commission have accused Kurz and his party of not fully cooperating with it. The parliamentary commission had been investigating the so-called Ibiza affair, which led to the downfall of then-vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache. It came after a video surfaced showing Strache (pictured) appearing to offer favours to a purported Russian investor in return for her supporting his far-right Freedom Party 'I knew there was a legal requirement to speak the truth in the commission and therefore of course always answered [questions] truthfully,' Kurz told a news conference on Wednesday announcing that he and his chief of staff had been placed under investigation. Kurz added that the questions were often about what happened several years earlier and an attempt to catch him out. If prosecuted and convicted, he faces up to three years in prison. He said he had only just learned of the anti-corruption investigation and had not yet talked with the prosecutor's office. Kurz and his party have a commanding lead in opinion polls but the investigation is a fresh blow after his closest ally, Finance Minister Gernot Bluemel, was placed under investigation in February on suspicion of bribery involving a gambling company seeking help with foreign taxes. Strache mentioned that gambling company, Novomatic, in the video filmed on the island of Ibiza, but he later said his remarks were false and apologised to the firm. Bluemel, Novomatic and Strache deny wrongdoing. Strache has said he was drunk and not speaking seriously in the video [File photo] The commission has looked into the appointment in 2019 of conservative loyalist Thomas Schmid as the chief executive of OBAG, which manages Austria's stakes in companies including oil firm OMV. Text messages examined by the commission showed Kurz telling Schmid before then he would get 'everything you want'. The Prosecutors' Office for Economic Affairs and Corruption confirmed an investigation was underway into Kurz. 'It is regarding the allegation that a false statement was made before the Ibiza commission of inquiry in connection with the establishment of OBAG,' a spokesman said. Newspaper Der Standard said the investigation is about whether Kurz discussed Schmid's appointment with him beforehand and whether he was involved in selecting members of OBAG's supervisory board, both of which Kurz denied at the commission. Ashlyn Faye Bell, 24, has been sentenced to four years behind bars by an all-female jury in Bowie County on Monday after admitting to having sex with three students A Texas teacher's aide has been jailed after she admitted to having sex with three teenage students after initially claiming she thought it was legal to do so. Ashlyn Faye Bell, 24, was sentenced to four years behind bars by an all-female jury in Bowie County on Monday, despite claiming she thought only teachers were barred from doing so. Bell was employed as a library assistant and teacher's aide at Texas High School in Texarkana between August 2019 and May 2020. The single mom admitted to having sex with three students during that time period. Two of the boys were aged 17, while the other was aged 16. While the age of consent in Texas is 17, it is illegal for an educator to have sex with a student of any age unless they are married to one another. Bell testified that she was not aware that sex with students was was against the law for all school employees - believing that the rule only pertained to actual teachers, The Blaze reports. She additionally claimed that she believed all three of the students were aged 18 at the time of their trysts. Bell, who is a single mom, was working as a teacher's assistant and in the library at Texas High School at the time of the alleged offences Police began investigating Bell last summer after a teacher overheard a group of boys talking about how one of them may have gotten the aide pregnant. A probable cause affidavit claims the students were mocking one of Bell's victims by joking that he was her 'baby daddy'. Bell was not pregnant at the time. A police investigation uncovered that Bell had sex with one of the 17-year-olds at her home in New Boston in November 2019. She allegedly began communicating with the student on SnapChat and picked him up from a truck stop before taking him home with her. The victim claims that Bell put her young child to sleep before luring him into her bedroom while wearing panties and an oversized t-shirt. Meanwhile, the second victim, also aged 17, told police he also had sex with Bell at her home that same autumn. According to The Texakarna Gazette, he allegedly visited her home on multiple occasions as she was 'tutoring' him. The teen testified that they had sex during one of those sessions. Meanwhile, a third boy, aged 16, says he had sex with Bell in November 2019, and that she picked him up from his house with her child in the backseat. Bell will be eligible for parole in 2023. She will be required to register as a sex offender following her release from jail. Dementia victims and their families have paid a staggering 14billion for social care since Boris Johnson vowed to 'fix' the broken system. The promise of 'once and for all' reform came on his first day in Downing Street in July 2019. But 22 months later nothing has materialised and the issue was again kicked into the long grass in the Queen's Speech on Tuesday. Figures published today show that the 'catastrophic' 14billion paid out by families eclipses the 9billion contributed by the state since the Prime Minister made his pledge. Sky-high bills for care homes, which can reach 6,000 a month, mean many will have lost most of their savings, making them unable to pass on the family home to their children. Figures published today show that the 'catastrophic' 14billion paid out by families for dementia social care eclipses the 9billion contributed by the state since July 2019 [File photo] Fiona Carragher of the Alzheimer's Society, which researched the figures, said: 'It's nearly two years since our Prime Minister promised to fix our broken social care system. 'People with dementia and their families are still forced to spend catastrophic sums which all too often still fail to provide people with the quality of care they need. 'The Queen's Speech was an obvious opportunity missed for the Government to give a clear plan on how they will help tens of thousands of families struggling daily without the support they need.' She added: 'Throughout the pandemic, family members had to pick up the slack when the care system has faltered and failed.' Last night the Commons health and social care committee announced an inquiry into the 'catastrophic care costs' faced by dementia patients. Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative former health secretary who chairs the committee, said: 'Every day new evidence is emerging of the crisis in our care system. 'More delay to reform could be critical for a system already on its knees. Ministers must now bite the bullet and produce their long-promised plan.' Under England's current rules, pensioners must fund the full bill for their care down to their last 23,250. Only then will councils step in to help pay. The Alzheimer's Society says families contribute 60 per cent of the cost of professional social care, with local authorities providing the rest. It says families affected by dementia have paid out 32billion since Theresa May first promised a green paper on fixing the crisis in March 2017. On his first day in Downing Street in July 2019, Boris Johnson vowed to 'fix' the broken system with a 'once and for all' reform [File photo] Since Mr Johnson replaced her the collective outlay has been 14billion around 21million a day. On his first day in office he said: 'My job is to protect you or your parents or grandparents from the fear of having to sell your home to pay for the costs of care. 'And so I am announcing now on the steps of Downing Street that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all with a clear plan we have prepared.' Nothing has been forthcoming aside from a promise that plans will brought forward by Christmas. And, despite weeks of talks, No 10 and the Treasury have been unable to agree on how to fund a shake-up. A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: 'We have pledged to fix the social care crisis to give everyone who needs care the dignity and security they deserve and are committed to bringing forward a long-term plan to reform the social care system later this year.' No, the Covid-19 vaccines do not contain microchips that allows large businesses to control humanity through 5G networks. Nor do they alter your DNA or cause cancers and infertility. But according to a new study by Australian academics, far too many people are buying into such unfounded theories and being dissuaded from receiving a jab - with most of the rumours starting in America. Since the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020, AAP FactCheck has scrutinised almost 250 claims about the coronavirus. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and NSW Minister for Health Brad Hazzard tour the Olympic Park Vaccination Centre on May 10 Theories have been posted by everyone from ordinary Australians to a sitting member of parliament and one of the country's most famous - and now infamous - TV chefs. The AAP FactCheck team has debunked claims the government and media are using false positive Covid-19 tests as a reason to impose lockdowns, that the vaccine modifies a person's genes, and that the virus can be cured by a lemon and bicarb hot tea. Similarly the new University of NSW study, published on Thursday, found viral misinformation was spreading at an alarming rate on social media and other online outlets. The UNSW team reviewed more than 600 pieces of misinformation written in 24 different languages and originating from more than 50 countries, which collectively were shared, liked, re-tweeted or reacted to by in excess of 100 million people. The UNSW team reviewed more than 600 pieces of misinformation written in 24 different languages and originating from more than 50 countries Inspired by their previous study, which linked general coronavirus misinformation to deaths abroad, the team embarked on a mission to look at what impact misinformation about the vaccine may be having. While their original study did not establish a link to any Australian deaths, the researchers fear that viral vaccine misinformation is having a tangible effect in the country. 'We picked up 17 different rumours coming out of Australia,' the paper's senior author Associate Professor Holly Seale told AAP. 'Some of them were centred around falsely suggesting that large numbers of people will die or be injured by receiving a vaccine - that piece of 'news' was actually circulated more than 48,000 times on Instagram - or suggestions that the Western Australian government would forcibly test and vaccinate children at school.' The roots of most of the claims could be traced back to the United States, but Australians were also contributing their own material to the rumour mill, she said. 'It is being circulated in and coming from Australia,' she said. The roots of most of the claims could be traced back to the United States, but Australians were also contributing their own material to the rumour mill, she said Citing a recent survey that found almost one in four Australian adults were hesitant or unwilling to receive a Covid vaccine, Prof Seale said her study's findings demonstrated the urgent need for research on the best ways to 'inoculate' against misinformation. 'If the debunking is done by the government, is that believable? 'Does it actually have an influence on people's decision, or is it better to receive the factual messages from someone that you trust - maybe that's from a health professional or maybe a community leader,' she said. On an individual level, Prof Seale said people need to learn how to think critically about what they read. 'Is it from a legitimate source? Do you trust the person? What is their agenda? 'The whole thing comes down to 'stop, think and check' before you pass on information,' she said. Returned travellers on a South Australian hotel quarantine floor where Covid-19 leaked have been ordered into another two weeks of isolation. Genomic sequencing testing has confirmed a Melbourne man became infected while staying at Adelaide's Playford Hotel. He tested positive on Tuesday after returning from India via the Maldives and Singapore on April 19 and completing 14 days of hotel quarantine. The man, from Wollert in Melbourne's outer north, was staying in a room next to another person who tested positive for the virus before being moved to a medi-hotel. In a statement late on Wednesday, SA Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier (pictured) confirmed the two cases had been genomically linked In a statement late on Wednesday, SA Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier confirmed the two cases had been genomically linked. 'Investigations into the precise cause of transmission are ongoing,' she said. Prof Spurrier said discharged returned travellers on level three of the Playford Hotel during the 'period of concern' must now isolate for a further two weeks. The group includes 10 South Australians who will be given the option to quarantine at home if deemed suitable. Prof Spurrier stressed most medi-hotel staff working at the time of the suspected leak had undergone daily testing, although five still need to be followed up. SA authorities earlier barred travellers from entering the state if they had visited any of Victoria's high-risk exposure sites, with few exceptions. It came as Victorian health colleagues scrambled to track down hundreds of fans who went to last Friday's AFL match on the same train as the infected Wollert man. The Wollert man dined at the CBD restaurant Curry Vault on Friday, but others failed to use the QR system, which is to become mandatory for venues later this month There are fears hordes may have been exposed to the virus on the Craigieburn line train while travelling to or from the Geelong-Richmond match at the MCG. The AFL has sent text message alerts to all 54,857 spectators. Victoria's Health Minister Martin Foley warned people will soon face tough penalties if they fail to check in with QR codes at venues, after some patrons at a new exposure site failed to use the system. The Wollert man dined at the CBD restaurant Curry Vault on Friday, but others failed to use the QR system, which is to become mandatory for venues later this month. No other new cases were recorded in Victoria on Wednesday from more than 21,000 tests, extending the state's streak without a locally acquired infection to 75 days. Advertisement Israel on Thursday pressed ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing as many as 11 senior Hamas military figures and toppling a pair of high-rise towers housing Hamas facilities in a series of airstrikes. But the Islamic militant group showed no signs of backing down and fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities, including heavily populated Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Palestinian militants have stockpiled enough missiles to continue bombing Israel for the next two months, security experts have warned, as escalating fighting led the UN to warn of 'all-out war'. Meanwhile, street clashes continued on Israel's streets across the country, with Jewish and Arab citizens both attacking one-another in numerous incidents, leading to over 370 arrests across the country. In one assault, an Arab man was dragged from his car and beaten by Jewish ultranationalists, while in another a Jewish citizen was attacked by sticks and stones by Arab Israeli protesters. At least 67 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Seven people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said. One of the Israelis - a five-year-old boy named Ido Avigal - was killed by shrapnel on Wednesday night in the Gaza border town of Sderot when rockets struck the building he was living in with his mother. Britain's Boris Johnson led international leaders in calling for the two sides to step back from the brink yesterday, but a UN Security Council meeting failed to agree on a on a joint statement due to opposition from the United States, Israel's key ally, diplomats said. Pleas for calm appeared in vain as Israeli and Palestinian leaders traded blood-curdling threats and further rocket strikes, with a rocket setting off alarms in the north of Israel in the early hours of Thursday morning - some 62 miles North of Gaza - sending thousands of Israelis to shelters. And after a senior Hamas commander was killed yesterday, the Islamist militant group responded with a barrage of rockets into southern Israel which rescue workers said killed a six-year-old boy. Israel's defence minister Benny Gantz vowed more attacks on Gaza to bring 'total, long-term quiet' before they would consider truce talks after six days of violence. Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his military would only use 'increasing force' in the conflict. 'We eliminated senior Hamas commanders and this is just the beginning,' he said. 'We will inflict blows on them that they couldn't even dream of.' The leader of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh hit back, vowing that 'if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it'. Six high-ranking commanders and a further five key Hamas figures were 'neutralised' on Wednesday, including Brigadier General Bassem Issa and Jamal Zabda, head of the group's rocket unit, according to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). Pictured: Smoke and flames rise after Israeli fighter jets conducted airstrikes over Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip, on May 13, 2021 as Israel pressed ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing as many as 11 senior Hamas military figures Six high-ranking commanders and a further five key Hamas figures were 'neutralised' on Wednesday, including Brigadier General Bassem Issa and Jamal Zabda, head of the group's rocket unit, according to the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) Pictured: Israeli boy, five, killed by Hamas rocket shrapnel A five-year-old boy killed in Israel by rocket fire from Gaza has been pictured, after he became one of the country's seven victims of the latest cross-border conflict. Ido Avigal was fatally stuck by shrapnel after the building he was in with his mother was hit by a missile on Wednesday night. In the building, found in the town of Sderot on the border with Gaza, seven people were hurt when it suffered a direct hit from a rocket. Ido Avigal, who was killed in his home in Sderot by a rocket fired from Gaza on May 12, 2021. Avigal was pronounced dead several hours later, becoming the seventh Israeli victim of the cross border conflict that started earlier this week The boy's mother grabbed him and took him into a fortified room when the in-coming rocket sirens sounded, according to local Hebrew media reports cited by the Times of Israel. However, in a rare tragedy, shrapnel from the rocket punctured the shelter's window, critically wounding the boy and also injuring his mother. Avigal was pronounced dead several hours later, becoming the seventh Israeli victim of the cross border conflict that started earlier this week. So far, Israel has seen five Israeli citizens killed, one Indian national and an Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldier in the latest violence in the region. As of Wednesday night, at least 67 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, including 16 children. Israel says most of the dead were terrorists and insists the children killed were victims of stray Palestinian rockets. Advertisement Yesterday Mr Johnson tweeted a plea for both sides to 'step back from the brink' and 'show restraint'. He added: 'The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions.' His calls were backed up by similar messages from the EU, the US, Russia and Turkey. The UN's Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland warned the latest violence was 'escalating towards a full-scale war'. And UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he was 'gravely concerned' by the ongoing troubles. Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired more than 1,000 missiles in the first 48 hours of the conflict which began on Monday, an average of one every three minutes, and has enough to keep the bombardment going for two months. Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Jonathan Conricus said: 'According to our estimates we're talking about between 20,000 and 30,000 rockets in Gaza today, rockets and mortars. 'We've seen a constant expansion in terms of range and also in terms of the size of the warheads. They have an advanced arsenal of rockets, I think it's on a par with the fire capabilities of a few small European countries.' While Israel's Iron Dome aerial defence system has intercepted nine out of ten Palestinian rockets, the remainder have killed at least six civilians and injured more than 90. Families in Tel Aviv spent most of yesterday taking cover in underground shelters. Israel's retaliation has included hundreds of air strikes on Gaza, led by F-35 stealth bombers and Apache attack helicopters, which are understood to have killed 32 and wounded more than 300. Israel says most of the dead were terrorists and insists the children killed were victims of stray Palestinian rockets. The UN security council met yesterday to discuss the crisis. The heaviest offensive between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in the Hamas-ruled enclave has increased international concern that the situation could spiral out of control. 'Israel has gone crazy,' said a man on a Gaza street, where people ran out of their homes as explosions rocked buildings. Israel's army on Thursday said it had received a rocket warning in the north of the country, the first time the alert has been given there since hostilities soared between Israel and Palestinians earlier this week. The approximately 1,500 rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas militants since Monday had so far set off warnings in southern and central Israel, but not in the north, the army said. However in the small hours of Thursday morning, alarms not only sounded in the economic capital Tel Aviv in the middle of the country - where residents rushed to shelters - but also in Jezreel Valley in the north. There was no immediate word of a rocket strike or casualties in Nahalal, some 100 km (62 miles) from Gaza. A fire rages at sunrise in Khan Yunish following an Israeli airstrike on targets in the southern Gaza strip, early on May 12, 2021. - Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip have hit the homes of high-ranking members of the Hamas militant group, the military said Wednesday, with the territory's police headquarters also targeted Israeli artillery in action as the escalation continues between Israeli army and Hamas at the Gaza Border, Israel, 12 May 2021. At least 70 people have been killed in the conflict, including around 16 children Pictured: Palestinians leave their neighbourhood to head to a safer location as Israeli warplanes continue air strikes on Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Gaza on May 12 Since hostilities escalated on Monday evening, Hamas has fired around 1,500 rockets from Gaza into Israeli territory, according to the latest estimate by Israel's army. The launch of around 350 rockets had failed, while hundreds more were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system, the army said. Seven people in Israel have been killed by the onslaught, including a six-year-old and a soldier. Unrest has been growing in Israel and Gaza in recent weeks following violent confrontations between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem and a long-running dispute over the eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem in favour of Jewish settlers. The UN Security Council held another emergency meeting on Wednesday on worsening hostilities, again without agreeing on a joint statement due to opposition from the United States, Israel's key ally, diplomats said. According to several sources, 14 of the 15 members of the Council were in favor of adopting a joint declaration aimed at reducing tension. Rockets are launched from Gaza City, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, towards Israel on Wednesday night Men look at rubble in Gaza City on Wednesday as smoke spews from a fresh bombardment by the Israelis Palestinians gather to survey the damage to a wrecked block of apartments on Thursday in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip The ruins of buildings which were destroyed in Israeli air strikes amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday People gather to look at the damage to an apartment building in the northern Gaza Strip following air strikes on Thursday However, the United States saw the Security Council meeting as a sufficient show of concern, diplomats told AFP on condition of anonymity, and did not think a statement would 'help de-escalate' the situation. 'The United States has been actively engaged in diplomacy behind the scenes with all parties, and across the region, to seek to de-escalate the situation. At this stage, a Council statement would be counterproductive,' said one source familiar with discussions, also speaking anonymously. A new meeting - this time public - could be held within days, however. Netanyahu vows to 'inflict blows that Hamas has not dreamed of' before Israeli air strike levels 14-storey building and Hamas retaliates with 130 rockets Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday threatened to 'inflict blows that Hamas has not dreamed of' before Israeli rockets levelled a 14-storey tower bloc, prompting Hamas to retaliate with 130 rockets of its own, as the deadly fighting in the middle east continued on Wednesday. Israeli fighter jets dropped two bombs on the 14-storey Al-Sharouk tower, which housed the bureau of the Al-Aqsa television channel, and is the third tall structure in Gaza City levelled since the bombing campaign began Monday. The Israeli Prime Minister issued the threat as he visited a hospital in the city of Holon today, paying tribute to those wounded in fighting between the two sides that is now at its worst point since the 2014 Gaza War. Referencing the deaths of Hamas commanders earlier in the day - including Brigadier General Bassem Issa and Jamal Zabda, head of the group's rocket unit - Netanyahu vowed: 'This is only the beginning.' Another multi-storey building was destroyed in Gaza on Wednesday evening by an Israeli air strike, prompting Hamas to retaliate with 130 rockets of its own, as the deadly fighting in the middle east continued on Wednesday. Pictured: Smoke rises from Al-Sharouk tower hit by an Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City on May 12, 2021 Heavy smoke and fire rise from Al-Sharouk tower as it collapses after being hit by an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City on May 12, 2021. An Israeli air strike destroyed a multi-storey building in Gaza City today Pictured: Rescuers and people gather in front of the debris of Al-Sharouk tower that collapsed after being hit by an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City, on May 12, 2021 Israel diverts flight from Ben Gurion to southern airport after US airlines suspend flights to country Israel diverted an incoming flight from Ben Gurion Airport on Thursday to a southern airport designed to serve as a wartime alternative to its main international gateway outside Tel Aviv, aviation tracker Avi Scharf said on Twitter. The El Al Israel Airlines flight 332 was en route to land at Ramon Airport near Eilat, said Scharf, an editor with Israel's Haaretz newspaper said. Online data suggested the flight had come from Brussels. It came after United States airlines - American Airlines, United Airlines and Delta Air Lines - suspended flights to Israel through Thursday amid rising violence in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza, and Palestinian militants in Gaza fired rockets at targets in Israel, including the main airport in Tel Aviv. American Airlines cancelled its daily flight from New York to Tel Aviv on Wednesday and Thursday and offered to put passengers on flights at later dates, according to an airline spokesman. United cancelled flights from Chicago, Newark and San Francisco, and Delta cancelled flights from New York to Tel Aviv. Company representatives said the airlines were monitoring the situation for when they might resume the flights. Advertisement His comments came despite international calls for urgent deescalation and as Israel braces for more missile strikes overnight to avenge the deaths of its commanders. In just two days of fighting, Hamas has fired more than 1,000 rockets at Israel, while the Jewish state has carried out counter-strikes against what it called military targets. But the civilian death toll is quickly mounting, with at least with at least 67 Palestinians including 16 children and three women killed as of Wednesday evening, alongside seven Israelis including one child and one soldier. Israeli police announced Wednesday that they are imposing a nighttime curfew on the central city of Lod, that was the scene of unrest in recent days Police said in a statement that officers would enforce the ban on people entering Lod, residents leaving their homes, and people in public spaces starting at 8 p.m. Lod has seen two nights of violent protests, including the torching of dozens of vehicles, a synagogue, and violent clashes between Arab protesters and police. Israeli authorities declared a state of emergency in the city and deployed Border Police forces. Hamas has confirmed that Bassem Issa, commander of its Gaza City Brigade, was among those 'martyred' today. Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, named another three slain Hamas officers: Jamaa Tahla, responsible for the improved accuracy of the group's rockets; Jamal Zabeda, chief of 'special projects' in the munitions department; and Hazzem Hatib, head engineer in the munitions wing. The militants have launched more than 1,050 rockets at Israel since Monday, killing six civilians, including an Arab-Israeli girl in the city of Lod in the early hours of this morning. 'The army will continue to attack to bring a total, long-term quiet. Only when we reach that goal will we be able to speak about a truce,' Defence Minister Benny Gantz said today from the southern town of Ashkelon where two Israeli women were killed by Hamas rockets on Tuesday. Along the Gaza border, an Israeli soldier was also killed by an anti-tank missile, the military said. Rockets are launched towards Israel from Rafah, in the southern the Gaza Strip, controlled by the Palestinian Hamas movement, on May 12, 2021 An Israeli artillery unit fires toward targets in Gaza Strip, at the Israeli Gaza border, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, as the IDF ramps up its operation against Hamas Smoke and fire rise above buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, during an Israeli air strike, on May 12, 2021 Israeli ultranationalists attack Arab driver in Tel Aviv suburb and Jewish citizen is attacked as clashes on the streets continue on Wednesday, leading to over 370 arrests As rockets from Gaza streaked overhead, Arabs and Jews fought each other on the streets below and rioters torched vehicles, a restaurant and a synagogue in one of the worst spasms of communal violence Israel has seen in years. The violence lead to over 370 arrest, police said. The mayor of the mixed town of Lod, which saw the worst of the violence Tuesday, compared it to a civil war or a Palestinian uprising. Arab experts and activists say the violence was fueled by unrest in Jerusalem that has brought Israel to the brink of another Gaza war, but is rooted in deeper grievances that go back to the founding of the state. Violence flared again Wednesday night with a wave of apparent revenge attacks. In Bat Yam, a Tel Aviv suburb, a large crowd of ultranationalist Israelis pulled a man from a car who they thought was Arab and beat him until he lay on the ground motionless and bloodied. A hospital said he's in serious condition without identifying him. Earlier, a group of black-clad Israelis smashed the windows of an Arab-owned ice cream shop in Bat Yam and ultranationalists could be seen chanting, 'Death to Arabs!' on live television during a standoff with Border Police. In the northern city of Tiberias, video uploaded to social media appeared to show flag-waving Israelis attacking a car. Israel's Channel 13 quoted a senior police officer as saying Arabs are suspected of attacking and seriously wounding a Jewish man in the coastal city of Acre amid new clashes there. Pictured: A video grab from footage released by Kan 11 Public broadcaster on May 12, 2021, shows a far-right Israeli mob attacking who they considered an Arab man, on the seafront promenade of Bat Yam This video grab obtained from a footage released by Kan 11 Public broadcaster on May 12, 2021, shows a far-right Israeli mob attacking who they considered an Arab man, on the seafront promenade of Bat Yam In a late night television interview, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, whose figurehead office is meant to serve as the nation's moral compass, said the country was gripped by civil war and urged citizens to 'stop this madness.' Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on both Jews and Arabs to cease attacks on each other: 'It doesn't matter to me that your blood is boiling. You can't take the law in your hands,' he said. Police said they arrested nearly 400 people allegedly 'involved in riots and disturbances' across the country Wednesday. The violence comes at a time when Israel's Arab minority appeared to be gaining new acceptance and influence. Mansour Abbas, the head of an Arab party with Islamist roots, emerged as a kingmaker of sorts after March elections and was poised to play a key role in a coalition that would oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing allies. But in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday, Abbas indicated that coalition talks would be put on hold because of the escalating violence. 'If there is a cease-fire, we will return to the political track to form a government,' he said. In recent days, Arab citizens of Israel have held mass protests across the country over Israel's policing of a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem and plans to evict dozens of Palestinian families in the city following a legal campaign by Jewish settlers. Adding to the tensions are increasingly powerful far-right groups in Israel that won seats in March elections and are allied with Netanyahu. In recent days, far-right politicians have visited the tense east Jerusalem neighborhood where the families are threatened with eviction and staged marches elsewhere in the bitterly contested city. After police broke up a protest Monday night in Lod, a young Arab resident was shot and killed. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was with a group of rioters threatening Jewish homes, and that Jewish residents opened fire in a 'life-threatening situation.' He said three people have been detained for questioning and police are investigating. Arab residents of Lod disputed the account, pointing out that the slain man was unarmed. Pictured: Palestinians gather during confrontations with the Israeli security forces in the city centre of the West Bank town of Hebron, on May 12,2021 His funeral the next day drew thousands of people and a heavy police presence. Clashes broke out between the two sides, leading to riots in which several vehicles and a synagogue were set ablaze. A 56-year-old Jewish man was severely wounded after Arabs pelted his car with rocks, according to the Magen David Adom emergency service. The violence soon spread to other mixed communities across Israel. In neighboring Ramle, ultra-nationalist Jewish demonstrators vandalized Arab cars. In Acre, protesters torched Uri Buri, a famous Jewish-owned seafood restaurant. Magen David Adom said 46 people were wounded in the riots. Rosenfeld said there were several different instances of Arabs attacking Jews, and that 12 police officers were wounded. He said 270 suspects were arrested at 40 locations across the country where vehicles were set on fire and public property was damaged. 'The Arabs don't want us here, but we're going to stay,' said Avraham Sagron, a Jewish resident of Lod, as he surveyed the charred entrance of the synagogue, the interior of which appeared largely untouched. Netanyahu visited Lod and Acre, where he pledged to 'stop the anarchy' and restore order 'with an iron fist if needed.' He called on Arab and other community leaders to condemn the violence and act to stop it. Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces in the city centre of the West Bank town of Hebron, on May 12,2021 Authorities deployed hundreds of police reinforcements to Lod and other areas, including paramilitary border police who usually operate in the occupied West Bank. They also ordered a nighttime curfew in Lod. Arabs say the violence of the past two days was not directed at Jews, but at religious nationalists with close ties to the settlement movement who have moved into mixed areas in recent years, pushing Arab residents out. Israel's Arab minority makes up about 20% of the population and are the descendants of Palestinians who stayed in the country after the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation, when an estimated 700,000 fled or were driven from their homes in towns like Lod. They have citizenship, including the right to vote, but face widespread discrimination. Arab citizens speak Hebrew and are well-represented in Israel's medical profession and universities, but they largely identify with the Palestinian cause, leading many Israelis to view them with suspicion. Lod's Arabs, who make up about a third of the city's population, are among the poorest communities in Israel. 'We're talking about young people who have no horizon, no dreams, who are unemployed and live in a very difficult reality,' said Dr. Nasreen Haddad Haj-Yahya, the director of the Arab-Jewish relations program at the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent think tank. Authorities deployed hundreds of police reinforcements to Lod and other areas, including paramilitary border police who usually operate in the occupied West Bank. They also ordered a nighttime curfew in Lod She said the anger of the last two days was not directed at Lod's longtime Jewish community but at more ideological recent arrivals. 'It's not because of who they are. It's because they are trying to Judaize Lod. They are trying to drive out the indigenous Arab residents,' she said. 'The young people see it as a threat to their presence in the land, to their existence.' Thabet Abu Rass, the co-director of the Abraham Initiatives, which promotes Jewish-Arab coexistence, said the six Arab members of Lod's municipal council have been sidelined and the city's budget heavily favors Jews. He accused Mayor Yair Revivo of inciting against Arabs. Revivo, a member of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, has courted controversy by complaining about the volume of the Muslim call to prayer in Lod and for remarks that appeared to cast its Arab residents as a national security threat. 'He should be a mayor for everybody,' said Abu Rass, who lives near Lod and has an office there. 'He's not giving equal services for all residents.' The mayor's spokesman said he was not available for comment. Earlier, Revivo had urged Arab residents to end the violence, saying: 'The day after, we will still have to live here together.' Israeli officials often hold up the Arab minority as proof of their commitment to tolerance, frequently pointing out that Arab citizens enjoy civic rights and freedoms that many Arab states deny their own people. Ghassan Munayyer, a Lod-based activist, says the veneer of coexistence conceals deeper disparities, including in housing and infrastructure, comparing its Arab neighborhoods to 'refugee camps.' 'The Jews love saying there's coexistence. They go out to eat in an Arab restaurant and they call it coexistence,' he said. 'But they don't see Arabs as equal human beings who have rights that they have to respect.' Britain, the United States and Russia among international voices calling for de-escalation in Israel-Gaza conflict Calls for deescalation of the conflict have come from senior politicians around the world, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Russia. Washington announced that it planned to send an envoy, Hady Amr, for talks with Israel and Palestinians. 'My expectation and hope is this will be closing down sooner than later, but Israel has a right to defend itself,' Biden said on Wednesday after speaking to Netanyahu. Biden did not explain the reasons behind his optimism. Netanyahu's office said he told the U.S. president that Israel would 'continue acting to strike at the military capabilities of Hamas and the other terrorist groups active in the Gaza Strip'. Biden's British counterpart Boris Johnson Boris condemned the spiralling conflict, saying he was 'urging Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint' on Wednesday morning. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for an urgent meeting of the Middle East Quartet in order to halt violence between Israel and the Palestinians. Pictured: Rockets fired from Gaza fly towards Israel, as seen from Gaza City, 12 May 2021 Ms Psaki said that the Biden administration has 'had more than 25, high level calls and meetings by senior US officials with senior officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and their partners and other stakeholders. 'A lot of it is happening, privately through diplomatic channels, it's happening with officials in the region we're in regular dialogue, multiple times per day as I noted with the Egyptian and Qatari officials, who have significant influence over Hamas - and our objective here is descalation as we look to protecting the people to reach out.' Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has called Netanyahu to reaffirm America's support for Israel's right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks. The country's State Department said he also repeated U.S. calls for a de-escalation of violence and the Biden administration's belief that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in safety and security. Blinken announced earlier he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to make similar appeals in person to Israeli and Palestinian officials. He also said that Israel had an 'extra burden' to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to the attacks. According to the State Department, Blinken also told Netanyahu that as he and President Joe Biden have said in the past, the administration believes Israelis and Palestinians should 'enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy.' He also 'emphasised the need for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in safety and security, as well as enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy,' in an apparent effort for the Biden administration to demonstrate that it cares about Palestinian rights, according to Politico. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he wants to see an 'urgent de-escalation of tensions' between Israel and Hamas amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Black smoke billows after a series of Israeli airstrikes targeted Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza strip early on Wednesday. According to military experts, the plumes of smoke seen rising suggest the Israelis are deploying bunker buster bombs, targeting underground infrastructure Smoke rises during an Israeli air strike on suspected Hamas targets in Gaza City on Wednesday Johnson tweeted on Wednesday that the United Kingdom is 'deeply concerned' and urged leaders to 'step back from the brink.' He was one of many leaders around the world offering up advice after longtime tensions in contested Jerusalem erupted into rocket-fire from the Gaza Strip and an intense response from Israel. British Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly told Parliament that Britain 'unequivocally condemns the firing of rockets at Jerusalem and other locations in Israel.' He called Hamas' conduct 'terrorism' and called on militants to 'end their incitement and rocket fire against Israel.' Cleverly said Israel has a 'legitimate right to self-defense,' but added that in doing so, 'it is vital that all actions are proportionate, in line with international humanitarian law and make every effort to avoid civilian casualties.' Also on Wednesday, speaking alongside United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Russia's Lavrov said: 'Today we've come to the common opinion that the most pressing task is to convene the Quartet of international mediators - Russia, the United States, the UN and the EU.' Hamas militants and their allies have fired more than 1,000 missiles at Israel, though many have been shot down by the Iron Dome defence system, while others have landed inside Gaza. The Israeli towns of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Yehud have been struck, as well as the most populous city, Tel Aviv. In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Air Force has targeted suspected Hamas strongholds in Gaza City as well as the southern settlements Rafah and Khan Yunis Terrifying footage shows Hamas rocket blow up a bus, yards from civilians Terrifying video footage has emerged of a rocket launched by Hamas militants blowing up a bus in Israel as civilians watched on in horror. Video shows the city bus erupting in flames, with black smoke billowing from the burning vehicle, in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, last night. In other videos, dozens of Israel's Iron Dome defence system's missiles can be seen lighting up the night sky yesterday as they shot down a bombardment of rockets fired by Hamas militants. Residents of Tel Aviv, Israel's most populous city, hid in their houses and under shelters as scores of rockets were seen flying overhead before they were struck down by Israeli missiles. Video shows the city bus erupting in flames, with black smoke billowing from the burning vehicle, in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, last night Advertisement Just after daybreak, the Israeli Air Force unleashed dozens of strikes within the course of a few minutes with what appeared to be bunker buster bombs targeting underground Hamas infrastructure. The Israeli Defence Forces later dispatched two infantry brigades to the area of a downed militant drone, indicating preparations for a possible ground invasion. Boris Johnson condemned the spiralling conflict this morning hours after his former counterpart Donald Trump blamed 'weak' Joe Biden for allowing things to escalate. 'I am urging Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint,' the Prime Minister said. 'The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties.' Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab spoke to the Israeli foreign minister on Tuesday and will speak to the Palestinian prime minister on Wednesday, MPs were told in Westminster. Despite international condemnation for the bloodshed, the worst since the 2014 war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected calls for ceasefire, vowing last night to 'step up' attacks. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said in turn that 'if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it'. The tensions began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Muslim neighbourhoods ignited protests and clashes with police. On Monday, a riot on Temple Mount left hundreds of Palestinians wounded before Hamas started launching rockets. The International Criminal Court at the Hague announced this morning it was looking at possible 'crimes' committed as the ferocious cross-border engagement entered its third day. 'I note with great concern the escalation of violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in and around Gaza, and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute (which founded the ICC)', Fatou Bensouda tweeted. More than a hundred Hamas rockets were launched at Israel's most populous city, Tel Aviv, last night after a tower block in Gaza suspected of being a Hamas headquarters was destroyed by an Israeli air strike. Palestinian women check the damage inside their apartment on Wednesday morning after it was bombed by the Israelis Smoke billows from an Israeli bombardment at sunrise on Khan Yunish in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday A Palestinian father carries his children away from their home to head to a safer neighbourhood after a bombardment warning on Wednesday Palestinians assess the damage caused by an Israeli air strike in the town of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 12, 2021. Heavy exchanges of rocket fire and air strikes, and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns, fuelled fears today that deadly violence between Israel and Palestinians could spiral into 'full-scale war' A Palestinian man takes pictures of the aftermath of a bombardment on Wednesday morning as a mound of dirt lies in the street beside mangled cars in Gaza City Smoke billows from an Israeli air strike on a tower block in Gaza as it collapses. The destruction of apartment apartment towers was among several tactics used during the 2014 war that are now the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes. Israel is not a member of the court and has rejected the probe. Israelis sing to keep their spirits up in a Tel Aviv bomb shelter Footage has emerged of Israelis singing in a bomb shelter as fighting between the Jewish state and Hamas intensified today amid warnings of all-out war. The video was taken in Tel Aviv overnight as the city was targeted by a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza. It shows a large group of people standing in what appears to be a basement car park being led in song by Shuli Rand, a well-known Jewish actor and musician. The song is called Between Holiness and Secularity, and the lyrics that appear in the video translate as: 'Please save me and please keep me from harm.' What's happening now in the Holy Land... A bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. Posted by Shifra Chana Hendrie on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 Footage has emerged of Israelis in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv overnight singing as the city was targeted by 201 Hamas rockets Tel Aviv found itself targeted overnight by rockets as Hamas said 210 rockets had been fired at the city, which is Israel's most-populous. The strike was in retaliation for a multi-storey block of apartments that was blown up in Gaza, Hamas said. At least 67 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said. Advertisement The IDF have assassinated several top militant commanders, including Hassan Kaogi, head of the Hamas intelligence department, in their airstrikes. In a statement, the army said it carried out a 'complex and first-of-its-kind operation.' Those targeted, it said, were 'a key part of the Hamas 'General Staff'' and considered close to the head of the group's military wing. Hamas later confirmed they had lost several of their top brass, including its military chief in Gaza City, Bassem Issa. The Israelis accuse the Palestinian fighters of using their own people as human shields, but the civilian casualties in the Gaza Strip have only hardened the position of the extremists who have launched hundreds more missiles. In Israel's central city of Lod, a girl and her father were killed in the early hours of Wednesday by rocket fire from Gaza. Israel's foreign ministry identified the girl as 16-year-old Nadin Awad, an Arab Israeli. Her cousin, Ahmad Ismail, told public broadcaster Kan that he was near Nadin when she was killed alongside her father Khalil Awad, 52. 'I was at home, we heard the noise of the rocket. It happened so quickly. Even if we had wanted to run somewhere, we don't have a safe room,' Ismail told Kan. Lod also saw riots after thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man killed by a suspected Jewish gunman the previous night. The crowd fought with police, and set a synagogue and some 30 vehicles, including a police car, on fire, Israeli media reported. Paramedics said a 56-year-old man was seriously hurt after his car was pelted with stones. The Israeli President Reuven Rivlin described it as a 'pogrom' carried out by a 'bloodthirsty Arab mob,' after Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab city. 'The sight of the pogrom in Lod and the disturbances across the country by an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob, injuring people, damaging property and even attacking sacred Jewish spaces is unforgivable,' Rivlin said. Yair Revivo, mayor of the city, last night called for army back-up to help secure the area, saying 'civil war' was breaking out. 'This is Kristallnacht in Lod,' said Revivo, in reference to the Nazi pogrom against German Jews in 1938. 'I have called on the prime minister to declare a state of emergency in Lod. To call in the IDF. To impose a curfew. To restore quiet. There is a failure of governance. 'This is a giant incident - an Intifada of Arab Israelis. All the work we have done here for years [on coexistence] has gone down the drain.' Netanhayu made a pre-dawn tour of the city to declare a state of emergency. 'We will not tolerate this; we need to restore calm,' Netanyahu said in Lod. 'If this isn't an emergency situation, I don't know what is. We are talking about life and death here.' A thick black column of smoke and red flames rise into the sky over Gaza on Wednesday during Israeli bombardments A Palestnian family flee their home on Wednesday to head to a safety from Israeli airstrikes as rubble fills the street A fire rages at sunrise in Khan Yunish in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning as Israel's bombardment of Hamas targets continues Israeli artillery in action as the escalation continues between Israeli army and Hamas at the Gaza border A colossal crater blown into a Gaza street is seen on Wednesday beside wrecked shops and homes in nearby tower blocks An overturned car lies in the street filled with debris after a tower block was levelled in Gaza by Israeli warplanes last night Smoke billows over Gaza on Wednesday as the Israeli bombardments continued throughout the night and into dawn A Palestinian boy walks past rubble on a street in Gaza City on Wednesday after bombardments by the Israeli Air Force throughout the night Display mannequins from a damaged clothing shop are scattered amid the debris outside the heavily-damaged Al-Jawhara Tower in Gaza on Wednesday morning Cars are wrecked by rubble after buildings collapsed last night in Gaza during the Israeli barrages An Israeli security officer comforts a man in the town of Holon near Tel Aviv during rocket attacks by militants in Gaza on Tuesday night Two Palestinian women survey the damage to their bombed out flat in Gaza City on Wednesday morning Footage released by the IDF shows precision airstrikes on densely populated Gaza IDF announced they had killed at least four Hamas commanders on Wednesday. They included Gaza City Brigade chief Bassem Issa; Jamaa Tahla, responsible for the improved accuracy of the group's rockets; Jamal Zabeda, chief of 'special projects' in the munitions department; and Hazzem Hatib, head engineer in the munitions wing. TRUMP: 'WEAK' BIDEN TO BLAME FOR CONFLICT Former US President Donald Trump blamed his successor Joe Biden's 'weakness' for the renewed clashes in the Middle East. Writing on his website Trump, he said: 'When I was in office we were known as the Peace Presidency, because Israel's adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel was attacked. 'Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because Biden's weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies. 'America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself. 'Unbelievably, Democrats also continue to stand by crazed anti-American Rep. Ilhan Omar, and others, who savagely attack Israel while they are under terrorist assault.' Advertisement Asked whether the actions of the police against protesters may have played a role, he shut down the suggestion, saying: 'These events have no excuse; this is fundamental hate.' It comes after the PM, speaking after two women were killed in Hamas strikes yesterday, said he 'deplored' the deaths in Israel, adding that the country's military would 'further increase both the intensity and the rate' of its own air strikes against Gaza. 'Hamas will be hit in ways that it does not expect,' Netanyahu said. 'We have eliminated commanders, hit many important targets and we have decided to attack harder and increase the pace of attacks.' The homes of three Hamas commanders were destroyed overnight on Wednesday. A significant barrage had begun by 3am, with Israel firing into the Gaza Strip. 'In response to HUNDREDS of rockets in the last 24 hours, the IDF has struck a number of significant terror targets and terror operatives across the Gaza Strip, marking our largest strike since 2014,' the IDF confirmed. 'We are currently striking more terror targets in Gaza.' In Israel, five people including three women have been killed. One of the three women was in her 60s and another in her 80s, and died during Hamas rocket attacks earlier on Tuesday. The third woman, aged 50, was killed on Tuesday evening when a rocket hit a building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion. The husband of California mother-of-three Maya Millete, who has been missing for four months, has been slapped with a temporary gun ban after police found a huge arsenal of firearms - most of which were illegal. The gun violence restraining order was issued against Larry Millete on May 5. Two days later, Chula Vista Police Department executed their 23rd search warrant at Millete's California home where they seized boxes of ammunition and a gun bag. Maya Millete, a mother-of-three, was last seen at home on January 7, when she made an appointment with a divorce lawyer. She has not been seen since and was reported missing three days later. Scroll down for video Larry Millete (left), the husband of missing California mom Maya Millete (right), has been issued with a temporary gun violence restraining order following a discovery of a cache of weapons at his home During a search at the couple's Chula Vista home on May 7, police were seen removing long boxes that could be used to store long guns Officers were seen removing boxes of ammunition. It is unclear how many guns they have seized According to court documents obtained by NBC7, the restraining order against Larry was issued a week after a police officer was emailed a photo, taken in January 2020, showing his 4-year-old son standing on a kitchen counter surrounded by 16 guns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, four US passports and a government ID. 'The child had immediate access to the illegal assault weapons and the 14 other firearms and ammunition, creating a potential extreme danger to the child and those physically present at the home,' the document states. Officials said that Larry owned an arsenal of 22 weapons, including seven AR-15s and three shotguns, of which only eight were legally registered to him. When police searched the Millete residence in January in connection with Maya's disappearance, her husband was said to have told officers that he knew they were coming for his guns and gave multiple firearms to friends. He then refused to name those in possession of his guns. According to the order, only eight of the 22 guns in Millete's possession were legally owned By the time the restraining order was issued, police had recovered only two semi-automatic weapons belonging to Larry Millete. During last week's search at the Millete home, officers were seen removing boxes of ammunition, a gun bag and several long boxes that could be used to store long guns. It is unclear at this time how many, if any, of the 22 firearms listed in the restraining order remain missing. Following the January search, Larry allegedly purchased two more guns. Now, he has been ordered by a judge to turn over any firearms in his possession pending a court hearing that is scheduled for next month. In a message to ABC10, Larry insisted that he has done nothing wrong. 'All of my firearms were purchased legally. I am a law abiding citizen and veteran. My rights have been violated numerous times,' he stated. 'I have shown no aggression or pose no risk that would prohibit me to [sic] owning or possessing firearms. It's out constitutional right as Americans.' Maya Millete, a mom-of-three, went missing on January 7 and she was reported missing three days later Larry has not been named a suspect in connection with the disappearance of his wife of 21 years, but he retained an attorney and has stopped cooperating with the investigating into the missing person case. Meanwhile, volunteers continue to scour the region in search of Maya, who has not been seen or heard from in four months. Police have conducted 56 interviews so far and reviewed at least 55 tips in relation to her disappearance. They also have executed 23 search warrants between late January and early May. Family members revealed the couple's marriage had been unraveling and that Maya was preparing to file for divorce. In April, it emerged that Maya had shared a post in a Facebook group for mothers on the same day she vanished claiming she was seeking advice on a local family law firm on behalf of 'a friend.' 'Asking for a friend - Has anyone used or have gone through the services of collaborative practice San Diego for divorce? Looking for insights? Positive/negative aspect?' she wrote, Fox News reported. She eventually made an appointment with divorce lawyer Marisa Nahale for the following week, but went missing before they could meet. Maya's older sister Maricris Drouaillet told Fox News her sibling had been considering leaving her husband over the last year. Maya vanished just days before she was due to meet with a divorce lawyer to discuss leaving her husband Larry. She was reported missing on January 10 Larry has not been named a suspect but has hired an attorney and refused to cooperate with the police 'I think she was ready in December, and then she finally decided to file that divorce that day,' she said. Maya's family are convinced Larry is behind her disappearance. In the days before her last sighting, they say she told them: 'If anything happens to me, it's Larry.' Larry has not been arrested or charged with any crime. Maya is described as being 5'2' and 105lbs with brown hair. She has tattoos of musical notes on her clavicle and a tattoo of a hummingbird on her back. Foreign university students will be given special permission to fly into Australia without going into hotel quarantine. The New South Wales government is planning for international students to be allowed to enter and isolate in purpose-built accommodation in Sydney. The scheme is expected to start in August, with universities helping students cover the cost of their 14-day quarantine. Foreign university students have given special permission to fly into Australia without going into hotel quarantine, with the new arrivals starting imminently. Pictured in a queue at a Covid-19 testing centre in Melbourne on Wednesday The student numbers coming in will be in addition to the existing cap of 3,000 people per week - mostly returning Australians - who can enter and go into hotel quarantine. Federal Education Minister Alan Tudge has previously said the government is open to such proposals for students as long as it did not reduce the number of Aussies who can get home. The plan comes despite Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announcing in Tuesday's Budget the international border will remain largely closed until the middle of 2022 and international students would not arrive until the end of 2021. Officials hope the fast-tracked arrivals will mean international students can join their courses for the second semester in August. The international student market is worth $14billion a year to the NSW economy and universities have been crippled by their absence due to the border closures. NSW Treasurer Dom Perrottet admitted there was a risk those students could be gone for good to other western nations unless Australia moved quickly to re-admit them. 'This is about finding a way to bring students back but not at the expense of the weekly cap of Australian citizens arriving back in NSW,' Mr Perrottet told The Australian. 'If we don't address this issue then I believe we'll have an industry on its knees and one that will look elsewhere.' Any proposed locations for the quarantine program will be assessed in consultation with NSW Police, NSW Health and Fire and Rescue, a spokesman for the state treasury told Daily Mail Australia. Students pictured outside the University of New South Wales in Sydney. NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has said the state does not need the federal government's approval to move forward with the plan The proposal is expected to be included in the NSW budget in June. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the idea was still far from ready. 'We are still a long way from landing this, I stress at this point,' he told 2GB on Thursday morning. 'We have to do it in a way that doesn't risk the success we've had.' The revelation comes after it emerged thousands of foreign backpackers and students in Australia will be allowed to work more hours under changes announced in the federal Budget. Student visa holders will be temporarily allowed to work more hours in the tourism and hospitality sectors, as the government seeks to ramp up support for both industries hit hard by a lack of foreign workers entering the country. The government has scrapped the 40 hour per fortnight limit for foreign students in both industries which have historically relied on temporary visa holders. There are 350,000 foreign students still in Australia despite the Covid pandemic. Temporary visa holders who are currently working in the 'critical sectors', with the new addition of hospitality and tourism, will also benefit. A man has been charged with the murder of his boyfriend in the carpark of an apartment block in an upmarket Sydney suburb. Phillip Papaefthymiou, 42, was arrested at the Rushcutters Bay apartment and later charged with the murder of his 39-year-old partner on Wednesday afternoon. Officers and paramedics found the man, aged in his 30s, unresponsive in the basement parking area after being called over an altercation. Paramedics performed CPR on the man before he was rushed to St Vincent's Hospital in a critical condition but he died shortly after. Emergency crews were called to the apartment block on Kings Cross Road in Rushcutters Bay at about 1.50pm on Wednesday following reports of an assault. Pictured: Police at the scene Initial investigations on the man reportedly showed no sign of an obvious fatal injury. The man and his boyfriend had been staying with another man at the Rushcutters Bay building for a few weeks, The Daily Telegraph reported. They began to argue on Wednesday afternoon and decided to take their dispute to the carpark for privacy. The older boyfriend allegedly then went back upstairs to tell their roommate there had been a fight. The two men went back downstairs where they found the victim unconscious. Officers and paramedics found the man, aged in his 30s, unresponsive in the basement parking area Mr Papaefthymiou was arrested at the scene and taken to King Cross Police Station, before being treated at St Vincent's Hospital for facial injuries, and then subsequently charged. The other man, who was given a forensic jumpsuit to wear after going down to the car park in just a towel, was taken to a police station for questioning but was not arrested. A crime scene was established and an investigation commenced. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers. An Orlando lawyer has been jailed after ramming her Land Rover into her ex-husband's car and home, threatening to kill his new girlfriend and texting him 's*** about to get ugly'. Francine Bogumil, 40, was sentenced to 51 weeks in the Orange County Jail after pleading no contest to a number of charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of domestic violence battery. The mother-of-two is also said to have spat on police officers responding to the call about her behavior, telling one cop: 'F*** you', The Miami Herald reports. Court records show Bogumil, a member of the Florida Bar since 2006, left her five-year-old and 11-year-old children at home alone in the early hours of April 30 last year to drive her vehicle into the SUV on her ex's driveway. The vehicle then smashed into his garage door, 'bending it inward about 2 to 3 feet', according to documents. Bogumil is also said to have smashed the windows of her ex's new girlfriend's BMW before telling her: 'I will kill you, b****.' Francine Bogumil, 40, pictured, was sentenced to 51 weeks in the Orange County Jail after pleading no contest to a number of charges including aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and one count of domestic violence battery She is said to have slapped her ex twice on the face during the incident; he admits slapping her once back. After posting bond Bogumil is then said to have messaged the new girlfriend, telling her: 'Next is your mom and pops. Id back the f*** off if I were u. Just saying. 'Youve been warned to stay away from my kids.' In text messages to her ex husband she wrote: 'And each and every day as my heart bleeds without my kids, your life will become uglier and uglier because this is YOUR choice...you want war, youve got WARI chose peaceyou didnt oblige. 'You can blame yourself because Im JUST getting started with the ways I can ruin uI WILL f*** up your world up unless you surrender. Im not backing down this time. S*** bout to get ugly.' Both her ex and his partner already had restraining orders against Bogumil. She is also said to have made fliers falsely calling her ex a 'potential pedophile on the loose with minors. Judge Daryl Jay Isenhower has recommended her 'immediate disbarment.' South Africa: Payments of NPO subsidies underway Gauteng Social Development (DSD) says it is working hard to remedy delays in payment of Non Profit Organisations (NPOs) registered for subsidies. In a statement on Tuesday, the department said since the week of 26-30 April 2021, it had started with the release of first quarter subsidies and payments to NPOs, and these payments will be made on a weekly basis to the NPOs that have concluded their signing of service level agreements (SLA) for 2021/22 financial year. According to the department, the delays were due to unforeseen circumstances that the department has managed to resolve. These included the logistical arrangements of getting the boards of NPOs to sign service level agreements (SLA) for 2021/22 financial year, which has taken longer than anticipated. Some NPOs could not be called for signing of SLAs as their NPO registration status had expired, or was not in good standing. Consequently, it meant that they were not meeting the Gauteng DSD funding requirements. However, the matter was escalated to National Social Development for urgent intervention and has been since resolved. Operating licences of certain sectors such as the early childhood developments (ECDs), service centres, luncheon clubs, drop-in centres for HIV, are still affected by changes in municipal by-laws which in return affects their ability to meet the Gauteng DSD funding requirements. The department decided to obtain a condonation for those affected sectors in the interest of service delivery, whilst a long-term solution is being sought from the affected municipalities, the department said. The department added that it has also been experiencing system glitches of not being able to extract scanned documents and this has also caused payment delays. The department assured that the system glitches have been resolved and NPO payments has commenced. The department and E-Gov will also continue to timeously intervene on all system technical glitches that may arise in the future, the department said. Gauteng department has welcomed all communication received from concerned NPOs and payments will be made. The department appreciates the immeasurable contribution NPOs make in ensuring service delivery and the social protection of the vulnerable and marginalized in our communities, the department said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-05-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Russian FM welcomes US initiative for Putin-Biden summit Xinhua) 14:40, May 12, 2021 BAKU, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday said Russia welcomes the initiative by the United States for holding a summit between U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin in June. Lavrov, who arrived in Azerbaijan on Monday for a two-day visit, made the remarks at a joint press conference following a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov. Lavrov said that as two nuclear powers, Russia and the United States shoulder special responsibility for the stability of the world. He also said that considering the U.S. withdrawal from many arms control treaties, the question of arm control and global strategic stability should be the main topics for the expected summit. On the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Lavrov stressed that the statement signed on Nov. 10 last year by the top leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia should be observed in order to keep the peace and stability in the region. Bayramov, for his part, elaborated his stance on the relevant issues, indicating that Azerbaijan is interested in normalizing of the relations with Armenia on the basis of respecting international law and each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty. The two ministers also exchanged views on the promotion of unblocking regional communications, the acceleration of resolving the issue of maps of minefields in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) The cousin of slain Delaware Officer Corporal Keith Heacock, Larry Schwartz, honored him in his funeral on Monday then hit the media for their bias against policemen. The Blaze reported that Schwartz, also a policeman but retired, called his cousin a "hero" for being a "first responder" to an unarmed criminal that can "kill" and pointed out how the media would give highlight to the death of suspects over the death of the police. "Giving everything he had to make sure he could get back to his family, but that didn't happen because in the real world, criminals don't always comply and unarmed criminals can kill you. This caused a nightmare these first responders will have for the rest of their lives, but here we are today paying tribute for our hero," Schwartz said. "If Cpl. Heacook had to take the actor's life, what would have happened to his life? It would've been hell. The media would've been here in full force," he pointed out. "'Unarmed this, unarmed that' every night without fail." Schwartz raised that if his cousin lived, there would be an investigation on the incident while Heacock would be "placed on administrative leave." The investigation, he said, "would have taken weeks," and during that time the media would have put Heacock's life "under a microscope, as it's easy for folks who have no idea about police work." "His family would be shunned. Even when Keith was cleared, that does not generate enough news," he stressed. Heacock was the first responder to a 911 call over the Delamar's Yorkshire Estates community where a fight involving Randon Wilkerson and some residents took place. Wilkerson attacked Heacock with his own baton when he arrived and dealt blows that dented his head and rendered him unconscious. Wilkerson then stomped at Heacock as he lay on his own blood. The second group of responders was able to put Wilkerson into custody and bring Heacock to the hospital where he fought for his life but lost it. According to The Blaze, Schwartz also called on the leaders of Delmar's police to "fight" for its officers by instituting change in the system so that the incident will not happen again to good policemen. Heacock was about to retire being 22 years in service. "Chief Barkley, you're the leader, this is the time for your voice to be heard. I heard your newscast when you said you needed more manpower. Chief, stand up and fight for your officers. Don't be silenced, they deserve it," he said to the official who was present. Schwartz also called on federal and state officials to "listen to the voices that law enforcement protect." He cited the good cops who take efforts to dutifully do their work daily and "who hates bad officers the most." "To the federal and state politicians--what are you saying to the men of law enforcement when you shout, 'Defund the police' and 'Strip them of qualified immunity,' yet you keep qualified immunity for yourselves. Stop listening to the loudest voices. Listen to the voices that law enforcement protect," he said. The Blaze also reported that Maryland Governor Larry Hogan was present during Heacock's funeral, which was mostly attended by co-workers, friends, and family. His eulogy was mostly focused on the legacy he left behind, mostly of how good a public servant and policeman he is. The governor said that the "heinous crime" done to Heacock "is a reminder of the risks" that policemen "face every single day." Burglars who killed a British mother may have known she had 10,000 in cash in her Athens home, detectives said last night. Caroline Crouch, 20, was tortured and strangled in front of her baby girl while the thieves tied up her husband, Charalambos Anagnostopoulos. The killers made off with 20,000 of jewellery and around 10,000 in bank notes that Mr Anagnostopoulos had withdrawn to pay for building work. A police source said they were exploring whether the robbers had a tip-off about the money. 'That is certainly a very important line of inquiry,' the source added. Caroline Crouch, 20, was tortured and strangled in front of her baby girl during a raid in her Athens home The killers tied up her husband Charalambos Anagnostopoulos (pictured) and made off with 20,000 of jewellery and around 10,000 in bank notes Mr Anagnostopoulos revealed the location of the cash in a Monopoly box while being threatened by the robbers who spoke in broken Greek. The 33-year-old said in an emotional statement: 'I heard my wife screaming for help tied to the bed while I was tied to the floor. 'We screamed not to be hurt. We begged the thieves not to harm us. We told them where the money was and asked them to leave us alone. 'The baby was crying, my wife was crying and someone or some people were looking to find more money and jewellery. Suddenly they left the room and I couldn't hear my wife's voice any more.' Detectives have drawn up a 'red list' of violent criminals who are being investigated for links to the appalling crime. The source said it was 'one of the most heinous' offences they had seen. Miss Crouch, born to a British father and Filipino mother, was suffocated with a pair of trousers, and a piece of fabric was found inside her mouth. Detectives have cordoned off the couple's home in the Glyka Nera neighbourhood of Greece as investigations continue Pictured: Marks seen on the door and windows in the rear yard of the house where the burglars are believed to have entered into the house 'Even though they carried weapons, the robbers used their hands,' a police insider told the newspaper Proto Thema. 'This was a robbery this death was unnecessary to achieve their goal. 'We believe the perpetrators are likely to have a criminal past and are working our way through possible suspects who will have some knowledge.' Miss Crouch's 11-month-old girl, who had a gun pointed at her, and her husband, a helicopter pilot who trained in the UK, were unhurt. The family's husky was also strangled with its lead and left hanging on a fence after the shocking raid in the early hours of Tuesday. Friends and family yesterday paid tribute to Miss Crouch, a student at the University of Piraeus, who grew up on the Aegean island of Alonissos, where she met her husband. Her friend Kiki Anagnostou wrote on Facebook: 'You were always happy, you were the soul of every company and team. So full of joy for life, an angel on earth. Who was so cruel to cut the thread of your life? Such a shame and words can't tell how big this loss is.' Meanwhile Miss Crouch's former teacher Despina Christofi told To Vima newspaper: 'We all thought her life was a fairy tale. 'She was like a princess and her husband was her prince. We cannot imagine how the tale of a child who was thirsty for life ended. We can't believe it. ' Miss Crouch's mother, Susan Dela Cuesta, who runs a cleaning firm, travelled to Athens yesterday. Greek justice minister, Kostas Tsiaras, said officials would seek sentences of at least 20 years for the killers. A group of more than 120 retired military officers have written to President Joe Biden to tell him his election was less than legitimate while questioning his mental acuity. The letter echoes former President Donald Trump's claims of widespread election fraud which have not been borne out in the courts and comes on a day when Rep. Liz Cheney ripped Trump for his claim that the election was 'stolen.' 'Without fair and honest elections that accurately reflect the 'will of the people' our Constitutional Republic is lost,' the letter from retired officers says. A group of more than 120 retired military officers have written President Joe Biden (pictured Wednesday) to tell him his election was less than legitimate Maj. Gen. Joe Arbuckle The group calls itself 'Flag Officers 4 America' and consists of retired military officers including generals and admirals. 'The FBI and Supreme Court must act swiftly when election irregularities are surfaced and not ignore them as was done in 2020,' they wrote. The letter, called an 'Open Letter from Retired Generals and Admirals,' was reported by Politico. It echoes Trump's claims that absentee ballots are not secure as it goes after Biden, who serves as Commander in Chief of the military. 'Election integrity demands insuring there is one legal vote cast and counted per citizen. Legal votes are identified by State Legislature's approved controls using government IDs, verified signatures, etc,' they write. 'Today, many are calling such commonsense [voter ID] controls racist in an attempt to avoid having fair and honest elections. Using racial terms to suppress proof of eligibility is itself a tyrannical intimidation tactic,' they write. The retired officers raise doubts about Biden's mental capacity and reference Speaker Nancy Pelosi's move to get assurances about the nuclear codes in the days after the January 6 MAGA riot. The 'Open Letter from Retired Generals and Admirals' blasts Biden for 'excessive lockdowns' and 'censorship of written and verbal expression,' while questioning his mental acuity The retired officers hit the Iran nuclear deal and even slap Biden for stopping the Keystone Pipeline project, while saying 'anarchy' in cities cannot be tolerated 'The mental and physical condition of the Commander in Chief cannot be ignored. He must be able to quickly make accurate national security decisions involving life and limb anywhere, day or night,' they write. 'Recent Democrat leadership's inquiries about nuclear code procedures sends a dangerous national security signal to nuclear armed adversaries, raising the question about who is in charge. We must always have an unquestionable chain of command.' The group Flag Officers 4 America call themselves 'retired military leaders who pledged to support and defend the Constitution of the US against all enemies, foreign and domestic.' The letter is a counterpoint to impactful public statements by national security officials who weighed in for Biden during the campaign. One such effort came when 10 former secretaries of Defense penned an extraordinary op-ed in the Washington Post warning there is 'no role' for the U.S. military in the outcome of U.S. elections, and stating the importance of a peaceful transfer of power. That letter came three days before the Capitol riot. The signers of the attached their names to the letter. Among them was Maj. Gen. Joe Arbuckle, who served in Vietnam and later commanded the US Army Industrial Operations Command (IOC) at Rock Island, Illinois. Arbuckle, who organized the effort, told Politico: 'Retired generals and admirals normally do not engage in political actions, but the situation facing our nation today is dire.' He continued: 'We are facing threats greater than at any other time since our country was founded. To remain silent would be a dereliction of duty.' The effort drew immediate pushback from military members who lamented people who wore the uniform jumping into an organized political effort. More than 120 former military officers signed the letter, including Gen. William Boykin (left) and John Poindexter (right) Jim Golby, an expert in civil-military relations, blasted the effort in Politico as a 'shameful effort to use their rank and the military's reputation for such a gross and blatant partisan attack.' Retired Air Force colonel Marybeth Ulrich, who teaches at the Air Force Academy, termed it 'anti-democratic.' Also ripping the effort was retired Adm. Mike Mullen, who served as chair of the join chiefs of staff and outranks those on the letter, said: 'I think it hurts the military and by extension it hurts the country. He cast it as 'right-wing Republican talking points.' 'This is really, to my mind, a classic very bad example of the erosion of civil-military relations in America, which is the bedrock of our democracy,' another retired military leader, Army Col. Jeffrey McCausland, told HuffPost. Members of the military vote in elections and have protected constitutional rights, but military leaders have warned of the risks of intruding in domestic politics. In the run-up to 2020, retired Gen. James Mattis denounced Trump, whom he served as Defense Secretary, in a June response to the events at Lafayette Square. 'We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution,' Mattis wrote. Other signers of the anti-Biden letter included include Vice Adm. John Poindexter, who was convicted in the Iran-Contra Affair. Also signing on was Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, who lost the Republican primary in 2020 to challenge Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and is planning another Senate run. Another signer, Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, who was termed anti-Muslim for his comments to a Christian congregation, CBS previously reported, after Boykin said of a Somali warlord: 'I knew that my God was bigger than his.' A former Tory MP yesterday launched a blistering attack on Britain's top police officer over the 'culture of cover-up' at Scotland Yard which he says has obscured the truth about the VIP paedophile scandal. Harvey Proctor was withering about Dame Cressida Dick's account to MPs of her force's disastrous Operation Midland inquiry. Mr Proctor falsely branded a serial child killer by abuse fantasist Carl 'Nick' Beech said that for more than five years he has been met with 'stonewalling and negative reaction at every stage' in his attempts to see Midland officers held to account over the fiasco. In a letter to MPs, Mr Proctor, who received a 900,000 payout from the Met over the shambles, said the 'police complaints system is playing judge and jury in their own case'. He said: 'The Metropolitan Police has fought the truth at every turn and continues to do so. 'Where police officers of high rank commit errors they protect themselves. The police complaints system is also not fit for purpose and requires statutory reform.' Harvey Proctor (left) was withering about Dame Cressida Dick's (right) account to MPs of her force's disastrous Operation Midland inquiry His bombshell comments came in a letter to the Commons home affairs committee after it grilled Dame Cressida about Operation Midland on Tuesday. During her evidence, the Met Commissioner admitted 'many mistakes' were made during the operation, but stood by her decision to investigate Beech's claims, even though it turned out that he was a 'very, very capable liar' who had the ability to 'lie in a credible manner'. Her use of the word credible echoes former detective superintendent Kenny McDonald in 2014 when he said he and senior officers believed Nick's allegations to be 'credible and true'. The 16-month, 2.5million investigation into claims that Mr Proctor, ex-prime minister Sir Edward Heath, former home secretary Leon Brittan and ex-Armed Forces chief and D-Day hero Lord Bramall were part of a murderous paedophile ring is still mired in controversy nearly two years after Beech was jailed for 18 years for his VIP abuse lies and other offences. Following a 'whitewash' report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), not one officer has faced disciplinary or criminal charges despite two distinguished ex-judges saying police broke the law when applying for search warrants to raid the homes of VIPs. Six former home secretaries, led by Lord Howard and Lord Blunkett, have written a joint letter demanding a new inquiry into alleged police misconduct in Operation Midland. Dame Cressida sanctioned the operation when an Assistant Commissioner at the Met in 2014. Mr Proctor wrote: 'Lady Brittan [Leon Brittan's widow] has bravely described the Met as an organisation possessing a 'culture of cover-up and flick away'. 'How right she is, and Cressida Dick's performance was evidence of this yesterday. The Commissioner is determined no police officer, including herself should bear any personal responsibility with what went wrong in Operation Midland. Mr Proctor falsely branded a serial child killer by abuse fantasist Carl 'Nick' Beech (pictured) said that for more than five years he has been met with 'stonewalling and negative reaction at every stage' in his attempts to see Midland officers held to account over the fiasco 'Now Dick tells the committee that Carl Beech was 'credible' and a good liar. He was neither. He was incredible and a bad liar who the Met foolishly believed, and it is only when the Met admit as much will they be able to accept proper responsibility for their errors.' He said the Met's Operation Midland 'cover-up' has been 'aided by a woefully inadequate, not fit for purpose IOPC'. Policing minister Kit Malthouse confirmed that Priti Patel is 'considering her options' over the future of the IOPC. MPs were told the Home Secretary may consider further steps to restore confidence in the watchdog. Committee member Tim Loughton praised 'extensive coverage in the Daily Mail which has done a big expose on this and has done a great service by doing that'. Advertisement A far-right Israeli mob has attacked a man near Tel Aviv they believed to be an Arab as the Israel-Palestinian conflict raged on. The shocking images show a man being forcibly removed from his car and beaten by a crowd of dozens until he lost consciousness. The attack, broadcast by public broadcaster Kan, took place on the seafront promenade of Bat Yam, south of Israel's commercial capital Tel Aviv. Police and emergency services did not arrive on the scene until 15 minutes later, while the victim lay motionless on his back in the middle of the street. Those in the crowd justified the attack by saying the man was an Arab who had tried to ram the nationalists, but footage shows a motorist trying to avoid the protest. 'The victim of the lynching is seriously injured but stable,' Tel Aviv's Ichilov hospital said in a statement, without revealing his identity. It came as Arabs and Jews fought on the streets and rioters torched vehicles, a restaurant and a synagogue in some of the worst violence Israel has seen in years. The mayor of the mixed town of Lod, which saw the worst of the violence Tuesday, compared it to a civil war or a Palestinian uprising. Police said they arrested nearly 400 people allegedly 'involved in riots and disturbances' across the country on Wednesday. This video grab obtained from a footage released by Kan 11 Public broadcaster on May 12, 2021, shows a far-right Israeli mob attacking who they considered an Arab man, on the seafront promenade of Bat Yam An Israeli police officer inspects the car of an Israeli Arab man who was attacked and injured by an Israeli Jews mob Palestinians gather during confrontations with the Israeli security forces in the city centre of the West Bank town of Hebron, on May 12 A Palestinian protester throws a Molotov cocktail at Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron on May 12 Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces in the city centre of the West Bank town of Hebron on May 12 Israeli paramilitary border police detain Jewish settlers, during clashes between Arabs, police and Jews, in the mixed town of Lod on Wednesday Far-right lawmaker Betzalel Smotrich, head of the 'Religious Zionism' party, said he was 'ashamed' of the 'atrocious cruelty' of the attack on the driver in Bat Yam. He said: 'Jewish brothers, stop! We cannot under any circumstances allow ourselves to take part in violent acts.' Israel's chief rabbi Yitzhak Yossef called for an end to attacks by Jews. He said: 'Innocent citizens are being attacked by terrorist organisations, the heart is heavy and the images difficult, but we cannot allow ourselves to be drawn into provocations and aggressions.' Issawi Fredj, an Arab deputy from the left-wing Meretz party, said the images were a sign that the country was heading towards 'civil war'. Demonstrations by far-right activists broke out Wednesday night in several cities, leading to clashes with police and sometimes Arab Israelis. Police said they were responding to violent incidents in cities including Acre, Haifa and Lod. In Acre, a mixed Arab-Jewish town in northwest Israel, a Jew was seriously injured by stone throwers, police said. Opposition leader Yair Lapid said: 'The rioters in Lod and Acre do not represent Israeli Arabs, the rioters in Bat Yam... do not represent Israeli Jews, violence will not dictate our lives.' Arab experts and activists say the violence was fuelled by unrest in Jerusalem that has brought Israel to the brink of another Gaza war. But they say it is rooted in deeper grievances that go back to the founding of the state. Israeli Arabs gather next to a mosque during clashes between Jews, Israeli police and Arabs, in the mixed town of Lod on Wednesday Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops at in the city center of the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops at in the city center of the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops at in the city centre of the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli troops at in the city centre of the West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday Palestinians clash with Israeli security forces in the city centre of the West Bank town of Hebron on Wednesday Israeli riot police tries to block a Jewish right-wing man as clashes erupted between Arabs, police and Jews, in the mixed town of Lod on Wednesday Terrifying footage shows Hamas rocket blow up a bus, yards from civilians Terrifying video footage has emerged of a rocket launched by Hamas militants blowing up a bus in Israel as civilians watched on in horror. Video shows the city bus erupting in flames, with black smoke billowing from the burning vehicle, in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, last night. In other videos, dozens of Israel's Iron Dome defence system's missiles can be seen lighting up the night sky yesterday as they shot down a bombardment of rockets fired by Hamas militants. Residents of Tel Aviv, Israel's most populous city, hid in their houses and under shelters as scores of rockets were seen flying overhead before they were struck down by Israeli missiles. Video shows the city bus erupting in flames, with black smoke billowing from the burning vehicle, in the central city of Holon, just south of Tel Aviv, last night Advertisement Before the Bat Yam mob attack, a group of black-clad Israelis smashed the windows of an Arab-owned ice cream shop in the city. Ultranationalists could be seen chanting, 'Death to Arabs!' on live TV during a standoff with Border Police. In the northern city of Tiberias, video uploaded to social media appeared to show flag-waving Israelis attacking a car. Israel's Channel 13 quoted a senior policeman saying Arabs are suspected of attacking and seriously wounding a Jewish man in the coastal city of Acre. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, whose office is meant to serve as the nation's moral compass, said the country was gripped by civil war and urged to 'stop this madness.' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called on both Jews and Arabs to cease attacks on each other. He said: 'It doesn't matter to me that your blood is boiling. You can't take the law in your hands.' In a statement he added 'what has been happening in the last few days in the cities of Israel is unacceptable'. 'Nothing justifies the lynching of Arabs by Jews and nothing justifies the lynching of Jews by Arabs.' Police said they arrested nearly 400 people allegedly 'involved in riots and disturbances' across the country on Wednesday. The violence comes at a time when Israel's Arab minority appeared to be gaining new acceptance and influence. Mansour Abbas, head of an Arab party with Islamist roots, emerged as a kingmaker after the March elections and was poised to be in a coalition that would oust Mr Netanyahu. But Abbas indicated on Wednesday coalition talks would be put on hold because of the escalating violence. 'If there is a cease-fire, we will return to the political track to form a government,' he said. In recent days, Arab citizens of Israel have held mass protests across the country over Israel's policing of a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem and plans to evict dozens of Palestinian families in the city following a legal campaign by Jewish settlers. Adding to the tensions are increasingly powerful far-right groups in Israel that won seats in March elections and are allied with Mr Netanyahu. In recent days, far-right politicians have visited the tense east Jerusalem neighborhood where the families are threatened with eviction and staged marches. After police broke up a protest Monday night in Lod, a young Arab resident was shot and killed. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the man was with a group of rioters threatening Jewish homes and Jewish residents opened fire in a 'life-threatening situation'. He said three people have been detained for questioning and police are investigating. Arab residents of Lod disputed the account, pointing out that the slain man was unarmed. His funeral the next day drew thousands of people and a heavy police presence on the scene. Clashes broke out between the two sides, leading to riots in which several vehicles and a synagogue were set ablaze. Israeli forces intervene in Palestinians who gathered after an Isha (night) prayer at Damascus Gate of Masjid al-Aqsa Compound Israeli forces intervene in Palestinians who gathered after an Isha (night) prayer at Damascus Gate of Masjid al-Aqsa Compound and Palestinians whom Israel want to forcibly evict from their homes, Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem on Wednesday Israeli forces detain a number of people as they intervene in Palestinians who gathered after an Isha (night) prayer at Damascus Gate of Masjid al-Aqsa Compound Israeli forces intervene in Palestinians who gathered after an Isha (night) prayer at Damascus Gate of Masjid al-Aqsa Compound Israeli forces are seen patrolling a street before they intervened in Palestinians who gathered after an Isha (night) prayer at Damascus Gate of Masjid al-Aqsa Compound Fire can be seen over cars queuing on a busy main road in Jerusalem as Israeli forces intervene with Palestinians who gathered after an Isha (night) prayer A fire rages at sunrise in Khan Yunish following an Israeli airstrike on targets in the southern Gaza strip, early on May 12, 2021. - Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip have hit the homes of high-ranking members of the Hamas militant group, the military said Wednesday, with the territory's police headquarters also targeted Israelis sing to keep their spirits up in a Tel Aviv bomb shelter Footage has emerged of Israelis singing in a bomb shelter as fighting between the Jewish state and Hamas intensified today amid warnings of all-out war. The video was taken in Tel Aviv overnight as the city was targeted by a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza. It shows a large group of people standing in what appears to be a basement car park being led in song by Shuli Rand, a well-known Jewish actor and musician. The song is called Between Holiness and Secularity, and the lyrics that appear in the video translate as: 'Please save me and please keep me from harm.' What's happening now in the Holy Land... A bomb shelter in Tel Aviv. Posted by Shifra Chana Hendrie on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 Footage has emerged of Israelis in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv overnight singing as the city was targeted by 201 Hamas rockets Tel Aviv found itself targeted overnight by rockets as Hamas said 210 rockets had been fired at the city, which is Israel's most-populous. The strike was in retaliation for a multi-storey block of apartments that was blown up in Gaza, Hamas said. At least 65 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said. Advertisement A 56-year-old Jewish man was severely wounded after Arabs pelted his car with rocks, according to the Magen David Adom emergency service. The violence soon spread to other mixed communities across Israel. In neighboring Ramle, ultra-nationalist Jewish demonstrators vandalized Arab cars. In Acre, protesters torched Uri Buri, a famous Jewish-owned seafood restaurant. Magen David Adom said 46 people were wounded in the riots. Rosenfeld said there were several different instances of Arabs attacking Jews, and that 12 police officers were wounded. He said 270 suspects were arrested at 40 locations across the country where vehicles were set on fire and public property was damaged. 'The Arabs don't want us here, but we're going to stay,' said Avraham Sagron, a Jewish resident of Lod, as he surveyed the charred entrance of the synagogue. Mr Netanyahu visited Lod and Acre, where he pledged to 'stop the anarchy' and restore order 'with an iron fist if needed.' He called on Arab and other community leaders to condemn the violence and act to stop it. Authorities deployed hundreds of police to Lod and other areas, including paramilitary border police who usually operate in the occupied West Bank. They also ordered a nighttime curfew in Lod. Arabs say the violence of the past two days was not directed at Jews, but at religious nationalists with close ties to the settlement movement who have moved into mixed areas in recent years, pushing Arab residents out. Israel's Arab minority makes up about 20 per cent of the population and are the descendants of Palestinians who stayed in the country after the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. During this time an estimated 700,000 fled or were driven from their homes in towns like Lod. They have citizenship, including the right to vote, but face widespread discrimination. Arab citizens speak Hebrew and are well-represented in Israel's medical profession and universities. But they largely identify with the Palestinian cause, leading many Israelis to view them with suspicion. Lod's Arabs, who make up about a third of the city's population, are among the poorest communities in Israel. 'We're talking about young people who have no horizon, no dreams, who are unemployed and live in a very difficult reality,' said Dr Nasreen Haddad Haj-Yahya, the director of the Arab-Jewish relations program at the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent think tank. She said the anger of the last two days was not directed at Lod's longtime Jewish community but at more ideological recent arrivals. 'It's not because of who they are. It's because they are trying to Judaize Lod. They are trying to drive out the indigenous Arab residents,' she said. She added: 'The young people see it as a threat to their presence in the land, to their existence.' Israeli artillery in action as the escalation continues between Israeli army and Hamas at the Gaza Border, Israel, 12 May 2021. At least 70 people have been killed in the conflict, including around 16 children Pictured: Palestinians leave their neighbourhood to head to a safer location as Israeli warplanes continue air strikes on Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, Gaza on May 12 Hamas militants and their allies have fired more than 1,000 missiles at Israel, though many have been shot down by the Iron Dome defence system, while others have landed inside Gaza. The Israeli towns of Ashdod, Ashkelon and Yehud have been struck, as well as the most populous city, Tel Aviv. In the Gaza Strip, the Israeli Air Force has targeted suspected Hamas strongholds in Gaza City as well as the southern settlements Rafah and Khan Yunis Another multi-storey building was destroyed in Gaza on Wednesday evening by an Israeli air strike, prompting Hamas to retaliate with 130 rockets of its own, as the deadly fighting in the middle east continued on Wednesday. Pictured: Smoke rises from Al-Sharouk tower hit by an Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City on May 12, 2021 Heavy smoke and fire rise from Al-Sharouk tower as it collapses after being hit by an Israeli air strike, in Gaza City on May 12, 2021. An Israeli air strike destroyed a multi-storey building in Gaza City today Thabet Abu Rass, the co-director of the Abraham Initiatives, which promotes Jewish-Arab coexistence, said the six Arab members of Lod's municipal council have been sidelined and the city's budget heavily favors Jews. He accused Mayor Yair Revivo of inciting against Arabs. Revivo, a member of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, has courted controversy by complaining about the volume of the Muslim call to prayer in Lod and for remarks that appeared to cast its Arab residents as a national security threat. 'He should be a mayor for everybody,' said Abu Rass, who lives near Lod and has an office there. 'He's not giving equal services for all residents.' The mayor's spokesman said he was not available for comment. Earlier, Revivo had urged Arab residents to end the violence, saying: 'The day after, we will still have to live here together.' Israeli officials often hold up the Arab minority as proof of their commitment to tolerance, frequently pointing out that Arab citizens enjoy civic rights and freedoms that many Arab states deny their own people. Ghassan Munayyer, a Lod-based activist, says the veneer of coexistence conceals deeper disparities, including in housing and infrastructure, comparing its Arab neighborhoods to 'refugee camps.' 'The Jews love saying there's coexistence. They go out to eat in an Arab restaurant and they call it coexistence,' he said. 'But they don't see Arabs as equal human beings who have rights that they have to respect.' An investigation into what those in the prime minister's office knew about the alleged rape of former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins has resumed after it was paused over fears it could interfere with police. A former ministerial adviser, Ms Higgins says she was raped by a former colleague inside Parliament House in March 2019. Scott Morrison in February tasked Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Phil Gaetjens with investigating who in the prime minister's office knew about the allegation and when. Mr Morrison on Wednesday night confirmed the inquiry had resumed, but said he did not know when its findings would be handed to him. Scott Morrison ordered the investigation into who in the prime minister's office knew about the Brittany Higgins rape allegation and when. They are pictured together before the alleged sexual assault 'I know it's commenced, but I have no knowledge of its conduct,' he told the ABC's 7.30 program. 'Why would I? That would be inappropriate. It's an independent, arm's length investigation.' Meanwhile, another investigation into whether members of the prime minister's office tried to discredit Brittany Higgins' loved ones is still going after more than seven weeks. Scott Morrison ordered his chief of staff to conduct the inquiry after Ms Higgins lodged a formal complaint. 'I expect this process to conclude when all matters have been able to be taken into consideration, including relevant information from Ms Higgins,' he told parliament on Wednesday. Ms Higgins claims senior members of the prime minister's staff gave journalists background briefings against her loved ones, after she went public with claims she was made to feel like a political problem in the wake of her alleged assault. Ms Higgins arrives at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices for a meeting with Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Sydney on April 30 The prime minister met with Ms Higgins on April 30 to discuss her concerns about parliamentary workplace conditions and the need for an independent complaints process. Ms Higgins' allegations triggered a political crisis for the coalition government over its treatment of women. There have since been historical rape allegations against Christian Porter, which he vehemently denies, and the sacking of a coalition staffer who masturbated on the desk of a female MP. The prime minister is also under fire for his handling of disgraced backbencher Andrew Laming, who has been exposed for years of abhorrent behaviour towards various women. Dr Laming has this week returned to federal parliament and the Liberal party room after he was forced to take a month of paid leave to seek counselling and empathy training. Unrepentant, Dr Laming has backed down from an earlier promise to stand down from all parliamentary positions. Ms Higgins alleged she was raped on a couch in the Parliament House office of then-defence minister Linda Reynolds (pictured) He will remain chair of a parliamentary committee on employment, education and training, which adds $23,000 to his annual salary. The prime minister was on Wednesday night asked if he was comfortable with Dr Laming retaining his position as chair given his behaviour. Mr Morrison said he had never called for Dr Laming to stand down from the position. 'I've never made any comments on that matter,' he said. 'He had made some comments on that matter, but he has formed the view since then that the issues that were the subject of complaints made against him have now altered.' 'There have been new, new facts that have come forward.' A corrupt police officer helped an organised crime gang steal from their rivals in a Line of Duty-style multimillion-pound plot, a court heard. Kashif Mahmood, 31, used his police car to stop vehicles he knew were carrying drug cash after being tipped off by the group. Accompanied on two occasions by Romanian bodybuilder Ioan Gherghel, 34, who posed as his police partner, they would confiscate the money. Mahmood, a Metropolitan Police constable, regularly jetted to Dubai and bought designer watches. The forces anti-corruption unit began investigating him last year after French authorities infiltrated an encrypted phone network used by the gang, Southwark Crown Court heard. Kashif Mahmood, 31, used his police car to stop vehicles he knew were carrying drug cash after being tipped off by the group and would then confiscate the money The messages showed on one occasion Mahmood seized 850,000 using the ploy. He also misused police computers to gather intelligence on behalf of his criminal associates. Peter Ratliff, prosecuting, said: Kashif Mahmood was at the heart of the most audacious aspect of the organised crime groups criminal conduct. The court heard he would take marked and unmarked police vehicles, and, dressed in his police uniform, travel to locations where the organised crime group were engaged in or aware of the transfer of significant quantities of criminal cash which was either to be laundered or reflected payment for wholesale quantities of drugs. Mahmood, of Harlow, Essex, seized cash from the unsuspecting criminals under the pretext of lawful exercise of his powers as a police officer, said Mr Ratliff. He admits acquiring criminal property and misconduct in a public office. While he was not paid a share of the cash seized, he was rewarded for his conduct, the court heard. The keen bodybuilder was dismissed from the Met last year. Ilford-based gangster twins Shabaz Khan, 32, and Shazad Khan, 32, and their brother Moshin Khan, 35, admit supplying class A drugs and conspiracy to acquire criminal property. Mahmood, a Metropolitan Police constable, regularly jetted to Dubai and bought designer watches and the forces anti-corruption unit began investigating him last year after French authorities infiltrated an encrypted phone network used by the gang, Southwark Crown Court (pictured) heard Mr Ratliff said the brothers ran a highly lucrative organised crime group while Moshins partner, Maria Shah, 34, gave material support. Mahmood was working at the Emergency Response Team at Stoke Newington police station at the time of the plot between November 2019 and July 2020. He met the Khan brothers for a debriefing after their arrest and interview, the court heard. Mahmood was dismissed without notice from the Met following a disciplinary hearing last year. The officer had already survived a misconduct hearing after assaulting a man at a police cordon in Lower Clapton when he was based at Stoke Newington Police Station in May 2017. Mahmood was sentenced to 200 hours community service at Hendon Magistrates Courti the following year and allowed to remain an officer. In 2014 he was commended for bravery by his borough commander. Shah admitted conspiracy to supply a class A drug and conspiracy to acquire criminal property. Gherghel admitted conspiracy to acquire criminal property. The six are due to be sentenced today. Victoria has recorded no new local COVID-19 cases for the second day after a Melbourne man tested positive. His positive test on Tuesday sparked a contact tracing blitz, with hundreds of train passengers on two metropolitan services last Friday night alerted. Victoria had one new overseas case on Thursday morning, with 21,984 test results. The man's infection has prompted returned travellers on a South Australian hotel quarantine floor being ordered into another two weeks of isolation. Genomic sequencing testing has confirmed the man became infected while staying at Adelaide's Playford Hotel. The returned traveler flew in from Adelaide to Melbourne and visited sites across the city (pictured) with hundreds of people potentially exposed Health department officials arrive to inspect the restaurant and bar in Melbourne on Wednesday (pictured) He tested positive on Tuesday after returning from India via the Maldives and Singapore on April 19 and completing 14 days of hotel quarantine. The man, from Wollert in Melbourne's outer north, was staying in a room next to another person who tested positive before being moved to a medi-hotel. In a statement late on Wednesday, SA Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier confirmed the two cases had been genomically linked. 'Investigations into the precise cause of transmission are ongoing,' she said. Professor Spurrier said discharged returned travellers on level three of the Playford Hotel during the 'period of concern' must now isolate for a further two weeks. There were approximately 100 passengers on board the Jetstar flight JQ771 from Adelaide to Melbourne with the man (pictured, stock image of another flight) The group includes 10 South Australians who will be given the option to quarantine at home if deemed suitable. Prof Spurrier stressed most medi-hotel staff working at the time of the suspected leak had undergone daily testing, although five still need to be followed up. SA authorities earlier barred travellers from entering the state if they had visited any of Victoria's high-risk exposure sites, with few exceptions. It came as Victorian health colleagues scrambled to track down hundreds of fans who went to last Friday's AFL match on the same train as the infected Wollert man. Around 50,000 people were contacted by the AFL alerting them to the potentially infected train. There are fears hordes may have been exposed to the virus on the Craigieburn line train while travelling to or from the Geelong-Richmond match at the MCG. People queue up for Covid-19 testing in Melbourne CBD on Wednesday (pictured) after the infected man flew in from Adelaide The AFL sent text message alerts to all 54,857 spectators. Victoria's Health Minister Martin Foley warned people will soon face tough penalties if they fail to check in with QR codes at venues, after some patrons at a new exposure site failed to use the system. The Wollert man dined at the CBD restaurant Curry Vault on Friday but others failed to use the QR system, which is to become mandatory for venues later this month. Victoria has gone 76 days without a new local infection. The Queensland government is building less public housing and slower than it was in the 1940s with advocates warning the waiting list is growing faster than supply. The state's public housing waiting registrar has 47,000 applicants waiting for homes. The Queensland government invested $1.6billion to construct 5,500 social and affordable homes back in 2017. About 1,415 homes have been completed over the four years the program has been running, or about 350 homes a year. Housing Minister Leeanne Enoch called the program the biggest public investment in housing since World War II. The state's public housing waiting registrar has 47,000 applicants waiting for homes (pictured, premier Annastacia Palaszczuk) However, the Queensland Council of Social Services says after the war Queensland was actually building more public housing and quicker than it is today. QCOSS chief executive Aimee McVeigh says about 1,500 public housing units were being built each year to keep up with demand in the late 1940s. 'If a similar per capita investment were made today, we'd be building 5,400 homes each year,' she said in a statement. 'People are struggling to keep a roof over their heads. The COVID crisis has shown us how important housing is for people's health and for the health of all Queenslanders, but the pandemic has worsened the housing crisis.' In contrast to Queensland, the Victorian government last month earmarked $80million to rapidly build almost 240 homes across the state. The Andrews government also allocated $5.3billion to build 12,000 new social housing units across Victoria, boosting the state's supply by 10 per cent, in their November budget. In contrast to Queensland, the Victorian government last month earmarked $80million to rapidly build almost 240 homes across the state (pictured, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk) Ms Enoch blamed the federal government for exacerbating the state's housing crisis by winding back the National Rental Affordability Scheme. But Ms McVeigh said the Queensland government could easily step up investment in new homes in the upcoming state budget. 'Both the Commonwealth government and the Queensland government have a responsibility to do something urgently about the housing crisis. Supply is simply not keeping up with demand,' she said. 'We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to use debt for good and create a lasting legacy. 'We saw similar levels of investment after World War II and after the GFC.' QCOSS launched their Town of Nowhere campaign calling for landmark investment in public and social housing in Queensland on Thursday. The Town of Nowhere campaign's name reflects that the 47,000 people on the housing waiting list is greater than the population of many large towns in Queensland. Sounds made by our ancestors to describe everything from 'tiger' to 'water' are the root of all languages, and can be understood by anyone, a study claims. A team from the University of Birmingham tested whether people from different language backgrounds could understand these 'iconic sounds,' some grunt-like and others a mimic of real world things like animal calls and running water. They found that the 'missing link' that helped our ancestors to begin communicating with each other through language may have been these sounds. Listeners from each language, ranging from small tribes to nations, were more accurate than chance at guessing the intended meaning behind the sound. This goes against earlier theories that early humans used charades-like gestures rather than words to bridge the gap to the first languages. Study authors say these 'iconic sounds' to describe what we see, do and want, give rise to the unique human power to coin new words describing the world around us. 'Our main finding was that people can use vocalisations to communicate across disparate cultures, even when they don't share a common language,' study author Marcus Perlman told MailOnline. Iconic sounds made by our ancestors to describe everything from 'tiger' to 'water' are the root of all languages, and can be understood by anyone, a study claims HOW TO MAKE 'ICONIC SOUNDS' AND WHAT THEY MEAN Researchers investigating the sounds our ancient ancestors used to communicate highlighted four 'words'. While they aren't direct 'translations', or even words as we know them, it is possible to replicate the sounds. Iconic sound Meaning Haa-Hah (Up inflection) Good Rooaw (a tiger sound) Tiger Glub Glub Glub (pushing air out of your mouth) Water Tkch-a-Tkch-a-Tkch-a Cut Advertisement It was widely believed that, in order to get the first languages off the ground, our ancestors first needed a way to create novel signals that could be understood by others, relying on visual signs whose form directly resembled the intended meaning. The authors of this new study discovered that iconic vocalisations can convey a much wider range of meanings more accurately than previously supposed. These meanings spanned animate entities, inanimate entities, properties, quantifiers and demonstratives to paint a detailed picture. A few sounds covered a wide picture, with sounds for humans and animals covering everything from child, man, woman, tiger, snake and deer. Inanimate entities such as knife, fire, rock, water, meat and fruit also had their own sounds that could be widely understood without further explanation. The team say even actions, such as gather, cook, hide, cut, hunt, eat and sleep had 'iconic sounds', as did properties like dull, sharp, big, small, good and bad, alongside quantifiers like one and many, and demonstratives like this and that. Study authors say their findings highlight that vocalisations produced by English speakers could be understood by listeners from a diverse range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds if they are linked to these 'iconic sounds'. 'Imagine how you communicate when you travel to another country where you don't speak the language - you would probably makes lots of iconic gestures and act out your meaning,' Perlman told MailOnline. 'But our research shows that people can also do this with vocalisations. So no need to posit a gestural protolanguage first.' Participants included speakers of 28 languages from 12 language families, including groups from oral cultures such as speakers of Palikur living in the Amazon forest and speakers of Daakie on the South Pacific island of Vanuatu. Co-author Dr Marcus Perlman, Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, said the study fills a crucial piece of the puzzle. He added that it suggests the possibility that all languages - spoken as well as signed - may have iconic origins dating back to our earliest ancestors. 'The ability to use iconicity to create universally understandable vocalisations may underpin the vast semantic breadth of spoken languages, playing a role similar to representational gestures in the formation of signed languages,' he said. A team from the University of Birmingham tested whether people from different language backgrounds could understand these ' iconic sounds,' some grunt-like and others a mimic of real world things like animal calls and running water HOW TO TEST 'ICONIC SOUNDS' AND THEIR MEANINGS Researchers carried out an online and a field experiment to test 'iconic sounds' and their meanings. They found that some meanings were consistently guessed more accurately. In the online experiment, for example, accuracy ranged from 98.6 per cent for the action 'sleep' to 34.5 per cent for the demonstrative 'that'. Participants were best with the meanings 'sleep', 'eat', 'child', 'tiger', and 'water'. They were worst with 'that', 'gather', 'dull', 'sharp' and 'knife'. Advertisement Co-author Dr Bodo Winter said the discovery acts to 'challenge the often-cited idea that vocalisations have limited potential for iconic representation.' He said they are 'demonstrating that in the absence of words people can use vocalisations to communicate a variety of meanings - serving effectively for cross-cultural communication when people lack a common language.' An online experiment allowed researchers to test whether a large number of diverse participants around the world were able to understand the vocalisations. An additional field experiment using 12 easy-to-picture meanings, allowed them to test whether participants living in predominantly oral societies were also able to understand the vocalisations. They found that some meanings were consistently guessed more accurately than others. In the online experiment, for example, accuracy ranged from 98.6 per cent for the action 'sleep' to 34.5 per cent for the demonstrative 'that'. Participants were best with the meanings 'sleep', 'eat', 'child', 'tiger', and 'water', and worst with 'that', 'gather', 'dull', 'sharp' and 'knife'. The team say their study doesn't take away from the fact iconic gestures also played a critical role in the evolution of human communication. The findings have been published in the journal Scientific Reports. Spending time regularly petting a therapy dog can 'significantly' reduce anxiety and enhance thinking skills in stressed-out students, an investigation has concluded. Experts from Washington State University found that stress management programs focussed on therapy dogs were more effective for struggling students. After completing a four-week-long program with animal therapy, students were found to have improved cognitive skills that persisted for at least four weeks. The investigation was a follow-up to a 2019 study that showed that petting animals for just ten minutes could reduce students' stress in the short-term. Spending just ten minutes petting a dog (as pictured) can 'significantly' reduce anxiety and enhance thinking skills in stressed-out students, an investigation has concluded 'It's a really powerful finding,' said paper author and humananimal interaction expert Patricia Pendry of the Washington State University. 'Universities are doing a lot of great work trying to help students succeed academically, especially those who may be at risk due to a history of mental health issues or academic and learning issues.' 'This study shows that traditional stress management approaches aren't as effective for this population as programs that focus on providing opportunities to interact with therapy dogs.' In their three-year study, Professor Pendry and colleagues recruited 309 students and assigned them each to one of three academic stress-management programmes. The programmes featured varying combinations of evidenced-based academic stress management and humananimal interactions. Therapy dogs provided for the other side of the study and their handlers came from Palouse Paws, a local affiliate of the national therapy organization Pet Partners. During the study period, the researchers measured the students' so-called executive functioning the skills that you need to plan, organise, concentrate, memorize facts and motivate yourself, which are vital to succeed in college and university. After completing a four-week-long program with animal therapy involving dogs, pictured, students were found to have improved cognitive skills that persisted for at least four weeks 'The results were very strong,' said Professor Pendry. 'We saw that students who were most at risk ended up having most improvements in executive functioning in the human-animal interaction condition.' 'These results remained when we followed up six weeks later.' Traditional, evidence-based stress management programmes are typically run like a class, with students listening to an expert, watching slideshows and taking notes on topics including how to get more sleep, set goals or manage one's anxiety. 'These are really important topics, and these workshops are helping typical students succeed by teaching them how to manage stress,' noted Professor Pendry. 'Interestingly though, our findings suggest that these types of educational workshops are less effective for students that are struggling.' 'It seems that students may experience these programs as another lecture, which is exactly what causes the students to feel stressed.' According to the team, the humananimal interaction programs help struggling students allowing them to relax as they talk and think about their stressors, rather than becoming overwhelmed by them. 'If you're stressed, you can't think or take up information; learning about stress is stressful!' Professor Pendry quipped. Moreover, she explained, animal sessions can help students engage in positive thoughts and actions. 'You can't learn math just by being chill,' Professor Pendry added. 'But when you are looking at the ability to study, engage, concentrate and take a test, then having the animal aspect is very powerful.' 'Being calm is helpful for learning especially for those who struggle with stress and learning.' The full findings of the study were published in the American Educational Research Association's journal AERA Open. Over 120 retired flag officers were reported to urge Americans to fight against tyrannical socialist, marxist government, and defend the U.S. Constitution. Breitbart reported that the said officers wrote a letter on Monday warning Americans that there is a "tremendous assault" against the U.S. Constitution as supporters of socialism and Marxism are now actively involved in government. "Our Nation is in deep peril. We are in a fight for our survival as a Constitutional Republic like no other time since our founding in 1776. The conflict is between supporters of Socialism and Marxism vs. supporters of Constitutional freedom and liberty," the retired officers wrote. "We must support and hold accountable politicians who will act to counter Socialism, Marxism and Progressivism, support our Constitutional Republic, and insist on fiscally responsible governing while focusing on all Americans, especially the middle class, not special interest or extremist groups which are used to divide us into warring factions," they stressed. First, the officers hit the obvious election fraud that occurred in the 2020 Elections that resulted in Biden getting inaugurated despite tons of evidence putting his alleged victory in question. "Without fair and honest elections that accurately reflect the "will of the people" our Constitutional Republic is lost," the officers said, adding that "Election integrity demands insuring there is one legal vote cast and counted per citizen." They also pointed out the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Supreme Court's inaction, ignoring the election irregularities that surfaced. Both the FBI and the Supreme Court failed to enforce the "Rule of Law" during the "election process to ensure integrity." The retired officers then hit on the Democrats who aim to "destroy election fairness" because they want to "remain in power," citing House Bill H.R.1 and the Senate Bill S.1., which would allow Democrats to continue "violating our Constitution and ending our Representative Republic" should they be passed. The retired officers also hit the Biden Administration "dictatorial manner" of encroaching on the people's Constitutional Rights, bypassing Congress and signing over 50 Executive Orders, many of them reversing former President Donald Trump's effective policies. The officers also hit the current administration's "population control actions" such as "excessive" COVID lockdowns, the closing of schools and businesses, and attacks on people's right to free speech by censoring written and verbal expression. These actions, the officers said, "are direct assaults" on Americans' fundamental Rights. The retired officers also put focus on the national security issues the country is beset with such as the problem in the Texas border where "illegals are flooding in," Biden's "cooperative relations with the Chinese Communist Party," and the Keystone Pipeline that needs to be opened to "regain our energy independene for national security and economic reasons." In a similar report, left-leaning Politico explained that the retired officers belong to the organization Flag Officers 4 America led by retired Major General Joe Arbuckle. Politico, which leans to the left according to Media Bias Fact Check and AllSides, pointed out that the retired officers composed of generals and admirals "have been out of uniform for decades" and claimed that their letter is "firing a major salvo in the partisan wars." The Flag Officers 4 America are actually inviting others to join in their fight for "Constitutional freedom and liberty" since the "Current Administration has launched a full-blown assault on our Constitutional rights." The letter, dated May 11, serves as the opening statement in their website and is an open letter to the public. As per the Flag Officers 4 America, there are six key issues that Americans need to watch out for--three of which they have mentioned in their letter: China, Border Crisis, and the Keystone Pipeline. The other three issues are the Iran Nuclear Deal, Big Tech, and the U.S. Military. The flag officers allege that the U.S. military was used as "political pawns" to guard the U.S. Capitol Building "against a non-existent threat." They also noted how the Biden administration forced "Politically Correct policies like the divisive critical race theory" into the U.S. military, replacing the "War Fighting Mission" thereby "degrading" them and their "readiness" to fight. Read the letter in full below: 2021 Open Letter From Retir... by Kristina Wong Advertisement Boston-based Regent aims to reduce the cost and hassle of traveling between coastal cities and has developed a one-of-a-kind vehicle to do so. Called a 'seaglider,' the all-electric flying machine combines the speed, comfort, and navigation systems of an aircraft with the convenience, maneuverability and affordability of a boat. The hybrid craft embarks on trips from a dark at low speeds up to 45mph and when it reaches open waters, the vehicle takes off and reaches 180mph as it stays within one wingspan of the water's surface. The company is looking to establish specific routes between major hubs like Boston and New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, or shorter paths like New York City to the Hamptons or routes connecting the islands of Hawaii. Regent has received $450 million in provisional orders from operators across the globe and plans to start transporting passenger along coastal routes by 2050. Scroll down for video Boston-based Regent aims to reduce the cost and hassle of traveling between coastal cities and has developed a one-of-a-kind vehicle to do so. Called a 'seaglider,' the all-electric flying machine combines the speed, comfort, and navigation systems of an aircraft with the convenience, maneuverability and affordability of a boat The half plane, half boat vehicle is similar to a hovercraft that flies on a dynamic air cushion created by the pressurized air between the wings and the water. 'Our seaglider flies a few meters above the water and replaces ferries and short-haul aircraft on coastal routes,' Regent shared in a statement. 'This maritime environment allows us to halve the decade-long development cycle for aircraft and eVTOLs. By operating within a wingspan of the water, seagliders have double the range of electric aircraft thanks to aerodynamic and operational efficiencies.' The firm has listed its craft can only travel up to 180 miles, which is due what is allowed by existing battery technology. The hybrid craft embarks on trips from a dark at low speeds up to 45mph and when it reaches open waters, the vehicle takes off and reaches 180mph as it stays within one wingspan of the water's surface The company is looking to establish specific routes between major hubs like Boston and New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, or shorter paths like New York City to the Hamptons or routes connecting the islands of Hawaii However, Regent foresees batteries becoming more powerful in the future and says seaglider will be able to travel up to 500 miles on a single charge. REGENT's most recent financing round was led by Founders Fund, with participation from Dallas Mavericks owner and technology investor Mark Cuban, Y Combinator, Caffeinated Capital, Thiel Capital, Relativity Space founder Jordan Noone, and Fitbit founder James Park. Cuban, who was the first investor in billion-dollar rocket manufacturer Relativity Space, said, 'The efficiency of coastal transportation will be 100x greater with REGENT. There is no other way to describe it. The idea of having to get between 2 coastal points is always stress inducing. Regent changes all that and makes it fast and easy. REGENT will give people a step-change improvement in transportation. Passengers will spend less time in transit and more time with their families.' The company is working with existing harbor infrastructures to release fleets of seagliders worldwide. However, he also recognizes on challenged a lack of charging stations at docking areas The seaglider falls into the category of a Wing in Ground Effect craft, or WIGs, which is only regulated by the US Coast Guard According to the US Department of Homeland Security, WIGs refer to 'as a vessel capable of operating completely above the surface of the water on a dynamic air cushion created by aerodynamic lift due to the ground effect between the vessel and the water's surface' The seaglider falls into the category of a Wing in Ground Effect craft, or WIGs, which is only regulated by the US Coast Guard. According to the US Department of Homeland Security, WIGs refer to 'as a vessel capable of operating completely above the surface of the water on a dynamic air cushion created by aerodynamic lift due to the ground effect between the vessel and the water's surface.' CEO Billy Thalheimer told CNBC that he is working with existing harbor infrastructures to release fleets of seagliders worldwide. However, he also recognizes on challenged a lack of charging stations at docking areas. 'We're going to be flying a quarter-scale prototype by the end of this year,' said Thalheimer. 'The prototype will have about a 15-foot wingspan, and will weigh about 400 pounds. We need to make sure it works in representative operational environments, like in waves and different weather.' Thalheimer told CNBC that Regent is eyeing Boston for its first transport, but is still looking at other places along New England to test seagliders in harsh environments this US region can have some of the worst winters in the nation. NASA has unfolded the giant mirror of its James Webb Space Telescope 'like a piece of origami artwork' one last time ahead of its launch to space in October. The orbiting observatory has been designed as a successor to the highly successful Hubble space telescope and can see from the near ultraviolet to the near infrared. The US-space agency confirmed that for the last time while it is on Earth, the world's largest and most powerful space telescope opened its iconic primary mirror. It has to be folded 'like a piece of origami artwork' to fit within the rocket fairing that will take it out of Earth's atmosphere and send it a million miles to its final orbit. Supported by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), it has a massive 21ft 4 inch mirror that was commanded to fully expand and lock itself into place, replicating the process that will happen in space. This event marked a key milestone in preparing the observatory for launch on an Ariane 5 rocket from the ELA-3 launch site in Kourou, French Guiana in October. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is undergoing tests at Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach, California. The world's largest and most powerful space telescope ever built unfolded its giant golden mirror for the last time on Earth INSTRUMENTS ON THE JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera) an infrared imager from the edge of the visible through the near infrared NIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph) will also perform spectroscopy over the same wavelength range. MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) will measure the mid-to-long-infrared wavelength range from 5 to 27 micrometers. FGS/NIRISS (Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph), is used to stabilise the line-of-sight of the observatory during science observations. Advertisement The latest unfolding is part of the final run of tests before the mirror is deployed to its final orbit, at a stable point between the Sun and the Earth. The conclusion of this latest test represents the team's final checkpoint in a long series of tests. They have been designed to ensure Webb's 18 hexagonal mirrors are prepared for a long journey in space, and a life of discovery. All of the telescope's many movable parts have now confirmed they will perform as expects when exposed to conditions expected during the launch. 'The primary mirror is a technological marvel,' explained Lee Feinberg, optical telescope element manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. 'The lightweight mirrors, coatings, actuators and mechanisms, electronics and thermal blankets when fully deployed form a single precise mirror that is truly remarkable,' he added. 'This is not just the final deployment test sequence that the team has pulled off to prepare Webb for a life in space, but it means when we finish, that the primary mirror will be locked in place for launch. 'It's humbling to think about the hundreds of dedicated people across the entire country who worked so hard to design and build the primary mirror, and now to know launch is so close.' NASA has unfolded the giant mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope 'like a piece of origami artwork' one last time ahead of its launch to space in October Making the testing conditions close to what the telescope will experience in space helps to ensure the observatory is fully prepared for its science mission. When in orbit between the Earth and the Sun it will be about one million miles away from Earth, significantly further than the 340 miles Hubble is from the planet. Commands to unlatch and deploy the side panels of the mirror were relayed from Webb's testing control room at Northrop Grumman, in Redondo Beach, California. Making the testing conditions close to what the telescope will experience in space helps to ensure the observatory is fully prepared for its science mission Scientists may find ALIENS by 2026 thanks to the Webb telescope The existence of life on another planet could be proved as early as 2026 thanks to the James Webb telescope. It has the ability to detect signatures made by living creatures and Ohio State researchers say it could find 'life' on another planet in under 60 hours. Graduate student Caprice Phillips said the results of her study show that we may 'realistically find signs of life in the next 5 to 10 years.' Phillips calculated that when the James Webb Space Telescope launches in October, it could feasibly detect ammonia around gas dwarf planets after just a few orbits. Advertisement The software instructions sent, and the mechanisms that operated are the same as those used in space. Special gravity offsetting equipment was attached to Webb to simulate the zero-gravity environment in which its complex mechanisms will operate. All of the final thermal blanketing and shielding designed to protect its mirrors and instruments from interference were in place during testing. To observe objects in the distant cosmos, and to do science that's never been done before, Webb's mirror needs to be so large that it cannot fit inside any rocket available in its fully extended form. Like a piece of origami artwork, Webb contains many movable parts that have been specifically designed to fold themselves to a compact formation. This formation is considerably smaller than when the observatory is fully deployed. This allows it to just barely fit inside a 16-foot rocket fairing, with little room to spare. To deploy, operate and bring its golden mirrors into focus requires 132 individual actuators and motors in addition to complex backend software to support it. A proper deployment in space is critically important to the process of fine-tuning Webb's individual mirrors into one functional and massive reflector, NASA explained. Special gravity offsetting equipment was attached to Webb to simulate the zero-gravity environment in which its complex mechanisms will operate Supported by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), it has a massive 21ft 4 inch mirror that was commanded to fully expand and lock itself into place, replicating the process that will happen in space WEBB TO STUDY EXTREME YOUNG EXOPLANETS Before planets around other stars were first discovered in the 1990s, these far-flung exotic worlds lived only in the imagination of science fiction writers. But even their creative minds could not have conceived of the variety of worlds astronomers have uncovered. Many of these worlds, called exoplanets, are vastly different from our solar system's family of planets. They range from star-hugging 'hot Jupiters' to oversized rocky planets dubbed 'super Earths.' Seeing these distant worlds isn't easy because they get lost in the glare of their host stars. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope will help astronomers probe farther into this bold new frontier. Webb is equipped with special optical systems which use masks to block out as much starlight as possible. This will allow them to study faint exoplanets and to uncover new worlds. Advertisement Once the wings are fully extended and in place, extremely precise actuators on the backside of the mirrors position and bend or flex each mirror into a specific prescription. Testing of each actuator and their expected movements was completed in a final functional test earlier this year. 'Pioneering space observatories like Webb only come to fruition when dedicated individuals work together to surmount the challenge of building something that has never been done before,' said Ritva Keski-Kuha, deputy optical telescope element manager for Webb at Goddard. 'I am especially proud of our teams that built Webb's mirrors, and the complex back-end electronics and software that will empower it to see deep into space with extreme precision. 'It has been very interesting, and extremely rewarding to see it all come together. 'The completion of this last test on its mirrors is especially exciting because of how close we are to launch later this year.' Following this test engineers will immediately move on to tackle Webb's final few tests. These include extending and then restowing two radiator assemblies that help the observatory cool down, and one full extension and restowing of its deployable tower. The James Webb Space Telescope will be the world's premier space science observatory when it launches in 2021. Webb will solve mysteries in our solar system, look beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probe the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Nuclear reactions have been discovered smouldering 'like embers at a barbecue' in an inaccessible chamber at Chernobyl, according to scientists. A surge in neutrons have been observed in a chamber known as Subreactor Room 305/2, 35 years after the catastrophic nuclear disaster. Neutrons are particles in an atom, and are a signal of fission the splitting of an atomic nucleus resulting in the release of large amounts of energy. Scientists may be required to intervene at the chamber, which hasn't been entered since the disaster, to potentially avoid another explosion. Scroll down for video in April 1986, a sudden power surge at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant resulted in a massive reactor explosion, exposing the core and blanketing the western Soviet Union and Europe with radiation LFCMs at CHERNOBYL The formation of LFCMs at Chernobyl is well-known and the problems they pose are well documented. LFCMs are a mixture of highly radioactive molten nuclear fuel and building materials that fuse together. For example, during the meltdown of Chernobyl's reactor core, temperatures exceeded 1600C and the uranium fuel melted with the zirconium cladding. This formed a radioactive molten mush that remained at an extremely high temperature. Propelled by its own weight, it then mixed with steel, concrete, serpentine and sand. The 100-ton mass of the glass-like lava then spread to sub-reactor rooms, solidifying in large masses and creating, among other things, the infamous 'elephants foot'. Advertisement 'We have only assumptions,' Maxim Saveliev at the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) in Kyiv, Ukraine, told Science Magazine. 'There are many uncertainties, but we can't rule out the possibility of an accident.' Neil Hyatt, a nuclear materials chemist at the University of Sheffield, said the situation was like 'the embers in a barbecue pit'. 'It's a reminder to us that it's not a problem solved, it's a problem stabilised,' he said. The scientists are using sensors to track a rise in the number of neutrons in the chamber, but they're rising slowly, suggesting there are still have a few years to figure out how to stifle the threat, according to Science Magazine. The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986, at unit number four in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the Ukrainian city of Pripyat. The staff on duty made errors during a safety test that triggered the nuclear reactor's explosion a fatal mistake documented in a recent HBO series. The explosion blanketing the western Soviet Union and Europe with radiation leading to the largest man-made environmental disaster in history and the largest ever nuclear disaster. More than 100,000 people were evacuated and a 20-mile exclusion zone was established that still exists today. Radioactive corridors where Reactor No.4 malfunctioned in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant - and the levels of radiation are fifty thousand times higher than normal At the time, emergency crews responding to the accident used helicopters to pour sand and boron on the reactor debris to extinguish fires. The sand melted with uranium fuel rods and their zirconium cladding, as well as graphite control rods, to form a lava. The lava flowed into the reactor hall's basement rooms and hardened into highly radioactive formations called lava-like fuel containing materials (LFCMs). A few weeks after the accident, the crews completely covered the damaged unit in a temporary concrete structure, called the 'sarcophagus', to limit further release of radioactive material. The Soviet government also cut down and buried about a square mile of pine forest near the plant to reduce radioactive contamination at and near the site. The series of events that led to the explosion in the reactor in Reactor 4 on the night of April 26, 1986 A sudden power surge at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant resulted in a massive reactor explosion, exposing the core and blanketing the western Soviet Union and Europe with radiation. Pictured, a view of the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant three days after the explosion on April 29, 1986 But the problem is the sarcophagus allowed rainwater to seep in, which can send neutron counts soaring. The plant has since installed sprinklers that emit gadolinium nitrate, which absorbs neutrons but they can't penetrate some basement rooms. In 2016, the New Safe Confinement (NSC) a massive structure built to confine the remains of the number 4 reactor unit was installed over the sarcophagus, keeping out rain. The New Safe Confinement (NSC, pictured) is a structure built to confine the remains of unit number four at Chernobyl Since then, neutron counts in most areas have been stable or are declining but not in subreactor room 305/2, where they've mysteriously nearly doubled in four years. 'It's just not clear what the mechanism might be,' said Hyatt but there's the concern the chamber could become more of a threat as it gets dryer, leading to an uncontrolled release of nuclear energy. While any explosive reaction would be contained by the NSC, it could threaten to bring down unstable parts of the ageing sarcophagus, filling the NSC with radioactive dust. There's no chance of a repeat of the catastrophic explosion, which killed two reactor employees at the scene and hospitalized another 134 with acute radiation poisoning. But experts are considering sending in a specially-developed radiation resistant robot that could insert boron cylinders, which would sop up neutrons. A letter penned by Albert Einstein which is rare for containing his famous 'E = mc' massenergy equivalence formula has gone on sale for the sum of 282,000. The German-born theoretical physicist corresponded with a fellow researcher in October 1946, telling him a question could 'be answered from the E = mc formula.' The one-page letter, which is signed off 'A. Einstein', is being auctioned off by Boston-based RR Auction in a timed sale which will end next week, on May 20. It is only one of four known examples of the massenergy equivalence formula having been written down in Einstein's own hand. Scroll down for video A letter penned by Albert Einstein which is rare for containing his famous 'E = mc' massenergy equivalence formula (pictured) has gone on sale for the sum of 282,000 E = mc EXPLAINED E = mc the massenergy equivalence formula details the relationship between mass and energy of a system at rest. It describes the energy (E) of a particle as a product of its mass (m) and the square of the speed of light (c). The speed of light is an enormous number in everyday units, being 299 792 458 metres per second. Given this, the formula shows how a small amount of mass at rest is equal to a massive amount of energy. This accounts, for example, for the phenomenal amounts of energy that can be released by nuclear reactions, which convert tiny amounts of mass into energy. E = mc was derived by Albert Einstein as a result of his work on special relativity. This explained how space and time are linked for non-accelerating objects. Advertisement Composed on Princeton University letterhead, the letter was written to the Polish-American physicist Ludwik Silberstein, who had previously contested part of Einstein's theory of general relativity. Translated into English, Einstein's response read: 'Your question can be answered from the E = mc formula, without any erudition.' 'If E is the energy of your system consisting of the two masses, E the energy of the masses when they approach infinite distance, then the system's mass defect is E - E / c2,' he continued. Following a more complex answer, Einstein went on to conclude that 'one must first a theory that contains the correct unification of gravitation and electricity.' The search for this 'unified field theory' would go on to consume the final third of the extraordinary physicist's life. Einstein demonstrated mass-energy equivalence in 1905 - his so-called 'miracle year which also saw him publish ground-breaking papers introducing the theory of special relativity, explaining Brownian motion and outlining the photoelectric effect. Special relativity - which involves the relationship between space and time - determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers and that light's speed in a vacuum is fixed, regardless of observer or source motion. To this understanding Einstein later succeeded in factoring in acceleration and he published this in 1915 as his theory of general relativity, which explained that objects with mass distort the fabric of space and time, which we experience as gravity. Dr Silberstein cast doubt on general relativity in 193536 even claiming in the press that the theory was 'flawed' after developing a solution to Einstein's field equations that he (erroneously) thought violated our understanding of gravity. (The field equations are those that Einstein drew up to relate the geometry of spacetime to the distribution of matter within it and thereby are what describe gravity as being a result the curvature of spacetime by mass and energy.) However, by the time of Einstein's correspondence in 1946, Dr Silberstein had reportedly come around to Einstein's way of thinking. The German-born theoretical physicist, pictured, corresponded with a fellow researcher in October 1946, telling him a question could 'be answered from the E = mc formula' E = mc the massenergy equivalence formula details the relationship between mass and energy of a system at rest 'It's an important letter from both a holographic and a physics point of view, as it shows Einstein's thinking on one of the most basic of all physical problems,' said RR Auction's executive vice president, Bobby Livingston In fact, the Polish-American researcher is best known today for his work in introducing both Einstein's general and special relativity into university courses. The letter he received from Einstein has been put up for auction now by Dr Silberstein's great-great-grandchildren. 'It's an important letter from both a holographic and a physics point of view, as it shows Einstein's thinking on one of the most basic of all physical problems,' said RR Auction's executive vice president, Bobby Livingston. Einstein, who passed away in 1955, would later go on to explain his general theory of relativity as 'follow[ing] from the special theory of relativity that mass and energy are but different manifestations of the same thing. 'Furthermore, the equation E is equal to m c-squared, in which energy is put equal to mass multiplied by the velocity of light squared, showed that a very small amount of mass may be converted into a very large amount of energy, and vice versa.' In 2018, another piece of Einstein's correspondence the 'God letter' in which he called religion in general, and especially Judaism, a 'childish superstition' born of 'human weakness' sold at auction in New York for $3 million (2.1 million). NASA's Perseverance rover has switched from photographing the Ingenuity helicopter's test flights, to searching for signs of long gone Martian life. The US space agency confirmed that the SUV-sized rover has started to test the ancient lakebed in the Jezero crater by focusing its science instruments on rocks. A camera called WATSON on the end of the rover's robotic arm has taken detailed shots of the rocks, with extra data coming from a pair of zoomable cameras. The Perseverance team tweeted: 'The time has come: I'm switching from on-scene photographer to science investigator. Did this ancient lakebed ever have life? The tools I brought will help begin the hunt. I'm a bot on a mission.' The rover arrived on Mars on February 18 and since landing has focused on testing its instruments, as well as recording and relaying data on Ingenuity flights. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager to capture this image of 'Santa Cruz' a hill about 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) away from the rover WHAT IS MASTCAM-Z USED TO FILM THE INGENUITY FLIGHT The main purpose of Mastcam-Z, a camera mounted on a mast attached to Perseverance, is to take photos and video in high definition. It is also able to capture panoramic, colour and 3D images of features in the atmosphere and on the surface. It has a zoom lens so it can magnify distant targets, making it perfect to track the first Ingenuity flight. It is mounted at the eye level of a 6 and a half foot tall person with two cameras about 9.5 inches apart. NASA says it is the 'main eyes' of the Perseverance rover. Advertisement Now that Ingenuity has moved from a technical demonstration, to taking up the new role as a scout for Perseverance, the 'science can begin,' the agency explained. Using its suite of cameras, Perseverance has been taking images of rocks on the floor of the crater, which was once a lakebed billions of years ago. What insights they turn up will help scientists create a timeline of when an ancient lake formed there, when it dried, and when sediment began piling up in the delta that formed in the crater long ago. Understanding this timeline should help date rock samples to be collected later in the mission that might preserve a record of ancient microbes. A camera called WATSON on the end of the rover's robotic arm has taken detailed shots of the rocks for scientists to study. A pair of zoomable cameras that make up the Mastcam-Z imager on the rover's 'head' worked to survey the terrain, and a laser instrument called SuperCam has zapped some of the rocks to detect their chemistry. These instruments and others allow scientists to learn more about Jezero Crater and to home in on areas they might like to study in greater depth. One important question scientists want to answer is whether these rocks are sedimentary like sandstone, or igneous and formed by volcanic activity. Each type of rock tells a different kind of story, NASA explained. Some sedimentary rocks formed in the presence of water from rock and mineral fragments like sand, silt, and clay are better suited to preserving biosignatures, or signs of past life. Igneous rocks, on the other hand, are more precise geological clocks that allow scientists to create an accurate timeline of how an area formed. One complicating factor is that the rocks around Perseverance have been eroded by wind over time and covered with younger sand and dust. Perseverance Mars rover viewed these rocks using its Mastcam-Z imager. Stitched together from 21 images. The bottom version is a colour anaglyph made for viewing through red-blue 3D glasses On Earth, a geologist might trudge into the field and break a rock sample open to get a better idea of its origins, said Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist. 'When you look inside a rock, that's where you see the story,' he added. While Perseverance doesn't have a rock hammer, it does have other ways to peer past millennia's worth of dust. When scientists find a particularly enticing spot, they can reach out with the rover's arm and use an abrader to grind and flatten a rock's surface, revealing its internal structure and composition. Humankind has sent dozens of spacecraft and landers to Mars - those that have been successful have left their mark on the Red Planet such as these from Perseverance Once they've done that, the team gathers more detailed chemical and mineralogical information using other instruments on the arm. This includes Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL) and Scanning for Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals (SHERLOC). 'The more rocks you look at, the more you know,' Farley said, adding that the more the team knows, the better samples they can ultimately collect with the drill. The best ones will be stored in special tubes and deposited in collections on the planet's surface for eventual return to Earth. NASA's Perseverance Mars rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter, seen here about 13 feet (3.9 meters) from the rover. This image was taken by the WATSON camera on the rover's robotic arm on April 6, 2021 A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterise the planet's geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust). Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis. Volkswagen will hit the road with its self-driving ID.Buzz minivans this summer - as it prepares to roll out a robot taxi service in 2025. The autonomous version of the classic hippie-era microbus will be tested six US cities, including Pittsburgh, before expanding to Munich, Germany. The goal is to add the driverless service to MOIA, Volkswagen's riding-hailing service which is already available in Germany. A conventional version of the electric microbus is expected to go on sale in the US in 2023. Scroll down for video Volkswagen will test an autonomous version of its electric minibus ID.Buzz in six US cities this summer. The company hopes to add the vehicle to the fleet used in its ride-share app MOIA by 2025 DailyMail.com has contacted Volkswagen about where testing will be conducted. Should it past muster, the Buzz would be Volkswagen's first autonomous vehicle. 'Autonomous, electric driving will make an important contribution to urban mobility and road safety. Our vehicles are the logical first choice to apply such systems to,' Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles CEO Carsten Intra said in March. Argo AI, a Pittsburgh-based autonomous driving technology company receiving backing from both VW and Ford, is developing the minibus' self-driving system. To scan the road and environment, self-driving vehicles typically use a combination of conventional two-dimensional cameras and depth-sensing 'LiDAR' (light detection and ranging) technology. A conventional manned version of the electric microbus is expected to go on sale in Germany next year and in the US in 2023 Argo claims its LiDAR is capable of seeing more than 1,300 feet in the dark, over 300 feet further than current sensors. LiDAR sends out short laser pulses, which bounce back when they hit an obstacle. These sensors constantly scan the surrounding areas looking for information, acting as the 'eyes' of the car. Argo claims its LiDAR is capable of seeing more than 1,300 feet down the road in the dark, Bloomberg reported, over 300 feet further than current sensors. The ID.Buzz will have Level 4 autonomy, which means it is approved to handle normal driving without a drivers' input but only within a specific defined area, and it may not be able to cope with all weather or road conditions. The company hasn't revealed which cities the ID.Buzz will be road-tested in, but it's likely one will be Pittsburgh, where Argo is based. According to Christian Senger, head of autonomous driving at VW Commercial Vehicles, the test locations will be densely populated urban areas that pose 'high complexity for the technology, but also offer the basis for intensive use of mobility offerings.' The ultimate goal is to add a driverless option to MOIA, VW's ride-share app available in Hamburg and Hanover. The ID.Buzz will have Level 4 autonomy, meaning it can handle all situations within defined use, but it may not be able to cope with all weather or road conditions. Pictured: An ID.Buzz prototype THE FIVE LEVELS OF AUTONOMOUS DRIVING Level 1 A small amount of control is accomplished by the system such as adaptive braking if a car gets too close. Level 2 The system can control the speed and direction of the car allowing the driver to take their hands off temporarily, but they have to monitor the road at all times and be ready to take over. Level 3 The driver does not have to monitor the system at all times in some specific cases like on high ways but must be ready to resume control if the system requests. Level 4 The system can cope will all situations automatically within defined use but it may not be able to cope will all weather or road conditions. System will rely on high definition mapping. Level 5 Full automation. System can cope with all weather, traffic and lighting conditions. It can go anywhere, at any time in any conditions. Note: Level 0 is often used to describe vehicles fully controlled by a human driver. Advertisement 'In the middle of this decade, our customers will then have the opportunity to be taken to their destination in selected cities with autonomous vehicles,' Senger said. 'Hamburg will be the first city to offer an autonomous ride-pooling service with an ID. Buzz,' said Robert Henrich, CEO of MOIA. A conventional version of the electric microbus is expected to launch in Europe next year, with rollout in the US in 2023. It will join the ID 3 hatchback, the ID 4 compact SUV, and ID 5 coupe in VWs portfolio of electric vehicles, The Verge reported. Two other self-driving car projects, Google's Waymo and General Motors' Cruise, have applied for permits with the California Department of Motor Vehicles to start charging passengers for autonomous-vehicle rides and deliveries in San Francisco, Reuters reported. Cruise claims to have logged 2 million autonomous driving miles in San Francisco already, while Waymo reported a total of 83,000 miles. Waymo started offering driverless taxi service in Chandler, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, in 2019. San Francisco poses more driving difficulty but, autonomous mobility consultant Grayson Brulte told Reuters, 'You have a faster path to meaningful revenue in dense urban environments such as San Francisco than in the suburbs such as Chandler.' According to their applications, Waymo wants to first deploy vehicles in autonomous mode with a human behind the wheel while Cruise would dispense with the driver at the start. At the same time, some companies are putting their plans for self-driving vehicles in reverse: Uber and Lyft are both selling off their driverless-tech divisions, Bloomberg reported. A solar storm could mean the Northern Lights will be seen from the UK on Wednesday evening, according to the Met Office. The phenomenon, also known as the aurora borealis, should be visible under clear skies in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man and possibly even parts of Northern England, as well as other areas of the world near the North Pole. The Northern Lights are created by disturbances in Earth's magnetosphere caused by a flow of particles from the Sun, and are usually concentrated around the Earth's magnetic poles. Met Office said tonight's display stems from a coronal mass ejection (CME) a massive expulsion of plasma from the Sun's corona (its outermost layer). Scroll down for video The Met Office revealed a coronal mass ejection (CME) - a massive expulsion of plasma from the Sun's corona (its outermost layer) - will likely cause 'minor to strong' geomagnetic storms and a possible sighting of the aurora borealis this evening 'A CME from a filament eruption has impacted Earth-space today, with likely Minor to Strong geomagnetic storms continuing this afternoon and evening,' the Met Office tweeted this afternoon. 'Aurora sightings are possible in the north of the UK tonight where skies are clear.' Aurora Watch UK, which keeps tabs on when the aurora may be visible, also tweeted: 'Red alert: aurora likely' today. The stunning display of lights we see in the night sky are in actual fact caused by activity on the surface of the Sun Steven Keates, senior operational meteorologist at the Met Office, told MailOnline that 'the further north you are, the better the likelihood' of seeing the Northern Lights. Scotland is the optimum position, but cloud in areas too far north could prove 'a fly in the ointment', he said. The cut-off point for having any chance of seeing it is around north Wales or the top of Lincolnshire, he said, meaning anyone south of this likely won't see the display. VirtualAstro, an account dedicated to sharing space and astronomy updates, said the spectacle would be visible late 'when properly dark' after sunset, which is at 20:42 BST tonight. The Northern Lights is currently at number seven on the KP index, which measures how far south it can be seen from the ground, it pointed out. VirtualAstro tweeted at 14:19 BST today: 'Currently, the Aurora is at KP7 which means if conditions are right and it was dark the Aurora might be visible from northern England. 'If it reaches KP9, and conditions are right, it might be visible in the south also. This is very rare.' Aurora borealis, as seen over the Reynisdrangar, Vik, Iceland. The aurora can be seen near the poles of both the northern and southern hemisphere. In the north the display is known as the aurora borealis; in the south it is called the aurora australis The Northern Lights seen over the Zapolyarnaya-2 mine of Vorkutaugol in the city of Vorkuta, northwestern Russia in April 2021 The Northern Lights has fascinated Earthlings for centuries, but the science behind it has not always been understood. Earth has an invisible forcefield, the magnetosphere, that protects us from dangerous charged particles from the Sun. The magnetosphere is the area around Earth controlled by the planet's magnetic field. Science expert Marty Jopson explains: 'Whilst it shelters us, it also creates one of the most impressive phenomena on Earth the Northern Lights.' 'When the deadly solar winds meet Earth's magnetosphere, some of the charged particles get trapped, and are propelled down the Earth's magnetic field lines straight towards the poles. 'And when they reach Earth, they strike atoms and molecules in our atmosphere, releasing energy in the form of light.' The aurora can be seen near the poles of both the northern and southern hemispheres. In the north the display is known as the aurora borealis, and in the south it is called the aurora australis. Solar storms aren't dangerous to humans on Earths surface, but they can cause interference with power grids and GPS signals. A container load of printer cartridges which fell off a cargo ship in 2014 is helping scientists to map how currents move pollution through oceans. Thousands of plastic Hewlett-Packard inkjet cartridges fell into the northern Atlantic Ocean east of New York in an accident in 2014, and were swept thousands of miles around the world. A team of scientists led by the University of Plymouth sent out a call on social media, shortly after news broke about the spill, asking a Facebook group of beachcombers to be on the lookout for the plastic cartridges. Researchers have now revealed the results of the four-year-long survey, with respondents finding 1,467 devices on shores of western Europe, the Canary Islands, Bermuda, Florida, and even northern Norway. The largest groups were found along beaches the south west of England The distribution, according to researchers, reflected the principal surface currents in the ocean, with some carried by the Azores and Canary currents around the North Atlantic Gyre, and others transported northwards with the North Atlantic and Norwegian currents. The data also showed the cartridges spread more than 4,000 miles at an average drift of 10 centimeters a second - or around 0.2 miles per hour. Scroll down for video . Following a four-year-long survey, respondents uncovered 1,467 devices on shores of western Europe, the Canary Islands, Bermuda and Florida, along with in northern Norway Tons of plastic debris makes its way into the oceans every day and as of 2020 there were some 5.25 trillion pieces of waste with 269,000 ton of it floating on the surface alone. And much of the trash travels long distances on the ocean waves. Although most of the plastic stems as discarded waste, some is a result of containers lost at sea. According to the new study, published in the journal of Environmental Pollution, hundreds of containers carrying cargo are lost at sea each year. The data also showed the cartridges spread more than 4,000 miles in less four years at an average drift of 10 centimeters a second, which is alarming as the devices broke down into microplastics Most container loss goes undocumented or is not reported in a systematic manner because, currently, there is no obligation for lost cargo to be declared unless of a hazardous nature, reads the study. However, using a mean, estimated annual loss of 568 containers over the last decade, coupled with an average container capacity of 26.5 tonnes and a plastic cargo content of 70%, suggest that up to 10,500 tonnes of marine plastic litter per year may be derived from this route. Andrew Turner with the University of Plymouth, who led the study, used a Facebook group to track down the path of the lost inkjet cartridges. Picture shows the areas around western England where beachcombers found the cartridges After sightings came in, the team went to work mapping the 1,467 that were spotted. The map developed by the team shows six currents that had grabbed cartridges from the original spill location. The North Atlantic Current took most of the objects, dropping them along the western European coast. In regions impacted by the North Atlantic Current, the accumulation of cartridges is distinctly greater on west- and southfacing coasts in accordance with the general circulation described above, according to the study. This effect is also evident from the distribution of cartridges retrieved from the UK and Ireland and, on a finer scale, from southwest England. The Norwegian Current dipped into the North Atlantic to bring some as far north as the top of Norway. Microscopic images of different components of various HP cartridges. The study investigated how fast the plastic breaks down in water. The once sturdy devices had been reduced to chalky brittle objects following their time lost at sea Also flowing in the Atlantic Ocean is the Azores Current that distributed devices along the Canary Islands, and fed some into the Gulf Stream to land in Florida and Bermuda. The dates of initial cartridge observations are also consistent with these patterns of circulation, with the earliest reports being closest oceanographically (i.e. according to the surface current trajectories) to the spillage (Azores) and the latest initial sightings generally recorded at the greatest distances; namely, Florida, Bermuda and northern Norway, researchers wrote. The study also investigated how fast the plastic breaks down in water. The once sturdy devices had been reduced to chalky brittle objects following their time lost at sea, which means microplastics fell off into the oceans. And an even closer examination showed the cartridges released microplastic pollution that contains metals like iron, copper and titanium. Printer cartridges are not just plastic waste, the authors note, they are also electronic waste because they contain chips. The impact of electronic waste on marine ecosystems is unknown at this point. Although the team was able to retrace paths of the inkjet cartridges, they note that once a spill happens there is not any way to completely clean it up. A savvy entrepreneur in Guatemala is taking advantage of an active volcano to launch a new food craze. David Garcia has been cooking pizza over lava oozing out of Pacaya volcano, which began erupting again in February, for the past several weeks. He wears protective clothing and bakes the pizza on special metal sheets that can withstand temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. Tourists have been flocking to the mountain to have a slice and post pics on social media. Pacaya is one of three active volcanoes in the Central American nation, and its eruptions can be seen from the capital, Guatemala City, some 15 miles away. Scroll down for video Accountant David Garcia cooks pizza over lava oozing out of Pacaya volcano, which began erupting again in February. He uses special metal trays that can withstand heats of 1800 degrees Fahrenheit Pacaya first 'awoke' some 23,000 years ago and has erupted at least two dozen times since the Spanish conquered Guatemala in the 16th century. After decades of dormancy, it has erupted frequently since the early 1960s. According to a May 12 update from the National Institute of Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology, it's spewing ash 'of small-to-moderate size,' though it's not yet threatening any inhabited areas. 'The eruptive fissure vent on the northwest flank produces lava fountains, about 50-100 meters [164-328 feet] tall, that feed the advancing lava flows,' the update reads. Garcia (pictured) first started baking pizzas in small caverns on the mountainside in 2013. 'I put it in a hot cave that was approximately 800 degrees [1400 degrees Fahrenheit] and it came out in 14 minutes' According to a May 12 update from the The National Institute for Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology of Guatemala, Pacaya is now spewing ash 'of small-to-moderate size,' though it's not threatening any inhabited areas 'The flow fronts have reached more than 2,300 meters [7,545 feet] distance and are slowly approaching towards the farmland of La Brena on the west.' Garcia, an accountant, started baking pizzas in 2013 in small caverns on the mountainside. 'I put it in a hot cave that was approximately 800 degrees [1400 degrees Fahrenheit] and it came out in 14 minutes,' he told AFP. 'When I tasted the flavor of the pizza cooked with the volcanic heat, I said, 'this is a good idea.'' When Pacaya began heating up in recent weeks, he moved his makeshift operation to a rocky area near the crater and started cooking on the lava itself. Pacaya is one of three active volcanoes in Guatemala and its eruptions can be seen from Guatemala City, some 15 miles away Garcia has to make sure the temperature doesn't get too high and burn the pans and the dough. And if he puts the sheet directly on a lava stream, 'I have to make sure that the pizza doesn't drift away' It's definitely not as precise as an ovenGarcia has to make sure the temperature doesn't get too high and burn the pans and the dough. And if he puts the sheet directly on a lava flow, 'I have to make sure that the pizza doesn't drift away.' The lava can reach temperatures of 3600 degrees Fahrenheit, he added, 'so I have to watch the wind direction so it doesn't affect me.' It's a risky undertaking, but his 'Pacaya pizzas,' with tomato sauce, cheese, onions and pepperoni, have been a hit with tourists hungry after ascending the mountain. Garcia wears protective gear from head to toe while working in his 'pizzaria.' With lava reaching temperatures of 3600 degrees Fahrenheit, he watches the wind direction 'so it doesn't affect me' Pacaya's frequent but nonthreatening eruptions have made it popular with tourists. Pictured: Visitors enjoy Garcia's 'Pacaya Pizza' 'Having a pizza cooked in the embers of a volcano is mind-blowing and unique in the whole world,' visitor Felipe Aldana told AFP . While Garcia's approach is unique, he's not the only chef to use lava instead of an oven: In 2014 London entrepreneurs Sam Bompas and Harry Parr seared steaks over hot flowing magma. The pair, who operate a company that creates 'immersive flavor-based experiences,' hired an expert to build a furnace that could reach 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit and melt rocks into molten lava. Bompas said he got the inspiration for the fiery feat while visiting an active volcano in Japan. 'I packed some mallows and snuck over the barriers to the lava flows and roasted my mallows for s'mores,' he told ABC News. 'When I did that, I thought, 'This is insane. This is how cooking should be done, and wouldn't it be wonderful if you could bring it to more people?' Bompas and Parr placed a steak over the lava and were able to cook it in just seconds, with a ' dense, thick char on the outside,' 'With all this buildup, I can honestly say it was the best steak I've had in my entire life,' Bompas said. 'It was an intense rib eye flavor sensation.' Scientists have found a way to control the human brain using a protein lurking inside a creature known as 'vampire fish' that has lived on Earth for hundreds of millions of years. US scientists used a protein from a lamprey, which is an ancient lineage of jawless fish similar to eel, to turn off brain circuits associated with addiction, anxiety and depression. Researchers took a gene from the protein, called parapinopsin, and found they were able to control it in the way neurons communicate with each other. Parapinopsin also responds to light, allowing scientists use beams of light to turn off the circuit or reactivate it alter reward behaviors - which could lead to brain implants to deliver treatment. Scroll down for video US scientists used a protein from a lamprey, which is an ancient lineage of jawless fish similar to eel, to turn off brain circuits associated with addiction, anxiety and depression Those suffering with addiction, anxiety and depression may have often wished if they could just turn off their brain and the latest discover could soon make that happen. In a paper published May 11 in Neuron, researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Washington University in St. Louis, along with several other universities, successfully used a protein from a lamprey to turn off brain circuits. Lampreys are a species that has roamed the Earth for about 360 million years and feasts parasitically by attaching their mouths to the side of a fish or whale before sucking blood. And due to their large mouth and feeding behavior, the marine creature has earned the name 'vampire fish.' Researchers took a gene from the protein, called parapinopsin, and found they were able to control it in the way neurons communicate with each other. Lampreys are a species that has roamed the Earth for about 360 million years Michael Bruchas, professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine at the University of Washington, said: 'We found a particular protein that comes from lamprey that has been around for hundreds of millions of years. 'We took the gene from that protein and found we can control the way neurons talk to each other, which is how chemicals are transmitted into the brain.' For decades, neuroscientists have been using different types of light-sensitive proteins that are expressed in plants and bacteria to experiment with brain circuitry, said Bruchas. But this is the first time a protein was taken from lamprey to control brain circuits. Parapinopsin is a type of protein called a 'g protein coupled receptor' or GPCR. These GPCRs emerged early on in evolution and can be found in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. And there at least 850 of these kinds of proteins in mammals. These proteins control everything from heart rate to fat storage, to reward and stress responses. GPCRs also respond well to chemicals, such as dopamine and serotonin, which make people feel good and are important with learning and reward. 'Some of these GPCR pathways are highly conserved across millions of years of evolution, and that allowed us to hack into them using parapinopsin,' said Bryan Copits, lead author and co-corresponding author, assistant professor of anesthesiology in the Pain Center at Washington University School of Medicine, where Bruchas was formerly located. Finding a way to control neurons is the holy grail among the scientific community, as this would open up a world of treatments for people suffering with mood disorders, along with other complications like paralysis and blindness. And determining the lamprey protein responds to light might be exactly what they have been searching for. The team found that zapping the protein with a blue light activates it and amber light switches it off. This would eliminate the need for chemicals treatments that could have side effects and instead zap the proteins with a harmless beam of light. Parapinopsin also responds to light, allowing scientists use beams of light to turn off the circuit or reactivate it alter reward behaviors - which could lead to brain implants to deliver treatment 'For example, if a part of the brain was having seizures from Parkinson's, it might be possible to isolate the effect with an electrode, dampen it with adjustments to neurotransmission or to inhibit specific pathways to improve mood, the team shared in a statement. Bruchas said the original discovery of parapinopsin was made by researchers in Japan in the Terakita lab, who have been discovering different light-sensitive GPCRs across species. 'This is a perfect rationale for why basic science is so incredibly important,' said Bruchas. 'Because of someone's hard work of basic biological discovery, we have a new tool for medical research. ' Bruchas said his team is planning to use the discovery for research into expanding their knowledge of the inner workings of the brain and to identify treatments for stress, depression, addiction, and pain. Residents of two villages were forced to evacuate when Turkish forces attacked an Iraqi province on the anniversary of the Ottoman-era genocide of Christians. The Christian residents of two villages in the Duhok Province of Iran were forced to flee as Turkey launched airstrikes in the area. Residents of Kesta Village evacuated by May 3 with some retreating to the nearby Chalke Village, which was then evacuated over the weekend save for one person. According to International Christian Concern, Turkey's airstrikes became increasingly aggressive in April, enabling their forces to establish new military bases in the area. The timing is believed to coincide with the anniversary of Ottoman-era genocide of Christians. Officials reportedly said Turkey also deployed chemical weapons at least three times in the area since the military operation began, claiming that these were part of national security operations against the PKK terrorist group inside Iraq. Footage from the two Christian villages showed families evacuating as the airstrikes continued in the background. The community traveled through a rural, mountainous region, often over difficult roads together with their farming livelihood. Iraqi media showed footage of the airstrike damage. One man who refused to leave the Chalke Village vowed that he would not abandon his home despite the airstrikes. "I have not abandoned my house and will not until I die. I sleep in my house, disregarding the constant bombardment," Yousef Zayya, the man who stayed behind, told Rudaw. The Anadolu Agency reported over the weekend that the Turkish security forces discovered a four-room cave in the Avasin-Basyan region which housed PKK terrorists in northern Iraq. They also found that the cave, which could house up to 50 terrorists, also had a "separate room with a steel door for hostages." Turkish security forces confiscated nine improvised explosives and ammunition for 10 mortars. In a separate operation, Turkish security forces also seized weapons and ammunition in a cave in the Avasin-Basyan region where they neutralized six PKK terrorists in an anti-terror operation held on Sunday. According to Daily Sabah, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) that launched airstrikes in the Gara region were able to eliminate at least 16 of 19 terrorists in two separate operations in northern Iraq. The ministry said that operations are continuing in the area to eliminate PKK terrorist groups. The TSK's large-scale military operation against the said group began in northern Iraq on April 23. Turkey reiterated that it would not tolerate terrorist threats and called upon Iraqi officials to contain the threat. PKK's 40-year terror campaign against Turkey has led many countries to label it as a terrorist organization, including the United States and the European Union. In April, President Joe Biden spoke with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan before the U.S. President recognized the Ottoman-Era genocide in April 1915. According to NPR, President Biden said in a statement, "Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring." Turkey has rejected historians' definition of the 1915 event as a genocide, which is why Biden's declaration may cause friction between the two nations despite the U.S. President's wishes to create a "constructive bilateral relationship with expanded areas of cooperation and effective management of disagreements" with Turkey. Celtic hit out at 'unacceptable' behaviour by fan group The Green Brigade after they put out a fan display in support of Palestine. Officials encouraged the fan group to lay out shirts, scarves and flags inside Parkhead ahead of captain Scott Brown's final Celtic game at home. But a number of Palestine-supporting flags were displayed during the fan group's time inside the stadium and Celtic condemned the exhibition, believing they 'exploited the opportunity' inside Parkhead. A Palestine-supporting flag display was produced by Celtic fan group The Green Brigade Celtic described it as 'unacceptable' and said in a statement that the flags have been removed 'We had invited supporters to pay tribute to our club captain, Scott Brown, by giving them the opportunity to display their own banners in the stadium,' a statement read. 'Unfortunately a small group, which was given access in good faith, has attempted to exploit this opportunity, taken advantage of an occasion intended for our club captain, Scott Brown, and used it for a different purpose. 'Clearly this is unacceptable and the display was immediately taken down by the club.' Celtic take on St Johnstone on Wednesday night and the club have looked to mark Brown's final appearance at home with tributes in the stands. Fans were encouraged to place flags, banners and shirts out that pay tribute to the captain Seats were covered in personalised shirts with messages for 'legend' Brown's last home game The midfielder has been a loyal servant to the Glasgow-based side and was part of the squads who won nine-in-a-row. He is also a quadruple Treble-winner as he captained Celtic in a period of unprecedented success. But fan access has since been politicised as The Green Brigade looked to stand in solidarity the the people of Palestine. Flags were placed in the North Curve section at Parkhead but have since been removed by the club. The Palestine territory of Gaza has found itself under attack in the last week after deadly airstrikes from Israel destroyed two tower blocks. It has been reported that a figure of around 43 Palestinians - including 13 children - were killed. This is the most severe level of violence Palestine has seen since the 2014 Gaza War. People gather at the site of a collapsed building in the aftermath of Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Tuesday At least 178 Palestinians and six officers were injured in night-time clashes at Islam's third-holiest site and around East Jerusalem on May 7 Israel's military declared the air strikes as a revenge attack made after more than 1,000 rockets were fired from Gaza, killing six Israeli citizens. The renewed confrontation, following weeks of tensions and clashes in the contested Jerusalem, was sparked on Monday evening when Hamas - the Islamist group that rules inside Gaza - fired a barrage of missiles towards Jerusalem. Then on Tuesday afternoon, former U.S. President Donald Trump posted to his website, saying that America 'will always strongly support Israel's right to defend itself' as he criticised President Joe Biden over the growing crisis. Earlier, the White House had said Biden was being briefed on the escalating situation. Israel's Iron Dome defence system continued to struggle with the volume of rockets being fired from Gaza on Tuesday evening, after an Israeli air strike caused a 13-storey residential building to collapse in Gaza City. And the mayor of the Israeli city of Lod called for army back-up to help secure the area, saying 'civil war' was breaking out as residents clashed following the funeral of an Arab man killed yesterday by a Jewish local. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier 'deplored' the deaths of the two women in Israel, adding that the country's military would 'further increase both the intensity and the rate' of its own air strikes against Gaza. Tension has mounted in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with nightly clashes in East Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah Israeli police intervene in Muslim worshippers with stun grenades and plastic bullets in Haram al-Sharif area of Al-Aqsa Mosque last Friday 'Hamas will be hit in ways that it does not expect,' Netanyahu said, before the announcement of the third woman's death in Israel. 'We have eliminated commanders, hit many important targets and we have decided to attack harder and increase the pace of attacks.' The cross-border violence has been fuelled by Israel's evictions of Muslim communities living in east Jerusalem which led to angry riots breaking out on Temple Mount over the weekend, with hundreds left injured on Monday as riot police shot rubber bullets and fired tear gas at protesters. The Green Brigade has a history of supporting Palestine amid warfare back in the eastern territory. In 2016 the fan group led the Match the Fine campaign and found themselves earning widespread support, including from Pink Floyd star Roger Waters. Celtic were charged by UEFA in that same year because of the Green Brigade's decision to wave Palestinian flags prior to a Champions League qualifier against Israeli side Hapoel Be'er Sheva. Supporters came together to raise more than 176,000 and that money was later given to two Palestinian charities. There are so many epic trips you can make in this unspoilt land Whether whale-watching on the coast or uncovering sapphire lakes in the Rockies, youll make a mountain of memories in Canada. This epic land is home to some of earths most beautiful secret places and opens up a host of bucket-list experiences. The wild side: Moraine Lake in Banff National Park, Canada As international travel prepares to reopen, why not make a date for a chance to sight a mighty orca, spot Baloo-style grizzly bears and golden eagles, or watch polar bears sprint across glistening glaciers? Not forgetting the opportunity to fly low over the sky-clawing Rocky Mountains, gaze up at skies overflowing with stars and sometimes the Northern Lights paddle a canoe, pan for gold and enjoy a smorgasbord of fabulous Canadian seafood. The west coast is home to the five-star Rocky Mountaineer train journey, which slices through hidden canyons, passing peaks and plunging gorges and slows as elk, moose and bears come into view. Feast on the glorious, unfolding panorama, as you breath in the intoxicating scent of the forest and listen to spellbinding stories. The thrills keep on coming if you then board a cruise ship bound for Alaska, a vast and unspoiled ice kingdom of snow-capped mountains, glaciers and icebergs in glassy shades of blue. Theres nothing quite as memorable as the sight of an enormous humpback whale coming to the surface alongside for air or, indeed, the sound of a glacier calving, sending a hush through the whole ship. Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada are perfect for off-the-beaten-track fly-drives and motor home holidays, taking you on quiet roads to wonderful waterfalls, including stupendous Niagara. Here, a trip on the Hornblower boat up to the face of the Horseshoe Falls is a must. The iconic, 185-mile Cabot Trail, in Nova Scotia, is ranked as one of the worlds most scenic routes. Drive in a loop around Cape Breton, touching stunning beaches, sighting whales and savouring highland scenery, fabulous seafood and Celtic festivals along the way. Any visit to the awe-inspiring, uncrowded spaces of friendly, familiar Canada will bring fresh wonder to your life and nows the time to start planning your holiday. Advertisement There's no doubt that when it comes to photography, freight train driver Dylan Nardini is on the right track. The 47-year-old was recently crowned Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year thanks to breathtaking shots that he took of a well-weathered tree on the Isle of Arran, snowfall in the village of Leadhills and fallen foliage in a country park in South Lanarkshire. Nardini believes he developed his passion for the landscape while driving freight trains around the country for DB Cargo, for which he has worked for 28 years. He said: 'Knowing that the judges have seen something pleasing in my work is so flattering and has given me a huge boost in what has been a very tough year for so many.' The 2021 edition of Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year, now in its seventh year, attracted over 3,000 entries from across the globe. In addition to the overall award, the contest handed out gongs in several categories - landscape, seascape, treescapes, urban and your vision. Competition founder Stuart Low said: 'It's humbling to receive so many entries, considering how difficult things have been for everyone. It's also been quite emotional for everyone involved in the judging. 'Whilst we relaxed things to allow photographers to enter classic images from their archives, others adapted to the challenges of the restrictions and captured beauty on their doorsteps, and I'm sure that will touch many people's hearts.' Scroll down to see some of the incredible winning and commended images from the competition... One of the stunning shots by freight train driver Dylan Nardini that helped him scoop the 2021 title of Scottish Landscape Photographer of the Year. He captured this mesmerising scene on the Isle of Arran. He explained: 'April showers quickly moved in from the west while early morning light brought welcome warmth to a well-weathered tree, which had been shaped by the prevailing winds that batter the north coast of the island' Another incredible shot from Nardini's portfolio. He snapped it after snowfall in February 2020 in the village of Leadhills in the Southern Uplands in South Lanarkshire. He said: 'The village had been lacking in light until a sudden brief thinning of the thick flat cloud allowed small piercing beams to pepper the textured snow-covered hills of the Southern Uplands and the deserted old shepherd's bothy nestled at their foot' LEFT: Nardini snapped this fascinating photo of Avon Water at Chatelherault Country Park in South Lanarkshire in November 2020 and included it in his portfolio. He said: 'Most of the leaves on the steep gorge had fallen and had speckled the cold blue rock on the banks of the Avon Water, which merges with the River Clyde. The beautiful contrast of colour and wet rock helped lift the spirits of a local walk at what was about to be the beginning of a long and draining lockdown-restricted winter.' RIGHT: The winner of the treescapes category was Waldemar Matusik with this amazing image he snapped in woods in Bathgate, West Lothian. He explained: 'There were misty and atmospheric weather conditions for a week or so, which is perfect for woodland photography. I went to my favourite local woods and used a telephoto lens to increase the depth of field and create space between the trees as they faded into the gloom. The thick fog was beautiful, which boosted the magic of the place' Stephen Robbie was named the competition's overall runner-up with his portfolio of three pictures. One of them is this stunning image of Loch Ard in the Trossachs. He explained: 'As the thick autumnal mist finally lifted on a still morning, a single tree on an isolated islet caught the first light from the sun breaking over the surrounding hills' Another beautiful image by Robbie. It shows a 'family of trees, isolated and huddling together to keep each other company on a chilly and atmospheric winter's morning'. He snapped the photo in Muiravonside Country Park in Falkirk LEFT: Robbie's third shot, which shows the Ha Lighthouse in Aberdour, Fife. He said: 'In February 2020, the conditions combined for an image that had been visualised for some time. This was created on my final photography trip before the March 2020 lockdown.' RIGHT: This superb shot of the Callanish Standing Stones on the Isle of Lewis was taken on a frosty March morning by Jan Harris. She was highly commended in the 'your vision' category Tony Higginson scooped the top prize in the seascape category thanks to this jaw-dropping picture he took in the village of Elgol on the Isle of Skye during Storm Ciara in February 2020. He explained: 'As a hailstorm blew over the Cullin mountains, I got lucky when the sun briefly appeared and illuminated the scene, adding that extra magic' This incredible shot - another by Higginson - was commended in the landscape category. It shows Ardvreck Castle on the shores of Loch Assynt in Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands. He said: 'After spending some time photographing the details of the foreground rocks, I decided to include them in this larger composition using a long exposure' Alastair Dick claimed the runner-up spot in the treescapes category with this beautiful image he took in Beecraigs Country Park near Linlithgow. The photographer explained: 'On a foggy late autumn morning, as time wore on, the light tried its best to break through the tree canopy, illuminating the gloriously coloured leaves when viewed from ground level' Marc Pickering scooped the top accolade in the landscape category with this serene scene. It shows the first light breaking through a low-lying mist over Loch Erdeline in Argyll. He said the light 'created a beautiful scene as it illuminated the frosty ground' Taking second place in the landscape category was Sophie Schneeberger with this stunning image of the 3,162ft (964m) Sgurr nan Gillean mountain on the Isle of Skye. Sophie said: 'Looking towards Sligachan, Sgurr nan Gillean revealed itself beneath these beautiful, glowing clouds. The scene lasted only a few seconds before the clouds obscured the mountain once more' Graham MacKay captured this beautiful scene while walking through his local woods in Eaglesham, Glasgow. He points out how the early morning mist hanging in the air and the autumn leaves outline the path that leads through the trees. The image was highly commended in the treescapes category LEFT: The winner of the urban category was Moumita Paul with this amazing image of the reflection of colourful houses on a car roof on Edinburgh's famous Victoria Street. RIGHT: Photographer Drummond Fyall was runner-up in the urban category with this haunting shot of Edinburgh's Rose Street, which he called 'Locked Down Christmas'. He said: 'Lockdown meant the usually busy Rose Street was eerily quiet in the run-up to Christmas. The puddle was ideally placed to take advantage of the lights above' Commended in the seascapes category was Alan Fowler with this stunning image of the Glen Sannox ferry on a calm River Clyde at Ferguson's Shipyard in Port Glasgow Netflix's new 'docu-soap series' Byron Baes is expected to begin filming this month, despite a huge uproar among locals who want to have it axed. And now MasterChef guest judge and Byron Bay local Shannon Bennett has weighed in on the controversy. 'I think any show in Byron Bay or in any town should be about the truth and unfortunately Im disappointed because this show is trying to fool people,' the celebrity chef, 45, told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday. 'This show is trying to fool people!' MasterChef guest judge Shannon Bennett is 'disappointed' with Netflix show Byron Baes and believes the series will misrepresent the town's values The restaurateur moved to the coastal New South Wales town from Melbourne four years ago, after the sale of Vue Group. 'It's basically trying to depict what Byron life is, but it's a lie. Its trying to feed off the name "Byron Bay", which is made up of an incredible community that's been built up over decades,' he said. Shannon added of his adopted hometown: 'It's a great town that has some great stories, some great entrepreneurs, great people and the show is feeding off of lies.' The TV star, his former partner Madeleine West and their six children all reside in Byron Bay. The exes amicably co-parent their children after splitting in September 2018 after 13 years together. 'The show is feeding off of lies': Shannon said 'influencers' were not a true reflection of the vibrant Byron Bay community Full steam ahead: Netflix's new 'docu-soap series' Byron Baes is expected to begin filming this month, despite a huge uproar among locals who want to have it axed Earlier this month, Netflixs Director of Originals in Australia, Que Minh Luu, confirmed the cast 'hated' a recent press release about the upcoming series, and the streaming giant was forced to apologise for the wording. The press release stated: 'It's not just Chris and Zac's backyard, it's the playground of more celebrity-adjacent-adjacent influencers than you can poke a selfie stick at'. Correcting the record, Ms Luu said: 'They are artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, business owners, models, on a spiritual journey and more.' Backlash: Ben Gordon, owner of The Byron Bay General Store, led calls to snub the Netflix production in April- and asked other local businesses to do the same It came after a handful of so-called Byron locals recently paddled out into the ocean to protest the show, while others stood by with placards that read 'give Netflix the flick' and 'consult traditional owners'. Ben Gordon, owner of The Byron Bay General Store, led calls to snub production in April - and asked other local businesses to do the same. 'They've simply turned up unannounced and they are proposing to drag our name through the mud, and make millions of dollars without offering anything back to the community,' he told Today hosts Karl Stefanovic and Allison Langdon. 'Yep, I feel embarrassed': Musician Billy Otto (pictured) claimed he quit the Netflix show just days after the cast was leaked, saying he 'felt embarrassed' to be associated with the program Mr Gordon said the prospective reality series is 'a complete misrepresentation of who we are as a community'. This month, musician Billy Otto claimed he quit the Netflix show, saying he 'felt embarrassed' to be associated with the program. Rumoured stars believed to be joining the line-up include Bachelorette star Nathan Favro, Love Island hunk Elias Chigros, model Jessica Vander Leahy, and Zac Efron's ex-girlfriend Vanessa Valladares. A new report indicates that Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck held off on their in-person reunions until she had ended her engagement to Alex Rodriguez. 'She didn't see Ben until it was over with Alex,' a source close to Lopez, 51, told People on Tuesday. Despite taking their time before more romantic meetups, it was previously reported that Affleck, 48, had been emailing his ex going back to February, when she was in the Dominican Republic filming her movie Shotgun Wedding. No rush: A new report says Jennifer Lopez, 51, and Ben Affleck, 48 waited to meet in-person until she ended her engagement to Alex Rodriguez. 'She didn't see Ben until it was over with Alex,' a source close to her told People According to the insider, 'Jennifer was in contact with Ben before she split from Alex.' However, 'it was friendly conversations and they didn't make a plan behind Alex's back that they would date.' It appears as if the two were taking their time and seeing how their relationship might progress. The news comes after the Oscar winner was seen being picked up in what was reportedly Lopez's SUV and taken to her home, after dropping his car off at the Bel-Air Hotel, presumably in hopes that their rendezvous would go unnoticed. No funny business: According to the insider, 'Jennifer was in contact with Ben before she split from Alex.' However, 'it was friendly conversations and they didn't make a plan behind Alex's back that they would date'; seen together in 2003 Moving on: Jennifer and her former fiance Alex Rodriguez announced their split on April 15; seen in 2019 in NYC TMZ previously reported that Affleck had been sending Lopez emails dating back to February, when she filming her upcoming comedy film in the Dominican Republic. The emails weren't merely friendly, though, but apparently were filled with longing for the Hustlers star. He reportedly wrote about wishing her could join her and complimented her beauty, though he was busy himself in Boston where he was filming The Tender Bar with his friend George Clooney. Dapper: As rumours persisted, Alex shared suave photos on Tuesday after travelling to London amid 'Bennifer' reunion rumours Smart: In the photos shared to Instagram, Alex was seen rocking a black outfit for a night in the city centre, as he asked his followers: 'Which fits me best?' Affleck also reportedly referenced Lopez's love of his writing and wrote that he could 'own her heart' with his pen. That shouldn't be too much of a surprise, as Affleck received an Academy Award for his screenplay to Good Will Hunting, which he wrote with the film's star Matt Damon. He also wrote several of the films he directed, including Gone Baby Gone and The Town, and he reunited with Damon for the first time in more than a decade to co-write the screenplay for their upcoming film The Last Duel, which is directed by Ridley Scott. Hitting the slops: On Saturday, Affleck and Lopez confirmed their burgeoning romance when they were spotted together during a snowy vacation in Montana on Saturday; seen May 8 Secret rendezvous: Ben was previously spotted dropping his car off at the Bel-Air hotel and being picked up by Jennifer's SUV before it reportedly took him to her home; seen in 2003 On Saturday, Affleck and Lopez confirmed their burgeoning romance when they were spotted together during a snowy vacation in Montana on Saturday. The Argo star and director was seen driving an SUV headed toward the airport, while Lopez was his passenger. The actress 'had a great time with Ben,' a source told People, adding, 'She is happy with him and enjoys spending time with him.' The two were whisked away to the western state on a private jet, and Ben reportedly owns a chalet in the area. The two were away for 'about a week,' according to E! News, and they 'were alone' for the duration of the trip. Charity concert: On May 2, both Affleck and Lopez made appearances at the Vax Live concert in LA, which address vaccine hesitancy and equity It has previously been reported that Affleck likes to visit Montana when he needs to clear his head and once took one-time girlfriend , Playboy model Shauna Sexton, there after finalizing his divorce from Jennifer Garner, 49, in 2018. On May 2, both Affleck and Lopez made appearances at the Vax Live concert in LA, which address vaccine hesitancy and encourage world leaders to focus on equity when distributing Covid-19 vaccines. Lopez put on a show-stopping musical performance during the telecast and Ben appeared in a comedy skit on stage with Jimmy Kimmel dressed as Batman's sidekick Robin, though the two weren't seen together at the concert. Tessa Thompson has been busy filming the next Thor sequel in Australia for the last few months. And on Tuesday, the American actress stepped out in style for a spot of shopping in Sydney. The 37-year-old stood out in a chic white tank top and a long ruffled skirt. Stepping out: American actress Tessa Thompson stepped out in Sydney on Tuesday She accessorised with a floppy hat and a designer handbag. To ensure her privacy, the brunette beauty also wore a pair of sunglasses. Tessa's outing comes two months after the animal-lover went horse riding in Sydney's Centennial Park. Since arriving Down Under, she has also visited hotspots like Nobu restaurant at Crown Sydney and department store David Jones. Safety first: The 37-year-old wore a mask to keep herself safe from coronavirus The star flew into Sydney in January to join co-stars Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Mark Ruffalo to film the latest Thor movie. Thor: Love and Thunder will see Tessa's character Valkyrie return to the Marvel Universe for the latest installment of the superhero series. Valkyrie was previously revealed to be one of the first LGBTQ characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The franchise has previously been criticised for merely paying lip service by making its LGBTQ characters supporting or background players and diminishing their queerness. Production of Thor: Love and Thunder is expected to create 2,500 jobs in NSW. Former Married At First Sight bride Tracey Jewel is still in the baby bubble two months after welcoming her son Frankie. The 38-year-old businesswoman shared a sweet photo to Instagram on Wednesday of herself cuddling her little boy. She wrote in the caption: 'Eight weeks of loving you.' 'Eight weeks of loving you': Former Married At First Sight bride Tracey Jewel shared this sweet photo to Instagram on Wednesday of herself cuddling her baby son Frankie Tracey, who celebrated her first Mother's Day with Frankie on Sunday, added the hashtags #8weeksold and #newborncuddles. In the lead-up to Mother's Day, the brunette had shared another cute photo with her little boy with her Instagram followers. The new mother beamed as she held her son in her arms, in a sponsored post for a giveaway last Monday. Baby bubble: In the lead-up to Mother's Day, the brunette had shared another cute photo with her little boy with her Instagram followers Earlier this month, Tracey stressed the importance of self-care in a lengthy post, noting how crucial sleep has been for her following her son's arrival. 'Self care is important! Its ok to worry about you and your well-being.. Its ok to set boundaries and to say no Its ok to prioritise sleep (big one for me!)' she wrote. 'Its ok to give yourself what you need - thats what self care is all about!' Self love: Earlier this month, Tracey stressed the importance of self-care in a lengthy post, noting how crucial sleep has been for her following her son's arrival Tracey welcomed her first child with husband Nathan Constable on March 23. The proud mum celebrated Frankie's first Easter last month by sharing two images of her new newborn to Instagram. She looked pleased as punch as she cuddled the apple of her eye in what appeared to be a sunny suburban setting. Bonding: Tracey welcomed her first child with husband Nathan Constable on March 23 In a second image, baby Frankie enjoyed a spot of downtime, working all his best angles in a cot alongside a stuffed toy. Tracey used the opportunity to share her delight with her followers on the social media platform, writing: 'Happy Easter from our family to yours!' 'First Easter with Frankie and being married - what an amazing feeling!' 'What an amazing feeling!' The proud mum celebrated Frankie's first Easter last month by sharing two images of her new newborn to Instagram 'Happy Easter from our family to yours!' she wrote to her 157,000 followers The reality star, who also has a 10-year-old daughter named Grace from a previous relationship, had announced Frankie's birth on Instagram. 'Our Pisces baby has safely arrived! Our hearts are bursting with love. Photos and deets to come soon x,' she wrote at the time In the photo, Tracey and Nathan's adorable son slept soundly in his hospital bed, with a sign that read 'I'm here' gently resting on his body. Congratulations! The reality star, who also has a 10-year-old daughter named Grace from a previous relationship, had announced Frankie's birth on Instagram Smitten: Tracey and Nathan were married in February in a surprise ceremony Tracey and Nathan were married in February in a surprise ceremony. 'It was Nathan's first wedding and Ive done it twice before, so we wanted to do the official vows at Perths registry office, Tracey told Daily Mail Australia of their big day. Tracey shares Grace with her ex-husband, whom she split from in 2012. She's filming her new Netflix series From Scratch in Los Angeles. And on Tuesday, Zoe Saldana was spotted taking a break from the action on the location set. The actress, 42, looked gorgeous in a blue patterned blouse tucked into blue jeans with cutoff hems. Natural beauty: Zoe Saldana looked gorgeous in a blue patterned blouse tucked into blue jeans with cutoff hems as she took a break from filming Netflix series From Scratch in LA Tuesday She wore a pair of navy sneakers and her long hair was tied back into a ponytail. Saldana carried a face visor and checked her phone as she exited a home where production was filming. From Scratch, based on the memoir by Tembi Locke, is about an American woman who falls in love with a Sicilian man while studying in Italy. Saldana not only stars in the mini series for Netflix but also serves as a producer along with Reese Witherspoon. On location: The actress, 42, wore navy sneakers and her long hair was tied back into a ponytail. She carried a face visor and checked her phone as she exited a home where the production was filming In real life, Saldana is married to an Italian, the artist Marco Perego. The couple married in London in 2013 and they share three sons - six-year-old twins Bowie and Cy and four-year-old Zen. Saldana is best known for her work on the big screen including the rebooted Star Trek movies, Avatar and Guardians Of The Galaxy and MCU Avengers franchise. Working mom: Saldana has been married to Italian artist Marco Perego since 2013 and they share three sons - six-year-old twins Bowie and Cy and four-year-old Zen (Pictured in 2018) The actress recently spoke about how much she has valued the time the COVID-19 pandemic gave her to be with her family. 'Until now, we were the '20 minute family' always running off to school, to karate practice, or to work,' she told Flaunt Magazine in March. 'Then suddenly the waters calmed, the music stopped, and the phones stopped ringing. It was very raw and very beautiful.' Saldana added: 'I want to be home, because that role is becoming more real to me. I'm becoming more passionate about it than any other role I can play.' Her boys: She told Flaunt magazine in march that she's valued the time with her family that the pandemic has given her. 'I want to be home, because that role is becoming more real to me. I'm becoming more passionate about it than any other role I can play,' she shared Sweet: Marco spun Zoe around as they danced around during their Mother's Day celebration Packing on the PDA: The happy couple shared a kiss She made her bones as a model early in her career. And Yolanda Hadid proved she has not lost her sense of style when she was seen out in New York this week with her silver fox Joseph Jingoli. The 57-year-old former Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills teamed a sleek cream coat with a matching turtleneck for her latest outing. Model: Yolanda Hadid proved she has not lost her sense of style when she was seen out in New York this week with her silver fox Joseph Jingoli She complemented her top with a pair of gleaming stiletto boots and emphasized her shapely legs with skintight jeans. Yolanda, whose children include the supermodel sister-act of Gigi and Bella Hadid, accessorized with a pair of blue shades. Meanwhile Joseph, who is the CEO of a successful construction company, threw a fashionable brown coat over a white dress shirt he left untucked over jeans. The happy couple have been together for over two years. Looking fab: The 57-year-old former Real Housewife Of Beverly Hills teamed a sleek cream coat with a matching turtleneck for her latest outing Swanking about: Yolanda, whose children include the supermodel sister-act of Gigi and Bella Hadid, accessorized with a pair of blue shades Last year in September Yolanda became a grandmother for the first time when Gigi gave birth to her daughter Khai. On Gigi's birthday last month Yolanda gushed on Instagram that becoming a grandmother 'awoke a part in my heart I never knew existed.' She also shared that her love for her granddaughter helped her 'get by' after losing her own mother Ans Van Den Herik in 2019. Gigi shares her little girl with her on-again boyfriend Zayn Malik who shot to fame as part of the boy band One Direction. They waited months after Khai was born before announcing her name and they have still not shown her face on social media. Meanwhile: Joseph, who is the CEO of a construction company, threw a fashionable brown coat over a white dress shirt he left untucked over jeans New phase of life: Last year in September Yolanda became a grandmother for the first time when Gigi gave birth to her daughter Khai A source dished to TMZ in January that Khai was named in honor of Gigi's paternal grandmother Khairiah who died in 2008. Last April after news spread that Gigi was expecting Yolanda told the Dutch talk show RTL Boulevard: 'I can't wait to become a grandmother.' She noted: 'It is even more special, since I lost my own mother so recently. That is the beauty of life: one soul is leaving us and a new one is coming.' The Hollywood community is mourning a legend as actor and filmmaker Norman Lloyd has passed away at 106 years of age. The beloved star of St. Elsewhere, Dead Poets Society, and, most recently, the 2015 comedy Trainwreck, passed away in his sleep on Monday, a family friend confirmed to Deadline on Tuesday. Lloyd worked with legendary filmmakers such as Orseon Welles and Stanley Kubrick while starring alongside Charlie Chaplin and so many more in a career that spanned decades. Mourning: The Hollywood community is mourning a legend as actor and filmmaker Norman Lloyd has passed away at 106 years of age Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter on November 8, 1914 in Jersey City, New Jersey, though he was raised in Brooklyn. He graduated high school at just 15 years of age and at 17, he became the youngest apprentice to director May Sarton at Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre in New York City. He became a stage actor in the 1930s and joined a company called Theatre of Action, where he met his wife Peggy Craven, who he married in 1936 until her death in 2011. Early days: Lloyd was born Norman Perlmutter on November 8, 1914 in Jersey City, New Jersey, though he was raised in Brooklyn His first TV role was in the 1939 TV movie The Streets of New York, before making a memorable big-screen debut in Alfred Hitchcock's 1942 film Saboteur. That lead to a slew of roles in The Unseen, Within These Walls, Spellbound, A Walk In the Sun and No Minor Vices. He reunited with Hitchcock on the small screen in Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1957, which helped resurrect his career after he couldn't find work for years due to the Hollywood blacklist era aimed at communists and sympathizers. Saboteur: His first TV role was in the 1939 TV movie The Streets of New York, before making a memorable big-screen debut in Alfred Hitchcock's 1942 film Saboteur Vices: That lead to a slew of roles in The Unseen, Within These Walls, Spellbound, A Walk In the Sun and No Minor Vices (above) He would go on to star on the small screen in the NBC drama series St. Elsewhere, which ran from 1982 to 1988. He played Dr. Daniel Auschlander, a calming presence at St. Eligius hospital, who was originally only supposed to appear in a few episodes. Lloyd became a series regular and stayed with the show for the entire run, which would ultimately inspired medical dramas such as E.R. and Greys Anatomy. Elsewhere: He would go on to star on the small screen in the NBC drama series St. Elsewhere, which ran from 1982 to 1988 Age of Innocence: His other memorable roles include Mr. Letterblair in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, A Place For Heroes and Trainwreck Recognition: In 2014, in recognition of his 82 years in show business, and reaching the age of 100, the Los Angeles City Council proclaimed that his birthday of Nov. 8, would be honored as "Norman Lloyd Day" His other memorable roles include Mr. Letterblair in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence, A Place For Heroes and Trainwreck. His other TV credits include roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Murder, She Wrote, The Paper Chase, Quincy M.E., Kojak and The Practice. In 2014, in recognition of his 82 years in show business, and reaching the age of 100, the Los Angeles City Council proclaimed that his birthday of Nov. 8, would be honored as "Norman Lloyd Day." Amy Schumer shared a tribute to Norman as she said, 'A legend lost Norman Lloyd Rest In Peace. 106 died in his sleep. Others in this pic @methodmanofficial Im glad youre still alive I love you @mugsykane my work life partner and @iamcolinquinn I dont particularly care for you or your comedy not one bit.' The President of the Kurdistan Region pledged to protect Christians, who he believes are an "integral part" of the region's culture. Christian rights will be protected under the new constitution of the Kurdistan Region, according to its president, Nechirvan Barzani. The Kurdish president recently met with the Vatican ambassador to Iraq, Ambassador Mitja Leskovar to discuss how the rights of Christians will be protected under the upcoming institution. The meeting was held following Pope Francis' historic visit to Iraq in March. "Christians are an integral part of the Kurdistan Region and play a significant role in serving, building, developing and fostering a culture of coexistence in the Kurdistan Region," President Barzani said in a statement, as per International Christian Concern. "Guaranteeing the rights of Christians and other ethnic and religious groups will be protected in the new constitution that is being prepared." The Kurdistan Region is made up of southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and northern Syria, making it a melting pot of different Middle Eastern cultures. It is made up of six governorates with three under control of the Kurdistan Regional Government. The region also operates under laws and norms that have been agreed to. The Kurdish parliament began drafting a constitution in 2019, but was later stalled. It moved to restart drafting the constitution in May. The Vatican had shown gratitude to the Kurdistan Region for accepting internally displaced persons who are Christians or Christian IDPs during ISIS reign of terror. In northern Iraq, the Nineveh plains are home to the country's remaining Christians and the protection of their rights will encourage many to come home to their land. Meanwhile in the southeastern part of the Kurdistan Region, Christians continue to spread their faith to those who have been victims of political unrest, especially in the Syrian border. According to Mission Network News, Syrian Kurds may have lost their home to political complexities and armed forces from different sides, but God promises never to abandon them. "Many families have fled to Iraqi Kurdistan and Lebanon. These Kurds have come in contact with Christians, [who] faithfully communicated the Gospel to them," Samuel of Redemptive Stories told MNN. "Many have come to faith, and there's a real openness. It's honestly a movement of God's Spirit among them." It was between 2014 to 2017 that the Kurdistan Region defended their territory from ISIS. In fact, it was President Nechirvan Barzani's cousin, Masoud Barzani who became what The Atlantic called an "influential U.S. partner in the war against ISIS as the top security official in the Iraq's Kurdish region." Masoud Barzani was the first president of the Kurdistan Region and was succeeded by his cousin, Nechirvan. "Even amid ISIS and the atrocities that have happened over the past 10-plus years in Syria, even though God has allowed terrible things to happen, He is still making beautiful things," Samuel recounted. "There are churches in Lebanon completely made up of Syrian Kurds. So many of them have come to faith, which is a beautiful, beautiful testimony to the Spirit of God." Shanina Shaik has revealed her beloved grandmother has died. The Victoria's Secret model, 30, shared the heartbreaking news on Instagram on Tuesday. 'I lost my nana this morning,' Shanina wrote in her tribute, adding that the pair were 'very close'. Rest in peace: Shanina Shaik has revealed her beloved grandmother has died. The Victoria's Secret model, 30, shared the heartbreaking news on Instagram on Tuesday 'Growing up, I would spend most of my weekends and summers with her,' she said. Shanina, who is of Jamaican, Lithuanian and Pakistani ancestry, said her nana was one of her biggest fans, and had supported her since the start of her career. 'She would take me to all my castings and modelling jobs. She loved to laugh and spend her time with family,' she explained. Emotional: Shanina, who was born in Melbourne and is now based in the United States, said the 'hardest part' of losing her nana was being so far from home Shanina, who was born in Melbourne and is now based in the United States, said the 'hardest part' of losing her nana was being so far from home. 'The hardest part of today was being so far from Australia. I couldn't say goodbye and give her one last hug,' she said. 'Heaven accepted a fun-loving angel today. Always in my heart,' she concluded. Supportive: Shanina, who is of Jamaican, Lithuanian and Pakistani ancestry, said her nana was one of her biggest fans, and had supported her since the start of her career. Pictured in 2017 Shanina has just returned to America after spending an extended period in London. She also recently debuted her new boyfriend, record label owner Matthew Adesuyan. The pair went Instagram official on Valentine's Day. The catwalk queen was previously married to Greg Andrews, a.k.a. DJ Ruckus, from 2018 to 2019. Globetrotter: Shanina just returned to the U.S. after spending an extended period in London In January, Shanina was asked during an Instagram Q&A if she would ever get married again. She responded by posting a photo of herself from her wedding day to DJ Ruckus. 'I think marriage can be a beautiful union! I'm not against it... and I would love to get married again one day,' she wrote. Police searched the Atlanta area home of rapper Rick Ross on Tuesday, looking for a weapon a suspect might have dropped after a chase. Police sources told Fox5 that the incident began with a call to Clayton County Sheriffs about a male armed with a gun in an attempted break-in linked to domestic violence. The pursuit descended into a high-speed vehicular pursuit of the suspect, authorities said, until the suspect crashed near at Old National Highway and Georgia Highway 138. Police searched the Atlanta area home of rapper Rick Ross on Tuesday, looking for a weapon a suspect might have dropped after a chase. Ross was snapped in Miami last month The suspect ran onto a wood line on the 45-year-old rapper and music exec's property with gun in hand, the outlet reported. That led authorities to conduct an extensive search on and near Ross's home, which rests about 20 miles from Atlanta. Clayton County deputies told the outlet that they made their way onto the premises through a security gate. Insiders told TMZ that the suspect was eventually taken into custody but the reported weapon was not recovered. Background: Authorities conducted an extensive search on and near Ross's home, which rests about 20 miles from Atlanta The rap stalwart was snapped playing in Miami last month The suspect, who was not identified, was arrested at gunpoint without injuries to anyone, and booked into the Clayton County Jail, authorities said. The music professional, whose real name is William Leonard Roberts II, was not on the premises when the incident occurred, police said. TMZ was first to report the story. Isla Fisher has spoken candidly about her marriage to Sacha Baron Cohen and their decision to relocate Down Under with their three children. The notoriously private actress, 45, told the latest issue of Marie Claire Australia she felt 'very lucky to have met' the Borat star, 49, at a party in Sydney in 2002. Isla's in-depth interview was accompanied by a stunning photo shoot in which she posed in a variety of designer outfits. Her story: Notoriously private actress Isla Fisher has spoken candidly about her marriage to Sacha Baron Cohen and their decision to relocate Down Under with their three children Isla was asked to reveal the 'secret' to her long-lasting relationship with the British comedian as they approach 20 years together, and she said that 'humour helps'. 'I wish I had an answer. I'm very lucky to have met him,' she added. She also touched upon how grateful she is for everything in her life. 'I'm always surprised that I'm employed, married and have my family everything else feels like a bonus,' the mother of three said. Cover girl: The Wedding Crashers star, 45, told the latest issue of Marie Claire Australia she felt 'very lucky to have met' the British comedian, 49, at a party in Sydney in 2002 Blessed: Isla was asked to reveal the 'secret' to her long-lasting relationship with Sacha (right) as they approach 20 years together, and she said that 'humour helps' Isla added that while motherhood is her 'favourite topic', she doesn't like to discuss her children in interviews to protect their privacy and ensure they have a 'normal childhood'. Isla, who was born in Oman but grew up in Perth, also discussed moving back to Australia with her family after years spent living in Los Angeles. While reports suggested she and Sacha had wanted to escape 'Trump's America', Isla said relocating to Sydney was a personal rather than a political decision. Isla said it 'feels very magical' to be back home after spending so long in the U.S. and that she can 'be herself' in Australia. Grateful: 'I'm always surprised that I'm employed, married and have my family everything else feels like a bonus,' the mother of three said Family: Isla added that while motherhood is her 'favourite topic', she doesn't like to discuss her children in interviews to protect their privacy and ensure they have a 'normal childhood' The redhead looks gorgeous in an orange embellished dress on the cover of Marie Claire Australia, which is on newsstands now. In the accompanying spread, she models a series of chic designer outfits, including a sheer Gucci top and black heels. In one black-and-white image, she looks stylish in a black Louis Vuitton minidress. Uprooting: Isla, who was born in Oman but grew up in Perth, also discussed moving back to Australia with her family after years spent living in Los Angeles Coming home: While reports suggested she and Sacha had wanted to escape 'Trump's America', Isla said relocating to Sydney was a personal rather than a political decision Parisian chic: In the accompanying spread, she modelled a series of chic designer outfits Another photo shows Isla in a pink embellished jacket and miniskirt from Chanel. Elsewhere in the photo shoot, the actress shows off her lively personality by smiling on the floor in a flowing pink dress. Isla is one of Australia's top Hollywood exports and is known for her roles in films such as Wedding Crashers, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Godmothered. Seeking Sister Wife star Dimitri Snowden has filed to end his marriage to his third wife, Christeline Peterson. The 40-year-old TLC star filed his divorce in a Los Angeles court on Tuesday, according to TMZ. Snowden and Peterson have no children together from their relationship, though she has two daughters of her own. It's over: Seeking Sister Wife star Dimitri Snowden (center) filed for divorce in Los Angeles on Tuesday from his third wife, Christeline Peterson (not shown), according to TMZ The filing suggests that Snowden isn't legally married to his first wife Ashley Snowden, as it is illegal to be married to more than one person in the state of California. In March, Peterson was granted a temporary restraining order against Snowden after accusing him of domestic violence. Peterson claimed in court documents that Peterson slammed her head in a headboard and choked her while having sex, despite her allegedly telling him to stop. But Snowden shared text messages he claimed Peterson sent him in which she wrote that she enjoyed the choking. Allegedly abusive: Peterson was granted a temporary restraining order against Snowden in March for allegedly slamming her head against a headboard and choking her during sex Rebuttal: But Snowden presented text messages in court that he claimed came from Peterson and showed her saying she liked when he choked her in bed Late last month, a judge dissolved the temporary restraining order, saying that Peterson had not met the burden of proof to sustain it. Peterson, who moved to the US from South Africa to join Snowden's polygamous family, had also filed for a restraining order against Snowden's first wife Ashley. She claimed that Ashley 'shoved me to prevent me from leaving the home my husband and I shared with her,' in documents from January obtained by TMZ. Legality: The divorce filing suggests that Snowden isn't legally married to his first wife Ashley Snowden, as it is illegal to be married to more than one person in the state of California Peterson also claimed her children were afraid of Ashley. 'She also threw a bottle at me. She was verbally abusive and called me names,' she claimed in her filings. Snowden and his first wife were previously in a relationship with Vanessa Cobbs on Seeking Sister Wife, though she ended things with the couple following season two of their series. Unlike other couples featured on the reality series, Snowden doesn't have polygamous relationships for religious reasons, but rather due to a romantic preference. She has been hard at work on the upcoming 16th season of America's Got Talent, which is slated to premiere on NBC in June. And Heidi Klum turned heads in a figure-hugging ensemble as she stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday afternoon to promote the talent competition show. Taking to Instagram, the 47-year-old supermodel gave her followers a look at her red hot outfit before heading into the filming studio in Hollywood. Wow! Heidi Klum turned heads in a figure-hugging ensemble as she stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday afternoon in Hollywood to promote the upcoming 16th season of America's Got Talent Sneak peek: Taking to Instagram, the 47-year-old supermodel gave her followers a look at her red hot outfit before heading into the studio Klum showcased her incredible leggings in a pair of skintight red metallic trousers and some strappy heels. Heidi paired her statement-making pants with a red mesh top and a unique black blazer with zipper detailing. The America's Got Talent judge wore her lengthy blonde hair in loose waves with her fringe slightly bumped under. For her Instagram video, Heidi posed in front of the entrance doors to the Jimmy Kimmel Live! set before strutting her stuff down the narrow alley behind the El Capitan theater. Metallic: Klum showcased her incredible leggings in a pair of skintight red metallic trousers and some strappy heels Strut your stuff! For her Instagram video, Heidi posed in front of the entrance doors to the Jimmy Kimmel Live! set before strutting her stuff down the narrow alley behind the El Capitan theater Before the clip's end, Klum eagerly waved and twirled for the camera. Once inside, she gave fans a peek at her dressing room, which featured her name on a silver plaque on the door, along with 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' Heidi and her fellow America's Got Talent judges Sofia Vergara, Howie Mandel, and Simon Cowell have been spotted arriving to tapings of the talent show in Los Angeles over the past several weeks. America's Got Talent is set to premiere on June 1 and will mark longtime host Simon Cowell's return, after tapping out last season due to an electric bike accident. Designated space: Once inside, she gave fans a peek at her dressing room, which featured her name on a silver plaque on the door, along with 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!' America's Got Talent: Heidi and her fellow America's Got Talent judges Sofia Vergara, Howie Mandel, and Simon Cowell have been spotted arriving to tapings of the talent show in Los Angeles over the past several weeks The executive producer endured a five hour surgery after breaking his back and Kelly Clarkson and Kenan Thompson took his place in the interim. The show was one of the first to resume filming safely amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and it continues to be hosted by Terry Crews. When not filming for AGT, Heidi has been soaking up the sunshine in California and enjoying some quality time at the beach with her husband Tom Kaulitz and her children. Klum's eldest child, daughter Leni, recently rang in her 17th birthday. Secret's out! The German supermodel revealed in a birthday post to her daughter Leni that she was pregnant with the now 17-year-old during her stint in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2003; Heidi pictured in November 2003 And the German supermodel revealed in a birthday post to Leni that she was pregnant with the now 17-year-old during her stint in the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in 2003. Sharing a clip from the runway show with her Instagram following, Heidi wrote: 'Happy 17th birthday LENI, I am not alone walking down that catwalk here. 'If I look close enough then I can see you bumping right along at 4 months @LeniKlum. 'I loved you before you were born, and I will love you long after I close my eyes forever. ' the devoted mom concluded. Klum shares Leni with ex-husband Seal, whom she split from in 2014 after nearly a decade of marriage. They also share sons Henry Gunther, 15, Johan Riley, 14, and daughter Lou Sulola, 11. He's preparing to reprise his role as Ray Donovan in a movie version of his long-running Showtime series. In the meantime, Liev Schreiber is enjoying some downtown in New York City with girlfriend Taylor Neisen and the two children he shares with ex-partner Naomi Watts. The actor, 53, and his family masked up for a stroll around Manhattan's Washington Square park with their cute rescue pup. Family outing: Liev Schrieber enjoyed a leisurely stroll with his children Sasha and Kai, girlfriend Taylor Neisen and rescue pup Chicken on Tuesday in New York City Schreiber dressed for the warm May day in a pale blue long-sleeve top and pale gray shorts. Neisen, 28, a former Miss South Dakota, opted for a white cable knit sweater and cropped tie dye pants. The blonde was in charge of the dog while her boyfriend focused on his kids Sasha, 13, and Kai, 12. Relaxed outing: Neisen, 28, was in charge of the dog while the actor, 53, focused on his kids Sasha, 13, and Kai, 12, on the stroll around Washington Square park East Coast vibe: Schreiber shares his children with former partner, the actress Naomi Watts. The exes have remained amicable co-parents following their split and live close to each other in the Big Apple Schreiber began dating the ex pageant queen following the end in 2016 of his 11-year relationship with Watts. Schreiber and Watts have remained amicable co-parents of their two children following their split and they continue to live close to each other in the Big Apple. Earlier this year. the actor spent several weeks in Venice, Italy, where he filmed the movie Across The River And Into The Trees, based on Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name. He will be heading back to LA at some future date to make his Ray Donovan movie which aims to tie up loose ends and give a proper sendoff to the character following the abrupt cancelation of the series after seven seasons. Schreiber will reprise his role as the professional 'fixer' along with Jon Voigt as his character's father Mickey Donovan and Kerris Dorsey as Ray's daughter Bridget. The movie is slated to air on the premium cable network in 2022. Period piece: Schreiber wrapped production in Italy in March on the World War II drama Across The River And Into The Trees, based on Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name She's the reality TV veteran who has appeared on both The Bachelor and Bachelor in Paradise. But now Keira Maguire is opting for a career change into something she has a passion for - the beauty industry. The 35-year-old spoke to Daily Mail Australia about her new beauty brand Skyn Collective, which will launch three skincare tools on Thursday, which she says will offer 'instant gratification and long-term gain'. New project: Keira Maguire has spoken to Daily Mail Australia about her new beauty brand Skyn Collective, who are set to launch three skincare tools on Thursday The products include a cleansing brush with rose quarts heat activation, a love heart face sculptor and a rose quartz textured contoured roller. Speaking about the tools, the newly-single reality star said: 'The cleansing brush heats up to around 40 degrees. 'By the time you've finished cleansing your face, you can turn it around and actually use the brush for lymphatic drainage and to absorb your products and serums. 'It's like a facial massage, with the added benefit of getting more out of your products.' Keira, who says she has six other products already in development, added that she wanted to create the brand because people constantly 'come to her' for beauty advice. Coming soon: The products include a cleansing brush with rose quarts heat activation, a love heart face sculptor and a rose quartz textured contoured roller 'I also want to educate people on how to use the tools, as I really do believe in the method and the product,' she said. 'Because they're all hand made, they're a one-off purchase. I use them every day, and I can't live without them. I have become obsessed with the results that skincare tools can create, and that actually work.' Keira went on to speak about her own skincare routine. For foundation, her 'go-to' is Make Up For Ever Ultra HD because she enjoys the 'light coverage' it offers. Launch: Keira, who says she has six other products already in development, added that she wanted to create the brand because people constantly 'come to her' for beauty advice She added that while everyone's skin is 'different', she likes to use a Bangn Body cleanser, Sunday Riley's Good Genes serum and a retinol cream 'three times a week' - to help with anti-aging - as well as a good moisturiser to lock everything in. 'I am also obsessed with using a gentle exfoliate every day of the week,' she added. 'Make sure the exfoliator is for your skin type - research is key.' Keira's brand Skyn Collective launches on Thursday. Karlie Kloss has immersed herself in the joys of new motherhood since welcoming her first child, son Levi Joseph, with husband Joshua Kushner. And the 28-year-old supermodel was seen out on a stroll with her newborn on Tuesday afternoon in Miami, Florida. Kloss looked like the embodiment of springtime in a plunging ruffled top and a blue floral midi skirt. Strolling: Karlie Kloss was seen out on a stroll with her newborn son on Tuesday afternoon in Miami, Florida The skirt featured a dramatic side slit that allowed Karlie to showcase her enviably slender legs. The Vogue covergirl completed her ensemble with a pair of bright white ballet flats Kloss wore her bright blonde hair in a chic bun and kept her hazel eyes concealed behind a pair of black shades. As she strolled with her little one, who was stowed away in a stroller, Karlie scrolled through her cellphone. Spring is in the air: Kloss looked like the embodiment of springtime in a plunging ruffled top and a blue floral midi skirt Peek-a-boo: The skirt featured a dramatic side slit that allowed Karlie to showcase her enviably slender legs Karlie and her husband of four years Joshua Kushner, 35, welcomed their firstborn on March 11. It would not be until over a month later that Karlie would reveal that she and Joshua had named their son Levi Joseph. She made the announcement via Instagram by sharing a photo of herself holding onto Levi's small hand as she wore a 'Mama' ring on her finger. Multitasking: As she strolled with her little one, who was stowed away in a stroller, Karlie scrolled through her cellphone She reportedly announced that he was called Levi Joseph after a yeshiva in Israel accidentally leaked the name and sex. Giving her fans another glimpse at her newborn, Kloss uploaded a sweet video to Instagram on Mother's Day of her own mother cradling Levi in her arms. Though she concealed his face with a white heart emoji, Levi could be seen resting on his grandma as she fed him a bottle. Newborn: Karlie and her husband of four years Joshua Kushner, 35, welcomed their firstborn on March 11 Mother's Day: Giving her fans another glimpse at her newborn, Kloss uploaded a sweet video to Instagram on Mother's Day of her own mother cradling Levi in her arms 'happy mothers day to my best friend and my greatest teacher @tlkloss ' captioned the BFF of Taylor Swift. 'I have always had infinite love and admiration for you, but Ive never been so grateful for you as I am this mothers day' concluded Kloss, adding: 'we love you.' Karlie announced her pregnancy this past November with an Instagram video in which she showed off her bump in lingerie. 'Good morning! Hello, baby!' she cooed in the sweet clip which since it was posted has racked up more than a million views. Married At First Sight's Jake Edwards has been dating Instagram influencer Sophie Guidolin for a few months now. But on Wednesday, the couple looked slightly tense as they stepped out on the Gold Coast. The stress is likely a result of the couple being trolled online, which forced Sophie to delete photos of Jake from her Instagram feed this week. Something on your mind? Married At First Sight's Jake Edwards was spotted looking slightly tense on the Gold Coast on Wednesday Jake kept things casual in a grey T-shirt and light blue shorts. Sophie matched his laid-back style in a flirty green dress with pleats on the skirt. At one point, she looked a little tense as she took a call on her mobile phone. Since embarking on their relationship earlier this year, Jake and Sophie have been seemingly inseparable. But on Tuesday, just weeks after confirming their romance, Sophie deleted all the photos of Jake she'd posted over the last five months. Phone call: Jake's girlfriend Sophie Guidolin looked tense as she took a phone call Casual: Sophie matched Jake's casual style in a flirty green dress with pleats on the skirt The 32-year-old also removed an episode of her Flourish & Fulfilled podcast titled The Man Who Has Flipped My World Upside Down, which was all about Jake. While some fans speculated the personal trainer's decision to wipe Jake from her Instagram account was a sign of trouble in paradise, a friend of Sophie's insisted this wasn't the case. They explained she'd taken down all photos of her boyfriend because of trolls. 'Sophie and Jake are very much still together, the online trolling is unbearable and something they shouldn't have to deal with on a daily basis,' the pal told Daily Mail Australia on Tuesday. Relaxed: The Married At First Sight star looked casual in a grey T-shirt and light blue shorts Sophie had initially wanted to flaunt her new romance, but has since decided to keep her relationship private. 'She just wants to protect him. It's been a tough time for them both, but they just want to move on with their life,' the friend added. It comes after Jake opened up about his difficulty keeping his romance with Sophie a secret while his television 'marriage' to Beck Zemek was still airing on TV. 'It's very difficult because the show is airing four months after we stopped filming and in my opinion it's unfair to ask people to stop living their lives,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Saturday. Going strong! The friend explained Sophie had taken down all photos of her boyfriend because of trolls. 'Sophie and Jake are very much still together, the online trolling is unbearable and something they shouldn't have to deal with on a daily basis,' the pal said 'Once I met Sophie, I was like, "This is it. I'm not going to not be with her." Social media is part of both of our lives and it was very hard to keep our relationship quiet.' 'It was difficult because we were so in love from day one and we just wanted to be normal, go out and do normal things. It was pretty stressful,' he added. 'I'm very happy at the moment, I couldn't have asked for a better result in terms of my love life.' 'Sophie has been my rock, she's been my strength, and has been there for me, and vice versa, ever since we met,' he continued. In Sophie's now-deleted podcast episode, she told listeners that Jake had surprised her by getting her name tattooed on his body. 'My favourite birthday gift was a tattoo on Jake of my name, which is across him, which is really beautiful,' she said. Former Biggest Loser star Fiona Falkiner has revealed her mother's heartbreaking battle with Alzheimer's disease. The reality star shared a slew of photos with her mother and detailed how she is being moved to a permanent residential aged care home. 'Her Alzheimer's disease having progressed rapidly and forcing our family to make an incredibly tough decisions,' she said, lovingly referring to her as 'Mama bear'. Brave: Former Biggest Loser star Fiona Falkiner has revealed the heartbreaking health challenges of her mother's battle with Alzheimer's disease. Here: Fiona, Hayley and her mother 'It is such a cruel disease, robbing a person of their identity while family helplessly watch on and hold onto precious moments of the mind while they last.' Fiona went on to praise her father who has done an 'incredible job' taking care of her. 'Dad has done such an incredible job caring for her through to now, often reminding us she is the love of his life and that we marry in sickness and in health.' Fiona, herself a new mother, explained she felt lucky to have spent time with her alongside Hayley and their son, Hunter. Cruel: 'It is such a cruel disease, robbing a person of their identity while family helplessly watch on and hold onto precious moments of the mind while they last,' Fiona said The star only just recently documented new motherhood with her filming her parents meeting Hunter for the first time. Fiona recently said in an Instagram post that she is 'loving motherhood'. In the selfie, she looked a tad tired as she breastfed her newborn baby boy. Stoic: 'Dad has done such an incredible job caring for her through to now, often reminding us she is the love of his life and that we marry in sickness and in health,' Fiona wrote Donning an eye mask in the photo, the buxom blonde admitted she was 'half asleep'. Fiona and Hayley welcomed Hunter into the world on Monday, March 22 - and announced his arrival via a sweet Instagram post. Fiona announced her pregnancy in September, sharing a photo to Instagram of Hayley cradling her bump. They revealed they were expecting a boy the following month. The couple became engaged in April 2019 while on holiday in Vanuatu, sharing the sweet moment to Instagram. Christianity Today is Calling for Submissions for the 2022 Christianity Today Book Awards NEWS PROVIDED BY Christianity Today May 12, 2021 CAROL STREAM, Ill., May 12, 2021 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christianity Today is calling for submissions for the 2022 Christianity Today Book Awards. The CT Book Awards, along with our "Beautiful Orthodoxy" Book of the Year, will be announced in December at ChristianityToday.com. Winners will be featured prominently in the January/February 2022 issue of CT and widely promoted in CT newsletters and on the site. Publishers of the winning books will also have the opportunity to participate in a promotion organized by CT's marketing team. Awards Categories: Apologetics/Evangelism Biblical Studies Children and Youth Christian Living/Discipleship The Church/Pastoral Leadership Culture and the Arts Fiction History/Biography Marriage and Family Missions/The Global Church Politics and Public Life Spiritual Formation Theology/Ethics The "Beautiful Orthodoxy" Book of the Year* To be eligible for nomination, a book must be published between November 1, 2020 and October 31, 2021. CT is looking for scholarly and popular-level works, and everything in between. A diverse panel of scholars, pastors, and other informed readers will evaluate the books. Detailed instructions for how to submit your nomination can be found online at MoreCT.com/2022Nomination. * Beautiful Orthodoxy is a special add-on category. Books nominated for this category must have first been nominated in one of the other main categories. (They will be eligible to win more than once.) Deadline: The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, August 6, 2021. Please read complete submission instructions at MoreCT.com/2022Nomination. Christianity Today is a nonprofit, global media ministry centered on Beautiful Orthodoxystrengthening the church by richly communicating the breadth of the true, good, and beautiful gospel. Reaching over five million people monthly with various digital and print resources, the ministry equips Christians to renew their minds, serve the church, and create culture to the glory of God. SOURCE Christianity Today CONTACT: Leanne Snavely, 630-260-6200 ext 7214, lsnavely@christianitytoday.com Martha Kalifatidis has taken a break from her usual roster of uploading sponsored Instagram posts and raunchy selfies to weigh in on the Israeli - Palestinian conflict. The Married At First Sight star, 32, who once referred to herself as 'Kmart Kim Kardashian', signalled her support for the Palestinian cause on Wednesday by re-posting a meme from supermodel Bella Hadid. Bella, whose father Mohammed is of Palestinian origin, had uploaded a series of cartoons attempting to explain the Arab-Israeli conflict as 'more than just fighting over religion.' From sponsored post to Insta-politics: Married At First Sight's Martha Kalifatidis, 32, (pictured) took a break from plugging brands on Instagram to weigh in on Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Wednesday The overarching message of Bella's post was that Israel was the 'oppressor' while Palestine was the 'oppressed' - an unbalanced sentiment that fails to represent the history of the Middle Eastern conflict. Meanwhile, Martha encouraged her fans to read Bella's post, writing in a caption: 'Some light reading, it'll only take a minute!' Clashes between fractious Palestine and Israeli forces have simmered since Friday. Opinion: Bella Hadid (pictured), whose father Mohammed is of Palestinian origin, had uploaded a series of cartoons attempting to explain the Arab-Israeli conflict as 'more than just fighting over religion' Weighing in: Martha encouraged her fans to read Bella's post, writing in a caption: 'Some light reading, it'll only take a minute!' Officials have described the violence as the worst in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2019. The escalation began with confrontations at Al-Asqa Mosque, on the compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary - the most sensitive site in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Since then, nightly clashes at the compound have left hundreds injured and dozens killed. Clash: On Tuesday, Palestinian militants Hamas and the Israeli army traded their heaviest fire for several years, with rockets fired at Tel Aviv after an Israeli strike destroyed a tower block in Gaza. Pictured: Explosions and fires caused by Israeli air strikes in the southern Gaza Strip, May 11 On Tuesday, Palestinian militants Hamas and the Israeli army traded their heaviest fire for several years, with rockets fired at Tel Aviv after an Israeli strike destroyed a tower block in Gaza. The White House said Tuesday that Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself from rocket attacks. However, it also applied pressure over Israel's treatment of Palestinians, saying Jerusalem must be a place of coexistence. Pictured: An Israeli man injured after a rocket from the Gaza strip landed is evacuated in central Israeli city of Holon, May 11 Dave Bautista is getting ready to return as Drax the Destroyer in the highly-anticipated Marvel Studios sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, though he has a bit of a bone to pick with the studio. The 52-year-old actor and former WWE Superstar was promoting his new Netflix movie Army of the Dead in an interview with Collider, where he admitted landing the Drax role, 'changed the trajectory of my life.' Still, he wished that the studio would have 'invested' more into his character, adding they 'dropped the ball' with Drax's backstory. Bone to pick: Dave Bautista is getting ready to return as Drax the Destroyer in the highly-anticipated Marvel Studios sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3, though he has a bit of a bone to pick with the studio Dropped the ball: Still, he wished that the studio would have 'invested' more into his character, adding they 'dropped the ball' with Drax's backstory 'That role changed the trajectory of my life. It's always going to be special to me. Now that Im four films in...I really wished they would have invested more in Drax, personally,' Bautista began. He added that he thinks, 'Drax has more of a story to tell. I think Drax has a really interesting backstory which they dropped the ball on.' Bautista clarified his statement is not a, 'dig on Marvel,' adding he knows they have their 'slate' and he knows, 'what they're focused on. Special: 'That role changed the trajectory of my life. It's always going to be special to me. Now that Im four films in...I really wished they would have invested more in Drax, personally,' Bautista began No dig: Bautista clarified his statement is not a, 'dig on Marvel,' adding he knows they have their 'slate' and he knows, 'what they're focused on 'But man, I think they really missed the ball on Drax. He has such a great backstory,' he added. Bautista continued that fleshing out Drax would have given him, 'the opportunity to show different sides of Drax, emotionally. And physically as well.' He mentioned that while Drax, 'looks terrifying,' he 'gets his a** kicked more than any other Marvel character.' Different sides: Bautista continued that fleshing out Drax would have given him, 'the opportunity to show different sides of Drax, emotionally. And physically as well' Looks don't kill: He mentioned that while Drax, 'looks terrifying,' he 'gets his a** kicked more than any other Marvel character' The actor continued that they just threw the 'Destroyer' aspect of his name out the window because, 'people just fell so in love with the comedic side of Drax they tapped into that, then they tapped into it more, then they really dug a hole into it.' 'But we missed a huge boat on that character and I dont think itll ever come back around. But Im really just looking forward to finishing out this whole journey,' he said. Bautista added that he hasn't read the script for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 yet from writer-director James Gunn, because he's waiting to read it for the first time during the table read in November. Comedic: The actor continued that they just threw the 'Destroyer' aspect of his name out the window because, 'people just fell so in love with the comedic side of Drax they tapped into that, then they tapped into it more, then they really dug a hole into it' The actor also mentioned how many Marvel fans thought Guardians of the Galaxy would be the first Marvel movie to flop, but that wasn't the case. Marvel Studios released Guardians of the Galaxy in August 2014, grossing $333.7 million domestic and $773.3 million worldwide from a $170 million budget. The 2017 sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 earned $389.8 million domestic and $863.7 million worldwide from a $200 million budget. Big hit: Marvel Studios released Guardians of the Galaxy in August 2014, grossing $333.7 million domestic and $773.3 million worldwide from a $170 million budget She reportedly trying to focus on her children's well-being amid her ex-husband Ben Affleck's alleged romance with his former fiancee Jennifer Lopez. And Jennifer Garner stuck to her guns on Tuesday when she was spotted out at the Brentwood Country Mart with her son Samuel Affleck. The 49-year-old actress kept her look simple and comfortable with a charcoal short-sleeve sweater. Shopping trip: Jennifer Garner, 49, looked relaxed in a charcoal sweater as she visited the popular Brentwood Country Mart on Tuesday with her son Samuel, nine Jennifer pair it with figure-hugging black cargo pants and a set of black leather loafers. She wore her voluminous dark locks styled down of her shoulders with stylish bangs and a chunky pair of black sunglasses. The Alias star also had on a navy blue mask to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Jennifer and her son likely had some shopping to do at the Country Mart, which is an outdoor mall dressed up to look folksy. Back in black: She had on figure-hugging black cargo pants and wore her lustrous brunette locks down with black sunglasses The center has become a popular tourist destination and its a favorite shopping spot for many celebrities. Seemingly missing out from the outing were Jennifer's two older children, her lookalike daughter Violet, 15, and her daughter Seraphina, 12, all of whom she shares with her ex Ben. The Argo star was spotted with his ex Jennifer Lopez in Montana on Saturday, and the couple reportedly spent a week alone in the western state. Prior to that, he was seen dropping his car off at the Bel-Air hotel multiple times in April, before being picked up in an SUV believed to belong to Jennifer and being driven to her home. Looking forward: She's been focused on her children amid reports that her ex-husband Ben Affleck spent a week in Montana with his former fiancee Jennifer Lopez; seen in 2003 Staying the course: 'She's trying to live her life and raise her kids and the last thing she wants to be doing is be dealing with Ben's love life,' an insider told E! News Amid the tumult of her ex-husband's personal life, Jennifer is just trying to stay the course when it comes to their children and family. 'She's trying to live her life and raise her kids and the last thing she wants to be doing is be dealing with Ben's love life,' an insider told E! News. 'Her focus is always on the kids' happiness and Ben being a good father.' The news with her ex comes amid reports that Jennifer has reportedly rekindled a romance with her ex John Miller. Last week, Jennifer reunited with her Yes Day costar Edgar Ramirez to to visit Casa Alitas, a migrant shelter along the southern border. The shelter is one of 35 locations run by the Save the Children Fund, which aims to improve the lives of children through education, healthcare and economic opportunities, though it also provides emergency aid. The two actors were there to help distribute food among the migrants, including chicken soup and some fruit. Helping out: Last week, Jennifer reunited with her Yes Day costar Edgar Ramirez to to visit Casa Alitas, a migrant shelter along the southern border. She shared a video of the trip to Instagram on Tuesday Volunteer work: The two actors were there to help distribute food among the migrants, including chicken soup and some fruit She showed off her Spanish with Edgar as they conversed with some of the children at the facility and gave them snacks. The two also worked together to lead a story time session for the young children as they read books for them, which the 13 Going On 30 star acting them out. She was also seen engaging in a fun game of tag with some of the kids. Many of the families had been let out of detention facilities run by the federal government, so they need essentials and some things that had been taken from them, like shoe laces. She concluded her video with her and Edgar visiting a grave marker that appeared to be for a migrant who had died trying to cross into the United States. Teamwork: The two also worked together to lead a story time session for the young children as they read books for them, which the 13 Going On 30 star acting them out She's the ever-glamorous wife of AFL star Jarrad McVeigh. And on Tuesday, Clementine McVeigh looked every inch a fashion icon as she headed out in Sydney's Bondi dripping in designer gear. The 37-year-old New Zealand-native oozed sophistication as she posed at the suburb's iconic Icebergs restaurant, wearing a pink Chanel T-shirt, a thigh-flashing skirt and a pair of silver knee-high boots. A look: AFL WAG Clementine McVeigh oozes glamour in a flesh-flashing skirt and knee-high boots as she enjoys a day out in Sydney's Bondi She teamed her look with a pair of quirky sunglasses, some bangles and a Chanel handbag, with similar designs retailing at around $10,800. She wore a touch of make-up to enhance her striking features, and wore her hair in a sleek, straight style. Clementine has been happily married for over a decade, and last year celebrated the pair's 10-year milestone with a sweet Instagram post. Posting a video of their big day to Instagram, Clementine wrote: '10 years married, 3 beautiful baby girls, thank you for doing life with me Mr McVeigh.' She then went on to show off the couples extravagant celebrations which included a child free night in a luxury hotel in Sydney. Pose: She teamed her look with a pair of quirky sunglasses, some bangles and a Chanel handbag, with similar designs retailing at around $10,800 Celebrations: On Friday, Clementine McVeigh (left) gushed over her husband Jarrad in a sweet tribute shared to Instagram on their tenth wedding anniversary She posed elegantly in a one-shouldered black dress from Australian label Bec and Bridge from her balcony at the Intercontinental Hotel. She accesorised the look with a black Louis Vuitton clutch while her long brunette tresses was worn sleekly tucked behind her ears. From their room the elegant couple had a beautiful view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge where they started off celebrating the evening with a toast. Posting a video of their big day to Instagram, Clementine captioned it: '10 years married, 3 beautiful baby girls, thank you for doing life with me Mr McVeigh' What a night! She then went on to show off the couples extravagant celebrations which included a child free night in a luxury hotel in Sydney Celebrate in style: Jarrad and Clementine celebrated their 10 year wedding anniversary in style enjoying hors d'oeuvre at The Intercontinental in Sydney Jarrad was later seen enjoying a beer in a snap posted to Instagram Stories where the couple enjoyed a mix of hors d'oeuvre served on a two tier platter at the hotel. Later that evening they indulged in cocktails and French cuisine while they enjoyed Jazz at Restaurant Hubert. While the luxurious celebrations looked perfect, life hasn't always been easy for the couple who lost their first daughter Luella to a heart condition when she only a month old in 2011. Happy together: Clementine married her Sydney Swans star beau Jarrad in 2010 'People say time heals all wounds... I'm just not sure about that,' Clementine wrote on Instagram on what would have been Luella's 8th birthday in July 2019. 'Time definitely does dull the pain and the tears are few and far between, but for me over the past 8 years it just seems to hit me harder every year.' Clementine married her Sydney Swans star beau Jarrad in 2010. The couple went onto have two more beautiful girls- Lolita, eight, and Florence, three. Amy Schumer dashed out of a New York bar and climbed into a cab while filming a scene for Life & Beth in New York this week. The 39-year-old comedian is creating and starring in the upcoming Hulu series which has not yet been given a release date. During the scene she could be glimpsed outside The Fat Black Pussycat which is the sister bar of the iconic Greenwich Village comedy club the Comedy Cellar. Off she goes: Amy Schumer dashed out of a New York bar and climbed into a cab while filming a scene for Life & Beth in New York this week Amy's co-stars JoJo Kottle and Mackenzie Lesser-Roy were also seen warmly hugging each other outside a cab during the night shoot. In real life Amy has a long history with the Comedy Cellar - she even performed her first set as a mother there just two weeks after she delivered her son Gene. When she was trolled online for returning to work so soon after giving birth she joked: 'Ive always wanted to be mom shamed!!!!' She will be writing and directing multiple episodes of Life & Beth on which she also has an executive producer role. Details: The 39-year-old comedian is creating and starring in the upcoming Hulu series which has not yet been given a release date Amy stars as a successful wine distributor who begins reexamining her life amid a series of flashbacks to her teenage years, Deadline reports. In her personal life Amy shared a heartfelt tribute to her chef husband Chris Fischer on their son Gene's second birthday last week. The Trainwreck star wrote that her son will 'most likely' inherit his father's autism and encouraged fans to get tested. While Amy was pregnant with Gene she came down with such a severe bout of hyperemesis gravidarum that she was hospitalized multiple times. Incidentally: During the scene she could be glimpsed outside The Fat Black Pussycat which is the sister bar of the iconic Greenwich Village comedy club the Comedy Cellar Her pregnancy was shown on last year's HBO docuseries Expecting Amy where she was seen telling Christy Turlington she was considering surrogacy next time. She said there was a '90% chance' of her contracting hyperemesis if she got pregnant again and quipped that she was 'never' going to do so. When Gene was born Amy initially gave him the middle name Attell as a tribute to her longtime friend and fellow stand-up comic Dave Attell. Backdrop: In real life Amy has a long history with the Comedy Cellar - she even performed her first set as a mother there just two weeks after she delivered her son Gene However once it was brought to her attention that 'Gene Attell' sounded remarkably similar to 'genital' she switched the middle name to David. Early last year she began the in vitro fertilization process for another baby but then she decided to pause it because of the coronavirus pandemic. Amy revealed on The Howard Stern Show last April that 'we were gonna like try to make a move and COVID happened.' Sidling up: Amy's co-stars JoJo Kottle and Mackenzie Lesser-Roy were also seen warmly hugging each other outside a cab during the night shoot The Snatched actress explained: 'And I'm just kinda like walking it back like: "Okay, maybe we''ll just revisit that in a minute."' Last summer she told Access that IVF was 'really hard on my body, it was really hard on me emotionally. You know, and we got one embryo so that's not like, you know, we knocked it out of the park but we're grateful that we got one normal embryo.' Then last month on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Amy said she and Chris were 'trying to figure out' the process of having a second child. Roxy Horner made a stylish entrance at The BRIT Awards 2021 on Tuesday to support her boyfriend Jack Whitehall, who was hosting, after she was rushed to hospital. The model, 29, revealed on Sunday that she was hospitalised after battling an autoimmune disease, but gave no further details. She was discharged on Tuesday and put on a brave face at the British awards show at the O2 arena, sporting high-waist satin trousers and a puffed sleeve top. Quirky fashion: Roxy Horner made a stylish entrance at The Brit Awards 2021 on Tuesday to support her boyfriend Jack Whitehall, who was hosting, following her hospital stay Roxy also rocked a cropped cream waistcoat which revealed her baroque lace top underneath. The blonde beauty styled her long tresses in braided space buns with her baby hairs slicked down against her visage. She completed the look with cat-eye make-up and pearl earrings as she posed alongside her friend and fashion designer, Joshua Kane. He stood out from the crowd in a tailored red suit and patent shoes. Recovery: The model, 29, revealed on Sunday that she was hospitalised after battling an autoimmune disease Runway ready: She was discharged on Tuesday and put on a brave face at the British awards show at the O2 arena, sporting high-waist satin trousers and a puffed sleeve top Joshua sported his long hair in a straight hairstyle and rocked a statement moustache. The outing comes after Roxy gave her fans an update while sharing a selfie from her hospital bed on Tuesday. Over a picture of her smiling while wearing a hospital gown, she wrote: 'I can leave tonight yay.' Roxy has not disclosed what type of autoimmune disease she has been battling, and MailOnline have contacted her representatives for further comment. Bespoke style: Roxy rocked a cropped cream waistcoat which revealed her baroque lace top underneath On Sunday, she admitted she didn't know whether to 'laugh or cry every five minutes' while in hospital. Posting a stunning throwback snap from a photoshoot, Roxy penned: 'Ever stare life right in the face like really??? 'Currently sitting in hospital not knowing to laugh or cry every 5 mins but Im going to choose to try and laugh because life is too damn short.' Roxy, who has been dating Jack, 32, since early 2020, signed off her post with: 'Screw auto immune diseases though!' Beaming: The blonde beauty styled her long tresses in braided space buns with her baby hairs slicked down against her visage as she posed next to fashion designer Joshua Kane Autoimmune diseases can cause either low or over activity of the immune system. The immune system can mistake body parts, such as skin, joints or organs, as bacteria or viruses so attacks them and healthy cells. Before revealing news of her discharge, Roxy shared a loved-up picture with Jack and gushed: 'I'm so lucky and grateful for my man, my biggest support through everything. I don't know what I would have done this past year without you.' Jack hosted the 2021 Brit Awards, which marked the first major indoor music event in over a year as bosses released 2,500 free tickets to key workers. The Brit Awards took place in front of a live audience of 4,000 people at London's The O2 six days before the next phase of lockdown lifts. 'Guess I'm here another night': On Sunday, she admitted she didn't know whether to 'laugh or cry every five minutes' while in hospital due to her autoimmune disease The ceremony, which was broadcasted live on ITV, celebrated the return to live music and Dua Lipa promised those attending that it would 'be a night to remember'. The indoor ceremony and live show formed part of the Government's scientific Events Research Programme, and used enhanced testing approaches to examine how events can take place without the need for social distancing after all restrictions are lifted on June 21. Working closely with the Government to adhere to safety guidelines, The BRITs was the first live music show at The O2 in over a year, with 4,000 tickets being up for grabs - just one fifth of the venue's 20,000 capacity. Sweet: Roxy also shared a sweet message to Jack, 32, as she praised him for being her 'biggest support' The BRITs played an important role in paving the way for the return of live music at scale as the UK emerges from the past year's restrictions. Audience members were not socially distanced or required to wear face coverings in the arena, but were required to follow existing Government guidance when travelling to the venue and adhere to rules set out by the event organisers. Among the rules, attendees had to have proof of a negative lateral flow test result to enter the venue. As part of the wider scientific research on the trial events, attendees were also asked to take a test after the event to gather further evidence on the safety of indoor settings, reduced social distancing and the removal of non-pharmaceutical interventions like face coverings. Man of the hour: Jack hosted the 2021 Brit Awards , which marked the first major indoor music event in over a year as bosses released 2,500 free tickets to key workers She launched her own swimwear brand Kimberley London back in 2013. And Kimberley Garner was once again her own best advertisement as she showed off her incredible toned frame on Tuesday in a blue swimsuit from her range, while as she enjoying a day in Miami Beach, Florida. The former Made in Chelsea star, 30, looked picture perfect as she strolled along the beach in her thong one piece, which also boasted a plunging neckline - highlighting her perky assets. Stunning: Kimberley Garner was once again her own best advertisement as she showed off her incredible toned frame on Tuesday in a blue swimsuit from her range, while as she enjoying a day in Miami Beach, Florida Her 140 electric blue high-rise swimsuit was adorned with a white floral pattern and a signature gold pendant on the bikini line of the garment. Kimberley shielded her eyes from the sun with a pair of black sunglasses as she appeared to go make-up free for the outing. She wore her blonde tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and she went makeup free to show off her tanned glow. The bronzed beauty appeared at ease as she walked along the sand on her mobile with a set of headphones in before sipping on an ice cold drink. Beach babe: The former Made in Chelsea star, 30, looked picture perfect as she strolled along the beach in her thong one piece, which also boasted a plunging neckline - highlighting her perky assets Beautiful: Her 140 electric blue high-rise swimsuit boasted a low neck line and was adorned with a white floral pattern and a gold pendant on the leg Bronzed: Kimberley shielded her eyes from the sun with a pair of black sunglasses as she appeared to go make-up free for the outing. Kimberley jetted to the Caribbean after flying to out Miami with her boyfriend in late December, after spending Christmas in Barbados and is now back in Florida. But it hasn't all been carefree partying as she took to Instagram to defend herself from backlash over her international travel. The TV star said she jetted out of the UK on December 14 a week before London moved into Tier 4 to 'check on my apartment'. The London native said at the time: 'I bought my place here this time two years ago. 'It was a massive achievement, still really can't believe it sometimes. I run a business - I'm not an influencer. Blonde babe! She wore her blonde tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and she went makeup free to show off her tanned glow Soaking up the sunshine: The bronzed beauty appeared at ease as she walked along the sand on her mobile with a set of headphones in before sipping on an ice cold drink 'I am here, but I am very very strict still. I see people in Tulum and all over going to parties and it doesn't feel right to me. 'I haven't been out to any parties and turned down invites from friends as feel it's just not right to be in a crowd - it's not OK at the moment. 'I'm really lucky to be in the sun and outdoors, and am valuing that totally, but not going to live normally as it's not a normal world at the moment. 'I really think and feel for everyone home at the moment, it really sucks, please be brave, please be kind to each other.' Flawless: She wore her blonde tresses in loose waves over her shoulders and opted for makeup-free look to show off her tanned glow He's clocked up the frequent flyer points with his role on Sunrise, and now Sam Mac is revealing his travel advice. In a recent interview with The Courier Mail's My Travel CV, the 38-year-old TV weatherman advised travellers to immerse themselves in the local culture. 'The advice I would give young travellers is to be open-minded. Talk to the local people, even if you're a shy person,' he explained. Speaking from experience: He's clocked up the frequent flyer points with his role on Sunrise, and now Sam Mac is revealing his travel advice 'You've actually got to chat with the locals because they know the hidden gems.' He jokingly added: 'You should come and see my TED talk on this topic. It goes for seven hours.' Sam also revealed he completes over 100 flights a year with his role as Sunrise's roving weatherman. Taking flight: Sam also revealed he completes over 100 flights a year with his role as Sunrise's roving weatherman Fan favourite: Despite being well-travelled, he admitted his favourite destination is closer to home, and said Uluru had been a standout Despite being well-travelled, he admitted his favourite destination is closer to home, and said Uluru had been a standout. Describing it as a 'magical place', Sam said we're 'lucky' to have the sacred site in our own backyard. In a post on Instagram in November 2019, Sam shared a photo of himself sipping on a cocktail by a hotel pool while wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian print shirt. Living like the locals: In a post on Instagram in November 2019, Sam shared a photo of himself sipping on a cocktail by a hotel pool while wearing a brightly coloured Hawaiian print shirt 'The key to authentic international travel is to not look like a tourist,' he jokingly captioned the post. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if Sam will embark on fewer trips after going public with his relationship with stylist Rebecca James recently. The popular TV star announced his relationship with Rebecca on Instagram on March 27, and said they'd been introduced by a mutual friend. She recently returned to the UK following a fun-filled break in the United States. And Lottie Moss looked nothing short of sensational as she shared a series of throwback snaps from her trip on Tuesday. The model, 23, donned a white long-sleeved midi dress in one photo which featured an a-symmetric hemline. Stunning: Lottie Moss looked nothing short of sensational as she shared a series of throwback snaps on Tuesday Lottie, who is the younger half-sister of Kate Moss, added height to her frame with a pair of matching heels. Letting her blonde locks fall loose down her shoulders, the influencer also sported a pair of hoop earrings. In another snap, Lottie could be seen enjoying a drink by the beach at sunset as she posed alongside her fried. The star also shared a photo of herself strolling by a pool surrounded by palm trees with a breathtaking sunset view. Smooch: The model, 23, donned a white long-sleeved midi dress in one photo which featured an a-symmetric hemline Alongside the post, she wrote: 'Favourite humans, favourite place'. Earlier this month, Lottie revealed that she decided to fly back home after a date with a man in New York turned sour. She said online: 'Flew to New York [from Los Angeles] to see a guy and he ended up being just a bit of an a**ehole, to be honest. Life's a beach: Lottie, who is the younger half-sister of Kate Moss, added height to her frame with a pair of matching heels 'I have really bad taste in guys. I keep going for guys who couldn't care less. I've been single for five years now.' The model was previously linked to Made In Chelsea's Alex Mytton and presenter Roman Kemp. Lottie posted a series of sizzling lingerie and bikini snaps to her Instagram during her trip to the US. Filming is well and truly underway on the set of Netflix's new action film Interceptor, with Elsa Pataky seen in costume for the first time on Wednesday. The 44-year-old Spanish actress was spotted filming scenes in Sydney alongside her lookalike body doubles. Elsa will lead the film as a soldier who must save the world when 16 nuclear missiles are launched in the United States. Impressive! Elsa Pataky (pictured) showed off her ripped arms in a white singlet on the set of her new Netflix action film Interceptor on Wednesday Twinning! The 44-year-old Spanish actress was spotted filming scenes in Sydney alongside her lookalike body doubles The bombshell showed off her ripped arms in a white singlet and brown trousers as she filmed scenes for the highly anticipated film. She also wore brown boots and had a band wrapped around her muscular arms. Elsa's husband Chris Hemsworth is producing the action film alongside Kathy Morgan, Christopher Mapp, Robert Slaviero, and Peter D. Graves. Australian actor Luke Bracey will co-star, but Elsa's husband is not expected to act in the movie, instead settling for a behind-the-scenes role. Role: Elsa will lead the film as a soldier who must save the world when 16 nuclear missiles are launched in the United States Incredible physique! The bombshell showed off her ripped arms in a white singlet and brown trousers as she filmed scenes for the highly anticipated film Costume: She also wore brown boots and had a band wrapped around her muscular arms Working with family: Elsa's husband Chris Hemworth is producing the action film alongside Kathy Morgan, Christopher Mapp, Robert Slaviero, and Peter D. Graves In March, Elsa told News Corp that she has been rehearsing moves for the film using a toy pistol at home with her husband Chris and their three children. 'I brought home a toy gun to practice with and was showing my kids a fight I have to do and they were really excited. Especially my daughter, who has two brothers who keep telling her "we're stronger than you" and she says "no way!" The actress continued: 'She can now see in what ways she can be stronger.' Cast: Australian actor Luke Bracey will co-star, but Elsa's husband is not expected to act in the movie, instead settling for a behind-the-scenes role Preparation: In March, Elsa told News Corp that she has been rehearsing moves for the film using a toy pistol at home with her husband Chris and their three children 'I brought home a toy gun to practice with and was showing my kids a fight I have to do and they were really excited. Especially my daughter, who has two brothers who keep telling her "we're stronger than you" and she says "no way!" she said Last month, Chris' personal trainer Luke Zocchi put Elsa through her paces during a tough workout focusing on her back, arms and shoulders. 'Look at the shred! There is a new big dog in town,' Luke said as he filmed Elsa during her sweat session. Luke not only trains Chris, but also Chris' stunt double, Bobby Holland Hanton. Bobby was heard in the gym cheering on Elsa, yelling: 'Yes, Elsa! Smashing it!' In previous training videos, Elsa has also demonstrated her ability to perform one-arm push-ups. Preparing for her role! Last month, Chris' personal trainer Luke Zocchi put Elsa through her paces during a tough workout focusing on her back, arms and shoulders Difficult decision: Elsa recently spoke candidly about her decision to step away from acting at the peak of her career to raise a family Family first: She told Jones magazine she'd selflessly put her acting career on hold after having children so her husband could focus on making movies Meanwhile, Elsa recently spoke candidly about her decision to step away from acting at the peak of her career to raise a family. She told Jones magazine she'd selflessly put her acting career on hold after having children so her husband could focus on making movies. 'I decided to focus on them and leave my career on the side, to just do little things here and there and try to be happy with that, even though it was my passion and I loved what I did,' the mother of three said. 'I decided to focus on them and leave my career on the side, to just do little things here and there and try to be happy with that, even though it was my passion and I loved what I did,' the mother of three said Busy at work: Elsa's cast members were spotted laughing as they filmed a scene for the film Lights, camera, action! Elsa ran across the set as she filmed another scene However, as Chris' career flourished, Elsa couldn't help but feel envious. 'It was hard in some moments, because you see the person you love doing what you're so passionate about, you see them doing movies, and you wish you could too,' she added. 'But because of my family I didn't want to shoot anywhere else and it was Chris' moment, I just let him know that he could do what he had to do and we'll follow.' Taking a break: After filming, Elsa enjoyed a break while chatting to crew members While England is still a few days away from being allowed to eat and drink indoors, Chloe Ferry and her mother Liz didn't let that stop them enjoying a steak dinner on Tuesday. The ladies headed to Tomahawk Steakhouse in the Ponteland, Newcastle for their mum and daughter meal, with Chloe sure to put on as glamorous display as ever. The ex-Celebs Go Dating star, 25, donned a skin-tight nude bodystocking for the occassion. Al fresco! Chloe Ferry strutted her stuff in a VERY skin-tight nude bodystocking as she glammed up for rainy al fresco steak dinner with her mother in Newcastle on Tuesday The creamy number hugged her curves as she strutted through the rainy car park and headed to the outdoor seating section. Ready for their al fresco dinner, the ladies sat under a canopy close to a log fire as they ordered their cuts. Chloe added a thick woolen coat to keep warm, and teamed the earthy look with mahogany heeled boots and a matching purse. She wore her brunette tresses loosely around her shoulders and sported her typical deep fake tanned look. Natural hues: Chloe was sure to put on as glamorous display as ever A busty display: The ex-Celebs Go Dating star, 25, donned a skin-tight nude bodysuit for the occasion Undercover: The ladies headed to Tomahawk Steakhouse in the Ponteland, Newcastle for their mum and daughter meal Heading out: Chloe's creamy number hugged her curves as she strutted through the rainy car park and headed to the outdoor seating section Smile: Ready for their al fresco dinner, the ladies sat under a canopy close to a log fire as they ordered their cuts Dip it low: Chloe stooped to pick something up off the wet concrete Glamour-puss: She wore her brunette tresses loosely around her shoulders and sported her typical deep fake tanned look Chloe added make up to her look in the form of a pale pink slick of lip gloss and a dusty sweep of mascara to her lashes. Liz wore all black for the outing, her blonde locks loosely around her shoulders in slick, straight lines. Chloe clearly takes after her mother, with Liz displaying a glam make-up look too. The girls laughed together as they entered the venue under the cover of a flimsy umbrella, as the UK's dreary spring weather continues to force revelers to sit outside in the cold while the pandemic rages on. Got it, pout it! Chloe added make up to her look in the form of a pale pink slick of lip gloss and a dusty sweep of mascara to her lashes Making the best of it: England is still a few days away from being allowed to eat and drink indoors Mother knows best: Chloe teamed the earthy look with mahogany heeled boots and a matching purse Like mother, like daughter: Liz wore all black for the outing, her blonde locks loosely around her shoulders in slick, straight lines Chloe admitted she has been putting off getting her smear test in an honest Instagram story on Tuesday. The former Geordie Shore star took to social media to share her experiences getting her first smear test and encouraged others to make sure they get theirs done too. Speaking before her appointment, Chloe revealed she had been delaying her smear test since she turned 25 in August 2020 because she was scared it would hurt. The reality star, wearing a simple makeup look for the outing, assured her followers she would let them know how she got on and shared a snap of herself sat in the waiting room. After the test she took to her stories stating she did not know what she was so worried about. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree: Chloe clearly takes after her mother, with Liz displaying a glam make-up look too A laugh a minute: The girls laughed together as they entered the venue under the cover of a flimsy umbrella Got a text! The UK's dreary spring weather continues to force revelers to sit outside in the cold while the pandemic rages on 'There was no pain whatsoever and I was telling the doctor I've put it off for so long because I'm so scared,' she added. 'Honestly if you're a person like me who keeps putting it off please do not worry it does not hurt at all. l I was made to feel so comfortable. 'If you are one of these people like me - go and get your smear, it is so important to get it.' All women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 64 should be invited by letter to have their cervical screening test - which checks the health of the cervix. You can never predict what could happen on live TV. And luckily for Channel Nine reporter Reid Butler, he managed to keep calm after a flying bird took aim at him while he was on air. On Wednesday, the TV journalist was doing a live cross with the studio for the afternoon news bulletin from outside Melbourne's Southern Cross Station. Yuck! Channel Nine Melbourne reporter Reid Butler managed to keep his composure as he 'copped a face full of bird poo' during a live TV cross on Wednesday He presented a package about potential Covid transmissions in the Victorian capital, that included a train from the suburb of Craigieburn. While doing his live cross, the reporter received a splat of bird poo from above. Ever the professional, Reid barely flinched as the unwelcome slop slowly dripped through his well-groomed hair. First and hopefully last time I cop a face full of bird poo midway through a @9NewsMelb live cross. Going to buy a lotto ticket. Also, camo Trav is a legend for cleaning me up while the grab was playing. pic.twitter.com/lPyyQuxjSD Reid Butler (@reid_butler9) May 12, 2021 Quick clean up: The live cross then cut to a video package played in the studio, which gave the camera man an opportunity to help clean up Reid The live cross then cut to a video package played in the studio, which gave the camera man an opportunity to help clean up Reid for when they would be live again. Reid shared the blooper on his Twitter and wrote in the caption: 'First and hopefully last time I cop a face full of bird poo midway through a @9NewsMelb live cross.' 'Going to buy a lotto ticket. Also, camo Trav is a legend for cleaning me up while the grab was playing,' he added. Carrying on: After the incident Reid carried on with the segment. He later shared the blooper on his Twitter and wrote in the caption: 'First and hopefully last time I cop a face full of bird poo midway through a @9NewsMelb live cross. Going to buy a lotto ticket,' he added Funnily enough, this is not the first time a bird has released its droppings on Reid. Back in October, he shared photos of himself on the job with bird poop on the front and back of him blue blazer. Reid, who had a face mask on in the pictures, captioned the post: 'Working on a Sunday isn't so ba-.' They have been happily married since 1998. And Cindy Crawford was seen enjoying a romantic dinner date with husband Rande Gerber at Nobu in Malibu, California, on Wednesday last week. The supermodel, 55, put on a casual chic display while out with her other half, 59, as she teamed a black blazer with a pair of denim straight-leg jeans. Outing: Cindy Crawford put on a casual chic display in a black blazer and jeans as she enjoyed a dinner date with husband Rande Gerber at Nobu in Malibu on Wednesday Cindy boosted her statuesque figure in a pair of chic black heels, and she kept safe amid the coronavirus crisis by wearing a black face mask. Her brunette locks were styled into loose waves that cascaded over her shoulders and she used a light palette of make-up for the outing. Rande, meanwhile, also opted for a more relaxed look as he donned a blue blazer over a dark button-up shirt and jeans. The happy couple were seen standing close together while they waited outside the restaurant, with Cindy holding her husband's side. Stylish: Cindy's brunette locks were styled into loose waves that cascaded over her shoulders and she used a light palette of make-up for the outing Over the weekend, Cindy celebrated Mothers Day with two stunning photos, and she gushed: 'Motherhood is the greatest gift of my life.' One was a throwback she's posted before, on the beach from when her model daughter Kaia was just a baby and her son Presley looked to be no more than three or four years old. The catwalker also included a lovely photo from a more recent time, with her arm around her own mother, Jennifer Sue Crawford-Moluf. In the caption, Cindy thanked her children 'for making me a mom and teaching me so much along the way,' and her own mother, 'who taught me to love unconditionally. Over the weekend: Over the weekend, Cindy celebrated Mothers Day with two stunning photos with her family, and she gushed: 'Motherhood is the greatest gift of my life' In January it was reported Crawford and Gerber purchased a $10 million waterfront home in Miami Beach. The Gucci model and her businessman husband, 58, are believed to have splashed out on the midcentury-modern house, which is situated in Miami Beach, Florida, on a stretch of land that's a known favorite among celebrities. According to a real estate source - who reported the news to People magazine - the couple spent $9.6 million on the property, which has five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, and almost 4,000 square feet of living space. Love: The catwalker included a lovely photo from a more recent time, with her arm around her own mother, Jennifer Sue Crawford-Moluf The property was built in the 1950s and sits on a lot with more than 100 feet of water frontage. Esther Percal of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices EWM Realty was the buyer's agent, while Mirce Curkoski and Albert Justo of One Sotheby's International Realty served as listing agents. The news comes nine months after the sale of a home Cindy and Rande own in Malibu, California, reportedly fell through, after the buyers - who were set to close a $6.5 million sale on the property - pulled out amid the coronavirus pandemic. Cindy and Rande reportedly told the potential buyers that there would be no issues with canceling the sale of the home and the pair returned the deposit. And now that they've bought a new home, the couple will likely take some time to decorate the interior, as they both have specific needs when it comes to their home furnishings. Speaking about buying a new couch in 2019, Cindy - who has Kaia, 19, and Presley, 21, with Rande - explained: 'My husband is very, very picky about the cushion density and seat depth because he's taller. We've got it down now. We know the dimensions we like, so sometimes we just change the body style.' Angelina Jolie has detailed why she needed to step back in her career to spend time with her children during her custody battle with ex Brad Pitt. Appearing on Lorraine on Wednesday, the actress, 45, was asked about stepping back from directing, to which she responded: 'I've been mostly home. But very important years to be home, a certain time in our family I've needed to be home.' The actress has been locked in legal battles with Brad over their kids, Maddox, 19, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12, and appeared to allude to her woes when saying she needed to be home more. Open and honest: Angelina Jolie has detailed why she needed to step back in her career to spend time with her children during her custody battle with ex Brad Pitt Angelina, who is promoting her latest film Those Who Wish Me Dead which is due for release next week, spoke about her withdrawal from directing and her declaration that she was going to quit acting during an interview in 2014. On putting her directing work on hold recently, Angelina said: 'The last few years I haven't been able to direct. I've been home much more... 'I've done a few films, but I've been mostly home. But very important years to be home, a certain time in our family I've needed to be home... 'These are the years they're really growing into adults. I'm happy to be here and make sure I do the best I can.' Her nearest and dearest: The actress has been locked in legal battles with Brad over their kids, Maddox, 19, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12, and appeared to allude to her woes when saying she needed to be home more (Brad and Angelina in 2015) Hands on: She shares Maddox, 19, Pax, 17, Zahara, 16, Shiloh, 14, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12, with Brad Brad and Angelina announced their split in 2016 and were legally divorced in 2019, but things are far from amicable as she has alleged domestic abuse. They have been at war over their kids for five years, with Brad striving for 50/50 custody with Angelina wanting full physical custody. Three of her six children - Maddox, Pax, and Zahara, - were adopted, and three with Brad - Shiloh, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 12. Pained: Brad and Angelina announced their split in 2016 and were legally divorced in 2019, but things are far from amicable as she has alleged domestic abuse Reaching out: Angelina plays smoke jumper named Hannah, who finds herself tangled up in a deadly situation when she helps a young murder witness Those Who Wish Me Dead also stars Nicholas Hoult, Finn Little, Aidan Gillen, Medina Senghore, Tyler Perry, Jake Weber and Jon Bernthal. Angelina plays smoke jumper named Hannah, who finds herself tangled up in a deadly situation when she helps a young murder witness. Lorraine asked Angelina about her character in being 'formidable' but 'vulnerable', to which she said: 'I hope that it is interesting for people coming out of this time... 'People are still going through difficult times, have had a tough year and it's about 'How much can I take? How much have I lost?'... Co-stars: Medina Senghore appeared alongside Angelina on Lorraine where the Scottish host asked her about her career change from being a lawyer to becoming an actress 'For anybody who's been in that moment in life if they just don't know if they can carry on, it's an interesting character - to watch that character slowly find the pieces of what helps pull you forward and often it's that you realise you need to take care of someone else.' Medina appeared alongside Angelina on Lorraine where the Scottish host asked her about her career change from being a lawyer to becoming an actress She said: 'I almost have to pinch myself, sitting here talking to you because there's a part of my brain that's like, 'You should be sitting behind a desk right now, you should be at work'... 'But yeah, it's a little knock that kept knocking at my heart and kept getting louder and louder and I'm excited to be on this ride.' Lorraine airs weekdays at 9am on ITV and catch up ITV Hub Denise Van Outen has revealed she and her partner of seven years Eddie Boxshall never proposed to one another, despite their upcoming wedding. The presenter, 46, appeared on Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, where she discussed marriage and how her plan last year to propose to Eddie, 46, was scuppered because of the pandemic. The mother-of-one said: 'We never had any plans to get married. There's never been an engagement, although I was planning on leap year to propose. 'There's never been an engagement!': Denise Van Outen has revealed she and her partner of seven years Eddie Boxshall never proposed to one another, despite their wedding plans 'Eddie will be surprised watching this but all of that got cancelled. I was planning to and then we had conversations again last year and we said we would like to get married.' Denise was previously married to West End star Lee Mead but they split in 2013 after four years of marriage. They have a daughter Betsy, nine. Explaining how the conversation arose with Eddie about marriage, Denise said: 'I said, "Let's not worry about getting engaged. We'll just plan a day and have close friends and family there when things reopen."' Loved up: The presenter revealed she had planned to propose to Eddie on a leap year but, after her plans were ruined due to the pandemic, they both decided to skip the engagement Wedding plans: The mother-of-one said: 'We never had any plans to get married. There's never been an engagement, although I was planning on leap year to propose,' she said The TV legend said she and Eddie believed getting married would be a nice way to cement their relationship because 'we're like a married couple anyway'. The presenter revealed her and Eddie's plans were to keep things low key and only get wedding bands rather than engagement rings. The couple are planning to tie the knot in a registry office in a small COVID-safe ceremony. Denise wore a bubblegum pink knitted jumper with a large cherry emblem for the television appearance and styled her blonde tresses in loose centre-parted waves. On the show Denise also touched upon the rumours she is reuniting with Johnny Vaughan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Big Breakfast. When asked about the rumours Denise said: 'It is just that, it's a rumour. I think this has come from me reconnecting with Johnny over the last year - we've been doing a lot of chatting. Happy:The TV legend said she and Eddie believed getting married would be a nice way to cement their relationship because 'we're like a married couple anyway' Doting mum: Denise was previously married to West End star Lee Mead but they split in 2013 after four years of marriage. They have a daughter Betsy, nine (pictured in 2019) 'We never really had a major fall out, our careers went on different paths, we've reconnected. 'I've got a lot of love for Johnny, always have and we've got a very similar humour.' In February Denise revealed she had finally ended her 20-year feud with her former Big Breakfast co-star. In a new interview, she admitted that while she had a 'rocky relationship' with the broadcaster, 54, in the past, the pair managed to brush aside their issues and reconciled during the nationwide coronavirus lockdown. Beautiful: Denise styled her blonde tresses in loose centre-parted waves and paired her pink jumper with some blue skinny jeans and metallic green boots Tensions between the hosts - who fronted the Channel 4 programme from September 1997 until January 2001 - grew as the TOWIE narrator claimed he went behind her back to renegotiate his contract. Denise left the show in 1998, only to return in 2000 for one last time before the show ended for good in 2002. Speaking about the situation on Wednesday morning, she added: 'Lockdown did a lot of things for a lot of friendships and people reconnecting and some people, their relationship went to dust. Fall out: Denise also touched upon the rumours she is reuniting with Johnny Vaughan after their 20-year feud to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Big Breakfast (pictured in 1997) 'We were that lucky partnership that got back in touch. I would love to work with him again, we both said we'd like to do something we have started conversations.' As well as presenting, Denise has worked on the West End starring in shows such as Legally Blonde and Chicago. She revealed she is looking forward to getting back the theatres when they reopen on Monday. 'Im so excited. Its been a really, really tough year for the arts, so the fact shows are coming back is great news. Cute couple: The TV legend said she and Eddie believed getting married would be a nice way to cement their relationship because 'we're like a married couple anyway' (pictured last year) 'I just cant wait to get back on stage. Im going back to Proud Cabaret shortly, which is great. We were able to open for a very short period last year and did really well. 'I put all my career on hold last year like a lot of performers and it was a really difficult time. Ive been directly affected by them being closed too because both my parents work in theatre, backstage. 'People seem to forget its not just the performers, its the people backstage, all the musicians.' To help those in the theatre community affected by the pandemic, Denise created a charity single called Brighter Days, supported by the charity Acting For Others. They are known for larking around on-screen. And Ant and Dec proved they have just as much fun off-screen as they took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a video of the latter seemingly floating. The TV host, 45, was seen 'floating' thanks to camera wizardry, while Ant, also 45, trailed behind while they added the caption: Theres a lot of downtime making a show. We often find ourselves hovering around the dressing rooms.' Wow! Ant and Dec proved they have just as much fun off-screen as they took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a video of the latter seemingly floating Ant and Dec were feeling playful as ever with the video, as Dec floated before Ant came into the room looking staggered and soon escaped. Their jubilant display comes after the duo received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine last month, in news they shared with their 4.3m followers. Ant uploaded a snap of the moment a nurse administered the vaccine, while Dec posed for a selfie which showed a sticker reading: 'I've had my Covid vaccine.' They captioned the milestone: 'We're jabbin' #vaccinated', and a needle emoji. What's going on? The TV host, 45, was seen 'floating' thanks to camera wizardry, while Ant, also 45, trailed behind while they added the caption: Theres a lot of downtime making a show. We often find ourselves hovering around the dressing rooms' Oh my! Ant and Dec were feeling playful as ever with the video, as Dec floated before Ant came into the room looking staggered and soon escaped Currently in the UK, everyone over the age of 50, as well as the highly vulnerable, and health and social care workers, have received their first dose. At 45, the double act became eligible for their jabs early last month. More than 45million vaccine doses have so far been given in the UK, with over 11 million of these being second doses. By the end of July, the government claims to be 'on track' to provide a vaccine to all adults in the country. Jabbed: Their jubilant display comes after the duo received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine last month, in news they shared with their 4.3m followers Recently, Dec's 5million home was the subject of an attempted burglary by a gang while the TV star was asleep upstairs with his wife and young daughter. Police rushed to the presenters home in West London on April 6, following a 999 call. The star and his wife Ali, 43, and their two-year-old daughter Isla were all asleep upstairs in the seven-bedroom home. The suspects had botched an attempt to rip open the iron gates at the front of the property. They fled in a car shortly before officers arrived and the family were only aware that the burglars targeted their home when the police told them. Have a laugh! They were showing off their playful sides A source told The Sun: 'Dec and Ali weren't disturbed. The first they realised anything was amiss was in the morning. The robbers couldn't force the gates open and that's what made them give up, and flee.' Met Police officers conducted inquiries along the street today and forensic checks were carried out. The force confirmed that the suspects left the scene prior to police arriving and there was no evidence to suggest they gained access to the house. His first studio album was released in 1996 and he's since topped the charts with decades of hits. And Jay-Z earned a spot in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on his first time on the ballot, alongside Foo Fighters and the Go-Go's. Each will be honored during an induction ceremony in Cleveland on Oct. 30 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse before what organizers hope is a full house of fans enjoying live music again. 99 Problems: Jay-Z earned a spot in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on his first time on the ballot, alongside Foo Fighters and the Go-Go's The hall will also welcome LL Cool J, Billy Preston and Randy Rhoads with musical excellence awards, and honor Kraftwerk, Gil Scott Heron and Charley Patton as early influencers. Tina Turner, Carole King and Todd Rundgren also earned spots on this year's list With Jay-Z, the hall inducts a 23-time Grammy winner and the first rap artist in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. His discography includes Hard Knock Life, 99 Problems and Empire State of Mind. He has had 14 No. 1 albums to his credit. After serving as Nirvana's drummer, Dave Grohl stepped to center stage with Foo Fighters, becoming one of the few modern rock bands comfortable in arenas. Their hard-hitting sound produced the hits Best of You, Everlong and Times Like These. Best of You: Each will be honored during an induction ceremony in Cleveland on Oct. 30 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse before what organizers hope is a full house of fans enjoying live music again Dave Grohl of the band Foo Fighters, Jay-Z and the Go-Go's. Foo Fighters, Jay-Z and the Go-Go's will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with Tina Turner, Carole King and Todd Rundgren As an all-female band that played their own instruments, the Go-Go's were a relative rarity in the early 1980s. Born from Los Angeles' punk rock scene, they had a string of melodic hits that included We Got the Beat, Our Lips Are Sealed and Vacation. Turner, recently celebrated in an HBO documentary, was one of rock's most stirring comeback stories. After escaping from an abusive relationship with husband and musical partner Ike Turner, she became a solo star in the 1980s behind the world-weary What's Love Got to Do With It, and scored other hits with Private Dancer and We Don't Need Another Hero. King's life was celebrated in the Broadway musical Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. Stepping forward following a career writing songs for others, her 1971 album Tapestry became one of music's best-selling albums of all time. Hits include It's Too Late, You've Got a Friend and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. Icon: Turner became a solo star in the '80s behind the world-weary What's Love Got to Do With It, and scored other hits with Private Dancer and We Don't Need Another Hero; seen in 1985 Legend: King will be inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The ceremony, to be held at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, will be simulcast on SiriusXM and air later on HBO; seen in 2011 Doin it: LL Cool J had been nominated six times before earning a spot in the Hall of Fame; seen in 2020 A power pop pioneer, Rundgren is known for melodic hits like Hello It's Me, I Saw the Light and We Gotta Get You a Woman. With Bang the Drum All Day, he's also responsible for the song most celebrated by hooky players everywhere. Clarence Avant, a former manager, label owner and concert organizer, is being given the Ahmet Ertegun Award as a non-performer. His impact on the music industry was highlighted in the 2019 Netflix documentary, The Black Godfather. Grohl, King and Turner bring the number of artists inducted into the Rock Hall twice to 26. Prior to King and Turner, Stevie Nicks had been the only woman with that distinction. Rockstar: Rundgren will be inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; seen in 2015 After serving as Nirvana's drummer, Dave Grohl stepped to center stage with Foo Fighters, becoming one of the few modern rock bands comfortable in arenas. Their hard-hitting sound produced the hits Best of You, Everlong and Times Like These; seen in 2019 Two new inductees - Belinda Carlisle of the Go-Go's and Pat Smear of Foo Fighters - were once members of the L.A. punk band the Germs before getting the jobs that led to later fame. Before getting into the hall in their special categories, both LL Cool J and Kraftwerk had each been nominated six times as performers without being elected. Five of the six inducted performers are still working artists. Only Turner is retired, and no doubt the hall will try recruiting Beyonce - she should be in town anyway - to pay tribute onstage. Either way, the hall is hoping for one of the first big concerts since the live music business essentially shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. 'We really see it as a true celebration of the reopening of music - not only in America but in the world,' John Sykes, chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in an interview with The Associated Press. The induction ceremony, to be held at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, will simulcast on SiriusXM and air later on HBO. Got the Beat: The Go-Go's, from left, Kathy Valentine, Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock and Jane Wiedlin pose at their star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles on Aug. 11, 2011 Vicky McClure was reunited with her grandparents on Wednesday as she shared a heartwarming family photo. The Line Of Duty star, 38, posted the sweet snap to her Instagram where she and her grandparents beamed at the camera, with the couple both holding mugs. The actress wrote alongside the snap: 'Well, this just filled my heart with joy!!! #family #brew #toocute'. Family: Vicky McClure was reunited with her grandparents on Wednesday as she shared a heartwarming family photo Vicky was inundated with comments from her social media followers, with one writing: 'This is the sweetest thing ever!' Another wrote: 'How lovely Grandparents are just the best.' Others told how the snap made them miss their own parents amid the pandemic, with one writing: 'this is so wholesome. I haven't seen my grandma since last august and i miss her so much [sic]'. In February, Vicky shared a sweet snap of her grandparents on their way to get their Covid vaccines in a post to mark her grandfather's 96th birthday. Reaction: Vicky was inundated with comments from her social media followers, with one writing: 'This is the sweetest thing ever!' The duo linked arms in the snap, which she captioned: 'Happy 96th Birthday Grandad!!! I just called him, said how does it feel being 96? 'He said 'well I feel a lot older than ya nana, she's only 95'!! God love em!!! This pic was taken on their way to get their vaccine's. In a bit January. Hello February'. It comes after Vicky shared a brief video of herself with Line of Duty co-stars Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar as they engaged in a singalong while out of character. The trio sang in the shady underpass used for clandestine meetings in the show. Relief: Line Of Duty's Vicky McClure shared a sweet snap of her grandparents going to get their Covid vaccines on her grandfather's 96th birthday on Instagram on Monday Heartwarming: Vicky shared a sweet anecdote about her grandparents' big day Banter: The behind-the-scenes snap comes after Vicky also shared a brief video of herself with Line of Duty co-stars Martin Compston and Adrian Dunbar as they had a singalong The graffiti-strewn subway, situated in Belfast, has become something of an iconic landmark among fans, with AC12 meeting there numerous times since the show relocated to Northern Ireland in 2014. Captioning the playful clip, which ends with the three stars bursting into laughter, she wrote: 'Best friends!' On the same day, Vicky ramped up the Line of Duty posts as she uploaded a picture from the set of the show. She shared moving tributes to the show's die-hard fans as they counted down the hours until the long-awaited series six finale which was broadcast earlier this month. Farewell: Ahead of Line Of Duty's sixth series finale, DS Steve Arnott, DI Kate Fleming and Superintendent Ted Hastings were back at the underpass for one last visit Vicky shared an image alongside Martin and their co-star Adrian Dunbar, who plays Superintendant Hastings on the show, and a snap of their knitted counterparts. She wrote: 'Happy Line Of Duty day! Please excuse the slightly over emotional post but it's been quite a surreal time! 'The audience support has been unreal, the creativity of merchandise, the artwork, ground-breaking viewing figures and the hype!! 'It's not lose on me how lucky I am to be a part of Line Of Duty, not just because of the success of the show, but the lifelong friendships we've all gained. End of an era: Vicky and Martin Compston shared moving tributes to the show's fans as they counted down the hours until series six's finale was broadcast 'We have such a talented and caring crew, a huge part of its success is down to them. Our amazing guest star Kelly MacDonald! Shalom, Perry, Anna, Tommy, Rose, Greg, Anneika, Nigel, Ace, Liza, Amy to name just a few of the incredible cast in series six! 'Belfast, our LOD home. Thanks for Craic as always. Honestly, I can't thank you all enough for your love & dedication to the show. 'Raising my brew to you Jed Mercurio! The epitome of honesty & integrity. @MrMartinCompston & Adrian I love you's 29! Now... let's wrap this up.' Elliot Page has been pictured back on set of The Umbrella Academy for the first time since the actor came out as trans last December. The 34-year-old actor was scene filming an exterior scene in in Hamilton, Canada, on Tuesday for season three of the hit Netflix show, alongside co-star Emmy Raver-Lampman, who plays character Allison Hargreeves. It is not clear if Elliot was dressed fully in character while on set, as he appeared to have the exact same hairstyle when he appeared with Oprah Winfrey during an interview on Apple TV last month. The actor plays Vanya Hargreaves, a cisgender lesbian, on the series. Back to work! Elliot Page pictured back on set of The Umbrella Academy for the first time since coming out as trans... as the actor gets to work on season three on Tuesday in Canada Last week, Elliot has teased a return to show on Instagram by posting a mirror selfie, that also displayed the show's logo on a piece of paper in what appeared to be his dressing room. Elliot had previously posted about returning to work in February, days after six cast members were granted a massive pay raise when banding together to approach Netflix's higher-ups with demands for salary negotiations after the show was picked up for another season. Page who is best known for his role in the teen drama Juno announced in December that he was transgender and that his pronouns are 'he and they.' Netflix confirmed that he would stay on in his role as Vanya in The Umbrella Academy, a role he has portrayed for two seasons. Business as usual: The 34-year-old actor was scene filming an exterior scene in in Hamilton, Canada, on Tuesday alongside co-star Emmy Raver-Lampman While many lauded Netflix for the decision and wondered if show writers would now make Vanya's character transgender, others questioned and shared their confusion, with some fans calling it 'political correctness gone crazy' that Elliot will continue playing a female character despite coming out as a transgender person. The show has been a massive hit for Netflix and the second season topped Nielsen's first-ever streaming rankings in September. David Castaneda, Aidan Gallagher, Tom Hopper, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Justin Min and Robert Sheehan approached the streaming service and pushed for higher paychecks in February. Ready to go! Elliot Page is back on set of Umbrella Academy to film season three of the popular Netflix show Each of the actors will now earn more than $200,000 per episode as part of the renegotiation, according to Variety. Elliot also reportedly received a boost in pay, but was not involved in the negotiations as they had a separate contract earning a higher rate as the star of the show. Umbrella Academy is based on the comic books of the same name created and written by Gerard Way, illustrated by Gabriel Ba and published by Dark Horse Comics. Action! Elliot Page shared a snap to Instagram of the back of a director's chair with the show's logo in February to announce: 'Omg we're back again' The actor who said last month that he had known he was a boy since he was a toddler reflected on how, before puberty, being a 'tomboy' was 'accepted' but upon reaching adolescence, it was less so, and having to wear girls' clothing made him feel 'ill' during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. In fact, he 'couldn't express just the degree of pain that I was in' while promoting his 2007 breakout film Juno, and can't even look at photos of himself in the vintage Jean-Louis Scherrer dress he wore to the Oscars red carpet the following year, when he was nominated for Best Actress. Several years later, Page admitted he 'just lost it' when his manager presented three dresses he could wear to the Paris premiere of Inception in 2010, and 'collapsed' in what was likely a 'panic attack' when he arrived back from the after party. Star power: David Castaneda, Aidan Gallagher, Tom Hopper, Emmy Raver-Lampman, Justin Min and Robert Sheehan approached the streaming service and asked for higher paychecks in February and will now earn more than $200,000 per episode as part of the renegotiation, according to Variety Tommy Mallet has candidly detailed how his dyslexia has impacted the day-to-day running of his business, saying it can be 'quite a struggle'. The TOWIE star and new dad, 28, who welcomed son Brody with girlfriend Georgia Kousoulou last Wednesday, explained how he can find it difficult reading legal letters and insurance documents so has 'someone he can forward them straight onto'. Speaking with BBC Radio 5 Live as part of their Word Matters adult literacy project, Tommy also revealed how he's proven all his doubters wrong to become a millionaire and even had one man who had mocked him thrown out of a restaurant. Last month, Tommy was revealed as having made the Forbes 30 under 30 list of most influential entrepreneurs for his Mallet London footwear business. Candid: Tommy Mallet has detailed how his dyslexia has impacted the day-to-day running of his business, saying it can be 'quite a struggle' Speaking about his dyslexia, Tommy said: 'More so when I got older, and I realised it affected me more than anything. When I started going into business, started having to read documents, buying cars and insurance and so on. 'I can read anything that's in front of me. I can read a text message, it's just anything in-depth. I can get by. I'm getting better as I'm getting older. 'I'm putting a lot of energy into it. I'm taking my time, I'm finding a bit more patience which I don't think I've ever had. So I'm getting there. 'But it's quite a struggle on the day-to-day when you receive letters, legal letters, insurance documents, to be able to go through and things like that.' Businessman: The TOWIE star, 28, who made the Forbes 30 under 30 list of most influential entrepreneurs in April, said it can be difficult reading legal letters and insurance documents Tommy added that someone helps with the larger documents, saying: 'I've actually got someone I can forward them straight onto who has to go through them with me.' And although now a successful businessman through his footwear company, Tommy recalled how he used to feel 'bullied' by some colleagues. Speaking about previous work experience, he said: 'On my day to day work, if they give me an email to write, it would take me hours to do it. I feel like I got bullied by the older people I used to work for at the time. 'I was reading a newspaper, for example, trying to fit in and the guy took it off me and threw it over the other side of the room and said: "Go and pick that up, you can't even read it." 'I knew what I was worth and I knew I was worth more than someone telling me what to do and throwing a newspaper. I always knew I was a leader from a young age and I always knew that I was going to be a success.' Proud: The fashion mogul, 28, has made millions of pounds through his footwear company 'Honoured': The entrepreneur shared a screenshot from Forbes website on his Instagram in April to announce the news as his proud girlfriend celebrated her beau's achievement Congratulations! Tommy and Georgia welcomed their first child together, a baby boy called Brody Fordham, last week He continued: 'I always knew I'd be the best at whatever I'd do. And I had that from a young age, like 12 I think, earlier, I think 9. I think I first told my dad I was going to be a millionaire at the age of 9. 'So when I've got a guy that works in an office, been wearing the same suit all week and the same shirt, throwing a newspaper and calling me stupid, I feel like it was just something that set the pace to show me I shouldn't have been where I was and I needed to just level up and go elsewhere. That's how it all started for me.' And Tommy managed to show the man who mocked him at his old job the error of his ways once he'd made it, having him thrown out of a restaurant. Tommy explained: 'I was sitting in a fine dining restaurant about 10 years later and one of the main doormen came to my table and said, "there's someone at the door who wants to meet you, he's seen you come in the place and he wants to meet you" and it was the guy that threw the newspaper. Designer: His brand Mallet London shoes are known for their signature metallic heel clips (pictured) and have already made 11.8m in sales as of 2020 'I was sitting round the table with some familiar faces and said, "yeah throw him outjust throw him out and I'll pay his bill, tell him I've thrown him out of the place." 'And that was what happened. So I've done it a different way instead of arguing back with him. I showed him he was wrong by getting him sent out of the establishment!' Tommy certainly proved any more doubters wrong in April when he was revealed as having made the Forbes 30 under 30 list of most influential entrepreneurs. He shared a screenshot from Forbes site on his social media and wrote: 'Honoured to be chosen for the Forbes 30 under 30 list!! FORBES LIST YOU KNOW Thank you, Forbes.' And proud girlfriend Georgia celebrated his achievement as she commented on his post: 'How lucky is our baby, he has you teaching him and showing him the world.' Not always easy: And although now a successful businessman through his footwear company, Tommy recalled how he used to feel 'bullied' by some colleagues (pictured with Georgia) Making it work: Tommy explained that he's used to finding other ways around having to read big textbooks and putting in the extra hours (pictured with newborn son Brody) Reflecting some more on his younger years with Radio 5, Tommy revealed another test and lesson came when he was told to read a book on how to use computer software AutoCADs. He said: 'They gave me a book, it was the biggest book I'd ever seen and they said, "read that book and learn how to use AutoCADs and draw houses". 'I didn't want to say to them, "I can't read that book," because I was getting a lot of stick from them anyway. 'In the end, and that's when I learnt what I could actually do, what I was capable of, I taught myself how to use AutoCAD without reading the book and I was better than anyone in my college class at it and that sort of gave me the confidence to know that I can get round not being able to do the academic part of it.' Support: The doting new dad often shares snaps of his shoes in department stores, with proud girlfriend and new mum Georgia (pictured) regularly showing her support in the comments Tommy added that he always knew he was going to be successful and told his dad about his plan to be a millionaire at just nine-years-old. He said: 'I told him I was going to be a millionaire at the age of 9. At the age of 16, when I failed school, he said to me: "What are you going to do now?" cos I come from a family that are quite clever, go off on results, the old traditional way. 'I said, "don't worry, I'm going to go out and make it" and I did. I've never taken no for an answer. I've always worked my way round things that might go back to the reading thing. 'I always know I have to work out my own way of how to do it because I'm not capable of doing it the way everyone else does it but I can make my own way up of doing it. Pushing him: The entrepreneur, who left school due to dyslexia with no qualifications, recently revealed he promised his father that he would be a 'millionaire' by the time he was 30 'I always knew, I always knew I'd be a huge success. I need to put more hours in than anyone else because I'm not naturally got what everyone else has got. 'And I have to be more vocal. I have to how people what I'm doing and so on, and it's worked because I'm one of the biggest brands in the world in my opinion. 'I've been kicking down doors for years and I'm opening stores worldwide. When I get one in America, I open one in Canada. When I get one in Canada, I go for the next one in Australia. 'I feel like that whole underdog thing and my story and my background has a big part to play in it. I'm not a normal person.' Tommy's interview comes after 5 Live launched Word Matters, a new network project drawing attention to the estimated nine million UK adults who struggle with reading and writing. Helena Bonham Carter playfully posed with her teenage son Billy, 17, as she attended a service at London's Westminster Abbey for International Nurses Day on Wednesday. The actress, 54, was joined by Billy - who she shares with ex Tim Burton - as she spoke to Prime Minister Boris Johnson ahead of the service. Showing off their close bond, Helena pouted as she snapped selfies with her son outside. Smile! Helena Bonham Carter, 54, playfully posed with her son Billy, 17, as she attended a service at London 's Westminster Abbey for International Nurses Day on Wednesday The star, who is a direct descendant of Florence Nightingale, could also be seen bumping elbows with the Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Helena went onto praise nurses for overcoming the 'steepest learning curve of their career' during the coronavirus pandemic as she gave a reading at the occasion. Speaking to the socially-distanced congregation, Helena said the nurses of today have faced 'the steepest learning curve of their careers' during the pandemic before delivering a reading. Helena opted for a colourful floral dress in keeping with kooky fashion sense, along with a red velvet face mask. Meeting the stars! The actress, 54, who is a direct descendant of Florence Nightingale, could be seen bumping elbows with Prime Minister Boris Johnson as she attended the annual event Say cheese! Helena snapped selfies with Billy who she shares with ex Tim Burton Beaming: Helena was in good spirits as she made her way into the service in the capital to pay tribute to nurses in the wake of the Covid pandemic Health Secretary Matt Hancock and shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth were also among the congregation of 60 people, and the event was live streamed. Giving an address, the Bishop of London, Dame Sarah Mullally, said: 'Over the last year nurses, midwives and health visitors across the world have been a sign of hope. 'You have rolled up your sleeves (well above the elbows unless covered by PPE) and you have given yourselves more than either we or you would have imagined, and we are profoundly thankful.' She said nurses had given 'dignity and care' as well as 'comfort and hope' to patients. Important: Speaking to the socially-distanced congregation, Helena said the nurses of today have faced 'the steepest learning curve of their careers' during the Covid pandemic Speaking: The Crown star then delivered a reading in front of those in attendance, for the service to mark Florence's birthday Stylish: She opted for a colourful floral dress in keeping with kooky fashion sense, along with a red velvet face mask Dame Sarah, a former nurse, said healthcare professionals have 'taken on new roles, stepped up to think of others before yourselves - even in the face of death'. She added: 'We must not forget what Covid has taught us, in particular your value as nurses and midwives and also of society's inequalities. 'Hope never domesticates, never settles down. It has the courage to put things right.' This year, the service recognised the contribution and sacrifice of nurses and midwives since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the UK. A procession, led by Ruheana Begum - a Florence Nightingale scholar and matron at Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation - carrying a lamp, also took place. The tradition paid tribute to Nightingale's work in Crimea when she carried out her night rounds tending to wounded soldiers while holding a lantern, earning her the title The Lady with the Lamp. There she is: Helena posed with Ruheana Begum - a Florence Nightingale scholar and matron at Guy's and St Thomas' National Health Service Foundation Chatting: Alongside her son, Helena spoke to some of those in attendance for the annual service, which last year had been delayed due to the Covid pandemic The Dean of Westminster, Dr David Hoyle, conducted the service. He told those in attendance: 'We look around us in gratitude for the effort so many have made to bring us to a place of greater safety and yet grieve for those in communities still devastated by illness and grief. 'We pray in the midst of a pandemic, acknowledging both an effort made, and an effort ahead. 'We do that as we honour the memory of Florence Nightingale in whom compassion and care had the power to deliver not just healing, but change.' It comes after Helena gave a rare insight into her split from ex Tim, 62, six years after they announced they went their separate ways. The former couple also share daughter Nell, 13. The Crown actress hinted while she was 'reluctant' to end their relationship, she added: 'Some are parts of divorce are recommended' During the interview with the Guardian in November, Helena also opened up about how she met her current partner, Rye Dag Holmboe, 32, at a wedding two years ago. Grand arrival: Prime Minister Boris was among several high-profile guests in attendance, along with Health Secretary Matt Hancock and shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth Former couple: Helena shares Billy and daughter Nell, 13, with ex partner Tim Burton (pictured 2010) The film star admitted it has taken a while for her family to 'adjust' and said that things were 'really very good now', after initially struggling with not having her two children, Billy and Nell, around all of the time. Detailing her experience, Helena revealed: 'The cruelty of divorce is extraordinary. But then you get to a point where you're like, "Oh, I get this week off!" Some parts are very much to be recommended.' Helena also revealed that she believes The Crown's creator, Peter Morgan, asked her to play Princess Margaret because she was able to relate to her very public break-up. While Helena insisted she wasn't able to reveal why she and Tim went their separate ways, she did say: 'I didn't leave, put it that way'. Since the split Helena has been dating 'magic' boyfriend Rye. Explaining how they met, she said: 'A totally random thing, which both of us nearly didn't go to, so it was one of those moments that was so chance and ended up determining so much. A really happy accident, and it's an amazing thing.' Sara Gilbert has finally settled the terms of her separation from ex-wife Linda Perry. The 46-year-old former host and executive producer of The Talk has agreed on the terms of her divorce from the 56-year-old musician nearly two years after they called it quits. Sara submitted a stipulated judgment package with the settlement terms that the former pair have agreed upon, according to The Blast. Settled: Sara Gilbert, 46, has agreed on the terms of her divorce from Linda Perry, 56, nearly two years after they called it quits; the two are seen in 2019 A judge now needs to sign off on the settlement for the divorce to officially be finalized. The details of the settlement have remained private during the legal proceedings. The Conners star filed for divorce from Perry in December 2019 following nearly six years of marriage, citing 'irreconcilable differences' as the reason for their split. She listed the date of separation as August 13 and requested that no spousal support be paid to either Linda or herself. A judge now needs to sign off on the settlement for the divorce to officially be finalized; they are here with son Rhodes Emilio in 2016 The two have joint legal and physical custody over their son Rhodes Emilio, six. They met in 2011 and tied the knot in 2014, after Perry proposed in 2013. Perry spoke to Us Weekly about their split saying: 'It's life, man. Life is happening and you're witnessing it. You know, this is a moment in life and people will get to witness it and I've had incredible journey and I'm still on an incredible journey.' Talking to Page Six, the songstress said: 'I love her. I adore her. We have a beautiful child together. So that journey's not ended, it's evolved into something else.' Sara also has children Levi Hawk, 15 and Sawyer Jane, 12, from a previous relationship with Allison Adler. The news comes less than a month after she snatched a major pay raise ahead of The Conners' fourth season. She and co-stars John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Lecy Goranson have been given contracts for the new season, which will span 20 episodes, according to Deadline, which first broke the news. The sitcom's stars have been on yearly deals, according to the outlet, as opposed to the industry's traditional six-year deals for talent, as it's a spinoff of the Roseanne reboot. Pay raise: The news comes less than a month after she snatched a major pay raise ahead of The Conners' fourth season New contracts: She and co-stars John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf and Lecy Goranson have been given contracts for the new season, which will span 20 episodes, according to Deadline Gilbert, Goodman and Metcalf have earned in the area of $400,000 an episode, while Gorenson's salary has been substantially bumped over the first three seasons, according to the outlet. The four performers, who all appeared on the original Roseanne show, get a percentage of the backend of the series revenue stream. The Conners supplanted Roseanne after Roseanne Barr's May 2018 firing from the show after sending a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor for ex-President Barack Obama. Roseanne's character was subsequently killed off in the storyline of the series, which remains ABC's top comedy show. Georgia Kousoulou left her 1.4million Instagram fans shocked on Wednesday night as she revealed that her boyfriend Tommy Mallet's real last name is Fordham. The TOWIE star, 29, took part in a candid Q&A session after welcoming her first child, a son called Brody, with Tommy, 28, last week. After one confused fan asked why their child was called Brody Fordham rather than Mallet, Georgia explained that the latter is in fact a 'nickname'. Family: Georgia Kousoulou left her 1.4million Instagram fans shocked on Wednesday night as she revealed that her boyfriend Tommy Mallet's real last name is Fordham The question read: 'Congratulations could you plz explain. I'm confused by baby's surname did I miss something?' To which Georgia answered with: '[Crying laughing emojis] Mallet is a nickname for Tommy! Fordham is his real name [heart emoji].' Elsewhere during the candid Q&A session, the reality star revealed that she had a planned caesarian and admitted that she is not breastfeeding newborn Brody as 'breast was not best' for their family. After one fan asked how she is finding feeding, Georgia replied: 'You have to do what's right for you!!! So sweet: The TOWIE star, 29, took part in a candid Q&A session after welcoming her first child, a son called Brody, with Tommy, 28, last week 'It's a nickname!': After one confused fan asked why their child was called Brody Fordham rather than Mallet, Georgia explained that the latter is in fact a 'nickname' Lovely: Georgia revealed that they had called their son Brody Fordham in a sweet announcement post last week 'For me and my family, breast wasn't best. Brody is on Aptamil and he is very content and happy.' Georgia also shared her 'positive' experience of a planned caesarian, insisting that she would do it again '100 per cent'. She said: 'Honestly, people don't talk positively enough about C-sections. The whole thing for me has been SO positive & I would 100 per cent do it again! 'Get your playlist ready & try to enjoy it! Honestly it was amazing... arnica tablets for after are amazing' followed by a heart emoji. Candid: Elsewhere during the candid Q&A session, the reality star admitted that she is not breastfeeding newborn Brody as 'breast was not best' for their family Honest: Georgia also revealed that she had a planned caesarian as she praised the 'positive' experience New mum: In a different answer, Georgia said that she is 'recovering well' and 'taking every day as it comes' In a different answer, Georgia said that she is 'recovering well' and 'taking every day as it comes', although she admitted that she has had her 'emotional moments', which are 'so normal' after giving birth. Giving a sweet update about Brody, the reality star said that he is 'so content' and wakes up every three to four hours. Georgia announced she had welcomed a baby boy with her boyfriend Tommy on Friday with a sweet Instagram post, and gushed it was the 'greatest experience of [her] life.' Sharing a family snap, Georgia revealed the couple have named their son Brody Fordham and welcomed him into the world on Wednesday. Open: Although the reality star admitted that she has had her 'emotional moments' which are 'so normal' after giving birth Adorable: Giving a sweet update about Brody, the reality star said that he is 'so content' and wakes up every three to four hours The new mum penned: 'Introducing you .. Brody Fordham 05.05.21 weighing 8lb 9 We are so in love ' Georgia looked radiant as she cradled her little boy, who was wrapped in a soft white blanket, while laying in a hospital bed alongside her beaming beau. Proud dad Tommy also shared the same image with his own followers, adding that Georgia and their newborn son are doing 'well'. In a second snap uploaded shortly afterwards Georgia cuddled with her little one and wrote in the caption: 'Thank you for all your messages I feel so blessed, the best experience of my life Amazing: Georgia announced she had welcomed a baby boy with her boyfriend Tommy on Friday with a sweet Instagram post '@tommy_malletI didn't think I could love you more than I did already .. you are the best x' Tommy took to Instagram on Friday and gushed over his newborn son as he declares his 'life is full'. Little Brody sported a Burberry baby grow and slept peacefully while covered with a checked blanket covered with the letter B. Clearly proud of his new baby boy, Tommy penned: 'Now my life is full! Welcome to the world young.' Doting new mother Georgia replied to the comment, and said: 'The best thing that's ever happened to us.' Georgia's followers were quick to congratulate the couple, with many of their reality star pals also sending love. Georgia and Tommy, who have been together since 2014, revealed they were expecting a baby in emotional scenes filmed for the TOWIE Christmas special. Georgia admitted that 'no one knew' she was expecting and insisted she wanted to film genuine 'real-life' reactions to the news on TOWIE, adding that 'it just felt so right' given that she and Tommy met on the reality show. Proud dad: Tommy took to Instagram on Friday and gushed over his newborn son as he declares his 'life is full' In December, Georgia revealed the couple already know the gender of their baby after having a private Harmony blood test. The reality star candidly chatted about her pregnancy in an Instagram Q&A where she said she was 'petrified' of giving birth and has never changed a nappy. When asked if she knew the sex, Georgia said: 'We already know the gender, we did a private blood test. I'm going to do a reveal, probably the beginning of next year.' Georgia and Tommy have also bagged their own ITVBe spin-off series that will give fans the chance to watch them as they become parents for the first time. Georgia and Tommy will follow in the footsteps of former TOWIE cast members Ferne McCann, 30, who has show First Time Mum, and Sam, 30, and Billie Faiers, 31, who star with their young children in The Mummy Diaries. Davina McCall has admitted she felt 'all washed up' after going through the menopause as viewers lauded her Channel 4 documentary on Wednesday night. The presenter, 53, appeared in a one-off special Davina McCall, Sex, Myths and Menopause exploring the hidden struggles millions of women go through, earning praise from fans for shining a light on the taboo issue. During the documentary Davina, who now takes HRT to help manage her symptoms, explained she was 'angry' to learn she was perimenopausal at the age of just 44, as the documentary also saw her explore the controversial treatment. Important: Davina McCall has admitted she felt 'all washed up' after going through the menopause as viewers lauded her Channel 4 documentary on Wednesday night Davina detailed her own experience with the menopause in the opening scenes of the documentary. She said: 'It was January 2021. I was on a photoshoot in Prague and one night struggled to get to sleep. The day after, I felt like I'd aged 10 years overnight.' 'I got such a bad hot flush in a makeup chair one day I actually asked the makeup lady if the chair was heated and they looked at me like I was really weird.' Raising awareness: The presenter appeared in a one-off special Davina McCall, Sex, Myths and Menopause exploring the hidden struggles millions of women go through Ashamed: 'And then I got in touch with some real shame around it and I felt embarrassed. I felt quite washed up I think and unable to talk to anyone about it,' she said Exploring: Davina later added that she attempted to manage her symptoms with herbal treatments and exercise, but soon found it wouldn't be enough 'And then I got in touch with some real shame around it and I felt embarrassed. I felt quite washed up I think and unable to talk to anyone about it,' she said. 'First I was frustrated, then I was tearful and then I was angry.' Davina later added that she attempted to manage her symptoms with herbal treatments and exercise, but soon found it wouldn't be enough. The star then revealed that she decided to begin taking Hormone Replacement Therapy through a translucent patch, but originally kept it a secret from her friends. Handling it: The star then revealed that she decided to begin taking Hormone Replacement Therapy through a translucent patch, but originally kept it a secret from her friends WHAT IS THE MENOPAUSE AND HOW CAN YOU DELAY IT? Menopause is defined as the changes a woman goes through just before and after she stops her periods and is no longer able to get pregnant naturally. Some women go through this time with few, if any, symptoms, around 60 percent experience symptoms resulting in behavioural changes and one in four will suffer severely. Common symptoms include hot flushes, night sweats, vaginal dryness leading to discomfort during sex, disrupted sleep, decreased sex drive, problems with memory and concentration and mood swings. Last year, a fertility doctor revealed women can delay the menopause by up to 20 years with a 30-minute operation that tricks their biological clocks into thinking they are much younger than they are. The surgical procedure, devised by the fertility expert who pioneered IVF, sees tissue from the ovaries, thawed, and then transplanted back into the armpit. It also has the potential to extend fertility though doctors say the aim is to postpone the menopause rather than give women the chance to have babies into their 60s. Ovarian grafting, or ovarian tissue cyropreservation, involves taking healthy tissue from a woman's ovaries to delay the onset of menopause. The 30-minute operation, available privately in the UK, sees a surgeon take healthy cells from the woman's ovary and freeze them in conditions of -150C. Whenever the patient wants, they can be thawed and reinserted through the armpit. When the ovarian tissue starts to function it produces hormones that prevent menopause from happening. Advertisement She explained: 'Two years ago I wouldn't have told you that for starters and I lied to my friends, I told them I wasn't on it when I was on it.' As well as investigating many of the misconceptions around HRT, after a 2002 study sparked fears it could be increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, Davina spoke to various women who spent months trying to get the right treatment. The programme sought to address various stereotypes around the menopause, including the idea that it could stop women from having an orgasm during sex. Following the documentary, viewers flooded social media with praise for Davina and Channel 4 bosses for helping to eliminate the taboos and myths surrounding the menopause with the hard-hitting documentary. Challenging: As well as investigating many of the misconceptions around HRT, Davina spoke to various women who spent months trying to get the right treatment Q&A: What is HRT? by Thea Jourdan WHAT IS HRT AND WHAT DOES IT DO? HRT does the work of oestrogen, levels of which plummet after the menopause. Women usually take a combination of synthetic oestrogen and a second hormone, progesterone. Most women in the UK take combined HRT because taking oestrogen on its own can increase the risk of developing cancer of the womb, says Kathy Abernethy, chair of the British Menopause Society. Oestrogen-only HRT is usually only given to women who have had their wombs removed. ARE THERE ANY RISKS TO CONSIDER? A major U.S. study in 2002, from the Womens Health Initiative USA, was the first to ring alarm bells that HRT may lead to an raised risk of heart disease and breast cancer. As a result, many doctors stopped prescribing it overnight. But the study was found to be flawed the average age of the women in the study was 63, when the risk of breast cancer naturally rises anyway, and half were smokers. The risks were overestimated for women of normal menopausal age between 50 and 60, says Kathy. For most women under the age of 60, and for many over age 60, the benefits of HRT are clear. SO DOES HRT REALLY CAUSE CANCER? Any risk comes with longer use, says Kathy. Cancer Research UK says there is strong evidence HRT can cause breast, womb and ovarian cancer, but the chance is low compared to other risk factors. To put it in perspective, while minimising HRT could prevent 1,400 cancer deaths per year, keeping to a healthy weight could prevent 13,200 and stopping smoking could prevent 22,000. ARE THERE OTHER SIDE-EFFECTS? Women who take HRT may have side-effects including breast tenderness, headaches, nausea, indigestion, tummy pain and vaginal bleeding, says Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Royal College of GPs professional development vice-chair. Taking HRT as tablets (not patches or gels) may slightly raise the risk of blood clots. WHO SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN HRT? Those who have a personal or family history of hormone-sensitive cancers, such as ovarian and breast, and women who have had deep vein thrombosis. High blood pressure should be controlled before starting HRT. WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES? Non-hormonal options include Tibolone (Livial), derived from the Mexican yam, which mimics oestrogen. Blood pressure medication Clonidine, which affects the dilation of blood vessels, can alleviate hot flushes and night sweats. Bio-identical hormones, derived from plant oestrogens and prescribed by private clinics, are said to be similar to human sex hormones. But the NHS does not recommend these as they are not regulated. Advertisement One wrote: 'Absolutely incredible it is still going on. Fabulous show! You should be so proud.' Another added: 'Thank you for making this documentary! I've felt invisible and in the dark for 20 years, after surgical menopause. I was 34, and now at 54 I feel so unwell every day, and was becoming convinced I had more wrong with me than just menopause.' 'Thank you @thisisDavina for such an informative and important programme. So vital that more is known about this subject,' a third tweeted. One viewer added: '#davinamenopause fantastic programme. Great insight and I'm happy to be 1:10 I've got rid of my brain fog. You got this ladies.' 'All I can say is Thank You @ThisisDavina I see people all day long and will spread the word of this amazing programme. Sooo many are lost because of this including me!' a fan also wrote. One penned: 'Watching @thisisDavina sex, myths and The Menopause. I'm 47 and peri menopausal. Thank you Davina for putting this out and telling us your journey.' A fan praised: 'Thank you #davinamenopause for talking about the menopause. We suffer in silence, are judged by people and family and struggle in silence to cope with the symptoms. We need to talk more about it.' 'So much of this is resonating. This needs to be a series not just a one-off TV programme, let's raise awareness and keep the conversation going #davinamenopause.' We need it! Following the documentary, viewers flooded social media with praise for Davina for helping to eliminate the taboos and myths surrounding the menopause It comes after Davina likened going through the menopause with how she felt when she kicked her addiction to heroin. She recalled that suffering with symptoms including severe night sweats, sleepless nights and poor vision gave her flashbacks to her days of drug dependency when she was in her 20s. Speaking in an online Q and A, Davina explained: 'I thought I was going mad. I even thought I was possibly getting some sort of early-onset dementia. The menopause didn't even cross my mind because I was young - 44 - so I battled on for a year. I didn't know who to talk to, where to go. 'I was getting night sweats, and what was horrible is that I'm a recovering addict and it took me back to being sick and trying to recover from addiction. Then I couldn't read the autocue. It began affecting my vision because of lack of sleep I couldn't see or read.' Comparison: It comes after Davina likened going through the menopause with how she felt when she kicked her addiction to heroin (pictured in 2020) She went on to explain that as a teetotal recovering addict, she doesn't even like to take over-the-counter tablets for headaches, so she avoided going down the medical route. Davina told how she took up exercise and took herbal remedies to help but these didn't 'cut it', telling how she planned to 'battle through' before finally getting educated about the menopause, with a private gynaecologist eventually prescribing HRT for her. In March, Davina recalled how she abused drugs to 'fill the hole' left from being abandoned by her late mum Florence Kock. The presenter reflected on feeling 'insecure and instable' after her mother - who passed away in 2008 - told her she was going on holiday for two weeks, but didn't return and left her with her paternal grandmother when she was just four. In an interview with DJ Fat Tony on his show The Recovery, the broadcaster admitted she was 'kissing goodbye to my brain cells' when she used substances such as heroin, speed and weed as a teen, before she sought help over 20 years ago. RuPaul's Drag Race UK stars The Vivienne, Tia Kofi and Veronica Green believe they were 'targeted' in a hoax bomb scare earlier this month as part of a 'sick joke'. On May 3, Met Police officers received reports of a suspicious package at Heaven nightclub, in London, where the trio were rehearsing for their upcoming West End show, with sniffer dog units and bomb disposal teams rushing to the scene. An hour later, following the building being swept and the forced evacuation of nearby Charing Cross train station, specialist officers said they had found an item at the scene but confirmed it was not suspicious . 'Sick joke': RuPaul's Drag Race UK stars The Vivienne, pictured, Tia Kofi and Veronica Green believe they were 'targeted' in a hoax bomb scare earlier this month as part of a 'sick joke' Speaking about the 'terrifying' incident in a new interview, The Vivienne, Tia Kofi and Veronica Green admitted it had made them 'rethink' how they use social media as they had posted updates from rehearsals earlier that day. The trio have joined together for their upcoming show - Drag Queens Of Pop, which starts on Monday 17 May at London's Vaudeville Theatre, and had been rehearsing at London's Heaven nightclub at the time of the scare. Talking to the Mirror, Veronica said: 'You just take for granted when you post where your location is that the world is watching us and somebody supposedly took that opportunity to play a sick joke on us. 'The police do believe it was a targeted attack, so it's pretty terrifying whether it was a prank or not, we didn't know for hours whether or not it was the real thing.' Hoax bomb scare: On May 3, Met Police officers received reports of a suspicious package at Heaven nightclub, in London, where the trio (pictured) were rehearsing for their upcoming West End show, with sniffer dog units and bomb disposal teams rushing to the scene Rethink: Speaking about the 'terrifying' incident in a new interview, The Vivienne, Tia Kofi and Veronica Green, pictured, admitted it had made them 'rethink' how they use social media as they had posted updates from rehearsals earlier that day Veronica lamented the fact that police resources were wasted with Charing Cross station, commuters and local businesses also impacted. While The Vivienne said: 'It could be from the fact we all posted on Instagram and you just don't think that's gonna happen. You've got to promote a show so it's completely made me rethink what I do with social media.' The winner of RuPaul's Drag Race UK series one added that it was 'super scary' as if someone did 'really want to hurt us' they could have 'done anything'. Met Police officers received reports of a suspicious package at Heaven nightclub at around 4pm on May 3 with sniffer dog units and bomb disposal teams rushing to the scene. Drag queens The Vivienne, Tia Kofi and Veronica Green - who were practising for a West End show at the venue - were forced to run out into the street while the building was swept for bombs. Scary: The trio have joined together for their upcoming show - Drag Queens Of Pop, which starts on Monday 17 May at London's Vaudeville Theatre, and had been rehearsing at London's Heaven nightclub at the time of the scare (Tia Kofi pictured) Up above dozens of trains were cancelled while surrounding buildings were also evacuated. Met Police said at the time: 'Officers are responding to reports of a suspicious package at a commercial property in Villiers Street, WC2. 'A number of buildings have been evacuated as a precaution and roads in the area are closed.' An hour later specialist officers said they had found an item at the scene but confirmed it was not suspicious. However MailOnline has since learned that the bomb threat was in fact a 'targeted hoax' believed to have been aimed at the queens who had posted about their rehearsals earlier in the day. West End: Talking to the Mirror , Veronica said: 'The police do believe it was a targeted attack, so it's pretty terrifying whether it was a prank or not, we didn't know for hours whether or not it was the real thing.' A source said: 'Police received a call saying someone had planted a bomb at Heaven today during rehearsals. 'They rushed to the venue and found the front door open and immediately evacuated Vivienne, Tia and Veronica.' They added the club's owner Jeremy Joseph as well as drag star Shania Pain and their manger were also moved out onto the street. They added: 'The three Drag Race stars were shaken by the incident and headed home as obviously rehearsals could not continue.' The Vivienne, who won the first series of Ru Paul's Drag Race UK, took to social media to update fans on the 'very scary' incident at the time. 'Hi everyone, just to let you all know that we are safe after today,' she said. 'Basically we were having a rehearsal for our show Drag Queens of Pop and police stormed in an told us that we had to evacuate the venue because there had been a bomb scare. 'Somebody had phoned the police, possibly after seeing our Instagram knowing that we were at the venue. 'But the police were absolutely amazing they made us feel so safe they had to close the tube and bring in dogs it was very scary but they made us feel so safe.' Social media: While The Vivienne said: 'It could be from the fact we all posted on Instagram and you just don't think that's gonna happen. You've got to promote a show so it's completely made me rethink what I do with social media.' (The Vivienne posted this statement at the time) A spokesperson for the Met Police said: 'The circumstances in which the item was found suggest that it was part of an intentional hoax and an investigation is under way to identify the person or persons responsible. 'There is no indication, at this early stage, of a particular motive but that will form one of the key lines of enquiry for officers as their investigation continues.' Anyone with information about this incident, who has not already spoken to the police, should call 101 providing the reference CAD3901/03MAY. Information can also be provided to Crimestoppers, anonymously, by calling 0800 555 111. MailOnline has contacted Met Police for a further update. Talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres' downfall was predicted on Australian reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! more than two years ago. The 63-year-old's reputation for 'being mean' was discussed by campmates in scenes that aired in January 2019 - offering evidence her 'diva behaviour', which many believe has led to her decline in popularity, was an open secret in Hollywood. The scene resurfaced on Wednesday as DeGeneres announced she will be ending her talk show in 2022, after 19 seasons and more than 3,000 episodes. The decision comes amid plummeting ratings and after several former and current employees accused the host last year of fostering a toxic workplace environment. However, DeGeneres has denied she is ending the program because of the toxic workplace allegations, telling The Hollywood Reporter she wouldn't have returned this year for a 19th season if that were the case. Did they see it coming? Talk show queen Ellen DeGeneres' downfall was predicted on Australian reality show I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! more than two years ago In the resurfaced scene from I'm a Celebrity, American gossip reporter Richard Reid and the Bold and the Beautiful star Katherine Kelly Lang shared the rumours they'd heard about DeGeneres during a late-night conversation about 'molls' in Hollywood. 'Moll', sometimes spelled 'mole', is an Australian slang term for a rude or unpleasant woman. Lang and Reid claimed that DeGeneres - whose philosophy is 'be kind to each other' - was 'very bossy', 'not nice', and 'completely different' from her upbeat on-screen persona. Their comments, which first aired on Network 10 in January 2019, had previously resurfaced in August 2020 after multiple staffers alleged that bullying, racism and sexual harassment were rampant behind the scenes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Open secret: The 63-year-old's reputation for 'being mean' was discussed by campmates in scenes that aired in January 2019 - offering evidence her 'diva behaviour', which many believe has led to her decline in popularity, was an open secret in Hollywood The conversation began when fellow campmate Angie Kent asked Lang, 59, who was the biggest 'moll' in showbusiness. Reid, 56, whispered: 'Ellen. Not nice.' Lang agreed, saying: 'She's great to watch on her show and everything, but I think her personality is completely different when you get her behind the scenes.' 'I've heard it's hard to work on her show,' Reid replied. Claims: In the resurfaced scene from I'm a Celebrity, American gossip reporter Richard Reid (right) and the Bold and the Beautiful star Katherine Kelly Lang (left) shared the rumours they'd heard about DeGeneres during a late-night conversation about 'molls' in Hollywood. 'Moll' is an Australian slang term for a rude or unpleasant woman Rumour has it: 'She's great to watch on her show and everything, but I think her personality is completely different when you get her behind the scenes,' Lang said 'Oh, because she's very bossy or something?' Lang asked, and Richard nodded. Kent was clearly disappointed by the pair's claims, muttering mournfully: 'Wow... that's really disappointing.' Reid then said to Lang: 'I'm glad to hear that somebody else has heard that.' At the time, there was some industry gossip about DeGeneres being unkind to employees, but no significant allegations had been made. Allegations: 'I've heard it's hard to work on her show,' Reid said Curious: The conversation began when former Gogglebox star Angie Kent (left) asked Lang (right) who was the biggest 'moll' in showbusiness In an interview with the New York Times in December 2018, she branded the rumours about her prickly demeanour 'outright lies'. She said: 'The first day I said, "The one thing I want is everyone here to be happy and proud of where they work, and if not, don't work here." 'No one is going to raise their voice or not be grateful. That's the rule to this day.' 'Outright lies': At the time, there was some industry gossip about DeGeneres being unkind to employees, but no serious allegations had been made. Pictured with her wife, Portia de Rossi Last year, her popular daytime talk show faced an internal investigation following numerous allegations of a 'toxic' and 'bullying' workplace culture. An internal memo explained that current and former staff were to be interviewed about claims of 'mistreatment, racism and intimidation' behind the scenes. DeGeneres wasn't accused of any wrongdoing herself. Several previous employees claimed DeGeneres was unfriendly on set and that crew members were warned not to talk to her or make eye contact. Bombshell: Their comments, which first aired on Network 10 in January 2019, had previously resurfaced in August 2020 after multiple staffers alleged that bullying, racism and sexual harassment were rampant behind the scenes of The Ellen DeGeneres Show Announcing her decision to end her show after 19 seasons, DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday: 'When you're a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged. And as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, it's just not a challenge anymore.' She downplayed last year's toxic workplace scandal, however, and insisted it was not a factor in her decision to wrap up the program. 'It almost impacted the show,' DeGeneres, who was not accused of wrongdoing herself but was blamed for allowing the issues to develop, told the trade publication. 'It was very hurtful to me. I mean, very. But if I was quitting the show because of that, I wouldnt have come back this season,' she added. Time to go: DeGeneres announced on Wednesday she will be ending her talk show in 2022, after 19 seasons and more than 3,000 episodes DeGeneres, who is married to Australian actress Portia de Rossi, has apparently been considering ending the show for several years. Meanwhile, a source told DailyMail.com: 'She's promised one more season after this one and will exit at the end of the 2021/2022 season - the 19th season of the show. 'The ratings have tanked and have been truly appalling this year and Ellen knows her time is up.' The ratings for total households from February 2020 to February 2021 were down 40 per cent in New York City and Chicago; in Los Angeles she's lost 59 per cent of viewers. In Philly ratings in the same time period were down 32 per cent and in San Francisco she lost 50 per cent of viewers. Since its season premiere in September, the show garnered an average of 1.5 million viewers by March - down 1.1 million from the same time-frame a year ago, which had 2.6 million average viewers. The Ellen DeGeneres Show got off to a strong ratings start in September for her 18th season premiere when she addressed the scandal, but has seen a swift decline in the months since. 'I learned that things happen here that never should have happened,' Ellen said in her season premiere. 'I take that very seriously. And I want to say I am so sorry to the people who were affected. 'I know that I'm in a position of privilege and power, and I realize that with that comes responsibility. I take responsibility for what happens at my show.' Downplaying the scandal: DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter last year's toxic-workplace scandal was not a factor in her decision to wrap up the program 'This is me and my intention is to always be the best person I can be, and if I've ever let someone down, if I've ever hurt their feelings, I am so sorry for that,' she said. 'If that's ever the case, I've let myself down and I've hurt myself as well because I always try to grow as a person. 'I look at everything that comes into my life as an opportunity to learn. I got into this business to make people laugh and feel good, that's my favorite thing to do.' The claims of DeGeneres' toxic work environment were revealed in July 2020 by one current and 10 former employees of the daytime talk show who accused three executive producers, Ed Glavin, Mary Connelly and Andy Lassner, of 'bullying'. Executive producers Glavin, Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathan Norman were all fired from the popular talk show following the accusations leveled against them by current and former staffers. Ellen came out with an apology after it was announced that her show was subject to a probe by WarnerMedia which looked into 'staff experiences on set'. The host sent her staff a memo in which she wrote she was 'taking steps... to correct' issues with her employees. 'On day one of our show, I told everyone in our first meeting that The Ellen DeGeneres Show would be a place of happiness - no one would ever raise their voice, and everyone would be treated with respect. Obviously, something changed, and I am disappointed to learn that this has not been the case. And for that, I am sorry,' Ellen said in the memo. 'As we've grown exponentially, I've not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I'd want them done. Clearly some didn't,' she added. 'That will now change and I'm committed to ensuring this does not happen again.' Among the allegations was one made by a black woman who claimed she suffered a number of 'microaggressions,' her request for a raise was ignored and she was accused of 'walking around looking resentful and angry' after asking for staff members to undergo diversity and inclusion training. Another former employee alleged they were fired after taking medical leave for one month following a suicide attempt. A popular claim that circulated is that staff members were instructed not to speak to DeGeneres. Some claims included that staff were required to chew gum before speaking to her because of her 'sensitive nose', and that she policed staff lunch orders and banned anyone from eating fish or meat. Nacogdoches, TX (75965) Today Considerable clouds this morning. Some decrease in clouds later in the day. High 91F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 72F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. @JamesonCook on Twitter Jameson Cook is a multimedia journalist at The Macomb Daily. He covers criminal and civil court cases and general assignment stories. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard speaking at a press conference about qualified immunity at the sheriff's office headquarters, 1200 N. Telegraph Road, in Pontiac, on Wednesday, May 11, 2021. Bouchard was joined by other regional police officials, including Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham during the event. @MarkCavitt on Twitter Mark Cavitt is a multimedia journalist at The Oakland Press and MediaNews Group in Michigan. He covers Oakland County government as well as the communities of Commerce Township, Lyon Township, Milford, Novi, South Lyon, Walled Lake and Wixom. Neel Bhatt, a UW assistant professor of otolaryngology, specializes in treating patients with voice problems. Through his work, he began to realize people did not like the sound of their own voices. With the transition to school over Zoom, many students can relate to the discomfort of hearin NEW HAVEN Local advocates believe the Biden administration is bringing good news, with the president recently quadrupling the national cap on annual refugee acceptances to 62,500. Chris George, executive director of the New Haven-based refugee resettlement agency Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, said it likely would have an immediate positive effect on Connecticuts refugee population. Well be going from welcoming fewer than 100 refugees per year to perhaps welcoming 500 refugees per year, he said. It means that some of their relatives who have been waiting for four years might finally be able to come to the United States and join them from Syria, from Iraq, from Afghanistan and Congo, he said. Thats a very specific, tangible result. Because of the decrease in refugees offered admittance into the nation under the Trump administration, George said IRIS revenue decreased and the group became more reliant upon private donors than before. Now, with an expected increase in refugees to be resettled, George said IRIS expects to increase its staff. Many of the new roles will focus on the most immediate resettlement needs, such as finding housing, employment and health care for newly-arrived refugees. Arnold Gold / Hearst Connecticut Media George said IRIS also will continue to expand a project it has had in the works predating Trump a community-based resettlement project. Local coalitions of community groups, such as religious and university organizations, will take on the role of providing assistance and support to newly-arrived refugees. Because of the previous decrease in the number of refugees, George said IRIS turned its operational attention toward those living in the country illegally over the last few years. Its a lot of what we put under the umbrella of case management: it can include helping with housing if youre at risk of being evicted, it includes connecting you to health care, finding ways to get health care even though you dont have government insurance and helping your children in school, and it means enrolling you in our weekly food pantry, he said. Were optimistic that eventually we will have comprehensive immigration reform and well be a global leader in immigrant resettlement again. Fear and hope Juana Islas has been in the United States for 17 years and has three American children, but she worries about being separated from them. Islas said she left behind poverty in a Mexican village to pursue a dream; she works days at a day care and nights cleaning a hospital, and because of her status she is not eligible for government assistance. Amid that fear, Islas, local advocates for refugees and those living in the country without legal permission said they want President Joe Bidens actions to match his rhetoric on immigration reform. Hearst Connecticut Media file photo He promised immigration reform in his first 100 days, said Islas. I dont see any change. Other local advocates give Biden mixed reviews, saying the political environment for immigrants is less frightening than it was under Trump and Biden has begun to reverse some of Trumps policies. However, some still feel the president must do more to further reform the nations immigration system. When Biden was the U.S. vice president under President Barack Obama, Islas brother Josemaria was arrested by Hamden police in connection with an attempted robbery he did not commit a witness gave him an alibi at the time of the incident. Before his case was resolved, he was turned over to immigration authorities and was incarcerated for months. Islas said the fear that her community feels has lessened, but there is still a prevailing sense that Biden has not kept his promises. / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo In late March, the U.S. Supreme Court handed people in the country without authorization an apparent victory in its 6-3 ruling in Niz-Chavez v. Garland. The court ruled that a Guatemalan man living in Michigan was not adequately notified of the details of his deportation hearing; New Haven-based immigration attorney Glenn Formica believes the impact this decision will have on immigration law is wide open, although he hopes Biden will use it as leverage with congressional Republicans. The question is enough for Biden to say the Supreme Court says these (hearing notifications) are invalid, so hes going to pass a regulation. Just the threat of voiding (over 1 million) deportation orders might be enough to get Republicans running to the table, he said. Formica said he believes the result of the Niz-Chavez decision will be a slow burn and may take years to play out legally if it is not dealt with legislatively. If the system grinds to a halt trying to accommodate this new decision, thats going to have political ramifications on both sides of the aisle, he said. For Formicas clients in Connecticut, though, he said it provides a new appellate issue to introduce in immigration court to give another opportunity to some of the most helpless cases. Bennett Pudlin, a former attorney, is one of a team of volunteers helping Formica with some of his cases. He said that, with a mailing list of about 600 people associated with Connecticut Shoreline Indivisible, under Glenns direction weve been providing support for immigrants who are fighting deportation in immigration court. For their part, that means some of the back-end work, such as help procuring documents and witnesses, as well as emotional and community support. Almost every one of the cases were doing with Glenn involve... violence, and almost all of our clients are female; some are, or were when we started, children, Pudlin said. Despite the uncertainty of what the Biden administration will accomplish legislatively, Formica said he believes his administration is not pursuing deportation cases as aggressively as his predecessor. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has been standing down and not chasing people and asking them to buy plane tickets, he said. I think Trump definitely changed the tone, and theres a question of whether Biden is a change of tone or a true change of policy. Pudlin said he believes Biden has done more than change the tone, having reversed several Trump-era regulations on immigration, but those changes have largely represented a return to Obama-era status quo thus far. Formica said he has noticed no people seeking sanctuary as a final option to avoid deportation, and he believes that will be a consistent trend throughout the Biden years. He said the federal government has shown some discretion it had not in the past, such as allowing one of his clients to be at her husbands bedside in Honduras as he was dying. Mara Lavitt / Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Pudlin said the Niz-Chavez decision is not a panacea in the long run to give those here without authorization a better legal standing, but it does mean a large number of active deportation cases might need to be refiled. In the past, the courts have looked to interpretations of international law to guide the interpretation of our law and the Trump people departed entirely from that, he said. I want to see that fixed so people who have valid claims to asylum in this country can live here without fear and get on with their lives. For now, Islas said local activists will be relentless in demanding those reforms. We will not stop fighting until we are heard. We will not stop marching in the streets until we are heard. The president needs to hear us, she said. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com TOKYO (AP) Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank Group Corp. returned to profitability for the fiscal year that ended in March, it said Wednesday, boosted by the strong performance of its sprawling investments as stock prices surged. Tokyo-based SoftBank reported a 4.99 trillion yen ($36 billion) profit, a dramatic reversal from the 962 billion yen loss logged during the previous fiscal year. It did not break down quarterly results. The annual net profit was the biggest for any company in Japanese history, surpassing Japan's top earner Toyota Motor Corp. But Son brushed off the achievement as a coincidence," while promising to keep pursuing his dream of innovation, not just monetary gain. Sales for the fiscal year totaled 5.6 trillion yen ($51 billion), up 7%. Sales of SoftBank's assets helped boost its bottom line by 5.6 trillion yen ($51 billion) from April to September 2020. The company sold holdings in U.S. mobile company T-Mobile, Chinese technology company Alibaba and Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Corp. SoftBank was the first to offer the Apple iPhone in the Japanese market. SoftBank also reduced its debt by 1 trillion yen ($9 billion) this fiscal year by repurchasing corporate bonds and repaying loans. SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son told reporters he was proud about how he had grown the company from humble beginnings four decades ago in Fukuoka, southern Japan, to a giant that counts its profits in trillions. Son acknowledged regrets over investment mistakes, pointing to WeWork, a U.S. office-sharing business. But SoftBanks two Vision Funds for investments, which also have had their up and downs, are showing profitability, Son added. He gave as an example of how his vision works the sale of SoftBanks holdings in British semiconductor and software design company Arm to U.S. technology giant Nvidia. Part of that purchase was paid for in Nvidia shares, making SoftBank a major shareholder in an artificial intelligence company, said Son. My story has barely started, he said, stressing his dedication to his dream for a technology revolution. That is the most important thing for me. ___ Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama At 5:03 p.m. on Sunday, May 22, 2011, more than 400 graduates of Joplin High School threw their maroon-colored caps into the air. Cali Clark kept hers on. She still has it, somewhere. Eight minutes later, outdoor sirens across Joplin began to wail. Meteorologists had been tracking huge thunderstorms firing up in the area. Menacing rotation began heading toward Missouri Southern State University on Joplins northeast side where the high school graduation had just ended. Even with sirens sounding, there was little panic. Parents and kids calmly walked to their cars in the parking lot, which faced sunny skies to the east. They couldnt see the storm marching in from the west until they started driving away. Celebrations became nightmares when a monstrous EF5 tornado slammed the town, obliterating more than a third of the city, injuring more than 1,000 people and killing more than 160. Now, 10 years later, Clark is preparing for another graduation ceremony in Joplin that she hopes will be unforgettable for much happier reasons. On May 9, just days before the 10th anniversary of the tornado, she was one of the first 131 students to graduate from Kansas City Universitys College of Osteopathic Medicine in Joplin, which opened in 2017, The Kansas City Star reported. The inaugural class includes a handful of Joplin natives who like Clark dreamed of becoming doctors but never imagined they could one day go to med school in their own hometown. They were teenagers when the tornado savaged their town. Some of them jumped in to help with relief efforts. Their memories remain vivid and unlike some who prefer not to talk about that day, they will. The school has also attracted students from around the world who have brought noticeable diversity to this town of more than 50,000 in southwest Missouri. I think it was one of the big sparks that our community needed, said graduate Michael Weaver, a Joplin native who rode out the 2011 tornado in the darkened basement of his parents house. The school and tornado are forever linked. Years of planning that began before the tornado later coalesced after Mercy Hospital Joplin donated the building, and land, it used as a temporary hospital while it built a new one which invites references to a phoenix rising from the ashes. Its going to be so amazing to see this first graduating class walk across that stage and know that Joplin did it, said Blair Freed, 25, a member of the inaugural class who will graduate next year. Weaver remembers the building as a hospital, which it looks nothing like now. Walking into the school the first time after it was built was kind of awe-inspiring, he said. You walk into the main lobby, which goes into the main auditorium in which we spend much of our time in the first two years, and its just this big, wide-open space, lots of windows. Lots of light streaming in. They did a great job making the campus feel very natural. Lots of wood everywhere. Lots of places we can go and, I want to say relax, but that word isnt compatible with medical school. Freed wasnt in town when the tornado hit, but she and her family watched it that night on CNN and its hard to describe how surreal it is to see the rubble of your hometown on national news. Seeing lacerated, bloodied, broken bodies and victims and the legions of volunteers, doctors, nurses and first responders who came to help cemented some of the students plans to go into medicine. It was one of the factors that really helped solidify that decision, said Freed, who decided when she was 12 she wanted to be a doctor. Hearing about the first responders and what they did, it was absolutely that feeling you get in your stomach when youre like, This is what I want to do. Weaver has wanted to be a doctor since fourth grade and that instinct to assist kicked in the night of the tornado. From the basement where he sheltered he could hear things shattering, crashing and breaking and could feel the air pressure drop as the tornado roared past. Thirty seconds of chaos felt like hours. I remember walking out the front door, which was faced away from where the tornado came through and I saw a big tree down I saw that my car had been totaled, said Weaver, who is 29. And as we walked away from the house and turned around we saw everything behind us just flattened. Weaver grabbed his first aid kit before he and his brother and roommate set off walking through the neighborhood. Im going to help people, Weaver thought. But, just walking around it really dawned on me, I dont know how to do anything, he said. I had this idea in my head that I knew a lot about medicine. And that moment really just showed me theres so much that you dont know, theres so much that you dont understand. It was definitely an encouragement to keep learning more and keep doing as much as I could. After graduation Weaver will do his internal medicine residency at Freeman hospital in Joplin and wants to stay in town to work. I like to tell people its one of two things. I either really love Joplin or Ive got Stockholm syndrome very badly, he said. Another member of the schools inaugural class, Tanner Riscoe, put himself in the thick of things that night, too. Its hard to believe its been 10 years, said Riscoe, who is 26 and will graduate next year. Ten years ago he was a student at McAuley Catholic High School. He had already seen how violent nature can be. The year before he and his father, Dr. Jim Riscoe, an emergency medicine physician in town, joined other Joplin residents on a medical mission to Haiti after a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the Caribbean country. Young Riscoe knew what a disaster response looked like. The night of the tornado, while his father set up a triage unit at the towns Memorial Hall, he headed to St. Johns Regional Medical Center where his dad worked. The building had taken a direct hit. I went places I probably shouldnt have gone, into the hospital, looking for people, Riscoe said. I was up to my knees in water. That was stupid, and I got out of that. Back at Memorial Hall he watched scores of wounded walk in. Others were carried in on chairs and on doors used as stretchers. He saw the morgue set up behind the auditorium stage; countless other victims lay trapped under rubble. It was his idea to call his principal and ask if the high school could be used as a secondary triage site. He had always been interested in his dads field of emergency medicine and that commitment grew stronger as he watched for days what it took to pull Joplin through. Faculty members at the med school have their own memories of that day. Ten years ago Dr. Ken Stewart was the medical director of the emergency department at St. Johns and would have been working that day. But his family took him on a weekend getaway for his birthday. I was actually coming in from Branson while the tornado was ripping up Joplin, said Stewart, now an assistant professor of primary care at the medical school. I was on my way home to Carthage and the tornado sirens were already going off. And we were already starting to get the winds and the hail from the tornado, and I could see the large black high cloud thunderhead over Joplin as I was driving (interstate) 44 to Carthage. It was the ugliest thing Id ever seen. Text messages from friends and colleagues told him St. Johns was nearly destroyed. Once the tornado sirens went off I looked at my wife and said, Honey, I gotta go in. With the highway blocked by windblown semis and cars, Stewart boldly put on his flashers and drove on the shoulder of the road. Through the rain he used backroads to get into town and as he passed through one particular neighborhood the big picture of what had just happened came into full view. I just popped out of this into total devastation. It was like a war zone, said Stewart. His path to the hospital blocked, he pulled into the parking lot of a Baptist church left standing. People were already bringing the wounded there. I was just thinking to myself what am I going to do here? Ive got the skill set to take care of people but I dont have any equipment, or supplies or anything, he said. Then he heard a voice. Hey Dr. Stewart! It was a neighbor from Carthage who happened to be the youth minister at the church. Stewart was shocked to see him, but asked to get inside the building to set up a triage area. And then off-the-cuff I said and if you could land a helicopter in the parking lot that would be great, Stewart said. More wounded came, for hours. The worst among them was an unconscious woman with a piece of 2x4 lumber lodged in her pelvis. Helpers arrived. A paramedic crew helped him start IVs on the woman and stabilize her. A critical care nurse from Kansas City showed up. People in trucks drove the injured to area hospitals. And the helicopter he had joked about? A helicopter crew somehow, inexplicably, showed up and whisked the impaled woman away. Many people talk about how calm people were that day, even the badly injured, even the woman with the exposed ankle bone who broke it trying to escape the tornado, said Stewart. Her husband perished. It wasnt uncontrolled panic, or a lot of screaming and crying, said Stewart. I know a lot of it was shock, but it was just kind of this acceptance. The idea of building a medical school here goes as far back as 2008. It was the brainstorm of Dr. Larry McIntire, an ear, nose and throat doctor affiliated with Freeman Health System who led a group of community leaders that raised more than its goal of $30 million. Freeman donated $4 million to the project. He had long thought that Joplin, in a nice setting, in a small rural city with great hospital staffs and facilities, would make a great location for a medical school. He just needed to convince the town. Turns out it wasnt a hard sell. I can tell you Joplin loves our medical students, said Stewart. The med school students feel it when they wear their KCU T-shirts around town and people greet them. The members of the Joplin Regional Medical School Alliance that raised the money came from many arenas. Bankers, local business owners, financial advisers, accountants, hospital administrators, dentists, doctors and representatives from Missouri Southern State University in town. To a person I never had anyone back up from me and say they didnt think this should happen, McIntire said. It drew their interest because they could envision the fact that it was possible. The gift of the temporary hospital building and land from Mercy hospital was a game-changer. When the campus opened it was the first new medical school in Missouri in nearly 50 years. Had we not had that tornado we would not have that facility, so who knows? said McIntire. Nearly 40% of KCU graduates practice medicine in rural areas, according to the school, which has its main campus on Independence Avenue in Kansas City. Having a second campus in Joplin is a chance to further address a rural America affliction. Rural residents have less access to physicians than their urban neighbors. Nationally, the patient-to-primary-care-doctor ratio in rural areas is 39.8 doctors per 100,000 residents, compared to 53.3 per 100,000 folks who live in urban America, says the National Rural Health Association. Joplin draws patients from miles away, including Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas, Stewart said, and many of those areas lack primary care physicians Dentists, too, are harder to come by in rural areas than cities, and KCU will drill down on that problem next. On May 22, the 10th anniversary of the tornado, KCU will break ground on a new College of Dental Medicine in Joplin scheduled to open in 2023. The dental school is funded by several supporters from Kansas City, including the Patterson Family Foundation, which donated $9 million to the project, and the Sunderland Foundation, which donated $6 million. The medical school and dental school will be connected by a glass walkway, said McIntire. It is not lost on him that if the campus had been there 10 years ago it would have taken a direct hit. I think the importance of having doctors trained here is that people have the opportunity to come be exposed to what rural medicine can offer and what living in a town like Joplin and being a physician in a town like Joplin can offer, said Freed, who plans to be an OB/GYN. For a physician who is wanting to start a family or whos looking to practice in a more rural area, I think having this school here and having students grow here and learn here and find community here makes them a lot more inclined to either stay or to come back after residency and practice. And I think thats huge because ... we need that kind of quality health care and we need more of it. The invitation-only graduation ceremony on Sunday afternoon took place where Cali Clark graduated from high school the day of the tornado, the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center at Missouri Southern. Like some of her other med school colleagues, Clark planned to be a doctor her father is an anesthesiologist and wants to work in the area but figured shed have to move away for med school. She looked at schools in Kansas City and St. Louis. But when KCU-Joplin was announced, it became No. 1 on her list. When you view it in the light of honoring those who lost their lives and who lost everything, bringing health care to the region thats what really matters, said Clark. What can we do to show that we are working towards something better? After graduation Clark will start her residency at Freeman hospital, where both her parents work. Its like Im joining the family business, she said. Sunday was also her first Mothers Day. She had a baby eight months ago. There will be a lot of mothers coming to Joplin for the med school graduation, said McIntire, whose granddaughter will graduate on Sunday, too. What a scenario that is. Everybody will be in town for that one. The forecast for Sunday? A chance of rain. Editor gave many a voice To the Editor: I had first gotten into contact with Ms. Shultz back in 2018 when I was still the editor of Darien High Schools newspaper NEIRAD. Back then, I was unsure as a writer, and felt that I was unable to voice and raise awareness about many topics to a community-wide level beyond Darien High School. I did not have the means of doing so, and it was Ms. Shultz who gave me the opportunity which led to my first article The Invisible People: Helping the homeless and overcoming stigma being published. Even though Darien does not have a homeless population, we felt that it was still important to cover the topic, which I am glad that we were able to raise awareness for. I became a voice for the voiceless, and Ms. Shultz was the one to uplift my voice so that I could uplift others voices. When the pandemic first hit, Ms. Shultz was critical in raising awareness, whether that be for frontline nurses giving out tests, grocery store workers on the front lines like myself, and for raising awareness about the impact our masks were having on Dariens environment. Subsequently, so many events in Darien for the Black Lives Matter movement that I co-led would not have been made known were it not for Ms. Shultz, namely the protests, vigil, and subsequent art show that the organization I co-lead R.A.G.E.T.I.M.E. CT held. As any journalist knows, working in the media requires engaging with community members, a passion for finding the truth, and fairness in reporting events. Ms. Shultz has kept The Darien Times fair in reporting politically, a hard thing to do in todays climate. Through her writing, aside from covering events, she has fostered compassion and kindness in our community, and has made a welcoming and lasting impact on the town. I wish her all the best in the coming years, and Im forever grateful for the work she has done with the Darien Times, and for uplifting so many voices in our community. Kate Dempsey Darien DARIEN For 16 years, Susan Shultz has served the community as a reporter and editor, writing on all facets of the town and its residents. This week, shes stepping down as editor to take a new role within Hearst Connecticut Media Group as a sponsored content producer in the marketing division. The Darien Times has the most passionate and engaged readers I have ever encountered, so all I can say is Thank you, Shultz said. Thank you for your support. ... Thank you for enjoying and caring about this paper. Thank you for your kindness to me. This paper has only been as good as the people and community Ive covered. Shultz joined the Darien Times as a reporter in 2005, before becoming the assistant editor in 2011 and the editor in July 2012. Journalism wasnt her first career. She was originally an executive assistant, but has always been drawn to writing shes also a published poet and horror novelist and decided to go back to school for it. She earned her masters degree in journalism at Quinnipiac University in 2005. I love to write in any capacity, Shultz said. I was curious about tapping into a different writing muscle with journalism and I immediately fell in love with it specifically community journalism. Theres a difference in community journalism than the more intense daily beat. Community journalism offers a variety of topics that have driven Shultz over the years. I can do a story on zoning law and watch sheep getting sheared within the same hour, Shultz said. You learn about everything and meet the most incredible people. That love had only grown and continues today. Shultz said shes enjoyed covering the community she once called home. She now lives in Wilton with her two daughters, who are both in middle school, but is still drawn to Darien. The people she met and the relationships she built were among her favorite aspects of serving as the Darien Times editor. She said its been a privilege for them to trust her with their stories, which were sometimes difficult. One example was a story about the opioid epidemic and a family who knows the devastation of it first hand. She won a first-place award from the Connecticut Society of Professional Journalists for it and also formed a connection with the family. Under her leadership, the paper has grown to promote education and awareness on a myriad of issues, including ones that had been considered too taboo to have an open conversation about, Elizabeth Betsy Higgins Jones, a reader and the mother featured in the story, wrote in a letter to the editor. She was both professional and very kind to me and her article on our familys loss, a tragedy that so many other families have also experienced, was one of the most impactful articles that I have ever read in the Darien Times. And like most communities, Darien was hit by COVID, affecting almost every aspect of life. In the last year, I have been privileged to tell many first-hand COVID stories, including those of Darien residents and their ordeals, Darien first responders and nurses, sharing resources for the community and connecting many with those resources in ways that never made it near a story or a paper, Shultz said. Hearst Connecticut is actively recruiting a new Darien Times editor. Brian Gioiele will be managing the publication until a new editor is hired. He can be reached at Brian.Gioiele@hearstmediact.com COVID-19 deaths in the United States have tumbled to an average of around 600 per day the lowest level in 10 months with the number of lives lost dropping to single digits in well over half the states and, on some days, hitting zero. Confirmed infections have fallen to about 38,000 per day on average, their lowest mark since mid-September. While that is still cause for concern, reported cases have plummeted 85% from a daily peak of more than a quarter-million in early January. The last time U.S. deaths from the pandemic were this low was in early July of last year. The number of people with COVID-19 who died topped out in mid-January at an average of more than 3,400 a day, just a month into the biggest vaccination drive in the nation's history. The Boston Herald put a huge zero on its front page Wednesday under the headline First time in nearly a year state has no new coronavirus deaths. Indiana reported one COVID-19 fatality Tuesday. Kansas, which peaked at 63 reported deaths on Dec. 22, has been in the single digits since February and seen multiple days with just one virus-related death. Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University, said that vaccinations have played a crucial role even as the nation struggles to reach herd immunity. The primary objective is to deny this virus the ability to kill at the rate that it could, and that has been achieved," he said. We have in effect tamed the virus. About 45% of the nation's adults are fully vaccinated, and nearly 59% have received at least one dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This week, Pfizer's vaccine won authorization for use in 12- to 15-year-olds, a move that could make it easier to reopen the nation's schools. Physicians like Dr. Tom Dean in South Dakotas rural Jerauld County are cautiously optimistic, concerned about the many people who have decided against getting vaccinated or have grown lax in guarding against infections. The county has recorded just three confirmed cases in the last two weeks, according to Johns Hopkins data. What Im afraid of is people believing this whole thing is over and you dont have to worry about it any more, Dean said. I think complacency is our biggest threat right now. Several states, including Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska and Hawaii, were averaging fewer than one COVID-19 death per day over the past week, according to data through Tuesday from Johns Hopkins. And even among the five states with the highest daily deaths Michigan with an average of 65.4, Florida with 61.7, California with 48, Texas with 44 and New York with 39.3 all but Florida's number were going down. California, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak over the winter, logged 1,231 new confirmed cases Wednesday, down from a peak of 40,000. Los Angeles County reported 18 deaths Tuesday, versus more than 200 a day in January. Vermont, which at nearly 63% leads the country in the share of its population that has received at least one vaccine dose, has gone nearly a week without reporting a COVID-19 death. The improvement hasnt been as dramatic everywhere. Michigan, which for weeks has reported the nations worst infection rate, is only now starting to see a decline in mortality. But over the past two weeks, cases in the state plunged from a daily average of almost 4,860 to about 2,680 on Monday. Every day were getting closer to putting this pandemic behind us," Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said. In Kansas, the Amos Family Funeral Home & Crematory saw several COVID-19 victims at the height of the outbreak. But for weeks now it has handled one, said Parker Amos, president of the Kansas City-area business. It is a huge relief, he said. Especially at the start of this, when we didnt know exactly how bad this was or how bad this was going to get, it was scary being in this industry. The funeral home is now working through a backlog of memorial services that families put off when cases were surging. You want families to be able to have that closure," Amos said, and to hold on to that for a year is something that we feel for those families in a big way because that is something that is really hard." Dr. Mark Rosenberg, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, was nearly placed on a ventilator when he contracted COVID-19 in December. Now he marvels at how things have changed, saying people are so joyful that it reminds him of the photos he has seen of soldiers returning from World War II. That is how it is starting to feel, that we made it through," said Rosenberg, who practices emergency medicine at St. Josephs Health in Paterson, New Jersey. People are touching each other again. They are hugging." The overall U.S. death toll in the pandemic stood at over 583,000 as of Wednesday. Teams of experts consulted by the CDC projected in a report last week that new deaths and cases will fall sharply by the end of July and continue dropping after that. The encouraging outlook stands in sharp contrast to the catastrophe unfolding in places like India and Brazil. I think we are in a great place, but I think India is an important cautionary tale," warned Justin Lessler, a professor of epidemiology at John Hopkins. If there is a right combination of vaccine hesitancy, potentially new variants and quickly rolling back control measures that comes together, we could potentially screw this up and have yet another wave that is completely unnecessary at this point," Lessler said. Ali Mokdad, a University of Washington professor of health metrics sciences, predicted that as vaccinations continued, both confirmed cases and deaths would decline into the summer, leading many to assume COVID-19 is gone even as outbreaks in places like India carry the potential to fuel new, more virulent variants. The race is to vaccinate as much as we can before we go into the winter, Mokdad said, adding that the current percentage of the population vaccinated is not high enough to stop another wave of coronavirus infections. ___ Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas, and Groves from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen contributed from Chicago. NEW YORK (AP) A man suspected of shooting three bystanders in New Yorks Times Square was arrested Wednesday in Florida, four days after the gunfire wounded people including a 4-year-old girl out toy shopping in the tourist haven known as "the Crossroads of the World. Farrakhan Muhammad was taken into custody while eating lunch in a McDonald's parking lot near Jacksonville, police said. While there is no joy today, there is justice, New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said. Muhammad, 31, was listed Wednesday in an inmate database for the sheriff's office in Bradford County, Florida. Information on a lawyer who could speak on his behalf was not immediately available. Muhammad is suspected of wounding the three victims with stray bullets during a dispute at about 5 p.m. Saturday in Times Square, where police said he was apparently selling CDs. Wendy Magrinat, a 23-year-old tourist visiting from Rhode Island, was shot in the leg. A 43-year-old woman from New Jersey was shot in the foot. The 4-year-old girl, from Brooklyn, was also shot in the leg. Magrinat, who was in the city for a Mother's Day trip, told the Daily News she was screaming, "I dont want to die, I dont want to die, I have a 2-year-old, after being hit by a bullet that will likely remain lodged in her leg for the rest of her life. Muhammad was apparently aiming for his brother, but investigators haven't yet pinpointed the motive, chief of detectives James Essig said. Police released videos and photos of Muhammad and asked the public for help tracking him down, and Essig said many people called in with tips. Muhammad's family made a public plea for him to turn himself in. Officers identified Muhammad as a suspect within hours and soon realized he was heading south, Essig said. Video then captured Muhammad and a woman, believed to be his girlfriend, buying dog food and other supplies at a store in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Meanwhile, investigators realized he had connections to some addresses in Florida. The U.S. Marshals Service caught up with the two on Wednesday as they were eating in a car outside a McDonald's in Starke, Florida, police said. Two dogs were with the pair when they were arrested, with French fries lying on the car's floor, police said. Muhammad had shaved off some of his hair, Essig said. The woman has not been arrested on any charges, but police consider her a person of interest in their ongoing investigation. Police believe the two had been living together in a building near Times Square. ___ Associated Press writers David Fischer in Miami and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report. Daytona Beach, FL (32114) Today Sunny to partly cloudy. High 88F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A few passing clouds, otherwise generally clear. Low 74F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription and are still unable to access our content, please link your digital account to your print subscription If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. "CET-2021, earlier scheduled to be held on July 7 and July 8, and the Kannada Language Test on July 9 have been postponed," the statement said. Bengaluru: Karnataka Education Minister Dr C N Ashwatha Narayana on Wednesday informed that Common Entrance Test (CET)- 2021 has been postponed to August 28 and August 29 in view of surging COVID-19 cases. "Due to the postponement of the 2021 2nd annual PUC (Pre University Course) examinations and the surge in COVID-19 cases in the state, CET-2021 has been postponed," an official statement said. "CET-2021, earlier scheduled to be held on July 7 and July 8, and the Kannada Language Test on July 9 have been postponed. As per the revised dates, CET-2021 will be conducted on August 28 and August 29 and the Kannada Language Test on August 30," the statement added. He also informed that further applications would be invited online shortly and asked the candidates to remain in touch with the KEA (Karnataka Examinations Authority) website. As Shawwal crescent was not sighted in Hyderabad and other parts of the country on Wednesday evening, Thursday will be the last day of Ramzan and Id-ul-Fitr will be observed on Friday. (DC file photo) Hyderabad: As Shawwal crescent was not sighted in Hyderabad and other parts of the country on Wednesday evening, Thursday will be the last day of Ramzan and Id-ul-Fitr will be observed on Friday, according to the Ruyat Hilaal Committee of Sadar Majlis Ulema-e-Deccan, responsible for the announcement of sighting on moon. However, Id prayers are not allowed for common people even in masjids. Secretary of Sadar Majlis Ulema-e-Deccan, Moulana Qubool Badsha Quadri said the sky was cloudy in Hyderabad and even in other parts of the country where the sky was clear, the crescent was not sighted. He announced that in the light of Sharia the Id-ul-Fitr would fall on Friday. Earlier in the day, a webinar was held with home minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaaissi, Commissioner of Police Anjani Kumar and reputed Ulemas to discuss conducting of Id prayers as the lockdown is in effect in the state. The government has imposed restrictions on congregational prayers in places of worship. In the meeting, it was decided to allow only four persons to perform Id prayers in masjids to avoid them from becoming deserted. Anjani Kumar, while addressing the meeting, said the government had imposed a complete lockdown for 10 days and issued a GO framing various guidelines. The government ordered that all religious places shall be closed for public worship and congregations shall not be permitted. Even the High Court is keeping watch on us. We attended the court yesterday. However, only four people will be allowed to perform prayers, he said. Home minister Mahmood Ali and AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi appealed to the common Muslims not to come out of their houses to perform Id prayers at masjids as the government had not permitted congregational prayers. They appealed to the Muslims to perform prayers at their houses. Meanwhile, CEO of Wakf Board Shahnawaz Qasim issued a circular directing all Mutawallis and managing committees to strictly follow the instructions given in the GO. Any deviation in the matter will be viewed seriously and action will be initiated against the concerned. Moulana Anwaar Ahmed of Jamia Nizamia clarified that performing the Id prayers at homes were not permissible in the Sharia, so people can perform the Chasht or Ishraq prayers (special morning prayers) at their residence instead of Id prayers. There is infuriation among common Muslims over not allowing them to perform Id prayers even in local masjids. Many people have expressed their dissent over the decision of the government to ban Id prayers in masjids. Many religious scholars have also expressed their displeasure and said performing Id prayers at homes was not permissible by the Sharia. Moulana Abdur Raheem Khurram said during the relaxation period, Id prayers can be performed complying with the SOPs of Covid-19. Ulemas had allowed performing Id prayers in more than one session in the Masjids to avoid the huge crowd. He asked the government to reconsider its decision. Bangladesh plane carrying China-donated COVID-19 vaccines arrives in Dhaka Xinhua) 14:43, May 12, 2021 The China-donated COVID-19 vaccines are unloaded in a plane of the Bangladesh Air Force in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 12, 2021. (Xinhua) The China-donated COVID-19 vaccines arrived just in time following the exhaustion of vaccine stocks in Bangladesh. DHAKA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A special plane of the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) carrying the China-donated COVID-19 vaccines and AD syringes landed in capital Dhaka early on Wednesday. Chief of Air Staff of the BAF Masihuzzaman Serniabat along with other senior officials were present at the BAF Base Bangabandhu in Dhaka's Kurmitola to receive the Sinopharm vaccines. A forklift unloaded boxes of the Chinese vaccines from the military transport plane shortly after it landed at around 5:30 a.m. local time. The China-donated COVID-19 vaccines are unloaded in a plane of the Bangladesh Air Force in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 12, 2021. (Xinhua) According to an official handout at the air base, the goodwill mission was conducted by a C-130J transport aircraft of the BAF to bring the Sinopharm vaccines and AD syringes provided by China to prevent the coronavirus as a sign of China's friendly relations with Bangladesh. It said the Bangladeshi government has expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for its commendable efforts in combating the coronavirus and unwavering support to countries including Bangladesh. Bangladesh's drug regulator in April authorized emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccines. A special plane of the Bangladesh Air Force carrying China-donated COVID-19 vaccines and AD syringes arrives in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 12, 2021. (Xinhua) The Bangladeshi government has also given the green light to a proposal of producing Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in the country. Speaking at a virtual interaction with the journalists here on Monday, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming said China and Bangladesh are witnessing progress in their joint fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccine aid was "just in time," Li said. "It is the latest outcome of China-Bangladesh anti-pandemic cooperation, which again shows that our two peoples are in the same boat, and we will stand with each other till the end of this battle." Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming speaks during a virtual interaction with a group of journalists in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 10, 2021. (Xinhua) "The virus is our common enemy, and cooperation is the only way out," he said. Muhammad Faruk Khan, chairman of Bangladesh's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday that the country's vaccination drive, which suffered a setback following exhaustion of the stocks, will soon be resumed thanks to the Chinese vaccines. Khan, who is also a lawmaker and a former minister, said he would like to thank China for sending the COVID-19 vaccine doses as a gift and the gifts China had sent in the past year to help Bangladesh fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief of Air Staff of the BAF Masihuzzaman Serniabat and other senior officials pose for photos after receiving the vaccines in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 12, 2021. (Xinhua) With reference to the decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to list China's Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use, he said this is to be a boon for the inoculation drive against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, especially in countries like Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country's COVID-19 vaccination drive on Jan. 28 to rein in the pandemic that has so far spread across the country. Workers unload the China-donated COVID-19 vaccines and AD syringes in Dhaka, Bangladesh on May 12, 2021. (Xinhua) Amid uncertainty over the timely arrival of the next COVID-19 vaccine shipment from India, the Bangladeshi government later halted administering the first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine across the country. Bangladeshi Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Tuesday said they were waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines from China to strengthen the countrywide inoculation drive. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) With four ICUs, one with 38 beds on the ground floor, and three more on the first floor with 25 beds each, staff work in three shifts taking care of the patients. However, there is just one nurse, one patient care worker, and one doctor in each shift for each of the ICUs. PTI file photo Hyderabad: There appears to be no end to the woes of Covid-19 patients at Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (Tims), at Gachibowli. First, it was the lack of good quality food, and then extremely delayed delivery of food to the patients. Now it is poor patient care, thanks to the severe shortages of staff at the hospital. Though the issue of staff shortages was reported in these columns earlier, it has once again come to the fore following the death of eight Covid-19 patients in an ICU ward at the hospital after loss of pressure in the oxygen lines on Sunday. This newspaper has learnt that one of the contributing factors for the deaths of patients every day at Tims is lack of staff, be it doctors, nurses, or patient care workers. With four ICUs, one with 38 beds on the ground floor, and three more on the floor above it with 25 beds each, staff work in three shifts taking care of the patients. However, there is just one nurse, one patient care worker, and one doctor in each shift for each of the ICUs. Inquiries revealed that it is impossible for a single doctor, or a nurse, or a patient care worker to attend to the needs of all the patients in the ICUs. Even as they do their best and rush around, one of the biggest challenges is getting timely results of diagnostic tests. Results of blood samples sent to the state-run Telangana Diagnostics hub at the Institute of Preventive Medicine (IPM) at Narayanaguda take more than one day to come back, and it is not uncommon for patients at Tims and its doctors to wait for even two days or more in some instances for the results. Some of critical tests that Covid-19 patients need to undergo and whose results are vital in treating the patients include D-Dimers that show the potential for clotting of blood, Ferretin test that shows iron levels in the body, C Reactive Protein test that can help the doctor understand inflammation levels in the body, and Liver Function Tests that help doctors make other critical assessments on the patients ability to deal with drugs. In the absence of test results which are extremely critical for successfully treating Covid-19 cases, what any doctor can do is to provide some prophylactic treatment and not address the condition that a patient may be in, a doctor said. And if stretched thin over 25 or more ICU patients to be attended to in a single shift, it is next to impossible, whether for the single doctor, or the nurse, to attend to the needs of every critically ill patient. Meanwhile, on the issue of oxygen, the hospital, on Tuesday said there was no shortage of oxygen supply at Tims and that the installed liquid oxygen tank is sufficient to meet the needs of the hospital with adequate pressure. Calling the news report in these columns as trying to scare patients coming to the hospital, Tims Director said the deaths happened in ICU were part of the natural progression of disease and due to complications and not due to shortage of oxygen. The report published in these columns on the death of eight patients in one of the ICUs at Tims on Sunday did not speak about the installed capacities of oxygen supply or shortages of oxygen but about the fall in pressure in the lines after which the patients breathed their last. Holding a review meeting on higher education at his camp office at Tadepalli on Wednesday, the Chief Minister asked officials to make IIITs on a par with IITs by introducing higher standards. (DC Image:Narayana Rao) VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has instructed top officials to initiate an action plan to secure top ranking for state universities in National Institutional Ranking Frame Work (NIRF). Holding a review meeting on higher education at his camp office at Tadepalli on Wednesday, the Chief Minister asked them to make IIITs on a par with IITs by introducing higher standards. Reddy directed officials to raise education standards in all universities in the state, aiming at a slot in the top ten in the country. He wanted the state universities like JNTU (Kakinada, Anantapur), Andhra University, SV University, Padmavathi Mahila University, and RGUKT (IIITs) to reach higher levels. Seeking budget estimates for bolstering the state universities, he drew the attention of officials to expedite setting up of Architecture University at Kadapa. The officials informed that Andhra University was currently ranked at 19 and SV University at 38 in the NIRF rankings. At this juncture, Reddy asked for a plan of action for the next two years to improve their rankings. He asked officials to study the best practices in the institutions which secured top ranks in NIRF list. The officials were directed to recruit talented, meritorious and exemplary people as teaching staff in the universities. The Chief Minister also asked higher officials to explore partnerships between state and reputed foreign universities. Reviewing the functioning of IIITs, he directed the officials to introduce business courses and raise their standards to the level of IITs. He noted that IIITs were badly neglected by the previous government, which diverted about Rs 180 crore funds of these institutions. Learning that there were 22,946 students studying in IIITs, he told the authorities to complete the construction of IIIT buildings in Srikakulam and Ongole at the earliest. With respect to medical education, the Chief Minister said that the government was setting up 16 new medical colleges as against the 11 colleges at present. The number of medical seats would rise significantly and 70 per cent of them would be filled up the convener quota, thus benefiting the poor students. He said the government was according to top priority to education and health sectors and spending huge amounts to improve the existing systems through Nadu-Nedu programme. Education Minister Adimulapu Suresh, Special Chief Secretary (Higher Education) Satish Chandra, Principal Secretary (Finance) N Gulzar, APSCHE Chairman K Hemachandra Reddy, RGUKT Chancellor Prof KC Reddy and other officials were present at the meeting. It is time for New Delhi to ask the Chinese government to repatriate to India the mortal remains of the brave Sikh soldier. (Stock Image) In recent months China has given a lot of publicity to several new war memorials which have come up in Tibet; this mushrooming is probably due the Galwan incidents in which the Peoples Liberation Army lost some 45 men and officers in July 2020, although this information is still a state secret within China (it took months for Beijing to finally admit four Chinese had died in the brawl with Indian troops). On May 6, China Tibet Net published pictures of the Lhoka (Shannan) Martyrs Cemetery. This sub-district of the Tibet Military Region (TMD) faces the northern borders of Bhutan and the western part of the McMahon Line, north of the Tawang sector in Arunachal Pradesh. The article says: Among the green pines and cypresses is the solemn Shannan Martyrs Cemetery, where are buried [the martyrs] of the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet, the Tibetan rebellion, the Sino-Indian border self-defence counterattack, and the socialist revolution and construction in Tibet. More than 700 soldiers are said to be buried there. Tibets so-called peaceful liberation should be read as the invasion of the Roof of the World; the Tibetan rebellion is the Tibetan masses uprising against the occupiers in March 1959 while the self-defence counterattack is the treacherous attack against India in October 1962. Along with the memorial, sculptures, manuscripts, pictures, certificates of merit, military medals all cultural relics, silent and sacred, telling the infinite loyalty and love of revolutionary martyrs to the motherland and people. Similar memorials can be found in Gar and Tsanda in Ngari Prefecture (Western Tibet), in Rima (north of Kibithu in Lohit Valley) and of course in Lhasa and Shigatse; the most important one is Kanxiwar Memorial on the Highway 219 (Aksai Chin road) in Xinjiang, which pays homage to the hundreds of Chinese soldiers who lost their life in the battle of Rezang-la in November 1962. While there is nothing wrong in China honouring its soldiers, it is shocking that Beijing has never returned the remains of Subedar Joginder Singh, Param Vir Chakra, who died in Tibet in November 1962. What happened to Joginder Singh? In the morning of October 20, 1962, a JCO of the Assam Rifles posted at Bumla, north of Tawang, noticed some 1,000 labourers, with digging implements; they came protected by Chinese soldiers. The JCO rushed to inform the nearby platoon of a possible danger. Nothing happened till 4.30 am on October 23, when suddenly the Chinese started firing with mortars and anti-tank guns to destroy Indian bunkers built south of the international border, and soon 600 Chinese attacked the Assam Rifles post, which was quickly overrun, though after inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. Subedar Joginder Singh of 1 Sikh Regiment was posted a few hundred meters away. According to the official report of the 1962 War: The enemy attacked the forward platoon position of D Coy [Company] of the Sikhs at the IB [Inspection Bungalow] Ridge, at about 5:00 hrs with the objective of capturing Twin Peaks. As the climb from the bed of the nullah to the platoon position was steep, the Sikhs were able to inflict heavy casualties to the Chinese, compelling them to retire. Joginder Singh immediately asked for more ammunition, but by that time the enemy had cut the communications with the comapny headquarters. Joginder Singh fought like lion, he was badly wounded in the process and then taken prisoner. The citation for the PVC gave more details: In this fierce action, the platoon lost half of its men but not the will to fight. Subedar Joginder Singh, despite a wound in the thigh, refused evacuation. His platoon also refused to yield any ground to the enemy. The last wave of the Chinese attack, which was more determined and more forceful, followed next. Now the platoon had very few men left to fight. Subedar Joginder Singh, therefore, manned a light machine gun and killed a large number of enemies. But he could not stem the tide of the enemy advance single-handed. The Chinese continued advancing with little concern for the casualties. The report concluded: While in the enemys custody he died because of his wound. He was awarded the PVC (posthumously) for his bravery. Joginder was very badly wounded. When a few days later he arrived at the PoWs camp near Chongye in central Tibet, Chinese doctors immediately suggested an amputation (he was also suffering from frostbites), which the brave subedar refused; his chances of being promoted to Subedar-Major, the senior-most rank for a JCO (junior commissioned officer) would be jeopardised. The Chinese doctors asked the Indian commanding officers in the camp to try to convince Joginder it was necessary if he wanted to survive. But the Indian officers failed to do so and soon after Joginder passed away. This was sometime in November 1962. Ironically, it is at Bumla, the place where Joginder fought so well, that the first wounded jawans were repatriated by the Indian Red Cross on December 15. In his memoirs, one of the COs remembered that on March 23, 1963, the PoWs were informed that Maj. Gurdial Singh of the Rajputs, who was in the camp, was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra. At the same time, they probably heard of the PVC for Joginder Singh. The officer noted: On 26 March 1963, the commandant of the camp called us to tell us we were going to be returned to India via the mainland. He further recalled: Before leaving the PoW camp, we asked the Chinese to take us to the graves of our soldiers who had died in our camp. There were seven of them, including Subedar Joginder Singh, who had been awarded the highest gallantry award, the PVC. We were told by the Chinese that he had refused to have his toes, which were affected by frostbite [and bullet wounds], amputated He [had] died of gangrene. Incidentally, a war memorial has recently been constructed to honour the PVC awardee at Bum La; it was inaugurated by Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu, with Joginders family and Army representatives present. It is a first step in the right direction, but it is time for New Delhi to ask the Chinese government to repatriate to India the mortal remains of the brave Sikh soldier as well as his six other companions still buried in Tibet. It would only be late justice. The writer is based in South India for the past 42 years. He writes on India, China, Tibet and Indo-French relations. Highlights of this day in history: The Soviet Union announces an end to its blockade of Berlin; Body of missing Lindbergh baby is found in a wooded area; Burt Bacharach, Katherine Hepburn and George Carlin are born. (May 12) Drexel University College of Medicine at Tower Health on track to welcome students in August Marie Freeman of Ridley fills out a sample ballot to test the new voting system at Media Courthouse. The county was demonstrating the new machines to precinct election staff. OPINION Sound Off for Wednesday, May 12 Where are the best places to shop? Who gives the best haircut? Who cooks the best burger? Join our readers in selecting the "Best of Windham." Make your picks! A County Derry priest will next week begin an ambitious walking challenge to raise money for a local homeless charity. Fr John Irwin, a retired priest from Dungiven, is aiming to complete a walk every day for 80 days, with the finale coinciding with his 80th birthday on August 4. Since his ordination in June 1966, Fr Irwin has spent the majority of his ministry within Derry, serving in Banagher, Limavady, Bellaghy and Dungiven, as well as Creggan in the city. Proceeds from the walking challenge, branded 'Dungiven 80-80-80', will go towards the Simon Community, Northern Ireland's largest homeless charity. The driving force behind Fr Irwin's idea is to provide support for 'those less fortunate' after being impacted by seeing struggling families within his parishes. Walks will take place each day at 8pm from Fr Irwin's home on Station Road, Dungiven, and will vary between heading towards the Enterprise Centre and the Garvagh Road. The popular priest has encouraged the public to join in with the challenge. It will help with your health and fitness levels whilst at the same time getting those endorphins raised with a bit of fresh air, said Fr Irwin. Donations towards the Simon Community can be made via the Dungiven 80-80-80 Just Giving page, or visiting their Facebook page. Konkona Sensharma, Amol Parashar, Daisy Shah And Other Celebs Get Their First Dose of Coronavirus Vaccine Actors Shatrughan Sinha, Konkona Sen Sharma, and Daisy Shah on Tuesday received their dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. They took to social media to inform their fans and followers. Shatrughan Sinha, along with his wife Poonam Sinha, 71, and actor-son Luv Sinha, 37, arrived at a vaccination centre here. It was, however, unclear if the shot was their first or second. "Vaccines save lives," the 75-year-old actor-politician shared on his Instagram Stories. The Bollywood veteran's daughter, "Dabangg 3" star Sonakshi Sinha took her first jab on Monday. Sen Sharma, who got her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, shared some essential tips on booking the slot for the vaccination. "After playing vaccine vaccine for a few days we finally got jabbed! Got my first shot of Covaxin today! It is, after all, possible to get a slot from the CoWin site. If you know English, have a smart device and internet of course," the "Ajeeb Daastaans" star captioned the post and tagged actor Amol Parashar and her friend Damini for being her vaccine buddies. The 41-year-old actor hailed the medical community for their unending support and urged everyone to continue to double mask and follow all protocols even after vaccination. Parashar, 34, who worked with Sen Sharma on "Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare", on a lighter note, said she will have to remind him about receiving the second dose. He also expressed gratitude towards the medical staff and police personnel. "Thank you for dealing with people with a smile, although I know you must be frying inside with all the inane questions and doubts that we all have," Parashar said. Shah, 36, also got her first jab and urged everyone to get vaccinated. "With the vaccination drive open for 18+ people, I have stepped up & got my first dose! Have you?" the "Race 3" actor captioned the post with a photo of hers at a facility here. Director Lakshya Raj Anand, who has helmed John Abraham's upcoming film "Attack", was also one of the film personalities to get vaccinated. "1/2 vaccination done Everyone please get vaccinated soon.. I'm fed up of zoom calls and masks," he captioned the post. TV actor and former "Bigg Boss" contestant Arti Singh said she has received her first dose of the vaccine. "Scared of injections but do take it... We need to fight this... first dose done @rahulnariankanal thank u for making it happen... @mybmc thank u," the 36-year-old actor said. Choreographer-director Remo D'Souza (47), who suffered a heart attack last year, along with his wife Lizelle D'Souza (40) and actor Esha Deol, 39, were clicked by the paparazzi outside a vaccination centre today. On March 1, the government launched the nationwide drive to vaccinate everyone above 60 years of age and those aged between 45 and 59 with co-morbidities. Last month, the Maharashtra government announced its decision to provide anti-COVID-19 vaccines to people in the age group of 18 to 44 years. Mumbai reported 1,717 new coronavirus infections and 51 fatalities on Tuesday, taking its caseload to 6,79,986 and death toll to 13,942, the BMC said. Pune Police Thanks JacquelIne Fernandez For Her Generous Donation, Actress Lauds Them For Selfless Work On The Frontline The ongoing pandemic has called for various people to step up and help out others. One such person who decided to come forth and help is Jacqueline Fernandez who has now been thanked by the Pune Police. "Pune Police thanks @Asli_Jacqueline for her generous contribution towards the Pune Police Foundation. Your kind gesture will go a long way for our team that continues to perform their duties on the frontline in this pandemic." Jacqueline took to her social media handle to write a message to the hardworking Pune Police force. Her post read, "I salute @PuneCityPolice who have been tirelessly working on the frontline and contributing selflessly in our fight with Covid 19. We are in this together " I salute @PuneCityPolice who have been tirelessly working on the frontline and contributing selflessly in our fight with Covid 19. We are in this together https://t.co/5PtEbC46fo Jacqueline Fernandez (@Asli_Jacqueline) May 12, 2021 Jacqueline also recently launched her foundation named, You Only Live Once (YOLO) which paired up with many NGOs to help out people in need. The organization has undertaken the responsibility of feeding 1 lakh meals, feeding the strays and to donate masks and sanitizers to the Mumbai Police. Jacqueline feels that it is her way of paying back to the society and she has always been ready to come forth and help people in need. Even last year she came forward and joined hands with 'Action Against Hunger Foundation' to nurture the villagers of Patharadi and Sakur villages in Maharashtra. Abhinav Shukla Shares Rubina Is Recovering Well; Reveals What She Told Him Before He Left For Khatron Ke Khiladi 11 Soon after she bagged the trophy and title of Bigg Boss season 14, Rubina Dilaik returned to her popular television show Shakti - Astitva Ke Ehsaas Ki. Well, rumors suggested that she will next be seen participating in Rohit Shettys Khatron Ke Khiladi season 11 alongside her husband Abhinav Shukla. However, Rubina contracted coronavirus and was quarantined in her Shimla house. Meanwhile, Abhinav jetted off to Cape Town to compete in the stunt reality show. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Abhinav Shukla (@ashukla09) In a chat with Indian Express before leaving, Abhinav shared a health update about his wife. He was quoted saying, I would have wanted Rubina to be around me, but she is recovering well. I have been constantly monitoring her, and honestly, even though I am speaking to you now, my mind wanders towards her. Her health is playing on my mind throughout. Revealing what advice she gave him before he left, the actor said, Ruby told me to just enjoy the show and not get too much into the nitty-gritty and details. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Abhinav Shukla (@ashukla09) While most of us are quite excited about watching Abhinav in the stunt reality show, there are many who were surprised when the final list of contestants didnt have Rubinas name on it. Well, Abhinav agrees that the excitement would have been even more if his wife was participating, but also feels that they cant continue doing the same things all the time. He explained, We both have different ambitions. If and when we do get a chance, we would too love to do a project together again. Well, we wish the actor all the very best for the stunt reality show! TL;DR: If you are an MSME and can manufacture world class oxygen concentrators, get the help with sourcing, funding, distribution and certification by applying here: https://www.bharato2.in Startups incubated by SIIC were instrumental in boosting domestic manufacturing to meet the demand for essential supplies to meet the pandemic, including masks that were manufactured on campus and an ICU ventilator developed by Noccarc. The full story of how to get things done in the middle of global restrictions and uncertainty, is in the book, The Ventilator Project written by Amitabha Bandyopadhyay and Srikant Sastri. When the pandemic broke out, there was an acute demand that was met within a few months. The team successfully accelerated the development of a world class ICU Ventilator, got it tested, negotiated tie ups with local MSMEs and began commercial shipments within 90 days. This was done using the same tools that all of us are using during the pandemic, WhatsApp and Zoom. Now the same team is taking a crack at another tough problem, using the same approaches. This is a task force set up to meet the demand for oxygen through local manufacturing of oxygen concentrators and oxygen manufacturing plants. The task force is led by Prof. Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, Professor In-charge, Innovation & Incubation, IIT Kanpur, Srikant Sastri, Director, FIRST-IITK and Chairman, I3G Advisory Network, and Rahul Patel, Head of Strategic Initiatives, SIIC IIT Kanpur. Prof. Bandyopadhyay says, SIIC and IIT Kanpur have a history of bracing themselves and delivering quality in times of need. We did it with the Noccarc ventilator; we will do it again with Mission Bharat O2. We urge young Indian innovators to show support in large numbers once again. The idea is to get the dream team and the expertise of solving a problem under pressure, during a time of pandemic and do it again. There is not much scope for innovation when it comes to oxygen concentrators, so the focus this time around is to boost up the local manufacturing capacity through multiple partnerships with MSMEs across the country. Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT Kanpur, urges MSMEs to apply for the challenge saying, IIT Kanpur carries a legacy of serving the nation in times of urgent need. When the first wave of COVID-19 hit India SIIC incubated companies stepped up to deliver world-class healthcare products. The products, developed locally, are a testament of Indias capability to innovate at par with global standards. As we reel under the impact of the second wave in India, IIT Kanpur and SIIC have decided to support more indigenous innovators, this time to address the oxygen crisis in the country. I urge all eligible manufacturers to participate in Mission Bharat O2. The focus is very much on coming up with a permanent solution to meet India's oxygen demand. Srikant Sastri says, "India needs to develop a strong base of locally-manufactured medical equipment. We cannot forever depend on imports . With Mission Bharat O2, SIIC IIT Kanpur has taken a step towards solving the oxygen crisis not just for the short-term, but long term also. We believe that the manufacturers we identify through this Challenge will form Indias manufacturing nucleus. The full story of how the team managed to solve a seemingly insurmountable problem is covered in the May 2021 issue of Digit Magazine, along with interviews of the authors and the founders of the Pune based startup, Noccarc. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 319-283-2144 or email circ@oelweindailyregister.com. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has caused many parts of the country to head into lockdown. Keeping that in mind, Poco India has announced that it will not be launching any new smartphones in May and all new launches have been paused. Further, it will be extending the warranty of select users by two months. It should be noted that the extended warranty only applies to those users whose warranty expires in the month of May or June. The company notes in its tweet, we, at Poco India, wanted to reiterate that nothing is more important than the well-being of our employees, consumers, members of the Poco family, and everyone who has been associated with us. Poco is scheduled to launch the Poco M3 Pro 5G globally, but now, it looks that the phones launch in the country will be delayed until further notice. The smartphone is confirmed to be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 700 SoC. The device is tipped to come with a 90Hz display, 48MP triple-rear camera, support for fast charging, and more. The Poco X3 Pro was recently launched by the company in India. The device packs a 6.67-inch Full HD+ display and offers a 120Hz refresh rate. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 SoC with up to 8GB RAM and 128G storage. At the back is a quad-rear camera setup with a 48MP+8MP+2MP+2MP setup. At the front is a 20MP unit for taking selfies or for video chatting. The phone also offers stereo speakers and a side-mounted fingerprint reader. Other features include an IR blaster and a 5160mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging. The Poco X3 Pro has been launched in India in two variants, with the base variant offering 6GB RAM and 128GB storage at Rs 18,999. The 8GB RAM variant is available for Rs 20,999. You can check out our performance review of the phone here. Subscriber content preview Newsom's plan includes $8.75 billion to convert existing buildings into 46,000 units of housing. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday proposed $12 billion in new funding to get more people experiencing homelessness in the state into housing and to functionally end family homelessness within five years. Newsom's plan was announced in a statement Tuesday morning in San Diego County. The first-term Democrat faces a recall election, mounted by Republicans and others unhappy with the way he has handled the pandemic, the economy and government. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE (AP) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be awarding $723,000 in grants to monitor beach water quality and set up public notification programs in Washington, Oregon and Alaska, officials announced Monday. The programs will also be carried out by the Makah and Swinomish tribes, the EPA said in a press release. . . . Subscriber content preview Rendering by Hewitt [enlarge] The project is flanked by two landmarked structures unlikely to ever add more stories. Archetype Belltown is the working title for a midblock redevelopment project at 2407 First Ave. Hewitt and Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron will present their 11-story, 166-unit proposal for a second city design review on June 15th, in a virtual meeting. . . . What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 319-352-3334 or email legals@waverlynewspapers.com. Pfizer eyes a market gatecrash as India's Covid tally mounts US pharma giant Pfizer is trying to convince Indian authorities that there is no need for regulatory scrutiny, at least for its corona virus vaccine that added $3.5 billion to its revenue in the first three months of this year,even as the Indian government insists on local trials of its vaccine whose efficacy and safety are still unknown. The company insists that the safety and efficacy data of its vaccine, which it claims to be over 90 per cent, is backed by regulatory authorities in the United States, Britain, Japan and the World Health Organisation and that since India endorses these agencies there need not be any fresh trials in this country! With India caught unawares by a devastating second wave of the corona virus pandemic and the country running short of medical supplies, including much-needed oxygen, the countrys vaccination drive looked too ineffective considering the size of its population. Pfizer is looking at this predicament of Indian authorities to push through its vaccine without testing its efficacy at least on a small scale. As things stand, the country is delaying vaccination of its population in the most productive age group 18 to 44 years because there is a huge shortage of India-made vaccines, a situation Pfizer wants to exploit effectively. In fact, the government had, earlier last month, allowed foreign vaccines approved in the West and Japan to market in India but after a local clinical trial to be initiated in a span of 30 days of receiving emergency use authorisation a relaxation from the requirement of local trials before getting emergency use approval. None of the foreign pharma majors, including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Moderna Inc, who have been allowed to sell their vaccines in India after short local clinical trials, were willing to abide by Indian regulations. Pfizer is reported to have initiated fresh talks with the government after it has withdrawn the initial application in February over the earlier local trial rule. However, the company continues to harp on its earlier claims. "Pfizers application for emergency use authorisation was supported with data that shows an overall efficacy rate of 95 per cent with no safety concerns," reports cited a company spokesperson as saying. At the same time, Pfizer, which produces the Covid-19 vaccine with German partner BioNTech SE, insists on sovereign government backing for supply of its vaccine. Also, the vaccine has to be stored in ultra-low temperatures of minus 70 degrees Celsius (-90 F), whose cost will also be added to the cost for supplies to India. The doses can be stored in ultra-low-temperature freezers for up to six months, in the shippers for up to 30 days by refilling them with dry ice every five days, or in common refrigeration and freezer units for five days. Pfizer, on its part, has committed medicines worth $70 million (over Rs510 crore), from its stocks for emergency supplies to India for treatment of Covid-19 patients, the companys chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said. India's agi-product exports grew 18.49% YoY in April-February 200-21 Indias exports of agricultural and allied commodities during the first 11 months of the 2020-21 financial year (April 2020 Feb 2021) stood at Rs2.74 lakh crore against Rs2.31 crore in the same period last year, indicating an increase of 18.49 per cent. India has consistently maintained trade surplus in the agricultural products over the years. The country exported agricultural and allied products valued at Rs2.52 crore during fiscal 2019-20 while it imported commodities valued at Rs1.47 lakh crore. Even, during the pandemic times India took care not to disturb the world food supply chain and continued to export. The commodities which posted significant growth in exports were wheat, other cereals, rice (other than Basmati), soya meal, spices, sugar, raw cotton, fresh vegetable, processed vegetables, and alcoholic beverages. Export of wheat and other cereals recorded tremendous growth over last year, increasing from Rs425 crore to Rs3,283 crore and Rs1,318 crore to Rs4,542 crore, respectively. On specific demand from countries, NAFED exported 50,000 tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan and 40,000 tonnes of wheat to Lebanon under G2G arrangement. India has witnessed tremendous growth of 727 per cent in wheat exports. Export f non-Basmati rice from the country witnessed significant growth of 132 per cent increasing from Rs13,030 crore in 2019-20 to Rs30,277 crore in 2020-21. This increase in exports is on account of multiple factors, more particularly with the opening up of new markets like, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Brazil, Chile, and Puerto Rico. Exports were also made to Togo, Senegal, Malaysia, Madagascar, Iraq, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Vietnam, Tanzania and Madagascar. India also enhanced export of soya meals by 132 per cent to Rs7,224 crore in 2020-21 from Rs3,087 crore in 2019-20. Other commodities in the agri and allied basket showing significant increase in export during April 2020-February 2021 included spices (Rs26,257 crore vs Rs23,562 crore - growth of 11.44 per cent); sugar (Rs17,072 crore vs Rs12,226 crore - growth of 39.64 per cent), raw cotton (Rs11,373 crore vs Rs6,771 crore - growth of 67.96 per cent), fresh vegetables (Rs4,780 crore vs Rs4,067 crore - growth of 17.54 per cent) and processed vegetables (Rs2,846 crore vs Rs1,994 crore - growth of 42.69 per cent) etc. Imports of agri and allied commodities during April 2020 February 2021 stood at Rs141,034.25 crore against Rs137,014.39 crore in the same period last year showing a slight increase of 2.93 per cent. Despite Covid-19, balance of trade in agriculture has favorably increased during April 2020 February 2021 to Rs132,579.69 crore against Rs93,907.76 crore during the same period in 2019-20. Australia, India and Japan launch supply chain resilience initiative Trade ministers of India, Japan and Australia on Tuesday formally launched the Supply Chain Resilience initiative in a trilateral ministerial meeting held virtually. The meeting, held in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and its worsening impact on trade flows. Australias minister for trade, tourism and investment Dan Tehan, Indias minister for commerce and industry Piyush Goyal and Japans minister for economy, trade and industry Kajiyama Hiroshi, also issued a joint statement, which was adopted at the meeting. The ministers acknowledged that the Covid-19 pandemic was having an unprecedented impact in terms of lives lost, livelihoods and economies affected, and that the pandemic had revealed supply chain vulnerabilities globally and in the region. The ministers also noted that some supply chains have been left vulnerable due to a range of factors. Based on the high level consultations among the three nations since September last year, the ministers noted the importance of risk management and continuity plans in order to avoid supply chain disruptions and affirmed their commitment to strengthen resilient supply chains. Possible policy measures may include: Supporting the enhanced utilisation of digital technology; and Supporting trade and investment diversification. The ministers announced the launch of the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) and instructed their officials to implement the following as initial projects of SCRI and further develop the Initiative: Sharing of best practices on supply chain resilience; and Holding investment promotion events and buyer-seller matching events to provide opportunities for stakeholders to explore the possibility of diversification of their supply chains. The ministers decided to convene at least once a year to provide guidance to the implementation of the SCRI as well as to consult on how to develop the initiative. The ministers noted the important role of business and academia for the initiative. They also directed their officials to meet as often as required to take the initiative forward. The SCRI aims to create a virtuous cycle of enhancing supply chain resilience with a view to eventually attaining strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in the region. The ministers consented that expansion of the SCRI may be considered based on consensus, if needed, in due course. To quickly take forward the initiative, the ministers explored convening the trilateral ministerial meeting, once in four months. The report "Food Enzymes Market by Type (Carbohydrases, Proteases, Lipases, Polymerases & Nucleases), Source, Application (Food & Beverages), Formulation, and Region(North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and South America) Global Forecast to 2026" The food enzymes market is estimated to be valued at USD 2.2 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach USD 3.1 billion by 2026, recording a CAGR of 6.4%, in terms of value. The growing demand for diverse range of food products, clean label trend, and increase in disposable income are the factors that are projected to drive the growth of the food enzymes market globally. COVID-19 Analysis The impact of COVID-19 food enzymes is expected to be significant, as the current pandemic has highlighted the significance of safe, healthy, and nutritious eating. While ingredient sales span across the countries, key companies in the food enzymes market have also begun to establish regional production. R&D and sales department and are also optimizing supply chains for the distribution of raw materials. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, food ingredient companies are facing significant challenges to address the increased demand for food enzymes to include changing tastes and preferences. A rapid and unexpected spike in demand for functional foods during the pandemic resulted in manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers struggling to ensure a continued supply of raw materials in the market. Disruptions in the supply chain during the COVID-19 lockdown across the countries were challenging for the food enzymes market. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=800 Opportunities: Innovative technological platforms The global food enzymes market has many small-scale manufacturers trying to compete with the market leaders in terms of the application specificity of the food enzymes produced. This, in turn, is dependent upon the quality of production strain developed by manufacturers. Various technology licensors provide small-scale manufacturers with the opportunity to produce programmable enzymes, which can be scaled up to produce large volumes. Dyadic International Inc. (US) is one such licensor that provides its C1 platform technology to smaller players to produce large volumes of high-mobility food enzymes on-site. Threats: Changes in food enzymes safety regulations in Europe The European market for food enzymes held a share of about 30.0% of the global market in 2015. As enzymes are naturally present in ingredients used to make food, earlier, their safety and toxicity were not of much concern. However, the advent of large-scale production of food enzymes through strains of genetically modified microorganisms has led to increased scrutiny on the use of enzymes in Europes food & beverage industry. In the past, the regulation of enzymes used as processing aids was not carried out at the EU level. Of the member states, only Denmark and France evaluated these processing aids before their use in the food & beverage industry. This inconsistency in the assessment criteria of food enzymes among nations prompted the framing of a new EU legislation. Speak to Analyst: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/speaktoanalystNew.asp?id=800 The North American region dominated the food enzymes market with the largest share in 2020, whereas Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth rate. The food enzymes market in North America was dominant due to the increasing demand for enzymes in food applications. Technological innovations in machinery, optimization of production, logistics, and globalization of business have made the food & beverage industry one of the essential sectors in North America. However, the shift of food operations from developed regions, such as North America and Europe, to Asia Pacific, has further contributed to the growth of the food enzymes market in the Asia Pacific region. This report includes a study on the marketing and development strategies, along with the product portfolios of leading companies. It consists of profiles of leading companies, such as DuPont (US), Associated British Foods plc (UK), DSM (Netherlands), Novozymes (US), CHR. Hansen Holdings A/S(Denmark), Kerry Group (Ireland), Jiangsu Boli Bioproducts Co., Ltd. (China), Biocatalysts Ltd. (UK), Puratos Group (Belgium), Advanced Enzyme Technologies Ltd (India), Amano Enzyme Inc. (Japan), Enzyme Development Corporation (US), ENMEX, S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), Aumgene Biosciences (India), Creative Enzymes (US), SUNSON Industry Group Co., Ltd (China), AUM Enzymes (India), Xike Biotechnology Co. Ltd. (China), and Antozyme Biotech Pvt Ltd (India). Citibank seeks to sell its credit card business for as much as Rs4,000 cr Citibank which closed its retail banking operations in India, China and 11 other countries across Asia and Europe to concentrate on its US operations, is demanding up to Rs4,000 crore for selling its credit card business, which it claims to have 2.9 million users in India. Recently, Citibank announced the closing down of consumer banking operations in 13 countries, including India, China, Australia, Malaysia, Bahrain, Korea, Indonesia, Russia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Poland and Taiwan. Citi, however, is yet to find a buyer as, according to reports, a search by an internal team and investment bankers of Citibank despite contacting several companies in the last few weeks. These include Reliance, Pine Labs and Paytm, although the payment company denied any serious talk between the two over the sale of the credit card business. Reports have indicated that local banks such as DBS, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Capital, Axis Bank, IDFC First Bank, and ICICI Bank are already in the race to uy the whole India consumer business of Citi Bank, although pricing is a difficult process. Reliance is reported to be conducting an internal evaluation in view of the risks involved in making such huge investment in the current scenario. Citi Bank is the sixth-largest card issuer in India, and has a mix of premium and corporate salary account cards in its portfolio. As of 31 March 2021, the bank has around 35 branches in the country and deposits of Rs1.6 lakh crore. Govt to subsidise Talcher Fertiliser's coal gas-based urea production The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for the Department of Fertilizers proposal for the formulation of an exclusive subsidy policy for urea produced through coal gasification route by Talcher Fertilizers Limited (TFL). The CCEA said, taking into consideration the strategic energy security and urea ,elf-sufficiency of the country, especially in view of the country's vast coal reserves, it has been decided go ahead with Talcher Fertilizer Limiteds project, which is estimated to cost Rs13,277.21 crore (+/-10 per cent). The project, based on coal gasification technology, will improve availability of fertilizer to farmers thereby boosting development of the eastern region and will save transport subsidy for supply of urea in eastern parts of the country. It would assist in reducing urea imports to the tune of 1.27 million tonnes per annum, leading to huge savings in foreign exchange. The project will also give a boost to 'Make in India' initiative and `AtmaNirbhar' campaign and would help development of infrastructure like roads, railways water, etc. providing a major boost to economy in the eastern parts of the country, including the promotion of ancillary industry. The project will also provide new business opportunity in the form of ancillary industries in the catchment area of the project. Coal gasification plants are strategically important as coal prices are non-volatile and coal is abundantly available. Talcher plant would also reduce dependence on important natural gas for production of urea, leading to reduction in LNG import bill. The gasification process adopted in Talcher unit is a Clean Coal Technology giving negligible SOx, NOx and free particulate emissions as compared to directly coal fired processes. Incorporated on 13 November 2015, Talcher Fertilizers Ltd (TFL) is a joint venture of four PSUs, namely, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF), GAIL (India) Ltd (GAIL), Coal India Ltd. (CIL) and Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL), which is reviving the erstwhile Talcher plant of Fertilizer Corporation of India Ltd (FCIL), by setting up a now greenfield urea plant with an installed capacity of 1.27 million tonnes per annum (LMTPA). ITC ties up with Linde India to import cryogenic oxygen containers Diversified group ITC on Saturday said it has tied up with Linde India Ltd to import 24 cryogenic containers to transport medical oxygen. The company also said it is airlifting large numbers of oxygen concentrators for distribution. ITC ties up with Linde India to import cryogenic oxygen containers Diversified group ITC on Saturday said it has tied up with Linde India Ltd to import 24 cryogenic containers to transport medical oxygen. The company also said it is airlifting large numbers of oxygen concentrators for distribution, while its paperboards unit in Bhadrachalam has started supply of oxygen to neighbouring areas. "ITC Ltd has tied up with Linde India Ltd to airfreight 24 cryogenic containers of 20 tons each from Asian countries for use by them to transport medical oxygen across the country," the company said in a statement. The initiative is aimed at easing the bottleneck of transporting medical oxygen, and to support the government's efforts, it added. Many hospitals in different parts of the country are facing an acute shortage of oxygen as the devastating second wave of the pandemic sweeps across India. "With the unprecedented emergency caused by the second wave of Covid-19, there has been an exponential rise in demand for medical oxygen, which is the most critical need at this hour to save valuable lives," the company said. ITC is also airlifting large numbers of oxygen concentrators for distribution. Stating that it is committed to supporting the government in its fight against the pandemic, ITC said it will "continue to explore other avenues to help address the challenges emerging during these trying times". PM CARES Fund approves setting up of 551 PSA oxygen generation plants nationwide The PM CARES Fund has given in-principle approval for allocation of funds for installation of 551 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Generation Plants inside public health facilities in the country as part of the governments efforts to boost availability of oxygen to hospitals. In line with the prime ministers direction, these plants will be made functional as soon as possible. These plants will serve as a major boost to oxygen availability at the district level. These dedicated plants will be established in identified government hospitals in district headquarters in various states/UTs. The procurement will be done through the ministry of health and family welfare. The PM CARES Fund had, earlier this year, allocated Rs201.58 crore for installation of additional 162 dedicated Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) Medical Oxygen Generation Plants inside public health facilities in the country. The basic aim behind establishing PSA Oxygen Generation Plants at government hospitals in the district headquarters is to further strengthen the public health system and ensure that each of these hospitals has a captive oxygen generation facility. Such an in-house captive oxygen generation facility would address the day-to-day medical oxygen needs of these hospitals and the district. In addition, the liquid medical oxygen (LMO) would serve as a top up to the captive oxygen generation. Such a system will go a long way in ensuring that government hospitals in the districts do not face sudden disruption of oxygen supplies and have access to adequate uninterrupted oxygen supply to manage the Covid-19 patients and other patients needing such support. Ports waive charges: In view of the excessive requirement of oxygen and related equipment in the country, the Government of India has directed all major ports, including the Kamarajar Port Limited, to waive-off all charges (including vessel related charges, storage charges etc) and accord highest priority in the berthing sequence to the vessels carrying consignments of Medical Grade Oxygen, Oxygen Tanks, Oxygen Bottles, Portable Oxygen Generators, Oxygen Concentrators etc, Steel pipes for manufacturing oxygen cylinders and associated equipment will also be extended these concessions for the next three months, or until further orders. In case the vessel is carrying other cargo/containers in addition to above said oxygen related cargo, waiver of charges on pro-rata basis, considering the overall cargo or containers handled at port, should be provided for oxygen related cargo to such vessels. Ministry of ports, shipping and waterways will monitor the details of such vessels, cargo and time taken in the port from the time vessel entered in the port limits to exit of cargo from port gate. How Modi-baiters use viral media to malign India As India let guard down on Corona care, letting in the worst form of the pandemic, an even worst form of anti-India tirade has taken shape. Prime Minister Narendra Modis enemies, who lost the farmers agenda, found a new stick to beat the administration, blaring out half-truths about shortfalls in the countrys Covid care apparatus. Modi baiters who follow the path of Jhadists and the so-called liberal media of the West, take turns to tarnish the image of India as the Pharmacy of the World and Prime Minister Narendra Modis stature as the head of an upright and benevolent administration. And, as heavy local demand squeezes global supplies of Indian vaccine, multinational pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna etc are trying to push through exports of their costly, yet unproven vaccines, on the strength of their market standing. Meanwhile, the United States is looking to release 60 million AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine doses to other countries, according to a White House release. US also agreed to ease curbs on vaccine raw material exports to India. The assurance comes after conversation between National Security Advisers Jake Sullivan and Ajit Doval. The prejudiced `liberal media continue to raise hell against Prime Minister Modis handling of the Corona virus pandemic, with reports in Qatari media Al Jazeera pointing to pledges of help for India pouring in from across the world, purportedy stating that the Indian government is standing as a mute spectator as the pandemic rages and that the only hope for Indians come from promises of help countries like the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States offer. Indian state cracks down on hospitals flagging oxygen shortage, adds another Al Jazeera headline. World reacts to Indias catastrophic Covid surge, blares one headline; Covid swallowing people in India as crematoriums overwhelmed, claims another. India: tearful relatives beg for oxygen and hospital beds for Covid patients, claims another headline. Another former PM writes to PM Modi on suggestions to better Indias Covid-19 fight this is the second letter written by a former prime minister to Narendra Modi. Former prime minister Deve Gowda wrote to Narendra Modi with suggestions on how India can better tackle the second wave of Covid-19, says a report in The News Minute. The BBC has turned out to be the worst of the lot with headlines like India running out of vaccines as Covid crisis deepens, and "Patients suffer at home as Covid chokes hospitals. Indias Covid crisis beyond heartbreaking, says another report citing the World Health Organisation (WHO). India sees a new world record for a rise in daily cases for the fifth consecutive day as the country faced an alarming shortage of medical and hospital supplies, says the report. Health ministry says people should start wearing masks inside homes too, says The Wire, the worst of the viral media. "India reportedly running out of vaccines amid Covid surge," finds The Guardian. These viral media also conveniently quote and misquote world leaders to tie down India. At the same time these viral media cannot tolerate criticism of the countrys enemies. Indias removal of tweets critical of Covid response dangerous, says one report. Removing dozens of tweets critical of the governments pandemic response puts peoples health at risk and quashes dissent, say legislators and human rights activists, the report adds. None of them, however, is not in a mood to support governments efforts to address the huge challenge the country is faced with. Government of India has so far provided more than 156 million vaccine doses (15,65,26,140) to states/UTs free of cost. Of this, the total consumption, including wastages is 14,64,78,983 doses. More than 10 million doses (1,00,47,157) are still available with the states/UTs to be administered. According to the union health ministry. States/UTs will receive more than 80 lakh (86,40,000) doses in addition by the current stocks with them. Furthermore, 3,00,000 doses of COVID vaccine are in the pipeline for delivery in the next three days. India launched the worlds largest vaccination drive on 16 January 2021. A liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of Covid-19 vaccination will be implemented from 1 May 2021. In Phase-III, the National Vaccine Strategy aims at liberalised vaccine pricing and scaling up of vaccine coverage. Procurement, eligibility and administration of vaccines have been made flexible as part of the liberalised vaccination strategy. Vaccination is a crucial pillar of the five point strategy of government to fight the pandemic, which includes Test, Track, Treat and Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) as the other complementing and equally important containment and management measures. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a meeting with top officials to review the Covid-19 situation in the country. He got an overview on the situation in the country relating to oxygen availability, medicines, health infrastructure, etc. The Empowered Group working on boosting oxygen supply briefed the prime minister on the efforts being made to ramp up availability and supply of oxygen in the country. They informed the PM about increasing allocation of oxygen to states. It was discussed that the production of LMO in the country has increased from 5,700 tonnes/day in August 2020 to the present 8,922 tonnes (on 25 April 2021). The domestic production of LMO is expected to cross 9,250 tonnes/day by the end of April 2021. It was the unfortunate deaths due to shortage of oxygen in Delhi and elsewhere that changed the discourse over the Covid-19 pandemic, which became so emotionally surcharged that all facts and reasoning became irrelevant, says a report in The Tuglak. The oxygen shortage-induced deaths first occurred in Delhi corporate hospitals, and, according to reports, these hospitals continue to make hay while the pandemic spreads like wildfire. According to reports, the per day cost of Covid treatment in a Delhi private corporate hospital varies from Rs25,090 and Rs53,090 to Rs75,590 while the average two-week treatment costs come to Rs5,00,000 Rs6,00,000 or Rs12,00,000, depending on the type and class of the hospital. However, the reports fail to highlight the fact that one-fifth of Indian districts have not reported any Covid-19 cases for the last 7 days. The health ministry also lived on the false premist the the nation has succeeded in flattening the Covid curve declared the health minister Dr. Harshvardhan, two months back, on Feb 15. By then the daily infections which had peaked to 90000 cases last year were down to less than 9000. But, things changed dramatically into an unprecedented disaster in April [See Table below] The production, trade, stocking and use of oxygen is privatised. The trade in medical oxygen is not controlled or regulated in India -- though its prices are controlled by the National Pharma Pricing Authority (NPPA) an autonomous body under the chemicals and fertilisers ministry. While oxygen availability has been a logistic challenge for Delhis hospitals, with producers enter private contracts with industries, hospitals and also governments to supply oxygen, there is no shortage of oxygen now. India currently produces 100,000 tonnes a day of oxygen, with one company In Gujarat alone producing a fifth of it. The worst art of oxygen story is that, oxygen worth Rs 300 is stored in a cylinder that costs Rs 10000 for oxygen! The distant production and multiple trade chains in oxygen, transport in tankers and stocking in cylinders created huge logistic issues even in normal times. In times of pandemic disaster, this normal supply chain wouldnt withstand, particulrly when Delhi, where the deaths occured, is several hundred miles away from where the oxygen has to come. New regulatory regime for medical devices to be effective after 6 months The government has issued new regulations regarding production and supply of eight medical items that comes under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act. The new regulation will be fully implemented only after a transition time of 6 months in ordr gallowed for ensuring supply chain continuity and access. The regulatory order under Medical Devices Rules (2017) adopts a proactive and sensitive approach to address the needs of the Indian industry, the union ministry of health and family welfare stated in a release. The ministry had earlier notified the following medical items to be regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act which was to come into effect from 1 April 2021 (as per SO 775(E) dated 8 February 2019 under Medical Devices Rules 2017): All implantable medical devices, CT scan equipment, MRI equipment, Defibrillators, PET equipment, Dialysis machine, X-ray machine, and Bone marrow cell separator. As per the order importers/manufacturers are required to take import/manufacturing licence from Central Licencing Authority or State Licencing Authority, as the case may be, for import/manufacture of these devices, with effect from 1 April 2021. In order to ensure supply chain continuity and access to these medical devices, while implementing smooth transition into the new regulatory regime, the ministry has now decided that in case an existing importer/manufacturer who is already importing /manufacturing any of these devices, has submitted application to Central Licencing Authority or State Licencing Authority, as the case may be, for grant of import /manufacturing licence in respect of the said device(s) under the provisions of MDR, 2017, the said application shall be deemed valid and the importer/manufacturer can continue to import /manufacture the said device(s) up to 6 months from issue of this order or till the time, the licence is granted. Drugs Controller General (India) issued an order in this regard on 18 April 2021 through CDSCO website. SaNOtize's nasal spray eliminates 99% of Covid-19 virus SaNOtize Research and Development Corp, a biotech company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, has developed and patented a Nitric Oxide Releasing Solution platform technology (NORS) to treat and prevent Covid-19 infections. Clinical trials indicated that SaNOtizes Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS) represents a safe and effective antiviral treatment that could prevent the transmission of Covid-19, shorten its course, and reduce the severity of symptoms and damage in those already infected. In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 trial that evaluated 79 confirmed cases of Covid-19, SaNOtizes early treatment for Covid-19 significantly reduced the level of SARS-CoV-2, including in patients with high viral loads. The average viral log reduction in the first 24 hours was 1.362, which corresponds to a decline of about 95 per cent. Within 72 hours, the viral load dropped by more than 99 per cent, the company stated in a release. The majority of these patients had been infected with the UK variant, which is considered a variant of concern. There were no adverse health events recorded in the UK trial, or in over 7,000 self-administered treatments given in earlier Canadian clinical trials, it added. NONS destroys the virus, blocks entry into and halts viral replication within the nasal cavity, which rapidly reduces viral load. This is significant because viral load has been linked to infectivity and poor outcomes, said Dr Chris Miller, chief science officer and co-founder of SaNOtize. NONS is the only novel therapeutic treatment so far proven to reduce viral load in humans that is not a monoclonal antibody treatment. Monoclonal antibodies are highly specific, expensive and must be administered intravenously in a clinical setting. I expect this to be a major advance in the global battle against the devastating human impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, said Dr Stephen Winchester, consultant medical virologist and chief investigator of this NHS clinical trial. This simple portable nasal spray could be highly effective in the treatment of Covid-19 and reducing onward transmission. Our trial included patients with a variant of concern and high viral loads yet demonstrated significant reductions in the levels of SARS-CoV-2, which could be critical in supporting vaccines, preventing future outbreaks and safely reopening economies. Simply stated, I think this could be revolutionary, he added. The SaNOtize treatment is designed to kill the virus in the upper airways, preventing it from incubating and spreading to the lungs. It is based on nitric oxide (NO), a natural nanomolecule produced by the human body with proven anti-microbial properties shown to have a direct effect on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. The pharmacology, toxicity, and safety data for NO use in humans has been well-established for decades. The NO molecule released from NONS is identical to the one delivered in its gaseous form to treat persistent pulmonary hypertension, or Blue Baby Syndrome, in newborn babies. The company is working to commercialise the multi-faceted antimicrobial properties of the nitric oxide producing liquid. SaNOtize is seeking emergency use authorisation in the UK and Canada. SaNOtize is applying to regulatory authorities in the UK and Canada for emergency use authorisation. Swift approval and ramp-up of manufacturing could facilitate an almost immediate safe return to work, school and society, and spur an economic recovery that is months if not years ahead of full global vaccination. Wide-scale equitable global availability of NONS could form a bridge during the global production and distribution of vaccines to help keep people safe and healthy. The ease of NONS manufacture, storage and use makes NONS a treatment candidate that could soon be widely available at low-cost for long-term care facilities, healthcare and frontline workers, and the general population. In addition to providing antiviral treatment in the early stages of infection and for those who have yet to be vaccinated, NONS has also demonstrated that it could also reduce infectivity the frequency of transmission from an infected person to a non-infected person. The results of the UK trial corroborate the information gathered from SaNOtizes earlier Phase 2 trials in Canada and independent lab tests at Utah State Universitys Antiviral Research Institute. Now that NONS has been demonstrated to be safe and effective in clinical trials, we must move with urgency to get it into the hands of the public where it can help bring an end to the pandemic, accelerate a return to normality, and prevent future outbreaks of Covid-19 and its variants, said Dr Gilly Regev, CEO and co-founder of SaNOtize. The human toll of this disease cannot be expressed simply in numbers, and each day compounds the frustration, fear and loss suffered by millions around the world. Combined with the roll-out of vaccines, NONS can help get the world back on its feet, he stated further. Israel and New Zealand have already approved the public sale of NONS. It will be sold under the brand name of Enovid in Israel and is expected to hit the shelves this summer. The emergence of new Covid-19 variants and uncertainty around ramping up vaccine production means that, at least in the short term, vaccines do not represent an absolute solution to the Covid-19 outbreak in the country. This is why a nasal spray treatment, reportedly, waiting on regulatory approvals across several countries, is now receiving significant attention owing to the implications it may have in regard to Indias tussle with the virus. Bill and Melinda Gates fall apart after 27 years of marriage Billionaire couple for 27 years, Bill and Melinda Gates, have filed for divorce, tearing apart $146 billion in assets of iconic Microsoft Corporation and one of the world's largest private charitable foundations that the two co-founded. In a joint petition for dissolution of marriage filed in King County Superior Court in Seattle on Monday, the couple stated: "The marriage is irretrievably broken." They said they have also reached an agreement on how to divide their assets, warding off speculation over division of wealth. However, the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation said Bill Gates, 65 and Melinda Gates,56, who co-founded the charitable trust, would continue to work together in their existing roles as co-chairs and trustees of the organisation. The divorce filing, which comes after the youngest of their three children is believed to have turned 18, relieves the two of caring for the children. The petition also seeks approval for their agreement on division of assets, details of which they did not disclose. "After a great deal of thought and a lot of work on our relationship, we have made the decision to end our marriage," the two said in a statement posted on each of their individual Twitter accounts. "We no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in the next phase of our lives. We ask for space and privacy for our family as we begin to navigate this new life," they said. With net assets of $43.3 billion at the end of in 2019, according to the latest full-year financials shown on its website, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation ranks as the largest private philanthropic foundation in the United States and one world's biggest. The Seattle-based foundation has receives more than $36 billion from Bill Gates ans Melinda Gates between 1994 and 2018, the website said. The Gates Foundation focuses on public health, education and climate. Its initiatives in the healthcare area include supporting vaccine development for infectious diseases, including coronavirus vaccines, besides making available medical treatment and diagnostic tests. It also engages in social and economic activities, including support for public radio and clean energy initiatives. Gates and his wife, who is 56, have he foundation, Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, last year, pledged more than $2 billion of stock from his Berkshire Hathaway Inc to the Gates Foundation as part of a plan to give away his entire fortune before his death. The split comes two years after another American billionaire and philanthropist, Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos, said that he and his then-wife, MacKenzie, were getting divorced. Gates dropped out of Harvard University to start Microsoft with schoolmate Paul Allen in 1975. Gates owned 49 per cet of Microsoft at its initial public offering in 1986. With Microsoft's explosive growth, he soon became one of the world's wealthiest individuals. Melinda Gates, who was raised in Dallas, studied computer science and economics at Duke University. She later joined Microsoft, where she met her future husband. In 2015 she founded Pivotal Ventures, an investment company focused on women, and in 2019 published a book, `The Moment of Lift, centered on female empowerment. Catherine Allison & Co Solicitors are delighted to act on behalf of our client WBS Developments (ROI) Limited and assist in the delivery of an additional 30 units in Phase 2 of the development at Maudelins Lane & Maudelins Brook, Duleek, County Meath to Respond, Irelands leading housing association. We have worked alongside our client for two years providing legal advice and guidance in relation to the development which is made up of twelve apartments and thirty-eight houses which are all finished off to the highest standard both internally and externally. The Covid 19 Pandemic has meant that the Government missed their housing target by more than 5,000 in 2020 and with the Pandemic continuing into 2021 it is unlikely that the Government will meet their 2021 housing target. The housing crisis in Ireland has been ongoing for at least ten years and whilst the number of units within this development may be seen as small compared to the number of housing units actually needed in Ireland we are very proud to act on behalf of WBS Developments (ROI) Limited who by completing this project have enabled fifty families/individuals to not only obtain a home but security and safety in what has and will continue to be a difficult year for many. Here at Catherine Allison & Co Solicitors we believe that everyone has a right to not just a house, but a home and we act on behalf of a number of large developers who provide homes across the Country. We are also extremely passionate about helping clients save their homes from repossession. We act in a large number of residential sales and purchases, re-mortgages and self builds. If you think we can be of any assistance to you, contact us today as we are ready and happy to help you. Dundalk Chamber is calling on the public and companies to support local shops and help sustain jobs as they begin reopening. Commenting on the announcement that there are now over 360 local shops and businesses redeeming Shop Local Gift Vouchers Chamber President Sean Farrell is calling on members of the public and the business community to get behind the Shop Local Vouchers Scheme and use them as gifts for special occasions such birthdays, retirements, weddings and for staff rewards. He said: "Every 10 spent locally on Irish products generates more than 40 of benefit to the local community in terms of employment. "The retail sector employs more people than any other sector in the Irish economy. "Retailers and suppliers are currently under significant pressure and its now more important than ever to shop local. "Local shops use local services such as accountants, insurance brokers and suppliers. Mr Farrell is calling on local employers to get behind this voucher scheme as shops reopen and give the Shop Local Gift Vouchers as the staff reward. Employers can save 56% on staff rewards by giving employees a Shop Local Gift Voucher instead of cash, he said. Paddy Malone PRO of Dundalk Chamber said: Businesses can reward their staff with a 500 tax free payment. "You are entitled to give one each and every year. "Under the Small Benefits Exemption Scheme, company Directors and Employees can receive a non-cash bonus of up to 500 in value on a completely tax-free basis each year and he would encourage all employers to buy this voucher for the town. By buying the Shop Local Gift Vouchers not only can you save money by taking advantage of the Government Small Benefit Exemption Scheme, but it is also a fully deductible business expense for your company. If you have not availed of the Small Benefit Exemption Scheme so far in 2021, Paddy said he would encourage people to do so before 31st December 2021 and use Shop Local Gift Vouchers for this. He continued: "The added advantage of these vouchers is that they do not expire over time unlike other vouchers. If you want to buy vouchers you can purchase online on www.dundalk.ie/vouchers or directly from the Dundalk Chamber Offices by calling Tel: 042 9336343 or email accounts@dundalk.ie To check out the full list of outlets who are redeeming the Shop Local Gift Vouchers visit http://shoplocal.dundalk.ie Malic acid, a white crystalline powder, is used as a food additive to enhance flavor and sourness in many food and beverage products. Due to its solubility in water and alcohol, malic acid is used in the preparation of various luxurious drinks, including wine and other cocktails & mocktails. The malic acid market is growing steadily over the past few years, mainly due to its massive consumption in the food & beverages industry. According to Market Research Future (MRFR), the global malic acid market is poised to touch a valuation of USD 217.8 MN by 2023. In its recently published analysis, MRFR also asserts that the market would grow at a CAGR over 4.70% throughout the forecast period (2017-2023). The market is largely driven by the demand in a range of application areas, which would continue in the coming years as well. Feedstock flexibility of malic acid allows high conversion yields, productivity, and concentrated process streams resulting in cost-competitive economics. Food & beverage, personal care, and pharmaceutical are the largest end-user markets of malic acid that consume an extensive amount of the product. Besides, the bakery product and confectionary sector absorb a vast amount of malic acid. Global Malic Acid Market - Segmentation The report is segmented into three market dynamics to widen the scope of understanding, By Type : DL-Malic Acid, L-Malic Acid, and D (+)-Malic Acid. By End-use Industry : Food & Beverage, Personal Care, and Pharmaceutical, among others. By Regions : Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Rest-of-the-World. Global Malic Acid Market - Regional Analysis The Asia Pacific region leads the global malic acid market, accounting for the largest share. Heading with the burgeoning end-use industries, the region is estimated to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The APAC malic acid market would register over 5.82% CAGR during the forecast period, driven by the presence of a large number of producers, cost-competitive product development, and the colossal consumption of the product in the F&B industry. Furthermore, factors such as rapidly increasing population, urbanization, industrialization, and economic growth are commutatively pushing up the regional market, driving huge demand for food. Indonesia, China, Malaysia, and India are significant contributors to the market growth due to raw material advantages. The widening uptake of malic acid in cosmetic & personal care products industry is positively impacting the regional market growth. The malic acid market in North America takes the second lead, following the APAC market closely. Growing consumption of the product in well-developed end-user industries such as food & beverages, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetic & personal care is a tailwind pushing up the regional market growth. The US leads the regional market owing to higher penetration of end-user industries in the country. Driven by the demand for convenience food that is influenced by the fast-paced lifestyle and working population, the malic acid market in North America is estimated to reach USD 53.7 MN mark by2023. The Europe malic acid market is emerging as a profitable market, globally. In 2016, the market had accounted for a 20% share of the global market. Germany dominates the regional market, in terms of size due to the ever-increasing consumption in the well-developed industries like personal care and pharmaceutical. Moreover, the presence of major manufacturers of Malic acid in the region, impacts the market growth, positively meeting the demand for food additives with a superior quality product. Global Malic Acid Market - Competitive Analysis Highly competitive the global malic acid market appears fragmented due to the presence of several well-established as well as small players. To gain an edge over their rivals, these players incorporate strategic approaches such as mergers & acquisitions, collaboration, expansion, and product & technology launch, and partnership. These players also make substantial investments locally and in the emerging countries to expand their production capacity, distribution network, and supply chain. In such a scenario, obtaining strong financial support becomes the sole strategy of suppliers to sustain in the market. Manufacturers strive to minimize the cost of their product by adopting cost-effective manufacturing techniques. Major Players: Key players leading the global malic acid market include Corbion NV, Tate & Lyle, Polynt S.p.A, Thirumalai Chemicals Ltd., Fuso Chemical Co., Ltd., Changmao Biochemical Engineering Company Limited, Bartek Ingredients Inc., Anhui Sealong Biotechnology Co. Ltd., Isegen South Africa (Pty) Ltd, and Yongsan Chemicals, Inc., and among others. Access Complete Report Details @ https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/malic-acid-market-4170 Industry/ Innovation/ Related News: February 12, 2019 ----- Bartek Ingredients Inc. (Canada), a leading global producer of malic acid, fumaric acid, and maleic anhydride announced the successful completion of a 4,000 ton/year capacity increase of its malic acid production facilities. The global leader in malic and fumaric acid products completes the first project in a series of process and production improvements. Since its TorQuest Partners acquisition in October of 2018, Bartek has executed several significant capital projects to expand its capacity and improve efficiency. Additional projects scheduled to be completed in 2019 include state-of-the-art upgrades to Barteks laboratories and office facilities. These projects are Barteks response to the growing global demand for malic acid and others, supporting its customers growth and innovation needs. Ref: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190212005932/en/Bartek-Ingredients-Announces-Capacity-Increases Have any questions? Please give us a call at 928-428-2560 Readers Survey As our valued readers, we want to hear from you. Please take a moment to fill out the survey below. - Thank you, Eastern Arizona Courier Click Here In this image provided by Deanna Raymond, a barn at Scamman Farm, in Stratham, is engulfed in flames late Monday, May 10, 2021. The fire destroyed the barn at the farm that's been the backdrop for political events for Republican presidents and candidates through the years. The global artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery market size is expected to reach USD 4.05 billion by 2028 according to a new study by Polaris Market Research. The report Artificial Intelligence in Drug Discovery Market Share, Size, Trends, Industry Analysis Report, By Therapeutic Area (Oncology, Neurodegenerative Diseases, Cardiovascular Disease, Metabolic Diseases, Infectious Disease, Others); By Application; By Regions; Segment Forecast, 2021 2028 gives a detailed insight into current market dynamics and provides analysis on future market growth. Based on therapeutic areas, the global artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery market is segmented into oncology, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular disease, metabolic diseases, infectious diseases, and others. In 2020, the oncology segment accounted for the largest revenue share. Artificial intelligence plays an important role in the pre-diagnosis of cancer. Cancer treatments vary from person to person and personalized medicine has played an important role. Artificial intelligence (AI) platforms are designed to ascertain genetic mutations, helping oncologists in designing effective treatment plans. In this line, a Switzerland-based company, Sophia Genetics developed an AI platform that helps to identify tumors by detecting genetic variations and devising personalized cancer treatment plans. Request A Sample Copy At: https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/ai-in-drug-discovery-market/request-for-sample However, the infectious disease segment of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery industry is projected to witness a lucrative growth rate over the study period. The increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) platforms in infectious diseases to identify key infection patterns. A positive scenario for the segment is also illustrated by key partnerships and collaborations in the market for artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery. For instance, artificial intelligence (AI)-based drug discovery company, Existencia, entered into an agreement with Scripps Research to identify COVID-19 antiviral therapies. On the same ground, Googles Deepmind company also working on the artificial intelligence (AI) platform AlphaFold. The product is designed to provide information on several proteins involved in the diagnosis of SARS and COVID-19. Market participants such as IBM Watson, Alphabet (DeepMind), Exscientia, GNS Healthcare, Insitro, BioSymetrics, Euretos, Berg Health, Benevolent AI, Atomwise, and Cyclica. are some of the key players operating in the global market. The companies in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry are involved in collaborations and partnerships with artificial intelligence (AI) platform providers to revolutionize medical treatment. To get Incredible Discounts on this Premium Report, Click At : https://www.polarismarketresearch.com/industry-analysis/ai-in-drug-discovery-market/request-for-discount-pricing In this direction, in January 2021, the U.S.-based provider of biomarkers-based therapy, Nucleai signed a collaboration agreement with Debiopharm, pharma company pioneering in drug development. According to the agreement the latter will use Nucleais artificial intelligence (AI) platform for its pipeline oncology drug candidates. Polaris Market Research has segmented the artificial intelligence in drug discovery market report on the basis of application, therapeutic area, and region: Read More : https://www.medgadget.com/2021/05/global-ai-in-drug-discovery-market-size-worth-4-05-billion-by-2028-cagr-28-3-polaris-market-research.html By The Staff of The News A Bovina man died Tuesday in a single-vehicle crash on New Mexico 77, near the intersection of Curry Road G. A news release from Curry County Sheriff Wesley Waller stated Garrett Viss, 65, of Bovina was ejected from his vehicle and died at the scene. The accident happened about noon Tuesday. According to the news release: The investigation has determined that (Viss) was traveling west on NM 77 in a 2008 GMC pickup. In the area of Curry Road G, (a marked construction zone), the vehicle left the roadway, entered the soft shoulder and overturned. The investigation into the cause of the crash is continuing, the release stated. By The Staff of The News Last updated 5/12/2021 at 9:52am CLOVIS -- A 25-year-old Clovis man on Tuesday was convicted of trafficking illegal drugs. A Clovis jury found Roman Viveros guilty on two counts of trafficking controlled substances, second degree felonies. Judge Matt Chandler sentenced Viveros to 15 years in prison, according to a news release from District Attorney Andrea Reeb. The release stated Viveros was pulled over in a traffic stop on Oct. 18, 2018. After obtaining a search warrant for the vehicle, officials found a bag that contained a digital scale, multiple plastic baggies, seven syringes, 32.82 grams of methamphetamine and 14.343 grams of heroin, the release stated. The US Census Bureau recently released what can only be described as some disturbing data regarding the future of New Mexico. Notably, while the states population grew by just 2.8 percent over the past decade, each of our neighbors saw double-digit population growth with the exception of Oklahoma, which still bested New Mexico with 5.5 percent growth. That should be a wake-up call for New Mexicos Legislature and Gov. Lujan Grisham. A report put out by New Mexicos Legislative Finance Committee fleshes out some of New Mexicos impending demographic challenges and should further guide efforts to change course and make our state a destination for jobs and economic growth, not a failing state that is hemorrhaging young people. The initial Census data made headlines due to New Mexico having the slowest population growth in the states history, but there is more interesting (and troubling) data found in a Legislative Finance Committee report called State Population Trends put out using the data. A few highlights: 1) While New Mexicos population growth has slowed to a crawl, its more economically diversified neighbors saw double-digit population growth over the past decade. 2) More troubling for New Mexico is the fact that the only age group experiencing significant growth is the oldest demographic, 65+. The number of New Mexicans 24 and younger declined dramatically over the last decade. 3) Worst of all is this direct quote from the LFC report, While neighboring states continue to gain population through migration from other states, New Mexico had negative net migration of working-age people every year since 2012, likely due to New Mexicos relatively weak economy and poor rankings in education, health, and safety. New Mexicos slow growth situation is unique. It is in the most favorable region of the nation for population growth. This has clearly helped the state attract retirees who have flexibility in their living situations with a premium on pleasant weather, but it has not helped New Mexico hold onto young people or made the state an attractive destination for young people from other states. According to the LFC, this dearth of young people in New Mexico is likely to lead to the states overall population dropping by the end of this decade. This trend means fewer workers, less tax revenue, and higher costs imposed on various government programs as the elderly population increases. It doesnt have to be this way. While plummeting birth rates are a challenge for the entire nation, New Mexico remains geographically well-positioned for growth in the years ahead. The problem is that policymakers have not embraced public policies oriented toward economic diversification. New Mexico sticks out like a sore thumb in having low levels of economic freedom relative to its neighbors and being less business-friendly. Our education system ranks poorly and is in need of big reforms that inspire confidence among families with children. Until a concerted effort is made to make New Mexico more attractive as a relocation destination for young families looking for a strong, diverse economy and a trustworthy education system, New Mexico will continue on its same unhappy, trajectory. Paul Gessing is president of New Mexicos Rio Grande Foundation, which promotes limited government, economic freedom and individual responsibility. Contact him at: [email protected] Oregon Legislature Remote testimony could be here to stay at the Oregon Capitol So far this session, with committee hearings held entirely on virtual platforms, people have signed up to address legislative committees more than 14,000 times US, 12 May 2021 Cannabis is regarded as several other names, including weed, pot, marijuana, and much more. There are many individuals who use various weed products to get rid of several health disorders. According to some health specialists, weed is quite beneficial for everyones health because weed products contain several beneficial properties. Individuals can obtain weed products in the form of concentrates, edibles, flowers, and much more. All the weed products have the potential to eliminate chronic pain and inflammation in a short while. Individuals who are struggling with stubborn body fat can use weed products to get rid of excess body fat. There are some individuals who use weed products to get glowing skin and eliminate acne instantly. Weed products are beneficial to calm the nerves of the brain instantly and can eliminate stress and anxiety efficiently. It has been observed that the demand for weed products is increasing at a staggering rate because all the weed products help to live a healthier lifestyle. Some of the health experts stated that weed products reduce high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, and high cholesterol levels in a short while. Individuals get better heart health and brain health by using weed products regularly. There are numerous online dispensaries available that provide weed products, but every individual prefers to buy the best quality weed products from the best weed store. The weed products are much higher in demand in Cambridge, Guelph, Waterloo, and Kitchener, and most individuals are looking for the best place to buy weed products. It has become easier for individuals to get weed products by sitting in the home with the help of Tasty Pot. It is the most trusted platform and online weed store that provide the best possible service to everyone. If needed, interested individuals can click here or visit our official website to know more about kitchener weed delivery. With the help of this platform, individuals can order weed products from various places, like Cambridge, Guelph, Waterloo, and Kitchener. When the thing comes to weed delivery guelph and weed delivery kitchener, this platform provides ultrafast delivery services, and it is the only platform that provides high-quality weed products. The staff members of this store are highly skilled, and they deliver the weed products on the same day within 90 minutes. There are several weed products like Gummies, chocolate, Sativa, hybrid, CBD oil, shatter, and much more that you can buy at any time from this site. Individuals obtain the weed products at a very reasonable price. You can also contact the staff members of this store by using the live chat service. Better is to click here or visit our official website to know more about guelph weed delivery. Website : https://tastypotdelivery.com/ I recently became aware of two programs being offered by Michigan Women Forward (MWF), a community development nonprofit group that is dedicated to empowering women and girls of all ages. The programs are being offered specifically to middle school and high school girls in Michigan. Both programs are being presented virtually (though they hope to go back to in-person in 2022.) I spoke with the woman who is the driving force behind these amazing efforts, Meaghan Bergman, the Program Manager for UGOGirls and HERstory. She was brimming with enthusiasm for these programs, both of which have spots for 50 girls this year. Virtual S.T.E.A.M S.T.E.A.M. stands for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. You may often see this as STEM because not all groups include the A: Arts (an unfortunate omission, in my opinion.) Meaghan explained how she sees STEAM education as a gender equity issue because the arts are often considered feminine and, therefore, less valuable. For this program, MWF has partnered with Motor City STEAM and it is opened to all kids who identify as girls and are entering grades 6-8 this fall. Girls in this program will be receiving two different experiments in a box. Last year, the first weeks box was related to COVID-19 and had the girls building their own stethoscope. The box for the second week was designed for them develop their own health and beauty product (chapstick, lotion, dandruff treatment, perfume, etc.) Part of the program was also to develop a smartphone app to market and sell the product they developed! This program runs from Monday, July 26 through Thursday, August 5 from 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Registration is open now. For more information and to register, click HERE. Virtual Visionaries The Virtual Visionaries program is for all kids who identify as girls and will be entering the 9 through 12th grades this fall. The program focuses on issues like mental health, confidence, leadership, healing, and dealing with trauma with a specific emphasis on the importance of sisterhood and community. This years theme is Authentic Leadership and helps the girls to understand that their leadership style may be different from what they see in the media. Powerful women leaders in the media are often modeled after men. This program seeks to show girls that they should be their authentic selves and develop their own leadership style, making change by being who they are. Part of this, of course, is developing healthy relationships with other women and with men. The program features different focuses on different days. Mondays are for ME will provide empowerment techniques such as goal setting, stress management, self-confidence building, mental health awareness, time management skills, financial literacy, college preparedness, etc. Boss Women Wednesdays will provide guidance and support from successful, professional Michigan women leaders from various sectors. Fierce Fridays focus on the girls getting to know each other and sharing their stories. In addition to partnering with powerful women leaders, MWF has also partnered with two other groups for this program. Community Financial Credit Union will be providing financial literacy training for the girls and HAVENs SPARK program out of Pontiac will guide the girls in developing healthy relationships with others. This program runs from Monday, June 21 Friday, July 2 and registration is open now. For more information and to register, click HERE. You can learn more about MWF at their website MIWF.org and get an overview of their UGOGirls programs by going to MIWF.org/empower-girls. Finally, MWF merged with the Michigan Womens Historical Center and Hall of Fame (MWHOF) in Lansing in March 2018 and it is now called HERstory. HERstory is looking for interns to help run and curate the museum. MWF is also looking for interns to help with the UGOGirls programs this summer. This is a paid internship. If you are interested in either internship, click HERE for details. B2B Lead Generation Service Reach key decision makers with sales-ready leads that shorten your sales process. Move the needle by delivering funnel qualified leads to your sales team. Learn more. If the United States wants to out-compete China in key technology markets, Congress and the Biden Administration must act now, maintained a Washington, D.C. think tank in a report released Monday. "With the rise of China, the U.S. economic and technology environment has fundamentally and inexorably changed," explained the report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. "America needs an advanced technology industrial policy to compete effectively," it continued, "but that will require modernizing hidebound economic thinking that has long considered 'industry policy' to be anathema." The report called on government to take an active role in promoting industrial competitiveness and to formulate an advanced industry and technology strategy, which should include a set of policies and programs explicitly designed to support specific industries and technologies. It recommended industries targeted by the policy meet four criteria: They must be one that without proactive government policy support would underperform, either in general or because of foreign competition. The United States must have some potential for success in the industry or technology because of existing assets and strengths. Success in the industry or technology must be important to achieving key national goals, such as national defense and security, energy security and climate, a better trade balance, or faster productivity growth. The firms in the industry should want support and be willing to invest at least some of their own resources in the efforts. Conceptualization of industrial strategy tools. Source: ITIF One Chip Fits All ITIF President Robert D. Atkinson, who authored the report, explained that governments engaging in industrial policy has been given a bad rap by economists. "Economists believe the market does everything right," he told TechNewsWorld. "What they focus on is allocation efficiency," he continued. "So industrial policy is inherently bad because you are helping one industry over another. Potato chips or computer chips, every industry is equally important to them." "The notion that the government can't do this is not born out by historical evidence in the U.S.," he asserted. "The Internet alone would make up for any loses for the next 50 years." He explained that with industrial policy, the government is trying to invest in a sweet spot between areas the private sector won't invest in because the risk is too high and areas so poor no one can make any money in them. "Government shouldn't be substituting for the private sector, but it should be focusing on areas where the risk is a little higher and the payoff is higher," he said. "Government investments should yield big social benefits," he continued. "We don't expect the private sector to be thinking about social benefits. We don't expect it to be thinking about U.S. competitiveness vis a vis China. It's not their job. But it is the government's job." Riddled with Failure Doug Barry, senior director of communications and publications for the US-China Business Council, an organization of more than 200 American companies that do business with China, told TechNewsWorld that one argument against national industrial policies is that they're less efficient than markets and lead to wasteful spending. However, he added, "That argument does not give proper credit for massive government funding during the Sputnik era which contributed to many important commercial applications such as the Internet, GPS, and the smart phone." One reason the United States has shied away from industrial policy is because of innovation in the private sector, observed Richard Stiennon, founder and chief research analyst at IT-Harvest, a cybersecurity industry analyst firm in Birmingham, Mich. "There's also another good reason not to have an industrial policy," he told TechNewsWorld. "Governments are the least able to identify future growth areas. In 2007, for example, an industrial policy wouldn't have predicted we were going to dominate the market in high-end cell phones." Industrial policy -- where the government targets certain industries for non-market support in order to achieve commercial outcomes within national borders that could not be achieved without that support -- has been riddled with failure throughout U.S. history, contended Scott Lincicome, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a public policy think tank in the Washington, D.C. "It doesn't work in the United States due to a combination of the U.S. economic system having relatively liquid capital markets, which means the market is pretty good at picking winners and punishing losers, and our political system, which is characterized by high turnover and intense lobbying," he told TechNewsWorld. "Those two factors make industrial policy a pretty shoddy way to compete, regardless of what China is doing." R&D Credit The industrial policy outlined in the ITIF report includes a doubling of the R&D tax credit. "We have a very low R&D tax credit compared to our competitors," Atkinson said. Lincicome noted, however, that private and public investment in R&D as a percentage of GDP just broke three percent for the first time and is growing. "In terms of total dollars spent, we're still the biggest spender on R&D in the world," he said. He also questioned the effectiveness of the R&D tax credit as a means of stimulating innovation. "There's pretty good evidence at this point that the R&D tax credit hasn't really induced a real increase in R&D spending," he observed. "Instead, companies have simply recharacterized spending as R&D to get the subsidy." "Any time you dangle a tax credit in front of a corporation," he continued, "they're going to hire some accountants to figure out how to be eligible for it." "The better move is to lower the corporate tax rate overall," he added. "There's a lot of good research that shows lower corporate tax rates tend to induce more R&D spending, patenting and hiring of researchers." Strategy Needed Even without an industrial policy, there are measures the United States can take to keep a leg up on China. "In the short run, we can reform our immigration policies to enable more foreign students to work here after finishing their studies," Barry recommended. "Similarly," he continued, "we can make it easier to attract the best STEM minds from other countries. And we can improve STEM education in our primary and secondary schools." "To make innovation more geographically dispersed, we can create technology innovation centers in different parts of the county," he added. "We know where to focus: AI, quantum computing, robotics, bio tech, environmental technologies," he said. "Whether or not it's called industrial policy, the U.S. government needs to be more strategic in its thinking and action if we're to avoid losing our competitive edge. Once lost, it will be very hard to regain it." John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. A Brand's Guide to Digital Shelf Analytics | eBook What can you do to improve your digital commerce game? The first rule of the digital shelf is to make sure your products can be found. Some might say its mission impossible. Unless, of course, you use digital shelf analytics (DSA). Get the eBook Today! The notorious Emotet botnet software began uninstalling itself from some one million computers Sunday. According to SecurityWeek, the uninstall command was part of an update sent to the infected computers by law enforcement servers in the Netherlands after Emotet's infrastructure was compromised in January during a multinational operation mounted by eight nations. The poisoned upgrade cleans the Windows registry key that enables the botnet's modules to run automatically, as well as stop and delete associated services. "The threat posed by Emotet was already neutralized by the takeover of its entire network infrastructure by law enforcement last January," explained Jean-Ian Boutin, head of threat research at Eset, an information technology security company based in Bratislava in the Slovak Republic. "Our continuous monitoring of Emotet shows that the operation has been a complete success," he told TechNewsWorld. "On Sunday, a cleanup procedure was activated on compromised systems that connected to the infrastructure controlled by law enforcement," he continued. "The update removes Emotet's persistence mechanisms, effectively preventing the threat from reaching out to any command and control servers in the future." According to the U.S. Justice Department Emotet infected 1.6 million computers globally from April 1, 2020 to Jan. 17, 2021 and caused millions of dollars of damage to victims worldwide. In the United States, the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Agency estimates that Emotet infections cost local, state, tribal and territorial governments up to US$1 million per incident to remediate. Machines Still At Risk Although Emotet has been neutralized, the machines it infected remain at risk. "Emotet itself wasn't known for many malicious behaviors, especially in its last iterations," observed Chet Wisniewski, principal research scientist at Sophos, a network security and threat management company based in the UK. "It was known for bringing along other malicious software, which it is likely to have done before the acquisition by police of the command and control infrastructure," he told TechNewsWorld. "Its removal has no effect on other malicious software it may have brought along." Boutin noted that in the last two years, Emotet actively distributed at least six different malware families: Ursnif, Trickbot, Qbot, Nymaim, Iceid and Gootkit. "Once installed, the malware families run independently from Emotet," he said. "Hence, both must be eradicated in order for the system to be malware free." "The gap between the network infrastructure takedown and Sunday's cleaning operation was to allow affected organizations to find these different malware families and take the necessary steps to clean their network," he explained. Deactivating Emotet can be seen as a first step in recovering these machines, but it is far from the only step," added Christopher Fielder, director of product marketing for Arctic Wolf, a maker of cloud SIEM software. "These machines should still be considered compromised and assessed using an effective incident response plan," he told TechNewsWorld. Whether the owners of the infected machines are being notified about the possibility of further infections is unclear, noted Dirk Schrader, global vice president of New Net Technologies, a Naples, Fla.-based provider of IT security and compliance software. "It would certainly be helpful to alert the system's owner that further forensic analysis is needed," he observed. Significant Achievement Removing Emotet from the threat landscape is a great achievement, Wisniewski maintained. "It was one of the most dangerous and prolific email threats in the world," he said. "I think the initial takedown and acquisition of the command infrastructure was fantastic and something we would love to see more of," he added. "This latest action, however, seems like it isn't as useful and is more of a PR move than anything that will keep the public safe," Wisniewski pointed out. "The takedown is very significant," added Vinay Pidathala, director of security research at Menlo Security, a cybersecurity company in Mountain View, Calif. He noted that across Menlo Security's global customer base, Emotet was the top malware that it protected customers against in 2020. "Emotet was also responsible for a lot of ransomware infections, so taking down such a pervasive malware distribution platform is good for the internet," he added. As gratifying as the takedown of Emotet is, the havoc it wreaked across countless networks over seven years is alarming, declared Hitesh Sheth, president and CEO of Vectra AI, a provider of automated threat management solutions based in San Jose, Calif. "We must aspire to have more international cooperation for cybersecurity plus better response time," he told TechNewsWorld. "None of us know how many malware cousins of Emotet are doing more damage right now," he said, "but if each takes seven years to neutralize, we will remain in lasting crisis." One reason it took so long to take down Emotet was the complexity of its network infrastructure. "Through our long-term tracking of the botnet, we identified hundreds of command and control servers, organized in different layers and spread out throughout the world," Boutin explained. "To be successful, the operation needed to take down all these C&C servers at the same time, a very difficult task." Privacy Concerns Security experts generally praised law enforcement for taking down Emotet, although some had concerns about the action. "I think takedowns are critical and law enforcement agencies are important in being able to expedite and also put the right number of resources to do something at scale. These actions are commendable," Pidathala observed. Boutin noted that the takedown was not limited to shutting down a botnet's infrastructure but went further with the arrest of individuals suspected of being involved with Emotet. "Pushing the uninstall routine on infected systems was the icing on the cake," he said. "Hopefully this action will serve as a reference and make future takedown operations easier and more efficient." However, Austin Merritt, a cyberthreat intelligence analyst at Digital Shadows, a San Francisco-based provider of digital risk protection solutions, noted that takedowns can raise some privacy issues. "People targeted by Emotet may be concerned that involving the FBI could allow them to indiscriminately go into victims' computers and see what is there," he told TechNewsWorld. "Consequentially, there may be concerns of law enforcement obtaining nonpublic information from them." While automatically removing malware seems to be a great answer to these infections, especially in large deployments such as Emotet, there are some ethical issues with the approach, added Erich Kron, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4, a security awareness training provider in Clearwater, Fla. "Part of the issue is that law enforcement is actively deleting files from privately owned devices," he told TechNewsWorld. "Even with the best of intentions, this has the potential to become an issue." Coding errors could potentially cause outages and loss of revenue or services in future automated malware removal activities, he explained. "In addition," Kron continued, "there may be a lack of notification to the affected organizations. This could become an issue if the automated removal process happens at the same time the device administrators are doing their forensic data collection or removing the malware themselves. Without coordination, this could become a significant issue for an organization." "This trend, while beneficial in the short term, is a topic that should be discussed further within the cybersecurity industry, with an emphasis on how to manage notifications to those whose devices have been modified, managing oversight, and potentially the option to opt out of these law enforcement actions altogether," he added. John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. 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This becomes apparent from the public auditing body's report on the Catalan government's activities abroad between 2011 and 2017, as reported by the ACN, and to which ElNacional.cat has had access. The report has a dissenting opinion, presented by court councillor Maria Dolores Genaro Moya. Among other aspects, she denounces the urgency with which the audit institution wanted to approve the document, without giving room for comment. But most significantly: she questions the reports own conclusions, assuring that the Generalitat of Catalonia did not exceed its functions and that the supervisory body has not done its job well. Up to 35 senior Catalan government officials have been cited as holding civil responsibility for public spending alleged to be illegal by a report which one of the body's own members finds biased and exaggerated. In her opinion, Genaro recalls that the Court of Accounts is required to make "a strictly technical judgment based on the principles of legality, efficiency and economy of the economic and financial activity carried out by the Catalan government in relation to action abroad." Instead, she notes, the body has breached principles of "impartiality, clarity, conciseness, balance and weighting." She recalls that the analysis must be "objective and impartial" and "avoid value judgments and interpretations that are not sufficiently substantiated." Thus, the Court of Auditors councillor - not a full court, and thus its members are not judges - states verbatim that with the information given in the report, it does not appear that in these cases there is any overstepping in the action taken abroad by the Generalitat of Catalonia in relation to the scope of its competence. She also denounces that in some cases "trips or activities are attributed an irregular nature as a result of statements made to the press after the event". This, according to the dissenting vote, "does not undermine their official character and their possible compatibility within the regional competencies." To illustrate this point, Maria Dolores Genaro gives some examples: the trip of then-president Artur Mas to participate in the Second Meeting of European Liberal Democrat Leaders in Amsterdam, in February 2013, and that of president Carles Puigdemont to Copenhagen to open the Catalan government's delegation in the Nordic countries, in August 2017. The dissenting opinion also challenges the references to activities "that seem to go beyond the scope of the Catalan government's foreign competence, but which, due to their duration, characteristics or other factors, appear as clearly accessory to a primary activity carried out, which was within the competency". An example of this type: Catalan foreign minister Raul Romeva's trip to Denmark and the United Kingdom in May 2016, "participating on one of the four days in an event whose subject matter was related to the independence process." "The total number of activities included in the report that are considered to be covered by these two situations would be 64," said the Court of Accounts member. "Inconclusive proof" In addition to travel activities, the dissenting vote notes that there are other activities that are inferred as irregular "due to inconclusive evidence and therefore do not have adequate and sufficient proof." In this category, the councillor includes at least 28 activities in which the evidence is obtained from a press release and not from the documentation that forms part of the expenditure files". Maria Dolores Genaro also states at least 52 activities "which, although they are related to the scope of the independence process, constitute simple political or ideological statements and the expression of opinions, without any economic or accounting significance". Therefore, these should also fall outside the scope of the Court's audit. "Attributed greater important than they really have" The final conclusion made by the Court of Accounts member is devastating. "The constant reiterations in the results that are presented lead the reader to the impression that the relative importance of the matters included is much greater than it really is," says Genaro in the dissenting vote. Take the example of a trip made on January 24th, 2017 that is cited five times in the report and again in the conclusions. In addition, in the first section of her individual report, the court member denounces the "incomprehensible urgency" with which the auditing body wanted to pass its report at the end of March 2019, despite her requests to extend the deadline in order to make technical observations. A violation of the procedure which had never been seen before, in her opinion. 35 people summonsed for June 29th According to the Court of Accounts, a total of 35 people perpetrated the allegedly illegal foreign action, including former Catalan presidents Mas and Puigdemont and former vice president Oriol Junqueras. There are also many ex-ministers: Raul Romeva, Jordi Turull, Francesc Homs, Neus Munte and Andreu Mas Colell. They have all been called to appear on June 29th at 9:30am at the headquarters of the Court of Accounts in Madrid, and continuing the following day if necessary. The body demands that they hand over exorbitant amounts - the quantities corresponding to the allegedly illegal public spending they were responsible for. As well, following a complaint issued by prosecutors last week, this report has led Barcelona Court 18 to open proceedings against the former Catalan foreign minister Raul Romeva and nine other senior officers in the Catalan government. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Missouri is closer than ever to joining every other state in havi The Report Provides Detail Information about and Strategies Used by Top Key Players in the Industry. The Report also Gives a Broad Study of the Different Market Segments and regions and Specific Expertise in Segments to Inspire Surge in Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Growth Rate. Pharmaceutical Contract Manufacturing Market Overview: The global report on the pharmaceutical contract manufacturing market reveals a projected analysis of the market with 7.2 % CAGR between 2017 and 2023, which Market Research Future (MRFR) considers to be the forecast period. Increasing activities related to research and development is set to inspire a better intake of the assistance of pharmaceutical companies. The global market for pharmaceutical contract manufacturing can further get influenced by the constant pressure that the pipeline of approved drugs. At the same time, companies are also fighting over the advantage they can have if they launch their product first. This is heaving pressure on various pharmaceutical companies who are trying to maximize their profit margin by getting into the market first. Pricing pressure is also huge, which can determine the significant change in the coming years. Pharmaceutical companies are trying to channelize their efforts and maximize their production rate by focusing on specific issues. Hence, the incorporation of pharmaceutical contract manufacturers. Get Premium Free Sample Copy At https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/sample_request/1532 However, several factors can also provide a headwind to the market. Maintaining manufacturing standardization and utilization of the capacity can be an issue for the manufacturers. Bot pharmaceutical companies often try to save the cost of production by handing the production to some other company. This type of production also has heightened lead time and logistics costs, which can affect the profit margin. Such changes can hold back market growth. Competitive Landscape: The market report on the pharmaceutical contract manufacturing market suggests a growing demand for the involvement of such companies in the sector. This could lead to the market ahead. The strategies they would initiate would trigger better growth for the market. These companies are known for their detailed plans about how to take the market forward. MRFRs profiling includes Boehringer Ingelheim, Catalant, Pharmaceutical Product Development, Grifols International, S.A, Lonza AG, Patheon Inc., Vetter, AbbVie Inc, and others. In December 2019, Entera announced that the company developed technology that would ensure oral delivery of proteins, peptides, and other large molecules. This has piqued the interest of Amgen, a pharmaceutical contract manufacturing company, who inked a deal with the former for USD 270mn. Such a collaboration is to ensure a faster production rate. Segmentation: The global market report for pharmaceutical contract manufacturing can be studied on the basis of type. This segmentation can have a strong impact on how the market can achieve growth in the coming days. By type, the global market report covering the pharmaceutical contract manufacturing market includes active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing, finished dosage formulation market, and others. The active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing has the potential to dominate the global sector using the restructuring plans initiated by several pharmaceutical industries across the globe. The market would gain much from the changing manufacturing scenario that is impacting the infrastructural scope of various companies. Regional Analysis: The growth prospect of America is quite high as the regional market has countries like the US and Canada where well-developed technologies have been included as a major pointer for industrial development. Extensive capacity to fund the research and development sector and support the manufacturing process can boost the market scenario for the coming years. The technology is also going to inspire better pipelining of drugs and assist the market in meeting the regional market standard. Browse Complete 108 Pages Premium Research Report Enabled With 121 Respective Tables And Figures At https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/pharmaceutical-contract-manufacturing-market-1532 Europe has the capacity to become the second-largest market. Government funding for various research and development products can ensure a hike in various development-related activities. France, Germany, the UK, and others can also make sure that the market gets a better understanding of how to perform in the coming years. The Asia Pacific region has several countries taking part in global development. These countries like India, Japan, China, and others are also taking down the drug price and making it more competitive. The regional market can find better traction from the growing investment in the pharmaceutical sector. 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. Buildings light up green for Mental Health Awareness week Buildings and landmarks across the Island were lit up green on Monday as part of Mental Health Awareness Week. Zurich House, Manx Telecom, Pulrose Power Station and the Tower of Refuge were among the locations to be lit up to raise awareness. Isle Listen is encouraging people to show their support for the charity and Mental Health Awareness Week on Friday May 14th by wearing something green, the internationally recognised colour used to symbolise and raise awareness of mental health. For more information find Isle Listen on Facebook, or go to www.islelisten.im Athens, AL (35611) Today Cloudy this morning with thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 82F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low near 70F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. Athens, AL (35611) Today Cloudy skies this morning followed by scattered showers and thunderstorms during the afternoon. High 81F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Low near 70F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. It's no secret that Spotify wants to be a big deal in the podcast world. The streaming music company signed on Joe Rogan's show last year as an exclusive, and it has deals in place with the Obamas, as well as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Now, you can add Dax Shepard and Monica Padman's Armchair Expert to the pile. Starting July 1, Armchair Expert will become a Spotify exclusive. Additionally, Spotify will have a first-look deal for any new properties from the show's parent company, Armchair Umbrella Network. "Armchair Expert will remain the same show it has always been, but with added opportunities that only Spotify can offer us," co-host and producer Monica Padman said. "We look forward to continuing to bring our human driven content and doorless bathroom to our audience through this exclusive platform." The exclusive deal doesn't come as a huge surprise. Armchair Expert is one of the most popular podcasts around, and it has featured guests like Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton and Malcom Gladwell (along with plenty of Shepard's celebrity friends). It's one of those shows that also serves as an introduction to the world of podcast, where hosts are generally more laid back and conversations aren't nearly as formal or structured as public radio. Podcasting is still a relatively niche medium, so Spotify needs everything it can to make mainstream listeners give them a shot. Who needs the next-generation graphics of Returnal, or the complex narrative of Nier Replicant, when you've got... Calculator! A $10 app now on the Nintendo Switch eShop, it's a "scientific calculator with a clear easy-to-read multi-line display, which should help with those not-so-easy-to-do maths problems." As reported by Eurogamer, Calculator should look familiar to anyone who's used the equivalent iOS app. But that doesn't cost $10! No, this app is special. As developer Sabec notes, "Calculator has an appealing modern and practical design, sure to be popular with all students and engineers." Indeed, I'm sure many students and engineers will turn to their Switch for math help, rather than the assortment of free options on their smartphones or nearby computers. Realistically, the only way I see Calculator justifying its existence is if it can prove your Switch can also be an educational tool. What teacher would say no to such a well-designed and practical calculator app? In my day, we had to sneak simple text-based games onto our TI-84 graphing calculators. But now you can easily swap between something pseudo-educational and Fortnite. Kids these days have it all! Sabec, it should be noted, is also the company behind such legendary Switch titles like Guitar, Bomb, and Bubble. So you just know you're getting your money's worth. Earlier this year, Volkswagen revealed that it's testing Argo AI's self-driving system on its prototype electric ID.Buzz vans. Now, the automaker has announced that it's preparing ID.Buzz vans capable of Level 4 autonomy and that they'll be ready for the commercial transport of goods and passengers by 2025. Level 4 autonomy means the vehicle can fully drive itself, though a driver can still take over if needed. Also, full self-driving is only limited to certain locations. In other words, it's expecting the van to offer robotaxi services with drivers behind the wheel in a few years' time. As The Drive notes, the selfdriving tech for ID.Buzz and the vehicle itself aren't ready yet, so it will take a while before we can see the final product. The company has already started testing Argo AI's technology in six locations in the US, though, and it's expanding its trials to Munich and Pennsylvania later this year in partnership with ride-sharing company MOIA. Christian Senger, the head of autonomous driving at VW's van unit, said the automaker will focus its development efforts on densely populated urban areas. Those locations are highly complex to navigate and can yield a ton of data, and they also "offer the basis for intensive use of mobility offerings." Senger also said the goal is to "develop a ride-hailing and pooling concept similar to what MOIA offers today." While the automaker pulled down a previous announcement that the ID.Buzz will reach dealerships in 2022, it still plans to debut the vehicle sometime next year. Over the years, the proteomics market has created new opportunities in life science industries due to increasing usage of the technology in cancer drug development and personalised medicine. As per findings of Persistence Market Research (PMR), the global market for proteomics will witness stupendous expansion at a CAGR of 17% over the forecast period (2019-2029). With growth projected to showcase over 5X expansion in revenues, the global proteomics market remains buoyed by advancements in high-throughput technologies that are constantly being used to investigate proteomes. As proteomics are widely used in diagnostics, prognostics, and various other healthcare applications, there has been increasing demand for proteomic techniques in disease diagnostics and drug development. Get Going With Sample Of Proteomics Market Report! https://www.persistencemarketresearch.co/samples/31378 Companies covered in Proteomics Market Report Agilent Technologies, Inc. Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (US) GE Healthcare (US) Danaher Corporation (US) PerkinElmer, Inc. (US) Merck KGaA (Germany) Caprion Proteomics Inc. Bio-Rad Laboratories Luminex Corporation (US) Waters Corporation Promega Corporation Bruker Corporation How About Re-Inventing The Methodical Wheel In The Proteomics Market? Switch Over To The Methodology Tab! https://www.persistencemarketresearch.co/methodology/31378 Key Takeaways of Proteomics Market Study The reagents and kits segment under component is expected to contribute more than 30% of revenue share in the proteomics market. of revenue share in the proteomics market. In terms of technology, the protein fractionation systems segment is expected to grow twice its size by the end of 2029 . . Leading proteomics service provider companies are collaborating with local proteomics service providers as well as research institutes to strengthen their market position. North America is dominating the global proteomics market, while East Asia is expected to offer lucrative opportunities, owing to rapid increasing healthcare programs and industrialization in the region. Technological advancements in proteomic techniques and growing demand for proteomics research for drug development focussing on large-scale manufacturing of personalized medicine are bringing in new avenues for market development, says a PMR analyst. Potential Impact of COVID-19 on the Proteomics Market The global outbreak of COVID-19 is indirectly affecting the proteomics market, as applications in pharmaceutical companies witness a downtrend. This is mainly due to hampered drug production and the preference of pharmaceutical companies toward the production of vital drugs that are needed now. On the other hand, the proteomics market will gain traction, as numerous proteomic labs across the U.S. and Europe are taking up the research of therapeutic methods for fighting the coronavirus, thus providing insights about the inclusion of proteomics in the vaccine for COVID-19. This factor is expected to partially subdue the shortcomings that the market will face in the foreseeable future, due to the pandemic. Keeping A Tab On Key Players In The Proteomics Market? Go To Purchase Now To Decipher The Competitive Analysis In Our Proteomics Market Report! https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/checkout/31378 Acquisitions and Partnerships - Key Strategies of Market Players Key players in the proteomics market are focussed on improving their product portfolios though the launch of new products. For instance, in June 2019, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc launched New-Generation Benchtop Mass Spectrometer Advances Quantitative Proteomics and Translational Research. Manufacturers are also working toward getting new products approved by regulatory bodies and launching them at the earliest. Various players in the proteomics market are focusing on growth strategies such as acquisitions and partnerships. For example, in June 2019, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc announced a collaboration with Biognosys for Advance Plasma Quantitation Methods in Proteomics. What Does the Report Cover? Persistence Market Research offers a unique perspective and actionable insights on the proteomics market in its latest study, presenting historical demand assessment of 20142018 and projections for 20192029, on the basis of component (instruments, reagents and kits, core proteomics services, bioinformatics services, and quantitation services), technology (microarrays, X-Ray crystallography, spectroscopy, chromatography, protein fractionation systems, electrophoresis, and surface plasma resonance systems), application (drug discovery, clinical diagnosis, and cancer research), and end user (contract research organizations (CROs), research & academic institutions, and pharma & biotech companies), across seven key regions. About Us :- A security researcher known for pointing out faults in WiFi security has discovered another vulnerability. The newly unearthed flaws, known as "frag attacks," are believed to be widespread as they stem from the WiFi standard, with some bugs dating back to 1997. While several additional vulnerabilities are caused by programming mistakes in WiFi products and affect every WiFi device, Belgian security researcher Mathy Vanhoef wrote on his blog. Theoretically, if exploited, the vulnerabilities would allow an attacker within radio range to steal user information or attack devices. But, the chances of the flaws being abused should be low as the attacks require user interaction or uncommon network settings. Breaking down how they work, Vanhoef explained that several of the flaws can be abused to "easily inject" plaintext frames into a protected Wi-Fi network," along with certain devices accepting "plaintext aggregated frames that look like handshake messages." This can be used to intercept traffic by tricking the victim into using a malicious DNS server, the researcher noted. In experiments, Vanhoef found that two out of four tested home routers were affected by this vulnerability, along with several IoT devices and some smartphones. Other vulnerabilities are linked to the process by which the WiFi standard breaks and then reassembles network packets, allowing an attacker to siphon data by injecting their own malicious code during this operation. Vanhoef has uploaded a demo of the flaws, including a step-by-step explanation of the frag attacks, which you can watch below. As with his previous findings including the "Krack Attack" from 2017 Vanhoef shared his discoveries with the Wi-Fi Alliance. Over the past nine months, the organization has been working with device vendors on updates that address the flaws. As a result, some fixes have already been released or are in the pipeline. Microsoft has addressed three of the 12 bugs that impact Windows systems in patches released on March 9th, according to cybersecurity news site The Record. A patch to the Linux kernel is also working its way through the release system, reports ZDNet. The likes of Cisco, Juniper Networks, Sierra Wireless and HPE/Aruba Networks have also begun developing patches to mitigate the vulnerabilities, according to the Industry Consortium for Advancement of Security on the Internet (ICASI). You can check if your device has received patches for any of the 12 frag attacks by checking its firmware changelogs and looking for updates that relate to the CVE identifiers listed on the ICASI's website. If you're still unsure, however, Vanhoef recommends accessing sites via secure HTTPS connections. "There is no evidence of the vulnerabilities being used against Wi-Fi users maliciously, and these issues are mitigated through routine device updates that enable detection of suspect transmissions or improve adherence to recommended security implementation practices," the Wi-Fi Alliance said. GARBER Service for Anton R. (Tony) Vencl will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at Ladusau Evans Chapel. Burial will follow at the White Cemetery, Hunter. Arrangements are under the direction of Ladusau-Evans Funeral Home. Since the announcement of his divorce from Melinda Gates, Bill Gates has been making headlines. The power duo is reportedly ending their marriage after 27 years. In another shocking revelation, journalist James Wallace, who wrote two books about the Microsoft creator in the 1990s, accused him of a lot of things. Here are some shocking facts about Bill Gates that nobody dared to care about before. Bill Gates Was A Womanizer In an interview with Daily Mail, Wallace revealed that Bill Gates was far from being just a "little computer nerd." Wallace told the outlet, "Gates was no choir boy in his early days as a tech founder." At the time, the media didn't care about his wild days since they were more focused on the mogul's technology and business stories. "Gates would visit one of Seattle's all-nude nightclubs and hire dancers to come to his home and swim naked with his friends in his indoor pool." Melinda Gates Knew He Was A Womanizer Though he started dating Melinda French in 1988, he continued to "play the field" for a while, especially during out-of-town business trips. What's even shocking is that Melinda knew about her boyfriend being a womanizer and back then, their relationship has been "consequently ran hot and cold." Bill Gates' Wild Parties at His Seattle Home Wallace also claimed that the tech guru had a lot of "wild" naked parties with strippers just before he got married. Wallace revealed that these wild parties reportedly took place at his Seattle home. He told the Daily Mail, "A lot of those Microsoft kids back then, they were young guys in pizza-stained t-shirts for two or three days working on software code." "Then they would have some pretty wild parties, where they would go out and get strippers in Seattle and bring them over to Bill's home." READ ALSO: Bill and Melinda Gates' Reason For Divorce Explored: Is It Because of Another Wealthy Man? Bill Gates Paid the Media For Info Bill Gates reportedly spoon-fed stories to the media. With Gates' fixation well-known, it wasn't reported back then. When he and Melinda once broke up for a year because of a commitment issue, the New York Times knew about it but didn't report on it because they didn't want to upset Bill. If they did, it would "stop the flow of information" that Bill Gates was giving them. Bill Gates' Unconventional Arrangement with Ex Even after their breakup, Bill Gates continued seeing his ex Ann Winblad once a year, with blessing from his wife Melinda Gates. The pair reportedly would spend a long weekend with her every year. They would "ride dune buggies, hang-glide and walk on the beach." It's unclear if they still do it up to this day. READ MORE: Nayel Nassar Net Worth 2021: Is Bill Gates' Future Son-in-Law Richer Than Jennifer Gates? See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles After coming out as non-binary in April, Courtney Stodden dropped another bombshell information about Chrissy Teigen's alleged cyberbullying. Stodden, who preferred "they/them" pronouns as a non-binary, revealed the dark side of John Legend's wife. In an alleged profile published by The Daily Beast, the 26-year-old reportedly outed Teigen's past cyberbullying incidents. "She wouldn't just publicly tweet about wanting me to take 'a dirt nap' but would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself," they revealed. "Things like, 'I can't wait for you to die.'" The American model started talking about Teigen's tweets in March, alleging that the 35-year-old author sent those posts. In a separate video, Stodden recalled how Teigen told her how much she hates them. Things got even worst when the "Bring the Funny" star directly mentioned them and asked them to "sleep forever." "I feel like women need to empower women. So-called celebrities s**t-shaming me, bullying me, makes me wonder where are we as a society? It's not as far along as I thought we were for women, it really scares me," Stodden said in her five-minute video which she titled "A message to Chrissy Teigen be better." As proof, they created a collage version of the tweets alongside the hashtags #bully #chrissyteigen. Furthermore, Stodden alleged the "Cravings: Hungry For More" of harassing and bullying her as a minor without any restraint. Courtney Stodden A Victim of Bullying Apart from Teigen, Stodden also suffered from mistreatment from other celebrities. In the same news outlet, they said that Joy Behar and Courtney Love called her names. The fact that she got all these from women made it worst. Among all these bullies, Perez Hilton was reportedly the only celebrity to ever apologize to them. READ ALSO: Jennifer Lopez Rekindled Relationship With Ben Affleck Long Before JRod Split [Report] "The majority of love and apologies have come from reporters and also people online who tell me that they appreciate me and love me, and that I'm a source of strength for them," they added. "And that means everything to me." Meanwhile, Stodden also spoke about the abuse they suffered during their marriage with Doug Hutchison. They married him in 2011 when they were 11. Per the model, they were too scared to speak up about the verbal abuse they suffered during the 10-year marriage. Fortunately, they decided to part ways and finalized their divorce in March 2020. READ MORE: The Weeknd Is 'Hypocrite' For Overreacting on Grammys Snub, Says Victor Willis See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles Joshua Bassett calls for "love and acceptance" as he addresses the comments about his sexuality. The disney star took to Twitter to issue a statement on Tuesday to address the speculation on his sexuality after his remarks on former "One Direction" member Harry Styles in a recent interview. The actor wrote "My entire life, people have told me my sexuality. People have shamed me for things they know nothing about. I want to say thank you to those of you who stand for love and acceptance." (Check out the full statement below) The "High School Musical: The Musical Series" actor also explained that the present's generation is full of love and growth "It's 2021. We are the generation of love and growth, it's time we start acting like it. Whether you love me, hate me, or damn me to hell, I love you all the same." he added. The actor then concluded his statement by writing "Love who you love shamelessly. It's ok to still be figuring out who you are. Life's too short to let ignorance and hatred win. I choose love." READ NOW: Zac Efron Under Fire After Ex-GF Sarah Bro Claims a Movie Actor 'Manipulated' and 'Brainwashed' Her The speculations began after his recent interview with Clevver News where he referenced the term "coming out". In the interview, Bassett was asked to share his thoughts about Harry Styles, he stated "Who doesn't think Harry Styles is cool? Also, he's hot, you know? He's very charming too." (Watch the interview below) He also added "This is also my coming out video, I guess." After the statement was released, it garnered mixed reactions around the internet. Twitter users rallied their support to Bassett but there are some accusing him of queer baitinga marketing technique to attract queer viewers. joshua bassett is apparently not queer. so he was just queer baiting?? no words Hana (@glimmerofcomet) May 11, 2021 It's queer baiting until he comes out. Stop playing Devils advocate and hold people accountable for shxtty actions. It's more weird you're assuming he could be in the closet. ZackZiggyPopMcFadden (@ZackZiggyPopMac) May 10, 2021 The actor stars in a Disney+ original show "High School Musical: The Musical Series" where he plays the character of Ricky Bowen. Bassett is linked to co-star Olivia Rodrigo after he was the alleged inspiration behind the actress' chart-topping song "driver's license" The actor was also involved in an alleged love triangle drama with Rodrigo and Sabrina Carpenter, another disney co-star. Although the actor's statement revolved around acceptance, he has not revealed his sexuality. READ ALSO: 'RHOA' Star Porsha Williams Engaged To Co-Star's Ex-Husband, Clarified One Critical Issue See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles Veteran actor Norman Lloyd dies at the age of 106. The actor had worked in the showbiz industry for almost 80 years. The versatile actor was popularly known for his acting role in Alfred Hitchcock's "Saboteur" and later appeared on the NBC medical drama "St. Elsewhere" Lloyd's death was confirmed by good friend and producer Dean Hargrove which was reported in an article published by Variety. "His third act was really the best time of his life," The producer said, referring to the actor's long career in Hollywood. Besides acting, the actor was also a director and producer. A LOOK BACK ON LLOYD'S CAREER Lloyd's first love was theatre. A notable moment in his theatre career is when Welles and John Houseman asked him to join the legendary Mercury Theatre in the 1930s. One of his famous roles is his character as Cinna the Poet in Welle's "Julius Caesar" in 1937. His career in the film industry skyrocketed when the actor was hand-picked by the legendary director Alfred Hitchcock to play the villain in the 1942 film "Saboteur" which shocked and amazed audiences after he dangled from the top of Statue of Liberty. After "Saboteur", he became a frequent collaborator and a good friend of Hitchcock for the next four decades. His work with the director includes the 1945 film "Spellbound", as well as the classic TV series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour" which included him as one of the producers and directors. READ MORE: Did Joshua Bassett Come Out or Was His Controversial Remarks On Harry Styles a Marketing Stint? Fans React Lloyd's career also became a subject of controversy in the 1950s after he was suspected of having communist ties. He then reclaimed his career and went to Broadway to direct the musical comedy "The Golden Apple" in 1954. The veteran actor participated and appeared in 21 films over the 50s decade which includes Jean Renoir's "The Southerner," Losey's "M," Lewis Milestone's "A Walk in the Sun, and many more. He has also worked with the iconic Charlie Chaplin in the film "Limelight". Lloyd landed a career in television when he appeared as Dr. Daniel Auschlander on NBC's medical drama "St. Elsewhere" in 1982 to 1988. In 2007, a documentary titled "Who Is Norman Lloyd?" was released to look back on his long career. The actor was born on November 8, 1914, in New Jersey then later on spent his early years in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated high school at the age of 15 then entered New York University where he dropped out during his sophomore year. The actor was married to wife Peggy Craven Lloyd, a Broadway actress, for 75 years. Peggy passed away in 2011 at the age of 98, they had two children. Lloyd has since become a household name and was considered to be one of Hollywood's legendary actors. READ ALSO: Colt Brennan Cause of Death: Here's What Happened While He Was Inside a Rehab Facility According to Dad See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles Bill and Melinda Gates' divorce is about to get official - their first hearing is set for this Friday, per Insider. The power couple announced they were ending their marriage after 27 years just last week. However, with the short timeline between their announcement and the upcoming legal proceedings, it's possible that perhaps their plan to separate has been in the works for quite some time. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Melinda met with divorce lawyers in the last two years just before the official filing. Moreover, neither the Microsoft creator nor his soon-to-be ex-wife commented on what led to their divorce, but there are rumors that Melinda Gates had concerns about Bill's "meetings" with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. How Much Money is at Stake in Bill and Melinda Gates' Divorce Bill Gates' net worth is about $130 billion, making him the fourth richest man in the world. The same day they announced their divorce, Bill reportedly transferred about $4 billion in shares to Melinda. The pair reportedly don't have a prenup agreement in place to distribute their assets. However, they do have a signed separation contract for dividing their possessions and property. The terms of the agreement have not been publicly disclosed as of writing. READ ALSO: Bill Gates Facts: 5 Shocking Details Nobody Cared About the BIllionaire Until Recently How Melinda Gates Will Use Her Billion-Dollar Divorce Payout According to Alexsis de Raadt St. James, the founder of Merian Ventures, Melinda Gates will still be using her new fortune to good news. The mom-of-three is known to have focused on giving, so it's still something many can expect from her in the future. Melinda Gates will continue to empower women and young girls, something that she had already initiated in her investment and incubation company, Pivotal Ventures. According to CEO of She's The First Tammy Tibbetts, "She's been very consistent in supporting gender issues and women and girls." Though Melinda's company, she will also likely continue spearheading mental health initiatives that focus on the younger generation. In the past few months, Melinda launched "Sound It Out," a national campaign that promotes mental health for middle school students, and "The Upswing Fund for Adolescent Mental Health" which provides organizations resources to address the mental health of young people. Bill Gates' former wife is also very vocal about vaccines and vaccine access, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. So it's likely it will continue to be one of her initiatives moving forward. Last year, she told CNN, "If we only get it to the high-income countries, this disease is going to bounce around." "We're going to see twice as many deaths. And the recovery of our economies is going to be much slower than if we get the vaccine out to everybody." Their foundation has already committed around $2 billion in helping global recovery. Of course, poverty is also a priority for Melinda Gates, which she and Bill have already tackled for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She believes that contraceptives are the "greatest anti-poverty tool" in the world, that she wants women to have broad access to them. READ MORE: Bill and Melinda Gates' Reason For Divorce Explored: Is It Because of Another Wealthy Man? See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles In "The Handmaid's Tale" season 4, viewers are seeing more and more of June being stronger and resisting Gilead. In episode four, Janina takes June's place in performing sexual favors so they can stay at the resistant camp. When the duo started train-hopping headed to Chicago, they were faced with some verbal confrontations and underlying tensions. It seems like being the leader of the overall rebellion is taking a toll on the show's main character. 'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 4 Episode 5 Spoiler Recap Janine Didn't Want to Leave the Camp In the fifth episode of "The Handmaid's Tale" season four on Hulu titled "Chicago,", the protagonist June and her friend Janine are going to check if it's safe to leave behind their temporary haven to find Mayday. Janine isn't sure about leaving the one person she believes might be interested in her - her as in a person and not as a handmaid. But June knows that Janina is being used. Janine acts as if the incident didn't affect her, even went on to joke "It wasn't so bad. He thinks my eye patch is cool." However, she tragically can be seen choking back the tears. In the end, June doesn't force Janine to go with her in her quest to look for Mayday, so she tells her friend goodbye and heads out. However, that goodbye took a lot of meaning after a few minutes. When June and Janina were having difficulties surviving, the top commanders of Gilead including Commander Lawrence and Compander Nick Blaine had come up with their plans. They decided they want to drop bombs in Chicago and a few hours later, want to call a ceasefire to start doing trade talks with Canada. Though they haven't forgotten about the kids that were stolen, they planned to start a war. But the main priority is to get down to business. June Reunites With Janine The day the commanders decided to drop the bombs in Chicago, it was the same day June decided to go on her journey. As she walked the empty streets, June starts to get an eerie feeling about the place. Janine suddenly appears out of nowhere - explaining that she didn't want June to leave her behind. However, the short reunion was ruined after bombs were dropped from the sky. June and Janine get caught in the middle of it. At the end of the episode, June cries out for her friend, but Janine doesn't respond. June tries to open her eyes through the ash and all the destruction in Chicago but was having difficulty. READ ALSO: Aaron Rodgers Returning As Jeopardy! Guest Host Confirms He's The Next Permanent Host? Does Janine Die on "The Handmaid's Tale" Season 4 Episode 5? Viewers will have to wait and see for the next episode. But fans are angry about the possibility of her death. One Twitter user said,"If Janine dies, I'll actually riot." Another said,"One of the best characters on 'The Handmaid's Tale' is Janine and if she dies this season, I'm gonna be very upset." At the very end of the episode, Moira stands in front of June, who's also shock to see one another. No Janine in sight. READ MORE: Grey's Anatomy Season 18 Renewal: Will It Be the Last or Will It Run Forever? See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles On today's episode of Good Morning Britain (GMB), Alastair Campbell mistakenly announed Queen Elizabeth II's death Campbell, Metro reported, was interviewing guest Vinnie Jones for the ITV daytime show he co-hosts with Susanna Reid for Mental Health Awareness Week when he made the error. "We talked a lot about Prince Philip after the death of the Queen," he said. The Queen, who is 95 years old, is obviously very much alive. Campbell realized his error a few minutes later and apologized to the puzzled viewers at home, explaining that he had mixed up Her Majesty with Prince Philip, who died on April 9 at Windsor Castle at the age of 99. Read Also: Prince Philip's Official Cause of Death Finally Revealed, Including Full Name and Occupations on Death Certificate Campbell interrupted Vinnie's interview after a few moments to correct himself. He interjected, "Can I just say something, I think I may have accidentally announced the death of the Queen" and clarified that he was of course referring to Prince Philip. Susanna offered, "I think people understood exactly what you meant." The blunder astounded viewers, who took to social media to point out the mistake. Read More: The One Royal Family Member Struggling Following Prince Philip's Death Aside From Queen Elizabeth Revealed See Now: Famous Actors Who Turned Down Iconic Movie Roles Former senior Chinese energy official arrested for suspected bribery Xinhua) 14:45, May 12, 2021 BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The People's Procuratorate of Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province has ordered the arrest of Liu Baohua, a former senior energy official, for suspected bribe-taking. Liu was formerly a deputy head of the National Energy Administration and a member of the leading Party members' group of the administration. His case was transferred to procuratorial authorities for review and prosecution following the conclusion of an investigation by the National Supervisory Commission. The procuratorial authorities in Shandong have been designated by the Supreme People's Procuratorate for the case examination and prosecution. Further handling of the case is currently underway. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) STOCKHOLM, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --A A A A A A EQT Growth led the EUR 250m Series F fundraise in Vinted, Europe's largest online C2C platform dedicated to second-hand fashion, with presence in over 10 markets worldwideA A A A A A A A A A A Series F fundraise in Vinted, largest online C2C platform dedicated to second-hand fashion, with presence in over 10 markets worldwideA A A A A A A A A A A The underlying market of Vinted is supported by favourable secular megatrends, including increased focus on sustainability efforts and greater demand for circular fashionA A A A A A A A A A A EQT Growth will support Vinted and its management team by accelerating growth into new geographies and help strengthen its existing leading position across its core markets, by leveraging EQT's strong digital and sector expertise, global platform and extensive advisory network. Following the investment, Carolina Brochado , Partner at EQT Growth, will also join Vinted's board EQT is pleased to announce that EQT Growth has led the investment in Vinted Limit! ed ("Vint ed" or "the Company"). The investment, which is made through EQT AB's balance sheet, is part of Vinted's EUR 250 million Series F fundraise at a pre-money valuation of EUR 3.5 billion. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, Vinted operates in over 10 markets, and has become the largest online C2C marketplace in second-hand fashion across Europe. Since Thomas Plantenga took over as CEO in 2016, Vinted has transformed its business model and developed a proven market development playbook, as evidenced by the Company's strong growth and traction in recent years. These unique characteristics are supported by best-in-class unit economics and an enduring financial profile across its key markets. This virtuous flywheel effect is enabled by more than 45 million members globally Vinted's underlying market is supported by several secular tailwinds, including growing concerns around sustainability and climate change, as well as an increased focus on the circular economy, with consumers eager to make more responsible and less wasteful fashion choices1.A EQT Growth will aim to support Vinted's accelerated growth and continued pursuit of commercial excellence by investing in the Company's platform and technology, helping it cement its leading position across its core markets and enabling further expansion into other global markets.A Moreover, the Company is expected to leverage EQT's in-house digital and tech expertise and network of advisors to continue providing a best-in-class customer-centric experience. Together with management, EQT Growth will support Vinted's plans to reinforce its position as the largest online marketplace for second-hand fashion across Europe. Following the investment, Carolina Brochado, Partner at EQT Growth, will also join Vinted's board of directors. Carolina Brochado, Partner and Investment Advisor to EQT Growth, said, "Vinted is transforming the second-hand fashion market across Europe through their customer-centric approach and extraordinary execution. Vinted is the perfect example of EQT Growth's strategy of backing fast-growing European tech champions that tap into several macro trends, such as the increasing consumer demand for sustainability and continued penetration of online channels within fashion. We're immensely proud and excited to be supporting Thomas and the Vinted team and we cannot wait to work together to further unlock the market for circular fashion." Thomas Plantenga, CEO of Vinted, said, "We are contributing to a seismic shift in the second-hand fashion market, enabling more sustainable, socially-responsible shopping habits. Our platform offers a great, easy-to-use product and helps people experience the benefits of second-hand trade. We want to replicate the success we've built in our existing European markets in new geographies and will continue investing to improve not only our product, but also to ensure we continue having a positive impact. We are grateful to our existing and new investors, and believe today's milestone is a vote of confidence in our commitment to the circular economy and our relentless effort to build a business that encourages more people to buy and sell second-hand." In line with the commitment to invest in sustainable businesses, EQT Growth will accelerate Vinted's growth as it supports the circular economy and responsible consumption. By enabling consumers to sell and buy clothing and other items second-hand, reduce unnecessary production and promote innovation, Vinted contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) #9, #12 and #15. The transaction is expected to close in May 2021, subject to customary approvals. 1 Source:A McKinsey's report on "Consumer Sentiment on Sustainability in fashion" from July 2020 Contact Finn McLaughlan, +44 7583 130 052, finn.mclaughlan@eqtpartners.com EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com, +46 8 506 55 334 About EQT EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization focused on active ownership strategies. With a Nordic heritage and a global mindset, EQT has a track record of almost three decades of delivering consistent and attractive returns across multiple geographies, sectors and strategies. Uniquely, EQT is the only large private markets firm in the world with investment strategies covering all phases of a business' development, from start-up to maturity. Including Exeter, EQT today has more than EUR 67 billion in assets under management across 26 active funds within two business segments a Private Capital and Real Assets. With its roots in the Wallenberg family's entrepreneurial mindset and philosophy of long-term ownership, EQT is guided by a set of strong values and a distinct corporate culture. EQT manages and advises funds and vehicles that invest across the world with the mission to future-proof companies, generate attractive returns and make a positive impact with everything EQT does. The EQT AB Group comprises EQT AB (publ) and its direct and indirect subsidiaries, which include general partners and fund managers of EQT funds as well as entities advising EQT funds. EQT has offices in 24 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas and has more than 975 employees.A More info: www.eqtgroup.com Follow EQT on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTubeA and Instagram About EQT Growth EQT Growth explores thematic growth opportunities at the point companies are ready to scale, investing in a range of technology and technology-enabled businesses. Follow EQT Growth on Medium, LinkedInA and Twitter About VintedA Vinted is the largest online international C2C marketplace in Europe dedicated to second-hand fashion, with a growing member base of over 45 million users spanning 13 markets: France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Luxembourg, UK and the USA. Founded in 2008 in Lithuania by Milda Mitkute and Justas Janauskas, and joined by first investor and COO Mantas Mikuckas in 2011, the company is now led! by CEO < span class="xn-person">Thomas Plantenga and backed by six leading investment firms: EQT Growth, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Insight Venture Partners, Burda Principal Investments, and Sprints Capital. On a mission to make second-hand the first choice worldwide, Vinted helps members sell and buy second-hand clothes and accessories from each other, making shopping a mobile and social experience through one-on-one member interactions in its community. The European start-up is head-quartered in Vilnius, with offices in Berlin, Utrecht and Prague and has over 700 employees. More info: www.vinted.co.ukA This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/eqt/r/eqt-growth-leads-investment-in-vinted--europe-s-largest-online-c2c-platform-dedicated-to-second-hand,c3345816 The following files are available for download: https://mb.cision.com/Main/87/3345816/1416606.pdf Press release EQT Growth Vinted 210512 A 2021-05-12 Maeci Today the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, meets with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Heiko Maas. Declarations to the press at the end of the meeting will follow. Online streaming available on www.esteri.it and on the Facebook account of the Ministry. 2021-05-11 Maeci Italy reiterates its concern about the escalation of attacks and violence, particularly in East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. It calls for an immediate end to it. Italy strongly condemns the rocket attacks from Gaza towards Israel's territory. It believes that they cannot be justified under any circumstances. We appeal to all parties to immediately adopt de-escalation measures and show responsibility. Preventing further civilian casualties is a priority. All violence, provocation, and incitement to hatred must cease, and the Holy Places' status quo must be respected. 2021-05-11 Maeci The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, met today at the Foreign Office with his Lithuanian counterpart, Gabrielius Landsbergis. The two ministers took stock of the excellent state of bilateral relations, agreeing on the opportunity to further deepen political dialogue and strengthen economic cooperation, also by promoting partnerships between businesses from the two countries, in order to seize the opportunities offered by the recovery plans. With regard to the Russian Federation, Minister Di Maio stressed the importance of maintaining a unified European twofold approach, accompanying messages of firmness with the opportunity to leave the door open to selective dialogue. With regard to cooperation within NATO, Minister Di Maio emphasised the importance of maintaining an all-round approach, stressing the need to strengthen the Alliance's southern flank. The two interlocutors then touched on the issue of combating the pandemic, agreeing on the need to maintain EU coordination on restrictive measures and on the recognition of vaccination certificates, particularly in view of the summer holiday season. Minister Di Maio then stressed the importance that all Member States ratify the EU Decision on the system of own resources as soon as possible, to allow the Next Generation EU Plan to be launched. 2021-05-11 Maeci The Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Luigi Di Maio, received today at the Foreign Ministry the President of COP26, Alok Sharma, for a meeting focusing on the priorities of the UK-Italy partnership on COP26, six months ahead of the Climate Change Conference and within the framework of the parallel G7 and G20 presidencies. Confirming to his interlocutor Italy's commitment to a green, sustainable and inclusive recovery, Minister Di Maio expressed his appreciation for the results of the recent Summit on Climate sponsored by the United States, thanks to which many countries announced new and more ambitious environmental commitments. In this context, Italy is strongly committed to fostering wider acceptance of the carbon neutrality objective among the G20 countries, which account for 75% of global emissions. For the first time in the history of the forum, the Italian G20 Presidency will host a Climate and Energy Joint Ministerial Session in Naples, which will be an important step towards the Glasgow Conference. Italy will also host the G20 Conference on Climate in July and the second Finance in Common Summit in the autumn. There will also be a special focus on environmental and sustainable development issues at the Compact with Africa event, to be held in Rome in October as part of Italy's G20 Presidency. Asian students and faculty have long been a cornerstone of science in the U.S., drawn by the promise of collaboration and cutting-edge research. However, the Asian community is facing increased racist attacks and scrutiny from the government. A cover story in Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society, explores how Asian scientists are reassessing their futures in the U.S. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, racist attacks against the Asian community in the U.S. have increased notably, with nearly 4,000 incidents reported between March 2020 and February 2021. Some attribute this to former President Donald Trump's rhetoric about the pandemic originating in China, writes Senior Editor Andrea Widener. Beyond the pandemic, the Trump administration implemented policies that hinder collaborations with researchers in China, including the China Initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2018. Initiatives like this have placed Asian researchers under increased scrutiny and suspicion, and many are still in place despite the new presidential administration. Even before Trump and the coronavirus, Asian scientists have said they struggled with feeling welcome in the U.S. due to stereotypes and perceived cultural differences. These challenging circumstances have led Asian scientists to change how they collaborate with other researchers, recruit students to their labs and choose a career path. Some scientists of Chinese origin in the U.S. have been targeted by investigations from the China Initiative, and they say it's "like walking on eggshells" when disclosing collaborators and funding sources to the government. Visa restrictions and a hostile political climate are also making it harder to recruit international students and for the students to remain in the U.S. after graduation. Some scientists are choosing to return to their countries of origin or seek new opportunities in other parts of the world. While the Biden administration hopes to revise immigration policies and retain U.S.-trained international scientists, the Asian community is fighting for more awareness and tolerance despite an uncertain future. ### The article, "Asian scientists are rethinking the American dream," is freely available here. The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS' mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world's scientific knowledge. ACS' main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio. To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org. Follow us: Twitter | Facebook Researchers from University of Maryland, North Carolina State University, National Taiwan University, Oxford University, Kings College London, and Perceptronics Solutions, Inc. published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines how artificial intelligence (AI)-based text analysis of social media can monitor the extent to which brand reputation rises and falls over time. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Real-Time Brand Reputation Tracking using Social Media" and is authored by Roland Rust, William Rand, Ming-Hui Huang, Andrew Stephen, Gillian Brooks, and Timur Chabuk. Organizations' brand reputations can rise and fall based on brand-related events. For example, when Goya CEO Robert Unanue suggested that the 2020 U.S. presidential election was fraudulent, that controversial assertion likely offended a large segment of the population. How can we tell? This research team demonstrates that using artificial intelligence (AI)-based text analysis of social media can monitor the extent to which brand reputation rises and falls over time. What's more, merging this social media monitoring with the Rust-Zeithaml-Lemon customer equity drivers can show exactly which dimensions of brand reputation are changing. All marketers know that brands are important and that stakeholders' views of the brand are reflective of many different factors. Also, brand reputation may rise or fall over time, due to events that affect the brand. The fact that brand reputation is not constant makes it essential for companies to monitor their brands continuously, to determine whether a brand's reputation is changing, and to evaluate which aspects of the brand are causing these changes. Survey-based approaches exist, but surveying stakeholders on a daily basis is generally too expensive to be practical. Another approach is to infer what is happening to brand reputation by mining social media. Automatic, AI-based text analysis of social media posts is a realistic alternative. Because Twitter is widely used by people to express opinions about brands and is often monitored by the public, the research team chose it as the platform to explore and baseline results. By analyzing millions of Twitter tweets, they demonstrate that their brand reputation tracker accurately reflected major brand events in real-time. For example, when it was revealed that Facebook had improperly shared personal information with an outside company (Cambridge Analytica), the brand tracker reflected that right away with a decline in brand reputation. On the positive side, when Google added new features, its brand reputation ratings went up. Rust says that "It is one thing to know that brand reputation is improving or declining, but another thing entirely to figure out why. To ensure the actionability of our brand reputation tracker, we sorted the tweets according to the Rust-Zeithaml-Lemon customer equity drivers, which have been applied by many Fortune 500 companies. These three drivers, along with their sub-drivers, help managers know where to focus, making the brand tracker managerially relevant and actionable." The three main drivers of customer equity according to this framework are value, brand, and relationship. The value driver considers the rational or objective aspects of the brand, such as price, quality, or convenience. The brand driver considers the emotional or subjective aspects of the brand, such as attitude toward the brand, or perceptions of the brand's ethics. The relationship driver focuses on the aspects of the brand that create switching costs, such as loyalty programs or knowledge of the brand. Rand explains that "Our brand reputation tracker is unique in that it can reflect the impact of brand events in real-time and connect them in a more granular way to managerially specific drivers of brand reputation. Managers can use it to drive programs that enhance their brands' standing with customers, forging deeper relationships and ultimately delivering more revenues to their bottom line." ### Full article and author contact information available at: https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1177/ 0022242921995173 About the Journal of Marketing The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Christine Moorman (T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University) serves as the current Editor in Chief. https:/ / www. ama. org/ jm About the American Marketing Association (AMA) The trajectory for palm oil production in Indonesia raises sustainability concerns due to deforestation and biodiversity impacts; researchers modeled climate-smart approaches for climate change mitigation in oil palm and other tropical tree crops A global team of researchers recently released the results of a 'data-rich' modeling approach designed to illustrate a range of what-if scenarios for future oil palm plantation development in Indonesia. The study provides new insight into crop production strategies available to an industry facing increasing scrutiny. Oil palm production is challenged by global and domestic concerns related to how it operates within its tropical rainforest environment, which is highly valued for its contribution to climate change mitigation potential and biodiversity protection. The study sheds new light on the future implications of maintaining business-as-usual versus increased adoption of alternative plantation management strategies. Published in the March 2021 Issue of Nature Sustainability, Monzon et al. offer three distinct directions of development for Indonesia's plantations over the next two decades. Dr. Thomas Oberthur, African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI) Director of Business and Partnership Development, and one of the authors with years of engagement in sustainable oil palm intensification, considers this study "a critical milestone for a roadmap enabling concerted and systematic action to responsibly develop the oil palm sector in Southeast Asia and beyond." As the largest single source of the most-used vegetable oil in the world, Indonesia's crude palm oil (CPO) production has experienced a six-fold increase in production over the last two decades. Most notably, this increase has largely come through area expansion, including the conversion of over 10 M ha of tropical forests and peatlands during this same timeframe. Current day actions that favour further area expansion as a means of increasing plantation capacity are commonly criticized. Besides the loss of highly valued ecological reserve land, further plantation expansion might steadily encroach on high C-stock lands that can disproportionally contribute to higher global warming potential (GWP) if unlocked through agricultural development. The study engages discussion around a "climate-smart" approach to sustainable growth in palm oil production. The approach is not dependent on the size or structure of the plantation, but instead targets the plantations' exploitable yield gap--the difference between actual yields and realistically attainable yields. Analysis of yield gaps across Indonesia's plantations reveals that on a national level, only 62% and 53% of attainable yields are achieved in large and smallholder plantations, respectively. Historically, this gap exists due to structural limitations faced by plantation managers. Breaking through the historical yield trends requires a more intensive approach that managers can feel ill-equipped to undertake due to a number of reasons including lack of experience, skilled labour, or dependable access to required inputs. Often in permanent cropping systems like oil palm, there is less incentive for managers to adopt experimental practices that take a few years to pay-off. Rather, the decision to make a long-term investment in new lands wins over, which essentially delays any innovation on existing lands. Three Pathways to Palm Oil Production The study describes three scenarios for agronomic intensification and plantation area expansion based on an approach that combined spatial analysis, crop modelling, and data on prevailing weather, soil productivity, and plantation productivity, age, and size. All projections strive to achieve the country's stated productivity targets of 60 M t CPO by the year 2035. First, a business-as-usual (BAU) scenario relies on past yield and area expansion trends to meet the stated productivity targets. According to the study, BAU requires an additional 9.2 M ha of new land under oil palm--a significant proportion consisting of high-C peatlands. In terms of global warming potential (GWP), a large net increase of 767 M t CO2e is expected under BAU. The most significant contributor of C emission is organic matter decomposition caused by the conversion of high-C lands, but the GWP associated with farming these new lands is also a major contributor to GWP. The second intensification (INT) scenario assumes an upward shift in existing plantation productivity. Advances in yield per unit of existing lands--capable of closing the exploitable yield gap--are gained through adoption of best management practices gleaned from new agricultural research and development efforts over the course of the 17-year modelling timeframe. Most notably, no further increase in planted area is required under this scenario. In addition, a 60% decline in GWP is achieved compared to BAU. The study notes that the elimination of the exploitable yield gap requires plantations to collectively (and ambitiously) work to raise the national yield average from 18 to 30.6 t FFB/ha over the next two decades. Lastly, a third scenario outlines intensification with targeted expansion (INT-TE) through more modest expectations for yield improvement--reducing the exploitable yield gap by one-third--plus area expansion that excludes high-C peat lands that have such a large impact on GWP under BAU. Compared to BAU, this combined strategy avoids the conversion of over 5 M ha--2.6 M ha being high-C stock lands, and reduces GWP by 732 M t CO2e. The more modest degree of yield improvement to a national yield average to 22.5 t/ha is noted as a far less challenging threshold to overcome for the majority of plantations. This study has demonstrated a strong win-win case for targeted yield gap closure. Enhanced productive capacity within existing planted areas can change the trajectory of permanent crop development. "So many people from so many different backgrounds are all working together to fine-tune management strategies and put them into practice," explains Dr. Patrico Grassini, Associate Professor of Agronomy at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "Robust education and extension efforts will be key to fully exploit the potential for growth." Expanding the Approach As a partner in this work, APNI is encouraged by the transferability of this approach to the permanent cropping systems in Africa. For example, cacao production in West Africa drives one of the most significant deforestation pressures in the region. There is a strong need to develop partnerships in Africa that are focused on taking a closer look at the intensification opportunities of cacao production. Such partnerships will be the critical step to building strategies best suited to identifying the exploitable yield gaps across the region and securing profitable, climate-resilient farms. "The African Plant Nutrition Institutes invites partners from the industry, the farming sector, financial and public institutions to join forces for the development of an initiative that incentivizes truly sustainable and responsible intensification of West African cacao lands and thereby helps curb further deforestation," says Oberthur. ### The multidisciplinary group is comprised of scientists from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln; National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Argentina; Wageningen University and Research; Indonesian Oil Palm Research Institute (IOPRI); Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD); and African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI) based in Morocco. About APNI The African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI) is a not-for-profit research and education organization based in Benguerir, Morocco. Our mission is enhanced plant nutrition for a resilient and food-secure Africa. Our vision is prosperous African farmers sustainably managing crop nutrition to provide consumers with a secure supply of nutritious foods at a reasonable price. Reduce air travel not only because of covid-19, but also because of the detrimental impact that this has on our climate, say researchers The government's covid-19 travel plan will let new variants into the UK, warn experts in The BMJ today. Virologists Jangu Banatvala and Deenan Pillay urge caution over plans to implement a traffic light system, permitting international travel to resume dependent upon the covid-19 status of destination countries. And they warn that the aviation industry's current enthusiasm to resume international air travel and overseas holidays, and to expand airports needs to be checked, saying "it flies in the face of the twin needs to control international virus transmission, and tackle the climate emergency and environmental degradation." They acknowledge the success of the UK's covid-19 vaccination programme which, combined with public health measures, has led to restrictions being eased and plans to reopen international travel. But they say covid-19 "is likely to be endemic for the foreseeable future and mathematical modelling scenarios predict potential for a further UK surge of infections later this year." They point out that the Lancet covid-19 Commission Task Force identified risk of spread through air travel as a priority and emphasized that the entire door to door travel process should be evaluated to minimize the risk of transmission. While the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on coronavirus has identified long queues at airports, failure to separate arrivals from red and amber countries, and fake covid-19 test certificates as significant risks to biosecurity. And despite a successful vaccination programme, the current surge in infections in Chile - due in part to relaxation of social distancing and travel restrictions - "stands as a salutary reminder of the ease with which covid-19 evades control measures," they add. Until our vaccination programme is complete, and while there are significant risks of variants arising in countries with high transmission, "it would be remiss to abandon all attempts to limit new variants being imported into the UK," they argue. Most importantly, they say "we must consider the urgent and serious global public health threat of climate change. We should reduce the amount of air travel not only because of covid-19, but also because of the detrimental impact that this has on our climate." This year the UK is hosting the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, and expectations for coordinated action to tackle climate change are high. There is an urgent need to do so, they conclude. ### Externally peer reviewed? No Evidence type: Opinion Subject: Air travel (Boston)--Fadie Coleman, PhD, assistant professor of medical sciences and education at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), has been awarded a 2021 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching. She is one of two recipients to receive one of BU's highest teaching honors. Coleman is also the director of the Biomedical Laboratory and Clinical Sciences (BLCS) program, the medical school's only degree granting undergraduate program in the biomedical sciences. As an educator and researcher, she draws from her previous K-12 and higher education teaching experiences and training to establish new and innovative strategies designed to prepare undergraduates (especially from underrepresented backgrounds) to enter and succeed in the biomedical/STEM workforce. In a letter nominating Coleman, a colleague wrote "Dr. Coleman's most admirable quality is her advocacy for diversity and equality. As a person of color herself, Dr. Coleman understands and empathizes with struggles minority students face, which comprise the majority of the BLCS program." BLCS is gateway to STEM education--perhaps the only one--for underrepresented minorities and nontraditional students. During her directorship, the BLCS has awarded 59 bachelor of science degrees, with another 21 anticipated for this year. "My experiences working with younger students help me to quickly assess where students are and develop effective teaching strategies for introducing new material, reinforcing content knowledge and encouraging critical thought at appropriate levels," said Coleman. Reassuring her students with confidence that they can do the work, Coleman says she loves engaging with the range of students she works with because it keeps her from forgetting what it was like to be in their shoes. Coleman received her doctorate from the BUSM department of microbiology and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Boston Children's Hospital in the department of pathology/transfusion medicine. She is trained in both the biomedical sciences and science pedagogy. As a microbiologist, her research focuses on bacterial pathogens. She has served as principal investigator and collaborator with other investigators on several projects and has published in a wide range of peer-reviewed journals, including Journal of Infectious Diseases, Mucosal Immunology and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Coleman has been invited to give several professional seminars at national and international meetings, including the mini-symposia at the American Thoracic Society International Conference in San Diego, California. She is also the recipient of numerous awards for research excellence, including a National Research Service Award Fellowship from the National Institutes of Health, the BU President's Award for Outstanding Biomedical Research and the 2014 Raymond W. Sarber Award. A gift from the late Arthur G. B. Metcalf, a BU Board of Trustees chair emeritus and former professor, funds the Metcalf Cup and Prize and the Metcalf Awards for Excellence in Teaching, created in 1973 as the University's highest teaching awards. Each year, the Provost's Faculty Teaching Awards Committee selects one Metcalf Cup and Prize winner who receives a stipend of $10,000. Up to two Award winners receive $5,000 each. A University committee selects winners based on statements of nominees' teaching philosophy, supporting letters from colleagues and students and classroom observations of the nominees. The awards will be presented at the University's 148th Commencement on May 16. ### The staff of the Litchfield Jazz Festival is presenting the fourth installment of their free virtual concert series for April. (Boston)--Ridiane Denis, BS, RN, MD, director of clinical research and operations at BU's Clinical & Translational Science Institute, has received a 2021 Perkins Award for distinguished service to the University. Denis is one of three winners of this annual award administered by BU's Faculty Council. In a letter nominating Denis, a colleague wrote "I cannot identify a bigger hero in our research enterprise than Dr. Denis, who not only worked with multiple partners and [principal investigators] but also supported her staff through this difficult and sometimes uncertain period of time. "I have witnessed the long hours, the incredible dedication, and the passion she has put into not only our project, but also the important research that Boston Medical Center (Boston University School of Medicine's teaching hospital) has carried out to improve our knowledge of this pathogen and improve care of our patients." "The most rewarding part of my job is knowing that my team is contributing to valuable present and future research to ameliorate or provide a cure for individuals and/or families," says Denis, who has worked at BU for more than eight years. "COVID-19 did not affect me; on the contrary, it propelled and inspired me." Nominated by professors, Denis will receive $500, courtesy of an endowment provided by the estate of John S. Perkins, a BU trustee, administrator and faculty member. The awards were created in 1981. ### New research presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (held online, 10-13 May) shows that the obesity drug semaglutide reduces appetite, food cravings and energy intake in people given a meal where they could eat as much as they liked. The study is by Dr Dorthe Skovgaard, Novo Nordisk A/S (the manufacturer of the drug), Sborg, Denmark, and colleagues. Semaglutide, in the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) analogue drug class, is currently available at the dose of 1.0 mg injected once weekly for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and is under development for chronic weight management at the dose 2.4 mg injected once weekly. It is currently not approved for obesity anywhere in the world, however new drug applications are under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and other health agencies across the world. The STEP trials, that have been published in various journals over the past year, have established the efficacy and safety of semaglutide 2.4 mg to treat people living with obesity. Semaglutide lowers body weight by reducing appetite and hunger, increasing satiety, reducing food cravings, altering food preferences and reducing energy intake. GLP-1 receptor agonists can lead to delays in gastric emptying, which may be important for the uptake of other drugs.This trial investigated the effect of semaglutide 2.4 mg on gastric emptying, energy intake, appetite and control of eating in subjects with obesity. Adults aged 18-65 years, with a body mass index (BMI) 30-45 kg/m (with various stages of obesity) and without type 2 diabetes, were randomised in a double-blind, parallel-group trial to treatment with semaglutide 2.4 mg (dose gradually escalated: 0.25, 0.5, 1.0 and 1.7 mg for 4 weeks each; 2.4 mg for 5 weeks) or placebo. The dose of semaglutide was gradually scaled up, as is standard to improve gastrointestinal tolerability. Gastric emptying (using a standard test called the paracetamol absorption test, 1.5 g paracetamol given with a standardised breakfast) was assessed during in-house visits at baseline and week 20. Postprandial (after-meal) appetite was evaluated using standard tests called visual analogue scales pre-meal and following a standardised breakfast, followed by assessment of energy intake during a lunch in which participants could freely choose how much they ate (an 'ad libitum' lunch). Control of eating and food cravings were evaluated by the Control of Eating Questionnaire (CoEQ) - a questionnaire to assess the severity and type of food cravings an individual experiences over the previous 7 days. Safety was also evaluated. In total, 72 subjects were randomised (44 males, mean age 42.8 years, BMI 34.4 kg/m); 70 completed the study. There was no evidence of delayed gastric emptying at week 20, as assessed indirectly via paracetamol absorption. Mean energy intake during the ad libitum lunch test meal at week 20 was 35% lower with semaglutide 2.4 mg vs placebo (1736 vs 2676 kJ); estimated treatment difference 940 kJ, both statistically significant findings. The overall appetite score showed significant reduction in appetite with semaglutide 2.4 mg vs placebo; individual appetite components showed significant reductions in 'hunger' and 'prospective food consumption' and increases for 'fullness' and 'satiety'. In general, CoEQ indicated fewer and weaker food cravings, notably reduced cravings for savoury foods and better control of eating with semaglutide 2.4 mg vs placebo. All results detailed here were statistically significant. No new safety signals were seen. The authors conclude: "In subjects with obesity, semaglutide 2.4 mg suppressed appetite and reduced the frequency and strength of food cravings. Energy intake during a lunch at week 20 in which participants were free to eat as much as they wanted was 35% lower with semaglutide 2.4 mg vs placebo. There was also no clinically relevant effect on gastric emptying with semaglutide 2.4 mg at steady state, measured by paracetamol uptake." They add: "Control of appetite and reduced frequency and strength of food cravings are important for weight management in people living in obesity, especially in a society which promotes unhealthy lifestyles and overeating." ### The STEP trials published over the past year have established the efficacy and safety of semaglutide in treating patients with obesity. A new study analysing the effects of this treatment in different age groups presented at this year's European Congress on Obesity (held online, 10-13 May), shows that it has similar effectiveness across different age groups with regard to weight loss (under 40 years, 40-60 years, and 60 years and over). However when looking at percentage body fat and lean body mass changes, semaglutide was found to to have a more pronounced effect in patients aged under 50 years. The study is by Dr Dror Dicker, Hasharon Hospital-Rabin Medical Center and Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel, and colleagues. Semaglutide, which belongs to the class of drugs called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonists, was originally developed for and is also used to treat type 2 diabetes. However, its effects on weight loss led researchers to study its effect on weight loss in people living with obesity but without type 2 diabetes. It is currently not approved for obesity anywhere in the world, however new drug applications are under review by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and other health agencies across the world. Weight loss is often accompanied by loss of lean body mass, which can negatively impact physical functioning and/or resting energy expenditure. Body weight loss and body composition changes (fat mass vs lean mass) may differ by age. Thus in this study of data from the STEP 1 trial (see link to original study below), the authors evaluated the tolerability and effect of subcutaneous semaglutide 2.4 mg on weight loss and body composition according to age. Adults without type 2 diabetes with body mass index (BMI) of 27 kg/m or over (overweight) with at least one weight-related comorbidity, or a BMI of 30 kg/m or above (with obesity) were enrolled. Subjects were randomised to a once-weekly injection of semaglutide 2.4 mg or placebo, both plus lifestyle intervention, for 68 weeks. Change in body weight (%) from randomisation to week 68 was analysed according to age: under 40 years (n=655), over 40 to under 60 years (n=981),and 60 years and over (n=325). Safety and tolerability were also re-analysed across these groups. Total body fat mass and total lean body mass were measured using dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans in a randomly chosen subgroup of 140 adults (who then gave consent) with BMI of 40 kg/m or under at baseline and week 68. Body composition (percentage body fat mass, percentage lean body mass, lean:fat mass ratio) were analysed according to age less than 50 and 50 years or older. In STEP 1, most subjects were female (74%); mean age was 46 years, mean body weight was 105 kg, and mean BMI was 38 kg/m. Change in body weight (%) was greater for semaglutide than for placebo and was consistent across age groups: 40 years and under mean weight loss 15.2% semaglutide group versus 2.3% placebo; 40-60 years 14.6kg semaglutide versus 2.5kg placebo; and 60 years and over 14.7kg semaglutide versus 2.4kg placebo. The changes in lean:fat mass ratio were found to be more pronounced in those patients under 50 years - the authors suggest the metabolic effects of ageing could be behind this difference. The safety of semaglutide was generally consistent across age groups. Gastrointestinal disorders were the most commonly reported adverse events across all age groups. The authors conclude: "In this new analysis of the STEP 1 trial, weight loss with once-weekly semaglutide 2.4 mg was achieved consistently across different age groups. There was no evidence of differences in treatment effect by weight loss and body composition across age groups for semaglutide or placebo. Treatment with semaglutide reduced percentage body fat mass and increased percentage lean body mass in all subjects, which was more pronounced in those aged under 50 years. Semaglutide was generally well tolerated with an adverse event profile consistent with the known class effects of this drug - glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1) - irrespective of age." ### The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is declining because of habitat loss and fragmentation, human interaction including collisions with vehicles, predation by domestic animals, and disease. These long-lived reptiles are found throughout Florida and are affected by various diseases including upper respiratory tract disease. A number of pathogens such as Mycoplasma spp., Herpesvirus, and Ranavirus are known to cause upper respiratory tract disease in gopher tortoises. Chronic disease resulting from these pathogens can lead to reduced reproduction, abnormal growth and development, increased susceptibility to secondary infections and, in some cases, a shorter life span. To date, little is known about the prevalence of these microorganisms in wild tortoises. This lack of knowledge creates a dilemma for wildlife biologists, conservationists and public policy makers seeking to uphold and improve protections for this threatened species. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University's Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute and the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College in collaboration with Loggerhead Marinelife Center and the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, conducted a comprehensive health assessment of previously unstudied gopher tortoise aggregations at two sites in southeastern Florida. Results of the study, published in the journal Conservation Physiology, showed that overall, 42.9 percent of all tortoises tested had circulating antibodies to Mycoplasma agassizii, an infectious bacterium that causes upper respiratory tract disease. Researchers detected antibodies to M. agassizii in 29 percent of tortoises at one of the sites and 70 percent at the other site, suggesting that at least one of these tortoise aggregations may be experiencing an outbreak of M. agassizii. In contrast, none of the tortoises tested positive for Ranavirus or Herpesvirus via polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which represents important baseline data, since these viruses are thought to be emerging pathogens of other tortoise and turtle species. For the study, researchers collected samples of blood and nasal, oral, and cloacal swabs (digestive, reproductive, and urinary tract openings) from 91 tortoises (48 adults, 35 juveniles and eight hatchlings) captured at FAU Harbor Branch in Fort Pierce in 2019, and Loggerhead Park in Juno Beach during 2018-2019. The samples were analyzed for hematology, plasma protein electrophoretic profiles, and infectious disease testing including Mycoplasma spp. serology and PCR assays for Ranavirus, Herpesvirus, and Anaplasma spp., a tick-borne bacteria of medical importance. At both study sites, adult tortoises were significantly more likely to have clinical signs of upper respiratory tract disease than juveniles. There was a significant relationship between tortoise size and M. agassizii antibody test results. Physical examination revealed that 19.8 percent of the tortoises had clinical signs consistent with upper respiratory tract disease, including nasal discharge, asymmetrical nares, wheezing, eyelid/conjunctival swelling, and ocular discharge. In addition, 13.2 percent of tortoises had some other form of physical abnormality noted during physical examination, including limb, eye and shell abnormalities or extra scutes on the tortoise's shell. "The full effect of chronic disease on a long-lived species such as the gopher tortoise may take months to years to manifest in a population," said Annie Page-Karjian, D.V.M., Ph.D., lead author, clinical veterinarian and an assistant research professor, FAU Harbor Branch. "Because the gopher tortoise is one of the most commonly translocated species in North America, it is important to understand pathogen distributions within their populations and to monitor them using standardized techniques so that any changes associated with health problems may be detected over time." Researchers also found that adult tortoises were significantly more likely than juvenile tortoises to have ticks as well as hemogregarine parasites in their red blood cells. Tortoises with ticks were significantly more likely to have the hemogregarine parasites. Ticks were found on 59 percent and hemoparasites were identified in 30 percent of the tortoises sampled at FAU Harbor Branch, while only a single tick was found, and no hemoparasites were identified in tortoises sampled at Loggerhead Park. These findings are noteworthy because hemogregarines in tortoises are thought to be transmitted by ticks. "Free-ranging animals typically have higher internal and external parasite burdens and are likely exposed to pathogens more frequently than captive animals, which often are regularly treated with parasiticides and also receive supportive care such as anti-microbials when they are sick," said Page-Karjian. "Long-term studies of these animals and other populations will help us to better understand the consequences of disease and various stressors that impact their behavior and reproductive potential. Additional health assessments and surveillance of pathogens in southeastern Florida's gopher tortoises are warranted." ### Study co-authors are Jon A. Moore, Ph.D., professor of biology, FAU Wilkes Honors College and FAU Harbor Branch; Kathleen Rafferty and Clerson Xavier, former visiting FAU Harbor Branch interns; and Justin R. Perrault, Ph.D., director of research; Sarah E. Hirsch, senior manager of research and data; Samantha Clark, CVT, clinical operations manager; and Charles A. Manire, D.V.M., chief of rehabilitation; all with Loggerhead Marinelife Center; and Nicole I. Stacy, D.V.M., clinical assistant professor, UF College of Veterinary Medicine. This work was supported by grants from the Association of Reptile and Amphibian Veterinarians; Chicago Herpetological Society; Wildlife Disease Association Challenge in association with experiment.com; donations from the Albert E. and Birdie W. Einstein Fund; Bonnie Simes; and various donors. Summer internship funds were provided by the Link Foundation and by the James Pomponi Memorial Scholarship Fund. Sample and data collection and use were conducted by authorized personnel under a Scientific Collection permit (#LSSC17-00046A) issued by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. About Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute: Founded in 1971, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University is a research community of marine scientists, engineers, educators and other professionals focused on Ocean Science for a Better World. The institute drives innovation in ocean engineering, at-sea operations, drug discovery and biotechnology from the oceans, coastal ecology and conservation, marine mammal research and conservation, aquaculture, ocean observing systems and marine education. For more information, visit http://www. fau. edu/ hboi . About Florida Atlantic University: The research group created a virus capable of acting on specific adult brain regions, helping to elucidate the role of key neurons in the prefrontal cortex; they tested the technique on mice Researchers used genetic engineering tools to create a virus that can enter specific neurons and insert into the prefrontal cortex a new genetic code that induces the production of modified proteins. In tests with mice, the alteration of these proteins was sufficient to modify brain activity, indicating a potential biomarker for the diagnosis of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. Sometimes referred to as the "executive brain", the prefrontal cortex is the region that governs higher-level cognitive functions and decision making. Studies of tissue from this brain region in patients with schizophrenia have detected alterations in two proteins: BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and trkB (tyrosine receptor kinase B). The relationship between BDNF and trkB is important during brain development. When these proteins bind to each other, they trigger a cascade of intracellular signals that are essential to neuronal maturation and growth. Imbalances in this kind of signaling may be associated with the manifestation of certain disorders. A group of researchers affiliated with the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and the University of Sao Paulo's Ribeirao Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP) in Brazil, and with Sweden's Karolinska Institute, have created a virus capable of carrying the genetic code for a mutant form of trkB. When the modified trkB binds to BDNF, the intracellular signaling cascade is blocked, reproducing characteristics observed in brain tissue from schizophrenia patients. The research, conducted with funding from FAPESP and the Ministry of Education's Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personel (CAPES), involved parvalbumin-expressing inhibitory interneurons, or PV interneurons for short. Interneurons connect spinal motor and sensory neurons, and can also communicate with each other, forming circuits of various complexity. Firing at relatively high frequencies in the gamma range (30-80 Hertz), they resemble the conductor of an orchestra, regulating excitation and inhibition in the central nervous system. PV is a protein that plays a role in many processes, such as cell-cycle regulation and muscle contraction, among others. PV interneurons are the most common interneurons in the cortex, and are involved in attention, social memory, and more. Dysfunction of PV interneurons disrupting cortical information processing and cognitive behavior has been detected in psychiatric patients. The neurons and interneurons in the human brain communicate via electrical and chemical signals to activate or inhibit nearby neurons as well as circuits in distant brain regions. The organized activity of these different circuits gives rise to consciousness, feelings and behavior. "Using a novel viral strategy for cell-type-specific and spatially restricted expression of a dominant-negative trkB (trkB.DN), we show that BDNF/trkB signaling is essential to the integrity and maintenance of prefrontal PV interneurons in adult male and female mice," the researchers write in an article published in February in the Journal of Neuroscience. In the study, the genetically modified virus was introduced into the brain tissue of adult transgenic mice using Cre-Lox recombination, a site-specific recombinase technology for inserting or deleting target DNA sequences. The researchers then recorded electrical activity in the prefrontal cortex and found alterations in the excitation-inhibition balance, as well as changes in brain waves and neuronal activity resulting in more aggressive behavior and anxiety. Specific circuits in the cortex were manipulated in an innovative manner using the technique, explained Cleiton Lopes Aguiar, a professor at UFMG's Institute of Biological Sciences and co-principal investigator for the study alongside Marie Carlen, a professor at Karolinska Institute. "The results show that manipulating BDNF/trkB in adults can alter not only brain activity but also complex behaviors that depend on the prefrontal cortex," Aguiar said. "It can be inferred that BDNF/trkB signaling is necessary to development, and to maintain mature neural networks." According to Leonardo Rakauskas Zacharias, a co-author of the article and a researcher at FMRP-USP's Epilepsy Research Laboratory, the new technique enhances the study of the developed adult brain. The role of interneurons In the same issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, the group published another article on synchronous activity of cortical inhibitory interneurons expressing parvalbumin. "Brain oscillations are fundamental to the coordination of neuronal activity across neurons and structures. Gamma oscillations (30-80 Hz) have received particular attention through their association with perceptual and cognitive processes. (...) [Here we] show how deficient PV inhibition can lead to increased and asynchronous excitatory firing, contaminating the local field potential and manifesting as increased gamma power. Thus, increased gamma power does not always reflect a genuine rhythm. Further, we show that ketamine-induced gamma increases are caused by separate network mechanisms," the authors explain. According to Nicolas Gustavo Guyon, a member of the group and a researcher at Karolinska Institute, their analysis of brain oscillations in genetically modified mice detected asynchronous activity due to the inability of PV interneurons to respond to all excitatory stimuli generated by other neurons. For Aguiar, what both articles have in common is the search for a deeper understanding of the role played by interneurons in the prefrontal cortex and how the brain organizes the excitation-inhibition balance. "We're exploring the normal brain in order to achieve a deeper understanding of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia," he said. "We show that if there are alterations in certain specific aspects of these normal animals, they display symptoms that could be initial clues to the mechanisms underlying the disorders." According to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO-WHO), mental illness accounts for more than a third of total disability in the Americas, yet investment in mental health programs falls well short of what is required to address the needs of psychiatric patients. The term covers mental disorders such as dementia and schizophrenia, as well as depression. Over 300 million people live with depression, 60 million with bipolar disorders, and 23 million with schizophrenia-related disorders (including 1.5 million Brazilians), the WHO estimates. Zacharias points out that the group's research projects have been in progress for more than seven years and their results could contribute to the development of potential treatments. "We work with basic science to understand the mechanisms of the brain, and our findings can help all those concerned understand psychiatric disorders a little better," he said. ### About Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Cambridge, MA - Despite years of effort, diversifying the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) remains a challenge. In fact, in 2019, underrepresented minorities held only 9 percent of academic positions in science, engineering and health, according to a report from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Now, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian are pursuing a new avenue to help address this problem: astronomy. "Our research suggests that astronomy, especially when experienced in personally and culturally relevant contexts, can be an early gateway to attract youth to STEM," says Mary Dussault, a science educator at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "Astronomy has a broad appeal, with its prevalence in the news and popular culture, along with the fact that we all have big questions about our place in space and time, which are deeply existential." Using a new, $2.8 million grant from the NSF, Dussault and her team will be able to test their theory by sharing engaging and interactive astronomy experiences with 15,000 youth over the course of the next five years. The grant will specifically support the expansion of the Youth Astronomy Network, or YouthAstroNet, an educational program that was first established at the CfA in 2015. The program targets middle schoolers ranging from ages 11-14, with a special focus on girls and students from underrepresented groups. In the last 5 years, YouthAstroNet has reached nearly 4,500 youth in more than 20 states. Participating locations include museums, libraries and community centers, such as Eagle Butte Upper Elementary School in South Dakota's Cheyenne River Reservation; Jefferson International Academy in Detroit, Michigan; and the Park Forest Public Library in Southern Chicago. Feedback about the program has been positive, Dussault says, and youth are particularly drawn to the MicroObservatory, a collection of five ground-based, robotic telescopes across the globe that students can control and operate. Students simply select what the telescope observes online and receive an image of their observation the next day. Other YouthAstroNet activities include digital image analysis to enhance and take measurements of astronomical images. Early studies by the team show that the approach is working. In pre- and post-program participation surveys, students expressed a positive change in their attitudes toward STEM and an increased interest in pursuing STEM careers. For girls particularly, experiencing hands-on activities was associated with larger gains in STEM career interest and science identity. For black students, active participation within the YouthAstroNet online learning community, including online Q&As with scientists, predicted an increase in STEM career interest. "We even found that students are using YouthAstroNet outside of the program hours and in their free time," Dussault says. Using the NSF grant, the team will now spread the innovative program even further, recruiting an additional 600 educators from across the country to participate. The team will also try to improve their early results to deepen and sustain YouthAstroNet's impact on learners. "The NSF has given us an amazing opportunity to work with talented educators in every state to broaden participation and promote strategies that enhance important STEM learning outcomes for diverse communities," says Erika Wright, a co-principal investigator who manages the YouthAstroNet online learning community. Dussault is particularly eager to see the program grow to help create more equitable and inclusive forms of STEM learning. "Knowledge of the sky really belongs to everyone," she says. "People of all backgrounds should have every opportunity to bring their whole creative selves to asking big questions and generating innovative ways to answer those questions." ### Additional co-principal investigators on the project are Philip Sadler, Gerhard Sonnert and Susan Sunbury. About the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian The Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian is a collaboration between Harvard and the Smithsonian designed to ask--and ultimately answer--humanity's greatest unresolved questions about the nature of the universe. The Center for Astrophysics is headquartered in Cambridge, MA, with research facilities across the U.S. and around the world. Scientists are exploring a number of ways for people with disabilities to communicate with their thoughts. The newest and fastest turns back to a vintage means for expressing oneself: handwriting. For the first time, researchers have deciphered the brain activity associated with trying to write letters by hand. Working with a participant with paralysis who has sensors implanted in his brain, the team used an algorithm to identify letters as he attempted to write them. Then, the system displayed the text on a screen - in real time. The innovation could, with further development, let people with paralysis rapidly type without using their hands, says study coauthor Krishna Shenoy, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator at Stanford University who jointly supervised the work with Jaimie Henderson, a Stanford neurosurgeon. By attempting handwriting, the study participant typed 90 characters per minute - more than double the previous record for typing with such a "brain-computer interface," Shenoy and his colleagues report in the journal Nature on May 12, 2021. This technology and others like it have the potential to help people with all sorts of disabilities, says Jose Carmena, a neural engineer at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the study. Though the findings are preliminary, he says, "it's a big advancement in the field." Brain-computer interfaces convert thought into action, Carmena says. "This paper is a perfect example: the interface decodes the thought of writing and produces the action." Thought-powered communication When an injury or disease robs a person of the ability to move, the brain's neural activity for walking, grabbing a cup of coffee, or speaking a sentence remain. Researchers can tap into this activity to help people with paralysis or amputations regain lost abilities. The need varies with the nature of the disability. Some people who have lost the use of their hands can still use a computer with speech recognition and other software. For those who have difficulty speaking, scientists have been developing other ways to help people communicate. In recent years, Shenoy's team has decoded the neural activity associated with speech in the hopes of reproducing it. They have also devised a way for participants with implanted sensors to use their thoughts associated with attempted arm movements to move a cursor on a screen. Pointing at and clicking on letters in this way let people type about 40 characters per minute, the previous speed record for typing with a brain computer interface (BCI). No one, however, had looked at handwriting. Frank Willett, a neuroscientist in Shenoy's group, wondered if it might be possible to harness the brain signals evoked by putting pen to paper. "We want to find new ways of letting people communicate faster," he says. He was also motivated by the opportunity to try something different. The team worked with a participant enrolled in a clinical trial called BrainGate2, which is testing the safety of BCIs that relay information directly from a participant's brain to a computer. (The trial's director is Leigh Hochberg, a neurologist and neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brown University, and the Providence VA Medical Center.) Henderson implanted two tiny sensors into the part of the brain that controls the hand and arm, making it possible for the person to, for example, move a robotic arm or a cursor on a screen by attempting to move their own paralyzed arm. The participant, who was 65 years old at the time of the research, had a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the neck down. Using signals the sensors picked up from individual neurons when the man imagined writing, a machine learning algorithm recognized the patterns his brain produced with each letter. With this system, the man could copy sentences and answer questions at a rate similar to that of someone his age typing on a smartphone. This so-called "Brain-to-Text" BCI is so fast because each letter elicits a highly distinctive activity pattern, making it relatively easy for the algorithm to distinguish one from another, Willett says. A new system Shenoy's team envisions using attempted handwriting for text entry as part of a more comprehensive system that also includes point-and-click navigation, much like that used on current smartphones, and even attempted speech decoding. "Having those two or three modes and switching between them is something we naturally do," he says. Next, Shenoy says, the team intends to work with a participant who cannot speak, such as someone with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disorder that results in the loss of movement and speech. The new system could potentially help those suffering from paralysis caused by a number of conditions, Henderson adds. Those include brain stem stroke, which afflicted Jean-Dominique Bauby, the author of the book The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. "He was able to write this moving and beautiful book by selecting characters painstakingly, one at a time, using eye movement," Henderson says. "Imagine what he could have done with Frank's handwriting interface!" ### Citation Francis R. Willett, Donald T. Avansino, Leigh R. Hochberg, Jaimie M. Henderson, and Krishna V. Shenoy. "High-performance brain-to-text communication via handwriting." Nature. Published online May 12, 2021. doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03506-2 CAUTION: Investigational Device. Limited by Federal law to investigational use. The polar vortex is a large area of upper-atmosphere cyclonic air circulation surrounding both poles. It is bounded by the polar jet stream and its associated cold air is usually confined to the polar regions. Within the Antarctic circle, and southern polar vortex, ozone quantities are the lowest, globally. A research published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, led by Dr. LUO Yuhan, corresponding author and Associate Professor at the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS), suggests that the polar vortex plays a key role in Antarctic stratospheric ozone depletion. "The atmosphere over Antarctica is controlled by a strong polar vortex in winter, making it difficult to exchange with the mid-latitude atmosphere." said Dr. LUO. "The extremely low air temperatures (<195 K) inside the polar vortex, lead to the formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs)." Dr. LUO further explained that PSCs are primarily composed of nitrate trihydrate and water ice, along with smaller concentrations of other volatile compounds. These aerosols provide surfaces for heterogeneous reactions that convert halogen reservoirs to active halogens which cause severe ozone depletion. The team used Zenith Scattered Light Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (ZSL-DOAS) techniques to measure ozone depletion near the edge of the polar vortex at the Fildes Peninsula on King George Island (62.22S, 58.96W). ZSL-DOAS can accurately quantify the column density of ozone. The ozone columns were compared with the stratospheric ozone profiles from NASA's MERRA2 ozone database and PV profiles from the ECMWF dataset, which helped better understand the causes of ozone depletion. "PV is used to characterize the polar vortex and determine the edge of polar vortex by Nash's criterion." said QIAN Yuanyan, a PhD candidate working with Dr. Luo, and the first author of this paper. Nash's criterion suggests that the vortex typically lies at or south of 65 equivalent latitude, based on PV values. Results show that PV is positively correlated with total ozone columns, and both variables trend up and down at the same pace. "The observations conducted in this study contribute to a base for further analysis to improve the prediction of the inter-annual variations of stratospheric ozone." said Dr. LUO. "This will provide a better understanding of ozone recovery and stratosphere-troposphere exchange over the polar vortex edge area." ### JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE TEAM TESTS MEDICAL MARIJUANA AS POSSIBLE THERAPY FOR CHRONIC ITCH https:/ / www. hopkinsmedicine. org/ news/ newsroom/ news-releases/ research-story-tip-johns-hopkins-medicine-team-tests-medical-marijuana-as-possible-therapy-for-chronic-itch Media Contact: Sheree-Monet Wisdom, swisdom1@jhmi.edu Chronic itch -- known clinically as chronic pruritus -- is characterized as an unrelenting and sometimes even debilitating sensation to itch, and often lowers the quality of life for those who suffer with it. Treating the condition has been difficult because there are few Food and Drug Administration-approved therapies. Now, a recent case study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers provides evidence that a promising option for patients with chronic itch may already be available: medical marijuana (cannabis). A report on the team's findings was published April 9, 2021, in JAMA Dermatology. "Chronic itch can be an especially difficult condition to treat, with off-label therapeutics often utilized," says Shawn Kwatra, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "With the increased utilization of medical marijuana and our knowledge of the role of the endocannabinoid system [a complex cell-signaling system that regulates a variety of functions in the body] in chronic itch, we decided to try medical marijuana with a patient who failed several therapies and had few options left." Kwatra and his colleagues examined an African American woman in her 60s with a 10-year history of chronic itch. The patient initially arrived at the Johns Hopkins Itch Center with complaints of extreme pruritus on her arms, legs and stomach. Upon a skin examination, numerous hyperpigmented, raised skin lesions were revealed. Several treatments were offered to the patient -- including several systemic therapies, centrally acting nasal sprays, steroid creams and phototherapy -- but they all failed. Kwatra says that using medical marijuana -- either by smoking or in liquid form --provided the woman with nearly instantaneous improvement. "We had the patient rate her symptoms using a numerical rating scale, where 10 is the worst itch and zero is no itch at all," Kwatra says. "She started at 10 but dropped to 4 within 10 minutes after initial administration of the medical marijuana. With continued use of the cannabis, the patient's itch disappeared altogether." The researchers believe that one of the active ingredients in medical marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol -- commonly known by its abbreviation THC -- attaches itself to brain receptors that influence the nervous system. When this occurs, inflammation and nervous system activity decrease, which also could lead to a reduction in skin sensations such as itchiness. Kwatra says that although conclusive studies have yet to be done to validate medical marijuana as an effective measure for the relief of previously unmanageable itch, he believes it warrants further clinical trials. "Controlled studies are needed to determine dosing, efficacy and safety for medical marijuana in the treatment of various human itch subtypes, and once those are performed, we will better understand which patients are most likely to benefit from this therapy," he says. Kwatra is available for interviews. JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE PUTS FAT TO GOOD USE AS STEM CELL SOURCE FOR SPINAL FUSION SURGERY https:/ / www. hopkinsmedicine. org/ news/ newsroom/ news-releases/ research-story-tip-johns-hopkins-medicine-puts-fat-to-good-use-as-stem-cell-source-for-spinal-fusion-surgery Media Contact: Michel Morris, melben1@jhmi.edu Adipose cells, better known as fat, may be the least popular component of the human body. However, most people don't realize that fat actually has many important functions in establishing and maintaining good health -- providing energy, insulating the body against heat loss and protecting nerves, just to name a few. Now, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine suggest there's another role for the poor maligned adipose cell: a practical and plentiful source of stem cells for use in spinal fusion surgeries. Spinal fusion, used to correct problems in the spine, is the "welding" together of two or more vertebrae so that they heal into a single, solid bone. Unfortunately, the surgery -- using bone taken from other parts of the patient's body -- fails in up to one out of every five procedures. Researchers have found that stem cells, harvested from a patient's marrow and allowed to mature into bone cells, can yield successful outcomes when used in spinal fusions. However, the aspiration method for extracting stem cells from the marrow carries a risk of infection and often is painful. In a study published in the May 2021 issue of the journal Spine, Timothy Witham, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins Neurosurgery Spinal Fusion Laboratory, Alexander Perdomo-Pantoja, M.D., a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Christina Holmes, Ph.D., a former Johns Hopkins Medicine postdoctoral fellow now at Florida State University, worked together with colleagues to try out adipose cells rather than bone marrow as a source for the stem cells. Performing spinal fusion procedures in rats, the researchers found that freshly isolated stem cells from fat worked just as well as the more commonly used bone marrow stem cells. The researchers say this suggests the technique could be a candidate for human clinical trials. "Bone marrow stem cells are isolated in human patients from the hip," says Holmes. "But using a huge needle to take out bone marrow is a painful procedure, and we can only get a limited number of cells, so we've found an alternative source by using stem cells from fat." Perdomo-Pantoja says spinal fusion procedures are used to treat many different conditions. "Spinal fusions are used for anything that causes spinal instability, which usually produces significant mechanical pain," he says. "You see it frequently when we get older as the intervertebral discs, ligaments and muscles in the spine deteriorate. But these procedures can also be used to treat instability when it is caused by tumors, fractures, deformities or trauma." In this study, Witham, Perdomo-Pantoja, Holmes and their team isolated stem cells from fat and bone marrow, and then implanted them into rat spines. For the adipose-derived stem cells, the researchers chose to use freshly isolated cells to see if they could make the procedure simpler and faster. Currently, stem cells from either bone marrow or fat are frequently grown in a laboratory culture to get them mature enough for a spinal fusion. During culturing, there is some risk of contamination or transformation into unusable bone. Holmes says that freshly isolating cells avoids these problems, along with being less labor intensive and cheaper because expensive processing materials are not needed. While stem cells from fat are commonly used in cosmetic procedures, they are not often used in spinal fusions, she adds. "We feel that fat cells are a logical alternative to bone marrow cells because most patients have an adequate supply of fat cells," Witham says. "Fat also is much more accessible during surgery and can be harvested with less stem cell death than bone marrow. Spinal fusion is a very common procedure, and we feel this approach could be applied across a wide cohort of spinal fusion patients." The researchers also were pleased to see the quality of the bone created by both forms of stem cells. They found significantly more bone formation and blood supply in the fresh adipose-derived stem cells compared with what they observed in previous studies with cultured cells from both fat and bone marrow. Witham and his team hope to further their research by next identifying which cells are the most advantageous for spinal fusions and then characterizing them. Witham is available for interviews. NEW AUTOMATED INSULIN INFUSION SYSTEM MAY POTENTIALLY REDUCE MEDICAL ERRORS, IMPROVE CARE https:/ / www. hopkinsmedicine. org/ news/ newsroom/ news-releases/ research-story-tip-new-automated-insulin-infusion-system-may-potentially-reduce-medical-errors-improve-care Media Contact: Marisol Martinez, mmart150@jhmi.edu Nurses traditionally manage insulin intake for critically ill patients by following precise steps to manually calculate the correct dose for each person. Looking for ways to improve this process, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality recently tested a "smart agent" system that integrates electronic health records and infusion pumps to automate insulin dose selection. The study showed that Smart Agent -- developed as a joint effort between the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine -- may reduce errors and provide faster insulin delivery when compared with manual dosing calculation. In turn, the researchers say, this could free up nurses and clinicians to focus their attention on other patient care priorities. The findings, published online March 10, 2021, in the journal BMJ Quality & Safety, suggest that a smart agent system could potentially optimize safety and efficiency of insulin infusion practices in intensive care unit settings. "Glucose management improves outcomes for critically ill patients; however, current insulin infusion protocols are work-intensive for nurses and may be error prone," says study lead author Michael Rosen, Ph.D., M.A., associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The current infusion process requires a nurse to manage insulin doses hourly, based on the patient's condition. Because neither the patient's medical record nor the infusion pump's operating data communicate electronically, a nurse is required to first retrieve the patient's blood glucose level from the health record. Then, he or she must manually calculate the medication rate change using an algorithm to determine the new insulin dosage. A second nurse double checks this process before it's documented in the medical record, and finally, the new dose is manually programed into the infusion pump to administer insulin to the patient. For the study, 20 critical care nurses at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, tried a specific smart agent system in a simulation-based setting between May and July 2018. Participants completed 12 mock situations, in four blocks of three scenarios each. Each block was performed with either the manual protocol or Smart Agent. Nurses were surveyed after each session to get their impressions of safety levels (rates of errors), efficiency (time to complete each task), perceived workload, trust in the system and usability. The researchers say their findings show that the automated system was significantly better in dosing accuracy calculation compared with manual calculation. In 120 scenarios, nurses never made a calculation error when using the smart agent system compared with 20 errors (16.6%) made using the manual system. Smart Agent enabled the nurses to complete the process an average of 29 seconds faster than the manual system, along with reducing their overall workload. The tasks that consumed the most time using the manual system were retrieving information from the electronic health record and performing manual calculations -- neither of which is required in a smart agent system. The nurses also found that after using Smart Agent at least twice, they trusted it more than doing the manual calculations. In general, Smart Agent received positive remarks from all 20 nurses. Most found it to be helpful and more efficient than the manual system, and 18 (90%) found it easier to use. Fifteen (75%) nurses believed that the automated system was safer than the manual process, while five (25%) were unsure or believed both systems were about as safe. "This approach can be applied to improve a fragmented and inefficient health care IT infrastructure through design, testing and system integration," says senior study author Adam Sapirstein, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The researchers believe that Smart Agent can serve as a template for similar systems that use algorithms built directly into electronic medical records so that they can be integrated with devices for automatically delivering medication to patients. This study was done in collaboration with University Hospitals of Cleveland. Rosen and Sapirstein are available for interviews. ### New research at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden suggests a link between psychosis and a genetic change that affects the brain's immune system. The study published in Molecular Psychiatry may impact the development of modern medicines for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Psychosis affects approximately 2-3 per cent of the population and is characterized by a change in the perception of reality, often with elements of hallucinations and paranoid reactions. Most of the people affected are patients with schizophrenia, but people with bipolar disorder may also experience psychotic symptoms. The antipsychotics available today often have insufficient efficacy, and for patients, their life situation can be difficult. The average life expectancy of people with schizophrenia is approximately 15 years shorter than that of the general population, according to Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare. "It is not entirely known what biological mechanisms cause psychosis, but recent research suggests that immune activation in the brain's glial cells may be the cause. People with psychosis have elevated levels of kynurenic acid in the brain, a messenger that transmits information from the brain's immune system to the neurons," says Goran Engberg, Professor at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's corresponding author. Previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have shown that the protein GRK3 expresses itself via genetic changes in the immune system in patients with psychosis. Now researchers at Karolinska Institutet, the University of California, San Diego, USA, and the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, USA, have studied more specifically which parts of the immune system impact psychotic disorders. The study is based on extensive data from mice that lack the GRK3 protein in the brain, as well as an analysis of the genome from 70 people with bipolar disorder and 48 healthy control subjects. Results show that the loss of the GRK3 protein appears to increase the sensitivity of the immune system and triggers a cascade of effects in the brain, involving an increased release of the cytokine IL-1beta and kynurenic acid. "Our experimental data are confirmed through genetic studies where we see a link between psychosis in patients with bipolar disorder and decreased expression of GRK3, which leads to an increased amount of kynurenic acid in the brain," says Carl Sellgren. He is a senior lecturer at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's first author together with Sophie Imbeault, senior researcher at the same department. The data in the study provide a connection between immune activation and psychosis and thus presents a starting point for further study of novel antipsychotic drugs possessing immune modulatory functions. The drugs currently used in psychosis treatment were developed in the 1960s. "To develop effective, modern drugs, more knowledge is needed about the mechanisms in the brain that can trigger psychosis," says Sophie Erhardt, professor at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, and the study's last author. ### The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council, The KI-AstraZeneca Translational Science Centre Joint Research Program, the Torsten Soderberg Foundation, the Foundation for Strategic Research and the Brain Foundation, Petrus and Augusta Hedlund Foundation, Marta Lundqvist Foundation, Ahlen Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, the Stanley Medical Research Institute, Region Stockholm-Karolinska Institutet's ALF Agreement for Clinical Research and Medical Education, the Broad Institute, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Mayo Clinic - Karolinska Institutet Collaborative Project Grant. Carl Sellgren is a scientific advisor to Outermost Inc, USA. Doo-Sup Choi sits on the board of Peptron Inc, USA, and Maria Bhat is employed by AstraZeneca. There are no other reported conflicts of interest. Publication: "GRK3 deficiency elicits brain immune activation and psychosis." Carl M. Sellgren, Sophie Imbeault, Markus K. Larsson, Alfredo Oliveros, Ida A.K. Nilsson, Simone Codeluppi, Funda Orhan, Maria Bhat, Maximillian Tufvesson-Alm, Jessica Gracias, Magdalena E. Kegel, Yiran Zheng, Anthi Faka, Marie Svedberg, Susan B. Powell, Sorana Caldwell, Mary E. Kamenski, Marquis P. Vawter, Anton Schullman, Michel Goiny, Camilla I. Svensson, Tomas Hokfelt, Martin Schalling, Lilly Schwieler, Simon Cervenka, Doo-Sup Choi, Mikael Landen, Goran Engberg, Sophie Erhardt. Molecular Psychiatry, online 12 May 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41380-021-01106-0. The former state trooper and decorated military veteran had pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud for diverting money from a fundraiser for construction of a Fisher House near the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West Haven. The facility ultimately was built when the national Fisher House organization put up funding, and it now provides free temporary housing for up to 16 veterans and their families while the vets are receiving treatment. EAST LANSING, Mich. - As climate change threatens global food security, researchers at Michigan State University are building better beans crucial to human nutrition by tapping into the genetics of the more heat-resistant tepary bean. The tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolius A. Gray) is a sister of the common bean which includes kidney, pinto and navy beans. "The common bean is the number one source of protein and nutrients for many people living in Central America and Africa," said Robin Buell, a professor of plant biology in MSU's College of Natural Science and former director of the Plant Resilience Institute. Her research on bean genetics was published May 11 in Nature Communications. "Mother nature has already made plants that are adapted to different climates," said Buell, who is also a faculty member with MSU's AgBioResearch. We can use that knowledge to adapt our modern agriculture; we don't need to reinvent it. "As climate change heats up the air and land, making them hotter and dryer, warmer nighttime temperatures make it more difficult to grow beans. To identify the genes that support bean growth in the desert, Buell and her team sequenced the genome of the tepary bean. "The tepary bean has evolved over time to grow in the Sonoran Desert," Buell said. "We could lay the genomes for both types of beans next to each other and compare them. If we know this gene on the tepary genome protects it from heat, then, we can add the gene to the common bean." There are genes from the common bean that are being introduced into the tepary bean to make it easier to grow and there are genes from the tepary bean that are being introduced into the common bean to make it more heat and pest resistant. "The goal is to grow a bean that gives a good yield, grows in dry, hot climates and is nutritious." Buell said. "We want to create an accelerated path to breed better tepary and common beans." Michigan is the number two bean producer in the nation. For over 40 years, MSU has been a leader in bean breeding and with help from MSU's expertise in plant resilience, a research partnership was formed over the tepary bean. ### (Note for media: Please include the following link to the study in all online media coverage: https:/ / www. nature. com/ articles/ s41467-021-22858-x ) Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 165 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges. For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews. Geochemical evidence reveals that armies in the Battles of Himera were a mixture of locals and outsiders, according to a study published March 24, 2021 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Katherine Reinberger of the University of Georgia, US, and colleagues. These data contradict certain claims made in historical accounts by ancient Greek writers. In 480 BCE, the ancient Greek city of Himera successfully fought off a Carthaginian army. In 409 BCE, Carthage attacked again, and Himera fell. Historians of the time, including Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, write that Himera stood strong in the first battle thanks to the aid of Greek allies, while it went unaided in the second battle. However, given the limited and partisan perspective of those ancient historians, these accounts are liable to be incomplete and biased. The authors of the present study tested these historical claims against geochemical evidence. They sampled strontium and oxygen isotopes from tooth enamel of 62 soldiers who fought in the battles. The soldiers' tooth chemistry varied based on their region of origin. The researchers found that only about one-third of Himera's soldiers from the first battle were local to the area, while around three-fourths were locals in the second battle, corroborating the written claims that Himera was more aided by outsiders the first time than in the second battle. However, the evidence also shows that, contrary to written accounts, many outsiders were not Greek allies, but were instead mercenaries hired from beyond Greek territories. This study demonstrates the power of archaeological remains to test the claims of historical texts and reveals a potential bias in ancient writings. Ancient Greek historians might have intentionally downplayed the role of foreign mercenaries in the Battles of Himera in an attempt to maintain a more Greek-centric narrative and to avoid the subject, potentially distasteful to Greek society, of hired foreign mercenaries. The authors add: "Here we were able to use isotopes to support ancient historians, while also challenging those sources by finding evidence of mercenaries and potentially foreign soldiers from very diverse geographic origins. This study is also important to future studies of migration in the Mediterranean by expanding the network of comparative isotopic values." ### Citation: Reinberger KL, Reitsema LJ, Kyle B, Vassallo S, Kamenov G, Krigbaum J (2021) Isotopic evidence for geographic heterogeneity in Ancient Greek military forces. PLoS ONE 16(5): e0248803. https:/ / doi. org/ 10. 1371/ journal. pone. 0248803 Funding: Data collection in Sicily, Italy and strontium isotope analyses was funded by a Research Experience for Undergraduates from the National Science Foundation awarded to LJR and BK (https:/ / www. nsf. gov/ funding/ pgm_summ. jsp?pims_id= 5517 ), award numbers 1560227 and 1560158. Oxygen isotope analyses were funded by the University of Georgia Graduate School Innovative and Interdisciplinary Research Grant and Dean's Award, the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Graduate Research Award, and the UGA Center for Archaeological Science Norman Herz Grant for Student Research, awarded to KLR. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. INDIANAPOLIS -- Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven healthcare has the potential to transform medical decision-making and treatment, but these algorithms must be thoroughly tested and continuously monitored to avoid unintended consequences to patients. In a JAMA Network Open Invited Commentary, Regenstrief Institute President and Chief Executive Officer and Indiana University School of Medicine Associate Dean for Informatics and Health Services Research Peter Embi, M.D., M.S., strongly stated the importance of algorithmovigilance to address inherent biases in healthcare algorithms and their deployment. Algorithmovigilance, a term coined by Dr. Embi, can be defined as the scientific methods and activities relating to the evaluation, monitoring, understanding, and prevention of adverse effects of algorithms in healthcare. "We wouldn't think of treating patients with a new pharmaceutical or device without first ensuring its efficacy and safety," said Dr. Embi. "In the same way, we must recognize that algorithms have the potential for both great benefit and harm and, therefore, require study. Also, compared with drugs or devices, algorithms often have additional complexities and variations, such as how they are deployed, who interacts with them, and the clinical workflows where interactions with algorithms take place." The commentary was in response to a study from IBM scientists evaluating different approaches to debiasing healthcare algorithms developed to predict postpartum depression. Dr. Embi stated the study suggests that debiasing methods can help address underlying disparities represented in the data used to develop and deploy the AI approaches. He also said the study demonstrates that the evaluation and monitoring of these algorithms for effectiveness and equity is necessary and even ethically required. "Algorithmic performance changes as it is deployed with different data, different settings and different human-computer interactions. These factors could turn a beneficial tool into one that causes unintended harm, so these algorithms must continually be evaluated to eliminate the inherent and systemic inequities that exist in our healthcare system," Dr. Embi continued. "Therefore, it's imperative that we continue to develop tools and capabilities to enable systematic surveillance and vigilance in the development and use of algorithms in healthcare." ### "Algorithmovigilance--Advancing Methods to Analyze and Monitor Artificial Intelligence-Driven Health Care for Effectiveness and Equity" was published in JAMA Network Open. Peter Embi, M.D., M.S. In addition to serving as the president and CEO of Regenstrief Institute, Peter Embi, M.D., M.S. is the Leonard Betley Professor of Medicine and associate dean for informatics and health services research at Indiana University School of Medicine, associate director of informatics with Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and vice president for Learning Health Systems with Indiana University Health. About Regenstrief Institute Founded in 1969 in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute is a local, national and global leader dedicated to a world where better information empowers people to end disease and realize true health. A key research partner to Indiana University, Regenstrief and its research scientists are responsible for a growing number of major healthcare innovations and studies. Examples range from the development of global health information technology standards that enable the use and interoperability of electronic health records to improving patient-physician communications, to creating models of care that inform practice and improve the lives of patients around the globe. Sam Regenstrief, a nationally successful entrepreneur from Connersville, Indiana, founded the institute with the goal of making healthcare more efficient and accessible for everyone. His vision continues to guide the institute's research mission. About IU School of Medicine IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability. A recently discovered letter written by Albert Einstein discusses a link between physics and biology, seven decades before evidence emerges. The 1949 letter by the physicist and Nobel laureate discusses bees, birds and whether new physics principles could come from studying animal senses. It's a position still being realised within physics to this day, with a growing body of research and understanding of how animals such as birds and bees find their way around. Now a study led by RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, discusses how recent discoveries in migratory birds back up Einstein's thinking 72 years ago. The previously unpublished letter was shared with researchers by Judith Davys - Einstein had addressed it to her late husband, radar researcher Glyn Davys. RMIT's Associate Professor Adrian Dyer has published significant studies into bees and is the lead author of the new paper on Einstein's letter, published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A. Dyer said the letter shows how Einstein envisaged new discoveries could come from studying animals. "Seven decades after Einstein proposed new physics might come from animal sensory perception, we're seeing discoveries that push our understanding about navigation and the fundamental principles of physics," he said. The letter also proves Einstein met with Nobel laurate Karl von Frisch, who was a leading bee and animal sensory researcher. In April 1949, von Frisch presented his research on how honeybees navigate more effectively using the polarisation patterns of light scattered from the sky. The day after Einstein attended von Frisch's lecture, the two researchers shared a private meeting. Although this meeting wasn't formally documented, the recently discovered letter from Einstein provides insight into what they might have talked about. "It is thinkable that the investigation of the behaviour of migratory birds and carrier pigeons may someday lead to the understanding of some physical process which is not yet known," Einstein wrote. Professor Andrew Greentree, a theoretical physicist at RMIT, said Einstein also suggested that for bees to extend our knowledge of physics, new types of behaviour would need to be observed. "Remarkably, it is clear through his writing that Einstein envisaged new discoveries could come from studying animals' behaviours," Greentree said. More than 70 years since Einstein sent his letter, research is revealing the secrets of how migratory birds navigate while flying thousands of kilometres to arrive at a precise destination. In 2008, research on thrushes fitted with radio transmitters showed, for the first time, that these birds use a form of magnetic compass as their primary orientation guide during flight. One theory for the origin of magnetic sense in birds is the use of quantum randomness and entanglement. Both of these physics concepts were first proposed by Einstein. ### The letter to Glyn Davys shows the openness of Einstein's mind to novel possibilities observed in nature and the evidence that he took an interest in von Frish and his bee research. 'Einstein, von Frisch and the honeybee: a historical letter comes to light', with Adrian Dyer, Andrew Greentree, Jair Garcia, Elinya Dyer, Scarlett Howard and Fredrich Barth, is published in the Journal of Comparative Physiology A (DOI: 10.1007/s00359-021-01490-6). LA JOLLA, CA--Scientists at Scripps Research have unveiled a new Ebola virus vaccine design, which they say has several advantages over standard vaccine approaches for Ebola and related viruses that continue to threaten global health. In the new design, described in a paper in Nature Communications, copies of the Ebola virus outer spike protein, known as the glycoprotein, are tethered to the surface of a spherical carrier particle. The resulting structure resembles the spherical appearance of common RNA viruses that infect humans--and is starkly different from the snake-like shape of the Ebola virus. The scientists say the design is intended to stimulate a better protective immune response than standard vaccine approaches, which often expose the immune system to individual glycoproteins rather than realistic-looking virus particles. In designing the vaccine, the researchers also modified the outer spike protein to be more stable than the normal, "wild-type" version found in actual Ebola virus. In tests in mice and rabbits, they showed that this stabilized version elicited virus-neutralizing antibodies more strongly than the wild-type glycoprotein used in prior Ebola vaccine approaches. "Here, we did a step-by-step investigation of glycoprotein stability and how that affects the vaccine's ability to elicit antibodies," says Jiang Zhu, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research and inventor of the vaccine. "In the end, we were able to develop a really promising vaccine design." Continued viral threat Ebola virus is endemic in various African bat species and can jump to humans, causing outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever with high mortality rates. The largest known outbreak of occurred in West Africa during 2013-2016, killing more than 11,000 people. About two decades ago, Canadian researchers developed a vaccine against Zaire ebolavirus, more commonly known as Ebola virus. The vaccine, which was later licensed to a major pharma company and is called rVSV-ZEBOV, uses a live virus--vesicular stomatitis virus--which has been modified to include the gene for the Ebola virus glycoprotein. When injected, the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine infects cells and produces copies of the glycoprotein, eliciting an immune response to protect against future exposure to Ebola virus. Tests in Africa amid the aforementioned outbreak suggested it worked well and it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in late 2019. However, those tests lacked placebo groups and other standard features of typical large-scale phase-III trials. Thus, questions remain on true efficacy. In developing their new ebolavirus vaccine design, Zhu and his team focused on the relative instability of the glycoprotein structure as a potential factor in vaccine effectiveness. They investigated the molecular sources of this instability in detail, and eventually came up with a set of modifications that greatly stabilize the glycoprotein. In mice and rabbits, their modified glycoprotein elicited a more potent neutralizing antibody response against two different ebolaviruses--the Makona strain of Ebola virus and the Uganda strain of Bundibugyo ebolavirus--and compared those with the wild-type glycoprotein. The team's design also included special protein segments that self-assemble tightly into a ball-shaped "nanoparticle" that support multiple glycoproteins on their surface. This nanoparticle-based structure presents the glycoproteins to the immune system similar to common human viruses, and thus the body has learned to recognize the spherical particles. "Think of our nanoparticle as your sport vehicle, with a roof rack that carries a mountain bike and a trunk where you stow your clothes, gears and food," Zhu explains. "The only difference here is that the Ebola virus spike is your mountain bike, and the locking domains and T-cell epitopes are your stuff in the trunk. We call that a multilayered design." A new approach This nanoparticle design is distinctively different from other nanoparticle platforms. Zhu explains that in his team's design, the genetic codes of the optimized glycoprotein, the nanoparticle-forming unit, the locking domain and the T-cell epitope are all contained in a single piece of DNA. In cells, this DNA generates a single protein chain that can self-assemble, forming the right structure and associating with other identical chains to create a virus-like protein ball with multiple layers. "The idea is that the all-in-one design simplifies the manufacturing process and drives the vaccine cost lower," Zhu says. His team already has used the nanoparticle platform to create a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, which has shown in animal models that it can induce a powerful antibody response to both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2. It also has shown to be effective against variants. For Ebola virus, the nanoparticle-based vaccines showed far better results in mouse and rabbit virus-neutralization tests that tests that used only glycoproteins to stimulate immune response. Inoculating animals with the Ebola wild-type glycoprotein, which tends to fall apart, led to signs suggesting a vaccine phenomenon known as antibody-dependent enhancement--in which a vaccine elicits not only virus-neutralizing antibodies, but also antibodies that paradoxically increase the virus's ability to infect cells. The researchers found that their best nanoparticle-based designs only minimally elicit these bad antibodies. "There are a lot of things in the Ebola virus vaccine field that still need to be examined carefully, but in this study, we ended up with two nanoparticle-based designs that seem very suitable for further optimization and testing," Zhu says. He says the vaccine approach can be extended to other members of the same virus family, such as Marburg virus, which is also a major threat. Ebolaviruses and marburgvirus both belong to a group of viruses, known as filoviruses, that have a bizarre thread-like shape when seen under a microscope. The study also included atomic-level crystal structures on the modified glycoproteins, which was done in collaboration with the laboratory of Ian Wilson, DPhil, the Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and Chair of the Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology. ### The study, "Single-component multilayered self-assembling nanoparticles presenting rationally designed glycoprotein trimers as Ebola virus vaccines," is authored by Linling He, Anshul Chaudhary, Xiaohe Lin, Cindy Sou, Tanwee Alkutkar, Sonu Kumar, Timothy Ngo, Ezra Kosviner, Gabriel Ozorowski, Robyn Stanfield, Andrew Ward, Ian Wilson and Jiang Zhu. This work was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (AI129698, AI140844), and Uvax Bio LLC. "We're meant to be crossing over ... but the bridge is broken": 2020 university graduates' experiences of the pandemic in Ireland A new study from Trinity College Dublin investigating the impact of the COVID pandemic on young adults finds that they are vastly more affected than older people, and the reverberations of the disruption to some will last decades. Researchers say this group have paid a high price in the form of foregone opportunities for education, social networks, and labour market integration. The research, involving university graduates in Ireland, is published in YOUNG: the Nordic Journal of Youth Research (Wednesday, 12th May, 2021) here: https:/ / journals. sagepub. com/ doi/ full/ 10. 1177/ 11033088211004792 The impact of major crises in our lives is dependent on many things, but the timing of the crisis relative to our life course transitions is one of the most important aspects that influences how we are affected. Older people have - understandably - been at the centre of attention during the pandemic, as COVID affects them more directly. Now that large parts of the older population (in the Global North) are effectively shielded by vaccination, attention is turning to young adults - a group that has been largely neglected or even vilified. The quote 'We're supposed to be crossing over.....but the bridge is broken," that comes from one of the research participants is apt - the sense that 'the bridge is broken' at a crucial stage when major transitions are supposed to happen in their lives. In terms of such critical junctures and transitions, young adults are vastly more affected than older people, and the reverberations of the disruption to some will last decades. Young adults are disadvantaged in facing the pandemic in several different ways. They have not yet developed the coping mechanisms and perspective that allow for, by and large, more successful regulation of negative affective states - whereas older adults have such 'armour' due to their longer time perspective and greater accumulated experience and resources. KEY FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH Participants of the study: - demonstrated a keen awareness of their mental health, adopting self-care practices such as mindfulness. - reported positive experiences of life in their 'lockdown homes' with supportive families. - (some) were embarking on normative adult pathways sooner than anticipated while others opted for postgraduate study to bide time. - reported heightened worry and anxiety, and most had limited their media use in response. - experienced a degree of resignation as their plans did not extend beyond the immediate future. - accepted strict constraints associated with the management of the pandemic in Ireland during the early stages of the pandemic. - did not view themselves as members of a group that was likely to experience the long-term costs of the pandemic but rather were attempting to negotiate their own pathway through labour market uncertainty. - demonstrated high levels of solidarity towards family members and other vulnerable groups in society. Professor Virpi Timonen, School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College and Senior Author said: " At the start of the pandemic, I found the absence of attention to young adults quite baffling and alarming, and this sense grew as it became clear that the pandemic was going to last for a long time and as the associated restrictions turned out to be comparatively long-lasting and extensive in Ireland. Working in third-level education, I am attuned to the importance of the final year of college and the immediate aftermath of graduation as a juncture that can have a profound impact on subsequent trajectories. Young adults have - relative to older age groups - weak resources to adapt at a point in their lives that is especially crucial for subsequent social integration and employment pathways. The fact that this group has received very little positive attention from policymakers is alarming as young adults are the future of any society and extended disruptions in their developmental pathways carry a long-term cost not just to the individuals but society as a whole." Professor Timonen makes some recommendations for moving forward to limit the damage to young adults as we move beyond the COVID crisis. She said: " Young adults have paid a high price in the form of foregone opportunities for education, social networks, and labour market integration; yet the large majority continue to evince astonishing levels of solidarity towards older and other vulnerable groups in society. However, the adverse impacts of the pandemic for many will continue for decades, in some cases throughout their lives. It is of utmost urgency for the future of Ireland to turn attention to normalising young adults' lives and ensuring that they have better labour market opportunities. Among the strategies that I would propose, both arising from this research and in more general terms, include immediate initiation of systematic planning for a number of scenarios for the return to colleges in the autumn; programmes that combat loneliness at younger ages; greatly enhanced mental health supports; and much stronger focus on labour market openings at entry-level. In the absence of such measures, 'Generation COVID'' will struggle and some of its members might even become a lost generation." ### A study across 55 hospitals in Queensland, Australia suggests that a recent state policy to introduce a minimum ratio of one nurse to four patients for day shifts has successfully improved patient care, with a 7% drop in the chance of death and readmission, and 3% reduction in length of stay for every one less patient a nurse has on their workload. The study of more than 400,000 patients and 17,000 nurses in 27 hospitals that implemented the policy and 28 comparison hospitals is published in The Lancet. It is the first prospective evaluation of the health policy aimed at boosting nurse numbers in hospitals to ensure a minimum safe standard and suggests that savings made from shorter hospital stays and fewer readmissions were double the cost of hiring more staff. Despite some evidence that more nurses in hospitals could benefit patient safety, similar policies have not been widely implemented across the globe, partly due to an absence of data on the long-term effects and costs, as well as limited resources. In recent years, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland have mandated numbers of patients per nurse, but strategies to improve nursing levels remains debated worldwide. "Our findings plug a crucial data gap that has delayed a widespread roll-out of nurse staffing mandates. Opponents of these policies often raise concerns that there is no clear evaluation of policy, so we hope that our data convinces people of the need for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios by clearly demonstrating that quality nursing is vital to patient safety and care", says lead author, Professor Matthew McHugh of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, USA. [1] In 2016, 27 public hospitals in Queensland were required to instate a minimum of one dedicated nurse for every four patients during day shifts and one for every seven patients for night shifts on medical-surgical wards. The research team collected data from those 27 Queensland hospitals that instated ratios and from 28 other hospitals in the state that did not, at baseline in 2016 and at follow-up in 2018 (two years after the policy was implemented). Only nurses in direct contact with adult patients in medical-surgical wards were included--data from patients in birthing suites and psychiatric units were not assessed in the study. Researchers used patient data to assess demographics, diagnoses, and discharge details for patients, as well as length of hospital stay. These data were then linked to death records for 30 days following discharge, and to readmissions within seven days of discharge. The researchers sent an email survey to nurses in each hospital to ask about the numbers of bedside nurses and patients on their most recent shift. The responses were used to establish the numbers of nurses per patient and then averaged across wards and hospitals. Responses were received from 8,732 nurses (of a possible 26,871) at baseline in 2016, and 8,278 (of a possible 30,658) in 2018. The study includes baseline data for 231,902 patients (142,986 in hospitals that implemented the policy and 88,916 in comparison hospitals), and for 257,253 patients (160,167 in hospitals that implemented the policy and 97,086 in comparison hospitals) after the policy was brought in. Comparison hospitals had no change in staffing, with six patients per nurse in 2016 and the same ratio (1:6) in the follow-up period in 2018. Intervention hospitals averaged five patients per nurse at baseline in 2016, with a reduction to four per nurse after the policy implementation. To compare the changes in outcomes in the intervention and comparison hospitals over time, the researchers estimated the odds of dying within 30 days of admission and of being readmitted within seven days of discharge, and the additional length of stay, after adjusting for factors such as patient age, sex, existing health conditions and hospital size. They found that the chance of death rose between 2016 and 2018 by 7% in hospitals that did not implement the policy, and fell by 11% in hospitals that did implement the policy. The chances of being readmitted increased by 6% in the comparison hospitals over time, but stayed the same in hospitals that implemented the policy. Between 2016 and 2018, the length of stay fell by 5% in the hospitals that did not implement the policy, and by 9% in hospitals that did. Further analyses found that when nurse workloads improved by one less patient per nurse, the chance of death and readmissions fell by 7%, and the length of hospital stay dropped by 3%. Using their modelling to predict figures that would have been expected without the policy in place, the researchers estimated that there could have been 145 more deaths, 255 more readmissions and 29,222 additional days in hospital in the 27 hospitals that implemented the policy between 2016 and 2018. To calculate the financial impact of the staffing policy, the researchers used state data to estimate the cost of funding the 167 extra staff needed to reduce workload by one patient per nurse at approximately $33,000,000 (AUD) in the first two years. Based on Australian health economic data, they further estimated that preventing readmissions and reducing lengths of stay resulted in an approximate saving of $69,150,858 in the 27 hospitals across the two years following the mandate. "Part of the reluctance to bring in a minimum nurse-patient ratio mandate from some policy-makers is the expected rise in costs from increased staffing. Our findings suggest that this is short-sighted and that the savings created by preventing readmissions and reducing length of stay were more than twice the cost of employing the additional nurses needed to meet the required staffing levels -- a clear return on investment. Often, policy-makers are concerned about whether they can afford to implement such a policy. We would encourage governments to look at these figures and consider if they can afford not to," says Professor Patsy Yates of the Queensland University of Technology School of Nursing, Australia. [1] The authors note that there are a number of limitations associated with the study. Hospitals in the research were not randomly assigned to comparison or intervention groups, as only 27 hospitals in the state were mandated to follow the policy. Furthermore, the hospitals included in both groups were not matched for size or patient demographics and health conditions, although this is accounted for in adjusted analyses. Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Amanda Ullman, University of Queensland, Australia, and Professor Patricia Davidson, University of Wollongong, Australia (who were not involved in the study), said: "Integrated workforce strategies are desperately needed to create a balance between population needs and availability of clinicians. The work of McHugh and colleagues provides important lessons in what it takes to ensure patient safety, and these lessons should be considered in the context of a broad workforce strategy. Building a robust nursing workforce is inextricably linked to patient outcomes and should be central to health services planning." Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People ### **Infographics available** NOTES TO EDITORS This study was funded by Queensland Health and the National Institute of Nursing Research. It was conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, USA, Queensland University of Technology, Australia and Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Australia, full list at the end of the Article. [1] Quote direct from author and cannot be found in the text of the Article. IF YOU WISH TO PROVIDE A LINK FOR YOUR READERS, PLEASE USE THE FOLLOWING, WHICH WILL GO LIVE AT THE TIME THE EMBARGO LIFTS: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/piiS0140-6736(21)00768-6/fulltext A study published in the journal Scientific Reports reveals the genetic structure of the land snail Xerocrassa montserratensis and it provides new scientific tools for the improvement of the conservation of this endemic and threatened species in Catalonia. This land mollusc, identified in the late 19th century in the Montserrat mountain, has a reduced geographical distribution limited to the province of Barcelona, and it is a protected species in the area of the natural parks of Montserrat and Sant Llorenc del Munt i l'Obac. The study is led by the lecturer Marta Pascual, from the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute of the University of Barcelona (IRBio), and signed by Cristina Catala (UB-IRBio), Vicenc Bros (Barcelona Provincial Council), Xavier Castelltort (University of Lleida), and Xavier Santos (Research Center in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources - CIBIO, Portugal). Both the paper and its publication received the collaboration of the team of the Office of the Natural Park of Sant Llorenc del Munt i l'Obac, and the economic support of the Technical Office of the Natural Parks from the Barcelona Provincial Council park network. An endemic species described more than a hundred years ago in Montserrat The species Xerocrassa montserratensis --previously named Helix montserratensis--, is a uniqueness of the terrestrial malacological fauna in Catalonia described by Joaquin Gonzalez Hidalgo in 1870 in the Montserrat mountain. Also, in the late 19th century, Artur Bofill had described two sub-species according to the morphological character of the shell: X. m. betulonensis and X. m. delicatula. This Catalan endemism, considered to be an excellent model in phylogeographical studies, is found in open spaces of typical bare stony slopes of conglomerate lithology, but not in forestal areas. Surprisingly, the species was detected in areas that had been previously burnt, "which would indicate a high ability to survive or colonize which is not described yet in the scientific literature", notes the expert Xavier Santos, from CIBIO. As part of the research study, the team applied the methodology based on the so-called DNA barcoding, which uses a short and standardized fragment of DNA --in this case, the mitochondrial gen Cytochrome Oxidase I (COI)-- to facilitate the identification of species and detection of differenced evolutionary groups. This methodology allows researchers to classify most of the species with a high resolution, and in many cases, it provides a great intraspecific variability to detect barriers in the genic flow between populations. "Since these molluscs have a low mobility, from the from a scientific perspective it was quite interesting to determine whether this endangered species had a populational structure", reveals Marta Pascual, lecturer at the Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics. The study enabled the researchers to test the hypothesis from a hundred years ago, which related the population of the mountain chain of Marina --in the Catalan littoral mountain chain-- with populations in the upstream waters in the Besos River. The team identified genetic groups in areas where different sub-species had been described, a hypothesis that had been under doubts recently by several morphological studies. The results show that the genetically differenced groups are in those populations where the different sub-species had been described more than a century ago. Moreover, researchers also identified a new area where the groups are strongly differenced --Munts, in the Catalan transversal mountain chain--, which should be studied in detail in future studies. "Our study provides information favouring the validity of these sub-species but we need to advance with the research studies and to conduct morphometric and genomic studies to determine whether there is a reproductive isolation among the different mitochondrial groups", notes Marta Pascual. A genetic diversification situation during the Pleistocene According to the authors, the process of diversification of the genetic groups --combined with the specificity of their natural habitat-- could be related to the geological and paleoclimate processes during the Pleistocene, which finally contributed to shaping the current genetic structure of the species. These processes could explain the origins of the vast radiation of species of the gender Xerocrassa in some Mediterranean islands, such as Crete or the Balearic Islands, as stated by the authors. "It is shocking to find that close populations are that genetically differenced, and at the same time, that a species with such a reduced distribution area can present genetically differenced groups at a mitochondrial level", notes Xavier Santos. ### The paper published in Scientific Reports will provide new scientific knowledge to adopt management measures for the conservation of the genetic diversity of the species, now threatened by the impact of the massive human visits, unique habitats in many protected spaces, according to Vicenc Bros, from the Barcelona Provincial Council. The advance, researchers say, is like the discovery of the Rosetta stone and could eventually lead to new treatments for diseases UCLA life scientists have identified six "words" that specific immune cells use to call up immune defense genes -- an important step toward understanding the language the body uses to marshal responses to threats. In addition, they discovered that the incorrect use of two of these words can activate the wrong genes, resulting in the autoimmune disease known as Sjogren's syndrome. The research, conducted in mice, is published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Immunity (Cell Press). "Cells have evolved an immune response code, or language," said senior author Alexander Hoffmann, the Thomas M. Asher Professor of Microbiology and director of the Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences at UCLA. "We have identified some words in that language, and we know these words are important because of what happens when they are misused. Now we need to understand the meaning of the words, and we are making rapid progress. It's as exciting as when archaeologists discovered the Rosetta stone and could begin to read Egyptian hieroglyphs." Immune cells in the body constantly assess their environment and coordinate their defense functions by using words -- or signaling codons, in scientific parlance -- to tell the cell's nucleus which genes to turn on in response to invaders like pathogenic bacteria and viruses. Each signaling codon consists of several successive actions of a DNA binding protein that, when combined, elicit the proper gene activation, in much the same way that successive electrical signals through a telephone wire combine to produce the words of a conversation. The researchers focused on words used by macrophages, specialized immune cells that rid the body of potentially harmful particles, bacteria and dead cells. Using advanced microscopy techniques, they "listened" to macrophages in healthy mice and identified six specific codon-words that correlated to immune threats. They then did the same with macrophages from mice that contained a mutation akin to Sjogren's syndrome in humans to determine whether this disease results from the defective use of these words. "Indeed, we found defects in the use of two of these words," Hoffmann said. "It's as if instead of saying, 'Respond to attacker down the street,' the cells are incorrectly saying, 'Respond to attacker in the house.'" The findings, the researchers say, suggest that Sjogren's doesn't result from chronic inflammation, as long thought, but from a codon-word confusion that leads to inappropriate gene activation, causing the body to attack itself. The next step will be to find ways of correcting the confused word choices. Many diseases are related to miscommunication in cells, but this study, the scientists say, is the first to recognize that immune cells employ a language, to identify words in that language and to demonstrate what can happen when word choice goes awry. Hoffman hopes the team's discovery will serve as a guide to the discovery of words related to other diseases. The immune system at war: Words and codes How are immune cells so effective at mounting a response that is specific and appropriate to each pathogen? The answer, Hoffman says, lies in "signaling pathways," the communication channels that link immune cells' receptor molecules -- which sense the presence of pathogens -- with different kinds of defense genes. The transcription factor NFB is one of these signaling pathways and is recognized as a central regulator of immune cell responses to pathogen threats. "The macrophage is capable of responding to different types of pathogens and mounting different kinds of defenses. The defense units -- army, navy, air force, special operations -- are mediated by groups of genes," he said. "For each immune threat, the right groups of genes must be mobilized. That requires precise and reliable communication with those units about the nature of the threat. NFB dynamics provide the communication code. We identified the words in this code, but we don't yet fully understand how each defense unit interprets the various combinations of the codon-words." And of course, calling up the wrong unit is not only ineffective, Hoffmann notes, but may do damage, as vehicles destroy roads, accidents happen and worse, as in the case of Sjogren's and, possibly, other diseases. Algorithms, computers and calculus: Identifying the six words For the study, the scientists analyzed how more than 12,000 cells communicate in response to 27 immune threat conditions. Based on the possible arrangement of temporal NFB dynamics, they generated a list of more than 900 potential "words" -- analogous to all combinations of three-letter words with a vowel for the second letter. Then, using an algorithm originally developed in the 1940s for the telecommunications industry, they monitored which of the potential words tended to show up when macrophages responded to a stimulus, such as a pathogen-derived substance. They discovered that six specific dynamical features, or "words," were most frequently correlated with that response. An analogy would be listening to someone in a conversation and finding that certain three-letter words tend to be used, such as "the," "boy," "toy," and "get," but not "biy" or "bey," said lead author Adewunmi Adelaja, who earned his Ph.D. in Hoffmann's laboratory and is now working toward his M.D. at UCLA. The team then used a machine learning algorithm to model the immune response of macrophages. If they taught a computer the six words, they asked, would it be able to recognize the stimulus when computerized versions of cells were "talking?" They confirmed that it could. Drilling down further, they explored what would happen if the computer only had five words available. They found that the computer made more mistakes in recognizing the stimulus, leading the team to conclude that all six words are required for reliable cellular communication. The scientists also used calculus to study the biochemical molecular interactions inside the immune cells that produce the words. Hoffmann and his colleagues revealed in the journal Science in 2014 how and why the immune system's B cells respond only to true threats. In a study published in Cell in 2013, his team showed for the first time that it was possible to correct a cellular miscommunication involving the connection of receptors to genes during inflammation without severe side effects. ### Hoffmann's research is supported by the National Institutes of Health. Other co-authors of the current research are UCLA M.D.-Ph.D. student Katherine Sheu, UCLA postdoctoral researchers Yi Liu and Stefanie Luecke, and Brooks Taylor, a former UCLA doctoral student who initiated the research. All of them work or have worked in Hoffmann's laboratory. Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) affects between one and two of every 10,000 new-born babies. This genetic disease leads to the formation of benign tumours which can massively impair the proper functioning of vital organs such as the kidneys, the liver and the brain. The disease affects different patients to varying degrees and is triggered by mutations in one of two genes, the TSC1 or TSC2 gene. An interdisciplinary team of researchers led by biochemists Prof. Daniel Kummel and Dr. Andrea Oeckinghaus from the University of Munster (Germany) examined the "tumour suppressor protein TSC1" and, for the first time, gained insights into its hitherto unclear functions. The team identified a new mechanism, in a central cellular process, which regulates cell growth. The results can also help in understanding how Tuberous Sclerosis Complex arises. The results of the study have now been published in the journal Molecular Cell (advance publication online). Mutations concern a "burr effect" The TSC1 protein and the TSC2 protein together form the TSC protein complex. This has the task of controlling cell growth and, as a result, of suppressing the emergence of tumours - hence the term "tumour suppressor". Previously, it had largely been unclear what the functions of TSC1 were. Similarly, little was known about the mechanism which is affected by certain mutations in the TSC1 gene in the occurrence of the disease. The researchers have now found out that one part of the TSC1 protein, a so-called domain, can bind to the surfaces of lysosomal membranes. Lysosomes are small compartments in the interior of the cell, surrounded by a membrane, which contain digestive enzymes. On their surface there are certain control centres which are important for the regulation of cell growth. The TSC1 protein ensures that the entire TSC complex arrives at these control centres and prevents any uncontrolled cell growth by inhibiting the activity of an important signal protein called "mTOR" - "Mechanistic Target of Rapamycin". "In this process," Daniel Kummel explains, "TSC1 uses a strategy reminiscent of the principle of the burr. The burr's individual hooks stick to material only very weakly, but lots of hooks together provide a firm attachment." The study shows that TSC1's individual membrane binding domain only forms a weak attachment. However, a strong attachment becomes possible with a controlled aggregation of a large number of TSC1 molecules. "Mutations occur particularly frequently in the membrane binding domain," says Andrea Oeckinghaus. "We assume that some of the pathogenic effects can now be explained by a loss of the correct localization of the TSC complex." Membrane component regulates cell growth Another discovery the team made is that the properties of the membrane surface can influence the way the TSC complex functions and, as a result, the growth processes in the cell. More precisely, the team identified a special component in the membrane: a lipid called phosphatidylinositol 3,5-bisphosphate (PI3,5P2), which is necessary for the activity of the TSC complex. Depending on how often it occurs on the membrane's surface, it has different effects on the activity. "As the production and breakdown of this lipid are regulated," says Daniel Kummel, "this opens up entirely new perspectives on how cell growth can be controlled. This means that our results are an exciting starting point for further studies." The team of researchers used a broad range of methods in its investigations, starting from approaches using structural biology and biochemistry, and also involving cell-biological experiments. "The resulting insights into mechanistic and physiological aspects were only possible through our interfaculty collaboration," says Kummel. The work was carried out jointly by the team headed by Dr. Andrea Oeckinghaus (Munster University Faculty of Medicine and Munster University Hospital, Institute of Molecular Tumour Biology) and the team led by Prof. Daniel Kummel (Munster University Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Institute of Biochemistry). Important contributions were made by partners at the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Ageing, Cologne (team headed by Dr. Constantinos Demetriades) and at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology, Dortmund (team led by Prof. Stephan Raunser). ### A Torrington police sergeant is fired after body cam video shows him using excessive force on a handcuffed man in a wheelchair. Sgt. Gerald Jay Peters pepper-sprays the man, then forces him to the floor. Peters can also be heard using foul language and threatening the man. Video shot from two different angles show two other officers also in the room. The two fellow officers back away as Peters pepper-sprays him. The incident happened on May 23, 2020. Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science & Technology will continue to foster research collaborations between NASA Goddard and partner institutions The Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science & Technology II (CRESST II), a partnership between NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and four universities--led by researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park's (UMD) Department of Astronomy--has received an extension of its cooperative agreement through March 2027 and been funded in the amount of $178 million. The extension will enable the center to continue current collaborations and expand on the partnership's success. CRESST was created in 2006 with a 10-year cooperative agreement, and CRESST II began in 2017 with a five-year cooperative agreement of $87.5 million. CRESST II's goal was to continue to facilitate collaborations between researchers at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and space scientists from CRESST II partner institutions. Led by UMD, CRESST II partner institutions include the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC); the Catholic University of America, Howard University and the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA). "Team Maryland is proud of the close relationship between the University of Maryland and federal agencies like NASA that keeps our nation and our state on the cutting edge of research and technology," said U.S. Senator Ben Cardin. "NASA's decision to renew and enhance the CRESST II Partnership, led by the University of Maryland, College Park and including the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), builds on a successful collaboration and will continue to develop top-notch scientific talent at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Prince George's County." Roughly 160 CRESST II scientists are involved in the construction and testing of instrumentation for NASA missions, the planning of future missions and the development of new technology to enable future missions. Through CRESST II, partner institution scientists contribute to a range of space science and research projects, from probing the universe with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope to analyzing the interiors of neutron stars with the Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer and studying the atmosphere and surface of Mars with the Mars Exploration Program. "The CRESST partnership provides an amazing opportunity for government and university researchers to jointly advance NASA research and space science," said Laurie Locascio, vice president for research at UMD. "The collaboration has demonstrated the value of our partnership and our capability to do great work together." The close association between NASA Goddard and the CRESST II partner institutions enhances STEM education and diversity, creates opportunities to train a new generation of leaders in space science, and provides researchers with critical space science data from current and past NASA missions. The cooperative agreement extension reflects the success of these partnerships in advancing NASA's research goals. "As a campus, we are proud of our quarter-century of close research collaboration with NASA Goddard, and we appreciate the fruitful partnership with our colleagues at the University of Maryland and other institutions under the CRESST II program, which we launched together over four years ago," said Karl Steiner, vice president for research at UMBC. In addition to establishing research collaborations, a key component of the partnership is to provide opportunities for students to conduct research and contribute to NASA missions. "It's a real opportunity for students to get involved with the kind of research that is uniquely able to be done at Goddard, both in terms of having access to the scientific expertise of people using space exploration instruments and the people building next generation instrumentation at Goddard," said Lee Mundy, professor of astronomy at UMD and director of CRESST II. The partnership currently supports more than a dozen graduate students who are working at NASA Goddard to complete their Ph.D.s with both NASA and university advisors. Undergraduate students also participate in research projects at NASA Goddard during the academic year, and the CRESST II Summer Internship Program supports more than a dozen interns annually. There are also opportunities for students recently awarded bachelor's degrees to receive individual mentoring, career workshops and work experiences prior to pursuing graduate degrees. "The partnerships have been phenomenal," said Don Engel, Director of UMBC's Center for Space Science and Technology (CSST) and assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. "Through having multiple institutions, we're able to learn from each other's ideas and strengths. We can tap into the broader resources at each of our institutions for things like trainings." Over the coming years, CRESST II scientists and students look forward to opportunities expanding with new missions, such as the launching of the James Webb Space Telescope. ### Media Relations Contact: Kimbra Cutlip, 301-405-9463, kcutlip@umd.edu University of Maryland College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences 2300 Symons Hall College Park, Md. 20742 http://www. cmns. umd. edu @UMDscience About the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences The College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences at the University of Maryland educates more than 9,000 future scientific leaders in its undergraduate and graduate programs each year. The college's 10 departments and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research centers foster scientific discovery with annual sponsored research funding exceeding $200 million. Research, from Com-COV study comparing mixed dosing schedules of Pfizer / Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, shows increase in the frequency of mild-moderate symptoms in those receiving either mixed dosing schedule Research, from Com-COV study comparing mixed dosing schedules of Pfizer / Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, shows increase in the frequency of mild-moderate symptoms in those receiving either mixed dosing schedule Adverse reactions were short-lived, with no other safety concerns Impact of mixed schedules on immunogenicity unknown as yet, with data to follow from this study Researchers running the University of Oxford-led Com-COV study - launched earlier this year to investigate alternating doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and the Pfizer vaccine - have today reported preliminary data revealing more frequent mild to moderate reactions in mixed schedules compared to standard schedules. Writing in a peer-reviewed Research Letter published in the Lancet, they report that, when given at a four-week interval, both of the 'mixed' schedules (Pfizer-BioNTech followed by Oxford-AstraZeneca, and Oxford-AstraZeneca followed by Pfizer-BioNTech) induced more frequent reactions following the 2nd, 'boost' dose than the standard, 'non-mixed' schedules. The add that any adverse reactions were short lived and there were no other safety concerns. Matthew Snape, Associate Professor in Paediatrics and Vaccinology at the University of Oxford, and Chief Investigator on the trial, said: 'Whilst this is a secondary part of what we are trying to explore through these studies, it is important that we inform people about these data, especially as these mixed-doses schedules are being considered in several countries. The results from this study suggest that mixed dose schedules could result in an increase in work absences the day after immunisation, and this is important to consider when planning immunisation of health care workers. 'Importantly, there are no safety concerns or signals, and this does not tell us if the immune response will be affected. We hope to report these data in the coming months. In the meantime, we have adapted the ongoing study to assess whether early and regular use of paracetamol reduces the frequency of these reactions.' They also noted that as the study data was recorded in participants aged 50 and above, there is a possibility such reactions may be more prevalent in younger age groups. ### Notes to Editors: Sadly, the lead researchers have extremely limited availability, and as such, will not be available for interview. A briefing, under embargo, will be hosted at 12:30 (GMT +1) by the UK Science Media Centre. To sign up, please visit: https:/ / us02web. zoom. us/ webinar/ register/ 9216034472618/ WN_y9fcXjfATkS-salYeJnj-w About the Com-Cov trial: For full information, visit: https:/ / comcovstudy. org. uk/ The study has been classified as an Urgent Public Health study by the NIHR and is being undertaken by NISEC and the Oxford Vaccine Group, with funding of 7 million from the government through the Vaccines Taskforce. The University of Oxford is leading the study, run by the National Immunisation Schedule Evaluation Consortium (NISEC) and backed by 7 million of government funding from the Vaccines Taskforce. It aims to evaluate the feasibility of using a different vaccine for the initial 'prime' vaccination to the follow-up 'booster' vaccination, helping policymakers explore whether this could be a viable route to increase the flexibility of vaccination programmes. The trial recruited 830 volunteers aged 50 and above from eight National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) supported sites in England to evaluate the four different combinations of prime and booster vaccination: a first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine followed by boosting with either the Pfizer vaccine or a further dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, or a first dose of the Pfizer vaccine followed by boosting with either the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine or a further dose of the Pfizer vaccine. In April, the researchers expanded the programme to include the Moderna and Novavax vaccines in a new study (Com-Cov2), run across nine National Institute for Health Research supported sites by NISEC and backed through funding from the Vaccines Taskforce and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. Volunteers would have received either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine, and then randomly allocated to receive either the same vaccine for their second dose or a dose of the COVID-19 vaccines produced by Moderna or Novavax. The six new 'arms' of the trial each aimed to recruit 175 candidates, adding a further 1050 recruits into this programme. Both studies are designed as so-called 'non-inferiority' studies - the intent is to demonstrate that mixing is not substantially worse than not mixing - and will compare the immune system responses to the gold-standard responses reported in previous clinical trials of each vaccine. About the Oxford Vaccine Group The Oxford Vaccine Group (OVG) conducts studies of new and improved vaccines for children and adults and is based in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Oxford. The multidisciplinary group includes consultants in vaccinology, a Director of Clinical Trials, a Senior Clinical Trials Manager, adult and paediatric clinical research fellows, adult and paediatric research nurses, project managers, statisticians, QA manager, Clinical Trials IT and Development Lead, and an administration team. The team also includes post-doctoral scientists, research assistants and DPhil students and we work together with professionals from a range of specialities such as immunologists, microbiologists, epidemiologists, health communicators, and a sociologist, a community paediatrician, the local Health Protection team and a bioethicist. OVG is a UKCRC registered clinical trials unit working in collaboration with the Primary Care Trials Unit at the University (registration number: 52). About the National Institute for Health Research The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is the nation's largest funder of health and care research. The NIHR was established in 2006 to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research, and is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. In addition to its national role, the NIHR commissions applied health research to benefit the poorest people in low- and middle-income countries, using Official Development Assistance funding. About the Vaccines Taskforce The Vaccines Taskforce (VTF) is a joint unit in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC). The VTF was set up to ensure that the UK population has access to clinically effective and safe vaccines as soon as possible, while working with partners to support international access to successful vaccines. The Vaccines Taskforce comprises a dedicated team of private sector industry professionals and officials from across government who are working at speed to build a portfolio of promising vaccine candidates that can end the global pandemic. The UK has secured early access to 517 million doses of eight of the most promising vaccine candidates. This includes agreements with: BioNTech/Pfizer for 100 million doses Valneva for 100 million doses Oxford/AstraZeneca who will work to supply 100 million doses of the vaccine being developed by Oxford University GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur to buy 60 million doses Novavax for 60 million doses Janssen for 30 million doses of their not-for-profit vaccine, alongside funding of their Phase 3 clinical trial Moderna for 17 million doses CureVac for 50 million doses The Vaccines Taskforce's approach to securing access to vaccines is through: procuring the rights to a diverse range of promising vaccine candidates to spread risk and optimise chances for success providing funding for clinical studies, diagnostic monitoring and regulatory support to rapidly evaluate vaccines for safety and efficacy providing funding and support for manufacturing scale-up and fill and finish at risk so that the UK has vaccines produced at scale and ready for administration should any of these prove successful About the University of Oxford Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the fifth year running, and at the heart of this success is our ground-breaking research and innovation. Oxford is world-famous for research excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions. Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 200 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past three years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded researchers at The University of Toledo $1.4 million to develop enhanced technology for early detection and management of harmful algal blooms, Lake Erie's environmental menace and a worldwide problem. Dr. Youngwoo Seo, professor of civil and environmental engineering and chemical engineering in the UToledo College of Engineering, leads the three-year project to improve water quality from the source to the tap. Some of the technology and techniques being tested by UToledo are new to water treatment plants in the western hemisphere. Water treatment plants in northwest Ohio are collaborating on the project along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Ohio State University and Sepro Inc. Participating municipal water treatment plants include Toledo, Bowling Green, Celina and Oregon. The project features two different parts working together: Advanced monitoring sensors and molecular genetic analyses to enhance early harmful algal bloom detection and real-time condition diagnostic capability; and Nature-inspired biological treatment methods coupled with algaecides to attack cyanobacteria and degrade toxins produced by cyanobacteria. "We are excited that our proposed method and new techniques can make real changes for water utilities and the water quality in the lake," Seo said. "It has great potential to be a more sustainable way to handle the cyanobacteria and their toxins." "Harmful algal blooms are a growing and costly problem affecting the nation," said Dr. Jen Seiter-Moser, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center's acting technical director for civil works, environmental engineering and sciences. "At ERDC, we benefit from collaboration with other federal, academic and industry partners. We're looking forward to working with our UToledo partners to find solutions that can be applied regionally and then scaled up for nationwide application." Dr. Thomas Bridgeman, professor of ecology in the UToledo College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and director of the UToledo Lake Erie Center, will lead the monitoring. First, he will test new instruments called fluoroprobes in the lab using algal cultures. The second stage will be to use them in Lake Erie, and finally work with water treatment plants to incorporate these instruments as part of their source water monitoring. The sensors can detect the health, or physiological condition, of the cyanobacteria -- whether the cyanobacterial cells are becoming fragile and leaky, releasing their toxins into the water -- along with the concentration of cyanobacteria and how blooms react to water treatment chemicals. "These monitoring sensors made by the German company bbe Moldaenke are capable of easily detecting when cyanobacterial cells are starting to rupture, which could be a powerful tool for water utility managers to respond to and minimize toxin release," Bridgeman said. Dr. Dae-Wook Kang, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering in the UToledo College of Engineering, will lead a molecular approach to develop a robust detection method. He will obtain rich microbial DNA, RNA and metabolomic information from samples, which can be an indicator of cell metabolism, and try to better identify the biomarker for the harmful algal bloom. "Harmful algal blooms are outcomes of a complex network between cyanobacteria and neighboring competitors such as cyanophages and eukaryotes. By integrating these dynamic microbiome data together with sensor and water chemical data, we aim to develop an early and rapid detection tool of harmful algal blooms," Kang said. "In the lake we have harmful algal blooms but also other bacteria that interact with each other," Seo said. "Sometimes cyanobacteria don't produce high concentrations of toxins even when the bloom is large. Sometimes we have a small bloom, but have high concentrations of toxins." Kang is using molecular techniques to decipher how the water conditions affect algal blooms and the bloom conditions and how other microorganisms in the water interact with cyanobacteria and impact bloom conditions. That analysis will help better understand what triggers the toxin gene production of cyanobacteria. Seo is focused on mitigation and the treatment method for toxin removal. His lab is working on biological degradation of cyanobacteria and their toxins using the naturally occurring bacteria and viruses from the lake and NSF-approved chemical treatments. "Once we detect the harmful algal bloom, we will try to reduce the algal bloom in early stages, using bacteria and algicide treatments of the cyanobacteria and their toxin directly in the lake to control the toxin from spreading," Seo said. "We are collaborating with microbiologists at the Ohio State University who have isolated different viruses of the cyanobacteria, and we are evaluating their effectiveness to control the harmful algal bloom." Seo says the goal is to introduce new techniques to mitigate the harmful algal blooms through early detection and work with water treatment plants to optimize and improve their treatment methods. ### Anyone who's raised a child or a pet will know just how fast and how steady their growth seems to be. You leave for a few days on a work trip and when you come home the child seems to have grown 10cm! That's all well and good for the modern household, but how did dinosaurs grow up? Did they, too, surprise their parents with their non-stop growth? A new study lead by Dr Kimberley Chapelle of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand suggests NOT. At least for one iconic southern African dinosaur species. By looking at the fossil thigh bones under a microscope, researchers can count growth lines, like those of a tree. This allows them to study how much the individuals grew each year. By looking at growth rings in the bones of Massospondylus carinatus, Dr Chapelle was able to show that its growth varied season-to-season, more like a tree than a puppy or a baby human. "These things were just all over the show" said Chapelle, "one year they might gain 100kg of body weight and the next year they'd only grow by 10kg!" Massospondylus was a medium sized dinosaur, up to 500kg in body weight, that lived in the Early Jurassic, so 200 million years ago. It fed on plants like ferns. The study suggests that Massospondylus' growth directly responded to its environmental conditions. In a good year with lots of rain and food, the species might race ahead, almost doubling their size. In a bad year where nutrients were scarce, it might hardly grow at all. Chapelle and her colleagues suggest that such a growth strategy might have helped Massospondylus cope with the harsh environmental conditions following the end-Triassic Mass Extinction 200 million years ago, when more than 50% of species were wiped out. "Massospondylus was one of the first Southern African dinosaurs named back in 1854 and we are still learning so much from it. It teaches us so much about our past environments and what southern Africa was like 200 million years ago" said Chapelle. "This study shows the power of big sample sizes," said Jonah Choiniere, Professor at Wits University and co-author of the study, "when we can study a dinosaur from embryo to adult, like Massospondylus, we can begin to understand them as living animals." "It is exciting to see such varied growth patterns in a dinosaur, showing us there is still so much to learn about these unique creatures!" said Dr Jennifer Botha from the National Museum, Bloemfontein, a co-author on the study. ### When the Big One hits, the first thing Washington residents notice may not be the ground shaking but their phone issuing a warning. The U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Washington-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, and the Washington Emergency Management District on Tuesday, May 4, will activate the system that sends earthquake early warnings throughout Washington state. This completes the tri-state rollout of ShakeAlert, an automated system that gives people living in Washington, Oregon and California advance warning of incoming earthquakes. "For the first time, advance warning of imminent earthquake shaking will be a reality in our region. Even just seconds up to a minute of warning is enough to prepare yourself and take cover -- actions that may spare you from injury or even save your life," said Harold Tobin, a UW professor of Earth and space sciences and director of the PNSN, which conducts the seismic monitoring in Washington and Oregon. Once the system goes live on May 4, the first signs of an earthquake above a magnitude 4.5 or 5, about when the shaking becomes noticeable indoors, will trigger an alert and a reminder to drop, cover and hold on. Warning times range from a few seconds to tens of seconds depending on the user's distance to the epicenter. The launch will be silent -- there will be no test on May 4. See a related video: https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v= J_g9vOSWLvw The PNSN operates a growing network of about 230 seismic stations in Washington and some 155 stations in Oregon that provide data for ShakeAlert. When four or more of these instruments detect unusual shaking, that motion is analyzed by computers, some of them on the UW campus, that quickly calculate the size and location of the event. People connected to the Wireless Emergency Alert system (the same system that produces AMBER alerts), will now get earthquake alerts for events of magnitude 5 or greater, using a similar interface. Alerts for events of magnitude 4.5 or above will be integrated into Android devices, where screens will also show the earthquake's approximate magnitude and location. When people get an alert, they should use the brief warning to seek immediate protection, following this safety advice. No downloads are required - find out how to get alerts. The ShakeAlert system, similar to existing early warning systems in Mexico and Japan, began sending alerts to Californians in 2019 and to Oregonians in March. With the addition of Washington state, the system will now issue warnings to millions of people at risk from the largest possible earthquake in the lower 48 states -- a rupture of the offshore Cascadia Subduction Zone, a 700-mile fault that runs from California's Cape Mendocino to the tip of Canada's Vancouver Island (discovered in part through UW research). The alerts will also warn of potentially damaging earthquakes that are more likely to occur sooner, on one of two dozen crustal faults in the Puget Sound region alone, or deeper slips on the underlying ocean plate. The system works by detecting the first signs of an earthquake before the slower-moving but more damaging ground-shaking waves arrive. The PNSN began testing the ShakeAlert system with select Washington and Oregon businesses, utilities and organizations in 2015. Besides the individual alerts on phones, the system will be available for organizations or businesses to incorporate into their emergency plans -- for instance, to close water valves, slow trains to prevent derailment, halt surgeries or pause sensitive equipment before the shaking starts. "Business in the pilot program have used these alerts to close valves for water natural gas, stop rotating equipment and alert employees. We have also partnered with Stanwood Elementary School, which has connected the system to its PA system so students can do earthquake drills that use ShakeAlert," said PNSN communications manager Bill Steele, who has coordinated the regional test users. Scientists at the PNSN are continuing to improve the system. About 65% of the planned seismic stations in the network are complete in Washington state. PNSN field teams will install more seismometers through late 2025 in places like the Olympic Peninsula and eastern Washington. "The network is successfully detecting earthquakes now, but that doesn't mean we can't make it even better. We're continuing to install seismometers and improve algorithms to make the alerts faster and more reliable, to give people more warning time and lower the chance of any missed events or false alarms," Tobin said. Initial development of the earthquake alert system by three West Coast universities, including the UW, began a decade ago and was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The buildout of the system was funded by Congress, with major grants administered by the USGS in 2015 and 2019, and completed by federal and state agencies working with a consortium of four West Coast universities: the UW; the University of Oregon; the University of California, Berkeley; and the California Institute of Technology. The Washington system also got state funding in the 2020-21 budget. Private support for Washington's system has also come from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Amazon, Puget Sound Energy and individual donors. ### For more information, contact Tobin at htobin@uw.edu, Steele at wsteele@uw.edu and 206-601-5978, or PNSN ShakeAlert user engagement lead Gabriel Lotto at glotto@uw.edu. The Hong Kong Society of Rheumatology published their consensus recommendations for COVID-19 vaccination in adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases May 1, 2021 - Rheumatologists in Hong Kong joined hands to develop a set of consensus statements on COVID-19 vaccination for local adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. These timely statements would serve to be a guide for rheumatologists, other specialists, family physicians, specialty nurses, and the public regarding COVID-19 vaccination for patients with rheumatic diseases. Vaccination against SAR-CoV-2 is a new campaign and a high immunization rate is believed to be the key to end the pandemic. Currently, there are two COVID-19 vaccines available in Hong Kong--the inactivated virus vaccine CoronaVac (Sinovac) and the mRNA-based vaccine Comirnaty (BioNTech/Fosun). However, due to the paucity of experience in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases, there are concerns from patients regarding the efficacy and safety of the new COVID-19 vaccines. This underscores the importance of input from rheumatologists in providing appropriate advice to patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases and other health-care providers on the COVID-19 vaccines. The Hong Kong Society of Rheumatology (HKSR) took the lead to develop a set of consensus statements for the use of COVID-19 vaccines in local adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Twenty-seven core members of the HKSR, including council members and rheumatologist-in-charge of most hospitals, met by teleconference on March 19, 2021, to discuss clinical questions related to COVID-19 vaccination in adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases. Important clinical questions were summarized and statements were drafted. A systemic literature search was subsequently conducted to identify and grade the relevant evidence and the strength of recommendations for each statement. A total of eight statements were finalized. Full members of the HKSR were invited to show their agreement to the statements in an on-line survey. Consensus of all the eight statements was reached after two rounds of voting. The eight statements with their grade of evidence and strength of recommendations are: Statement 1 "There is limited evidence to suggest that adult patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases have increased risk of COVID-19 infection." Grade of Evidence: C Strength of recommendation: B Statement 2 "Adults patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases may develop more severe COVID-19 infection than the general population." Grade of Evidence: C Strength of recommendation: A Statement 3 "Vaccination against COVID-19 is recommended for patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases that are under reasonable control. Local guidelines and precautions of the respective vaccines should be followed." Grade of Evidence: D Strength of recommendation: A Statement 4 "The immunogenicity of various COVID-19 vaccines in patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases is currently uncertain. In view of the concomitant immunomodulating/ immunosuppressive medications, the efficacy of these vaccines might be compromised." Grade of Evidence: C Strength of recommendation: B Statement 5 "There is no evidence of increased risk of disease flares or adverse events in autoimmune rheumatic diseases, in the absence of other comorbidities, after COVID-19 vaccination." Grade of Evidence: C Strength of recommendation: A Statement 6 "There is currently no evidence that adjusting the dosage schedule of immunosuppressive drugs would enhance the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines." Grade of Evidence: D Strength of recommendation: B Statement 7 "In patients using heavy immunosuppressive or multiple treatment modalities, particularly those with long half-lives, a discussion with attending rheumatologists is suggested for the need to adjust dosage schedule on an individual basis." Grade of Evidence: D Strength of recommendation: B. Statement 8 "In patients receiving rituximab, COVID-19 vaccine is best administered shortly before the next due dose. When the underlying autoimmune rheumatic diseases are stable, postponement of rituximab infusion for 4 weeks might be considered." Grade of Evidence: D Strength of recommendation: B "This set of consensus recommendations was developed by more than 60% of the practicing rheumatologists in our locality. It took into consideration the limited existing evidence and local perspectives such as the availability of specific vaccines as well as the outbreak situation in Hong Kong. Our recommendations also emphasize patient-centered discussion and individualized decision," says Dr Chi Chiu Mok, the lead of the project, of Tuen Mun Hospital. "Specific trials on various aspects of COVID-19 vaccines in patients with rheumatic diseases are expected to flourish in the coming months. The information in the current recommendations will likely need to be updated upon the emergence of new data." adds Dr Ronald Yip, the President of the HKSR. The HKSR members who participated in the preparation meeting for the consensus statements or the subsequent Delphi exercise included (in alphabetical order): Drs. Chi Kit Au, Tak Hin Chan, Ka Ho Chan, Julia Chan, Eric Pak To Chan, Lucia Chau, Tommy Cheung, Sammas Chu, Ho Yin Chung, Natalia Ciang, Carmen Ho, Ling Yin Ho, Kitty Yan Kwok, Billy Lai, Virginia Lao, Chak Sing Lau, Clara Law, Ka Lai Lee, Gavin Lee, Patrick Man Leung Lee, Samson Lee, Moon Ho Leung, Edmund Li, Philip Hei Li, Kai Yiu Ma, Kam Hung Ng, Woon Leung Ng, Ray Ng, Hin Ting Pang, Lydia Tam, Lai Shan Tam, Ronald Tan, Sandy Tang, Chi Hung To, Man Choi Wan, Victor Tak Lung Wong, Raymond Wong, Priscilla Wong, Stella Wong, Sandy Woo, Winnie Yeung, Cheuk Wan Yim, Shirley Ying, Carrel Yu, and Catherine Yuen. The paper The Hong Kong Society of Rheumatology Consensus Recommendations for COVID-19 Vaccination in Adult Patients with Autoimmune Rheumatic Diseases can be found in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology and Immunology https:/ / www. worldscientific. com/ worldscinet/ jcri . ### For college students under pressure, a dog may be the best stress fighter around. Programs exclusively focused on petting therapy dogs improved stressed-out students' thinking and planning skills more effectively than programs that included traditional stress-management information, according to new Washington State University research. The study was published today in the journal AERA Open, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association. The paper demonstrated that stressed students still exhibited these cognitive skills improvements up to six weeks after completion of the four-week-long program. "It's a really powerful finding," said Patricia Pendry, associate professor in WSU's Department of Human Development. "Universities are doing a lot of great work trying to help students succeed academically, especially those who may be at risk due to a history of mental health issues or academic and learning issues. This study shows that traditional stress management approaches aren't as effective for this population compared with programs that focus on providing opportunities to interact with therapy dogs." The researchers measured executive functioning in the 309 students involved in the study. Executive function is a term for the skills one needs to plan, organize, motivate, concentrate, memorize: "all the big cognitive skills that are needed to succeed in college," Pendry said. Pendry conducted this study as a follow up to previous work, which found that petting animals for just 10 minutes had physiological impacts, reducing students' stress in the short-term. In the three-year study, students were randomly assigned to one of three academic stress-management programs featuring varying combinations of human-animal interaction and evidenced-based academic stress management. The dogs and volunteer handlers were provided through Palouse Paws, a local affiliate of Pet Partners, a national organization with over 10,000 therapy teams. "The results were very strong," Pendry said. "We saw that students who were most at risk ended up having most improvements in executive functioning in the human-animal interaction condition. These results remained when we followed up six weeks later." Many universities, including WSU, have provided academic stress management programs and workshops for many years. These are traditionally very similar to college classes, where students listen to an expert, watch slideshows and take notes. They're often evidence-based courses that talk about ways to get more sleep, set goals, or manage stress or anxiety. "These are really important topics, and these workshops are helping typical students succeed by teaching them how to manage stress," Pendry said. "Interestingly though, our findings suggest that these types of educational workshops are less effective for students that are struggling. It seems that students may experience these programs as another lecture, which is exactly what causes the students to feel stressed." Human-animal interaction programs help by letting struggling students relax as they talk and think about their stressors. Through petting animals, they are more likely to relax and cope with these stressors rather than become overwhelmed. This enhances students' ability to think, set goals, get motivated, concentrate and remember what they are learning, Pendry said. "If you're stressed, you can't think or take up information; learning about stress is stressful!" she said. Animal sessions aren't just about changing behavior; they help students engage in positive thoughts and actions. "You can't learn math just by being chill," Pendry said. "But when you are looking at the ability to study, engage, concentrate and take a test, then having the animal aspect is very powerful. Being calm is helpful for learning especially for those who struggle with stress and learning." ### Pendry conducted the study with the support of WSU graduate students Alexa Carr and Jaymie Vandagriff and Nancy Gee, professor and director of Virginia Commonwealth University's Center for Human-Animal Interaction. The study was supported by a grant through the WALTHAM Human-Animal Interaction Collaborative Research Program. Semiconductor companies and big businesses that use chips have formed a coalition to push for tens of billions of dollars in federal funding for semiconductor research and manufacturing in the United States. The new group, the Semiconductors in America Coalition, announced its formation on Tuesday amid a global semiconductor shortage that has caused disruptions throughout the economy. Its members include chip makers like Intel, Nvidia and Qualcomm and companies that rely on semiconductors, like Amazon Web Services, Apple, AT&T, Google, Microsoft and Verizon. The coalition is calling on Congress to provide $50 billion for semiconductor research and manufacturing, which President Biden has proposed as part of his $2.3 trillion infrastructure package. Leaders from a broad range of critical sectors of the U.S. economy, as well as a large and bipartisan group of policymakers in Washington, recognize the essential role of semiconductors in Americas current and future strength, said John Neuffer, the president and chief executive of the Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group. In a letter to congressional leaders, the new coalition noted the shortage of semiconductors and said that in the long term, federal funding would help America build the additional capacity necessary to have more resilient supply chains to ensure critical technologies will be there when we need them.The shortage has been acutely felt in the auto industry, forcing carmakers to idle plants. Ford Motor said last month that it expected the shortage to cut vehicle production by about 50 percent in the second quarter and lower the companys profit by about $2.5 billion this year. The new coalition does not include any automakers, which have their own ideas for how the government should encourage domestic semiconductor manufacturing. In a letter to congressional leaders last week, groups representing automakers, automotive suppliers and autoworkers expressed support for Mr. Bidens $50 billion proposal but emphasized the need to increase manufacturing capacity for automotive-grade chips as part of the effort. The letter from the American Automotive Policy Council, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association and the United Auto Workers union suggested providing specific funding for semiconductor facilities that commit to dedicating a portion of their capacity to motor vehicle-grade chip production. In a letter to congressional leaders last month, technology trade groups argued against setting aside new production capacity for a specific industry, saying that such a move would amount to unprecedented market interference. Thomas Kaplan : nytimes.com Brazil nationally suspended the vaccination of pregnant women with the AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot, after an expectant mother in Rio de Janeiro died from a stroke possibly related to the inoculation. Authorities are investigating the incident. Like a gender reveal gone wrong, last week's employment report delivered an unexpected surprise. Economists estimated 975,000 new jobs would be created in April. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported there were just 266,000. That's a big miss. Economists, analysts, and the media offered a wealth of theories to explain the shortfall. These included: Pandemic fear. A March U.S. Census survey found 4.2 million people aren't working because they fear getting or spreading the coronavirus, reported Gwynn Guilford of The Wall Street Journal. That's more than half of the 8.2 million non-farm jobs that need to be recovered to reach pre-pandemic employment levels. Too-generous unemployment benefits. Another theory is federal unemployment benefits ($300 a week) have created a labor shortage. The theory is being tested. Last week, Montana announced it will no longer participate in federal unemployment programs. Instead, it will offer a $1,200 return-to-work bonus, reported Greg Iacurci of CNBC. Low pay. Some say Americans are less willing to work for low pay than they were before the pandemic. Christopher Rugaber of the AP interviewed a Texas staffing office manager who reported job seekers are turning down jobs that pay less than unemployment benefits. A former retail worker told Heather Long of The Washington Post, "The problem is we are not making enough money to make it worth it to go back to these jobs that are difficult and dirty and usually thankless. You're getting yelled at and disrespected all day." Lack of childcare. Many women who want to work left jobs during the pandemic to care for children. The April employment report showed a slight decrease in the rate of unemployment for adult women; however, it resulted from women giving up on job searches rather than finding work. The Institute for Women's Policy Research reported, "more women continued to exit rather than enter the workforce: 165,000 fewer women had jobs or were actively looking for work in April than in March." Quirky data. Statistical distortions or seasonal factors could be responsible. "The more time the market has to digest [the] report, the more the report seems a bit of an anomaly relative to other data," said a deputy chief investment officer cited by Mamta Badkar and Naomi Rovnick of Financial Times. Other data include the ADP National Employment Report which showed 742,000 new jobs in April. The report reflects real-time data on one-fifth of U.S. private payroll employment. Rethinking work. "There is also growing evidence both anecdotal and in surveys that a lot of people want to do something different with their lives than they did before the pandemic. The coronavirus outbreak has had a dramatic psychological effect on workers, and people are reassessing what they want to do and how they want to work, whether in an office, at home, or some hybrid combination," reported The Washington Post. U.S. financial markets shrugged off the news. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index finished the week at a record high, and 10-year Treasury rates finished Friday where they started. Best regards, Womack Investment Advisers, Inc. Statistically, those million people more often than not go to New York to fly and not to Bradley, Scanlon said. So we dont really view this as a competition with Bradley. Yeah, in some sense, maybe it would be, but were not looking at them as where we are going to take from. Its more about a two-airport strategy for Connecticut. A bill that would have extended for another decade the states controversial Chapter 313 tax breaks for corporations was effectively killed in the Texas House this week. Property tax breaks granted through the program will drain nearly $1.7 billion from the states coffers through 2022 to pay corporations that relocate to, or expand in, the state. Chapter 313 backers say the incentive cuts the tax bill for companies looking to invest in Texas. Without the giveaway, supporters say, a company could go to a state thats more generous with public subsidies. On ExpressNews.com: Tax-break program to cost Texas $1 billion a year by 2022. Tesla soon will be a beneficiary Opponents say the program isnt needed to lure firms to Texas and hurts the states public school funding. The program creates a major tax drain to our state budget, which represents millions that could be spent on schools and other important priorities, which is why we have worked on this policy all session, San Antonio grassroots organization COPS/Metro and its sister organizations in Texas said in a statement. The Texas Legislature passed Chapter 313, known as the Texas Economic Development Act, in 2001. Lawmakers worried that Texas, with its high property taxes, wouldnt be able to attract companies to the state. The Chapter 313 provision allows school districts to grant companies looking to expand to their jurisdictions lower taxable properties value for 10 years. School boards usually grant the tax breaks for manufacturing, petrochemical and renewable energy facilities, which are expensive to develop. And in Texas, which doesnt have a personal state income tax, property tax bills are high compared to other states. That makes lowering a projects property tax bill a priority for businesses. In exchange for the tax break, the firm promises to build the facility and create a certain number of jobs that pay above-average wages, though companies can and do have their job-creation requirements waived. Rep. Jim Murphy, R-Houston, sought to expand the program through House Bill 1556, which would have extended Chapter 313 through 2032. Murphy wanted the program to also apply to upgrades and renovations that companies make at existing properties. That would have expanded the number of eligible projects, and allowed firms to double-dip in the tax break program. A series of amendments tacked onto the bill Monday by Republican and Democratic members of the House all but sunk the measure. Rep. Tony Tinderholt, R-Arlington, added an amendment that struck the language allowing companies to receive an abatement for renovating, modernizing or upgrading a facility. Allowing project expansions, renovations and refurbishments to qualify for the property tax relief benefits of Chapter 313 would increase the number of projects eligible for the program, perhaps significantly, analysts with the states Legislative Budget Board said in a May 3 fiscal note on Murphys bill. Refurbishments and renovations of existing large and small manufacturing facilities and renewable energy projects in Texas have occurred without Chapter 313 tax incentives, the analysts wrote. Instead, a smaller bill HB 4242, which passed the House last week would extend Chapter 313 for two years to allow lawmakers to study the program. Its likely that bill will become law, said Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio. I think (Murphy) got the message that the best thing we need to do with 313s is to study them over the course of the interim and come back with pragmatic policy, said Martinez Fischer, who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, which has been examining Chapter 313. Opponents of Chapter 313 also say the program leaves major economic development decisions up to school district administrators at a handful of districts that grant the majority of 313 tax breaks. Two Houston-area school districts, Barbers Hill and Brazosport, have approved about 10 percent of the 509 total active Chapter 313 agreements, according to Texas Comptrollers office. When a company wants to move into an area, the local school district has little reason to deny it the giveaway. Any money a school district would lose in tax revenue by offering a Chapter 313 incentive is refunded from the states general fund. Companies that receive Chapter 313 tax breaks typically take the money they saved in taxes and pay the school district about 40 percent of that sum so-called supplemental payments. School districts face little risk by offering the tax break, thanks to the state refund. And the districts pocket the supplemental payments from applicant companies with few strings attached. That companies coming to Texas are willing to pay the school district a chunk of their tax savings shows the tax benefits are likely too large and perhaps unnecessary altogether, said researchers at the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation and liberal think tank Every Texan. On ExpressNews.com: Texas lawmakers likely to extend costly, controversial tax break The two organizations issued a joint statement opposing the extension of Chapter 313. Research and experience show that abatements are an unnecessary and wasteful perk and companies would have come to Texas regardless, the two groups said. Its time to call these tax breaks what they are: handouts to favored industries and to the few school districts that use them to incentivize companies to locate there. On the other hand, rural school district administrators have argued to lawmakers that Chapter 313 is one of the few tools they have to attract investment and boost the districts tax revenue. The supplemental payments that companies pay school districts have funded things such as vocational training and other programs small districts cant otherwise afford. Chapter 313 is one of those mechanisms that allows a property-poor district to have a boon that will allow us to do what we call legacy projects, said J.R. Proctor, superintendent of Axtell ISD outside of Waco, which has fewer than 800 students. Martinez Fischer points to Toyotas South Side truck factory as a good example of a 313 agreement that produces robust investment and new jobs. Murphys proposal, however, would have tipped the balance too far in favor of industry and away from policymakers, he said. When were spending millions of dollars in incentive programs, and theres not a guarantee were going to create local jobs or pay a living wage, something is wrong with that policy, Martinez Fischer said. The best policy is to extend (Chapter 313) for two years, study it top to bottom all ideas are on the table and see if we can come back with balanced policy. diego.mendoza-moyers@express-news.net Patricia Ann Doucet worked for Dr. Steven A. Davis dermatology practice for 16 years before she was fired last year for allegedly embezzling from the business. Doucet, 74, now is facing a slew of criminal charges over her time at Dermatology & Laser Center of San Antonio. A federal grand jury last month indicted Doucet, the practices former officer manager, on 14 charges, including bank fraud, two counts of aggravated identity theft and 10 counts of wire fraud. Authorities subsequently arrested Doucet in Shreveport, La. Her arraignment and detention hearing are scheduled for June 6 in San Antonio. Prosecutors intend to argue that shes a flight risk and should remain jailed until her trial. She could spend years in federal prison if convicted on the charges. Doucet defrauded Davis practice and StemBioSys Inc., a San Antonio biomedical company he cofounded, to pay rent, buy airplane tickets and make purchases at Target and Amazon, according to the indictment. Davis has accused her of diverting about $300,000 in cash and checks from the practice beginning in 2012. File photo On ExpressNews.com: Alleged embezzlement at San Antonio dermatology practice sparks lawsuit against Frost Bank He laid out the alleged scheme in a lawsuit filed against Frost Bank last summer. In an amended complaint in October, Davis accused the San Antonio bank of assisting and participating in the alleged fraud. Frost substantially assisted Doucet in Doucets scheme to convert Davis Practice funds and then negligently or fraudulently concealed her wrongdoings, Davis alleged. A Frost spokesman has said it does not comment on pending litigation and has a policy of not discussing customer matters publicly. According to the complaint, Davis and colleagues from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio organized a regenerative medicine symposium in March 2012. Frost instructed Davis to open a temporary deposit account in the symposiums name at the bank to handle sponsorship funding, the suit said. Frost was supposed to close the account after the event but never did, Davis alleged. Doucet began using the account to transfer cash and checks from his practice, he added. Davis said he regularly monitored 13 accounts with Frost online and had hundreds of interactions with Frost employees but there was never any mention of the symposium account. Frost accepted more than 300 checks payable to his practice but deposited into the symposium account, Davis suit said. None of the checks, including one for $34,000, was payable to the symposium. Each diverted check bore either a manual for deposit only endorsement, or an alteration of the practices deposit stamp that crossed out a legitimate account number and inserted the symposium account number, the suit added. Davis didnt uncover the alleged fraud until March of last year, when he realized the symposium account was never closed. Davis wants Frost to pay the practice for all unauthorized transfers, but he said the bank refuses. In an answer to the complaint, Frost said it reserves the right to show that Davis damages were caused by his or others negligence and failure to exercise ordinary care. Frost has appealed a state District Court judges ruling denying the banks motion to compel arbitration in the dispute. The appeals court has yet to rule. SA Inc.: Get the best of business news sent directly to your inbox Davis filed another lawsuit in February in state District Court in San Antonio, this one against Doucet and JPMorgan Chase Bank. The case subsequently was removed to San Antonio federal court. He alleged Doucet applied with Chase for a credit card in the name of StemBioSys, which makes advanced stem cell technologies, without his consent. She used the Chase card for her personal expenses from September 2012 until March 2020, Davis said. To make payments on the Chase account, Davis said, Doucet stole money from another bank and began diverting tens of thousands of dollars from the practice. Another financial institution issued a credit card to Doucet and took responsibility for its fault in contributing to Doucets fraudulent scheme, Davis lawsuit said. On the other hand, Chase has acted evasively and denies all responsibility. Chase is holding Davis liable for about $50,000, he said. The account remains opens and accruing interest. He wants a court order declaring him not liable to Chase. A Chase spokesman had no comment. In its answer to the lawsuit, Chase denied the allegations and said the credit card charges were authorized. Plaintiffs actions and inactions gave Ms. Doucet actual, implied and apparent authority to use the Chase credit card, the bank said. Doucet has not responded to the lawsuit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Kinskey declined to comment. Doucets public defender didnt respond to a request for comment Wednesday. pdanner@express-news.net When the Miss Universe pageant goes live on Sunday, one of the people making sure the show hits the airwaves smoothly around the globe will be San Antonio-based producer Philip Nelson. Nelsons company, Nelco Media, was tapped to oversee the international broadcast of the competition from Hollywood, Florida. The pageant airs in more than 160 territories and countries, according to an Associated Press report. Well be working with all of the broadcasters all over the world taking this feed, coordinating all of their signals and getting it to the satellite, Nelson said. Its definitely a big deal and a lot of stress. And were doing this with the COVID compliance guidelines. In the TV truck, we have to have a smaller team working on the show, and we have to have the dividers between each station. The pageant, hosted by Mario Lopez and Olivia Culpo, will air live at 7 p.m. Sunday on FYI and Telemundo. The pageant hasnt been staged since December 2019 because of the pandemic. The United States will be represented by the reigning Miss USA, Mississippi native Aysa Branch. The current Miss Universe is Zozibini Tunzi of South Africa. Nelson, 49, is well-versed in putting a live pageant on the air in the coronavirus era. He played the same role for last years Miss USA Pageant, which was held in November at Graceland, Elvis Presleys Memphis home. I love what I do, and its so much fun, the stress is exciting stress, he said. And its really cool to know every button you push, millions of people see that camera shot. I wouldnt trade it for anything. On ExpressNews.com: SA puppeteer brings new Black Muppet to life on Sesame Street Live programs like the pageants are just part of what Nelco Media does in San Antonio and across the country. They company has outfitted podcasting studios for some high-profile people in that growing field, including Joe Rogan, Adam Carolla and Tom Green. Green gave Nelson a shout-out on a vlog he posted last year, during which he noted that a remote-control camera in his studio was being controlled by Nelco in San Antonio. Im getting a lot of great help from Nelco Media out of San Antonio, Texas, Green said. What up, Phil Nelson? Tom Green He said hes worked with Nelson since the early days of Webovision, his term for his streaming shows. Hes still helping me with technical advice, putting this whole thing together, Green said. Nelco also is working on a new eSports venue in South Bend, Indiana, linking the computers in the space and building the lighting, rigging and custom furniture for gamers. In San Antonio, the company installed the multicamera system at Texas Public Radios Carlos and Malu Alvarez Theater in its new headquarters at the Alameda Theater. We are, for the most part, a glorified video equipment seller, Nelson said. We build out TV studios, we sell cameras, we sell lighting. But my philosophy is its hard for me to go out and tell you This is the best thing to do if I dont do it. You dont want to take fashion advice from somebody who is a terrible dresser, and you dont want want to take medical advice from someone who is unhealthy. Ted Bowling Nelson has worked in live television and video since the late 1980s and has cultivated a deep bench of talent he can call on for projects. He asked John Leland, former tech director for NBC Sports, to help out on Miss Universe. Leland said he was glad to step in no small thing, he added, given that he retired in 2012 and is now 73 years old. I keep my hand in only by working for people I want to work with, said Leland, who got to know Nelson when he was with NewTek, a San Antonio digital technology company. Its nice to be able to help somebody whos worth helping. The day before Nelson flew to Florida for Miss Universe, he was at TPR, working in the tech booth for the livestream of Viva!, a telethon benefiting local artists spearheaded by the station and Luminaria. Krystal Jones The event raised $5,187, an amount boosted by a matching contribution of $5,000 from Guillermo Nicolas. Donations still are being accepted. The telethon debuted last year as a way to help artists struggling because of the pandemic, and Nelson was part of it then, too. Hes really good at what he does, and its great to have someone in San Antonio like that who is willing to give up their time to come and help us produce an event like that, a fundraiser, gratis, said Adam Fleming, events manager for TPR. He is very into the idea of elevating San Antonio, and I think for him to give up his time and help us produce this thing so that we can raise money for working artists in San Antonio, it speaks a lot for what he wants to happen in this city. On ExpressNews.com: NPR host Sam Sanders says recording his show in SA made it better Nelson, a native of Louisiana who moved to San Antonio in 1998 to work for NewTek, said he has made it his mission to do what he can to foster connections between creatives all over the city. Before the pandemic, he said, Nelco hosted networking events monthly to that end. There are people who succeed by building people up around them, and some who succeed by crawling over people and pushing people down, he said. Life is too short to work with people who arent building others up. Thats why I love San Antonio. It really is a helping community. And we need more opportunities for collaboration and for us to build each other up. dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN Michelle Barrera is the ambitious home cook we all aspire to be. Her well-stocked pantry is painstakingly organized. Her cookbooks are wrapped grade school-style in brown paper to prevent splatter damage. She taps detailed notes about every big family dinner into an iPad complete with a debrief on which dishes were hits and misses. Shes thrown numerous shindigs for 100-plus guests in her home while simultaneously cooking every morsel of food and remaining a gracious hostess. But right now, Barrera has had it all the way up to here with the requests from her husband and three adult children for a beloved but hugely labor-intensive dessert shes been roped into serving at regular family meals. My damn family asks for banana split pie way too often to the point that it pisses me off, Barrera said. Barrera has shared that distress with the world she estimates her family requests the dish about 20 times per year through her blog, michellesipsandsavors.com, and Instagram account, @michellesipsandsavors, which the former school administrator launched in 2018 as a retirement lark. Those efforts have become a second wind for the talented and charismatic storyteller, whos harnessed a lifelong love affair with food into a second career as a social media influencer from her far North Side home near La Cantera Resort & Spa. With her children out of the house, most of Barreras cooking these days is for show-and-tell on her blog and Instagram account, which feature oodles of photos and recipes she often develops from scratch although she still prepares meals she and her husband, Leroy, enjoy without the scrutiny of a camera. Barreras path to the kitchen started as many do: through her late mother, Charlotte Simms, whose influence is still felt through the colorful china plates her German-born mother handed down to her, which she uses in many of the photos she takes of her food. On ExpressNews.com: The puro San Antonio kitchen of SAY Si exec Jon Hinojosa is like a slice of Mexico She still cooks many of her mothers recipes, too. Before her mother passed in 2004, Barrera persuaded her to type out about 100 of her recipes, which were then converted into a family cookbook, copies of which Barrera has shared with her three children. Its no wonder Barrera loves spending hours on end in her kitchen. She and her husband designed it themselves five years ago with sleek white tiles, lacquered black cabinets and glimmering stainless steel appliances, including two ovens. The stove a black, commercial-grade, six-burner Thermador probably gets more attention than her husband. And who can blame her? Recessed lighting casts a perfect illumination on every counter, which Barrera keeps impossibly spotless while cooking. Michelle Barrera / michellesipsandsavors.com A largely self-taught cook, Barrera, 60, draws from a wide range of influences and flavor palates, all of which are reflected in the dishes she prepares for her blog. Trips to California in the mid-1980s exposed Barrera to the farm-to-table fare of Alice Waters at the legendary Chez Pannise in Berkeley, and shes made multiple visits to the plant-forward Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, where founding chef Deborah Madison helped define a new, flavorful approach to vegetarian cooking. Cajun and Creole flavors of New Orleans, fiery dishes of the Southwest and herb-heavy food from the Mediterranean also make frequent appearances on Barreras table in real life and online. As comfortable as Barrera is in the kitchen, making the leap to managing a food-focused blog wasnt easy. I had a very hard time at first, Barrera said. The food photo is a whole other animal. I had to get committed to learning that craft, and it took a good year to do that. William Luther /Staff Barrera now captures stunning images of everyday dishes, such as sausage and shrimp gumbo, coffee-spiked martinis and, of course, her banana split pie. On ExpressNews.com: Ina Garten inspired coronavirus cookbook challenge for one San Antonio man Often, her husband winds up tapped for photo assistant duties. During a recent visit to the Barreras home, Michelle gave strict orders to Leroy, standing just off camera, to carefully pour a freshly shaken cocktail into a waiting glass. A few dribbles went astray, and he was duly chastised. Michelle Barreras kitchen faves On the counter: Barrera never has to reach far for olive oil, sea salt, black pepper, cinnamon and the Mediterranean spice blend za'atar. Her baby: Barrera has seen plenty of kitchen gadgets come and go, but the one that will always be close to her heart is a Braun food processor she's owned for more than 30 years. Celebrity chef crush: If Barrera could chose anyone from the pantheon of celebrity chefs to cook for, it would be Ina Garten, who'd be treated to a multicourse feast of Mediterranean delights and, of course, cocktails. One cookbook everyone should own: "Southwest Tastes: From the Television Series Great Chefs of the West" by Ellen Brown. Foodie travel dream trip: Barrera would love to spend weeks exploring the many street food vendors in Puerto Rico. Food photography inspiration: When Barrera was learning the craft of food photography, she often turned to the Instagram page @foodtographyschool run by blogger Sarah Crawford of the blog bromabakery.com. Favorite San Antonio restaurants: Barrera can frequently be found noshing tacos at Garcia's Mexican Food on Federicksburg near Interstate 10 for breakfast or dining on the refined fare of Signature, Inspired by Chef Andrew Weissman in La Cantera at dinnertime. A food-centric day trip every Texan should make: Few stores excite Barrera as much as Houston's Phoenicia Specialty Foods. It's her favorite place to stock up on Mediterranean and Indian specialty items. A little saucy: Barrera always has a deep selection of condiments in her fridge. The ones in heaviest rotation include tahini, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce and maple syrup. See More Collapse But Leroy, a retired law enforcement officer who spent years with the San Antonio Police Departments SWAT team, knows better than to complain about his newfound sous chef duties. Nearly every dish Barrera prepares for her blog winds up becoming an indulgent lunch, dinner or happy hour libation the two share, often on their balcony featuring a breathtaking view of the San Antonio skyline. Im well fed. Probably overfed, Leroy joked. Its a good life, but Ive got to walk a lot to keep the weight off. And he better keep those walking shoes ready. Barreras blog and Instagram account have led to sponsorship deals with multiple stores and food producers that are sure to keep Barrera cooking and documenting every step for years to come. Recipe: Michelle Barerras Banana Split Pie Recipe: Michelle Barreras Creole Gumbo Recipe: Michelle Barreras SWAT Rags (Rigatoni with Mushrooms) Recipe: Michelle Barerras Espresso Martini cocktail pstephen@express-news.net | Twiter: @pjbites | Instagram: @pjstephen Whenever Lydia Penuelaz visits the San Antonio Zoo, the Alamo City native simply must bring home a piece of the past specifically a colorful figurine from one of the zoos original Mold-A-Rama machines. So on a recent weekday stop, the 39-year-old fired up one of the jukeboxlike contraptions for another flashback to her childhood. As the clunky machine rattled to life, two boxy metal plates pressed together with a warm familiar whiff of melted plastic. Seconds later, the plates parted to reveal a glistening red Tyrannosaurus rex, which dropped into a metal chute for Penuelazs eager hands. When I was a kid, and we would go on field trips in school, I couldnt really afford them, said the optical lab manager and mother. So now when I come as an adult I do try to get one. And my kids definitely get one, too, if they want one. Its nostalgia, Penuelaz said. I know theyve been here for so long. And just looking at them being made, its just so cool. Its something that you can keep forever. After more than half a century, the Mold-A-Rama sculptures at the San Antonio Zoo are still the hottest souvenirs ever frozen in time. Since their 1960s debut, the waxy figures have remained relatively unchanged, still the same monochromatic wonders that brighten childrens faces and take grownups back to their own Mold-A-Rama memories when they were kids. And whether its a classic zoo creature like an elephant or a special seasonal character like a T. rex, nothing says San Antonio like that colorful keepsake that still looks, feels and, of course, smells like home. Theyre so much more than a piece of plastic that comes out of a machine, said San Antonio Zoo President and CEO Tim Morrow, whose first Mold-A-Rama was a lion in elementary school. It has these emotional connections on all levels. Not only the visible but the sound of the machines and the smell and the feel of it in your hands. Its just a big part of our history. Jessica Phelps /Staff photographer Each year, the zoo sells around 60,000 to 65,000 Mold-A-Rama sculptures. For $3 each, visitors can take home their choice of wildlife from one of eight machines. Currently, those include a gray elephant, a yellow lion and an orange giraffe, as well as that red T. rex, a blue Stegosaurus and three other colorful dinosaurs as tie-ins to the Zoos Dino Land exhibit. Over the years, the Zoo has sold all sorts of Mold-A-Rama creations: flamingos, gorillas and hippos, while seasonal sculptures include skulls during Halloween and Santa Claus during Christmastime. And like Penuelaz, many San Antonians love to pass along that childhood Mold-A-Rama experience to their own kids, sometimes well into adulthood. Kimberly Foerster from San Antonio still has a photo of herself as a kid in 1978 when her Crestview Elementary class went to the San Antonio Zoo for a field trip and she posed with some classmates with her own Mold-A-Rama flamingo in front of the real pink birds. Today, the office manager at a veterinary clinic in Lufkin keeps an orange Mold-A-Rama giraffe at her desk, while her oldest daughter, now 23, still has the Mold-A-Rama elephant she got with her mom when Foerster was last at the zoo in 2019. And one day when I have grandchildren, I will take them there also, and of course get a Mold-A-Rama, Foerster said in a text message. Mold-A-Rama machines premiered at the 1962 Worlds Fair in Seattle, where they popped out plastic models of the Space Needle and other pieces for just a quarter. Built by vending company Automatic Retailers of America, later known as Aramark, its believed around 1,000 Mold-A-Ramas rolled off the assembly line. Jessica Phelps /Staff photographer But by the late 60s, Automatic Retailers dismantled and liquidated the souvenir makers as part of a mandated downsizing. No one is making new machine anymore, and today, only around 200 machines exist. The machines at the zoo are owned by Mold-A-Rama Inc., a Brookfield, Ill., whose clients also include the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich. Its kind of a pure form of excitement, said Mold-A-Rama president Paul Jones, whose father launched the company in 1971 with around a dozen second-hand machines. Jones believes the San Antonio Zoo machines date back to 1968 circa HemisFair, when Mold-A-Ramas were still the rage, he said. Jones company acquired the San Antonio machines in the mid-80s. And aside from credit card readers and QR codes and new molds, the machines really havent changed. We try to keep everything as authentic as possible, down to the paints and the look on the doors, Jones said. That mechanism, that look. Even that smell, which is part of it. Ah, that Mold-A-Rama aroma. Most folks believe that memorable smell comes from hot wax. Jones noted it actually comes from a heated mix of pigment, evaporating oil and low-density polyethylene, basically soft plastic. The only time there was ever wax was at the Worlds Fair in New York in 1964, Jones said, adding that the very dinosaur molds used at that fair are now in service at the San Antonio Zoo. As for how those Mold-A-Rama works are still made, each machine stores about a gallon of liquid plastic heated at 250 degrees. The machine injects the liquid plastic into its pressed molds and blows air into the sculpture to hollow it, hence the hot plastic smell that wafts into the air. The final product pops out at a temperature of around 100 degrees, which feels about as warm as a hot cup of coffee, Jones said. Many Mold-A-Rama customers are just as enamored with the process as the purchase. That to me is one of the coolest things ever, said Greg Shamon, a 51-year-old Realtor in Castle Hills who has collected Mold-A-Rama figures since he was a kid. The mixing and shakes and (how it) makes all those sounds, and the hoses and the steam and (then it) pushes it out the tray. Kids at heart love them, too. San Antonian Ty Menchaca has such fond Mold-A-Rama memories he designed his own T-shirt homage to the machine for his nostalgia and novelty shop GGs Emporium in Beacon Hill. He even has souvenir pieces of his own on display: a yellow ghost, a purple skull and a red devil head he picked up in 2019 during Halloween season. It took me back to the memories of being at the zoo, said Menchaca, 39. That there are these prehistoric machines still delighting people is awesome. But its definitely San Antonio for me. rguzman@express-news.net | Twitter: @reneguz WASHINGTON (AP) Despite sharing pleasantries at the White House, Republican congressional leaders signaled no willingness Wednesday to embrace President Joe Biden's ideas for a massive infrastructure investment, insisting instead on a much smaller package and rejecting the idea of raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy to pay for it. Biden hosted the top four congressional leaders for the first time and said in the Oval Office session that he was willing to compromise on his $4 trillion jobs and families proposals. After nearly two hours, both sides agreed on the need for public works spending, and they emerged pledging to work together as much as they can. But the stark resistance from Republicans to the size and scope of the package, and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell's red line against corporate and upper-income tax increases, leaves Democrats in the familiar position of embarking on potentially drawn-out negotiations that may, or may not, produce a bipartisan deal. Let's see if we can get an agreement to kick-start this, and then fight over what's left," Biden said later on MSNBC. The gathering brought together Bidens top Democratic allies House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York as well as McConnell and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California. Vice President Kamala Harris sat next to Biden. While it was the first such meeting of Bidens presidency, the setting was a familiar White House scene of powerful party leaders, who can make or break an administrations legislative agenda, formally arrayed around the president. The mood overall was described as not antagonistic, according to a person familiar with the private meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss it. The last such encounter ended with Pelosi standing to confront then-President Donald Trump. Schumer told reporters back on Capitol Hill that it was a good meeting and that the two sides would try hard to work together. We said that we would explore the way the places where we could agree on and come to a bipartisan agreement on those, he said. Thats the first step. Republican leaders, however, rejected the way that Biden has stretched the definition of public works beyond traditional roads and bridges to include child care and other so-called human infrastructure. They said they told Biden directly that they will refuse to undo the 2017 tax cuts to pay for it. That's our red line, McConnell said outside the White House. We're interested in trying to get an outcome. Biden, who spent decades as a Delaware senator, has long showcased his relationships with Republicans and made his ability to work with the GOP central to his governing philosophy. But a growing number of Democrats believe it is wasted energy, given their view of the GOP as too often obstructionist. Just days before the meeting, McConnell said 100% of my focus is stopping the Biden administration, a comment that evoked his pledge early in Barack Obamas presidency to make the Democrat a one-term president. Obama served two terms. Balking at the size of Biden's plan, McConnell has indicated that a proposal of no more than $800 billion, funded by gas taxes and other fees on users, is within reach for Republicans. Biden said he was encouraged but wants a compromise without dropping all of the burden on middle-class and working-class people to pay the fees. Pelosi said they talked about tapping unpaid taxes, which may total as much as $1.4 trillion and could pay for a big piece of this. The meeting came at a crucial time: House and Senate are laboring through the details of Biden's proposals, with the Democratic leaders beginning to assess support. There is no room to spare if they decide to go it alone without Republican votes. I want to get a bipartisan deal on as much as we can, Biden said. Then, he suggested he would press ahead without Republicans, if need be. One legislative option aligns with what the president suggested: passing a potentially smaller package of roads, bridges, broadband and other areas of agreement with Republicans, and then Democrats would try to muscle the remaining priorities on their own. Im not going to give up on a whole range of things, Biden said. In recent days, Biden has opened the door to compromise, saying he was willing to negotiate the size and funding of the package. He has suggested lifting the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28% and said any personal income tax increases would not fall on those earning less than $400,000 a year. But Republicans view the 2017 tax law, which lowered many individual tax rates and dropped the corporate tax rate from 35%, as their signature domestic accomplishment when they held power. McCarthy said he impressed on the president the need for changing environmental reviews so infrastructure projects can be developed quickly, a potential new point of contention with Democrats. Theres an opportunity we can work together, McCarthy said. No staff members were in the room for this meeting. That was a change from Bidens previous sessions with other lawmakers, who had noticed his top aides at times overtly signaling opposition to some Republican ideas. Still, when Biden and Schumer pushed the importance of electric vehicles, Republicans weren't very receptive, the person familiar with the meeting said. White House aides were not surprised by McConnells declaration of defiance this week. Public polling suggests that the infrastructure plan, much like the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief law enacted in March, is popular with voters, even though the virus aid bill did not receive a single GOP vote. Biden told the congressional leaders at the top that he ran for office to be a leader for "all Americans," not just the Democrats and others who voted for him. According to a White House statement, Biden also emphasized that the real competition is not between parties but among the United States and the rest of the world. Aides said to expect Biden to host more Republicans in the weeks before a soft Memorial Day deadline the White House set for gauging how feasible a bipartisan bill may be. On Thursday, Biden was scheduled to meet with six Republican senators, including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, to hear their plans for a smaller and more narrowly defined package. The president has hosted a trio of key Democratic senators at the White House already this week, including moderate Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the White House needs to keep on board. ___ Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report. U.S. health advisers endorsed use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in kids as young as 12 on Wednesday just as planned new guidelines say it's OK for people of any age to get a coronavirus shot at the same time as other needed vaccinations. The shots will let kids safely attend camps this summer and help assure a more normal return to classrooms next school year, concluded advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "And this is another way to get closer to ending this horrible pandemic, said adviser Dr. Camille Kotton of Harvard Medical School. The sprint to vaccinate millions of middle and high school students has already started in parts of the country, as a long line of kids rolled up their sleeves in suburban Atlanta for a first dose Wednesday. It just felt like a flu shot, honestly, said Meredith Rogers, 14, from Decatur, Georgia, after getting her vaccination. Michelle Rogers, Merediths mother, said she hoped the youth vaccinations would help bring some normalcy back. Now Playing: Teens come out in droves for freshly approved coronavirus vaccinations in Georgia; the sprint to vaccinate millions of middle and high school students is on. (May 12) Video: Associated Press A little apprehensive, but you know what? This is a step towards getting life back to normal so, were all in, Michelle Rogers said with a slight fist pump. Pfizer's vaccine has been used for months in people 16 and older, and earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration cleared its use for those as young as age 12. But before rolling it out to the younger kids, much of the nation was awaiting recommendations from CDC's advisers and the panel concluded the same dose adults use is safe and strongly protective in those 12 to 15 years old, too. The CDC rapidly accepted its advisers' recommendation. A key question: Is it OK to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the same doctors visit as people receive some routine vaccinations? That's an urgent back-to-school concern especially for the 12- to 15-year-olds, who have missed out on regularly scheduled vaccines during the pandemic but it's an issue for adults, too. The CDC until now has recommended not getting other vaccinations within two weeks of a COVID-19 shot, mostly as a precaution so that safety monitors could spot if any unexpected side effects cropped up. But the CDC said Wednesday it is changing that advice because the COVID-19 vaccines have proved very safe and that health workers can decide to give another needed vaccine at the same time for people of any age. The need for catch-up vaccination in coordination with COVID-19 vaccination is urgent as we plan for safe return to school, CDC's Dr. Kate Woodworth told the panel, citing millions of missed doses of vaccines against tetanus, whooping cough and other health threats. The American Academy of Pediatrics on Wednesday also urged that kids 12 and older get the Pfizer vaccine and agreed that it's fine to give more than one vaccine at the same time, especially for kids who are behind on their regular vaccinations. Children are far less likely than adults to get seriously ill from COVID-19 -- but they do sometimes die, and thousands have been hospitalized. By last month, those ages 12 to 17 were making up slightly more of the nations new coronavirus infections than adults over 65, a group thats now largely vaccinated. The two-dose vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was studied in more than 2,000 kids ages 12 to 15. There were no cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated kids compared with 16 in the group given dummy shots. Kids also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than vaccinated adults. Side effects are the same as adults experience, mostly sore arms and flu-like fever, chills or aches that signal the immune system is revving up. CDC's advisers did caution that those temporary shot reactions may be even more common if people get a COVID-19 shot at the same time as another vaccination. President Joe Biden hailed Wednesday's vote, noting that means 17 million more people in the U.S. now qualify to get vaccinated. I encourage their parents to make sure they get the shot, he said. As I promised last week, were ready. This new population is going to find the vaccine rollout fast and efficient. In addition to the mass vaccination sites and health department rollouts that were key for adults, many states will be offering kids more familiar options -- shipping doses to pediatricians and even to schools. Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize. As for even younger children, both companies have begun tests in youngsters ages 6 months to 11 years. Those studies explore if different doses are needed at the youngest ages, and FDA plans to hold a public meeting next month to debate exactly what evidence is needed. ___ AP reporters Ron Harris in Decatur, Georgia, and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. The board of managers at Southside Independent School District will have two new members, chosen by Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. Morath sent a letter to the district on Monday announcing his selection of Mary Silva and Brenda Olivarez to join the board as elected trustees. Additionally, Jesse Hernandez, who was originally appointed to the board as a manager in 2018, will stay as a trustee. Both Olivarez and Hernandez ran unopposed in this months elections, while Silva ran for election in 2019 and won, but had not been appointed until Monday. It was the second phase of the states transition of Southside ISD from a fully-appointed board of managers back to an elected board. Morath appointed the managers in 2017, replacing elected trustees after a special accreditation investigation found them unable to govern and properly handle the districts finances. Elections have continued but until the transition is complete, winning wont guarantee a board seat. The first phase began in 2020 when Morath selected two members who were elected in 2019 to join the board Maggie Morales and Katie Farias. Morath removed two managers, Dolores Sendejo and Lonna Clinch, to make room for the current appointments. But Sendejo will remain involved as the newly activated conservator, who will oversee the financial management and governance of the district. This is a new step implemented by the agency to assist in the securing of a smooth transition back to local control. This is not a reflection of concerns specific to this transition, the current or elected boards, or Southside ISD in general, Morath wrote in his letter to the district. The board was scheduled to announce the changes and swear in the two new members at a special meeting Tuesday evening. The two would begin serving immediately, Superintendent Rolando Ramirez said. Its bittersweet, because we have some wonderful people that are going to head out, Ramirez said. And, of course, some amazing people that are coming in. On ExpressNews.com: Emerging from takeover, Southside ISD election will expand state's options for remaking board Silva, 68, retired after working in Southside ISD for more than 40 years as paraprofessional, librarian aide and attendance coordinator. Olivarez, 55, has more than 20 years of experience in school district administration. And Hernandez, 45, has more than 20 years of experience working in community engagement at CPS Energy and at H-E-B. While none of them knew whether they would be appointed after this years elections, they all expressed a sense of relief with the direction that the district has taken since the board of managers began working. The community is at peace now, Olivarez said during an interview in April. Before, it wasnt like that. The last election I ran, the community was angry, they were so angry. Ramirez said that hes glad that people who were elected are getting the opportunity to serve but also because they get to do it with the guidance of the managers and conservator. The district will be responsible for paying the conservators fees, which are set by TEA at $85 an hour plus necessary travel expenses. I think its priceless to have Ms. Sendejo, former board president, to assist us as a conservator, Ramirez said. Shes been instrumental in moving the district forward. So knowing that she is going to assist as a conservator, I think is very reassuring. danya.perez@express-news.net | @DanyaPH Early last spring, Reese Gonzalez and a group of her classmates at East Central High School started planning their junior prom. They picked out the decorations and came up with ideas for how the venue would be set up. Some of them bought dresses or rented tuxedos, excited about a quintessential aspect of the American high school experience. Then COVID-19 arrived and swept away most of that experience, shutting down campuses and converting graduations and other end-of-year rituals into lackluster virtual events. We had a whole plan for prom and then we didnt have a prom, said Gonzalez, now a senior. It was definitely disappointing. On ExpressNews.com: Graduations closer to normal in San Antonio - with a few restrictions A year later, some school districts across San Antonio have again canceled proms. Administrators worried about the potential for coronavirus outbreaks just weeks before graduation. Others, including East Central Independent School District, have tried to redefine the prom experience, taking advantage of widespread local access to vaccines, quick coronavirus testing and effective safety protocols to grant seniors their celebration. The dances happening this year arent exactly traditional many are outdoors, with mandatory masks, social distancing and other new rules but Gonzalez and her classmates said even a modified prom is just as valuable, especially at the tail end of a school year riddled with unprecedented challenges. I think for the students, especially for the seniors, it provides a positive closure towards the end of a year thats been tough, said Shane McKay, principal of East Central High School. For them, it really helps to create a sense of belonging, social connection, connection with the school, connection with school pride and time with their friends. Gonzalez arrived at East Central High Schools outdoor prom on Saturday with her boyfriend, wearing a silky, light blue dress and a mask to match. Lights hung in trees and illuminated a walkway leading to a spot on campus with tables and space for dancing, a nod to the evenings theme, Night of a Thousand Lights. It brought the light at the end of the tunnel, Gonzalez said. Theres going to be an end to this, and I guess it just made it seem closer. Required Reading: Get San Antonio education news sent directly to your inbox Students danced, ate and celebrated. There were concession stands and a photo booth, and an assortment of food prepared by the high schools own culinary arts students. We just wanted to make it something thats fun for the students, make it something that they can look forward to and enjoy and just be a kid again for a moment, said Courtney Mize, a culinary arts teacher who was on the prom committee. Matthew Busch /For The San Antonio Express-News Everyone in attendance had to get tested for the coronavirus at school a few days prior. They had their temperature checked at the school the day of. Masks were required except when eating and at the photo booth, and outside guests including freshmen and sophomores were not allowed. Asked whether the safety precautions felt like a nuisance, students said they generally didnt mind and were happy to put up with them in order to have the prom. At least we get one, said Mirella Esquivel, a junior. It may be different, but its better than nothing. Theyre really strict but they do it for a reason, to keep us safe, so everybody just has to agree with it and roll with the punches, added Caden Bosanko, also a junior. Its just a blessing to be able to do this. The Southside, Edgewood and Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City ISDs also decided to have proms this year. Other districts, such as Northside ISD, North East ISD and San Antonio ISD, opted for senior celebrations instead of the usual dance opportunities for seniors to get together safely one final time before graduation with music, food and fun activities. Burbank High School in SAISD, for example, is having a Senior Night on the Red Carpet event at the Stars & Stripes drive-in theater just outside New Braunfels, where there will be food, a DJ and a slideshow before a movie. OConnor High School in Northside ISD will host a Senior Sunset event on campus featuring a DJ, a teacher dunk tank, food trucks and games. Whatever its called, the events are serving as class reunions. Students who have been learning remotely or in classroomshave an opportunity to mingle, in some cases for the first time since the pandemic began a much needed taste of normalcy. We havent seen them all year! laughed Andrea Ruiz, a junior who has been learning on campus at East Central. They dont come to school like we do, so its going to be kind of a surprise to see if theyve changed or not. Reinventing the prom demanded countless hours of planning, but letting high schoolers just be high schoolers again even for one night was worth it, McKay said. This is about the kids, and we really just want them to have a good time, he said. Angelina Torres, a senior, said she was grateful to have the celebration and to have capped off the year in style. Its really nice because weve had a hard year, Torres said. This is a good time to just be happy. andy.picon@hearst.com | Twitter: @andpicon Hammered by federal court monitors in a long-running lawsuit against the states foster care system, a San Antonio nonprofit that provides services to foster children here told Texas officials that it wants out of its state contract. The Childrens Shelter gave 60 days notice on April 29 that it plans to terminate its five-year contract, under which its child placement agency, Family Tapestry, handled such duties. The decision was already made when the nonprofits endured a blistering rebuke by a federal judge at a hearing last week that focused partly on safety lapses and compliance issues at their facilities. Once the contract ends, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services will take over the responsibility of finding places to put foster children. Most of the 1,725 children still under Family Tapestrys care network will remain where they are as long as theyre safe, said Marissa Gonzales, a spokeswoman for the state agency. Its possible a few of them might need to be moved, but those details will be worked out in a transition plan, she said. In a prepared statement, Jaime Masters, the states family and protective services commissioner, thanked the San Antonio nonprofits and said her agency will work toward a seamless transition. Masters had threatened to terminate the state contract in an April 22 letter and ordered all youths being cared for by the Childrens Shelter to be moved elsewhere within days. The situation is unacceptable and threatens the safety of the children. There is no other way to put it, Masters wrote at the time. The nonprofits subsequent communications with Masters showed them trying to salvage the situation. But they moved to terminate the contract two days after court-appointed monitors filed a report with Senior U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack, citing numerous problems with their services, including insufficient medical attention, inadequate supervision and allegations of violence and sexual assault. On ExpressNews.com: Judge blasts San Antonio-based nonprofits as dangerous, unsafe for foster children During a two-day hearing last week, Jack accused the San Antonio nonprofits of running a dangerous, unsafe operation and said they were unprepared to take care of foster children. Family Tapestry entered the contract in August 2018 in good faith and with expectations of working in partnership with the state to provide private foster care services, the nonprofits top official said in a letter announcing the contracts termination. Unfortunately, due to a number of different circumstances beyond our control, this has not borne out, making Family Tapestrys continued participation ... not sustainable under the contract as currently written, Childrens Shelter and Family Tapestry CEO Annette Rodriguez wrote. As recently as April 26, Family Tapestry had submitted a corrective action plan to DFPS officials and expressed a willingness to continue trying to meet the states expectations. All stakeholders in the foster care system are operating under immense difficulties to provide safe and secure homes for children in troubling situations, Rodriguez wrote in a response to Masters April 22 ultimatum. These difficulties have only been exacerbated by the global pandemic and the statewide foster care capacity crisis. Our team has made many admirable accomplishments ... We were very disappointed by your letter. We are committed to continuing our progress and finding a way forward. Obviously, we would prefer to do so in a cooperative, less adversarial manner. In the April 29 letter giving notice of the contracts termination, Rodriguez suggested it could be amended to recognize and account for the increased costs of supporting foster childrens needs. On ExpressNews.com: Worst of all situations Childrens Shelter, Family Tapestry defensive after report Bexar County was one of four areas in Texas and the largest that pivoted to a community-based foster care model in recent years, using private contractors instead of state employees to manage and oversee networks of foster care providers and childrens services. Now those responsibilities will revert to the state. The Childrens Shelter and Family Tapestry will continue working cooperatively with Texas child protective agency and remain committed to serving the children and families in our community, Rodriguez said in a statement in response to questions this week. Masters statement this week said her agency was disappointed to learn of the contract termination, but lauded the nonprofits and Rodriguez for their efforts. I know Annette and her board and the Bexar County community gave it their all, and I also know we put in a great deal of work to make this a success, she said. We will learn from this as we move ahead with community-based care. We are working with (Family) Tapestry so as this contract ends, we will resume the placement of children and young people into living arrangements that meet their individual needs. And we will work together to make this a seamless transition. The state had already been helping Family Tapestry find placements for children before the contract termination notice arrived, Gonzales said. None of the children still in the nonprofits network of care are currently located at its physical site, she said. pohare@express-news.net | Twitter: Peggy_OHare Former Red Lion Hotel in downtown Hartford sells for $22 million. See what plans the new owners have for the building. Former hotel overlooking Dunkin' Donuts Park get new owners. San Antonios police officers union spent more than $600,000 far more than previously thought to defeat a ballot measure that would have struck a huge blow against the organization, newly discovered documents show. Throughout the spring campaign, the San Antonio Police Officers Association appeared to raise and spend less than $100,000 to fend off the existential threat posed by Proposition B, which would have taken away the unions right to collectively bargain its contract with the city. The measure failed by a razor-thin margin in the May 1 municipal election, with 51 percent of voters against it. Fix SAPD, the organization pushing the measure, seemed to outspend the police union by nearly 11-to-1, according to campaign finance reports filed with the state. The group raised $924,000 and spent about $626,000 as of April 21. It turns out the police union was quietly spending $600,000 on unspecified advertising expenses. The spending flew under the radar because the union didnt use its own name when reporting the full scope of its political activity to state election authorities as required by law. Instead, two six-figure expenditures appeared in separate filings under the name of the unions treasurer. Those campaign finance reports cant be found by searching for the San Antonio Police Officers Association. That tactic drew cries of foul from Fix SAPD, which discovered the spending and accused the union of concealing the full scope of its electioneering from the public. Its not a surprise to us, when theyve been using these tactics of fear and intimidation, that they would also be hiding this money behind their treasurer, Fix SAPD board member James Dykman said. Police union leaders reject that charge. There was no hiding of anything, said union president John Danny Diaz. Theres no secrecy. Its there. We werent trying to hide anything from anybody. On ExpressNews.com: A wake-up call for the union: Close race on Prop B signals need to address discipline in contract, experts say The way the union disclosed the spending raised eyebrows among campaign finance law experts. Its legal for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they like to support or oppose ballot measures. But experts say they have to report that spending under their own names which the union didnt do. It doesnt smell very good to me, said Austin lawyer Roger Borgelt, whose firm specializes in Texas campaign finance and election law. The police union has a political action committee through which it normally reports political expenses such as paying campaign workers, buying yard signs and polling likely voters. From the end of January to the week before the May 1 election, the unions PAC reported that it raised more than $82,000 and spent about $68,000. But the union separately spent more than $600,000 all of it paid to a local public relations firm, Public Alliance, to pay for advertising against Proposition B. That money didnt come from donations to the union PAC, but rather from members dues, union officials said. The union reported the expenditures under the name of the unions treasurer, Jason Sanchez a tactic campaign experts found unusual. Sanchez reported $299,000 on April 16 and another $302,000 on April 22. Both reports note that he was filing the document under his name as treasurer of the San Antonio Police Officers Association. This obscures and hides the true source of these funds, said Doug Ray, an Austin attorney and campaign finance law expert. Sanchez said the Texas Ethics Commission, which administers campaign finance laws, didnt give him the option to report the spending under the unions name only his own. I feel like its transparent, that we disclosed the expenditures, exactly how much it was and what it went to, Sanchez said. Still, other organizations have disclosed their activities under their own names. For example, the San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association paid for $155,000 in television ads supporting mayoral candidate Greg Brockhouse in 2019. That spending came out of fire union dues, not its PAC, and the union reported it to the state. Ray said no one would know to search for Sanchezs name when hunting down spending by the police union. Thats not how its supposed to work, Ray said. On ExpressNews.com: Money flowing into campaigns for Prop B, San Antonio mayor with less than a week before election During the campaign, the union railed against Fix SAPD for taking large, untraceable campaign donations or dark money from outside groups. Fix SAPD received $430,000 from the Texas Organizing Project Education Fund, which doesnt have to make its donors known to the public as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Because the police union is organized as a 501(c)(5) union, it doesnt have to do that either. Fix SAPD took the opportunity to turn the tables on the police union. It is concerning, and we still dont know the full story, Dykman said. Its unclear whether the union will face any penalties. The Texas Ethics Commission doesnt proactively investigate potential violations of campaign finance law. It responds to complaints. Dykman wouldnt say whether Fix SAPD plans to go that route. Truth is subjective. Akira Kurosawa built Rashomon, his 1950 masterpiece, on this notion, by exploring how a single incident can be recounted in vastly different ways, depending on your perspective. For most of the United States history, the prevailing narrative has been of a nation forged in pure heroism, built on the noble ideals of freedom and equality. This countrys 250 years of slavery and the following century of enforced racial segregation and overt oppression was treated as aberration that our system self-corrected. Subsequent examples of discrimination were defined as the rogue actions of a few bad actors. For many of us, being fed this narrative in school, and ultimately learning about the relentless patterns of racial injustice in our society (red-lining, restrictive covenants, underfunded schools, Draconian drug laws, etc.) created a sense of disillusionment: the feeling that we were being sold a pretty myth. Critical race theory developed out of that disillusionment. Its based on the idea that your perspective of events is shaped, at least in part, by your racial background. It seeks to understand how laws that appear racially neutral on the surface can serve the cause of discrimination. Anthony Cook, a Georgetown University law professor and early advocate for critical race theory, explained the concept this way in 1997: Critical race theory wants to bring race to the very center of the analysis of most situations. Its assumption is that race has affected our perception of reality and our understanding of the world in almost every way. Putting race at the center of the American conversation is an act that leads to mass discomfort. Either as an individual or as a nation, if youre forced to confront a history of abusive behavior, its going to make you uncomfortable. The 2019 publication of the New York Times Magazines 1619 Project, which applied the concept of critical race theory to a multi-media examination of American history, brought the issue to the fore in a new way. Last year, the administration of Republican President Donald Trump banned critical race theory training for federal workers. Last September, Trump announced the formation of a 1776 Commission to finally restore patriotic education. In the wake of Trumps defeat in the 2020 election, GOP-led legislatures are pushing to restrict the teaching of critical race theory. Glenn Youngkin, the Republican nominee for Virginia governor, has released a campaign video declaring, Anything that teaches division is not of Him. Therefore, we will not teach critical race theory in our schools. In Texas, a bill (HB 3979) authored by Rep. Steve Toth, R-Conroe, won House approval Tuesday. Toth has described his bill as a measure that protects children from the caustic effects of racism in Texas classrooms. In the face of questioning from his Democratic colleagues, however, Toth revealed how little he knows about critical race theory. Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-Clint, pointed out that she utilized critical race theory in her research to complete her doctorate. I have seen how critical theory and critical race theory healed me, helped me understand society so I could come into this space and be loving, compassionate and a unifier, Gonzalez said. Gonzalez asked Toth how many critical race theory books he had read. His answer was zero. For Toth and his allies on this issue, critical race theory is a hate doctrine not worth investigating. In truth, its best understood as a framework, a lens, a tool to broaden your understanding of historic and current events, based on the idea of color consciousness rather than color blindness. Whether or not you agree with its every tenet, critical race theory should have a place in the national conversation. Toths bill is problematic for reasons that go beyond the merits of critical race theory. For decades, conservatives have complained about overweening government stepping on local control and individual rights. But Toth, a die-hard conservative, is using the power of the state government to interfere with what happens in our kids classrooms. His bill states that a teacher may not be compelled to discuss current events or widely debated and currently controversial issues of public policy or social affairs. When the teacher chooses to do so, they mustnt give deference to any one perspective. His bill bans service-learning programs with any organization that engages in social or political activism. As state Rep. James Talarico, D-Round Rock, pointed out to Toth, that would prevent students from earning school credits by volunteering with organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs of America or the Humane Society. An amendment to Toths bill would ban mandatory teaching of the 1619 Project. You can legislate the classroom whitewashing of our history. But youre just going to create more disillusionment down the line. ggarcia@express-news.net | Twitter: @gilgamesh470 There must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced by the existence of slavery among us. The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it; for man is an imitative animal. Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia I think that issue that we all are concerned about racial discrimination it was our original sin. Weve been working for 200-and-some-odd years to get past it. ... Were still working on it, and I just simply dont think thats part of the core underpinning of what American civic education ought to be about. Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell History is a book of sequences and consequences. Chapter builds upon chapter, one event leading to another, until a story is more fully told and its lessons it is hoped better understood. Thomas Jefferson, brilliant and immortal, was torn by the benefits his nation derived from its public sin and with the pleasure he received from his own. In a draft of the Declaration of Independence, he excoriated King George III over the African slave trade even though, as he wrote, the enslaved he owned tended to his Monticello plantation. One of the greatest of our Founding Fathers was also the father of six of the children of one of his enslaved women, Sally Hemings. In Notes on the State of Virginia, it was Jeffersons fear of the consequences and legacy of slavery that compelled him to write, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever. Slavery in America is traced to the arrival, in 1619, in Jamestown, Va., of an English ship carrying more than 20 kidnapped Africans. In 2019, the New York Times marked the 400th anniversary with publication of a special section, The 1619 Project. Guided by Times reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize in commentary for her lead essay, the collection of essays, poetry and pictures spotlights how slavery shaped the United States history and economic development and how its legacy continues to haunt us. The 1619 Project has spawned a curriculum of readings that schools can use as supplemental resources, much to the objections of Republicans in state legislatures and Congress who have attacked the idea of more education about slavery as Marxist, unpatriotic and a form of critical race theory. The latter has become a catch-all phrase to denounce teaching any less than a sanitized version of American history. On Tuesday, the Texas House passed HB 3979, which limits what can be taught when it comes to race. Its author, Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, said his bill was about teaching racial harmony by telling the truth that we are all equal, both in Gods eyes and our founding documents. In Gods eyes, yes, which is why Jefferson trembled. But the Constitution, among other things, allowed the slave trade and required the return of escaped enslaved people to their owners. Sen. Mitch McConnell doesnt consider 1619 a significant date. I think this is about American history and the most important dates in American history. And my view and I think most Americans think dates like 1776, the Declaration of Independence, 1787, the Constitution, 1861-1865, the Civil War, are sort of the basic tenets of American history, McConnell said last week at the University of Louisville. Without 1619, the Constitution is a different document and the balance of power changes. Without 1619, theres no Civil War. Without 1619, theres no reason for Juneteenth. Texas-born and -raised historian Annette Gordon-Reed won a Pulitzer Prize for The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. In her superb new book, On Juneteenth, she writes, As painful as it may be, recognizing though not dwelling on tragedy and the role it plays in our individual lives, and in the life of a state or nation is, I think, a sign of maturity. McConnell says weve been working for more than 200 years to get past our original sin and that were still working at it. Were not past it because we still flinch at what made Jefferson tremble: the consequences of 1619. Cary.Clack@express-news.net With a majority in the House and Senate and control of the Oval Office, Democratic leaders are excited about the prospect of making significant changes. One example of this is the House Democrats Lower Drug Costs Now Act. This bill would be disastrous for anyone who needs prescription medicines. The first casualties will be those who lose access to the latest lifesaving treatments for cancer and other diseases. The Democrats bill unwinds a carefully constructed incentive structure underpinning medical innovation, with the certain result of incalculable hardship due to the cures, treatments and vaccines that will never be developed. Making sure Americans can afford their prescriptions is a vital national priority. But this legislation would only ensure less innovation and more Americans being deprived of new and necessary medicines. I hope my former colleagues reject this partisan exercise and work together on real solutions. It costs, on average, nearly $3 billion to advance a new medication from the laboratory to the pharmacy. What makes investors put up such extraordinary sums is the chance to recoup their upfront costs and earn a return while their breakthrough treatment falls under patent protection. Soon enough, patent protections expire and generic copycats enter the market, which does indeed bring the cost down. But without the sales proceeds to the innovator, generic manufacturers will have nothing to copy. Medical innovation will come to a halt. That appears perfectly OK with those running the nationalized health care systems common in affluent countries outside of the United States. For them, equality of access is so important that they are willing to keep new medicines out of the hands of everybody. Take, for example, cancer treatments the kind routinely available at the hospital ranked No. 1 in the United States for adult cancer care, our own University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Americas progress against cancer is impressive. Over the last quarter century, the nations cancer death rate has fallen by an astounding 29 percent. In 2017, fewer than 155 people per 100,000 lost their lives to the disease. That compares to 244 out of every 100,000 in France, 253 in Germany and 275 in the United Kingdom. A big part of the reason is that American cancer patients had access to 95 percent of all new cancer drugs released worldwide from 2011 to 2018. Yet of the 74 such new treatments introduced in this period, only 58 were available in Germany, 55 in the United Kingdom and just 48 in France. Thats because the bureaucrats running these health care systems either wont buy breakthrough medications or will dictate a lowball price to drug makers who can take it or leave it. This idea is to import these foreign price controls to the United States by requiring drug companies to charge no more than the Average International Market price for new medications is counterintuitive. If manufacturers dont agree, this legislation would create a 95 percent excise tax on that drug. Importing other countries payment schemes would also import their restrictions on access and their health care outcomes. Given lack of access to the newest treatments, its not surprising European cancer patients fare much worse than their American counterparts. But it is surprising that some of our leaders want to implement Europes policies here at home. Temporary savings on prescription drugs arent worth sacrificing Americans health. Our research ecosystem is the envy of the developed world. Top scientists from around the globe regularly immigrate to the United States. Roughly 2 in 3 new medicines are developed in the United States, and U.S. researchers are pursuing 1,100 potential treatments for cancer. That pipeline will dry up immediately if imported price controls make it impossible for investors to even have an opportunity of earning a return. My former colleagues are right that its unfair to Americans that drugs developed here cost less overseas. But rather than import anti-patient policies of enforced scarcity to our shores under threat of a whole new tax regime, our leaders should be demanding that other developed countries finally bear their fair share of the global research burden. Lamar Smith served in the U.S. House of Representatives for Texas 21st Congressional District for 16 terms and chaired the judiciary and science committees. Smith is a senior consultant at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a law firm and lobbying firm in Washington, D.C., which has several clients in the health care industry. CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) A former nursing assistant who killed seven elderly veterans with fatal injections of insulin at a West Virginia hospital was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday by a federal judge who called her "the monster that no one sees coming. Reta Mays has a history of mental health issues, and offered no explanation Tuesday for why she killed the men. But U.S. District Judge Thomas Kleeh told her you knew what you were doing before sentencing her to seven consecutive life terms, a punishment that means she'll likely die in prison. Mays, 46, pleaded guilty last year in federal court to seven counts of second-degree murder for intentionally injecting the men with unprescribed insulin at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg. While the deaths accumulated during her overnight shifts at the hospital in 2017 and 2018, Mays conducted internet searches on female serial killers and watched the Netflix series Nurses Who Kill, Kleeh said. He also said she repeatedly denied her involvement, telling investigators three times that she had no knowledge of the crimes. Several times your counsels made the point that you shouldnt be considered a monster, Kleeh told Mays. Respectfully, I disagree with that. You are the worst kind. Youre the monster that no one sees coming. Mays cried and apologized in addressing the court briefly before learning her sentence. I know that theres no words that I can say that would alter the families pain and comfort, she said. I dont ask for forgiveness because I dont think I could forgive anyone for doing what I did. Hospital officials reported the deaths to the VA inspector general and fired Mays after evidence pointed to her. An interview with Mays after her guilty plea was included in a lengthy report released after Tuesday's sentencing by the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General detailing deficiencies at the hospital. In it, she said she administered insulin to patients she believed were suffering so they that could pass gently. She said she also had great stress and chaos in her personal and professional life, and that her actions gave her a sense of control. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Jarod Douglas called her actions predatory and planned, not reactionary. These men were not in need of mercy by the defendant, Douglas said. In the end it wasnt the defendants call to make. Mays attorney, Jay McCamic, described her long history of depression, anxiety, mental health and other medical issues, including a trip to the emergency room when a patient knocked her unconscious with a punch to the face in May 2016. Many, many people ask why, why did Reta do this? McCamic said. Most people want to have a nice, linear story applied to the conspiracy, a unified motive of why someone would set upon the idea of taking the life of others and go forth with that idea. Unfortunately, why is not a question that can be answered here. Reta doesn't know why. Her family doesn't know why. Mays, of Reynoldsville, had served in the Army National Guard in a noncombat position in Iraq and Afghanistan. Her duties at the hospital included measuring patients vital signs and blood glucose levels. VA nursing assistants are not qualified or authorized to administer medication, including insulin, prosecutors said. The hospitals nursing assistants also were not required to have a certificate or license as a condition of continuing employment. Then-U.S. Attorney Bill Powell said there were about 20 suspicious deaths at the medical center during the time Mays worked there, but charges were only brought in cases where the government thought it had sufficient evidence. The second-degree murder charges involved the deaths of Army veterans Robert Lee Kozul Sr., 89, Archie D. Edgell, 84, Felix Kirk McDermott, 82, and William Holloway, 96; Navy veteran Robert Edge Sr., 82; Air Force veteran George Nelson Shaw Sr., 81; and Army and Air Force veteran Raymond Golden, 88. She also was sentenced to an additional 20 years for assault with intent to commit murder involving the death of Navy veteran Russell R. Posey Sr., 92. Separately, the federal government has agreed to the settlement of numerous lawsuits filed by veterans families alleging a widespread system of failures at the hospital. The VA is responsible for 9 million military veterans. The agencys former director was fired in 2018 in the wake of a bruising ethics scandal and a mounting rebellion within the agency. Robert Wilkie took over as Veterans Affairs secretary in July 2018. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled a lottery system Wednesday to entice people to get COVID-19 shots, offering a weekly $1 million prize and full-ride college scholarships in a creative bid to overcome the vaccine hesitancy that remains a stubborn problem across the nation. The move comes as governors, health officials and community leaders are coming up with creative incentives to get more shots in arms, including insider access to NFL locker rooms and an Indianapolis 500 garage, cash incentives, various other promotions. With three weeks to go before most state restrictions lift, DeWine rolled out the big-ticket incentives during a prime-time address. Beginning May 26, adults who have received at least one vaccine dose may enter a lottery that will provide a $1 million prize each Wednesday for five weeks. In random drawings, the state will also provide five full four-year scholarships to an Ohio public university including tuition, room-and-board, and books to vaccinated Ohioans under 18. The money will come from existing federal pandemic relief dollars, DeWine said, and the Ohio Lottery will conduct the drawings. State Rep. Emilia Sykes, the top House Democrat, questioned the use of federal funds. Using millions of dollars in relief funds in a drawing is a grave misuse of money that could be going to respond to this ongoing crisis, she said. DeWine acknowledged the unusual nature of the financial incentives. I know that some may say, DeWine, youre crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money, he said. But the real waste, when the vaccine is now readily available, is a life lost to COVID-19, the governor said. The White House and Treasury Department had no immediate comment on the governors plan. All Ohios COVID-19 orders except those applying to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities will end June 2, the Republican also announced during the address. However, DeWine noted that stores and businesses still may require customers to be masked. In announcing the mandates' end, the governor cited the sharp drop in the numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations and the high vaccination rates among people 65 and older. He also said the vaccine is a tested and proven weapon that all Ohioans 12 and older can now avail themselves of. Its time to end the health orders. Its been a year. Youve followed the protocols, DeWine said. Youve done what weve asked. Youve bravely fought this virus. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Ohio did not increase over the past two weeks, going from about 1,522 new cases per day on April 26 to 1,207 new cases per day on May 10, according to data collected by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering. More than 4.2 million Ohioans about 36% of the population had completed the vaccination process as of Tuesday. But the number of people seeking vaccines has dropped in recent weeks, with an average of about 16,500 starting the process last week, down from figures above 80,000 in April. About 42% of Ohioans have received at least one dose. There comes a time when individual responsibility simply must take over," DeWine said. Business groups uniformly praised the decision. The news is the logical next step in fully reopening our state for Ohios businesses and families, said John Barker, president and CEO of the Ohio Restaurant Association. Removing these barriers comes at the right time and will assist the efforts of Ohios business community to restore Ohios economy, said Andrew Doehrel, Ohio Chamber of Commerce CEO and president. Dr. Lisa Egbert, president of the Ohio State Medical Association, said the organization supported the announcement but urged all eligible Ohioans to be vaccinated as soon as possible. DeWine made the announcement even though his previous goal for dropping the orders hadn't been reached. In a March 4 primetime address, the governor had said he would lift remaining mandates once the state hit 50 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people for two weeks. At the time, the figure was 179 cases per 100,000 people; it had dropped to 123 cases as of this week. Despite DeWine's message, he had little choice in removing the mandates. His speech came only a few weeks before fellow GOP lawmakers could have voted to immediately remove all mandates, per a bill passed earlier this year over the governor's veto. That legislation takes effect June 23. House Republicans had signaled their intention to introduce a resolution Wednesday in preparation for a June 23 vote. There's a strong sentiment that the health orders need to be dissolved, House Speaker Bob Cupp, a Lima Republican, said earlier Wednesday. Senate President Matt Huffman, another Lima Republican, also said Wednesday it was time for the end of mandates. Ohioans care about getting their businesses open and doing other things that will allow some freedom, Huffman said. Also Wednesday, DeWine spokesperson Dan Tierney confirmed that employees of executive branch agencies who have been working almost exclusively from home would return to their offices in stages, beginning July 6. DeWine implemented the current mask mandate in July as case numbers rose. That followed a mandatory mask order in April 2020 that he rescinded just a day later under intense criticism that the directive was one government mandate too far. In addition to his daily or weekly midday briefings, DeWine previously addressed Ohioans about the pandemic in primetime speeches Nov. 11 and July 15. Also Wednesday, a federal judge denied Republican Attorney General Dave Yosts request for a temporary order preventing U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen from enforcing a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act that says states cant use their recovery dollars to offset tax cuts or credits. Judge Douglas Cole said Ohio has a strong chance of proving the tax rule unconstitutionally ambiguous. But the judge also found that granting the order against Yellen wouldnt provide Ohio the relief it seeks, because Treasurys rules for the money are still being worked out, the state hasnt yet received its money and Yellen has not yet tried to recoup anything. ___ Associated Press writers Julie Carr Smyth and Kantele Franko contributed to this report. SAO PAULO (AP) Authorities in Brazil's most populous state on Wednesday said they have mobilized to try to convince the Chinese government to authorize the export of raw material to make millions of COVID-19 vaccines needed amid a sudden shortage. The South American nation is highly dependent on a shot made by pharmaceutical company Sinovac for its immunization efforts, and in recent weeks several Brazilian cities have either suspended or delayed vaccinations due to faltering supplies. The factory that produces the vaccine locally, at Sao Paulo's state-run Butantan Institute, has slowed production due to lack of raw material, and Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro and his economy minister, Paulo Guedes, made statements critical of China this month. Sao Paulo's Gov. Joao Doria an adversary of Bolsonaro's implied their comments may have created the bottleneck. Hours after speaking to Chinas ambassador to Brazil, Doria said in a press conference that Bolsonaro and Guedes should apologize to the Asian nation for their recent comments so China can resume exports. He (Chinese ambassador Yang Wanming) told me he will talk to Chinas ministry of foreign affairs tomorrow to renew his appeal to release the raw material that is ready at the Sinovac laboratory, Doria said. That raw material is ready and available in refrigerated containers, just waiting for the authorization of the Chinese government. Doria added there was risk of a halt in immunization efforts if about 10,000 liters of raw material stuck in China enough to bottle 18 million shots doesn't arrive soon. The Chinese embassy in the capital Brasilia, when contacted by the AP, didn't confirm the call with Gov. Doria took place. Dimas Covas, the head of the Butantan Institute, also said on Wednesday he had called Brazils ambassador to China, Paulo Mesquita, to ask him to step up the pressure on Beijing. He added that a representative of Sao Paulos state government who had been based in Shanghai moved to the Chinese capital one week ago to bolster their efforts. Bolsonaro suggested on May 5 that China had benefited economically during the pandemic and echoed a conspiracy theory that the disease may have been created in a laboratory, without providing evidence. It is a new virus, nobody knows if it was born in a laboratory or by some human being that ate an inadequate animal. But it is there. The military knows what chemical, bacteriological and radiologic war is. Arent we facing a new war? Bolsonaro said during an event at the presidential palace. Which country grew its GDP the most? I wont tell you. Later that day, the Brazilian president denied that he had been referring to China and blamed the media for the blowback. A few days earlier, Economy Minister Guedes said during a live feed of a meeting with the nation's health minister that the Chinese invented COVID-19. How can they attack those who supply us with raw materials and vaccines to save Brazils population? Doria said at the press conference. The AstraZeneca vaccine, the only other that Brazil has so far used on a massive scale, also depends on raw material imported from China. Only 7.3% of the countrys population has been fully vaccinated against the disease, according to Our World in Data, an online research site. More than 420,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19. Brazils foreign relations ministry said in a statement Tuesday night it is permanently following the process of authorization of raw materials export. It added that foreign minister Carlos Franca has recently spoken with Chinas foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, seeking more cooperation in the fight against the pandemic (Chinese authorities) reiterated that possible delays are not intentional, given that China is exporting raw material to several countries, which brings an extensive demand and overload both in the fabrication of vaccines and ingredients and in bureaucratic procedures, the foreign relations ministry said in an emailed response to questions. ____ AP reporter Marcelo Sousa contributed to this report from Rio de Janeiro. Connecticuts House of Representatives on Wednesday approved revisions to the states so-called red-flag law, in an attempt to make it easier for law enforcement to obtain court orders and seize firearms as well as other deadly weapons from people whose family members or medical professionals fear could harm themselves or others. The bill passed mostly along party lines, 93-55 after a half-hour debate and next heads to the Senate. It would take effect June 1, 2022. It would be an update of the states first-in-the-nation risk-warrant law passed in the wake of the 1998 workplace massacre at the Connecticut Lottery Corp, when four died, including the shooter, in Newington. Through 2020, 2,623 risk warrants, including 200 alone in 2020, have led to the seizure of firearms. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have adopted similar mechanisms. The current law allows virtually anyone to go to police and file complaints that can lead to investigations and possible firearms seizures. One of the major changes in the proposal would indefinitely extend the time people would be separated from their weapons, and allow complainants to go directly to state judges in addition to local police. If passed and signed into law, those under such court orders would also be prohibited from purchasing firearms, a longstanding loophole. Minority Republicans claimed that the current law works well and that such a new statute could create confusion. The bills main proponent rebuffed that idea. The idea is, they havent committed a crime, but we need to get the guns, the dangerous weapons, out of their hands nonetheless, said state Rep. Steve Stafstrom, D-Bridgeport, co-chairman of the Judiciary Committee who led the debate. So some folks may not want to go directly to the police department. They may rather go to a judge in a more civil process. What were adding on is an additional avenue, which may lead to a few additional risk warrants a year. Stafstrom cited a 2018 Duke University study that indicated that for every 10 or 20 risk warrants, a suicide has been thwarted. So if we can save another life, two lives, five lives, this additional procedure is worth it, Stafstrom said. In response to some opposition criticism, Stafstrom stressed that fraudulent claims could result in Class D felonies for false reports. He said the states temporary restraining-order program only covers domestic violence cases where police can take away firearms. But it wasnt enough for Rep. Craig Fishbein, R-Wallingford, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, who voted against it. He recalled a case in which a military veteran, after a quarrel with his wife, took a handgun, said Have a good life, walked into the bedroom and locked the door. The wife called police, who immediately responded and persuaded the man to surrender the weapon. Hes alive today, Fishbein said. The system worked. I just havent found a place where this alternative process, which actually takes longer, would be necessary. If an individual doesnt talk to the police to initiate this process and then the judge looks at the papers, and says Law enforcement, go conduct an investigation, but that person is unwilling to talk to law enforcement, though they would have in the beginning, then that is going to impede the investigation. And the passage of time in these cases can lead to people dying. This is a bad bill for people with mental illness, said Rep. Greg Howard, R-Stonington, a police officer who warned that it could complicate the currently successful law. But Rep. Anne Hughes, D-Easton, a social worker who has been involved in such cases, said that family members have been asking for the right to go directly to judges to issue risk warrants and remove weapons for households. This is an attenpt to de-escalate the situations, to create a safe avenue to seize the firearms and deescalate the risk and maybe provide a little time buffer in there, which can be very important, Hughes said. Sometimes people in distress see that this is a judges order and they will comply with the surrender of their weapons. Others can see this as an attack. There is a breadth of situations where this is an important alternative. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reported 424 suicides in Connecticut for the calendar year 2019. Jeremy Stein, executive director of Connecticut Against Gun Violence, applauded the House action. The 20-year-old law has been effective in preventing suicide and this can be even more effective, Stein said, credited the states Department of Criminal Justice in crafting the response to the lottery shootings, which followed complaints about the shooters stability. This law clearly gives deference to police in investigating, Stein said in a phone interview. The claim that this would make the polices job harder seems to be unfounded. This will make it easier for family members and mental health providers to be able to get emergency help in the most extreme circumstances that could save lives. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT JERUSALEM (AP) The Latest on confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians as Israel signals a widening military campaign: ___ JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is condemning the anarchy of Jewish-Arab violence in cities across the country after a day of tumultuous unrest. Netanyahu said Wednesday that nothing justifies Jews attacking Arabs or Arabs attacking Jews. He vows to restore order after two days of violence unchecked by police. In his words: It doesnt matter to me that your blood is boiling. You cant take the law in your hands. Shortly after he spoke, police reported two people injured in a shooting in the restive city of Lod. Despite large police mobilization under a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew, Lod was the scene of street battles between Jewish and Arab mobs Wednesday night. ___ WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden says that Israel has a right to defend itself amid a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups from Gaza. Biden says he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the dayslong outbreak of violence that has killed dozens. Says Biden: My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later. He adds, Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory. Israel escalated its air campaign in Gaza on Wednesday, killing a string of senior Hamas military figures as it hammered the Gaza Strip with airstrikes. Militants in the territory fired rocket barrages into Israel. ___ MOSCOW Russia is calling for a quick meeting of international mediators to help defuse the spiraling Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says it is necessary to call an urgent meeting of the so-called Quartet of mediators, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Lavrov made the statement after talking Wednesday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Lavrov says a quick ministerial meeting of the Quartet is the most acute task now. He voices hope that Guterres can help convene such a meeting. Guterres says we are totally committed to revitalizing the Quartet. ___ UNITED NATIONS The U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees has condemned in the strongest possible terms" the killing of four children the previous day in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. UNRWA says the children two siblings and two cousins were killed near the refugee camp of Beit Hanoun. It says they were under the age of 12 and went to schools in the territory sponsored by the agency. Wednesday's statement says: Our hearts go out to their families and friends in communities that have been so cruelly affected by this latest escalation." UNRWA provides critical services to more than 1.4 million Palestine refugees in Gaza and delivers education to some 285,000 Palestine refugee students there. The statement also repeated profound concern regarding the impact of the military escalation on children by placing their lives and futures at risk. The escalation between Israel and Gaza this week has killed 65 Palestinians in Gaza, including 16 children and five women. Seven people have been killed on the Israeli side by rocket fire from Gaza, including a 6-year old and an Israeli soldier, the first military death in this round of conflict. ___ TEL AVIV, Israel A large crowd of ultranationalist Israelis have attacked a car in a Tel Aviv suburb they suspected was driven by an Arab, dragging the driver out of the car and beating him. A video from the scene on Wednesday shows the driver trying to maneuver the vehicle to flee the scene but colliding into two other vehicles. He is then pulled from the vehicle and beaten. TV footage from the scene showed the driver motionless on the ground. A doctor at Tel Avivs Ichilov hospital says the driver is hospitalized with serious injuries. Dr. Eyal Hashiva told reporters he suffered major trauma to his entire body but was in stable condition. However, the suburb of Bat Yams Deputy Mayor Eyal Yariv told Channel 12 that police did not respond to city halls calls for assistance. Police said they deployed forces along the citys border with Jaffa to prevent the mob from entering the Arab neighborhood. Violent unrest has involved Jewish and Arab throngs in Lod, Acre, and Tiberias since the latest escalation between Israel and the Palestinians erupted this week. Also on Wednesday, a crowd of around 100 Jewish protesters marched down Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem, chanting death to Arabs. And in the northern city of Acre, an Arab mob attacked and critically injured a Jewish man. Paramedics said the ambulance was also attacked by the crowd en route to a hospital. ___ UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Mideast envoy has told the Security Council the current violence is the most serious escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in years. Diplomats say Tor Wennesland is worried it could erupt into a civil war. He briefed the council on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time in three days on the deteriorating situation on the ground but the U.N.s most powerful body again took no action. Diplomats said China, Tunisia and Norway, who called the meeting, wanted the council to issue a press statement but the United States objected. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the consultations were private. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Wennesland expressed concern over the growing number of civilian casualties in both Gaza and Israel, and sadness at the death of children in Gaza. Dujarric said the U.N. chief, Antonio Guterres, and Wennesland have both reiterated that indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars from highly populated civilian neighborhoods towards civilian population centers violates international humanitarian law." Wennesland recognizes Israels legitimate security concerns but reiterated that Israeli security forces should exercise maximum restraint, calibrate their use of force to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations. Four European council members France, Estonia, Ireland and Norway issued a statement after the council meeting urgently calling on both sides to de-escalate tensions, end violence and show the utmost restraint. They condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and called civilian casualties on both sides worrying and unacceptable. Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations ___ WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm America's support for Israels right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. Blinken spoke on Wednesday with the Israeli leader. The State Department said he also repeated U.S. calls for a de-escalation of violence and the Biden administrations belief that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in safety and security. Blinken announced earlier he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to make similar appeals in person to Israeli and Palestinian officials. He also said that Israel had an extra burden to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to the attacks. According to the State Department, Blinken also told Netanyahu that as he and President Joe Biden have said in the past, the administration believes Israelis and Palestinians should enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy. ___ GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israeli fighter jets have dropped two bombs on a 14-story building in Gaza City and destroyed it. The building housed businesses as well as offices for Hamas Al-Aqsa satellite TV channel. It was located in the old Roman neighborhood, on the busiest shopping street in Gaza. Hamas says it has fired 130 rockets toward Israel in response for the attack on Wednesday. The Israeli airstrike was the latest in a series of assaults on targets in the Gaza Strip after a long dispute between Israel and Hamas erupted into an exchange of rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli retaliation. The building is the third multistory structure that Israeli aircraft have hit directly, reducing two to rubble. The third is still standing but in irreparable condition. - WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel bears an extra burden to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to rocket attacks from Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Blinken says Israel has an absolute right to defend itself and its citizens from militant attacks but that it must take all possible steps to protect innocent Palestinians. He said on Wednesday that Israel should do everything it possibly can to avoid civilian casualties even as it is rightfully responding in defense of its people. Blinken made the comments after announcing that he is sending a senior U.S. diplomat to the Middle East to press Israeli and Palestinians officials both to de-escalate the tensions and violence that now verge on war. Blinken condemned the Hamas rocket attacks and stressed that both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to live in peace and security. ___ WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says hes sending a senior American diplomat to the Middle East to urge Israeli and Palestinian officials to de-escalate the conflict threatening to erupt into a new war. Blinken told reporters on Wednesday he had instructed Hady Amr, the deputy secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, to travel immediately to the region. The move comes as the situation deteriorates with intensified rocket attacks on Israel from Hamas militants and Israeli retaliation. Amr is the most senior U.S. diplomat tasked with the matter. He served as deputy Middle East peace envoy during the Obama administration. Blinken did not say who Amr would meet with or how long his mission would last. The Biden administration has been criticized by both sides as well as by lawmakers for not doing enough to try to stop the violence. Blinken said the administration is very focused on the matter and remains committed to a two-state resolution to end the decades-long conflict. ___ JERUSALEM Israeli police are imposing a nighttime curfew on a central city that was the scene of unrest in recent days. Police said in a statement on Wednesday that officers would enforce the ban on people entering the city of Lod, residents leaving their homes, and people in public spaces starting at 8 p.m. Lod has seen two nights of violent protests, including the torching of dozens of vehicles, a synagogue, and violent clashes between Arab protesters and police. Israeli authorities declared a state of emergency in the city and deployed Border Police forces. ___ BELGRADE, Serbia Dozens of Palestinians living in Belgrade have staged a protest in the Serbian capital over an escalation in fighting in the Gaza Strip in recent days. The protesters on Wednesday gathered at Belgrades Republic Square to draw public attention to the conflict that has surged after weeks of violence in Jerusalem. The protesters carried banners reading Gaza needs our voices now, and, Freedom! The latest Mideast fighting is rooted in a long dispute over contested Jerusalem. After Hamas rained rockets inside Israel on Monday, the conflict suddenly erupted and now increasingly resembles the 2014 Gaza war. ___ GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Palestinian militant group Hamas has confirmed that its Gaza City commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday. Bassem Issa was the highest-ranking military figure in Hamas to be killed Israel since 2014. Wednesday's statement was the first time Hamas acknowledged the death of militants in this round of fighting with Israel. The armed wing of Hamas said Issa was killed along with a few of his fellow brothers of leaders and holy fighters during the fighting that has been going on for two days in Gaza. Israels internal security agency said a series of airstrikes had killed Issa and several other senior Hamas militants, including the head of rocket development and cyber warfare, the head of rocket production, and the Hamas engineering chief. Issa and several other commanders responsible for the different districts of the Gaza Strip formed Hamas' military council, the highest body deciding on the groups militant operations. The military council is headed by Mohammed Deif. ___ LONDON Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions between Israel and Hamas amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Johnson tweeted on Wednesday that the United Kingdom is deeply concerned and urged leaders to step back from the brink. He was one of many leaders around the world offering up advice after longtime tensions in contested Jerusalem erupted into rocket-fire from the Gaza Strip and an intense response from Israel. British Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly told Parliament that Britain unequivocally condemns the firing of rockets at Jerusalem and other locations in Israel. He called Hamas' conduct terrorism and called on militants to end their incitement and rocket fire against Israel. Cleverly said Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense," but added that in doing so, it is vital that all actions are proportionate, in line with international humanitarian law and make every effort to avoid civilian casualties." ___ JERUSALEM Israels firefighting service says it has almost completely extinguished a blaze at a petroleum facility in southern Israel that was set alight by a rocket fired by Hamas militants. The rocket landed Tuesday night near a Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures Ltd. facility south of Ashkelon during a major barrage by Gaza militants. The result was a massive fire in a storage tank that blazed through the night and into Wednesday. Israel Fire and Rescue Services said that 20 teams have been working for 25 hours to extinguish the inferno that issued a column of thick black smoke. Israeli state-owned Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures said the fuel had been transferred to another storage facility. On Wednesday, the plume of smoke was still rising over Ashkelon. Israeli health and environment officials have instructed residents of the area to avoid prolonged periods outdoors. ___ JERUSALEM Israels president says the countrys Arab leaders are giving support to terrorism and rioting by staying quiet about an outbreak unrest in mixed communities. Reuven Rivlin said on Wednesday that the silence of the Arab leadership over violence in mixed Jewish-Arab communities amounts to encouraging the rupture of the society amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Rivlin says Israel must pursue the rioters with a firm hand (to) restore security and order to all of us, also while fighting terrorism from Gaza without compromise. The unrest that began at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem has spread across Israel itself. It comes after Hamas called for a full-scale Palestinian intifada, or uprising. In the Israeli city of Lod, a 52-year-old Arab Israeli and his 16-year-old daughter were killed early Wednesday when a rocket landed in the courtyard of their one-story home. Lod also saw heavy clashes after thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man who was killed the previous night, the suspect a Jewish gunman. Israeli media reported that the crowd fought with police, and set a synagogue and some 30 vehicles on fire. ___ JERUSALEM The Israeli military says it has killed several senior Hamas militant commanders in airstrikes in Gaza and Khan Younis. The army released a statement on Wednesday, saying that it carried out a complex and first-of-its-kind operation. Those targeted, it said, were a key part of the Hamas General Staff and considered close to the head of the groups military wing. Hamas had no comment. ___ JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will use an iron fist if needed to stop widespread protests by Arab citizens that have resulted in injuries, arrests, and property damage. Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will stop the anarchy after deploying Border Police forces to calm unrest in recent days in the cities of Lod and Acre. The mounting unrest comes after weeks of violence in Jerusalem and heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in recent days. The fighting is rooted in a long dispute over contested Jerusalem. After Hamas rained rockets inside Israel on Monday, the conflict suddenly erupted and increasingly resembles the 2014 Gaza war. Netayahu says Israel will "stop the anarchy and restore governance to the cities of Israel, with an iron fist if needed, with all forces needed and all authorities required. ___ BERLIN Germany is standing by Israel during the most intense fighting since the 2014 Gaza war. Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht on Wednesday condemned the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, saying Germany is standing strongly on the side of Israel. She called for the attacks on Israel to stop, adding that Israel has the right to protect itself. Lambrecht also denounced anti-Semitic acts near synagogues in Germany. She said a spate of Israeli flag-burning and other acts at a time of agony for Israel shows nothing but horrible disrespect for human dignity. German news agency dpa reported that police stopped 13 suspects late Tuesday in the western city of Muenster near a synagogue after an Israeli flag was burned there. Police said that in the western city of Bonn, several people damaged the entrance of a synagogue with stones. Investigators found a burned flag there as well. And in nearby Duesseldorf, somebody burned garbage on top of a memorial for a former synagogue. The justice minister vowed that the perpetrators must be found and held responsible and Jewish institutions must be protected thoroughly. ___ ANKARA, Turkey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the international community should "give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson over its conduct toward the Palestinians. That's according to the Turkish Presidential Communications Directorate, which said the two leaders talked by phone on Wednesday about the escalating confrontation sparked by tension over contested Jerusalem. The statement said Erdogan stressed the need for the international community to give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson and pressed for the U.N. Security Council to rapidly intervene with determined and clear messages to Israel. The statement said Erdogan suggested to Putin that an international protection force to shield the Palestinians should be considered. Meanwhile, thousands of people in Istanbul defied a nationwide coronavirus curfew late on Tuesday to demonstrate against Israels attacks. A large convoy of cars drove toward the Israeli Consulate, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags. An image of the Palestinian and Turkish flags was projected onto the Israeli building. ___ ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistan has condemned Israels actions and called for Muslim nations to stand by the Palestinians. Prime Minister Imran Khan took to Twitter, saying: We stand with Gaza and Palestine. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi meanwhile urged Muslim nations to unite over Israels strikes on Palestinian civilian areas. Protesters are expected to hold a small anti-Israel rally later today in the southern city of Karachi. ___ GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The Gaza Health Ministry says the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has climbed to 43, including 13 children and three women. It says nearly 300 Palestinians in the territory have been wounded in the strikes. The strikes began on Monday after Palestinians launched a barrage of rockets into Israel. The worst fighting since the 2014 Gaza war was ignited by clashes in Jerusalem in recent weeks between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police focused on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims. The head of Israels emergency service also says one person has been killed and one seriously wounded by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip. ___ JERUSALEM The head of Israels emergency service says one person has been killed and one seriously wounded by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip. Eli Bein of Magen David Adom said the Wednesday morning attack hit a jeep. Israeli media reported the assault. The attack came after a night of deadly exchanges of rocket fire between Israel and Palestinians. It was an abrupt escalation of weeks of tension with roots in disputed Jerusalem. Sharp declines in Connecticuts COVID-19 metrics have come as the state continues to rank high in its rate of vaccination. About 58% of state residents have now received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, fifth highest of any state including 71% of all adults, fourth highest of any state. When state officials unveiled the $33 million outreach program aimed at bringing COVID-19 vaccines to the states minority population, Gov. Ned Lamont likened the distinctive yellow vans to ice cream trucks that would soon be cruising through the neighborhoods. But after a promising start, the program has hit a wall, and the number of doses administered from the vans has plunged by more than 50% in the past few weeks. Last week, personnel from Griffin Health Care, which runs the program for the state, administered 1,032 doses, according to data provided by the state Department of Public Health. During the first week of April, 2,321 doses were dispensed through the vans. Over the past two weeks, the CT Mirror has visited yellow van sites in Bristol, Griswold, East Hartford, Manchester, New Britain and New Haven and found that in the majority of those locations, the vans administered fewer than 20 doses over five- and six- hour shifts. Many of these mobile clinics have little or no advertising, other than a listing on Griffins website. Several pastors and local health officials who have hosted the vans in their communities are registering complaints about how the program is being run. The vaccine outreach effort, they said, is hampered by a lack of planning, a lack of communication between local officials and officials running the program, and little or no help getting the word out about the van, from either the state or Griffin. The yellow van program is the centerpiece of the $33 million outreach program the state launched in late March using federal funding. The outreach program is designed to reach unvaccinated residents who live in areas identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as socially vulnerable. The state has identified 50 ZIP codes, most in cities and with minority populations, that fall under the social vulnerability index (SVI). Griffin is getting paid an unspecified amount by the state to run the mobile vaccination clinics, using the yellow vans or SUVs, starting in late March. State officials have not said how much Griffin is being paid to run the mobile clinics. Whatever it is, its not working But all the money and manpower dedicated to the yellow van program hasnt saved it from hitting the same barriers as the states overall vaccine rollout, which has slowed considerably in the last few weeks. For those in Connecticuts hardest-to-reach communities, the outreach failure is particularly frustrating. Im just trying to understand what the strategic plan is here because, whatever it is, its not working, said Pastor Kelcy G.L. Steele of the Varick Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, which is located on Dixwell Avenue in New Haven. The distinctive yellow and blue vans have come to Varick the last two Monday nights, which is when the church hosts a soup kitchen. The goal was to vaccinate some of the vulnerable population seeking a meal at the church. Steele said he was contacted by DPH employees about having the yellow van come there a week or so before it first appeared. The vans have administered fewer than 20 doses in two weeks, Steele said. What are they (the state) getting out of this program? Steele said. The mobile clinic program is supposed to include 35 vans, although not all of them are being used right now. The states chief operating officer, Josh Geballe, said Monday that officials are reviewing what theyve learned over the first month of the program. Were continuing to work on our strategy there, based on what weve learned over the first month, looking to provide additional support for locating and doing outreach to drive attendance at those vans, looking into different local incentive partnerships that we can stand up, Geballe said. He said one idea is to move them around less. One of the things we think weve learned is that if we can park them in the same place for a longer period of time, people become aware that theyre going to be there. They can plan around that, Geballe said. So theres a bunch of different strategies were looking to continue to maximize that opportunity. 9,376 doses Overall, the state has now vaccinated more than 70% of residents who are 18 and over - making Connecticut among the top vaccinators in the country. State officials have hailed their decision to eschew federal recommendations and roll out the vaccines using an age-based strategy as the reason for their success. Many states switched to Connecticuts plan after seeing how well it worked. Where Connecticuts outreach hasnt been as successful, however, is in reaching residents in the 50 SVI ZIP codes identified by the CDC; the majority of those ZIP codes are in the states four largest cities. The state, like the federal government, has struggled to get the vaccine to minorities, either because of a lack of access or hesitancy to get the shot. In late March, Lamont and DPH officials unveiled the yellow van program as part of a plan to solve this problem, vowing to use $33.3 million in federal funding to establish outreach, education, and services for minority and traditionally underserved communities, as part of the states ongoing efforts to increase access to COVID-19 vaccinations. I think were gonna see those 35 yellow vans heading out, you know, within a week or so if I have that about right, Lamont said during his March 29 press conference. The yellow vans each have about 150 doses, and pretty soon youll be able to walk up to one like an ice cream truck and get a vaccination right away. Evidence that the program is struggling can be seen in the data released this week by DPH, which shows how many doses have been administered in each community, as well as overall numbers for the past four weeks, from April 7 to May 8. The data show how few doses have been administered in some communities despite sending as many as a half-dozen vans to some locations. For example, the vans visited New Britain for seven separate clinics, from April 29-May 2, and did a total of 71 doses at all of them combined. According to the data released by DPH, the vans had administered 9,376 doses from April 7 to May 8. The most shots administered during that month have been given in Waterbury, with 1,375 doses. Other cities where more than 1,000 doses were administered by the vans include Hartford (1,179), New Haven (1,161) and Norwalk (1,041). With so many people already vaccinated, reaching the last 30% will be time-consuming, said DPH spokeswoman Maura Fitzgerald. We are now in the phase of actively going out, finding people and communities who havent yet been vaccinated, giving them factually accurate information so that they can make the best decision for themselves, and providing them with convenient, nearby, easy access to vaccines, Fitzgerald said. To be sure, getting as many of the remaining 30% of Connecticut residents vaccinated as possible is a time- and labor-intensive process. Every shot that goes into an arm brings us one step closer to reining in this virus, and with more than 9,300 shots administered by the vans, they are a valuable resource in our efforts to end this pandemic in Connecticut. The data also shows how uneven the program has been so far. In the states largest city, Bridgeport, only 46 doses were administered by the vans during the month, with no additional clinics scheduled there through May 22. In New Britain, the number is 71 and in Griffin Hospitals backyard - Ansonia and Derby they have done 46 and 35 doses, respectively. Griffin Health spokesman Rob OMara said the mobile clinics are designed to go to the most hard to reach residents, which means they arent designed to do large number of vaccines. Youre going to run into a lot of hesitancy, a lot of resistance, but the idea is to sort of bring the vaccine to where people live. And honestly, if were vaccinating down to one person at a time, thats worth it, OMara said. These SUVs are the ground game in this overall comprehensive approach. And then even one or two at a time is still moving the needle, because if you think about it, those people did not have access to travel, they didnt have access to the vaccine. And so were trying to kind of take away all those barriers and make the vaccine, he added. Loss of J&J The program has also been impacted by the loss of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was overwhelmingly used by the vans in the programs first weeks but was temporarily pulled from use after reports of a rare blood clotting problem in some recipients. DPH officials decided not to resume use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on the vans even after the federal pause was lifted. The reason, they said, was feedback from community partners that people didnt trust the vaccine. But while it was being used on the vans, the number of doses being administered was high. For example, 258 doses have been administered at three clinics in Griswold. The first clinic, in early April in Jewett City, was very successful, according to Griswold First Selectman Todd Babbitt. I think we did over 200 doses of Johnson & Johnson the first time, and we could have easily done three times that, said Babbitt, adding that Jewett City is a low-income area with a high number of homeless people, many of whom live in tents. We focused on getting our homeless population vaccinated, and it was perfect. They got one shot of J&J, and we didnt worry about chasing them down again, Babbitt said. The yellow vans have come back twice since then, setting up at town hall once and then, last week, at Griswold High School. But those two clinics combined reached fewer than 60 people using the Moderna vaccine, Babbitt said. I reached out to town leaders in Lisbon, Plainfield and Voluntown about the vans, and we had a few people from those towns come, but it was a little harder to get any interest, Babbitt said. Babbitt said town officials didnt have as much time to spread the word and organize before the last two clinics. But he also believes there were other factors at play- the loss of the one-dose J&J, and better availability of vaccine now. The first clinic, we got calls from all over the area looking to get vaccinated, because at that point, we didnt have a lot of options to get vaccinated. But now Walgreens has plenty of vaccine, and the local health center is doing three clinics a week, Babbitt said. I just dont see enough of a demand for us to have the vans out here again. When we first engaged with them, it was the J&J vaccine, and that is much more effective in this setting, because maybe you can get someone to come down once or walk over and get that shot and be done, said Manchester Director of Public Health Jeffrey Catlett. Catlett said the van administered about 190 shots in the first three days it stopped at Manchesters East Side Neighborhood Resource Center in mid-April, but last Monday, they administered only 11 doses. Catlett said that the city aggressively marketed the mobile vans, putting up flyers in the center of town and throughout the neighborhoods. There also were signs advertising where the van was located and how long it would be there. At clinics in East Hartford and New Britain recently visited by the CT Mirror, there were no signs and, in several cases, the vans werent visible from the road or the front of the buildings. We pushed the immediacy of it. You dont need insurance, you dont need to pre-register, just walk up and get vaccinated. We had several people who saw the flyers in a restaurant and came over, Catlett said. Griffin Healths spokesman said theres no question the Johnson & Johnson pause had an impact on the mobile clinics. If youre on the fence and then you just heard the news about pausing the J&J, its gonna really make you question getting vaccinated, OMara said. Fitzgerald, the DPH spokeswoman, said the state is working with Griffin to reintroduce J&J onto the vans. The federal governments pause of the J&J vaccine last month certainly impacted the demand for vaccines in the state and forced major logistical changes to the operation of the vans, which had to switch from administering J&J to Moderna and Pfizer, Fitzgerald said. We are now working with Griffin to rotate J&J back into the vans where possible, to provide people a choice in vaccines. No time to prepare Because it is one of the oldest black churches in the state, Varick has been a popular choice for vaccinators. The New Haven Department of Public Health has held clinics there, as has Yale New Haven Hospital. The church is located almost directly across from the Cornell Lewis Health Center, a federally qualified health center that has been getting vaccine from the federal government for months. Everybody has come here to do their clinics, so the members of our church have had numerous opportunities to get vaccinated. This was about offering it to the community, said Steele, the pastor at Varick Memorial. Steele said someone from DPH reached out to him about hosting the mobile clinic during soup kitchen hours. DPH has reached out to churches across the state to host clinics in hopes of getting people right after the service. Varick volunteers called other parishes in the area to tell them about the mobile clinic, and parishioners distributed flyers to surrounding communities, emphasizing the vans would offer the Moderna vaccine, Steele said. Steele said no one from the state or Griffin assisted in getting the word out about the mobile vans. OMara said the state makes the decisions on where to send the mobile clinics, and then Griffin arranges the site visits. I think they (DPH) have a plan thats evolving over time, OMara said. I think theyre adapting and learning and trying to figure out how to maximize [the vans]. Fitzgerald said the program requires a lot of logistical coordination with municipal leaders, local health departments and other community partners for siting and advertising the vans. She said it also is supposed to involve door-to-door canvassing to selected neighborhoods in the days leading up to the vans arrival. The church vaccine clinics have had limited success. The vans visited the Mount Zion Seventh Day Adventist in Hamden after Sunday services on May 2. Pastor Oliver B.J. Archer said only about 20 people got vaccinated during the six-hour clinic, and one of them was himself. We did this for the community, so I was a little disappointed there wasnt more interest, Archer said. Had we been more involved initially in the planning, I would have suggested giving us three weeks to prepare, but we only found out about a week or so before that they were coming. Archer, who is new to the Hamden community, reached out to other churches to let them know about the clinic and also had parishioners distribute flyers in the neighborhood around the church advertising the clinic. In the process of connecting with people about the clinic, it became clear to me there is some vaccine hesitancy, and where you find that hesitancy, it is very strong, Archer said. Archer got his vaccine at the van, hoping to show people that it was safe. I tell people it is the only way to get back to normal, Archer said. I thought by having the vaccine right here it would make it easier for people to overcome any barriers to getting vaccinated, but it didnt happen. We will not stop On Saturday, about 75 New Haven residents, including Mayor Justin Elicker and Health Director Maritza Bond, went door-to-door in the Newhallville and Dixwell Avenue sections of the city handing out flyers about the vaccine. These are communities that had a high number of COVID cases, so we have to make sure we get to every door in those communities, Bond told the volunteers before sending them out on their mission on a chilly, gray day. We will not stop until every single person has been offered the vaccine, Bond said. The city coordinated with three entities to have vaccines available on Saturday, including Griffin Hospital and a yellow van at the Bassett Community School in Newhallville. There also was a clinic in Science Park operated by Cornell Hill, and Yales mass vaccination clinic was nearby at the Floyd Little School. In total, 66 people were vaccinated throughout the day including 15 at the Griffin yellow van. In the first few hours of the Bassett School clinic, about 10 people showed up, although at least one person came looking for a second dose of Moderna and was turned away because the van only had Pfizer. One of the 10 was Bobby Griffin, who slowly walked up Shelton Avenue with the assistance of a cane to the clinic. Griffin said his wife saw something about the clinic on television the night before, and since he lived only a block or so away, he decided to make the trek to Bassett. Even as raindrops started to fall as he shuffled home, Griffin wore a big smile after getting his first shot. I was definitely hesitant about doing it. I wanted to wait it out and see how other people were doing after they got their shots, Griffin said. Griffin said the whole process went smoothly from the national guardsman who helped him up the stairs, to not needing to pre-register. I cant wait for my second shot, Griffin said. Its too bad no one else is here. Fairfield, MT (59436) Today Cloudy with rain developing this afternoon. High 58F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Mostly cloudy early, then clearing overnight. Low 39F. Winds WSW at 15 to 25 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. Commentary Monday, April 26, 2021, the day Governor Greg Gianforte signed three Pro-Life bills on the steps of the Montana Capitol, was the most important day in my legislative career. The highest compliment, as a legislator, ever given me was being asked by Senator Keith Regier to carry the 20 Week Pain Capable bill, the bill he carried in 2017 and was vetoed by Democratic Governor Bullock. Many years of research and rallies have brought Pro-Lifers to this point in history. I am so grateful for those who have stood out in weather along streets and highways waving signs and posters declaring to the world that Life of an unborn child is an issue that we will always fight for. We are their voice, we are their vote in making laws in this state and country. The crowd that came on to support the signing of this bill by Governor Greg Gianforte was one of the biggest crowds I have seen on the front steps of the Capitol. They were enthusiastic, emotional and thankful to God for this day that has been long overdue. Thank you Governor Gianforte, Lt. Governor Juras and the Republican legislators who have made this into law. HB 136: Establish Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act: Prohibits abortion once the unborn child is capable of feeling pain, which medical science shows occurs by week 20 (5 months) of pregnancy. There is an exception to the law if the medical safety of the woman would be compromised by continuing the pregnancy. The health and safety of the mother is still prioritized in this bill As a society, we must value our most vulnerable and we must value life. We should be able to agree that once an unborn child is five months developed and can feel pain, they should be protected. This bill will ensure that unborn children who are developed enough to feel pain are respected. This bill is about human rights. It protects human life. Our rights and freedom to live should include unborn infants. At the signing ceremony, I made the following speech the steps of the Montana Capitol: On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States of America made a decision on a case we know as Roe vs. Wade. Today we have knowledge proven by experiments, research and exploration that they did not have before them on that day. I believe had they had this knowledge and proven science before them, they would have made a different decision. I am a Montana woman, mother and grandmother that stands with you the citizens of Montana that have asked us as Republican legislators to make the right choice today and CHOSE LIFE. Lets protect those little ones that cant speak for themselves. Immature human beings (20 weeks and older in gestation) are not only pain capable, they have an increased sensitivity which makes them more vulnerable to noxious sensory stimuli effects than adults. Medicines double standard of acknowledging pain capability for wanted premature babies (which we are now resuscitating babies at 22-24 week gestation) while we refuse to acknowledge pain capable unwanted babies of the same gestational age is inconceivable to me. Are you aware that 25% of the graduating class of 2021 will not graduate this year because they didnt even get to see the light of day, because they were aborted. It saddens my heart to even think of the millions of children that are aborted every 30 seconds. I feel it is time that laws catch up to the science of the 21st century. It is unethical to intentionally harm an innocent immature human being. As a Christian who has taken on the name of Jesus Christ, I stand today as a witness that this practice of a fetus dying because they are not wanted or were not planned is an abomination in Gods eyes and I will continue to be fight for the most vulnerable. We are their voice. Thank you, God for those who came before us and have made our path today, a path of life. We have waited 48 years to see our governor in Montana sign this bill Thank you to all who took time out of their schedules and have shown your support for the future of Montana. Those who oppose this concept of protecting the UNBORN CHILD will argue that this bill is unconstitutional. I would welcome this argument in the Supreme Court of the United States. Its my opinion that todays science, technology and research will prove to the court that life does begin at conception, that an unborn child does feel pain, that the unborn do have the right to be born in our state and live a full life from conception to natural death. The NFU has urged for equivalence in trade after the government unveiled a series of animal welfare policy measures, many of which directly affect British farmers. The government published on Tuesday (11 May) as part of the Queen's Speech an action plan that seeks to 'revolutionise' animal welfare in the UK. Regulation will be strengthened, such as recognising animals as sentient in law along with a new range of welfare measures for pets and livestock. Measures to improve farmed animal welfare include ending live exports for fattening and slaughter, and new rules to improve welfare during transport. The use of cages in the poultry sector and farrowing crates for pigs will also be examined as part of the action plan. To deliver these reforms, the government said it would be introducing a series of Bills 'in due course'. The NFU has roundly welcomed the plan, but it added that the 'same energy and leadership' should be applied to the industry's plea for equivalence in trade. Farm leaders have concerns about the governments intention to raise the bar at home without any certainty that the same standards will be applied to imports. There are still practices allowed in countries that the government is currently conducting post-Brexit negotiations with that are banned in the UK on welfare grounds. For example, it is not uncommon to see journey times for live animals in Australia exceed 24 hours without access to feed or water," NFU President Minette Batters said. In comparison, the government had recently consulted on reducing domestic journey times in the UK to eight hours. Its also important to recognise that two sectors the government has singled out, poultry and pigs, have some of the highest engagement levels in farm assurances schemes," Mrs Batters said. Just over a quarter of eggs sold in retail last year were from enriched cages. If this production system were to be banned in this country then there is every prospect that the demand would simply be fulfilled by importing eggs from countries with lower standards." The NFU president warned there could be a future situation where UK farmers adhered to high standards only to be undercut by imports that 'barely meet the lowest rung on the ladder'. She added: If the government is to raise the welfare bar here, it must do so for food imports. It would simply be hypocritical to do otherwise." The government's action plan also includes a commitment to introduce better powers to tackle livestock worrying and new laws to crack down on hare coursing. A post-emergence herbicide is under threat of deregulation when it is up for reapproval in 2025, a new partnership of manufacturers has warned. Bentazone, due review for re-approval in 2025, is commonly used by UK growers on beans, peas, linseed, alliums and potatoes. However, it is highly soluble in water and mobile in soil. As such, bentazone has been detected in both ground and surface water for many years. Chemical manufacturers BASF, Nufarm and Sharda Cropchem have formed the 'Know the Bentazone Risk' group aimed at promoting sustainable on-farm water stewardship. In addition to supporting farmers, the group wants to highlight good practice and liaise with external bodies such as the Environmental Agency and water companies. The new collaboration of firms says the farming industry is 'committed' to reducing the levels of bentazone detected in surface and groundwater sources. A high risk mapping tool to support cropping decisions and product application is in development, and drip trays have been produced to support farmers this year. Paul Goddard, value chain manager at BASF, highlighted why it was essential that farmers 'took action' this year. Bentazone is one of the few post-emergence herbicides for beans and the only post-em available for some especially challenging weeds in the pea crop, such as black nightshade," he said. "It is essential that we do everything we can to protect it for the future, including working together as an industry and taking precautions when we apply it on-farm. Dick Dyason, technical manager for Nufarm, added that the new group was an 'important example' of how competing firms can 'come together for the greater good'. "We need to see a rapid reduction in the current levels of contamination in order to safeguard the future of the product," he said. "This will require a responsible response from advisers and growers who may be called on to accept weeds in their crop rather than apply bentazone in a high-risk area. Nearly 70,000 people have backed the NFUs calls for urgent action to tackle rural crime, demonstrating the strength of feeling to create a safer countryside. As newly elected Police and Crime Commissioners take up their posts, more than 50,000 people have signed the union's open letter. It demands action to tackle fly-tipping, including working more closely with local authorities and landowners on prevention, clean-up and prosecution. A further 19,000 have supported changes to legislation to prevent dog attacks on farm animals, including increasing fines and giving police more powers to seize dogs. This support follows years of NFU campaigning on the issue and coincides with a new government commitment to give police new powers to respond to incidents. NFU Deputy President Stuart Roberts said incidents such as fly-tipping and livestock worrying were 'devastating' for farmers across the country. "Not a week goes by where I dont hear from a farmer about an industrial-scale amount of rubbish being dumped on their farm, or a farmer losing sheep as a result of a savage dog attack. Not only does it hurt their ability to produce food and damage the work theyve done for the environment, but it has a huge toll on farming families. The farm is not only our place of work but also our home. To be subject to these crimes on such a regular basis is unacceptable." In its Action Plan for Animal Welfare, the government has said it will legislate to ensure new police powers so they can respond to serious incidents of livestock worrying. The government's action plan, unveiled on Tuesday (11 May), also includes a commitment to crack down on hare coursing. Mr Roberts said it was 'clear' from the numbers supporting the union's campaign that the public backed the police taking action to 'rid rural Britain of this scourge'. "They hugely value the benefits the countryside brings, and they dont want it blighted by huge dumps of litter on the side of the road or farm animals attacked by out of control dogs. I hope the election of new Police and Crime Commissioners can act as a reset moment," he added. The Fauquier Times is honored to serve as your community companion. To say thank you, we are excited to offer 4 weeks FREE Digital & Print access to all subscribers new and returning alike. We are dedicated to continuing providing reliable, high quality journalism. This is possible with the trust and support of our subscribers in the community we are proud to serve. Centennial, Colorado--(Newsfile Corp. - May 11, 2021) - Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii is proud to announce that it has partnered with Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue to raise much needed funds to rescue wild burros under threat of destruction and to provide safe environments for abused and abandoned domestic donkeys. The fundraiser will take place during International Donkey Week, May 12-18. Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7429/83701_ca635e5364a53acf_001full.jpg The cause pays tribute to Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii's namesake: the donkeys of Kona, Hawaii that for generations carried loads of coffee beans down the steep volcanic mountain sides. The native people of Kona named these hard-working donkeys the "Bad Ass Ones" because of their reliably strong, but stubborn nature. Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii partnered with Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue to raise much needed funds to care for abused and abandoned domestic donkeys. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7429/83701_capture2.jpg Throughout National Donkey Week, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii will host a donation site accepting gifts ranging from $5 - $50. Donations of $10 and above receive a thank you gift from Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii ranging from a limited-edition "Jack the Donkey" sticker, a plush donkey and a bag of Hana Bliss Flavored Coffee - a mix vanilla, chocolate and macadamia that ranks as the company's most popular flavored coffee. Donations of $10 and above receive a thank you gift from Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii ranging from a limited-edition "Jack the Donkey" sticker, a plush donkey and a bag of Hana Bliss Flavored Coffee - a mix vanilla, chocolate and macadamia that ranks as the company's most popular flavored coffee. To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7429/83701_ca635e5364a53acf_003full.jpg "Being true to our Hawaiian roots means so much to us as a company so we're committed to sharing a spirit of 'ohana (family) that honors and cares for our extended community," said Scott Snyder, CEO of Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii. "The important work done by Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue is near to our hearts and a perfect organization to support through our Bad Ass for Good program." Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue is the largest donkey rescue organization in the United States with 24 sanctuaries and 26 adoption centers nationwide. The organization has rescued more than 16,000 donkeys and provides food, water, medical care, training and adoption services for around 3,000 others. Peaceful Valley's rescued donkeys include more than 100 from Hawaii that were brought to the mainland following the drought of 2010-2011. Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue If you cannot view the image above, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7429/83701_ca635e5364a53acf_004full.jpg Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue is based in San Angelo, Texas, and has satellite adoption centers and sanctuaries across the country. More information about the Peaceful Valley Donkey Rescue is available here. About Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii was born on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1989 and is dedicated to sharing premium Hawaiian coffees "with a kick" from the Hawaiian Islands through 23 franchise locations, with more to open soon. Today, Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii stores also serve popular blended drinks, teas, food, along with other international premium coffees and sell popular branded merchandise with exceptional service and the Aloha Spirit. Bad Ass Coffees are available in franchise stores, online and will soon be available through grocery, hospitality, and specialty retail channels. The Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii brand and franchise is owned by Royal Aloha Franchise Company, LLC. For more information, visit badasscoffee.com and connect on Facebook and Instagram @badasscoffeeofhawaii. Franchise information is available at badasscoffeefranchise.com. Contact: Melissa Morris 720-339-8279 (voice/text) melissa.h.morris@gmail.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83701 The current eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed Israeli police tactics during Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police. A focal point was the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound that is revered by Jews and Muslims, where police fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters who threw chairs and stones at them. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Dada Group (DADA), on-demand delivery and retail platform in China, said that it has established the strategic partnership with Tyson Foods (TSN), leading the trend of fresh meat category in the field of on-demand retail in China. Tyson has become one of the largest fresh meat brands in China's on-demand retail market and a leader on O2O platforms in the fresh food category, Dada said in a statement. Tyson has established the industrial chain of protein products in East, South, Central and Northeast China. Tyson China said it believes that the strategic cooperation can facilitate the digital upgrade of on-demand retail, and spur the domestic consumption. 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. Good morning, Please find below the press release issued today. Best regards, ____________________________________________________________________ Marishka Martins Group PR Consultant Capgemini India | Mumbai www.capgemini.com Tel.: +91 9930835325 Email: marishka.martins@capgemini.com _____________________________ World Insurance Report 2021: Insurers must blend physical and digital distribution models to provide superior customer experience in a post-pandemic world Successful insurers will connect channels and empower their distribution network with emerging technologies,to overcome COVID-19's impact on customer acquisition and retention. Paris, May 12, 2021 - Capgemini and Efma 's World Insurance Report 2021 , published today, finds that insurers need to rethink their distribution models to offer uninterrupted service, superior customer experience (CX), and maximum value as the industry's business dynamics continue to evolve. As natural disasters and emerging risks such as COVID-19 become more severe, and lockdowns and social distancing spur the adoption of digital channels, the world is more insurance conscious. Therefore, insurers need to empower their distribution network with emerging technologies, including augmented and virtual reality and AI, and embed insurance in customers' daily lives by embracing open insurance, the report found. According to the report, more than 60% of insurance executives surveyed said COVID-19 affected their firm's customer acquisition efforts, and about 40% cited an impact on customer retention. To regain lost ground, insurers should consider the 'CARE' approach, where Convenience, Advice and REach are at the heart of designing and evaluating the effectiveness of their channels. While 87% of insurers say they will invest in digital enhancements, only 32% say digital channels are effective in securing sales because they lack personalized advice capabilities. Digital channels earned high marks for 24/7 availability, ease of updating information for insurers, and search capabilities. Yet, their inability to provide in-depth, personalized advice to customers seeking complex products such as retirement plans and annuities made it clear that agents and brokers are still essential for purchasing these types of insurance. Convenience is an insurer's competitive edge Insurance customers surveyed said the ease and speed of access to information impacts the convenience of their experience. Seventy-seven percent of insurance executives say that agents and brokers are their most prominent distribution channel. However, more than 40% of personal line customers said it was challenging to contact agents and brokers outside typical office hours - and lockdowns and social distancing complicate the situation. Unlike personal policyholders, commercial lines and small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) did not see an appreciable difference in the convenience offered by agents and brokers, digital channels or direct channels. More than 50% of SMBs rated their experience of interacting with agents and brokers as convenient, while more than 60% rated digital channels convenient. Technology can supercharge channel effectiveness Agents and brokers want to ramp up their digital engagement capabilities, and about 44% said they need support from their insurers. More than half of the agents and brokers surveyed said that to assist customers effectively, they need digital collaboration and engagement tools such as screen-sharing platforms and digital document-signing tools. They also said customer convenience improves when digital illustrations and single-screen product comparison tools are offered. However, less than two-thirds of insurers said they provide agents and brokers with these sought-after digital tools to enhance customer experience. In the future, 'Digi-intermediation' - a process in which agents are digitally empowered, and virtual channels are humanized - will eliminate distribution gaps, enhance CX, and optimize delivered value. More comprehensive customer knowledge enables personalized advice Agents and brokers said they need to know more about policyholders and potential customers in order to more effectively convert leads into sales. APIs and AI-based analytics can help agents and brokers understand customer preferences, answer questions, and offer appropriate products around policyholders' special life events. AI-based analytical tools and a 360-degree view of customers is essential for a customized customer-experience. The most successful insurers will win and retain customers by reinventing their operating ecosystem to support a 'phygital' model based on a mix of physical presence and digital engagement. "Insurers have an opportunity to convert digital traffic to sales by focusing on a hyper-personalized virtual experience," said Anirban Bose , CEO of Capgemini's Financial Services and Group Executive Board Member. "Today's customers expect interacting with their insurers to be easy, and providers need to ensure their channels enable a convenient and seamless customer experience. By investing in the right technologies, insurers can win and retain customers while empowering their agents and brokers to deepen relationships." "The global impact of all-at-once digital adoption has changed the way insurers need to operate to satisfy their customers. Digital investment in connected channels is a critical ingredient for insurers of the future to be successful," said John Berry, CEO of Efma. Report methodology The World Insurance Report 2021 features insights from three primary sources - the 2021 Global Insurance Voice of the Customer Survey,the 2021 Global Insurance Executive Interviews, and the 2021 Global Agents and Brokers Survey. Together, these sources cover insights from 25 markets: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States. About Capgemini Capgemini is a global leader in partnering with companies to transform and manage their business by harnessing the power of technology. The Group is guided every day by its purpose of unleashing human energy through technology for an inclusive and sustainable future. It is a responsible and diverse organization of 270,000 team members in nearly 50 countries. With its strong 50 year heritage and deep industry expertise, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to address the entire breadth of their business needs, from strategy and design to operations, fueled by the fast-evolving and innovative world of cloud, data, AI, connectivity, software, digital engineering, and platforms. The Group reported in 2020 global revenues of 16 billion. Get the Future You Want | www.capgemini.com About Efma A global non-profit organization established in 1971 by banks and insurance companies, Efma facilitates networking between decision-makers. It provides quality insights to help banks and insurance companies make the right decisions to foster innovation and drive their transformation. 120 financial groups in 133 countries are Efma members. Headquartered in Paris. Offices in London, Brussels, Andorra, Milan, Stockholm, Bratislava, Warsaw, Moscow, Istanbul, Beirut, Dubai, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, and Montreal. Learn more: www.efma.com . Attachment DGAP-News: Ferratum Oyj / Key word(s): AGM/EGM Ferratum Oyj: NOTICE TO CONVENE FERRATUM PLC'S EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS (news with additional features) 12.05.2021 / 07:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. NOTICE TO CONVENE FERRATUM PLC'S EXTRAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS Notice is given to the shareholders of Ferratum Plc that the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Company is to be held on 10 June 2021 at 10:00 a.m. (EEST / Finnish time) at the offices of Castren & Snellman Attorneys Ltd, Etelaesplanadi 14, Helsinki, Finland. In order to limit the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Company's Board of Directors has decided to adopt the exceptional meeting procedure provided for in the Finnish Act 375/2021, which temporarily deviates from some of the provisions of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act (the so-called temporary act). The Board of Directors has decided to take the measures permitted by the temporary legislation in order to hold the General Meeting in a predicable manner while also taking into account the health and safety of the Company's shareholders, personnel and other stakeholders. The Company's shareholders can participate in the meeting and exercise their rights only by voting in advance and by presenting counterproposals and questions in advance. Instructions for shareholders are provided below in Section 3 (Instructions for the Participants in the General Meeting of Shareholders). It will not be possible to participate in the meeting in person, and no video link to the meeting venue will be provided. The Company's Board of Directors, the CEO and other management will not be present at the meeting venue. 1 MATTERS ON THE AGENDA OF THE GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS At the General Meeting of Shareholders, the following matters will be considered: (1) Opening of the Meeting (2) Calling the Meeting to Order Attorney Janne Lauha will serve as the chairperson. If Janne Lauha is prevented from serving as the chairperson for a weighty reason, the Board of Directors will appoint a person they deem most suitable to serve as the chairperson. (3) Election of Person to Scrutinise the Minutes and to Supervise the Counting of Votes Attorney Teresa Kauppila will serve as the person to scrutinise the minutes and to supervise the counting of votes. If Teresa Kauppila is prevented from serving as the person to scrutinise the minutes and to supervise the counting of votes for a weighty reason, the Board of Directors will appoint a person they deem most suitable to scrutinise the minutes and to supervise the counting of votes. (4) Recording the Legality of the Meeting (5) Recording the Attendance at the Meeting and Adoption of the List of Votes Shareholders who have voted in advance within the advance voting period and who are entitled to participate in the General Meeting in accordance with chapter 5, sections 6 and 6 a of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act will be deemed shareholders participating in the meeting. Recording the attendance at the meeting and the adoption of the list of votes will take place based on information provided by Computershare AB. (6) Conversion of the Company from a Finnish Public Limited Liability Company into a European Public Limited Liability Company Ferratum Plc has on 16 December 2020 announced that the Board of Directors had on that date resolved to approve the Draft Terms of Conversion of Ferratum Plc into a European Company (SE) (Terms of Conversion) and a related report (Report) concerning the contemplated conversion of the Company from a Finnish public limited liability company (Plc) into a European public limited liability company (Societas Europaea, SE) (Conversion). The proposed resolutions under this item (6) relate to the Conversion. The Terms of Conversion have been enclosed to this notice as Appendix 1 and the Report as Appendix 2 , and they are also available on the Company's website. The Terms of Conversion have been registered in the Finnish Trade Register on 18 December 2020. (a) Conversion of the Company into an SE The Board of Directors proposes that the Extraordinary General Meeting approves the Terms of Conversion and resolves on the Conversion in accordance with the Terms of Conversion. The reasons for converting the Company into an SE are strategic. While the Company was incorporated in Finland, its operations have since expanded across Europe and the world, and currently the Company is a multinational company having operative actions in several countries. The conversion into an SE, which currently is the only supranational corporate form available in Europe, is expected to emphasise the international reach of the Company's operations and strengthen its European identity. The aim is to make the group structure more transparent and leaner from governance perspective. Pursuant to Article 37 paragraph 6 of the Council Regulation (EC) 2157/2001 on the Statute for a European company (SE), one or more independent experts must before the general meeting deciding on the Conversion certify that the Company has net assets at least equivalent to its capital plus those reserves which must not be distributed under the law or the articles of association. The Company's auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy, has issued the said certificate on 24 March 2021 and it has been enclosed to this notice as Appendix 3 . (b) Amending the Articles of Association The above-mentioned Conversion requires that the Articles of Association of the Company be amended as set forth in the Terms of Conversion. Provided that the Extraordinary General Meeting approves the proposal of the Board of Directors relating to the Conversion in item (a) above, the Board of Directors proposes that the Extraordinary General Meeting resolves to amend the Company's Articles of Association as follows: (i) Article 1 of the Articles of Association is proposed to be amended to feature a new indication of corporate form in the Company's trade name, and the Article reads as follows: 1 Trade Name and Registered Domicile The trade name of the Company is Ferratum SE. The registered domicile of the company is Helsinki, Finland. (ii) Article 3 of the Articles of Association is proposed to be changed to include a reference to appointed intervals at which the Board of Directors shall meet, and the amended Article reads as follows: 3 Board of Directors and Managing Director The Board of Directors shall be comprised of no fewer than three (3) and no more than nine (9) members. The term of the members of the Board of Directors shall expire at the close of the first annual general meeting following the meeting at which the Board was elected. The Chairman and the Vice Chairman shall be appointed by the Board of Directors from amongst its members. The Board of Directors shall meet at least once every three months to discuss the progress and foreseeable development of the Company's business. The Company shall have a Managing Director to be appointed by the Board of Directors. (7) Amending the Articles of Association Provided that the Extraordinary General Meeting approves the proposals of the Board of Directors under item (6) above, the Board of Directors proposes that Article 1 of the Articles of Association of the Company be amended to introduce a new trade name for the Company as follows: 1 Trade Name and Registered Domicile The trade name of the Company is Multitude SE. The registered domicile of the company is Helsinki, Finland. (8) Closing of the Meeting 2 MEETING MATERIALS The above proposals of the Board of Directors relating to the agenda of the General Meeting of Shareholders as well as this notice, the Terms of Conversion, the Report and the auditor's certificate are available on Ferratum Plc's website at https://www.ferratumgroup.com/investors/annual-general-meeting/egm. Copies of these documents and of this notice will be sent to shareholders upon request. The minutes of the meeting will be made available on Ferratum Plc's website no later than on 24 June 2021. 3 INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE GENERAL MEETING OF SHAREHOLDERS A shareholder may participate in the General Meeting and exercise his/her rights at the meeting only by voting in advance and by presenting counterproposals and questions in advance in accordance with the instructions provided below. It will not be possible to participate in the meeting in person. 3.1 Shareholders Registered in Shareholders' Register Each shareholder who is registered in the shareholders' register of the Company held by Euroclear Finland Oy on 31 May 2021, has the right to participate in the General Meeting of Shareholders. Shareholders whose shares are registered on his/her personal Finnish book-entry account are registered in the shareholders' register of the Company. Shareholders can participate in the General Meeting only by voting in advance and by presenting counterproposals and questions in advance as described below. Shareholders, who are registered in the shareholders' register of the Company, and who wish to participate in the General Meeting, must register for the meeting by giving prior notice of participation and by delivering their votes in advance as instructed below. Both the notice of participation and votes have to be received by Computershare AB no later than on 3 June 2021 at 3:00 p.m. (CEST / Frankfurt time). In connection with the registration, shareholders are required to provide certain information such as their name, personal identification number/business ID, address and telephone number. Personal data disclosed by shareholders to Ferratum Plc or Computershare AB will only be used in connection with the General Meeting and the processing of the related registrations. Shareholders with a Finnish book-entry account can register and vote in advance on certain matters on the agenda during the period 20 May 2021 - 3 June 2021 at 3:00 p.m. (CEST / Frankfurt time) in the following ways: a) Electronically via a link available on Ferratum Plc's website at https://www.ferratumgroup.com/investors/annual-general-meeting/egm. Electronical advance voting requires identification with Finnish online banking credentials. b) By email or post by delivering the advance voting form available on the Company's website at https://www.ferratumgroup.com/investors/annual-general-meeting/egm or corresponding information to Computershare AB either by email to info@computershare.se or by post to Computershare AB, "Ferratum Plc EGM 2021", Aleksanterinkatu 15 B, 6th floor, 00100 Helsinki, Finland. If a shareholder participates in the General Meeting by delivering votes in advance in the manner set forth above, the delivery of the votes before the end of registration and the advance voting shall constitute due registration for the General Meeting, provided that the information required for registration has been given. The advance voting form as well as further instructions concerning voting are available on the Company's website at https://www.ferratumgroup.com/investors/annual-general-meeting/egm upon the start of the advance voting at the latest. 3.2 Holders of Nominee Registered Shares Holders of nominee registered shares have the right to participate in the General Meeting by virtue of shares, based on which they would be entitled to be registered in the shareholders' register of the Company held by Euroclear Finland Oy on the record date of the General Meeting, i.e. 31 May 2021. In addition, the right to participate in the General Meeting requires that the holders of nominee registered shares be temporarily entered into the shareholders' register held by Euroclear Finland Oy based on these shares by 7 June 2021 at 9:00 a.m. (CEST / Frankfurt time), at the latest. This registration constitutes due registration for holders of nominee registered shares wishing to participate in the Extraordinary General Meeting. Changes in shareholding after the record date do not affect the right to participate in the meeting or the number of votes. Holders of nominee registered shares are advised to ask their custodian bank without delay for the necessary instructions regarding registration in the Company's temporary shareholders' register, the issuing of proxy documents and registration for the General Meeting of Shareholders. The account management organisation of the custodian bank must register holders of nominee-registered shares in the Company's temporary shareholders' register at the latest by the time stated above and arrange advance voting on behalf of the holders of nominee registered shares. Further information on these matters is also available on the Company's website at https://www.ferratumgroup.com/investors/annual-general-meeting/egm. 3.3 Proxy Representatives and Power of Attorney Shareholders may participate in the General Meeting of Shareholders and exercise their rights at the meeting by way of proxy representation. Proxy representatives of shareholders are also required to vote in advance in the manner instructed in this notice. Proxy representatives must produce a dated proxy document or otherwise reliably demonstrate their right to represent the shareholder. If a shareholder participates in the General Meeting of Shareholders by means of several proxy representatives representing the shareholder with shares in different securities accounts, the shares by which each proxy representative represents the shareholder must be identified in connection with the registration for the General Meeting of Shareholders. A form of proxy is provided on Ferratum Plc's website at https://www.ferratumgroup.com/investors/annual-general-meeting/egm. The form of proxy is provided for the shareholders' convenience and it is not necessary to use the form provided on the website. Any proxy documents are requested to be delivered by post to Computershare AB, "Ferratum Plc EGM 2021", Aleksanterinkatu 15 B, 6th floor, 00100 Helsinki, Finland or by email to info@computershare.se before the end of registration on 3 June 2021 at 3:00 p.m. (CEST / Frankfurt time) by which time the proxy documents must be received. 3.4 Other Instructions and Information Shareholders who hold at least one one-hundredth of all the shares in the Company have the right to make a counterproposal concerning the proposed decisions on the agenda of the General Meeting to be placed for a vote. The counterproposals must be delivered to the Company to the e-mail address ir@ferratum.com at the latest by 19 May 2021 at 3:00 p.m. (CEST / Frankfurt time). In connection with the counterproposal, the shareholders must present a statement of their shareholding in the Company. The counterproposal is admissible for consideration at the General Meeting if the shareholders who have made the counterproposal have the right to attend the meeting and represent at least one one-hundredth of all shares in the Company on the record date of the General Meeting. If a counterproposal is non-admissible, votes cast for such counterproposal will not be recorded at the meeting. The Company will publish the counterproposals eligible for voting on the Company's website at https://www.ferratumgroup.com/investors/annual-general-meeting/egm on 20 May 2021 at the latest. Shareholders have the right to pose questions and request information with respect to the matters to be considered at the meeting pursuant to chapter 5, section 25 of the Finnish Limited Liability Companies Act by e-mail to the address ir@ferratum.com at the latest by 27 May 2021 at 3:00 p.m. (CEST / Frankfurt time). The Company will publish the shareholders' questions along with the management's and the Board of Directors' responses as well as any counterproposals not eligible for voting on the Company's website at https://www.ferratumgroup.com/investors/annual-general-meeting/egm on 1 June 2021 at the latest. Posing questions and counterproposals requires the shareholder to present an adequate statement of their shareholding in the Company. On the date of this notice to the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders, dated 12 May 2021, the total number of shares in Ferratum Plc is 21,723,960 and each of these shares carries one vote. Ferratum Plc holds 146,200 of its own shares as treasury shares. Accordingly, the number of voting rights carried by the outstanding shares is 21,577,760. ------------------------- In Helsinki on 12 May 2021 FERRATUM PLC The Board of Directors APPENDICES Appendix 1 Draft Terms of Conversion of Ferratum Plc into a European Company (SE) Appendix 2 Report of the Board of Directors concerning the Conversion of Ferratum Plc into a European Company (SE) Appendix 3 Auditor's Certificate related to the Conversion Strong order backlog and revenue in "New Cavotec" On 5 March 2021, we communicated a decision to focus our resources and make investments in our ports & maritime and industrial markets. As a consequence, a process was initiated to divest the Airports business. From the first quarter 2021, we will report our ports & maritime and industry businesses combined under the name New Cavotec. Airports is reported separately. JANUARY-MARCH 2021 NEW CAVOTEC Revenues increased 7.5% to EUR 29.3 million (27.3) EBIT increased to EUR 2.4 million (1.5), corresponding to a margin of 8.2% (5.5%) Order backlog increased 12.6% compared to the previous quarter to EUR 65.0 million JANUARY-MARCH 2021 AIRPORTS Revenues decreased -23.5% to EUR 8.7 million (11.3) EBIT decreased to EUR -1.3 million (0.6), corresponding to a margin of -15.5% (4.9%) Order backlog increased 3.1% compared to the previous quarter to EUR 28.0 million JANUARY-MARCH 2021 TOTAL Revenues decreased -1.6% to EUR 38.0 million (38.7) EBIT decreased to EUR -0.2 million (0.8), corresponding to a margin of -0.6% (2.1%) Net result for the period was EUR 1.5 million (2.1) Earnings per share basic and diluted amounted to EUR 0.016 (0.022) Operating cash flow amounted to EUR -5.5 million (0.3M) Net debt amounted to EUR 22.0 million (FY2020: 15.3) Order backlog increased 9.5% compared to the previous quarter to EUR 93.1 million Comment from the CEO We are on a mission Today marks the start of the next chapter in Cavotec's history as we are opening the curtain on our future strategy. The Ports & Maritime industry is undergoing a huge change. A change where communities and consumers cannot - and will not - accept today's unsustainable transportation systems. The modernization and decarbonization of ports is inevitable - where automation and electrification will increase efficiency, and also lead to a safer workplace and a greener footprint. We call this profitable sustainability, something we've helped our customers achieve for many years. But as niche markets are becoming mass markets, we're accelerating our efforts to grow and keep our place as the market leader. Regulatory requirements will drive significant growth in demand for shore power, automated mooring and industry electrification. In Europe alone, more than 2.500 ports intend to offer shore power to visiting ships in the next 5 - 10 years. To fully leverage on this development, we announced in March that we will divest the Airports business in order to focus on further developing our leading position within cleantech technologies such as shore power, automated mooring, reels, and electrical charging of commercial vehicles. Today, we're announcing that we will invest EUR 20 million over the next five years in technology, engineering and business development to support this focus on our core markets. The global Cavotec team will grow by an estimated 320?people, an increase of 60%, with two thirds being engineers. The increasing interest in the market for profitable sustainability solutions led to New Cavotec growing the order backlog by 12.6% during the first quarter 2021 compared to the previous quarter. Revenues increased 7.5% to EUR 29.3 million versus the same period last year. EBIT for New Cavotec grew by 61% to EUR 2.4 million, a margin of 8.2%. During the quarter we signed an order for the first MoorMaster system in Asia. This order in the quality-conscious, and hard-to-enter Japanese market, not only opens up a domestic market with more than 120 larger ports but is also a stamp of approval for the wider Asian market. In Europe, we were awarded a contract to provide Shore Power to five cruise ship berths at Malta's Valletta Grand Harbour. The project is part of a major EU funded initiative to electrify the entire harbour and reduce harmful portside ship emissions by 90%. We also secured multiple long-term service agreements, driven by service contracts for MoorMaster and Automated Shore Power. Services revenue in the quarter represented 21% of total revenue for New Cavotec. Airports won two large orders in Asia and the Middle East for turn-key deliveries of complete in-ground GSE systems signaling a careful recovery in the aviation market. As a result, Airport's order backlog grew 3.1% compared to the previous quarter to EUR 28.0 million. Revenues however decreased -23.5% to EUR 8.7 million and EBIT decreased to EUR -1.3 million from 0.6 million same period last year. The negative performance is explained by the timing of major deliveries due to continued Covid-19 related uncertainty in the market. We are with today's announcement doubling down on our efforts to transform our markets and on making the world cleaner, safer and more efficient. Every day - in thousands of ports around the world - mega cargo ships moor, and then idle for hours - adding tons of pollution. And the mooring itself is a dangerous job, where employees face tremendous risks on a daily basis.?Equally, the majority of the world's mobile industrial equipment is powered by polluting diesel engines. We are on a mission to change this. We will now accelerate our focus on developing connection and electrification solutions to enable the decarbonization of ports and industrial applications. We summarize our strategy in a short video at https://cavotecsa.gcs-web.com. The return will not come overnight but the possibilities are endless. Lugano, 12 May, 2021 Mikael Norin Chief Executive Officer ENDS Conference call in connection with publication of the quarterly report A conference call for shareholders, analysts and media will be held on 12 May 2021 at 10:00 CEST. Participating on the conference call from Cavotec will be Mikael Norin, CEO, and Glenn Withers, CFO. Conference call Dial-in numbers: SE: +46856642704 UK: +443333009271 US: +18338230587 Weblink: https://tv.streamfabriken.com/cavotec-q1-2021 Quarterly Reports on www.cavotec.com The full report for the period January-March 2021 and previous quarterly and full year reports are available at: http://ir.cavotec.com/financial-reports Analysts & Media Johan Hahnel - Investor Relations Manager Mobile: +46 70 605 63 34 - Email: investor@cavotec.com This is information that Cavotec SA is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 07:00 CEST on 12 May 2021. Attachment May 12, 2021 Highlights Year-to-date Underlying 1 Directional 2 revenue of US$536 million, in line with expectation Directional revenue of US$536 million, in line with expectation Full year 2021 Revenues and EBITDA guidance maintained Awarded LOI for FPSO Almirante Tamandare; fourth Fast4Ward hull allocated to project Pro-forma backlog and cashflow visibility extended until 2050 Cash dividend of US$165 million paid, representing 10% year-on-year increase Bruno Chabas, CEO of SBM Offshore, commented: "SBM Offshore's results over the first quarter of 2021 are in line with our expectation and we maintain our guidance for the full year. Despite the continuing challenging environment due to the pandemic, our operating performance was strong and our major projects under construction are progressing as expected. Our increased dividend represents a cash yield of more than 5%. This dividend is underpinned by the infrastructure platform of our Lease and Operate backlog which now brings cash flow visibility up to 2050. Our core business is going through a significant growth phase with four major FPSO projects under construction. World-class deep water projects continue to rank among the most attractive investments available to our clients. Our Fast4Ward and emissionZEROTM FPSO programs provide industry-leading cost and carbon efficient solutions to help clients maximize value from these investments. We believe that SBM Offshore has a significant role to play in satisfying the world's future energy demand using our experience and technology both to offer low emission production solutions and new solutions for the energy transition. Our New Energies business is making good progress in maturing our innovative technology as well as strategically positioning the Company to benefit from expected growth in market demand." Financial Highlights YTD Directional in US$ million 1Q 2021 1Q 2020 % Change Revenue 513 607 -15% Lease and Operate 360 407 -12% Turnkey 153 200 -24% Underlying Revenue 536 607 -12% Lease and Operate 383 407 -6% Turnkey 153 200 -24% in US$ million 1Q 2021 1Q 2020 Item impacting Underlying Revenue Deep Panuke redelivery - 2021 cash receipts 23 - in US$ billion Mar-31-21 Dec-31-20 % Change Net Debt 4.3 4.1 5% Backlog calculation will be provided in HY21 Earnings Update Underlying Directional revenues for the first quarter of the year came in at US$536 million compared with US$607 million in the first quarter of 2020. This decrease mainly resulted from a lower contribution from the Turnkey segment, where the first quarter in 2020 benefited from the Johan Castberg turret project delivery. SBM Offshore's Turnkey division currently has four major projects under construction. Generally, SBM Offshore does not report Turnkey revenues on Lease and Operate projects that are 100% owned, such as the FPSOs LizaUnity, Prosperity and currently the FPSO Almirante Tamandare. Contribution of these projects to Turnkey revenue is limited to upfront payments and variation orders directly paid by the clients before the start of the lease. Turnkey revenue is recognized on the 35% partners share in construction work for FPSO Sepetiba. The results of these projects will appear in future years as the vessels commence production. First quarter Underlying revenue in Lease and Operate decreased by 6% compared with the same period last year. This decrease was mostly due to additional scope related to the decommissioning of Deep Panuke platform in the first quarter of 2020. Underlying Directional revenue includes US$23 million related to cash received from the client during the first quarter of 2021 from the Deep Panuke contract. The expected cash receipts in 2021 from this contract were excluded from the Underlying 2020 Revenues as reported in the Full Year 2020 Earnings Update. Please refer to Post-Period Events section for an update on the Deep Panuke contract. Compared with year-end 2020, net debt as at the end of the first quarter increased by c. US$200 million to US$4.3 billion. While Lease and Operate continues to generate strong operating cash flow, with four major projects under construction, SBM Offshore continues to invest in growth. Project Review Construction activities for SBM Offshore's major projects continue to face challenges related to the pandemic. The teams continue to overcome the difficulties posed by remote working, travel restrictions and protocols with compulsory quarantine. The ultimate delivery of major projects is not considered at risk, based on currently known circumstances. FPSO Liza Destiny On FPSO Liza Destiny, further work is being done on elements of the flash gas compression system which is expected to be delivered during the month of July 2021. Additionally, plans initiated in 2020 are progressing to install a redesigned third stage flash gas compression system at the end of this year. SBM Offshore is continuing to work closely with the client and with the equipment manufacturer in order to expedite resolution of the situation. FPSO Liza Unity Following the completion of the topside lifting campaign during Q1 2021, work is further progressing on integration and commissioning stages. The project continues to target first oil in 2022 in line with client planning. FPSO Sepetiba The Fast4Ward hull was successfully launched out of drydock during Q1 2021. Module fabrication is further progressing in China and Brazil. The planned completion of the FPSO project is at the end of 2022. FPSO Prosperity The topsides fabrication started in the yards in Singapore. The project is progressing according to schedule with a planned completion in 2024. To further develop local capabilities, Guyanese companies were awarded contracts and started the fabrication of FPSO components in Guyana. In addition, Guyanese engineers have been hired and integrated into the project execution team. FPSO Almirante Tamandare The Letter of Intent for FPSO Almirante Tamandare was signed during Q1 2021. The Fast4Ward multipurpose floater (MPF) hull construction as well as engineering and procurement activities are progressing in line with project schedule. Delivery of the FPSO is expected in the second half of 2024. Fast4Ward MPF hulls Under the Company's Fast4Ward program, the total number of MPF hulls ordered to date stands at six. Four MPF hulls are allocated to FPSOs Liza Unity, Sepetiba, Prosperity and Almirante Tamandare. Two MPF hulls are supporting ongoing tendering activity. Operational Update Fleet uptime during the first quarter of 2021 was 98.6% despite continued challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. The health of our staff and safe operations remain the Company's priority. Preventive and reactive measures implemented offshore and onshore last year have been successful to date and remain in place. After working for more than a year under these special conditions, attention is given to fatigue management with additional personnel mobilized for critical positions. The Company will continue to focus on protecting its personnel while minimizing impact on operations. Energy Transition and ESG SBM Offshore is playing an active role in developing technology to support the energy transition. This is demonstrated by the progress of the Floating Offshore Wind project and Wave Energy Convertor S3 prototype. The Company measures performance against the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals related targets and seeks improvement opportunities. This program includes emission reduction from the fleet. SBM Offshore is also investing in emissionZERO which aims to bring to market an FPSO with near zero emissions. SBM Offshore's sustainability performance continues to be recognized by external rating agencies with inclusion in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2021 and the award of "Industry Mover" distinction demonstrating continuous commitment to sustainability and related performance improvement. The Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate was 0.13 over the first quarter of 2021, compared with the 2021 target of 0.18. Post-Period Events Deep Panuke During the first quarter of 2021, SBM Offshore received notification, effective as of April 1, 2021, from the client of Deep Panuke project who elected to pay the contractually agreed lump sum amount replacing the initial contractual charter payments up to Q4 2021. The lump-sum payment (c. US$55 million) was received in April. The cash balance in the debt service account combined with part of the lump-sum payment was used to redeem the outstanding debt held by the noteholders who opted for early repayment, for an amount of c. US$50 million. The noteholders owning the remainder of the debt (c. US$20 million) opted to retain the notes until expiry in December 2021. Dividends On April 7, 2021, shareholders of the Company voted in favor of the proposed dividend of US$165 million, which represents an increase of 10% compared to last year. It resulted in a dividend distribution of US$0.8854 or 0.7439 per ordinary share. The dividend was paid on May 6, 2021 to all shareholders of record as at April 12, 2021. Guidance The Company's 2021 Directional revenue guidance is maintained at around US$2.6 billion, of which around US$1.6 billion is expected from the Lease and Operate segment and around US$1 billion from the Turnkey segment. 2021 Directional EBITDA guidance is maintained at around US$900 million for the Company. This guidance includes Directional revenues and EBITDA of US$75 million related to the cash received in 2021 from the Deep Panuke contract, which was recognized in 2020 and excluded from the 2020 underlying results. It also considers the currently foreseen COVID-19 impacts on projects and fleet operations. The Company highlights that the direct and indirect impact of the pandemic could continue to have a material impact on the Company's business and results and the realization of the guidance for 2021. Conference Call SBM Offshore has scheduled a conference call, which will be followed by a Q&A session, to discuss the First Quarter 2021 Trading Update. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, May 12, 2021 at 10.00 AM (CEST) and will be hosted by Bruno Chabas (CEO), Douglas Wood (CFO), Philippe Barril (COO) and Erik Lagendijk (CGCO). Interested parties are invited to register prior to the call using the link: https://www.kpneventcall.nl/EventRegistration/6e5808a0-6b80-4b69-be24-ed0872382e3b Please note that the conference call can only be accessed with a personal identification code, which is sent to you by email after completion of the registration. A replay will be available shortly after the end of the conference call. Interested parties can listen to the replay by dialing +31 (0) 20 785 1180 and using access code 244995# until June 12, 2021. Corporate Profile The Company's main activities are the design, supply, installation, operation and the life extension of floating production solutions for the offshore energy industry over the full lifecycle. The Company is market leading in leased floating production systems, with multiple units currently in operation. As of December 31, 2020, the Company employed approximately 4,570 people worldwide spread over offices in our key markets, operational shore bases and the offshore fleet of vessels. SBM Offshore N.V. is a listed holding company headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It holds direct and indirect interests in other companies. Where references are made to SBM Offshore N.V. and /or its subsidiaries in general, or where no useful purpose is served by identifying the particular company or companies "SBM Offshore" or "the Company" are sometimes used for convenience. For further information, please visit our website at www.sbmoffshore.com. The Management Board Amsterdam, the Netherlands, May 12, 2021 Financial Calendar Date Year Half Year 2021 Earnings - Press Release August 5 2021 Trading Update 3Q 2021 - Press Release November 11 2021 Full Year 2021 Earnings - Press Release February 10 2022 Annual General Meeting April 6 2022 Trading Update 1Q 2022 - Press Release May 12 2022 For further information, please contact: Investor Relations Bert-Jaap Dijkstra Group Treasurer and IR Mobile: +31 (0) 6 21 14 10 17 E-mail: bertjaap.dijkstra@sbmoffshore.com Website: www.sbmoffshore.com Media Relations Vincent Kempkes Group Communications Director Mobile: +377 (0) 6 40 62 87 35 E-mail: vincent.kempkes@sbmoffshore.com Website: www.sbmoffshore.com Disclaimer This press release contains inside information within the meaning of Article 7(1) of the EU Market Abuse Regulation. This press release contains regulated information within the meaning of the Dutch Financial Markets Supervision Act (Wet op het financieel toezicht). Some of the statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements based on management's current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance, or events to differ materially from those in such statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results and performance of the Company's business to differ materially and adversely from the forward-looking statements. Certain such forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes", "may", "will", "should", "would be", "expects" or "anticipates" or similar expressions, or the negative thereof, or other variations thereof, or comparable terminology, or by discussions of strategy, plans, or intentions. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this release as anticipated, believed, or expected. SBM Offshore NV does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update any industry information or forward-looking statements set forth in this release to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. Nothing in this press release shall be deemed an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities. 1 Underlying 2021 revenue and EBITDA exclude one-off effects to enable comparison of like-for-like underlying performance with 2020. 2 Directional view, presented in the Financial Statements under Operating segments and Directional Reporting, represents a pro-forma accounting policy, which assumes all lease contracts are classified as operating leases and all vessel investees are proportionally consolidated. This explanatory note relates to all Directional reporting in this document. Attachment The fast-growing market for electrification and automation of ports around the world is estimated to be worth several billion euros in the coming years. Cavotec will invest 20 million euro in technology, engineering and business development over the next five years to strengthen its leading position and to meet the expected demand. The global Cavotec team will grow by an estimated 320 people, an increase of 60%, with two thirds being engineers. "We're now at an inflection point where our core markets are undergoing a drastic change where what has been niche markets for cleantech are becoming mass markets. In Europe alone, more than 2500 ports will have to drastically reduce emissions by offering Shore Power, a Cavotec specialty, to visiting ships in the next 5 - 10 years. Our automated mooring technology has an equally untapped potential with an estimated 4700 port berths world-wide suitable for automation to increase efficiency and reduce pollution. We will invest in sales, marketing, engineering and technology to fully leverage on this development and our leading market position." says Mikael Norin, CEO of Cavotec. A European Union directive encourages ports to adopt shore-to-ship electrification systems (Shore Power) to reduce emissions from vessels when in port. By 2025, this recommendation will become binding for all European ports. In the American Jobs Act President Biden is planning to spend 17 billion USD on the US shipping infrastructure with a special mention of the need to mitigate the impact of pollution from ports. Cavotec is a market leader in today's niche markets for cleantech for ports and industrial applications. Cavotec has equipped some 600 of the world's container ships as well as hundreds of ports around the world with its Shore Power systems. Most recently, Cavotec has developed an automated e-charging and mooring system for the world's first zero-emission, autonomous battery powered fleet. Also, building on the company's 40-year experience of electrification of mining equipment, Cavotec is active in CharIN, (Charging Interface Initiative), a network of companies developing global standards for charging battery powered vehicles, focusing on high power, high speed charging for commercial and industrial vehicles. "Every day - in thousands of ports around the world - mega cargo ships moor, and then idle for hours - adding tons of pollution. And the mooring itself is a dangerous job, where employees face tremendous risks on a daily basis. Equally, the majority of the world's mobile industrial equipment is powered by polluting diesel engines. Our mission is to change this. We will accelerate our focus on developing connection and electrification solutions to enable the decarbonization of ports and industrial applications. Just like some brands are leading the successful electrification of the automotive industry, we will lead the electrification of our markets. We are determined to contribute to a future world that is cleaner, safer and more efficient", Norin concludes. The company has released a short video that summarizes the strategy that can be found at Cavotec.com under the Investor section. Conference call in connection with publication of the press release Cavotec will hold a conference call today 12 May at 10:00 CEST to answer questions with regards to today's announcement. Mikael Norin, CEO, and Glenn Withers, CFO will participate in the call. Conference call Dial-in numbers: SE: +46856642704 UK: +443333009271 US: +18338230587 Weblink: https://tv.streamfabriken.com/cavotec-q1-2021 ENDS For further details please contact: Johan Hahnel Investor Relations Manager Telephone: +46 70 605 63 34. Email: investor@cavotec.com This is information that Cavotec SA is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out below, at 07:01 CEST on 12 May 2021. About Cavotec Cavotec is a leading cleantech company that designs and delivers connection and electrification solutions to enable the decarbonization of ports and industrial applications. Backed by more than 40 years of experience, our systems ensure safe, efficient and sustainable operations for a wide variety of customers and applications worldwide. Learn more at cavotec.com. Attachment In the first quarter of 2021, Hexagon (excl. Purus) generated NOK 690 (802) million in revenues and recorded an operating profit before depreciation (EBITDA) of NOK 87 (82) million. The US Truck and European Transit bus business had a strong start to the year while it was a light quarter in Mobile Pipeline. Headwinds from the global semi-conductor shortage impacted the Light-Duty sector negatively. Hexagon Ragasco had a strong start with sales volumes primarily to European markets, while Hexagon Digital Wave started the year with modest sales volumes. However, development of a pipeline for digital products/services, strengthened the positioning of the Hexagon Digital Wave business. Key developments in the quarter Hexagon Purus selected for hydrogen fuel cell project for construction equipment Hexagon Agility received orders from major global logistics customer with an estimated total value of USD 19 million (approx. NOK 165 million). Hexagon Agility received orders from UPS for CNG trucks with a value of USD 8 million (approx. NOK 68 million) Hexagon Purus signed Joint Venture agreements with CIMC Enric for China and South East Asia Hexagon Agility and Hexagon Purus signed long-term agreement with Certarus for CNG, RNG and hydrogen solutions for a total value of up to USD 85 million (approx. NOK 718 million) Hexagon Purus' received hydrogen cylinder orders for leading gas distributors in new markets in Europe Hexagon and Mitsui expanded and extended their strategic alliance Hexagon Digital Wave selected by the Antarctic Fire Department for continued service life testing of SCBA cylinders Key developments after balance sheet date Hexagon Purus selected by Nikola Corporation to supply hydrogen cylinders for serial production with an estimated sales value in excess of EUR 200 million Hexagon Agility received additional orders from major global logistics customer for RNG/CNG trucks with a combined value of USD 25 million (approx. NOK 199 million) Hexagon Ragasco received first order in 2021 from key customer in South-Asia Hexagon Purus to deliver high performance cylinders to Wystrach for industrial and mobility applications Presentation of the results Jon Erik Engeset (CEO) and David Bandele (CFO) will present the results at 08:30 CEST and the presentation will be broadcasted live. The presentation will be held in English. Link to webcast: https://hexagongroup.kg5.no/ A recording of the presentation will be made available on www.hexagongroup.com. Contacts: Karen Romer, SVP Communications, Hexagon Composites Telephone: +47 950 74 950 | karen.romer@hexagongroup.com Hiva Ghiri, VP Investor Relations, Hexagon Composites Telephone: +47 958 66 790 | hiva.ghiri@hexagongroup.com About Hexagon Composites ASA Hexagon delivers safe and innovative solutions for a cleaner energy future. Our solutions enable storage, transportation and conversion to clean energy in a wide range of mobility, industrial and consumer applications. Learn more at www.hexagongroup.com and follow @HexagonASA on Twitter and LinkedIn. This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. Attachments OSLO, Norway (12 May 2021) - TGS today reported interim financial results for Q1 2021. Net IFRS revenues amounted to USD 186 million in Q1 2021, an increase of 256% compared to Q1 2020. EBITDA was USD 162 million and the operating result was USD 69 million, compared to USD 26 million and USD -58 million, respectively, in Q1 2020. Net segment revenues (1) amounted to USD 75 million in Q1 2021, compared to USD152 million in Q1 2020. Segment EBITDA was USD 51 million versus USD 126 million in the same quarter of 2020, while the segment operating result amounted to USD -20 million, compared to USD - 19 million in Q1 2020. Free-cash flow (2) amounted to USD 84 million in Q1 2021, up from USD 1 million in Q1 2020. Including shareholder distribution of USD 19 million the cash holding increased by USD 58 million to USD 254 million on 31 March 2021. The solid financial position allows TGS to maintain the quarterly dividend at USD 0.14 per share and continue its share repurchase program with a remaining value of up to USD 17 million. "Despite a substantial increase in the oil price over the past six months, exploration spending remains muted. Our clients are indicating that their strong cash flow will mainly be directed at dividends, share buybacks and deleveraging balance sheets. While we remain cautiously optimistic for a pick-up in activity towards the end of the year, we expect our near-term organic multi-client investments to be lower, partly due to the use of supplier risk-sharing and JVs. As a result, we continue to add high volumes of data to our library and generate strong cash flow," says Kristian Johansen, CEO of TGS. "Our New Energy Solutions initiative is progressing rapidly, and we are excited to announce 4C Offshore as the first acquisition in the renewable area. The acquisition fits perfectly with our ambition to become the leading global provider of energy data and insights to support decision-making processes across the energy value chain." Based on the above, 2021 guidance is revised as follows: Multi-client investments of between USD 150 - 180 million (previously USD 200 - 230 million) Continued sector outperformance on cash flow and ROACE Industry-leading distribution to shareholders A pre-recorded presentation of the results and business update featuring CEO Kristian Johansen, CFO Fredrik Amundsen and EVP of NES & Operations Jan Schoolmeesters can be viewed at http://www.tgs.com . Today at CEST 3:00 pm Kristian Johansen, CEO at TGS, will host a conference call to go through the update and answer questions. We encourage attendees to call in 5-10 minutes before CET 3:00 pm to ensure registration and access. Telephone conference dial-in details: Norway: +47 23 50 02 36 United Kingdom: +44 333 300 92 63 USA: +1 833 526 83 97 For more information, visit TGS.com) or contact: Sven Brre Larsen SVP Strategy Tel: +47 90 94 36 73 E-mail: investor@tgs.com Notes 1 - IFRS versus Segment Reporting: The main difference between IFRS and Segment reporting relates to revenue recognition. Under IFRS revenue recognition generally is deferred until project completion and delivery to the customer when performance obligations are met. Under Segment reporting, net revenue from projects-in-progress is recognized based on Percentage of Completion (POC). Revenue recognition has subsequent effects on the recognition of amortization of the multi-client library. Please see annual report for a complete description of the Company's accounting principles. Adjustments between IFRS and Segment revenue numbers for Q1 2021: IFRS reported revenue: USD 186 million - Revenue recognized from performance obligations met during Q1 for completed projects: USD 157 million + Revenue recognized under POC during Q1: USD 46 million = Preliminary net segment reported revenue: USD 75 million Differences in EBIDTA and operating results between IFRS and segment reporting are caused by the aggregate differences in revenues and the resulting impact on amortization. 2 - Defined as Cash flow from operations after investments in the multi-client library. About TGS TGS provides scientific data and intelligence to companies active in the energy sector. In addition to a global, extensive and diverse energy data library, TGS offers specialized services such as advanced processing and analytics alongside cloud-based data applications and solutions. Forward Looking Statement All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, and are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove accurate. These factors include TGS' reliance on a cyclical industry and principal customers, TGS' ability to continue to expand markets for licensing of data, and TGS' ability to acquire and process data product at costs commensurate with profitability, as well as volatile market conditions, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the severe drop in oil prices. Actual results may differ materially from those expected or projected in the forward-looking statements. TGS undertakes no responsibility or obligation to update or alter forward-looking statements for any reason. Attachments Ageas reports goodfirst quarter results 2021 Good start to the year All segments contributing to the strong net result Sound commercial performance in both Life and Non-Life Net Result The Group net result was EUR 296 million driven by a solid operating performance in both Life and Non-Life was driven by a solid operating performance in both Life and Non-Life Insurance net result increased from EUR 113 million to EUR 318 million increased from EUR 113 million to Net result in Non-Life amounted to EUR 91 million compared to EUR 24 million in last years' first quarter amounted to compared to EUR 24 million in last years' first quarter Life net result of EUR 227 million compared to EUR 89 million last year Inflows The Group inflows (at 100%) were up 6% to EUR 12.6 billion (at 100%) were up 6% to Life inflows (at 100%) were up 4% to EUR 10.4 billion driven by Asia and Belgium inflows (at 100%) were up 4% to driven by Asia and Belgium Non-Life inflows (at 100%) were signicantly up to EUR 2.2 billion including EUR 355 million contribution of Taiping Re Operating Performance Excellent Combined ratio at 9 1.7 % Operating Margin Guaranteed at 92 bps and Operating Margin Unit-Linked at 34 bps. Both margins within the target range Balance Sheet Shareholders' equity at EUR 11. 7 billion or EUR 62.71 per share or EUR 62.71 per share Group Solvency II ageas ratio remained strong at 19 5 % ratio remained strong at General Account Total Liquid Assets as at 31 March 2021 at EUR 1. 2 billion Life Technical Liabilities excl. shadow accounting of the consolidated entities up 1% compared to end 2020 to EUR 74 billion A complete overview of the figuresand comparison with previous year can be found on page 5 of this press release and on the Ageas website. Key figures and main highlights on the segments can be found in the Annexes of this press release AgeasCEOHans De Cuypersaid: "Both commercially and operationally, Ageas performed strongly in the first quarter of 2021. The growth in inflows both in Life and Non-Life and the overall solid operating performance reflects the resilience of our business and our people in a world still affected by Covid. The strong first-quarter performance gives us confidence that we can strengthen our guidance to EUR 900 - 950 million." "We have also welcomed new colleagues from AvivaSA in Turkey. The investment we made in AvivaSA, provides us with a balanced Life and Non-Life presence in the fast-growing Turkish market. And in the UK, we say goodbye but also thank you to the employees of Tesco Underwriting, wishing them every success in the future development of their business." Attachment FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Commerzbank AG (CRZBY.PK) reported that its first-quarter consolidated profit attributable to shareholders was 133 million euros compared to a loss of 291 million euros in the prior year. Total operating profit was 538 million euros compared to an operating loss of 278 million euros in the prior year. It more than compensated for the restructuring charges of 465 million euros booked in the first quarter. Revenues for the first quarter increased 35% to 2.49 billion euros from last year, primarily on the basis of a strong net commission income and positive valuation effects. The underlying revenues, excluding exceptional items, rose to 2.31 billion euros from 2.02 billion euros in the prior year. Commerzbank had already agreed a voluntary redundancy program on a headcount reduction of 1,700 full-time equivalents for 2021. The company said revenues should slightly exceed the previous year. While uncertainty of the further development of the pandemic remains, a risk result in the range from minus 0.8 billion euros to minus 1.2 billion euros is anticipated. Based on current observations, a risk result up to minus 1 billion euros is likely. Commerzbank expects a positive operating result. The expectations are based on the assumption that there is no fundamental change affecting the Swiss francs loan portfolio at mBank. 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. Im still a Republican, but Im hanging on by the skin of my teeth because how quickly the party has divorced itself from truth and reason, Taylor said. Im one of those in the group that feels very strongly that if we cant get the GOP back to a rational party that supports free minds, free markets, and free people, Im out, and a lot of people are coming with me. NUREMBERG (dpa-AFX) - LEONI AG (LEOGN) reported first-quarter consolidated net result of EUR 28 million compared to a loss of EUR 67 million last year. On a per share basis, earnings totaled EUR 0.85 compared to a loss of EUR 2.05 incurred a year ago. Consolidated sales for the quarter rose to EUR 1.35 billion from EUR 1.13 billion generated in the prior year period. Aldo Kamper, CEO of Leoni AG, said, 'We continued our operational recovery of the preceding quarters in the first quarter of 2021. We reached initial milestones in the improvement of our portfolio with the sale of LEONI Schweiz AG as well as the agreement on the disposal of business units of LEONI Kerpen GmbH.' Looking ahead, despite the persisting Covid-19 pandemic and bottlenecks in the company's global supply chain, the company now expects group sales for fiscal 2021 to increase significantly compared to the previously issued low double-digit percentage range. 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. Indigo Diabetes Appoints Paul Moraviec as Chairman of the Board Brings decades of leadership experience in the Global MedTech sector As CEO of ConvaTec Group Plc,led the $4.5 billion IPO on the London Stock Exchange Transformed Abbott's Diabetes Care EMEA division BELGIUM - Ghent, May 12, 2021 - Indigo Diabetes N.V. ('Indigo' or the 'Company'), a pioneering developer of medical solutions using nanophotonics, is pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Moraviec as Chairman of its Board of Directors. Paul has amassed over three decades of global experience in the healthcare sector, having held multiple senior leadership positions. Most recently Paul led the ConvaTec Group Plc, a global medical products and technologies company, as Chief Executive Officer, orchestrating a successful company turnaround and subsequent $4.5 billion IPO on the London Stock Exchange in 2016, which at the time was the largest healthcare listing in Europe. In addition, he brings highly relevant diabetes experience, having been Vice President of Abbott's Diabetes Care International division between 2002 and 2007 where he transformed the EMEA business with low single digit growth and declining market share, to the fastest growing company in the glucose monitoring field. Paul has also led the early-stage surgical robotics company Prosurgics, redesigning their product development and commercialisation strategy; and led a major restructuring and performance improvement program across UK, Germany and France for Johnson & Johnson's Neuro Surgery business. Paul will replace Harrold van Barlingen who will step down as Chairman and retain a seat on the Board as a Non-Executive Director. Dr Danae Delbeke, CEO, Inventor and Co-founder of Indigo Diabetes, commented: "We're thrilled to welcome Paul as Chairman of Indigo's Board. His wealth of experience leading and transforming the businesses of MedTech companies will be invaluable as we continue to develop our subcutaneous continuous multi metabolite monitoring ('CMM') device. His appointment highlights our business potential and reflects Indigo's ambition to make our device commercially available to people living with diabetes as soon as possible. "We'd also like to extend our gratitude to our outgoing Chairman Harrold van Barlingen, who has made a significant contribution towards Indigo and our success thus far, we are grateful to retain his expertise as a board member." Paul Moraviec, Chairman of Indigo Diabetes, commented: "I am delighted to be joining and chairing Indigo's Board and look forward to helping the team successfully execute the strategy and guide the development of its CMM device, an innovative next generation approach to continuous monitoring of metabolites for people living with diabetes." - Ends - About Indigo Diabetes N.V. Indigo Diabetes N.V. . About Indigo Diabetes's CMM sensor Indigo Diabetes's CMM sensor is a small spectrometer-on a-chip to monitor in-vivo simultaneously and continuously multiple metabolites. The inert, miniature integrated silicon photonics spectrometer chip measures the absorption of light in the interstitial fluid to quantify the concentration of multiple metabolites simultaneously without the use of enzymes or fluorophores. Once inserted under the skin the CMM sensor is invisible to the naked eye and will connect securely and wirelessly to mobile devices to show and capture the concentration profiles of the metabolites for the user. A rechargeable sensor battery powers the measurements. It is expected that the sensor will have a lifetime up to 2 years. Preclinical studies have successfully demonstrated proof of concept with promising accuracy. Contacts Indigo Diabetes N.V. Dr Danae Delbeke, CEO Email: info@indigomed.com Financial Communications Consilium Strategic Communications Ashley Tapp, Alexandra Harrison, Priit Piip Tel: +44 Vow ASA ("Vow") is pleased to inform that Enova has confirmed a grant of up to NOK 80.7 million to support Vow's project for industrial production of biocoal for metallurgical industry at Follum in Eastern Norway. The grant is another important step towards final investment decision for the project. Enova is a Norwegian state-owned enterprise established to promote a shift towards more environmentally friendly energy consumption and production, as well as the development of energy and climate technology. "We are very enthusiastic and grateful for Enova's decision. By awarding this grant, Enova will be playing an important role in the promotion of technology that will help metallurgical industry decarbonize," said Henrik Badin, CEO of Vow ASA. The plant at Follum will be owned and operated by Vow Green Metals, currently a wholly owned subsidiary of Vow. As previously informed, a demerger of Vow Green Metals is planned with subsequent listing, likely before summer this year. As part of this plan, Vow has already provided NOK 150 million in funding to Vow Green Metals. The plant at Follum will be designed and built by Vow, which will also provide the processing equipment. This will add more than NOK 200 million to Vow's order backlog when Vow Green Metals is spun off, and which will convert into revenues for Vow over the next 12-18 months. Vow's ambition for Vow Green Metals goes far beyond the plant at Follum. Demand for biocarbon is expected to increase significantly in the next few years, driven partly by increasing CO2 taxation and corporate net zero strategies. The demand for biocarbon in Norway alone is estimated at 400 000 tonnes annually by 2030. For comparison, initial capacity at Follum will be 10 000 tonnes per year. "Our plans for Vow Green Metals include further expansion in the Nordics as well as larger production facilities to meet industry needs across Europe," Badin said. For further queries, please contact: Henrik Badin - CEO Vow ASA Tel: + 47 90 78 98 25 Email: henrik.badin@vowasa.com About Vow ASA In Vow and our subsidiaries Scanship and Etia we are passionate about preventing pollution. Our advanced technology and world leading solutions purify wastewater and convert biomass and waste into valuable resources and generate clean energy for a wide range of industries, which as part of their own transition are looking for low carbon fuels, carbon neutral energy, decarbonised gas, and biocarbon. We have delivered technology to a wide range of industries for many years. Our solutions are scalable, standardized, patented, and thoroughly documented, and our capabilities are well proven in concrete projects and deliveries. In 2020, Vow established Vow Industries. This subsidiary will build, own, and operate plants that deliver industry decarbonisation as a service, thereby accelerating the green transition within waste and biomass valorisation and energy production. Located in Oslo, the parent company Vow ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (ticker VOW). This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN) (OTCQX: IVPAF) President and CFO Marna Cloete is pleased to announce the company has been informed that effective following the close of May 27, 2021, the Class A common shares of Ivanhoe Mines will be added to the MSCI Canada Index. The MSCI Canada Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Canadian market. Currently with 89 constituents, the index covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in Canada. About Ivanhoe Mines Ivanhoe Mines is a Canadian mining company focused on advancing its three principal joint-venture projects in Southern Africa: the development of major new, mechanized, underground mines at the Kamoa-Kakula copper discoveries in the DRC and at the Platreef palladium-platinum-nickel-copper-rhodium-gold discovery in South Africa; and the extensive redevelopment and upgrading of the historic Kipushi zinc-copper-germanium-silver mine, also in the DRC. Kamoa-Kakula is expected to begin producing copper in late May or early June 2021 and, through phased expansions, is positioned to become one of the world's largest copper producers. Kamoa-Kakula and Kipushi will be powered by clean, renewable hydro-generated electricity and will be among the world's lowest greenhouse gas emitters per unit of metal produced. Ivanhoe also is exploring for new copper discoveries on its wholly-owned Western Foreland exploration licences in the DRC, near the Kamoa-Kakula Project. Information contacts Investors: Bill Trenaman +1.604.331.9834 / Media: Matthew Keevil +1.604.558.1034 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83745 - Kamux Corporation Interim ReportMay 12, 2021 at 09:00 - Kamux Corporation's Interim Report for January 1 - March 31, 2021 HELSINKI, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kamux Saw Very Strong and Very Profitable Growth - Revenue Growth +25.4% and Adjusted Operating Profit +44.0% The figures in parentheses refer to the comparison period, i.e. the same period in the previous year, unless stated otherwise. January-March in brief Revenue increased by 25.4%, totaling EUR 209.9 million (167.4) (167.4) Gross profit increased by 26.9% to EUR 23.2 million (18.3), or 11.0% (10.9) of revenue (18.3), or 11.0% (10.9) of revenue Adjusted operating profit (EBIT) increased by 44.0% to EUR 5.7 million (4.0), or 2.7% (2.4) of revenue (4.0), or 2.7% (2.4) of revenue Operating profit (EBIT) increased by 44.0% to EUR 5.7 million (4.0), or 2.7% (2.4) of revenue (4.0), or 2.7% (2.4) of revenue The number of cars sold increased by 14.2% to 16,242 cars (14,227) Like-for-like showroom revenue growth was 12.8% (1.0) Earnings per share were EUR 0.09 (0.06) Key figures EUR million 1-3/2021 1-3/2020 Change, % 1-12/2020 Revenue 209.9 167.4 25.4% 724.1 Gross profit 23.2 18.3 26.9% 91.5 as percentage of revenue, % 11.0% 10.9% 12.6% Operating profit (EBIT) 5.7 4.0 44.0% 31.2 as percentage of revenue, % 2.7% 2.4% 4.3% Adjusted operating profit* 5.7 4.0 44.0% 30.7 as percentage of revenue, % 2.7% 2.4% 4.2% Revenue from integrated services 9.4 8.9 5.3% 37.1 as percentage of revenue, % 4.5% 5.3% 5.1% Number of cars sold 16,242 14,227 14.2% 60,657 Gross profit per sold car, EUR 1,427 1,284 11.1% 1,509 Sales growth of like-for-like showrooms, % 12.8% 1.0% -3.8% Net debt 75.5 45.4 66.3% 53.5 Inventories 122.4 77.6 57.6% 93.6 Inventory turnover, days 54.3 44.8 21.2% 47.2 Capital expenditures 1.2 1.1 8.2% 4.9 Average number of employees during the period 795 661 20.3% 713 Return on equity (ROE), % 26.5% 23.6% 26.3% Return on investment (ROI), % 16.5% 13.2% 16.9% Equity ratio, % 45.4% 44.9% 50.1% Earnings per share, basic, EUR 0.09 0.06 36.5% 0.58 * Operating profit adjusted for special items related to strategy planning and taxes from previous financial years. There were no special items for 1-3/2021 (1-3/2020: EUR 0.0 million and 1-12/2020: EUR -0.5 million). CEO Juha Kalliokoski: "We saw very strong and very profitable growth in the first quarter. Kamux's revenue increased by 25.4% and adjusted operating profit by 44.0%. We have worked decisively to implement our strategy, which focuses on accelerating growth and developing scalability. We are still living in the midst of the corona pandemic, but the measures taken by the governments in Finland and Sweden did not have a considerable adverse effect on our business. In Germany, on the other hand, the entire first quarter was a very exceptional time due to the lock-down of society and the related measures taken. The unusual situation was also reflected on used car retail and Kamux's profitability in Germany. In all countries, we were flexible in making swift substitute employee arrangements to ensure the health of both our personnel as well as our customers. During the first quarter, we invested in car purchasing for the spring and summer seasons to ensure sufficient inventory levels, as we are aiming at strong growth in all operating countries. We implemented our strategy in the first quarter by developing a the Kamux Huoleton ("Carefree"), a service based on monthly-fee driving. The Gothenburg showroom, opened in May, is a good example of a larger showroom in line with our strategy. The showroom and car processing center to be established in Oulu, which was announced in May, is a strategic property investment that enables long-term development of operations in accordance with our strategic focus areas." Outlook for the year 2021 In 2021, Kamux expects its revenue to reach EUR 800-850 million and adjusted operating profit to increase from the previous year. Financial targets for 2021-2023 The company's medium-term financial targets are to increase revenue by over 20% annually, to increase adjusted operating profit annually, and to reach an adjusted operating profit margin of over 3.5% and a return on equity (ROE) of over 25%. Additionally, the company's target is to distribute dividends of at least 25% of net profits. The Board of Directors of the Company estimates annually the balance between dividends to be distributed and funds to be used for Kamux's growth and based on this assessment, makes a proposal on the amount of dividends to be distributed, which may for any single year differ significantly from the target level set in the dividend policy. Publication schedule for financial reporting in 2021 Publication schedule for Kamux Corporation's financial reporting in 2021: August 13, 2021: Kamux Corporation will publish its Half-Year Report for January-June 2021. November 12, 2021: Kamux Corporation will publish its Interim Report for January-September 2021. Interim Report Webcast Kamux will hold an Interim Report webcast and conference call for media and analysts today, May 12, 2021 at 11:00 (EET) in Finnish and then in English at around 12:00 (EET). The event will be hold only through web and you can follow it as a live webcast in Finnish through a link at https://kamux.videosync.fi/2021-q1-tulos and in English at https://kamux.videosync.fi/2021-q1-results. The Interim Report will be presented by CEO Juha Kalliokoski and CFO Marko Lehtonen. In Hameenlinna on May 12, 2021 Kamux Corporation The Board of Directors For more information: Juha Kalliokoski, CEO Tel. +358 40 185 8633 Marko Lehtonen, CFO Tel. +358 50 575 2006 Satu Otala, Director of Communications Tel. +358 400 629 337 ir@kamux.fi This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/kamux/r/kamux-corporation-s-interim-report-for-january-1---march-31--2021,c3345734 The following files are available for download: About SciBase and Nevisense SciBase AB is a global medical technology company based in Stockholm, Sweden that develops unique point-of-care devices for the evaluation of skin disorders such as skin cancer and atopic dermatitis. SciBase's first product, Nevisense, helps clinicians detect melanoma, the most dangerous type of skin cancer. Further development has led to Nevisense also being used as a tool to assess the skin barrier and non-melanoma skin cancer. Nevisense is based on substantial research and has achieved excellent results in the largest clinical study ever conducted on the detection of malignant melanoma. Nevisense is CE marked in Europe, has TGA approval in Australia and an FDA approval (PMA) in the United States. SciBase technology is based Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that interpret the varying electrical properties of human tissue to detect malignancies and abnormalities. SciBase Holding AB is listed on First North Growth Market ("SCIB"). Further information is available at www.scibase.com . Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. STOCKHOLM, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- EQT Growth led the EUR 250m Series F fundraise in Vinted, Europe's largest online C2C platform dedicated to second-hand fashion, with presence in over 10 markets worldwide Series F fundraise in Vinted, largest online C2C platform dedicated to second-hand fashion, with presence in over 10 markets worldwide The underlying market of Vinted is supported by favourable secular megatrends, including increased focus on sustainability efforts and greater demand for circular fashion EQT Growth will support Vinted and its management team by accelerating growth into new geographies and help strengthen its existing leading position across its core markets, by leveraging EQT's strong digital and sector expertise, global platform and extensive advisory network. Following the investment, Carolina Brochado , Partner at EQT Growth, will also join Vinted's board EQT is pleased to announce that EQT Growth has led the investment in Vinted Limited ("Vinted" or "the Company"). The investment, which is made through EQT AB's balance sheet, is part of Vinted's EUR 250 million Series F fundraise at a pre-money valuation of EUR 3.5 billion. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, Vinted operates in over 10 markets, and has become the largest online C2C marketplace in second-hand fashion across Europe. Since Thomas Plantenga took over as CEO in 2016, Vinted has transformed its business model and developed a proven market development playbook, as evidenced by the Company's strong growth and traction in recent years. These unique characteristics are supported by best-in-class unit economics and an enduring financial profile across its key markets. This virtuous flywheel effect is enabled by more than 45 million members globally Vinted's underlying market is supported by several secular tailwinds, including growing concerns around sustainability and climate change, as well as an increased focus on the circular economy, with consumers eager to make more responsible and less wasteful fashion choices1. EQT Growth will aim to support Vinted's accelerated growth and continued pursuit of commercial excellence by investing in the Company's platform and technology, helping it cement its leading position across its core markets and enabling further expansion into other global markets. Moreover, the Company is expected to leverage EQT's in-house digital and tech expertise and network of advisors to continue providing a best-in-class customer-centric experience. Together with management, EQT Growth will support Vinted's plans to reinforce its position as the largest online marketplace for second-hand fashion across Europe. Following the investment, Carolina Brochado, Partner at EQT Growth, will also join Vinted's board of directors. Carolina Brochado, Partner and Investment Advisor to EQT Growth, said, "Vinted is transforming the second-hand fashion market across Europe through their customer-centric approach and extraordinary execution. Vinted is the perfect example of EQT Growth's strategy of backing fast-growing European tech champions that tap into several macro trends, such as the increasing consumer demand for sustainability and continued penetration of online channels within fashion. We're immensely proud and excited to be supporting Thomas and the Vinted team and we cannot wait to work together to further unlock the market for circular fashion." Thomas Plantenga, CEO of Vinted, said, "We are contributing to a seismic shift in the second-hand fashion market, enabling more sustainable, socially-responsible shopping habits. Our platform offers a great, easy-to-use product and helps people experience the benefits of second-hand trade. We want to replicate the success we've built in our existing European markets in new geographies and will continue investing to improve not only our product, but also to ensure we continue having a positive impact. We are grateful to our existing and new investors, and believe today's milestone is a vote of confidence in our commitment to the circular economy and our relentless effort to build a business that encourages more people to buy and sell second-hand." In line with the commitment to invest in sustainable businesses, EQT Growth will accelerate Vinted's growth as it supports the circular economy and responsible consumption. By enabling consumers to sell and buy clothing and other items second-hand, reduce unnecessary production and promote innovation, Vinted contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) #9, #12 and #15. The transaction is expected to close in May 2021, subject to customary approvals. 1 Source: McKinsey's report on "Consumer Sentiment on Sustainability in fashion" from July 2020 Contact Finn McLaughlan, +44 7583 130 052, finn.mclaughlan@eqtpartners.com EQT Press Office, press@eqtpartners.com, +46 8 506 55 334 About EQT EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization focused on active ownership strategies. With a Nordic heritage and a global mindset, EQT has a track record of almost three decades of delivering consistent and attractive returns across multiple geographies, sectors and strategies. Uniquely, EQT is the only large private markets firm in the world with investment strategies covering all phases of a business' development, from start-up to maturity. Including Exeter, EQT today has more than EUR 67 billion in assets under management across 26 active funds within two business segments - Private Capital and Real Assets. With its roots in the Wallenberg family's entrepreneurial mindset and philosophy of long-term ownership, EQT is guided by a set of strong values and a distinct corporate culture. EQT manages and advises funds and vehicles that invest across the world with the mission to future-proof companies, generate attractive returns and make a positive impact with everything EQT does. The EQT AB Group comprises EQT AB (publ) and its direct and indirect subsidiaries, which include general partners and fund managers of EQT funds as well as entities advising EQT funds. EQT has offices in 24 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas and has more than 975 employees. More info: www.eqtgroup.com Follow EQT on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram About EQT Growth EQT Growth explores thematic growth opportunities at the point companies are ready to scale, investing in a range of technology and technology-enabled businesses. Follow EQT Growth on Medium, LinkedIn and Twitter About Vinted Vinted is the largest online international C2C marketplace in Europe dedicated to second-hand fashion, with a growing member base of over 45 million users spanning 13 markets: France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Luxembourg, UK and the USA. Founded in 2008 in Lithuania by Milda Mitkute and Justas Janauskas, and joined by first investor and COO Mantas Mikuckas in 2011, the company is now led by CEO Thomas Plantenga and backed by six leading investment firms: EQT Growth, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Accel, Insight Venture Partners, Burda Principal Investments, and Sprints Capital. On a mission to make second-hand the first choice worldwide, Vinted helps members sell and buy second-hand clothes and accessories from each other, making shopping a mobile and social experience through one-on-one member interactions in its community. The European start-up is head-quartered in Vilnius, with offices in Berlin, Utrecht and Prague and has over 700 employees. More info: www.vinted.co.uk This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/eqt/r/eqt-growth-leads-investment-in-vinted--europe-s-largest-online-c2c-platform-dedicated-to-second-hand,c3345816 The following files are available for download: Good morning, Please find below the press release issued today. Best regards, ___________________________________________________________________ Marishka Martins Group PR Consultant | Marketing & Creative Services Capgemini India | Mumbai www.capgemini.com Tel.: +91 9930835325 Email: marishka.martins@capgemini.com _____________________________ Capgemini supports UNICEF in the race to accelerate the COVID-19 response Paris May 12, 2021 - As part of its commitment towards communities around the world, Capgemini has joined UNICEF's efforts to help ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments around the world. The Capgemini Group, through its Social Response Unit, has committed two million euros to support UNICEF's work as part of the global Access to COVID19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), with a focus on India and Brazil in particular. ACT-A is a global collaboration that aims to accelerate the development, production and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines. On behalf of the Global COVAX Facility (the vaccine strand of ACT-A) UNICEF is leading the largest vaccine procurement and supply operation ever undertaken, aiming to make 2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine available for delivery by the end of 2021. "As a global leader with a strong sense of responsibility to the communities in which we live and work, we have strengthened our efforts in recent weeks to face the urgency of local situations head on," said Aiman Ezzat, CEO of the Capgemini Group. "At this critical time where many places such as Brazil and India are continuing to live with the harsh reality of COVID-19, we are committed to accelerate medical assistance and equitable access to the vaccine. We encourage private companies to join UNICEF's efforts with us in this unprecedented global fight." "We are extremely grateful for Capgemini's support to UNICEF in its efforts to fight COVID-19. The commitment of the Group and its employees will allow UNICEF to help the most vulnerable, especially in India and Brazil where COVID-19 is having significant consequences," explains Jean-Marie Dru, Chairman of UNICEF France. "Through ACT-A and in its role to support the COVAX Facility, UNICEF and partners are in a race to end this pandemic which has been disrupting the lives of children and their families for over a year now. This is why, now more than ever, we need the help and support of our donors and partners to join the race to end COVID-19." Capgemini supports UNICEF's efforts to end the COVID-19 global pandemic As well as helping to provide safe, fast and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, tests and treatments, UNICEF is supporting risk communication, community engagement and country preparedness efforts for the vaccine roll out, while supporting the strengthening of health systems. This latest commitment by Capgemini will include specific support for the most urgent and critical needs in India and Brazil, in addition to supporting the ACT-A alliance through UNICEF. About UNICEF* The United Nations Children's Fund About Capgemini Capgemini is a global leader in partnering with companies to transform and manage their business by harnessing the power of technology. The Group is guided everyday by its purpose of unleashing human energy through technology for an inclusive and sustainable future. It is a responsible and diverse organization of 270,000 team members in nearly 50 countries. With its strong 50 year heritage and deep industry expertise, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to address the entire breadth of their business needs, from strategy and design to operations, fueled by the fast evolving and innovative world of cloud, data, AI, connectivity, software, digital engineering and platforms. The Group reported in 2020 global revenues of 16 billion. Get the Future You Want | www.capgemini.com *UNICEF does not endorse any company, brand, product or service. Attachment New regulatory approval in the European Union for an enhanced version of Oleena extending its patient decision support algorithms New version now authorized for marketing in the United States and the European Union 13th regulatory clearance (worldwide) obtained by Voluntis for a digital therapeutic Cambridge (USA), Paris (France), May 12, 2021, 8:00 a.m. CET - Voluntis (Euronext Growth Paris, Ticker: ALVTX - ISIN: FR0004183960), a leader in digital therapeutics, today announced that it has received the CE mark for a new version of Oleena featuring expanded clinical intelligence. Oleena, digital therapeutic for people with cancer Oleena is Voluntis' proprietary digital therapeutic that supports patients in the self-management of their symptoms in combination with a wide range of cancer treatments, while allowing healthcare teams to remotely monitor the progress of the disease. It is based on the Theraxium platform developed by Voluntis, which also serves as the foundation for the digital therapeutics the company is co-developing with pharmaceutical partners. As a reminder, Oleena was the first digital therapeutic in oncology based on the Theraxium platform to receive regulatory approval in the European Union as announced in the November 16, 2020 press release. Oleena's new version sets a new standard for digital therapeutics in oncology The new version of Oleena embeds new clinical algorithms that provide decision support recommendations to patients. It is designed to facilitate self-management of an increased number of symptoms that people with cancer may experience along their treatment journey. This new CE-marked version of Oleena, a Class IIa medical device in Europe, is also authorized for marketing in the United States. The new symptom management modules are also available to Voluntis' pharmaceutical partners through the Theraxium platform. "Thanks to this CE mark, the thirteenth regulatory clearance obtained by Voluntis, we are once again demonstrating our ability to rapidly conform our innovations, supported by our ISO 13485 and MDSAP certified quality management system, to the regulatory requirements of the markets in which we intend to increase our presence," said Pierre Leurent, CEO. "Through this continuous effort of innovation, we are proud to enable people with cancer to benefit from increasingly personalized and efficient day-to-day support along the way of their treatment. "Clinical algorithms are the active ingredients of our digital therapeutics" said Genevieve d'Orsay, MD, Chief Medical Officer. "With this new version of Oleena, we are delighted to introduce a smarter daily companion for people with cancer that also aims to help care teams by simplifying treatment management. We believe patient-centric digital solutions can go beyond electronic PROs[1], by promoting self-management and individualized interventions." About Voluntis Voluntis creates digital therapeutics that empower people with chronic conditions to self-manage their treatment every day, thus improving real-world outcomes. Voluntis' solutions, combining mobile and web apps, use clinical algorithms to deliver personalized recommendations to patients and their care teams. For example, these recommendations are used to adjust treatment dosage, manage side effects or monitor symptoms. Leveraging its Theraxium technology platform, Voluntis has designed and operates multiple digital therapeutics, especially in oncology and diabetes. Voluntis has long-standing partnerships with leading life science companies. Based in Cambridge, MA, and Paris, France, Voluntis is a founding member of the Digital Therapeutics Alliance. For more information, please visit: www.voluntis.com Mnemo: ALVTX - ISIN: FR0004183960 Contacts ACTUS Media relations Vivien Ferran vferran@actus.fr +33 (0)1 53 67 36 34 ACTUS Investor relations Jerome Fabreguettes-Leib voluntis@actus.fr +33 (0)1 53 67 36 78 Voluntis Chief Financial Officer Guillaume Floch investisseurs@voluntis.com +33 (0)1 41 38 39 20 Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements about the Voluntis Group and its business, including its prospects and product development. Voluntis believes that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions. However, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, as they relate to future events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future, and on various risks and uncertainties, including those described in the 2020 Half-year Financial Report and the 2020 Annual Financial Report published by Voluntis on September 29, 2020 and April 22, 2021, respectively, copies of which are available on the Group's website (www.voluntis.com), and on changes in economic conditions, financial markets and markets in which Voluntis is present. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to risks that are unknown to Voluntis or that Voluntis does not consider material at this time. The occurrence of some or all of these risks could cause the actual results, financial conditions, performance or achievements of Voluntis to differ materially from the results, financial conditions, performance or achievements expressed in such forward-looking statements. Voluntis disclaims any responsibility to update these forward-looking statements. [1] Patient Reported Outcomes ------------------------ This publication embed "Actusnews SECURITY MASTER ". - SECURITY MASTER Key: lWlpk8mXlG6Ymm5sY5xmZmpomZdoxZbJZmTHyWNulJ6cbp6TxZmWb8icZm9ql2dq - Check this key: https://www.security-master-key.com. ------------------------ Copyright Actusnews Wire Receive by email the next press releases of the company by registering on www.actusnews.com, it's free Full and original release in PDF format:https://www.actusnews.com/documents_communiques/ACTUS-0-69224-pr-202105-voluntis-oleena-ce_en-v3clean.pdf GMP Creative Certifications Reinforce Ad-Lib.io's Rapid Global Expansion Ad-Lib.io, the next-generation Creative Management Platform for marketers at the world's largest brands, today announced that it has been certified as a Google Marketing Platform (GMP) Partner in Spain, bringing Ad-Lib.io its sixth creative certification as it continues to extend its footprint across the globe. The GMP Creative Certification in Spain affirms that Ad-Lib.io has demonstrated the ability to work within Google's best practices and technology, and reinforces that its next-generation Creative Management Platform upholds high standards of service for creative design and process management. The certification reaffirms Ad-Lib.io's successful client track record and its expertise across key capabilities including coding, asset delivery, and client services. The certification gives Ad-Lib.io early access to product releases and announcements, and to a variety of other Google program resources. "As the advertising industry emerges from a difficult year, advertisers are pushed to make their creative workflow more efficient while ensuring their ads stand out and perform well," said Adit Abhyankar, CEO of Ad-Lib.io. "As a Google Marketing Platform Partner certified on the Creative tools, Ad-Lib.io offers advertisers in Spain on Google's tech stack, the ability to easily and quickly build and activate content at scale, across formats and channels. Ad-Lib.io has been a trusted Google Partner since our founding in 2017 and we will continue to lead the way for advertisers that seek to produce and optimize relevant creative at scale." "As Google and its customers continue to find new ways to work together, partners like Ad-Lib.io are an important part of our ecosystem as they got certified." according to Jose Maria Perez Sastre, Partnerships Manager at Google. "We are pleased that Ad-Lib.io continues to grow its presence and customers in Spain. We have seen great success already working together on clients in the region and we look forward to the continuing partnership in Spain and in other markets around the globe." This milestone strengthens Ad-Lib.io's capability for customers working with the Google Marketing Platform in Spain and globally, as marketers seek solution providers that operate in the markets they serve. One partner with multi-region certifications, Ad-Lib.io is also a GMP Creative Partner in the United Kingdom, the United States, Dubai, Australia and Singapore. "I'm very excited by the launch of another Google-certified market in Spain!" said Oli Marlow Thomas, founder of Ad-Lib.io. "This accompanies the awesome news that Ad-Lib.io DE is now up and running with former Googler Felix Derkum leading the charge. Ad-Lib.io is pushing into all parts of Europe." For more information about Ad-Lib.io, please visit: https://www.ad-lib.io/. About Ad-Lib.io Ad-Lib.io provides the leading next-generation Creative Management Platform for marketers at the world's largest brands to enable them to scale their digital creative. Ad-Lib.io connects creative and media workflows using intelligent automation, making it easy and fast to produce and optimize relevant ad creative across all digital channels. These ads are 60% more cost-efficient to produce, according to Ad-Lib.io's customers which include 10 of the top 30 global brands. The venture-backed company -- recognized as a 2021 Start Up of the Year by Campaign Magazine -- was founded by former Google executives who understood the need to close the wide gap between creative concepts and digital media execution. Ad-Lib.io is headquartered in London, UK with offices in North America, Asia, Australia, Europe and the Middle East. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005183/en/ Contacts: Alexis Roberts 805 695 6524 Chronicled on videos posted on social media and the groups website, the stings followed a script borrowed from the once popular Dateline NBC program, To Catch A Predator. Members of POPsquad, short for Preying On Predators, jumped into internet chats pretending to be children and then engaged targets as conversations shifted to sex. Unwitting men arrived at agreed locations thinking they would meet an underage boy or girl and were confronted instead by the POPsquad and their cameras. Release Highlights: Link Closes Oversubscribed $1.748 Million Units Offering Link Settles $509,100 in Debt-for-Shares Michael Vogel Joins Link Board of Directors Link Receives 300 Bitmain S17 Miners for Neptune Digital Assets' operations VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / LINK GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES INC. (CSE:LNK)(FRA:LGT)(OTC PINK:LGLOF) ("LINK" or the "Company"), an innovative power and infrastructure solutions provider for Bitcoin mining, and data hosting operations, is pleased to announce the closing of a private placement of units (the "Private Placement" or "Offering"), previously announced on April 19, 2021. The Company issued 2,185,000 units (each, a "Unit") at a price of $0.80 per Unit for gross proceeds of $1,748,000. Each Unit consists of one common share (each, a "Share") and one common share purchase warrant (each, a "Warrant"), with each Warrant entitling the holder to acquire one additional share at a price of $1.25 for a period of 24 months following the closing of the Offering. The Company intends to use the proceeds from the Offering for general working capital purposes. The Company paid finders' fees of $65,400 and issued 81,477 finders' warrants, each of which entitles the holder to purchase one share at a price of $1.25 for 24 months from the date of closing of the Offering. Stephen Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer and Director of the Company, purchased 125,000 Units under the Offering, and Michael Vogel, a Director of the Company, indirectly purchased 18,750 Units under the Offering, each of which constituted a "related party transaction" within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 -- Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions. The issuance to the insiders is exempt from the formal valuation and the minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61-101 as the fair market value of the Units issued to or the consideration paid by such persons did not exceed 25 percent of the Company's market capitalization. The Company also announces that it has agreed with certain counterparties to settle accrued accounts payables for Shares or Units of the Company (the "Debt Settlement"). The Company settled the following amounts: Settled $140,000 accounts payable in exchange for the issuance of 175,000 Units at a deemed price of $0.80 per Unit. The Units issued under the Debt Settlement have the same terms as the Units issued under the Offering. Settled $233,200 accounts payable in exchange for the issuance of 291,500 Shares of the Company at a deemed price of $0.80 per share. Settled $139,500 accounts payable on April 21, 2021, in exchange for the issuance of 155,000 Shares of the Company at a deemed price of $0.90 per share. None of the securities sold in connection with the Offering, the Debt Settlement, the grant and the DSU awards will be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and no such securities may be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. All securities issued in the Offering and Debt Settlement are subject to a four-month hold period expiring September 13, 2021. All securities issued in connection with the Debt Settlement on April 21, 2021 are subject to a four-month hold period expiring August 22, 2021. Changes to Board of Directors The Company is pleased to announce that Mr. Michael Vogel has joined the Company as a member of the Board of Directors. Mr. Vogel was most recently acting as Advisor to the Board. Mr. Bijan Alizadeh has resigned as a director of the Company. Mr. Vogel is the original founder of Netcoins Inc. (sold to BIGG Digital Assets Inc.) and currently Chief Executive Officer of Coinstream, a bitcoin company aimed at the U.S. market, offering a streamlined way for Americans to buy cryptocurrencies. Mr. Vogel is also founder and CEO of Encore Ventures, which is involved in the development and incubation/advisory of new start-ups and technologies in both crypto and tech spaces. Mr. Vogel's specialty is fast-growing start-ups in disruptive sectors -- taking new ideas and products from concept to market to scale, something he has done multiple times in building several multi-million-dollar start-ups. Mr. Vogel brings a wealth of experience and knowledge across Board, public markets, executive and engineering levels. Mr. Vogel is regularly interviewed in both Canadian and international media as a thought leader in the crypto industry. Stephen Jenkins, Link's Chief Executive Officer and Director, states: "I'd like to welcome Michael Vogel to our Board. I have known Michael for many years and have witnessed his success at both building and exiting Netcoins Inc. Michael is a successful entrepreneur and has built a strong reputation within the crypto community. We at LINK look forward to working with Michael as we expand Link's operations and services. We would also like to express our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Bijan as he steps down as a Director of Link. Bijan and Block One Technology have been instrumental during our initial start-up phase and enabled Link to fully commission our first two facilities with their miners. Link has since evolved into multi-locations with approximately 20 megawatts in operations and several new locations to be added online in the coming months. We would like to wish Bijan the very best." Jenkins goes on to say, "This is an important time for LINK, and with COVID issues being more persistent and slowing down international development, it allows us to focus on local expansion and our energy efficiency and clean energy initiatives as previously announced. The Company will be announcing updates on these very quickly." Business Update As previously announced on March 4, 2021, the Company has received 300 Bitmain S17 mining machines on behalf of Neptune Digital Asset Corp. ("Neptune") and is currently being installed at the Company's hosting facilities in Alberta. The Company's contract with Neptune is a Power and Royalty Share Agreement, therefore maximizing both parties' net earnings output opportunities. When fully operational, these Bitmain SHA 256 Algorithm machines generate over 15 PetaHash (P.H.). The Company will provide further updates to the machine economics in the coming weeks as additional machines arrive and are commissioned for operations. Stock Options and Deferred Share Units (DSUs) The Company is also pleased to announce that it has granted (the "Grant") an aggregate of 400,000 stock options to purchase up to 400,000 Shares to Michael Vogel, in connection with the appointment to the Board of Directors, and to Dominic Vogel, a Special Advisor to the Board. These stock options will vest immediately and are exercisable for a period of five years from the date of grant at a price of $0.78 per share. The options and the Shares issuable upon the exercise of the Options held by the optionees are subject to a hold period of four months from the date of grant of the stock options. The Company also announces that it has granted 1,900,000 DSUs under its Long Term Incentive Policy Plan ("LTIPs) to certain directors. These DSUs were priced based on the April 16, 2021 closing price of the Company's common shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange. About Link Global Technologies Inc. Link is engaged in providing infrastructure and operating expertise for digital mining and data hosting operations. Link's objectives include locating and securing, for lease and option to purchase, properties with access to low-cost, reliable power, and deploying this low-cost power to conduct digital mining and supply clean energy and infrastructure for other data-hosting services. On behalf of Link Global Technologies Inc. Stephen Jenkins Chief Executive Officer & Director For more information, visit http://linkglobal.io/ or contact: Steve Jenkins stephen@linkglobal.io +1-877-770-6545 For investor information, please contact: Omar Diaz Investor Relations Manager omar@linkglobal.io 604-551-2950 The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION. This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "forecast", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes", or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "would", "could", "should" or "might" occur. Forward-looking statements made in this news release relate to: the intended use of the net proceeds from the Offering; the agreement and business relationship with Neptune, including the operating metrics when fully operational and that the Company will be providing further updates in the coming weeks, and other matters relating to the Company's business plans. All such forward-looking statements are based on factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making a forecast or projection, including assumptions based on historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments. Since forward-looking statements relate to future events and conditions, by their very nature, they require making assumptions and involve inherent risks and uncertainties. The Company cautions that although it is believed that the assumptions are reasonable in the circumstances, these risks and uncertainties give rise to the possibility that actual results may differ materially from the expectations set out in the forward-looking statements. In the case of the Company, these risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors include, without limitation: that actual use of proceeds of the Offering may differ materially from those set out in this news release; those set out in the Company's most recent MD&A, fluctuations in the price of electricity, fluctuations in the price of digital currencies/Bitcoin, the future potential halving of Bitcoin, increases in the network difficulty rate and price of digital currencies/Bitcoin, negative changes in the level of digital currency/Bitcoin rewards per block, the securing of economic rates for the purchase of power, the opportunities for acquiring digital currency mining hardware, unanticipated changes in laws, regulations or other industry standards affecting the business of the Company, reliance on key management personnel, the Company's ability to implement its business plan, litigation risk, stock price volatility, the effects of general economic and other factors beyond the control of the Company, and other matters that may occur in the future. Given these risks, undue reliance should not be placed on these forward-looking statements, which apply only as of the date hereof. Other than as specifically required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise. SOURCE: Link Global Technologies Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646694/Link-Global-Technologies-Closes-Oversubscribed-1748000-Non-Brokered-Private-Placement-Units-Offering VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Scotch Creek Ventures Inc. (the "Company") (CSE:SCV)(FSE:7S2) is pleased to announce that it has received the first NI43-101 technical report on the Macallan lithium brine property, located in the Clayton Valley Nevada, that assesses the technical merit of the project identifying areas of interest for additional exploration. The report was prepared by Robert D. Marvin, P.Geo. Mr. Marvin has more than 35 years of experience as an independent consultant and has had experience both in lithium exploration and within the Clayton Valley. In the report Mr. Marvin comments "the Clayton Valley has an enormous measured and inferred endowment of lithium and is rapidly emerging as one of the world's largest concentrations of lithiumThe combination of a highly favorable geological setting and unexplored nature of the Macallan claim block make the ground an ideal location for a relatively low cost, first round drill program." The report recommends a drill program that targets lithium rich brines hosted within sedimentary and evaporite stratigraphy common to the Clayton Valley. Four holes are recommended to be drilled in a first pass evaluation of the rocks in the subsurface at Macallan. The Company's Macallan East project borders Pure Energy Minerals Ltd property, which has had successful drill results and recently announced its intention to begin construction of a pilot plant for lithium brine extraction. The Macallan acquisition consists of 157 20-acre claims and is located on the southeast side of the Clayton Valley Recent exploration on the north-east flank of the Clayton Valley from Noram Ventures Inc. and Cypress Minerals Corp., all which have had positive results, thus reinforcing the geological trend line and exploration potential running through these claims. Additionally, The Company is expecting a second 43-101 technical report on the Highlands West project within the next two weeks. The Highlands West project consists of 333 20-acre placer claims and is located nearby Albermarle's Silver Peak mine, which is currently the only lithium producing operation in the United States. With expanded interest in electrical vehicles, Albermarle recently announced plans to invest an additional $30 to $50 million, to double its current production at this site by 2025 and begin a program to both evaluate clays and optimize lithium extraction from its brine resources. Scotch Creek's total land position within Clayton Valley is approximately 9,100 acres establishing it as one of the largest stakeholders in the valley. About Clayton Valley Clayton Valley, Nevada, has become a North American hub for lithium exploration and production with various public companies establishing their footprint in the region: Albemarle Corporation's (ALB) Silver Peak is the only lithium-producing mine in North America and has been in production since 1967. Albemarle announced its intention to double its lithium brine production and expand its operations to explore lithium clay potential in the valley. Westside of Clayton Valley: Nickle Rock Resources Inc. (NICL) announced on March 24, 2021, that it has commenced the drilling on their 2,300 acres adjacent to the west side of the Silver Peak mine just northwest of Scotch Creeks newly acquired acreage. On the lithium brine production side, Pure Energy minerals (PE) has entered into an agreement with energy giant Schlumberger to further develop their lithium brine production. This agreement validates the economics and also the advancements of brine exploration in the Clayton Valley. In the North-East of the Clayton Valley, Cypress Development Corp. (CYP) recently completed a PFS and has plans for a feasibility study later this year. Pure Energy has developed an open-pit design and mining plan that projects a 40-year minimum mine life and is currently working on plans for a pilot plant to refine extraction technologies. (lithium clay). Noram Ventures Inc. (NRM) is working on its fifth round of drilling and they have announced a resource of 300 million tonnes of >900 ppm Li. The current drilling program is on track to more than double that resource. Enertopia Corporation (ENRT) has a narrow land position between Cypress and Noram. They have an established 100 million tonne resource from 4 drill holes at a 400 ppm Li cutoff. Spearmint Resources Inc. (SPMT), with a property just south of Cypress, completed a drill program in November and has announced high-grade lithium intercepts. Scotch Creek Ventures Inc. (CSE:SCV) despite the enclosure of the basin and limited acreage available, very little exploration has been completed on Scotch Creek's land package in Clayton Valley - an area that is greater than that of Cypress, Noram, Enertopia and Spearmint combined. About Scotch Creek Ventures Scotch Creek is a mineral exploration company, focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of lithium projects located in tier-one North American mining jurisdictions. Scotch Creek's mission is to become a best-in-class lithium exploration company situated in one of the most promising lithium districts in the world, Clayton Valley, Nevada. On behalf of the Board of Directors "David K. Ryan" David Ryan Chief Executive Officer Further information about the Company is available on our website at www.scotch-creek.com or under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and on the CSE website at www.thecse.com. Public Relations Contact Scotch Creek Ventures Inc. Telephone: +1.604.283.5636 Email: info@scotch-creek.com Website: www.scotch-creek.com The CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the accuracy or adequacy of this release. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward- looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions. Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, changes to the Company's strategic growth plans, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof, and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation. SOURCE: Scotch Creek Ventures Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646684/Scotch-Creek-Ventures-Inc-Announces-Completion-of-NI-43-101-Technical-Report-on-the-MaCallan-East-Lithium-Project-and-Highlights-Potential-Targets-for-a-Drill-Program VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Pampa Metals Corp. ("Pampa Metals" or the "Company") (CSE:PM)(FSE:FIRA)(OTC PINK:PMMCF) is pleased to provide an update on its exploration programs as well as announcing that the company has initiated a gradient array induced polarisation (IP) geophysical survey at its Cerro Buenos Aires copper and precious metals project in northern Chile. Pampa Metals is pleased to be advancing its exploration program in a rapid and efficient manner since inception less than 6 months ago, with 3 projects already subject to detailed surface mapping and geophysical surveying, and 2 projects subject to a Letter Agreement with Austral Gold Ltd. that will allow for a rapid advance of their exploration. An additional project, Block 3, is currently undergoing detailed geological mapping, with results to be reported in due course. An initial drilling program is being planned for implementation around mid-June, with the highest priority targets delineated to date to be tested. As previously reported (see news release dated April 28, 2021), the Company completed a comprehensive geological mapping exercise with the identification of two porphyry-related target areas, and the potential to host yet more, at its Cerro Buenos Aires project located along the highly prospective Paleocene Belt (or Central Depression) of northern Chile. The Company can now report that a gradient array IP survey, with combined resistivity and magnetotelluric (MT) measurements, has been initiated with Southern Rock Geophysics in the northern target area around Cerro Chiquitin. Gradient array datasets provide imaging to large depths and good mapping of the lateral distribution of chargeable and resistive features, but do not usually provide much discrimination about the depth to targets. However, the incorporation of MT with this style of IP acquisition can alleviate this limitation by providing high resolution models of the vertical distribution of resistivity. The total area to be covered by the survey is approximately 5.5 Km north-south by 4 Km east-west, approximately centred on the Cerro Chiquitin outcrop that exposes portions of a tourmaline breccia body as well as a diorite porphyry complex. The tourmaline breccia shows weak phyllic alteration with some porphyry-style D-type quartz veinlets, and a fine-grained diorite has sub-parallel porphyry-style A-type quartz veinlets on its eastern flank. The relatively small outcrop at Cerro Chiquitin (+/- 500m across) shows hydrothermal alteration assemblages that suggest the area is part of an uplifted block that could be related to a possible porphyry copper style system. Existing geophysical data, comprising historic heli-borne magnetics and resistivity measurements, show a series of anomalies covered by post-mineral gravel areas ("pampas") around the Cerro Chiquitin outcrop that may be related to porphyry copper centres or mineralised breccia bodies. However, it is hoped that the IP surveying will help discriminate between these anomalies and help prioritise drill holes currently being planned. The new geophysical surveying work is expected to be completed by around the end of May. Cerro Chiquitin's exploration potential is also supported by historical geochemical data, where a combination of pathfinder elements that form part of the MDRU geochemical porphyry index indicate a high concentration of positive-index anomalies in the northern part of the Cerro Buenos Aires project around Cerro Chiquitin. About Cerro Buenos Aires Cerro Buenos Aires is a 7,600-hectare property prospective for porphyry copper (+/- gold +/- moly) and possibly epithermal gold-silver deposits, located in the heart of the Paleocene mineral belt of northern Chile. The Paleocene belt (also known as the Central Depression) is host to important copper and several gold-silver deposits and mines. The property is located along a prolific segment of the prospective belt, along trend from important copper mines such as Spence (BHP), Sierra Gorda (KGHM and Sumitomo), and Lomas Bayas (Glencore), and immediately southwest of the El Penon gold-silver mining district (Yamana Gold) (see Figure 1). Hydrothermal alteration typical of the epithermal / porphyry transition extends over approximately 12 Km north-south centred on 3 principal outcrops, with the largest at Cerro Buenos Aires hill to the south being the least exhumed, and the smallest at Cerro Chiquitin to the north representing a porphyry-type level of exposure. Extensive post-mineral covered "pampas" surround the outcrops, where geophysical exploration is the prime exploration tool prior to drill testing (see Figures 2 & 3). Multiple magnetic and resistive anomalies of potential interest for exploration extend under the large pampas. The project has excellent access and infrastructure, being located directly alongside the Pan American Highway of northern Chile, and with the main north-south high-tension power line of the Chilean interconnected system running alongside the highway. The project is also located just 80 Km in a straight line from the coast. Note: The reader is cautioned that the Cerro Buenos Aires Project is an early-stage exploration property and reference to existing mines and deposits, or mineralization hosted on adjacent and nearby properties, is not necessarily indicative of any mineralization hosted on the Cerro Buenos Aires Project. Qualified Person Technical information in this news release has been approved by Mario Orrego G, Geologist and a Registered Member of the Chilean Mining Commission and a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Orrego is a consultant to the Company. COVID-19 The global outbreak of COVID-19 has led governments worldwide to enact emergency measures to combat the spread of the virus. Such measures may result in a period of business disruption, and in reduced operations, any of which could have a material adverse impact on the Company's result of operations, financial condition and the market and trading price of the Company's securities. As of the date of this news release, the duration and immediate and eventual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic remains unknown. It is not possible to reliably estimate the length and severity of these developments and the impact on the financial results and condition of the Company. While the outbreak of COVID-19 has not caused significant disruptions to the Company's business, it may yet cause disruptions to the Company's business and operational plans. ABOUT PAMPA METALS Pampa Metals is a Canadian company listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE: PM) as well as the Frankfurt (FSE: FIRA) and OTC (OTCPK: PMMCF) exchanges. Pampa Metals owns a highly prospective 59,000-hectare portfolio of eight projects for copper and gold located along proven mineral belts in Chile, one of the world's top mining jurisdictions. The Company has a vision to create value for shareholders and all other stakeholders by making a major copper discovery along the prime mineral belts of Chile, using the best geological and technological methods. For more information, please visit Pampa Metals' website www.pampametals.com. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - BMEX Gold Inc. (TSXV: BMEX) (FSE: 8M0) ("BMEX" or the "Company") is pleased to welcome Mr. Steve Dunlop to the Company's Technical advisory board. Steve currently holds the position of General Manager - Canada for KGHM International. He is responsible for leading and managing all assets, including Sudbury Operations, both operating and non-operating, as well as Victoria and Ajax Projects. His role entails directing all activities including safety, mining, environmental, and administrative functions while delivering value to the company and protecting stakeholder interests. Over the past 18 years he has progressed in various roles with Quadra FNX Mining and KGHM, in exploration and mining operations, which included Project Geologist Exploration, Sr. Project Geologist Levack Exploration, Chief Mine Geologist, Sudbury Geosciences and Exploration Manager, Senior Manager Geosciences and Technical Services as well as General Manager for Sudbury Operations. Steve holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Geology from McMaster University and a Master of Science in Geology from Laurentian University. Warner Uhl commented, "We are pleased to have Steve join our advisory board as his knowledge and experience will be a great asset to the company and we will benefit from his expertise as we advance our projects. Steve will be helping to evaluate potential acquisitions and also help identify key drill targets in our 2021/2022 drill program." About BMEX Gold Inc. BMEX Gold Inc. is a junior Canadian mining exploration company with the primary objective to acquire, explore, and develop viable gold and base metal projects in the mining-friendly jurisdiction of Quebec, Canada. BMEX is currently fully focused on earning 100% interest in its two projects, both located in the prolific Abitibi greenstone belt: King Tut Project consists of 120 contiguous claims on 5,206 hectares consists of 120 contiguous claims on 5,206 hectares Dunlop Bay Project consists of 76 mineral claims that cover 4,226 hectares BMEX common shares trade under the symbol "BMEX" on the TSX-V and under the symbol 8M0 on the Frankfurt Exchange. For further information please contact: BMEX Gold Inc. Dylan Sidoo, Business Development Tel: 1 (604) 423 4499 Email: info@bmexgold.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward looking information" (as defined under applicable securities laws), based on management's best estimates, assumptions, and current expectations. Such statements include but are not limited to, statements with respect to the plans for future exploration and development of the King Tut and Dunlop Bay properties and the acquisition of additional exploration projects. Generally, these forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "expects", "expected", "budgeted", "forecasts" , "anticipates" "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "aims", "potential", "goal", "objective", "prospective", and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "can", "could" or "should" occur. These statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the King Tut and Dunlop Bay projects; risks related to general economic conditions, actual results of current exploration activities, unanticipated reclamation expenses; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; fluctuations in prices of metals including gold; increases in market prices of mining consumables, possible variations in resource estimates, grade or recovery rates; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes, title disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry; delays in the completion of exploration, development or construction activities, changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, tax rules and regulations, and political and economic developments in areas in which the Company operates. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. The forward-looking statements and forward looking information are made as of the date hereof and are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company disclaims any obligation to revise or update any such factors or to publicly announce the result of any revisions to any forward-looking statements or forward looking information contained herein to reflect future results, events or developments, except as require by law. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. Please refer to the Company's most recent filings under its profile at www.sedar.com for further information respecting the risks affecting the Company and its business. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83644 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Bam Bam Resources Corp. (CSE: BBR) (OTC Pink: NPEZF) (FSE: 4NPB) ("Bam Bam" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that a property-wide, 322 line-km drone magnetic survey was completed by Zonge International, Inc. at the Majuba Hill Porphyry Copper Project in Pershing County, Nevada. James Wright provided advice, project oversight, and interpretation for the program. Figure 1 To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6332/83663_figure1.jpg The 2020 drone results were merged with the 2018 ground magnetic survey. Wright commented: " the extended coverage reveals an intriguing extension of the intrusions magnetic signature." The combined magnetic survey shows that the Tertiary Intrusive Assemblage at Majuba Hill is at least 2.5 times larger than the geologic mapping indicated. The much larger extent shown by the positive magnetic response is consistent with the 2020 drilling and exploration by Bam Bam (NR December 23, 2020 and February 23, 2021). The 2021 drone survey collected 196,532 readings on east-west lines spaced 150 meters apart. Flight elevations were at an average magnetometer elevation of 43.0 meters above the ground, providing the opportunity to merge the drone results with the 2018 ground magnetic survey covering the central portion of the property. David Greenway, President and CEO of Bam Bam, commented: "The size of the Tertiary Intrusive is extremely encouraging. We recognized that Majuba Hill had characteristics showing the scale of the intrusive was much larger than was historically known. The widespread copper and the extensive copper-porphyry indicators all gave me confidence as we proceeded with our staged-exploration program. The drone magnetic results confirm our expectations. It is incredibly positive for Bam Bam to be able to operate in a Tier 1 jurisdiction and get these positive results." Magnetic Interpretation This large Mag IP footprint means that most of the exploration data is far inside the margins of the Tertiary Intrusive and the Majuba Hill Intrusive Complex. Figure 2 To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6332/83663_figure2.jpg Wright's 2021 report provides a qualitative magnetic interpretation defining a large, prominent intrusive complex, which is centered on the company's Majuba Hill Property. By utilizing the total magnetic intensity (TMI) data, reduced to pole (RTP) data, and reduced to pole-residual (RTP-RES) data he has outlined the large footprint encompassing the copper-bearing portions of the Majuba Hill Tertiary Intrusive Assemblage. The large Majuba Hill Intrusive Complex can be subdivided into three zones which appear to be part of a continuum related to a large magma-chamber below. The "Ti1" zone has a distinct, positive magnetic signature. Porphyry-style pyrite, pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, and arsenopyrite associated with quartz-sericite-pyrite (phyllic) and possible potassic alteration was logged in the recent deep core holes drilled within the Ti1 zone. The "Ti2" zone forms a more subdued response within Ti1 that is likely related to silica alteration which has been attributed to a phyllic alteration zone that outcrops on the top of Majuba Mountain. The "KTi" zone consists primarily of the surrounding granitic intrusive rocks with a remanent magnetic signature. The remanent signature is distinctly different from the regional granite intrusive units. Peripheral dikes, and faults have distinct orientations with some of the zones also showing a remanent magnetic signature. Correlation of Drilling Results Bam Bam is currently exploring the known Oxide Mineralization, Majuba Extension, and Sulfide Zones. They lay well within the Ti1 magnetic zone. Drone mag results indicate that these zones are much larger than the Company had envisioned. Recent and historic drilling has been limited to a small portion of the Ti1 zone. Historic underground mining and drilling outlined the known oxide copper and silver mineralization along the southern margin of the Ti2 zone at Majuba Hill. Within the known oxide and extension zone Bam Bam drilled hole MHB-2, which returned: 146 feet (44.5m) of 1.41% Cu and 97.6 ppm Ag from 0 to 146 feet (0-44.5m) Bam Bam RC drill holes MHB-3, 4, 5 and 6 results give strong evidence that the known Oxide Mineralization and Extension Zone is a single zone with good economic potential. Modeling of the oxide copper and zones of secondary enrichment is currently in-progress for an NI43-101 update. This zone occurs along the southern margin of the Ti2 magnetic zone. Over 70% of the margin of the Ti2 zone is untested. Correlation of Geochemistry Results Soil geochemical grids do not yet completely cover the Ti1 zone. The Ti1 zone covers approximately 2 square miles (5 sq km). It contains all the historically reported copper mining and the majority of the silver mining. This zone also includes several large, multi-sample, continuous, greater than 100 ppm copper in soil anomalies. Figure 3 To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6332/83663_figure3.jpg The Ti1 zone also contains several large, multi-sample, continuous, greater than 1 g/t silver in soil anomalies. Figure 4 To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6332/83663_figure4.jpg Over 1 g/t silver is also associated with dike/fault zones cutting the Ti1 intrusive assemblage. Multi-sample, continuous, greater than 1 g/t silver soil anomalies are also coincident with 50-100 ppm copper, anomalous gold, anomalous zinc, and anomalous molybdenum on dike/fault zones up to 2 miles (3.2 km) from the center of the Majuba Hill Intrusive Complex (Bam Bam News Release dated February 23, 2021). Additional soil sampling, rock geochemical sampling, and SWIR sampling is planned during 2021. Correlation of Drilling Results Induced Polarization (IP) Chargeability results from the 2018 Deep IP completed by Bam Bam revealed several deep chargeability anomalies. Core hole MHB-8 drilled into the chargeability anomaly and is associated with Line 1. As reported by Wright for the drone magnetic data, the sulfides in MHB-8 are consistent with the chargeability anomaly. Line 5 IP chargebility is shown in cross section over the intrusive complex. A large chargeability anomaly is apparent in the contact zones around Ti1 and KTi. The IP anomaly is proximal to the soil geochemical anomalies. Figure 5 To view an enhanced version of Figure 5, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/6332/83663_figure5.jpg Additional IP is planned for 2021 to expand these zones. About Majuba Hill Property Majuba Hill is a large contiguous land position controlling the emerging Majuba Hill Copper District, located Northeast of Reno, Nevada. The "Majuba Hill District" is comprised of extensive mineral and surface rights held by private ownership, patented mining claims, and Federal Lode Mining claims that are 100% controlled by Bam Bam Resources Corp. The land package is approximately 15.1 square miles (39.2 square km)/9,678 acres (3,917ha). The property is easily accessed by 23 miles of well-maintained roads leading from U.S. Interstate 80. Reno and Elko are the major supply centers for exploration and mining activities in Nevada. The existing highways are sufficient for transportation of exploration-size heavy equipment. Development logistics would use the 4 lane Interstate 80 highway, Union Pacific railroad tracks and adjacent power, natural gas, and fiber optic transmission lines in the rail - highway corridor. Mining is a common occupation in the area with several small to world class mines operating in the Winnemucca - Lovelock area over the past several decades. A well-trained and experienced mining workforce pool is available in Nevada when labor and expertise are required. The excellent location of Bam Bam's Majuba Hill District, with already existing mining friendly infrastructure, will significantly reduce costs for exploration programs and future mining activities. Qualified Person The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed by E.L. "Buster" Hunsaker III, CPG 8137, a non-independent consulting geologist who is a "Qualified Person" as such term is defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43- 101"). About Bam Bam Resources Corp. Bam Bam Resources Corp. (CSE: BBR) (OTC Pink: NPEZF) (FSE: 4NPB) is engaged in the identification, review and acquisition of latter stage copper and copper/silver/gold assets. This is in direct response to the growing worldwide demand and lack of supply for precious metals fueled by the Green New Deal in the US and most other developed nations with similar programs aimed at addressing climate change. Such programs are heavily reliant on silver, gold and especially copper to produce Electric Vehicles and other renewable power sources, as well as building infrastructure to provide clean and affordable electricity. The flagship project is the Majuba Hill copper, silver and gold District, located 156 miles outside Reno, Nevada, USA. Management has been mandated to focus on safe, mining friendly jurisdictions where government regulations are supportive of mining operations. 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. On Behalf of the Board of Bam Bam Resources Corp. "David Greenway" David C. Greenway President & CEO For further information, please contact: Joel Warawa VP of Corporate Communications E: jw@bambamresources.com P: 1 (855) 475-0745 Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "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 Bam Bam Resources Corp. believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of Bam Bam Resources Corp. management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by law, Bam Bam Resources Corp. undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. ### To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83663 STOCKHOLM, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Electrolux publishes an open letter to today's youth, inviting them to join forces with the company and some of the most influential change-makers of today to explore solutions for future sustainable homes. The aim is to learn more about young people's hopes, dreams and concerns, to be able to provide solutions tailored to their needs come 2030. As a part of realizing the company's vision and bold 2030 targets for better and more sustainable living around the world, Electrolux invites today's youth to join a team of change-makers - a collaboration between Electrolux, young minds from across the globe aiming to drive positive change, and leading change-makers and experts already making a difference today. Together with the company's innovation hub, the team will explore solutions for better living, starting with the future of clothes and garment care. By seeking insights from the very people who will be setting up their own homes within a decade's time, Electrolux believes it will be better positioned to provide solutions that live up to the company purpose, Shape living for the better, for generations to come. "We want to listen to those who will be starting up their own homes in the near future. What are their hopes and dreams when they think about their lives ten years from now? Their desires, choices and behaviors will play a critical role in shaping the evolution of better living. We want those who own the future to be part of defining it. Therefore, we take the opportunity to ask now - to be able to provide solutions tailored to their needs, come 2030", says Jonas Samuelson, CEO Electrolux. In the open letter, signed by CEO Jonas Samuelson, Electrolux invites young people between the ages of 15 and 20 to join the team of change-makers. The young people selected will then be accompanied by some of today's most influential change-makers to help explore solutions for better living in 2030. As part of the same initiative, Electrolux will conduct a global survey in which almost 14 000 young people between the ages 15 to 20 will be asked about how they envision their future sustainable homes. Insights from the survey and the sessions with the change-makers will be used by Electrolux in its strive to create new innovations for a better living. The initiative is part of Electrolux's ambitious plan to meet the bold targets for 2030 focusing on better eating, better garment care, better home environment and better company. It also widens the company's commitment to sustainability and contributes in bringing solutions to global challenges in a more meaningful way. Read more about the team of change-makers and how to apply at www.betterlivingprogram.com/bl-2030/en. For further information, please contact Electrolux Press Hotline, +46 8 657 65 07. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/electrolux/r/electrolux-invites-the-younger-generation-to-explore-solutions-for-a-better-living,c3345511 The following files are available for download: BEIJING, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Three high-tech companies from China recently signed with global business accelerator TOJOY to expand their businesses throughout Europe. TOJOY Europe recently announced partnerships with Hongtian Langjie Environmental Protection Tech, Jimuyida Sciences, and NOKONDEN. Hongtian produces a line of sterilization products that use a core component derived from the human immune system's bactericidal systems. This new liquid disinfectant is set to be certified for safe use by the European Union in July 2021. Demand for new disinfectants has soared because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global disinfectant market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7% from 2021 to 2028. Jimuyida is a leading provider of 3D digital technology services based in Shenzhen, China. With its 3D scanners, modelling, and cloud design tools, Jimuyida provides 3D tech services for art and home furnishing sales, education, e-commerce, and more. TOJOY Europe will act as EU Importer and Master Distributor for these 2 companies, helping them to have a safe and quick expansions into Europe. TOJOY provides a variety of import services to such companies, including applying for and validating certificates, designing and sourcing new packing, and building websites and e-sales channels. In addition to companies entering Europe for the first time, TOJOY also specializes in optimizing the sales channels of companies that have already established a presence in Europe. One such client is NOKONDEN. NOKONDEN's mobile medical booths take temperatures and disinfect humans, pets, and goods. Its booths are often used at public and private space entrances. The China-based company already has an EU headquarters in Italy but decided to appoint TOJOY Europe as its authorized sales representative for Europe. "TOJOY is not only a business acceleration platform, also a powerful and effective distribution platform for high-quality products from China and around the world for their entry into and expansion in the European Union," said TOJOY Europe CEO Richard Burton. "With the creativity, passion, and outside-the-box thinking we apply to enable these companies to grow in the European market, we are confident about their forecast for success." TOJOY accelerates companies across a wide range of sectors. As more and more Chinese companies are looking to expand their business internationally, TOJOY is serving many as a reliable partner for secure, sustainable expansion into Europe and other markets. LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Diageo plc (DGE.L) announces that it expects organic operating profit growth to be at least 14 percent in fiscal 2021, slightly ahead of organic net sales growth. The company said its business has continued to deliver a good recovery across all regions. Ivan Menezes, Chief Executive, said, 'I am very pleased with how our business is recovering in fiscal 21, our strong competitive performance across key markets and our robust cash generation. Our disciplined approach to capital allocation is unchanged.' Meanwhile, Diageo said it is initiating the second phase of its ROC programme of up to 1.0 billion to be completed by the end of fiscal 2022. On 25 July 2019, the Board approved the return of up to 4.5 billion to shareholders in the three-year period. Under the first phase of the ROC programme, Diageo repurchased shares to a value of 1.25 billion. The original completion date for the ROC programme has been extended by two years to 30 June 2024, due to the impact of Covid-19. 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. 12 May 2021 Not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States or any jurisdiction in which such distribution would be unlawful. Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau /ISIN DE000A3H3KE9 Pre-stabilisation Period Announcement Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg (contact: Torsten Zittlau; telephone: +49 711 127 74640) hereby gives notice, as Stabilisation Coordinator, that the Stabilisation Manager(s) named below may stabilise the offer of the following securities in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation EU/1052/2016 under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU/596/2014). The securities: Issuer: Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau (Aaa/AAA/AAA by Moody's, S&P & Scope) Guarantor (if any): Federal Republic of Germany Aggregate nominal amount: EUR Benchmark Description: 20 May-2036 EUR BMK, RegS, Bearer, Off the Issuer's EMTN Programme Listing: Frankfurt Stock Exchange, regulated market Offer Price: [XX.XXX] Other offer terms: NA Stabilisation: Stabilisation Manager(s): BofA Securities, Credit Agricole CIB, LBBW and Morgan Stanley Stabilisation period expected to start on: 12. May 2021 Stabilisation period expected to end no later than: 30 days after the proposed issue date of the securities Existence, maximum size and conditions of use of over?allotment facility: The Stabilisation Manager(s) may over?allot the securities to the extent permitted in accordance with applicable law. Stabilisation trading venue: Over the counter (OTC) In connection with the offer of the above securities, the Stabilisation Manager(s) may over?allot the securities or effect transactions with a view to supporting the market price of the securities during the stabilisation period at a level higher than that which might otherwise prevail. However, stabilisation may not necessarily occur and any stabilisation action, if begun, may cease at any time. Any stabilisation action or over?allotment shall be conducted in accordance with all applicable laws and rules. This announcement is for information purposes only and does not constitute an invitation or offer to underwrite, subscribe for or otherwise acquire or dispose of any securities of the Issuer in any jurisdiction. This announcement and the offer of the securities to which it relates are only addressed to and directed at persons outside the United Kingdom and persons in the United Kingdom who have professional experience in matters related to investments or who are high net worth persons within Article 12(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in the United Kingdom. In addition, if and to the extent that this announcement is communicated in, or the offer of the securities to which it relates is made in, any EEA Member State that has implemented Directive 2003/71/EC, as amended (together with any applicable implementing measures in any Member State, the "Prospectus Directive") before the publication of a prospectus in relation to the securities which has been approved by the competent authority in that Member State in accordance with the Prospectus Directive (or which has been approved by a competent authority in another Member State and notified to the competent authority in that Member State in accordance with the Prospectus Directive), this announcement and the offer are only addressed to and directed at persons in that Member State who are qualified investors within the meaning of the Prospectus Directive (or who are other persons to whom the offer may lawfully be addressed) and must not be acted on or relied on by other persons in that Member State. This announcement is not an offer of securities for sale into the United States. The securities have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. There will be no public offer of securities in the United States. The new innovation-center in Germany, along with a geographically distributed team, will expand collaboration with customers and users across Europe ProcessMAP Corporation, the industry leader in offering a cloud-based data intelligence platform for Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) transformation; and Operational Risk Management (ORM) announced today that the company has established its European headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The new headquarters will play a key role in facilitating collaboration with customers, co-innovating solutions specific to local needs, and enabling even stronger customer success engagement at more than 15,000 customer locations across Europe. Strategic Drivers for Growth and Expansion in Europe The 28-member European Union (EU) block has a strong commitment to environmental sustainability, as well as to workplace health and safety. In December 2019, countries in the region adopted the European Green Deal a set of policy initiatives that aim to ensure that there are no net new emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and that the regional economy is decoupled from resource use. Similarly, in the second quarter of 2021, EU countries will present a new Occupational Safety and Health Strategic Framework for the period 2021-27, to update protection standards for workers and tackle both traditional and new work-related risks. Work-related accidents and illnesses lead to an estimated annual loss of around 3.3% of GDP in the EU. Over the past decade, the European occupational safety and health (OSH) policy framework and rules have contributed to considerably improving working conditions. The incidence rate of fatal accidents at work has fallen by nearly 30%1 Reflecting the strategic focus and importance Europe places on EHS areas, the region accounts for more than 25% of the global EHS software market and is the second-largest market after North America. According to estimates published by Verdantix2, an independent research and advisory firm, the European market for EHS software will grow by an overall 70% or a CAGR of 11.2%, from $379 million in 2021 to reach $645 million by 2026. ProcessMAP's Strong Foundation in Europe ProcessMAP already has a strong presence in Europe with more than 60 Fortune 1000 companies with more than 15,000 locations in most countries across Europe. ProcessMAP's European customers include some of the largest automotive manufacturers, leading multinational diversified engineering and industrial manufacturing companies, and many chemicals, pharma, and consumer products companies among others. The company's customer base and platform adoption have experienced phenomenal growth over the past five years with more than 400% increase in driving digital transformation in numerous key EHS processes. ProcessMAP Europe Team ProcessMAP's European headquarters in Eschborn will leverage the advantage of its proximity to Frankfurt, one of the most vibrant business centers in all of Europe, to tap into highly qualified talent, and serve both local and international customers. The current team will be expanded with professionals having experience in HSE, ESG, Industrial Hygiene, Occupational Health and Wellness, and regulatory compliance to support ProcessMAP's growing customer base in Europe. Comments on the News "ProcessMAP's enterprise-grade EHS solutions help drive the EHS digital transformation for organizations across the world. The company has been recognized as a "Leader" for five times in our flagship Green Quadrant report on EHS Software, with most recently in 2021," said William Pennington, EHS Research Director, Verdantix. "Now, with ProcessMAP's new European headquarters, the company will be able to further strengthen its collaboration with local customers and accelerate their journey towards offering a safe and healthy work environment to their employees," he added. "ProcessMAP's expansion into Europe underscores our commitment to collaborate and innovate with our customers, across all geographies, accelerate the digital transformation of their EHS initiatives, proactively mitigate workplace health and safety risks, and foster a safety-first culture," said Dave Rath, CEO of ProcessMAP Corporation. ProcessMAP has a long history of supporting customer operations across Europe. We are in the process of growing our European team to proactively support our 15,000 existing customer locations as well as to accelerate the HSE digital transformation for new customers," said Harold Gubnitsky, President of ProcessMAP Corporation. 1 European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan (2021) 2 Verdantix, Market Size And Forecast: EHS Software 2020-2026 (Global), February 2021 About Verdantix Verdantix is an independent research and consulting firm with expertise in environment, health, safety and quality, operational excellence, smart buildings, as well as ESG sustainability technologies. Through our research and advisory services, we help corporate managers, investors, technology executives and service firm leaders to make robust, fact-based decisions. We are committed to delivering objective, timely and accurate analysis to help our clients succeed. Visit https://www.verdantix.com/ to learn more. About ProcessMAP Corporation ProcessMAP is the leading EHS process and data intelligence platform that empowers our customers to minimize risk, assure compliance, and ensure safety. ProcessMAP's analytics-driven cloud platform and advanced mobile-first solutions enable digital transformation, process consistency, and data harmonization to drive actionable intelligence. We are headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with locations across the globe, serving customers in over 140 countries. Visit https://www.processmap.com/ to learn more. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005095/en/ Contacts: Media and Analyst Relations Contact Sandeep Rath Director, Global Product Marketing and Analyst Relations srath@processmap.com PLA holds mock battle between carrier-borne, land-based aircraft over Yellow Sea Global Times) 14:50, May 12, 2021 Fighter jets attached to an aviation brigade of the air force under the PLA Southern Theater Command get ready to take off from the runway for a flight training exercise in late April, 2021. Photo: China Military The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently held a mock battle between a group of aircraft carrier-borne fighter jets and a land-based joint warplane formation, as the two sides became the whetstone for each other and honed the forces' capabilities in both countering and using aircraft carriers, experts said on Tuesday. In the exercise above waters of the Yellow Sea, the PLA Northern Theater Command Air Force and Navy joined forces and dispatched land-based warplanes including KJ-200 early warning aircraft, J-10A fighter jets and JH-7A fighter bombers in the red team, as they faced the challenge of the blue team consisting of a group of J-15 carrier-borne fighter jets coming from the sea, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Monday. In a combat session, the red team's J-10A fighter jets engaged in contesting regional air superiority with the blue team's J-15s, winning the JH-10A fighter bombers some opportunities to quickly penetrate the defense line as they eliminated their maritime targets. Land-based anti-aircraft missile installations also participated in the drill, likely as a part of the red team. The exercise simulated attack and defense under many different battlefield environments including air-to-air, air-to-sea and air-to-ground, CCTV reported. No scenarios were preset in the exercise, as neither side had any idea of what was coming, Senior Captain Bian Fengchun, the deputy commander of the participating naval aviation force, told CCTV. "The exercise practiced the buildup of the reconnaissance and early warning system, fast anti-sea attack and coordinated attack and defense, and the officers' skills in battlefield command were also enhanced," Bian said. It also boosted the troops' cross-service, coordinated combat capability, Bian said. The mock battle is very meaningful to both aircraft carrier-borne and land-based aviation forces, as the two sides served as a whetstone for each other, developing a series of tactics against land-based warplanes for aircraft carriers while also discovering ways to counter aircraft carrier attacks from land, Fu Qianshao, a Chinese military aviation expert, told the Global Times on Tuesday. Being able to join a large-scale mock battle like this shows the J-15 carrier-borne fighters and their pilots have achieved strong combat capabilities to the extent they can participate in group exercises with real tactical backgrounds. The large scale of the exercise also indicates that China is going deep into practicing countering aircraft carriers, Fu said. China operates two aircraft carriers, the Liaoning and the Shandong, both of which use J-15 fighter jets. Aircraft carriers from outside of region, like those of the US Navy, often conduct provocative operations near China. (Web editor: Liang Jun, Bianji) Since last March, when we shut down due to COVID, our board fully supported changes in regulations to ensure our local businesses could move quickly to continue operations, and put in place new policies that kept our town services accessible to the public, said Mackstutis. I have also advocated for the long hoped-for senior center, represented residents who desire more affordable housing options, and supported new resources for our parks to keep our town beautiful and accessible. 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. May 12, 2021 Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today celebrated 130 years of innovation, collaboration, and social responsibility. During its rich history since being founded on May 15, 1891, in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the company has continuously reinvented itself to remain relevant to society. Today, Philips is a leading health technology company with a purpose to improve the lives of 2.5 billion people a year by 2030 through meaningful innovation. "The company's 130th anniversary is a celebration of the continuous innovation journey that has enabled Philips to positively impact the lives of so many people around the globe," said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. "It's also about looking forward - continuing to innovate, collaborate and live up to the highest standards of doing business responsibly and sustainably. We will continue to team up with innovators, experts and society to help create new ground-breaking solutions to today's healthcare challenges." New sculpture of Gerard Philips As a tribute to 130 years of innovation and collaboration, Philips will offer an artwork of Gerard Philips, who together with his father Frederik Philips, founded the company. The sculpture will be unveiled in Eindhoven city center at a newly developed public location. Gerard later also founded Philips' research laboratories in Eindhoven, the strong foundation of Philips' global innovation strength today, which currently includes five innovation hubs and multiple innovation and manufacturing sites. Philips spends EUR 1.8 billion annually on R&D to fuel the company's growth and intellectual property, which comprises approx. 59,000 patent rights and 31,000 trademarks. Innovation and entrepreneurship Philips' entry into health technology took place during the First World War when it applied the skills it had developed for manufacturing lightbulbs to repairing, and subsequently manufacturing, X-ray tubes for diagnostic imaging, rapidly innovating their design to minimize X-ray exposure and improve image quality. Since then, Philips has innovated virtually every major medical imaging modality from ultrasound to MRI and CT systems. Philips' current innovations span the health continuum from healthy living and disease prevention to diagnosis, treatment, and care in the home. By bringing together devices, systems, software, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics, the company today develops intelligent solutions that help consumers around the world to live healthy lifestyles and enable healthcare providers to deliver on the quadruple aim: enhancing the patient experience, improving health outcomes, lowering the cost of care, and improving the work life of care providers. Recent examples include: Philips' AI Workflow Suite (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2019/20191201-philips-extends-ai-portfolio-with-launch-of-intellispace-ai-workflow-suite-to-seamlessly-integrate-applications-across-imaging-workflows.html) - IntelliSpace - a solution for AI-assisted radiology workflows, automatically distributing data to AI applications to increase efficiency/productivity, reduce staff overload, and enhance the patient experience. (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2019/20191201-philips-extends-ai-portfolio-with-launch-of-intellispace-ai-workflow-suite-to-seamlessly-integrate-applications-across-imaging-workflows.html) - IntelliSpace - a solution for AI-assisted radiology workflows, automatically distributing data to AI applications to increase efficiency/productivity, reduce staff overload, and enhance the patient experience. Philips Image Guided Therapy System (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2020/20200901-intuitive-integrated-and-efficient-world-premiere-of-philips-next-generation-azurion-image-guided-therapy-platform.html'src=search) - Azurion - accelerating the move from open surgery to minimally-invasive surgery, enabling patients to recover faster and hospital systems to reduce costs. (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2020/20200901-intuitive-integrated-and-efficient-world-premiere-of-philips-next-generation-azurion-image-guided-therapy-platform.html'src=search) - Azurion - accelerating the move from open surgery to minimally-invasive surgery, enabling patients to recover faster and hospital systems to reduce costs. Philips' eICU telemedicine program (https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/resources/landing/teleicu) and wearable biosensor (https://www.philips.nl/healthcare/product/00884838103719/philips-healthdot-wearable-biosensor-30-u-pack) - enabling patients to be expertly monitored 24/7 inside and outside hospitals. (https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/resources/landing/teleicu) and (https://www.philips.nl/healthcare/product/00884838103719/philips-healthdot-wearable-biosensor-30-u-pack) - enabling patients to be expertly monitored 24/7 inside and outside hospitals. AI-powered personal health innovations, such as Philips Sonicare Power Toothbrush 9900 Series Prestige (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2021/20210111-sonic-power-meets-intelligent-care-with-the-new-philips-sonicare-9900-prestige.html#:~:text=As%20you%20brush%2C%20SenseIQ%20technology,to%20100%20times%20per%20second.) with SenseIQ and its advanced Shaver 9000 Series (https://www.philips.com/shavers) with SkinIQ technology, are driving the personalization of consumer health through solutions that adapt to an individual user's unique behavior and needs. Collaboration and partnerships In an ever more complex and interconnected world, meaningful innovation in healthcare also requires co-creation through partnerships and collaborations with leading clinical researchers and care providers. Key examples of leading institutes that Philips collaborates with include: University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands) - advancing precision diagnosis through breakthrough quantitative MRI technology (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/articles/2020/20200810-ismrm-2020-philips-and-university-medical-center-utrecht-partner-to-advance-quantitative-mr-with-mr-stat.html) - MR STAT. (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/articles/2020/20200810-ismrm-2020-philips-and-university-medical-center-utrecht-partner-to-advance-quantitative-mr-with-mr-stat.html) - MR STAT. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, U.S.) - co-developing Philips Oncology Pathways powered by Dana-Farber (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/articles/2020/20200814-dana-farber-cancer-institute-philips-and-aws-providing-access-to-best-practices-in-cancer-patient-care.html) to provide clinicians worldwide with access to best-practice and personalized care recommendations for patients, based on the latest scientific advances. (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/articles/2020/20200814-dana-farber-cancer-institute-philips-and-aws-providing-access-to-best-practices-in-cancer-patient-care.html) to provide clinicians worldwide with access to best-practice and personalized care recommendations for patients, based on the latest scientific advances. Singapore General Hospital (Singapore) - leveraging Philips Pathology Suite - IntelliSite - in the development of AI-based tools (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2020/20201023-philips-and-singapore-general-hospital-to-establish-digital-and-computational-pathology-center-of-excellence.html) (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2020/20201023-philips-and-singapore-general-hospital-to-establish-digital-and-computational-pathology-center-of-excellence.html) U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (US), expanding the VA's critical tele-critical care program by creating the world's largest system comprising more than 1,700 sites and serving nearly nine million veterans each year. The program aims to provide veterans with remote access (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2020/20200708-us-department-of-veterans-affairs-selects-philips-to-create-worlds-largest-tele-critical-care-system.html) to intensive care expertise, including research into technologies that can better support veterans. (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2020/20200708-us-department-of-veterans-affairs-selects-philips-to-create-worlds-largest-tele-critical-care-system.html) to intensive care expertise, including research into technologies that can better support veterans. MONET Technologies Inc. (Japan) - Philips, MONET Technologies and Ina City are addressing the rapidly aging population (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/blogs/innovation-matters/2020/20200707-what-will-the-hospital-of-the-future-look-like-in-a-post-covid-19-world.html) and shortage of medical facilities and healthcare professionals in Japan through a mobile healthcare vehicle concept equipped with connected care technologies. Philips also enters into long-term strategic partnerships with hospitals and hospital groups that are characterized by new business models and the move from one-time transactions to continuous relationships aimed at offering hospitals a holistic solution that addresses their clinical, operational, and business needs. For example, with: Klinikum Stuttgart Hospital (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2019/20191018-philips-and-klinikum-stuttgart-hospital-sign-10-year-innovation-partnership-agreement.html) (Stuttgart, Germany) - a 10-year innovation partnership to keep the hospital equipped with the latest state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging, informatics, and connected care solutions. (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2019/20191018-philips-and-klinikum-stuttgart-hospital-sign-10-year-innovation-partnership-agreement.html) (Stuttgart, Germany) - a 10-year innovation partnership to keep the hospital equipped with the latest state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging, informatics, and connected care solutions. Flevo Hospital (https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2020/20200714-philips-and-flevo-hospital-sign-long-term-strategic-partnership-agreement-enabling-continuous-innovation-and-optimization-of-patient-care.html) (Almere, The Netherlands) - a 10-year strategic partnership agreement to continuously innovate and optimize patient care in the Almere region of the Netherlands. Social responsibility Philips' recognition of its social responsibility goes as far back as 1932, when it started screening its staff, and eventually the whole population of Eindhoven (the Dutch city where the company was founded) for tuberculosis. In the 1990s Philips helped to pioneer the Dutch national breast cancer screening program. Today, the company's Environmental, Social and Corporate Governanceand strategic plans. Philips is already carbon neutral in its operations and is set to further reduce its CO2 emissions in line with 1.5C global warming and source 75% of its total energy consumption from renewables. The company also aims to increase revenue from circular economy solutions to 25% of sales by 2025. As part of its target to improve the lives of 2.5 billion people a year by 2030, Philips is committed to improving access to care for 400 million people in underserved communities. In collaboration with key strategic partners and the Philips Foundation, it is enabling care in resource constrained settings, for example, by putting portable ultrasound solutions into the hands of trained midwives at primary care facilities in Kenya, and establishing hospital-based cardiology centers in regional cities across India. For details of the above innovations, collaborations, partnerships and ESG targets, click here . For more information on Philips history, click here or visit the Philips Museum website . For further information, please contact: Joost Maltha Philips Global Press Office Tel.: +31 6 10 55 81 16 E-mail: joost.maltha@philips.com Tommie Dijstelbloem Philips Benelux Tel.: +31 6 19 28 83 20 E-Mail: tommie.dijstelbloem@philips.com About Royal Philips Royal Philips. Attachments CoCo Vodka and CoCo Rum, The Original Hard Coconut Water, officially launched in beautiful sunny Florida this week Jacksonville, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / CoCo has been dubbed "One of the hottest ready-to-drink canned cocktails" by multiple publications. Now, as of May 5th, 2021, CoCo Vodka and CoCo Rum are available at several of Florida's largest liquor stores and retail locations! Many fans have claimed it is "refreshingly different", "love at first sip", and "the perfect vacation in-a-can"! To find out at exactly what stores you can grab your CoCo's to go, follow Coco Vodka and CoCo Rum at https://instagram.com/enjoycocolife Mark Convery and Av Grewal started CoCo Vodka and CoCo Rum as a passion. The two entrepreneurs wanted to bring something completely different to the market. The first four drinks made by CoCo were formulated to be better for you, naturally made with real coconut water, and most importantly, needed to taste great! "Coconut water is already huge around the world. We simply added vodka and rum to it with a splash of sparkling water" said Av, President and Co-Founder. "When we tasted it, Mark and I were hooked, and we both agreed the world needed to have this," he adds. The current markets are in the USA and Canada. CoCo is an international operation. Av and Mark both have family histories that include immigration to North America. They are also supporters of diversity and the brand was recently featured for it's inclusive mission of bringing everyone together in Thrive Global. It is great that CoCo has positioned itself as a brand that brings to mind the diversity of those seeking some fun, and coming together to enjoy each others company. Coco Vodka and CoCo Rum is available in 2 countries, 26 states, and 4 provinces. All of this was achieved in less than a year, and the two founders now have aspirations of being the owners of the world's largest Real Coconut Water mixed beverages. Success seems to be within reach for CoCo Vodka and CoCo Rum. They were a start-up that powered through the pandemic and became a popular R.T.D (ready to drink) beverage. "We don't recommend launching a new brand during a pandemic, but we did it anyways." Mark Convery, CEO and Co-Founder, mentioned. "With all the hard work we put into the brand prior to 2020, there was no way we were going to let anything get in our way. The world could use a lot less CoVid 19, and a lot more CoCo! We all need an escape, and I think most will agree, CoCo is the perfect escape!" Relentless innovation, hard work, and being refreshingly different is proudly promoted at The Bondi Distillery, and CoCo now has a game changer in adult beverages. CoCo is the perfect anytime, anywhere drink, and will no doubt be a crowd pleaser. Get your first taste of The Original Hard Coconut Water. For more information on CoCo Vodka and CoCo Rum, visit www.enjoycoco.com Media Contact: Email: press@cocovodka.com SOURCE: CoCo Vodka and CoCo Rum View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/645494/CoCo-Vodka-and-CoCo-Rum-are-Now-Available-at-Several-of-Floridas-Large-Retail-Stores SAN FRANCISCO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The global large molecule bioanalytical technologies market size is expected to reach USD 13.9 billion by 2028, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. The market is estimated to expand at a CAGR of 13.5% from 2021 to 2028. The demand for bioanalytical testing services has significantly increased over the past few years, thereby positively impacting the growth of the market. Key suggestions from the report: The product segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2020 Biopharmaceutical products require various instruments for characterization, identification, purity, and potency testing Availability of a wide range of products for the aforementioned assay applications is the key factor contributing to segment growth Mass spectrometry captured the maximum revenue share in 2020 due to the diversification of products as well as their frequent usage This technology has been conventionally used in the development of protein pharmaceuticals, for instance, in the analysis of confirmations of amino acids in proteins Furthermore, quantitative PCR (qPCR) is widely adopted in the detection of viral contaminants during the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals Thus, with the growing demand for viral vectors, this technology is anticipated to witness the fastest growth over the forecast period Moreover, the presence of a wide array of products in spectrometry is one of the key industry factors driving investment in the segment Biologics accounted for the major revenue share in 2020 owing to the ever-expanding R&D activity programs in the segment Besides, the presence of a stringent regulatory framework for advanced therapies has increased the demand for bioanalytical testing services The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the development of genetic vaccines This increases the utility of analytical tools for assessing the safety and stability of large molecules, thereby driving the segment North America dominated the market in 2020 owing to the presence of strong research as well as a commercial base for biopharmaceutical manufacturing Moreover, the U.S. is the largest biopharmaceutical market that has positively influenced the adoption and usage of large molecule bioanalytical technologies in the region In the Asia Pacific , the market is estimated to register the fastest CAGR with emerging markets such as China and Japan at the forefront Collaborations between domestic and global players for expansion of biomanufacturing capabilities are supplementing the growth of the market in the region Key companies are focusing on new product launches to sustain their position in the market Read 258 page research report with ToC on "Large Molecule Bioanalytical Technologies Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Product, By Technology (Chromatography, Electrophoresis), By Application, By Region, And Segment Forecasts, 2021 - 2028" at:https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/large-molecule-bioanalytical-technologies-market This is primarily due to the growing R&D activities in the biopharmaceutical industry, leading to notable investments in the space. Also, the ongoing pandemic of COVID-19 has resulted in the expansion of manufacturing and R&D capabilities of key stakeholders leading to increased demand for bioanalytical testing services. The use of advanced technologies in vaccine and cell gene therapy development has led to significant growth of this space. Advancements in instrumentation have created lucrative opportunities for contract manufacturers. Over the past several years, biopharmaceutical manufacturers are outsourcing at least some part of their biomanufacturing activities. Analytical testing is one of the most outsourced activities as it requires highly specialized personnel and equipment to conduct assays. These factors are anticipated to play a vital role in shaping market growth. Grand View Research has segmented the global large molecule bioanalytical technologies market on the basis of product & service, technology, application, and region: Large Molecule Bioanalytical Technologies Product & Service Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028) Product Consumables & Accessories Instruments Reagents & Kits Service Large Molecule Bioanalytical Technologies Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028) Electrophoresis Chromatography Mass Spectrometry Western Blot ddPCR, qPCR, RT-PCR ELISA Flow Cytometry Spectrometer UV/VIS CD Raman Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy Other Spectroscopy techniques Analytical Ultracentrifugation Light scattering (MALS, DLS) & static light scattering DNA Sequencing Other Technologies Large Molecule Bioanalytical Technologies Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028) Biologics By Type Monoclonal Antibodies (mAbs) Vaccines Recombinant proteins By Technology Spectrometer Western blot Isoelectric focusing Capillary electrophoresis (CE) Peptide mapping and sequencing by LC-MS/MS Peptide fingerprinting by Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry (MS) ddPCR, qPCR, RT-PCR Others Cell & Nucleic Acid Therapy SDS-PAGE or capillary gel electrophoresis Chromatography Mass Spectrometry/LC-MS UV-Vis Spectrometry ddPCR, qPCR, RT-PCR ELISA Assays Fluorescent Assays Luminescent Assays Western blot Flow Cytometry Others Viral Vector Sanger qPCR, ddPCR, & RTPCR ELISA Electrophoresis NGS Mass Spectrometry Chromatography Dynamic & Static Light Scattering Others Gene Therapy SDS-PAGE or capillary gel electrophoresis Chromatography Mass Spectrometry /LC-MS UV-Vis Spectrometry ddPCR, qPCR, RT-PCR ELISA Assays Fluorescent Assays Luminescent Assays Western blot Flow Cytometry Others Nanoparticles & Polymers Dynamic & static light scattering Laser Diffraction Fluorescence spectrometry Others Large Molecule Bioanalytical Technologies Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2017 - 2028) North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany U.K. France Italy Spain Asia Pacific China India Japan South Korea Latin America Brazil Mexico Middle East & Africa & South Africa Saudi Arabia List of Key Players in Large Molecule Bioanalytical Technologies Market Intertek Group plc. Solvias AG Bio-Techne Corporation Wyatt Technology Corporation Precision NanoSystems Verder Halo Labs Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. Avomeen Merck KGaA Cergentis B.V. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings SCIEX F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. Find more research reports onBiotechnology Industry, by Grand View Research: Single-cell Analysis Market - The global single-cell analysis market size was valued at USD 2.2 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.0% from 2021 to 2028. in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.0% from 2021 to 2028. Bioanalytical Testing Services Market - The global bioanalytical testing services market size was valued at USD 3.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6% from 2021 to 2028. in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6% from 2021 to 2028. Large Molecule Bioanalytical Testing Service Market - The global large molecule bioanalytical testing service market size was valued at USD 1.3 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.1% from 2020 to 2027. Gain access to Grand View Compass, our BI enabled intuitive market research database of 10,000+ reports About Grand View Research Grand View Research, U.S.-based market research and consulting company, provides syndicated as well as customized research reports and consulting services. Registered in California and headquartered in San Francisco, the company comprises over 425 analysts and consultants, adding more than 1200 market research reports to its vast database each year. These reports offer in-depth analysis on 46 industries across 25 major countries worldwide. With the help of an interactive market intelligence platform, Grand View Research helps Fortune 500 companies and renowned academic institutes understand the global and regional business environment and gauge the opportunities that lie ahead. Contact: Sherry James Corporate Sales Specialist, USA Grand View Research, Inc. Phone: +1-415-349-0058 Toll Free: 1-888-202-9519 Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com Web: https://www.grandviewresearch.com Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661327/Grand_View_Research_Logo.jpg DUISBURG (dpa-AFX) - Klockner & Co. (KCO) announced that Guido Kerkhoff will be taking over from Gisbert Ruhl as CEO as planned, effective May 13, 2021. He also presents the new corporate strategy 'Klockner & Co 2025: Leveraging Strengths' at the Annual General Meeting. The company expects this strategy to increase its sales and profitability significantly by 2025. The company plans to invest in its employees and digital transformation. Klockner plans to drive additional digitalization and automation measures, while also focusing on operational excellence. The company targets to more than double the pre-pandemic level of its normalized operating income sustainably by 2025. In addition, the company's Supervisory Board has appointed Bernhard Wei to the Group Management Board as Chief Executive Officer Europe, effective June 1, 2021. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. BUCHAREST, Romania, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivre celebrates 9 years since its launch with sales of over 261 million euros in nine countries from Central and Eastern Europe. According to data recorded so far, the company has reached more than 1.1 million customers and aims to exceed a total of 1.4 million unique customers, who have purchased at least once from Vivre platforms, up to the end of 2021. In the first quarter of this year, the company's sales were on an upward trend, marking an increase of about 28% compared to the same period last year. Also, the Vivre Marketplace business line, launched in 2020, which makes it easier for retailers to sell products on Vivre platforms, is booming and includes more than 500 active suppliers to date. Regarding the total number of orders processed in the 9 years of existence,6.3 million packages reached customers in Romania and the other eight countries where the company operates, most of which are distributed in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia. The most wanted category of products was furniture, which generated sales of over 80 million euros in its nine years of existence. "Vivre's 9th anniversary finds us in nine countries, with big plans to consolidate these markets in which we operate. The last year has shown us that there is no turning back in e-commerce, so we want to keep up with the fast pace in which this market segment is developing and, in the coming years, to become the main home & decor marketplace in the region. The growth in the first quarter of 2021 shows us that we are in line with the growth rate forecast for this year, respectively 30%, and this gives us confidence to direct important investments in all business areas, to offer our customers unique designs, in the shortest time possible and at attractive prices," said Monica Cadogan, CEO and co-founder of Vivre. Starting with 6th of May 2021, Vivre welcomes customers with a campaign of discounts of up to 80% on furniture, sofas and armchairs, home textiles, kitchen and dining accessories, decorations, carpets, lifestyle items and more. About Vivre Vivre is the main e-commerce in the home & deco industry in Central and Eastern Europe, founded in 2012 by Romanian entrepreneurs, with sales in 9 countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland and Greece. More than 150,000 items of furniture, decorations, textiles and accessories collected from 1,000 brands worldwide are available on Vivre mobile sites and applications. Vivre offers thousands of new products every day for those who want to become their own designers. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1506586/Vivre_Logo.jpg TAMWORTH, England, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- British workwear manufacturer Wearwell will become the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor of Herock products. The Belgian brand is a well-known name in workwear thanks to its modern designs, strong technical and scientific credentials and streetwear-inspired aesthetic, all created for the most testing environments and weather conditions. Wearwell will use its more than eight decades of workwear experience to develop the Herock brand in the UK and Ireland, with UK distribution and stock for the entire Herock range of more than 200 different products including shoes, trousers, jackets and t-shirts. Known for its outstanding technical quality, the range includes a collection developed specifically for female professionals, Sherock. Wearwell CEO Richard Wright said, "We are very excited to confirm our collaboration with Herock and look forward to growing the brand across the United Kingdom and Ireland. Our aim is to provide customers with greater and more immediate access to Herock's growing range of products, as well as strengthen Herock's presence in the UK and Ireland." Herock CEO, Laurent van Laere said, "As part of our effort to improve the way we do business with the UK post Brexit, we are delighted to have appointed Wearwell as our UK and Ireland marketing and distribution partner. Wearwell is well known within the workwear industry for the supply and manufacture of bespoke high-quality workwear. This new relationship will provide greater and more immediate access to our growing range of products under our well-known brand." To find out more, visit: www.wearwell.co.uk About Wearwell Established in 1939, Wearwell is one of the UK's leading manufacturers and suppliers of workwear. Wearwell creates workwear for multiple different fields, including PPE and safety, catering and hospitality, corporate and health services. Wearwell's highly skilled workforce adheres to ISO 9001 for quality management systems and procedures and manufactures garments in both the UK and North Africa using a range of Europe's leading fabrics and trims, chosen specifically for their durability, high quality and exceptional performance. About Herock Established in 1976, Herock is based in Antwerp, Belgium and is a European leader in workwear with 40 years experience in the development of technical garments. Herock top to toe solutions feature high end and professional fabrics, developed using the very latest technology and scientific know-how. LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BRI Wealth Management Plc has chosen?ERIC?a cloud-based GRC software platform created by?1RS, to?help?transform and elevate it's risk and compliance management processes. Dean Wragg, BRI's Compliance Director said "We look forward to embedding ERIC into our business and use its rich functionality to modernise our approach to Governance, Risk and Compliance." BRI Wealth Management Plc provides advice on a range of areas including Investment Management, Financial Planning, ISAs, Pensions, Inheritance Tax Planning and Tax Relieved Investments. By selecting?Eric, BRI Wealth Management Plc now has access to an intuitive risk and compliance management system. ERIC will improve visibility across the organisation and enable employees to work more efficiently, giving them more time to achieve their own objectives. Tim Bailey1RS CEO says: "We are very excited to add BRI Wealth Management to our growing list of clients and look forward to working closely with them to support their requirements as they continue to enhance their risk and control framework." About BRI Wealth Management plc BRI Wealth Management plc is an independently owned UK company specialising in investment management and financial planning services. With over 50 years of experience, they provide discretionary and advisory portfolio management for a range of clients. Their mission is to provide each of their clients with high-quality financial management in a professional, personal and friendly manner. About 1RS 1RS is a cloud-based GRC software provider that helps Risk and Compliance Managers to transform the way that Financial services organisations evaluate, manage and automate their end-to-end Risk Management and Compliance processes.? Overall, ERIC releases more time and resource for the risk and compliance teams, to help promote best practice and demonstrate the value of risk and compliance across the business through actionable insights and collaboration. Contact and location information is available at 1st Risk Solutions Limited. For further press inquiries pertaining to 1RS, please contact: Name: Andrew Firth Email: afirth@1rs.io Address: 38 Borough High St, London SE1 2AL Telephone Number: +44 (0)207-175-6177? Celebrating the 150th anniversary of Sedus Stoll - Pictures are available at AP Images ( http://www.apimages.com ) - DOGERN, Germany, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With the motto "Sedus since 1871", Sedus Stoll AG is celebrating its 150th birthday. The associated image of the tree is a symbol of the essence and uniqueness of the company: consistent, close to nature, natural and caring. Sedus has always pursued its very own strategy without much hype, and conquered its firm place in the office world with passion, commitment and its inventive spirit. With an attitude, a vision, a doer mentality and courage, Albert Stoll I laid the foundations in 1871 for what Sedus is today. 150 years of company history - that's 150 years of great ideas, accompanied by groundbreaking innovations, full of excellent products and solutions. The foundation for the family business was laid by Albert Stoll I, who put his idea of a chair into practice. He passed on his visions and his inventive spirit - his son Albert Stoll II has continued and expanded what had already started out so promisingly. What would the office be without the invention of the "Federdreh", almost 100 years ago? As the company continued to grow, the founder's grandson Christof and his wife Emma Stoll have had a significant impact on the company since the 1950s. They were the driving force behind the company canteen with whole foods, the profit participation for employees and the Stoll VITA Foundation, which, together with the Karl Brocker Foundation, holds over 90% of the company shares. Both foundations ensure entrepreneurial independence and are dedicated to charitable causes, such as public health, scientific research, protection of the environment and nature and the support of young people and children in need. By merging with Gesika (now Sedus Systems GmbH), Sedus became a full-range supplier and has since been providing modern, comprehensive furnishings worldwide. Driven by the pioneering spirit, Sedus continues to set new standards. Attitude with foresight The office world is currently experiencing a true renaissance. The topic of the "office of the future" is becoming a major trend around the globe, which is further accelerated by the recent effects of the pandemic. Today, there is hardly any company that does not address its administrative and creative processes. There are many factors and reasons for this, such as digitalisation, real estate prices, the war of talents and globalisation. What sounded like mere slogans yesterday has long since become reality. Yet the formula for success is quite simple: People and their ideas are the most precious productive capital which is central to a company's success and guarantees its competitiveness. The challenge is to keep capable employees and attract new ones, to bring together know-how originating in the analogue world and newer digitally based knowledge sources, and to create inspiring learning environments that enable maximum creativity through new agility. Flexible and intelligent furnishings provide the perfect environment for a wide variety of types of work. One of the core tasks of the technology pioneers and office furniture experts at Sedus has always been the "office of the future". Successful office planning is much more than merely the sum of the furniture placed in it. It can bring application and furnishing into perfect harmony and create environments that provide new motivation every day. Future-proof office landscapes must be attractive and inviting, yet also functional and spontaneously changeable. They give us the freedom to decide where, how and with whom we want to work. Company executives are looking for solutions for hybrid working models and future-proof furnishings; facility managers are addressing the topics of space and area utilisation as well as the digital connection of office furnishings to building technology. Unlike most of its competitors, Sedus, a traditional manufacturer, faced up to the new challenges at an early stage and, as a complete provider, now offers not only furniture but also technologically complex solutions. The office workscape is still a long way from self-learning systems. However, video conferencing, virtual reality and space and workstation management by means of IoT sensor technology have long been part of everyday life, especially for globally operating customers. Further information is available at www.sedus.com Download images at https://mediacenter.sedus.com/Go/OLlgqERQ Sedus Presseagentur / Sedus press agency Joachim Sparenberg, Dr.-Schworer-Str. 20, D-79761 Waldshut-Tiengen, Tel. +49 7741 8355003, E-Mail: sparenberg-pr@web.de A new report from Bernreuther Research reveals that Wacker Chemie lost its top spot in the 2020 global polysilicon rankings. It was also the only western company among the "Big Six" that are expected to form a new polysilicon super league in the PV industry. Overall, these six reached a total polysilicon capacity of 470,000 MT last year.A new report from Germany-based polysilicon market analyst Bernreuter Research has revealed that Chinese solar manufacturer Tongwei was the largest polysilicon maker in 2020, with a total production capacity of 96,000 MT. It was followed by China's GCL-Poly with ... 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. Bob possessed an unusual combination of attributes and, rarer still, knew how to deploy them. He was quick-witted and enjoyed a remarkable memory for detail. Some legislators know a little bit about a lot things, others know a lot about a few things. Bob was the rarest of politicians: He often seemed to know everything about everything, which, to the cost of many of us, made him a shrewd poker player. He brought that formidable intellectual presence to public service while also practicing law full time as he and his wife, Anita, raised four children and many dogs, always dogs. Glencore to assist in arranging funding to deliver Bankable Feasibility study for the Mont Sorcier project Eight Year Offtake Agreement securing market access for 100% of Mont Sorcier production TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Vanadium One Iron Corp. ("Vanadium One" or the "Company") (TSXV:VONE), is very pleased to announce that it has entered into a long-term arrangement with a wholly owned subsidiary of Glencore plc ("Glencore") to support the development of the Mont Sorcier Iron and Vanadium project located in Chibougamau, Quebec. The parties have entered into a Finance Raising Assistance Agreement ("FR Agreement") and a separate Concentrate Offtake Agreement "Offtake Agreement") to support the ongoing development and the eventual construction and production of the Mont Sorcier iron and vanadium project. Cliff Hale-Sanders, President and CEO stated "We are extremely pleased to be entering into this long-term relationship with Glencore; one of the world's largest commodity traders in both the iron ore and vanadium markets. We believe this partnership offers shareholders, not only a way to expedite development, but also the best opportunity to maximize the value of future production utilizing Glencore's worldwide reach, thus unlocking the robust potential we see at Mont Sorcier as outlined in our Preliminary Economic Assessment. With Glencore's support, we plan to deliver a Bankable Feasibility Study at Mont Sorcier." He continued, "Our preference would be to find a strong technical and financial partner who can help us maximize the value chain as we bring Mont Sorcier to production, that said, we have the very capable technical nucleus to commence our journey." Under the terms of the FR Agreement, Glencore will undertake to assist Vanadium One in raising not less than US$10 million, either directly or indirectly, in project financing to support the completion of a Bankable Feasibility study on the Mont Sorcier project. Such funding is to be secured no later than year end 2021. Glencore is expected to facilitate the arrangement of at least US$8MM of this funding requirement. The structure of such financing remains to be determined through negotiations and on terms acceptable to Vanadium One. The use of proceeds will be used to deliver the feasibility study, upgrading the classification of the resource, enhanced metallurgical test work and project engineering. In addition, a portion of the proceeds will be dedicated for community agreements, related environmental studies and the initiation of the permitting process. Upon the successful fulfillment of the FR Agreement, Vanadium One will grant to Glencore an eight (8) year Offtake Agreement for 100% of the annual production from the Mont Sorcier iron and vanadium project. The key terms of the Offtake Agreement are as follows: Initial term of eight (8) years, extendable by mutual agreement, for 100% of annual vanadium rich iron concentrate produced; Glencore will be granted a life of mine offtake agreement if it provides equity or debt funding for project construction on terms acceptable to Vanadium One; Vanadium One retains the right to claw back 50% of the annual offtake, if needed, to secure project development funding; and In order to secure the best price possible for the vanadium contained within the iron concentrate, Glencore and Vanadium One have negotiated a price participation agreement in the offtake for any premium secured above the Metal Bulletin 65% iron index price for a given quotational period for the product sold. Glencore is obligated to use commercially reasonable endeavours to secure a value for the contained vanadium. Funding arranged with the support of Glencore will be used to allow Vanadium One to move rapidly to further define the project as outlined in the Technical Report entitled NI 43-101 Technical Report - Preliminary Economic Assessment ("PEA") of the Mont Sorcier Project, Province of Quebec, Canada. The report was completed by CSA Global Consultants Canada Ltd, an ERM Group Company ("CSA Global") and has an effective date of February 27, 2020. The report was prepared in accordance with Canadian Securities Administrators' National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. A summary of the results is highlighted below: The results of the PEA are based upon the current Mineral Resource Estimate ("MRE"), published in April 2019, as outlined below. Vanadium One is currently completing the work to increase the resource estimate based on its latest drill program undertaken in Q4/2020. Results are expected to be available shortly. Mineral Resource Estimate1 at Mont Sorcier Using a Cut-off Grade2 of 14% Fe, effective 23 April 2019 (https://www.vanadiumone.com/news/2019/Indicated-Resource-of-113.5-Million-Tonnes.pdf). Zone Category4, 5 Tonnage Head grade Grade in concentrate Rock (Mt) Concentrate (Mt) Fe (%) Magnetite (%) Fe (%) V2O5 (%) Al2O3 (%) TiO2 (%) MgO (%) SiO2 (%) South Indicated 113.5 35.0 22.7 30.9 65.3 0.6 0.3 1.2 3.8 2.8 Inferred 144.6 36.1 20.2 24.9 66.9 0.5 0.4 1.0 3.4 2.5 North Inferred 376.0 142.2 27.4 37.8 63.7 0.6 1.0 1.8 3.5 4.2 Total Indicated 113.5 35.0 22.7 30.9 65.3 0.6 0.3 1.2 3.8 2.8 Inferred 520.6 178.3 25.4 34.2 64.4 0.6 0.8 1.7 3.5 3.9 1 Numbers have been rounded to reflect the precision of Inferred and Indicated Mineral Resource estimates. 2 The reporting cut-off was calculated for a magnetite concentrate containing 65% Fe with price of $US 90/t of dry concentrate, 50% of the price of V2O5 contained in the concentrate, a V2O5 price of $US 14/lb, a minimum of 0.2 % of V2O5 contained in the concentrate, an open pit mining operation, a cost of mining and milling feed mineralization of USD 13.80/t, a cost of transporting concentrate of USD 40/t; and a cost of tailing disposal of USD 1.5/t. 3 Vanadium One is not aware of any environmental, permitting, legal, title, taxation, socio-economic, marketing or political factors that might materially affect these mineral resource estimates. 4 Resource classification, as defined by the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum in their document "CIM Definition Standards for Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves" of May 10, 2014. 5 Mineral Resources are not Mineral Reserves and by definition do not demonstrate economic viability. This MRE includes inferred Mineral Resources that are normally considered too speculative geologically to have economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves. It is reasonably expected that the majority of Inferred Mineral Resources could be upgraded to Indicated Mineral Resources with continued exploration. The PEA was prepared by CSA Global incorporating contributions from Vulcan Technologies for the Iron and Vanadium Market Pricing Study. The PEA is preliminary in nature, as it includes Inferred Mineral Resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as Mineral Reserves, and there is no certainty that the PEA will be realized. Mineral Resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The Technical Report is available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR and on the Company's website. Technical Disclosure The reader is advised that the PEA summarized in this news release is intended to provide only an initial, high-level review of the project potential and design options. The PEA mine plan and economic model include numerous assumptions and the use of Inferred Mineral Resources. Inferred Mineral Resources are considered to be too speculative to be used in an economic analysis except as allowed for by National Instrument 43-101 in PEA studies. There is no guarantee the project economics described herein will be achieved. Qualified Persons Statements The Mineral Resource Estimate and other scientific and technical information contained in this news release were prepared by CSA Global, in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43- 101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), and has been reviewed and approved by, as it relates to geology, sampling, drilling, exploration, QAQC and mineral resources: Dr. Luke Longridge, Ph.D., P.Geo, Senior Geologist (CSA Global); as it relates to metallurgy, processing and related infrastructure: Georgi Doundarov, M.Sc., P. Eng., PMP, CCP, Associate Metallurgical Engineer (CSA Global); as it relates to mining, related infrastructure, and mining costs: Karol Bartsch, BSc Mining (Hons), MAusIMM, Principal Mining Engineer (CSA Global); and as it relates to financial modelling and economic analysis: Bruce Pilcher, B.E. (Mining), Eur Ing, CEng, FIMMM, FAusIMM CP, Principal Mining Engineer (CSA Global). Dr. Luke Longridge, Georgi Doundarov, Karol Bartsch and Bruce Pilcher are all independent Qualified Persons ("QP"), as defined under NI 43-101. The technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Pierre-Jean Lafleur, P.Eng. (OIQ), who is a Qualified Person with respect to the Company's Mont Sorcier Project as defined under National Instrument 43-101. About Glencore Glencore is one of the world's largest global diversified natural resource companies and a major producer and marketer of more than 60 responsibly-sourced commodities that advance everyday life. The Group's operations comprise around 150 mining and metallurgical sites and oil production assets. With a strong footprint in over 35 countries in both established and emerging regions for natural resources, Glencore's industrial activities are supported by a global network of more than 30 marketing offices. Glencore's customers are industrial consumers, such as those in the automotive, steel, power generation, battery manufacturing and oil sectors. We also provide financing, logistics and other services to producers and consumers of commodities. Following the completion of the sale, Glencore's companies employ around 135,000 people, including contractors. Glencore is proud to be a member of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights and the International Council on Mining and Metals. We are an active participant in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. Our ambition is to be a net zero total emissions company by 2050. About Vanadium One Iron Corp.: Vanadium One Iron Corp. is a mineral exploration and development company headquartered in Toronto, Canada. The Company is focused on advancing its 100% held Mont Sorcier, Vanadium-rich, Magnetite Iron Ore Project, in Chibougamau, Quebec. The Mont Sorcier Iron ore property hosts a large high quality magnetite iron resource with significant and extractable vanadium in a top tier mining jurisdiction. The project is located just 18 km outside of Chibougamau close to existing road, rail, low-cost hydro power and with access to deep water ports for export to global markets. Based upon recent and historical metallurgical test work Mont Sorcier is expected to produce a premium iron ore premium product (65-67% Fe) containing approximately 0.6% vanadium. . ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF VANADIUM ONE IRON CORP. Cliff Hale-Sanders, President & CEO Tel: 416-819-8558 csanders@vanadiumone.com www.vanadiumone.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements: Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains "forward-looking information" including statements with respect to the future exploration performance of the Company. This forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements of the Company, expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks, as well as others, are disclosed within the Company's filing on SEDAR, which investors are encouraged to review prior to any transaction involving the securities of the Company. Forward-looking information contained herein is provided as of the date of this news release and the Company disclaims any obligation, other than as required by law, to update any forward-looking information for any reason. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate and the reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking information. SOURCE: Vanadium One Iron Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646651/Vanadium-One-and-Glencore-Enjoin-to-Support-Development-of-the-Mont-Sorcier-Iron-and-Vanadium-Project To Company Announcements Date12 May 2021 Company Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust Limited LEI 549300HHFBWZRKC7RW84 SLIPIT Investment Transactions Standard Life Investments Property Income Trust Limited (SLIPIT) has completed a further sale as part of its portfolio review. The most recent sale was an out of town office building in Farnborough let to BAE. Following a detailed review of the offices in the portfolio it was felt this asset would not meet future occupier requirements, even with significant capex. The other office sale (announced in the recent NAV statement) was located on a business park in Dartford. The combined sale price of 12.4m was 5.5% below the end Dec valuations (driven by Farnborough). Both offices were over rented and the tenant was not in occupation (but had sublet some of the accommodation). The third sale was of a small retail warehouse in Bradford let to Halfords and Cubico. The property was over rented, and the sale price of 2.65m was in line with the end December valuation. Jason Baggaley, fund manager of SLIPIT, commented: "COVID 19 has accelerated trends in real estate, and in particular for offices. We completed a thorough review of our portfolio last year and as result decided to sell these three assets in addition to the sales undertaken in December 2020 to align the portfolio with increased ESG integration containing future fit assets. We look forward to reinvesting the proceeds into assets that will better meet the Company's needs". All enquiries to: Jason Baggaley - Fund Manager Tel: 07801039463 E-mail: jason.baggaley@aberdeenstandard.com HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEX: 2318; SSE: 601318) today announced the initial close of Ping An Voyager Partners, LP, a growth stage venture fund that will make investments in fintech, healthtech and related businesses around the world. Targeted at institutional investors, Voyager Partners has secured approximately US$200 million in commitments toward its planned US$475 million offering. Voyager Partners will be managed by Global Voyager Fund (HK) Company Limited ("Global Voyager"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ping An with a significant track record in venture investing in fintech and digital health. In 2017, Ping An committed US$1 billion to support Global Voyager's investment strategy. Global Voyager is an investment manager licensed by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission and today comprises 22 professionals. Global Voyager focuses on investment opportunities with fintech, digital health and related businesses that have achieved product-market fit, have meaningful revenues and viable unit economics, and are on a clear path to widespread commercial traction. Typically, such businesses have been in existence for more than five years and are at a Series C funding stage or beyond. Voyager Partners will continue this strategy, investing between $15 million and $35 million per target. Jonathan Larsen, Chief Innovation Officer for Ping An Group and Chairman and CEO of Global Voyager, said, "There is no doubt that the digital revolution in finance and health is here to stay. Ping An is well placed to identify and bring value to promising new companies in these sectors. We have achieved considerable success investing in growth-stage fintechs and digital health companies and are confident we can bring this experience to bear at Voyager Partners." Businesses where Global Voyager has led recent funding rounds on behalf of Ping An include iCapital Network, a US based financial technology platform for alternative investing; Laiye Technologies, a China based AI and RPA platform; PlusDental, a German teledentistry business; and Snapsheet, a US based provider of cloud native insurance claims management software. In addition to financial backing from Ping An, Voyager Partners' first close includes, among others, two leading North American insurers and a top-tier insurer based in Europe. Donald Lacey, Global Voyager's Chief Investment Officer, said, "Ping An believes that fintech and digital health are now at an extremely appealing inflection point, driven by mainstream user adoption and traditional financial institutions' aggressive embrace of new technologies, such as AI and cloud native core operating platforms. One of the ideas behind Voyager Partners is to combine Ping An's capabilities with resources from other leading financial institutions around the world, creating a vehicle that will be even better placed to add value to the businesses we invest in." Ping An anticipates a final closing for Voyager Partners in the third quarter of 2021. For more information, please visit www.group.pingan.com and follow us on LinkedIn - PING AN. DGAP-News: Cryptology Asset Group PLC / Key word(s): Cryptocurrency / Blockchain/Regulatory Approval Cryptology Portfolio Company Iconic Funds' Physical Bitcoin ETP Listing on Deutsche Borse's Xetra 12.05.2021 / 12:40 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. Corporate News Cryptology Asset Group p.l.c. ("Cryptology") Malta, 12.05.2021 Cryptology Portfolio Company Iconic Funds' Physical Bitcoin ETP Listing on Deutsche Borse's Xetra Malta, 12.05.2021. Cryptology Asset Group (ISIN: MT0001770107; Ticker: CAP, formerly 4UD), a leading European investment company for blockchain- and crypto-related business models, announced its portfolio company, Iconic Funds, will have its Physical Bitcoin ETP (ISIN: DE000A3GK2N1; Ticker: XBTI) listed and begin trading on Deutsche Borse's Xetra on May 12, 2021. The exchange traded product ("ETP"), physically backed by Bitcoin, becomes the most cost-effective way for investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin on Xetra with a total expense ratio of 0.95%. The ETP is issued by Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH, a subsidiary of Iconic Funds GmbH (collectively branded as "Iconic Funds"). Iconic Funds GmbH is a joint venture of Cryptology and Iconic Holding GmbH. Structured as a traditional ETP, comparable to Xetra Gold, the Bitcoin ETP aims to remove the technical complications of investing in and holding Bitcoin for investors in an industry-leading cost-effective manner. Each fully Bitcoin-collateralized Note of the ETP represents a claim on a specified amount of Bitcoin, less applicable fees. With the confirmation of listing on Xetra, the Iconic Funds team has begun exploring international listings of the ETP. "Iconic's mission is to drive the adoption of crypto assets by creating trustworthy investment vehicles for investors to seamlessly gain exposure to the evolving asset class," said Patrick Lowry, CEO of Cryptology and Iconic Funds. "We are elated to see our Bitcoin ETP listed on Germany's flagship market and look forward to working with our partners and regulators to bring more products forward for crypto-hungry investors." Cryptology founding investor, Christian Angermayer, said "Financial institutions have been seeking a cost-efficient and trusted way to invest in Bitcoin and Iconic Funds has proven its ability to professionally manage crypto assets the past few years, and issuing a physically backed Bitcoin ETP is a natural evolution for the crypto asset manager. We are proud Iconic is a member of the Cryptology family and we look forward to new, innovative investment products the Iconic Funds team expects to launch later this year." Iconic Funds is perpetually at the forefront of driving crypto asset adoption, investing in the crypto space since 2017 and having issued one of the EU's first fully licensed crypto asset index funds in early 2020. By issuing a physically backed Bitcoin ETP - and one of the most cost effective of its kind - Iconic further cements itself as one of the most innovative asset management groups in the world. Product name Iconic Funds Physical Bitcoin ETP Ticker Xetra / Bloomberg XBTI / XBTI GY ISIN / WKN DE000A3GK2N1 / A3GK2N Total Expense Ratio 0.95% Product Currency USD Product Structure Physically replicating Securities Lending No Lending Domicile Germany Issuer Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH Administrator State Street Bank International GmbH Security Trustee Bankhaus von der Heydt GmbH & Co. KG Custodians Fidelity Digital Assets Ltd Coinbase Custody International Ltd Market Maker Flow Traders B.V. Authorized Participant(s) Flow Traders B.V. Jane Street Financial Ltd. DRW Europe B.V. Enigma Securities Ltd. Xetra Listing date May 12, 2021 Important Notices: This notice does not constitute an offer to sell securities, nor is it a solicitation or an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. This notice does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States and the securities referred to in this notice may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. This notice may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, including with respect to the expected offering size, the terms of the Notes including the anticipating timing for the pricing and settlement date and the listing of the Notes on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Forward looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Iconic Fund's and Cryptology's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, capital markets conditions and the ability to successfully market the Notes, global and local economic and business conditions. All forward-looking information in this notice speaks as of the date of this notice. Iconic Funds and Cryptology do not undertake to update any such forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained in Iconic Fund's filings with securities regulators, including its latest annual information form and MD&A. These filings are also available at Iconic Fund's website at https://funds.iconicholding.com. The price performance of cryptocurrencies is highly volatile and unpredictable and past price performance is no guarantee of future price performance. The approval of the Prospectus should not be construed as an endorsement of the securities offered or admitted to trading on a Regulated Market. Prospective investors should read the Prospectus before making any investment decision in order to fully understand the potential risks and rewards of deciding to invest in the securities. The prospectus and all supplements to the prospectus is available at https://funds.iconicholding.com/xbti-iconic-funds-physical-bitcoin-etp/. About Cryptology Asset Group p.l.c. Cryptology is a leading European crypto asset and blockchain-related business model investment company. Founded by Christian Angermayer's family office, Apeiron Investment Group and crypto-legend Mike Novogratz, Cryptology is the largest publicly traded holding company for blockchain- and crypto-based business models in Europe. Noteworthy portfolio companies include crypto-giant and EOSIO software publisher Block.one, leading HPC provider Northern Data, commission-free online neobroker nextmarkets, and crypto asset management group Iconic Holding. Media Contact: Cryptology Asset Group p.l.c. Jefim Gewiet (COO) 66/67, Beatrice, Amery Street, Sliema SLM 1707 Malta E-mail: info@cryptology-ag.com About Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH: Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iconic Funds GmbH and the issuer of a physically backed Bitcoin Exchange Traded Product ("ETP") (ISIN: DE000A3GK2N1; Ticker: XBTI). Iconic Funds GmbH is the holding company of a series of subsidiaries that manage and issue crypto asset investment products. Collectively, Iconic Funds GmbH and its subsidiaries are branded as "Iconic Funds." Iconic Funds is a joint venture between Iconic Holding GmbH and Cryptology Asset Group p.l.c. (ISIN: MT0001770107; Ticker: CAP, formerly 4UD). Iconic Holding is a portfolio company of FinLab AG (WKN 121806 / ISIN DE0001218063 / Ticker: A7A), leading German-VC group High-Tech Grunderfonds ("HTGF"), Cryptology Asset Group p.l.c. (ISIN: MT0001770107; Ticker: CAP), founded by Christian Angermayer and Mike Novogratz, and Titania Investment Group OU. Press contact: Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH: contact@iconicholding.com https://funds.iconicholding.com BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - Greece's consumer prices decline further in April, albeit at a softer pace, data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority showed on Wednesday. The consumer price index fell 0.3 percent year-on-year in April, following a 1.6 percent decline in March. Prices for miscellaneous goods and services declined 2.4 percent annually in April and prices of communication decreased 1.4 percent. Prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages, and household equipment fell by 1.2 percent, each. On a monthly basis, consumer prices rose 0.9 percent in April, after a 1.2 percent growth in the prior month. The EU measure of harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP, fell 1.1 percent annually in April, following a 2.0 percent decline in the preceding month. On a monthly basis, the HICP rose 0.9 percent in April, following a 1.0 percent increase in the prior month. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. COIMBRA, Portugal, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The University of Coimbra (UC) is the most sustainable institution in Portugal and the 21st worldwide, according to the third edition of The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings 2021. With the score of 92.7 out of 100, the UC was the Portuguese institution with the best at meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations. The UC was better rated in the SDG2, Zero Hunger, being the third best university in the world at meeting this goal. The war on food waste, the existence of a social meal, the giving away of food baskets by the Social Action Services of the UC to student sororities at a low price or even the initiatives with local producers for product drain are some of the reasons behind this score. Also, the projects of investigation and participation in agrifood research groups, like Mobfood, which brings together agents from the agrifood industry for a more competitive national food industry, or Reseed, which studies the socioeconomic and ecologic impacts of the dissemination of food products from other continents in Europe, since the 18th century. The UC also stands out by meeting the SDG9, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructures, filling the 13th position worldwide. To support this result there are the number of spin-offs created (121), the number of active patents (304) and the work of Pedro Nunes Institute, institution created by the UC, whose incubator supported 330 businesses, created 2600 jobs and generated an annual average of 190 millions of euros in business volume. Also, to note the Energy for Sustainability initiative, an answer to the challenges in the area of energy and sustainable development, or the Ageing Coimbra, a cluster for the active and healthy aging, which intends to stimulate the economy and the young entrepeneurship when it comes to health services. The UC also obtained a good classification meeting the SDG3, Good Health and Well-being, filling the 44th position worldwide. In this goal stand out the projects like UC+Ativa em casa, which give physical activity programs; the volunteering platform UC Transforma; the free health services, with the psychological and psychiatric support for health workers; and the collaboration with local, national or international health entities. "These results are reasons for pride and motivation, but are encouraging as well as challenging because there is a big path that hasn't been walked yet," says Amilcar Falcao, UC's Dean. "To create social awareness, to be an example and to gather efforts it is crucial to meet the collective goals, involving our students for whom tomorrow will be the world they have to live in," he adds. The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings analyses how the investigation, the teaching and the institution management contributes to meeting the established SDGs by the United Nations, being the only tool in the world to evaluate these commitments. The UC is at the top 100 worldwide in 9 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1507207/PatiodasEscolas_Universidade_de_Coimbra.jpg Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1507208/Universidade_de_Coimbra_Logo.jpg ROSEMONT, IL / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / The Food Safety Summit kicked off yesterday with a State of the Industry workshop with in-depth insight from Oscar Garrison, United Egg Producers Association, Jennifer McEntire Ph.D., United Fresh Produce Association, and KatieRose McCullough, PhD, MPH, North American Meat Institute, who discussed the challenges in production, worker safety, virtual audits, and the impact of the supply chain in egg, produce, and meat processing. Hundreds of food safety professionals engaged in a dynamic Q&A session moderated by Craig Henry with discussions focused on labor shortages, impact of vaccinations, and working with public health authorities. Following the workshop, Larry Keener, chair of Food Safety Magazine's Award Committee, presented the magazine's Distinguished Leadership Award to Frank Busta, Ph.D. Larry stated that "Frank had unanimous support for his personification of what it means to be a food safety scientist. He is an advocate and leader of the fundamental sciences of the basis of food safety and worthy of this prestigious award." Dr. Busta is the director emeritus of the National Center for Food Protection and Defense (NCFPD; now Food Protection & Defense Institute) and professor emeritus of food microbiology at the University of Minnesota. "I am truly honored to receive this award. My success is truly a measure of the extraordinary students and colleagues I have worked with at the University of Minnesota and a variety of other schools. Without these collegial relationships and teamwork, I would not have accomplished what I did in my career," said Frank Busta. Click here, to tune in to hear an interview with Dr. Busta on the new episode of our Food Safety Matters podcast! Craig Wilson, Vice President, GMM, Costco presented a terrific keynote address honoring the food industry employees who were on the front line, following policies and procedures, especially during the pandemic. "Congratulations to everyone in the food supply chain for being the true heroes," Craig said. "At Costco keeping our members and employees safe all the time is a top priority and we followed the science and the CDC guidance for keeping folks safe during the pandemic". Stacy Atchison, publisher of Food Safety Magazine, then moderated a conversation with Craig, who answered questions from the audience on everything from reconciling conflicting information, the role OSHA is playing in food safety, dealing with the supply chain issues, keeping members and employees safe, blockchain, virtual auditing, implementing Standard Operating Procedures, the future of mask wearing, and much more. The Summit continues on Wednesday, May 12th from 8 am-10 am CT with a two-hour workshop laying out a RoadMap to Food Safety Culture. Speakers from Sysco, Food Industry Council, Deloitte Consulting, CFSAN FDA, and Public Health Innovations will discuss creating and implementing a strong food safety culture within an organization. From 10 am -11:30 am CT, Gary Ades will moderate the 10th annual Town Hall with two new speakers: Sherri McGarry, Health Scientist Microbiologist, CDC Liaison to FDA for Food Safety?, who will open the session with a COVID update from the CDC/FDA perspective and Sandra Eskin, Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, USDA, who will share her perspective. In addition, Steven Mandernach, J.D., Executive Director, AFDO; Robert Tauxe, M.D., M.P.H., Director, Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases, CDC; and Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner, Food Policy and Response, FDA; will provide updates from each of their organizations and will be available for an extensive question-and-answer session. The Exhibit Hall will be open from 12:00-2:30 pm CT and feature leading vendors including Gold Sponsor Purell; Silver Sponsors Applied Food Diagnostics, Aptean and Millipore Sigma; and Bronze Sponsors Elisa Technologies, Zenput, and Pure Global Solutions. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from technology companies in the Tech Tent and attend live sponsored education sessions on the Solutions Stage with informative presentations from Millipore Sigma, Orkin, Hexagon, Intertek Alchemy, FoodLogiQ, Mettler Toledo, Controlant, Perkin Elmer, Inficon, Beekeeper, One Event Technologies, WeRFood Safety, Safety Chain, AFCO, IFS, and others. For access to the full Food Safety Summit agenda, which will be held through Thursday, May 13 from 8:00 am-4:45 pm CT, visit www.foodsafetysummit.com. To register, click here. The Food Safety Summit is owned and produced by Food Safety Magazine (www.food-safety.com) and BNP Media (www.bnpmedia.com), one of the country's leading business-to-business media companies serving industry professionals across 60+ industries through magazines, custom media, e-newsletters, webinars, events, and market research. For further information, contact: Amy Riemer, Media Relations 978-475-4441(office) or 978-502-4895 (cell) amy@riemercommunications.com SOURCE: Food Safety Summit View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646717/Food-Safety-Summit-Kicks-Off-With-State-of-The-Industry-and-Dynamic-Keynote-From-Costcos-Craig-Wilson TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Idaho Champion Gold Mines Canada Inc. (CSE:ITKO)(OTCQB:GLDRF)(FSE:1QB1) ("Idaho Champion" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that fieldwork for the 2021 exploration program (the "Field Program") has commenced at the 100% controlled Champagne Gold Project ("Champagne") near the city of Arco, Butte County, Idaho. This year's program will push geological mapping, sampling, and geophysics farther north across the full extent of the +27 km2 land position. Geologists will also begin the preparations for the exploration drilling program planned for third quarter 2021. 2021 Field Program Highlights The geology staff and technical advisors completed a thorough field-based technical review of the 2020 results and plans for the 2021 drill campaign. Sited drill pad locations on IP lines 4 and 5 to test the NW anomaly. Access roads and drill pads will be constructed when final approval is received from the Bureau of Land Management. Core drilling is slated to start in July 2021. Initiated geologic mapping and outcrop sampling over a newly identified occurrence of intense alteration, veining, and brecciation spanning an area of more than 1,000 by 800 meters in the northern part of the property. Follow-up sampling and geologic investigations will be conducted at another northern target where several dump samples returned anomalous gold and silver. Up to 5,000 line-metres of additional Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical surveys will also be carried out. "This will be a transformative year for Champion and the Champagne Gold project as we move beyond the areas of historic mining on the property. Our focus will be exploring the large IP anomaly located northwest from the past producing pits, which is interpreted to represent the larger roots of the mineral system that was mined in the 1990's. Our technical team is mobilized and will begin surface work to support a drill program planned for Q3," stated President and CEO, Jonathan Buick. "Our 27 square kilometer property package hosts several important exploration targets, and we will prioritize a portion of our Field Program to regional exploration." Champagne Gold Project Exploration 2021 Summary The 2021 field program, currently in progress, is guided by insights gained from the 2020 exploration season. The primary purpose of this program is to define the full northern extent of outcropping alteration and mineralization. For instance, a recent reconnaissance traverse running north from IP line-5 found that evidence of alteration and mineralization continues for another 1.4 kilometers to the north. The NW anomaly was identified by the company's IP survey conducted in 2020. The anomaly shows a high chargeability response in the western area of the claim block. The 2020 IP survey also confirmed that the Mine Hill area, where historic mines exploited veins and vuggy silica breccia, has a strong chargeability response, but represents the decapitated and displaced top of a larger mineralized system. Fortunately, the intact downward continuation of the mineralized system was identified in the form of a massive geophysical anomaly concealed beneath a flat-lying detachment fault located within the western part of the Champagne Creek property holdings. The IP anomaly currently measures +1,500 meters long (open-ended to the north) and 800 to 1,000 meters across with a depth extent of over 600 meters, also open-ended (see news release dated 2 February 2021). The initial 2021 IP survey will include two additional IP lines (Line 7 and 8) which will be executed concurrent with reconnaissance mapping and sampling in the area. Lines 7 and 8 will each measure approximately 1,500 meters long and line spacing will be 400 meters, beginning at the northernmost line of the 2020 survey. These lines will test the northwestern extent of the large IP anomaly, which is currently open-ended. Results from 2020 drilling, soil, and rock chip sampling show that gold occurring in vuggy silica breccia and veins is associated with advanced argillic alteration and shares a positive correlation with pathfinder elements: silver, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, tellurium, and tin. The nature of alteration, sulfide/sulfosalt mineral assemblages, and pathfinder metal associations indicate a high level in the mineralized system at Mine Hill. It is expected that the NW Anomaly, which represents the intact downward continuation of the Mine Hill system, will contain similar gold and silver-bearing sulfide/sulfosalt assemblages and pathfinder metal associations. Mapping and soil sampling in the vicinity of the NW Anomaly has turned up significant alteration and geochemical anomalies, often associated with mineralized structures. The project geological team has mobilized to the Champagne Gold Project to commence mapping and sampling over the northern portion of the property. The team will also begin preparing drill pads and the core logging and handling facilities for what promises to be a busy field season. Figure 1. Priority area for geologic work to begin 2021 field program. About the Champagne Project The Champagne Mine* was operated by Bema Gold as a heap leach operation on an epithermal gold-silver system that occurs in volcanic rocks. Bema Gold drilled 72 shallow reverse circulation holes on the project, which complement drilling and trenching from other previous operators. The property has had no deep drilling or significant modern exploration since the mine closure in early 1992. The Champagne Deposit contains epigenetic style gold and silver mineralization that occurs in strongly altered Tertiary volcanic tuffs and flows of acid to intermediate composition. Champagne has a near surface cap of gold-silver mineralization emplaced by deep-seated structures that acted as conduits for precious metal rich hydrothermal fluids. Higher grade zones in the Champagne Deposit appear to be related to such feeder zones. * The Company cautions that the information about the past-producing mine may not be indicative of mineralization on Champion's property, and if mineralization does occur, that it will occur in sufficient quantity or grade that would result in an economic extraction scenario. The historic data were simply used to evaluate the prospective nature of the property. The Company has not yet conducted sufficient exploration to ascertain if a mineral resource is present on the property. Qualified Person The technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Peter Karelse P.Geo., a consultant to the Company, who is a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Mr. Karelse has more than 30 years of experience in exploration and development. About Idaho Champion Gold Mines Inc. Idaho Champion is a discovery-focused gold exploration company that is committed to advancing its 100%-owned highly prospective mineral properties located in Idaho, United States. The Company's shares trade on the CSE under the trading symbol "ITKO", on the OTCQB under the trading symbol "GLDRF", and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "1QB1". Idaho Champion is vested in Idaho with the Baner Project in Idaho County, the Champagne Project located in Butte County near Arco, and four cobalt properties in Lemhi County in the Idaho Cobalt Belt. Idaho Champion strives to be a responsible environmental steward, stakeholder and a contributing citizen to the local communities where it operates. Idaho Champion takes its social license seriously, employing local community members and service providers at its operations whenever possible. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Jonathan Buick" Jonathan Buick, President and CEO For further information, please visit the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com or the Company's corporate website at www.idahochamp.com. For further information please contact: Nicholas Konkin, Marketing and Communications Phone: (416) 567- 9087 Email: nkonkin@idahochamp.com THIS PRESS RELEASE DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER TO SELL OR THE SOLICITATION OF AN OFFER TO BUY ANY SECURITIES IN ANY JURISDICTION, NOR SHALL THERE BE ANY OFFER, SALE, OR SOLICITATION OF SECURITIES IN ANY STATE IN THE UNITED STATES IN WHICH SUCH OFFER, SALE, OR SOLICITATION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. Cautionary Statements Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulation services provider has reviewed or accepted responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, concerning the business of the Company. Forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of the Company, including suggested strike extension. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based on are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. The Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE: Idaho Champion Gold Mines Canada Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646710/Idaho-Champion-Gold-Commences-2021-Field-Program-at-Champagne-Gold-Project LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / MJ Harvest, Inc. (OTCQB:MJHI) MJHI") announces that MJHI, through its affiliate, PPK Investment Group, Inc. ("PPK"), has signed a term sheet with International Brands Group (IBG). Where PPK will produce, manufacture, sell and market a new Chronic Brand THC infused product line in the State of Oklahoma (OK); the terms and negotiations were led by Joe Bradley, Principal Consultant. PPK currently grows, extracts, manufactures, and distributes Country Cannabis branded products to over 1000 dispensaries in the OK market. IBG manufactures, and distributes Chronic Candy, a Hemp CBD infused edibles brand, and other industry related products in all allowable states. Under the agreement, PPK will have the right to sell any and all Chronic Brand's products in Oklahoma. IBG will provide marketing support and brand development and will receive a percentage of sales revenues generated under the arrangement. As PPK and IBG enter new markets, PPK will have the right of first refusal to undertake manufacturing and distribution operations for the Chronic Brand on terms comparable to arrangement in Oklahoma. IBG, with its Chronic Candy brand, was a first mover in the Hemp CBD industry and since 1998, has established a reputation for producing and distributing high-quality CBD products. These efforts have given IBG a national footprint for the Chronic Candy line. With this agreement, IBG intends to replicate the Chronic Candy CBD success with the Chronic Brands THC line through PPK. The agreement provides PPK with additional products to offer its current pool of over 1000 dispensaries, while also filling its manufacturing capacity and broadening its manufacturing capabilities. PPK and IBG will initially develop the operational model in Oklahoma with the consultation and support of Joe Bradley, and expect that this model can then be extended to numerous other markets in the near future. MJHI CEO Patrick Bilton stated, "We are excited to be part of the PPK - Country Cannabis and IBG - Chronic opportunities and look forward to our continuing investment into PPK." PPK President, Clinton Pyatt echoed this sentiment stating, "The relationships with MJHI and IBG allow PPK to grow our product line offerings to distributors and dispensaries, and to rapidly expand our capacity and reach." Chronic Candy founder, Tony Van Pelt noted "Our relentless focus on quality and brand development is a perfect fit with the capabilities of PPK and we look forward to replicating the iconic presence and success of our Chronic Candy Brand with our new line of Chronic THC products." This press release contains forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. Although the forward-looking statements in this release reflect the good faith judgment of management, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed in these forward-looking statements. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release. CONTACT: MJ Harvest, Inc. 9205 West Russell Rd., Ste. 240 Las Vegas, NV 89148 Telephone: 954.519.3115 Tcktsllc@earthlink.net @HARVESTMJ SOURCE: MJ Harvest, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646737/MJ-Harvest-to-Manufacture-and-Market-Chronic-Brand-Product-Line-in-Oklahoma Connecticut House lawmakers are seeking to update Connecticut's 1999 "red flag" law, which was the first in the country to allow judges to order someone's guns seized upon evidence they are a danger to themselves or others. The latest bill would allow relatives, household members and medical professionals, including physicians, physician assistants, nurses and psychologists to ask a judge to take the guns away. In this 2014, a man openly carries a gun at a pro-gun rally in Hartford. (Mike Orazzi/AP) Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Ethos Gold Corp. (TSXV: ECC) (OTCQB: ETHOF) (FSE: 1ET) ("Ethos" or the "Company") announces its intention to carry out a non-brokered private placement of national charity flow-through units for gross proceeds of up to C$1,333,333 (the "Offering"). The Offering will consist of up to 5,555,555 flow through units priced at $0.24 per unit (each, a "Unit"). Each Unit will be comprised of one flow through share, and one half of one non-flow through common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will be exercisable into one common share of the Company at an exercise price of $0.30 for a period of two years following closing. Proceeds of this offering will be utilized on eligible flow through expenditures on the Company's projects within Canada. In connection with the offering, Crescat Portfolio Management, LLC ("Crescat") has agreed to purchase all of the Units on the back-end in accordance with participation rights granted to Crescat by the Company pursuant to a subscription agreement dated August 24, 2020 (the "Agreement"). "This placement demonstrates Crescat's full support for Ethos' aggressive exploration plans across its numerous Canadian projects this season," commented Kevin Smith, CIO of Crescat Capital. "Ethos has a strong team led by renowned explorer, Dr. Rob Carpenter. We like to back solid technical teams exploring high quality projects. This is the case at Ethos. We look forward to seeing the results of this season's work." The Offering is subject to the acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange, and securities issued in the Offering will be subject to a 4-month hold period. In addition, further to the Company's news release of May 10, 2021, Crescat has waived certain rights it had with respect to the allocation and use of proceeds at the Iron Point project pursuant to the Agreement. About Ethos Gold Corp. Ethos Gold, a Discovery Group company, has accumulated a portfolio of district scale projects in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland that we believe have large scale discovery potential. The Company has a strong technical team led by Dr. Rob Carpenter, formerly the CEO of Kaminak Gold Corporation. Rob led the Kaminak team from initial listing in 2005 through acquisition and discovery of the multiple-million-ounce Coffee Gold Project. In Ethos, he has assembled a senior geologic team with a strong record of discovery success including Dr. Robert Brozdowski, P.Geo., Dan MacNeil, M.Sc., P. Geo, Dr. Alan Wainwright, P.Geo, and Dr. Quinton Hennigh, an economic geologist with 25 years of exploration experience formerly with Homestake Mining Company, Newcrest Mining and Newmont Mining Corp. With working capital of approximately C$10 million, the Company is well funded to advance its projects. Ethos Gold Corp. Per: "Alex Heath" Alex Heath, CFA, President For further information about Ethos Gold Corp. or this news release, please visit our website at ethosgold.com or contact Alex Heath at 604-354-2491 or by email at alexh@ethosgold.com. Ethos Gold Corp. is a proud member of Discovery Group. For more information please visit: discoverygroup.ca Forward-Looking Statement Cautions: This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, including, but not limited to, statements regarding the Company's plans with respect to the Company's projects and the timing related thereto, the merits of the Company's projects, the Company's objectives, plans and strategies, the Offering and the expected use of proceeds thereof, and other project opportunities. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective,", "strategy", "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include the risk of accidents and other risks associated with mineral exploration operations, the risk that the Company will encounter unanticipated geological factors, or the possibility that the Company may not be able to secure permitting and other agency or governmental clearances, necessary to carry out the Company's exploration plans, risks and uncertainties related to the COVID-19 pandemic, risks and uncertainties related to the Company's ability to complete the Offering and the size of the Offering, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal changes in the jurisdictions where the Company carries on its business that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83740 NIAGARA FALLS, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / EnerDynamic Hybrid Technologies Corp. ("EHT" or the "Company") (TSXV:EHT) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a definitive business combination agreement (the "Definitive Agreement"), providing for the acquisition of Windular Research and Technologies Inc. ("Windular") (the "Acquisition"). Terms of the Acquisition The Acquisition will proceed by way of a three-cornered amalgamation pursuant to which Windular and certain special purpose corporate shareholders of Windular (collectively the "Holdcos") will amalgamate with a wholly-owned subsidiary of EHT ("Subco 1"), and all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Windular (the "Windular Shares") held by shareholders of Windular (other than the Holdcos) and all of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Holdcos (the "Holdco Shares") will be exchanged for common shares of EHT (the "EHT Shares") on the basis of one (1) EHT Share for each nine (9) Windular Shares (except for those held by the Holdcos) and one (1) EHT Share for each nine (9) Holdco Shares. The resulting amalgamated entity will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of EHT. In connection with, and immediately preceding, completion of the Acquisition, a special purpose vehicle ("Finco") will complete a brokered private placement of subscription receipts (the "Subscription Receipts"), at a price of $0.70 per Subscription Receipt, to raise targeted gross proceeds of $15,000,000 subject to a minimum of $5,000,000 (the "Offering"). The Offering will be undertaken by Canaccord Genuity Corp. as lead agent (the "Lead Agent") on behalf of a syndicate of agents that may be formed (together with the Lead Agent, the "Agents") to offer the Subscription Receipts for sale on a "best efforts" agency basis. The gross proceeds from the sale of the Subscription Receipts will be held in escrow by an escrow agent acceptable to EHT and the Lead Agent. Immediately prior to completion of the Acquisition and upon satisfaction of the conditions which will be set forth in the subscription receipt agreement governing the Subscription Receipts, the gross proceeds will be released from escrow and, each Finco Subscription Receipt shall be converted into one unit (a "Unit"), consisting of one common share of Finco (a "Finco Share") and one Finco share purchase warrant (a "Finco Warrant"). Each Finco Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire an additional Finco Share at a price of C$1.00 until the date that is 24 months following the conversion of the Subscription Receipts (the "Escrow Release Date"), subject to customary anti dilution provisions. Immediately following the escrow release, a newly formed wholly-owned subsidiary of EHT ("Subco 2") and Finco will amalgamate, and all of the issued and outstanding Finco Shares will be exchanged for EHT Shares on the basis of one EHT Share for each one Finco Share and all of the outstanding Finco Warrants will be exchanged for share purchase warrants of EHT on a one for one basis (the "Finco Amalgamation"). The net proceeds from the Offering are expected to be used to fund EHT's Puerto Rico project and for general working capital purposes. Officers and Board of Directors Upon completion of the Acquisition, Gerald Foster, the President of Windular, will be appointed as the President and Corporate Secretary of the Company, subject to the prior approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"). EHT's current directors and officers will retain their positions, other than John Gamble, who will resign as President of EHT but remain the CEO and a director. Conditions to Acquisition The Acquisition is subject to various conditions, including as follows: Gerald Foster shall be appointed as President and Corporate Secretary of EHT and shall have entered into an employment agreement and indemnification agreement with EHT; the conversion of EHT's outstanding debentures (the " Debt Conversion ") shall have been completed substantially on the terms set out below; ") shall have been completed substantially on the terms set out below; completion of the Offering; the Finco Amalgamation shall have been completed; certain Windular Shareholders shall have entered into voluntary lock-up agreements, agreeing not to trade their EHT Shares issued pursuant to the Acquisition, except in accordance with the following release schedule: (i) 25% of their EHT Shares will be released upon completion of the Acquisition; (ii) 25% of their EHT Shares will be released on the date that is four months after the completion of the Acquisition; and (iii) 50% of their EHT Shares will be released on the date that is eight months after the completion of the Acquisition; the accuracy of the respective representations and warranties of each of EHT and Windular in the Definitive Agreement; and receipt of all requisite shareholder, third party and regulatory approvals relating to the Acquisition, including, without limitation, approval of the TSXV, will have been obtained. The Debt Conversion EHT has secured debentures with an aggregate outstanding balance of approximately $17,447,597.17 and Series 2-1 secured debentures with an aggregate outstanding balance of approximately $4,119,246.50. EHT is in negotiations with the debentureholders to complete the conversion of the total $21,566,843.67 in debentures into EHT Shares at a deemed share price of $0.70 per EHT Share, resulting in the issuance of approximately 30,809,777 EHT Shares. Capitalization As of the date hereof, (i) EHT has 22,198,721 EHT Shares issued and outstanding, as well as 11,795,515 warrants (each exercisable to acquire one EHT Share) and options to acquire an aggregate of 1,692,750 EHT Shares; and (ii) Windular has 193,140,150 Windular Shares issued and outstanding. Based upon the number of issued and outstanding shares in each of EHT and Windular on the date hereof, upon completion of the Acquisition but prior to the completion of the Offering, it is expected that EHT will have approximately 74,437,069 EHT Shares issued and outstanding (non-diluted), of which the current shareholders and debenture holders (assuming completion of the Debt Conversion) of EHT will hold 53,008,498 EHT Shares representing approximately 71.21%, the former shareholders of Windular (other than Holdcos) and the former shareholders of the Holdcos will hold 21,428,571 EHT Shares representing approximately 28.79% (assuming no exercise of any convertible securities of EHT or Windular prior to closing). Based upon the number of issued and outstanding shares in each of EHT and Windular on the date hereof, upon completion of the Acquisition and the Offering to raise a minimum aggregate gross proceeds of $5,000,000, it is expected that EHT will have approximately 81,579,926 EHT Shares issued and outstanding (non-diluted), of which the current shareholders and debenture holders (assuming completion of the Debt Conversion) of EHT will hold 53,008,498 EHT Shares representing approximately 64.98%, the former shareholders of Windular (other than Holdcos) and the former shareholders of the Holdcos will hold 21,428,571 EHT Shares representing approximately 26.27%, and the purchasers under the Offering will hold 7,142,857 EHT Shares representing approximately 8.76% (assuming no exercise of any convertible securities of EHT or Windular prior to closing). In addition, upon completion of the Acquisition and the Offering to raise minimum aggregate gross proceeds of $5,000,000, EHT will also have 1,692,750 outstanding stock options, 11,795,515 share purchase warrants (each exercisable to acquire one EHT Share and one share purchase warrant of EHT), not accounting for any exercises thereof prior to closing of the Acquisition or any compensation options to be issued in connection with the Offering. Additional Information Regarding the Acquisition The Definitive Agreement contains representations and warranties of the parties, restrictions on the conduct of business until closing, and mutual confidentiality and non-solicitation obligations. The Acquisition is expected to be completed as soon as reasonably practicable. The Definitive Agreement may be terminated in specified circumstances, including in the event the Acquisition has not been completed by June 30, 2021. The Acquisition, the Offering, the Debt Conversion and the Finco Amalgamation remain subject to the receipt of all applicable shareholder, regulatory and third-party approvals, including the approval of the TSXV. For further details on Windular, please see the Company's news release dated January 28, 2021. About EnerDynamic Hybrid Technologies EHT delivers proprietary, turn-key energy solutions which are intelligent, bankable and sustainable. Most energy products and solutions can be implemented immediately wherever they are needed. EHT stands above its competitors by combining a full suite of solar PV, wind and battery storage solutions, which can deliver energy 24 hours per day in both small-scale and large-scale format. In addition to traditional support to established electrical networks, EHT excels where no electrical grid exists. The organization supplies advanced solutions for various industries in combination with energy saving and energy generation solutions. EHT's expertise includes the development of module structures with full integration of smart energy solutions. These are processed through EHT's production technologies into attractive applications: modular homes, cold storage facilities, schools, residential and commercial out buildings and emergency/temporary shelters. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that contemplate activities, events or developments that the Company anticipates will or may occur in the future. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, those regarding EHT's products and solutions; completion of the Offering, the Acquisition, and the Finco Amalgamation; regulatory and shareholder approvals for the Acquisition; completion of the Debt Conversion; and the projected capitalization of EHT following the Acquisition and the Offering. The assumptions used to develop these forward-looking statements include non-binding arrangements and informal understandings that the Company has with third parties, including creditors, and potential investors will develop into binding agreements to complete the Debt Conversion, the Finco Amalgamation and the Offering. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they are not guarantees of future performance and, accordingly, they should not be relied upon and there can be no assurance that any of them will prove to be accurate. These forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current expectations based on information currently available to management and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause outcomes to differ materially from those projected. Risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks associated with general economic conditions, adverse industry events, marketing costs, loss of markets, future legislative and regulatory developments, the inability to access sufficient capital on favourable terms, the risk that the non-binding arrangements and informal understandings the Company has with third parties with respect to the Debt Conversion and the Offering will not develop into binding contracts, that the TSXV may not approve the Debt Conversion, the Acquisition, the Finco Amalgamation or the Offering on terms acceptable to the Company or third parties involved in the forgoing transactions, and that the creditors participating in the Debt Conversion will not agree to complete the Debt Conversion or will propose terms that are unacceptable to the Company. Readers should refer to the risk disclosure included from time-to-time in the documents the Company files on SEDAR, available at www.sedar.com. Readers are further cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are placed will occur. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. The purpose of forward-looking information is to provide the reader with a description of management's expectations, and such forward- looking information may not be appropriate for any other purpose. Finally, these forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and the Company assumes no obligation to update them except as required by applicable law. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: EHT: John Gamble Director (289) 488-1699 jgamble@ehthybrid.com Company Website: www.ehthybrid.com Lorie Laurence Administrative Assistant (289) 488-1699 info@ehthybrid.com Company Website: www.ehthybrid.com Windular: Gerald Foster President and Director jfoster@windular.com Company Website: www.windular.com SOURCE: EnerDynamic Hybrid Technologies Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646690/EnerDynamic-Hybrid-Technologies-Corp-Announces-Agreement-to-Acquire-Windular-Research-and-Technologies-Inc CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Aircraft Pumps Market by Type (Hydraulic pumps, Fuel pumps, Lube and scavenge pumps, Water and waste water pumps, Air conditioning and cooling pumps), Pressure, End Use (OEM, Aftermarket), Technology, Aircraft Type and Region - Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Aircraft Pumps Market size is projected to grow from USD 3.3 billion in 2021 to USD 4.5 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2021 to 2026. The market is driven by various factors, such as increase in aircraft renewals and need for more flexible and light aircraft with improved, lightweight systems and compact pumping systems. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=84962943 Increasing in demand for aircraft renewals and deliveries will drive the demand for fuel pump segment The fuel pump segment is expected to be the largest market by value. The growth of the fuel pump segment of the aircraft pumps market can be attributed to the increase in aircraft renewals as a short-term goal for the commercial aircraft industry In the near term, the COVID-19 shock has shifted the focus to replacement after a decade of growth bias. The current downturn is expected to lead to the replacement of many older airplanes. The above 3,000 psi segment is projected to witness a higher CAGR during the forecast period Based on pressure, the above 3,000 psi segment is projected to be the highest CAGR rate for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. The growth of the above 3,000 psi segment of the aircraft pumps market can be attributed to the low-weight, high-pressure hydraulic pumps enabling weight reduction of the aircraft especially for military applications. The electric motor driven segment is projected to witness a higher CAGR during the forecast period Based on the technology, the electric motor driven segment is projected to be the highest CAGR rate for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to various applications of electric motor driven pumps. Auxiliary boost fuel pumps, hydraulic systems in different aircraft types, water and wastewater systems, and air conditioning and cooling systems can all be driven with an electric motor. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period Based on the aircraft type, the unmanned aerial vehicles segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. UAVs are commonly termed drones and are mostly known for their wide usage in various military missions such as border surveillance. They are also used for mapping, surveying, and determining weather conditions of a specific area. Certain remotely piloted UAVs are designed to operate as loitering munition for defense forces. The OEM segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period Based on the end use, the OEM segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. OEMs are responsible for the installation of pumps in an aircraft during the assembly stage and are then made available for delivery to aircraft manufacturers. Over the years, there has been a significant rise in the demand for different aircraft types across regions. According to Airbus, it delivered 863 commercial aircraft to 99 customers in 2019. Browse in-depth TOC on "Aircraft Pumps Market" 624 - Tables 49 - Figures 329 - Pages Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=84962943 The North America market is projected to contribute the largest share from 2021 to 2026 North America is projected to be the largest regional share for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. The key factor responsible for North America, leading the aircraft pumps market owing to the rapid growth of the technologically advanced pumps in the region. In North America, the rise in aircraft orders and supplies is encouraging manufacturers of aircraft pumps to increase their sales year on year. The increasing demand for commercial aircraft and the presence of some of the leading players operating in the market, such as Parker-Hannifin Corporation (US), Woodward, Inc. (US), and Crane Co. (US), and Collins Aerospace (US), are expected to drive the aircraft pumps market in North America. These players are focusing on R&D to increase their product lines and using technologically advanced systems, subsystems, and other components for manufacturing aircraft pumps. The aircraft pumps market includes major players Safran (France), Eaton Corporation plc (Ireland), Parker-Hannifin Corporation (US), Woodward, Inc. (US), and Crane Co. (US). These players have spread their business across various countries includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. COVID-19 has impacted their businesses as well. Industry experts believe that COVID-19 could affect aircraft pumps production and services by 7-10% globally in 2020. Related Reports: Aircraft Hydraulic System Market by Type (Open-Center, Closed-Center), Component (Reservoir, Filters, Pumps, Accumulators, Actuators, Hydraulic Fluid), Platform (Fixed, Rotary) and Region - Global Forecast to 2021 Aircraft Fuel Systems Market by Application (Commercial, Military and UAV), Engine Type (Jet engine, Turboprop engine, Helicopter engine and UAV engine), Component, Technology & Region - Global Forecasts to 2020 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. 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Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.com Research Insight : https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/aircraft-pump-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/aircraft-pump.asp Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/660509/MarketsandMarkets_Logo.jpg 12 May 2021 LSE: PDL Petra Diamonds Limited ("Petra" or the "Company" or the "Group") Settlement of human rights claims at Williamson Diamond Mine, Tanzania Petra Diamonds Limited today confirms that a settlement has been reached, on a no admission of liability basis, in relation to claims brought in London ("the Claims") by Leigh Day, a UK based law firm, on behalf of 71 anonymous claimants, in relation to alleged breaches of human rights, associated with third-party security operations, at the Williamson Mine ("the Mine") in Tanzania. The Mine is operated by Williamson Diamonds Limited ("WDL"), which is 25% owned by the Government of Tanzania and 75% owned by Petra. The agreed total settlement figure is 4.3 million, which includes the sum to be distributed to the claimants by Leigh Day, a contribution to the claimants' legal expenses, and significant funds that Petra has committed to invest in programmes dedicated to providing long-term sustainable support to the communities living around the Mine. The agreement also includes a framework pursuant to which an additional payment will be made by Petra in respect of up to 25 additional potential claimants who have come forward during the final stages of the settlement negotiations. Following its investigation, Petra acknowledges that past incidents have taken place that regrettably resulted in the loss of life, injury and the mistreatment of illegal diggers, within the WDL Special Mining Licence area ("SML"). The incidents in question involved WDL's third- party security provider Zenith Security as well as the Tanzanian Police Force ("TPF"). During the investigation, no evidence emerged that WDL personnel were directly involved in these actions. While PDL is not directly involved in operations at the Mine and had no direct involvement in the events, it believes that the agreed settlement balances the interests of its stakeholders with those of the local community and avoids contesting protracted and expensive litigation where, even if Petra prevailed, it is unlikely that its own legal costs would have been recoverable. Petra is also establishing a new and independent ("Tier 2") Operational Grievance Mechanism ("OGM"). It will be managed by an independent panel and operate according to the highest international standards, as set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It will consider any incidents of potential human rights violations and provide remedy as necessary. PDL and WDL encourage any community members subject to any human rights violations to utilise the OGM. The establishment of an OGM is in keeping with the Company's support for the local community and the provision of fair remedy. Individuals who allege that they were harmed at the Mine and treated at Mwadui hospital will be allowed to access their medical records. The commitment to invest significant funds in community projects is intended to provide long term sustainable benefits to local communities through income generating projects, including; a feasibility study into a formalised artisanal mining project at the Mine, an agri-business project, a programme which provides medical support to the community, and arrangements pursuant to which local residents will be permitted to access certain parts of the mine to collect firewood and/or graze animals. In doing so, Petra will work with specialist external consultants and local NGOs to ensure that these programmes are designed and implemented in a collaborative and beneficial way. As has been announced previously, upon being notified in 2020 of the allegations, the Company immediately formed a sub-committee of the Board, comprised entirely of Independent Non-executive Directors, to look into the security operations at the Mine and has undertaken an investigation carried out by a specialist external advisor, in conjunction with the Company's lawyers. The Board's conclusions in relation to the investigation and details of the actions taken, have been published separately. Based on the Board's conclusions, appropriate disciplinary processes have been instigated. In addition, certain individuals have left or will be leaving the Company. Operational reporting lines in relation to incidents have been restructured and a revised incident escalation procedure has been put in place. These initiatives are expected to greatly enhance the oversight and accountability of security operations at the Mine going forward. Commenting, Peter Hill, Non-Executive Chairman of Petra Diamonds Limited, said: "The Company, Board and Management are deeply concerned and saddened by the allegations, which relate to the treatment of illegal diggers and others on or around the Williamson mine site in Tanzania, by third-party security providers. The Board regrets the loss of life, injury and mistreatment that appears to have taken place around the mine. The agreement reached with the claimants, combined with the other actions put in place, are aimed at providing redress and preventing the possibility of future incidents. These actions are in keeping with our approach throughout, which is to provide fair remedy, in the interest of all parties, based on a full, balanced and impartial understanding of the allegations made. An external investigation has taken place and we have todaypublishedthe Board's conclusions and details of the actions that have been taken." ~ Ends ~ For further information, please contact: Petra Diamonds, London Telephone: +44 20 7494 8203 Marianna Bowes investorrelations@petradiamonds.com Celicourt (PR Advisor) Telephone: +44 20 8158 5829 Philip Dennis Petra@celicourt.uk Jimmy Lea About Petra Diamonds Limited Petra Diamonds is a leading independent diamond mining group and a consistent supplier of gem quality rough diamonds to the international market. The Company has a diversified portfolio incorporating interests in three underground producing mines in South Africa (Finsch, Cullinan and Koffiefontein) and one open pit mine in Tanzania (Williamson). Petra's strategy is to focus on value rather than volume production by optimising recoveries from its high-quality asset base in order to maximise their efficiency and profitability. The Group has a significant resource base of ca. 243 million carats, which supports the potential for long-life operations. Petra strives to operate according to the highest ethical standards and will only operate in countries which are members of the Kimberley Process. The Company aims to generate tangible value for each of its stakeholders, thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of its host countries and supporting long-term sustainable operations to the benefit of its employees, partners and communities. Petra is quoted with a premium listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker 'PDL'. The Company's US$337 million loan notes due in 2026 will be listed on the Global Exchange market of the Irish Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.petradiamonds.com. 12 May 2021 LSE: PDL Petra Diamonds Limited Findings of the independent Board Sub-Committee investigation into alleged breaches of human rights at the Williamson Diamond Mine in Tanzania Summary Petra Diamonds Limited (the "Group", "PDL", "Petra" or "the Company") today issues the findings of its independent Board Sub-Committee in relation to alleged breaches of human rights at the Williamson Diamond Mine ("the Mine") in Tanzania raised by the UK law firm, Leigh Day and the independent NGO, Rights and Accountability In Development ("RAID"). The Mine is operated by Williamson Diamonds Limited ("WDL"), which is 25% owned by the Government of Tanzania and 75% owned by Petra. Petra acquired its majority interest in WDL in 2009. WDL and Petra have taken the human rights allegations mentioned above extremely seriously. They have sought to gain a full understanding of the allegations through an external investigation, with the aim of: understanding what happened; supporting the provision of a balanced and fair remedy, in the interest of all parties; and putting in place preventative measures to address the issues identified. This announcement presents the findings of the independent Board Sub-Committee formed to investigate the allegations. It also provides detail on the measures put in place by WDL and Petra both immediately after being notified of the allegations and subsequently in response to the findings of the external investigation. Based on the conclusions of the independent Board Sub-Committee, the Company acknowledges that past incidents have taken place that regrettably resulted in the loss of life, injury and the mistreatment of illegal diggers, within the WDL Special Mining Licence area ("SML"). The incidents in question involved WDL's third-party security provider Zenith Security as well as the Tanzanian Police Force ("TPF"). During the investigation, no evidence emerged that WDL personnel were directly involved in these actions. The Company took immediate precautionary measures to address the concerns raised, ahead of the findings of the investigation and in order to mitigate the risks of future incidents. These measures included: The closure of the holding facility at the mine The appointment of a new third party security contractor The suspension of personnel implicated Deployment of a stakeholder engagement expert and a comprehensive engagement plan with the affected communities The implementation of a Community Grievance Mechanism to deal with any day-to-day issues The design of an Operational Grievance mechanism ("OGM") aimed at addressing any historical, or future human rights violations, and the upgrading of the Mwadui medical facility As announced today, Petra has reached a settlement, on a no admission of liability basis, in relation to claims brought in London ("the Claims") by Leigh Day, on behalf of the anonymous claimants, in relation to alleged breaches of human rights, associated with third-party security operations, within the SML. The agreed total settlement figure is 4.3 million, which includes the sum to be distributed to the claimants by Leigh Day, a contribution to the claimants' legal expenses and significant funds, which Petra has committed to invest in programmes dedicated to providing long-term sustainable support to the communities living around the Mine. The OGM is being funded by PDL and will be aligned with industry best practice as advocated by the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The OGM is specifically aimed at considering incidents at the Mine involving any additional historical incidents, and any future human rights claims, and providing redress where necessary. PDL will separately fund a Gender Based Violence ("GBV") campaign aimed at providing education and information to the groups most vulnerable to gender violence. The campaign aims to strengthen the local capacity of government, organisations, and communities in order to establish a long-lasting culture change, with greater accountability and community-wide awareness. Commenting, Peter Hill, Non-executive Chairman of Petra Diamonds Limited, said: "The Company, Board and Management are greatly saddened and concerned by the findings of the investigation and we all regret the loss of life, the injuries and the mistreatment of illegal diggers that the investigation has found to have taken place. The actions being put in place, combined with the agreement reached with the claimants, are aimed at providing redress and reducing the risks of future incidents occurring. This is in keeping with our approach throughout, where we have tried to provide fair remedy, in the interest of all parties, based on a detailed, balanced and independent understanding of the allegations made. Petra's CEO, Richard Duffy, took immediate action upon being made aware of the allegations in 2020. The wider Petra Board have been equally determined to address the shortcomings identified, and have taken remedial actions where necessary to minimise the risks of reoccurrence of similar events, recognising that WDL's small yet high value products will always attract individuals and syndicates looking to exploit these for their own gains." Background The WDL SML covers an area of 30.6km2 in the Shinyanga province in north-western Tanzania and is one of the world's largest kimberlite resources. Between 2011 and 2021, security operations at the mine were provided by a third-party security contractor, Zenith Security and on 1 March 2021 Zenith Security was replaced by a new security provider, GardaWorld. Throughout the period the Tanzanian Police Force has also been actively involved in security operations at the mine. Even prior to Petra's acquisition of its stake in WDL in 2009, the mine has been the subject of repeated incursions by illegal diggers. While for many, illegal mining is a means of supplementing income, there is evidence of organised incursions, anecdotally sponsored by illicit diamond dealing syndicates. Parties of illegal diggers range from small, to much larger groups of up to 200 people, with some armed with slingshots, machetes and clubs. Some members of Zenith Security were armed with shotguns and since October 2013 were instructed to only use non-lethal rubber baton rounds. The Tanzanian Police Force were equipped with firearms, stun grenades and tear gas. A Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU") was signed between the TPF and WDL in May 2019, which stated that "The parties recognise the importance of actions consistent with the terms of the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, promoting and protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms". Although the majority of incursions on to the SML by illegal diggers were dealt with peacefully, there have been a number of incidents involving violence. Allegations In May 2020, Leigh Day notified the Boards of Petra and WDL that it had issued claim forms in the High Court of England and Wales on behalf of 32 anonymous individuals in relation to alleged breaches of human rights, personal injuries and deaths suffered at and surrounding the Mine, arising from the security operations. Additionally, in November 2020 RAID published a report outlining similar allegations, during the same period. Leigh Day subsequently expanded the number of anonymous claimants to 72 while RAID expanded the scope of their own allegations. Petra formed an independent Board Sub-Committee comprised entirely of independent Non- executive Directors to oversee the matters and undertake an investigation into the allegations. The Sub-Committee was supported in its investigation by the specialist external investigator Control Risks, in conjunction with lawyers Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP. The Sub-Committee has considered the conclusions of the independent external investigator, which has carried out a thorough investigation, including at the Mine in Tanzania and at PDL, interviewing past and present WDL and PDL managers and Board members, Zenith Security staff and representatives of the local community. Processes and communication within and between WDL and PDL were also investigated. Investigation Findings The Sub-Committee found evidence of many incursions onto the SML by illegal diggers. In the years between 2012 and 2020 alone, there were over 7,100 recorded incursions onto the SML, which resulted in more than 1,700 arrests taking place. While most of these incursions were resolved peacefully, there is evidence of many incidents of aggression, both on the side of the illegal diggers as well as that of the security providers. These incidents of aggression sometimes resulted in injury to individuals on both sides, as well as damage to property and equipment, including vehicles used by the TPF and Zenith Security. The exact details and number of incidents, which resulted in the loss of life, injury or mistreatment of illegal diggers, is difficult to determine with accuracy. The investigative team often needed to rely on a small number of accounts, which sometimes conflicted. This inconsistency is understandable, given the length of time since many of the alleged incidents took place, combined with many of the incidents having taken place during the hours of darkness. A further challenge to the investigation has been the inability to corroborate the accounts of the claimants due to their anonymity. The investigation has established that during the period there were 12 confirmed deaths of illegal diggers, with the likely deaths of four others. The available evidence is that of the 12, some were killed by Zenith Security personnel and at least one by the Tanzanian Police Force, all during violent confrontations. In one case, in 2014 a Zenith Security guard was arrested after shooting an illegal digger and subsequently jailed for manslaughter following a trial in Tanzania. With the exception of the one individual referred to above, it has not been possible to establish if in any of the other deaths Zenith Security personnel were criminally liable. The deaths were reportedly notified to the TPF and WDL remains committed to cooperating with the relevant prosecuting authorities as appropriate. The investigation also found no evidence that any deaths or shootings were carried out by WDL's own personnel. The investigation established that Zenith Security and the TPF also caused a number of injuries to illegal diggers and that excessive force may have been used on occasion. Records also show that many Zenith Security guards and members of the Police were also injured. Allegations have been made that Zenith Security personnel adapted their ammunition to fire stone pellets or metal projectiles instead of the authorised rubber baton rounds. While this has been established in relation to one incident in 2016, where the Zenith Security guard was jailed for six months, evidence suggests this may have happened on more than one occasion. Prior to and during the investigation, allegations of GBV suffered by women on the SML were raised. Given the sensitivity around these potential incidents and the reluctance of any potential victims to provide further information on these allegations, stakeholder engagement around the establishment of the independent OGM will specifically address this point, while the GBV campaign will further assist in this regard. Some of the allegations relate to alleged mistreatment of illegal diggers inside the Mwadui hospital, that is owned and operated by WDL, including the handcuffing of patients to beds. While it is considered standard practice in Tanzania for officers to guard individuals who are under arrest while they are in hospital and/or to handcuff patients if the police deem it necessary, WDL has stopped this practice at the Mwadui hospital and implemented other changes and improvements which include the installation of a separate, secure private ward to accommodate those in detention or in police custody. There were other allegations relating to the mistreatment of illegal diggers detained at the holding rooms at the entrance to WDM. The holding rooms were initially operated by Zenith Security, but since 2016 were operated by the TPF, and not by WDL as has been alleged. The investigation has shown, however, that Zenith Security was in de facto control of the holding rooms at times after 2016. The rooms were closed by WDL on 29 September 2020. It has been established that WDL management were aware of the situation on the ground and that details of many of the incidents, including relating to some of the fatalities as well as the allegations made in the early to mid 2010s, were known at reasonably senior levels within PDL and WDL but were not escalated to the PDL Board. It has similarly been established that since the formation of PDL's Executive Committee in 2019, incidents and allegations, including those in 2019 by the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, were not reported to it nor to the PDL Board. The Sub- Committee investigation, which included tracking PDL internal email communications, found no information to suggest information was escalated, substantiating the lack of PDL Board knowledge. As detailed below, the WDL and PDL reporting structures have been revised and revamped, to enable timely and accurate reporting of all incursions and incidents, with information now flowing through two independent reporting lines, greatly enhancing the level of information available at Board and senior management level. Actions Taken PDL has sought to gain a full and fair understanding of the events, so that appropriate remedy can be provided, and the necessary steps are taken to address issues. The main actions taken by both WDL and PDL, including enhancement measures already implemented to address identified shortcomings, can be summarised as follows: Governance and accountability 1. The Company has acted decisively to hold relevant individuals to account: based on the investigation findings the Board concluded that while there was no evidence that WDL or PDL employees directly caused the incidents, certain senior managers fell short in carrying out their duties and responsibilities, including ensuring that pertinent information was conveyed to the WDL and PDL boards. Given the severity of the issues, these omissions are highly regrettable. Appropriate disciplinary processes have been instigated. In addition, certain individuals have left or will be leaving the Company. 2. Reporting structures at WDL and PDL have been revised to address historical gaps and ensure accountability, enabling the more timely, accurate and transparent reporting of all incursions and incidents. The revisions entail a new incident escalation procedure to PDL, including fully transparent reporting to the PDL Board, as well as to the Audit and Risk, and the Social, Ethics and Diversity Committees through two independent reporting lines. 3.PDL will be appointing a Group General Counsel to, inter alia, oversee governance, compliance and ethics in the business, providing further oversight of PDL's activities and operations. Security and Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights ("VPSHR") 1. The Company appointed a new security contractor: GardaWorld West Security Limited, a member of the international GardaWorld Group, on 1 March 2021. VPSHR training has been reconfigured and new rules of engagement together with clearer reporting lines have been established, including monitoring the actions of the security contractor and the TPF, to ensure full compliance with the VPSHR. 2. Closure of the on-site facility used as temporary holding rooms on 29 September 2020. 3. Welfare of patients awaiting court appearance at the Mwadui medical facility has been secured through upgrades to the facility, including the installation of a separate self- contained private ward, with its own facilities. Security and medical personnel at WDL have been reminded of the required procedures in providing care to patients who are detained or in police custody. Individuals who allege that they were harmed at the Mine and treated at Mwadui hospital will be allowed to access their medical records. 4. Rolling out of a VPSHR awareness campaign: this campaign targets Petra and WDL executives and senior managers, as well as the entire security teams at both Group and mine level in Tanzania and South Africa. 5. Update of the Company Human Rights Policy Statement: an updated policy statement was approved by the Board on 10 September 2020 and is available on the Company's website at https://www.petradiamonds.com/about-us/corporate-governance/business-ethics/. A revised version is planned to be released later this year by the Company's SED Committee and new monitoring procedures have been put in place to ensure compliance with the Policy. 6. The Company is also implementing a Human Rights Defenders Policy, which will set out clear requirements in relation to non-harassment and victimisation to safeguard against future harm or intimidation. Stakeholder engagement 1. Deployment of a stakeholder engagement expert at WDL, to improve collaboration and create value for both WDL and its stakeholders. The role entails supporting the mine leadership in their engagement with local communities and other stakeholders, including the provision of high quality and responsive information for stakeholders and developing innovative approaches to engagement. 2. Development and implementation of a comprehensive Stakeholder Engagement Plan ("SEP") for WDL. The SEP will ensure a commitment to open and transparent interaction with the surrounding communities; it is focused on community members in the surrounding areas, civil society, NGOs, Communities Development Committees, local Government, the TPF and Community Leaders. The SEP is focused on all issues of relevance to WDL stakeholders, including security, human rights and social development. 3. Opening a new community office inside the main gates of the Mine, with a dedicated grievance desk to enable all stakeholders to raise issues in a free and unimpeded environment. The desk is manned by persons trained in community outreach and with prior experience of working closely with mining communities. Once it is in full operation, WDL also has plans to provide hotline numbers for calls, messaging and WhatsApp engagement. 4. Development and launch of a new radio programme "Kwa Pamoja Tunajali" ("Together we care"): to provide a key platform for WDL and its communities to engage directly, address concerns collaboratively and to facilitate local information sharing. OGM, and Restorative projects 1. Following the establishment of the Community Grievance Mechanism, an independent (Tier 2) OGM is being established. It will consider any incidents of potential human rights violations and provide remedy as necessary. It will be managed by an independent panel and operate according to the highest international standards, as set out in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. It aims to investigate and resolve complaints following the application of local legal requirements, including the provision of free and independent advice from local lawyers. PDL and WDL encourage any community members subject to any human rights violations to utilise the OGM, which is expected to be operational by the end of this year. PDL and WDL will also collaborate and engage with any criminal investigation should an individual wish to lodge a complaint with the relevant authorities in Tanzania. 2. Community initiatives to support the local economy, intended to provide long term sustainable benefits through income generating projects, with in excess of 1 million of agreed funding committed by PDL as described above. Projects include: a) Feasibility studies into a formalised artisanal tailings project at WDM and an agri- business project, b) The implementation of these projects based on the outcomes of the feasibility studies, c) The establishment of enhanced community clinical and medical support, d) Managed access to parts of the SML, to collect firewood and graze animals, e) Launch of a GBV campaign to provide specific support and counselling for victims of gender-based violence. For all restorative projects listed above, Petra will work as necessary with the surrounding communities and specialist external consultants and local NGOs to support the design and implementation of these projects. Further information will be provided on PDL's website in due course. The approach throughout this process has been to provide full and fair remedy and to limit, in so far as possible, the reoccurrence of incidents, recognising that it will never be possible to completely eradicate illegal incursions, given the nature of the product being mined and the fact that diamonds are a small, easily transportable and valuable commodity that can meaningfully alter the lives of some members of the local community. The PDL Board is committed to the initiatives set out above and will continue to monitor the effects of the actions taken. For further information, please contact: ~ Ends ~ Petra Diamonds, London Marianna Bowes Telephone: +44 20 7494 8203 investorrelations@petradiamonds.com Celicourt (PR Advisor) Philip Dennis Jimmy Lea Telephone: +44 20 8158 5829 Petra@celicourt.uk About Petra Diamonds Limited Petra Diamonds is a leading independent diamond mining group and a consistent supplier of gem quality rough diamonds to the international market. The Company has a diversified portfolio incorporating interests in three underground producing mines in South Africa (Finsch, Cullinan and Koffiefontein) and one open pit mine in Tanzania (Williamson). Petra's strategy is to focus on value rather than volume production by optimising recoveries from its high-quality asset base in order to maximise their efficiency and profitability. The Group has a significant resource base of ca. 243 million carats, which supports the potential for long-life operations. Petra strives to operate according to the highest ethical standards and will only operate in countries which are members of the Kimberley Process. The Company aims to generate tangible value for each of its stakeholders, thereby contributing to the socio-economic development of its host countries and supporting long-term sustainable operations to the benefit of its employees, partners and communities. Petra is quoted with a premium listing on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker 'PDL'. The Company's US$337 million loan notes due in 2026 will be listed on the Global Exchange market of the Irish Stock Exchange. For more information, visit www.petradiamonds.com. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Provenance Gold Corp. (CSE: PAU) (FSE: 3PG) (the "Company") is pleased to report that its common shares are now trading on the OTCQB in the United States under the symbol PVGDF. The Company also would like to announce that it is now eligible for electronic clearing and settlement through the Depository Trust Company (DTC) in the United States. The OTCQB Venture Market offers early stage and developing companies the benefits of being publicly traded in the U.S. with streamlined market standards that enable companies to provide a strong baseline of transparency to inform and engage U.S. investors. DTC is a subsidiary of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation, based in the United States, that manages the electronic clearing and settlement of publicly traded companies. Securities that are eligible to be electronically cleared and settled through DTC are considered "DTC eligible". This electronic method of clearing securities streamlines the process of trading, enhances liquidity, and provides direct access to investors and brokers throughout the OTC Capital Markets in the United States. Provenance Gold Corp. is a precious metals exploration company with a focus on gold and silver resources within North America. The Company currently holds interests in three properties in Nevada, USA. For further information please visit the Company's website at https://provenancegold.com or contact rclark@provenancegold.com. On behalf of the Board, Provenance Gold Corp. Rauno Perttu, Chief Executive Officer Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange, nor its regulation services provider, accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When or if used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affecting such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83715 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Global Battery Metals Ltd. (TSXV: GBML) (OTCQB: REZZF) (FSE: REZ) (the "Company" or "GBML") is pleased to report that it has received licencing approval from Coillte, the Irish state-owned commercial body which manages all forestry and upon whose lands the North West Leinster Lithium Project is located. The final and pending approval is from the Government of Ireland's Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. The Company has no reason to believe that this second and final approval will not be granted in very short order. GBML has also engaged Priority Drilling Limited ("Priority"), one of Ireland's foremost drilling contractors, to drill the six proposed holes. Priority is on standby for immediate mobilization pending the final government approval. The first, the drill target at Aghavannagh, of six target areas identified to date on the property is focused in an area where spodumene pegmatite float was discovered during prospecting and mapping at the granite / metasediment contact. The best sample contained visible spodumene and returned a value of 8,280 ppm Li (1.78% Li2O). Follow up base of deep overburden sampling and ground magnetics has provided further focus to the target zone for the positioning of the six drill collars. Highlights of the Leinster Lithium Project Exploration Drilling: - Fully financed drill program expected to begin this month (May 2021) - Approval for six drill holes - Visible spodumene in several areas - The Aghavannagh project lies 20km to the NE of the Avalonia Project, the JV between Ganfeng Lithium (55%) and ILC (45%). "We are excited to report that shortly we will begin our drill program at the North West Leinster Lithium property in Ireland - this is a highly prospective project area which reported relatively higher grades in a regional government stream sediments survey than the nearby Ganfeng/ILC project located further to the south," stated Michael Murphy, President and CEO of GBML. "The fully financed drilling campaign will target the first prospective target at Aghavannagh." Qualified Person The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with Canadian regulatory requirements and has been reviewed and approved by Vaughan Williams, P. Geo., principal geologist at Aurum Exploration Services Limited and Director of LRH Resources Ltd., and a "qualified person" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101. About Global Battery Metals Ltd. GBML is a mineral exploration company with a focus on metals that make up and support the rapid evolution to battery power. GBML's common shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and Frankfurt Stock Exchange and quoted on the OTCQB. GBML currently has three projects: (1) an option to acquire up to a 90% in the North-West Leinster lithium property in Ireland, (2) a 100% interest in the Lithium King property in Utah, and (3) a 55% stake in Peru-based Lara copper property, which has over 10,000 metres of drilling. As previously disclosed, Minsur S.A., a Peruvian mining company, entered into an option agreement with GBML and Lara Exploration Ltd. to acquire the Lara copper property for staged payments of USD$5.75 million. GBML will retain a 0.75% net smelter royalty. Global Battery Metals Ltd. Michael Murphy BA, MBA, MSc., ICD President & CEO T: 604-649-2350 E: MM@gbml.ca Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statement Regarding "Forward-Looking" Information This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation, relating to a drill program to be conducted on the Company's North-West Leinster lithium property in Ireland. Although the Company believes that such statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts; they are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "believes," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "aims," "potential," "goal," "objective," "prospective," and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will," "would," "may," "can," "could" or "should" occur, or are those statements, which, by their nature, refer to future events. The Company cautions that forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made, and they involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Consequently, there can be no assurances that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Except to the extent required by applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause future results to differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements include risks associated possible accidents and other risks associated with mineral exploration operations, the risk that the Company will encounter unanticipated geological factors, the possibility that the Company may not be able to secure permitting and other governmental clearances necessary to carry out the Company's exploration plans, the risk that the Company will not be able to raise sufficient funds to carry out its business plans, and the risk of political uncertainties and regulatory or legal changes that might interfere with the Company's business and prospects. The reader is urged to refer to the Company's reports, publicly available through the Canadian Securities Administrators' System for Electronic Document Analysis and Retrieval (SEDAR) at www.sedar.com for a more complete discussion of such risk factors and their potential effects. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83747 VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Amarc Resources Ltd. ("Amarc" or the "Company") (TSXV:AHR)(OTCQB:AXREF) is pleased to announce it has entered into a Mineral Property Earn-In Agreement (the "EIA") with Freeport-McMoRan Mineral Properties Canada Inc. ("Freeport"), a wholly owned subsidiary of Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX). Under the terms of the EIA, Freeport may acquire up to a 70% ownership interest by making staged investments in Amarc's JOY porphyry Cu-Au district (the "JOY District" or "JOY") in British Columbia ("BC"). The 482 km2 JOY District covers the northern extension of the prolific Kemess porphyry Cu-Au district in the underexplored Toodoggone region of north-central BC. A geological region with high potential for important porphyry and epithermal deposits, the Toodoggone is part of BC's Golden Horseshoe, which includes the Golden Triangle to the W and NW. JOY is host to the open-ended PINE Cu-Au deposit, the promising MEX Cu-Au target and a pipeline of other large and high potential, drill-ready Cu-Au porphyry targets, which cluster on the property. "We are delighted to welcome Freeport, a foremost global copper developer and miner, to JOY as a key funder and strategic partner in Amarc's campaign to realize the considerable copper-gold district potential of this very prospective property," said Amarc President & CEO, Dr. Diane Nicolson. "The strength of the alliance, in my view, lies in the Amarc team's depth of knowledge and porphyry copper-gold discovery track record in BC and the Toodoggone region, combined with Freeport's global capabilities as a top-tier copper producer," said Nicolson. "Our teams share not just a common vision for the exceptional discovery potential of the JOY District, but a passion for the responsible development of copper assets in North America to help fuel our society's transition to renewable energy, electrification and a low-carbon future." Permits for drilling and ground geophysical surveys are in place at JOY. Nicolson reports that the team is currently finalizing plans for a comprehensive 2021 exploration program that will advance deposit delineation and understanding of known areas of extensive mineralization, and assess several other important-scale targets. JOY District Agreement with Freeport Under the terms of the EIA, Freeport has a two-stage option to earn up to a 70% ownership interest in the mineral claims comprising the JOY District, plus other rights and interests, over up to a 10 year period. To earn an initial 60% interest, Freeport is required to fund CDN $35 million of work expenditures over a 5-year term. During the first year of the earn-in, a $4 million work program is planned in the JOY District. These optional earn-in expenditures can be accelerated by Freeport at its discretion. Amarc will be operator during the initial earn-in period. Once Freeport has acquired such 60% interest, Amarc and Freeport will proceed to operate the JOY District through a jointly owned corporation with Freeport assuming project operatorship. Upon Freeport earning such 60% interest, it can elect, in its sole discretion, to earn an additional 10% in the mineral claims comprising the JOY District, plus other rights and interests (for a total 70% interest) by sole funding a further CDN $75 million within the following five years. Once Freeport has finalized its earned ownership interest at either the 60% or 70% level, each party will be responsible for funding its own pro-rata share of project costs on a 60:40 or 70:30 basis. JOY District Highlights The JOY District is located on the northern extension of the prolific Kemess porphyry Cu-Au district, which includes the former Kemess South mine, the permitted and development-stage Kemess North underground deposit, and the advanced-stage Kemess East underground deposit - all currently held by Centerra Gold Inc. ("Centerra"). Through its association with HDI, Amarc's technical team was first to recognize the Kemess District's true porphyry potential, acquiring both Kemess North and Kemess South as early-stage prospects and advancing both to significant porphyry Cu-Au deposits. Kemess South was sold on beneficial terms to a predecessor of Northgate Minerals, which brought the deposit into production. JOY is accessed via resource roads servicing the southern end of the Toodoggone region, including Centerra's Kemess porphyry Cu-Au deposits and the historic Lawyers, Baker and Shasta epithermal precious metal mines. Amarc's 100%-owned consolidated mineral tenure at JOY hosts a pipeline of high quality targets, including: the PINE Cu-Au deposit, which remains open to expansion; the MEX Cu-Au deposit target; and, a number of other high potential drill-ready Cu-Au porphyry targets. In addition, Au-Ag epithermal deposit potential remains to be fully explored at JOY. Further in-depth information on historical and contemporary exploration activities completed within the JOY District, detailing its significant potential, can be found in the Company's 'JOY Project 2020 Technical Report' filed under Amarc's profile at www.sedar.com or located on our website at https://amarcresources.com/projects/joy-project/technical-report/. About Amarc Resources Ltd. Amarc is a mineral exploration and development company with an experienced and successful management team focused on developing a new generation of long-life, high-value porphyry copper-gold mines in BC. By combining high-demand projects with dynamic management, Amarc has created a solid platform to create value from its exploration and development-stage assets. Amarc is advancing the 100%-owned IKE, DUKE and JOY porphyry coppergold districts located in different prolific porphyry districts in southern, central and northern BC, respectively. Each of the three districts is located in proximity to industrial infrastructure - including power, highways and rail. Importantly, each district represents significant potential for the development of multiple and important-scale, porphyry coppergold deposits. Amarc is associated with HDI, a diversified, global mining company with a 30-year history of porphyry discovery and development success. Previous and current HDI projects include some of BC's and the world's most important porphyry deposits - such as Pebble, Mount Milligan, Southern Star, Kemess South, Kemess North, Gibraltar, Prosperity, Xietongmen, Newtongmen, Florence, Casino, Sisson, Maggie, IKE and Pine. From its head office in Vancouver, Canada, HDI applies its unique strengths and capabilities to acquire, develop, operate and monetize mineral projects. Amarc works closely with local governments, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders in order to advance its mineral projects responsibly, and in a manner that contributes to sustainable community and economic development. We pursue early and meaningful engagement to ensure our mineral exploration and development activities are well coordinated and broadly supported, address local priorities and concerns, and optimize opportunities for collaboration. In particular, we seek to establish mutually beneficial partnerships with Indigenous groups within whose traditional territories our projects are located, through the provision of jobs, training programs, contract opportunities, capacity funding agreements and sponsorship of community events. All Amarc work programs are carefully planned to achieve high levels of environmental and social performance. Qualified Person as Defined Under National Instrument 43-101 Mark Rebagliati, P. Eng., a Qualified Person as defined under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical content in this release. For further details on Amarc Resources Ltd., please visit the Company's website at www.amarcresources.com or contact Dr. Diane Nicolson, President and CEO, at (604) 684-6365 or within North America at 1-800-667-2114. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AMARC RESOURCES LTD. Dr. Diane Nicolson President and CEO Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor any other regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward Looking and other Cautionary Information This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All such statements, other than statements of historical facts that address exploration drilling, exploitation activities and other related events or developments are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Assumptions used by the Company to develop forward-looking statements include the following: Amarc's projects will obtain all required environmental and other permits and all land use and other licenses, studies and exploration of Amarc's projects will continue to be positive, and no geological or technical problems will occur. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, potential environmental issues or liabilities associated with exploration, development and mining activities, exploitation and exploration successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary permits, licenses and tenure and delays due to third party opposition, changes in and the effect of government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, exploration and development of properties located within Aboriginal groups asserted territories may affect or be perceived to affect asserted aboriginal rights and title, which may cause permitting delays or opposition by Aboriginal groups, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions, as well as risks relating to the uncertainties with respect to the effects of COVID-19. 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. For more information on Amarc Resources Ltd., investors should review Amarc's annual Form 20-F filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission at www.sec.gov and its home jurisdiction filings that are available at www.sedar.com. SOURCE: Amarc Resources Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646676/Amarc-Forms-Alliance-With-Freeport-McMoRan-Mineral-Properties-Canada-Inc-To-Advance-Its-JOY-Copper-Gold-Porphyry-District-British-Columbia TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Gratomic Inc. ("Gratomic", "GRAT" or the "Company") (TSXV:GRAT)(OTCQX:CBULF)(FRA:CB82) announces that Alex Helmel has resigned as an Independent Director on the Company's Board. Helmel is limiting his work with public companies and has already resigned from several other public company Boards to focus on other business endeavours. Daniel Baard, a finance executive with extensive industry experience, will be stepping into the role of Independent Director for Gratomic. The Company is pleased to welcome Daniel Baard to the Board of Directors. Baard is an operationally oriented finance executive with extensive experience in logistics, contract mining, finance, administration, and public company accounting in diverse industries. He is a strategic leader with proven ability to streamline operations, impact business growth, and enhance profitability through achievements in finance management, cost and internal controls, productivity, and efficiency improvements. Baard is a CPA (Canada) / ACCA (Fellow, UK) who brings business, financial and analytical acumen to resolve complex problems creatively. He has most recently served as the Chief Investment Officer ("CIO") for the Dukathole Group from December 2018 to May of 2021. He has wide-ranging experience as a CEO, COO and CFO, spanning several impressive projects including Loubster Bulk Services and Southern Seas Advisory Group. Baard is an extremely experienced executive with invaluable insight into the essential operations of Gratomic. Baard has been granted 400,000 stock options exercisable at $1.25 per share for 5 years vesting over a two-year period. His appointment to the Board of Directors is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. "It has been a great experience working with Alex and we wish him all the best in his other endeavours. I have known Daniel Baard for 9 years, including the period he spent working on a vein graphite mine in Sri Lanka, and look forward to working with him" said Arno Brand, CEO and President. "Tomorrow is only an entry in your calendar, today is the day to get things done," said Daniel Baard, Independent Director. About Gratomic Gratomic?is focused on?introducing an exceptional anode material?to?the?global?Electric?Vehicle?and Energy Storage supply chains.?The Company?aims to achieve full operational capabilities in 2021, with further plans to take its Aukam Graphite Project fully solar by 2022.? Large quantities of its naturally high-quality graphite have been shipped for testing to confirm its viability as an anode material. Gratomic is confident that the results will provide a unique competitive advantage in its desired target markets. The Company's recent collaboration agreement with Forge Nano has advanced the developments on its graphite finalization phase for?the?micronization,?spheronization, and the patented ALD coating?of its Aukam vein?graphite for use in lithium-ion batteries. Forge Nano is?a?global leader in surface engineering and precision nano-coating technology, using Atomic Layer?Deposition. GRAT has two outstanding off-take purchase agreements with TODAQ and Phu Sumika with contract fulfillment slated to begin in 2021.??Gratomic?plans to deliver mine-to-market traceability through its partnership with deeptech company TODAQ by providing documented tracking on all graphite generated at its flagship?Aukam?Graphite Project. For more information: visit the website at?www.gratomic.ca?or contact:?? Arno Brand at?abrand@gratomic.ca?or 416 561-4095?? Subscribe at gratomic.ca/contact/ to be added to our email list.?? "Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release." Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements, which relate to future events or future performance and reflect management's current expectations and assumptions. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Investors are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ materially from those expected. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. All of the forward-looking statements made in this press release are qualified by these cautionary statements and by those made in our filings with SEDAR in Canada (available at www.sedar.com) SOURCE: Gratomic Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646699/Gratomic-Announces-New-Director The service is the first of its kind to be trialed across the Atlantic on a live network and will connect Data Centre locations in New York, London and Frankfurt Aqua Comms DAC ("Aqua Comms"), the owner and operator of America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2) and CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1) and Telia Carrier, the number one Internet backbone provider, today announced that the two companies have successfully completed a trial with Ciena to offer 400GbE commercial services between New York and Frankfurt. The trial follows the announcement that Aqua Comms upgraded its two Trans-Atlantic submarine cable routes with Ciena's GeoMesh Extreme submarine network solution, which leverages WaveLogic 5 Extreme coherent optical technology. Aqua Comms provided the Trans-Atlantic capacity and 400GbE service from New York to London with Telia Carrier providing the ongoing terrestrial service from London to Frankfurt demonstrating that their traffic can be passed on seamlessly across their respective transmission networks and utilized on Telia Carrier's IP Backbone (AS1299) with active 400G interfaces routing on both continents. Aqua Comms' Chief Commercial Officer, Chris Bayly commented: "The trial is an exciting new initiative for Aqua Comms and Telia Carrier as we continue to respond to the growing demand for critical infrastructure services. The alliance with Telia Carrier and Ciena allows us to deliver a truly innovative solution that we believe will deliver efficiencies to our carrier, cloud and content clients as they strive to support the hyper growth traffic between the US and Europe." Telia Carrier's Vice President, Sales, Ivo Pascucci said: "Staying ahead of our customers' ever-increasing connectivity needs is paramount for us. This 400G pan-continental trial on a production network is all about ensuring the flexibility at all layers of the network, and especially in the underlying high-capacity transport infrastructure required for delivering the best high-performance connectivity for our customers in the US and Europe and for their end-users." "The race to 400G is on, and Telia Carrier and Aqua Comms continue trailblazing a path in the subsea market by evolving their networks to support the explosive traffic growth and high-bandwidth services driven by the cloud and video streaming," said Ian Clarke, Vice President of Global Submarine Solutions, Ciena. "With WaveLogic 5 Extreme, Aqua Comms and Telia Carrier offer new 400GbE services to customers over the critical transatlantic route between New York and Frankfurt." About Aqua Comms DAC Aqua Comms DAC is an Irish incorporated Carriers' Carrier company, domiciled in Ireland. Its principal activities are the ownership and operation of a group of companies that provide capacity services across a subsea fibre optic telecommunications network. Aqua Comms DAC is the owner and operator of America Europe Connect-1 (AEC-1), America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2), and CeltixConnect-1 (CC-1). The company continues to build on its vision of efficient submarine infrastructure ownership with membership of the HAVFRUE consortium and development of CeltixConnect-2 and North Sea Connect, bridging the North Atlantic between North America and Northern Europe. In April 2021, Aqua Comms DAC was acquired by Digital 9 Infrastructure plc (D9), an LSE listed investment trust supported by investment manager Triple Point Investment Management LLP. To learn more about Aqua Comms and its portfolio of subsea cable systems visit www.aquacomms.com. To learn more about D9 visit www. https://www.d9infrastructure.com/. About Telia Carrier Telia Carrier solves global connectivity challenges for multinational enterprises whose businesses rely on digital infrastructure. On top of the world's #1 ranked IP backbone and a unique ecosystem of cloud and network service providers, we provide an award-winning customer experience to customers in more than 125 countries worldwide. Our global Internet services connect more than 700 cloud, security and content providers with low latency. For further resilience, our private Cloud Connect service connects directly to Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle cloud across North America, Europe and Asia. Discover more at Teliacarrier.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter. About Ciena Ciena (NYSE: CIEN) is a networking systems, services and software company. We provide solutions that help our customers create the Adaptive Network in response to the constantly changing demands of their end-users. By delivering best-in-class networking technology through high-touch consultative relationships, we build the world's most agile networks with automation, openness and scale. For updates on Ciena, follow us on Twitter @Ciena, LinkedIn, the Ciena Insights blog, or visit www.ciena.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005059/en/ Contacts: Aqua Comms iMiller Public Relations for Aqua Comms DAC Ilissa Miller Tel: +1 866 307 2510 pr@imillerpr.com Telia Carrier Martin Sjogren, Senior Manager PR and Analyst Relations +46 (0)707 770 522 martin.sjogren@teliacompany.com This celebrates not just the food, but people who can create joy by making things with their hands and also a food that generally I think you should not eat alone, Dillon said. Its something that celebrates community. We can eat pizza in good times and in sad times, and no matter how digital our economy becomes, we will always need those people who are salt of the earth who are helping to keep our communities going. With a unified, modern authentication platform, Thales has expanded its access management solution across all applications or services in any IT environment, including APIs, cloud and non-standard apps The broadened scope of Thales' SafeNet Trusted Access brings agility and flexibility to secure its customers' increasingly complex IT environments Thales has announced an expansion of its SafeNet Trusted Access solution, offering customers full access management protection across all applications or services in any IT environment. Whether it's in the cloud, on-premise or through an API, Thales' customers will now be able to benefit from modern authentication capabilities to ensure applications can only be accessed by those authorised to do so. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005414/en/ Thales On-Premises lingers as API and Cloud adoption rises With the growing use of cloud computing, access management has broadened its scope to address authorisation and authentication beyond human identities. Businesses are increasingly relying on APIs to integrate services and utilise the exchange of data. However, increased reliance on unvalidated APIs can leave businesses vulnerable to an unauthorised or compromised API accessing their applications and services. With SafeNet Trusted Access, customers can authenticate API access, reducing the threat surface within an organisation's IT environment. While API adoption is on the rise though, many organizations still rely on fundamental systems on-premise to run their business (for example, HR and ERP systems), making consistent access management and authentication increasingly complex while also impacting negatively on the user experience, the organisation's risk profile and administrative overheads. Many organisations face the challenge of applying uniform modern access management and authentication to these legacy apps. SafeNet Trusted Access reduces the risk of data breach by providing organisations with a broad range of authentication and policy based access. This gives businesses the agility to provide flexible security and authentication across their entire environment. "Many organisations face growing complexity in their IT environments," said Francois Lasnier, vice president of access management solutions at Thales. "Their footprint of data and applications is growing, making it more tricky to secure and manage. SafeNet Trusted Access offers organisations the flexibility and agility to secure hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Combined with best in class access security and authentication, they can now overcome complexity, reduce access silos and thrive as they undergo their digital and cloud transformation." About Thales Thales (Euronext Paris: HO) is a global leader in advanced technologies, investing in digital and "deep tech" innovations connectivity, big data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and quantum computing to build a confident future crucial for the development of our societies. The Group provides its customers businesses, organisations and governments in the defense, aeronautics, space, transport, and digital identity and security domains with solutions, services and products that help them fulfil their critical role, consideration for the individual being the driving force behind all decisions. Thales has 81,000 employees in 68 countries. In 2020 the Group generated sales of 17 billion. PLEASE VISIT Thales Group Market page View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005414/en/ Contacts: PRESS Thales, Media Relations Security Constance Arnoux +33 (0)6 44 12 16 35 Constance.arnoux@thalesgroup.com Laura Bandiera +33 (0)7 64 48 51 64 laura.bandiera@thalesgroup.com Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Khiron Life Sciences Corp. (TSXV: KHRN) today announced that Alvaro Torres will be attending the Q2 Virtual Investor Summit. Event Q2 Investor Summit Date May 17-18th, 2021 Presentation May 18th at 1:15 PM ET Location https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_j9QFPydER8qiLMffjsCgFA About Khiron Life Sciences Corp. Khiron is a vertically integrated medical and CPG cannabis company with core operations in Latin America, and operational activity in Europe and North America. Khiron is the leading medical cannabis provider in Colombia and the first company licensed in Colombia for the cultivation, production, domestic distribution and sales, and international export of both low and high THC medical cannabis products. The Company has filled medical cannabis prescriptions in Colombia, Peru, Germany and the United Kingdom, and is positioned to commence sales in Mexico and Brazil in 2021. Leveraging wholly-owned medical clinics and proprietary telemedicine platforms, Khiron combines a patient-oriented approach, physician education programs, scientific expertise, product innovation, and agricultural infrastructure to drive prescriptions and brand loyalty. Its Wellbeing unit launched the first branded CBD skincare brand in Colombia, with KuidaTM now marketed in multiple jurisdictions in Latin America, the US and United Kingdom. The Company is led by Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Alvaro Torres, together with an experienced and diverse executive team and Board of Directors. For further information: Khiron Life Sciences Corp. Paola Ricardo 4165402970 pricardo@khiron.ca About the Investor Summit The Investor Summit (formerly MicroCap Conference) is an exclusive, independent conference dedicated to connecting smallcap and microcap companies with qualified investors. The Q2 Investor Summit will take place virtually, featuring 80+ companies and over 300 institutional and retail investors. To request complimentary investor registration: please visit our website at www.investorsummitgroup.com Contact: Sasha Murray at sasha@investorsummitgroup.com Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Conquest Resources Limited (TSXV: CQR) ("Conquest" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the closing of the acquisition of the DGC Property from Teck Resources Limited. ("Teck") (see Press Release dated 2021-03-16). The Company has issued 1.8 million shares to Teck and the subject leases have been transferred to Conquest. The DGC Property is subject to a 2% NSR in favour of Teck. The acquisition consolidates Conquests extensive land package of over 260 square kilometers where the focus for the Company is to explore and develop copper and precious metal deposits. Belfast - Teck Mag Exploration Update A 10,000m drill program is scheduled to commence by the beginning of June. The drill program will test the first 15 high priority geophysical targets that have been identified from the recently completed VTEM-Max and follow-up gravity and AMT geophysical surveys. Prospecting and ground-truthing of the targets is on-going. Data compilation and follow-up prospecting completed in April on some of the IOCG targets identified numerous large quartz veins proximal to the gravity anomalies. Some of these structures have been prospected back in the 1950's and 1960's, where anomalous copper and gold values were reported, however, the operators may have not recognized the significance of these structures as related to IOCG mineralization. Camp construction is underway and will be completed in the next two weeks. A 10-person camp is being prepared in advance of the drill program for contractors and field personnel. Qualified Person The technical content of this News Release has been reviewed and approved by Joerg Kleinboeck, P.Geo., a qualified person as defined in NI 43-101. ABOUT CONQUEST Conquest Resources Limited, incorporated in 1945, is a mineral exploration company that is exploring for gold on mineral properties in Ontario. Conquest holds a 100% interest in the Belfast - Teck Mag Project, located in the Temagami Mining Camp at Emerald Lake, approximately 65 kilometres northeast of Sudbury, Ontario, which hosts the former Golden Rose Gold Mine and is underlain by highly prospective Abitibi greenstone geology along a strike length of seventeen (17) kilometres. In October 2020, Conquest completed the acquisition of Canadian Continental Exploration Corp. which holds an extensive package of mining claims which surround Conquest's Golden Rose Mine, and subsequently doubled its land holdings in the Temagami Mining Camp through the staking of 588 mining cells, encompassing approximately 93 sq km., centered on Belfast Township, on the edge of the Temagami Magnetic Anomaly. Conquest now controls over 260 sq km of underexplored territory, including the past producing Golden Rose Mine at Emerald Lake, in the Temagami Mining Camp. Conquest also holds a 100% interest in the Alexander Gold Property located immediately east of the Red Lake and Campbell mines in the heart of the Red Lake Gold Camp on the important "Mine Trend" regional structure. Conquest's property is almost entirely surrounded by Evolution Mining land holdings. In addition, Conquest owns a 100% interest in the Smith Lake Gold Property of six patented claims and 181 staked mining claims to the north, west and south of the former Renabie Gold Mine in Rennie Township in northern Ontario, operated by Corona and Barrick that had reported gold production of over 1,000,000 ounces between 1947 and 1991 (Northern Miner March 4, 1991). FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: general@ConquestResources.com www.ConquestResources.com Tom Obradovich President & Chief Executive 416-985-7140 Forward-looking statements. This news release may include certain "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the completion of the Acquisition and the Consolidation, the release of escrowed funds, future cash on hand, potential mineralization, resources and reserves, exploration results, and future plans and objectives of Conquest, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Conquest's expectations are exploration risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by Conquest with securities regulators. Neither the TSXV nor its Regulation Services Provider (as defined in the policies of TSXV) 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/83662 QUEBEC, QC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / NuRAN Wireless Inc. ("NuRAN" or the "Company") (CSE:NUR)(OTC PINK:NRRWF)(FSE:1RN) is pleased to announce the results of its annual and special meeting of shareholders held on May 7, 2021 (the "Meeting"). A total of 3,194,225 common shares of the Company were voted, representing approximately 16.3% of NuRAN's issued and outstanding common shares. At the Meeting, shareholders overwhelmingly voted in favour of all proposed resolutions. The results for each of the matters voted on at the Meeting are as follows: Matter Votes in Favour (%) Vote % For Vote % Against Number of directors of the Company to be set at six (6) 98.9% 1.1% Election of Directors: Vote % For Vote % Withheld Francis Letourneau Jim Bailey Vitor Fonseca Brendan Purdy Ken Campbell Binyomin Posen 98.9% 98.9% 98.9% 98.9% 99.2% 98.9% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% 1.1% 0.8% 1.1% Vote % For Vote % Against Appointment of Mallette LLP as auditor 99.2% 0.8% Adoption of Amended and Restated Stock Option Plan 99.8% 1.2% Adoption of Restricted Unit Plan 98.7% 1.3% Resolution authorizing the Company to make rectification application to the Supreme Court of British Columbia pursuant to Section 229 of the Business Corporations Act 98.4% 1.6% The addition of Vitor Fonseca and Ken Campbell to the board, two independent directors with significant industry experience, marks another successful milestone in the overall corporate restructuring of the Company commencing in late 2020. Vitor Fonseca is currently Vice President and Treasurer of Romspen Investment Corporation, one the largest private commercial real estate lenders in Canada with a $3 billion North American portfolio. Immediately prior to joining Romspen, Mr. Fonseca was COO of a retirement home developer and operator. Mr. Fonseca is currently a director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Canntab Therapeutics Inc. and former director and Chair of the Audit Committee of Mission Ready Services Inc. and Enwave Energy Corporation. He is also presently a director of Magellan Communities Care, a not-for-profit organization developing a senior care complex in downtown Toronto. Mr. Fonseca holds an MBA from the Rotman School of Management , a CPA-CGA and a is also a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors. Ken Campbell has more than twenty-five years of experience in the telecom industry. He has served in CEO and senior executive roles with operators in North America, North Africa and Europe. Mr. Campbell is also the Founder of Mobile Klinik, Canada's leading smartphone repair network. Mr. Campbell is a senior adviser with PMP Conseil (Paris) and the Chairman of Canadian B2B operator, Terago. Mr. Campbell is also a Board member of Upstream Systems, a PE-backed secure mobile commerce company serving emerging markets. Previously, Mr. Campbell served as Managing Director of Moroccan operator, INWI. He was also previously the CEO of Ooredoo Tunisia where he led the operation during the post revolution period. Mr. Campbell was also founding CEO of Canadian operator, WIND Mobile and the CEO of private equity backed Bite Group in Lithuania and Latvia. Mr. Campbell has also served in executive leadership roles for Vodafone (Romania), Orascom Telecom and Orange (Egypt). Mr. Campbell began his career with the management consultancy, A.T. Kearney, based in Washington, DC. Mr. Campbell holds a Masters in Business Administration from London Business School in London, UK and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours Economics) from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. "We are extremely fortunate and excited to have added two individuals with such extensive pedigrees as Vitor Fonseca and Ken Campbell to our Board. We believe that with the successful launch of the NAAS business model, and the strengthening of our board following the annual general meeting will ensure that we continue to execute on our strategic plan for the restructuring of NuRAN and on our path of continued success into the future." stated Francis Letourneau, CEO of NuRAN. For more information on the matters approved at the Meeting please refer to the Company's management information circular dated April 7, 2021 which is available on the Company's SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. 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 Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although Management believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. SOURCE: NuRAN Wireless Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646682/Nuran-Announces-Results-of-Annual-and-Special-Meeting-of-Shareholders WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Joe Biden said to ensure that transportation is less of a barrier for those who want to get vaccinated, from May 24 through July 4, Uber and Lyft are going to offer everyone free rides to and from vaccination sites in the United States. 'That makes it easy for students who will work with federal pharmacy partners to bring on-campus vaccines sites to dozens of the nation's largest community colleges this summer,' Biden said at a virtual Meeting with a Bipartisan Group of Governors. Biden also announced that FEMA is making support available immediately for community vaccination outreach efforts. 'This will help states, Tribes, territories, local governments, and community- and faith-based organizations to make more progress on the ground - things like phone banking, door-to-door canvassing, pop-up vaccination sites at workplaces and houses of worship,' he told Governors. Governor Janet Mills of Maine told the meeting that about 53 percent of all eligible people in her state are fully vaccinated. He announced that the state of Mine is offering a voucher 'to get free tickets to a ballgame or a race event, a free fishing license or hunting license, or gift card for outdoor gear' for those who get their first vaccine shot between now and Memorial Day. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said a recent surge in the B117 variant of coronavirus in the state was successfully blunted out because of the availability of the vaccine, and the speed with which that was administered. The United States reported 34088 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, taking the national total to 33,550,115. This is less than the weekly average of 39124. 693 new deaths were reported in the country on the same day, which is far lower than the 7-day average of 650. With this, the COVID death toll in the U.S. increased to 596,946. 102 deaths were reported in Michigan, while Florida reported the highest number of cases - 3263. A total of 26,558,138 people have so far recovered from coronavirus infection in the country. Test positivity rate has come down to 5 percent. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday to vote to recommend use of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine to children in the age group of 12 to 15. The Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents the other day. India on Tuesday reported its highest daily death toll of 4,205. According to the health ministry, 348,421 new cases were reported on the same day. At least 19 states in the world's COVID hotspot are recording a Covid-19 positivity rate above 20 percent. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX UBER-Aktie komplett kostenlos handeln - auf Smartbroker.de Lens decision intelligence platform pinpoints strategic investment opportunities in utility-scale renewable generation LONDON, HOUSTON, and SINGAPORE, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when countries and organisations around the world pledge greener economies and net-zero ambitions, the electrification of the global energy system is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Wood Mackenzie - a leading provider of commercial intelligence for the world's natural resources sector - is developing Lens Power, a completely new capability for the market which will enable asset-specific valuations at the touch of a button. With its analytics-ready power and renewables data, Lens Power will empower organisations to maximize investment opportunities in clean energy and be on the forefront of the energy transition. Today, Wood Mackenzie welcomes Vestas - a leader in sustainable energy solutions - as a Development Partner for the Lens decision intelligence platform. Vestas joins a growing list of companies across utility, financial, manufacturing, and oil and gas industries partnering with Wood Mackenzie on this future offering. Wood Mackenzie's Lens platform has helped organisations across the globe transform how they manage their investment in upstream oil and gas. Now, scaling across the natural resources value chain, Wood Mackenzie is collaborating with early adopter clients to design a power solution that provides a holistic understanding of what's happening in the world of energy, allowing organisations to quickly and confidently digest vast amounts of power data in an integrated, easy-to-use platform. Ian Roberts, Wood Mackenzie Chief Digital and Product Officer, said: "At Wood Mackenzie, our customer-centric approach to product design is at the heart of what we do. We strive to develop solutions that match our clients' workflows, so they can make confident, data-driven decisions. We are delighted to partner with Vestas, the world's leading wind OEM* and a company with over 40 years of expertise in wind turbine technology. We are excited about the insight into decision making they will bring as leaders in sustainable energy solutions which we can apply to Lens Power." Nick Fridberg, Senior Director of Global Intelligence & Corporate Strategy at Vestas commented: "An important part of our job is to discover and process market information and turn it into actionable insights that enable stakeholders across our organisation to make better and faster decisions. We welcome the opportunity to work together so we can strengthen our ability to support Vestas' strategy execution and development. Being able to influence the design and concept of Lens Power and gain early access to new, innovative tools in the market will help us sharpen our competitive edge and achieve our vision to become the global leader in sustainable energy solutions." Wood Mackenzie serves clients across many industries looking to adapt to a low-carbon future. Powering the energy transition is a technology-based switch from fossil fuels to renewables, supported by an almost ubiquitous societal push towards a sustainable future. Ben Kellison, Director of Energy Transition Research for Wood Mackenzie said, "There is a massive, ongoing electrification of the global energy system; where electricity is less than 20% of the energy mix today, it will more than double over the coming decades, with renewables at the forefront of this growth." EDITOR'S NOTES *According to Wood Mackenzie's Global wind turbine OEMs 2020 market shares report, Vestas tops the global ranking. About Wood Mackenzie Lens Wood Mackenzie's Lens platform is the industry standard in critical decision-support, harnessing the power of big data to provide answers to complex questions, enabling customers to manage their operations, processes, and capital swiftly and efficiently, wherever they are. Stay informed of Lens Power solutions at http://go.woodmac.com/lens-power. About Wood Mackenzie Wood Mackenzie, a Verisk Analytics business, is a trusted source of commercial intelligence for the world's natural resources sector. We empower clients to make better strategic decisions, providing objective analysis and advice on assets, companies and markets. For more information, visit: www.woodmac.com or follow us on Twitter @WoodMackenzie. WOOD MACKENZIE is a trademark of Wood Mackenzie Limited and is the subject of trademark registrations and/or applications in the European Community, the USA and other countries around the world. About Vestas Vestas is the energy industry's global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service onshore and offshore wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 132 GW of wind turbines in 82 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled more than 117 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas' more than 29,000 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1482968/Wood_Mackenzie_Logo.jpg Company's Second Major Acquisition Will Extend Orphan and Rare Disease Research Base and Growth Opportunities ROCKVILLE, Md., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Emmes, a global, full-service Clinical Research Organization (CRO) dedicated to supporting the advancement of public health and biopharmaceutical innovation, today announced that it has acquired Orphan Reach, a company headquartered in the United Kingdom with offices in Ireland, Germany, India, Canada, and the U.S. Started nearly 20 years ago, Orphan Reach is a CRO dedicated to clinical research in rare diseases. This is Emmes' second acquisition in the past four months, following the acquisition of Neox s.r.o., an EU-based CRO, in December 2020. Neox and Orphan Reach expand Emmes' global reach with their international footprints and add a larger and more diverse set of biopharmaceutical clients. According to Emmes Chief Executive Officer Dr. Christine Dingivan, "Our acquisition of Orphan Reach will accelerate our growth, establishing us as an industry leader in clinical research for orphan and rare diseases. Orphan Reach has an outstanding reputation, with experience in 60 rare disease clinical trials and over 50 biopharma clients throughout the world." She continued, "We believe that Orphan Reach and Emmes will be highly synergistic; we will combine Emmes' deep strategic drug development and advanced statistical capabilities with the exceptional patient-centered global operations experience of the Orphan Reach team. With more than 7,000 rare diseases identified and only 400 treatments available, this represents a large research opportunity and demonstrates our commitment to advancing public health and addressing unmet medical needs for all populations." Orphan Reach Founder and CEO Thomas Ogorka said, "Orphan Reach and Emmes share a passion for the research we do, a dedication to the patients in our trials, and successful, long-term collaborations with our clients. I look forward to this new chapter in our history and to further extending our leadership in rare and orphan disease research that leads to new treatment options for these patients." Ogorka and the company's leaders will continue in their current roles. "I am looking forward to working with Thomas and the Orphan Reach team, particularly as we broaden their research opportunities in the United States," added Dr. Dingivan. "I am also very optimistic about collaboration between Orphan Reach and Neox and the potential for leveraging our growing global footprint and client relationships." Last month, the company announced that Rhonda Henry, a 30-year industry veteran, had been hired to become president of Emmes BioPharma, further reinforcing Emmes' commitment to expand more aggressively in this market. About Orphan Reach Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Orphan Reach has built a reputation for outstanding clinical research addressing rare diseases. Created in 2002, the company has management teams in Europe, Asia and the U.S., and supports patients with rare diseases in more than 70 countries. The team's goal is to accelerate access to new treatments in a wide range of orphan therapeutic areas. About Emmes Founded in 1977, Emmes is a global, full-service Clinical Research Organization dedicated to excellence in supporting the advancement of public health and biopharmaceutical innovation. The company's clients include numerous agencies and institutes of the U.S. federal government and a wide range of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies throughout the world. To learn more about how our research is making a positive impact on human health, go to the Emmes website at www.emmes.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/220594/Emmes_Logo.jpg Thunder Bay, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Metals Creek Resources Corp. (TSXV: MEK) (OTCQB: MCREF) (FSE: M1C1) (the "Company" or Metals Creek) is pleased to announce that the company has increased through staking, the size of the River Road property to 508 claim units (12,700 hectares) in the Central Newfoundland Gold Belt. The River Road Property is located approximately 39.5 kms southwest of Newfound Golds Keats Zone, 4.5 kms northwest of the Beaver Brook Antimony mine, and 26.5 kms south of Sokoman Minerals' Moosehead property. (See figure 1). The property is easily accessible by forestry logging roads and the new Nalcor Transmission Line transects the property. The River Road Property has seen very little exploration work according to research conducted by company personnel and Metals Creek plans to evaluate the property through prospecting and soil sampling geochemistry during the upcoming weeks. Metals Creek is currently applying for permits for this work. Figure 1 To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/943/83723_7fd56a11c4d27ab1_002full.jpg Wayne Reid, P. Geo, a Director for the Company and a qualified person as defined in National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for this release, and supervised the preparation of the information forming the basis for this release. About Metals Creek Resources Corp. Metals Creek Resources Corp. is a junior exploration Corporation incorporated under the laws of the Province of Ontario, is a reporting issuer in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, and has its common shares listed for trading on the Exchange under the symbol "MEK". Metals Creek has earned a 50% interest in the Ogden Gold Property from Newmont Corporation, including the former Naybob Gold mine, located 6 kms south of Timmins, Ontario and has an 8 kms strike length of the prolific Porcupine-Destor Fault (P-DF). In addition, Metals Creek has signed an agreement with Newmont Corporation, where Metals Creek can earn a 100% interest in the past producing Dona Lake Gold Project in the Pickle Lake Mining District of Ontario. Metals Creek has multiple quality projects available for option in Ontario and Newfoundland which can be viewed on the Corporation's website. Parties interested in seeking more information about properties available for option can contact the Corporation at the number below. Additional information concerning the Corporation is contained in documents filed by the Corporation with securities regulators, available under its profile at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Alexander (Sandy) Stares, President and CEO Metals Creek Resources Corp telephone: (709)-256-6060 fax: (709)-256-6061 email: astares@metalscreek.com www.MetalsCreek.com Twitter.com/MetalsCreekRes Facebook.com/MetalsCreek To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83723 Ground IP Geophysical Program in progress at the Mutum Target, Apiacas Project Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) -Altamira Gold Corp.'s (TSXV: ALTA) (FSE: T6UP) (OTC Pink: EQTRF) ("Altamira" or the "Company") announces that the Company has raised an additional $1,104,490 in the past few days bringing proceeds from recent warrant exercises to $2,537,077. The Company's current treasury stands at approximately $6.1 million, sufficient to undertake its aggressive 2021 exploration program. Michael Bennett, President & CEO commented, "These additional funds allow us to aggressively explore our 3 main projects and continue to advance our growth strategy. Once again, we would like to thank our long-term shareholders for supporting the Company through the process of exercising these warrants and we look forward to commencing a significant and well-financed exploration drill program in the next few months." As previously disclosed in the news release dated May 5th, 2021, officers and directors of the Company exercised a total of 1,072,800 warrants for proceeds of $160,920. Of this total, the CEO of the Company exercised a total of 672,800 warrants representing proceeds of $100,920, and the Company's Chairman exercised a total of 400,000 warrants representing proceeds of $60,000. In connection with the exercise of the warrants, the CEO and the Chairman sold 284,000 and 170,000 common shares respectively for proceeds of $102,458 and $61,320. Mutum IP Survey The Company has launched its 3D Induced Polarization and Resistivity ("IP") ground geophysical survey at the 100% controlled Apiacas Project, located in Mato Grosso State, Brazil. The program is centered on the large-scale Mutum gold target and incorporates areas covered by on-going geochemical rock sampling and geological mapping programs. The IP survey is intended to assist with the identification of sulfide mineralization related to the gold mineralizing system at Mutum and will guide subsequent trenching and drill targeting. Recent surface mapping has delineated a large area of pyritic mineralisation and sericitic alteration in addition to extensive historic artisanal colluvial gold workings over an area encompassing several square kilometres. The Company expects the IP results to generate drill targets to be tested within the next couple of months. The 17 line-program covers an area of 6 km2 and is expected to be completed by the end of June. Figure 1 Map showing the location of the completed and proposed ground IP survey lines at the Mutum target, Apiacas project. Both the historic alluvial / colluvial gold workings and estimated outlines of the primary disseminated pyrite-gold mineralisation and recently identified high-grade veins are displayed in the background. To view an enhanced version of Figure1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4500/83754_268cf4da040a7847_001full.jpg The Mutum gold target is part of the Apiacas Project located 50km west of Altamira's Cajueiro gold project which hosts 43-101 compliant indicated resources of 5.66Mt @ 1.02 g/t gold for a total of 185,000 oz and inferred resources of 12.66Mt @ 1.26 g/t gold for a total of 515,000oz. An estimated 1Moz of colluvial gold was historically recovered from the Mutum area, suggestive of the presence of a significant underlying hard-rock deposit. In 2019, geological mapping outlined an area of pervasive disseminated gold mineralization over at least 4 km2 at Mutum. A total of 93 surface rock samples of disseminated and altered rocks collected on surface over this area returned gold values of up to 406.6 g/t gold (see news release dated September 11, 2019). Recent exploration has also identified four high-grade vein structures with channel samples returning values up to 3m @ 10.39 g/t gold. Silver assays have also returned high grade values up to 871 g/t silver (see March 8, 2021 news release for more information). Qualified Person Guillermo Hughes, P. Geo., a consultant to the Company as well as a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. About Altamira Gold Corp. The Company is focused on the exploration and development of gold projects within western central Brazil. The Company holds 8 projects comprising approximately 190,000 hectares, within the prolific Juruena gold belt which historically produced an estimated 7 to 10Moz of placer gold. The Company's advanced Cajueiro project has NI 43-101 resources of 5.66Mt @ 1.02 g/t gold for a total of 185,000 oz in the Indicated Resource category and 12.66Mt @ 1.26 g/t gold for a total of 515,000oz in the Inferred Resource category. On Behalf of the Board of Directors, ALTAMIRA GOLD CORP. "Michael Bennett" Michael Bennett President & CEO Tel: 604.676.5661 Toll-Free: 1-833-606-6271 info@altamiragold.com www.altamiragold.com Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this document which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future exploration drill program. It is important to note that actual outcomes and the Company's actual results could differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we do not undertake to update these forward-looking statements. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83754 Cut Bank, MT (59427) Today Cloudy with occasional rain showers. High 52F. Winds WNW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Windy. Cloudy skies will become clear late. Low 39F. Winds W at 20 to 30 mph. After two months of successful beta testing, the fully automated, cloud-native product provides the fastest access to data silos to power better data-driven business decisions BOSTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Starburst, the analytics anywhere company, today announced General Availability of its fully managed cloud offering, Starburst Galaxy, at the AWS Americas Summit. This comes after the beta product was released in February 2021. Built on Amazon Web Services (AWS), Starburst Galaxy removes the time and complexity associated with traditional data warehousing models that require data to be copied and ingested before being available for analysis. Instead, Galaxy allows you to query data where it lives and accelerate data-driven decision making. Starburst is seeing adoption for Galaxy by leading technology, retail, and e-commerce organizations that are operating in the cloud-first era. These customers are striving for faster access to their data in order to make better business decisions. Starburst Galaxy provides the easiest path to getting started with Trino (formerly known as PrestoSQL), the fastest distributed query engine. Galaxy dramatically simplifies deployment and application development by handling complex processes such as configuration, upgrades, and scaling seamlessly within the platform. Starburst Galaxy speeds time-to-insight with production-ready Trino, built-in security, and an easy-to-use interface. "As companies strive to become data-driven, data teams need easier solutions that help them quickly uncover the value in their data," said Matt Fuller, co-founder and VP of Product at Starburst. "With the GA of Galaxy, we're ready to help cloud-native businesses that want to query data across the data lake in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) & AWS Glue. We will also continue to rapidly roll out new features that give companies the benefit of a cloud-based managed service across any data storage in a cloud environment." Starburst Galaxy is designed for customers who need to quickly access more data with the tools and skills they already have. Key benefits include: Access to familiar technologies and tools: Query data from your data lake in Amazon S3 and AWS Glue Data Catalog using your favorite business intelligence or SQL-based tool Query data from your data lake in Amazon S3 and AWS Glue Data Catalog using your favorite business intelligence or SQL-based tool Better and faster decision-making on more data for data consumers: Complete lifecycle management of Trino clusters within your own Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) Complete lifecycle management of Trino clusters within your own Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) Reduced data movement and copy burden for data engineers: Provision and run your first SQL query in under an hour Provision and run your first SQL query in under an hour Reduced infrastructure management overhead for data operations pros: Transparent pricing based on per hour consumption and pay through AWS Marketplace. Matt Aslett, Research Director at 451 Research, recently published a report, Starburst Previews Galaxy For Analytics Acceleration Across Multi-cloud and Hybrid IT, and stated, "Starburst Galaxy provides cluster monitoring, as well as a notebooks development environment through which data engineers can explore, query and visualize data sources, as well as create notebooks for sharing with data analysts." "We partnered early with Starburst because their products aligned with our goal to help organizations get answers from data in minutes instead of months," said Kaycee Lai, CEO and Founder of Promethium, a Starburst Galaxy beta customer and partner. "The Starburst Galaxy cloud-based service allows us to focus on providing a highly differentiated solution for delivering data as a service. Because Galaxy greatly simplifies and accelerates deployment and management of Trino, we can spend more time innovating on core NLP, AI, and collaboration capabilities so that customers can get answers from their data quickly, no matter where the data is." Starburst is uniquely qualified to offer this managed Trino offering. Starburst's team includes pioneers in query engine and database development, including all four creators of the open source project. Starburst Galaxy is now generally available on AWS, with additional cloud providers becoming available in the future. For more information, visit https://www.starburst.io/platform/starburst-galaxy/. About Starburst Starburst unlocks the value of data by making it fast and easy to access anywhere. Starburst queries data across any database, making it instantly actionable for data-driven organizations. With Starburst, teams can lower the total cost of their infrastructure and analytics investments, prevent vendor lock-in, and use the existing tools that work for their business. Starburst and the Starburst logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Starburst Data, Inc. For more information, press only: Jill Creelman Inkhouse starburst@inkhouse.com 781-966-4100 OLYMPIA, WA / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / MHHC Enterprises Inc. ("MHHC" or the "Company") (OTC PINK:MHHC) is pleased to announce the appointment of First Apex International (FAI), a leading capital markets advisory and investor relations firm, to manage MHHC's investor and corporate awareness in the United States. First Apex International will work with management to strategically implement an investor relations and capital markets strategy centered around increasing the Company's visibility throughout the investment community, highlighting MHHC's business transformation and describing the Company's expansion plans. Frank Hawley, CEO of MHHC Enterprises Inc., noted, "We look forward to working closely with FAI's team to more proactively communicate our story in what we hope be a pivotal year for the Company. Our team is committed to maximizing value for our current shareholders, while simultaneously enhancing our visibility and broadening our shareholder base." FAI's team has a longstanding reputation as a distinguished investor relations firm. The firm combines strategic consulting, capital markets intelligence, investor targeting, and corporate governance guidance, ensuring its clients are provided with the optimal investor relations strategy to interact with the investment community as effectively as possible. For more information please visit www.firstapexinternational.com. About MHHC Enterprises, Inc. MHHC Enterprises Inc. (MHHC) is a diversified holding company, focused around its core businesses: Warranty and Services and Reinsurance. Currently MHHC has over 1,000 retail locations selling Extended Service Contracts (ESC) across the United States and online. MHHC is a leading national provider of help desk and warranty insurance administration services for a wide variety of industries and consumers. Additionally, the Company's organization creates and specializes service programs for a variety of manufacturers and commercial construction such as heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) industries. MHHC is a leader in call center "on-shoring" by creating jobs in the United States for professional phone representatives - both sales and customer service employees. Our call center processes claims and service calls offering warranty support solutions for a variety of businesses. MHHC prides itself in offering troubleshooting solutions over the phone and developing processes to eliminate overhead costs of shipping and timely repairs on approved claims. The highly skilled staff at MHHC consistently provides mission-critical solutions and results that assist industries and manufacturers in driving down warranty support and repair costs for their organization. Follow MHHC Enterprises on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MhhcEnterprises Safe Harbor and Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains statements that involve expectations, plans or intentions (such as those relating to future expansion or financial results) and other factors discussed from time to time in the Company's OTC Markets filings. These statements are forward-looking and are subject to risks and uncertainties, so actual results may vary materially. You can identify these forward- looking statements by words such as "may," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend," "plan" and other similar expressions. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors not within the control of the Company. The Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. Investor Relations: First Apex International Email: admin@firstapexinternational.com SOURCE: MHHC Enterprises Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646721/MHHC-Enterprises-Inc-Engages-First-Apex-International-for-Investor-and-Shareholder-Communications-Services CRANBROOK, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Taiga Gold Corp (CSE:TGC) ("Taiga" or the "Company") have recently executed an agreement with an unrelated third-party whereby the Company has purchased a 100% interest (less 2% NSR) in claims totalling 146.4 ha which adjoin Taiga's existing 100%-owned Mari Lake dispositions. The Mari Lake property is host to 2 documented gold mineralized occurrences hosted by complexly folded rocks associated with iron sulphides and minor copper in stringer veins and micro-fracture infillings. The two showing are located approximately 2.8 kilometers apart and occur within the same stratigraphic unit. Historical grab samples taken by BHP Minerals Canada Ltd. returned values of up to 12.69 g/t Au from the Aga Showing and 14.4 g/t Au from the Naza Showing. Humus samples collected by BHP suggest near-surface gold anomalies for at least 1km to the north of the Aga showing. Rock grab samples are selective samples by nature and as such are not necessarily representative of the mineralization hosted across the property. The Mari Lake area was first mapped by the Saskatchewan Government between 1949-51. The first recorded industry work was by Hudson's Bay Exploration and Development who completed a ground electromagnetic geophysical survey in the vicinity in 1964. Work in the area by BHP Minerals Canada Ltd. between 1989 and 1992 included airborne and ground geophysical surveys, followed-up with geological mapping, rock, lake sediment, and humus sampling. The follow-up work resulted in the discovery of the Aga and Naza occurrences. The property has been tested with two diamond drill holes located 1.4 kilometers north of the Naza Showing and 1.3 kilometers west of the Aga Showing. Neither drill hole tested the target stratigraphy that hosts the gold mineralization. The above results and information were taken directly from the SMDI descriptions and assessment reports filed with the Saskatchewan government. Management cautions that historical results were collected and reported by past operators and have not been verified nor confirmed by a Qualified Person, but form a basis for ongoing work in the Mari Lake property area. Charles C. Downie, P.Geo., a "qualified person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and a Director of Taiga Gold Corp., has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in the news release. Warrant Extension Taiga has recently notified the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") that it intends to extend the expiry date of 3,937,500 warrants originally issued in connection with a non-brokered private placement completed in June, 2018 at an exercise price of $.40 (see TGC news release dated June 4th, 2018). The original warrants had an expiry date of June 6th, 2020, but were extended to June 6th, 2021 (see TGC news release May 26th, 2020). The warrants will now have an expiry date of June 6th, 2022. The share purchase warrants are subject to an accelerated expiry at the option of the Company if the published closing trade price of the common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange is greater than or equal to $.50 for any 20 consecutive trading days, in which event the holder may be given notice that the warrants will expire 30 days following the date of such notice. The common share purchase warrants may be exercised by the holder during the 30-day period between the notice and the expiration of the common share purchase warrants. About Taiga Gold Corp Taiga Gold Corp was created through a plan of arrangement with Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. and owns 6 projects targeting gold located within the Trans Hudson Corridor in the area near the Seabee Gold Operation, owned and operated by SSR Mining. Taiga's flagship "Fisher" property is currently being explored by the Fisher Joint Venture between SSR Mining and Taiga. Taiga's 100%-owned Leland, Chico and SAM properties are currently under option to partners SKRR Exploration, Aben Resources and DJ1 Capital, respectively. Taiga continues to advance its 100%-owned Orchid and Mari Lake projects. Taiga's objective is to focus on the exploration and development of its gold projects located adjacent to the Seabee Gold Operation and along the Tabbernor Fault structure in eastern Saskatchewan, a highly prospective mining jurisdiction which was recently recognized by the Fraser Institute as one of the best places in the world in terms of Investment Attractiveness. Throughout the exploration and development process, our mission is to help maintain prosperous communities by exploring for and discovering resource opportunities while building lasting relationships through honest and respectful business practices. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Tim J. Termuende" President and CEO For further information on TGC, please contact Mike Labach at 1 866 HUNT ORE (486 8673) Email: info@taigagold.com or visit our website at http://taigagold.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Neither the CSE nor any other regulatory body has reviewed or approved the contents of this news release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming financings, work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. SOURCE: Taiga Gold Corp View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646631/Taiga-Reports-Mari-Lake-Property-Agreement-Warrant-Extension The First Fully Tokenized VC Fund Affirms its Winning Investment Strategy and Plans for a Significant Investor Payout in 2021 SPiCE VC, the leading venture capital (VC) fund in the Blockchain/Tokenization ecosystem, which has revolutionized the VC asset class, becomes the first venture capital firm in this growing space to experience three portfolio companies successfully going public. The latest one, INX Limited, the blockchain-based platform for trading digital securities and cryptocurrencies and one of SPiCE VC's portfolio companies, is officially the first to complete an SEC-registered token IPO. In addition to INX's IPO, SPiCE portfolio companies Lottery.com and Bakkt have both gone public at healthy valuations contributing to the firm's early and ongoing success. As a result, the firm plans to implement its first investor payout later this year. "SPiCE's objective has always been, and continues to be, to provide our investors exposure to the massive growth of the Blockchain and tokenization industry. This is why we've maintained a singular focus on investing in companies like INX, Securitize and others that are developing the world's tokenization ecosystem, standards, and processes," said Tal Elyashiv, founder and managing partner of SPiCE VC. "What excites us the most is our ability to generate remarkable return for our investors, while also continuing to fund, impact and influence the formation of this accelerating sector." INX is one of over 15 strategic investments Tal Elyashiv and the SPiCE VC management team have made within the Digital Finance sector an ecosystem which includes digital securities, cryptocurrencies, lending, real estate, Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), etc. INX's historic IPO achieved an estimated $93 Million in gross proceeds from token sales, and a pending CA$39.6 Million private placement ahead of its Toronto Stock Exchange (TSXv) listing. In total, INX expects to have raised over $125 Million for the launch and operation of the INX fully regulated trading platform for cryptocurrencies and digital securities. "The entire industry is experiencing success because of partnerships like SPiCE and INX's. SPiCE understands the ecosystem and the driving forces behind it, and this has been very helpful to us," said Shy Datika, founder president of INX. "I am excited about INX's success, about the partnership with SPiCE, its continued support for INX's vision, and its investment in INX that has impacted our ability to succeed." SPiCE attributes its early and ongoing success to a number of factors, including explosive growth and persistent headwinds in the Digital Finance sector, as well as its long-term investment strategy, which has been the greatest catalyst of growth for the firm. In fact, SPiCE reported a Q1 2021 NAV Report up more than 15%, and over 91% unrealized gains in the first three years of operation for its early investors. Since the fund's first closing mid 2018, SPiCE has focused on portfolio companies aiming to change the digital tokenization landscape providing its investors wide exposure to the massive growth of the blockchain and tokenization ecosystem. As one of the pioneers of the industry, SPiCE has also played a significant role in the creation of the legal and regulatory framework that is used today. To learn more about SPiCE VC and its SPICE digital security, visit https://spicevc.com/ ABOUT SPiCE VC: SPiCE VC is a Venture Capital fund providing investors exposure to the massive growth of the blockchain/tokenization ecosystem. SPiCE invests globally in platforms and ecosystem providers enabling access to capital markets, banking, real estate, and other industries enhanced through Blockchain technologies. The fund focuses on companies who stand to benefit the most from the massive growth of the industry. Combining institutional know-how, hands-on management, entrepreneurial innovation and professional investment experience SPiCE's management team has been involved in hundreds of tech funding rounds totaling billions of dollars; as entrepreneurs, investors, and executives. SPiCE is located in the US, Switzerland, Singapore and Israel. To learn more about SPiCE VC visit www.spicevc.com or email Tal Elyashiv, Founder and Managing Partner, at tal@spicevc.com. About INX: INX aims to provide a regulated trading platform for digital securities and cryptocurrencies. With the combination of traditional markets expertise and a disruptive fintech approach, INX provides state-of-the-art solutions to modern financial problems. INX is led by an experienced and dedicated team of business, finance, and technology veterans with the shared vision of redefining the world of capital markets via blockchain technology and innovative regulatory approach. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005353/en/ Contacts: Liz Whelan liz@lwprconsulting.com (312) 315-0160 Lightweight Title Contender Offers Two-Part NFT Leading Up to Title Fight at UFC 262 CONCORD, NH / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Fox Ellis Agency, a full-service talent marketing, branding and blockchain agency, today announced that Charles 'Do Bronx' Oliveira will offer the first ever "hatching" NFT (non-fungible token). This one-of-a-kind NFT will be auctioned off starting today, May 12, 2021 at 9 a.m. ET, as a two-part release, with the second piece to be revealed to the winning bidder on May 15th, 2021, the night of UFC 262. In addition to the hidden NFT, the auction winner will receive tickets to Oliveira's next fight, a personal thank you video from the most-submission-wins record holder himself, and a pair of Oliveira's autographed MMA gloves. This is a unique opportunity, granting only one lucky bidder the access to a groundbreaking experience. Charles 'Do Bronx' Oliveira releases first ever "hatching" one-of-one NFT prior to UFC 262 "I want to show fans and future fighters like me that there are new ways to generate income to help finance their dreams," said Oliveira. "I am a fighter from an underprivileged community in Brazil, where my father worked very hard to find ways to pay for my training when I was young. Community is everything to me, which is why I want to share my journey with my fans around the world that have supported me throughout my time as a professional fighter." Oliveira partnered with Fox Ellis to help auction his NFTs on a global marketplace to further connect directly with fans and allow them to join him on his path to the title. In doing so, he's using this time in history to show the next generation of athletes that you don't need to be a "crypto" fan to leverage blockchain technology to monetize and protect your brand identity. As Oliveira works to continue to grow the sport he's committed to working with partners, such as Fox Ellis, to embrace the idea that all athletes should take an active role in controlling their personal brand and public identity. An athlete's name, image, likeness (NIL) is one of their most valuable assets. For the past 50 years athletes have relied on teams, leagues, and others to help them connect with fans and monetize their brand identity. Through Fox Ellis' program, Oliveira connects directly with his own community of fans and rewards them for their support in a new way by leveraging blockchain technology and NFTs. "The significance of NFTs and blockchain technology is far greater than a trend," said Michael Browning, co-founder, Fox Ellis Agency. "We're bringing the power of this technology to individuals and brands alike. With the help of our partners at IPrivata, Kred and Liquiditeam, Fox Ellis not only connects its clients directly to their fans, but protects their most precious possession, their data and digital identity." Media Contact: Karyn Martin Golden Thread Agency 617-462-0108 karyn@goldenthreadagency.com About Fox Ellis Fox Ellis is a full-service talent marketing, branding and blockchain agency based in Concord, New Hampshire. The Fox Ellis-ID platform empowers athletes, artists, and content creators to control their self-sovereign identity, protect themselves during and after their professional careers, and connect with a new global audience of Gen Z fans. With a unique combination of traditional branding and digital authentication, Fox Ellis-ID leverages NFTs built on blockchain technology to protect brand value, reduce transaction costs, and provide incremental revenue streams across all aspects of a creators' activities. SOURCE: Fox Ellis Agency View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646722/Charles-Do-Bronx-Oliveira-Launches-First-Ever-Hatching-NFT STANDARD VAPE CLOSES ON RTO WITH FAST FINANCE HOLDING LOCUST VALLEY, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Standard Vape Corporation (OTC PINK:SVAP); "SVAP" or "Standard Vape" announces today the closing of a reverse takeover resulting in a change of control, divestures of two existing subsidiaries, the acquisitions of two new subsidiaries and a change in the business focus of the Company to financial technology. Effective at the close of business on Monday, May 10, 2021, Standard Vape acquired FF24 Merchant Services GmbH and FF24 Ventures GmbH, two private limited companies organized under German law which were hitherto wholly-owned subsidiaries of Fast Finance 24 Holding AG ("FF24 Holding"). FF24 Holding, a public corporation traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Xetra (symbol: FF24) in Germany, has thus become the new controlling shareholder of SVAP by virtue of the issue to it of 100,000 shares of the Class D Convertible Voting Preferred Stock ("Class D") of SVAP as consideration for the sale to the latter of FF24 Merchant Services GmbH, which trades as ff24Payments, and FF24 Ventures GmbH, trading as ff24Pay. Each Class D preferred share entitles the holder to exercise 12,416 votes, along with convertibility into this number of common shares. Mr. Daniel Fisher and Ms. Elizabeth Ehrlich Kellogg, the recently appointed interim directors of SVAP, resigned at closing and were replaced by Mr. Armin Dartsch, who is the Chairman of Fast Finance Holding's Supervisory Board and a practising lawyer, will also become the Company Secretary. SVAP's long-serving President, Mr. John F. Fruhmann, also resigned and was replaced by Mr. Andreas Garke, CEO and co-founder of FF24 Holding. The Chief Financial and Accounting Officer will be Mr. Sayed Iqbal. More information concerning the new management appears below. As part of the transaction, Nano Vape Corporation is being returned to its shareholders prior to its acquisition by Standard Vape in 2018, along with certain liabilities owed to Melvin Ehrlich and to a patent law firm totaling $106,107. Those shareholders will retain ten percent (10%) of their former holdings in SVAP. The balance of their common stock has been returned to SVAP and cancelled, resulting in the new issued and outstanding common share capital now totaling 138,256,970 shares of common stock (previously outstanding: 463,424,470). The issued and outstanding common stock figure of 138,256,970 shares includes 5,889,463 shares issued to eliminate debts of $312,473.17 as a term of the Stock Exchange Agreement entered into on March 5, 2021 between FF24 Holding and SVAP. In addition, SVAP will be spinning off its Neo Virucide, Inc. subsidiary to shareholders of record as of March 5, 2021. The costs of these two transactions will be borne by the Nano Vape Corporation and Neo Virucide, Inc. shareholders respectively. About the Businesses Acquired ff24Payments ff24Payments is a modern, scalable real-time payment platform. It offers innovative solutions, whether for one-off purchases or recurring bookings and is aimed at large and small online merchants, as well as operators of the growing number of websites which generate their income from the "Freemium" models. Supported payment methods include Mastercard, VISA, SEPA, instant bank transfer and PayPal. The main task for 2021 is the successful marketing and integration for German online shops. A launch in other European countries is scheduled for Q1, 2022. Expansion into the USA and Asia is also being planned. ff24Pay ff24Pay offers banking and instant transfer solutions for a wide range of the world's most important currencies. The initial target groups are private individuals and SMEs who use either the euro (EUR; ) or other European currencies as their base currency. ff24Pay offers the following services to European customers: bank account with IBAN, debit card, multi-currency processing, SEPA and SWIFT transfers, as well as recurring payments. ff24Pay is available as an app for iOS and Android systems; desktop and notebook versions are also available for download. ff24Pay's target for 2021 is to open 10,000 accounts in Germany and start scaling the customer base to other European countries by end of 2021; long-term it aims to offer mobile banking also in the US. Easily accessible apps for Android and iPhone can currently be downloaded from the app stores in the target regions of ff24Pay; Desktop and laptop versions of the apps, which might better suit the needs of SME business users, are also downloadable. About Fast Finance 24 Holding AG FF24 Holding is an international holding company based in Berlin, which primarily invests in European Internet companies. Typically, FF24 Holding focuses on the finance, marketing, communication and IT segments. About the Incoming Management Andreas Garke (President) Andreas Garke is the Chief Executive Officer of FF24 Holding, the Frankfurt-listed holding company which invests in FinTech, digital media and other Internet-based B2B and B2C solutions. He is responsible as CEO for the day-to-day management of FF24 Holding's operations and supervision of its investments. His expertise includes but is not confined to sales and marketing, strategy consulting, new market entry and business development. After completing his studies in law at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel and the Humboldt University of Berlin, Mr. Garke founded his first company in 1996 in Potsdam-Babelsberg, near Berlin. He specialized in consulting work for international film production companies, with a focus on workflow optimization and cost efficiencies. Since 2003 until co-founding and running FF24 Holding, Mr. Garke has worked in senior management positions at several multinational companies, focusing on business development, supply-chain optimization and exports. Armin Dartsch (Director and Company Secretary) Armin Dartsch studied law at the Christian-Albrechts-University in Kiel and the Humboldt University of Berlin. After his second State Examination, he was admitted in 2006 to practice at the German bar. He worked as a staff attorney in a boutique law firm specializing in copyright and intellectual property ('IP') law, representing a number of renowned creatives. From 2007, Mr. Dartsch established and runs his own independent attorney's practice concentrating on the areas of national and international tax and company law as well as IP law. He advises companies (especially in the furniture-making sector) and individuals in Germany, elsewhere in the European Union, the USA and Hong Kong. In addition to his professional law practice, Mr. Dartsch has also been a director of several companies in Germany and the UK. He is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of FF 24 Holding. Sayed Muhammad Iqbal (Chief Accountant/Treasurer) Mr. Muhammad Iqbal joined FF24 Holding early in 2020 as Finance Manager and is responsible for all the company's financial operations, including financial controls, compliance and capital account/corporate financing activities. His education includes a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Arid, Pakistan and a master's degree in international business from HTW Berlin - University of Applied Sciences. Prior to joining FF24 Holding, Mr. Muhammad Iqbal was Accounting Manager for an international logistics company. He began his career as a graduate intern in the Arabian Gulf region at Al-Khaliji Commercial Bank in Doha, State of Qatar, where he focused on financial reporting, budget analysis and cashflow forecasting. IMPORTANT NOTICE Legal Disclaimer This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933 (as amended) and Section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 (as amended). Those statements may include the intent, belief or current expectations of the company and its management team. Forward-looking statements are projections of events, revenues, income, future economics, research, development, reformulation, product or service performance or management's plans and objectives for future operations. Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not occur. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as result of numerous factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon various such factors, many that are not within management's control. No offer of securities; no recommendation Nothing contained in this press release constitutes or may be construed to constitute an invitation, recommendation, offer or solicitation of any kind to those reading it to buy, sell or otherwise to treat in the securities of either Standard Vape Corporation or of Fast Finance 24 Holding AG. CONTACT: Keith, Bayley, Rogers & Co. Limited* Graham Atthill-Beck +44 (0)7506 43 41 07 Graham.Atthill-Beck@kbrl.co.uk * Keith, Bayley, Rogers & Co. Limited intermediated the Stock Exchange Agreement between SVAP and Fast Finance Holding referred to in the body of this announcement. It is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom and is a member of The London Stock Exchange and Aquis Exchange. SOURCE: Standard Vape Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646749/Standard-Vape-Closes-on-RTO-with-Fast-Finance-Holding Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) -NervGen Pharma Corp. (TSXV: NGEN) (OTCQX: NGENF) ("NervGen" or the "Company"), a clinical stage biotech company dedicated to developing innovative treatments for nerve damage and neurodegenerative diseases, announced that it has closed its previously announced overnight, "best efforts" marketed public offering (the "Offering") of units (the "Units"). Pursuant to the Offering, NervGen issued an aggregate of 3,250,000 units of the Company at a price of C$1.55 per Unit for aggregate gross proceeds of C$5,037,500. Each Unit is comprised of one common share of the Company (a "Common Share") and one-half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant is exercisable at a price of C$2.10 and entitles the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company for a period of 2 years following the closing of the Offering. The Offering was completed pursuant to an agency agreement (the "Agency Agreement") entered into between the Company and a syndicate of agents (collectively, the "Agents"). The Company issued to the Agents an aggregate of 195,000 broker warrants (the "Broker Warrants"). Each Broker Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share at the exercise price of C$1.55 per Common Share for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering. The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Offering for continued work on their lead drug candidate, NVG-291, and general corporate purposes. The Offering was completed in each of the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia by way of final prospectus supplement dated May 5, 2021 (the "Prospectus Supplement") to the Company's short form base shelf prospectus dated January 2, 2020 (the "Base Shelf Prospectus"). Copies of the Base Shelf Prospectus, Prospectus Supplement and Agency Agreement are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities in any jurisdiction. The securities have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "1933 Act") or any state securities laws and may not be offered or sold within the United States or to, or for account or benefit of, U.S. Persons (as defined in Regulation S under the 1933 Act) or persons in the United States unless registered under the 1933 Act and applicable state securities laws, or an exemption from such registration requirements is available. About NervGen NervGen is restoring life's potential by developing innovative treatments for nerve damage and neurodegenerative diseases. The Company is developing drugs for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and Alzheimer's disease. NervGen's platform technology targets protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma ("protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma"), a neural receptor that impedes nerve repair. Inhibition of the protein tyrosine phosphatase sigma receptor has been shown to promote regeneration and remyelination of damaged nerves, as well as improvement of nerve function in animal models for various medical conditions. For further information, please contact: Bill Adams, Chief Financial Officer badams@nervgen.com Huitt Tracey, Corporate Communications htracey@nervgen.com c: 604.362.6209 Follow NervGen on Twitter (@NervgenP) and LinkedIn (NervGen Pharma Corp.) for the latest news on the Company. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release may contain "forward-looking information" and "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements and information herein include, but are not limited to, the Company's current and future plans, expectations and intentions, results, levels of activity, performance, goals or achievements, or any other future events or developments constitute forward-looking statements, and the words "may", "will", "would", "should", "could", "expect", "plan", "intend", "trend", "indication", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "likely" or "potential", or the negative or other variations of these words or other comparable words or phrases, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements relating to: our development programs, including the development of NVG-291; our research for the treatment of spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative applications; the Offering, the securities, and their terms; the Agents and Agency Agreement; the timing and the use of net proceeds of the Offering. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by the Company in light of management's experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that we believe are appropriate and reasonable in the circumstances. In making forward-looking statements, the Company has relied on various assumptions, including, but not limited to: the Company's ability to manage the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic; the accuracy of the Company's financial projections; the Company obtaining positive results in its clinical and other trials; the Company obtaining necessary regulatory approvals; and general business, market and economic conditions. Many factors could cause our actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements or future events or developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including without limitation, a lack of revenue, insufficient funding, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, reliance upon key personnel, the uncertainty of the clinical development process, competition, and other factors set forth in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Information Form, Prospectus Supplement, financial statements and Management Discussion and Analysis which can be found on SEDAR.com. All clinical development plans are subject to additional funding. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements made in this news release. Furthermore, unless otherwise stated, the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release, and we have no intention and undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83694 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Camino Corp. (TSXV: COR) (OTC: CAMZF) (WKN: A116E1) ("Camino" or the "Company") is pleased to announce new exploration results from its 100% owned Plata Dorada Copper and Silver project ("Plata Dorada" or "the Project") in Peru. In March 2021, the Company completed an exploration program at Plata Dorada and identified six new polymetallic veins, bringing the total to sixteen identified veins at the Project (see news release dated February 3, 2021). A rock chip sample taken along the Plata Dorada mesothermal trend identified a new copper and silver mineralized structure with a width of 0.5 m grading 1.19% copper (Cu), and 18.35 ppm silver (Ag). Camino also identified new areas of polymetallic vein mineralization south of the existing claim position and acquired 1,700 hectares (ha) of new claims for a total claim area of 5,500 ha (Figure 1). The new mineralized veins hosting copper, silver, gold, zinc, and lead have rock chip sample grades up to 1,565 g/t silver (Ag), 0.67 g/t gold (Au), 1.19% copper (Cu), 32% zinc (Zn), and 18.25% lead (Pb). The rock chip samples range in width from 0.2 to 2.0 m across the veins and are found in a preferential direction from northwest to southeast parallel to the Andean trend. The individual polymetallic veins have been mapped with strike lengths up to 5 m, before disappearing under shallow cover. A summary of identified significant vein and channel sample results is shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. Photo 1. Sample 91 - diorite filling of argentiferous galena, sphalerite, limonite, goethite and epidote To view an enhanced version of Photo 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1384/83725_e1ac9af2a4b1b9eb_001full.jpg Jose Bassan, Chief Geologist at Camino, said, "We have identified veins with strong silver and copper anomalies at Plata Dorada, along the Andean trend. During our recent prospecting efforts, we have also identified a polymetallic system with silver, copper, gold, lead, and zinc in vetiform structures. Our early exploration results indicated that there is a very rich metal endowment in the area." "We continue to increase our land position at Plata Dorada based on exceptional high-grade samples returned from subsequent reconnaissance traverses," said Camino CEO Jay Chmelauskas. "This is a region with a rich history of high-grade metal mines and discoveries." Figure 1. Plata Dorada Project Historic (Orange) and New (Red) Claims with 2021 Sample Results To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/1384/83725_e1ac9af2a4b1b9eb_002full.jpg High-grade silver samples 90 (0.4 m @ 1,565 g/t Ag) and 91 strike in the northwest to southeast direction and are spaced approximately 50 m apart. Sample 90 was taken across a 0.4 m wide outcropping vein. Sample 91 is a grab sample that is projected to be an extension to the vein in sample 90. Historical artisanal mining shows a structural lineament in the Andean trend "Rumbo Andino" from northwest to southeast that contains multiple mineralized structures with directions varying from northwest to northeast, following the same trend from rock chip samples. The structures are subvertical with sigmoidal and lenticular shape on the surface, and filled with milky saccaroidal-quartz, iron oxides, argentiferous galena, sphalerite, and chalcopyrite. The veins are clearly identifiable around artisanal workings, but otherwise disappear under soil cover. Camino is developing an exploration program that will include collecting over 450 soil samples for x-ray fluorescence (xrf) analyses, as well as detailed 1:2500 geological mapping of the mineralized structures with the goal of defining a drilling program by the end of 2021. Plata Dorada is located 158 kilometers east of the city of Cusco. The Project can be accessed by a 2.5-hour drive along a paved highway from Cusco. There are 18th century records of colonial mining activities at several locations within 50 kilometers of Plata Dorada. Numerous pits and shallow underground workings exist on the property as a result of recent artisanal mining activities. The 2021 channel samples were collected and analyzed by ICP-61, with digestion by four acids for 33 elements and fire assay for Au. The geochemical analyses of the samples were labelled according to analysis batch "LI21099746, LI21097983" & ME-MS61 & Cu-OG62 & Au-AA23 & Ag-GRA21 & Ag-OG62 & Pb-OG62 & Zn-VOL70 & Pb-VOL70 and sent to ALS global based in Lima, Peru for analysis. Sample No. East North Elev. Area Prospect Channel Width (m) AZ Dip Silver (Ag) g/t Copper (Cu) % Gold (Au) g/t Sampling Info. Pb PPM Zn PPM 2 278040 8495365 3,954 DORADA SUR 0.2 330 75NE 18 2.78 0.016 New vein 468 >10000 56 280001 8495809 4,291 HITHZA II 0.6 58 2.78 0.424 New vein 315 44 Hist_MARC027 280446 8496546 HITHZA II - 20 1,500 3.13 Historic Hist_MARC024 280455 8496526 HITHZA II - 20 433 1.32 Historic Hist_MARC028 280479 8496585 HITHZA II - 20 1,500 8.57 Historic Hist_MARC025 280479 8496555 HITHZA II - 20 400 1.85 Historic Hist_MARC029 280488 8496578 HITHZA II 0.3 20 323 1.95 2.12 Historic Hist_MARC013 280503 8496657 HITHZA IV 0.5 20 222 2.45 0.44 Historic Hist_MARC012 280504 8496661 HITHZA IV 0.7 20 1,030 2.47 0.718 Historic Hist_MARC021 280505 8496598 HITHZA II 0.5 20 586 1.86 Historic Hist_MARC016 280513 8496616 HITHZA II 1.5 20 1,430 1.45 1.125 Historic Hist_MARC030 280647 8495706 HITHZA II 0.6 140 56 6.93 0.056 Historic Hist_MARC031 280668 8495699 HITHZA II 0.6 140 42 5.97 Historic Hist_MARC032 280684 8495685 HITHZA II 1.0 140 27 2.36 0.048 Historic Hist_MARC033 280690 8495661 HITHZA II 0.5 140 117 3.51 Historic 53 280697 8495678 4,412 HITHZA II 0.8 345 68NE 39 1.51 0.119 New Sample 320 36 Hist_MARC034 280715 8495654 HITHZA II 1.0 140 19 0.99 Historic Hist_MARC035 280732 8495618 HITHZA II 0.5 140 93 2.72 0.017 Historic 28 281289 8496214 4,375 HITHZA II 0.5 38 3.38 0.013 New vein 55 23 30 281683 8496325 4,246 TALI 1.4 10 45E 36 1.49 0.053 New vein 11 14 11 281950 8496998 4,010 TALI 1 0.3 190 60SE 1,500 5.76 0.03 New vein 148 723 Hist_MARC007 282270 8496653 TALI 1 0.4 140 31 1.54 Historic Hist_MARC005 282280 8496665 TALI 1 0.5 140 17 1.01 Historic 32 282309 8496630 4,023 TALI 1 1.0 0 75SE 15 1.42 0.292 New Sample 23 64 31 282314 8496569 4,047 TALI 0.5 20 70W 21 1.25 0.353 New Sample 16 27 M-12 280714 8496976 HITHZA IV 463 0.74 0.78 Historic M-13 280718 8496982 HITHZA IV 1500 3.13 1.33 Historic M-14 280722 8496988 HITHZA IV 1500 8.57 1.52 Historic M-15 280700 8496946 HITHZA IV 400 1.85 1.72 Historic 104 280624 8496945 4103 HITHZA IV 0.5 18.35 1.19 0.01 New Sample 10.2 31 Sample No. East North Elev. Area Prospect Channel Width (m) AZ Dip Silver (Ag) g/t Copper (Cu) Gold (Au) g/t Sampling Info. Pb-VOL70 % Zn-VOL70 % 89 279207 8485020 4,550 Dorada 4 0.5 883 0.15 0.49 New Sample 10.30 12.64 90 279214 8485011 4,552 Dorada 4 0.4 1565 0.26 0.48 New Sample 11.41 32.00 91 279163 8485055 4,516 Dorada 4 1565 0.25 0.67 New Sample 18.25 9.86 100 288526 8482296 4,615 Dorada 5 0.7 85 0.17 0.06 New Sample 1.99 0.02 102 280073 8496310 4,218 HITHZA II 2 71 0.37 0.06 New Sample 0.06 0.02 103 280073 8496310 4,218 HITHZA II 2 127 0.50 0.08 New Sample 0.21 0.16 Table 1. Channel Sample Results in 2021 and Historic Sampling at Plata Dorada About Camino Minerals Corporation Camino is a discovery and development stage copper exploration company. The Company is focused on advancing its high-grade Los Chapitos copper project located in Peru towards potential resource delineation and new discoveries. In addition, the company has commenced field studies at its copper and silver Plata Dorada project. Camino is currently closing the acquisition of the Maria Cecilia copper porphyry. The Company seeks to acquire a portfolio of advanced copper assets that have the potential to deliver copper into an electrifying copper intensive global economy. For more information, please refer to Camino's website at www.caminocorp.com. Jose Bassan MAusIMM (CP) 227922, MSc. Geologist, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical contents of this document. Mr. Bassan has reviewed and verified relevant data supporting the technical disclosure, including sampling and analytical test data. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD /S/ "Jay Chmelauskas" President and CEO For further information, please contact: Camino Investor Relations info@caminocorp.com Tel: (604) 608-4513 Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements: Certain disclosures in this release constitute forward-looking information. In making the forward-looking disclosures in this release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking information in the release includes the timing and results of upcoming exploration programs at Plata Dorada. Although the Company considers these statements to be reasonable based on information currently available to it, they may prove to be incorrect, and the forward-looking information in this release is subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking information. Such risk factors include, among others, that actual results of the Company's exploration activities will be different than those expected by management, that the Company will be unable to obtain or will experience delays in obtaining any required approvals and the state of equity and commodity markets. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83725 WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - VMware Inc. (VMW) Wednesday announced the appointment of Rangarajan Raghuram as Chief Executive Officer and as a Director, effective June 1. Further, the company projected first-quarter 2022 earnings on 9.5 percent growth in revenue. The company now expects a first-quarter net profit of $1.01 per share and adjusted earnings of $1.76 per share. Revenue projection for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 is $2.994 billion, up from the first quarter of 2021. The combination of Subscription and SaaS and license revenue is expected to grow 12.5 percent to $1.387 billion, from the prior year. Raghuram has been with VMware since 2003 and currently serving as an Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Products and Cloud Services at VMware. The company named current Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer Sumit Dhawan as President, leading all go-to-market functions including Worldwide Sales, Worldwide Partner, and Commercial Organization, Customer Experience and Success (CXS), Marketing, and Communications. COO Sanjay Poonen will leave the company. 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. KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Torum, the first DeFi and NFT-infused social media platform, is proud to announce that it has completed its first public sale event - Initial Staking NFT Offering (ISNO). Launched at 9 p.m. of May 11th 2021, the crowdsale event is the first ISNO that is held in the crypto industry, featuring a total of 363 limited edition NFTs of 5 different tiers. Finished In Less Than 20 Minutes As soon as the NFTs were available for grab, all 363 units of them were completely sold off to cryptocurrency enthusiasts from every corner of the world in under 20 minutes, highlighting a strong token demand and project support from the community. The rarest Tier 5 NFTs were sold off in the first 30 seconds, followed by Tier 4 NFTs (2 minutes), Tier 3 (7 minutes), Tier 1 (14 minutes) and Tier 2 (18 minutes). A total of 1,750,000 XTM, the native token of Torum ecosystem, is issued and locked inside the 363 ISNO NFTs, meaning the value of the NFTs will be constantly backed by XTM, ensuring that that the 363 NFTs have a solid price foundation. The World's First and Only ISNO Event Unique from the conventional Initial NFT Offering, every NFT issued under the ISNO event comes with a permanent staking multiplier and a fixed amount of native token locked inside it. The staking benefit ranges from 1.05x to 1.25x that multiplies the holders' liquidity provider stakes on a dedicated DeFi platform. As the first project to introduce the new NFT funding event, the ISNO NFTs of Torum can be staked on its DeFi platform, Torum Finance to unleash their staking multiplier effects. Alternatively, the ISNO NFTs can be burned to release the native token locked inside it. In other words, most NFT holders will hold onto the virtual artworks to enjoy the staking multiplier benefit, reducing the selling pressure of ISNO participants during the token generation event. Torum believes that the successful launch of the first ISNO event will lead others to follow its step, launching more ISNO events in the future. Torum also hopes that projects can continue to think out of the box and introduce more crypto innovations to the crypto space, just like how Torum combines the elements of DeFi, NFT and public sale into ISNO. About Torum Torum is the first DeFi and NFT-infused social media platform that is specially designed for cryptocurrency users. Backed by over 18 prominent strategic investors like AU21, Consensus Lab, DFG, Waterdrip Capital and Redline Capital, Torum is now one of the fastest-growing social media platforms joined by over 40,000 crypto enthusiasts from every corner of the world. In future, Torum strives to become the largest crypto ecosystem that connects the general public to the crypto space. Media Contact: Company: Torum Technology Sdn. Bhd. Contact: Jayson Tan, CMO E-mail: hello@torum.com Website: https://www.torum.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/torum_official Telegram: https://t.me/torum_official_group_en SOURCE: Torum Technology Sdn. Bhd View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646752/Torum-Completed-the-Worlds-First-Initial-Staking-NFT-Offering-in-Less-than-20-Minutes She had bruising to her right hand and arm that she stated was caused by hammering the knife during the stabbing, the complaint added. Sarah Ganoe also had one bite mark to her right forearm that she stated was from (the 8-year-old) biting her in an attempt to get free. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Nicola Mining Inc. (TSXV: NIM) (the "Company" or "Nicola") is pleased to announce that it has commenced Phase 1 exploration drilling ("Phase 1") at its 100% owned New Craigmont Copper Project, located near Merritt, BC, and 33 km south of the Highland Valley porphyry district. The Company announced its 2021 exploration objectives in its January 18, 2021 news release. Phase 1 will be composed of approximately 2,000m of diamond drilling that primarily targets two magnetic anomalies: Target 1 : A largely unexplored magnetic anomaly located west and adjacent to the historic pit. Previous drilling on the western margin of this anomaly intercepted 85.6m at 1.11% Cu (DDH-THU-002[1] ) and 100.6m grading 1.33% Cu (NC-2018-03[2]). Target 2 : Surface outcropping high-grade copper and iron mineralization with a corresponding magnetic anomaly extending to depth located immediately northeast of the historic Craigmont mine. Magnetic vector inversion modeling appears to indicate that the previous copper intercepts at Target 1 intercepted the western fringe of a mineralized anomaly, characterized by intervals of massive chalcopyrite and magnetite mineralization. Phase 1 drilling will step out eastwardly across the anomaly, which continues for approximately 650m from the previous intercepts. Target 2 is defined by massive magnetite and chalcopyrite skarn mineralization outcropping immediately adjacent to the open pit. This target is located at a depth of ~200m and is adjacent to historic underground mine workings. Nicola Mining's Economic Geologist, Sean Tombe, commented, "We are very excited to begin drilling on the New Craigmont Property. The strong correlation with mineralization and magnetic anomalies in THU-002 and NC-2018-03 is encouraging as we begin Phase 1 drilling. Aside from historic mining operations, the New Craigmont property hosts large areas of surface and near surface mineralization. It is anticipated that the current drill program will confirm this and give indications of depth potential." Scientific and Technical Information Kevin Wells, P.Geo, a consulting geologist to the Company, is the independent qualified person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for the technical disclosure contained in this news release. About Nicola Mining Nicola Mining Inc. is a junior mining company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and is in the process of recommencing mill feed processing operations at its 100% owned state-of-the-art mill and tailings facility, located near Merritt, British Columbia. The fully-permitted mill can process both gold and silver mill feed via gravity and flotation processes. The Company also owns 100% of Treasure Mountain, a high-grade silver property, and an active gravel pit that is located adjacent to its milling operations. About New Craigmont Property In November of 2015, Nicola became the first group in decades to consolidate ownership of the New Craigmont Project (the "Property") and has been actively conducting mineral exploration since. The Property is a wholly-owned copper property with an active mine permit (M-68), located 33 km south of the world-class Highland Valley porphyry district. The property is located adjacent to the southern end of the Guichon Creek Batholith, which hosts the Highland Valley copper deposits. There are currently no mineral resource estimates on the Property. Historical "non-NI 43-101" resource calculations are recorded in internal memos and geological reports for Placer Development Ltd. For further details on the Property, see the technical report entitled "Technical Report on the Thule Copper- Iron Property, Southern British Columbia, Canada", filed on May 8, 2013 on Sedar at www.sedar.com . On behalf of the Board of Directors "Peter Espig" Peter Espig CEO & Director For additional information Contact: Peter Espig Phone: (778) 385-1213 Email: info@nicolamining.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. [1] Source: September 7, 2016 news release (SEDAR Oct. 4, 2016) [2] Source: April 2, 2018 news release (SEDAR Apr. 2, 2018) To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83739 London, England--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Net Savings Link, Inc. (OTC Pink: NSAV), a cryptocurrency, blockchain and digital asset technology company, today announced that its prized holding, VirtuaBroker, has launched its revolutionary Cryptocurrency Price Search feature, which is one of the basic building blocks of its advanced automated trading non-custodial platform. The platform's users can utilize a simple interface to select which exchanges they want to connect to their dashboard and connect them so that real time price and transaction information is viewed. VirtuaBroker's proprietary High-Performance Computing (HPC) system allows real time transactions to occur with all connected exchanges at high speeds without lag time. VirtuaBroker's proprietary Price Search (PS) algorithm allows real time price searches across all connected exchanges to determine the best purchase prices and worst purchase prices per exchange. VirtuaBroker's proprietary Engine combines its HPC and PS to conduct real time transactions based on the best prices across all connected exchanges. VirtuaBroker has 6 exchanges connected to its Price Search algorithm: Binance, Bittrex, Bitfinex, Kraken, Hitbtc, Coinbase Pro. VirtuaBroker, whose platform is based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and offers a full range of trading services, such as portfolio management, price search function, and much more. VirtuaBroker's Cryptocurrency Trading Platform is your 24/7 account manager. Customers will save time and be provided with an optimal trading experience. The AI Platform allows users to optimize the trades that they require according to their selected objectives and allows them to make decisions based on market sentiment data. VirtuaBroker's security policy is its pillar and is based on a five-tiered security stack, including Fraud Protection, Privacy Protection, Encryption and Network Defenses, VirtuaBroker Security ID and Security Alerts. With the recent IPO of Coinbase, which valued it at over $85 billion and the announcements of Tesla and Mastercard joining the Crypto revolution, the management of NSAV believes that this will be a major step in fulfilling the Company's ambition of being a leading player in the over $200 billion annual cryptocurrency market. Dani Garcia, Founder and CTO of VirtuaBroker stated, "After three years of back-end development, I am looking forward to engaging the fragmented crypto market with a software as a service that will improve user experience in trading across all exchanges." James Tilton, President of NSAV stated, "We are thrilled that after a bit of a quiet period, VirtuaBroker is now kicking into high gear and the announcements of developments with its one-of-a-kind, Cryptocurrency Trading Platform, will now begin to come at a furious pace. I, like all NSAV shareholders can't wait for the full launch at the end of May, which is right on schedule." NSAV's vision is the establishment of a fully integrated technology company that provides turnkey technological solutions to the cryptocurrency, blockchain and digital asset industries. Over time, the Company plans to provide a wide range of services such as software solutions, e-commerce, advisory services, financial services and information technology. For further information please contact NSAV at info@nsavholdinginc.com The NSAV Twitter account can be accessed at https://twitter.com/nsavtech This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created thereby. Investors are cautioned that, all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the ability of Net Savings Link, Inc. to accomplish its stated plan of business. Net Savings Link, Inc. believes that the assumptions underlying the forward-looking statements contained herein are reasonable, any of the assumptions could be inaccurate, and therefore, there can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements included in this press release will prove to be accurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward- looking statements included herein, the inclusion of such information should not be regarded as a representation by Net Savings Link, Inc. or any other person. Contact Net Savings Link, Inc. info@nsavholdinginc.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83767 MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB:EAWD), ("EAWD" or the "Company"), a green-technology company focused on sustainable solutions for water and energy generation, today announced that it has appointed Todd Allen Lee to the position of Interim Chief Financial Officer. "We are excited that Todd has joined EAWD as its new Interim CFO," stated Ralph Hofmeier, the Company's Chief Executive Officer. "He brings strengths and a proven track record of financial and corporate development success. During his career Todd has played a significant role in helping grow and advise growth stage companies. He brings deep capital relationships and corporate structure expertise that will help us in executing on all EAWD's initiatives. Todd will help better align our capital structure and optimize the value of our assets." EAWD represents a compelling opportunity," said Mr. Lee. "The Company's management team and focus on arguably the most precious commodity and important investment theme, water, provides a great platform to improve capital structure and grow enterprise and equity value. I look forward to working with the team as it continues to improve the Company's capital discipline and grow returns from commercialization." Prior to joining EAWD, Mr. Lee managed a corporate finance advisory practice specializing in energy, infrastructure, and renewables. Previously Todd spent over a decade as an investment fund manager at Athena Asset Management in San Francisco. Todd holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Arizona State University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. About Energy and Water Development Corp. Energy and Water Development Corporation is a green-technology engineering company focused on delivering sustainable solutions for water and energy generation. The Company offers design, construction, maintenance, and specialty consulting services to private companies, government entities and non-government organizations (NGOs). EAWD builds water and energy systems using existing State of the Art proven technologies. The Company utilizes their technology in building customized solutions to meet their customers' needs. For more information, please visit www.eawctechnologies.com Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "expect," "should," "intend," "estimate," "projects," variations of such words and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not a forward-looking statement. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which can be obtained on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. Contact: Mark Komonoski Senior Vice President Integrous Communications Phone: 1-877-255-8483 Email: mkomonoski@integcom.us SOURCE: Energy and Water Development Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646764/Energy-and-Water-Development-Announces-New-Interim-Chief-Financial-Officer SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / ReelTime VR/ReelTime Media (OTC PINK:RLTR) has purchased 100% of LoudMouth Media Inc. from CMBJ. RLTR www.reeltime.com will issue 1.0M shares of Restricted Common Stock to CBMJ in exchange for receiving 5.0M shares (100%) of Loudmouth Media Inc. owned by Conservative Broadcast Media & journalism (OTC:CBMJ). In 2015 "Loudmouth News" which has been produced by ReelTime, became the first, longest running and only syndicated terrestrial (over the air) radio program that focused on the news relating to the marijuana industry in the USA and Canada. LoudMouth presents the news and commentary in an entertaining neutral manner highlighting the most impactful current news in politics, products, sociological issues, businesses, and the ever-changing perceptions of marijuana usage. LoudMouth News began as a two-minute syndicated news program and quickly grew to a five-minute segment running as news on a variety of stations across the nation. The news format can be listened to at www.loudmouthnews.com or on an increasing number of stations throughout the country. LoudMouth News is currently cleared to air on over 700 radio stations in the USA, 128 in Canada. In addition to being broadcast over the air, LoudMouth News is broadcast by YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVUtl_HEsKdZ1uTlnjmgB1Q and has been available as a podcast on all android and apple devices. Loudmouth was purchased previously from its creators by CBMJ in its former business model after becoming the title sponsor over six years ago and has continued to have ReelTime produce the property. Reeltime CEO Barry Henthorn stated: "LoudMouth has built a successful distribution network and has developed itself as a pioneer in cutting edge radio and multimedia content and commentary on all things related to the marijuana industry. Having produced the segments from inception we are very much aware of the impact and following it has developed and envision expanding its scope of subject matter and its distribution now that we own it 100%." "We are happy to be long term shareholders of ReelTime and over the next 2-3 years look forward to seeing Reeltime valuations increase as they grow their portfolio of media assets. We felt it was a better strategic fit at ReelTime as we focus our efforts on the integration of the Patriot Depot acquisition announced yesterday" stated CBMJ CEO Mark Schaftlein. About CBMJ: (CBMJ) Conservative Broadcast Media and Journalism is a Digital Marketing Company based in Metro-Atlanta that specializes in reaching a conservative/libertarian/religious audience. Among other assets, CBMJ operates numerous social media accounts across several platforms with over 2 million followers, owns an active database of over 12 million opt-in email subscribers, and publishes a network of 47 monetized political/news websites generating 10 million page views per month. Some of the marquis sites include www.flagandcross.com , and www.militarygradecoffee.com. The Company also maintains one of the largest collections of historical documents on the web at www.constitution.com . In addition, CBMJ operates a brick-and-mortar coffee shop in Hiram, GA, and e-commerce websites including www.thrashercoffee.com/ , www.valloranicigars.com , and an e-commerce portal at their primary site www.store.flagandcross.com/ . CBMJ now also owns the increasingly popular TV, radio, and social media segment "The Schaftlein Report" hosted by economic analyst and political commentator Mark Schaftlein. https://schaftleinreport.com/ About ReelTime Rentals, Inc. d/b/a ReelTime Media: www.reeltime.com is a publicly-traded company based in Seattle, WA (OTCPK:RLTR). ReelTime Media provides end-to-end production capabilities and discount media purchasing that is redefining how companies are evaluating and purchasing their TV, radio, print, and other new media. ReelTime is also is in the business of developing, producing and distributing Virtual Reality Content and technologies. We have an end to end production, editing, and distribution capabilities for internal and external projects. ReelTime Currently produces three ongoing series for the Samsung Gear VR platform and distributes them over numerous VR delivery portals, including Gear VR, Oculus, Veer VR, HTC Vive, YouTube 360, Facebook, and others. ReelTime Media also publishes the book "It Was Always Me! Edward Edwards, the Most Prolific Serial Killer of All Time," which has been the subject of a cover story on People Magazine, Rolling Stone, In Touch, and a six-part series on Paramount network, www.itwasalwaysme.com. CONTACT: Barry Henthorn CEO ceo@reeltime.com SOURCE: ReelTime Rentals Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646753/ReelTime-Acquires-100-of-LoudMouth-Media-from-CBMJ-Expanding-Scope-and-Distribution GURUGRAM, India, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- February 2021 | Indonesia News Key Findings Government plans to boost national production of local agricultural machinery and has prepared a budget worth USD 538 Million for machinery development in Indonesia . for machinery development in . The mechanization rate for land preparation is higher in Indonesia and it is forecasted to get mechanized further. Mechanization is also anticipated to increase the welfare of farm households & create employment opportunities in the rural areas. and it is forecasted to get mechanized further. Mechanization is also anticipated to increase the welfare of farm households & create employment opportunities in the rural areas. Java will continue to be the area with the highest demand and sales of hand tractors in the country along with forecasted revenue CAGR of 5.0% during 2020-2025. will continue to be the area with the highest demand and sales of hand tractors in the country along with forecasted revenue CAGR of 5.0% during 2020-2025. Penetration of combine harvesters is slowly increasing in cities other than Java & Sulawesi as the product segment is expected to replace rice transplanters in future. Indonesia government plans to invest in R&D - Rice science to further improve yields on available favourable land, while expanding rice production to frontier areas, where the rice plant must withstand harsher environments. Indonesian farmers are likely to increase the usage of disc plough on the farms over long term. Working capacity of less than 40HP tractors with single plough is gaining traction for both dry & wet fields. Agriculture sector currently accounts for 14% of nation's GDP in accordance with the Indonesia's statistical department. The proportion is anticipated to increase in future leading to higher demand for agriculture equipment including both 2W & 4W tractors. Demand for 4 wheel tractors will continue to arise from Sumatra and Kalimantan in the future, due to the above average farm holding size in these regions. Among product segments, combine harvesters are mainly demanded by a limited target audience and farmers and agricultural cooperatives and this particular trend is expected to continue in the near future. Manufacturers have invested into R&D to minimize post harvest loss and reduction in grain damage during harvesting. COVID Impact on Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Market Sales Value & Volume: Restrictions were put in place thereby, causing delay in harvesting of major staple crops such as rice and further halt in farm operations. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the companies are now focusing on new strategies of assembling & producing machineries locally. Lowering trade barriers can also aid the country to diversify import sources to hedge the trade risks from other countries. The report titled "Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Market Outlook to 2025 - By Tractors Market (2 Wheeled & 4 Wheeled Tractors; < 40HP, 40-70HP & >70HP Tractors; Combine Harvesters Market (Less than 70HP, 70HP and >70HP); Rice Transplanters Market; Implements Market (Rotavator, Plough, Harrow, Fertilizer Spreaders & Others); and Regional Demand of Agriculture Equipment (Java, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Kalimantan & Others)" by Ken Research suggested that the overall agriculture equipment market is further expected to grow in the near future as both existing companies and new entrants can focus on investment in 2W hand tractors / tillers; expansion in dealer network to widen their service capabilities; tie-ups between banks and private finance companies / institutions; focus on after sales support services to gain customer attention; participating in agricultural exhibitions and other marketing initiatives. The market is expected to register a positive six year CAGR of 6.1% and 5.7% in terms of sales value and volume respectively during the forecast period 2020-2025. Tractors market, combine harvesters market rice transplanters market and implements market in Indonesia is further expected to grow at revenue CAGR of 6.0%, 7.5%, 4.7% & 3.8% respectively and volume CAGR of 5.6%, 7.5% & 4.7% respectively during forecast period 2020-2025. Key Segments Covered Type of Agriculture Equipment Tractors By Two Wheeled and Four Wheeled Tractors By Horse Power (HP) Less Than 40HP 40HP-70HP Above 70HP By Regional Demand Jawa Sulawesi Sumatra Kalimantan Others (Includes remaining regions of Indonesia such as Bali , Papua and rest) such as , and rest) Combine Harvesters By Horse Power (HP) Less than 70HP and 70HP Above 70HP By Regional Demand Sulawesi Jawa Sumatra Kalimantan Others (Includes remaining regions of Indonesia such as Bali , Papua and rest) such as , and rest) Rice Transplanters By Regional Demand Jawa Sulawesi Kalimantan Sumatra Others (Includes remaining regions of Indonesia such as Bali , Papua and rest) such as , and rest) Implements By Implement Type Rotavator Plough Harrow Fertilizer Spreads Others (Dozers, Front Loader, Hay Balers and Sprayers) Agriculture Equipment Manufacturers Covered PT. Rutan Indonesia CV. Karya Hidup Sentosa - Quick PT. Kubota Indonesia PT. Yanmar Indonesia PT. Traktor Nusantara Altrak 1978 PT. Satrindo Mitra Utama PT. Wahana Inti Selaras: John Deere Other Players ( Massey Ferguson , Maxxi, Tanikaya, Galaxy and SAAM) Financing Companies Covered JTO Finance Equity Finance BAF Finance, Asia Finance Other Companies (Mitsui Group and Hitachi Group Finance) Key Target Audience Agriculture Equipment Manufacturing Companies Industry Associations Regulatory Bodies Financing Companies Agriculture Equipment Distributors & Authorized Dealerships Time Period Captured in the Report:- Historical Period - 2014-2020 - 2014-2020 Forecast Period - 2020-2025 Key Topics Covered in the Report Country Overview Agriculture Overview / Scenario in Indonesia Cropland Planting Trends in Indonesia , 2015-2019 , 2015-2019 How Farmers Operate in Indonesia ? ? Supply Side of Indonesia Agriculture Machinery Market Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Market Indonesia Tractors Market, 2014-2025 Indonesia Combine Harvesters Market, 2014-2025 Indonesia Rice Transplanters Market, 2014-2025 Indonesia Implements Market, 2014-2025 Snapshot on Rental Agriculture Equipment Business in Indonesia Snapshot on Second Hand Machinery Market in Indonesia Financing for Agriculture Machinery in Indonesia Comparative Landscape in Indonesia Agriculture Machinery Market Agriculture Machinery Market Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Product Analysis Indonesia Agri. Equip. Market Future Outlook & Projections, 2020-2025 Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Sales Volume Indonesia Tractors Market Size Indonesia Combine Harvesters Market Size Indonesia Rice Transplanters Market Size Indonesia Implements Market Size Financing for Agriculture Equipment in Indonesia 2 nd Hand Agriculture Equipment Scenario in Indonesia Hand Agriculture Equipment Scenario in Rental Agriculture Equipment Scenario in Indonesia Major Staple Crops Produced in Indonesia Major Cash Crops Produced in Indonesia Major Rice producing Regions in Indonesia producing Regions in Trade Scenario of Food Crops in Indonesia Cropland Planting Trends in Indonesia Indonesia Agribusiness Tools Indonesian Farmer Characteristics Daily Wage of Farmers in Indonesia Indonesia Average Farmer Smallholder Household Small Family Farming Indonesia Farming Systems Adopted in Indonesia Indonesia Farm Labor Wages Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Market Value Chain Indonesia 4W Tractors 4W Tractors Indonesia 2W Tractors 2W Tractors International Agriculture Equipment Brands Indonesia Domestic Agriculture Equipment Brands Indonesia Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Market Trends Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Market Challenges Kubota Indonesia Market Share Yanmar Indonesia Market Share Quick Indonesia Sales Volume Major Players Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Market For more information on the research report, refer to below link: Indonesia Agriculture Equipment Market Outlook to 2025 Related Reports Thailand Agricultural Machinery Market Outlook to 2025 - Agriculture Tractor Market (By Type: 2W and 4W Tractors, By Power: 8HP-15HP, 20HP-35HP, 36HP-47HP, 48HP-75HP, 75HP-100HP, 100HP-120HP and Above 120HP), Combine Harvester Market (By Power: 70HP & Below, 75HP-105HP and Above 105HP), By Rice Transplanters (By Rows: 4Row, 6Row and 8Row), Agriculture Implements Market The report covers aspects such as the market size on the basis of sales volume and revenue for Tractors, Combine Harvesters, Rice Transplanters, and Agriculture Implements. The segmentation for Tractors, Combine Harvesters has been created on the basis of Horsepower while the segmentation for Rice Transplanters has been showcased by Row. The report also covers the market share, competitive landscape, and business model of hire purchase and lease, along with the strength and weaknesses of major players. US Tractor and Combine Harvesters Market Outlook to 2024 - By Tractor Type (2WD and 4WD), By Tractor HP (<40 HP, 40-100 HP and >100 HP) and By Combine Harvester HP (Upto 250 HP, 250-350 HP and Above 350 HP) The report provides a comprehensive analysis on US tractors and combine harvesters market. The report covers various aspects including market overview, value chain analysis, market evolution, market size of tractors and combine harvesters by sales value and volume, market segmentation by type and its sub segments by horse power, trade scenario, regulatory framework impacting the US market, snapshot on secondhand agriculture equipment market, equipment financing market, rental market and after sale services market, customer profiling in US agriculture equipment market and competition landscape. Philippines Agricultural Equipment Market Outlook to 2023- By Product Type (Tractors, Combine Harvesters, Planters, Seeders and Tillage Equipments and Tillage Equipment), By Tractor Segment (Up to 60 Hp, Between 61-130 Hp and above 130 Hp), By Production (Imported and Domestically Manufactured) and By Region (Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao) The report covers various aspects including overview and market size, market segmentation, trends and development, issues and challenges, snapshots on (Equipments Financing and Rentals, Aftermarket services and Diesel Engines), competitive landscape, market share of major players (Kubota, Yanmar, Massey Ferguson, CNH, John Deere, McCormick and Landini) in agricultural equipment market. The report concludes with market projection and analyst recommendations highlighting the major opportunities and cautions. Contact Us: Ken Research Ankur Gupta, Head Marketing & Communications Ankur@kenresearch.com +91-9015378249 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/661352/Ken_Research_Logo.jpg LONDON AND ASSOCIATED PROPERTIES PLC - Annual Report and Notice of AGM FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 12 May 2021 London and Associated Properties PLC Annual Report and Notice of AGM This is to confirm that London and Associated Properties PLC ("LAP" or "the Company") has posted its Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2020 and Notice of Annual General Meeting (to be held on Tuesday, 15 June 2021). The document is now available on the Company's website and a copy posted to all shareholders who requested a printed copy. A letter was sent to those shareholders who had consented to web publications to advise them that the document was now available on the company's website. An RNS announcement of the text of the Annual Report excluding the Notice of AGM was made on 7 May 2021. Copies of the Annual Report may be obtained from the Company Secretary at the Company's registered office, 24 Bruton Place, London, W1J 6NE and is available for download from www.lap.co.uk. Copies of the above documents have been submitted to the National Storage Mechanism and will shortly be available for inspection at https://data.fca.org.uk/#/nsm/nationalstoragemechanism Ends. Contact: Jonathan Mintz, Company Secretary, LAP. Tel: 020 7415 5000 New Oxbryta, taking place online June 9-17, 2021. Results from an analysis of the Phase 2a HOPE-KIDS 1 Study (GBT440-007) in children with SCD ages 4 to 11 years treated with Oxbryta (voxelotor) tablets will be presented for the first time in an oral session. The HOPE-KIDS 1 analysis, which evaluated 45 children treated with Oxbryta (1,500 mg or weight-based equivalent), found that 47 percent achieved a hemoglobin increase of >1 g/dL at 24 weeks. Reductions in markers of hemolysis were also observed. Oxbryta was well tolerated, and no new adverse safety signals were detected. The most commonly reported treatment-related adverse events were diarrhea (11 percent), vomiting (11 percent) and rash (11 percent). These findings from the HOPE-KIDS 1 Study are consistent with data from the Phase 3 HOPE Study of patients with SCD ages 12 years and older, which was published in The New England Journal of Medicineand presented as part of the Presidential Symposium at the EHA Congress in June 2019. The complete analysis of 72-week data from the HOPE Study was recently published in The Lancet Haematology, showing durable improvement in hemoglobin levels and reduction in hemolysis for patients receiving Oxbryta. "New treatment options for younger children with sickle cell disease are urgently needed. We believe that reducing the sickling and destruction of red blood cells, thereby improving the anemia and hemolysis that characterize this devastating inherited condition early in life, could modify the course of the disease and alleviate serious and life-threatening complications," said Ted W. Love, M.D., president and chief executive officer of GBT. "We are encouraged by the extensive body of new data being presented at this year's EHA Congress, supporting the use of Oxbryta in both real-world and clinical trial settings. We look forward to potentially expanding access to Oxbryta over time across a broad range of sickle cell disease patients in the U.S., Europe, the Gulf Cooperation Council region and other areas." The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted for review GBT's Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) seeking full marketing authorization of Oxbryta in Europe to treat hemolytic anemia in SCD patients ages 12 years and older. GBT also plans to seek regulatory approval to expand the potential use of Oxbryta in the United States for the treatment of SCD in children as young as 4 years old. The EHA abstracts are available at https://ehaweb.org.All oral and poster presentations will be available on the EHA website on Friday, June 11, at 9:00 a.m. CEST/3:00 a.m. EDT. Other abstracts to be presented include real-world evidence supporting the use of Oxbryta in patients ages 12 and older. Full details are as follows: Oral Session: Changing the scene on sickle cell disease Abstract S260: Safety and Efficacy of Voxelotor in Pediatric Patients with Sickle Cell Disease Aged 4-11 Years Presenter: Clark Brown, M.D., Ph.D., Children's Healthcare of Atlanta Live Q&A: Tuesday, June 15, 16:00-16:45 CEST/10:00-10:45 a.m. EDT Poster Session: Sickle cell disease Abstract EP1209: Real-World Experience of Voxelotor for the Treatment of Patients with Sickle Cell Disease - A Single-Center Study Presenter: Alan R. Anderson, M.D., University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville Abstract EP1206: Real-World Experience of Patients with Sickle Cell Disease Treated with Voxelotor: A Multicenter, Retrospective Study Presenter: Biree Andemariam, M.D., University of Connecticut Health Abstract EP1198: GBT021601 Improves the Pathophysiology of Sickle Cell Disease in a Murine Model Presenter: Kobina Dufu, Ph.D., GBT Abstract EP1201: Silent Cerebral Infarcts in Pediatric Sickle Cell Disease Natural History Cohort: Too Many, Too Soon? Presenter: Raffaella Colombatti, M.D., Ph.D., University of Padova, Italy Publication Only Abstract PB1769: Pediatric Patient Reported Outcomes in Patients Receiving Voxelotor for Sickle Cell Disease First Author: Clark Brown, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Sickle Cell Clinical Research, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta About Sickle Cell Disease Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects an estimated 100,000 people in the United States,2 an estimated 52,000 people in Europe,3 and millions of people throughout the world, particularly among those whose ancestors are from sub-Saharan Africa.2 It also affects people of Hispanic, South Asian, Southern European and Middle Eastern ancestry.2 SCD is a lifelong inherited rare blood disorder that impacts hemoglobin, a protein carried by red blood cells that delivers oxygen to tissues and organs throughout the body.4 Due to a genetic mutation, individuals with SCD form abnormal hemoglobin known as sickle hemoglobin. Through a process called hemoglobin polymerization, red blood cells become sickled - deoxygenated, crescent-shaped and rigid.4-6 The sickling process causes hemolytic anemia (low hemoglobin due to red blood cell destruction) and blockages in capillaries and small blood vessels, which impede the flow of blood and oxygen throughout the body. The diminished oxygen delivery to tissues and organs can lead to life-threatening complications, including stroke and irreversible organ damage.5-8 About Oxbryta (voxelotor) tablets Oxbryta (voxelotor) is an oral, once-daily therapy for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Oxbryta works by increasing hemoglobin's affinity for oxygen. Since oxygenated sickle hemoglobin does not polymerize, Oxbryta inhibits sickle hemoglobin polymerization and the resultant sickling and destruction of red blood cells, which are primary pathologies faced by every single person living with SCD. Through addressing hemolytic anemia and improving oxygen delivery throughout the body, GBT believes that Oxbryta has the potential to modify the course of SCD. On Nov. 25, 2019, Oxbryta received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accelerated approval for the treatment of SCD in adults and children 12 years of age and older.8 As a condition of accelerated approval, GBT will continue to study Oxbryta in the HOPE-KIDS 2 Study, a post-approval confirmatory study using transcranial Doppler (TCD) flow velocity to assess the ability of the therapy to decrease stroke risk in children 2 to 15 years of age. In recognition of the critical need for new SCD treatments, the FDA granted Oxbryta Breakthrough Therapy, Fast Track, Orphan Drug, and Rare Pediatric Disease designations for the treatment of patients with SCD. Additionally, Oxbryta has been granted Priority Medicines (PRIME) designation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA), and the European Commission (EC) has designated Oxbryta as an orphan medicinal product for the treatment of patients with SCD. Important Safety Information Oxbryta should not be taken if the patient has had an allergic reaction to voxelotor or any of the ingredients in Oxbryta. See the end of the patient leaflet for a list of the ingredients in Oxbryta. Oxbryta can cause serious side effects, including serious allergic reactions. Patients should tell their health care provider or get emergency medical help right away if they get rash, hives, shortness of breath or swelling of the face. Patients receiving exchange transfusions should talk to their health care provider about possible difficulties with the interpretation of certain blood tests when taking Oxbryta. The most common side effects of Oxbryta include headache, diarrhea, stomach (abdominal) pain, nausea, tiredness, rash and fever. These are not all the possible side effects of Oxbryta. Before taking Oxbryta, patients should tell their health care provider about all medical conditions, including if they have liver problems; if they are pregnant or plan to become pregnant as it is not known if Oxbryta can harm an unborn baby; or if they are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed as it is not known if Oxbryta can pass into breastmilk or if it can harm a baby. Patients should not breastfeed during treatment with Oxbryta and for at least two weeks after the last dose. Patients should tell their health care provider about all the medicines they take, including prescription and over-the-counter medicines, vitamins and herbal supplements. Some medicines may affect how Oxbryta works. Oxbryta may also affect how other medicines work. Patients are advised to call their doctor for medical advice about side effects. Side effects can be reported to the FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088. Side effects can also be reported to Global Blood Therapeutics at 1-833-428-4968 (1-833-GBT-4YOU). Full Prescribing Information for Oxbryta is available at Oxbryta.com. About Global Blood Therapeutics Global Blood Therapeuticsand follow the company on Twitter @GBT_news. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements containing the words "will," "anticipates," "plans," "believes," "forecast," "estimates," "expects" and "intends," or similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are based on GBT's current expectations and actual results could differ materially. Statements in this press release may include statements that are not historical facts and are considered forward-looking within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. GBT intends these forward-looking statements, including statements regarding GBT's priorities, dedication, commitment, focus, goals, mission and vision; safety, efficacy and mechanism of action of Oxbryta and other product characteristics; significance of reducing sickling and hemolysis and raising hemoglobin; commercialization, delivery, availability, use and commercial and medical potential of Oxbryta; significance of data to be presented at the EHA Congress, including support for the use of Oxbryta; ongoing and planned studies and related protocols, activities and expectations; regulatory submissions, review and approval to potentially expand the approved use of Oxbryta for more patients in the U.S. and to treat patients in Europe and other territories; altering the treatment, course and care of SCD and mitigating related complications; potential and advancement of GBT's pipeline, including inclacumab and other product candidates; and working on new targets and discovering, developing and delivering treatments, to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act, and GBT makes this statement for purposes of complying with those safe harbor provisions. These forward-looking statements reflect GBT's current views about its plans, intentions, expectations, strategies and prospects, which are based on the information currently available to the company and on assumptions the company has made. GBT can give no assurance that the plans, intentions, expectations or strategies will be attained or achieved, and, furthermore, actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements and will be affected by a variety of risks and factors that are beyond GBT's control, including, without limitation, risks and uncertainties relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, including the extent and duration of the impact on GBT's business, including commercialization activities, regulatory efforts, research and development, corporate development activities and operating results, which will depend on future developments that are highly uncertain and cannot be accurately predicted, such as the ultimate duration of the pandemic, travel restrictions, quarantines, social distancing and business closure requirements in the U.S. and in other countries, and the effectiveness of actions taken globally to contain and treat the disease; the risks that GBT is continuing to establish its commercialization capabilities and may not be able to successfully commercialize Oxbryta; risks associated with GBT's dependence on third parties for development, manufacture, distribution and commercialization activities related to Oxbryta; government and third-party payer actions, including those relating to reimbursement and pricing; risks and uncertainties relating to competitive products and other changes that may limit demand for Oxbryta; the risks regulatory authorities may require additional studies or data to support continued commercialization of Oxbryta; the risks that drug-related adverse events may be observed during commercialization or clinical development; data and results may not meet regulatory requirements or otherwise be sufficient for further development, regulatory review or approval; compliance with obligations under the Pharmakon loan; and the timing and progress of activities under GBT's collaborations and license agreements; along with those risks set forth in GBT's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, and in GBT's most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as discussions of potential risks, uncertainties and other important factors in GBT's subsequent filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, GBT assumes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. References Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/data.html (https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/sicklecell/data.html). Accessed June 3, 2019. European Medicines Agency. https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/orphan-designations/eu3182125 (https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/medicines/human/orphan-designations/eu3182125). Accessed June 12, 2020. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute website. Sickle Cell Disease. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sickle-cell-disease (https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sickle-cell-disease). Accessed August 5, 2019. Rees DC, et al. Lancet. 2010;376(9757):2018-2031. Kato GJ, et al. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2018;4:18010. Kato GJ, et al. J Clin Invest. 2017;127(3):750-760. Caboot JB, et al. Paediatr Respir Rev. 2014;15(1):17-23. Oxbryta (voxelotor) tablets prescribing information. South San Francisco, Calif. Global Blood Therapeutics, Inc.; November 2019. Contact: Steven Immergut Courtney Roberts LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mukuru Africa (Pty) Ltd was awarded the "Most Innovative Online Remittance App" in South Africa by Global Brands Magazine during 2021 FinTech Awards Program. Mukuru Africa was recognized by the jury for their successful efforts in creating a reliable financial banking ecosystem. Founded in 2004 in the United Kingdom, Mukuru is an Africa-based Fintech company that gives the emerging consumer, access to affordable and reliable financial services. Their foundation is built on international money transfers and today as the largest Money Transfer provider in Africa enables over 8 million customers to move money into, out of, and around Africa. Mr. Andy Jury, Chief Executive Officer of Mukuru commented, "We appreciate the work done by the Global Brands Awards in highlighting exceptional service and performance and we see this award as an acknowledgement of all the hard work and passion our people have put into delivering the finest fintech products and services that take their cue from our customers' needs and aspirations for greater financial security and a better life. "Our customers have been asking for a Mukuru App, and we made sure to develop and present a solution that empowers individuals to send money back home to their families in an even safer and more convenient way. Mukuru has always given its customers the ability to transact when and wherever they need to through our existing USSD and WhatsApp offerings - the Mukuru App adds a richer experience and more control for a customer to manage their profile," Jury says. The Global Brand Awards aim to recognize such brands achieving excellence across a broad range of sectors while keeping its readers updated on key trends surrounding the branding world. This award is a testament to the lengths Mukuru is willing to go to ensure they are successful in their consistent efforts to elevate customer satisfaction. Mr. Jay Reddy, Director of Global Brands Magazine commented: "At the GBM FinTech Awards we celebrate the spirit of innovation in the FinTech sector. Mukuru has been at the forefront of innovation and this award is a testament to the technical quality and the array of solutions developed. We are keen to see Mukuru Africa continue to innovate in the digital banking space." About Mukuru Mukuru is the largest money transfer provider in Africa and a leading Next-Gen Financial Services Platform that offers affordable and reliable financial services to the emerging consumer. As a fintech provider, Mukuru has underpinned its successful customer engagement strategy with the ability to 'speak the language' of its users and gain a grassroots understanding of the unique pain points that customers face in each market. About Global Brands Magazine (UK) Global Brands Magazine (GBM) has been at the forefront, bringing news, views and opinions on brands that are shaping the future of their industry. The UK-based magazine provides its readers with the latest news and information on 'best-in-class brands across the globe. Each year, GBM develops a series of awards for companies that stood out having a unique vision, exceptional service, innovative solutions and consumer-centric products, among their industry leaders. About Global Brand Awards: Global Brand Awards honours brands for their excellence in performance and rewards companies across different sectors for the quality of their services. The Brand Awards highlight accomplishments of organizations that have performed remarkably well in the field of Finance, Education, Hospitality, Automobiles, Lifestyle, Education, Real Estate, Technology and several more. Global Brand Awards recognize key players who make progress toward excellence by providing a platform to acknowledge their efforts. In addition, GBM strives to create awareness concerning the significance of such organizations and reward them for their notable efforts with the ultimate global recognition. Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1508879/GBM_Final_Logo.jpg The "Baltic and Nordic States Data Centre Landscape 2021-2025: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Data Centre Nordics 2021 to 2025 report provides analysis of the key third-party Data Centre Public Cloud developments across the five countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. It provides the key trends in each market with Data Centre Provider profiles with forecasts for Data Centre space, Data Centre power, Data Centre pricing, Data Centre revenues, power costs and Public Cloud revenues for each of the five countries from 2021 to 2025. There are over 100 DC Providers offerings services in over 200 Data Centre facilities across the Nordic region including the five countries with Data Centre space just under 400,000 m2 and over 600 MW of Power. The Data Centre Nordics 2021 to 2025 report analyses the Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden third-party Data Centre and Cloud markets over the period and finds that the region is set for renewed growth particularly for HPC (High Performance Computing) users. The Data Centre Nordics 2021 to 2025 report provides an update of the Data Centre Landscape in each market including sub sea cable connectivity, Data Centre space, Data Centre power, Data Centre pricing and Data Centre revenues for each country over the period. It also provides a forecast for Public Cloud revenues in each of the five countries. From the report DCP finds that the Nordic Region is dominated by the Swedish and Norwegian markets which each have over 120,000 m2 of third-party Data Centre raised floor space. Both countries benefit from an abundance of low cost renewable power attracting new users with high density power hungry IT applications. Facilities are being built which offer high power densities per rack with the Swedish at North facility (at Kista near Stockholm) supporting up to 40 kW of power per rack (if air cooled) and 100 kW of power per rack (if liquid cooled). In Norway, the Government is considering new legislation to encourage excess heat from the Data Centre to be reused in a nearby district heating network, proposing that companies who consume 2 MW of power or more to reuse excess heat. The Norwegian Government argues that as power costs in Norway are low legislation is required to encourage more efficient power use. Selected Data Centre Providers in the Nordics are expanding their facilities in the region. DigiPlex, a Norwegian Data Centre Provider is to build its first Data Centre campus near Copenhagen with up to five Data Centre facilities when built out. Green Edge Compute AS, a recent start-up in Norway, is to open its first facility near Trondheim in Norway, to support IoT (Internet of Things) with plans to open in other cities throughout Scandinavia. Iceland the smallest of the five countries has introduced a number of facilities aimed at bitcoin mining or HPC (High Performance Computing) applications based on low cost renewable power. Iceland has seen campus facilities from at North, Verne Global Etix Borealis offering high power densities provided as standard. With the emphasis on low cost renewable energy and the ability to significantly lower the Data Centre carbon footprint by deploying applications in the Nordics, the analyst finds that there is the opportunity for the Nordic Region to continue to expand its market reach and challenge the established Tier 1 European markets based on the most favourable energy costs in Europe. Baltic States (Estonia Latvia Lithuania) Data Centre Landscape 2021 to 2025 This new 55-page report considers the growth of Data Centre space, power, pricing for the Baltic region covering Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The report shows the revenues for Cloud and Data Centre Market forecast over the period from the beginning of 2021 to the beginning of 2025 and provides profiles of the Data Centre providers in the Baltic States. There are over twenty Data Centre Providers across the three states hosting in just under 50 facilities. The facilities if compared with for example the Nordics countries, are relatively small with the largest being in Lithuania with a DC space of just over 3,000 m2, followed by Infonet's in Estonia with a space of 1,725 m2. 74% of the DC facilities located in the Baltic States have less than 1,000 m2 of Data Centre Space. There is an investment in the region with the MCF Data Centre facility in Estonia to become the largest facility in the region currently under construction and is due to be completed by the end of 2021 with up to 14,000 m2 of Data Centre raised floor when built out. The analyst forecasts that the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will see a 58% revenue growth over the 4-year period mid-2021 to mid-2025, equivalent to a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 14.4 percent per annum. Companies Mentioned DigiPlex Etix Borealis Green Edge Compute AS Infonet MCF Data Centre Verne Global For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/8eaoxa View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005692/en/ Contacts: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 We didnt have a lot of transparency back in the day, I think weve come a long way since those times, Supervisor Stephen Greenwood said. I think we are headed that way and this gives us some pointers on what we need to do to move forward and keep everything on track. Growing penetration of social media and advanced technology to positively impact the skin care devices market growth. DUBAI, U.A.E, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rapidly growing beauty industry and technological advancements providing multiple facilities are amplifying skin care devices sales. As per a study of Future Market Insights (FMI), rising incidence of skin disorders and growing concerns among consumers is stimulating the adoption of skin care devices. Increasing concerns about the appearance and technological advancements in cosmetic procedures, such as face contouring, skin rejuvenation and many more, are some of the factors improving the demand of skin care devices. On the back of these factors, the global skin care devices market is poised to expand at an impressive rate of 15% CAGR for the forecast period of 2021 and 2031. Proliferation of beauty experts, influencers and media bloggers through social media platforms are encouraging the skin care devices sales. Also, integration of artificial intelligence in beauty care products is growing the adoption of skin care devices among consumers. "Increasing focus of companies on the design and development of effective skin care devices is improving the market growth. Also, rising demand from the millennials with increasing awareness about the beauty and routine skin care regimen is propelling the demand of skin care devices," remarks the FMI analyst. Request a report sample with 133 pages to gain comprehensive insights at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-13113 Key Takeaways Cleaning devices accounted for highest sales as compared to other devices through 2031 At-home end-users to register notable growth over the forecast period Increasing internet penetration to amplify the sales for online retailers The U.S. accounted for over 80% share in North America due to the increased social media influence and high spending on smart technologies due to the increased social media influence and high spending on smart technologies France , Germany and UK to emerge as lucrative market for skin care devices , and UK to emerge as lucrative market for skin care devices Flourishing beauty industry and mounting social media influence on beauty trends to drive the sales in India Prominent Drivers Increasing awareness for skin care and aesthetic procedures are propelling the demand of skin care devices Declining social stigma associated with male skin care will accelerate the demand of skin care devices in the upcoming decade Incorporation of advanced technology in skin care devices and products is improving the demand of skin care devices among consumers Rising incidence of skin disorders is increasing the need for developed skin care devices among consumers, providing growth opportunities for key players Key Restraints Reimbursement uncertainties and stringent regulatory policies are expended to restrict the market growth High cost of dermatologist treatment in emerging economies is likely to hamper the demand of skin care devices Discover more about the signage market with figures and data tables, along with the table of contents. You will also find detailed market segmentation on https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/skin-care-devices-market Competitive Landscape Koninklijke Philips N.V., Pure Daily Care, Shenzhen Mareal Technology Co. Ltd., L'Oreal SA, Nu Skin Enterprises, Panasonic Corporation, Syneron Medical Ltd., Home Skinovations Ltd., TRIA Beauty Inc., Procter and Gamble, PhtotoMedex Inc., Carol Cole Company Inc., Lumenis, MTG Co. Ltd., FOREO, and DD Karma Ltd among others are some of the top players listed by Future Market Insights. FMI forecasts the market to be highly competitive. Premium brands are focusing on adopting strategies such as collaboration and tie-ups to maintain that competitive edge in the industry. Key players are relying on social media and digital marketing along with new product launches integrated with advanced technology to stay ahead in the competition. For instance, in February 2021, Havells India Limited, a leading fast moving electrical goods company, announced its entry into electrical skin care segment with the launch of essential skin care essential range with advanced technology incorporated in various products such as pore cleanser, facial cleanser, callus remover and many more cost-effective DIY products. Also, in January 2021, Nu Skin Enterprises Inc., announced the acquisitions of 3i Solutions, an innovative company that develops and manufactures ingredients for consumer markets through encapsulation technologies. Furthermore, on 9thFebruary 2021, the global leader in premium-quality beauty and wellness products announced to be the first beauty brand to use sugarcane based Eco-Pac sustainable packaging. For any Queries Linked with the Report, Ask an Analyst@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-13111 Additionally, Fittop, a national high-tech enterprise launched its smart beauty device, Facial cleansing brush L-Sonic and Plasma Acne Beauty Device in October 2020 at Cosmoprof Asia Digital Week. More Insights on FMI's Signage Market In its latest report, Future Market Insights provides an exhaustive analysis on the key growth drivers and factors affecting the global skin care devices market over the forecast period of 2021 and 2031. To gain a better understanding on the markets' key segments and sub-segments, FMI has segregated the market on the basis of product type (cleansing devices, anti-ageing devices, skin texture tone enhancement, and acne treatment devices), end-user (at-home and salon & spa), price range (economy, mid-range and premium) and sales channel (direct sales, modern trade, departmental stores, specialty stores, online retailers, mono brand stores, and other sales channel) across key geographies. Buy now@ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/13111 Explore FMI's Extensive Coverage on Consumer Products Domain Anti-Pollution Skin Care Market: The anti-pollution skin care market report by Future Market Insights (FMI) offers an exhaustive analysis on the ongoing and upcoming trends while incorporating the effect of the pandemic on demand-supply chain, and opportunities & challenges during the forecast period of 2021 to 2031. Market dynamics have been presented on the basis of prominent growth factors and competitive landscape prevailing across major regions and countries for the aforementioned decade. Tea-Based Skin Care Products Market: The global market report on tea-based skin care products by ESOMAR-certified consulting firm Future Market Insights gives a bird's eye perspective on the shortcomings and forthcomings for the market for the period between 2021 and 2031. Additionally, to find the effect of COVID-19 on the tea-based skin care products market in general, the study monitor global tea-based skin care products in key growth markets across major regions. Baby Bath and Shower Products Market: In its latest study, ESOMAR-certified market research and consulting firm Future Market Insights (FMI) provides deeper insights on key factors that influence the demand for baby bath and shower products. The report covers global demand for baby bath and shower products in more than 20 high potential markets, in addition to an in-depth analysis of the impact of COVID-19 on the global Baby bath and shower products market. About Future Market Insights (FMI) Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in Dubai, and has delivery centers in the UK, U.S. and India. FMI's latest market research reports and industry analysis help businesses navigate challenges and make critical decisions with confidence and clarity amidst breakneck competition. Our customized and syndicated market research reports deliver actionable insights that drive sustainable growth. A team of expert-led analysts at FMI continuously tracks emerging trends and events in a broad range of industries to ensure that our clients prepare for the evolving needs of their consumers. Contact: Abhishek Budholiya Future Market Insights, 1602-6 Jumeirah Bay X2 Tower, Plot No: JLT-PH2-X2A, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates For Sales Enquiries: sales@futuremarketinsights.com For Media Enquiries: press@futuremarketinsights.com Website: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/skin-care-devices-market Press Release Source: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/press-release/skin-care-devices-market Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1197648/FMI_Logo.jpg Digital India is the government's flagship program transforming the country into a digital knowledge economy and empowered society. These initiatives will lead to the development of data centers to store the data in the country itself. In 2020, government-owned organizations such as the National Payments Corporation of India, State Bank of India, and Information Technology Department Tamil Nadu invested in data centers to improve the digital (cloud-based) services offered by various government agencies in the country. In November 2020, The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) drafted a data center policy, as a party of Government Initiatives to fuel data center growth. 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. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Gas stations along the U.S. East Coast, in particular, the parts of the Southeast, are running out of fuel as an after effect of supply cut from Colonial Pipeline that was shut down after a ransomware attack. More than 12 percent of gas stations in North Carolina, 8.6 percent in Virginia, 8 percent in Georgia, and 5.9 percent in South Carolina have run dry of gasoline, according to GasBuddy, an app that tracks fuel prices and demand. Long queues of vehicles waiting for refilling gasoline are reported across the eastern U.S. Panic buying is causing gas stations in the region to run out of stock. The supply shortage reflected in gas prices, with AAA reporting a national average of 8 cents rise in price to $3.01 a gallon Wednesday. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm urged gas station owners to 'act responsibly,' and warned that there will be no tolerance for price gouging. 'Federal and state officials will be investigating those actions if they see price gouging. And we are urging consumers to report any price gouging to their state attorneys general,' Granholm said at a news conference. Colonial Pipeline said that they expect to substantially restore operations by the end of this week. Granholm said one of Colonial's major lines resumed operation under manual control while the existing inventory is available, along with some of the smaller lines. She said she had several conversations with the CEO of Colonial, who has indicted that by close of business Wednesday, the oil company will be in a position to make the full restart decision. 'But even after that decision is made, it will take a few days to ramp up operations. This pipeline has never been shut down before. It travels great distances. There is fuel in the pipe and then there is fuel - the offtake from the refineries that have to be added. So it will take a few days to be up and running,' Granholm told reporters. She added that the Environmental Protection Agency issued a waiver of the blend of fuels for the affected states to allow using noncompliant fuel and boost available supply where it is needed. Further, the Federal Rail Administration is working to enlist rail operators in an effort to transport fuel to and from ports inland. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will issue orders quickly to direct the pipeline to prioritize fuel to the areas that are most in need once the pipeline is up and running. President Biden is receiving regular briefings on the incident and has directed agencies across the Federal Government to bring their resources to bear to help alleviate shortages, the White House said. The Colonial Pipeline, which carries 2.5 million barrels of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel daily, or 45 percent of the East Coast's supply, was completely shut down last week as a result of a ransomware attack. The hackers locked the data on some computers and servers, demanding a ransom. More than $350 million in losses is attributable to ransomware attacks this year. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de Press Release CombinedGeneral Shareholders' Meeting held on Wednesday May 12, 2021 Paris (France), May 12, 2021 -Technicolor(Euronext Paris: TCH, OTCQX: TCLRY) announces that the Combined General Shareholders' Meeting of Technicolor SA, chaired by Ms. Anne Bouverot, Chairperson of the Board of Directors, was held today behind closed doors at the registered office of the Company. The Shareholders' Meeting being held behind closed doors, the entire vote was conducted by mail. Considering all postal votes and proxies given to the Chairperson of the General Meeting, it appears that the shareholders represented or voting by post held 116,474,688 shares with voting rights, i.e. a quorum of 49.39% for the Combined General Shareholders' Meeting. All the resolutions proposed were approved by a large majority. The detailed voting results are available on Technicolor's website www.technicolor.comunder the heading dedicated to the Shareholders' Meeting. In particular, the Shareholders' Meeting: approved the statutory and the consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year 2020 as well as the proposed allocation of the net result, approved the related-party agreements mentioned in the Statutory Auditors' special report, renewed the term of office of Ms. Melinda J. Mount and of Bpifrance Participations, reappointed Mr. Richard Moat, Chief Executive Officer, as a Director, approved the compensation policy of the directors, of the Chairperson of the Board of Directors, and of the Chief Executive Officer as well as the components of their compensation for the year 2020, authorized the potential carrying out of a new share buyback program, approved the proposed amendments to the Company's bylaws. However, because the Company was informed on May 10, 2021 by Mr. Luigi Rizzo of the withdrawal of his application to the position of director due to his acceptance of a new position, proposed resolution No. 8 concerning his appointment has become devoid of purpose. Votes on this draft resolution, cast prior to the General Meeting in accordance with the provisions of Ordinance No. 2020-321 of March 25, 2020 as amended, were therefore not be taken into account. At the close of the Shareholders' Meeting, the Board of Directors is composed of 11 directors, with one additional Director in the person of Mr. Richard Moat, Chief Executive Officer. In addition, on the recommendation of the Nominations & Governance Committee, the Board of Directors has slightly modified the composition of certain Committees in light of the latest changes in employee directorships. On the proposal of the Nominations & Governance Committee, the Board of Directors also decided to extend the scope of this Committee to social responsibility and to change its name accordingly. The entire broadcast of the Shareholders' Meeting is available on www.technicolor.com/investor-center/shareholders-meeting. * * * About Technicolor www.technicolor.com Technicolor shares are admitted to trading on the regulated market of Euronext Paris (TCH) and are tradable in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADR) in the United States on the OTCQX market (TCLRY). Investor Relations Christophe le Mignan: +33 1 88 24 32 83 christophe.lemignan@technicolor.com Attachment Regulatory News: The Ordinary and the Extraordinary General Meetings of the shareholders of AKKA Technologies (Paris:AKA) (BSE:AKA) (ISIN:FR0004180537) will be held at the company's headquarters on Tuesday 15 June 2021 at 4pm and 4.30pm respectively. The documents and information relating to these General Meetings are available on the company's website at the address https://www.akka-technologies.com/ordinary-extraordinary-general-meetings/. Next events: Publication of first-quarter 2021 revenue: Thursday, May 6th,2021 at 5:45 PM (CET) Publication of Third-quarter 2021 revenue: Thursday, November 4th,2021 at 5:45 PM (CET) In case of discrepancy between the French and English versions of the press release, only the English version shall be deemed valid. ABOUT AKKA AKKA is a European leader in engineering consulting and R&D services. Our comprehensive portfolio of digital solutions combined with our expertise in engineering, uniquely positions us to support our clients by leveraging the power of connected data to accelerate innovation and drive the future of smart industry. AKKA accompanies leading industry players across a wide range of sectors throughout the life cycle of their products with cutting edge digital technologies (AI, ADAS, IoT, Big Data, robotics, embedded computing, machine learning, etc.) to help them rethink their products and business processes. Founded in 1984, AKKA has a strong entrepreneurial culture and a wide global footprint. Our 21,000 employees around the world are all passionate about technology and share the AKKA values of respect, courage and ambition. The Group recorded revenues of 1.5 billion in 2020. AKKA Technologies (AKA) is listed on Euronext Paris and Brussels segment B ISIN code: FR0004180537. For more information, please visit: https://www.akka-technologies.com/ Follow us on: https://twitter.com/AKKA_Tech View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005582/en/ Contacts: Investor Relations Stephanie Bia Group Communications Investor Relations Director Tel: +33(0)6 47 85 98 78 stephanie.bia@akka.eu Shareholders are invited to vote remotely Regulatory News: Valbiotis (Paris:ALVAL) (FR0013254851 ALVAL, PEA SME eligible), a Research and Development company committed to scientific innovation for preventing and combating metabolic diseases, announces that, exceptionally, its Combined General Meeting will be held behind closed doors. It will take place without the physical presence of shareholders and other persons entitled to attend, whether physically or by telephone or audiovisual conference, on May 27, 2021 at 5:00 p.m., in accordance with the regulations relating to combating the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic (Article 4 of French Government Ordinance No. 2020-321 of March 25, 2020, extended by Ordinance No. 2020-1497 of December 2, 2020 and Decree No. 2020-1614 of December 18, 2020 and Decree No. 2021-255 of March 9, 2021). All the documents relating to the Combined General Meeting of May 27, 2021, as well as the voting form, are available on the Valbiotis website as of today in the following section: www.valbiotis.com/en/annual-general-meeting/ General Meeting participation and voting procedures In accordance with Article 4 of Ordinance No. 2020-321 of March 25, 2020, extended by Ordinance No. 2020-1497 of December 2, 2020 and Decree No. 2020-1614 of December 18, 2020, and Decree No. 2021-255 of March 9, 2021, the Company's Combined General Meeting of May 27, 2021, upon the decision of the Board of Directors, will be held without the presence of shareholders and other persons entitled to participate in the meeting, whether physically or by telephone or audiovisual conference. Shareholders may choose one of the following three options: Give a proxy to another shareholder, to their spouse or civil union partner, or to any individual or legal entity of their choice under the legal and regulatory conditions set forth in Articles L. 225-106 of the French Commercial Code; Issue a proxy to the Company without indicating a mandate; Vote by correspondence. Shareholders will be able to vote by correspondence or give a proxy to the Chairman or to a named person (who will then have to send a vote by correspondence), using the voting form provided for this purpose. These are the only means of participation available to shareholders. The single form for voting by correspondence and giving proxy to the Chairman is available on the company's website (www.valbiotis.com). A single correspondence or proxy voting form allowing shareholders to be represented or to vote by correspondence is available at the Company's registered office from the Chairman of the Board of Directors or from BNP Paribas Securities Services, Grands Moulins, 9 rue du Debarcadere 93500 Pantin, France, or may be requested by letter or e-mail at the following address: contact@valbiotis.com. Any request received or filed no later than six days before the date of the General Meeting, i.e. May 21, 2021, will be granted. These forms will only be taken into consideration if they are duly completed and signed and received by BNP Paribas Securities Services, Grands Moulins, 9 rue du Debarcadere 93500 Pantin or by the following e-mail address: contact@valbiotis.com or by the Company's registered office for the attention of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, at least three days before the date of the General Meeting, i.e. May 24, 2021 and accompanied by proof of registration with a shareholder's account. The use of electronic mailing is recommended in the current circumstances in which postal delivery times are unreliable. A shareholder who has already cast a vote remotely or issued a proxy may choose another method of participation in the Meeting, provided that his or her instruction to do so is received within a period of time compatible with the rules governing each method of participation. Any previous instructions received are then revoked. Shareholders requesting the inclusion of items or draft resolutions on the agenda of the Meeting must send reasoned requests to the Company by e-mail to the following address: contact@valbiotis.com or to the Company's registered office by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt for the attention of the Chairman of the Board of Directors, accompanied by proof of registration with a shareholder's account. Requests for inclusion of draft resolutions shall be accompanied by the text of the draft resolutions, which may be supplemented by a brief explanatory statement. Shareholders are also reminded that consideration by the General Meeting of the items or draft resolutions to be presented is subject to the transmission by the interested parties, at the latest on the second business day preceding the Meeting at midnight, Paris time, of a new certificate proving the registration of their shares, under the same conditions as those indicated above. In accordance with French law, all the documents that must be communicated at this General Meeting will be made available to shareholders within the legal time limits, on the Valbiotis website (www.valbiotis.com/en/annual-general-meeting/), at the Company's registered office or by simple request sent to the address: contact@valbiotis.com or to BNP Paribas Securities Services. In addition, shareholders may ask the Company to send them the documents and information mentioned in Articles R. 225-81 and R. 225-83 of the French Commercial Code, up to and including the fifth day before the meeting, preferably by e-mail at the following address: contact@valbiotis.com. Shareholders are invited to indicate in their request an e-mail address to which these documents can be sent so that the Company can adequately send these documents to shareholders. Holders of bearer shares will have to prove their status by sending proof of registration. In accordance with Article R. 225-84 of the French Commercial Code, any shareholder may submit written questions to the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company until the fourth business day preceding the date of the General Meeting, i.e. May 24, 2021. These written questions should be sent, preferably by electronic means, to the following address: contact@valbiotis.com (or by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt sent to the registered office). They must be accompanied by proof of registration with a shareholder's account. About Valbiotis VALBIOTIS is a Research Development company committed to scientific innovation for preventing and combating metabolic diseases in response to unmet medical needs. VALBIOTIS has adopted an innovative approach, aiming to revolutionize healthcare by developing a new class of health nutrition products designed to reduce the risk of major metabolic diseases, based on a multi-target approach enabled by the use of plant-based ingredients. Its products are intended to be licensed to players in the health sector. Created at the beginning of 2014 in La Rochelle, the Company has forged numerous partnerships with leading academic centers. The Company has established three sites in France: Perigny, La Rochelle (17) and Riom (63). Valbiotis is a member of the "BPI Excellence" network and has been recognized as an "Innovative Company" by the BPI label. Valbiotis has also been awarded "Young Innovative Company" status and has received major financial support from the European Union for its research programs via the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). VALBIOTIS is a PEA-SME eligible company. For more information about VALBIOTIS, please visit: www.valbiotis.com. Name: Valbiotis ISIN code: FR0013254851 Mnemonic code: ALVAL EnterNext PEA-PME 150 This press release contains forward-looking statements about VALBIOTIS' objectives. VALBIOTIS considers that these projections are based on rational hypotheses and the information available to the company at the present time. However, in no way does this constitute a guarantee of future performance, and these projections may be reconsidered based on changes in economic conditions and financial markets, as well as a certain number of risks and uncertainties, including those described in the VALBIOTIS registration document, filed with the French Financial Markets Regulator (AMF) on 31 July 2020 (application number R 20-018). This document is available on the Company's website (www.valbiotis.com). This press release, as well as the information contained herein, does not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe to, or a solicitation to purchase or subscribe to, VALBIOTIS' shares or securities in any country. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005671/en/ Contacts: Corporate Communication Valbiotis Carole Rocher Marc Delaunay +33 5 46 28 62 58 media@valbiotis.com Financial Communication Actifin Stephane Ruiz +33 1 56 88 11 14 sruiz@actifin.fr MILWAUKEE, WI / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Today, short-term rental brand Frontdesk announced that the majority of the portfolio's urban rental properties will now be available on Homes & Villas by Marriott International starting on May 12, 2021. These additions to Marriott International's premium home rental offering provide guests, including more than 147 million Marriott Bonvoy members, even more, unique options to choose from when booking travel from among its 30 hotel brands and more than 20,000 home rental properties around the world. Homes & Villas by Marriott International will feature Frontdesk's luxury downtown apartments, with such amenities including a fully-stocked and full-sized kitchen complete with stainless steel appliances, guest suites that measure an average of 1.75 X the size of traditional hotel rooms, 24-hour check-in, and 24/7 security, fast and convenient WiFi, and more. Before being added to the Homes & Villas by Marriott International portfolio, Frontesk properties were audited and reviewed by Marriott International to meet the company's high standards for regulation, design, safety, and amenities. The curated offering of Frontdesk's most iconic cities and historic districts includes Charlotte, North Carolina, Nashville, Tennessee, Tampa, Florida, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Tempe, Arizona. "We are thrilled to be working with Homes & Villas by Marriott International, where guests are now able to earn and redeem Marriott Bonvoy Points at over half of the Frontdesk properties," said Jesse DePinto, Frontdesk Co-Founder. "This is a fantastic privilege and something that our entire team has been working on for a long time. I am excited to see these two communities come together to experience the feeling of home wherever and whenever they choose," DePinto said. Hallmarks of Homes & Villas by Marriott service, which Frontdesk employs include: 24/7 support and check-in High-speed Wi-Fi Premium bed linens and towels Premium bath amenities Bonvoy welcome gifts "Becoming a select property management partner featured on Homes & Villas by Marriott International is a testament to the work our team does every single day," said Sarah Privitar, Frontdesk Chief Growth Officer. "These initial 374 units, from our 31 active cities, are just the beginning, with plenty more to come," Privitar said. Launched in May 2019, Homes & Villas by Marriott International is the hospitality company's vacation home rental offering, providing travelers, including members of Marriott Bonvoy, access to more than 20,000 premium and luxury homes located in nearly 240 destinations throughout North America, Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. This curated selection of homes aims to connect travelers to thousands of rental properties worldwide and sets the stage for guests' most treasured travel moments - home-cooked dinners with extended family, games on the patio, or celebrating a milestone birthday with friends. Frontdesk is a leading Short-term rental brand with a 2020 Net Promoter Score of 72. Serving more than 31 cities in 150+ buildings, Frontdesk is the most extensive portfolio of STR units in the US. Additional information about Frontdesk is available online at http://stayfrontdesk.com. For video explainers, founder stories, jingles, and more visit http://youtube.com/c/FrontdeskInc. CONTACT: Email: Evan@EvanWhitePR.com Phone: 1-509-995-9105 SOURCE: Frontdesk View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646687/Frontdesk-Now-Offers-Luxury-and-Premium-Rental-Properties-on-Homes-Villas-by-Marriott-International Regulatory News: CARMAT (FR0010907956, ALCAR), the designer and developer of the world's most advanced total artificial heart, aiming to fulfill an unmet medical need by providing a therapeutic alternative to people suffering from end-stage biventricular heart failure, informs its shareholders that the annual general meeting (AGM) of May 12, 2021 was able to deliberate, quorum having been reached. Given the ongoing restrictions associated with the COVID-19 context, CARMAT's AGM was held behind closed doors and streamed online. This AGM approved all the resolutions tabled, with the exception of the 26th resolution, which was rejected on the recommendation of the Board of Directors. The Company's shareholders notably ratified the appointment of Florent Battistella, David Coti and John B. Hernandez as members of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors thus now consists of 12 members, 8 of them independent. The recording of the meeting, the consolidated result of the vote per resolution and the minutes of the meeting will be available, by the statutory deadline, on the company's website section Investors Documentation Shareholder's Meeting. About CARMAT: the world's most advanced total artificial heart project A credible response to end-stage heart failure: CARMAT aims to eventually provide a response to a major public health issue associated with heart disease, the world's leading cause of death: chronic and acute heart failure. By pursuing the development of its total artificial heart, Aeson, composed of the implantable bioprosthesis and its portable external power supply system to which it is continuously connected, CARMAT intends to overcome the well-known shortfall in heart transplants for the tens of thousands of people suffering from irreversible end-stage heart failure, the most seriously affected of the 20 million patients with this progressive disease in Europe and the United States. The result of combining two types of unique expertise: the medical expertise of Professor Carpentier, known throughout the world for inventing Carpentier-Edwards heart valves, which are the most used in the world, and the technological expertise of Airbus Group, world aerospace leader. The first physiologic heart replacement therapy: given the use of highly biocompatible materials, its unique self-regulation system and its pulsatile nature, the CARMAT total artificial heart could, assuming a successful clinical development, potentially save the lives of thousands of patients each year with no risk of rejection and with an enhanced quality of life. A project leader acknowledged at a European level: with the backing of the European Commission, CARMAT has been granted the largest subsidy ever given to an SME by Bpifrance; a total of 33 million. Strongly committed, prestigious founders and shareholders: Matra Defense SAS (subsidiary of the Airbus Group), Professor Alain Carpentier, the Centre Chirurgical Marie Lannelongue, Truffle Capital, a leading European venture capital firm, ALIAD (Air Liquide's venture capital investor), CorNovum (an investment holding company held 50-50 by Bpifrance and the French State), the family offices of Pierre Bastid (Lohas), of Dr. Antonino Ligresti (Sante Holdings S.R.L.), of the Gaspard family (Corely Belgium SPRL and Bratya SPRL) and of M. Pierre-Edouard Sterin (BAD 21 SPRL), Groupe Therabel as well as the thousands of institutional and individual shareholders who have placed their trust in CARMAT. For more information: www.carmatsa.com Name: CARMAT ISIN code: FR0010907956 Ticker: ALCAR Disclaimer This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe to, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to, shares in CARMAT ("the Company") in any country. This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to the Company's objectives. Such forward-looking statements are based solely on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company's management and involve risk and uncertainties. Potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, whether the Company will be successful in implementing its strategies, whether there will be continued growth in the relevant market and demand for the Company's products, new products or technological developments introduced by competitors, and risks associated with managing growth. The Company's objectives as mentioned in this press release may not be achieved for any of these reasons or due to other risks and uncertainties. No guarantee can be given as to any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements, which are subject to inherent risks, including those described in the Universal registration document filed with the Autorite des Marches Financiers on February 24, 2021 under number D.21-0076 as well as changes in economic conditions, the financial markets or the markets in which CARMAT operates. In particular, no guarantee can be given concerning the Company's ability to finalize the development, validation and industrialization of the prosthesis and the equipment required for its use, to manufacture the prostheses, satisfy the requirements of competent authorities, enroll patients, obtain satisfactory clinical results, perform the clinical trials and achieve commercial objectives. Aeson is an active implantable medical device commercially available in Europe ONLY, CARMAT SA., CE0344. The Aeson TAH is intended to replace ventricles of native heart and is indicated as a bridge to transplant in patients suffering from end-stage biventricular heart failure (INTERMACS classes 1-4) who are not amenable to maximal medical therapy or LVAD and are likely to undergo heart transplant in the 180 days following device implantation. The decision to implant and the surgical procedure must be executed by Health Care professionals trained by the manufacturer. Carefully read the documentation (clinician manual, patient manual alarm booklet) for characteristics and information necessary for patient selection and good use (contraindications, precautions, side effects). In the USA, Aeson is currently exclusively available within the framework of clinical trials. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005568/en/ Contacts: CARMAT Stephane Piat Chief Executive Officer Pascale d'Arbonneau Chief Financial Officer Tel.: +33 1 39 45 64 50 contact@carmatsas.com Alize RP Press Relations Caroline Carmagnol Tel.: +33 6 64 18 99 59 carmat@alizerp.com NewCap Investor Relations Strategic Communication Dusan Oresansky Quentin Masse Tel.: +33 1 44 71 94 94 carmat@newcap.eu DGAP-News: IuteCredit Finance S.a.r.l. / Key word(s): Quarterly / Interim Statement/Conference IuteCredit reports unaudited 3M 2021 results on 18 May 2021 - Invitation to earnings webcast/call on 20 May 2021 12.05.2021 / 18:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. IuteCredit reports unaudited 3M 2021 results on 18 May 2021 Invitation to earnings webcast/call on 20 May 2021 Tallinn, Estonia, 12 May 2021. IuteCredit Europe ("ICE"), a leading European personal finance group, cordially invites investors and analysts to an earnings webcast/call with the Management Board on 20 May 2021, 10.00 CEST, following the publication of its unaudited 3M 2021 results on 18 May 2021. Earnings Call: CEO Tarmo Sild and CFO Kristel Kurvits will comment on the unaudited results by means of a webcast presentation. The webcast/call will be held in English. Please register in time to participate in the webcast/call at: IuteCredit Europe - Earnings Call 3M 2021. The corresponding presentation will also be available on the Company's website prior to the earnings webcast/call. Contact: IuteCredit Kristel Kurvits, Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Email: kristel.kurvits@iutecredit.com Phone: +372 50 88 77 0 Aalto Capital (Investor Relations) Sven Pauly, Consultant Email: sven.pauly@aaltocapital.com Phone: +49 89 898 67 77 0 About IuteCredit: IuteCredit - established in 2008 - is a leading European personal finance company. The Group is specialized in consumer credits via its 100% subsidiaries using equity and loan capital. IuteCredit serves customers currently in Moldova, Albania, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. IuteCredit's loan products are unsecured consumer loans with maturities between 1 month and 36 months and car-secured loans with maturities up to 60 months. The mission of IuteCredit is to create the extraordinary experience in personal finance by exceeding customers' expectations. www.iutecredit.com Allschwil, Switzerland - May12, 2021 All Board proposals approved by the Shareholders At today's Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Idorsia Ltd (SIX: IDIA) held in Allschwil, Switzerland, shareholders voted in favor of all proposals by the Board of Directors with a large majority. The meeting was held in accordance with the requirements of the COVID-19 Ordinance 3, issued by the Swiss Federal Council. As a result, attendance in person was not possible and voting took place by independent proxy. In total, 4,541 shareholders voted through the independent proxy, representing a total of 112,170,657 shares, or 67.13% of the total outstanding shares. Mathieu Simon, MD, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Idorsia, commented: "Despite the global pandemic, Idorsia looks back on an incredibly successful year and the future promises to not lose any momentum. The coming year will be crucial as we continue to build the foundation of Idorsia's future. I am very proud to have been re-elected as your Chairman and thank you for your unwavering trust and support. I am confident that the strengthened Board can help the company successfully navigate the path ahead." The shareholders approved the Annual Report 2020, together with the Statutory and the Consolidated Financial Statements for 2020. Shareholders also endorsed the 2020 compensation report by way of consultative vote. Shareholders approved the aggregate maximum compensation for the Board of Directors (Non-Executive Directors) for the term of office until the AGM 2022 and the aggregate maximum amount of compensation for the Idorsia Executive Committee (IEC) for the financial year 2022. The shareholders granted discharge to all members of the Board of Directors and of the Executive Management for the financial year 2020. Shareholders approved an increase and extension of authorized share capital, providing the flexibility to support the company's growth plan, to prepare and execute the launch of the company's first products, and to be able to fund the company's research and clinical development programs as well as other strategic projects. The shareholders elected all Board members who stood for re-election and elected Peter Kellogg and Srishti Gupta as new Board members for a term of office until the conclusion of the AGM 2022. In addition, the shareholders elected Mathieu Simon as Chairman of the Board and Mathieu Simon, Joern Aldag, Felix R. Ehrat, and Srishti Gupta as members of the Compensation Committee. Following the AGM, the Board of Directors of Idorsia comprises a total of 7 members: Mathieu Simon (Chairman), Jean-Paul Clozel, Joern Aldag, Felix R. Ehrat, Sandy Mahatme, Peter Kellogg, and Srishti Gupta. BachmannPartner Sachwalter und Treuhand AG was elected as Independent Proxy for a term of office until the conclusion of the AGM 2022. Ernst & Young AG, Basel, was re-elected as statutory auditors for the financial year 2021. Notes to the editor About Idorsia Idorsia Ltd is reaching out for more - We have more ideas, we see more opportunities and we want to help more patients. In order to achieve this, we will develop Idorsia into a leading biopharmaceutical company, with a strong scientific core. Headquartered near Basel, Switzerland - a European biotech-hub - Idorsia is specialized in the discovery, development and commercialization of small molecules to transform the horizon of therapeutic options. Idorsia has a broad portfolio of innovative drugs in the pipeline, an experienced team of professionals covering all disciplines from bench to bedside, state-of-the-art facilities, and a strong balance sheet - the ideal constellation to translate R&D efforts into business success. Idorsia was listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange (ticker symbol: IDIA) in June 2017 and has over 900 highly qualified specialists dedicated to realizing our ambitious targets. For further information, please contact Andrew C. Weiss Senior Vice President, Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Communications Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Hegenheimermattweg 91, CH-4123 Allschwil +41 58 844 10 10 investor.relations@idorsia.com (mailto:investor.relations@idorsia.com) - media.relations@idorsia.com (mailto:media.relations@idorsia.com) - www.idorsia.com (http://www.idorsia.com) The above information contains certain "forward-looking statements", relating to the company's business, which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "estimates", "believes", "expects", "may", "are expected to", "will", "will continue", "should", "would be", "seeks", "pending" or "anticipates" or similar expressions, or by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions. Such statements include descriptions of the company's investment and research and development programs and anticipated expenditures in connection therewith, descriptions of new products expected to be introduced by the company and anticipated customer demand for such products and products in the company's existing portfolio. Such statements reflect the current views of the company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performances or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Attachment Herron praised the divisions teachers. I dont have to tell you that our teachers have met and overcome tremendous challenges this year. Our teachers have shown remarkable resilience, ingenuity and dedication to the art and science of teaching, she said. Article L. 238-8-II of the French commercial Code and article 223-16 of the AMF (French Financial Markets Authority) general regulation Regulatory News: Corporate name of the issuer: Veolia Environnement (Paris:VIE) 21 rue La Boetie 75008 PARIS FRANCE (ISIN code: FR0000124141-VIE) Information closing date Total number of shares forming the share capital Total number of voting rights May 3, 2021 (1) 579,583,189 Total number of theoretical voting rights (2): 615,960,082 Total number of voting rights that may be exercised (3): 603,593,110 Inclusion in the Veolia Environnement Articles of Association of a clause requiring a reporting obligation of the declaration of crossing a shareholding threshold, complementary to the one relating to the thresholds provided by the French law and the regulations in force (article 8). (1) On May 3, 2021, Veolia Environnement's share capital was increased as a result of the vesting of the performance shares granted under the 2018 performance share plan, thereby increasing its share capital from 2,893,056,810 to 2,897,915,945. (2) Number of theoretical voting rights after taking into account the number of shares with double voting rights as of May 3, 2021 (36,376,893 shares) and the number of treasury shares held as of May 3, 2021 (12,366,972 shares). (3) Number of voting rights that may be exercised number of theoretical voting rights (or total number of voting rights attached to shares) shares without voting rights (number of treasury shares held as of May 3, 2021). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005831/en/ Contacts: Veolia Environnement VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / CAT Strategic Metals Corporation (CSE:CAT)(OTC PINK:CATTF)(FRA:8CH) ("CAT" or the "Company") announces the following update on its Rimrock Gold-Silver mineral property in Elko County, Nevada. Rimrock Gold-Silver Property CAT has completed and filed its new NI 43-101 compliant technical report on the Rimrock Gold-Silver property, produced by Gregory C. Ferdock, Certified Professional Geologist (C.P.G.) and a qualified person under NI 43-101. Mr. Ferdock is the Company's independent consulting geologist. The Rimrock Property is situated 16 Km northwest of the giant Goldstrike Mine complex of Nevada Gold Mines LLC. Rimrock lies in between the large Midas and Hollister gold-silver mines of Miocene age, owned by Hecla Mining, in the Northern Nevada Rift ("NNR") low-sulfidation gold-silver province. In addition, Carlin Trend sediment-hosted gold mineralization extends directly through the Rimrock property from Hollister, along the NNW-trending Eastern Horst block. Fluids related to the Eocene Hatter stock mineralized Paleozoic sedimentary rocks at Hollister, and CAT interprets that similar gold-silver mineralization occurs at Rimrock, along the major regional fault system that goes through both Rimrock and the Hollister Mine. Three main gold-silver target areas are presently known at Rimrock, and a large-size bentonite mine target locally overlies the gold-silver mineralization. Ivanhoe Creek : Midas- and Carlin-style gold-silver. Two large NNW-trending uplifted host fault blocks are interpreted to have formed prior to the time of Carlin-age age gold, and then were re-activated at the time of the mineralization. WNW-trending faults also existed at Hollister. A zone of strong sediment-hosted silver-gold mineralization was drilled into the Eastern Horst faults area in 2007 for Kent Exploration, discovering possibly disseminated Carlin-age silver-gold-tungsten mineralization in mudstone and quartzitic sandstones, fed through the main NNW-trending fault zones. This mineralization conceivably could be a silver-rich halo above Carlin-style gold mineralization at further depth, along the periphery of the Hatter stock system. Additional Miocene low-sulfidation gold-silver mineralization appears to be present here also, as determined by geochemistry. Dilation : Midas-Hollister-style low-sulfidation gold-silver targets are present along the NNE-trending IC Fault system in the northern part of the Rimrock property. Structurally-controlled mercury-bearing mineralization is present in and near the IC Fault, which is believed to also be a pre-Carlin age structure that was reactivated and host to different events of mineralization. A large fault jog is present, here termed the "Rhombochasm" zone. This is over 200 meters wide and 1 km long, forming a major structural target for gold-silver mineralization. A controlled-source audio magnetotelluric ("CSAMT") geophysical survey conducted here in 2013 verified the target zone. The most likely drilling target will be in this fault jog at the 5100-foot (1555m) MSL elevation level, which was the centroid elevation of the main high-grade gold-silver ore mineralization in the Clementine/Guinevere vein systems mined at Hollister. Potential exists for the discovery of open pitable gold-silver mineralization here as well. Columbus Breccia : the Columbus Breccia target in the northeastern part of the Rimrock property is a brecciated zone that cuts flow domes of Columbus Rhyolite (14.92 Ma), with silica and mercury-silica mineralization locally filling fractures and breccias. These gold-silver targets will be evaluated by more surface mapping and sampling will be conducted here prior to modeling and further drilling. IC Bentonite : In addition to the gold-silver target areas, a large-size occurrence of bentonite is covered by the central part of CAT's claims, that overlies the gold-silver bearing strata. Bulk sampling of this deposit took place in the 1980s, and Halliburton examined the occurrence in the late 2000s. Further work is being done on the bentonite to determine its possible economic value. About CAT Strategic Metals Corporation: CAT Strategic Metals Corporation is a Canadian based mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and de risking of overlooked projects situated in well-established World Class geological districts in North America. The Company is specially focused on minerals which are considered highly strategic from a monetary as well as global infrastructure and energy point of view. CAT's shares trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE) under the trading symbol "CAT", on the OTCMarkets.com under the trading symbol "CATTF", and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "8CH". ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD Robert Rosner Chairman, President & CEO Further information regarding the Company can be found on SEDAR at www.SEDAR.com, by visiting the Company's website www.catstrategic.com or by contacting the Company directly at (604) 674-3145. This news release may contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. Particular risks applicable to this press release include risks associated with planned production, including the ability of the company to achieve its targeted exploration outline due to regulatory, technical or economic factors. In addition, there are risks associated with estimates of resources, and there is no guarantee that a resource will be found or have demonstrated economic viability as necessary to be classified as a reserve. There is no guarantee that additional exploration work will result in significant increases to resource estimates Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We seek safe harbour SOURCE: CAT Strategic Metals Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646934/CAT-Strategic-Metals-Files-Rimrock-NI-43-101-Technical-Report SEATTLE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / The Whittier Trust Company of Nevada is excited to welcome our latest new hire, Heidi Bitterman, as a Vice President and Client Advisor of Whittier Trust's Seattle and Portland offices. Prior to joining Whittier Trust, Heidi worked as the Market Director in the Estate Settlement Department of Bank of America, in which she was responsible for managing and conducting all estate settlements on the West Coast. Ms. Bitterman has been a part of the estate planning, trust, and fiduciary services industry for over 15 years and has focused on different areas of practice such as trusts, estates, and family law. "Heidi is a great complement to our team and will be a strong addition to Whittier Trust," said Paul Cantor, Northwest Regional Manager at Whittier Trust. "We are excited to work with Heidi as we continue to grow and expand our service offerings for our clients." Ms. Bitterman will be working closely with high net-worth families and individual clients to meet specific needs, goals, and values in financial, fiduciary, and family office services areas. For more information or upcoming events, contact Brandi J. Fields at BFields@whittiertrust.com, or visit www.whittiertrust.com. Whittier Trust is the oldest and largest private multi-family office headquartered on the West Coast. Whittier's wealth management platform serves over 480 families and over 40 foundations throughout the U.S. and advises on over $17 billion in assets. The firm has helped individuals and families manage, grow and transfer wealth intergenerationally for six generations. The firm has offices in South Pasadena, San Francisco, Newport Beach, Reno, Seattle, and Portland. To learn more, visit http://www.whittiertrust.com SOURCE: Cambridge Global View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/647014/Whittier-Trust-Welcomes-new-Vice-President-and-Client-Advisor-to-Seattle-and-Portland-Offices VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Black Tusk Resources Inc. ("Black Tusk" or the "Company) (CSE:TUSK)(OTC PINK:BTKRF)(FRA:0NB) is pleased to announce that the company has completed diamond drilling on its Lorrain Property located near Lorrainville in west Abitibi greenstone belt of Quebec. The company completed a total of 323.3 metres of diamond drilling over three holes on the property. The Black Tusk diamond drilling program is supervised by VD Geo Service based in Val d'Or, including Black Tusk company director Dr. Mathieu Piche, OGQ. The geological crew report that the targeted ultramafic rocks were intersected in drilling in at least one of the drill holes. Drill core from the Lorrain Property will be logged and sampled at the Black Tusk secure facility located near Val d'Or. Samples will be taken directly to ALS Laboratory located in Val d'Or. Drill core and associated samples are continuously under custody of the Black Tusk team members until delivered to the lab. Black Tusk undertakes QA/QC procedures including insertion of blanks and standards at regular intervals into the sample stream. Initial laboratory results from the Lorrain drill core sampling are expected in 4 to 6 weeks. In addition to the ongoing exploration drill programs in Quebec, Black Tusk announces the resignation of Roman Rubin from the TUSK Board of Directors. Black Tusk Director, Renat Mataev will assume the role of CFO. Black Tusk Resources thanks Mr. Rubin for his many years of service on the TUSK Board of Directors and wishes him all the best in his future endeavours. Cautionary Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements based on assumptions as of that date. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations; they are not guarantees of future performance. The Company cautions that all forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and that actual performance may be affected by a number of material factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to exploration and development; the ability of the Company to obtain additional financing; the Company's limited operating history; the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations; fluctuations in the prices of commodities; operating hazards and risks; competition and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Prospectus dated September 8, 2017 available on www.sedar.com. Accordingly, actual and future events, conditions, and results may differ materially from the estimates, beliefs, intentions, and expectations expressed or implied in the forward-looking information. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, the Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. On behalf of the Board of Directors Richard Penn CEO (778) 384-8923 SOURCE: Black Tusk Resources Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/647052/Black-Tusk-Completes-Diamond-Drilling-on-Lorrain-Property-Quebec-Announces-Corporate-Changes Not for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Grid Metals Corp. (the "Company") (TSXV:GRDM)(OTCQB:MSMGF) is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement to raise gross proceeds of up to C$3,000,000 (the "Offering") from the sale of a combination of the following: non-flow-through units of the Company (the " Units ") to be sold at a price of C$0.22 per Unit; and ") to be sold at a price of C$0.22 per Unit; and flow-through units of the Company (the "FT Units") to be sold at a price of C$0.25 per FT Unit. Each Unit will be comprised of one common share of the Company (each, a "Unit Share") and one half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant will entitle the holder thereof to acquire one common share of the Company (each, a "Warrant Share") at a price of C$0.33 for a period of 24 months from the closing date of the Offering. Each FT Unit will be comprised of one common share of the Company to be issued as a "flow-through share" within the meaning of the Income Tax Act (Canada) (each, a "FT Share") and one half of one Warrant. The exact number of Units and FT Units sold will be determined at the closing of the Offering. Red Cloud Securities Inc. will be acting as a finder in connection with the Offering. The Company may elect to increase the size of the Offering by selling additional Units or FT Units at the offering prices for additional gross proceeds of up to C$500,000. The net proceeds from the Units will be used primarily for exploration of the Company's East Bull Lake Palladium property and general working capital purposes. Proceeds from the sale of FT Shares will be used to incur "Canadian exploration expenses" as defined in subsection 66.1(6) of the Income Tax Act and "flow through mining expenditures" as defined in subsection 127(9) of the Income Tax Act ("Qualifying Expenditures"). Such proceeds will be renounced to the subscribers with an effective date not later than December 31, 2021, in the aggregate amount of not less than the total amount of gross proceeds raised from the issue of FT Shares. The closing of the Offering is expected to occur on or about May 26, 2021 and is subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals. The Unit Shares, FT Shares, and Warrant Shares will be subject to a hold period of four months and one day in accordance with applicable securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States. The securities being offered have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and such securities may not be offered or sold within the United States absent U.S. registration or an applicable exemption from U.S. registration requirements. Approval and Grants Under Equity Incentive Plan The Company is also pleased to announce that the TSX Venture ("TSXV") has provided final approval of its security based equity incentive plan ( the "Plan"). At the Annual and Special Meeting of Grid held on January 6, 2021, disinterested shareholders approved the Plan which includes the ability to issue stock options, Deferred Share Units ("DSUs") and Restricted Share Units ("RSUs"). Details on these incentive compensation arrangements are available in the Corporation's 2020 Management Information Circular which can be found on Grid's website (www.gridmetals.com) or on SEDAR (www.sedar.com). The total number of Common Shares reserved for issuance pursuant to awards granted under the Equity Incentive Plan cannot exceed 10% of the issued and outstanding Common Shares from time to time. However, in accordance with TSXV requirements, the Plan provides that the aggregate number of Shares reserved for RSU and DSU grants shall not exceed a maximum of 3,000,000 Common Shares. The Board of Directors of the Company has approved the issuance of 1,025,000 incentive options at a an exercise price of $0.25 per share under the Plan as well as 200,000 RSUs and 950,000 DSUs under the Plan to officers, directors and consultants of the Company. About Grid Metals Corp. Grid Metals Corp. is an exploration and development Company that has a diversified portfolio of projects in the nickel-copper-platinum group metal sectors. These commodities are vital to the emerging battery metals, energy storage and automotive sectors. Grids projects are located in the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. The Company is focused on timely advancement of its property portfolio through prudent exploration, development and corporate activities. To find out more about Grid Metals Corp., please visit www.gridmetalscorp.com. On Behalf of the Board of Grid Metals Corp. Robin Dunbar - President, CEO & Director Telephone: 416-955-4773 Email: rd@gridmetalscorp.com David Black - Investor Relations Email: info@gridmetalscorp.com We seek safe harbour. This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of the Securities Act (Ontario) (together, "forward-looking statements"). Such forward-looking statements may include the Company's plans for its properties, the overall economic potential of its properties, the availability of adequate financing and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward- looking statements to be materially different. Such factors include, among others, risks and uncertainties relating to potential political risk, uncertainty of production and capital costs estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses, physical risks inherent in mining operations, metallurgical risk, currency fluctuations, fluctuations in the price of nickel, cobalt, copper and other metals, completion of economic evaluations, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, the inability or failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis, and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Management Discussion and Analysis for the most recent financial period and Material Change Reports filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. SOURCE: Grid Metals Corp. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/647056/Grid-Metals-Corp-Announces-Private-Placement SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Wikisoft Corp. (the "Company," "we," and "our") (OTC PINK:WSFT) today announced that it has entered into a Common Stock Purchase Agreement (the "Purchase Agreement") with White Lion Capital, LLC, a Nevada limited liability company ("White Lion Capital"). The Purchase Agreement provides that the Company has the right, but not the obligation to cause White Lion Capital to purchase up to $20,000,000 (the "Commitment Amount") of the Company's common stock, from time to time, during the commitment period, which starts on the date of execution of the Purchase Agreement and terminates on the earlier of, the date where the Commitment Amount is purchased or December 31, 2022, at a purchase price as set forth in the Purchase Agreement. The Company intends to use the net proceeds from the Purchase Agreement for the expansion of working capital and other general corporate purposes in accordance with its business strategy. The Company's Chief Executive Officer, Carsten Kjems Falk commented: "We are pleased to announce our entry into the Purchase Agreement with White Lion Capital. This transaction marks our first planned capital raise since becoming a public company and we believe it also demonstrates both the validity of our business as well as our positive long-term outlook. Looking ahead, we remain focused on laying the foundation for continuous technological development by seeking to diversify our product offerings, enlarging our customer base, and increasing our global footprint." ABOUT WIKISOFT CORPORATION In line with increasing globalization, we believe that there is a growing demand for access to credible company and employee information worldwide. Wikisoft's flagship online platform, Wikiprofile.com, aims to be a powerful solution with tools and resources for businesses and business professionals to find valid information quickly and easily so that they can make informed career and hiring decisions. Our vision is to create opportunities globally for business professionals and businesses to make informed career and hiring decisions. Manifesting this vision requires scaling information technology with high data validity across the key pillars: business professionals, businesses, job opportunities and professional skills. By pursuing this vision, we believe Wikisoft Corp. can enable users to connect to business opportunities on a global scale. In line with increasing globalization, there is a growing demand for access to credible business and employee information worldwide. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This press release contains statements of a forward-looking nature about the Company. You can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as "may," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "aim," "estimate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "is/are likely to," "future" or other similar expressions. The Company has based these forward-looking statements primarily on the Company's current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that the Company believes may affect Company's financial condition, results of operations, business strategy, and financial needs. There is no assurance that the Company's current expectations and projections are accurate. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on the Company's information on the date hereof. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those implied by the forward-looking statements. The Company operates in a rapidly evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. This press release does not constitute or form part of any offer or invitation to purchase, otherwise acquire, issue, subscribe for, sell or otherwise dispose of any securities, nor any solicitation of any offer to purchase, otherwise acquire, issue, subscribe for, sell, or otherwise dispose of any securities of the Company. The release, publication or distribution of this announcement in certain jurisdictions may be restricted by law and therefore persons in such jurisdictions into which this announcement is released, published or distributed should inform themselves about and observe such restrictions. CONTACT WikiSoft Corp. 315 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA Phone: +1-800-706-0806 Email: investor@wikisoft.com Investor Relations: www.wikisoft.com SOURCE: WikiSoft Corp View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/645996/Wikisoft-Corp-OTCWSFT-Announces-Entry-Into-Common-Stock-Purchase-Agreement U.S. authorization gives healthcare professionals access to portable rapid testing device that can monitor immune status in relation to COVID-19 Test based on QIAGEN partner Ellume's proprietary eHub technology and helps ease testing shortfalls by using automation and providing easy-to-read results eHub digital device can handle eight tests at once, all working independently of each other, can process up to 32 samples per hour, can eventually be used simultaneously with the antigen test QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced it has received Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the fast and easy-to-use QIAreach Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Total Test. The authorization means QIAGEN can start making its portable antibody testing device available to health-care professionals in the U.S. Each antibody test takes only about 10 minutes to identify whether a person carries antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a result of prior infection. Individual test results are read on a digital eHub device that can process up to 32 tests per hour and will eventually also run the antigen test. The QIAreach Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Total Test is a serological test that has been shown to have a sensitivity of 93.85% (CI 84.99-98.30%) and a specificity of 97.83 %-%% (CI 95.00-99.29%). QIAGEN's technology detects total antibodies (Total immunoglobulin) specific to SARS-CoV-2 immune response while most other tests currently identify only selected antibodies. The QIAreach Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Total Test was developed in partnership with Ellume, an Australian digital diagnostics company. It is the first of two QIAGEN COVID-19 tests to make use of Ellume's digital eHub and eStick system: QIAGEN in early September 2020 presented the QIAreach SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test to detect active SARS-CoV-2 infection, which has been submitted to the FDA for an EUA. Research into the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic also requires the monitoring of the immune status of individuals. QIAGEN is the only company that has developed both an antibody and a T-cell test to track immune responses. In November, it also launched the QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2 test (for research use only) that can detect T-cell responses in people who have had natural infection or vaccination. "Serological testing for antibodies is central to identifying people who have been recently infected by the virus or have been infected in the recent past, especially those who did not show any symptoms and therefore might not know of an infection," said Davide Manissero, Chief Medical Officer of QIAGEN. "As societies are now returning to normal daily routines, understanding the COVID-19 immunity in a population can help guide public health measures." Traditional rapid lateral-flow antibody tests are hard to automate and results can be hard to read. The QIAreach Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Total Test generates easy-to-read results on the digital eHub platform. Each QIAreach eHub can handle up to eight samples on eight eSticks simultaneously, with each eStick test running independently. QIAGEN is using the same platform to develop QIAreach QuantiFERON-TB, a new testing solution for identifying latent tuberculosis (TB) infections in low-resource regions. Further information on QIAGEN's response to the coronavirus outbreak can be found here. About QIAGEN QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample to Insight solutions that enable customers to gain valuable molecular insights from samples containing the building blocks of life. Our sample technologies isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from blood, tissue and other materials. Assay technologies make these biomolecules visible and ready for analysis. Bioinformatics software and knowledge bases interpret data to report relevant, actionable insights. Automation solutions tie these together in seamless and cost-effective workflows. QIAGEN provides solutions to more than 500,000 customers around the world in Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare) and Life Sciences (academia, pharma R&D and industrial applications, primarily forensics). As of March 31, 2020, QIAGEN employed approximately 5,700 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at http://www.qiagen.com. Forward-Looking Statement Certain statements contained in this press release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN's products, including those products used in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, timing for launch and development, marketing and/or regulatory approvals, financial and operational outlook, growth and expansion, collaborations markets, strategy or operating results, including without limitation its expected adjusted net sales and adjusted diluted earnings results, are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations, regulatory processes and dependence on logistics), variability of operating results and allocations between customer classes, the commercial development of markets for our products to customers in academia, pharma, applied testing and molecular diagnostics; changing relationships with customers, suppliers and strategic partners; competition; rapid or unexpected changes in technologies; fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN's products (including fluctuations due to general economic conditions, the level and timing of customers' funding, budgets and other factors); our ability to obtain regulatory approval of our products; difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN's products to integrated solutions and producing such products; the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate and protect our products from competitors' products; market acceptance of QIAGEN's new products and the integration of acquired technologies and businesses; actions of governments, global or regional economic developments, weather or transportation delays, natural disasters, political or public health crises, including the breadth and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the demand for our products and other aspects of our business, or other force majeure events; as well as the possibility that expected benefits related to recent or pending acquisitions may not materialize as expected; and the other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" contained in Item 3 of our most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F. For further information, please refer to the discussions in reports that QIAGEN has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Category: Corporate View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005959/en/ Contacts: QIAGEN Investor Relations John Gilardi, +49 2103 29 11711 Phoebe Loh, +49 2103 29 11457 ir@QIAGEN.com Public Relations Thomas Theuringer, +49 2103 29 11826 Robert Reitze, +49 2103 29 11676 pr@QIAGEN.com Canopys Task Scheduler, Which Can Be Installed on Any Computer, Can Help Organize Even the Most Complex Task Orchestration or Simple Automation AUSTIN, TX / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Tyler Garrett, Founder of the tableau consulting services company Dev3lop, is pleased to announce the launch of their first desktop software named Canopys Task Scheduler. As Garrett mentioned, "I think this means we are a software company." To learn more about the Austin, Texas-based company and the new task scheduler software, please visit https://dev3lop.com. As Garrett noted, while he knows that there are other task scheduling softwares that are currently available, he and his team at Dev3lop wanted to create and launch a software that would allow anybody to automate and schedule their tasks. "We have used many of the free alternatives and we think they are great in many ways, and they also inspired us to try to create something even greater," Garrett said, adding that the goal of the Canopys app is to improve the day-to-day operations of analysts, engineers, entrepreneurs, and anyone else who needs to automate kicking off a script. Canopys Task Scheduler is also extremely user-friendly, and can be installed on any computer and operating system. Once it is ready to go, people can start scheduling tasks and automate more of their work. This, Garrett noted, will allow staff members to spend less time doing repetitive tasks. "Canopys will help to reduce time consuming manual processes, lower costs and reduce inefficiencies," he said. Canopys is also built with modern needs in mind. Login and User management is left to platforms like Google and Microsoft, while Canopys instead focuses on being a best-in-class distributed task manager. In the current age of high profile hacks and information leaks, Canopys leans on third party authorization flows rather than requiring users to submit their own information. To help train people on how to get all of the benefits they can from the Canopys app, Garrett said he and his team are currently working on creating a series of 4k videos. "At Dev3lop, we aim to lower the barriers to solving problems to give everyone more time to do the things they love, and we are confident that Canopys will help achieve this." About Dev3lop: Dev3lop.com is a grassroots tech startup based out of Austin, Texas. They offer tailored consulting solutions to their customers across an array of services, with a major focus on data analytics and tableau consulting service engagements. They have also just launched a new task scheduler software called Canopys. For more information, please visit https://dev3lop.com. Dev3lop 8416 Selway Dr. Austin, TX 78736 CONTACT: Tyler Garrett tyler@dev3lop.com 214-971-9869 SOURCE: Dev3lop View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/647098/Dev3lop-Announces-the-Launch-of-Their-New-Software-Canopys-Task-Scheduler Regulatory News: Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) today released its regular weekly Net Asset Value ("NAV") and performance returns on its website, https://www.pershingsquareholdings.com/company-reports/weekly-navs/. The NAV and returns were computed as of the close of business on Tuesday, 11 May 2021. PSH NAV per share as of close of business on 11 May 2021 was 48.78 USD 34.49 GBP and year-to-date performance was 7.5%. Weekly net asset value ("NAV") is calculated as of the close of business on each Tuesday and posted on the following business day. In the event that Tuesday is not a business day, the Company will calculate the close-of-business NAV as of the business day immediately preceding that Tuesday. The end-of-month NAV is calculated as of the close of business on the last day of the month and posted on the following business day. For weeks that include a month-end NAV report, PSH will provide only the month-end NAV and not report the Tuesday NAV. Monthly NAVs are published in accordance with the Decree on Conduct of Business Supervision of Financial Undertakings under the Wft (Besluit Gedragstoezicht financiele ondernemingen Wft). Performance is presented on a net-of-fees basis and reflects the deduction of, among other expenses: management fees, brokerage commissions, administrative fees and accrued performance fees, if any. The performance figure includes the reinvestment of all dividends, interest and capital gains. Depending on the timing of a specific investment, net performance for an individual investor may vary from the net performance as stated herein. Net performance is a geometrically linked time weighted calculation. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. All investments involve risk including the loss of principal. About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (LN:PSHD) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed-ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American domiciled companies. Category: (PSH:WeeklyNAV) View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512006019/en/ Contacts: Media Camarco Ed Gascoigne-Pees Hazel Stevenson +44 020 3757 4989, media-pershingsquareholdings@camarco.co.uk CRANBROOK, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. (TSXV:EPL) ("EPL" or "Eagle Plains") and Tri Capital Opportunities Corp ("TCAP")(TCAP.P) have executed a formal option agreement (the "Option Agreement") whereby TCAP may acquire up to an 80% interest in EPL's 6,500 ha, 100%-owned Pine Channel project located 43 km west of Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan (the "Property"). Limited drilling has been completed in and around the property area by past operators, which resulted in the successful delineation of mineralization to shallow depths. Potential to test for further continuity at depth is considered to be excellent. To earn an 80% interest in the property, TCAP will complete $3,000,000 in exploration expenditures, issue 2,000,000 voting class common shares to Eagle Plains and make $150,000 in cash payments over a 4-year period (see details below). EPL will retain a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty on the Property (subject to underlying royalties on certain areas of the Property), which royalty may be purchased by TCAP at any time for CDN$1,000,000. TCAP will be operator of the project. Eagle Plains acquired the project in 2018-2020 by staking and in part, by purchase from third-party vendors. In 2019 and 2020 EPL completed field programs designed to evaluate and confirm the nature of mineralization previously documented at historical showings. See Pine Channel Project Map here Pine Channel Gold Property Summary The Pine Channel Property consists of 28 mineral dispositions covering 6,502.63 hectares located approximately 40 km west of Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan-the logistics/business hub for northern Saskatchewan. The property can be accessed year-round by float- or ski-equipped aircraft from Stony Rapids, SK. or Fort MacMurray, AB. The eastern and northern part of the property is transected by a high-voltage powerline. Most geological fieldwork is limited to late May to October but other operations such as geophysical surveys and diamond drilling can be completed year-round. Highlights from documented historical work include: North Norite Bay (SMDI 2183): 407.96 g/t (14.39 oz/T) Au over 0.5 m (drill hole) ELA (SMDI 1574): 39.96 g/t (1.41 oz/t) Au over 0.55 m (drill hole) Holes G-1 and G-3 (SMDI 2329): 3.20 g/t Au over 1 m (drill hole) Occurrence No. 6/Occurrence No. 8 (SMDI 1581): 90.6 g/t (3.20 oz/T) Au over 0.2 m (trench) Cole Lake Ni-Cu (SMDI 1583): 0.45% Ni over 7.0 m (drill hole), 6.2 g/t Au, 0.01% Ni and 0.06% Cu over 3.0 m (trench) The main deposit type that is being explored for at Pine Channel is structurally controlled vein-quartz (lode) gold deposits. Mineral occurrences on the Pine Channel Property contain predominantly gold, with rare base-metal occurrences. Within the Pine Channel tenures there are eighteen historical showings reported by the Saskatchewan Mineral Deposit Index (SMDI). Government mapping in the Pine Channel area dates from 1913, with the first industry work reported in 1950. A total of 51 assessment reports have been filed within the current Pine Channel tenure area. Past operators include Golden Rule Resources Ltd. and Colchis Resources Ltd. who were both active on the project during the 1980's, the last sustained period of exploration in the area. The most recent work prior to Eagle Plains acquiring the claims in 2018 was in 2013 when the area was flown with an airborne Variable Time Domain Electromagnetic ("VTEM") survey focused on locating targets for diamond exploration. There has been a total of 6,066 meters of diamond drilling in 115 historic holes completed within the current Pine Channel property claim boundaries with the majority of the holes completed less than 100 meters in length. Although the wide-spaced drilling did intersect significant gold mineralization in places, much of the drilling was completed using thin diameter core which is considered ineffective for assessing the high-grade "nuggety" gold shears and veins found at Pine Channel. The first recorded systematic exploration work on the Pine Channel property was in 1950 by Goldfields Uranium Mines. The first significant program on the property was in 1980 by Golden Rule Resources who completed 246 line-km of airborne EM (INPUT) and magnetic surveying. Follow-up ground work located 11 significant occurrences. From 1985-1988 Colchis Resources completed VLF-EM geophysics, biogeochemical surveys, prospecting, soil sampling and trenching followed by shallow diamond drill testing of selected targets. The Pine Channel project lies within the Tantato Domain which is composed of highly deformed gneisses which form the eastern margin of the Archean Rae Craton. Metamorphic rocks which have been subject to varying degrees of strain form the majority of the property area. The above results were summarized from SMDI descriptions and assessment reports filed with the Saskatchewan government. Management cautions that historical results were collected and reported by past operators and have not been verified nor confirmed by a Qualified Person, but form a basis for ongoing work in the Pine Channel property area. In 2019-2020, Eagle Plains completed field programs focused on prospecting and mapping in areas of known mineral occurrences. The work confirmed the widespread occurrences of auriferous quartz veins and associated shear systems in the Pine Channel property. Analytical results from the seventy-two rock samples collected in 2020 range from 6 ppb Au to 68,400 ppb Au. Twenty-three of the samples returned greater than 1 g/t Au, and eight returned greater than 10 g/t Au. The most encouraging of the known showings are the ELA Shaft showing (SMDI 1574) and Occurrence No. 6 and No. 8 (SMDI 1581), which both demonstrate anomalous gold geochemical results and potential for extension of known mineralization along strike. Pine Channel Option Details Pursuant to the terms of the Option Agreement, upon and subject to receipt of Exchange acceptance for TCAP's Qualifying Transaction, TCAP will have the right to acquire an 80% interest in the Pine Channel Property by: paying to EPL an aggregate of CDN $150,000 in cash according to the following schedule: $25,000 on the Effective Date (date of execution of the formal agreement); an additional $25,000 in cash on or before December 31st, 2021; an additional $50,000 in cash on or before December 31st, 2022; and an additional $50,000 in cash on or before December 31st, 2023; issuing to EPL an aggregate of 2,000,000 Shares, according to the following schedule: 200,000 Shares on the Bulletin Date; an additional 300,000 Shares on or before December 31st, 2021; an additional 300,000 Shares on or before December 31st, 2022; an additional 500,000 Shares on or before December 31st, 2023; and an additional 700,000 Shares on or before December 31st, 2024; and incurring aggregate Exploration Expenditures on the property of: $500,000 on or before June 30th, 2022; an additional $500,000 on or before June 30th, 2023; an additional $800,000 on or before June 30th, 2024; and an additional $1,200,000 on or before June 30th, 2025. Upon the exercise of the Option and the acquisition of an 80% interest in the Pine Channel Property by TCAP, the Optionor will retain a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty on the Pine Channel Property, and 1.0% of the net smelter returns royalty may be purchased by TCAP at any time for CDN$1,000,000. TCAP will be Operator of the project throughout the term of the option. Charles C. Downie, P.Geo., a "qualified person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and a Director of Eagle Plains Resources Ltd., has prepared, reviewed, and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release. About Eagle Plains Resources Based in Cranbrook, B.C., Eagle Plains continues to conduct research, acquire and explore mineral projects throughout western Canada. The Company is committed to steadily enhancing shareholder value by advancing our diverse portfolio of projects toward discovery through collaborative partnerships and development of a highly experienced technical team. Eagle Plains also holds significant royalty interests in western Canadian projects covering a broad spectrum of commodities. Management's focus is to advance its most promising exploration projects. In addition, Eagle Plains continues to seek out and secure high-quality, unencumbered projects through research, staking and strategic acquisitions. Throughout the exploration process, our mission is to help maintain prosperous communities by exploring for and discovering resource opportunities while building lasting relationships through honest and respectful business practices. Expenditures from 2011-2020 on Eagle Plains-related projects exceed $22M, the majority of which was funded by third-party partners. This exploration work resulted in approximately 37,000 m of diamond-drilling and extensive ground-based exploration work facilitating the advancement of numerous projects at various stages of development. On behalf of the Board of Directors "Tim J. Termuende" President and CEO For further information on EPL, please contact Mike Labach at 1 866 HUNT ORE (486 8673) Email: mgl@eagleplains.com or visit our website at http://www.eagleplains.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain forward-looking statements including but not limited to comments regarding the timing and content of upcoming work programs, geological interpretations, receipt of property titles, potential mineral recovery processes, etc. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore, involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements. SOURCE: Eagle Plains Resources Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/646678/Eagle-Plains-Options-Pine-Channel-Gold-Project-to-Tri-Capital The colleges second ranking officer outlined details from an on-going college wide survey that began about six weeks ago and shows a high level of vaccine uptake. As of May 8 statistics, 67% of the 8,629 students at W&M responded to the survey. Of that response 47% said they were fully vaccinated, 38% had had one dose and 12% said they planned to be vaccinated in the future. ANGUILLA, BWI / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / Kidoz Inc. (TSXV:KIDZ) (the "Company"), mobile AdTech developer and owner of the market leading KIDOZ Contextual Ad Network (www.kidoz.net) and the Kidoz Publisher SDK, announced today its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2021. All amounts are presented in United States dollars and are in accordance with United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. Recent Kidoz Inc. Q1 2021 highlights include: Total Revenue of $1,557,942 - growth of 58% compared to Q1 2020 Total Revenue of $983,979. AdTech revenue of $1,504,300 - growth of 68% compared to Q1 2020 AdTech Revenue $895,555. 2021 Gross Profit of $685,041 - growth of 54% compared to Q1 2020 Gross Profit of $444,175. 2021 EBITDA of ($117,199) a 111% improvement from an EBITDA loss of ($246,954) in Q1 2021. 2021 loss of ($347,044) from a loss of ($403,924) in Q1 2020. Cash provided by operations of $393,060 compare to cash used in operations of ($400,604) in Q1 2020. Cash of $1,611,592 and working capital of $2,951,465 as at March 31, 2021. Brands are increasingly selecting Kidoz as their feature provider for mobile advertising campaigns. Release of latest Kidoz Publisher SDK and adoption of hundreds of new apps into the Kidoz Ad Network. "As Q1 is typically the most challenging quarter of the year, with the Kidoz Contextual Ad Network recording revenue growth of 68%, the Company is clearly in a phase of rapid growth," stated Jason Williams, Kidoz Co-CEO. "We experienced record Q1 demand from our advertisers in all regions in which we operate and we see no indication that this growth will slow for the foreseeable future. Kidoz has historically recorded only 12% of its yearly revenues in the first quarter, so if this trend continues, we are on pace for an exceptional year. As many strong macro, consumer, and market trends support the Kidoz strategy of mobile products built with pure contextual targeting, free of all invasive data tracking, our solutions are adopted and contribute to our rapid system growth and strong financial performance." "We continue to invest heavily into our systems and technology to increase our network reach and expand our position as the market leader in mobile contextual advertising," commented Eldad Ben Tora, Kidoz Co-CEO. "We have several new programmatic advertising products that are coming to market in 2021 that we anticipate will increase our growth rate and our ability to fill the billions of impressions exposed monthly to the Kidoz Contextual Network. We are enthused by our market position, excited by the trajectory of our technology, and believe that 2021 will be another record year for Kidoz." First Quarter 2021 Financial Results Total Current Assets as at March 31, 2021 were $4,137,237, compared to $5,249,555 as at December 31, 2020, and Total Current Liabilities as at September 30, 2020, were $1,185,772, compared to $2,178,010 as at December 31, 2020. Total revenue, net of platform fees (to Apple, Google and Amazon) and withholding taxes, for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, increased to $1,557,942, an increase of 58% from revenue of $983,979 for the first quarter of 2020. Ad Tech advertising revenue increased to $1,504,300 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, an increase of 68% from ad tech advertising revenue of $895,555 in the first quarter of 2020. Content revenue decreased to $53,642, for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, a decrease of 39% from revenue of $88,424 in the first quarter of 2020. The increase in total revenue compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020 is due to the strong demand for kid safe advertising generated by the introduction of strong regulations worldwide. Selling and marketing expenses were $128,688 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, an increase of 11% over expenses of $115,707 in the first quarter of fiscal 2020. This increase in sales and marketing expenses in the quarter ended March 31, 2021, compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020 is due to hiring additional sales staff. General and administrative expenses consist primarily of premises costs for our offices, legal and professional fees, and other general corporate and office expenses. General and administrative expenses increased to $157,695 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, an increase of 10% from costs of $143,255 for the first quarter of fiscal 2020. The increase in general and administrative expenses is due an increase in fees paid to our professional advisors. The Company continues to maintain its current office space despite the large majority of our staff continuing to work from home since early March 2020. Salaries, wages, consultants, and benefits decreased to $132,242 for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, a decrease of 3% compared to salaries, wages, consultants, and benefits of $136,240 in the first quarter of 2020. This decrease compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020 is due to reduction in consulting fees. The Company does not capitalize its development costs. The Company expensed $337,293 in content and software development costs during the quarter ended March 31, 2021, an increase of 18% compared to content and software development costs of $284,723 expensed during the first quarter of fiscal 2020. The increase is due to an increase focus in development of our base technology and the development of playable ads as a result of hiring additional development staff. The net loss after taxation for the quarter ended March 31, 2021, amounted to ($347,044), a loss of ($0.00) per share, compared to a net loss of ($403,924) or ($0.00) per share in the quarter ended March 31, 2020. This decrease in total loss for the quarter compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020 is due to the strong demand for kid safe advertising generated by the introduction of strong regulations worldwide. Earnings before interest; depreciation and amortization; stock-based compensation and impairment of goodwill ("EBITDA") for the period ended March 31, 2021, amounted to ($117,199), a reduction of 111%, compared to EBITDA of ($246,954) in the period ended March 31, 2020. During the quarter ended March 31, 2021, we provided cash of $393,060 in operating activities compared to cash used in operating activities of ($400,604) in the same period in the prior year. During the quarter ended March 31, 2021, we used cash in investing activities of ($2,265) compared to cash used in investing activities of ($4,909) in the same period in the prior year. Net cash used in financing activities was ($5,248) in the quarter ended March 31, 2021. This compares to cash used in financing activity of ($16,187) in the same period in the prior year. We had cash of $1,611,592 and working capital of $2,951,465 at March 31, 2021. This compares to cash of $1,226,045 and working capital of $3,071,545 as at December 31, 2020. For full details of the Company's operations and financial results, please refer to the Securities and Exchange Commission website at www.sec.gov or the Kidoz Inc. corporate website at https://investor.kidoz.net or on the www.sedar.com website. About Kidoz Inc. KIDOZ Inc. (TSXV:KIDZ) (www.kidoz.net) owns the popular Kid-Safe mobile network. Engaging more than 300 million kids a month across our leading mobile KidTech network, KIDOZ provides an essential suite of services that unites kids' brands, content publishers and families. KIDOZ is certified safe by Google and Apple approved for use in the App Store. Trusted by Disney, Hasbro, Lego and more, the KIDOZ Safe Ad Network helps the world's largest brands to safely reach and engage kids across thousands of mobile apps and sites. The KIDOZ OS solution helps carriers and brands such as Lenovo, Acer, and PBS Kids bring a kid-focused experience to their family devices, in a fully GDPR and COPPA compliant way. KIDOZ's Rooplay (www.rooplay.com) offers an interactive learning experience worldwide with original content featuring Moomin, Mr. Men, Little Miss, Mr. Bean and hundreds more kid-focused learning games. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release (as well as information included in oral statements or other written statements made or to be made by the company) contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements relating to anticipated future success of the company. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by or on behalf of the company. For a description of additional risks and uncertainties, please refer to the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Specifically, readers should read the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the SEC on March 31, 2021, and the prospectus filed under Rule 424(b) of the Securities Act on March 9, 2005 and the SB2 filed July 17, 2007, and the TSX Venture Exchange Listing Application for Common Shares filed on June 29, 2015 on SEDAR, for a more thorough discussion of the Company's financial position and results of operations, together with a detailed discussion of the risk factors involved in an investment in Kidoz Inc. For more information contact: Henry Bromley CFO ir@kidoz.net (888) 374-2163 SOURCE: Kidoz Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/647104/Kidoz-Inc-Announces-Strong-Growth-in-Q1-2021-Results Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Hornby Bay Mineral Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: HBE) ("Hornby Bay" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that in connection with its previously announced transaction ("Transaction") in accordance with Policy 5.2 of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"), Hornby Bay filed a filing statement (the "Filing Statement") dated May 11, 2021, in support of its application to the TSXV to become a "Mining Issuer" (as such term is defined in the policies of the TSXV). The Transaction Pursuant to the terms of the share purchase agreement dated November 30, 2020, as amended March 23, 2021 and April 21, 2021, (collectively, the "Definitive Agreement"), entered into between the Company, Frank Guillemette (the "Principal Shareholder"), Jonathan Girard and Jean-Francois Girard (together with the Principal Shareholder, the "Vendors"), the Company will purchase from the Vendors all of the issued and outstanding common shares in the capital of 9396-1217 Quebec Inc., whose sole asset is 100% of the common shares in the capital of 9220-5392 Quebec Inc. o/a Mines Royales Quebec ("MRQ"). MRQ holds an option to acquire a 100% interest in the Philibert property (the "Philibert Property") located in Quebec's Chibougamau mining camp. Filing Statement In connection with the Transaction and pursuant to TSXV requirements, Hornby Bay has filed the Filing Statement on SEDAR under the Company's issuer profile at www.sedar.com. Readers are strongly encouraged to review the Filing Statement for full details on the Transaction. Closing of the Transaction is expected to occur on or about May 19, 2021 and it is anticipated that the common shares of the resulting issuer company (the "Resulting Issuer") will commence trading on the TSXV under the ticker symbol "FOXG" before the end of May, 2021. The closing of the Transaction remains subject to various closing conditions, including, but not limited to, the TSXV providing final approval for the Transaction. Further details of the Transaction can be found in the Filing Statement. Reference is also made to the Company's news releases dated December 3, 2021, January 6, 2021, March 23, 2021, April 23, 2021 and May 6, 2021 for additional information relating to the Transaction. Name Change Prior to the completion of the Transaction, the Company will change its name (the '"Name Change") from "Hornby Bay Mineral Exploration Ltd." to "Royal Fox Gold Inc." in accordance with the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario). The Company will provide updates with respect to the completion of the Transaction and the Name Change in subsequent news releases at the appropriate time. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS "Fred Leigh" Fred Leigh, President & CEO of Hornby Bay Mineral Exploration Ltd. For further information, please contact: Fred Leigh, President & CEO of Hornby Bay Mineral Exploration Ltd. Phone: 416-861-5933 Email: info@hornbybay.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Note The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to the TSXV listing, risk related to the failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION OR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83839 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Gen III Oil Corporation (TSXV: GIII) (OTCQB: ISRJF) (FSE: PN41) ("Gen III" or "the Company") is pleased to announce at the April 30, 2021 Annual General and Special Meeting, the Company's shareholders voted in favour of all resolutions outlined in the Management Information Circular. Furthermore, the shareholders voted in favour of a special resolution approving and authorizing the corporate name change to ReGen III Corp. ("ReGen III"). Effective at the start of trading on May 17, 2021, the Company will commence trading on the TSX Venture Exchange under the new name with the same stock symbol "GIII". The Company's officers and directors believe the ReGen III name best describes our position as a clean technology company, commercializing sustainable projects that bridge the transition to a net zero carbon world. ReGen III with its disruptive and patented ReGen technology, responsibly recycles and re-refines used motor oils to create high quality Group III and Group II+ base oils. The name change does not affect the rights of the company's shareholders. No further action is required by existing shareholders with respect to the name change, and certificates representing common shares of Gen III Oil Corporation will not need to be exchanged. The Company's new CUSIP number is 75888V100 and its new ISIN number is CA75888V1004. About Gen III Gen III is a cleantech company creating more sustainable solutions that include better environmental outcomes and compelling economics. Gen III owns a portfolio of patented technologies that enable used motor oil ("UMO") re-refineries to produce a higher value product mix of base oils than traditional methods, including 55% Group III. For more information about the Company, please visit www.geniiiesg.com . On Behalf of the Board of Gen III Oil Corporation "Greg Clarkes" Greg Clarkes Chief Executive Officer For further information, contact Mark Redcliffe at (778) 668-5988 Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Certain information contained in this news release constitutes "forward-looking information" or "forward-looking statements" (collectively, "forward-looking information"). Without limiting the foregoing, such forward-looking information include any statements regarding the Company's business plans, expectations and objectives. In this news release, words such as "may", "would", "could", "will", "likely", "believe", "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "plan", "estimate" and similar words and the negative form thereof are used to identify forward-looking information. Forward looking information should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether, or the times at or by which, such future performance will be achieved. Forward-looking information is based on information available at the time and/or the Company management's good faith belief with respect to future events and is subject to known or unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other unpredictable factors, many of which are beyond the Company's control. For additional information with respect to these and other factors and assumptions underlying the forward-looking information made in this news release, see the Company's most recent Management's Discussion and Analysis and financial statements and other documents filed by the Company with the Canadian securities commissions and the discussion of risk factors set out therein. Such documents are available at www.sedar.com under the Company's profile and on the Company's website, https://www.geniiiesg.com/. The forward-looking information set forth herein reflects the Company's expectations as at the date of this news release and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83854 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - Esstra Industries Inc. (TSXV: ESS) ("Esstra" or the "Company") is pleased to announce, subject to approval by the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange"), that Mr. Greg Kuenzel has been appointed to the Board of Directors. Mr. Kuenzel is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales with over 25 years of corporate and financial experience. He began his career providing audit and corporate services in Perth, Australia before moving to the UK in 2003. For the past 16 years, he has been working with London listed companies, predominantly within the mining and resources sectors. He has extensive experience in corporate finance, fundraising, investor relations and financial and management reporting. Mr. Kuenzel is Finance Director of Empire Metals Limited and a Partner at Westend Corporate LLP, a financial consulting firm based in London. Esstra's CEO, Ms. Virginia Olnick, comments, "I'm very excited to welcome Mr. Kuenzel to the Board of Directors. His exceptional background and breadth of experience will be a valuable asset for the Company." The Board of Directors of Esstra is now comprised of Ms. Virginia Olnick, Mr. David Atkinson, Mr. Peter Dickson and Mr. Greg Kuenzel. Resumption of Trading Trading in the common shares of the Company is halted and will remain halted pending the satisfaction of all applicable requirements of the Exchange. Esstra will issue a further news release as soon as further details are available regarding the resumption of trading. About Esstra Industries Inc. Esstra Industries Inc. is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and is classified as an "Investment Company" under applicable Exchange policies. Ms. Virginia Olnick Chief Executive Officer For further information, please contact the Company at: Tel.: (604) 785-1425 Email: virginia@volnick.com Reader Advisory This news release may include forward-looking information that is subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward-looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking information are based on reasonable assumptions, such information is not a guarantee of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, fluctuations in market prices, successes of the operations of the Company, continued availability of capital and financing and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such information will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. The Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking information except as required under the applicable securities laws. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada 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/83859 NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2021 / ZEUUS Inc. (OTC PINK:ZUUS), ("ZEUUS" or the "Company"), a diversified data centric company, announces it has entered into an agreement to acquire innovative vertical wind turbine technology. The technology will be part of the Company's ZEUUS Energy Division, which was established in February 2021. After closing, the Company plans to immediately file several patent applications on the design and operation of this unique technology. The Company recently secured a brand new 500Sqm design and R&D facility in Montenegro. The Company plans to finalize prototypes by 4th quarter 2021, and then go into full production. "We have not yet decided on the exact location where the product will ultimately be manufactured, however we are in discussions with various governments in the USA and Europe," said its new VP Operations for ZEUUS Energy, Mr. Andrei Seleznev. More about the product: Although designs, pictures, and videos are currently under wraps while the Company secures its technology, extensive testing to date demonstrates optimistic statistics: Compared to its horizontal counterparts, the technology: is much smaller in size (approx. a 10 th of the size) than similar technologies requires minimum amount of wind speeds to work has minimal moving parts has lower production costs generates 10X improved power output relative to its size difference The technology lends itself to domestic use applications, as well as industrial applications. Mr. Bassam Al Mutawa, Chief Executive Officer and President of ZEUUS, commented: "Initially we looked at this and other technologies to assist us in reducing our carbon footprint of our energy heavy data centers, however we quickly realized that this product has more far-reaching possibilities, and we believe it may become a major part of the ZEUUS growth strategy. We are pleased to welcome a group of very talented engineers to our company, they will help us drive this product and strategy forward." Mr. Bassam continued, "This article in CNBC shows the huge importance governments across the globe are placing on sustainable energy technologies." CNBC- 'A huge moment': U.S. gives go-ahead for its first major offshore wind farm About ZEUUS Inc. ZEUUS has four key divisions that are designed to synergistically address these market opportunities. They are as follows: ZEUUS Data Centers, will focus on delivering modern and modular state of the art Data Centers, safe, efficient, and cost effective. ZEUUS Cyber Security, will focus on data protection both inside and outside the data centers of ZEUUS by providing end-to-end continuous cyber security. ZEUUS SOLAAS, Solution-As-A-Service will focus on delivering modern configurable Solution with ready market business focused approach. Two key examples include Secure Cloud Meetings and Blockchain as a business solution to protect and deliver data transparency. ZEUUS Energy will focus on carbon neutral efficient electrical energy generation based on the power of Water, Wind and Sun. Innovative Immersive Cooling low PUE. By combining the power of its four divisions, ZEUUS can deliver cost-effective sustainable solutions with ongoing growth. The Company believes that it has strong economic prospects by the following dynamics of the data storage, cloud services, and connected industries, such as data / cyber security, block chain, and crypto mining. For more information, please visit the Company's website at www.zeuus.com Information on our website does not constitute a part of this press release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Statements in this press release regarding the proposed transaction, the expected timetable for completing the proposed transaction, benefits of the proposed transaction, future financial and operating results and any other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects of ZEUUS, Inc. constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing the words "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates" and similar expressions) should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements, including factors and financial, operational and legal risks or uncertainties described in the Company's periodic and other reports filed with the SEC under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. ZEUUS Inc. disclaims any intention or obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this document except as required by law. CONTACT: Mr. Bassam Al Mutawa ZEUUS Inc. Email: info@zeuus.com SOURCE: ZEUUS INC. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/647108/Ultra-Compact-Innovative-Wind-Turbine-Technology-Acquired-by-ZEUUS-Inc-More-Power-and-110-the-Size Bluestar Genomics, a San Diego, CA-based company developing epigenomic approaches to early cancer detection, raised $70m Series C funding. The round was led by current investor Mattias Westman, founding partner of Prosperity Capital Management, with participation from Pathology Asia Holdings Pte Ltd, an independent medical diagnostics group in Southeast Asia, as well as a venture fund based in San Francisco, CA, and a large, diversified asset manager on the west coast, among others. Led by Samuel Levy, Ph.D., chief executive, and chief scientific officer, Bluestar Genomics develops next-generation epigenomic approaches to detect deadly cancers, like pancreatic, early when curative therapies are possible. Founded based on the work of Dr. Stephen Quake, the company combines novel epigenomic technologies with its innovative machine learning architecture to tackle the most urgent challenges such as cancer detection. Separately, the company has announced the expansion of its Scientific Advisory Board, with the appointment of Drs. Felix Feng, professor of radiation oncology, urology, and medicine, University of California San Francisco, and Craig Venter, Ph.D., chairman and CEO of the J. Craig Venter Institute. With the new appointment, Feng and Venter are joining Alan Ashworth, Ph.D., FRS, president, Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, San Francisco. FinSMEs 12/05/2021 DataRobot, a Boston, MA-based enterprise AI company, acquired Zepl, a cloud data science and analytics platform. The amount of the deal was not disclosed. The acquisition will enable DataRobot to enhance new capabilities within DataRobots enterprise AI platform for advanced data scientists. Founded by the creators of Apache Zeppelin, an open source notebook for data and analytics that has been downloaded more than 500,000 times and led by Dan Maloney, CEO, Zepl provides a self-service data science notebook solution for advanced data scientists to do exploratory, code-centric work in Python, R, and Scala with enterprise-ready features such as collaboration, versioning, and security. DataRobot will incorporate Zepl as a cloud-native, self-service notebook in its enterprise AI platform to drive productivity, efficiency, and collaboration for multiple personas. With the integration of Zepl, business analysts will be able to build models using DataRobots automation and then collaborate with their advanced data science colleagues for additional customization if desired, all on the same platform. It will also provide a transparent view of the code behind DataRobot blueprints, further enhancing trust and explainability within the platform. Led by Dan Wright, CEO, DataRobot delivers AI technology and enablement services to global enterprises including software, AI implementation, training, and support services to empowers any organization regardless of size, industry, or resources to drive business outcomes. In addition to the acquisition, DataRobot also launched new platform enhancements, including Composable AI. The company has offices across the globe and raised funding from Alliance Bernstein, Altimeter, B Capital Group, Cisco, Citi Ventures, ClearBridge, DFJ Growth, Geodesic Capital, Glynn Capital, Intel Capital, Meritech, NEA, Salesforce Ventures, Sands Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Silver Lake Waterman, Snowflake Ventures, Tiger Global, T. Rowe Price, and World Innovation Lab. FinSMEs 12/05/2021 Unlimited website access 24/7 Unlimited e-Edition access 24/7 The best local, regional and national news in sports, politics, business and more! With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. Yes, I have been vaccinated Not yet, but I plan to get vaccinated No, I don't want to get vaccinated Vote View Results Paxton, IL (60957) Today Considerable clouds this morning. Some decrease in clouds later in the day. High around 85F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. New Delhi: Amid multiple states reporting a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine, Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech have submitted to the Centre their production plan for the next four months, informing they can ramp it up to 10 crore and 7.8 crore doses respectively by August, official sources said on Wednesday The sources said the Union Health Ministry and the office of Drugs Controller General of India had sought from both the firms their production plan for June, July, August and September. The Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's indigenously developed Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, being manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, are currently being used in India's inoculation drive against coronavirus. Dr V Krishna Mohan, the Whole-time Director of Bharat Biotech, is learnt to have conveyed to the government that the production of Covaxin would be raised to 3.32 crore in July, and to 7.82 crore in August which will be maintained in September too. Similarly, Prakash Kumar Singh, Director, Government and Regulatory Affairs at Serum Institute of India, has communicated that the production of Covishield would be ramped up to 10 crore doses each in August and will be maintained at that level in September, the official sources said. We confirm that the quantities mentioned will be fulfilled under all circumstances. Also, we are trying our best by utilising all our resources to increase our production capacity of Covishield. In view of this, the production during June and July may also increase by some quantity," Singh said in a communique to the health ministry. An inter-ministerial group, comprising Rajneesh Tingal, Joint Secretary in the Department of Pharmaceuticals, Dr Mandeep Bhandari, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Health, which was constituted for facilitating the capacity augmentation of domestic vaccine manufacturing, had visited the production facilities of both the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech in April. Several states and UTs including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana have decided to opt for global tenders for procurement of anti-coronavirus shots with the domestic supply falling short to meet the rising demand. Meanwhile, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday said Bharat Biotech has informed the Delhi government that it cannot provide "additional" Covaxin doses to the national capital. The stock of Covaxin in Delhi has finished and as a result around 100 vaccination centres set up in 17 schools have been closed, he said. The Ministry of Science & Technology had said in a statement on April 16 that the production capacity of indigenously developed Covaxin will be doubled by May-June 2021 and then increased nearly 6-7 fold by July-August 2021. GULFPORT, Miss. --District Attorney W. Crosby Parker announced that Iconic Facce pled guilty yesterday to two indicted counts of robbery. The indictment arose out of the March 22, 2019, robbery of BancorpSouth located on Cowan Road in Gulfport. The case was set for trial on June 28, 2021, but Facce, through her attorney, requested to enter her guilty plea prior to trial. After the guilty plea, Circuit Judge Randi Peresich Mueller sentenced Facce to the maximum sentence of 15 years in each count to run concurrently. On March 22, 2019, the Gulfport Police responded to the BancorpSouth located on Cowan Road to an alarm call. Bank employees told police that the suspect entered the bank lobby, and after several minutes, approached a teller window. Facce handed the teller a handwritten note which read you have 1 min to give the money do not be wrong or die. No weapon was seen or shown. Facce was described as having swollen facial features consistent with recent cosmetic surgery. The robbery was captured on the banks video surveillance system and still images of Facce were released to the media with a request for the publics assistance in identifying the suspect. Ashford Police assisted in identifying Facce as the suspect depicted in the bank surveillance video. Based on the information gathered, photo lineups were prepared and presented to each bank teller. Tellers immediately identified Facce as the person who robbed them. On March 30, 2019, Facce was arrested at the Houston International Airport, as she attempted to reenter the county. She arrived on a flight from Mexico with her face covered in bandages following plastic surgery. Facce, who was previously known as Jimmy Maurice Lewis, II, was found guilty of another robbery on January 20, 2009, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. Facce was sentenced to 51 months to serve in that case. Following the release from federal prison, Lewis had a name change to Iconic Facce. (CNN) -- A former health care worker was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for providing fatal insulin doses to elderly patients at a Veterans Affairs hospital in West Virginia. Reta Mays, who worked as a nursing assistant at the Louis A. Johnson Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Clarksburg, pleaded guilty last July to seven counts of second-degree murder and one count of assault with intent to commit murder. During Tuesday's sentencing, Judge Thomas S. Kleeh ordered consecutive life sentences for each murder and 20 years for the assault. While working the overnight shift, Mays administered deadly doses of insulin, used to treat patients with diabetes, to veterans who had been admitted to the hospital for a variety of issues related to old age. None of the patients had required treatment in the intensive care unit, nor were they close to death when they died. Some were not even diabetic, according to court documents. Like all nursing assistants at the medical center, Mays was not authorized to administer medication, including insulin. "There is no more serious offense that can be heard or adjudicated or judged in this court than what you did," Kleeh said during the hearing. "Ms. Mays, several times your counsel has made the point that you shouldn't be considered a monster," he said later in the hearing. "Respectfully, I disagree with that. You are the worst kind. You are the monster that no one sees coming. And you have made liars of everyone who has ever told their kids that monsters don't exist and that evil does not exist in the world." Mays tearfully addressed the court, apologizing for the pain she had caused. "There are no words I can say that would offer the families any comfort," Mays said. "I can only say that I am sorry for the pain I caused the families and my family. I don't ask for forgiveness, because I don't think I could forgive anyone who did what I did." While no specific motive was given for Mays' actions, her attorney Jay T. McCamic cited serious mental health issues starting in the 1990s as a contributing factor that was exacerbated by stress in her life. He also mentioned Mays' military service as a reason for a lighter sentence. CNN has reached out to McCamic for comment on Tuesday's sentence. Prosecutors say justice an 'elusive concept' Prosecutors celebrated after the hearing, while noting that justice is "somewhat of an elusive concept" in such cases. "But I hope today that these sentences do provide the respect and honor these men deserve," Acting US Attorney Randy Bernard said at a news conference. Bernard said that while justice was a hard goal to reach, prosecutors were able to achieve some requests from the families of the victims, including consecutive life sentences for Mays, who is 46. Veteran Affairs Inspector General Michael J. Missal acknowledged in a news release on Tuesday that while responsibility lay with Mays, an investigation had found systemic errors that contributed to her actions going undetected. "While responsibility for these heinous criminal acts lies with Reta Mays, an extensive healthcare inspection by our office found the facility had serious and pervasive clinical and administrative failures that contributed to them going undetected," said Missal. "I hope that the victims' families can find some measure of solace knowing that Mays was caught and punished, and that steps are being taken to help ensure other families do not suffer the same loss." Last October, the families of six victims tentatively reached settlements with the US government, CNN reported. They ranged from $700,000 to $975,000 each, according to attorneys for the families. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, The Arizona Republic. China embraces rural tourism boom amid COVID-19: U.S. media Xinhua) 14:56, May 12, 2021 Photo taken on April 14, 2021 shows a homestay in Huangyaguan village of Tianjin, north China. (Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo) The rapid growth in rural tourism is a major government policy of revitalizing rural areas, which involves supporting poor citizens in the countryside through a program of poverty alleviation, the report explained. WASHINGTON, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China is in the middle of a rural tourism boom amid the COVID-19 pandemic, CNN reported on Tuesday. Chinese-owned Trip.com, one of the world's largest online travel agencies, said that by March 2021, rural tourism trips in China had increased by more than 300 percent year-on-year, CNN said in a report. In recent days, Chinese tourists are heading not just to domestic historic and natural wonders -- some are looking for something a bit different, like spending a day picking mulberries, watching rice grow, fishing by the seaside and eating home-grown food, the report said. Aerial photo taken on March 19, 2021 shows tourists visiting the ancient Houliu Township in Shiquan County of Ankang City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. (Xinhua/Shao Rui) The rapid growth in rural tourism isn't just the result of the pandemic or rapid urbanization in China. It's also a major government policy of revitalizing rural areas, which involves supporting poor citizens in the countryside through a program of poverty alleviation, the report explained. The massive program, it said, involves a lot of spending, loans and public works designed to lift every citizen in the country out of absolute poverty. Such a boom in rural tourism has been backed by concrete government plans, as were laid down in a draft of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), in which the government called for further strengthening "leisure agriculture, rural tourism and the homestay economy," it said. Rural sightseeing is only just beginning to take off and in the future, it will focus more on China's myriad of local cultures, CNN quoted personnel with the tourism industry as saying. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Bianji) The Union Health Minister held a video conference with ministers of several states in which Harish took part on the directions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. (Photo: Twitter @drharshvardhan) Hyderabad: Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday expressed satisfaction over decline of Covid positive cases in Telangana even as state finance minister T Harish Rao placed a long quotation for oxygen, vaccines and essential medicines. The Union Health Minister held a video conference with ministers of several states in which Harish took part on the directions of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. According to a CMO press release, the finance minister explained several steps taken by the Chief Minister to enhance healthcare with a great foresight after the first wave. The number of beds went up from 18,232 to 53,775, oxygen beds from 9,213 to 20,738 and ICU beds from 264 to 11,274, he said. Harish informed the Health Minister of launching a massive door-to-door Covid survey by Anganwadi and Asha workers to identify people with symptoms and provide medical kit free of cost. So far, 60 lakh households had been covered under this survey and lakhs of people could avoid hospitalisation and their lives were saved thanks to the state initiative, the minister pointed out. The finance minister brought to the notice of Dr Harsh Vardhan about the influx of thousands of Covid patients from the neighbouring states leading to shortage of oxygen and essential medicines in the state. The Centre should allocate oxygen and Remdesivir and other essential drugs based on the influx of patients from outside instead of pro-rata population basis, he said. The minister sought enhanced allocation of oxygen from 450 MT to 600 MT and supply the same from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra instead of far-off Odisha to save turnaround time. The Remdesivir allocation should be increased to 20,000 per day, he said, adding that two lakh testing kits also should be made available to the state every day. The state also needed 1.29 crore vaccines out of which 13 lakh should be arranged immediately, he said. With minutes to spare, a Hahnville High School teacher in Boutte, Louisiana, traded shoes with a senior so he could walk at his graduation after allegedly violating the dress code. Ire and Fury in Perfumes Columns Fallen Angel, Alexandre Cabanel, 1868 When planning to write a piece on ire and fury in the context of perfumery, I was pondering something other than the emotions when dealing with a fellow subway commuter or a woman next to you in an elevator doused in some potent, sweet, and completely intolerable perfume, even though aficionados of cloying, stifling compositions which do not consider other people's feelings definitely can provoke emotions resembling ire and fury. And yet those are not the ire and fury I had in mind, but merely their distant relatives, that pass very quickly once you have managed to break free and get some fresh air, making a few satisfying deep breaths. Even if the thought "I'll kill that person" comes up, you do not really have any intention to kill anybody. No, I was interested in exploring fragrances that smell like real ire and fury. Feelings that could arise in both Shakespearean characters and regular people. Some of those characters and people would only become known or even noticed once they unleashed their ire or acted on their fury Dante and Virgil, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1850 I am talking about fragrances that provoke at least traces of emotions that are similar to real ire and rage. Such fragrances can become your best friends in days of fury. They will neither console nor protect you like armor, but they will become your dragon wings, the dragon fire that your soul earns to breathe, the aromatic embodiment of emotions wreaking havoc inside your soul Ire. Fury. Feelings that today's civilized world is usually ashamed of. And yet, they still arise and live within us. Sometimes they do it in a quiet and reserved manner. Other times they overwhelm us so much that one gets actually scared of the potential 'last drop' after which... What happens, actually? That remains unknown. Ire and fury... They sound completely wild, don't they? It is the ire that awakens in Romeo when he sees the smug Tybalt, who had just killed his best friend: Away to heaven, respective lenity, And fire-eyed fury be my conduct now! (William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet) Or the fury of Laertes, when he learns that his father was killed and his gentle sister has lost her mind: O heat, dry up my brains! Tears seven times salt, . Burn out the sense and virtue of mine eye! (William Shakespeare, Hamlet) However, in our times, one can't even mention wanting revenge; it is viewed as very, very uncivilized. I suppose that Lermontov's Khadji Abrek and Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo are not yet banned only by oversight. Numerous times have I come across statements that some readers are apparently appalled by the actions of Edmond Dantes, who seeks revenge and punishes the people who had slandered him, causing his life sentence and imprisonment in horrific conditions. People who took away fourteen years of his life, his love, and happiness and killed his father to boot... Despite all of the above, they still find the Count of Monte Cristo too cruel. Looks like he was supposed to quietly forgive them all. Or simply explain to them that they had done him wrong. Those people obviously never read Khadji Abrek, because, compared to Lermontov's proud mountaineer who executes an act of truly horrible revenge to avenge his brother's unfair death, Dumas' protagonist is mercy personified Leila and Khaji-Abrek, Nikolai Ge, 1852 Ire. Fury. Yearning for revenge. All that is improper for a civilized person to feel. However, we do get those feelings. To a stronger or lesser degree, every one of us experiences those emotions. Sure, there may be some exceptions - people who have never felt any of those things - but I personally have never met such individuals. Occasionally ire and fury rise to the surface and break through, and then You know, all those ugly emotions are not necessarily always destructive. Sometimes ire and fury push us to become better, stronger, make us overcome something that we could not deal with before. They make us triumph over people or events that had provoked those emotions in the first place. And yet, more often than not, they promote destruction. Perfumery is a magical art form that is capable of bringing back memories, bring about joy, tenderness, love, and even passion (no, I am not talking about aphrodisiacs here - everybody has their own set of fragrances that awaken passion), and now it has become so multifaceted that today we can purchase a flacon of ire and fury - and with various degrees of intensity, too! A flacon containing revenge is still not available Or maybe it simply has not hit the store shelves yet. I really love Montecristo by Masque Milano; a refined fragrance that simultaneously smells of luxurious, supple leather used for sewing garments, thick volumes in worn leather bindings, and aromatic smoke that contains a blend of the most precious and delightful resins However, if we are talking of the Count of Monte Cristo, then it is him after the events described in the novel. He now resides in his estate, and we find him sitting in his library, with the loyal beauty Haydee in his arms and an incense burner on his side table. His ire has long subsided, fully satiated by his revenge. Maybe there is no scent of revenge in perfumery because revenge is a complex feeling; it is multistage, never instant. Ire and fury, however, are available in a great variety of shades and nuances. * * * A quiet, initially restrained ire is housed in the flacon of Irae by V Canto. At first, the perfume opens with the noble and sweet, warming notes of tonka bean and hot chocolate, as well as some slightly bitter rosewood and sweetish oak wood that seems to be soaked in rum. And yet, just when you get used to this calm, reliable scent, suddenly, a hot aroma of Sichuan pepper, simultaneously hot and cold, breaks through to the surface, accompanied by the scent of hot iron. Then, delicately and suavely, metallic notes of blood and the sharp bitterness of absinthe appear. The perfume stops being comfy and sounds quite suspenseful, like music in a thriller movie, when they hint that the monster is approaching Ira mosaic, Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourviere Irae by V Canto seems interesting to me not only for its perfumery composition but also for the way it fits its 'legend,' for it is dedicated to the story of the poor lovers from Dante's Divine Comedy: the young and beautiful Paolo Malatesta and Francesca da Polenta, who is known in history as Francesca da Rimini Dante was the first to write about them, followed by many other poets and playwrights. Rather than part, O love, I would accept To share with thee the pauseless gust of Hell, Like storm-borne birds forever onward swept, Where subterranean hurricanes compel The wind-imprisoned spirits that are kept Upon the wing in Nature's cavernous shell. (Eugene Lee Hamilton, 'Francesca da Rimini to Paulo Malatesta (1270); 1888) However, Irae is only partly related to the two characters since the fragrance's name literally means 'Ire' (to be exact, an extreme anger that intensifies to the level of fury and ire). The Murder of Paolo and Francesca, Joseph Noel Paton, before 1901 And that is the ire of Giovanni 'Gianciotto' Malatesta, the ugly and unloved husband of Francesca, who was deceived by his wife and brother, and who killed them both for that. At first, however, Gianciotto tricked Francesca into marriage by sending Paolo to meet her instead of himself - he did that to charm and woo her, so she would later agree to marry him. Francesca forgave the handsome Paolo but never forgave Gianciotto. But what difference do a woman's feelings make to a jealous husband if the woman is not only his arm candy and personal property, but also a person responsible for his family's honor? Irae by V Canto is the scent of ire that has not yet burst but is just about to. It is the moment when Gianciotto sees Paolo and Francesca kissing; when he takes out his sword that seems red hot from the fury that fills the soul of the deceived husband and brother. The blood is not yet shed, but it will inevitably lead to that. An experienced warrior, Gianciotto picks up on the scent of blood (and so do those who wear the perfume). So far, it is a faint smell, but soon the blood of those two young lovers will soak their clothes and spill all across the floor Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, Alexandre Cabanel,1870 Irae by V Canto is good in every aspect. It smells reserved and civilized from a distance - a deep velvety fragrance - with all the mysteries of fire, metal, and blood hidden closer to the wearer's skin. Thus it is delightful to wear the fragrance, especially if it matches your emotional state. * * * Scents of a raging battle are best brought to life by BeauFort London; this niche brand offers as many as three kinds of ire and fury for your consideration. 1805 Tonnerre and Iron Duke authentically convey the atmosphere of a strategically planned bloodshed, spearheaded by experienced masters of mass murder - may the great warlords of the past forgive me for such a comparison That does not diminish my respect for them, but we all know that a good warrior is always an expert at killing people. An artist of it, even. Vi Et Armis, on the other hand, is more emotional and more ambivalent, which seems scarier when experiencing the fragrance for the first time. Trafalgar, Auguste Mayer, 1836 BeauFort London fragrances should be tested on the skin and strictly on the skin. You will not understand a thing if you test them from a blotter. Like vampires, they earn for hot blood They require warmth to develop. Probably the most furious of all BeauFort London fragrances is 1805 Tonnerre, which is dedicated to the naval Battle of Trafalgar when the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies tried to demolish the British Royal Navy in order to invade England. The naval engagement lasted three days. 27 British ships were battling 33 French and Spanish ships. The British won that battle. And yet the battle cost the great Admiral Horatio Nelson his life; he died from a wound right in the middle of the battle - nobody now knows whether it's a legend or the actual truth that Nelson personally asked that his face be covered by a handkerchief, so that no sailor could see him, wounded to death, being removed from the deck, for it could negatively affect their morale The Death of Nelson, Daniel Maclise, 1860s The commander of the Spanish Navy, Admiral Federico Carlos Gravina, managed to escape the fate of being taken prisoner, but five months later, he also died from the wounds sustained during the battle. The British lost 449 men, including Nelson, and it is unknown how many more of the 1200 wounded eventually died on the shore. About 4500 French and Spanish men died during the battle, and it is also unknown how many of the 2500 wounded soldiers shared the fate of Admiral Gravina. By the standards of wars of the century, those numbers are not that vast... But by the standards of those times, the damage was significant. 1805 Tonnerre smells of gunpowder. The gunpowder note is listed in many perfume descriptions, and I know it well - I spent a lot of time at shooting ranges when I was a kid, both indoor and outdoor ones. I know well what hot and cooled down gunpowder smoke smells like. I also know how gunpowder smells on one's hands. I like that smell... Yet, it is not often that I sense the authentic version of the note even where it was promised to appear. However, 1805 Tonnerre smells primarily of gunpowder. Both hot and cold, by the way. 1805 Tonnerre smells of smoke one can suppose that it's smoke from the burning ships. It is heavy on the leather note, as well as the hot corporeal one... It smells of hot metal and cold, salty sea. It smells like hot blood, tinged with metal and salt. Burning ship, Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) You may not know what battle inspired the fragrance, but you will sense the gunpowder and the smoke, the sea and the blood. In the fragrance, one can sense fury, passion, despair, and tenacity bordering on insanity. It is terrible and beautiful at the same time. A friend of mine jokingly says that 1805 Tonnerre smells so naturalistic that you can hear the weapons roaring and the sailors swearing like, well, sailors when sensing the fragrance. It is certainly an exaggeration, for my friend does not know exactly how British, French, or Spanish sailors used to curse in the early XIX century. However, there is some truth to what he says 1805 Tonnerre is scary, but it is vivid and strong. * * * Iron Duke is dedicated to the great military leader, field marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, the best British military leader of the early XIX century. The Iron Duke, which was Wellington's nickname, fought all his life: he had to fight wherever Britain had military interests. However, this particular BeauFort London's fragrance is dedicated to Wellington as the commender-in-chief at Waterloo. It is also about the Battle of Waterloo itself. Sir Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Thomas Lawrence, 1814 Napoleon Bonaparte, who had lost once before and was exiled on Elba, returned and seemingly regained his former glory. To prevent him from triumphing again, the allied armies of the Seventh Coalition (the combined forces of Great Britain, as well as the kingdoms of the Netherlands and Hanover, and the duchies of Braunschweig and Nassau) together with the Prussian army entered the battle with an army loyal to Bonaparte at Waterloo (now located in Belgium). Napoleon was finally defeated and exiled to the island of St. Helena, where he died. However, at first, the French army almost crushed the Brits, and Wellington famously refused to retreat, indicating he had run out of reinforcements, but even if all men would die, they still had to keep fighting. And they did until reinforcements arrived. In those times, generals and marshals risked their lives together with their soldiers, so when talking about hanging in there, the Iron Duke also meant himself, and the fact that he survived tells us of pure military luck, nothing else. The total number of casualties of the battle has never been tallied. About 25 thousand Frenchmen. About 22 thousand from the side of the Coalition. Wellington at Waterloo, Robert Hillingford, 1890 Iron Duke primarily smells of cold metal and leather, the rough leather used for making saddles, harnesses, riding boots, and ammunition. It is a luxurious, deep leather fragrance that transforms into an animalic scent of worked-up horses. Iron Duke smells of metal - the cold metal gradually becomes hot, and, as we know, the scent of blood is never too far from the metal note; here, it is less salty than in 1805 Tonnerre, yet it is no less recognizable. Iron Duke smells of gunpowder - no less than 1805 Tonnerre does, only the scent of gunpowder here appears later and blends with the spicy smoke of pipe tobacco, the boozy vanilla sweetness of rum, and the scent of wood. I also sense violet in Iron Duke. It is slightly metallic, yet it is nevertheless delicate and delightful. Unlike 1805 Tonnerre, the smells of flesh and blood in Iron Duke are toned down with the vivid notes of gunpowder, tobacco, rum, and luxurious aromatic leather. If you enjoy leather fragrances but still have not familiarized yourself with Iron Duke, do correct that oversight! The leather note in it is sumptuous all by itself. But also, you can detect restrained fury and tension, and here they are even more distinctive than in Irae by V Canto while colder and more arrogant at the same time. Portrait of the Duke of Wellington by John Jackson, 183031 Iron Duke is exceptionally handsome. It is less shocking and possibly a little less impressive than 1805 Tonnerre, but it is more balanced, multifaceted, and elegant. It is no less furious, mind you. He is very, very strong and furious, that Iron Duke. I adore him. * * * Another very masculine, angry, aggressive, and seemingly unbearable fragrance from BeauFort London is Vi Et Armis. The name is translated from Latin as "with force and weapons," even though it is supposed to portray not some war or battle, but a lengthy British trade ships' voyage for precious goods and their long voyage back - through calm and storm, through all the trials and seductions of the journey, through clashes with pirates And there was nothing romantic about it, especially when it comes to pirates. Knife fight between pirates, N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945) You really feel a certain force in Vi Et Armis; it possesses a contained kind of fury that occasionally splashes out, only to then retreat to the bottom of one's soul again. Vi Et Armis shocks with a thick smoke-and-salt note that later breaks into the scent of salty deck boards, the smell of smoke and sweat. BeauFort London is very good at recreating the smell of sweat - fresh, healthy sweat of physical labor, which is occasionally washed off with fresh salty water. The scent of the sea in Vi Et Armis is even more concentrated than that in 1805 Tonnerre. There is no gunpowder or blood here, though... The leather note in this composition is strong, but it is not as refined as the leather in Iron Duke. Here it is heavy on tar, powerful and occasionally reminiscent of the smell of a leather whip kept in a bucket of saltwater for pliability. And if you think that all of the above is a perverted fantasy of a perverted author, please go and test Vi Et Armis for yourself. Maybe you will get some other associations, but they will be no less brutal, I assure you. That is if you will be able to tolerate Vi Et Armis on your skin at all. Truth be told, the fragrance is not for the faint at heart. And yet it is not devoid of a certain appeal - wild and peculiar, but, never the less, appeal. Pirates Fighting at Sunrise, Horace Vernet, 1818 The middle note in Vi Et Armis is salt, both marine and human, leather and smoke, strength and anger. In the background, though, we have got the warming, smokey-peaty scent of whiskey, the wonderful, cozy aroma of black tea, and the sweet smoke of hashish Plus a bit of incense either for adornment or to calm down the raging fury. * * * Fury reveals itself not only in wars but also in a phenomenon that is, in my opinion, much scarier, such as a revolution or a spontaneous urban riot. That meaningless, overwhelming fury is what we get in Burning Barbershop by D.S. & Durga. I doubt that the fire that destroyed Curling Bros barbershop in Westlake, NY, in 1891 was part of a series of street riots since they were not happening at the time. The fragrance was inspired by the contents of a single, smoky flacon found in the ashes, filled with a mint, vanilla, lime, and lavender-smelling liquid. Fire, Efim Volkov (1844-1920) Nevertheless, Burning Barbershop smells disconcerting and scary. It smells like the thick smoke of a huge fire. Hot iron. Smoky burnt meat. And underneath all that, we have the scents of a peaceful life: mint, lavender, lime... And the childlike sweetness of vanilla. The combination of delicate vanilla with smoke, burnt meat, and hot iron seems particularly terrifying to me. I cannot imagine how one can wear Burning Barbershop for pleasure. However, Burning Barbershop perfectly reflects the desire to destroy everything in sight - hopefully, a desire restrained * * * Boundless fury propelled by feral strength and a savage kind of joy is also offered in D.S. & Durga's collection: we will find it in a flacon called Notorious Oud. Two monsters that were once (or maybe never!) human are engaged in a fight to the death, which is satisfying for both because they are so high on adrenalin and raging fury that if they don't fight, they will simply explode. Fafner kills Fasolt from the series The Rhinegold & The Valkyrie, Arthur Rackham (1867-1939) Hot animal breath, hot corporeal smell, the battle of rough saffron with prickly nutgrass, loosened earth, crushed greenery ... * * * The same kind of rage, fierce and joyful, indomitable and ruthless, but performed in a more sophisticated and beautiful way, is available to us in the fragrance Tyrannosaurus Rex by Zoologist Perfumes. Tyrannosaurus Rex smells of lush, juicy greenery and gigantic, exotic, intoxicatingly sweet flowers, both still living and destroyed by the heavy step of the largest predator that ever walked planet Earth. I think that the fragrance's creators believe that dinosaurs were warm-blooded; at least, one can feel that the scent is that of a hot-blooded, muscular animal. There is the smell of fresh blood on his teeth, lots of it. There is a smell of fire, too... This is a fire that ravages the prehistorical forest - or does it symbolize the angry fire that burns the T.Rex from within in his insatiable urge to kill? Dragon pleasure, Jacek Yerka, 1995 The truly surprising thing about Tyrannosaurus Rex, the fragrance, is the incense note; in this composition, it is unexpected yet powerful, as if emanating from the eternally distant future of 'O Fortuna' by Carl Orff. Tyrannosaurus Rex smells almost dressy, especially in its sillage, where there are more flowers and greenery. And yet, at the same time, Tyrannosaurus Rex smells unnerving. Also, it seems as though this potion possesses a certain strength that can be transmitted to its wearer. Fury, too. A very beautiful kind of fury, almost demonic in its power. Carl Orff: O Fortuna ~ Carmina Burana: SUPER CHIX Opens Its Third Utah Location May 12, 2021 // Franchising.com // Salt Lake City, UT. - SUPER CHIX is pleased to announce its third restaurant in Utah opened today in St. George. The new SUPER CHIX Restaurant is located at 158 North Red Cliffs Dr., St. George, UT. On the heels of very strong openings for our American Fork, UT and Spanish Fork, UT restaurants, we are excited to add a third Utah restaurant, this one in the southern part of the state. We, along with the solid franchise development group for the Las Vegas, NV and St. George, UT markets, are delighted to bring SUPER CHIX to a new city and region. The Red Cliffs Corner Shopping Center is the perfect place for the St. George, Utah SUPER CHIX thanks to its easy accessibility just off the St. George Blvd. exit on I-15 and its location in the prominent shopping area in St. George along Red Cliffs Dr. St. George is a wonderful and growing community in Utah, and it is the gateway to incredible State and National Parks and recreational areas in the region. With our new Super Chix restaurant, area residents, as well as travelers, have another great choice for a fast-casual lunch with healthy options, and dinner guests will discover a new premium-quality eatery they can enjoy with family and friends. Congratulations to SUPER CHIX franchise developers Nate and Eric Houston and Easton Perkins and their team for an incredible opening, said Darryl Neider, CEO of SUPER CHIX. St. George is our fourth SUPER CHIX restaurant to open already in 2021 and we also have 6 additional franchise locations with construction underway. The St. George restaurant is the latest to open this year following Bozeman, MT; Idaho Falls, ID and Spanish Fork, UT. We are very pleased with the enthusiasm of our many guests as we open new locations said Neider. SOURCE SUPER CHIX ### Comments: Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. Disqus Keep the conversation about local news & events going by joining us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Recent updates from The News-Post and also from News-Post staff members are compiled below. In this Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, photo, violent rioters try to break through a police line on the West Front of the Capitol, in Washington. The top watchdog for the U.S. Capitol Police will testify to Congress for the first time about the departments broad failures before and during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Among them was missed intelligence and old weapons that officers didnt feel comfortable using. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Israeli firefighter extinguishes a burning vehicle on Tuesday after Hamas launched rockets from Gaza Strip to Ashkelon, at southern Israel. (AFP) Israel said it killed 16 members of the Hamas armed wing in Gaza in a barrage on Wednesday and Palestinian militants rained rockets into Israel as Washington said it would send an envoy to try to calm their most intense hostilities in years. At least 56 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the enclave's health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the brigade commander for Gaza City was among senior members of the Islamist militant group who had been killed. "This is just the beginning. We'll hit them like they've never dreamed possible," he said. Soon after the announcement, a new rocket barrage was fired at the Israeli city of Ashdod and Israeli media said the military was preparing for new salvoes on the Tel Aviv area. Hamas confirmed the death of the commander and of "other leaders and holy warriors" in a statement. Its leader Ismail Haniyeh added: "The confrontation with the enemy is open-ended." A Palestinian source said truce efforts by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations had made no progress to end violence that flared this week after tension during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and clashes in East Jerusalem. Describing the scenes of destruction as harrowing, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a senior aide, Hady Amr, would be sent to urge Israelis and Palestinians to seek calm. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin reaffirmed ironclad support for Israels legitimate right to defend itself. Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Israel would continue to strike Hamas to restore long-term calm, according to a statement on their call. The fighting is the heaviest between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in the Hamas-ruled enclave, and concern is growing that the situation could spiral out of control. In Gaza, a multi-storey residential building and a tower housing Hamas and other media outlets collapsed after Israel warned occupants in advance to evacuate, and another structure was heavily damaged in the air strikes. Other air strikes hit what Israel's military said were rocket launch sites, Hamas offices and homes of Hamas leaders. "Israel has gone crazy," said a man on a Gaza street, where people ran out of their homes as explosions rocked buildings. Twenty-four people were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza on Wednesday, Gaza's health ministry said. Witnesses and health officials in Gaza said one Israeli air strike killed three people, including a woman, in a car. Many Israelis also spent a sleepless night as waves of rockets hit Israel's heartland. "The children have escaped the coronavirus, and now a new trauma," an Israeli woman in the coastal city of Ashkelon told Channel 11 TV. Israelis ran to shelters or lay on pavements in some communities far from Gaza. "All of Israel is under attack. It's a very scary situation to be in," said Margo Aronovic, a 26-year-old student, in Tel Aviv. Along the Gaza border, an Israeli soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile, the military said. Two people were killed by a rocket in Lod, near Tel Aviv. Tension also spilled over in mixed Arab-Jewish towns in Israel where there have been demonstrations over the hostilities. After a synagogue was torched in Lod, police deployed paramilitary reinforcements and announced a curfew. read more GAS PLATFORM SHUT DOWN U.S. energy corporation Chevron said it had shut down the Tamar natural gas platform off the Israeli coast on the instructions of the Energy Ministry. Israel said its energy needs would continue to be met. read more Hamas said it fired 210 rockets towards Beersheba in southern Israel and at Tel Aviv overnight in response to the strikes on a tower building in Gaza City. "If they (Israel) want to escalate, the resistance is ready, if they want to stop, the resistance is ready," Haniyeh said. For Israel, the targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with Hamas, regarded as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the United States. The violence followed weeks of tension during Ramadan, with clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters near Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. These escalated ahead of a court hearing - now postponed - that could lead to the eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers. The conflict has led to the freezing of talks by Netanyahu's opponents on forming a governing coalition to unseat him after Israel's inconclusive March 23 election. Violence has also flared in the occupied West Bank. Medical sources said a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed in clashes with Israeli forces on Wednesday. Gaza's health ministry said 14 of the people reported killed in the enclave were children. The Israeli military said 200 of more than 1,000 rockets fired by Gaza factions had fallen short, potentially causing some Palestinian civilian casualties. Israel has dispatched infantry and armour to reinforce tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of its last ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks in 2014. Although the latest problems in Jerusalem were the immediate trigger for hostilities, Palestinians have also been frustrated as their aspirations for an independent state have suffered setbacks in recent years. These include Washingtons recognition of disputed Jerusalem as Israels capital, a U.S. plan to end the conflict that they saw as favourable to Israel, and continued settlement building. Today Cloudy this morning with showers during the afternoon. High 83F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. Tomorrow Thunderstorms likely in the morning. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High around 85F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70%. The Carnival Breeze and Carnival Vista receive a heros welcome as they sail into Galveston for the first time in more than a year Sunday, May 2, 2021. Crowds gathered at Pier 21, Pier 26 and on rooftops near the waterfront to watch the arrival of the two cruise ships. If you're looking for something cool to do tonight or next weekend make sure you... We will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps," Vestager said in a statement. Both Luxembourg and Amazon challenged the decision with the EU's General Court. The EU has taken aim at deals concluded between individual countries and companies used to lure foreign multinationals in search of a place to establish their EU headquarters. The practice led to EU states competing with each other and multinationals playing them off one another. Judges at the General Court have backed the European Commission in several cases, but the EU's efforts to crack down on favorable tax deals suffered recent setbacks in cases involving Starbucks and Apple. Wednesday's ruling can be appealed to the 27-nation bloc's highest court, the European Court of Justice. The EU remains at odds with Amazon on other issues relating to competition. Last year, EU regulators filed antitrust charges against the e-commerce company, accusing Amazon of using its access to data from companies that sell products on its platform to gain an unfair advantage over them. This letter is in support of Sami Al-AbdRabbah for the school board. As a former sixth-grade teacher and PTA president, current registered nurse, and parent of a CSD509J student, I have had many interactions with district staff, board members, children and underserved populations. Sami is an incredible asset to the school board: He is compassionate and knowledgeable and sincerely dedicated to the students, parents, and staff of our district. He always listens attentively so that he can understand the concern and context, and he is excellent at closed-loop communication and following through. During PTA meetings, Sami gave the same degree of respect and responsiveness to parents, teachers, our principal and students, and his commitment to our needs was evident and consistent. It is not surprising that the Corvallis Educators Association supports Sami as a valued asset to the school district, and that both the CEA president and the president of the Classified Staff Association have each given personal recommendations for Samis work. What I love best about Sami is his genuine excitement about getting students the services they need, how well he listens to parents about their concerns, and how hard he fights for students. Gettysburg, PA (17325) Today Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 83F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Cloudy with showers. Low 64F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. Gillette, WY (82718) Today Sunny and windy. High 97F. Winds SSW at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies. Gusty winds during the evening. Low 46F. WNW winds at 25 to 35 mph, decreasing to 10 to 20 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph. Fort Hood, TX (76544) Today Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. Hot and humid. High 92F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Clear to partly cloudy. Low 73F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Barton - Miriam A. (Jacobs) Carter, 98, died from declining health on Monday, June 1, 2020, in Barton, Vt. She was the widow of John C. Carter. Born in Rockland, Mass., on April 20, 1922, she was the second daughter of the late David Percy and Ethel Agnes (Belcher) Jacobs. She was a graduate 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. 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 Galt, CA (95632) Today Sunny. High 78F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 47F. SW winds at 10 to 20 mph, decreasing to 5 to 10 mph. Kathryn Jean Lopez is senior fellow at the National Review Institute, editor-at-large of National Review magazine and author of the new book A Year With the Mystics: Visionary Wisdom for Daily Living. She is also chair of Cardinal Dolans pro-life commission in New York. She can be contacted at klopez@nationalreview.com. Formula 1 has started a working group to solve the track limits problem. The discussion about the track limits has been dominating F1 lately, and of course that shouldn't be the case. Max Verstappen has struggled a lot with track limits this season. In Bahrain he had to give back the lead, in Portugal he lost his pole time and in the race in Portugal he also lost the fastest lap. Red Bull is also the team that has been raising the alarm the most, and that has helped. F1 team According to Motorsport-total.com a working group will be started after long discussions between the team bosses and Stefano Domenicali. ''There were healthy discussions, and a working group has now been started. We need a solution, which is simple and understandable for the drivers, fans and teams. That shouldn't be so difficult,'' Christian Horner stated. Race director, Michael Masi, doesn't think this will be so easy. ''Ideally we would have a hard track limit everywhere, but that's difficult with the circuits. You would prefer to have walls everywhere like at the upcoming races in Monaco and Baku, but of course we drive on different types of circuits, and we also have to consider safety,'' Masi concludes. Red Bull Racing were once again forced to concede victory to Mercedes in Spain, but the fact remains that the team is in a much better position than in 2020. Team principal Christian Horner agrees and wants to focus on the positive aspects. Horner saw chances for victory in Spain In the end, Max Verstappen's Red Bull simply lacked speed compared to Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. "If we could have driven a good pace, that would have been our chance to win the Grand Prix," Horner said in an interview with AutoHebdo. "Driving the fastest race lap was ultimately the only option to bring in more points." "Mercedes had a better race pace and was less affected by tyre wear," Horner continued. "They were simply faster than us." However, the Red Bull team boss remains optimistic. "We've never been so close before, so I don't think we should be disappointed with this result. It certainly wasn't a bad day for us, as we were almost on the same level as Mercedes at a circuit where we were less good last year. That's very positive," said Horner. Red Bull also made a big step in qualifying. "Apart from Bahrain, the gap between the teams in qualifying is always about a tenth. Our last pole position in Barcelona was in 2011, and this year we were incredibly close. We just need to work on our race pace," Horner finished. Max Verstappen had to lose out to Lewis Hamilton in Spain, who managed to eventually pass the Dutchman again via a two-stop strategy. The situation was not new for Verstappen, as the same thing happened in Hungary in 2019. Nevertheless, the two-stop strategy was a calculated risk for Hamilton, as Verstappen could have done it the exact opposite otherwise. Fresher tyres from Lewis In Mercedes' Race Debrief, Andrew Shovlin explains Mercedes' approach to pit stops and the thinking behind the second stop. "He actually said to us after the race: I was almost about to do it[overtaking Verstappen]. Perhaps you should have left me out and I would have done it on track.' And it looked like it was quite possible, I think with fresher tires on Lewis car, it would probably happened at some point." "Because Max wouldve started to get pretty significant degredation towards the end of the race. However, if weve done that, you then have the disadvantage almost of being the race leader and Max could have done to Lewis what weve done to him. So he couldve converted to a two-stop as soon as Lewis had overtaken him." "This might have happend around the point we decided to pull the trigger on the extra stop anyway. So in some ways, it was actually better to not do that overtake on track," Shovlin clearly explains the idea behind Hamilton's extra stop. Finally, he adds that if it didn't work, Hamilton would probably still finish second, limiting the damage anyway. With that in mind, Mercedes decided to bring Hamilton in for the second time in order to start chasing Verstappen. With success, a few laps before the end they caught up with the Dutchman, who then also made an extra stop for new tyres to get the extra point for fastest lap. Yes! No, still holding off on vacation plans No, as I didn't have any plans last summer Vote View Results F1's governing body has responded to accusations Red Bull may be benefitting from a "bendy" rear wing. The "bendy" claim was made by Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton last weekend in Barcelona, but Red Bull boss Christian Horner suspects Toto Wolff was actually behind the accusation. "The FIA is completely satisfied with our car and it has passed all of the various rigorous testing," Horner said. But that may not actually be true, as the FIA's technical boss Nikolas Tombazis has now written to the teams to warn them about parts that feature "excessive deflections". "We have become aware of some cases whereby rear designs which comply with the requirements of (the rules) nonetheless exhibit excessive deflections while the cars are in motion," he said. Tombazis added that the deflections "can have a significant influence on a car's aerodynamic performance". "We will be looking out for any anomalous behaviour of the deformation of the rear wing," he said. "Should we observe any characteristics that indicate exploitation of this area, we will introduce further load deflection tests as necessary." (GMM) If you already subscribe to our print edition, sign up for FREE to view the newspaper online! Enter all nine digits of your zip code, without a hyphen. Last Name needs to be in all caps. Leclanche SA will provide its proprietary battery technology to Canadian Pacific (CP) for its innovative Hydrogen Locomotive Program. (Earlier post.) The CP hydrogen-powered locomotive pioneering project, first announced in December 2020, will retrofit a line-haul diesel freight locomotive with hydrogen fuel cells and Leclanche's European-manufactured lithium-ion batteries to power the locomotive's electric traction motors. Leclanche will also provide its proprietary energy management software for optimum integration. The project is designed to evaluate the combined technologies readiness for the freight rail sector. Once the locomotive is operational, CP will conduct rail service trials and qualification testing. CP operates a 21,000-km (13,000-mile) rail network across Canada and the USthat serves deep-water ports on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The market for freight rail is large and growing across the world. In 2018, year-over-year, Canada's freight rail sectors workload, measured by gross ton-miles, increased by 6.2%, and increased 10.1% compared with the five-year average. The distance travelled by Canadas freight trains, measured by freight train-miles, increased by 5.4% to 68.6 million in 2018 versus 2017. Leclanche is pleased to have been chosen by Canadian Pacific for inclusion in its hydrogen locomotive, zero emission freight train program. This project further expands our addressable market to include electrification of the freight rail sector representing a major global opportunity for the reduction of greenhouse gases. Our battery systems and energy management software solution significantly increase the total energy efficiency compared to standalone fuel cell modules, reducing the total cost of ownership. In addition to North America, we are currently looking at the freight train market in Europe, Australia, Brazil and South Africaall of which are ideally suited for the transformation of their current diesel stock. Anil Srivastava, CEO, Leclanche Leclanche's eTransport Solutions business serves the needs of the medium- and heavy-transportation industry through the supply of a broad range of solutions based on 100% inhouse technologies from lithium cells, battery modules, battery management system and battery packs to energy management software. Leclanche has delivered/commissioned more than 430 high-capacity marine racks and commercial vehicle battery packs to customers since the start of commercial operations in 2019. These customers include global original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the passenger rail, maritime, bus, truck and specialized vehicles sectors. SK Inc., the holding company of SK Group, has invested an additional US$35.9 million (40 billion won) in SES (formerly SolidEnergy Systems), a developer of next-generation lithium metal batteries (earlier post). With this second investment, following the original 30-billion won (US$26.7 million) investment in 2018, SK now is the third-largest shareholder of the advanced battery company, following the CEO of Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek and founder Qichao Hu. SK Corp. has been investing in the explosively growing electric vehicle material business, including next-generation power semiconductors; the companys strategy is to leap forward as a Game Changer in the market. SES, which started in 2012 as an MIT research lab startup, is headquartered in Singapore and operates labs and pilot production facilities in Boston and Shanghai, China. In March, SES and GMalso an investor in SESsigned a joint development agreement. (Earlier post.) Solid Energy and GM plan to establish a lithium metal battery test production plant near Boston by 2023, and are aiming for final commercialization in 2025. As the industry predicts the possibility of a Solid Energy stock exchange listing, SK Corp. already anticipates the value of its stake to increase significantly. SES has addressed the dendrite safety problem associated with Li metal batteries by coating lithium metal with a polymer coating and using a high-concentration electrolyte that suppresses the formation of dendrites. Major companies are also conducting research on all-solid-state batteries using solid electrolytes as a solution to the dendrite phenomenon, but it is predicted that it will take a long time to commercialize and launch prototypes due to various technical difficulties. SES strategy is to dominate in the lithium metal battery market by first commercializing a hybrid method that combines a liquid electrolyte and a solid coating, which is easier to implement than an all-solid solution. SES is the first company that has successfully applied this hybrid method. Solid energy lithium metal batteries are expected to be applied to various devices such as smartphones and drones in addition to electric vehicles. According to McKinsey, the global demand for batteries is expected to grow 17 times in 10 years from 219 GWh in 2019 to 3,612 GWh in 2030. With the prospect of rapid popularization of electric vehicles, major global battery companies are competing fiercely in the development of next-generation batteries that will significantly improve the performance of electric vehicles and expand factories. SK is pursuing four core businesses, including advanced materials, green, bio, and digital. A wake-up call for anti-China forces in India, the EU (Global Times) 15:03, May 12, 2021 Illustration: Tang Tengfei/GT A prominent member of the European Parliament, Mick Wallace, recently called on the EU to stop using "shared values" as a cover to engage India and use the country as a geopolitical tool to contain China's development, which is "exactly what the Americans want to do when it comes to India." The EU should play an independent role when engaging India, and the idea of using India "as a vehicle to stop China as if China was the baddie and India was the goodie is absolute nonsense," Wallace said, pointing out that "the Chinese have performed miracles with challenging poverty unheard of in humankind." At a time when anti-China forces, including those in the EU, are busy fabricating and hyping up human rights lies to vilify China, Wallace's comment is not only refreshing but also very effective in exposing the hypocrisy and double standards of these forces. The truth is that China's development is never a threat to any country or region, and malicious geopolitical schemes aimed at containing China's peaceful development will eventually backfire. Under the US' strategic pivot to Asia, countries have been lining up to draw different versions of so-called Indo-Pacific strategies. Objectively speaking, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century, with global economic vitality, value chains and other vital international issues shifting toward the Asian-Pacific region. Facing this shift, the US, seeking to cling onto its hegemony, has been attempting to use unilateral actions and gang up with its allies with "shared values" to suppress China. India, the self-claimed world's largest democracy, emerges as a strategic tool for the US and its followers to counter China. The US-led clique's cajolery indeed can win India some advantages, or to some extend help raise India's international status; but what's becoming increasingly clear is that even with the backing of Western developed economies, India will not be able to counter or replace China's role in the global value chain. The development of global industrial chain is based on economic rules, which cannot be manipulated by a handful of Western powers. That has already been established. Some Indian politicians had been dreaming about taking advantage of the US' anti-China campaign and the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 in China last year to replace China's production capacity. Evidently, a dream is all that was. China again became India's largest trading partner in 2020, which should be a loud wake-up call for the short-sighted Indian politicians. In fact, as neighbors, China and India enjoy strong complementarities in economic and industrial structures, which can benefit both sides. It is cooperation with China instead of confrontation that will benefit India's development. If it joins the US and others to counter China, India is nothing more than a strategic tool. The same logic applies for Europe when it comes to policies toward China. As China's second largest trading partner, total bilateral trade surged 32.1 percent year-on-year in the first four months. The importance of maintaining a close relationship with China for European industries is plain for all to see especially when the global economy is still struggling in the pandemic quagmire. However, even as European business groups are eagerly waiting for an early implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), some EU politicians have been trying to hinder the progress by fabricating groundless human rights lies about China, pandering to the US' anti-China scheme and dimming the prospect of European businesses. The CAI is mutually beneficial for the EU and China. For the EU, pushing for the early implementation of the hard-fought agreement is in the bloc's core interests. The cold war era has ended. Ganging up against China under the guise of "shared values," as Wallace pointed out, goes against historical trend and will only end up hurting themselves in the long run. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Support local journalism We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story. With a backpack slung over her shoulders, a painting under one arm and a skateboard under the other, a woman wandered the halls of a Miami-Dade high school on Monday, distributing fliers with her social media handle to students, prosecutors said. But Audrey Francisquini was not actually a student at American Senior High School. In fact, she isn't a teenager. She's 28-years-old and she snuck into the school in a plot to gain more Instagram followers, police said. Hours after hurrying out of the school once authorities caught on to her alleged scheme, Francisquini was arrested and charged with felony trespassing, misdemeanor interfering with a school and resisting arrest without violence, according to court records. She pleaded not guilty on Tuesday and a Miami-Dade Circuit judge set bond at $2,000. Francisquini's public defender identified in court documents did not immediately respond to a message from The Washington Post late on Tuesday. Francisquini once worked as a police officer in DeKalb County, Ga., but lost her job in 2017 when she was arrested and accused of hacking into another officer's social media accounts and then posting nude images of the officer. In South Florida, she now works in sales for Carnival Cruises, she told the judge on Tuesday. A Carnival spokesperson told WSVN that the company is reviewing her case internally. On Monday, Francisquini walked through the front doors of American Senior High School, took out her phone, and began recording herself handing out pieces of paper, according to an arrest report reviewed by WSVN. A student told the station that Francisquini was showing off her Instagram feed, which featured videos and several images of her wearing a "devil's mask." "It's crazy. It's very creepy," he said. The station showed videos from her account in which Francisquini worse a sinister red mask with pointy ears and black horns. A security guard in the school eventually grew suspicious and confronted Francisquini, police said. Francisquini allegedly claimed she was a student and said she was looking for the registration office. But instead of making her way to registration, she passed the office and resumed handing out fliers. At one point, Francisquini allegedly approached a group of students walking toward their classroom, preventing them from going inside, WPLG reported. When a security officer approached Francisquini again, she dismissed him and continued handing out fliers, the arrest report said. The officer then notified the administration that there was a "potential threat on campus," according to WFOR. Once Francisquini noticed school administrators coming toward her, she quickly made her way to an exit, ignoring instructions to stop, the arrest report said. Thanks to the flier with her Instagram handle, though, police soon tracked her down to her North Miami Beach home on Monday night, where she remained inside and posted on her Instagram story. "I legit have I don't know how many cops outside right now of my house," Francisquini said in a post broadcast by WSVN. "I'm not going outside at all." At a bond hearing on Tuesday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy S. Glazer questioned how Francisquini pulled off the stunt. "First of all, I don't know how you get into the school," Glazer said. "They have a guard at the front. You have to show your ID." A prosecutor explained that Francisquini "dressed similar to students to try and blend in," according to footage of the hearing broadcast on WSVN. As the prosecutor and judge spoke about her alleged crimes, Francisquini nodded her head vigorously. "Ma'am, stop doing that," her public defender said. As the hearing wrapped up, the lawyer added, "If someone shoves a camera in your face, just don't talk about this." In addition to the three charges, the judge ordered Francisquini to stay away from the high school. In a statement to WTVJ, a Miami-Dade County Public Schools spokesperson called the events an "unfortunate incident" and said the district is doing a "thorough review." "Miami-Dade County Public Schools will continue to work tirelessly to protect the safety and well-being of our students and employees," the spokesperson said. Jail record show that Francisquini has not posted bond as of early Wednesday. It is unclear when she is due back in court. BOSTON (AP) Children ages 12 through 15 will be able to start receiving Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shots in Massachusetts as soon as Thursday, Gov. Charlie Baker said Wednesday. The state will begin delivering shots into the arms of the 400,000 Massachusetts residents who fall into that age slot after an advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Wednesday to recommend Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for use in kids ages 12 to 15. The young people will be able to book appointments or use walk-up access to get the shot, Baker said. We want to make sure that we get everybody eligible to be vaccinated, vaccinated, the Republican said. Baker made the comments after touring a Norwood facility of Moderna, which is also seeking permission to offer a COVID-19 vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds. Baker said the administration is seeking input from pediatricians and primary care physicians and said regional health collaboratives will also play a role in delivering shots to young people. The Food and Drug Administration this week cleared the expanded use of the Pfizer vaccine shots, citing evidence the shots worked as well in those 12 to 15 years old as those 16 and older. States had been waiting for Wednesdays recommendations from advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects data the FDA will need to scrutinize. ___ EMPLOYER VACCINATION PROGRAM Employers who want to help their workers get COVID-19 vaccines can take part in the states new Employer Vaccination Program, the Baker administration announced Wednesday. The program offers two main options. The first allows group appointments at mass vaccination sites starting May 17. Employers can request a block of appointments at any of the states seven mass vaccination sites. The minimum number of appointments required is 10. There is no maximum. Registration requires demographic information. Insurance and identification are not required at the time of registration or appointment if not available. Employers can set up a table at the site to have an onsite presence for employees which can be coordinated with the site operator. Sites are available seven days a week. Most vaccination appointments take less than 30 minutes, including the 15-minute observation period. The second option allows employers to request a visit by a mobile on-site employer vaccination clinic. The option is limited to companies who have 35 or more confirmed workers who will obtain a vaccination at an on-site pop-up clinic. A vaccination provider will come to the employer host-property to vaccinate individuals and return three to four weeks later to deliver second doses. Employers in communities with vaccination rates below the state average will be prioritized. On-site clinics begin as soon as May 17. ___ VIRUS BY THE NUMBERS The number of new daily cases of COVID-19 increased by more than 600 Wednesday while the number of newly confirmed coronavirus deaths in Massachusetts rose by 13. The new numbers pushed the states confirmed COVID-19 death toll to 17,357 since the start of the pandemic, while its confirmed caseload rose to about 654,000. The true number of cases is likely higher because studies suggest some people can be infected and not feel sick. There were about 430 people reported hospitalized Wednesday because of confirmed cases of COVID-19, with about 110 in intensive care units. The average age of those hospitalized was 55. There were an estimated 17,000 people with current active cases of COVID-19 in the state. More than 6.9 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Massachusetts, including more than 3.8 million first doses and more than 2.8 million second doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. There have been about 227,000 doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered. More than 3 million people have been fully immunized. PARIS (AP) While the U.S. president is calling for suspending patents on COVID-19 vaccines, experts at UNESCO are quietly working on a more ambitious plan: a new global system for sharing scientific knowledge that would outlast the current pandemic. At a meeting that concluded Tuesday, diplomats and legal and technical experts from UNESCO'S member states tried to draw up global guidelines under a project called Open Science. UNESCOs specialists say the pandemic has shown that sharing sensitive research is possible: Chinese scientists sequenced and shared the genome of the then-new coronavirus in January 2020, allowing German researchers to then quickly devise a screening test shared around the world. The crisis put a spotlight on how scientific information is produced, shared, communicated, said Ana Persic, chief of the science policy section at Paris-based UNESCO. It is a paradigm shift for the scientific community. The Open Science talks aim to come up with a soft law by the end of this year that governments could use as a guide for setting science policies and systematically sharing data, software and research across borders, Persic said. Suspending vaccine patents is more sensitive than genomes or testing protocols because of the huge investment and commercial concerns involved, Persic acknowledged. Discussions on the patent issue are centered at the World Trade Organization, not UNESCO, and theyre far from reaching consensus. European leaders say lifting patent protections wont solve the problem of getting shots into the arms of people in poorer countries. Instead, they are pushing for more immediate action, like urging the U.S. to export vaccine doses that have already been produced. But Persic told The Associated Press that "in times of emergency or crisis, there might be a way of lifting those patents ... One can protect the data in a certain way, and still share it. President Joe Bidens surprise announcement last week in favor of suspending patent protections came just at experts started meeting at UNESCO to discuss the Open Science plan. Bidens move was was received as a positive nod to their efforts, Persic said. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump pulled out of UNESCO, but U.S. diplomats are taking part in the Open Science talks as observers. UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement that lifting patent protection for coronavirus vaccines could save millions of lives and serve as a blueprint for the future of scientific cooperation. COVID-19 does not respect borders. No country will be safe until the people of every country have access to the vaccine. ___ Follow APs pandemic coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine BOSTON (AP) With federal regulators missing from the field and state leaders scrambling to manage the COVID-19 crisis, Massachusetts 351 overtaxed local boards of health were unwittingly thrust into a new role last year overseers of workplace safety. The challenge created by forcing that responsibility on the municipal agencies, some staffed with only one or two people, may have contributed to at least one chairmans heart attack and highlighted the fragility of the workplace-safety landscape in Massachusetts. Its brutal. Its brutal. Its off the charts, said Michael R. Hugo, government affairs director for the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards. There is so much egregious behavior going on by businesses that nobody has time to do it all. ___ This story was produced by Boston University in collaboration with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Marylands Philip Merrill College of Journalism. The Howard Center is an initiative of the Scripps Howard Foundation in honor of the late news industry executive and pioneer, Roy W. Howard. ___ The Bay States crisis illustrates the perils caused by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administrations retreat from its duties in recent years, as states, labor unions, worker-advocacy organizations and other stakeholders strove to fill in the gaps. OSHAs absence pressured an understaffed Massachusetts Department of Labor Standards, which oversees public-sector workers, to step in. But it could not manage its statewide workload and pandemic workplace-safety compliance on its own, according to interviews with more than a dozen state officials, health directors and worker-safety advocates. Those twin failings reached a critical peak in May 2020, as Republican Gov. Charlie Baker prepared to allow some businesses to reopen after a two-month shutdown. Workplace-safety enforcement largely fell to local boards of health already grappling with scores of mandated duties from monitoring communicable diseases to ensuring a clean community water supply. It just became the theater of the absurd. They were just dumping onto the local health directors, said Hopkinton Board of Health Director Shaun McAuliffe. We didnt have the time. We didnt have the training and we had no one else to roll it down to. We were at the bottom of the hill. A collaboration among the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland, Boston University, the University of Arkansas and Stanford University found that the national workers safety system is splintered and communication is muddled. As a result, there is little accountability for the failure of government watchdogs to keep workers safe from COVID-19. OSHA, the federal agency responsible for ensuring worker safety in the private sector, was asleep at the switch for the duration of the pandemic under the Trump administration, said Rick Claypool, a research director for Public Citizen, a consumer-rights advocacy group. The consortium also found that oversight of worker safety in the U.S. rarely results in meaningful consequences for companies who arent protecting workers. When workers try to sound the alarm to OSHA by submitting COVID-related complaints, only a fraction lead to in-person inspections, and even fewer result in a citation. As of late March, 3% of closed COVID-19 complaints to federal OSHA offices deemed valid by the agency resulted in an inspection, 12.5% of which led to citations with an average penalty of $13,000. OSHA has reduced over a third of penalties. OSHA has yet to issue an emergency temporary standard covering workplace COVID-19 infections. Because of that enforcement gap, Baker could issue guidelines for local health boards and DLS to use existing legal powers to enforce workplace-safety rules for all employers, a Baker spokesperson said. But with not enough inspectors and staff working remotely, DLS was overwhelmed. It was a pass the buck. The state didnt have the capacity, so they shifted that responsibility to the local boards of health, said Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH). Learning they were front-line enforcers for pandemic workplace safety jolted health directors since the Baker administrations 2019 Blueprint for Public Health Excellence noted the boards were already struggling to meet existing mandates, including overseeing water and sewage systems, animal and insect-borne hazards, and emergency preparedness. Board directors learned of their new duties the same day Bakers 19-member Reopening Advisory Board announced the new state guidelines - by memo. We had no say in crafting the guidance, which all was done at the cabinet level, said Royalston Board of Health Chair Philip Leger. But all the dirty work was dumped on us. The multilayered Massachusetts workplace-safety landscape got more confusing, creating an inadequate and disjointed response to COVID-19, Sugerman-Brozan said. Besides OSHA and DLS, other state and municipal agencies, including the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, all have a hand in workplace-safety enforcement in Massachusetts. The Attorney Generals Office, which oversees fair labor but not workplace safety laws, accepted worker complaints while DLS set up a system, Attorney General Maura Healey said. I think DLS maybe was overwhelmed, Healey said. Bakers administration has issued dozens of COVID-19 related orders. I would say 100% of the governors orders are enforced by the Board of Health, which is time-consuming because we only have one or two people to try to enforce 100 orders, said Yarmouth Health Director Bruce Murphy. Plus theres sub orders, and then (the DLS) has their own orders. The Reopening Advisory Board failed to include a single local public-health board chair, and the reopening guidelines also lacked an anonymous complaint line for frightened workers. Besides contact tracing for COVID-19 cases, Massachusetts boards of health must enforce the state sanitary code, monitor tobacco sales to minors, make sure citizens are immunized and more. Some of them are just so overworked that they cant do their core functions, Hugo said. By mid-April, according to DLS data, there were over 1,600 complaints for both public-sector and private employers dating to May 2020, with about half resulting in violations. Employers flouting the rules include big-box stores, country clubs, nail salons, grocery stores, restaurants, a police department and even a local health board, the data shows. Inspections revealed employers lying about being closed, telling customers to enter back doors or working with COVID-19 symptoms. We are having a VERY difficult time with them and their employees, wrote one local health inspector in June 2020 about one business. They are not abiding by the quarantine requirements, challenging our authority to order people to quarantine. Their employees are reporting to work in violation of the quarantine orders. We were getting almost 100 phone calls a day, said Nantucket Health Director Roberto Santamaria. Ive been yelled at, sworn at, hung up on, said Leger, attributing his December heart attack to the stress. When they took me off the (work) email list, I could feel a weight lift. All of us have gone through a level of hell, McAuliffe said, adding his colleagues are leaving in droves. DLS declined several requests for an interview. A spokesperson issued the following statement: The Department of Labor Standards remains committed to ensuring workplace safety and adherence to COVID-19 health and safety protocols. Before the pandemic started, DLS had an existing hotline and email address for workers and the public to file complaints, and established an additional online form to respond to the greater importance of workplace complaints during the pandemic. DLS and other state agencies have provided training and support for local health departments throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, including twice-weekly virtual forums and one-on-one support. DLS was honored to be named the (Massachusetts) Health Officers Associations 2020 Hilliard Award winner for its collaborative work with local health departments to support public health in communities across the Commonwealth throughout the pandemic. Health directors said their new duties did not come with extra staff, training or funding. None. Zero. It was very much the wild west for a little bit, Santamaria said. It took a good three or four months before we actually had some guidance as to how to enforce some things. The May 18 guidelines also excluded broad categories of public-sector workers, let employers self-certify they were compliant and lacked information about respiratory protection. They also didnt mandate local health departments report complaints to the state and directors said they are not regularly doing so. A March 5, 2021, MassCOSH letter to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education said the DLS data does not include the complaints that have gone directly to local public health officials, OSHA and the Attorney Generals Office which are estimated to be 10-20 times the amount that have gone to DLS, the letter states. Department of Public Health data released April 28 shows Massachusetts residents working outside of their homes last year were more than twice as likely to test positive for the virus as those who did not. A 2020 study of state death-certificate data revealed racial disparities in COVID-19 worker deaths. The state continues to violate a June 2020 law requiring it to make public data on the occupation of those contracting or dying of COVID-19. DLS, in its statement, said: Every effort is made to collect all demographic information, including occupation, but it could be missing for a number of reasons, including the person contacted refused to provide the information. But according to Sugerman-Brozan: We will never, ever in Massachusetts know the true impact that workplace exposure has played in the spread of this virus. ___ Shannon Iriarte, Shwetha Surendran and Maggie Mulvihill reported for Boston University in collaboration with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland. Ohio's solicitor general on Wednesday urged a panel of appellate judges to hold the U.S. Census Bureau's feet to the fire by issuing an order that would require the statistical agency to release data used for redrawing congressional and legislative districts by mid-August. Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers told three federal judges on an appellate court in Cincinnati that an order was needed, given past deadlines the Census Bureau has blown in releasing data from the 2020 census. The bureau has cited the pandemic and anomalies that needed fixing as reasons for its deadline delays. It's good they are planning to get it by August 16, but as we have seen over the past year, sometimes their plans don't come to fruition, and so a court order requiring that it be done by then is what we are ultimately looking for," Flowers said during a virtual court hearing. But an attorney representing the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, said an order wasn't necessary. A better idea would be to send the case back to a lower court where the Census Bureau could provide regular status updates on its progress toward meeting the Aug. 16 goal of releasing the redistricting data, Department of Justice attorney Mark Stern said. The Census Bureau obviously understands the importance of getting this to the states, and it's working to do that," Stern said. Referring to Ohio, Stern said, Our views are starting to look very similar in that we both want to get that gold standard to Ohio and other states." Ohio sued the Commerce Secretary earlier this year after the Census Bureau said it would be unable to meet a legal deadline to release the redistricting data to the states by March 31 because of delays caused by the pandemic. The bureau said the data would be available in an older format in August and in a more user-friendly format by the end of September. A federal judge dismissed Ohio's case and the state appealed, saying the delay threatened its ability to meet redistricting deadlines approved by voters and set in its state constitution. Ohios constitution requires, for the first time, an independent commission to finish redrawing legislative districts by Sept. 1. It sets a Sept. 30 deadline for the states General Assembly to complete a new map of congressional districts. We didnt bring this lawsuit to try to bully the Census. We brought this lawsuit because we really need the data for the redistricting process to go smoothly," Flowers told the judges Wednesday. The redistricting data includes counts of population by race, Hispanic origin, voting age and housing occupancy status at geographic levels as small as neighborhoods. The data are used for drawing voting districts for Congress and state legislatures. Unlike past decades when the data were released to states on a flow basis, the 2020 redistricting data will be made available to the states all at once, according to the Census Bureau. A similar lawsuit was filed by the state of Alabama, with the added twist that the Cotton State's case also challenges the Census Bureau's use of a statistical method to protect people's privacy, claiming it will result in inaccurate numbers. Oral arguments were made last week in Alabama, and a panel of three federal judges could rule at any time. The Ohio appellate judges did not say when they would rule. Last month, the Census Bureau released the first data from the 2020 census state population counts used to determine how any congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets. The once-a-decade count of every U.S. resident also helps determine $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year. ___ Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Katherine Reinberger, University of Georgia (THE CONVERSATION) Ancient historians loved to write about warfare and famous battles. While these millennia-old stories still feed modern imaginations Homers Iliad provides the plot for the movie Troy, while Herodotus Histories Book VII inspired the film 300, for instance theres rarely any physical evidence that the events they describe really happened. But in 2008 a team of Italian archaeologists began to excavate outside the ancient city wall at Himera, a Greek colony on the north-central coast of Sicily, Italy. In the western necropolis, or cemetery, they found several mass graves dating to the early fifth century B.C. All the individuals in the graves were male, and many had violent trauma or even weapons lodged in their bones. The evidence strongly suggests these men could have been soldiers who fought in 480 B.C. and 409 B.C. in the Battles of Himera, written about by ancient Greek historians. Im part ofan interdisciplinaryteam ofanthropologists, archaeologistsand geologists who analyzed the teeth of these people who lived more than 2,400 years ago to figure out who they were and where they came from. It looks like early historians didnt pass down the whole story, and our findings might rewrite parts of whats known about Greek military history. A chance to fact-check ancient history Herodotus and another historian, Diodorus Siculus, both wrote about the Battles of Himera. They describe the first battle in 480 B.C. as a victory of an alliance of Greeks from all across Sicily over an invading Carthaginian force from modern-day Tunisia. Three generations later, the second battle in 409 B.C. was more chaotic. The historians report that Carthage besieged the city of Himera, which this time had little outside assistance. These ancient accounts tell of grand generals, political alliances and sneaky military tactics such as the Greek cavalry who pretended to be friendly aid to get into the Carthaginian camp. The 21st-century discovery of what looked like the remains of soldiers from around the times of these two famous battles provided a rare opportunity. Once Italian researchers had done initial studies on the skeletal remains of the 132 individuals, including estimating their age at death and looking for signs of disease, I was able to travel to Sicily with the Bioarchaeology of the Mediterranean Colonies Project, co-directed by Laurie Reitsema and Britney Kyle, to collect samples for isotope analysis. My colleagues and I were interested in figuring out whether the soldiers remains told the same story as the ancient historians. The historical sources say they were likely all Greeks, with some possibly from other cities in Sicily, like Syracuse or Agrigento. Where had these soldiers really come from? Teeth record your origin story Luckily, chemistry provides a way to answer this question. Different places on Earth have signature ratios of elemental isotopes in their land and water. Isotopes are versions of elements that have the standard number of protons but various amounts of neutrons. The trick is that as you consume these characteristic isotopes in your food and drink, your body incorporates them into your bones and teeth. Researchers know that the type of strontium in your body reflects the underlying geology or bedrock where the plants and animals you ate grew. The oxygen isotopes come from your water source. These elements become a physical record of your origins. While bones are constantly growing and incorporating elements from your environment throughout life tooth enamel is like a time capsule. Scientists can use this outer layer of the tooth to figure out where an individual grew up, because it forms when youre a child and doesnt change over time. The strontium and oxygen isotopes we measured on 62 of the individuals were incorporated into the soldiers teeth in childhood and preserved there, even after thousands of years in the ground. We used the combination of these elements to determine whether these soldiers were from Himera or not by comparing them to samples we collected to create a local isotopic profile for the city. Interestingly, when we ran these analyses, we found that the majority of soldiers from the first battle in 480 B.C. were not local. Remember, that was the fight that reportedly had allied support from all over Sicily. These soldiers had such high strontium values and low oxygen values compared to what wed expect in a Himera native that my colleagues and I think they were from even more distant places than just other parts of Sicily. Based on their teeths elemental isotope ratios, the soldiers likely had diverse geographic origins ranging through the Mediterranean and probably beyond. On the other hand, the majority of soldiers from the later battle in 409 B.C. were in fact local. That finding supports the ancient sources that said the Himerans were mostly left unaided in the second fight, which allowed the Carthaginian force to overpower them. The unknown role of foreign mercenaries The case of the soldiers from 480 B.C. suggests that Greek armies were more diverse than previously thought. Our results challenge earlier interpretations based on historical documents that the soldiers were Greek and points to the omission of foreign mercenaries in the historians accounts. Modern historians know Greek soldiers frequently served as paid career soldiers, or mercenaries, in foreign armies. But there is little evidence that foreign soldiers fought for Greek armies. Greek armies at this time were mostly the classic hoplite soldiers: heavily armed foot soldiers. They often fought in groups based on the town they were from, where part of being a citizen meant serving in the military when needed. [Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter.] The large variation in isotope values between the soldiers from our study strongly implies that there may have been foreign soldiers who joined the Greek side. Hiring foreign mercenaries could have changed the composition of communities in the Classical period, possibly providing outsiders a pathway to citizenship not otherwise available. While the populations of Greek colonies were likely diverse because of interactions with other groups of people, not all residents of the colony would have been eligible for citizenship. Citizenship meant having a role in political life and was often reserved for wealthier men with Greek heritage. It was rare for foreigners to have a way into this highly esteemed position because, traditionally, one had to be Greek. Not only does the discovery of foreign mercenary forces change the history of the first battle of Himera, it also transforms our understanding who had power and privilege in Sicily during the Classical period. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/teeth-of-fallen-soldiers-hold-evidence-that-foreigners-fought-alongside-ancient-greeks-challenging-millennia-of-military-history-160512. What's Included With a Digital Only subscription, you'll receive unlimited access to our website and e-edition. Our digital products are available 24/7 and are accessible anywhere, anytime. If you have any questions or need further assistance, please call our customer service team at 574-583-5121 or email cgrace@thehj.com. WASHINGTON (AP) The Latest on congressional testimony about the Jan. 6 Capitol riot (all times local): 3:20 p.m. A House hearing on the federal response to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has concluded after more than five hours of testimony that exposed stark partisan divisions. The House Committee on Oversight and Reform heard testimony from former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller, former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee. The hearing elicited little new information about the preparations and response to the Jan. 6 insurrection. A mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol as Congress was voting to certify Joe Bidens presidential win. Five people died, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, and dozens of officers were injured trying to hold the crowd back. Republicans sought to shift the narrative on the violent insurrection, with some painting the Trump supporters who stormed the building as patriots who have been unfairly harassed. Democrats clashed with the former Pentagon chief while drilling into the governments unprepared response. The hearing unfolded as the House Republicans removed Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post after she rebuked former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in inciting the Capitol attack. __ HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE LATEST CONGRESSIONAL HEARING INTO THE DEADLY CAPITOL RIOT: Two senior Trump administration officials defend their actions during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in testimony before Congress, with former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller standing behind every decision he made that day. ___ HERE'S WHAT ELSE IS GOING ON: 12:30 p.m. Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen wont answer questions from Congress about whether then-President Donald Trump instructed him to take any action to try to advance Trumps unfounded claims of election fraud. Rosen would not answer Wednesday in response to questions from Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly of Virginia at a hearing on the deadly Capitol insurrection. Rosen was asked specifically whether Trump had asked or instructed him to take any action at the Department of Justice to advance election fraud claims or to seek to overturn any part of the 2020 election results. Rosen would not answer, claiming there were ground rules he had abide by. Rosen said he was limited by the Justice Department on the topics he could discuss. He later said he would seek permission to answer the question. The Justice Department hasnt responded to questions about whether Rosen was instructed not to answer questions about his conversations with Trump. Election officials and judges across the country have found no evidence to support Trumps claims of election fraud. ___ 12:05 p.m. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona is defending a woman who was shot and killed by the Capitol Police as she tried to break into the U.S. House chamber during the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying she was executed. At a House hearing on what went wrong that day, Gosar questioned former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen about the death of Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran who was part of the mob that attacked the Capitol. Babbitt was shot by a Capitol Police officer as she tried to climb through a broken window while lawmakers were trapped inside. The Department of Justice has decided not to charge the police officer who shot Babbitt. The officers name hasnt been disclosed. Federal prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution. Gosar on Wednesday asked Rosen why Babbitt was executed and asked the name of the officer who killed her. Gosar called Babbitt a young lady, a veteran, wrapped in an American flag that was killed in the U.S. Capitol. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney says former President Donald Trump is responsible for the Capitol riot. The House impeached Trump for telling his supporters that day to fight like hell to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The then-Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump. ___ 11:45 a.m. Attorney General Merrick Garland says the Justice Department is still in the early days of its investigation of the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Garland told the Senate Appropriations Committee that it has only been a relatively short period since the riot by supporters of President Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the November election. Thats especially true, he said, because of the large number of separate investigations and huge amount of video and other data that authorities are combing through as they pursue leads in the investigation that has so far resulted in about 400 arrests. Garland says the investigation is not over. He says, "We will pursue each lead until were confident that we will have reached the end. Garland and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas were testifying to the Senate committee about their budget needs as both agencies confront a growing threat from domestic violent extremism. ___ 11:30 a.m. The chief of police in the nations capital says investigators believe there was pre-planning involved when two pipe bombs were left at the headquarters of the Democratic and Republican national committees. Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee said Wednesday that investigators also believe the explosives were positioned out there by a lone individual. The two explosive devices were planted the night before the riot but only discovered on the afternoon of Jan. 6, shortly before the crowd descended on the Capitol. The FBI has said the bombs were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5. It is not clear whether that means the pipe bombs were unrelated to the next days riot or were part of the riot planning. Both buildings are within a few blocks of the Capitol. Contee says the investigation remains ongoing. ___ 11 a.m. Former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen says he is proud of the Department of Justices response to the Capitol insurrection. Rosen testified Wednesday before a House panel examining the federal response to the deadly Jan. 6 riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Rosen insists the Justice Department took appropriate precautions ahead of the riot and put tactical teams and other elite units on standby. Rosen says Justice Department officials and federal law enforcement officials moved with urgency to assist the U.S. Capitol Police to clear the Capitol. The Justice Department has charged more than 400 people in connection with the riot. Trump was impeached by the House and then acquitted by the Senate. ___ 10:55 a.m. Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller says criticism about the response from the military to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is unfounded. Miller testified Wednesday at a House Oversight Committee hearing about the federal governments response to the deadly riot by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Miller and other military officials have been criticized in the months following the riot, with congressional leaders and others questioning why it took hours for the National Guard to respond to the Capitol as the mob descended on the Capitol. Hundreds of people broke into the building as Congress was voting to certify Joe Bidens presidential win. Miller says he believes the criticisms reflect inexperience with, or a lack of understanding of, the nature of military operations. ___ 10:45 a.m. House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney says Congress must find out why the federal government failed to coordinate an effective and timely response to the Jan. 6 siege on the Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Maloney made the comments Wednesday as she opened a hearing with former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, both of whom were involved in the response. Maloney says, It is our duty to understand what went wrong that day, to seek accountability and to take action to prevent this from ever happening again." Maloney says it's clear Trump is responsible for the Capitol riot. The House impeached Trump a week after the siege for telling his supporters that day to fight like hell to overturn the results of the election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden. The then-Republican-led Senate acquitted Trump in February. Republicans immediately tried to change the subject of the hearing to protests in several cities over the last year in response to the death of George Floyd. The top Republican on the panel, Kentucky Rep. James Comer, says Democrats continue to demonize tens of millions of Americans who support President Trump." GREENWICH The Greenwich Public Schools are preparing to host clinics to provide the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to kids ages 12 and up. The clinics will be set up in partnership with Family Centers Inc. at the towns three middle schools as well as at Greenwich High School, Superintendent of Schools Toni Jones announced Wednesday. In a note to parents, Jones said the clinics will be held: from 1 to 5 p.m. May 20 at GHS; from 2 to 5:15 p.m. May 24 at Eastern Middle School; from 2 to 5:15 p.m. May 25 at Western Middle School; and from 2 to 5:15 p.m. May 27 at Central Middle School. More information, including links to sign up and consent forms, will be sent directly to parents after they are finalized, Jones said. Students can also make appointments at any of the other vaccination clinics, she said. The district is not mandating COVID-19 vaccines for students. But its very important for the new eligible age group from 12 to 15 years old to get vaccinated, town Director of Health Caroline Baisley said. The vaccines very safe, she said. And even though we havent vaccinated this age group before, I think that we see the younger kids from 16 to 18 that have been vaccinated have a very good response. Saying that the vaccine has proven itself to be very effective and safe, Baisley also said, Im hopeful parents with the younger children take the opportunity to read the literature that is available to them about the vaccines and the information coming from the state Department of Public Health and the CDC and choose to get their children vaccinated. Even though children are not as likely to get seriously ill from COVID-19, Baisley said they can still get it and pass it to others. COVID-19 cases down in town Also Wednesday, First Selectman Fred Camillo said only 36 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in town in the past week. The number of active cases in town is at 44, down 36 from the week before, he said. Anna Cerra, chief nursing officer and senior vice president at Greenwich Hospital, said there were only five patients hospitalized with COVID-19, with none in the intensive care unit. Greenwich Hospitals decline in cases reflected the numbers at Yale New Haven Health System, which saw its COVID patients decrease from 136 to 85 over the past week. The trends are all going in the right direction, Camillo said during the weekly town update on COVID-19. But with all the variants out there, we want to make sure that people dont let their guards down as we say every single week. I think that message is getting across. The towns focus is on getting residents vaccinated, especially now that the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved use of the Pfizer vaccine for kids 12 to 15. Cerra said Greenwich Hospitals clinic at Brunswick School will begin vaccinating that age group on Thursday. Its certainly a very exciting time to know we can vaccinate these school-age children, Cerra said. There will be a walk-in clinic on Saturday at Brunswick, but Cerra urged residents to make appointments so they do not have to wait in line. The program is safe, its effective and I encourage people not to delay in getting vaccinated, Cerra said. In addition to Greenwich Hospital, the nonprofit Family Centers Inc. also provides the Pfizer vaccine at its clinics at Eastern Greenwich Civic Center. On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Jim Himes announced that Family Centers will receive $775,000 in federal funding under the American Rescue Plan to expand COVID testing and vaccination efforts. The grant will allow us to continue this work, paying for staff and supplies to carry out frontline work necessary to fight this dreaded disease and help get control of the COVID-19 pandemic, Family Centers Chief Health Officer Dennis Torres said. Nurses celebrated in town During Wednesdays update, Camillo also proclaimed May 12 as Greenwich Nurses Day as part of the nationwide commemoration of the 201st birthday of Florence Nightingale. The role that nurses play in our lives year in and year out really cant be talked about enough, he said. The last 14 to 15 months have really shown when things are bad, theyre on the front line putting themselves in harms way. Im glad that the country and the world really saw just how valuable our first responders and health care workers are. Its too bad that it took a pandemic to underscore that. Cerra, who had several of Greenwichs front-line nurses and supervisors with her during Wednesdays update, thanked Camillo. We work hard and furious to take care of our patients, Cerra said. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com News about Whatsapps controversial policy changes pertaining to data collection involving Facebook have been causing a stir ever since WhatsApp tried to give users an ultimatum regarding data collection. In recent news, WhatsApp will slowly withhold features of the app until users agree to the new terms. In the latest development, Facebook faces scrutiny from German regulators. In a new release written up by Johannes Caspar, Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in Germany outlines issues found with WhatsApps updated privacy policy. Caspar claims the issues are not legal in accordance with the GDPR regulations that were set in place for all companies holding data about customers, users, or employees. The following is an excerpt from the release, machine translated from German: The provisions on data transfer are scattered across different levels of the data protection declaration, they are unclear and difficult to distinguish between their European and international versions. In addition, their content is misleading and there are considerable contradictions. Even after a more detailed analysis, it cannot be seen what consequences the consent has for the users. Furthermore, consent is not given voluntarily, as WhatsApp requires consent to the new provisions as a condition for the continued use of the functionalities of the service. Caspar issued a three-month emergency ban that bars Facebook from continuing with the data collection and asked a panel of EU data regulators to follow Germanys actions across the European Union. Facebook denies Caspars claims to Bloomberg and says it wont stop the new policy from rolling out. It also calls the response of German regulators based on a fundamental misunderstanding of what the update intends to do. Since the initial rollout of the new policy, theres been a surge in demand for other messaging apps. Both Telegram and Signal have seen massive adoption of new users since then. Facebook has been widely criticized for its new policy changes and the cross-stream of information between brands became inevitable ever since Facebook acquired the messaging app in 2014. Source 1 (German) 2 Via These are the best offers from our affiliate partners. We may get a commission from qualifying sales. The Realme 8 and Realme 8 5G smartphones officially arrive in Europe today, several weeks after the global launch in the Asia Pacific region. The first three countries that will get the midrangers are the United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain. The Realme 8 is available in two memory configurations - 4/64 GB and 6/128 GB, with the respective prices being 199/179 and 219. The devices can be purchased right now from the company's website. The color options are three - Cyber Silver with the neat monochrome stripe, Punk Black, and Cyber Black. The Realme 8 5G also comes in two variants - 4/64 GB or 6/128 GB. The prices here are 199 or 249, but early birds can get a 20 discount if they pre-order in the next three days. Actual sales for both variants begin on May 20. A quick reminder that the Realme 8 and Realme 8 5G are quite different smartphones - the 5G version has a 48MP triple camera on the back, while the LTE variant has four shooters, with the main one having a 64MP sensor. Charging on the non-5G is also faster at up to 30W, compared to 18W on the Realme 8 5G. Source 1 Source 2 The Chinese company Xiaomi is no longer blacklisted by the US government, following a lawsuit to US courts. According to Bloomberg, sides agreed upon a path forward that would resolve this litigation without the need for a contested briefing, meaning the US Defense Department backed down from de-listing the manufacturer from global benchmark indexes. The conflict first began in November 2020, when former US President Donald Trump designated Xiaomi as a Communist Chinese military company, barring American citizens and companies from investing or dealing with the maker. Xiaomi responded with a lawsuit in January 2021 and was granted a preliminary injunction (basically an exclusion from the ban) by the US District Court for the District of Columbia two months later. Neither Xiaomi nor the US courts were able to provide any comment, while Chinese Foreign Ministry official was not aware of any deal both sides may have reached. Source Xiaomi is finally bringing its top of the line smartphone to Germany, following its launch in the UK last week. The Mi 11 Ultra will go on sale on the company's official online store for the country on May 20 at 1 PM CET. If you order one between then and May 23 you will receive a free 80W wireless charging stand. This is the one that can charge up the phone at 67W, in the same short time it takes the wired charger in the box. The price is 1,199, as announced at the official global unveiling of the device back in March. Alongside the Mi 11 Ultra, some other recently announced Xiaomi devices are also ready to land in Germany. The Mi 11i, for example, goes on sale on May 12 at 1 PM CET for 649.90, and that's the same date and time for the Redmi Note 10S, which will be priced at 249.90 (with a free mini vacuum cleaner bundled until May 23). Finally, the Redmi Note 10 5G is due to launch on May 12 at 1 PM CET as well, for an early bird price of 199.90 in the first 48 hours, following which it will go to the normal price of 229.90. So if you're a Xiaomi fan in Germany, it looks like the next few days will be very exciting, filled with new possibilities and such. Via Haiti - Politic : Truce of the Gangs against money, the Government denies Pradel Henriquez the Minister of Communication in a reaction note dated Tuesday, May 11, said he was "scandalized to see on TV, to hear on the radio and to read through social networks or in the written press that some will until claiming that the Head of State would have paid gangs to stop or reduce kidnapping in our country" and categorically denies this false information." The Minister notes "that the grossest lie and without qualms, has imposed itself during the last 15 years, at home, as a major asset to denigrate the other, to destroy it and to position itself on the political chessboard at the same time. Lying has therefore become a political battle horse and when it turns out to be so brazen it becomes ridiculous [...]" Henriquez takes the opportunity to remind the gangs that kidnapping is a crime and "that no civilized society can tolerate such a crime, neither criminals nor their intellectual, logistical or financial accomplices. The kidnapper must remember that he is a criminal and whoever he is, his days are numbered." HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Politic : 5 candidates in evaluation for the post of Prime Minister Frantz Exantus, Secretary of State for Communication, says negotiations to establish a new Government are progressing after Prime Minister ai Joseph Jouthe resigned on April 14 amid the worsening socio-political crisis and the climate of insecurity. Exantus support that five personalities, are currently evaluated to assume the post of Prime Minister refusing to mention the slightest name. "Discussions are continuing to provide the country with a new Head of Government [...]" recalling that the candidate must not only know the reality of the country but be able to dialogue with all the representatives of the sectors of national life and the international community adding "[...] if all goes well, we should soon have a new Prime Minister" who will work on the constitutional referendum of June 27, 2021 and the general elections scheduled for next September. Remember that the current Constitution grants 30 days to renew the ministerial cabinet... TB/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Covid-19 : Dr. Pape wants the Government to reconsider its position on the AstraZeneca vaccine Reacting on the refusal of the Haitian Government to use against Covid-19, the Anglo-Swedish vaccine AstraZeneca, donation from the WHO under the COVAX program, https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33495-haiti-covid-19-the-refusal-of-the-astrazeneca-vaccine-donation-could-cost-haiti-millions-of-dollars.html Dr. Jean William Pape, member of the Scientific Unit for the management of the health crisis and Executive Director of the GHESKIO Centers, appointed to the Scientific Council of the World Health Organization (WHO) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33381-haiti-news-zapping.html regrets the refusal of the Haitian authorities. He points out "[] at the time, there was controversy over the vaccine. I understand the fear of the Haitian authorities. However, this vaccine has been used in several countries and has not caused any problems. Haiti should reconsider its position on this vaccine. Me, if I had been offered it, I would have accepted it without any problem" In addition, Dr. Pape, not to mention the 2nd wave, confirms an increase in Covid-19 cases in Haiti in recent weeks and encourages the Government to launch vaccination to avoid the worst... warning against the new variants that are likely to make very bad... See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33656-haiti-covid-19-haiti-is-still-not-ready-to-receive-vaccines.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33473-haiti-covid-19there-is-no-crisis-between-the-who-and-haiti.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33495-haiti-covid-19-the-refusal-of-the-astrazeneca-vaccine-donation-could-cost-haiti-millions-of-dollars.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33448-haiti-health-the-minister-of-health-wants-another-vaccine-than-astrazeneca.html https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-33423-haiti-flash-haiti-refuses-a-donation-of-756-000-doses-of-the-who-astrazeneca-vaccine.html PI/ HaitiLibre Haiti - Education : Japan scholarship call for applications The Embassy of Japan in Haiti announces that it has just opened the Japanese Government scholarship program for the academic year 2022 (at master's and doctoral level, i.e. 2nd cycle), organized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan for holders of Bac II. Qualifications required : Be of Haitian nationality; Be born after April 2, 1987 inclusive; Have completed a bachelor's degree or be judged to have the equivalent level by the host Japanese university before leaving for Japan; Have maintained a level of excellence during the academic years of the undergraduate university; Have fluency in English; Willingness to learn the Japanese language and pursue studies in Japanese. To know the other criteria for participation, download the document : https://www.studyinjapan.go.jp/en/_mt/2021/04/2022_Guidelines_Research_E.pdf Selection step : 1. The first selection: at the Japanese Embassy in Haiti Application deadline: June 14, 2021 Written English and Japanese exams : June 30 Interviews : early July Announcement of the results of the first selection : mid-July 2. The second selection : based on MEXT documents Announcement of final MEXT results : from January to February 2022 3. Arrival of scholarship holders in Japan : April or September / October 2022 For all the details and documents to download from the embassy website : https://www.ht.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_ja/11_000001_00095.html HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... Underage rapist arrested Tuesday, May 11, 2021, the named Claudy Etienne was arrested at the Croix-des-Missions, by the Youth Protection Brigade for rape perpetrated on a 15-year-old minor. Peligre power plant still under construction Important meeting by videoconference held on May 11 in which Nader Joiseus the Minister of Public Works took part with the objective of reaching an agreement between the Contracting authority and the Builder of the Peligre power plant rehabilitation project in order to continue the works. "The Haitian State wants the Peligre hydroelectric plant project to be completed, all faults repaired as quickly as possible to allow the country to be able to count on the maximum production of 54 Mw of electricity" declared Minister Nader Joiseus . The PNH does not intend to negotiate with outlaw police officers The General Directorate of the National Police of Haiti specifies that it does not intend in any way to engage in negotiations with any trade union organization on the situation of police officers or former police officers in contravention of the law. At the same time, the General Inspectorate of the National Police of Haiti (IGPNH) will continue to investigate and hear all the agents suspected of having taken part in the reprehensible acts of the criminal organization called "Phantom 509". Radical opposition rejects proposal for a Government of National Union The Radical Opposition Sector called "Democratic and Popular" "[...]rejects the call launched by Mr. Claude Joseph for the formation of a Government of National Union with Jovenel Moise. Neither referendum nor election with Jovenel Moise." The New York Consultate celebrates Haitian mothers On the occasion of Mother's Day in the United States (May 9), the Consulate General of Haiti in New York organized, together with "the Haitian Diaspora United For Haiti", a special ceremony in honor of the brave mothers of the Haitian community. Prelude to the flag festival Day of celebration as a prelude to Flag and University Day (May 18). Conference, debate, cultural and sporting activities, board games etc... Date: May 15, 2021 at the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, (Damien). Free entrance. HL/ HaitiLibre Romney, WV (26757) Today Cloudy this morning with showers during the afternoon. High 77F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 80%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with still a chance of showers. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. (The Center Square) Nearly one year after two dams on the Tittabawasee River failed, destroying 2,500 businesses and homes, the House Appropriations Subcommittee met to hear testimony from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. EGLE Director Liesl Clark and Luke Trumble, EGLE Dam Safety Unit supervisor, appeared before the subcommittee on Tuesday morning to discuss the list of 86 recommendations compiled by the 19 members of Michigan Dam Safety Task Force. The task force was convened by Clark after the failure of two dams northwest of Midland on May 19, 2020. According to Trumble, three of the task forces 86 recommendations have been completed thus far, including increasing the visibility of EGLEs Dam Safety Program, as well as establishing a stand-alone EGLE Dam Safety Unit, and naming a supervisor to oversee the units operations. Among the recommendations in process of realization is a package of three financial programs to assist dam owners struggling with compliance issues, including a revolving grant and loan program; an emergency fund should a dam pose an imminent threat of failure; and a grant program for dam removal. The Edenville Dam was breached and the Sanford Dam was destroyed during massive mid-Michigan rainstorms in May 2020, which Subcommittee Chair Rep. Annette Glenn, R-Midland, called a 500-year event. During one 48-hour spell, nearly 4.7 inches of rain fell on Midland County while more than eight inches of rain fell directly to the north in Gladwin County during the same time period. The resulting floods caused an estimated $200 million in property damage, and prompted the evacuation of 11,000 residents. Questions surrounding the regulatory oversight responsibility of the dams were among the topics addressed by the task force, as well as the responsibility of the dams owners at the time of the dams failures. The dams were privately owned at the time by Boyce Hydroelectric, but were in the process of being sold to the Four Lakes Task Force, a private/public enterprise. Because the Edenville Dam produced hydroelectricity, regulatory authority initially belonged to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. When FERC pulled Boyces permit to produce energy due to the declining structural integrity of the Edenville Dam, regulatory authority shifted to EGLE in the fall of 2018. A preliminary EGLE inspection concluded at the time the dam was safe. A subsequent 2019 inspection conducted by the Spicer Group concluded the Edenville Dam did not meet the states requirements for adequate spillway capacity. Additionally, Boyce was sued for $300 million in April 2020 by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, EGLE and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources after it had defied a court order by lowering water levels during the winter. The state agencies claimed lowering the water allegedly harmed the Tittabawasee ecosystem, including but not limited to native freshwater mussels. By William Schwartz | Published on 2021/05/11 "Vincenzo" has been a certified hit worldwide. Even a week after the drama's completion, "Vincenzo" still has an international Netflix ranking of number seven for serial dramas according to FlixPatrol, primarily on the strength of its popularity in Asian countries. But one country with natural interest for the drama is Italy. The lead character played by Song Joong-ki was raised Italian, and speaks it in several scenes. And bit by bit, the Italian reaction to "Vincenzo" has trickled out online. The main point of interest has been how Song Joong-ki speaks Italian according to native speakers. In general he has received high marks, with Italians noting how his lines are for the most part parsable without subtitles. In response to some of Song Joong-ki's elaborate hand gestures, which some considered to be over the top, native Italian speakers have noted that such gestures are not unheard of in everyday Italian life, which often relies heavily on non-verbal communication. Of greater shock to Italian speakers was the tendency of Song Joong-ki's character to use intense curse words. These include such phrases as Che Cazzo, Coglione, and Vaffanculo. In Italian, these curse words are considered so insulting that they are not generally allowed to be shown on television at all, and certainly not used in the comedic context "Vincenzo" most frequently favors. However, this appears to be more of a cultural barrier rather than a linguistic one. Content-wise, "Vincenzo" has also been noted to have a lighter interpretation of mafia behavior that's more similar to American gangster movies than of organized crime as it's perceived in Italy. In recent years Italian mafias have been notorious for the drug trade, terrorist action against judges, and even ruining the international economic brand of Italian food products by fraudulently importing wine, cheeses, olive oil, and truffles from other countries and relabeling them as Italian. Such concerns are not preeminent with "Vincenzo" as the drama is a work of fiction. But they do speak to authenticity, as fans of "Vincenzo" wonder just how accurate the program is to Italy in general. "Vincenzo" ended on May 2nd with domestic ratings of 14.6%. Written by William Schwartz By William Schwartz | Published on 2021/05/11 Actress Lee Yoo-mi was recently interviewed by a South Korean periodical for her leading role in last month's "Young Adult Matters" where she plays a pregnant teenager named Se-jin seeking assistance in trying to acquire an abortion. The film from director Lee Hwan is a similar tonal follow-up to "Park Hwa-young" from 2018. Lee Yoo-mi also played a character named Se-jin in that movie, although it is unclear if they are intended to be the same person. According to Lee Yoo-mi, the first time she saw the movie was during its press screening. Lee Yoo-mi stated that she hadn't considered the situation of her character as it might appear to a spectator. After a second screening, Lee Yoo-mi found herself wondering what adult she might have turned into if placed in a similar situation. Lee Yoo-mi claimed it took her some time to properly get into character, as she had to internalize the constant obnoxious pain of her character's circumstances. Lee Yoo-mi described director Lee Hwan's technique to evoke her performance as being around open-ended questions to help her come to her own conclusions. Early on, he would often asks her to consider the movie's title, in Korean literally the adults don't know, when considering the situation. Lee Yoo-mi claimed to really get into the character when she started internalizing Se-jin's opinions on personal decisions in such matters as how to sleep or dress. Other practice Lee Yoo-mi did for her character involved learning to longboard, a process that took three months. Lee Yoo-mi described this training as essential to grasping Se-jin's sense of personal freedom. Lee Yoo-mi also described the workshop stage, where she expressed emotions alongside co-stars, as being similarly critical. It was only at the workshop that Lee Yoo-mi met her more famous co-star Hani of EXID, as director Lee Hwan did not inform her of the casting. Lee Yoo-mi described the experience as surreal, seeing a person she knew from television up close and wearing normal clothes. Lee Yoo-mi said that she likes Hani's dark t-shirt, and that they got along like family on set, supporting and believing in one another. Lee Yoo-mi also said that she thought Hani looked really cool when she acted on set, and described the older woman as her sister. "Young Adult Matters" premiered in South Korean theaters on April 15th. Written by William Schwartz Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help University of Phoenix was founded on the idea that learners - whether working adults, first-time college students, military veterans or people from other backgrounds - should have access to a world-class education. The University pioneered the concept of self-paced and self-scheduled learning that is context-driven, based on the latest in science and real-world industrial needs. Traditional colleges and universities tend to focus on content-driven instruction that does not always prepare the learner for workplace challenges. In contrast, University of Phoenix focuses on preparing its students for the real-life projects and challenges they will face once they enter or re-enter the workforce. University of Phoenix is passionate about helping learners learn and democratizing education access. The University has many custom-built plans and programs for adult learners, busy working adults and underprivileged and underserved communities. The University works constantly to improve offerings, learning models and other opportunities for anyone who dreams of educational attainment or career enhancement. Toward this end, University of Phoenix is working with Joliet Junior College (JCC), Dallas College and several other regional institutions of higher learning to help students at those institutions earn a four-year degree from an accredited university. JCC was America's first public community college. Dallas College comprises seven campuses in Dallas County, Texas that serve over 70,000 students every year in academic, continuing education and adult education programs. The educational alliance between University of Phoenix and these institutions allows students to seamlessly enroll in and transfer their credits to the University toward a bachelor's degree in several different disciplines. Often referred to as the 3+1 Transfer Program, this new initiative allows students to complete up to three years of their degree at their participating local college and transfer those credits to University of Phoenix where they can then complete 11 more courses and earn a bachelor's degree. With this arrangement, students can save on the cost of their education by spending three years completing their general course requirements at their local community college. Depending on your workload and class schedule, you can complete the remaining coursework in as little as 14 months. Some of the degree tracks offered in this new arrangement include Bachelor of Science programs in business, health management, information technology and nursing. University of Phoenix Provost John Woods praised JCC and stated that the University was honored to help their working adult students and other learners meet their potential with affordable, quality learning opportunities. By making it easier to transition from community college to University of Phoenix while leveraging the cost-savings associated with the 3+1 Transfer Program, colleges like JCC and Dallas College are making the higher education dreams of thousands of students a reality. Dallas College's alignment with University of Phoenix is particularly strong in the high-demand and growing pathways of healthcare and IT. These degree programs will help students prepare for rewarding careers that will get them started on the right foot. The 3+1 Transfer Program will also help students save time and money while enabling them to graduate on time with a degree of their preference. JJC's Manager of Adult Pathways and University Partnerships, Jeanette Konieczka, added that Joliet Junior College's relationship with University of Phoenix will help students smoothly transition from an associate degree to a bachelor's degree. The program will also prepare students for high-demand fields that need talent ready for the workplace. Both University of Phoenix and JCC have similar missions and are committed to student success, bringing together the best of both worlds for students. To further assist students, University of Phoenix is waiving all fees and tuition expenses for the first course students take in the 3+1 Transfer Program and will provide a special associate degree transfer tuition rate for all remaining courses, leading to an average of $144 in savings per course. To learn more about the program, please visit www.phoenix.edu/ccstudent. About University of Phoenix University of Phoenix is a pioneer in education innovation and a leader in helping working adults enhance enhance in their careers. Thanks to flexible schedules, relevant courses and interactive learning, the University helps students effectively learn what they need to know in order to excel in the workplace while simultaneously balancing their busy lives. Learn more about programs, offerings and benefits at https://www.phoenix.edu/. About Joliet Junior College JJC is the nation's first public community college. Its six campuses and education centers serve roughly 27,000 students every year. JCC offers customized and affordable certificate and associate degree options in nine core areas as well as $13 million in state and federal grants and scholarship assistance that exceeds $750,000 every year. Learn more about JJC's partners and transfer opportunities at www.jjc.edu/university-partners. About Dallas College Dallas College comprises seven campuses in Dallas County, Texas, and serves over 70,000 students every year. The college offers associate degree and career/technical certificate programs in over 100 areas and is one of the largest community college systems in Texas. Learn more about programs, offerings and financial aid options at https://www.dcccd.edu/. After meeting Tuesday morning, Rural Fire District 1 is continuing the process of updating a fire suppression agreement with the city of Havre. Im doing some legwork on that. I have reviewed more regulations than ever thought I wanted to and Im not done yet. At this point, I have met with Mayor Tim Solomon and we exchanged some information, questions, comments and concerns. He gave me some documents. I do have more information that I am going to request. Ill do that via a letter from the board to him, chair Steve Jamruszka said to people attending the meeting. Solomon was also in attendance at Tuesdays meeting. Havre Fire Department provides fire suppression in the district, a ring around the Havre city limits, but Havre has requested a new agreement be drafted, specifically to determine who enforces fire code requirements in the district. Havre has canceled the existing agreement effective June 30 and a new agreement has to be in place by then. Jamruszka said he expects to have the letter completed and mailed this week. He added that the discussion he had with Solomon didnt substantially change anything in the termination letter. Jamruszka confirmed at the meeting that as it stands right now, the suppression agreement is going to be terminated in 45 days. I brought up to Steve that maybe you need to have some special meetings to move forward. Theres probably some latitude to that if we see a substantial move forward on whos going to and how its going to be enforced as far as some of the fire codes out in that area, Solomon told the people at the meeting. The contract with the suppression, we dont have problems with that part, except for whos going to enforce, because thats been the problem. No ones enforcing fire code out in that area now and theyre building new facilities that dont meet any fire codes. Were not interested in suppression if we dont know whos going to enforce the fire code. Were looking for whos going to step up and do that at the county level, Solomon said. Solomon said the city has been trying to get the issue resolved for several years. Hill County Commissioner Mark Peterson told Jamruszka at the boards April 22 meeting it was his understanding that the city wants the dsitrict to place more fire code restrictions on new construction in their area and to perform building inspections on new and existing buildings. Jamruszka responded at the time by saying he needed to know what the current agreement is and what modifications are being requested before those modifications can be made. Solomon said Monday that the termination deadline for the agreement is June 30. The board will revisit this issue at additional meetings. Jamruszka said Monday that the transaction for the purchase of the bus barn by North Central Montana Transit was successful. The transit system has been using the facility for some time and had negotiated its purchase from the fire district. The fire district also set new by-laws which the Hill County commissioners will review for final adoption. From MSU News Service BOZEMAN The Montana State University College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station have announced the dates for their annual agricultural field days, which will return as in-person events after being hosted virtually in 2020. We are so excited to be bringing back our in-person field days this year, said Darrin Boss, head of the Department of Research Centers and superintendent of the Northern Agricultural Research Center. These events are always a highlight for all of us because they offer one of our best chances to meet with our stakeholders and community members, share our research activities and hear their thoughts and questions. MSUs seven agricultural research centers are located in Conrad, Corvallis, Creston, Havre, Huntley, Moccasin and Sidney. All seven will host field days this year, as well as a Bozeman-based event held at the Arthur H. Post Agronomy Farm. Topics of discussion will include crop variety testing and breeding, livestock production, water and pesticide use, fruit production and more. The full schedule of 2021 field days is below: Northern Agricultural Research Center, Havre: June 29, 3 p.m. Southern Agricultural Research Center, Huntley: June 30, 3 p.m. Arthur H. Post Agronomy Farm, Bozeman: July 8, 8 a.m. Central Agricultural Research Center, Moccasin: July 13, 8:50 a.m. Western Triangle Agricultural Research Center, Conrad: July 14, 10 a.m. Northwestern Agricultural Research Center, Creston: July 15, 11 a.m. Eastern Agricultural Research Center, Sidney: July 20, 9 a.m. Western Agricultural Research Center, Corvallis: July 29, 4:30 p.m. All field days are free and open to the public. More information can be found at https://agresearch.montana.edu/fielddays.html. Archived content from the 2020 virtual field days can be found at https://agresearch.montana.edu/virtualfielddays.html . All field days will be outdoor events and will follow county and Montana University System COVID-19 precautions at the time of the events. Those who are feeling sick or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms should stay home. Graduation plans announced People at the Havre School Board meeeting Tuesday recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The board took numerous actions at the meeting and heard updates including on the situation with COVID-19 and plans to have the next school year as normal as possible, and on plans for graduation ceremonies. In a series of unanimous votes the Havre Public Schools Board of Trustees canvased the results of the recent school board elections, provided academic excellence awards to students and approved a number of policy updates, as well as discussing the district's policies moving forward. Superintendent Craig Mueller said in his report to the board that the administration is still working very hard on the kindergarten through fifth grade summer learning program focusing on English and math, and on similar programs for grades six through eight. He said high school students are being encouraged to sign up for summer school classes and Montana Digital Academy is being used for credit recovery as well. "All of this is being done for a return to school in the fall that will be as close to normal as we can get," he said. He said he hopes for a return to school in the fall with five-day schedule with the possibility of students continuing to socially distance and wear masks, but only if it is necessary for safety. Mueller said this has been a very difficult time for students, and for teachers trying to police mask usage, but with the recent uptick in cases and quarantines in the area as well as the arrival of COVID-19 variants in the county, it is still important for administrators to remain vigilant and prioritize the safety of the students in the closing weeks of the school year. However, he said he wants to make clear that he and his colleagues want to get back to normal as soon as possible. "I don't want to give the impression that our administrators and our district has ever approached this in a way that we didn't want to come back to school," he said. "That's not what we're in the business to do and it does not speak to work our administrators have had to put in to this year." Mueller said he wanted to thank the board for their work, making hard decisions during the pandemic while being exposed to passionate arguments from both sides of the conflict. Graduation plans announced Mueller announced that graduation will be taking place Sunday, May 30, at 2 p.m., and he is working with Havre High Assistant Principal and Activities Director Brian Kessler and Principal Ed Norman to make arrangements. He said he's hoping they will be able to hold the event at Blue Pony Stadium but a final decision will be made Friday morning. They are making plans for inclement weather, but he's hoping it will be as good as last year. Norman said the school is working with Hill County Health Department to make sure everything is safe and socially distanced. Members also approved a memorandum of understanding between Havre Public schools and the Havre Fastpitch Association. Mueller said the original was signed in 2004 to form the softball program for Havre High School, and the association paid $25,000 to kick start the program as well as a percentage each year to keep it going, with the understanding that the school itself would take over the cost once it was able. He believes the district is in a good place to fully fund it now. HPS will still be allowed to access the association's facilities free of charge, however. New curriculum, policy updates approved The board also approved new curriculum for k-12 math and social studie and 9-12 vocational practical arts. Mueller said the teams of teachers who worked on this new curriculum worked very hard to identify and fill gaps they recognized in students' educations and he appreciates these efforts which were made on top of teachers' already heavy workloads during the pandemic. He said the math and social studies curriculums will require new textbooks and supplemental materials to fill the gaps identified by teachers. Lincoln-McKinley Primary School Principal Holly Bitz also thanked everyone for their work on the new curriculum and said they now conform the the new OPI standards. Bitz and Mueller said the most notable addition to the social studies curriculum is the inclusion of economics as a subject even at early grade levels. Mueller said the goal is to instill a degree of financial literacy in students early on and increase their understanding of the larger economy in the U.S. and eventually worldwide. Bitz said it also includes activities and projects that will expose students to cultures from around the world. Mueller also talked about the changes to the 9-12 vocational practical arts curriculum which he said seeks to fill gaps in the field of welding, and he's hoping HPS will be able to work with Montana State University-Northern to address that gap before the beginning of the school year in fall. The board also approved a number of policy updates and replacements on their second readings, the vast majority of which where meant to bring the language in line with new state and federal guidance regarding school policy. The revisions were to policies about staff health, replacement physical programs, uniform complaint procedure, sexual harassment of students and employees procedures, student discipline, processing of fingerprints and confidential criminal justice information, child abuse and neglect reporting, the implementation of the commercial driver's license drug and alcohol clearing house, and FMLA procedures, all on the second and final reading. The new policies that were approved dealt with the use of federal Title One funds, and personalized learning opportunities, also on their second and final reading. Mueller said the latter policy explains personalized learning and transformational learning and will allow for greater flexibility in planning alternative instruction and ensure equality in opportunity for students. The board also approved requests by Rocky Boy Public Schools, Cottonwood School District 57 and Davey School District 12 to cross boundaries into the Havre school district on bus routes provided that the latter two do not ask for milage reimbursement from the state for distance traveled into the Havre School District. Students recognized The board also recognized a number of students for their academic excellence, presenting them with certificates proving their outstanding accomplishments, and taking their pictures. Trustees, parents, and the audience at large applauded the students as their names were announces and they accepted their certificates. Election results canvased The unofficial results of the school board elections in Havre saw incumbent Lorraine Larson and Jacob Ingram winning three-year terms with 936 votes and 778 votes respectively. Jessica Stiffarm-Kennedy received 741 votes, Michele Holden received 593 and Erin Pulse received 529. In the race for a one-year term, incumbent Garrit Ophus won with 1,182 votes and Brandon Berreth received 692 votes. High school-only candidate Britnee Loch was unnopposed and won by acclamation. In Tuesday's meeting the board authorized the official results to be published. Havre Public Schools Superintendent Craig Mueller said he wanted to recognized the service of Board Chair Aileen Couch and Vice-Chair Harvey Capellen, who will be leaving after a combined 35 years of service, with a pair of plaques. "I've appreciated working with both of you and wish you the best for the future," he said. Capellen said he wanted to say a few words about his time. "It has been a true joy to work on this board," Capellen said. He said there have been good times and trying times but he regrets none of it, and has enjoyed his time working with the administration. He said he's been involved with the hiring of nearly every administrator in the system during his time and he's never been disappointed by someone the board has approved. Havre Daily News/Colin Thompson He said he believes he and Couch will have left the district better than they found it and he hopes to continue to be a part of it as a member of the community. Couch did not comment during the meeting. The board approved school calendar year, the 2021-22 trustee meeting and special meeting schedules, but tabled consideration of the 2021-22 trustee activity calendar, board and committee appointments and board member code of ethics until their reorganization meeting May 20 where the new board members will take their seats on the board. Mueller also said he's hoping to fill some very important positions in the district soon and looks forward to discussing budgets at the board's special meeting May 25. (The Center Square) As the Biden administration continues to wrestle with an influx of people illegally crossing the southern border, new polling shows Americans are unhappy with the president's handling of the issue. Polling released Tuesday from Rasmussen reports that roughly two-thirds of Americans think "the current situation with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border is a crisis. The majority of voters also say President Joe Bidens policies are to blame, according to the poll. Only 20% of voters say the nation's immigration problem is not a crisis, 66% call it a crisis, and the rest are unsure. The polling comes after a surge of immigrants crossing illegally this year. Data from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol showed that in March, CBP encountered 172,000 illegal immigrants heading north across the border, a sharp increase from 101,000 the previous month. Those March numbers remained relatively steady for the month of April. That increase comes after Biden changed federal rules to decrease deportations. According to a report from the Migration Policy Institute, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests are down 60% under Biden. The White House has been careful in their messaging about the border to not call it a crisis. However, Biden did call the immigration increase a crisis in April in response to questions from reporters. Were gonna increase the numbers. The problem was that the refugee part was working on the crisis that ended up on the border with young people and we couldnt do two things at once. And now were going to increase the numbers, Biden said. The White House later walked back his comments and has stayed consistent in not using the term. "The president does not feel that children coming to our border seeking refuge from violence, economic hardships and other dire circumstances is a crisis," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said at a news conference after Bidens comments. "He does feel that the crisis in Central America, the dire circumstances that many are fleeing from, that that is a situation we need to spend our time on, our effort on, and we need to address it if we're going to prevent more of an influx of migrants coming in years to come." While not calling the situation a crisis, the White House has made clear officials are working on addressing the immigration issue. The Tuesday poll comes the same day that 20 governors sent a letter to the Biden administration attacking Biden's immigration policies, particularly his detainment of migrant children. "Allowing the federal government to place a potentially unlimited number of unaccompanied migrant children into our states facilities for an unspecified length of time with almost zero transparency is unacceptable and unsustainable," the letter reads. "We have neither the resources nor the obligation to solve the federal governments problem and foot the bill for the consequences of this administrations misguided actions." Cyberattack on pipeline leads to lines at the pump, AAA says no shortage in Kentucky (The Center Square) Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has found the person to lead the team that will help determine how the city spends the federal stimulus funds itll receive from the American Rescue Plan. Late last Friday, Fischer announced local business leader Margaret Handmaker will be the executive director for the Louisville Accelerator Team. Fischer announced the city would create the team during his April 22 budget address. This one-time influx of federal funding provides us with both opportunity and responsibility, Mayor Fischer said. I appreciate Margarets willingness to step up again for her city. She has the experience in both the public and private sectors that we need as we plan, implement, and invest every dollar from the American Rescue Plan and other federal allocations with equity, efficiency, accountability, and transparency. Currently the president of a consulting company that works with major corporations and cities, Handmaker previously served as a worldwide partner for global consulting firm Mercer Inc. She previously served as Kentuckys revenue secretary under Gov. Paul Patton in the 1990s. Fischer also appointed her previously to serve as an interim co-executive director for TARC, the citys transit authority. In a statement, she said she was honored to lead the team. The work of the Louisville Accelerator can have a tremendous, transformative impact on our city for years to come, Handmaker said. Per the citys statement, Handmaker will work under contract. Her main priorities will be to determine spending priorities and gather business, nonprofit, faith-based and other community leaders to make sure both the private and public sectors are working in concert to maximize the citys return on the federal governments investment. Just days after Handmaker was named, her job might have become a little more challenging, thanks to a statement Monday from the U.S. Treasury Department. The Treasury announced new totals that states, counties and communities would receive in direct aid from the American Rescue Plan. Louisville saw a more than 10% cut in its funding. As a result, the city is now in line to receive $388 million instead of $435 million. Fischer said the funding still represents a tremendous opportunity for our city to take ideas we once reserved for some day and turn them into reality now. Starting a business in another country or extending an existing one with an overseas branch is an exciting prospect. You can expect immense growth and global outreach with an international presence for your brand. Further, it gives you the opportunity to experience life in a different part of the world, and you may even move there for good. But entrepreneurship overseas isn't a mean feat as you will need to invest a great deal of hard work and commitment to dive headfirst into the venture. Beyond the relentless courage and commitment, you also need to understand the process for setting up a venture abroad. Alternatively, you can explore the option of collaborating with an existing company at your target destination. In either case, you will need to fulfill some immigration and regulatory norms to start life as an ex-pat in a foreign country. We will discuss the Italian Golden Visa in detail to give you a fair idea about exploring the opportunity in the country, which offers a favorable environment for foreign investors and entrepreneurs. Here is all that you need to know about starting up in Italy. Do your homework first Even before you start planning for the Golden Visa, you must do a thorough analysis of the local market. Determine whether there is a demand for your offering because you must have a valid reason to start a business there. It is equally vital to understand the market competition, local regulations for the business niche, and other regulations applying to international startups in the country. It makes sense to dip your toes in the water before you dive deep because you can enter the market with realistic expectations. Apart from learning all about the business landscape and compliance norms in Italy, you must also understand the investor visa option. The best way to set up here is by picking the Golden Visa that involves investment in an existing company or startup in Italy. Check your eligibility for Italian Golden Visa If you want to invest in Italy, you can get entry with a Golden Visa. It also gives you second citizenship, which means that you can live and work in the EU member countries. Applying for this visa option requires investment in one of the following form: An investment of 250,000 in an existing local startup An investment of 500,000 in a local company incorporated and operating in the country (to be held for at least two years) An investment of 2 million in government bonds (to be held for at least two years) A donation of 1 million supporting a public-interest project in the fields of education, scientific research, immigration management, culture, or preservation of cultural and natural heritage Further, you must be at least 18 years of age when you start the application procedure to be eligible. Being in a good state of health and having clean criminal records is imperative, and you will need to validate these facts with relevant documents. Gather your documents Once you are sure that you are eligible to apply for the golden visa, you should start gathering your documents because the process can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Moreover, not having proper documents can lead to delays and hassles in the application approval. You will also need to ensure that they are prepared according to the requirements imposed by the authorities. Here are the basic documents you must have at hand while applying. A valid passport Proof of current residence Information about the funds in the form of a bank statement Proof of how the funds were obtained Health certificate Police clearance Documents of family members While these are the essentials to start with, you will need to get many more documents as you proceed with the process. It is best to have an expert guiding you through all the stages. You do not need to worry about missing a document or going wrong with any step. Go ahead with the application process With all the essential documents and investment funds in place, you are all set to begin with the process. It is vital to prove that the funds you plan to invest are liquid, in your name, and obtained legally. Before going ahead, here you can read more about the Golden Visa for Italy to get clear expectations about its complexity and timelines. The application process includes three steps, with each requiring specific documents and formalities. Let us explain them in detail. Step #1: Obtaining a nulla osta Nulla osta refers to a no impediment certificate provided by the Investors Committee for Italy, which is the official legislative body of the investor visa. You need not worry much about the procedure as it is quite quick, and you can get the certificate within just 30 days of applying. You can do it online, which makes it even simpler. The best part is that you need not make the investment in Italy until you are approved for the investor visa, and only a declaration will suffice. Here are the documents you need to scan and attach with your application for nulla osta. Your passport Proof of funds A description of the intended investment route along with proof validating that the recipients have given consent A CV A police clearance A declaration for investing the minimum required amount A declaration for the Italian municipality where you intend to settle You have the option to submit the documents in English or Italian, which makes the process easier. Add an e-signature, and you are all set to go. The Investor Visa Committee evaluates the application and checks the document. You will get your nulla osta within 30 days if everything is in order. Step #2: Getting the investor visa After getting the nulla osta, you can get started with your investor visa. It is best to start at the earliest because the validity of nulla osta is only for six months. You will need to submit the following documents to the nearest Italian embassy or consulate to get your investor visa. A copy of nulla osta Your passport A passport picture Proof of residence in the current country Proof of accommodation in Italy (a confirmed hotel booking will suffice) Income proof from the previous fiscal year so that you can validate that you have adequate funds to support yourself and your family (current sum is 8,500 per person per year) Step #3: Getting the Italian residence permit When you have your investor visa, you can travel to the country and apply for a residence permit because you are now legally entitled to it. The validity of your visa is two years. It means you should get your temporary residence permit within that time frame. Once you are there, you can apply for an Italian Investor Visa Residence Permit by visiting your local police station within eight business days after landing. The process requires you to submit a fee of $100, along with your passport pictures and ID proofs. Your residence permit is valid for two years, starting from the day you enter the country with your visa. You will also have to make a committed investment now. Failing to do it will lead to the cancellation of your visa. In that case, you will have to leave Italy right away. On the other hand, you will have to apply for a renewal of your Golden visa after the completion of the validity period. But you can do it only if willing to maintain the entire investment in the country. Once renewed, the permit will be valid for another three years. You are entitled to a permanent residence permit after the completion of five years of the investment visa. A ten-year period gives you the option to obtain Italian citizenship by naturalization. Get tax benefits as an Italian resident Obtaining residence in Italy opens two tax benefits for you. The Italian flat tax option is ideal if you are a high-net-worth individual seeking a tax residency and a high standard of living in the country. Moving your tax residency to Italy caps your tax on worldwide income at 100,000, while your Italian income will be taxed progressively according to Italian law. You can even avail the scheme for your family members, with 25,000 extra per person, per annum. The other tax benefit you can avail of is the special tax regime for Impatriati, meant for the self-employed, employees, and retirees. Investing in the southern Italian regions such as Sicily, Abruzzo, Campania, and Puglia is a good idea as you have to pay income tax only on 10% of your income. The Italian Golden Visa is a quick and easy route if you want to explore entrepreneurship opportunities in this incredible country. The best thing about this option is that you collaborate with a business here, which lets you sideline the hassles of starting from scratch. Once you are all settled, you can look for bigger ideas. Free access for current print subscribers As a home delivery subscriber, you get free unlimited digital access to premium content on HenryHerald.com, including local news, local sports, obituaries, legal notices, local features, and the e-edition. All you need is your print subscription account number and your last name. Don't know your subscription number? Email access@henryherald.com with your delivery address. Activate your account now. Deciding to make the change from employee to entrepreneur can be scary. Starting a new venture is filled with new experiences and uncertainty that you can't fully prepare for ahead of time. Despite the unpredictability, half a million new businesses open every year, according to the Small Business Administration. If you've decided to join the 500,000, congratulations! You're on your way to having more control over your financial and personal future. Being the boss gives you power you've never had before, but with power comes responsibility. Before you make the transition from employee to entrepreneur, there are some steps you need to take. Commit Before You Quit Hold off on quitting your "day job." Even if you've already started your new gig and are seeing good results, you never know when a slow week could come. Having a steady income while you build your business can keep you from going through lean financial times. That does mean you'll be building your business while working for someone else, which presents some unique challenges you should be aware of. While working on your new business, make sure you're not violating any existing legal agreements with your employer. For example, let's say you work for a construction company that builds hospitals. If you've signed a non-compete agreement, you can't start your own construction company targeting those same clients. You should also avoid using company property for anything to do with your new project. Something as simple as a google search on a company computer can be seen as time stealing, and that doesn't look good in the professional world. Something else to keep in mind is the need to balance your time. You can't neglect either job without consequences, so make sure you're not overscheduling yourself. It can feel like everything has to be done right away, but building your new business slowly will also help prevent growing pains. While balancing two jobs may be stressful, it allows you to build more experience, and money, before you head out on your own. Plus, maintaining a good working relationship with your current employer means you get to keep your professional reputation clean, and prevent burning any bridges. Commit to your new enterprise before you quit your current job by taking the time to ensure it's really viable in the current market. You don't want to get started only to discover you don't have the funds or skills you need. Check The Laws Before You Start Your Saws Depending on what business you're starting, you may need some licenses or permits to keep everything legal. Let's go back to the construction company example from earlier. If you're starting a construction company, you need insurance, permits, and, depending on what state you're in, a contractor's license to get started. If you're in Tennessee, for example, you can't do professional contracting work worth more than $25,000 without a contractor's license. Violating that law could get you fined, so it's certainly something you want to know before you start your saws. If that's the situation you're in, you can become the proud owner of a contractor's license by passing the contractor's exam, and possibly an additional business exam in some states. To make sure you're ready for your exam, you can train with industry-leading prep courses. No matter what industry you're going into, there will be unique legal requirements. Check the rules and regulations put in place by your local government, as well as federal entities like the Small Business Administration, before you get started. Research now can save you from a lawsuit later. Save Some Money While Things Are Sunny One of the biggest factors in business failure is a lack of funds. As of 2020, about 82% of businesses that failed blamed a financial problem. To avoid that, you need to find the money before you need it. There are three main ways to go about this. One is to save money while you still have a day job. Take a look at your personal finances and see how much money you can afford to set aside out of each paycheck. To get this amount as high as possible, consider downsizing in your personal life. Moving into a smaller place, refinancing your personal loans, or cutting out services you don't absolutely need will sting now, but you'll reap the rewards later. The second option is to save money out of the proceeds you're making from your new business. Most of the money you make will be going back into the business initially anyway, so set some aside in a rainy-day fund. Ideally, an emergency fund should cover six months of operations. The third way to find funds for your new business is to find investors, and/or a small business loan. An investor or loan can infuse your business with a consistent cash flow that can be the difference between success and failure. To qualify for most loans, and impress investors, you'll need a solid financial plan. This includes a summary of how much money you need, when you expect to break even, what equipment you'll need, and other important financial details. It's a time-consuming process, but it's how you get a small business loan or investor funding. The more specific you make it, the more likely you are to receive funding, so focus on the details. You can choose one of these methods, or combine them all to maximize the amount of money you're able to put into your new business. Taking these steps as you begin your journey will ensure a smooth transition from employee to groundbreaking entrepreneur. Note: We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email customercare@heraldandnews.com for help creating one. When you are arrested for any crime, your number one priority should be fighting for your freedom. You should also be concerned with the impact that charges and the arrest will have on your record, whether you are convicted or not. If you have been charged with your first offense, there may be some post-adjudication action that a criminal attorney can take on your behalf. A first-time offender will have a much better chance of getting a dismissal or an expungement than a person who has a long rap sheet would. If you and your attorney do decide your case merits post-adjudication, you should know the difference between a dismissal and the expungement of a criminal record. When a case is dismissed, there is still a record of it with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The general public will be able to do research on your case and discover what you were charged with. They will also see that the case was dismissed and the circumstances under which it was dismissed. When your criminal record is expunged, the public record of the crime is destroyed. The police will keep a copy of your file for their records, but there are only a handful of circumstances under which that information will be disclosed. There are some government offices that may obtain those records if you apply for a job with the government or for a job working with children. What is required for an expungement? You cannot have a criminal conviction expunged. A criminal record can only be expunged if the case was dismissed if they arrested you and then drop the charges, if you were never charged at all, or if a grand jury decided there was not enough evidence to move forward with your case. What happens when a case is dismissed? According to this URL, a motion to dismiss is a part of the pre-trial procedure in a Florida criminal case. A motion to dismiss is often filed if prosecutors have not followed the proper protocol when arresting or charging an accused person. It may also be filed if the statute of limitations on a particular crime was up, or if the president of the United States or the governor of a state has pardoned the accused. Motions to dismiss do not work the way they do on television. No good criminal attorney will ever file a motion to dismiss if the client simply says that the arresting officer was lying. The whole point of having a criminal trial is to determine if someone is guilty based on evidence. The motion cannot take the place of a trial. A motion to dismiss must be in writing and signed by the accused and their attorney. It must be filed before the defendant's arraignment. The exception to this rule is if a defendant has been pardoned, the case falls under double jeopardy. The defendant has been granted immunity, or when there is no prima facie evidence for the case. Prima facie simply means "at first appearance." In order to arrest somebody and charge them with a crime, law enforcement must have some basic evidence showing why they thought this person was guilty in the first place. An experienced attorney will be able to help you and get your case dismissed if you believe that it should be. Once your case is dismissed, they can help you to get the record expunged. Nothing is more horrifying than being accused of a crime. Knowing the law and hiring the right lawyer can make all the difference in ensuring your freedom. Two Easy Ways To Subscribe! The Kodiak Daily Mirror offers full-service, five-day a week subscriptions with home delivery in addition to unlimited access to our online services (including our e-Edition). Online-access-only subscriptions include unlimited access to the Mirror's online services without delivery of the printed newspaper. (Note: New users: You must register and login before purchasing a subscription. Please be aware that Cache Valley Publishing does not endorse, and is not responsible for alleged employment offers in the comments. Recommended for you FILE - In this Feb. 29, 2020, file photo, National Rifle Association Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre speaks at Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2020, in Oxon Hill, Md. Federal Judge Harlin Hale announced his decision Tuesday, May 11, 2021, to dismiss the National Rifle Association's bankruptcy case over whether the powerful gun-rights group should be allowed to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, after 11 days of testimony and arguments. Lawyers for New York and the NRA's former advertising agency grilled the group's embattled top executive, LaPierre, who acknowledged putting the NRA into Chapter 11 bankruptcy without the knowledge or assent of most of its board and other top officers. Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Please be aware that Cache Valley Publishing does not endorse, and is not responsible for alleged employment offers in the comments. A pioneer in the field of all-natural beef production and sales and one of the nicest men on India's COVID-19 death toll surpasses 250,000 Xinhua) 15:58, May 12, 2021 Police stand guard near liquid medical oxygen (LMO) containers each carrying 20 tons of LMO after an Oxygen Express arrived at a railway station in Bangalore, India, May 11, 2021. (Str/Xinhua) India has been facing a resurgence of COVID-19 as the country recorded 4,205 deaths, the highest so far, pushing the death toll to 254,197. NEW DELHI, May 12 (Xinhua) -- India's COVID-19 death toll crossed the 250,000-mark as the total number of cases surpassed 23 million on Wednesday, confirmed the federal health ministry. While the death toll rose to 254,197, the COVID-19 tally reached 23,340,938. As many as 4,205 deaths, the highest so far, were registered during the past 24 hours, as a spike of 348,421 cases was recorded since Tuesday morning. There are still 3,704,099 active cases in the country, with a decrease of 11,122 cases in the past 24 hours. This is the second consecutive day when a decrease in active cases was witnessed. A total of 19,382,642 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals so far across the country. As the COVID-19 figures continue to peak, the federal government has ruled out a complete lockdown to contain the worsening situation. Some states have imposed night curfews or partial lockdowns. Principal Scientific Advisor to India's Federal Government K. Vijay Raghavan recently said a third COVID-19 wave was "inevitable" in the country. A road is barricaded as the Karnataka State government has announced a strict 14-day lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 in Bangalore, India, May 10, 2021. (Str/Xinhua) Delhi has been put under a third successive lockdown till May 17. While some school examinations are cancelled, others have been postponed. India's nationwide vaccination drive was kicked off on Jan. 16, and the third phase of vaccination for people aged above 18 began on May 1. Over 175 million vaccination doses have been administered to people across the country. Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up COVID-19 testing facilities across the country, as over 307 million tests have been conducted so far. As many as 307,583,991 tests were conducted till Tuesday, out of which 1,983,804 tests were conducted on Tuesday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Wednesday. Two types of vaccines, the Covishield vaccine and the Covaxin vaccine, are being administered in India. Meanwhile, the country received its first doses of Russian-made Sputnik-V on May 1. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Last week (and maybe every week into an uncertain future) we were forced to confront some un The state of Georgia made COVID-19 vaccines accessible to children as young as 12 on Tuesday. Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine has been provided to teenagers aged 12 to 15 in Georgia, Arkansas, and Delaware, just a day after US regulators approved it for emergency use in that age group. Georgia starts giving COVID-19 vaccine to young teens In most of the United States, young people approached by Reuters will have to wait until later in the week to be vaccinated. According to a spokesperson for Georgia's public health agency, the decision to send the COVID-19 vaccine straight away was made to prevent driving away young people and risking them not returning for the first of the two shots in the two-shot regimen. A spokesperson for Delaware said the state began early to meet the need for shots from young people and their parents, Reuters via MSN reported. Reuters surveyed more than a dozen states, including Texas, New York, Idaho, Arizona, Minnesota, Massachusetts, and Illinois, and they said they would wait for approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) advisory committee before starting to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to children under the age of 16. Minnesota officials are authorized to administer a vaccine as soon as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves it. Like most other nations, the US will await recommendations from a CDC committee, which will most certainly provide specifics on proper dosing and possible safety issues, as per a spokesperson. The committee will meet on Wednesday, and states will start immunizing children as early as Wednesday or Thursday. The vaccination of a large number of teenage Americans could cause schools and summer camps in the United States to ease the masking and social-distancing steps suggested by the CDC, hastening a return to something resembling normalcy. Individuals who receive the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine take approximately five weeks from the moment they receive the first dosage to attaining maximum safety. It has been open to individuals as young as 16 in the United States under an emergency use authorization. Last week, the firms announced that they had begun obtaining full clearance for their vaccine in adults aged 16 and over. The majority of COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for use in adults worldwide. Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine is used in many nations by teenagers as young as 16, and Canada was the first to extend its service to children aged 12 and up. Parents, education leaders, and public health authorities in other parts of the country have been waiting for the shot to be made accessible to more children, as per SFGate. The vaccine's use in the 12-15 age range will not be officially approved until at least Wednesday when a CDC committee meets. But, local governments who started offering shots right away saw the FDA's decision on Monday as enough approval to begin the procedure. Read Also: FDA Approves Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine for Younger Teens Ages 12-15; Pharma Claims It Is 100% Effective How many COVID-19 vaccines Georgia received? As of May 9, Georgia received a total of 9,921,025 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Per 24/7 Wall via MSN, Georgia earned 93,441.0 vaccines per 100,000 people after population adjustment, which is less than the national average of 100,488.8 vaccines per 100,000 Americans and the 15th fewest of any state. Although Georgia has earned fewer vaccines per capita than the rest of the country, it has a vaccination demand comparable to the rest of the US. Georgia had 10,415.5 confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents as of May 9, matching the national average of 9,813.2 cases per 100,000 Americans and ranking 22nd out of 50 states. Although the federal government distributes vaccinations to states, it is up to each state to distribute them, resulting in discrepancies in the number of vaccines provided and the population vaccinated. Georgia citizens had received 68.5 percent of allotted vaccines, which is smaller than the national average of 78.7 percent and the third-lowest proportion of all states. Vaccines are given to 64.0 percent of the state's population, which is smaller than the nationwide average of 79.1 percent and the eighth-lowest proportion of all states. Related Article: Fauci Claims COVID-19 Surge in Fall, Winter Unlikely to Happen; Could be Back to Normal Next Mother's Day @YouTube @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Eight weeks following the death of eight people in the Atlanta spa shootings, grand juries in Fulton and Cherokee counties arraigned the alleged gunman, according to the District Attorney's Offices on Tuesday. Fulton prosecutors seek the death penalty and pursue hate crime charges, as indicated in the court filings. Prosecutors seek Death Penalty for Atlanta Spa Shootings Suspect The suspect in the shootings was identified as Robert Aaron Long. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis issued a notice on Tuesday with the Fulton Superior Court that she wants the imposition of enhanced hate crimes charges and death penalty against Long in the first test of a hate crime law implemented by the Georgia Legislature in 2020. He was indicted on domestic terror and murder charges. Since the March incidents rattled the Asian-American community, advocates have been pushing hate crime charges, reported USA Today. According to Willis, "I am here with the team that I chose to seek an indictment in this case and move us one step closer to justice. I have put some of the most experienced and best attorneys on this case because it is important to every member of our community," reported 11 Alive. Long, 22, was indicted in the March 16 slayings of Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; Yong Ae Yue, 63; and Hyun Jung Grant, 51. A separate Cherokee County grand jury arraigned Long for a separate shooting there that resulted in the killings of Daoyou Feng, 44; Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Paul Michels, 54; and Delaina Yaun, 33, reported Sun Sentinel. The Fulton County arraignment charges Long with four counts of felony murder, four counts of murder, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, and one count of domestic terrorism. The domestic terrorism charge indicated Long committed a series of illegal acts that were interrelated by distinct characteristics. Read Also: Senate Breaks Filibuster on Anti-Asian American Hate Crime Bill The charges are based on the actual or perceived race, national origin, and gender of the women killed, according to the notice. No immediate filing in online court records was made in Cherokee County to denote whether DA Shannon Wallace is seeking hate crimes charges or the death penalty. Georgia's new hate crimes law does not work as a stand-alone hate crime. Following a person's conviction of an underlying crime, a jury should determine whether it is a hate crime. This carries an extra penalty. Seven of the victims gunned in the spa shootings were women. Six of them were of Asian descent. A number of public officials had earlier raised concerns that ethnicity was a factor in the shootings, particularly considering a nationwide surge in anti-Asian American violence during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Fulton County DA, she would like to seek hate crime charges and the death penalty against Long. Authorities stated Long initially opened fire on March 16 at five people at the Youngs Asian Massage Parlor. Two of them died at the scene, and two died at a hospital. Police responding o a call about a robbery found three women dead from reported gunshot injuries at Gold Spa in Buckhead, Atlanta, one hour later. Related Article: Democrats Push for Republican Support on Bill Seeking Protection From Asian American Hate Crimes @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Colonial Pipeline claims it is only days away from resuming entire operations after a cyberattack, raising questions about why the nation's largest fuel pipeline has been out of service for a week. Gas prices have risen to a seven-year high, prompting warnings of gas shortages and panic purchasing all over the East Coast, with commuters queuing for gasoline from Florida to Virginia. Fixing Colonial Pipeline would take a week However, as the closure enters its sixth day, it is unclear why Colonial is taking so long to resume normal activities despite promising to restore operations by the end of the week substantially. Colonial revealed last Friday that it had suspended activities after being hit by a cyberattack that had impacted some of its systems. Colonial supplies about 45 percent of the gasoline purchased on the East Coast. Colonial has only tried to restore some services after suddenly closing down the 5,500-mile pipeline that runs from Texas to New Jersey and has only provided a hazy timetable for when things will be back up and running. Multiple considerations, like if Colonial paid the ransom and, if so, when it was issued, the decryption key that could unscramble it, could delay the restoration of its structures. Criminal hackers usually carry out ransomware attacks, encrypting data and paralyzing victim networks before requesting huge sums of money to decrypt it. According to cyber experts, decryption will take several days. Colonial has declined to reveal whether it has paid or is negotiating a ransom after the FBI confirmed the attack was carried out by DarkSide, a Russian hacking group of ransomware veterans. Per Daily Mail, the extent to which its processes have been infected can influence how easily Colonial will repair them. Colonial has only confirmed that the hack only infected its IT processes, not the pipeline itself. On Thursday, hackers stole nearly 100 gigabytes of data from Colonial's network before requesting a ransom. Third Bridge analysts said the pipeline uses both standard and custom technology solutions, complicating attempts to get the whole network back online. Read Also: US Identifies Criminal Group in Colonial Pipeline Hack; Gas Shortage, Price Hike Imminent Amid Cyberattack 17 states declare emergency over Colonial Pipeline hack Concerns that the Colonial Pipeline closure could result in gasoline shortages across the US Southeast have prompted 17 states to declare emergencies due to the incident. "Just like there was no need to hoard toilet paper at the start of the pandemic, there should be no need to hoard gasoline," Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said at a White House press conference on Tuesday, as per The Independent. Granholm agreed that there would be a gasoline shortage in states that depend on the pipeline for around 70 percent of their overall petrol, including Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida. Residents, on the other hand, should not be worried about a gasoline shortage. As a result of the pipeline outage, emergency orders have been released in 17 states and the District of Columbia. Arkansas, Alabama, DC, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, and Virginia are all included in the emergency declaration. Due to the pipeline shutdown, gas stations across the Southeast have already started running out of fuel. GOP urges more actions from Biden administration after Colonial Pipeline hacking According to some Republicans, the closure of a significant fuel pipeline could serve as a wake-up call to the Biden administration that the US needs to spend more on oil and gas exploration and boost its capacity to fight cyberattacks. According to Fox News, Rep. August Pfluger, whose district covers the oil-producing Permian Basin, said, "This is vital infrastructure. The industry, which provides fuel to heat and cool homes so that commuting can take place, is vital infrastructure." Pfluger hopes that this attack would force the Biden administration to reconsider its fossil fuel policies and the Keystone XL pipeline closure. He also believes that the partial closure will help Americans understand how the oil and gas sector supports their living and travel plans. On Friday, the Colonial Pipeline, which transports about 45 percent of the fuel used on the East Coast, was hacked. Once again, the attack sparked questions about the weakness of the country's vital infrastructure. The fifth day of the pipeline closure has real-world consequences for commuters, with long delays, price hikes, and gasoline shortages at some East Coast gas stations. Due to fuel shortage issues, North Carolina and Virginia have both declared states of emergency. Related Article: 3 States To Stop Giving Unemployment Benefits; Biden Said He Might Cut It Down @Youtube @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. India's health officials have cautioned doctors to keep an eye out for mucormycosis, or "black fungus" infections, among COVID-19 patients, particularly those with diabetes. The disease, which can be deadly, can cause facial pain, black discoloration of the nose, numbness or swelling, fever, chest pain, and other complications. Mucormycosis infection discovered among COVID-19 patients According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), black fungus is caused by a group of molds that reside in the soil and most often attacks the sinuses or lungs after inhaling fungal spores. But it can also appear on the skin after a bite, burn, or other injuries. Patients with diabetes, cancer, transplant survivors, reduced white blood cell levels, long-term corticosteroid use, a history of injection drug use, patients with excess iron, and premature or low-birthweight infants are also at risk for the unusual infection. Per Fox News, the fungus cannot be passed from a person or animal. "There have been cases recorded in many other nations, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, France, Austria, and Mexico. And one of the causes is that there is a lot of diabetes that is poorly controlled," David Denning, a professor at Manchester University and an expert at the Global Action Fund for Fungal Infections, told Reuters. Severe cases may necessitate surgery, including removing an eye, depending on the location of the affected tissue. Antifungal medication should be administered intravenously or orally. According to BBC News, a Mumbai-based eye surgeon, Akshay Nair, has already seen 40 patients with the infection in three hospitals in April. He told the news agency that many of the patients had diabetes and a history of coronavirus infection. For the time being, the Indian Council of Medical Research has urged doctors to track blood glucose levels after COVID-19 discharge and in people with diabetes and use steroids with caution - the right pacing, dosage, and length - to reduce the number of cases. Read Also: Glass Bridge in China Breaks During Gale-Force Winds, Leaving Tourist Clinging 330 Feet Above the Ground Indian hospitals recorded an increase in black fungus cases As hospitals record an increase in cases of mucormycosis, or "black fungus," in COVID-19 patients, the Indian government has advised doctors to look out for symptoms of the uncommon yet possibly fatal infection. While India has not released national data on mucormycosis, it has stated that no significant outbreaks have occurred. Cases have been recorded in Maharashtra and its capital, Mumbai, as well as Gujarat. However, it is a complication that India's overburdened hospitals should do without since they are seriously short of both beds and oxygen for critically ill COVID-19 patients. Hospitals in India are documenting an increase in cases of mucormycosis, or "black fungus," following the second wave of COVID-19. The majority of the patients had diabetes, and signs appeared two weeks after recovering from COVID-19. Eleven of the patients had to get an eye removed to avoid the virus from spreading, which is fatal in most cases. According to Reuters, there is no global data on mucormycosis outbreaks, and Indian officials have confirmed no significant outbreak. One expert said the figures tend to be higher in India, which has a high diabetes rate than other nations, Business Insider reported. Related Article: Russian President Vladimir Putin Warns Rise of 'Nazi' Beliefs in Speech for the Anniversary of WWII's End @YouTube @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. On Tuesday, the ordinarily calm and collected Senate Rules Committee saw a historic tense showdown: the majority and minority leaders sparred over the Democrats' sweeping election and ethics bill. Schumer and McConnell sparred with words Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell both accused the other's faction of attempting to weaponize voting rules to increase electoral influence in a duel of remarks. They frequently spar informally on the floor, but the Schumer-McConnell display on Tuesday acted as a foreshadowing of a looming floor battle as Democrats press ahead with the elections bill they have assigned the symbolic number of S1. The party's progressive base, in particular, considers the reforms to be a high priority. Democrats insist they need to move quickly to reel in legislation to restrict voting rights that Republican-controlled state legislatures have pushed. However, state election officials and Sen. Joe Manchin, whose vote is a must-have, are all resistant to the sprawling plan that the committee took up on Tuesday. Schumer's testimony served to lift the stakes in a fight against Republican state laws that, in his words, bear the stench of oppression by restricting voting rights. "Are you going to stomp it out or are you going to let it spread? I urge my Republican colleagues to reconsider. Leader McConnell, I highly encourage you to rethink," he pleaded with the GOP, as per POLITICO. Read Also: White House Secretary Jen Psaki Admits She Advises Joe Biden Not To Take Questions Debate sparked as Schumer and McConnell chastised each argument Similar arguments erupted soon after the markup started on Tuesday. Schumer linked Republican resistance to the bill to former President Donald Trump's false election claims and Democratic opposition to election security bills in state legislatures. In the meantime, McConnell chastised Democrats for changing their minds about whether they favor the bill over the years. He went on to add that Republican-controlled state legislators have seized on Trump's argument that they no longer want to let the voters choose their politicians by passing legislation limiting ballot access. "They like lawmakers to choose their voters." In his opening speech, McConnell retorted that Democrats had already proposed the same measure, formally known as the "For the People Act," several times. Several of the bill's clauses were also slammed by McConnell, who said that "Common protections such as voter identification would be overturned. Practices as absurd as ballot harvesting will be made compulsory from coast to coast," Fox News reported. He has defended state election security laws, which Schumer has criticized, claiming that Democrats have misrepresented them. The back-and-forth between Senate leaders on Tuesday is likely to be just the beginning of a lengthy debate. Republicans expect to propose more than 100 amendments to the bill during the markup. Manchin has advocated for a bipartisan approach to every electoral reform, as per NY Post. Some Democrats want to limit the bill to the most basic provisions to bring Republicans on the spot. Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema spoke with President Biden last week, as their votes are critical to the president's infrastructure bill being passed. According to the White House, Manchin visited the White House on Monday, while Sinema was scheduled to visit on Tuesday. Related Article: Mike Pence Set to Attend GOP Dinner; Raises Speculations of 2024 Presidential Race @YouTube @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Refugee campaigners say a 20-meter underground escape tunnel was found at an Australian detention center for immigrants. When the tunnel was discovered at the Yongah Hill detention facility near Perth, it was allegedly within five meters of its perimeter. Escape tunnel found under detention center in Australia At the facility, more than 300 people live, including asylum seekers and criminals awaiting deportation. Officials from the Immigration and Naturalization have yet to respond to the claims. According to the Refugee Action Coalition campaign, the three-meter-deep tunnel led from a space in one of the housing blocks. It passed under two inner fences before reaching the outer barrier. Following the discovery, several prisoners were relocated to another prison zone, as per ABC News. The tunnel was just 2.4 meters deep, said Chris Antonio, president of the Shire of Northam. "As far as we know, the situation is under control, and we're also conscious that there were no escapees; it was all a trap," he said. The number of people involved in the tunnel's construction is uncertain, and the Australian Border Force has yet to comment on the incident. Border Force statistics indicate that 320 men are reportedly being kept at Yongah Hill. The Refugee Action Coalition said 140 of them are seeking asylum. Per BBC, the average time spent in prison, according to the advocacy group, has now surpassed 600 days, including the fact that half of the asylum seekers are long-term detainees and have been held for more than five years. According to a source in Australia's immigration system, detainees at an immigration facility spent five months digging an escape tunnel concealed under a chest of drawers in one of their rooms. The tunnel was 15 meters long and passed under a series of rooms before running under a road at the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Center, about 100 kilometers east of Perth, Western Australia. According to the source, the tunnel had reached the first of three perimeter walls, and it was expected that two more months of digging would be needed to reach the outer barrier. Following the finding of the partially dug pit, the Australian Border Force (ABF) told CNN that a suspected attempted escape had been thwarted at the base. Read Also: Russian President Vladimir Putin Warns Rise of 'Nazi' Beliefs in Speech for the Anniversary of WWII's End Immigration officials found the escape tunnel under a detainee's room An ABF spokesperson said that all detainees had been released and that the matter had been forwarded to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). The AFP said it was reviewing the situation and that further comment at this time is inappropriate. Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC) was the first to announce the tunnel's existence, saying that immigration officials had discovered a 20-meter tunnel underneath a detainee's space on Tuesday. A source told CNN that some detainees dug the tunnel with whatever utensils they could locate, including bits of a refrigerator and a wooden drawer. They dug while the guards weren't watching, he said, using the lights on their phones and candles to keep digging. Pillowcases were used to move soil from the tunnel until it was spread in a 50-centimeter gap between the room's floor and the ground, where it couldn't be seen from the path. The Refugee Action Coalition presented an image of tape covering various low-set spaces, including 6F, above the tunnel. As of February 28, 315 men were being detained at the Yongah Hill detention facility, according to the latest government statistics. The majority were "501s," or individuals whose visas have been revoked under section 501 of Australia's Migration Act, which requires the government to withdraw visas based on character grounds, such as whether visa holders had committed a serious crime. Related Article: India Discovers Deadly Black Fungus on COVID-19 Patients That Can Lead to Blindness @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. In a disturbing footage that leaked many months ago, an angry Tom Cruise yelled at crew members. And, the actor has now spoken out on the fiasco. Tom Cruise explains rant On his Mission: Impossible 7 set in December, a leaked audio of Tom Cruise ranting about the relevance of COVID-19 safety protocols went viral. The 58-year-old actor-producer is now speaking out about the viral audio. Cruise told Empire magazine, "I said what I said. At that moment, there was a lot at stake. It wasn't my whole crew, though. I had the crew leaving the set, and all I had to do now was choose people." Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Tom Cruise went on to say that filming was never shut down again. "And here we are, still filming. He continued, "All those feelings were running through my head. And knowing that we'd begun shooting a movie was such a massive relief for the whole crew... It was a really emotional experience." On the leaked clip, Cruise can be heard shouting about crew members allegedly breaking social distancing laws. Cruise said he was in direct contact with studios, insurance agencies, and distributors during the pandemic to establish a gold standard of filmmaking. The actor also explained that he was not yelling in front of his entire crew; instead, he said he ordered most crew members to leave the set, and he only addressed selected people for their behavior. Those chosen individuals ultimately left the project, with a report in December stating that a total of five crew members had left the film. According to a source, Cruise's initial rage was big, but the storm wasn't calmed after that tirade, according to British tabloid The Sun, which first released the recording. Read Also: Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck Reconciliation Rumors: Alex Rodriguez Reportedly Shocked and Upset Over Reunion Cruise received mixed reaction over COVID-19 rant In his tirade, Tom Cruise said that movies were only being produced again after months of lockdowns because their creation was the gold standard. At the time, Cruise's screaming rant reactions were mixed, with some thanking him for seeing the big picture and others criticizing him for using "over the top" language. Cruise's COVID-19 rant was recognized by fellow Hollywood actor George Clooney, who said he didn't overreact. Per Insider, Clooney said in an interview with Howard Stern on the host's SiriusXM radio show, "It's difficult to be in a position of power. You should have a duty for other people, and he is completely right. Many workers would lose their employment if demand declines. People must realize this and take responsibility for it." Many of those thoughts were running through Cruise's head in his Empire interview when he commented on how Mission: Impossible 7 was one of the first films to be canceled due to the pandemic. "Knowing that we'd begun filming was a massive relief for the entire crew... It was a really emotional experience," said Tom Cruise. Cruise's spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The original release date for Mission: Impossible 7 was July 23, 2021, but the shooting was significantly delayed. The film's new release date has been set for May 27, 2022. Tom Cruise returns 3 Golden Globes Awards amid HFPA protest Meanwhile, according to Deadline, Tom Cruise returned his three Golden Globe awards on Monday in protest to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA). Several stars, including Cruise, who won two best actor awards for Born on the Fourth of July and Jerry Maguire and a best supporting actor award for Magnolia, have called on the industry to condemn the HFPA's lack of diversity. The news of Cruise's trophies being sent to the HFPA headquarters comes on the heels of NBC's announcement on Monday that the Golden Globes will not be broadcast in 2022. Related Article: Michael Jackson's Estate Beats Wade Robson Molestation Accusations @YouTube @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. One of the best fighter bombers of the day, the F-4 Phantom offered power and excellent weapons delivery that made it suitable for attacking surface to air missiles (SAM) in wild weasel missions. F-4 Phantom: Big bruiser with power to spare In October 1967, the Air Force received the first Phantom. The first F-4E was delivered to the Air National Guard in 1985 and the Air Force Reserve in 1987. This model has an internal mounted 20mm gun with an updated fire-control system, an extra fuselage fuel tank, leading-edge slats for increased agility, and an enhanced power plant, reported Fas Org. The first Phantoms had no guns, only missiles corrected by teaching dogfighting techniques and arming it with a 20-mm cannon that made it a formidable fighter. Pilots of these planes used their inherent advantages to score many MiG kills over the skies of Vietnam. Target-identification technologies were built-in on F-4Es beginning in 1973 for long-range visual identification of aerial or surface targets. The system is composed of a television camera with a zoom lens to aid in positive recognition, a Pave Tack system which provided day and night all-weather capability to acquire, track, and identify ground targets for laser, infrared, and electro-opaque aiming. Adding a digital intercept computer with launch computations for all AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles was included. A new optical ARN-101 navigation system succeeded the LN-12 inertial navigation system on F-4E/G models. The F-4 Phantom mission was modified to specialize in suppressing adversary air defense as modern, more capable military equipment was introduced, noted Air Force Technology. Read also: US Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon: One of the Best Fighter Designs Built to Dominate F-4G Phantoms belonging to the Idaho Air National Guard's 190th Fighter Squadron retired to the "boneyard," at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., after just a 90-day assignment assisting Operation Provide Comfort on December 15, 1995. F-4G Wild Weasel This operation was one of the most crucial missions in taking out air defenses that might hinder air superiority, and the Phantom Wild Weasel was good in its job of destroying SAMS in enemy territory. It was one of the planes given the role of increasing the longevity of tactical strike forces by seeking out and disabling or destroying enemy radar-directed anti-aircraft air defenses and surface-to-air missiles (SAMS) until the F-16CJ/DJ succeeded it. These F-4Gs were E models equipped with advanced electronic warfare systems installed instead of a gun in its nose for dogfighting. The F-4G could carry additional weapons and a wider variety of missiles than previous Wild Weasels, as well as conventional bombs. It used the ECM to fool the radars and destroy them. One primary weapon is the AGM-88 HARM (high-speed anti-radiation missile) to take out enemy radars; chances of getting shot down were great for these missions. Other carried munitions are cluster bombs, and AIM-65 Maverick, and air-to-air missiles, mentioned US Airforce. One way to defend against enemy interceptors is the sparse supply of air-to-air missiles, with some air support and the danger that included infantry and ground fire. The F-4 Phantom G 'Wild Weasel got the E-variant's best features like early information links to the missiles. Both the F-4G hunter and F-16C were influential in many anti-radar defense missions. Related article: F-36 Kingsnake Can Replace F-16 Jet: 5th Minus-Generation Without the Stealth @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. National Pension Service (NPS) Chairman and CEO Kim Yong-jin speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at his office in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, May 6. Courtesy of NPS This article is the fourth in a series of interviews with ESG experts intended to make suggestions for Korea's financial, industrial and public sectors to come up with better ESG strategies for sustainable growth. ED. State pension fund CEO believes values-based criteria can prevent tail risk By Park Jae-hyuk JEONJU, North Jeolla Province It has already been 15 years since the National Pension Service (NPS) started to manage its "responsible investment fund" to keep pace with its peers in developed countries and top-tier asset managers, that had agreed with the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investments (UN PRI), launched in 2006, to incorporate environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues into their decision-making processes. Given the fund has excluded so-called "sin stocks" related to climate change, war and health problems from its portfolio, ESG is not a "new concept" at all for the NPS, unlike most Korean businesses that have begun to follow the global trend, again belatedly. However, the pioneer of ESG investments in Korea is still seeking improvements in its sustainability, instead of choosing to maintain the status quo. With total assets under management (AUM) reaching 860 trillion won ($768.54 billion) in February, the world's third-largest state pension fund is now taking steps forward, preparing to make responsible investments in assets outside the country. "Starting this year, we will take into account ESG, when investing in foreign stocks, and will broaden the range of responsible investments to domestic and foreign bonds," NPS Chairman and CEO Kim Yong-jin told The Korea Times at his office in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. The pension fund plans to come up with shareholder engagement guidelines to engage in dialogue with foreign companies regarding ESG issues. It will also make responsible investments account for 50 percent of its entire AUM by the end of next year. Such a strategy is not just intended to fulfill its social responsibility the plan is one among measures to enhance the long-term profitability of the fund. The NPS chairman seemed to be optimistic about the profitability of ESG investments, although he was aware of the controversy about the correlation between ESG ratings and financial performance. "The greatest advantage of ESG investing is the ability to manage risks," he said. "There is no doubt that ESG is a useful tool to manage tail risk." Tail risk, or fat tail risk, refers to the risk of an event that can have a significant impact on the value of an asset, although the event has only a small probability of happening. Kim emphasized ESG investments showed a positive correlation with performance and share prices, according to the results of research by reliable institutions. "It has been proven with achievements and performance," he said. The NPS itself has also improved its profits, amid its continuous pursuit of ESG strategies. It earned 72 trillion won ($65 billion) with a 9.7 percent rate of return in 2020, after earning 73 trillion won at an 11.3 percent rate the year before. From that standpoint, Kim advised private enterprises to follow the policies of public institutions by putting more of their focus on the "process" than the "outcome." He stressed that both the private and public sectors should make their profits through socially valuable conduct from now on. "Only one failure can tear down a company, despite 99 successes," he said. "ESG is essential for their survival." The National Pension Service's (NPS) Fund Management Committee members hold a meeting at The Plaza Seoul, April 30. Courtesy of Ministry of Health and Welfare Divestments from firms using coal As part of its efforts to expand ESG investments, the NPS is also having an internal discussion about selecting "critical control points" regarding environmental and social factors, after having been advised last year to focus more on climate change and industrial accidents. In particular, its Fund Management Committee reviewed the introduction of "negative screening" during a meeting last month to consider excluding firms mining coal, and those generating electricity from it, from the pension fund's investment portfolio. This came after the NPS faced criticism from environmental activists for its continued investments into coal-related industries. They have held rallies in front of the service's buildings nationwide to demand it stop investing in coal-fired power plants here and overseas. Although the committee members did not draw a conclusion at the meeting, investors started to consider selling their shares in coal-related companies as concerns have grown over any large-scale divestments by the pension fund. As of last month, the NPS held a 6.94 percent stake in KEPCO; 12.17 percent in OCI; 8.67 percent in GS; 8.02 percent in Kumho Petrochemical; and 9.72 percent in LG International, so their share prices dropped sharply after the committee decided to talk about negative screening. Kim, however, dismissed concerns about any extreme and abrupt divestments, although he emphasized the final decision will be made by the committee members. "We should keep pace with the whole economy as a responsible investors in the financial market," he said. "The decision will be made reasonably, considering the government's long-term policies for the power generation industry." Seen above is the National Pension Service headquarters in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. Yonhap Was the shrunken head in "Wise Blood 1979" film real? How did anyone reduce the size of anyone's head is a mystery. Is the shrunken head in "Wise Blood 1979" film actual or not Tsantsas, or shrunken heads, were often used for ritual and cultural purposes by certain Ecuadorian and Peruvian Indigenous groups, reported Sputnik News. When in the US Air Force during 1942, Mercer University biologist Jim Harrison obtained a tsantsa that later appeared on John Houston's 1979 movie "Wise Blood." Mercy University scientists conducted a study verifying that the tsantsa used in the movie was made of human remains like hair and skin. The scientists undertook the project to get the artifact verified and brought it to Ecuador, where it was found. These Jivaroan peoples of the Amazon rainforest, including the Shuar, Achuar, Awajn/Aguaruna, Wamps/Huambisa, and Candoshi-Shampra (SAAWC), were documented to prepared shrunken heads. A restricted sample size of actual human DNA has been mentioned as a constraint; nevertheless, the Ecuadorian government has accepted the findings. The scientists utilized a computerized tomography (CT) imaging system to analyze the tsantsa and reconstruct complex 3D images, enhancing and differentiating different sewing patterns and skin characteristics. Based on an NBC News report, the tsantsa was sent back to the Ecuadorian Consulate in Atlanta in June 2019, though it is unknown if it was returned to Ecuador. "We wanted it to be seen by people who could understand it in the right context," says Adam Kiefer, a chemist at Mercer University and is one of the study's co-authors, noted Yahoo News. The shrunken head in "Wise Blood 1979" film, real or not, depends on its analysis. Read also: Scientists Find Out That a Billion Years is Missing in the Geologic Record, So Where is It? "This isn't an exception - this is someone's body, someone's history, and it isn't ours," he said. "From our perspective, repatriation was critical, and we were grateful that our university supported us on this." The scientists who were involved explains the benefits of the research, which could lead to a 3D-printed version of the head. "Precious artifacts could be returned while still being kept as a volumetric replica for collection purposes," the study revealed. Another study researcher, Craig D. Byron, informed the outlet that he was grateful the tsantsa was certified so it could be returned, claiming they "had no business" possessing it. "Getting the specimen out of our possession is a relief," he said. "It had a 'underground' value; it is illegal to trade or sell; it was a person's head skin." The ceremonial tsantsas are assumed to have originated as a means of resolving family matters, intending to keep a spirit and reallocate its power to the triumphant warrior's kin as the general belief. The tsantsa was initially stored before being used in the film, according to the source. Damage is caused during processing, such as affixing the head onto the fake body, mentioned to the researchers. The shrunken is seen in many sequences in the film, filmed in Macon, Georgia, near the Mercer University campus. Now is the shrunken head in "Wise Blood 1979" film real? It deserves to be set back to its country of origin because it belongs there. Related article: First-Known Pregnant Mummy With Fetus Still Inside Her from 155 Years Ago Discovered @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu calls for a state of emergency after reports of civil war violence between Israelis and Arabs erupt in Lod. Arabs in the city were blamed for inciting the violence, told the police. Civil War Violence Between Israelis and Arabs Erupts in Lod In the central city of Lod, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called a state of emergency when police said Arab residents of waging "wide-scale riots." The statement came after an Israeli Arab was slain there the night previously, as a conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories exploded, reported the Daily Mail. He went to Lod City, where Tel Aviv's suburbs are close to the Ben Gurion airport, to ask the locals to stop the violence. Mayor Yair Revivo contributed to the tension by declaring that a "civil war has begun" and that the military should be deployed, contrasting it to the Nazis' Kristallnacht. Local police reported that the city of 77,000 residents, including 47,000 Jewish Israelis and 23,000 Arab Israelis, was the scene of confrontations on Monday, noted the BBC. 'City protests erupted by some Arab residents, adversely affecting neighborhoods,' the police remarked. The property was wrecked from the violence.' Even so, as demonstrations erupted across East Jerusalem, the occupied West Bank, and Israeli Arab cities late Tuesday night, the scenario in Lod deteriorated. On the same day, Palestinian militants Hamas and the Israeli army exchanged rocket fire with rockets aimed at Tel Aviv after an Israeli attack demolished a Gaza tower block. Possible civil war violence between Israelis and Arabs erupt in Lod as the Hama and IDF fight. Read also: Israel-UAE Peace Deal Should Be Credited to Obama, Says Joe Biden After mourners threw rocks at officers during the funeral of an Arab man allegedly shot dead by a Jewish resident the evening before, police in Lod deployed tear gas and stun grenades on Tuesday. Three synagogues and several businesses were reported to be set on fire, reported by Israeli media, and the government said reinforcements had been dispatched to Lod. 'Sixteen border police platoons (have been) mobilized in areas to deal with the conflict,' the police mentioned. Eight people were arrested during scenes of violence in Israeli Arab locations such as Acre, Wadi Ara, and Jisr A-Zarqa remarked the police. Last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Israeli riot police struggled with crowds of Palestinians outside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, escalating weeks of protests. At least 700 Palestinians have been injured in regular fighting at the compound, sacred to Muslims and Jews elsewhere in east Jerusalem. Mayor Revivo told on Tuesday that he had to ask Netanyahu to issue an order of emergency in the central Israeli state. He requested that the military is better equipped to handle the chaos. 'This is Kristallnacht in Lod,' he added, relating it to Nazi Germany's pogrom towards Germany's Jews in 1938. Saying that a declared state of emergency in Lod is needed. Deploy the IDF and impose a curfew on the city will restore the loss of governance. According to The Times of Israel, he said that "nothing like this has ever happened in Israel's history." After the supposed civil war, violence between Israelis and Arabs erupt in Lod; the mayor asks for calm in the disorder and chaos. Related article: UAE, Bahrain, and Israel Signed Agreement to Re-Establish Ties After a Quarter Century @ 2021 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. An electronic signboard at a local cryptocurrency exchange, Bithumb / Yonhap By Anna J. Park Early Tuesday morning, Bithumb's trading signboard and its Bitcoin price showed errors while trading was frozen for nearly an hour. At 5 a.m., Bitcoin's price had been hovering at around 72 million won ($64,000), but the price suddenly leapt to 77.9 million won in just few minutes. The Bitcoin price was then disconnected for about an hour until 6:08 a.m., at which point it was displayed at a much lower price. Bithumb notified customers at 5:51 a.m., nearly an hour after the crash happened, stating that excessive traffic caused a delay in trading, leading to the pricing errors. The cryptocurrency exchange said that it took emergency measures, and that trading would be soon normalized. It was the third time this month alone that Bithumb experienced its servers freezing leading to the price errors. Upbit, another major cryptocurrency exchange here, also experienced a similar crash at around 10 a.m. Tuesday, due to a rush of traffic. As the number of users and trading volumes has soared amid the country's cryptocurrency frenzy, Upbit has experienced this type of system failure several times this year. However, due to legal loopholes associated with virtual assets and digital coin exchanges, compensation for such incidents is unlikely to be paid. Both Bithumb and Upbit's terms of use Bithumb's Article 21 and Upbit's Article 23 state that they cannot be held responsible for trading errors caused by server failures. Their terms of use also exempt the cryptocurrency exchanges from responsibility for server shutdowns caused by almost all exterior elements, such as DDoS attacks and data center problems. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) looked into the terms of use of 12 local cryptocurrency exchanges in 2018, as complaints became rampant due to the exchanges' extensive exemption clauses regarding the responsibility for any traffic-caused issues on their sites. The FTC ordered the exchanges to voluntarily correct any unfair clauses in their terms of use, yet these clauses still remain. While their terms of use have been heavily criticized due to their lack of investor protection, market insiders say the reality of virtual assets is still subject to voluntary moves by individual coin exchanges. "The government hasn't yet suggested any clear legal framework for cryptocurrencies. Thus, the coin exchanges enjoy legal exemptions amid ample loopholes," one said on condition of anonymity. A legal expert in the finance sector expressed surprise that local cryptocurrency exchanges haven't made any significant changes in investor protection, even though it's been three years since the FTC ordered them to do so. "As the exchanges receive commissions from investors' trading, they're responsible for managing their servers well," he said. Another exchange, BITBUY KOREA, allegedly swindled money from hundreds of victims by luring investors into sending money to the exchange, then closing down the site. Over 670 victims are planning to file a complaint with the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutor's Office soon. By Anna J. Park Hanwha Group and Korea Development Bank (KDB) signed an agreement Wednesday to cooperate in green energy and financing projects worth 5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) over the next five years. According to Hanwha Group, the signing ceremony was held on Wednesday afternoon at Hanwha Solutions' Jincheon plant, located in the country's interior North Chungcheong Province. KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull and Hanwha Solutions CEO and President Kim Dong-kwan the eldest son of Hanwha Group Chairman Kim Seung-youn attended the joint signing ceremony, along with incumbent CEOs of Hanwha Group's other subsidiaries related to green energy, including Hanwha Energy, Hanwha Power Systems and Hanwha Engineering & Construction. "Hanwha Group aims to advance into the next decade as a global green energy leader through elaborating green energy business models as well as developing energy technologies of the next generation," Hanwha Solutions CEO Kim Dong-kwan said at the ceremony. He also highlighted that Hanwha Group's footsteps in the green energy sector will be accompanied by the joint growth of local small- and medium-sized companies, strengthening the country's green energy business landscape. Hanwha Group has been focusing extensively on expanding its green and renewable energy businesses, including solar and hydrogen energy, by actively pursuing mergers or acquisitions and engaging in research and development on a global scale. Planning to invest up to 9 trillion won over the next five years, the group has conducted a paid-in capital increase and issued sustainability bonds. The partnership with KDB is part of the state-run bank's cooperation programs with local enterprises to nurture low-carbon and eco-friendly energy sectors. The joint effort is expected to boost the group's long-term development initiative in the global energy sector. Thank you! You've reported this item as a violation of our terms of use. This content was contributed by a user of the site. If you believe this content may be in violation of the terms of use, you may report it. Fair Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Joh Sung-wook, third from right, is accompanied by corporate executives during a ceremony marking the opening of the in-house cafeteria business of conglomerates to the public at LG Science Park in Seoul, April 5. Korea Times file By Yi Whan-woo Fair Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Joh Sung-wook stressed that the commission will not rule out adding foreigners onto its chaebol "watch list," following a controversial decision not to name Korean-American Kim Bom-suk, the founder and controlling shareholder of e-commerce giant Coupang, on its updated list, April 29. Introduced in 1987, the watch list was mainly aimed at banning family members of big business conglomerates known as "chaebol" from awarding business contracts to affiliated companies and to prevent owners from using cross-shareholding and other practices to control their corporate empires despite holding a tiny stake. "There should be an overhaul of the regulatory framework that can be more effectively implemented to control large business groups without discriminating against entrepreneurs due to their citizenship," Joh said during a press conference at Government Complex Sejong, Tuesday. This was the FTC chief's first meeting with reporters after it added Coupang to its new watch list, but not Kim due to his nationality. The measure drew criticism that the FTC lacks consistency and fairness in filing the list, considering that Korean entrepreneurs who were under a similar circumstance to Kim were targeted by the commission. The FTC on April 29 acknowledged that Kim, who is entitled to exercise 76.7 percent of the voting rights in Coupang, virtually controls the firm. It still explained Kim had to be left off the list considering the fact that no foreign owner of a company has been added to the corporate watch list so far. She said the commission will carry out a feasibility study on changing that rule as soon as possible. The Coupang founder and his family will avoid relevant regulations as well as accountability for any violations or scrutiny of his personal financial deals, while Coupang faces stricter filing regulations. They include disclosing detailed information on management and business activities. "We will take into account fairness, consistency and sustainability in the overhaul of regulations," Cho said. "We will not rule out adding foreigners if they substantially control their respective firms as seen from the Coupang case." A Coupang official, who asked not be named, said, Wednesday, "The firm is not in a position to speak about what the FTC does considering the commission's supervisory and regulatory nature." During the press conference, the FTC said it also will go over which family members of a corporate chief should be included on the watch list. "Our envisioned feasibility study will include how to revise the extent of the targeted family members in relation to today's business norms," an FTC official said. Asked about whether IT giants that initially began as startups should be included on the watch list, Joh said they will be subject to the same regulations as chaebol. Another issue brought up at the press conference was the FTC's approval of Apple Korea's remedial action after the firm was accused of forcing the country's three wireless carriers KT, SK Telecom and LG Uplus to pay advertisement and warranty expenses. Instead of imposing a penalty, the FTC in February authorized Apple Korea's plan to correct its anti-competitive practices and also to set aside 100 billion won ($88.8 million) for projects benefiting consumers and small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs). "Such a remedial action can be a useful option as long as it helps consumers and other affected groups," Joh said. Now Open 12 May 2021 Canopy by Hilton, Hilton's (NYSE: HLT) lifestyle hotel brand, today welcomes guests with the opening of Canopy by Hilton Paris Trocadero, the first for the brand in France. Canopy is the latest of Hilton's brands to celebrate its market entry in France, ahead of Tapestry by Hilton's anticipated arrival in the capital with the openings of Le Belgrand Hotel Paris Champs Elysees and Hotel Camille Paris Gare de Lyon this summer. In addition, the new hotel joins Canopy by Hilton Zagreb and Canopy by Hilton Reykjavik in the brand's European portfolio and will be followed by new Canopy hotels in London and Madrid later this year. Locally Inspired Design The 123-room property draws inspiration from Trocadero's rich history and incorporates thoughtful touches from the industrial past of the 1930s building. Canopy Paris Trocadero is located in the iconic 16th arrondissement which is known for its elegant 19th-century architecture, large avenues, renowned museums, and trendy restaurants. Eat. Drink. Smile. Guests can start their day with an inclusive artisanal breakfast in Canopy Central or opt for grab-and-go meals delivered straight to their door. Classic French dishes incorporating seasonal flavors and local ingredients will be served at L'Esprit Nouveau. Diners can also enjoy cocktails and sharing platters against a backdrop of the Eiffel Tower from the hotel's panoramic rooftop bar. Canopy guests can expect daily tastings with appetizers and beverages from local distilleries, craft brewers and wineries and upon check-in are gifted a welcome treat drawing on the hotel's locality. We've Got You Covered Canopy Paris Trocadero provides an array of amenities to guests who are looking to work, explore, and relax. Some include: Fully flexible meeting and event space that can host corporate meetings, large cocktail receptions and intimate social events Complimentary Canopy bikes to tour the neighborhood like a local Signature Canopy bed featuring Serta Cool Balance Technology In-room Nespresso coffee machines 24-hour fitness center quipped with a comprehensive range of TechnoGym cardio and strength equipment In addition to the hotel highlights, guests visiting Canopy Paris Trocadero can travel with peace of mind from check-in to check-out with Hilton CleanStay. New standards include a Hilton CleanStay Room Seal to indicate that a room has not been accessed since being thoroughly cleaned and disinfected, increased frequency of cleaning of all public areas, and flexible housekeeping options. The hotel is part of Hilton Honors, the award-winning guest-loyalty programme for Hilton's 18 distinct hotel brands. Hilton Honors members who book directly through preferred Hilton channels have access to instant benefits including a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of Points and money to book a stay, exclusive member discounts, free standard WiFi and access to the Hilton Honors mobile app. Reopening 12 May 2021 The curtain rises again for Sheraton Grand Chicago on June 7. As one of the most prominent hotels to reopen in the country, this milestone signifies the beginning of the end of a challenging year and a hopeful restart for both the city and the nation. Located in the heart of downtown Chicago along the Chicago River, the hotel has been in hibernation since last March, but continued to bring smiles to faces with uplifting window designs and other love letters to the City of Chicago. To provide peace of mind and to set the stage for exciting family-friendly activities to come, the hotel has created a one-of-a-kind new safety "Pointes" program demonstrated with classic ballet movements. Beautifully demonstrated by Ballet Chicago and Deeply Rooted Dance Theater, the "Pointes" explain protocols and convey an overall "So Grand & So Clean" message through multiple basic dance movements, such as plier, gilsser, sauter and tourner. Performed around the hotel, each graceful act reveals changes made inside the Sheraton Grand and manifests Chicago's cultural experiences returning back to life. In time for summer travel, the hotel will also boast new transformations, including special offers for family travel featuring the indoor pool. A new room design is inspired by the Riverwalk and vessels that traverse the nearby Chicago River waterway. The ongoing renovation by Simeone Deary Group reflects a sophisticated nautical lifestyle, a perfect theme for summer travel. Multiple dining experiences opening with the hotel include Chicago Burger Company, a lively restaurant with an outdoor patio, delicious burgers and creative cocktails, and Link, an intimate coffee house with both sweet and savory menu items. Announcements including summer programming, events and conferences will be announced in the upcoming weeks. Programming at the hotel will center on celebrating Chicago's tastemakers and creatives, including: Riverfront Riffs, a summer music series; Chicago Made, a market with small businesses; and summer performances by Chicago Ballet in the ballroom. Until then, Sheraton Grand will once again offer guests striking views of the lake, river and Chicago cityscape. Moments away from legendary downtown attractions, such as Navy Pier, Millennium Park and the Chicago Water Tower, the Riverwalk hotel is still the perfect home base for visiting downtown Chicago. Appointment 12 May 2021 Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor, the first branded full-service hotel in Baltimore City's Inner Harbor, proudly welcomes Tracey Pool as the new general manager. Pool has worked within Hyatt Regency since the start of her career and brings 35 years of hospitality experience to her new role. Most recently, she served as general manager at Hyatt Regency Boston Harbor. Prior to that, Pool was the general manager at the Hyatt Regency Dulles and Hyatt Centric The Pike Long Beach. Pool has held positions in the rooms division for Hyatt Regency Denver, Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Los Angeles, Hyatt Centric Arlington and Hyatt Regency Baltimore, where she was Rooms Director from 2005-2007. Her first position with Hyatt was as the PBX operator overseeing the telephone switch system at Hyatt Regency Bethesda. Pool studied Hospitality and Psychology at Howard University. She serves as a board member with Maryland Hotel Lodging Association (MHLA) and Visit Baltimore and served as a board member with the Massachusetts Lodging Association. She is also a certified tutor with Literacy Volunteers & Advocates in DC. Supplier News 12 May 2021 Event Temple, the award-winning hotel sales and event management software company, is proud to announce that it has entered into a Qualified Vendor Agreement with Choice Hotels Canada. Choice Hotels Canada is one of the largest and most successful lodging franchisors in Canada, with more than 350 properties currently open or under development. The Choice family of hotel brands provide business and leisure travelers with a range of high-quality lodging options, including limited to full-service hotels in the upscale, mid-scale, extended stay and economy segments. The agreement will give Choice Hotels Canada franchisees access to exclusive pricing and packages for Event Temple's products and services. "We are excited to be a Qualified Vendor for Choice Hotels Canada," said Bob Graham, Event Temple CEO, "After a thorough evaluation and vetting process, it became evident that Event Temple and Choice Hotels Canada have clear alignment on hospitality sales strategies and how leveraging technology can help achieve those goals." "As the industry heads into recovery, we know that we are going to see an increase in competition for the available market share," Graham continued, "Proactive sales teams who are currently hunting for business and building relationships are going to see the greatest success. Our goal at Event Temple is to support these hotel sales teams by providing them with the sales education and technology necessary to thrive in 2021 and beyond." Choice Hotels Canada franchisees who choose to use Event Temple will be able to use the Sales CRM and Event Management platform as a tool to bridge the gap between digital and traditional sales tactics. "Choice Hotels Canada and Event Temple are both Canadian-based companies," said Graham, "Our country, like everywhere else in the world, has struggled this past year. We're thrilled to team up with Choice Hotels Canada to play our part to assist the Canadian hospitality industry as we head towards economic recovery." All Choice Hotels Canada franchisees qualify for the exclusive pricing and packages and can request a live demo of Event Temple here. About Event Temple Event Temple is a modern Hotel and Venue Sales and Catering software company that provides the industry with an easy to use, integrated solution at an affordable price. The scalable enterprise software is ideal for hotels with no meeting spaces all the way to entire hotel chains. Event Temple helps drive revenue growth while boosting efficiency by providing properties with sales enablement tools including prospecting and lead management, e-proposals and contracts, digital signatures, and group sales management all in one, intuitive platform. Event Temple is the industry's fastest growing Hospitality Sales and Catering CRM, with thousands of users in over 25 countries. Supplier News 12 May 2021 OTA Insight empowers hoteliers to make smarter revenue and distribution decisions through its market-leading suite of cloud-based business intelligence solutions including Market Insight, Rate Insight, Parity Insight and Revenue Insight. With live updates, 24/7 support from our customer success team, and a highly intuitive and customisable dashboard, the OTA Insight platform integrates with other industry tools including hotel property management systems, leading RMS solutions and data benchmarking providers. OTA Insight's team of international experts are based all over the world, including the UK, US, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Singapore, Australia and India, and supports more than 50,000 properties in 168 countries. Named the UK's 17th fastest-growing private technology company in the Sunday Times Hiscox Tech Track 100 in 2019, Number 103 in the FT/Statista list of Europe's 1000 fastest growing companies in 2020, Best Rate Shopping & Market Intelligence Solution in the 2020 HotelTechAwards, and Number 38 in the Sunday Times Sage Tech Track 100, OTA Insight is widely recognised as a leader in hospitality business intelligence. For more information, visit www.otainsight.com and follow us on Twitter (@otainsight) and LinkedIn. About The Revenuemanager LIVE Series Based on the success of FunnelTV's Marketplace, Hospitality Net and FunnelTV are teaming up in 2021 to launch a bi-weekly series of live streaming events exclusively covering revenue management and digital marketing in hospitality. Started in April 2021, The Revenuemanager events serve as a platform for smart insights and transformative debate as we navigate a brand-new, re-invention environment for the global hotel industry. For more information and full episode recordings visit www.hospitalitynet.org/trm. Opinion Article 12 May 2021 Unlike a cream cake, sticky pudding or fancy meringue, travel cakes have to do what is says on the tin: be able to move smoothly from A to B and remain delicious. Why this type of "on-the-go", fuss-free dessert is here to stay and is surely becoming the new buzzword amongst pastry chefs and food businesses alike. Advertisements A fuss-free cake rooted in history What the French elegantly refer to as a "gateau de voyage", the Brits might just call a nice slice of "teacake" or the Italians a "torta". Admittedly, the French version sounds more refined and exciting, probably due to the cake's regal history. In 17th century France, the Marquise de Sevigne would travel several times a year between Brittany and the Palace of Versailles; she asked her pastry chef to prepare cakes that could be stored over time and be easy to eat during the week-long journey. Since then, many familiar cake favorites actually come under this "travel cake" umbrella term; think of the ubiquitous brownie, carrot cake and banana bread. They all share the same basic principles: staple store cupboard ingredients, a good shelf life of up to two weeks at room temperature, easy to cut, package and consume on the hop, good for sharing among a group, great for long journeys. No fuss, no cream, not too greasy or crumbly but definitely sweet, indulgent and delicious. The idea of a picnic, boat trip, train ride or car journey suddenly seems ridiculous without one. They make great snacks, and even better gifts. A sure trend for pastry chefs and brands The appeal of these ubiquitous treats surely did not go unnoticed amongst seasoned pastry chefs and brands around the world. Take globally acclaimed French pastry chef and Plaza Athenee alum Christophe Michalak and his revisited Sachertorte for Maison du Chocolat or famous Japanese chocolate master Susumu Koyama, "patisserie" chefs are betting on revisiting these nomadic creations. The challenge? Adapting the staple recipes and tapping into their long-conservation, easy-to-carry qualities, while not compromising on creativity and using excellent, sometimes surprising ingredients. The now cult Ispahan Cake from Pierre Herme is a perfect example of that: the traditional almond pound cake is elevated with Rose macaron biscuit, rose petal cream, whole raspberries, litchis. As per the brand's website's itself perfectly describes it: "More than a cake, this creation is sheer happiness. Bliss from the first bite." Capitalizing on the success the the original pound cake, the brand is now looking into variations of the Ispahan with a newly-launched Ispahan rum-baba. What's next? As put by pastry chef Vinesh Johny, Co-founder and Chef at the Lavonne Cafe in Bangalore, India: "The Covid era has sure taught us all a lot. Off the many lessons learned, we can all be certain that delivery only/cloud kitchens are here to stay. Getting the food to the customer most effectively at its right temperature and minimal damage is what's most critical for food businesses. Therefore, I'm certain that future desserts will have to be travel-friendly and portable such that, by the time your cake travels all the way from your restaurant to your customer, it's still in one piece with its garnish unshaken. Travel-friendly/Portable/ Mobile/To-go Desserts will soon be the buzzword". Simplicity & perfect execution Meilleur Ouvrier de France in Pastry and Candy Making, Julien Boutonnet is no stranger to the trend and has been teaching "gateaux de voyage" techniques to countless student as a lecturer in practical arts at EHL. Conscious to pass on the endless potential at hand to his students, he even started a baking competition among Preparatory Year students to produce the most original recipe: the monthly "Bake Off" stimulates students to think creatively and with a workshop spirit to produce cakes that are both totally delicious and Instagrammable. For Boutonnet, the beauty of the "gateau de voyage" relies in the simplicity of its execution - to bake these different cakes, it is unnecessary to use specific molds or materials. Perfect designs can be obtained by playing with different textures and layers: from biscuit to shortbread, adding a balanced combination of fruits and coulis and finishing it up with the perfect piping on top is what makes for a delicious, indulgent and timeless piece. The Chef has recently embarked into sharing his wisdom and know-how with fellow pastry chefs during workshops dedicated to the trendy cakes: for two days niched in the scenic Swiss Alps, Boutonnet shares his experience and vision while developing and exploring various flavors with his students. Opinion Article 12 May 2021 Hotel History: Hotel Theresa, The Waldorf of Harlem (300 rooms) Advertisements On September 18, 1960, four months before the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, Fidel Castro arrived in New York City for the 15th session of the United Nations General Assembly. He and his staff first checked into the Shelburne Hotel at Lexington Avenue and 37th Street. When the Shelburne demanded $10,000 for alleged damage that included cooking chickens in their rooms, the Castro entourage moved to the Hotel Theresa in Harlem. Castros group rented eighty rooms for a total of $800 per day. The Theresa was the beneficiary of worldwide publicity when Nikita Khrushchev, the premier of the Soviet Union, General Abdul Nasser, president of Egypt, Jawaharlal Nehru, the prime minister of India, and Malcom X, all visited Castro there. In the longest speech ever delivered at the United Nations, Castro transitioned seamlessly from his hotel experience to the discrimination faced by North American blacks to the broader evils of imperialist financial capital and the colonial yoke. At the end of 1960, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy made a campaign stop at the Hotel Theresa with Jacqueline Kennedy, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Senator Herbert Lehman, Governor Averill Harriman, Mayor Robert Wagner and Eleanor Roosevelt. I am delighted to come and visit, said Kennedy. Behind the fact of Castro coming to this hotel, Khrushchev coming to visit Castro, there is another great traveler in the world, and that is the travel of a world revolution, a world in turmoil. I am delighted to come to Harlem and I think the whole world should come here and the whole world should recognize that we all live right next to each other, whether here in Harlem or on the other side of globe. The Hotel Theresa opened in 1913 on 125th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem and closed its doors as a hotel in 1970. It was built by German-born stockbroker Gustavus Sidenberg and named for his recently-deceased wife. Coincidentally, Sidenbergs second wife was also named Theresa. Architects George and Edward Blum were trained at the famous Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and they designed a full-blockfront all-white apartment hotel, 13 stories high with 300 guestrooms. Like its facade, the newly-opened Hotel Theresa had an all-white clientele and staff for its first twenty-eight years. In 1940, reflecting the changing population of Harlem, the hotel was acquired by Love B. Woods, an African American businessman who accepted all races, hired a black staff and management. The Hotel Theresa was integrated when most mid-Manhattan hotels wouldnt accept Blacks. They could perform at the clubs, hotels and theaters in mid-Manhattan but couldnt sleep in the hotel rooms or eat in their restaurants. Black Americas most famous stars: Josephine Baker, Ray Charles, Jimi Hendrix, Louis Armstrong, Dorothy Dandridge, Duke Ellington, Nat King Cole, Lena Horne and Count Basie had to go to Harlem for a nights sleep. For many blacks the existence of the Hotel Theresas luxurious rooms, bars and swank shops was regarded as a sign that they had finally arrived, at least in Harlem. The hotel became known as the Waldorf of Harlem. Seventh Avenue and 125th Street was called the Great Black Way. The neighborhood contained the Salem Methodist Church; the studio of James Van Der Zee, Harlems most famous photographer; the African Memorial National Bookstore; the mafia-owned Diamond Jewelry Store; the M. Smith Photo Studio; the Apollo Theater; Blumsteins Department Store; Franks Restaurant; Harlem Opera House; Oscar Hammersteins Play House; Hartz and Seamons Music Hall; the Cotton Club; Mikes Place; Savoy Ballroom; Nest Club; Smalls Paradise and The Club Baron. In 1940, the following announcement appeared in the New York Age: Harlem Hotel Seeks Negro Trade; Picks Manager: The Hotel Theresa at Seventh Avenue and 125th Street, which catered to white patronage for several years, has changed its policy as of March 20 and will cater to both races, under Negro management with a Negro staff, according to an announcement by Richard Thomas, publicity manager of the hotel. In carrying out its new policy for the accommodation of Negroes and whites, the Gresham Management Company, operators of the Theresa, appointed Walter Scott as the hotels manager. Extensive renovations and improvements of the service and facilities of the hotel have been undertaken. A staff of 80 persons has been employed. The African American General Manager Walter Scott had been the business manager at the Harlem YMCA on 135th Street. A graduate of New York University and a World War I veteran, Scott had worked as a bellhop and waiter on the Hudson River Dayline boats. Early in April 1940, Scott and his wife Gertrude and their sixteen year-old daughter, Gladys moved into a six-room suite on the tenth floor. In 1941, heavyweight champion Joe Louis attracted 10,000 fans when he stayed at the Hotel Theresa after a victory at the Polo Grounds. Soon thereafter, entrepreneur John H. Johnson was a guest at the Theresa when he started a new pocket-size magazine called Negro Digest and, in 1945, Ebony which was followed by Jet in 1951. After splitting with the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X rented offices at the hotel for his Organization of Afro-American Unity. In 1948, when GM Walter Scott resigned because of illness, Gresham Management hired William Harmon Brown as resident manager. Brown graduated from Howard University where he had earned a National Youth Administration scholarship, funded by a New Deal program. President Bill Clintons commerce secretary Ron Brown, the managers son, grew up in the hotel. U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel (D. New York) once worked there as a desk clerk. Earlier in 2016 Congressman Rangel retired after serving in the U.S. Congress from 1971-2016. In 1971, the hotel was converted to an office building with the name Theresa Towers and was declared a landmark in 1993 by New Yorks Landmark Preservation Commission. My Newest Book Great American Hotel Architects Volume 2 was published in 2020. All of my following books can be ordered from AuthorHouse by visiting www.stanleyturkel.com and clicking on the books title. Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2009) Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels in New York (2011) Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels East of the Mississippi (2013) Hotel Mavens: Lucius M. Boomer, George C. Boldt, Oscar of the Waldorf (2014) Great American Hoteliers Volume 2: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry (2016) Built To Last: 100+ Year-Old Hotels West of the Mississippi (2017) Hotel Mavens Volume 2: Henry Morrison Flagler, Henry Bradley Plant, Carl Graham Fisher (2018) Great American Hotel Architects Volume I (2019) Hotel Mavens: Volume 3: Bob and Larry Tisch, Ralph Hitz, Cesar Ritz, Curt Strand (2020) If You Need an Expert Witness : For the past twenty-seven years, I have served as an expert witness in more than 42 hotel-related cases. My extensive hotel operating experience is beneficial in cases involving: slip and fall accidents wrongful deaths fire and carbon monoxide injuries hotel security issues dram shop requirements hurricane damage and/or business interruption cases Feel free to call me at no charge on 917-628-8549 to discuss any hotel-related expert witness assignment. Moody's Investors Service Senior Vice President Christian de Guzman / Yonhap By Park Jae-hyuk Moody's Investors Service mentioned a "historically" high government debt burden and derailed progress toward peace on the Korean Peninsula as the major risks to Korea's sovereign credit rating, which has stayed at "Aa2" with a stable outlook. "The medium-term fiscal outlook does not indicate an imminent return to balanced budgets," Moody's Senior Vice President Christian de Guzman said in an online press conference, Wednesday. "The government projects consolidated fiscal deficits to narrow only gradually to around 4 percent of GDP by 2024. That means government debt could climb to 60 percent of GDP by 2024." The sovereign risk analyst noted that rising government debt will test the country's long-established track record of fiscal discipline. He also mentioned that "susceptibility to event risk" remains as the overall constraining factor, saying that geopolitical risk is still weakening Korea's credit profile. "Early progress towards denuclearization and economic cooperation has stalled," he said. "There is also some uncertainty with regards to the upcoming presidential election that is scheduled for next May. The Moon administration will likely seek to rekindle the peace talks, but the prospects for meaningful progress remain slim." The global ratings agency, however, expressed an optimistic outlook about the potential of the Korean economy, projecting that the country's GDP will rebound by 3.5 percent this year. "This year is going to see the fastest growth since the rebound from the global financial crisis," Guzman said. "Korea's GDP contracted 1 percent in 2020, outperforming most of its similarly rated, advanced economy peers." In response to the agency's analysis, the Ministry of Economy and Finance emphasized the fact that Korea's sovereign credit rating is the second-highest of all the Asian countries, following Singapore, with its Aaa rating. The ministry vowed to make efforts to achieve fiscal stabilization through legislating fiscal discipline in cooperation with the National Assembly. During the press conference, Moody's also mentioned challenges facing Korean banks and life insurers. Moody's Assistant Vice President Ok Tae-jong said that financial regulations and rising household debt can be long-term risk factors for local lenders, although most of their credit outlooks remain "stable." Analyst Young Kim mentioned changes in life insurance companies' asset mixes as a key credit risk to them. NEW YORK (AP) A cyberattack on a critical U.S. pipeline is sending ripple effects across the economy, highlighting cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the nation's aging energy infrastructure. The Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel used along the Eastern Seaboard, shut down Friday after a ransomware attack by gang of criminal hackers that calls itself DarkSide. Depending on how long the shutdown lasts, the incident could impact millions of consumers. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COLONIAL PIPELINE? Colonial Pipeline, the owner, halted all pipeline operations over the weekend, forcing what the company called a precautionary shutdown. U.S. officials said Monday that the ransomware malware used in the attack didnt spread to the critical systems that control the pipelines operation. But the mere fact that it could have done so alarmed outside security experts. WILL THERE BE GASOLINE SHORTAGES? It depends on how long the shutdown lasts. Colonial said it's likely to restore service on the majority of its pipeline by Friday. Theres no imminent shortfall, and thus no need to panic buy gasoline, said Richard Joswick, head of global oil analytics at S&P Global Platts. If the pipeline is restored by Friday, there wont be much of an issue. If it does drag on for two weeks, its a problem, Joswick added. Youd wind up with price spikes and probably some service stations getting low on supply. And panic buying just makes it worse. SO WHATS HAPPENING WITH GASOLINE PRICES? The average gasoline price jumped six cents to $2.96 over the past week, and its expected to continue climbing because of the pipeline closure, according to AAA. Mississippi, Tennessee and the East Coast from Georgia to Delaware are the most likely to experience limited fuel availability and higher prices, and if the national average rises by three more cents, these would be the highest prices since November 2014, according to AAA. WHATS RANSOMWARE AGAIN? Ransomware scrambles data that can only be decoded with a software key after the victim pays off the criminal perpetrators. An epidemic of ransomware attacks has gotten so bad that Biden administration officials recently deemed them a national security threat. Hospitals, schools, police departments and state and local governments are regularly hit. Ransomware attacks are difficult to stop in part because theyre usually launched by criminal syndicates that enjoy safe harbor abroad, mostly in former Soviet states. WHO IS BEHIND THE ATTACK AND WHAT MOTIVATES THEM? The hackers are Russian speakers from DarkSide, one of dozens of ransomware gangs that specialize in double extortion, in which the criminals steal an organizations data before encrypting it. They then threaten to dump that data online if the victim doesnt pay up, creating a second disincentive to trying to recover without paying. Ransomware gangs say they are motivated only by profit. Colonial has not said how much ransom s. WHY WASNT COLONIAL ABLE TO PREVENT OR CONTAIN THE ATTACK? Neither Colonial nor federal officials have explained how the attackers breached the companys network and went undetected. Cybersecurity experts believe that Colonial may not have employed state-of-the-art defenses, in which software agents actively monitor networks for anomalies and are programmed to detect known threats such as DarkSides infiltration tools. WHAT DOES COLONIAL NEED TO RESTORE ITS NETWORK AND HOW LONG WILL THAT TAKE? That depends on how extensively Colonial was infected, whether it paid the ransom and, if it did, when it got the software decryption key. The decryption process could take several days at least, experts say. Colonial has not responded to questions on these issues, although it said only its IT network was affected. DO PIPELINES FACE A GREATER RISK OF RANSOMWARE ATTACKS? They're not necessarily at greater risk, but they do pose unique challenges. The Colonial Pipeline structure is a vast piece of critical infrastructure that provides fuel supply to states along the East Coast. Such a large network is bound to have different control systems along its path where it connects with distributors or customers. Every single time you connect something, you run the risk that youre going to infect something, said Kevin Book, managing director at Clearview Energy Partners. That variability can also make it harder for hackers to know where to find vulnerabilities, he said. Over time, as pipelines expand, companies can end up with a mix of technology some parts built within the company and others brought in from outside, said Peter McNally, global sector lead at Third Bridge. Many large energy companies have been under pressure from investors to limit reinvestment in such assets, which can be decades old, he added. That can be a problem when dealing with modern criminals. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has established and enforced mandatory cybersecurity standards for the bulk electric system, but there are no comparable standards for the nearly 3 million miles of natural gas, oil and hazardous liquid pipelines that traverse the United States. Simply encouraging pipelines to voluntarily adopt best practices is an inadequate response to the ever-increasing number and sophistication of malevolent cyber actors, said Richard Glick, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Democratic Commissioner Allison Clements, in a joint statement. They called for the U.S. to establish mandatory pipeline security standards. WHAT CAN BE DONE TO HALT RANSOMWARE ATTACKS? Previous attempts to put ransomware operators out of business by attacking their online infrastructure have amounted to internet whack-a-mole. The U.S. Cyber Command, Microsoft and cross-Atlantic police efforts with European partners have only been able to put a temporary dent in the problem. Last month, a public-private task force including Microsoft, Amazon the FBI and the Secret Service gave the White House an 81-page urgent action plan that said considerable progress could be possible in a year if a concerted effort is mounted with U.S. allies, who are also under withering attack. Some experts advocate banning ransom payments. The FBI discourages payment, but the task force said a ban would be a mistake as long as many potential targets remain woefully unprepared, apt to go bankrupt if they cant pay. Neuberger said Monday that sometimes companies have no real choice but to pay a ransom. The task force said ransomware actors need to be named and shamed and the governments that harbor them punished. It calls for mandatory disclosure of ransom payments and the creation of a federal response fund to provide financial assistance to victims in hopes that, in many cases, it will prevent them from paying ransoms. ___ Bajak reported from Boston. AP Writer Matthew Daly contributed from Washington. Texans are learning the age-old lesson you get what you pay for. As journalists dig into the data--because the governments have not done it so farwe are learning how an under-funded, toothless electric grid manager likely made the February Freeze more deadly and cost Texas consumers billions of dollars in unnecessary bills. My friends Russell Gold and Katherine Blunt at the Wall Street Journal went through the non-profit Electric Reliability Council of Texass logs. They discovered operators implemented a half-baked protocol and cut power to major industrial users to stabilize the grid. Called a demand response program, ERCOT pays the industrial users for the privilege of blacking them out when supply is tight. I call the program half-baked because ERCOT did not know which industries they were blacking out. Oil and natural gas producers are among the biggest electricity users in Texas, and guess what we really, really need to keep our houses warm during a deep freeze? Natural gas. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Texas blackout raises many questions, but the answers are difficult Texas is the nations proud leader in renewable energy, and we have our share of coal-fired power plants. But when electricity demand peaks, natural gas comes to the rescue. So, what on earth led ERCOT to think paying natural gas producers to go offline in an emergency was a good idea? We do not know what type of facility it is, Kenan Ogelman, Ercots vice president of commercial operations, told the Journal. ERCOT did not intentionally pay natural gas companies to stop sending fuel to the states power plants during a blackout. The grids managers just didnt know what they were doing. During the blackout, former ERCOT CEO Bill Magness tried to explain to an angry public how his quasi-governmental organization is just an air traffic controller for electricity. The Texas Legislature does not authorize it to enforce reliability standards or tell companies what to do. Low regulation was the calling card of former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who oversaw the transition from a traditional electric utility system to the competitive wholesale market we have today. Texass conservative philosophy expects competition to sort everything out. ERCOTs primary job is to manage an algorithm that raises and lowers electricity prices based on supply and demand. Customers only pay when they need and get power from private companies. When we need electricity the most, the price skyrockets, and for most generators, those handfuls of hours every year are when they make their profits. The Texas Legislature felt sure that the opportunity to make $9,000 a megawatt-hour during a crisis would incentivize generators to spend tens of millions on weatherization. Some call it the free market at work. Others call it price-gouging. Either way, it didnt work. Generators were unprepared for the freeze and went offline, yet ERCOT kept banging its collective head against that wall. Even while it was paying $2 billion for companies, including natural gas producers, to remain blacked out, ERCOT kept the price at $9,000 a megawatt-hour even though generators couldnt get enough gas to restart. Not all Texans were blacked out, though, and electricity retailers, co-ops and municipal utilities ran up huge bills. ERCOTs managers, with one of Gov. Greg Abbotts aides in the room, still overrode the algorithm to keep the prices high. The independent market monitor, whose job is to make sure ERCOT and generators play fair, figures ERCOTs decision to keep prices artificially escalated cost Texas consumers $16 billion in over-charges. When the Texas Senate tried to claw that back, House Speaker Dade Phelan put the kibosh on it. Of course, cutting power to natural gas producers also created a natural gas shortage, sending the price from $3 for a million British Thermal Units to $400. Natural gas companies and pipeline operators that stayed online made more than $4 billion in extra profits. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Texas electric grid is an easy fix, if lawmakers will admit their error Municipal and co-op gas and electric utilities are in dire financial trouble. Some like San Antonios CPS is suing to avoid paying the overcharges. To sum up, millions of Texans spent days without power on the coldest nights in a generation and will likely end up overpaying more than $20 billion for the privilege by the time all is said and done. We are paying for our leaders decision to withhold regulatory authority from state agencies and underfund their ability to ensure a coordinated energy supply chain. A few weeks after the Texas Blackout, I wrote that we needed time to investigate why ERCOT ordered blackouts that lasted days and left nearly 200 people dead, according to a Houston Chronicle accounting. The picture is becoming clearer, though there are probably more disturbing revelations to come. But as the Texas Legislature moves into its final days, our elected officials are doing nothing to fix the underlying problems. This can happen again. Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and politics. twitter.com/cltomlinson chris.tomlinson@chron.com U.S. crude inventories decreased by 400,000 barrels last week, pushing oil prices up Wednesday. Oil rose this morning, trading at about $66.59 around 9:30 a.m. Central. The nations commercial crude inventories decreased to 484.7 million barrels during the week ended May 7 from 485.1 million barrels the previous week, the Energy Department said Wednesday. COLONIAL PIPELINE: Gulf Coast refiners curtailing output, adjusting to pipeline outage Crude stockpiles are about 2 percent below the five-year average for this time of year, the Energy Department said. Gasoline inventories increased by 400,000 barrels last week and are about 1 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Jet fuel inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels last week as the airline industry continues to battle effects of the pandemic. Refineries took in an average of 15 million barrels a day last week, some 223,000 barrels per day more than the previous period, the Energy Department said. Refineries operated at about 86.1 percent of capacity. Over the past four weeks, refineries have produced 8.9 million barrels a day of gasoline, about 41.3 percent more than during the same period last year, when much of the nation was shut down amid the pandemic. 2 1 of 2 Workman / Workman Show More Show Less 2 of 2 Roger Proulx / Roger Proulx Show More Show Less The plant-based-food movement is gaining ground, even among the staunchest meat-eaters the barbecue community and grilling aficionados. Cookbook author and grilling guru Steven Raichlen makes that point with his new cookbook, How to Grill Vegetables: The New Bible for Barbecuing Vegetables Over Live Fire, a solid case for bringing more vegetables into the fire- and smoke-stoked realm of the backyard grill. In 1922, the now-legendary arts patron Mabel Dodge Luhan invited the British writer D.H. Lawrence to her home in Taos, New Mexico. A decade later, she published a memoir about the visit called Lorenzo in Taos. Rachel Cusks latest novel, Second Place, was inspired by that memoir and written as a tribute to Luhan. One need not be familiar with the first to marvel at the second a brilliant but flawed allegory filled with ravishing descriptions of nature set in an unidentified land after an unspecified global financial collapse that has rendered travel almost impossible. Like Luhans memoir, the novel is also about an intense relationship between two artists, although Cusk has made the Lawrence figure a painter, not a writer. It is narrated by a woman writer identified only as M., addressed to an off-stage character named Jeffers, a reference to the real-life poet Robinson Jeffers, who was part of Mabels circle. Cusks decision to model her book after the earlier work came with risks. On the one hand, it gave her ready-made plot points because of Luhan and Lawrences tempestuous relationship. On the other hand, it also gave her the baggage of a white womans beliefs about Native American culture in the 1920s. Second Place By Rachel Cusk Farrar, Straus and Giroux 192 pages, $25 See More Collapse Thus, M. speaks to Jeffers in an archaic voice, which Cusk renders in the text by using lots of distracting exclamation points. Also, M.s second husband, Tony based on Luhans fourth husband, a Taos Pueblo Indian named Tony is a caricature of a Native wise man, in tune with the rhythms of nature. The story M. recounts to Jeffers relates what happened the summer she invited the painter L. to stay in her guest house the second place of the title on the remote coastal marsh where she lives with Tony; a 21-year-old daughter from her first marriage, Justine; and Justines affected boyfriend, Kurt. M. didnt know L. when she extended the invitation but had been profoundly moved by his paintings 15 years earlier when her first marriage was in crisis. He accepts, then unexpectedly shows up with a stunning young woman named Brett another homage to Lujan, whose circle of friends included the British-born painter Dorothy Brett. Things do not go well, as one might expect when two moody, self-absorbed artists get together. Oddly enough, while Cusk is extraordinarily adept at depicting the shifting alliances among the secondary characters, the relationship at the center of the book between M. and L. never makes much sense. The fact that it doesnt matter is a testament to Cusks astonishing skills as a storyteller and a writer. Ellen DeGeneres is calling it quits. Her long-running syndicated talk show will officially end in 2022 after 19 years. She made the announcement in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter. DeGeneres, 63, and the shows producers have come under fire in recent months after allegations of a toxic workplace. MORE FROM JOY SEWING: Building a home gym has plenty of benefits. Here's how to do it. During the years, DeGeneres has featured a number of Houstonians doing great things, including Jim Mattress Mack McIngvale, whom she gifted $20,000 for his Winter Storm Community Outreach fund in February. DeGeneres show will end shy of Oprah Winfreys show, which had a 25-year run in daytime syndication when it ended in 2011. joy.sewing@chronn.com A pool and two dogs, Jordyn said. The 10-year olds wish list for a forever home sounded simple enough. Finding adoptive parents who fit the bill, however, was much more complicated. But when Jordyn showed up at Jaime and Jon Sonniers home in Houston, one dog greeted them outside as another waited behind the door. A 10-foot stock tank pool stood in the yard. Her brother Jace, 12, could smell cookies baking inside. I had a feeling theyd be good parents, he recalled. I saw the happy expressions on their faces. He hugged Jaime right away. That night, the Sonniers ordered pizza and discussed their options for the weekend - laser tag or the museum. We did rock, paper, scissors, and I won, Jordyn said. I wanted to go to the museum. Jaime suggested they try laser tag the following weekend. Jordyn remembers being happily surprised. We get to come back? she thought. It was a weekend visit in the beginning of February 2019, designed to determine if the siblings and adoptive parents would be a good match. Jaime was nervous, worried that the children might not like the dogs, the house, going to their church on Sundays - not to mention them. Jon was equally concerned. Its like youre trying to get to know each other, he said. Theyve been through a lot. They have walls up. We wanted to give them a glimpse of what it would be like to live with us. But the weekend went without a hitch. On HoustonChronicle.com: Sewing: What the world needs now is more adoptive parents There wasnt any doubt, Jaime said. We all four bonded quickly. And our bond has only grown since then. Its still growing every day. It was the end of a long journey for everyone. Jordyn and Jace had gone from their biological parents to grandparents to a family friend to a group home, followed by a line-up of foster parents who were simply not the right fit. Jordyn explained that at a certain point, she stopped even looking for a new family. You might think that as foster kids, youre always thinking about adoption, she said. For me, that wasnt the case. I just think, Ill stay here, and when I get a call Im going somewhere else, Ill accept it. But Ill cry. Jon and Jaime faced their own challenges finding children to adopt. We got married later in life, in our 40s, Jon said. We tried to have kids, but it just wasnt in the cards for us. The first child they fostered, a newborn baby, returned to her biological parents after three months. We were heartbroken, Jon said. We took a step back. Then, they took a step forward - signing up with Presbyterian Childrens Homes and Services, or PCHAS. Jaime first heard about the organization at First Presbyterian Church of Houston, where she attended services from time to time. They seemed like a really good fit, she recalled. The faith-based organization offers a number of services to both adoptive and biological families - and that appealed to the Sonniers. PCHAS also takes pride in its highly-trained staff that provides individualized care to children and their families. Jon and Jaime knew, especially after the pain of the first fostering experience, that they would need that care, reassurance and assistance in the process. We really needed more support in this journey, Jaime said. On HoustonChronicle.com: More than 10 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. So why don't we talk about it more? A PCHAS caseworker took over - advocating on the couples behalf and identifying children that might be the right fit. Jaime and Jon, who both are close to their own sisters, wanted to adopt siblings and were open to older children. And thats exactly what PCHAS needs: parents willing to adopt siblings and children who are not newborn. Four months after the Sonniers joined PCHAS, they learned about Jordyn and Jace. We ended up with the children were supposed to have, Jaime said. Still, the process was complicated. Adoption is a process of grief, sorrow and joy, she said. PCHAS was there for them every step of the way. And thats their goal, said Michelle Hoevker, the organizations program director for Houston operations. The program has three Houston locations, each with its own focus. The location at 7880 San Felipe in Piney Point Village specializes in foster care and adoption, while their office at Pines Presbyterian Church, 12751 Kimberley Lane near Memorial City, houses a child and family early intervention specialist. At St. Johns Presbyterian Church, at 5020 W. Bellfort Dr., PCHAS maintains a residential campus for single parents as they work toward economic self-sufficiency. Offering as much information as possible to both biological and adoptive parents is key, Hoevker said. Its our responsibility to walk them through that choice, Hoevker said. Its a lifelong decision. Were not here to convince them of adoption. Were there to help them talk more about it. Ultimately, the goal is to make the best decision for the child and themselves, she added. The same is true of foster care and foster-to-adopt programs. PCHAS searches for options that empower foster families and to find forever homes for children. Hoevker said that PCHAS is in need of families for foster care and adoptive parents, as well as donations and volunteers. Not everyone is able to invest in fostering or adopting, but there are so many ways you can make a positive impact if you have a heart to volunteer, Hoevker said. The organization works hand-in-hand with several area churches to provide year-round support to families, she added. For instance, Southminster Presbyterian participates in the groups annual Christmas donation. First Presbyterian Church of Houston provides Thanksgiving dinner to the single parent program, and Spring Branch Presbyterian writes birthday cards for foster care kids each month. PCHAS has a long history, dating back to 1903. In the past, stigma surrounded adoption on all fronts. There really was a stigma surrounding women who were unwed and who were pregnant, Hoevker said. Women would be sent away and have children in secrecy. On HoustonChronicle.com: 'I had cancer, but cancer didn't have me.' How a new procedure helped a Porter woman become cancer-free That was a time of closed adoptions, she explained, when records about biological parents were not shared or even always kept. Women didnt know where their children were placed, Hoevker said. And a child who was adopted didnt know their history. There was a time, when a child started a new chapter and that was it. But you cant erase the past, she explained. Children would grow older and wonder about their biological families and personal histories. Often they felt abandoned by their birth mother, Hoevker added. There might be post-adoption searches and reunions. With more open adoptions, children benefit from knowing their stories, Hoevker explained. We can give answers, before they even become questions, she said. Open adoptions allow biological and adoptive families to maintain a connection. For some, the open adoption is limited and still mediated by the agency, like PCHAS. Other times, both sets of parents deeply connect. The birth parents can share their story, and the adoptive family can share why theyre growing their family, Hoevker said. Its building and maintaining a relationship so everyone is comfortable - and keeping children healthy and safe. The shift required more education about adoption, including changing the language that describes the process. For example, Hoevker said that in the past, giving up a child for adoption was a common phrase. The terms you use can be hurtful. If youre a child that was given up, how does that make you feel? she asked. Instead, recognize that a woman is making an adoption plan. She wants whats best for the child. If positive adoption language is used, children can understand my mother made a plan because she loved me. She put me above herself, Hoevker said. In an open adoption, women with an unplanned pregnancy can choose the adoptive family. Hoevker explained that staff in maternity care ask, When you dream about the life of your child, what does that look like? She said that truly serving parents requires eliminating judgment and facing challenges head-on. Our Christian value is that were looking at the strengths of our clients rather than their problems, Hoevker said. We strive to serve like Jesus. Hoevker explained that by looking toward the future instead of the past, families can find hope. Were not focused on problems, but on solutions, she said. Peoples lives are complicated. They are complex. Its good to have an agency like PCHAS that can help. Jaime Sonnier is grateful that in the adoptive process her children were informed and empowered. We want our kids to own their story, she said. Because we know God has big plans for it. He has big plans for them. Jace has created a term for his new parents - and others who are not biological but still just right. Its Godological, he said. God puts us together. It feels like weve been together forever. Lindsay Peyton is a Houston-based freelance writer. For more information, visit pchas.org A weeks-long search for a missing Houston mother on Tuesday took police to a small man-made lake in a Pearland neighborhood, where divers recovered what is believed to be the woman's submerged SUV with a body inside, according to authorities. Houston Police Commander Kevin Deese said he could not confirm whether the body was Hernandez. He said the identity will be verified and released by the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office. The vehicle, he said, matched the make and model and license plate of Hernandez's vehicle, a black GMC Acadia. Hernandez, 40, has been missing since April 17. On HoustonChronicle.com: Man shot by mother of child outside his Pasadena workplace, police say "Our condolences go out to the family as they go through a painful time of waiting for a positive identification," Deese said. He said he could not comment on whether the unidentified body showed signs of foul play. Deese said police gathered information with the FBI that led them to the small man-made lake in Pearland's Shadow Creek Ranch subdivision. There, near the intersection of Reflection Bay and North Clear Lake, officers found evidence that a vehicle struck a curb and entered the body of water, Deese said. He said the dive team was called and quickly located the vehicle at the bottom of the lake, which ranges in depth from 8 to 15 feet. Deese said the SUV appeared to have been in the water since Hernandez was first reported missing. Officers noted damage on the SUV consistent with striking a curb, Deese said. Investigators believe the crash likely occurred in the early-morning hours, when no one would have heard anything, he said. Pearland police will lead the investigation into the death. More from Julian Gill: Residents of unregulated boarding homes suffer abuse and neglect. New Texas laws may protect them. "We won't definitively say the search for Erica Hernandez is over, because there is a process that still needs to be followed," Deese said. A mother of three, Hernandez worked at Community Health Choice verifying insurance benefits. Her disappearance sparked a massive search effort that included Houston police, the FBI and Texas EquuSearch. Her children have also pleaded for the public's help, passing out flyers and taking on a media blitz for any information that could lead them to her. She is the type of mother who would do anything she can for us, said Briza Armenta, Hernandezs 15-year-old daughter. She said her brothers 3 and 19 feel the same way about their mom. Hannah Dellinger contributed to this report. julian.gill@chron.com BRUSSELS (AP) European companies doing business with Iran could face legal troubles if they have terminated their contracts with Iranian banks or firms solely because of fears about possible U.S. sanctions, according to a legal opinion handed down Wednesday by a top EU court advisor. The case centers around then President Donald Trumps 2018 decision to unilaterally pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear agreement. The move sparked a series of U.S. sanctions, some of them meant to prevent companies from doing business with Iran. To protect European interests and help Irans moribund economy, the EU introduced a blocking statute shielding companies in the 27-nation bloc. However, many big firms do more business in the United States than in Iran and some quickly severed ties rather than risk running afoul of U.S. sanctions. In Germany, Irans Bank Melli launched legal action against Telekom Deutschland after the telecommunications firm ended its contract with the Iranian banks branch in Hamburg without providing a reason. In Wednesdays legal opinion, Advocate General Gerard Hogan said that European companies should justify why they are cutting business ties with Iranian banks and enterprises to prove they aren't simply caving in under the threat of U.S. sanctions. The opinion is nonbinding, but the European Court of Justice often follows such legal guidance and could well do so again when the Luxembourg-based court rules on the case involving Bank Melli, Irans biggest bank, probably in coming months. According to a statement, Hogan considers that it is for Telekom Deutschland to establish that there was an objective reason other than the fact that Bank Melli Iran was subject to primary sanctions which justified the termination of the contracts at issue. Telekom Deutschland says around half its turnover is made in the United States and argues that the EU blocking statute shouldn't stop it terminating a contract without reason. But Hogan says Iranian banks or companies may ask EU national courts to order that such contracts be upheld. WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans dumped GOP Rep. Liz Cheney from her House leadership post Wednesday for her persistent repudiation of Donald Trumps election falsehoods, underscoring the hold the defeated and twice-impeached former president retains on his party. She defiantly insisted shell keep trying to wrench the party away from him and his destructive lies. Meeting behind closed doors, GOP lawmakers needed less than 20 minutes and a voice vote to oust the Wyoming congresswoman from her job as their No. 3 House leader. The banishment, urged by Trump and other top Republicans, showed his ability to upend the careers of antagonists, even those from GOP royalty. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has repeatedly rebuked Trump for his oft-repeated falsehood that his 2020 reelection was fraudulently stolen from him and for his encouragement of supporters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6. On Wednesday she unrepentantly lashed out anew. If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, Im not your person, she told her colleagues before the vote, according to a person who provided her remarks on condition of anonymity. You have plenty of others to choose from. That will be their legacy. Now Playing: House Republicans' removed Rep. Liz Cheney from her GOP leadership post for repeatedly rebuking former President Trump. It's the latest evidence that challenging Trump can be career-threatening for a Republican, even one from party royalty. (May 12) Video: Associated Press Just minutes after she accused her fellow Republicans of dishonestly buttressing Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters at the White House, I dont think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. I think that is all over with. McCarthy spoke a week after Trump released a statement saying, The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE! Cheneys critics say her offense wasnt her view of Trump but her persistence in publicly expressing it, undermining the unity they want party leaders to display in advance of next years elections, when they hope to win House control. Several also say GOP voters' allegiance to Trump means the party's electoral prospects without him would be dismal. Cheney's ouster effectively means the GOP is setting a remarkable requirement for admission to its highest ranks: adherence to, or at least silence about, Trumps fallacious claim about widespread voting fraud. In states around the country, officials and judges of both parties found no evidence to support his assertions. Cheney, 54, would seem to have an uphill climb in her quest to redirect the GOP away from Trump. Now Playing: A combative Rep. Liz Cheney lashed out at leaders of her own Republican Party late Tuesday, accusing former President Donald Trump and his GOP supporters of following a path that would "undermine our democracy." (May 11) Video: Associated Press She's told Republicans she's not quitting Congress and will run for reelection next year, but she will have to survive a near-certain GOP primary challenge from a Trump-recruited opponent. Even if she returns to the House, it is unclear how loud her voice will be inside a party that has all but disowned her. Bring it on," Cheney said of a potential challenge by a Trump ally, in a portion of an interview released by NBC News. And though she has establishment lineage and embraces classical GOP conservative stances, it almost seems the party has evolved out from under her. Polls show Trump's hold is deep and wide on the party's voters. And many of the time-tested conservative views she and her father share including a belief in assertively projecting U.S. military force abroad have lost ground to Trump's inward-focused America First agenda. Cheney showed no signs of being bashful about her mission. Outside the GOP meeting, she told reporters that the country needs a Republican Party "that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism, and I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that thats how this party goes forward, and I plan to lead the fight to do that. She added, I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. Wednesday's voice vote by House Republicans means there is no precise way to measure how much support Cheney would have had, though only a handful of GOP colleagues have spoken out on her behalf. What happened today was sad, said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., another Trump critic and one of the few Republicans who have publicly defended her. Liz committed the only sin of being consistent and telling the truth. The truth is that the election was not stolen. Hard-right conservatives, among Cheneys fiercest critics, were exultant. And Trump himself took a sharp-elbowed victory lap, saying, Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country." Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye Liz Cheney, tweeted Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina. You cant have a conference chair who recites Democrat talking points, said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a conservative leader using the formal title for Cheneys former post. As if to underscore Jordans contention, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said: Congresswoman Liz Cheney is a leader of great courage, patriotism and integrity. Today, House Republicans declared that those values are unwelcome in the Republican Party. But President Joe Biden deflected an opportunity to comment on the matter, telling MSNBC, I have enough trouble figuring out my own party all the time, let alone Republicans. Participants said Cheney received a polite standing ovation after her remarks inside Wednesdays meeting. Then she had to endure what Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said was a deafening voice vote to topple her. Her replacement in the partys House leadership is expected to be Rep. Elise Stefanik of upstate New York, who entered the House in 2015 at age 30, then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Stefanik owns a more moderate voting record than Cheney but has evolved into a vigorous Trump defender whos echoed some of his claims about widespread election cheating. Some of Washingtons hardest-right conservatives have remained wary of Stefaniks moderate record, but no challenger has emerged. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said the vote on replacing Cheney will occur Friday. Cheney arrived in Congress in 2017, and by November 2018 was elected to her leadership job unopposed. Her career path seemed to potentially include runs at becoming speaker, senator or even president. She occasionally clashed with Trump during his presidency over issues like the U.S. withdrawal from Syria. But virtually open warfare between the two commenced in January once she became one of 10 House Republicans to back his second impeachment for inciting his supporters deadly Capitol assault. The Senate acquitted him. Cheney withstood a February effort to boot her from leadership in a 145-61 secret ballot, with a McCarthy speech on her behalf credited with saving her. That didn't happen this time. ___ AP reporter Jill Colvin contributed to this report. Hikers walk along Route 20 of Jeju Olle Trail near Gimnyeong Beach. Courtesy of the Jeju Olle Foundation By Jun Ji-hye The Jeju Olle Foundation has launched a weekly guided walk program called, "Wander Jeju on Foot," for foreign visitors to Korea's southern resort island of Jeju. The program, which is available in May and June, is designed to guide first-time hikers along Jeju's Olle Trail, a 425-kilometer footpath that runs along the coasts of Jeju and consists of 26 routes. While hiking on specially-selected sections, participants can obtain useful tips for exploring the trail and interesting information about Jeju Island from experienced and trained English-speaking trail guides affiliated with the Jeju Olle Foundation. The program has two itinerary options that are repeated on a biweekly basis. Program A introduces walkers to Jeju Olle Route 10, the most beloved route by both domestic and foreign hikers. Starting from Hwasun's Golden Sand Beach, along the southwestern coast of the island, the day hike traces the coastline westward, which has geologically unique features, such as the layered sedimentary rock cliffs of the Yongmeori Coast and the two volcanic craters at Mount Songak. Route 10 ends at the former Altteureu Airfield, where the scars of Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of Korea still remain. Program B reveals the serenity of the rural landscape in northeastern Jeju. Walking along the first half of Jeju Olle Route 19 in the morning, participants can encounter turquoise waters at the two neighboring coastal villages of Jocheon and Hamdeok. In the afternoon, the tourists will move to Seongsan to visit the renowned Seongsan Ilchulbong, or Sunrise Peak, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. Then a short walk on Route 1 is left to finish the day out at Gwangchigi Beach. Program B includes spots for those who want to experience both Jeju's natural and touristic parts. Hikers walk along Route 10 of Jeju Olle Trail near Sagye Beach. Courtesy of the Jeju Olle Foundation BOISE, Idaho (AP) Gov. Brad Little on Tuesday announced he's ending Idahos participation in all federal coronavirus pandemic unemployment compensation programs so that employers can get workers back on the job. The Republican governor said that three programs will end June 19. The programs include a weekly supplement of $300, unemployment help for the self-employed, and an emergency program that extended benefits when regular benefits ended. Employers are telling me one of the big reasons they cannot recruit and retain some workers is because those employees are receiving more on unemployment than they would while working, Little said in a statement. My decision is based on a fundamental conservative principle we do not want people on unemployment. We want people working. A strong economy cannot exist without workers returning to a job. The state unemployment rate in March was 3.2%, according to the Idaho Department of Labor. The rate was 2.7% in March of last year, but jumped to 11.6% in April after the coronavirus pandemic reached Idaho. Mississippi will also stop accepting the weekly $300 supplemental unemployment benefits next month, and a handful of other states have similar plans. The Idaho Chamber Alliance, representing chambers across the state, supports the decision. "We feel that this is an important next step to helping businesses recover and we look forward to working with the Governors Office as we seek ways to improve workforce availability for Idahos businesses, Chip Schwarze, chairman of the Idaho Chamber Alliance, said in a statement. Besides ending the three federal unemployment programs, the state in April reinstated a work search requirement, meaning those out of work and collecting unemployment benefits must look for full-time employment. That requirement had been lifted during the pandemic. Idahos minimum wage is $7.25, which adds up to $290 for a 40-hour week before taxes are taken out. Labor experts say the shortage on a national level is not just about the $300 unemployment payment. Some unemployed people also have been reluctant to look for work because they fear catching the virus. Others have found new occupations rather than return to their old jobs. And many women, especially working mothers, have had to leave the workforce to care for children. About 190,000 Idaho residents have been infected with the virus and more than 2,000 have died, according to the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. But infections and deaths have been falling as more residents are vaccinated. State officials say that 540,000 of Idaho's 1.8 million residents are fully vaccinated, and about another 84,000 people having received the first dose of vaccines requiring two doses. Anyone 16 and older can get vaccinated in Idaho. ATHENS, Greece (AP) Greece reopened primary schools and junior highs for in-person classes Monday for the first time in months, as the country eases coronavirus restrictions even as daily infections and deaths remain stubbornly high. Greek courts also restarted many activities, with civil courts reopening to all cases and criminal courts now hearing cases involving defendants in custody and any cases reaching the statute of limitations next year. Long lines developed outside the courthouse in the northern city of Thessaloniki as lawyers, witnesses, defendants and court staff arrived. Limits have been placed on the number of people inside each courtroom, forcing authorities to adapt. Greece has been under coronavirus-related restrictions since early November, but has gradually begun easing the measures as it gears up for the vital summer tourist season. Restaurants, bars and cafes opened last week for outdoor service for the first time since November, while retail stores have also reopened on an appointment basis. The gradual reopening comes despite new infections and COVID-19 deaths remaining high, straining Greeces health system and putting intensive care units near capacity. The country of nearly 11 million people has seen over 11,000 deaths, and 60 new deaths were announced Monday. Domestic travel between regions will restart at the end of this week, when museums will also reopen, while open-air movie theaters reopen next week. On May 14, an extremely important step will be taken, both for society and for the economy, with the opening of the tourism sector and the resumption of domestic regional travel, government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni said Monday. The tourism industry is a major revenue source for Greece, and the government is hoping international visitors will help bolster an economy still suffering after a decade-long financial crisis that saw the countrys gross domestic product shrink by a quarter. All school grades are now open in Greece. Students and teachers are required to carry out home COVID-19 tests twice a week and upload the results to be allowed to attend classes in person. The tests are provided free of charge and the same requirement has been extended to workers in several sectors that have reopened. ___ Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Greece, and Srdjan Nedeljkovic and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens contributed. __ Follow more of APs pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic and https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine NEW ORLEANS (AP) A tornado ripped off roofs, knocked down utility polls and cut off power to thousands in New Orleans early Wednesday, but no serious injuries were reported in what one city official called an unexpected dry run for the approaching hrricane season. Wind and driving rain roared through parts of the Louisiana port city around 2 a.m., leaving damage in the Carrollton and Broadmoor neighborhoods of uptown New Orleans and across the Mississippi River in the Algiers Point area. The National Weather Service had issued a warning of a possible tornado as the winds hit. Meteorologists confirmed at an afternoon news conference that they had studied the damage and confirmed it was caused by a tornado and not straight-line winds. The tornado was rated an EF-0" with winds of 85 mph (137 kph). As many as 10,000 people in the city were without power at one point though the number dwindled to less than 2,000 by Wednesday afternoon as debris removal continued amid the whine of chain saws removing downed trees. Officials also reported numerous traffic lights knocked out by the storm. City emergency preparedness director Collin Arnold, speaking at a news conference, called the storm pretty much a dry run for what we are going to face in a few weeks with hurricane season. The season starts June 1. The city news conference was held about a block from where long, twisted sections of metal roofing and pieces of air conditioning equipment littered the yard beneath Sarah Smiths bedroom window. She had watched the debris scatter down from a neighbors higher roof. The storm was loud, she said. And then we saw it all flashing by." A huge oak tree blocked a nearby street. Large tree limbs and downed utility polls lay across damaged automobiles in several other spots and utility crews shored up a power pole dangling over the iron fence of a city cemetery. Gerlie Weinstein watched as she walked her small dog among the tombstones. She said she had slept through the initial roar of the storm but was awakened by a tornado alarm on her phone. Then, a lot of wind. But were used to that, she said. And then the power went out. The New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness activated its emergency operations center to coordinate response efforts, city officials said. More storms were possible around the Deep South later Wednesday, with a marginal risk of severe weather in parts of Georgia and Florida, according to the national Storm Prediction Center. ___ Associated Press writer Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia, contributed to this report. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Erin Baker, University of Massachusetts Amherst and Matthew Lackner, University of Massachusetts Amherst (THE CONVERSATION) The United States offshore wind industry is tiny, with just seven wind turbines operating off Rhode Island and Virginia. The few attempts to build large-scale wind farms like Europes have run into long delays, but that may be about to change. On May 11, 2021, the U.S. government issued the final federal approval for the Vineyard Wind project, a utility-scale wind farm that has been over a decade in the planning. The wind farms developers plan to install 62 giant turbines in the Atlantic Ocean about 15 miles off Marthas Vineyard, Massachusetts, with enough capacity to power 400,000 homes with clean energy. The project is the first approved since the Biden administration announced a goal in March to develop 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind capacity this decade and promised to accelerate the federal review process. To put that goal in perspective, the U.S. has just 42 megawatts today. Vineyard Wind expects to add 800 megawatts in 2023. So, are we finally seeing the launch of a thriving offshore wind industry in the North America? Several wind farm developers already hold leases in prime locations off the Eastern Seaboard, suggesting plenty of interest. As engineering professors leading the Energy Transition Initiative and Wind Energy Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, we have been closely watching the industrys challenges and progress. The process could move quickly once permitting and approvals are on track, but there are still obstacles. Why offshore wind plans stalled under Trump Vineyard Wind had planned to begin construction in 2019, but a ruling by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under the Trump administration stalled it. The ruling cast a shadow over other wind farm plans and hopes for an U.S. offshore wind industry. The agency ruled that the developers needed to address what is called cumulative impacts what the East Coast will look like when there are not one or two, but 20 or 40 large-scale wind farms. That part of the U.S. coast is ideal for wind power because of its wide, shallow shelf and proximity to cities that are looking for renewable electricity to reduce their climate impact. Many researchers studying offshore wind, including some of our colleagues, urge planners to take this perspective. But thinking carefully about a far future with several wind farms does not justify blocking the first utility-scale wind farm now. That first large wind farm will be an opportunity to learn, including about how wind turbines will interact with marine ecosystems. Right now there is almost no data on the impacts of offshore wind on the regions marine wildlife. The knowledge gained will be invaluable in moving forward responsibly. Is fast-tracking federal approvals enough? Speeding up federal approvals for offshore wind farms is an important first step, but those arent the only hurdles for offshore wind farm developers. A large number of state environmental and coastal agencies also must approve offshore wind farm plans, and the communities where cables come ashore have a say. Many of the Northeastern states, including Massachusetts, have their own offshore wind energy goals, so theyre likely to support wind farms. But some wealthy communities and the fishing industry have pushed backon wind power in the past. Vineyard Winds developers worked with community groups and fishermen from the region and agreed to compensate them for potential revenue losses. The federal approval process, even fast-tracked, is also time-consuming. The government conducts reviews and requires site assessment plans, including geological, environmental and hazard surveys. From planning to construction, the entire process can take five to six years or more. Is the US ready to build offshore turbines? Some other big questions revolve around construction. Under a 1920 law known as the Jones Act, only U.S.-registered vessels operated by U.S. citizens or permanent residents can move cargo between U.S. ports. In December 2020, Congress made clear that this law applies to wind turbine construction, too. When companies build offshore wind turbines today, they use special vessels for the installation of the most common offshore turbine designs. The U.S. doesnt have any of these vessels yet, and the Jones Act makes it difficult to rely on vessels from Europe to do the job. There is promise, though: The first U.S.-made version of this vessel is being built in Texas right now. Thats one the country will need several to meet the new goal. A thriving wind power industry will also need ports for storing and deploying the long turbine blades, plus a trained workforce for construction and turbine maintenance. A few coastal states have a head start on this. Massachusetts started laying the groundwork early and already has a port terminal in New Bedford to support the construction and deployment of future offshore wind projects. New Jersey recently announced a plan for a new offshore wind port that will start construction in 2022, and Delaware has been considering one. States are also investing in training. New York state announced a US$20 million offshore wind training institute in January 2021 with the goal of training 2,500 workers. The Biden administration envisions 44,000 people employed in offshore wind by 2030, and many more in communities connected to offshore wind power activity. Costs and benefits of offshore wind In Europe, where many governments have reduced regulatory risks to the industry, the cost of offshore wind energy has come down much faster than experts expected, to around $50 per megawatt-hour. If the Biden administrations new approach allows U.S. wind farms to achieve costs like this, then offshore wind, with its proximity to large urban centers on the East Coast, will be competitive. Its also important to recognize other benefits. Every year of delay for a large-scale wind farm costs the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars in climate benefits. The Biden administration calculates that its new wind power goal would avoid 78 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, roughly equivalent to taking 17 million cars off the road for a year. This article updates a version published March 31, 2021. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/us-approves-its-first-big-offshore-wind-farm-near-marthas-vineyard-its-a-breakthrough-for-the-industry-160747. Social conservatives have plenty to cheer about as this years legislative session hurtles through its final weeks. Everyone else? Well, not so much. This could have been a session devoted to serious business, in which Republicans and Democrats came together to work on the big-picture issues that will determine the future viability of the state: infrastructure, education, public health. Instead, its turned into a bit of a free-for-all, as the Republicans who control both chambers jostle for position in forthcoming GOP primaries and pursue pet projects. Many Texans may be surprised over the coming weeks to discover what lawmakers prioritized this year. Take Senate Bill 8 a measure that would ban abortions after the six-week mark, which passed the Texas Legislature last week and is now headed to Gov. Greg Abbotts desk. This bill specifically is designed to attempt to evade review from the court system and frankly, its one that has us nervous, Drucilla Tigner, a policy and advocacy strategist for the ACLU of Texas, told me. If the bill is signed, Tigner explained, organizations such as the ACLU will challenge it in court before it takes effect. But even if the challenge is successful, such a law would nonetheless have a chilling effect on practitioners across the state, many of whom may be reluctant to provide abortions before the legal questions are fully resolved. And challenging the law in court, Tigner continued, will be trickier than it looks. SB8 would prevent the state from enforcing the ban, instead leaving that task to individuals a novel mechanism that could thwart pre-enforcement challenges and definitely complicates them. The question is, who do you sue to enjoin the law? asked Tigner. A genuine question, not a rhetorical one, that litigators are still puzzling over. And, in the meantime, advocates for abortion rights are hoping that Texans take the present threat seriously, rather than assuming the courts will clean up the Legislatures mess. In fact, advocates on an array of issues are disheartened by both the progress that hard-right Republicans have made, and the relatively muted response from the general public. GOP lawmakers are already taking a bit of a victory lap. The Texas House is about to have the most Conservative 48-hours in the chambers history as we prepare to debate strong measures on pro-life, camping bans, public safety, and election integrity, the GOP caucus tweeted on May 5, before delivering as promised. In a tweet on Saturday Abbott, also a Republican, ticked off the results on his personal Twitter feed: In 48 hours, the Texas House voted to: * Defund cities that defund police * Ban abortion at detection of heartbeat * Slash STAAR test requirements * Ban homeless camping statewide * Penalize protesters blocking roads * Ensure election integrity easy to vote, hard to cheat. Good things to brag about in a statewide primary or a presidential one, perhaps. Since then, Republicans have tackled even more of the issues you may have heard about on Fox News lately. On Tuesday, for example, the House advanced a bill by Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, aimed at preventing Texas teachers from exposing their students to critical race theory. You said in your layout: 'we are a democracy.' But how can you say that when you're literally excluding topics we can talk about in the classroom? asked state Rep. Mary Gonzalez, a Democrat from El Paso who studied critical race theory as part of her doctoral program, during the floor debate. Toth, for his part, had prepared for the debate by circulating a chart of the disturbing rise in suicide rates among children ages 10 to 14, along with a letter dubiously connecting the dots. Race-shaming our kids, due to the color of their skin will only exacerbate a terrible situation, he wrote. To call this the most conservative session of all time might be a stretch, in part because GOP lawmakers are focusing on a subset of their partys usual priorities some of which arent consistent with the version of conservatism most Texans grew up with. For that matter, fiscal conservatives have had a subdued voice. Many self-appointed budget hawks took issue with the state budget passed two years ago, which authorized nearly a quarter-trillion dollars worth of state spending. The budget proposal now being developed is similarly capacious, yet it has attracted very little backlash or attention even from conservatives. But the Legislature has lurched to the right this year: theres no disagreement about that. Its been disappointing to see Republicans devote so much energy to the pursuit of culture-war priorities especially as the state continues to deal with a pandemic that has claimed the lives of 50,000 Texans and the aftermath of Februarys catastrophic power grid breakdown, in which people literally froze to death in their homes. It didnt have to be this way. The 2019 session was a comparatively harmonious and productive affair, by Texas standards. Experts agree the explanation for the shift has to do with politics. In the 2018 midterm elections, Democrats picked up 12 seats in the Texas House and came within striking distance of winning a number of other legislative races enough to tip the balance of power in the lower chamber and, by extension, the entire state. But the Republicans who took the 2018 election results as a wake-up call seem to have taken the 2020 election results Democrats picked up one seat in the House but lost another, for a net gain of zero as a sign that they remain firmly in the drivers seat. The result is that bipartisanship hasnt become a dirty word, but its not something Republican lawmakers feel they need to worry about. So they arent. erica.grieder@chron.com A man was shot and killed early Wednesday at a hotel in Houston's Westchase district, police said. Officers responded sometime before 3:45 a.m. to the Extended Stay America hotel at 3200 West Sam Houston Parkway South where they found a man in his early 20s shot dead in the parking lot, said Sgt. Joshua Horn, HPD homicide detective. Investigators are searching for a newer model black Chevrolet Tahoe with a missing rear license plate, Horn said. A witness saw the car leaving the scene after hearing gunshots. Multiple shell casings were recovered. The victim has not been identified. An investigation is underway. With demand for the COVID-19 vaccine waning across Texas, a slate of new initiatives are being pitched to increase access and incentivize residents to get their shot. In an effort to reduce transportation barriers in underserved communities, Uber will provide 10,000 free rides to vaccine appointments. The effort was announced this week by U.S. Black Chambers, an organization dedicated to supporting and developing African American Chambers of Commerce and Black-owned businesses and enterprises, which is collaborating with the ride share business. On HoustonChronicle.com: Cases are down, but is this herd immunity? Last month, free Uber rides were made available in Houston, Baltimore, Ferguson, Long Island, New Orleans, Oakland and Washington, D.C. Rides are available for small businesses, their employees and their customers until Sept. 30. The free rides are the latest addition to a growing push to entice residents to receive their shot. Last month, Harris County approved $250,000 to fund incentives for residents who receive their vaccination. Hey, you know, sometimes you just got to do it: raffles food, giveaways, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told the Chronicle during an interview with Lisa Gray last week. If you get your vaccine at NRG, where a lot of young people are getting vaccine, hey, youre going to be entered into a giveaway to go the Travis Scott Astroworld concert which, like, sold out in one day. While the countys incentive program is geared toward all residents, the ride share promotion has communities of color in mind. More than 400,000 Black-owned businesses closed between February to April 2020, according to U.S. Black Chambers, prompting business owners to reach out for more support to remove barriers to vaccine education and access for their employees, community and families. On HoustonChronicle.com: Federal regulators authorize Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in kids 12 to 15 Hispanic and Black Texans have received the vaccine at disproportionately lower rates than their white counterparts. Since the pandemic started, the Black and Latino communities have been hit the hardest in terms of infection and death rates. While federally operated mass vaccination sites, like NRG Park, have shown success in getting more shots in arms, it hasnt been enough to address vaccine equity concerns made by public health officials. By working with Uber, U.S. Black Chambers Inc. will increase the ability of high-risk communities to receive the vaccine by helping reduce transportation inequity, said Ron Busby, Sr., president and CEO, in a news release. To book a free Uber ride to a Houston vaccine appointment, fill out the qualification form at www.usblackchambers.org/vaccine. Rideshare company Lyft has also partnered with U.S. Black Chambers, Inc. While there is no Houston partnership with Lyft, the Chamber is offering free Lyft rides in Dallas; they can be booked at www.usblackchambers.org/vaccine. julie.garcia@chron.com Twitter.com/reporterjulie Renew Houston: Get the latest wellness news delivered to your inbox When LaToya Johnson watched the grainy cell phone video of a Baytown police officer shooting Pamela Turner, she was thrown into a depression. Johnson didnt know about the case until last month, but ever since learning of the fatal police shooting in her own town, the recent Baytown resident has been following updates in the case. Ive been telling everybody I can about her so people will know, Johnson said. I just cry, sometimes I just cry. It just needs to stop. Were supposed to loveand theres just so much hate and ugly things going on in this world. Johnson, a toddler in tow, stood Thursday afternoon in a parking lot across the street from the apartment complex where Turner lived and died. She was among roughly 150 people gathered on the second anniversary of the shooting to bring attention to the case, call on the Baytown Police Department to fire Officer Juan Delacruz and show support for family members and Black women. Delacruz shot and killed Turner, a 44-year-old mother who suffered from mental illness, on May 13, 2019, in the parking lot of The Brixton Apartments where he worked as a security guard. Chelsie Rubin, Turners 24-year-old daughter, stood with a microphone in the bed of a yellow pick-up truck next to civil rights attorney Ben Crump and thanked the crowd of supporters congregated beneath her. Its very hard to do this here today, where my mother was murdered, Rubin said. But I got to do it and I just thank everyone for the support. Antoinette Dorsey-James said she was emotional and felt sick being so close to the location of her sisters death. It felt good to have support from other families who have experienced the same loss, she said. Im hoping for justice, Im hoping that this man is tried and convicted and sentenced to the max, she said. He took her life, I hope he has to live his life behind bars. Also at the rally were representatives of the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, Joshua Feast and Jacob Blake, as well as local activist organizations and Houston rappers Trae tha Truth and Bun B. I got up off a sick bed, got on a plane, said Jacob Blake Sr., the father of a man shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer. Whats not right is not right, and enough is enough. Many of the family members of victims of police violence across the country have become a support system for each other, said Bianca Austin, the 40-year-old aunt of Breonna Taylor. She flew from Louieville to Houston for Thursdays rally. Weve been fighting this fight together for the past year, Austin said. The tragedy that were all experiencing has brought us together so we definitely have bonded over the past year and were able to stand with each other and continue to support each other. Pamela Turner was the victim of a system that has been racist for years, said Bishop James Dixon, president of the Houston chapter of the NAACP. Baytown is racist territory where a level of fear permeates Black communities, he said. We got to make sure that we dont just have a rally, we got to have a movement, he said. Theyre trying to take our right to vote on one hand and shoot us down on the other hand. Thomas Lucas of Equal Justice Now, an organization based in Houston and Los Angeles, said he thinks Turners death could have been prevented with proper mental health training for police. Were here today because we want to bring awareness to this case, Lucas said. After seeing the George Floyd case last year wake up the entire world about the issue of overpolicing, we know that the rest of the world hasnt heard about all the other cases tooWe cant reform a system until we are informed. Just like we were watching in the George Floyd trial, we need to be watching at the Harris County courthouse and make sure that we get justice for this Black woman, Crump said. This is about black womenThis effort is and will continue to be led by our Black queens. Delacruz remains employed at the police department, his attorney said last month. He was indicted by a Harris County grand jury on a charge of aggravated assault by a public servant. A trial setting court date is scheduled for May 25, court records show, and many advocates said they plan to show up at the courthouse. The Baytown Police Department did not respond Thursday to a request for comment. On the night of the shooting, the officer intended to arrest Turner for several outstanding misdemeanor warrants. In video footage of the encounter, Turner asks why the officer is harassing her and tells him shes going home. During the ensuing struggle, Delacruz discharged a single-shot Taser and moments later fired at least five shots that struck Turner in the face, chest and abdomen. The officer was on his feet and Turner was on the ground, the video shows. Police and the officer's attorney said Turner used the Taser against Delacruz. However, attorneys for the woman said the weapon was incapable of firing darts because the officer had already discharged the single-use weapon. He couldve done any number of things, Crump said during Thursdays rally. He could have given verbal commands, he could have created distance, he could have called for backup, he could have got behind a car, but what did that coward do? He took his gun out and shot at her five times while she was on the ground. Turners family has also filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Delacruz, Baytown police and the apartment management company. anna.bauman@chron.com anna.bauman@chron.com Two men landed in handcuffs after police said they stalked a customer from a high-end jewelry store in an attempt to rob him. Court records show that Dominique Vorrice, 31, and Juwan Nevels, 27, were charged with criminal conspiracy with intent to commit aggravated robbery after police caught them on May 7 following a victim from a Johnny Dang & Co. jewelry store in southwest Houston. Vorrice and Nevels are the latest accused of what police have dubbed jugging or surveilling high-end business establishments or banks, then stalking customers and either robbing them or stealing money or other items from their cars when they stop to perform errands somewhere else. (The name comes from the nickname for a bank bag.) The pair were part of several robbery crews identified by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Crime Gun Strike Force. The crews focused on patrons of the Galleria, the Post Oak Hotel, the PlazAmericas Mall, and two high-end jewelry stores, according to court documents. RELATED: 'Jugging' thefts become more commonplace The documents show that Houston police officers watched the men circle the jewelry store several times, then park. The men didnt get out of the car, but waited until they saw a green Lamborghini leave and quickly followed it. Plainclothes officers followed the suspects and pinned the suspects. ATF Houston Field Office Special Agent-in-Charge Fred Milanowski said the arrests come after dozens of robberies in which crooks stalk patrons leaving high end Galleria-area stores, and accosting them at their vehicles or following them home and robbing them at their residences. Everyone is concerned, he said. They want to get these robbery crews under control before someone does get killed. News of the arrests come as Houston Police Chief Troy Finner warned residents at a public meeting at the Houston Police Officers Union headquarters to be careful leaving such high-end establishments. Theres a lot of violent criminals out there, he said, at Tuesdays Positive Interaction Program meeting. Were working on getting them off the streets and were knocking them down every day, but in some areas that not used to violent crime, some of our affluent areas, just understand something -- dont go about your regular day, leaving the jewelry store or the bank. When you drive on your street, please make sure no ones following you. If you think someones following you, keep moving, he continued. COLD CASE: Genealogy, DNA testing lead Beaumont police to Ohio in effort to solve woman's brutal 1995 murder A department spokesman declined to discuss the investigation in more detail because it is still active. Court records show Vorrice and Nevels both have lengthy criminal records. At the time of his arrest on May 7, Nevels was out on bond on aggravated robbery charges stemming from an incident in March 2020. Two months before that, hed racked up charges for evading arrest and carrying a weapon illegally. Just weeks before that charge, hed been arrested on aggravated assault and robbery charges. Vorrice, meanwhile, has a rap sheet dating back to 2007. In October, police arrested him for carrying a fraudulent ID, drug possession, and carrying a handgun in a motor vehicle. Court records show prosecutors initially requested both men be held without bond. Vorrice ultmately was able to bond out after his bail was set at $50,000. Nevels remains behind bars. In an emailed statement, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg described the men as violent offenders who hunt innocent victims. The courts should not release them on bail over and over again to commit more and more crimes, she said. We applaud Houston Police Chief Troy Finner and his officers for going after them and working side-by-side with federal agents and our prosecutors to see that justice is done. Attorneys for the two men were not immediately available for comment. st.john.smith@chron.com st.john.smith@chron.com Victor Hugo Cuevas, the man linked to the missing tiger named India, walked out of the Fort Bend County jail Wednesday on bond for the fifth time since his 2017 arrest on a murder charge. Cuevas was arrested Monday at his mothers Richmond home after authorities said he fled a Houston police officer with the juvenile tiger. A judge ordered this week that he be held on $50,000 bail connected to the Harris County evading arrest case. Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton said Cuevas posted the bond on the Houston case Tuesday night and his release was pending being outfitted with a new ankle monitor to track his whereabouts. Cuevas, 26, was silent as he left the jail in a pinstripe suit his lawyer, Michael Elliott, provided. Elliott maintained his innocence and repeated that Cuevas was not the tigers owner. Elliott accused the Houston Police Department of jumping to conclusions because a viral video from Sunday showed Cuevas shepherding the escaped tiger into his home in the Energy Corridor area after a showdown with an off-duty Waller County deputy. Authorities later found an outdoor enclosure for India and evidence that the 9-month-old male had been sleeping inside at the home in the 1100 block of Ivy Wall Drive. As a police officer observed, he was in good health, Elliott said. Doesnt mean the tiger lived there for an extended amount of time. The tiger was last seen getting into a Jeep Cherokee with Cuevas, who then fled the home as Houston police officers arrived to the scene. The lawyer would not say where Cuevas took India and said he was instead focused on finding the exotic cat. Cuevas is slated to return to court Friday in Fort Bend County for a bond revocation hearing on the murder charge. Four other bond revocation motions stemming from that case have been filed against him for an array of violations, including an arrest last November in Sealy where he allegedly fled officers on a four-wheeler. Other violations have included hours-long stretches in which his prior ankle monitor lost power and visits to a Katy shooting range. Cuevas, should he be charged in connection to possessing the tiger, would face a Class C misdemeanor for violating a city code that prohibits having tigers as pets. nicole.hensley@chron.com anna.bauman@chron.com gettyimagesbank By Nam Hyun-woo The U.S. is making efforts to facilitate talks with North Korea with an offering of COVID-19 vaccines, but the probability of Pyongyang accepting this offer seems to be low, given the Kim Jong-un regime's ignoring of humanitarian aid offers and its strict quarantine policy. Experts said Wednesday the U.S. move can be interpreted as a tactic of showing various benefits available to the North if it joins the party, in the wake of the Joe Biden administration's new North Korea policy. However, they have expressed doubts whether the North will find the vaccine offer attractive, as the regime seeks to be on equal footing with Washington and has not been acting desperate for vaccines. On Tuesday, CNN reported that the U.S. is open to sharing coronavirus vaccines and other humanitarian assistance to help North Korea, citing sources familiar with internal discussions. "While we are open to considering DPRK requests for humanitarian assistance, these would need to be accompanied by effective monitoring to ensure that it reached the intended beneficiaries," a senior U.S. administration official was quoted as saying in the report. DPRK stands for North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The report said the Biden administration believes the North will not be ready to engage with the U.S. until the pandemic has passed, thus "sharing vaccines could grease the wheels for initial diplomatic engagement." However, experts here said chances are slim that Pyongyang would request vaccines from the U.S. or accept humanitarian aid. "There is a deep-rooted distrust or rejection on American and Western goods in North Korea. You can easily see the impossibility when you think of how the Kim regime is propagating anti-U.S. ideology to its people," said Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Korea University of North Korea Studies. "North Korea has other options such as Chinese or Russian COVID-19 vaccines. Why would the regime chose vaccines developed by Western countries?" Nam said the U.S. move should be interpreted as a strategy of showcasing various benefits in order to draw the North out for talks. "Along with the vaccine offer, there are arguments over whether Pyongyang accepted the U.S.' proposal last week to explain the outcome of its North Korea policy review. These seem to be the U.S.'s gesture to entice the North for talks by showing there will be benefits," Nam said. "Given the U.S. has revealed the direction of its North Korea policy recently, the vaccine offer can be interpreted as an effort to build an overture to the new policy." In response to the U.S. offer last week, the North has reportedly said the proposal has been "well received," without elaborating further. People wearing protective gear carry out disinfection works at a public facility in Tanchon, North Korea, in this Dec. 5, 2020, photo released by the North's Korea Central News Agency. Yonhap Two months after a Houston Chronicle investigation exposed dangerous living conditions in government-funded apartment complexes, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has still not offered policy solutions to help tenants. The first thing that the Secretary needs to do is acknowledge that there is a problem, said John Henneberger, co-director of low-income housing advocacy group Texas Housers. I don't think that HUD has really done that. Marcia Fudge was confirmed as President Joe Bidens HUD secretary in March, and the agency under her has not responded to requests for comment for this article or for Living Hell, the Chronicle series based on reporting done under the previous administration. The Chronicle investigated privately owned, HUD-subsidized apartments and found a pattern of violations ranging from mold to broken smoke detectors. The Chronicle investigation found an inconsistent system of regulations across all levels of government that allowed cities, states and federal agencies to pass on responsibility and leave tenants in what they say are unlivable conditions. On HoustonChronicle.com: Living Hell: As HUD pays private company millions, tenants say complaints of mold, pests go ignored It seems that the problems in project-based housing are really not at the top of HUDs radar screen, Henneberger said. And this is a serious problem. And the problem is that the substandard conditions are disproportionately affecting low-income people of color. Henneberger said part of the problem is HUDs focus on keeping the properties open and keep the owners in the program. Policymakers have long prioritized keeping the units open because of the shortage of affordable housing across the country. But, Henneberger said, the agency should prioritize what needs to be rehabilitated and what units need to be wholesale replaced. On HoustonChronicle.com: Mold, sewage and fire hazards: How all levels of government fail public housing in Texas and the US This is a existential problem at HUD, Henneberger said. Many advocates like me have argued for many years that HUD sees its constituency as affordable housing owners and developers and local elected officials and state elected officials, and is never seen its principal clientele, if you will, as low income people who need the benefit of the HUD programs. HUD declined to comment multiple times for the original series, including registered letters to HUD officials. FYIin conjunction with HQ Public Affairs, we have decided to pass on the interview, a HUD press officer, Scott Hudman, wrote in an internal email to colleagues the day after the Chronicle sent a request for comment. I just wanted you to know. On HoustonChronicle.com: Living Hell: Should a troubled HUD-subsidized complex in Galveston get tax credits for rehab? While Tenants, lawmakers and advocates have proposed solutions for years, Henneberger and others remain disappointed in the lack of action from both HUD and Congress. Conservatives, he said, often wont deal with the problem because of a resistance to expanding government programs, while liberals dont want to push owners to abandon the HUD program. Congress needs to belly up, he said. Congress needs to come forward and provide money to replace the obsolete and dangerous properties. On HoustonChronicle.com: How to fix the US public housing problem? Ask the tenants. Many of the solutions proposed would center tenant voices. The National Alliance of HUD Tenants, an advocacy group, drafted the Tenant Empowerment Act of 2019. The bill was never introduced, but the group has high hopes for the new Congress. If it became law, the National Tenant Empowerment Act would begin to even out the power imbalance between tenants of privately owned, HUD-subsidized properties and their landlords. Tenants living in inadequate housing could put their rental into escrow instead of continuing to pay their landlord. Tenants would be able to accompany HUD inspectors in common areas and pick five units they want the inspectors to seeand trigger an inspection with 25 percent tenant support. On HoustonChronicle.com: Her daughter was sick in their old place. Finally they moved out. Proposals by Texas Housers also center the tenant experience. As part of a report on privately owned, HUD-subsidized complexes in the Houston area, Texas Housers proposed that HUD include a tenant satisfaction score in its assessment of properties and codify regular meetings between tenants and HUD officials. No one should be trapped and held hostage because in fear that if they move, they're not going to have housing that is affordable to them anymore, Henneberger said. People are in essence trapped. Carole Baskin, the infamous reality star of the popular Netflix documentary "Tiger King," says Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn share the blame for the case of the missing tiger that currently has Houston on standby. Baskin went on CNN Wednesday to speak out against tiger pet ownership and slammed the Texas senators for their lack of action on a bill that would make it illegal for the public to own pet tigers. The Big Cat Public Safety Act would restrict the public from owning big cats, including tigers, leopards and cheetahs. The bill passed the House in December 2020 but has yet to pass the Senate. WHERE IS INDIA? Tiger's whereabouts remain a mystery, bewildering residents in west Houston "I really hope that Senators Cruz and Cornyn will sign onto the Big Cat Public Safety Act because if they had last year when the House passed this bill...this wouldn't have happened this time," Baskin told CNN. "And the reason for that is this cub is nine months old, which means it probably aged out of being used as a pay-to-play prop in December of last year when this passed the House with a 2/3 vote." Baskin owns what she calls an animal rescue for tigers in Florida called Big Cat Rescue and bills herself as an animal rights activist. She became an Internet sensation after appearing on the Netflix show, which portrayed her as an accused murderer and alleged animal abuser. Since the show's airing, Baskin has closed Big Cat Rescue to visitors but has kept herself in the public eye, appearing on shows such as "Dancing with the Stars." The nine-month-old tiger named India went missing in west Houston over the weekend after escaping a home and terrifying neighbors. The man who fled with the tiger, Victor Hugo Cuevas, was arrested on Monday in connection to a murder case. As of Wednesday morning, police are still unsure where India is. "The only reason people have tigers as pets is to try and show off to others that they are more powerful than the most powerful creature on the planet, that already tells you that the kind of people that own tigers are really dangerous, reckless people," Baskin told CNN. Wild animal ownership is mostly prohibited in Houston city limits but allowed on some conditions in unincorporated Harris County. Baskin's comments on Houston's missing tiger were trending online Wednesday, with social media users quick to weigh in. School districts stand to make millions of dollars in extra revenue from the states Chapter 313 program. Perhaps no one knows this better than Greg Poole, the superintendent of Barbers Hill Independent School District. Located in Mont Belvieu, a town dominated on one side by petrochemical plants, Barbers Hill has 34 active tax-break projects, by far the most of any school district in Texas. Poole was a pioneer in realizing that theres no financial downside for Barbers Hill and plenty of benefits by granting so many incentives. The nearly $900 million in tax breaks being handed out by Barbers Hill doesnt come out of the school districts budget. The economic pinch is felt at the state level. Meanwhile, the companies that receive the tax breaks are paying the district an additional $235 million over the 10-year life span of each deal in return for the incentives. Thats extra money for educating students, Poole said. We absolutely saw the benefit from the very beginning and embraced these opportunities, Poole said. Chapter 313 is such a boon for Barbers Hill that Poole and his assistant superintendent of finance, Becky McManus, formed a consulting firm in December 2012 to help other districts negotiate similar deals. More than a dozen school districts across Texas paid their firm, Jigsaw School Finance Solutions LLC, nearly $1.2 million in consulting fees since 2013, according to invoices, check registers and other financial records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act. Pooles contract at Barbers Hill stipulates that hes allowed to do consulting work for Jigsaw on his own time. Under Texas law, school boards are supposed to approve a superintendents outside work on behalf of other school districts on a case-by-case basis in an open meeting. Just how easy is it to get a Chapter 313 tax break? Try our interactive news game, and see just how much you can save in taxes. Now Playing: Video: Houston Chronicle PLAY NOW The intent of the law is to make sure outside work doesnt interfere with a superintendents regular duties, Scott Hochberg, a retired Houston lawmaker who wrote the statute, said in an email to the Houston Chronicle. The Chronicle reviewed school board minutes dating back to April 2020 and found no mention of the company or Pooles consulting. Poole said he had a legal opinion stating that Barbers Hill is complying with the law. Its totally above board, Poole said of the arrangement. Neither Poole nor the school district provided a copy of the opinion or provided any documentation, such as copies of school board minutes, showing that any approvals were granted by school trustees in open meetings. Marie D. De Jesus, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Why say no? Records show Jigsaws busiest year was in 2020, with $313,000 in total payments from school districts. Jigsaw was paid at least $74,000 so far this year. Poole ranks among the highest-paid superintendents in Texas with a base salary of more than $425,000, according to data published by the Texas Education Agency. Barbers Hill has not paid Jigsaw for any consulting services. Poole stressed that records of payments to Jigsaw reflect the firms gross revenue and dont include expenses. McManus helped set up the firm but hasnt played an active role in it, Poole added. She did not reply to an email from the Chronicle. Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst for the progressive group Every Texan, said he didnt know enough about Pooles situation to comment but added that the program is structured to give school officials more than enough incentives to rubber stamp every deal. They have every reason to say yes and no reason to say no unless there happens to be community opposition to having a large industrial facility in their neighborhood or it's in conflict with their hopeful role as a tourist destination or some other conflict with local values, Lavine said. But from a financial point of view, its a no-brainer. THE FALLOUT: Missed deadline could doom controversial $10B tax-break program And while Chapter 313 certainly benefits school districts such as Barbers Hill, most districts in Texas never have a chance to participate in the program, Lavine noted, raising questions about its fairness. Jigsaw is part of a niche industry of consultants and lawyers who help school districts navigate the complexities of Chapter 313. Jigsaws typical agreements with its school district clients state that it will analyze a Chapter 313 project and submit reports to the Texas Comptrollers Office. Poole said he examines the Byzantine financial numbers of each Chapter 313 deal and helps superintendents negotiate with companies to get the most money they can. Our relationship with the district will involve providing financial analysis of the impact of the proposed projects and to project anticipated school revenue as a result of the project, as well as cooperating with the submission of information to the Comptroller of Accounts, Poole wrote in a Jan. 15, 2020, letter to the superintendent of the Needville Independent School District in Fort Bend County, which was considering a Chapter 313 deal for a new solar farm. Payments to Jigsaw are based on the Chapter 313 application fees that companies pay school districts. The fees can be as high as $150,000 and Jigsaw gets a share of the money. Some school districts have cut checks to Jigsaw worth $37,500 for each Chapter 313 project it works on. He was very, very helpful to us, and I have nothing but high praise for him, said Rodney Cavness, a retired superintendent at the Texas City Independent School District, which has paid Jigsaw more than $46,000 for consulting services since 2019. Property wealthy district Barbers Hill is considered a property wealthy school district, which means under state law it pays a portion of its local tax revenue to the Texas Education Agency for redistribution to less-wealthy districts. Poole said he views such payments as theft. Since Chapter 313 projects erase property values from the tax rolls, Barbers Hill sends less money to the state. Officials in Austin make up for that lost revenue the same way they compensate for the hole created by Chapter 313 tax breaks anywhere in the state by allocating more state funds to pay for public education and other vital services. Poole said hes a tough negotiator at the bargaining table who fights for additional revenue for Barbers Hill from Chapter 313 companies. The $235 million in extra funding that companies are paying Barbers Hill goes to the school district and its educational foundation, which took in $15 million last year. The foundation awards grants to teachers who have used the money to pay for scores of innovative classroom projects that include buying biomedical engineering kits, a laser-cutting machine and robotics equipment, according to the foundations website. To Poole, the arrival of Chapter 313 is the most significant event to happen to his school district since the discovery of oil a big deal in Barbers Hill, which is named for a vast, underground salt dome where companies store petrochemical products. Im a superintendent, and this benefits our district, Poole said of Chapter 313. And if it benefits our district, obviously thats my chief concern. john.tedesco@chron.com Support our journalism Help our journalists uncover the big stories. Subscribe today. Credits Reporters: Mike Morris, John Tedesco and Stephanie Lamm Photography and video: Mark Mulligan, Marie D. De Jesus, Jon Shapley and Laura Duclos Page design: Jordan Ray-Hart Photo editing: Jasmine Goldband Audience: Mark Lorando and Jennifer Chang Newsletters: Tommy Hamzik Social: Dana Burke The Legislature created Chapter 313 in 2001 on the premise that Texas needed to compete more aggressively for manufacturing jobs. High property taxes represented a barrier to industrial investment, bill author Rep. Kim Brimer and his allies said. As proof, they pointed to Intels decision to halt work on a $2 billion semiconductor plant near Brimers Fort Worth-area district and to Boeings decision to move its Washington headquarters to Chicago rather than Dallas. Their solution: Create a program that temporarily caps property values and shelters billions of dollars in investments from being fully taxed by school districts. One of the main talking points of Chapter 313s supporters came from a Site Selection magazine report showing that Texas had lured only three manufacturing companies in 2000. Supporters warned that meant Texas ranked 37th among states for new manufacturing facilities, an alarming drop after years spent near the top of that leader board. There was a problem with that evidence, however: It was a misprint. Texas had ranked sixth or higher in the four years preceding 2001, a state Senate committee report from 2016 found, and actually ranked eighth in 2001 not 37th. The report listed multiple examples of businesses flocking to Texas all without Chapter 313 subsidies. Although the error may have been in good faith, it was especially egregious in light of the fact that, not even six months earlier, in the September 2000 issue, Site Selection magazine published a 10-article spread about Texas, proclaiming Texas to be a global powerhouse that was drawing new investment from virtually all industry sectors, the Senate report found. Mark Arend, editor in chief of the magazine, confirmed that the information in the chart was a mistake. That three was erroneous, Arend said. The actual number was 73 more than six dozen manufacturing firms came to Texas in 2000, he said, securing its place as a top contender for new businesses. NEWS GAME: Just how easy is it to save millions on taxes? Exploit the Texas tax code like a billionaire And what of Intel and Boeing? The local school district had already agreed to cut the same property taxes on the Intel project that Chapter 313 would have reduced, had it been law, the Senate report found; the local city also had approved a tax abatement for the project. An Intel spokesman later said, We determined that we didnt need that factory, so we decided not to proceed with it. Boeing executives who announced they had chosen Chicago over Dallas and Denver while the bill that created Chapter 313 was being debated said ahead of time that tax breaks werent a major factor in their decision because they planned to stay long after the discounts expired, and they reiterated years later that the states tax structure did not dictate their choice. The flawed claim that Texas ranked 37th in attracting new manufacturers should have been challenged by the industry experts who testified in favor of the legislation that created Chapter 313, the Senate report said. But the incorrect number and ranking have been repeated dozens of times over the years in the media and by special interest groups. The case for passing the largest economic development incentive program in the states history may have been based on the fear incited by a magazines typographical error, the Senate report concluded. mike.morris@chron.com Support our journalism Help our journalists uncover the big stories. Subscribe today. Credits Reporters: Mike Morris, John Tedesco and Stephanie Lamm Photography and video: Mark Mulligan, Marie D. De Jesus, Jon Shapley and Laura Duclos Page design: Jordan Ray-Hart Photo editing: Jasmine Goldband Audience: Mark Lorando and Jennifer Chang Newsletters: Tommy Hamzik Social: Dana Burke As millions of Texans struggle with the economic devastation of COVID-19, the biggest corporate tax giveaway in Texas has helped businesses cut more than $10 billion from their property taxes and there are no limits on the programs exponential growth. The gusher of tax incentives is flowing to firms ranging from petrochemical plants on the Gulf Coast to sprawling wind farms in the Panhandle. Companies are saving billions by promising to bring their business to Texas even if evidence suggests some never would have gone anywhere else. Meanwhile, nothing has changed during the pandemic for Texas homeowners who must pay their property tax bills on time or face stiff penalties. For renters, it took Texas until mid-February, nearly a year after the pandemic hit, to launch a rental and utility assistance program. It was plagued for months by long waits. Were living paycheck to paycheck, said Dulce Cramer, who was laid off at her new job in Houston last year when the pandemic began. Cramer said she was denied state unemployment benefits while her husbands employer cut his hours, and they could barely afford the rent at their Westchase apartment. It was hell, she said. Its a far different story for the energy and manufacturing companies that qualify for assistance under an obscure section of the Texas Tax Code called Chapter 313. Twenty years ago, state lawmakers created the program in response to unfounded fears that Texas was losing bidding wars with other states to attract new business. Since then, the program has ballooned into the largest corporate tax incentive in Texas and lawmakers are working to renew it this year. Heres how it works: An eligible company that promises to spend, say, $200 million on a manufacturing plant can apply for a Chapter 313 incentive and lower the appraised value of its property on a school districts tax rolls, erasing millions of dollars in property taxes over the course of a decade. With more than 500 active projects in Texas, the program has become more popular than ever. State officials predict it will cost nearly $10.8 billion in tax breaks over the life span of each project, according to a report on the program that covers all active deals through early 2020. Since then, some projects have dropped out of the program, but records recently released by the comptroller's office show another 90 projects have since been approved that will save companies an additional $900 million. To make up for the taxes these companies are not forced to pay, the Legislature must allocate more general revenue the taxes all Texans pay to public education, leaving fewer dollars not only to increase school spending but to build roads, provide health care and fund other vital services. In essence, Chapter 313 asks all Texas taxpayers renters, homeowners and small business owners to help some of the worlds largest companies get a discount on their taxes. What were doing is building a two-tiered tax system where large industrial companies get a discounted tax rate and small businesses and homeowners pay full freight, said Dick Lavine, a senior fiscal analyst with the left-leaning research group Every Texan and a longtime critic of the program. Supporters say Chapter 313 has lured major employers to Texas companies such as Samsung, Toyota and Tesla. They contend the tax breaks create high-paying jobs and encourage manufacturing and energy companies to make marquee investments here. We brag about how we dont have a personal income tax in Texas. We make up for that with very high property and high sales taxes, said Dale Craymer, president of Texas Taxpayers and Research Association, which has long supported the program. Those high property taxes not only burden homeowners, but it also creates a substantial barrier against new capital investment, so 313 helps reduce that barrier to new investment. But a Houston Chronicle review of thousands of pages of state documents, corporate filings, reports and audits going back nearly two decades shows the program often falls short of its goals. It also functions without the guardrails lawmakers insist they have enacted to ensure the tax burden does not needlessly shift from major companies to individual taxpayers. Among the Chronicles findings: Chapter 313 does create jobs but at a steep price. By even a conservative measure, Texas is paying $211,600 in tax incentives for each job created under the program. Using a different metric cited in the past by state officials, the cost per job tops $1.1 million. At least 30 companies failed to fulfill their job-creation promises since 2019 but faced no repercussions. Their tax breaks stayed intact, and they paid no fines. As long as companies phrase their applications the right way, records show, they are nearly guaranteed to get the subsidies. Less than 2.5 percent of all Chapter 313 applications have been denied and nearly a dozen of those reapplied with new phrasing and got approved. The comptrollers office declined to make its staff available for an interview, citing the ongoing legislative debate about the program. It said in written responses to the newspapers questions that its staff does not track the rate at which applications are denied and has no opinion on the proper rate of rejections. Our office works diligently to administer this program in the manner prescribed by the Legislature, said spokesman Chris Bryan. Our office remains neutral and tries to answer questions from all parties. Similarly, we make a lot of information available to the public and media so that others have sufficient information from which to make their own informed opinions on the program. As Chapter 313 saved billions for businesses, Gov. Greg Abbott declined to act on calls from appraisal districts and Texas lawmakers at the beginning of the pandemic to freeze property-tax values at 2019 levels to offer relief to property owners or extend the deadline to pay their tax bills. Thats what galls me. They dont give a damn, said Steve Tallent, 71, a heavy equipment operator in Mont Belvieu who fell behind on his property taxes after falling ill in 2019 and ended up owing more than $4,800 in taxes and penalties on his house. Tallent hoped to pay his bills with income from a bar he owns but he was temporarily forced to close it because of the pandemic and couldnt pay that tax bill on time, either. The governors office did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Tallent lives in the Chapter 313 capital of Texas. Trustees of the Barbers Hill Independent School District, which serves Mont Belvieu, have approved more Chapter 313 deals than any other school district in Texas. THE FALLOUT: How skeptical Texas lawmakers put an end to a controversial tax incentive program The total cost of incentives over the 10-year duration of each deal: nearly $900 million. Yes, we do have the most (projects). And theyve been tremendous, said Superintendent Greg Poole, an avid supporter of the program who moonlights as a consultant to help other school districts negotiate deals under the law. Poole and other proponents say Chapter 313 has lured businesses to Texas that would have invested in other states. The law requires the comptrollers office to scrutinize every deal, they say, ensuring that tax breaks go only to companies that truly need them. Some even argue the program costs taxpayers nothing because without the incentives, the companies would have invested elsewhere. The law has never required such a stringent review. The comptrollers office is charged only with deciding whether the tax break is a determining factor in a firms decision to proceed with the project a low hurdle for companies to clear. The programs other gatekeepers elected members of local school boards usually have few reasons to turn down an application. Thats because state education funding formulas ensure that school districts dont feel the pain from the property tax breaks. And districts stand to bring in millions in extra payments from the very companies seeking the incentives. Ive never seen a beast like 313. Its essentially free money for big business, said Nathan Jensen, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has long studied the program. But in scores of cases reviewed by the Chronicle, records show some tax breaks might not even be necessary. Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer The shale boom It was early 2011, and the Eagle Ford Shale boom in South Texas was helping reinvent the American energy industry. The regions first successful horizontal fracking well had been drilled in La Salle County more than two years earlier, unlocking enormous deposits of oil and gas trapped in rock formations deep beneath the earth. All that oil and gas had to go somewhere. For Texas energy companies, the shale revolution has married ingenuity with good fortune the geological reality that the state straddles some of the richest oil and gas reserves on the continent. Yet some of the worlds largest companies have raked in tens of millions of dollars in state subsidies for doing what simply made sense building the pipelines, processing plants and petrochemical facilities necessary to profit from this windfall of resources. Enterprise Products Partners, like its competitors, had begun building a network of new pipelines dedicated to transporting natural gas liquids in the Eagle Ford to its processing plants in South Texas. The Houston-based energy company said enormous demand for its services soon would overwhelm its South Texas plants. But in April 2011, the company sought taxpayers help in building a new gas processing plant in Lavaca County by applying for a Chapter 313 incentive for the project. To prove the project qualified for the tax break, Enterprise told the comptrollers office that it had a large pipeline network and gas processing plants in four other states, allowing substantial flexibility in plant location. But like so many of its competitors, Enterprise had told its investors a different story. The company had discussed the plant in public statements dating back 10 months its location, its capacity, its construction timeline, the length of pipe needed to connect it to the companys network and described it as part of a series of projects necessary to meet the needs of producers in the Eagle Ford. If the comptrollers office was aware of these statements, they were not mentioned in the offices letter recommending the $41 million in tax incentives be approved. In all, at least 35 gas plants in Texas received about $380 million in Chapter 313 incentives, almost all of them in the Eagle Ford or West Texas Permian Basin. At least 10 of them were publicly announced before the companies applied for tax breaks, either by name or with the same capacity, construction timeline and region as the plants the companies described in their applications. Twice, another company, Energy Transfer, not only announced a gas plant before applying but even acknowledged starting construction and site work months before with $16 million invested at one site and $20 million at the other yet still got the subsidies. Energy Transfer spokeswoman Alexis Daniel did not address the timing of the tax incentives but said the company is proud to be a Texas-based, Fortune 100 company with many employees in the Houston region. In 2020 alone, we paid approximately $218 million in property taxes on our pipelines and facilities in Texas, she said. These taxes support schools, hospitals, community centers, roads and various other projects and services that are important to our state. Enterprise Products spokesman Rick Rainey, meanwhile, said a Chapter 313 incentive is one of many factors the company considers in evaluating investments. The economic viability of a project is analyzed, including the impact of 313, he said, and helps determine where a project will be built, or whether it will be built at all. Energy analysts, however, said the states dozens of gas plants were certain to be built here. The processing plants would have had to come up no matter what, said Ajay Bakshani, an oil and gas analyst with East Daley Capital Advisors. You need these plants in order to extract value out of the gas thats coming out of the ground. And these plants, said Rusty Braziel, president of the Houston energy analytics firm RBN Energy, are typically no more than 25 miles from the cluster of wells producing the gas in need of processing. Just nine of the 35 gas plants that got Chapter 313 deals are that close to neighboring states. The subsidies have become so ubiquitous that companies routinely remind the comptrollers office in their applications that their competitors often have received tax breaks to build comparable projects. While Craymer, the program supporter, said the review process usually works, he acknowledged some projects destined to build in Texas likely slip through. I do think this is an area of discomfort with many, and, quite honestly, were willing to work with folks on a better approach, Craymer said. Hector Rivero, president of the Texas Chemical Council, agreed. Someone that has got a project thats coming here regardless, thats an abuse, he said. We want the comptroller to be able to ferret those out. Bryan, of the comptrollers office, said his colleagues weigh public statements as part of their review process, adding, Our determinations dont typically rely on a single document or issue. He gave the same answer when asked about projects that had started construction and still received tax breaks. A similar pattern can be found in the renewable energy industry. Wind farms are projected to receive $2.1 billion in Chapter 313 tax breaks. Yet West Texas bountiful supply of wind and transmission lines already makes it the perfect location for such investments, according to a 2016 state Senate committee report. In their Chapter 313 applications, both wind and solar farms often acknowledge selecting their sites based on their proximity to state-financed transmission lines but say the incentives are still needed. Wind farms frequently start construction to secure federal tax credits but then seek Chapter 313 subsidies as well. They tell the comptrollers office that their investments do not commit them to the sites, and they routinely say they cannot compete on price with their competitors who already have received the state subsidies. In sheer numbers, most Chapter 313 applications are filed by renewable energy companies. But most of the tax breaks more than $7.6 billion are going to more expensive projects in the manufacturing industry that include huge petrochemical firms. The subsidies can be traced through the entire production process of the Texas shale boom. When natural gas liquids leave processing plants, they flow mostly through pipelines to facilities called fractionators that split them into their separate components chiefly ethane and propane which are then sold, exported or refined into fuels and plastics. In North America, the chief hub for this activity has long been Mont Belvieu, a town 25 miles east of Houston in Chambers County, which sits atop scores of salt caverns some larger than the Empire State Building that let companies store massive amounts of oil and gas products. As these liquids flowed to Mont Belvieu, the tax breaks followed. Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Unavoidable projects Chapter 313 has subsidized at least 36 fractionators in Texas at a combined cost of $770 million, a figure that includes a few other projects that were submitted on the same applications as the fractionators. All of them are near the Gulf Coast; 26 of them are in Mont Belvieu. At least 15 times, companies announced the fractionators publicly before filing their tax break applications. Ten other times, the companies did not prematurely announce the projects in detail but did indicate they soon would need to add capacity. Enterprise Products received tax breaks for nine such units in Mont Belvieu, the most of any company. Enterprise announced two of its fractionators were under construction weeks before seeking tax breaks to build them and still got approved. The projects were inevitable, energy analysts said. Once the newly abundant gas liquids were gathered and processed, they would need to flow through a fractionator in order to be usable. In theory, more gas liquids could flow to Louisiana, New Mexico or Kansas, Braziel said. But, though Mont Belvieus salt caverns put it on the map, the town is the worlds gas liquids hub for another reason: 70 percent of these compounds are exported or sold to petrochemical plants, and both industries are clustered along the Gulf Coast. There are docks, refineries and petrochemical plants in Louisiana, too, Braziel said but not enough. The notion that three dozen Texas fractionators would have gone to Louisiana in the absence of tax breaks, he said, is folly. Could some? Yes. Could all of them? No, he said. The majority are going to land in Texas. Whats more, Bakshani said, by the time a fractionator is announced, most or all of the material the unit will produce is typically already under contract with customers often petrochemical plants planning to use it in specific units nearby. A lot of the companies now have such a presence at Mont Belvieu that if they suddenly come out and say theyre building a fractionator in Louisiana, it would be a head-scratcher, Bakshani said. Why not take it to all the fractionators you already have that are next to all the facilities you already own? The flurry of Chapter 313 activity didnt go unnoticed by competitors. In early August 2017, Permico announced its Texas NGL project, an effort to pipe gas liquids from the Permian to a new fractionator in Corpus Christi. When the company applied for a Chapter 313 subsidy, Permico CEO Jeffrey Beicker learned the comptrollers office had questions. He was furious. Why didnt his competitors face the same scrutiny? All these other companies have multiple news releases, quarterly reports and annual reports that state their intentions, Beicker wrote in an email to his consultant. We refuse to lie to receive the tax abatement. Apparently our competitors do not share this moral dilemma. Beickers company got the tax break. A Permico executive referred questions to Beicker, who did not respond to requests for comment. Building and building More than a third of gas liquids go to petrochemical plants, which pounced on the cheap fuels the shale boom produced by launching a staggering array of projects. As the compounds flowed from Mont Belvieu and elsewhere to chemical plants along the coast, in dozens of cases the subsidies followed them. Some of the biggest Chapter 313 subsidies have been for petrochemical units called crackers. These turn ethane the main material flowing from all the new fractionators into ethylene, a key building block of plastics. Chevron Phillips Chemical announced it would build one such unit in Baytown in late 2011 months before it applied for incentives to do so then sought tax breaks for another as part of a larger project in Orange in 2019. Combined subsidies: $491 million over 10 years. LyondellBasell secured three Chapter 313 incentives in 2013 to increase ethylene production at its Channelview, La Porte and Corpus Christi plants despite announcing all three publicly before applying. And ExxonMobil was already building an ethylene cracker in Baytown that had gotten Chapter 313 subsidies when it filed more tax break paperwork in 2016 as part of a joint venture with the Saudi firm SABIC. The companies new chemical plant near Corpus Christi includes an ethylene cracker and accompanying units and will get a projected $457 million in subsidies over a decade. Exxon spokesman Todd Spitler said the company supports a business environment that encourages capital investment and job-creating activities, but he did not comment on its Chapter 313 deals. Chevron Phillips spokesman Bryce Hallowell said the companys announcement of its Baytown project was followed by significant" analysis. Chapter 313 tax breaks were a key component of that review before the company made a final decision to build the project, he said. Lyondell spokesman Chevalier Gray said public policy is among the factors the company considers when considering a new project, adding, Our projects provide increased tax revenues, among other economic benefits, across the region for many years after economic incentives expire. The windfall of natural gas not only made it a cheap raw material for petrochemical giants. The materials soon were so abundant that companies sought buyers overseas. In a five-year span beginning in the summer of 2010, federal regulators approved more than 20 requests from companies to build facilities to load gas liquids onto ships for export. Among them were seven sites along the Texas coast four of which were approved for Chapter 313 tax breaks. Some touted their proximity to the Eagle Ford and the Permian as competitive advantages; all four announced their plans months before seeking subsidies. The shale story just kept building and building over the past few years until, finally, we did the engineering and it just made sense, Freeport LNG CEO Michael Smith said in November 2010, months before his company applied for a tax break to turn its recently opened facility to import gas into a hub for exports. The projected tax breaks for these export projects are among the programs largest: $456 million to Freeport LNG; $354 million to Sempra Energys docks near Port Arthur; $857 million to Chenieres site near Corpus Christi; $388 million to Exxon and Qatar Petroleums joint venture near Port Arthur. Freeport LNG spokeswoman Heather Browne stressed that the company provides hundreds of jobs and thousands more when the facility was under construction and will pay a projected $2 billion in state and local taxes during the projects first two decades of operations. The Chapter 313 value limitation tax subsidies, approved and entered into prior to Freeport LNG making its final investment decision to construct our facility in 2014, helped our project compete in the global marketplace for customers, and thereby assisted the company in moving forward with the project in Texas, Browne said. The three other Texas projects were in Brownsville. One never sought a Chapter 313 deal, and two opposed by a coalition of shrimpers, fishermen, environmentalists, Native Americans and others had their tax-subsidy applications rejected by the Port Isabel school board. Yet, neither spurned company stopped work when their subsidies were denied. Only last month, six years later, did Annova LNG announce it was abandoning the project, blaming market shifts. The other two companies still plan to build. At least eight times, in fact, the Chronicle found companies said they needed the subsidies to build, had their applications rejected by a school district or the comptrollers office or withdrew them under questioning then proceeded anyway. Nor do all companies say they need the subsidies. The owners of dozens of gas processing plants, including some just south of the New Mexico border, built without ever filing requests for a tax break. Mark Mulligan, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer Nothing for homeowners Theres simply nothing like Chapter 313 for everyday Texans and small-business owners. We dont think this program should exist, said Carine Martinez, director of research and publications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative research group that has been calling for the repeal of Chapter 313 for years. We favor a broad-based tax system so we can lower it for everyone instead of favoring some. Homeowners are eligible for some protections such as the homestead exemption, which cuts appraised values by $25,000 for taxes owed to school districts. But with the median home value in Texas at $170,000, many owners are still responsible for paying taxes on a large share of their property appraisals. Im one of those people who believe that you should do everything on your own as much as you can, but we keep handing money to these corporations and nothing to the citizens, said Mark Varnado, a Mont Belvieu homeowner who owes more than $3,200 in overdue taxes and penalties. That doesnt quite make sense to me. Varnado acknowledges falling behind on his taxes in 2019 and says he meant to catch up last year. But business from his side gig as a disc jockey dried up during the pandemic, and he had to support a son who lost his job. Now Varnado is falling even deeper in the hole as late fees add up. The Texas Comptrollers Office almost never penalizes Chapter 313 companies that fail to meet their job-creation targets. And unlike the homestead exemption, Chapter 313 lets many businesses pretend a large portion of their investments are invisible on tax rolls. Why are Texas officials approving so many deals, even for projects that might have been built anyway? The answer is simple: Thats how Chapter 313 was designed. Coming next: The Gatekeepers Support our journalism Help our journalists uncover the big stories. Subscribe today. Credits Reporters: Mike Morris, John Tedesco and Stephanie Lamm Photography and video: Mark Mulligan, Marie D. De Jesus, Jon Shapley and Laura Duclos Page design: Jordan Ray-Hart Photo editing: Jasmine Goldband Audience: Mark Lorando and Jennifer Chang Newsletters: Tommy Hamzik Social: Dana Burke A major pipeline running from Houston to New Jersey which provides the East Coast with nearly half its fuel was shut down over the weekend after the company fell prey to malicious hackers, in what experts believe is the largest ever cyberattack on U.S. energy infrastructure. A group known as DarkSide infiltrated Colonial Pipelines servers and encrypted the companys data, demanding payment to restore access in what is known as a ransomware attack. This is the latest high-profile incident to become public and to raise the alarm that the government must act to protect vulnerable industries. The White House on Monday sought to allay fears of a fuel shortage and the pipeline is expected to be fully operational by the end of the week. While it seems as if a disaster was averted, the only guarantee moving forward is that the ransomware problem is going to get worse. Its already global, affecting individuals, cities, health care, financial and educational institutions. In the U.S. alone, more than 2,300 organizations faced some level of attack in 2020, including the Texas state court system. That hack came a year after nearly two dozen local governments in the state were hit by a similar coordinated intrusion. Cybersecurity measures throughout different industries are uneven, and the energy sector is no exception. While large companies have more robust protection, smaller firms are much more vulnerable to cybercriminals. If youre handling a lot of product and you have a lot of cash flow, the expectation would be youre going to spend on cybersecurity, but not everyone is at the same strategic level as an organization like Exxon or Chevron, Charles McConnell, a former U.S. assistant energy secretary now at the University of Houston, told the Chronicle. The question you have to ask is, Does the federal government need to step in to protect the folks that cant protect themselves? The answer is yes. We are still dealing with the fallout of the power grid failure during the Texas freeze. Imagine the havoc that a hacker group or a sophisticated state-sponsored attack could inflict on a larger scale. President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order to strengthen cyberdefenses for federal agencies and contractors. According to reports, the order would also establish a system to share government information with private companies about threats and allow them to do the same. These are important steps, but the private sector owns and operates most of the countrys critical infrastructure, meaning that Congress must step in to implement minimum cybersecurity standards for companies that are outside the federal procurement chain and which oversee vital systems, including the energy industry. The last major effort in 2012 was scuttled by a Republican filibuster, as lawmakers opposed the bill claiming the standards would have been too onerous for corporations. With national security on the line, compromise is the only path forward. More Information Closer to home Ransomware attacks are not limited to corporations or government agencies; they can also leave your personal data at the mercy of hackers. The best prevention is to update and patch all your devices, be careful when opening any email attachment and when clicking on a link inside an email. You should also regularly back up your data on a separate device, so even if it does fall into the wrong hands, you will not lose your information. If you are the victim of ransomware, officials ask that you contact the FBI. See More Collapse So far, at least, reaction to the Colonial Pipeline breach points to possible bipartisan efforts to revive these standards, as some Republicans, including U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., sound willing to include cybersecurity in Bidens infrastructure plans. If Congress is serious about an infrastructure package, he said in a statement, at front and center should be the hardening of these critical sectors. Cyberattacks are disasters waiting to happen. How long will the next one wait? Congressional leaders shouldnt wait to find out. They should join the president and the private sector in building a formidable defense for America against the many foreseeable digital dangers, and the ones we cant even imagine. A free chance to win $1 million or more in lottery Free tickets to sporting events A paid day off work I'm anti-vax and think incentives are a distraction Vote View Results Gov. Mike Parson and Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe announce the discontinuation of federal pandemic unemployment benefits during a news conference at the capitol on Tuesday, May 11. 2021. A woman wearing a face mask as a precaution against the coronavirus walks near a banner for mandatory mask wearing at a park in Seoul, May 11. AP-Yonhap South Korea's daily new coronavirus cases rose back above 600 on Wednesday, with health authorities remaining on alert over a potential spike amid spreading variant cases. The country reported 635 more COVID-19 cases, including 613 local infections, raising the total caseload to 128,918, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. Wednesday's figure jumped from 511 cases Tuesday, 463 Monday and 564 Sunday though it is lower than the 701 Saturday. The daily caseload usually spikes after weekends as more people get tested. There was five additional deaths from the virus, raising the total to 1,884. The fatality rate was 1.46 percent. To stem the spread, the country is revving up its vaccination drive with an aim to achieve herd immunity by November. A total of 3,698,657 people have received their first shots of COVID-19 vaccines, accounting for 7.2 percent of the country's population, since the country started its vaccination program on Feb. 26. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. Weather Alert ...HEAT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM THIS MORNING TO 8 PM CDT THIS EVENING... * WHAT...Heat index values up to 101 expected. * WHERE...Portions of northwest and west central Wisconsin and central, east central, south central, southeast, southwest and west central Minnesota. * WHEN...From 11 AM to 8 PM CDT Thursday. * IMPACTS...Hot temperatures and high humidity may cause heat illnesses to occur. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... Drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors. Young children and pets should never be left unattended in vehicles under any circumstances. Take extra precautions if you work or spend time outside. When possible reschedule strenuous activities to early morning or evening. Know the signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Wear lightweight and loose fitting clothing when possible. To reduce risk during outdoor work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration recommends scheduling frequent rest breaks in shaded or air conditioned environments. Anyone overcome by heat should be moved to a cool and shaded location. Heat stroke is an emergency! Call 9 1 1. && By Bahk Eun-ji Lee Jun-seok, a young politician of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), is emerging as one of the strongest candidates to take on the leadership of the conservative party, which plans to select its new head next month, a poll showed Wednesday. According to the survey of 1,010 adults nationwide conducted by Hangil Research from Saturday to Tuesday, 15.9 percent of the respondents said former four-term lawmaker Na Kyung-won would be the best fit for the PPP chief position among party members who have announced their bids for the position. Lee ranked second with 13.1 percent of support, beating more experienced politicians including former floor leader Rep. Joo Ho-young with 7.5 percent, and Rep. Kim Woong with 6.1 percent. Lee Jun-seok / Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-geun The results were similar among supporters of the PPP, with Na coming in first and Lee in second, although the support rate gap was wider at 27.3 percent for Na and 15.2 percent for Lee. Lee said he would seek the party leadership to help the PPP come up with policies that appeal to young voters in their 20s and 30s who chose the opposition party in the April 7 Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections over the liberal ruling Democratic Party of Korea. The owners of Berkshire Palate are taking over the shuttered restaurant in the Holiday Inn. Licensing Board OKs New Restaurant in North Adams Holiday Inn NORTH ADAMS, Mass. The owners of Berkshire Palate are taking over the shuttered restaurant in the Holiday Inn. The Licensing Board on Tuesday approved the transfer of the liquor license from NAH Bar LLC to 413 Bistro LLC. The Richmond Grill in the hotel has been closed for at least a year. Berkshire Palate opened on Main Street in Williamstown three years ago a family affair involving Paul Brassard and his sons Zachary, Nolan and Aaron. Paul Brassard told the board that the entire operation would be moving from Williamstown and a second location was being planned in Pittsfield. "This is going be 413 Bistro, which is actually what the LLC has been all along," he said. "But we won't be in Williamstown any longer. ... . As soon as North Adams is open, like, pretty much the day we get the license, we'll probably be up and going within about 48 hours." The restaurant will include service on the hotel's covered patio, an element that the Brassards found very attractive. Paul Brassard estimated the seating at about 40 and, in answer to the board's question about an outside bar, said it was possible and that a point of sale device was being ordered for outside so someone would always be there. "Considering that people have really leaned on outdoor dining during this last year ... probably the single most important thing about that space is it's got that beautiful roofed exterior seating area," he said. "If we thought it made sense, businesswise it sort of meant less hustle and bustle and everything, we might do it but I don't know ... but I certainly wouldn't stay out there." He explained that Berkshire Palate has only served beer and wine so a full liquor license would something new. But he assured the board that the staff would be keeping an eye on the patio and that alcohol would stored as it had been in the former grill. "We're restaurant not a bar so we're not doing like any 1 a.m. thing or any of that crazy stuff," Brassard said "I would say probably the latest I could ever see us being open is to 11, but most of the time I don't think we'd even be there." The board also asked about breakfast and weddings. Brassard said they had not worked in this type of relationship with a hotel before and he anticipated there would be some working things out. For the time being, the restaurant will focus on lunch and dinner but, after some discussion with the board, the hours were set as 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., with last call at 10:30, to provide the bistro some flexibility. Aaron Brassard will be the manager of record in North Adams and Zachary Brassard in Pittsfield. The board also approved a temporary license to Chama Mama for May 28-31, the Memorial Day weekend. The New York City restaurant is planning a largely outside seasonal restaurant at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art this summer that could bloom into a permanent partnership. Tamara Chubinidze, a native of Tbilisi, Georgia, opened Chama Mama in New York City in 2019 and recently opened a second location in the city. She told the board that the plans with Mass MoCA was a "magical accident" after hosting a board meeting and developing personal relationship with them. They love us as an operator and we love them as a whole, and I personally come up to North Adams at least once every two months because I absolutely love the region, the area," she said. "We've been entertaining the idea of having Chama Mama but we were not sure because of COVID because of everything that happened." Chubinidze said the eatery has had success in New York City because people are ready for new cuisine. "We kind of cater to all kinds of customers, and then we tell a little bit of story about who we are because some people do not even know where country Georgia is and they still ask me, 'Oh Atlanta, and then I'm like come on, listen to my accent," she laughed. Memorial Day weekend will be a chance to introduce the area to Georgian food, wine, habits and culture. "Since Georgia has been a birthplace of wine, we wanted to have the wine option there to sell, to taste, to kind of make sure that customers will understand that it's not only food, it's the wine that we represent as a culture," she said. "This is just kind of a small test in a fun way for us to feel how customers will take us, how welcoming it will be and take the feedback and kind of customize the Chama Mama concept for North Adams." The pop-up restaurant will be bringing trained staff from New York and also advertising for seasonal help. Members Rosemari Dickinson and Peter Breen approved the four-day license with hours from noon to 8. Member Michael Obasohan abstained; he had voted to approve the restaurant as a member of the Mass MoCA Commission. Chubinidze was put on the board's agenda for June 8 for a hearing on a permanent license. County Gets More Walk-In Clinics, Pittsfield OKs Special Event Permits PITTSFIELD, Mass. More walk-in vaccination clinics are scheduled this week and the city of Pittsfield has issued 37 special permits for now permitted special events and is seeing hope on the horizon for summer. During Mayor Linda Tyer's bi-monthly COVID-19 update to the City Council, she reported that the Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative has implemented two new strategies to expand access for vaccinations: walk-in clinics and pop-up clinics. At the county's first walk-in clinic at Berkshire Community College last week, 177 doses were administered in three hours. Another clinic was held on Monday at BCC and walk-in clinics will be held on Thursday in North County and on Saturday in South County. Additionally, a pop-up clinic is scheduled for Thursday at the Christian Center in Pittsfield from 11 to 2 and the Berkshire Vaccine Collaborative continues to seek out other locations that will hold pop-up clinics. "The Massachusetts Department of Public Health currently reports that 56 percent of Pittsfield residents have at least one vaccine dose, 40 percent of Pittsfield is fully vaccinated, so we are on track to hit the 50 percent fully vaccinated Mark by May 18," Tyer said. With the help of Senior Sanitarian Andy Cambi and Special Events Coordinator Beck Manship, the city has issued 37 special event permits for the future warm weather. The special events vary in magnitude from Berkshire Theatre Group events to small memorial services, Tyer said, and every permit has to submit a safety plan that addresses capacity and mask enforcement. In Tyer's last COVID-19 update at the end of April, she talked about the governor's reopening strategies announced earlier that day, which include a relaxed face coverings order for outdoor settings where social distance can be maintained, the permitting of parades and street festivals, and the food requirement with drink mandate for restaurants being lifted on dates ranging April 30 to Aug. 1. Cambi has also been working with local businesses to address clarifications that need to be made regarding loosening state-issued guidelines. In the last two months, he has visited eight businesses to review their operations as well as providing daily telephone conversations and conducting on-site reviews of their layouts. U.S. energy secretary urges Americans not to hoard gasoline amid pipeline cyber attack Xinhua) 16:48, May 12, 2021 Photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows a Colonial Pipeline facility in Baltimore, Maryland, the United States. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday urged Americans not to hoard gasoline as the operator of a main U.S. fuel pipeline is expected to fully resume operations in a few days after it was forced to shut down due to a cybersecurity attack. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) WASHINGTON, May 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on Tuesday urged Americans not to hoard gasoline as the operator of a main U.S. fuel pipeline is expected to fully resume operations in a few days after it was forced to shut down due to a cybersecurity attack. "The White House and the Department of Energy have been leading an interagency response to the Colonial Pipeline hack," Granholm said at a White House press briefing. "I've had several conversations with the CEO of Colonial, who has indicated that by close of business tomorrow, Colonial will be in a position to make the full restart decision. But even after that decision is made, it will take a few days to ramp up operations," she said. Granholm noted that the current supply crunch is in the areas that are affected by the pipeline, predominantly the Southeast, such as the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and southern Virginia. "In this particular region that's where we're gonna see the crunch... we know that we have gasoline. We just have to get it to the right places," she said, urging Americans not to hoard gasoline. "There should be no cause for hoarding gasoline, especially in light of the fact that the pipeline should be substantially operational by the end of this week," said the energy secretary, noting one of the pipeline's major lines had resumed normal operations under manual control. "It's not that we have a gasoline shortage. It's that we have this supply crunch. And that things will be back to normal soon," she said. Colonial Pipeline, operator of the pipeline carrying gasoline and diesel fuel to U.S. east and southeast parts, said on Tuesday that the company continues to make forward progress toward returning its pipeline system to service after temporarily halting all operations due to a cybersecurity attack detected last week. "Since our pipeline system was taken offline, working with our shippers, Colonial has delivered approximately 967,000 barrels to various delivery points along our system," the company said in a statement. "Additionally, in preparation for our system restart, we have taken delivery of an additional 2 million barrels from refineries for deployment upon restart," the company said. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) The Korea Times and Hankook Ilbo Chairman Seung Myung-ho, front row second from right, and former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, second from left, walk to an outdoor stage at the Cultural Depot Park in Seoul's Mapo District where the Korea Forum 2021, co-hosted by the two dailies, took place Wednesday. From left are main opposition People Power Party floor leader Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon, Ban, National Assembly Speaker Park Byeong-seug, Seung, and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon. Korea Times photo by Hong In-ki By Jun Ji-hye The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may be the "last warning from nature" that is urging humanity to respond immediately to the climate crisis, former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday. Ban, who currently chairs the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future, made the remark during the Korea Forum 2021, co-hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper, the Hankook Ilbo. "The COVID-19 pandemic is a phenomenon of the climate crisis," he said in a keynote address at the forum held at the Cultural Depot Park in Seoul. "Following the virus outbreak, humans have realized the need to fundamentally resolve environmental problems for their sustainable survival." Ban mentioned his meeting with Pope Francis in Vatican City, during which the latter said, "God always forgives, and men sometimes forgive, but nature never forgives." The former foreign minister stressed the need for people to be aware that the destruction of the ecosystem resulting from climate change has caused outbreaks of viruses and their spread. "If people had taken climate issues more seriously and realized the preciousness of nature earlier, we might not have suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic," Ban said. Former U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivers a keynote address during the Korea Forum 2021, co-hosted by The Korea Times and its sister paper, the Hankook Ilbo, at the Cultural Depot Park in Seoul's Mapo District, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han Amid a growing awareness of the seriousness of environmental issues, 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement at the 21st Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, pledging to limit the average increase of Earth's temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels, by 2100. Ban, who led the adoption of the international treaty as the then U.N. chief, said the international community should continue to join forces to achieve carbon neutrality. "We should also pay attention to the recent trend that mitigation, which focuses on cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, is now paralleled by adaption, aimed at minimizing the damage caused by climate change and helping vulnerable countries better adapt to climate change," he said. During the forum, Environment Minister Han Jeoung-ae talked about Korea's goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, saying the country must achieve this, though it would not be easy, considering that the nation has achieved growth mainly through the development of heavy and chemicals industries that emit lots of greenhouse gases. "Various experts are now working to draw up possible scenarios to achieve carbon neutrality," she said. "Once those scenarios are produced, the government will carry out in-depth discussions with the interested parties, including businesses, to make detailed plans and set our target figures in October at the earliest." For his part, The Korea Times and Hankook Ilbo Chairman Seung Myung-ho said in his welcoming remarks, "All countries, regardless of whether they are developed or underdeveloped, and all people, regardless of their religion and race, should join hands to resolve the climate crisis." The Korea Times and Hankook Ilbo Chairman Seung Myung-ho delivers a welcoming speech during the Korea Forum 2021, co-hosted by the two dailies, at the Cultural Depot Park in Seoul's Mapo District, Wednesday. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han Berkshire Colleges Receive $12M in American Rescue Plan Funds BOSTON. Berkshire Community College, Williams College, and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts will receive more than $12 million in American Rescue Plan Funds. On Tuesday, U.S Rep. Richard Neal announced that Berkshire Community College, Williams College, and Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts will all receive a slice of the nearly $90 million in emergency funding for colleges, universities, and students in Massachusetts' First Congressional District under the American Rescue Plan. "The success of our local colleges and universities is critical to the success of our students and to the strength of our community," said Neal in a press release. "Educational institutions here in Western and central Massachusetts and across the country have been steadfast in their mission of delivering quality education in the face of this pandemic. The American Rescue Plan makes a historic investment that will secure the future of these valued institutions and provide struggling students with urgent relief that will allow them to stay on track and complete their education." BCC will receive $3,969,913, Williams College will receive $4,200,741, and MCLA will receive $3,942,592. The funding will help local institutions cope with the financial fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and continue serving their students safely. At least half of the funding each institution receives will be distributed in the form of emergency cash assistance grants to students who are facing hunger, homelessness, and other hardship. The American Rescue Plan provides $36 billion for nearly 3,500 public and private, nonprofit colleges and universities nationwide. The search began on Tuesday. The district attorney's office confirmed at 7 p.m. that the body recovered from Pontoosuc Lake on Thursday was that of a missing New York man. The individual's name is being withheld until next of kin can be notified. Pittsfield firefighters recovered the body after three days of intensive searching by local and state authorities. Pittsfield Police are still investigating what is being described as an "apparent drowning." The State Police Detective Unit assigned to the Berkshire District Attorney's Office and Colonie (N.Y.) Police are assisting in the investigation. Authorities have not found any evidence to suggest anyone else was involved or evidence of foul play. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Update: Pittsfield Police are currently recovering a body from Pontoosuc Lake. According to Lt. Gary Traversa, Police were "in the midst of the recovery process" around 1:00 p.m. According to scanner reports in the late morning, police found a male under the water near the docks at the Rusty Anchor. It has not been confirmed to be the body of the New York man they have been searching the southern portion of the lake for since Tuesday. Cruisers are currently staged in the Rusty Anchor parking lot. Traversa said any further media inquiries will be coordinated through the District Attorneys Office. Story developing... _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Original Post, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, 2:05 p.m. PITTSFIELD, Mass. The Pittsfield Police Department is coordinating a search operation for a missing New York man on and around the southern portion of Pontoosuc Lake. The man's identity and where in New York he was from has not been released. A State Police truck and boat trailer was parked at the boat ramp. Several officers were in a yellow boat with equipment slowly moving through the south part of the lake on Wednesday. Several other boats were also being used. The search commenced Tuesday morning with assistance from the Berkshire County Sheriff's Office, Environmental Police, and State Police. After searching the water for seven hours, it was determined that additional resources and equipment would be required to continue. The search resumed on Wednesday. The police first received a report of a suspicious vehicle in Blue Anchor Park off Pontoosuc at about 2:23 p.m. on Monday. Initial responding officers determined that the vehicle may have been abandoned, as it was revealed that the registered owner of the vehicle was reported missing out of New York State on May 5. Further investigation lead police to believe he had not left the area and searchers turned to the lake. Police said the search of Pontoosuc Lake will be active until a recovery is made, those involved have reached their daily limitation, or the suspected missing party is located by other means. The PPD asks that the public avoid the area of Blue Anchor Park and the Pontoosuc Lake boat ramp in order to allow public safety partners to maneuver freely. PITTSFIELD, Mass. The Pittsfield Police Department is coordinating a search operation for a missing New York man on and around the southern portion of Pontoosuc Lake. New Wave co-founder talks about the future of plant-based seafood May 12,2021 | Source: Food Tank The plant-based alternative seafood company New Wave Foods recently released its seaweed-based shrimp to restaurants across the United States. The company says the product, which is made with sustainably sourced seaweed and mung bean, can be sauteed, fried, or grilled like ocean shrimp. According to the Good Food Institute, the plant-based alternatives market is now worth US$7 billion up US$2.5 billion from 2019. Plant-based seafood alone is projected to reach US$1.3 billion by 2031, according to a recent report by the market research firm Fact.MR. This isnt a fad its a whole movement, New Wave Foods Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Michelle Wolf tells Food Tank. Wolf says New Wave chose to create a shrimp alternative, in particular, because the shrimp industry holds great opportunity for change. Shrimp is the most-consumed seafood in the United States, by about a factor of two, and it also has some of the biggest issues from a supply-chain standpoint, she says. Since [shrimp] is such a high-demand product, weve had to resort to a lot of unsavory practices. A lot of the shrimp in the U.S. about 90 percent is imported, and a lot of those imports come from the coast of Southeast Asia. Wolf says shrimp farms have decimated mangroves in these regions, which play an important role in sequestering carbon and safeguarding against rising sea levels. As much as 38 percent of global mangrove loss can be attributed to shrimp farming, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation. Wolf notes that shrimp farming emits more greenhouse gasses than many kinds of meat, and that farms often use antibiotics and pesticides. The industry is also rife with human rights abuses. New Wave hopes its shrimp will steer customers away from destructively farmed seafood. But Wolf says the story behind their product doesnt matter if it doesnt taste and feel like shrimp. You cant talk about nutrition and sustainability without talking about taste, she says. Wolf also talks with Food Tank about why New Wave chose to launch in restaurants and what it means to receive attention from corporations like Tyson. 2013-2021 Food Tank. All rights reserved. Theme(s): Fisheries Resources. France says Jersey has proposed delaying new restrictions on French fishing May 12,2021 | Source: Reuters The Channel island of Jersey has proposed delaying new post-Brexit restrictions on French fishermen and the French government will respond in writing in the coming hours, French Seas Minister Annick Girardin said on Tuesday. Last week Girardin suggested that France could cut power supplies to Jersey, a self-governing British Crown Dependency, if its fishermen were not granted full access to UK fishing waters under post-Brexit trading terms. As the dispute flared, both France and Britain sent patrol vessels into Jersey waters after a flotilla of French trawlers sailed in protest to Jerseys main harbour. France is angry that on April 30 Jersey issued licences with what the Paris government called unilaterally imposed conditions, including the time French fishing vessels could spend in Jerseys waters. But Girardin told parliament the island has proposed pushing back the implementation of the restrictions. Jersey has just proposed to delay the technical restrictions until the end of July. In the coming hours, France will respond in writing, she said. Girardin said Jersey had delivered only 41 licences to French fishermen despite 266 requests She said that while Jersey had the right to legislate fishing issues in its waters, it needed to inform the European Commission via London so that the European Union and France could react. 2021 Reuters. All Rights Reserved. Theme(s): Post Harvest Technology and Trade. Viewed of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email circulation@idahopress.com for help creating one. By Kim Ae-ran "I hope everybody will be happy. Living happily is what God wants from us." Cardinal Nicholas often mentioned happiness. "I give thanks to everybody. Always be happy. Happiness is the will of God." These are the last words of the late second Cardinal Nicholas Cheong Jin-suk, who served as Archbishop of Seoul from 1998 to 2012, and passed away on April 27, 2021. Whenever he talked with others, he constantly advised them to give thanks and to always be happy. How can we be truly happy? As Cardinal Nicholas said, we can be happy when we are willing to give away everything. True happiness comes from neither possession nor enjoyment. As in the witness of Jesus who gave his very life up to the point of the cross, giving away everything is the root and basis of happiness. When he became the youngest bishop at the age of 39 in 1970, he chose "Omnibus Omnia" as his pastoral motto, because he wanted to be "everything to everybody." This determined will was clearly testified throughout his life. Especially preparing for aging, he gave away everything he had. In 2006, he signed up to donate his organs and corneas at the moment of his death and he actually donated his corneas upon his death. This sincere act of donation came from an example set by his mother who did the same when she died. In 2018, he decided not to have any surgery nor rely on any equipment or life support to prolong his life. I think his faithful testimony of life is deeply rooted in his family's strong faith. He was born on Dec. 7, 1931 to a Catholic family dating back four generations. He lost his father in Japan even before he was born. His mother became a good example of putting faith to practice. Dreaming of becoming an inventor, he studied chemical engineering at Seoul National University. But he had to drop out of the university due to the Korean War in 1950, and instead served as a commissioned officer and helped at an orphanage. Seeing piles of corpses and surviving near-death experiences, he decided to become a Catholic priest. In 1955, he entered the Major Seminary and was ordained as a priest in 1961. He studied Canon law at the Pontifical Urban University in Rome. Being warm-hearted, mild, extremely considerate, and caring, he was most faithful to his pastoral motto and took care of the poor. He also donated all of the balance in his bankbook to a Myeongdong restaurant and the Mission Scholarship Association of Child Faith Education among others. Being an expert in canon law, he promised the late Fr. Park Do-sik, who was his roommate during his days as a deacon, to write one book a year to help his parishioners. As a result, he translated and wrote 51 books. He translated "The Seven Storey Mountain," an autobiography of Trappist Brother Thomas Merton (1915-1968), and its Korean version was first published by Pauline in 1976 and became a classic. He protected "life" and cherished the value of "family." At the same time, he showed the example of practicing poverty in life: He never used an air conditioner even in mid-summer and he liked to use the same old leather bag. The author is a member of the Daughters of St. Paul (fsp.pauline.or.kr) living and giving the Good News to the world by means of social communication. Note: We've recently updated our online systems. If you can't login please try resetting your password. You must login with an email address. If you don't have an email associated with your account email circulation2@journalnet.com for help creating one. In this April 11, 2018, file photo, water moves through a spillway of the Lower Granite Dam on the Snake River near Almota, Wash. Some Republican members of Congress from the Northwest are accusing a GOP Idaho lawmaker of conducting secret negotiations with the Democratic governor of Oregon over a controversial proposal to breach four dams on the Snake River to save endangered salmon runs. New investigation agency should deal with first case fairly Since its launch in January, the country's new anti-corruption investigation agency has begun probing power abuse allegations involving Seoul's education chief as its first case. The Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) said Monday that it had assigned its first case number to an investigation involving Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Cho Hee-yeon. Cho has been accused of abusing his power to push for the special employment of five teachers dismissed in 2018. The liberal educator denied any wrongdoing, saying the hiring took place in accordance with regulations. The charge was made public last month when the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) disclosed the results of an audit and filed a criminal complaint against him. The police handed over the case to the CIO last week following a request from the agency. The CIO's choice of the education-related case came as a bit of surprise because there had been speculation that it might pick a high-profile one involving prosecutors in consideration of the symbolic significance of its first case. In fact, the agency's political neutrality and investigation capabilities have already been called into question owing to the friction with the prosecution and controversy over its lineup amid allegations that some personnel were appointed according to personal connections to those wielding political power. To dispel such distrust and take firm root as a new investigation agency, the CIO should produce "good results" in its first investigation. The Cho case will serve as a litmus test gauging whether the newly established investigative body can work properly to probe corruption allegations involving high-ranking officials. The CIO should deal with the case in a fair and objective manner in accordance with legal principles and evidence. The prosecution, for its part, ought to play its role faithfully when it considers indicting Cho after taking over the case from the CIO. There is no question that what's well begun can end up half done. Yes, she can: 14 female business owners are banding together for a two-day event in Quincy this weekend FILE - This Friday, Aug. 23, 2019, file photo shows the Instagram app icon on the screen of a mobile device in New York. Facebook says its going to test out, again, an option for users to hide those like counts to see if it can reduce the pressure of being on social media. Instagram, which Facebook owns, will soon allow a small group of random users to decide whether or not they want to see the number of likes their posts and those of others receive. While at first this option will only be on Instagram, the social media giant says it's also exploring the feature for Facebook. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File) Homeless veterans housing opens in Orting by group that has plans to build something similar in Shelton Media offices have been bombed and Palestinian and international journalists arrested, beaten and threatened by Israeli forces amid escalating violence in Gaza. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) stands in solidarity with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) and all Palestinian and foreign media workers targeted and demands immediate international action to hold Israel accountable for its deliberate targeting of journalists and the media. On the night of 11 May, the Israeli military bombed the Al-Jawhara tower, located in Gaza, which hosts the offices of 13 media institutions and NGOs. The PJS said the attack was deliberate and targeted. There were no injuries as journalists evacuated their offices after the Israeli army warned some of the media that the building would be bombed. However, media organisations lost their equipment. The IFJ said the Israeli government must compensate the media for their financial losses. The offices of the media organizations - The National Information Agency, Palestine Newspaper, Al-Arabi Channel, Al-Ittijah TV, Al-Nujaba TV, the Syrian TV, Al-Kufiya Channel, Al Mamalaka channel, APA Agency, Sabq Agency 24, Bawaba 24, the Palestinian Media Forum, the Palestinian Forum for Democratic Dialogue and Development - were completely destroyed. The offices of Al-Jazeera TV, adjacent to the targeted building, were also damaged Spanish news agency EFE's correspondent in Jerusalem said on Twitter that their correspondent in Gaza had to flee its office at Al-Jawhara tower after a warning message from the Israeli military. In addition to the targeted attacks against media organizations in Gaza, the PJS reported that the Israeli forces arrested photojournalist Hazem Nasser in the West Bank on May 12. Since the beginning of the events in Jerusalem, the Israeli authorities have arrested at least 27 media workers in what the PJS and other press groups denounced as a clear attempt to silence media reporting on the ground. The PJS said in a statement: The PJS calls on all the guarantors of freedom of journalistic work, especially the United Nations and its organizations and the Red Cross to provide urgent field protection for journalists, and to activate Security Council Resolution 2222 so to obligate the occupation to implement and respect it. IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: We stand in solidarity with all the Palestinian journalists and the PJS during these hard moments. The international community cannot turn a blind eye to the systematic violations of human rights and the deliberate targeting of media and journalists. Urgent actions must be taken to hold those responsible for these crimes internationally accountable. Imperial Valley News Center Visiting Draculas Castle Transylvania - Tourists visiting Draculas Castle in Transylvania are coming out with distinctive puncture marks. Not to worry, says the Association of Mature American Citizens, the marks are being inflicted on them by qualified medical personnel-- not by the fangs of Bram Stokers fictional, neck biting Count. It seems that the pandemic has been bad for business at the castle, which is located in Romanias Carpathian mountains, and so they decided to offer free COVID shots to lure more tourists. President should ditch disqualified nominees President Moon Jae-in has taken flak for refusing to accept growing calls -- not only from the opposition but also his own party -- for him to withdraw his nomination of "problematic" figures as Cabinet ministers. He reaffirmed his intention to appoint such figures Tuesday, requesting the National Assembly to send confirmation hearing reports on three nominees -- Lim Hye-sook as science minister, Noh Hyeong-ouk as land minister, and Park Jun-young as oceans minister -- by Friday. Moon needs to reconsider the nomination of the three. Lim is under fire for having taken her family members on four overseas trips funded by the state-run National Research Foundation of Korea, while working as a university professor. She also faces allegations that she misappropriated taxpayers' money, and plagiarized a paper written by her student. Park faces allegations that his wife "smuggled" porcelain pieces into Korea when his family returned home from his stint at the Korean Embassy in the United Kingdom. The conservative opposition People Power Party (PPP) and even some members of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) oppose their appointments. During the Assembly confirmation hearings, the three nominees came under attack for their ethical lapses. Should Moon push through their appointments, the number of Cabinet ministers tapped without the consensus of the opposition parties would increase to 32 under his administration. Moon's reaction had been anticipated after he defended Cheong Wa Dae's vetting system during a press conference to mark the fourth anniversary of his inauguration Monday. "I don't regard it as a screening failure simply because of the objections from the opposition parties. We cannot select people fit for their jobs as long as confirmation hearings are used only to humiliate nominees and focus on finding fault with them." Moon's comments are disappointing as he was trying to blame the National Assembly, particularly opposition lawmakers, for Cheong Wa's failed vetting procedure. Now he should pay heed to a group of the DPK's freshman lawmakers who are calling for the withdrawal of at least one nomination. "We decided to recommend party leaders disqualify at least one nominee by adopting stricter nomination guidelines," Rep. Ko Young-in said Wednesday after a meeting of 81 first-term legislators. Moon said that he felt as if he was sternly punished by the governing party's crushing defeat in the April 7 mayoral by-elections in Seoul and Busan. The election outcome was the result of a set of policy failures and his unilateral style of governing, coupled with the arrogance and hypocrisy of the ruling elite. Cheong Wa Dae and the DPK should listen more carefully to what the public is saying. The opposition PPP, for its part, should not employ all-or-nothing tactics. It is not desirable to link the issue of Prime Minister nominee Kim Boo-kyum to other unfit ministerial nominees. It should deal with the problem through dialogue and compromise with the DPK to make Moon ditch the most unqualified figures for Cabinet ministers. Imperial Valley News Center Governor Newsom Statement on Death of San Luis Obispo Police Detective Lucas Luca Benedetti Sacramento, California - Governor Gavin Newsom today issued the following statement regarding the death of San Luis Obispo Police Department Detective Lucas Luca Benedetti. Jennifer and I extend our heartfelt sympathies to the family, friends and colleagues of Detective Benedetti who made the ultimate sacrifice while in the line of duty. His tragic death underscores the dangers that are routinely faced by those who courageously risk their lives to protect communities throughout California, and we will never forget his sacrifice. On May 10, 2021, Detective Benedetti was fatally shot while San Luis Obispo Police Department officers were serving a search warrant at a residence in the City of San Luis Obispo. Detective Benedetti, 37, was a 12-year veteran of law enforcement. He joined the San Luis Obispo Police Department in 2012, after having served for four years with the Atascadero Police Department. He is survived by his wife, Grace, and two young daughters. In honor of Detective Benedetti, Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff. Imperial Valley News Center Governor Newsom Statement on Death of Stockton Police Department Officer Jimmy Inn Stockton, California - Governor Gavin Newsom today issued the following statement regarding the death of Stockton Police Department Officer Jimmy Inn: It is with heavy hearts that Jennifer and I extend our sincere condolences to the loved ones and friends of yet another fallen California hero. Officer Inn put his life on the line to protect those who cannot protect themselves and will forever be remembered for his selfless sacrifice and dedication. On May 11, 2021, Officer Inn and his partner responded to a domestic violence call in the City of Stockton. Upon arrival, Officer Inn approached the residence and was shot by the suspect. He was transported to a local hospital where he died from his injuries. Officer Inn, 30, had served with the Stockton Police Department since December 2015. He was a member of the Departments honor guard, who honor fallen officers in other jurisdictions. He is survived by his wife, Tela, who is also a Stockton Police Officer, as well as by a 7-month-old son, 12-year-old stepdaughter and 14-year-old stepson. In honor of Officer Inn, Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff. After more than a year of the Paycheck Protection Program, the forgivable loan program--which just last week exhausted its general fund--is finally on its way out, but its lessons will live on for America's small businesses. If you applied for a PPP loan--particularly early on in the program's history--you probably know that having a sturdy banking relationship proved vital for landing a forgivable loan. While the program has helped more than eight million U.S. small businesses access more than $780 billion in funding since last April, plenty of companies were rejected for seemingly basic things like failing to maintain up-to-date financial records. But, rest assured, they won't make that mistake twice. Business owners really internalized their PPP experience, says Steve Dow, CEO and co-founder of Monit, a QuickBooks companion. "Some of the things business owners learned are really just good hygiene going forward," he says. And that, he adds, should serve them going forward--particularly in a future crisis. Here are the top five lessons business owners learned from the PPP that should prove useful for the long term. 1. Keep your paperwork in order. Programs like the PPP, not to mention other grant programs operated by the Small Business Administration, run on a first-come, first-serve basis. So you need to have your financials ready to go, says Dow. But how do you do that? First, build financial discipline. He recommends spending 30 minutes each week on bookkeeping. Martin Moll, founding adviser with Breakaway Bookkeeping & Advising, a Portland, Oregon-based company that provides bookkeeping and virtual CFO services, advises to further keep the following documents up to date: Income statements Balance sheet A statement of cash flow A 30-, 60-, or 90-day cash flow forecast Updated tax filings 2. Pay yourself. As many sole proprietors discovered when applying for a PPP loan, not paying themselves a salary or even paying themselves too modestly came back to bite them. The PPP is, at its core, a payroll support program. So if you didn't have much of a payroll--that is, you didn't pay yourself well or you primarily hired 1099 contractors, among other reasons--you didn't qualify for as much. This is the reason why some founders landed $1 PPP loans, for instance. While there's no telling now if this program will get trotted out again in a future crisis, it just might. So, do your future self a favor and cut yourself a decent check. "You can dump [it] right back into the business if you need to," says Chelsie Kugler, vice president of business development at CFOshare, an accounting firm based in Denver. But giving yourself a paycheck, and keeping a record of it, should be a priority, she says. 3. Bank "small enough." During the first round of PPP in April 2020, Patrick West says he was able to set up an account and gain approval for a PPP loan with a local bank in Darien, Connecticut, before he got a rejection message from his lender of six years. He says he applied initially at Chase on behalf of his New York City-based marketing company Be The Machine. In July, a survey of 931 business owners showed that 28 percent of respondents received PPP loans from lenders they hadn't worked with previously, according to Barlow Research Associates, a Minneapolis-based commercial finance market researcher. "I want to move my money to someone who values me as a customer," West says. When it comes to a community bank or credit union, "You will develop relationships with the people there you won't develop with [a bigger] bank," Dow says. Of course, there may be tradeoffs. With smaller outfits, the geographic coverage of ATMs, for instance, tends to be more limited, and they may not offer as many commercial services like processing overseas payments. Sam Sidhu, vice chairman and COO of Customers Bank, based in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, advises the Goldilocks approach: "You do need to have a bank that's big enough, but small enough," he says. You want your bank, for example, to be able to support your business needs, with adequate access to capital--and still value you on a human level. 4. Feed your banking relationship. Regardless of how big or small your lender is, do your best to bank goodwill. That's what happened for LuLu's Maryland Style Chicken & Seafood in Charlotte, North Carolina. When employees from a branch of Fifth Third Bank near the restaurant started coming into LuLu's in the fall of 2020 right after it opened, owners Joseph and Miketa Davis moved their business to that location and began developing a bond with the employees. It evolved into a twice-weekly lunch takeout where Joseph would take the bankers' orders on his phone personally and throw in free lemonades or desserts. "They love the food," Joseph Davis says. "So it was easy to build that relationship." Upon the PPP's announcement, the owners' bankers called them and encouraged them to apply. The Davises previously had zero intention of doing so--but they're glad they did it. The loan, they say, provided a helpful cash cushion during the pandemic. 5. Ask for help. The smallest businesses, which tend to have fewer resources to hire accounting firms and high-priced lawyers, also needed the most help during the depths of the pandemic. For these businesses, using resources like community development financial institutions and minority depository institutions, which tend to operate amid socially or economically disadvantaged communities, were clutch, says Dow. In 2020, these organizations disbursed more than $16.4 billion in loans, per the SBA. And, after the SBA announced its general fund had exhausted its resources last week, these institutions are still making PPP loans. The SBA reportedly has around $8 billion left for community financial institutions. Covid-19 has unleashed all kinds of grief, but economically, the pandemic has been far worse for women than men. In the pandemic's first 10 months, women lost a million more jobs than men. In December 2020, the economy shed 140,000 jobs, but women somehow managed to lose 156,000 jobs, because men actually gained 16,000 jobs. And as of March, one in four women were considering leaving the workforce or downshifting their careers, according to a study from McKinsey. A poll by the Bipartisan Policy Center found that, of parents who are not looking to return to work, 59 percent said caregiving responsibility is the main reason. There's widespread agreement that the most important factor to help women get back to paid work is the reopening of schools. On the employer side, the biggest factor seems to be a continuation of some forms of remote work and flexible schedules. When it comes to public policy, though, opinions are fractured. Lauren Bauer, a fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, notes that parents, and especially mothers, will return to the workforce more slowly simply because a vaccine is not yet available for young children. "Until we are at a place where schools are open universally and there are available, affordable, high-quality child care slots, many women will not be able to come back." Even Treasury secretary Janet Yellen has chimed in, noting that the pandemic "has turned the child care problem into a crisis for mothers." That represents a structural problem, and one that Joceyln Frye, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, says government should address. "Now that we're on the precipice of recovery, we should not operate as if we have amnesia," says Frye. "We need to actually fix the structural problem." Here are a few initiatives that could help make that happen. 1. Fund federal paid leave. "Part of the problem," says Frye, "is that women are the backup for everything." Every OECD nation, with the exception of the United States, offers some form of paid leave. As Jessica Calarco, an associate professor of sociology at Indiana University, says, "Other countries have social safety nets. The U.S. has women." It doesn't make sense to let individual employers decide on paid leave themselves, because paid leave stems from an equity issue: Without it, workplaces disproportionately penalize women, and especially women of color, who are caregivers. Without government support, the smallest companies will not be able to afford paid leave. The U.S. made its first foray into paid leave with the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act, which used tax credits to help employers pay staff who had to miss work for Covid-19-related reasons. The Biden administration's American Families Plan allocates $225 billion for a comprehensive paid family and medical leave program, paying between two-thirds and 80 percent of wages, up to $4,000 a month. The program would be phased in over 10 years, guaranteeing just three days of bereavement leave in the first year but up to 12 weeks of paid leave by the 10th year. Paid leave obviously helps new parents keep their jobs, but the most common use of state paid leave programs is actually for an employee's own medical needs. A study of paid leave in California found that the vast majority of employers said paid leave had a positive or neutral affect on productivity, performance, and profitability. 2. Start school earlier, with free universal pre-k. Like school, child care plays a critical role in allowing parents, especially women, to fully participate in the paid economy. "If we think about what Covid did in bringing children home, we know child care is a huge component of this," says Mabel Abraham, an assistant professor of management at Columbia Business School. A call for universal preschool is drawing support across the ideological spectrum, but with important differences in how it could be achieved. The Biden plan budgets $200 billion for free, universal preschool. Bauer says that focusing on Head Start, Early Head Start, and state-subsidized preschools will do the best job of helping single mothers and low-income families, because "it's harder to influence prices" of other child care centers. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce would prefer to see that money go elsewhere: "We have a lot of private sector providers that do a very good job," says Cheryl Oldham, vice president of education and workforce policy for the Chamber. A new study on pre-k finds that it has important benefits beyond the support of working parents. Kids who go to preschool are more likely to graduate from high school, more likely to enroll in college, and more likely to graduate. Boys are likely to get a bigger benefit than girls. 3. Take care of the youngest. Infant and toddler care is likewise important in keeping parents in the workforce. Oldham says the Chamber has supported funding going through the states to the child care industry. The American Rescue plan included $39 billion to stabilize the industry. Frye would like to see a program to better pay child care workers, noting that as a group they are significantly underpaid. Pre-pandemic, a study from the University of California, Berkeley, found that 53 percent of child care workers are part of a family that participates in government support or health care programs. Higher wages, says Frye, would boost the overall quality of child care. 4. Retrain job-seekers. If their old jobs either disappeared or were inadequate, women need some way to find new jobs. Oldham and Bauer agree that part of this challenge, and opportunity, lies in workforce development. Bauer says this requires an investment in local economies and industries, so that skills training can be better matched to employer needs. The Biden plan provides $48 billion for workforce development. The Chamber supports that, but Oldham says the work itself needs to be local. At the federal level, she says there's a tendency to want to identify the five skills every employer needs. "It just can't be done that way," she says. "It needs to be much more aligned to employer needs, much more employer-driven." Free coffee is one of the most common perks at companies around the world, but you won't find it at Venice, California-based Mud/Wtr (pronounced "MudWater"). The direct-to-consumer beverage brand makes a coffee alternative derived from a powdered blend of masala chai, chaga mushrooms, and other ingredients. For co-founder and CEO Shane Heath, Mud/Wtr's core product represents a rejection of the "always-on" Silicon Valley work culture that, in his mind, leads to burnout for countless tech workers. Heath would know. As an art director and designer at a number of tech startups in the Bay Area, he drank three to four cups of coffee per day. Anxiety and jitters ensued. "Hustle culture and the 'sleep when you're dead' mentality led me to believe that coffee was going to allow me to do more and do it faster," Heath says. That all changed in 2015 when, after years of 60-hour weeks, Heath left Silicon Valley to pursue an artist residency in Goa, India--where he discovered masala chai, a combination of tea, milk, and spices that is in millions of households throughout India and much of South Asia. Two years later, he launched Mud/Wtr and created a work environment that prioritizes physical and mental health--and delivers it by the bucketful. Among the benefits available to Mud/Wtr employees: free consultations with a functional medicine doctor who does blood work and gives lifestyle and supplement recommendations. There are breath-work and meditation sessions, no-work Fridays every other week, and a strict no-meetings rule on Wednesdays, allowing employees to focus on solitary tasks with no distractions. Though Mud/Wtr boasts a beachy headquarters just blocks from the ocean, only three of its 15 full-time employees are based in Los Angeles. The rest of the workforce is fully distributed, with employees residing around the U.S. and in Canada, Mexico, and the Philippines. One of the ways the company keeps its remote workforce connected is through a gratitude circle at the end of every week, where employees share what they're thankful for. Prior to Covid-19, Mud/Wtr also brought staff together on retreats around the world, in Australia, Japan, and El Salvador. The company is currently planning a retreat in Hawaii for later this year. For Emma Nelson, Mud/Wtr's vice president of product development and operations, retreat activities such as hiking and horseback riding in Yellowstone National Park were her first opportunities to meet her co-workers--experiences that allowed Nelson to feel like an integral member of a family. "I felt like I was a contributor," she says, "like they truly wanted me to be the best version of myself." Meanwhile, Mud/Wtr generated more than $16 million in revenue in 2020, and is projecting $60 million for 2021. But Heath remains equally focused on a non-monetary goal for the business. "We want to build a company that supports the lives we want to live," he says, "not the other way around." EXPLORE MORE Best Workplaces COMPANIES Pam Stanczewski wasn't the least bit surprised by the dead moose on the front porch. Several years ago, she and her husband had traveled from Ohio to visit her hometown in Canada. When they arrived at her grandmother's house, the massive moose was lying, frozen, on the porch. Her husband was stunned; she herself took it in stride. Her grandmother was many things--including a skilled hunter who would use the animal for everything from stew to moosehide mukluks. "Similar to Alaska" is how Stanczewski describes where she grew up--Hay River, a town of roughly 3,500 in the Northwest Territories, on the edge of Great Slave Lake--which is at least partly frozen for eight months of the year. Today, Stanczewski is the founder and CEO of Central Point Partners, a recruitment and IT consulting company in Westerville, Ohio, that has made the Inc. 5000 three years in a row. And though her present might seem unconnected to her past, Stanczewski says the company's founding--and the uniquely supportive, female-first culture that makes it one of Inc.'s Best Workplaces--can be traced to her roots. "I'm a proud woman from northern Canada who comes from a long line of strong women," she says. Her aunts established restaurants; Stanczewski's mother started a trucking company alongside her husband--running supplies along ice roads to more northern mines. Her grandmother, a descendent of the Slavey Indigenous people, raised seven children, cooked for marine transport ships, and became a pillar of the community. "Because of my Aboriginal grandmother," Stanczewski says, "I believe in making a difference and making an impact." Stanczewski didn't set out to run her own business. She is an entrepreneur by necessity. She spent 17 years as an EVP at a large IT staffing company and had long envisioned retiring there. But when the owners put it up for sale in 2015, they turned down her offer. And when she reluctantly struck out on her own, 10 co-workers came along. Taking on their salaries was a big risk for the founder, but it's paid off. Central Point Partners grew rapidly, and expanded into additional industries. Just as important, Stanczewski has been able to create a corporate culture that reflects her values. Today, CPP offers flexible work hours and extended parental leave. Employees are free to spend an afternoon looking after an aging parent or watching a child's recital. "We've strived to have an environment where the family is just as important as the worker," Stanczewski says. Employee benefits-- including health insurance and 401(k) matching--apply to consultants as well as regular employees. Pets are welcome at the office, and there is unlimited PTO for volunteer work. Stanczewski herself works closely with Junior Achievement of Central Ohio, the Women's Business Enterprise National Council Ohio River Valley, and the Women's Small Business Accelerator. Stanczewski's background makes her especially sensitive to diversity. Central Point Partners' leaders are women. Staff include LGBTQ+ executives and military veterans. "It's not that I hired this team because I needed a candidate from each group," Stanczewski says. "They were just the best at their jobs." They also helped lead her to establish one of the company's signature initiatives--one born of a simple question: When she asked a recruiter why he'd left the military, he explained that moving every few years made it difficult for spouses to build and sustain careers. "I started to think about how I could help a highly educated, undervalued, and underemployed demographic," Stanczewski says. It dawned on her that she could train them as recruiters and they could work from anywhere. So, in 2018, the company launched Operation Mobile Spouses, which targets military spouses for placement with clients and trains them in recruitment. One of the first employees to go through the program was based in Japan, where her husband was stationed. She'd receive her assignments at the end of the day in Ohio--the beginning of the Japanese workday. The pandemic sidelined that program, but with business ramping up, Stanczewski plans to revive it. "My grandmother passed down her wisdom and morals," she says. "And she always put people first." EXPLORE MORE Best Workplaces COMPANIES A $10 billion federal initiative that could transform the capital landscape for entrepreneurs is evolving rapidly. The State Small Business Credit Initiative (SSBCI) was included in the $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package enacted in March. The inclusion of SSBCI was an extraordinary victory for entrepreneurs, but the greatest opportunity lies in its implementation, which is now underway. If implemented properly, the initiative has the potential for once-in-a-generation change. The entrepreneurial community needs to be vigilant to ensure maximum impact. SSBCI is not a new program. From 2010 to 2017, it provided $1.5 billion to states, territories, tribal governments, and the District of Columbia to spur private capital investment. The new SSBCI is about seven times larger than the first version. But we learned important lessons from last time. To make the most of the program, capital should be treated not merely as a one-time, direct infusion into businesses. Instead, capital can be structured to catalyze the development of new investment funds, thus creating multiplier effects in perpetuity. These "funds-of-funds" become pools of capital that help create more pools of capital. I believe every region should have its own fund-of-funds. We have seen the success of this strategy in other countries. For example, Israel's Yosma program, a government-sponsored fund-of-funds, allowed the country to build the most successful venture capital industry per capita on the planet. Most of Latin America's venture capital industry was spawned in the same way, through a multinational government-sponsored fund-of-funds called the Multilateral Investment Fund. In the United States, however, only a few states created funds-of-funds with their last round of SSBCI money, and most of them put heavy constraints on these programs. We now have a new and bigger opportunity, and the proceeds from new funds-of-funds could be recycled to form evergreen institutions -- perpetual flywheels that, once in motion, continue to build momentum and compound the initial amounts invested. In addition, SSBCI capital should be used as anchor investors in new funds, leading the way to fill gaps in the capital markets. And governments should think flexibly beyond traditional models of lending and venture capital that serve fewer than 17 percent of entrepreneurs by fostering diverse capital models, such as revenue-based investing, flexible venture capital, crowdfunding, and profit-sharing models. The next steps are critical. The U.S. Department of Treasury has recently issued its dollar allocations for different states based on job losses, and the magnitudes speak for themselves. California will get the largest amount at $894,973,879; New York is next at $377,125,918. Twenty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and territories will each get the smallest allocation of $56,234,176. Missouri is included in this group, receiving about double the $27 million it got last time. The U.S. Treasury has also published a timeline of programmatic milestones. By May 10, states, territories, and the District of Columbia must send notice of their intent to apply for the funds; the deadline for tribal governments is June 11. Not every state participated last time, but it is hard to imagine a state passing up this opportunity. Complete applications are due by December 11. As this process unfolds, entrepreneurs, capital providers, and other entrepreneurial champions should make their voices heard. States and other jurisdictions are just beginning to explore ways to make the most of this opportunity. They would benefit from hearing entrepreneurial voices - through both formal and informal channels. To share information about SSBCI and encourage input, the Center for American Entrepreneurship and Right to Start, in collaboration with Cromwell Schmisseur as subject matter experts, recently presented two webinar events. Both events were recorded and are available online. The first webinar focuses on the federal-state funding structure of SSBCI and recommendations for ways that various stakeholders can engage in the design and implementation of the initiative. The second webinar emphasizes specific challenges faced during implementation of the first SSBCI (2010-2017), potential solutions, and recommendations for Treasury on the relaunch. The webinars were attended by state and local officials, economic development professionals, financial institutions, and private investors, among other entrepreneurial champions. As a moderator in both webinars, I found they provided vital insights and sparked lively discussions. For me, the biggest take-away was the significant variation in the needs and processes of different states and, therefore, the importance of involving entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial champions, and startup investors to influence how SSBCI gets properly implemented in each place. Before he was cast as James Bond, Daniel Craig almost appeared in a beloved Heath Ledger film. In a new interview, writer-director Brian Helgeland has recalled an audition with the British star in which he was trying out for the medieval-set romantic comedy A Knights Tale. Speaking toVariety around the 2001 films 20th anniversary, Helgeland said that Craig came in to read for Count Adhemar, and he was fantastic. This was long before he was Bond, obviously, he continued, before disclosing how he ultimately decided to go with actor Rufus Sewell for the role. He was just amazing. But I had already taken to Rufus Sewell for the role. I came close to changing my mind but it ultimately came down to Daniel was blond and Heath was blond and I though the contrast in looks with Heath and Rufus was better. And they became best friends, those two, they would carouse through Prague together. Helgeland also reminisced about casting James Purefoy, who at the time was rumoured to be in the running to play James Bond. Daniel Craig almost starred alongside Heath Ledger before being cast as James bond (Getty Images) I cast James Purefoy as Edward, the Black Prince, and I was like, This guy is going to be James Bond. When hed walk on the set, wed all start singing the theme to James Bond, the dun-dun-dun-dun. And hed say, Oh, stop! Craig would go on to inhabit the Bond role, appearing in Casino Royale (2006), Quantum of Solace (2008), Skyfall (2012), Spectre (2015) and the forthcoming No Time to Die. It was the event the music industry had been longing for. On Tuesday night, the Brit Awards 2021 became the first large-scale live event to be held indoors in the UK since the coronavirus pandemic began in March last year. It was a history-making event in more ways than one, with female artists including Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Arlo Parks among the biggest winners of the night. The importance of such an event was embodied perhaps most by the international presence of stars such as Swift, The Weeknd, HAIM and Billy Porter, who will have quarantined before being allowed to travel to the O2 Arena in London. Jack Whitehall, who over the years has become one of the shows most popular hosts, guided stars and audience members alike through a night that proved surprisingly lively, despite the strict safety measures in place. Coldplay opened the night with a spectacular performance of their new single, Higher Power, on the Thames outside the O2 Arena. They were followed by Dua Lipa, who offered a mash-up of hit singles from her Best Album-winning record, Future Nostalgia. The first award of the night went to Arlo Parks, who scooped Best Breakthrough artist after making the Top 10 album charts with her debut, Collapsed in Sunbeams. This was promptly followed by a history-making win for Little Mix, who became the first-ever girl band to win Best Group. The trio Perrie Edwards, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and Jade Thirlwall delivered a powerful acceptance speech that first thanked their former bandmate, Jesy Nelson, who quit the group earlier this year. They then called out the misogyny and racism they have faced over the course of their 10-year career, and championed the girl groups who came before them, including Spice Girls and the Sugababes. Not unexpectedly, several artists were unable to make the ceremony, including J Hus, who won Best Male Artist, and Billie Eilish, who won Best International Female. Eilish was able to share a video message to the live audience, in which she expressed her hopes of being able to return to the UK for live shows again soon. Harry Styles managed to attend in between filming scenes for My Policeman in Brighton, and accept his award for Best British Single (for Watermelon Sugar). The ceremony marked a big year for female artists, a fact noted by Dua Lipa as she collected her award for Best Female Solo Artist. Three years earlier, she had called out the fact that she was one of the few women honoured at the ceremony. But tonight the show celebrated one of the most diverse rosters of artists in its history, from The Weeknd, Arlo Parks and Little Mix to J Hus, Billie Eilish and HAIM. Perhaps epitomising this Year of Women was Taylor Swift attending in person to become the first female recipient of the Global Icon award, which has previously gone to the likes of Elton John and David Bowie. Accepting her award, Swift took to the stage to rapturous applause and a standing ovation. Anyone who knows me at all knows that Game of Thrones is my life, so the fact that Maisie thank you so much for coming to do this, Swift told Maisie Williams, who presented her award. That was like a thousand surprise birthday parties, she added of the video announcing her achievements. Im really proud to be a part of this musical community, especially in a year where we needed music so much, she continued, adding a special thanks to the NHS and key workers who have supported people during the pandemic. She also extended a message to the hopeful artists who might be cowed by the intimidating and toxic culture of social media, urging them that, if they found themselves under attack from trolls or critics, they were probably doing something right. Capping an eventful night that was full of political statements, Dua Lipa took home the coveted Best Album prize. She accepted with yet another powerful speech that called on the government to give a Hero Award to Folajimi Olubunmi-Adewole, the 20-year-old who died trying to save a woman from the Thames in London. It was a bittersweet evening, with audience members and viewers at home in the knowledge that we are not out of the woods yet. But this year, the Brits proved that they are capable of putting on a show that manages to be relevant in every sense of the term. Last summer, I bumped into an acquaintance in the street. I flinched as she threw her arms around me. Having an autoimmune condition made me extra-cautious about Covid. I was annoyed this oblivious person overlooked my personal choice at a time many felt vulnerable to the virus. But I also realised something else: I simply didnt want to be hugged. After months of hugging being off the cards, I was surprised to find myself cringed out by the touchy-feely nature of her approach. For a few days afterwards it made me consider how many times I, too, may have invaded someones personal space with an unsolicited hug, so normalised had they become. When the prime minister announced this week that we could once again hug our friends and family from Monday 17 May a sentence unimaginable to our 2019 selves it felt like one more step towards our post-Covid recovery. After over a year without touch, many of us have realised just how much we once took embracing loved ones for granted. Obviously, I cant wait to hug my best friends and parents once more. Breaking the awkward and unnatural distance weve enforced for so many months will feel jubilant. Touch is a vital part of communication and so often during the pandemic, this invisible barrier has created a block to intimacy. A touch on the arm to acknowledge someones joke, a squeeze of the hand to comfort a friend in need physical contact can say so much more than words. Without it, relationships have been impacted and intimacy has been put on pause. A specialist in relationships and communication, psychologist Dr Kalanit Ben-Ari explains that physical contact originates as an evolutionary survival instinct that begins at birth. From the first moment a baby is born, they are dependent on and crave physical contact as a way to survive while seeking food, comfort and protection, she says. There is evidence that a baby needs and prefers touch even more than food for healthy development. This is because hugging activates the parasympathetic nervous system, Dr Kalanit explains. So a baby in distress can be regulated and calmed by hugs and movement. With such personal origins, then, is it any wonder I find hugging an all-too intimate exercise between strangers? Just as the pandemic has highlighted our human need for physical interaction, hasnt it also helped us re-evaluate the importance of physical boundaries? With all the misery that Covid has caused, restrictions have also re-introduced us to the idea of personal space, from not hovering too close to someone on the bus, to respecting their boundaries and stepping aside as they pass you in the street. You never know what physical barriers might be making someone hesitant to launch into your arms Beyond personal preference, you never know what physical barriers might be making someone hesitant to launch into your arms. Once struggling with severe period pain at a family party, I stuffed a hot water bottle between clothing layers. When a fellow guest threw their arms around me, I was terrified of the potential unfolding embarrassment. Thinking my heat relief would either drop onto the floor, or Id flinch in agony, instead I just seemed rude and standoffish in the awkward moment when I stepped back to avoid their incoming embrace. Since becoming a mother, Ive noticed the phenomenon of being taught to accept uninvited hugs is ingrained in us from our early years. Children are often instructed to hug friends or family members goodbye, with no regard for their own preferences. Were teaching children from a young age that their desire for personal space doesnt matter, instead of reenforcing in them the importance of regaining control over it and consenting only when they feel comfortable. Instead of being made to cuddle Auntie Sue, a child should choose if they want to accept physical contact, so they can learn that they dont have to please adults by relinquishing their consent. Several media personalities masked more sinister unwanted touching with a touchy-feely, huggy exterior Its easy to see why weve become a nation of huggers. Through film and TV weve been fed the narrative of an unchallenged tactile culture, from Buddy the Elf giving out free hugs in the street, to Jessie squeezing a bashful Woody in Toy Story, and the characters in Friends hugging or touching each other all the time. But while cute in movies, if these scenarios played out in real life, theyd seem much more questionable. Now, we can think of several media personalities who masked more sinister unwanted physical contact with a seemingly harmless touchy-feely exterior. Dr Kalanit outlines how we should be mindful of our own and other peoples preferences when it comes to physical contact after the pandemic. Accept that we are different and try not to take it personally if others prefer not to hug. We all have a different pace. Acceptance of those differences and talking about how you feel about it with those close to you can help. I dont want to return to a normal in which we barge past people, pushing them or tapping them on the shoulder, getting up close to them to squeeze past in a crowd. But, mostly, I emphatically dont want to be hugged or air-kissed in greeting or for jumping into the arms of everyone I meet to be a universal expectation. So yes, bring on May 17, but Ill be saying no to a hello hug and maintaining my social distance. By Andrew Hammond Results released during the weekend from the U.K.'s "Super Thursday" elections on May 6 show that the country is more divided, politically, than any time in at least a generation, with the still significant possibility that Scotland may secede from the union. In the biggest set of U.K. ballots ever outside of a general election year, Scotland re-emerged as the biggest danger to Boris Johnson's continuing premiership. The election in the U.K. saw parties favoring independence the Scottish National Party (SNP) and the Greens win a clear majority that could become the handmaiden to a second secession referendum. The last such plebiscite in 2014 was lost by nationalists to the tune of 55-45. However, support for independence has surged since then, and some polls indicate that over 50 percent of voters now favor this option with one potential "game-changer" here: Brexit, which 68 percent of the Scottish electorate voted against in 2016. If the SNP had won a majority by itself, that result might have piled insurmountable pressure on Johnson to allow a referendum. However, that worst-case scenario for the prime minister was avoided, as the nationalist party fell just short of this threshold, absent the addition of Green legislators. Johnson will be relieved by this development, and will now seek to resist a new Scottish plebiscite. He knows that, if such a ballot were to be lost, his premiership would be over more-or-less immediately, just as David Cameron's was in 2016 when he was on the losing side of the Brexit ballot he himself called. Johnson will now argue that a referendum on independence in the near term would put the U.K.'s economic recovery from the pandemic at risk. Logical as this argument is to many, however, the lesson of Brexit is that emotion can be the chief driver of voter sentiment. And the SNP and Greens will now raise the tempo on this issue, in a battle of wills with Johnson that could ultimately see litigation on the issue being decided by the U.K. Supreme Court. The deep divisions in the U.K.'s body politic were also shown by the election results in England and Wales. In Wales, Labour performed the strongest, securing half of the seats in that nation's devolved legislature, which matched its best ever achievement there. Meanwhile in England, Johnson's Conservatives performed generally strongly, including winning a big Westminster by-election in the longstanding Labour stronghold of Hartlepool, with a swing of some 16 percentage points; retaining the West Midlands mayoral seat of power with an enhanced majority; and securing a wide number of Council seats to boot. This result confirmed the powerful post-Brexit position that the party now holds in much of England, first revealed in the 2019 general election. In performing so well in England, the Conservatives bypassed a series of scandals that have hit the party in the last few weeks. Perhaps the most damaging revelations surround Johnson's handling of the corona crisis. A growing number of voices, including from within the Conservative Party itself, are calling for a public inquiry as soon as possible. This call comes as new accounts emerge of a battle of wills within Downing Street that saw a reportedly skeptical Johnson at odds with some key advisers over whether to implement a second pandemic lockdown in November. The prime minister reportedly said he would rather see dead "bodies piling up" than introduce a new sweeping wave of restrictions. Such a probe still has political danger for Johnson in that there is a relatively wide consensus that he and the U.K. government made significant mistakes, especially in 2020, and his political credibility and authority have been tested repeatedly with increased doubts about whether he is up to the job. While many of the decisions he has made during the crisis have been very tough with no easy answers, his approach has too often been chaotic and incoherent. Yet, for now at least, voter concerns about the prime minister, held by English voters, were largely swept aside for at least two reasons. Firstly, the U.K. economy has regained growth again, amid some predictions that the country is on course for its biggest boom since the 1940s. This spurt of growth has been enabled by the second reason why the prime minister remains popular in many quarters. That reason is the country's rapid rollout of its vaccination program, which is allowing consumers to go out and spend surplus capital stored up during the pandemic. The success of the U.K. jabs scheme has buoyed the popularity of the Conservatives, despite one of the highest per capita death rates from the pandemic, and an economy harder hit than almost any G20 country. While the ballot highlighted the different political directions of England, Scotland and Wales, Johnson's hold on power appears significantly stronger now than during much of 2020. This hold may be deceptive, however, given the volatility of his premiership, which leaves open the possibility that his term could yet end sooner than many now expect, especially if he is forced to back down on a new Scottish referendum. Andrew Hammond (andrewkorea@outlook.com) is an associate at LSE IDEAS in the London School of Economics. New research examining the effect of minimum nurse-to-patient ratios has found it reduces the risks of those in care dying by up to 11 per cent. The study, published in The Lancet, also said fewer patients were readmitted and they had shorter stays in hospital. It compared 400,000 patients and 17,000 nurses working in 27 hospitals in Queensland, Australia to 28 other hospitals. The state has a policy of just one nurse to every four patients during the day and one to seven at night, in a bid to improve safety and standards of care. The research said savings made from patients having a shorter length of stay, which fell 9 per cent, and less readmissions were double the cost of hiring the extra nurses needed to achieve the ratios. NHS England has resisted moves towards minimum nurse to patient ratios, suspended work by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) on safe nurse staffing in 2015. This came as the watchdog was preparing to call for minimum ratios in accident and emergency departments. It has advised that eight or more patients to one nurse is the point at which harm can start to occur. During the Coronavirus pandemic staffing ratios in intensive care, which are normally one to one, were suspended in the NHS with some nurses stretched to look after up to four patients. Other hospitals left ward nurses looking after 16 or more patients. NICE has said that eight or more patients to one nurse on a general ward is the point at which harm can start to occur to patients. NHS England said there were over 11,000 more nurses, midwives and health visitors working in the NHS in England in January than a year earlier. Applications to studying nursing at university are up 34 per cent across England to an all-time high of 48,830. In 2016, 27 hospitals in Queensland were required to adopt minimum nurse to patient ratios while 28 others did not. The research team from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing examined two years of data, based on nurses in direct contact with patients on medical wards. They compared the odds of dying within 30 days of admission and the odds of being readmitted within seven days of discharge. They found that the chance of death fell by 11 per cent in hospitals. The length of stay fell 9 per cent. When nurse workloads improved by one less patient per nurse, the chance of death and readmissions fell by 7 per cent, and the length of hospital stay dropped by 3 per cent. Lead author, professor Matthew McHugh said: Our findings plug a crucial data gap that has delayed a widespread roll-out of nurse staffing mandates. Opponents of these policies often raise concerns that there is no clear evaluation of policy, so we hope that our data convinces people of the need for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios by clearly demonstrating that quality nursing is vital to patient safety and care. But the study did not fully compare like for like hospitals and only 30 per cent of nurses responded to the study surveys. The level of staffing at the hospitals improved by an average of only half a patient per nurse and were better staffed than comparison hospitals to begin with. Dr Elaine Maxwell, a former chief nurse and author of a review of staffing evidence for the National Institute for Health Research, said: I'm not persuaded this study adds anything to our knowledge. The original Magnet study was important as it demonstrated a link, but it is now time to look at context and variation to avoid simplifying a complex situation in an unhelpful way. I'd also like to see a move away from negative definitions of nursing as only preventing harm, to the measures of positive contribution to health, wellbeing and satisfaction. Professor Peter Griffiths from the University of Southampton, who worked on NICEs safe staffing project, told The Independent: When we reviewed the research for NICE in 2014, the evidence that nurse staffing levels influenced important outcomes for hospital patients, including the risk of death, seemed compelling. However, the direct evidence that policies such as mandatory minimum ratios was very limited. Such limitation has often been cited as a reason for not supporting specific recommendations in policy. This new study is the first large scale prospective study of the costs and effects of implementing a mandatory minimum policy. It shows that implementing a mandatory minimum of one nurse to four patients was linked to a reduction in deaths and potentially cost savings through shorter stays and avoided readmissions. He added: It is striking that staffing levels in a lot of UK hospitals are far lower than this. It is important to remember that, based on the evidence of this and other studies, staffing shortfalls would need to be filled by registered nurses. Current policies in some areas, England in particular, involve creating new grades of staff below the registered nurse, where there is no evidence for benefit. I also note that many in the UK call for mandatory minimums but it is really important that the staffing level that is mandated is right. Having a minimum that is too low is also dangerous. The Royal College of Nursing said the study added to the existing evidence on how crucial nurses were to safety. Pat Cullen, chief executive said: Every time the nurse number drops, mortality increases - that's how critical we are to safe patient care. There are tens of thousands of unfilled nurse jobs right now. Patients cannot afford for the government to keep ducking this issue. Accountability for workforce planning must be included in the forthcoming legislation for NHS and care services in England. Marc Gilbert was washing dishes when he heard strange noises coming from his young daughters bedroom. When he investigated, he heard a man urging his two-year-old to wake up you little slut. The voice was coming out of the baby monitor in the room. It felt like somebody broke into our house, he said. The hack of the monitoring system at the house in Houston, Texas, in 2013, highlighted a growing trend of attacks on web-enabled devices the so-called Internet of Everything (IoE) that controls systems from garage doors to burglar alarms. The hack also represents a shift to a new world order where privacy, national security and individual rights are being rewritten because traditional checks on anti-social behaviour are absent online, says Professor Mary Aiken, a leading cyber psychologist who examines the effect of the internet on crime. Theres a perception that nobody is in charge and thats because nobody is in charge, she says. The work of Professor Aiken who advises law enforcement bodies and governments has inspired a new series of CSI, the US television crime franchise. It will focus on cyber crime and baby-monitor hacking, and kidnapping is at the heart of the plot in the first episode. Professor Mary Aikin, whose work has has inspired a new series of CSI (2015 CBS Broadcasting Inc) The shows lead FBI agent is a former behavioural psychologist played by Patricia Arquette, and is loosely based on Professor Aiken, the director of the Dublin-based RCSI CyberPsychology Research Centre. Her work is an online extension of forensic psychology the study of what makes people commit crime, memorably dubbed the blood spatter of the mind. The shows producers picked up on her previous work in which she briefed the White House on ways to spot online human trafficking. She has also advised Europol and does research for national police forces, including Scotland Yard, as they grapple with the enormity of cybercrime and its estimated global cost of 200bn. That is just the start, says Professor Aiken, who can see the emergence of sophisticated cyber crime gangs with increased size, complexity, reach and confidence. She asks, in a written Europol threat assessment: What is the prognosis for a generation inured by the consumption of illegally downloadable music, videos, software and games? What sort of criminal activities may this generation of virtual shoplifters progress to? She sees a cultural shift which may leave present psychological, social and cultural norms behind, including respect for property rights, privacy, national security and the authority of law enforcement. The potential threat from hackers to home security, life support machines, aircraft systems and critical infrastructure is chilling. Former US Vice President Dick Cheney revealed in 2013 that the wireless function was disabled on his implanted defibrillator due to concerns that outsiders could hack the network and provoke a heart attack. Despite the threat, little is known about those who are driving the rise in crime. Too often, Professor Aiken says, research focuses on the weaknesses of computer networks rather than the motives of those who would seek to exploit them for reasons of crime or espionage. Researchers suggest that motives for hacking range from the search for profit to a Freudian reading of the desire to penetrate. The CSI death dogs: Sniffing out the truth behind the crime-scene canines Show all 2 1 /2 The CSI death dogs: Sniffing out the truth behind the crime-scene canines The CSI death dogs: Sniffing out the truth behind the crime-scene canines Animal magic: handler Mick Swindells and Shep Nigel Hillier The CSI death dogs: Sniffing out the truth behind the crime-scene canines Dogs helped rescue workers after China's earthquake AP Within a few decades cyber crime has developed from a few small groups hacking for fun or prestige into a global criminal industry, according to Europol. It incorporates traditional criminals who have spotted the opportunities from emerging technology, and new entrants. Professor Aikens current research is directed at these new entrants, often young, technically savvy men, who fuel the service industry, to organised criminal groups. A crude search on Google for hacking tools, for example, reveals 7.4 million matches in less than half a second. She suggests this new wave includes those whose childhoods have been shaped by such factors as exposure to extreme sexual content online and a vulnerability to radicalisation. You have a 14-year-old boy sitting in his mothers bedroom who has incredible tech skills but may lie on the autism scale. [At] that point when that child engages with organised crime gangs and becomes involved, is that child a victim or a criminal or a mixture of both? People do things online, under assumed anonymity, that they would not do normally, she says, pointing to how bullying became a bigger problem online than in real life. She wants social media sites to embed a digital deterrent to flag up wrongdoing. But this is a world where everyone is a potential victim: where your entire financial, social and private information is held on a phone that can be left on a bus, and where a childs selfie can provide data to a potential sexual predator detailing age and location to within a few hundred feet. Marc Gilbert responded to the threat to his child by switching off the monitor. I dont think it ever will be connected again, he said. CSI: Cyber premieres on Channel 5 on 6 Oct with a double bill at 10pm UPDATE: This article has been amended to clarify that Professor Aiken is a Cyperpsychologist, rather than a Forensic Psychologist, as originally reported . Baltimore County officials said Monday theyre examining a mans interactions with authorities dating back 30 years after he killed three people, set fire to his home and was fatally shot by responding officers last weekend. We have a lot of questions, Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa R. Hyatt said at a news conference in the aftermath of Saturdays violence. The man, Everton Brown, 56, had interactions with patrol officers, outreach officers and the crisis intervention team over many years, Col. Andre Davis said. Neighbors described threatening, erratic behavior and Davis said three peace orders had been filed against him. Two guns were legally registered to Brown, Davis said, but Baltimore police seized one of them in 2010. Investigators believe Brown used the second weapon in Saturday's rampage. Hyatt also said authorities would be looking back at forensic evidence from past years. The shooting was the second recently with a mental health component in which multiple people were killed in the county, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said. Those incidents reveal shortcomings in the current mental health treatment system and theres a need to take a serious look at gaps to see what changes must be made, Olszewski said. News outlets reported that Brown unsuccessfully sued the Department of Justice in 2012, alleging the agency had been running surveillance on him for more than five years and had unlawfully denied a public records request seeking records of said surveillance. U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Wednesday urged global cooperation to combat cyberattacks by hostile state actors" and criminal gangs. Raab also pledged 22 million pounds ($31 million) in support to vulnerable countries in Africa and the Indo-Pacific to improve their digital defense capacity. He said Britain and the West must step up on cybersecurity or face the multilateral vacuum being filled by China and Russia We need the combination of resilient defenses but also offensive capabilities, and the global diplomatic clout which comes with being a modern cyberpower, Raab said in a speech at a National Cyber Security Centre conference in London He said the funding would go to national cyber response teams, awareness campaigns and an Interpol operations hub in Africa. The foreign secretary accused Moscow and Beijing of being among the authoritarian regimes failing to take action against cyberattacks coming from their own soil. He said elections had become a prime target for interference, with the aim of destabilizing democratic states. The Biden administration last month announced sanctions against Russia and expelled diplomats over a massive hacking campaign which targeted federal agencies, known as the SolarWinds breach, as well as for vote meddling. Russia, which denied involvement in the breach, responded in kind against what it called unprovoked action. China in April denied links to work by hackers to spy for months on dozens of high-value government, defense industry and financial sector targets in the U.S. and Europe through Pulse Connect Secure devices. Raab also highlighted attacks on COVID-19 vaccine research programs and supply chains in the U.K., as well as universities, schools and hospitals. It seems that almost nothing is off limits for cyber criminals, he said. Raab had met with Group of 7 foreign ministers in London earlier this month, with security high on the agenda. Top diplomats from Australia, India, South Africa and South Korea had also been invited, with Raab saying gaining the trust of like-minded countries was essential. The families of 10 people shot dead by the Army in west Belfast 50 years ago in one of the bloodiest atrocities of the Troubles have welcomed a ruling that their loved ones were entirely innocent. The ruling also found they were not members of a paramilitary group, had no weapons and did not pose a threat, a coroner has found. Ms Justice Siobhan Keegan delivered her findings into what became known locally as the Ballymurphy Massacre at the International Conference Centre in Belfast (ICC) on Tuesday. There were jubilant scenes outside Belfast Coroner's Court as the families of those shot in August 1971 emerged to cheers from supporters. Northern Ireland's deputy first minister, Michelle ONeill, claimed it was British state murder. She tweeted: "The victims and the families of the Ballymurphy Massacre have been vindicated and the truth laid bare. This was British state murder." Ten people, a mother of eight and a Catholic priest among them, were shot between 9 and 11 August 1971 as internment was introduced in Northern Ireland a practice where paramilitary suspects were held indefinitely without trial. Army veterans said they came under sustained attack as trouble flared on 9 August when troops moved into national areas to arrest IRA suspects. The families of the deceased said their relatives were unarmed civilians who were shot by the army without justification. The coroner acknowledged it was a chaotic time in Northern Ireland but ruled that the use of force by soldiers had been "disproportionate" in the nine deaths the Army was found as responsible for. Ms Justice Keegan said there was not enough evidence for her to determine where the shot that killed the 10th victim, John McKerr, came from, but branded it "shocking" that there was no adequate investigation of the killing afterwards. The families of those killed, whove been campaigning for decades to clear the names of their loved ones, hugged and applauded as the coroner read out her findings. Parish priest Father Hugh Mullan, 38, and Frank Quinn, 19, were shot in the Springfield Park area of Ballymurphy around 9pm on 9 August. The coroner found they were killed by shots fired by soldiers and that the force used was not justified. Around the same time, outside an army barracks at the Henry Taggart Hall in Divismore Park, Noel Philips, 19, Joseph Murphy, 41, Joan Connolly, 44, and Daniel Teggart, 44, were fatally wounded by gunfire. The coroner found these killings were not justified, and that the victims were "innocent" and unarmed. "The army had a duty to protect lives and minimise harm, and the use of force was clearly disproportionate," she said. The following day, Eddie Doherty, 31, died after being shot in the Whiterock Road as he came across an encounter between soldiers and protesters who had erected a barricade across the road. The coroner ruled that the use of force in shooting Doherty was disproportionate. She also rejected claims that he had been throwing petrol bombs at the time. "He was an innocent man who posed no threat," she said. In the fourth incident, on the third day of shooting, Joseph Corr, 43, and John Laverty, 20, were shot in the Whiterock Road area in the early hours of the morning. Corr died from his injuries 16 days later. The coroner said the military had failed to establish an adequate justification for the use of lethal force in killing Corr and Laverty. She concluded that the two men were shot by the army and there was no evidence that they could have been shot by anyone else. She also rejected claims that the pair were gunmen who had been firing at soldiers. Reacting to the findings, Sinn Fein deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill said today is their day for the families. She said: For five decades they have campaigned with dignity and determination for the truth about what happened to their loved ones and despite all the setbacks they have kept going with such resilience and resolve, she stated. Today is their day; it is a day for truth. What happened in Ballymurphy was state murder and for decades the British government have covered it up. Now the truth has been laid bare for all to see. Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney said the findings have "cast a tremendous new light on one of the darkest pages of the history of the conflict". He said the findings will come as an "immense relief and vindication for the families who have maintained for decades that their loved ones were innocent and their killings unjustified". Alliance leader Naomi Long paid tribute to the families following their long campaign to clear their loved ones' names. "The Ballymurphy families have had battle too hard and too long to finally hear that truth at today's inquest ruling into their loved ones' deaths," she tweeted. "They have carried themselves with courage and fortitude throughout the last 50 years. This is vindication of their fight." Additional reporting by Press Association Boris Johnson has urged Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint, amid rising tensions and violence. "The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions," Mr Johnson said in a short statement posted on social media on Wednesday morning. Renewed clashes began on Friday when more than 200 Palestinians and 17 Israeli police officers were hurt in Jerusalem. Thousands of worshippers had gathered at the city's al-Aqsa mosque for their weekly Friday prayers and were attacked by police with rubber bullets and stun grenades. The show of force by Israeli authorities was in response to Ramadan protests over police restrictions in the Old City and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. The violence quickly escalated, with Hamas militants firing rockets into Israeli territory and Israel responding with airstrikes. 43 people, including 13 children, have been killed by Israeli airstrikes, while Hamas rockets have killed five. Speaking in the House of Commons Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrats' foreign affairs spokesperson, read the names of some of the children who had been killed in the strikes, as she asked an urgent question to ministers. "My heart breaks for them and Mr Speaker my heart bleeds for Palestine, for Jerusalem, the city of my family, for the worshipers attacked by extremists in the al-Aqsa mosque on the holiest night of Ramadan and for all innocent civilians, Israeli and Palestinian. We cannot allow this to escalate any further, she said. "The Israeli government pursuing evictions in Sheikh Jarrah that would be illegal under international humanitarian law including the fourth Geneva Convention, and the subsequent overly aggressive reaction of the Israeli authorities that injured hundreds has ignited a tinder-box. And Hamas then retaliated and those strikes must be condemned too because violence only begets more violence." She added: "If this isn't the time to recognise the state of Palestine, then when is? The United Kingdom has a historic responsibility to the people of Palestine and a fundamental obligation to uphold international law. That two-state solution as promised to the likes of my family is as elusive as ever. It is time for the government to not just say, but do." James Cleverly, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, said in response to Ms Moran's urgent question: "The UK unequivocally condemns the firing of rockets at Jerusalem and other locations in Israel. We strongly condemn these acts of terrorism from Hamas and other terrorist groups, who must permanently end their incitements and rocket fire against Israel. There is no justification for any targeting of civilians. "Israel has a legitimate right to self-defence, and to defend the citizens from attack. In doing so, it is vital that all actions are proportionate, in line with international humanitarian law, and make every effort to avoid civilian casualties. Violence against peaceful worshipers of any faith is unacceptable. "UK has been clear that the attacks on worshipers must stop. The status quo in Jerusalem is important at all times, but especially so during religious festivals, such as Ramadan. Our priority now must be an immediate deescalation of all sides, and an end to civilian deaths. "As I made clear over the weekend we are concerned about tensions in Jerusalem, linked to threatened evictions of Palestinian families from our homes ... that threat is allayed for now, but we urge Israel to cease such actions which in most cases are contrary to international humanitarian law." Speaking after the parliamentary exchange Lib Dem Ms Moran said: Last night, the UN Special Envoy to the Middle East Peace Process warned that the situation in Israel and Palestine is 'escalating towards a full scale war'. It is therefore vital that the UK Government plays our full part through international diplomatic efforts to call for de-escalation, now, today. One would hope that that could be through the Security Council but we also cannot wait for the United States. World news in pictures Show all 51 1 /51 World news in pictures World news in pictures 8 June 2021 AFP via Getty Images World news in pictures 7 June 2021 Gondoliers help tourists to get on the gondolas, as the region of Veneto becomes a white zone, following a relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions with only masks and social distancing required, in Venice, Italy Reuters World news in pictures 6 June 2021 A military brass band plays during the international ceremony on the 77th anniversary of D-Day, at Omaha Beach in Vierville-sur-Mer, northwestern France AFP/Getty World news in pictures 5 June 2021 An explosives expert from Hamas lays out unexploded projectiles from the aftermath of the May 2021 conflict with Israel, at a local police precinct in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip AFP/Getty World news in pictures 4 June 2021 A couple take photos of each other on a rainbow flag-themed path during pride month at Samyan MRT station in Bangkok, Thailand Reuters World news in pictures 3 June 2021 Sebastien Ogier steers his Toyota Yaris WRC with co-driver Julien Ingrassia during the shakedown at the Rally of Sardegna and fifth round of the FIA World Rally Championship AFP/Getty World news in pictures 2 June 2021 Smoke rises from a fire onboard the MV X-Press Pearl vessel as it sinks while being towed into deep sea off the Colombo Harbour, in Sri Lanka June 2, 2021 Sri Lanka Airforce via Reuters World news in pictures 1 June 2021 A girl runs through a fountain outside a shopping mall on International Children's Day in Beijing on June 1, 2021, a day after China announced it would allow couples to have three children. AFP/Getty World news in pictures 31 May 2021 In this handout image courtesy of the US Coast Guard the Coast Guard Cutter Resolute small boat crew rescues 8 people from the water approximately 18 miles southwest of Key West, Florida AFP/Getty World news in pictures 30 May 2021 A fishing boat sails in the sea-snot covered Marmara sea near Istanbul, Turkey EPA World news in pictures 29 May 2021 Smoke billowing from the Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl, which has been burning for the tenth consecutive day in the sea off Sri Lanka's Colombo Harbour, in Colombo Sri Lanka Air Force/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 May 2021 Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis accompanied by his dog Peanut welcomes European Council President Charles Michel at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, Greece Reuters World news in pictures 27 May 2021 A man waits to receive a dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, in the rooms of the Claudia Comte exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Castello di Rivoli near Turin AFP/Getty World news in pictures 26 May 2021 A girl, with her face painted with the colours of the opposition flag, looks on during a demonstration against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad and presidential elections, in the opposition-held Idlib, Syria Reuters World news in pictures 25 May 2021 A Buddhist monk climbs atop a giant statue of Buddha, to wash and decorate on the eve of Buddha Purnima, a holiday traditionally celebrated for Buddha's birthday also known as Vesak celebrations, in Bhopal AFP/Getty World news in pictures 24 May 2021 Lava from the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo cuts through Buhene north of Goma, Congo AP World news in pictures 23 May 2021 Cyclists at the start of the 15th stage of the Giro dItalia, a 147km race between Grado and Gorizia AFP/Getty World news in pictures 22 May 2021 Swiss Guards take their position prior to the arrival of the European Commission President at San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican for a private audience with the Pope AFP/Getty World news in pictures 21 May 2021 A dog that has been trained to sniff out the coronavirus disease, screens a sweat sample at Chulalongkorn University, in Bangkok, Thailand Reuters World news in pictures 20 May 2021 Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr in action during a F1 practice session at the Circuit de Monaco in Monte Carlo Reuters World news in pictures 18 May 2021 Horse-drawn carriages drive through the mudflats near Cuxhaven, northern Germany dpa via AP World news in pictures 17 May 2021 Kanoya Onishi in action during the Cycling BMX Free Style of Tokyo 2020 Olympics test event at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Japan EPA World news in pictures 16 May 2021 Rescuers carry Suzy Eshkuntana, 6, as they pull her from the rubble of a building at the site of Israeli air strikes, in Gaza City Reuters World news in pictures 15 May 2021 A ball of fire erupts from the Jala Tower as it is destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza city AFP/Getty World news in pictures 14 May 2021 Muslims offer Eid al-Fitr prayers inside the Baitul Mukarram Mosque in Dhaka, Bangladesh AP World news in pictures 13 May 2021 Muslim girls ride on a mini train after attending the Eid Al-Fitr prayer that marks the end of the Holy month of Ramadan at Uhuru Park in Nairobi, Kenya AFP/Getty World news in pictures 12 May 2021 Israeli artillery fire as the escalation continues between Israeli army and Hamas at the Gaza Border EPA World news in pictures 11 May 2021 Maya Nakanishi competes in the womens long jump - T64 category during a para-athletics test event for the 2020 Olympics at the National Stadium in Tokyo AFP/Getty World news in pictures 10 May 2021 A Palestinian man helps a wounded fellow protester amid clashes with Israeli security forces at Jerusalems Al-Aqsa mosque compound, ahead of a planned march to commemorate Israels takeover of Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War AFP/Getty World news in pictures 9 May 2021 Falconer Giovanna Piccolo performs with her Eurasian eagle-owl at 'Roma World' theme park, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Rome Reuters World news in pictures 8 May 2021 Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (29) is introduced as a starter against the St. Louis Blues at T-Mobile Arena. USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 6 May 2021 Buddhist monks and believers attend a lantern parade in celebration of the upcoming birthday of Buddha at a temple in Seoul, South Korea Reuters World news in pictures 5 May 2021 Russian MiG-29 jet fighters of the Strizhi (Swifts) and Su-30SM jet fighters of the Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights) aerobatic teams fly in formation over the Cathedral Square of the Kremlin in Moscow during a flypast rehearsal for the WWII Victory Parade AFP/Getty World news in pictures 4 May 2021 An elevated metro line collapsed in the Mexican capital on Monday, leaving at least 23 people dead and dozens injured as a train came plunging down, authorities said AFP/Getty World news in pictures 3 May 2021 Lightning bolts strike buildings during a thunderstorm in Bangkok AFP/Getty World news in pictures 2 May 2021 Samaritan worshippers arrive to take part in a Passover ceremony on top of Mount Gerizim, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus AFP/Getty World news in pictures 1 May 2021 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 as May Day Protest turn violent near Place de la Republique in Paris, France Getty World news in pictures 30 April 2021 A demonstrator from the Rio de Paz human rights activist group digs a symbolic grave in front of rows of bags symbolising bodybags on Copacabana beach, during a protest against the Brazilian governments handling of the coronavirus pandemic, in Rio de Janeiro AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 April 2021 An aerial picture shows dead carp fish flushed to the shores of al-Qaraoun reservoir in Lebanons Western Beqaa District in the countrys east. Tonnes of fish have washed up dead on the shoreline of the highly polluted artificial reservoir in eastern Lebanon in recent days AFP/Getty World news in pictures 28 April 2021 Health workers wearing PPE attends to coronavirus patients inside a banquet hall temporarily converted into a covid care centre in New Delhi AFP/Getty World news in pictures 27 April 2021 The full moon, known as the Super Pink Moon rises behind the Statue of Liberty in New York City, Reuters World news in pictures 26 April 2021 Balinese people lay wreaths with names of the crew on board the sunk Indonesian Navy submarine KRI Nanggala during a prayer at the sea near Labuhan Lalang, Bali, Indonesia EPA World news in pictures 25 April 2021 An Ethiopian Orthodox Christian worshipper walks around the Edicule, the place believed to be where Jesus Christ was buried, during Palm Sunday celebrations at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem AFP/Getty World news in pictures 24 April 2021 Fans of Wuhan Three Towns FC cheer for their team during the 1st round match Wuhan Three Towns FC and Beijing Institute of Technology FC during Chinese Football League One in Wuhan, China Getty World news in pictures 23 April 2021 A girl prays in front of the Dome of the Rock, in the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalems Old City, on the second Friday of the holy month of Ramadan, as coronavirus restrictions ease around the country, in Jerusalem Reuters World news in pictures 22 April 2021 People walk through the art work 'THE SPIRITS OF THE PUMPKINS DESCENDED INTO THE HEAVENS' by Yayoi Kusama, during the press preview of a retrospective exhibition of the Japanese artist at the Martin Gropius Bau museum in Berlin, Germany AP World news in pictures 21 April 2021 Hungary's Sara Peter competes in the Women's floor qualifications during European Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the St Jakobshalle, in Basel AFP/Getty World news in pictures 20 April 2021 South Korea university students gets their heads shaved during a protest against Japan's decision to release contaminated water from its Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, in front of the Japanese embassy, in Seoul Reuters World news in pictures 19 April 2021 A spectator wearing a football jersey of Argentina's forward Lionel Messi attends the ATP Barcelona Open tennis tournament singles match between Japan's Kei Nishikori and Argentina's Guido Pella at the Real Club de Tenis in Barcelona AFP/Getty World news in pictures 18 April 2021 People raise their fist during a demonstration near the George Floyd Memorial in Minneapolis, Minnesota AFP/Getty World news in pictures 17 April 2021 Security personnel stand guard outside a polling station during the 5th phase of West Bengal's state legislative assembly elections in Kolkata AFP/Getty I have serious concerns regarding the willingness of the UK Government to follow these steps, concerns which have not been allayed by the Ministers response to my Urgent Question." She added: The Foreign Secretarys media statement on the crisis focused solely on Hamas, making no acknowledgment of the role of the Israeli government. Neither was there any recognition of the provocative timing of these attacks, during Ramadan. It is vital that, along with full de-escalation, international pressure is put on both the Israeli government and Hamas to abide by their commitments under international law. The UK must do all it can to avoid war. What we need now is the full force of the international community to say: this has to stop. And its not just the Israeli government that has to stop. The escalation of the rocket fire towards Israel must cease. We need people to put down their arms - to stop killing innocent civilians, and children - and get back to the negotiating table. Later on Wednesday Downing Street backed Mr Cleverlys approach. Asked whether Mr Johnson agreed with apparently stronger criticism of Hamas rockets, a spokesperson said: We are urging Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint. The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions. Asked whether the PM would specifically condemn Israeli actions, the spokesperson said: We condemn the civilian casualties as simply unacceptable and we want both sides to step back from the brink. He added: We are clear there can be no justification for terrorist attacks on civilians. The Prime Minister has made his position clear on that. We do not condone the killing of innocent civilians under any circumstances. The spokesperson declined to comment on government minister Zac Goldsmiths retweet of a message from the Israeli Defence Force which stated that no country on Earth would be expected to tolerate these incessant attacks on innocent civilians by an organisation committed to their total eradication. Labour leader Keir Starmer said on Wednesday afternoon: The situation in Jerusalem, Gaza and Israel is shocking. Labour is calling for the immediate end to air strikes and rocket attacks. Britain must act to de-escalate tensions and kick-start efforts for a sustainable peace - through a two-state solution. Boris Johnsons government will not rule out re-introducing tougher restrictions for coronavirus hotspot areas, a cabinet minister has said. Despite the success of the vaccine roll-out in bringing down Covid-19 deaths and hospital admissions, there are pockets of the UK where cases are back on the rise. Asked if the government would consider local curbs, George Eustice, the environment secretary, said: We cant rule anything out the reason were being incredibly cautious about exiting lockdown, is we want this to be the last. Mr Eustice also told Sky News: We want to try and avoid having to get into a tiered system and regionalisation. We tried that last autumn, we know that in the end we had to go for a full lockdown. The minister said certain parts of the country were being closely monitored, and lateral testing in workplaces and schools should allow the health authorities to pick up these hotspots. Mr Eustice said it was not yet clear what was behind the local rises, saying he did not know whether it is particular variants or people becoming more relaxed about remaining restrictions. The rising number of cases of the Covid variant first detected in India in the UK should make the government reconsider the relaxing of restrictions on 17 May, one leading expert has warned. Prof Christina Pagel, a member of the Independent Sage group, said ministers should act now instead of waiting until things get really bad before we realise we should have acted several weeks ago. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said the Indian variant B.1.617 has now been detected in 44 countries and the UK has reported the highest caseload outside of India. There have been 1,392 cases of the Indian variant detected in the UK so far, according to the Covid-19 genomics UK consortium database. The latest data shows a surge in Covid-19 cases in the Lancashire area of Hyndburn, which has Englands highest two-week case rate of 199.9 per 100,000 people. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 9 June 2021 Adam Chamberlain, 45, general manager of Big Tree pub in Sheffield, has put up over 500 flags, taking 36 hours, in preparation for Euro 2020, which kicks off this weekend Tom Maddick / SWNS UK news in pictures 8 June 2021 REUTERS UK news in pictures 7 June 2021 A pedestrian wearing a face covering walks over Westminster Bridge near the Houses of Parliament in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 6 June 2021 Isobel Salamon, founder of the Edinburgh Cinema Club, poses alongside the Leith Trainspotting murals in Quality Yard, Leith, Edinburgh, for the programme launch of the Cinescapes Festival which starts on July 4 with a Trainspotting 1 and 2 double bill PA 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. The celebration marks the end of the Muslim month of fasting, called Ramadan. PA UK news in pictures 12 May 2021 A couple have wedding photos taken in Westminster, London Getty UK news in pictures 11 May 2021 The sun rises on Coquet Island, off Amble on the Northumberland coast, where as many as 35000 seabirds cram onto this tiny island to breed PA UK news in pictures 10 May 2021 Newly elected for a second term Mayor of London Sadiq Khan during his signing in ceremony at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on Londons Southbank PA UK news in pictures 9 May 2021 People mill around St. Michael's tower on top of Glastonbury Tor as it is seen through blooming yellow rapeseed on a day of mixed weather in Glastonbury, Somerset PA UK news in pictures 8 May 2021 Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford elbow bumps newly elected MS Labour candidates Elizabeth Buffy Williams, Rhondda, left, and Sarah Murphy, Bridgend & Porthcawl Labour, right, as they meet in Porthcawl, Wales PA UK news in pictures 6 May 2021 A group of five Sisters from Carmelite Monastery in Dysart cast their vote in the Scottish Parliamentary election at Dysart Community Hall, West Port, Dysart PA UK news in pictures 5 May 2021 Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer (centre) with West Midlands Metro Mayor candidate Liam Byrne (far right) and Labour Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner (far left) during a visit to Birmingham, whilst on the election campaign trail PA UK news in pictures 4 May 2021 Artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey stand within 100 oak saplings which form part of a living art installation entitled Beuys' Acorns by the UK-based artist duo, outside the Tate Modern in London PA UK news in pictures 3 May 2021 Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie feeds the Gentoo penguins during a visit to Edinburgh Zoo on the campaign trail for the forthcoming Scottish Parliamentary Election on May 6 PA UK news in pictures 2 May 2021 Chelsea players celebrate their fourth goal during the Womens Champions League semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich, at Kingsmeadow Stadium in south west London. The Blues won the game 4-1, (and the tie 5-3 on aggregate) sending them through to their first Champions League final AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 1 May 2020 Demonstrators during a march through London during a 'Kill the Bill' protest Angela Christofilou UK news in pictures 30 April 2021 Shoppers queue outside Primark in Belfast as shops reopen and hospitality is able to open outdoors in Northern Ireland where lockdown restrictions have begun to gradually ease PA UK news in pictures 29 April 2021 Specialist operators at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, near Telford, Shropshire, clean the Hawker Hunter aircraft displayed within the museum's National Cold War Exhibition, during annual high-level aircraft cleaning and maintenance PA UK news in pictures 28 April 2021 Millions of tulips in flower near Kings Lynn in Norfolk, as Belmont Nurseries, the UK's largest commercial grower of outdoor tulips, offers socially-distanced visits to its tulip fields at Hillington to raise funds for local charity The Norfolk Hospice Tapping House PA UK news in pictures 27 April 2021 Paula Laughton checks one of the newly installed Lego models in the new Lego Mythica land at Legoland Windsor Resort PA UK news in pictures 26 April 2021 A red panda rests on a tree at Manor Wildlife park, which reopened its doors as lockdown restrictions continue to ease, in Tenby, Wales Reuters UK news in pictures 25 April 2021 Sheep climb the hillside as flames from a moor fire are seen on Marsden moor, near Huddersfield AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 24 April 2021 Supporters protest against Manchester United's owners, outside English Premier League club Manchester United's Old Trafford stadium in Manchester AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 23 April 2021 People enjoy the warm weather at City Hall near Tower Bridge in central London PA UK news in pictures 22 April 2021 Uyghurs during a demonstration in Parliament Square, London, which is being held ahead of a House of Commons debate, bought by backbench MP Nus Ghani, on whether Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province are suffering crimes against humanity and genocide PA UK news in pictures 21 April 2021 People walk at the Taihaku Cherry Orchard in Alnwick REUTERS UK news in pictures 20 April 2021 People stand in front of anti Super League banners outside Anfield as twelve of Europe's top football clubs, including Liverpool, launch a breakaway league Reuters UK news in pictures 19 April 2021 Women enjoy sunny weather in Greenwich, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, Reuters The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, said that Bolton which has the second highest infection rate at 158.9 cases per 100,000 people was now a cause of concern. Mr Burnham said all over 16-year-olds should be given the Covid vaccine to try to stop the spread of the Indian variant in the area. Dr Sakthi Karunanithi, Lancashires director of public health, said he expects there to be another surge in Covid cases after further lockdown restrictions are eased at the start of next week. Asked on BBC Radio 4s Today programme if opening up further could problems in areas with already high case rates, he said: We are all expecting there will be another surge in the cases, but we also know that we have protected the most vulnerable. Dr Karunanithi there was still real uncertainty in terms of the variants and how severe they are going to be. In Scotland, the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said the region of Moray is likely to stay under level 3 restrictions due to widespread community transmission of Covid in the north-east area. With a decision due at the end of the week, it is highly probable Moray will remain under tighter rules, despite the rest of mainland Scotland easing into level 2 restrictions on 17 May. Labour needs total deconstruction and reconstruction in order to revive as a party amid the major setback of last weeks poor electoral performance, former leader Tony Blair has warned. In a frank assessment of the partys new leadership, Mr Blair also said that Sir Keir Starmer lacked a compelling economic message, was struggling to break through with the public, and was being backed into electorally off-putting positions. The former prime ministers intervention comes after Angela Rayner, the deputy leader who was involved in stand-off with Sir Keir over the weekend after she was removed as party chair, said voters did not know what the Labour leader stood for at the recent election. As some on the left of the party raised questions over Sir Keirs stewardship of the party after the loss of the Hartlepool by-election and 327 councillors at the local elections, Mr Blair, however, insisted in an article for the New Statesman: The Labour Party wont revive simply by a change of leader. It needs total deconstruction and reconstruction, he wrote. Nothing less will do. He added: At present, Labour expresses perfectly the progressive dilemma. Corbyn was radical but not sensible. Keir seems sensible but not radical. He lacks a compelling economic message. And the cultural message, because he is not clarifying it, is being defined by the woke left, whose every statement gets cut-through courtesy of the right. In a separate interview on Wednesday, Mr Blair also told ITVs Good Morning Britain that the success of the governments vaccination roll-out, with over 35 million people having received a first dose, gave a boost to the government at the recent elections. Asked whether it was possible he would be the last Labour politician to be elected as prime minister, he replied: Well, its a huge problem for Labour because we did something the Labour has never done in its history before. If you go back 120 years of Labours history, there are three occasions in which the far left have got near to the leadership of the Labour Party: 1935, 1983, and 2019. All of them have been the worst defeats weve ever had. But only in the last defeat 2019 did the far left actually capture the leadership of the party itself. You can agree with Jeremy Corbyn, dont agree with him, but it was a dramatic change in the type of Labour Party that had been put forward. He added: Its a challenge to be fair to him [Sir Keir], which is much more difficult that I had. I came to the leadership of the Labour Party after Neil Kinnock had made huge reforms. Then I was able to take it all further. Keir has literally taken the Labour Party over at probably the hardest part of its entire political history Im deeply sympathetic to him. Appearing on BBC Radio 4s Today programme, Ed Miliband, another former leader of the party, said Labour had a mountain to climb and insisted Sir Keir had managed to put the Remain-Leave argument behind us. But we all have a collective responsibility to show exactly what we stand for going forward absolutely we do, he said. We should be bolder, of course we should bolder. He added that Sir Keir believes the country needs a big economic change to make it less unfair, unequal and unproductive, stressing now was not the time to blow the final whistle on his leadership. What Im interested in is what we do now. You dont blow the final whistle on the match a third of the way through the match, which is where we are probably in this parliament; we go out and we fight for what we believe in. Thats what weve got to do as a party look to the country, as Angie Rayner is saying. Carole Baskin says she is extremely worried for residents of a Houston suburb and the tiger seen wandering the area after its keeper was arrested. Ms Baskin, of the popular Netflix series Tiger King, said to CNN she was extremely worried about what happens with this tiger and the people around it, in an interview on Wednesday. Because the people who were involved in buying, and selling, and owning, and transporting this tiger have proven that they are reckless individuals with no concern for the people around them, or for the animal involved, said Ms Baskin. The Tiger King star added: No tiger belongs in a backyard or basement. Authorities arrested a 26-year-old individual allegedly keeping the tiger, Victor Hugo Cuevas, hours after an initial confrontation in a suburb of Houston on Sunday. A resident caught the incident on film and alerted authorities to a tiger on the loose. As CNN reported, an off-duty sheriffs deputy then arrived, aiming a firearm at the tiger. Mr Cuevas, who was free on bail after facing a murder charge, then appeared and allegedly forced the tiger into the back of a van, with authorities giving chase. Authorities eventually arrested him in the early hours of the morning, but admitted that the whereabouts of the tiger were still unknown. Ms Baskin added to CNN: I was so impressed with the deputy that showed up on the scene because he did exactly the right thing, and he showed amazing restraint by not shooting that tiger and not shooting that tiger, not emptying that gun into the tiger. He kept eye contact, he backed away slowly, Ms Baskin, alternatively know as The Mother Theresa of tigers, continued. A tiger, if you look down, if you turned, if that neighbour had run back to his door, that just triggers its instinct to kill. By Kim Bo-eun Korea is quickly becoming a hub for producing vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 in Asia, based on its advanced manufacturing capabilities and capacity. Government officials told The Korea Times that Moderna is reviewing setting up a production plant on Incheon's Yeongjong Island, where Incheon International Airport is located. Incheon is a strategic location for bio firms, based on a variety of factors. It is home to a cluster of bio companies in Songdo International Business District. The cluster spanning 920,000 square meters houses 60 Korean and foreign bio firms and research centers, including Samsung Biologics, Celltrion and Merck. Samsung Biologics and Celltrion are pouring in 2.5 trillion won for setting up production facilities and R&D centers within the area. The two bio firms are in the process of constructing their third and fourth plants there. They are seeking to transform the area into the world's largest production base for biomedical products. The cluster is adjacent to Incheon Global Campus, which houses local campuses of renowned institutions such as the State University of New York, George Mason University and Ghent University. The bio companies are seeking to set up joint research agreements with the universities to boost R&D capabilities. A judge almost charged a man with contempt of court after he logged into his court hearing on Zoom with the username Buttf***er 3000. Judge Jeffrey Middleton in St Joseph County in southern Michigan said bring this fool in before the defendant popped up on the screen with his rather improper username. Good morning, sir, whats your name? The judge asked. My name is Nathaniel Saxton, sir, the defendant said after realising that the judge was speaking to him. There were at least eight others in the Zoom meeting. Your names not Buttf***er 3000, you yo-ho, logging in to my court with that as your screen name, the judge said and later added: What kind of idiot logs into court like that? The defendant said he didnt believe he had typed anything like that as his username. Well, thats what it says, the judge retorted. The defendant was in court on a drug paraphernalia charge from the city of Three Rivers, described in the court proceeding as an alleged violation of a city ordinance, which could lead to as much as 90 days in jail and a $500 fine. Saxton pleaded not guilty at first but the prosecutor wouldnt change course, arguing that Saxton was found with a used syringe with traces of meth on it. When Judge Middleton noted that the fine for this offence is normally $200, Saxton appeared to change his mind, admitting to being in possession of the syringe and other paraphernalia. He received a fine of $200. Saxton tried to apologise for his username, to which the judge said: Yeah, you should. Im going to put you in the waiting room, you can sit in limbo for a while and think about what you call yourself online, Judge Middleton said before briefly ejecting Mr Saxton from the Zoom meeting. The man later popped up on the screen with the name Nathaniel Saxaon, seemingly misspelling his own name. Upon his return to the court proceeding, he said: Your honour, if I may explain, my sister was the one who set up my Zoom account or whatever, claiming that it was an inside joke. Its not what you think, Im embarrassed. Im sorry, Mr Saxton added. After being handed the fine for taking responsibility for the paraphernalia, the judge asked the defendant if his sister was near by. No, unfortunately, she is not, Mr Saxton said. Tell her she almost got you put in jail for contempt of court, the judge added. Mohamed Hadid is selling off the troubled $45m mega-mansion he was ordered to tear down as a clear and present danger to the public. The businessman, who is father to supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, has been embroiled in a long-running battle with the city of Los Angeles over the controversial Bel Air estate. After a six-year fight to complete the partially-built 53,000 square feet mega-mansion, the California Supreme Court rejected his final appeal to overturn a demolition order on the property. A judge in the case declared that the saucer-shaped building was a threat to the safety of his neighbours, who have argued it could slide down the hill. Now Mr Hadid is trying to sell the home for $8.5m and it must be demolished as soon as the sale closes, according to The New York Post. Demolition costs have been estimated at $5m during the court cases. According to the real estate listing, the property on the exclusive enclaves Strada Vecchia Road will give its new owner the rare opportunity to build a world class estate featuring views of the city and surrounding canyon. The current house sits on an acre of land, bought by Mr Hadid for $2m in 2011, and is close to the Bel Air Country Club and downtown Beverly Hills. In 2017 Mr Hadid received 200 hours community service and was fined $3,000 and ordered to pay the city costs of $14,000 for illegally building the home after pleading no contest to criminal charges related to it. Mr Hadid, 72, was sued by his neighbours in 2018 over the property, which they claimed was illegally built and unstable. If this house came down the hill it would take a portion of the neighbourhood with it, said Judge Craig Karlan after ordering it demolished. In 2019 it was reported that the businessman did not have the necessary funds to complete the teardown himself, and his company 901 Strada LLC filed bankruptcy days after a court ordered the demolition. Court documents stated that the company was between $10m and $50m in debt. A huge crack led to the closing of a bridge between Arkansas and Tennessee, with repairs possibly taking months. Thousands of drivers were forced to take detours and part of the Mississippi River was shut down for shipping. The bridge, leading into Memphis in the southwest corner of Tennessee, was shut down on Tuesday afternoon after inspectors found a significant fracture in one of two horizontal steel beams stretching across the river. Each beam is 900 feet long. The beams are essential for the bridge's structural integrity, according to Lorie Tudor, the director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation. The damage comes as the Biden administration and congressional Democrats are negotiating with Republicans over Mr Bidens $2.3tn infrastructure proposal. Republicans first counterproposal measured $568bn. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he thinks the package should cost between $600bn and $800bn. While Democrats want to raise the corporate tax rate to pay for the investments, Republicans have mainly argued for user fees. Both the transportation departments of Tennessee and Arkansas assured people that the 48-year-old, 1.8 mile long bridge would be safe before it once again opens to traffic. This fracture had the potential of becoming a catastrophic event that was prevented by our staffs diligent effort in managing our bridge inspection program, Ms Tudor said. Traffic was instead sent to the next bridge about three miles south, where the 71-year-old Memphis and Arkansas Bridge crosses the river. It has four lanes compared to the six lanes of the now-closed Hernando de Soto Bridge upstream. The nearest river crossings to the Memphis and Arkansas Bridge are now about 100 miles to the north and 60 miles to the south. Traffic on the river was also halted until further notice. The Coast Guard said that 16 tug boats pulling along more than 220 barges were stuck in line on Wednesday. DeWayne Rose, emergency manager in West Memphis in Arkansas, just across the river from Memphis, Tennessee, said: People around this area are used to lane closures, theyre used to construction, theyre used to shutdowns, and I think everyone is just a little on edge because of the uncertainty of the time frame of this." Paul Degges, the chief engineer for the Tennessee transportation department, said determining whether the damaged bridge can hold its own weight and the weight of construction crews can take days. Officials said the state of Arkansas is in charge of inspections, while Tennessee manages maintenance and repairs. Certainly, it's plausible that this could be months rather than weeks, Mr Degges told reporters. We are hopeful that we can find a solution that would allow us to proceed with some opening of traffic, but right now we just dont know. Memphis Democrat Steve Cohen said: Its fortunate that routine inspection averted a potential disaster, but the state of our crumbling infrastructure is deeply troubling." Mr Cohen said he would push for improvements to the I-40 bridge to be a part of the Biden infrastructure package. In the 2020 National Bridge Inventory report, the Federal Highway Administration said the bridges structural evaluation checked out somewhat better than minimum adequacy to tolerate being left in place as is. Inspectors also found that height and width clearances for oversize vehicles were basically intolerable requiring high priority of corrective action. Arkansas officials said the crack was not present during the last inspection in September 2020. The bridge opened in 1973 and carried an average of 35,000 vehicles a day across the river during the course of last year, the report states. But Mr Degges said the real number is around 50,000 vehicles a day. An infuriated Dr Anthony Fauci told senator Rand Paul that he was entirely and completely incorrect for accusing federal agencies of funding Wuhans institute of virology and the development of Covid. During a congressional hearing on the coronavirus on Tuesday, Mr Paul falsely accused federal agencies of funding gain-of-function research in Wuhan, forcing Dr Fauci to call out the conspiracy. It is alleged although without evidence that Covid was developed through gain-of-function research, whereby Chinese scientists in Wuhan increased its transmissibility to see how it could emerge in future. Although the US banned the form of research as far back as 2014, and with no US funding for it in almost all forms, Mr Paul told Dr Fauci: Can you imagine if a SARs virus that has been juiced up, and had viral proteins added to it, to the spike protein, if that were released accidentally? Dr Fauci told the senator: You are entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH (National Institute of Health) has not ever and does not now fund gain-of-function research in the Wuhan institute...and if it is, it is according to the guidelines and it is being conducted in North Carolina, not China. The retort by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director and top medical adviser followed allegations by Mr Paul and one other Republican that the NIH and NIAID funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan. Senator Roger Marshall, following the fraught exchange between Mr Paul and Dr Fauci, alleged: If Covid-19 is indeed a product of lab manipulation, can you sit here and unequivocally say that viral studies that NIAH funded, helped fund, could not be directly or indirectly related to this final Covid-19 virus. Dr Fauci responded: Yeah, looking at the experiments that weve done, weve funded, there would not be that possibility...[and] as I mentioned in response to senator Paul, the NIAH and the NIAD did not fund gain-of-function research to be conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The conservative news site WorldNetDaily alleged in an article last year that Dr Faucis NIAID funded the Wuhan institute of virology, and its research into Covid, with an article titled: New evidence ties Covid-19 creation to research funded by Fauci. The NIAID was in fact responsible for funding another form of research at the facility, as the Austin-American Statesman reported, with WorldNetDaily retracting its initial findings. In January, officials from the US state department alleged that studies on animal-derived coronaviruses under conditions that increased the risk for accidental and potentially unwitting exposure were carried out in Wuhan, and refused to rule it out as a theory for coronavirus. But, as Dr Fauci told Congress on Tuesday, that theory remains without any real evidence, and federal agencies were not funding the research inside Wuhans institute of virology. I do not have any accounting of what the Chinese may have done, and Im fully in favour of any further investigation of what went on in China, Dr Fauci told Congress. However, I will repeat again, the NIH and the NIAID categorically has not funded gain-of-function research to be conducted in the Wuhan institute of virology. House Republicans seem ready to toss Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post after she repeatedly rebuked former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. Voting behind closed doors Wednesday, lawmakers were expected to remove Cheney, R-Wyo., from the party's No. 3 House position, a jarring blow to what's been a fast-rising career. She is Congress' highest-ranking Republican woman and a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney and her demotion would provide the latest evidence that challenging Trump can be career-threatening. In an audacious signal that she was not backing down, Cheney took to a nearly empty House chamber Tuesday evening to deliver an unapologetic four-minute assault on her GOP adversaries and defense of her own position. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar, she said, adding, I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy. Cheney's replacement was widely expected to be Rep. Elise Stefanik R-N.Y., who entered the House in 2015 at age 30, then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Stefanik owns a more moderate voting record than Cheney but has evolved into a vigorous Trump defender whos echoed some of his unfounded claims about widespread election cheating. It was initially unclear when the separate vote on Cheney's replacement would be. Stripping Cheney, 54, of her leadership job would stand as a striking, perhaps historic moment for the GOP. One of the nations two major parties was in effect declaring an extraordinary admission requirement to its highest ranks: fealty to, or at least silence about, Trumps lie that he lost his November reelection bid due to widespread fraud. In states around the country, officials and judges of both parties found no evidence to support Trump's claims that extensive illegalities caused his defeat. Its been clear that Cheneys days in leadership were numbered as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., No. 2 leader Steve Scalise, R-La., joined Trump and other Republicans from across the partys spectrum aligned against her. Critics said Cheneys offense wasnt her views on Trump but her persistence in publicly expressing them, undermining the unity they want party leaders to display as they message in advance of next years elections, when they hope to win House control. Its not about right or wrong. Its about the focus" of House Republicans, Scalise said Tuesday. Many Republicans also agree with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whos said the allegiance many GOP voters have to Trump is so intense that the party cant succeed without him. A small number of Republicans have spoken out against removing Cheney. It will do nothing but drive some people away from our party, said Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee and one who has clashed often with Trump. Seemingly conceding that the numbers were against her, Cheney made no discernible effort to cement support ahead of Wednesdays vote, several Republicans said. Rather, she all but erected billboards advertising her clash with Trump, declaring in a Washington Post column last week, The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution. Cheney has told Republicans she intends to remain in Congress and seek reelection next year in her solidly pro-Trump state. The former president has said hell find a GOP primary challenger to oppose her. Cheney arrived in Congress in 2017 with a well-known brand as an old-school conservative, favoring tax cuts, energy development and an assertive use of U.S. power abroad. By November 2018 she was elected to her current leadership job unopposed and seemed on an ambitious pathway, potentially including runs at becoming speaker, senator or even president. She occasionally disagreed with Trump during his presidency over issues like his withdrawal from Syria and attacks on Dr. Anthony Fauci over the pandemic. But her career hit turbulence in January once she became one of 10 House Republicans to back his second impeachment for inciting his supporters' deadly Capitol assault of Jan. 6. The Senate acquitted him. In a memorable statement before the House impeachment vote, Cheney said: The president of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. Her words and her pre-vote announcement, which allowed Democrats to cite her opposition during the debate infuriated many House conservatives. She withstood a February effort by conservatives to boot her from leadership in a 145-61 secret ballot, but a McCarthy speech on her behalf is credited with saving her. That wasn't expected to happen this time. Since then, shes stood by her views, in one noteworthy incident while McCarthy stood awkwardly nearby at a news conference. Stefanik also arrived in Congress with sterling GOP establishment credentials. A Harvard graduate, she worked in President George W. Bush's White House and for the campaign of the GOPs 2012 vice presidential nominee, Wisconsin Rep. and later Speaker Paul Ryan. Her district, bordering Canada and Vermont, voted twice for Barack Obama and then twice for Trump in the past four presidential elections. She opposed Trump's trademark 2017 tax cut and his efforts to unilaterally spend billions on his southwestern border wall. Stefanik grabbed center stage as a fierce Trump defender in 2019 as the House impeached him over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to produce damaging information about Joe Biden, his Democratic rival. Senate acquittal followed. While Stefanik has won adoration from Trump, some of Washington's hardest-right conservatives have remained suspicious of her moderate record. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote colleagues Tuesday chastising Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats' agenda once sworn in. No Stefanik challenger has yet emerged, and other conservatives like Scalise and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, are in her camp. We have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others, she said Tuesday. Liz Cheney has been ousted from her position in the House Republican Party leadership. The party removed Ms Cheney from her post as conference chairwoman by a voice vote because of her opposition to Donald Trumps election lies. The motion to remove the Wyoming representative was put forward by Virginia Foxx and supported by GOP leader Kevin McCarthy. Ms Cheney, speaking during the closed-door meeting with House Republicans, said: If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, Im not your person, you have plenty of others to choose from. That will be their legacy. She added: We cannot let the former president drag us backward and make us complicit in his efforts to unravel our democracy. Down that path lies our destruction, and potentially the destruction of our country. There are reports that when Ms Cheney began to speak and criticised the former president, she was booed by some members. However, later she received a round of applause for her leadership. Ms Cheney offered a prayer during the conference meeting: Dear God, fill us with a love of freedom and a reverence for all your gifts. Help us to understand the gravity of this moment. Help us to remember that democratic systems can fray and suddenly unravel. When they do, they are gone forever. Speaking to reporters after the meeting she added that she does not feel betrayed by todays vote and is going to keep on fighting to prevent Mr Trump from ever making his way back to the White House. We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the constitution ... I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. As Ms Cheneys removal was conducted by voice vote, there is no official record of how individual members voted, though many took to Twitter or spoke with reporters following the meeting. One estimate is that three quarters voted against her. Representative Lance Gooden of Texas, one of the first to publicly call for Ms Cheney to be removed, says in a statement: Todays vote shows that Republicans are united behind one goal: taking back the house. Mike Kelly, representative for Pennsylvanias 16th district, justified his vote to remove her on Twitter: As the representative from Wyoming, Liz Cheney can vote however she wants and answer to her constituents. The job of conference chair is to represent our entire conference, which she has consistently failed to do. One of Ms Cheneys most ardent supporters who also refuses to buy into the big lie about the 2020 election promoted by Trump is Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger. Im fully supportive of Liz. What happened today was sad. Liz has committed the only sin of being consistent and telling the truth, the truth is that the election was not stolen, he said. Remarking on leader Kevin McCarthys calls for unity, the congressman said: Look, Im all for unity. Im all for unity and truth, you know. Truth cannot co-exist with lies. Truth cannot co-exist with false, that you cannot unify with. And I think thats what Liz has been saying. I stand by Liz. I am proud of her, he added. Colorado representative Ken Buck observed: I believe Liz Cheney was cancelled today for speaking her mind and disagreeing with the narrative the former president has put forth. The removal leaves Ms Cheney as a national figure with a huge platform from which to voice her opinion with the authority of someone who chose country over party. Immediately after her removal, the Wyoming congresswoman sat down for an exclusive interview with Savannah Guthrie of NBC News. Ms Cheneys replacement as conference chair will be voted in on Friday. New York representative Elise Stefanik is the only candidate. Representing part of upstate New York, Ms Stefanik is reportedly moving to reassure any members of the party who might have reservations about her more moderate voting record. Ms Stefanik released a letter to her colleagues about a vision to unify the GOP conference and win back the house majority in 2022. She promises a disciplined, unified message from party leadership; a communications posture on offence every single day; and to empower all our members to shine. As fighting continues between Israel and Hamas in some of the worst violence in the region in years, a few progressive Democrats have spoken up for the Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire. On Tuesday, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene said they should be banned from Congress. Members who support terrorism dont belong in Congress. #JihadSquad, the Republican representative tweeted. Twitter was quick to point out the irony. January 6 wasnt that long ago, remember? one user wrote. Totally agree. We look forward to your resignation ASAP, another tweeted. On 6 January, an angry mob of Donald Trump supporters violently stormed the United States Capitol. The FBI has called the attack an act of domestic terrorism. Ms Greene is fiercely loyal to Mr Trump, and vocally supported his effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat, which Congress was voting to certify when the mob attacked. Since then, the Georgia congresswoman has falsely claimed the rioters were not Trump supporters . If supporters of terrorism must resign, many on Twitter said theyd be happy to see Ms Greene go. So when are you leaving? one user replied to the congresswoman. I couldnt agree more, another commented. When does your resignation take effect? Others posted pictures of the 6 January insurrection. The comments to which Ms Greene objected were from The Squad, a small group of progressive Democrats led by Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez . She and others in the group had criticized Israel for its response to recent rocket attacks by Hamas. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem, AOC tweeted on Saturday. Israeli forces are forcing families from their homes during Ramadan and inflicting violence. It is inhumane and the US must show leadership in safeguarding the human rights of Palestinians. Two days later, fellow Squad member Rep Ilhan Omar made a similar statement. Israeli air strikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism, the Minnesota congresswoman tweeted . Palestinians deserve protection. Unlike Israel, missile defense programs, such as Iron Dome, dont exist to protect Palestinian civilians. As of Wednesday morning, the violence in Israel shows no sign of stopping. Five Israelis have died in the cities of Ashkleon, Rishon Lezion, and Lod, and 53 Palestinians have died in Gaza, including 14 children. Donald Trumps new communications platform, which boasts a blog-like format, has flopped on social media since its unveiling last week, according to a report. Following his banning from mainstream social media websites amid the Capitol insurrection, including Facebook and Twitter the former president set up From the Desk of Donald J Trump. NBC News reported that engagement with the new blog is drawing a considerably smaller audience than his now-banned social media accounts ever did. Citing data compiled with BuzzSumo, a social media analytics company, the broadcaster says the platform has only raked in 212,000 engagements. In comparison, a single post on the former presidents Twitter account to his 88 million followers could receive more than a million likes in one go, mainlining his every musing to the front of national attention. The outlet defined engagements as backlinks and social interactions such as likes, shares, and comments on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Reddit. The Independent has reached out to Mr Trump for comment. On the From the Desk site, users cant comment or interact with the post, but can only share them to other platforms. In the case of Trumps new platform, it is so technologically primitive that there is no way for his followers to even migrate, Jeremy Blackburn, an assistant professor of computer science at New Yorks Binghamton University, told NBC News. Who cares about a platform where you cant even own the libs? There are plenty of other newsletters that people have been adding to their spam boxes for years. Last week, the Facebook Oversight Board upheld Mr Trumps ban from the platform, forcing the former president to continue to share his thoughts through the official statements released by his office. Previously, the former president would see high-level engagement on Twitter and Facebook from users and the media with Mr Trump tweeting frequently throughout the day. On the new site, Mr Trump continues to offer a mixture of informal political endorsement and attacks, general news, and personal updates, which can also be received by email. However, his casual and pithy jabs against fake news media and targeted vilification of his political enemies such as Wyoming Rep Liz Cheney are no longer appearing to land as successfully. More broadly, interest in the former president has also been waning in terms of his stature in the social media sphere, polls show. Axios reported exclusive data from NewsWhip in May which showed that social media interactions concerning the president had fallen by 91 per cent since January. While interest in Mr Trump maintained consistent time throughout the election and his subsequent loss, it has since dropped drastically. Exclusive data from SocialFlow reported by the outlet showed that clicks to Trump stories dipped 81 per cent from January to February and another 56 per cent from February to March. Mr Trump, however, has maintained that social media platforms are worse off without him and that he, in return, is much better without them. When I put out a press release, you see what happens. Everybody is waiting and I think Im getting better and more coverage with that than I did with tweeting, Mr Trump said in March on Newsmax. He added: But no, I like this better than Twitter. Actually they did us a favour, this is better. The opposition leader recognized by the U.S. and dozens of other countries as Venezuela's legitimate leader on Tuesday proposed negotiations with the government on resolving the country's crisis and a possible gradual lifting of sanctions. In offering to work with President Nicolas Maduro's administration toward a National Salvation Agreement, Juan Guaido said it is necessary to seek realistic and viable solutions to Venezuelas social, economic and political crisis. His announcement through a video on Twitter follows a series of measures recently adopted by Maduros government aimed at improving relations with the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden Guaido said any agreement must be reached through negotiations involving the opposition, pro-government forces and the international community. He described as essential the commitment of the international community to achieve this recovery of Venezuela and offer incentives to the regime, including the progressive lifting of sanctions imposed by the United States and other countries. Maduros government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The pitch from the opposition leader echoes previous proposals that did not materialize, but it comes at a time when Maduro appears open to making concessions to the U.S. government in exchange for the lifting of the crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration. Those restrictions have made it difficult for Venezuela to develop, sell or transport its oil key to the economy and they also froze personal assets held abroad by key government officials. Maduros recent moves showing a willingness to engage with the Biden administration and international community have also diminished the profile of Guaido, who had consistently rejected negotiating with Maduros socialist government. Last week, Venezuelas National Assembly named two opposition stalwarts, including a formerly jailed activist, as election officials, marking the first time since 2005 that the opposition will have seats on the five-person National Electoral Council. The breakthrough agreement was hatched during weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations between representatives of the Maduro government and moderate opponents. In April, Maduro agreed to allow the United Nations World Food Program to establish operations in the country aimed at providing school lunches. U.S. officials had been demanding that Venezuela allow such aid, which it had long resisted. He followed that agreement with the partial release of six employees of Houston-based Citgo who were jailed more than three years ago on corruption charges that U.S. officials consider unfair. On the campaign trail, Biden called former President Donald Trumps policy of pushing for regime change in Venezuela an abject failure that has served only to strengthen the socialist leader. Senior officials at several federal agencies have been weighing U.S. options, including whether to ease the oil sanctions and whether to support an attempt at dialogue between Maduro and his opponents, according to two people familiar with the plans. The people insisted on anonymity to discuss classified diplomatic matters. The U.S. and about 60 other countries have recognized Guaido as Venezuelas legitimate president, arguing that Maduros re-election in 2018 was fraudulent. As acting president of the previous National Assembly, Guaido declared himself interim president in 2019. A 13-year-old Aboriginal boy in South Australia was crushed to death by a rubbish truck early on Tuesday after he fell asleep in an industrial bin that was being emptied. The driver of the truck was unaware that there was a boy in the bin, said police. According to the authorities, the boy along with two others, aged 11 and 12 was sleeping in the bin which was collected around 5:30am in Port Lincoln. As the bin has been lifted, one of the boys has managed to scramble out. However, the other two appear to have been tipped over with the bin as its lifted up into the truck, Superintendent Paul Bahr told the Sydney Morning Herald. One of the boys has survived and been relatively unhurt. However, the other boy has suffered fatal injuries as a result of that tip and has died at the scene. Calling it a really terrible event, Superintendent Bahr said that by the time the truck driver was alerted that there were people in the bin, it was at that point of being too late to stop the skip tipping. He further added that it was unclear at the moment why the boys were sleeping in the bin and that this is the first time they have become aware of it. Port Lincoln has an issue with homelessness, like every community, and from time to find we do get rough sleepers, but we are not aware of children sleeping rough. SafeWork SA, a state institution responsible for providing work health and safety across South Australia, said that they are making enquiries into the incident as they offered condolences to the boys family and friends. Calling it an unfortunate accident Brad Flaherty, the mayor of Port Lincoln issued a statement and said that it would be a very hard thing for the community to deal with. Its something that weve got to come to terms with over the next couple of weeks. But, I think one of the things that we have to do in the community is make sure that were supporting the families. We just be there for them, he was quoted as saying by the Guardian. People wait in a line to be vaccinated against COVID-19 at a center in Seoul, May 3. Yonhap By Baek Byung-yeul U.S. biotechnology firm Moderna has chosen Korea as its base to produce COVID-19 vaccines for Asian countries, according to multiple government sources, Wednesday. Amid the administration's ongoing vaccination efforts, attracting the U.S. firm is expected to help allay concerns about securing an adequate supply of COVID-19 vaccines. "Moderna recently expressed its intention to purchase land on Yeongjong Island, an hour away from Incheon International Airport, and its CEO Stephane Bancel is expected to visit Cheong Wa Dae as early as this weekend or May 18 at the latest," a high-ranking government official told The Korea Times asking for anonymity. Moon will fly to Washington late next week for a summit with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House, May 22 (KST). Another official backed up the statement saying the Moderna CEO's visit could go ahead as the interests of both sides are aligned. "Moderna thinks its vaccine production facilities in the U.S. are insufficient for supplying its COVID-19 vaccine throughout Asia, and so is seeking to improve its manufacturing capability. The firm's intention is matched with President Moon Jae-in's plan to make Korea the manufacturing hub for COVID-19 vaccines in Asia," he said. The U.S. biotech firm is producing its COVID-19 vaccine using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. The vaccine creates spike proteins similar to those on the surface of the coronavirus that causes the disease and these trigger an immune response in the vaccinated person and the production of antibodies. A vial of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine / AFP-Yonhap Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma have both tested positive for coronavirus, his office said in a statement posted by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana). Both had shown mild symptoms for Covid-19 before they were given a test to confirm infection, the statement said. Assad, 55, was described as being in good health and a stable condition. He and his wife will spend two to three weeks at home in isolation before returning to work, the presidents office said. The announcement comes just days before the 10-year anniversary of the uprising against the Assad regime and his rule, which began after his enforcers abducted and tortured a group of children accused of posting anti-government graffiti in the southern city of Daraa. The ensuing public response to the torture of the children prompted a massive uprising against the Assad familys decades-long dictatorship. As the regime of Mr Assad clung to power, the conflict eventually descended into a civil war drawing in major regional and international powers, as well as armed jihadi groups, including Isis. Mr Assad and his deputies have been accused of perpetrating the worst crimes against humanity of the 21st century, including the deliberate targeting of hospitals in opposition-held areas now struggling to cope with a flood of coronavirus patients. Over the years, Mr Assad and his loyalists have repeatedly tried to win sympathy from the international conflict and avoid accountability for actions, despite a large and growing body of evidence, according to the US, that the regime has used chemical weapons against its own civilians. The statement posted to Sana said the Assads wish safety and well-being for all Syrians and all the peoples of the world from this virus, calling on Syrians to follow health protocols. The Assads provided no proof that they had contracted Covid. The modern state of Israel was founded in May 1948 in the aftermath of the Holocaust and Second World War but the conflict that has raged between Israelis and Palestinians since can be traced back much further. Napoleon Bonaparte proposed a Jewish homeland in Palestine as long ago as 1799 in the wake of the siege of Acre during his war against the Ottoman Empire. The French commander was ultimately defeated in that conquest but his attempt to establish a European stronghold in the Middle East was revived by the British 41 years on, when foreign secretary Lord Palmerston wrote to his ambassador in Istanbul, urging him to press the Sultan to open up Palestine to Jewish immigrants as a means of countering the considerable influence of Egyptian governor Mohammed Ali. While there were only around 3,000 Jews living in Palestine at that time, wealthy benefactors such as French aristocrat Baron Edmond de Rothschild began to sponsor others from Europe to join them and establish settlements, the most notable being Rishon Le Zion, founded in 1882. Austrian writer Nathan Birnbaum coined the term Zionism in 1885 as Jews, particularly from eastern Europe, continued to arrive in Palestine. Austro-Hungarian journalist Dr Theodor Herzls book The Jewish State appeared a decade later, envisioning the establishment of such an entity with the coming of the 20th century. Two rabbis were sent by Herzls friend Max Nordau to Palestine to investigate the feasibility of the prospect but reported back: The bride is beautiful but she is married to another man. Undeterred, Birnbaum, Herzl and Nordau organised the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897 to discuss their dream of an independent Jewish nation and plans to lobby European powers for its realisation. By 1907, Britain was considering the need for a buffer state in the Middle East to bolster its dominance. British Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann, a biochemist, would arrive in Jerusalem at this time to establish a company engaged in buying up land near Jaffa. Within three years, about 10,000 dunums, an old land measurement equivalent to acres, had been acquired in the Marj Bin Amer region of northern Palestine, forcing out 60,000 local farmers to accommodate Jewish arrivals from Europe and Yemen. As a Jewish militia, Hashomer, was established to protect the growing number of settlements, Palestinian pharmacist Najib Nassar set up a newspaper, Al-Karmel, to warn against what he considered to be a colonising force. The outbreak of the First World War prompted a Britain distrustful of Mohammedans to intensify its interest in developing an allied presence in Palestine, not least to strengthen its grasp on the Suez Canal. In January 1915, Liberal Party politician Herbert Samuel drafted his secret memo The Future of Palestine, which was circulated among the Cabinet and in which he backed annexation and the country gradually becoming an autonomous Jewish state under the protectorship of the British Empire. Samuels recommendations were discussed privately by diplomats Sir Mark Sykes and Francois Georges-Picot the following year, architects of the Sykes-Picot Agreement that demarcated British and French spheres of influence in the event of the collapse of Ottoman rule. Austro-Hungarian journalist Dr Theodor Herzl who wrote The Jewish State advocating a nation in Palestine (Getty) The British governments Balfour Declaration followed on 9 November 1917, formally declaring support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine in a letter between David Lloyd Georges foreign secretary Arthur Balfour and Jewish community leader Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, effectively assuming ownership over a land that many would argue it had no legal right to give away. Rothschild, Samuel, Sykes and Weizmann addressed a celebratory meeting in London a month later before, on 11 December 1917, General Edmund Allenby captured the holy city of Jerusalem. Following the Kaisers defeat and the Great Wars end, US president Woodrow Wilson commissioned a report into the non-Turkish regions of the fallen Ottoman Empire conducted by academic Dr Henry King and orientalist Charles Crane, who found that the almost 90 per cent non-Jewish population of Palestine were emphatically against the Zionist project. The authors warned of the intensity of feeling and argued that Jewish immigration should be limited in the greater interests of peace but were roundly ignored by the international community, their conclusions suppressed until 1922. At the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, lieutenant-colonel TE Lawrence (much-mythologised as Lawrence of Arabia) mediated the signing of an agreement between Weizmann, now leader of the Zionist delegation, and his Arab counterpart Prince Faisal bin Hussein, agreeing in principle the founding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an independent Arab nation in the Middle East. In 1922, the League of Nations recognised the British Mandate to rule Palestine under the jurisdiction of Samuel, now high commissioner, who was instrumental in enacting at least 100 legal initiatives to establish a Jewish presence, including recognising Hebrew as an official language and permitting a separate Jewish educational system and Jewish army. The Hebrew University and Histadrut, a labour union, were in place by 1925. As the decade progressed, mass protests began to erupt opposing Jewish immigration as the Palestinian movement tried in vain to counter and resist what its members considered a usurpation backed by the military and diplomatic muscle of imperial Britain. Black flags were raised by Palestinians when Balfour visited Jerusalem and almost 250 Jews and Arabs were killed and many more wounded in August 1929 at the Wailing Wall in a tragedy that became known as the Buraq Revolt. Three Muslim men were put to death by Samuels successor, Sir John Chancellor, for their part in the unrest, an act of brutality intended as a deterrent. Foreign secretary Arthur Balfour, right, formally declared British support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people (Getty) But the protests continued, reaching fever pitch in 1933, as more Jewish immigrants arrived to make a home for themselves, the influx accelerating from 4,000 in 1931 to 62,000 in 1935. That same year, Muslim revolutionary leader Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam was shot dead by British soldiers in the hills above Jenin. In 1936, the intensity of opposition to British colonial rule imposing the Balfour Declaration on a people who deplored it resulted in a six-month-long general strike, an impressive feat of organisation that nevertheless resulted in a backlash in which Palestinian homes were destroyed. The wider world would once more be plunged into war in 1939 in the fightback against Adolf Hitlers Nazi Germany, whose Third Reich would ultimately be found responsible for executing six million Jews in concentration camps. Not long after the US entrance into the conflict, American-Zionist relations would be cemented with a 1942 conference at the Biltmore Hotel in New York, occurring just as an armed Zionist paramilitary force known as Irgun was rising up in Palestine and attacking local Arab groups. Irgun would become notorious for the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946, in which 91 people died, and the Deir Yassin Massacre on 9 April 1948, carried out in collaboration with another organisation, Lehi (or the Stern Gang), in which 107 were killed. That summer, Lehi would assassinate Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat dispatched by the United Nations to mediate the dispute. Following the Allied victories in Europe and the Pacific in 1945, world powers turned their attention towards ending the violence in Palestine. A two-state solution to the disputed territory almost came into being in 1947, when the UN General Assembly volunteered Resolution 181, which proposed carving a new state from Palestine west of the River Jordan: one housing Jews, the other Arabs. The resolution was adopted after a vote, allegedly as a result of diplomatic pressure from the US, but rejected by the Palestinians, who argued that Jewish residents owned no more than 5.5 per cent of the land at the time and so had no right to receive 56 per cent, in addition to the accompanying international legitimacy. Jewish jubilation met with Arab hostility and a civil war duly erupted. The first Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion officially proclaims the state of Israel in Tel Aviv in 1948 (AFP/Getty) The state of Israel was nevertheless founded under prime minister David Ben-Gurion on 14 May 1948 with the end of the British Mandate, winning immediate recognition from the US and Soviet Union but prompting the outbreak of the bloody Arab-Israeli War, which saw 3,000 resistance fighters rise up against the new nation and forced 700,000 Palestinian people to flee the fighting, seeking refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and Gaza, often without citizenship being granted. The displacement of the Palestinian people on that date is still marked every year on Nakba Day, named for an Arabic word for catastrophe and on which Palestinians give speeches, hold rallies and brandish the keys to the homes they were forced to leave behind and still hope to return to. In December of 1948, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194, recognising that Palestinian people who want to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbours should be given the right to do so as soon as possible. Israel though rejected the notion as a threat to the exclusively Jewish nature of the new state. A year later, the chamber would establish the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to further support those displaced. In the interim between those two events, Israel had signed armistice agreements with its neighbours in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. Jordan assumed administrative control of the West Bank in 1950 and Egypt would hold Gaza, an arrangement that would last until the Six-Day War of 1967, when Israel forces conquered those territories. Prior to that, the violence continued sporadically. Notable massacres took place in the villages of Qalqilya, Kufr Qasim and Khan Yunis in 1956 and in as-Samu in 1966. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation was founded in Cairo in 1964, dedicated to fighting for the liberation of Palestine through armed revolution rather than dwelling on rights issues, a stance the PLO would not abandon until 1993 and which would see it labelled a a terrorist organisation by both Israel and the US. It would be recognised as the sole representative of the Palestinian people by the Arab League in 1974. Israels military advance on the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and Egyptian Sinai in 1967 sparked fresh bloodshed and saw the UN Security Council pass Resolution 242 ordering it to withdraw from territories it considered occupied. The council was ignored. Following further fighting with Palestinian soldiers in Jordan in the Black September of 1970, the Security Council would pass another resolution, 338, calling for a ceasefire and again demanding Israel retreat from its 1967 incursions. Again, Israel refused. On 30 March 1976, Israeli land confiscations were met with uprisings, strikes and further violent reprisals in towns from the Sea of Galilee to the Negev, a date commemorated by Palestinians ever after as Land Day. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was befriended by Donald Trump (AP) An apparent breakthrough for peace in the Middle East occurred on 17 September 1978 when Israeli PM Menachem Begin met Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to sign the Camp David Accords at the Maryland retreat of president Jimmy Carter. One of the framework agreements clinched harmonious relations between their two nations and won the signatories the Nobel Peace Prize but the other, concerning the future of the disputed territories Palestine, would be condemned by the UN for being agreed without a Palestinian delegations involvement. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 while the first Intifada in Palestinian territories would erupt protesting occupation at the decades end. However, further incremental steps towards peace did occur when the PLO accepted UN Resolutions 242 and 338, formally recognising the state of Israel. Talks stalled again in 1991 and 1992, with no resolution in sight. Then, in summer 1993, the Oslo I Accord was signed by Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, providing for the creation of a Palestinian interim self-government, the Palestinian National Authority, and the withdrawal of Israeli Defence Forces from zones still widely considered occupied. A second agreement, Oslo II, followed in 1995 and granted Palestinian autonomy in certain parts of the West Bank and Gaza but, again, did not offer statehood. An uneasy truce held until a second Intifada saw Israel reoccupy West Bank cities in 2002, a destabilising event that would be worsened by the death of Arafat in 2004, a great blow to the Palestinian cause. Since that time, violence has returned, with Israel declaring war on Hezbollah in Lebanon in 2006 and launching repeated assaults on Hamas in Gaza, including Operation Cast Lead (2008), Operation Pillar of Defence (2012) and Operation Protective Edge (2014). Further violence blew up on Nakba Day in both 2017 and 2018, the latter severe enough to merit a UN war crimes investigation. The election of Donald Trump as US president further shook up the situation, with the former reality television star befriending Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as a gesture of recognition that the city is its capital before designating the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, in defiance of the broad international consensus that the region was illegally annexed. Mr Trump also cut US funding to the UNRWA and absurdly tasked his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, with developing a plan to bring peace to the Middle East, something the junior property developer was confident he could achieve without bias having read no fewer than 25 books on the subject. The tensions that have subsequently erupted again in Gaza and resulted in further deaths from Israeli and Hamas rocket strikes are just the latest manifestation of a feud that continues to blight a historic landscape torn apart by bloodshed. More than 80 Palestinians as well as 7 people in Israel have been killed since the outbreak of the deadly violence between Israel and Gaza started. Hundreds of Palestinians have also been injured during the unrest. Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip have traded airtrikes and rocket fire, with both sides vowing to continue as funerals take place and despite international pleas for them to pull back from further conflict. The trouble also appears to be spreading, with the town of Lod, close to Tel Aviv, being placed under a state of emergency after rioting by Israeli Arabs. The conflict began on Friday 6th May- when more than 200 Palestinians and 17 Israeli officers were hurt in Jerusalem, the violence erupting after thousands of worshippers gathered at the al-Aqsa mosque for their weekly Friday prayers and were met with a heavy police presence. Rubber bullets and grenades were fired and arrests were made. That show of force was in response to nightly protests breaking out at the start of the holy month of Ramadan over police restrictions at a popular gathering place, the historic Damascus Gate to the Old City, and the threatened forced eviction of dozens of Palestinians from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in East Jerusalem, which is claimed by both sides in the decades-old war. Sheikh Jarrah - The History The Sheikh Jarrah district is home to the descendants of refugees who were expelled or displaced during the 1948 war in what became known by Palestinians as the Nakba (catastrophe). The Nakba saw hundreds of thousands of Palestinians forced or flee into exile. In 1956, 28 refugee families were given housing units in an agreement between the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the Jordan government, to help provide shelter for the families as part of a resettlement agreement. In a statement quoted by Anadolu Agency, the Civil Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem (CCPRJ) said, A contract was agreed between the Ministry of Construction and Reconstruction and a Palestinian family in 1956, with one of the main conditions stating that residents pay symbolic fees, provided ownership is transferred to residents after three years since the completion of construction. This meant that the families were to receive legal titles and ownership of the land, but this never happened and led to ongoing legal battles and tension between the two groups. Following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, settlers have claimed ownership of the land, despite international law stating that they have no legal authority over the population it occupies. However, settler groups have filed several successful lawsuits to forcefully evict Palestinians from Sheikh Jarrah since 1972 and resulting to Jordan losing control over Sheikh Jarrahs territory. In 2002, 43 Palestinians were forced to evacuate their homes, leaving many displaced. Six years later, the Hanoun and Ghawi families were forced to leave their homes behind and in 2017 the Shamasneh family were also evicted from their home by Israeli settlers. The Israeli law states and supports Jews who lost property in East Jerusalem in 1948, but it does not allow Palestinians to reclaim their lost property. Recent tensions erupt The Jerusalem District Court recently stated that six more Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah must leave their homes despite living there for many generations. Israels Supreme Court was due to host another hearing on the issue on Monday. However, it elected to postpone its hearing at the request of the state attorney general and will now set a new date to hear the appeal of residents within the next 30 days. The US has said it was deeply concerned about both the violence and the threatened evictions and was in contact with leaders on both sides to try and de-escalate tensions. It is critical to avoid steps that exacerbate tensions or take us farther away from peace, the State Department said in a statement. The EU has also urged calm. It said the potential evictions were of serious concern, adding that such actions are illegal under international humanitarian law and only serve to fuel tensions on the ground. Neighbouring Jordan, which made peace with Israel in 1994 and is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, has also condemned Israels actions, as has Bahrain, which normalised relations with Israel last year in a US-brokered deal. We will not recognise this property as belonging to settlers. We have lived in these homes for over 60 years and we will only leave our homes when we are carried to our graves, Saleh Diab, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah, told AJ Plus. Political leaders, activists and social influencers have been voicing their concern and dismay regarding the current situation in Jerusalem, with the hashtag #SaveSheikhJarrah trending on social media. The UN, meanwhile, has said Israels forced evictions of Palestinians are a potential war crime. World number one Novak Djokovic was involved in a furious disagreement with the chair umpire at the Italian Open on Tuesday when his second-round match against Taylor Fritz was not suspended due to rain. After he was broken while serving for the match in the second set, and with rain falling on the court in Rome, Djokovic yelled: How much do you wanna play? When the umpire, Nacho Forcadell, said he had checked the court, Djokovic replied: I asked you three times, you are not checking anything. Play was then stopped at 5-5 in the second set, before Djokovic closed out the match three hours later when conditions had improved. Its not the first time or probably the last that Im going to experience such conditions, Djokovic told Amazon Prime afterwards. And even with that much experience behind me I still get upset and lose my cool. But its OK. At the end of the day these are great lessons - I will try and take away some important things from this day. Djokovic will face the winner of Briton Cameron Norries match with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in the last-16. Over the past few days, India has been watching in horror the bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims floating in the waters of River Ganga. It is still unclear how many such bodies have been thrown into the river and when did this start. It came to light only after residents along the river spotted the bodies, some decomposed washing ashore. Since Monday, such cases have been reported from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and both states have been pointing fingers at each other. AFP/ Representational Image What's happening? In Bihar's Buxar district alone, the authorities have confirmed that they have retrieved 71 bodies from the river so far. According to Bihar Water Resources and Information and Public Relations Minister Sanjay Kumar Jha, the authorities have fished out 71 bodies and the last rites have been performed. He also said that the bodies were 4-5 days old. "The Bihar Government is seized of the matter of unfortunate case of floating mortal remains in river Ganga, near Chausa village in Buxar district. The bodies have floated into Bihar from UP. Upon postmortem, our doctors have confirmed that these are 4-5 days' old bodies," he said. Jha said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been pained at both the tragedy as well as harm to the river Ganges. AFP/ Representational Image "He has always been particular about the purity and uninterrupted flow of the river and has asked the administration to intensify patrolling to ensure this is not repeated. Last rites of 71 bodies performed as per protocols. A net has been placed in Ganges in Ranighat, bordering UP and Bihar. We've advised UP administration to be vigilant; our district administration is keeping vigil too. Advise all to give all respect to those dead, and Maa Ganges," Jha said. UP locals see over 45 bodies floating In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, residents of Ballia have claimed that they have seen at least 45 bodies floating at the Ujiyar, Kulhadia and Bharauli ghats in the Narahi area, however, the district authorities have not disclosed the exact number of bodies discovered. District Magistrate Aditi Singh said that some bodies have been found in very bad condition under the Ballia-Buxar bridge, adding that Subdivisional Magistrate and the circle officer are probing this incident. Singh further noted that funeral rites will be performed. Initially, it was reported that the bodies were being dumped into the river as the crematoriums were unable to handle the number of corps reaching there every day. AFP Many theories on what actually transpired There were also reports that some bodies were thrown into the river by the crematorium staff due to the shortage of firewood. There were also some claims that the bodies were pushed into the river by relatives of the victims as they could not afford to pay for the cremation. However, so far the most controversial allegation has been of cover-up. For a long time, there have been allegations that the official death toll from COVID-19 is much lesser than what is happening. Several governments and hospitals have been accused of underreporting deaths from COVID-19. Hospitals have also been accused of not handing over the bodies to relatives to keep the numbers low. In Madhya Pradesh, recently there was an incident where a body fell from an ambulance that was hastily leaving a hospital, leading to allegations of a cover-up. Even in the case of the bodies found floating in Ganga, some had claimed that these were dumped from ambulances. As COVID-19 makes its way into rural India where testing and treatment for COVID-19 is impossible to find, there is a fear that many are dying of the infection, but are not reported. AFP 'Strict vigilance along the Ganga' The Centre asked states along the Ganga to ensure strict vigilance and check future incidences of people dumping bodies in the river and its tributaries. In a letter to District Ganga Committees which are chaired by district magistrates the National Mission for Clean Ganga also asked the authorities to dispose unidentified bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims in accordance with safety protocols. AFP "Ensure strict vigilance along length of the river within territorial jurisdiction of the district to prevent and check such future incidences of people dumping dead bodies in Ganga and its tributaries and of any other activity hazardous for river Ganga and health and hygiene of the area," NMCG Director General Rajiv Ranjan Mishra said in the letter to the chairpersons of the committees. Mishra said the dumping of bodies/partially dumped bodies/decomposed corpse not only causes pollution in the river, but is also unhygienic and increases the risk of spreading infections in communities inhabiting the banks of rivers. The indiatimes.com privacy policy has been updated to align with the new data regulations in European Union. Please review and accept these changes below to continue using the website. We use cookies to ensure the best experience for you on our website. The Allahabad High Court asked the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government to tell how they would vaccinate "those illiterate labourers and other villagers between the age group of 18 and 45 years if they are not able to register online for vaccination." A Division Bench comprising Justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar observed: "We may further observe that a large number of our population still resides in villages and there are people who are only labourers between the age group... "The Central Government and State Government are directed to place before this Court the programme by which they would vaccinate those illiterate labourers and other villagers between the age group of 18 and 45 years if they are not able to register online for vaccination." India's gaping class divide in vaccination The observation made by the Allahabad High Court comes in the wake of a humongous class divide in India, which must be addressed on priority as the country plans to vaccinate its majority population. The COVID vaccination drive is opening up a class divide -- almost every vaccination centre in India's big cities is reporting more recipients from the wealthier neighbourhoods than the lower-middle class areas. The trend has been noticed in cities such as Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune and other big cities. The issue of mandatory Co-Win registration as part of vaccination strategy, is emerging as the key potential barrier for people in hinterlands, where internet penetration is low and technical illiteracy remains high. In the guidelines for the Liberalised and Accelerated Phase 3 Strategy of COVID-19 Vaccination, the Centre mandated prior online registration on the CoWin portal for the 18-44 years age group. AFP Mandatory online registration favours urban centres, given that a little over half of India's population has access to broadband internet, while rural tele density is under 60 per cent. States such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh are among those with lowest tele density. Booking vaccination slots is nothing short of a competitive sport, but for the rural population, booking slots -- which requires multiple attempts -- is more difficult; less access and unfamiliarity with technology being the key hindrances. English-only interface an entry barrier The 2011 Census showed English is the primary languagemother tongueof 256,000 people, the second language of 83 million people, and the third language of another 46 million people, making it the second-most widely spoken language after Hindi. At least 528 million speak Hindi as a first language. The unavailability of the Co-Win portal in languages other than English is an entry-level barrier in rural India. CoWin For someone who doesn't know English, registering themselves for COVID vaccination is impossible. Other government apps which allow registration, such as Aarogya Setu, which come with an option to change the language, only allow registration in English. People with the know-how can also book vaccination appointments outside of their city limits, potentially depriving the rural beneficiaries of the jab. Meanwhile, social media is flooded with pictures of affluent Indians posing with their vaccination certificates after receiving the jabs. According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the country has administered 17,52,35,991 doses of vaccines as of May 11. Putting humanity above religion, a Muslim woman in Maharashtra's Kolhapur city performed the last rites of a Covid-19 infected Hindu man whose close relatives could not come for funeral as they had tested positive for coronavirus. The humanitarian act by Ayesha Raut, who works as a senior manager at Aster Adhar Hospital in Kolhapur, has come in the midst of gloomy atmosphere caused by the Covid-19 pandemic when family members and relatives are shying away from ensuring decent last rites for their near and dear ones. On May 9, she performed the last rites of one Sudhakar Vedak (81), who died after battling Covid-19 for a week in the Aster Adhar Hospital, as per Hindu tradition. BCCL/Representational Image Speaking to PTI, Raut said, As part of annual distribution drive during the holy month of Ramzan, my family had decided to donate PPE kits to people working in cemeteries and crematoriums in Kolhapur city. "When I was at the Panchganga crematorium to distribute PPE kits, I received a call from Dr Harshala Vedak, whose father Sudhakar Vedak had died on Sunday (May 9). Dr Harshala Vedak asked Raut if she could facilitate the last rites of her father at the Panchganga crematorium as all her family members, including herself, were infected with coronavirus. She and Raut know each other professionally. AFP/Representational image Dr Harshala Vedak works as a resident medical officer at state-run Chhatrapati Pramila Raje Hospital in the city, around 375km from Mumbai. I was a bit upset as there was no one from Sudhakar Vedaks side to even attend the funeral. So I called Dr Vedak and sought her permission to perform her father's last rites. "With her nod, I wore PPE kit and performed the last rites as per Hindu rituals, Raut said. Dr Harshala Vedak hailed Rauts noble and kind gesture. "When a relative dies, there is grief in the family and due to Covid-19 restrictions, people feel the pain more because they can not even attend funeral or perform last rites," Dr Harshala Vedak said. AFP/Representational image Sudhakar Vedak's condition deteriorated on Friday and he died on Sunday, but none from his family could visit the hospital because all of them, including Dr Harshala Vedak, had tested positive for coronavirus and were in home quarantine. My father has three daughters and I am the eldest one. Three years back, when my mother lost her battle to cancer, I had performed her last rites in Mumbai. "Our parents were always proud of their daughters and we never faced any discrimination while growing up. Hence, it was not very difficult for me to accept that a woman is going to perform the last rites on my father, Dr Harshala Vedak said. She said Raut's religion was not an issue. "There was no issue at all with Ayesha, being a Muslim, performing the last rites. In fact, we all are full of gratitude for what she did. AFP/Representational image "I know Ayesha professionally for the last few years. I saw her initiative as a good example being set before the society, Dr Harshala Vedak said. Asked about her state of mind when she decided to perform the last rites, Raut said, I felt very sad that no relative was present and Sudhakar Vedaks body was kept there along with other bodies. "There was a long queue of dead bodies at the crematorium and most of them were put on funeral pyre by crematorium workers. It was a very depressing scene." Raut said she did not think about religion when she lit the funeral pyre. "I could at least offer some solace to the family by performing the rites. I did not think for a second that I am a Muslim and I am performing the last rites of a Hindu, Raut said. Asked how people perceived her act, she said, This is Kolhapur which has a long history of movements related to social reforms. I have not face any disapproval of my act... everyone appreciated my gesture. The demonisation of Tablighi Jamaat members last year in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak in India was unprecedented. The conclave in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz, just before the lockdown began in which many including some foreign participants tested positive for COVID-19, was wrongly painted as a deliberate attempt to spread the infection in the country. They were accused of 'Corona Jihad' and in many states, criminal cases were slapped against the participants, which were eventually quashed. AFP A year on they are helping people Now a year down the line, members of this Muslim religious organisation in this Andhra Pradesh town are conducting the last rites of Covid victims, irrespective of their religion. Due to fear and in some cases relatives' inability to perform the last rites, many COVID-19 victims do not get a proper burial. AFP Helped cremate over 560 bodies of COVID victims so far The Joint Action Committee of Tabligi Jamaat is coming to the aid of such victims and according to them, till now their volunteers have cremated bodies of 560 Covid victims since the outbreak of the pandemic. They are performing the last rites of not only the unclaimed bodies but also of those whose families abandoned them for fear of contracting the infection. AP/ Representational Image JAC president Shaik Imam Saheb told IANS that they perform the last rites of the bodies according to the religious beliefs of the deceased. "If the deceased is a Hindu or a Christian, we use services of their priests to conduct the last rites," he said. Imam believes it is an opportunity to respond to those who maligned Jamaat out of their hatred. "We are responding to the their hate with our love, compassion and humanitarian service. We believe that Almighty Allah has given us this opportunity," said Imam, a practicing advocate at Andhra Pradesh High Court. AFP/ Representational Image He recalled how 'false propaganda' was carried out against Tablighi Jamaat last year after the congregation in Delhi. "They even dubbed Jamaat members as terrorists. Today, the same Jamaat members are conducting the last rites of Covid victims by risking their lives. There couldn't have been a better answer to them," he said. BCCL Even last year, many of the Delhi Markaz event participants who had tested positive for COVID-19 had come forward to donate plasma after recovery. By Kim Jae-heun The outbreak of COVID-19 has brought about an unexpected increase in sales for local food companies strict social distancing measures have forced people to spend more time at home and they are consuming more food while they are there. Orion is one of the biggest beneficiaries. It is the largest food firm in terms of sales in Korea followed by Lotte Confectionery and Crown. Lotte took the No.1 spot in 2019, but thanks to the growing popularity of snack items overseas, Orion recaptured the top position in 2020. Winning against pandemic odds CJ CheilJedang and Nongshim likely come to mind first when people are asked which local food firm has the highest oversea sales. But Orion's sales last year surpassed those of these established giants, reaching 1.5 trillion won (1.34 billion won), or 66 percent of its 2.2 trillion won (1.97 billion won) total. China was at the center of Orion's success sales there soared 12 percent to a record 1.09 trillion won, passing the 1 trillion mark for the first time since 2016. This was just prior to the Chinese government taking economic retaliation against Korean firms after Cheong Wa Dae agreed to the deployment of the U.S. THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense system here. Orion's popular Choco Pie and O!Potato Chip snacks saw sales of over 200 billion won there to spearhead the performance. Now its new bestseller is Turtle Chips, "kkobukchip" in Korean, which are a type of corn chips. The snack item was introduced here last September and about 10,000 packs are sold every day, leading Orion to try this mega-hit in the United States and China. In the first quarter of this year, Orion's overseas sales in China increased 14.8 percent, compared to the last three months of 2020, to 301.9 billion won. The outlook for the second quarter remains bright as Turtle Chips are now well-established in the Chinese market. Orion also did well in Vietnam and Russia where Choco Pie is a bestseller. Last year, Orion's year-on-year sales in Vietnam and Russia rose 15.7 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively, thanks to the popular snack. These mark the highest sales in those regions since the firm entered them in the early 90s. In Vietnam, Poca Chip and Swing Chip are also sell well. This placed Orion 14th in the world's top 100 confectionery firms rankings report published in Candy Industry Magazine last year. Candy Industry Magazine is a business-to-business publication that covers the global confectionery industry from manufacturing to retail. Orion is the only Korean firm to maintain its position in the global top 15 confectionery firms according to the magazine. "During the hard times of COVID-19, the company is managing to maintain sales growth locally market as well as in China, Vietnam and Russia," an Orion official said. "We will continue to develop new quality products and compete with global confectionery firms." New growth engine Riding on the popularity of its snack items, Orion wants to continue its success overseas with its "functional foods" brand Dr. You and meal replacement brand Market O Nature. In the local market, sales coming from the two brands skyrocketed by 66 percent in the first quarter of the year amid a pandemic-induced lifestyle shift. Orion is also pushing its beverage and bio business it is already aggressively marketing Jeju Volcanic Water in China and Vietnam. China's beverage market is growing at a fast rate due to people's increasing interest in health and growing purchasing power. And Orion is targeting young customers based on its mineral water sales both on and offline at JD.com and local convenience stores there. The confectionery firm has started selling Jeju Volcanic water in major cities across Vietnam, seeking to ride on the popularity of K-pop and K-drama. "Orion has started selling Jeju Volcanic Water, which is our new growth engine, in China and Vietnam. It comes from the excellent clean water resource of Jeju Island and we will establish its reputation as a premium mineral water brand there," an Orion official said. IBK Securities predicts Orion's 2021 sales to record 2.41 trillion won, up 8.2 percent compared to last year. "Production cost increases will be inevitable for Orion as global raw material prices continue to rise. But, it will continue to improve its profitability due to the reduction of SG&A (selling, general and administrative) expenses," IBK researcher Kim Tae-hyun said. Overseas business risks Running a business abroad entails risks from unexpected factors. Orion opened its 10th production line in New Delhi in February, but the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated the country recently. India is the second largest market for Orion after China, with 17 trillion won in sales. Orion just started its business there so the damage from the pandemic may be minimal, but if resurgence of the coronavirus continues, it will be inevitable for Orion to face a decrease in sales, and a delay in production estimated to cost 60 billion won. A fresh round of violence between the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and armed Palestinian group Hamas along with Islamic Jihad has begun once again. Israel began to bombard Gaza strip as militant group Hamas launched rockets attacking Israeli cities. According to reports, at least 34 people including children have died so far in Gaza. As many as 4 deaths have been reported from Israel as well, which includes 30-year-old Soumya Santosh from India. Israel has claimed that it has targeted and destroyed several places from where the militants are launching attacks on the Israeli side. Adding to this, hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israeli policemen have been injured during the protests that preceded the current violence. While the international community is urging both the sides to stop violence, there seems to be no immediate end to the exchange of fire. AFP What has triggered the current the violence, which in the last 48 hours has turned into an armed conflict between one of the most technologically advanced armies in the world one the one side and an armed group operating from one of worlds most densely populated and poorest places on the other side. How it all began? International media have been reporting several violent clashes between Jews and the Arabs in Jerusalem and the West Bank for the last couple of weeks. The reports suggest that the Palestinians were angry over police restrictions on Ramadan gatherings near the Temple Mount area which also houses Al Aqsa Mosque, considered to be third holiest site by the Muslims and a highly valued symbol of Palestinian struggle for Independence. AFP Theres also anger among the Arabs over the proposed eviction of several Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in order to make homes for Jewish settlers there. In the beginning of Ramadan, the Israel Police reportedly put up barriers preventing people from sitting in the Damascus Gate plaza, which is usually thronged by the public during the holy month. The Palestinians saw this as a humiliation for themselves. This led to clashes between them and the Israeli police. During the same time, a video of a Palestinian teen slapping an ultra-orthodox Jewish man on Jerusalems train went viral on the social media app TikTok. This resulted in many such incidents and eventually widespread outrage among the Israelis. Restrictions at Al Aqsa Mosque After stopping the Palestinians from gathering at the Damascus Gate, the Israeli authorities reportedly imposed a 10,000-person limit on prayers at Al-Aqsa Mosque. It was the first Friday of the holy month and many Palestinians were turned away due to these restrictions. There were clashes with Israeli police as well. The police used excessive force against the protesters, resulting in several injuries. AFP Meanwhile, there were some reports of attacks on Jewish people by the frustrated Arabs. Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, the head of the Shirat Moshe Yeshiva in Jaffa was also allegedly beaten by two Arab youths. The local residents have been protesting against the sale of assets that the Israeli government seized decades ago from Arabs who left in 1948. Enter the Israeli Far-Right Following the protests by the Palestinians, the Israeli Right-Wing groups also started demonstrations. The were backed by the Jewish supremacist groups that have advocated violence against the Arabs in Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories. They chanted death to Arabs, and clashed with the police. They also attacked the Arabs and the Israeli Left Wing activists. Reuters The Israeli Right has been quite active recently as the country has been failing to form the government after four attempts. The political parties subscribing to the ideology are making every single effort to prove themselves relevant in the current situation. Meanwhile, on April 24, a Jewish man was attacked by Palestinians while driving in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi al-Joz. It was called a terror attack by the Israeli authorities. Jerusalem remains tense, Palestinian elections postponed As the month of Ramadan progressed, the restrictions in the old city in East Jerusalem frustrated the Palestinians even more. Eventually, the police commissioner allowed people to sit at Damascus Gate by removing the barricades on April 25. Meanwhile, the scheduled elections in Palestine were postponed as it was not clear if the people would be able to participate or not due to the ongoing tussle. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas took decision in this regard, while Hamas held Israel solely responsible for this. AFP As the tension persisted in the city, two Israelis were injured and another was killed in West Bank. A 60-year old Palestinian woman, who allegedly attempted the stabbing against IDF troops was shot and killed during the same period. The last Friday of Ramadan On the occasion of the last Friday of Ramadan, at least 70,000 worshippers gathered at Al Aqsa Mosque. As the tension grew, protests began and at least 205 Palestinians and 17 Israeli police officers were injured. AP By the evening, Palestinians began throwing rocks at police officers, deployed in large numbers on the Mount. The police fired stun grenades into the mosque. Meanwhile, far-right yeshiva students held a march, chanting nationalist slogans. What's the issue with Sheikh Jarrah? Sheik Jarrah is an Arab neighborhood some two kilometers away from the old city of Jerusalem. It was built in 1865. Before 1949, it is said that there was a separate Jewish neighborhood within it. This area was also known by the name Shimon HaTzadik (Simon the Righteous), named after the famous rabbinical sage whose tomb is located there. The Jews claim that the houses in the neighbourhood belong to them as they bought it in the late 19th century. The Jews claim that they have the papers of the deeds to prove that the houses belong to them. Reuters The Arabs, however, maintained that they were living in these houses even at the time when it was annexed by the Israeli forces in the Six Day War in 1967. The eviction of the Arab families from Sheikh Jarrah has irked the rest of the Arabs as well as a section of Jews who deem it unnecessary and an effort to give Jewish character to the neighbourhood. The Israeli rights groups and have also held protests in the past to oppose the proposed eviction of the Arabs from Sheikh Jarrah. The matter is in the Israeli court, which is yet to announce its verdict. However, there is a fear among the Arabs they would lose their property and would be ask to make way for the Jewish settlers. While all this was going on, the protests and violence in the streets of Jerusalem and other cities grew further resulting in more injuries, mainly to the Palestinians. Militant group Hamas retaliated with rocket attacks on Israeli cities. The IDF has been doing heavy bombardment at several areas in Gaza, where it claims to have destroyed key functional areas of Hamas. Imagine having a brand new accent all of a sudden. Well, that is what happened to an Australian woman who was left feeling super confused after she developed an Irish accent after getting her tonsils removed. The woman, Gie Mcyen shared her experience via videos she uploaded two days after the operation when she discovered that her Australian accent was gone. In the caption of her videos, she explained how she woke up with an Irish accent the day before and thought she would wake up from "this weird dream". Daily Mail Then she researched and documented the phenomenon which showed her Irish accent getting stronger while her original Australian accent is gone. According to a Daily Mail report, Mcyen was informed by her doctors that she had developed Foreign Accent Syndrome - a condition caused by brain injury with only 100 cases reported since it was discovered in 1907. Since she was never even been to Ireland, Mcyen was "completely freaked out" as her specialist told her to "sit tight". She also shared another video on day two when she had her Aussie accent back while on the phone with a friend. However, it was back to Irish accent after a few minutes. Daily Mail As the days moved ahead, her natural accent seemed to be completely lost. She claimed there were "no traces" of her natural accent as there were no traces of Aussie twangs anymore and she has gone full Irish. However, on the ninth day of her 'accent transformation', she was "grieving" for her usual accent. She admitted that she needed medical help and talked about her struggles of finding the right person to help her "get back to her old self". Daily Star She has found a neurologist who specialises in stroke rehabilitation, who she would meet to diagnose the problem. The U.S. branch of Khalsa Aid, a U.K.-based Sikh humanitarian organization, is sending another 500 concentrators and 500 electrical transformers this week to New Delhi, where the groups team is already helping COVID-19 patients, hospitals and NGOS with essential supplies as well as wood for cremations. And Kashyap Patel, an Atlanta, Georgia-based Indian American physician who volunteers for the North America branch of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha Hindu organization, which has provided 250 oxygen concentrators and several hundred thousand dollars in Covid aid, said, It is challenging to find hospital beds." (Khalsa Aid USA/Facebook photo) Firefighters inspect destroyed buildings after it was hit by Israeli airstrikes, Gaza City, May 12. AP-Yonhap Hostilities between Israel and Hamas escalated overnight, with 35 Palestinians killed in Gaza and three in Israel in the most intensive aerial exchanges for years. Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes in Gaza into the early hours of Wednesday, as the Islamist group and other Palestinian militant groups fired multiple rocket barrages at Tel Aviv and Beersheba. One multi-story residential building in Gaza collapsed and another was heavily damaged after they were repeatedly hit by Israeli air strikes. Israel said it attacked Hamas targets, including intelligence centers and rocket launch sites. It was the heaviest offensive between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in Gaza, and prompted international concern that the situation could spiral out of control. U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland tweeted: "Stop the fire immediately. We're escalating towards a full scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation. "The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now," he wrote. Into the early hours of Wednesday morning, Gazans reported their homes shaking and the sky lighting up with Israeli attacks, outgoing rockets and Israeli air defense missiles intercepting them. Israelis ran for shelters or flattened themselves on pavements in communities more than 70 km (45 miles) up the coast and into southern Israel amid sounds of explosions as interceptor missiles streaked into the sky. Hamas's armed wing said it fired 210 rockets towards Beersheba and Tel Aviv in response to the bombing of the tower buildings in Gaza City In Tel Aviv, air raid sirens were heard around the city. For Israel, the militants' targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with the Islamist Hamas group, regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. The violence followed weeks of tension in Jerusalem during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and around Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the compound revered by Jews as Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. These escalated in recent days ahead of a now postponed court hearing in a case that could end with Palestinian families evicted from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks around the city of Lod early, May 12. AFP-Yonhap 'A very heavy price' There appeared no imminent end to the violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that militants would pay a "very heavy" price for the rockets, which reached the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday during a holiday in Israel commemorating its capture of East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. The outbreak of hostilities led Netanyahu's political opponents to suspend negotiations on forming a coalition of right-wing, leftist and center-left parties to unseat him after an inconclusive March 23 election. Opposition leader Yair Lapid has three weeks left to establish a government, with a new election and another chance for Netanyahu to retain power likely if he fails. The Arab League, some of whose members have warmed ties with Israel over the last year, accused it of "indiscriminate and irresponsible" attacks in Gaza and said it was responsible for "dangerous escalation" in Jerusalem. Hamas named its rocket assault "Sword of Jerusalem", seeking to marginalize Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to present itself as the guardians of Palestinians in Jerusalem. The militant group's leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said Israel had "ignited fire in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and the flames extended to Gaza, therefore, it is responsible for the consequences." Haniyeh said that Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations had been in contact urging calm but that Hamas's message to Israel was: "If they want to escalate, the resistance is ready, if they want to stop, the resistance is ready." The White House said on Tuesday that Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself from rocket attacks but applied pressure on Israel over the treatment of Palestinians, saying Jerusalem must be a place of coexistence. The United States was delaying U.N. Security Council efforts to issue a public statement on escalating tensions because it could be harmful to behind-the-scenes efforts to end the violence, according to diplomats and a source familiar with the U.S. strategy. State Department spokesman Ned Price urged calm and "restraint on both sides", saying: "The loss of life, the loss of Israeli life, the loss of Palestinian life, it's something that we deeply regret." He added: "We are urging this message of de-escalation to see this loss of life come to an end." Smoke rises from a tower after it was hit by Israeli air strikes amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, Gaza City, May 12. Reuters-Yonhap A fire rages at sunrise in Khan Yunish following an Israeli airstrike on targets in the southern Gaza strip, early Wednesday. AFP-Yonhap Relentless rocket fire and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns fuelled growing fears Wednesday that violence between Israel and Palestinians that has claimed 55 lives could spiral into "full-scale war." Palestinian militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, said Israel's army, which has launched hundreds of air strikes on Hamas and other Islamist groups in the crowded costal enclave of Gaza. The most intense hostilities in seven years have killed at least 48 people in Gaza, including 14 children, two Palestinians in the West Bank, and five Israelis, triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. As world powers voiced growing alarm and the U.N. Security Council readied for another emergency meeting on the bloody crisis, the U.N. Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland warned that "we're escalating towards a full-scale war." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab Israeli city of Lod, where police said "wide-scale riots erupted among some of the Arab residents." There were fears of widening civil unrest as protesters waving Palestinian flags burnt cars and properties, clashed with Israeli police and attacked Jewish motorists in several Jewish-Arab towns across Israel. 'Step back from the brink' Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have launched more than 1,000 rockets, Israel's army said, including hundreds at Tel Aviv, where air sirens wailed overnight. Of these, 850 rockets have hit in Israel or been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defense system, while the rest have crashed inside Gaza, the army said. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes at Gaza, the Israeli-blockaded strip of two million people that Hamas controls, targeting what the army described as Palestinian military sites. At least 230 Palestinians have been wounded, many rescued from the shouldering ruins of buildings. On the Israeli side, more than 100 people have been injured, as residents across the Jewish state have been ordered to seek shelter. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged both sides to "step back from the brink" and to "show restraint." The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, voiced concern at the escalation and said "crimes" may have been committed. Bensouda announced in March that she had opened a full investigation into the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, infuriating Israel, which not a member of The Hague-based court. 'Everything caught fire' Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz warned that "this is just the beginning" of Israel's strikes, vowing that the operation, now dubbed "Guardian of the Walls," would aim to restore peace "for the long-term." Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh threatened to step up its operation code-named "Sword of Jerusalem," warning that "if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it." Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said he expected the fighting to intensify and, when asked about unconfirmed reports that Hamas might seek a ceasefire, said: "I don't think my commanders are aware, or particularly interested." Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in separate clashes, near Nablus and near Hebron, the Palestinian health ministry said. In Gaza City, people sifted through debris after an Israeli air strike destroyed a 12-storey building near the coast. Hamas said the tower block had been a residential building. AFP reporters said it also housed the offices of several Hamas officials. Five members of a single family were killed by an Israeli strike in northern Gaza Tuesday, including young brothers Ibrahim and Marwan, who were filling sacks of straw at the time. "We were laughing and having fun when suddenly they began to bomb us. Everything around us caught fire," their cousin, also called Ibrahim, told AFP. "I saw my cousins set alight and torn to pieces," said the 14-year-old, breaking down in tears. (AFP) The owner of a paper mill in Maine that was the site of an explosion last year has filed a lawsuit against a company that was responsible for inspection and maintenance. One of the facilitys pulp digesters ruptured and fell on the second digester in April 2020. Both were destroyed. The mill then shut down a paper machine and doesnt plan to rebuild its pulp mill. The mills owner, Pixelle Specialty Solutions, is suing Florida-based Trico Mechanical Contractors Inc., the Sun Journal reported. Court documents state that Pixelle wants to cover losses and damages sustained due to defendant Tricos wrongful acts and omissions and pursuant to applicable contractual agreements. Trico was responsible for inspection and maintenance on the pulp digesters in the years before the explosion. A person who answered the phone at Trico said there was no one available to comment on the lawsuit. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Training Development Maine A blind Rhode Island teen and her family have filed a lawsuit with the Providence County Superior Court against a restaurant they say refused to seat them due to the presence of the teens service dog. Haylee Mota and her family intended to celebrate her 17th birthday at Jackys Waterplace and Sushi Bar on September 7, the Providence Journal reported. According to the complaint, an employee told them they could not be seated inside the restaurant or in the patio area and offered to set a table in the parking lot. Mota was born with Lebers congenital amaurosis and is legally blind. She can only see light and shadow. Her golden retriever, Nicky, accompanies her everywhere. Mota said that after the family protested, pointing out that Nicky is a service dog, the manager told them that she had spoken with the owner, Kin Wah Ko, and that he insisted on no dogs. Mota alleges that Ko and unnamed employees violated her civil rights by discriminating against her due to her disability. In addition, she alleges that the restaurant and its employees intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon her and that she suffered mental and emotional harm. It was frustrating, Mota said. I know my rights under the (Americans with Disabilities Act). Any establishment open to the public is open to a service dog. Jackys and Ko denied the allegations in responding to the suit. They argue that Mota failed to make a claim for which relief could be granted and failed to comply with her duty to mitigate damages. David Ursillo, the lawyer representing Jackys and Ko, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Kaplansky Insurance has acquired its third independent agency of 2021, John P. Riley Insurance. The purchase of the Dorchester, Massachusetts-based business marks Kaplanskys 37th acquisition overall. John P. Riley opened his insurance agency in 1938 while also working in the real estate business. His son, James H. Riley, began working in his fathers office in 1975. The agency was always a two-person operation, and James purchased the agency from his father on April 1, 1980. On the same day, 41 years later, James sold his agency to Ely Kaplansky, joining forces with the New England agency. The combined agency now provides a broader selection of insurance companies. Under the terms of the acquisition, the Dorchester location will be closing its doors, and a team member from John P. Riley Insurance will be relocating to Kaplanskys Randolph office. Founded in 1974 and headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts, with 16 locations throughout Massachusetts, Kaplansky Insurance is an independent insurance agency offering a suite of insurance solutions including auto, home, business and life insurance. Source: Kaplansky Insurance Topics Mergers Massachusetts MADRID Food delivery companies based in Spain have three months to convert their couriers into staff workers under new rules approved on Tuesday by the government, one of the first laws in Europe regarding gig-economy workers rights. The decree, which was agreed on with trade unions and business associations, aims to clarify the legal situation of thousands of riders after Spains Supreme Court ruled last year that companies must hire them as employees. The new rules came into force immediately, with companies being given 90 days to comply. A debate on how to regulate workers rights in the gig economy is unfolding globally. The European Commission has opened a public consultation period on potential EU-wide rules. Spain has moved ahead of Europe by transposing into law the Supreme Court ruling, which some companies were still reluctant to comply with, claiming their models were different from those that were the subject of the ruling. The ruling was related to riders of Spanish start-up Glovo. Global delivery companies such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats are facing lawsuits over labor rights in a number of countries. Although the legislation makes it harder for companies to have freelance couriers, closing the door on a common practice, several riders associations and labor experts have said it does not completely resolve their legal situation, anticipating further potential court battles. Most delivery companies have already started preparing for the change, looking for new business models that will allow them to be profitable. Just-Eat, the Spanish branch of Take Away, has already hired some of its workers and covers peak demand with workers from transport companies. Others, such as Glovo, have opted to hire some riders through temporary employment agencies, according to riders. A Glovo spokeswoman and an Uber Eats spokesman declined to comment while awaiting the details. Deliveroo did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Belen Carreno and Joan Faus Writing by Belen Carreno Editing by Ingrid Melander and Estelle Shirbon) Root Inc. Root Inc., the parent company of Root Insurance, has named Christine Patrick vice president, Investor Relations. Patrick comes to Root with more than 10 years of insurance-industry experience, both in investor relations and as a sell-side-analyst. Most recently, Patrick led investor relations with Kemper Corp. and previously with National General Holdings Corporation. As a senior equity research analyst at JMP Securities, she covered both Property & Casualty and Mortgage Insurance sectors. Root is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, with renters insurance available in Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, Tennessee, and Utah, and auto insurance currently available to drivers in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia. Omaha National Workers compensation insurer, Omaha National Insurance Co. in Omaha, Neb., has promoted Theresa Aronson to director of Operations and Cori Barnes to director of Medical Services. Aronson joined Omaha National in January 2019 and built the Premium Audit department. Before joining Omaha National, Aronson had 18 years of experience in payroll services and premium audit. Barnes joined Omaha National in October 2020 to build the utilization review operation and soon assumed the role of Medical Services Manager. ARRT-registered in radiography and mammography, Barnes spent more than 20 years with CHI Health as both a radiologic technologist and a clinical coordinator, where she was responsible for clinic operations, including supervision, training, compliance, and scheduling. Most recently, Barnes served as utilization review supervisor with Berkshire Hathaway Homestate Cos. Assurex Global Columbus, Ohio-based Assurex Global has appointed Dean Hildebrandt as CEO, replacing Jim Hackbarth, who is retiring after nearly 18 years with the organization. Hildebrandt, who has served as Assurex Global president since September 2019, is the latest in a series of strategic management changes implemented to position the firm for future growth. Hildebrandt, who joined Assurex Global in March 2019 as executive vice president, has more than 25 years in the business, including CEO of Associated Benefits and Risk Consulting, a national, multi-line insurance agency. He also led the former Assurex Global partner, Ahmann-Martin a provider of risk management, employee benefits, and financial services before its acquisition by Associated Banc-Corp. in 2015. He also served on the Assurex Global board of directors from 2014 to 2015. U.S. insurer American National Group Inc. is exploring options that could include a sale of the company, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. The news sent shares of American National spiking to their highest level in more than two years, closing 16.1% higher at $142.28 to give the insurer a market value in excess of $3.8 billion. Started in 1905 by William Lewis Moody Jr., American National is still majority-owned by the founders family, which controls the company through a range of trusts and holdings. From American National website Response to press reports: American National has recently been made aware that there have been media reports that speculated about the Company exploring strategic options, including a company sale. As a matter of company policy, American National does not comment on rumors or speculation. About American National Insurance American National is a group of companies writing a broad array of insurance products and services and operating in all 50 states. American National Insurance Co. was founded in 1905 and is headquartered in Galveston, Texas. In New York, business is written through Farm Family Casualty Insurance Co., United Farm Family Insurance Co., and American National Life Insurance Co. of New York, Glenmont, New York. Property and casualty insurance is written through American National Property And Casualty Co., Springfield, Missouri, and its subsidiaries and affiliates. Other products and services, such as life insurance, annuities, health insurance, credit insurance, and pension products, are written through multiple companies. An investment bank has been hired to run an auction for American National, with prospective buyers recently contacted to gauge their interest in a deal, the sources said. The sources cautioned that no transaction is certain and asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. American National did not respond to a request for comment. It is not clear what prompted the Galveston, Texas-based insurer to explore a sale. Some financial advisers have been encouraging corporate owners to speed up asset sales ahead of a proposed hike in capital gains and inheritance taxes put forward by U.S. President Joe Bidens administration. American National offers a variety of products, including life, health and property and casualty (P&C) insurance, as well as annuities, according to its website. Such diversification has gone out of favor in the insurance industry, where many executives argue it is more profitable to focus on a specific area. American International Group (AIG), for example, has said it will spin its life and retirement business into a new public company. American National trades at a valuation of 0.51-times price-to-book, indicating the market is discounting its worth. Meanwhile, P&C-focused peers Progressive Corp. and Hanover Insurance Group trade at 3.61-times and 1.57-times, respectively, according to Refinitiv data. The profitability of insurers took a hit during the COVID-19 pandemic, as claims rose as a result of the economic disruption. (Reporting by David French in New York Editing by Bill Berkrot and Matthew Lewis) Topics Carriers Less than a month ago, the prospect that long-held principles of actuarial ratemaking would survive an action by the Casualty Actuarial Society board of directors to rescind them seemed like a long shot. But facing continuing pressure from actuaries representing regulatory agencies and consumer interests, the CAS announced a reversal May 7. The reversal came after the CAS had confirmed the rescission on April 1. The result is that the Statement of Principles Regarding Property and Casualty Insurance Ratemaking is back and available for reference for U.S.-regulated ratemaking, the group said in an announcement. The reinstatement restores language ratemaking actuaries and regulators have followed for years: A rate is reasonable and not excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory if it is an actuarially sound estimate of the expect value of all future costs associated with individual risk transfer. According to critics of the CAS rescission attempt, removal of that language created an opening for actuaries to use tools like price optimization that consider consumer shopping activity in setting rates. Critics contend price optimization discriminates against poor people and people of color, who tend to shop around less frequently than wealthier consumers due to potentially fewer market options. What Happened In December 2020, the CAS board had voted to rescind three documents that set forth some of the foundational ideas underlying three key actuarial activitiesratemaking, reserving and valuing insurerswithout seeking input from members. Representatives of the Casualty Actuarial and Statistical Task Force of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (CASTF) and the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) raised questions about the behind-the-scenes withdrawal of all three documents. But it was the rescission of the ratemaking document that got the most attention. And thats the one thats being reinstated. Ken Williams, staff actuary for the CAS, said regulators moved the needle toward reinstatement with their argument that the Principles provided a concise and understandable explanation of actuarial ratemaking, as opposed to the Actuarial Standards of Practice, which address ratemaking across a number of different documents. After conversations with U.S. regulators, there was a much better appreciation for the importance and utilization of the Statement of Principles, which led the board to reinstate them, he wrote in an email to Carrier Management. The timing of the move, Williams confirmed, was linked to the fact that members of the NAIC CASTF planned to meet on Tuesday, May 11 with just one item on the agendadiscussion of the rescission of the CAS ratemaking principles. The [CAS] Board wanted to resolve the issue prior to that meeting, Williams said. The meeting agenda posted on the NAIC website indicated that the CASTF members wanted to assess the regulatory implications of the rescission and to recommend an appropriate remedy. According to an April 29 Reuters article, the NAIC was considering establishing its own set of principles for setting rates for property/casualty insurance. Why Did Regulators Care? The ratemaking SOP, in addition to defining terms like incurred losses, underwriting profit and expenses involved in setting cost-based rates (Section I), discusses considerations related to identifying exposure units and relevant data, and concepts like homogeneous groupings for ratemaking accuracy, credibility, loss development and trend factors (Section III). But the core of the document is Section IIa section clearly titled Principleswhich includes the words that are ingrained in the minds of ratemaking actuaries and regulators: A rate is reasonable and not excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory if it is an actuarially sound estimate of the expect value of all future costs associated with individual risk transfer. While reasonable and not excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory are now embedded in the lexicon of P/C insurance regulation, the linkage of final rates to future costs described in that sentence is the critical element that consumer advocates like J. Robert Hunter argued should not be removed. To Hunter, the rescission opened a back door for actuaries to use tools like price optimization that he believes unfairly discriminates against poor people and people of color. The Road to Reinstatement Activity leading up to the reinstatement was first reported in Carrier Management. The March 12 Carrier Management article, Status of Certain Casualty Actuarial Ratemaking, Reserve Principles in Flux, detailed the specific objections of CASTF and consumer advocates, and reported that the CASTF members had agreed to send a letter to the CAS board urging that the ratemaking principles be reinstated. In the letter, CASTF members noted that a generation of actuaries have reviewed, relied upon and cited the ratemaking principles since their adoption in 1988 but the rescindment provides the impression that the principles are no longer viewed as valid by the actuarial profession. We find this especially troubling in an environment in which characteristics used by insurers in pricing are being challenged, quite publicly, for their perceived lack of a relationship to risk, the letter continued. Even after receiving the CASTF letter, the board stood firm that rescission was appropriate and reaffirmed its decision on April 1. One of the reasons given was the age of the document. Since the late 1980s, a later set of guidelines was developed by a group known as the Actuarial Standards Board, the CAS board noted. These later Actuarial Standards of Practice (ASOPs), overlap the SOPs. Rescinding the SOPs would eliminate confusion between the ASOPs and SOPs, the CAS said. SOPs, ASOPs and Practice Notes? Regulatory actuaries and consumer advocates argued that working through numerous ASOPs was a laborious task, compared to referencing the concise ratemaking SOP, a five-page document. And after receiving 16 comments for and against rescission in March, the CAS board reacted initially by conceding that point. While upholding its prior decision to rescind the ratemaking SOP, the CAS board said on April 1 that it was committed to pursuing development of a document that integrates rating guidance across the relevant ASOPs for actuaries practicing in the United States. In addition, the board resolved to formally request that the American Academy of Actuaries develop a practice note on P/C insurance ratemaking to integrate the guidance among the various actuarial standards of practice. That approach wasnt exactly welcomed by the American Academy, a member organization for P/C, life, pension and health actuaries. Academy President Tom Campbell responded days later that the Academy has issued and will continue to produce resources that will be useful to [its] members, the regulatory community, and the public that touch on P/C insurance ratemaking considerations, such as bias in data, assumptions, and modelsbut that practice notes are not intended to provide interpretations of actuarial standards of practice, nor are they meant to be a codification of generally accepted actuarial practice.' What exactly are practice notes and how do they differ from an ASOPs? ASOPs set the standard for appropriate practice and are binding on the members of the U.S.-based actuarial organizations when rendering actuarial services in the U.S, Campbells statement said. In contrast, according to a footnote of his statement, the purpose of practice notes is to provide information to actuaries on current or emerging practices in which their peers are engaged. They are intended to supplement the available actuarial literature, especially where the practices addressed are subject to evolving technology, recently adopted external requirements, or advances in actuarial science and other applicable disciplines. The End of a Long Road? At the May 11 NAIC meeting, which was held in spite of the reinstatement, CAS President Jessica Leong thanked CASTF for its input on the matter, members of CASTF highlighted Hunters determination in bringing the rescission to the attention of the committee, and Hunter praised CASTF members for standing up and saying they wanted the principles to be reinstated. Regulators standing up strong together are quite powerful.A lot of times regulators are diffuse in their positions.But when theyre together, they have quite a bit of strength. And the insurance industry pays attention, Hunter said. For consumers, its a win, he said. Weve used those four principles in fights with insurance companies over rate filings over the decades. Theyre very effective, he said, highlighting, in particular, the principle that ties rates back to actual costs. At one point, Leong responded to an actuary wanting to understand whether giving a green light to price optimization methods was a motive for the rescission in the first place. That was never part of the discussion, she confirmed. The original discussion, and why this came up was just in effort to clean up shop, she said. We felt that it was duplicative with ASOPs, and we didnt want to have any confusion out there in terms of which one to follow, she said. But not every loose end has been tied up. One member suggested that NAIC should still go forward with adopting its own ratemaking statement of principles that would not be subject to the unilateral decisions of a private organization. Another consumer advocate, Birny Birnbaum, director of the Center for Economic Justice, worried that this episode in the history of the CAS revealed governance problems for the group. Had there been a more transparent and inclusive process in the beginning, we wouldnt have gone through this entire rescission and then reversal, he said. Birnbaum suggested that the CAS consider making any activities related to public policy more transparent. A regulatory actuary suggested, however, that this was not a public policy issue, and noted the CAS constitution specifically prohibits members from publicly expressing opinions on matters of public interest on behalf of the society. For now, the whole matter has been tabled but CASTF leaders said they are open to suggestions about the NAIC to writing its own ratemaking rules. In reinstating the SOP for reference for U.S.-regulated ratemaking, the board acknowledged that actuarial practices differ around the world and that the concerns raised during this controversy were U.S.-based. All CAS members must adhere to regulations and actuarial standards of practice applicable to their jurisdiction, as well as the CAS Code of Conduct, the boards May 7 statement said. Because of job losses and shrinking payrolls during the pandemic recession, the workers compensation industrys net written premium dropped 10% to $42 billion in 2020. However, private insurers posted a profitable calendar year combined ratio of 87, the industrys fourth straight year with a combined ratio below 90. The workers compensation system has been strong and resilient, said Donna Glenn, chief actuary for the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI), which released data on the performance of the workers compensation system in 2020. She said there have been fewer COVID-19 claims than originally anticipated. There have been 45,000 COVID-19 claims, generating a total of $260 million in losses. Lost-time claims account for 75% of the losses, while the average claims runs about $6,000. Healthcare and first responders accounted for 75% of COVID-19 workers compensation claims. Not counting COVID-19 claims, claim frequency decreased 7% in 2020, in keeping with the long-term trend in declining lost-time claim frequency. She noted that while net written premium dropped significantly during the recession, other financial metrics came in at or near historic highs. Looking ahead, Glenn and other NCCI experts noted a series of issues on the organizations watchlist, including the uncertainty of how workers with long-haul symptoms will fare and how quickly the recovery will drive an increase in payrolls and workers compensation premiums. Among the issues carriers will be watching are ay potential mental health effects of the coronavirus crisis. The report notes that while a majority (32) of states specify some mental health coverage under workers compensation and seven exclude such coverage, the rest are silent on the matter. By the Numbers Below are some of the numbers from NCCIs State of the Line Report on workers compensation insurance: Combined RatioThe calendar year combined ratio was 87. The combined ratio was 85.4 in 2019. Loss Ratio The loss ratio for the year rose to 47 from 44.2 in 2019. ReservesThe reserve position for private insurers remains strong, growing to a redundancy of $14 billion as of Year-End 2020. COVID-19 ClaimsWorkers hurt by COVID-19 made more than 45,000 claims in 2020 with more than 95% of those claims costing less than $10,000. Carriers reported $260 million in total COVID-19 incurred losses in 2020. Workers Hurt by COVID-19Hardest hit were workers in nursing homes, hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare settings along with first responders, which all together account for 75% of the claims. COVID-19 SeverityTo date, the costliest 1% of COVID-19 claims account for 60% of COVID-19 loss dollars Claim FrequencyExcluding COVID-19 claims, claim frequency decreased 7% in 2020, continuing the long-term lost-time claim frequency decline. Claim SeverityWhile indemnity claim severity is expected to increase 3% in 2020, the average cost of the medical portion of a lost-time claim is expected to change between plus or minus 2%. Source: State of the Line Report and State of the Line Guide at ncci.com. Topics COVID-19 Workers' Compensation Talent A group of 16 international business and policy leaders today published an open letter to U.S. President Joseph R. Biden calling on him to demonstrate decisive U.S. leadership now to combat increasingly deadly Covid-19 outbreaks in Latin America, Europe and Asia. The letter also expresses opposition to the intellectual property waiver being promoted by the World Trade Organization, saying the move would make little difference and could do harm by not considering the steps necessary for safely manufacturing the vaccines. The letter acknowledges Bidens intent to donate 60 million doses of U.S. supplies of Astra Zeneca vaccine for global deployment but says more must be done to turn the tide of the global pandemic. The U.S. must act now to leverage rapidly increasing U.S. domestic vaccine production, export ever-larger volumes of our surplus supplies, and go to work on the massive technical and logistical challenges to vaccine development on a global scale, the letter says. The letter notes the rampant spread of the virus in places like India and the Philippines and the concern over mutations that could perpetuate globally if left unchecked. Initiated by Maurice R. Greenberg, Chairman and CEO of C. V. Starr & Co., Inc., the letter is also signed by: Ken Langone, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of NYU Langone Health; Secretary William Cohen; Noel V. Lateef, Foreign Policy Association; Ambassador Carla A. Hills; Ambassador John D. Negroponte; Ambassador John F. Maisto; Alexander Feldman, U.S. ASEAN Business Council; Suzanne Clarke, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Michelle McMurray-Heath, Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO); Adam S. Posen, Peterson Institute for International Economics; Hank Hendrickson, U.S. Philippines Society; Dr. John J. Hamre, Center for Strategic & International Studies; Dimitri Simes, Center for the National Interest; Ambassador Mark Green; and Dr. Robert Goldberg, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. The text of the letter follows. Dear Mr. President: We stand as a nation in a moment of great consequence. While the United States seems to be gaining control of the pandemic, our allies in Latin America, Europe, Asia, and Africa face increasingly deadly outbreaks that threaten to overwhelm their healthcare systems. Aid and assistance to people in need has been a hallmark of U.S. foreign policy for well over a century. The world has come to rely upon U.S. leadership at times of great strife. The ability of our government, working in tandem with the private sector, to deliver innovative solutions that save lives and restore peace and stability is the very foundation of U.S. soft power. Today we have a generational opportunity to mobilize vaccine efforts around the world. Our friends and allies will not forget easily if we sit on surplus stockpiles of the most proven vaccines as their citizens suffer and die. Your Administration has committed $4 billion to Covax, the multilateral effort headed by the WHO to get vaccines into the arms of people in disadvantaged nations. You have also announced your intention to donate 60 million doses of our supply of Astra Zeneca vaccine for global deployment. While these actions are a laudable and necessary start, by themselves they are far too small in scale to turn the tide of the global pandemic. We must do more. This is not only a matter of geopolitics. With the virus teeming unchecked in places like India, the Philippines, and elsewhere, it becomes increasingly possible for dangerous variants to evolve that are resistant to the existing vaccines. Such variants will know no borders. The U.S. must act now to leverage rapidly increasing U.S. domestic vaccine production, export ever-larger volumes of our surplus supplies, and go to work on the massive technical and logistical challenges to vaccine development on a global scale. U.S. support for the Intellectual Property waiver being promoted by the WTO would make little difference and could do harm. It does not consider the proper materials, equipment, training, and infrastructure necessary to manufacture the vaccine safely and successfully (in addition to being a potential disincentive for future innovation). We urge you, Mr. President, to demonstrate decisive U.S. leadership now as a critical matter of U.S. foreign policy, humanitarian relief, and global human health. UN chief condemns attack on peacekeeping mission in DRC Xinhua) 17:11, May 12, 2021 UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday strongly condemned Monday's attack against a temporary position of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which resulted in the death of one Malawian blue helmet. Guterres expressed his deepest condolences to the family of the deceased peacekeeper, as well as to the government and people of Malawi, said Stephane Dujarric, Guterres' spokesman, in a statement. The secretary-general said that attacks against UN peacekeepers may constitute a war crime and called for investigation into this incident. Guterres reaffirmed that the United Nations will continue to support the Congolese government and people in their efforts to bring about peace and stability in the east of the country. Monday's attack on the peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known by its French acronym as MONUSCO, occurred in Beni territory, North Kivu province, by suspected members of the Allied Democratic Forces, according to media reports. The UN Security Council condemned the attack and stressed the importance of MONUSCO having the necessary capacities to fulfill its mandate and promote the safety and security of the peacekeepers. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty and file hate crime charges against the man accused of shooting dead eight people, including six women of Asian origin, in attacks on three spas in the southern U.S. state of Georgia. Robert Aaron Long, 22, was indicted by a grand jury in Georgia's Fulton County on Tuesday for the murders of four women in a March 16 attack on two spas in the city of Atlanta. Long, of Woodstock, Georgia, is facing separate charges related to an attack on a spa in Cherokee County the same day that left another four people dead. The deaths of six women of Asian origin further stoked fears in an Asian-American population already alarmed by a surge in hate crimes during the coronavirus pandemic. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said she planned to seek the death penalty against Long, who is white. Willis also said she would file hate crime charges against Long. Long selected his victims because of their "actual or perceived race, national origin, sex, and gender," Willis said in a court filing. Police said after Long's arrest that he had acknowledged carrying out the shootings but claimed they were "not racially motivated." "(Long) apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction," said Captain Jay Baker. Long told police he had frequented massage parlors in the past and staged the attacks as a form of vengeance against "a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate," Baker said. (AFP) Home security camera footage shows that the owner of a Tesla got into the drivers seat of the car shortly before a deadly crash in suburban Houston, according to a new government report. But the preliminary report on the crash that killed two men doesnt explain the mystery of why authorities found no one behind the wheel of the car, which burst into flames after crashing about 550 feet (170 meters) from the owners home. Nor does it conclusively say whether Teslas Autopilot partially automated driver-assist system was operating at the time of the crash, although it appears unlikely. The National Transportation Safety Board said its still investigating all aspects of the crash. An onboard data storage device in the console, however, was destroyed by fire. A computer that records air bag and seat belt status as well as speed and acceleration was damaged and is being examined at an NTSB lab. The NTSB said it tested a different Tesla vehicle on the same road, and the Autopilot driver-assist system could not be fully used. Investigators could not get the systems automated steering system to work, but were able to use Traffic Aware Cruise Control. Autopilot needs both the cruise control and the automatic steering to function. Traffic Aware Cruise Control can keep the car a safe distance from vehicles in front of it, while autosteer keeps it in its own lane. The report said the road also did not have lane lines. That could have have been why the automatic steering wouldnt work. The NTSB continues to collect data to analyze the crash dynamics, postmortem toxicology test results, seat belt use, occupant egress and electric vehicle fires, the agency said in its report. All aspects of the crash remain under investigation as the NTSB determines the probable cause. The agency says it intends to issue safety recommendations to prevent similar crashes. The April 17 crash happened at 9:07 p.m. on Hammock Dunes Place, a two-lane residential road in Spring, Texas. Both the 59-year-old owner and the 69-year-old passenger were killed. The NTSB report said the 2019 Model S went off the road on a curve, drove over a curb, hit a drainage culvert, a raised manhole and a tree. The crash damaged the high-voltage lithium-ion battery, where the fire began. Local authorities said one man was found in the front passenger seat, while another was in the back. The report didnt say how fast the car was going, but Harris County Precinct Four Constable Mark Herman said it was a high speed. He would not say if there was evidence anyone tampered with Teslas system to monitor the driver, which detects force from hands on the steering wheel. The system will issue warnings and eventually shut the car down if it doesnt detect hands. But critics say Teslas system is easy to fool and can take as long as a minute to shut down. Consumer Reports said in April that it was able to easily trick a Tesla into driving in Autopilot mode with no one at the wheel. The NTSB, which has no regulatory authority and can only make recommendations, said its working with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on the probe. NHTSA has the power to make vehicle safety regulations. The federal probe is running at the same time as a parallel investigation by local authorities, the NTSB said. The Texas crash raised questions of whether Autopilot was working at the time, and whether Tesla does enough to make sure drivers are engaged. The company says in owners manuals and on its website that Autopilot is a driver-assist system and drivers must be ready to take action at any time. Lars Moravy, Teslas vice president of vehicle engineering, said on the companys April 26 earnings conference call that an inspection of the badly burned car found that the steering wheel was deformed, so it was leading to a likelihood that someone was in the drivers seat at the time of the crash. He said all seat belts were found unbuckled. Last month on Twitter, Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote that data logs recovered so far in the crashed show Autopilot wasnt turned on, and Full Self-Driving was not purchased for the vehicle in the Texas crash. He didnt answer reporters questions posed on Twitter. In the past, NHTSA, has taken a hands-off approach to regulating partial and fully automated systems for fear of hindering development of promising new features. But since March, the agency has stepped up inquiries into Teslas, dispatching teams to three crashes. It has investigated 28 Tesla crashes in the past few years, but thus far has relied on voluntary safety compliance from auto and tech companies. At least three people have been killed in U.S. crashes in which Autopilot was operating but neither the system nor the driver took action to avoid obstacles. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Texas Personal Auto Tesla Transportation A South Carolina cardboard factory has found itself in the middle of a stinky situation as environmental regulators order it to lower emissions after receiving thousands of complaints relating to a noxious, rotten egg-like smell coming from the plant. The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control ordered the New-Indy Containerboard factory in Catawba to check its regulations and equipment and decrease emissions of what the agency called a noxious air contaminant by mid-May, The State reported. Residents have complained that the smell was wafting through nearby counties and some neighboring areas in North Carolina, even causing health issues such as nausea and headaches for some. The factory is located about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from the North Carolina state line. The department said it logged approximately 17,135 complaints about the plant, a majority relating to the odor, since it started counting in February. New-Indy has disputed that its operations are to blame, stating in an April 16 letter to the state director of environmental affairs that it hired an outside firm which found no chemical compounds on the premises that would equate to intense odors, The Charlotte Observer reported. The Environmental Protection Agency contended its research shows the factory was emitting high levels of smelly hydrogen sulfide, and that wastewater, storage and a landfill on the grounds could contain other odor-producing sulfurs. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics South Carolina More than 50,000 Florida policyholders will soon be looking for a new carrier for their homeowners insurance after three Florida-based companies were approved by the state regulator to drop the policies. The moves come just a few weeks before the official start of hurricane season and as legislation designed to target the states insurance market issues awaits the governors signature. In consent orders signed by Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, Universal Insurance Co. of North America (UICNA) was approved to drop 13,294 personal residential policies and Gulfstream Property & Casualty was approved to cancel about 20,311 personal residential policies. Both insurers will remove the policies over the next 45 days. Southern Fidelity Insurance Co. was approved to nonrenew approximately 19,600 personal residential policies over the next 14 months, with approximately 2,300 receiving less than the required statutory written notice of nonrenewal. The early cancellation and nonrenewals of policies is an extraordinary statutory remedy reserved to address insurers which are or may be in hazardous financial condition, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation stated in the orders, which also require the insurers to take other steps to stay solvent. The regulators actions are the most recent indicators of Floridas stressed insurance marketplace that has been described as spiraling towards collapse. Altmaier and others have previously warned of problems for Floridas domestic companies thanks to spiking litigation, dishonest contracting practices, catastrophe events and high reinsurance costs. Florida insurers were reported to have lost a combined $1.7 billion in 2020. OIR remains focused on the protection of consumers and fostering stability in Floridas insurance marketplace, OIR said in a statement to Insurance Journal. Allowing for the early cancellation or nonrenewal of policies is not a decision made lightly, and requires a finding that such action is necessary to protect the best interests of the public or policyholders. The respective orders outline what hazardous financial conditions led to the approval of the policy cancellations and nonrenewals: Universal Insurance Co. of North America (UICNA) UICNAs cancellation of 13,294 of its 57,000 Florida policies will occur as part of a financial restructuring plan that includes a merger with and into Universal North America Insurance Co., a Texas domestic company. UICNA reported net losses of $4.1 million in 2019 and $22.5 million in 2020, and had decreased its surplus by more than $9 million as of Dec. 31, 2020, OIR stated in the order approving the policy cancellations. UICNAs surplus deterioration came despite the company receiving capital contributions of $13.5 million, without which it would have been considered an impaired insurer as it would have fallen below Floridas minimum required surplus of $10 million. OIR said UICNA provided financial projections that show without the cancellation of the approximately 9,341 homeowners policies and 3,953 dwelling policies, the companys financial condition would further deteriorate to an unsustainable level by the end of 2021. Given UICNAs catastrophe loss experience, higher reinsurance costs, and significantly increased litigation, the identified policies for cancellation would provide an immediate impact to the companys financial position and facilitate the completion of a financial restructuring plan to protect its policyholders and the public, the order says. The policy cancellations are also a condition of the companys merger plan, OIR said, which is still subject to approval by the Texas regulator. If the merger plan is not approved, or if Universal North America Insurance Co. is unsuccessful in becoming licensed in Florida, UICNA agrees it will consent to immediate administrative supervision, for the purpose of conserving assets while UICNA develops a fully funded plan, the OIR order states. UICNA must file its plan of merger with OIR and the Texas Department of Insurance no later than May 14, 2021, and must provide at least 45 days notice of cancellation to the affected policyholders. UICNA must also continue to file monthly financial statements with OIR until further notice and submit an updated business plan to the regulator by Aug. 1, 2021 for the period of July 1, 2021 through Dec. 31, 2024. The plan must include the companys ability to generate successful operation results by the implementation of underwriting changes, rate adjustments, operational savings, capital management, and other significant modifications to its current business model. No policies from the block of cancelled policies can be rewritten on a different UICNA policy form or an affiliated insurer for a period of three years from the date of cancellation. Southern Fidelity Insurance Co. Southern Fidelitys order, signed April 28, is the latest in a series of moves by OIR designed to remediate the financial condition of the company and to facilitate a long-term financial restructuring plan. OIR said it previously approved a rate increase, a merger with its sister company Capitol Preferred Insurance Co., the cancellation of an identified block of policies, and a capital contribution plan developed by Southern Fidelitys new indirect owners, HSCM Bermuda. The 19,600 policies Southern Fidelity is seeking to nonrenew are generating significant losses, and OIR found after evaluation that dropping the policies is necessary to protect the best interest of its policyholders and the public. Information filed by the company in support of its request demonstrates that without the approval of this plan of nonrenewal, the company would not be able to satisfy the surplus requirements of [Florida law], nor complete its long-term restructuring plan, the order states. Southern Fidelity is required to actively facilitate the placement of the policies to be nonrenewed through robust communication with its agents and by providing data to other insurers expressing interest in offering replacement coverage under a confidentiality agreement. Southern Fidelity must also provide OIR with an actuarial review of its homeowners programs to properly position its rates so as to avoid adverse selection and improve future loss ratios, as well as adhere to file and use rate filings on a prescribed schedule. The company wrote more than 133,000 policies in Florida as of Dec. 31, 2020, making it among the top five insurers in the state. Gulfstream Property & Casualty Co. The financial condition of personal residential insurer Gulfstream, which has 56,000 policies in Florida, will deteriorate to an unsustainable level by mid-2021 without action, the May 6 consent order from OIR states. As such, the company has been approved to early cancel approximately 20,311 personal residential policies. Gulfstream has also signed a letter of intent with a new investor that stipulates the policy cancellations as a condition of its investment. The company also reported that it will no longer have risk on any policies outside of Florida, except for about 90 policies in Texas that will non-renew by June 20, 2021, as part of an ongoing renewal rights transaction and withdrawal from the state of Texas. Gulfstream reported a decrease in surplus of more than $5.2 million as of Dec. 31, 2020 compared with the same date in 2019, the order states. Its surplus included a net loss of $22.6 million, a net underwriting loss of $34.9 million and capital contributions of $17.1 million, without which its surplus would have fallen below the required $10 million. If Gulfstream is unable to complete its obligations in the investor letter of intent or the move is not approved by OIR, Gulfstream will consent to immediate administrative supervision for the purpose of conserving assets while it develops a fully funded plan, the OIR order states. Gulfstream has voluntarily ceased writing new business, OIR said, and may only resume doing so if its revised business plan is filed and approved by the regulator. Gulfstream must submit an updated business plan to OIR by July 1, 2021. Demotech President Joseph Petrelli said Florida companies are taking action to nonrenew and cancel policies to lower their exposure in particular geographic areas and their reinsurance costs. Demotech requires rigorous reinsurance programs from the Florida insurers it rates, and advised in March that several companies may need to remove certain policies from their books whose underwriting characteristics generate a disproportionate cost of reinsurance, to sustain their ratings. Between the geographical issues and the disproportionate reinsurance cost issues, we think thats a smart move on behalf of companies, Petrelli told Insurance Journal in response to the recent orders. For consumers, the actions make a tough market even tougher. Florida Insurance Consumer Advocate Tasha Carter said she has been assisting homeowners daily who are facing challenging consequences because their policies have been cancelled or nonrenewed. As insurers offset sustained losses with rate increases and coverage restrictions, homeowners are left to pay higher rates with fewer options and less coverage, she said. In addition to raising rates, the cancellation of high-risk policies is another step insurers are taking to reduce their exposure and mitigate their risk in an effort to improve their overall financial stability to ensure financial protection for policyholders, Carter said in a statement to Insurance Journal. I am hopeful that the implementation of the [property insurance] legislation will lead to a reduction of rates and increased coverage and capacity. In the meantime, OIR encouraged consumers who receive a cancellation notice from their insurer to immediately contact their agent to obtain replacement coverage, and noted the companies will also contact their appointed agents to facilitate the placement of policies with other insurers. OIRs priority is to ensure consumers have access to coverage and will make every effort to help consumers find replacement coverage, the regulator said. Related: Topics Carriers Florida A former Kentucky officer who was fired from the Lexington Police department is alleging in a lawsuit that a culture of racial discrimination plagues the department and contributed to his dismissal. Jervis Middleton, who is Black, was fired in February after being accused of providing information to racial injustice protesters in Lexington. The city had small but daily protests in the wake of the police killings of George Floyd in Minnesota and Breonna Taylor in Louisville. Middleton was fired by the city council on two counts of violating department orders, The Lexington Herald-Leader reported. He is appealing his termination. The lawsuit filed last month in Lexington was brought by Sam Aguiar, one of the lawyers for the Taylor family, which reached a $12 million wrongful death settlement with the city of Louisville. Jervis, while employed with LPD, was subjected to a hostile work environment in which unwelcomed racial harassment towards him and throughout the department was repeated and pervasive, the lawsuit alleges. Lexington Police said it has a policy of not commenting on pending lawsuits. The lawsuit alleges the department was a hostile work environment, that Middleton was retaliated against for supporting Black Lives Matter and that errors were made in the administrative charges against Middleton. The lawsuit said Middleton was singled out for termination because of his race while white officers accused of much graver offenses continue to work for the department. Middletons lawsuit alleges a long history of disparate treatment of white and Black officers. Some of those allegations include that an officer told Middleton to turn his black a(asterisk)(asterisk) face around, and that he was repeatedly referred to as the token officer and pet of the police chief. Police officials have said they obtained communications between Middelton and an activist by obtaining a warrant for her phone and social media pages after she was arrested while walking to her car after a protest. Middleton said any information he passed along to the activist was largely public information. Some of the information was about officers who had been previously accused of misconduct. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Lawsuits Law Enforcement Kentucky President Joe Biden has approved federal disaster aid for eight Alabama counties where tornadoes and strong winds caused damage over two days in March, the White House said. Biden approved assistance that can include grants for repair and temporary housing; loans for property losses; and other aid to individuals and businesses that were affected on March 25 and 26 in Bibb, Calhoun, Clay, Hale, Jefferson, Perry, Randolph, and Shelby counties. Gov. Kay Ivey said she had requested the assistance, which supplements state and local aid. Five people were killed when nearly a dozen tornadoes hit areas including Ohatchee, Helena and Hale County last month. Storms continued into Georgia, where the city of Newnan southwest of Alabama had major damage. Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Windstorm Alabama Last May 5, K-Pop Radar released their "Weekly Top 10 Music Video" chart for the 19th week of 2021. Want to know what the most-viewed K-pop music videos are from May 2 to May 8? Then keep on reading! ITZY's "Mafia in the Morning" is the Most Viewed K-Pop Music Video from May 2 to May 8 Ranking at the top is ITZY's music video for "Mafia in the Morning," which garnered 49,605,387 new views from May 2 to May 8. The video has maintained the top spot for two weeks in a row. The music video surpassed 50 million total views on May 3, three days after the music video was released. This is their fastest music video to do so. Previously, their music video for "WANNABE" was the fastest to surpass 50 million views, doing so in five days. In response to ITZY's growth, K-Pop Radar said, "Compared to 'WANNABE,' which took 43 days to reach 100 million views, "Mafia in the Morning" is likely to reach 100 million views by May if they continue to gain views at this pace. They will be able to break their own record." According to K-Pop Radar's analysis, ITZY garnered 104 million views on their YouTube Channel from May 1 to May 8. Most of their viewers came from Indonesia, which amounted to 9.5% of the viewers. South Korea followed this with 8.7%, Japan with 7.7%, India with 7.6%, and the Philippines with 7.1%. HIGHLIGHT's "NOT THE END" is the Most Viewed K-Pop Boy Group Music Video from May 2 to May 8 Coming in second place is HIGHLIGHT's music video for "NOT THE END." According to data from K-Pop Radar, the music video garnered 13,791,7766 views from May 2 to May 8. As of press time (May 3, 2021), the music video has 15,627,616 views. This is HIGHLIGHT's first release as a four-member group since Nov. 20, 2018. "NOT THE END" also marks the first time HIGHLIGHT has made a comeback as a four-member group. The boy group released their third mini-album, "The Blowing," on May 3 after a two and half years of hiatus. Currently, HIGHLIGHT is composed of members Yoon Doojoon, Yang Yoseob, Lee Gikwang, and Song Dongwoon. Yong Junghyun left the group on Jan. 24, 2019, after admitting to watching illegal sex videos sent to him by Jung Joonyoung. Back in Apr. 2016, Jang Hyunseung left the group due to creative differences between him and the members. These are the TOP 10 Most-Watched K-Pop MVs in the 19th Week of 2021 *Note: Number of views from May 2 to May 8 seen next to the song name 1. ITZY - "Mafia in the Morning" (49,605,387) 2. HIGHLIGHT - "NOT THE END" (13,791,776) 3. BTS - "Dynamite" (12,154,472) 4. Weeekly - "After School" (8,462,123) 5. AB6IX - "CLOSE" (7,829,312) 6. BTS - "Boy With Luv (feat. Halsey)" (7,3221,619) 7. BLACKPINK - "How You Like That" (6,717,358) 8. BLACKPINK - "DDU-DU DDU-DU" (6,325,657) 9. BTS - "MIC Drop (Steve Aoki Remix) (Feat. Desiigner)" (6,367,792) 10. BLACKPINK - "Kill This Love" (6,173,628) Did your favorite K-pop music video make the top ten? For more K-Pop news and updates, always keep your tabs open here on KpopStarz. KpopStarz owns this article. Written by Alexa Lewis Burma Amid Fuel Shortage Concerns, Myanmar Regime Plans to Reopen Old Yangon Oil Refinery Coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing at the No 1 Oil Refinery compound in Thanlyin on Apr. 30. / The office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services The Myanmar junta is pressing ahead with a plan to reopen a disused oil refinery in Yangons Thanlyin Township, which a state-owned Indian company has expressed an interest in taking over. Military-controlled newspapers said that the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) has a plan to build a new refinery on the site of the No. I Oil Refinery Compound in Thanlyin Township. The new plant will be capable of refining ten million tonnes of crude oil annually. The project was first proposed last year during an official visit to Myanmar by Indias Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla and Indian army chief MM Naravane. Indian media suggested that the new refinery would be a US$6 billion project. So far, though, IOCL has yet to announce an update of the planned project. U Aung Than Oo, the junta-appointed Minister for Electricity and Energy, said on Monday that the Thanlyin refinery had been shut since 2017 as it was not commercially viable. He added that the plant needed to be repaired and put back into operation as soon as possible to help meet the domestic demand for fuel. The move to revive the old refinery comes after coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing visited the Thanlyin compound in late April. Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing told officials to strive to re-open refineries to help solve Myanmars urgent need for fuel. Myanmar is heavily reliant on imported gasoline and diesel. Currently, the Chauk Refinery in Magwe Region is the only refinery operating in Myanmar, and it is only capable of refining 6,000 barrels of oil per day. On average, Myanmar imports five to six medium-range tankers worth of gasoline cargoes per month, most arriving from Singapore, the regions largest oil trading hub. But since the juntas Feb. 1 coup, the country has been in danger of possible fuel shortages with banks and government departments forced to close because thousands of their workers have joined the nationwide civil disobedience movement and gone on strike in protest at the military regime. Myanmars currency has also depreciated against the US dollar, while the political and economic crisis, and the threat of potential sanctions, means that oil companies have become cautious about supplying fuel to Myanmar. The state-owned Thanlyin refinery was constructed in 1955 on nearly 1,700 acres of land and was formerly capable of processing 20,000 barrels of oil per day. The refinerys terminal was also able to receive up to 2 million tonnes of crude oil via the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline. But in 2017 the refinery was closed after lawmakers demanded a stop to the operations of loss-making, government-owned factories in an effort to cut down the budget deficit. In 2018, the Ministry of Electricity and Energy promised to upgrade oil refinery projects, including the Thanlyin refinery, in partnership with the private sector under the Public Private Partnership scheme. At that time, many companies, including some from India and Japan, expressed an interest in investing in Myanmars refineries. U Aung Than Oo called on the workers of the No 1 Oil Refinery to return to work as quickly as possible to maintain the Thanlyin plant. He said that the refinery staff must strictly abide by the public service personnel law, as well as rules and regulations saying that the refinery needs to be open to meet the demands of factories. He also ordered officials to maintain the jetty at the refinery for work operations. You may also like these stories: Deadly Attack on Pipeline Station Spotlights Chinas High Stakes in Myanmar TNLA, MNDAA Claim to Have Killed Dozens of Myanmar Junta Troops in Shan State Striking Education Staff Fired by Myanmar Junta Burma Myanmar Junta Looks to Replace Striking University Staff -- Myanmars military-controlled Higher Education Department is planning to replace striking university and college staff. The regime has suspended many striking educators and administrative staff after they refused orders to return to work to reopen doctorate, masters degree and final-year bachelors degree studies on May 5 nationwide. According to the representative committee for the University Teachers Association, around 13,000 staff had been suspended by May 8 but the number could be higher as some universities have yet to name the staff who have joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM). Those suspended include professors, lecturers, security guards and cleaners. The regime made job announcements for educational positions before suspending the striking staff. On May 7, the regime extended the deadline for job applications and postponed written exams. The regime has also reportedly relaxed age limits for applicants, allowing those as old as 44 to apply for positions. No educator was born overnight. Everyone with a brain knows this helter-skelter replacement will not work, said a striking member of East Yangon University staff. People have praised strikers who were included in the suspension list and staff take pride in being suspended for joining the CDM, the academic said. Educators have a clear conscience as they stand by justice. I believe striking teachers will fight until the end for the sake of justice, the source told The Irrawaddy. Some suspended staff said they were told by their rectors that they would not be punished if they appealed and returned to work by May 11. The military regime also recently conducted promotion interviews with non-CDM academics to replace striking rectors and their deputies, according to strikers. The regime is also pushing to reopen basic education schools in June amid widespread calls for a boycott of the education system under military rule. Photos of office letters, instructing district and township education offices to appoint temporary teachers where necessary, spread on social media. There have been reports of applications in some areas. Most staff refuse to work to stand by justice. I doubt the opportunists who stand by injustice will be able to fill the positions. I dont think it will be successful no matter how much they try, said a striker. While the military council is offering promotions and other incentives, it has also been issuing arrest warrants for staff ranging from rectors to primary school teachers under Article 505(a) of the Penal Code. Burma Myanmar Junta Thugs Beat and Arrest Mandalay Protesters Anti-regime protesters take to the streets in Mandalay's Pyigyitagun Township on Wednesday morning. / CJ Myanmar regime forces violently arrested around 30 pro-democracy protesters on Wednesday morning, including teachers, during a crackdown on an anti-junta protest in Mandalays Pyigyitagun Township. Some detainees were brutally beaten and suffered injuries while being arrested. Witnesses reported that a group of armed plainclothes men emerged from a private vehicle and opened fire to disperse the anti-regime demonstration. The protesters who dispersed were then arrested. A protester who managed to evade arrest said the demonstrators included female teachers and that they were beaten with batons and rifle butts by the plainclothes men, and that one was strangled. The regime thugs forced the detained protesters to kneel on the ground before they were dragged away. Another witness said that some of the detainees were severely beaten on their legs and that one was wounded in the head. Over 25 motorcycles parked nearby were also seized. Despite the brutal crackdowns on anti-junta protests, people in Mandalay have continued their daily demonstrations against the regime. It is not known where the detainees are being held. More than 3,800 people are being detained by the regime as of May 11, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. You may also like these stories: Deadly Attack on Pipeline Station Spotlights Chinas High Stakes in Myanmar TNLA, MNDAA Claim to Have Killed Dozens of Myanmar Junta Troops in Shan State Striking Education Staff Fired by Myanmar Junta Burma Myanmar Junta Troops Shoot Dead Mentally Ill Man in Sagaing Region Family members hold a quick funeral for mentally disabled man Ko Kyaw Myint, who was shot dead by junta troops on Tuesday night in Kani Townships Thamin Chan Village. / CJ A mentally disabled man was shot dead by junta forces in Thamin Chan Village in Sagaing Regions Kani Township on Tuesday night. Around 20 soldiers shot at Ko Kyaw Myint, 36, who died after sustaining gunshot wounds to the forehead and thigh after 9 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the villagers. More than 100 soldiers had taken up positions in Thamin Chan Villages high school building for five days, following shootouts with civilian resistance forces last week. A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said, The sound of gunfire caused him [Ko Kyaw Myint] to become more unstable, as he is mentally ill. He cursed the soldiers and challenge them from his home, which is next to where the soldiers were stationed. A week earlier, Ko Kyaw Myint had been detained by police, as he was wandering around the village while every healthy male resident had gone into hiding. But he was later released due to his condition. His parents begged the soldiers not to shoot, as he was mentally ill, a neighbor said, but the soldiers ignored them and shot him, as well as into the house. She said the victims family held a quick funeral for him on Wednesday morning and were preparing to leave, as they are scared to continue staying at home. The villagers said the soldiers raided their village and arrested any young men they could find, following two shootouts with civilian defense forces near Hman Taung Hill. A monastery was destroyed and two houses in the vicinity were burned down. In the clashes on the hill outside the village, a captain and four privates [from the Myanmar military] were killed. Then they fired live rounds randomly at the village, including mortar rounds, the villager said. All the young men had fled their homes in fear of being arrested, while the women, children and elders remained in the village, which is home to some 3,000 people. The soldiers said they would not harm the women and told us to stay home, but there are almost no able-bodied men left in the village; they have fled and are hiding elsewhere, said a female resident who asked not to be named. Soldiers left the village at 3 a.m. on Wednesday. Troops then raided nearby Zee Pin Twin Village on Wednesday morning and arrested 23 villagers, according to a resident. Soldiers had already gone on the rampage in Zee Pin Twin last week. Refusing to bow to military rule imposed after coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing seized power from the democratically elected National League for Democracy government on Feb. 1, residents of Sagaing Regions Kani, Yinmabin, Kalay (Kale) and Tamu townships have taken up traditional homemade percussion-lock firearms to resist the soldiers. As of Tuesday, more than 780 people had been killed by the junta forces brutal crackdowns on anti-regime protesters and bystanders since Feb. 1, while nearly 5,000 people had been arrested, of whom 3,859 are still in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The Irrawaddy has not been able to independently verify the death toll. You may also like these stories: Tamu Defense Force Kills at Least 15 Myanmar Junta Troops Examining the Implications of Thailands New Draft Law on NGOs In Military-Ruled Myanmar, Political Detainees Mark 100 Days Behind Bars Burma Myanmar Military-Owned Brewers Sales Halved as Boycott Bites Anti-coup protesters hold a placard reading Dont buy goods produced by the military to show their stand against the military regime in Yangon in February. / Dont Buy it / Facebook Military regime-owned Myanmar Brewery, the countrys largest beer maker, saw its first-quarter sales plunge by almost 50 percent on-year, according to financial results for Japanese beverage giant Kirin, the militarys partner in the joint venture that owns the brewer. The collapse in sales follows a boycott by anti-junta protesters of military-linked products, which is aimed at severing the coup leaders financial lifelines. Kirin owns 51 percent of Myanmar Brewery, with military-owned conglomerate Myanma Economic Holdings Public Co. Ltd. (MEHL) holding the rest. In its Q1 2021 financial report, the Japanese company said that in addition to the pandemic, the coup had impacted sales from February onwards, and had disrupted all economic activity in Myanmar. Kirin said Myanmars beer market has shrunk due to the spread of COVID-19, the political upheaval and supply chain disruptions. Myanmar Brewerys sales volume was down by 46 percent year-on-year, almost in line with market performance, it said. Myanmar Brewerys sales volume also declined by almost the same amount as the market, Kirin said. Kirin said revenue and normalized operating profit both declined due to the lower sales. Myanmar Brewerys normalized operating profit was down 49.6% compared to the first quarter of 2020, according to the financial report. Following the coup, Kirin announced that it was ending its joint-venture partnership with MEHL, citing its deep concerns over the actions of the military, which it said run counter to the companys standards and human rights policy. In the report, Kirin said it is still in discussions on dissolving the partnership with MEHL. Kirin earlier faced international condemnation for its partnership with Myanmars military amid accusations of genocide against the Rohingya. Last year, Kirin hired Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory to conduct an independent review of the financial and governance structures of MEHL. However, its probe into MEHLs military connections ended inconclusively because access to information was denied. Nonetheless, Kirin stopped making dividend payments to the military-owned company in November. Kirins Myanmar business recorded operating profit of US$115 million (161.84 billion kyats) in 2019, according to the company. In response to Kirins report, human rights group Justice for Myanmar said the financial results provide clear evidence that the mass boycott of military-linked products by Myanmar consumers is working, causing a direct hit to the pockets of the coup leaders. Kirins figures show yet again that Myanmar people reject military rule and demand that democracy is restored, JFM said. Kirin has attempted to explain the figures as a result of pandemic and political upheaval but we know that it is evidence of a mass rejection of their abhorrent business model in Myanmar, which finances these killers, JFM said. JFM also called on Kirin to urgently disclose the steps it is taking to cut ties with joint venture partner MEHL. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Villagers Detained After Overnight Battle with Junta Troops Myanmar Junta Looks to Replace Striking University Staff Deadly Attack on Pipeline Station Spotlights Chinas High Stakes in Myanmar Burma Myanmar Villagers Detained After Overnight Battle with Junta Troops Talokmyo villagers flee their homes on Wednesday after a raid by junta troops. / CJ Around 35 villagers, including women, children and three civilian resistance fighters, were detained in a Wednesday morning raid by approximately 500 junta troops in Myingyan Township, Mandalay Region, after a prolonged shootout. Around 5,000 villagers have fled their homes due to the fighting, a resident told The Irrawaddy. The shooting began on Tuesday afternoon when 13 vehicles carrying more than 100 junta troops attempted to enter Talokmyo, which includes four villages. Three junta troops were reportedly killed and several were injured when facing unexpected resistance from villagers using homemade firearms, slingshots, air-guns and some actual firearms. Reinforcements from Mandalay, Natogyi, Myingyan and Taungtha townships fired on the villages until 1am on Wednesday. At around 6am on Wednesday, troops started shooting again and raided the village, according to residents. More junta troops were injured but no casualties were reported among the resistance fighters, the source said. The Irrawaddy was not able to independently confirm the military casualties. Soldiers are still deployed in Talokmyo. Our villagers could not resist them indefinitely as our homemade firearms do not work well enough in shootouts against automatic weapons, a Talokmyo resident told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. Older villagers, the sick and children have been forced to seek shelter in surrounding farmland in the height of the hot season, according to residents. The regimes actions are totally unacceptable. It violates the laws it claims to be enforcing. The junta troops are much worse than robbers, said a displaced villager. In late April and early May troops twice tried to raid the Talokmyo villages but were resisted by residents using slingshots and darts. The junta is facing increased resistance in several townships in Sagaing, Mandalay and Magwe regions and Chin State. Recent shootouts between the civilian resistance and junta troops have forced around 13,000 civilians from around 25 villages in Kani Township, Sagaing Region, into hiding in forests. You may also like these stories: Myanmar Junta Looks to Replace Striking University Staff Deadly Attack on Pipeline Station Spotlights Chinas High Stakes in Myanmar TNLA, MNDAA Claim to Have Killed Dozens of Myanmar Junta Troops in Shan State Burma Tamu Defense Force Kills at Least 15 Myanmar Junta Troops Tamu-PDF members pose for a picture this month. / Supplied At least 15 junta soldiers died during two clashes with the Tamu Peoples Defense Force (T-PDF) in Sagaing Regions Tamu on the Indian border on Tuesday night and early Wednesday. One civilian member of the T-PDF died and another was injured on Tuesday night. A T-PDF member said five junta soldiers were killed in a clash near Pan Thar Village on Tuesday night, between 10:30 p.m. and midnight. Another 10 soldiers were killed during an attack on a military post at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday in Kun Taung Village in Tamu district, he said. Tamu residents formed the defense force, also known as the Tamu Security Group (TSG), and took up firearms and weapons to fight junta forces in late March, after junta troops killed an unarmed protester during a raid on a nighttime protest. They killed dozens of soldiers using grenades in downtown Tamu in April. Group members went into hiding following a brutal crackdown by junta forces in mid-April. When the civilian National Unity Governments Peoples Defense Force (PDF) was formed last week, the TSG said it would cooperate with the PDF. In the fighting this week, the defense force used guerilla-style warfare and ambushes to resume their attacks against junta forces. As we said, we will continue the fight against the military dictatorship to the end. We paused the fighting recently; now we are back, the PDF member said. You may also like these stories: Examining the Implications of Thailands New Draft Law on NGOs In Military-Ruled Myanmar, Political Detainees Mark 100 Days Behind Bars Karen Armed Group Leader Condemned for Backing Talks With Junta Guest Column Examining the Implications of Thailands New Draft Law on NGOs People from civic groups led by the Four Slum Region Network, a respected local grassroots NGO, protest in front of the UN office in Bangkok last year to ask for help with housing problems. / Wichan Charoenkiatpakul / Bangkok Post Thailands longstanding business-as-usual approach to local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) will soon be a thing of the past. After nearly three decades of flexible engagement with the so-called not-for-profit organizations, the Thai government has recently come up with a draft bill on Operations of Not-for-Profit Organizations, which is now being vetted by the Office of the Council of State. All governmental agencies have been asked to comment on this new draft legislation before it is forwarded to the National Assembly for further deliberation and approval in the near future. It certainly will take some time to gain a consensus. The whole new approach, which has already been attacked by human rights organizations and activists, could have devastating effects on the countrys soft power and its openness. This new act, if it becomes law, will require all not-for-profit associations including grassroots communities and interest organizations to show transparency in clarifying the sources of their funding and submit an annual report with auditing details. Needless to say, the recipients, which have never revealed their funding sources, will certainly view such intentions as a measure of intimidation and a means to control their activities. Failure to comply with the objectives and activities stated by their organizations could lead to criminal charges and imprisonment. It is not an overstatement to say that Thailand has been quite tolerant about the presence of NGOs, especially INGOs of all creeds and dedications. For Thailand, their presence is considered an asset given its infamous history of coup-making and political uncertainties. It helps to provide a sense of continuity. The fact that Thailand has never expelled an INGO is a barometer of recognition of their role in the development and protection of civil and political rights even though their actions and evaluations upset the government. In fact, Thailand has a long-held dream of transforming its capital into a second Geneva. Both former Bangkok governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra and the late former foreign Surin Pitsuwan were behind this move. Today 86 international NGOs and more than 25,000 local NGOs are based in the country. Overall they serve as eyes and ears that help make Thailand stand out as a free, open society in the ASEAN region. The political turmoil in the past decade and the important roles played by international and local NGOs have now prompted the authorities to dig deep into some of these organizations concerning their funding and activities as well as their affiliated groups. In short, they are strengthening rules and regulations so that they can monitor funding and activities better. Concerns have been expressed that at least 12 of them have been working against the public interest which could potentially harm national security. The new law mandates the Interior Ministry to comprehensively handle these NGOs at every step and that could provoke an outcry from NGOs representatives. Under the current administration, these NGO staff have been well treated, especially under the Ministry of Labor, where the officials are concerned with the technical cooperation side rather than focusing on the whole gamut of NGO activities that might have political consequences or even perceived threats to national security. Indeed, the governments concerns over the states security, especially those pertaining to the monarchy, are one of the major reasons for the new draft. In the past five years, local NGOs with foreign funding have adopted an active platform calling for political and constitutional reformssome with references to the royal institution in the most radical ways. This trend has intensified over the past year leading to all kinds of conspiracy theories between donors and recipients regarding the countrys political landscape. Furthermore, another attribute is the lack of cooperation between intra-government agencies such as the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Human Security as well as security-related agencies. Prior to 1992, the Ministry of Interior was the key agency taking care of all not-for-profit associations. However, with more applications and an increased presence from abroad following the democratization period, the whole process was moved to the Ministry of Labor where it has remained. Thailand has often seen intra-agency struggles over whether to allow more foreign-funded NGOs to operate in the country. In fact, the countrys erratic attitude toward NGOs also sends mixed signals to the international community. One good case study was the request from the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), which was granted permission in 2007 during the military-run government under former prime minister General Surayud Chulanont. Noteworthy was that quite a few international NGOs were allowed to operate under the military junta. Surprisingly, the ICJ applications to operate in Thailand had been rejected and delayed repeatedly by previous democratically elected governments. The ICJ has been active in promoting the rule of law and human rights on Thai soil. Its permission to operate in Thailand has been renewed continuously without problem. In the latest decision early this year, the ICJ presence was continued even though there have been concerns raised among security-related agencies about the nature of its recent activities. In retrospect, several versions have been drafted including earlier ideas that all foreign organizations must have prior approval from local NGOs before they can apply. It was subsequently rejected as was the plan to place the whole process under the control of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, which was backed by the Democrat Party. The countrys oldest political party believes that this ministry should deal with the NGOs, as they have to engage with people related to the quality of their livelihoods. The current draft was based on ideas culled from legislation in countries including the US, India, China, Russia, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Japan, South Korea and the Netherlands. Outstanding input was taken from laws in the US, India, Hungary and South Korea. For example, Over the past year at least 15,000 NGOs have been shut down in India due to foreign support. In the coming months, the Thai authorities should intensify dialogue with all stakeholders to increase awareness and understanding of the substance of this new draft act. It is not too late to take up their views and amend some of the shortcomings. Thailand will continue to coexist with the INGOs and NGOs, especially in the post-pandemic world, which will require closer partnerships. Kavi Chongkittavorn is a veteran journalist on regional affairs. This article first appeared in The Bangkok Post. You may also like these stories: In Military-Ruled Myanmar, Political Detainees Mark 100 Days Behind Bars Karen Armed Group Leader Condemned for Backing Talks With Junta Myanmar Civilian Fighters Kill Three Junta Soldiers During Shootout Reported cases in DTLA and surrounding areas as of May 2 The Joe Biden Administration continues to provide monetary support to needing families all over the United States. In fact, Biden's government allocated $1.9 trillion in his American Rescue Plan. With that said, there are some new updates on the relief bill, as well as financial statements and detailswhether you are qualified to receive some of this money. On March 11, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, also known as the COVID-19 Stimulus Package, to support and speed up recovery for United States citizens and business institutions. American Rescue Plan: $1.9 Trillion Budget Tracker The Washington Post recorded some of the significant investments the $1.9 trillion budget was spent on these following payments: Unemployment benefits of $300 weekly and $10,000 tax break per eligible individual The House legislation weekly benefit around $300 to $400 per week through August 29 $900 billion stimulus package, sending out $1400 and $600 stimulus check payments since December Child Tax Credit where eligible individuals receive $3000 a year for children ages 6-17 and $3600 for children ages six and below Aid to state and local governments. The support amounts to $350 billion divided into different states, cities, tribal governments, and other U.S. territories $500 million to FEMA's Emergency Food and Shelter Program provisions to support homeless services providers $8.5 billion to Provider Relief Program to assist rural health care providers Plus Up and Recovery Rebate Credits Read Also: IRS Stimulus Check Letter, Notice 1444-C Not a Scam: Where to Check If You Have Not Received It American Rescue Plan: Division of Funds The Biden Administration works to divide its monetary funds and services to different states according to their situation. However, Usa Today reported that California, Texas, and New York would receive 29 percent of this support, a total of $350 billion, which is more than the three state's total share of the U.S. population around 27 percent. However, a closer analysis revealed that the budget was allocated according to the state's unemployment percentages. As the most populous state, California receives $42.3 billion, which includes financial support for their state and local governments. Texas, as the second most populous state, gets the second biggest budget of around $27.3 billion. New York receives the third biggest budget because it is one of the first states to enforce strict lockdown regulations during the start of the pandemic last spring. As a result, the state suffered an 8.2 percent unemployment rate. Therefore, the state was provided $23.5 billion for its recovery. For reference, the top seven state allocations are as follows: $20 billion to Tribal Governments, $17 billion to Florida, $13 billion to Illinois, $13 billion to Pennsylvania, $11 billion to Ohio, $10 billion to Michigan, and $10 billion to New Jersey. Some of this money has already been released, such as the stimulus check credit and tax credits. However, some of the budgets remain in the hands of the local government jurisdiction. Each state would be responsible for how to allocate its own finances and budget. For eligible individuals, it is better to ask your local government for more details on the American Rescue Plan programs implemented in your area. Related Article: Fourth Stimulus Check Tracker: Fake News on $2000 Payment, Updates and More Details Finally, the wait is over for Subaru aficionados craving for that EV crossover. Subaru has released details of its first electric vehicle, the 2023 Subaru Solterra EV that will surely excite everyone. The new model is built on an EV platform, which Subaru co-developed with fellow Japanese carmaker Toyota. 2023 Subaru Solterra Release Date The 2023 Subaru Solterra release date is slated for 2022 in the U.S., Canada, China, Europe, and Japan, as per Tech Crunch. According to the Subaru website, the model name is a portmanteau of the Latin words for "Sun" and "Earth," which connotes its environment-friendly theme. For sure, this new SUV will feature Subaru's acclaimed all-wheel-drive capabilities. As such, the Solterra would have front and rear electric motors. Subaru Solterra Specs: What Fans Want Fans are certainly waiting for announcements on the powertrain and performance specs, but as Subaru revealed, the standard AWD features in all of its SUVs is there. On its website, teaser images ofthe vehicle show that it is apparently no different from previous Subaru SUVs, but it seems to be smaller. An image of the car's rear presents quite a wonderful attraction to outdoor adventurers. Car and Driver likens it to Toyota's forthcoming EV, the BZ4X (BZ standing for Beyond Zero), which will also use the same EV platform as the Solterra. Read Also: Electric Vehicles Not as Popular as Believed, Survey Shows Only 4% of Australians Are Interested Subaru Solterra to Fit in Compact Crossover Segment Accoridng to reprts, it would fit in the compact crossover market segment, much like the Toyota RAV4 and the Subaru Forester. The 2023 Subaru Solterra is also seen to be pitted against similarly sized eco-friendly competitors, such as the Ford Mustang Mach-E, Volkswagen ID.4 and Tesla Model Y. Solterra will now join Subaru Crpsstrek, a hybrid vehicle introduced in 2014 that remains the company's only vehicle for climate-conscious sundry. Apart from the Crosstek, it also offers the Outback, Forester and Ascent. Subaru Solterra Pricing No pricing or specs have been announced yet, but Car and Driver said it expects its battery capacity will support an approximate driving range of at least 250 miles to make it appealing to buyers being the standard in similar vehicles. It has yet to reveal the designs of the interiors, given the fact that most automakers refurbish the designs of the insides when they introduce EVs. Car and Driver further said the Solterra would mostly likely cost in high $30,000s. With Subaru's entry in the EV race, the market has become increasingly crowded, with such offerings as the Jaguar I-Race, Tesla Model X, Audi E-Tron, and Volvo XC Recharge already off in the streets. Add Toyota and Nissan into the picture as well, then buyers would now more choices in the growing EV field. Check out the video below for the first look at the 2023 Subaru Solterra that will soon hit the streets. Related Article: EV Adoption Study: Billions of Dollars, Thousands of Lives Would Be Saved With Vehicle Electrification Brent Barbara, SVP of Business Development, Phone.com Joins MSP Expo 2021 #TECHSUPERSHOW Shelton, CT 5/12/2021 TMC today announced Brent Barbara, SVP of Business Development, Phone.com will present a conference session at MSP Expo being held June 22-25, 2021 at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami, Florida. Through interactive sessions, quality keynotes, exciting networking experiences and a recently expanded exhibit floor, ITEXPO connects businesses with the solutions, partners and education they need to drive digital transformation. As one of the only vendor neutral shows in the marketplace, thousands of Resellers, enterprises, service providers, media, manufacturers and developers come to ITEXPO year after year to make their purchasing decisions and select new partners. Here are the details for Brent Barabaras Presentation: Conference Track: MSP Technology Solutions Session title: Business Continuity Solutions for the Modern Business Date: 6/24/2021 Time: 3:00pm 3:55pm View all keynotes, speakers, special events, exhibitors and the entire MSP Expo conference program here. For more information or to register for MSP Expo, contact events@tmcnet.com. Companies interested in exhibiting, sponsorship or advertising packages for MSP Expo should contact TMC's Joe Fabiano at 203-852-6800 x132 or Maureen Gambino at 203-852-6800 x109. For the latest MSP Expo news, updates and information follow the event on Twitter at @MSPExpo. About TMC Through education, industry news, live events and social influence, global buyers rely on TMC's content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. As a result, leading technology vendors turn to TMC for unparalleled branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities. Our in-person and online events deliver unmatched visibility and sales prospects for all participants. Through our custom lead generation programs, we provide clients with an ongoing stream of leads that turn into sales opportunities and build databases. Additionally, we bolster brand reputations with the millions of impressions from display advertising on our news sites and newsletters. Making TMC a 360-degree marketing solution, we offer comprehensive event and road show management services and custom content creation with expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, @tmcnet . Share this Page Edited by Luke Bellos The foundation's Seafarer Connect initiative uses Cradlepoint's wireless cellular routers and NetCloud Service to provide internet connectivity for arriving seafarers. The program initially covers nine ports in New South Wales, Western Australia and Victoria, but aims to equip every port around Australia. "Supporting mental health and welfare of seafarers is a huge challenge in the industry across the world," said Tas Bull Seafarers Foundation executive chair Robert Coombs. "Normally, seafarers are working on ships for nine months at a time, however during the COVID-19 pandemic, crew have been on ships for nearly two years, which is impacting the mental health of the workers." Onboard connectivity is satellite based and therefore expensive, and COVID-19 restrictions mean seafarers are unable to disembark their vessels to use cheaper onshore services. The Seafarer Connect Initiative aims to provide free of charge Wi-Fi connectivity so seafarers can communicate with family, download movies, and stay up to date on the current COVID-19 status and information in the country they are travelling to and their home countries. "Health advice and COVID-19 updates at each geography go through a chain of communications and is then translated for the crew onboard, which means delays and gaps in relaying important and timely information. Connectivity to the outside world means seafarers can get direct and current information in their native language," said Tas Bull Seafarers Foundation project manager Bernie Farrelly. The foundation wants to provide this service at ports around the world. It is working closely with the International Transport Workers' Federation Seafarers Trust, which has been an enthusiastic supporter of Seafarer Connect in Australia. Cradlepoint technology was selected for its global compliance, reliability and security. "The other key benefit of Cradlepoint for us is that often when we receive funding to provide connectivity at individual ports, that funding needs to be used quickly. The ability to deploy Cradlepoint solutions fast has been instrumental to the success of these projects," said Farrelly. Cradlepoint APAC managing director Gavin Wilson said "It's very rewarding to see firsthand how these incredible organisations like Tas Bull Seafarers Foundation use technology to truly improve people's lives. "This is one example of how Cradlepoint helps customers with many unique challenges and needs. Cradlepoint's NetCloud Service, the software at the heart of our solution, enables customers to make changes to the network centrally and remotely with ease. It also reduces the time and cost to deploy new services." Tas Bull was an Australian seafarer turned waterside worker who became general secretary of the Waterside Workers Federation. He died in 2003. This Week in Review A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. Veteran Wyoming journalist Kerry Drake has covered Wyoming for more than four decades, previously as a reporter and editor for the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle and Casper Star-Tribune. He lives in Cheyenne. The views expressed here are solely his own. Jennifer Dorsey is chief copy editor and Business section coordinator. She worked in Washington, D.C., and Chicago before moving to the Tetons. Emily Mieure covers criminal justice and emergency news. She also leads the News&Guides investigative efforts. She has reported for WDRB TV in Louisville, Ky., WFIE TV in Evansville, Ind., and WEIU TV in Charleston, Ill. Tom Hallberg covers a little bit of everything, from skiing to long-form feature stories. A Teton Valley, Idaho, transplant by way of Portland and Bend, Oregon, he spends his time outside work writing fiction, splitboarding and climbing. Teton County Reporter Previously the Scene editor, Billy Arnold made the switch to the county beat where he's interested in exploring Teton County as a model for the rest of the West. When he can, he still writes about art, music and whatever else suits his fancy. Paul W. Hansens Common Ground column appears about twice a month. Columns are solely the opinion of their authors. Contact him via columnists@jhnewsandguide.com. County seat was once 210 miles away in Kemmerer, so valley residents wanted to break away from Lincoln County. Register with JOC.com and receive 5 free pieces of content for the first thirty days. After thirty days, you will receive 3 pieces of content and after sixty days you will receive 1 piece of content. To receive full access, Subscribe Today . You can also subscribe to our daily newsletter. Register Monticello, IL (61856) Today Mostly cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 87F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Grenadier prototype The latest-generation Grenadier prototypes were approved by INEOS Chairman, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, after testing on the Schockl mountain near Magna Steyrs HQ in Austria, as part of an engineering gateway assessment. Weve made great strides since the very early versions of the Grenadier I drove a year ago, said Sir Jim. The Schockl isaproper challengefor any 4X4. Today was a real test for our prototypes, and they came through very well. There is still work to do, but I am confident that the Grenadier will do the job we have developed it for. The Austrian mountains have been used for decades by Magna Steyr, INEOSs engineering partner, as a testing ground for off-road capability and durability for special purpose vehicles. Grenadiers testing programme will see more than 130 second-phase prototypes accumulate 1.8 million kilometres in extreme environments around the world and follows unavoidable delays through 2020. To achieve its rigorous testing targets, INEOS has revised its project timings and pushed back the start of Grenadier production. Dirk Heilmann, CEO of INEOS Automotive, said: Reaching this important development milestone is a great step forward for the project. We only have one opportunity to get this right and our quality and performance targets for the Grenadier remain paramount. We wont cut corners. After todays very positive results we are on track to reach our targets and to allow the start of production in July next year at the latest. Earlier this year, engineers completed extensive cold weather engine calibration with Grenadier prototypes in northern Sweden. The next phase of the development and validation process will subject the Grenadier to intense hot weather testing in some of the worlds harshest environments, including Death Valley in the USA and the dunes of the Middle East. Morrisons, one of the UK's 'big four' supermarket chains, has come under fire from investors who argue it is lagging behind rivals when it comes to the sale of healthy The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court voiced concern Wednesday at the escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians and said crimes may have been committed. I note with great concern the escalation of violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in and around Gaza, and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute, which founded the ICC, Fatou Bensouda said on Twitter. Palestinian militants and the Israeli army exchanged a barrage of deadly fire early Wednesday, after days of clashes that have left at least 40 dead and hundreds injured. Bensouda announced on March 3 that she had opened a full investigation into the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, infuriating Israel, which not a member of The Hague-based court, unlike the Palestinian Authority. That probe will mainly focus on the 2014 Gaza War but also look at the deaths of Palestinian demonstrators from 2018 onwards. After a five-year preliminary probe, she had said there was reasonable basis to believe crimes were committed by both sides by the Israeli Defense Forces and Israeli authorities, and by Hamas and Palestinian armed groups. Bensouda said Wednesday that the ICC investigations will cover all sides and all the facts and evidence relevant to an assessment of whether there is individual criminal responsibility under the Statute. My Office will continue to monitor developments on the ground and will factor any matter that falls within its jurisdiction. The worlds only permanent war crimes tribunal, the ICC was set up in 2002 to try humanitys worst crimes where local courts are unwilling or unable to step in. Relentless rocket fire and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns fuelled growing fears Wednesday that violence between Israel and Palestinians that has claimed 50 lives could spiral into full-scale war. Palestinian militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, said Israels army, which has launched hundreds of air strikes on Hamas and other Islamist groups in the crowded costal enclave of Gaza. The most intense hostilities in seven years have killed at least 43 people in Gaza, including 13 children, two Palestinians in the West Bank, and five Israelis, triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalems Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. As world powers voiced growing alarm and the UN Security Council readied for another emergency meeting on the bloody crisis, the UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland warned that were escalating towards a full-scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation, he said, echoing warnings from the international community. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab Israeli city of Lod, where police said wide-scale riots erupted among some of the Arab residents. There were fears of widening civil unrest as protesters waving Palestinian flags burnt cars and properties, clashed with Israeli police and attacked Jewish motorists in several mixed Jewish-Arab towns across Israel. Palestinian groups, mostly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have launched more than 1,000 rockets, Israels army said, including hundreds at Tel Aviv, where air sirens wailed overnight. Of these, 850 rockets have hit in Israel or been intercepted by Israels Iron Dome air defence system, while the rest have crashed inside Gaza, he said. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes at Gaza, the Israeli-blockaded coastal enclave of two million people that Hamas controls, targeting what the army described as Palestinian military sites. Aside from the mounting death toll, at least 230 Palestinians were wounded, many rescued from the smouldering ruins of buildings. On the Israeli side, more than 100 people have been injured, as residents across the Jewish state have been ordered to seek shelter. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink, calling for both sides to show restraint. The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, voiced concern at the escalation of violence and said crimes may have been committed. Bensouda announced on March 3 that she had opened a full investigation into the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, infuriating Israel, which not a member of The Hague-based court. Everything caught fire Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz warned Tuesday that this is just the beginning of Israels strikes, vowing that the operation, now dubbed Guardian of the Walls, would aim to restore peace for the long-term. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed in turn to step up its operation code-named Sword of Jerusalem, warning that if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it. Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said he expected the fighting to intensify and, when asked about unconfirmed reports that Hamas might seek a ceasefire, said: I dont think my commanders are aware, or particularly interested. In Gaza City, people sifted through debris after an Israeli air strike destroyed a 12-storey building near the coastline. Hamas said the tower block had been a residential building. AFP reporters said it also housed the offices of several Hamas officials. Five members of a single family were killed by an Israeli strike in northern Gaza on Tuesday, including young brothers Ibrahim and Marwan, who were filling sacks of straw at the time. We were laughing and having fun when suddenly they began to bomb us. Everything around us caught fire, their cousin, also called Ibrahim, told AFP. I saw my cousins set alight and torn to pieces, said the 14-year-old, breaking down in tears. We dont have a safe room In Israels central city of Lod, a man and a girl were killed Wednesday by rocket fire from Gaza. Israels foreign ministry identified one of the dead as 16-year-old Nadin Awad, an Arab Israeli. Her cousin, Ahmad Ismail, told public broadcaster Kan that he was near Nadin when she was killed alongside her father Khalil Awad, 52. I was at home, we heard the noise of the rocket. It happened so quickly. Even if we had wanted to run somewhere, we dont have a safe room, Ismail told Kan. Earlier, an Israeli woman was killed as rockets hit Rishon Letzion on the coastal citys southern edge, and in Ashkelon near Gaza, which Hamas threatened to turn into hell, rockets fired by militants killed two women. The crisis started last Friday when weeks of tensions boiled over and Israeli riot police clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalems Al-Aqsa mosque, on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Nightly clashes since then have rocked the ancient compound and flared elsewhere in east Jerusalem, leaving more than 900 Palestinians injured. Palestinians clashed again with Israeli officers in riot gear on Tuesday evening, with 245 Palestinians injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Large protests were held Tuesday in solidarity with Palestinians around the world, including in London, as well as in Muslim-majority countries including Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey. Calls grew on Wednesday for a de-escalation of violence after intense hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians that have left at least 48 dead and hundreds injured. The Israeli army has launched hundreds of air strikes on the Gaza Strip since Monday, while Palestinian militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets in some of the worst violence in seven years. Calls for calm emerged from around the world, here is a roundup of reactions: Russia, Turkey President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to halt fighting in a call with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who said the world needs to give Israel a strong lesson. Serious concern was expressed about the continuing clashes and the growing number of people killed and wounded, the Kremlin said in a statement. It added that Putin had called on the parties to de-escalate tensions and peacefully resolve the emerging issues. Britain British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink, calling for both sides to show restraint. The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions, he said on Twitter. Germany Germany said Israel had a right to self-defence against deadly rocket fire by Palestinian militants. The German government condemns these incessant rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip against Israeli cities in the strongest terms, Chancellor Angela Merkels spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday. Israel has the right to self-defence against these attacks. EU European Union chief Charles Michel called on Israelis and Palestinians to halt fighting and avoid civilian casualties, after speaking with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Very worried by the recent upsurge of violence and indiscriminate targeting. Priority should be de-escalation and prevention of the loss of innocent civilian lives on both sides, European Council President Michel said on Twitter Wednesday. ICC The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court voiced concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and the Palestinians and said crimes may have been committed. I note with great concern the escalation of violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in and around Gaza, and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute, which founded the ICC, Fatou Bensouda said on Twitter Wednesday. United States The United States urged both Israel and the Palestinians to avoid deeply lamentable civilian deaths, calling for calm after days of violence. Israel does have a right to defend itself. At the same time reports of civilian deaths are something that we regret and would like to come to a stop, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday. We dont want to see provocations. The provocations we have seen have resulted in a deeply lamentable loss of life, he said. We continue to call for calm, continue to call on all sides to de-escalate and to exercise restraint in their actions. burs-jv/tgb The United States, Britain and Germany called Wednesday on China to end its repression of the Uyghur minority, speaking out at a video conference that infuriated Beijing. Rights groups say up to one million Uyghurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups are detained in internment camps in the northwest Xinjiang region of China. In Xinjiang, people are being tortured. Women are being forcibly sterilized, US ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during the conference, which was sponsored by the US, Britain and Germany along with Human Rights Watch and featured testimony from Uyghur people. Many of them and people of other religious minorities are being forced to work until they drop, manufacturing clothes and goods at the behest of the state, said Thomas-Greenfield. She repeated the term genocide for the way China treats these minorities, using a word first employed by the US State Department when Donald Trump was president. We will keep standing up and speaking out until Chinas government stops its crimes against humanity and the genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang, the US ambassador said. Her British counterpart Barbara Woodward said, there is evidence of mass arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances and incidences of torture. There are further reports of widespread forced labor and sterilization. We are here today to face these facts. And to ask China to allow immediate, meaningful and unfettered access to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and her Office, said Woodward. We appeal on China to respect the universal declaration of human rights and we asked China to tear down the detention camps, German ambassador Christoph Heusgen added. If you have nothing to hide, why dont you finally grant unimpeded access to the high commissioner for human rights?, he asked of China. China had demanded the scrapping of the videoconference on the Uyghurs, saying it was based on sheer lies and political bias. In a statement the Chinese delegation insisted that the current situation in Xinjiang is at its best in history. China flatly denies any abuses in the region, describing detention centers there as work camps intended to boost incomes and deter extremism in a region made restive by central control. Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, currently behind bars in The Hague, will serve the rest of his sentence for the Srebrenica genocide in a British prison, the government in London said Wednesday. We should take pride in the fact that, from UK support to secure his arrest, to the prison cell he now faces, Britain has supported the 30-year pursuit of justice for these heinous crimes, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said as he announced the prison transfer. Radovan Karadzic is one of the few people to have been found guilty of genocide, added Raab. He was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians. The UNs International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals on Wednesday confirmed that it had asked Britain to enforce the sentence of Karadzic. It also requested that all necessary measures be taken to facilitate Karadzics transfer to the United Kingdom as expeditiously as possible. However, no date has yet been given for when the transfer will take place. Individuals convicted of crimes by tribunals in The Hague do not serve their sentences in the UN detention facilities in the city, and have a deal with member states, who take them instead. Systematic cruelty Raab was a legal adviser in Britains embassy in the Hague between 2003 and 2006, and negotiated the 2004 deal that is being used to transfer Karadzic, according to the Daily Telegraph. Karadzic is serving a life sentence for genocide in Srebrenica and other atrocities after appeals judges increased his sentence from an original jail term of 40 years. Bosnian Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys in a few days after capturing the town in eastern Bosnia on July 11, 1995. The episode labelled as genocide by two international courts came at the end of a 1992-1995 war between Bosnias Croats, Muslims and Serbs that claimed some 100,000 lives. Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic were among the last suspects put on trial by the UN tribunal in The Hague for the civil war. Appeals judges in 2019 increased Karadzics sentence, saying the initial jail term had underestimated the sheer scale and systematic cruelty of his crimes. Britain in 2013 took Liberian ex-warlord Charles Taylor after he lost his appeal against a 50-year sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity before the UNs Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) in The Hague. Taylor is serving his term at Frankland maximum security prison just outside Durham in northeastern England after being convicted of fuelling civil conflict in Sierra Leone. The UK government apologised on Wednesday after 10 civilians were killed during violence in Northern Ireland nearly 50 years ago, Downing Street said. The apology came a day after a coroner ruled that British soldiers used clearly disproportionate force against protesters in Ballymurphy, west Belfast, in 1971. Victims included a priest and a mother of eight children. Families of the dead, whom the coroner said were all declared entirely innocent of any wrongdoing, have accused successive governments in London of a cover-up. Downing Street said UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Northern Irelands First Minister Arlene Foster and her deputy in the power-sharing assembly in Belfast, Michelle ONeill. He said the conclusions of the Ballymurphy inquest were deeply sad and that the events of August 1971 were tragic, a statement read. The Prime Minister apologised unreservedly on behalf of the UK government for the events that took place in Ballymurphy and the huge anguish that the lengthy pursuit of truth has caused the families of those killed. Johnsons government has previously proposed legislation to prevent British troops who served in Northern Ireland being prosecuted, causing controversy in nationalist communities. Some 3,500 people were killed on all sides in the three-decade conflict over the British rule of Northern Ireland, which ended in 1998 when a peace deal was struck. Last week, two former paratroopers were cleared of killing a member of the Irish Republican Army paramilitaries, after evidence from the time was ruled inadmissible in court. Prosecutions from the era of The Troubles remain controversial, with Northern Ireland still split along sectarian lines. British troops were initially sent in to help keep the peace, after clashes between majority pro-UK Protestant communities, and nationalist Catholics in favour of union with Ireland. But they became caught up in some of the bloodiest episodes of the conflict. Former prime minister Tony Blair, who helped to broker the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, on Wednesday called for a South Africa-style truth and reconciliation commission to resolve long-standing differences, instead of prosecutions. Johnsons office said the government was determined to deliver a way forward in Northern Ireland that focuses on reconciliation, delivers for victims of The Troubles and ends the cycle of reinvestigations. The female great white shark Andromache returned to New Jersey this week after she was spotted swimming off the coast last fall. According to the non-profit marine research organization, the 10-foot-8-inch shark returned to the Jersey Shore of Cape Town last Saturday, when it conducted four explorations off the coast of Cape May County. October. The shark was spotted off the coast of Atlantic City on Sunday morning, and then headed north to Boracay and Barnegat Bay in Ocean County on Monday morning. The sharks most recent tinkling was registered at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, and she has traveled a total of 49 miles in the past 72 hours. According to Oceanch, when the global positioning tag on the sharks dorsal fin breaks the surface of the water long enough for the satellite to receive, it will make a ping sound. Since 2007, the organization has been marking sharks. Last August, Andromache was tagged for the first time near the coast of Cape Cod, the northernmost point of great white shark travel. Since then, Andromache has driven more than 5,000 miles along the eastern coast of the United States in the past 165 days. Last October, she made her first appearance off the coast of New Jersey, when she patrolled the nearby Island Beach State Park (Island Beach State Park). Last November, Andromache walked south to the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, and has been heading north for the past six months. According to her size, Andromache is an adult female great white shark, which means she has not fully grown up. Adult great white sharks are usually 15 feet long and weigh up to 5,000 pounds. Her name comes from the Greek character Andromache and is described as a symbol of motherhood, strength and courage. An adult female The great white shark is called Miss Mei There was a ping sound while swimming from the coast in Atlantic City last summer. Since February 2019, Oceanarch has spotted this 10-foot-long, 200-pound shark for the first time. The shark was originally found on the east coast of Florida. Her latest ping record was on the shore near Ponte Vedra Beach last Saturday. For the past two years, Miss May has been traveling up and down the eastern coastal areas, extending north to Cape Cod and south to West Palm Beach.She spent two summers ago Swimming along the coast in Cape May County. Security token platform Polymath today welcomes two new node operators dedicated to protecting their institutional-grade security token blockchain. Tokenise is an end-to-end tokenization provider that manages the exchange of secure tokens, and Saxon Advisors is a London-based corporate digital asset consulting company. The two companies have joined forces in Polymesh Blockchain by Polymath. The nodes of Saxon Advisors and Tokenise are both operated and managed by the mortgage department of Saxon Advisors, which provides professional mortgage services on the promising PoS network. New node operator Polymesh is an institution-level permissioned blockchain created by Polymath specifically for regulated assets. Transactions involving securities need to be determined by known trusted entities. special Securities, Polymesh relies on verified capital market participants who meet specific conditions to verify transactions as node operators. Tokenise provides investors and issuers with a self-service digital interface, which can provide 24/7 direct market access to the Tokenise stock exchange; used to raise funds, primary issuance, secondary trading, clearing, settlement and registration Tokenized securities. We hope that Polymesh is ubiquitous in the security token field, so it is easy for us to participate by running a node. Security tokens have been tried on other blockchains with different levels of success, and Factors such as gas fees and the principle of anonymity mean that this is always a problem. With Polymesh, we can overcome these challenges. Mike Kessler, CEO and Founder of Tokenise Saxon Advisors was established in 2018 to institutionalize the fundraising process of digital asset companies. Since then, it has served as the chief advisor for transactions worth more than $100 million; suitable for projects ranging from layer 1 blockchains and dApps to crypto wallets and custodial providers. We are very happy to play our role in the launch of Polymesh and the development of the entire security token market. As a strong supporter of Polymesh, and the way it aims to enable institutions to join security tokens; we are committed to bringing more financial Service companies connect to the chain and help realize the full potential of the network. Ultan Miller, Managing Partner of Saxon Consultants Future mainnet Polymesh opens the door to new financial tools by solving the regulatory challenges surrounding the public infrastructure of identity, compliance, confidentiality, and governance. Through the key design principles built into the chain. Currently, Polymesh is in the testnet stage before the launch of its mainnet. Users can access the chain by participating in the Alcyone testnet. The cost of college has been rising, and even well-planned families may find that they are spending more than they can afford. Able grandparents may be inclined to help provide loans to grandchildren. But before lending money to your beloved family members, there are some legal and personal issues to consider. Borrow money from family or friends? Obtain it in writing, review it with a lawyer, and sign online. We make it fast, affordable and simple. 1. Ask before lending Many kind grandparents can offend their family by borrowing money without borrowing. Financial gifts to grandchildren may be misunderstood by your grandchildren or their parents or guardians. Although many families will welcome help paying for college expenses, be sure to ask first before making a loan to your grandchildren. 2. Consider the tax consequences Depending on how you arrange the loan, the IRS may treat it as a gift.According to the current IRS regulations, you and your spouse are free to give gifts of $15,000 to anyone every year without paying Gift tax. If the amount you provide exceeds this amount, the gift will be considered part of the $11.7 million per person limit, and you can give up the gift without paying the gift or inheritance tax. However, if you arrange the loan correctly, it may not affect your tax liability. Talking with a lawyer here will help. Generally, you need to charge interest and record the loan to avoid treating it as a gift for tax purposes. In addition, you need to report interest income on your tax return to avoid penalties. 3. There is always a contract Of course, you believe that your grandchildren can repay the money you owe, but if you really want to refund the money, please make sure you ask for the contract. If possible, consider holding collateral so that your grandson has the incentive to repay in time. This can be challenging because many college students dont have meaningful assets that can be used for collateral.However, set a promissory note or Payment agreement, And require a certain amount of monthly payment, which is a good way to hold your grandson accountable. A written contract can ensure that there will be no problems with the family in the future. 4. Make monthly payments reasonable When setting up a promissory note or payment agreement, make sure that the monthly payment you request is not too high for the limited budget of college students. Simply put, affordable money usually means you get nothing in the end. 5. Treat this as a life lesson Loaning money for grandson to go to college is a good way to teach financial management skills, and will not have a wide-ranging credit impact in the event of a default. This is an opportunity to teach your grandson about money and how it works in a safe, protected environment. The young person you love will not only receive a college education, but also a real-world education about borrowing. 6. Know your options before Lending to grandchildren, Know how to get the money back when they decide not to repay. If you have a contract, the loan may be legally binding. You can take your grandchildren to small claims court, or take back any assets they have deposited as collateral. However, you must be willing to do so. Otherwise, you may lose the money lent to them. Loans to grandchildren are completely legal and can provide important financial help. However, before doing this, you will need to make sure that you understand the financial and legal implications. You may need to discuss these options with a lawyer or financial professional before making a decision, but dont be afraid to use your wealth to bless your grandson to college.If you have any questions about your situation, please contact Rocket Lawyers Essay Lawyer Affordable legal advice. This article contains general legal information and does not contain legal advice. Rocket Lawyer is not a law firm, nor is it a substitute for a lawyer or a law firm. The law is complex and changes frequently.Seek legal advice Ask a lawyer. Since the Public Health Agency of Canada refused to release uncensored internal documents, a Conservative Party member said he would like to know how far Canada and China have gone in cooperating on level 4 pathogens? Why Winnipegs National Microbiology Laboratory released two federal scientists in January. Conservative diplomatic commentator Michael Chong said at a special meeting: We need these documents. We need to know that the Canadian government through the Winnipeg National Laboratory of Microbiology is working on cooperation with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. What. The parliamentary committee held a hearing on Canada-China relations on Monday evening. The special committee asks to know why Two federal government scientists accompaniedCanadas only Level 4 laboratory was established in July 2019, and only four months later, one of them shipped samples of Ebola virus and Henipah virus to Wuhan Institute of Virology in China-CBC News first published these stories. Two months after the shipment, on May 24, 2019, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) filed an administrative matter with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, resulting in the removal of two Chinese research scientists Qiu Xiangguo and her husband Zheng Keding. There are several international students on July 5. Conservative MP Michael Chong said he wanted to know why the two scientists were released from the National Microbiology Laboratory, why the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating them, and the Winnipeg Laboratorys counterpart in Wuhan, China. Does the training have anything to do with the origin of the laboratory? The COVID-19 pandemic. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canada Press) The committee said it wanted to know why Qiu Guoguo and Zheng Keding, who had passed by in January of this year, were released. The Canadian public has the right to know the extent of this cooperation, why the two scientists were terminated, and the exact circumstances of the spread of Sinipa virus and Ebola virus and other work and activities between Canadian government agencies? And Wuhans Virology Laboratory. Despite repeated requests by the committee, PHAC refused to answer these questions Or provide an uncensored internal document stating that it cannot release personal information under federal privacy laws. Before Mondays meeting, it did provide the committee with 271 pages of documents, but many of them were reviewed. PHAC President Iain Stewart (Iain Stewart) We have deleted information related to personal information, investigations or security matters. The reason we do this is that as civil servants, we have a responsibility to keep confidential information confidential. Tell the committee. This is not to say that we want to be uncooperative or unresponsive. We are doing our best to make it public within the law. Iain Stewart, Director of the Public Health Agency of Canada, said that federal privacy laws prohibit him from sharing the personal information of two scientists released by the Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory. (National Research Council/Twitter) Liberal MP Robert Olipant, secretary of the Foreign Ministers Parliament, told Stewart that he should give a second opinion on this. He said: I think the Ministry of Justice has not given you the best advice. Stewart did provide more information about the Ebola and Hinipeg samples shipped from Winnipeg to the Wuhan laboratory. He said that the shipment was done well. He said: Although this is the only time we have shared virus samples with this particular laboratory, working with laboratories outside of Canada is essential to advance public health research on infectious diseases. Given our position as a viral febrile partner and our knowledge of the regulations and standards for these types of transfers, Winnipeg laboratories are often required to provide for new or existing programs (including laboratories in the United States) material. This [National Microbiology Lab] Willing to work with other laboratories to provide materials in a safe, responsible and transparent manner to promote global cooperation, rather than let a specific team monopolize the research on any specific disease. Right to know The conservative human rights critic Garnett Genuis said, Precedents for rulings in 2010 Used to meet the committees requirements for unedited documents. The ruling by the Speaker of the House of Commons found that Harpers administration violated parliamentary privileges by refusing to provide uncensored documents on the treatment of detainees in Afghanistan. It ordered the transfer of materials to members of Congress. Chong said that Canadians have the right to know all the background stories, and the committee has the legal right to force the release of unedited documents. He asked some sharp questions about the work done by the National Microbiology Laboratory to enhance the capabilities of its counterpart in Wuhan, China-some virology laboratories tried to link it to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. These theories have not yet been confirmed. Chong told the committee: There are two theories about how the coronavirus appears. One is the theory of zoonotic diseases. A zoonotic virus is a virus that spreads from animal species to humans. He continued: The other is that it somehow came from the laboratory of the Wuhan National Institute of Virology. This is not the dark part of the conspiracy on the Internet. These people with high reputation raise very real questions. Fetched ideas Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos accused Zhang of spreading false information. He said: Mr. Zhong is connecting the dots here. You know, he borrowed from some of the craziest theories on Facebook and other social media in order to present points here that have nothing to do with this committee. Olipante said he agreed that the documents should be released, but said Chongs comments were irresponsible. What I disagree with is far-fetched thinking, and even hints at some meaningless connection. And there is something embedded in these documents that will solve the worlds questions about the source of the coronavirus COVID-19, Olipant Say. This is bad wording. I think this is wrong information. I think this is convening an association, not a parliamentary committee. And I think this is just giving way to other peoples minds. The strangest thought. Winnipegs National Microbiology Laboratory is the only Level 4 laboratory in Canada, capable of dealing with the worlds deadliest pathogens. (Trevor Lyon/CBC) In an interview with CBC News on Tuesday, Chong clarified and went back a bit, saying that he did not link the Canadian laboratory to the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. He said that he only questioned Canadas role in training and equipping Wuhan laboratories to obtain Level-4 certification. If it turns out that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is the source of the coronavirus that caused this global pandemic, then we need more oversight of the Winnipeg National Microbiology Laboratory and its role in helping build capacity. Chong said. . No connection, PHAC says The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and PHAC have always denied that there is any connection between the COVID-19 pandemic and the delivery of the virus. There is no evidence that this shipment is related to the spread of the coronavirus. PHAC said that Ebola is a linear virus and Sinipa is a paramyxovirus. The Winnipeg laboratory has not sent samples of the coronavirus to Wuhan. The laboratorys scientific director, Dr. Guillaume Poliquin, told the committee on Monday: They are actually not related at all, and will not be used or related to SARS-CoV-2. At the end of the meeting, committee members passed a motion requesting that unedited copies of all PHAC records on the matter be handed over to the Legal Officer of the House of Commons for review within 10 days. The committee will then meet in private to determine what can be publicly released. If PHAC refuses to produce documents, the committee also voted to send the matter to the House of Commons. The council will then be asked to request disclosure. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proudly announced last week a partnership with the Ontario government to provide employees of key businesses with faster COVID-19 testing, but it is unclear whether federal health officials think it can Get tested by: All Canadians use it at home on pharmacy shelves. In some countries (including the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States), this home COVID-19 test is part of the pandemic policy promotion, as the government tries to foresee life in a society where more people are re-engaged but not everyone is vaccinated. Dr. Kevin Schwartz, an infectious disease doctor at the St. Joseph Health Center in Toronto, said: Its definitely not too late to do the right thing. Co-authored articles Recently on the easy-to-use quick test utility. Advocates say that even during the vaccination process, there is a place for self-testing to screen for infection. No vaccine is 100% effective, and some people cannot or will not get a vaccine. As immunity weakens, a booster vaccine for COVID-19 may be needed. Schwartz said he believes that public health measures that control the virus and allow us to be safe and open are still needed and remain open. This idea is that an accurate test can produce results in less than an hour. These people are obviously asymptomatic. This may be a key first screening tool that can reduce potential disease outbreaks and reduce potential disease outbreaks by one year. A tiring burden. Traditional laboratories are in terms of resources, cost and waiting time. A traveler who arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport in February showed a set of home COVID-19 test kits to all international arrivals before boarding the shuttle bus of the quarantine hotel. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters) Both the United Kingdom and Germany provide so-called lateral antigen tests for free to encourage people to buy things in pharmacies, test them at home, and then report the results online or through apps. In its marketing materials, the National Health Service encourages Britons to adopt a do it yourself approach. He said: With the relaxation of lock-in restrictions, the habit of regular testing twice a week will play an important role in maintaining the development of life. Pharmacists in Ontario say home tests are needed Justin Bates, CEO of the Ontario Association of Pharmacists, said that the pharmacies here should be able to handle this kind of initiative, both directly managing the process and helping the process. Rapid antigen testing for programs related to businesses and schools. Bates said he did not know that Health Canada was about to approve any home tests, which was not uncommon, but he said it was the logical next step. He said: If we really want to ensure the safety of the people and keep the economy open, thats what we have to do. We need to get these tests in the community in an easy-to-use way, and these tests dont incur a lot of cost. Or use disorder. Harvard epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina (Michael Mina) is an advocate of home testing. He outlines the possible use of these scenarios, including when a person is deciding whether to participate in a large event or a more intimate gathering. There will be vulnerable people. , Or the symptoms that your child has when he comes home from school may indicate COVID-19, influenza, or the common cold. Antigen tests look for viral proteins, not persistent genetic material, such as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test processed in the laboratory. Therefore, in an interview with CBC News last year, Mina compared home testing to the role of a security guard rather than a diagnostic function to diagnose someone who currently or recently has COVID-19. Listen | Dr. Michael Mina tells Quirks and Quark about the quick test (November 2020): Quirks and quarks12:04Can rapid COVID antigen testing break the root cause of the pandemic? Testing may be the key to ending the COVID pandemic 12:04 If someone gets a positive result in a home test, it is recommended that they seek confirmation of the PCR result through official channels. The products offered by American pharmacies are not free, including the lateral flow test of the domestic manufacturer Abbott and the Australian company Ellume, and the so-called molecular test conducted by Lucira in the United States. The price of the first two test kits is about $20-25, while the price of the two test kits is about twice that of the latter. U.S. company obtains conditional authorization Lucira pointed out in a press release in late April that the product had been conditionally authorized in the country, but Health Canada never commented on the approval at the time. Lucira said that its test should be available for Canadians to order online before June, at a price of approximately US$75, excluding tax and delivery fees. At this price and online distribution model, they will not become a mass solution. Last month, a Greek high school student took a self-test for COVID-19 at his home in Athens. In Greece, students and teachers returning to school are required to use the COVID-19 test kit twice a week. (Milos Bikanski/Getty Images) When CBC News asked Health Canada about Luciras approval and how close the agencys decision to consider antigen in situ testing was, they basically received no response and made a general response to continue monitoring them. Future authorized website. Health Canada pointed out: Although molecular (PCR) laboratory testing is the gold standard for diagnostic testing, there are still many technologies and test methods that can complement diagnostic testing. Health Canada said last year that it would not consider testing at home due to concerns about accuracy, but later Changed position. Regarding accuracy, the British government spoke up last week Independent research Said that compared with the PCR laboratory test, a home test approved by it has a specificity rate of 100% and a sensitivity of 96.4%. Specificity refers to the ability of the test to correctly identify non-viral testers, while sensitivity refers to the ability to detect COVID-19 positive. For Schwartz of the St. Joseph Health Center, the rhetoric surrounding rapid home testing often focuses on occasional false negative results, and these false negative results will eventually occur at the personal level rather than at the population level Relief. British Health Minister Matt Hancock spoke to the media in London in March. Since last month, the British government has encouraged Britons to conduct free home tests for COVID-19 online or in pharmacies, and report the results online or through apps. (Hannah McKay/Reuters) He said: Our goal is not to infect every infected person, but to infect people with a high enough viral load to reduce the infection rate so that it can be controlled at the population level. If we do this way Start thinking, then these tests will be very meaningful for implementation. Schwartz said that to make home testing less accurate than PCR testing and put it on the market, it is to choose not to screen at all. Home test not mentioned by Trudeau Even home test supporters like Mina admit In recent podcasts He is not sure whether people will develop the habit of regular self-testing.In the UK, the government has withdrawn Advertisement in newspaper Explain the test and encourage its use. A writer Technology Review from MITExpressed concern that user errors will cause false positives. If the false positives are amplified by stories in the media, it may prevent their widespread use. Watches | Advocates tout rapid testing, but the deployment is not balanced: Many companies and schools across Canada are using rapid COVID-19 testing and field testing techniques to help detect asymptomatic cases and prevent the spread of the virus. 7:41 Finally, Canada does have Efforts to deploy all allocations for rapid testing It is even used in workplaces and schools. But it seems that it will take several months to wait for most Canadian teenagers to be vaccinated, and it is not clear when children under the age of 12 can be tracked. As more and more parents return to work in the field, the option that can afford to take the exam at home may be welcomed because they may endure the long-lasting test lineup, the traditional laboratory waiting time and the subsequent release of their children from school Possibility of two weeks. The detection of a single confirmed COVID-19 case in a given classroom. On Wednesday, Trudeau generally mentioned screening, which is essential for Canada to get rid of the current COVID-19 dilemma and prevent future waves, but again, home testing is not in the scope of discussion. This article is the live version of the Trade Secrets press release.registered Here Get a complete newsletter, sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Thursday In a speech in Washington, President Joe Biden is continuing his efforts to consolidate the alliance to renew the strength of the United States in the world and form a coalition of like-minded nations to meet the challenges from China. However, some experts here insist that there is a major gap in his Asian strategy-lack of a framework for economic and trade issues. This is the focus of our main work today. Charter waters It will find a new source of anxiety for global shippers. We hope to hear from you.Send any ideas to [email protected] Or email me [email protected] A sound trade agenda is vital to Asian allies Gone are the days when Donald Trumps flexible approach frustrated American allies. When the leaders of the Group of Seven nations meet in the UK next month, German Chancellor Merkel can rest assured that Joe Biden will not follow Trump. Trump threw candy across the Canadian G7 in 2018 and said: Angela, dont say I wont give you anything. In the first three months of his presidency, Biden convened the first Quad Leaders Summit-composed of the United States, Japan, India and Australia. His first foreign visitor to the White House was Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, and his second guest will be South Korean President Moon Jae-in. In the Indo-Pacific region, following Chinas aggressive military activities in Taiwan, he has taken actions to support Taiwan and persuaded Britain, Canada and the European Union to join forces to impose sanctions on Chinas persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. . Many of his actions reassure allies, especially in the security field. However, partners from Japan to Australia worry about one thing: his Asian strategy lacks a strong trade and economic component. Wendy Cutler, now a former senior US trade negotiator at the Asia Society, told me that this is a matter of serious concern. We can do all the right things with our allies and partners in Asia, but if we do not have a sound economic and trade agenda, we will not succeed. Cutler said. They attach great importance to this aspect of the relationship between the two countries, and they very much hope to see the United States put a specific market opening plan on the table. Ryan Hass, Stronger: Adapting to the USs China strategy in an era of interdependence and competitionHe believes that dealing with China is crucial, and China is urging other countries to get closer in order to benefit from Chinas rise.?? Haas said: The United States and its partners need to come up with a saleable option. The existence of an aircraft carrier or destroyer will not prove the type of value that many US allies and partners are most seeking. President Barack Obama made definite arguments when he urged Congress to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (a huge trade agreement signed by 12 Pacific Rim countries) in 2016 . The policy was led by Kurt Campbell, who is now Bidens top advisor to the White House in Asia. But Obama failed to convince lawmakers that Trump withdrew from the agreement in his first month in office. The other 11 countries reorganized the agreement and changed its name to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).However, as a trade secret Written in February, The United States is unlikely to join the CPTPP in the next few years. The reason is that domestic political considerations arising from trade are represented by four letters. Some experts worry that as other countries, including China, become interested in signing contracts, the United States will be left behind. In an interview at the Financial Times global board meeting last week, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai opposed the idea that Biden has no strong economic component in his Asian strategy. But she said that he will adopt a new way of trading, which she calls a worker-centered policy. Tai told me: This really requires changing our past habits and our muscle memory. This will require our partners to keep pace with us in innovation and creativity, and re-enact policies so that we can work together to raise standards. And increase opportunities for us and our partner countries and their workers. Dai emphasized that the Biden team must study why transactions such as TPP that were promoted in the past to promote trade liberalization ended in a very fragile political status. We need to re-examine what agreements such as TPP have become so fragile here, and re-enact our policies Tai continued. We continue to interact with our partners, but follow policy reforms so that we can interact with These very important commitments undertaken by partners will not disappear, and will be more lasting and sustainable. Some experts urge Biden to agree on a digital trade agreement to solve problems such as data localization. Compared with a comprehensive free trade agreement, this method may be less politically controversial in the United States. Dai raised the issue of digitization in some dialogues with his colleagues. A senior U.S. official admitted that the allies raised concerns about the economic component of the Indo-Pacific strategy. We often talk about this issue in a more negative light, but the reality is that people are full of desire and appetite for U.S. participation. The official said that he warned that in terms of policy development, this is still very One day earlier. But the political situation is complicated. Before the 2022 midterm elections, Biden realized that Democrats accounted for only a small percentage of Congress and that he would not be able to afford the loss if he wanted to promote his rebuild better agenda. He knows that Trump, who effectively uses trade advantages, may run for president in 2024. A person in contact with the Biden team said: There is a real desire not to draw a big bullseye for Trumps people behind the White House in 2022 and 2024. But to prevent Trump. Putting this issue into action The White House has also just undermined our needs. At some point, some price will have to be paid. Chartered waters First is the West Coast route from East Asia to the United States, and then the route from East Asia to Europe. Now, these are shippers who use the transatlantic route between Northern Europe and the east coast of the United States, and they are seeing a surge in container freight costs. We asked Emile Naus, a consultant from BearingPoint Consulting, what was the reason for the soaring container freight rate: Shipping companies withdrew their services to save costs, and the flow of empty containers has been greatly reduced. By the end of 2020, after freight volumes rebounded, the shortage of containers and ships put pressure on prices and caused shipping companies to prioritize key services. After the Suez Canal was blocked, European port congestion further affected the transatlantic and Asia-Europe shipping. Naus also told us that shippers, port operators and shipping companies are increasingly skeptical about when these supply chain bottlenecks will be eased. Many people now predict that the market will be turbulent for the rest of 2021, and cost and service issues will be severe.?? serious. Claire Jones Trade ties The news from Taiwan this morning is worrying.Kathrin Hille reports that a series of local Covid-19 cases has led to A sharp decline Earlier today it ranked first in the islands high-tech stock index.Worryingly, new restrictions related to the pandemic will delay production TSMC, The worlds largest chip manufacturer. Ordinary readers know that Chip shortage It is now causing various problems in the global supply chain. However, we want to emphasize that despite the impact on productivity, manufacturers around the world have been able to quickly adapt to this pandemic and keep their premises functioning. At the same time, our excellent Korean team Ed?? White and Song Jung-a Look in Samsungs ambition Maintain a leading position in manufacturing high-end chips. They are under pressure from the United States and China. Unwelcome opinion alert.Our European Editor Ben Hall Say The EU has been unfairly ridiculed for its vaccine policy. Lord David Frost, Minister of the British Government in charge of trade relations with the European Union widely accepted Anyone who has been following Brexit for a long time knows: Northern Ireland Agreement As far as the current form is concerned, it will not be long-term. Of course, this is Frost, who played a key role in negotiating the deal. Nikkei report ($, subscription required), depends on Hotan Ford, General Motors and Teslas Taiwanese auto parts suppliers will open their first factories in the United States because it believes that demand for electric vehicles will continue to accelerate. Tensions between Beijing and Stockholm Huawei Getting hotter. The Global Times is part of Chinas national media organization, report The Chinese ambassador to Stockholm said that Sweden faces the last chance of Ericssons destiny in China. The Scandinavian countrys refusal to allow Huawei to participate in its 5G rollout has angered Beijing. Claire Jones Any suggestions for articles included in trade links?send we Your tips. Washington (Associated Press)-House Republicans resigned Liz Cheney as the third Republican leader of the House of Representatives on Wednesday. They repeatedly condemned former President Donald Trump. Trump) punished her after false accusations of election fraud and his role in inciting Jan Young. 6 Capitol attack Republican lawmakers met in a closed-door meeting for less than 20 minutes, and they voted R-Wyo by voice. Cheney (R-Wyo.)s removal from the partys third House of Representatives position was an unpleasant turning point in her partys rapidly emerging career. She has always been the highest-ranking Republican woman in Congress and the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and her demotion is the latest evidence that challenging Trump may threaten careers. Cheney sent a bold signal to an almost empty House of Representatives on Tuesday night, stating that she did not back down, carried out an unapologetic four-minute attack on her Republican opponents and defended her position. She said: Keeping silent and ignoring lies make liars feel timid, I added, When others lead our party away from the rule of law and join the former presidents crusade to destroy our path, I will not sit down and be quiet. Look at it. Democracy. Cheneys successor is widely expected to be Rep. RN.Y.s Elise Stefanik. She entered the House of Representatives at the age of 30 in 2015 and was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Stefanik has a more moderate voting record than Cheney, but has developed into a vigorous Trump guard. The resignation of 54-year-old Cheney from his leadership position is an amazing and perhaps historic moment for the Republican Party. One of the two major parties in the United States actually announced a special acceptance requirement at the highest level: showing loyalty to Trumps lies or at least remaining silent because he lied that he lost his re-election in November due to widespread fraud . In states across the country, officials and judges on both sides found no evidence to support Trumps claim that widespread violations led to his failure. Obviously, Cheneys leadership era has been joined by several House Minority Leaders Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and the second largest leader Steve Scarlices (R-La.) to Trump. And within the support of other Republicans in the party. Critics say that Cheneys crime was not her opinion of Trump, but her insistence on expressing their opinions publicly, which undermined the unity they hoped party leaders hoped to show when they sent a message before next years election. Win control of the House of Representatives. This has nothing to do with right or wrong. Scalise said on Tuesday that this is the focus of the House Republicans. Many Republicans also agree with Senator Lindsey Graham. He said that many Republican voters are so loyal to Trump that the party cannot succeed without him. A few Republicans opposed the removal of Cheney. This will only separate some people from our party, said Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who was the Republicans 2012 presidential candidate and often clashed with Trump. Several Republicans said that Cheney did not make obvious efforts to consolidate support before Wednesdays vote, seemingly acknowledging that the numbers are not good for her. Instead, she almost all set up billboards to promote the conflict with Trump, and declared in a column in the Washington Post last week: The Republican Party is at a turning point, and the Republican Party must decide whether we want to choose the truth for the Constitution. And loyalty. Cheney has told Republicans that she intends to remain in Congress and be re-elected next year when she firmly supports Trump. The former president has said that he will find the main challenger of the Republican Party to oppose her. Cheney joined Congress in 2017 and is a well-known brand of conservative conservatives. He advocates tax cuts, energy development, and the active use of American electricity abroad. By November 2018, she was elected to her current leadership position without opposition, and seems to have embarked on an ambitious path, which may include running for president, senator and even president. During Trumps presidency, she occasionally disagreed with Trumps withdrawal from Syria and the pandemics attack on Dr. Anthony Fucci. But when she became one of 10 House Republicans to support his second impeachment because of inciting supporters to attack the Capitol on January 6, her career was turbulent. The Senate acquitted him. Cheney said in an unforgettable statement before the impeachment vote in the House of Representatives: The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flames of the attack. Everything that follows is his job. Her words and her pre-vote announcement, which led the Democrats to quote her opposition in the debate angered many House conservatives. She resisted the conservative effort in February to free her from the leadership with a 145-61 secret ballot, but McCarthys speech represented her salvation. This is not expected to happen this time. Since then, in a notable incident, McCarthy stood awkwardly nearby at the press conference, and she has been standing on her own ground. Stefanick also arrived in Congress with the sterling Republican Party establishment certificate. She graduated from Harvard University, worked in the White House of President George W. Bush, and campaigned for the 2012 Republican vice presidential candidate Wisconsin Congressman and later Speaker Paul Ryan (Paul Ryan). Her region bordering Canada and Vermont has voted on Barack Obama twice in the past four presidential elections, and then on Trump twice. She opposed Trumps 2017 landmark tax cuts and his unilateral efforts to spend billions of dollars on its southwest border wall. Stefanik became a fierce defender of Trump in 2019 as a member of the House of Representatives because the House of Representatives pressured him to force Ukraine to provide information about the destructiveness of its Democratic rival, Joe Biden. Impeachment of information. Then the Senate was acquitted. Although Stephen Nick has won Trumps adoration, some of the most right-wing conservatives in Washington still doubt her modest performance. A member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Texas Rep. Chip Roy scolded colleagues on Tuesday: Republicans run for Republicans, but after they are sworn in, they vote for and push the Democratic agenda. Stefaniks challenger has not yet appeared, and other conservatives, such as Scalise and R-Ohios Rep. Jim Jordan, are in her camp. She said on Tuesday: We have received strong support from the Freedom Caucus and others. I recently moved to Washington, D.C., joined our East Coast practice group, and was overwhelmed by inquiries about the legal framework for recreational cannabis (IE, Marijuana and marijuana). Therefore, in view of this overwhelming interest, I would like to briefly summarize this issue for readers. marijuana In November 2014, Washington, DC residents passed by an overwhelming majority Initiative 71, This is a voting measure designed to legalize the possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana by residents over 21 years of age. However, within a few weeks of passing the marijuana voting initiative, Republicans in Congress tried to repeal the law by including a rider in the rider. 2015 Consolidation and Further Sustaining Appropriations Act This prohibits school districts from using any funds to make legislation to tax and manage marijuana. According to federal law, Congress must review all legislation passed by the council (considering it as equivalent to the legislation of the Washington State legislature) and, after the vote has passed it, pass any referendum approved by the voter. In addition, Congress retains authority over the school districts budget. Therefore, if Congress wants to influence affairs in the region, it will usually do so by amending unrelated legislation (such as spending bills). However, district officials, including the district attorney general and mayor Muriel Bowser, announced that members of Congress will not prevent the legalization of marijuana promulgated and certified by the election committee before Congress passes the spending bill. As a result, the school district inherited a gray market, and local businesses began to engage in gift economy activities, which included selling items unrelated to cannabis at a mark-up price and providing cannabis as supplementary gifts in the transaction. This legally dubious business practice stems from a clause in Act 71, which stipulates that anyone over the age of 21 transfers (but does not sell) up to one ounce of marijuana to another person over the age of 21 without compensation. Its all legal Therefore, although there are no more cannabis-related arrests in the countrys capital (given that 2013 report The American Civil Liberties Union (ACC) revealed that the District of Columbia has the highest arrest rate among all counties in the country, and blacks are nine times more likely to be arrested than whites. Selling marijuana is illegal. To address this persistent problem, local legislators have recently introduced Comprehensive Cannabis Legalization and Control Act of 2021This is a comprehensive bill. If passed in the current version, it will establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for the production and sales of recreational marijuana, but at the same time, it will also repair the damage caused by past criminal law enforcement and invest in the most harmful marijuana. Communities to solve social equity issues. The war on drugs is achieved through fair access to new markets. Since the implementation of the bill on March 1, no action has been taken. hemp The region has not yet promulgated laws or regulations related to cannabis, which means that it does not authorize or regulate the production of cannabis or cannabis-derived products, including the sale of cannabis resin (CBD). Therefore, even though CBD stores are spread all over the city, these products are still illegal. In short, the region expressly prohibits commercial sales of recreational cannabis products. This means that the vast majority of products sold and gifted in the city are unregulated and therefore may not be safe for human consumption. In addition, although these activities may seem tolerable, they still expose local businesses to the risk of enforcement actions by local and federal agents. Things to consider before entering this market. Jay-Z, Foo Fighters and Go-Go members were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Wednesday after the first vote. The class they lead also includes Tina Turner, Carole King and Todd Rundgren. At the induction ceremony held in Cleveland on October 30th, everyone will be rewarded, and the organizers hope that groups of fans will enjoy live music again. The auditorium will also present awards for musical excellence to LL Cool J, Billy Preston and Randy Rhodes, and award early influence to Kraftwerk, Gil Scott Heron and Charley Patton. Jay-Z is a 23-time Grammy Award winner and will become the first rap artist in Songwriters Hall of Fame.His records include Knock on door, 99 questions with Empire State of Mind. He has 14 first albums. Dave Grohl, the one-time drummer of the band Nirvana, became famous in the mid-90s for Foo Fighters.Their harsh sounds caused a sensation The best of you, eternal with Times like this. Go-Gos Abby Travis, Gina Schock, Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin and Charlotte Caffey from left to participate in the 2016 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas on May 22, 2016. (David Becker/Getty Images) As an instrument played exclusively by women, the Go-Go band was relatively rare in the early 1980s.They were born in the punk rock scene of Los Angeles, and they have a series of melody hits, including We have a rhythm, Our lips are sealed with Holiday. Meanwhile, Turner recently celebrated in the HBO documentary Tina As one of the most exciting comeback stories in the rock industry.After being abused with her husband and musical partner Ike Turner, she became a solo star in the 1980s after the world boredom What does love have to do with it And use Private dancer with We dont need another hero. Broadway works celebrate the life of Carole King Beauty: Carole King Musical. After releasing the album in 1971, he took his own step towards composing songs for others. tapestry Become one of the best-selling albums of all time.Her top songs include too late, You have a friend with (You make me feel like myself) a natural woman. The powerful pioneer Rundgren is known for his outstanding melodies, such as Hello its me, I saw the light with We want to give you a woman.with Beat the drums all dayHe is also responsible for the songs celebrated by avid players around. Clarence Avant appeared in the stills of the Netflix documentary Black Godfather. Avant won the Ahmet Ertegun Award. (Netflix) Former manager, record company owner and concert organizer Clarence Avant was awarded the Ahmet Ertegun Award for poor performance. His influence on the music industry was highlighted in the 2019 Netflix documentary, Black godfather. Grohl, King and Turner twice increased the number of artists selected into the rock hall to 26. Before King and Turner, Stevie Nicks was the only woman with this distinction. Two new applicants-Belinda Carlisle of Go-Gos and Pat Smear of Foo Fighters-were members of the Los Angeles punk band Germs before they got the position that caused their later fame. Before entering the special category concert hall, both LL Cool J and Kraftwerk were nominated as performers six times without being elected. Candidates are still active Five of the six selected performers are still working. Only Turner retires, and there is no doubt that the auditorium will try to recruit Beyonce to pay tribute on stage. Either way, the hall hopes to host the first major concert, because the live music business is basically closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. John Sykes, chairman of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in an interview with the Associated Press: We really see it as a real musical celebration, not only in the United States, but in the world. The induction ceremony will be held at the Rockets Mortgage Stadium in Cleveland and will be broadcast on SiriusXM and subsequently on HBO. Michelle Obama admitted that she was frustrated during her stay in the White House and said she did not want to hear bad news. The 57-year-old former first lady said in an interview on Tuesday night that she had dealt with low-grade depression. 4 Michelle Obama admitted that sometimes she did not want to hear the bad news about the country and became the first lady. Credit: CBS 4 Obama publicly welcomed in an interview with Stephen Colbert, the host of the CBS Evening Show Credit: CBS When I was the first lady, I sometimes didnt hear bad news about the country I had to serve, she said on CBS Stephen Colberts evening show. Because I know this news does not fully reflect what this country is. She added: But this is not reality, this is not the way people live in everyday life, so I gave up on this. Elsewhere in the interview, she mentioned the Covid epidemic: No one can live a noble life. I think its important for young people to know that, like, no, you dont feel everything. Its all very good time, 4 Obama admitted that she suffered from low depression while in the White House Credit: Reuters Many people believe that the coronavirus outbreak that caused governments around the world to implement lockdowns and impose social restrictions may be a factor in the increase in the incidence of mental health problems for many people. Michelle Obama said that she talked to 22-year-old Malia and 19-year-old Sasha about how to deal with depression and told them that there will be ups and downs throughout their lives. She added: When I talked to the children about this, I tried to urge them to understand that the valleys are temporary, and the peaks are temporary. They must be prepared to deal with highs and lows. Obama said that she responded to the situation by spending time with family and friends, which makes [her] It feels good, as well as walking and exercising. Live blog Killer teenagers A 13-year-old girl was stabbed to death when accused by the police of murdering a 14-year-old classmate Suspicious book After a 4-day hunt for Shooting Kid and 2 Women, NYC Shooter was arrested in the FA breaking point Israeli and Palestinian demonstrators clashed in New York as protests broke out across the United States dying The 13-year-old cheerleader was repeatedly pierced in cold-blooded murder Glass clamp A sea monster whose teeth are as terrible as shards of glass washes on the beach Mental pain Kidnapping survivor Elizabeth Smart says rape trauma affects sex Ms. Obama added: We must be patient with ourselves, especially in difficult times. In August last year, Obama first publicized his mental state on his podcast. She said at the time: I know that I am facing some form of low-grade depression, not only because of quarantine, but also because of ethnic conflicts. I just saw this. [Trump] The administration looks at its hypocrisy day after day, which is frustrating. Rockets gushing from Gaza, and Israel hit the territory with air strikes early Wednesday. This is the worst outbreak of violence since the 2014 war, marking many signs of this devastating 50-day conflict, and there is no end. Signs. The Hamas rulers and other militant groups in Gaza fired hundreds of rockets, sometimes overwhelming Israels missile defenses, causing air raid sirens and explosions to echo in Tel Aviv and other cities, Israels largest metropolitan area. Since Hamas came to power in 2007, Israeli air strikes have razed two apartment towers in the Gaza Strip, where 2 million Palestinians are living under the severe Israeli-Egypt blockade. Israel severely criticized this strategy during the 2014 war. Witnesses said that after dawn on Wednesday, Israel launched dozens of air strikes within minutes, targeting police and security facilities. A dark gray smoke enveloped Gaza City. The Ministry of the Interior, run by Hamas, said the airstrikes destroyed the Central Police Headquarters in Gaza City, which contained several buildings. According to the Ministry of Health, the death toll in Gaza rose to 35 Palestinians, including 12 children and 3 women. About 233 people were injured. Five Israelis, including three women and one child, were killed by rockets early on Tuesday and Wednesday, and dozens of others were injured. After Israel launched an air strike on Gaza City on Wednesday, Palestinian rescuers evacuated an elderly woman from the building. (Khalil Hamra/Associated Press) The Israeli military said that since the beginning of the conflict, militants have launched 1,050 rockets, 200 of which have landed in Gaza. The military said it also shot down a drone that entered Israel from Gaza. Lieutenant Colonel military spokesman Jonathan Conricus (Jonathan Conricus) said that two infantry brigades were sent to the area, indicating that it may prepare for a ground invasion. Samah Haboub, a mother of a family of four in Gaza, said that she was thrown into the bedroom by a moment of terror in an air raid on an apartment building next door. She and her children between the ages of 3 and 14 ran down the stairs of the apartment building with other residents, many of whom yelled and cried. She said: There is almost no safe place in Gaza. Destroying apartment buildings was one of several tactics used during the 2014 war, and the International Criminal Court has now investigated these tactics to explore possible war crimes. Israel is not a member of the court and therefore declined the investigation. In a brief statement, the prosecutor of the International Chamber of Commerce Fatou Bensouda said that she was very concerned about the escalation of violence in the area and the possible crimes under the Rome Statute. Concrisius said that the Israeli forces have strict rules of engagement and abide by international laws regarding armed conflicts. He said: We are absolutely paying attention to the civilian casualties in Gaza, and we want to minimize the number of casualties. This is a priority. Deportation sparked conflict The most recent outbreak of violence began in Jerusalem a month ago. During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, severe police tactics and threats of deportation of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers triggered protests and clashes with the police. The focus is on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which is a sacred place for Jews and Muslims. Since the Islamic militant group seized the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian army in Gaza in 2007, Israel and Hamas have fought three wars. After regional and international powers persuaded both sides to accept an informal truce, the conflict ended. Although the violence has been widely condemned, there is no sign that both parties are willing to back down. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to expand the offensive, saying: It will take time. After launching rockets at Israel in the Gaza Strip, Israeli firefighters and security forces inspected a house in Yehud near Tel Aviv on Wednesday for damage. (Gil Cohen-Magen/AFP/Getty Images) The turmoil in Jerusalem has spread to the whole of Israel itself. As Hamas called for a full-scale Palestinian uprising or uprising, community violence broke out in the Jewish-Arab mixed community. The last such uprising also started from the violent incident in the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 2000 and lasted for more than five years. The Gaza Ministry of Health said that the 35 deaths included 12 children and 3 women, and another 233 were injured. Ashraf al-Kidra, a spokesman for the ministry, said that the targeting of residential areas made people in a state of panic. In Rhodes, Israel, a 52-year-old man and his 16-year-old daughter were killed early Wednesday when a rocket landed in the courtyard of their one-story house. The car they parked outside was crashed, and the inside of the house was full of debris. After thousands of mourners attended a funeral for an Arab man killed by a suspected Jewish gunman the night before, Rhodes also saw serious conflict. Israeli media reported that the crowd fought with the police and set fire to the synagogue and about 30 vehicles including police cars. Paramedics said a 56-year-old man was seriously injured after stoning the car. A Palestinian boy walked past the remains of a tower in Gaza City on Wednesday that was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike due to violent Israeli-Palestinian conflict. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters) The citys mayor, Yair Revivo, said: The uprising broke out in Rhode Island. You must lead your troops. The authorities declared a state of emergency and ordered the redeployment of 9 paramilitary border guards from the occupied West Bank. The police, with reinforcements. In neighbouring Ramli, ultra-nationalist Jewish demonstrators were photographed attacking cars belonging to Arabs. In the northern port city of Acre, demonstrators burned a Jewish-owned restaurant and hotel. The police said they arrested more than 150 people in northern and central Israel involved in riots and riots. Last weekend, confrontation broke out at Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the third holiest place in Islam and the holiest place in Judaism. Over the course of four days, the Israeli police fired tear gas and stun grenades at the Palestinians in the compound, who threw stones and chairs at the troops. Sometimes, the police fired vertigo grenades at the carpeted mosque. On Monday night, Hamas began launching rockets from Gaza. Since then, the upgrade has been rapid. Hamas exile leader Ismail Haniye said in a televised speech that Israel is responsible. He said: It was the Israeli occupation that set Jerusalem on fire and the fire spread to Gaza. Watch | After the Gaza air strike, Palestinian militants fired missiles to Israel: After the Israeli bombing of multiple buildings in Gaza (including a 13-story building), Palestinian militants fired missiles at Tel Aviv due to a dramatic escalation of violence against the Jerusalem dispute. 2:32 Hamas did not comment on Israels claim that it has killed many senior militants. The Islamic Jihad Group confirmed that three senior commanders were killed in a strike in a hideout in an apartment building in Gaza City. The Israeli military released footage of an airstrike on Wednesday that said it was the residence of Hamas senior agent Saleh Dahman, where weapons were stored. Earlier, the military said it had hit a building where two senior members of the Hamas military intelligence service, Hassan Qahwaji and Wael Issa, were located. Hamas activists tweeted that the two were killed along with a woman and her son during a strike in Gaza. Israeli air strikes hit Gaza City Netanyahu said Israel has attacked hundreds of targets. The most violent attack was a series of air strikes that destroyed the entire 12-story building. The building houses important Hamas offices, gyms and some startup companies. Before demolishing the building, Israel opened a series of warning shots, allowing people to flee without casualties. Israeli planes severely damaged another building in Gaza City earlier Wednesday. This nine-story building houses residential apartments, medical companies and dental clinics. Before the bombing, a drone launched five warning rockets. Israel said the building houses the Hamas Intelligence Agency and the organizations headquarters, which is responsible for planning attacks on Israeli targets in the occupied West Bank. Earlier Wednesday, during an Israeli air strike, firefighters and youth in Gaza City inspected the destroyed buildings. (Adel Hanna/Associated Press) After reporters and rescuers gathered, fighter jets attacked the building again. There is no news of casualties. The high-rise building was only 200 meters from the Associated Press in Gaza City, and smoke and debris entered the office. Soon after the bombing, Hamas announced that it would continue its attack and launched 100 rockets at the Israeli desert town of Beer Sheva. Hamas said the new barrage is a response to a strike on buildings. Diplomats seek to intervene, and Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations are working to reach a ceasefire. All three people are mediators between Israel and Hamas. The UN Security Council plans to hold a second private emergency meeting within three days on Wednesday to respond to the escalating violence, which shows the growing concern of the international community. The Security Council diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was conducted in private. He said that the United Nations most powerful agency did not issue a statement because the United States feared that it might exacerbate tensions. Minnesota (Associated Press)-According to an order issued on Wednesday, a judge in Minnesota ruled that George Floyds death was exacerbated by Derek Chauvin. May be sentenced to a longer sentence paved the way. Judge Peter Cahill found in Tuesdays ruling that Chauvin had abused his power as a police officer when he restrained Floyd last year and treated Freud particularly cruelly ( Floyd). He also cited the presence of children when he committed the crime, and Chauvin was a member of a team composed of at least three other people. Cahill said that Shavin and two other police officers handcuffed Freud to a prone street for too long, and Shavin knew that restraint was dangerous. Cahill wrote: The long-term use of this technology is particularly shocking because George Floyd made it clear that he could not breathe and that he was dying due to the restraint of the officer. Even with exacerbating factors, legal experts also said that Chauvin, 45, is Unlikely to exceed 30 years He was sentenced on June 25. Chauvin is white. He was convicted of second-degree knee murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in April because his knee was pressed against Freuds neck for about 9 1/2 minutes, because the black said He couldnt breathe motionless. Even if he is convicted of three counts, according to Minnesota law, he will only be convicted of one of the most serious crimes-second-degree murder. According to Minnesotas sentencing guidelines, he will face a presumed sentence of 12 1/2 years for this crime, while Cahill may be sentenced to 10 years and 8 months or 15 years in prison, but it is still within the guidance. . However, the prosecutor asked for a so-called upward evacuation because Freud was particularly vulnerable to injuries when his hands were handcuffed when he fell on the ground face to face. They pointed out that even after Freud became indifferent and the officers knew that he was not moving, Chavin still maintained his position. Mark Osler, a professor at the University of Saint Thomas Law School, said that based on Tuesdays ruling, Cahill allowed himself to sentence Chauvin beyond the guidelines, although he did not have to do so. He said that lawyers on both sides will debate whether the upward deviation is appropriate and how long the sentence should be. The investigation report before the verdict will also be conducted. These are usually non-public and include highly personal information, such as family medical history and mental health issues, as well as detailed information about criminal behavior and the harm it has caused to others and the community. When the prosecutor argued that he was withdrawing upwards, he said that Chauvin had treated Freud in a long time of restraint and that Chauvin had caused unnecessary pain and psychological distress to Freud and bystanders. They also said that Chauvin abused his power as a police officer, was part of a criminal group of three or more, and pinned Floyd together in the presence of children, including a 9-year-old girl who testified. . During the trial, watching the bondage made her feel sad and crazy. Cahill agreed with the prosecutors argument, but only one of them. He said that the prosecutor did not prove Freud was particularly vulnerable, and pointed out that although Freud was handcuffed, he was still able to fight the police officers who tried to put him in the squad. But Cahill said that another police officer checked Freuds pulse twice and told Qiaowen that he hadnt found it. Another police officer suggested to roll Freud to his side and said he was in a coma. Cahill said these officials let Shavin know that the suffocation was actually taking place, but Shavin still held his position. Cahill said that when onlookers knew Freud was in trouble and stopped breathing, Qiao Wen continued to abuse his power and not provide assistance. Upon discovering that Joven had treated Freud particularly cruelly, Cahill wrote: The slow death that occurred within about six minutes of George Freuds suffocation in his position was particularly cruel, because Freud Mr. De was begging for his life and was afraid that he might die because he learned of his life, but during this period, the defendant was objectively indifferent to Mr. Freuds request. Defense attorney Eric Nelson disagrees with the state, saying that prosecutors have not proved that there is an aggravating factor. He said that Chavin has the legal power to assist Freud in his arrest and has been authorized by law to use reasonable force. He also said that Freud was not particularly vulnerable, saying that he was a big man and was fighting with military officers. Nelson also argued that Freud was not treated particularly cruelly. He said there was no evidence that Chauvins attacks involved unprovoked suffering and were usually not related to second-degree murder. Regardless of Chauvins sentence, in Minnesota, defendants who are presumed to be well-behaved will serve two-thirds of the sentence in jail, and the rest will be carried out under supervised release, often referred to as parole. Shavin also Accused of a federal crime He is accused of violating Floyds civil rights and the civil rights of a 14-year-old citizen he restrained in his arrest in 2017. If convictions are made for these undisclosed charges on Friday, the federal sentence will be concurrent with the state sentence in Chauvin. Three other former officials involved in Freuds death were also charged with violating federal civil rights; they are waiting for assistance and teaching be trial in state courts. Serial killer Fred West (Fred West) may use the second cafe to murder and dispose of victims. He co-owns The Green Lanterncafe in the United States Gloucester And his father-in-law. ? Read our Fred West live blog The latest update 6 Fred West could have used The Green Lanterncafe, which is now an apartment, to murder and dispose of his victims Credit: Sun 6 West and his father-in-law co-own the Gloucester Cafe Credit: Rex Features Locals say WEAT Lure schoolgirls into his handbag. After that, the cafe was demolished and an apartment was built. The site is on the same street as the Clean Plate Cafe dug up by the police looking for a 15-year-old man Mary Bastholm. He is said to have used an old garage close to the former property of West in the 1970s, which caused concerns about more dead bodies there. Wests father-in-law, Bill Letts, was also a depraved sadist and sexually abused his daughter Rose. He lives in an apartment at Green Lantern Cafe with his wife Daisy. The rental book seen exclusively by The Sun shows Fred and rose Because they rented the cafe to Mrs. Wagner for 80 a month. As we all know, West met one of his victims, Shirley Robinson, who was pregnant, at the Green Lantern Cafe. She was murdered, dismembered and buried in the Wests family home at 25 Cromwell Street. 6 The policeman at Clean Plate Cafe where Mary used to work Credit: PA 6 Officials confirmed that a search is being conducted on the case of Marys disappearance Credit: Sun Lock in risk? Map reveals four new hot spots of the surge in Covid cases in India break in Terror charge The 72-year-old gang was charged with raping a 13-year-old girl for more than seven years exclusive Travel the world Meg likes to be Queen Bee and jumps into multi-million dollar deals Viral load Six months after infection, the coronavirus lingered in the male penis for six months Our Everything Mom pays tribute to her 9-year-old son, who was killed by lightning when he was stepped on his feet by curly golden hair easy Boris warned that the new variant poses a fatal danger and could cause the most serious impact After a production company has produced a production companys documents, it is expected that the police will spend several weeks digging in the basement of Clean Plate Cafe. TV station The documentary brought a dead dog and a ground radar machine there. West committed suicide in a 53-year-old prison in 1995, while he was awaiting trial for 12 murders, but he admitted that he had committed as many as 20 murders. Rose West, 67, is serving life in prison for ten murders. 25 Cromwell Street (Cromwell Street) is called the House of Terror, the body is buried under the terrace 6 Rose West provides lifelong service for ten murders Credit: PA: Press Association People in the UK look forward to hugging their loved ones, dining in restaurants, and escaping from the UK for overseas holidays. But when Boris Johnson urged Britons to indulge in cautious hugs, the confused Huffington Post cautioned: Looking at the hug, it sounds like An indie band in the middle of the Middle Ages! 6 Hugs are allowed-but be extra careful, Boris says Credit: Alami When can I hug? From May 17, the cautious hug will officially resume, Prime Minister It is up to the British to decide whether to hug family and friends. Mr. Johnson said that current data show that it is also possible to cancel the more than one meter social distancing rule. If so, this will greatly increase the flexibility of enterprises to increase capacity. Will urge people Be cautious Downing Street said in a statement. As part of the changes in England on May 17, people are free to choose to stay two meters away from family or friends, which means they can hug and shake hands again. This does not mean that we can suddenly be very careful about the wind. we all know Close contact For example, hugging is a direct way to spread this disease, Mr. Johnson warned in a speech on May 10, 2021. 6 Prime Minister Boris Johnson is working to unlock England Credit: PA What are the risks? People who have received at least one copy Coronavirus disease The risk of stabs will be reduced, and people who have received two vaccinations will receive the greatest protection. Officials recommend that people consider getting tested for coronavirus before hugging. It is also recommended that the British wear a mask or ensure that the room is well ventilated, and then completely abandon social distancing measures. The UKs Covid-19 alert level was lowered after the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths continuously declined. The four chief medical officers in the UK have stated that the threat level should be reduced from Level 4 to Level 3 due to the successful implementation of the jab scheme and social distancing restrictions. This means that the epidemic has spread generally, but the spread of the virus is no longer considered high or exponentially increasing. 6 The Prime Minister said: I urge you to consider the vulnerability of your loved ones-whether they have been vaccinated, one or two doses, and whether there is time for the vaccine to take effect. Remember that it is always safer to be outdoors than indoors. If you are meeting indoors, remember to open the windows to let in fresh air. Even if you have no symptoms, you should be tested regularly, so dont spread the virus without knowing it. No matter what decision you make, I must ask you to continue to maintain social distancing when you are not with friends and family, including in workplaces, shops, bars, restaurants and other occasions. He said: We only need to look at the tragic situation of other countries to see the lethal potential of this virus. We must continue to fight the spread of this variant in the UK. Although we have no evidence that these variants are fully vaccine resistant, we must remain vigilant. So please remember hands, face, space and fresh air. 6 It is best to wear a mask when hugging Credit: Getty What is a cautious hug, and how should I hug others? When asked what cautious hug means, Mental Health Minister Nadine Dorries told the BBC breakfast with a smile: I dont think you can hug cautiously. Scientists on SAGE warned that hugs should be kept to a minimum and that Britons should avoid face-to-face contact as much as possible to stay safe. Professor Cath Noakes sitting on SAGE urged caution before relaxing, saying that too many hugs may continue the further spread of Covid. Gurch Randhawa, a public health expert at the University of Bedfordshire, and ABC News In the United States, information about the government can be confusing. He said: It is undoubtedly tempting to relax social isolation, provide much-needed hugs and lift restrictions on international travel, but this may be a big mistake at this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the very least, the government should recommend that only people who have received two vaccinations can hug each other, or even hold each other briefly, facing each other to minimize the risk of Covid-19 transmission. What is a cautious hug? Paul Hunter, Professor of Medicine at UEA, Expert in Infectious Diseases HuffPost UK These tips: Hug the people you live in: If you live with someone or are in the same bubble, you can hug them anyway, so dont stop and hug them now, no matter what you and them want. If you live with someone or are in the same bubble, you can hug them anyway, so dont stop and hug them now, no matter what you and them want. There is no rampant hug: If you dont need to hug each other, then dont. If you dont need to hug each other, then dont. Dont hug everyone Pabbing is not a 100% guarantee: If both of you have been vaccinated, the risk of transmission will actually be low, but it will not be zero. If both of you have been vaccinated, the risk of transmission will actually be low, but it will not be zero. Side hug is safer: Keep your faces apart so as not to make each others breath difficult. Can I hug grandma with full vaccine? if you want Hug each other, You can start on May 17-but remember that some people are more vulnerable to Covid attacks than others. Officials suggested that people should consider testing for the coronavirus before embracing. They also suggested that we wear masks or make sure the room is well ventilated before using Abandon social distancing measures. PM proposes a new way to deal with this virus, making people more responsible for their choice of maintaining social distancing from friends and family. According to our own judgment, starting from May 17th, we can decide whether to embrace the grandmother-please remember that even if both parties are vaccinated for the entire course, the risk of coronavirus has not been completely eliminated. Dr. Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Modeling Epidemic Influenza Group (Spi-M) from the University of Warwick, urges people to act responsibly as the restrictions are further lifted. He told the BBC Breakfast: I think hugging those we love is actually very important to our mental health and well-being, but for me, the key message is that once this happens, we need to remember that the pandemic has not yet Coming. Nothing. We are still a few steps away from normal, so its great that we can do this Hug our loved ones, But we need to remember that we need to be cautious. He added: For me, the key is that what we want to avoid is the increase in hospital admissions. [the number of] People are dying. Moreover, if we can exclude them from low levels, hopefully we can resume the hug safely, and we can proceed to the relaxation on June 21 again. 6 During the pandemic, the hug between grandparents and grandson has been a long time Credit: Getty The World Health Organizations Covid-19 Special Envoy, Dr. David Nabarro, urged Britons to maintain social distancing and continue to use masks. He said: Please be very careful, keep a physical distance of one to two meters, especially indoors, and dont forget to wear a mask, because this can really provide extra protection. It is these simple things, but all these things done together will really change the question of whether the future peak is huge or whether the future peak is small and easy to control. Sally Jane Cutler, a professor of medical microbiology, told Time Radio: I think we have to be very careful in choosing who to hug. I personally limit hugs to family members, not to others. This Duchess of CornwallThe 73-year-old revealed that she was in a half hug with her grandchildren, although she was forbidden to do so until the restrictions were officially lifted on May 17. When asked if she was able to do this recently when the UK continues to reopen, Camilla replied: I received a double stabbing, so we had a half hug. Its so cute to be able to see them again and talk to them. Phones and machines and these Zooms are all good, but nothing beats the feeling of giving others a good hug. 6 The Duchess of Cornwall visited the Wembley Vaccine Centre in northwest London Image source: www.philip-hartley.co.uk Can you shake hands? As part of the changes on May 17, 2021, people will have the choice to stay two meters away from family or friends, which means they can hug and shake hands again. In March 2020, after the coronavirus established a terrible presence in the UK, Boris Johnson announced that he would not be prevented from shaking hands with people. A few days before the end of the intensive care of the Prime Ministers struggle with Covedi, the Prime Minister also said that he had already shaken hands for the infected patients in the hospital. At that time, the virus caused more than 3,000 deaths worldwide. Fast forward to May 2021, and this number has soared to 3.5 million deaths worldwide. Despite the great success of the large-scale promotion of vaccines in the UK, the number of hospitalizations and coronavirus-related deaths has plummeted, but there are still relevant New Indian Covid variant B.1.617.2. Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer of England, said that it is increasingly being discovered in the UK. But currently, our view is that it is less likely to escape vaccination than some other variants. Turn off If there are more merger cases, even after June 21, the total number of local exclusion blockades will not be excluded Judging fear The Prime Minister announces a full public investigation on Covid-beginning in the spring of 2022 Completely correct! Publicly released the opening hours of bar chains, including Wethersburn and Green King Virus update Four people were arrested outside AstraZenecas headquarters after a clash between the police and the protesters No nightmares The Delay and Rejection of Toxic Cocktails Caused 4 Million Deaths Tesco What time is Tesco open today?Business hours and delivery advice All photos courtesy of Geejam Hotel From glamorous Rat Pack-era travel destination to off-the-beaten-track hideaway for contemporary recording stars, the secluded charms of tiny town Port Antonio on Jamaicas northeast coast continue to entice. And for A-listers seeking the ultimate in peace and privacy, nowhere does it like the glorious Geejam Hotel. Set on a jungle-covered hill in the San San neighborhood, former guests including Bjork and Harry Styles have penned or crafted hits in the private recording studio or simply come to relax in stylish solitude in what many say is Jamaicas prettiest parish. Home to some of the countrys most beautiful beaches, including French Mans Cove, Portie as locals affectionately call it is also considered the birthplace of Jamaican tourism, thanks in part to Errol Flynn, who sailed his yacht into Port Antonio harbor in 1942 and moved there permanently in 1950. And, thirty years since buying a small holiday villa in what he considered to be the most beautiful region in the world, Geejam co-founder, hotelier, and music industry veteran Jon Baker has played an integral role in the modern-day Port Antonio renaissance. His iconic property recently reopened, debuting 12 chic new Rumba Rooms, an infinity pool, plus a revamp of its Bushbar restaurant and famed recording studio. Designed in a jungle-meets-chic signature style by award-winning architects Atelier Vidal, Rumba Rooms are named after Jamaican music legends, including producer King Tubby and founding member of The Wailers, Peter Tosh. Contemporary art, vintage 1970s Jamaican Tourist Board posters and photography by Savannah Baker features throughout. Geejam is known for seclusion, privacy and nature. Inherently, hotel blocks dont purvey that vibe or feeling, so when discussing the project with Vidal, we both knew we needed to approach this differently, explains Baker of the contemporary structures. We literally cut out a piece of the rainforest, built the Rumba block, and replaced all of the trees that were displaced to regenerate the natural surroundings. Instead of air conditioning Baker says the split-level design and 15-foot-high ceilings create a sense of space while French windows open up to cooling ocean breezes and stellar rainforest and Caribbean Sea views. The connecting rooms are great for families and can be formatted like a living room, so theres space to work or edit a project while here on a workcation package or just socialize, relax and chill. Alongside the Rumba Rooms, the open-air Bushbar enjoyed a complete restoration too, and whos new dining menu showcases local classics with a modern twist. While details about the new beach bar and grill, Bentleys Yaad, on the resorts private beach are coming soon, Baker shared that the more affordable restaurant will be open to the public and international guests and feature really good authentic Jamaican cuisine. A new venue stage has also been added and will host live music events and some of the world-renowned acts and guests who frequent Geejam Studios every Friday and Saturday night. We are working closely with Protoje and his group of artists, as well as Royale Blue, Runcas, and a number of what I call neo-reggae soul movement groups coming out of Kingston at the moment, says Baker of the pending lineup. Despite the pandemic, Geejam Studios has recorded many artists in the past year. Originally opened in 1998, the studio, which is temporarily located in the Cocosan and Panorama private villas, is undergoing a complete renovation for the first time in its history and is scheduled to reopen later in 2021. After putting what would have been a record-breaking year for tourism on hold in 2020, Baker says that this year has already surpassed his expectations regarding Geejams music bookings and guests. The support we have received from local Jamaicans on our staycation campaigns and the steady flow of U.S. guests meant we did not need to furlough or lay anybody off despite the bumpy start when Jamaican borders were closed to the majority of the world. We have been dedicated to providing the very best care regarding Covid, adhering to all the social distancing measures, and offering C-19 tests on site. If this trajectory continues, 2021 could end up being our best year ever, he shares. While the addition of an impressive infinity pool will be sure to keep guests more than happy during their stays, a partnership with Jamaican-owned medical cannabis company, Jacana, means that a full range of CBD products is also available at Geejam in addition to CBD spa treatments. For more information visit geejamhotel.com. After having encountered each other multiple times, Seo In Guk and Park Bo Young decided to live under one roof, and this is how it happened! Tak Dong Kyung Accepted the Contract Given by Myul Mang First impressions never last, just like how Tak Dong Kyung (Park Bo Young) unexpectedly met Myul Mang (Seo In Guk) during one of her worst days. When the doctor broke the news to Tak Dong Kyung she only has three months to live because of her illness, the lady web editor couldn't help but to overthink about her days on earth. Until one night, while drinking on the rooftop, she made a wish. That time, she never knew that a deity named Myul Mang heard her wish and started to pester her anywhere she went. In the middle of a day, Tak Dong Kyung was about to cross the street but she saw Myul Mang on the other side of the street lights. She decided to ignore him because he kept on confusing her with his words. She didn't want to believe in his powers. But when a truck was about to hit her, Tak Dong Kyung was shocked to see everything around her stop. Only her and Myul Mang were the ones aware of the what was happening. In order to live her life, Myul Mang offered to help her and grant her wish while still on earth. Tak Dong Kyung was about to die but the deity prevented it from happening. After contemplating, she finally accepted the contract. But if she failed to finish the contract, the most important person in her life will be the one to die. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: 'Doom at Your Service' Achieves Solid Viewership Rating on its Premiere Myul Mang was Surprised When Tak Dong Kyung Asked Him to Live with Her It seemed like Tak Dong Kyung was having a hard time in her daily life. From her rude boss to her breakup with her boyfriend after discovering he was already married. When Tak Dong Kyung was walking home with Myul Mang after her portrait was taken in a studio house, her ex-boyfriend suddenly showed up and begged for her forgiveness. But she was strong enough to push him away. Her ex-boyfriend was being aggressive, making her framed photo shatter into pieces. This time, Myul Mang protected her and asked her wish to get rid of her ex-boyfriend, but Tak Dong Kyung wouldn't want to waste her last wish for a guy like him. Instead, Myul Mang pretended to be her husband and started to say sweet words to Tak Dong Kyung. She was shocked to hear such things from the deity. A few moments later, when everything was already settled, the web editor asked Myul Mang to live with her. Will this be the chance for the two to get to know each other more? Let's all find out in next week's episodes! Have you watched the first two "Doom at Your Service" episodes? How's the story so far? Don't forget to 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 Kim Woo Bin and Lee Yi Kyung are taking their bromance to the next level. It came after the 32-year-old actor shared a photo of him in front of a food truck and revealed that it was sent by the South Korean heartthrob. Kim Woo Bin Surprised his Best Friend Friend Lee Yi Kyung with a Food Truck This is how "The Heirs" star showed his support for Lee Yi Kyung, who is currently filming his upcoming movie "6/45." In a series of photos, the actor wore a bright blue jacket while holding a cup of beverage as he posed with a delightful expression. In the first snap, he points to the top of the food truck with a huge image of himself. "Woobin, thank you," Lee Yi Kyung's Instagram caption reads alongside a message that says "Movie #645 Fighting." Interestingly, the banner bears the title "Kim Woo-bin Dream." Over the comment section, fans showered the actor with positive messages together with a lot of heart and smiley emojis. In addition, his followers also lauded his longtime friendship with the "Uncontrollably Fond" actor. Kim Woo Bin and Lee Yi Kyung Bromance Both Kim Woo Bin and Lee Yi Kyung starred in the 2012 KBS drama "School 2013," where the 31-year-old actor portrayed the lead star Park Heung Soo while Lee Yi Kyung plays the supporting actor. Prior to their drama, the stars already built a solid connection, given that they started in the modeling industry before debuting as an actor. READ MORE: Five Fun Facts About Lee Yi Kyung "6/5" Movie Cast and Release Date The upcoming comedy film began production on April 20 and is scheduled to be released sometime in 2021. Aside from Lee Yi Kyung, "6/5" cast includes Go Kyung Pyo, Eum Moon Suk, Park Se Wan and Kwak Dong Yeon Directed by Park Gyu Tae, the soon-to-be-released movie follows the story of South Korean and North Korean soldiers who are secretly meeting up about the first prize lottery ticket, which was first owned by Chun Woo played by Go Kyung Pyo. Kim Woo Bin Joins Upcoming Drama "Our Blues" The 31-year-old actor is gearing up for a star-studded new drama. After his three-year hiatus due to his nasopharyngeal carcinoma or nasopharyngeal cancer, the actor announced his comeback last 2020. Now, he is in talks to cast in the upcoming drama "Our Blues" together with Lee Byung Hun and Han Ji Min, who earlier confirmed their appearance. In addition, Cha Seung Won, veteran actress Lee Jung Eun, and Kim Woo Bin's girlfriend Shin Min Ah are in talks to join the lead cast. Interestingly, the real-life celebrity couple will have different on-screen partners. Kim Woo Bin will be teamed with Han Ji Min while the "Chief of Staff" actress will star opposite Lee Byung Hun. On the other hand, the "Bodyguard" actor will be paired with the award-winning Lee Jung Eun. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Park Bo Gum, Do Kyungsoo, Kang Ha Neul, Kim Woo Bin among the Stars Who Lead Korean Wave in Japan KDramastars owns this article. Written by Geca Wills Chinese vice premier calls for deeper strategic cooperation with Turkmenistan Xinhua) 17:13, May 12, 2021 Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng, also Chinese president of China-Turkmenistan Cooperation Committee and a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, holds talks with Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Berdymukhamedov and Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, who are visiting China, via video link in Beijing, China, May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Lin) BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng held talks from Beijing with Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Berdymukhamedov and Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, who are visiting Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, via video link on Tuesday. Han, Chinese president of China-Turkmenistan Cooperation Committee, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, called for deeper strategic cooperation between the two sides. Han said that China and Turkmenistan are good brothers, friends and partners and enjoy mutual trust. China-Turkmenistan relations have maintained a sound and stable momentum of development no matter what the change in international and regional situation since the establishment of diplomatic ties nearly 30 years ago. Han pointed out China will earnestly implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, accelerate the docking of development strategies, and jointly promote cooperation in energy, agriculture, transportation, digital, aerospace, culture, security and other fields. Han said the two sides could formulate a five-year plan, drawing a road map for further comprehensive bilateral cooperation. The Turkmen side extended its congratulations on the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, adding that Turkmenistan attaches great importance to relations with China. The Turkmen side said Turkmenistan is willing to continue to explore new formats and areas of economic cooperation with China based on the principles of equality, mutual trust and mutual respect, and promote the new and greater development of the Turkmenistan-China strategic partnership. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) MEDFORD, Ore. More than three years after Kevin Mayo died in an apparent road rage incident on I-5 near Medford, a trial for the man accused of causing his death is now underway. In December of 2017, the 25-year-old Mayo was riding on a motorcycle, heading northbound on I-5. Just south of Exit 27, Mayo and 65-year-old Raleigh Rodrigues the latter driving a pickup truck began feuding as they each traveled north toward Medford. According to police, Rodrigues then swerved into Mayo's lane, causing the younger man to crash into the median. Mayo was taken to the hospital, but he later died of his injuries. Though police arrested Rodrigues at the scene on manslaughter charges, he was not indicted by a grand jury until February of 2018. His first appearance in court occurred in late March. Rodrigues posted his $250,000 bail and has been out on release. After those first several months, a trial in the case was delayed multiple times over the next several years. Mayo's family has been pushing for justice in the case ever since his death, and they've openly discussed the toll that the seemingly interminable wait took on them. "It's been three and a half years of nothing but torture for our entire family," Chris Mayo, Kevin's father, told NewsWatch 12 last week. "It's been cruel dealing with 13 continuances. We are just happy that finally we can get some justice for Kevin." On Tuesday, Rodrigues' trial began, unfolding under the unusual circumstances of a court transfigured by COVID-19 precautions masked attorneys, no viewing public, and jury members spaced throughout the gallery. In opening arguments, the prosecution asserted that Rodrigues slammed his truck into Mayo's motorcycle, causing the crash and his subsequent death. The defense said that Mayo was driving "aggressively and dangerously," placing responsibility for the crash onto his actions that day. The first several witnesses brought with them video of the lead-up and the aftermath of the fatal crash. First, a trooper from Oregon State Police trooper went through the dashcam video of his interactions with witnesses at the scene as other first responders worked to save Mayo. FedEx truck driver Nick White delivered emotional testimony about witnessing the crash, accompanied by the dashcam video from his truck. White testified that his route regularly takes him by the site, and he constantly thinks about the events. He described seeing Rodrigues' truck swerve into the fast lane where Mayo was driving, sending the younger man careening into the cable chains that line the median. After the FedEx driver's testimony, the judge called for a recess until Wednesday morning. It is expected to be a three-day trial. Rodrigues faces two charges: Manslaughter in the First Degree, and Manslaughter in the Second Degree. While both charges allege that Rodrigues caused Mayo's death "unlawfully and recklessly," the former charge adds that he did so "under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life." If convicted, Rodrigues could serve up to 10 years in prison. This is a developing story and will be updated with more details as they emerge. LAKEVIEW, Ore. Governor Kate Brown has decided not to shut down Warner Creek Correctional Facility in Lakeview, state Representative E. Werner Reschke said on Tuesday. In January, Brown announced that she had directed the Oregon Department of Corrections to shut down three state prisons Mill Creek Correctional Facility in Salem, Shutter Creek Correctional Institution in North Bend, and Warner Creek. The plan to close Warner Creek provoked immediate outcry from the Lakeview community, which has come to rely on the prison's presence as a vital part of the local economy. Rep. Reschke called the decision to shut down the prison "a grave mistake." According to Reschke's statement, Brown announced Tuesday to the Lake County Prison Committee that she had decided against closing Warner Creek Correctional Facility. I want to thank Governor Brown for making the right call by keeping the Warner Creek Correctional Facility open, said Rep. Reschke. This was a group effort and will be a relief for the people who rely on these family-wage jobs with good healthcare. Reschke said that more than 100 residents of Lake County work at the prison, and have family members that work in local schools, businesses, and government offices. Closing the prison would displace families that rely on those jobs, he said. It was not immediately clear if the decision to spare Warner Creek will apply to either of the other prisons slated for closure. MEDFORD, Ore. Two weeks after 15 Oregon counties were temporarily plunged back into Extreme Risk restrictions, the relief funding promised by Governor Brown for impacted businesses is becoming available. Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. (SOREDI) said Wednesday that Jackson County has more than $1.4 million in available funding for businesses impacted by the Extreme Risk move. Applications for the funds will open up at noon on Friday and will remain open through May 17. SOREDI will serve as the grant administrator. This newly allocated grant funding will be particularly helpful to those businesses who incurred additional expenses in order to minimally stay open following the Governors recent order that affected the restaurant and hospitality sector in counties that moved to extreme risk, said Colleen Padilla, Executive Director of SOREDI. Grant funds are being made available in all 15 counties impacted by the move, with a total of $20 million in funding made available by the state. The funds are intended to be equally accessible to all businesses, including to historically disadvantaged groups, SOREDI said. Awards for eligible businesses are based on one of two formulas, SOREDI said, whichever is lesser: $2,500 multiplied by FTE, or 2019 Gross Revenues minus 2020 Gross Revenues and CARES Act funding received. SOREDI explains more about the definitions and award guidelines on its website. Applicants should check the eligibility requirements before applying, and should allow at least one hour to complete the application process. They are also strongly advised to gather the appropriate documentation and be prepared to upload them. The online application form will send email confirmations when applications are submitted successfully. SOREDI said that the applications will only be reviewed once the submission window closes at the end of May 17, and funding will be based on demonstrated need until the funds are gone. Only complete applications will be considered. Applicants should hear about their award status no later than June 19. Only online submission will be accepted, SOREDI said. People in need of assistance can schedule a 15-minute appointment with SOREDI staff through the website, but the expected volume of applicants means that staff will not be answering questions by phone. "This is a new program with new requirements different from the previous grant programs," SOREDI said. "Businesses who applied for other funding or were placed on a wait list for funding will need to reapply and resubmit documentation." Interested businesses can apply at the SOREDI site here once applications open at noon on Friday, May 14. Less: Just look at London, Ont. Same: We hear more bad news. More: Canada is on the right path. Vote View Results The RCMP logo is seen outside Royal Canadian Mounted Police "E" Division Headquarters, in Surrey, B.C., on Friday April 13, 2018. Indigenous leaders are calling for an investigation into the conduct of Mounties on Vancouver Island after two police shootings of members of a small First Nations community in three months. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck 6 Shares Share Physicians are always looking for ways to improve patient outcomes. Although this goal has no real endpoint, physicians continue to strive incessantly to decrease morbidity and mortality for patients. Atul Gawande, a prominent surgeon and writer, has demonstrated the benefits of learning from other professions, such as adopting checklists from the aviation industry to utilize in medicine. The subsequent use of checklists in medicine had a surprisingly tremendous impact on improving patient outcomes. After reading Col. Chris Hadfields book, An Astronauts Guide to Life on Earth, I was astounded at the similarities between astronauts and physicians. An astronauts journey resonated with my own experience as a medical student, and I believe there are many important principles we can learn to prevent burnout and practice humility. The pathway to becoming an astronaut, much like a physician, is highly competitive and often takes quite a few turns before reaching the endpoint. Astronauts can spend years of training without ever leaving our planets orbit. Every astronaut acknowledges the arduous journey set before them with a real possibility of never participating in a space flight. As a result, astronauts have habitually learned to define their success not by the number of space flights but by the journey on which they embark upon. Hadfield tells us, Focus on the journey, not on arriving at a certain destination. In medicine, our milestones are plainly laid out from undergraduate studies all the way to an attending physician, where all we do is look forward to reaching the next milestone. It is always the next test, next rotation, or next July. When all we see is a never-ending tunnel, burnout starts to manifest in many ways, such as losing motivation or having a negative attitude toward our peers and patients. However, we should start practicing to gaze towards the peak of the mountain and look down at our path and how far we have traveled. Discover satisfaction and gratification in our personal journey. Take time to reflect on our personal goals and our roots. Even writing brief notes for our future selves about our current thoughts and emotions can help us reconnect with ourselves during more difficult times. Another lesson from Col. Hadfield deals with one of the premier causes of burnout in medical school: the hyper-competitive environment in which we train. The very nature of applying to medical school (and again for residency and fellowship) plays a significant role in hyper-competitiveness. Some medical schools removed grading and ranking entirely to combat this. The controversial decision to switch USMLE Step 1 to pass/fail was praised by some students, but others are now worried how they will stand out among hundreds of students for residency. Ultimately, an overly competitive environment fosters negative behaviors. This same competition is plainly evident in an astronauts career where acceptance rates are less than one percent. Col. Hadfield emphasizes the need for humility to replace the competitive drive by practicing a unique concept: Aim to be a zero. There is a rather humbling mentality associated with trying to be a zero. A great example that comes to mind is new medical students scrubbing in for surgeries. Initially, if medical students try to be overly helpful without knowing the proper procedures and rhythm of the OR, mistakes are bound to occur, and there is a high chance of slowing down the team. However, if our goal is to be a zero, there is an emphasis on observing and patiently learning the protocols and procedures. Over time, we can start to predict the next steps and hopefully be helpful and maximize efficiency. As a zero, we must keep in mind there is always something more to learn from the situation. Humility is often the most difficult trait to maintain in medicine but by aiming to be a zero, we can stay grounded and hopefully increase the chance for our team and ourselves to succeed. Medicine is infamously known for high rates of burnout for a myriad of reasons (job security, constant documentation, or the arduous training and work hours). As medical students, we should strive to figure out how to combat burnout and prepare ourselves as early as possible. With the similarity in our training and profession, astronauts have practiced unique methods to combat burnout. If we truly hope to bring innovation to medicine, we must aggressively analyze other professions and learn how we can start adopting their successful principles. Certainly, Col. Hadfields life as an astronaut provides numerous easily applicable insights at both an individual and institutional level. He sets an impressive example, and his humble mindset is one that we should all strive for as medical students, residents, and attendings. Denzil Mathew is a medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com EUGENE, Ore. A cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline causing gas delivery issues and panic buying in the southeastern United States is not affecting Oregon. Marie Dodds, a spokesperson for AAA, said Oregon and the broader Pacific Northwest receive gasoline that is produced and refined on the west coast from states like California, Washington and Alaska. Some gas also comes from Asia or other markets. No gas comes to Oregon from the Colonial Pipeline. We are really not seeing impacts here in Oregon and the West Coast, Dodds said. However, prices at the pump are rising by about three cents each week. The average price of a gallon of gas in Oregon reached $3.36 on Wednesday. Dodds said the rising prices are unrelated to the pipeline and are the result of the changing season and eased pandemic restrictions. We are just consuming more fuel that's putting upward pressure on prices, Dodds said. We're seeing a lot of pent-up demand for travel so people are eager to get out and about. Road trips are by far and away the dominant mode of travel, although we are seeing people return to the skies as well. While theres little to no concern over shortages locally, AAA is warning against panic buying which could make matters worse. Dodds recommends continuing to fuel up your vehicle when it reaches one-quarter of gas remaining. If you are planning to fly to a state affected by the pipeline shutdown, Dodds recommends checking with the airline first. With the airline industry, I have heard of jetliners having to make pit stops and also certain flights may be being canceled or postponed for a matter of days. If you are flying to one of these impacted markets, its a really good idea to check with your airline, Dodds said. As of Wednesday morning, 28.2% of all gas stations in North Carolina, 17.5% in Georgia and 17.1% in Virginia are without gasoline, according to GasBuddy, an app that tracks fuel demand, prices and outages. Outages were also reported in South Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Tennessee and West Virginia. SALEM, Ore. Counties will soon get a chance to start the reopening process, but only if enough of their residents have been vaccinated, Gov. Kate Brown announced on Tuesday. Most restrictions will be lifted statewide once 70% of Oregonians 16 and older have received at least the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Starting May 21, counties will have the option of moving to the lower risk level once 65% of their residents 16 and older have received at least one dose. Brown said counties will need to submit a complete plan to close equity gaps in vaccination distribution. Thanks to you, Oregon, it looks like weve crossed the tipping point of the fourth surge, said Brown. "Our hospitalization rates have stabilized. Our infection rates are on a downward trajectory. And in the race between vaccines and variants, our efforts to vaccinate Oregonians are taking the lead. Brown said theres still a lot of work to do to reach the 70% goal, but she believes the state will reach that level in June. So Oregon, this is our goal. We each play a part. If you have already been vaccinated, thank you. Now help a friend, family member or neighbor make an appointment, Brown said. Some degree of mask use and physical distancing will still be required even after the 70% threshold. Public schools will also still need to follow Ready Schools, Safe Learners guidance, which will be updated for the next school year. For more information, you can call 211 or visit covidvaccine.oregon.gov. LANE COUNTY, Ore. -- Parents, health officials and doctors in Lane County are speaking out about the US Food and Drug Administration's decision to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds. RELATED: US FDA AUTHORIZES PFIZER'S COVID-19 VACCINE FOR USE IN PEOPLE AGES 12 TO 15 PeaceHealth infectious disease specialist Dr. Brenda Ormesher said she absolutely recommends adolescents get the vaccine. "One study that was done, that was submitted for approval, was a relatively small number. But it included 1,100 vaccinated children between the ages of 12 and 15," Ormesher said. "In that group, the vaccinated individuals had zero cases of COVID-19." Ormesher said that the sooner this population gets vaccinated, the sooner we can reach herd immunity. "Immunization in this age range is very important," Ormesher said. "We know that the adolescent community is very active in the community." School districts in Lane County are already starting organize vaccination clinics for students ages 12 to 15. Bethel School District is planning three clinics next week from May 18 to May 20. "We've done this enough now where we know how to make it a positive experience for everyone who comes through," Director of Bethel's Heath Center Brooke Cottle said. "We've really got a great team." Eugene School District 4J is also planning vaccination clinics for this population at South Eugene High School starting next Monday. Parents had mixed feelings about FDA's new authorization. Bill Harris, a parent of a student in the 4J district, said he's completely against vaccinating the younger age group. "I think it's wrong. If an adult wants to take the vaccine then so be it but experimenting on our children is just wrong," Harris said. "Maybe five to six years down the road when we know what the long-term effects will be, but right now it's still new." But Bethel School District parent Heather Quaas-Annsa said she's already booked appointments for her two children. "My kids are very well informed about how the vaccine will not only save their lives but also the lives of their friends and family members who are immunocompromised," Quaas-Annsa said. "I'm going to trust someone who has decades of experience in this field over someone who is posting something on some social media site." A spokesperson at Lane County Public Health said that the Pfizer vaccine is pending recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Western States and Oregon Health Authority will make the final decision from there. Officials said they anticipate a final decision before this weekend and have already starting booking the 12 to 15 age group for Pfizer vaccines at mass vaccination sites this upcoming weekend. By Ritah Kemigisa As President Museveni takes oath for his sixth term today, Civil Society Organisations have highlighted four key areas the president needs to focus on in his first 100 days. Speaking to KFM, the executive director Centre for Constitutional Governance, Sarah Bireete says the president needs to urgently clean up the image of Uganda by putting to order the security agencies that are on the spot for violating human rights. For the shrinking economy, Bireete advises the President to, crack the whip on corruption and reduce borrowing and unnecessary spending. She is also asking the president to come up with a clear strategic plan for the surging youth unemployment and a solution to the unfair taxes. The UBOS demographics show that only 1.6% of Ugandas population is aged 70 years and above, we need to have a strategic plan to address unemployment and having expanded revenue with increased household income which can absorb a youthful population, said Ms Bireete. She has meanwhile advised the president to reduce the size of the cabinet as one of the ways to cut the cost of public administration. The outgoing cabinet, is the third biggest in the world, we hope that he will not treat this country with a shrinking economy to an 80 plus cabinet size that is unnecessary since several ministries can be combined, said Ms Bireete. By Benjamin Jumbe Uganda does not need any lectures on democracy from any one abroad. The remark was made by President Museveni in his maiden speech after being sworn in for a 6th term. The president said many actors in the world have attempted to give advice to Uganda yet lack the credentials to talk about democracy. It is quite comic and laughable to hear of some actors in the world giving us lectures about democracy, you give me a lecture about democracy? What are your own credentials? We designed this system not from air conditioned rooms but from the jungles of our country where we lived with the people in their huts in those days for much of the 16 years of resistance, said Mr Museveni. The President also said the African fraternity must ensure economic and political integration which is a prerequisite for the continents prosperity and strategic security. He also called for the building of a center of gravity for Africans in East Africa to save the black race from persecution. In the new term, Museveni committed to continue pushing for the social economic transformation of Ugandans in the new term. Several heads of state from the region are present to witness this occasion and include Kenyas Uhuru Kenyatta who is also the EAC chair, Tanzania Samia Suluhu , Salva Kir of South Sudan among others. The five-year term of the 10th Parliament came to an end yesterday. The closure will now pave the way for incoming MPs who will be sworn in next week from May 17 to 20, followed by elections of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker on May 21. Ms Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of Parliament, hinted at end of business (yesterday) at the start of the plenary. You know Cabinet is getting dissolved. We (Parliament) also want to ensure we finish our work today. This is our last sitting, she briefly communicated. Last Thursday, Ms Helen Kaweesa, the deputy director of communications and public affairs at Parliament, told Daily Monitor that the House business would end on Tuesday (yesterday). This means the 10th Parliament will no longer be in existence and MPs will be expected to take leave of their offices, Ms Kawesa said. She added: Even MPs who are returning in the 11th Parliament are required to vacate their respective offices gradually. They will be allocated new office space upon their return. Read more: https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/speaker-kadaga-dissolves-10th-parliament-3397298 If you noticed a few green areas around Kilkenny where the grass is a little longer and the dandelions a little more plentiful than usual this time of year, its for a very good reason. The councils parks department are aiming to reduce the frequency of mowing in areas under their remit in support of important pollinators. Reduced mowing allows wild flowers already in the grass to bloom and provide a valuable food source for pollinators. Inadequate food supply is a major cause of pollinator declines. Land management practices mean that the landscape often doesnt provide the abundance and diversity of habitats and food sources they need to survive. In April and early May especially, flowers such as dandelions and clovers in lawns and road verges, and willow, blackthorn and hazel in hedgerows are important. These plants provide essential early season forage for hungry bees emerging from hibernation. Some of the last remnants of old meadows are at the base of hedgerows and verges. Reducing mowing allows pollen-rich wildflowers to naturally grow. With this in mind, the Kilkenny County Council has identified a number of areas where it will reduce mowing to encourage the growth of wildflowers and hedges. The Ring Road in Kilkenny will now be mown on the city side only, with the verges of the county side of the Ring Road allowed to grow long. The new Ferrybank Park will be managed with pollinator friendly practices also, as will two large meadows in Dukesmeadows and Bishopsmeadows in Kilkenny. At all sites an annual cut will be carried out in late summer/early autumn. The council is actively assessing other sites where it can alter current grass cutting practices and this will be done in consultation with local residents alongside an awareness campaign to explain why mowing is being delayed. Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council Andrew McGuinness is among those supporting the initiative. I would encourage everybody across the county to get on board adding this is about all of us, local authorities, farmers, schools, community groups and businesses coming together to try to create an Ireland where pollinators can survive and thrive, he said. Increasingly the council has found many residents groups across the county are enquiring as to alternative ways to manage their grass to support pollinators, and the council is happy to provide assistance in this regard. Mayor of Kilkenny John Coonan has also expressed his support for the initiative and says its widely acknowledged that pollinators are under serious threat. I feel there is a mood change nationally as to how our green spaces should be managed and its great to see Keep Kilkenny Beautiful, Tidy Towns groups and other residents associations at the forefront of this mind shift, said the mayor. Chairman of Keep Kilkenny Beautiful Pat Boyd, has expressed his delight at the councils proactive stance on implementing practical measures to assist pollinators. Keep Kilkenny Beautiful is committed to the objectives of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan and its wonderful to see the parks department changing their mowing regime in certain areas of the city to encourage more native wild flowers, said Mr Boyd. Kilkenny County Council is a supporter of the recently launched All-Ireland Pollinator Plan for 2021 to 2025, a new five-year road map that aims to help bees, other pollinating insects and our wider biodiversity. Kilkenny County Council says it is looking forward to continue working in partnership with communities and Tidy Towns Groups to encourage and support a better way of managing our whole landscape to permanently support our struggling biodiversity. Local TD John McGuinness has called for urgent action what he says are illegal quarries operating in Kilkenny and Laois without licence or proper planning permission, causing enormous harm to the countryside. Speaking in a Dail debate on the Climate Action Bill, Deputy McGuinness said considerable damage was being done to the environment, and local authorities were attempting to put a stop to it but were not receiving enough support and resources. We can see how busy are the quarries and there are legitimate quarries doing legitimate business under a legitimate planning application, he said. I have no difficulty with the businesses meeting those conditions. There are illegal quarries in Kilkenny and Laois in particular that do not have planning permission. They have escaped the law and the county council bringing them back to being a lawful and registered quarry. Deputy McGuinness said he had raised the question in the House with the Taoiseach and was now raising it directly with the Environment Minister Eamon Ryan. He urged him to look at quarries that are breaking the law and causing untold destruction. They are operating without any licence or proper planning permission, he said. Will the Minister investigate these cases in Laois and Kilkenny and find out what is happening with those quarries that are breaking the law? What is happening with the citizens making the complaints about the law being broken? What can we do about the banks and vulture funds that currently own some of those quarries and which are turning a blind eye to the asset being stripped, taking no action to support the local communities? The Kilkenny TD said if he raised the issue by way of PQ, he is told it is a matter for the county council. That may be the case but it is a matter for this House when the law breaks down and the council is not being given the full support and resources of the State to battle some of these individuals breaking the law, he said. I am not painting everybody with the one brush but there is a small number of people causing devastation in local communities to the environment we are trying to protect with this Bill. It is scandalous. Deputy McGuinness said he had followed up queries around quarries and was shocked over how long it takes to stop someone breaking the law. When the community we are trying to represent sees there is little impact from the complaints they make, people lose faith in politicians and the system. Authority may then break down and people might think if certain others can take a short cut because they have money, they can take a short cut too. People living in rural Ireland do not want to do this, he said. Kilkenny College student Megan Fallon joined over 120 Transition Year students across Ireland to graduate as a 'Walk in My Shoes' mental health ambassador during a special online ceremony held to celebrate the class of 2020/2021. For over ten years, Walk in My Shoes, the flagship education and awareness-raising campaign of St Patricks Mental Health Services, has run a Transition Year programme inviting over 100 students per year from across Ireland to take part. The programme is one week long in duration and is run five times during the academic year between October and March. This is a milestone year for the TY programme, with over 1,000 students graduating since it began in 2010. This years programme also marked a transition in how the programme was run, with the entire schedule moving online due to the pandemic. The programme is hosted by the adolescent mental health team and staff at St Patricks Mental Health Services, who deliver over 25 sessions to students across the week. This year, 123 participants undertook a range of classroom-based activities which included viewing mock multidisciplinary team meetings with psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, nurses and social workers. Other topics included advocacy and mental health, pharmacology, career pathways and much more. Paul Gilligan, CEO at St Patricks Mental Health Services said young people have experienced a lot of uncertainty over the past few months and for this reason Walk in My Shoes was proud to be able to bring its popular Transition Year programme online for 2020/2021. "The programme is a real insight for young people into mental health services, and provides tools and resources to empower our participants to act as a mental health ambassador for their communities." MASON CITY, Iowa - Governor Kim Reynolds says it's time for everyone who is able to get back to work to do so. Citing a strong labor market, a low 3.7% unemployment rate and a recovering economy, she's ending the state's participation several pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs. The week ending June 12 will be the last week the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation and Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation programs are available in Iowa. This means people will no longer receive their weekly $300 supplement after that date. The decision comes to address a worker shortage; the U.S. Department of Labor reported over 8 million job openings nationally in March for the first time ever. In particular, the restaurant and service industry lost 2.5 million workers during the height of the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association. When service was limited to take-out only last year, Blue Heron Bar & Grill owner Vickie Lau had to lay off four workers that only worked just a couple days a week, though she was able to later bring them back. "They had other full time jobs. They were very gracious, and they said, 'let the other girls who rely on this job as their only employment.'" Although she currently has 19 staffers, the increase in business is having Lau looking for help. "When we first opened back up when the shots were going through, you can definitely see the end of March where it really picked up in volume. As somebody that does the staffing, we don't really know, I call it the roller coaster. We try and staff heavy and if we don't need as many, we let them go for the evening. We have been working pretty hard with the limited staff that we have." To make up for some schedule vacancies, some staffers hours have been extended, including covering both of the busy lunch and dinner rushes, though she is trying to keep a balance. "I don't want to overload my schedule with extra people, and take away from the people who've been here." There are a few qualifications for potential hires. "We're always looking for good quality, experienced people that have the want to help others, because we're in a service industry. That is one of our requirements is that you're nice, and that you can handle some stress, because it does get pretty busy sometimes." With an expected increase in business over the summer months, she asks customers to be patient. "Everywhere is understaffed." Governor Reynolds says Iowa will continue to provide regular state unemployment insurance benefits to anyone who qualifies. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) Israel killed a string of senior Hamas military figures Wednesday and pounded three multistory towers as it hammered the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and militants in the territory fired barrages of rockets. Dozens have died in the most severe outbreak of violence since a 2014 war, with no resolution in sight. The fighting has taken on many hallmarks of that devastating 50-day conflict between Israel and Hamas, but with a startling new factor: a burst of fury from Israels Palestinian citizens in support of those living in the territories as well as counterviolence by Jewish Israelis. In response, Israel deployed border guards in two mixed Arab-Jewish cities that saw unrest in previous days, including the burning of a Jewish-owned restaurant and a synagogue, the fatal shooting of an Arab man and attacks on Arab-owned cars. It was a rare use of the paramilitary force, which is normally puts down protests by Palestinians in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Palls of gray smoke rose in Gaza, as Israeli airstrikes struck apartment towers and hammered multiple Hamas security installations. In Israel, hundreds of rockets fired by Gazas Hamas rulers and other militants at times overwhelmed missile defenses and brought air raid sirens and explosions echoing across Tel Aviv, Israels biggest metropolitan area, and other cities. The death toll in Gaza rose to 53 Palestinians, including 14 children and three women, according to the Health Ministry. At least 320 have been wounded, including 86 children and 39 women. Six Israelis were killed by rocket fire, including the first death of an Israeli soldier in this round of conflict, along with three women and a child. Dozens in Israel have been wounded. There was no sign that either side is willing to back down. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expand the offensive, saying this will take time. Hamas has called for a full-scale intifada, or uprising. The last such uprising began in 2000 and lasted more than five years. The latest eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed police tactics during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police. A focal point was the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims. Late Monday, Hamas, claiming to be defending Jerusalem, launched a barrage of rockets at the city, escalating the ground tensions into a new Israel-Hamas punching match. Since then, militants have fired more 1,050 rockets from Gaza, according to the Israeli military, and Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes in the tiny territory where 2 million Palestinians have lived under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took power in 2007. Two infantry brigades were sent to the area, indicating preparations for a possible ground invasion. On Wednesday, Israel stepped up its targeting of Hamas military wing. The military and internal security agency said they carried out a complex and first-of-its-kind operation that killed the Hamas commander in charge of Gaza City, the highest-ranking Hamas military figure killed by Israel since 2014, and several other senior militants involved in rocket production. In one of the fiercest attacks, Israeli fighter jets dropped two bombs on a 14-story building in Gaza City, collapsing it. The building, located on the city's busiest shopping street in the Roman neighborhood, housed businesses in addition to offices for Hamas Al-Aqsa satellite channel. Airstrikes also brought down a 12-story office building, housed Hamas offices as well as other businesses, and heavily damaged a nine-story building with residential apartments, medical companies, a dental clinic and, Israel said, Hamas intelligence offices. In both cases, Israel fired warning shots, allowing people to flee. Soon after, Hamas fired 100 rockets at the Israeli desert town of Beersheba in what it said was retaliation. Samah Haboub, a mother of four in Gaza, said she was thrown across her bedroom in a moment of horror by an airstrike on an apartment tower next door. She and her children, aged 3 to 14, ran down the stairway of their apartment block along with other residents, many of them screaming and crying. There is almost no safe place in Gaza, she said. One strike hit a taxi in Gaza City, killing a man, woman and driver insider, and a second strike killed two men nearby on the street, witnesses who brought the bodies told the AP at the hospital. Several other bystanders were wounded. In the Israeli city of Lod, a 52-year-old Arab Israeli citizen and his 16-year-old daughter were killed when a rocket from Gaza hit the courtyard of their home. An Israeli soldier was killed in a strike by an anti-tank missile from Gaza. The Jerusalem turmoil and the ensuing battle come at a time when the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process is virtually non-existent, fueling Palestinian frustration. It has been seven years since the two sides held formal negotiations. Israels political scene pays little attention, and the peace process was hardly an issue in the countrys string of recent elections. Arab nations, including several that recently reached normalization deals with Israel, rarely push for any resolution. The result has left the nearly 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem living in a limbo. Now, the recent fighting has unleashed protests in Arab communities in Israel. An intifada erupted in Lod, you have to bring in the army, the central Israeli citys mayor, Yair Revivo, said. Lod saw heavy clashes after thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man killed the previous night, the suspect a Jewish gunman. With the deployment of border guards in Lod and the coastal city of Acre, Netanyahu warned he was prepared to use an iron fist if necessary, and urged Arab Israeli leaders to bring calm. Still unclear is how this new outburst of fighting will effect Netanyahus political future. He failed to form a government coalition after inconclusive parliamentary elections in March, and now his political rivals have three weeks to try to form one. The longer the fighting drags on, the more it could hamper their attempts at a coalition; it could also boost Netanyahu if yet another election is held, since security is his strong suit with the public. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces. The conflicts ended after regional and international powers persuaded both sides to accept an informal truce. Israel faced heavy criticism over the bombing of residential buildings in Gaza during the 2014 war, one of several tactics that are now the subject of an investigation by the International Criminal Court into possible war crimes. Israel is not a member of the court and has rejected the probe. In a brief statement, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she had noted with great concern the escalation of violence and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute that established the court. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, the military spokesman, said Israeli forces have strict rules of engagement, follow international laws on armed conflict and are trying to minimize civilian casualties. But Israel has said it has no choice because Hamas fires rockets from residential areas. Hamas has also come under international criticism over its indiscriminate rocket fire at Israeli population centers. MASON CITY, Iowa - A man with five previous OWI convictions and a sixth case pending was arrested Tuesday after leaving the scene of a vehicle accident. McKinley Dudley, Jr., 62, of Mason City, was arrested after officers were dispatched to the 600 block of S. Jackson Ave. where Dudley was found walking around a car he had abandoned after a hit-and-run accident earlier in the day. Dudley was arrested with a blood-alcohol level of .351. He is facing charges of leaving the scene of an accident, open container, failure to stop in an assured and clear distance, failure to provide proof of insurance and public intoxication. Dudley is set to go to trial for his sixth OWI case in June. ROCHESTER, Minn. - Dr. Anthony Fauci said federal guidance on wearing a face mask indoors could soon change and the Olmsted County Public Health Director, Graham Briggs, doesn't think we will see a mandate for seasonal mask wearing in the future. However, there are a few things you should know. There's a state mandate for face masks right now until at least July 1st in Minnesota, which Briggs said is giving people something to look forward to. "The key to taking our masks off is all of us coming together and getting vaccinated as your turn arrives. for those who haven't been yet, your turn is now," he explained. "That is the key to getting us to a place where we don't need masks anymore and we don't need to worry anymore about virus out there in the community." Briggs said it's not off the table for an occasional requirement to go back in place if a new variant pops up or an outbreak happens. He explained now is the time to start looking at how we can make those final steps out of the pandemic. It could be a scary thing for some to think about and it's going to take some time feeling comfortable being in crowds again, but that's where he said the trust in Public Health comes into play. "If we go back out there and say, 'okay, the situation has changed. The science has evolved. Something has happened. We need you to do another couple of months of this or something like that.' Then we've built that relationship with the community that when we see that there's not a need, we're going to say, 'take the masks off, let's go have a fun summer, go to the lakes, enjoy yourself.' And know that if the situation changes, we'll be communicating that with the public, too," he explained. Minnesotans can stop wearing masks after that July 1st date unless 70% of the population gets vaccinated before then. Briggs said if something were to happen in the future, local health officials can determine what the guidelines should be. ROCHESTER, Minn. - India accounts for nearly half of the world's new COVID-19 cases with more than 412,000 in just one day. The highest total for any country since the pandemic began. For family members here in the U.S., grief and anger are setting in and feeling helpless is a common emotion right now for a lot of Indian Americans. "We all know how it feels. Irrespective of the fact of whether you have family in India or not, we all have been through this pandemic experience," said Dr. Anjali Bhagra. Dr. Bhagra and her husband came to the states 17 years ago and now, they both work at Mayo Clinic. She explained India is seeing the worst of it right now. Hundreds of thousands of new infections are being reported every day and the country doesn't have enough oxygen or vaccines. The rest of their family is still in India, with Dr. Bhagra's in-laws fighting COVID-19 head on in the hospital. "They were very worried about us because they were not experiencing it in that magnitude," she explained. "And sure enough, within a year, it's a complete 180 degrees." Most of her medical school friends in India are infected with COVID-19. Yet, they aren't giving up hope, Dr. Bhagra included. "This global citizenship, the sharing of experience, the standing up for each other, just doing what's right for humanity is what's giving me hope," she said. It's been reported people are waiting for hours, even days, in line to get access to oxygen. Indian epidemiologists say despite being one of the biggest vaccine producers in the world, India has only vaccinated nearly 3% of its population. Dr. Bhagra said there are several factors contributing to this second surge. "In terms of gaining traction and getting a significant percentage of people vaccinated as quickly as possible," she explained. "Our other issues with production, transportation and really awareness." The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin said it raised more than $500,000 to send 1,000 oxygen concentrators to India and they're working with both governments to hopefully allow U.S. physicians to practice over seas. The Indian government said it's administering nearly 2 million doses every 24 hours, but epidemiologists say it will take a lot more than that in order to reach the country's population of 1.4 billion people. The Biden Administration has begun shipping raw vaccine material, oxygen and therapeutics to India. They also announced the U.S. will provide other countries up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not been authorized for use in the U.S., but did not say how many doses would go to India. ALLISON, Iowa A Waterloo man accused of shooting at a Butler County home is pleading guilty. Timothy Eugene Ovel, 54, has entered a guilty plea to threatened intimidation with intent to injure, going armed with intent, child endangerment, domestic abuse assault, and reckless use of a firearm. The Butler County Sheriffs Office says Ovel fired at least seven shots with a pistol into the front door of his ex-wifes home in Parkersburg on May 26. Investigators say the incident started with an argument over the children where Ovel tried to force his way into the home and then shot the door while his ex-wife, her mother, and two children were inside. Ovels ex-wife told law enforcement she had no doubt Ovel was trying to get into her home and hill her. Ovel was arrested at the scene and law enforcement says it found a bag on the front porch containing a spare 9mm magazine, multiple first aid and survival items, loose 9mm bullets, two small ballistic panels used in body armor, and a blue journal. Ovels sentencing is scheduled for July 6. Here's what you need to know: Wednesday, May 12 Leo Morris, columnist for The Indiana Policy Review, can be contacted at leoedits@yahoo.com. If you're interested in submitting a Letter to the Editor, click here. Submit Location: Mayfield Heights - Ohio Location: Milwaukee - Wisconsin Job Description The Digital Product Owner is responsible for identifying, evaluating, and enabling new and advanced digital technologies to help develop and expand Integrated Supply Chain's (ISC) Digital roadmap. The position is responsible for building and creating comprehensive business cases to ensure proper vetting is completed on new technologies and initiatives. This new process ensures RA is focused and implementing the "right" technologies that provide the most value and benefit back to our ISC manufacturing facilities and the broader RA company. The resource has significant knowledge in subject matters pertaining to manufacturing, supply chain and related IT/OT technologies. This position works in collaboration with IT leadership, ISC leadership, Manufacturing Leadership, Business Unit teams, and with other functional areas across the company. Success will be measured via the completion of business case readouts to ISC senior leadership. Initiatives that are approved to move forward will be measured based on projected benefits coming to fruition post implementation. Education, Experience, and Skill Requirements: Four-year college degree in engineering, computer science or equivalent technical degree. 10 years of diversified experience including work in areas including Manufacturing and Supply Chain. Additional experience in IT related projects would be preferred. The ability to expand manufacturing, technology concepts; influence, recommend and gain consensus of ISC Senior Management Desire to work in a highly dynamic, rapidly changing environment Excellent program management and quantitative skills Good knowledge of RA products and manufacturing processes High energy and enthusiasm Excellent communication and presentation skills at all levels of the organization Desired Qualifications: Familiarity with FTPC, FTIS, PTC Suite of Products, SAP (ERP), Claroty, AutoCAD, Splunk, Symantec, Networks, IT Systems Working knowledge of industrial automation OT system architecture and products Travel: Typically, 30% or less (Domestic and International) Suitability Requirements Relationship Building : The ability to establish and maintain trust-based relationships with business leaders and executive stakeholders : The ability to establish and maintain trust-based relationships with business leaders and executive stakeholders Proactive : Individual who will seek out new sources of information that will strengthen the strategy and vision set forth by ISC leadership : Individual who will seek out new sources of information that will strengthen the strategy and vision set forth by ISC leadership Managing Ambiguity: Ability to navigate through projects and areas of uncertainty and provide clarity on next steps and potential approaches Ability to navigate through projects and areas of uncertainty and provide clarity on next steps and potential approaches Sense of Urgency : The ability to prioritize and focus on the critical issues with the highest business impact : The ability to prioritize and focus on the critical issues with the highest business impact Critical Thinking : Ability to take the time to review and reflect on the inputs received and the conclusions that have been made, to ensure a viable roadmap to achieve a defined vision : Ability to take the time to review and reflect on the inputs received and the conclusions that have been made, to ensure a viable roadmap to achieve a defined vision Creative : Individual who is always thinking of new ways to add value : Individual who is always thinking of new ways to add value Business Acumen : Ability to communicate and discuss issues / opportunities in the terms of business capabilities, benefits and outcomes : Ability to communicate and discuss issues / opportunities in the terms of business capabilities, benefits and outcomes Communication : Strong communication and presentation skills with ability to communicate at all organization levels : Strong communication and presentation skills with ability to communicate at all organization levels Facilitation : The ability to bring together individuals / teams with different perspectives and opinions and drive toward a common understanding and decision : The ability to bring together individuals / teams with different perspectives and opinions and drive toward a common understanding and decision Result Oriented : Focus on the deliverable and end results based on the agreed-upon schedule, scope and budget : Focus on the deliverable and end results based on the agreed-upon schedule, scope and budget Collaboration and Teaming : Drive collaboration among divergent groups to accomplish defined objectives : Drive collaboration among divergent groups to accomplish defined objectives Analytical and Problem Solving: Ability to understand complex and detailed business & manufacturing processes and identify opportunities to define the problem, ask the right questions and find the right inputs for resolutions #LI-BC1 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). South Africa: National Assembly passes Civil Aviation Amendment Bill The National Assembly (NA) has passed the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill, during its plenary sitting on Tuesday. The Bill, with amendments also by the Portfolio Committee on Transport, amends the Civil Aviation Act of 2009. The amendments include among others, provision for operational independence of aircraft accident and incident investigation; rectifying provisions about establishing the South African Civil Aviation Authority, including giving it environmental protection oversight function and providing for it as a preferential creditor in respect of any money, fees, charges or levies collected on its behalf; and doing away with the requirement for the development of a corporate governance plan. The amendments also include, amending provisions concerning appointment and removal of the Commissioner for Civil Aviation; amending provisions relating to the performance agreement between the Minister and the Aviation Safety Investigation Board; clarifying provisions dealing with conflict of interest. It also provides for the designation of the Chairperson of the National Aviation Security Committee and matters connected with its operations. The Bill was first introduced during the fifth Parliament, in November 2018, but lapsed when the term of that Parliament came to an end. Following the 2019 elections and establishment of the sixth Parliament, the NA revived the Bill on 29 October 2019. Parliamentary spokesperson, Moloto Mothapo noted that while inquiring into the subject of the Bill during public hearings and deliberations, the Portfolio Committee on Transport realised it was necessary to amend other provisions of the principal Act not included in the Bill, and to further extend public consultations. The committee received a submission from the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) regarding its preferential creditor status, when the licensed service provider that collects fees on its behalf becomes insolvent. The envisaged amendments, which were not in the Civil Aviation Amendment Bill revived in 2019, would allow SACAA to be one of the first in line creditors to get their fees. This would be either through a trust or ring-fenced funds, as preferential shareholder through the Insolvency Act, Mothapo said. The Civil Aviation Amendment Bill with the amendments by the Portfolio Committee on Transport will now be sent to the National Council of Provinces for consideration. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-05-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Commentary: Consumer products expo in Hainan adds momentum to global economic recovery (Xinhuanet) 17:18, May 12, 2021 Staff do preparation work at the Hainan International Convention and Exhibition Center in Haikou, capital of south China's Hainan Province, May 6, 2021. The first China International Consumer Products Expo will be held here from May 7 to 10. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Against the backdrop of a rampant pandemic and battered world economy, the China International Consumer Products Expo (CICPE) has become a new platform to demonstrate China's willingness to share its market opportunities with the world and contribute to global economic recovery and growth. The four-day expo, the first-ever focusing on consumer goods held by China, concluded Monday in the southern island province of Hainan. A total of 70 countries and regions attended the expo, which attracted 2,628 brands of 1,505 enterprises from home and abroad and more than 240,000 visitors. The expo covers 80,000 square meters, including 60,000 square meters of international exhibition space featuring products including watches, cosmetics, jewelry, automobiles, yachts, clothing, consumer electronics, food and health products of leading brands. With COVID-19 pandemic still spreading and world economy on track of fragile recovery from recession, the expo, pooling global high-end consumer brands to tap into the market potential of the world's second-largest economy, will inject impetus to global economy. Multinational giants attended the expo, eyeing the great potential of the Chinese market, which has become the world's most promising consumer market with a total population of over 1.4 billion and more than 400 million middle-income earners. As China's economy continues to recover on a firm footing, the retail sales of consumer goods, a major indicator of the country's consumption strength, increased by 33.9 percent year on year to 10.5 trillion yuan in the first quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The Chinese consumers' rising demand for high-end consumer goods and services is expected to expand substantially and continuously, which will bring new trends and opportunities to the global market. Justin Yifu Lin, honorary dean of the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, said that China has the conditions to double its GDP scale by 2035, or its per capita income level in urban and rural areas, on the basis of 2020, adding that as people become wealthier, their demand for better lives will also be enhanced. "The expo has brought new opportunities for global high-end brands to enter and expand the Chinese market," said Swiss Ambassador to China Bernardino Regazzoni. By connecting domestic and overseas markets, the expo will also help push the new development paradigm of "dual circulation" that allows the domestic and overseas markets to reinforce each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay. The expo marks a step forward in the construction of the Hainan free trade port as China released a master plan last June to build the island province into a globally influential and high-level free trade port by the middle of the century. Hainan has implemented a series of preferential policies such as visa-free entry, offshore duty-free shopping and a tax-exempt imports list, which has provided a good channel for overseas brands to enter the Chinese market. "The appeal of the expo shows the effectiveness of the opening policy of the Hainan free trade port and the optimization of its business environment," said Fabrice Megarbane, president and CEO of L'Oreal China. "Relying on the expo to develop the tourism retail market in Hainan will further release the consumption potential of China." A report jointly released recently by KPMG China and The Moodie Davitt found that the Hainan free trade port will likely become the world's biggest duty-free market in the near term if it continues on its current growth curve. Despite unilateralism and protectionism on the rise, China has been holding a series of national trade fairs over the years, such as the Canton Fair, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the China International Import Expo, and the China International Consumer Products Expo, with an aim to turn its market into a global market, shared and accessible by all. To honor its commitment to expanding all-round opening-up, China has also lowered tariffs, shortened its negative list for foreign investment, and eased market access in a number of sectors such as automobiles and financing for global investors. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) ROME, MAY 10 - All of Italy is a moderate-risk yellow zone, except for Sicily, Sardinia and Valle D'Aosta, as of Monday after the government revised the way regions are classed in Italy's tiered system of COVID-19 restrictions on the basis of improved contagion data. Furthermore, Italy no longer has any high-risk red zones, where movements are limited and all non-essential shops must close, after Valle D'Aosta was bumped down to orange, joining Sicily and Sardinia in this tier. In yellow zones, the coronavirus restrictions are far less stringent. All shops can open, for example, and bars and restaurants can serve people at outdoor tables. In orange zones non-essential shops can do business but bars and restaurants can only do take-aways and home deliveries and cinemas and theatres have to stay shut. The health ministry said Sunday that Italy had registered 139 COVID-19-linked deaths in the previous 24 hours, the lowest daily figure since October 25. (ANSA). ROME, MAY 12 - Democratic Party (PD) leader Enrico Letta has said that there is no chance of the centre-left group reaching an agreement with the 5-Star Movement on joint mayor candidates for upcoming local elections in Rome and Turin. The PD and the anti-establishment M5S have been trying to build on the partnership that saw them allied in backing ex-premier Giuseppe Conte's second government. Conte has taken on the job of revamping the M5S after his executive collapsed early this year. Rome and Turin both currently have M5S mayors. But while Rome First Citizen Virginia Raggi is running again, Turin Mayor Chiara Appendino is not. "There is no chance of an agreement in Rome and Turin, two cities where the PD lost in a big way in 2016 and where we have a negative opinion of the two mayors took over," Letta told daily newspaper Il Messaggero. (ANSA). Magnolia, AR (71754) Today Mostly cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 92F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 74F. Winds light and variable. ROME, MAY 12 - A senior Italian health official said Wednesday that increasing the time between the first and second doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from three weeks to up to six is not problematic after an official from the pharmaceutical company suggested it was best to stick to span of 21 days. "I say this very clearly as a doctor," Franco Locatelli, the president of Italy's Higher Health Council (CSS) and the coordinator of the CTS expert panel advising the government on its response to the coronavirus, told RAI television. "Extending the period between administration of the first and the second doses to the sixth week, so 42 days, does not impair the effectiveness of the immunization in the slightest and it enables us to give out more doses of the vaccine". On Tuesday Pfizer Italia Medical Director Valeria Marino said that her company's COVID vaccine was designed to be given in two doses three weeks apart. But on Wednesday the company stressed that "recommendations on alternative dosage regimes are the competence of the health authorities". Locatelli said he understood Pfizer 's "protective attitude" regarding studies done on the three-week period between doses. But he added that "studies in real life have shown its effectiveness after a period of 42 days too. "So statements like yesterday's only create concern and it would be desirable to avoid them". (ANSA). ROME, MAY 12 - The European Commission said in its spring economic forecasts on Wednesday that it expects Italy's GDP to rise by 4.2% this year and by 4.4% in 2022. It said the coronavirus vaccination campaign and the easing of COVID-19 restrictions was paving the way for a strong recovery in the second half of 2021. It said EU-supported investments should put the economy onto a path of "sustained expansion". It said Italy's public debt will continue to rise this year but should start coming down in 2022. "After a highly significant recession in 2020, Italy's growth forecasts are positive and encouraging," said European Economic Affairs Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni.. He said the 750-billion-euro Next Generation EU recovery programme should give the bloc a boost of around 1.2 GDP points. (ANSA). ROME, MAY 12 - Italian financial broker Pierluigi Torzi was arrested in London on Tuesday on the basis of a warrant issued by Rome prosecutors for alleged self-laundering and false invoicing. Torzi is also under investigation by the Vatican judicial authorities over a controversial property deal regarding a building on Sloane Avenue in London. A court will decide whether to grant Torzi bail on May 18. (ANSA). ROME, MAY 12 - Italy has already seen 23 femicides this year compared with a total of 50 all last year, Carabinieri (CC) Commander Teo Luzi told the parliamentary anti-mafia commission Wednesday. "This is an unacceptable number, as is violence against women," Luzi said. "Reports that led to code red procedures have been over 11,000 this year. Reflection is necessary". (ANSA). ROME, MAY 12 - Italy's mafias didn't go into lockdown last year, Carabinieri chief Teo Luzi told parliament Wednesday. "You can exterminate weeds but the roots remain", he said, noting in particular that the richest mafia, Calabria's 'Ndrangheta, "continues to be active on the drug trafficking front, it had no lockdown." Asset seizures showed that the other main mafias, Cosa Nostra and Camorra, were also "thriving despite COVID", while the Nigerian and Albanian Mobs had also shown themselves to be be "COVID-proof". (ANSA). The U.S. military in Afghanistan apologized Wednesday for distributing leaflets featuring an image highly offensive to Muslims. The leaflets dropped Tuesday night over parts of Parwan province showed the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith, printed on the image of a dog, an animal viewed by many Muslims as unclean. Get your freedom from these terrorist dogs, reads the Pashto-language text. Help the coalition forces find these terrorists and eliminate them. The image shows a lion chasing a white dog that is meant to represent the flag of Taliban insurgents, which is white with the Shahada printed at the center. The Times obtained a copy of the leaflet from an Afghan official in Parwan. Advertisement The Shahada, the most common recitation of faith for Muslims, states, There is no god but God, and Muhammad is his prophet. Local officials in Parwan complained Tuesday night to the provincial governor, prompting a phone call to U.S. military officials in Kabul and at Bagram air base in Parwan. Its an insult to Islam, said Waheeda Shakhar, spokeswoman for the Parwan governor. Its very sensitive that the Shahada is written on a dog, so it must be investigated. Maj. Gen. James Linder, a U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, acknowledged in a statement that the design of the leaflets mistakenly contained an image highly offensive to both Muslims and the religion of Islam. I sincerely apologize. We have the deepest respect for Islam and our Muslim partners worldwide, Linder said. Linder said the U.S. military was investigating how the leaflet was produced, and would hold the responsible party accountable. U.S. forces have been at war in Afghanistan for nearly 16 years, yet still find themselves tripping over cultural sensitivities in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation. The Taliban has used such incidents to label U.S.-led coalition troops as invaders and infidels, and Afghan soldiers and police as their puppets. In 2012, then-Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta apologized after reports said Muslim religious materials, including copies of the Koran, had been inappropriately burned in an incinerator at Bagram. The reports fueled deadly protests and a rash of attacks against American troops. Advertisement The leaflet controversy comes as the Trump administration plans to add several thousand U.S. troops to the 11,000 currently stationed in Afghanistan. Ahmad Shaheer, an independent analyst in Kabul, called the latest incident a big shame and said U.S.-led international forces have failed to obtain the help of trained Afghan cultural advisors. The foreign forces dont have any idea of what are the values of the Afghan people, Shaheer said. Theyve hired some interpreters and advisors who only know how to speak English, make money and gain trust, but really are strangers to the real values of the local people. After the leaflet drop, a Taliban suicide bomber blew himself up Wednesday outside a base used by American forces, wounding four civilians. Advertisement The attack, which the Taliban said was to avenge the U.S. leaflets, indicated that the increasingly potent insurgent movement would attempt to capitalize on the latest cultural misstep by American forces in Afghanistan. The explosion occurred at an entrance to Bagram, the district governor said. Special correspondent Faizy reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Shashank Bengali from Mumbai, India. shashank.bengali@latimes.com Advertisement Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia Architect's rendering of the new Wadley Regional Medical Center in TEXarkana, which will open in two years. Wang Zhan drives three hours out of Beijings smog, past gray-brick towns and yellowed hills to reach a place where he can hear birds. The Baihuashan National Nature Reserve, a rare sanctuary of pine trees and unobstructed views just west of the capital, is one of Chinas more successful attempts to preserve its dwindling natural resources. Signs encourage people to stay on the trails and off the wild mountains. Garbage actually lands in the bin. China has no single agency responsible for managing its overcrowded, haphazard assortment of natural areas, places that are suddenly in demand by a growing middle class looking for refuge from polluted cities. For help, Chinese officials are turning to a system born out of similar conservation goals a century ago, an idea once labeled Americas best: its national parks. Advertisement Wang Zhan and Fan Lei hike in Baihuashan National Nature Preserve in China. (Jessica Meyers / For The Times ) Ive never been to Yellowstone, but I saw it in a film, said Wang, a 36-year-old hairstylist from Beijing who used his day off to go hiking with his wife. He flicked through a series of phone photos from their trek through Baihuashan, depicting a series of cloudless skies and deep valleys that he imagined must be similar to the mountains of Wyoming. We climbed to the top. I think the view is similar. U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell underscored the relationship in a visit in July to the reserve, where she established a sister park connection with Shenandoah National Park. Two months later, Chinas National Development and Reform Commission and the U.S. National Park Service signed a formal cooperation agreement. The Paulson Institute, a Chicago-based think tank, also has agreed to assist Chinese officials with a pilot project that spans nine provinces. Our national parks are an important source of shared national pride and cultural identity, Paulson Institute chairman and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said as his organization formalized the partnership in Beijing. He said the center will work with China to help develop a comprehensive and effective system of protected areas. Celebrating the centennial of the U.S. National Parks China has set aside about 18% of its land for protection, compared to nearly 14% in the U.S. Both systems comprise a patchwork of parkland, made up of forests, wetlands and other scenic areas. The U.S. Department of the Interior manages most of Americas vast network in a clear, regulated manner. Chinas thousands of national-level parks have overlapping administrations, inconsistent standards and competing interests. Local officials run Baihuashan, but a hodgepodge of government agencies including the forestry and tourism administrations oversee it. Advertisement Baihuashan National Nature Reserve, west of Beijing. (Jessica Meyers / For The Times ) Chinas diverse natural areas include such treasures as the multicolored lakes in Sichuan provinces Jiuzhaigou valley, and haunting karst rock formations in Hunans Zhangjiajie. But conservation goals at some parks have lost out to the drive for tourism, a valuable source of income for local governments. Ticket prices can top $30, two days wages for a rural migrant worker. At some locales, hordes trample scenic views, plastic bags drift downstream, and couples scratch their names in 300-year-old-trees. A lot of Chinese parks are not about preservation, theyre about moneymaking, said Guangyu Wang, a forestry expert at the University of British Columbia. National parks in China are like theme parks. Advertisement Guangyu recalled a recent trip to China, when he tried to see peach blossoms and instead spent four hours staring at cars stuck in traffic. The Ministry of Transportation was expecting 650 million trips on Chinas roads during this weeks National Day holiday, meaning even more packed parking lots and crowded green space. China has struggled with ecotourism. In 2009, a man in Yunnan province hunted and ate the last tiger in a nature preserve. A wetland park in Guangzhou last year installed lightning rods after two tourists were struck by lightning. The latest push comes from the top. President Xi Jinping told top officials in 2013 that the country needed a real national park system, according to state media. Advertisement Leaders want to project Chinas new image as a climate-conscious global power. And they also recognize wealthier Chinese are exploring the world and desire similar experiences back home. A lot of Chinese parks are not about preservation, theyre about moneymaking. Guangyu Wang, forestry expert at the University of British Columbia About 40% of Chinese who visited the U.S. in 2014 toured at least one national park or monument, according to the National Park Service. Chinas Hainan Airlines announced in February that it would start direct flights from Beijing to Calgary, the jumping-off point for Canadas Banff National Park. Advertisement Public awareness of nature conservation has increased, and the general public and decision-makers have really changed their philosophy, said Zhu Chunquan, head of the China office for the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Officials also hope increased domestic travel will act as a salve for the slowing economy. Tourism has doubled over the last four years, according to Chinas tourism agency. But Chinese use parks differently than Americans do, and administrators aim to select aspects of the U.S. model rather than simply duplicate it. Baihuashan National Nature Reserve, China. (Jessica Meyers / For the Times ) Advertisement The U.S. has done a really great job with environmental protection education that we would like to learn, said Su Yang, research fellow at the Development Research Center of the State Council, Chinas chief administrative body. Chinese generally keep their park visits short; few sites even allow camping. And while family trips are becoming more popular, many still opt for cheaper bus tours. Chinese tourists mainly go for one day or a half-day to have a quick look around, not for one or two weeks to walk inside the reserve or to establish a personal relationship with nature, Zhu said. The pilot projects look largely at management and funding, as officials weigh what role the central government should play in running the parks. U.S. national parks are publicly funded and rely only partially on entrance fees. But Chinese sites depend on revenue to sustain themselves, and officials sometimes use the income to cover other local government expenses. Advertisement Chinese officials also must figure out how to balance the needs of communities that have lived in these regions for generations. The countrys development commission and its forestry administration did not respond to requests for comment. A record 307 million people visited U.S. national parks last year. (The Park Service celebrated its centennial anniversary in late August.) The Chinese government doesnt compile overall visits, and Baihuashan officials said they werent certain about their total number because a different district operates two other entrance gates. Wang Suohong, a 47-year-old who works in the construction industry, spent a recent afternoon with a friend surveying Baihuashan, which means 100-flower mountain. Advertisement You can see a lot of man-made elements in Chinese parks, but if a tree falls in Yellowstone, they wont [clean] it up, said Wang, who spoke with awe of his trip years ago to the first U.S. national park. Officials plan to assess next steps in their own national park vision after the pilot efforts conclude. What if the government pays the ticket for you and you go outside and see how beautiful our country is? said Deng Zhaoming, a lecturer at Hunan First Normal University, who studies tourism management. To view with confidence the natural beauty and national image, that is what China is lacking, and that is what we need to do. Advertisement Meyers is a special correspondent. Nicole Liu in the Times Beijing bureau contributed to this report. Mexico City once again witnessed hundreds of demonstrators gather for the annual Mother's Day march. This year, they demand the authorities to look for their missing children. Individuals who participated in the march chanted slogans asking where their children were, emphasizing that their mothers are looking for them. The said march is an annual event in Mexico City that happens every May 10, the day they celebrated Mother's Day. Based on the information gathered by the Mexican government, not less than 80,000 individuals have gone missing since the drug war in the country, which started in 2006. According to The Hill, the Interior Secretary Olga Sanchez met with some mothers early on Monday to address the issue. Her office also shared that Sanchez repeatedly emphasized the government's desire to locate their relatives. Martha Estela Arana, one among hundreds of demonstrators, shared it has been a pilgrimage, searching for justice numerous times. Arana's son, Alfredo Quesada Arana, went missing 11 years ago. Arana shared that administrations come and go, and it has always been the same. Even other demonstrators mentioned that the government's promises have rung hollow in the past. But for Arana, they will continue searching until their last breath, Associated Press reported. Moreover, Yolanda Moran, who attended the Mexico City Mother's Day march, emphasized that there is nothing to celebrate. While carrying a large photograph of her son, Dan Jeremeel Fernandez, who disappeared on December 19, 2008, at the age of 35, she marched in her wheelchair. Miriam Cabrera, the mother of Romel Cabrera, who vanished on June 28, 2015, confessed that in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas, they have at least 100 individuals who go missing each day. However, they were not all reported because of fear for their lives as well. Also, Patricia Springton brought photographs of her son, her husband, her sister-in-law, and her niece. All of them were last seen on July 14, 2010, when they were traveling to Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas. Now 23-year-old Maricarmen Cardona started accompanying her mother at marches when she was around 11. Until now, she demanded authorities to find for her father, who disappeared together with a dozen of other individuals in the northern city of Piedras Negras way back in 2009. ALSO READ: Green-Thumbed Thief Attacks Another Albuquerque Home, Security Camera Captures Plant-Stealing Numbers Don't Lie AP noted that most of those who disappear are presumably abducted by drug cartels or kidnapping gangs. However, authorities and police are suspected of being behind on some of the disappearances. Not only mothers were in attendance in the march. Some children who had to grow up without their parents also called on the government to find their long-lost parents. Meanwhile, around 300,000 individuals have been murdered from 2006 to present. Authorities say most of the killings are linked to gang violence. Based on the official figures, there are at least 38,500 unidentified bodies with forensic services, Gulf News reported. RELATED ARTICLE: Ahead of Kamala Harris Meeting, Mexico's President Accuses U.S. of Violating Country's Sovereignty WATCH: Mother's Day march remembers victims of violence in Mexico | AFP - AFP News Agency COVID vaccine booster shots will be available for free to the public if they are deemed needed. The chief science officer for the White House's COVID response team, David Kessler, told senators during a hearing on Tuesday that the government has available funds to purchase the next rounds of vaccines. Kessler added that people will not have to pay for it, according to The Hill report. The COVID response team officer cleared that there is still uncertainty whether the shots will be effective in offering protection against future variants of the coronavirus. Kessler added that the federal government is making the necessary preparations if they are needed. He also discussed how the country needs to ramp up its development of an oral antiviral drug that can be easily distributed, according to a CNBC report. Kessler said that antibody treatments are part of their efforts to curb the pandemic. He added that a simple oral antiviral can add more efficiency on their end to curb the pandemic. READ MORE: Moderna Booster Shots Work Well Against Variants: Early Data COVID Vaccine Booster Shots Moderna had earlier conducted a study showing that booster shots are both hope and challenges when it comes to COVID variants. Moderna's booster shots appear to be effective against COVID variants, specifically B.1.351 and P.1. Meanwhile, the Moderna vaccine does not protect against the variants for as long as they first stated, according to a Forbes report. The booster shot is a third dose of the vaccine, which is administered six to eight months after the second dose. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said that the company is eyeing to release its booster shot in the fall. Bancel believed that getting COVID vaccine booster shots will be a usual practice yearly as the COVID will not be going away. Pfizer has also announced that it is studying a booster shot against emerging and existing COVID variants. The company's CEO, Albert Bourla, said that the public would likely need a third dose of the COVID vaccine within the 12 months of completing their vaccine cycle. Bourla said that the variants will play a role in determining when to administer booster shots. Pfizer's vaccine candidate was reported to offer 91 percent protection against COVID. In comparison, it increases to 95 percent against severe disease for six months after the second dose, according to another CNBC report. Data shows that those who are most affected by the pandemic are not being prioritized for vaccination, with information on the race and ethnicity of those who got the vaccine are only known for 53 percent. This creates a significant knowledge gap, according to an American Journal of Managed Care report. On April 29, more than half of the American states have reported a significant reduction in COVID cases. This was after federal health officials announced that the virus's trajectory is improving in the country despite the uneven distribution of vaccinations still poses a challenge. The U.S. had averaged over 52,000 new cases a day on April 28, which records a 28 percent plummet from two weeks before. READ NEXT: CVS, Walgreens Wasted a Lot of COVID Vaccine Doses WATCH: Health experts say people may need vaccine booster shots - from CNBC Television A suspect from California opened fire to San Luis Obispo police officers on Monday, leaving one dead and one injured. He then took his own life. The tragic incident happened in Camellia Court in San Luis Obispo when the police officers were serving a search warrant for stolen property, The Tribune reported. Authorities identified the officer who died as Luca Benedetti, a 12-year veteran of the force. The injured officer, Steve Orozco, was transported to Sierra Vista Hospital and released on Monday evening. Meanwhile, the suspect in the incident was identified by the authorities as Edward Zamora Giron. READ Next: Birthday Celebrant Names the Victims in Colorado Springs Shooting California Police Officers and the Suspect On Monday, at around 5 in the afternoon, San Luis Obispo Police said that at least six police officers from their department were dispatched to an apartment in Camellia Court to serve a search warrant. New York Daily News noted that the officers were looking for Giron, as he was related to a stolen property tied to a series of late-night burglaries. San Luis Police Chief Brian Amoroso noted that the officers identified themselves and asked to enter. However, the suspect did not answer. The police officers eventually forced the door open after a period of no response. After which, Giron opened fire on the police officers while he was "lying in wait." The officers also exchanged fire with the suspect. However, Benedetti and Orozco sustained injuries during the exchange of gunfire. Benedetti succumbed to the injuries he received. Giron was later found dead inside the apartment due to a self-inflicted fatal gunshot wound and other injuries from the shootout. "This is a tragedy beyond measure for all of those who serve and care about the community," said City Manager Derek Johnson in Associated Press, citing a statement. Johnson also expressed condolences to the family of the victims. Meanwhile, Police Chief Scott described the incident as an "absolute tragedy," adding that what happened will "take time to gain understanding." California Suspect San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson revealed that Giron had a criminal history. His cases are mostly connected to alcohol, drugs, and property offenses. The county sheriff noted that the suspect does not have any violent offenses. Parkinson added that the law enforcement has no mental health alerts for the suspect, but he was arrested multiple times due to alcohol-related offenses. Parkinson also noted that Giron has no registered firearm, yet a witness told the Tribune that the suspect utilized an assault-style rifle that aligns with their investigation. Giron is allegedly tied with a burglary at around 3:30 in the morning at Ricardo Court gym on Monday. The suspect has reportedly stolen equipment worth $15,000 to $20,000. The equipment stolen includes ropes, harnesses, computers, safe to store iPads, numerous parts of the gym's security systems, and keys for the building. Associated Press noted that the stolen property was later found inside the apartment where the California police officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect. READ MORE: 17-Year-Old Suspect Arrested for Mass Shooting That Killed 5 People, Including Pregnant Woman WATCH: San Luis Obispo Officer Involved Shooting - from KSBY News Four migrant children and an 11-month-old infant have been abandoned near the U.S.-Mexico border amid the scorching temperatures over the weekend. Eagle Pass Station Border Patrol received a report that five girls were found near Normandy, Texas, while the temperature was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, ABC News Go reported. In a press release, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the three migrant children were Honduran nationals aged 2, 3, and 7. The remaining two were identified as Guatemalan nationals aged 5 and 11 months. Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales shared a photo of the young girls on his Twitter. Gonzales represents the district where Maverick County is located. Gonzales also shared a video of a farmer who said he spotted the migrant children while driving around on his land in Quemado, Texas, across the Rio Grande. The farmer said that he does not think the migrant children would be able to make it if he had not found them with a temperature over 100 degrees. He added that one of the migrant children did not have any clothes on. He also had one of his workers bring food and water for the girls and get them somewhere comfortable, away from the heat. The farmer noted that he alerted the Border Patrol and the Maverick County constable about the kids. The Border Patrol reported that the children did not need medical attention. The migrant children were taken to Uvalde Station for processing, pending transfer to Health and Human Services custody, CBS News reported. Del Rio Sector Chief Patrol Agent Austin L. Skero II said this kind of situation happens often. He also recognized law enforcement partners for helping the migrant children. READ NEXT: Biden Admin May Have To Restart Border Wall Construction To Fill Holes Migrant Children in Custody There were 21,713 migrant children in CBP custody as of Monday. It has also doubled in the past two months, according to an Associated Press report. A U.S. army base in El Paso, Texas had housed more than 4,500 migrant children. Attorneys, advocates, as well as mental health experts, said that some shelters are safe and acknowledge the need of the children. However, they added that some facilities are endangering children's health and safety. Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Luz Lopez said that the government is back to almost where it started. Lopez cited the government for using taxpayer money to build more holding facilities. One child psychiatrist, Amy Cohen, said the system has been very dysfunctional, adding that it is getting worse. Cohen is the executive director of the nonprofit Every. Last. One. that works to help migrant families fleeing violence in Central America. In April, Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has called for the close of one holding facility in San Antonio due to allegations of sexual assault. Abbott said the complaints had been reported to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the Texas Health and Human Services (HHS) Commission, Texas Tribune reported. The governor did not name those who reported the said assault. He also did not give further details on the matter. Meanwhile, the HHS did not respond to questions after Abbott's announcement. Many Republicans, including Abbott, had slammed the Biden administration for its failure to address the ongoing migrant crisis. Some Democrats are also questioning Biden about his immigration policies, with the number of migrants illegally crossing the border. READ MORE: Ted Cruz: Migrant Crisis Created by Biden's Political Decisions WATCH: Child Migrants: The Challenges Facing Biden at the US-Mexico Border - From BBC News The government of Brazil announced the suspension of the vaccination of pregnant women with the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine after an expectant mother died in Rio de Janeiro upon receiving the jab. The announcement of the Brazilian government comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) reported at least 38,911 new COVID positive cases in the country and 1,024 new deaths related to the disease on May 11. Reuters reported that the AstraZeneca vaccines are produced and distributed in Brazil through their partnership with the public health institute, Fiocruz. The said suspension issued by Brazil only affects AstraZeneca and not the COVID vaccine shots developed by Sinovac and Pfizer. READ NEXT: EMA Observes Johnson and Johnson Vaccines Following 4 Cases of Blood Clots Among Receivers in the U.S. Brazil's Anvisa on AstraZeneca Franciele Francinato, coordinator of the Brazil Health Ministry's vaccination program, pointed out that the decision to suspend the vaccine brand in the country was due to the precautionary measure issued by Anvisa or the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency. On late Monday, Anvisa issued a statement recommending the suspension of the use of AstraZeneca to pregnant women. The agency said this resulted from constant monitoring of adverse events on COVID vaccines' use in the country. Anvisa further noted that the current package insert for the COVID vaccine from AstraZeneca does not recommend its use to pregnant women without medical advice. A spokesperson of AstraZeneca said in an email to Al Jazeera that "pre-clinical studies do not indicate direct or indirect harmful effects with respect to pregnancy or fetal development." Moreover, AstraZeneca emphasized that pregnant and breastfeeding women were excluded from the company's trials. But it noted that studies in animals did not produce "direct or indirect evidence" of harm during pregnancy or fetal development. The company added that studies concerning AstraZeneca's harmful effects with respect to pregnancy or fetal development "are ongoing." The health ministry of Brazil said the occurrence of adverse effects from the vaccine "is extremely rare and lower than the risks presented by COVID-19." The ministry further noted that they would also continue to recommend pregnant women to get vaccinated. However, the immunization of those without comorbidities must be reassessed. Expectant Mother Dies Upon Receiving AstraZeneca The suspension of AstraZeneca stemmed from an expectant mother who died in Rio de Janeiro after receiving the AstraZeneca shot, which state Health Secretary Alexandre Chieppe confirmed. Anvisa noted that the 35-year-old woman was 23 weeks pregnant, and she died from a hemorrhagic stroke on Monday after checking into a hospital five days earlier. Because of this, the Sau Paulo state immediately suspended the vaccination of pregnant women with previous medical conditions. "The serious adverse effect of hemorrhagic stroke was assessed as possibly related to the use of the vaccine given to the pregnant woman," said Anvisa. The regulator also emphasized that they have not been informed of any other hostile events in pregnant women upon receiving the vaccine. Despite Brazil's suspension of AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine to pregnant women, the said shot has helped inoculate about 8.6 percent of the country's population. Meanwhile, the government of Brazil has also asked to consider delaying pregnancies due to a rising toll on new mothers. READ MORE: U.S. Experts Questions EU's Decision to Halt AstraZeneca Vaccine Rollout WATCH: Brazil States Halt Use of AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccines on Pregnant Women - From ANC News Police have arrested a Black man who used a life-like "white man" mask as a disguise while he allegedly committed burglaries in California between April and July last year. A Beverly Hills cop reportedly saw a face mask and other items in the suspect's car, linked to a number of home break-ins during a May 2 traffic stop. The license plates attached to suspect Rockim Prowell's car were also determined to be stolen, Crime Online reported. Cops searched Prowell's home in Inglewood at Los Angeles, California after a search warrant was issued. Police found multiple items that were stolen from other residences. Police said that surveillance filmed Rockim Prowell and his car at the site of two robberies in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on April 20 and on June 20. A flatscreen television was stolen during both burglaries. READ NEXT: California College Student Gets 15 Years in Prison for Stabbing Adoptive Dads 'White-Man' Mask Used as a Disguise Authorities said that Rockim Prowell allegedly used a white-man mask complete with fake hair and glasses to disguise himself as he committed the burglaries in Los Angeles. They also noted that the suspect's mouth was always open in the home security footage they reviewed. LAPD Pacific wrote on its Twitter account, which has since been deleted that it was odd that the burglar's mouth was always open when seen on video footage. And they assumed it's because he was wearing a mask, Daily Mail reported. The 30-year-old suspect allegedly wore the disguise to commit about 30 home burglaries in the Southern California area. Police had arrested and charged Rockim Prowell with two counts of burglary, two counts of grand theft, and one count of vandalism. He is currently out on bail. However, Prowell could reportedly face more charges. One social media user compared the situation to a Scooby-Doo episode and asked someone to make a face reveal meme. LAPD Pacific Division further noted that Prowell was connected to seven more burglaries in their division. According to Fox News, Prowell is scheduled to appear in court on May 25. Mask-Wearing Crimes Years ago in Ohio, a white bank robber used a "hyper-realistic" mask manufactured by a small Van Nuys company to disguise himself as a black man, which led to the wrongful arrest of an African American man for the crimes. A Chinese man who wanted to seek asylum in Canada also used a mask from the same company to look like an elderly white man and had managed to slip past airport security in Hong Kong, according to a 2010 Los Angeles Times report. In addition, a Southern California bank robber was also believed to wear a mask of an older man. Authorities said the robber might actually be a younger guy wearing one of the said masks. SPFXMasks owner Rusty Slusser said he is not happy about it despite the increasing demand for the masks. SPFXMasks was first opened in 2003, with the first six-person crew using silicone that looks and feels like flesh. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Darrel Foxworth noted that the use of realistic masks to commit crimes shows that criminals are adapting to changing times. Foxworth said law enforcement officials have to stay one step ahead of them, which could be challenging for them. READ NEXT: Golden State Killer Joseph DeAngelo Sentenced to Life Imprisonment WATCH: Beverly Hills PD Arrests Suspected Masked Bandit Linked To Several Burglaries - From CBS Los Angeles To acquire COVID-19 vaccines, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said Tuesday that the nation might open a trade office in China after having a long-standing diplomatic ally of Taiwan. The Central American nation does not have formal relations with China. But it is one of a group of Latin American countries with strong diplomatic ties to Taiwan, which Beijing considers a part of its territory. According to Reuters, Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez expressed his frustration about the allegedly hoarding of the rich countries of the global vaccine supplies. Hernandez added that poorer countries desperately need COVID-19 vaccines, and his government is willing to do whatever is necessary to help its people overcome the global health crisis. The Honduran President noted that if necessary, the government would open a trade office in China willingly. During a televised speech, Juan Orlando Hernandez pointed out that the move is in the best interest of the Honduran people. Hernandez also mentioned that to buy Chinese vaccines, he would do what the Chinese had suggested, looking for a "diplomatic bridge." The Honduran president noted that Mexico, Argentina, Chile, or El Salvador could help his nation acquire Chinese vaccines. He said he had already asked Taiwan to press the U.S. to help them. Juan Orlando Hernandez noted that they have a relationship with Taiwan and have asked the Asian country to help them talk with the people in Washington because they have been very close allies with the U.S. He added that the U.S. has a huge number of vaccines that will expire if not immediately administered, Today Online reported. Meanwhile, a host of Latin American nations are receiving Chinese vaccines. However, several countries that have built ties with Taipei rather than Beijing, such as Guatemala and Honduras, are not in line to receive the vaccines. Aside from the U.S., China and Russia have sought to deepen ties by providing vaccines in Latin America. It is part of their vaccine diplomacy efforts in expanding their geopolitical clout in countries in the region. Beijing has been gradually whittling away at diplomatic allies with Taiwan. It is now down to just 15 countries, which has alarmed Washington regarding the increased Chinese presence in Latin America and the Pacific, where those allies are concentrated. READ NEXT: Hundreds of Mexican Moms March on Mothers' Day to Call on Authorities to Find Missing Children El Salvador's Assistance President of El Salvador Nayib Bukele said that he will be donating COVID-19 vaccines to seven towns in Honduras even though his own country's vaccination effort is still struggling. The country of El Salvador has administered around 1.25 million COVID-19 shots. It is not nearly enough for the 6.5 million individuals who need to be inoculated in the country. But Bukele was apparently touched by appeals made by the mayors of seven towns in neighboring Honduras who asked the country of El Salvador for help. Local officials of Honduras claimed that their own government had abandoned them. Meanwhile, Bukele clarified that the donations would not affect El Salvador's vaccination drive because more shipments of vaccines were due to arrive soon, CTV News reported. READ MORE: Honduran Authorities Unearth Tons of Buried Cocaine in Country's Northern Village WATCH: Sharing COVID-19 Experiences: The El Salvador Response - From World Health Organization (WHO) Colombia's mass protests are seen to continue for days even after its government had already withdrawn a proposed tax reform. COVID-19 cases in the country are predicted to rise amid the ongoing demonstrations. The protests erupted on April 28, which resulted in the deaths of 26 people, including one police officer. However, the rights group said that the death toll regarding the protests is higher, NBC News reported. Human Rights Watch claimed that there had been credible reports that the death toll has already reached 38. Colombia's President Ivan Duque and the National Strike Committee, which includes major unions, held their first meeting Monday without agreeing. Protests leaders said the government did not show any care for their demands. On the other hand, the government said that the meeting was only exploratory but noted that it aims to reach a deal. READ NEXT: Drugs Labeled With Pablo Escobar's Image Seized in Chile Colombia's Mass Protests Mass protests in the Latin American country were triggered when unions demanded President Ivan Duque to withdraw the proposed tax reform. The Colombian government said the tax reform sought to stabilize the country, which was economically affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, Aljazeera reported. However, the working and middle classes said the plan favored the rich, while the working class carries the burden of the said tax reform. What angered the protesters were a range of new expanded taxes on citizens and business owners and reduction and elimination on several tax exemptions. In light of the mass protests, Colombia's Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla has given up his post. One supporter of the demonstrations said that Colombians are tired of the government putting more taxes on the population already suffering from the pandemic. Alicia Gomez, 51, said they need to keep fighting as their rights would be taken if they don't. President Ivan Duque earlier withdrew the proposed tax reform after alleged human rights violations against protesters by police. Arlene Tickner, a political science professor at Bogota's Rosario University, said that this was the first time that the government had conceded after widespread opposition. COVID-19 Cases in Colombia In a press conference on Monday, Bogota Mayor Claudia Lopez said the capital of Bogota is facing a "hospital collapse" and is not expected to see the number of cases dwindle this week as earlier predicted. Lopez said that a decrease in COVID-19 cases would not be seen until the end of May, according to another Aljazeera report. Health Secretary Andree Uribe echoed Lopez's concern as Medellin is preparing for a possible crisis. Reports said that ICUs in Medellin have been at or near full capacity for weeks. Uribe said they are preparing and conducting early identification, such as testing everyone who has joined the protests. In Cali, health secretary Miyerlandi Torres said they are worried about demonstrators who do not follow any self-protection protocols, such as social distancing and the use of face masks. Torres cited the presence of the British variant in the country, adding that it is a highly contagious variant. Authorities in Cali said mass protests are likely to spark a new peak in COVID cases in the country. Colombia has reported 3.02 million cases, with 2.84 million recoveries and 78,342 deaths. READ MORE: Colombia Ready to Rollout COVID-19 Vaccine Once Doses Arrive in the Country WATCH: Colombia Protests Continue After President Duque Withdraws Tax Reform - From Global News A slight increase in border apprehensions and a significant drop in the number of unaccompanied minors in April were announced by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Tuesday. CBP reported at least a three percent increase in border apprehension for April, compared to its last rate in March. Meanwhile, the rate of unaccompanied minors has decreased by 12 percent in the same timeframe. The figures officially released by CBP are part of the agency's operational update for April. READ NEXT: Biden Admin to Reunite Whole Families Not Just Parents With Border Kids CBP's Border Apprehensions In April, a total of 178,622 people who attempted to enter the United States' southwest border were intercepted by CBP. This figure marks the 21-year high in monthly apprehensions. NBC News emphasized that in March, CBP encountered only at least 173,000 immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. New York Post noted that the recent statistics also marked the highest encounters in a single month since April 2000, where the agency apprehended at least 182,613 immigrants. "CBP continues to see a large influx of illegal migration along the Southwest border," said Troy Miller, a CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of the commissioner. CBP pointed out that single adults continue to become the majority in the said encounters, as the agency expelled more than 111,000 individuals in April under Title 42. Title 42 was enacted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that allows the Biden Administration to expel single migrants and many migrant families to prevent the further spread of coronavirus in the country. NBC News noted that 62.5 percent of all immigrants encountered by CBP in the southwest border in April were all expelled under the authority of the CDC. As of April, the 2021 fiscal year of CBP encountered a total of 871,459 enforcement actions; 145,058 of which were done by the Office of Field Operations, while 726,401 were done by the U.S. Border Patrol. The 2020 Fiscal year runs from October 1, 2020 to September 30. Decrease in the Rate of Unaccompanied Minors Although single adult immigrants and other migrant families were expelled from the border, New York Post noted that President Joe Biden has exempted unaccompanied minors and children from expulsion, allowing them to stay inside the U.S. while waiting for their asylum claims. CBP had 13,962 unaccompanied children encounters in April, or 12 percent lower than the 15,918 unaccompanied minors last March. CBP pointed out that the recent stats they released are composed of single minors and children from the Northern Triangle region. According to CBP, the agency has decreased to more than 2,000 children under their custody in April, compared to the 4,109 children they oversaw in March. CBP pointed out that as of May 11, 455 children are under their custody. "CBP is committed to enhancing the security of the U.S. border, in helping save the lives of vulnerable migrants," said Miller as CBP announced their operational update. READ MORE: Pres. Biden Deserves Credit for 'Improvements' on Migration Crisis at the Border, Psaki Says WATCH: Migrants at the Border Feel They Have No Choice But to Enter the U.S. Illegally (HBO) - from VICE News The Interstate 40 bridge over the Mississippi River at Memphis has been closed due to a crack. An Upper Macungie Township distribution and fulfillment center once again plans to hire 200 more warehouse workers, with pay starting at $23 hourly. Wisconsin-based Uline is hosting a hiring event from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday at its facility, 700 Uline Way. Job seekers must register online here and follow guidelines set forth by state health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. New warehouse positions start at $23 hourly or more, including a $5-per-hour essential-worker bonus, the company said. It also offers long-term bonuses, totaling $7,000. Branch Manager Tim McDonough said the Upper Macungie site in 2020 hired 195 new employees and wanted to hire even more for 2021. It launched a similar initiative this past February to hire 200 more workers. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, Uline continues to see substantial growth thanks to the hard work of our employees and our ability to supply companies with the products they need to stay open, McDonough said. The company offers same-day shipping on more than 37,500 products from its more than 800-page catalog and e-commerce website. The family-owned business began four decades ago, becoming a leading distributor of shipping, industrial and packaging materials to businesses throughout North America. It has more than 7,000 employees across 12 facilities. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Support Local Journalism The Malibu community needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please help keep us in print by making a contribution. Residents arent on board with a study of Southside Bethlehems historic district that recommends capping building heights at 90 feet in a small swath of the central business district. In other portions of the historic district, the study proposes a maximum height of 60 feet or about five stories. Currently, heights of 150 feet roughly 14 stories are allowed under city zoning in the central business district. The study was unveiled during a Bethlehem City Council committee meeting Tuesday evening and drew hours of impassioned public comment from residents who felt left out of the process and ignored. People who live and work in this community think that a discussion of 90-foot-tall buildings in the urban core is simply out of scale, resident Seth Moglen said. What you have heard is that people want new development in the city that respects the current historical integrity and scale of the Southside. Residents urged council to listen to their concerns about how such a change could hurt their neighborhoods and quality of life. They asked council to prioritize their community over development that brings in new tax dollars. Betlehem commissioned the study to gain consistency between the citys historic preservation regulations and its zoning. It includes recommendations to achieve this along with new design guidelines to best incorporate new buildings and major additions into the historic fabric of the district. City Planning Director Darlene Heller acknowledged that folks are at two ends of the spectrum on the issue. The study tried to balance those opposite viewpoints. The zoning ordinance allows much more mass and density than what the (historic district design) guidelines describe, Heller said. We want to bring that into balance. Bethlehems historic advisory board has often proved reticent to approve tall buildings on Southside over neighborhood compatibility concerns. Councilwoman Dr. Paige Van Wirt said the fact that there have been no new 150-foot buildings is a sign the historic commission is doing its job and the system is functioning well. The study raised more questions for her than it answered, she said. The study recommends concentrating taller buildings in a core area surrounding developer Dennis Benners six-story Gateway at Greenway Park at Third and New streets. The targeted area is bounded by the Lehigh River to the north, Graham Place to the south, New Street to the east and on the west is roughly bound by the Route 378 ramp and Brodhead Avenue. A South Bethlehem planning study recommends reducing maximum building heights from 150 feet to 90 feet in a core area of the central business district.Courtesy City of Bethlehem This is an area of the historic district without many historically significant buildings and a lot of parking or vacant lots, according to the report. Ninety feet is roughly equivalent to seven to eight stories. There has been talk of offering a maximum building height incentive if a certain minimum percentage of affordable housing units were to be included, the study notes. On the Southside, the Wilbur Trust building, commonly known as the Flatiron building, stands at about 75 feet tall while the Fred B. Rooney Building is about 175 feet. Currently, two developers are proposing urban infill, mixed use projects in this area and the historic commission rejected both plans. One project, on West Third Street, is proposed at eight stories while the South New Street one stands at 10 and includes a portion of affordable housing. Other zoning districts on Southside permit 200-foot-tall buildings, including on former Bethlehem Steel Corp. land, while heights are capped at 60 feet, 45 feet and 40 feet in residential neighborhoods on Southside. A South Bethlehem planning study recommends reducing maximum building heights from 150 feet to 90 feet in a core area of the central business district.Courtesy City of Bethlehem Southside residents calling into Tuesdays meeting expressed support for the work of the citys nine-member Historic Conservation Commission, which many said has been doing an excellent job protecting the neighborhood. The volunteer board reviews projects, exterior work and signs in the district and offers recommendations to city council, which has the final approval power. It is meant to be a collaborative process. Heller emphasized the commission does a fantastic job. The studys recommendations are meant to ease commission members workload and streamline the process, she said. Commission member Beth Starbuck said it is not historically appropriate to put a 90-foot building across the street from a two-and-a-half story row home. She suggested a plan that allows a variety of heights tied to neighboring building heights. Several members of the South Bethlehem Historical Society called into the meeting to express their disappointment theyd been left out of the study process. The group wants to ensure the existing architecture and history is protected as the neighborhood is developed, President Louis James said. Buildings that tall present quality of life issues for residents, blocking the view of South Mountain and decreasing sunlight, and can hurt local shops, he said. Theres a lot of value in these storefronts and having a walkable neighborhood, a walkable community, James said. These are the things that the arts district really wants. They want people to walk around and to explore the stores and the small restaurants and cafes along Third and Fourth streets. To increase sunlight on main streets and reduce the prominence of top stories of tall buildings, the study proposes mandatory building step backs for proposals of 90 feet. The study suggests any area over 80 feet must be setback a minimum of 12 feet from the right-of-way of Third, Fourth, Wyandotte and New Streets. The Benner project did have a 12-foot setback when it was originally approved, but it was only partially implemented, the study notes. Resident Anna Smith said is good the city is trying to resolve the conflict between the historic guidelines and city zonings. She believes the allowable building heights should be lowered, but she is concerned about how the process unfolded. This is really all a conversation about the right population density for Southside, a community that already has a density per square mile comparable to Boston. Theres an ideal density that can be supported by community infrastructure before density begins to cause problems, traffic, parking, pollution, social alienation or the loss of a small-town feel, Smith said. Since 2014, developers have proposed 15 projects totaling about 652 new apartments, almost all luxury units, in the Southside downtown, she said. What will happen to development if the historic commission no longer regulates building heights, Smith questioned. The HCC is not the commission that should be responsible for developing or enforcing a sustainable development plan for the Southside, Smith said. But, at the moment, theyre the only group that Southsiders can go to to express their concerns about out-of-control development that threatens the qualities that make the Southside a desirable place to live. The studys consultants were the Bethlehem-based Urban Research and Development Corporation and Artefact Inc. It included an extensive public engagement process of surveys and community meetings. Any changes to the citys zoning or historic district ordinances would also go before the Bethlehem Planning Commission and City Council, offering further opportunity for public comment and questions. But several residents Tuesday evening questioned whether the effort actually reached South Bethlehem residents. The survey remain open, as well, in English at surveymonkey.com/r/southbethlehem and Spanish at surveymonkey.com/r/surbethlehem. Public comment is also being accepted by email at planninginfo@bethlehem-pa.gov. The South Bethlehem Historic Conservation Districts comprises land east of Wyandotte Street and the Hill-to-Hill Bridge, and then extends along Third Street to Polk Street and along Fourth Street east to Hayes. It is bounded on the south by Broadway and Morton Street. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. As a concept, herd immunity the idea that widespread immunity among a group will prevent the spread of contagious diseases like COVID-19 is sound and achievable in small, contained groups. But as a general public health goal, it is vague, reliant on factors outside control. It may be a long-term goal, but as a short-term benchmark, it can set up false expectations or be used to justify inaction among the vaccine-hesitant. Realistically, its not something we can rely on. This month, The New York Times reported that its unlikely the U.S. will reach herd immunity. Instead, two Lehigh Valley infectious disease experts say, we should prepare for a more likely outcome: COVID-19 will not disappear. It can become tamer, less serious or deadly. Infections will continue in clusters, more easily isolated and controlled, perhaps similar to measles outbreaks. But this all depends on people getting vaccinated now, building resistance to this coronavirus and limiting its ability to develop more-threatening variants. Herd immunity is a concept ... but you cant bank on it, said Dr. Luther Rhodes, an epidemiologist with Lehigh Valley Health Network. You cant bank your health or your familys health on other people getting vaccinated, Rhodes said. Dr. Jeffrey Jahre, chief emeritus of infectious diseases at St. Lukes University Health Network expressed similar views in a separate interview with lehighvalleylive.com. He said there will be no specific moment when the virus is no longer a threat. To put up a sign saying Mission Accomplished, thats really inviting a problem, he said, but we are achieving increasing success. If we can knock this disease down to where it becomes something more a nuisance than a tragedy, Jahre said, then that would be an accomplishment and I believe thats possible. What is herd immunity? The idea of herd immunity, according to the Mayo Clinic, is that if a large enough piece of a population is resistant to a disease, that illness will be unable or unlikely to spread from person to person. This protects others in the group who do not have immunity. This can be achieved either through infection or vaccines. Both Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Jahre agreed that vaccination is clearly the better choice: Side-effects from shots are generally minor and dont involve the virus itself, while a COVID-19 infection can spread the coronavirus to others and result in long-term effects and death. As of Monday, Pennsylvania had 1.17 million cases and 26,550 reported deaths since the start of the pandemic more than a year ago. But there are problems with relying on herd immunity. For one thing, its inexact. Because the coronavirus is new, its not clear what percentage of the population must be immune to adequately protect everyone. Rhodes and Jahre both settled roughly around 80%, the middle of the range of predictions. However, there likely wont be a point at which some health authority declares we have achieved herd immunity, except perhaps with hindsight. Plus, polling has shown that up to a third of Pennsylvanians may be hesitant or unwilling to get vaccinated. That could be due to or made worse by the misleading expectation that enough other people will get a shot. I dont think its a good idea for people to take the concept of herd immunity to duck and cover, to think that the actions of others justify their inaction on vaccinations, Rhodes said. A patient can't bear to look as he gets his COVID-19 vaccination in March 2021 at drive-through at Northampton Community College. Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com Another problem with herd immunity is that it gets more difficult to determine the larger and more open a population is. It has worked in contained, controlled settings like nursing homes or hospitals where a majority of staff and patients are vaccinated, Rhodes said. But in a more open community, like the Lehigh Valley or Pennsylvania or the U.S., people are coming and going from areas with varying degrees of infections, restrictions and hesitancy. You have to look nationally, you have to look locally and you have to look globally to get perfect herd immunity ... and thats not likely, Jahre said. It does mean that were not likely to see a total obliteration of this disease. What if we dont achieve herd immunity? There is a risk of falling short. Dr. Jahre called it the nightmare scenario: The more the virus spreads, the greater the chance that it mutates into a variant that can pierce the vaccination shield. That could lead to another large-scale response. But it doesnt have to come to that. Even without herd immunity, we can still substantially reduce the risk of COVID-19, which both doctors said should be the primary goal. Dr. Jeffrey Jahre, St. Luke's University Health Network senior vice president of medical and academic affairs and section chief emeritus of infectious diseases, is one of the network's first employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on Dec. 17, 2020. To date, St. Luke's reports at least 87% of its employees have been vaccinated, essentially establishing herd immunity within the network.Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com If health officials can continue the push to get people vaccinated and make shots more accessible, then well get to a point locally where coronavirus infections are much more manageable. That requires getting vaccines to at-risk and underserved populations like the homeless, the homebound, people who cant otherwise get to a provider, and convincing those who are hesitant to get a shot for the good of others. That in turn will involve consistent messaging and incentives, from businesses and employers if not from the government, Dr. Rhodes said. He said overreliance on herd immunity as a measure of success will hamper that effort. The good news is case rates are dropping. They peaked in Pennsylvania with a weekly average of more than 10,000 a day in mid-December and are now down to about 2,300 a day. And the doctors said the severity of cases in Lehigh Valley hospitals has also lessened. No vaccine is 100% effective, so even if everyone were fully vaccinated tomorrow, there still would be some cases. But it wouldnt be enough to halt everyday activities, Rhodes said. With low-level outbreaks, medical professionals can focus on individuals, determine potential exposure and prevent spread like how other infectious diseases are handled. When you reduce the number (of infections) to a manageable, very small number, you can proceed to have weddings, to have vacations ... very normal stuff, Rhodes said. Fans wear masks in the stands at Coca-Cola Park during the Lehigh Valley IronPigs season opener on May 4th, 2021.Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com And lessons from this pandemic response can be applied to whatever comes next. Jahre said the success of Operation Warp Speed showed that by not relying on any single company or method, defenses can be raised in a matter of months. And the last couple of months have shown how to optimize production and distribution, which will be helpful should COVID-19 boosters be necessary. In the meantime, with Pennsylvania set to lift many of its pandemic restrictions on Memorial Day, Jahre said we must proceed with a yellow flag. Outdoor activities are generally OK, he said. Dining indoors is probably safe with an appropriate distance. But large gatherings indoors with unvaccinated people would be inappropriate. Case rates will be closely monitored as rules are relaxed. It will still be some time before things fully return to normal. But with enough vaccinations, COVID-19 fatalities and effects can be managed as the gradual return to a regular life continues, even without full herd immunity. Clearly we would like to do better, Jahre said. Theres always that hope. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Four years after the first new school renderings came out and two years after students were cleared out, Palmer Elementary School is coming down. The more than 70-year-old school is slated to be replaced by a new school in 2023. The school at 3050 Green Pond Road in Palmer Township received additions in 1955, 1959 and 1978 but has reached the point where it needs to be replaced. The first renderings of the new school came out in 2017 but construction was held up due to a legal dispute over how to handle stormwater runoff. The Easton Area School District wanted to run a storm drain onto the property of resident Eric Adams property. The 30-inch-wide pipe would terminate at a 40-foot-long rip rap apron, a pile of rocks that Adams thought would be unsightly. He defended his right to keep his property the way it was and feels the school did not have enough justification to take the pipe easement through eminent domain. The school board agreed in June 2019 to tear down the school while the case made its way through court. Palmer Elementary students were moved out of the school for the start of the 2019-20 school year and sent to extra space at Easton Area Middle School in anticipation of construction starting at the site. The district had a closing ceremony and auctioned off items from inside the school. The stormwater case settled in June 2020 when the school district figured out how to handle the water by expanding a detention basin and without putting a drain pipe through Adams property. The district awarded contracts in January 2021 to remove asbestos and finally tear down the school. Engineer Josh Grice told the school board on May 3, 2021, that demolition had begun and should wrap up in a few weeks. Things are looking good, finally, at Palmer, Grice said. I know its been a long time coming but things are off to a good start so far. You can see Grices comments on the school board meeting video on YouTube. Grice said a lot of site work so far had gone into re-routing utilities from the school demolition site to the school districts public works facility next door. Grice said some materials recovered during demolition will be crushed up as used as fill where possible. The project is LEED certified, which means it meets set environmental standards. Grice said the new school foundation is scheduled for construction by mid-June. Grice said last fall he hopes to have the school built by May 2023 and then finish work on the driveways and sidewalks over the summer of 2023 to have the school ready to open by the 2023-24 school year. Construction bids came in 2% over budget this March. The school board cut costs for the roof, floors, countertops and heating/cooling systems to bring the cost in around the budgeted cost of $35.4 million. The school board will be asked to select a contractor at the May 24, 2021, meeting for construction testing: testing the concrete placement, steel connections and other important pieces of the project. This cost is already factored into the project budget, according to district Director of Operations Ken Case. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to Lehighvalleylive.com. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. He had a heart that was as big as anything. Thats how a close friend of Greg Crance, ubiquitous for his role as the Famous River Hot Dog Man, described him in the wake of his death on Monday from COVID-related complications. He was very passionate about his business and did everything he could as far as the (Delaware) River goes to clean it, said Wes Siegel, a resident of Delaware Township. I know him and his boys and his employees once a year would go up and down the river and clean all of the garbage that they would find. Ive seen it a couple of times in person they would come back with a boat filled with garbage bags. Crance was the owner of Delaware River Tubing, Inc., a tubing, rafting, canoeing and kayaking business located in Alexandria Township that has offered summer excursions on the river since 2002. Crance operated a hotdog stand on a platform stationed in the middle of the Delaware River beginning in 1987. Each summer, tens of thousands of people travel from across the state and beyond to spend a day tubing along the Delaware. Delaware River Tubing received the Presidents Award in an annual marketing competition conducted by the New Jersey Travel Industry Association in 2017. Yuuji Crance, Gregs son and operations manager of Delaware River Tubing, previously told NJ Advance Media that he is uncertain of whether or not the business will continue to operate this summer in light of an ongoing legal battle with the state, which began after the company lost a concession agreement granting it access to the Delaware River from state park land. However, he said the Famous River Hot Dog Man platforms on both the New Jersey and Pennsylvania sides of the Delaware River will continue to operate even if the tubing business closes. The owner of Discount Auto Parts & Repair in Kingwood Township, Siegel met Crance while working to repair the buses used to transport tubers to and from the Delaware River. They grew to become close friends, celebrating nearly every Thanksgiving together for the past six years. He was a huge talker, Wes said. You almost sometimes had to cut him off and say, Hey listen Greg, I got work I got to do here. I got to get going. But I always felt bad doing that, because he always had something to say. In addition to reflecting on their close-knit friendship, Wes also expressed his appreciation for how Crances business positively impacted the local business community. Mostly people from out of state (visit Delaware River Tubing) and the town gained a lot of revenue from that, in my opinion, Siegel said. I gained revenue just in my shop from that too. Cindy Kunnas, executive director of the Greater Lambertville Chamber of Commerce, also drew attention to Crances influence on the local economy. Im very sorry to hear about the passing of a member (of the chamber), Kunnas said. He was an important part of the economy for the river town. His tubing company and selling hot dogs from his island it was an iconic part of the river. Echoing Kunnas, Laura Pointon, president of the Frenchtown Business & Professional Association, said Crances impact on the region was immeasurable. We see all of the different people it brings to the area just to go tubing people who would have never heard of Frenchtown or Hunterdon County, theyre coming here just because of the marketing reach that company had, Pointon said. She added that the organization will support the company should it continue to operate this summer, and expressed her admiration for Crances commitment to its success throughout his life. Ive been in Frenchtown since 2008, and Ive never talked to him. But Ive seen him numerous times, probably close to daily fueling up the boat and the hot dog boat and you always see the blue t-shirts, Pointon said. And to see what he dealt with with trying to keep his business running he was fearless. Karen Haller Siegel, Wes mother and another resident of Delaware Township, said Crance was one of the kindest people Ive had the pleasure of knowing. He cared so much about people and always made sure they had a fun but safe time on the river all while overcoming the many obstacles in his way, Karen said. Greg was a pillar of the community and will be greatly missed. Grant Hawley has worked at Delaware River Tubing since 2017. He performed different odd jobs at the company before Crance helped him get his boating license in 2019. He recalled how Crance taught him how to spot rocks in the Delaware while he was training to become a boater, labeling the memory one of his favorites of a boss who did everything he could to keep his business afloat. Greg and the company were great, Hawley said. Greg always would be there to help out, and was very understanding with any issues that were happening, and do anything in his power to resolve them. He was a good man. Stacy Tuzik, a resident of Kingwood Township, also shared one of her most treasured memories of the business seeing the blue buses travel through the streets of the town each summer. I appreciated the way he helped friends and families celebrate summer together, Tuzik said. A river trip can really slow down life ... People get to make eye contact and belly laugh and enjoy the blue sky and green trees. I know the tubing business was controversial ... but that was one perspective, she added. Building memories for people is another perspective (and) the focus that I choose. A GoFundMe page has been established to raise funds to help the Crance family pay for memorial service and medical expenses. Over $1,000 has been raised as of Wednesday afternoon. Greg was a beloved husband, father, and grandfather and his larger-than-life personality was a staple in the community, the page reads. We hope, as a community, we can help his family get through this difficult time. A viewing for Greg Crance will be held this Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Decker-Givnish Funeral Home in Warminster, PA. The event will also be live-streamed on the funeral homes Facebook page. Tell us your COVID-19 vaccination stories, send us a news tip or questions about the vaccination process on our tip form. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Caroline Fassett may be reached at cfassett@njadvancemedia.com. Lafayette College president Alison Byerly is headed to Carlton College in Minnesota. Carleton ranked among the nations top liberal arts college announced Byerly will become its 12th president effective Aug. 1. Lafayettes first female president announced in October that she planned to step down as the College Hill schools 17th president when her current contract ends on June 30. I want to congratulate Alison on behalf of the entire Lafayette community, Lafayette Board of Trustees Chair Bob Sell said of her new job. This announcement is a testament to Alisons success as our president since 2013. It also attests to Lafayettes achievements, strengths and potential at this pivotal moment in the colleges trajectory. Lafayettes search for its next president should conclude by the end of May, Sell said. In her time at Lafayette, Byerlys accomplishments include doubling its financial aid budget through the Live Connected, Lead Change campaign, the opening of the $75 million Rockwell Integrated Sciences Center and Lafayettes adoption of a climate action plan for the college to reach carbon neutrality by 2035. Bylerlys tenure was marked by her commitment to Lafayettes liberal arts education and a mission to make it available to as many qualified students as possible, regardless of ability to pay, according to a profile in Lafayette magazine. She aimed to accomplish that by bolstering financial aid through fundraising $425 million raised under her leadership and by growing the student body. The plan will eventually mean enrolling 400 more students and hiring 40 faculty members to keep classes small and maintain the small college feel. Byerly was provost of Middlebury College in Vermont before coming to Lafayette. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Lehigh Valley Then is a new periodic series that recalls historical headlines from lehighvalleylive.com affiliate The Express-Times and its predecessors from 10, 25, 50, 100 and 150 years ago. These stories were pulled from microfilm at the Easton Area Public Library. This week in Lehigh Valley history, an Easton mother was reunited with her children from Liberia in 1996 after more than a decade apart, just in time for Mothers Day. In 2011, Lethal Weapon actor Danny Glover attended a union rally for hospital workers in the Poconos. In 1971, an Easton neighborhood was torn down around a family still waiting to be relocated. A pair of check-forgers wanted in two states were arrested in Warren County in 1921. And in 1871, The Express warned of the evils and deadly perils of uh, jump rope. This was the Lehigh Valley then. 10 YEARS AGO: Thousands rally in Poconos The Express-Times front page for May 15, 2011, includes a story on actor Danny Glover attending a union rally for hospital workers in the Poconos.Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com May 15, 2011: Actor Danny Glover provided some star power to a hospital union protest in East Stroudsburg, where service workers had been seven months without a contract. Original text: Thousands of union workers descended Saturday on East Stroudsburg for a rally attended by Lethal Weapon actor Danny Glover in support of Pocono Medical Centers service workers. Its estimated more than 4,000 attended the gathering held Saturday afternoon in front of East Stroudsburg University, and many made the protest about more than just the ongoing contract fight at the medical center . Glover, an actor who has become known for workers rights, called Pocono Medical Center ground zero for the SEIU employees, some of whom yelled shut it down in response. There is an injustice here at (Pocono Medical Center), and injustice to all the workers who know they are next on the line, Glover said Saturday. When I listen to the men and women of PMC, they are men and women whose jobs are essential to the maintenance of that facility. His parents were both members of the San Francisco postal workers union, he said. 25 YEARS AGO: An undying love reunited The Express-Times front page for May 12, 1996, includes a feature on a family reunited after 12 years apart and in time for Mother's Day.Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com May 12, 1996: For the first time in more than a decade, Bernice Bulger, of Easton, got to spend Mothers Day with her 19-year-old daughter and 17-year-old son, who had remained in Liberia as Bulger tried to secure custody and navigate immigration laws. Another daughter, 4-year-old Toshuah, had died in Liberia shortly after Bernice left, and at the time of this story a 1-year-old son Charles remained there in the care of grandparents. Original text: Their resemblance is chiefly in the eyes. But its in the nose and chin and cheekbones, too, and certainly in the smile. I thought I was looking in a mirror, Tywanya Nhaway says of the moment last month when she stepped off a plane and glimpsed her mother after 12 years separation. It makes a nice holiday story, this reunion of mother and children. It was so long in coming everyone started to think it was never going to happen. Bernice (Bulger), who lives in South Side Easton, didnt even know if her children were alive anymore. They were in Liberia, after all, where some of the most vicious civil strife on the African continent has killed 150,000 people in six years. But it takes hardly any prompting at all to make Tywanya and (her brother) Nuan smile or laugh. Ask them about the day they learned the American consulate in Liberia had contacted their mother. The family suspects it will remain a mystery why no one had been able to accomplish that before in the 12 years since Bernice fled Liberia and a broken marriage to a husband who had the legal influence to keep the children. Back home in Easton, Bernice tried repeatedly to win custody of the children and arrange their passage to America. Both are American citizens, born in Easton before the family relocated to Liberia in 1982. But Bernice lost her way in a forest of immigration laws and paperwork, despite the assistance of state and federal governments. Today, they will celebrate Mothers Day, a happier one than Bernice who also has a 19-month-old son, Aijalon has ever known. Instead of me sitting back and watching all the other mothers, Im going to have a wonderful Mothers Day, she says. 50 YEARS AGO: Buildings fall around them The Easton Express front page for May 14, 1971, includes a story on an Easton family living in a demolition zone as they away relocation.Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com May 14, 1971: Crews began demolishing an Easton neighborhood while one large family had yet to be relocated. The Easton Redevelopment Authority said it was unaware of the situation and vowed to find the Sullivan family, and their seven kids ages 3 to 15, a home by June 1. Original text: An Easton family of nine lives amidst din, dirt and rubble, but cannot find other housing. Mr. and Mrs. Donald Sullivan and their seven children are living at 119 Seitz Court as bulldozers and wrecking cranes level buildings adjacent to their home. Officials in the Easton Redevelopment Authoritys Relocation Office said the size of the family has posed difficulties in securing new housing. Buildings on Seitz Court and adjacent structures on Front and Ferry streets are being demolished to prepare for construction of the new four-lane Riverside Drive. Its awfully hard to keep the kids away from the machines, (Mrs. Sullivan) said. The man on the bulldozer is always yelling at me to keep them inside. Explaining why the wrecking crews started work while the family was still in the house, (redevelopment authority Executive Director William) Hawkins said, The problem we find ourselves in is working on a very tight schedule. 100 YEARS AGO: Two forgers apprehended The Easton Express front page for May 12, 1921, includes a story on check-forgers arrested in Warren County.Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com May 12, 1921: A pair of check-forgers sought in Pennsylvania were arrested across the Delaware River after raising the suspicions of a tobacco salesman. Original text: Daniel Gallock and William Stackbower, who would claim Phillipsburg, Easton, Alpha or Stroudsburg as their hometowns, are in the Warren County, N.J., jail at Belvidere on charges of forgery . The men were taken into custody in Warren County for passing forged checks at the stores of Michael Kinney, Chambers and Hudson streets, and Leopold Klein, South Main and Center streets, Phillipsburg. Gellock and Stackbower are regarded as slick customers by the authorities of both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. (Credit) for the arrest of the dangerous men belongs to an agent of the New Jersey Tobacco Company, George Reading, of Easton. Mr. Reading was in the store of Klein when the two men entered Monday afternoon and presented a check for $14.57. They purchased a shirt and necktie and walked away with the package and the change. Mr. Reading was suspicious and when the men departed he asked to be shown the check. He pointed out to the merchant the similarity in the handwriting and at once Klein called James G. Sigafoos whose name had been written on the paper. Reading went to Washington, Warren County, to continue his business as a salesman yesterday, when we he saw the two men on the streets he notified Marshal Shrope of his suspicions. Shrope took the men into custody and notified Chief of Police Gorgas, of Phillipsburg. 150 YEARS AGO: Warning to girls death from excessive rope jumping A brief from The Easton Express on May 10, 1871, warns about jump-roping.Steve Novak | For lehighvalleylive.com May 10, 1871: In this era, local news briefs appeared on page 3. This apparently wasnt the first time The Express had warned its readers about this particular, and unusual, peril. Original text: We have frequently spoken of the evil effects of excessive rope jumping. We publish the following as a warning to some of our little girls: A daughter of Dr. Brandt, of Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County, fell dead on Friday evening, from excessive rope jumping. She attempted to jump 200 times, probably on a wager, with the above fatal result. She had been frequently warned and prohibited by her parents against excessive indulgence of the pastime. SEE MORE LEHIGH VALLEY THEN: Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. A man with a knife late Wednesday morning robbed a Center City Bethlehem store, city police report. The man dropped money as he ran from BG Mini Mart just after 11:45 a.m. at 14 W. Broad St., Sgt. Moses Miller said. The robber is about 6 feet tall, weighs 200 pounds and was wearing a blue hoodie and a light blue mask, Capt. Tim Cooper said. The incident remains under investigation, Miller said, as crime scene officers searched for clues. BG Mini Mart was robbed May 12, 2021, at 14 W. Broad St. in Bethlehem. City police released this image.Bethlehem Police Department No one was hurt, Cooper said. Anyone with information can call the departments tip-line 610-691-6660 or email bethlehempolice@bethlehem-pa.gov. This is a breaking news post and will be updated if more information becomes available. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to lehighvalleylive.com. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Tony Rhodin can be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Food giant Glanbia will pay its member milk suppliers 34.6 cent per litre (cpl) (including VAT) for April creamery milk supplies at 3.6% butterfat and 3.3% protein. Glanbia Ireland (GI) says will pay a base milk price for April of 34.18 cpl (including VAT) for creamery milk at 3.6% fat and 3.3% protein. This is unchanged from the March base price. The company says farmer will also receive a 0.42 cpl (including VAT) payment from Glanbia Co-op on all milk supplied this month as their Share of GI Profit. The firm says Glanbia Ireland base price and Co-op Share of GI Profit payment will be adjusted to reflect the actual constituents of milk delivered by suppliers. The Glanbia milk price for April creamery milk, based on LTO constituents of 4.2% butterfat and 3.4% protein, is 37.65 cpl. Glanbia Ireland Chairman John Murphy said: While there is volatility in the price returns for some products, dairy markets generally remain solid. Retail demand continues to be strong, while food service demand is starting to recover in some regions. The Board will continue to monitor developments on a monthly basis. HSE management has set out the provisions for couples who are set to have a child at the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise in the wake of a protest over Covid-19 restrictions at hospitals in Laois and elsewhere which curb the presence of partners. A HSE spokesperson issued a statement on behalf of the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise after the protest on Wednesday, May 12. "Maternity services in Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise restored partners attending for the anatomy scan on Tuesday 6th of April. The Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise have continued to facilitate partners attending for birth throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. "Partners are facilitated to attend once a woman is admitted to the delivery suite in labour and remains for the birth of the baby until discharge to the postnatal ward, the partner then accompanies the mother and baby to the postnatal ward staying for generally a further hour. "Partners are also facilitated to be present in theatre at Caesarean Section for the birth of the baby. Maternity services in Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise have reintroduced scheduled visiting to the maternity ward since Monday 3rd May for antenatal and postnatal women, which is arranged by appointment generally this visit is scheduled for up to an hour. "Scheduled visiting is facilitated in the special care baby unit," said the statement. The hospital did not comment on what other changes may be made. An alliance of protesters at Portlaoise and other hospitals say partners must not be treated as visitors. A man who was found with a large amount of cannabis in his car got a six month prison sentence at Portlaoise district court last week. Before the court was Oleg Besekerskij, 21, of 16 Broomville Close, Portlaoise. He was charged with possession of cannabis and possession for supply or sale at the Rock of Dunamaise on October 17, 2019. Sgt JJ Kirby told the court that on the date in question a garda mobile patrol observed a Volkswagen Jetta acting suspiciously in that area. The car was subsequently stopped and searched and cannabis to the value of 5,200 was found in the car. In mitigation, Defence solicitor Michael Byrne said that Mr Besekerskij was 21 and Latvian. He got involved in an enterprise due to a problem he had with weed. He was a scaffolder by trade. Judge Staines asked why he was selling drugs to make money in that case. Sgt JJ Kirby said it was the gardais opinion he was heavily involved in drug dealing. No cash was found in the car. Michael Byrne noted his early guilty plea. Judge Staines said it was a huge amount of drugs. She said that drugs caused so much misery and havoc, particularly for young people. Children as young as 10 or 11 were using cannabis, she said. She sentenced him to six months in prison. A recognisance was fixed in the event of an appeal. This promotional subscription includes access to all online news and pages for a 90-day period as well as daily news delivered to your email inbox. Please allow 24-36 hours for the online account to activate as part of this subscription selection. A ground-breaking new Climate Action Walk for Abbeyleix will be launched online on Saturday 15th May. The walk is an end of residency project by science communicator in residence for the Abbeyleix Climate Action Project, Dr Niamh Shaw, working with members of Abbeyleix Tidy Towns. In response to her six month residency working with Abbeyleix Tidy Towns to engage the community on climate action, Niamh created an interactive walking tour through the town of Abbeyleix to engage the general public about climate change, focusing on the cyclical nature of our planet, how climate change has impacted our lives, how it affects us emotionally and what we can do on a local level to positively contribute to this global issue. The walk is designed for the public to discover ceramic tiles dotted along Main Street Abbeyleix, and subtly guide them towards completing a walk which starts at Heritage House and ends at Abbeyleix Bog. A unique QR code is printed on each ceramic tile, which will trigger a mobile device to open an animation or video hosted on youtube. Niamh worked with local graphic designer and animator Paulina Nickstrom, and local videographer, Alistair Roe of Vimar Productions to curate 7 unique animations and videos specially designed for the project. By the end of the walk, it is hoped that the walker will gain a better appreciation of the nature around them, our place in balancing the cycles of our planet. An online Story Map will also be available for virtual walkers to follow, details will be on the on Laois Heritage website, laois.ie/heritage. The new Abbeyleix Climate Action Walk is a project under the Healthy Ireland Keep Well Campaign, aimed at showing people of all ages how we can mind our own physical and mental health and wellbeing by adding healthy and helpful habits to our daily and weekly routines. Projects under the campaign provide guidelines, information, and tips on how we can make a plan to do things that will help us keep well. The Abbeyleix Climate Action Walk will be launched online at the Laois Heritage Office Facebook page at 11am on Saturday 15th May. No need to book, just go to https://www.facebook.com/ laoisheritageoffice The Tile Design Tiles are 15cm x 15cm square in size, made from ceramic. A special design has been created for this project by artist Paulina Nickstrom depicting the Abbeyleix Market Square Fountain with planet Earth in the background. The centre of the fountain is a holding space for the QR code (different at each site). Each tile is numbered from 1 to 7 (the number depicts the site location). Walkers scan the QR code with a mobile phone to open the relevant video for each site. The Climate Action Project is supported by Creative Ireland Laois as part of the Creative Ireland Programme (2017-2022) in partnership with Laois County Council, Abbeyleix Tidy Towns and Midlands Science. The Abbeyleix Climate Action Walk Project was created in 2021 with thanks to Healthy Ireland, an initiative of the Government of Ireland with funding from the Healthy Ireland Fund and the Slaintecare Fund delivered by Pobal, administered by Laois County Council. Women have mounted a protest at Portlaoise hospital in an effort to force the removal of restrictions on parents expecting to have a child at the maternity unit. The protest is part of a national series of demonstrations at the gates of hospitals around Ireland where they say measures to reduce the risk of Covid-19 restrictions have not been relaxed. The protestors, who come from an alliance of different groups, believe the measures are no longer needed and could be eased for parents to ensure both parents can attend during scans and throughout labour. Brenda O'Toole, a community midwife, is a coordinator of the campaign which includes the Irish Birth Movement, the Association for Improvements in Maternity Services (AIMS) Ireland the Irish Midwives Association. She was at Portlaoise hospital on Wednesday, May 12 with other women. She says restrictions include the exclusion of partners from attending pregnancy appointments and the early stages of labour. At present, Ms O'Toole said partners are also not allowed to attend until the mother has been deemed to be in labour if she has had to be induced. She said partners may not be present to learn scan results and are prevented from attending a special care unit. "It causes unnecessary trauma and anxiety for mothers...We are here to ask the hospital to lift the maternity restrictions. Partners are not visitors. Partners play a huge role in the birthing process. "There are a lot of restrictions and the public are not aware of them. Everyone is sold on the idea that all the hospitals are opening up but they are not," she said. Ms O'Toole said by maintaining restrictions Irish hospitals are contravening WHO and UN regulations but also taking the rights of mums away. "We are violating a woman's human rights," she said. Portlaoise is part of an integrated maternity service with the Coombe maternity hospital in Dublin under the HSE's Dublin Midlands Hospital Group. RTE has reported that fathers-to-be are left waiting outside, with many in their cars waiting to be called inside by hospital staff. Ms O'Toole said it the National Women and Infants Health Programme National Clinical Director Dr Peter McKenna advised hospitals to draw up guidelines in April. "Nothing has changed," she said. Ms O'Tooole said another protest would be mounted in Portlaoise on May 22 if changes have not been made. It has been reported that the Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan has said there is no evidence to convince the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) that the restrictions need to be in place. The death has occurred of Emily DUFFY Celbridge, Kildare Duffy (Celbridge) May 11, 2021, (peacefully), after a long illness, surrounded by her loving family, at home, Emily, beloved daughter of Robert and Gillian and loving sister of Luke; Sadly missed by her loving father, mother, brother, uncles, aunts, grandparents, relatives and friends. Due to current Government guidelines regarding public gatherings, a Private Funeral will take place. Those who would like to join the private funeral service remotely by webcam can do so by clicking on https://www.celstra.ie/live-feed/ on Thursday at 11am. Those who would have liked to attend the Funeral, but due to current restrictions cannot, please feel free to leave a message in the Condolence Book below. Family flowers only please. Donations, if desired, to The Irish Cancer Society or Aiobheanns Pink Tie. The death has occurred of Bridie Curran (nee Conlan) Calverstown, Kilcullen, Kildare Bridie Curran, 1562 Lee Drive, Calverstown, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare. Predeceased, by her husbands Michael and Sean. Deeply regretted by her loving family, May, Jimmy, Edmund, Rachel, Bridie, Judy, Danny, John, Charlotte, Teresa and Bernadette, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, and partners, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, nephews, nieces, relatives and friends. REST IN PEACE Removal from Doyle's Funeral Home, Ballymount, on Thursday morning at 10.15am via Kilgowan and Calverstown, to the Church of S.S. Mary and Lawrence, Crookstown, for Requiem Mass at 11am, followed by burial in the adjoining cemetery. In line with HSE and government regulations, Bridie's Funeral Mass will be private for family members and close friends, max 50 persons in church. For those who would have liked to attended Bridie's Funeral Mass but cannot, please feel free to leave a message in the condolence section below. Bridie's Funeral Mass will be live streamed on the following link: https://www.narraghmoreandmoone.ie The death has occurred of John Hughes Castlekealy, Caragh, Kildare / Donadea, Kildare Hughes, John, Castlekealy, Caragh and late of Timahoe, Donadea, Co. Kildare, May 11th 2021, peacefully at Naas General Hospital, after a short illness. Deeply regretted by his loving wife Pauline, children Barry, Graham, Ian, Carol and Janet, their partners, daughter-in-law, grandchildren Sarah, Amy, Niosa, Saoirse, Cillian, Danny and DJ, brother Andy, sister Kathy, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends. Rest In Peace Due to current government guidelines, a private family funeral will take place for John (limited to 50 persons).Those who would have liked to attend the funeral, but due to the current restrictions cannot, please leave a personal message for the family in the condolence's section below. John's Funeral Mass can be viewed on Thursday morning at 11am by clicking on the following link : https://www.caraghparish.net/webcam John's Commital Service can be viewed at approx. 12:40pm by clicking on the following link : https://www.dctrust.ie/location/newlands-cross/chapel-webstream.html Oliver Reilly Funeral Directors accept no responsibility for any live webcam interruptions or issues. John's Funeral Cortege will be leaving his residence on Thursday morning at approx. 10:30am to arrive at the Church of Our Lady and St. Joseph, Caragh for 11am Funeral Mass, followed by cremation in Newlands Cross Crematorium. Those who would like to line the route, may do so in a safe and socially distanced manner. Family flowers on please, donations, if desired, to the Friends of Naas Hospital. The death has occurred of Kathleen Matthews Brideswell, Kilcock, Kildare / Kilcock, Meath Peacefully at her home following an illness. Daughter of the late Thomas and Annie Matthews. Kathleen will be sadly missed by her sister; Maura (O'Keeffe), brothers; Eugene, and Joseph (Australia), sisters-in-law; Anne and Cheryl, nieces, nephews, grand nieces, grand nephews, cousins, relatives, carers, many friends and neighbours. May She Rest In Peace. Funeral Arrangements Later An outstanding Carrigallen student was one of thirty students who received awards at Athlone Institute of Technologys Scholarship of Excellence ceremony on May 11 the highest number of recipients since the awards inauguration four years ago. Bartosz Kazimierczak, a past student from Carrigallen Vocational School received his scholarship for Software Design in Artificial Intelligence for Cloud Computing. Scholarships of Excellence are conferred upon first-year students who have distinguished themselves academically at second level, achieving more than 500 points in their Leaving Certificate exams. Achieving such high results puts such students into the top 20% of CAO applicants and demonstrates a high level of commitment and dedication to their studies. Congratulating the students on their scholastic achievement, Vice President of Academic Affairs and Registry Frances OConnell said: We are delighted to honour the highest number of students receiving a scholarship of excellence award this year. These 30 students have entered a range of degree programmes across all our faculties, a place on which is highly demanded by our CAO applicants annually. Thereafter, these awardees will be highly sought as graduates by a wide range of employers and enterprises in the region and beyond or will have the opportunity to continue critical, cutting edge research in our technological university. We look forward to maintaining our recognition of scholarly excellence into the future as a technological university by continuing to formally recognise the high achievement of second-level students from our second level schools right across the Midlands and Mid-West regions and their performance on their Leaving Certificate examination. AIT President Professor Ciaran O Cathain added that their accomplishment demonstrated not only academic achievement but also adaptability and resilience as you navigated many challenges this past year. Scholarship of Excellence recipients receive a 500 bursary and a yearly gym membership while their associated secondary school is awarded a commemorative plaque with the recipients name. This year marks AITs 50th anniversary as an institute, and it currently stands as Irelands top-ranked institute of technology, sitting seventh nationally on the higher education leader board of all universities and institutes of technology. Just last week, AIT was designated as Irelands third technological university with its consortium partners, LIT. The new university is expected to be in-situ before the end of the year. Also read:Septic tank inspections to begin in Leitrim this month The second round of the Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund, in partnership with Business to Arts, has been launched with a call for artists and arts organisations in Leitrim to apply for funding. The all-island Begin Together Arts Fund will make a total of 1 million in arts funding available over three years, awarded to projects that are adapting due to the pandemic, or are inspired by and responding to our recovery. The Arts Fund supports or commissions artists and arts organisations to develop arts projects that engage the individuals, audiences and communities involved. All art forms are eligible to apply to the fund. With this second round, Bank of Ireland and Business to Arts are encouraging more applications from artists who specialise in fine-art film and craft-related disciplines and from community arts organisations, who were under-represented in round one. Artists or groups of artists applying must work with a partner organisation (e.g. a venue or event, arts organisation, community/voluntary organisation or another funding agency/organisation). Applicants can request funds between 3,000 10,000 / (STG equivalent), and average grants will be 5,000 / (STG equivalent), with maximum grants of 10,000 / (STG equivalent). Arts projects with larger budgets that have secured funds elsewhere are encouraged to apply. With each grant round, the Fund aims to provide funding to an arts project in each county on the island of Ireland. Closing date for the second round of applications is Wednesday, 23 June, 2021 at 5pm. About the Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund: This Fund provides fees to artists or groups of artists to create new work and help maximise the budgets of partner organisations (e.g. arts organisations, community/voluntary organisations, etc.) for their programme of activity. To find out more about the Bank of Ireland Begin Together Arts Fund, please visit https://personalbanking. bankofireland.com/campaigns/ begin-together/ For information on the application process and to complete the online application form, please visit www.businesstoarts.ie/ artsfund/bank-of-ireland The death has occurred of Rita Carmody (nee Heffernan) Caherdavin, Limerick May 12th 2021, peacefully, in the care of Athlunkard Nursing Home. Predeceased by husband Dominick. Sadly missed by her loving family, son John, daughters Kay and Clare, daughter-in-law Noemia, grandchildren Inari and Aidan, extended family, friends and neighbours. May She Rest in Peace A private family Requiem Mass will take place in Christ the King Church, Caherdavin this Friday (14th May) at 11.30am. Those who would have liked to attend but cannot, may view the Funeral Mass on the following link https://www.churchservices.tv/caherdavin. A message of sympathy for the family may be left in the condolence section below. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The death has occurred of Teresa Hanly (nee McCarthy) Rockstown, Kilmallock, Grange, Limerick. Beloved wife of the late Frank. Very deeply regretted by her loving children, Alice, Margaret, Theresa, Timmy, Edmund and Ailbe, brothers Mike and Eamon, sister Mary (U.S.A), grandchildren, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, all other relatives and friends. May She Rest In Peace. Requiem Mass will take place at 11.30am on Thursday (May 13th) in Ballybricken Church. Funeral afterwards to Caherally Cemetery. In compliance with the current HSE guidelines, the funeral will be limited to fifty people. Please ensure social distancing and public health advice is adhered. Messages of sympathy may be expressed through the condolence section below or cards and letters of sympathy can be sent to Cross' Funeral Directors, Lower Gerald Griffin Street, Limerick. House strictly private, please. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The death has occurred of Mary (Maureen) Harty (nee O'Brien) Clancy Street, Fermoy, Cork / Kilfinane, Limerick. Maureen passed away peacefully at her home in the care of her loving family, beloved wife of Frank and dear mother of Sandra, Caroline, Lisa and Brian, sister of Joan and Dan, loving Grandma of Eireann & Tiarnan. Sadly missed and lovingly remembered by her husband, family, sons-in-law Liam and Ed, daughter-in-law Claire, brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, extended family, neighbours and friends. Rest in peace. Reception into St. Patricks Church, Fermoy Friday for 11.00.am Requiem Mass followed by cremation at the Island Crematorium. Family flowers only, donations in lieu if desired to Marymount Hospice please. Maureen's family would like to thank you for your sympathy and support at this difficult time. You are invited to leave a personal message or share a memory of Maureen on the condolence page below. This will be welcomed and greatly appreciated by the family. Maureen's funeral cortege will leave her home Friday at 10.30.am and travel via Emmett Street, Cork Road to St. Patrick's Church Fermoy. Requiem Mass will be live-streamed on https://www.fermoyparish.ie/funeral/ https://m.facebook.com/ronaynefuneraldirectorsfermoy// ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The sudden death has occurred of James Nolan, aged 44 years on the 21st April 2021, (formerly of Templeathea East, Athea, Co. Limerick) and late of London, following a tragic traffic accident. Beloved son of the late Con. Sadly missed and lovingly remembered by his heartbroken partner Vanessa, daughters Eden, Harley and Chevy, mother Pauline & brother Connor. We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude to all who supported us in our grief at this difficult time. Deeply regretted by his aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbours and friends at home & abroad. Funeral Mass takes place in London on the 25th May 2021 at St. Aloysuis, Church, NW1. 1BD, and afterwards to Finchley Crematorium, London. All enquiires re funeral arrangements to Leverton & Sons Ltd. (Funeral Directors): 212. Eversholt St. London. NW1.1BD Tel : 00442073876075. Special thanks to Dessie, Maureen and Pat Mulvihill and family, who reached out and supported us in so many ways, your kindness will not be forgotten. Special thanks to all who called to the house to support and reminisce about their memories of James, Deirdre Fenlon and Wendy OConnor, Michael OConnor, Jonnie Scanlon, Patsy Hayes, Joe Dalton, Joe Vaughan, Jonathan Mulvihill, John Mullane, Tina Fitzgerald and husband, Mary Danaher,Mike Dalton. Thank you to the Athea GAA, who gave us the jersey and flag, which we will put on Jamess coffin and for all the phone calls, texts, cards from friends of James far and wide in the world and to Mary Theresa Mulvihill. Thank you all, your support is valued and will not be forgotten. A memorial Mass will take place at a later date in Athea. 'Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis' Anyone who would like to extend their condolences to the family, please feel free to leave a message in Condolence Book below on RIP.ie. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The death has occurred of Patrick O'Reilly Commeen, Adare, Limerick. Peacefully on May 12th, 2021, in Abbot Close Nursing Home, Askeaton. Predeceased by his parents Patrick and Kitty. Survived by his cousin Mary Lynch (Rylands, Ballingarry), relatives and friends. May He Rest In Peace Arriving at The Church Of The Immaculate Conception, Ballingarry, this Thursday May 13th for 10am Requiem Mass. Burial afterwards in the adjoining cemetery. Sympathies may be expressed by using the condolence link below or by post to O'Grady Funeral Directors, Ballingarry, Co. Limerick. Thank you for your understanding during this difficult time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Condolences - Click here: STUDENTS at a Limerick secondary school extended a heart of thanks to nurses and frontline workers ahead of International Nurses Day, which falls today. The transition year students of John the Baptist Secondary School in Hospital have produced a project, The Heart of Appreciation, that shares the thankful messages of first year students for all the frontline workers, to mark International Nurses Day. We want to say a special thank you to all the nurses and the frontline workers who have given so much to help people through these difficult times, explained a spokesperson for the school. A wooden board was created in the shape of the heart, titled the Heart of Appreciation. First years then created small decorated thank you notes to frontline workers in the shape of small hearts. They also posted Thank You Frontline Workers on the windows of their school. This idea was the brainchild of students and staff who were working on the summer edition of the schools newsletter. The heart-shaped board that bears all the messages is now situated at the entrance of the school and will remain there until the end of term. A spokesperson for John the Baptist Secondary School extends their thanks to everyone who got involved in the project. THE Mid-West Simon Community is teaming up with Dunnes Stores branches in the city to allow customers donate food to help those in Limerick. Dunnes Stores has requested a donations wishlist from the homelessness charity of items to be donated. These items include non-perishables like porridge pots, Pot Noodles, spaghetti hoops, boil in the bag rice or microwaveable rice, cereal/protein bars, small bottles of drinks; water juice, minerals. Customers are also being requested to donate household items such as toilet paper, washing powder and washing up liquid. And lastly, they are looking for toiletries to include; shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, dental floss, deodorant, baby wipes and feminine hygiene wipes. The chief executive of the Mid-West Simon Community Jackie Bonfield said: We are delighted and very grateful to Dunnes Stores for arranging these trolleys for our clients that are in need. Dunnes Stores have been an excellent supporter of ours and donate on a regular basis. So, when you are doing your shopping in Dunnes, please keep Mid West Simon Community and those in need of food in mind and you can simply add on some of the items on our wishlist to your shopping and pop them in the trolley when you are leaving. The Trolleys are generally situated at the end of the tills and have both Dunnes Stores and Midwest Simon Community branding on it. Midwest Simon Community will collect the items and distribute them to those in need. Every donation helps and will make life easier for individuals and families in Limerick, she added. Founded in 2006, Mid-West Simon provides services to men, women and children who are homeless or at risk of homelessness in Limerick, Clare and North Tipperary. The Defense Department has agreed to remove Xiaomi Corp. from a blacklist that prohibits U.S. investment in the Chinese tech giant, reversing course after a federal court had granted a temporary halt to the ban following a lawsuit by the company. In a one-page filing in Washington, D.C., federal court Tuesday, lawyers for both sides said removing Xiaomi from the U.S. blacklist was appropriate following the companys court victory in March, thereby avoiding additional litigation over the matter. Xiaomi filed a lawsuit in January challenging the Pentagons decision to place it on its blacklist of companies with alleged links to Chinas military. Xiaomi denied any such ties. Shares of Xiaomi rose almost 6% in afternoon trading in Hong Kong following the disclosure. The Pentagons move marks a retreat in its efforts to implement a Trump administration-era tool aimed at punishing collaboration between major Chinese companies and the countrys military, an initiative known as military-civil fusion. The department since last year has added dozens of companies in sectors including telecommunications, semiconductors and aviation to its blacklist of firms deemed to support Chinas military. Representatives for the Defense Department didnt immediately respond to requests for comment. A Xiaomi spokeswoman said the company is paying close attention to the development of this issue." The company has previously denied any affiliations with the Chinese military and says it sells products and services solely for civilian and commercial use. Under an executive order signed by former President Donald Trump in November, addition to the list blocks any American company or firm from investing in securities issued by the listed company. The Pentagon added Xiaomi, Chinas top-selling phone maker, on Jan. 14. It wasnt until after Xiaomi challenged its listing in federal court later that month that the Defense Department revealed its reasoning behind the listing. Officials cited an award given to company founder and Chief Executive Lei Jun for his service to the Chinese state in 2019, as well as its ambitious investment plans to develop advanced technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence. In legal filings, Xiaomi said the evidence offered by the U.S. didnt prove ownership by or affiliation with the Chinese military. Judge Rudolph Contreras in March ordered a temporary halt to the enforcement of the investment ban, saying that the Pentagon had provided insufficient evidence to deem Xiaomi a military company. The judge called the firm a publicly traded company that produces commercial products for civilian use, [which] is controlled by its independent board and controlling shareholders." In the agreement announced by Xiaomi and the Pentagon on Tuesday, the two sides said they would negotiate the terms of a final order vacating Xiaomis blacklisting in light of Judge Contrerass decision. They said they would propose a final order to the court no later than May 20. The Pentagon was dealt another setback last week, after Judge Contreras ordered a temporary halt to the enforcement of its blacklisting of Luokung Technology Corp., a Chinese mapping and big-data company. Nonetheless, the U.S. is moving to enforce investment bans on other companies on the Defense Department list. Last week, the New York Stock Exchange applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to delist the American-listed shares of Chinas big three telecom carriers, China Mobile Ltd., China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. and China Telecom Corp. The move, which came after unsuccessful appeals by the carriers, put the companies on track to be delisted by next week. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Maharashtra cabinet minister Aslam Shaikh on Wednesday suggested the state government should extend the lockdown to prepare for the third Covid-19 wave. The textile minister in the Maha Vikas Aghadi cabinet told ANI news agency, "I feel that lockdown should be extended so that we work on the infrastructure for the third wave, otherwise we know what is happening with those who did not follow (Covid-19 protocols)". Besides, Maharashtra's Health Minister Rajesh Tope has also proposed to extend the lockdown in the state for 15 days in a cabinet meeting. Maharashtra, which has reported the highest number of coronavirus cases in the country, has now started to witness a decline in its daily Covid-19 cases. The union health ministry urged the country to replicate the Pune and Mumbai models to contain and manage the Covid-19 pandemic on Tuesday. In Mumbai, the initiatives taken by the Maharashtra state government and the municipal corporation aided the hospitalisation process and eliminated panic among citizens, Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, MoHFW said. According to Maharashtra minister Satej Patil, the state government made maximum use of technology to provide relief to people during the Covid-19 pandemic. Patil said the state government made available portable oxygen containers, while state-run helplines are functioning 24/7 and several patients received help through social media platforms such as Twitter. Ventilators, PPE kits among other equipment were manufactured speedily because of technology, the minister added Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. The St. Gallen Symposium, an annual gathering of current and future leaders from across the globe, celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. At the event, 1,000 participants took part in the three-day cross-generational dialogue, joining from the University of St. Gallen campus, an international hub in Singapore, ten Swiss Embassies around the world, and elsewhere online. Catherine Chen, Corporate Senior Vice President and BOD Member at Huawei, addressed the student-led initiative on the morning of May 7. Other top speakers from the private sector include Christophe Franz, BOD Chairman at Roche, Ola Kallenius, Chairman of the Board of Management at Daimler, Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, and Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer of HCL Corporation. The participants, which also included political leaders, such as Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and representatives of transnational organizations, like Chairwoman of the Swiss Digital Initiative Doris Leuthard, gathered to exchange their views on the theme of this years symposium, Trust Matters , something to which Huawei is deeply committed Chen believes this will require the joint efforts of policymakers, regulators, and the private sector. As more devices feature connectivity, more services go online, and more critical infrastructures rely on real-time data exchanges, so must governments worldwide ensure that everyone is protected by the highest security standards. Only a common set of rules can guarantee a level of security that creates trust in technology, she said. This years St. Gallen Symposium kicked off on May 5. The events participants agreed that trust is inherently built on openness and transparency, and that it is time to take concrete, actionable steps to address the common challenges and risks that have emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public trust in political and economic institutions, emerging technologies, and the media has recently been eroded, especially among the younger generations, and this has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We, as members of the younger generation, are connected to a greater number of people through social media, but this does not correspond to a circle of people we can trust, said Simon Zulliger, a member of the team of 35 students from the University of St. Gallen that organized this years symposium. The team expressed their view that finding ways to preserve and strengthen trust is critical for a sustainable recovery. Chen hoped that the next generation of leaders would build trust and shape a world of pervasive connectivity. I urge them to continue developing the positive relationships between communities, individuals, and their environments. We must build strong trust in technology, enabled by a common set of rules, innovations, and progress. Only then can we commit to the sustainable and trustworthy use of technology, she said. Partager et informez vous aussi...... 0 shares Share Tweet LinkedIn The Maldives, which has one of the worlds fastest growing Covid-19 outbreaks, has tightened restrictions. Residents of Male, the capital, are now required to stay indoors from 4 p.m., until 4 a.m. and visas for tourists from India and other nations in South Asia will be halted from May 13, the Indian Ocean archipelagos Health Protection Agency said in Twitter postings. The curfew, which had previously started at 9 p.m., will be imposed for a week. Other restrictions include a ban on group prayers at mosques, halting physical classes at universities and limiting restaurants to takeaways, the agency said. As of Monday the country had the most new cases per 100,000 people in the past five, seven and 14 days. Active cases jumped from 4,978 to 11,629 on May 11. About 36.6% of the population of over 500,000 has received two doses of Covid-19 vaccines. Seychelles, another Indian Ocean tourist destination, is suffering a similar surge in Covid-19 cases. This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Palestinian militant group Hamas said Wednesday it had fired more than 200 rockets into Israel in retaliation for strikes on a tower block in Gaza. The armed branch of Hamas said in a statement that it was "in the process of firing 110 rockets towards the city of Tel Aviv", and 100 rockets towards the southern town of Beersheva, "as reprisal for the restarting of strikes against civilian homes". Sirens rang out in both places shortly after the announcement, according to the Israel Defence Forces, which added that families in Tel Aviv had been woken up and rushed to bomb shelters. Hamas had previously reported the destruction of a nine-storey building in the centre of Gaza, the Israeli-blockaded enclave they control. "Significant damage was caused to the tower and its neighbouring buildings," reported Hamas television channel, Al-Aqsa TV. Witnesses said several missiles struck the building, containing homes, businesses and a local television channel. The latest salvo of rocket fire follows one earlier in the evening, also towards Tel Aviv, which killed one person on the outskirts of the city. Since Monday three Israelis have been killed and dozens of others injured in rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip. At least 32 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes on the enclave, including 10 children, and more than 220 have been injured, local authorities said. The UN envoy for Middle East Peace, Tor Wennesland, warned that Israel and Hamas were "escalating towards a full-scale war" This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed. Subscribe to Mint Newsletters * Enter a valid email * Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Click here to read the full article. The Hong Kong government has begun the process of creating a new law to tackle the unauthorized release of personal data, or doxxing. The current Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance was not intended to address the doxxing acts committed in recent years, officials said on Tuesday as a proposal was introduced in Hong Kongs Legislative Council. The proposal could be formalized into a bill that is voted on and become law by the end of the year. Offenders could face a fine of up to HK$1 million ($128,000) and five years in prison. As the city has been mired in anti-government protest since mid-2019, Hong Kongs chief executive Carrie Lam has repeatedly said that releasing personal details of police officers, judges and figures in authority is a problem that creates disharmony. She says that the existing Personal Data ordinance does not properly address the problem and that officials have to obtain court injunctions in order to halt doxxing cases. However, a new law is likely to be controversial. Pro-democracy supporters say that the Hong Kong government has used the same doxxing tactics to attack its political opponents and journalists. Lams predecessor CY Leung has similarly used document releases to attack teachers who he says had taken part in pro-democracy protests. The proposal unveiled on Tuesday would also give the privacy commissioner significant new powers. These would include the ability to carry out criminal investigations, initiate prosecutions and demand takedowns of documents posted online. No doubt the authorities will use this new law to pursue cases of doxxing pro-democracy leaders & journalists just as doggedly as they will those of doxxing police, said lawyer and pro-democracy campaigner Anthony Dapiran in an ironic post via Twitter. No doubt the authorities will use this new law to pursue cases of doxxing pro-democracy leaders & journalists just as doggedly as they will those of doxxing police. /s https://t.co/cIw1FC69G1 Antony Dapiran (@antd) May 11, 2021 On a slightly later timeline, the Hong Kong government is also moving towards creation of an anti-fake-news law. The National Security law that was introduced in Hong Kong in July last year, already gives authorities sweeping new powers to shackle speech, reporting and the media. That was underlined by police chief Chris Tang on Tuesday when he said: If these fake news incite hatred and divide society, then people have a chance of committing crimes, including offences related to national security. Then I have to act. But the government wants to go further. Lam, said last week that the government was looking at laws to tackle misinformation, hatred and lies. The government said that it will study how such laws have worked elsewhere before legislating. Neighboring Asian countries, Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia have all introduced anti-fake news laws. In each case, rights groups say that the laws are being used to quash dissent. That is also a worry in Hong Kong where every societal issue has become politically-polarized and facts are routinely disputed. Chris Yeung, chairman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said that the push for a fake news law may be used by the government to avoid accountability for public discontent. They will try to redefine the 2019 protests as something that happened because of misleading information, not because of wrong decisions by the chief executive, police misconduct or failed policies, he recently told the New York Times. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. I bet when the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. announced last week that it had overwhelmingly approved its boards plans to radically reform the beleaguered organization, it figured that would be enough to at least temporarily quell criticism that had been mounting ever since the Los Angeles Times published its damning expose in late February. That totally naive assumption was obviously dead wrong. This week growing outrage and backlash against the HFPAs anemic commitment to eradicate its systemic racism, sexism and ethical and financial lapses in a serious and timely fashion reached a crescendo when NBC announced on May 10 that it would not air the Golden Globes in 2022. That same morning, WarnerMedia joined Netflix and Amazon Studios in drawing a line in the sand by boycotting the HFPA until the organization could demonstrate that real change would happen and happen at a much faster pace than the proposed 18 months. The HFPA now understands that they cant get away with business as usual while they work on reforms, a high-placed industry source told me on background. Can the Globes be salvaged, I asked this person. The reply: The Golden Globes are worth saving? Its the HFPA that has to step into 2021. In response to NBCs decision not to broadcast next years Globes, the HFPA suddenly released a statement outlining a specific timeline for reform. But many industry insiders remain highly skeptical that the HFPAs current leadership and membership can actually save their sinking ship without a radical overhaul. The consensus I found among those I spoke with was that the entire organization must be reconstituted to reflect a more diverse and ethically responsible group. Of course, the question that journalists like myself should be asking our own organizations and others who have worked hand in hand with the HFPA for years including executives from the studios, streamers, networks, publicity firms and awards experts is why we all were complicit in enabling behavior that we knew was morally questionable. Veteran publicist Amanda Lunberg conceded to me, The guiding principle of our industry has been winning awards at all costs, and its careened off the rails. If we care about decency, inclusion, ethical behavior and fiduciary responsibility, we must hold each other accountable to these and other tenets for any of it to be respected. Lunberg is chief executive of 42West, which is among a 100-plus coalition of publicity firms that have applauded NBCs decision to scrap next years Globes and give HFPA time to reform. We look forward to supporting the HFPA in this effort and continuing to examine ways in which we can reimagine our own workplaces and the entire Hollywood ecosystem as a safer, fully representative and equitable community where all art and all artists thrive in meaningful contribution to our culture and society, the PR firms said in their May 10 statement. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Danny Zaragoza / Laredo Morning Times A legal permanent resident has been arrested for attempting to smuggle more than $875,000 in liquid meth through the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge, according to an arrest affidavit. Salvador Munoz-Jimenez, 35, was arrested and charged with import and conspire to import the liquid meth. Courtesy photo /U.S. Border Patrol U.S. Border Patrol agents and U.S. Army soldiers rescued two migrants from the Rio Grande, authorities said. The case unfolded on Tuesday morning, when several undocumented individuals attempted to cross the river illegally into the United States by the Chacon Creek area. Soldiers in support of U.S. Customs and Border Protection observed two of seven migrants struggling to stay afloat. A man landed behind bars for smuggling cocaine and marijuana inside a spare tire, according to an arrest affidavit. Jose Ernesto Mantecon-Alvarez was arrested and charged with possess with the intent to distribute and conspire to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana. A gray Ford pickup arrived at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 35 at about 5:25 p.m. May 8. Agents identified the driver as Jose Ernesto Mantecon-Alvarez, a U.S. citizen. During the immigration inspection, a K-9 unit allegedly alerted to possible contraband within the vehicle. The Ford was referred to secondary inspection. An X-ray of the vehicle revealed an anomaly on the spare tire located beneath the bed of the pickup. After removing and cutting open the tire, agents found 14 bundles of marijuana and one bundle that tested positive for 175 grams of cocaine. The combined weight of the drugs was approximately 19 pounds with a total estimated street value of over $56,000, according to Border Patrol. Drug Enforcement Administration special agents launched an investigation. Mantecon-Alvarez allegedly agreed to provide a post-arrest statement. Mantecon-Alvarez stated that he knew that he was transporting illegal narcotics but did not know how much or where the narcotics were concealed. Mantecon-Alvarez stated he was to transport the narcotics to a location in San Antonio, Texas. Mantecon-Alvarez stated that he did not know how much he was going to get paid but that was going to receive payment once he arrived in San Antonio, states the affidavit. A delegation from the City of Laredo visited the State of Mexico last week to discuss several ongoing projects with the Mexican government: immigration pre-clearance at the Laredo International Airport, a multi-faceted sister cities agreement with San Mateo Atenco and the State of Mexico, and the general mission of bringing Mexico to Laredo to capture American tourism. Mexican customs already has a pre-clearance program at the Laredo International Airport for cargo that flies to certain airports in Mexico. When it lands, Mexicos Tax Administration Service does not have to inspect it again, and the goods can proceed on their trade route. The city has been working on a similar initiative for American tourists flying to Mexico from Laredo. Rather than having to go through immigration processing when they land, this pre-clearance program would allow Americans be screened for immigration at the Laredo International Airport and fly domestically into Mexico, skipping the immigration process upon landing. Obviously in Mexico, were competing with all the other flights that are going in at one time. Where if youre doing it here in Laredo, youre dealing with (just) the Aeromar flight, Airport Director Jeffrey Miller said. And wed have more attention to the individual, get them through quicker, and then when they arrive in Mexico, they can avoid that process. This kind of pre-immigration program exists between the U.S. and Canada, but not yet between the U.S. and Mexico, noted Miller. If Mexico agrees to the idea, Laredo would be the first airport to facilitate pre-immigration to Mexico. Immigration and customs are two separate entities in Mexicos government, so immigration officials want to learn how the Tax Administration Service handled the customs pre-clearance program in Laredo, Miller said. Laredos flight service to Mexico City has been doing really well as of late, and Aeromar is considering adding a fourth weekly flight to their schedule. Mayor Pete Saenz believes the flight is so popular right now because people are flying from Mexico to get their vaccine in Laredo. Our rules permit that no need to inquire about citizenship, Saenz said. Council will discuss at their meeting Monday if they should seek approval from the state and federal government to promote vaccine tourism. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has already done so quite openly, Saenz noted. On Monday Saenz started speaking with fellow border mayors, who have been similarly hard-hit by border closures during the pandemic; they are also in favor of this idea, he said. Its happening the fact that people are flying to all these airports. Why cant we (capitalize on it)? Saenz said. ... Im told theres a surplus now, of vaccines. Laredo Health Authority Dr. Victor Trevino is also in favor of this idea, Saenz said, since Laredo is largely vaccinated. Local officials are hoping the citys international bridges will open to Mexican tourists again in a couple of weeks, so people who cross the bridge would also be able to get vaccinated, Saenz said. The city is also considering how to bring more of Mexico to Laredo. Laredos visitors want to touch Mexico, the mayor said. This is accomplished through the citys culinary offerings, import shops along San Bernardo and annual festivals and events like Sister Cities. But now the city is looking to enhance this experience, in part through a sister city agreement with the city San Mateo Atenco and the State of Mexico. San Mateo Atenco has a large shoe industry, and the State of Mexico will offer its arts and crafts, noted Customs and Visitors Bureau Director Aileen Ramos. The CVB is coordinating with local customs brokers to help artisans in San Mateo Atenco and the State of Mexico successfully import their products to the U.S. This can be quite a complicated process, especially for textiles, Ramos said. The City of Laredo has almost 40 (sister city) agreements with cities not just in Mexico but around the world. And this is one, I can tell you, that has been very fruitful, she said. Their goal is for the CVB to be able to display their goods in the long-term, like a permanent, mini Sister Cities festival, and attract tourists from around the country. As part of this agreement with San Mateo Atenco, the Laredo Fire Department is sharing its knowledge with the citys firefighters. Silvestre Rodriguez, Laredos deputy fire chief of EMS, assessed San Mateo Atencos fire department and started training six of their firefighters. The city also donated an old fire truck to their station. Councilmember Vidal Rodriguez said this was a humanitarian cause. The delegation was in Mexico from Thursday to Monday, and included Rodriguez, Ramos, Saenz, Miller, City Manager Robert Eads and Councilmembers Rodriguez, Alberto Torres and Ruben Gutierrez. Julia Wallace may be reached at 956-728-2543 or jwallace@lmtonline.com Evidence from earlier in the pandemic found children less likely than adults to be infected with the coronavirus and less likely to become seriously ill from COVID-19. The CDC has said that while schools havent been associated with substantial spread, outbreaks in schools not following infection-prevention measures tend to result in increased transmission among teachers and school staff rather than among students. A 52-year-old Laredo resident has been ordered to federal prison for smuggling migrants, some of whom had lost consciousness, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery. Juan Contreras pleaded guilty Feb. 3, 2020. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo ordered Contreras to serve a 110-month sentence. At the hearing, the court heard additional information regarding the danger posed to the people trapped in the tractor-trailer Contreras drove as well as their attempts to escape. In handing down the sentence, Marmolejo noted Contreras has been given multiple previous opportunities to not continue in criminal activity and that this was his third migrant smuggling conviction. Contreras had been on supervised release for a prior conviction of transporting an undocumented migrant when he committed this crime. The court revoked the remainder of that term and ordered he serve and additional consecutive nine months. The total 119-month overall term of imprisonment will again be followed by three years of supervised release. The sentencing of Contreras sends a clear message that individuals who engage in criminal activity with disregard for human life will be located, arrested, convicted and sentenced for their actions said Deputy Special Agent in Charge Timothy Tubbs from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Criminals who illegally smuggle people into and throughout the United States place personal profit ahead of public safety. HSI will continue to utilize its broad authorities to dismantle human smuggling organizations. On June 19, 2019, authorities found Contreras with an inoperable tractor-trailer on the side of Interstate 35 near Laredo. The trailer was sealed shut, but they saw a person stuck between the trailer doors attempting to escape. They soon rescued a total of 35 undocumented migrants who were trapped inside the trailer. The investigation revealed the migrants had been banging on the walls while the vehicle was on the side of the highway. They also tried to reach through holes they made with a crowbar. Multiple individuals even lost conscious due to lack of oxygen and high temperatures. Contreras has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future. HSI conducted the investigation with the assistance of Border Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Scott Bowling prosecuted the case. A 28-year-old Laredoan has been ordered to federal prison for conspiring to transport illegal migrants, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Jennifer B. Lowery. Jose Maria Ramirez pleaded guilty on Nov. 24, 2020, while co-conspirator Eloy Martinez-Carranza entered a guilty plea on Dec. 8, 2020. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo ordered Ramirez to serve a 57-month sentence to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. In handing down the sentence, the court noted how Ramirez has repeatedly broken the law and has had his supervised release revoked multiple times. Marmolejo further explained there was sufficient evidence to show he was heavily involved in the conspiracy and was correctly held accountable for the migrants in the tractor-trailer as well as the stash house. Martinez-Carranza, 35, of South Carolina, received his sentence on April 30. Marmolejo ordered him to 36 months in prison to be immediately followed by three years of supervised release. On Oct. 1, 2020, Martinez-Carranza approached the U.S. 83 Border Patrol checkpoint driving a semi-truck and trailer. Soon after his arrival, a K-9 alerted to the presence of contraband in the trailer. Authorities cut the seal on the trailer and found 40 migrants, including three unaccompanied minors. The inside temperature was approximately 109 degrees. Law enforcement also observed coffee grounds scattered around the trailer. Martinez-Carranza claimed he was traveling to Laredo from South Carolina to work as a trucker. However, he did not have a commercial drivers license or any training as such. Upon further investigation, authorities identified a location suspected to be the stash house for the migrants. Law enforcement conducted surveillance and stopped a vehicle leaving the house with Ramirez as the driver. Authorities searched the home and found a total of 22 migrants, including more unaccompanied minors. Ramirez has been and will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future. Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation with the assistance of Customs and Border Protection. Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Harrison prosecuted the case. It was a battle of NIMBYs versus developers during this week's meeting of the New Braunfels City Council. On Monday, May 10, an ordinary council meeting transformed into a nearly six-hour debate between the past and future of this San Antonio suburb, with heated exchanges between the public and dais. In between administering police chief oaths, pledging allegiance to the Texas flag, and other small-town business, were four agenda items dealing with rezoning, including construction of a doctors' office. While all items were met with vocal disapproval from residents in attendance, it was one item Item H that really caused tempers to flare. Item H would rezone a fin-shaped portion of the town between East Common Street, Old FM 306, and Waterway Lane to build a mixed-use development with 200-plus apartments, according to documents filed with the city. READ MORE: Bill Miller Bar-B-Q heir proposing 8-story downtown tower on historic site For nearly an hour, members of the public passionately urged the council to vote against the measure (council didn't). One woman wore a T-shirt that read "New Braunfels City Limits, Population: Full" as she addressed the dais while a man recited the lyrics to Randy Rogers' "They Call it the Hill Country." After finishing the chorus, the same man ended his time saying the measure would turn New Braunfels into "Austintonio, California." The crowd applauded wildly. Item H passed with a vote of 5 to 2, and angry members streamed out of the chamber while the mayor and council members watched in silence. Still irked as the council headed into the next agenda item approving a rezoning measure to create the doctors' office one citizen returned to microphone to speak. "We can't allow multifamily," said Timothy Davis, who spoke multiple times during the meeting. "There's gonna be retribution! This is tyranny," Davis said, a statement which Community Impact reporter Warren Brown noted "stunned the council chamber into silence." RELATED: Texas gains 4M residents, 2 congressional seats in Census One councilmember, however, didn't stay silent for long. Moments later, after Davis got a zoning fact wrong, Councilmember Matthew Hoyt jumped, saying "Mr. Davis, we work for a lot of people, not just you. You're the one talking on every item saying that we can only listen to you." While jokes about Austintonio and insurrection-esque sentiments make for dramatic political theater, the meeting itself provided a microcosm for what's happening in small towns across Central and South Texas. As Census Bureau numbers released in April illustrate, Texas's population is booming, with more than 4 million new residents added over the past decade, enough to secure the state two more spots in the House of Representatives. With more companies flocking to San Antonio and Austin to take advantage of the state's business-friendly tax incentives, what were once small towns are becoming absorbed into the fabric of these major metropolises. The May 10 meeting was officially adjourned at 11:55 p.m. after nearly six contentious hours, it's hard to imagine anyone drove home happy. Well, except maybe the developers. Marja Lubeck Even an apparently well-off community still faces serious issues and challenges, and it needs support and cohesion when dealing with the effects of rapid growth and bureaucracy. That was the overriding message to local list MP Marja Lubeck, when she visited Matakana last month for a special community meeting. The visit was organised by Herons Flight winery owner Mary Evans, who said she wanted Ms Lubeck to understand the Matakana community. I think weve been ignored a bit, she said. People think we can cope by ourselves, that were quite a rich community. She said she had talked with a lot of people about problems facing the area and there was a long list, including traffic, affordable housing and rentals, water, food production, employment, recreational land, environmental issues and Matakana losing its village character. Matakana Community Group chair Rachel Demler said last years drought, followed by Covid-19, had made her realise there was more diversity in the area than originally thought. We cant always cope on our own and we do have people who are struggling, she said. Frustration was voiced at the fact that, despite significant housing developments going in, developers contributions to Auckland Council were not spent on supporting infrastructure in the area, a former practice that stopped when the Supercity was formed. Ms Lubeck said there was often a disconnect between what happened at government level and what went through councils, but she could at least communicate community concerns. Its really important that I get information from you, then I can do lobbying, she said. Im not promising I can fix all these things, but I can bring attention to those who might not have known about them. Im really happy to take questions away and try to get answers and maybe come back and report on certain issues. The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks! Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics. The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc. The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics. The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates. Access to college recruiters and advisors its harder to line up higher education. Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family. Vote View Results Logan, WV (25601) Today Cloudy early, then off and on rain showers for the afternoon. High 82F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight A few showers early with scattered thunderstorms arriving overnight. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%. A spokesperson for the state Health Department said that weakened demand for vaccinations is partly to blame, but noted that the federal government has shifted emphasis from health systems and mass clinics to retail pharmacies in an effort to get shots closer to where people live and work. That program does not involve state or metropolitan health departments, shipping vials directly to the pharmacies. Lanesboro native Karen Connaughton has thrown herself back into Longford life since returning home from a five year stint in London before Christmas. And, with a new role with Bord Bia to her name, shes looking forward to spending more time getting to know her native county. Since coming back, I can really see such improvements, especially around hospitality, with Center Parcs in Ballymahon. Its great to see that development, she told the Longford Leader. And the walkways - Ive gone to a few different ones. I walk along the Shannon in Lanesboro and the canal and the new bog walk in Lanesboro. Its incredible to see those services and see how local people are using them. It helps in Covid times to have the lovely scenery and fresh air - its good for the mental health. The former Fermoyle NS and Ballymahon Mercy student is the daughter of Ballinalee native Anne, and Lanesboro man, the late Lorcan Connaughton. She has undertaken a challenge to walk 200km in May to raise funds for two worthy charities - the Roscommon Safe Link, which she says is offering valuable support to victims of Domestic Abuse during these difficult times. Shes also raising funds for Longford Hospice Home Care, an organisation close to her heart since her late father passed away in 2013, and the wide selection of walkways available to her has allowed her to meet more than half of her goal in just the first two weeks of May. What excites Karen most about her return, though, is the growth she has seen in the food and drinks sector here in Longford, with a number of cafes set to open in her native Lanesboro, including a sister premises to Ballymahons Wilder & Gold. Im looking forward to going to the new coffee shops, she said before noting the great work of Lanesboros local Lough Ree Distillery. I worked with the Irish alcohol industry while in the UK, so its really great to see that too, she said. Karens new role as Industry Talent Manager, will see her take on responsibility for the Bord Bia Talent Academy, which helps to identify and develop future executive talent for Irelands food and drink industry. Im really passionate about bringing talent to the food and drinks industry, she explained, so Im really excited about this role. Its a really interesting and varied position. The food and drinks industry, like every industry, has faced a number of challenges in recent years, with Covid-19 dealing a significant blow. But the challenge that Bord Bia has taken in its stride is Brexit. Weve been focusing on Brexit and the huge impact that its been having, Karen explained. Weve been working on it since 2016 and were still working on it today. Ireland and the UK remain key trading partners so were really focusing on ow to maintain that relationship. Karen joined Bord Bia through its Marketing Fellowship programme, gaining a Masters in International Marketing Practices at UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School. She also holds a BBs in International Hotel Management from Shannon College of Hotel Management and previously worked in the hospitality sector and with Net Affinity, the hotel booking and digital services company. The Bord Bia Talent Academy offers a range of fully-funded post-graduate opportunities, as well as bursaries, and works closely with Irelands leading Business Schools. Bord Bia is currently offering opportunities in partnership with Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and DCU Business School. More information can be found on the Bord Bia website, www.bordbia.ie. The Regional Hospital Mullingar has once again announced that it has implemented its full capacity protocol and it comes hot on the heels of the INMO warning of the worst hospital overcrowding since the Covid-19 pandemic began. A spokesperson for the Ireland East Hospital Group stated, "Regional Hospital Mullingar continues to be extremely busy with many seriously ill patients, many of whom are over 75 years of age and have a variety of complex healthcare needs. "We apologise for the distress and inconvenience caused to patients or their loved ones who are experiencing long waiting times. "The Full Capacity Protocol has been implemented consultants are doing additional ward rounds to facilitate discharges. We are working with the community to discharge patients where it is appropriate. "The hospital is asking that people think about all their care and treatment options, the length of time you may be waiting in ED should you not require urgent care and we would ask that people keep our ED services for the patients who need them most. "However, if you are seriously injured or ill the ED will assess and treat you as a priority. "We ask the public to please adhere to all public health guidance and wear a face covering and keep socially distanced and to wash your hands frequently." Yesterday, Irelands hospitals were more overcrowded than at any point over the last year, the INMO warned. 376 admitted patients went without beds across Ireland the highest figure since March 5, 2020. The worst-hit hospitals included: University Hospital Limerick: 75 Letterkenny University Hospital: 31 Cork University Hospital: 30 Midland Regional Hospital, Mullingar: 24 South Tipperary General Hospital: 23 The union warned that redeployment of staff was seeing day services closed or scaled back, which is putting extra pressure on emergency departments. Frontline staff have said that infection control and social distancing is compromised when patients are on trolleys in corridors. The INMO is calling for urgent national intervention in University Hospital Limerick in particular, along with a strategy to reduce the volume of staff being redeployed for vaccinations. The union advised enabling nursing and midwifery students to become paid vaccinators. INMO President Karen Mc Gowan said: Although the levels of COVID are reducing, the long-standing trolley crisis is again rearing its head. Our members are seriously concerned that we will swing from the COVID crisis back into an overcrowding crisis. They need to know that the HSE will not tolerate overcrowding and ensure that safe staffing levels are implemented. INMO General Secretary Phil Ni Sheaghdha said: We have kept trolley figures suppressed for much of the pandemic, but we are slipping back into old bad habits. The HSE cannot allow trolley figures to rise and rise. Overcrowding is simply unsafe for patients especially during a pandemic. It is placing intolerable pressure on an exhausted workforce, who are now working to provide mass vaccinations in addition to a COVID and non-COVID healthcare service. The HSE and HIQA need to rapidly intervene in the worst-hit sites, and anything that can be done to ensure key staff are not redeployed must be looked at. COVID could be a turning point for the Irish healthcare system. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. (Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of London-listed company director and manager changes announced on Wednesday and not separately reported by Alliance News: Petrofac Ltd - Jersey-registered, London-based provider of oilfield services - Chief Financial Officer Alastair Cochran resigns from Petrofac to take up a new role on September 1. Petrofac promotes Treasurer & Head of Tax Afonso Reis e Sousa to CFO and the board. "Alastair has pioneered our transformation back to a capital-light business and leaves Petrofac strongly positioned for efficient and effective execution as markets recover and we rebuild our order book," says Chief Executive Officer Sami Iskander. A former Royal Dutch Shell PLC executive, Iskander joined Petrofac in November and took over as CEO in January. Chesnara PLC - Preston, England-based life and pensions - CEO John Deane will retire by the end of the year, after six years in charge. Steve Murray is selected to replace Deane, joining later in the year. Murray currently is chief commercial officer for Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Ltd. Concurrent Technologies PLC - Colchester, Essex-based maker of embedded computer boards - Hires Miles Adcock as CEO and executive director, starting June 21. Managing Director Jane Annear retires after 36 years working for the company and two years as MD. Adcock is president of Space Imaging at Teledyne Technologies Inc. Prior to Teledyne, he held senior roles at defence technology firm QinetiQ Group PLC. Mode Global Holdings PLC - London-based bitcoin banking app - Appoints Ryan Moore, an existing board director, as the company's first CEO, effective immediately. Founder Jonathan Rowland will remain as chair. Moore was an early investor in Mode and has worked for US oil field services firm Baker Hughes Co. Moore is interested in 6.5 million Mode shares, via Tulham LLC and Keve Family Ltd Partnership. Rowland is interested in 19.0 million, a 21% stake. Greencare Capital PLC - invests in medicinal cannabis sector - Hires Richard Tonthat as CEO, effective immediately. Fabio Carretta steps down from the board but will continue to support the company in capital market activities. Non-Executive Director Nicholas Lee is promoted to non-executive chair, also immediately. Tonthat is a chartered account who worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton. He also has been an independent consultant advising on mergers & acquisitions, debt financing and equity investments, including working with British American Tobacco PLC on an investment in a Canadian cannabis producer. Last month, BAT bought just under a 20% stake in Organigram Holdings Inc, with the investment valued at GBP126 million. By Tom Waite; thomaslwaite@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. We rely on the support of our subscribers to fund our journalism as we continue to cover the coronavirus crisis. If youre not already signed up, we hope you will consider subscribing. Already a print subscriber? If you havent already, please activate your digital access. AfriTin Mining Ltd - tin miner with asset in Namibia - Raises GBP13 million through placing of 216.7 million shares at a price of 6.0 pence each, reflecting a 13% discount to Tuesday's closing price of 6.86p. Hannam & Partners acted as sole broker for the placing. "We are very pleased to announce today's oversubscribed placing which puts the company into a position to expedite the phase 1 expansion of our flagship Uis Tin mine in Namibia at a time of unprecedented high tin prices. The proceeds also allow us to further investigate the exciting, significant lithium and tantalum by-product potential we have across our extensive resource base, and further exploration on our regional assets," said CEO Anthony Vijoen. Afritin Mining now has 1.09 billion shares issued overall. Current stock price: 6.35 pence, down 7.5% Year-to-date change: up sharply from 2.45p By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - Marston's PLC on Wednesday named Chief Financial Officer Andrew Andrea as its new chief executive. Andrea will replace Ralph Findlay as chief executive on October 3, after Findlay announced in March his decision to step down after 20 years in the job. Andrea is 51 years old and Findlay is 60 years old, according to Companies House files. The incoming chief has 23 years of experience in the pub and brewing industry, and has extensive commercial and operational expertise as well as financial, Marston's said. Andrea joined the pub operator in 2002 and has served on the board since 2009. He pioneered Marston's franchise model and project managed the disposal of the brewing business in 2020, the company said. "Andrew was the strongest contender from a selection of extremely high calibre candidates under consideration and the unanimous choice of the board for the role of chief executive officer," Chair William Rucker said. Shares in Marston's were down 0.6% to 96.33 pence in London. By Ivan Edwards; ivanedwards@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - Stock Spirits Group PLC on Wednesday said it has successfully weathered the previous six months of difficult trading conditions and is "well positioned" to benefit from a post-pandemic recovery. The owner and producer of premium branded spirits and liqueurs said pretax profit for the six months ended March 31 soared 60% year-on-year to EUR36.4 million from EUR22.8 million, helped by reduced costs. Half-year revenue fell marginally to EUR183.4 million, 3.3% lower than EUR189.6 million a year prior. Stock Spirits declared an interim dividend of 2.98 euro cents, up 7.6% from 2.77 cents last year. Chief Executive Mirek Stachowicz commented: "This has been another resilient financial and operational performance against a hugely challenging backdrop. "We managed to largely counterbalance the widespread closure of the on-trade in all of our markets by growing our strong brands in the off-trade. This was driven both by successful product innovations and by the trend for consumers to turn to familiar and trusted brands during times of uncertainty." Looking at the next six months of trading, Stock Spirits said it was "broadly on track" with plans, although it warned continuing disruption from the pandemic and the impact of the Polish small format tax could harm its performance. "Whilst there remains some uncertainty in the short-term outlook, we remain confident in the future prospects for Stock Spirits, as illustrated both by the investments that we are making in our brands and infrastructure, and by the continuation of our progressive dividend policy," said Stachowicz. Shares in Stock Spirits were down 1.5% to 268.50 pence in London on Wednesday morning. By Will Paige; willpaige@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - Massachusetts, US-based drug developer Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc said late Tuesday that a requisite majority of its shareholders have voted in favour of the company's takeover by Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC. This was after Astra's own shareholders voted in favour of the deal. "We're very pleased with today's affirmative shareholder vote, which brings us one step closer to completing a transaction that will accelerate the combined company's ability to develop and provide access to life-changing medicines for patients with rare and devastating diseases around the world," said Alexion Chief Executive Officer Ludwig Hantson. Alexion said it the takeover is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. Cambridge-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca agreed to a deal for Alexion in December for USD39 billion to boost its work on immunology. The takeover has already been given the go-ahead by the US Federal Trade Commission in mid-April after competition clearances in Canada, Brazil and Russia, but Astra is still waiting on approval in the UK, EU and Japan. Shares in Alexion Pharmaceuticals closed 0.2% lower at USD171.41 on Tuesday in New York, and remained flat in after hours trade. Astra's shares closed 1.2% lower at 7,624.00 pence in London. By Dayo Laniyan; dayolaniyan@alliancenews.com Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Commentary: A rational view on China's population growth Xinhua) 17:38, May 12, 2021 BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China's population maintained slow growth over the past decade, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday, citing data from the seventh national census. The census showed that the country's population on the mainland has reached 1.41178 billion, up 5.38 percent from 2010. That means China still has the world's largest population. Its population will stay above 1.4 billion for a certain period in future, and the advantages of its super-large market will exist for a long time to come. With a working-age population of 880 million, China has abundant labor force. As the population's education level continues to improve, the new advantages of the country's talent pool will gradually emerge. As China is the world's most populous country, the Chinese government bears heavier responsibilities in economic and social development than many others. Having eradicated absolute poverty with arduous efforts, China is continuously improving the living standards of its citizens and is eyeing more substantial progress in common prosperity. China needs to cope with challenges brought by its demographic shifts. The country's working-age population is slowly declining, while its aging population is increasing in proportion. The accelerated clustering of the population and increased employment pressure on college graduates require consistent efforts to adjust the country's economic structure and bring new opportunities. According to the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, China will formulate long-term population development strategies, optimize fertility policies, improve its population service system with a focus on children and the elderly, and promote long-term balanced population development. Any specific policies that China rolls out will be directed toward the realization, protection and development of the fundamental interests of the greatest possible majority of the Chinese people. They will guarantee and improve the wellbeing of the Chinese people, and share the fruits of reform with all in a fair manner. China's population growth is also of great significance to the world. With 400 million middle-income earners, China will further unlock its market potential and create greater demand for other countries. It will take a more active role in the international division of labor and share more opportunities for common development. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Its rare to have a whole tent, McRee said. We really want to find a way to show the whole tent. We were able to use the fragment we had to reprint reproduction fabric and assemble a panel to show in the whole context. European Union governments met on Tuesday to discuss progress on a COVID-19 certificate to help citizens travel more freely across the 27-nation bloc and open up summer tourism. While EU officials stress they will not discriminate against those who do not have a certificate, tourism-dependent countries such as Greece hope it will end the current patchwork of national rules, with agreement sought by the end of June. * A COVID certificate would be handed out for free by health authorities in EU countries to people who received a vaccine, had a negative test or are immune, having recovered from COVID. * No one will be obliged to use the EU certificate, the European Parliament says. * EU lawmakers are designing the certificate along with the European Commission and EU government negotiators. Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, hopes for political agreement on the deal by the end of May to enable the certificate to be operational by June 21. * Negotiators must decide whether faster, but less accurate, COVID-19 antigen tests can be included in the certificate. * The European Commission proposes calling it the Digital Green Certificate. The European Parliament suggests it should be named the EU COVID-19 Certificate. * It is not a vaccine passport, officials say. * The certificate could be a paper or a digital document, with a QR code carrying encoded data that would be uploaded to the central system to allow verification in other EU countries through a single gateway. * EU countries can link their national vaccine records to a central system using a template provided by German developers. * EU negotiators must still agree if all vaccines can be considered for the certificate, or only those approved by the European Medicines Agency. * A dry run is due to start involving more than a dozen EU countries including France and Spain, while a full rollout of the system in all member states is planned in June. * Linking up non-EU countries to the system is technically possible if a political agreement is sealed this month and an equivalence decision granted by the EU to share data. At the start of the pandemic their last tour was canceled, and they took the show online (foundfootagefest.com) where they have special guests, themed shows, and a collection of hilarious clips like Video Dating, How to be a Real Man, and Carnival In Rio With Arnold Schwarzenegger. While they havent been able to go thrifting during the last year, the online show has encouraged people to send in tapes, and theyve been receiving tons of boxes from fans in the mail. This article first appeared on The Business Journals website. The hotel industry is pushing Congress to create its very own $20 billion grant program hopefully by the end of the summer. The Save Hotel Jobs Act, introduced by Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, in the Senate and and Rep.Charlie Crist, D-Fla., in the U.S. House of Representatives in late April, would create a new grant program for hotels that saw a drop in revenue of 40% or more during 2020 to receive grants of up to $20 million, administered by the Small Business Administration. We would hope to do it by the end of summer, said Chip Rogers, president and CEO of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, adding while the standalone legislation offers a blueprint for the program, it most likely needs to be part of one of the larger packages being debated in Congress. We would like to be a part of one of them because we feel this fits perfectly in any kind of recovery bill. The industry is coming off a year in which it saw a loss of about $110 billion in revenue. Despite more travelers expected this summer and hotel bookings beginning to recover, Rogers said the industry is not anticipating a full recovery until 2023 or 2024. He said he is confident Congress will pass some sort of aid for hotels. We have heard from a lot of lawmakers that say we know how bad the industry has been hurt and it still needs some help, Rogers said, although the $20 billion is not large compared to the industrys losses. This is a very small part of that but, even under the best circumstances, we are not going to recover immediately coming off of a year like that. The push for a hotel-industry specific grant program comes as the SBAs Restaurant Revitalization Fund has approved its first $2 billion in grants to more than 16,000 businesses, after more than 180,000 applied in the first two days of open applications. The SBAs Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program had a rockier start, having to shut down its portal after launching in April, only to reopen it several days later. The legislation pending in Congress has also been endorsed by UNITE HERE, the largest hospitality workers union in North America, which Rogers credits to the grants having to be used nearly entirely for payroll and payroll-related expenses, allowing hotels to staff up and unemployed workers to return to their jobs. A small portion of each grant could be used for COVID-19 mitigation and personal protective equipment. We are just really trying to survive, Rogers said, adding that some events commonly held at hotels are planned years in advance, and that business largely disappeared during COVID. Things are starting to get better. Its just a slow slow recovery, he said. The push for hotel grants comes as other sources of funding dry out. The SBA said earlier in May it was shutting down its Paycheck Protection Program portal to new applications, unless you are a community financial institution, which can take part in a multibillion-dollar set aside. And the subsequent PPP loan forgiveness process and the inevitable appeals and legal challenges could take years to resolve. The SBA also continues to address new aspects of its various grant programs. On April 23, it announced it was rolling out Supplemental Targeted Advances, which will go to 1 million eligible small businesses that the SBA said it will begin contacting over the coming weeks. These grants will be open to small businesses even if they have already received $10,000 through its other grant programs, but a company must be located in a low-income neighborhood as designated by this SBA mapping tool, an issue that has caused headaches for some small businesses. Advocates, lawmakers and former regulators urged a legislative committee on Tuesday to provide more oversight of required contracts between municipalities and marijuana businesses, arguing that the system continues to be exploited by some cities and towns, which creates a barrier for small and minority owned businesses to get started in the industry. The issue of host community agreements has been one fraught with tension as people in the industry have argued for years that negotiations are often one-sided, with the municipalities controlling all the leverage. The result, according to testimony given to the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy, are agreements that often violate the limits put on how much cities and towns can charge marijuana businesses for traffic, public safety and other impacts they have on a community. The committee held a hearing Tuesday on nine bills focused on host community agreements, returning to an issue the House tried to address with legislation it passed last February, before the COVID-19 pandemic put most other issues on the back burner. Many of the bills, like the one that passed the House, would make it clear that payments are not to exceed 3 percent of gross sales and give the Cannabis Control Commission explicit authority to review and enforce the terms of host community agreements. Some who testified also asked for the CCC to provide clarity on how community impact fees can be spent. State law requires the fees must be reasonably related to the costs imposed upon the municipality by the operation of the marijuana establishment, but a study released Tuesday found that cannabis companies have paid at least $2.46 million more than required under law, and that communities often have no plan for how to spend the money they collect. That report, which was paid for by the Cannabis Business Association and conducted by Jeffrey Moyer of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, reviewed 460 host community agreements. A significant proportion of the agreements we analyzed required additional payments from business beyond the legal limit, amounting to an excess of at least $2.46 million whether through reimbursements, local charity donations, so-called community benefit payments, or donations of employee time to education efforts, Moyer said. The UMass Boston study recommended, among other things, that the Legislature authorize the Cannabis Control Commission to review host community agreements and establish rules and standards for how funds collected under these contracts can be used. Rep. David Rogers, the former chair of the committee, said he believed the Cannabis Control Commission already had the authority to enforce the laws governing host community agreements, but he agreed no city or town should be charging more than 3 percent. I think the commission arguably has the authority, but there are those scholars and lawyers and members of the commission who think its a little murky, Rogers said. They Will Not Do It Shaleen Title, a former member of the Cannabis Commission, said the current structure allows host communities to hold hostage applicants and demand payments in excess of the 3 percent impact fee allowed under the law. This system unfairly benefits those companies that can afford it, Title said. The former commissioner said she favors the comprehensive bill filed by Sen. Patricia Jehlen that would also require host communities to establish policies and procedures to promote participation in the industry by people from communities hurt by years of marijuana drug law enforcement. Chauncy Spencer, a Black Boston resident who was among the first equity applicants in the city trying to open a dispensary in Roxbury, said the system and the industry are bogged down by structural racism. He asked the committee to be explicit about its desire to see racial diversity of ownership in the industry. Do not allow municipalities to have any say in how this will go. They will not do it, Spencer said. Rep. Michael Soter, a Republican who represents several small communities in the Blackstone Valley, said he worried about how a change in the law would impact communities that have already negotiated host community agreements and budgeted for the money they expect to collect. They sold the residents on the part of the law that we now want to change or tweak, Soter said. Rep. Colleen Garry, a Dracut Democrat, also said she worried that forcing communities to prove costs associated from increased traffic, parking or policing generated by marijuana businesses would put another burden on cities and towns. I dont want it to cost them money to prove its costing them money, Garry said. Athol Town Manager Shaun Suhoski said he felt battered and bruised after listening to a lot of the testimony. Nobodys shaking anybody down. These horror stories that weve heard. Let the courts handle it, he said. Suhoski said in Athol he has seven host community agreements and hes worried what will happen to them if the CCC issues new regulations ex post facto after they were negotiated in good faith. He said some of the companies he negotiates with have larger legal budgets than his entire town. I dont feel the municipalities always hold the upper hand, he said. David Torrisi, a former state lawmaker and president of the Commonwealth Dispensary Association, said host community agreement negotiations are inherently one-sided. Torrisi said if he had more time to testify he could make a case that Dunkin donuts shops cause more traffic, trash and other problems for communities that marijuana dispensaries. They should stop being penalized for running good clean businesses because of some outdated perceptions about cannabis use, Torrisi said. They Are Guessing Caroline Pineau, the owner of Stem in Haverhill, has gone so far as to sue the city to show her how the $400,000 in impact fees she owes under her host community agreement will be spent. Pineaus state senator, Sen. Diana DiZoglio, has filed a bill (S 68) that would require cities and towns to show how the impact fees are being used to mitigate the impact in the community of cannabis shops. After 12 months in operation, I have yet to see any evidence of negative impacts on Haverhill, Pineau said. Aaron Vega, another former state lawmaker who now directs economic development programming in Holyoke, said he agreed with Torrisi about the double standard. Id love to have a host community agreement in my city with McDonalds, Vega said. Vega said the host community agreements used by Holyoke is boilerplate, and would like to see more funds used to help the industry grow. He said he supports making sure the Cannabis Control Commission has the authority to regulate and standardize the process. Britte McBride, who like Title served on the CCC who helped draft the 2018 host community agreement guidance, said she supports the concepts of reform put forward in many of the bills, but she recommended splitting the host community agreement from the process of negotiating a community impact fee. McBride said HCAs could remain a requirement for licensing, but that an impact fee could be negotiated after one year of operation when both the community and the applicant have a better understanding of the businesss impact on the city or town. At the time these are being negotiated, they are guessing, McBride said. Boyer said three-quarters of the host community agreements he reviewed specified a percentage for an impact fee, and of those 90 percent were set at 3 percent. Municipalities are asking for this 3 percent as a reflex, Moyers said. The report highlights many examples of agreements that appear to violate the law. For instance, Marshfields agreement with Frozen 4 Companies stipulates that the payment for the first year of operation should be $250,000 or 3 percent of gross sales, whichever is greater. Or in Winchendon, the agreement called for a 3 percent impact fee plus $5,000 annually to a local American Legion Post. In total, Boyers report said 61 towns had at least some agreements that called for additional donations on top of the 3 percent impact fee totaling $998,000. Some who testified pointed to Northampton Mayor David Narkewiczs recent decision to waive the 3 percent fee for marijuana businesses in his town, citing the lack of evidence that it was warranted. The city will continue to collect the 3 percent tax on sales that cities and towns are also entitled to, under the law. Others pointed to the recent trial of former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia as evidence of what can go wrong without oversight. Correia faces a battery of charges that include allegations that he extorted money from marijuana business applicants in the city. Municipalities cant just ask for a blank check, said David OBrien, president of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association. A fourth COVID-19 stimulus check will be a tall order for progressives in Congress, but a Denver restaurant owner has inspired more than 2 million people to send a message to lawmakers: get recurring $2,000 checks on the table. As of Wednesday morning, 2,167,400 people have signed a Change.org petition calling on the feds to send Americans monthly checks of $2,000 including $1,000 payments for children for the duration of the pandemic. Posted more than a year ago by Stephanie Bonin, who owns a restaurant with her husband, the petitions proposal is aligned with a bill introduced by Sens. Ed Markey and Bernie Sanders, along with then-Sen. Kamala Harris, in May of 2020, after the pandemic shuttered restaurants nationwide. Nearly two dozen Democratic senators and 50 House members have called on President Joe Biden to include recurring checks in future economic plans. Biden has called for more payments to parents, but not a fourth round of stimulus checks or recurring payments. Bonin says the country is still deeply struggling, and that economic recovery from previous stimulus packages hasnt reached enough Americans. Without recurring payments during the pandemic, she argued, laid-off workers, furloughed workers, the self-employed and workers dealing with reduced hours will struggle to pay their rent or put food on the table. Even the maximum unemployment benefits extended unemployment benefits are set to expire in September wont be enough to help cover bills to prevent many Americans from slipping into poverty, she wrote. Restaurants can seek relief funds of up to $10 million to help cover pandemic losses through the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund, part of Bidens $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan. About 93% of restaurant staff were laid off or furloughed last spring more than 211,000 workers in Massachusetts, according to the National Restaurant Association. The industry in Massachusetts generates about $19 billion in annual sales. Two days after the Restaurant Revitalization Fund opened the door to applications, more than 186,000 business owners applied, the Small Business Administration announced last week. The federal government has sent out more than 164 million stimulus payments of $1,400 since Biden signed the American Rescue Plan in March, the Internal Revenue Service recently announced. The expense has racked up to $386 billion, and White House press secretary Jen Psaki in a recent briefing alluded to stimulus check funding without mentioning figures. Well see what members of Congress propose, but those are not free, Psaki said when pressed on the matter. She noted that the American Rescue Plan included an historic temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit, which will see monthly payments sent to parents starting in July. Parents will receive $3,000 per child aged 6 to 17 and $3,600 for every child under 6. Democratic leaders and the Massachusetts delegation have called for the expansion to remain permanent, while a new proposal from Biden would extend it to 2025. In a March letter, 21 Democratic senators told Biden that the single direct stimulus payment wont last long for many families. 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, the lawmakers wrote. Families should not be at the mercy of constantly-shifting legislative timelines and ad hoc solutions. Earlier this month, Bonin posted an update, noting that Americans may benefit from a legislative trigger that could prompt the release of federal aid if certain economic conditions are met. Remember when we got that first check and it helped? Remember when we waited for months and months while Congress stalled before sending a small second check, and then we waited again for a third check? she asked. As our country moves forward with higher vaccinations rates each day, and safety restrictions loosened, I share your feelings of never wanting to look back at this wretched year. But PAUSE one minute: lets make sure if there is a next time, we get the help we need faster. Related Content: SPRINGFIELD Mercy Medical Center will stop administering first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at its hospital-based vaccine clinic Friday as it transitions to outpatient sites. While mindful of our mission to make the COVID-19 vaccine available to the local communities we serve, we also recognize that access to the vaccine has changed with the significant increase in locations where it is now available, said Dr. Robert Roose, Mercys chief medical officer. As the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine shifts, Mercy Medical Center continues to adapt to the evolving needs of our community. Mercy, part of Trinity Health Of New England, has been administering vaccine doses, as it had supplies, in a lower-level conference center room in its main building since the states rollout began in mid-December to a select group and has since widened to anyone 16 years of age and older. The transition will now move distribution to outpatient physician offices within the Trinity Health Of New England Medical Group with the details of that process still being worked out. The Trinity system has a webpage for scheduling appointments. In effort to provide the COVID-19 vaccine in a sustainable way, Mercy Medical Center will begin transitioning away from our hospital-based Vaccine Clinic on Friday, May 14, the final day that first doses will be provided at this location, Roose said. The Mercy Vaccine Clinic will continue to provide second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for those who have scheduled appointments through the first week of June. Roose said this transition away from operation of the hospital-based clinic to providing vaccines in outpatient practice settings will promote the integration of vaccine access into more routine care. The Biden administration said earlier this month that it will be prepared to ship doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine directly to pediatricians offices shortly after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention greenlights the Food and Drug Administrations emergency use authorization of that vaccines expansion to those 12 to 15 years of age. Massachusetts is already allowing that group to pre-register. This CDC approval could come as early as today. While the pandemic has presented numerous and extraordinary challenges, we are grateful to our colleagues who have provided care and service at the Mercy Vaccine Clinic over the last six months, Roose said. Our mission calls us to serve as a transforming, healing presence and the members of this multidisciplinary team have not only fulfilled this commitment, they have also provided an invaluable service to the local community. Springfield officials have been opening a number of new neighborhood clinics for COVID-19 vaccinations in recent weeks to make access easier for certain populations. These clinics are in addition to the mass vaccination site at the Eastfield Mall on Boston Road. Related content: SPRINGFIELD Community activists and outreach workers have been taking it to the streets in Springfield, knocking on doors and urging residents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. The outreach effort, funded by the state Department of Public Health, returns to the Ward 4 area Wednesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The program has been concentrating in recent weeks on areas hardest hit by the pandemic, officials said. Zaida Luna, a community activist in the North End and a former city councilor, said Tuesday she has enjoyed being a team leader in the effort to encourage people to be vaccinated. I feel that we are providing very important information, Luna said. I always think that the community needs someone to inform them whats going on. We have been canvassing, knocking on doors. We contact people on the phone. We go to local businesses too and post information. Lunas team, with about eight staffers and five volunteers, has been concentrating on Wards 1 and 2. She said they have probably knocked on more than 1,000 doors already. We explain to them how important it is to get the vaccine to be safe, Luna said. The teams answer any questions and refer people to the state website for further information, she said. The response from people has been very positive, Luna said. You talk to them directly and they feel secure, Luna said. The great majority of people, after getting information and direct contact, say they want to get vaccinated, she said. The Department of Public Health has allocated $4.7 million for the community outreach program under its Vaccine Equity Initiative, targeting 20 communities in the state including Springfield. The state targets populations and communities that are disproportionately affected by COVID-19 to reduce barriers to vaccination, increase awareness of vaccine safety and efficacy, and ultimately increase vaccination, a state spokeswoman said. Communities targeted are Springfield, Holyoke, Worcester, sections of Boston, Chelsea, Everett, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Methuen, Revere, Brockton, Fall River, Fitchburg, Framingham, Leominster, Malden, New Bedford and Randolph. Archipelago Strategies Group, of Boston, one of two companies hired for the outreach program, has allocated funds to two community-based organizations in Springfield for the local project: Church of God in Christ, $81,506.25, and Springfield Black COVID Coalition, $51,922.50, a state spokeswoman said. The state has also expanded advertising on COVID-19 vaccinations. In Springfield that includes local media advertising, social media, 11 gas stations, 18 barber shops and hair salons, five hand-sanitizer locations, transit and four billboards, a spokeswoman said. Related content: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and state officials on Wednesday are touring Modernas laboratory facility in Norwood and offering an update on COVID-19 vaccination efforts across the state. Joining Baker on Wednesdays tour will be Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito; Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders; Stephane Bancel, Moderna Therapeutics CEO; Paul Chen, Head of Manufacturing Science & Technology; and Scott Nickerson, Senior Vice President of U.S. Manufacturing. He will speak following a tour at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. The remarks will be shared via livestream. After a rocky and confusing vaccine rollout, Baker now finds himself leading one of the nations top states in terms of getting shots in arms. Massachusetts is just one of three states to see at least 70% of residents with at least one dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. By early June, more than 4 million will be fully vaccinated, the governor told reporters after touring Manet Community Health Center in Quincy earlier this week. Youre doing a hell of a job, President Joe Biden told him during a virtual meeting with a bipartisan group of governors. New cases are down 40%, hospitalizations 20% and deaths 70% in Massachusetts since the vaccine rollout began, Baker told reporters Monday. Related Content: SPRINGFIELD American International College president Vincent Maniaci will retire at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. Looking back, while there have been many challenges and changes during my tenure, I am proud to reflect on the many achievements that we accomplished together, he said in a message sent to the campus community. Many of you have contributed to the elements that make unique among colleges and universities, he said. Maniaci is completing his 16th year as AIC president. A national search will be undertaken for Maniacis successor, in time for the 2022-2023 academic year. With the Springfield campus prepared to resume its traditional in-person learning schedule in the fall, Maniaci referred to the 136-year-old schools motto, Post Tenebras Lux, which translates to After Darkness Light, as symbolic and appropriate in the post-pandemic era. AIC will be the fifth local college or university to undergo a change in president since 2019. Transitions have also occurred at Hampshire College, Western New England University, Bay Path University and Westfield State University. Maniaci became president in 2005. Among his goals were the colleges fiscal stability, which faced new challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. During his time as president, Maniaci increased undergraduate and graduate programming through the doctoral level, resulting in robust enrollments, expanded athletic programs and improved sports venues, embarked on new construction and renovation of campus facilities, sought to improve campus safety and pursued grant funding, including a $2.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. His tenure faced challenges from the start, with a downsizing and retrenchment that was followed by a new strategic plan. Maniaci sought to create a cash surplus beyond a balanced budget. Recent programming has included a minor in Spanish, the addition of a master of science in cannabis science and commerce, the statewide expansion of the masters in education program, and the establishment of a low residency program. Health Sciences has added exercise science, family nurse practitioner, and a doctorate in occupational therapy. Undergraduate enrollment is currently about 1,400. Regarding athletics, Maniaci presided at a time the colleges hockey program faced a choice or either upgrading its commitment or folding the program. Long known as arguably the least successful Division I program in the United States, AIC (which competes at the Division II level in all other sports) has won three consecutive Atlantic Hockey League championships and came within one game of the NCAA Division I Frozen Four in 2019. The infrastructure and programming upgrades drew recognition from the Chronicle of High Education, that listed AIC among the fastest-growing colleges in both the bachelors and masters degree categories, according to the college. Announcement of Maniacis retirement also called attention to the nearly doubling of campus police personnel sinc 2014. seven years to include highly visible patrols and vehicles. Surveillance cameras in that time rose from 27 to more than 200 today. Significant infrastructure upgrades began early in Maniacis tenure with a major landscaping program, and have continued with the renovation of several academic, cultural and student life buildings. Maniaci thanked the campus community in a message announcing his plans. We share a collective passion for the mission of American International College and a sincere dedication to provide access and opportunity to a diverse population of students, who are inspired to grow in both knowledge and experience, and who entrust their education to us. That tradition has been the cornerstone of the institution for 136 years and will continue well into the future. Vince came on board at a critical time. The financial stability of the College was in a precarious state. AIC faced a significant budget deficit that, if left unchecked, would spell a certain end to AICs historic mission and purpose, Board of Trustees Chair Frank Colaccino said. Swift decisions had to be made, and nearly all of the leadership traits imagined by the hiring committee needed to be realized simultaneously and immediately. As with any organization able to boast more than one hundred years of history, it was imperative that we had a president who had a vision for the future. Through challenging times and some tough decisions, Vince has been able to enact positive change that has kept AIC viable and relevant. Maniacis more recent decisions met with pushback with some staff and faculty, who questioned administrative decisions to cut some less attended majors and reduce staff during the pandemic. The president and other officials maintained that the unprecedented circumstances, which required AIC to rely overwhelmingly on remote learning in the past year, required such choices be made. Education Commissioner Jeff Riley intends to waive accountability determinations for districts and schools based on this years MCAS exam, according to a senior department official who sought on Wednesday to assuage skeptics worried that the test results after a year of disrupted learning could be used against schools. Associate Education Commissioner Robert Curtin, with the departments Center for District Support, said the results of the MCAS exams being administered this spring would be published, but would not be used to compare the performances of schools or tag schools and districts as underperforming and in need of support services. It just wouldnt be right to run the accountability system in the way we have run it previously in this school year, said Curtin, who said the test results would instead be used for diagnostic and information purposes. The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted last month to allow juniors to graduate in 2022 without having passed the 10th grade English and math exams. At that time, Riley also presented a plan that would give him the authority to refrain from performing new accountability determinations for the 2020-2021 school year. The proposed regulation is currently out for public comment and is expected to be voted on by the DESE board at its June 22 meeting. Curtin presented the plan on Wednesday to the School and District Accountability and Assistance Advisory Council for feedback. Yes, we know that schools need assistance throughout this pandemic We dont need an accountability system to tell us that, Curtin said. The state applied for and received a waiver from the federal government from district and school accountability requirements, and with the changes in regulations at the state level would be able to continue to provide assistance and allocate federal funds to schools in need of support based on their 2019-2020 determination. Ron Sanborn, an elementary school principal in Marlborough, said there has been significant concern and skepticism among teachers, students and others with respect to accountability determinations this year and how the department would approach it. Curtin said it was unfortunate that there exists a level of distrust, but said it was very much our intention to waive determinations for this past school year. This is very much the culmination of the direction both I and the commissioner have wanted to take throughout the year, Curtin said. The department will publish the results of this springs MCAS exam, differentiating between students who took the test in-person or remotely, and Curtin said it has not yet been decided how to do accountability next year. Arlington School Committee member Paul Schlichtman said, Were all flying blind now. Some kids did extraordinarily well with remote and some didnt, Schlichtman said. It will be interesting to be able to tie results that were used to playing with with this additional data of what their circumstances were moving through the pandemic. Dan Anderson, associate commissioner in charge of system supports at DESE, said all schools and districts previously identified as in need of support prior to the pandemic will continue to be eligible for applicable services. Schlichtman questioned whether districts can self-identify as being in need of assistance, given the challenges of the past year and the fact that the accountability data available is stale. Anderson said some support services are set aside for underperforming schools and districts identified through the accountability system, but he said the department has also set up teams to help all school system navigate pandemic related challenges. We will never not pick up the phone, he said. The advisory council also had a discussion about the departments initiative to find more ways to incorporate student voices and their lived experiences into the policy-making process at the school, district and DESE levels. Gov. Charlie Baker appears to have pulled back his nomination of Lisa Lippiello to the District Court bench. The Hampshire County Bar Association president had been scheduled for a public interview before the Governors Council on Wednesday morning, but the hearing was cancelled, and the council website reported that her nomination was withdrawn on Tuesday. Councilors Terry Kennedy and Christopher Iannella both told the News Service on Wednesday afternoon that they had recently learned about Lippiellos nomination being withdrawn and had not been informed of any reason behind the move. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, who presides over council meetings, responded to the News Service in a State House hallway: Oh, I dont know about that, she said. Asked directly why Lippiellos nomination was withdrawn, Polito silently proceeded into the councils temporary meeting space in the Great Hall without responding further. NTSB spokesperson Christopher T. ONeil stressed the report is preliminary and could change. We wont get to the how and why until much later, ONeil said. These are the facts were were able to ascertain. He said a final report could take 12 to 24 months. AMHERST For Allison Lepine, it was all about efficiency. The path for Joanna Buoniconti was one of advocacy. In their own ways, each graduating senior made their mark at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. For Lepine, of Chicopee, and Buoniconti, of West Springfield, its now time to apply those leadership skills to society at large. To say they are ready and eager would be an understatement. They will be among 10 members of the UMass graduating class to be honored as 21st Century Leaders at Fridays commencement. Buoniconti is a Commonwealth Honors College student who earned dual degrees in English, with a specialization in creative writing, and in journalism. Refusing to let spinal muscular atrophy slow her down, she shined in two writing-intense majors, all without setting a wheel on campus, as she put it, and attending classes by Zoom. Now she is ready to advocate for other disabled individuals with a confidence she says is only recently developed. I actually stumbled upon my passion for writing about disability issues due to the encouragement of one of my professors last year. Prior to that, I was always hesitant to address my disability because it made me different, Buoniconti said. For the majority of my life, I thought doing my best to conform was the only way to be accepted by my peers, she said. However, writing openly about the things that made me different has been completely transformative (and) incredibly freeing for me, and I hope to continue writing about these issues. The issues I talk about are not discussed, ever, and I hope they can be a resource for disabled people of my generation. Because remote learning was Buonicontis necessary path to an education, she was more prepared than most for virtual learning, and became a mentor to many other students during the COVID-19 pandemic. That the pandemic made remote learning the new normal was actually encouraging for me, because I was able to interact with my peers more readily and help create a commonality between us, she said. My next steps are finding a job in either the journalism or publishing industry. I do plan to continue working on my (book-length) memoir with the intent of publishing eventually, but I need to experience life more in order to put it out there. For students and others with disabilities, Buoniconti said, dont be afraid to advocate for your needs and dont apologize for them. The right school wants to help you be successful, like UMass did for me. Allison Lepine of Chicopee will be honored as a Jack Welch Scholar during 2021 commencement exercises at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Lepines initial interest was in mechanical engineering, but she shifted to an industrial engineering major for its math component what she called working under the hood. She carried a minor in engineering management for its business element. Her true forte, though, is as an efficiency expert. Her major and her minor seemed like a perfect fit. Having something, improving it, making it better is what drew me to it. It involves problem solving, engineering, and cost analysis how can I make it more efficient? she explained. Lepine will be saluted at graduation as a Jack Welch Scholar. The honor is named for the late chairman and CEO of General Electric, a UMass chemical engineering graduate. The recognition is bestowed on a student as he or she enters UMass, but it must be continually earned by maintaining at least a 3.2 GPA and showing leadership and executive skills. This spring, Lepines leadership and talents were put to most relevant use. Over a 14-week period, she was tasked to elevate the efficiency of a COVID-19 vaccination site in Lynn. They were looking to improve and were definitely interested in new ideas. They were looking to do 60,000 (vaccinations) in 12 weeks, and they were never going to make it without efficient practices, Lepine said. Lepine will join PepsiCo as a supply chain leader at the companys Frito-Lay plant in Killingly, Connecticut. Its typical of a woman who does all she can to be organized and prepared. Ive always wanted to have something set up before graduating, Lepine said. I had an internship with PepsiCo, and during the pandemic, it wasnt canceled but went virtual instead. I was fortunate with that. Related content: WEST SPRINGFIELD The Islamic Society of Western Massachusetts will celebrate the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan on Thursday, May 13, at 9 a.m. on the grounds of the Eastern States Exposition. Eid-al-Fitr, or the Festival of the Breaking of the Fast holiday that concludes the month, is marked by special prayers and the giving of gifts and this year is being observed in accordance with continuing COVID-19 safety precautions. The Eid prayer and celebration will be at Big E grounds with proper social distancing and with most of the congregants praying next to their cars, said Dr. M. Saleem Bajwa, a Holyoke physician and society member. The weather being nice, we expect about 2,000 to attend. The sweets and goodies for children will be distributed the COVID-19 way, that is, drive-by and grab. Bajwa said Mayor William Reichelt will make remarks following the 9 a.m. prayer and the societys new Imam, Mirza Yawar Baig, will deliver a sermon. Ramadan, which is observed by Muslims around the world as a time of reflection, prayer and charitable acts, marks the time the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, was revealed to the prophet Mohammad. Related content: Federal authorities said a Florida woman stole a Massachusetts residents ID to apply for a coronavirus pandemic-related loan worth more than $100,00 and spent the funds on a private flight to California as well as luxury hotel stays. Danielle Miller, a 31-year-old Miami woman, was arrested Tuesday in connection with the scheme involving filing fraudulent pandemic-related loans and using the money on personal expenses, the U.S. Attorneys Office said in a statement. She was charged with wire fraud and will appear in U.S. District Court in Miami on Wednesday. The woman will make an appearance in Boston federal court at a later date. According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, Miller used the persons identifying information to open a bank account and applied for a federally-funded Economic Injury Disaster loan through the U.S. Small Business Administration. In August 2020, more than $102,000 in SBA loan money was deposited into that account, prosecutors said. The same IP address used to apply for the for the fraudulent loan was also used to access the online RMV accounts of other individuals and to apply for more than $900,000 in additional SBA loans under those other identities, according to authorities. After receiving the funds, the Miami woman is accused of booking the private flight from Florida to California with the fraudulent bank account, using a counterfeit Massachusetts drivers license under the victims name that bore Millers photograph and conducting ATM transactions with the stolen ID, officials stated. Miller, court documents said, maintained an active presence on her Instagram, which has more than 34,000 followers, posting photographs showing her at various luxury hotels in California, where transactions were made using the bank account in the victims name. For example, the luxury hotel Petit Ermitage allegedly posted a $5,500 charge to this bank account in September 2020, a few days after Millers Instagram account posted a photo of Miller that was geotagged to the Petit Ermitage, the U.S. Attorneys Office noted. Eyeing ways to rethink public safety, the Northampton City Council voted last week to endorse a series of recommendations that, if implemented by the mayors office, would change the face of law enforcement in the years to come. At its most recent meeting last Thursday, the legislative body passed a resolution offering support for a slew of recommendations made by the Northampton Policing Review Commission in its final report released in March. The document, titled, Reimagining Safety, laid out more than a dozen proposals that aim to shift certain emergency response responsibilities away from law enforcement. Chief among the recommendations is the call for the creation of an entirely new agency, the Northampton Department of Community Care, that would, if formed, be composed of peer responders, many of whom would be of demographics historically marginalized by law enforcement. Staff in the agency would be trained to help individuals suffering mental health and substance-use crises. They would respond without firearms to situations where the appearance of an armed officer may escalate the situation or where a social intervention may reduce the dependence on carceral responses or hospitalization, according to the report. If created, the agency would ultimately need to be available to the community 24/7, the commission said. However, the department may start off smaller, with staffing available at high call volume times, before eventually ramping up its services, according to the final report. With the exception of City Councilor John Thorpe, who abstained from voting last Thursday, all the members of the City Council voted in favor of the resolution, which was co-sponsored by Councilors Rachel Maiore and Michael Quinlan. We just felt it was important that the council as a body who helped charged the Policing Review Commission with its mission express and affirm its formal and collective support for the commissions final recommendations, Maiore said during the meeting. As part of its resolution, the council urged Mayor David Narkewicz to fund the Department of Community Care with a meaningful investment that would assure viability this coming fiscal year. The Policing Review Commission called for the agency to be funded and set up in FY 2022 and be made fully operational by FY 2023. The mayors office will unveil its first draft of the citys FY 2022 operational budget at the City Councils next meeting Thursday, May 20. In an interview with MassLive on Wednesday, Narkewicz said it includes investments related to the recommendations of the commission. However, he declined to get into specifics before the budgets officially released. Narkewicz has previously said hes looking at peer-to-peer, co-responder emergency response models brought up in the commissions report, ideas other communities are researching, and his office is currently working on setting up a Community Resilience Hub, a day shelter of sorts for the most vulnerable residents in the city. The mayor views establishing the Resilience Hub as one of his most major projects to complete before leaving office come January 2022. In its report, the Policing Review Commission also called for the creation of the hub. I respect the councils authority in terms of expressing - through a resolution, obviously non-binding - its views on issues, Narkewicz told MassLive when asked to comment on the resolution. In terms of the council wanting to publicly endorse those recommendations, I have no objection to that. Obviously, we can give speeches and pass resolutions, but the true measure of how we accept that report is our actions, what we do in terms of moving forward to try to put those recommendations into action. Really, this budget and future budgets and future actions by the next mayor of Northampton will really be the true test of how the Northampton Policing Review Commission recommendations are studied, the mayor added. The commission recommended the community care department be situated under the Northampton Board of Health. However, the idea caused some confusion with councilors, who noted the five-member volunteer board is an unfunded entity thats composed of non-elected individuals. This point was brought up by Northampton City Councilor William H. Dwight, who first thanked the commissioners for their work and their advocacy and their vision and the energy that theyve invested in this. He noted the Board of Health is an unfunded department, more or less, that has special state-granted authority that does not conform with, say, representative accountability. He asked Maiore and Quinlan if they consulted with the citys public health director about the possibility of the board assuming the new community care department. I think the Board of Health should be worshipped, particularly as we emerge from the accountability, Dwight said. But theyre not an agency, and thats a problem. The language of the resolution was changed so that instead of specifying that the community care department be under the purview of the Board of Health, it read that the agency be situated outside of the Northampton Police Department. At the meeting, Narkewicz said he has spoken with Northampton Public Health director Meredith OLeary about the Policing Review Commissions report, noting she expressed concern about the proposed agency falling under her purview. Given all that her department is currently handling, not just during the pandemic, but the work theyre doing around the various federal and state opioid grants that theyre managing, the regional emergency preparedness coalition that they manage - theres a bunch of other task forces that are led out of the health department - shes very concerned about it from a capacity standpoint, Narkewicz said. Narkewicz and City Council President Gina-Louise Sciarra, who is running for mayor of Northampton, formed the Policing Review Commission last summer in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed at the hands of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin. The formation of the commission was seen as elected officials response to Northampton residents demands for authorities to rethink the citys approach to policing, review whether police services can be delivered by others and reenvision how the community structures and funds public safety moving forward. The commission was tasked with studying an array of complex issues related to law enforcement, ranging from The Northampton Policing Review Commission met that charge through dedicated work, holding three public hearings, more than 70 meetings of the full commission and subcommittees, and countless hours of research According to the City Councils resolution, the commissions report underscored the importance of building a new system that reflects Northamptons values and is designed to promote the care, health, and wellbeing of everyone in our community at no ones expense. Along with calling for the creation of the new community care department, the commissions final report also recommended the city improve options for crisis response, promote the safety of the houseless, reduce the risk of substance use, transition law enforcement responsibilities to peer and co-responder models, continue to provide police responses for some 911 calls, improve the current complaint processes and create a strategic plan for the Northampton Police Department, establish data-driven staffing levels for public safety and safe work hour caps and engage the police unions in the community. Also during its last meeting, the City Council heard from dozens of members of the community for several hours during the time allotted for public comment. Josh Wallace, president of the union representing Northamptons patrol officers, was the first one to speak during the public forum portion of the meeting, which drew comments from dozens of people. He started off by acknowledging the time the Policing Review Commission put into its final report. The Northampton police value feedback and suggestions on how they can serve their community better, because the community members are our customers, and if we dont pursue the challenges of being better guardians of our community, then we become stagnant and less effective in our service to the community, Wallace said. He went on to claim the commission diverse in many ways, except their view of police in general, noting how none of the members set foot in the department. He also asserted none of the commissioners spoke with a member of the police department or heard from people who had positive experiences with law enforcement in the community. However, commissioners met with at least one member of the department, Northampton Police Chief Jody Kasper. During that meeting, the chief talked about the police departments role in responding to reported crimes, its relationships with social services, training activities, domestic violence, traffic stops and other topics. The commission also heard some positive testimony from members of the public who were grateful for Northampton police and others who spoke of negative experiences. We heard testimony that some people of color lack trust and confidence in their safety around any armed police, the commission noted in its report. Notably, we also heard many complaints about harm from Northampton police experienced by houseless persons and people with mental health challenges. Wallace asked the city council to take the commissions report on its face based as a biased view of policing in general and not an accurate depiction of the police department. It appears, though, the Policing Review Commissions members held an array of varying viewpoints on the role of law enforcement, as commissioners in the 15-member body noted previously they were challenged by differences of opinion. By the time the group finished its final report, having undergone months of regular meetings and hours of public hearings, some commissioners believed their recommendations werent radical enough. Another, Dr. Nmadi Pole, a psychology professor at Smith College, claimed the proposals offered in the report went too far, and that the commission was structurally and philosophically biased. Its an imperfect document, but its one that is the best we could do under the time we had, Pole said at a city council meeting in March. Several other people who spoke during the public comment period of the councils meeting last Thursday expressed their support for some of the recommendations made in the commissions final report, including the creation of the Department of Community Care. Among those who argued in favor of the proposal for the new agency were Ashwin Ravikumar, a member of the Northampton Abolition Now activist group thats seeking a 50% reduction in the police departments budget, and Jose Adastra, who organizes to aid houseless individuals in the city. The two activists, like the city council, put pressure on the mayor to take more substantial action to change how law enforcement operates in Northampton. Id like to thank Michael Quinlan and Rachel Maiore for their resolution. I think the council should adopt it, and Id like to thank all the people that did unpaid labor on the police commission, Adastra said. And really, its really David Narkewicz. Were all here looking at you. Both individuals have attended numerous city council and Policing Review Commission meetings, speaking out about the need for drastic changes to public safety, bold leadership from elected officials in Northampton and the formation of the community care department led by those who have been most impacted by policing, Ravikumar noted. But its not enough to just create a new department, Ravikumar said. Fundamentally, the movement for Black lives and the Northampton Policing Review Commission report call on us to move functions out of policing right now and to let resources and budget follow that money in alignment with our values. Ravikumar argued the mayor can issue an administrative order right now to create the community care department and fund it in his current budget proposal while moving funds away from policing. The activist added there are a lot of procedural barriers to overcome, including insurance issues, budgetary details and other specifics surrounding a new agency. However, he added, The uprising for Black lives was almost a year ago, and there are many pathways to action now that we could take that mirror the growing wave of cities around the country. As a person of color who spends a lot of time in Northampton, I want to be able to call someone who is not a cop who might put my life in danger when I am going through a crisis, Ravikumar said, and I want to be able to do that as soon as possible. Related Content: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker says he still believes in the core conservative values of the Republican Party at least the party as he knew it. But the GOP can count Baker out of its ongoing surrender to falsehoods still being spread about the 2020 election by twice-impeached former President Donald Trump. Baker told reporters Wednesday that conservative Rep. Liz Cheney removed hours earlier from her number three post in House GOP leadership was absolutely right to publicly state that President Joe Biden won fair and square and that Republicans who suggest otherwise are promulgating falsehoods. I made very clear that I felt the election process that took place in November was fair, and that President Joe Biden won the election, Baker said. On those issues, I believe Liz Cheney is absolutely right. The daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney is one the few Republicans in Congress who blame Trump for inciting a mob of his followers to engage in a failed, deadly attempt to stop Congress from certifying Bidens victory at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Nearly 150 Republicans voted to overturn Bidens Electoral College wins in multiple states, and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy argued the increasingly public divide between Cheney and the caucus required a leadership change. Baker, who appeared with a group of bipartisan governors in a COVID-19 discussion with Biden on Tuesday, said hed like to see in Washington, D.C., the same cooperation and bipartisan teamwork that he sees at the state-by-state level. Governors tend to be a lot less partisan, he said. I talk to Republican and Democrat governors on a regular basis. We have very common problems were all trying to solve. Most governors will pick up the phone when you call them, and try to help you solve the problem youre trying to solve, and vice versa. I wish there was a lot more of that at the federal level. Trump has continued to spread baseless claims about the election without presenting any evidence of widespread fraud or irregularities impacting the outcome. Local, state and federal election officials of both major parties from town clerks and county boards to secretaries of state and judges appointed by Trump himself say no widespread fraud or irregularities affected the presidential race. Trumps own Homeland Security experts called the election the most secure in U.S. history, and said they found zero evidence that polling machines were tampered with, a frequent false claim spread by Trump lawyers, Republican politicians and followers on social media. Trumps own attorney general, William Barr, said the Justice Department investigated and found no evidence of widespread fraud. After the vote removing her from GOP leadership, Cheney told reporters she hopes to be a leader fighting for a Republican party framed around truth, the rule of law and the Constitution. She said shell do everything in her power to keep Trump out of the White House in the future, describing him as a danger to the republic who continues to broadcast false election claims that she and other Trump critics say could lead to the GOPs downfall. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office, she told reporters on Capitol Hill. We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution, and I think its very important that whomever we elect is someone who will be faithful to the Constitution. While Baker sides with Cheney and the small group of Republican senators including a former predecessor, Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah who argue Trumps false election claims are an affront to democracy, Baker said he still fundamentally believed in the Republican Party. I continue to believe the core values of the party, he said. Ive had my differences with plenty of folks in the party during the course of my time in public life. But Im a big believer in what the party stands for based on what I believe the party stands for. Related Content: Rep. Katherine Clark is leading a renewed bipartisan push to bolster health equity by improving timely access to critical pediatric care when families must rely on out-of-state providers. The Massachusetts Democrat on Wednesday introduced the Accelerating Kids Access to Care Act, which is designed to eliminate administrative hurdles and ensure families get the quick care or procedures their children need when facilities in their home state cant provide highly specialized care. The bill would empower states to let pediatric care providers use a streamlined screening and enrollment process when they need to enroll in another states Medicaid program, guaranteeing timely coverage and cutting red tape and regulatory burdens that slow down, or, in certain cases, prohibit children from receiving the care they need, Clarks office said in a statement to MassLive. Kids with serious health conditions often cant wait for care and they shouldnt have to, Clark, the assistant Speaker of the House, said in a statement. The Accelerating Kids Access to Care Act ensures that red tape and state lines dont stand between children and life-saving medical care. Currently, when families must travel out-of-state to receive care, parents have to grapple with health care providers and state Medicaid officials just to find eligible providers. Once the State Medicaid Agency or Medicaid Managed Care Organization, as well as the childs provider, determine what care must be delivered across state lines, the out-of-state provider must be screened and enrolled in the childs home-state Medicaid program. More often than not, providers expend significant amounts of time to address these [state or Medicaid screening] requirements, which vary significantly between states, more than 75 childrens advocates and health care providers including the American Academy of Pediatrics, Boston Childrens Hospital and Childrens Hospital Association wrote to lawmakers in a joint letter this week. When this happens, access to care is delayed and, in some cases, the childs health situation worsens. The advocates said the bill is a commonsense move that protects the integrity of Medicaid programs while creating a streamlined screening pathway that childrens hospitals and other providers can use on a voluntary basis. If they screen successfully, they can be enrolled in out-of-state Medicaid programs right away if called upon to provide care for children, the advocates wrote. The bill would particularly benefit pediatric care providers in Massachusetts, a medical care leader that often provides specialized treatment for families from across the U.S. Boston Childrens Hospital treats more children with rare diseases and complex conditions than any other hospital in the nation, with patients from all 50 states, according to Dr. Kevin Churchwell, president and CEO of the hospital. We see first-hand the importance of timely care and the potential threats that delays in care pose to the health and well-being of many patients, he said in a statement. This legislation is a crucial step toward ensuring that all patients receive the care they need, when they need it. On behalf of our patients and their families, we thank the bills sponsors and urge its enactment. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Republican of Washington, joined Clark in introducing the legislation; Herrera Beutler previously introduced the bill with former Rep. Joe Kennedy III in early 2020. A bipartisan group of senators, including Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet of Colorado and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and Republicans Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Rob Portman of Ohio, introduced the bill in the upper chamber. Related Content: U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, ousted Wednesday from her House Republican leadership role, says shell do everything in her power to keep former President Donald Trump out of the White House in the future, describing him as a danger to the republic who continues to broadcast false election claims that have infected the GOP. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office, she told reporters on Capitol Hill. We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution, and I think its very important that whomever we elect is someone who will be faithful to the Constitution. Liz Cheney immediately after she was ousted from House leadership: "I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office." pic.twitter.com/mxrPHqtRup Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 12, 2021 The Wyoming Republican made the remarks shortly after she was booted from her number three post in the House GOP largely over her refusal to join the ranks in promulgating Trumps false claims that President Joe Biden somehow stole the White House. Local, state and federal election officials of both major parties, including judges and Homeland Security officials appointed by Trump, say no widespread fraud or irregularities impacted the presidential race. We must go forward based on truth, Cheney said. We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the Constitution. Cheney, the staunchly conservative daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is one of only a handful of Republicans in Congress blaming the twice-impeached president for inciting a mob of his followers to engage in a deadly attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. The failed effort to stop Congress from certifying Bidens victory based on the lie that the election was a sham saw Trump supporters ransacking the Capitol and calling for the hanging of then-Vice President Mike Pence. Dozens were arrested and multiple people died as a result, including multiple Capitol Police officers. Trump has continued to spread baseless claims about the election without presenting any evidence of fraud or irregularities that shaped the outcome. His own administrations Homeland Security experts called the election the most secure in U.S. history and said they found no evidence that polling machines were tampered with. His own attorney general, William Barr, said the Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud. House GOP leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California told party members in a letter earlier this week that the infighting over Cheney was hurting the party politically. Each day spent relitigating the past is one day less we have to seize the future, he said. If we are to succeed in stopping the radical Democrat agenda from destroying our country, these internal conflicts need to be resolved so as to not detract from the efforts on our collective team. Cheney told reporters that the nation needs a strong Republican Party ... based on fundamental principles of conservatism. I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that thats how this party goes forward and I plan to lead the fight to do that. Related Content: BOSTON -- Two members of the Red Sox are expected to begin rehab assignments in Worcester later this week. Infielder/outfielder Kike Hernandez (right hamstring strain) and second baseman Christian Arroyo (left hand contusion) are expected to rehab with the WooSox during their series against Syracuse this week, manager Alex Cora said Wednesday afternoon. Most likely, (Kike) and Christian, theyll play maybe two games in Worcester, Cora said on WEEIs Ordway, Merloni & Fauria. Rehab games. Hopefully, theyll be ready for the road trip or whenever theyre available to come off the IL. Hernandez went on the 10-day injured list Friday and is eligible to be activated Tuesday when the Red Sox take on the Blue Jays in Dunedin, Fla. Arroyo was placed on the IL on Sunday and can come back next Wednesday. The Red Sox havent mapped out exact plans for either player, Cora said, but the expectation is that theyll both make appearances at Polar Park. Infielders Michael Chavis and Jonathan Arauz were called up to take the empty roster spots and will likely head back to Worcester once Hernandez and Arroyo are activated. Not mapped out, but its an idea, Cora said. We feel good about where theyre at. Especially with Enrique. So we would like them to see (pitchers) to play a little bit. It might be one game or two games. Especially in that situation (with a hamstring). To run around, play the outfield, maybe play second base one day. Its trending in the right direction and it seems like both of them should be with us sooner rather than later. Santana starting Wednesday for WooSox Infielder/outfielder Danny Santana will start at third base for the WooSox on Wednesday night and bat second against Syracuse as he makes his first appearance at Triple-A this season. Santana, who has played 509 big-league games over the last seven seasons, signed a minor-league deal with the Red Sox in mid-March. Santana is rehabbing from two injuries -- a modified Tommy John procedure he underwent in September and a foot infection he suffered at the end of spring training -- and could be in Worcester for an extended period. Cora wants Santana to move around to different positions, get at-bats and build up strength before the Red Sox decide whether or not to activate him. The 30-year-old was 4-for-10 with a homer, a double and two RBIs in three rehab games for High-A Greenville. Like we said when we got him, this is a guy who had a great season two years ago and last season he was hurt, Cora said. He needs to play. Thats the most important thing. Because hes there doesnt mean hes that close to being added here or hes going to be part of this. The fact hes part of the organization is very important. This is a proven big-leaguer, somebody we recognized in the off-season and theres a reason we brought him to the organization, Cora added. Now, its about him building up stamina, getting at-bats, moving around and running around. He hasnt played in a year and a half. Its good that hes here and hes going to be able to play. Related links: How rebuilding Boston Red Sox might approach trade deadline, other situations while competing for 2021 AL East title under Chaim Bloom, Brian OHalloran Boston Red Soxs Nathan Eovaldi encouraged by strong start despite being outdueled by Chris Bassitt: The fastball felt really good coming out Boston Red Sox notebook: Jason Varitek more vocal as coach than he was as a player, should Hunter Renfroe have caught ball in 7th? This week theres been a whisky focus at Master of Malt what with World Whisky Day coming up, whereas next week its all about gin. So for our Cocktail of the Week, weve combined the two with a Suffering Bastard. Oh, and its World Cocktail Day tomorrow. Will the fun never end? The great thing about cocktails is that you can sling all kinds of things together and if they taste good, then thats all that matters. I mean who could have predicted that Campari, vermouth and gin would work such magic together in the Negroni? The flipside is that its easy to make something revolting. Todays drink is in the former category combining some seriously strong, disparate flavours: gin, bourbon and ginger beer. Its one of those drinks that shouldnt work but somehow it does. Unlike most cocktails whose origins are lost in the mists of time the Suffering Bastard has a fixed who, when and where. Shalom! The who was a man called Joe Scialom, who was bartender at the Long Bar in the legendary Shepheards Hotel in Cairo. And the when was 1942. Scialom was an Egpytian Jew of Italian extraction, his surname is an Italianised version of the Hebrew word shalom, meaning peace. The hotel was a popular haunt of British officers and assorted hangers-on during the war. As you might expect, quite a bit of drinking went on with the resultant hangovers and one day Scialom was inspired to create a cure. Anyone who has had a hangover will know that ginger has magical palliative properties. Or seems to anyway. When I worked at Oddbins in Leeds, a bottle of Fentimens Ginger Beer and a couple of paracetamol was all too often the breakfast of champions. Brandy or bourbon? To that ginger beer, Scialom added lime cordial, brandy and gin, not something wed recommend as treatment for a hangover but delightful as a long drink. All those strong flavours were partly a way of disguising that by 1942, good quality booze would have been in short supply. This is from a 1957 New York Times interview with Scialom: When liquor was short during the war, he had to concoct something to quench the boys thirst. He combined equal parts gin and brandy with a dash of Angostura bitters, a teaspoon of Roses lime juice, and English ginger ale. He garnished the drink with a sprig of fresh mint, a slice of orange and a cucumber peel. The bartender advised Americans to substitute ginger beer for the ginger ale because the British version of the soft drink is more heavily seasoned with ginger than ours. Or was it bourbon? In an interview with Colliers Magazine from 1953 its worth reading the whole thing on this wonderful blog Egypt in the Golden of Travel it reads: I always thought that gin, which I had, and bourbon, which I had, dont marry, Joe says. But I stuck some gin and bourbon into the vase, and looked about for something to take the curse off. There was some Angostura and some lime cordial and some dry ginger ale for fizz. I shook it all up with some ice and decorated it with mint. I was most surprised at the result. The customers did not drop dead. They recovered, and clamoured for more. Been clamouring ever since. So the story isnt quite so straightforward after all. Two revolutions later Sadly, in 1952 Shepheards Hotel was destroyed during the revolution that overthrew the monarchy and brought President Nasser to power. Nassers aim was to free the country of foreign influences which involved nationalising industries including the Suez canal. Most non-Arabs including the countrys ancient Jewish community took the hint and left but not Scialom who moved across town to open Joes Bar at another hotel, the Semiramis. That is until he was imprisoned under suspicion of espionage. On his release he left Egypt, worked for Hilton hotels in Puerto Rico and then later Cuba, where again he had to flee a revolution. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde: to be caught up in one revolution may be regarded as a misfortune, to be in two looks like carelessness. If you want to know more, its worth reading this post on Scialom which hints that he may well have been involved in espionage in some way. From its birth in wartime Cairo, the Suffering Bastard, sometimes known as the Suffering Bar Steward for those who dont like a bit of good old fashioned swearing, became a staple of tiki bars. It was on the menu at Trader Vics though made with rum instead of brandy, and it was served in a special mug that looked like a particularly lugubrious chap holding his head in his hands following a hard night see below. How to make Suffering Bastard The version in Diffords Guide is made with Remy Martin Cognac, though nowadays its usually made with bourbon. The version weve got below is based on David Wondrichs Esquire Drinks: An Opinionated and Irreverent Guide to Drinking with 250 Drink Recipes. It eschews the lime cordial which was probably there in the first place to cover up bad booze and seeing as this is the Master of Malt blog, were not likely to use such a thing. For bourbon, were using Woodford Reserve, plus a good London dry gin, Fords. And then Fentimans ginger beer to finish the whole thing off. Down the hatch or rather lchaim! 30ml Woodford Reserve bourbon 30ml Fords London Dry Gin 1tsp lime juice 1 dash of Angostura Bitters Chilled Fentimans or any good strong ginger beer Add the gin, bourbon, lime juice and bitters to an ice-filled Highball glass. Top up with ginger beer, stir gently and garnish with an orange slice and a sprig of mint. In both elections last year, about four in five city residents who requested mail-in ballots returned them. That rate will likely drop this time around. Among other reasons, some applicants will feel comfortable voting in person now that more people have received COVID-19 vaccines. Tuerk said he spoke to one woman who admitted to tossing her ballot after not recognizing any of the names; he worries shes not the only one to have done so. He would like public health experts to emphasize that in the vast majority of people, the vaccines not only stop infection and serious illness but also prevent transmission. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that a vaccinated person is less likely to transmit the virus even when carrying it, but that studies are ongoing. An April article from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health was more assertive, saying evidence increasingly pointed to the conclusion that vaccinated individuals are not able to spread the virus. Were getting information that after this person was shot, someone was seen getting into the vehicle and then driving the vehicle westbound on Indiana, Small said. Police say they arent sure whether the person who took the vehicle and drove it at least 10 miles was also the shooter. The meetings were uneventful and mostly uninteresting, but once there was a hot issue. Ive forgotten what the issue was it may have had to do with sewerage but what Ill never forget is that when the supervisors began to discuss it, they switched from English to Pennsylvania Dutch and left me in the dust. A newly declassified intelligence report makes it clear the U.S. intelligence community believed the Russian government had long attacked Biden for the benefit of Trump. But, according to the report, throughout 2020 senior intelligence officials bowed to Trumps hostility toward any public emphasis of the threat from Russia. Even 3 Years After Famine, More than 200,000 kids in Somalia Go Hungry At a hospital in Mogadishu's Yaqshid district, hundreds of children suffer from acute malnutrition that get worse due to infections. Dr Haroon Latif Khan provided details on how AI is being adopted in fertility clinics for stringent quality control measures to increase pregnancy and live birth success rates."As we are living through a technological revolution, AI is being integrated into all aspects of our lives," he said."The live birth rate is the ultimate key performance indicator in assisted reproductive technology, and we are seeing AI being embraced for management of performance, quality and risk," he said."The main targets of this total quality management are in the areas of ovarian stimulation, oocyte retrieval, sperm preparation, embryo development and grading, cryopreservation of gametes and embryos, and pre-implantation genetic testing (PGT) of embryos."Computers as an adjunct in assisted reproduction have been in use for many years for techniques including quick and accurate sperm analysis and electronic monitoring of quality control procedures and protocols."PGT has become the norm in fertility clinics for testing embryos for any genetic abnormalities before they are implanted, and this is now fully automated for high accuracy. Vitrification also now relies on AI to enhance survival of gametes, embryos and reproductive tissue."In the future, I believe we will see AI increasingly applied to predict the viability of embryos for implantation and in the next generation of reproductive genetics."Eventually, every step of an assisted reproductive cycle will be automated resulting in reduced costs, greater work efficiency, and minimised human subjectivity and variability."This will result in assisted reproduction being more accessible and the number of IVF cycles will consequently skyrocket."However, Dr Haroon insists that "robots" will not take over fertility clinics. "We will still need the human touch to run our laboratories, and the future looks very exciting as we all strive to ensure patient safety remains at the forefront of accessibility and treatment."Source: Medindia Israel and Palestine have been at loggerheads for decades. Since the end of World War 2, the whole world has witnessed the bitter struggle between Israelis and Palestinians. The recent violence that began as clashes has now escalated into rockets and airstrikes from both sides. The core issue is Israel's attempt to limit gatherings at Al-Aqsa and a dispute over land ownership in Sheikh Jarrah in Jerusalem. The religious site is equally important for Muslims and Jews who address it as Temple Mount. The recent clashes erupted after Israeli Police, on April 12, prevented people from gathering at the Damascus Gate Plaza in East Jerusalem that's under Israel's control. The Damascus Gate Plaza has been a popular gathering place for Palestinian Muslims during the month of Ramzan. It escalated when, on April 16, Israel imposed a limit of only 10,000 people who can pray at Al-Aqsa, and thousands of Palestinians were sent back. Everyone is sharing their opinions on social media over the recent clashes and taking sides. Just recently, Indian actor Swara Bhasker also shared her opinions which landed her in troubled waters. Swara sided with Palestinians and called Israel a terrorist state. She tweeted, Israel is an apartheid state. Israel is a terrorist state. Nuff said. #AlAqsa #FreePalestine. Twitter/Swara Bhasker In another tweet, she wrote, The cause of #Palestine and justice for Palestinians isnt an Islamic cause.. at least it shouldnt solely be that.. it is first & foremost an anti-imperialist, anti-colonial & anti-apartheid cause.. & thats why it should concern us all, even non-Muslims. #FreePalestine #AlAqsa Twitter/Swara Bhasker She started to face backlash for her tweets and it all kinda blew up after her latest tweet. She wrote, Dear Israel... If the Indian right-wing is supporting you... you know you are doing something wrong! Damn wrong. #IndiaWithIsrael #FreePalestine. Twitter/Swara Bhasker Her tweets have offended many people who are siding by Israel and they are trolling her left, right and centre. People called her dumb and felt that she has no knowledge about the conflict and she is just tweeting to be in the news while a few addressed her as a silent terrorist. Here are the reactions: Twitter/Swara Bhasker Twitter/Swara Bhasker Twitter/Swara Bhasker Twitter/Swara Bhasker What do you have to say about it? Let us know in the comments section below. How Miami University is preparing for cicadas on campus Cody Powell, associate vice president of Facilities Planning and Operations at Miami University, says that his office has been doing a number of things to prepare for the emergence of Brood X cicadas. The largest amount of preparation and the most impact tends to be with our mechanical trades and utilities operations, he says. The cicadas seem to be attracted to the fan noise, potentially moist environment, and perhaps temperature associated with our cooling towers, ventilation systems, and other such mechanical equipment. Powell says the university has installed netting around certain pieces of equipment that his team knows will be hot spots for cicadas trying to congregate. He said Miami staff will be cleaning strainer baskets and filtration systems on a daily basis around campus to prevent cicadas from plugging up equipment and causing malfunctions. On such a beautiful campus, with stately mature trees and lots of green space, we know our staff need to be prepared to clean up these cicadas as much, and as often, as possible during this period of time, Powell says Powell says the university crews are on standby for the emergence of Brood X, and they will be ready to go when the insects make their appearance. A cicada nymph emerges from its tunnel in Yoshi Tomoyasu's backyard (image courtesy Tomoyasu). Interview by Jessica Rivinius, university news and communications Trillions of cicadas are likely just days away from emerging in Ohio and throughout the Northeast, and Miami Universitys Yoshi Tomoyasu, associate professor of biology, offered his thoughts on the insects, their evolution and lifecycle, and why humans should embrace their emergence. He says that especially in the United States, insects are often perceived as annoying, creepy things instead of the truly fascinating living organisms that they are. He hopes that the mass emergence of Brood X will encourage people to learn more about insects and guarantees that you will feel more connected to nature once you are familiar with these critters! What should we expect to see in Ohio with the emergence of Brood X? In short, tons of cicadas! It will be cicadas everywhere -- billions or perhaps trillions of them. And, with all males calling for females, it will be VERY noisy once they emerge. Or, at least, that is what Im envisioning. To tell you the truth, Ive never seen it myself in person, because Im originally from Japan and have been living in Ohio less than 17 years. I am so excited to finally be able to experience this event! Why? Because this is a very unique event that happens only in eastern North America, and is one of the greatest shows on this planet. Well, that is at least for bug lovers. I think this video on the Return of Cicadas does a great job explaining why this is so exciting. Why do cicadas exist and what benefits do they offer? Cicada nymphs emerging from their tunnels (image by Tomoyasu). All living organisms that exist today on earth evolved from a unicellular organism that emerged over 3.5 billion years ago. We look, behave, and function differently, but we are all descended from the same ancestor and we exist as the result of natural selection. So, we are all related, and cicadas are our very, very, very (more than 500 million years), distant cousins who live most of their lives underground. Same as any other native species, cicadas are an indispensable part of the ecosystem in eastern North America. They have been doing their synchronized '' lifestyle possibly for millions of years, even before humans arrived in North America (so we are the invaders here!). Given the huge number of cicadas that emerge, they play a huge role in our ecosystem, as both a food source for others and as a regulator of the trees they feed on. Animals -- turtles, raccoons, opossums, birds, and more -- will benefit from their mass emergence. For them, this will be the feast of a lifetime. Also, after cicadas die, the accumulated dead cicadas will nurture woods. Why do cicadas emerge in such large numbers? Not all cicadas emerge en masse. You see some annual cicadas in your neighborhood every year that have a lifespan typically between two and five years. Only in eastern North America, do we also have periodical cicadas. They have a much longer life cycle, either 17 or 13 years. And here is the fascinating part. Their life cycle is in complete synchronization. This means that all of them trillions of them hatch within the same month, all spend 17 years underground, and all come out at the same time, within a period of a few weeks. There are so many intriguing questions about this phenomenon. How have they become synchronized? Why either 17 or 13 years? With them spending almost their entire life underground, how do they count precisely 17 years? How does Brood X differ from other broods? The periodical cicadas are grouped into distinct broods depending on when and where they emerge. Currently there are 15 broods. Because these cicadas live only several weeks as adults when they can mate and lay eggs, it is not possible for them to meet and mate with individuals from another brood. This makes these broods of cicadas temporally separated. Brood X (the Roman numeral 10) has the greatest range and concentration, covering not only the tristate area but also the eastern United States. Yoshi Tomoyasu. Below, image from a time lapse of cicada emergence. Watch it on Twitter @yoshitomoyasu. The mystery behind the prime number of their life cycle (17 and 13 years) appears to lie within this temporal separation. The least common multiple becomes very large between two prime numbers, so having the life cycle of a prime number year might have minimized the chance of the two groups (17 vs 13 years cicadas) to meet and interbreed, which might have helped them to maintain their synchronization. Why are they synchronized? One idea is related to the ice age. The ice age likely was a very challenging time for cicadas, and only those who found a rare warm spot might have survived. Those who emerged at the same time survived better because they had a higher chance of finding mates and reproducing, thus their evolution favored synchronization. But why did this synchronization happen only in cicadas? Mysteries remain. With so much attention given to the inconvenience of these brood emergences, is there anything we are missing? Cicadas are considered a symbol of summer in Japan. Their sound always reminds me of good hot summer days in my childhood, but that scenery in my memory is so still and silent. Its captured perfectly in this haiku by Matsuo Basho, one of the most famous poets in Japan. stillness sinking deep into the rocks cries of the cicada Commentary: Self-restraint, dialogue needed to de-escalate Israeli-Palestinian tensions Xinhua) 17:44, May 12, 2021 An Israeli military vehicle fires tear gas canisters at Palestinian protesters during an anti-Israel protest against the violence in Jerusalem, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on May 10, 2021. (Photo by Luay Sababa/Xinhua) To de-escalate tensions, both Israel and the Palestinians should remain somber to the fact that violence will only fuel more violence and calm is needed to avoid more civilian casualties. Both sides should also refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric, and have the prudence not to worsen the situation with threats, strikes and revenge. JERUSALEM, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Israeli-Palestinian tensions have been further inflamed as both Israel and Hamas carried out military actions on Monday, making it "one of the bloodiest days" between the two sides as some media have described. During Monday's clashes at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, holy to both Muslims and Jews, Israeli forces fired stun grenades, injuring at least 305 Palestinians, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. On the same day, over 150 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israel. In response, Israel launched airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, killing at least 20 people, including nine children. The escalation came after days of tensions over Israeli restrictions on Palestinian Muslims during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and a plan to evict some Palestinian families from neighborhoods in East Jerusalem. Israeli police patrol around the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on May 10, 2021. (JINI via Xinhua) The latest military actions have raised concerns about growing tensions in the Middle East, which has long been suffering from chaos, violence and conflicts. The international community has called on Israel to respect the freedom of peaceful demonstrations and cease its eviction plan. Compromise has been made as the Israeli Justice Ministry decided to postpone a court hearing over the plan in Sheikh Jarrah, which indicated a possible further step for Israel to cease the eviction plan. To de-escalate tensions, both Israel and the Palestinians should remain somber to the fact that violence will only fuel more violence and calm is needed to avoid more civilian casualties. Both sides should also refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric, and have the prudence not to worsen the situation with threats, strikes and revenge. Palestinians run to take cover from tear gas canisters fired by Israeli troops during a protest against the violence in Jerusalem, on the Gaza-Israel border east of southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on May 9, 2021. (Photo by Khaled Omar/Xinhua) Threats have already come with conflicts. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday "whoever attacks us will pay a heavy price" and warned that the fighting could "continue for some time" after Israel's retaliatory strikes. The new flare-up of tensions has underscored the importance for both sides to exercise self-restraint and for relevant parties to make concerted efforts to resume dialogue urgently to calm the situation and deal with the impasse. The status of Jerusalem lies at the core of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians. History has shown that the issue can only be solved politically through dialogue, and the current military actions will only repeat previous bloody conflicts without achieving any desired results. Under the Oslo peace accords signed between Israel and Palestinians in 1993, Jerusalem's status should be decided in the Israeli-Palestinian final-status talks. The Palestinians insist that they will establish an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital in the final settlement. Palestinian protesters take part in an anti-Israel protest in the West Bank city of Hebron, on May 10, 2021. (Photo by Mamoun Wazwaz/Xinhua) All the facts that are recognized and respected by the international community should not be ignored by Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been halted since 2014 when negotiations collapsed. No one expects the two sides to settle a series of thorny issues and reach a peace agreement overnight, but returning to the negotiation table instead of battlefields is the only way to realize peace between Israelis and Palestinians and in the whole Middle East region. People in this war-torn land are in dire need of peace instead of hatred and conflicts. For the peace talks to jump out of the vicious circle of hope-to-despair, all parties involved need to show sincerity to break the deadlock and move the peace process forward. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) As a current print subscriber, you receive 24/7 access to our website and online e-edition at no additional charge. All you have to do is activate your access. To activate digital access, you will need your account number. You can find your account number on any recent subscription notice or bill. Tuesdays auction by Kanto Tetsugen, which is a cooperative of scrap dealers in the Tokyo region, closed its monthly H2 grade scrap export price at an increase of 5,899 ($54) per tonne month on month, with the highest bid price at 49,279 ($453) per tonne fas for a volume of 5,000 tonnes.The two highest bids, both for 5,000 tonnes, were by a Japanese trading company which sources said was backed by a Chinese consortium. It was not known into which markets the cargo would be delivered. The third largest... With faculty, staff, and students gathered together, Wednesday, May 5 marked a special milestone for Global Initiatives. Five graduating seniors, part of the first group of students to earn the Global Readiness Certificate (GRC), were being honored for their achievement during a small in-person celebration in the MacMillan Hall Great Room. It was a time to celebrate, but also a time to reflect on the extraordinary team effort that made it possible. The courses and experiences in the GRC provide students with the knowledge, awareness, and skills necessary for global and intercultural communication and teamwork. According to program coordinator Alicia Castillo Shrestha, GRC scholars take a minimum of 14 credits of international and global courses. They study abroad, attend at least six diversity or globally-focused programs, and serve their community with at least 30 hours of engagement. In her remarks to the graduates, Cheryl Young, Assistant Provost, Global Initiatives, recalled the ten-year journey to this moment. "When we first brought Global Initiatives together to lead the internationalization effort at Miami, the Global Miami Plan was a wonderful foundation. But we noticed there wasn't a way to recognize students who go above and beyond," she said. With input from Professors Marty Petrone and James Shiveley, Young and her staff examined programmatic models from all over the US to develop a customizable global certificate for Miami. The GRC was officially approved in February 2019, with the pilot cohort from the College of Education, Health & Society (EHS) launching that fall. Since then, cohorts from Farmer School of Business (Spring 2020) and the College of Arts and Science (Spring 2021) have joined the program. A cohort from the College of Liberal Arts and Applied Science is planned for Spring 2022. All in all, approximately 50 students are currently taking part in the GRC. Shiveley, the EHS faculty liaison, complimented the pilot cohort for their patience and flexibility as the "guinea pigs" who helped smooth the way for the others. He elicited wry chuckles from the audience as he underscored the irony of pursuing a global readiness certificate during a global pandemic. "But you persisted," he said. "And you will always be the first." Secretary Benson denounces legislation to harm elections Secretary Benson denounces legislation to harm elections MAY 12, 2021 Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson submitted testimony to the state Senate Elections Committee today, denouncing legislation from the chamber's 39-bill voter suppression package being taken up this afternoon. "The 2020 election was the most safe, secure and accessible in our state's history. This truth was affirmed through more than 250 audits conducted throughout our state by bipartisan groups of election administrators," said Benson. "We should be championing the policies that made the election successful to continue embracing every citizen's voice in our democracy." But the bills under consideration do the opposite, Benson said, opening polling places and counting boards to partisan interference and giving politicians the ability to influence election administration. Senate Bill 279 would dramatically increase the number of challengers allowed in counting boards to the point of outnumbering election workers tabulating ballots, leaving the door open for disruption of the counting process, and placing undue stress on election workers. Senate Bill 290 would also ban non-partisan challengers, instead allowing candidates to hand pick their own, ensuring a partisan process. Senate Bill 291 eliminates key accountability measures and protections for election workers, opening the door for partisan challengers to directly interfere with or undermine the counting of ballots. "In short, there is no data - zero - that any of these bills are needed or would increase the integrity of our elections," said Benson, "but plenty to suggest that if they became law they would empower partisan officials to interfere with our elections, undermine the fair and secure count of every vote, and disenfranchise Michigan citizens." Additionally, Senate Bills 300 and 301, which would allow just one day of early voting, and on a Saturday two weeks before Election Day, defy the data that overwhelmingly shows voters are most likely to take advantage of early voting over a series of days and hours close to Election Day itself. "Any access this bill might enable is outdone by the confusion among voters and consternation among local election clerks it would generate," said Benson. "I can't help but wonder if its inclusion today is a cynical attempt to mislead the public from the true nefarious and detrimental impact the overall package of bills would have on our democracy." A copy of Secretary Benson's testimony can be found here. # # # For media questions, contact Tracy Wimmer at 517-281-1876. We welcome questions and comments at the Contact the Secretary of State page. Customers may call the Department of State Information Center to speak to a customer-service representative at 888-SOS-MICH (767-6424). MacKenzie Prill was walking along with her dog on a beach near her Port Austin home on May 5 when they came across something ]that traveled a long way from its home. While playing fetch, Prills dog had ran past the ball and instead found a tiny wooden boat painted red, white, and blue that had washed ashore. On the bottom, there was a carving asking, Where have I been? along with a P.O. Box address for the third-grade class of Richardson Elementary School in Oscoda. It had caught my eye and I thought, Oh this is cool, Prill said. It looked like a piece of wood and ended up being a boat. The boat has its own name, Paddle, and Facebook page called Paddles Journey 2021. The page says the boat was launched out onto Lake Huron on April 18. The inspiration for this boat comes from a 1941 childrens book titled Paddle-to-the-Sea by Michigan author Holling C. Holling. The book is about a Native American boy who carves a small canoe and figure for it, names it Paddle-to-the-Sea, and the book then follows its journey from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. A Canadian short film based on the book was produced in 1966. Amanda Goodman, the teacher of the third-grade class, said that she came up with this idea after reading about a teacher in Wisconsin who released a similar boat years ago. I spent several months planning a reading unit based upon the book, including the movie, many educational websites, voyager music, and of course, the boat itself, Goodman said on the boats Facebook page. She used the book as part of the classs reading, social studies, and science curriculums. Goodman taught the book to her class while doing online learning and the students completed a book report and posters to summarize the story. We didnt expect to get any responses, Goodman said, explaining that due to the water currents in Lake Huron, things that go underwater in Oscoda end up across the bay in Port Austin. Based on the weather patterns right now, we think it will bounce around the Thumb and hopefully go around it. Goodmans students hope to hear from their boat a few more times and and they also hope it can make it to Canada, Niagara Falls, and maybe get past New York State. This is also the second time the boat has been found washed ashore in Huron County. The class had received its first letter from A. Ross who found the boat on the shores of Port Crescent State Park, with the postcard he sent dated April 30. Prill had to wait before sending the boat back out onto the lake so that the waters could be calmer, given that her home is located in a cove and waves can get rough. She sent it back out on May 8 and sent her letter back to the third-graders on May 10. Either someone else found it or it's still out there, Prill said, adding that she had last seen it heading west on the lake. The Huron County Health Department and others around the state are ready and waiting for the green light to be able to administer the Pfizer vaccine to children 12 and older. On Monday, U.S. regulators expanded the Pfizer vaccine to children as young as 12, which Huron County Public Health Officer Ann Hepfer said could be an important step for schools to return to normal this fall. It will be so awesome to go into next fall and know that some of those students are vaccinated and it will stop that transmission, especially with sports, Hepfer said. We should be able to see a decrease in the amount of virtual education and get back in the classrooms. The approval from regulators was an important step, but not the final one, Hepfer said. Next the CDCs Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices needs to issue protocols and standards before the vaccine can be administered. We are waiting on those details to be worked out and then we will be able to vaccinate those 12 and up, Hepfer said. The standards set by the ACIP could be issued as early as late May 12, when the ACIP was scheduled to meet for a nearly all-day session to discuss the matter. According to the ACIP agenda for May 12, the committee was scheduled to discuss safety and efficacy of BNT162b2, which is the vaccination produced by Pfizer and BioNTech. The committee was also scheduled to discuss the recommended framework and clinical considerations of the Pfizer vaccine. Later in the day the committee was scheduled to receive an update regarding thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome or blood clotting issue which reportedly occurred in six people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Administering the J&J vaccine was paused for 10 days while the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC performed a safety review of the vaccine. The pause was lifted April 23. Hepfer said she has inquiries from parents in the region asking when a vaccine would be available for their children, so she is pleased that Pfizer will soon be ready. I do get regular texts from parents asking, she said. If the ACIP was able to finish up their work, and approved it, we are all hoping we will be able to begin next week. Hepfer said the health department has Pfizer vaccination clinics currently scheduled for May 20 for people 16 and older. She hopes that will be expanded to include children as young as 12. According to the Associated Press, the FDA declared that the Pfizer vaccine was safe for younger teens based on testing of more than 2,000 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15. The agency noted there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared with 16 among kids given dummy shots, an AP story read. More intriguing, researchers found the kids developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than earlier studies measured in young adults. Hepfer said she wasnt surprised by the progress, because she knew testing had been underway. They have been studying this, Hepfer said. It sounds like the dose is even the same as an adult dose, which will make it easier to administer at the clinics. The side effects experienced in the adolescents were the same as those experienced in adults, according to the FDA. Those side effects included mostly sore arms and flu-like fever, chills or aches. Hepfer said the possibility of side effects has caused some people to skip out on their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. There are people who are hesitant getting the second dose because they are afraid of the side effects, Hepfer said. Please dont. Consider what you may go through if you get COVID. The side effects of COVID are a lot worse than those you might get with the second dose. Hepfer said it is unclear how effective the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are if the second dose is skipped. What we do know is you need to have two doses to be complete, she said. If you arent willing to commit to the two-dose series, get the Johnson & Johnson. Hepfer said the health department is discussing how best to administer the vaccine to kids. The process to administer the vaccine to kids is different because parents must be present. We do require parental consent and we do want the parent there during the vaccination, Hepfer said. We have considered offering evening clinics. We are trying to figure out the best way to reach parents who want it. Hepfer said there have been rumors that the state will be mandating the vaccine, but she said that is false. It is not a mandate, she said. I have never heard that the state is going to mandate that kids will have to get the vaccine to return to school. Hepfer said there is some other confusion surrounding the vaccine, particularly in the data reported by the state versus other sources, such as the CDC. The vaccine rates dont take into consideration the people that were vaccinated outside the state of Michigan, she said. Right now there isnt a perfect way to do this. The data has always been delayed or there have been problems with transfer of data. Because of the prevalence of snowbirds in Michigan, who have received vaccines elsewhere such as Florida, Arizona or Texas, the states data is behind that of the CDC. Hepfer said if someone has received a vaccine elsewhere, it is helpful if they contact the health department and present a proof of their vaccination, so the health department is able to update the state database. Hepfer said that the availability of vaccinations has increased because of a reduction in demand. According to recent state data, approximately 71% of the countys population over the age of 65 has been fully vaccinated. The rate drops to 47% when surveying people 18-and-older. If you are interested in getting a vaccine visit www.hchd.us/covid-vaccine. From floating orbs and shadow people to possible cryptids and people fainting, the Ansonia Opera House has it all at least according to a paranormal investigation team. When I first rolled up there, it was 6:30 p.m. I went outside and I noticed that there were a few energies flying around, said Nick Grossman, lead investigator for Connecticut-based paranormal investigation Ghost Storm. Im clairvoyant so I can see this stuff. Grossman and his team investigated the historic opera house on April 25 as part of a series of paranormal investigations that will lead up the first-ever paranormal convention in Connecticut, ParaConn. Built in 1869 and abandoned since 1971, the 900-capacity opera house's alleged haunted history of the building has been debated at length over the years. I didnt really expect it to be as haunted as it actually was, Grossman said about the opera house after concluding his investigation. Grossman believes roughly 40 entities inhabit the opera house. Most places have one or two three the most, added Charles Rosenay of GHOSTours.com, who assisted Grossman with the investigation. Who knows how many people have died there or how many accidents there have been. Theres bound to be that energy in the walls And when Nick says haunted, it is not in the connotation of [us] being there and theyre scaring [us] and there to disturb humans, Rosenay added. Grossman reported seeing the most activity when he turned on some opera music in the venue. When we turned on the opera music, all the anomalies were zooming around and we saw shadow people walking around, Grossman said. We used the music as a trigger object, and it obviously worked. The investigation, which was conducted alongside East Coast Paranormal Photography, CT PASTS and Rosenay, was able to uncover numerous paranormal occurrences at the defunct opera house, Grossman said. Using infrared technology and other ghost hunting equipment such as EVPs and a spirit box, Grossman and his team of investigators were able to report occurrences of phantom lights zooming around the opera house and in some instances, shadow people moving through walls. At one point, Grossman said a member of the investigation team fainted after being overwhelmed by the energy near the stage. READ MORE: Haunted Connecticut: A guide to the spookiest, most haunted places in the state Grossman also reported that he placed a chair in the middle of the venue and once he started playing opera music, he reported seeing an orb fly out from the chair. Music is a very magical phenomenon because it really alters your feelings [and] emotions. It changes your perception while that song is playing, Grossman said. Music and art are a very psychic phenomenon. One of the most interesting finds during the investigation, Grossman said, was what he described as the presence of a red orb, which is an anomaly in the field of paranormal research. When asked about its energy, Grossman weighed that the orb could be demonic in nature but more research would be required to prove that. To be quite frank and honest, its a rare photo and the only time that Ive ever seen that was at Union Cemetery in Easton, Grossman said. He added that he is also not ruling out the possibility that the red orb at the opera house could somehow be connected to the Easton cemetery. One of the other most notable discoveries was that of a supposed goat-humanoid creature that was photographed on the balcony. Courtesy of Ghost Storm Grossman said that cryptids, such as the possible humanoid creature, come through interdimensional portals and sometimes will only be visible for a few seconds at a time. Whenever there is a paranormal portal, youre going to get all sorts of entities coming through, Grossman said. The opera house is definitely a large interdimensional portal considering the amount of entities we saw in there. According to Grossman, the world of the paranormal is our next door neighbor. Rosenay added that the appearance of this cryptid is similar to that of a hooded creature that the team captured when investigating Dudleytown in northern Connecticut. He also suggested that the appearance of these portals is why people may report seeing a bigfoot or yeti for a second, and then the next second, it disappears. As for why the opera house is so haunted, Grossman attributed it to the residual energy left behind from these entities. We try to come up with logical explanations for the evidence that we have, Grossman said. One of our secrets is that just about all of us are a group of psychics and when we go into a personal case at a residential house, the spirits will come right out for us. Were a shiny lure and the spirits are the fish. Grossman also attributed the energy of the surrounding area as a reason why the area is haunted. I like to think of the Valley as the Connecticut triangle, Grossman said. Connecticut is probably one of the most haunted states out there. Grossman traces the Connecticut triangle between Shelton, and Bethany or Oxford. He believes that approximately one in three neighbors in the area believe that something paranormal is occurring in their house. Aside from the upcoming ParaConn, Grossman is currently filming a documentary entitled Ghost Expedition Valley, which will contain footage that will be shown at the convention in July. Additionally, Grossman revealed that he will be doing another paranormal expedition in Ansonia ahead of ParaConn. Hearst Connecticut Media file photo MIDDLETOWN A Berlin man has been accused of assaulting a Main Street bar owner after he was seen kicking a dog, police said. Middletown police were called to Eli Cannons Tap Room, 695 Main St., just before 8:30 p.m. May 4 about an alleged assault where four bar workers were detaining an individual in the adjacent alley, according to a police report. Don't Miss Mans killing outside law firm stunned quiet CT community The sedate community of Litchfield was caught by surprise Monday evening when state police were called to investigate a deadly shooting outside a well-known law firm. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) California is nearing approval of Pfizers coronavirus vaccine for its 2.1 million children ages 12 to 15, state health officials said Tuesday, one day after the federal government expanded its use. Nationally and in California, the shots are set to begin Thursday after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine advisory committee issues recommendations Wednesday for using the two-dose vaccine in children as young as 12. In California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup is independently reviewing the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations emergency use authorization. It also is expected to make its decision Wednesday, clearing the way to start vaccinations across the state. California is ready to safely deliver vaccines to young people age 12 and older, said Dr. Erica Pan, the state epidemiologist. We all know how hard this has been for our youth, Pan said. She said her own two children between 12 and 15 years old aren't looking forward to the shots, but are "really excited to be protected, to be able to spend more quality time with their friends and more time indoors and resuming their social lives. The move comes as the state encourages schools to resume in-person teaching and remains on track to lift many virus-related restrictions by mid-June. The state has the nation's lowest positivity rate at 1%, while 61% of those eligible have had at least one shot, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the states health secretary. More than 30% of youths ages 16 and 17 have at least one vaccination. Experts say children must be vaccinated if the nation is to reach the 70% to 85% of the population needed to reach what is known as herd immunity. California will not now require the coronavirus shots for students as it does other vaccines, Ghaly said, given the emergency use authorization. Minors also need consent from their parents or guardians in most cases. But the state is working with local officials and community groups to encourage their use through things like targeted social media and micro-influencers, the officials said. That varies by location and does not necessarily include celebrities, but trusted voices like pediatricians and other healthcare workers, religious and school leaders. We know that young people have shouldered a significant burden throughout COVID in many ways denied of certain activities, certain milestones, certain important events, shouldering additional degrees of anxiety and depression and other mental health and behavioral health impacts, Ghaly said. He has a 13-year-old daughter who he said has a lot of catching up to do with her friends. The expansion, he said, provides a tremendous opportunity for that group to sort of experience that sense of normalcy that they have been missing. While most younger people don't experience the same severity of illness as adults if they are infected, Pan said they are not immune: California has had more than 500 severe cases among youths and 21 deaths, with a median age of 15. Moderna and another U.S. company, Novavax, are testing their vaccines' use in adolescents, and Pfizer and Moderna are testing whether the vaccine works for even younger children. Canada recently became the first to expand use to 12 and up. Across the U.S., a few cities began offering the vaccines Tuesday after officials there took the FDA's approval as authorization enough to begin giving the shots. Orange and Sacramento counties began allowing families to pre-register for the shots last weekend. Within hours Sacramento County's site had 2,000 people registered, 90% of them for children 12-16, KCRA TV reported. The state will end its color-coded multitiered level of restrictions in mid-June, but Madera, Mono and San Mateo moved to lower tiers Tuesday. The more populous counties of Orange and Santa Clara are poised to move to the least restrictive yellow tier as early as next week. Any connection between a dog attack that killed a 1-month-old boy in Norwich and a fire intentionally set hours later in New London remains unclear. New London police said Wednesday they are still searching for the boys father, who they said is a person of interest in the arson. New London police said Tuesday that 32-year-old Timothy Settles was a person of interest in the fire set about seven hours after his son, Carter Settles, was killed by the family dog in a Norwich home. New London police Capt. Matthew Galante said Wednesday morning that there were no news on the search for Settles, but said the investigation remains ongoing. Settles remains a person of interest, not a suspect and they had not obtained a warrant for his arrest, according to police. Police officials did not speculate Tuesday whether the boys death may have spurred the fire about 15 miles away from the scene of the attack. They also could not say what connection Settles had to the home. Norwich police were called to a home on McKinley Avenue about 8:40 p.m. Monday night after receiving a report that an infant had been attacked by a dog. When they arrived, they found Carter with numerous traumatic injuries, police officials said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Officers learned that a family member was holding Carter when the family dog, described as a male pit bull mix, jumped up and started biting the child, police said. The dog was taken by animal control to the citys pound, where he will undergo a mandated 14-day quarantine, according to Norwich police. City police said they are following the state Department of Agriculture guidelines for dogs involved in attacks. The future for the dog also appears unclear as of Wednesday. Norwich police Lt. John Perry said. As of this point, we are still working with the family and following the CT Agriculture quarantine guidelines, Perry said. State law allows for an animal control officer or the Agriculture commissioner to issue an order regarding the restraint or disposal of a dog that has been involved in a biting incident. The order can be appealed to the Department of Agriculture. Officials have not said if such an order has been issued yet. A representative from the Department of Agriculture did not respond to an inquiry about the states process for handling a dog that attacked a person. New London investigators continue to probe the fire, which was first reported at 4 a.m. on Rosemary Street, officials said. The fire started on the front porch of the two-family home but quickly spread to the first floor. Police investigators and fire marshals determined the fire was intentionally set, officials said. Settles, who does not live in New London, was believed to be the last person at the house when the fire was set, police said. Officials have not said how the fire was set and have not determined what motivated the arson. Police are asking anyone with information on Settles whereabouts to call the department at 860-447-5269 ext. 0. PORTLAND The results of the day-long referendum on the $36.1 million 2021-22 municipal budget were clear and convincing. Its a blowout! Town Clerk Ryan J. Curley said as the tally was recorded Monday night. It calls for a tax increase of 0.62 mills. The budget passed by a vote of 506 to 184 (including four property owners and 45 absentee ballots) with 690 residents casting ballots in the middle school music room polling place. That is 10.23 percent of the 6,739 people eligible to vote. As moderator Cindi Hickey, a deputy registrar of voters, read out the results, First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said, Congratulations! We have a budget. Im very proud of the people of Portland who came out to vote, and I am thrilled that we had over 10 percent turnout. This is a responsible budget in terms of meeting the needs of the town while being fiscally responsible, Bransfield said. Now we can get to work implementing the budget. This a strong message to proceed with whats in the budget, and to run the town in the most effective manner, Selectman Ralph Zampano said. Selectman James K. Tripp offered his thanks to everyone who turned out. There are a lot of important projects to be dealt with on the budget, including several involving public safety: a new pumper for the fire department, and new cruisers and body cams for the police, Tripp added. This is a tight budget that meets some very important needs, including one-on-one Chromebooks in our schools, Tripp added. Turnout in Portland stands in stark contrast that in Cromwell last week, during which the budget was approved by the votes of just 254 residents, or 2.12 percent of registered voters. Reporter Jeff Mill may be reached at jmill@middletownpress.com. STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) He scurries through his apartment, downing a quick mug of coffee, brushing his teeth, feeding his pet rabbit, Auggie, before leaving. Not so long ago, Bill Mathis would have headed to his high school classroom to discuss great literature like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Odyssey with his freshman. It was his dream job, the one he referenced in a childhood journal he still keeps: I would love to be a teacher, he scrawled in pencil as a third grader. Now Mathis has taken a new job, in Michigans newly legalized cannabis industry. The pay is better, the hours more regular, the stress less, he says. No longer does he worry that hell catch COVID-19. What about us and our families? he asked his school board in Romeo, Michigan, last August after it unveiled a plan to offer in-person classes. Ultimately, the 29-year-old teacher felt few in the rural suburb north of Detroit understood. Good riddance, one resident said. His is but one story of the plight of the American public servant. Historically, jobs like teaching, firefighting, policing, government and social work have offered opportunities to give back to communities while earning solid benefits, maybe even a pension. Surveys still show public admiration for nurses and teachers and, after the terror attacks of 9/11, firefighters. But many public servants no longer feel the love. Theyre battered and burnt out. Theyre stretched by systems where shortages are common for teachers in Michigan and several other states, for instance, and for police in many cities, from New York and Cincinnati to Seattle. Colleagues are retiring early or resigning, as Mathis did. There are mental breakdowns, substance abuse and even suicide, especially among first responders. Even before the coronavirus arrived, researchers have found in 2018 that about half of American public servants said they were burnt out, compared with 20% over workers overall. Some wonder who will pick up the slack, as more young people avoid public service careers. In the federal government, just 6% of the workforce is younger than age 30, while about 45% is older than 50, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. The pandemic has only made matters worse. In addition to the risk COVID-19 poses for those on the front lines, The workload is up. Financial security is down, said Elizabeth Linos, a behavioral scientist and public management scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies public workers. Linos, whose research has included 911 operators, physician moms and others, says surveys during the pandemic have found that anxiety rates for frontline workers are 20 times higher than usual. Ive really never seen anything like it, she said. Long before the pandemic, mistrust of the government and its workers was building. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: Im from the government and Im here to help, President Ronald Reagan famously said in a 1986 speech, as the country braced for a recession. By the time the 2008 Great Recession arrived, anti-union sentiment also was more prevalent -- a big deal in the Detroit area, known as a union stronghold because of the auto industry. That bashing has grown to include unions that represent public servants, teachers included. They protect bad behavior, and they punish good behavior, said Tim Deegan, a dad from Waterford, Michigan, who manages a pizza parlor. He notes that he has no such protections for a job that often finds him working 60 hours a week. Earlier this year, Deegan took part in a rambunctious social media discussion about the large numbers of Michigan teachers who are retiring early, even more during the pandemic. Educators certainly had their supporters in the online thread. But others, including Deegan, were angry. He told the story of his girlfriends son how theyd switched him to another school district because he felt the online teaching was so poor. Some teachers, he said, have phoned it in for years, with few repercussions. Bill Mathis, not one to shy from speaking his mind, jumped into the discussion. He posted about leaving teaching because of the health risks to himself and his girlfriend, Annie, who has lupus, and how his salary made it hard to pay his bills. So you werent in it for the kids? another commenter asked, drawing dozens of emoticon reactions, from anger to laughter. Mathis wondered why hed bothered. Of course, he loved his students, but some would never believe it. This time, last year we were heroes, praised early on in the pandemic by exhausted parents whod been forced to step into the role of teacher, he said. Now, not so much. Derek Lies, a dad of two boys in Romeo, said he felt for teachers -- at first. But as the union pushed back on returning to the classroom, my sympathy went away, he said. The good reputation of the schools in Romeo had been part of the draw when Lies, a mechanical engineer, moved with his family to Michigan from California more than five years ago. But he started to worry when the pandemic arrived, and he became a regular presence at the school board meetings thereafter. When Mathis made his case about safety at last Augusts online meeting, Lies was unmoved. If you want to keep your job, you have to come to work, Lies said in a recent interview. And if thats not OK, were going to have to find someone to replace you. Years ago, Lies was a firefighter. He doesnt deny that burnout is real and that COVID-19 has made many jobs harder. Maybe Ive become less understanding, he said. If theres one group of public servants who have reason to gripe, he added, its police, whove faced heightened scrutiny over the killings of George Floyd and others. I cant imagine anyone wanting that job right now, Lies said. Increasingly, first responders across the country are acknowledging the difficulties of the job and addressing mental health, addiction and the occasional suicide. In Sterling Heights, where Mathis lives, fire chief Kevin Edmond gives time off to crews whove responded to fatal fires and other trauma. Edmond, whos been a firefighter and EMT for 35 years, said younger staffers are more open to the departments mental health and peer support programs. When I first started, there wasnt such a thing. It was basically youll get over it, he said. Unfortunately, because of our profession, we see a lot of bad things. While staffing levels in his department have remained the same since the mid-1990s, the number of runs the department makes for various emergencies has increased from 5,000 annually to more than 16,000. A lot of people are using EMS as their primary health care providers, often because they have no insurance, Edmond said. Hes constantly on the lookout for new recruits and, with the requirement that his firefighters also have EMT certification, has extended his search to Ohio and other states. The department, as many others do, also has a Young Explorers program with a few high schools to try get more teens interested before they choose another career path. Attracting young people to public service fields can be a challenge. But Linos, the UC-Berkeley researcher, says its not necessarily the difficulty that scares them off. In fact, in the case of policing, her research has found that more people apply when told the job is challenging. Her research has found that a sense of belonging and feeling supported by a supervisor also helps soothe burnout. Even so, Linos says todays young people see other ways to do good and make more money doing it. The private sector and the social sectors, like the nonprofits, have co-opted the public service message, and so are saying, Come change the world, right? Linos said. So what government may have lost is the monopoly on public service. A number of young adults also are running for public office, seeing that as a way to give back. Mai Xiong, a new member of the Macomb County Board of Commissioners -- the county where Mathis lives -- is one of them. As a woman of Hmong descent, and with hate crimes against people of Asian descent on the rise during COVID-19, she worried how voters might react to her candidacy. Before last years election, she campaigned door to door, pulling her young children in a wagon behind her. She was heartened that the reaction in Warren, the city that includes her district, was largely positive. And she won handily, taking out an old-guard member of the board. I have faith in people, said Xiong, whos 35 and owns a clothing business. I put myself out there in a very vulnerable position, knowing that at any given time, I could be targeted. But I have to put myself out there to get a voice at the table. Last month, the board adopted her resolution condemning hate crimes and hateful rhetoric against Asian Americans. Twenty miles to the north, back in Romeo, sixth-grade geography teacher and union leader Sue Ziel recalls starting to feel more resentment from the public when the recession began in 2008. A Gallup poll then found that public approval of unions dropped to a low of 48 percent, compared with 72 percent when the poll began in 1936, though it has been creeping up. Why were we the enemy? You cant love a teacher and hate a union because its the same thing, said Ziel, who has remained in the school district Mathis left. As the pandemic hit, she initially felt paralyzed at the thought of having to teach kids online and in person at the same time. She also got the virus. I remember sitting in tears and telling my husband I dont know if I can do this, and those words have never come out of my mouth, said Ziel, who left a job in advertising 24 years ago to teach. Even before then, she said the demands of the job had increased. There are more required certifications, more focus on standardized testing, while pay freezes diminished teacher wages across the state of Michigan. As a veteran with experience on which she could draw, Ziel pushed through but said younger staffers were more likely to struggle with less support in a stressful time, as Mathis did. It breaks my heart. I really think the world of Bill, she said. With his bushy beard, he looked a bit like a lead singer in a rock band and he connected well with his ninth graders, she said, though his sometimes quirky style wasnt always as appreciated by what can be a buttoned-up Romeo community. When you talk about a calling to be a teacher, hes like the poster child, Ziel said. As union leader, she accompanied Mathis to meetings with administrators after he posted a profanity-laden rant about COVID-19 and teaching last year, though he didnt name the district. He has since removed the foul language but isnt sorry he expressed how he felt. I was scared, he said. In the Sterling Heights apartment he shares with two roommates, Mathis still displays various mementos students have given him over the years. He pulls out an electric guitar covered with student signatures from a musical he helped direct. Theres a jar filled with hand-written messages students wrote to inspire him on bad days. A painting a student created and brought on his last day rests on a nearby shelf. He reads a card to Mr. Mathis from a female student he had nicknamed Smiley. When battling a lot of issues and intense sadness in high school, this one teacher encouraged me to smile , the card reads. That nickname made such a difference. The day he told his students he was leaving was one the hardest days of my life, Mathis said. He didnt share anything about his new job, only that he needed to take care of himself and his family. Now at the cannabis plant, he spends much of his day compiling and shipping orders of gummies and other pot products. Now that hes vaccinated, hes thought about becoming a mentor to a young person, or volunteering for a youth theater. Hed still like to give back, but on his own terms. He doubts hed return to teaching in a state where some school districts have had to resort to hiring people who arent always trained for the job. In my lifetime, I think there will be small reforms, but I dont think itll be enough ..., Mathis said. It really hurts me to say -- Im happy that I left teaching. ___ Martha Irvine, an AP national writer and visual journalist, can be reached at mirvine@ap.org or @irvineap CAIRO (AP) Egyptian authorities impounded a massive cargo vessel that blocked the Suez Canal last month amid a financial dispute with its owner, the canal chief and a judicial official said Tuesday. Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie said the hulking Ever Given would not be allowed to leave the country until a compensation amount is settled on with the vessel's Japanese owner, Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd. The vessel is now officially impounded, he told Egypts state-run television late Monday. They do not want to pay anything. There was no immediate comment from the vessel's owner. Rabie did not say how much money the canal authority was seeking. However, a judicial official said it demanded at least $900 million. The state-run Ahram daily also reported the $900 million figure. That amount takes into account the salvage operation, costs of stalled canal traffic and lost transit fees for the week that the Ever Given blocked the canal. The official said the order to impound the vessel was issued Monday by a court in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, and that the vessels crew has been informed Tuesday. He said prosecutors in Ismailia also opened a separate investigation into what led the Ever Given to run aground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media. Rabie said negotiations were still ongoing to reach a settlement on compensation. He warned last week in an interview with The Associated Press that bringing the case before a court would be more harmful to the vessel's owner than settling with the canals management. Litigation could be complex, since the vessel is owned by a Japanese firm, operated by a Taiwanese shipper, and flagged in Panama. The Panama-flagged ship that carries some $3.5 billion in cargo between Asia and Europe ran aground March 23 in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Asian Sinai Peninsula. The vessel had crashed into the bank of a single-lane stretch of the canal about 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez. On March 29, salvage teams freed the Ever Given, ending a crisis that had clogged one of the worlds most vital waterways and halted billions of dollars a day in maritime commerce. The vessel has since idled in Egypts Great Bitter Lake, just north of the site where it previously blocked the canal. The unprecedented six-day shutdown, which raised fears of extended delays, goods shortages and rising costs for consumers, added to strain on the shipping industry already under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic. Rabie, the canal chief, told state-run television there was no wrongdoing by the canal authority. He declined to discuss possible causes, including the ships speed and the high winds that buffeted it during a sandstorm. When asked whether the ship's owner was at fault, he said: Of course, yes. Rabie said the conclusion of the authority's investigation was expected Thursday. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A Tennessee death row inmate's attorneys on Wednesday asked a court to declare that he cannot be executed because he is intellectually disabled. The petition was filed in Memphis Criminal Court one day after Gov. Bill Lee signed a bill making retroactive Tennessee's law that prohibits the execution of the intellectually disabled. Such executions were ruled unconstitutional in 2002, when the U.S. Supreme Court found they violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment. But until Tuesday, Tennessee's law had no mechanism for an inmate to reopen his case in order to press a claim of intellectual disability. Attorneys for Pervis Payne, 54, have long argued that he is intellectually disabled and helped push for the change to the law. The petition they filed on Wednesday includes IQ tests as well as declarations from teachers, employers, neighbors and family members attesting to Payne's learning and functioning difficulties. A sister seven years younger than Payne reported that when they were children, he was incapable of helping her with homework. Others said Payne could not count money or add up items at a store. He struggled to read and had a very limited vocabulary. Although he attended school through the 12th grade, he failed the proficiency test five times and was never able to graduate. A supervisor at Pizza Hut described him as mentally challenged and said he had difficulty remembering simple instructions. Payne was sentenced to death in a Memphis court for the 1987 stabbing deaths of Charisse Christopher and her 2-year-old daughter, Lacie Jo. Christophers son, Nicholas, who was 3 at the time, also was stabbed but survived. Payne, who is Black, has always claimed innocence. He told police he was at Christophers apartment building to meet his girlfriend when he heard the victims, who were white, and tried to help them. He said he panicked when he saw a white policeman and ran away. Paynes case was still under appeal when the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to execute the intellectually disabled, but he didnt claim a disability until after his appeals were exhausted. That involved reopening his case and required a change in state law. It was only after it was too late that Paynes attorneys decided to file, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said in an emailed statement. The new law signed by Governor Lee allows Payne to file the petition today, which he has done. It will now be up to the courts to decide, based upon the evidence presented and the law. Last year, a judge ruled to allow DNA testing in Payne's case for the first time. His DNA was found on the hilt of the knife used in the killings, which matches his trial testimony that he cut himself while handling the knife as he tried to help the victims, defense attorney Kelley Henry told the court at a January hearing. Paynes DNA was not found on the handle although partial DNA evidence from an unknown man was. However, there was not enough DNA material to enter it into a national FBI database and attempt to match it to someone else, Henry said. Scrapings from Christophers fingernails, collected from the crime scene, could not be located for testing. Payne had been scheduled to die last December, but the execution was delayed after Lee granted him a rare, temporary reprieve because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The reprieve expired in April, but the state Supreme Court has not set a new execution date yet. State Rep. G.A. Hardaway, a Memphis Democrat and chairman of the Tennessee Black Caucus, cosponsored the bill that allowed Payne to petition the court on Wednesday. In a written statement, Hardaway called on Weirich not to fight Payne's intellectual disability claim. The motto on the Shelby County District Attorneys website is Do the right thing every day for the right reason,'" Hardaway said. "Well, now is the time to do the right thing. D.A. Weirich should join with the Memphis community her constituents and agree that Pervis Payne is a person with intellectual disability. As such, his execution would be unconstitutional. On May 12, the Connecticut House voted in favor of making pizza the official "state food." Lets not fool ourselves here, New Haven is the capital of pizza, said Rep. Kurt Vail, R-Stafford. Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. Herbert Hoover When it comes to history, the stories are told from the perspective of the victor, while some details are often lost to time. Our latest read transports us to Cuba as the country struggles to gain independence from Spain and becomes the battleground for the Spanish-American War. The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba by Chanel Cleeton In Chanel Cleetons latest novel, she tells the story of the very real Evangelina Cisneros, who was once hailed as the books title suggests as the most beautiful girl in Cuba. Cleetons novel is shaped by Evangelinas imprisonment and escape from a womens prison in Cuba, but the story is fleshed out by the accounts of a journalist and a revolutionary fighting for her country. Grace wants to prove her journalistic chops when she starts working at one of the larger newspapers in New York City. Determined to make a name for herself, she finds herself caught up in the medias coverage of Evangelinas incarceration and the events of the Spanish-American War. Back in Cuba, Marina is a revolutionary, carrying messages back and forth as she works to shape a free and independent Cuba. During the course of her activities she aids Evangelina in her escape, while working to free her whole country from Spains tyranny. Bouncing back and forth from the perspectives of the three different women, Cleeton weaves a compelling story about the individuals history chooses to remember and the people that are forgotten and excluded from the tales of war. As Cleetons tale explores the lives of three very different women whose lives are altered by the conflict in Cuba during the Spanish-American war, she creates distinct characters defined by their efforts to mold a better world through their ideals. Readers are sure to enjoy this captivating tale of bravery and love. From the book jacket A feud rages in Gilded Age New York City between newspaper tycoons William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. When Grace Harrington lands a job at Hearsts newspaper in 1896, shes caught in a cutthroat world where one scoop can make or break your career, but its a story emerging from Cuba that changes her life. Unjustly imprisoned in a notorious Havana womens jail, eighteen-year-old Evangelina Cisneros dreams of a Cuba free from Spanish oppression. When Hearst learns of her plight and splashes her image on the front page of his paper, proclaiming her, The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba, she becomes a rallying cry for American intervention in the battle for Cuban independence. With the help of Marina Perez, a courier secretly working for the Cuban revolutionaries in Havana, Grace and Hearsts staff attempt to free Evangelina. But when Cuban civilians are forced into reconcentration camps and the explosion of the USS Maine propels the United States and Spain toward war, the three women must risk everything in their fight for freedom. If you enjoy Readers with an interest in reading historical fiction about Cuba might also enjoy Cleetons bestselling novel Next Year in Havana which follows the story of a woman who discovers a family secret tied to Cubas political unrest. tinamarie.craven@hearstmediact.com DOWNEY, Calif. (AP) Hoping to grab a share of the spotlight in California's expected recall election, Republican candidate for governor Kevin Faulconer on Wednesday proposed ending the state income tax for individuals making up to $50,000 and households up to $100,000 as part of a plan to make the notoriously costly state more affordable for families and the middle class. Too often when we hear about tax relief, they're cuts for investors, for the Wall Street crowd," Faulconer said Wednesday at a campaign event in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey. This is for young people just starting out, this is for parents who are paying for diapers or college, this is for folks working long days to put food on the table." Faulconer, the former San Diego mayor, is among a growing list of Republican candidates hoping to oust Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in the all-but-certain election expected this fall. His tax plan was unveiled at an increasingly challenging time for Republicans in their longshot bid to oust Newsom in the heavily Democratic state. The governor blessed with an unprecedented $76 billion surplus not of his making, and billions more in federal coronavirus funding has commanded headlines all week by rolling out a series of proposals with obvious political appeal, including checks up to $1,100 for many lower- and middle-income Californians. Faulconer also is trying to keep pace with his two main Republican competitors, businessman John Cox and former Olympian and reality TV personality Caitlyn Jenner, who have garnered more recent attention. The low-key event around the corner from a popular bakery didn't draw a crowd, beyond a handful of TV cameras. A governor has limited power to reduce taxes unilaterally, so Faulconer would need approval from the Legislature to enact his plan. If he wins the recall, he would take office with Democratic supermajorities in the Assembly and Senate, which gives the party a stranglehold on power in both chambers. Faulconer, who worked with a Democrat-majority City Council in San Diego, said he' would seek to win legislative support by first getting public buy-in. Its just too expensive to live in California, period," he told The Associated Press ahead of his announcement. Im a big believer in going out and winning the argument publicly, and then we will win the vote." Under Faulconer's plan, there would be a 0% marginal income tax rate on the first $50,000 in income for individuals and $100,000 for households. That means people making those amounts or less wouldn't pay state income tax, while those making up to $1 million would see a low effective tax rate. Faulconer chose to make his announcement in the small city southeast of Los Angeles that has a median income of just more than $75,000, roughly the same as the median income statewide. It's also known for its financially ascendant Latino community. The former mayor estimated the plan would save individuals nearly $2,000 and families nearly $4,000 annually and said his plan would benefit 99% of taxpayers. Faulconer said his proposed cuts would reduce state revenues by about $15 billion annually and pointed to the state's expected $76 billion surplus this year as evidence the state can afford it. Asked what would happen if the economy tumbled, and if he would slash programs to support a continuing, deep tax cut, Faulconer said such a drastic move wouldnt be necessary. As mayor, having to balance many budgets, its about priorities. Its about spending dollars on whats important, on services that Californians actually need and expect and deserve," he said. He further said Sacramento has a spending problem." But he declined to give any specific details on what views as excess or what he would cut. California's budget relies heavily on personal income tax from the wealthiest Californians those making more than $1 million annually and their taxes would not change under Faulconer's plan. Republicans regularly complain that California's high taxes make the state unaffordable for people and are causing the rich to flee. They point to high-profile examples of companies such as Oracle and Hewlett Packard moving their headquarters out of California. Newsom, meanwhile, proposed on Monday giving tax rebates of up to $1,100 each to more than 11 million low- and middle-income taxpayers. Taxpayers making between $30,000 and $75,000 would get a one-time $600 rebate. Those making up to $75,000 with children would get an extra $500. The governor's campaign did not immediately comment on Faulconer's proposal. A recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California found the state is losing lower and middle-income people and those without college degrees, while it's gaining higher-income people with degrees. State officials announced last week that California's population declined by 182,000 in 2020, and the state lost a U.S. House seat for the first time ever with last month's release of Census data. Faulconer also pledged not to raise taxes if he wins. But a governor also lacks that power. He could veto legislation raising taxes, but the Legislature could override him with two-thirds votes in both chambers. He would also exempt veterans' income from military retirement from being taxed. Faulconer has the most political experience of any Republican in the race, and he's looking to craft himself as a credible alternative to Newsom, compared to his rivals. Cox, who lost to Newsom in a landslide in 2018, last week campaigned alongside a bear as he branded himself the beast" and Newsom a pretty boy" who fails to make tough decisions. Cox will release his own tax cut plan soon, said spokesman Anthony Ramirez, who criticized Faulconer's record on taxes. As San Diego mayor, he proposed raising the hotel tax to raise money for a convention center expansion, infrastructure and tackling homelessness. We welcome Kevin's new-found religion on tax cuts," Ramirez said. Jenner, meanwhile, did not appear well-versed in California's policy issues during her first television interviews last week. Her campaign did not immediately comment on Faulconer's proposal. ___ Ronayne reported from Sacramento, California. PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Maine has started its rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to middle schoolers and early high schoolers. U.S. regulators this week expanded the use of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine to children as young as 12. Health care providers in Maine said they began giving the shots to children age 12 to 15 in the state on Wednesday. Northern Light Health said it would offer the vaccine to everyone eligible at its clinic at Portland Expo starting on Wednesday. Central Maine Healthcare said it started providing the vaccine to newly eligible children at its high-volume vaccination site at the Auburn Mall on Wednesday as well. This is an important step forward in our work against COVID, said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Kids can transmit COVID, for example, to older people who live in their household. The expansion of eligibility for a vaccine came as Maine continued to outpace most of the nation in vaccine progress. About 59% of the eligible population in Maine has received at least a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. About 40% of the state is fully vaccinated. That number is about 32% for the country as a whole. Providers who are offering the vaccine in Maine said children need parental consent to receive one. Shah also said the state's mobile vaccination unit will be extended until July 2. The clinic provides vaccines to adults only at this time. In other coronavirus news in Maine: THE NUMBERS The number of daily cases also continued to decrease. The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Maine did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 352.14 new cases per day on April 26 to 278.14 new cases per day on May 10. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in Maine did not increase over the past two weeks, going from 1.43 deaths per day on April 26 to 1.00 deaths per day on May 10. The AP is using data collected by Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering to measure outbreak caseloads and deaths across the United States. The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported there have been more than 64,000 positive cases of the virus and 798 deaths in Maine since the start of the pandemic. ___ NURSES HONORED Maine has decided to give its School Nurse of the Year award to all the school nurses in the state. Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, and the Maine Department of Education said Wednesday they and the Maine Association of School Nurses are recognizing all school nurses as the School Nurse of the Year for the 2020-21 school year. Mills and the education department said the coronavirus pandemic has taxed resources at school districts throughout the state. School nurses have had to take on new responsibilities to help keep students healthy and schools safe, they said. School nurses have helped adapt with grace and grit to protect the health of our children, Mills said. Wednesday was National School Nurses Day. Joshua LaBella / Hearst Connecticut Media OLD SAYBROOK Starting Thursday, 12- to 15-year-olds can get their Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination shots at a drive-through clinic at the middle school. After making an appointment, parents must complete an online form. Nothing else is required except showing up at the scheduled time, Chief of Police and Emergency Management Director Michael Spera said. The process is safe, convenient, kid-friendly, and theres no need for anyone to leave the car, he added. Two men charged in the assault of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died after defending the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, must remain behind bars while they await trial, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan denied pretrial release for George Tanios and Julian Khater, calling them threats to the community. The judge said the assault with chemical spray on Sicknick and two other officers contributed to the mob's ability to breach police line that had been guarding the Capitol. These two gentlemen are law-abiding, respected individuals of their community and it makes it very difficult for the court to make this conclusion, Hogan said. But the government's evidence and videos of the attack leaves little doubt" about what transpired, Hogan said. Tanios, of Morgantown, West Virginia, and Khater, of State College, Pennsylvania, havent been charged in Sicknicks death. The Washington medical examiners office last month found that Sicknick suffered a stroke and died from natural causes. The determination is likely to significantly inhibit the ability of federal prosecutors to bring homicide charges. Lawyers for Tanios and Khater argued they don't deserve to be locked up while they fight the case, noting that some other similarly situated defendants have been released. An attorney for Tanios who operated a greasy spoon called Sandwich U in Morgantown, home of West Virginia University said there was no advance planning and that her client had bought the chemical sprays only for self protection in the event of violence against Trump supporters. "His only plans were to attend this rally," said Tanios' attorney, Beth Gross. "The intent wasnt to go to a riot, the intent was to go to a rally to support their president." Sicknick and other officers were standing guard behind metal bicycle racks as the mob descended on the Capitol. Give me that bear s--t, Khater said before he reached into Tanios backpack, according to court papers. Tanios told Khater not yet because it was still early, but Khater responded they just f---ing sprayed me. Khater was then seen holding a can of chemical spray, prosecutors say. Khater walked through the crowd toward the bike rack barrier. Rioters began pulling on one of the racks, and Khater was seen with his arm in the air and the canister in his hand while standing just 5-to-8 feet from the officers, authorities said. A prosecutor said during a recent hearing that it was likely Mace not bear spray that was sprayed at the officers. Investigators initially believed Sicknick was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, based on statements collected early in the investigation. And they later thought the 42-year-old Sicknick may have ingested a chemical substance that contributed to his death. This article was written by ALANNA DURKIN RICHER from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com. The U.S. Air Force wants to downsize from seven types of fighter jets or attack aircraft to a mix of four, including the A-10 Warthog close-air support aircraft, the service's top general said Wednesday. Speaking during the annual McAleese conference, Gen. Charles "CQ" Brown said the service expects to determine the right mix of aircraft for the future through its "TacAir study." It will also assess how future fighter concepts will fit into the current mix of fourth- and fifth-generation fighters. But noticeably absent from his list were the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter and F-15E Strike Eagle. "My intent is to get down to about four," Brown said during a panel. "And really, a four plus one, because we're going to have the A-10 for a while ... [the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter], which will be the cornerstone, the F-15EX, and then we're going to have [the F-16 Fighting Falcon] for a while as well." Read Next: The Army Is Ditching All of Its Stryker Mobile Gun Systems Brown said the fighter mix also will include the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program, which defies the traditional categorization of a single platform, featuring a network potentially including an advanced fighter aircraft alongside sensors, weapons or drones in a growing and unpredictable threat environment. Service leaders have hinted that while the F-15EX, a fourth-plus generation fighter, is meant to replace the legacy F-15C/D models, it also could replace the E Strike Eagle model in the future, given its weapons load. The F-15EX, known as the Eagle II, will someday incorporate "hypersonic weapons up to 22 feet long and weighing up to 7,000 pounds," according to Boeing Co., its manufacturer. The service first revealed it could replace the E with the EX "as an option" in a 2019 Justification and Approval request. The F-22, meanwhile, has needed an increasing number of repairs and upgrades in recent years, including improvements to its low-observable stealth coating. Earlier in the McAleese session, Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, deputy chief of staff for plans and programs for the Air Force, said the F-22 is the dominant air superiority platform in the service's inventory. But he admitted there are shortfalls, especially in the maintenance of the aircraft. "The crews that fly and the crews that maintain and fix it are just amazing people because that is a tough airplane to maintain, and move around," he said. The stealthy F-35 has more durable low-observable technology because the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps each fly a variant of the aircraft designed for different scenarios, from landing on conventional runways on land, catching arresting cables on aircraft carriers, to hovering down on amphibious assault ships. "We're going to have to go past that [to] where the threat is moving, where the technology is moving," Nahom said, referencing a fighter that offers more than the F-22 in air-to-air combat. The F-35 fleet eclipsed the number of F-22s in 2019 -- with 203 at the end of that fiscal year; the Air Force capped its Raptor fleet at 187 in 2009 (it currently has 186). As noted by The Drive, one-third of the F-22 fleet is not combat-coded -- or operational for a wartime mission -- at any given time. Earlier this month, Brown said the Air Force's F-35 fleet also officially surpassed the number of F-15 and A-10s, becoming the second-largest fighter jet fleet in its aircraft inventory. Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Malinda Singleton told Military.com last week that the service has 283 F-35s, which exceeds the A-10 fleet by two aircraft. According to the Air Force Association's 2020 aircraft almanac, the service has 241 F-15C/D models and 218 Strike Eagles. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. Related: Did the Air Force Dash Hopes for Building More F-22s? House and Senate lawmakers have introduced legislation that would give military parents 12 weeks of family leave after the birth or adoption of a child -- a move that would provide flexibility and standardize benefits across the services. The proposed Servicemember Parental Leave Equity Act, introduced Tuesday by Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., would give both the designated primary caregiver and secondary caregiver up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave. The lawmakers said the legislation would align military benefits with those offered by many federal agencies, and would not only improve the quality of life for military families but improve readiness and retention. Read Next: Pilot Gets Airmanship Award for Crash-Landing A-10 After Gun Malfunction "Parental leave for military service members is absurdly out of touch and outdated when compared to federal benefits and options provided by many private, large employers," said Speier, who chairs the House Armed Services subcommittee for military personnel. "New parents need time to bond with their children after birth, adoption or foster placement; service members are no exception." Currently, service members who give birth can take up to six weeks of maternity convalescent leave, while the family's designated primary caregiver has access to an additional six weeks of leave, taken at the caregiver's discretion. Secondary caregivers get up to three weeks in the Army and the Air Force, and two weeks in the Navy and Marine Corps. The bill would increase primary caregiver leave to 12 weeks -- in addition to the six weeks of convalescent leave following a birth or adoption -- giving a new service member mom who also is the designated primary caregiver more than four months of leave. The bill would, for the first time, authorize the full 12 weeks of primary and secondary caregiver leave for foster children and require the Defense Department to establish policies that define caregiver leave for long-term fosters. And it would require the DoD to implement uniform policies to allow for additional leave in the case of a stillbirth, miscarriage or infant death for primary and secondary caregivers. Currently, DoD policies call for parental leave to terminate on the death of a child. "My wife and I welcomed into our family a beautiful baby girl, Elaine Marie Checketts. However, our joy turned to despair when Elaine passed away two days after birth. In the midst of my family's grief, I was shocked and devastated to learn that my parental leave was revoked per Defense Department policy," wrote Air Force Maj. Matthew Checketts in an op-ed for Military.com, supporting the legislation. "I was in no condition to return to work, and my family needed me then more than ever." The bill has the support of 31 cosponsors, including five Republicans. Earlier this year, Duckworth and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, introduced legislation named for Checketts' baby that would give troops leave to mourn infants who die. The legislation is likely to be considered during the National Defense Authorization Act deliberations process later this year. Also on Tuesday, Speier and Duckworth introduced a bill that would allow the DoD to expand an in-home child care subsidy pilot program established in last year's national defense policy bill; it would also direct the Pentagon to conduct a pilot to expand partnerships between the DoD and private providers. Duckworth said the bill recognizes that accessible child care is a "necessity -- not a luxury." "Our military's recruitment, retention and overall readiness are harmed when a military family can't find quality child care for their children," she said. -- Patricia Kime can be reached at Patricia.Kime@Monster.com. Follow her on Twitter @patriciakime. Related: Army Doubles Parental Leave for Secondary Caregivers Legislation introduced last week seeks to improve postpartum care for women in uniform and their families through Title 10, the section of the United States Code on the armed forces. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Penn., introduced the Military Moms Matter Act of 2021 May 7. The bill would expand paternity leave to 12 weeks for primary and secondary caregivers; extend the service member's physical fitness grace period to 12 months postpartum; and ensure that new moms who serve will have their medical needs met, including access to pelvic floor physical therapy referrals and increased postpartum depression and anxiety screening. Houlahan, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and founded the Servicewomen and Women Veterans Congressional Caucus, told Military.com that, as a woman in Congress and an Air Force veteran, she keeps women in uniform in mind as she crafts legislation. "There's not a lot of people who are kind of in positions of legislative ability to be able to think about what it means to be in uniform, and also to be a woman in uniform," she said. "And so some of the experiences that I personally have had informed the way that I'm trying to be helpful in terms of the modern military and the women who are currently serving." Houlahan, who served for three years in the Air Force as an active-duty service member and 13 years in the Air Force Reserve before leaving in 2004, said that her own pregnancy shaped the bill. "The experience that I had, trying to figure out how to piece that all together, in some ways was part of the reason why I separated from the military. It had to do with a lot of different stressors, including child care. But 30 or so years later, much of that has not really changed," she said. Though some of the service branches have decided to offer a postpartum grace period of 12 months to get back in weight and fitness standards, "it hasn't been codified," Houlahan said. The Army announced in March that it would double its postpartum physical standards grace period from six months to 12 months. "I had the opportunity to meet with National Guardswomen in Washington, D.C., from Pennsylvania who were deployed there during the January 6 timeframe," she said. "They felt as though their bodies needed more time to be healed before they had to perform in their next physical fitness test. Part of this bill is that it increases that time to 12 months, to allow them to be able to fully heal. And this, in fact, would codify that." Looking forward, Houlahan said she will continue to legislate change for mothers in uniform. She said that reducing stressors for service members is key to military readiness. "Yesterday, I was speaking with a junior enlisted woman, single mom, who was in tears describing the fact that she had to be in formation by 6 a.m., when child care didn't open until 5:30. And she spent every single day white-knuckled trying to drive as quickly as she could, from her off-post housing, to drop off her child to get to formation by six," Houlahan said. "And these kinds of things are things that are creating enormous stresses on the individual, but are also about the readiness of our military." In addition to contributing to a more inclusive force, Houlahan said taking care of women in uniform signals that the military values them and their families. "And we need to be working toward having more women in uniform, rather than fewer. This provides the feedback to a person who's looking to serve that you matter, that your life matters, that your family matters and that your children matter," she said. "This is a competitive working environment. These people are choosing to wear [a] uniform, rather than choosing to do something else in the civilian economy. And we need to be taking care of people." KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany The Air Force acknowledged that the display by security forces airmen at Ramstein Air Base of a "thin blue line" flag violated Defense Department policy on what types of flags can be flown on U.S. bases. The 86th Airlift Wing posted and later removed photos on its Facebook page of airmen in uniform carrying a black-and-white American flag with a blue horizontal stripe during a 24-hour rucksack march as part of National Police Week. The photos drew immediate condemnation by some in the community who questioned the display on a U.S. military base of a flag that has become a polarizing symbol in a nation grappling with police violence and racism. The "thin blue line" flag is used to show support for law enforcement, but it's also been used by white supremacist groups and flown at far-right rallies. "Really surprised to see such a highly charged political flag being flown on base by airmen in uniform," a commenter said in response to the original photo posts. "I thought this was not allowed in uniform. Has this changed?" The photos were shared in support of "our base Defenders" from multiple units who participated in the march, the wing said in a Facebook post after the images were removed. They were "only intended to show praise for their hard work and military service," base officials said. The statement acknowledged the photos violated DOD policy "regarding the use of flags on military installations. For this, we take full responsibility." On Wednesday, base officials said carrying the flag was a tradition used to show support for the security forces community. "They were not making or endorsing any political statement or activity," an 86th Airlift Wing statement said. "Base leaders are taking appropriate action to ensure personnel are aware of current regulations regarding the use of flags. "We appreciate the community's response and feedback and want to ensure everyone understands that we take situations like this very seriously. We will continue to focus on what unifies us as service members while promoting an environment where everyone is treated with dignity and respect." Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper issued a militarywide policy last summer limiting what flags can be displayed by service members on U.S. installations. Military and congressional leaders at the time had been pressing Esper to ban the Confederate flag across the department. The policy says "the flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols." It spells out what flags are authorized. They include the American flag, state flags, military service flags, the POW/MIA flag, flags of partner or allied countries, and ceremonial, command, unit, or branch flags or guidons. TOKYO Japanese ground troops joined American and French counterparts in their first three-way exercise on Japanese land, as they seek to strengthen military ties amid growing Chinese assertiveness in the region. The ARC21 exercise started Tuesday at the Ground Self-Defense Forces Ainoura base in Nagasaki prefecture. Japan is seeking to expand its military ties beyond its alliance with the United States to include like-minded countries such as France, Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told reporters. He said France, the only European nation with a permanent military presence in the Indo-Pacific region, is a like-minded country that shares with Japan the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific. He said Japan welcomes Frances participation in the region and hopes to expand the partnership further. About 100 Japanese troops, including rapid amphibious deployment units, or Japanese marines, joined by 60 troops each from the French army and U.S. Marine Corps, are to conduct urban warfare drills followed by amphibious operation exercises under a scenario of defending a remote island from an enemy invasion. On Tuesday, the troops started three days of operations at Camp Ainoura in Nagasaki. Later in the week, they will fly to Kirishima training ground for an urban warfare drill at a facility designed to simulate a remote island. Australian troops will also join part of the exercises held in the East China Sea. The exercise comes as Japan seeks to bolster its military capability amid a deepening territorial row with China in regional seas. Japan is increasingly concerned about Chinese activity in and around Japanese-claimed waters surrounding the Japanese-controlled Senkaku islands, which Beijing also claims and calls Diaoyu. France, which has territories in the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, has strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific region. Britain, which recently adopted a policy of deeper engagement in the region, is sending aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth and its strike group, which are due to arrive in the region later this year. Germany is also set to deploy a frigate to the region. Kishi said growing interest in the Indo-Pacific region among European nations and their increased presence contribute to the peace and stability in the region. He said the free and open Indo-Pacific concept does not target any specific nation, such as China. China has criticized the free and open Indo-Pacific vision as an exclusionist bloc based on a Cold War-era mindset. This article was written by MARI YAMAGUCHI from The Associated Press and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com. Spencer Sullivan is an Army cavalry veteran and currently works as the director of training and development for a cybersecurity provider. He resides in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and son. Follow him on Twitter @Spencer_Sully1. America is finally pulling out of Afghanistan after 20 years of conflict. That means many things to many people in the armed services, but it means more to the people of Afghanistan. As this website has reported on many occasions, countless Afghans who served as interpreters are being left behind to face the increasingly dominant Taliban. One of these young men, Abdulhaq, was my interpreter during my time in Afghanistan. With the Taliban closing in on him, he decided to take matters into his own hands and flee Afghanistan for the equally dangerous path of a refugee. As I recount his story, I want the reader to consider what we owe the people of Afghanistan, and what we owe ourselves as international defenders of freedom. Abdulhaq served as an interpreter for a little over two years spread out between 2010 and 2013, the midpoint of the war as we now know in retrospect. He joined Mission Essential Personnel, one of the main contracting vehicles for such positions. Abdulhaq was assigned to American infantry, cavalry and logistical units in Farah, Zabul and Kabul provinces. He went on hundreds of combat missions during his time as an interpreter. During his service, he survived an improvised explosive device blast that left him with permanent damage to his spine, neck and head. His collective experiences left him with a diagnosed case of post-traumatic stress disorder and somatized pain disorder, not to mention sleepless nights, nightmares, anxiety and depression. As veterans, we understand the dangers of combat deployments; but whatever the events of our deployments, we go home. For men like Abdulhaq, the reality of life in Afghanistan never ends. Whatever his actions, the consequences reverberate long after everyone else has gone home. The Taliban have enacted a campaign of revenge killings against men like Abdulhaq who aided NATO and U.S. forces. Another of my interpreters who served alongside Abdulhaq was systematically tracked down and executed by the Taliban in 2017. Sayed's death directly led the nonprofit charity No One Left Behind to begin tracking such incidents. To date, it is the only organization with any true data on the death toll suffered by this demographic. After Abdulhaq's neighbor, who served as a fuel truck driver, was executed by the Taliban while standing in his own front door, Abdulhaq decided he had to leave his home forever and flee. He traveled by taxi and plane. He was stuffed in the back of trucks, cars and vans; traveled on foot at times; and on trains through Iran, Turkey, Greece, Spain and eventually to Germany. Along the way, he was savagely beaten by smugglers and Turkish police, was blindly shot at during nighttime border crossings through snowy mountains, slept outside exposed to the elements for weeks, and was imprisoned three times. He spent nearly the entirety of his family's collective wealth, amounting to roughly $15,000 over seven months, to eat, buy fake IDs, and pay smugglers. He made 16 attempts to get out of Greece alone via shipping containers, trucks and airports before he was finally lucky enough to get through. Upon arriving in Germany, he was immediately denied asylum due to "lack of evidence indicating a direct threat to his life." Two years into his appeal, he has become suicidal and threatened to light himself on fire in front of the U.S. Embassy in Berlin if he is deported back to Afghanistan. He has renounced Islam, making him an apostate in the eyes of his family and fellow countrymen. If he is deported, his family and community would be duty bound to kill him. With the U.S. withdrawal and the inevitable Taliban takeover of the country, such an execution wouldn't even be uncommon. Abdulhaq's journey out of Afghanistan and into Europe is an astonishing panoply of heroic and horrifying moments. It is also the baseline experience for hundreds of thousands of voiceless refugees braving the perilous and too often deadly journey west. Knowing that true peace and democratic change is a slow, generational process, many have chosen to seek these human rights in their own lifetimes. And yet, even though they've been given the (false) promise of a more democratic society within their own borders, multitudes have had that door of opportunity slammed in their faces at every turn. What do we owe people like Abdulhaq? America has sunk more than $2 trillion in treasure and 2,300 lives into the war over 20 years. In the basest terms, that is an accounting of what we have given, but do we ever truly stop to ask what we have taken? War ignites bitterness and resentment that echoes for generations. Afghans, more so than Americans, have a long memory for such things. Abdulhaq's family is financially destitute and looking down the barrel of another Taliban regime in spite of all our efforts. For my part, I have offered Abdulhaq friendship and a voice. Perhaps it is time that American policymakers take a closer look at what they can do to aid those we've left behind in the wake of the war in Afghanistan. That begins with the modest baseline of not restricting the Special Immigration Visa, or SIV, program created by then-U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Ryan Crocker for interpreters just like Abdulhaq, and perhaps even easing some of the nonsensical bureaucratic obstacles inherent to the SIV application process. My interpreter who didn't make it, Sayed, applied for an SIV in 2013. He was murdered in 2017. In 2018, I received an email from the SIV office asking if my letter of recommendation for Sayed written in 2012 was legitimate, and if I still recommended him for the program so they could begin the process. I informed them that Sayed had died while they took five years to start his paperwork. There is much we can and should do for our veterans, certainly, but we can and must do better for those Afghans we've left behind. -- The opinions expressed in this op-ed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Military.com. If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration. Military spouses know the cumulative impact of military life all too well. The side effects of deployments, frequent PCSes and uncertain schedules impact every aspect of life for a military family, especially the career trajectory of the military spouse. For Navy SEAL spouse Erica Beal, this reality hits close to home. For over 19 years, Beal has juggled the demanding schedule and multiple combat deployments of her husband, the needs of her two young sons and a thriving career in the engineering industry. Though it wasn't easy, Beal used this time to advance her education, serve the military spouse community and retain as much experience in the utility sector as possible -- all while raising a family. Over a 15-year tenure in the utility sector, Beal held nearly half a dozen positions in various departments, providing her a unique perspective on the industry as a whole. Now Beal, the founder and chief executive officer of AVIVV, a professional services engineering firm in San Diego, said she constantly has "pinch me" moments when she thinks back to the challenges and tough times that she has endured as a mother, wife and professional. "This path can never be described as easy, and it certainly didn't happen by accident," she said. "I'm very fortunate to have made it to where I am today, which serves as a huge driver in our firm's deep commitment to hiring military spouses and veterans." Since launching in late 2019, Beals company has become the first certified military spouse-owned engineering firm in the United States by the Military Spouse Chamber of Commerce, reached the $1 million mark in revenue and expanded the business throughout California, New Jersey and Texas. To be certified as a military spouse-owned enterprise, there are a number of factors, including a majority ownership by a military spouse, or a joint venture between a spouse and veteran. Of the firm's many achievements and milestones, Beal is most proud of AVIVV's Impact Now program. Its mission is to train, mentor and hire transitioning veterans, spouses and extended family members by preparing them with extensive culture assimilation into the workforce. To date, about half of the firm's 35 employees are military spouses or veterans. "Military spouses and veterans truly bring a unique skill set to the workforce, but they need employers who understand the lifestyle, culture of service and the value of their experience," Beal said. "Personally, I'm infinitely more fulfilled in my leadership role knowing that our work is led by America's finest." Whether you're building a business of your own or you're looking for ways to grow professionally in a traditional role, five principles have guided Beal: 1. Be nimble The importance of flexibility and the ability to pivot apply in our personal and professional lives. Oftentimes, we're not dictating outcome. Therefore, it is critical to receive change gracefully and with the commitment always to find a way forward. 2. Prioritize servant leadership AVIVV was built on the foundation of servant leadership with a commitment to giving back to our military community through employment and mentorship. You don't have to be the CEO of a company to give back to causes that matter to you or to deem yourself a leader. Lead from wherever you are and empower yourself to make an impact. 3. Build your bench Due to the nature of military life, we surround ourselves with a reliable support system, which will play a key role in your success as a professional. There will come a time when you need to lean on others for mentorship, emotional support or scheduling issues. This support system of champions and cheerleaders takes the form of your fellow military spouses, family, colleagues and caregivers. 4. Begin NOW Whether you make big commitments or small ones that will support your overall goals, there will never be a perfect time to start. Take actionable steps toward your goal NOW. 5. Define your purpose What motivates or inspires you? Is it financial freedom? Or perhaps you're improving a social cause near and dear to you? When you identify your purpose, the hard days become manageable and give you the motivation to push forward. Beal wants career-minded military spouses to remember: "We were made for this." "It is through our collective experience living military life that we become highly adaptable, nimble, well-rounded individuals with the ability to tackle challenges head-on, Beal said. These qualities are sought after in the business community, and military spouses are well-equipped to become meaningful contributors to an organization's success. Market your talent and strengths with confidence, knowing that you should be valued from day one." -- Lyndsey Akers is an Air Force spouse, corporate communications professional and a passionate military spouse employment advocate. In addition to making memories with her family, her latest passion project includes leading the marketing efforts for Spouse-ly, the one-stop shop to support military/veteran spouse- and service member-owned businesses. Keep Up with the Ins and Outs of Military Life For the latest military news and tips on military family benefits and more, subscribe to Military.com and have the information you need delivered directly to your inbox. Millions of Americans can now apply for federal assistance to help pay their monthly internet bill as part of a $3.2 billion pandemic relief program, according to the Associated Press. The Emergency Broadband Benefit was part of the $900 billion pandemic relief package passed in December which included money for expansion of broadband service and assistance in keeping families connected to the internet. Qualified applicants can receive up to $50 a month to help pay for their internet service and up to $75 a month if they live on Tribal lands. There is also a one-time credit of up to $100 toward the purchase of a laptop, tablet or desktop computer. A co-pay between $10-$50 is also required for the purchase of a device. There are several ways to qualify for the program including by already participating in other government programs such as SNAP, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income and more. You may also qualify if you experienced substantial loss of income since Feb. 29, 2020 with a total household income in 2020 at or below $99,000 for single filers and $198,000 for joint filers, according to a statement on the program website. To see the full list of how to qualify and to determine if your household is eligible, visit the program website. It is unknown how long the money will be available, but it is expected to be there for several months, despite being available to tens of millions of customers. The Federal Communications Commission is administering the program, but did not say how many people are eligible. The program will end when the fund runs out of money, or six months after the Department of Health and Human Services declares an end to the COVID-19 health emergency, whichever is sooner, reads a portion of the website. The program allows those who already owe money to their providers to collect the benefit regardless if they are past due or not. In the past, some providers have offered assistance programs to low-income homes, but are typically available on the condition that the bill is up-to-date. The AP reports more than 800 cellphone and internet providers are participating in the program. Among the more well known providers involved are AT&T, Charter, Comcast, T-Mobile and Verizon. The money can be used to pay for a current plan or to upgrade to a better plan with the benefit helping to reduce the cost of the new monthly bill. READ MORE: Cancel extra $300, federal unemployment programs, Michigan business group urges Michigan coronavirus data for Wednesday, May 12: Cases dropping faster in best-vaccinated counties Hospitals, stores, restaurants among 51 Michigan businesses fined for COVID-19 violations BERLIN, GERMANY - AUGUST 20: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg attends a press conference after the meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on August 20, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. Two years on from her first school strike, 17-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg is meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to deliver a petition letter calling for EU leaders to end investments in the exploration and extraction of fossil fuels. (Photo : Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images) China have had enough of being the first to blame on climate change and environmental crisis. Greta Thunberg's remarks to China's Annual Emission on a twitter post has garnered multiple comments from Chinese media being 'hypocrite' and accused Thunberg of having 'double-standards' for hyping up China's annual emissions while turning a blind eye on Fukushima's radioactive water disposal. CNN on Friday, May 7, cited a new report from the Rhodium Group which showed China's annual emissions surpassing those of all developed nations combined in 2019, the first time that has happened since national greenhouse gas emissions have been measured. Greta Thunberg, a Swedish environmentalist in the West, on her comment said, "Yes, China is still categorized as a developing nation by WTO, they manufacture a lot of our products and so on. But that's of course no excuse for ruining future and present living conditions. We can't solve the climate crisis unless China drastically changes course." The tweet then gathered series of reaction from Chinese media, calling Thunberg a 'double-standard environmentalist'. China on Japan's Fukushima Wastewater Disposal In two years' time, environmental groups of Japan plan to release more than 1m tonnes of its radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the sea. This decision has angered neighboring countries, including China and local fishers. Thus, Thunberg's opinion on China's Annual Emission, while staying silent on Japan's decision to 'contaminate the Pacific Ocean with radioactive waste', was referred by Chinese media as 'hypocrisy'. On the same day the report was released, an a graphical illustration from a Famous Chinese cartoonist Wuheqilin went viral on Twitter-like Weibo. Chinese social media expressed their applaud on the art's vivid representation of how China was being bullied for centuries by Western forces. "It is an old trick for the Western media and activists to point fingers at China on climate and environmental issues," a netizen commented. They also accused the media of 'only judging the total quantity of emissions, not talking about the per capita figures'. Also read: Mind-boggling 45,000 People Apply for a Chance to Kill Grand Canyon Bison Per capita Emissions in China In 2019, China has surpassed even the US's -the world's second-largest emitter at 11% - total emission. However, Chinese media highlighted that China is a large country, inhabiting over 1.4 billion people, and if you look into Per capita emissions, they have remained considerably lower than those in the developed world. As Ding Zhongli, a vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China's National People's Congress and former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, once said, "I want to ask: Are Chinese humans? That's a fundamental question. I see the right to emit as a right to development, which is a basic human right." He explained that there should be a 'roughly equal amount of emissions per capita', which is only fair. Citing these words, Chinese media considered Thunberg and her team's remarks as 'selective', saying they don't really care for the environment and she's merely a 'puppet' Western politicians control for their gain. Also read: Large Piece of Space Debris Hurtling Towards Earth GRAND RAPIDS, MI Michigan is home to the Traverse City, the Cherry Capital of the World. Now the state is also home to its very own seltzer courtesy of Labatt. The company announced Tuesday that it is releasing Black Cherry Seltzer Lemonade for a limited time this week. The drink, which will only be available in Michigan, features a familiar landmark from Lake Michigan. As our second largest market in the US, Michigan is like a second home to Labatt. We wanted to create something special for our fans here, that you wont find anywhere else said Janine Schoos, Labatt brand director. We know Traverse City is the cherry capitol of the world and so our team of experts brought the flavor to life in a uniquely Labatt way for this exclusive Great Lakes State pack. Labatt Blue Light Seltzer Lemonade Black Cherry is a hard seltzer with the tart flavor of lemonade and the sweet characteristics of ripe black cherries. Each Seltzer Lemonade sits at 5% ABV and only 100 calories. The Michigan-exclusive packs will be available throughout the state this summer. From partnering with local non-profit organizations to featuring Michigan landmarks on packaging, Labatt feels at home in Michigan and this exclusive Black Cherry Seltzer Lemonade is yet another great example, said Tom Clark, Director of Sales and Marketing for Fabiano Brothers, Inc., one of Labatts wholesaler partners in Michigan. The seltzer category continues to see tremendous growth and though we have seen many new entries, Labatt sets themselves apart with this popular Michigan flavor and a great callout to Michigan on the package. We love to see them support our state and look forward to sharing Black Cherry Seltzer Lemonade with Michigan this summer. The Michigan-exclusive Black Cherry pack is an extension of the Labatt Blue Light Seltzer Lemonade Chilled line, which is also available in variety packs across Michigan and across the Northeast starting this week. In each variety pack, Black Cherry is joined by three other Labatt Blue Light Seltzer Lemonade flavors: classic Lemonade, Raspberry and Peach. Labatt Blue Light Seltzer Lemonade is available now across Michigan in variety packs with all four flavors and in the Michigan-exclusive Black Cherry packs. MONROE COUNTY, MI A couple arrested last weekend in connection with a fatal shooting have been charged with murder. Austin Cory-Jordan Green and Riley Morgan Young were arraigned Monday, May 10, on felony charges associated with the death of Michael Allen Tripp, who was fatally shot Saturday, May 8, in Frenchtown Township, according to the Monroe County Sheriffs Office. Green, 21, of Monroe, is charged with one count each of open murder and felony firearms. Young, 20, of Monroe, is charged with one count each of felonious assault and domestic violence. The charges stem from a shooting that occurred at about 3:15 a.m. near the entrance of Pleasantville Mobile Home Community at the intersection of Pleasantville and George drives. Couple arrested in connection to Monroe County fatal shooting Police in the area heard the gunshot and found Tripp lying on the ground in the intersection suffering a gunshot wound, police said. Deputies securing the shooting scene found Green and Young nearby and arrested the pair after determining they were involved in the shooting, police said. Tripp, 26, of Newport, was taken to Beaumont Hospital in Trenton where he died from his injuries, police said. A preliminary investigation revealed that Tripp, Green and Young knew each other and that there was an altercation between them that led to the shooting, police said. Bond for Young was set at $50,000 while bond was denied for Green who faces the open murder charge. The incident remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call 734-240-7530. More from MLive: Michigan Senate ties in-person unemployment, Secretary of State services to budget bills Feedback being sought for Route Ypsilanti project aimed at reducing speeding University of Michigan officials could have stopped abuse by late athletic doctor, report finds GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- A resolution to declare May as Police Appreciation Month and to fly a Thin Blue Line flag over county buildings has been knocked off track, sent to a committee for further study by the county Board of Commissioners. The board voted 5-4 to take the action on Wednesday, May 12 after dozens of residents spoke in both support and opposition to the measure with many saying the flag has become divisive and been adopted as a symbol of white supremacy. Im in support of Police Appreciation Month because I do believe (police officers) are needed and do a wonderful job, said Commissioner Bryant Nolden, D-Flint. What Im not in support of is the flying of this flag on our buildings. Commissioner Shaun Shumaker, R-Fenton Twp., proposed the resolution and voted against the postponement, saying the action amounted to a death sentence for the proposal. Its going to die. Commissioner (Domonique) Clemons knows this, Shumaker said. Its a game to him. I understand. To the men and women in blue who serve us, its not a game. Clemons was among the five commissioners who vote to send the resolution to the county Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee, which he chairs. Commissioners Bryant Nolden, D-Flint; Charles Winfrey, D-Flint, Ellen Ellenburg, D-Burton; and Gary Peppin, D-Davison, voted with Clemons. Shumaker and Commissioners Mark Young, D-Grand Blanc; Debra Newman, D-Clayton Twp.; and Meredith Davis, R-Flushing Twp., voted against the delay. Wednesdays vote came after more than two dozen county residents spoke out on the resolution, which praises police officers for their service and recognizes those who were killed in the line of duty. Lanny Valentine of Davison Township said the resolution to declare Police Appreciation Month and fly the Thin Blue Line flag should be supported. Every time one of these men walk out of their door with that uniform, they become a target, Valentine said. They are the only thing that protects you and I as average citizens from any riots or any disorder that could come. They are here to protect every one of us -- black or white -- whatever color, whatever race, whatever creed. But others said that while they support police officers, the county should not fly the flag requested by Shumaker -- a black background with a single blue line across its horizon. Other flags that also feature a blue line as a show of support for police have been flown by rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to overturn the election defeat of former President Donald Trump, the Associated Press has reported. Five people, including a U.S. Capitol Police officer, died in the riot. In January, the University of Wisconsin-Madisons police chief banned officers from using Thin Blue Line imagery while on duty, and less than a week ago, the chief judge of Maryland District Courts banned court employees from wearing face masks showing the law enforcement symbol, according to AP reports. Flint resident Claire McClinton said flying such a flag after the death of George Floyd and the conviction of Derek Chauvin for his murder just last month would amount to creating more havoc and ... distrust. Why would you bring this matter up before this county right now? McClinton asked commissioners. Wednesdays vote is not the first attempt to fly a secondary flag over county buildings. Last month, a divided commission approved a resolution 7-2 to fly the rainbow flag symbolizing LGBTQ pride at county buildings every June. Read more: Genesee County could fly Thin Blue Line flag, but symbol has been banned elsewhere Despite objections, LGBTQ pride flag will fly over Genesee County buildings Genesee County replacing two COVID-19 vaccination mega sites with one FLINT, MI -- Fifty Michigan high school teams will gather at Kettering University to compete in the 14th annual Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge later this month. The statewide competition, hosted by Square One Education Network, will utilize the universitys Mobility Research Center. Half the teams will participate in person and the other half will participate virtually, according to a news release from the university. The competition will take place on Tuesday, May 18 and Wednesday, May 19. High school students will compete in four different categories: Autonomous Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge, Mini Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge, V2X Innovative Vehicle Design and the Full-Scale Innovative Vehicle Design Challenge. Students must re-engineer a power wheels jeep into an autonomous vehicle in the autonomous innovative vehicle design challenge, per the release. The full-scale vehicle design challenge tasks students to either transform a gas-powered go-kart kit to build a car into an electric or hybrid vehicle. We are excited to partner once again with Square One to host this years event at MRC and to support the passion and skills of these incredibly talented future leaders in mobility, said Kip Darcy, vice president of Enrollment Management and Marketing at Kettering University. As an institution that is committed to innovative education and hands-on experience, we know the value of this competition not only to participants but to the industries in which they will one day transform. Square One is a Michigan nonprofit educational organization that develops talent for the future workplace using hands-on learning experiences, according to its website. Read more on MLive: Community Foundation of Greater Flint awards $7,500 grant to Kettering University for computer science camps New firefighter training program to address Genesee County staffing issues Kettering University to begin offering esports scholarships up to $4K Mott Community College, MSU partner to form early-admission program for medical students FLINT, MI -- Nearly $95 million will be distributed to colleges and universities in Michigans 5th Congressional District under the federal governments last COVID-19 spending bill. A total of $94,555,085 will be distributed in emergency funds to area colleges and universities to help deal with the financial fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. At least half of the funding for each school will be distributed to students in the form of emergency assistance, according to a news release from U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Township. I have heard directly from local postsecondary institutions during the pandemic about their challenges shifting instruction into virtual and hybrid formats, covering increased costs associated with ensuring safe learning environments and balancing the budget with declining revenue, Kildee said. Saginaw Valley State University is receiving the most funds at $19,906,061, followed by Mott Community College at $19,824,146, Delta College at $18,648,759, Baker College at $18,018,330 and the University of Michigan-Flint at $14,314,634. Kettering University will receive $3,843,155. The American Rescue Plan allocates nearly $36 billion for more than 3,000 colleges and universities across the country, per the news release. I have also heard from students and families who are struggling to pay tuition, while keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table, Kildee said. ... This investment will ensure our educational institutions remain anchors in our communities and our students stay on track to finish their education as we continue to recover and build back a better economy. Students can contact their respective colleges and universities to seek access to emergency grants. Read more on MLive: Kettering University to host high school vehicle design competition 141,000 mid-Michigan children to benefit from monthly COVID relief payments, Kildee says Community Foundation of Greater Flint awards $7,500 grant to Kettering University for computer science camps Kettering University to begin offering esports scholarships up to $4K GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A Grand Rapids area man is accused of paying a teen girl to send him nude photos of herself. Timothy Edward Sweeney, 30, is charged with attempted sex trafficking of a minor and coercion and enticement of a minor. FBI agents said they interviewed a Southwest Michigan girl in February and she told them that, in April 2020, she began messaging Sweeny on Instagram. Sweeney allegedly communicated with her using several different Instagram accounts. The girl was about 15 at the time. He paid her through a cash-transfer app $700-$800 to send him nude photos of herself. He also allegedly offered to pay her money to engage in sex acts, but she told police she did not. The teen told FBI agents that in January, Sweeney paid her and her 15-year-old friend about $100 to send him photos of them together. One of the girls was nude and the other was partially nude. Police apparently began investigating Sweeney after a St. Joseph County sheriffs deputy talked to Sweeney on Jan. 15. The deputy had responded to a Centreville parking lot on a report of a suspicious vehicle in the area. Sweeney was in the vehicle with the teen girl he allegedly met on Instagram and a 15-year-old boy. They were waiting to pickup up a 16-year-old girl who lived nearby. The deputy took custody of the minor to release them to parents. Sweeney was allowed to leave at at that time. More from MLive Restaurant workers sue for $12 minimum wage proposal, claiming delay to 2030 was unconstitutional Whitmer threatens profit seizure as Enbridge Line 5 closure deadline looms GRAND RAPIDS, MI As far back as 2015, city leaders have talked about switching a stretch of Ottawa and Ionia avenues that run through downtown Grand Rapids from one-way to two-way streets. The idea behind the change: two-way streets are more hospitable to people coming downtown. Plus, under the current configuration, Ottawa Avenue can feel like a big highway offramp as it runs one-way through downtown from I-196. On Wednesday, while discussing a $2.25 million proposal to resurface a portion of Ottawa Avenue, two Grand Rapids Downtown Development Authority board members asked: Whats the hold up? When is that going to happen, asked Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalynn Bliss, who noted the recommendation to change the streets to permit two-way traffic was included in GR Forward, the plan that guides development in downtown Grand Rapids. What is the long-term plan? And is it really the best idea to dump $2.2 million, with these construction costs coming in higher than expected, when ultimately we want to make that a two-way street? DDA board chair Rick Winn echoed Bliss comments about the importance of opening Ottawa and Ionia avenues to two-way traffic. Employees of the city of Grand Rapids and Downtown Grand Rapids Inc., which manages the DDAs funding, encouraged the DDA board members to approve the DDAs recommended share of the project cost, $581,800. The remainder is being covered by the city of Grand Rapids and a Michigan Department of Transportation grant. City officials said it would be at least two more years before the two downtown streets could be changed to allow two-way traffic. However, they said the resurfacing project sets the stage for the conversion to occur. In addition to the street resurfacing, the project includes decorative streetlights, trees, landscaping, and infrastructure for future traffic signals needed to accommodate two-way traffic. Grand Rapids City Manager Mark Washington said delaying the resurfacing of Ottawa Avenue could cost the city more money in the long run. If we delayed it a couple years, we could lose the whole street, where wed have to reconstruct the entire street versus just primarily doing the overlay, he said, speaking during the virtual DDA board meeting. Read more: A pair of one-way Grand Rapids roads could go two-way Another reason why the streets havent been changed to permit two-way traffic: funding. Josh Naramore, director of the citys Mobile GR and parking services department, estimated it would cost about $1 million to put in the required traffic signals. The other piece too is we do not have the funding in the budget, and there was no budget in this project for the signal work, he told the DDA board. Ultimately, the DDA approved its $581,800 share of the project. Work on the project is expected to begin in mid-June, according to DGRI memo. Bliss and Winn also questioned whether it would be wise to postpone the street resurfacing until the roads are ready to accommodate two-way traffic because project bids from construction firms came in about $500,000 higher than expected. Winn said its important to make Ottawa and Ionia avenues two-way streets. But he supported the resurfacing Wednesday because he said theres no guarantee the project bids will come in lower in the future. However, Winn encouraged city of Grand Rapids staff to remain focused on opening the streets to two-way traffic. If we wait for projects to occur, we may not make any decisions on any street, Winn said. So, I would caution us not to make the two-way a contingency or waiting on construction or other projects that may occur along that street. Bliss agreed. My concern is were going to move forward with this resurfacing and it will go to the bottom of the list, and I want to make sure we pick it back up and move forward and ultimately have a two-way street, she said. Read more: Can you believe it- normal weather coming to Michigan Six mid-Michigan colleges, universities to receive combined $94 million in emergency COVID-19 funds See $24M plan to spend recovery funds in Muskegon, including new linear park downtown KALAMAZOO, MI All charges were dismissed in the case of the wife of a former Kalamazoo pastor accused of sexually assaulting teenagers. Jazmonique Lakendra Strickland, 28, of Mississippi, was charged with multiple felonies related to alleged sexual assault of teenagers and human trafficking. Kalamazoo County District Judge Christopher Haenicke dismissed the one felony count each of third-degree criminal sexual conduct on a student genital to penis, one count third-degree criminal sexual conduct on a student oral to penis and human trafficking of a minor for commercial sexual activity. The charges were dismissed after nearly four hours of witness testimony during an in-person preliminary examination May 12. RELATED: Wife of former Kalamazoo pastor arraigned on human trafficking, child sexual assault charges The Kalamazoo County Prosecutors Office needed to provide evidence that Strickland used her status at the school the victim attended to persuade the then 16-year-old to have sex, Haenicke said. In my mind it is clear they were having the sex that was described (during testimony), when it was described, Haenicke said. However, for the criminal sexual conduct charges against Strickland, it must be clear that Strickland used her status as a secretary at Phoenix High School to gain access to the victim and/or used her status to create the relationship, Haenicke said. The then-teenager testified that he rarely interacted with Strickland at Phoenix High School. He said he mainly interacted with Strickland through her husband Stricjavvar Strick Strickland, 38. He is facing 11 felony charges related to sexual assault and human trafficking. The then-teenager said Strickland never called him to the office and never passed him notes at school. Related: Kalamazoo pastor paid teenage boys to have sex with his wife, police say The man, now 20, testified he was paid by Strick Strickland to have sex Jazmonique Strickland when he was 16 years old. He said he was paid $100 each time they had sex and it happened between three and five times. He said he was not forced to have sex with Jazmonique Strickland but did it because he was paid for it and he needed money. I can remember because it happened to me, he testified. If something traumatic happened to you, you would remember it. The charge of human trafficking of a minor for commercial sexual activity was dismissed because the then-teenager testified that he only communicated and was paid by Strick Strickland, Haenicke said. The court is finding its too great of a leap, even for probable cause purposes, Haenicke said. ... Theres not any evidence thats presented that she was in on the payment of the services. I could speculate say, How could she have not known they were being paid? Well, it isnt for me to speculate. Theres got to be some evidence produced to show theres probable cause that she did know this was being paid for. Michigan State Police Digital Forensic Analyst Aaron Roberts testified about evidence found on a phone seized from the Stricklands home. He testified the messages discuss sex and condoms. He also said there was no evidence to show who sent the text messages. While the messages were salacious, Haenicke said he cannot speculate about who the messages were about, because there was not enough evidence for probable cause that it was about the then-16-year-old. The prosecutors office will review the courts decision and consider next steps, Prosecutor Jeff Getting said via text message. We remain committed to doing our best on behalf of the victims in this case, Getting said. These are never easy cases to prosecute under the best of circumstances and the passage of time has not made this case easier by any means. The Kalamazoo County Prosecutors Office had counts of two counts of of human trafficking of a minor for commercial sexual activity, one count of third-degree criminal sexual conduct on a child between the age of 13 to15, one count each of third-degree criminal sexual conduct on a student and two counts of child sexually abusive activity dismissed before the preliminary examination. Strick Strickland had a jury trial scheduled for July. However, circuit court jury trials were suspended May 10 until at least Aug. 1 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Strick Strickland is the former executive senior pastor at Second Baptist Church in Kalamazoo and also previously served as the president of the local chapter of the NAACP from 2016-2018. He was previously issued a $500,000 personal recognizance bond, which he has posted. More from MLive: Police release name of Kalamazoo man, 61, killed while bicycling 8 Kalamazoo businesses receive $10K grants from Verizon Keller Williams Kalamazoo opening new location on Stadium Drive Kalamazoo public safety open house will feature drive-in movie, fire engine demonstration MUSKEGON, MI When Muskegon offered downtown employees and residents the chance to buy a $50 annual parking pass that essentially removes two-hour parking restrictions, Sarah Powers jumped at the offer. She works downtown for Revel, a marketing firm, and played the odds when overstaying the two-hour, and sometimes half-hour, parking limits. Powers has gotten a parking ticket before, but with the parking permit she doesnt have to worry or walk to work from non-regulated parking. I just like it for the convenience and the close spot, especially when its cold out, she said. Im happy to support the city. The idea to offer the parking passes was born out of requests from downtown workers who had to either keep moving their cars or play the odds they wouldnt get a ticket, said Muskegon City Manager Frank Peterson. Something that was hard for employees to swallow was the fact that, especially in the winter, many spots remain open, Peterson said. However, permit-holders cant just park anywhere. The city has designated some spots as no-permit parking, especially near shopping areas on Western Avenue and Fourth Street. Well kind of play it by ear, Peterson said. As the downtown gets more developed, more areas will be marked no-permit parking. He sees the permits as a stopgap before a parking structure is needed. This is way smarter than having to build a parking structure or parking lot and taking up a buildable lot, he said. Related $15M parking ramp with residential, retail sought for downtown Muskegon Time limits on downtown parking are enforced weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The city added a parking enforcement officer this year, meaning there will be more robust enforcement of time limits, Peterson said. The permit system is not designed to be a money maker. The city had 50 passes printed up, and Peterson believes 25 to 30 people will buy them. Some new downtown residential developments have limited or no parking for residents, who also could benefit from a pass. Lakeview Lofts on Western has no parking, and there are two more phases of construction planned on that mixed-use development where Revel is located. The Leonard mixed-use building going up across the street will have some parking, but likely not enough for all residents, customers and employees who will spend time there, Peterson said. Having parking permits available could also help attract businesses downtown, he said. Companies concerned about a lack of parking could purchase permits for their employees, he said. Those who are interested in a downtown parking permit should contact the citys planning department at 231-724-6702. Also on MLive Mercy Health Seaway Run returns to in-person format after virtual event in 2020 Free summer concerts return to Muskegons McGraft Park Michigan anglers who catch tagged fish could earn $100 STANDISH, MI When police entered the rural Michigan home of an ex-police officer to serve a search warrant, they were struck by the strong odor of propane and the sound of gas rushing from a cut line. Moments later, they found a device of fishing line and matches, a booby trap that was rigged to erupt in flames had a certain door been opened. Three Michigan State Police troopers shared these details during the preliminary examination of 67-year-old Roger A. Broadstone, held Tuesday, May 11, before Arenac County Chief District Judge Richard E. Vollbach Jr. Trooper Adam Whited testified that on Jan. 20, he went to Broadstones Twining home as part of an investigation into credit card fraud regarding purchases made from a West Branch Walmart. Whited had developed Broadstone as a suspect in the case and went to his house to interview him, he said. Broadstone would only speak with Whited through an open window and told him he would need a search warrant to enter the house. Whited left the scene and returned with a search warrant about three hours later, he said. Joining him on the second visit were two more troopers and two Arenac County Sheriffs deputies. The police knocked on Broadstones door and announced they had a warrant. I advised that we were going to make forced entry into the residence, Whited said. We attempted to enter the residence, at which point it was found a couch had actually been pushed up against the door to prevent us from entering. As they entered the house, Whited heard Broadstone say I could have taken you all out, he testified. Whited testified Broadstone was in his basement and appeared to be barricading the door to it. Police exited the house and radioed for the state polices Emergency Support Team to respond. At some point, Broadstone exited through a basement window and was arrested after resisting officers, Whited said. Officers detected overwhelming odor of propane gas coming from the residence, Whited said. They also found a crossbow with its bolt ready to be fired, .30-06 ammunition, and a booby trap set up at the basement door, Whited said. The way this was set up was a fishing line from the exterior door to a group of matches that had been secured together, Whited said. It appeared that the intention was that if the door was opened, the matches would strike. The box of matches was placed above that, so once the matches were struck it would then light the box of matches sitting above it on fire and this device was all placed above a gas line that had actually been cut, which is where the propane was coming from. MSP Trooper Brian Grezeszak testified he was among those who entered Broadstones home. As I was making entry, I heard Mr. Broadstone yell to me, Bang, youre dead, Grezeszak said. As we were walking around the house we could hear the propane rushing through the line into the house. After Broadstone crawled out of his basement window, he began fighting with police, prompting Grezeszak to try drive-stunning him with his Taser. Broadstone grabbed the Taser and ended up injuring another troopers hand in the fracas, Grezeszak said. MSP Trooper Richard C. Kearns, a member of the Third District Emergency Support Team, said Broadstone was initially compliant when he exited his house, then began resisting. Kearns said he used his ballistic shield to push Broadstone to the ground as he fought. After I hit him with my shield, Mr. Broadstone was able to grab the backside of my helmet, which pulled my helmet down and pushed my chin to my chest, which was effectively choking me at that point, Kearns said. Kearns tossed his shield aside and repeatedly punched Broadstone in his head, he said. Broadstone also attempted to grab a rifle Kearns had slung across his chest, the trooper testified. Broadstone was arraigned Feb. 1 on the following 16 counts: Five counts of attempted murder Four counts of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police One count of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police causing injury One count of disarming a police officer, non-firearm One count of attempting to disarm a police officer of a firearm One count placing an offensive substance with intent to injure One count of arson-preparation to burn a dwelling One count of felon in possession of ammunition One count malicious destruction of police property Tuesdays hearing concluded with Arenac County Assistant Prosecutor Scott Windsor adding a fifth count of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing police. Windsor also asked Judge Vollbach to bind Broadstones case over to Circuit Court for trial, a request the judge granted. All the mechanisms were there, Vollbach said. If the door would have opened and the mechanism would have worked as apparently it was planned, I dont know if the house would have completely exploded. I dont know, but it sounds a little bit MacGyverish. Thats what I would draw the conclusion might happen and I suspect others might conclude that as well. The original credit card fraud case stemmed from a Merritt woman alleging her card information was used to buy $1,500 in merchandise from Walmart. Broadstone allegedly picked up the merchandise and was captured doing so by surveillance cameras, police have said. Broadstone did not know the woman whose card had been used, police have said. Broadstone had been conversing online with a woman in Spain, who had obtained the Merritt womans card information and made the Walmart purchase, then asked Broadstone to pick up and ship the items to her, defense attorney Duane L. Hadley previously said. Broadstone in January 2020 attended a Bay County Board of Commissioners meeting, in which he voiced his support for Bay City becoming a Second Amendment sanctuary city and shared his fears of law enforcement coming to seize citizens firearms. Somebody tells me Im crazy but then they will come out to your house and theyre gonna come with a SWAT team, Broadstone said at the meeting. Theyre not gonna come, knock on your door, and say, Please, give me your gun. They are gonna come in force. they go up against a normal citizen that is alone in the house that has no way of protecting himself at all and they will either take the gun or kill that person. Hadley also confirmed Broadstone was in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, the day insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol in a bid to overthrow the 2020 election results of incumbent President Donald J. Trump after losing to Democrat challenger Joseph R. Biden. My understanding is him and a few other people from the Standish area went out there, Hadley said. They just wanted to see President Trump. They werent involved in the riots or anything like that. He wasnt involved in that. Broadstones Facebook page features numerous links to pro-Trump and election fraud conspiracy theories, many of which carry disclaimers that fact-checkers have disputed the information therein. Broadstone was also vocal on social media criticizing Capitol police for the death of 35-year-old rioter Ashli Babbitt. The Police Murder that woman, his account posted on a Facebook group called Michiganders for Constitutional rights. They shot her for no reason. She was just standing there A photo on Broadstones profile shows him standing before the Washington Monument with American and Trump flags raised. The account commented on the photo on Jan. 10, I would do it all over again. Broadstone previously served as an Oscoda County Sheriffs deputy from June 30, 1986, to Sept. 5 of the same year. He also was employed by the Michigan Department of Corrections in the 1980s and 90s, staff have confirmed. He also has a criminal record that includes convictions for malicious destruction of property in 1997 and maintaining a drug vehicle, assault with a dangerous weapon, unlawful imprisonment, carrying a concealed weapon, and delivering or manufacturing marijuana, all from 2011. In September 2011, Broadstone was sentenced to 18 months probation on a concealed weapons conviction. Broadstone remains in custody. His case is set for a pretrial conference at 9:30 a.m. on June 2. Read more: Ex-cop accused of trying to kill 5 Michigan State Police troopers with booby-trapped house fit for trial Michigan man accused of trying to kill police is former cop, championed 2nd Amendment sanctuary cities Michigan man accused of trying to kill 5 state police by booby-trapping house According to new research from Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, birds are capable of changing their culture to become very efficient."Culture" in animals is known to be any behavior they learn from one another, shared by participants of the group, and continued over generations. Great Tits Cultural traditions are known to be found in most animal groups, both dolphins and whales, primates, birds, and rodents. Great tits give a classic instance of animal culture. Birds in a town in Great Britain in the 1920s were noticed to open the foil tops of milk bottles in order to steal some cream without permission. This act circulates over 20 years until birds all over the country started doing the same. Scientists in 2015 made a confirmation experimentally that great tits had the ability to keep up with cultural traditions. A new method of feeding - what experts call an innovation - could be instructed to a single bird, and other birds will learn that solution and slowly spread throughout populations. But for great tits, and other animals that have cultural traditions, it was still not certain if groups can change. Also Read: Scientists Determine How Marsh Birds Survive Typhoons and Natural Disasters Such as Hurricane Zeta Tutoring Wild-caught Birds to Solve Puzzles Once a tradition has been there for long, are animals condemned to continue the same behaviors or can they switch to the one that is more efficient? Now, the new study has shown that more efficient behaviors can top an inefficient behavior that is established. It identifies a fundamental process - population turnover - as important for the animal's ability to change their traditions. The study, which was released last month in the journal Current Biology, involved tutoring wild-caught birds to answer puzzles and fine-scale tracking of their behavior, provides quantitative assistance for the evolution of culture. A doctoral student in the Research Group of Cognitive and Cultural Ecology at the Institute, first author Michael Chimento said: "Experimental evidence of cultural change in animals is sort of infrequent, so we were amazed and excited by the result." Population of Great Tits Senior author Lucy Aplin, head of the research team, a Max Planck Research Group Leader, and also a principal investigator at the Custer of Excellence 'Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behavior' at the University of Konstanz, carried out a study on a population of great tits captured from forests close to Konstanz. Due to the formation of changeable social groups by the wild great tits during winter, when conditions are extremely harsh, the scientists thought that immigration could play a role in the evolution of culture. Chimento said: "These fluid groups could affect how their culture changes, as members of new group, might view solutions to issues with clearer eyes, due to their lack of experience." The researchers made use of captive populations of wild-caught great tits to inquire on how fluid social groups might alter a feeding tradition that is socially learned. Related Articles: French President Macron Suspends Glue Bird Traps for Hunting For more news, updates about birds and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News! UPDATE: Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham confirmed at 1:25 p.m. Wednesday that George P. Silvertson has been found safe and uninjured. He was pulled over by police while driving in Ogemaw County, Cunningham said. Silvertson will be evaluated and then returned to his family, the sheriff said. BANGOR TWP, MI Police are seeking the publics help in locating a missing and possibly endangered 88-year-old man. George P. Silvertson was last seen on Tuesday, May 11, in the parking lot of the Walmart Supercenter at 3921 Wilder Road in Bangor Township, said Bay County Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham. Silvertson was driving a silver Toyota Camry with a handicap license plate of 3174G3. Silvertson had been at Walmart with his wife, but he drove off while she was still shopping, the sheriff said. He is not supposed to be driving, according to family members. Silvertson is a Bay County resident and suffers from dementia, Cunningham said. A silver Toyota Camry with a handicap license plate of 3174G3, last seen being driven by missing man George P. Silvertson on May 11, 2021. Silvertson stands 6 feet tall, weighs 194 pounds, has gray hair, and hazel eyes. He was last seen wearing a blue jacket, gray T-shirt, suspenders, and blue jeans. We think he may have been in Gladwin County too, Cunningham said. We have people checking all over. Anyone with knowledge of Silvertsons whereabouts is urged to call 911 or the Bay County Sheriffs Office at 989-895-4050. Read more: 15-year-old shot outside Saginaw store Saginaw man gets prison time for shooting stranger in botched 2019 robbery I think there should be regulations, says Bay City woman displaced by Airbnb rental SAGINAW, MI - A pair of Saginaw County students are among 10 winners of a statewide essay contest asking entrants to describe their personal Michigan hero. The finalists for the Farm Bureau Insurance 2020-2021 America and Me Essay Contest were chosen from roughly 2,000 essays submitted by eighth-grade students at more than 200 school districts, according to a news release. Hallie Beck, a student at Swan Valley Middle School in Thomas Township, ranked first among the 10 winners. Sophia Grossi, a student St. Lorenz Lutheran School in Frankenmuth, took third. The winners will each receive a plaque and medallion, $1,000 in cash and a $1,000 award to their school, per the release. The next contest will begin in September 2021. The winning essays can be read on the contests website. To read Becks essay about her mother, My Hero Wears Scrubs, click here. For Grossis essay about her great grandmother, Bavarian Inn co-founder Dorothy Zehnder, click here. Farm Bureau is proud to continue our long tradition of supporting Michigan students and schools as part of America & Me Essay Contest, said Farm Bureau Insurance CEO Don Simon in the release. We were all moved, especially this year, by the impressive writings and personal stories share by the student authors. Read more: 1 more frost worry night for Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, Thumb Bay County changes coronavirus quarantine guidelines, launches evening vaccination clinics Saginaws iconic beans bunny lowered from its perch SAGINAW, MI A Saginaw man is heading to prison for repeatedly shooting a stranger during a botched daytime robbery that occurred nearly two years ago. Saginaw County Circuit Judge Manvel Trice III on Tuesday, May 11, sentenced 33-year-old Brandon S. Breckenridge to five to 15 years and a flat two years in prison. Breckenridge is to serve the two terms consecutively to each other. Trice gave Breckenridge credit for 649 days already served in jail, though those days are only applied to the two-year prison term. The judge also ordered Breckenridge to pay $258 in court costs and fines. Breckenridge in November pleaded guilty to single counts of assault with intent to do great bodily harm and felony firearm. The former county is a 10-year felony, while a conviction of the latter comes with a mandatory minimum two-year sentence to be served consecutively with any related stint. In exchange for Breckenridges pleas, prosecutors dismissed charges of armed robbery and assault with intent to murder both life offenses as well as five more firearms-related charges. Breckenridges attorney, James F. Piazza, said his client is not gang-affiliated, has a high school diploma, and one year of college under his belt. I would like to add that in light of the situation, it does not define me as a person, Breckenridge told the judge when given the opportunity. Even though the circumstances are bad, that is not my character. Im looking forward to coming home, continuing to raise my children, and being the best that I can be. Trice encouraged Breckenridge in his resolve to turn his life around. I hope you fully embrace what you just said and move forward with your life in that regard and not allow this situation to define the person you are, the judge said. Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Melissa J. Hoover said Breckenridges victim was satisfied with the cases outcome. He himself, like Mr. Breckenridge, wishes to move on from this situation, Hoover said. The victim was not involved in the most savory of conduct either at the time, but he did not deserve what happened to him. I have a feeling that will still continue to affect him, his injuries, as well as the mental repercussions that came from this incident. He has indicated he wishes to move forward and that he does forgive Mr. Breckenridge for what happened. Trice said the situation was unfortunate for both Breckenridge and his victim. This courts sentence today is to hopefully deter others, protect our society, and impress upon the defendant the seriousness of his actions, he said. I believe, based on what he said today, that he understands the seriousness of his actions. Breckenridges convictions stem from an incident that occurred about 3 p.m. on July 29, 2019. Prosecutors have said a 24-year-old man was sitting in his vehicle in the parking lot of the 14th Street Market, 1925 Janes Ave. While waiting to meet somebody, an SUV pulled up and its passenger, Breckenridge, hopped out. Breckenridge said something to the other man about the person he was waiting for, so the other man let Breckenridge into his vehicle, prosecutors have said. Breckenridge then tried robbing the man, who resisted and tried exiting the vehicle. Breckenridge then shot the man, who suffered wounds to his leg, abdomen, and buttocks, prosecutors said. Breckenridge and the man driving the SUV hed arrived in fled the scene without getting anything from the victim, prosecutors allege. The victim did not know Breckenridge prior to the incident, prosecutors have said. Police investigators used surveillance footage from the store to identify the SUV. By following up on that, they identified Breckenridge and Curtis L. Walker as the driver. Questioned by police, Walker denied it was his SUV used in the incident. Walker initially faced a charge of lying to a police officer. Prosecutors dismissed Walkers case in February 2020. Read more: Saginaw man charged with shooting stranger in attempted robbery Isabella County Jail inmate dies in custody, sheriff says Ex-cop accused of trying to kill 5 Michigan State Police troopers with booby-trapped house fit for trial SAGINAW, MI - The City of Saginaw took a step to promote mental health awareness this month. Saginaw Mayor Brenda Moore made a proclamation during Mondays council meeting that declared May as Mental Health Month in the city. The proclamation emphasizes the importance of mental health to individuals overall physical health and emotional well-being. Tim Ninemire from Saginaw County Community Mental Health was in attendance for the meeting and expressed his gratitude to the city for recognizing mental health awareness, especially in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health services are a crucial service and I dont know if we have any better example of how important mental health is than the current pandemic that we are going through, said Ninemire. Weve been separated from our supports and our families, the people that we love and I think it just shows how key mental health services and our own mental health plays a part in our lives. The proclamation states that the cost of untreated and mistreated mental illness and addictive disorders has grown $113 billion annually and that mental health issues will strike one in five adults and children in a given year regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion or economic status. I also call upon the citizens, government agencies, public and private institutions, businesses and schools in the state of Michigan to recommit to our community to increasing awareness and the understanding of mental health, and the need to appropriate and accessible services for all people who have mental illnesses, said Moore in the proclamation. More from MLive: Saginaw not yet reinstating water utility shutoffs during COVID-19 pandemic Saginaw seeking volunteers for inaugural Team Up to Clean Up event Beachgoers beware of construction planned on M-25 from Bay Port to Caseville this summer MidMichigan Health launching clinic inside Wilder Road Meijer in Bay County Saginaw adding security cameras to Ojibway Island due to ongoing safety concerns Large gatherings prompt Saginaw to close Ojibway Island to vehicles amid COVID-19 surge Saginaw City Council approves resolution supporting nondiscrimination policies for the LGBTQ community When Michigan reopened indoor dining at restaurants for the first time last spring, some businesses and customers were so eager to reunite, they celebrated at midnight as if it were a Harry Potter movie release. The latest victory for the business industry is the reopening of offices for all workers, which can start Monday, May 24. But dont expect May 24 to bring swift changes and traffic jams. While business leaders are excited to reopen offices for the first time in 14 months, many wont reopen their spaces right away. Even the state of Michigan doesnt plan to bring remote workers back to offices until July 12, a state spokesperson said. RELATED: Michigan hits first COVID-19 vaccine milestone, starts 2-week clock for return to office work Its not going to be like flipping a switch, said Brian Calley, president of the Small Business Association of Michigan. But we also know that that process wasnt going to start until the government orders changed. So I think this is a very, very important first step. Workers need time to transition, as many have new child care or caregiver responsibilities at home. Employers prefer more time to plan out major transitions, too. Last March was a logistical challenge, as they were forced to switch to remote work virtually overnight, Calley said. This time, employers can move at their own pace. For example, Consumers Energy is targeting July 1 for when itll bring back employees. In-person work will be optional for most jobs, said Consumers spokesman Brian Wheeler. In the meantime, Consumers can upgrade its systems, train workers on protocols and give people time to decide where they want to work. Of its 8,500 employees, about half are working remotely. And about 2,000 plan to work primarily from home even after July 1. We encourage people to make decisions that are best suited for the needs of their jobs and families, Wheeler said. They can change their mind on where they work at any time. We expect this flexibility will be valued by people who are looking at possible careers with Consumers Energy. At Spectrum Health, 8,000 of its 31,000 employees are working virtually, said Vice President Pam Ries in a statement. Because of the pandemic, Spectrum has shifted to a virtual-first philosophy, she said. We know the future of work is all about more flexibility and weve learned that productivity remains strong, Ries said. For example, we have some finance, billing, human resources and IT roles that can effectively work from home long term. We have other teams that benefit from collaboration and face-to-face interaction and would like to be in the office at times. Spectrum will give workers a 60-day notice before requiring anybody to return to the office, Ries said. Ford wont start bringing most people back to its offices until October, spokesperson Dawn Booker said. Even then, Ford will have a flexible hybrid model for the long term a change spurred by the pandemic. We expect individual work would be done primarily at home and on-site work would be focused on collaborative work that brings teams together to innovate, ideate and problem solve, Booker said. Consumers, Spectrum and Ford arent outliers. Many businesses dont plan to bring office workers back until the summer or fall, if not later, Calley said. His own employer SBAM will start allowing employees back in the office June 1. Potential pitfalls Remote work was seen as a temporary stopgap at the start of the pandemic, but became routine as the months dragged on. The next transition could be setting up a fight between employees who want to stay remote and employers who want everybody back. Both sides need to be open and work out solutions together, said Wendy Block, vice president at the Michigan Chamber of Commerce. With the talent market being as tight as it is and employers finding difficulty in hiring new employees, it becomes even more important to try to retain the employees, Block said. Asking employees to come back to work before theyre ready to resume in-person work could mean that an employee decides to leave and take a different position. Legal pitfalls and human needs are crucial for employers to consider, said Southfield employment law attorney Patrice Arend. The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration has already cited 280 employers for not following its rules. Most citations come with fines. The list of COVID-19 rules is long and a tailored plan is required. Masks arent required in cubicles if people are 6 feet away from each other or if there are barriers between workers, per MIOSHA. RELATED: Hospitals, stores, restaurants among 51 Michigan businesses fined for COVID-19 violations Employers may also stagger shifts or have people come into the office on alternating days to keep workers safe, Arend said. Most of the citations and fines were triggered by an employee complaining to MIOSHA about their work not following the rules underscoring the key to making sure employees are comfortable. Its the unhappy employees or the nervous employees who dont want to come back to work who are going to be potentially the ones identifying situations of noncompliance, Arend said. RELATED STORIES For blue-collar workers, its fear. For white-collar workers, its isolation. COVID-19 changed work for everybody. Cancel extra $300, federal unemployment programs, Michigan business group urges How Michigan governments can, cant spend their $11B in COVID-19 stimulus money They dont care: Blue Cross bashed for making union employees work in person, skirting COVID-19 rules Following part one of the above issue, Odeefu Kwabena Asiamah who is popularly called Ajagurajah and the Founder of the Ajagurajah Movement in Ghana, has revealed that even when Jesus Christ was born, some animals were slaughtered and sacrificed to welcome his arrival. According to him, that ritual that was performed by the parents of Christ Jesus was a form of blood covenant which was performed when Jesus was born according to the laws as espoused by Moses". This revelation has been necessitated by the fact that most believers think that, slaughtering an animal to sacrifice to a God is not godly and also an outmoded religious practice. Ajagurajah in wanting his followers to appreciate what he does say, the things he does is also from God and not negative as most people think. He added, he is using Jesus' example which in the new testament of the Holy Bible to affirm his point. He quoted from Luke 2:22-24 "When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: a pair of doves or two young pigeons. Expounding on the above, he said that the above exercise was done according to the laws of Moses and he Ajagurajah is a follower of Moses "So if you say Christ has come to die to save you, you're sick in your head" he stated. He added the items together with Jesus was taken to Prophet Simon and they were sent to the temple for the sacrifice to be performed. "If the laws of Moses affected Jesus which we all believe is the saviour, then if you criticise me for doing similar things, then is there something wrong with you". Further, he added that reading the whole of chapter two of the book of Luke would reveal to you that, the pair of doves or two young pigeons were slaughtered and their blood used to sanctify Jesus according to the law that was established by Moses. "Due to ignorance people don't know those who blood covenant are performed for. If they knew, they wouldn't be talking the way they do". In addition, he said when Sampson was born another blood covenant was performed for him. Supporting that statement, he referenced from Judges 13:17-21 "Then Manoah inquired of the angel of the Lord, What is your name, so that we may honour you when your word comes true? He replied, Why do you ask my name? It is beyond understanding. Then Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven, the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame. Seeing this, Manoah and his wife fell with their faces to the ground. When the angel of the Lord did not show himself again to Manoah and his wife, Manoah realized that it was the angel of the Lord". To expatriate on this, Ajagurajah said, Manoah who was the father of Sampson took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and offered a burnt sacrifice unto the Lord before Sampson was born according to the Bible narration. Further, he revealed that, with this account as reported in the Bible, the angel never mentioned its name to Manoah and his wife even when they requested it. Odeefuo Kwabena Asiamah was teaching on the topic "Blood Covenant" on this official Facebook page called "Ajagurajah Movement". In concluding, Kwabena Asiamah averred that, notwithstanding that the Angel didn't mention its name to Manoah and his wife, they witnessed a miracle that was performed by the angel. The angel disappeared through the smoke that was emanating from the goat burnt offering that Manoah and his wife were offering to God. For Sampson to be born, his father performed such a sacrifice to God which was also another form of blood covenant and there is nothing wrong with that. Recently, the NSW government partially prohibited firefighting chemicals and the chemical has been discovered in the pups of endangered Australian sea lions and in Australian fur seals. Polyfluoroalkyl Substances ('PFAS') The discovery represents another likely blow to the survival of Australian sea lions. Hookworm and tuberculosis had already threatened their few and decreasing population, which has reduced by over 60 percent over four decades. The new research which is part of a lengthy health study of sea lions and seals in Australia - noticed the chemicals from 2017 to 2020 in animals at different colonies in Victoria and South Australia. And also in pups, the chemicals Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances ('PFAS') were discovered in young animals and in a grown-up male. There was also proof of transmission of the chemicals from mothers to newborns.There has been a report that PFAS causes cancer, endocrine disruption, developmental and reproductive defects, and can compromise immune systems. Exposure can take place through various sources both through contaminated water, air and soil, and common household products that have PFAS. They are usually seen in paints and coatings, polishes, stain repellents, in addition to being used in firefighting foam. The researchers are convinced the seals and sea lions consumed the chemicals through their fish, crustacean, squid, and octopus, meals. Also Read: A Hidden 'Breeding Cave' of the World's Rarest Seals Found in Cyprus The Chemicals Discovered in Newborns In spite of South Australia prohibiting the use of PFAS that contains firefighting foams in 2018, these chemicals persist and are not easily degradable in the environment. In Victoria, they have not been prohibited. Released in Science of the Total Environment, this is the first study in Australia to report PFAS concentrations in sea lions and seals. Concentrations of PFAS in some animals were similar to those found in marine mammals in the northern hemisphere both harbor seals and southern sea otters. Specifically high concentrations of the chemicals were discovered in newborns - which was transferred during gestation or through the milk of their mothers. Research co-lead Dr. Rachael Gray from the Sydney School of Veterinary Science said: "This is particularly disturbing, given the essentiality of the developing immune system in suckling animals." She also added that while it was not achievable to study the direct effect of PFAS on individual animals' health, the outcomes are important for proceeding monitoring. The Food Chain With the Australian sea lion now added to the endangered list, and Australian fur seals going through colony-specific population decrease, it is critical that we have the knowledge of all threats to these species, both the role human-made chemicals play, if we are to execute effective conservation management. The discoveries have implications for the complete food chain of which the pups are included, both fish, adult sea lions and seals, and even humans."Due to the fact that PFAS last a long time, they can turn concentrated inside the tissues of living things. This boosts the likeliness for exposure to other animals in the food chain, especially top marine mammal predators such as sea lions and seals," said Dr. Gray. Related Article: Sea Lion Grabs Little Girl, Pulls Her Into Steveston Waters For more news, updates about sea lions and fur seals don't forget to follow Nature World News! Landmark hearings into alleged war crimes committed in Liberia began in Sierra Leone's capital Freetown on Tuesday, an AFP journalist said. In an unprecedented case, a Finnish court has gone to West Africa to hear testimony into atrocities into one of the most brutal wars in the continent's recent history. The court gathered testimony in Liberia between February and April as part of a case against Gibril Massaquoi, an ex-rebel commander accused of committing war crimes there with a Sierra Leonean group. Around a quarter of a million people were killed between 1989 to 2003 in Liberia, in a conflict marked by brutal violence and rape. Massaquoi is a former senior member of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) -- a Sierra Leone rebel group that also fought in Liberia and amputated the limbs of thousands of people. The 51-year-old has lived in Finland since 2008. He was arrested there in March last year after a rights group investigated his war record. Finnish court documents seen by AFP detail a litany of accusations of abuse committed or ordered by Massaquoi in Liberia, including murder, rape, torture, enslavement and use of child soldiers. The Finnish court's unusual step to travel to the country to interview witnesses marked the first time war crimes hearings have been heard on Liberian soil. The court is also holding hearings in neighbouring Sierra Leone, however, it is only examining charges that Massaquoi committed abuses in Liberia. The former rebel received legal immunity for his role in Sierra Leone's separate civil war in exchange for evidence provided to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2003. Hearings in Freetown are due to continue until May 19, accrording to Kerttu Henriksson, a spokeswoman for Finland's national bureau of investigation A deliberate "campaign" to prevent farming is unfolding in Ethiopia's war-hit Tigray, a top regional official said, warning that the result will be "starvation." "There is a campaign that has been started to prevent farming. Regrettably, this campaign is being done by some of those tasked with law enforcement," Abebe Gebrehiwot, deputy head of Tigray's interim government, said in an interview with a state-run network that aired Monday night. The efforts includes telling Tigrayan farmers they aren't allowed to farm and blocking seeds from reaching parts of the northern region, said Abebe, an official appointed by the Addis Ababa government who is in charge of economic affairs. Affected areas include Shire, currently home to tens of thousands of displaced Tigrayans, and Hawzen, which has seen intense fighting in recent days, he said. Vehicles transporting seeds are being blocked from moving beyond an area known as Kobo, in southern Tigray, he said. "Efforts to prevent the entry of seeds and efforts to stop farming have no other message than perhaps, 'Let the people of Tigray perish with starvation,'" Abebe said in the interview with Tigray TV. Abebe did not specify who was behind the "campaign," but his comments pointed to some of the tensions in the region. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray in November to topple the region's once dominant ruling party, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). He said the move came in response to TPLF attacks on army camps. Abiy promised the war would end quickly, but more than six months later fighting continues and world leaders are warning of a pending humanitarian catastrophe. In addition to the Ethiopian military, troops from Eritrea and from Ethiopia's Amhara region -- which borders Tigray to the south -- are active in the conflict. Last month AFP obtained documents from the interim government indicating that Eritrean soldiers were blocking and looting aid in Tigray, an allegation Asmara denied. Abiy's government, for its part, says normalcy is returning while highlighting its efforts to provide food and other aid. On Saturday his office said "significant strides" had been made towards reconstruction. Last week Mitiku Kassa, head of Ethiopia's national disaster commission, told a press conference that foreign aid groups were intentionally playing up the gravity of the humanitarian situation. "International agencies are in a rush to collect wealth just like in Syria and Yemen. They believe that unless they shout, aid won't come to Ethiopia," he said. "There is international competition. It's an industry." Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi approved Tuesday the widening and deepening of the southern part of the Suez Canal, after a stranded mega-ship crippled the critical maritime artery for six days in March. "What you heard today is about the upgrade in the southern stretch, where the problem (the grounded vessel) happened," Sisi said from Ismailia, where the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) is headquartered. The major engineering enhancement "will lead to improvements in the ability of the guide (SCA) and the captain of any ship to navigate inside the canal", said SCA head Osama Rabie, who presented the expansion plan to Sisi in a televised address. Rabie said the upgrades would stretch "from the 122-kilometre mark to the 162-kilometre mark" and would include a 10-kilometre "duplication of the canal from the 122- to the 132-kilometre mark". The project will last 24 months, he added, with the widening extending lanes "by 40 meters (131 feet) to the east and deepening from 66 feet (20 metres) to 72 feet". Sisi said the work would improve the canal, "taking into account the growth of global trade". The 200,000-tonne MV Ever Given got diagonally stuck in the narrow but crucial global trade artery in a sandstorm on March 23, triggering a mammoth six-day-long effort by Egyptian personnel and international salvage specialists to dislodge it. Egypt lost between $12 million and $15 million in revenues for each day the waterway was closed, according to SCA figures. After the vessel was freed, Sisi pledged investment to avoid any repetition of the canal closure. The mega-ship has since been impounded in a lake between two stretches of the canal amid a compensation dispute. A court in Ismailia last week rejected an appeal from the ship's Japanese owners against its seizure. Egypt spent more than $8 billion on an expansion of the northern section of the canal in 2014-15. European Union lawyers have asked AstraZeneca, the makers of one of the anti-coronavirus jabs, to deliver 90 million outstanding doses of the vaccine or else face fines. The European Commission says the Swedish-British laboratory has failed in its obligations. In the first quarter of the year, the group delivered 30 million doses out of the 120 million it was contractually obliged to supply. For the second quarter, it plans to deliver 70 million of the 180 million it had initially promised. As the contract is governed by Belgian law, an emergency hearing will take place on 26 May before a Brussels court. It is understood AstraZeneca is delivering doses at a rate of 10 million per month - well below the planned schedule. "In the summary proceedings, we ask for the delivery of these 90 million doses that should have been delivered in the first quarter," said a spokesman for the commission. "We ask that the court asks the company to make the deliveries. In the event that it does not respect this obligation, we can ask for the payment of penalty payments," he added. AstraZeneca has said it will contest an initial law suit. It said would also fight the latest legal threat. Last week, Thierry Breton, the European commissioner for internal trade, said the bloc was not going to order any more doses of the vaccine from the company. The Savannah Regional Communications Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Malik Basintale, has backed the demands of the #FixTheCountry campaigners. According to him, the demands of the group are legitimate and justified. A group of Ghanaians who are unhappy with the economic challenges in the country have taken to social media to express their grievances. Using the hashtag #FixTheCountry on social media, members of the movement expressed displeasure over successive governments' failure to improve the living standards of Ghanaians. The campaigners have largely decried the country's inadequate or non-existent amenities, deplorable infrastructure, poor sanitary conditions, a housing deficit accompanied by exorbitant rent, general high cost of living, and high levels of unemployment with its attendant problems. They planned a demonstration on May 9, 2021, but their request for police protection was turned down. Mr. Basintale speaking on Citi TVs Breakfast Daily programme on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, backed the groups action. According to him, the failed promises of the Akufo-Addo Bawumia government are the cause for the said agitations. I dont know which of the promises by this Akufo-Bawumia government has been achieved apart from their unidentifiable and lost non-existing achievements. We all remember most of the things and comments that the current president and the vice president made when they were in opposition, and now if any media house plays them now, they are classified as anti-government and all. I think if that was to be used in judging them now that they are in power, automatically one could say that President Akufo-Addo should have resigned by now. So I support the campaigners of the #FixTheCountry, and they have every right to demand whatever they are demanding now because I think they are just asking the government to deliver what they promised Ghanaians in the build-up to the elections. So I fully support them in their demands and they have a right. About the group The #FixTheCountry campaign has been trending online since it started on Twitter over a week ago. It has since become more organized after its members attempted to hold a demonstration on May 9. The planned demonstration was however stifled by the state after the Ghana Police Service secured an injunction against it. The court ruled that the planned protest would not be able to come off until the restriction on public gatherings is lifted. Conveners of the protest have now moved to challenge the injunction. While at it, they held an online protest on Sunday, May 9. citinewsroom MTN Ghana on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, made a presentation of ram together with cash and other food items to the National Chief Imam, His Eminence Dr. Sheikh Osman Sharubutu ahead of the Eidul Fitr celebrations. Todays donation is a continuation of a tradition where the giant telecommunications company annually makes merry to the National Chief Imam at the end of Ramadan. As Muslims worldwide including Ghana gears up to end the month of sacrifice and prayer, MTN has today visited the residence of the Chief Imam at Fadama, in the Greater Accra Region. In the spirit of Ramadan and Eidul Fitr, and in furtherance of the existing relationship between MTN, the Chief Imam and the Muslim community, they have presented cash of GHS5,000 and a ram for the celebrations later this week. Other items donated include 15 Bags of Rice, 10 Cartons of Vegetable Oil, 5 bags of Sugar, 40 Packs of Mineral Water, 28 Packs of soft drinks, 5 Cartons of Milo, 500 Face Shields, as well as Airtime worth GH500. Expressing his appreciation to MTN for the continuous show of love, His Eminence Dr. Sheikh Osman Sharubutu offered prayers for the staff of the company as he asked Allah to grant them their wishes. These gestures that you people are undertaking is something that we are grateful to God for. If God favours you with anything of such wealth he needs to expend those favours in the right and appropriate place especially in this holy month, and more especially in the last night of Ramadan, the National Chief Imam prayed. The Islamic leader in Ghana continued, May Allah help you. Whatever you desire and whatever you aspire and visualize, in the future may it come to fusion. Speaking during the presentation, Salihu Abu who is Senior Manager for Customer Relations and Credit Management at MTN disclosed that his outfit also has plans to donate food items to selected communities for the Eidul Fitr celebrations In addition to this donation, MTN is also donating to the regional Chief Imams in Tamale, Takoradi, and Kumasi. MTN Ghana will also donate food items to Muslim families in Nima, Maamobi, Fadama, Ashaiman, Kosoa, Koforidua Zongo, Asawase, Aboabo, Sawaba, Moshie Zongo and Akwatia line, he noted. Meanwhile, MTN Ghana has revealed that as part of their 25th-anniversary celebration this year, they have set aside the equivalent of US$25 million to support the country with a legacy project and other Community intervention projects. Details of the celebrations will be made public in due course and will be communicated to the office of the National Chief Imam. Listen to article A Policeman, General Sergeant Kennedy Asomani, accused of collecting GHC100,000.00 from 44 persons under the pretext of enlisting them into the Ghana Police Service (GPS) but failed, has appeared before An Accra Circuit Court. General Sergeant Asomani, now on interdiction, is said to have told the complainants that he was enlisting people through Protocol links to the Service. Accused is facing four counts of defrauding by false pretenses. He has denied the charges when his plea was taken in Twi language. The court presided over by Priscilla Dapaah Mireku, admitted him to bail in the sum of GHC100,000 with three sureties, one to be justified. Asomani has since refunded GHC33,000 out of the amount in open court. The court has ordered prosecution to file their disclosures two days to the next adjourned date. Asomani is expected to reappear on June 8. Defense Counsel, Benjamin Afari prayed the court to admit his client to bail as he was not a flight risk and that his client would not interfere in police investigations. According to Mr Afari, Asomani had credible persons who would stand as sureties for him, adding that accused had monetized some of his property to defray the cost. Defense counsel said when remanded into custody, accused would not be able to sell those properties. Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector John S.K. Gohoho prayed the court to attach strings to the bail condition such that it would compel accused to attend to court. Chief Inspector Gohoho informed the court that the Police had so far retrieved GHS33,000 from the accused person. Prosecution's case was that the complainants, John Takyi, Eric Affum Apraku, Kissy Patterson and Daniel Oppong are a book seller, a Public servant, Fire Officer and Police Civilian Employee, respectively. Chief Inspector Gohoho said Asomani stationed with the Estate Unit of the Ghana Police Service headquarters is on interdiction. Prosecution said during year 2018 and 2019, accused persons went round introducing himself to a number of people including the four complainant that he was enlisting people into the Ghana Police Service through protocol links. According to prosecution, Asomani also told the complainant that he had and could help any of their relatives who wanted to be enlisted into the Ghana Police Service. Based on the assurance of the accused persons, Jasper Takyi one of the complainants, parted with GHC62, 500 on behalf of 25 people. Prosecution said accused collected GHC8,500 from the Affum, the second complainant and GHC20,000 from the Patterson and later Asomani collected GHC6,500 from the Oppong, the fourth complainant, under the pretext that he was going to recruit their wards into the Ghana Police Service. Prosecution said Asomani could not honour his promise and went into hiding. On April 29, this year, Asomani was arrested by the complainants from his hideout at Kanda, Accra and handed him over to the Police at Cantonments for further investigations. Prosecution said during investigations cash in the sum of GHC33, 000 was retrieved from Asomani. GNA The UN Security Council on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution prolonging until November 15 a peacekeeping mission in Abyei, after Sudan and South Sudan failed to reach an agreement on the disputed oil-rich border region, diplomats said. Drafted by the United States, the resolution provides for military and police of the United Nations Interim Security Force in Abyei (UNISFA) to be maintained at their current levels of around 4,000, most of them provided by Ethiopia. In the resolution, the Security Council "reiterates that the Abyei Area shall be demilitarized from any forces, as well as armed elements of the local communities, other than UNISFA and the Abyei police." It urged "the governments of Sudan and South Sudan and the local communities to take all necessary steps to ensure that Abyei is effectively demilitarized." The Security Council called on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres provide a strategic review of the peacekeeping mission and a political assessment of events in Sudan and South Sudan "no later than 30 September 2021... providing detailed recommendations for further reconfiguration of the mission and establishing a viable exit strategy." At the beginning of April, Guterres said that Sudan and South Sudan must reach an agreement on Abyei in order for the UN mission there to conclude. Abyei has been contested since South Sudan gained independence in 2011 and UNISFA was deployed after deadly clashes that year displaced some 100,000 people Some residents of Aflao and its surrounding towns in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta region have held a demonstration to protest over the bad state of the Aflao Diamond cement road network. The demonstrators numbering over thousands clothed in red and black outfits amidst chanting war songs on the principal streets of Aflao on Tuesday, May 11 appealed to the government to as a matter of urgency make it motorable. According to some of the aggrieved protesters, the Diamond Cement road was left unattended for some years now. They say, the deplorable nature of the road causes accidents and also making it soo difficult for vehicles to ply. They also claim the road becomes difficult for others to use when it rained. They added that during the dry season too, the dust the road produces was becoming unbearable. Mr. Samuel Mensah, a Businessman in Aflao in an interview with ModernGhana disclosed that the road if put in good shape would help minimise the rate at which lives are being lost through crashes. He stated that school children, pregnant women, Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), and almost the entire residents use the diamond cement road daily. Torgbe Amenya Fiti Adzongaga V, the Paramount Chief of Aflao traditional area stated that it is important for the government to give heed to the voice of the agitating residents and fix all the roads for easy transportation of goods and services. He also urged the government to speed up with efforts to put the diamond cement road in a good shape for use. Mr. Eric Kumado, the leader of the group who presented a petition to the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) said, the government must swiftly address their problems to help save lives. Mr. Elliott Edem Agbenorwu, the Municipal Chief Executive of Ketu south, received the petition on behalf of the government. He called for calm as he promised, the government will surely intervene to address their grievances. The residents are therefore hoping to see some form of progress soon. Wolves howl for many similar reasons other species use vocalizations: to alert others about predators, to safeguard their territories, and to look for mates. Wolf pups start howling when they are as young as three to four weeks old, and as they get matured, they begin to learn to use their howls to coordinate with other pack members and learn what the group is supposed to be doing and to find young that separates from their parents. These are the recognized reasons why wolves howl. To Communicate Their Whereabout The same as many other species of animals, wolves communicate through vocalizations. When wolves separate, they will howl to find their other pack members. Both individuals and whole packs may howl to locate a missing member. The vocalization is also commonly used to find missing pups or by the grown-ups to let the pups know that they are heading home from foraging. To Safeguard Their Territory Wolf howling between packs rises dramatically during their mating season. When hormones usually surge, wolves are more expected to exhibit combative behavior towards members of other packs so as to defend their territory and also the females in their pack. Also Read: Hunters Killed Almost 100 More Wolves Than Authorized Under Quota They Miss Other Wolves According to a study by an expert at the Wolf Science Centre in Austria, wolves are bound to howl more if they are away from another wolf that they are close to. Scientists had proposed in the past, that wolves howled as a stress comeback to being separated from pack members. However, European scientists discovered that levels of a stress hormone known as cortisol did not remarkably rise in pack members when a wolf was separated from them. Rather, it appears that wolves howl when taken away from another wolf just to make contact with them and not due to the fact that their absence is stressful. To Coordinate the Attack Plan of the Pack Wolves usually do their hunting in packs, so it's crucial that every member is aware of what they should be doing at all times while the hunt is going on. Howling is one way to communicate about their plans and approach during a hunting session so that everyone will be carried along and no one will be left behind, so the hunt will be successful. To Find a Mate Wolves that are eligible must get a mate when the right time comes. In the weeks preceding the breeding season, wolves that are single will use howling to announce that they are in search of a mate. By howling individually and not as part of the pack, a wolf can be identified by others as attractive, available, and also as the wolf that have an interest in breeding. Once wolves have paired, they will remain together until one of the members of the pair passes away, at that point, the surviving member will search for a new mating partner. Related Article: Wolves Hunt Their Prey by Using Ambush Tactics For more news, updates about wolves and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News! The Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) has received quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) from the Ministry of Health for distribution to the Caterers and Cooks under the feeding programme. The items included; 100,000 nose masks, 3,605 sanitizers (small size), 3,600 face towels, 280 disinfectant, 280 sanitizers (gallons), 150 gallons of liquid soaps, 38 chlorine, 12 veronica buckets, 12 dustbins and 12 stands. The PPEs were presented on behalf of the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu to the National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Mr. Gertrude Quashigah, by the Chairman of the Health Commodity Unit (COVID-19) at the Health Ministry, Dr. Matthew Kyeremeh. Dr. Kyeremeh said that the supply of PPEs to school feeding caterers was highly necessary since they are at the front of the feeding programme and get in contact with over 3 million pupils in Ghana on each school going day. As one of the collaborative Ministries of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, the Ministry of Health, according to him would leave no stone unturned in ensuring the safety and care of both Caterers and pupils amid the COVID-19 pandemic. He urged the Caterers and all Ghanaians to strictly adhere to the COVID-19 precautionary measures at all times in order to prevent a possible third wave of the pandemic in Ghana. Meanwhile, Ghana has tested over 1,058, 679 persons and out of the total COVID-19 tests conducted, over 91,981 are positive, 89,787 people who were tested positive have recovered representing 97.6% recoveries, death rate around over 771 persons and active cases stand at over 1,417. Receiving the PPEs however, the National Coordinator of the Ghana School Feeding Programme, Mrs. Gertrude Quashigah commended the Government and the Ministry of Health for the timely support to the Caterers and cooks. She applauded the strong collaboration between the Ministry and the Ghana School Feeding Programme over the years and therefore encouraged the Ministry to come out with more innovations to address the health needs of the beneficiaries of the school feeding programme. Mrs. Quashigah acknowledged how the Government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo through the Ministry of Health had prioritized the safety of school children with the provision of free nose masks, hand sanitizers, veronica buckets, liquid soaps and tissue papers to their schools to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. On the other hand, she disclosed that the Government had commenced the payment of arrears owed the Caterers and appealed to those who are yet to receive their payment to exercise a bit of restraint. The National Coordinator of GSFP also appealed to the Caterers to maintain the cooking standards and also ensure the patronage of more locally produced foodstuffs to help boost the economy at the local level. The PPEs, according to Mrs. Paulina Koranteng, Deputy Director - Liaison for Development Partners at the Ghana School Feeding Programme, would be distributed immediately to all the Caterers and Cooks across the 16 regions of Ghana. The Rainforest Alliance on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, joined heads with three other partners to launch the European Union (EU) Landscapes and Environmental Agility across the Nation (LEAN) project at the Alisa Hotel in Accra. The project seeks to directly contribute to the national efforts of conserving biodiversity, improving livelihoods of smallholder farmers, increasing climate change resilience, and reducing emissions from land-use changes in the Savannah, High Forest, and Transition Zones of Ghana. The LEAN project is being implemented in Ghana until 2024 by a consortium of World Vision, Tropenbos Ghana, EcoCare Ghana, and Rainforest Alliance and will see the EU investing a sum of $4 million in the course of the period. Representing the funding partners of the project at the launch, EU team leader for infrastructure and sustainable development, Roberto Schiliro stressed that the project is designed to complement other ongoing initiatives like the EU funded governing Multifunctioning Landscape Project in the Kwaebibirem-Atiwa area of the Eastern Region and implemented by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR). Roberto Schiliro Noting that the project will also strengthen the existing partnerships between the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, and the European Union to support Agriculture and Forestry, Roberto Schiliro said it is important to ensure continuous food security in the country. It is crucial to support actions that promote food and nutritional security, agricultural livelihoods and agro forest-industry in Ghana, the EU representative said. Engaging the media on the sidelines of the launch, Director of Tropenbos Ghana, Mrs. Mercy Owusu-Ansah explained that, unlike other past projects, LEAN is going to focus not just one agro commodity but a number of commodities including cocoa, cashew, Shea butter, and others. In the midst of the continuous depletion of the forest reserve, Mrs. Mercy Owusu-Ansah says it is very vital to embark on the project to work with other key stakeholders to attain the expected impact. She said her outfit and that of the other implementing partners will go beyond relying on government agencies to an era where members of communities will be engaged and dragged along every step of the way to solve the urgent issues. In her concluding remarks, she said at the end of the day, they want to see that the countrys forest cover has increased and the livelihoods of farmers in the targeted communities have improved On his part, Mr. Seth Osei-Akoto who is the Director of Crop Services at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture [MoFA] assured stakeholders of their commitment to play a key role to make the UE LEAN project successful. I wish to assure you of the support of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to collaborate with partners of the EU-LEAN project to achieve the objectives outlined for a sustainable environment and food production, he said. Mr. Seth Osei-Akoto further noted that by so doing, Ghana as a signatory to the Paris Climate Agreement will be working towards achieving its Nationally Determined Contribution to the agreement. Commending the implementing partners forming the consortium for the project, the MoFA representative indicated that the multi-sectoral approach of the LEAN project to involve the financial sector, forestry sector, private sector, CSOs, NGOs, traditional leaders, and other stakeholders, gives a positive outlook for the success of the project. Giving an address as the representative for the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources, the Technical Director in Charge of Forestry, Mr. Musah Abu-Juam said that it is gratifying to note that the LEAN project is in line with the objective and strategies underpinning the Ghana forest and wildlife policy 2012. According to him, for a country like Ghana where about 70% of local community members particularly women depend on forests for their food and energy requirements, his Ministry has the sustainable management of the countrys natural resources at the heart. As a result, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources takes interest in the landscape level planning approach through the collaborative efforts between resource users and managers. Mr. Musah Abu-Juam added that his outfit particularly takes an exceptional interest in the EU LEAN project and looks forward to a fruitful collaboration and implementation with World Vision, Tropenbos EcoCare Ghana, and Rainforest Alliance. Delivering a speech on behalf of the Forestry Commission, Director of Climate Change, Madam Roselyn Fosuah Adjei added to the applause of the other stakeholders as she expressed appreciation on behalf of the commission to the EU for funding the LEAN project. The commission appreciates the European Union for funding this catalytic project which will expedite needed landscape action to speed up and achieve the national policy direction for the forestry sector, which represents a prominent feature in Ghanas Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement, she said. While indicating that the Commission will do all it can to push the project to succeed, Madam Roselyn Fosuah Adjei also thanked the Consortium partners for their innovation, creativity, and commitment in the fight against deforestation and forest degradation. To achieve the objectives of the LEAN project, the Rainforest Alliance, Tropenbos, Ghana, EcoCare Ghana, and World Vision Ghana will be working closely with the EU Delegation, private sector, local communities and core national partners, to catalyse systemic changes across three biodiversity significant and economically important landscapes to help translate the sustainability commitments into the workable solutions on the ground. Find more on the landscapes expected to benefit below: High Forest Ecological Landscape: The Western Zone B High Intervention Area landscape and the adjoining Sui River landscape has been designated as one of the Hotspot Intervention Areas (HIAs) under the Ghana Cocoa Forest REDD+ Programme (GCFRP) and is the most advanced landscape with respect to the stakeholders interest and commitment to collaborate and has already secured support for the set-up of the multi-stakeholder Landscape Management Board (facilitated by Rainforest Alliance). Transitional Landscape: This landscape falls under the Forest Savannah Transition landscape REDD+ programme, which doesnt yet have an HIA demarcation and is mostly rural and generally young, with an increasing percentage of youth and women engaged in agricultural production. Most households (99.3%) are engaged in crop farming, with the majority engaged in the production of food crops, palm tree and cash crops like cocoa. With such a high percentage of the regions households engaged in farming, only a landscape-scale transformation will achieve a broad and sustainable impact for the region. Savanna landscape: Located in the Northern regions, this landscape falls under the Subnational level Emission Reductions Programme for the Shea Landscape of the Northern Savannah Woodland (the Shea Savannah Woodland Programme. Serious drainage problems, high amounts of runoff and Erosion are some of the significant agricultural constraints in the landscape with noted Human activities including shifting cultivation, slash and burn method of land preparation and illegal chain-saw operations affecting sustainability. Listen to article Sometime last week, I posted the following on a couple of platforms, and copied also to some individual family members and friends: Good morning all. I have set myself the following 3 exam questions: 1. Rise of religious bigotry in Ghana. Fact or fiction. 2. Renascent Culture of Silence. Reality or Perception? 3. Emergence of Harsh Language to Disagree with Leadership in Society. Justified or Unjustified. Even the most aloof Ghanaian citizens today would not have to search far to discover the context that drove me to this self-examination: Our country is beginning to show all the signs of failing. The social and traditional media and private conversations are full of nothing else. Dr. Sam Eson Jonah has become the unwitting and unlikely hero to many of us with his great epochal speech to the Rotary Club last month, followed by the Christian leadership ganging up against a little Muslim girl fulfilling her religious obligation (Ramadan) in a so called Christian Senior High School aka Wegehe, and then young Kevin Ekow Baidoo Taylors impassioned verbal commentary on their Reverends position. Many other headliners are there to pick from, but for me, these three will suffice for my piece today. I must state my own one-liners as answers to the exam questions: 1. I agree 100% with Dr. Jonah. 2. I disagree 100% with the Christian prelates and by God, did I not enjoy Kevin Taylors bold and justified outrage? 3. I loved it and agree with him 100%. Theres a malevolent wind blowing across our land and what damage it will inflict when it reaches hurricane strength, I can only pray and hope that it does not get to that. Below is another post I shared around the same time of the exam questions titled Naming and Shaming: Let us name and shame! When Nana Addo came up with this so called national cathedral as a priority of priorities with heavy doses of sectarian Christian proselytising, I did a number of commentaries pointing out the dangers ahead. Christian leaders trooped to support him. Emboldened by his "after all we have more Christians in Ghana" rhetoric [to justify this wasteful and divisive venture], for the first time, we are witnessing battle lines being drawn between Christians and the rest of us. I am afraid, Nana Addo has set off a whirlwind only he can stopOh yes and I have been married [for almost 40 years] to a Christian and a Methodist at that, and never any religious disagreements between us... Sheikh Armiyao is one of the most Liberal and Moderate Muslims in Ghana and for him to have spoken so publicly on national TV [TV3], means that some very raw nerves have been touched... In fact, I can assure that, dark clouds are gathering. In response, some samples I have received below: Is Bawumia not a Muslim? How come he hasnt spoken How come the minister for education hasnt spoken to support GES?!!! The chicken have come home. To roost or not, now lies in the bosom of the National Chief Imam who is at the twilight of his earthly sojourn going by normal logic.My fear and worry is that if we ever get a successor who thinks like the younger crop of leaders , the future will be interesting. Very concerned about this. I think people should stop escalating the situation. Don't know if you or properly John [Mahama] can reach out to the Chief Imam, Catholic Bishops and Christian Council to ask that they stop members/followers from making inflammatory comments. Then ask Asantehene and NADAA to help the leaders of the Christian and Muslim Communities resolve this quietly. In fairness to my conscience, I dont think they need any prodding from a lesser mortal like me. Each according to his conscience and predilections, I am sure will act in a needful way. I have said my say in many commentaries on the subject, pointing out Nana Addos reckless Christian proselytising and the dangers it posed to the stability of our country, and so soon, the chicken, or in this case, vultures, are coming home to roost. But let us be clear, the State and Government should never be involved in promoting any religion! Religion is private. Our constitution is not perfect, but it gives us enough guidelines to feel our way through the pitfalls of nationhood, hence, not only does it guarantee the freedom of worship, but also the separation of state and religion. All of a sudden "We the majority 70%" is being dredged out to describe the Christian community in Ghana, and marginalize other faiths and in the process upturning the delicate balance that has held our national fabric together since colonial times. I attended Navrongo School (Navasco) up North. My headmaster was Mr. Robin Crawford who became an Anglican Deacon, later he was ordained a full Minister and a few times took us through bible knowledge, a subject on our curriculum at that time, but our real bible knowledge master was another Scotsman, the Rev. Fr. Duncan who also taught us French. We called him Mon Pere. Navasco had a chapel, mosque and we performed our religious faiths without let or hindrance. We fasted, prayed, attended church services and held Moslem prayers regularly. Even I was a dedicated worshipper! Those were great days. I remember how I would eagerly look forward for the services to end so I could hook up with my friends. Christian or Moslem never came up. They were my friends and that was all. I remember Father Duncan played piano during assembly and church services. With hindsight, I think he had a rather ponderous style, but, well, I knew no better so I enjoyed it. Those are the kinds of benign experiences that youngsters should be allowed to grow up in, not the quagmire of adult entrenched short-sightedness and hypocrisy. My exposure to such experiences enriched my life. I grew up being able to appreciate and enjoy the many cultural heritage products, like music, bequeathed to humankind through Christian civilization. Today I can enjoy oratorios by Bach, Handel and masses by Beethoven, Mozart, etc and to cap it all I have been married to a lovely Christian (Methodist) lady for almost 40 years enjoying a very peaceful and blessed home. Many Ghanaians can give similar testimonies. So why the creeping religious tensions now? Why? I can tell you: Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo. The day he announced that he was putting up a national cathedral to thank his God in fulfilment of a pledge he made to his God that if and when he won the 2016 elections he would put up such an edifice to glorify that God, he lit the fuse that would surely burn towards the sectarianism that is beginning to manifest now. It was so arrogant and provocative. Elections do not accord any winner such a mandate! I have heard and read about calls on our religious leaders and stakeholders to engage in behind the scenes consultations to resolve matters arising amicably. If there ever was a time requiring the airing of dirty linen in public, it is NOW! Let us do it in the full glare of Gods own sunlight. And to think that on the occasion of the Eid-ul-Fitr, falling tomorrow Thursday, all sorts of hypocritical messages would be flying about wishing our Moslem brothers and sisters Barka da Sallah! Ba, humbug! For the avoidance of doubt, Christian Council, Methodist Church of Ghana leadership and the Catholic Bishops Conference, you are wrong! The Ghana Education Service (GES), is the one state institution responsible for the management of our educational system. Period! The General Manager of Citi FM and Citi TV, Bernard Koku Avle, has condemned the approach used by the Police in their attempt to arrest a journalist at the premises of the media house on Tuesday, May 11. A team of about seven heavily armed police officers besieged the premises of Citi FM and Citi TV on Tuesday afternoon, May 11, 2021, in an attempt to arrest a journalist. Zoe Abu-Baidoo, a broadcast journalist with Citi FM and Citi TV had been targeted in the raid after the police accused her of receiving some video files from her colleague, Caleb Kudah. Mr. Kudah, also a broadcast journalist and Host of BackPage on Citi TV, had been accused of filming at the car park of the Ministry of National Security, a supposed restricted security zone on Tuesday, and had sent the videos to Zoe via WhatsApp. Commenting on the incident on Citi TVs evening news bulletin, CNR, Mr. Avle, the Host of the Citi Breakfast Show, said I personally do not see what the whole approach was about, particularly in the times we are in, with all the issues at hand. Besides we are a recognised media house and you know people here, so if you want to talk to Zoe about information she has, this is not the way to do it. Our focus is to ensure that the journalists are okay. This was very traumatising for Caleb; he had been there since 2:00pm, he added. He indicated that the company will monitor to see if they will press charges. What happened? Police officers on Tuesday arrested Caleb Kudah, a broadcast journalist with Citi FM and Citi TV. According to the Police, he was arrested for filming at the premises of the National Security Ministry, a restricted security zone. About seven heavily armed officers subsequently stormed the premises of Citi FM/Citi TV in an attempt to arrest, Zoe Abu-Baidoo, another broadcast journalist with the respected media house, whom they claimed had received files from Caleb Kudah. In an attempt to arrest Zoe after tagging her as Caleb Kudah's accomplice, the heavily armed officers besieged the premises of Citi FM/Citi TV in three different vehicles. While at the premises, the officers tried to overpower Zoe, who at the time was standing at the company's car park. Zoe Abu-Baidoo subsequently bolted and reported the issue to her superiors after sensing danger because some of the officers tried to capture her. The incident shocked the staff who had come out in their numbers to catch a glimpse of it. Management of Citi FM headed by the Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Attah-Mensah, who was present at the time of the incident, intervened and together with Zoe and other managers of Citi FM/Citi TV, followed the officers to the National Security Ministry. They returned with Zoe Abu-Baidoo, while Caleb Kudah was interrogated for a while longer before his release later. citinewsroom Angry members of the Online Drivers Association in Kumasi on Tuesday, May 11, began a one-week strike in protest of what they call poor conditions of service. According to the drivers who primarily use ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Bolt, the recent increment in fuel prices has worsened their plight. Speaking to Citi News, the drivers stressed that they want the government to intervene by regulating such operations. As part of the one-week strike declared by the Online Drivers Association in Kumasi, the members held various placards with inscriptions such as One Week Strike, Increase in Transport Fares, Re-introduction of cancellation fee, and identification of riders among others. The Public Relations Officer of the group, Isaac Boateng highlighted some of the concerns of the group to Citi News. We can put our major concerns in two or three folds. The first is the fuel increment. Also, our security is a major issue. We are inviting the government to come to our aid to make sure that these ride-hailing companies are being regulated. As I speak now, we dont know the ministry or the institution we are working under. For instance, if I want to set up a school, I know that I have to consult GES and the Ministry of Education so that my school will be approved and then regulated afterwards. If I want to set up a hospital, I know that I will be working under the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health. Our Trotro and taxi drivers as we know are working under the Ministry of Transport. In our case, we ask this; which ministry are we working under? Or who is regulating the ride-hailing companies? he added. In compliance with the directive by the groups leadership not to engage in activities until their grievances are addressed, many of the drivers parked their cars by the roadside on Tuesday. They also urged other members who were not complying with the directive to embark on the strike to be part of the exercise. It seems there is no regulation or institution for the app companies. I say this because most often, in the past years, we petitioned the president himself, Nana Akufo-Addo. We petitioned the Council of State, we petitioned the Ministry of Transport, we petitioned the parliamentary select committee on transport, we petitioned the national security and others. We are serious about it. We want them to ask the app companies to make sure that there will be a feature in the riders app where every single rider who would want to patronize our platform can be recognized or identified by the system, Isaac Boateng noted. citinewsroom Two people were killed and dozens wounded as Sudanese security forces dispersed a rally demanding justice for protesters killed during anti-government demonstrations two years ago, the army said Wednesday. Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said he was "shocked" by the killings, calling it a "crime to use live bullets against peaceful protesters". Hundreds gathered on Tuesday evening outside the army headquarters in the capital Khartoum, at the site where thousands gathered in 2019 initially demanding the ouster of president Omar al-Bashir and urging a transfer to civilian rule. The demonstration on Tuesday started shortly before iftar, the evening meal which breaks the fast during the holy month of Ramadan. It marked two years since the bloody dispersal of the mass encampment outside the army headquarters. "As they (the protesters) left the site, unfortunate events occurred resulting in the killing of two people and the wounding of others," the armed forces said in a statement, adding that an investigation had been launched. The army said they were "fully prepared to bring to justice, whoever is proven to be involved". On Wednesday, the US embassy in Khartoum expressed "shock and dismay" over Tuesday's killings. "We condemn use of live ammunition on peaceful protesters," it said on Twitter, calling on Khartoum to "fully investigate and bring to justice the perpetrators". 'Calling for justice' In the protests on Tuesday, young demonstrators were seen carrying banners and photos of the people killed during the crackdown on the 2019 sit-in, according to an AFP correspondent. "Retribution for the martyrs," many chanted, as they waved Sudanese flags. "We will continue calling for justice," said protester Samar Hassan. One protester gave a speech calling for further demonstrations, if the government failed to present the findings of an investigation into the 2019 killings in the coming weeks. Witnesses said security forces fired tear gas to disperse the protesters. Ahead of Tuesday's gathering, Sudanese authorities set up roadblocks on the routes leading to the army headquarters. Hamdok, in a statement on Twitter, called the 2019 crackdown "extreme brutality". He vowed his transitional government, which took power after Bashir's ouster, would "bring perpetrators to justice". The 2019 sit-in was held to call for an end to Bashir's three-decade rule. The iron-fisted ruler was ousted in April 2019, but the protesters kept up the encampment for weeks demanding the transfer of power from the military to civilians. In June 2019 and towards the end of Ramadan, armed men in military fatigues violently dispersed the camp. The days-long crackdown left at least 128 people dead, according to medics linked to the protest movement. The ruling generals at the time denied ordering the bloody dispersal and called for a probe into the incident. An investigation committee was launched in late 2019 to look into the events, but has yet to finish its inquiry. Communications Director for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in Germany, Nana Boateng has accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) party of inspiring the FixTheCountry campaign while insisting that Ghana has already been fixed by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. In the last few weeks, Ghanaians have made their anger felt on social media with several virtual protest against the ruling government for underperforming. Determined to push the government to step up and solve major problems in the area of education, employment, health, and the likes, there are plans to stage a nationwide demonstration against the government. Having monitored closely what is happening in the country, Nana Boateng has released a video explaining why he believes Ghana has already been fixed by President Akufo-Addo. According to the Communications Director of NPP in Germany, although there are problems in the country, the current government has done a lot to improve lives since taking over from the erstwhile NDC government. Nana Boateng believes that it is the main opposition party that is instigating the campaigners of FixTheCountry to make the government unpopular. I believe that everyone has the right to protest to make their voices heard to push for development. It is something backed by law. For our brothers saying things are not going well so President Akufo-Addo should fix things, it is the NDC working behind the scenes to inspire these people, the NPP Communicator said. Nana Boateng continued, Comparing Nana Addos Kume Preko to what is happening now is not possible because they are different. Making reference to jobs created through the deforestation policy of the government, he said it is an indication President Akufo-Addo has fixed the country. He stresses that comparing where the country is today to the times of the past government, it is clear that a lot of the problems raised by the FixTheCountry campaigners have already been fixed. Listen to Nana Boateng in the video below: A Neurosurgeon at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital Dr. Hadi Abdallah has expressed anger over the poor state of the countrys neurosurgeon unit at the premier hospital. The facility which serves as a referral center can only boast of four beds at its Intensive Care Unit and one operating theater. The hospital also lacks vain finders, monitors, amongst other vital equipment. According to him if we had an ICU that was functional, we could have prevented people from getting stroke but the ICU doesnt allow that. Speaking to Francis Abban Wednesday, Dr Abdallah described as criminal the fact that specialist facilities do not have basic machines such as defibrillators which are used to restore a normal heartbeat by sending an electric pulse or shock to the heart. His comments come after the mother of the late Michael Kofi Asamoah whose brain condition went viral on social media, Cordelia Ama Selormey, shared her experience at the Korle Bu Hospital over how she lost her son due to the lack of basic equipment like the defibrillator. Dr Abdallah angrily said we should send reporters around this country to find out how many defibrillators are in our hospitals. Its criminal that we dont have defibrillators in hospitals. He further revealed that we are operating with only one theatre and we have only one space in the intensive care unit. Our ICU is supposed to have twelve beds but currently, we have just four and one out of it is for neurosurgery. And even with that one, its subject to availability. Dr Abdallah, however, maintained that this is not a direct attack on Korle-Bu board but its how the system has been run over the years. On the need for the construction of a neuroscience center, he said over 10 years ago, when they costed the construction of a neuroscience center, it was around $30 million but now if were going to be genuine with ourselves, it should cost us $50million. Touching on the culture of silence in the health sector, he disclosed that many doctors over the years have refused to speak the media to highlight some of these things because we have people who have been put there by govt wholl come at you when you speak. Meanwhile, EIB Network has committed to assisting with the acquisition of some key equipment for the unit. ---starrfm Listen to article Member of Parliament for Ningo Prampram, Mr Sam Nartey George, has condemned the Rambo-style arrest of Citi FM journalists Caleb Kudah and Zoe Abu-Baidoo. He described the arrest as crude, archaic and senseless." Seven unmasked National Security personnel arrested Caleb Kudah, a broadcast journalist with Citi FM and Citi TV together with his colleague Zoe Abu-Baidoo on Tuesday, May 11. According to reports, he was arrested for filming at the premises of the National Security Ministry, a restricted security zone. Citi News Security Correspondent, Anass Seidu, in giving further details on the matter said, Caleb Kudah who had visited someone at the National Security was arrested after filming at the premises of the Ministry. After he was arrested, the operatives detected that he had sent whatever he had filmed to another colleague, Zoe Abu-Baidoo. They moved to Citi FM with heavily armed men to arrest Zoe. When they got here, the management of Citi FM and Citi TV joined the team back to the National Security Ministry with Zoe. After some interrogation, Zoe was allowed to leave. Caleb Kudah was being interrogated at the time we left. Fentuo Tahiru, a journalist with the media outlet has narrated how officers wielding automatic rifles pursued Zoe Abu-Baidoo from the car park to the kitchen, in a Rambo style. Nobody has said Ghana police should not do their jobs but the manner they did it today scared every single person in the office. 7 strong men wielding automatic rifles pursued Zoe from the car park into the kitchen, in Rambo style. If you really wanted to arrest Zoe, did you need all this? 7 men chasing this girl - imagine the trauma," a post on Fentuos Facebook page reads. Zoe Abu-Baidoo was first released yesterday back to the office after questioning by the National Security personnel. Her colleague Caleb Kudah was still in the custody of national security but late reports suggest he was also released. In the Queen's Speech, the government guaranteed "the best level of animal protection" in the UK. Queen's Speech The promises ranged from raising zoo standards to requiring mandatory microchipping for cats as part of the party's preparations for the new Parliament. Three bills will be presented during the next year to address the issues. No. 10 stated that it aspired to be a "national pioneer" in animal care, setting "high expectations for all to meet" worldwide. Animal welfare organizations have praised the plans, with the RSPCA claiming that they will make "a real and lasting difference." However, the charity cautioned the prime minister that the proposals should not be considered "a token gesture." In a slew of papers following the Queen's Speech, the government goes into greater depth. Related Article: Beware! 7 Cute Animals that Can Actually Kill a Person Action Plan It agrees to the following in its Animal Welfare Action Plan: The Animal Welfare Bill recognizes animal sentience - the ability of animals to have emotions, including pain and distress - in legislation (Sentience). Ending the sale of live animals for fattening and slaughter, as well as taking "further measures" to restrict the trade in foie gras As part of its Kept Animals bill, the government is bringing in "more powerful forces" to deal with livestock concerns. The bill is also being used to prohibit people from owning primates as pets, improve zoo standards, and "crackdown" on puppy smuggling. Introducing universal cat microchipping and updating existing databases. "We should no longer disregard the inextricable connection that exists between the way we handle animals, our own welfare, and that of the world," RSPCA Chief Executive Chris Sherwood said, "but to really achieve a step shift, it will require bravery from right across government." Animal Welfare Bill The United Kingdom will mark a major win for animal rights on April 29, 2021. The Animal Welfare (Sentencing) Bill was passed by the English government after years of active lobbying by our teams and supporters. The United Kingdom now has a bill that will transform animal rights by raising animal cruelty penalties from six months to five years. Animal offenders sentenced under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 could face up to five years in jail now that the Bill has passed all levels of the Houses of Parliament and gained Royal Assent. This guarantees that animals who have been subjected to unconscionable and needless abuse at the hands of humans will now get the punishment they deserve. Not a Token Gesture He (Sherwood) also urged Boris Johnson to appoint impartial advisers to the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill to ensure that it was a "success" rather than a "token gesture." Global pet charity Blue Cross' Becky Thwaites lauded the commitments as well, praising the crackdown on dog fraud, universal cat microchipping, the prohibition of chimpanzees as pets, and the fight against pet stealing. She said the charity has long advocated for the problems and was looking forward to partnering with the government to address them. Also Read: Global Wildlife Trade Fueled by Income Inequality and other Social Injustice For the most recent animal news, don't forget to follow Nature World News! NPP National Communication Team Member, Nana Kwame Osei Adade, has reiterated that the Akufo-Addo led government started fixing the economy long before the outbreak of Coronavirus in the country. He made the comments in response to some Ghanaians who have expressed their displeasure over the governments handling of the economy on social media with the #FixTheCountry hashtag. But to Nana Kwame Osei Adade, the President has done very well because, under his leadership, Ghana has achieved positive growth in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic when countries like Germany and the USA among others are all grappling with the disease which has brought their economies to a negative. We are four months into our four-year mandate. The job of the government is to fix problems. This is what we have been doing since 2017, Nana Kwame Osei Adade exclusively told Reynold Agyemang on Pae Mu Ka on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7 Nana Kwame Osei Adade stated Ghana is among the few countries that have done great in achieving steady growth, although the growth rate for the country is at 0.9 percent. Nana Kwame Osei Adade, nonetheless, expressed optimism about the way forward, adding that the Akufo-Addo led government has a track record of fixing problems in the past four years. ---KingdomfmOnline Four fetish priests, including the couple whose activities allegedly enthralled two teenagers to kill an 11-year-old boy, purposely for money rituals, have been attacked by irate youth at Amanase near Suhum in the Eastern Region. The violence was so intense that it took the intervention of the police from three police districts in the region to rescue the priests and send them into police custody. They ended up burning a car, belonging to one of the fetish priests, into ashes. Escalating Incident Matters escalated when the youth stormed the palace of the Gyaasehene of Amanase, to demand instant justice for shrine owner Solomon Adjorolo aka 'Wazenga' whose wife, Charity Mensah, was recently arrested as part of the Kasoa teenagers killing of an 11-year-old boy's probe. According to the irate youth, Wazenga or Rasta who is an ex-convict and his wife, were said to have masterminded the kidnapping of a boy the residents claimed they were going to kill for rituals. Police Report A police distress report mentioned the suspects that were almost lynched by the mob as Prince Adjololo, 26 years, Solomon Adjololo (Wazenga), 28, Mintah Benjamin, 23, Felix Haya, 27, and Akwasi Tenkorang, also 27 years. The report said on Monday, May 10 at about 17:00, the Coaltar District Police Commander received a distress call from Nana Agyekum, Gyaasehene of Amanase, to report that he had in his custody at his palace, a suspect believed to be part of criminals indulging in rituals that he needed police assistance to escort him to the police station. Police quickly moved to the location and met three other arrested persons, all suspected ritualists, but the teeming crowd at the palace did not allow police to take them out as they vowed to take instance justice on them, the police report said, adding reinforcement was called from Suhum and Kibi where the Suhum Police Commander, the Kibi Divisional Crime Officer and Coaltar District Commander were in attendance, yet police could not march the angry crowd. The report said the irate mob had set fire on a car belonging to one of the suspects, and started pelting police with stones, resulting in damage to a side window glass of service vehicle No. GP 2867 of Kibi Police Divisional Patrol. According to the police report, some of the stones hit the Suhum Police Commander as well as the Kibi Divisional Crime Officer, adding eventually, police had to resort to firing shots into the air to scare the mob before the suspects could be rescued and evacuated to Suhum Police Station for investigation. More Information DAILY GUIDE gathered that the whole melee started when a certain man identified as Richard Narh, now at large, from Afienya, allegedly contacted Charity Mensah, wife of the fetish priest, for money rituals a few days ago. He was reportedly told to bring human parts and some cash and as a result, he pretended to be a drunkard and went to Amanase on Sunday evening in search of the supposed human parts. The man then entered a funeral ground and allegedly attempted to lure a ten-year-old boy to take alcohol, which they claimed had been laced with tramadol. He then tried to convince the boy to take the drink to enable him to do the kidnapping. Soldiers Query Some soldiers who were at the funeral noticed the actions of the man and questioned him. He then confessed to the soldiers what he was seeking to do, but as the interrogation was going on, he escaped and left behind his mobile phone and two identity cards (Ghana card and a voters ID). The father of the boy, identified as Richard, kept the mobile phone and later called a number which happened to be the mans wife, who revealed the husbands identity. The father then reported the matter to the Amanase Regent who is also the Gyaasehene. Strange Call In the process, Charity Mensah, who was recently arrested and granted bail over the Kasoa boys' incident, called the mobile phone which was still in the custody of the boy's father on Monday morning, thinking she was talking to the runaway suspect. According to the father of the boy, the fetish priestess said on the phone that, Young man, wont you bring the things for the rituals again. If you dont bring them by the close of today (Monday) dont set your feet in my shrine again! Charity Mensah's call was said to be on loud speaker so the Gyaasehene also heard what the fetish priestess reportedly said, and they realised the shrine is still into such activities for which the police raided the place recently. Summoning Priest According to DAILY GUIDE checks, the Gyaasehene quickly summoned the fetish priest (Wazenga) to his palace but he showed up later on Monday evening. News about the attempted kidnapping of the boy spread like wild fire on Monday, so when the fetish priest entered the palace, the youth amassed at the place. The Gyaasehene then informed the youth that he had invited the police to come and arrest the fetish priest. The impatient mob started chanting and swearing and threatened to burn the fetish priest alive. Priests Reinforcement While the maneuverings were going on, another gang of fetish priests, about four in number, stormed the palace in an attempt to rescue Wazenga, but the mob attacked them and some managed to run away. They left behind one Toyota Camry, which the angry mob led by some women, poured petrol on it after smashing the screens with stones, and set it on fire. However, one of the fetish priests identified at 'Zewuze' managed to escape into a nearby bush after scaling the Gyaasehenes fenced wall and was given a hot chase by the youth but he managed to escape. Police Rescue The police from Suhum and Ayensuano quickly rushed to the palace to rescue the fetish priest and his gang, but the youth prevented the police from entering the palace and as a result, another batch of police officers had to be brought from Kyebi in Abuakwa South. The police had to fire into the air to disperse the mob before gaining access into the palace. The youth then descended on the Suhum Police Commanders car and smashed it with stones. The angry youth said ever since the wife of the fetish priest was linked to the Kasoa ritual murder, they have been monitoring movements at the shrine and warned that the police will face their wrath if they release the suspects. Earlier Raid Last month, armed police officers from the CID Headquarters in Accra raided the shrine and arrested Charity Mensah, a fetish priestess, who was nursing a two-week-old baby, and one Desmond Nii Adjei, following claims by the Kasoa teenage 'killers' that they had contacted the shrine to enable them to become billionaires, and the fetish priest and priestess allegedly told them to bring human parts and blood for rituals. The fetish priest's supposed direction given to Felix Nyarko, aka Yaw Anane, and Nicholas Kwame Kini, aged 16 and 17, according to the teenagers, compelled them to kill 11-year-old Ishmael Mensah Abdallah for money rituals. The Shrine The ten single-room apartments, which also serve as the shrine, are located in an isolated area on an untarred road at Hwanabenya, at Amanase. The inscription Every Problem That's On You Will End Good Heart'' alongside a heart symbol is prominent on the facade of the pink building. The unfenced structure with an open compound also bore the images of spiritualists. Another two-bedroom apartment with similar images of bizarre figures bore the inscription Be Bold Try and See! All the rooms had broken doors and signs of animal rearing at the place. Two other burglar-proof rooms stood apart from the others, and these were where the gods were said to be kept. DAILY GUIDE gathered that the fetish priest and his wife lived with only four young men, believed to be assisting them in their activities. They reportedly fled before the police stormed the house. Daily Guide Listen to article Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) Mr Suleman Braimah has condemned the arrest of Citi FM journalists on Tuesday May 11. He said the way and manner the two journalists were picked up by operatives of the National Security is an indication of an attempt to make the Akufo-Addo administration unpopular. I am becoming convinced that some people just want to sabotage the government. If not, Why? Armed police officers besiege, he said in a tweet. Seven unmasked National Security personnel arrested Caleb Kudah, a broadcast journalist with Citi FM and Citi TV together with his colleague Zoe Abu-Baidoo on Tuesday, May 11. According to reports, he was arrested for filming at the premises of the National Security Ministry, a restricted security zone. Citi News Security Correspondent, Anass Seidu, in giving further details on the matter said, Caleb Kudah who had visited someone at the National Security was arrested after filming at the premises of the Ministry. After he was arrested, the operatives detected that he had sent whatever he had filmed to another colleague, Zoe Abu-Baidoo. They moved to Citi FM with heavily armed men to arrest Zoe. When they got here, the management of Citi FM and Citi TV joined the team back to the National Security Ministry with Zoe. After some interrogation, Zoe was allowed to leave. Caleb Kudah was being interrogated at the time we left. Fentuo Tahiru, a journalist with the media outlet has narrated how officers wielding automatic rifles pursued Zoe Abu-Baidoo from the car park to the kitchen, in a Rambo style. Nobody has said Ghana police should not do their jobs but the manner they did it today scared every single person in the office. 7 strong men wielding automatic rifles pursued Zoe from the car park into the kitchen, in Rambo style. If you really wanted to arrest Zoe, did you need all this? 7 men chasing this girl - imagine the trauma," a post on Fentuos Facebook page reads. Zoe Abu-Baidoo was first released yesterday back to the office after questioning by the National Security personnel. Her colleague Caleb Kudah was still in the custody of national security but late reports suggest he was also released. Nearly two dozen women in DR Congo have come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by aid workers during an Ebola outbreak, adding to a scandal that broke last year, a report said on Wednesday. Twenty-two women have said they were sexually exploited or abused, in acts that included alleged rape or led to unwanted pregnancies, by male aid workers responding to an Ebola crisis in eastern DR Congo, The New Humanitarian (TNH) and the Thomson Reuters Foundation said. The men offered them jobs in exchange for sex, identifying themselves as working for major aid organisations. Three of the seven organisations named are UN agencies, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), which features in 14 of the claims. The allegations centre on Butembo, a major trading city and an epicentre of the 2018-2020 outbreak of Ebola that claimed 2,200 lives. "One woman said she was raped by a man who said he was with the WHO, and reporters learned of three others who said they had become pregnant," the investigators said. "One of those women died after a botched abortion as she tried to conceal the pregnancy from her husband and children, her sister said." The gruelling fight to roll back the Ebola epidemic, the Democratic Republic of Congo's worst ever, has been tarred by allegations of sexual abuse by well-paid aid workers who flooded into the poor region. An investigation last year by the TNH, a news agency that covers humanitarian crises, gathered testimony from 51 women who said they had suffered sexual exploitation in the neighbouring city of Beni. The WHO, reacting to the latest accusations, said Wednesday it had identified two women in Butembo as "potentially having had sexually exploitative relationships with individuals" connected to the agency. That information will be shared with an independent investigative commission set up last October, it said. "(The) WHO is committed to taking prompt and robust action, including collaborating with relevant national authorities on criminal proceedings, in all cases where WHO staff may be found guilty of perpetrating (sexual exploitation and abuse)," the agency's spokeswoman Marcia Poole said. The new report said sexual predators also claimed to work for the UN's International Organization for Migration; the UN's children's fund, Unicef; the International Rescue Committee (IRC); International Medical Corps (IMC); the Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA); and DRC's health ministry. Most of the aid workers allegedly involved were Congolese, the report said. A spokeswoman for the independent commission said the panel aimed to publish the results of its inquiry at the end of August. Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong has condemned what he says is the excessive use of soldiers by some bigwigs of the ruling New Patriotic Party(NPP) to appropriate innocent peoples properties. According to him, some party big shots have turned some officers of the revered Ghana Army into land guards seizing properties left, right, and centre. Im going to talk to the Minister, Ghana soldiers must be careful. NPP people are using soldiers to forcefully take over peoples properties. It is wrong! They are fond of using soldiers too muchThis guy Im talking about has some soldiers at his beck and call and he uses them at will to scare people. why, are our soldiers land guards? Im going to report this development to the Minister I can show you pictures of Tse Addo where some NPP big men are forcefully taking peoples lands, he said on the Seat show on Net 2 TV monitored by Kasapafmonline.com. The party financier warned that such an act if not immediately stopped will destroy the party and send it to opposition. The way we are using police and soldiers to forcefully take over the properties of innocent people, we should be very careful. Lets remember that everybody will account for his stewardship. I dont go to church often but I believe in God. The Bible says what shall it profit a man when he gains the whole world but loses his soul. NPP should wake up, flush out all these greedy people because they are sending us to opposition. ---Kasapafm In a momentous shift, the US recently agreed to support a waiver of the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The waiver would suspend intellectual property rights, such as patents and trademarks, on products required to fight COVID-19 for the duration of the pandemic. Until the announcement, the US, alongside the European Union, Norway, Canada, Australia, the UK, Switzerland, Brazil and Japan, had been steadfast in their position that stringent patent protection is key to vaccine supply and the global effort to tackle COVID-19. But proponents of the waiver argued that the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights was key to achieving vaccine equity and global health security. India and South Africa, with the support of over 100 countries, have been passionately making this case from inside the WTO since October 2020. Beyond the WTO, members of global civil society view the waiver as essential to securing a People's Vaccine which is universally available to all, free at the point of delivery. Washington's support for a TRIPs waiver may, therefore, seem like a substantive win. This is especially so when considered against the backdrop of the horrors unfolding in countries such as India . But this move marks the start of the battle, not the end of the war. Much remains to be resolved before the waiver is translated into increased vaccine supply. The devil is in the detail Five key areas remain fundamental to vaccine equity for COVID-19 and tackling any future pandemic. First, the problem is less about permission and more about how the waiver may work. WTO rules already allow for the temporary suspension of intellectual property rights in situations of public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2001 Doha Declaration re-affirmed that states can issue compulsory licenses on patented drugs in order to produce generic versions at quicker and more affordable rates. The 2005 TRIPs amendment further clarified that countries without manufacturing capacity or insufficient demand can import generic versions of drugs with the cooperation of producing or exporting states. Read more: The global approach to vaccine equity is failing: additional steps that would help In other words, countries with surplus capacity could already be producing generic versions of COVID-19 vaccines. These could be for domestic use and for export to countries lacking domestic manufacturing capacity. The question is how to translate rights under WTO rules into access to medicines on the ground. The 2005 TRIPs amendment has only ever been used once in 2007 when Canada supplied generic antiretroviral drugs to Rwanda. Those involved subsequently criticised the amendment for being overly bureaucratic, costly and complicated . The TRIPs waiver is only a progressive move if it helps to expedite the generic production and export of affordable vaccines (and related medical products), beyond what is already permissible under the existing rules. Second, the details of the COVID-19 vaccine waiver are still to be worked out and require consensus among the WTO membership. This could take months, years, or even prove to be impossible. US support is a major step toward agreement. But other countries that see the intellectual property regime as part of the solution, not the problem, may yet hold out against the waiver. Momentum of support and effective trade and health diplomacy is key. Third, the Biden administration has only indicated that it would be willing to waive patent protection for vaccines. This is insufficient. In line with the original proposal made by India and South Africa at the WTO, the waiver should apply to all medical products. These include treatments, diagnostic kits, ventilators, crucial manufacturing components, and protective gear. This is important if the waiver is to help combat COVID-19. Fourth, the poorest countries will still be unable to produce vaccines. Even if WTO members approve it, the waiver will be more form than substance. Pharmaceutical companies may need to be incentivised to share knowledge and build capacity in developing countries to produce quality, generic versions of the vaccines. The TRIPs agreement mentions technology transfer numerous times, particularly to the least developing countries. It reads: recognising the desirability of promoting the transfer of technology and capacity building in the pharmaceutical sector in order to overcome the problem faced by Members with insufficient or no manufacturing capacities. However, as with all such best endeavour clauses in the WTO, nothing has been done to make this supposed aspiration a reality. Finally, we need to ensure the waiver is progressive. Tampering with the TRIPs amendment risks rolling back existing flexibilities. The roll back will happen if there is a restriction on the types of products for which a compulsory licence can be issued. It will also happen if limits are placed on the export of generic versions of the vaccines to those countries with no manufacturing capacity. Time limitations will also roll back existing flexibilities. Emergency measures to respond to COVID-19 must not cause harm for long term flexibilities on patents and licensing. The next battle: technology and production A TRIPs waiver on its own will allow access to patents. But such patents are only a part of the barriers to countries beginning to expand manufacturing. Making vaccines is complicated much more so than many other pharmaceutical products and technology and know-how will be crucial to expand supply. This point is frequently raised by critics of the waiver. They argue that there is insignificant existing production capacity that can be brought online even if freed of patent obligations. However, there is evidence that unutilised capacity is available. For example, the Canadian pharmaceutical company Biolyse has been seeking a compulsory licence to produce viral vector vaccines like the Johnson and Johnson vaccine for export to developing countries. Such a step would be compliant with both the TRIPs agreement and the Canadian Access to Medicines Regime. If the necessary technology sharing does not take place, governments are going to need to provide greater incentives to bring it about. They are, in short, going to need to make good on some of the promises for technology transfer and capacity building made in the TRIPs agreement all the way back in 1995. Erin Hannah receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. James Scott receives funding from The British Academy. Silke Trommer receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Sophie Harman receives funding from The Leverhulme Trust. By Erin Hannah, Department Chair/Associate Professor of Political Science, King's University College, Western University And James Scott, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, King's College London And Silke Trommer, Senior Lecturer Politics, University of Manchester And Sophie Harman, Professor of International Politics, Queen Mary University of London If you live in a country like Ghana which was once ruled by the NDC for eight years, you need a cardiologist to check your heart throbs on a regular basis. Sometimes when you hear pronouncements by these NDC failures of nation building you begin to get unusual heart beats. They still believe what Mr. Mahama told us that Ghanaians are shortsighted and forgetful. That is the mistake they continue to make and that is what will keep them in opposition till thou kingdom come. I admire the faith of President Akufo-Addo. He believes that despite the mess he inherited from the previous government, with faith and hard work he would be able to turn things around. It is not for nothing that believers in all the religions in the world say faith is like a rock amidst shifting sand. The Holy Bible says faith can move mountains and that is very true. This is the type of faith that the President possesses and I believe success is staring him in the face. I am happy those who initiated the Fix the Country movement are not referring to the Akufo-Addo-led administration alone. Their complaint is that governments that have come and gone did not wholly fix the country on so many issues and that is true. But what is also true is that no country in this world has been able to fix her economy wholly. It is all about gradual process but the difference between countries is that whereas others aggressively move to fix their economies, others take time depending on circumstances. In time of war and other crises for example, you don't expect a country to quickly fix her economy. Such countries set priorities. Take the issue of roads for example, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah did his best by building some trunk roads across the length and breadth of Ghana. After the construction of the Tema Harbour, the Osagyefo built the Tema Motorway which has been able to stand the test of time. When Professor Kofi Abrefa Busia took the reins of power, he set out to build feeder roads throughout the country. Villages which were hitherto inaccessibly were opened up. That was why he was nicknamed Kofi Ayi Akwan.' It is noteworthy to mention here that it was Dr. Hilla Limann's government which was the first to construct an asphalted road in Ghana. This road was built by Construction Pioneers, a German construction firm and the Minister of Roads and Highways then was the late Colonel Zuarungu. Within a very short time the Accra to Takoradi highway was asphalted Mr. Rawlings followed up by constructing an asphalted road from Kumasi to Dormaa Ahenkro, from Kumasi to Yeji, from Takoradi to Elubo, from Kintampo to Navrongo and many more. Since independence no President can beat Mr. Kufuor in the building of roads. The man did so well that within the eight years that he ruled the country as many towns could boast of tarred roads as well as feeder roads. Mr. Kufuor looked through his crystal ball and saw that apart from the fact that Rawlings was able to fix the bad road from Kintampo to Navrongo, the one from Kumasi to Kintampo was a death trap and he too built and asphalted road on that stretch of bad road to the joy of travellers along that road. The Mills/Mahama administration also did their best in road construction but as I wrote earlier in one of my pieces, Rome was not built in a day. Currently the Akufo Addo-led administration is doing a yeoman's job as far as road construction is concerned. It is very unfortunate that people sit in Accra and think Accra is synonymous to Ghana. They don't travel so they do not know what is happening in other areas. I do not blame them because I had an experience when I was schooling in Takoradi. One of my friends who was born, bred, educated, worked and lived in Takoradi without visiting a farm because he comes from an Aristocratic family thought yam is plugged from a tree. Education is one area that we continue to fix as a nation. After Independence Dr. Kwame Nkrumah looked up north and saw the huge educational disparity between the North and the South as far as education is concerned. He then introduced free education in the then two Upper and Northern regions. He went further to build teachers' accommodation to attract teachers from the southern part of Ghana. He even introduced free lunch and clothes to the school children. He fixed education up there in the north. Subsequent governments continued with Dr. Nkrumah's policy on education in the northern regions until President Akufo-Addo came to introduce the free SHS nationwide which has become a game changer in education. Education is gradually being fixed. Can you imagine more than one million, two hundred children who could not get access to SHS roaming the streets of Ghana? It was Prime Minister K.A Busia who first introduced what used to be called Experimental Schools on pilot basis. After Busia and subsequent governments, Mr. Rawlings came to turn all the Experimental Schools and in fact, all Middle Schools to Junior Secondary Schools in this country. I am using these few examples to prove to those who are rightfully calling for the country to be fixed. Developed countries too were in the same positions that we find ourselves but things changed gradually until they are what they are today. The United States of America too used to have underdeveloped rural areas but today they do not have any Minister for Local Government and Rural Development. Americans have practiced democracy for more than two hundred years and only God knows the hell they passed through to become what they are today. We need to have patience but it is also good that such a national conversation is introduced. The government of the day should take it in good faith and look away from some desperate politicians who want to reap what they did not sow. These are the people who spoilt it and instead of shutting up for others to fix it they are shouting from the rooftop as if the country was an Eldorado when they were pushed from power. I am short of Havana so I will go for Tusker For Men!!! Eric Bawah France's army chief of staff has called on a soldiers who signed an open letter warning about the risk of "civil war" in France to quit the armed forces. He had warned of sanctions when a previous letter was published last month, signed by retired generals. "The most reasonable step is certainly to leave the institution in order to freely express their ideas and convictions," General Francois Lecointre wrote in a letter to military personnel. "Every soldier enjoys freedom of thought but must unambiguously distinguish between civic and military duties," he wrote, adding that those who wrote the open letter published on Sunday largely violated the obligation of discretion for members of the armed services. At the end of April, Lecointre said the 24 generals who signed a similar letter in the same publication last month would face a military council and other active-duty soldiers would receive military disciplinary sanctions. In his letter this week, the army chief did not mention any sanctions in particular but simply called on the soldiers to step down. The soldiers' letter warned of unrest in the country because of what they called "concessions" to Islamism by French President Emmanuel Macron. Defence Minister Florence Parly said the letters were part of a "crude political scheme", and reminded soldiers of their obligation of neutrality. Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah Listen to article Member of Parliament for Techiman South, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, has threatened to sue two media houses for wrongfully dragging his name in an alleged land grab issue at East La Dadekotopon in Accra which he has nothing to do with. The MP, through his lawyer has written to the Alhaj website as well as Opera News seeking a retraction and an apology for the defamatory stories by May 13, 2021, or risk being sued. The media publications had alleged that the MP had used landguards to take over the piece of land belonging to one Lydia Forson and was developing it. But the a copy of the caution statement cited by Daily Guide signed by Gary Nimako Marfo on behalf of the MP indicated that we are instructed to bring to your attention that our client has absolutely no interest in the land, the subject matter of your publication situated at East La Dadekotopon, Accra. We are further instructed to notify you that your publication is false and clearly orchestrated to denigrate, ridicule, defame and tarnish his reputation in the eyes of the right thinking members of society. The statement further indicated that it found the stories to be highly unethical as the MP's side was not incorporated yet you have widely published and circulated same. It is therefore, demanding an immediate retraction and apology of the said stories on or before May 13, 2021, a failure of which we are firmly instructed to use the necessary legal avenues to vindicate our client's rights. Meanwhile, Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah, has written to the police asking them to demand from the said Lydia Forson and Kelvin Aggor to provide the police with the identities of the said developer of the land as he has no interest in the said land. In a letter to the police based on a petition presented by Lydia Forson and Kelvin Aggor for assistance, the MP stated that the two are unknown to him and so is the land in issue. He further added that he has absolute no interest in the said land and he has not sent anyone to develop it. Mr. Adjei-Mensah Korsah said the allegations are just a ploy to drag his name in the mud. There is nothing concerning me in this matter and I just can't fathom why anybody will just involve me in this story. If it is my property, why would I deny it? I don't own it. It's a game some people are playing against me and that letter is fake, he said. ---DGN online Before it rose from the first meeting of its first session, the eighth Parliament passed the 2021 budget statement and economic policy presented by the Majority Leader, Osei-Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. This means that government now has the legal authority to implement its policy objectives as captured in the budget statement. The 2021 budget has the overall purpose of restoring the economy to growth following the trauma of a global pandemic that upended economies around the world, including ours. It also seeks to consolidate the many policy gains from the president's first term in office. In the education sector, the government's policy intentions appear consistent with the aims set out in the 2018-30 Education Strategic Plan (ESP), which I was privileged to help finalise as one of a few technical persons drafted by the Ministry of Education for that task. The ESP aims to boost access and equity, improve quality, increase relevance, improve efficiency and effectiveness and ensure sustainability. These are in turn linked to the overarching national objectives to meet the Sustainable Development Goals espoused by the United Nations in 2015. Intentions are one thing and cynics might say a budget is just a wish list but the government's record in education prove that its words are anything but mere platitudes. An examination of the record should prove to even the most sceptical that it has the alacrity and the drive to deliver on its targets. In its first four years in office, this government demonstrated its commitment to education, following through on its ginormous ambitions with spending to match and ensuring the effective implementation of its plans. In 2017, for example, the government spent GHc 10.5 billion on education, over a billion more than the GHc 9.08 billion that was spent in 2016. The increases continued over the entire term GHc 12.7 billion in 2018; GHc 13.3 billion in 2019; and GHc 14.7 billion in 2020. In this budget, it has committed to a further increase in the education sector expethe nature, projecting to apply GHc 15.6 billion on the education this fiscal. This spending pattern has, in some significant areas, led to positive educational outcomes. In the last four years, we have seen improvements in access, retention and completion for Ghanaian children at all levels of education. In the 2016/17 academic year, for example, there were 4,393,061 in primary school. This number leapt to 4,511,268 in the 2018/19 academic year. Government policies, including the unprecedented Free SHS programme and the absorption of registration fees for Basic Education Certificate Education candidates, meant that an exponentially larger number of students were able to transition from junior secondary school to senior high school, which hitherto remained the greatest point of school dropout. In the 2019/20 academic year, there were 1,200,580 students in senior high school, compared to the 813,448 enrolled as of the 2016/17 academic year. Worthy of note also is the fact that contrary to research expectations, the first batch of students on the Free SHS scheme outperformed their international counterparts in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations, with more than half attaining the qualifying grades for entry into tertiary institutions. And it's not just grammar-type SHS enrolment that has improved. There have been significant increases in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) enrolment, which stood at 53,171 in the 2015/16 academic year and had risen to 59,583 by the 2019/19 academic year. Gross Enrolment Ratio at the tertiary level now stands at 18.8 percent, among the highper centre sub-region, with this gsub-region laying the foundation for an increase to a globally respectable 40 percent by 2030. Of couper centis has to be backed by commensurate expansion in the productive sectors of the economy if we are not to compound the existing problem of graduate unemployment. At the outset of this government's tenure, many were those who questioned the scale of its ambitions. The facilities in our schools were just not enough to accommodate the numbers we were bent on admitting. To deal with this infrastructure problem, the Ghana Education Trust Fund was authorised to securitize a USD 1.5 billion facility to fund an accelerated boost to education infrastructure. In 2017, the government initiated 874 projects across all levels of education. Of these, 518 have been completed with provision made in the 2021 budget for continuation of the outstanding projects. Between the 2017/18 and 2018/19 academic years alone, 60 more senior high schools were added to the national tally, bringing the total number to 690. With funding from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA), the government has initiated the d the construction of 20 Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) centres around the country which are currently at various stages of completion. The first phase of construction at the University of Environment and Sustainable Development has been completed and the first batch of students are already in attendance at the institution. All of this would of course mean little if the quality on offer did not serve to advance our mission to build a knowledge economy that will improve life outcomes for the majority of our people. In this context, the government has shown itself to be committed to a future where Ghanaian children are at no disadvantage in comparison with their counterparts anywhere in the world. Under President Akufo-Addo's instruction, significant reforms of the content and structure of our school curriculum and assessment systems have been conducted. The standards-based curriculum and the subsequent common core programme, if well implemented, will together help produce a new kind of Ghanaian graduate with the repertoire of skills and competencies that will make them assets to the country and globally competitive professionals. As head of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, the key regulatory agency for this particular aspect of the government's education reform agenda, I can confidently attest to the vision and zeal that drove it and the rigour with which it was undertaken. To complement the school curriculum reforms, teacher professional development and learning have been stepped up, with the introduction of the National Teachers Standards, National Teacher Education Curriculum Framework, and a new 4-year teacher education curriculum at the Colleges of Education as well as introducing teacher licencing regime and revisions to the manner in which teahowand promoted. We now demand greater accountability from teachers and heads of institutions, with the ultimate welfare of the child as the foremost consideration. To boost teaching and learning, 1,823 teachers from 303 basic schools have benefited from Matific training and have been equipped with pedagogical skills in teaching with technology. In addition, the government has recruited 290 school improvement and support officers (formerly circuit supervisors) to monitor the implementation of the new school curriculum. And of course, the restoration of allowances for trainees in our colleges of education is motivating more of our best and brightest to take up the profession. In 2020, we launched the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP), a 5-year project to improve the quality and performance of 10,000 low performing basic schools and 28 special schools. It will also update the skills of all teachers in beneficiary schools through in- service training and provide teaching and learning materials. With so much done, there still remains a lot to the government's full intentions are to be realised. The year of COVID-19 was an unwelcome interruption that could have derailed a less determined government. While the government's focus will naturally be on restoring economic growth and correcting the fundamentals, it has still, in the budget, signalled its commitment to continued improvements in the sector. The Free SHS programme will receive GHc 1.97 billion funding this year. Government plans to absorb the registration fees for an estimated 416,066 registered candidates from public Junior High Schools. These and other interventions to ease the burdens of parents and keep students in school will cost government some GHc 200the million. The government has also signalled its intention to complete nine new model senior high schools and seven new SHS schools focusing on creative arts, technical and STEM education. Two existing schools Diaso Community SHS and Koase Senior High Technical School will be upgraded into model schools. This will boost both access and quality at the secondary level. Improvements in teaching and learning will be aided by the training of 11,997 teachers on the KG-P6 Standard-Based Curriculum and 95,000 teachers on the Common Core Programme. We will also conduct the first National Standard Assessment Test (NSAT) for pupils in years 2 and 4 at the primary level. These non-promotional tests will provide us with a vital dataset on pupils ' attainment of set competencies at those levels and inform further adjustments, where necessary to teaching and learning approaches. We will also, this year, commence the five-year Ghana Jobs and Skills Project, which will develop competency-based training curricula from level one to five of the National TVET Qualification Framework (NTVETQF) for one hundred trades and professions. It will also provide apprenticeship training to a minimum of 700 private enterprises and entrepreneurship support to SMEs around the country. The government will also tackle youth unemployment with the operationalisation of Ghana Labour Market Information System and the upgrading of district public employment centres and services. At the tertiary level, the 2021 budget will ensure the launch of the Enhanced Student Loans Scheme. As promised in the NPP's manifesto which won the approval of Ghanaian voters in 2020, this revised scheme will allow students to access loans without the need for guarantors, which has in the past prevented a good number from doing so. This will enable more people from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have also benefitted from the free SHS programme to have an equal chance at gaining tertiary education and reaching their potential. For their counterparts in colleges of education, the government will spend the ver Ghc 170 million for the first and second semesters for trainees. To its credit, Akufo-Addo government the has shown the will and capacity to deliver on its promises in education. After the trauma of Covid-19, with money tight and the economy in a fragile state, it will have to show that it can do more with less. This will require some more innovation in how the government applies its budget in pursuit of ambitious policy actions. If the first term is any guide, however, we can be confident that the government will follow through on the educational aspirations outlined in the budget. This is important because education has been known to provide countries with the human capital the boost needed to lift the masses out of poverty. The achievement of its goals in education will undoubtedly empower citizens to create and sustain wealth while also enabling them to demand accountability in a way that improves governance and protects the public purse. By Prince Hamid Armah, PhD The writer is the Member of Parliament for Kwesimintsim and the Vice Chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education. He was previously the Director-General of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment. Anti-epidemic supplies donated by Chinese gov't arrive in Laos Xinhua) 17:46, May 12, 2021 Workers unload anti-epidemic material supplies donated by the Chinese government from a Chinese cargo plane at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane, Laos, May 10, 2021. The Chinese government-donated anti-COVID-19 material supplies have arrived at Wattay International Airport in Lao capital Vientiane with a handover ceremony held upon their arrival. The Chinese government's emergency assistance to Laos includes ventilators, automatic nucleic acid extractors, medical masks, N95 masks, mobile hospital beds, automatic autoclaves, nucleic acid extraction or purification reagents, and nucleic acid detection kits, etc. (Xinhua/Zhang Jianhua) VIENTIANE, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government-donated anti-COVID-19 material supplies have arrived at Wattay International Airport in Lao capital Vientiane with a handover ceremony held upon their arrival. Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) central committee politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune and Chinese Ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong attended the handover ceremony on Monday for the emergency assistance to fight the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Laos. Kikeo said when receiving the supplies at the airport that after the outbreak of the new wave of the epidemic in Laos, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government urgently dispatched a team of medical experts to Laos and provided urgently needed materials to assist the country in the prevention and control of the epidemic, which fully embodies the spirit of a community with a shared future between Laos and China. On behalf of the Lao party, the government and the people, Kikeo sincerely thanked the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government and the fraternal Chinese people for their consistent valuable assistance. He believed that the donation will provide Laos with strong support to win the battle against the virus. The Chinese government's emergency assistance to Laos includes ventilators, automatic nucleic acid extractors, medical masks, N95 masks, mobile hospital beds, automatic autoclaves, nucleic acid extraction or purification reagents, and nucleic acid detection kits, etc. Laos has been witnessing a surge of COVID-19 infections recently. The country confirmed 35 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of the cases to 1,362. Laos confirmed its first two COVID-19 cases on March 24 last year. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Our sun has been discharging quite powerful solar flares over the past week, as it remains in the crest of its 11-year solar cycle. But just how disturbed should you be about the radioactive belch of the sun? Solar Flares and CMEs CMEs and Solar flares cause no direct threat to humans - the atmosphere of the Earth shields us from space weather radiation. (If a space traveler out in space is barraged with the high-energy particles coming from a CME, the space traveler could be severely injured or killed. But many of us won't have to bother about that situation.) However, we could indirectly feel the effects of CMEs, through the disturbances to our technology - some of which could pose disastrous and lasting effects on civilization. When Earth's magnetosphere is hit by a CME - the volume of space surrounding our planet affected by our magnetic field - if it is directed southward, it will greatly have an interaction with the northward-oriented magnetic field of the Earth. Also Read: Solar Storm Incoming: A Particularly Intense Geomagnetic Storm Will Hit Earth on May 13 Earth's Magnetic Field When this takes place, Earth's magnetic field is "cut open like an onion letting energetic solar wind particles to flow down the field lines to strike the atmosphere over the poles," NASA explained. NASA also added that at the surface of the earth a magnetic storm is sighted as a rapid drop in the magnetic field strength of the earth. This decline lasts for approximately 6 to 12 hours, after which the magnetic field recovers slowly over a period of some days. The geomagnetic storm resulting from CME -magnetosphere interactions can bungle all types of technology that we depend on today. Satellites that orbit higher in geosynchronous orbits - most of them communications satellites-are susceptible to geomagnetic storms, either due to the fact that high-energy particles can penetrate them or because the satellite could become increasingly charged, making discharging currents damage major components. Even more severe is the possibility for CMEs to damage electrical grids. Geomagnetically-induced Currents A geomagnetic storm manufacture electrical currents in conductive material on the ground, both through power lines, communication cables, and pipelines. These large, currents which are geomagnetically induced can overload transformers causing general blackouts. Ironically, some of the reason high-voltage transformers are susceptible to geomagnetic storms is because of the measures we've taken to safeguard them from lightning strikes. The ground link between the transformers that disperse those power streams also serves as a means for geomagnetically-induced currents. Utility companies by fitting major critical transformers with electrical capacitors or resistors can guard against serious space weather -but with a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars for each transformer, they aren't rushing to install these protections voluntarily. More advanced caution of future damaging CMEs on its way to Earth would give utility companies some more time to scale power generation back to make effort in mitigating the effects of geomagnetic currents. Related Article: [UPDATE] Solar Storms: Are They Dangerous? For more news, updates about solar storms and similar topics don't forget to follow Nature World News! Former AIDS Ambassador, Joyce Dzidzor Mensah has threatened to reveal some key political figures behind her HIIV/AIDS program brouhaha. According to Joyce Dzidzor in a Facebook post sighted by DGN Online, she is ready to mention names of the politicians behind the HIV/AIDS program at the expense of her life. She called for funding support from Ghanaians to purchase a ticket to Ghana to finalize her issues with the Criminal Investigative Department of the Ghana Police service concerning her HIV/AIDS program brouhaha. She wrote Good morning lovely friends I have to come to Ghana in few weeks to aid the CID to finalize some issues concerning my HIV program and some money related issues but I don't have money for tickets. She added I need the good citizens of Ghana to buy me tickets to Ghana. I know I'm putting my life at risk if I come to Ghana because some names that will be mentioned will reveal a lot. But I don't really fear death. I can't die as a coward. Please WhatsApp me on my private number if you want to buy me a ticket to Ghana. Travelling expenses with Covid test will cost 1000 euros. Thank you 004915778567615. It will be recalled that NPP Chairman in the Bono region, Kwame Baffoe popularly known as Abronye DC called on the CID to investigate Joyce Dzidzor after deceiving the public of her HIV/AIDS status. According to him, Ms. Joyce must be arrested, interrogated, and further prosecuted per the provisions in the Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29) on the grounds of making a false declaration and deceiving the public of being HIV/AIDS positive. In 2011, the Ghana Aids Commission decided to embark on a campaign to reduce stigma and discrimination suffered by persons living with HIV to provide a human face to HIV. The campaign was dubbed The ''Heart to Heart'' Campaign. The key requirement for '' Heart to Heart'' Ambassadorial duty, was for ''the person to be HIV positive, and on treatment''. In 2011, she signed a contract with the Commission as an AIDS ambassador but the contract was however terminated by the Commission on November 12, 2012, on grounds of breach of her terms of the contract. As part of her contract as AIDS Ambassador, she received several benefits and incentives from the commission which inherently came from the state. The benefits included a fully furnished apartment and travel allowances among others. However, Joyce Dzidzor Mensah herself has publicly published her HIV status which indicates that she is free from the infection. Making such false declaration is in contravention and violation of section 248 of the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29). ---DGN online A new proposal, this time from the US, on how to open up access to vaccines against COVID-19 by relaxing patent rights, has added to an already complex and fraught debate between the World Trade Organisation's 164 members. In early May, the US took the world by surprise when it announced that Washington supported an exemption from the World Trade Organisation intellectual property (IP) rules protecting vaccines. The waiver would allow each state to authorise the production of patented vaccines without the consent of the pharmaceutical companies holding the patent. South Africa and India originally proposed an exemption in October 2020. It was opposed by the US (initially), the EU, Switzerland, the UK and Japan. Such a waiver would be optional (countries could opt out) and suspend specific IP rights protected by the WTO TRIPS Agreement . This exemption plan is supported by more than 100 countries. It would allow states to bypass the monopoly of IP holders by authorising the production of cheaper generic drugs and other anti-COVID technologies. The waiver would be temporary, until the majority of the world's population developed immunity. The US-supported exemption is slightly different. It covers vaccines only, maintaining IP protection on other products such as diagnostics, treatments, ventilators, respirators, syringes and refrigerators maintaining low temperatures during storage and transport of doses. But would the WTO waiver be enough? We believe there are arguments against the waiver. These include the fact that other factors would still stand in the way of easy and quick access to COVID-19 medicines for all countries. But we also argue that the campaign to have a waiver agreed at the WTO could have beneficial outcomes, such as pushing pharmaceutical companies which hold important IP to share it voluntarily. The cons One argument against the waiver is that it is unnecessary. The TRIPS already allows flexibilities. Countries seeking access to medicines can grant compulsory licences (that is, without the IP holder's consent) under certain conditions. Some have done so during the pandemic. In March 2020 Israel issued one, speeding up the production and sale of Kaletra as an anti-COVID treatment. The US-based pharmaceutical company AbbVie holds the patent. And the Indian generic manufacturer Natco recently applied for a licence to produce Baricitinib. This is a rheumatoid arthritis drug that can also treat coronavirus. The IP is held by the US pharmacuetical company Eli Lilly. States that lack production capacity can, meeting additional conditions, license production abroad with a view to importing the drugs. On 10 May, Bolivia notified a licence to the WTO, for 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine produced by the Canadian company Biolyse. However, compulsory licences must meet a host of requirements. These include the payment of fair compensation to the patent holder. The waiver proposed by South Africa and India would instead allow countries to circumvent these requirements, insulating generic manufacturers of anti-COVID drugs and technologies from lawsuits. Another argument undermining the waiver is that it cannot benefit generic producers (and patients), because it would not address the lack of production capacity and poor healthcare systems of many countries. Moreover, it could not alleviate the shortage in raw materials and the steep learning curve of manufacturing processes. Take the Pfizer mRNA vaccines. This technology was developed recently and with revolutionary know-how: no pharmaceutical company can replicate it quickly. The bottleneck is not just IP protection, but the underlying processes around the protected technology. If a TRIPS waiver passes, Pfizer could lawfully engage in being obstructive by, for example, refusing to disclose its know-how. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to require pharmaceutical companies to reveal that secret, also because even if such companies were dragged into courts judges would not know which information should be disclosed. Patents can be suspended by law, but confidential information kept by pharmaceutical companies is not easily retrievable. This has become clear in Bolivia's plan to import Canadian-made generics. The Canadian manufacturer admitted that if Johnson & Johnson agree to hand over the formula production could start in less than half the time. The pros Waiving or relaxing IP rights over anti-COVID technologies cannot fix the global pandemic alone. Nevertheless it could remove some roadblocks. Arguably, the waiver could push pharma companies holding patents to increase the supply of their drugs. For example, the recent Natco application for a compulsory licence over Baricitinib has prompted Eli Lilly, the patent holder, to grant royalty-free and non-exclusive voluntary licences to Indian generic manufacturers Sun, Cipla and Lupin. Eli Lilly is also negotiating licences with other Indian producers. So, flexing the muscles via granting compulsory licences sometimes seems to pay off in terms of encouraging patent owners to share their technology. This happened at the beginning of the pandemic. After Israel issued the compulsory licence over the Kaletra drug early last year, the patentee AbbVie voluntarily dropped its patent rights. Waiver talks might produce a similar effect: convincing companies to focus on technology transfer and training, perhaps at a profit, and letting go of the plan to maximise patent-based revenues. It could also be argued that a waiver would be a fair move to make given that over US$12 billion of public funding has gone into the research and development of vaccines. A compromise in sight? It is still not clear what kind of a waiver WTO members can agree if any. Negotiations might produce a softer solution than proposed by South Africa and India: perhaps a very short exemption with limited coverage, for example only vaccines, as proposed by the US. Such compromise could neutralise the refrain of big pharmaceutical companies against any unwelcome relaxation of IP rights. A limited and short suspension of proprietary rights over COVID vaccines would have a lesser impact on innovation incentives. A game changer in the fight against COVID could be last week's WHO approval of the vaccine produced by the China-owned company Sinopharm and the Beijing Institute of Biological Products. This is the first vaccine developed by a non-Western country to obtain the WHO green light. This vaccine can be stored in a standard refrigerator, and easy storage requirements the WHO pointed out make it particularly suitable for developing and least-developed countries. In addition, there's a strong likelihood that China could produce enough vaccines to meet its own needs, and still have surplus that it can export. One estimate is that the Sinopharm vaccine could be supplied to more than 80 countries. This would benefit people in states which have not been able to access sufficient vaccines and that have recently been hit hard by COVID. These include India, Brazil, Indonesia and the Philippines. Strengthening the global supply of vaccines would provide a major boost to efforts to contain COVID-19. Running in parallel with efforts to ease IP rules could see the balance shifted towards containment. The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. By Enrico Bonadio, Reader in Intellectual Property Law, City, University of London And Filippo Fontanelli, Senior Lecturer in International Economic Law, University of Edinburgh Lagos must re-strategise to address the challenges that commercial motorcycles present. - Source: PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP via Getty Images Listen to article Lagos has witnessed a growing number of commercial motorcyclists in recent times, transporting people and goods in and around the state. Many of these operators moved in from northern Nigeria, where authorities banned the use of motorcycles notoriously used by Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and kidnappers to carry out attacks . In Lagos, these motorcyclists popularly known as okada aren't always popular and face periodic restrictions . Ogechi Ekeanyanwu of The Conversation Africa spoke to Chidi Nzeadibe, an urban development policy expert, about how the sector has become established and how to approach the problems it sometimes presents. Why are there so many commercial motorcycles in Lagos? Motorcycle taxis began to operate in Nigeria in the cities of Calabar and Yola in the late 1970s and the 1980s, and spread to Lagos. This trend spread when the federal civil service was reduced in the 1970s and people lost their jobs . As the economy declined and the city population grew, people had to find other ways to survive, including operating okadas. Private motorcycles were converted to commercial use. The insurgency that has coursed through northern Nigeria since 2009 has been implicated in the rise of the okada economy. This is because of the way it has displaced people and destroyed livelihoods. Media reports have also pointed to the occasional use of motorbikes by insurgents to launch terror attacks. In essence, the okada economy is both an enabler and outfall of the insurgency. A recent study argues that displacements and the resultant migration to southern Nigeria have driven an increase in people making a living from okada in southern Nigeria, including Lagos. What are the consequences? There have been reported clashes between the motorcycle taxi operators and police officers as well as transport union workers over rights to operate in some routes and places. Okada operators have also been accused of committing crime and allowing criminals to escape . Such negative branding has led sub-national governments to take steps to regulate or ban the operation of motorcycle taxis in their territories. Between 2010 and January 2016, more than 20 of Nigeria's 36 states partially or completely banned them. But populist politicians sometimes mobilise okada riders to support their political ambitions, and seem to sympathise with them. Such romance often fizzles out soon after electoral mandates are secured. Actors in the motorcycle taxi economy tend to attract public attention in Nigerian cities because there are enough of them to cripple the local economy. A case in point was a protest by okada operators in Ikorodu, Lagos, in 2020 as a result of 'multiple taxation' and perceived high-handedness of local authorities. The result was widespread economic disruptions and citizens' frustrations, made worse by traffic congestion because of major roadworks at that time. Operators are also known to use this clout to engage with authorities to influence policy. There have also been associated problems such as accidents, noise, air pollution, crime and insecurity. And there is a perception that okada is a misfit in 'modern cities'. They are seen as a nuisance by riding against traffic, ignoring red lights and causing congestion and accidents. On the other hand, the bikes offer certain transport advantages: easy manoeuvrability, ability to travel on poor roads, and responsiveness to demand. They also create work for people. And then, there are the security implications. For instance, the US consulate general in Lagos recently issued a security alert about crime and insecurity being fuelled by operators of motorcycle taxis. They noted that men on motorcycles follow vehicles until they stop at a traffic light or intersection. They then approach the vehicle and rob the occupant. One study explains how the Boko Haram insurgents use motorcycles to access targets, breeding fear and insecurity. This is evidenced in recent demands by bandits to the Kaduna state government to provide motorcycles as part of ransom for the safe release of kidnapped university students. What can be done to reduce the number of accidents involving okada? Regulation of okada transport through use of identification vests can instil a sense of responsibility. Restricting them to suburban areas, and mandatory use of safety gear such as helmets by the operators and passengers, can also help to reduce the impact of road accidents. Some of these measures have been applied in neighbouring countries. It may also be effective to use horizontal interventions , where people enforce rules in their self-interest rather than because of the fear of sanctions from authorities. Training and sensitisation could be done through the operators' collective associations . How should government respond to the number of motorcyle operators in Lagos? Rather than seeing the okada economy as an impediment to development, governments should treat it as an opportunity for resettling displaced populations and a vehicle for job creation. It's also an important response to the mobility needs of many Lagos residents. The government could adopt a more inclusive policy approach which empowers the informal economy. Rather than emphasising 'state regulation', it could recognise the informal actors' groups as channels of engagement in development policy. With such responsibility, they would constitute a check on members' behaviour. Chidi Nzeadibe 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. By Chidi Nzeadibe, Professor of Environmental Management & Sustainability, University of Nigeria Security Analyst Adam Bonah says the National Security official who ordered the Rambo-style arrest of Citi FM/TV's Caleb Kudah and Zoe Abu-Baidoo on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 should be ashamed of himself for such a directive. According to him, the arrest of the broadcast journalists over purported filming at the premises of the National Security Secretariat respectively is wholly uncalled for. He believes the journalists pose no threats to warrant such treatment. Speaking on TV3's 'Mid-day Live' news program on Wednesday, May 12 which was monitored by this portal, the Security Analyst said; "the arrest is very very uncalled for. Too much show of force on two young journalists. Whoever deployed the supposedly people calling themselves national security officers should bow his or her head in shame." Mr. Bonah added that many of the national security operatives are not intelligent enough to be deployed to execute certain operations. According to him, the national security secretariat is the foremost intelligence organization in Ghana and therefore, operatives working there must be intelligent. "...this is the foremost intelligence organization we have in the country. But unfortunately, some of them are too unintelligent to be deployed to perform such operations," he stated. Meanwhile the Commander of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), DSP Samuel Kojo Azugu has been confirmed as the senior police officer who sent the heavily armed national security operatives to the premises of Citi FM/TV to effect the arrest. Source: // contributor on Moderngahana Argentina's President Alberto Fernandez is to visit Paris on Wednesday to meet his counterpart Emmanuel Macron. The trip to the French capital is part of a European tour as Argentina seeks to broker a new debt restructuring deal with the International Monetary Fund and other creditors such as the so-called Paris Club. Argentina, which has received $44 billion from the IMF as part of a $57 billion financing programme signed in 2018, is seeking a new deal as it faces its first repayment deadlines this year. The country, which has been in recession since 2018, also has a $2.4 billion debt to settle with the Paris Club. Lobby groups such as Avaaz have called on the Paris Club to off-set Argentina's sovereign debt with industrial nations for their impact on the environment. While on his tour of Europe, Avaaz has called on Spain, Italy and France to engage with Fernandez in finding an equitable solution for Argentia's debt while taking into account the value of the country's contribution to the protecting biodiversity and sustainable development. Reaching out to EU business At the end of March, Fernandez concluded that "the debt we inherited, on the terms that govern it, is irredeemable". Economy Minister Martin Guzman, Foreign Minister Felipe Sola and First Lady Fabiola Yanez are also traveling with Fernadez's delegation, which met Portugal's President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa on Sunday, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez earlier this week. Today's meeting with President Emmanuel Macron follows a morning meeting with France's business community. Within the Paris Club, Argentina's debt to France is only around $87million, representing 3.6 percent of the total Buenos Aires owes the group. Fernandez is due in Rome on Thursday, where he will visit the Vatican to meet fellow Argentinian, Pope Francis. He will then be received by Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Mario Draghi before returning to France on Friday. Some 32 alleged national security operatives, arrested for allegedly mining at the Akateng Forest in the Eastern Region, have been remanded into custody by the Koforidua Circuit Court 'B'. They have been charged with conspiracy to commit crime, namely conducting reconnaissance for mining and conducting reconnaissance for mines and minerals without lawful authority. The court did not take their pleas. They are expected to reappear on May 24. The court, presided by Mrs Mercy Kotey, said investigations were underway and the accused could interfere with the process when granted bail. Defence counsels for the accused took turns to pray for their bail. Mr Theophilus Donkor, who represented 11 of the accused, relied on Article 13, 14, and 19 of the Constitution and Section 96 of Act 30 for bail. Mr Donkor said his clients had spent eight days in custody and the police, had breached the 48-hour rule. According to defence counsel prosecution wanted the court to endorse an illegality. He prayed the court to compel prosecution to give reasons for the accused persons' remand. Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Sylvester Asare opposed the grant of bail and said investigations were underway. In January, this year, the security services picked up information of the activities of the accused persons, that included they were terrorizing communities in the Eastern Region. The accused were alleged to have engaged in illegal mining at the Akateng Forest reserve and parading themselves as national security operatives in communities in the Eastern and Ashanti regions. They were accused of demanding and seizing gold from illegal miners in the name of national security. Security personnel from Accra and the Regional Police Command were dispatched to the reserve and accused persons were arrested on May 4. Six pistols and guns, shovels, handsets, three handcuffs, pepper spray, pick axe, and bags of sand suspected to contain gold were retrieved. ---GNA Mr Frank Okpenyen, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) for Nzema East Municipality of the Western Region, has embarked on a two-day working tour to some selected ongoing projects funded by the Government of Ghana and the Assembly's Internally Generated Funds (IGF). The MCE was accompanied by some staff of the Assembly and some journalists to inspect such projects. The visit was to acquaint himself with the progress made in the construction of these projects. He and his entourage visited a newly office complex for the National Health Insurance Authority at Axim where the construction of the facility is progressing steadily. From there, the MCE moved to Anto-Apewosika community where an ultra-modern 32-seater toilet facility is being constructed for residents in the community. The contractor who is constructing the toilet facility, Mr Frank Amponsah indicated to the MCE that the project would be completed by the end of May 2021. He then proceeded to Avrebo community, where an 8-kilometre road is also being constructed on the Avrebo-Ahunyame-Adelekazo stretch. The road which serves the three communities was in a very deplorable state and was lobbied through the hardwork and collaborative efforts of Mrs. Catherine Abelema Afeku, the former Member of Parliament of Evalue-Ajomoro Gwira Constituency and Hon. Frank Okpenyen, the current MCE. Speaking to this reporter after the inspection, the MCE Frank Okpenyen thanked the various contractors for the work done so far and tasked them to complete them on time. He, therefore, took the opportunity to explain that the projects were started under the first term of President Akufo-Addo's government and that he was inspecting them to get first hand information on the progress of the projects. He also expressed satisfaction at the fast-paced development of these three projects and expects them to be completed soon. Mr. Frank Okpenyen promised the media that he would work hard to complete all the ongoing projects. He seizes the opportunity to call on the residents of the Nzema East Municipality to rally behind President Akufo-Addo and prayed for President Akufo-Addo to develop the country. Italy is pushing EU partners to revive migrant burden-sharing deals as it seeks to stave off a summertime surge in landings from North Africa, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Wednesday. Migration has returned to the top of the political agenda in Italy after more than 2,200 asylum-seekers from Tunisia and Libya arrived on its tiny island of Lampedusa last weekend. Draghi said "active talks are ongoing with Germany and France to revive" the so-called Malta agreement, under which a number of EU countries agreed in 2019 to share the number of migrants who arrive in Italy or Malta. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who was visiting Rome on Wednesday, said his country was ready to help. "Italy cannot be left on its own," he said after a meeting with his counterpart Luigi Di Maio. "Germany has already in the past taken part in the relocation of refugees and we will do it again in the future [...] but we expect other partners to do the same," he added. The Malta deal was suspended with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. "The priority in the short run is to contain migration pressure in the summer months," Draghi also said, calling for "more intense cooperation" from Libya and Tunisia and tighter controls of their land and sea borders. 'Balanced, effective and humane' On May 20, the Italy's Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese and the EU's home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, are scheduled to jointly visit Tunis to tackle migration issues. Amid criticism of Italy's cooperation with the Libyan authorities, routinely accused of exposing migrants to abuse and torture, Draghi said his country was pursuing a "balanced, effective and humane" migration policy. Migrants rescued near Lampedusa Italy. By AFP (AFP) "Nobody must be abandoned in Italian territorial waters. We consider the respect of human rights a key component of any policy on migration," he said. Migration issues are a political minefield for the Italian premier, as his national unity government includes parties with clashing views -- such as the far-right League and the centre-left Democratic Party. So far this year, some 13,000 sea migrants have landed on Italy's shores -- a sizeable increase from around 4,200 and 1,100 respectively for the same period in 2020 and 2019. At the same time, the central Mediterranean is one of the world's deadliest migration routes. It is patrolled by a handful of charity rescue ships, who complain that EU authorities are not doing enough to help their cause. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN agency, more than 500 people have died in crossings from North Africa to Italy and Malta since the start of 2021. Recent findings in a report in an Australian daily has yet again reinforced the call that international investigators must dig deeper to rule out whether COVID-19 is a made-in-China bio-weapon. The controversy about COVID-19 origins has resurfaced after the Weekend Australian newspaper revealed that Chinese scientists were thinking about bio-weapons, visualising a Word War-3 scenario. The daily cited a Chinese government document which discussed the weaponisation of SARS coronavirus. Titled "The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons", the 2015 paper was authored by Chinese scientists, Chinese public health officials and members of the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Released five years ahead the COVID-19 outbreak, it nails Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) coronaviruses as a "new era of genetic weapons" that can be "artificially manipulated into an emerging human 'disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed in a way never seen before". COVID-19 is part of the SARS family of coronaviruses. Specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has been caused by SARS-Co V-2a coronavirus that emerged in December 2019. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses, many of whom target the respiratory system of humans, causing diseases ranging from common cold to the deadly SARS. The Chinese paper is discussed in an upcoming book titled "What Really Happened in Wuhan" by The Australian investigative writer, Sharri Markson. Robert Potter, a cyber security specialist who analyses leaked Chinese government documents, confirmed, when asked by the The Australian to do so, that the leaked document was genuine. "We reached a high confidence conclusion that it was genuineIt's not fake but it's up to someone else to interpret how serious it is," website news.com.au. quoted Mr Potter as saying. Peter Jennings, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), also told news.com.au that the document is as close to a 'smoking gun' as we've got. "I think this is significant because it clearly shows that Chinese scientists were thinking about military application for different strains of the coronavirus and thinking about how it could be deployed," Mr Jennings observed. "It begins to firm up the possibility that what we have here is the accidental release of a pathogen for military use," he added. Mr Jennings also said that the document may explain why China has been so reluctant for an outside investigation into the origins of COVID-19. "If this was a case of transmission from a wet market it would be in China's interest to co-operate e we've had the opposite of that." The British tabloid The Sun points out that the document lists some of China's top public health figures among the 18 authors, including the former deputy director of China's Bureau of Epidemic Prevention, Li Feng. Ten of the authors are scientists and weapons experts affiliated with the Air Force Medical 'University in Xi'an. The institute was placed under the command of the PLA in 2017 by Chinese president Xi Jinping. The editor-in-chief of the paper, Xu Dezhong, reported to the top leadership of the Chinese Military Commission and Ministry of Health during the SARS epidemic of 2003. Xu was also a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Air Force Medical University's Military Epidemiology eDepartment. In its investigations, the WHO has not reached a definite conclusion about the origins of the COVID-19 virus. In March WHO reported on their Wuhan visit and called for further investigations into the origins of COVID-19. "As far as WHO is concerned, all hypotheses remain on the table e We have not yet found the source of the virus, and we must continue to follow the science and leave no stone unturned as we do," said WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. Australian representative Dominic Dwyer, who went to Wuhan in January as part of the WHO investigations into the origins of COVID-19, however, pointed out that there were several grey zones that were yet to be cleared by the probe. He was quoted as saying in February that the Wuhan wet market, which had been blamed as the source of the virus in the beginning, may not have been the original source of the outbreak. "The market in Wuhan, in the end, was more of an amplifying event rather than necessarily a true ground zero. So, we need to look elsewhere for the viral origins," Mr Dwyer observed, as cited by news.com.au. The Sun report said that the Chinese language military document, refers to "major advances in the delivery of biological agents." "For example, the new-found ability to freeze-dry micro-organisms has made it possible to store biological agents and aerosolise them during attacks." Human Rights campaigner Luke de Pulford, the coordinator of the Inter-Parliamentary eAlliance on China, asserts that the Chinese Communist Party needs to urgently answer serious questions. "If this piece of work is representative of the scientific thinking of those who have advised the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, then there are very serious questions which need urgent eanswers," The Sun quoted him as saying. Disclaimer: Information, facts or opinions expressed in this news article are presented as sourced from IANS and do not reflect views of Moneylife and hence Moneylife is not responsible or liable for the same. As a source and news provider, IANS is responsible for accuracy, completeness, suitability and validity of any information in this article. To address the shortage of medical oxygen for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in the country, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has come up with a creative and ingenious solution. Using a simple technological hack, the premier institute converted a nitrogen generator into oxygen generator. The pilot project, which has been tested successfully, relies on a simple technological hack: conversion of PSA (pressure swing adsorption) nitrogen unit to PSA oxygen unit. Professor Milind Atrey, dean (R&D), IIT Bombay, who led the project, says, "Nitrogen generator unit can be converted into oxygen unit by fine-tuning the existing nitrogen plant setup and changing the molecular sieves from carbon to zeolite." "Such nitrogen plants, which take air from the atmosphere as raw material, are available in various industrial plants across India. Therefore, each of them could potentially be converted into an oxygen generator, thus helping us tide over the current public health emergency," he added. Initial tests done at IIT Bombay have shown promising results. Oxygen production could be achieved at 3.5 atmospheric (atm) pressure, with a purity level of 93% - 96%. This gaseous oxygen can be utilised for COVID-related needs across existing hospitals and upcoming COVID-19 specific facilities by providing a continuous supply of oxygen. The pilot project is a collaborative effort between IIT Bombay, Tata Consulting Engineers and Mumba-based Spantech Engineers, who deal with PSA nitrogen and oxygen plant production. xxxxxxxx A PSA nitrogen plant in the refrigeration and cryogenics laboratory of IIT Bombay was identified for conversion, to validate the proof of the concept. To undertake this study on an urgent basis, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between IIT Bombay, Tata Consulting Engineers and Spantech Engineers to finalise a standard operating procedure (SOP) that may be leveraged across the country. Spantech Engineers installed the required plant components as a skid at IIT Bombay for evaluation. This setup for the experiment was developed within three days, and the initial tests have shown promising results. Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has imposed a total penalty of Rs1 crore on four individuals and an entity while barring them from the market for one year in a case of alleged insider trading activities in the shares of PC Jeweller. The individuals and entity facing the action are Shivani Gupta, Sachin Gupta, Amit Garg, Balram Garg and Quick Developers Pvt Ltd (QDPL). A fine of Rs20 lakh has been imposed on each of them. The regulator has also restrained them from dealing with the securities of PC Jeweller, directly or indirectly, for two years. In its order, SEBI also directed Shivani Gupta, Sachin Gupta and Amit Garg to disgorge more than Rs6.17 crore while Amit Garg and QDPL were ordered to disgorge over Rs2.13 crore. The amount of over Rs6.17 crore has to be disgorged, jointly or severally, by the individuals concerned. SEBI made a similar direction for the other two with respect to the amount of more than Rs2.13 crore. The impounded money would be credited to the Investor Protection and Education Fund (IPEF). SEBI had carried an investigation over the period April-July 2018. SEBI noted that late Padam Chand and Balram Garg communicated UPSI (Unpublished Price Sensitive Information) about the proposal for buyback of equity shares and its subsequent withdrawal to Shivani Gupta, Sachin Gupta, Amit Garg and QDPL. The individuals and entities traded in the shares of PC Jeweller while in possession of UPSI, which was in violation of insider trading norms. Shivani is the daughter-in-law of Padam Chand Gupta, who was the chairman of PC Jeweller; Sachin is the husband of Shivani and son of Padam Chand; Amit is the nephew of Padam Chand and Balram Garg is a promoter of PC Jeweller. According to SEBI, Amit Garg held 50% shareholding in QDPL and was also its director between August 2015-April 2018. SEBI concluded that the four entities by indulging in insider trading and Balram Garg, by communicating the information, violated insider trading norms and hence imposed a penalty of Rs 20 lakh each. A year after the release of Ranch Water, Lone River Beverage Co. brand was acquired by Diageo beverage company. Native Midlander and owner Katie Beal Brown developed the Ranch Water seltzer because the West Texas drink has always been ingrained in her familys gatherings and culture. Beal Brown is continuing to work with Diageo to develop the brand further. The Lone River Ranch Water is a blend of carbonated seltzer, 100 percent organic agave, natural lime juice and a gluten-free alcohol base. She said she didnt see much difference among current hard seltzer brands. It is similar to a light beer in a can that fits in a traditional koozie, unlike other hard seltzers with skinny cans. MRT: What made you want to start Lone River Beverage Co.? BROWN: I wanted to celebrate the culture of far West Texas that is so connected to Ranch Water and share that with a bigger audience. MRT: What has been your favorite part of this process? BROWN: Connecting with people who resonate with our brand and what it stands for in celebrating the Western lifestyle. Its been amazing to see how far this reaches beyond our small place on the map. I love hearing other peoples stories and sharing ours. In a year that turned our lives upside down, I found so much comfort in the support of this community. MRT: What has your family said about the success of your Ranch Water? BROWN: West Texas is home to some of the original pioneers -- wildcatters who came here in search of oil, ranchers who settled wild land -- in a way it is part of our DNA. We were raised with the kind of grit and resilience needed to take big risks. Ive taken a different path of entrepreneurialism, but I think my family relates to the journey in many ways because of their own experience. MRT: Is one of your goals to make Ranch Water and Lone River Beverage Co. a common household names? BROWN: My dream was always to share Ranch Water and the culture around it with as many people as possible. MRT: Did you think Ranch Water and Lone River Beverage Co. would take off as fast as it did? BROWN: Launching during a global pandemic, there was so much uncertainty. I had no idea what would happen. But momentum started to build and weve done our best to keep it going. MRT: Will there be any new Ranch Water seltzer flavors in time for summer? BROWN: We just started to roll out our variety pack that has an exclusive flavor -- Prickly Pear Ranch Water -- inspired by the prickly pear cactus fruit found in the high desert of far West Texas. MRT: How does it feel to have been acquired by Diageo? BROWN: As we thought about this partnership, it was important to me that we preserve the roots of the brand. They believed in our vision from our first meeting and have provided us with the resources and infrastructure to grow beyond what we couldve ever done ourselves. MRT: Will the distribution of Ranch Water expand under Diageo? If so, where will Ranch Water start being available? BROWN: Our first priority is working to expand our footprint. We are working to bring Lone River Ranch Water to a bigger audience across the US as soon as we can. MRT: Youre still involved with operations, but are there any other goals or dreams you would like to begin? BROWN: Yes, this was imperative to me in the partnership that I have the opportunity to fulfill the full vision for the brand. Im looking forward to telling our humble story on a grander scale as we look to expand. MRT: Do you have any other plans going forward? BROWN: We are working on our next Lone River product going beyond the Ranch Water family that I cant wait to share. LONDON (AP) Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, sentenced to life for war crimes and genocide, will serve his sentence in a U.K. prison, the British government said Wednesday. Karadzic, 75, is one of the chief architects of the slaughter and devastation of Bosnias 1992-95 war. He was convicted by a U.N. court in 2016 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for atrocities including the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb troops at Srebrenica. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, later increased to life by appeals judges at the court in The Hague. He is currently in the courts detention unit, but will be moved to an unspecified U.K. prison. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Karadzic was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians. We should take pride in the fact that, from U.K. support to secure his arrest, to the prison cell he now faces, Britain has supported the 30-year pursuit of justice for these heinous crimes, Raab said. The conflict in Bosnia was Europes bloodiest since World War II, leaving 100,000 dead and millions homeless. Karadzic has always argued that the Bosnian Serb campaigns during the war, which included the bloody siege of the capital, Sarajevo, were aimed at defending Serbs. After his indictment by the tribunal in The Hague, Karadzic remained at large for years before he was arrested in Serbia in 2008, disguised as a new-age therapist. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands convicted scores of people involved in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, with the inmates sent to several European countries to serve their sentences. The tribunal has since been disbanded and replaced by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which deals with cases and legal issues left over from U.N. courts that prosecuted crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The mechanism's president, Judge Carmel Agius, issued a written order Wednesday instructing court officials to take all necessary measures to facilitate Karadzics transfer to the United Kingdom as expeditiously as possible. COVID-19 testing information for west-central Illinois counties: Morgan County Jacksonville Days and times: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Location: Drive-through testing site located at Dunlap Court and Morgan Street. Details: No appointment necessary. Photo ID and insurance card requested but not required. Brown County Mount Sterling Days and times: By appointment. Location: Brown County Health Department, 120 E. Main St. 217-773-2714 Details: Testing eligibility determined by telephone screening. Cass County Beardstown Days and times: Monday-Friday 9-11:20 a.m. Location: Cass County Health Department, 8590 St. Lukes Drive. 217-323-2182 Virginia Days and times: Monday-Friday 1-3 p.m. Location: Cass County Health Department, 331 S. Main St. 217-452-3057 Details: Testing by appointment only and is limited to those who live or work in Cass County. Schedules subject to change. Greene County Carrollton Days and times: By appointment. Open seven days a week. Location: Boyd Rural Health Clinic, 800 School St. 217-942-3600 Details: Testing performed if medically indicated, pre-op with doctors order, or return to work. Must call and leave message with name and callback number. Jersey County Jerseyville Days and times: By appointment. Location: Jerseyville Community Hospital Walk-in Clinic, 903 S. State St. 618-498-2273 Details: Testing performed if medically indicated. Macoupin County Gillespie Days and times: By appointment. Location: Maple Street Clinic, 109 E. Maple St. 217-313-5078 Details: Drive-through free testing. Register by phone or online at mcphd.net. Pike County Pittsfield Days and times: By appointment. Location: Quincy Medical Group, 320 N. Madison St. 217-277-4001 Details: Testing performed if medically indicated. . Days and times: Monday-Saturday 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Location: Illini Express Clinic, 101 E. Washington St. 217-277-3504 Details: Testing performed if medically indicated. Register upon arrival. Scott County Winchester: Days and times: Mondays and Fridays 9-11 a.m. Location: Scott County Health Department, 335 W. Cherry St. Details: Schedule subject to change. See Facebook page for updates. Washington is in the process of spending more than $6 trillion to rescue an economy that doesnt need rescuing. A look at U.S. economic data shows just how insane this spending plan is. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed in March, was marketed primarily as economic stimulus. The Washington Post dubbed it among the largest economic stimulus packages in U.S. history. The White House touts the American Jobs Plan, which it says will cost $2.3 trillion, as necessary to re-imagine and rebuild a new economy. The White House says the American Families Plan, with a touted price tag of $1.8 trillion, is needed to build a stronger economy. No one in the White House, or congressional leadership, seems to have noticed that the economy is growing faster than a politician can run to a TV camera. This economy isnt coming back. It is back, Tom Gimbel, founder and CEO of LaSalle Network, a Chicago-based recruitment firm, told CNBC in April. I tell you this is the most optimistic job market Ive ever seen. The only thing that causes it not to be great is COVID. Rather than a shortage of jobs, the United States has millions of unfilled openings. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 7.3 million job openings in February. Openings for February 2020 were 7 million. The month before Congress passed President Joe Bidens first proposed stimulus bill, the economy already had more job openings than before the pandemic hit. The low point in new job postings was in May 2020. Since then, hiring has exploded to the point that April ended with almost 50% more new job listings than in February 2020, before the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Linked In and reported by CNN Business. U.S. GDP grew by a seasonally adjusted 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021. That left the worlds largest economy within 1% of its peak, reached in late 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic hit, The Wall Street Journal reported on April 30. The economy was already recovered before Biden and the Democratic-controlled Congress passed the first of their three-part, $6 trillion economic rescue package. The primary weakness in the economy is not hiring or investment, but labor market participation. Desperate to fill more than 7 million job openings, businesses are raising wages, holding job fairs, offering signing bonuses. Restaurants in Florida are offering signing bonuses of up to $400 just to attract workers. An upstate New York supermarket chain is offering signing bonuses of $2,000 for sanitation staff and $2,500 for drivers. Were desperately trying to get people. Its at the point where there are no applicants, which is unbelievable, a Pennsylvania home improvement store owner told The Philadelphia Inquirer. Hes offering $15 an hour plus benefits. A May analysis by Bank of America calculated that 4.6 million Americans left the labor force because of the pandemic, but projected that only half will return by years end. Fear of catching COVID, and the ability to rely on extended federal Unemployment Insurance payments, were the top two reasons millions wont return to work this year, according to the banks economists. Our estimates suggest that those who previously made less than $32,000 would be better off in the near term to collect UI benefits than work, they reported. The Biden administration asserts flooding the economy with federal taxpayer money will stimulate growth. But studies of Bidens plans by the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School of Business concluded any short-term stimulus effects will wear off and then be outweighed by the negative effects of government spending fueled by higher debt and taxes. The Penn Wharton Business Model analysis of the American Rescue Plan concluded that it would add to the already large federal deficit, and decrease GDP by 0.2% in 2022 and 0.3% in 2040. The relief package will do little for job growth because the economy is already operating at near full employment, it noted. In sum, Washington plans to spend more than the entire federal budget (which is roughly $6.5 trillion) to rescue an economy that is already recovered, with the ultimate effect that the rescue will shrink the economy in the long run. In technical parlance, the word for this is insane. Andrew Cline is president of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank in New Hampshire. He wrote this for InsideSources. Intratrek was suing ZPC when it applied for a declaration confirming that the contract for the Gwanda Solar Project was valid, coupled with an order for specific performance. In default of that order it wanted US$25 million in damages. The validity order was granted by the High Court. High Court judge, Justice Tawanda Chitapi, absolved Intratrek of any wrong doing or causing delays in the implementation of the project and declared the contract valid, extant and enforceable. But the Supreme Court, allowing ZPCs appeal, said the two parties should have first argued the matter in court. It is clear that this was a case incapable of resolution without going to trial to determine the merits on the basis of viva voce evidence, said Justice Chinembiri Bhunu writing the judgment for the court. But Intratrek chairman Mr Wilson Manase said after the Supreme Court judgment that the dispute had been resolved through negotiation and so the judgment was academic. He said that the Government still wanted a solar component in the generation mix for environmental reasons and had authorised negotiations. After Cabinet Approval of the project last year in June Intratrek and ZPC have since negotiated and finalised a revised amended and restated contract which is ready for signature immediately. We await ZPC to obtain board approval so we proceed to sign the contract and subsequently implement the first phase. Mr Manase said Zimbabwe had endured close to two decades of power shortages. As part of the revised contract we agreed to withdraw all pending litigation and focus on achieving 10 MW in 6 months after the contract and all security for payments agreements have been signed and all approvals from Ministry of Finance accomplished, said Mr Manase. In the courts ruling, Justice Bhunu also noted that the country was facing a critical shortage of electricity, a vital necessity for the socio-economic wellbeing of the citizenry and the nation at large. He said the two parties who turned protagonist were entrusted with improving the availability of the scarce resource in Gwanda. However, the parties had been embroiled in perpetual contractual disputes for more than five years without meaningful progress towards achieving the intended objective. It is therefore, of utmost importance that their contractual disputes must be resolved expeditiously for the common good, said Justice Bhunu. ZPC and Intratrek had signed $172 million agreement for the construction of the Gwanda solar project as part of Government efforts to address crippling power shortages. ZPC claimed the contract failed to meet conditions within the agreed period of 24 months. However, Intratrek filed a lawsuit disputing the claims and making a counter claim that ZPC, as contractor, had frustrated implementation of the project, hence breached the contract. Herald Sao Paulo authorities plead with China to release vaccines View Photo SAO PAULO (AP) Authorities in Brazils most populous state on Wednesday said they have mobilized to try to convince the Chinese government to authorize the export of raw material to make millions of COVID-19 vaccines needed amid a sudden shortage. The South American nation is highly dependent on a shot made by pharmaceutical company Sinovac for its immunization efforts, and in recent weeks several Brazilian cities have either suspended or delayed vaccinations due to faltering supplies. The factory that produces the vaccine locally, at Sao Paulos state-run Butantan Institute, has slowed production due to lack of raw material, and Brazils President Jair Bolsonaro and his economy minister, Paulo Guedes, made statements critical of China this month. Sao Paulos Gov. Joao Doria an adversary of Bolsonaros implied their comments may have created the bottleneck. Hours after speaking to Chinas ambassador to Brazil, Doria said in a press conference that Bolsonaro and Guedes should apologize to the Asian nation for their recent comments so China can resume exports. He (Chinese ambassador Yang Wanming) told me he will talk to Chinas ministry of foreign affairs tomorrow to renew his appeal to release the raw material that is ready at the Sinovac laboratory, Doria said. That raw material is ready and available in refrigerated containers, just waiting for the authorization of the Chinese government. Doria added there was risk of a halt in immunization efforts if about 10,000 liters of raw material stuck in China enough to bottle 18 million shots doesnt arrive soon. The Chinese embassy in the capital Brasilia, when contacted by the AP, didnt confirm the call with Gov. Doria took place. Dimas Covas, the head of the Butantan Institute, also said on Wednesday he had called Brazils ambassador to China, Paulo Mesquita, to ask him to step up the pressure on Beijing. He added that a representative of Sao Paulos state government who had been based in Shanghai moved to the Chinese capital one week ago to bolster their efforts. Bolsonaro suggested on May 5 that China had benefited economically during the pandemic and echoed a conspiracy theory that the disease may have been created in a laboratory, without providing evidence. It is a new virus, nobody knows if it was born in a laboratory or by some human being that ate an inadequate animal. But it is there. The military knows what chemical, bacteriological and radiologic war is. Arent we facing a new war? Bolsonaro said during an event at the presidential palace. Which country grew its GDP the most? I wont tell you. Later that day, the Brazilian president denied that he had been referring to China and blamed the media for the blowback. A few days earlier, Economy Minister Guedes said during a live feed of a meeting with the nations health minister that the Chinese invented COVID-19. How can they attack those who supply us with raw materials and vaccines to save Brazils population? Doria said at the press conference. The AstraZeneca vaccine, the only other that Brazil has so far used on a massive scale, also depends on raw material imported from China. Only 7.3% of the countrys population has been fully vaccinated against the disease, according to Our World in Data, an online research site. More than 420,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19. Brazils foreign relations ministry said in a statement Tuesday night it is permanently following the process of authorization of raw materials export. It added that foreign minister Carlos Franca has recently spoken with Chinas foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, seeking more cooperation in the fight against the pandemic (Chinese authorities) reiterated that possible delays are not intentional, given that China is exporting raw material to several countries, which brings an extensive demand and overload both in the fabrication of vaccines and ingredients and in bureaucratic procedures, the foreign relations ministry said in an emailed response to questions. ____ AP reporter Marcelo Sousa contributed to this report from Rio de Janeiro. By MAURICIO SAVARESE Associated Press Ukraine charges Putin ally Medvedchuk with treason View Photo KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine has indicted a top opposition figure who is a close ally of Russias president with treason and attempts to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea. Along with the Tuesday indictment of Viktor Medvedchuk, security service agents also searched his house in the capital Kyiv. Prosecutor-General Irina Venediktova said that charges under several articles were brought against Medvedchuk business partner Taras Kozak. The charges carry potential sentences of up to 15 years. Medvedchuk is accused of transferring oil and gas production licenses from one of the fields in Crimea to Russian authorities; Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Medvedchuk, as the organizer of illegal activities, having strong ties with the top leadership of the Russian Federation, began subversive activities against Ukraine, including in the economic sphere, Venediktova said at a briefing. Medvedchuk is also charged with disclosing secret data on the deployment of Ukrainian military units last year. The 66-year-old heads the political council of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform For Life. It is the largest opposition group in the parliament, with 44 of the 450 seats. He has close personal ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuks daughter. The new charges are part of a broader campaign against Medvedchuk launched by authorities in February, when his financial assets were frozen for three years. In February, authorities also shut down three pro-Russian TV channels, 112, Zik and NewsOne, which Medvedchuk controlled. His party called the new charges against Medvedchuk an open and cynical political reprisal. Amazon wins EU court fight over $300 million tax ruling View Photo BRUSSELS (AP) In the latest setback to European Union efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance, a court on Wednesday annulled a ruling by the European Commission that a tax deal between Amazon and Luxembourgs government amounted to illegal state support. The EUs executive branch ordered the U.S. online retailer in 2017 to pay around 250 million euros ($300 million) in back taxes to Luxembourg. But judges at the EUs General Court said the European Commission didnt prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group. Amazon said it welcomed the courts decision, which is in line with our long-standing position that we followed all applicable laws and that Amazon received no special treatment, the company said in a statement. Were pleased that the Court has made this clear, and we can continue to focus on delivering for our customers across Europe. The European Commissions decision related to Luxembourgs tax treatment of two companies in the Amazon group: Amazon EU and Amazon Europe Holding Technologies. Margrethe Vestager, the EU official in charge of antitrust issues, argued at the time that Amazon had unfairly profited from special low tax conditions since 2003 in tiny Luxembourg, where its European headquarters are based. As a result, almost three quarters of Amazons profits in the EU were not taxed, she said. We will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps, Vestager said in a statement. Both Luxembourg and Amazon challenged the decision with the EUs General Court. The EU has taken aim at deals concluded between individual countries and companies used to lure foreign multinationals in search of a place to establish their EU headquarters. The practice led to EU states competing with each other and multinationals playing them off one another. Judges at the General Court have backed the European Commission in several cases, but the EUs efforts to crack down on favorable tax deals suffered recent setbacks in cases involving Starbucks and Apple. Wednesdays ruling can be appealed to the 27-nation blocs highest court, the European Court of Justice. The EU remains at odds with Amazon on other issues relating to competition. Last year, EU regulators filed antitrust charges against the e-commerce company, accusing Amazon of using its access to data from companies that sell products on its platform to gain an unfair advantage over them. In another judgment Wednesday, the General Court found the existence of a tax advantage in rulings granted by Luxembourg to companies in the Engie group, a French multinational electric utility company. Three years ago, the European Commission had found that Luxembourg allowed two Engie group companies to avoid paying taxes on almost all their profits for about a decade and said the country should recover about 120 million euros in unpaid tax. The Luxembourg government welcomed the Amazon decision and said in a statement that neither ruling calls into question the countrys commitment to transparency in tax matters and the fight against tax avoidance practices. ___ Kelvin Chan contributed to this story from London. By SAMUEL PETREQUIN Associated Press Bosnian Serb ex-leader Karadzic to spend life in UK prison View Photo LONDON (AP) Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, sentenced to life for war crimes and genocide, will serve his sentence in a U.K. prison, the British government said Wednesday. Karadzic, 75, is one of the chief architects of the slaughter and devastation of Bosnias 1992-95 war. He was convicted by a U.N. court in 2016 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for atrocities including the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb troops at Srebrenica. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, later increased to life by appeals judges at the court in The Hague. He is currently in the courts detention unit, but will be moved to an unspecified U.K. prison. British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said Karadzic was responsible for the massacre of men, women and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians. We should take pride in the fact that, from U.K. support to secure his arrest, to the prison cell he now faces, Britain has supported the 30-year pursuit of justice for these heinous crimes, Raab said. The conflict in Bosnia was Europes bloodiest since World War II, leaving 100,000 dead and millions homeless. Karadzic has always argued that the Bosnian Serb campaigns during the war, which included the bloody siege of the capital, Sarajevo, were aimed at defending Serbs. After his indictment by the tribunal in The Hague, Karadzic remained at large for years before he was arrested in Serbia in 2008, disguised as a new-age therapist. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands convicted scores of people involved in the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, with the inmates sent to several European countries to serve their sentences. The tribunal has since been disbanded and replaced by the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals, which deals with cases and legal issues left over from U.N. courts that prosecuted crimes in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The mechanisms president, Judge Carmel Agius, issued a written order Wednesday instructing court officials to take all necessary measures to facilitate Karadzics transfer to the United Kingdom as expeditiously as possible. Newsom Hoping To Turn More Buildings Into Housing For Homeless Sacramento, CA Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a $12-billion plan aimed at helping the estimated 161,000 homeless residents in the state. It includes using $8.75 billion to convert buildings into 46,000 housing units. It is similar to a strategy initiated during the COVID-19 pandemic, referred to as Project Homekey, which transformed old hotels into homeless housing. Newsom says, Within a year, Homekey did more to address the homelessness and affordable housing crisis than anything thats been done in decades and became a national model. Now is the time to double down on these successful efforts. Additional funding would also be used to improve housing placement services. The homeless element is the latest announcement regarding Newsoms $100-billion Californias Comeback plan. As part of it, we earlier reported that Newsom is also proposing that those making under $75,000 receive a $600 stimulus payment. Washington, DC Mother Lode Congressman Tom McClintock weighed in about the removal of Liz Cheney from the House Republican leadership ranks. Cheney, a Congresswoman from Wyoming, was third in command among the House Republicans. A critic of former President Donald Trump, she was relieved of her leadership duties during a closed-door meeting of fellow GOP House members. Minutes before the vote, McClintock did an interview with the non-profit CSPAN, and shared his displeasure with Cheney. He said, A leader has to put their personal interests and biases aside when they are speaking for the Republican Conference, and she has always been unwilling to do that. It is widely believed that New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is the frontrunner to replace Cheney in the leadership post. McClintock added that he feels Stefanik is one of the more liberal members of the party and would rather see someone more conservative like Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio step into the role. While Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, will not be serving in a leadership role in the House, she is still planning to run for re-election next year. The Latest: Netanyahu raps anarchy of Jewish-Arab fighting View Photo JERUSALEM (AP) The Latest on confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians as Israel signals a widening military campaign: ___ JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is condemning the anarchy of Jewish-Arab violence in cities across the country after a day of tumultuous unrest. Netanyahu said Wednesday that nothing justifies Jews attacking Arabs or Arabs attacking Jews. He vows to restore order after two days of violence unchecked by police. In his words: It doesnt matter to me that your blood is boiling. You cant take the law in your hands. Shortly after he spoke, police reported two people injured in a shooting in the restive city of Lod. Despite large police mobilization under a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew, Lod was the scene of street battles between Jewish and Arab mobs Wednesday night. ___ WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden says that Israel has a right to defend itself amid a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups from Gaza. Biden says he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the dayslong outbreak of violence that has killed dozens. Says Biden: My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later. He adds, Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory. Israel escalated its air campaign in Gaza on Wednesday, killing a string of senior Hamas military figures as it hammered the Gaza Strip with airstrikes. Militants in the territory fired rocket barrages into Israel. ___ MOSCOW Russia is calling for a quick meeting of international mediators to help defuse the spiraling Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says it is necessary to call an urgent meeting of the so-called Quartet of mediators, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Lavrov made the statement after talking Wednesday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Lavrov says a quick ministerial meeting of the Quartet is the most acute task now. He voices hope that Guterres can help convene such a meeting. Guterres says we are totally committed to revitalizing the Quartet. ___ UNITED NATIONS The U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees has condemned in the strongest possible terms the killing of four children the previous day in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. UNRWA says the children two siblings and two cousins were killed near the refugee camp of Beit Hanoun. It says they were under the age of 12 and went to schools in the territory sponsored by the agency. Wednesdays statement says: Our hearts go out to their families and friends in communities that have been so cruelly affected by this latest escalation. UNRWA provides critical services to more than 1.4 million Palestine refugees in Gaza and delivers education to some 285,000 Palestine refugee students there. The statement also repeated profound concern regarding the impact of the military escalation on children by placing their lives and futures at risk. The escalation between Israel and Gaza this week has killed 65 Palestinians in Gaza, including 16 children and five women. Seven people have been killed on the Israeli side by rocket fire from Gaza, including a 6-year old and an Israeli soldier, the first military death in this round of conflict. ___ TEL AVIV, Israel A large crowd of ultranationalist Israelis have attacked a car in a Tel Aviv suburb they suspected was driven by an Arab, dragging the driver out of the car and beating him. A video from the scene on Wednesday shows the driver trying to maneuver the vehicle to flee the scene but colliding into two other vehicles. He is then pulled from the vehicle and beaten. TV footage from the scene showed the driver motionless on the ground. A doctor at Tel Avivs Ichilov hospital says the driver is hospitalized with serious injuries. Dr. Eyal Hashiva told reporters he suffered major trauma to his entire body but was in stable condition. However, the suburb of Bat Yams Deputy Mayor Eyal Yariv told Channel 12 that police did not respond to city halls calls for assistance. Police said they deployed forces along the citys border with Jaffa to prevent the mob from entering the Arab neighborhood. Violent unrest has involved Jewish and Arab throngs in Lod, Acre, and Tiberias since the latest escalation between Israel and the Palestinians erupted this week. Also on Wednesday, a crowd of around 100 Jewish protesters marched down Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem, chanting death to Arabs. And in the northern city of Acre, an Arab mob attacked and critically injured a Jewish man. Paramedics said the ambulance was also attacked by the crowd en route to a hospital. ___ UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Mideast envoy has told the Security Council the current violence is the most serious escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in years. Diplomats say Tor Wennesland is worried it could erupt into a civil war. He briefed the council on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time in three days on the deteriorating situation on the ground but the U.N.s most powerful body again took no action. Diplomats said China, Tunisia and Norway, who called the meeting, wanted the council to issue a press statement but the United States objected. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the consultations were private. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Wennesland expressed concern over the growing number of civilian casualties in both Gaza and Israel, and sadness at the death of children in Gaza. Dujarric said the U.N. chief, Antonio Guterres, and Wennesland have both reiterated that indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars from highly populated civilian neighborhoods towards civilian population centers violates international humanitarian law. Wennesland recognizes Israels legitimate security concerns but reiterated that Israeli security forces should exercise maximum restraint, calibrate their use of force to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations. Four European council members France, Estonia, Ireland and Norway issued a statement after the council meeting urgently calling on both sides to de-escalate tensions, end violence and show the utmost restraint. They condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and called civilian casualties on both sides worrying and unacceptable. Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations ___ WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm Americas support for Israels right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. Blinken spoke on Wednesday with the Israeli leader. The State Department said he also repeated U.S. calls for a de-escalation of violence and the Biden administrations belief that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in safety and security. Blinken announced earlier he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to make similar appeals in person to Israeli and Palestinian officials. He also said that Israel had an extra burden to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to the attacks. According to the State Department, Blinken also told Netanyahu that as he and President Joe Biden have said in the past, the administration believes Israelis and Palestinians should enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy. ___ GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israeli fighter jets have dropped two bombs on a 14-story building in Gaza City and destroyed it. The building housed businesses as well as offices for Hamas Al-Aqsa satellite TV channel. It was located in the old Roman neighborhood, on the busiest shopping street in Gaza. Hamas says it has fired 130 rockets toward Israel in response for the attack on Wednesday. The Israeli airstrike was the latest in a series of assaults on targets in the Gaza Strip after a long dispute between Israel and Hamas erupted into an exchange of rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli retaliation. The building is the third multistory structure that Israeli aircraft have hit directly, reducing two to rubble. The third is still standing but in irreparable condition. - WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel bears an extra burden to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to rocket attacks from Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Blinken says Israel has an absolute right to defend itself and its citizens from militant attacks but that it must take all possible steps to protect innocent Palestinians. He said on Wednesday that Israel should do everything it possibly can to avoid civilian casualties even as it is rightfully responding in defense of its people. Blinken made the comments after announcing that he is sending a senior U.S. diplomat to the Middle East to press Israeli and Palestinians officials both to de-escalate the tensions and violence that now verge on war. Blinken condemned the Hamas rocket attacks and stressed that both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to live in peace and security. ___ WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says hes sending a senior American diplomat to the Middle East to urge Israeli and Palestinian officials to de-escalate the conflict threatening to erupt into a new war. Blinken told reporters on Wednesday he had instructed Hady Amr, the deputy secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, to travel immediately to the region. The move comes as the situation deteriorates with intensified rocket attacks on Israel from Hamas militants and Israeli retaliation. Amr is the most senior U.S. diplomat tasked with the matter. He served as deputy Middle East peace envoy during the Obama administration. Blinken did not say who Amr would meet with or how long his mission would last. The Biden administration has been criticized by both sides as well as by lawmakers for not doing enough to try to stop the violence. Blinken said the administration is very focused on the matter and remains committed to a two-state resolution to end the decades-long conflict. ___ JERUSALEM Israeli police are imposing a nighttime curfew on a central city that was the scene of unrest in recent days. Police said in a statement on Wednesday that officers would enforce the ban on people entering the city of Lod, residents leaving their homes, and people in public spaces starting at 8 p.m. Lod has seen two nights of violent protests, including the torching of dozens of vehicles, a synagogue, and violent clashes between Arab protesters and police. Israeli authorities declared a state of emergency in the city and deployed Border Police forces. ___ BELGRADE, Serbia Dozens of Palestinians living in Belgrade have staged a protest in the Serbian capital over an escalation in fighting in the Gaza Strip in recent days. The protesters on Wednesday gathered at Belgrades Republic Square to draw public attention to the conflict that has surged after weeks of violence in Jerusalem. The protesters carried banners reading Gaza needs our voices now, and, Freedom! The latest Mideast fighting is rooted in a long dispute over contested Jerusalem. After Hamas rained rockets inside Israel on Monday, the conflict suddenly erupted and now increasingly resembles the 2014 Gaza war. ___ GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Palestinian militant group Hamas has confirmed that its Gaza City commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday. Bassem Issa was the highest-ranking military figure in Hamas to be killed Israel since 2014. Wednesdays statement was the first time Hamas acknowledged the death of militants in this round of fighting with Israel. The armed wing of Hamas said Issa was killed along with a few of his fellow brothers of leaders and holy fighters during the fighting that has been going on for two days in Gaza. Israels internal security agency said a series of airstrikes had killed Issa and several other senior Hamas militants, including the head of rocket development and cyber warfare, the head of rocket production, and the Hamas engineering chief. Issa and several other commanders responsible for the different districts of the Gaza Strip formed Hamas military council, the highest body deciding on the groups militant operations. The military council is headed by Mohammed Deif. ___ LONDON Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions between Israel and Hamas amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Johnson tweeted on Wednesday that the United Kingdom is deeply concerned and urged leaders to step back from the brink. He was one of many leaders around the world offering up advice after longtime tensions in contested Jerusalem erupted into rocket-fire from the Gaza Strip and an intense response from Israel. British Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly told Parliament that Britain unequivocally condemns the firing of rockets at Jerusalem and other locations in Israel. He called Hamas conduct terrorism and called on militants to end their incitement and rocket fire against Israel. Cleverly said Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense, but added that in doing so, it is vital that all actions are proportionate, in line with international humanitarian law and make every effort to avoid civilian casualties. ___ JERUSALEM Israels firefighting service says it has almost completely extinguished a blaze at a petroleum facility in southern Israel that was set alight by a rocket fired by Hamas militants. The rocket landed Tuesday night near a Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures Ltd. facility south of Ashkelon during a major barrage by Gaza militants. The result was a massive fire in a storage tank that blazed through the night and into Wednesday. Israel Fire and Rescue Services said that 20 teams have been working for 25 hours to extinguish the inferno that issued a column of thick black smoke. Israeli state-owned Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures said the fuel had been transferred to another storage facility. On Wednesday, the plume of smoke was still rising over Ashkelon. Israeli health and environment officials have instructed residents of the area to avoid prolonged periods outdoors. ___ JERUSALEM Israels president says the countrys Arab leaders are giving support to terrorism and rioting by staying quiet about an outbreak unrest in mixed communities. Reuven Rivlin said on Wednesday that the silence of the Arab leadership over violence in mixed Jewish-Arab communities amounts to encouraging the rupture of the society amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Rivlin says Israel must pursue the rioters with a firm hand (to) restore security and order to all of us, also while fighting terrorism from Gaza without compromise. The unrest that began at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem has spread across Israel itself. It comes after Hamas called for a full-scale Palestinian intifada, or uprising. In the Israeli city of Lod, a 52-year-old Arab Israeli and his 16-year-old daughter were killed early Wednesday when a rocket landed in the courtyard of their one-story home. Lod also saw heavy clashes after thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man who was killed the previous night, the suspect a Jewish gunman. Israeli media reported that the crowd fought with police, and set a synagogue and some 30 vehicles on fire. ___ JERUSALEM The Israeli military says it has killed several senior Hamas militant commanders in airstrikes in Gaza and Khan Younis. The army released a statement on Wednesday, saying that it carried out a complex and first-of-its-kind operation. Those targeted, it said, were a key part of the Hamas General Staff and considered close to the head of the groups military wing. Hamas had no comment. ___ JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will use an iron fist if needed to stop widespread protests by Arab citizens that have resulted in injuries, arrests, and property damage. Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will stop the anarchy after deploying Border Police forces to calm unrest in recent days in the cities of Lod and Acre. The mounting unrest comes after weeks of violence in Jerusalem and heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in recent days. The fighting is rooted in a long dispute over contested Jerusalem. After Hamas rained rockets inside Israel on Monday, the conflict suddenly erupted and increasingly resembles the 2014 Gaza war. Netayahu says Israel will stop the anarchy and restore governance to the cities of Israel, with an iron fist if needed, with all forces needed and all authorities required. ___ BERLIN Germany is standing by Israel during the most intense fighting since the 2014 Gaza war. Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht on Wednesday condemned the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, saying Germany is standing strongly on the side of Israel. She called for the attacks on Israel to stop, adding that Israel has the right to protect itself. Lambrecht also denounced anti-Semitic acts near synagogues in Germany. She said a spate of Israeli flag-burning and other acts at a time of agony for Israel shows nothing but horrible disrespect for human dignity. German news agency dpa reported that police stopped 13 suspects late Tuesday in the western city of Muenster near a synagogue after an Israeli flag was burned there. Police said that in the western city of Bonn, several people damaged the entrance of a synagogue with stones. Investigators found a burned flag there as well. And in nearby Duesseldorf, somebody burned garbage on top of a memorial for a former synagogue. The justice minister vowed that the perpetrators must be found and held responsible and Jewish institutions must be protected thoroughly. ___ ANKARA, Turkey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the international community should give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson over its conduct toward the Palestinians. Thats according to the Turkish Presidential Communications Directorate, which said the two leaders talked by phone on Wednesday about the escalating confrontation sparked by tension over contested Jerusalem. The statement said Erdogan stressed the need for the international community to give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson and pressed for the U.N. Security Council to rapidly intervene with determined and clear messages to Israel. The statement said Erdogan suggested to Putin that an international protection force to shield the Palestinians should be considered. Meanwhile, thousands of people in Istanbul defied a nationwide coronavirus curfew late on Tuesday to demonstrate against Israels attacks. A large convoy of cars drove toward the Israeli Consulate, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags. An image of the Palestinian and Turkish flags was projected onto the Israeli building. ___ ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistan has condemned Israels actions and called for Muslim nations to stand by the Palestinians. Prime Minister Imran Khan took to Twitter, saying: We stand with Gaza and Palestine. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi meanwhile urged Muslim nations to unite over Israels strikes on Palestinian civilian areas. Protesters are expected to hold a small anti-Israel rally later today in the southern city of Karachi. ___ GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The Gaza Health Ministry says the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has climbed to 43, including 13 children and three women. It says nearly 300 Palestinians in the territory have been wounded in the strikes. The strikes began on Monday after Palestinians launched a barrage of rockets into Israel. The worst fighting since the 2014 Gaza war was ignited by clashes in Jerusalem in recent weeks between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police focused on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims. The head of Israels emergency service also says one person has been killed and one seriously wounded by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip. ___ JERUSALEM The head of Israels emergency service says one person has been killed and one seriously wounded by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip. Eli Bein of Magen David Adom said the Wednesday morning attack hit a jeep. Israeli media reported the assault. The attack came after a night of deadly exchanges of rocket fire between Israel and Palestinians. It was an abrupt escalation of weeks of tension with roots in disputed Jerusalem. By The Associated Press 2 Texas deputies killed, city worker wounded in attack View Photo EDEN, Texas (AP) A man shot two West Texas sheriffs deputies dead and critically wounded a city employee answering a dog complaint, authorities said Tuesday. Sgt. Justin Baker of the Texas Department of Public Safety said the suspect was taken into custody after Monday nights attack in Eden, a town of about 1,300 people roughly 210 miles (338 kilometers) southwest of Dallas. Jeffrey Nicholas, 28, has been booked into Tom Green County Jail in nearby San Angelo with a bond set at $4 million and charged with capital murder of a peace officer. No attorney for Nicholas was listed in jail records. The two Concho County sheriffs deputies and a city employee arrived at the home shortly after 8:40 p.m., Baker said. While making contact with people at the residence, an altercation occurred and quickly escalated to gunfire, he said. The Lubbock Police Department said in a statement that it was heartbroken to learn of the deaths and that its officers on Tuesday would escort the deputies bodies to a forensics lab in Lubbock, which is about 200 miles (322 kilometers) northwest of Eden. Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement that our hearts are broken. This terrible loss is a solemn reminder of the risks our brave law enforcement officers face while protecting our communities, Abbott said. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A California lawmaker is calling for the states new fully online community college to be shut down after an audit found that just 12 of its 900-plus students graduated in its first year and more than 40% dropped out, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The findings about Calbright College were reported to the Legislature by state Auditor Elaine Howle on Tuesday. Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, who asked for the audit at the request of community college faculty leaders, said Calbright has failed. The Legislature must end the Calbright College experiment, Medina said in a statement. Medina and Assemblyman Evan Low, D-San Jose, are carrying a bill that would eliminate the school at the end of the 2022-23 academic year. Calbright opened in 2019, paid its executives more than any other California community college and is expected to receive more than $175 million in taxpayer funds through 2025, the Chronicle said. Howles audit blamed poor management by former executives who never created a spending strategy and that, while most of the high-priced leaders are gone, Calbright has not yet fully addressed excessive salaries. Pamela Haynes, president of Calbrights board of trustees, said in a statement that there were early missteps and necessary changes have been made. DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that his country is ready for closer ties with regional rival Saudi Arabia, adding that he hoped recent talks between the two sides would lead to greater stability in the region. Mohammad Javad Zarif was speaking in Damascus after a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad. Baghdad recently confirmed it hosted Iraq-mediated talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia last month. The talks have occurred more than once, the hosts said, describing the discussions as ongoing, important and significant. Zarif said he hoped they would come to fruition and lead to cooperation between the two rivals to bring more stability and peace to the region, particularly in Yemen. We certainly are ready and have always been ready for close ties with Saudi Arabia, Zarif told reporters in Damascus, speaking in English. Tehran and Riyadh have long been rivals and support opposite sides in Yemen, Syria and elsewhere in the region. Relations worsened considerably in 2016, when Riyadh removed its diplomats after protesters attacked its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad in retaliation for the kingdom executing a prominent Shiite cleric, Nimr al-Nimr. In Syria's civil war, Riyadh has supported the Syrian opposition while Tehran backed Assad's forces in the 10-year conflict. Asked if the Iran-Saudi talks would lead to improved relations between Damascus and Riyadh, Zarif said: I am sure our Syrian brothers have always welcomed cooperation in the Arab world. And we are also in that mood. Panusaya is part of the student-led pro-democracy movement, other members of which are also waiting to be tried on charges of lese majeste defaming the monarchy. If convicted on the charge, those activists face up to 15 years behind bars. WEST BATH, Maine (AP) A 2-year-old boy in Maine shot and wounded his parents Wednesday after discovering a handgun on a nightstand, police said. The 22-year-old mother was hit in the leg, the 25-year-old father suffered a minor head injury and the boy was injured by the recoil of the weapon when a single shot was fired, Sagadahoc County Sheriff Joel Merry said. All three went to the hospital. Hailey Cruz has read at least 30 books since January. Shes read at least 80 throughout this entire school year. On Monday, the Highland Elementary second grader got to take home a blue Huffy Seastar bicycle adorned with hearts, silver tassels, a white seat and pink handlebars. The bike was a prize for reaching her reading goal, said Amanda Gwin, district librarian for Plainview Independent School District. Cruz is one of several students across the district to receive prizes for reaching their reading goals for the spring semester. Gwin launched the reading goal program this year her first with the district after the Christmas holiday break as a way to encourage kids to read for fun. She came to Plainview from a district in Dallas where this program successfully encouraged students to read. Shes happy to see its working in Plainview, too. Its not about taking a test, Gwin said Monday. Participation is voluntary. A couple of hundred students across the district participated. The challenge was open to all grade levels. Students were given the choice to measure progress by pages, by the number of books or by minutes. They could read picture books, count books that were read to them, listen to audio books or pick up a hard copy. It didnt matter, Gwin explained, she just wants the kids to read. If a student wants to read for fun, they do better in school, she said. If theyre passionate about something, why not read about it? Cruz chose to read 30 books. The challenge deadline was May 1 and shes probably read a couple more since then. Asked if she participated in her campus reading challenge in the fall, Cruz told Gwin she did. That challenge encouraged Cruz to read 50 books, which she did. Students who completed their challenge had their names submitted for prize drawings, which is how Cruz won her new bike. Prizes included bikes, a record player, an InstaCamera, bluetooth headphones, a Harry Potter book set and other items. Gwin hopes the challenge encourages the kids to learn to love getting lost in a book. She also hopes the students will continue reading through the summer. She noted that they will have access to free ebooks and audiobooks through soraapp.com. Those interested can use a computer, tablet or mobile phone device to log into the app, search their school and use their school login information. You can sample a book before borrowing it. Just before Cruz went back to rejoin her class, Gwin said she hoped shed enjoy her new bike. I think I will a lot, Cruz said. Its been said countless times that the year 2020 was extraordinary. COVID-19 imposed challenges and necessary changes to every aspect of life and every industry. For several months, information moved rather fluidly between the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) before moving down to the state and local levels. On Friday, two local individuals were recognized with the Chamber of Commerces highest honors for the efforts they made to help others during several months of unpredictable change created by the pandemic. Coralyn Dillard and Dr. Sergio Lara were named Plainviews 2021 Woman and Man of the Year. Dillard is a 1972 Plainview graduate who returned to her hometown in 1986. Shes maintained an active presence in her church and in various civic organizations including Plainview Rotary around Plainview through the year. She has a passion for helping people and she uses that drive in her current employment role as director of health services for Wayland Baptist University. During the announcement, it was noted that throughout the past year, Dillard worked diligently to tend to WBU students affected by COVID-19 who were far from home. She risked exposure to lend a helping hand with whatever they needed. Thats something those who nominated her were not surprised about. Reading from her notes, 2020 Woman of the Year, Ranada Jack, said of Dillard: She does whatever needs to be done. The registered nurse also went above and beyond to coordinate a drive-through testing site one of the first for Plainview to ensure people had access to tests to COVID-19 tests. Dillard was described as selfless and a servant for God and fellow men and women. Actions during 2020 was the main focus for the honorees Friday night. Dr. Lara, the Hale County health authority, was also praised for his work during the pandemic. This honoree goes beyond whats expected, said Kenneth Cooper, the 2020 Man of the Year honoree. Lara is Chief Medical Officer for Covenant Health Plainview and serves as a health advisor for the county. Throughout the pandemic, he helped the city and county by promoting the latest CDC recommendations and working to raise awareness to slow the spread of COVID-19. It was also noted that Lara was a key player in creating the Covenant Mammogram Foundation that allows more women to be receive mammograms. Cooper read from the nomination submitted by Laras daughter in which she spoke of being proud of his accomplishments. He is not only a great doctor, he is the best husband and father, Cooper read. Laras daughter mentioned in her nomination that she strives to one day be like her father. Upon the announcement of their names, both Lara and Dillard received standing ovations as they made their way to the front of the room where they were presented with special plaques and allowed some time on the microphone. Its a great honor, said Lara, echoing Dillards sentiments. Dillard and Lara join an elite group. Plainviews Men and Women of the Year are chosen annually by former honorees and are traditionally announced during the Chambers annual banquet. These individuals are typically Plainview residents who have shown dedication to their community. Nominations are open to anyone. The Chamber also recognized its Doris McDonald Ambassador of the Year. Chamber ambassadors earn points toward receiving this recognition by attending Chamber functions, like ribbon cuttings. The 2020 honoree was Chris Moore. During the banquet, now-former Chamber Board President Andrea Glenn also handed the reins to David Walker, who will spend one year as the Chambers new president. The "Australian EdTech Mission in Latin America" program , in alliance with the Global Edtech Impact Alliance and supported by EduGrowth, is held from May 3 to 14 and aims to identify business opportunities, accelerate the entry into the Latin market of Edtech companies from Victoria and be part of the educational technology and innovation ecosystem in Latin America. These Australian edtech companies will deliver presentations and pitches to a network of Latin American educational leaders in order to build a local reputation, generate a relevant network of potential partners and clients, and position themselves in the region. The technological platforms they bring cover the following sectors: K12 schools Higher education Business training Professional development Why in Latin America? Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin America had one of the fastest growing higher education enrollment rates in the world. According to The Economist , at the peak of the pandemic in 2020, more than 95% of the 150 million students in the region stayed at home. Therefore, governments, K12 schools, universities and tertiary institutions in the region are intensifying their efforts to ensure the continuity of education delivery, investing in the improvement of their management capacity and online delivery, including, among others, the following technologies: Learning management systems Online teaching, including platform and content development. Learning english language Gamification Online Assessments Training and professional development As venture capital investment in Australia's technology sector has grown dramatically over the past three years, Victoria's educational technology providers are well positioned to be part of the transformation of education in Latin America. . At the end of the mission, an open Webinar called Australia's EdTech and Innovation Showcase will be held . This event is open to all professionals in the education sector interested in learning more about Victoria's Edtech ecosystem. Date and Time Thursday, May 13, 2021 5:00 pm Mexico | 6:00 pm Santiago | 7:00 pm Buenos Aires / Sao Paulo Register for the event here Meet the ten participating companies in this link Copyright 2021 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved The National Rifle Association can't use bankruptcy to reincorporate to gun-friendly Texas from New York, where it faces a governmental fraud lawsuit, a judge in Dallas ruled. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin "Cooter" Hale dismissed the NRA's Chapter 11 case after a weeks-long trial in which New York officials claimed the filing was a bad-faith effort to dodge oversight. Yves here. While I appreciate Tom Neuburgers critique, I dont think it goes far enough. On my list of climate bullshitters are Green New Deal promoters. They are selling a vision of not merely a pain free transition to a much lower carbon-used economy, but one with unicorns and rainbows in terms of economic groaf and jobs, via building new infrastructure.which has to be done with the current carbon-using infrastructure and limited and sometimes environmentally nasty inputs, like rare earths and lithium. The only hope we have of non-catastrophic outcomes is radical conservation, and just about no one in a position of influence is willing to say that. After all, we live in a society where some regard mask-wearing as an unbearable hardship. By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at Gods Spies How to spot carbon greenwash? A good rule of thumb is whether the proposal actually cuts emissions, by a significant amount, and soon. Damian Carrington America cant be fixed because Americans dont want it to be. Umair Haque, whos only partly right. The Americans who dont want it to be fixed own the place. As Damian Carrington points out in a recent Guardian piece, we live in a time when the impacts of the climate emergency are now so obvious, only the truly deluded still deny them. And hes right. Almost no one today at least among the civilian population, those not engaged in politics professionally really doubts that climate change is happening. Yet we still all go about our merry social way as though the problem will fix itself (it wont); or the next generation will deal with any real crisis (they wont get the chance, since it will hit this generation first); or the election of Joe Biden means the nation is back on track for curbing emissions (it isnt, not with anything close to the speed required). And thats the problem: the speed required. If a giant meteor were barreling toward the earth and the best scientific minds said it would hit for sure, ending almost all life on the planet, would we start working now to end the threat, even if it were predicted for decades in the future? Or would most of us go back to television and our (economically miserable) lives and say, Cool. Tell me again when it matters? Frankly, and I say this with all the love I can muster for our easily deluded species, if the meteor were predicted to hit in, say, 2060 for all practical purposes, hit the next generation Id bet on the delay; Id bet that next years Super Bowl mattered more. But what if the meteor were predicted to hit this generation, hit less than 15 years from now? Then Id bet actual serious work would start immediately, and everyone would be engaged. Our Rulers and Their Wants But the climate crisis is not a meteor. Altering a meteors deadly course through space is not an existential threat to our ruling class and its self-dealing, self-enriching economic system. Only its impact poses such a threat. The climate crisis, however, threatens to end our economic system not only if its ignored. It threatens to end our system if its addressed. And no one, not Joe Biden, not any ruler of any major nation in the world, not banks, corporations, fossil fuel companies, hedge funds, or the whole of the investor class, wants that. And yet each of these entities governments, corporations, the finance system, the whole of the investor class will be SOL the day that death ship reaches the harbor of a panicked and pants-soiled publics active awareness. The day the public truly figures out the mess were in is the day the world changes forever, never to go back. And on that day, everyone on the planet, rich and poor alike, will ask a single question: Where can I go thats safe? The answer for most will be: Nowhere; nowhere at all. And yet that day is further out than the day when we must force capitalism to be transformed so we can solve the problem it cannot. That day, the day of needed transformation, if we truly take the crisis seriously, is today. Thus the bullshit, all to serve delay, all to keep our capitalist rulers rich and in their chairs. Its really that simple. By praising profit-first, or empowering those who worship that gold calf, we doom ourselves to die before our time among the young, only the lucky will see natural deaths. Judging Climate Policies Its in this light, as Carrington suggests, that we must judge climate policies and those who propose them. Were past the day of mainstream denialism. Were almost past the day when the climate isnt mentioned at all in official circles; soon you hear about it regularly even on CNN and MSNBC. Which means weve reached the day when climate pretenders in Carringtons words, climate bullshitters start to take the center stage, all to keep the current deadly system alive and well, up to the furthest minute it can be sustained. The Endless Stream So far thats all weve seen since Biden was elected, this climate bullshit, an endless flow of heres how much we care, followed by an endless refusal to act in ways that matter. In Bidens case, that means refusing support for any deed that threatens fossil fuel profit, such as shutting down drilling on federal lands forever, or cutting off for good all subsidies to oil and gas operations and their investors. Heres Carrington on how the rest of our ruling class is offering to save us. Lets start with governments: Lets start at the top, with the worlds governments, which have been setting out more targets than an archery competition. The global leader is the UK, which recently pledged a world-beating emissions cut of 78% by 2035. Targets are a necessary first step, but need action to be met and the instant, universal response: Show me the policies! The problem is some actual UK policies are pushing emissions up, not down: massive road building, a scrapped home energy efficiency programme and slashed electric car incentives, new oil and gas exploration, a failure to halt airport expansions and block a new coalmine (instead, the government belatedly ordered a public inquiry). But it is not just Boris Johnsons government that says one thing while doing another. All are talking tough on climate, but China is building one large coal-fired power station a week, Japan remains one of the biggest financiers of overseas coal plants and Norway is developing giant new oil and gas fields. Canadas premier Justin Trudeau says climate change is an existential threat, yet the countrys emissions have actually increased since the 2015 Paris deal, thanks to its tar sands exploitation. Oh, and many nations still subsidise fossil fuels, which is like buying more cigarettes when youre trying to quit smoking. The worlds forests are suffering because of the same doublespeak. Indonesia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Peru and Colombia all pledged in 2014 to end deforestation by 2030. Yet in official carbon-cutting pledges submitted to the UN since then, none have confirmed that commitment. Corporations arent faring any better, especially the fossil fuel companies: Many are still exploring for new reserves, when we already have more than can ever be safely burned. The list of their other obfuscations is long, including investing billions in highly expensive hydrogen fuel technology in a vain attempt to salvage stranded fossil fuel assets. The banks and financial system? Next up, big banks their financing of fossil fuels was bigger in 2020 than in 2016 or 2017, after the Paris climate deal. Top of the pile is JPMorgan Chase, despite it launching a Paris-aligned financing strategy and aiming to finance and facilitate $1tn in green initiatives by 2030. Barclays and BNP Paribas both became founding members of the UN-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance last month, yet both are in the top 10 financiers of fossil fuels since 2015. Over at BlackRock, the worlds biggest investor and a company that says climate change is a global threat, its Carbon Transition Readiness fund includes Chevron, ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel giants. Get ready for more of this, and prepare to reject it all. If a policy proposal delays effective action either because it makes the problem worse, or because its picked to subvert a much more effective action those proposing it want you and yours to suffer tomorrow so they and theirs can add to their wealth today. Thats truly a psychopathic trade, but one were used to. Time to not be used to it? Yves here. These examples illustrate what a difference having a space, as opposed to living on the streets or in shelter, make to the homeless. With so much underutilized hotel and residential space, its a shame programs like this are being terminated because Covid is supposedly in retreat. The fact that American cities dont even have public restrooms (much the less keeping them minimally clean as quite a few world cities seem able to do) is another manifestation of our hostility to the poor and outsiders. By contrast, this story describes what a powerful impact having ones own bed, shower and toilet had made for these recently homeless New Yorkers. Having that small measure of control over their lives has enabled them to move forward on other fronts when before, merely surviving was a full time project. It also counters the old view of the early 2000s, as cited by Malcolm Gladwell, that the chronically and episodically homeless consisted of at least occasional substance abusers. Now, unaffordable housing is a significant contributor. From the National Low Income Housing Coalition: Record-breaking numbers of families cannot afford a decent place to call home: Nationally, there is a shortage of more than 7 million affordable homes for our nations 11 million plus extremely low-income families. View The Gap There is no state or county where a renter working full-time at minimum wage can afford a two-bedroom apartment. View the Out of Reach Map Seventy-five percent of all extremely low-income families are severely cost-burdened, paying more than half their income on rent. By Claudia Irizarry Aponte. Originally published at THE CITY on May 10, 2021 Nunu Jefferson and Ashley Belcher in their hotel room on the Lower East Side, Apr. 29, 2021. Hiram Alejandro Duran/THE CITY Since last April, thousands of homeless New Yorkers in the citys shelter system have been staying in formerly private hotels a need brought on by the pandemic. Mayor Bill de Blasio has set July 1 as the day the city is expected to fully reopen amid rising vaccination rates and decreasing infections. Thats also the day the city has suggested it will complete its transition of people from hotels back to the homeless shelter system, where people were 61% more likely to die of COVIDthan anywhere else at the height of the pandemic last spring. Advocates for the homeless have criticized the planned return, noting that on Jan. 21, President Joe Biden extended an executive order mandating that FEMA reimburse all costs relating to emergency management of non-congregate shelters until September. As the city moved people from shelters to city-contracted hotels last year, advocates with the #HomelessCantStayHome campaign raised funds to place up to 30 people into private hotels. As THE CITY reported, those once homeless New Yorkers had a very different experience than the more than 12,000 placed in hotels set up by City Hall. THE CITY recently caught up with some of those staying in rooms funded by the campaign and asked them to reflect on the impact of residing in a private space after life on the streets or in shelters. The simple dignity of having a clean bed and a shower of their own meant they could spend the past year working, going to school and getting their health in order. Otherwise, their days would have been filled with worries about where to eat, sleep or relieve themselves next amid the pandemic. Now theyre scrambling to find housing with vouchers from the city, hoping to avoid a return to the streets or shelters. Here are some of their stories. Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity. Jeff Wolford Before the coronavirus ravaged New York last spring, Wolford, 35, worked as an upholsterer by day and slept in the citys subways, by night. He moved into a hotel on the Lower East Side provided by the Homeless Cant Stay Home campaign in April 2020. Before the pandemic, I made money, but not enough to afford a place to live in New York City. And its hard to focus on work and on finding gigs when youre sleeping on the street. I was in the Fedcap program and they were helping me find jobs and apply to school, and that helped a lot. But being here is what made the difference. I got a computer and started taking some free Microsoft cybersecurity courses. Now Im just three credits away from the final exam. I didnt even know what a command prompt was a year ago! Jeff Wolford in his hotel room, April 6, 2021. Hiram Alejandro Duran/THE CITY But the main thing now is finding an actual apartment, because this hotel thing wont last forever. I have a voucher, I got it last year, but its hard to find an apartment in New York with what I have now. The city gives up to $1,200 a month, and you cant sublet it has to be your own apartment. You try finding an apartment, or even a studio, for that kind of money these days. Its just really hard. Living in the hotel has been a real confidence boost. Its been the first and only bit of stability since I became homeless. I can finally be a regular person again. Ashley Belcher and Nunu Jefferson Ashley Belcher, 28, and Wiaheed Nunu Jefferson, 36, have been living in a Lower East Side hotel room since April 2020. Belcher is originally from Carbondale, Penn., and has drifted in and out of homelessness for most of her life. Jefferson is a native New Yorker. Belcher Im doing good now. Once we settled into the hotel I started taking care of myself. I can go to the doctor now, which means I can get my prescriptions for my irritable bowel syndrome and ulcerative colitis. I also went to the dentist, which I hadnt been to in so many years. I could never go to the doctor when we lived outside. I can do these things because I dont have to worry about where Im going to be or where Im going to sleep every day We buy shirts at the Salvation Army and we dyed them with the kit, and we sell them on Second Avenue and Delancey. So we have our little side hustle there Our biggest challenge now is finding an apartment. The hotel is nice but we need our own space. We have a bed and we have a private bathroom, for example, but we dont have a kitchen. So we still have to buy most of our meals. We both got housing vouchers last year, but we cant find anything we can afford. We go on StreetEasy every day and cant find something that costs $1,250 what our voucher is worth. And when we do find an apartment in our budget, well call the number on the listing or the landlord and theyll tell us that they dont take the voucher, which we think is illegal. This hotel is the biggest thing that has ever happened to us. Its also gotten me thinking that I want to go to college. I saw an ad on Facebook the other day for online school I think I could do that. I wrote to them and told them our situation and [the admissions representative] encouraged me to apply, even though I need a laptop. I want to become an addiction counselor. My mom passed away in March after a long battle with addiction. I want to be able to help other people. Jefferson Landing this hotel was a big change for me right there, this has been the biggest thing so far for me in my life. Its opened my eyes to all the different possibilities in life. I went to work. Im still doing my gigs in construction and like handymen work, and were selling tie-dye shirts on Second Avenue. But I also help out in the hotel I sweep up the halls, I take out the trash. In the past year, Ive shoveled snow, Ive cleaned out graffiti. I do all that because I want to show management and all the people who are here that Im clean, that Im stable, that I take care of myself. That I can keep myself clean, I can keep my building clean. I try to show them that Im fit to live here. Marcus Moore Marcus Moore, 49, lived in an abandoned Far Rockaway house for three years before the police cleared him out of the space weeks before the city shut down in March 2020. He moved into a Lower East Side hotel room a month later and currently lives in a hotel room near the Port Authority Bus Terminal. He has been a board member at Picture The Homeless, a homeless-led advocacy group, since 2016. Ill be honest with you, a year after being in this hotel Im scared. Im concerned that we could be thrown back into the streets and the congregate shelters. The transition should be: shelter to hotel to permanent housing, or just simply from shelter to housing. But now were contemplating going back to these spaces where were not safe. And its not right. But Im also proud of what weve accomplished, and what our movement has accomplished. In spite of it all, were all in good spirits. This all started because there were 30 of us who got hotel rooms through crowdfunding with the Homeless Cant Stay Home campaign, and we pushed the city to provide hotel rooms for everybody. And we won. And when we wanted more time social distancing in the hotels, we protested in front of [DHS Commissioner] Steve Banks house and that got a lot of attention, too. I got the hotel through my organization, Picture The Homeless. Id just gotten kicked out of this abandoned house that I occupied in Far Rockaway for like three years. I was living in the subways, making 40 deliveries for DoorDash a night on my bike, worried about the virus and wondering if my body would break. So its weird this pandemic has taken so many peoples lives. Its been horrible. Its been deadly. But in a crazy way, it saved some lives, too. It saved my life: Im living in a clean hotel room, I have my health in order, I can shower, Im clean. Through this campaign, through this activism, I got a housing voucher for the first time in my life, and cash assistance too thats crazy for Marcus Moore! This story was originally published by THE CITY, an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York. I began my journalism career in Nashville in 1990, with my current position with Nashville Post having evolved since October 2000 (when I was with the now-defunct The City Paper, a sister publication of the Post starting in 2008). Follow William Williams Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today In the Pfizer study, there were no cases of COVID-19 among volunteers given the two-shot vaccination compared with 16 in the group given dummy shots. Kids also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than vaccinated adults. Side effects are the same as adults experience, mostly sore arms and flu-like fever, chills or aches that signal the immune system is revving up. (Natural News) In the wake of a deadly tropical cyclone, Indonesians have found a new island and a new lake. Tropical cyclone Seroja brought heavy rains and flash floods to Indonesia and Timor-Leste early this month, killing over 100 people, leaving dozens still missing and rendering thousands homeless. In the wake of the storm, Indonesians found what seemed to be a new island on Rote Island near Timor-Leste. They also found a new lake in Kupang City, the provincial capital of East Nusa Tenggara in southeast Indonesia. The emergence of the new island puzzled geologists, some of whom surmised that strong waves and incredibly powerful currents brought about by the cyclone may have played a major role in its formation. Nonetheless, geologists will have to determine whether the new island appeared due to a gravel bank in the area or if a tidal wave had broken off a chunk of land from the mainland and carried it out into the sea. Official sources said geological investigations are underway. The island, which was first spotted on April 5, will be named Easter Island. Meanwhile, the new lake was first spotted growing in rural Maulafa District in Kupang City on April 5. Many residents fear a possible new disaster because of the increasing water level in the two-hectare lake, which seems to be expanding. The lake has already submerged farmlands, destroying corn and bean fields. The new lake has also flooded some coconut plantations. Officials say the new lake is fed by many new springs, which they believe were also created by the tropical cyclone. Because the new springs are not drying up, the lake is continuing to grow. Officials have had to evacuate residents in some areas because of the lake. Others have had to leave because the springs have caused the very foundations of their homes to crack. Residents havent experienced anything like it. Seroja went on to make landfall a week later in Western Australia as a category three storm. It wreaked havoc on coastal towns, damaged power lines and buildings and uprooted trees. It has since weakened and moved offshore. Earthquake in Pakistan creates mud island New islands forming following disasters arent unheard of. In 2013, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck south-central Pakistan and killed at least 300 people. The earthquake also left a mud island in its wake. (Related: Surviving natural disasters: Earthquake and tsunami scenarios.) Experts said the earthquake was caused by the movement of the Earth on a fault in the crust at a relatively shallow depth, around 15 kilometers below the surface. The earthquake shook offshore sediments to the south of Pakistan, many of which were mud and sand rich in the rotted remains of dead sea plants and animals. When the sediments were shaken up, they erupted in a mud volcano. Experts also said methane from the decomposing sea life helped bring up the mud and sand to the surface, hence the island of mud. Bill Barnhart, a geologist at the United States Geological Survey who studied earthquakes in Iran and Pakistan, said the island was really just a big pile of mud from the seafloor that got pushed up. Back then, he added that the life of the island was likely to be short. Back in 2013, the mud island, named Zalzala Koh, was 20 meters (m) high, 90 m wide and 40 m long. Its foundation was also primarily made of loose sand, soft clay and mud. Barnhart said islands typically last a few months to a year before sinking below the waterline because waves and tides can erode their foundations. And Barnhart was right. By the end of 2016, satellite imagery indicated that the Arabian Sea was washing over the tiny island at high tide. But this may be for the best since mud volcanoes and islands are a hazard to marine navigation. Visit Environ.news to learn more about how natural disasters form new islands. Sources include: ReliefWeb.int StrangeSounds.org EarthObservatory.NASA.gov 1 EarthObservatory.NASA.gov 2 EarthObservatory.NASA.gov 3 TheConversation.com (Natural News) It is no longer a random act Facebook censorship has become so blatant and massive that they have indefinitely silenced the former president of the United States. Many pro-censorship advocates cheer this on because they dislike the voices silenced by Facebook. They attempt to justify the censorship with the claims that Facebook is a private company and can do what they want, a lawsuit filed against the social media giant says that is not the case. (Article by Matt Agorist republished from TheFreeThoughtProject.com) A lawsuit filed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the chairman of the non-profit group Childrens Health Defense (CHD) claims Facebook conspires with the federal government to squelch speech which advocates for vaccine safety. According to the lawsuit, overseen by Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, Facebook started slapping warning labels on content posted on CHDs Facebook page, including in September of 2020 when the social media giant posted a message directing users to seek reliable, up-to-date information about vaccines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Facebook also started labeling some of CHDs content as false information based on research by third-party fact checkers, including a link to an article claiming vaccinated children are more likely to have adverse health outcomes in May 2020. Suing Facebook over censorship is an impossible task (trust us, we tried) as the company claims the right to censor or moderate any content they see fit as they own the platform. However, in their new lawsuit, CHD claims the federal government coerced and encouraged Facebook to stifle its speech, transforming a private companys actions into a state-sponsored directives. On Wednesday, Facebook filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit and during that hearing, Judge Illston asked if the government can ever take steps to counter misinformation without running afoul of the First Amendment. Lets say there was something on the internet that says, If you take a Covid vaccine, youre going to grow a third head. Thats clearly not true. Is it OK to not let that be published? Illston asked. I dont think its OK if the government is calling the shot, CHD attorney Roger Teich replied. You think its inappropriate for the government to say generally, Wed really like it if all these private social media outlets didnt publish lies about the Covid vaccine? Thats not alright to say that? asked Illson. Teich answered that it was the CDCs underhandedness in using Facebook to restrict speech that violates the Constitution. To show evidence of government / Facebook collusion, Teich cited multiple statements by Zuckerberg, the CDC and its proxy, the World Health Organization, declaring that they were in discussion and working together to reduce the spread of vaccine misinformation. According to Courthouse News, CHD claims the basis for the lawsuit is substantial given previous incidents: CHD also cited a February 2019 letter by U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to Facebook voicing concern about the proliferation of vaccine misinformation on social media. CHD claims that letter combined with Schiffs statement during a June 2019 congressional hearing that lawmakers should make changes to a 1996 law that shields internet platforms from lawsuits over content posted by users amounts to a threat intended to coerce Facebook into doing the governments bidding. State action must be found whenever government officials are coercing, inducing or encouraging private parties to do what they themselves cannot constitutionally do, CHD attorney Jed Rubenfeld said. Facebook argues that Schiffs letter merely requested information from Facebook. Citing a recent decision in Daniels v. Alphabet Inc., a case challenging the removal of YouTube videos, Facebook attorney Sonal Mehta argued the plaintiffs cant show government actors directed Facebook to censor content. Nobody said censor CHD or well go after you on Section 230, Mehta said, referring to part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that makes internet platforms immune from lawsuits for contest posted by users. CHD argued that U.S. Magistrate Judge Virginia DeMarchi in San Jose got it wrong when she dismissed Daniels v. Alphabet Inc. on March 31. The plaintiff in that suit argued Schiff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had coerced YouTube, owned by Googles parent Alphabet, into removing objectionable content. DeMarchi dismissed the suit with leave to amend, finding the plaintiff did not plead any facts suggesting that Speaker Pelosi or Rep. Schiff were personally involved in or directed the removal of videos. Rubenfeld said DeMarchi was not informed of the precedent when she issued that ruling. What matters is if they gave the private party the standard of decision. The CDC gives Facebook the standard of decision. And does it matter if what the CDC said is true, Illston asked. It would still be constitutionally protected, Rubenfeld noted. After the hearing, Judge Illston did not dismiss the lawsuit and instead took it under submission. While this lawsuit sets out to show collusion between Facebook and the federal government, it has been widely known for years that Facebook is not private. As we reported earlier this year, Facebook began furnishing the Federal Bureau of Investigation with data on Trump supporters who discussed the events at the capitol on their platform up to and including their private messages. Through this action the social media giant is acting as a de facto intelligence collecting arm of the US government. Facebook is more than willing to open up its data mining services for their friends in the federal government because, as we have stated numerous times, Facebook is not private. As TFTP reported in 2018, Facebook announced that it partnered with the arm of the government-funded Atlantic Council, known as the Digital Forensic Research Lab that was brought on to help the social media behemoth with real-time insights and updates on emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world. The Atlantic Council is the group that NATO uses to whitewash wars and foster hatred toward Russia, which in turn allows them to continue to justify themselves. Its funded by arms manufacturers like Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and the United States government. But this partnership with the state-funded think tank is not the only reason Facebook is not private. From government funded censorship arms to the revolving door of high level bureaucrats who fill the ranks of the oligopolies, the private company Facebook concept comes crashing down when taking a closer look. Private-sector firms do not need to be explicitly nationalized to further the establishments interests; its enough to install their alumni in top regulatory positions. Through these methods, Facebook can put on the facade of privatization while actually acting as deputies for the state but alleviating any constitutional checks in the process. All the while, whenever the censorship acts in their benefit, half of the masses cheer it on and defend it, keeping resistance at a minimum. Whats more, as the government hangs the threat of antitrust litigation over their heads, it can force these companies to act in their benefit even without explicit partnerships like that of the Atlantic Council. This appears to be the basis for CHDs lawsuit. In fact, prior to the state getting involved in the talks of regulation into big tech, information flowed relatively freely with Facebook only removing racist and violent content. Now, however, as they bend to the will of their partners in the federal government, people like myself find ourselves on 30 day bans for saying censorship leads to tyranny. This is why the answer to the government big tech censorship leviathan lies not in regulation but in boycott. The time is now to get off these platforms who spy on you, ban you, sell you to the highest bidder, and who are tearing society apart. Censorship free platforms exist and are far more user friendly and treat you as the actual customer instead of the sheep they are leading to slaughter. You can check them out here. Read more at: TheFreeThoughtProject.com (Natural News) Recently, the hosts of ABCs The View apologized for the CDC having failed to trick people better about getting vaccinated, by letting people who have gotten vaccinated take off their masks. Referring to all people who are opposed to vaccination as dumb hillbillies, the bigoted shills showed their true colors. The so-called lone conservative co-host, Meghan McCain, indirectly called the CDCs move psychotic and questioned the entire premise of vaccination, in that dumbfounded way that epitomizes daytime television talk shows, If the vaccine works, why do we have to wear masks? The answer is that communism only works if people have no value except as proletariat (working class) clones, so the masks will never come off, with or without vaccines, but of course, they cant say THAT live on the air, or everybody gets fired. Liberal talk show idiots are paid to regurgitate the CDC-scripted narrative for Covid-19 and they cant even do that right According to Google and Wikipedia, a hillbilly is defined as a person who dwells in rural, mountainous areas in the USA, primarily in the southern Appalachian mountains and down in the Ozarks of Missouri and Arkansas. The hosts of The View believe that anyone who studies science and understands how dangerous vaccines can be, well, that person must be a redneck who lives on a dirt road somewhere in the backwoods of Hick town, USA. Youre just not tricking people correctly if you continue to force people to wear masks post-vaccination, McCain argued. In other words, you cant fool all the toothless lumberjacks, their wives and children too, into getting the shot if they think they still have to wear their useless, bacteria-laden Covid-19 masks everywhere they go, even after they get the inoculation. Meaning its all just psychological, and these hosts think were all rednecks, including every land owner and every gun owner who knows better than to let the government control our genes and immune systems. Also, the hosts added that the U.S. will NEVER reach herd immunity because of the huge swaths of people who believe in God, and who are mostly whites and Republican. Can anyone be any more of a racist, bigoted pig than these American talk show hosts? She also fessed up that she believes in vaccine passports where, if youre not vaccinated, you lose your rights to travel or buy food. The Covid mask is just a TOOL to get everyone vaccinated and the CDC knew this from the beginning Nearly all mask holes are .3 to .5 microns in size, where the China virus particles are less than .06 microns, rendering virtually every mask in this country useless. Thats why Fauci admitted it at the beginning, and thats what the SCIENCE shows. Yes, so the anti-vaxxers are not anti-science, in fact, the pro-vaxxers are anti-science, because it reveals what they dont want us to know. Most of these simple face masks, including surgical masks, are insufficient in most Covid safety situations, as the data reveals. Even the N95 mask only goes down to 0.3 microns. That means the Covid virus particles are at least 5 to 10 times smaller than the holes in the masks everybody is wearing to school, work, stores, etc. It doesnt take a genius or a scientist to read the science there. These masks arent helping others and they certainly are not helping the people wearing them, who can suffer from pneumonia after bacteria builds up in the mouth and throat all day. Co-host Whoopi Big Whoop Goldberg isnt so sure about the mask coercion tactic for getting non-vaccinated rednecks to shoot up with neurotoxins, so she asked McCain if mask enforcement was enough to get these people to get the two jabs, in so many words. McCain said no. So that means the first genocidal trick of rushing all the minorities to the vaccine outlets failed, so then they tried the mask trick, and thats failing too. The next trick? Empathy. They want us all to feel sorry for killing all those poor vaccinated folks who are supposed to be immune to what theyre saying we spread. Meanwhile, theyre shedding the virus to each other from the vaccines they just got. How serendipitous. Hugs all around! McCain further admitted that the masks are more about control than about actual science. Why she wasnt fired on the spot for that, we may never know. Maybe its all part of the script to create dissonance and confusion. After all, this gender fluid, race-baiting, reverse hypocrisy is blinding enough, do we need to convolute it with the enemy telling us to think about the truth, after its too late to do anything about it? Tune your internet frequency to ChemicalViolence.com for updates on how vaccines are the pandemic, and how the masks are only about control, not safety. And remember, were NOT all in this together. Some of us dont like the government controlling our genes and immune system. Sources for this article include: Pandemic.news ChemicalViolence.com NaturalNews.com FoxNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Bill Melugin is one of the only reporters from a mainstream media outlet who does actual investigative reporting. The Fox Los Angeles correspondent broke the Gavin Newsom/French Laundry scandal, and consistently gets good tips because police trust him. When the cops trust you it means you have the ability to get stories that no one else can get. Hes like TB Daily News LA, and yesterday a cop sent him a video of a professor getting pulled over that you absolutely must see: (Article by Uncle Turtleboy republished from TBDailyNews.com) NEW: "You're always gonna be a Mexican, you'll never be white, you know that?" A Latino LASD deputy sent me his bodycam video of a woman claiming to be a teacher launching into a racist tirade against him when he pulled her over in San Dimas. She repeatedly calls him a murderer. pic.twitter.com/Cc8jSVenCQ Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 3, 2021 Youre a murderer. I was recording you because youre a murderer. Can you call your supervisor? Cop: I did. Good because youre a murderer. You scared me and made me think youre gonna murder me. Cop: Im sorry you feel that way. Its not just a feeling, youre a murderer. Im perfectly legal and Im a teacher. Cop: Congratulations. Youre a murderer. Youre threatening to murder me and my son. Here you go Mexican racist. Youre always gonna be a Mexican, youll never be white. Ya know that right? Youll never be white, which is what you really wanna be. When you create a culture in which police are the bad guys and all cops are bastards, this is how the public reacts. Everything you witnessed was a manifestation of black lives matter lies and rhetoric, and she did it in front of her own son. Imagine what hes going to grow up and think of the police. This racist woman thinks shes not a racist because being black absolves her from that, and according to critical race theory it means she cant be racist towards the Mexican-American police officer. Ive said it before and Ill say it again not one of these people is actually afraid of the police. Not one. If they were then theyd shut up act nervous every time a cop approaches them. But instead they act belligerent and confident, because they know damn well the cops arent going to hurt them. As a result they feel empowered to belittle and yell racial slurs at police officers, because no matter how much the cop is offended he or she must react in a professional manner. The news is not releasing her name, but an unedited clip of the video does reveal her face: If she were white and said the exact same thing her name and face would be on the front page of the New York Times, but because she has racial privilege she gets anonymity. We got her name though. Meet Kalunda-Rae Iwamizu, AKA Kalunda Jenkins. She was listed as an adjunct English professor at Los Angeles Southwest College. The college has since scrubbed her from their online directory, and is now claiming she has not taught there since 2017. She made about $100K a year without tenure. On Twitter she has expressed her demands for reparations. Because taxpayers owe this entitled brat money for something she never experienced. She has attended critical race theory styled diversity events. She frequently posts anti-cop BLM propaganda. Shes also a Karen who tattle tales when she sees a police officer (or anyone) not wearing a mask, while living in a state governed by a man most famous for getting caught at the French Laundry not wearing a mask. She also recently posted that her son was being abused by his ASD provider, but didnt want to report it because then DCF would snoop around her house. Thats normal. And in the twist that no one saw coming, she has good things to say about former President Trump. I think one thing is clear from that tweet and her action in that video this woman HATES Mexicans with a burning passion. Finally, ten years ago Kalunda was featured in a NBC puff piece about how a non-profit called Dressed For Success helped her land on her feet and get herself a job in academia after she got evicted and her three children ended up homeless. Kalunda Jenkins is hardly an anomaly. American universities are filled with people like her, brainwashing the next generation of Americans to hate their country, their institutions, and the police. If you insist on sending your kids to one of these 4 year indoctrination camps make sure you tell them to ignore any opinions they hear, get really drunk, have fun, and get out of their with a degree. But the problem is that too many people are coming out of colleges believing what they learned there, and its destroying this country from the inside. Read more at: TBDailyNews.com (Natural News) In the aftermath of Derek Chauvins guilty verdict over the death of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter (BLM) terrorists have been busy threatening governments all across the country to pay them cash reparations as restitution. In BLMs view, it is only appropriate for all black people to get free money from American taxpayers because a doped-up Floyd suffocated himself to death from all the fentanyl he took prior to be arrested for attempting to use counterfeit money at a Minneapolis convenience store. It is somehow white peoples fault that Floyd effectively killed himself, and that means governments now have a duty to hand out direct cash payments to BLM in order to make things right. According to the terrorist group, organizers and family members of victims of police violence are careful not to label his conviction as anything more than a step in the direction toward justice. In other words, now it is all about the money. BLMs Minnesota chapter says full-scale reparations is the only way to atone for Floyds self-induced drug overdose, which to them is evidence that America is engaged in generational institutionalized racism. Its about direct cash payments, said Trahern Crews, a spokesperson for BLM Minnesota. Reparations is cause for a cessation, which means stop killing them, or stop harming them. Thats not stopping, so we dont get a chance to heal. Everyone already has equal opportunity; BLM is demanding equal outcomes Even though Chauvin was punished for Floyds self-caused death, BLM says the only way for its members to heal is by getting really rich, really fast. Theres going to be change in the future, and we still have a lot of reparations to make from the past so cases need to be re-opened and we need to re-examine them, says Floyds white girlfriend, Courteney Ross. Floyds brother, Philonise, feels the same. He wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post that suggests Chauvins guilty verdict may not be enough to quell the pain and suffering of the rest of black America, which is seeking to expand their bank accounts. This is what justice feels like: gut-wrenching relief, exhaustion. Its not sweet or satisfying. Its necessary, important, maybe even historic, Floyds brother wrote. But only with the passage of time will we know if the guilty verdict in the trial of Derek Chauvin is the start of something that will truly change America and the experience of Black Americans. One city in Illinois already proposed issuing $25,000 reparations payments to area blacks, which scoffed at the amount for being too low for their liking. Evanston, which is located to the north of Chicago, already began the first phase of the program, which involves reallocating some of the tax dollars collected from legal cannabis sales towards the enrichment of black people. BLMs true colors are more apparent than ever before. This was never about George Floyd or any other black thug who did something stupid and paid a price. It is about siphoning more free money from the system and giving it to people with dark skin under the guise of social justice. Less than five percent of the black people living in our country today can trace their ancestry to a slave, suggested one commenter at Citizen Free Press. If anyone should pay reparations, its the Democrats. After all, they championed slavery, they assassinated Lincoln, they created Jim Crow laws, segregation laws, the KKK, the lynching laws; they championed euthanasia, they prevented blacks from benefiting from the work projects of the New Deal, they created the Japanese Concentration Camps here during WWII, they fought viciously to prevent the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments; likewise they fought against the Civil Rights Act of 64, 65, and 67. They created the welfare system that still enslaves blacks to this day! More related news about BLM can be found at Terrorism.news. Sources for this article include: CitizenFreePress.com TheBlaze.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) During the investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the U.S. State Department obtained a 263-page document revealing the true intent of senior Chinese public health officials and top scientists with the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA). This document has been vetted and confirmed authentic by digital forensic specialists who worked for the US, Australian and Canadian governments. Five years before the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, Chinese military scientists were preparing for a third World War and communicating strategies on how to weaken their opponents using freeze-dried, aerosolized bioweapons. In the documents, the PLA openly discuss using a bioweapon that could cause the enemys medical system to collapse. They discussed how a successful bioweapon could turn hospitals into battlefields, causing a surge of hospitalizations, and burdening medical systems to the point of collapse. The monsters behind bioterrorism, medical experimentation, and human rights violations must be hunted down and tried The documents are authored by ten highly trained Chinese defense experts who are affiliated with the Air Force Medical University in Xian, which is under the command of the PLA. The documents are titled, The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons. The documents clearly show that China is engaged in advanced biowarfare. Following developments in other scientific fields, there have been major advances in the delivery of biological agents, the documents state. Even more revealing, the documents discuss new technologies for freeze-drying micro-organisms to make it possible to store biological agents and aerosolize them during attacks. The documents even reveal the best time to release a bio-weapon: Bioweapon attacks are best conducted during dawn, dusk, night or cloudy weather because intense sunlight can damage the pathogens, it states. Biological agents should be released during dry weather. Rain or snow can cause the aerosol particles to precipitate. A stable wind direction is desirable so that the aerosol can float into the target area. In the beginning of the pandemic, WHO believed that SARS-CoV-2 proliferated via asymptomatic spread. That hypothesis was outlandish, overcautious, and did not coincide with the science of viral load. This Chinese military propaganda led to lock downs and the crippling of peoples livelihoods, education systems and economies. After asymptomatic spread was later debunked by WHO and scientists from around the world, many still wondered how so many people around the world were suddenly suffering from a severe cytokine storm inside their bodies. A bioweapon that can be freeze dried and aerosolized to target medical systems can be deployed stealthily in hospitals and in nursing homes around the world, where the weakest immune systems reside. This is where almost all of the death is occurring. Is the world under attack from an aerosolized bioweapon, that is spread through the skies? The world population, including the Chinese people, must be liberated from these monsters of bioterrorism, bioweapon research and deadly medial experimentation on human populations. Freedom fighters around the world must stand up and face the evil that seeks to control, mislead and defraud medical systems, putting peoples lives at risk. Fraudulent diagnostic tests are part of the bio-terror, misleading medical authorities as people are imprisoned, isolated and stripped of their dignity and basic human rights. Chinese propaganda is alive and well in the Western media, as knowledge on viable treatments are withheld, natural immune therapy protocols blacklisted. The asymptomatic spread deception underpins all motivations to lock people down and restrict human interaction, covering up the real issue at hand: the bioweapon is engineered to be aerosolized anywhere, anytime to target competing nations, exploit the most vulnerable, and take down hospital systems. To make matters worse, coronavirus gain-of-function research continues in Wuhan to this day, with U.S. taxpayer money paving the way for future waves of bio-terrorism and medical experimentation. Many CCP assets operate in the United States and they include Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Peter Daszak. Peter Daszak an asset of the CCP who misled the world to cover up bio-terrorism trail Bio-weapon research was thwarted in the United States in 2014, after a ban was placed on the highly-unethical, coronavirus gain-of function research. But under the direction of Anthony Fauci, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) continued the research through grants assigned to Peter Daszak at New Yorks Eco Health Alliance. After receiving NIH grants worth $3.7 million in 2014, Eco Health Alliance began funneling payments to CCP scientists working in Wuhan. The first $666,442 installment was received by the CCP in June of 2014. The project was code-named Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence. By May of 2019, Eco Health had wired six installments to CCP scientists, each payment worth more than half a million dollars. Daszak met repeatedly with Wuhan Institute of Virologys Shi Zhengli, who conducted gain-of-function research in participation with U.S. universities for years. It came as no surprise that Daszak was granted investigator status as part of the World Health Organizations investigation into the origins of SARS-CoV-2. In early 2020, WHO quickly concluded that SARS-CoV-2 was of natural origin; any assertion otherwise was written off as conspiracy theory. Following in the footsteps of communist China, American Big Tech companies colluded with WHO and scrubbed any information about the bio-weapon origin of SARS-CoV-2, even though the release could have been accidental in Wuhan and intentional in other air spaces around the world. It came as no surprise that this global consensus on the origins of covid-19 was drafted by Dr. Peter Daszak himself, the man who funneled money to the CCP to engineer coronaviruses. On February 19, 2020, a group of virologists wrote to the Lancet, calling on governments around the world to stand with the CCP: We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. The letter declared there were no competing interests, but it turned out that the letter was organized and drafted by Peter Daszak. He tried to assure the world of facts he could never verify. There are at least three known laboratory tactics for virus engineering that leave no trace of evidence behind. Serial passage is the repeated transfer of viruses from one culture of cells to another. Other sly methods include the no-see-um or seamless approach which conceal any evidence that the virus was manipulated. How could the accidental bioweapon release theory be so easily thrown out as conspiracy? Worse, Daszak made these broad assertions before anyone could be sure of what really happened or could continue to occur. Now there is proof that the hospitalizations and deaths taking place around the world are the result of careful planning and execution by Chinese military scientists, whose intent to exploit human immune systems and harm medical systems is now known. Daszak is complicit in trying to cover up these crimes against humanity, and his collaboration with the CCP, is at the very least, a conflict of interest that should forever bar him from having any authority on the matter. All monsters, assets and collaborators behind the continued bioterrorism, human rights abuses and medical experimentation must be hunted down and tried for war crimes. Sources include: ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com USRTK.org ZeroHedge.com (Natural News) A Christian chaplain at Trent College was fired and reported to the British governments anti-terrorism programme for delivering a sermon in which he told pupils that it is acceptable to question and disagree with far-left LGBT ideology being taught at the school. (Article by Kurt Zindulka republished from Breitbart.com) Trent College, which claims to have a Christian ethos, invited the educational charity Educate and Celebrate to their campus in 2018, in order to make their school more LGBT-friendly. Educate and Celebrate declared that their mission was to embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric of your school. The head of the charity, Dr Elly Barnes, has openly stated that the purpose of Educate and Celebrate is to completely smash heteronormativity, thats what we want to do. The charity has been funded by the British taxpayer to the tune of 250,000, according to the Mail on Sunday. The Reverend Dr Bernard Randall, who previously served as a Chaplain for Cambridge University before joining Trent College, performed a sermon defending traditional Christian beliefs following questions from a pupil on why pupils are told we have to accept all of this LGBT stuff in a Christian school? In the June 2019 sermon entitled Competing Ideologies Dr Randall stressed the Christian ethics of understanding, grace, and kindness, but added that pupils should not feel as though they must accept teachings if they believe they run contrary to their faith. Now when ideologies compete, we should not descend into abuse, we should respect the beliefs of others, even where we disagree. Above all, we need to treat each other with respect, not personal attacks thats what loving your neighbour as yourself means, Dr Randall said. You should no more be told you have to accept LGBT ideology than you should be told you must be in favour of Brexit or must be Muslim to both of which Im sure most of you would quite rightly object, he added. Following the sermon, Trent Colleges designated safeguarding lead, Justine Rimington, reported the chaplain to Prevent, the British governments anti-terrorism unit which seeks to halt the radicalisation of young people. 'I never thought a sermon would lead to me being reported as a terrorist'. Dr Bernard Randall, an ordained @churchofengland minister, speaks about his experiences of being reported as a terrorist for a sermon encouraging pupils to love their neighbour. https://t.co/sSjqhEWxF1 pic.twitter.com/K8JNJ26EgV Christian Concern (@CConcern) May 9, 2021 In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Randall said: I was terrified when I found out. I had visions of being investigated by MI5, of men coming to my house at dawn and knocking down the front door. What was I supposed to tell my family? It was crazy. I had gone to such lengths in the sermon to stress we must respect one another no matter what, even people we disagree with, he pointed out. Derbyshire Police confirmed to the paper that the chaplain was indeed referred to the anti-terror programme by the school, however they ultimately determined that Dr Randall did not represent a counter-terrorism risk or risk of radicalisation and confirmed that the complaint did not meet the threshold for a Prevent referral. Aside from reporting the chaplain to Prevent, the school also informed him that his future sermons would be reviewed and censored prior to their delivery in order to ensure that requirements are met, according to Randall. The charity Christian Concern reported that he was told to refrain from discussing any topic or express[ing] any opinion (in Chapel or more generally around School) that is likely to cause offence or distress to members of the school body. You will not publicly express personal beliefs in ways which exploit our pupils vulnerability, the school also allegedly told the chaplain. Ultimately, he was dismissed from the school, prompting Randall to sue for harassment, victimisation, discrimination, and unfair dismissal. His case will be heard by the East Midlands Employment Tribunal on June 14th 2021. My career and life are in tatters, he said. WATCH: Christian Pastor Arrested in London for Quoting Homophobic Bible Verses https://t.co/cS4hsjA8CS Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 29, 2021 Detailing the lengths to which Educate and Celebrate pushed leftist ideology on the schools campus, Dr Randall alleged that teachers were told to collectively chant Smash heteronormativity during a training exercise led by Dr Elly Barnes. The chanting was frankly bizarre and I felt uncomfortable, he said, adding: It was all very cleverly put together though her rhetorical skills were impressive. Dr Elly Barnes, a former music teacher with ties to the Socialist Party of Britain, according to the MoS, founded and continues to run the Educate and Celebrate charity. The charity boasts that it has worked with thousands of schools across the country in developing lesson plans, running workshops, and conducting training for teachers. The charity advocates for far-left positions on gender theory, such as banning the use of the words boys and girls in the classroom, and using so-called gender-neutral terms such as they and zie. Educate and Celebrate ran into controversy in 2017 when it published a book that promoted the idea of using puberty blockers on children as young as 12-years-old. The charity is also alleged to have told teachers that it is acceptable to help children transition without the knowledge of their parents. Andrea Williams, the chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which is helping Dr Randall in his legal efforts, said: Who are the extremists in this story? The partisan agency who teach young children that they can be born in the wrong body, or the school chaplain moderately presenting what the Christian church has taught about marriage, sex and gender for the past 2,000 years? UK Politician Demands Deportation of Christian Pastor for Criticising Gay Pride https://t.co/nGIx6R67GY Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 12, 2020 Read more at: Breitbart.com and Censorship.news (Natural News) The coordinated attacks on the 2020 U.S. election revealed just how lackadaisical and clueless Americas institutions have become in the face of crime, terrorism and war. The breakdown of the election system is just a glimpse of the greater collapse to come, in an America that has become so distracted by propaganda and so oblivious to the evil they face. The critical infrastructure of the United States is more vulnerable to take-down than ever before. A ransomware attack effectively shuttered the entire network for Colonial Pipeline, a top U.S. fuel source that services nearly half of the East Coast and much of the Gulf Coast. News of the attack is already causing panic, as US consumers rush to fill up their cars and stockpile gasoline in portable tanks. Gasoline prices have already been climbing in 2021, but the ransomware attacks and the threat of further take-down could spur a rapid increase in gas prices, especially as peak summer demand rises. Colonial Pipeline taken down, threatening the East and Gulf Coasts The Colonial Pipeline delivers approximately 2.5 million barrels of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products every day. These refined products are delivered through a 5,500-mile network of pipeline that services the Eastern seaboard, the Gulf Coast and the southern U.S. The Georgia-based company says its pipelines are shut down for now, with no timeline for reopening. With the distribution system down, Gulf Coast oil refiners will be forced to slow crude processing. The price of gasoline and diesel may fall in the Gulf Coast region, as crude oil supply accumulates there. Other locations in the South and along the East Coast will likely see price hikes, as supply is restricted to these regions. Many areas along the East Coast could see outages at fuel terminals in the coming week. If Colonial is shut down for more than a week, fuel deliveries will be halved in select areas. The Northeast is already bracing for fuel shortages and price hikes. Colonial had to shut down one other time, when Hurricane Harvey hit the Gulf Coast in 2017. This caused a gas price hike across the United States and was the highest price for gas along the East Coast since 2012. World leaders warn that ransomware attacks on U.S. pipelines will become a systemic issue The ransomware attack affected the companys IT system, prompting the company to shut down their operations. Government sources believe a cybersecurity research community called DarkSide deployed the ransomware. The ransomware infected Colonial Pipelines IT system by encrypting data and demanding payment from Colonial to grant them access. A cybersecurity company named FireEye and the U.S. Transportation Security Administration are working on the issue and getting other federal agencies involved. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said the cyber attack was a warning of more serious problems ahead. This is a play that will be run again, and were not adequately prepared, he said. Algirde Pipikaite of the World Economic Forums Centre for Cybersecurity, said the cyber-attacks are becoming a systemic issue. We are likely to see more frequent attacks on industrial systems like oil and gas pipelines or water treatment plants, he said. These attacks play into the hands of the World Economic Forum, an organization that supports a Great Reset which includes a global takeover on energy distribution. Stay up-to-date on the latest issues that affect your life at NationalSecurity.News. Sources include: EpochTimes.com MSN.com NaturalNews.com In the new report, which was made public on Wednesday, the panel did not lay the blame for the virus spread on any one country but rather a lack of international cooperation and global leadership that left many nations acting too slowly to contain it, leading to catastrophic results. Specifically, the panel said the delay in declaring an emergency and the resistance to travel bans made a preventable situation snowball. (Natural News) On February 19, 2020, a group of virologists published authoritatively in the Lancet, reassuring the world that covid-19 was a pandemic from nature, caused by a wild strain of coronavirus. The group also demanded that the governments and scientists of the world begin to work with the Chinese. We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin, they wrote. Scientists overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife. But theres nothing natural about SARS-CoV-2 or the circumstances surrounding it. The medical issues that continue to take place in nursing homes and hospitals, more than a year later, do not represent a natural infection. The questions that should be asked today include: Were lab-engineered biological agents accidentally released or are they being deployed strategically as weapons? Are these weapons being used to depopulate the weakest, to carry out live vaccine experiments, or to simply cripple medical systems? New documents reveal that Chinese military scientists were discussing ways to aerosolize biological agents to cripple the enemys medical system. The sheer existence of coronavirus gain-of-function experiments should make any moral person demand a raid on these labs and demand an investigation into every person involved. Why was there such a strong push early on to dismiss the lab leak theory? In February of 2020, it was far too early to rule out the theory that covid-19 was a bioweapon, released accidentally or intentionally. However, Big Tech began censoring anything that questioned the official Chinese Communist Party narrative on covid-19. Why was there such a strong push to dismiss the lab leak theory, especially when years of research had gone into perfecting a coronavirus with enhanced gain-of-function properties that exploit human immune systems? Gain-of-function coronavirus research was successfully funded for years through grants provided by Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. These grants were funneled to Dr. Peter Daszak at New Yorks Eco Health Alliance. From there, the funds were paid out in multiple installments to Chinese researchers. In order for the research to continue, Chinese researchers had to report back to Daszak and Fauci. American universities worked with Dr. Shi Zheng-li, the bat lady of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The bat lady collected and isolated about one hundred different bat coronaviruses. She worked with Ralph S. Baric from the University of North Carolina to enhance the ability of bat viruses to attack human cells. Engineering coronaviruses was a well-funded endeavor because it allowed scientists to identify the best sequences to create new vaccines for human populations. This is just one potential use of this sinister, unethical research. The race to exploit human immune systems is real and the coverup of bioweapon research is failing The Chinese scientists ultimately found a way to engineer coronavirus spike proteins to exploit the ACE2 receptor in human lung cells. In June 2020, Chinese researchers published a new model for studying SARS-CoV-2, one that uses the CRISPR gene-editing tool to alter mice lung cells. The scientists equipped the mice with the ACE2 receptor from human lung cells. This is the same receptor that they learned how to exploit using their modified coronaviruses. These monsters had converted coronaviruses into easily deployable weapons that can be aerosolized to attack respiratory and cardiovascular systems. If this doesnt give enough clues to what is going on, then consider this: Upon further investigation, the virologists who originally published authoritatively in the Lancet did so on behalf of Dr. Peter Daszak himself, the man who funneled millions to the Wuhan Institute of Virology for this coronavirus gain-of-function research! If the SARS-CoV-2 virus had indeed escaped from research he funded or was deployed as a weapon around the world, then Dr. Daszak would be potentially guilty. Kristian G. Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute sided with Daszak in a second attempt to conceal the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 is a bioweapon. But there isnt just one way to create a chimeric coronavirus, as Dr. Andersen asserted in a failed attempt to block investigation. There are at least three ways to conceal viral engineering. While there was no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was developed using viral genome cut-and-paste techniques, there is still the possibility that researchers used serial passage no-see-um or seamless approaches that leave no defining marks. Dr. Andersen was assuring the world of something that could not be confirmed, and Dr. Daszak was hiding behind a group of virologists to assert false, authoritative claims. In order to get the spike protein to bind to the ACE2 receptor of human lung cells, virologists could have spliced in spike protein genes from other viruses using the serial passage technique. Every time a viral gene is transferred, the process of natural selection kicks in, bringing forth the most suitable gene that can bind to human cells. This gain-of-function process is concealed because the virologists can allow natural selection to do all the heavy lifting. Its a man-made super virus, either way. Deep down, Dr. Daszak understands all this, for he was quoted in an interview in 2019, praising the successful development of chimeric coronaviruses with spike proteins that can readily exploit humanized mice. And we have now found, you know, after 6 or 7 years of doing this, over 100 new SARS-related coronaviruses, very close to SARS, Dr. Daszak said. Some of them get into human cells in the lab, some of them can cause SARS disease in humanized mice models and are untreatable with therapeutic monoclonals and you cant vaccinate against them with a vaccine. So, these are a clear and present danger This cold reality is also confirmed by the fact that SARS-CoV-2 was already genetically equipped to attack human lung cells from the start. During the 2003 epidemic of SARS, researchers were able to document changes in the spike protein as the virus faced natural selection. SARS-CoV-2, on the other hand, did not have to go through these evolutionary changes to become a dangerous pathogen. By the time SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in late 2019, it was already pre-adapted to human transmission to an extent similar to late epidemic SARS-CoV, wrote Alina Chan of the Broad Institute. The first SARS spike protein went through six major changes before it could even become a mild pathogen in humans. After changing fourteen more times, it was more adapted to attach to human lung cells. It didnt become an epidemic until it made another four adaptations. SARS-CoV-2, on the other hand, was most dangerous in the very beginning, until host adaptation weakened the virus. Theres nothing natural about the circumstances leading up to covid-19, and nothing natural about the SARS-CoV-2 agent. The circumstances that brought the world to its knees wreak of criminal intent. Sources include: HotAir.com ZeroHedge.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) An Italian woman was accidentally given six doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine in a single shot. The nurse who gave the six doses apparently did so because she was distracted. The patient, a 23-year-old Italian woman, received six doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Sunday morning, May 9, at the Noa Hospital in the small city of Massa in the central Italian region of Tuscany. The nurse who gave the six doses immediately realized what she had done and alerted the attending physician, who began monitoring the woman for adverse reactions. The hospital then proceeded to alert the womans family as well as local health authorities. According to hospital spokeswoman Daniella Gianelli, the patient was kept under observation for 24 hours after the incident in the hospitals emergency room. The hospital gave her fluids as well as anti-inflammatory and fever medications to prevent any potential adverse reaction from occurring. The hospital released her the next day because she supposedly did not suffer any serious adverse reactions. Her only side effects, according to her doctors, were pain at the injection site and being very frightened by the incident. (Related: 91-year old Ohio man nearly DIED after being given TWO DOSES of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine within four hours.) This person at this time will certainly not have side effects, claimed Dr. Antonella Vincenti, Noa Hospitals director of infectious diseases. According to her, studies published by Pfizer show that people can receive up to five times the normal dosage of the coronavirus vaccine without suffering any consequences. Vincenti also claimed this was not the first time vaccine recipients were accidentally given more than the recommended dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine. Recipients in Israel and Germany had also received up to five times the usual dosage and they supposedly did not experience any adverse reactions. Vincenti conceded that she was unsure of what the long-term effects of receiving six times the recommended dosage of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine would be. There was no way to tell what it would do to the womans antibody levels or her immune response, if any, to the coronavirus. She added that the hospital would bring the vaccine recipient back regularly to supposedly give her tests and monitor how her body is reacting to the massive dose of the vaccine. The doctors at Noa Hospital are also still debating whether the patient should still get her scheduled second dose after several weeks. Vaccine overdose incident was due to human error Dr. Tomasso Bellandi, director of patient security for the Northwest Tuscany Local Health Authority, said Noa Hospital has launched an internal investigation to review its safety procedures and to make sure this incident never happens again. He stated that each vial of the Pfizer vaccine the Noa Hospital receives contains six doses. These must be individually extracted and placed in separate vials, where they are then diluted before being administered. The nurse who gave six doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the Italian woman injected all of the liquid in an undiluted vial, believing it to be a diluted single-dose vial. She thought that the dilution had already taken place, said Bellandi. They are both transparent liquids of the same density. Unfortunately, this contributed to the error, said Bellandi. This is something that should never happen, he added, excusing the incident to an unfortunate instance of human error. Due to our limits as human beings, as well as organizational limits, these things can happen. Bellandi further justified the incident by talking about how the woman was vaccinated on an extremely busy day. He said that the incident happened during a period in which health workers, like the nurse who administered the six Pfizer doses, were trying to inject as many people with as many vaccine doses as possible. We are extremely regretful, especially towards the young woman, claimed Bellandi. He added that the nurse and the attending physician were regretful that the accident happened, and a psychologist who talked to them afterward had described the two as traumatized by the event. There have been multiple instances of COVID-19 vaccine overdose in recent months. In March, a 91-year-old man went into shock after he received two vaccine doses in one day. And in April, dozens of inmates at the Iowa State Penitentiary received up to six times the normal dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, with many experiencing fevers, body aches and sore arms. Learn more about the dangers associated with receiving even the normal dosages of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine at Vaccines.news. Sources include: CBSNews.com Independent.co.uk NYPost.com LiveScience.com (Natural News) The last refuge of the climate scoundrels, to quote a friend of Australian physicist Dr. Peter Ridd, is ocean acidification, a global warming conspiracy theory that appears to be the latest hoax of the climate change cult. Despite dozens of published papers claiming that ocean acidification is real, a group of whistleblowers has come forward to request a misconduct investigation into the legitimacy of this questionable research. At least 22 different research papers may contain manipulated data, and two one published in the journal Science and the other in Nature Climate Change for sure do. Other similar papers also rely on data that suggests statistically impossible behavioral effects from carbon dioxide (CO2) on ocean acidity levels. All of this points to major fraud. The papers two main authors emphatically deny making up data, and James Cook University, Townsville, in Australia has dismissed the fabrication allegations against one of them after a preliminary investigation, Science Magazine reported. But multiple independent scientists and data experts who reviewed the case flagged what they said were serious problems in the two data sets, as well as in two additional ones co-authored by one of the accused scientists. What is perhaps more disturbing than the potential data fraud involved is the fact that so-called reputable scientific journals published it in the first place. What does this say about the integrity of the established scientific community? The case isnt just about data and the future of the oceans, Science Magazine further explains about the situation. It highlights issues in the sociology, psychology, and politics of science, including pressure on researchers to publish in top-tier journals, the journals thirst for eye-catching and alarming findings, and the risks involved in whistleblowing. Climate fanatics grasping at anything to keep global warming conspiracy theory alive Philip Munday is one of the ringleaders of the ocean acidification movement. He participated in a Zoom meeting back in December with more than 70 colleagues and students during which he discussed the evidence proving his theory is real. Munday has co-authored more than 250 papers and created something of a marine biology mecca in Townsville where climate fanatics come to learn more about how CO2 is supposedly destroying the planet. Munday and biologist Danielle Dixson first started publishing their research on ocean acidification back in 2009. Their claim is that CO2 and other greenhouse gases are killing fish and destroying ocean ecosystems. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agrees with their assessment, having stated back in a 2014 report that ocean acidification could have profound consequences for marine diversity and fisheries. The IPCC, by the way, has suggested in the past that chemtrailing the skies with particulates a process it calls solar geoengineering may help to dull the sun and cool the planet. Three-year ocean acidification inquiry determined it to be false Everything was going smoothly for the ocean acidification cult until fish physiologist Timothy Clark came along with six others and presented a different narrative. After investigating the concept for three years, they came to the conclusion that it does not add up. They published a paper that created so much division within the climate change community that author Dominique Roche said, Its like Republicans and Democrats. On the one hand, scientists were calling the study by far the best environmental science paper I have read for a long time. On the other, some accused it of containing methodological or analytical weaknesses. Munday lashed out by calling the work challenging his and Dixsons data abhorrent and slanderous. Dixson also indicated in a statement that she stands by all of her data, claiming it was collected with integrity. The whistleblowers, however, say their case is solid and that their findings concerning Dixsons data problems will soon be published on PubPeer, a website for discussing published work. In my experience, whistleblowers, myself as well as others, are shamed for talking to the media before an investigation has concluded misconduct, stated Josefin Sundin of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, one of the authors of the Nature paper. But why is that? If an investigation even takes place, it can drag on for a very long time. If you know that data have been fabricated, why is it considered the right thing to do to stay silent about it for months and even years? When Clark came to Townsville back in 2011 to take a research position at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, he set out to repeat some of the experiments that Munday and Dixson conducted to arrive at their conclusions. As it turns out, Clarks experiments produced different results. Adding CO2 to ocean water did not, in fact, cause fish to move. Some of them were actually so terrified that they did not move at all. Just to be sure that his experiments were valid, Clark videotaped and used software to track fish behavior in numerous subsequent experiments in order to rule out bias, which Munday and Dixson did not do. In the end, the ocean acidification theory did not hold water. By all appearances, it was contrived for the purpose of pushing climate change propaganda as other long-touted theories such as ocean level rises and warming prove false. This is pretty remarkable, wrote one commenter at WattsUpWithThat.com. Are we witnessing the start of increased scrutiny of global warming science? Its been a long time coming but, yes, I think a reckoning is coming in the next few years, responded another. More related news stories can be found at ClimateScienceNews.com. Sources for this article include: WattsUpWithThat.com ScienceMag.org NaturalNews.com (Natural News) It is now open knowledge that Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) injections are more than likely self-replicating, meaning they spread like a virus from the vaccinated to the unvaccinated. As it turns out, most of the laboratories where these injections are made are also located in the United States, and many of them funded by none other than billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates. Even though biological weapons of this kind have been outlawed for nearly 50 years under the Biological Weapons Convention, Gates has never met an opportunity for mass genocide that did not tickle his fancy. As a result, Gates has been heavily bankrolling the development of death-causing injections like those created for the Chinese Virus that are capable of spreading their poisons even to the non-injected. A small but growing field, self-spreading vaccine research is currently conducted at some 10 different institutions. A few are located in Europe and Australia, but the bulk are found right here in the good ol Land of the Free, where multinational corporations and their philanthropic funding operations are free to do whatever they please without restriction. The federal government also funds self-replicating vaccine technologies through shell agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is, of course, also a major funder. More recently, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as DARPA, has also jumped onboard. DARPA, as you may recall, is the same government entity that back in 2018 was exposed for trying to develop insect-sized robot weapons with which to kill people. DARPA is generally recognized among cognizant observers as being the research and development arm of the U.S. military. It is involved with all sorts of dystopian projects that involve mass death, totalitarianism, and endless war. One DARPA project, called Prediction of Spillover Potential and Interventional En Masse Animal Vaccination to Prevent Emerging Pathogen Threats in Current and Future Zones of US Military Operation, involves creating the worlds first prototype of a self-disseminating vaccine designed to induce a high level of herd immunity (wildlife population level protection) against Lassa virus and Ebola. The stated purpose of this dark operation is supposedly to vaccinate wildlife without actually having to inject them with deadly chemicals. The true purpose, however, is to mass vaccinate humans, many of whom want absolutely nothing to do with forced government medicine. Military investment in biological innovation for defensive or protective purposes is permissible under the Biological Weapons Convention, but it can still send the wrong signals, reports The Bulletin, warning about the implications of this chemical weapons arms race. It could cause countries to doubt one anothers intentions and lead to tit-for-tat investment in potentially risky research, including in self-spreading vaccines. The result of research gone awry or biowarfare could be catastrophic for health and the environment. As scientists call for tyranny against anti-vaxxers, for whom do you think self-spreading vaccines are intended? With escalating talk about the threat of anti-vaxxers and people who are vaccine hesitant, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out where all this is headed. The obvious goal is to use self-spreading vaccines to forcibly, though without detection, spread the jab contents to people who would otherwise never roll up their sleeves. No amount of manipulative prodding from Anthony Fauci, Donald Trump or Bill Gates will ever convince this segment of society to willingly allow vaccine-mad scientists to permanently reprogram their DNA, so DARPA, using taxpayer dollars, has figured out a different approach. Consider what Gates-funded pediatrician Peter Hotez suggested in an article he recently had published in the Nature journal. It plainly lays out the plan to coerce and terrorize the vaccine hesitant into getting injected, or else. Efforts must expand into the realm of cyber security, law enforcement, public education and international relations, Hotez writes. A high-level inter-agency task force reporting to the UN secretary-general could assess the full impact of anti-vaccine aggression, and propose tough, balanced measures. The task force should include experts who have tackled complex global threats such as terrorism, cyber attacks and nuclear armament, because anti-science is now approaching similar levels of peril. It is becoming increasingly clear that advancing immunization requires a counteroffensive. In other words, you and your family should be vaccinated at gunpoint, according to Hotez, whom some people actually take their children to see for medical care. If that does not work, then perhaps it is time to up the ante in another way by activating the self-spreading feature of the jabs that the vaccinated have already received in order to have them spread the vaccine contents to their friends and family members. Whatever it takes to ensure that every last human body on earth except for the elite, of course is vaccinated is now on the table. And you thought this was all to save lives? Already the vaccines are turning into a witchs brew with hundreds of thousands of deaths unreported by the mainstream media, wrote one commenter at The Bulletin. You have to dig to find the covered-up information, but its out there. Life is a crap chute; you dont need any extra crap from Big Pharma. To keep up with the latest news about the governments plans for mass genocide under the guise of fighting the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19), be sure to check out ChemicalViolence.com. Sources for this article include: TheBulletin.org NaturalNews.com Nature.com (Natural News) The East African nation of Seychelles re-imposed Wuhan coronavirus restrictions after Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) cases suddenly spiked there. The reintroduced measures followed the country fully vaccinating more than 62 percent of its adult population. Seychelles received doses of the Sinopharm and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines, both of which require two shots. Schools in Seychelles were shuttered and sporting activities canceled under the new measures. The Seychellois government prohibited some types of gatherings and people from different households mixing together. Shops, bars and casinos were ordered to close early due to an 11 p.m. curfew, while non-essential workers were encouraged to work from home. Seychelles commenced its mass immunization program in January 2021. It used Chinese Sinopharm vaccine doses donated by the United Arab Emirates and AstraZeneca vaccine doses from India. As of writing, 62.2 percent of Seychellois adults in the country had received two doses of the vaccines. Meanwhile, 68.82 percent of Seychellois adults had received at least one dose. The country currently has 1,068 active COVID-19 cases with one-third being detected in people fully vaccinated with either the AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine. But Seychelless close links to South Africa may point to the South African B1351 variant as behind the rise in infections. COVID-19 tests confirmed the presence of the strain which, according to scientists, can evade immunity and undermine vaccine protection by up to 30 percent. Seychelles Health Minister Peggy Vidot remarked during a May 3 press conference: Despite all of the exceptional efforts we are making, the [COVID-19] situation in our country is critical right now with many daily cases reported last week. The country reported 500 new infections a record number on the same day as Vidots press conference. Vidot and other Seychellois health officials did not elaborate on what was causing the spikes in the countrys caseload. Instead, they attributed the surge to people taking fewer precautions against the virus this year compared to the previous year. Seychellois citizens comprise 84 percent of the 1,068 active COVID-19 cases in the country. The remaining 16 percent of cases have been detected in foreigners. Given these figures, health professionals there have exhorted people to adhere to public health guidelines to curb new infections. According to data from the Seychelles Ministry of Health, the country had a total of 531 coronavirus cases and one fatality back in January 2021. Seychellois President Wavel Ramkalawan announced the countrys COVID-19 immunization drive that month. But since that period, the countrys coronavirus figures ballooned to a total of 6,373 cases and 146 deaths. (Related: Breakthrough coronavirus cases still being reported, some even dying despite being fully vaccinated.) Seychelles situation echoes that of Chile Just like Seychelles, Chile saw a surge in COVID-19 cases despite its vaccination drive. The South American country used the Pfizer/BioNTech and Sinovac vaccines on its population. More than two-fifths of its population 42.44 percent of Chileans had received at least one dose of either vaccine. Unfortunately, Chiles successful vaccination program did not prevent a wave of infections. According to a Guardian op-ed, Chiles vaccination drive may have instilled a false sense of security in citizens. The country reopened its borders in November 2020 and introduced permits for Chileans to go on summer vacation in January 2021. It also reopened schools, churches and other business establishments. House cleaner Genoveva Fernandez cited an example of this false sense of security when she spoke with NBC News. I see young people everywhere gathering in big groups. Masks are mandatory in Chile, but I see many youngsters with them around their chins, eating food on the subway [and] just not being careful, she said. I think they believe the government is trying to manipulate them with the rules, but it just feels like they dont care about protecting older [persons]. Universidad del Desarrollo Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health Policy Studies Director Dr. Ximena Aguilera also pointed out the role of young people and increased movement in spreading the virus. She said: Young people are drivers of the pandemic, but large increases in mobility over the recent summer also appear to be a major [cause] of the increase in infections. All these factors led to Chile ordering a full lockdown on April 1. Seventy percent of Chileans were forced to quarantine inside their residences due to the lockdown order. Supermarket trips on weekends, previously allowed before the lockdown, were also banned. The mandate managed to stave off a peak of COVID-19 infections in the middle of that month. Visit Pandemic.news to read more articles about COVID-19 infections persisting in countries that already vaccinated their citizens. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk TheGuardian.com NBCNews.com (Natural News) In a departure from the policy of the previous administration, the United States has announced that it has joined an initiative to bring about tighter policing of online content, launched in the wake of the March 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand mosque massacre. (Article by Didi Rankovic republished from ReclaimTheNet.org) The initiative, known as the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist Content Online, was unveiled in May of the same year, with New Zealand and France driving it. Social media came under intense pressure from governments and regulators at the time, since the Australian who committed the crime livestreamed it on Facebook and was also active elsewhere online. In New Zealand and Australia, entire websites got blocked, with ISPs and telecommunications companies joining in the effort to prevent internet users from accessing this content. Those behind the Christchurch Call believe that the attack inspired others around the world to similar action, and their solution is to have governments and tech and social media companies come together in removing content that they deem to be extremist. Before the US joined, more than 50 other governments did the same, while Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon, Microsoft and Google all supported the initiative. The Biden administration move is not surprising, given that the State Department supported the Christchurch Call in March, saying also that it was encouraging tech companies to more strictly enforce their community standards and terms of service as a way to remove users seen as inciting violence. A statement issued now to announce that the US has formally joined the initiative mentions combating whats termed as domestic violent extremism as one of the current administrations priorities, and clearly, cooperating with others who have signed on to the Christchurch Call is seen as a way to help achieve this goal. The State Department was careful to present its membership in the initiative as mindful of the importance of free expression, suggesting that the Christchurch Call is not designed to restrict speech. In addition to enforcing rules on social networks more vigorously, the State Department would also like to see anti-extremist propaganda (credible alternative narratives) promoted more heavily as another way to counter content the authorities disapprove of. Read more at: ReclaimTheNet.org and Censorship.news (Natural News) A 35-year-old woman from Michigan has become one of the latest to have died after taking one of the three approved COVID-19 vaccines, this one manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, according to a local report. Anne VanGeest passed away April 19 in Grand Rapids after suffering a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage, FOX 17 reported. It is with profound sadness that we share the news of Annes passing as the result of complications after receiving the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Anne (Annie), who was 35, was a loving mother, wife, sister and daughter, her family said in a statement. An active member in the animal rescue community, Annie will be remembered as a fierce advocate, a master-multi-tasker and a caring friend by her colleagues, fellow volunteers and family. We ask for privacy for her family as they mourn Annies passing and celebrate her life, the family added. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed in an email to the VanGeest family that Annes death was reported through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, by a healthcare provider. VAERS is a reporting system that is managed by the CDC and the federal Food and Drug Administration, or FDA. VAERS accepts reports of possible side effects (also called adverse events) following vaccination. The system is not designed to determine whether a reported adverse event was caused by the vaccine, but serves as an early warning system and helps CDC and FDA identify areas for further study, the CDC explained in the email. When VAERS receives reports of serious illness or death after vaccination, VAERS staff contact the hospital where the patient was treated to obtain the associated medical records to better understand the adverse event, the email added. VanGeests death is one of thousands you read that correctly, thousands who have perished as a result of the vaccine, according to an in-depth report this week on VAERS-reported COVID vaccine deaths. How many Americans have died after taking the COVID vaccines? Not Americans whove been killed by the virus, thats a huge number, but how many Americans have died after getting the vaccines designed to prevent the virus? Do you know the answer to that question? Do you know anything about the downside? Carlson said as he began his monologue on Wednesday. After noting that Americans have been put under enormous pressure by the federal government, the Democrat left, and their corporate allies to get vaccinated, he dropped this bomb: Roughly 30 Americans per day are dying from a COVID vaccine, based on data reported to VAERS. And whats more, Carlson notes, death reporting through that agency is historically and notoriously undercounted. Every flu season, we give influenza shots to more than 160 million Americans. Every year, a relatively small number of people seem to die after getting those shots. To be precise, in 2019, that number was 203 people. The year before, it was 119. In 2017, a total of 85 people died from the flu shot, Carlson said. Every death is tragic, but big picture, we dont consider those numbers disqualifying. We keep giving flu shots, and very few people complain about it. So the question is how do those numbers compare to the death rate from the coronavirus vaccines now being distributed across the country? Thats worth knowing, he continued, noting that he had his research staff check the numbers (reported). Heres the answer, which comes from the same set of government numbers that we just listed: Between late December of 2020, and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the COVID vaccines in the United States. Three thousand, three hundred and sixty-two thats an average of 30 people every day, he said. By the way, that reporting period ended on April 23. We dont have numbers past that, were not quite up to date. But we can assume that another 360 people have died in the 12 days since. That is a total of 3,722 deaths. Almost four thousand people died after getting the COVID vaccines. The actual number is almost certainly much higher than that perhaps vastly higher. Still want to get that vaccine? Sources include: Fox17Online.com FoxNews.com Pandemic.news Chinese FM puts forward proposals for high-quality Belt and Road development Xinhua) 17:49, May 12, 2021 Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi addresses the opening ceremony of the Fifth Silk Road International Exposition and the Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China via video link in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province on May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Wei Xiang) XI'AN, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday put forward proposals including deepening public health cooperation for the high-quality development of the Belt and Road cooperation. Wang attended and addressed the fifth Silk Road International Exposition, as well as the Investment and Trade Forum for Cooperation between East and West China in Xi'an, capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, via video link. Wang called for deepening public health cooperation in an all-around way to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) partners should strengthen unity, carry out information sharing and joint prevention and control, and strengthen international cooperation in vaccine research, production and distribution to realize vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries. He called for enhanced connectivity to consolidate the foundation for higher-level development. He said BRI partners should accelerate the improvement of channels for personnel exchanges and cargo transportation, strengthen the infrastructure connectivity, promote the alignment of rules and standards, and deepen cooperation in digital interconnectivity. BRI partners should stick to mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation, and build a higher-quality economic and trade cooperation platform. He noted that partners should firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, promote the construction of free trade zones, build an open world economy, and accelerate cooperation in emerging areas such as cross-border e-commerce and cloud exhibitions. BRI partners should also focus on green and sustainable development, Wang said, calling for cooperation in the fields of green infrastructure, green energy and green finance. Slovak First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Richard Sulik, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, and Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches via video link. Hailing the fruits of the joint construction of the Belt and Road, the officials said they looked forward to deepening pragmatic cooperation with China in various fields under the framework of the BRI, strengthening international anti-pandemic cooperation, and promoting the early recovery of the regional and world economies. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) While there was no malicious intent behind this mistake, we are working diligently to fix it. We have begun redubbing Ms Coxs voice with female actors in our international territories and are pushing back release dates to ensure the correct version is available. The 45-minute program of works by Terence Blanchard, Mozart and Verdi will be performed twice Sunday night before audiences of 150, which will include first responders and Met audience members selected by lottery. The concert will be at the Knockdown Center in Queens rather than the Metropolitan Opera House. By PTI SINGAPORE: The Adani Group has opened its regional headquarters office in Singapore with focus on the energy, infrastructure and technology portfolios. Adani Singapore (SG) Country Head Jeyakumar Janakaraj said that Singapore was an ideal choice for Adani's regional headquarters, thanks to its ideal geographic location, legal and regulatory structure. "Our business has already had a presence in Singapore for 20 years, so we know first-hand that Singapore supports innovation and entrepreneurship and therefore is a perfect location for Adani's global ambition in this region," Janakaraj said in a release on Wednesday. Adani SG has the experience and expertise to meet the large-scale infrastructure challenges of emerging economies in South-East Asia. For this region, Adani SG is focusing on the energy, infrastructure and technology portfolios, as these are the most crucial infrastructure needs of developing nations, he said. The Adani Group looks forward to developing partnerships with corporations in Singapore and the ASEAN region, especially those that will create new ventures in the rapidly growing Indian market. The Adani Group is India's largest infrastructure conglomerate with businesses ranging from renewable power generation, power transmission and distribution, gas distribution, airport management, ports and terminals, agribusiness and food production and logistics to data centres. By Express News Service BENGALURU: Eleven patients and two staffers at Spandana Health Care tested positive for COVID-19 after a psychiatrist working there contracted the virus from her mother-in-law who was a Kumbh Mela returnee. Eighteen people tested positive in the doctor's family. While everyone in the hospital, including patients and staffers, has recovered, the incident has prompted it to open a 40-bed section for COVID-19 patients. ALSO READ: Karnataka gets lifeline as first Oxygen Express for state chugs into Bengaluru "The doctor came to work only for a day. As her mother-in-law developed symptoms of cough and fever, they both isolated themselves and got tested, turning positive thereafter. In a matter of one day, the virus spread fast. 250 patients in our hospital were screened for COVID and some tested positive. It became a cluster and the BBMP visited as well," said Dr Mahesh Gowda, director of Spandana Health Care. The other two staffers who tested positive include a psychiatrist and an admin worker. The hospital cordoned off one floor and treated all the patients and staff. The doctor herself was admitted for 3-4 days and then went into home isolation. After this, a COVID centre was started on one floor, separate from the 200-bed centre treating psychiatric patients. The COVID section includes all the medical requirements for treatment including non-invasive ventilation and oxygen. "Contact tracing is important. People should not hesitate to come to doctors and nurses if they experience even the slightest of symptoms," Dr Gowda said. By Express News Service BENGALURU: While a stern watch is being kept on large hospitals, nodal officials should be appointed to smaller hospitals in each zone, said BBMP Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta on Tuesday.Nodal officials already keep an eye on hospitals with over 100 beds, but it is not the case with smaller ones. Nodal officials should also check smaller facilities and ensure 50 per cent of beds are reserved, he added. Gupta, along with Revenue Minister R Ashoka, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai and other officials, held a virtual meeting with management of private hospitals.Gupta said that earlier, only a few hospitals were allotted to IAS and IPS officers, but now, all hospitals will be under the purview of these officers.Bommai said that at present, stepdown hospitals have 960 beds, which should be increased to at least 5,000 in two days. Ashok said that within a day, all beds that were supposed to be given to the government should be handed over. He directed officials to seize beds if 50 per cent of them are not reserved and to take legal action. He set a target to increase bed capacity to 50,000 in two days.Principal Secretary, Revenue Department, N Manjunatha Prasad said that nine teams, led by IAS and IPS officers, have been deployed for bed allocation.Earlier, Covid in-charge minister V Somanna, along with Bommai, Ashoka and MLA Byrathi Suresh, inspected CCCs in Hebbal, CV Raman Nagar and Rajiv Gandhi Dental College. Vaccinate all forest staff, kin Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Sanjay Mohan has written to Forest Minister Aravind Limbavali, urging him to create facilities to vaccinate all forest staff and their family members at taluk offices. The letter stated that Madhu Sharma, information and publicity officer, has been appointed as nodal officer for this task. By PTI NEW DELHI: A 500-bed ICU centre attached to the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital here, which was supposed to start functioning from Tuesday, could not become operational due to some "technical glitches", Health Minister Satyendar Jain said. The ICU centre has been set up at the Ramlila Ground in front of the Delhi government-run GTB Hospital. "Due to some unavoidable technical glitches, extended facility of GTB hospital will be operational from tomorrow. Team GTB is working day and night to ensure health care services are available to Delhiites," Jain said in a tweet. Meanwhile, Hansraj College has offered its hostel for setting up a 100-bed health facility for COVID-19 patients. An RT-PCR testing centre has also been set up at the college and will start functioning from Wednesday, its principal Rama Sharma said. "Hansraj College , University of Delhi has always come forward and stood by the country whenever the need has arisen. Hansraj College has a hostel that caters to 200 residents. We are ready to offer the space with your support that can be converted into 100 ICU facility as the Covid patients are not getting hospital beds and that is causing anxiety," she said in a letter to Lt Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other officials on May 9. The letter has also been sent to Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain and some officials. She also urged the authorities to set up a vaccination centre in the college. "University employees and their families are also facing challenges as facilities are scattered and infected people are increasing each day. Testing and vaccination both are important to contain the spread." "We also request you to set up a vaccination (Covishield) and testing centre in the college for the university teaching and non-teaching staff. This will ensure that people above 18 years get vaccinated with Covishield immediately," the letter said. Delhi University had started a COVID-19 isolation centre with a capacity of 180 beds in Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College. The university's Lakshmibai College has also started an isolation centre as a tribute to one of its staffers who died due to the infection. Delhi University has also set up central helplines for its staffers who are looking for ventilator beds, oxygen cylinders, food supplies and even for counselling. "We have put in place a centralised system. Earlier it was being done by colleges and other bodies but now we have set up helplines which will be available for varsity staffers," said the varsity's acting vice-chancellor Professor P C Joshi. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday told the Delhi High Court that the ongoing construction activities in and around India Gate do not pertain to new Parliament building or new offices for the Central government. Instead, the current construction is with respect to public spaces visited by people and tourists at Rajpath, it said. It is respectfully submitted that the scope of work for the project in question is not what is colloquially referred to as the Central Vista Project (which includes Parliament, refurbishment of North Block, South Block, construction of new offices for central government). The scope of work which is a subject matter of the present petition is limited to the redevelopment of Central Vista Avenue (i.e., both side of the Rajpath) where Republic Day Celebrations are held. The court will hear the case on Wednesday. The affidavit came on the petition filed by Anya Malhotra and Sohail Hashmi, who has sought halt on the construction due to the Covid-19 situation. The HC, meanwhile, allowed the early hearing application moved by the petitioners who contended that the project was not an essential activity. Himabindu Reddy By Express News Service HYDERABAD: They are not knights in shining armour, but silent warriors in PPEs guarding us from a pandemic. With not a minute to rest, they have been putting their lives on the line for over a year now to nurse us back to health. Every year, May 12 is observed as International Nurses Day and it has assumed all the more significance ever since the pandemic broke out last year. With the rising Covid cases putting pressure on the citys health infrastructure, nurses in several hospitals are holding the fort and making sure that all patients get the best possible care. We speak to some of them and bring to you their stories. Here are the Florence Nightingales of Hyderabad She derives strength from her uniform S Vijaya Kumari, general secretary of the NIMS Nurses Union, started her career at CMC Vellore and has been a nurse at the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) for the last 29 years. These are extremely dangerous times we are living in but once I wear my uniform, I just feel strong. Theres something about a nurses uniform which gives me immense courage, says Vijaya, who had earlier wanted to be a teacher. But her parents forced her to take up nursing and she is thankful that they decided her career for her. No other profession would have given me such satisfaction as nursing. It is a precious thing to be a nurse and I feel proud that I am one, she says. Ask her if the rising Covid cases scare her, she says: I am not scared of death. Its all Gods will. I believe in that. Till date I havent contracted Covid despite working in the triage and Covid wards, she says. Back in February this year, she used to see hardly as couple of cases a day, but now she sees anything between 30 and 50. Many nurses sought a transfer to other departments because they were scared of contracting Covid. But I stuck on, someone had to be there to motivate the and support the juniors. Also, nursing is not just about administering medicines and injections. A nurse has to build a bond with patients, she says. This single mom is all heart GH Laxmi, a 38-year-old nurse Gandhi Hospital, has been working non-stop ever since the pandemic hit Hyderabad last year. A mother of two, the single parent sees her kids once a week. My husband left me a year ago because he wanted me to quit nursing and did not want me to be on Covid duty. But I refused to give up my passion. Now, I dont have any support except for my younger sister, who helps me with the kids, an emotional Laxmi says. She sees at least 20 Covid patients every day and deals with several deaths too, yet she remains unfazed by the harsh realities that the pandemic is throwing at her every single day. We all have to die someday in some way or the other. And I want to die a happy woman. The only thing that satisfies me is serving the people of this country during these trying times. I cannot be selfish now when thousands of people are dying every single day. I refuse to give up all the training and skills I acquired. All I can think of is to help as many people as I can, she says. Patients are his priority Heres a male nurse who is giving it his all to ensure that his patients recover from the deadly virus. His life is in a PPE suit and it is tough. We are in our PPE suits 24x7. We cant take a water break or even visit the restroom for six hours straight. Once we take off our face shield, we have to change the entire suit. It becomes so difficult to administer IV because we cannot see anything through the foggy face shield, says Mohd Nizamuddin, a contract staff nurse at NIMS. Nizamuddin, who had contracted the virus last month but had mild symptoms, is worried about his family. I try my best to keep them safe. I take hot baths before leaving from the hospital. Yet my one-year-old boy and wife got infected, he says. He says the government should realise the conditions in which nurses are working in and should abolish this contract/outsourcing system. I get paid only Rs 25,000 a month despite having 10 years experience. Theres so much burden on us at the hospital because every second healthcare worker is testing positive and is in quarantine. Just recently an ANM, who was seven-months pregnant, died of Covid. At least if there is job security, I will be at peace, he says. Fear is a cruel killer D Rosy, a 36-year-old contract staff nurse at NIMS, has been isolating herself from her family for the last 15 months. Ive been sleeping in a separate room so that my husband and kids do not get infected. I eat after they are all done with their meal. I see so many Covid patients every day and am exposed to so many bodies, I cannot put my family at risk, she says. Rosy, who is deployed at the hospitals emergency block, believes in creating a strong bond with her patients. There are no beds, theres no oxygen but it is mostly the fear that is killing people. There have been times when an ambulance arrives at the emergency block and by the time we wheel out the patient, he/she is dead. This is also happening because people are delaying treatment and that last-minute panic worsens their condition, says Rosy, who sees 30-40 Covid patients a day. Speaking about the conditions nurses work in, she says that shes seen eight-month pregnant nurses also working in Covid wards as they were not granted maternity leave. We dont want to be showered with flowers from a helicopter or any such grand gesture. All we want is job security, she says. Rosy has been isolating herself from her family for the last 15 months. She sleeps in a separate room, eats alone Himabindu Reddy himabindugopinath@newindianexpress.com @himureddy By Express News Service KOCHI: We celebrate International Nurses Day today, as India is facing a shortage of nurses in Covid frontline duty. As per the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data, there are only 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people in the country. One of the main reasons for this shortage is their migration to high-income countries like the US, UK, Germany and the Gulf, among other places. They are not to be blamed for looking for better opportunities abroad, as many of them are frustrated with the heavy workload of underpaying Indian hospitals. The attitude of a few hospital managements towards their staff is questionable. They and patients often undervalue the services offered by nurses. The mounting education loan interest and the financial constraints to make ends meet leave them with no option but to fly out, even if it is to conflict zones like Iraq, Nigeria, Congo, or Libya. Most of them hail from underprivileged families. The trials and tribulations faced by the nurses working overseas, especially women, in their professional and social lives are often disregarded in the mainstream media and policy narratives. Discussions on migration-development nexus typically revolve around the remittances sent by the male migrants, and thus the contributions of female nurses to the development of the source and destination economies are unacknowledged. On the other hand, male nurses are overshadowed by the hypervisibility of male migrants in other professions. The Covid crisis has revealed that the migration experiences of Indian nurses are not only economic but also sociocultural, physical, mental and environmental. Though the pandemic has surged the global demand for Indian nurses, they are highly regarded in their destination countries, their workload has increased disproportionately. During the surge of Covid cases, they faced a shortage of personal protective equipment, anxiety about their safety, elevated stress due to overstretched clinical facilities, extended shifts and exhaustion, the physical exertion of wearing the protective gear, the anguish of witnessing the sufferings daily and so much more. Above all, the concerns about the well-being of family members back home overwhelmed them beyond comprehension. However, the policy frameworks of India largely exclude the migrant nurses from its ambit and put them at the mercy of the destination countries. This is time for us, as a society to acknowledge the incomparable service provided by the migrant health care workers to the countries they have migrated to and the growth of India through their economic and social remittances. For ages, we have considered women as mere beneficiaries of migration. The grand narratives of women following male migrants overseas as dependents excluded them from the legal definitions of migrant and national policy formulations. However, the case of Indian migrant nurses proves that they are economic actors and primary breadwinners for the family. It is high time to include them in the economic narratives of the country and execute well-targeted measures that ensure their safety and welfare at all phases of migration and return. If the mayor, who has been unwilling to carry out a decarceration plan ... and the department is unable to staff [the jails] and staff programs, then the city should let the judges know that it is not able to take people who they send to them. It is dangerous for the staff, and is dangerous to the people who are being incarcerated. Anupama Mili By Express News Service KOCHI: For a year now, the countrys healthcare system has been wrestling an unprecedented pandemic. We can never thank our healthcare staff, especially nurses, enough for fighting battles, caring for patients more than their own families. On International Nurses Day, TNIE salutes every one of them, for their undying kindness Since 2018, our nurses have been on a relentless fight, first against Nipah, and now Covid. Every day, they walk into work risking their own lives and those of their families. They get little gratitude, but that doesnt stop them from saving lives. Keralas reduced mortality rate and efficient healthcare system even in the wake of the second wave have gathered applause from around the world. The Prime Minister and chief minister praised our nurses for reporting negative wastage of Covid vaccines, meaning, making more doses by extracting even the last bit left in the vial, while the country was reeling from a severe vaccine shortage. Nurses claim that the negative wastage was not an overnight effort, but they were trained for nearly a week on how to save vaccine in each injection and ensure that the vaccinated person is free from any uneasiness afterwards.Anupama U, a nursing officer at General Hospital, Ernakulam, is part of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) that was the first to conduct vaccinations in the district, is rattled as she speaks of the life and death horrors they have been witnessing. We were trained on how different types of vaccines have to be handled, educating people on them, and more. Covishield vaccine has 10 doses in a vial. There are chances of spillage while nurses taking out or injecting the dose. So, the companies keep an extra dose, calculating this spillage factor. If we operate with extreme care, this extra dose can be used on another person. We could sometimes give 11 or 12 doses from a single vial, saving this extra dose, said Anupama. A vial of Covaxin carries 20 doses. Saving the spillage dose, Keralas nurses could give up to 21 or 22 from a single vial.Vijayakrishnan R, nursing officer (Grade B) at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology said that their institute marked -36 per cent wastage. Covishield has 6ml in a vial. Of that 0.5 ml has to be taken for one vaccination. If the staff is very cautious, he/she can take the exact amount and keep the spillage factor intact. In some cases, we could give 11 doses from a vial and later up to 12 doses. Though we had a vaccination centre here from February to April, the drive was stopped due to shortage of vaccine, he said. SCHOLARSHIPS FOR INDIAN NURSES The Institute of Health & Management based in Australia is planning to offer D10 crore-worth (AUS-$2 million) scholarships to Indian nurses as a mark of recognition of their commitment and dedication during the pandemic. The scholarships will be offered to those undertaking the Gateway to global nursing programme with three pathway options. In a statement on the eve of World Nursing Day, IHM Founder and Managing Director Bijo said the dedication showed by the nurses and other health professionals despite life-threatening hardships needed recognition and support from all sections of the society. The details of the scholarships including the eligibility and qualification would be announced shortly. Each scholarship would be worth 2,000 Australian dollars. Psychological counselling Nursing officers are given counselling frequently by clinical psychologists from the District Mental Health Programme to help them handle the crisis. They follow up through phone calls and video calls. They also provide counselling to inpatients through video calls to keep their emotional health intact. Many of these nurses, apart from taking the two doses of vaccination, turned Covid positive, but they say the recovery chances are high. . National attention On May 4, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan tweeted that the state had received 73,38,806 doses of vaccine from GoI. Weve provided 74,26,164 doses, even making use of the extra dose available as a wastage factor in each vial. Our health workers, especially nurses have been super efficient and deserve our wholehearted appreciation! Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on Twitter on May 5, retweeted the post, commenting, Good to see our healthcare workers and nurses set an example in reducing vaccine wastage. Reducing vaccine wastage is important in strengthening the fight against Covid-19. Krishnachand K By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the wake of the grave Covid situation, one more oxygen storeroom will be opened in two days at the district oxygen war room at Government Womens College to meet the needs of ambulances in case of an emergency. As part of it, 50 oxygen cylinders will be readied in the room and they will be refilled on time to ensure an uninterrupted supply of oxygen. Primarily, the new storeroom is for the 108 ambulances plying in the district for taking the patients who are being admitted to the government hospitals complaining of a dip in oxygen saturation levels. At present, the ambulances have to fill and refill the cylinders even after receiving a call from the patients, which consume much more time. To avoid such a situation, the district administration has informed the district war room to open one more storeroom for ambulances. The war room has a buffer facility that now accommodates 54 cylinders. Dr Vineeth V N, nodal officer, district war room, told TNIE that the new store would cater to 200-odd 108 ambulances. This new storeroom would be easier for us to frequently mobilise medical oxygen for the needy. It will also prevent a critical situation, although there is no such crisis regarding oxygen supply in the district. However, we are working round-the-clock to avert any alarming situation, he said. The district administration has set up the oxygen war room which has eight volunteers. It receives an average of 40 phone calls daily. Hospitals that need oxygen can enter it in the registration portal of the new war room. Earlier, a Covid war room was opened at the collectorate and a state war room was opened at the Secretariat. According to officials in war room, the medical college hospital has the highest demand for medical oxygen owing to the rise in the number of patients. We are closely monitoring the Covid-19 Jagratha portal. There has been a rise in demand for oxygen from government hospitals, especially from the medical college and general hospital Vineeth added. By PTI MUMBAI: Veteran actor Mukesh Khanna has dismissed the rumours about his death, insisting that he is safe and healthy. The 62-year-old actor took to social media on Tuesday after rumours started doing the rounds that he was no more. Posting a short video on Facebook, Khanna also said that he has not tested positive for coronavirus. "I am here to inform you all that I am perfectly alright. I am very well. I am here to dismiss the rumors, I have been asked to refute them and that is what I want to do," the actor said. I am perfectly alright. Take care. pic.twitter.com/lR5Y3rFQYn Mukesh Khanna (@actmukeshkhanna) May 11, 2021 Khanna, best known for starring in the superhero show "Shaktimaan" and playing Bhishma Pitamaha in the television series "Mahabharata", expressed anger over the fake news. "I also wish to condemn those who spread such rumours. This is a problem with social media." "What should be the treatment for such mentally unstable people? Who will punish their misdeeds? Enough is enough. Now it is too much. There should be a stop on such fake news," the actor added. In the caption for the video, Khanna said he has not been diagnosed with COVID-19. "With your blessings, I am completely healthy and safe. I don't have COVID-19 and I was not admitted to any hospital. I don't know who created this rumour and I don't know what is the intention of those who spread such rumours. They tamper with people's emotions with such false news," he wrote. In March, Khanna was among the celebrities who took their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and had urged other people to follow suit. By PTI NEW DELHI: Actor Randeep Hooda admits that in his 20-year-long journey in the Hindi film industry, he is "guilty" of doing less work but is glad filmmakers still find him interesting as a performer. It was director Mira Nair who gave Hooda his big break with her critically-acclaimed 2001 movie "Monsoon Wedding" and gave the world a glimpse into what he is capable of. Over the years, he spent time working in theatre with veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah's troupe Motley, while also straddling cinema courtesy "D", "Darna Zaroori Hai" and "Love Khichdi". Critics' praise and audience's love started coming his way when he featured in films like "Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai", Tigmanshu Dhulia's "Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster", "Jannat 2" and "Main Aur Charles". Reflecting upon his journey, the 44-year-old actor said it has been a "truthful" experience where he witnessed both ups and downs. "It has been full of failures and successes, disappointments and excitement. There have been lots of hits and equal number of misses. I have learnt a lot. So all in all, a very truthful journey and I look back at it with a lot of gratitude. Even though they say 'Jo dikhta hai, wo bikta hai', I have been guilty of not being seen very much. But still after long breaks, I get interesting work. My biggest achievement would be that after 20 years also, filmmakers find me interesting as an actor," Hooda told PTI in an interview. According to the Rohtak-born actor, he has an "underrated" potential that remains to be tapped by filmmakers. "I do believe that I'm still unexplored, which is a great thing when you have worked for such a long time," he added. The actor considers his 2020 Netflix action movie "Extraction" to be the "feather in my cap". "Extraction", directed by Sam Hargrave and backed by Anthony and Joe Russo of "Avengers: Endgame" fame, was headlined by Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth and also featured Golshifteh Farahani and David Harbour. ALSO READ| I haven't done a massy film before: Disha Patani on 'Radhe' "Every project kind of adds to your repertoire and 'Extraction' is definitely a feather in my cap. People in the West have taken a notice of me. Also, I had never done physical action in my career and I'm glad that I got to do that with 'Extraction'," he added. Things have definitely started looking up for Hooda post the summer blockbuster, which was a huge hit in the country and world over, he observed. "It was a big step for me vis a vis my future prospects. A lot of avenues have opened up for me post 'Extraction' and I'm getting a lot of varied work than what I was doing earlier," he added. The actor now reunites with Bollywood superstar Salman Khan for "Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai". They have previously starred together in hits like "Kick" and "Sultan". "We have shared a friendship for many years, it has gone through ups and downs, working and not working kind of relationship. I was chasing him in 'Kick', training in 'Sultan' and now I'm testing what he has learnt in 'Radhe'. That sums up our professional journey. It is always a pleasure working with him," said Hooda, who plays the antagonist Rana in the movie. "Radhe", which will start streaming on multiple platforms, including OTT and DTH services, from Thursday, features Khan as the titular encounter specialist tackling drug menace in Mumbai. The film was earlier scheduled to arrive in theatres on May 22 last year but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Hooda noted that it was a similar situation with "Extraction", which was released last April, when many countries were under strict lockdown in the wake of the pandemic. The actor said he hopes that "Radhe" is able to bring some solace to the audiences during the second wave of coronavirus in the country. "When 'Extraction' was released, the whole world was under lockdown. We felt relieved that we were able to take people's mind off the pandemic for two hours and entertain them in their homes. Now the whole world is not under lockdown but India is having its second wave and it is worse than before," he added. So, now 'Radhe' is releasing. My hope is that once again people take their minds off from the depressing situation, even if it is for two hours. Backed by Salman Khan Films and Reel Life Production Private Limited, the film is produced by Salma Khan and Sohail Khan. A Sharadhaa By Express News Service BENGALURU: Roaring Star Sriimurali, among the first Sandalwood celebrities to get vaccinated against Covid- 19 when the government opened up registration for people below 45 years of age, hopes everyone gets their shot soon. The 39-year-old actor posted a picture on his Instagram and said, I got my first dose of vaccination. If you havent yet, please do, and dont delay #stayhome #staysafe. Thanking all our #frontlinewarriors #respect (sic). Other celebrities who also got their first doses on May 10 include actor Ashika Ranganath and director Mahesh Kumar. After the actor posted his picture, he got several messages on his social media accounts from people telling him that they were unable to get their first shot. It is very disturbing. I registered on CoWIN and after a week, I got my first dose. I am not aware of why people are facing this problem, but I think needs to be rectified, and that every citizen across Karnataka must get the dose, Sriimurali says. Actor Sriimurali He said that doctors were advising people to get immunised against Covid-19. It is best to go by doctors advice. I consider it a social responsibility and we must oblige for the well-being of society, he says. The actor urged people not fear the vaccine when their turn came, and not be hesitant either. Its all about the mindset. My wife (Vidya) and I have taken the vaccine and our bodies are reacting to it differently. It was like body pain one feels after vigorous exercise. I would suggest, as do many others, to practise yoga, breathing exercises, eat good food and take lots of fluids. One should stay away from rumours and work towards building immunity, he says. Meanwhile, Sriimuralis leg is healing along nicely. He had suffered a leg injury on April 7 while shooting a 12-second action sequence for his latest film Mada Gaja. Thankfully, the doctor said that I dont need surgery, and has advised three more weeks of rest. Fortunately or unfortunately, this lockdown has helped me to take rest, the actor says. Although some shooting for the film is yet to be completed, the actor said post-production is being done simultaneously. Sriimuralis next commitment is Bagheera -- a project directed by Dr Suri for which the script has been written by Prashanth Neel and which will be produced by Hombale Films. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: A Sub Inspector of Delhi Police on Tuesday saved the life of a Covid-affected pregnant woman by timely donating his plasma. The plasma has been arranged through the Jeevan Rakshak plasma bank team of the city police. SI Akash who is currently posted in Roop Nagar Police Station in the jurisdiction of North District received a call from the Jeevan Rakshak team of Delhi Police for urgent need of plasma for the pregnant woman. I immediately accepted the request and went to ILBS Hospital in Vasant Kunj to donate plasma and save two lives the mother and the unborn child, said Akash. The woman was 27 years old and 21-week pregnant. She was getting treatment in a hospital at Uttam Nagar area. A tweet was circulating that a 21-week pregnant lady requires O+ blood group plasma. The team working under the Jeevan Rakshak initiative of Delhi Police approached the contact number available in the tweet and arranged the plasma by immediately contacting the SI Akash, said the police. After donating plasma at ILBS, the SI himself handed it over to the husband of the pregnant woman. The husband informed that he tried to arrange some donors but they could not fulfil the basic criteria needed to donate plasma as per medical guidelines. He started losing hope but timely help of the police saved his wife, said Delhi Police. According to Delhi Police, the Jeevan Rakshak team has received more than thousand requests for plasma from the public and more than 100 police officials have registered and filled the willingness forms for donating plasma. Delhi Police recently felicitated 20 plasma donors during the police wellness webinar for donating plasma. By Express News Service BHOPAL: A day after over 70 dead bodies had washed ashore on the banks of Ganga in Bihar and adjoining East Uttar Pradesh, there are now reports now of corpses found floating in a river in Madhya Pradesh. The incident came to light when residents of Nandanpur village in Panna district alleged that four to five corpses were seen floating in the Runj river which is reportedly a drinking water source for the cattle. After bodies floating in Ganga river in UP and Bihar, now bodies found in Runj river in MP's Panna district. Panic struck villagers in Panna district's Nandanpur village await local administration help, as bodies decay in the river. @NewIndianXpress@khogensingh1 @gsvasu_TNIE pic.twitter.com/SZGRtp8xu9 Anuraag Singh (@anuraag_niebpl) May 11, 2021 "We are afraid that an epidemic might break out in our village due to these dead bodies which have been floating for the past five to six days. We also use this water for drinking once our hand pumps dry out due to low ground water level," a local said. District Collector of Panna, Sanjay Kumar Mishra, while confirming the presence of human corpses in the river, clarified that there are just two bodies there. While one was that of 95-year-old, another was that of a cancer patient, both were residents of Nandanpur village, he added. "The village sarpanch told us that both bodies were immersed and not cremated in the river as part of a long-standing tradition. Both bodies were retrieved on Tuesday and buried safely," Mishra said. By PTI NEW DELHI: In the wake of deaths among Aligarh Muslim University teachers and staffers due to COVID-19 and COVID-like symptoms, Lok Sabha MP Kunwar Danish Ali on Wednesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to send a central team to the varsity to help fight the "virus variant" there. In a letter to Modi, the Bahujan Samaj Party leader said the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is facing the most challenging time in a century due to the "dangerous explosion of a new variant" of COVID-19 that has devastated the campus. "Apart from being a Member of Parliament, I am also a Member of AMU Court, and a lot of AMU alumni from all over the country and abroad, are expressing their concern and urging to save this great educational institution which recently completed 100 years of its existence and you yourself addressed the centenary celebrations as a chief guest, in December, last year," Ali said in his letter to Modi. AMU needs an immediate visit by a central team from the Ministry of Health and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to assess the situation on the spot and take action without any further delay, he said. "AMU's Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College is not fully equipped to handle such a challenging situation due to shortage of medical equipment and other facilities," Ali said. "I, therefore, humbly request you to immediately send the central team to the AMU campus and provide medical assistance or allocate sufficient funds to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College to fight the new COVID variant and save precious lives in the campus and surrounding areas," he said. Alarmed by deaths in recent days among AMU teachers due to COVID-19 and COVID-like symptoms, Vice-Chancellor Tariq Mansoor had written to the ICMR on Sunday, urging it to study if a particular coronavirus variant is circulating around the university campus. At least 35 serving and retired AMU faculty members have died from coronavirus and coronavirus-like symptoms so far. By Express News Service KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that her government is ready to provide land for any manufacturing or franchisee operation for authentic vaccine manufacturing. She also requested the PM to identify the global players manufacturing authentic vaccines and speed up import procedures to meet the countrys demand. In her fifth letter to Modi since she assumed office on May 4, West Bengal CM reiterated her demand for adequate vaccines for the state. "It may kindly be considered if we could encourage the world players to open up franchise operations in our country. Even the national players could be inspired to go for the franchisee mode for bulk production of vaccines. We, in West Bengal, are ready to provide land and support for any manufacturing/franchisee operation for authenticating vaccine manufacturing, she said in her one-page letter to the PM. Quoting the experts, she pointed out that vaccination is now the real antidote to the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic. Pointing out that the production of vaccine is "extremely" inadequate and against the massive demand, she said, "It seems that the production (and hence, the supply and distribution) of vaccines in the country is extremely inadequate and insignificant in the context of the massive needs of the people at large. About 10 crore people in West Bengal and 140 crore people in the country need vaccination, here and how, but only a microscopic percentage has been covered." Urging Modi to import vaccines from foreign manufacturers to meet the countrys demand, Mamata said liberal, pro-active and discerning import of vaccines is the paramount need at present. "Reports indicate that globally there are many manufacturers. With the aid of scientists and experts, it is easy to identify the reputed and authentic manufacturers who have international reputations and credibility, and it is possible for us in the country to speedily import vaccines from those ends. I urge you to embark upon this endeavour without any further delay," she wrote. Sumi Sukanya Dutta By Express News Service NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/PATNA/RANCHI/CHANDIGARH/BHOPAL: An alarming rise in the deadly fungal disease mucormycosis in patients recovered from Covid in several states has prompted the Centre to take steps for ramping up the production of amphotericinB, an injectable medicine used to treat the condition. Mucormycosis, a rare infection also known as black fungus disease, is normally caused after exposure to mucor mould commonly found in soil, plants, manure, and decaying fruits and vegetables but is being reported in people following recovery from Covid. The condition, with an overall mortality rate of over 50%, affects the sinuses, the brain, eyes and the lungs and can be life-threatening in diabetic or severely immunocompromised individuals such as cancer patients or people with HIV. A large number of people, who have recovered from Covid in India, are now reporting this disease, as it gets triggered by the use of steroids, a life-saving treatment for severe and critically ill Covid-19 patients which is given to suppress the immune response against the virus. Doctors say mucormycosis primarily affects those with a history of diabetes or immunocompromised individuals and of late there has been a worrying rise in the number of such patients. Recognising the need to prioritise treatment of such patients, the Centre on Tuesday allocated amphotericinB among states based on supplies available till the end of this month. ALSO READ | Black fungus on rise in Covid patients, doctors blame use of steroids The Union government also said that talks are on with manufacturers of the drug to raise its availability and the supply position is expected to improve with extra imports of the medicine and an increase in its production domestically. States have also been urged to put in place a mechanism for equitable distribution of supplies between government and private hospitals. States already grappling with the huge challenge posed by Covid, on the other hand, are on the brink with the rising instances of mucormycosis cases. In Maharashtra, for instance, there are over 2,000 mucormycosis patients while 8 patients have already succumbed to the fungal infection. We are setting up special wards to treat fungal infected patients. We also urgently need one lakh injections that are effective on this mucormycosis. We have registered our demand with Haffkine Institute of Training and Research and they will soon float the tender to purchase these injections, said Health Minister Rajesh Tope. ALSO READ | 'No big outbreak' of black fungus infection: Head of Covid-19 taskforce VK Paul He added that patients with mucormycosis will be given free of cost treatment under the Mahatma Jyotibha Phule health scheme in 1,000 hospitals across the state. In Jharkhand, over 35 cases have emerged so far with a 38-year-old patient undergoing a procedure to remove one of his eyes. This patient was the first recorded case of the disease in the state, said Dr Anindya Anuradha at Medica Hospital in Ranchi and there are four others with severe damage to their eyes due to the disease. At PGI, Chandigarh a rise of 35% in cases of mucormycosis has been noted in one year. Doctors said that a total of 61 cases of the disease have been seen at the tertiary care centre since April 2020, 59 of whom had surgeries for partial or full removal of their eyes, and those without Covid recovered faster. Annually, around 45 such cases used to come before the pandemic, said PGI sources. At least 50 cases of this deadly disease have also been reported in Madhya Pradesh, according to CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. ALSO READ | Black fungus hits over 70 COVID-19 patients, six dead in Telangana Were developing a detailed protocol, which will include its causes, symptoms and treatment strategy. All patients infected with black fungus will be treated as per the protocol only. Since the injections used to treat this infection are costly, the government will ensure free treatment of economically weak patients of the infection at our government hospitals, Chouhan said in Bhopal on Wednesday. Sources said that black fungus cases have mostly been reported among post-Covid patients in Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur. Keeping in mind the rising cases, a dedicated Mucormycosis unit of 10-beds each is being created at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College in Jabalpur and Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal in the first phase. At Jabalpur Medical College, dean PK Kasar confirmed that two such patients have undergone surgery. The disease has also been detected in four persons in Bihar so far. These four Covid patients, with a history of diabetes, are currently under treatment at AIIMS and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Science in Patna. Clark mainlined drugs for years, regularly shooting up 20 bundles of heroin and three grams of cocaine a day, Federal Defender Jonathan Marvinny said. Clark nearly fatally overdosed three times. On the day of his arrest in November 2019, Clark nodded off and was unable to communicate with his attorney. By Express News Service MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has decided to prioritise vaccination in favour of those aged above 45 years. State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that many persons above 45 years of age are waiting for their second dose. The state government has decided to give a second dose out of the doses purchased for vaccinating 18 to 45-year-olds. The Centre has not provided adequate vaccines for the second doses meant for above 45-year-old people. So, people from 18-45 may not get the vaccines on time, Tope said. He said 1.84 crore citizens in Maharashtra have so far been vaccinated. The citizens above 45 years of age are vaccinated for free under the National Immunization Programme of the Central government. "The Union government is not fulfilling its responsibility of providing sufficient quantity of vaccine," he added. There are currently 35,000 doses of Covaxin in the state stocks while there are five lakh people over the age of 45 who are awaiting the second dose. So, the present stock is not enough for a large number of citizens, said Tope. We discussed the issue with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. As many as 2.75 lakh Covaxin doses purchased by the state government for the 18-45 group and the 35,000 doses will be used for those aged above 45 years. We have given instructions to all vaccination centres, Tope said. The Union government should grant approval to all the COVID-19 vaccines available in the global market, Tope said. "It is a reasonable and necessary thing to do now," the minister added. He said the second dose of Covishield will be given to 16 lakh citizens. As the vaccine procured by the state government will have to be used for the Central governments vaccination programme, discussions will be held with the state task force to defer immunization for the 18-44 group for a few days, he said. Further, the Centre should help the existing two vaccine-makers in the country -- Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India -- to enhance their production, Tope said. The Maharashtra government has asked vaccination centres to use the vials provided for the 18-44 age group to inoculate the above 45 category, the minister said. "We are going slow on the vaccination of 18-44 age group," he said. He said efforts were being made in the state for producing oxygen. District collectors have been empowered to procure more than 300 PSA devices. The first experiment of producing oxygen through ethanol has been made by Dharashiv Sugar Factory at Osmanabad. This factory has started producing four metric tonnes of oxygen per day, said Tope. "I spoke with Union health minister Harsh Vardhan but he also expressed inability to make doses available," Tope claimed. "We need two crore vaccine doses every month so that we can inoculate the entire population of Maharashtra in the next six months, but there is no supplier who can make so many vials," the health minister said. On the government exploring the possibility of acquiring doses of Russian vaccine Sputnik, he said an offer letter was sent to the Russian Direct Investment Authority seeking informatiion about price and production capacity. "There is no response from the company yet. There may be some intermediaries but there is no reason to trust them," he added. (With PTI Inputs) By PTI DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand government will be distributing Ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, among the residents of the state as a preventive medicine against the spread of COVID-19, a senior official said. The Uttarakhand government's announcement comes after Goa and Karnataka issued similar directions. The decision was taken on the recommendation of the state-level clinical technical committee, an order issued by Chief Secretary Om Prakash to all district magistrates said. The panel has recommended the Ivermectin tablet as "mass chemoprophylaxis" to effectively control the surge of COVID-19 infection apart from the vaccination drive, the order said. The 12 mg tablets of the drug will be distributed in a kit to all families through the health department and district magistrates, the order said. Usually, Ivermectin tablets have to be taken by adults and those above 15 years twice daily for three days after breakfast and dinner. ALSO READ: WHO warns against use of ivermectin suggested in India's national Covid management protocol One person will thus need six tablets and a family of four will need 24 tablets. Hence, each kit will contain two dozen tablets, the order said. Children between 10-15 years will take only one tablet daily whereas those aged between 2 to 10 years can be administered the drug only after doctor's advice. The tablet cannot be given to children below two years, pregnant women and those suffering from liver diseases, it said. The kit will come with directions on how to consume the medicine and dosage for different age groups. Information related to the daily distribution of the kits should be sent to the state nodal officer, the order said. Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had on Monday said all people above 18 years will be given Ivermectin drug irrespective of their coronavirus status to bring down the number of deaths due to the viral disease. Rane had said that people will be given Ivermectin 12 mg for five days as expert panels from the UK, Italy, Spain and Japan have found a statistically significant reduction in mortality, time to recovery and viral clearance in COVID-19 patients treated with this medicine. On Tuesday, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and state's COVID task force head C N Ashwath Narayan said 10 lakh Ivermectin tablets have been procured and their supply will begin on May 14. It has been further decided to procure 25 lakh tablets and make them available in all hospitals across the state, he said. Medical experts, however, have questioned the efficacy of the five-day duration of the drug regimen announced by Goa government saying the treatment should not be given for a short period but ideally be continued till the pandemic is brought under control. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: In an apparent bid to counter the flak the Centre has drawn from international media, on its handling of the second wave of Covid-19 and the rising number of deaths, BJP ministers and workers tweeted an opinion piece on PM Narendra Modi working hard and urged readers to not fall into traps laid by the opposition. The so-called opinion piece appeared on a website The Daily Guardian owned by iTV Network. However, this was not the only website doing the rounds on Twitter to counter the press coverage in India and abroad. There was The Australian Today which put out another opinion piece. Besides COVID-19, India is also fighting with vulture journalists, who are spreading more panic and despair than pandemic, in an apparent reaction to the work of senior journalist Barkha Dutt. An analysis of its domain showed no e-mail, registrar abuse contact or phone number, with only a tech contact name Jitarth Jai Bharadwaj, who is also editor-in-chief on the sites about us page. For The Daily Guardian, the domain was registered in UP, according to technical analysis. The article titled PM MODI HAS BEEN WORKING HARD; DONT GET TRAPPED IN THE OPPOSITIONS BARBS is written by Sudesh Verma, who represents BJP as a spokesperson on TV debates. Union ministers Pralhad Joshi, Kiren Rijju, Anurag Thakur, BJPs IT cell chief Amit Malviya and Verma were among those who tweeted the article. The tagline of the article claimed key points ought to be brought to the attention of people busy making PM Modi the scapegoat. Verma tweeted, criticising the uproar over the name of the newspaper. Lots of hue and cry made on #TDG it is our newspaper (Good Morning India) ppl around are over reacting? The Guardian is printed from UK and The Daily Guardian is printed from India. We are proud of our News Paper and its articles. We bring the truth out. Twitterati criticised the timing of the piece and the name of the website, which bears resemblance with a famous UK publication. They called it the BJP governments propaganda, at a time when it has attracted global bad press. Social media users expressed displeasure also over the headline of the article, written in all caps, and called it a toolkit for propaganda. The Facebook page of The Daily Guardian shows it was started in April, 2020. Its Twitter page reads The Daily Guardian: Finest Daily Newspaper of the country. E-paper @e-paper.thedailyguardian.com. The Australian Todays website claims it is an online news portal dedicated to narrative journalism. It offers the biggest names and best writing in news, culture, and analysis, with a particular focus on Australia and Indian subcontinent, the site says. By PTI MUMBAI: Due to acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccine doses, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday decided to suspend the drive to vaccinate those in the age group of 18 to 44 and divert the available stock for the above-45 years category, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said. The decision was taken during the state cabinet meeting, he told reporters here. The minister also claimed that the Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed the Maharashtra government that it would be able to provide 1.5 crore Covishield vaccine doses to the state only from May 20. "There is no sufficient supply of vaccine vials by the Centre for inoculation of above-45 age group people. Hence, the state cabinet decided to divert the stock, purchased for the 18-44 age group, for the above-45 age group," he said. While Covishield vaccine is manufactured by Pune-based SII, Covaxin is produced by Bharat Biotech. "Adar Poonawalla of SII informed Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray about SII's ability to supply around 1.5 crore vials of Covishield from May 20. Once we receive that supply, we will resume the vaccination of 18-44 age group," the minister said. On Tuesday, Tope had alleged that the Union government was not fulfilling its responsibility to provide adequate number of vaccine doses to states. "There are some 20 lakh people who have not received their second dose of vaccine. As per the scientific advisory, we can not delay their inoculation further, hence we decided to suspend the inoculation of 18-44 age group," he said. Some 16 lakh persons are waiting to get second jab of Covishield while the rest are to get a second dose of Covaxin. To meet this requirement of the above 45 group, around 10 lakh vials meant for the 18-44 age group will be diverted. Asked about Maharashtra's plans to purchase vaccines from the global market, Tope said, "The vaccines have to be approved by the Union government for their distribution here. The Union government has to first take that decision, then only a state can purchase vaccines from the global market. Vaccines of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson and Johnson require lower storage temperatures. Covishield and Covaxin vials can be stored at 2-8 degree Celsius, but other vaccines need temperature below zero, the minister noted. By PTI RANCHI: Combatting a massive second wave in Covid cases in the tribal state, Jharkhands men in Khaki have turned out to be true "Covid-19 warriors" - right from lending help to citizens get oxygen and beds to enforcing restrictions to contain the deadly surge and maintaining law and order. Jharkhand is passing through a corona crisis with mortality rate as high as 1.37 per cent against the national average of 1.10 per cent, recording over 4,000 deaths and it is here that the state police force has come forward to help span the manpower crunch. "As many as 7,343 of our policemen out of an over 59,000-strong police force has been afflicted with the virus in the line of duty," Jharkhand Director General of Police, Neeraj Sinha told PTI. Sinha himself was afflicted with the virus and has recovered recently. The DGP said of the Covid-19 affected police personnel, 6,578 have recovered and rest are under treatment. "Sadly, we lost 30 of our personnel despite extensive and regular sanitisation in the entire police establishment right from police stations to police lines and barracks. A high-risk job entails high-risk exposures," he said. The police force is ensuring compliance of various government directives to control the pandemic and enforce compliance of Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, he said. "With such high exposure to crowds, it is very difficult for many of our personnel to go back to their family as it will increase risk to their families. Many have isolated themselves from their families," Sinha said. Asked about constraints faced during these difficult times of pandemic, Sinha said there have been many instances where the force had to face stiff resistance while ensuring Covid-19 appropriate behaviour from a crowd and at many places faced attacks. A drive has been undertaken to impart awareness among people. More than 4,000 hoardings to create awareness have been installed by the Jharkhand police. It has also set up about 245 barriers to check people and ensure Covid-19 appropriate behaviour. With the state facing a crisis, there have been several instances where police personnel actively ensured beds, oxygen and ventilators to people in need. Besides special drives were carried out to prevent hoarding and black marketing of essential medicines and items. To keep the forces moral high "two deputy superintendent rank officers have been specially deputed to monitor the condition and the health status of all covid positive police personnel and their family members through one to one direct contact, he said. The control room ensures that affected police personnel and their family get medical care besides handling other issues like food arrangements, medicines etc. At the district level, he said, similar arrangements have been made. Jharkhand will also be roping in some 300 ex-army personnel in managing Covid-19 patients and ancillary services needed to combat the pandemic, Chief Minister Hemant Soren had announced on Monday. Jharkhand on Wednesday reported 103 fresh fatalities, pushing the toll to 4,085, while 4,365 new cases raised the tally to 2,96,895 during the last 24 hours. By PTI NEW DELHI: It is quite disheartening to listen to some states complaining about Bharat Biotech's intentions regarding supply of COVID vaccine Covaxin, a top company official said on Wednesday. In a tweet, Bharat Biotech Joint Managing Director Suchitra Ella said the company has already dispatched Covaxin lots to 18 states on May 10. "18 states have been covered though in smaller shipments. Quite disheartening to the teams to hear some states complaining about our intentions. 50 of our employees are off work due to covid, yet we continue to work under pandemic lockdowns 24x7 for U," she said in a tweet. Covaxin dispatched 10/5/21.18 states have been covered thou in smaller shipments. Quite disheartening to the teams to hear Some states complaining about our intentions. 50 of our employees are off work due to covid, yet we continue to work under pandemic lockdowns 24x7 for U pic.twitter.com/FmQl4vtqXC suchitra ella (@SuchitraElla) May 11, 2021 The Hyderabad-based firm is supplying Covaxin to 18 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jharkhand and Delhi. Other states are Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Earlier in the day, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Bharat Biotech has informed the state government that it cannot provide "additional" Covaxin doses to the national capital. The stock of Covaxin in Delhi has finished and as a result around 100 vaccination centres set up in 17 schools have been closed, he said. "The Covaxin manufacturer has in a letter said that it cannot provide Delhi government vaccines due to unavailability, under instruction of concerned government official. It means that the central government is controlling supply of the vaccine," Sisodia said. He also said the Centre should stop export of vaccines and share the vaccine formulae of the two manufacturers in the country with other companies for mass scale production. By PTI MUMBAI: The family members of jailed activists, accused in Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, on Wednesday wrote a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Udhav Thackeray, seeking their release from prisons in view of the second wave of coronavirus. The letter was signed by the family members of 15 activists, including Anand Teltumbde, Gautam Navlakha, Stan Swamy, Sudha Bharadwaj and Rona Wilson. The male accused in the case are currently lodged in Taloja jail in neighbouring Navi Mumbai, while the women undertrials are in Byculla prison in central Mumbai. The letter said that the activists were suffering from multiple health issues and that one of them, Jyoti Jagtap, has tested positive for COVID-19. Due to the pandemic, there has also been adisruption of usual communication channels, it said. "The Supreme Court has empowered the state governments to form high-powered committees, which could then decide upon the release of prisoners in each state. We urge you to recommend to the committee to release the undertrials on interim bail at least," the letter said. "We are all worried about their safety in these desperate circumstances, where everyone is at risk. Thus, we sincerely appeal to you to take timely and necessary measures for the release of our family members," it added. Meanwhile,Delhi University assistant professor Hany Babu, one of the accused in the Elgar Parishad case, was taken to a hospital by prison authorities for his eye check-up on Wednesday. His family members had said in a statement on Tuesday that he was suffering from acute eye infection, and had sought proper medical treatment for him. The Elgar Parishad case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at a conclave held in Pune city on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon- Bhima war memorial. Pune Police claimed that the conclave was backed by Maoists. The case was later taken over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). By PTI PANAJI: A sessions court in Goa on Wednesday said it will pronounce the verdict in the Tarun Tejpal case on May 19. The former Tehelka editor-in-chief is accused of sexually assaulting a female colleague inside the elevator of a luxury hotel in Goa in 2013. The additional district court was to pronounce the verdict on April 27 but judge Kshama Joshi had adjourned the verdict to May 12. The court on Wednesday said the latest adjournment was due to lack of staff due to the coronavirus pandemic. The court is working with only 15 per cent staff, it added. The Goa police registered an FIR against Tejpal in November 2013 following which he was arrested. He has been out on bail since May 2014. The Goa crime branch had filed a charge sheet against Tejpal. He faced trial under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 342 (wrongful confinement), 354 (assault or criminal force with intent to outrage modesty), 354-A (sexual harassment), 354-B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 376(2)(f) (person in position of authority over women, committing rape) and 376(2)k) (rape by person in position of control). He had earlier moved the Bombay High Court, seeking a stay on the framing of charges against him, but his petition was dismissed. By PTI AHMEDABAD: A fire broke out at a hotel- turned-Covid care centre in Gujarat's Bhavnagar town in the wee hours Wednesday, officials said, adding nobody was hurt. Altogether 61 coronavirus patients were shifted from the facility to other hospitals after the "minor fire and smoke", an official said. There were 68 patients at the facility when the fire broke out. The remaining seven will be shifted soon, he said. The hotel, around 170 km from the state capital, was converted into a Covid care centre by a private hospital. The fire was minor and was doused immediately, the official said. Smoke engulfed the third floor of the "Generation X Hotel" facility, where the patients were kept, said senior fire officer of Bhavnagar fire brigade, Bharat Kanada. "The fire was caused by a spark in a TV shortly after midnight. It was brought under control quickly. However, thick smoke filled the top floor of the three-storey hotel, making it difficult for the patients to be kept there," he said. "As a precaution, 61 patients were shifted to other hospitals with the help of fire personnel. The remaining seven will also be shofted soon," he said. Bhavnagar Collector Gaurang Makwana said all the 68 coronavirus patients at the centre were safe and the "minor fire" was brought under control immediately. Sixteen COVID-19 patients and two nurses died in a blaze at the four-storeyed Welfare Hospital in Bharuch in the state on May 1. The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday criticised the state government over the recent fire at a COVID-19 hospital in Bharuch, saying it was contemptuous on its part to not remain vigilant and avoid such incidents, and cited many orders passed in this regard in the past. A division bench expressed surprise over Advocate General Kamal Trivedi's submission that the COVID-19 facility at the trust-run Bharuch Welfare Hospital, where the fire on May 1 killed 18 people, was set up "surreptitiously, without intimating the authorities". Sixteen COVID-19 patients and two nurses were killed in the blaze. The bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Justice Bhargav D Karia said that "somebody has to be made accountable" for the deadly fire. The bench was hearing a petition filed by advocate Amit Panchal seeking a direction to hold government officials accountable and punish them for failing to comply with the court's previous directions related to fire incidents in COVID-19 hospitals. "The anxiety of the court is what are you supposed to do to prevent such incidents in the coming days. Ultimately, what are the measures that you are going to take?" the court asked. The judges said the government failed to take action on the court's previous orders pertaining to all hospitals in the state so that fire incidents do not occur again at these medical facilities. "It amounts to the contempt of courts of all the orders passed by the courts in the past. Ultimately, it amounts to the contemptuous action on the part of the state for not being vigilant so that such incidents are not repeated again and again," the bench said. The court said the government's affidavit, filed in the matter, only talks about letters issued by top authorities but was silent on actions taken by lower-level officials pursuant to previous orders passed by the court. Trivedi said the fire-hit COVID-19 facility in Bharuch town was set up "surreptitiously, without intimating the authorities," and hence no-objection certificate (NOC) on fire safety could not be issued by local authorities to the new unit. The court expressed surprise over Trivedi's submission and said if the state was not intimated about a COVID-19 facility, how was it possible for it to compile data on coronavirus patients who are hospitalised. The bench also issued notices to the Bharuch municipality, the trust which runs the hospital, its nodal officer for fire safety and the government, and kept the matter for hearing after two weeks. On the petitioner's plea to make public, the DA Mehta Commission of Inquiry report on fire incidents at two Gujarat hospitals, the government told the HC the report was submitted late in the evening on March 31 this year and could not be tabled in the Assembly as its session got over on April 1. The Mehta commission had probed the fire incidents at two hospitals - one in Rajkot (November 11, 2020) and the other in Ahmedabad (August 2020) - in which altogether 13 COVID-19 patients were killed. "As per the provisions of the Commission of Inquiry, the report is required to be studied, prepared, and thereafter tabled before the Assembly." "There is no question of keeping the report under carpet or else we should not have appointed a commission," Trivedi told the court. Sumi Sukanya dutta By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Only about 2 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses may be available for the 18-44-year age group across India this month, an affidavit filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court revealed. In other words, just one dose is available for 30 beneficiaries, since the population of this age group in India is about 60 crore. It explains why people are finding it difficult to book their vaccination shots this month. The affidavit shows that 1.5 crore doses of Covishield and 50 lakh doses of Covaxin are available in May for other than Govt of India channel in May. Under the Centres decentralised and liberalised vaccination policy, which came into effect on May 1, it will procure 50% of the total Covid vaccine supplies directly, which will then be shared with states to inoculate the population over 45 years. Fifty per cent of the supplies, however, will have to be procured directly by states and private hospitals, which can then be used to administer shots to the 18-44-year age group, under the revised vaccination strategy. The document shows that the highest allocation of about 34.38 lakh vaccine doses have been made for Uttar Pradesh, followed by Maharashtra (over 18 lakh) and Bihar (about 16 lakh). Officials in the Union health ministry said that the allocations under this category had been worked out on a state-wise population of 18-44 years pro rata and it had already been conveyed to the state at the end of April. Experts harp on equitable vax allocation As per the details earlier shared by the Union government, it has booked a total of 16 crore Covishield and Covaxin doses which will be delivered between May-July and will be used for vaccinating only the priority population. Experts meanwhile stressed that unless vaccines are distributed in an equitable manner, India will not be able to get out of the pandemic. No one is safe until everyone is protected, if access to vaccines is left to be dictated by market forces and digital gate keeping, a technology enabled human disaster is in the making, said health policy specialist Oommen John. Public health researcher Oommen C Kurian emphasised on the need of covering the most vulnerable first, given the limited supply of vaccines. Given the supply constraints, the government should have wo rked hard towards fighting vaccine hesitancy among the high-risk categories rather than going for the easy, populist alternative of opening up vaccinations for relatively better off 18-44-year-olds, he said. Prioritise vaccinating those due for second dose: Centre to states The Centre appealed to states on Tuesday to prioritise vaccinating those due for second dose of COVID-19 vaccine and reserve at least 70 per cent of the shots supplied from the central pool for the purpose. States have also been urged to minimise wastage of vaccine doses, the health ministry said in a statement. All wastage more than the national average hereafter is to be adjusted from the subsequent allocations to that state or union territory. The urgent need to address a large number of beneficiaries waiting for second dose of vaccine was stressed in a meeting held by Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and Dr R S Sharma, the Chairman of Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management to Combat COVID-19, with state officials to review the status of COVID-19 vaccination on Tuesday. States were urged to "ensure all beneficiaries who have taken the first dose are prioritised for the second doses", the ministry said in the statement. In this regard, states can reserve at least 70 per cent of the vaccines supplied to them from the Government of India channel for second dose vaccination and the remaining 30 per cent for first dose. "This however is indicative. States have the liberty to enhance this to as much as 100 per cent. State-wise numbers on CoWIN have been shared with states for their planning purposes." "The states were asked to undertake awareness campaign for reinforcing the importance of complete vaccination with two doses of the vaccine," the statement said. Presenting details of states who have ensured high coverage of priority groups (like population aged 45+, frontline workers and healthcare workers) and the others, the Union Health secretary urged states to ensure that priority groups are vaccinated. States have been informed in a transparent manner in advance about the COVID vaccines being provided to them from Govt of India channel. The visibility for the forthcoming fortnight is conveyed to them in advance to enable better and more effective planning by them, the statement stated. The next allocation for the period 15-31th May will be conveyed to them on May 14. It was pointed out that states can utilize the information regarding dose allocation for the next 15 days to plan their vaccination sessions. States were also urged to minimise vaccine wastage, the statement said. While the overall levels have considerably reduced, Union Health Secretary pointed that there were many states which still needed to substantially reduce the wastage. It was suggested to states and UTs to retrain and reorient vaccinators to ensure judicious usage of the vaccines. "All wastage more than the national average hereafter is to be adjusted from the subsequent allocations to that state and UT," the statement said. In this context, it was also pointed out that certain states are able to report a negative wastage because the well-trained health workers can extract maximum doses per vial than what is otherwise generally earmarked. States were also briefed about procurement from the 'Other than Government of India' (OGoI) channel which has been opened in the Liberalised Phase-III Strategy of Vaccination. In view of the payments pending from states to the private vaccine manufacturers, the states were advised to constitute a dedicated team at state level of 2 or 3 senior officers to coordinate with vaccine manufacturers on a daily basis and secure State Govt. supplies promptly, the statement said. This team is to also coordinate with private hospitals to facilitate their procurement thereby maintaining the momentum of the overall vaccination exercise in the State. The CoWIN platform is also being modified to better reflect the changing needs of the vaccination exercise, the statement said. The states can download a second dose due report to better plan the completion of vaccination of the target groups, the statement said. The District Immunization Officer and COVID Vaccination Centre Manager can increase the session capacity according to demand and can also visualise the target group in their upcoming sessions. Beneficiaries without relevant photo ID cards like senior citizens at old-age homes, etc., can also be registered, the ministry said. Meanwhile, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has gone past 17.51 crore, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday. It said 4,74,629 beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 years received their first dose of COVID vaccine on Tuesday and cumulatively 30,39,287 across 30 states and union territories since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive. The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 17,51,71,482 according to the 8 pm provisional report, the ministry said. The total of 17,51,71,482 include 95,81,872 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 65,38,656 HCWs who have taken the second dose, 1,41,45,083 frontline workers (FLWs) who have received the first dose, 79,50,430 FLWs who have taken the second dose, and 30,39,287 in the age group of 18-44 years who have received the first dose. Besides, 5,58,70,091 and 78,17,926 beneficiaries over 45 to 60 years old have been administered the first and second dose while, 5,39,54,858 and 1,62,73,279 beneficiaries above 60 years have taken the first and the second dose. As on day-116 of the vaccination drive (May 11), total 23,85,092 vaccine doses were given. It said 10,65,634 beneficiaries were vaccinated for the first dose and 13,19,458 beneficiaries received the second dose of vaccine according to the provisional report till 8 pm. Final reports would be completed for the day by late night. (With PTI Inputs) The penny-pinching move by Maxwell comes after her accuser, who sued under the pseudonym Jane Doe, resolved her claims out of court with the Epstein Victims Compensation Program. By accepting an offer from the program, the woman had to withdraw her Manhattan Federal Court suit against Epsteins estate and Maxwell. By PTI CHANDIGARH: Jailed Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh took ill Wednesday and was moved to PGIMS Rohtak on the advice of prison doctors, officials said. The 53-year-old chief of the Sirsa-headquartered sect would be kept under the observation of a team of doctors in the government hospital, the officials in the prisons department said. Gurmeet Ram Rahim, who has been lodged in Rohtak's Sunaria jail since 2017 following his conviction for raping his two women disciples, was examined by the doctors at the high-security prison after he complained of blood pressure-related issues, the officials said. After being examined by the jail doctors, he was taken to PGIMS at Rohtak for better observation and management, they said. "He had some fluctuation in his blood pressure. On the advice of (prison) doctors, he was taken to PGIMS Rohtak," Haryana's Director General of Prisons Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor told PTI over the phone. Security has been tightened at the hospital, a police official from Rohtak told PTI, adding the sect chief had been kept in a separate ward. The dera chief was in August 2017 sentenced by a special CBI court in Panchkula to 20 years in jail in the rape case. By PTI PUNE: A civic contractor's manager allegedly fired around three bullets at NCP leader and Pimpri MLA Anna Bansode's office on Wednesday afternoon in Pimpri Chinchwad township near here following a heated argument, police said. Nobody was hurt in the incident, police said, adding that they were trying to find out if the bullets were aimed at Bansode or some other person. The incident occurred around 2 pm in Pimpri, he said. Pimpri Chinchwad police commissioner Krishna Prakash said the incident took place following an argument between the contractor's manager and Bansode's men. "The manager of the contractor had come to Bansode's office, where an argument broke out between him and the MLA's men. Soon it led to a brawl and the former allegedly fired multiple shots," he said. He added that nobody was injured in the firing. "Our police teams have reached the spot and the sequence of event is being investigated and the person, who allegedly opened the fire, has been detained," Prakash said. By PTI THANE: Two COVID-19 patients have died due to mucormycosis, a serious but rare fungal infection, in Maharashtra's Thane district, a health official said on Wednesday. Besides, six other patients are currently undergoing treatment for the disease, also known as black fungus, the official said. A 38-year-old patient from Mharal in Thane rural and another one from Dombivli town died of the fungal infection while undergoing treatment at different COVID-19 care centres in Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) limits, the civic body's health officer Dr Ashwini Patil said. Six other patients were undergoing treatment for mucormycosis and two of them were admitted in the ICUs, she said. The official also said COVID-19 patients need not panic as this fungal infection is mostly being found in those having diabetes. Such patients need to keep their blood sugar level under control, she said. Mucormycosis is being detected in COVID-19 patients and there should not be an excessive use of steroids for their treatment, the official said. According to health experts, the symptoms of mucormycosis include headache, fever, pain under the eyes, nasal or sinus congestion and partial loss of vision. On Tuesday, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said there could be over 2,000 mucormycosis patients in the state as of now and with more and more COVID-19 cases coming up, "their number would increase for sure". Symptoms of Mucormycosis, also known as black fungus, include headache, fever, pain under the eyes, nasal or sinus congestion and partial loss of vision. He said, There could be over 2,000 Mucormycosis patients in the state as of now and with more and more COVID- 19 cases coming up, their number would increase for sure." The state government has decided to select hospitals attached to medical colleges for treatment of Mucormycosis patients as it demands a multidisciplinary approach, Tope said. He said black fungus has a 50 per cent mortality rate and is found in COVID-19 patients with suppressed immunity or co-morbidities. "A Mucormycosis patient needs to be seen by various experts such as ENT, ophthalmologists and neurologists among others. We are trying to cover most of the treatment under the Mahatma Phule Jan Aarogya Yojana (the state's flagship health scheme), "the minister said. Commenting over the costly treatment, he said, I will be writing to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to bring down the MRP of medicines needed for Mucormycosis treatment." Amphotercin-B is a key medicine required for treatment of such patients. Haffkine (a state-run pharma firm based in Mumbai) is going float a tender for one lakh injections of the drug, Tope said. Meanwhile, the state reported 40,956 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, a sharp rise from 37,236 logged a day ago, taking the tally to 51,79,929, while 793 more patients succumbed to the infection, said the state health department. On Monday, the number of daily coronavirus cases (37,236) in the state had dropped below 40,000 for the first time since March 31. A day later, the state recorded a jump of 3,720 cases to again breach the 40,000-mark. With 40,956 COVID-19 infections, the states caseload increased to 51,79,929, while 793 deaths upped the fatality count to 77,191, said the health department. Maharashtra, the worst COVID-19-hit state in the country, had reported 39,544 cases on March 31. The state had registered 54,022 cases on May 7, 53,605 on May 8 and 48,401 on May 9. Of the 793 fatalities, 403 had occurred in the past 48 hours, while 170 took place last week and 220 people died before the last week, but were added to the toll on Tuesday, the department said. Statewide recoveries were much higher than the new cases. As many as 71,966 patients were discharged from hospitals during the day, taking the count of recoveries in Maharashtra to 45,41,391, it said. Maharashtra is now left with 5,58,996 active cases. The state's COVID-19 recovery rate now stands at 87.67 per cent, while the fatality rate is 1.49 per cent, the department said. Mumbai saw 1,717 new cases, taking the tally to 6,79,129, while the overall fatality count rose to 13,906 with 51 new deaths, the department said. The Nashik administrative division reported 6,482 cases and 141 deaths on Tuesday. A majority of the infections were reported from Nashik city (1,069) and Ahmednagar district (2,851). Out of the 141 fatalities, 53 and 16 people died in Nashik city and Ahmednagar district, respectively, the department said, adding another 11 patients died in Nandurbar. The Pune division reported a surge in cases with Pune rural areas accounting for 3,643 cases out of the divisions total count of 11,191. Other districts and main cities in the division reported cases in four digits - 2,581 in Pune city, 1,441 in neighbouring Pimpri-Chinchwad, 1,694 in Solapur rural and 1,580 in Satara district. Solapur city reported 252 cases. Out of 93 deaths in the division, 28 were reported from Solapur district, 23 in Pune rural, 18 in Pune city and 20 in Satara, the department said. The Kolhapur division reported 3,643 cases and 63 deaths. Kolhapur and Sangli districts contributed 1,175 and 1,054 cases, respectively. Kolhapur and Sangli districts reported 14 and 13 deaths, respectively, the department said. Sindhudurg reported the death of 18 patients, while this figure for neighbouring Ratnagiri district was 12. The Latur division added 2,872 new COVID-19 cases of which 1,249 came from Beed district alone. Out of 155 deaths in the division, 61 were from Beed, 30 from Nanded, 32 from Latur district and 15 from Osmanabad district, the department said. Out of the Akola divisions 4,376 new COVID-19 cases, 1,332 came from Buldhana district, which reported zero deaths. Also, 58 deaths were reported in the division of which Amravati and Yavatmal districts registered 14 and 12 fatalities, respectively, the health department said. The Nagpur divisions caseload saw an addition of 5,438 cases, including 1,428 from Nagpur city. The city also added 52 deaths to the divisions tally of 122. The other districts with high deaths in the division were Chandrapur (20) and Bhandara (14), the department said. Currently, 35,91,783 people are in home quarantine and 29,955 in institutional quarantine in the state, it said. With 2,17,664 new tests, the number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra increased to 2,98,48,791, the government said. Maharashtra's COVID-19 tally is as follows: Positive cases: 51,79,929; new cases 40,956; deaths: 77,191; discharged 45,41,391; active cases: 5,58,996; people tested so far 2,98,48,791. By Express News Service NEW DELHI: Bangladesh has curtly replied to Chinas threat, warning it against joining the Quad saying that it was a sovereign nation and was free to take its own decision. Bangladesh maintains a non-aligned and balanced foreign policy and it will decide what to do according to those principles. We are an independent and sovereign state. We decide our foreign policy. "But yes, any country can uphold its position. Naturally, he (Chinese ambassador) represents a country. They can say what they want. Maybe they dont want it," Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen said and added that no one from the Quad has approached them yet. Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming on Monday had warned Dhaka against joining the Quad saying Dhakas participation in the grouping would result in substantial damage to bilateral ties. Obviously it will not be a good idea for Bangladesh to participate in this small club of four (Quad) because it will substantially damage our bilateral relationship, he said. The Quad, comprising US, Australia, Japan and India, is often perceived to be formed to keep a check on Chinas aggression and assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region, especially in the South China Sea. However, the leaders of Quad have refuted these claims and said the grouping is to ensure the security and the economic progress of the region. Quad says it is only for economic purposes and security and so on. But thats not true. We know that Quad is aimed at China, Li said and termed the grouping as a narrow-purposed geopolitical clique. By PTI NEW DELHI: In a setback to civil rights activist Gautam Navlakha, the Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed his plea seeking bail in the alleged Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case of Bhima Koregaon in Maharashtra. The apex court examined the technical grounds raised by Navlakha for the default bail as the charge sheet in the case was not filed by the NIA within the stipulated period of 90 days which also include 34 days of his house arrest. The activist had challenged the Bombay High Court order denying him bail on the same grounds. While deliberating with his appeal, the top court said that the personal liberty perhaps is the most important of all values recognized as such under the constitution and "it is to be jealously guarded from any encroachment, save where such intrusion has the clear sanction of law". A bench of Justices U U Lalit and K M Joseph in its 206 page-verdict said, "In view of the fact that the house arrest of the appellant was not purported to be under Section 167 (of CrpC) and cannot be treated as passed thereunder, we dismiss the appeal." Under CrPC, section 167 provides for procedures when investigation cannot be completed in twenty four hours and powers of magistrate to authorise custody of a person. The bench, which dealt with various aspects of custody and its impact said that the right to life and personal liberty is essentially also based on the principle that men in regard to fundamental rights be treated equal and that no man or a group of men, even organized as a state under which he lives can deprive him except without infringing the right to be treated equally unless there is a legitimate sanction of law. "Personal liberty of its members must continue to remain the most cherished goal of any civilized state and its interference with the same must be confined to those cases where it is sanctioned by the law and genuinely needed. The court would lean in favour of upholding this precious, inalienable and immutable value," it said. Dealing with earlier orders of the top court and the High Court, it said, "That house arrest, in turn, involved, deprivation of liberty and will fall within the embrace of custody under Section 167 of the CrPC, was not apparently in the minds of both this Court and the High Court of Delhi. This is our understanding of the orders passed by the court." The bench said that it is confronted with a clash between the two values as on the one hand; there is the deprivation, in law, of the liberty of Navlakha, by way of house arrest for 34 days, while on the other hand, it does not fall actually in the facts of this case within the ambit of Section 167 of the CrPC. "While, the Right to default bail is a Fundamental Right, it is subject to the conditions, obtaining in Section 167 of the CrPC, being satisfied. It must be purported to be passed under Section 167 CrPC. The right to statutory bail arises dehors the merits of the case. The fundamental right arises when the conditions are fulfilled," the bench said. The top court also held that if the remand is absolutely illegal or the remand is afflicted with the vice of lack of jurisdiction, a Habeas Corpus petition can be filed. "Equally, if an order of remand is passed in an absolutely mechanical manner, the person affected can seek the remedy of Habeas Corpus. Barring such situations, a Habeas Corpus petition will not lie", it ruled. The bench said that the nature of detention, being one under Section 167 is indispensable to count the period. "We are of the view, that in the facts of this case, the house arrest was not ordered purporting to be under Section 167. It cannot be treated as having being passed under Section 167 of CrPC," the top court said. Dealing with house arrest, the top court said that the High Court in the impugned order has itself found that the period of 34 days spent in house arrest by the appellant amounted to custody. The top court also referred to fairly alarming conditions of jails and prisoners of the country and cited National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data of 2019. "A perusal of the executive summary would reveal an alarming state of affairs as far as occupancy rate is concerned. It has climbed to 118.5 percent in 2019 as on 31st December. The occupancy rate is alarming for male prisoners. In fact, during 2019, a total of 18,86,092 inmates were admitted in the jails", it said. It said that "there is a tremendous amount of overcrowding in jails in India" and "Delhi had the highest occupancy rate of 174.9 percent followed by Uttar Pradesh which came second with 167.9 percent. This means that in Delhi a prison which was meant to be occupied by 100 persons, was used for accommodating 174 persons. We cannot also be oblivious to the fact that the figures represent the official version." The bench said that when a citizen is placed on house arrest, which has the effect of depriving him of any freedom, it will not only be custody but it would involve depriving citizens under custody of the fundamental freedoms unless such freedoms are specifically protected. The FIR against him was re-registered in January 2020, and Navlakha had surrendered before the NIA on April 14, last year. According to the prosecution, some activists allegedly made inflammatory speeches and provocative statements at the Elgar Parishad meet in Pune on December 31, 2017, which triggered violence at Koregaon Bhima in the district the next day. Richa Sharma By Express News Service NEW DELHI: At a time when the country is facing a shortage of Remdesivir, scientists have investigated 61 antiviral drugs and found a combination that has superior anti-SARS-CoV-2 potential. A team of scientists from the Biochemical Sciences Division, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, India Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, and INTOX Private Limited, Pune, worked on the efficacy of drug repurposing for treating Covid-19. Our analysis suggested Sofosbuvir in combination with Ledipasvir and Daclatasvir as potential therapeutic agents for Covid-19. The combined score suggests that these combinations have superior anti-SARS-CoV-2 potential than Remdesivir and other investigational drugs, they said in a paper published in Current Science. They said the present work provides a rationale-based approach to select drugs with possible anti-Covid-19 activity for further clinical evaluation. With the shortage of Remdesivir, the combination can be used to save the lives of severe Covid-19 patients. Drug repurposing has been utilised as the most preferred therapeutic intervention for Covid mitigation due to its necessity and feasibility. To prioritise therapeutic regime against Covid, we used 61 antiviral drugs and their combinations, said the paper. The team said the findings provide a scientific rationale for applying Ledipasvir and Daclatasvir in combination with Sofosbuvir for Covid management. T Muruganandham By Express News Service CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday decided to float short-term global tenders for importing Covid vaccines to inoculate all those in the age group of 18 to 45. A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister MK Stalin here. This is in line with many other states trying to procure from the international market directly after the Central government's advice. An official release here said at present the Central government is allocating vaccines for those above 45 years of age and it has directed the State governments to procure vaccines for vaccinating those in the age group between 18 and 45. The Centre has allocated 13 lakh vaccine vials to Tamil Nadu and this is insufficient for vaccinating all those between the age group of 18 and 45. ALSO READ | Viral video shot by kin of COVID-19 patient alleges hoarding of Remdesivir in Madurai During the meeting, the Chief Minister has also ordered the setting up of additional oxygen production units in Tamil Nadu to meet the increasing demand in the State. Though the Centre had increased the oxygen allocation to Tamil Nadu from 280 metric tonnes to 419 metric tonnes following a request from the Chief Minister, still the state needs more medical oxygen, the official release said. So, the Chief Minister said additional oxygen production units should be set up and that THE arrangement should be made to procure medical oxygen through trains from the steel plants in other States. Earlier in the day, the Madras High Court wondered whether the TN government had decided to issue global tenders for procuring vaccines due to the rising demand. The court also observed that the state should approach the PM Cares fund for setting up of the Oxygen plant by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) after the central government informed the court about a similar facility being set up in New Delhi though PM cares. By PTI KOLKATA: BJP Lok Sabha MPs Jagannath Sarkar and Nisith Pramanik on Wednesday tendered their resignation as members of the West Bengal assembly, to which they were elected in the recent polls. Sarkar and Pramanik, MPs of Ranaghat and Cooch Behar respectively, went to the assembly and submitted their resignation letters to Speaker Biman Banerjee. Pramanik said that they are quitting as MLAs as per the directive of the BJP leadership. The saffron party had also fielded two other Lok Sabha MPs - Union minister Babul Supriyo and Locket Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta but they lost the election. The saffron party bagged 77 seats while the Trinamool Congress secured a landslide victory winning 213 of the 292 constituencies that went to polls. Election was countermanded in two seats due to the death of candidates. "The BJP has risen from just three MLAs (in the 2016 elections) to 77 MLAs. In order to add experience in running the government, some MPs had been fielded," Sarkar said. However, the party could not achieve its goal of forming the government in the state, he said. Sarkar asserted that their fighting the assembly election despite being MPs and then resigning after winning do not reflect any organisational weakness of the BJP. Pramanik said that they cannot remain members of both the Lok Sabha and the state assembly simultaneously. While Pramanik won in the assembly election by a wafer-thin margin of just 57 votes defeating TMC candidate Udayan Guha from the Dinhata seat, Sarkar won by a comfortable margin of 15,878 votes from Santipur. Dinhata and Santipur assembly segments fall within the respective Lok Sabha constituencies of Pramanik and Sarkar. Jawhar Sircar By One is still not certain whether Covid-19 is largely airborne, but we are more than sure that it is and was airport-borne. It was definitely imported by aircraft passengers, usually better educated or economically advantaged, mainly from advanced Western countries. They went on generously transmitting it in all cities as most of our tracking systems are primitive. There were, of course, some pockets that export lesser-qualified ECR (Emigration Clearance Required) passport holders too, but if we trace the earliest spreaders, we find that most belonged to the more fortunate strata. And what is more distressing is that several of our educated infectors knew fully well that they had symptoms of the disease (some were certain) or had been exposed to those who had. Neither their degrees nor their conscience could, however, persuade them to quarantine themselves. The state where I live had the glorious distinction of sending the chief secretary and home secretary back to the pavilion after the first ball of the first over. A senior bureaucrat of the state administration, who had to meet them frequently, suppressed the fact that she was most probably infected by her enterprising young UK-returned son. He, in turn, reportedly picked it up in his university, after dancing with literally fairer Covid patients. Back home, he went around with his buddies, merrily infecting shopping malls and restaurants. Education can hardly override our dominant socially-inconsiderate cultural genes. We honk rather madly during traffic jams and trample over each other in our insane rush to disembark. We are all terribly angry and upset with the Modi government and I have also criticised it for its many sins of omission and commission. But let us, for once, look around us to see how minuscule a percentage of the citizenry heeded any restriction imposed by the Central, state or local governments. Masks were very rarely used, even at the height of the first wave, but we were critical of police lathis hitting soft targets and cribbed when they were caught and fined. Our primary grouse against the series of lockdowns last year was not the economic collapse they entailed, but because our maids and helping hands were not able to come or not allowed to enter. As advised nonstop by busybodies and do-gooders on social media, we stocked unnecessary medicine and hoarded foodstuff. As a result, genuine patients of thyroid had to suffer for want of hydroxychloroquine, because Trump revealed his hitherto unknown medical wisdom. Unlike Americans, however, we did not corner mind-boggling quantities of toilet paper, as we have our own ways of doing justice to the bottom. But we ensured that medicine shops ran out of vitamin C, zinc supplements and even Dettol. Most people who had never touched alcohol in their lives splashed so much of it on their palms that doctors started fearing a new type of cirrhosis. Frankly, this was the first time that death has been so unfairly democratic and no amount of pull, push or power appears to help. In fact, the poor, who had no high-level connections, appeared less vulnerable than our pricey gated communities. Our villages were much safer as air travellers visit them less. But then, the hyper-dramatic and unplanned lockdowns ensured that infections reached the interior when migrants were forced to return home. We have a right to blame the regime for its unpreparedness in tackling the second wave, but were we ourselves prepared? As soon as daily infections came down from almost one lakh to some 9,000 and the number of deaths fell, many urban folk headed for the hills or to the seaside. Large gatherings became commonplace once again. These did not help matters. Our better informed strata read all about the second and third waves that lashed more developed countries, but very few (who are so critical today) actually discussed how these could devastate us as well. We speculated that Indians were hardier than Westerners and all of us welcomed 2021 as the year that would surely get us out of the accursed 2020. The government was unnecessarily over-centralised and its myopia is evident in its lack of planning for oxygen, additional beds or vaccines. But pray, what prevented prosperous hospitals from setting up oxygen plants or adding to their facilities? Some did try, but none can deny that most hospital managements had also started believing in Indias miracle. Many made tidy profits and were more bothered about releasing facilities and investments blocked by Covid. Of course, many besotted citizens attributed all credit to the nations leaderwho never refuses them. True, we had no reliable Dr Fauci. But specialists and civil society members also have their role to playeven when they are scorned or are shown terror tactics. However, professional complainers and self-appointed experts, especially those who habitually cry wolf, lose credibility soon. Statistics regarding Indias demand and supply of medical oxygen and vaccine production could be worked out quite roughly, as is being done now, and the government forewarned rather noisily, until it listened. Those outside the government could also make projections of best-case and worst-case scenarios and offer them to policymakers, more vigorously than what they may actually have done. After all, a nation is certainly more than just its leaders and its bureaucrats. Jawhar Sircar Retired civil servant. Former Culture Secretary and ex-CEO, Prasar Bharati (sircar.j@gmail.com, Tweets @jawharsircar) Pete was born in Houston and served as a New York state trooper for 10 years at Roberto Clemente State Park in the Bronx, according to an obituary. He also worked for three years at the citys Taxi and Limousine Commission before becoming a professional photographer. Shankari Sundararaman By On April 25, a top leader of the Indonesian intelligence forces fighting the rebel groups in the region of Papua was gunned down in what is being called his final ambush against the forces of the Free Papua Movement or Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM). Through the first few weeks of April, the fighting between the intelligence forces and the Papuan rebels had reached a critical point that led to the killing of General Danny Karya, popularly known as Gusti. One particular group under this broader umbrella of the Organisasi Papua Merdeka, called the West Papua National Liberation Armythe military wing of the OPMhas claimed responsibility for the killing of General Karya. The Central government led by President Joko Widodo categorically stated that the killing would not go unpunished and that all measures to bring the culprits to book would be exercised in the aftermath of this incident. This brings to light the troubled status that Papua continues to hold within the Indonesian state. A diverse country, Indonesia has had its fair share of ethnic issues that have challenged the states integrity. Conflicts in the country have run along two broad parallels, both vertical and horizontal conflicts. Vertical conflicts have largely been directed towards separatism; horizontal conflicts have been along ethnic, racial, religious and sectarian lines, without taking separatist overtones. In the case of Papua, which is the easternmost province of the country, there is a link between both the ethnic and separatist factors, which are combined here. Papuan ethnicity is predominantly Melanesian and even among the various tribes, there is conflict and competition for the regions rich resources. Historically, the Dutch controlled the western parts of the island while other colonial powers controlled the eastern regions, leading to the division of the island into the independent state of Papua New Guinea and West Papua, which is the easternmost province of Indonesia. While Papua was part of the Dutch colonial possessions in Indonesia, it became a contested territory after the Dutch refused to relinquish their hold over the province. The Dutch were keen to retain certain areas such as the Malukus and Papua for both social and economic reasonsthese regions were predominantly Christian and also very rich in natural resources. The contest between the newly formed Indonesian state and the Netherlands continued over Papua, with Indonesia claiming all the erstwhile territories under Dutch control. In 1962, Papua was placed under the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority, which in the following year handed control over the region to Indonesia. Papua was formally incorporated into the Indonesian state in 1969 following a plebiscite in the region, which was known as the Act of Free Choice in which 1,025 local chiefs of the region chose to integrate with Indonesia, giving rise to the separatist movement led by the Organisasi Papua Merdeka that was formed as early as 1965. But this grouping remained loosely formed and during the years of the Suharto regime, the state kept a tight hold through the military, and the OPM remained inchoate. Following the transition to democracy, the Indonesian state has implemented a series of laws that have allowed for further decentralisation in an attempt to address regions ridden with conflict. While decentralisation began from 1999 onwards, it was the implementation of special autonomy laws in 2001 that assisted in the transition of conflict regions such as Aceh and Papua. In the Aceh context, it led to the implementation of a special law for the region that addressed the separatist conflict, leading to the Acehnese separatist group Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) becoming part of the electoral process and forming the regional government in 2006; in the case of Papua, it was more complicated. The Central government divided the region into three different areas to quell the movement, thereby creating vested interests in the competition for the regions resources. One of the main drivers of the conflict in Papua is the regions rich resources. The recent killing of General Karya took place near the Grasberg copper and gold mines. While they are the tenth largest globally for copper reserves, the gold mines are considered to have the largest reserves in the world. The Grasberg mines are owned by the Freeport McMoran company and its Indonesian group the PT Freeport, the largest corporate taxpayers within Indonesia. And the regions instability is also clearly linked to the revenues that the resources from here accrue annually, leading to the formation of a clear nexus in the conflict between the locals and the central authority, as well as among the locals themselves for control over the areas economic assets. In recent times, China was being viewed as a potential investor in the construction of a copper smelter in the Halmahera region in eastern Indonesia, which was slated to cost about $2.5 billion. But this deal collapsed recently and there seems to be some view by analysts that the intra-tribal tensions have also been exacerbated by external companies seeking to gain a foothold in the resource-rich province, where tribal groups are competing with one another, while playing external actors against each other too. The increasing violence in the last month and the recent killing are likely to bring a more strident approach to the problem at hand, pushing issues of human rights to the edge. The problem looks intractable and Jakarta will need to address this sensitively. Shankari Sundararaman Professor at School of International Studies, JNU (shankari@mail.jnu.ac.in) The data on jobs for April is in, and it is not a pretty picture. The pandemics rampage was at its peak last month, and the continuing lockdowns have taken a heavy toll. Employment numbers have been worse than expected. The Labour Participation Rate (LPR)the number of people who are available for employment as compared to those who have given up and left the labour marketdropped sharply in April to 39.98%, the lowest level since May 2020. The Centre for Monitoring India Economy (CMIE) said the LPR fell for a third straight month as state after state, attempting to combat the transmission of the virus, imposed full-scale or partial lockdowns. In sheer numbers, the labour force in April shrank by 1.1 million to a total of 424.6 million, compared to March. Despite the smaller numbers, the unemployment rate still shot up to 8% compared to 6.5% in the previous month. CMIE data further showed that the cream of the workforcesalaried employeeslost 3.4 million jobs in April; and over three months, February to April, job losses totalled a whopping 8.6 million. Sadly, the farm sector accounted for 70% of the jobs lost. It is a double whammy. Besides the hit of the pandemic, April is a lean month between the rabi and kharif seasons. It is unfortunate that the writing on the wall is lost to government pundits. With daily infections still exceeding 3.5 lakh a day, and India expected to touch a million Covid deaths by August, it was indeed jarring to hear Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tell a meeting of industrialists in Kolkata two weeks ago: 2020 was about Covid, but 2021 shall not be about Covid, in spite of the second wave. I want to assure you. Pointing to the steps taken by the government, she said, Revival was happening, is happening and will continue to happen. The truth is vehicle registrations are the lowest in nine months, and dozens of auto plants have laid off labour and shut their assembly lines for temporary periods. And one has a sinking feeling that the worst is yet to come. The new Chief Minister M K Stalins recent advice to his DMK cadre that it was pointless to blame the previous regime for any lacuna and asking them to light a lamp to dispel darkness instead, came as a breath of fresh air in the otherwise polarised polity in Tamil Nadu. Rather than criticising autumn, let us invite spring, he said in a letter to the cadre, indicating a statesman-like approach that showed both confidence and political maturity. Another indication of his no-nonsense approach was the expulsion of two party workers who vandalised an Amma canteen about a week ago, showing zero tolerance for hooliganism. By doing so, and directing the filing of police complaints against them, he avoided the possibility of copycat attacks on other Amma eateries and sent a stern message of political decency. About a week before the votes were counted on May 2, Stalin had said neither the people of the state nor their livelihood are in a position to bear another lockdown, while advising bureaucrats to do their best to contain the pandemic. But a few days after occupying the hot seat, when he realised a short lockdown was inescapable to break the Covid chain, he had no hesitation in making the announcement, thus indicating administrative flexibility for the greater good. His initial announcements that Covid treatment expenses in private hospitals would be paid by the government under the states health insurance scheme and setting up a Covid war room for managing bed availability for both government and private hospitals, especially for critically ill patients, showed his thrust on welfare and efficiency. The intent to take the pandemic head on by putting the best human resources on the job was evident with the allocation of the health portfolio to Ma Subramanian, the dynamic former mayor of the Chennai Corporation. Also, the capitals Corporation got a new Commissioner in Gagandeep Singh Bedi, whose expertise in disaster management is well known. In sum, Stalin got off to a positive start, which surely is a good augury. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Following the Intelligence reports that several Maoist leaders and the cadre associated with different area committees, who are taking shelter in Andhra Pradesh, Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) and Chhattisgarh forest areas, are infected with Covid-19 and in search of medical assistance, the Andhra Pradesh police has urged them to surrender so that they can be admitted to hospitals for proper treatment. The Intelligence department reportedly observed that the virus first hit the Bastar division of Chhattisgarh and later spread to other areas in April. It is also learned that more than five Maoists of various cadres succumbed to the virus as they could not obtain treatment on time and many are suffering from symptoms like high fever and cough and others. Senior Maoist leaders are likely among the dead and over 50 persons are said to have been infected by the virus, causing a fear among the cadre, sources in the police department told TNIE.DGP Gautam Sawang instructed Vizag Range officials to spread the message appealing to Maoists to surrender and get better medical treatment. East Godavari SP Adnan Nayeem confirmed that the Maoists of several cadres associated with the Bhadradri Kothagudem-East Godavari Divisional Committee (BK-EG DVC), Kunta Area Committee and Galikonda Dalam have been infected with Covid-19 and most of them are battling for life. He further said the State government has promised treatment to the Maoists. Treatment will be provided if the Maoists approach police on their own or with the help of any local mediators and sources. Their lives can be saved if they turn up for treatment immediately, said the SP Nayeem. For the past three weeks, police reportedly noticed the movement of Maoists Jalumuri Srinu alias Rhino, Aruna, Kakoori Pandanna alias Jagan, Lalitha, Korra Raju and the Kunta Area Committee members Unga, Maasa and Mangudu, Sabari Dirada, Devi and Nande alias Suseela in the border area reportedly seeking medical assistance. We received inputs from mediators and sources that several Maoists are suffering from the virus and running short of basic medicines. We are ready to help them, said Chintapalli DSP Vidya Sagar Naidu. Vidya Sagar said Maoists reportedly held meetings in April and a large number of cadres attended the meeting, which turned into a super-spreader. Maoists have no access to basic medicines and vaccines. We are suspecting that meetings are the reason behind the spread of the infection, he said. By Express News Service VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday directed the senior officials and district collectors to ensure effective audit of oxygen usage in each hospital in order to reduce wastage. Addressing the weekly Spandana review meeting with district collectors, SPs and senior officials, the Chief Minister said oxygen war rooms should function effectively to monitor the movement of vehicles and usage of cylinders at every hospital. At present, the state is receiving a daily supply of 500 MTs of LMO. He said teams from Eastern Naval Command have been deployed to carry a thorough check of the equipment and pipelines in all major government hospitals and ensure better functioning in order to maintain appropriate pressure at the tail end to avoid leak and wastage.Taking stock of the vaccination drive in the state, the Chief Minister said as on Tuesday, 19,81,496 people have been vaccinated with both doses and 53,26,721 people with single doses. Due to the limited availability of vaccines from the Centre, the collectors and the health officials should restrict the vaccination drive only for those who received the first dose, in May. We have already taken a decision to use the vaccines purchased by the state to vaccinate the priority groups including healthcare workers, frontline workers and 45+ age groups, he said. Jagan reiterated that the state will take up the vaccination of the 18-44 years age group only after covering all 1,48,49,803 people in the priority groups with both doses. He further directed the collectors to ensure that there is no crowding at the vaccination centres. There are 33,45,225 people over the age of 45 in the state who need the second dose. But we only get an average of 20 lakh vaccines a month. So we need to prioritise the people who received the first dose. There is a need for people to be aware of this and the collectors should make sure of it, Jagan said. The Chief Minister explained that Bharat Biotech produces one crore vaccines a month, while Serum Institute of India produces a total of 6 crore vaccines per month. The country until today has received only 17 crore vaccine doses, while there are 26 crore people over 45 years that need to be covered. In our state, around 1.48 crore people are above 45 years of age. This includes frontline workers. Whereas, another 2 crore people are between 18 44 years. The state has received a total of 73 lakh doses so far. In other words, we require around seven crore doses to vaccinate the entire state, he said. Taking exception to the criticism levelled by the Opposition and others, he said vaccine production and supply are in the hands of the Centre and the state has no say in the matter. He said the state government is currently focussed on ramping up tracing and testing more efficiently to contain the spread of Covid-19 and providing effective treatment to the patients who tested positive. The positivity rate currently stands at 7.47 per cent and has been on an increase for the last few weeks. The Chief Minister directed the officials and the collectors to ramp up the testing capacity. He asked them to ensure no patient suffers due to the unavailability of beds. He suggested they set up fully air-conditioned German Hangers with beds and other necessities in all districts. Medical and paramedical staff should be appointed for the same. As on today, 648 hospitals have been notified by the collectors for the treatment of Covid cases with a total of 47, 947 beds, out of which 41,315 beds are occupied. Collectors and SPs were directed to ensure that there is no crowding even during the 6 am - 12pm relaxation in curfew. The police department should monitor Covid appropriate behaviour and at the same time see that normal economic activity is not hampered during relaxation hours. He reiterated the need to strengthen 104 service. He wanted the officials to ensure every call is attended and problems are resolved. Officials were advised to increase Covid Care Centres to treat mild and moderate cases. The Chief Minister has also directed the officials to see that 50 per cent of the beds in affiliated hospitals are allotted to Aarogyasri card holders. By Express News Service BENGALURU: With Karnataka facing a severe shortage of vaccine, the State Government has decided to float a global tender to procure two crore doses and facilitate vaccination of those in the 18-44-year age group.The State Covid Task Force, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Dr CN Ashwath Narayan, on Tuesday decided to procure vaccine through global tenders like many other states, including Maharashtra. It has been decided to float the tender and complete the process within seven days. the Deputy CM told reporters after the task force meeting. The state is currently dependent on vaccines supplied by the Union Government. As of Tuesday, around 22.39 lakh people have got both the doses and around 65 lakh received the first dose and are waiting to get the second dose of the vaccine. Those in the 18-44 age group are also finding it very difficult to get the vaccine. The DyCM said that apart from global tenders to procure vaccines, an order has been placed for three crore doses, which include one crore of Covaxin and two crore of Covishield. There is a huge demand for the vaccines in the country and probably, in the next one or two months, we too will be able to produce 20 crore doses of vaccine. Now, there is a lot of anxiety among people. To meet the demand, we are looking at all available sources to procure vaccines, he said. We have invited the tenders and vaccines approved by the regulatory bodies will be considered, he added. A senior officer in the Health Department said many states are floating global tenders to meet the requirement. There is a lot of demand for vaccination, especially from the 18-44-years age group. From the epidemiological point of view, there is a need to expedite vaccination, the officer said. The state wants to complete the second dose also as early as possible as a person becomes fully protected only after getting both doses. While the Centre is supplying vaccines for other groups, the state is procuring it for the 18-44 age group, the officer added. The Deputy CM said authorities have also been instructed to procure one lakh pulse oximeters and these will be distributed to all the districts and taluks. It will be the responsibility of the District and Taluk Health Officers to collect the pulse oximeters back after an infected user gets cured. Later, they will be used for creating a pulse oximeter bank, he said. For testing, currently, 10.50 lakh RAT kits are in stock and this will be enough for seven days and 50,000 RAT kits are being supplied every day. In addition to this, it has directed to procure 37 lakh RT-PCR kits. Ten lakh Ivermectin tablets, required to treat infected people, have been procured and the supply on May 14, he added. By PTI NEW DELHI: A Catholic nun has urged the Delhi High Court to stop the release of Malayalam film 'Aquarium', which is set to air on an OTT platform on May 14, on grounds that it was "blasphemous" in nature and would hurt the religious sentiments of Christians at large. The petitioner, Jessy Mani, who is a nun and a psychologist by profession has opposed release of the film on the grounds that it allegedly "depicts the sexual relationship of nuns with two priests" The film stars Sunny Wayne, Honey Rose and Rajshri Ponnappa in lead roles. According to the petitioner, the movie was completed in 2012-13 and was originally named 'Pithavinum Puthranum Parisudhathmavinum' which would mean 'Father, Son and the Holy Spirit'. Later the word Parisudhathmavinum was deleted by the producers and when they applied for certificate from the censor board, the same was denied as the content of the film was likely to hurt the religious sentiments of the Christian community, the petition has also claimed. Now the producers are releasing the movie on an over-the-top (OTT) platform, an audio and video hosting and streaming service, as these are not subject to any regulation presently, the plea has claimed. The petition has urged the court to either stop release of the film or defer the same till the issue raised by the petitioner is decided. By Express News Service KOCHI: The High Court on Tuesday orally asked the state government to inform it whether details of Covid vaccine stock could be updated on the official online platform to book a vaccination slot online. The bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan and Justice M R Anitha also orally observed that there must be transparency in the distribution of vaccines. At the hearing, the government said the HC had taken suo motu cognisance of a similar issue and the Supreme Court was also considering the matter. The bench adjourned the case to Friday. The court issued the directive while hearing a public interest litigation seeking a directive to disclose the available stock of vaccines and also a directive to the government to announce each week the supply calendar of vaccines for all health centres, vaccination centres and private hospitals in the state. R Leela, the counsel for the petitioner, submitted that lack of information about the available number of doses had led to chaos and crowding at vaccination centres in the state. In fact, the vaccine manufacturers refusal to disclose their production capacity had led to a lot of confusion among people. If manufactures did not disclose their actual production capacity, the possibility of duplicate vaccines entering the market and black marketing could not be ruled out, Leela said. The petitioner submitted that the Centre, while announcing the vaccination schedule, had not announced the supply calendar of vaccine to each state. The absence of details guaranteeing the supply and non-availability of vaccine is creating chaos and confusion among people. Hence, the petitioner sought a directive to the Centre to announce both a supply calendar of vaccines to each state and the number of vaccines available in the market. By Express News Service CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu on Tuesday urged the School Education Department not to buy the books written by him and directed government officials not to present his books during official functions. He cautioned that if this request is violated, the amount spent to buy his books would be collected from the officials concerned and deposited in the government account. In a statement here, the Chief Secretary said, "After my regular working hours and during holidays, I have written books based on my experience as well as the information I have known. Due to my present position as Chief Secretary of the state, I have directed the School Education Department (under which department public libraries come) not to buy my books under any pressure until I continue in the present position. I have made this request since it would create an impression that my books are being imposed due to my official position. The purpose of this request is to avoid misuse of my name or my official position in any manner." Referring to the order issued by him in 2006 that in lieu of presenting bouquets during government events, books could be presented, Irai Anbu said, "I request government officials not to buy my books on government expenditure or their own expenditure and present them in lieu of bouquets thinking that it would please me. If this request is violated, the amount spent for buying my books will be collected from the officials concerned and deposited in the government account. By PTI LAHORE: Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has arrested an Ahmadi minority man for "deceitfully marrying a Muslim woman" by concealing his faith and also uploading her objectionable pictures on social media. FIA cybercrime wing Lahore had registered the FIR against Shahbaz Ashraf on a complaint of his wife, Hina Saeed, and arrested him last week. According to the FIA, the suspect contracted marriage with the complainant concealing his faith and fathered two children. "The suspect also uploaded objectionable pictures of the complainant on social media. The FIA has recovered the pictures from his mobile phone at the time of arrest," it said. Ashraf filed a post arrest bail petition in the court on Tuesday which was denied by the sessions court Lahore. The suspect's counsel told the court that his client solemnised nikah (marriage) with the complainant and he embraced Islam on April 1, 2021. He also presented a certificate to the effect. He said the complainant was still the wife of the petitioner/suspect and the offences included in the FIR were not committed. He also denied uploading any objectionable material on social media with regard to the complainant. Opposing the bail petition, a counsel for the complainant said the suspect being an Ahmadi contracted a second marriage with the complainant by concealing his faith for nine years. He said the suspect embraced Islam in 2021, therefore, a criminal offence was made out. Denying the bail, Additional District and Sessions Judge Hamid Hussain observed that "sufficient incriminating material is available on record against the petitioner. The petitioner has also been found guilty in the FIA investigation. I am not inclined to grant post-arrest bail to the petitioner". Pakistan's Parliament in 1974 declared the Ahmadi community as non-Muslims. A decade later, they were banned from calling themselves Muslims. They are banned from preaching and from travelling to Saudi Arabia for pilgrimage. In Pakistan, around 10 million out of the 220 million population are non-Muslims. What happened happened swiftly and savagely, said Trufant, Thomas pastor for more than 20 years. What happened happened at the hands of someone who was deranged, who was calculated, who refused to accept no as an answer. It was no accident. It was premeditated. By AFP LUXEMBOURG: Amazon scored a major legal victory on Wednesday when an EU court annulled an order from the bloc's powerful antitrust authority that Luxembourg recoup 250 million euros ($295 million) in back taxes. The European Commission in 2017 accused Luxembourg of handing tax privileges to the internet retail giant that amounted to illegal state aid. But the EU General Court found "no selective advantage" had been given to the firm by the small EU Duchy, a statement said. The setback for the EU lands less than a year after iPhone maker Apple spectacularly won its appeal in the same court against the European Commission's blockbuster order in 2016 that Apple repay Ireland 13 billion euros. French energy giant Engie meanwhile lost its appeal on Wednesday in the same court against a similar EU order to repay Luxembourg 120 million euros in taxes. In that case, the EU's General Court said the commission did demonstrate a tax advantage by Luxembourg to the company. - Amazon hails ruling - The cases came in the wake of the 2014 LuxLeaks revelations that unearthed secret deals between Luxembourg and hundreds of companies guaranteeing super low tax bills. In the Amazon case, in 2017 Europe's competition chief Margrethe Vestager Luxembourg of an illegal deal with the internet giant to pay less tax than other businesses. In a statement, Amazon said "we welcome the Court's decision, which is in line with our long-standing position that we followed all applicable laws and that Amazon received no special treatment". At the heart of the case was a violation of the so-called "arm's length principle", which for tax purposes is meant to ensure that transactions between subsidiaries are based on prices other companies would pay. The court said that the EU's methods for calculating the advantage was "based on an analysis which is incorrect in several respects," the statement said. The European Commission was not immediately available for comment, but it has previously said that win or lose its cases have had a positive effect, with international efforts currently under way to close tax loopholes. In recent weeks, the United States has embraced the idea of a global minimum corporate tax that would make special deals offered to multinationals a thing of the past. Talks are ongoing at the OECD to decide on the minimum tax that if confirmed would likely see higher taxes for US tech giants and other multinationals. The EU has had trouble defending those decisions, losing against Apple, but also in its case against Starbucks. The commission appealed the EU General Court's decision in the Apple case, which will now go to the EU's highest body, the European Court of Justice. The lower court similarly struck down an order by Brussels that Starbucks pay 30 million euros in back taxes in the Netherlands, but upheld a decision against Fiat in Luxembourg. By Associated Press DHAKA: China delivered 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine as a gift to Bangladesh on Wednesday to help it cope with a shortage. Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people, is in desperate need after India banned exports of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines produced by the Serum Institute of India because of its own devastating surge in infections. Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming formally handed over the Sinopharm vaccines in Dhaka on Wednesday. Bangladesh has already approved the Chinese vaccines after the World Health Organization has recently listed the Sinopharm for emergency use globally. Bangladesh received about 7 million doses from the Indian institute, but its deal had called for 30 million doses to be delivered by June. Bangladesh already suspended administering the first dose of vaccines. Some few hundreds of thousands of people are due their second dose but would be left out if new doses do not arrive soon. Bangladesh has attempted to diversify its vaccine sources, asking the United States for 4 million doses from its stock and signing a deal with Russia to produce Sputnik-V vaccines locally in Bangladesh. By AFP BERLIN: Germany's Jewish community on Wednesday called for protection to be ramped up after Israeli flags were burnt in front of synagogues amid escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence. Police arrested 16 people in two separate incidents at synagogues in the cities of Bonn and Muenster, where Israeli flags were set on fire late Tuesday. Josef Schuster, president of Germany's Central Council of Jews, blamed Hamas for the escalating conflict in Israel and said tensions were spilling over. "Israel and Jews as a whole are subjected to hatred and incitement, particularly on social media. The threat to the Jewish community is growing," he said. Pointing to the flag-burning incidents, he said "the protection of Jewish institutions must be raised". "We expect from the people in Germany solidarity with Israel and the Jewish community," added Schuster. Anti-Semitic crimes have risen steadily in Germany in recent years, with 2,032 offences recorded in 2019, up 13 percent on the previous year, according to government figures. A German court in December handed down a life sentence to the assailant behind a deadly far-right attack last year that nearly became the country's worst anti-Semitic atrocity since World War II. After failing to storm a synagogue, the gunman shot dead a female passer-by and a man at a kebab shop. By PTI UNITED NATIONS: Amid escalating tensions between Israel and Palestinian militants, India has condemned all acts of violence, especially rocket attacks from Gaza, and underlined that "immediate de-escalation" is the need of the hour. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador T S Tirumurti tweeted on Wednesday that during the Security Council meeting on events in East Jerusalem, he stated that India condemns "all acts of violence, especially rocket attacks from Gaza." He mourned the tragic demise of an Indian national in Israel and stressed that "immediate de-escalation need of (the) hour" and parties should "refrain from changing status-quo." A 30-year-old Indian woman in Israel, Soumya Santosh, has been killed in a rocket attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza, according to officials. Santosh, who hailed from Kerala's Idukki district, worked as a caregiver attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. ALSO WATCH: Ashkelon, which borders the Gaza Strip, has come under massive fire from the Palestinian militants. At least 53 Palestinians and six Israelis have been killed in spiralling violence as of Wednesday as Gaza-based militants fired hundreds of rockets on Israel since Monday evening. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes at Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the coastal strip. On Tuesday, India at the UN expressed deep concern at the clashes and violence in Jerusalem's Temple Mount as well as over evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods. ALSO READ | Escalating Israel-Palestine violence bears hallmarks of 2014 Gaza war Ambassador Tirumurti had tweeted that India told the world body "deeply concerned at clashes & violence in Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount" and "equally concerned about evictions in Sheikh Jarrah & Silwan neighbourhoods." He said India calls on both sides to avoid changing the status-quo on the ground. He added that the old city also houses Al Zawiyya Al Hindiyya - The Indian Hospice. India urged all parties to adhere to Security Council resolution 2334, which reaffirms that "the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace." The resolution also "reiterates its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard." Tirumurti stressed the need to immediately resume direct peace talks and commitment to a two-state solution. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday had also expressed grave concern "by the serious escalations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, including the latest escalation in Gaza, which add to the heightened tensions and violence in occupied East Jerusalem." He said he is deeply saddened to learn of the increasingly large numbers of casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza. "The Secretary-General's thoughts are with the families of the victims. Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force. "The indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars towards Israeli population centres is unacceptable, a statement issued by his spokesperson said. "This spiralling escalation must cease immediately. The United Nations is working with all relevant parties to de-escalate the situation urgently." By PTI KATHMANDU: The Nepal government has extended suspension on operation of international flights till May 31 as coronavirus cases continue to rise at an alarming rate in the Himalayan nation. The deadly virus has so far infected 413,111 people and claimed 4,084 lives in the country, which has a population of approximately 29.5 million. The suspension period of international schedule flights has been extended till May 31, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a notification on Tuesday. However, two weekly flights on the Kathmandu-Delhi sector -- one of Nepal Airlines and the other of Air India -- will remain operational under an air bubble arrangement between Nepal and India, it said. Nepal had decided to halt all domestic flights from May 3 midnight and all international flights from May 7 midnight until May 14 to check the rapidly growing spread of COVID-19. Meanwhile, prohibitory orders in Kathmandu Valley that have been in place since April 29 to contain the spread of the coronavirus have been extended until May 27. By PTI KATHMANDU: Nepals main Opposition party the Nepali Congress has decided to stake a claim for the prime minister's post, a day after the President called on political parties to form a new government by Thursday as the one headed by K P Sharma Oli lost a crucial trust vote. The decision to form a new government was taken after the office bearers of the Nepali Congress (NC) met on Tuesday. The party, led by Sher Bahadur Deuba, has the backing of the Nepal Communist Party Maoist Centre (CPN-MC) and hopes to get the support of Janata Samajbadi Party-Nepal''s (JSPN) lawmakers. The Office of President Bidya Devi Bhandari on Monday said she has decided to invite parties to form a majority government pursuant to Article 76 (2) of the Constitution of Nepal. It also hopes to influence lawmakers of the CPN- UML faction led by Madhav Kumar Nepal and Jhalanath Khanal to help it form the government, The Himalayan Times reported. The NC has 61 and the CPN-MC 49 lawmakers in the 271-member House of Representatives. The party will need 26 more lawmakers to form a coalition government led by it. The JSP-N, with 32 lawmakers, will play a key role in the formation of the government, the report said. A faction of the JSP-N led by Mahantha Thakur and Rajendra Mahato, which has 15 lawmakers who stayed neutral in Mondays floor test, has yet to decide whether to support a coalition government led by the NC. The JSP-N is divided on the issue. We hope that the JSP-N will support us in forming the government by the Thursday deadline," NC Joint General Secretary Prakash Sharan Mahat told reporters after the meeting on Tuesday. He said Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda who leads the CPN-MC had assured the party his support in formation of the next coalition government led by the NC. If the JSP-N does not support the NC, the party hopes to influence 28 lawmakers of the UML''s Nepal-Khanal faction to resign en masse. In that case, the House will be reduced to 243 members, and the NC and the CPN-MC will be able to form a coalition government with the help of 15 JSP-N lawmakers owing allegiance to Upendra Yadav and Baburam Bhattarai. Mahato, however, has warned Yadav against trying to split the party. He threatened him with disciplinary action if he unilaterally backed the NC in its bid to form the new government, the report said. He said the JSP-N should focus on getting its political demands addressed rather than assisting efforts to form the next government. "Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli-led government has addressed some of our demands and Oli has made efforts to address the remaining issues. We have to wait and watch," he said. Thakur said the results of his party''s talks with the Oli-led government on the party''s demands were moving ahead positively. After Oli lost the trust vote, the NC, the CPN -MC and the faction of the JSP led by Yadav urged President Bhandari to invoke Article 76 (2) of the Constitution to pave the way for the formation of a new government. It says in cases where no party has a clear majority in the House, the President shall appoint as the prime minister a member of the House who can command the majority with the support of two or more parties in the House of Representatives. If the House fails to form a government as per Article 76 (2) or a prime minister appointed under this provision fails to win the vote of confidence within 30 days from the appointment, the President shall invoke Article 76 (3), the Kathmandu Post reported. In that case, Oli is likely to stake a claim to the government once again, the report said. Oli currently is the leader of a party that has the highest number of members in the House. If Oli is appointed under the Constitution, he also needs to win the vote of confidence within 30 days from the date of the appointment. Nepal plunged into a political crisis on December 20 last year after President Bhandari dissolved the House and announced fresh elections on April 30 and May 10 at the recommendation of Prime Minister Oli, amidst a tussle for power within the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP). Oli''s move to dissolve the House sparked protests from a large section of the NCP led by his rival ''Prachanda''. In February, the apex court reinstated the dissolved House, in a setback to Oli who was preparing for snap polls. Known for his pro-China stance, Oli had earlier served as the country''s prime minister from October 11, 2015 to August 3, 2016 during which Kathmandu''s ties with New Delhi had strained. Oli said in Parliament on Monday that it was unfortunate that a government that tirelessly worked for the countrys development and nation-building was being targeted for narrow and partisan interests''''. Prominent leaders, including Deuba and Prachanda, blamed Oli for his failure to tackle the surge in COVID-19 cases over the last few weeks. They said corruption and scandals had blocked the supply of timely delivery of vaccines from India. By PTI LONDON: UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday announced a "full and independent" public inquiry into his government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, set to begin in the first half of 2022. In a statement to members of Parliament during the weekly Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) session in the House of Commons, Johnson said the inquiry will be able to take oral evidence under oath and put the government's response to the crisis last year under the microscope. The move follows calls from the Opposition for such a probe, with demands for it to include consultation with families affected by the pandemic over the past year. According to Johns Hopkins university data, the deadly virus has so far infected 4,455,446 people and claimed 127,890 lives in the UK. "I can confirm today that the government will establish an independent public inquiry on a statutory basis, with full powers under the Inquiries Act of 2005, including the ability to compel the production of all relevant materials, and take oral evidence in public, under oath," Johnson said. "We will consult the devolved administrations before finalising scope and detailed arrangements, so that this Inquiry can consider all key aspects of the UK response. This process will place the state's actions under the microscope," he said. ALSO READ | UK Parliament watchdog probes funding of PM Boris Johnson's Caribbean 2019 holiday Pointing to the scale of the undertaking which would impose "significant burden" on the National Health Service (NHS), the UK PM said the right moment for the inquiry to begin would be in Spring 2022. He once again reiterated his message of caution as the UK prepares for its next level of easing the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions from next Monday, to remain vigilant against variants of concern -- including that first detected in India. Johnson said: "The patience and hard work of the British people has combined with the success of the vaccination programme to reduce deaths and hospitalisations to their lowest levels since last July, and from Monday, England will ease lockdown restrictions in line with step 3 of our roadmap. "This will amount to the single biggest step of our journey back to normality. But after everything we have endured, we must be vigilant because the threat of this virus remains real and new variants pose a potentially lethal danger, including the one first identified in India which is of increasing concern here in the UK. So caution has to be our watchword." The Commons statement came as the NHS announced that it had hit another big milestone in its COVID vaccination programme, with the delivery of 45 million jabs in England. It marks the next stage of expansion for the COVID-19 vaccination drive, with people aged 38 and 39 now being sent text messages to book their first doses from Thursday. "With nearly three quarters of people in their 40s having already received their first jab, the NHS is opening up to people aged 38 and 39 from tomorrow. We must not forget that behind the huge numbers of people jabbed, there has been a huge amount of hard work from our staff, aided by incredible volunteers across the country," said NHS national medical director Professor Stephen Powis. "Our incredible vaccination programme has already saved thousands of lives and has helped to significantly reduce hospital and infection rates, allowing us to begin safely easing restrictions," added UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock. The NHS currently vaccinates using three vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and Oxford/AstraZeneca. People 39 and under without an underlying health condition will be offered the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines in line with updated Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) guidance last week, in response to reports of "extremely rare" cases of blood clots associated with the vaccine, which is being produced in India as Covidshield. The Lamont administration is very close to meeting the demands of the union representing 3,000 nursing home workers poised to strike Friday morning, the states budget director said Wednesday. The funding on the table between what the state and industry is offering gets us very close, Melissa McCaw said in a meeting with editors and publishers. But the union conveyed a different tone earlier Wednesday, saying the $280 million from the administration was not enough to provide workers with better wages, benefits, and staffing levels that it wants to see in a new contract. The package includes $150 million in added Medicaid spending over two years for raises plus $130 million in other money, also mostly from Medicaid, for workers and nursing homes. The union is looking for a $200 million increase in Medicaid spending for wages over the next two years, Rob Baril, president of SEIU District 1199, said Wednesday. The public back-and-forth over wage and benefit enhancements for the workers on a day when formal negotiations apparently remained stalled unfolded against a tense backdrop over preparations for a possible strike at 6 a.m. Friday. Baril announced that the union had pushed back the strike date for 400 workers of the original 3,400, at seven of the homes, because the company that runs those homes RegalCare Management Group had failed to make arrangements for the care of residents. Those workers now have a May 28 strike date, Baril said, blaming the RegalCare CEO for the apparent failure, which could violate state law requiring homes to have a strike plan in place. The operators of the remaining 26 facilities subject to Fridays strike estimate they will spend millions of dollars to bring in replacement workers and cover other costs associated with a potential strike. The Department of Public Health announced Wednesday that it had approved the strike contingency plans filed by the owners of the 26 facilities. They include iHealth Network, Genesis Healthcare and Autumn Lake Healthcare. RegalCares CEO, Eliyahu Mirlis, would not directly comment on the status of the plan that was required to be in place in response to Fridays potential strike, but said the company appreciated the union rescinding the notices until May 28. The seven RegalCare facilities affected are in Glastonbury, Torrington, Waterbury, New Haven, West Haven, Greenwich and Fairfield. We are not looking to get into a war of words with the union, rather we appreciate the funding the Lamont administration has given the industry and we are ready, willing and able to sit down with the union to discuss passing those funds along to the deserving workers and employees, Mirlis said by phone Wednesday afternoon. David Dearborn, a DPH spokesman, confirmed that the department had yet to approve RegalCares plan, and that prior to the unions rescission of the May 14 strike notices, the department was continuing to exert pressure on RegalCare regarding its contingency staffing and care planning. Acting public health commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford has said companies that do not submit adequate plans could be subject to large fines. The department did not say whether RegalCare had been assessed penalties or fines. Mirlis said RegalCare would submit a new plan for the May 28 strike notices, and that it had already paid more than $2 million to two staffing companies to retain replacement staff, pay for plane tickets, lodging, and administrative costs. With less than two days until the potential strike of thousands of nursing home workers at 26 other facilities, nursing home operators were flying in hundreds of replacement staff who could fill in for unionized workers as needed. Lori Mayer, a spokesperson for Genesis HealthCare, which operates 11 of the homes subject to Fridays strike, said 300 replacement workers are en route from other states, many of whom are being flown in. And iCareHealth Network, which also operates 11 homes, where 1,100 workers are threatening to strike, contracted for more than 400 replacement staff. The vast majority of the iCareHealth replacement workers are coming from out of state and flying in Wednesday and Thursday, said David Skoczulek, vice president of business development for the company. Those replacement workers are receiving an orientation program and materials, staying in local hotels and will be prepared for immediate deployment when needed, Skoczulek said. Almost enough? Lamonts top aides continued to describe the $280 million package, including the $150 million for wages, as unprecedented and the best the state could offer. A total of $200 million for wages, Baril said, would enable all workers in the industry to make a minimum starting wage of $20 an hour with health insurance and retirement. That would require about $100 million in spending from the state, given the federal Medicaid match, Baril said. And that amounts to $20 million less than what the Lamont administration is proposing for wage increases over the next two years. We are hopeful the administration and legislature will put the priority on caregiving that it deserves, Baril said. When asked why the administration wouldnt simply up its offer in the wage component by $50 million, much of which the federal Medicaid program would pay, McCaw, Lamonts budget chief, said that might not be necessary. Medicaid is one major payer but theres also Medicare thats a major payer and thats why the industry is very much interested in coming to the table because they also have resources to bring to this package, McCaw said. The Lamont administration is not a direct party in negotiations between the union and nursing home operators over a new contract. But as the major payer through the state-federal Medicaid system, the administration is in talks with both sides to avert a strike. The governor said his administration has already provided $280 million to the nursing home industry aid in its response to the pandemic including funding for Covid-19 testing, vaccinations, and personal protective equipment. Im not Ok with a strike, Lamont said at Wednesdays meeting with editors and publishers. Our seniors in these nursing homes have gone through absolute hell for the last 12 months and Ive got to tell you, weve stepped up to help nursing home operators that have been unable to help themselves. In addition to the union, the nursing home industry is demanding more money from the Lamont administration $312 million immediately to cover increased costs due to decreased occupancy during the pandemic and historic Medicaid underfunding, and even more than that to settle collective bargaining issues. Strike threats from 6,000 workers in two industries Workers at six other nursing homes authorized a strike for May 28. In total, 4,000 nursing home workers, including registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, receptionists, dietary aides, housekeeping and laundry staff, across 39 Connecticut facilities are planning to strike this month. In addition to the nursing home employees, about 2,000 group home workers, also from SEIU District 1199, voted to authorize a strike effective May 21 with many of the same demands as the nursing home workers. The nursing home industry and state have warned that these strikes are costly, and at the expense of state taxpayers. Fridays strike would cost the state nearly $2 million on the first day to fund replacement workers and other strike costs at the iCare nursing homes, alone, said Skoczulek, the iCareHealth VP. A long-term strike will cost the state nearly $360,000 per day following the initial week, he said. Those costs only apply to iCare facilities and do not include costs incurred by other nursing home operators or money that could be spent on National Guard personnel, whove been put on standby to assist public health officials with monitoring the affected homes. The Guard served a similar role during the pandemic, aiding the public health department with nursing home inspections. julia.bergman@hearstmediact.com SHERMAN On May 18 at 7 p.m., the Sherman Library will give a special session of Great Decisions: The Future of Persian Gulf Security, featuring Dr. Joseph J. Baxer, president of the United Nations Association of CT. This program is free and is offered by the Sherman Library and the Sherman JCC remotely through Zoom. During his time on the police force, Smith was hit with 14 CCRB complaints that were broken out into 33 individual charges. A charge was proven only in a 2011 complaint in which Smith was accused of using offensive language about gender. He received formalized training in that case. It happens all too often: The time is 1 a.m. or even later and youre awake in bed and staring at the ceiling. Youd love to fall asleep. You need to fall asleep. And when you finally lapse into that peaceful nether world, in a blink the sun is pouring through the windows and your clock is screaming at you. Can you make it out of bed? Perhaps at gunpoint. According to The National Center for Biotechnology Information, 30% of adults age 40 to 59 fall victim to insomnia with more than nine million taking pills to help them sleep. So, what are your choices? Sleeplessness can rob you of your peace of mind, your livelihood, and even your health. With some planning, most of us can make our way to dreamland every night. But if youve tried the tips below, and still youre having issues, consider speaking with a sleep specialist. Have Your Caffeine Early Lets get basic here. According to The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, caffeine has a half-life of up to five hours. So even if your latest latte came at 7 p.m., at midnight you could still be cruising. For reliable, restful sleep, draw the line at mid-afternoon. Maxwell House Ground Coffee, Orginal Roast (48 oz.) free Teaspoons, 2 Pack MAXWELL HOUSE amazon.com $22.36 Shop Now Same for the Nightcap Like a lot of folks, I enjoy a mixed drink or two (or three?) in the evenings after work. It helps me to unwind. But when the drinks come close to bedtime, the theory can go haywire. While its true that alcohol is a sedative, both having it in your system, as well as the process of it wearing off, can cause a variety of problems, states sleep expert Jessica Vensel Rundo, MD, in the Cleveland Clinic website. Youre likely to experience fragmented sleep, insomnia, or possibly more serious sleep issues. Jameson Irish Whiskey drizly.com $54.99 Shop Now Keep Regular Hours Set a time to rise and a time to hit the sack. Then stick to the plan. A strict routine tells your system what it should expect. Try it, and it just might do the trick. Give the TV and the Phones a Break A 2011 survey by The National Sleep Foundation found that 79% of Americans watch television just before their bedtime. Yes . . . I know. As the great Neil Sedaka told us, breaking up is hard to do. But with a late-night separation from our laptops, phones, and (gasp), televisions may come improvements to our sleep. Anthropologically speaking (I do that all the time), watching glowing screens at night began just yesterday. For the bulk of our existence, weve set our schedules with the sun. We call this 24-hour cycle our circadian rhythm, and its crucial to our health and well-being. It tells us that for all our human progress, it matters when a light goes on or off. A major culprit is the blue light emitted by our TVs and other electronic devices. As were bowing to their near-hypnotic gaze, the light is speaking to our primal brains. Its telling us its morning while shutting down our natural melatonin, our sleep-inducing hormone. So, veto the plug-ins, for an hour (maybe two) before you close your eyes at night. For the times you watch, consider amber glasses, or a filter for your TV, to help you chase away the blues. Stylish Blue Light Blocking Glasses for Women or Men - Ease Computer and Digital Eye Strain, Dry Eyes, Headaches and Blurry Vision - Instantly Blocks Glare from Computers and Phone Screens w/Case BENICCI amazon.com $17.97 Shop Now Keep it Cool, Man To fall asleep more quickly, and stay there through the night, keep your bedroom extra cool. According to The National Sleep Foundation, the perfect number is 65 degrees. But that can vary with your own experience (and your sleeping partner), to as high as 69 degrees. = In the depths of a blazing summer, this could lift your cooling bill a notch. So consider closing off some vents . . . or installing a window unit in the bedroom. MIDEA MAW05M1BWT Window air conditioner 5000 BTU with Mechanical Controls, 7 temperature, 2 cooling and fan settings, White Midea amazon.com $254.66 Shop Now Focus On Your Breathing You can call this counting your breaths, or meditation. In truth, theyre pretty near the same. Im a long-time meditator, and my single greatest challenge is to keep myself awake. It works like this: Relax your body, part by part. Let your abdomen do the breathing, as you focus on your breath. Dont control your breathing, but allow it to happen. When you reach the count of 20, then start from the beginning. The idea is to free your mind of clutter." So when you concentrate on a fixed object (your breathing), this can help you fall asleep. You can fly solo here, or go full-Buddha with a prerecorded meditation aid by downloading an app or picking up a noise machine. Some of these will specialize in sleep. And hey, if meditation doesnt put you out, perhaps youll make it to nirvana. Douni Sleep Sound Machine DOUNI amazon.com $24.52 Shop Now Invest in a Proper Mattress and Pillow Your mattress is where youll spend about a third of your life, so shouldnt you be certain its the one you really need? If youve slept on yours for eight years or longer, it could be time to shop. But dont be in a rush Visit the store and ask to try a wide selection. The innerspring varieties may sleep cooler than foam or solid core, but some designs are made to dissipate our body heat. Assume your typical positions and stay there for a while. No need to feel embarrassed. Roll around. Stretch out. Ask questions. In the end, nothing is more personal than your mattress. Support is key, but hard is a different matter. Modern mattresses should offer solid support with a soft, comfortable feel. Sleepnitez 8" Wedge Pillow for Acid Reflux Sleepnitez amazon.com $49.97 Shop Now Invest in Your Health If you own your own home, thats an investment. Your car? Investment. Your childrens education? You get the idea. When you choose a new mattress, youre investing in your better health. No one wants to spend too much, and neither should you. But prepare to spend $1,000 or more, depending on the size and type. When you spread the cost over seven or eight years, its just pennies a day. Thats really not so much, compared with a good nights sleep. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. High 87F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Police had no details on the motive for the shooting Tuesday night. Investigators were looking into whether the 30-year-old victims affiliation with the Bronx River Crew led to his slaying. Chicago Democrat Sen. Mike Simmons testifies before the Senate Education Committee in support of legislation that would prevent schools from prohibiting hairstyles historically associated with race and ethnicity as part of their school code. He is set to be arraigned in Brooklyn Federal Court on Tuesday, where prosecutors will not seek to hold him in jail. His case, like all of New Yorks Capitol riot cases, will be handled by the feds in Washington. Some vaccinations are recommended to women trying to get pregnant and those who are already pregnant. The antibodies introduced into the mothers immune system via these vaccines can cross the placenta and also give their babies a level of immunity from serious illnesses. However, while certain vaccinations are beneficial and recommended for pregnant women, others are not suitable and are advised against as a precaution. Pregnant Woman getting a Vaccine. Image Credit: Marina Demidiuk/Shutterstock.com Here we discuss which vaccinations are recommended for pregnant women and which are to be avoided. In addition, we discuss the safety of getting the COVID-19 vaccination while pregnant. Which vaccines are recommended for pregnant women? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommend that women who are pregnant during flu season should get the flu vaccine. It is most beneficial for women to receive their vaccine at the beginning of flu season, although there are still benefits to getting the vaccination at any point during flu season. There is a wide body of scientific evidence to support that flu vaccinations are safe for pregnant women to take. In addition, women vaccinated during pregnancy may pass on immunity to their baby, protecting them from flu-related complications shortly after birth. The CDC also recommends that pregnant women receive the Tdap vaccine (to protect against whooping cough) at any point during their pregnancy, although research suggests it is most beneficial to get the Tdap vaccine between weeks 27 and 36 of pregnancy. Women who get the Tdap vaccine can protect both themselves and their baby from whooping cough, which can be fatal. The CDC recommends that even if women have already received a whooping cough vaccine they should get it again during pregnancy. Which vaccines should pregnant women not get? Several vaccines are not recommended during pregnancy, mostly because they are live attenuated vaccines that pose a greater risk of side effects. The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, measles mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine, live influenza vaccine (nasal flu vaccine), varicella (chickenpox) vaccine advised against. MMR vaccines are live attenuated vaccines and are advised against as a precautionary measure, although there is no evidence that the MMR vaccine can cause harm to the fetus. There is some concern that the HPV vaccine can cause harm to the fetus, with it being suggested that it may increase the risk of spontaneous miscarriage. However, recent research has not found evidence to support this link. As a precaution, the HPV virus is not recommended for pregnant women. Some travel vaccines, such as yellow fever, typhoid fever, and Japanese encephalitis are also advised against unless the healthcare professional deems that the benefits of receiving the vaccination outweigh the risks. Is it safe for pregnant women to be vaccinated against COVID-19? Many questions are surrounding the safety of the COVID-19 vaccinations, particularly for pregnant women. Data has shown that pregnant women are at an elevated risk of suffering severe illness from COVID-19 in comparison to those who are not pregnant. Data suggests that pregnant women are at a greater risk of being admitted into intensive care, requiring ventilation, and dying from COVID-19 than the general population. COVID-19 infection has also been linked with adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as preterm birth. Due to the elevated risk to mother and baby that COVID-19 causes, vaccination is important to ensuring the health and survival of both parent and child. Therefore, vaccinations must be suitable for pregnant women. Currently, all authorized COVID-19 claim that they can be administered to pregnant and breastfeeding women. However, collecting vital clinical trial data to prove a vaccines safety in specific populations takes time to collect and analyze, especially in terms of assessing potential long-term effects. While experts believe that severe adverse effects for the mother or baby are unlikely, clinical trials are currently underway to support their safety. Numerous clinical trials are currently in progress to investigate how COVID-19 vaccines work in pregnant women. The results of these trials will hopefully give greater confidence in the safety of the vaccines in this population. Also, vaccine manufacturers are collecting data from clinical trials involving those who received the vaccine and became pregnant after. At the moment, data from animal studies is available that demonstrates the safety of administering the Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, and J&J/Janssen vaccine in animals before and during pregnancy. However, animal models are not always effective predictors of how a vaccine will behave in humans. Due to the increased risk that COVID-19 presents to pregnant women, it can be argued that the benefits of getting the vaccine outweigh potential adverse effects given that the current data is promising regarding the safety of the vaccine in pregnant women. However, getting a vaccine is always an individual choice. References: Allotey, J., Stallings, E., Bonet, M., Yap, M., Chatterjee, S., Kew, T., Debenham, L., Llavall, A., Dixit, A., Zhou, D., Balaji, R., Lee, S., Qiu, X., Yuan, M., Coomar, D., Sheikh, J., Lawson, H., Ansari, K., van Wely, M., van Leeuwen, E., Kostova, E., Kunst, H., Khalil, A., Tiberi, S., Brizuela, V., Broutet, N., Kara, E., Kim, C., Thorson, A., Escuriet, R., Oladapo, O., Mofenson, L., Zamora, J. and Thangaratinam, S., 2020. Clinical manifestations, risk factors, and maternal and perinatal outcomes of coronavirus disease 2019 in pregnancy: living systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ, p.m3320. https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3320 BMJ, 2021. Update to living systematic review on covid-19 in pregnancy. p.n615. https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n615 Information about COVID-19 Vaccines for People who Are Pregnant or Breastfeeding. CDC. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/pregnancy.html Vaccines During and After Pregnancy. CDC. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pregnancy/vacc-during-after.html Vaccines During Pregnancy FAQs. CDC. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/concerns/vaccines-during-pregnancy.html Further Reading In the past few decades, information technology has revolutionized the medical industry. The accuracy with which biological systems and interactions can be simulated and data can be gathered have improved exponentially. Computational modeling has provided ever-more sophisticated data for the field of medical research. This article will discuss this subject. Image Credit: ShustrikS/Shutterstock.com What is computational modeling? Computational modeling is used to simulate and study complex systems using computer science, physics, and mathematics. Numerous variables are programmed into the computational model to characterize the system which is being studied. By adjusting these variables alone or in various combinations, the outcome can be observed, providing valuable data for researchers. This allows scientists can conduct thousands of simulated experiments. Data collected from these simulated experiments can be then used to identify which laboratory experiments are likely to solve a problem. Computational modeling is used in many different scientific disciplines including drug discovery, weather forecasting, flight simulation, and medical care research. Today, computational models can study biological systems at multiple levels, in what is known as multiscale modeling (MSM). These models include cell to cell interactions, molecular processes, and how tissues and organs are affected. Applying computational modeling to medical science Medical science is a constantly evolving discipline. Research in the field requires complex testing and the collection of accurate data to provide scientists with the information and tools necessary to provide new solutions and improve health outcomes. The increase in data sources including wearable sensors and digital medical devices has helped to drive the field. Some areas of research to which computational modeling is applied in medicine include: Tracking infectious diseases By using computational modeling, scientists and organizations can track infectious diseases in populations, leading to more effective interventions. Predicting the way that outbreaks move through populations and identifying and modifying interventions leads to a more effective response that saves lives during pandemics. By using computational modeling, scientists and organizations can track infectious diseases in populations, leading to more effective interventions. Predicting the way that outbreaks move through populations and identifying and modifying interventions leads to a more effective response that saves lives during pandemics. Clinical decision support Computational modeling provides guidance for doctors making decisions on disease treatment and informed and consistent care in hospital settings. This is based on each patients unique and detailed characteristics. Computational modeling provides guidance for doctors making decisions on disease treatment and informed and consistent care in hospital settings. This is based on each patients unique and detailed characteristics. Predicting the adverse side effects of drugs - Using computational models, scientists can predict the potential for a drug to have adverse side effects. Accurate data provided by modeling can thereby help to develop safe and effective medications. Using computational models, scientists can predict the potential for a drug to have adverse side effects. Accurate data provided by modeling can thereby help to develop safe and effective medications. Medical device design and development Computational modeling has been used in the support of medical device design and development. This has helped to inform the safe design of a range of medical devices in use today. Medicine, like any other discipline, requires data. Sophisticated data-driven models are now possible thanks to a growing array of data sources including records, internet-connected sensors, and the results of previous trials. When these data points are combined with analysis platforms via computing, analysis of outcomes and risk assessments can be provided to medical providers and patients. This improves decision-making processes. Specific uses of computational modeling in medicine Computational modeling is applied in numerous studies these days. Some specific examples of its use are: Gathering targeted information on viral evolution Viruses mutate during pandemics. Mutations can be completely harmless, but others make the virus more transmissible or can increase resistance to vaccines and therapeutic drugs. Data on currently sequenced pathogens can be used in computational models to identify evolving variants. This is absolutely crucial for informing public health responses and ensuring that current vaccines work on the new variants or if they have to be modified. Using computational modeling to aid the design of new medical technologies A study published in Nature in March 2020 demonstrated how computational modeling can be used to aid the development of new medical technologies. A team led by Alvaro Mata demonstrated how a computational modeling approach can be used in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Specifically, it was demonstrated that it could help to aid the development of new therapies and materials. Graphene oxide is a useful material that can be used to print 3D tissue-like vasculature structures. However, the mechanism by which graphene oxide exploits the flexible region of a protein is not completely understood. By using a computational modeling approach, the team aimed to understand this better. Simulations that were run in computational models were used to understand molecular dynamics and elucidate the mechanisms by which molecules assemble together to form various tissues. Thus, by using these simulations, assemblies at the molecular level could be translated into fabrication platforms that are capable of engineering functional structures. Using models to create digital twins Personalized medicine is a recently developed field of medical science. Providing therapies tailored to each patients needs is the aim of this field, and it is being aided significantly by the development of increasingly accurate computational models and more sophisticated data gathering. One recent application of computational modeling in this area has been in the creation of twin hearts. These are digital models of a heart which can be used alongside medical images of the patients real heart. These digital twins can then be used to provide vital information on cardiac properties which are currently unavailable to doctors. This can then be used to develop better interventions and therapies. Computational modeling used in surgery CRIMSON is open-source software that has been in use since 2015. It was developed by a University of Michigan team led by Alberto Figueroa. The system uses computerized simulations of the patients own blood flow obtained with data gathered from MRI scans and hemodynamic variables. The data is then used to build a highly accurate model of the patients own circulatory system which can be used by surgeons to plan surgeries. CRIMSON has been used already in several complex operations including Fontan procedures, which involve rewiring pulmonary circulation in patients born with only one functioning ventricle. In conclusion Computational Modeling is providing researchers with a wealth of data that can be used to inform clinical trials, public health decisions and the development of new technologies. This technology is pushing the boundaries of medical science into the new century. Is Computational Biology an answer to our health problems | Neelanjana Sengupta | TEDxHITKolkata Play Sources FDA.gov Reporting of Computational Modeling Studies in Medical Device Submissions (Guidance for Industry Food and Drug Administration Staff) [Accessed online 28 th March 2021] www.fda.gov/.../reporting-computational-modeling-studies-medical-device-submissions March 2021] www.fda.gov/.../reporting-computational-modeling-studies-medical-device-submissions Wu, Y et al.(2020) Disordered protein-graphene oxide co-assembly and supramolecular biofabrication of functional fluidic devices Nature Communications 11 Article no. 1182 [Accessed online 28 th March 2021] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14716-z March 2021] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14716-z Corral-Acero, J et al. (2020) The Digital Twin to enable the vision of precision cardiology European Hart Journal 41;48 pp. 4556-4564 [Accessed online 28th March 2021] https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/41/48/4556/5775673 Further Reading During May 3 remarks on the American Families Plan, President Joe Biden boasted that there was not much disparity in the vaccination rates for white Americans and Americans of color who are at least 65. "And what's happening now is all the talk about how people were not going to get shots, they were not going to be involved look at what that was we were told that was most likely to be among people over 65 years of age," said Biden. "But now people over 65 years of age, over 80%, have now been vaccinated, and 66% fully vaccinated. And there's virtually no difference between white, Black, Hispanic, Asian American." This isn't the only time that Biden has made that claim. He went even further on April 27 during remarks on the covid-19 response: "And, by the way, based on reported data, the proportion the proportion of seniors who have been vaccinated is essentially equal between white and seniors of color. As a matter of a fact, if I'm not mistaken, there are more Latinos and African American seniors that have been vaccinated, as a percentage, than white seniors." However, the national data that Biden keeps touting vaccination statistics regarding both race and age is not public. We asked the White House for the information underlying this claim, but officials did not provide specifics. So, we moved on to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Spokesperson Chandra Zeikel told KHN-PolitiFact on May 6 that "unfortunately, we don't have available a data breakdown of both racial demographics and age together." Zeikel didn't respond to a follow-up question asking when or if the CDC would be publishing this data, but current CDC vaccination data is broken down only by race/ethnicity and shows significant differences, with white Americans far outpacing the percentage of other groups getting a shot. It also shows that the rate of vaccinations among some groups, including Black and Latino Americans, does not match their share of the population, though new CDC data shows there has been some progress on this front in the past two weeks. That made us wonder about the premise of Biden's statement. We turned to experts for their take. "As far as I know, there is no comprehensive publicly available data on vaccination rates by race/ethnicity and age," Samantha Artiga, vice president and director of the racial equity and health policy program at KFF, wrote in an email. "As such, we are not able to assess whether there are racial disparities in vaccinations among people over 65 years of age." What about other state-level data or anecdotes that might support Biden's claim? Let's dive in and see. A small number of states report both age and race together At least seven states track vaccination based on a combination of age and race, according to Artiga: Michigan, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kansas, Minnesota, Washington and Vermont. (Vermont tracks only two racial categories: non-Hispanic white and a combination of Black, Indigenous and people of color.) The results from some of these states show that racial disparities do exist in the older age groups. In Michigan, for instance, over 50% of non-Hispanic white people ages 65 to 74 had completed their vaccinations as of May 11. Other racial groups non-Hispanic Black people; Asian American and Pacific Islanders; and Hispanics all trailed by about 10 percentage points. The exception was the Native American and Alaska Natives category, which was within 4 percentage points of white people. And as of May 11 in Kansas, the rate at which white people in that same age group were vaccinated was higher than the rates of Black people and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders. In Vermont, for those 65 and up, about 79% of people of color had received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared with 85% of white people as of that date. "With the exception of Vermont, which has the distinction of being the only state to target BIPOC [Black, Indigenous and people of color] populations by race explicitly, these are examples of states in which the numbers are not doing well in their equity efforts," Dayna Bowen Matthew, dean of the George Washington University Law School and an expert in racial disparities in health care, wrote in an email. Minnesota is one of the few states in which people of color are actually being vaccinated at higher rates than white people with 93% of Asian/Pacific Islanders and 87.5% of Black/African Americans age 65 and over having received at least one shot, compared with 81.5% of white people as of May 11. Some states are vaccinating similar percentages of their population of Black or Hispanic people, Matthew said, however that data does not distinguish by age group. According to Bloomberg's Covid-19 Vaccination Racial Gap tracker, New Mexico, Idaho, Oregon and Utah have vaccinated approximately the same percentage of Black Americans as are represented in each state's population. Maine, Ohio, Alabama, Louisiana and Missouri have achieved similar population-based rates for the Hispanic population. KFF provides weekly updates on national and state race/ethnicity data of those who have received vaccinations, which have consistently shown that Black and Hispanic people are receiving smaller shares of vaccinations compared with their shares of the total population, while white people are receiving a higher share. The May 5 weekly update, for instance, found that based on the 42 states that share race/ethnicity data, the percentage of white people who have received at least one covid vaccine dose (39%) was roughly 1.5 times higher than the rates for Black (25%) and Hispanic people (27%). (KHN is an editorially independent program of KFF.) It's also important to note that data on race and ethnicity information has not been gathered for many people who have been vaccinated. As of May 3, the CDC reported that race and ethnicity were known for only 55% of all people who had received at least one vaccine dose. And three states, Montana, New Hampshire and Wyoming, don't report race/ethnicity data at all. How to approach vaccine equity, experts say Nneka Sederstrom, chief health equity officer at Hennepin Healthcare in Minneapolis, said that her state has done an "excellent job" vaccinating the 65-and-older population but that there's still a lot of work to be done to reach communities of color. We "will need more direct tactics to reach" those who haven't yet been vaccinated, "and help address any issues of hesitancy due to lack of knowledge or systemic barriers," Sederstrom wrote in an email. Ensuring that vaccines are available at primary care providers is also important, said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association. "The truth of the matter is, the more vaccinators that we can get that are placed where people are every day, where it becomes a routine part of your life, such as going into your doctor's office for a regular visit, that's a winner," said Benjamin. But, Dr. Uche Blackstock, founder of Advancing Health Equity, an organization that advocates to end bias and racism in health care, said she would set the bar for vaccine equity success higher than just an equally proportionate share of a certain racial/ethnic population receiving their vaccine doses. "What success in vaccine equity would look like would be if Black people or Hispanic people were overrepresented in terms of vaccine received since they have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic," said Blackstock. So even though Biden quotes these statistics that lack data behind them, if the evidence did support them, it would still not be enough, she said. In fact, the CDC does describe vaccine equity in those terms: "preferential access and administration to those who have been most affected by COVID-19." Our ruling Biden has repeatedly claimed that vaccination rates among white people and people of color age 65 and older are virtually the same or even higher among people of color. No public national data from the CDC or another database has been released to support this assertion. For the few states that do report data on age and race/ethnicity combined, the numbers suggest that, for the most part, obvious disparities persist in the vaccination rates for white seniors and seniors of color. In several states, vaccine administration rates are more proportional to the percentage of the Black and Hispanic populations, but the data covers all age groups. National data for all age groups also shows that rates of vaccinations for Black and Hispanic people lag behind that of white people. Existing data paints one story on vaccine equity, while Biden's words paint another. Without data to back it up, we rate Biden's statement False. Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), efforts to study the long-term effects of the illness have focused largely on hospitalized patients who experienced severe illness. A majority of patients experience only mild symptoms or are asymptomatic. However, it is still unclear if these patients can still suffer lasting effects of the infection. In a new study published in The Lancet, a team of researchers examined prescription drug and healthcare use after SARS-CoV-2 infection in those who did not require hospital admission. The researchers at the University of Southern Denmark aimed to determine the effects of mild SARS-CoV-2 infection in patients after recovering from the illness. The team has found that the risk of delayed acute complications after mild COVID-19 not requiring hospitalization is low. However, many of these individuals tend to have persistent symptoms, prompting increased doctor visits in the six months following infection. COVID-19 long-haulers As the pandemic has evolved, many cases of post-viral complications have emerged. COVID-19 long-haulers have exhibited a range of persistent symptoms long after viral clearance. Some of these symptoms include cough, fatigue, body pains, shortness of breath, insomnia, headache, and brain fog. Most of the patients who experience persistent symptoms were those who were admitted to the hospital due to moderate and severe COVID-19. Some of these delayed complications include encephalitis, pulmonary fibrosis, thromboembolic events, and psychiatric illness. However, there is limited evidence about complications among those who were not admitted to the hospital. Increased doctor visits The team conducted a population-based cohort study using the Danish prescription, patient, and health insurance registries. Overall, the team determined 10,498 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 via the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test in Denmark between February 27 and May 31, 2020. Of these, the team followed 8,983 non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients and 80,894 COVID-19 negative people during the period of two weeks to six months after their test. The team aimed to find reports of delayed acute complications, chronic illness, hospital visits due to persistent symptoms, the use of prescription drugs. They compared the data between the two groups and evaluated the risk of starting new drugs and receiving a diagnosis of a new health condition. Among the patients who had COVID-19, 31 percent had started new drug treatments during the follow-up period. The team also revealed that compared with those who had a negative PCR test for SARS-CoV-2, those who tested positive were at a heightened risk of starting new drugs to dilate the airways and treat migraines. Further, those who tested positive were at an elevated risk of receiving hospital diagnoses of dyspnea or shortness of breath and venous thromboembolism compared with those who had a negative test. COVID-19 patients had more doctor visits and outpatient hospital visits compared with SARS-CoV-2-negative individuals. Overall, the absolute risk of delayed acute complications, new onset of chronic disease, and hospital visits for persistent symptoms two weeks to six months after SARS-CoV-2 infection that does not require hospital admission were low. However, among those with no or mild symptoms, there was still an increased risk of receiving hospital diagnosis of dyspnea, developing venous thromboembolism, starting bronchodilator therapy, and initiating triptans compared with those who tested negative for the infection. SARS-CoV-2 positive patients visited their doctors more after the primary infection than those who tested negative. This means that those who recovered from mild COVID-19 may still experience persistent symptoms. Americans are in chronic pain, and a comprehensive new study exploring trends in this major public health concern reveals that what has been a long-standing and under-acknowledged problem is getting substantially worse. The findings, published in the latest issue of the journal Demography, suggest blanket increases across multiple measures, with pain rising in every adult age group, in every demographic group, and at every site of pain for which data exists. People today are experiencing more pain than individuals of the same age in earlier decades. In fact, each subsequent birth group is in greater pain than the one that came before it. "We looked at the data from every available perspective including age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, and income, but the results were always the same: There was an increase in pain no matter how we classified the population," says Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, associate professor of sociology in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, and co-author of the paper with Zachary Zimmer, professor of sociology at Mount St. Vincent University, and first author Anna Zajacova, associate professor at Western University. You might think that with medical advances we'd be getting healthier and experiencing less pain, but the data strongly suggest the exact opposite." Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, Study Co-Author and Associate Professor, Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, University at Buffalo While some other recent research has examined trends in chronic pain, those earlier studies focused on narrower age groups, usually those over age 50. The current paper examines a more comprehensive range of adults, aged 25-84. In addition, it relies on the 2002-20018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) -- a nationally representative data set with more than 441,000 participants -- to show how pain, which was already alarmingly high at the start of the research period in 2002, increased substantially based on annual data over 16 years. In the United States, chronic pain affects more people and has a greater economic cost than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined, according Grol-Prokopczyk, a medical sociologist and an expert in chronic pain. "It's important for policymakers to understand trends in chronic pain so we can wisely and appropriately invest resources in research and treatment," says Grol-Prokopczyk. "We hope this paper can help illustrate the issue." In addition to revealing trends, the paper also provides a glimpse of what might be causing the increase. The information necessary for a detailed explanation isn't part of the NHIS data set, but the researchers did look at a host of variables to determine which ones were most closely associated with the pain trends. In the oldest age group (65-84), physical health conditions such as body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes and kidney conditions correlate most with increases in pain. While BMI again surfaces as a correlate in young and middle-aged people, distress and alcohol use also have strong associations with chronic pain trends in these age groups. "What we're seeing in the younger age groups demonstrates how pain in some ways functions as much as a mental health problem as it does a physical health problem," says Grol-Prokopczyk. "Pain can be exacerbated by stress, and stress can bring about alcohol use." The paper's findings are so robust that they inspire questions about why chronic pain hasn't previously been a larger part of the national dialogue on the country's biggest health challenges. Information on cancer mortality is readily available. There is plenty of research on obesity and other health concerns, but until approximately five years ago there were no national studies on general chronic pain trends, according to Grol-Prokopczyk. "It's likely that the opioid epidemic brought about some awareness of the importance of pain," says Grol-Prokopczyk. "The timing of the opioid crisis' arrival suggests that it began to open the public's eyes to the problem." What's clear is that chronic pain is having a profoundly detrimental effect on the U.S. population and demands closer monitoring by public health officials. "Pain is a leading cause of disability and there is evidence that pain has an impact on life expectancy," she says. "So the problem is one not only affecting quality of life, but potentially even quantity of life." China's new urbanization posts steady progress in past 10 years Xinhua) 17:53, May 12, 2021 Photo taken on Sept. 16, 2020 shows the night view of Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Mao Siqian) BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China has made steady progress in promoting new urbanization, with its population living in urban areas on the mainland totaling 901.99 million, which accounts for 63.89 percent of the total population, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday, citing data from the seventh national census. The proportion of the population living in urban areas was 14.21 percentage points higher than the figure for 2010 when the previous census was conducted. The pace of growth for the past decade accelerated by 0.75 percentage points from the previous decade, said Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS. In the past decade, China has made steady progress in promoting new urbanization, Ning said, adding that the results of the census reveal the country's notable achievements in ramping up people-centered and quality-oriented urbanization as well as granting permanent urban residency to people who move to cities from rural areas. The rural population stood at 509.79 million, down by 164.36 million from the 2010 figure. China has conducted a national census every 10 years since the 1990s. Accelerated population agglomeration not only reflects the trend changes of urbanization and economic agglomeration but also puts forward new requirements for improving the quality of urbanization and promoting coordinated development across regions, Ning said. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Two other suspects, the second gunman, 29, and the getaway driver, also 29, were arrested April 15 in Florida, where they are being held pending extradition, police said. For the past year, 13-year-old twins Ariel Jr. and Abraham Osorio have logged on to their online classes from their parents' flower shop. Ariel nestles in a corner among flowers, bows and stuffed animals. Abraham sets up on a small table in the back, where his dad used to work trimming flowers and keeping the books. It's not ideal for learning: It's loud. It's cramped. It's bustling with people. Still, when the twins' mother, Graciela Osorio, recently had the chance to send her kids back to Brightwood Elementary in Monterey Park, California, she decided against it. "After what we went through with their father, I'd rather keep them at home where I know they are safe," said Graciela, 51. "There's only a month left. It doesn't make sense that they return for such a short time." The boys' father, Ariel Osorio Sr., 51, died of Covid-19 in January, four weeks after a trip to Mexico to visit his mother. He fell ill quickly and wasnt able to say goodbye to his children. "I miss his presence," Abraham said. "I'm used to seeing him sit in his chair working, but not anymore." Latinos have been hit disproportionately hard by Covid, and many families are opting out of in-person learning. In California, Latinos make up 39% of the state's population but account for 47% of Covid deaths, according to the state Department of Public Health. Nationally, their risk of death from Covid is 2.3 times higher than that of whites. Latinos are vulnerable to the highly transmissible coronavirus because they are more likely than non-Hispanic whites to work essential jobs that expose them to the public, said David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of public health and medicine at UCLA and co-author of a January study on this topic. They are more likely to lack health insurance, which may make them less likely to seek medical care, he said. And they are more likely to live in multigenerational households, which means the virus can spread quickly and easily within families. "Many of them are essential workers and the breadwinners for their families and don't have the luxury of telework, of physical distancing and self-isolation," said Alberto Gonzalez, a senior health strategist at UnidosUS, a Latino advocacy group in Washington, D.C. The Osorio family has lived in a multigenerational household since Ariel died, and Graciela had to keep other family members in mind when deciding whether to send her boys back into the classroom. In February, Graciela and the twins moved in with her 74-year-old mother, Cleotilde Servin, in East Los Angeles. Ten people now share the roughly 1,000-square-foot home, squeezing by one another in the kitchen every morning. Graciela's mother and the other adults in the home have been vaccinated, but the children haven't. Even though she instructs her sons to wear their masks and doesn't allow them to visit friends, she's terrified of what could happen if her kids caught the virus at school and brought it home. "My mother is active and takes vitamins, but it still worries me," Graciela said. She got Covid from her husband and gave it to her sister and niece. "I don't want anyone else to get sick," she said. State and local education officials don't have recent data on in-person attendance by race, but an EdSource analysis of California Public Health Department data from February shows that white students were more likely to attend school in person than other students. The analysis showed that 12% of Latinos were attending in-person classes at least some of the time, compared with 32% of whites and 18% of all students. The Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the country, serves more than 600,000 students and reopened for in-person learning in mid-April. Only some campuses are open, mostly elementary schools, and are running on hybrid schedules, combining on-campus classes with distance learning. "We've upgraded the air filtration systems in every classroom, reconfigured school facilities to keep all at a school appropriately distanced, doubled the custodial staff, and we'll provide weekly Covid testing at school for every student and staff member," district superintendent Austin Beutner said in his weekly recorded video update on March 22. In a statement released May 4, Beutner said 40% to 50% of elementary school students are now back in schools in "more affluent" communities compared with roughly 20% in low-income communities. "We see the greatest reluctance for children to be back in schools from families who live in some of the highest-needs communities we serve," he said. Brightwood Elementary is a K-8 school with 870 students, about half of whom are Asian American and 40% Latino, said principal Robby Jung. Just 15% of students are back on campus, he said, and, of those, about one-third are Latino. For the Osorio family, the overriding reason the eighth grade twins are not back at Brightwood is fear. Like so many other Latino families roughly 28,000 Latinos have died of Covid in California they are reeling from the grief and trauma that the disease has already wrought, and the fear of what it could do if it struck again. "The boys are seeing a therapist to deal with their dad's death," Graciela said. "I know I should probably talk to someone, too." With the memory of her husband's death still so fresh that she can't speak of him without crying, Graciela is still adjusting to the emotional toll, and to the day-to-day realities of running a flower shop by herself. Originally from Guerrero, Mexico, she started Gracy's Flower Shop with her husband in 1997. Ariel took care of the finances at home and at the shop and was the better English speaker of the two. "Now being alone with the boys, it's more difficult to keep up," she said. During the Covid lockdowns, the boys joined the couple at the shop. Her husband sat next to their children while they attended school online, helping with their homework and acting as the main contact for the school. "They were always with us," Graciela said. "They grew up in the flower shop, so they didn't have a problem setting up their school stations there." Brightwood reopened its doors April 12, offering in-person learning two days a week for a few hours a day, with the rest of the sessions online. Graciela said the limited schedule doesn't work with her role as the family breadwinner. "I would have to take them to school, pick them up for lunch and then bring them back," she said. "I can't do that. I have to work." But mostly she's keeping them off campus because she doesn't want to lose another family member. She said she knows online classes aren't the same as in-person instruction "but they have been keeping their grades up," she said. "I thank God I have good boys. They listen. They understand why I kept them home." The last day of school is May 28. Ariel and Abraham said they're looking forward to high school in the fall. Still dealing with their father's death, the boys, who are shy and reserved by nature, are torn between returning to school in person or continuing their classes online. "We might go back," Abraham said. "For now, we keep each other company." This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. Authorities scramble to provide drugs to treat a fungal disease affecting India's COVID-19 patients. A fungal disease called mucormycosis is emerging among hundreds of COVID-19 patients in India, placing further strain on hospitals already at breaking point. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that mucormycosis, also known as black fungus, is a "serious but rare" infection caused by a group of moulds called mucormycetes. It usually affects the sinuses or lungs after fungal spores are inhaled from the air but can also occur on the skin after a cut or burn. The Indian government has not yet announced the number of mucormycosis cases among patients with COVID-19, but media reports say there are more than 400 victims in Gujarat, 200 in Maharashtra and several others in the hospitals of Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad cities. Diptendra Sarkar, a COVID-19 strategist, public health analyst and professor at the Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata, India, tells SciDev.Net that extensive use of immunosuppressant drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 may be responsible for the rising incidence. This is more common amongst diabetics, transplant patients, prolonged high-dose steroid recipients and patients on cancer chemotherapy. Though the incidence is sporadic, busy ICUs [intensive care units] can become epicentres for the surge in [mucormycosis] cases and create a huge challenge to health resources." Diptendra Sarkar, COVID-19 Strategist and Professor, Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Kolkata According to Raghuraj Hegde, consultant eye surgeon at Manipal Hospital, in Bengaluru, India, the virulence of the new strain of COVID-19 virus causes patients' blood sugars to shoot up, which in turn provides a suitable environment for mucormycosis. "The steroids used in COVID-19 treatment possibly add fuel to the fire already raging," he tells SciDev.Net. In a recent statement, Vinod Paul, a member of the government think tank the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), says there is no major outbreak of mucormycosis in the country. However, reports from the states present a grimmer picture. On 8 May, a tweet from the Gujarat Chief Minister's Office said that the state government has decided to start separate wards for mucormycosis patients at civil hospitals in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, and Jamnagar. The government has also ordered 5,000 injections of the antifungal drug amphotericin B to treat mucormycosis, according to the tweet. On 10 May, the government of Maharashtra announced free treatment for mucormycosis for everyone in the state, under a government-run health insurance scheme. Akshay Nair, oculoplastic surgeon at the Aditya Jyot and Dr Agarwals eye hospitals, in Mumbai, says the increase in mucormycosis cases is alarming because the healthcare system is already overburdened with COVID-19 cases. The additional burden of patients requiring urgent diagnosis and care due to mucormycosis adds further pressure on the healthcare system, he tells SciDev.Net. According to Nair, mucormycosis was an extremely rare condition and the availability of amphotericin B was adequate. "Now, a sudden increase in the utilisation of this drug has depleted available stocks leading to shortages," he explains. "The state governments should ensure adequate production, storage and delivery of amphotericin B, and take up strict administrative measures to stop hoarding and black-marketeering of the drug," Shantanu Panja, consultant ENT surgeon at the Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in Kolkata, tells Scidev.Net. Over the past year, studies have revealed that certain pre-existing conditions, such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure, can increase a person's risk of dying from COVID-19. New research shows that individuals living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) -; an estimated 38 million worldwide, according to the World Health Organization -; have an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and fatal outcomes from COVID-19. In a new study, Penn State College of Medicine researchers found that people living with HIV had a 24% higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and a 78% higher risk of death from COVID-19 than people without HIV. They assessed data from 22 previous studies that included nearly 21 million participants in North America, Africa, Europe and Asia to determine to what extent people living with HIV/AIDS are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and death from COVID-19. The majority of the participants (66%) were male and the median age was 56. The most common comorbidities among the HIV-positive population were hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and chronic kidney disease. The majority of patients living with HIV/AIDS (96%) were on antiretroviral therapy (ART), which helps suppress the amount of HIV detected in the body. Previous studies were inconclusive on whether or not HIV is a risk factor for susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and poor outcomes in populations with COVID-19. This is because a vast majority of people living with HIV/AIDS are on ART, some of which have been used experimentally to treat COVID-19." Dr. Paddy Ssentongo, Lead Researcher and Assistant Professor, Penn State Center for Neural Engineering. According to the researchers, certain pre-existing conditions are common among people living with HIV/AIDS, which may contribute to the severity of their COVID-19 cases. The beneficial effects of antiviral drugs, such astenofovir and protease-inhibitors, in reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and death from COVID-19 in people with living with HIV/AIDS remain inconclusive. "As the pandemic has evolved, we've obtained sufficient information to characterize the epidemiology of HIV/SARS-CoV-2 coinfection, which could not be done at the beginning of the pandemic due to scarcity of data," said Vernon Chinchilli, fellow researcher and chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences. "Our findings support the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance to prioritize persons living with HIV to receive a COVID-19 vaccine." Emily Heilbrunn, Anna Ssentongo and Jonathan Nunez of Penn State College of Medicine; Ping Du of Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Shailesh Advani of Georgetown University also contributed to this research. The researchers declare no conflicts of interest. insights from industry Germano Tarantino Scientific Director PharmaNutra S.p.A In this interview, Germano Tarantino, the Scientific Director at PharmaNutra S.p.A, talks to NewsMed about long-COVID (also known as chronic COVID syndrome). To begin, can you tell us a bit about chronic COVID syndrome (also known as Long-COVID) and some of its symptoms? Long-COVID is a syndrome characterized by long-term SARS-CoV-2 infection symptoms persistent at least 4 weeks from the onset of symptoms. In fact, even if most people affected by COVID-19 recover completely within a few weeks, some other, continue to experience symptoms after many weeks or months Common signs and symptoms that linger over time include: fatigue, dyspnea, joint pain, chest pain, cough, memory, concentration or sleep problems, anxiety or depression. Are then any indications of the factors/causation of chronic COVID syndrome such as age or severity of the original COVID infection? Chronic fatigue, mainly, is a persistent symptom both in patients who have experienced a severe infection and in those who have experienced a mild form of infection. Some studies reported that women are most likely to be susceptible to symptoms for months afterwards. A study led by the University of Glasgow concluded that women who were under 50 are seven times more likely to be breathless and twice as likely to report fatigue than men, seven months after seeking medical assistance for Covid-19. In general, what advantages have amino acids and phytoextracts shown in regard to human health and improving fatigue? Amino acid supplementation has been shown to stimulate the immune system as well as to improve physical endurance and to enhances recovery from fatigue. Phytoextracts include a huge family of components having a lot of different effect on human body. Among them there are some having an effect on the energy metabolism and mental fatigue. Several studies showed, for example, the activity of Panax ginseng in counteracting chronic fatigue and its positive effect on the memory of healthy volunteers are also recognized. Similar effect showed Eleutherococcus senticosus enhancing recovery from physical fatigue. Can you tell us about Apportal, a targeted nutritional supplement, and its role in improving fatigue and quality of life of those suffering from chronic COVID syndrome? Apportal is a unique nutritional supplement based on a specific formulation of 19 nutrients, developed to achieve four main actions: antioxidant, immune modulation, antiasthenic and energy metabolism enhancer. In people suffering from chronic Covid syndrome all these affects contribute effectively to reduce fatigue firstly and to enhance general wellbeing and quality of life, favouring normal immune function at the same time. During the development of Apportal, what were some of the challenges you came up against, and how were these overcome? Related Stories A specific nutritional approach for subjects with post-Covid Syndrome The main challenges were technological issues. Our aim, as a Company, is always to make available to people products overcoming tolerability, absorption and stability limits. In Apportal, the combination of minerals, aminoacids, phytoextracts and vitamins lead to a potential instability over time and high competition for intestinal absorption between some nutrients. We successfully applied our patented Sucrosomial technology in order to bypass the above limit. We obtained a great product in terms of stability, tolerability and proper absorption rate of each nutrient, achieving at the same time an excellent solubility (in half glass of water) and taste. Can you also tell us about the results surrounding the study conducted on post-COVID patients suffering from fatigue who were given the nutritional supplement Apportal? This study shows that Apportal can reduce chronic fatigue and improve quality of life and health status in subjects after SARS-CoV-2 negativity due to the synergistic effect of its components. This represents an opportunity and a possible solution for doctors and healthcare professionals for speeding up the recovery of subjects with chronic post-Covid fatigue. Are there any types of individuals that Apportal, proved to be more effective in? How did this factor in their recovery times? Apportal appears to be effective in almost all subjects (90.05%), regardless of gender, age, and severity of the infectious disease. How important is it that more investigations/studies are conducted going forward in order to raise awareness of long-Covid and the role nutritional supplements can play in recovery? This is very important. There is a need of evidences showing the efficacy (or inefficacy) of nutritional supplements. In fact, in this pandemic we read a lot of news about one or more nutrients to be helpful for long-Covid, but no studies have been published on finished products or single nutrient. There is a need to demonstrate which mix of nutrients and what dosages could be helpful. This is what we have demonstrated with Apportal, being our study the first essential step before releasing any information to the consumers. Where can readers find more information? https://www.pharmanutra.it/en/ About PharmaNutra S.p.A Founded and led by the President Andrea Lacorte and Vice President Roberto Lacorte, PharmaNutra was established in 2003. It develops unique nutritional supplements and innovative medical devices, handling the entire production process, from proprietary raw materials to the finished product. The effectiveness of its products is documented by considerable scientific proof, including 140 publications. The Group distributes and sells its products in Italy and abroad. In Italy, products are sold through a network of 150 Pharmaceutical Representatives serving doctors and also exclusively selling PharmaNutra products to pharmacies throughout Italy. Products are sold in over 50 countries abroad, through 39 partners selected from among the finest pharmaceutical companies. PharmaNutra leads the market in the production of iron-based nutritional supplements under the SiderAL brand, where it boasts a number of important patents on Sucrosomial technology. Over the years, the Group has developed a precise strategy for the management and production of intellectual property, founded on the integrated management of all the various elements: proprietary raw materials, patents, brands and clinical evidence. About Germano Tarantino Germano Tarantino graduated in Veterinary Medicine from the University of Pisa in 2003. After carrying out extensive studies in the field of human clinical nutrition, he has held the position of Scientific Director at the company. Since 2011, he has been the Chief Scientific Officer of the company. Germano Tarantino carries out research and invention on sucrosomial solutions with human application. Thin-film electrodes developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have been used in human patients at the University of California, San Francisco, generating never-before-seen recordings of brain activity in the hippocampus, a region responsible for memory and other cognitive functions. In a study published today in the journal Nature Communications, surgeons at UCSF placed the flexible arrays on the brains of a group of patients while they were already undergoing epilepsy-related surgery. They recorded electrical signals across the exposed hippocampus while some patients were under anesthesia and others were awake, and conscious patients were given visual cues and spoke words while their neural activity was recorded. This approach allowed the researchers to detect traveling waves (TWs) moving across the hippocampal surface and identify new properties about them, including how they may contribute to human cognition. We've developed an enabling technology for demonstrating a phenomenon that wasn't really possible before. This challenge required creation of novel, conformable and higher-density electrodes that allows them to be more flexible and wrap around specific, deep regions of the brain. This study is validation that the approaches we're using are getting us consistent, usable and useful data. That's the driver for us as engineers -; to be able to build the tools that scientists can use to do new science." Razi Haque, LLNL's Implantable Microsystems Group Leader LLNL developed the 32-channel multi-electrode arrays under the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-funded SUBNETS (Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies) program, which aims to improve treatments for neuropsychiatric illnesses in military service members. UCSF neurosurgeon and scientist Edward Chang, principal investigator of the SUBNETS program, speculated the arrays could work for a separate study examining the role of the hippocampus in memory function. By recording neural activity on the exposed hippocampal surface while patients were undergoing surgery, researchers could potentially confirm the existence of traveling waves, which scientists have long theorized play an important role in routing information used to form memories and perform other cognitive processing. Previously, the nature of traveling waves in the human hippocampus has been controversial because previous in vivo studies have relied on penetrating depth electrode recordings. Those electrodes have provided researchers with only a few single-file recording sites in various layers of the hippocampus, making it nearly impossible to understand exactly how the waves are moving across the structure, according to the paper's lead author and UCSF neurologist Jonathan Kleen. However, due to their high-density grid layout, small size (smaller than a dime) and their ability to conform to the hippocampal surface the LLNL-developed devices provided researchers with a critical "birds-eye-view" of how the signals moved and reversed over the surface like waves in water, Kleen said. "This new perspective helped us discover that traveling waves move both up and down the hippocampus," Kleen said. "This 'two-way street' contrasts with the 'one-way street' previous neuroscience research has shown. This is a big deal because we believe this may be a fundamental mechanism of how the hippocampus acts as a major hub of information and memory processing for many other brain regions. In other words, the direction the wave is moving across the hippocampus may be a biomarker reflecting distinct neural processes as different circuits engage and disengage." The team used a machine learning approach to reveal that certain areas of the hippocampal surface activated more strongly depending on the direction the waves were moving. "This was further evidence that the route a wave is traveling may hint at what the hippocampus is up to at that moment," Kleen said. Researchers noted that when one conscious patient tried to think of the name of a picture, traveling waves at one frequency consistently flowed toward the front of the structure. When the patient was awaiting the next trial, the waves reversed direction and flowed toward the back of the structure. The direction of wave travel may therefore reflect distinct cognitive processes when they occur, and potentially where information is flowing to support those processes, Kleen said. The devices were built at LLNL and leverage knowledge gained over the course of more than a decade of research on thin-film micro-electrode arrays, beginning with the artificial retina project. LLNL engineers have improved the device's processing steps through multiple fabrication test runs and design iterations, as well as years of bench-top tests to assess stability and performance, according to engineer Jenny Zhou, who fabricated the devices. "It definitely feels rewarding to know that our devices were tested in patients with success and enabled researchers to access new information to understand more about neural activity," Zhou said of the recent study. "Kudos go to the interns, engineers, technicians who made it possible for us to continue the project. I started at LLNL as an intern working on the electrochemical side to characterize the electrode material that eventually became part of these thin-film devices, so for me personally, I'm glad to see it come full circle." Since the UCSF study concluded, LLNL engineers have doubled the number of electrodes on the flexible thin-film devices to 64 channels, enabling higher resolution sense and stimulation, and formed the arrays into a penetrating (or depth) probe. Engineers want to increase the channel count and density to hundreds, or even thousands, of electrodes per device. "The combination of precision data from these devices with next-generation data analytics promises to not only further our understanding of the inner workings of the brain but also lead to transformative cures for neurological disorders," said Shankar Sundaram, director of LLNL's Center for Bioengineering. LLNL's Implantable Microsystems Group is primarily focused on building durable, long-lasting devices to help diagnose and potentially provide therapy to the nervous system. Leveraging years of experience and dedicated microfabrication capabilities and infrastructure, the research group is working toward obtaining accreditation from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to build human-grade devices and is exploring development of sub-chronic implants, which could remain in the brain for up to 30 days, Haque said. The Clinical Trials Network of Tennessee (CTN2) at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center has contracted a new clinical trial to test possible therapeutics for COVID-19 in hospitalized patients. This new trial brings the total generated by CTN2 contracts for the university to nearly $7 million. Since its launch in 2018, CTN2 has brought more than 200 clinical trial opportunities to the university and the citizens of Tennessee. Steven R. Goodman, PhD, vice chancellor for Research at UTHSC, who led the creation of CTN2, lauded "the tremendous success" of the nonprofit that enables clinical research faculty across all the UTHSC campuses, who are affiliated with hospitals, to effectively respond to opportunities for clinical trials with pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device industry partners. CTN2 was created to increase the number of important clinical trials that can be conducted by our faculty, while providing credit to UTHSC for these trials and improving its national ranking as a Research Academic Health Center. The growth of CTN2 into a statewide network of 13 hospital and practice plan partners over a two-year period has been remarkable. Most importantly, these CTN2-contracted clinical trials will improve the health care of the citizens of Tennessee." Steven R. Goodman, PhD, Vice Chancellor, Research, University of Tennessee Health Science Center This new trial, the third for CTN2 that involves COVID-19-related research, will evaluate the effectiveness and safety of already available drugs to treat immune system inflammation in COVID-19 patients. Immune system inflammation associated with COVID-19 has emerged as a key factor affecting the survival rate of at-risk groups. "People with severe COVID-19 experience an inadequate immune response," said Ivan Romero-Legro, MD, assistant professor of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at UTHSC and principal investigator of the trial. "Inflammation, the body's reaction to an infection, is the body's normal response to infection. If not controlled, it will lead to damaging effects on the body. We believe controlling inflammation can decrease the severity of the disease and mortality. The medications we'll be testing have been approved for psoriatic arthritis, plaque psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, atopic dermatitis, and ulcerative colitis due to anti-inflammatory properties. The importance of this trial is to find a new medication to fight COVID-19 and decrease the severity of the disease in our community." Phil Cestaro, associate vice chancellor for Research and Business Development in the Office of Research at UTHSC, pointed out that conducting clinical trials for COVID-19 highlights the need for innovative collaborations in the health care marketplace to fight the pandemic. "Instead of individual companies running separate trials simultaneously, COVID protocols have combined various drugs under a single study. This allows for the comparison of drugs from multiple companies with the ability to include additional drugs as necessary," Cestaro said. Julio Lanfranco Molina, MD, associate professor of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at UTHSC, is the sub-investigator on the double-blind trial, which will be conducted at Regional One Health with patients who have been evaluated in the hospital and determined to be good candidates. A new Northwestern Medicine study of placentas from patients who received the COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy found no evidence of injury, adding to the growing literature that COVID-19 vaccines are safe in pregnancy. The placenta is like the black box in an airplane. If something goes wrong with a pregnancy, we usually see changes in the placenta that can help us figure out what happened. From what we can tell, the COVID vaccine does not damage the placenta." Dr Jeffery Goldstein, Study Corresponding Author and Assistant Professor of Pathology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University Goldstein is also a Northwestern Medicine pathologist. The study will be published May 11 in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology. To the authors' knowledge, it is the first study to examine the impact of the COVID vaccines on the placenta. "We have reached a stage in vaccine distribution where we are seeing vaccine hesitancy, and this hesitancy is pronounced for pregnant people," said study co-author Dr. Emily Miller, Northwestern Medicine maternal fetal medicine physician and assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Feinberg. "Our team hopes these data, albeit preliminary, can reduce concerns about the risk of the vaccine to the pregnancy." The study authors collected placentas from 84 vaccinated patients and 116 unvaccinated patients who delivered at Prentice Women's Hospital in Chicago and pathologically examined the placentas whole and microscopically following birth. Most patients received vaccines - either Moderna or Pfizer - during their third trimester. Last May, Goldstein, Miller and collaborators from Northwestern and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago published a study that found placentas of women who tested positive for the COVID-19 virus while pregnant showed evidence of injury (abnormal blood flow between mother and baby in utero). Pregnant patients who want to get vaccinated to avoid contracting the disease should feel safe doing so, Miller said. "We are beginning to move to a framework of protecting fetuses through vaccination, rather than from vaccination," Miller said. In April, the scientists published a study showing pregnant women make COVID antibodies after vaccination and successfully transfer them to their fetuses. "Until infants can get vaccinated, the only way for them to get COVID antibodies is from their mother," Goldstein said. The placenta's role in the immune system The placenta is the first organ that forms during pregnancy. It performs duties for most of the fetus' organs while they're still forming, such as providing oxygen while the lungs develop and nutrition while the gut is forming. Additionally, the placenta manages hormones and the immune system, and tells the mother's body to welcome and nurture the fetus rather than reject it as a foreign intruder. "The Internet has amplified a concern that the vaccine might trigger an immunological response that causes the mother to reject the fetus," Goldstein said. "But these findings lead us to believe that doesn't happen." The scientists also looked for abnormal blood flow between the mother and fetus and problems with fetal blood flow - both of which have been reported in pregnant patients who have tested positive for COVID. The rate of these injuries was the same in the vaccinated patients as for control patients, Goldstein said. The scientists also examined the placentas for chronic histiocytic intervillositis, a complication that can happen if the placenta is infected, in this case, by SARS-CoV-2. Although this study did not find any cases in vaccinated patients, it's a very rare condition that requires a larger sample size (1,000 patients) to differentiate between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. Multiple sclerosis, or MS for short, manifests itself slightly differently in each person - which is why some call it "the disease of a thousand faces." Arguably the worst manifestation of MS is its chronic progressive form. Unlike the more common relapsing-remitting variant (RRMS), in which sufferers are often symptom-free for months or even years, patients with the primary progressive form of the disease (PPMS) see their condition steadily deteriorate with no remissions. Poorly insulated neurons die off Today's therapeutic approaches are based on the assumption that the immune system is making a mistake and waging an inappropriate attack on the layer of myelin that surrounds and insulates the nerve cells' long, cable-like branches called axons. "In progressive MS, neurodegenerative processes steadily multiply and cause more and more neurons in the brain and spinal cord to die," explains Dr. Alexander Brandt, lead author of the study that has now been published in the journal JAMA Neurology. "However, we still do not know what exactly causes this disease variant." Together with Professor Friedemann Paul from the Experimental and Clinical Research Center (ECRC), a joint institution of Charite - Universitatsmedizin Berlin and the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), as well as eleven colleagues from Berlin, Irvine and Toronto, Brandt now hopes he has shed some more light on the subject. As the team reports in their study, it appears that the simple sugar N-acetylglucosamine, or GlcNAc for short, could play an important role in the development of progressive MS. Inside an organism, GlcNAc and other sugar molecules attach to proteins on the cell surface in the form of chains. This mechanism, which is known as glycosylation, controls various cell functions by forming branched structures from these sugar chains. The sugar molecule could serve as a biomarker We studied 120 subjects from Irvine and were able to show that, in this particularly severe form of the disease, there are significantly lower concentrations of N-acetylglucosamine in the blood serum than there are in healthy people or patients with relapsing-remitting MS." Dr. Alexander Brandt, Study's Lead Author At the time of this study, the physician was head of the Translational Neuroimaging laboratory in Paul's Clinical Neuroimmunology group at Charite. Brandt has since moved to the School of Medicine at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) as an associate professor of neurology, but remains a guest researcher at Charite. "In another study of 180 patients from Berlin with relapsing-remitting or progressive MS, we also found that low serum levels of GlcNAc are associated with the development of the progressive form of the disease, clinical disability and neurodegeneration," adds the study's corresponding author, Professor Michael Demetriou of UC Irvine. "This opens up potential new avenues for identifying, at an early stage, which patients are at higher risk of progressive MS and adjusting their treatment accordingly." Human treatment studies now in the pipeline Back in autumn 2020, Brandt, Demetriou and other researchers working with the then lead author Dr. Michael Sy from UC Irvine published a study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. They had administered GlcNAc to lactating mice and found that the animals passed on this simple sugar, which incidentally is also contained in human breast milk, to their offspring. This stimulated primary myelination of the neuronal axons in the young animals. "We also observed in the mouse experiments that N-acetylglucosamine activates myelin progenitor cells, thus promoting both primary myelination and the repair of damaged myelin," says Brandt. The researchers therefore hope that GlcNAc not only has potential as a suitable biomarker for progressive MS, but could also pave the way for new therapeutic strategies. "Our hope is that we can use GlcNAc and the associated glycosylation mechanism to promote myelin repair and thus reduce neurodegeneration," summarizes Brandt. An initial, as-yet-unpublished phase I trial has just been completed with around 30 subjects, where the scientists investigated the safety of taking GlcNAc in certain doses. If it is shown to be safe, the scientists hope to be able to conduct further studies into this simple sugar's possible efficacy as an MS therapy. Viruses mutate to survive. But not all mutations are beneficial to the virus. On the other hand, some mutations such as N501Y and E484K on the spike protein propelled specific severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants to variant of concern status, due to their ability to increase transmission and weaken the response of neutralizing antibodies. But some SARS-CoV-2 viruses with nonlethal or unhelpful mutation continue to circulate. New research characterized the minority variants circulating in New York City during the early months of the pandemic. The study authors write: We show that in general, transmission events between individuals likely contain genetically diverse viral particles, and we find signatures of selection governing intra-host evolution. We conclude that the analysis of shared minority variants can help to identify transmission events and give insight into the emergence of new viral variants. The research Diversity and selection of SARS-CoV-2 minority variants in the early New York City outbreak is available as a preprint on the bioRxiv* server, while the article undergoes peer review. Genetic diversity of the virus during the early pandemic The team collected 12 nasopharyngeal samples from 11 people who tested positive for COVID-19 infection at NYU Langone Health and NYU Grossman school of Medicine from March 6, 2020, to April 9, 2020. One individual had two samples because the collection was at two different time points. The individuals ages ranged from 2 weeks to 60 years old. Almost 88% of the viral load accumulated in the samples covered the SARS-CoV-2 genome. They used variant-calling software with an allele frequency of 0.02 to identify minority variants while minimizing false positives. They mapped the 12 samples against a global tree of 10,932 global isolates and characterized genetic clades by identifying amino acid mutations prevalent among various SARS-CoV-2 strains. The samples belonged to 2 different viral clades. About 10 samples matched to clade 20C containing the D614G, ORF1b, ORF3a, and ORF1a mutations. Identification of Clade 20C matches the dominant clade in March and April 2020 as it made up 80%-90% of viral strains. Phylogeny of New York City SARS-CoV-2 samples. (A, B) Maximum-likelihood timed strain tree reconstructed from 10932 sequences from GISAID (Methods). The tree is colored by major genetic clades, the isolates from this study are shown in detail on the left panel and highlighted in the right panel. (C) Consensus changes found with the 12 samples plotted across the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Y axis represents the frequency of a given consensus change within our cohort, where 1.0 indicates the change is found in all 12 samples. Bars are colored according to the nucleotide and the reference nucleotide (Wuhan-Hu-1) is shown along the bottom of the graph. (D) Heatmap showing the frequency of transitions and transversions represented in the identified consensus changes. The other two sequences belonged to the same patient, and both belonged to clade 20B containing the D614G, P314L, R203K, G204R, and G50N mutations. This clade circulated about 5-10% of the time, indicating the virus was genetically diverse in the early pandemic period. The SARS-CoV-2 ORF1a region had the most changes mutating seven different ways. Across all samples, three mutations were observed C241U, C3037U, and A23403G. In total, there was 95 mutational change with the majority being C to U transitions. Minority variants in New York City The researchers found 54 minority variants across all 12 samples. About 20% of variants were found in more than one sample. The highest number of variants were in the ORF1a domain. As before, the majority of unique changes came from C to U transitions. They also found the number of variants differed between samples, ranging from one variant in a sample to as many as 13 in another. About 35 of the minority variants exhibited non-synonymous changes, with only one instance of a minority variant present at the same place as a consensus change in ORG1a at amino acid position 1429. Considering most minority variants belonged to a single sample, the researchers suggest this is evidence of the randomness of errors exhibited by the viral replication process. Minority variant features Minority variants were common to two or more patients. Researchers were particularly interested in a pair of samples called NYU-VC-022 and NYU-VS-023 because they share several minority variants. Further analysis showed the shared variants between samples were likely caused by transmission rather than random mutation. NYU-VC-022 had a strongly enhanced fraction of doublet variants compared with the rest of the samples in the data set. Together, these statistics suggest a short transmission chain involving NYU-VC246 022 and NYU-VC-023 and indicate that transmission events contain a genetically diverse mix of virus particles, wrote the researchers. They also found the spread of minority variants in humans was possible through respiratory droplets. Non-synonymous variants were more likely to decay faster, suggesting a loss of fitness in random and nonbeneficial mutations. These findings have long term implications for vaccine and drug development and set the groundwork for the exciting potential of detection of minority variants within the population before their emergence as consensus nucleotides. *Important Notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. Pharmaceutical and biotechnology company AstraZeneca had recently come under fire for rare blood clotting events causing a temporary suspension of the vaccine in multiple countries. In April, the European Medicines Agency concluded the vaccine is potentially linked to blood clotting in people with low blood platelets who received the dose. However, they emphasized unusual blood clotting was a rare side effect. New research published in BMJ confirmed evidence of blood clotting finding a small risk after receiving one Oxford-AstraZeneca ChAdOx1-S severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine. The authors write: We did, however, observe an increased rate of venous thromboembolic events, corresponding to 11 excess venous thromboembolic events per 100000 vaccinations and including a clearly increased rate of cerebral venous thrombosis with 7 observed events versus 0.3 expected events among the 282572 vaccine recipients. The study findings could help with limiting the vaccine to people with a lower risk of blood clotting. Some countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom had already restricted vaccine use to older age groups. Reviewing the data The researchers investigated the likelihood of blood clotting events for 282,572 people in Denmark and Norway. Using data from healthcare registries, they reviewed information on people aged 18-65 who received their first dose of the ChAdOx1-S vaccine from February 9, 2021, to March 11, 2021. The health information they collected also included hospitalization stays or outpatient clinic contacts such as an emergency room visit. They specifically looked for cardiovascular and hemostatic diagnoses such as arterial events, venous thromboembolism, thrombocytopenia/coagulation disorders, and unusual bleeding. In total, the researchers studied the health information of 281,264 people eligible for the study. About 148,792 people were from Denmark, and 132,472 people from Norway. Both groups were predominately made up of women. About 26.4% of the vaccinated group had health data available less than 28 days after vaccination. Blood clotting risk after vaccination About 83 arterial events were found with a morbidity ratio of 0.97. Of the 83, the researchers observed increases in intracerebral hemorrhages. This was estimated to occur 1.7 for every 100,000 vaccinations. The team expected 30 venous thromboembolic events, but they found a higher number 59 with a morbidity ratio of 1.97. About 11 excess events were estimated to occur for every 100,000 vaccinations. There was also a small increased risk for other health issues, including pulmonary embolism, lower limb venous thrombosis, and other venous thromboses. There were 2.5 events of blood clotting in the brain for every 100,000 vaccinations. The morbidity ratio was estimated to be 20.25 after observing 7 instances of cerebral venous thrombosis. The morbidity ratio for any type of thrombocytopenia/coagulation disorder was 1.52, which corresponded with 3 excess events for every 100,000 vaccinations. About 5.1 excess bleeding events were observed for every 100,000 vaccinations. This included bleeding from the respiratory tract and any other unspecified bleeding. Of the entire vaccinated cohort, there were 15 deaths this was lower than the 44 deaths expected to occur in the general population. About 0.24% or 643 people tested positive for COVID-19 infection after vaccination. In the 18-65 age group in Denmark, the researchers found less than 5 cerebral venous thrombosis events 28 days after testing positive for COVID-19. In contrast, there was no cerebral venous thrombosis observed in 18-65-year-olds with a positive test result in Norway. Risk factors for clotting events There were some age differences for venous thromboembolism. There was a slightly higher instance of venous thromboembolism in the 18-44 year age group compared to people in the 45-65 year age group. There were almost no differences in blood clotting based on gender. However, the researchers noticed an increased risk for thrombocytopenia/coagulation disorders in men 14 days after vaccination. However, this might have been due to another variable. Excluding hospital contacts of less than 5 hours erased the observed increase in thrombocytopenia/coagulation disorders. Our study provides evidence of an excess rate of venous thromboembolism, including cerebral venous thrombosis, among recipients of the OxfordAstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine ChAdOx1-S within 28 days of the first dose. The absolute risks of these events were, however, small. The researchers conclude that blood clotting is a very rare side-effect and the benefits of vaccination continue to outweigh the risks. There was a confirmed sighting of the couple in North Carolina as they headed south, with the couple stopping at a Walmart in Fayetteville to buy dog food, officials said. The girlfriend was brought in as a person of interest, although she was not in police custody, officials said. (Newser) A man accused of killing eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, in shootings at three Atlanta-area massage businesses was indicted Tuesday on murder charges, and a prosecutor filed notice that she'll also seek hate crime charges and the death penalty. A Fulton County grand jury indicted Robert Aaron Long, 22, in the March 16 slayings of Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63. The indictment only covers those four killings that happened at two spas in Atlanta, and not the attack in Cherokee County in which Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; and Paul Michels, 54, were killed. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also filed notice that she intends to seek hate crime charges and the death penalty against Long, who is white, the AP reports. The hate crime charges are based on the actual or perceived race, national origin, sex and gender of the four women killed, the notice says. story continues below Georgia's new hate crimes law does not provide for a stand-alone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether it's a hate crime, which carries an additional penalty. The indictment charges Long with four counts of murder, four counts of felony murder, five counts of assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and one count of domestic terrorism, according to online records. The notice of intent to seek hate crime charges says one woman was targeted based on her actual or perceived sex and gender. It will be up to a separate grand jury in Cherokee County to decide on charges in the shooting at a spa near suburban Woodstock in which four were killed and one person was wounded. The killings are eligible for the death penalty because each was committed while Long was in the act of committing another capital offense, namely the killings of the victims, the filing says. (Demonstrators around the country took to the streets after the slayings.) (Newser) The National Rifle Association's attempt to use bankruptcy to leave New York and reorganize in Texas was shot down by a federal judge in Dallas Tuesday. US Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale, ruling after a 12-day trial that concluded May 3, said the gun rights group's bankruptcy wasn't filed in good faith, but was an attempt to dodge a lawsuit from New York Attorney General Letitia James, who accuses the NRA of spending abuses, reports Reuters. The filing is less like a traditional bankruptcy case involving financial difficulties and "more like cases in which courts have found bankruptcy was filed to gain an unfair advantage in litigation or to avoid a regulatory scheme," Hale wrote, per the AP. story continues below Hale described the NRA as a "solvent and growing organization" and slammed chief executive Wayne LaPierre for the "surreptitious manner" in which he filed for bankruptcy without notifying board members or other top executives, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Excluding so many people from the process of deciding to file for bankruptcy, including the vast majority of the board of directors, the chief financial officer and the general counsel, is nothing less than shocking," the judge said. The New York state lawsuit accuses LaPierre and other execs of illegally diverting millions of dollars for expenses including lavish trips. The NRA "does not get to dictate if and where it will answer for its actions, and our case will continue in New York court," James tweeted Tuesday. "No one is above the law." (Read more NRA stories.) The toddlers paternal aunt, Yolanda Everett, told the Las Vegas-Review Journal that Amari was last left in the care of Rhodes, who is in a relationship with the boys mother. His criminal history includes felony burglary, which he pleaded guilty to in 2017, and felony robbery and battery to commit robbery later the same year. A man inspects the rubble of a destroyed residential building which was hit by Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) A man inspects the rubble of a destroyed residential building which was hit by Israeli airstrikes, in Gaza City, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) (Newser) Two candidates for New York City mayor had their Lucille Bluth moment this week after they were both wildly off in their estimate on the cost of local housing. The New York Times notes that while neither Shaun Donovan nor Raymond McGuire is considered a frontrunner in the mayoral race, their answers to a question posed by the NYT editorial board to eight candidates have many noting they may not fully understand the plight of working people in their own constituency. The question: What's the current median sales price for a home in Brooklyn? First up was Donovan, who served as the city's housing commissioner under Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ran the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Obama. "In Brooklyn, huh?" he answered. "I don't [know] for sure. I would guess it is around $100,000." story continues below McGuire, an investment banker and former Citigroup exec, lowballed it even more: "It's got to be somewhere in the $80,000 to $90,000 range, if not higher." The real cost, per interviewer Mara Gay: $900,000. Curbed, which notes $100,000 is what you'd spend for a parking spot in Brooklyn, was curious if one could even find a New York City home for less than that amount, and after a bit of research found a total of seven listings: one in Queens and six in the Bronx. The Times notes that of the other candidates, Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, overshot the cost, guessing $1.8 million, while ex-sanitation chief Kathryn Garcia, whom the Times endorsed, came close with $800,000. Other guesses: $550,000 (Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams); $500,000 (ex-nonprofit exec Dianne Morales; and $1 million (NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer). One candidate got it exactly right: entrepreneur Andrew Yang, who's been accused in the past of being out of touch. (Read more mayoral race stories.) (Newser) In 21 Jump Street, undercover cops snuck into a high school to bust up crime. In an incident out of Florida, a woman is accused of sneaking into a high school to commit crimesand, apparently, to get the word out about her Instagram page. According to an arrest report cited by NBC Miami, 28-year-old Audrey Francisquini on Monday morning donned a backpack and clothes that resembled those a teen would wear, picked up a skateboard, and walked through the front door of American Senior High School in Hialeah. Pretending she was a student, Francisquini wandered the school's halls, handing out pamphlets that featured her Instagram handle and asking students to follow her, per the report. Security at one point stopped Francisquini, who said she was looking for the registration office, the report notes. But Francisquini allegedly kept wandering the halls, pushing her pamphlets before she was stopped a second time by security. story continues below Francisquini allegedly refused to stop this time around, at which point security notified school officials of a "potential threat on campus," per CBS Miami. Police say she managed to slip out a side door and flee school grounds, but they were able to track her to her North Miami Beach home via her Instagram account and arrest her. Baller Alert reports that during her arrest, she offered to give cops a sneak peek at one of the videos she'd shot inside the school. Francisquini is being held at Miami-Dade County Jail on a $2,000 bond, charged with burglary, interference with an educational institution, and resisting arrest without violence. "As always, Miami-Dade County Public Schools will continue to work tirelessly to protect the safety and well-being of our students and employees," a district spokesperson said in a statement, per NBC. (Read more weird crimes stories.) (Newser) Schools and local governments in South Carolina are banned from instituting mask mandates under an executive order signed Tuesday by Gov. Henry McMaster. "With every adult in our state having the opportunity to receive a [COVID-19] vaccine, it goes against all logic to continue to force our children ... to wear masks against their parents' wishes," McMaster said, per NPR, adding it would be up to parents to decide whether students wear masks. Most school districts in the state were requiring masks before Tuesday, per WLTX. City and county governments can't require masks, either, under the order, which supersedes public health orders and states of emergency. "We must move past the time of governments dictating when and where South Carolinians are required to wear a mask," McMaster said, claiming everybody already knows to wear a mask "if you're at risk of exposing others." story continues below The CDC recommends fully vaccinated peoplethat is, those who received their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or a single dose of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine at least two weeks agocontinue to wear masks in indoor public spaces as "the vaccination status of other people or whether they are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 is likely unknown." Everyone else, including those who've received one of two vaccine doses, are advised to wear masks in public and keep at least 6 feet from people in other households. But McMaster said "maintaining the status quo ignores all of the great progress we've made." His executive order, noting 43% of eligible adults in the state have received at least one dose, also bans local and state governments from requiring proof of vaccination to gain access to certain areas or government services, an idea McMaster said was "un-American to its core." (Read more South Carolina stories.) (Newser) Derek Chauvin is due to be sentenced June 25 for the murder of George Floydand the judge who presided over his trial has signaled that he is likely to go beyond the 12.5 years sentencing guidelines call for. Judge Peter Cahill ruled Wednesday that prosecutors had proven four out of five aggravating factors in the case "beyond a reasonable doubt," WCCO reports. Cahill said the factors he will consider when sentencing the former Minneapolis police officer include his abuse of authority, the fact that he "treated George Floyd with particular cruelty," the presence of children, and that Chauvin committed the crime with the "active participation" of at least three other people. story continues below Cahill said the "slow death of George Floyd" was particularly cruel because the man "was begging for his life and obviously terrified by the knowledge that he was likely to die," but Chauvin "objectively remained indifferent to Mr. Floyd's pleas." Ted Sampsell-Jones, a professor at the Mitchell Hamline School of Law, says the maximum sentence Chauvin could now receive is 30 years, with the first 20 in prison and the remainder possibly on supervised release, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. Chauvin and three other officers involved in Floyd's death have also been indicted on federal charges. (Read more Derek Chauvin stories.) (Newser) A New York City man suspected of shooting three people in Times Square, including a 4-year-old girl, has been captured in Florida. Authorities say Farrakhan Muhammed, who was identified as a suspect Tuesday, was arrested near Jacksonville Wednesday by US Marshals and members of the New York/New Jersey Regional Fugitive Task Force, ABC7 reports. The 31-year-old, who has an extensive arrest record, was known for selling bootleg CDs in Times Square. Sources tell CBS New York that he hit the three bystanders after opening fire on his own brother Saturday during a turf war over space where they had been illegally selling goods. story continues below Law enforcement officials tell NBC that surveillance footage captured Muhammed going to a hotel, changing his clothes, and leaving with his girlfriend after the shooting. They were spotted in North Carolina Tuesday. Officials say the girlfriend is being questioned to determine whether she knew Muhammed was a fugitive. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that all three victims are out of the hospital and "it looks like they will make a stronger recovery." Brooklyn resident Skye Martinez, 4, was shot in the leg. She had been shopping for toys with her family. A 23-year-old woman from Rhode Island was also shot in the leg and a 43-year-old New Jersey woman was shot in the foot. (Read more Times Square stories.) (Newser) The nation's largest fuel pipeline restarted operations Wednesday, days after it was forced to shut down by a gang of hackers. The disruption caused long lines at gas stations in the Southeast due to distribution problems and panic-buying, draining supplies at thousands of gas stations. Colonial initiated the restart of pipeline operations late Wednesday, saying in a statement that "all lines, including those lateral lines that have been running manually, will return to normal operations," the AP reports. But it will take several days for deliveries to return to normal, the company said. In the meantime, drivers have been finding gas stations with little or no gas in some Southeastern states. story continues below Some markets "may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period," the company said in a statement, per the New York Times. Although there was no gasoline shortage, there was a problem getting the fuel from refineries on the Gulf Coast to the states that need it, and officials were scrambling to find alternate routes to deliver it. The pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, runs from the Gulf Coast to the New York metropolitan region, but states in the Southeast are more reliant on it. In North Carolina, 65% of gas stations were out of fuel Wednesday, according to Gasbuddy.com, a technology firm that tracks real-time fuel prices across the country. (The federal government issued a warning about hoarding gas in plastic bags.) Sorry! This content is not available in your region A Florida woman was arrested after hitting three parked cars before the hood of the automobile she was driving burst into flames, according to Port St. Lucie police. The alleged drunk driver was supposed to have been acting responsibly that night, according to her statement to cops. Pujols was originally arrested for battery on an elderly or disabled adult and released on bail the next day, according to online jail records. After the victim died, he was re-arrested and charged with aggravated manslaughter of an elderly or disabled adult with a weapon. Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Some early morning breaks in the overcast, otherwise cloudy. High near 65F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy. Low 49F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. This image is a screenshot of the prominent message that viewers saw when trying to access the online Alaska Court System, which was the target of a cybersecurity attack earlier this month. News-Miner screenshot. But her promotional instincts proved to be her downfall, as police were easily able to track her from her Instagram handle shed been bragging about to all of the real teenagers. A U.S. Air Force Airman assigned to the 354th Maintenance Group inspects a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon intake for ice build up prior to launch for an elephant walk on Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, Dec. 18, 2020. More than 30 aircraft were quickly generated and prepared to launch in an effort demonstrating the readiness capabilities of the 354th Fighter Wing and the 168th Wing. Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community. Submit here The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574. Community Perspective Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer. Letters to the editor Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Export Bahrain, an initiative of the national SME Development Board, has launched its latest Startup Exporter support solution to help Bahraini businesses enter new markets. The solution aims at encouraging new exporters and SMEs by providing incentive-based grants to overcome liquidity challenges faced by first-time exporters. The move targets first-time exporters serving startups, SMEs and micro-businesses exporting new service and product lines. The solution will allow grants covering up to 20% of the initial value of their first export transaction. Other services include export credit insurance facilities, internalisation and export advisory, export tendering, international retail buyer initiative, export shipping and logistics, export facilitation and deal support, export market intelligence and more. All first-time exporters are entitled to utilise Export Bahrains various offerings and services. Introducing new exporters into the market through the Startup Exporter solution is a critical component of our national strategy to attract more international buyers to small and medium businesses, Zayed bin Rashid Alzayani, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, and Chairman of the SME Development Board said. Initiatives such as this will serve to incentivise companies to explore new market opportunities and attract global buyers to products and services in Bahrain while helping to accelerate their growth. We are hopeful that initiatives such as this will create new opportunities for Bahrain based businesses as they globalise their business models and seek to promote their products on a national level in the global marketplace. For her part, Safa Abdulkhaliq, Export Bahrain Acting Chief Executive Officer added: Our latest solution is designed to encourage exporters to initiate their first export transaction and at the same time to cover the necessary overheads required for the cost associated with that. She added: This package is an extension of our innovative set of offerings aimed at easing the export challenges to all Bahrain based startups, SMEs and micro-businesses, which will support in enhancing Bahrains exports around the globe and support new opportunities to access global buyers. We are firmly committed to nurturing businesses and their ability to promote their products and services to global buyers while ensuring that we continue to invest in the best solutions that can achieve tangible results that will accelerate their growth. We encourage businesses to explore these opportunities with us and where we can provide catered solutions for their exporting requirements. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The Interior Ministry issued a statement to clarify facts and refute frequent allegations of the Qatari Al Jazeera Channel as part of its hostile campaign against the Kingdom of Bahrain. In the statement, the Interior Ministry asserted the following: First: The report of Al Jazeera channel quoting US Congress Members calling for the release of political prisoners in Bahrain is baseless and against reality. Bahrain has no single political prisoner. Those serving their penalties at the Reformation and Rehabilitation Centre, in which Al Jazeera and its proxies are pressuring for their release, are convicts in criminal and terrorist cases, and final verdicts were issued against them after completing all judiciary phases. Second: Freedom of expression is one of the primary human rights principles that Bahrain gives high importance in its human rights records. This should be clear in the activities of local media and social media websites that reflect the vitality of Bahraini society, which enjoys the brightest era of freedom of opinion and expression. Third: Those running the Qatari Al Jazeera Channel think that the channel is a media establishment to highlight various opinions, the opinion and the other opinion. Then why are the different opinions only limited to those who work against Bahrain and its accomplishments? Those people overlooked Bahrains long human rights accomplishments, including its milestones in the last few years. Along with the formation of active and civilised organisations such as the National Institution for Human Rights, the Ombudsman and the Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission that carry out periodic and surprise visits to the reformation and rehabilitation centres to ensure that inmates receive services stated in the law. Fourth: The double-standard of the Qatari Al Jazeera Channel in its media approach and attempts to diminish others and interfere in their internal affairs is obvious, and it is against the channels professionalism claims. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Due to the ongoing pandemic, people are exploring ways to exchange gifts and eidiya this year, predominantly through apps to send e-gifts. An eidiya is hard to define. Its literal translation is of Eid and it is usually a money gift that children and sometimes adults receive on the morning of the first day of Eid, with amounts generally depending on ones age. Families often exchange gifts during this season, with children receiving money from family members. Muslims will also wear their best attire which is often newly bought for this special occasion. They may give others new clothes to help everyone look their best for this important festival. Eid al-Fitr is Arabic for holiday of breaking of the fast and begins at sunset on the last night of Ramadan. It marks the ending of a one-month fast when Muslims worldwide celebrate with festivities that last three days. Every single member of the family gets to shop for new clothes and shoes for Eid. Shopping centres offer discounts to people looking for the best outfit to wear the next morning during prayer. Women usually gather in the eldest family members home to bake sweetslots of sweets. Pistachio cookies, Baklava, and many more desserts are prepared and set up in the dining room for the morning. Temporary henna hand tattoos are a symbol of celebration for women worn to accessorize their new outfits that will be worn the next morning for prayer. Eid is also marked by generosity. Adults, family, and friends give cash to children, it is very common for young people to exchange gifts. Many people also use the occasion to give charitable donations to the poor and needy. Most importantly, Eid is about community. Eid Mubarak, which means a blessed holiday in Arabic, is a common greeting between Muslims during the holiday. Phones are flooded with cheerful and happy messages. Young people compete in constant competition for the best Eid selfie or photo message. Family and friends gather after prayers to eat, with entire generations coming together to exchange gifts. It is a tradition to visit the eldest family members home to celebrate with them and cheer them on, with sons and daughters bringing sweets and gifts. Muslims also take time to visit their loved ones graves with fresh flowers and prayers to God to have mercy on the deceased. It is an act worthy of praise in the Muslim community and is a way for the living to remember the dead even amid days of celebration. All these things combine to make Eid one of the most special, moving periods of the entire year. Hopefully, wherever people are celebrating Eid, they are doing so with sweets, selfies, and love. New rules in Bahrain Meanwhile, Bahraini officials have announced they will allow indoor gyms, swimming pools, cinemas and other attractions to open to vaccinated people and those who have recovered from coronavirus, officials have announced. The end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid al-Fitr will mark the start of the new rules, said the National Taskforce for Combating Coronavirus. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The VKL Group in Bahrain has come to the forefront to help India overcome its current Covid-19 crisis. The VKL Group, led by Pravasi Bharatiya Samman winner and prominent Bahrain-based businessman Dr Varghese Kurian, has purchased Rs7.5 million (BD38,500)worth of oxygen cylinders and accessories from Cryogas Equipment Pvt Ltd, headquartered in Baroda, Gujarat. This is part of VKL Groups several humanitarian and charity activities done in India and Bahrain especially during the pandemic. The VKL Group was also the first to set up a quarantine facility for Covid-19 victims in Bahrain. The VKL group has also been donating to several expatriates who were finding it difficult to return home during these trying times. Action has been initiated to assure that the Oxygen supplies reach the needy, affirmed Mr Kurian, VKL Group Chairman and Managing Director. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Bahrain Flour Mills company yesterday reported a profit for the first quarter, reversing a loss a year ago, helped by increases in the fair value of investments and other income. The company said it has all COVID-19 measures in place on its premises, with 90% of its employees receiving the vaccination. Quarterly net profit was BHD 1,110,945, compared to a net loss of BHD 1,931,932 in the year-ago quarter. Basic and diluted earnings per share were 45 fils compared with a loss of (78) fils in the same period of 2020. Q1 operating profit was BD 160,079 compared to BD 260,314 in the year-ago quarter, a decrease of 38.5%. Al-Matahin attributed the drop in operating profit to a decrease in sales volume and increases in operating expenses. Regarding Q1 sales, Bahrain Flour Mills Company said it achieved sales of BHD 1,928,346, compared to BHD 2,051,225 in the year-ago quarter, a 6% decrease. Total equity increased by 3.4% to BHD 21,602,998 compared with 20,884,437 as recorded on 31 December 2020. The total assets reached BHD 25,673,335 compared to BD 30,123,536 at the end of the same period in 2020, a decrease of 14.8%. Marwan Khaled Tabbara, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company, said that the company continues to adhere to all necessary COVID-19 precautionary measures to preserve the safety of its employees and ensure the continuity of work amid the challenges the company is facing under the current circumstances. Al-Matahin Company said it is proud of its employees awareness and commitment to the governments vaccination initiative. The company said 90% of its employees are vaccinated. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Douglas identified two of her attackers, Vincent Bell and Kilm Adkins, who both ended up pleading guilty. Even though she knew Stickland personally, Douglas did not identify him as one of the shooters until after her sisters boyfriend suggested it could have been him, according to Midwest Innocence Project A Litchfield attorney has been sentenced to an additional 20 months in state prison after authorities said he embezzled nearly $1 million from a charity benefiting military veterans and families. Kevin Creed, 69, was already serving 42 months in federal prison for similar accusations, officials said. Creed was arrested by the FBI and U.S. attorneys office in 2019 after federal authorities claimed he diverted $1.4 million from money raised for Friends of Fisher House - Connecticut. The Maryland-based Fisher House Foundation builds homes on Veterans Affairs and military bases that provide housing for veterans and their families while they undergo treatment, the Division of Criminal Justice said. Beginning in 2010, Creed ran the FFH-CT out of his law practice, The Creed Law Firm, in Bristol, Connecticut, DCJ said. He committed to raising $3 million to support the construction and operation of a Fisher House on the grounds of the West Haven Veterans Hospital. He also advertised that his law firm would underwrite the expenses required to raise the $3 million. Authorities claim Creed only ever donated one payment of $1 million to the Friends of Fisher House for the construction of the Fisher House in West Haven, using $1.4 million for personal and businesses expenses instead. He was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison on one count of wire fraud in November of last year. He was also ordered to pay $1.4 million in restitution. Creed was ordered to report to prison on Tuesday. But last November, state investigators with the Connecticut Statewide Prosecution Bureau charged him with first-degree larceny, in the case alleging he embezzled $985,000 from donations raised around the state. Investigators allege he failed to submit those funds to the Friends of Fisher House. While the total amount embezzled was approximately $1.4 million, due to a five-year statute of limitations, the state was limited to the amount of $985,000, the DCJ said. He pleaded guilty to first-degree larceny on March 10 and was sentenced to 20 months in state prison on Monday. That sentence will begin after his release from federal prison. Creed is being held on $1 million bond. BOSTON (AP) An outside audit three years ago of the major East Coast pipeline company hit by a cyberattack found atrocious information management practices and a patchwork of poorly connected and secured systems, its author told The Associated Press. We found glaring deficiencies and big problems, said Robert F. Smallwood, whose consulting firm delivered an 89-page report in January 2018 after a six-month audit. I mean an eighth-grader could have hacked into that system. How far the company, Colonial Pipeline, went to address the vulnerabilities isn't clear. Colonial said Wednesday that since 2017, it has hired four independent firms for cybersecurity risk assessments and increased its overall IT spending by more than 50%. While it did not specify an amount, it said it has spent tens of millions of dollars. "We are constantly assessing and improving our security practices both physical and digital, the privately held Georgia company said in response to questions from the AP about the audit's findings. It did not name the firms who did cybersecurity work but one firm, Rausch Advisory Services, located in Atlanta near Colonial's headquarters, acknowledged being among them. Colonial's chief information officer sits on Rausch's advisory board. Colonial has not said how the hackers penetrated its network. How vulnerable it was to compromise is sure to be intensely scrutinized by federal authorities and cybersecurity experts as they consider how the most damaging cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure might have been prevented. Friday's pipeline shutdown has led to distribution problems and panic-buying, draining supplies at thousands of gas stations in the Southeast. Colonial said it initiated the restart of pipeline operations on Wednesday afternoon and that it would take several days for supply delivery to return to normal. Ransomware attacks have reached epidemic levels as foreign criminal gangs paralyze computer networks at state and local governments, police departments, hospitals and universities demanding large sums to decrypt the data. Many organizations have failed to invest in the safeguards needed to fend off such attacks, though U.S. officials worry even more about state-backed foreign hackers doing more serious damage. Any shortcomings by Colonial would be especially egregious given its critical role in the U.S. energy system, providing the East Coast with 45% of its gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products. Smallwood, a partner at iMERGE and managing director of the Institute for Information Governance, said he prepared a 24-month, $1.3 million plan for Colonial. While iMERGEs audit was not directly focused on cybersecurity we found many security issues, and that was put in the report. Colonials statements Wednesday suggest it may have heeded a number of Smallwoods recommendations. In addition, it says it has active monitoring and overlapping threat-detection systems on its network and identified the ransomware attack as soon as we learned of it. Colonial said its IT network is strictly segregated from pipeline control systems, which were not affected by the ransomware. Unlike electrical utilities, the pipeline industry is not subject to mandatory cybersecurity standards, which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chair, Richard Glick, called for in a statement Tuesday. Smallwoods study was not a cybersecurity audit. It focused on ensuring smooth operations and preventing data theft, which is exactly what Colonial suffered last week. Colonial is not saying what the cybercriminals took before activating the ransomware. The hackers, from a Russian-speaking syndicate called DarkSide, steal data before locking up networks to doubly extort victims. If a victim refuses to pay, they not only refuse to unscramble the data, they threaten to release sensitive material online. Colonial has not said whether it paid DarkSide. Smallwood read portions of his report to the AP but would not share it because he said some of the content is confidential. He said he was paid about $50,000 for it. He cited, for example, Colonial's inability to locate a particular maintenance document. "Youre supposed to be able to find it within 15 minutes. It took them three weeks. Locating such a document could be crucial in responding to an accident or keeping up-to-date pipeline inspection records to prevent leaks, Smallwood said. Colonial experienced one of the worst gasoline spills in U.S. history last August, contaminating a nature preserve north of Charlotte . After it was discovered by two teenagers, the spill's severity was not immediately clear as Colonial's initial reports indicated a far lower volume. North Carolina environmental regulators angrily called the company's failure to promptly provide reliable data unacceptable. Colonial says it released the best available data on spill volume as the discovery progressed. Separately, shippers have complained to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that Colonial inflated what it spends on pipeline integrity to deflect accusations it overcharges them. Colonial rejects this, citing the rising costs of safely maintaining its system. Bill Caram, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog Pipeline Safety Trust, called worrisome the allegations of deficient IT management, piecemeal spill reporting and pipeline integrity issues. I think all these things just could paint a picture of the culture at Colonial maybe not taking risks seriously enough, he said. Smallwood said he was reluctant to go public about the Colonial audit for fear of alienating future clients but the gravity of the situation demands that the public know just how fragile some of these systems within our infrastructure are. One of his main recommendations was that Colonial hire a chief information security officer, a position that cybersecurity experts consider essential in any company with infrastructure vital to national security. Colonial said it instead assigned those responsibilities to a subordinate of chief information officer Marie Mouchet. Mouchet was on the advisory board of Rausch when it did a cybersecurity study for Colonial concurrent to Smallwoods audit. Asked if that might present a conflict of interest, Rausch CEO Michael Lisenby said Mochet's advisory board seat is an unpaid, voluntary position. Smallwoods recommendations included a data loss prevention program to ensure highly confidential, marketable data such as details on how the pipeline is used could not be easily removed. Colonial says it has strengthened data-loss-prevention defenses with three different software tools that provide alerts when data leaves the network. Smallwood said he found no security-awareness training, which mostly teaches employees not to fall victim to phishing, the cause of more than 90% of cyber-intrusions. But Colonial said its expanded cybersecurity regime includes regular simulated phishing campaigns for employees. The audit covered environmental procurement, legal risk, business development, asset integrity, accounting and tax safety operations, information technology, (Microsoft) SharePoint and human resources. And so it was a very comprehensive assessment, said Smallwood. Originally founded by nine oil companies in 1962, Colonial is privately held. It's owners include a pair of private equity firms, a Canadian fund manager, a Koch Industries subsidiary and a subsidiary of Shell Midstream Partners. The company does not release earnings or revenue figures. ___ This story has been updated to correct reference to one of the owners of Colonial. It is a Koch Industries subsidiary, not a Koch Brothers subsidiary. WASHINGTON After a recent swing through Oman, Jordan and Qatar, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy said he sees the grassroots of de-escalation emerging in the civil war in Yemen, a deadly crisis for which the Connecticut Democrat has long advocated for a peaceful solution. On a call with reporters after his return, Murphy, who leads the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the Middle East, also said he had great concern about the recent escalation of violence in Israel and he urged President Joe Biden to secure a return of the Iran nuclear deal. I came back more confident than ever that it is imperative for the United States to get back into the Iran deal, Murphy. There is no doubt that a restart of the deal is good for the United States and good for the region. Interesting to note that the very vocal opposition to the Iran deal that was present from Gulf nations under the Obama administration has largely disappeared. President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Iran deal in 2018, calling it a horrible one-sided deal and reimposing sanctions on the country. Negotiators for the Biden administration and Iran have recently been discussing terms for a possible new deal in Europe. Murphy said during his trip and since returning, he has advised the Biden administration that it must get the Iranians back into compliance with the deal. Murphy departed for the Middle East on April 29 for a multi-day trip of meetings with foreign leaders and Biden administration officials, mostly focused on ending the war and delivering humanitarian relief in Yemen. Since 2015, an intractable civil war has consumed Yemen with fighting between Iran-backed Houthis, who overthrew the Yemeni government, and a multi-state coalition lead by Saudi Arabian forces and supported by the U.S. The war has produced the worlds worst humanitarian crisis, with millions of people suffering from malnutrition, a situation that has worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. In February, Biden announced the U.S. would end American support for offensive operations in Yemen, including arms sales. The U.S. will continue anti-terrorism activities in the area. While in the region, Murphy met with the foreign ministers in Oman and Qatar to discuss the role those countries can plan in addressing the situation in Yemen. We have a ceasefire agreement on the table in Yemen, Murphy said. This to me seems like the time for a ceasefire and political negotiations... the United States is willing to be active and present in those negotiations... we are hopeful that the Omanis will deliver that message to the Houthis. Then, he traveled to Jordan for a sit down with King Abdullah II of Jordan along with officials from the U.S. Department of State, Defense and National Security Council. Murphy later dined with Abdullah and the queen. While in Jordan, Murphy also met with the United Nations Special Envoy for Yemen and Bidens Yemen Special Envoy. Murphy has urged the Biden administration to fully fund the UN appeal for humanitarian funds for Yemen. He visited a United Nations Relief and Works Agency training center that supports Palestinian refugees. Murphy also had lunch with Connecticut National Guard troops stationed in Jordan. emilie.munson@hearstdc.com; Twitter: @emiliemunson FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) Former Del. Winsome Sears, who 20 years ago became the first Black Republican woman elected to the Virginia Assembly, made a political comeback Tuesday after winning the GOP nomination for lieutenant governor. Sears beat five other candidates, including two former Del. Tim Hugo from Fairfax County and Virginia Beach Del. Glenn Davis who were far more active in recent GOP politics. Winsome Sears is the strong, principled leader Virginia needs to serve as our next Lieutenant Governor. As a mother and a former Marine, she built her own successful small business, said Senate Republican Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. R-James City, and his fellow Senate leaders in a joint statement Tuesday night. Winsome made history when she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates. Now, she is poised to make history again. Sears served a single term representing parts of Hampton Roads in the House of Delegates, winning election in 2001. She did not seek reelection and now resides in the Winchester area. She came to the U.S. from Jamaica as a child, and served in the Marines. In her campaign, she highlighted her more recent work as national chairperson for Black Americans to Re-Elect President Trump. Sears led throughout multiple rounds of balloting under the ranked-choice voting system Virginia Republicans used for their nominating convention. After a first round of ballots was counted Tuesday, Sears led with 32%, followed by Hugo with 23% and Davis at 20%. In the final round, Sears won with about 54% over Hugo. More than 30,000 delegates cast ballots Saturday at what the party called an unassembled convention. Delegates ranked the candidates from first choice to last on the ballots they submitted. Sears joins gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin and attorney general nominee Jason Miyares on the GOP ticket this fall. Republicans are hoping to end a 12-year losing streak in statewide races in Virginia. Youngkin, after winning the nomination Monday night, received the endorsement of former President Donald Trump. Democrats will choose their nominee next month in a state-run primary. Former governor Terry McAuliffe is the front-runner in a field of five gubernatorial candidates. Virginia is the only state with an open-seat gubernatorial contest this year; the race is being closely scrutinized as an early signal of each partys political strength heading into the 2022 congressional elections. While Republicans have not won a statewide race in Virginia since 2009, the party has some hope of ending their drought this year; since 1973, only once has the party controlling the White House gone on to win the governors race in Virginia the next year. The state House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution that could ultimately end Connecticut's long-standing, tight restrictions on when residents are allowed to vote by absentee ballot. However, the proposal fell short of passing with enough support so voters can make that decision in 2022. Instead, if the Senate passes the same measure, 2024 is the soonest that a question could appear on the general election ballot as to whether Connecticut's constitution should be changed to allow no-excuses absentee voting. Democratic Secretary of the State Denise Merrill called the House vote an important first step to bringing Connecticut in line with rest of the country by making voting more convenient through universal access to absentee ballots. But she said in a statement that it was disappointing and a shame that more Republicans didn't back the resolution. The legislation passed the House on a 103 to 44 vote, with nine Republicans joining the Democrats in support. In order for the question to have appeared on the November 2022 ballot, the resolution needed 75% of the chamber's support. The resolution now awaits action in the Senate. If it passes by a simple majority, both chambers must approve it again by a simple majority during the 2023 legislative session in order for the question to appear on the 2024 ballot. Proponents contend Connecticut needs to finally join the majority of states that allow early voting and/or no-excuse absentee voting, noting that voters welcomed the opportunity to vote safely by absentee during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont temporarily allowed it through an executive order. The resolution would place a question before the voters, asking whether the state constitution should be amended to allow people to be vote by absentee for any reason. Prior to Lamont's action, it has been restricted to excuses such as being out of town on Election Day, sickness or physical disability. Its time to make this commonsense measure permanent. If the legislature doesnt pass the no-excuse absentee ballot resolution this session, voters will quickly lose the rights they gained just months ago, Cheri Quickmire, executive director of Common Cause in Connecticut, said in a statement. But critics of the bill, mostly Republicans, questioned the safeguards surrounding the state's current absentee ballot system, noting past absentee ballot controversies in places like Bridgeport where there were allegations of irregularities in the 2019 Democratic primary for mayor. We don't need to open the floodgates to ballot fraud. We don't need to open the floodgates to bad actors to take advantage of a system where there's no protections, said state Rep. David Labriola, R-Naugatuck. Republicans unsuccessfully tried to amend the legislation to require that a photo ID be presented at the polls and a signature verification process, arguing they would create confidence among voters in the accuracy of the vote. Democrats, who control the General Assembly, argued that people without IDs would be disenfranchised. Tuesday's debate on whether to expand absentee voting comes nearly a week after the House of Representatives passed another resolution, 115 to 26, that would place a question on the 2022 general election ballot asking voters if the state constitution should be amended to allow in-person, early voting before an election or referendum. The resolution awaits action in the Senate. A 14-year-old suspect, Aiden Fucci, has since been arrested and is currently being held on one count of second-degree murder by the Department of Juvenile Justice. The 7th Circuit State Attorneys Office has not yet decided if he will be charged as an adult and Aiden has not yet entered a plea. Fewer renters than expected are applying for pandemic assistance in Pennsylvania, alarming state officials who urged tenants who are behind on rent to submit their applications now in light of a judge's recent decision striking down a national eviction moratorium. The ruling has been put on hold while the Biden administration appeals. But the uncertainty around the moratorium prompted the Department of Human Services, which runs the state's rental assistance program, to plead with renters to take advantage of the program. I'm extremely concerned that people are not moving quickly to pursue this assistance because the moratorium was expected to be in place, Meg Snead, the acting DHS secretary, said Tuesday. And I'm extremely concerned about what may occur, and circumstances people will be in, if the ruling stands. Snead said the program is meant to help Pennsylvania avoid a wave of evictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Pennsylvania's 67 counties received about $847 million in federal relief to help tenants pay rent and utilities. The state's rent relief program launched in March. Early indications are that it has been slow to get off the ground. Only about 8,000 applications for rental assistance have been submitted through a state portal, representing two-thirds of Pennsylvania counties. The average benefit has been about $4,000 per applicant. More complete numbers are expected next week. We do not want to leave funds unspent when we know there is likely an incredible need across Pennsylvania, Snead said. Pennsylvania had similar problems last year, spending just $54 million on rental assistance out of $150 million allocated in an earlier relief package. The Pennsylvania Housing Finance Authority returned the rest, some of which went to the state corrections department. A primary roadblock to landlords' willingness to participate in last year's program a $750 cap on monthly payments does not apply this year. In other coronavirus-related developments in Pennsylvania on Tuesday: GATHERING LIMITS RELAXED Pennsylvania is allowing more people at indoor and outdoor events. Beginning Monday, occupancy limits will be increased to 50% of capacity for indoor events, up from 25%, and to 75% for outdoor events, up from 50%. As more Pennsylvania adults get vaccinated and guidance from the CDC evolves, we can continue to move forward with the commonwealths reopening efforts, Gov. Tom Wolf said in a statement Tuesday. The state has previously announced that nearly all COVID restrictions will go away on Memorial Day, including capacity limits on bars, restaurants and other businesses, as well as indoor and outdoor event gathering limits. The state's mask mandate will remain until 75% of adults are fully vaccinated. Statewide, about 45.6% of people aged 18 and older have been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Philadelphia, meanwhile, city officials announced pandemic restrictions will be eased beginning later this month, and will go away almost entirely on June 11. Starting May 21, retail stores and offices will no longer have to operate at reduced capacity, and the city is lifting its rule that bars and restaurants can only serve alcohol with food. Capacity limits on gyms, exercise classes and theaters will be eased, as well as limits on outdoor and indoor catered events. The city plans to lift all restrictions under its Safer at Home initiative on June 11, though its masking requirement will remain for the foreseeable future. The health commissioner, Dr. Thomas Farley, said hes keeping the mask mandate in place to make sure the dip in cases and the positivity rate is not just a seasonal phenomenon. Its not a big deal. Its a light thing. Were not asking people to carry a piano, said Mayor Jim Kenney, adding he planned to wear his mask through the winter. The Philadelphia Eagles said they were excited to welcome fans back to Lincoln Financial Field. As we look ahead to a full stadium, we encourage our community to get vaccinated, team President Don Smolenski said in a statement. ___ VAX FOR YOUNGER TEENS Younger teens in the Philadelphia suburbs lined up to get vaccinated Tuesday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the use of the two-dose vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds. About 750,000 Pennsylvania children are eligible for Pfizers COVID-19 shot after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the use of the two-dose vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds, according to state health officials. The Montgomery County Office of Public Health began administering the shots to kids in that age group on Tuesday, even though the state Health Department asserted that providers need to wait until a federal vaccine advisory committee signs off, which is expected to happen Wednesday. Under all relevant legal authority, once the FDA gives approval, a prescriber is permitted to prescribe the vaccine, said Montgomery County spokesperson Kelly Cofrancisco. Since the vaccine committee does not have any role in determining whether we begin administering the Pfizer vaccine to those 12 and up starting today, we chose to move ahead. About 300 people between the ages of 12 and 15 signed up to get the shot, not including walk-ups, according to Cofrancisco, The state Health Department later softened its language, saying it was exercising an abundance of caution in recommending that vaccine providers wait until the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices gives the go-ahead. ___ Associated Press reporter Claudia Lauer in Philadelphia contributed to this story. NEW CANAAN A professional MMA fighter has been accused of illegally using a town residents credit card to purchase a plane ticket, police said. Anthony Kewoa Johnson, 37, of Deerfield Beach, Fla., has been charged with third-degree identity theft, receipt from illegal use of a credit card and use of a revoked payment card. Connecticut education and health officials are working together to organize clinics that would give children ages 12 to 15 access to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the federal government gives final approval for its emergency use in that age group. Clinics have been held at schools in more than 30 districts for 16- to 18-year-olds and others are being planned that could be expanded to vaccinate younger students, Peter Yazbak, a spokesperson for the Department of Education, said Tuesday. Having clinics on site at the schools makes access easy for students and eliminates some of the logistical barriers that might be there for them, he said. Yazbak said the decisions on how to offer the vaccine are being made at the district level with local health departments. He said some may opt for bus trips to mass vaccination sites or work with local providers to get the vaccine into the arms of 12- to 15-year-olds, with parental permission, as soon as that age group is eligible. The school-run efforts are really the most effective, because they are right there at the grassroots," he said. They have the most communication with the families and providers." About 49% of the states 16- to 17-year-olds had already received their first dose of the vaccine as of Sunday, he said. The official sign-off on the vaccines use in the 12-15 age group will not occur until at least Wednesday, when a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention committee meets. Yazbak and the governor's office said they expect many of the vaccinations will be offered on weekends, when parents can more easily accompany their children. The governor's office said providers requested and received more doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week in anticipation of the age expansion. Gov. Ned Lamont said Monday he does not plan to require that teens get the vaccine as a condition of returning to the classroom next fall. In other coronavirus-related news: LEGAL HELP FOR RENTERS The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation creating a state-wide right to counsel program" that will provide free legal representation to income-eligible tenants in eviction proceedings. The bill, which passed on a bipartisan vote of 109 to 38, now heads to the Senate. State Rep. Brandon McGee, D-Hartford, co-chair of the General Assembly's Housing Committee, said less than 7% of tenants have legal representation in eviction court proceeding, compared to 80% for landlords. Among Black and Hispanic tenants facing eviction, 5% have legal representation. As a result of COVID-19, upwards of 103,000 families in Connecticut are currently behind on rent," McGee said in a statement. It is vital, now more than ever, that our tenants in Connecticut receive the fair and equitable legal proceedings they deserve." The proposed program, which will begin July 1 if the bill becomes law, will be funded with the state's share of federal coronavirus relief money. LOS ANGELES (AP) A Southern California official is seeking federal help in stopping an influx of illegal fireworks that has fueled use of skyrockets and firecrackers well beyond July 4 and led to the deadly explosion of a cache in the middle of a neighborhood this year. Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger outlined the concerns in letters to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, her office said Tuesday. MADISON, Wis. (AP) The Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature passed bills Tuesday that would make it more difficult to vote absentee proposals that were all but certain to be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers but that GOP lawmakers said were needed to address issues that arose during last year's presidential election. The measures are part of a national push by Republicans to change voting laws following former President Donald Trump's defeat in November and his bogus claims that there was widespread fraud and abuse. Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden by about 20,600 votes in Wisconsin, an outcome that withstood a partial recount and numerous state and federal lawsuits. Democratic Sen. Jeff Smith decried the bills as a continuation of the big lie from Trump. What is going on in this country when it comes to elections is shameful and a terrible risk that we run in not only making our democracy weaker but dismantling democracy. Republicans said their intent was to improve election security and confidence in elections, not to perpetuate conspiracy theories. Republican Sen. Duey Stroebel, a key sponsor of the legislation, said he was trying to create some reasonable, transparent, consistent rules. Wisconsin Republican lawmakers have introduced more than a dozen bills that would change the state's election laws. Evers has signaled that he would veto any that reach his desk, meaning none of them would take effect. The Senate passed a bill that would prohibit local elections officials from filling out missing voter information on the absentee ballot certificate, which also serves as the envelope, that voters use to return ballots. Trump sought to disqualify about 5,500 absentee ballots in Democratic-leaning Dane and Milwaukee counties where election clerks filled in missing address information on the certification envelope. Clerks had been filling in missing information on the certification envelopes for a dozen elections prior to November's, based in part on guidance from the Wisconsin Elections Commission. After Trump lost, Republicans questioned the legality of the practice since state law doesnt specifically allow it. Under the bill, any absentee ballot missing information would be returned to the voter to fix. Officials who fill in the missing information would be committing election fraud, which is punishable by up to a $10,000 fine and three years in prison. Another bill the Senate passed would disallow ballot collection events any earlier than two weeks before an election. They would also have to be located near the local clerk's office and staffed by workers from there. That change is in response to the Democracy in the Park event held in Madison city parks last year where volunteers collected absentee ballots before the early voting period started two weeks prior to the election. The bill also would prohibit someone other than a member of the voters immediate family or a legal guardian from returning a completed absentee ballot for another person. Violators would be guilty of a felony. Trump argued in a lawsuit that no ballots should be counted that were collected at the Democracy in the Park events, or where election officials added missing information. On both of those claims, the Wisconsin Supreme Court said Trump had raised the issues too late and that his claims lacked evidence to back them up. Three dissenting conservative justices said the laws need to be clarified, leading to the bills up for a Senate vote. The Assembly passed a bill that would generally prohibit counties and municipalities from accepting grants or donations from private entities to help run elections. If the state elections commission received a private grant, it would have to award it to each municipality in the state on a per capita basis. That bill comes after the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life awarded more than $6 million to five Wisconsin cities to help with the November election. The nonprofits $250 million in grants awarded nationwide were funded by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife. Conservatives sued to stop the funding in Wisconsin, but they lost in federal court. Republicans have raised particular concerns with how the money was used in Green Bay. State lawmakers have ordered a state audit of the election, including what happened in Green Bay, but it is expected to take months to complete. The Wisconsin Assembly also ordered an investigation. The measure passed with all Republicans in support and Democrats against. It now heads to the Senate, which passed a similar version earlier. The two bills passed by the Senate now go to the Assembly. Other Republican-controlled states, including Georgia, Iowa, Texas, Florida and Arizona, have passed laws largely targeting mail-in voting. Republicans in other states have defended the moves as bolstering security and trust in elections, while critics have said they are perpetuating a lie and trying to tamp down turnout of Democrats. ___ Associated Press writer Todd Richmond contributed to this report. Children ages 12 to 15 will start getting vaccinated this week, and though experts say preventing transmission of the coronavirus is one of the main reasons to inoculate children, serious COVID-19 infections have occurred among this age group. The exact number of children infected and hospitalized with COVID-19 is unknown since data is collected for broader age groups, but doctors at Connecticut hospitals said pediatric cases have occurred throughout the pandemic. We've had over 30 children in that age group admitted to the hospital since the beginning of the pandemic, said Tom Murray, associate medical director for infection prevention for Yale New Haven Children's Hospital. Unfortunately, about a dozen of those have been admitted to the intensive care unit. And a handful of those have actually required a breathing tube. On Tuesday, Connecticut officials announced 409 new COVID-19 infections with 2.77 percent of the total tests performed in the previous 24 hours coming back positive. Nine fewer patients were hospitalized patients, bringing the statewide total to 271. Two more people in Connecticut died with COVID-19, increasing the total to 8,156 fatalities since the start of the pandemic. Statewide coronavirus infection data does not specifically track children ages 12 to 15, who will now be able to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after federal approval this week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also does not track data specific to this group. Of the 343,954 total COVID-19 cases identified in Connecticut, nearly 41,000 are among patients between the ages of 10 and 19 years old. There have been three deaths associated with the disease in that age group. A spokesperson for the state Department of Health said Connecticut infection data on children ages 12 to 15 was not available. Hospital officials statewide say the number of children that age in need of medical treatment due to COVID infections have not been as high as among older residents. However, they say the vaccine will provide some much-needed protection. Yes, we certainly have seen kids in this age group hospitalized with COVID, said Jody Terranova, assistant professor of pediatrics at UConn and director of the Burgdorf Health Center Pediatric Clinic in Hartford. While children in general are at lower risk from COVID, they are not at no risk. Just like we see in adults, children with underlying conditions such as obesity and asthma are at higher risk and otherwise healthy kids have also become severely ill and can have long-term effects from the illness. Vaccinating this age group will not only protect them at an individual level but also help prevent spread in the community, she said. Doctors associated with Nuvance Health, which runs Danbury, New Milford, Norwalk and Sharon hospitals among other facilities in Connecticut and New York, have cared for children within that age group who have COVID-19 the severity of illness ranging from asymptomatic and mild to symptomatic, with fever, cough, gastrointestinal illness, headache or loss of taste and/or smell, Nuvance spokesperson Sarah Colomello said. Vaccinating children ages 12 to 15 is a tremendous opportunity to help return life to something approaching normalcy, said Dr. Frank Illuzzi, medical director for specialty services in the Fairfield Region at St. Vincents Medical Center in Bridgeport. Children in this age bracket want to get back to school. They want their lives back, Illuzzi said. For that to happen, he said, vaccination is essential. Though children in this group are infected with COVID-19 less frequently and not as severely as adults, Illuzzi said they do get ill. While its uncommon, I dont think its fair to say its rare that kids get very sick, Illuzzi said. Weve definitely seen 12- to 15-year-olds get sick. Murray said younger patients tend to display different symptoms than their parents and grandparents. The older the child is, the closer it gets to the adult presentation, he said. In general, in kids, they can have more GI symptoms, more nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and then as you get into the even younger kids, you get a higher proportion that are asymptomatic or have very, very mild symptoms. There is also a concern over multisystem inflammatory syndrome, known as MIS-C, which Colomello said is a hyper-inflammatory response with rare but serious symptoms such as respiratory distress, heart problems, low blood pressure and shock. According to the CDC, there have been as many as 49 cases of MIS-C identified in Connecticut since the start of the pandemic. Even in the last few weeks, we've had several cases admitted to the hospital with that syndrome, Murray said. It's a post-COVID complication, it typically occurs around three to six weeks after COVID. It can involve the heart and a variety of other organ systems, the belly, the kidneys. We have continued to see cases of that throughout the pandemic. Whether the vaccine will prevent or ameliorate the symptoms from MIS-C remains unknown. We hope that that's true, but we're really not going to know until the vaccine is administered to a large number of children, because it's a very rare complication, Murray said. The studies with kids so far were about 2,000 kids, 1,000 of whom received a vaccine. That is just not nearly enough kids to see if it will have an impact on the MIS-C, but certainly, we're hoping that it does. There is also the issue of transmission. Children ages 12 to 15 do get sick from a coronavirus infection, though not at the same rates as adults, and they are very good at transmitting disease, experts said. When they do get sick, they are transmitting the disease, Illuzzi said. They are reservoirs for it. Children that age tend to spread disease very well, Murray said. Their bodies are almost as developed as an adult body. Some of it has to do with your ability to send your infected droplets into the air. When a 15-year-old coughs, it can be an adult cough, he said. When a 3-year-old coughs, it tends not to be as forceful. As for whether or not children ages 12 to 15 will get vaccinated, Howard Forman, a professor of radiology and biomedical imaging at Yale School of Public Health, said on Twitter that signs are positive. Roughly one-third of all 16- and 17-year-olds have received at least one shot, despite a late start in access, he tweeted. This bodes well for expanding access to 12 to 15-year-olds. Staff writer Amanda Cuda contributed to this story. But Sharma, who got out of jail the next day, does not seem worried about the risk of operating a Tesla even when the vehicle is on Autopilot mode. In a video shared on his Instagram page Monday, the suspect was seen riding alone in the backseat of his car before turning the camera toward a tablet that showed a news story about himself. Just two days earlier, he posted another video of the same stunt as well as screenshots of another article about him. CARE was an important partner when I was president in areas like disaster response in Central America and improving global access to vaccine, said Bill Clinton. Ive had many opportunities to work with them since leaving the White House through the Clinton Global Initiative. Ive seen first hand what a difference CARE makes as the world continues to confront an unprecedented pandemic that has claimed more than 3 million lives and thrown millions more into poverty. Their work is more critical than ever. For now I want to thank them for what they did for our workers when the epidemic broke out here. BRUSSELS (AP) Chinas ruling Communist Party has opened a new front in its long, ambitious war to shape global public opinion: Western social media. Liu Xiaoming, who recently stepped down as Chinas ambassador to the United Kingdom, is one of the partys most successful foot soldiers on this evolving online battlefield. He joined Twitter in October 2019, as scores of Chinese diplomats surged onto Twitter and Facebook, which are both banned in China. Since then, Liu has deftly elevated his public profile, gaining a following of more than 119,000 as he transformed himself into an exemplar of Chinas new sharp-edged wolf warrior diplomacy, a term borrowed from the title of a top-grossing Chinese action movie. As I see it, there are so-called wolf warriors because there are wolfs in the world and you need warriors to fight them, Liu, who is now Chinas Special Representative on Korean Peninsula Affairs, tweeted in February. His stream of posts principled and gutsy ripostes to Western anti-Chinese bias to his fans, aggressive bombast to his detractors were retweeted more than 43,000 times from June through February alone. But much of the popular support Liu and many of his colleagues seem to enjoy on Twitter has, in fact, been manufactured. A seven-month investigation by the Associated Press and the Oxford Internet Institute, a department at Oxford University, found that China's rise on Twitter has been powered by an army of fake accounts that have retweeted Chinese diplomats and state media tens of thousands of times, covertly amplifying propaganda that can reach hundreds of millions of people often without disclosing the fact that the content is government-sponsored. This type of analysis is possible because Twitter makes more of its data available to researchers than other social media platforms routinely do. More than half the retweets Liu got from June through January came from accounts that Twitter has suspended for violating the platforms rules, which prohibit manipulation. Overall, more than one in ten of the retweets 189 Chinese diplomats got in that time frame came from accounts that Twitter had suspended by Mar. 1. But Twitters suspensions did not stop the pro-China amplification machine. An additional cluster of fake accounts, many of them impersonating U.K. citizens, continued to push Chinese government content, racking up over 16,000 retweets and replies before Twitter kicked them off late last month and early this month, in response to the AP and Oxford Internet Institutes investigation. This fiction of popularity can boost the status of Chinas messengers, creating a mirage of broad support. It can also distort platform algorithms, which are designed to boost the distribution of popular posts, potentially exposing more genuine users to Chinese government propaganda. While individual fake accounts may not seem impactful on their own, over time and at scale, such networks can distort the information environment, deepening the reach and authenticity of Chinas messaging. You have a seismic, slow but large continental shift in narratives, said Timothy Graham, a senior lecturer at Queensland University of Technology who studies social networks. Steer it just a little bit over time, it can have massive impact. Twitter, and others, have identified inauthentic pro-China networks before. But the AP and Oxford Internet Institute investigation shows for the first time that large-scale inauthentic amplification has broadly driven engagement across official government and state media accounts, adding to evidence that Beijings appetite for guiding public opinion covertly, if necessary extends beyond its borders and beyond core strategic interests, like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Xinjiang. Twitters takedowns often came only after weeks or months of activity. All told, AP and the Oxford Internet Institute identified 26,879 accounts that managed to retweet Chinese diplomats or state media nearly 200,000 times before getting suspended. They accounted for a significant share sometimes more than half of the total retweets many diplomatic accounts got on Twitter. It was not possible to determine whether the accounts were sponsored by the Chinese government. Twitter told AP that many of the accounts had been sanctioned for manipulation, but declined to offer details on what other platform violations may have been at play. Twitter said it was investigating whether the activity was a state-affiliated information operation. We will continue to investigate and action accounts that violate our platform manipulation policy, including accounts associated with these networks, a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. If we have clear evidence of state-affiliated information operations, our first priority is to enforce our rules and remove accounts engaging in this behavior. When our investigations are complete, we disclose all accounts and content in our public archive. Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it does not employ trickery on social media. There is no so-called misleading propaganda, nor exporting a model of online public opinion guidance, the ministry said in a statement to AP. We hope that the relevant parties will abandon their discriminatory attitude, take off their tinted glasses, and take a peaceful, objective, and rational approach in the spirit of openness and inclusiveness. IDEOLOGICAL BATTLEFIELD Twitter and Facebook function as formidable and one-sided global megaphones for Chinas ruling Communist Party, helping to amplify messaging broadly set by central authorities. Today, at least 270 Chinese diplomats in 126 countries are active on Twitter and Facebook. Together with Chinese state media, they control 449 accounts on Twitter and Facebook, which posted nearly 950,000 times between June and February. These messages were liked over 350 million times and replied to and shared more than 27 million times, according to the Oxford Internet Institute and APs analysis. Three-quarters of Chinese diplomats on Twitter joined within the last two years. The move onto Western social media comes as China wages a war for influence both at home and abroad on the internet, which President Xi Jinping has called the main battlefield for public opinion. On the battlefield of the Internet, whether we can withstand and win is directly related to our countrys ideological security and political security, he said in 2013, not long after taking power. In September 2019, as Chinese diplomats flocked to Twitter, Xi gave another speech, urging party cadres to strengthen their fighting spirit. Xi has reconfigured Chinas internet governance, tightening controls, and bound Chinese media ever more tightly to the party, to ensure, as he said in a 2016 speech, that the media loves, protects and serves the party. That intimacy was formalized in 2018, when the party consolidated administrative control of major print, radio, film and television outlets under an entity it manages, the Central Propaganda Department. Like other nations, China has recognized the value of social media for amplifying its messaging and reinforcing its hold on power. But unfettered access to Western social media has given Beijing a unilateral advantage in the global fight for influence. Twitter and Facebook are blocked within China, and Beijing controls the conversation on domestic alternatives like WeChat and Weibo, effectively cutting off unmediated access to the Chinese public. Its creating a significant challenge for Western democracies. We dont have the same capacity to influence international audiences given that China has walled off its internet, said Jacob Wallis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institutes International Cyber Policy Centre. That creates a significant asymmetric advantage. Despite the high levels of Chinese government activity, Twitter and Facebook have failed to label state content consistently. In an effort to provide users with more context, Twitter last year began labelling accounts belonging to key government officials and state-affiliated media. But Twitter had labeled just 14% of Chinese diplomatic accounts on the platform, as of March 1, failing even to flag dozens of verified profiles. Twitter said that in keeping with its policy of labelling senior officials and institutions that speak for a country abroad, not all diplomatic accounts will be flagged. It offered no further details on how those decisions are made and declined to provide a list of Chinese accounts that have been labeled. Facebook also began putting transparency labels on state-controlled media accounts last year. But disclosure is especially weak in languages other than English, despite the fact that Chinese state content has strong distribution in Spanish, French, and Arabic, among other languages. Facebook had labeled two-thirds of a sample of 95 Chinese state media accounts in English, as of Mar. 1, but less than a quarter of accounts in other languages. Unlike Twitter, Facebook does not flag diplomatic accounts, the majority of which are official embassy and consulate accounts. Facebook labeled an additional 41 Chinese state media outlets AP and the Oxford Internet Institute brought to their attention, bringing the overall portion of labeled accounts from less than half to nearly 90%. The company said it was looking into the rest. We apply the label on a rolling basis and will continue to label more publishers and pages over time, a company spokesperson said in a statement to AP. The company declined to provide a full list of which Chinese state media accounts it has flagged. The China Media Project, a Hong Kong research group, found that transparency labels make a difference: Twitter users liked and shared fewer tweets by Chinese news outlets after August 2020, when the platform started flagging them as state-affiliated media and stopped amplifying and recommending their content. We need the labels, said China Media Project director David Bandurski, though he cautioned that they risk painting all Chinese media with the same broad brush, including outlets like Caixin that have managed to maintain a degree of independence. This is all about co-opting the narrative. Telling Chinas story means we the party get to tell Chinas story and no one else. Thats happening in Portuguese and Spanish and French. It really is a global plan. The outspoken editor-in-chief of Chinas Global Times, Hu Xijin, noticed the impact immediately. On Aug. 14, he tweeted his dismay at the China state-affiliated media label that had been added to his profile, saying his follower growth had plummeted. It seems Twitter will eventually choke my account, he wrote. COUNTERFEITING CONSENSUS In early February, Chinas state news agency Xinhua published a fact check of 24 lies it said anti-China forces in the West had been spreading about Xinjiang, where China stands accused of genocide for its brutal, systematic repression of minority Uighur Muslims. According to Xinhua, the real problem in Xinjiang is not human rights, but Uighur terrorism. Beijing has brought stability and economic development to its restive western region, and information suggesting otherwise has been fabricated by U.S. intelligence agencies, a racist scholar, and lying witnesses, Xinhua said. The story was picked up by other Chinese state media outlets, amplified by Chinas foreign ministry at a press conference, and blasted across Twitter by the foreign ministry and Chinese diplomats in the United States, India, Djibouti, Canada, Hungary, Austria, Tanzania, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Liberia, Grenada, Nigeria, Lebanon, Trinidad and Tobago, Qatar and the United Kingdom. From there, it was further amplified by devoted but mysterious fans like gyagyagya10, whose account pushed out an identical quote-tweet and reply, within seconds, to a message about Xinjiang posted by Chinas Embassy in London, writing, Ethnic groups in China are well protected, no matter in economic aspect or in cultural aspect. This is the ruling Communist Partys global propaganda machine in action: Messages set by key state media outlets and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs get picked up by Chinese diplomats around the world, who repackage the content on Twitter, where it is amplified by networks of fake and suspicious accounts working covertly to shape public discourse for the benefit of Chinas ruling Communist Party. Gyagyagya10, who had a single follower, was part of a network of 62 accounts dedicated to amplifying Chinese diplomats in the U.K. that Marcel Schliebs, the Oxford Internet Institute's lead researcher on the project, found exhibited multiple patterns suggesting coordination and inauthenticity. Little can be gleaned about gyagyagya10 from the image of abstract art posted as a profile photo and the lack of any sort of personal description. Indeed, none of the accounts in the network had fleshed-out profiles with recognizable names and authentic profile photos. Gyagyagya10s account came to life in mid-August at the same time as more than a dozen other accounts that also devoted themselves exclusively to promoting tweets by the Chinese Embassy in London and Ambassador Liu. Then, after Liu left his post at the end of Jan., they went quiet. The 62 accounts in the network retweeted and replied to posts by Chinese diplomats in London nearly 30,000 times between June and the end of January, the Oxford Internet Institute found. They exhibited unique patterns in the ways they amplified content. Like gyagyagya10, they often simultaneously posted identical quote-tweets and replies, and they repeatedly used identical phrases like Xinjiang is beautiful and shared future for mankind in their comments. Other users who engaged with the two diplomatic accounts did neither. They were also slavish in their devotion, sometimes replying to more than three-quarters of all the ambassadors tweets. Most weeks, the fake accounts generated at least 30 to 50% of all retweets of Ambassador Liu and the Chinese Embassy in London. By Mar. 1, Twitter had suspended 31 of the accounts in the pro-China U.K. network and two had been deleted. The remaining 29 including gyagyagya10 continued to operate, churning out more than 10,000 retweets and nearly 6,000 replies in support of Chinas U.K. diplomats before Twitter permanently suspended them for platform manipulation at the end of April and beginning of May in response to this investigation. We are also aware of concerns about some of the Twitter rules, Chinas Embassy in the U.K. said in a statement to AP. If it is against the rules of social media to retweet the Chinese Embassys tweets, then shouldnt these rules be more applicable to retweets of malicious rumors, smears, and false information against China? We hope relevant companies will not adopt double standards. Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs says China uses social media the same way other nations do, with the goal of deepening friendly ties and facilitating fact-based communication. In practice, Chinas network on Twitter amplifies messaging set by central authorities, both for domestic and global consumption, as diplomats translate, repackage and amplify content from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and key state media outlets, network analysis and academic research show. Zhao Alexandre Huang, a visiting assistant professor at Gustave Eiffel University, in Paris, analyzed social media messaging at key points in the U.S.-China trade dispute and found that content first published on the Weibo account of Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs was repackaged and broadcast around the world by Chinese diplomats on Twitter. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs uses Weibo like a central kitchen of information, Huang said. Its an illusion of polyphony. Within Chinas state network on Twitter, the most referenced accounts belonged to Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its spokespeople, as well as Peoples Daily, CGTN, China Daily, and Xinhua, and the most active amplifiers were diplomats, AP network analysis showed. The partys efforts on Twitter have been helped by a core of hyperactive super-fans. Some 151,000 users retweeted posts by Chinese diplomats from June through January. But nearly half of all retweets came from just one percent of those accounts, which together blasted out nearly 360,000 retweets, often in bursts of activity separated by just seconds. Among the biggest beneficiaries of this concentrated bulk engagement which is not necessarily inauthentic were Chinese diplomatic accounts in Poland, Pakistan, India, and South Africa, as well as Chinas foreign ministry and its spokespeople. The pro-China accounts that Twitter later suspended were active in a host of languages, with profile descriptions in English, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Italian, French, Russian, Korean, Urdu, Portuguese, Thai, Swedish, Japanese, Turkish, German and Tamil. Some worked cross-network to amplify a range of government accounts, while others appeared to function as smaller cells, dedicated to amplifying diplomats in a specific location. This manufactured chorus accounted for a significant portion of all the engagement many Chinese diplomats got on Twitter. More than 60% of all retweets for the Chinese embassies in Angola and Greece from June 2020 through January 2021 came from accounts that have been suspended. Chinas hawkish foreign ministry spokespeople Hua Chunying and Zhao Lijian racked up more than 20,000 retweets from accounts that have been sanctioned by Twitter. INTERNET COMMENTING SYSTEMS Within China, manipulation of online discourse has been effectively institutionalized. It remains to be seen how aggressive and how successful China will be in implementing its model of public opinion guidance on Western social media, which was founded on very different civic values, like transparency, authenticity, and the free exchange of ideas. The partys systems for shaping public opinion online go far beyond censorship. Budget documents for Chinese propaganda and cyberspace departments include references to cyber armies, teams of trained online commentators tasked with keeping conversation online aligned with the ruling partys interests. Universities in China openly post announcements about their teams of online commentators and youth internet civilization volunteers, composed exclusively of recruits who love the motherland and work to guide public opinion by eliminating negative influences and spreading positive energy online. The scale of the operation is immense. Ryan Fedasiuk, a research analyst at Georgetown Universitys Center for Security and Emerging Technology, reviewed dozens of government budget documents, university announcements and media reports and found that last year, China's Communist Party had some 20 million part-time volunteers, many of them students, and 2 million paid commentators at its disposal to steer conversation online. For-profit companies also contract with government agencies to run coordinated networks of social media accounts, both human and automated, to help guide public opinion, according to Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Funds Asia Program, and Jessica Batke, a senior editor at ChinaFile, an online magazine published by the Asia Society. They poured through thousands of Chinese government procurement notices to identify tenders for such services. While the majority were for opinion management on domestic platforms, Ohlberg told AP that since 2017 a growing number have also targeted Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. One public security bureau in a relatively small city in northeastern China, for example, wanted to buy a smart Internet-commenting system, capable of commenting on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from thousands of different accounts and IP addresses. This is just a natural extension of what the party has been doing at home for a very long time, Ohlberg said. Why would they change that model once they go abroad? Chinas advance on Western social media is one part of a much broader infrastructure of influence that has shaped how Hollywood makes movies, what Western publishers print and what overseas Chinese-language media outlets communicate to Chinas vast diaspora. Anne-Marie Brady, a professor at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand and an expert in Chinese propaganda, said people may not even realize that information they receive has been, in part, framed by China's ruling Communist Party. The propaganda system is vast, and it has incorporated Western social media," she said. "It has helped to reshape perceptions of China. It may not uniquely create a positive image of China, but it creates hopelessness that anything can be done about what China is doing to our democracies. ____ Associated Press researcher Chen Si in Shanghai contributed to this report. ____ Follow Associated Press reporter Erika Kinetz on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ekinetz ____ Contact APs global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/ Mainland spokesperson debunks DPP authority hyping up Taiwan-related issues at WHA Xinhua) 17:54, May 12, 2021 BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson said Wednesday that the real intent of Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority hyping up Taiwan-related issues at the World Health Assembly (WHA) is to seek "Taiwan independence" under the pretext of pandemic response. Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks at a press conference. Zhu said that the DPP authority has repeatedly hyped up Taiwan-related issues at the WHA, fabricated lies on international pandemic response and used the pandemic as an excuse for political manipulation. "The true purpose behind this is to seek 'Taiwan independence' rather than heartfelt caring for the well-being of Taiwan people." Since the DPP came to power in the Taiwan region in 2016, it has obstinately adhered to the separatist position for "Taiwan independence" and refused to recognize the 1992 Consensus, thus unilaterally undermining the political foundation for cross-Strait consultations, Zhu said. The DPP authority takes full blame for the region being unable to take part in the WHA since then, Zhu said. (Web editor: Guo Wenrui, Liang Jun) Judge Peter Cahill, who presided over the trial and will determine the sentence, agreed with four of those factors. He said the white officer abused a position of trust and authority by using force that a jury determined to be unreasonable, treated Floyd with cruelty when he killed the unarmed Black man slowly by preventing his ability to breathe, and committed the crime as a part of a group with the help of three other cops. The shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline by computer hackers couldnt have come at a worse time for Connecticut motorists, according to energy and travel experts. Officials with Colonial Pipeline, which carries petroleum from the Gulf Coast to Linden, New Jersey, with several unloading points along the way, have said they expect normal service to be restored by the end of the week. But with the full length of the pipeline shut down for close to a week, experts say it could be weeks before supplies of gasoline and other petroleum products get back to normal. The Colonial Pipeline, which is more than 5,500 miles long, is the nations largest, carrying more than 100 million gallons of fuel per day. The FBI on Monday said the group Darkside, which reportedly develops ransomware and sells it to other outfits, is responsible for the attack. The Memorial Day long weekend typically signals the start of the summer travel season; this year, about 34 million people are expected to hit the road over the long holiday weekend, according to Fran Mayko, a spokeswoman for AAA Northeast. Overall, about 37 million people are expected to drive or fly 50 miles or more over the weekend. This years overall travel projections are down 13 percent from Memorial Day Weekend in 2019. The number of people driving or flying in 2020 over the long holiday weekend was down 60 percent from the year before, Mayko said. My sense is this year that people are going to drive no matter how high the price of gasoline gets because they have been cooped up for so long, she said. AAA Northeast reported Monday that Connecticuts average gas price of $3.01 is the most expensive it has been since early May 2019 the last time the average broke the $3 mark. The average gas price rose $0.06 since last week and is $1.09 higher than last year. The Oil Price Information Service, a company providing pricing and news information for petroleum product pricing, news and analysis, is already reporting gasoline shortages from Alabama and Florida as far north as Norfolk, Va. and Baltimore, Md. Despite warnings to stay calm, stations in southeastern states impacted by the Colonial Pipeline shutdown are now seeing daily sales volumes two or three times the normal pace, leading to outages at many points and full-fledged scrambles to get transports loaded at terminals that do have fuel, an OPIS report said on Monday. Tom Kloza, one of the founders of OPIS, tweeted Tuesday that he expects the national average gas price will ascend past $3 gal in next 48 hours. The last time that happened was on Halloween 2014, according to Kloza. But we wont get to those $3.60+ numbers that characterized the 2014 summer, he tweeted. Markets are calming down; consumers need to do likewise. Kevin Curry, a Meriden resident who owns a fuel wholesale business as well Teddys Stores, which has five New Haven County convenience stores with fuel pumps, said he is surprised the Connecticut average price wasnt driven even higher fueled by speculation of how high the price will ultimately go. Were very fortunate in Connecticut because New Haven has what is known as a deep water supply, which means petroleum products arrive at the harbor on deep water tankers, Curry said. So theres not a problem there until they divert the tankers, and I dont know who is responsible for making a decision at that level. But right now, everybody is afraid of the tankers being diverted to another point on the East Coast. Like most businesses these days, gas station refueling is done on a just-in-time basis, he said. That means gas stations keep their inventories low, which can produce shortages if there is a problem with a fuel supplier. Even once full service is restored along the Colonial Pipeline, Curry said it may take a while for the volume of petroleum products coming through the line reaches levels seen prior to the act of cyberterrorism. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com NORWALK A telecommunications giant is staying put confirmation of the citys corporate appeal, but also a sign of its challenges. Concurrent with its exit from bankruptcy late last month, Frontier Communications announced the signing of a new lease that will keep its headquarters at Merritt 7, a 1.4 million-square-foot complex that is the largest office park in Fairfield County and is also home to Hearst Connecticut Medias headquarters. But the company will be taking a fraction of the space it has occupied in recent years, highlighting the longstanding headwinds facing Norwalks office market. Local officials and property owners remain optimistic, however, about the recovery of the states sixth-most-populous city from the pandemic-sparked economic downturn. While we are seeing significant decrease in office-space demand, mainly due to changing workplace environments due to COVID-19, we are also seeing a significant increase in other job-creating uses such as industrial space, Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling said in an email. Frontier re-commits to Norwalk Contributed photo The new lease for about 48,000 square feet in Merritt 7s 401 building dispelled longstanding uncertainty about Frontiers post-bankruptcy headquarters location. Frontier did not specify the length of the lease, but said that recent capital improvements at Merritt 7 and the propertys scope of amenities had helped persuade the company to stay. Frontier is excited to have our headquarters remain at Merritt 7, Jim Campbell, a Frontier vice president, said in a statement. After touring the market to find the best fit for our firm in the post-pandemic office world, Merritt 7 stood above all the competition. Frontiers agreement comprised the largest leasing transaction of the first quarter in Fairfield County and more than half of the quarterly leasing volume in Norwalk, according to a recent report from commercial real estate firm Newmark. Merritt 7s ownership and management team hailed Frontiers decision. As a result, the the six-building campus, located off the Merritt Parkway and Route 7, will continue to house the headquarters of three Fortune 500 firms. Frontier ranked No. 393 on last years list, while No. 344 Emcor Group is headquartered in the 301 building, and No. 347 Xerox Holdings is based in the 201 building. We are delighted that Frontier Communications will be keeping its headquarters at M7, Margaret Egan, senior vice president of asset management at Merritt 7 owner Clarion Partners, said in a statement. The (propertys) renovation program and abundance of assorted meeting spaces and outdoor recreation areas have been well-received by tenants, and our state-of-the-art dual air filtration system and rigorous COVID re-entry protocols are giving tenants and prospects an added level of comfort and confidence in our property. But Frontiers new deal entails a reduction of 52,234 square feet in its footprint at Merritt 7 as part of a bankruptcy restructuring renegotiation, according to Newmarks report. Messages left for Frontier this week seeking more information about the reasons for reducing its office space were not returned. Declining occupancy levels but reasons for optimism Contributed photo Frontiers new lease has mitigated, but not reversed, a major challenge facing the citys office market that long predates the pandemic. Occupancy levels in the Norwalk market continue to drop dramatically. This markets overall availability rate, which has gradually increased since 2016, is quickly approaching the 40 percent mark, Newmark officials said in their report. Despite a 12.4 percent uptick in leasing year over year, demand levels in this market are not enough to offset the glut of space currently available. Availability refers to the amount of occupied or unoccupied space available for lease or sublease, divided by the markets total inventory. Norwalks nearly 40 percent rate in the first quarter compared with 34 percent in Stamford, 17 percent in Greenwich and 28 percent countywide. Merritt 7s website lists a total of about 350,000 square feet of available offices, equating to around 25 percent of the complexs footprint. Weve seen whats gone on in the past 10 to 12 years in Stamford, with all the new residential buildings built in Harbor Point and downtown and the (office) buildings that have been re-purposed to be multi-tenant buildings by some of the leading architectural firms, James Ritman, a Stamford-based executive vice president at Newmark, said in an interview. I think Norwalk lags a little bit on the residential side. And Stamford is closer to New York, with a little better train access. For those reasons, I think its been more in favor than Norwalk, and weve seen Norwalk have less activity over the last several years. Quick look Frontier Communications has signed a new headquarters lease in the Merritt 7 complex in Norwalk, but the city still has large amounts of available office space. Frontier's new lease is for about 48,000 square feet, but the company will be downsizing by about 52,000 square feet at the approximately 1.4 million-square-foot Merritt 7. Availability rate - Norwalk: 40 percent; Stamford: 34 percent; Greenwich: 17 percent; Fairfield County: 28 percent Total office inventory - Norwalk: 5.2 million square feet; Stamford: 15.9 million SQ FT; Greenwich: 4.4 million SQ FT; Fairfield County: 39.9 million SQ FT Average asking price per square foot on annualized basis - Norwalk: $32.15; Stamford: $42.41; Greenwich: $58.57; Fairfield County: $36.61 Source: Newmark See More Collapse The mass-transit access of Merritt 7 and neighboring properties will improve significantly with the opening of a Metro-North Railroad station at Merritt 7. The new hub is scheduled for completion in 2022, according to the Merritt 7 website. We remain confident in the city of Norwalk and are strong believers in the power of live, work, play communities like North Seven to attract companies and residents and ultimately serve as the economic engine for cities, said Ted Ferrarone, co-president of Building and Land Technology, which owns more than 1 million square feet of office space in Norwalk, including several buildings that neighbor Merritt 7. BLT is also the owner and developer of two apartment complexes that neighbor Merritt 7, 1 Glover and the Curb at North 7, which cumulatively house about 600 units. A new 294-unit building is scheduled to open this summer at the Curb. In the meantime, businesses that choose Norwalk for their offices save considerably compared with locations closer to New York City. In the first quarter, the citys asking price per square foot on an annualized basis averaged $32.15, compared with $42.41 in Stamford and $58.57 in Greenwich, according to Newmark. In addition to office tenants, Rilling also cited a recent influx of new residents and new large-scale commercial bakers coming in, tool manufacturing, fabric printers, hydroponic farmers, brewing and food manufacturing. Norwalks population totaled about 89,000 in 2019, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. We are pushing a large marketing campaign for Norwalk to draw businesses to the city by promoting our quality of life and incentives, Rilling said. We have also been a partner with (economic development nonprofit) Advance CT to help find space for larger office, industrial and flex (space) tenants. The creation of the (citys) business development and tourism team creates a built-in support system for any new or existing business in Norwalk. pschott@stamfordadvocate.com; Twitter: @paulschott STAMFORD City resident Jennifer Saunders had planned to ask her parents to get dinner with her at Bulls Head Diner later this week for her 39th birthday. It was their go-to place, Saunders said, with food that was the next best thing to a home-cooked meal. Her favorite dish to order was one of their specials: chicken oreganato. She would also ask for grilled chicken without any seasoning to give to her dog, Raine. Its a real heartbreak that theyre not going to be there right now, Saunders said. The diner announced its closure in a post on its Facebook page on Monday, citing the loss of its lease. Dimitrios Kitsios opened the diner in 1992, according to a statement from his family. It has been a family operated and run establishment that catered to the community as well as employing almost 40 people, the family said in the statement. We watched our customers grow up and have children of their own and it has been our pleasure to be a part of many memories. Kitsios died in January. The statement from his family indicated that his death was related to COVID-19. The pandemic was also hard on the diner itself. The COVID-19 pandemic literally brought the restaurant industry to a halt, the family noted. For almost 3 (months) we were only able to do take out or delivery which was 20% of our previous income. After a struggle to pay their rent, they closed Sunday. We would like to thank everyone for your patronage and continued support and offer our heartfelt goodbyes, they said. Old Greenwich resident Valerie Zygmont said she was distraught over the closure. Before her mother died in 2018, they went to the diner together for years. Her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2008, and even with her being ill and really not being able to get out much, she still wanted to go there, Zygmont said. The staff treated her mother with incredible kindness, offering to wrap up her meal when she wasnt feeling well. It was also a spot Zygmont frequented with her own daughter. One day in 2012, Zygmont said she was rushing around Stamford with her daughter when they stopped at the diner to get some food. Zygmont had been feeling unwell that day. When I got there it was amazing, Zygmont said. I didnt even tell them I wasnt feeling well. Maybe they could tell. I dont know. They brought me water. They sat me down. They were like, Here, what would you like to eat? And they really made me feel so calm. They just had this warmth to them. And I immediately relaxed, and I immediately started feeling better. Well, lo and behold, the very next day, I ended up in the emergency room, she said. One of my arteries was blocked 90 percent. The other one was blocked 80 percent. And I had mentioned what had happened to me the day before at the diner, and the doctor even said to me, If those people hadnt slowed you down, you would have had a heart attack. And so I really feel like they saved me. Zygmont said it was going to be difficult to no longer see the staff. Its not even like I could get my last meal there and say goodbye, she said. Its almost like a death in the family. Claribel Moran Vignola said the diner was a hangout spot for her and her friends when she attended Stamford High School in the late 1990s. It was a place where people were asked out on first dates, had their first kisses, showed off their cars or gathered with their friends after prom. It felt like home, she said. I would love to go to diners, but especially that diner because of the people who owned it. They always made you feel like family, said Vignola, who lives in Texas now. They always made you feel welcome. City Rep. Alice Liebson, D-11, who represents an area around the diner, highlighted its large menu and portion sizes, saying the food was delicious. Im so upset to hear about this, Liebson said. Fellow Rep. John Zelinsky, D-11, said it was a shame that it closed. Its going to be a loss for the whole community, Zelinsky said. The diner was a tenant of Bulls Head Realty. Managing partner James Grunberger said he is actively looking for a responsible new tenant who provides excellent quality food for those of us who live here. HAMDEN WATX 1220 AM rose from silence Saturday evening to broadcasting Connecticut Gold, hit music from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the first time that position on the radio dial had produced anything other than static in nearly a year. The stations owner, Boston-radio veteran Clark Smidt, is operating WATX at lower power than what its Federal Communications Commission license limits. Smidt bought the station in October 2020 for what broadcast industry news website allaccess.com reported was $3,000 in legal fees he agreed to pay the stations former owner Quinnipiac University, which operated the station under the call letters WQUN. Weve had people report that they have heard it from between 8 and 10 miles away, Smidt said Monday. WQUN went silent in May 2019 and Quinnipiac officials had a year to sell the station to someone who would return the station to the air or risk losing control of the license. After buying some extra time with the FCC by broadcasting National Weather Serice reports for a couple of weeks, Quinnipiac officials announced they had signed a letter of intent to sell the license to what then was an unidentified buyer, later revealed to be Smidt. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in Connecticut in March 2020 didnt help Smidts efforts to get the station back on the air. He had until May 21 to get WATX on the air or run the risk of losing control of the license he had just bought. It was a little more complicated than I had expected, he said. I only made one trip to the Connecticut before getting the station back on the air and the rest was done remotely. But Im fortunate to have a lot of old friends in radio who live in Connecticut, many of whom are engineers. When the station operated as WQUN, the stations transmitter towers and an emergency studio were located on Denslow Hill Road in Hamden near Sacred Heart Academy. But Quinnipiac University completed the sale of the transmitter towers and property on Denslow Hill Road to a Florida-based company, Vertical Bridge, on July 31, 2020. School officials did not say how much Vertical Bridge, which claims to be the nations largest private owner and manager of wireless communication infrastructure, paid the school. WATXs low-power transmitter is located somewhere near the former WQUN site, according to Smidt. He expects to spend much of this summer trying to find a more long-term transmitter location and boosting the signal as close to the 1,000 watts during the day and 330 watts at night it was licensed for as WQUN. Were going to increase the (transmitting) power a little later this week, Smidt said. But its just not possible under the current situation to broadcast at anywhere near full power. Right now, the only voice heard on the station is radio broadcast veteran Dick Summer, who was a well-known on-air personality at WBZ (1030 AM) in the mid-1960s and later went to work at WNBC radio in New York City. Every three or four songs, which on Monday afternoon ranged from The Platters mid 1950s hit The Great Pretender to Blondies Heart of Glass from 1979, Summers recorded voice would come on and give the station identification as well of one of several catchphrases such as X marks the spot or Your X wants you back. Once he has more permanent transmitter location secured, Smidt said the next step is a promotional campaign, using billboards to familiarize the community with the new call letters and format. He expects to tap into his vast network of trusted friends in radio and hire additional on-air personnel, including newscasters. We want to be a full-service station, with music, news and commentary on local issue, he said. To do that, we need to hire a few key people. Hopefully, I will be able to do that with professionals I know who have their own home studios. Steve Kalb, instructor in residence for the journalism program at the University of Connecticut, said in order for Smidt to make WATX work on a long-term basis, he needs to do anything in his power to improve the stations broadcast signal and then keep his overhead costs low. Kalb knows the New Haven media market well, having worked for nearly 14 years at WELI (960 AM). Because of how little it cost him to acquire the stations license, hes probably not losing an money right now, Kalb said. I think there is a real market for local radio news and on radio in the Hamden and New Haven area, nobody is doing it right now. But the operating costs have to be as close to zero as possible. Kalb said there are examples of radio stations elsewhere in New England using an ultra-local music, news and community service format. He said WADT, 95.9 FM, in Marshfield, Mass., has successfully operated for decades as the hometown radio station for communities south of Boston. luther.turmelle@hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN When the New Haven Fire Department and the city suffered the tragic loss Wednesday morning of Firefighter Ricardo Torres, who died fighting a fire on Valley Street, it was the first death in the line of duty for the department in more than a decade. For most members in the department, Torres was the first loss on the job they had suffered. Theres nothing worse for a department than a line-of-duty death. This will shake these guys up for a long time, said former Fire Chief Martin OConnor, who was with the department for 30 years, retiring in 1998. The last firefighter to die on the job, Patrick Joseph Reardon, a member of a legendary family, according to OConnor, died April 21, 2009, at 42 years old. He had fallen in the Dixwell Station on Goffe Street, injured his head and never recovered. Hearst Connecticut Media file But deaths of firefighters in the line of duty have been uncommon in recent decades. While the Fire Department suffered losses on an all-too-regular basis through the early 1980s, the last before Reardon were Battalion Chief Leonard Guerrera, who died Jan. 16, 1984, and Capt. Anthony Conforte, who died three days later. Both were stricken with heart attacks while answering calls to fires. Patrick Reardon Reardon was a 14-year veteran of the department whose uncle, the late Fire Chief John Patrick Reardon, led the department from 1978 until 1990. Patrick Reardons father, Fire Capt. James Reardon, also served in New Haven. Firefighters from Toronto and New York City attended his funeral in St. Lawrence Church in West Haven. I cant say enough how proud he was to be a fireman. Me, too, said Jimmy Blakeslee, a fire academy classmate of Reardons, the day of the funeral. They both had firefighting fathers and were friends for 32 years. A bond between firemen hits very, very deep, but when your father is a fireman, theres nothing like it in the world. Thats all he ever wanted. Thats all I ever wanted, Blakeslee said. Patrick was a good firefighter, said former Fire Chief Michael Grant, who retired in 2014. He put his heart and soul into it, and he was a quality person, and it was a shame what happened. Too young to die. Hearst Connecticut Media file Anthony Conforte Conforte, 59, died of a heart attack while battling a four-alarm fire at the former U.S. Steel plant on Fairmont Avenue, which later was ruled an arson. The abandoned building had been scheduled for demolition. There was quite a bit of work to be done. The fire was spreading from building to building, and it was too much for him, Grant said. He was the first officer there. It was a miserable night, snow and rain. He was a committed firefighter. He was a good trainer, too. He took good care of his men. Tony Conforte lived in the Annex section all of his life, OConnor said. Tony was really admired by everybody, and when he made lieutenant they assigned him to the Woodward Avenue firehouse, which is in the Annex section of New Haven. Leonard Guerrera Guerrera, 55, was a 27-year veteran of the department and had responded to a fire at the Ann Taylor store on Chapel Street when he had a heart attack. News reports at the time said he had been at a smoky fire the previous evening. He was an outstanding chief officer and an outstanding firefighter, Chief John Reardon said at the time. He was doing his investigation and had a heart attack on the scene and died on the scene, OConnor said. Lenny was just a hard-nosed, tough firefighter, but a really wonderful guy, and I really loved working for him because you always knew what he expected of you. He was very clear, and he had tremendously high standards and when youre a firefighter you appreciate people like that. Grant called Guerrera a very toe-the-mark type of chief [who] took care of his battalion, made sure his battalion was in shipshape. I had the opportunity to work with him when I was younger and it was good to work with him. Henry Savage Firefighter Henry Savage died April 28, 1982, of a heart attack after responding to a call. He was driving Engine 2 and he collapsed at the scene of the fire, OConnor said. Henry and I worked together out of Central Station one of those guys you just admired and he took the job seriously. It was a joy to work with somebody like that. OConnor said the bonds between firefighters are strong and unbreakable. This camaraderie that sometime people think its bravado, but really its group identity of a common link and common experience, he said. Its like youre a member of the greatest team in the world, but it is a source of great anxiety and stress and that stress has consequences. According to the Connecticut Fallen Firefighters Memorial, the first New Haven firefighter to die in the line of duty was Bevil Sperry in 1852. The Facebook page Fire Service Line of Duty Deaths says he was crushed by a collapsing chimney while fighting a fire at a grocery store on State Street. Torres was the 61st firefighter to give his life in service. edward.stannard@hearstmediact.com; 203-680-9382 MYSTIC Despite a lawsuit filed last September over the transfer of five beluga whales from Canada to Mystic Aquarium for research, the animals are scheduled to travel to the facility as early as this weekend. The aquarium confirmed Tuesday it secured export and import permits for the move, and has adhered to the required conditions outlined in the documents. A team from the aquarium is currently in place at Marineland in Canada evaluating the whales. The belugas are set to be moved this weekend at the earliest, but aquarium officials are still sorting out the specific timing of the transfer. The five new whales are four females and one male, the aquarium said. Three of the whales are 7 years old and the other two are 6. The aquarium currently has three beluga whales Kela, Juno and Natasha. In late 2020, the aquarium delayed the arrival of the whales after a lawsuit was filed by a Connecticut animal rights group. The Darien-based Friends of Animals filed a lawsuit in September that claimed the five whales would be harmed by the move. The aquarium said it would not import the whales before March 31 to let a judge decide on the suit, according to Dec. 23, 2020, court filings cited by the Hartford Courant. A judge ruled against the animal welfare group in March, allowing the aquarium to move forward with the import. Its a shame that Mystic prevailed in moving these belugas under the guise of research thats necessary to prevent belugas from going extinct in the wild, said a statement from the organizations president, Priscilla Feral, on Wednesday. You would think after all these years of already doing research on their belugas ... scientists at Mystic would understand what belugas need to thrive lots of open ocean space and socialization, which they are robbed of in captivity. Animal Welfare Institute, a nonprofit animal welfare organization, said on Tuesday it still has reservations about the transfer. We are concerned that this export is apparently occurring without the Canadian agencies officially confirming that their export permit prohibits breeding or commercial display of the animals, said a statement from Dr. Naomi Rose, the marine mammal scientist at AWI. And we are alarmed that this transfer is moving forward amid so much uncertainty over the health of these belugas. But Mystic Aquarium said while the permit to allow the export from Canada expired during the review period, the aquarium got the permit renewed. On Aug. 27, 2020, the National Oceanic Atlantic Administration Fisheries issued a permit to Mystic Aquarium for the import of five captive-born beluga whales for scientific research. The research authorized by the permit includes: neuroimmunological response to environmental and anthropogenic stressors; development of non-invasive techniques to assess the health of free-range, stranded and endangered beluga whales; hearing and physiological response to anthropogenic sound; photogrammetry body condition studies; diving physiology; microbiome; and testing of prototype telemetry and imaging devices before deploying on wild belugas. The permit, which is valid through Aug. 31, 2025, does not authorize the aquarium to conduct behavioral or reproductive studies, including breeding of any of the imported whales. The permit does allow for reproductive monitoring. Mystic Aquarium has a 750,000-gallon outdoor habitat for its current beluga whales, which the facility said is the largest in the nation. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) A South Carolina bill letting people with concealed weapons permits carry their guns in the open is heading to Gov. Henry McMaster's desk. The House approved the bill 83-34 Wednesday, signing off changes made by the Senate to the bill. Peter Dejong/AP LONDON (AP) Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, sentenced to life for war crimes and genocide, will serve his sentence in a U.K. prison, the British government said Wednesday. Karadzic, 75, is one of the chief architects of the slaughter and devastation of Bosnias 1992-95 war. He was convicted by a U.N. court in 2016 of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes for atrocities including the massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb troops at Srebrenica. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, later increased to life by appeals judges at the court in The Hague. Hearst Connecticut Media NEW HAVEN Firefighters and officials from across the region shared condolences and well-wishes Wednesday in the wake of the death of a New Haven firefighter, who died after battling a blaze in a home on Valley Street. Firefighters in Hamden, Norwalk, New Canaan, New Hartford, Old Saybrook, Waterford, North Andover, Mass., Worchester, Mass. and Woodridge, N. J., among other communities, offered condolences through social media on the loss of the firefighter, who was officially identified as Firefighter Ricardo Torres, Jr. The Miami Herald reports that before sending that warning, Francine Bogumil has already left her young children home in the middle of the night while she went for a short drive into the front of her ex-husbands home a half mile away. The 40-year-old attorney is also accused of telling her exs girlfriend I will kill you, b---h! and spitting at a police officer. MILFORD The citys oldest school could soon feature some of the most modern facilities, after the Milford Board of Education unanimously approved an expansion for Pumpkin Delight Elementary School. Built in 1949, Pumpkin Delight has not had any major renovation since 1955. The Board of Aldermen unanimously approved a $12.9 million appropriation for the project at its May 3 meeting. The aldermen actually expanded the budget by 5 percent to help make sure we got the necessary ventilation in the building, said Eddie Widofsky of Tecton Architects. The project is currently in the design phase, with the construction phase scheduled to begin in 2022, and completion scheduled for 2023. The majority of the building dates back to 1949, and its a two-story structure, Widofsky said, It was added onto in 1955, with a single-story building, and basically the building has remained as-is since that time. Widofsky said the idea was to build an addition to the north side of the building that would create a loop of circulation between the two sections. This will eliminate some of the buildings dead-end corridors and create an internal courtyard for students to learn and play safely, he said. We think this is going to be an exciting opportunity for learning space, and play space, and its really going to blend the transition between natural and built environment, he said. The new addition will house a new multipurpose room that can function as a gym and cafeteria, and also include kitchen and storage space and a new science classroom. The current multipurpose room, which school officials said is inadequate by todays education standards, will be converted into a new media center. Other major plans for the first floor are adding a secure vestibule with a greeter station, renovating toilet rooms (both floors), and converting the existing media center into bathrooms and breakout space. To offset the loss of parking from the expansion, Widofsky said the plans call for a new 23-space parking lot adjacent to the schools softball field. The new parking area also will allow improvements to the drop-off area, with queuing space for four buses, a dedicated drive lane and queuing space for parents. The new section will also be air conditioned, and Widofsky said there was a high probability that the budget also would cover the two-story 1949 section. Air conditioning the 1955 one-story structure was also a possibility depending on the bids, he said. If worst comes to worst, that (air conditioning) can be added in the future, easily, he said. Board Member Adam De Young said the project was a benefit to families in the Pumpkin Delight district. Im excited for this renovation and I know our families will be thrilled, he said. School officials said the renovation would keep Pumpkin Delight a modern learning environment for at least the next 20 years. BANGKOK (AP) A 51-year-old reporter for a now-banned online and broadcast news agency in Myanmar was sentenced Wednesday by a military court to three years in prison for his reporting, his employer said. Min Nyo, a correspondent for the Democratic Voice of Burma is apparently the countrys first journalist since the armys February takeover to be convicted under a recently revised provision in the Penal Code that critics charge criminalizes free speech. It makes punishable by up to three years in prison any attempt to hinder, disturb, damage the motivation, discipline, health and conduct of soldiers and civil servants and cause their hatred, disobedience or disloyalty toward the military and the government. Three DVB journalists who fled Myanmar were arrested earlier this week in northern Thailand for illegal entry. Rights groups and journalists associations are urging Thai authorities not to send them back to Myanmar, where it is feared their safety would be at risk from the authorities. Myanmar's junta has tried to smother all independent news media, and on March 8 revoked DVBs TV license and banned it from broadcasting on any platform. Like many other banned media outlets, it has continued operating. About 80 journalists have been arrested since the army seized power on Feb. 1, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Roughly half are still detained and most of them are being held under the same charge for which Min Nyo was convicted, as are many activists opposed to the military regime. A statement issued by DVB said Min Nyo had been covering a March 3 anti-junta protest in the town of Pyay, 260 kilometers (160 miles) northwest of Yangon when he was arrested and severely beaten by police. It said he had been allowed to see a lawyer, but not his wife and two children. Min Nyo had previously served seven years in prison under a previous military government after his arrest in 1996 for alleged ties to a militant student opposition group. Min Nyos wife, Nyomee Moe, told The Associated Press that both then and now, he was unjustly imprisoned. It is inhumane to be beaten and arrested. He never violated journalistic ethics. That is why I want to say that there is no justice in Myanmar, she said, adding that she is consulting with lawyers about appealing the verdict. Rights group Amnesty International said Min Nyo's case showed the ruthlessness of the junta and the risks faced by journalists exposing the junta's abuses. Min Nyos conviction must be quashed, and he should be released immediately along with all other journalists, activists and human rights defenders imprisoned and detained solely for their peaceful opposition to the military coup," Amnesty deputy regional director Emerlynne Gil said in a statement. BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. (AP) Police officers fatally shot a man while responding to a domestic disturbance call at a South Florida apartment complex, investigators said. Boynton Beach police officers responded shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday to the Via Lugano community, a news release said. Boynton Beach is located to the south of West Palm Beach. The officers encountered Christian Castro, 27, who was armed with a hammer and a knife, official said. Castro was shot during the encounter, authorities said. No officers were injured. Details about what led to the shooting were not immediately provided. The shooting will be investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The Boynton Beach Police Department will also conduct an internal investigation, the news release said. Two officers involved in the shooting will be placed on administrative leave with pay during the investigation. Police didn't report the races of Castro and the officers. Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media HAMDEN A home was hit by a bullet during a late-night shooting on Tuesday, according to police. Officers responded to the area of Newhall and Marlboro streets for a report of shots fired. Capt. Ronald Smith said evidence was found to indicate the shots were fired within the intersection. STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) Teaching high school was Bill Mathis dream job, the one he referenced in a childhood journal he still keeps: I would love to be a teacher, he scrawled in pencil as a third grader. Now Mathis has taken a new job, in Michigans newly legalized cannabis industry. The pay is better, the hours more regular, the stress less, he says. No longer does he worry that hell catch COVID-19. What about us and our families? he asked his school board in Romeo, Michigan, last August after it unveiled a plan to offer in-person classes. Ultimately, the 29-year-old teacher felt few in the rural suburb north of Detroit understood. Good riddance, one resident said. His is but one story of the plight of the American public servant. Historically, jobs like teaching, firefighting, policing, government and social work have offered opportunities to give back to communities while earning solid benefits, maybe even a pension. Surveys still show public admiration for nurses and teachers and, after the terror attacks of 9/11, firefighters. But many public servants no longer feel the love. Theyre battered and burnt out. Theyre stretched by systems where shortages are common for teachers in Michigan and several other states, for instance, and for police in many cities, from New York and Cincinnati to Seattle. Colleagues are retiring early or resigning, as Mathis did. There are mental breakdowns, substance abuse and even suicide, especially among first responders. Even before the coronavirus arrived, researchers have found in 2018 that about half of American public servants said they were burnt out, compared with 20% over workers overall. Some wonder who will pick up the slack, as more young people avoid public service careers. In the federal government, just 6% of the workforce is younger than age 30, while about 45% is older than 50, according to the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. The pandemic has only made matters worse. In addition to the risk COVID-19 poses for those on the front lines, The workload is up. Financial security is down, said Elizabeth Linos, a behavioral scientist and public management scholar at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies public workers. Linos, whose research has included 911 operators, physician moms and others, says surveys during the pandemic have found that anxiety rates for frontline workers are 20 times higher than usual. Long before the pandemic, mistrust of the government and its workers was building. By the time the 2008 Great Recession arrived, anti-union sentiment also was more prevalent -- a big deal in the Detroit area, known as a union stronghold because of the auto industry. That bashing has grown to include unions that represent public servants, teachers included. They protect bad behavior, and they punish good behavior, said Tim Deegan, a dad from Waterford, Michigan, who manages a pizza parlor. He notes that he has no such protections for a job that often finds him working 60 hours a week. Earlier this year, Deegan took part in a rambunctious social media discussion about the large numbers of Michigan teachers who are retiring early, even more during the pandemic. Educators certainly had their supporters in the online thread. But others, including Deegan, were angry. He told the story of his girlfriends son how theyd switched him to another school district because he felt the online teaching was so poor. Some teachers, he said, have phoned it in for years, with few repercussions. Bill Mathis, not one to shy from speaking his mind, jumped into the discussion. He posted about leaving teaching because of the health risks to himself and his girlfriend, Annie, who has lupus, and how his salary made it hard to pay his bills. So you werent in it for the kids? another commenter asked, drawing dozens of emoticon reactions, from anger to laughter. Derek Lies, a dad of two boys in Romeo, said he felt for teachers -- at first. But as the union pushed back on returning to the classroom, my sympathy went away, he said. Years ago, Lies was a firefighter. If theres one group of public servants who have reason to gripe, he added, its police, whove faced heightened scrutiny over the killings of George Floyd and others. I cant imagine anyone wanting that job right now, Lies said. Increasingly, first responders across the country are acknowledging the difficulties of the job and addressing mental health, addiction and the occasional suicide. In Sterling Heights, where Mathis lives, fire chief Kevin Edmond gives time off to crews whove responded to fatal fires and other trauma. Attracting young people to public service fields can be a challenge. But Linos, the UC-Berkeley researcher, says its not necessarily the difficulty that scares them off. In fact, in the case of policing, her research has found that more people apply when told the job is challenging. Her research has found that a sense of belonging and feeling supported by a supervisor also helps soothe burnout. In Romeo, sixth-grade geography teacher and union leader Sue Ziel recalls starting to feel more resentment from the public when the recession began in 2008. A Gallup poll then found that public approval of unions dropped to a low of 48 percent, compared with 72 percent when the poll began in 1936, though it has been creeping up. Ziel, who left a job in advertising 24 years ago to teach, said the demands of the job had increased. There are more required certifications, more focus on standardized testing, while pay freezes diminished teacher wages across the state of Michigan. As the pandemic hit, she initially felt paralyzed at the thought of having to teach kids online and in person at the same time. She also got the virus. I remember sitting in tears and telling my husband I dont know if I can do this, she said, and those words have never come out of my mouth. As a veteran with experience on which she could draw, Ziel pushed through. But she said younger staffers were more likely to struggle with less support in a stressful time, as Bill Mathis did. Mathis departure breaks my heart, she said. I really think the world of Bill. ___ Martha Irvine, an AP national writer and visual journalist, can be reached at mirvine@ap.org or @irvineap BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) Slovakia's health minister says he plans to keep AstraZeneca in the country's vaccine arsenal, speaking a day after the country suspended use of the shots after a recipient died. Slovakia on Tuesday halted use of the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine after its State Institute for Drug Control concluded last week that the death of a 47-year-old woman who received the AstraZeneca was "likely linked to the vaccine. AstraZeneca is still being administered, however, to those who have already gotten the first dose and are awaiting a second shot. It's currently being given to people between the ages of 18 and 44. Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky said the cause of womans death was still under investigation. He said another, and the main reason, for the suspension was that Slovakia does not have enough AstraZeneca shots to continue their administration. Slovakia, like other members of the European Union, have seen a drop in deliveries from the company. We still count on AstraZeneca in our vaccination plan, Lengvarsky said. Millions of doses of AstraZeneca have been safely administered in Europe, but concerns linger over a rare type of blood clot seen in an extremely small number of recipients. Denmark and Norway, countries which are very cautious with all vaccines, suspended their use of AstraZeneca shots in March amid news of the rare blood clots. Lengvarsky said his ministry was working to allow people to have a free choice beginning in June among the available vaccines, including the unregistered ones. Slovakia has 200,000 doses of Russia-made Sputnik V vaccine available but has not allowed its use yet. Lengvarsky said use of the Russian shots might possibly also start in June. He still has to approve Sputnik V's use. Slovakia has been administering Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, and is expected to have Johnson & Johnson soon. It would be only the second European Union nation after Hungary to use Sputnik V, which has not been authorized by the European Medicines Agency. A secret deal for Slovakia to purchase 2 million Sputnik V shots orchestrated by then-Prime Minister Igor Matovic triggered a political crisis in March that resulted in the Slovak governments collapse. ___ Follow APs pandemic coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak LAS VEGAS (AP) The purchase by a California-based Native American tribe of a casino resort just off the Las Vegas Strip is being seen a milestone in the evolution of Indian casino ownership in city at the center of U.S. gambling. Who doesnt want to be in Las Vegas? Laurens Vosloo, CEO of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal following last week's announcement that the tribe will buy the Palms Casino Resort from Las Vegas-based casino operator Station Casinos for $650 million. Its the gaming Mecca of the world and the place to be, Vosloo said. Its a natural and a good fit for us to have an asset there that we can send our customers to, contribute to that economy and be part of the Las Vegas community. The deal is expected to close later this year, making the San Manuel Band the second tribal enterprise in the Las Vegas resort corridor. The Mohegan Sun Casino opened in March at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas the renamed and renovated former Hard Rock resort several blocks east of the Strip. The gambling operation is the namesake of a property operated by the Connecticut-based Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority, located about halfway between New York City and Boston. A third entity, Hard Rock International, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, acquired rights in 2020 to the Hard Rock brand for the Las Vegas market and has expressed interest in a Las Vegas Strip property. To say you work in or near the Las Vegas Strip is a vote of confidence and a huge badge of credibility, Josh Swissman, consultant with The Strategy Organization, told the Review-Journal. All three (tribal operators would) stand to benefit from that association. Native American tribes in the U.S. have operated gambling and bingo halls since the 1970s. Operations expanded after the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 established an oversight structure. An American Gaming Association report in 2018 with Meister Economic Consulting tallied tribal operations in 28 states, accounting for about 45% of all gambling revenue in the U.S. The San Manuel Band opened the San Manuel Casino in 1986 in the Southern California community of Highland. Tribal casinos are not new in Nevada, but the Mohegan Sun and San Manuel sites would not be on reservation land. The Fort Mojave Tribe's Avi Resort & Casino opened in 1995 on the Fort Mojave Reservation near Laughlin, about 100 miles (161 kilometers) south of Las Vegas. The Wa She Shu Casino & Travel Plaza opened in 2016, operated by the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and the Poarch Creek Indians of California in Gardnerville. Tribal gambling researcher Katherine Spilde, a professor at San Diego State University, told the Review-Journal that casino purchases in Las Vegas are a natural evolution for Native American casino operators. Once youve kind of built out your own property and maximized what you can do in the market that youre in we see tribes then looking to go into commercial expansion into a casino thats not on tribal land, she said. Cats are placed two or three at a time into residential or commercial settings in order to provide environmentally friendly rodent control, Tree House says on its website. Property and business owners provide food, water, shelter, and wellness to the cats who work for them. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine has indicted a top opposition figure who is a close ally of Russia's president with treason and attempts to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea. Along with the Tuesday indictment of Viktor Medvedchuk, security service agents also searched his house in the capital Kyiv. Prosecutor-General Irina Venediktova said that charges under several articles were brought against Medvedchuk business partner Taras Kozak. The charges carry potential sentences of up to 15 years. Medvedchuk is accused of transferring oil and gas production licenses from one of the fields in Crimea to Russian authorities; Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. "Medvedchuk, as the organizer of illegal activities, having strong ties with the top leadership of the Russian Federation, began subversive activities against Ukraine, including in the economic sphere, Venediktova said at a briefing. Medvedchuk is also charged with disclosing secret data on the deployment of Ukrainian military units last year. The 66-year-old heads the political council of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform - For Life. It is the largest opposition group in the parliament, with 44 of the 450 seats. He has close personal ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuks daughter. The new charges are part of a broader campaign against Medvedchuk launched by authorities in February, when his financial assets were frozen for three years. In February, authorities also shut down three pro-Russian TV channels, 112, Zik and NewsOne, which Medvedchuk controlled. His party called the new charges against Medvedchuk an open and cynical political reprisal." WASHINGTON (AP) The Biden administration on Wednesday took aim at China and a number of other countries for repressing religious freedom as it forges ahead with its aim of restoring human rights as a primary focus of American foreign policy. The condemnation was similar to that lodged by the Trump administration, which had been criticized for prioritizing religious freedom over other rights, and reflected continuity in the U.S. position that Chinas crackdown on Muslims and other religious minorities in western Xinjiang constitutes genocide. Yet, a senior official said religious freedom is just one element in the administration's broader human rights strategy. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) Utah will terminate its participation in the federal governments pandemic-related unemployment assistance program, Gov. Spencer Cox announced Wednesday Utah is the latest of several states, including Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana and South Carolina, ending the $300-a-week federal benefit paid on top of state benefits. Cox, a Republican, said those extra federal benefits will end in Utah on June 26. This is the natural next step in getting the state and peoples lives back to normal, Cox said. With the nations lowest unemployment rate at 2.9% and plenty of good-paying jobs available today, it makes sense to transition away from these extra benefits that were never intended to be permanent. About 28,000 Utah residents are receiving the $300 benefit, and $12.4 million is being paid out by the federal government each week, the governor's office said in a statement. There are at least 50,000 job openings in the state, according to the Department of Workforce Services. Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, applauded the decision and said there is a significant need for new employees in industries across Utah. The challenge our economy currently faces is not the scarcity of well-paying jobs, but the lack of workers," Miller said in a statement. "We need to normalize the labor market by assisting those currently unemployed to find opportunities to rejoin the workforce as soon as possible. Labor experts say the shortage is not just about the $300 payment. Some unemployed people also have been reluctant to look for work because they fear catching the virus. Others have found new occupations rather than return to their old jobs. Many women, especially working mothers, have had to leave the workforce to care for children. The left-leaning nonprofit Alliance for a Better Utah denounced the governor's decision to cut benefits and renewed calls for lawmakers to raise the state's minimum wage from $7.25 per hour. Every Utahn, regardless of where they live or their education level, deserves to be able to pay their bills, keep a roof over their head, and feed themselves and their families," Chase Thomas, the group's executive director, said in a statement. We cannot afford, financially or morally, to return to a normal where hardworking Utahns cannot afford to take care of themselves or their families. NEW HAVEN The school currently known as Columbus Family Academy might not have a new name yet, but it now has a new principal. Marisol Rodriguez, a former assistant principal at the pre-K through eighth grade school, was named principal this week. She will replace Roy Araujo, who is retiring at the end of June. Rodriguez, who has been an educator for 25 years, most of them spent in New Haven, will make $153,306 in her new position. Superintendent of Schools Iline Tracey called Rodriguez a great fit for the school, which she once attended as a student. She is also a graduate of the citys High School in the Community. Rodriguez was an assistant principal at Columbus before her bilingual skills led her to be transferred to Clemente School. This is the person we see at Columbus Family Academy, Tracey said. As for the school, soon it wont be called that. The Board of Education voted 6-1 in June 2020 to change the name because of the Italian explorers involvement with slavery and treatment of Native Americans. Board member Dr. Tamiko Jackson-McArthur is heading an ad hoc Facilities Naming Committee that has met twice so far to rename the school. It must suggest one or at the most two names from which the school board can choose. All they talk about is family, Jackson-McArthur said of students at the school. Students treasure the word family ... so its so great to see someone going back who they have referred to as family. Although the board member said she is trying to stand back and let the community make the decision, she hopes the word family makes it into the new name, which is promised before the start of the 2021-22 school year. Rodriquez told the board returning to the school is like coming home. That is how I feel, she said. Rodriquez lives in the Fair Haven section of the city and said living in the neighborhood made it possible for her to knock on doors during the pandemic and deliver supplies students needed. I am excited about taking on this new role, she said. Rodriguez has earned several degrees including a bachelors degree in psychology, a masters in elementary education and bilingual education and a Sixth-Year Diploma in educational leadership. She began her teaching career with Hartford Public Schools, where she taught for four years before joining New Haven Public Schools in 2000. After last years election during COVID-19, voting rights and election reform are at the top of the states agenda. This session, the General Assembly is considering many ways to ensure that voting is accessible and secure. That agenda includes expanding access to absentee balloting, in-person early voting, restoring voting rights to people incarcerated for felonies and on parole, and implementing a state voting rights act. These measures are important steps forward. But amid this talk of change, one group has yet to be in focus. Each year, there are thousands of eligible voters incarcerated in state jails and prisons who are entitled to cast an absentee ballot during an election. But unless people in detention can actually obtain absentee ballots and get their ballots to the right place, having the right to vote on paper does not mean they have the right to vote in practice. Making voting changes effective requires building on experiences from 2020, when tens of hundreds of people were in detention, were eligible to vote, and yet had no way to do so. We know about the obstacles because, last fall, the Liman Center tried to help thousands of eligible incarcerated voters cast their ballots in the 2020 election. Under current Connecticut law, people in detention before trial or with low level charges are eligible to vote. About 3,500 people were therefore eligible last November, but they faced administrative complexities, delays and information gaps that stood in the way of getting their ballots cast. Whats wrong with the current system? To start, many citizens in detention do not know that they are legally entitled to cast a ballot. For those who do know, the next problem is registering. Unlike most citizens who can go in person to a town clerks office or submit a voter registration form online, incarcerated people cant go in person, and Connecticuts jails and prisons do not yet provide computer access. As of now, mail is the only option for incarcerated voters, and voting by mail takes several steps. In 2020, a person in detention had to mail a written request for a registration application, receive an application back, send in the form, and then get confirmation of registration. Thereafter, to vote, a request for an absentee ballot had to be mailed, received back, and sent in to the town where the individual is registered. Even if a voter in detention has sufficient time to complete these steps, the process is far from straightforward. Some forms go to a town registrar, and others to the town clerk. Not every town does it the same way. If someones identification documents are not in order, dealing with such problems from prison is yet another hurdle to casting a ballot. Last fall, our states voting officials told people in Connecticut not to use the mail because it is unreliable and was taking too long. But people in detention have no routes to the ballot box that do not depend on the U.S. postal system. Its clear that voting from jail is complex and time consuming. Connecticut can and should act now to protect the right to vote, and we have identified three steps to enable eligible voters to exercise their legal right to vote. First, the Department of Correction should provide voter registration forms and accurate information on voting rights to every person who enters its system. Second, based on readily-available public information, the Department of Correction and the secretary of the state can identify eligible, detained voters. Rather than have a drawn-out mailing ping-pong process, state officials could provide absentee ballots directly to every registered voter incarcerated in a state correctional facility. Third, because of the slow pace of the mail, state election officials should be authorized to drop off and pick up absentee ballots from local correctional facilities within the last 15 days before an election. Fixing these problems is important because the right to vote is critical to safeguarding our democratic process. It is especially important because the overrepresentation of people of color in jails and prisons means that the barriers for incarcerated voters disproportionately impact their communities. These proposed changes are simple and significant. They arent burdensome or costly, and they are secure. They will ensure that voters are not locked out of our democracy when they enter the jail system. Natalie Kirchhoff is a law student at Yale Law School. Zal Shroff was a senior fellow and supervising attorney and Anna VanCleave is the director of the Arthur Liman Center for Public Interest Law at Yale Law School. The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Osun State has appealed to motorists to do away with any form of reckless and dangerous driving that co... The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Osun State has appealed to motorists to do away with any form of reckless and dangerous driving that could lead to loss of lives and properties during and after the Salah celebrations. The Osun State Sector Commander, CC Kudirat Ibrahim gave the advice in a statement signed by the commands spokesperson, Mrs Agnes Ogungbemi in Osogbo. Ibrahim said, The command has deployed some officers of the command to all nook and cranny of the state, to help ensure easy traffic flows, and also to caution motorists against dangerous driving. We have deployed some officers of the command to some strategic locations that are accident prone. Our Tow Van is also available to help clear any gridlock that might occur during the festive period with our patrol vans which will be on the ground to checkmate the activities of all motorists. We want to appeal to drivers to ensure their vehicles are in the right order before embarking on any journey for the safety of the passengers and their lives. Also, they should avoid speeding, wrongful overtaking, drinking while driving, making phone calls on stirring, among other negative vices. According to her, the command would not take it easy with anyone who intentionally disobeyed the road traffic regulations, adding that such persons will be fined or allowed to face the wrath of the laws. She called for the collaborative efforts of all stakeholders in the state towards ensuring that the state records zero accident during and after the celebrations. The sector commander further said the command was collaborating with other sisters agencies to ensure the safety of citizens in the state within the period of celebrations. Wilson Inalegwu, former assistant inspector-general of police, says the southern governors should have condemned the attacks on security a... Wilson Inalegwu, former assistant inspector-general of police, says the southern governors should have condemned the attacks on security agencies during their meeting in Asaba, Delta state capital, on Tuesday. Governors of the 17 southern states had held a meeting to discuss the state of the nation. Following the meeting, they demanded that President Muhammadu Buhari should be fairer in political appointments, convene a national dialogue, accept the establishment of state police, and support willing states to develop an alternative and modern livestock management system, among other things. Inalegwu, in reaction, said the governors should have also addressed the attacks on police stations and killing of officers across the country, given that most of the incidents have been in south-east and south-south states. The former AIG spoke on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Wednesday. The meeting that took place yesterday, the communique should have been a strong condemnation of attacks on security forces in the south-south and south-east and any other place for that matter, he said. Because these are officers who are working to keep our communities safe but the communique was silent on that, when these numbers of governor come to meet, they should have addressed the issue, saying were not going to allow those who defend our communities, those who prevent crimes in our communities to be discouraged, to be killed. That, I think, should have happen. These are officers that are traumatised. They are first respondents in various incidents, whether medical, whether social. Also, the numbers of officers killed is significant enough to draw the attention of their excellences, that in that meeting, they have got to comment on it and condemn it in strong terms. The filmmaker responded by suggesting one of their shared ancestors would be turning over in her grave if she saw the officer in that moment, and then suddenly and without warning, Anderson motions his hand in Shakirs direction and directs another police officer to shoot him, the lawsuit alleges. After four months of silence on social media, popular rapper, Nicki Minaj, made a return with breaking photos. In the process, the rap ico... After four months of silence on social media, popular rapper, Nicki Minaj, made a return with breaking photos. In the process, the rap icon crashed the website of popular footwear, Crocs, with the photos she posted on her social media platforms. The picture featured her perched on a desk in her signature pink room with a giant pink Nicki neon sign in the background, as well as several Channel products. She was also decked with several diamond necklaces, bracelets and anklets, while she covered herself with two pink heart-shaped pillows. Particularly notable in the ensemble was her pair of pink crocs-clogs, which were equally studded with jewels, including Chanels iconic double-C logo. While the picture hints at a collaboration with the popular brand, Channel, the footwear company, Crocs, has received the most attention due to the picture. According to Pagesix Style, hours after the post went viral, there was a 4,900 per cent spike in the sales of pink Crocs, and later, too much traffic, which crashed the retailers website. The official Google Trends corroborated the report via a tweet on Tuesday that read, pink crocs and Nicki Minaj crocs were breakout searches today after @NICKIMINAJ was seen wearing them in her new photos. The ministry of transportation says it objected to the award of channel management contracts by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) because... The ministry of transportation says it objected to the award of channel management contracts by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) because it is more cost-effective to procure necessary equipment and execute the contracts in-house. Several reports have traced the cold war between Rotimi Amaechi, minister of transportation and Hadiza Bala-Usman, the suspended managing director of NPA, to the renewal of $1.5 billion channel management contracts. Reacting to media reports, Magdalene Ajani, permanent secretary, ministry of transportation, in a statement issued on Tuesday, described the allegation that Amaechi recommended two Chinese companies to execute the contracts as a deliberate attempt to drag the integrity of the minister in the mud. It is necessary to place on record that while Channel Management contracts have been routinely awarded over the years by the Nigerian Ports Authority at a cost of between 50 and 60 billion naira on an annual basis, the Honourable Minister has adopted a firm position that the NPA should undertake the job of channel management on an in-house basis through the acquisition of the necessary machinery and professional capacity given the humongous annual sums paid out to dredging contractors by the authority, the statement read. Indeed, following the expiration of the Channel Management contracts for the Lagos, Bonny and Port Harcourt Channels in 2020 and the initiation of the contractual process for the renewal of the said contracts early in 2021, the HMT on 22nd January, 2021, while responding to a request for the NPA to provide requisite details related to the proposed transactions directed in the following words: There is the need for NPA to know that they should purchase their own equipment and not award any contract. The ministry noted that documented evidence of its position on the contract was that the NPA was engaging in obvious profligacy and wastage of public funds to be spending over fifty billion naira (N50 billion) on an annual basis on contracts for which it could purchase machinery and build in-house capacity for greater long-term benefits. It said the NPA did not deem it necessary to respond to the above ministerial directives. Meanwhile, an 11-member investigative panel to probe the NPA on all contracts awarded since 2016 when Bala Usman became MD has been inaugurated. The panel, headed by Auwal Suleiman, director of maritime services, transportation ministry, has six members from the office of the head of the civil service of the federation (OHCSF) and the remaining five from the ministry of transportation. Authorities on Wednesday accused a former massage therapist in Bergen County of sexually assaulting a client during a massage in 2016, after he allegedly had criminal sexual contact with another client earlier this year. Police on Tuesday arrested Jhon A. Cabrera, 28, of Paterson, and charged him with sexual assault for allegedly assaulting a female client in 2016 when he was a masseur in Emerson, Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella said in a statement. Cabrera was being held in Bergen County Jail pending his first hearing. The dates of both allegations were not immediately released. The investigation into the alleged 2016 assault was prompted by a more recent accusation of sexual misconduct in Hackensack that was discovered April 22, the statement said. While he was massaging a female client in Hackensack, Cabrera allegedly engaged in sexual misconduct, the statement said. The client reported the incident to Hackensack Police, who unearthed a 2016 accusation of sexual assault while he was a masseur in Emerson, the statement said. For Cabreras alleged sexual misconduct in Hackensack, police charged him with criminal sexual contact, the statement said. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon. Officials on Tuesday temporarily shut down operations of a Burlington County towns fire department, a decision the volunteer company said would put residents at risk. Independent Fire Company Number 1, which serves Maple Shade, was suspended for 90 days, according to a resolution approved by township council. Fire departments from neighboring communities will handle Maple Shades calls. The Township of Maple Shades decision to suspend the Fire Department comes from mounting concerns in regard to performance and oversight of the department, Township Manager Susan Danson said in an email. These concerns have been brought to the attention of the Department multiple times over the past year, however there has been no responsible action taken to address the Townships concerns. In order to protect life and property within the community, the Township felt it necessary in coordination with county and state officials to temporarily suspend the Department, Danson said. The Township will have continuous coverage through mutual aid agreements as well as support from neighboring communities who have always responded to calls in Maple Shade. We are hopeful through the partnership with an outside consultant, the Independent Fire Company will join the Township as we begin to re-structure and re-build the department, the town manager added. Officials cited a range of impropriety by the fire department, including failure to communicate with town officials, misuse of town vehicles, failure to maintain records related to training and member qualifications, and misrepresentations about active members, according to the town councils resolution. The resolution also listed overall dereliction of duties to the point where Independent Fire Company No. 1 is no longer contacted for mutual aid. In a statement on social media, the fire department said it was blindsided by the towns decision and that response times would increase. We were never advised of this until now or given a reason why, the fire departments message said. By suspending operations, the township is putting all the residents of this town in danger, the post said. It will require surrounding towns to respond to Maple Shade to handle and emergencies that may occur. This will increase the time that is required to respond to emergencies in town especially if the surrounding departments are already handling calls for service in their own towns. The volunteer firefighters and fire police, who handle traffic around fires, meet state requirements for their positions, according to the fire department. Every member of the department takes protecting this community seriously and gives many hours each week away from their families to respond to emergencies, train, and keep the department operating, the department said. Residents of Maple Shade, it has come to our attention that the township has suspended the operation of your all... Posted by Maple Shade Fire Department on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. UPDATE: Man charged with killing girlfriend tried to make it look like a suicide, officials say A 25-year-old woman was found stabbed to death in her Camden home, authorities said Tuesday. Tonia Yamileth was found by police Monday around 8:45 a.m. in an upstairs bedroom at the home on the 1000 block of South 6th Street after officers responded to a report of an unresponsive person, according to Acting Camden County Prosecutor Jill S. Mayer. Yamileth was pronounced dead at the scene, according to authorities. An autopsy revealed she died from a stab wound and blunt force trauma to the neck, officials said. Detectives are working to determine the circumstances surrounding her death and who is responsible, the prosecutor said in a joint statement with Camden County Police Chief Gabriel Rodriguez. Authorities asked anyone with information on the homicide to call prosecutors office Detective Elvin Nunez at 856-571-3421 or Camden County Police Detective Shawn Donlon at 856-757-7042. Tips can also be emailed to ccpotips@ccprosecutor.org. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Noah Cohen may be reached at ncohen@njadvancemedia.com. Three summers ago, Lilly Panitch and Brandon Hameier met at the famed DJais bar in Belmar as patrons downed shots of alcohol. On Wednesday, the couple got a different kind of shot there their COVID-19 vaccine shots. Sitting beside a row of wooden stools and underneath party lights, nurses jabbed each of them with their first Pfizer doses. In a corner, a bar worker was setting up a DJ booth in preparation for the nightclubs opening later this month. It was very nostalgic, said Panitch, 26, of North Brunswick, as she sat outside afterwards with the sound of crashing ocean waves in the distance. About 230 peoplemostly young adults received free vaccines at the bar Wednesday as part of a special vaccine event led by Ocean Health Initiatives in which people who got inoculated there were given a free summer VIP for DJais, said marketing manager John Bonevich. Cardholders have access to drinks at reduced prices, line skipping privileges and cover charge waivers. The goal of the event, Bonevich said, was to bring the vaccine to college-aged people and those in their 20s, who often gather in large groups at bars and in rented-out shore houses over the summer and are vaccinated at lower rates than older generations. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 11.2% of people in the U.S. between ages 18 and 29 are fully vaccinated, compared to 27.8% of people between ages 50 and 64. Ocean Health Initiatives injecting the Coronavirus vaccine at D'Jais Bar and Grill in Belmar, N.J. May, 12, 2021Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com Through their social media channels, Bonevich said, DJais was able to reach a younger crowd. This demographic gathers in groups. This demographic are the least vaccinated because of the way it was rolled out... This is like the final push, Bonevich said. It was a way to outreach to the younger demographic. Some officials criticized DJais early last summer for not imposing social distancing rules while people waited in line to enter and for allowing maskless crowds to gather near its outdoor bars, but management worked to comply with the states guidelines. Security guards kept patrons spaced out in line and checked if bar-goers were wearing face coverings. On Wednesday, the line of people seeking doses remained steady throughout the morning. Walk-in availability closed before 10 a.m., but people who pre-registered continued to arrive. Most already planned to get the vaccine, but the promise of a DJais summer VIP card is what got them out the door. Misty Patel, 22, of Toms River, said she wanted to get her shot at some point but hadnt made an appointment. When she saw DJais promoting the event on social media, it was the push she needed. I was like Why not? If Im getting (the vaccine) anyways, I might as well get something out of it too, said Patel, a Stockton student. Alexandria Anagnostis, a Monmouth University student, was more skeptical about getting the vaccine and afraid of possible side effects, which include arm pain, tiredness, muscle pain, fever and nausea. Last week, she saw Gov. Phil Murphy tweet about the event, and was convinced. I have been waiting... Ive been nervous to get it, she said. This was the first time I even considered (getting the shot). This is so last minute for me. Gov. Phil Murphy is slated to hold another coronavirus press conference on Wednesday, a week before indoor and outdoor capacity limits are lifted in the state for the first time in 14 months. Murphy will be joined at the Trenton War Memorial by state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli, state epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan, and State Police Superintendent Colonel Pat Callahan. It will be streamed live on the governors YouTube.com channel at 1 p.m. There were 1,041 patients in the states 71 hospitals with the coronavirus or a suspected case as of 10 p.m. Tuesday, according to the Department of Healths dashboard. Thats 66 fewer than in the previous 24-hour period. There were 247 patients getting critical care and 162 on ventilators, down from 263 and 163 a day earlier. Hospitalizations are have plummeted 55% since April 1 as more than half of adults in the state are now vaccinated. Murphy said 3,501,650 people who live, work or study in New Jersey have been fully vaccinated. Another 162,846 estimated New Jersey residents got their shots out of state. The governor wants 4.7 million vaccinated by the end of June, but demand has waned and appointments are no longer required in most places. On Tuesday, Murphy said there were 858 more COVID-19 cases and an additional 31 confirmed deaths. When the state lifts capacity restrictions next week, 6 feet of distancing will still be required between groups in restaurants, bars, theaters and other indoor venues. The coronavirus has contributed to 23,201 confirmed deaths since March 2020, officials said. Another 2,640 deaths can probably be attributed to the virus. There have been more than 13.9 million COVID-19 tests administered in the state. Murphy has no other scheduled public appearances today. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. New Jersey on Wednesday reported another 925 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and an additional 33 confirmed deaths as the states seven-day average for confirmed new tests fell below 1,000 for the first time in seven months. Gov. Phil Murphy said more than 3.53 million people who live, work, or study in the state have been fully vaccinated at New Jersey sites, while another 163,498 residents have been vaccinated in other states. Murphy has set a goal of having 70% of New Jerseys adults vaccinated by the end of June. More than half of the states 6.9 million adults have now been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine could get federal Centers for Disease Control approval as early as Wednesday to be administered to kids as young as 12 years old. That would expand New Jerseys eligible group. Murphy urged parents to get kids vaccinated with supply now outpacing demand and many sites accepting walk-ins. Even though our youngest residents have among the lowest rates of hospitalizations and deaths, they have had among the greatest rates of transmission, Murphy said at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. So we encourage all parents to talk now with their adolescent children about getting vaccinated, and when the CDC approval is given, to go out and to do so. This will be a big step that will allow for students and educators to feel more confident in being in their classrooms for the remainder of this year, he added. It will set us up for every school to be fully back for in-person instruction in September. New Jerseys seven-day average for new confirmed positive COVID-19 tests has fallen to 975, down 30% from a week ago and 68% from a month ago. Thats the lowest number since Oct. 17. There were 1,041 COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the state as of Tuesday night, the lowest number since Oct. 27. The number dropped over the previous day after a slight uptick Monday for the first time in 10 days. Overall, hospitalizations are down 71% since the states second-wave peak of 3,873 patients on Dec. 22. The states transmission rate declined to 1 from 1.07 the day before. Tuesday marked the first time in weeks that number has been above 1. Any number under 1 indicates the outbreak is slowing and each new case is leading to less than one additional case. But the transmission rate has fluctuated widely over the past week. State officials have attributed those swings to a recent revision to total cases to remove more than 10,000 duplicates. The positivity rate for tests conducted on Saturday, the most recent day available, was 4.7% based on 16,596 tests. New Jersey, an early coronavirus epicenter, has now reported 881,635 confirmed cases out of more than 13.9 million PCR tests in the more than 14 months since the state reported its first case March 4, 2020. There have also been 127,458 positive antigen tests during the outbreak. Those cases are considered probable, and health officials have warned that positive antigen tests could overlap with the confirmed PCR tests because they are sometimes given in tandem. The state of 9.2 million people has reported 25,882 residents have died from complications related to COVID-19 including 23,234 confirmed deaths and 2,648 fatalities considered probable. The probable fatalities, which are revised weekly, increased by eight deaths on Wednesday. New Jersey has the most coronavirus deaths per capita among American states, largely driven by the early days of the pandemic, when the virus spread rapidly through the region. Murphy has been loosening health restrictions as numbers improve and vaccinations increase. The biggest steps so far happen May 19 next Wednesday when the state will increase fixed, percentage-based indoor capacity limits on restaurants, stores, personal service, and other businesses, while also removing all outdoor gathering caps. But indoor masking and social distancing rules will remain, with facilities required to keep groups at least 6 feet apart. That may prevent full capacity at restaurants and other businesses. CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage HOSPITALIZATIONS There were 1,041 patients hospitalized with confirmed (944) or suspected COVID-19 cases across New Jerseys hospitals as of Tuesday night 66 fewer than the previous night, according to state data. That included 247 in critical or intensive care (16 fewer than the night before), with 162 on ventilators (one fewer). There were 139 COVID-19 patients discharged Tuesday while 99 were admitted. By comparison, hospitalizations peaked at more than 8,300 patients during the first wave of the pandemic in April 2020 and more than 3,800 during the second wave in December. SCHOOL CASES New Jersey has reported 270 in-school coronavirus outbreaks, which have resulted in 1,198 cases among students, teachers and school staff this academic year, according to state data. The state defines school outbreaks as cases where contact tracers determined two or more students or school staff caught or transmitted COVID-19 in the classroom or during academic activities at school. Those numbers do not include students or staff believed to have been infected outside school or cases that cant be confirmed as in-school outbreaks. There are about 1.4 million public school students and teachers across the state, though teaching methods amid the outbreak have varied, with some schools teaching in-person, some using a hybrid format and others remaining all-remote. Murphy has said New Jerseys schools are expected to return to full in-person classes for the next school year. AGE BREAKDOWN Broken down by age, those 30 to 49 years old make up the largest percentage of New Jersey residents who have caught the virus (30.9%), followed by those 50-64 (22.5%), 18-29 (19.9%), 65-79 (10.1%), 5-17 (9.9%), 80 and older (4.4%) and 0-4 (2%). On average, the virus has been more deadly for older residents, especially those with preexisting conditions. Nearly half the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents 80 and older (45.9%), followed by those 65-79 (33.6%), 50-64 (16.1%), 30-49 (4%), 18-29 (0.4%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0%). At least 8,041 of the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data. There are active outbreaks at 197 facilities, resulting in 2,259 active cases among residents and 3,000 among staffers. Those numbers have slowed as vaccinations continue at the facilities. GLOBAL NUMBERS As of Wednesday morning, there have been more than 159.7 million positive COVID-19 tests across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 3.31 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications. The U.S. has reported the most cases, at more than 32.7 million, and the most deaths, at more than 582,800. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Business after business had the same story: They cant find enough employees. While some workers are staying home because of COVID fears or child care issues, others just arent ready to give up their unemployment benefits for a job, they said. One of the issues is that the Labor Department isnt enforcing requirements that workers must actively seek a job and not turn down any offers of suitable work to be eligible for unemployment benefits, employers said at a Tuesday town hall hosted by the New Jersey Business Coalition, a group of 100 statewide business associations. And given expanded unemployment benefits, some workers are trying to double-dip, asking to be paid cash under the table so they can continue to collect benefits, employers said. Anthony Reis, owner of a Piscataway-based catering company called The Food Architects, said he needs to hire another 25 to 40 people ranging from managers, chefs, drivers and more. It hasnt been easy, he said. I had one potential employee come for an interview as a pizza maker asking for $25 per hour and stated that he was collecting unemployment for over eight months and is working for cash now and I am not giving (unemployment benefits) up, Reis said. The interview ended before it even started. Bob Wagner, managing partner and chief operating officer of Braddocks Tavern and Otts Restaurants, called the unemployment system broken. There are people who need the assistance with the extra $300 a week, he said. But people are walking in and say you have to pay me cash because they are collecting. Richard Goldstein, owner of landscaping company Green Meadows in Oakland, said he, too, has had potential employees come in and ask for cash payments. (They) have started their process by letting us know they want to work, but off the books so they can continue to collect unemployment, Goldstein said. We will not hire individuals asking for this. Businesses are not getting help from the Labor Department in reaching out to staff that ignore calls to come back to work, said Robby Younes, chief operating officer for Crystal Springs Resort in Hamburg. He said hes reported people who have refused to return to work even hiring a private detective to collect evidence but the Labor Department hasnt responded to the notifications. We know they are collecting and they refuse to come to work, he said, saying theyre sitting home and trying to scam the system. Arnold Kamler, chairman and CEO of bicycle manufacturer Kent International, who has 60 employees in New Jersey, said the Labor Department should aggressively go after cheaters who are collecting unemployment and working on the side for cash. I think we spoiled workers with this extended unemployment, said Kamler said. Reis and other employers say short of reinstituting the looking for work requirement, the solution could be to offer an incentive, such as a tax credit or one-time bonus, to get people back to work. They are spending tax money now on having people simply stay home. Have them return and give them a bonus for doing so, Reis said. Gov. Phil Murphy said earlier this week that he has no plans to stop offering the $300 expanded unemployment benefit, as states including Montana and South Carolina have announced, while states including Florida and Ohio have reinstituted the looking for work requirement. President Joe Biden said Monday that his administration will make it clear that unemployed workers will need to seek work in order to be eligible for unemployment benefits. And later that day, the White House said the U.S. Labor Department will work with states to reimpose those requirements. Last week, Murphy called the hiring challenges a passing reality. This will not be the case forever, Murphy said. These benefits will not be forever and always. It is, I believe, temporary. But employers say the here and now is what matters, especially for businesses that earn most of their income from tourism in the summer months. This is all far from over and we, the small business who are supposed to be the backbone of the business world, are for sure breaking and mostly broken under the weight of all of this stress and despair, Reis said. We need help. We needed it before and more so now, otherwise many more of us will not be here when we get to this other side that everyone is speaking of. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com. The New Jersey Supreme Court ordered a Monmouth County bank robber re-sentenced Tuesday, saying the two separate prison terms that would keep him behind bars until he is 102 years old are unfair. The court found the judges who sentenced Edgar Torres to a combined 70 years behind bars did not give explicit explanation for running the sentences consecutively. They sent it back, for meaningful review and re-sentencing utilizing the principles contained in this opinion. The unanimous decision, though, went beyond Torres predicament. The court said they took the case because the sentences length concerned them, and they said the state legislature and an existing sentencing commission needs to address the issue of consecutive sentences. The New Jersey State Supreme Court ordered Edgar Torres, shown here in a 2021 prison photo, to be re-sentenced for the five bank robberies he committed in Monmouth County. Torres was charged with three bank robberies in Howell and Ocean townships that occurred in 2010 and 2011. He then confessed to two more, in 2006 and 2009, in Farmingdale and Freehold. He committed them to fund his drug addiction, he said, and was indicted on 11 crimes for the five hold-ups. But Torres was tried separately, first for the latest three, for which he was sentenced to a total of 40 years. Then he was tried and convicted of the first two crimes, for which he was sentenced to 30 years. The judge ruled that prison term would run consecutive to his 40-year term. Both had parole disqualifiers, meaning hed have to serve 85% of each sentence before he could be considered for parole. An appeals court found the trial judge also failed to carefully analyze the sentence and sent it back, but a new judge, the former one had retired, gave Torres the same sentence. That judge said it was called for under the states predominant case law on the matter, State v. Yarbough, a 1985 New Jersey Supreme Court case. The Yarbough case has several factors judges use as guidelines on when to impose consecutive or concurrent sentences. The Supreme Court justices in this case, in the oral arguments and in their decision, analyzed and reviewed and challenged the attorneys who argued it on how consecutive sentences are handed down in New Jersey. The justices honed in on one Yarbough factor that previously addressed a limit on the number of consecutive sentences a defendant could receive. But state lawmakers rejected in 1993, and built into state law that there would not be an overall outer limit on the cumulation of consecutive sentences for multiple offenses. The justice also discussed the age at which a person is sentenced, and whether that affects recidivism. A defendants age is doubtlessly among the information that courts should consider when calibrating a fair sentence, the court wrote. But age alone cannot drive the outcome. An older defendant who commits a serious crime, for example, cannot rely on age to avoid an otherwise appropriate sentence. But age is a fact that can and should be in the matrix of information assessed by a sentencing [judge], even in the deliberation over whether consecutive sentences are a fair and appropriate punishment -- proportional for the individual being sentenced, the court concluded. Prosecutors, from the Monmouth County Prosecutors Office and state Attorney Generals Office, argued against reducing Torres sentence, saying this is not the case for change. They said enough guidelines are in place for trial judges, and if they start to consider the age of a defendant when they are eventually released, it would transform sentencing decisions into generalizations based on age, and could unjustly lead to younger offenders receiving lighter sentences. And, they reminded, Torres was a previously convicted of armed robbery before this case, and reducing his sentence now would give him a discount, essentially leading to one sentence for five bank robberies, or a prosecutor said, four free bank robberies. The high court said in the decision they were taking steps to promote fairness, and signaled lawmakers and the New Jersey Criminal Sentencing and Disposition Commission to act. We note that the [commission] has completed some of its work, but more remains to be done. To the extent that some arguments advanced in this appeal are policy oriented, they are better addressed to the Legislature and the Sentencing Commission, the high court wrote. Assistant Deputy Public Defender Scott Welfel, who argued the case, applauded the decisions examination of age on consecutive sentences. We are further encouraged that the Court referred the policy considerations implicated in this important case to the Legislature and Sentencing Commission, he said. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. The investigation began after the March 26 shooting in Chicago, which left one dead and seven injured, according to prosecutors. Of the guns found at the scene, five had been recently bought from licensed dealers near Clarksville, Tenn., with Adams, Brunson and Miller listed as the majority purchasers. The number of school districts that are fully in-person has gone above 300 districts for the first time this school year, nearly matching the number of schools that were fully remote at the peak of the second wave. As of May 10, 416 school districts were hybrid, 13 were remote and 338 were fully in-person the seventh week in a row the number of in-person districts increased. Forty-four districts have different educational formats for different schools. During the height of New Jerseys second coronavirus wave in January, 339 districts were totally virtual. This week marks the first time the number of in-person districts has come close to matching that number. The number of in-person districts increased by 40, while hybrid and remote districts decreased by 33 and 3, respectively. The number of districts using different learning methods for different schools decreased by 3. Although the number of virtual districts has been steadily decreasing, four public schools, six charter schools, and three special service schools remain totally remote. We know there are myriad reasons why the remaining districts have not taken this step, Murphy said at a press conference last week. But the simple fact remains that we cannot leave 43,000 of our students out of their classrooms for an entire year. That is not fair to them, their families, their communities, or their futures. Murphy has repeatedly called for all districts to reopen for either hybrid or in-person learning, announcing in March that some schools could relax social distancing measures. Districts have cited concerns about the viruss spread as the main reason for delaying their returns to the classroom. Of the four public schools that remain remote, only one, Hillside, has a return-to-school date set for this year. The number of students being offered each educational type does not take into account students who are voluntarily learning virtually, an option all schools must provide. When Newark, the states largest school district, reopened for in-hybrid learning, just 39% of its 36,460 students returned to classrooms. State officials have said that as of October, the most recently available data, about a quarter of students in a district with open schools were voluntarily learning virtually. The option to learn virtually will be rescinded next year, and reserved only for students and teachers with medical concerns, Murphy said. There have been 270 outbreaks and 1,198 cases of the coronavirus linked to schools in New Jersey. For cases to qualify as an outbreak, they must be confirmed to have been transmitted in the classroom or during academic activities. All 21 counties have seen an in-school outbreak. All New Jersey residents 16 and older are eligible for the vaccine. Pfizers vaccine was approved for children ages 12-15 this week; Murphy has said guidance for vaccinating children will be issued soon, and vaccinations for children are expected to start soon. Thirteen districts continue to teach students remotely: Pleasantville Public School District: Public District Englewood on the Palisades Charter School: Charter Gray Charter School: Charter Maria L. Varisco-Rogers Charter School: Charter ST. JOSEPHS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND: Approved Private Schools for Students with Disabilities The Village Charter School: Charter Trenton Stem-to-Civics Charter School: Charter Passaic City School District: Public District Paterson Public School District: Public District MATHENY SCHOOL AND HOSPITAL: Approved Private Schools for Students with Disabilities MONTGOMERY ACADEMY: Approved Private Schools for Students with Disabilities Cresthaven Academy Charter School: Charter Hillside Public School District: Public District Three districts switched away from remote learning: Irvington Public School District: Hybrid (Public District) Jersey City Community Charter School: Combo (Charter) SHEPARD PREPARATORY HIGH SCHOOL: In-Person (Approved Private Schools for Students with Disabilities) Thirty-two previously hybrid districts brought students back for full-time, in-person learning: Y.A.L.E. SCHOOL, ATLANTIC Bergenfield Borough School District Bogota Public School District Carlstadt PublicSchool District Dumont Public School District Fairview Public School District Franklin Lakes School District Hasbrouck Heights School District Mahwah Township Public School District Midland Park School District Old Tappan Public School District Oradell Public School District Palisades Park School District Paramus Public School District Ridgefield Park Public School District Ridgefield School District Wood-Ridge School District E.C.L.C. OF NEW JERSEY, HO-HO-KUS CAMPUS Gateway Regional High School District National Park Boro School District Westville Boro Public School District Marie H. Katzenbach School for the Deaf West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional School District Boonton Township School District East Hanover Township School District Educational Services Commission of Morris County Randolph Township School District Roselle Park Public School District The Queen City Academy Charter School District Great Meadows Regional School District Phillipsburg School District Warren Hills Regional School District Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Katie Kausch may be reached at kkausch@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. Princeton University professor Joshua Katz was supposed to return to teaching in 2018 after a scheduled, year-long sabbatical. But the popular Classics scholar, who had won top teaching awards, didnt schedule any classes and stayed away from campus for another full year. Few at the Ivy League school knew why. Earlier this year two weeks after a story appeared in the school newspaper accusing Katz inappropriate conduct with three female students the professor released a statement explaining his 2018-2019 disappearance. He was given a year-long, unpaid suspension for violating campus sexual misconduct policies, he said. When I was a young professor, I had a relationship with a student that violated the universitys rules, Katz, 51, said in a statement published in February on a campus free speech website. It was a consensual relationship. It did not involve nor has anyone ever suggested that it involved any coercion, harassment, or quid pro quo. Nonetheless, it was wrong, and I am ashamed of my past conduct, he added. Some on campus questioned why Katzs students and colleagues were not told about the professors suspension, or a later case in which the professor said his bosses required him to get counseling on appropriate boundaries of faculty-student friendships after another student complaint. Last month, two Princeton student groups launched a campaign calling for an overhaul of how Princeton investigates sexual harassment complaints. Using Katzs case as a catalyst, the groups listed eight demands for university officials, including more transparency about who on campus is being investigated and punished for sexual misconduct or violations of university policy. First, Princeton failed to adequately protect its students from harm; then, even after they learned that Katz had committed misconduct, the administration allowed him to return to the classroom with nothing but a slap on the wrist. This demonstrates a stunning failure of accountability, Princeton Students for Title IX Reform and Princeton Graduate Students United Organizing Committee said in a statement. The student groups demands include more funding for mental health counseling, hiring more Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and LGBTQ counselors and more money for legal services for sexual harassment-related cases. They are also asking for mandatory training for Princeton students and faculty on how to recognize and intervene in predatory behavior, including grooming, by instructors and others in positions of power. The signals we get as undergraduate students at the university are very disheartening sometimes. This lack of transparency for Joshua Katz ... No university student knew what that sabbatical was. Nobody told us, said Amna Amin, a graduating senior majoring in politics and one of the organizers of the campaign to reform Princetons sexual harassment policies. This is all sort of a signal that our problems or concerns are not important to the administration, said Amin, 22, of Pittsburgh. Katzs case is part of lingering tension on campus about how sexual harassment and misconduct violations are being handled, said a female second-year graduate student who is helping lead the reform campaign. It has been both a workplace issue and sort of a culture issue for students for such a long time, the graduate student said. She asked that her name not be used because she fears speaking out will affect her academic career. Princeton officials were previously accused in 2017 of giving too light a punishment to an engineering professor after he was accused of sexually harassing a graduate student. University administrators said they have spent the last decade updating the campus sexual misconduct policies and they welcome the students input on additional reforms. We have enhanced policies, processes, penalties, communications, training, and resources designed to increase our communitys confidence that the university will appropriately address any misconduct we learn about, the university said in a statement. We welcome engagement and input from members of the university community about how Princeton can continue its efforts to foster a respectful environment that offers everyone on our campus an equal opportunity to thrive, the statement said. The student organizers said they were told campus officials will be in touch to discuss their demands, but there were no meetings scheduled as of last week. OPINION | Princeton Students for Title IX Reform and the Organizing Committee of Princeton Graduate Students United criticize the Universitys response to allegations against Joshua Katz, and release demands they believe will create a safer campus climate. https://t.co/BjSPkh40p4 The Daily Princetonian (@princetonian) April 28, 2021 Katzs attorney objected to the students list of demands, including their call that the professor be fired and the university cover legal fees for any additional students who might come forward with complaints. While my client confirmed that he had a consensual relationship with a student more than a decade ago for which he was sanctioned by the university the statement that there have been severe allegations of sexual misconduct borders on defamatory in its willful mischaracterization of the facts, said Samantha Harris, a Princeton alumnae representing Katz, told NJ Advance Media. Katzs case has drawn national attention for both the allegations against the professor and his claims that he is a victim of the cancel culture. The professor who specializes in the language and literature of the ancient world and holds linguistics degrees from Yale, Oxford and Harvard made national headlines last July when he wrote an opinion piece, titled A Declaration of Independence by a Princeton Professor, in the online magazine Quillette. Katz criticized his fellow Princeton faculty members for signing an open letter during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement calling on the university to do more to combat racism. In the piece, Katz called the Black Justice League, a former campus group at Princeton, a small local terrorist organization. Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber joined other top campus officials in condemning Katzs column a few days later. While free speech permits students and faculty to make arguments that are bold, provocative, or even offensive, we all have an obligation to exercise that right responsibly, Eisgruber said. Joshua Katz has failed to do so, and I object personally and strongly to his false description of a Princeton student group as a local terrorist organization. Katz got more national attention when he wrote an op-ed about the controversy in the Wall Street Journal with the headline I Survived Cancellation at Princeton. He was later invited to give talks about standing up for free speech and received the 2020 Hero of Intellectual Freedom award from American Council of Trustees and Alumni. Free speech and robust debate have prevailed at Princeton, writes Joshua Katz https://t.co/zVMsEGyFch WSJ Editorial Page (@WSJopinion) July 27, 2020 Seven months later, the Daily Princetonian, the campus newspaper, published its story alleging Katz was in a romantic relationship with an undergraduate advisee in the mid-2000s and behaved inappropriately with two other female students, buying them expensive dinners and gifts. The student in the alleged romantic relationship with Katz was not named and did not speak for the article and the other two women spoke anonymously. At the time, Katz supporters said the story was an unfair smear and punishment for his controversial earlier statements on the Black Justice League and anti-racism movements. A few weeks later, Katz spoke out on Princetonians for Free Speech, an alumni-run website. In his statement he said he was properly held accountable for actions with his 2018-2019 suspension for having a relationship with a student and the counseling he was required to attend after a second student complained about his behavior. He gave no other details. While I realize that some may still have questions, this statement is as full an account as I can give of these events while respecting the privacy of all concerned, Katz wrote. Princeton has long banned romantic relationships between faculty and undergraduate students. In 2019, that ban was extended to include any sexual relationships between graduate students and professors too. Princeton had previously allowed romantic relationships between faculty and graduate students, who are often in their late 20s and 30s, as long as they were in different fields and did not work with each other. This is an important step in ensuring that we create a safe, respectful and equitable learning environment for everyone on campus, Sanjeev Kulkarni, dean of the faculty, said at the time. At Princeton, Katzs case remains tied up with his claims that he is the victim of the liberal university cancel culture that seeks to tear down and ostracize people who express unpopular opinions. Katz filed a lawsuit in February against the American Council of Learned Societies, a group of scholarly organizations, for allegedly rescinding an invitation in September to serve as one of its delegate at a prominent scholarly conference in Paris. He said the group cited the controversy over his statements about anti-racism movement at Princeton as the reason for revoking the invitation. Rescinding the invitation is an example of cancel culture and damaged Katzs reputation, the lawsuit said. The American Council of Learned Societies denies Katzs allegations and is fighting the lawsuit. The groups invitation was allegedly revoked before any of the allegations that Katz had violated the sexual misconduct policy were made public. The calls to rewrite Princetons rules for sexual misconduct investigations comes as colleges across the nation are waiting for President Joe Bidens administration to modify its guidance on Title IX, the federal rules that govern how schools handle sexual harassment complaints. Biden has said he wants to scrap changes made to Title IX under President Donald Trump that supporters said gave more rights to those accused of sexual misconduct. But critics said Trumps new rules made it harder for people to file complaints and limited what colleges could investigate. New Jersey is also taking a closer look at how college campuses handle sexual assault and misconduct cases. A new state Campus Sexual Assault Commission recently held its first meeting and is considering ways for colleges to rethink how they are addressing sexual violence on campus. Despite all the attention Katzs case has gotten on campus, he taught classes at Princeton this year and is scheduled to teach undergraduates again in the fall, said a male second-year graduate student who helped organize the campaign to rewrite the campus sexual harassment policies. He asked that his name not be used because he feared retribution on campus for speaking out. Despite the claim that Princetons current systems are sufficient to address the kinds of problems that were talking about, someone who had admitted specifically to past misconduct is still being left in the classroom without any accountability, the graduate student said. We find that pretty outrageous and we think that its an untenable situation. Tell us your experiences with allegations of sexual harassment in New Jersey: Heres how to share your story. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. For the first time since 2019, Rutgers University will honor the graduates during in-person ceremonies. The university announced Tuesday that it will be hosting in-person, school-based events to celebrate and honor the Class of 2021, as well as the Class of 2020. Details of each celebration will be announced by the relevant chancellors office in the coming months and posted on the university website, Rutgers officials said in a joint statement. We are excited that Rutgers will have the opportunity this fall to bring you together in person and salute you for your accomplishments. The dates for the events are: Rutgers UniversityNew Brunswick and RBHS: October 22-23 Rutgers UniversityNewark: November 8-10 Rutgers UniversityCamden: December 1-4 Rutgers said in February that this years commencement events will be virtual, rather than in-person ceremonies, as a result of the continuing coronavirus pandemic. It marked the second year that Rutgers opted to hold its commencement online. Last year, the university streamed its 254th commencement ceremony live on its Facebook and YouTube channels. NBC News anchor Lester Holt was the keynote speaker, and addressed graduates and their families from his home. Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway said earlier this year that he hoped to the university would be able to host in-person celebrations later in the year to salute graduates from both 2020 and 2021. With coronavirus numbers trending in a downward direction in recent weeks, he said now was the time to announce the events. While we had hoped to bring you together sooner, the continuing public health emergency associated with the pandemic prevented us until now, Tuesdays joint statement said. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. Jersey Citys Board of Education finalized its massive $814 million budget for the 2021-2022 school year, raising taxes on the average homeowner by almost $1,000. The BOE adopted the final budget, which is being increased by $78 million from last year, in a 6-3 vote with little dispute Monday. Board trustees Joan Terrell-Paige, Gina Verdibello, Gerald Lyons, Lorenzo Richardson, Marilyn Roman and board President Mussab Ali voted yes. Trustees Alexander Hamilton, Noemi Velazquez and board Vice President Lekendrick Shaw voted against the spending plan. The budget will allow the school district to hire 216 full-time staff members, including teachers, teacher assistants and aides. Each school will also be able to develop a resource center known as a Tigers den with a licensed clinical professional to help deal with traumatic events. Superintendent Franklin Walker said Tuesday that the diverse school district has a wide range of needs. He said some of the concerns the district has to deal with are related poverty. Money does not solve all the problems, but money will help us solve most of the ones we have, Walker said. As a result of poverty, there are opportunities that many of our students dont get based upon those circumstances. So, what this does is offers us an opportunity to provide services to all our students. Some of the additional services include eye tests and eyeglasses for students in need and a summer program for English language learners to recover credits, so they can graduate on time. The Jersey City school district, which educates more than 30,000 students, has seen more than $150 million in state aid slashed since 2019. The district is expected to see another $250 million cut in aid as part of a seven-year plan by the state. As a result of the loss in state aid, the BOE will raise the school tax levy from $189 million to $278 million, still below the local fair share the states estimate of a districts ability to contribute funding toward its local schools. The Education Law Center, based in Newark, estimates that Jersey City taxpayers should be funding roughly $522 million of the budget. This means a second year of increases in taxes for the average homeowner, who saw a $522 increase last year. The estimated increase this year is $993, but the good news is that this budget would create a fully funded school district for the first time in years. Meghan Howard-Noveck and Nancy Pokler, two leaders with Jersey City Togethers education team, said in a joint statement they are heartened to see a fully funded budget pass for the first time in a decade. JC Together is a multi-faith-based group that advocates for affordable housing and schools. This historic investment will allow the district to invest in all our districts children through full-time teachers, paraprofessionals, social workers, increased services, and other essential staff all critical as our district emerges next year from a pandemic which has exacerbated many long-standing systemic inequities, Howard-Noveck and Pokler said. But not everyone is sharing the groups excitement. City spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione referred to the school board as sad and unacceptable for not taking proactive steps to control its expenses and instead continues to act as an employment agency with taxpayer dollars while having no accountability for how they spend these dollars. They continue to point fingers everywhere else instead of looking in the mirror, and the end result of their inability to control expenses is going to be them squeezing out the same residents that they talk about protecting, Wallace-Scalcione said. At Monday nights meeting, Ali said he tried to find out how much additional Cares Act funding the school district will see coming its way, but he did not get any answers. Lyons and Hamilton were hoping to identify that dollar amount to offset raising the school levy by $85 million. Hamilton said he feels like he has had a gun held to his head to raise taxes to fill the budget since joining the BOE. We are going to be in the hole again next year by $100 million, Hamilton said. I really want a long-term solution regarding this budget, and I am really sort of tired of this being the only solution that we have. It should not be the only answer that we have to raise the levy all the time. A Kearny motorcyclist who was seriously injured in a crash in 2019 has received more than $1 million in a settlement, New Jersey Law Journal reported. The $1.1. million settlement, reached last month, was the result of a lawsuit filed in Hudson County Superior Court in July 2019, a month after the crash. The lawsuit said Kelvin Perez, now 25, was riding his motorcycle north on the Route 17 loop in Lyndhurst on June 23, 2019 when Cesar Mejia of North Bergen, carelessly struck him. As a result of the crash, Perez was severely and permanently injured; has been caused and in the future will be caused great pain and suffering; ... has been disabled and will in the future to continue to be disabled, the lawsuit said. The five-page lawsuit did not detail specific injuries, but the New Jersey Law Journal reported that Perez suffered spinal injuries. It also said as a result of his injuries Perez has missed, and will continue to miss time at work. The lawsuit did not describe Perezs profession. Court documents do not provide the final settlement amount, but prior to the official settlement, the law firm representing Perez requested $1.5 million. Perezs attorney could not be reached for comment. The Bayonne City Council is expected to vote Wednesday night on whether to allow for a potential $95 million eminent domain proceeding to acquire the Bayonne Medical Center, but two twists Tuesday have heightened the drama. One company fighting for the opportunity to run the hospital, BMC Hospital LLC, announced Tuesday morning it would guarantee that its rent payments would totally fund the citys loan obligations if the city managed to acquire the property by force. Then Tuesday afternoon, City Council President Sharon Nadrowski announced she wants the city to abandon the idea of eminent domain altogether and allow Hudson Regional Hospital, the owner of the BMC property, to purchase and operate the hospital. I am going to make a motion that we reject eminent domain and instead authorize the citys special counsel to enter into negotiations and reach an agreement with the property owner which reflects the spirit of the letter, Nadrowski said in the press release. Both Nadrowski and the BMC Hospital group pointed to taxpayer savings as a their primary motive. Nadrowsi said successful negotiations between the Secaucus-based Hudson Regional Hospital and the city are an opportunity to save both the hospital and taxpayer risk by avoiding what would almost certainly be a costly legal fight over the eminent domain bid. BMC Hospital LLC, too, says it doesnt want Bayonne taxpayers burdened by a court battle that it dubbed as critical. The group did not indicate if the guarantee to cover the loan, which the city pegs at $95 million, would be put in writing. BMC Hospital LLC, a group of health care investors that have already signed an agreement to operate the hospital, have been vying for the CarePoint Health hospital with Hudson Regional Hospital for months. Hudson Regional Hospital has refused to lease the building to the LLC. In the meantime, CarePoint Health has continued operating the hospital. Bayonne Mayor Jimmy Davis has indicated support for eminent domain and for BMC Hospital LLC to operate the for-profit acute care facility. This is the second recent, prominent instance of Nadrowski straying from the mayor after running for office on his ticket. Last month, she spoke out after Davis business administrator sued him and other city officials, alleging gender-based harassment. My only concern is protecting the hospital, not picking who gets to run it, Nadrowski said. History has taught us that the government should not be in the hospital business. Hopefully, both sides will be able to sit down, stop suing each other and figure this out. Hudson Regional Hospital offered its thanks to the council president for her support. We are very appreciative and gratified that Bayonne Council President Sharon Ashe Nadrowski has entrusted Hudson Regional Hospital to create a program that addresses the health care needs of the Bayonne community, CEO Dr. Nizar Kifaieh said. Bayonne Medical Center is one of CarePoint Healths three Hudson County hospitals whose future management is still undefined. In 2019, CarePoint indicated that it planned to exit each hospital, and since then, new interested owners and management teams have emerged, though CarePoint is still running all three hospitals. After Bayonne indicated an intent to move toward eminent domain to acquire the hospital through the courts, Hudson Regional Hospital responded with a campaign to encourage the public to take its side. Wednesdays City Council meeting in Bayonne will be the first in-person public meeting the governing body has held since April 2020. It has been moved to the more spacious venue: the Bayonne High School auditorium. It will also be livestreamed. Advance registration to attend is newly required and is available on the citys website or by calling the business administrators office at 201-858-6109. With social distance requirements in place, the auditorium can fit about 200 people, city spokesman Joe Ryan said. The chamber where meetings were traditionally held could only host about 55. Councilman Sal Gullace, who is on crutches after a serious leg injury last summer, called tomorrows meeting his grand return. I hope itll be good, the councilman said. Two Bayonne teens were charged Tuesday in the beating of another teen, authorities said. The victim, a 17-year-old boy, was walking to school on May 4 when he was approached from behind and pushed to the ground by a 15-year-old boy, who then began to punch the victim about the head, Bayonne Capt. Eric Amato said. The victim suffered lacerations to his elbow and knee and briefly lost consciousness. During the investigation, it was learned that the second teen, also a 17-year-old boy, had left threatening phone messages on the victims phone, Amato said. The 17-year-old, who was taken into custody at his home at 8:40 a.m. Tuesday, was charged with terroristic threats. The 15-year-old assailant, who turned himself into police Tuesday afternoon, was charged with aggravated assault. A 23-year-old New Jersey man was killed Sunday after being pinned between a cleaning machine and a section of shelving at a warehouse in Cranbury, authorities said. Samuel Toatley Jr., of Ewing, was operating the machinery shortly before 3 a.m. at nuLoom warehouse (Rugs USA), on Prospect Plains Road when the accident took place, Cranbury police said in a statement Wednesday Toatley, who worked for Complete Care Maintenance, was pronounced dead at the scene. Toatley is survived by his 2-year-old son, according to a GoFundme.com page established to raise money for his funeral expenses. Sam has touched the lives of many and always made sure the people closest to him were always good, the GoFundme.com page said. No matter what Sam had going on in his life he always had a smile on his face to enjoy time with the ones he was with. Sam was a hardworking father who did anything to put a smile on his son SJs face. It didnt matter if it was playing horsey, hide and seek, sharing candy/food, or even coming home after work with a brand new toy for SJ to play with. Sams heart was one of the biggest and it is with deep sadness that his life was tragically cut short. Complete Care Maintenance cleans the facility once a week, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is investigating. Rugs USA has been looked into by OSHA twice in the past five years and found to be in compliance both times, the federal agency said. Complete Care Maintenance has not been investigated by OSHA in the past five years. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Gasoline shortages have hit several states along the East Coast after a ransomware attack shut down the Colonial Pipeline, leading to panic buying that caused long lines and gas stations to run out of fuel. Gas prices are also expected to continue to climb. The problems are most pronounced in North Carolina where 12.3% of gas stations were out of fuel as of late Tuesday, according to GasBuddy.com. About 8.6% of Virginia stations lacked gas as did 8% in Georgia, 5.9% in South Carolina and 3% in Florida following the attack on the 5,500 mile long Colonial Pipeline last week. In this aerial image taken with a drone, numerous vehicles line up for gasoline at Costco on Wendover Avenue in Greensboro, N.C., on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. As the shutdown of a major fuel pipeline entered into its fifth day, efforts are under way to stave off potential fuel shortages, though no widespread disruptions were evident. The Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, was hit by a cyberattack on Friday. (Woody Marshall/News & Record via AP)AP GasBuddy.coms head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan, told CNN, Panicked buying is running stations in the region dry. Gas demand has climbed more than 40% in the past week in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The Colonial Pipeline transports more than 100 million gallons of fuel daily, through a pipeline system spanning more than 5,500 miles between Texas and New Jersey. On Monday, the company said in a statement it has a goal of substantially restoring operational service by the end of the week. Oil Price Information Service global petroleum analyst Tom Kloza said New Jersey shouldnt experience shortages as along as people resist panic buying. For the past three consecutive weeks, more than 1 million barrels of gasoline a day were imported from Europe, Kloza said. Most of it is shipped through the Port of New York and New Jersey, Kloza said. Refining capacity in the northeast also produces another 600,000 barrels of gas a day, he said. Heres a roundup of the latest gas shortage news around the country. How much have gas prices increased? The national average for gas prices popped above $3 a gallon as of Wednesday morning, according to the American Automobile Association. In AAAs weekly analysis released Monday, the national price was $2.96, up 6 cents from a week earlier. The last time gas prices averaged over $2.99 was November 2014, according to AAA. Four states declare a state of emergency: The governors of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia each declared a state of emergency, according to Newsweek.com. About half of gas stations in metro Atlanta were temporarily out of fuel Tuesday awaiting shipments. Reports of long lines in those states trickled out as the average price of a gallon of a gas climbed nationwide climbed to $2.95, the highest since 2014. Much of the pipeline re-started operations manually late Monday. and Colonial said most operations will resume by late this week. Biden scrambles to get ahead of fuel shortages: President Joe Biden is waiving some environmental and labor rules to ease gasoline shipments and stave off further shortages, according to Politco.com. A dozen states received waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency through the end of May exempting them from rules which require cleaner summer-grade gasoline in some urban areas, Politico reported. Meanwhile, the Transportation Department is considering suspending Jones Act restrictions to allow foreign ships to move fuel supplies between U.S. ports. The pipeline would need to be shut for another week to cause real shortages of gasoline, diesel or jet fuel, experts say. DarkSide hackers responsible for the attack: The FBI said hacking group DarkSide is responsible for the attack, according to WSJ.com. An organized hacking group linked to Eastern European countries in the former Soviet Bloc, Darkside wields a new strain of ransomware to target victims and demand ransoms typically between $200,000 and $2 million, the website reported. Ransomware attacks are typically carried out by criminal hackers who scramble data to paralyze their targets networks. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. NJ Advance Media staff writer Larry Higgs and the Associated Press contributed to this report. A seminarian studying to be a priest was killed while crossing the street in New York City earlier this week by a hit-and-run driver who was allegedly drunk, Catholic Church officials said Wednesday. Ngu Quoc Tran, who was known as Peter, was walking on Manhattans East Side late Tuesday when he hit, officials said. He died a short time later. The alleged driver was arrested later that evening when his car broke down on the FDR Drive, police said. Any time we hear of the sudden loss of life, especially the loss of someone so young, it is heartbreaking, said Bishop James Checchio of the Diocese of Metuchen, where Tran was a seminarian. But the tragic loss of Peter the loss to his family, to his brother seminarians and to our local church is immense and would be insufferable without our Catholic faith and trust in our Heavenly Father, so I ask you to please join me in praying for Peter, his family and the many affected by this terrible loss, Checchio added. Tran, 29, was a native of Vietnam who was in his first year as a theology student at Immaculate Conception Seminary at Seton Hall University in South Orange. After learning of the hit and run, Checchio went to the seminary to celebrate a Mass and meet with Trans fellow seminarians, church officials said. Tran was walking across the FDR Drive service road near E. 26th Street by Waterside Plaza, an apartment complex along the East River, when he was struck around 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, according to a report in the Daily News. The black 2007 Honda Accord fled the scene, but police located the car and its driver about 20 minutes later after getting a 911 call about a disabled car on the FDR near E. 53rd Street, the report said. Jonathan Sutherland, 23, was taken to the hospital with minor injuries, the report said. He was later charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, leaving the scene of an accident and refusing to take a breath test. Tran was a familiar face in many New Jersey parishes, Diocese of Metuchen officials said. He served summer assignments at Our Lady of Czestochowa Parish in South Plainfield; Saint James the Less Parish in Jamesburg; Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Parish in Bridgewater; and the Parish of the Visitation in New Brunswick. Before starting his studies at the seminary at Seton Hall, he lived at the Saint John Vianney House of Discernment in Highland Park, where men can live while deciding whether to enter the priesthood. Peter was a prayerful and loving person, who was always at the service of others, Checchio said. He was well-known in our parishes and was a welcoming face, always talking with the parishioners after Mass and building friendships with those serving in parish ministries. He will be incredibly missed in our diocese. Born in An Giang Province in southern Vietnam, Tran was one of six children of Khai Quang Tran and Bich Thi Ngoc, church officials said. Before coming to the U.S. in 2017, he graduated from the University of An Giang with a bachelors degree in English Literature and worked as an English teacher. After living at Saint John Vianney House of Discernment in Highland Park, he began pre-theology studies at Saint Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, in 2018. He continued his studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange the following year. In his application essay to become a seminarian, Tran wrote that it had always been his dream to become a priest. I believe that Jesus Christ has given me His Cross because He is the only way to eternal life, Tran wrote on his application. He challenges me and is always beside me to support me and to listen to my prayers. Thanks to the mercy and grace of the Lord, I am called to proclaim His death and confess His resurrection. Funeral arrangements have not been finalized, Diocese of Metuchen officials said. Trans body is expected to be returned to his family in Vietnam. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. The grand jury indicted Long on four counts each of malice murder and felony murder, plus criminal attempt to commit murder, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, criminal damage to property in the first degree, and 11 counts of aggravated assault, the district attorneys office announced. Montclair High School is apologizing for including the late Rabbi Meir Kahane in a post commemorating Jewish American Heritage Month, three decades after his assassination in New York City. The high schools assistant principal, Reginald Clark, and Montclair Schools Superintendent Jonathan Ponds separately conveyed regret for spotlighting Kahanes role in founding the Jewish Defense League in 1968. Ponds, in an email Tuesday afternoon to families, caregivers and staff, said the post from Monday included information that was not researched or vetted properly. He did not provide specifics. Moments in history can be very painful, and we deeply regret this e-blast. We are truly sorry for offending our families, staff, and community and thank those of you who reached out and expressed your feelings. The district will learn from this incident, Ponds said. Ponds did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Born in Brooklyn, Kahane rose to prominence with the Jewish Defense League, which advocated for aggressively confronting anti-Semitism. He is perhaps more remembered for heading a political party in Israel in the 1980s whose platform called for expelling all Arabs from Israeli-held territory and banning Jewish-Arab marriages, as recounted in an Associated Press story following his assassination. Rabbi Meir Kahane at a press conference in 1986.Cleveland Plain Dealer The e-blast at Montclair High School opened by noting that Kahane was associate editor for the Jewish Press when the newspaper began receiving numerous calls and letters about crimes being committed against Jews and Jewish institutions, including muggings of elderly Jews, robberies of storeowners and defacements of Jewish synagogues. After discussing the matter with a few congregants, Kahane put out an ad in the Jewish Press on May 24, 1968, which read: We are talking of JEWISH SURVIVAL! Are you willing to stand up for democracy and Jewish survival? Join and support the Jewish Defense Corps, read the post, which was provided to NJ Advance Media. Shortly after, Kahane renamed the group the Jewish Defense League, fearing that Corps would be construed as too militant, read the post, which included a link to the Jewish American Heritage Months website. Clark, Montclair High Schools assistant principal, emailed an apology for parents on Monday for the post spotlighting Kahane. In our Daily Announcements, there was a post under Jewish American Heritage Month highlighting Rabbi Meir Kahane. The information was in no way meant to harm or cause discontent among our community members, Clark wrote. I take full responsibility for the lack of vetting of the information and apologize to our community members that may have taken offense to the posting. I do appreciate the prompt response and letters of correction in addressing the matter; we must all learn from each other, Clark wrote. Kahane was elected to the Knesset but prohibited from seeking re-election in 1988 after lawmakers passed a law outlawing political parties whose platforms were deemed racist, the AP story noted. He was giving a speech in New York City in November 1990 when he was fatally shot. His killer was acquitted of Kahanes murder in a state trial, but found guilty of seditious conspiracy at a federal trial in 1994 a charge that prosecutors said included Kahanes killing along with plotting to bomb New York landmarks, among other charges Neither Ponds nor Clark explained the process for sending out e-blasts at the high school. Jewish American Heritage Month has been observed every May since 2006. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. All officers at New Jerseys only womens prison should have body cameras by the fall, Corrections Commissioner Marcus Hicks said Tuesday during his first public appearance before state senators since those lawmakers voted overwhelmingly for his ouster. Hicks also defended his departments soaring overtime costs before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, while deflecting questions about allegations that staff severely beat several women early this year at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Hunterdon County. Lawmakers struggled to reconcile the reforms Hicks described with the fact that 10 officers have been criminally charged so far at a facility that already had a long history of sexual abuse. I think youve failed, said state Sen. Dawn Addiego, D-Burlington. Do you really think that you are the credible advocate for this department? Hicks said the changes hes made, including an internal warning system to flag problem officers, would eventually bear out. I am a change agent, Hicks said. I absolutely believe that this administration is the right administration. State Sen. Declan OScanlon, R-Monmouth, said it was an outrageous failure that the approximately 200 cameras hadnt already been deployed. The commissioner responded that cameras were being used in many important areas but that it took time to roll out a system that can handle voluminous amounts of footage. Lawmakers also pressed the commissioner on how taxpayer money is being spent on shrinking prisons. Populations have declined for years, but a law that recently set thousands of people free months ahead of schedule contributed to the most significant drop in a decade. However, the money spent has hardly budged. The combined prison and parole budget remains around $1 billion every year. Overtime costs have even climbed. In fiscal year 2019, the department paid $40.9 million in overtime, according to legislative records. That shot up to $59.5 million the next year, and may hit $81.6 million in the current fiscal year. Hicks acknowledged the overall rise but disputed the $81.6 million number. He said the true amount was about $16 million less. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear. A parole spokesman confirmed that their overtime costs are not included in the above numbers, and a prison spokeswoman didnt respond to a question sent last week about why the amounts were different. Nonetheless, officials have blamed the increased overtime on staffing shortages due to the coronavirus. Hicks also said they are having difficulty recruiting new officers and keeping the staff they already have. He added that millions of dollars will eventually be reimbursed by the federal government because of the pandemic. The senate vote in February calling for Hicks resignation was largely symbolic, and Gov. Phil Murphy has stood by the commissioner. But while Hicks has not stepped down, there have been significant staff changes around him. In February, officials announced a new head of the departments Equal Employment Division, which investigates discrimination complaints, as well as a new Assistant Commissioner of Administration. In March, the deputy commissioner was also replaced. Two of those changes came after the states largest corrections union complained. In one case, PBA Local 105 wrote that the deputy commissioner made hasty and reckless operational decisions that put the health and safety of ... Correctional Police Officers in jeopardy, according to a March 3 letter obtained by NJ Advance Media. A prison spokeswoman said union pressure did not force anyones hand. The changes you noted ... are a result of nothing more than filling vacancies opened as a result of natural attrition and retirements, not disciplinary actions, Liz Velez wrote in an email. New Jersey is considering renovating or replacing the womens facility, although its unclear where the hundreds of women inside would go, and officials continue to wait for the U.S. Department of Justice to finalize an agreement that will likely lead to federal oversight of Edna Mahan. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Blake Nelson may be reached at bnelson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BCunninghamN. Have a tip? Tell us at nj.com/tips. Q. My son is currently paying down his subsidized and unsubsidized federal student loans with monthly payments, trying his best to get the loan paid off. Realizing the government deferred student loan payments under the stimulus package, should he discontinue monthly payments until we hear if the federal government would indeed move forward with loan forgiveness? And if he ultimately does pay off the balance completely, would the government reimburse those who paid during the period the stimulus package was put in place? Mom A. While there has been a great amount of discussion and proposals surrounding student loan forgiveness, no actual legislation has been passed at this time. Proposals range from canceling from $10,000 to $50,000 of student loans per borrower. Theres lots of discussion in terms of what kinds of student loans could be forgiven, said Michael Maye, a certified financial planner and certified public accountant with MJM Financial in Gillette. For example, he said, the federal government probably wouldnt have the authority to forgive private loans. Even within the various federal loan programs under previous legislation, some federal student loans qualified while others did not, Maye said. So the devil will certainly be in the details. Recently, Sen. Wyden of Oregon proposed a bill called The Retirement Parity for Student Loans Act. This bill is designed to help student loan borrowers who cant save for retirement due to student loan payments, Maye said. The crux of the legislation is that employers would make matching contributions into their employer retirement accounts. In essence it would treat their student loans as if the employee was contributing to the employers retirement plan. Given the state of flux surrounding student loan forgiveness, Maye said he would not recommend your son stop making his student loan repayments. Hopefully if student loan forgiveness was enacted, the legislation would not punish those who did the right thing by continuing to make their student loan repayments, Maye said, but its too soon to know exactly what lawmakers will ultimately decide. Email your questions to Ask@NJMoneyHelp.com. Karin Price Mueller writes the Bamboozled column for NJ Advance Media and is the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Follow NJMoneyHelp on Twitter @NJMoneyHelp. Find NJMoneyHelp on Facebook. Sign up for NJMoneyHelp.coms weekly e-newsletter. A 39-year-old woman admitted she posed as legitimate customers to obtain more than $200,000 in iPhones over a three-plus year period. Rosanna Lucrecia Cruel Blanco of the Bronx, New York, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, the U.S. Attorneys Office for New Jersey said. Blanco and her unnamed co-conspirators put the scheme into play by first assuming the identities of customers to purchase handset insurance on an existing account from a Nashville, Tennessee company, officials said. Once the insurance was activated Blanco and her associates filed false claims asserting the phone was either lost, stolen or damaged and then asked for new phones. Blanco and her crew falsified New York or New Jersey drivers licenses and provided the company with new shipping contact names and addresses that differed from what the real customer provided at signup. Blanco then had the phones usually Apple iPhones valued at $700 to $1,000 apiece shipped by FedEx or UPS to addresses in New Jersey as well as to New York locations in the Bronx, Yonkers, White Plains and Manhattan. On numerous occasions, Blanco actually supplied her own name as the contact person and intended recipient of the replacement phones, according to charging documents. Blanco is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. A Toms River home where the 1979 movie The Amityville Horror was filmed was damage by a fire early Wednesday morning, authorities said. Police and firefighters were called to Brooks Road home around 1:30 a.m. for a report of an explosion and fire at house and when they arrived, a neighbor told first responders that nobody was inside the home, according to Toms River Police Spokeswoman Jillian Messina. Firefighters discovered that there was an active fire in the rear of the home on the deck that threatened the residence itself, a spokesman for Toms River Fire Company 2 told NJ Advance Media. The blaze caused a propane tank to explode on the deck, officials said. Crews from that company as well as Toms River Fire Company 1 and the East Dover Fire Company were able to quickly extinguish the blaze without it spreading to the house, fire officials said. Messina said the fire did not appear to be suspicious but that the cause was still undetermined. A propane deck reportedly exploded on the rear deck of the Brooks Road home prior to firefighters arriving.Toms River Fire Company 2 The 10-room colonial-style structure in Toms River was built in the 1920s. For the movie, a superstructure was built around the outside to make it look like the home in Amityville, New York, whose owners claimed was possessed by evil spirits. Despite this, the home does still have the two iconic small windows on the third floor that were made famous by the film, which starred James Brolin and Margot Kidder and dramatized a supposed haunting of the Long Island home where Ronald Ronald DeFeo Jr. killed his mother, father and siblings in 1974. DeFeo Jr. died in custody earlier this year at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in upstate New York while serving a 25-years-to-life prison sentence, the Asbury Park Press reported. The film spawned several sequels and a 2005 remake and the reported haunting of the family that bought the home after the murders was also featured in the film The Conjuring 2. This article contains material from the Associated Press. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. About 400,000 New Jerseyans typically commute to New York, but an estimated 90 percent of them worked from home after the pandemic slammed the door on interstate travel last year. New York taxed them anyway, because their employers are in New York. Our truculent neighbor applies a convenience of the employer rule to tax all non-residents who work for a New York company unless necessity, as distinguished from convenience, obligate the employee to out-of-state duties. Youd think a once-in-a-century pandemic would make working at home a necessity, but New York asserts that those should be considered days worked in New York, and they believe the convenience rule provides the necessary cover. This doesnt seem fair to Sen. Steve Oroho (R-Sussex), a tax professional who says New York has no right to tax income earned outside its borders, so he encourages an aggressive response. He has authored a bipartisan bill that requires our state Treasurer to examine the issue, and, among other things, calculate how New Jersey would benefit if tax payments to New York were shifted to our state. Then he prodded the Murphy administration to issue a powerful amicus brief in support of New Hampshires federal suit against Massachusetts over taxation of remote workers, which is being considered by the US Supreme Court. Oroho spoke with the Star-Ledger Editorial Board about this interstate tax kerfuffle Monday: Q. Lets cut to the chase: Should a virtual worker be taxed in a state where they dont live if their company is still based there, legal though it might be? A. Absolutely not. There should be at least some agreement if that occurs, but no such thing exists between New York and New Jersey. The only one that exists is between New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and that says you pay your tax in the state where you live. Q. Why do we have a reciprocity agreement with Pennsylvania to avoid the double tax, but not with New York? A. I think it has to do with the fact that lower-wage earners pay less in New Jersey than they do in Pennsylvania because of the flat tax (in Pa.., which is 3.07%). But at least theres an agreement, resulting from a negotiation. Theres never been one with New York, and theyve made everyone fearful of double taxation. But were not talking about that at all. Q. New York is one of seven states that imposes taxes on workers based on their employers location even if they work remotely -- and New Jersey doesnt. Should we? A. Ive been looking at this issue since the Corzine Administration, because that percentage (of remote workers) was getting higher every year as technology improved. And what New Jersey did originally was tell New York companies, Continue to withhold what youre withholding. I called the administration and asked them why we do that. If someone is working at home, they should allocate the number of days they worked in New Jersey and the number of days in New York, and pay their taxes accordingly. Thats how you should do it. The problem is, New York is very aggressive and New Jersey is very passive. And people say, Look, we dont need this headache, just allocate it all to New York. Q. So we are routinely cheated. A. Right, the state gets screwed. Plus it really hurts our residents, because most of them would pay less in taxes if they filed in New Jersey. But we brought this to the attention of the (Murphy) Administration, and I think they were surprised by how much money this can actually be annually. They didnt realize how many people were already working two days a week (at home) even before the pandemic hit. And it was growing. So we looked at it, and New Jersey residents are paying probably $3.7 billion a year in taxes to New York, as the Wall Street Journal reported this week. Governor Murphy needs to stop rolling over for New York. He hasn't done nearly enough while his friend, Governor Cuomo, steals more than $1 billion from New Jersey and billions more from our taxpayers. https://t.co/vLUg1nOtDe Senator Steven Oroho (@stevenoroho) May 10, 2021 Q. And that kills our revenue, because NJ commuters are given tax credits to help them pay their New York taxes even if they worked at home? A. Right, they get a credit on their New Jersey return, so they dont get hit by double taxation. The latest information we have is that were giving over $3 billion in credits to people paying taxes to New York. Now, lets say theyre spending a third of their time working at home youre supposed to allocate that, so thats $1 billion that should go to New Jersey. But thats not happening. People are saying, Just allocate (all) those hours to New York, and Ill pay New York, and Ill get the credit from New Jersey. But the allocation of time probably isnt close to that; they just dont want the headache, so they allocate it to New York. And our state doesnt seem to care. Q. So whats the solution? New York guidelines say that if youre a non-resident whose primary office is in NYC, your days telecommuting are considered days worked in New York -- unless your company establishes an employer office at your remote location. Is that hard to do? A. There are ways we can help New Jersey do this. One is being aggressive and helping a few taxpayers win in court after their New York state tax rebate is turned down. Another is supporting the New Hampshire suit with the amicus brief, and hopefully the Supreme Court gives a favorable ruling. Then theres federal legislation: Congressman (Josh) Gottheimer and I sent a letter to (Treasury Secretary) Janet Yellen and the IRS about federal guidance, because this issue affects over 100 million people. The last one is exactly what you just said, and Ive talked to our treasurer and the NJ Society of CPAs about it: Lets set up employer situations located here to get around New Yorks convenience rule. Because thats their rule, not ours. How come they always throw a high and tight pitch and New Jersey backs away every time? People dont realize, this is property tax relief money! If were able to claw back that money, its a win-win situation for New Jersey. Q. The bill you drafted that has already passed the Senate hasnt moved in the Assembly. Any idea why? A. No, but hopefully it will move soon. I only did the bill so that we could get an idea of what (the potential revenue) would look like. When the administration realized how much money this could mean for our state, they got serious and drafted an excellent amicus brief. Several Democrats are co-sponsoring the bill. Q. Has the administration thought about negotiating a modification? A. We should at least sit down and negotiate, because this will not end with the pandemic ending. As technology gets better, more of our people will work remotely. I dont think it will be 100 percent, but even if its two days a week, thats 40 percent of your schedule. Thats why Sen. (Troy) Singleton and I sponsored the bill calling for a commission that will help bring broadband to everyone in the state. Q. Should the governor demand that New York refund the taxes theyve collected under the convenience rule? A. Thats a key point, because whatever state they withhold the taxes in, what you have to do is file for a refund in one state while paying your taxes in another. I made a suggestion that at least for the pandemic that we allow people to postpone their New Jersey tax payment until they get a refund from New York. At the same time, lets help someone defend their refund defend the number of days they worked here in New Jersey, as opposed to commuting to Manhattan which will set a precedent. Q. New Hampshire has sued Massachusetts under the commerce and due process clauses in the Constitution. Is everything is riding on this decision for you? A. It seems to be. But again, there are options negotiation, defending a taxpayer, federal legislation though I recognize that Sen. Schumer is the Majority Leader and hes not likely to move any bill that hurts New York. But pushing on it could help the negotiation. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook. Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether its a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share. President Joe Biden on Wednesday nominated U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Williams to the U.S. District Court. If confirmed, she would be the first Black judge to sit on the bench in the federal court in Camden. Williams, who has been a magistrate judge since 2009, also is an adjunct professor at Rowan University. She previously spent 17 years as a lawyer in private practice. She holds a law degree from Temple University and an undergraduate degree from Penn State. Judge Williams is a highly qualified jurist who would not only bring fairness and impartiality to the federal bench, but also reflects New Jerseys rich diversity, said U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who will consider her nomination as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Williams was one of six judicial nominations announced Wednesday, bringing to 20 the number of Biden picks for the federal court. Once again, President Biden has selected a stellar nominee who reflects the values and diversity of New Jersey, Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez said. It is the second time Biden sought to break barriers with his federal court picks for New Jersey. In March, he chose Zahid Quraishi for the U.S. District Court. He would be the first Muslim American to serve as a federal district judge. Like Williams, Quraishi, a Rutgers Law School graduate, currently serves as a U.S. magistrate judge. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant. Start your day with the latest from Trenton, D.C. and your town. Get the N.J. Politics newsletter now. A House Republican has asked the Ethics Committee to investigate Rep. Mikie Sherrill and other Democrats who said that GOP lawmakers gave reconnaissance tours before the Jan. 6 insurrection by supporters of Donald Trump. The complaint was announced Wednesday by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out millions of votes for Joe Biden and then voted to reject certified votes in two states. The complaint came on the same day that House Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from her post as GOP conference chair after she voted to impeach Trump for inciting the insurrection and continued to accuse the former president for claiming he won the election. Loudermilk said that Sherrill, D-11th Dist., and 33 other House Democrats had no evidence for suggesting that GOP lawmakers had brought people into the Capitol a day before the riot to stop certification of the presidential election. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer from New Jersey. My Republican colleagues and I will not sit by while Democrats accuse their colleagues of treason for political gain, Loudermilk said. This type of conduct must not be tolerated; and, the Committee on Ethics needs to take quick and decisive action to ensure this never happens again. Sherrill said on Jan. 13 on Facebook Live that she saw members of Congress leading reconnaissance tours of the Capitol a day before the insurrection. She said it was odd to see the different groups because the Capitol was largely closed to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic. This ethics complaint is without merit and is a cynical attempt to distract from the real issue at hand: the need for a 9/11-style commission that would examine what led to the attacks on our Capitol on Jan. 6 and ensure that it never occurs again, Sherrill said Wednesday. Unfortunately, despite bipartisan support for that commission, some of my colleagues continue to show an unwillingness to honestly confront what happened and continue to attempt to rewrite the history of that day. Also signing the ethics complaint were two Republicans who did not vote to overturn the certified election results nor ask the Supreme Court to do so, Reps. Rodney Davis of Illinois and Brian Steil of Wisconsin. Davis is the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, and Loudermilk and Steil sit on the panel. A member of Congress accusing another member of committing a crime, without evidence, is morally reprehensible and a stain on this institution, Loudermilk said. No Republican member of Congress led any kind of reconnaissance tours through the Capitol, proven by security footage captured by the U.S. Capitol Police. The ethics complaint also names the other Democratic lawmakers who signed Sherrills letter to the Capitol Police requesting an investigation. Capitol Police has said it was looking at Sherrills allegations. Six of the other House Democrats who signed the letter are from New Jersey: Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist., Frank Pallone Jr., D-6th Dist., Tom Malinowski, D-7th Dist., Albio Sires, D-8th Dist., Bill Pascrell Jr., D-9th Dist., and Donald Payne Jr., D-10th Dist. A Republican who voted to throw out the election and name Trump dictator lecturing me or anyone else about ethics is the same as Jack the Ripper giving chivalry lessons, Pascrell said. Jan. 6 is one of the ugliest days in American history and we must have a full accounting of the insurrection despite the obstruction and lies of the other side. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant. Start your day with the latest from Trenton, D.C. and your town. Get the N.J. Politics newsletter now. A month before the states primary election, Gov. Phil Murphy has raised and spent more than any other candidate running for New Jersey governor this year even though he doesnt have a challenger for the Democratic nomination. Murphy has raised $7.8 million and spent $6.9 million so far as he vies for a second term, according to figures released Wednesday by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission. Those totals make up more than half of the roughly $15 million raised and $12 million spent among all gubernatorial candidates from both major parties. Murphy has $951,000 on hand. Former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli has raised $5.7 million and spent $4.4 million by far the most of any of the four contenders for the Republican nomination in the June 8 primary. Ciattatrelli, considered the frontrunner for the GOP nod, has $1.3 million on hand, the most of any candidate. The other three Republican contenders have raised less. Businessman Hirsh Singh has raised $527,300, spent $457,497, and has $69,800 on hand. Pastor Phil Rizzo has raised $563,200, spent $244,000, and has $319,200 left. Brian Levine, the former mayor of Franklin and a former Somerset County freeholder, has told ELEC that he does not intend to spend more than $5,800 on the primary. Fundraising so far in the 2017 race for New Jersey governor. Former state Republican Party Chairman Doug Steinhardt, who has already dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination, raised about $248,300, spent about $221,800, and has about $26,500 on hand. Fundraising is down significantly since New Jerseys last gubernatorial election, when 11 candidates raised about $28 million by this point in the race to succeed outgoing Gov. Chris Christie. More candidates usually run during years without incumbents seeking re-election, ELEC Executive Director Jeff Brindle said. The large amount of money spent on the primary by candidates themselves also made 2017 more expensive. Murphy, a multimillionaire former Wall Street executive, spent $16.3 million of his own fortune in the 2017 Democratic primary. Seven other candidates that year received a combined $1.5 million from either their own wallets or contributions from family members. This year, candidates and their family members have so far have given about $561,00. Murphy and his family has donated $24,500 to his campaign. The governor is taking part in New Jerseys matching funds program, in which the state gives public money to candidates who raise a certain amount. Ciattarelli, who is also accepting public funds, has given $25,000 to his own campaign, while his family has given $28,000. Singh has loaned $418,000 to his campaign, while his parents each made $4,900 maximum contributions. Ciattarelli and Singh are the only Republicans to qualify for the two GOP primary debates, to be held May 25 and 26. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. The U.S. Department of Transportation will allow overweight tanker trucks on interstate highways in New Jersey and elsewhere to transport gasoline and other fuels affected by the temporary shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. The heavier trucks will be allowed only during the current emergency, which could last up to 120 days. The waiver affects nine other states besides New Jersey. This follows the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations announcement that it would temporarily waive the limits on how long truckers can work when transporting gasoline and other refined petroleum products to New Jersey, Pennsylvania and 15 other states. Colonial Pipelines 5,500 mile-system has been shut down due to a cyberattack since Friday, leading to a spike in gas prices and shortages in some states. The pipeline system carries more than 100 million gallons of fuel a day between Texas and New Jersey. The company said Monday that it had a goal of substantially restoring operational service by the end of the week. The AAA reported Monday that the average price of a gallon of gasoline reached $2.96, up six cents from a week earlier, and that the cost could continue to rise as long as the pipeline remained shut down. New Jersey shouldnt experience shortages as along as people do not engage in panic buying, according to Oil Price Information Service global petroleum analyst Tom Kloza. NJ Advance Media reporter Jeff Goldman contributed to this report. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant. Start your day with the latest from Trenton, D.C. and your town. Get the N.J. Politics newsletter now. Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley was also asked to allow evidence of the defendants own past, including racist messages obtained by prosecutors. The state said in a previous hearing that Travis McMichael used racist slurs at least twice in online communications with a friend. An agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Bryan told him after last years incident that he heard the shooter use the N-word while standing next to Arberys body. New Jerseys only two Republican U.S. representatives, Jeff Van Drew and Chris Smith, were on opposite sides in January when Congress voted to certify the electoral votes making Joe Biden the 46th president of the United States. But both lawmakers joined a majority of House Republicans Wednesday and ousted Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming from her post as conference chair, the No. 3 leadership position. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, said she was losing her position for continuing to oppose Donald Trumps claims of voter fraud and a stolen election, allegations rejected by numerous judges including the U.S. Supreme Court. Congress voted to certify the electoral votes after supporters of the former president stormed the Capitol Jan. 6 in an unsuccessful effort to stop the count. We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the Constitution, Cheney told reporters after the voice vote ousting her. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. We have seen his lack of commitment and dedication to the Constitution. Van Drew and Smith told NJ Advance Media Wednesday that Cheneys views on Trump didnt figure into their positions. Rather, they said Cheney had lost her effectiveness as conference chair, a position that requires the occupant to tout GOP views and make the case for why they should be entrusted with the House majority. I dont think she was providing the leadership that would create unity within our caucus, said Van Drew, R-2nd Dist. Its very important as we go into the next election, its very important as we deal with policy issues, that we are unified and we are strong, and I dont think that brand and style of leadership that she used was creating that but rather was splitting people apart. Smith, who said he employed Cheney a babysitter for his daughter four decades ago, said the conference chair is the voice of the party. The conference chair for Democrats or Republicans is a unique position, said Smith, R-4th Dist. You are the spokeswoman or the spokesman for the party. We have so many things that are current day and the that we need to be focusing on. And I mean robustly. Smith listed issues such as how well the Department of Veterans Affairs is serving its clients, and how to get employees back to work. We have extremely important issues and the person who is spokeswoman or spokesman for the party should be focused on those issues because thats where the big fight is, he said. Making the decision easier for him, Smith said, is that the person most often named as Cheneys successor, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, is more moderate like he is. Stefanik, Smith and Van Drew were among the seven House Republicans with the lowest 2020 ratings from the American Conservative Union. That makes it easier because she does vote on so many issues exactly like I do, he said. Van Drew said that many Republicans, including himself, were ready to oust Cheney after she voted to impeach Trump, but House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy of California initially convinced them otherwise. And whether Cheney likes or not, Trump remains a powerful force in the Republican Party, Van Drew said. This conservative populism is something that we havent seen in our recent history, said Van Drew, who was feted by Trump after switching parties at a January 2020 rally in Wildwood. Hes captured many people Im out there, I talk to a lot of people who really truly thought they were forgotten about, that others in leadership of any kind in this country thought they werent important or meaningful. Those people really felt that he heard them. Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com. Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him at @JDSalant. Start your day with the latest from Trenton, D.C. and your town. Get the N.J. Politics newsletter now. New Jersey homeowners will be able to save on their property tax bills as a reward for shopping local under a bill signed by Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday. The new law will allow New Jersey municipalities to create incentive program that encourages property owners to patronize their local businesses with discounted property taxes. It also formally authorizes existing property tax reward programs. The average property tax bill in New Jersey hit a whopping $9,112 last year. Such programs already exist in places like Marlboro, which bills its program as the first in the country, Voorhees, Haddonfield, and in Union Township, where homeowners are reminded that the more they shop, the more they save. The bill signs-off on rewards programs already in place. Under these programs, municipalities offer a reward card that shoppers use when making purchases at local participating shops, with a percentage of the sale going to lower the shoppers property tax bill. Out-of-town shoppers could receive their reward as a rebate check, according to the bill. Businesses determine the size of the rewards. A website for Marlboros program indicates businesses have opted to offer rewards of 1% to 12%, with many offering an 8% credit. The businesses are responsible for paying the municipality the value of the property tax credits earned by shoppers. The state Senate passed the bill (A4806) 37-0 on in March, followed by a 72-0 vote in the Assembly. Municipalities across New Jersey have found a way to do the impossible; encourage residents to support local businesses, while at the same time lowering their property taxes. Businesses do more business. Shoppers know every dollar they spend at participating local stores and restaurants will lower their property tax bill, Assemblyman Nicholas Chiaravalloti, D-Hudson, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement after the measure passed. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a subscription. Samantha Marcus may be reached at smarcus@njadvancemedia.com. Two Pennsylvania men who robbed a Salem County bank at gunpoint in 2018 were sentenced Tuesday, federal prosecutors said. Antwaine Thomas, 41, of Philadelphia, was sentenced in Camden federal court to 22 years and eights months in prison and Kareem Moore, 31, of North Wales, was sentenced to 14 years in prison, according to a statement from the US Attorneys Office. Both previously pleaded guilty to armed bank robbery and brandishing a firearm during a bank robbery. Moore and Thomas walked into the Fulton Bank in Carneys Point on July 30, 2018 and pointed a loaded handgun at four employees while demanding cash, the office said. Thomas then handed the gun to Moore, who also began demanding that employees turn over money while pointing the weapon at them. The pair took cash from the bank and fled, authorities said. Officers arrived at the bank within minutes of the robbery, and after a brief chase across the street, they tackled and arrested Moore, who had a portion of the money he stole hidden inside of his pants, officials said. Thomas was arrested several hours later, and he was captured on surveillance video in a nearby residential area, disposing of the cash, gun, and his clothing, federal prosecutors said. Their alleged getaway driver, Kenneth S. Thompson, 40, of Philadelphia, suffered a minor gunshot wound to his wrist shortly after the robbery when police say he tried to run down a detective at a nearby carwash, authorities said. When officers ordered Thompson out of his car, he put the Dodge in reverse and backed up toward the detective at a high rate of speed, authorities said. The cop fired and struck Thompson, officials have said. The car missed the detective, but hit a light pole and commercial-grade car wash vacuum cleaner before driving off, officials said. After a brief pursuit, Thompson surrendered. The status of Thompsons case was unclear Tuesday evening. In addition to their prison terms, a federal judge sentenced both Thomas and Moore to five years of supervised release, and ordered them to each to pay $103,444 in restitution. Thank you for relying on us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription. Chris Sheldon may be reached at csheldon@njadvancemedia.com. TAMPA Mars Attacks. In a brief glimpse, top Yankees prospect Jasson Dominguez nicknamed The Martian for his otherworldly tools looked the part of a phenom during an extended spring training game at the clubs player development complex Wednesday morning. Introducing Yankees Insider: Get exclusive news, behind-the-scenes observations and the ability to text message directly with beat writers Dominguez doubled to right field and scored in his first at-bat. Then the 18-year-old ripped a single and stole second base. The switch-hitter took both at-bats from the left side and showed some serious bat speed. The Dominican Republic native also worked out in center field, making throws to second base. Now, a lined single from Jasson Dominguez. Would have been two but diving RF trapped it. Nice play. #Yankees pic.twitter.com/esdoZiSROH Brendan Kuty (@BrendanKutyNJ) May 12, 2021 The Yankees assigned Dominguez to the extended spring training to start the 2021 season. Player development director Kevin Reese didnt rule out Dominguez playing for a full-season team this year. Were in a different world, Reese told reporter May 3 in a Zoom call. We didnt play last year. Jassons an 18-year-old that were all excited about. Hes got a lot of talent and a lot of skill. He hasnt played in a ton of games, so we just kind of wanted to put him in the best place to succeed. Normally extended spring training is a little bit of a cluster. Theres a ton of people and a lot of craziness. This year were going have a lot less people, and so that will provide an environment for more individual assisting and well be able to iron out anything that he needs to work through. And then once he gets rolling, Im sure hes going to be a steamroller through the minor leagues. The Yankees gave Dominguez a $5.1 million singing bonus out of the Dominican Republic at age 16. Heres a portion of MLB Pipelines scouting report on Dominguez: Dominguez not only has the potential for well above-average tools across the board, but he also has the advanced instincts and skills to get the most of them. A switch-hitter, he exhibits a smooth stroke, tremendous bat speed and strength from both sides of the plate. With precocious feel for the barrel and a mature, disciplined approach, he should hit for power and average. Dominguezs well above-average speed also allows him to make an impact on the bases and in the outfield. He has 30-30 potential, covers plenty of ground in center field and also features at least a plus arm. His quickness and arm strength would allow him to play almost any position and some teams even worked him out as a catcher, though putting him behind the plate would take a toll on his offensive output. Get Yankees text messages: Cut through the clutter of social media and text during games with beat writers and columnists. Plus, exclusive news and analysis every day. Sign up now. Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust. Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here. The board also agreed to pay for Runcies criminal defense lawyers in the perjury case, but that amount was not included in the severance and remains to be negotiated. I did vote for him, and I would again I did NOT vote for him, but I would now I did vote for him, but I would NOT now I did NOT vote for him, and I would NOT now Vote View Results Next year. The momentum is there! Maybe in 3-4 years. There's always some problem. Not until it's already legal in Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi Somehow, the legislature will criminalize weed for eternity Vote View Results It is unconscionable that in 2021, Montana would still put people convicted of having gay sex on the sex offender registry, Strugar said, according to the Missoulian. This kind of overt, state-sanctioned homophobia would have been surprising 30 years ago. Today it is shocking. And it is unconstitutional. The Louisiana Department of Health on Thursday morning alerted COVID vaccine providers that they can begin administering the Pfizer vaccine to people ages 12 and up, effective immediately. The expansion to adolescents followed authorization by the Food and Drug Administration on Monday and a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday. We have the utmost confidence in the FDA and CDCs rigorous safety and efficacy review and, after looking at the data ourselves, are excited to now expand eligibility for more young people in Louisiana, said Dr. Joseph Kanter, Louisiana's state health officer. Today is a good day, and it means more families have the ability to protect their children and their families and enjoy summer with confidence. There are no special requirements for providers giving out the shot to younger patients; anywhere that has the Pfizer vaccine can give it to adolescents. Here's what parents and kids should know: 1. Parental consent is required. The Department of Health does not require parents be present for the adolescent to receive the vaccine, but they do have to provide consent. The Department of Health has created a form for parents to fill out for their children if they cannot be onsite. Some vaccine providers may still require the child to be accompanied by a parent. 2. Side effects are similar to those seen in adults. Clinical research showed that kids in this age group reported pain at the injection site (91%), were tired over the next day (78%) or had a headache (76%). A little less than half experienced chills or muscle pain. 3. Pfizer is the only vaccine available to people under 18. Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are not yet authorized for people under 18. Both are testing the vaccines in younger patients. Vaccine news in your inbox Once a week we'll update you on the progress of COVID-19 vaccinations. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up 4. The vaccine was highly effective in this age group in clinical trials. In clinical trial results, the vaccine was slightly more effective in the 12 to 15 age group than it was in adults, preventing 100% of symptomatic illness. There were no serious adverse events in the trial associated with the vaccine. Over 60 million people over the age of 16 have been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine in the U.S. When can kids, teens in Louisiana get the COVID vaccine? Officials plan to move quickly The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is close to getting a final sign off authorizing its use for people 12 and older, and Louisiana health official 5. For children younger than 12, a vaccine is a few months away. Pfizer expects to request authorization for children ages two and up in September and has plans to test it in children as young as six months. Ochsner Health is participating in trials for kids ages six months to 11 years in the coming weeks. Parents can email covidvaccine@ochsner.org for more information. Heres how to find the Pfizer shot in Louisiana: Large health providers will schedule appointments online the same way they did for adults. Some smaller providers have the Pfizer vaccine, but not all. The Louisiana Department of Health expects that to increase over the next few weeks, allowing more children to get the vaccine from their pediatrician. +5 Louisiana COVID numbers: 1 out of 3 people has received at least one vaccine dose In Louisiana, 45,897 more doses of COVID vaccines have been administered, according to a noon update from the Louisiana Department of Health. This story has been updated. New Orleans police have named a second suspect in a shooting that left five people wounded on Bourbon Street last month. Dorrell Boykins, 24, is wanted on five counts of aggravated battery, police said Wednesday. A little more than a week ago, Boykins brother -- 26-year-old brother Darran Boykins -- was named as a suspect in the same shooting. He is also wanted in connection with a double shooting later that same day in Central City and a kidnapping in Algiers in March. Both men remained on the lam Wednesday. Police didnt elaborate on how they came to tie the brothers to the bloodshed on Bourbon. +2 Suspect identified in Bourbon Street shooting that wounded 5 people, NOPD says New Orleans police have released the name and picture of a suspect in an April 24 shooting on Bourbon Street that injured five people as well The quintuple shooting happened around 1 a.m. April 24 in the 300 block of Bourbon, between Bienville and Conti streets. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Police said an argument between two men led to the shootout, which injured a woman and four men, ages 60, 29, 23 and 20. None of the injuries were thought to be life-threatening. Six hours later, Darran Boykins is suspected to have had a hand in a shooting that injured a 58-year-old man and a 42-year-old woman who were stopped at a red light at the corner of Jackson and Simon Bolivar avenues. Investigators also believe that around 1:45 a.m. on March 25, Darran Boykins pistol-whipped a man while he slept inside a home in the 1500 block of Numa Street. That day, Boykins also hit a woman with his hands and forced her to drive away from the scene with him at gunpoint, police allege. Twelve people have been shot on Bourbon Street during the past seven weeks. As a result, Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson has pledged to use overtime pay and altered work schedules to assign more officers to the popular tourist drag. Anyone with information on either of the siblings whereabouts should call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward. The Louisiana House on Tuesday unanimously passed a bill that would give victims of child molestation who are not yet 28 years old significantly more to time to pursue civil court damages. House Bill 492, whose lead sponsor was Rep. Jason Hughes, D-New Orleans, now heads to the state Senate for a committee hearing and then if approved there for consideration by the full chamber. If eventually ratified in its current form, the bill would give child sex abuse survivors until their 53rd birthday to file lawsuits regarding their abuse. Current law gives victims only until their 28th birthday to initiate litigation. The proposed legislation, as written, would not change things in the civil courts for victims of child molestation who have already reached their 28th birthday, though they have until they turn 48 to press criminal charges. Gretna councilman says he's victim of notorious clergy abuser at dramatic legislative hearing A Gretna City Council member revealed that he was sexually preyed on in grade school by one of the Archdiocese of New Orleans most notorious That's because, to avoid opposition from the insurance lobby, Hughes said he dropped language that would have made the proposed law retroactive while also opening a two-year window where all unresolved child molestation claims no matter how old could be pursued in civil court. Other states have adopted such lookback windows. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Nonetheless, the 102-0 vote in the House represents a victory for the coalition who championed it, largely comprised of people who were sexually abused by Catholic clergymen. "This bill may may not help many victims and survivors in its current form, but it elevates the conversation and may create opportunities to go further in the future, and Im committed to doing just that," Hughes said Tuesday. At a crucial meeting of the House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure on May 3, Hughes bill received vocal support from clerical molestation survivors and advocates, including James Adams, Kevin Bourgeois, Jillian Edwards Coburn, Letitia Peyton, Mark Vath and Richard Windmann. During that hearing, Gretna City Council member Jackie Berthelot also revealed that he was sexually preyed upon in grade school by the Rev. Lawrence Hecker, allegedly one of the most prolific child sex abusers in the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Without a lookback window, the bill benefits none of them. But they all argued it was important to pass the legislation because research shows the average of disclosure for a child sex abuse victim is 52 years old. Though he didnt speak at the hearing, Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops director Tom Costanza submitted the lone card expressing opposition to Hughes bill. This is the time of year when Louisiana lawmakers are called upon to make a lot of hard choices, and also some easy ones. Included in the latter category are the no-brainers that have no identifiable downside, but somehow run into trouble anyway. Put House Bill 282 by state Rep. Aimee Adatto Freeman, which failed to make it out of the House Commerce Committee this week on a party-line vote, at the top of this list. Freemans bill had two big things going for it. First, and one would hope most important, it proposed that state government take a stand for human decency. HB282 would have prohibited landlords and people selling homes from rejecting tenants or purchasers because they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, or queer. So a yes vote would have been a stand against discrimination and in favor of giving everyone an equal right to housing. If that wasnt enough for committee members and for most it wasnt then youd think theyd at least be swayed by a more practical argument. Freeman, D-New Orleans, told the committee that our housing laws are now out of line with federal protections" and "are essentially deceiving our residents about their fair housing rights and obligations. Her bill mimicked existing federal law, which means that the protections it promised already exist; adopting the same language at the state level would have reinforced and clarified federal law, and hopefully eliminated any misunderstandings. It also would have potentially averted litigation which a landlord or seller practicing discrimination would lose, noted state Rep. Edmond Jordan, D-Brusly, one of four Democrats on the panel to back the bill. Who would have a problem with that? Not the people the bills opponents seem to want to protect. The usual suspects who represent them apartment complex managers, Realtors, and home developers didnt take a position in committee. The most vocal opposition came from the Louisiana Family Forum and lawmakers like state Rep. Danny McCormick, R-Oil City, one of seven Republicans on the panel who voted to kill the bill. I look at it from a personal choice standpoint, said McCormick. Personally I dont wear a mask, and I get discriminated against. ... Im not trying to run a bill to say you have to let me come in your store. Actually, if McCormick gets discriminated against, its not for who he is and what he might do in the privacy of his own home, but for his personal choice to put others in harms way. Louisiana lawmakers have a bit of a pattern of refusing to put state law in line with its federal counterpart. Sometimes the disparity is just an embarrassment, such as the Louisiana law that allows equal treatment in the public schools for evolution and creationism, which flies in the face of a 1981 Supreme Court ruling. But sometimes the gap can lead to real harm. That happened some years back when, as The Advocate reported, East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff Sid Gautreauxs department was conducting stings targeting gay men under the state crimes against nature prohibition, leading to charges that prosecutors routinely rejected because the high court had already decriminalized gay sex. Gautreaux said at the time that he didnt know. And because he didnt, the people his office arrested suffered before the policy was corrected. Thats the danger of mixed messages coming from the Legislature, particularly when they affect people who are more likely than most to face discrimination. What a strong signal it would have sent had lawmakers weighed in on their side and reinforced their rights so that everyone understands them. And what a sad message those seven Republicans on the committee sent by refusing to do so. In November, LaTulippe gained national notoriety after he proclaimed to a crowd to then-President Donald Trump supporters that COVID-19 is no more. In that same speech, LaTulippe said that he along with his entire staff would not wear masks when someone visited his clinic, even if they were displaying symptoms of coronavirus. The return of chronometer controls and manufacturing to Germany.The road up to the Wempe watch production facility on the site of the Glashutte astronomical observatory is steep, but well-marked. That was far from the case back in 2004, as Kim-Eva Wempe remembers all too well. A member of the fourth generation of Wempes, Kim heads up the well-known jewellery company with headquarters in Hamburg and branches in New York, Paris, Madrid, Vienna, and London. She laughs at the recollection. We had an appointment at Glashutte and I wanted to see the observatory. I was aware of its existence because of our firms history; together with Otto Lange, Ferdinand Adolph Langes grandson, my grandfather had planned to set up a joint research institute there. Inevitably, the combined effects of World War I and socialism put paid to that. And even in 2004, it turned out to be difficult to reach the observatory especially for someone wearing ankle boots. Kim-Eva Wempe Wempe With the help of a local watchmaking entrepreneur with a four-wheel drive, Kim did eventually manage to reach the Ochsenkopf. It was there, in the Erzgebirge mountains, close to the Czech border, that Ferdinand Adolph Lange had given birth to German precision watchmaking in 1845. As Kim cast her gaze over the valley steeped in tradition, she lost no time in reaching her decision: the observatory should be rebuilt and watch production should resume. The Wempe firm already had some experience as a watch manufacturer, having bought out Hamburger Chronometerwerke in 1938. That history offered further encouragement to embark on this singular enterprise. The onboard marine chronometers made in Hamburg served as a model and a source of inspiration: in its turn, Glashutte would become a place where only wrist-chronometers with officially controlled precision would be crafted. The first step was in the basement, where a centre responsible for bi-monthly controls, supervised by the State and open to all watchmaking firms, was set up in early 2006. After that, production and controls could begin, later followed by watchmaker training. And so it is that Wempe Chronometerwerke models use only calibres designed and produced for Wempe which all goes to show how short detours can lead to historic decisions. *Written by Thomas Wanka *On the occasion of GMT Magazine and WorldTempus' 20th anniversary, we have embarked on the ambitious project of summarising the last 20 years in watchmaking in The Millennium Watch Book, a big, beautifully laid out coffee table book. This article is an extract. The Millennium Watch Book is available on www.the-watch-book.com, in French and English, with a 10% discount if you use the following code: WT2021. Order now On Tuesday morning, Nicholas was taken into police custody at the Tom Green County Jail and charged with two counts of Capital Murder of a Peace Officer. He is currently being held on $4 million bon according to KXAN. The tipster told the Butler County Sheriffs Office in Alabama on Sunday that Malisham killed Cynthia Hoover, 60, with a hatchet and then buried her in his yard. The tipster, a woman, told police Malisham had asked for her help burying the body and threatened her if she spoke to anyone about it. She said Malisham asked her for a ride after he discarded her car, too, but she refused. Samah Haboub, a mother of four in Gaza, said she was thrown across her bedroom in a moment of horror by an airstrike on an apartment tower next door. She and her children, aged 3 to 14, ran down the stairway of their apartment block along with other residents, many of them screaming and crying. So if the numbers keep going the way theyre going we are going to be able to do that. So we would actually be able to have a normal summer finally in beaches and pools, he added. What is he talking about? Does he think the horse tested positive for Antifa? JIMMY KIMMEL And honestly, if hes going to start picking fights with horses, we should let him back on Twitter, because I want to see that. JIMMY KIMMEL I just cant stop laughing at the image of him at his desk writing about his thoughts about a horse by hand. JIMMY FALLON This was an official statement from the former president calling a horse a junkie, as if it bought the drugs itself in some back alley, like it only got caught cause the horses parents found it in a shoe box under its bed its stable? SETH MEYERS Deadly Israel-Gaza violence The worst fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in seven years intensified last night, resulting in the deaths of at least 30 Palestinians, including 10 children, and three Israelis. Hundreds more civilians were wounded, according to local officials on both sides. Israeli airstrikes began targeting Hamas offices in apartment buildings in Gaza City, while militants in Gaza fired back at Tel Aviv, Israels economic center. In Israels Arab neighborhoods, Palestinian citizens of Israel expressed fury at the killings and longstanding complaints of discrimination inside Israel itself. See footage from the scene in Gaza. The Palestinian militants and Israeli military are unevenly matched the former armed with crude rockets, the latter with fighter jets and a sophisticated antimissile defense system, the Iron Dome. Israeli airstrikes aim for strategic targets in densely populated Gaza, killing civilians even as Israel insists it takes measures to avoid them, while Hamass rockets aim for civilian population centers but often miss the mark. Analysis: Leaders on both sides have seized upon the conflict to further their own interests. It is the story of every previous war between Israel and Hamas, said Ghassan Khatib, a politics expert in the occupied West Bank. Both governments come out of it victorious, and the public of Gaza comes out of it as losers. What do you notice about this graph? What do you wonder? In C.E.O. Pay Remains Stratospheric, Even at Companies Battered by Pandemic, David Gelles writes that some of the same companies that laid off thousands of workers during the pandemic still paid their C.E.O.s handsomely: Boeing had a historically bad 2020. Its 737 Max was grounded for most of the year after two deadly crashes, the pandemic decimated its business, and the company announced plans to lay off 30,000 workers and reported a $12 billion loss. Nonetheless, its chief executive, David Calhoun, was rewarded with some $21.1 million in compensation. Norwegian Cruise Line barely survived the year. With the cruise industry at a standstill, the company lost $4 billion and furloughed 20 percent of its staff. That didnt stop Norwegian from more than doubling the pay of Frank Del Rio, its chief executive, to $36.4 million. And at Hilton, where nearly a quarter of the corporate staff were laid off as hotels around the world sat empty and the company lost $720 million, it was a good year for the man in charge. Hilton reported in a securities filing that Chris Nassetta, its chief executive, received compensation worth $55.9 million in 2020. The coronavirus plunged the world into an economic crisis, sent the U.S. unemployment rate skyrocketing and left millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet. Yet at many of the companies hit hardest by the pandemic, the executives in charge were showered with riches. The divergent fortunes of C.E.O.s and everyday workers illustrate the sharp divides in a nation on the precipice of an economic boom but still racked by steep income inequality. The stock markets are up and the wealthy are spending freely, but millions are still facing significant hardship. Executives are minting fortunes while laid-off workers line up at food banks. Bill McCreary, an Emmy Award-winning reporter who was one of the first Black television journalists in New York, and whose perspective helped fill a noticeable gap in local public affairs reporting, died on April 4 in Brooklyn. He was 87. The cause was a neurological disease he had for many years, said OKellon McCreary, his wife of 62 years and only immediate survivor. His death, which had not been made public earlier by his family, was announced this week by WNYW, the flagship station of the Fox television network. He was hired in 1967 when the station, Channel 5, was owned by Metromedia and known as WNEW, and he remained a familiar on-air presence until he retired in 2000. As a co-anchor, Mr. McCreary helped build the stations 10 OClock News into a ratings powerhouse. He became the managing editor and anchor of the weekly program Black News in 1970 and of The McCreary Report in 1987, when he was also named a vice president of Fox 5 News. I want to ask you straight away: Do you think the audit should be happening? The audits that we conducted I think that those were sufficient. I appreciate that theres a certain segment of the population who continues to have concerns about our electoral process and the integrity of the election. I dont believe that this process, the way that its played out, is really going to address those concerns. And also this has turned into a recount, and Arizona law has specific instances for how and when a recount is to occur. And also its a recount thats been outsourced to known partisans. So I think for all those reasons, I dont think this is a helpful exercise. Having said that, although weve been accused of it over and over again, the board of supervisors is not acting to obstruct this exercise. From time to time we have gone to the courts, for example, and weve been concerned that people are being asked by the state or actually by the president of the Senate and the Senate judiciary chair to take actions that we thought might have been in violation of state law. What kind of consequences do you think the audit will have? Well, first of all, I think that its being conducted by a partisan entity. So that means that a majority of the people probably wont even acknowledge the findings of it. My fear is that all of this is further tearing at the foundations of our democracy and tearing at peoples faith in our electoral systems. If there were fraud going on, if there was systematic corruption going on, I would be the first to speak out against it. But we have looked at this again and again and again with numerous audits here. These issues have been litigated and relitigated in the courts, both state and federal courts. And there was no basis. And now were seeing these conspiracy theories that are being pursued. If people lose faith in the electoral system, then I mean, where we go from there is very scary, right? Either people just disengage, they stop voting, or they cannot redress the government any further. They pursue what armed rebellion? These are things that I cant believe are even coming out of my mouth. This is such unchartered territory. But Mr. Indyk said that Mr. Biden must now become more active, and he urged the swift appointment to the empty post of American ambassador to Jerusalem. Mr. Indyk also noted that the president had not yet spoken with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. He also said the administration should reopen a consulate in East Jerusalem, which had been the United States main point of contact with Palestinians before it was closed under Mr. Trump. They need to establish a dialogue with the Palestinians, Mr. Indyk said. The White House disclosed on Tuesday that Mr. Biden and Mr. Abbas had exchanged letters after the 2020 election. U.S. officials have also had private, lower-level contacts with Palestinian officials, including Mr. Abbass senior adviser, Hussein al-Sheikh. Other Democrats urged Mr. Biden to exert more pressure on Israels government over settlement activity and territorial claims that they say are making the prospects for an agreement with the Palestinians virtually impossible. If you stand back and the process of creeping annexation is allowed to continue unchecked, it is going to result in this kind of moment, said Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of the liberal pro-Israel advocacy group J Street. You can wish this off your priority list, but this is a conflict with very deep-seated problems, and they need attention. And if you leave it untended, its going to catch fire, and people are going to get hurt again, Mr. Ben-Ami said. We are inches away from this blowing out of control. The Democratic Party has moved to the left on Israel in recent years, partly because of Mr. Netanyahus strong alliance with Mr. Trump and other Republican leaders, and also because many of its younger activists and members of Congress are more openly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause than those of Mr. Bidens generation. After the State Department said last week that it was deeply concerned about the potential eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem, some Democrats rebuked the Biden administration for failure to act more assertively to stop the Israelis. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote on Twitter that this is not a moment for tepid statements. The Senate on Tuesday took up the For the People Act, a sweeping bill to overhaul the countrys election system, the first step in what will probably be a long and winding legislative process. Democrats are faced with not only the all-out resistance of Republicans, but also the hesitation of their own 50th vote, Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, the lone Democrat in the chamber who hasnt signed on as a sponsor of the bill. The elections package, which was the subject of a combative back-and-forth in the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday, is more than a voting rights bill. You can think of it as a legislative Leviathan, designed by Democrats to attack what they see as a wide range of flaws in the countrys electoral politics in a single swoop. But their inability to unify their own caucus around the bill let alone to map out a path to the finish line in the face of unified Republican opposition appears to be setting up a showdown within the party, posing a crucial test of Mr. Manchins so-far granite commitment to keeping the filibuster in place. For President Biden and his party, the bill risks becoming one of the greatest disappointments of their time in power. It could be a forever what-if as Democrats strain to prevent Republicans from deepening their structural advantages up and down the countrys political system, in part by limiting who has access to the ballot. In the battle to stamp out extremism from the ranks of the police, state lawmakers have found themselves confronting a thicket of obstacles and somewhat unexpected opposition, ranging from partisan clashes to profound questions about protecting constitutional rights. In California, a police officer in Fresno was fired after videos surfaced that showed him supporting the Proud Boys at a protest. Yet when lawmakers in the state recently proposed legislation to give police departments more power to weed out officers with extremist ties, they met resistance. Police officers, like everybody else, enjoy First Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly, so the challenge for lawmakers is figuring out how to preserve those rights while barring extremists from infiltrating the ranks. Mr. Youngkin, 54, was raised in Virginia Beach and has lived in Northern Virginia for 25 years. He defeated two rivals who appealed more directly to the Trump-centric base: Pete Snyder, a technology entrepreneur, and State Senator Amanda Chase, a hard-right supporter of the former president who was censured in a bipartisan vote of the states General Assembly for referring to the rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as patriots. Mr. Youngkins appeal to Republicans was at least twofold: He is a political blank slate, with no record in elected office for Democrats to attack. And his private wealth reportedly more than $200 million after he retired as co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group will allow him to compete financially against Mr. McAuliffe, a prolific fund-raiser. Mr. McAuliffe raised $36 million for his 2013 election campaign and more than $9.9 million during the past two years, according to the Virginia Public Access Project. Mr. Youngkin has already spent $5.5 million of his own money since entering the race in late January. Republicans have not won a statewide election since 2009, and Democratic dominance of the once-purple state accelerated under Mr. Trump, with Democrats taking control of both houses of the General Assembly in 2020 for the first time in a generation. They used their dominance of state government to pass sweeping progressive priorities like more restrictive gun laws and a ban on capital punishment. But the trend is not irreversible, as some election analysts see it. In the pre-Trump era, Mr. McAuliffe won his first governors race in 2013 by just 2.5 percentage points against a hard-right conservative, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II. Rural regions of southern and southwest Virginia have grown redder even as the populous northern and central suburbs are bluer. There is a theoretical path to statewide Republican victory for a candidate who rouses rural Trump voters, appeals to suburban independents and benefits from lower overall Democratic turnout without Mr. Trump as a motivator. And Mr. Youngkin has signaled that he would run against the very legislation Democrats have passed, accusing his opponents of pushing Virginia far to the left of most voters preferences. According to CQ Vote Watch, she actually voted with Trump less than 70% of the time in 2019 and 2020 the seventh-lowest score in the GOP and opposed his signature 2017 tax cuts, joined Democrats in trying to block him from pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord and disagreed with his troop draw-down in Syria. A prosecutor in Virginia has dismissed all the charges against a Black woman who was pulled over, handcuffed and arrested in March during a traffic stop, asserting that the state troopers who stopped her did so without proper legal basis. The woman, Juanisha Brooks, a senior video producer for the Defense Department, said that troopers escalated events after they pulled her over without an explanation early on March 6 as she was driving to her home in Alexandria, Va., after having dinner with her sister. Two troopers stopped Ms. Brooks, 34, around 2:21 a.m. after following her car past roughly two or three exits on the Capitol Beltway. According to a police report, her taillights were not turned on, she had twice followed too close to surrounding vehicles and she had failed to signal when changing lanes. During the stop, Ms. Brooks said in an interview on Tuesday, the trooper who approached her did not tell her why she was being pulled over even though she asked repeatedly. The Metropolitan Opera will perform again for a live audience, 430 days after the coronavirus shut down its theater. Members of the companys orchestra and chorus, joined by prominent soloists and led by its music director, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, will give two concerts at the Knockdown Center in Queens on Sunday, the Met announced on Wednesday. The concerts will go on despite continuing labor tensions at the Met, which have threatened the intended reopening of its Lincoln Center home in September. Scheduled for 6 and 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, the program, called A Concert for New York, includes selections by Mozart, Verdi and Terence Blanchard, whose Fire Shut Up in My Bones is planned to reopen the Met on Sept. 27 and will be the companys first opera by a Black composer. The soloists for the Queens performances will be Angel Blue, Stephen Costello, Justin Austin and Eric Owens; 12 Met choristers and 20 orchestra musicians will take part. Whether the Met will be able to reopen in September is not yet clear. While New York officials have announced plans to loosen pandemic restrictions around the performing arts prompting major sectors, like Broadway, to lay out their plans for a fall return the Met, which says that it has lost $150 million in earned revenues since it was forced to close, has been seeking pay cuts from its workers, like other arts organizations. Many of its unions are resisting, and the company has locked out Local One of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which represents its stagehands. While the pandemic slowed momentum she might have built from her Late Show appearance, a new HBO Max series, Hacks (premiering Thursday), may just speed it up. In her first major acting role, a juicy part that lets her demonstrate both deadpan comic and subtle dramatic skills, Einbinder, now 25, plays a troubled young humor writer named Ava who is blindsided by a scandal from a bad tweet that craters her career. She must take work coming up with jokes for an older Las Vegas stand-up played by Jean Smart, setting up a culture clash of two generations of female comics, one of whom shares similarities with Einbinder. She is a 25-year-old bisexual comedy person living in Los Angeles who has just recently had a life-altering thing happen, so on the surface, those things line up, Einbinder said of the character, adding that while she did not get canceled for a tweet, the lockdown did eliminate her work as a comic right after she quit her day job. Yet Einbinder said Ava was actually more like an earlier iteration of herself, from a time she sees as somewhat lost. One of the first things Einbinder told me over conversations spanning several weeks is that there are five or six years of her life she barely remembers. There are explanations, of course, she said elusively. Newman isnt the only one in the family with a spooky legend. Einbinder was always funny, her mother said by phone: Ill never forget at age 7 she was at a Mexican restaurant. She raised a cheese and bean burrito, looked at her butt and said, Get ready. I thought, Thats good. Mike Epps isnt sure when or why Black family sitcoms disappeared from television. When Epps, a veteran actor and comic, began his professional career in the 1990s, such shows were prime-time staples, with series like Martin, Family Matters and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air serving as cultural touchstones for at least one generation. But aside from notable exceptions like Black-ish, Everybody Hates Chris and a few others, the 21st century has been a different story. So when Netflix executives approached him in 2018 about working together on a new scripted series, Epps who had already done several stand-up specials for the streaming giant recognized an opportunity to help fill a gap in the market with some other comedy veterans. Created by Regina Y. Hicks and Wanda Sykes, The Upshaws, which premieres Wednesday, focuses on a Black working-class family in the Midwest trying to get by through tough times and increasingly complicated interpersonal dynamics. A multicamera comedy set in Indianapolis, the new series follows Bennie Upshaw (Epps), a charismatic car mechanic, and his blended family: his wife, Regina (Kim Fields); their young daughters and adult son; and the son he fathered outside of his marriage. Sykes plays his sarcastic sister-in-law, Lucretia. Bennie is a mirror and a reflection of a lot of men, Epps said in a recent phone interview. People are going to be able to relate to it, whether theyre Bennie or they know somebody thats Bennie. Victimhood is something that happens, but when you turn it into an identity youre psychically and politically finished, she has said. Rose roves widely in this book. She considers sexual harassment, Harvey Weinstein, student protests in South Africa, depictions of violence in contemporary fiction. Her centerpiece essay, on the murder trial of Oscar Pistorius, weaves in disability politics, South African gun culture, apartheid-era architecture, the shower scene in Psycho and, again, the price others must pay for our belief in our own innocence. (Expelling dirt is as self-defeating as it is murderous. Someone a race, a sex has to take the rap.) She returns frequently to violences encroachment on the inner life of the victim. Harassment is always a sexual demand, but it also carries a more sinister and pathetic injunction: You will think about me, she writes. In a close reading of Anna Burnss Booker Prize-winning novel, Milkman, Rose quotes the protagonist, who is being stalked by an older man. My inner world had gone away, the girl says. It is an incalculable loss, this theft of mental freedom. Rose cites the psychoanalyst Melanie Kleins beautiful concept of epistemophilia. The infants strongest impulse, our native impulse, is to know. For all that Rose reveals, her book might be most intriguing in its strictures and refusals. She will not, for example, list examples of atrocities feminism is not served by turning violence into a litany or add to the spectacle. She shies away from cheap pathos and struggles to avoid turning victims into figures of timeless suffering and raw pity, thereby obfuscating human agency, the historical choices and willful political decisions. What does it mean to report on violence, she asks, when it only itches the consciences, offers titillation or, worse, spurs support for the perpetrator? Donald Trump, Rose writes, was adulated in direct proportion to the wrong which he clearly could do. These questions arent purely ethical. Rose searches for the modes that allow us to think more clearly and creatively. Literature becomes critical: It is for me one of the chief means through which the experience of violence can be told in ways that defy both the discourse of politicians and the defenses of thought. Unspeakable violations force new words and forms into being: Toni Morrisons concept of rememory; what Burns in Milkman calls numbance; the broken, nursery rhyme horror-patter of Eimear McBrides novel A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing. For all her attraction to unruliness, Roses own sentences are cool, almost enameled in their polish and control. Its in the movement of her prose, the way she seizes and furiously unravels ideas from her previous books, that we see the vigor and precision of her mind, the work of thinking, of forging new pathways that she holds up as rejoinder to the muteness of violence. Fighting rages in Israel and Gaza On the second day of rocket fire and airstrikes, Israel assassinated several commanders of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and hinted at a possible ground invasion of Gaza. The militants responded with a new barrage of more than 1,000 rockets fired at cities across southern Israel. Here are the latest updates. An Israeli military official said three infantry brigades were preparing for a worst-case scenario, confirming that a ground invasion could follow the bombardment from the air. Israels latest operation targeted the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas and one of several Palestinian militant factions active in Gaza. Two days of Israeli strikes have killed at least 53 Palestinians, including 14 children, and wounded more than 300 people, according to Palestinian health officials. At least seven people were killed and 100 were injured in the rocket attacks, according to Israeli health officials. One Israeli was killed by an anti-tank missile near the Gaza perimeter. International response: A senior U.S. diplomat is headed to the Middle East to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to urge de-escalation. Tor Wennesland, the United Nations envoy for the Middle East, said that the situation was escalating towards a full-scale war. Every couple of weeks, Ive shown you a set of charts that summarizes the state of the pandemic. Today is the latest installment. Covid isnt over Despite the good news, its worth emphasizing that the crisis is not yet over. There are two big Covid problems, both involving vaccination. First, roughly one in three American adults remain skeptical of the vaccine, including many older people, who are at the highest risk of severe versions of Covid. In the most recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 13 percent of adults said they would definitely not get a shot; 6 percent said they would do so only if required by their employer, their school or another group; and 15 percent said they were waiting to see how the vaccines affected others. (Related: A new Times story focuses on the millions of Americans who say they are open to getting the vaccine but have not yet managed to do so.) Amazon on Wednesday won an appeal against European Union efforts to force the company to pay more taxes in the region, illustrating how American tech giants are turning to the courts to beat back tougher oversight. The General Court of the European Union struck down a 2017 decision by European regulators that ordered Amazon to pay $300 million to Luxembourg, home of the companys European headquarters and where regulators said the company received unfair tax treatment. The court said regulators did not sufficiently prove that Amazon had violated a law meant to prevent companies from receiving special tax benefits from European governments. The decision, which comes as European Union and American officials attempt to reach a global tax agreement that could result in higher levies against tech companies, undercuts an effort by Margrethe Vestager, an executive vice president at the European Commission, who issued the Amazon penalty and has led efforts to force big tech firms to pay more in taxes. The companies have been criticized for using complex corporate structures to take advantage of low-tax countries like Luxembourg and Ireland. In 2020, Amazon earned 44 billion euros in Europe, but reported paying no taxes in Luxembourg. Tech companies are using the courts to fight European regulators trying to rein in the industrys power. Last year, Apple won an appeal against Ms. Vestager to annul a decision to repay about $14.9 billion in taxes to Ireland, where the company has a European headquarters. That case is now before the European Unions highest court. Marie Neige, a call center operator in Seychelles, was eager to be vaccinated. Like the majority of the residents in the tiny island nation, she received Chinas Sinopharm vaccine in March, and expected to be fully protected in a few weeks. On Sunday, she tested positive for the coronavirus. I was shocked, said Ms. Neige, 30, who is isolating at home. She said she had lost her sense of smell and taste and had a slightly sore throat. The vaccine was supposed to protect us not from the virus, but the symptoms, she said. I was taking precaution after precaution. China expected its Sinopharm vaccines to be the linchpin of the countrys vaccine diplomacy program an easily transported dose that would protect not just Chinese citizens but also much of the developing world. In a bid to win good will, China has donated 13.3 million Sinopharm doses to other countries, according to Bridge Beijing, a consultancy that tracks Chinas impact on global health. Instead, the company, which has made two varieties of coronavirus vaccines, is facing mounting questions about the inoculations. First, there was the lack of transparency with its late-stage trial data. Now, Seychelles, the worlds most vaccinated nation, has had a surge in cases even though much of its population was inoculated with Sinopharm. I mourn for every Palestinian life taken before its time as I do for every Israeli, he said in a statement posted on Twitter. All people want to be able to live in peace. We all want that for ourselves and our children. WASHINGTON The Biden administration on Wednesday asked Mexico to review whether labor violations had occurred at a General Motors facility in the country, a significant step using a new labor enforcement tool in the revised North American trade deal. The Mexican government said later in the day that it would begin a review as requested. The Biden administration sought the review under the novel rapid response mechanism in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement and took effect last summer. Under the mechanism, penalties can be brought against a specific factory for violating workers rights of free association and collective bargaining. The administration received information appearing to indicate serious violations of workers rights at the G.M. facility, in Silao in the central state of Guanajuato, in connection with a recent vote on their collective bargaining agreement, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said. The vote was stopped last month amid allegations that the union at the facility had tampered with it, according to news reports. Mexicos Labor Ministry said on Tuesday that it had found serious irregularities in the vote and ordered that it be held again within 30 days. When Jennifer Hwa Dobbertin was small, she roamed her parents restaurant on Fredericksburg Road in San Antonio, Texas, cadging French fries from the diners. Her mom, Nancy Collet, was born in Taiwan and immigrated to the city on the arm of an American serviceman she later divorced. Collet cooked in the kitchen of Golden Wok, one of San Antonios oldest Chinese restaurants, before taking a job as a cocktail waitress and marrying a restaurant manager, Jim Dobbertin, Jennifers dad. In the 1980s, the couple opened an American-style diner, the Conglomeration. The menu ran to burgers, fried catfish, hush puppies. Collet offered blackened redfish for $9.50, fried okra for $1.50. It was a disaster, Dobbertin told me recently. She could have been making Chinese food. She did at home, Dobbertin said: Taiwanese beef noodle soup; pork loin marinated in Shaoxing wine or bourbon, then sliced into matchsticks and stir-fried with smoked tofu and pickled radish. Cooking was in Collets blood. Her parents, staff to a family close to Chiang Kai-shek, fled mainland China in 1949 and eventually opened a breakfast restaurant in Taiwan. Collets brother would come to operate a stall there selling dumplings and soup. Her mom took Dobbertin to visit him every summer of her childhood. Wed be in this restaurant in San Antonio for 10 hours a day every day, Dobbertin said, and then wed be in this restaurant in Taiwan for 10 hours a day every day. I hated it. Still, it stuck. Dobbertin went to college, moved to Thailand, planned on a career in nonprofits. But by 2011 she was back in San Antonio and, soon enough, deep in the restaurant game, where she met, worked with, married, divorced and continues to work with her business partner, the chef Quealy Watson, with whom she has started several ventures, including Tenko Ramen and Hot Joy, where the food was as much South Texan as Asian. In November 2020, amid the pandemic, the partners opened Best Quality Daughter, an 88-seat space in the former Pearl brewery that Dobbertin calls her pipe-dream Chinese-American restaurant. I grew up in an American diner, eating Chinese food at home and spending my summers in Taiwan, she said. I wanted Best Quality Daughter to honor that, my Chinese heritage, my Chinese mom, the authenticity of what Ive lived. Mr. Bragg said that his record leading the unit, now called the Office of Special Investigation, showed only that the law makes it extremely difficult to successfully prosecute police officers. Experts agree. Though there are exceptions, including the recent conviction of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, Mr. Braggs record with the unit at the attorney generals office is not unusual. It remains extremely difficult to charge, let alone convict, police officers. Peter Neufeld, a founder of the Innocence Project, which works to overturn wrongful convictions, said that Mr. Bragg was fighting within a system that was heavily weighted against him. (Mr. Neufeld endorsed Mr. Bragg last month.) It doesnt make sense when looking at somebody who is taking on an adversary with both hands tied behind his back to measure his win-loss record, he said. Close to home Mr. Bragg grew up on 139th Street in the heart of Harlem. Born in 1973, on the cusp of the citys fiscal crisis, he said he learned at an early age which blocks were safe and which were not, the places he could go and the places that were best avoided. His mother, a math teacher, kept a close eye on him and made sure he focused on school, drilling him on his multiplication tables on the M10 bus and asking him to stay within the confines of their block. His father, who worked for the New York Urban League, regaled him with stories about the Willis Reed-era New York Knicks and encouraged him to get outside. There could be trouble, even close to home. When Mr. Bragg was 10 years old, he had a knife put to his neck by some teenagers in the middle of the day, in what he described as a hazing, but a very scary one. Raymond J. McGuire, a former Citi executive, has practiced, with the help of a team of advisers, from his Upper West Side apartment. Ms. Garcia has been peppered with questions from staff members and consultants, timing me and being like, youre over a minute, youre under a minute, she said. Shaun Donovan, the former federal housing secretary, has sought to simulate as many of the debate conditions as possible, rehearsing over video in the evenings. When the story of this campaign is written, this is going to be one of the first things regular voters ever heard about, said Joshua Karp, a Donovan adviser who said he ran debate prep for Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia and the Democratic National Committee chairman, Jaime Harrison, during Mr. Harrisons South Carolina Senate bid. There is a debate planned for May 26 for the two Republican candidates, Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, and Fernando Mateo, a restaurant operator who has led or founded Hispanics Across America, the state Federation of Taxi Drivers and United Bodegas of America. The debate among the eight Democratic candidates who met the threshold to participate will take place less than a week after a shooting in Times Square, and the contenders are almost certain to engage one another over matters of public safety and the power of the police. Mr. Adams, Mr. Yang and Mr. McGuire all rushed to Times Square in the aftermath of the shooting, speaking soberly about gun violence and crime, even as they have also stressed their support for reforming policing. Other more left-wing candidates have kept their focus more squarely on matters of police accountability. And on Tuesday, Ms. Garcia, Ms. Wiley and Mr. Donovan all held events discussing gun violence and policing. Mr. Adams, a former police officer who pushed to change Police Department policy from within the system, has made public safety a centerpiece of his campaign the prerequisite to prosperity, he often says. In a sign of one possible line of interrogation to come, Mr. McGuire wrote on Twitter on Wednesday: I guess my question for the cop-turned-career politicians is: in all that time, what have you done? The new and redesigned stages, rehearsal areas and civic activation spaces which include a new 14,000-square-foot green space installation by Mimi Lien will be welcoming performances, blood drives, high school graduations and food bank distributions in the coming months. Right now we have over 150 events planned throughout the summer, said Clive Chang, Lincoln Centers chief strategy and innovation officer. The majority of them will feature free and low-cost tickets, and thats very important to us, to make sure that we welcome the community back in a really accessible way. Henry Timms, the president and chief executive of Lincoln Center, said the initiative which is a collaboration with the Stavros Niarchos Foundation aims to meld the arts with civic engagement through these reimagined public spaces. Lincoln Center has, for the first time, become a polling place, Mr. Timms said. So you can come vote at Lincoln Center; you can donate blood at Lincoln Center. Were very focused on the idea of civic responsibility of being a great New York institution what that means and how we expand it. The new outdoor areas include rehearsal spaces for local schools, an outdoor reading room created by the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and smaller cabaret-style stages that are scattered around the campuss plazas. Though Film at Lincoln Center will be open at limited capacity, all of the other indoor venues will remain closed until further notice. The largest outdoor stage, at Damrosch Park, can now hold 380 people while maintaining a six-foot distance between each two-person pod. Hopefully, Mr. Timms said, the audience capacities will be able to grow as social distancing rules relax. Its like an accordion, right? Mr. Timms said. We keep it tight to begin with, but as things loosen up, we should be able to extend and extend. I was reading about Jeff Bezos new boat last week when I began to understand one of my greatest failures as a pundit. This might seem an outsize reaction to a bit of maritime news, but as Bloomberg reported, Bezos is no ordinary boat. It is, instead, a superyacht a 417-foot, three-mast sailing vessel that could be one of the largest such yachts ever built, if not in length, then perhaps in moral recklessness. In a boom time for billionaires, Bloomberg says, the market for these most elephantine of yachts is roaring. There was one detail that sent me reeling: At a cost of more than $500 million, youd think the Amazon founders yacht would be outfitted with every luxury. Nope it lacks a helipad, which couldnt be accommodated because of the boats enormous sails. Bezos partner, Lauren Sanchez, is a helicopter pilot, so how would she get on and off the big boat? For the worlds richest man the answer is obvious another boat. The Bezos superyacht will be accompanied by a smaller yacht maybe call it Lil Yachty whose primary function is as a place to land and park the helicopter. Hence my heartburn: Two years ago, I was part of a boomlet in lefty opinion circles calling for American society to reconsider our fondness for billionaires. To me it seemed self-evidently immoral for anyone to possess a billion American dollars in wealth. We could argue where exactly the line was, but a billion was indefensibly beyond it its far more money than anyone needs, even accounting for lifes most excessive lavishes, and far more than anyone might reasonably claim to deserve, however quickly he can ship you toilet paper. The problem with billionaires was not just the obscenity of their wealth, though in a society where millions of people go without food, that was certainly part of it. It was also that their wealth was rarely questioned, even though its clear that extreme wealth corrupts it buys power, especially political power, and uses that power to perpetuate its winnings at the expense of the rest of us, ultimately corroding democracy. These episodes of vandalism provide Mr. Uribe and his colleagues with fodder for the us-versus-them narrative, separating those they call the good people (gente de bien) from the leftist rabble. Its a narrative they will leverage as elections approach and one that had eluded them after the historic 2016 peace accord, negotiated by President Juan Manuel Santos, with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, which is today a political party. The Democratic Center appears to be on war footing, with Mr. Uribe attributing the vandalism at the protests to politicians of the extreme left who provoke violence. He worries that this country has let its armed forces become weak and adds that there is an international incentive, especially from Venezuela, to install a regime here similar to the one in Venezuela in next years elections. This is the language of Castro-Chavismo, a term for describing socialism in Venezuela and Cuba as a common enemy. This view holds that the left has forgone guerrilla warfare in favor of a more pernicious strategy Mr. Uribe calls it dissipated molecular revolution that uses even peaceful dissent as a form of hybrid warfare to undermine the political system. The narrative of a struggle against Castro-Chavistas is attractive to the ultraconservative Colombians who want the protests quashed. It also reverberates in the security forces. There is an element of racism here, too. The epicenter of the protests has shifted to Cali, Colombias third-largest city, where thousands of unarmed people from Indigenous communities traveled from the countryside to join demonstrations. The countrys vice president, Marta Lucia Ramirez, suggested that the Indigenous groups are financing themselves through illegal means. Omar Yepes, president of the Conservative Party, which is aligned with the Democratic Center, railed against these protesters, saying that the Indigenous organizations come out of their natural habitat to disrupt the life of citizens. The narratives pushed by the Democratic Center are dangerous, but they are a comfort for some citizens whose struggles have worsened during the pandemic. Four in 10 Colombians are estimated to be living below the poverty line, and millions are in danger of joining them. More than 400 people a day have been dying of Covid in recent weeks, while just 8 percent of a population of 50 million has received a dose of the vaccine. What the United States says and does or fails to say and do has always carried a lot of weight in Colombia. The Biden administration must distance the United States from such leaders through both words and actions. In addition to telling Palestinians they cannot go home because they have been away too long, Jewish leaders argue that return is impractical. But this too is deeply ironic because, as a refugee rights advocate, Lubnah Shomali, has pointed out, If any state is an expert in receiving masses and masses of people and settling them in a very small territory, its Israel. At the height of the Soviet exodus in the early 1990s, Israel took in about 500,000 immigrants. If millions of diaspora Jews began moving to Israel tomorrow, Jewish leaders would not say taking them in was logistically impossible. They would help Israel to do what it has done before: build large amounts of housing fast. When most Jews imagine Palestinian refugees return, they probably dont envision it looking like Israels absorption of Soviet Jews. More likely, they predict Palestinians expelling Jews from their homes. But the tragic reality is that not many Jews live in former Palestinian homes, since it is believed that only a few thousand remain intact. Ms. Shomali estimates that more than 70 percent of Palestinian villages that were destroyed in 1948 remain vacant. And the Palestinian activists and scholars who envision return generally argue that large-scale eviction is neither necessary, nor desirable. Asked in 2000 about Jews living in formerly Palestinian homes, the famed Palestinian literary critic Edward Said declared that he was averse to the notion of people leaving their homes and that some humane and moderate solution should be found where the claims of the present and the claims of the past are addressed. None of this means refugee return would be simple or uncontested. Efforts at historical justice rarely are. But there is a reason the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates ends his famous essay on reparations for segregation and slavery with the subprime mortgage crisis that forced many Black Americans into foreclosure in the first decade of the 21st century. The crimes of the past, when left unaddressed, do not remain in the past. Thats also the lesson of the evictions that have set Israel-Palestine aflame. More than seven decades ago, Palestinians were expelled to create a Jewish state. Now they are being expelled to make Jerusalem a Jewish city. By refusing to face the Nakba of 1948, the Israeli government and its American Jewish allies ensure that the Nakba continues. Perhaps American Jewish leaders fear that facing the crimes committed at Israels birth will leave Jews vulnerable. Once the Nakba taboo is lifted, Palestinians will feel emboldened to seek revenge. But more often than not, honestly confronting the past has the opposite effect. After George Bisharat, a Palestinian-American law professor, wrote about the house in Jerusalem that his grandfather had built and been robbed of, a former Israeli soldier who had lived in it contacted him unexpectedly. I am sorry, I was blind. What we did was wrong, but I participated in it and I cannot deny it, the former soldier said when they met, and then added, I owe your family three months rent. Mr. Bisharat later wrote that he was inspired to match the Israelis humanity. Since then the Middle East has been caught in a Boomerang Syndrome, in which extremists on each side mount violent assaults, which ultimately lead to attacks against their own side as well. Hamass past shelling undermined political moderates in Israel. And Israels siege of Gaza destroyed a Palestinian business community that could have been a moderate counterweight to Hamas, while land grabs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem made the Palestinian leadership seem irrelevant. Its true that force sometimes works. In my conversations in Gaza over the years, Ive found that many Palestinians have complicated views. Some resent Hamas as oppressive and incompetent, and many dislike missile launches at Israel because they know they will face retaliation. Then again, they have endured economic distress, fear and funerals because of Israel, so some acknowledge a bitter satisfaction to seeing missile launches and anticipating that Israeli mothers will grieve as they do. Israels future security depends in part on good will in America and on some modus vivendi with Palestinians, yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has frittered both away. History suggests that Israel cannot consistently deter nonstate terrorists, but it can very effectively deter nation-states so it should welcome a Palestinian state. Yet as extremism on each side foments extremism on the other, that possibility fades. The Biden administration has been timid and restrained, slowing the U.N. Security Councils engagement on the issue, and it has yet to name an ambassador to Israel. But the stakes are too high for evasions, and President Biden should stand with others on the Security Council to demand a cease-fire before this escalates further. Secretary of State Antony Blinken helpfully said its vital now to de-escalate. The administration should also express strong concern about the planned evictions of Palestinians that provoked the crisis. Dithering and vacillation help no one. A basic truth of the Middle East is that anyone who predicts with any confidence whats going to happen is too dogmatic to be worth listening to. But for now it appears that the winners in the current fighting are Netanyahu, who may be able to use the upheaval to get another chance to continue as prime minister, and Hamas, which is showing itself relevant in a way that the Palestinian Authority is not. Meanwhile, millions of Palestinians and Israelis lose, and the Boomerang Syndrome spirals on. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com. To the Editor: Re House Republicans Oust Liz Cheney From Leadership (nytimes.com, May 12): While I do not agree with many of Representative Liz Cheneys conservative policies and positions, I cannot help but admire her courage in openly repudiating Donald Trumps big lie and risking her own political future to do so. She stands in sharp contrast to the many spineless Republicans who have abandoned their own constitutional oaths and loyalties to preserve their positions of power. Its really a sad day for America to observe elected officials trashing the Constitution and fundamental principles of democracy in exchange for what they perceive as job security. Shame on them and shame on us if we the people dont retaliate with our own votes and fill our legislatures with people truly devoted to good old American values. Peter Alkalay Scarsdale, N.Y. To the Editor: Representative Liz Cheney should be commended for standing by her principles. However, there is a danger in overglorifying her actions. If refusing to buy into the big lie, and calling out her colleagues who do, qualifies as a demonstration of extraordinary moral and ethical courage, I suggest that we are setting the bar a bit low. Yes, she will pay a short-term political price, but the cost is calculated. When and if a sane Republican Party is resurrected, the short-term cost will pay dividends, and she knows that. In Bidens view, a string of tax increases on corporations and the rich are the best way of paying for the $2.3 trillion plan, which would upgrade the countrys crumbling roads, bridges, public transit, power and water grids and a variety of other forms of infrastructure while creating millions of blue-collar jobs in the process. The unemployment rate a deeply imperfect indicator with which everyone is familiar is assembled from the Current Population Survey, also known as the household survey. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calls a representative selection of households and asks them about their employment status. It is rarely subject to drastic revisions, and the survey can provide a reasonable, real-time guide to the health of the labor market. However, this is not the data-gathering process for the closely watched monthly payroll estimates, often called jobs reports, that Aprils headline-grabbing big miss is based on. For these estimates, the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls business establishments, rather than households, to collect information about their number of workers, the total hours employees worked in a week and how much money employers spent on payroll. Data derived from this survey often experiences significant revisions month-to-month as a result of improved sampling receipts and better data for extrapolating from the sample to population-level estimates. While this survey, known as the establishment survey, is important, it does a terrible job at establishing consistent stories about the labor market. This is clearly visible in Aprils jobs report, which dramatically revised the headline numbers for February and March. According to the initial, unrevised, headline-grabbing reports, the economy gained about 379,000 jobs in February and about 916,000 jobs in March. However, if we look at the most recent revisions, well see that the economy roughly gained a whopping 568,000 jobs in February and only about 770,000 jobs in March. Instead of a slow February and incredible March, we see more uniform monthly growth. Different story, right? Building a master narrative based on a single jobs report may be appealing and politically convenient. But if youre intent on building a labor-market narrative on the basis of a single payroll release, it should at least match the headline data and the industry-level dynamics. Though the news has been flush with business interests complaining that they cant find workers, the numbers, if you look closely, tell a different story. Policy should be made using the data we have, and so lawmakers should note that the data, for now, doesnt show that the relief theyve dispersed has caused a clear disincentive thats hurting the economy. If we had good evidence that the temporary supplement to unemployment benefits was making it harder to fill certain jobs, that fact should motivate a deeper inquiry: Do those jobs adequately compensate prospective employees for the effort they would exert and the risks they would have to bear? As President Biden said in a recent speech, People will come back to work if theyre paid a decent wage. Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at Yale School of Medicine, who wrote an article for The Times debunking disinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine and fertility, said: Even during the vaccine trials some of the women inadvertently got pregnant. Theres nothing even to empirically support a link between infertility and the Covid vaccine. I have two daughters myself, who are in the 12-14 year age group, I totally understand the fear, she said. But theres really no basis for it. For Younger Children, Worries About Allergies and Side Effects Molly Herman, 35, who has a 2-year-old and is 32 weeks pregnant with her second child, said shes anxious about giving her daughter the vaccine, even though she chose to get the shot during her pregnancy. Her daughter has never had antibiotics and shes barely been sick, so I dont know what shes allergic to, said Ms. Herman, who lives in Medfield, Mass., and works in higher education. Nicole Frehsee Mazur, 39, who lives in Birmingham, Mich., was also concerned about her children, who are 4 and 6, having an allergic reaction to the vaccine, because she had an averse response to the Moderna shot and the kids have allergies. Im not opposed to vaccinating them, I would just like to wait until more kids are vaccinated, she said. Vaccines may be available for children over 2 by September at the earliest, so these concerns are theoretical at the moment. Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, a pediatrician and a researcher at Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, said that she understands parents hesitations. That kind of conversation has been present before we had a feasible vaccine, especially from groups that have been marginalized and experimented on. Its not a fear thats far-fetched, she said. But Dr. Heard-Garris said she trusts the science and the data, and that the abstract fears of the vaccines long-term effects should be weighed against the real-life impacts of the virus. As the A.A.P. President Dr. Beers put it: While fewer children than adults have suffered the most severe disease, this is not a benign disease in children. Thousands of children have been hospitalized, and hundreds have died. The doctors I spoke to were hopeful that, as the vaccine becomes a reality for young kids rather than an idea, parents will become less hesitant. They urged parents, especially those whose kids have allergies, to talk to their pediatricians about the best approach for their children. Dr. Talib said that parents and teens alike in her practice have said they would feel more comfortable getting their vaccines in a pediatricians office, closely monitored by a doctor they know, than at a large vaccine site like a convention center or a pharmacy, the way many adults have been vaccinated. Last week, President Biden said that he was shifting his administrations vaccination strategy away from mass vaccination sites and toward more local sites in order to get more shots to younger people and the vaccine hesitant. In 2017, four prominent young American fashion brands decided that they would show their new collections on the runways of Paris. These were largely business decisions and would mean little to the average customer. But cumulatively, within the fashion industry, they constituted an exodus: confirmation of a broader nagging feeling that New York Fashion Week, which typically had attracted 150,000 attendees every February and September, was losing its cachet. For the next three years, that narrative persisted: New York Fashion Week was either dying or already dead. (Even after two of those departing brands, Proenza Schouler and Rodarte, came back to New York in 2018.) Now, one long quarantine later, there are signs of resurrection. The other half of the departed Altuzarra and Thom Browne will return to NYFW in September after three years in Paris. All but Mr. Browne are committed to staying in New York for at least three more seasons. Walking around New York City these days, one might not guess that its been a little over two weeks since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced more relaxed mask guidelines, which state that fully vaccinated people can remove their face coverings when outside. Last Friday, for instance, the faces of SoHo appeared largely masked, with the minor exception of outdoor diners. A walk through Harlem the weekend after the announcement presented a neighborhood with a mask-wearing rate approaching 100 percent. Even a casual survey of the crowds in Central Park taking advantage of recent clear skies and summery temperatures suggested that most werent ready to take the leap. This seemed especially notable, since the neighborhoods around the park have some of the highest vaccination rates in the city. Admittedly, not all the masks that were visible were actually covering the face. In Manhattan, at least, masks have been migrating to various locations on the body for a while now under the chin being the most common, as it allows for quick replacement. More recently, particularly for those exercising, the favored position appears to be the upper arm. Less frequently, carried by hand. This article is part of the On Tech newsletter. You can sign up here to receive it weekdays. How can you tell when the bullheaded and micromanaging boss who trusts his intuition is just nuts, and when hes nuts but right? Thats a question I had after reading Amazon Unbound, a new book about Jeff Bezos and the last decade or so at Amazon by Brad Stone, a journalist and a former colleague of mine. In Stones telling, Bezos is a font of big ideas, and he badgers staff, nitpicks over details and is willing to devote gobs of time and money to make his visions a reality. That has often paid off with novel and effective technologies like the voice-recognition assistant Alexa and the companys cashier-less Go convenience stores. But other things at Amazon have failed or floundered because of Bezos relentless pursuit of his ideas. That tendency plagued Amazons now dead Fire smartphone, and it was a shadow over its Prime Video streaming service and its ground beef made from just one cow. (Dont worry, I will come back to this.) A California man seen traveling in the back seat of a driverless Tesla was arrested in the Bay Area, the authorities said on Tuesday, following a call on social media to report similar behavior to the police. The man, Param Sharma, 25, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of reckless driving and disobeying a peace officer, the California Highway Patrol said in a statement on Tuesday. The Highway Patrol said that police officers responded at about 6:35 p.m. on Monday after 911 dispatchers received calls about a Tesla Model 3 with no one in the drivers seat traveling east on Interstate 80 across the Bay Bridge. A highway patrol officer at the bridges toll plaza spotted the Tesla with its sole occupant in the back seat, according to the Highway Patrol. And I figured if I wanted freelance writing clients, I would need to get to know the local community, so I rolled up my sleeves and started working at a local winery. It was a really wonderful opportunity. I got experience in vineyards and production and the marketing side, of course, to tap my communications experience. I got a sense of industry. When I left in 2017, Harvey Weinstein had just come up, Bill Cosbys case had just come up it was that time. And it was also one of the first years with really terrible wildfires. In the midst of all that, when I was evacuated because of those fires, I just wanted to do something for the community. And I started thinking about making a list of women-owned wineries locally just good folks to patronize. At that time, the list was only about 50. Thats out of how many wineries? Do you have a sense of the scale? Theres hundreds. We started with that list, and it was so popular we decided to invest in researching nationwide, and its not definitive, but its now about 600 wineries strong. Thats out of 10,000 wineries. How do people get into winemaking, or how do they become wine entrepreneurs? Reading the reporting about the Foppoli case, it seems very expensive to get started, and a lot of winemakers have a lot of generational wealth or family expertise. Im hesitant to say, This is how it works, because I see people come into winemaking and winery ownership from all different angles. You dont need to buy land in order to be a winemaker or to have a wine label. You dont even have to buy all of the equipment, because there are a number of custom crush facilities that can accommodate you if you have the money and can hire out a winemaker whos already working at a custom crush facility. The W.H.O. warned that a variant in India could be highly contagious. A C.D.C. advisory panel recommended Pfizers vaccine be made available to 12- to 15-year-olds. The leaders of Emergent, whose factory spoiled vaccine doses, will testify before a U.S. House panel next week. Get the latest updates here, as well as maps and a vaccine tracker. A closer look at unvaccinated Americans The recent drop in vaccinations in the U.S. has been attributed to vaccine hesitancy a mishmash of misinformation and mistrust. But theres another group of unvaccinated Americans who are amenable to getting a dose but havent yet, and their reasons are complex. They number around 30 million, according to census estimates. Theyre not opposed to the vaccine, or even skeptical. In interviews, their stated reasons for not getting vaccines are disparate not wanting to miss work because of side effects, barriers to access and social isolation. Acy Grayson III, who runs a home improvement outift in the suburbs of Cleveland, told The Times that he found it hard to commit to a time and place because of his job. I know youre trying to find out the reason people arent doing it, Mr. Grayson said. Im going to tell you. People are trying to take care of their household. You dont have much time in the day. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, testified at a Senate hearing on Tuesday that while she was encouraged by the gains against the pandemic, she urged Americans to remain vigilant to the threat of the virus around the world. Ms. Walensky said getting a vaccine was the fastest way to end the pandemic. But even with this powerful tool, while we continue to have community transmission, we must also maintain public health measures we know will prevent the spread of this virus, mask hygiene, hand hygiene, and physical distancing, she said. Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview that the vaccines were a key contributor to improvements in case numbers and hospitalizations, but that the virus had behaved in surprising ways and there remained aspects about which experts still needed to learn more. As an example of the viruss unpredictable ebbs and flows, Dr. Osterholm pointed to Indiana, which borders Michigan and has lower vaccination rates but did not see the same recent spike in case numbers as its northern neighbor. I dont see us having a national surge. Were not going to be like India. I do think the vaccine levels have surely helped us tremendously in taking that off the table, Dr. Osterholm said. But I do think at the state level, where we have substantial populations that need to be vaccinated, we could still see substantial activity. The next time the world faces an outbreak of a fast-spreading and deadly new pathogen, governments must act swiftly and be ready to restrict travel or mandate masks even before anyone knows the extent of the threat, according to a pair of new reports delivered to the World Health Organization. The studies are intended to address missteps over the past year that led to more than 3.25 million deaths, some $10 trillion in economic losses and more than 100 million people pushed into extreme poverty. Current institutions, public and private, failed to protect people from a devastating pandemic, concluded one of the reports, released on Wednesday, which called the Covid-19 pandemic the 21st centurys Chernobyl moment. Without change, it said, these institutions will not prevent a future one. The reviews, released in advance of this months meeting of the W.H.O.s governing assembly, were written by appointees who donated countless hours in the midst of their own countries pandemic fights to interview hundreds of experts, comb through thousands of documents, gather data and seek counsel from public and private institutions around the world. Andrew Dymock arrives at court where he is appearing on terrorism related charges, at the Old Bailey in London, Friday Jan. 3, 2020. Dymock is alleged to have promoted a right-wing extremist group through his Twitter account and website. (Aaron Chown/AP) Returning to the Capitol, Democratic leaders framed the meeting as a modest sign of progress. It took us a few steps forward, Ms. Pelosi said. Her Senate counterpart, Mr. Schumer, said that the two parties would try hard to get an agreement, taking the first step to identify potential areas of common interest. But it is unclear whether the two sides can agree on enough even to break up the infrastructure plan into two bills: one narrower traditional infrastructure measure that could potentially win bipartisan support, and a larger jobs and tax bill that Mr. Biden might try to push through Congress with only Democrats. The Republican leaders said they remained unwilling to consider any of the tax increases that Mr. Biden has suggested to pay for the spending. You wont find any Republicans going to go raise taxes, Mr. McCarthy said, referring to Mr. Bidens desire to increase taxes on wealthy Americans that were lowered in the 2017 tax bill. I think its the worst thing to do in this economy. He and Mr. McConnell also said that their membership remained at odds with the president about how to define infrastructure spending. At one point, Mr. Biden and Democrats pressed their Republican counterparts on a specific proposal to fund a vast network of charging stations for electric cars, but they showed little interest. We didnt go through a list and say, Yes on this, no on that, Ms. Pelosi said afterward. But that emerged as something that they might not be too fond of. Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have toured the country in recent weeks arguing that the spending is necessary to create jobs and ensure that the economic recovery from one of the nations deepest recessions does not lose momentum. They have defended the infrastructure proposal from criticism that it includes too much spending on social services programs unrelated to the traditional road-rail-and-sewer definition of infrastructure. And thats had an effect on the Democratic Party. It is now possible for stalwart supporters of Israel to question Israeli policies and principles. So the change in the political calculus among Israels leaders has resulted in a change in the political calculus among Democrats and Republicans, and the parties leadership. And this has incredible implications for a guy like Joe Biden. Lets talk about Biden. Since taking office hes been rather quiet on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Is he trying to draw back the United States involvement or otherwise make a change to the American status quo, or would he like to keep things about the way they are? Bidens been a longtime supporter of Israel. He tells a story about going to breakfast with his mother when he was a little boy, and his mother saying, Joey, we always support Israel. But hes stopped telling the story. I think the Israeli-Palestinian issue just sucked up so much air in previous Democratic administrations that hes really hesitant to allow that to happen again. Weve got other equities in the Middle East other than Israel. And I think theres a certain amount of exhaustion among Middle East diplomats with the conflict. Its intransigent. Were not going to be the ones to solve it. If Israel isnt ready to negotiate, and the Palestinians arent ready to negotiate and solve their problems, how are we going to possibly succeed? So whats Bidens option? One option is to do what no other U.S. president has ever done, and that is to issue a statement like the one he issued on Saudi Arabia: We support you, but our support is not unconditional. We expect that Israel will take steps to ensure the rights of the people they occupy. He would have support among a large number of Jewish Americans. Remember the battle over the Israeli-Palestinian issue on the Democratic plank? That was a sign of whats coming. There were Democrats who supported Israel who saw the logic in saying that Americas support is conditioned on Israels support for human rights. And that Palestinians have a right to land and their freedom. If he would do that, the change that that could bring about could be unprecedented. Isnt there some fear among diplomats that anything short of unconditional support for Israel would upend U.S. interests in the region, given that Israel is such a major ally? The purity of the ballot box language was eventually removed. With just weeks left before the Republican-controlled Legislature adjourns, Mr. Cain will again play a lead role in the next round of sparring over the bill, this time as one of two committee co-chairmen shaping a final version. Critics who have protested Mr. Cains appointment to the committee say his lack of familiarity with the purity phrase and overall stewardship of the panel raise questions about his effectiveness going into the next phase of the debate. They also cite a chaotic committee session that was forced to recess after Mr. Cain refused to let Nicole Collier, chair of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, sit in on the session to question witnesses as a nonmember. His error led to a lengthy delay in moving the bill forward and enraged Democrats and civil rights groups. She was permitted to ask questions during a subsequent session. This is our first rodeo with Briscoe Cain, said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, who has engaged in legal battles against the state in behalf of Texas Latinos since 1996. And after recovering from the shock that he was appointed chair of the election committee, I mean its been one misstep after the next. Mr. Cains office declined a request for an interview. In a statement issued Wednesday, he said: My goal has always been to enhance election integrity and I am confident that the two chambers will work together to finalize legislation that Texas can be proud of. Several of Mr. Cains Republican colleagues gave high marks for his leadership and his handling of one of the governors top priorities. One of the hardest bills to pass in this building is an omnibus election bill, said Representative Stephanie Klick, a Fort Worth Republican who preceded Mr. Cain as Election Committee chair. I think hes done amazing being able to get an omnibus bill in his first session as chair. The United States has investigated episodes both in the country and overseas, but the vast majority have been overseas, according to the National Security Council, and some reported domestically are likely to be aftershocks caused by earlier incidents overseas, according to current and former officials. But at least two episodes involving White House staff members, one in 2020 that affected a National Security Council official near the Ellipse south of the White House and another in 2019 involving a woman walking her dog in Northern Virginia, have no known connection to an earlier overseas event. While many officials expressed skepticism that Russia or another power would conduct an attack in the United States, agencies are investigating. Congress has demanded more from the C.I.A. In a closed-door meeting of the Senate Intelligence Committee last month, senators accused the C.I.A. of doing too little to investigate the mysterious episodes and until recently showing skepticism about them, according to people briefed on the meeting. During the Trump administration, some in the agency said there was little intelligence showing a foreign power was responsible and argued that it made little sense analytically for Russia or another foreign intelligence service to make unprovoked attacks on Americans. Others doubted the cause of the brain injuries. The new C.I.A. director, William J. Burns, has tried to move aggressively to improve the agencys response, current and former officials said. Mr. Burns has met with victims, visited doctors who have treated injured agency officers and briefed lawmakers. He has also assigned his deputy, David Cohen, to oversee the investigation and the health care response. Mr. Cohen will meet monthly with victims and will lead regular briefings for Congress. The agency has also doubled the number of medical personnel conducting treatment and managing cases of injured officers. In addition, the chief medical officer, who had been criticized by some former officers as too skeptical of the incidents and dismissive of some symptoms, announced his retirement. He was replaced with another doctor seen inside the C.I.A. as more focused on patient care. Police spent decades fighting left-wing guerrillas and paramilitaries. Now, theyre cracking down on protesters, and igniting a wider demonstration movement in response. Julie Turkewitz and May 12, 2021 BOGOTA, Colombia In Colombias decades-long conflict with violent rebel groups, the countrys national police often fought on the front lines, wielding tanks and helicopters as they battled guerrilla fighters and destroyed drug labs. It was a force built for war, and now it has found a new one on the streets of Colombias cities, where the police stand accused of treating civilian protesters as battlefield enemies. Demonstrations that began two weeks ago as anger over pandemic-related tax reforms have intensified and spread, turning into a collective howl of outrage over abuses by the national police force. Officers have beaten, detained and killed protesters in recent days, sometimes opening fire on peaceful demonstrations and shooting tear gas canisters from armored vehicles, according to more than a dozen interviews by The New York Times with witnesses and family members of the dead and injured. In an interview Wednesday, President Ivan Duque recognized that some officers had been violent, but said that he did not view the problem as systemic. Kirsten Hillman, Canadas ambassador in Washington, said that Mr. Trudeau had raised the issue with the president and members of the Canadian cabinet had brought it up with their American counterparts. Along with other officials, Ms. Hillman said that she had laid out Canadas case with Ms. Whitmer as recently as last week and with officials throughout Washington. Exactly what Canada has to show for that, however, is unclear. I dont really think thats for me, Ms. Hillman said. Their discussions, within their system, are really something youd have to ask them about. The Canadian governments involvement adds another factor to the mix: a 1977 treaty in which Canada and the United States agreed not to block oil and gas while it is in transit through either country. The treaty is a very clear demonstration of the fact that this is an international matter, Ms. Hillman said. A spokesman for the White House declined to comment about Line 5 or Michigans authority over it. Environmentalists in the state have long argued the lines two aging pipes, which sit on the lake bed, could be broken open by a ships anchor or a structural failure. Any resulting spill would despoil cherished, economically vital waters. We spend time growing up going to the lakes, going to the beach, said David Holtz, a spokesman for Oil & Water Dont Mix, a group that wants Line 5 closed. The governor has really decided that the right decision is to not put the Great Lakes, and our northern Michigan economy and shipping at risk for an oil pipeline that primarily services the Canadian market. Several Indigenous groups on both sides of the border and several states have also backed the governors move. Her opponents include business groups and some labor unions. HAVANA Cuba began a mass vaccination campaign on Wednesday in the capital, Havana, where authorities aim to eventually vaccinate 1.7 million people. The campaign is using homegrown vaccines that have not yet been shown to work, an emergency step intended to blunt the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The countrys decision to deploy unproven vaccines mirrors the early introduction of vaccines in Russia, China and India, where regulators permitted mass vaccination campaigns to begin before the completion of Phase 3 clinical trials, which assess the vaccines effectiveness and safety. In Florida, news reports critical of the Cuban government accused it of jumping the gun and endangering public health. American and European health regulators do not allow vaccines to be introduced, even for emergency use, until Phase 3 clinical trials are completed. Though Cubas daily coronavirus case counts remain low by Latin American standards, they have spiked alarmingly in recent months. The island, which reported 12,225 confirmed cases in all of 2020, saw 31,465 confirmed cases in April 2021 alone. PARIS The French prime minister and the chief of staff of the army have condemned an anonymous letter signed by people claiming to be active-duty troops warning about impending civil war in France. Prime Minister Jean Castex told the newspaper Le Parisien that the letter was a political maneuver by the extreme right. Gen. Francois Lecointre, the army chief of staff, said that the signatories should quit the armed forces if they wanted to freely express their political opinions. It is unclear how many soldiers are behind the letter, the second such message from active-duty or retired military personnel to appear in the past month. The managing editor of Valeurs Actuelles, the right-wing magazine that published both letters, said that the latest was from active military personnel and that a bailiff would certify their signatures. When that might happen was unclear. The anonymous letter, addressed to President Emmanuel Macron, said: We see violence in our towns and villages. We see communitarianism taking hold in the public space, in public debate. We see hatred of France and its history becoming the norm. President Biden said that he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for a while on Wednesday amid escalating fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, and asserted his unwavering support for Israels right to defend itself. My hope is that we will see this coming to a conclusion sooner than later, Mr. Biden said in response to questions from reporters. According to a readout of the call released by the White House, Mr. Biden condemned the rocket attacks on Israel and added that the United States position is that Jerusalem be a place of peace. On Thursday, the White House again framed the conflict in terms of attacks carried out by Hamas, and refrained from criticizing Israel. President Biden took office with little interest in pursuing an Israel-Palestinian peace agreement for understandable reasons: Predecessors in both parties had failed in their attempts. Bill Clinton hosted an Israeli-Palestinian summit during his first year in office. Barack Obama appointed a Middle East peace envoy on his second full day. Donald J. Trump vowed even before being inaugurated to secure an Israel-Palestinian peace deal that no one else has managed to get. George W. Bush, who took up the cause later in his presidency, also faced frustration. Even before the latest explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza, analysts agreed that such a peace deal looked hopeless in the near term, and Mr. Biden and his senior advisers have largely accepted that status quo. He has issued familiar endorsements of a two-state solution while making little effort to push the parties toward one. But as spiraling riots, rocket attacks and airstrikes in Jerusalem and over Gaza threaten to escalate into a major conflict, calls are growing from within the Democratic Party for Mr. Biden to play a more active role. According to the RAN, the HMAS Sydney is a 481-foot destroyer and its hull dips almost 24 feet below the waters surface. Whale strikes by such large vessels are rare but occur more frequently in areas where whales, especially large ones like fin whales, are known to feed and in shipping lanes. In late spring, the waters off San Diego see a lot of feeding whales. Biden Confers With Netanyahu as Israeli-Palestinian Crisis Broadens Dozens have been killed in airstrikes and rocket barrages, and violent protests have erupted in mixed Jewish-Arab towns. Follow our latest coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Biden, speaking with Netanyahu, asserts Israels right to defend itself. President Biden condemned the rocket attacks on Israel and said the United States position was that Jerusalem should be a place of peace. Credit... Doug Mills/The New York Times President Biden said that he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for a while on Wednesday amid escalating fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, and asserted his unwavering support for Israels right to defend itself. My hope is that we will see this coming to a conclusion sooner than later, Mr. Biden said in response to questions from reporters. According to a readout of the call released by the White House, Mr. Biden condemned the rocket attacks on Israel and added that the United States position is that Jerusalem be a place of peace. On Thursday, the White House again framed the conflict in terms of attacks carried out by Hamas, and refrained from criticizing Israel. I think its important to note, I think youd agree, that these rockets are coming, and these attacks are coming from Hamas and many Palestinian people are being put in danger because of the violence that is happening back and forth, said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary. In the call on Wednesday with Mr. Netanyahu, Mr. Biden said that his administrations national security and defense officials had been and would stay in constant contact with their counterparts in the Middle East. The White House added that during the phone call Mr. Biden had updated Mr. Netanyahu on the United States diplomatic engagement with Palestinian officials and other nations in the Middle East. The call between the two leaders came on the same day that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke over the phone with Mr. Netanyahu. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Wednesday offered ironclad support for Israels self-defense in a phone conversation with Benny Gantz, Israels defense minister. Israeli-Palestinian hostilities explode, with shocking communal violence in Israel. Video Cross-border attacks continued on Wednesday, with the Israeli military conducting airstrikes and tank shelling against the Gaza Strip, while Hamas militants fired rockets into southern Israel. Credit Credit... Youssef Massoud/Agence France-Presse Getty Images An explosive new round of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza broadened with frightening speed on two fronts Wednesday, while waves of mob violence between Jews and Arabs spread across Israeli cities as rockets and missiles streaked overhead. The Israeli Army and Hamas, the Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip, continued to exchange fire throughout the day. Israel claimed the assassinations of senior militants and pounded both military and residential areas across Gaza, the coastal enclave inhabited by roughly two million Palestinians. An Israeli military official said three infantry brigades were preparing for a worst-case scenario, confirming that a ground invasion could follow the bombardment from the air. The militants have fired more than 1,000 rockets at Israel, most landing in civilian areas across central and southern Israel. Video Anger has escalated into street violence in parts of the country as Palestinian citizens have protested against the military operation in Gaza and systemic discrimination, clashing with the police and Israeli Jews. Credit Credit... Ronen Zvulun/Reuters More than 50 Palestinians including at least 14 children have been killed, according to Gaza health authorities, since the hostilities intensified a few days ago, and in Israel the death toll reached at least seven people, including a 6-year-old. The exchange of rockets and missiles on Wednesday followed dozens of Israeli airstrikes overnight in Gaza, and several nighttime waves of rockets fired from Gaza at Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and Israels main international airport. But the most shocking developments occurred on the streets of Israel, as rival Jewish and Arab mobs attacked cars, shops and people in several towns and cities. One of the most chilling incidents occurred in Bat Yam, a seaside suburb south of Tel Aviv, where dozens of Jewish extremists took turns beating and kicking a man presumed to be Arab, even as his body lay motionless on the ground. Another occurred in Acre, a northern coastal town, where an Arab mob beat a Jewish man with sticks and rocks, also leaving him in a critical condition. The sudden turn of events, which escalated from an Israeli-Palestinian dispute in Jerusalem to aerial war over Gaza and widespread civil unrest in less than two days, shocked Israelis and Palestinians alike, and left some of the most experienced leaders fearing that the decades-old Israel-Palestinian conflict was heading into perilous new territory. For years, there have been warnings that the festering conflict in the occupied territories might cause longstanding grievances of the Palestinians to spread into the state of Israel itself, said Tzipi Livni, a veteran former cabinet minister. And this is exactly what is happening now, said Ms. Livni, a former chief Israeli negotiator in peace talks with the Palestinians that have been stalled for years. What was maybe under the surface has now exploded, and created a combination that is really horrific. I dont want to use the words civil war, Ms. Livni added. But this is something that this is new, this is unbearable, this is horrific, and Im very worried. The hostilities have united Palestinians in anger across disparate parts of the West Bank, Gaza and within Israel, where there has been major street unrest in Arab communities. They are venting frustration in part over the displacement of Palestinians from land in East Jerusalem and over longstanding discrimination. Palestinian discontent has festered for years in the absence of peace talks between the two sides, and with little international pressure on Israel to compromise or grant any concessions to Arabs living under occupation. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was fighting on several fronts one of them its own cities and was responding with increasing force. We will continue the effort to stop the anarchy, he said. Mr. Netanyahu vowed to restore order to Israels cities with an iron fist if necessary, with all necessary force and with all necessary authority. Image Rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Holon, near Tel Aviv, on Tuesday evening. Credit... Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse Getty Images Israels latest operation targeted the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas and one of several Palestinian militant factions active in Gaza. The Israeli military said a joint operation of soldiers and intelligence officers across Gaza had simultaneously killed commanders who were close to Muhammed Deif, the leader of the Qassam Brigades. Without Qassams soldiers, Hamas would struggle to control Gaza. Its leaders have long been the targets of Israeli assassinations, and Mr. Deif himself was wounded in one attempt in 2006. Area of extent Mediterranean Sea Israel Tel Aviv The police raided Al Aqsa Mosque on Monday to disperse crowds and protesters. Palestinian militants fired hundreds of rockets toward Jerusalem and at coastal Israeli cities, killing at least three people. Ashdod Jerusalem Israel Ashkelon Israel launched at least 130 retaliatory airstrikes at Gaza, killing at least 30 Palestinians. Gaza West Bank Gaza Strip 5 miles Egypt Area of extent Israel Tel Aviv The police raided Al Aqsa Mosque on Monday to disperse crowds and protesters. Palestinian militants fired hundreds of rockets toward Jerusalem and at coastal Israeli cities, killing at least three people. Ashdod Jerusalem Israel Ashkelon Mediterranean Sea Israel launched at least 130 retaliatory airstrikes at Gaza, killing at least 30 Palestinians. Gaza West Bank Gaza Strip 5 miles Egypt Israeli forces and Palestinian militants exchanged hundreds of strikes at multiple locations in Gaza and Israel. Tel Aviv Police raided Al Aqsa Mosque on Monday to disperse crowds and protesters. Ashdod Jerusalem Ashkelon West Bank Gaza Israel 5 miles Area of extent Tel Aviv Israel The police raided Al Aqsa Mosque on Monday to disperse crowds and protesters. Palestinian militants fired hundreds of rockets toward Jerusalem and at coastal Israeli cities, killing at least three people. Ashdod Jerusalem Israel Ashkelon Mediterranean Sea Israel launched at least 130 retaliatory airstrikes at Gaza, killing at least 30 Palestinians. Gaza West Bank Gaza Strip 5 miles Egypt The violence was initially fueled by a police raid on an Islamic religious site in Jerusalem on Monday, which the police said was in response to stone-throwing by Palestinian demonstrators. By Tuesday, the conflict had broadened, with civilians on both sides paying a price. Patrick Kingsley and Advertisement Continue reading the main story The I.C.C. is monitoring Israeli-Palestinian violence for possible war crimes. Arab Israelis during a funeral in the Israeli city of Lod on Tuesday. Credit... Agence France-Presse Getty Images The International Criminal Courts main prosecutor said on Wednesday that she was closely watching Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, for potential war crimes in the current conflict. I note with great concern the escalation of violence in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as well as in and around Gaza, and the possible commission of crimes under the Rome Statute, the prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, said in a statement. She was referring to the courts statute on crimes against humanity and war crimes. Ms. Bensoudas office said in March, before the latest conflict erupted, that it had begun an investigation into mutual accusations of war crimes by Israel and Palestinian militant groups. That decision, which infuriated Israeli leaders, was largely welcomed by the Palestinian leadership and its supporters. The court had already started a preliminary investigation six years earlier, on the heels of the 50-day Israel-Gaza conflict in 2014. It covers alleged crimes since June 13, 2014, shortly before the start of that fighting. Israel is not a member of the International Criminal Court, which is based in The Hague, and it has maintained that the court has no jurisdiction over the area in question. But the court has ruled that its jurisdiction extended to the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. On Wednesday, Ms. Bensouda said that her office would continue to monitor the situation and address any matter that falls within its jurisdiction. The prosecutors office will investigate all sides to assess whether there is individual criminal responsibility under the statute, she added. I echo the call from the international community for calm, restraint and a stop to the violence, she added. #ICC Prosecutor #FatouBensouda on the recent escalation of violence in #Gaza, the #WestBank, including #EastJerusalem pic.twitter.com/jZlns3d92I Int'l Criminal Court (@IntlCrimCourt) May 12, 2021 A U.S. envoy is heading to the Middle East to urge calm between Israel and Palestinians. Video transcript Back bars 0:00 / 1:06 - 0:00 transcript U.S. Envoy Headed to Middle East Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Wednesday that the U.S. was concerned about the escalating conflict. I want to just take a minute to discuss whats happening in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. Were deeply concerned about what were seeing there. Images that came out overnight are harrowing, and the loss of any civilian life is a tragedy. Ive asked Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr to go to the region immediately to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. He will bring to bear his decades of experience. And in particular, he will urge on my behalf and on behalf of President Biden, a de-escalation of violence. We are very focused on this. The United States remains committed to a two-state solution. This violence takes us further away from that goal. We fully support Israels legitimate right to defend itself. Weve condemned and I condemn again, the rocket attacks in the strongest possible terms. We believe Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live with safety and security. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Wednesday that the U.S. was concerned about the escalating conflict. Credit Credit... Pool photo by Saul Loeb A senior American diplomat is headed to the Middle East to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to urge de-escalation and to bring calm, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday amid mounting violence. Speaking at the State Department in Washington, Mr. Blinken repeatedly affirmed Israels right to defend itself from rocket attacks from Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs the Gaza Strip. There is, first, a very clear and absolute distinction between a terrorist organization, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets, in fact, targeting civilians, and Israels response, defending itself, Mr. Blinken said. But he also said Israel has an extra burden to try to prevent civilian deaths, noting that Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli strikes. Whenever we see civilian casualties and, particularly, when we see children caught in the crossfire, losing their lives, that has a powerful impact, said Mr. Blinken, sounding anguished. He added: The Palestinian people have the right to safety and security, and we have to, I think, all work in that direction. Mr. Blinken said he was deploying Hady Amr, the deputy assistant secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, to meet with leaders from both sides in coming days. Mr. Amr was expected to depart Washington later Wednesday for the region. At the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III also offered ironclad support for Israels right to self-defense during a conversation Wednesday with Israels defense chief, Benny Gantz. A readout of their talk, issued by John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, said Mr. Austin had condemned the rocket attacks by Hamas, and urged calm among all parties, but did not mention the matter of casualties among Palestinian civilians. President Biden took office this year with little interest in pursuing an Israel-Palestinian peace agreement, given the failure by previous presidents from both parties to foster a lasting accord. But the latest outbreak of violence has prompted growing calls from within the Democratic Party for Mr. Biden to play a more active role. The Biden administration has endorsed of a two-state solution but, experts said, has made little effort to push the parties toward one. The problem with the Middle East, said Martin S. Indyk, a special envoy for Israel-Palestinian negotiations during the Obama administration, is that you can try to turn your back on it, but it wont turn its back on you. On Wednesday, Mr. Blinken repeated anew that the United States remains committed to a two-state solution. This violence takes us further away from that goal, he said. Mr. Blinken later said he had spoken with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to reinforce his message. Its vital now to de-escalate, Mr. Blinken said on Twitter. I spoke with @IsraeliPM today about the ongoing situation in Israel including rocket fire emanating from the Gaza Strip targeting Israeli civilians. Israel has the right to defend itself. Palestinians need to be able to live in safety and security. Its vital now to deescalate. Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 12, 2021 Michael Crowley contributed reporting. In Gaza, Tuesdays cheers turn into desperation and fear on Wednesday. The aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Wednesday. Credit... Hosam Salem for The New York Times GAZA CITY On Tuesday evening, Gazans celebrated as they heard the whoosh of rockets sent toward Israel. But on Wednesday morning the cheers had stopped, as Gazans saw the aftermath of what some described as the most intense airstrikes since cross-border Israeli-Palestinian hostilities flared back up earlier this week. In one neighborhood, near Zeitoun and Sabra, residents inspected their homes and neighborhoods for damage, and desperately sought information about where the missiles might strike next. I felt that the hits were random, said Nadal Issa, 27, the owner of a bridal shop. Hamas and other militants have been exchanging fire with Israel since Monday. Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, including at least 16 children as of Wednesday night, officials said; in Israel, at least six civilians have been killed, including one child. In Gaza, some said they had never felt anything as harrowing as the surge of Israeli strikes that came Wednesday morning. Some said it felt as if blast waves were hitting their face and body, as if their block was under attack. Disoriented, they staggered to windows to look outside. My two children woke up, and they asked me, Whats going on? Mr. Issa said. Thinking quickly, he reminded them that the holiday marking the end of Ramadan was near. I told them these are celebrations for Eid. Mohammed Sabtie, a 30-year-old motorcycle mechanic, was among the Gazans who left their homes after the airstrikes subsided Wednesday morning to see the damage. The sound was very, very horrific, Mr. Sabtie said. It was like a state of war. It was the first time I ever heard anything like this. Was he scared? Yes, he said, but also glad to see Palestinians fighting back. Our ambitions are not war, Mr. Sabtie said. Our ambitions are security and peace. We have to do this. We dont want to be hit and insulted. We want to hit back. Advertisement Continue reading the main story For Hamas and Netanyahu, the conflict delivers a political boost. The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. Credit... Hosam Salem for The New York Times With dozens dead and hundreds injured, the initial two days of the renewed conflict brought fear and loss to millions in Gaza and Israel, but the escalating crisis may have bolstered the political fortunes of Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs the Gaza Strip, and of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. A senior political leader for Hamas struck a triumphant tone on Tuesday over how rapidly the clashes in Jerusalem on Monday had expanded into a broader problem for Israel, as it faced rocket attacks from Gaza that threatened Israeli cities. We have managed to create an equation linking the Jerusalem and Gaza fronts, the leader, Ismail Haniya, said in a speech recorded in Qatar and aired on a Hamas-affiliated television channel. They are inseparable. Jerusalem and Gaza are one. Since coming to power in Gaza in 2007, Hamas has lost popularity because of what many Gazans see as its authoritarian approach and poor governance. But the fighting has allowed Hamas to revitalize its claims to the leadership of Palestinian resistance and has framed its rocket attacks as a direct response to the Israeli police raids on the Aqsa Mosque compound, a religious site in East Jerusalem. In the process, the group presented itself as a protector of Palestinian protesters and worshipers in the city. For Mr. Netanyahu, the conflict along with the divisions it fosters among the opposition parties currently attempting to negotiate a coalition to topple him from power has given him half a chance of remaining prime minister, just days after it seemed as if he might be on the way out. It is the story of every previous war between Israel and Hamas, said Ghassan Khatib, a politics expert at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank. Both governments come out of it victorious, and the public of Gaza comes out of it as losers. Hamas said that a number of its militants in Gaza had been killed and that others had been reported missing in Israeli attacks. The Israeli military said that its Gaza targets had included the weapons manufacturing sites of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another militant group, as well as military facilities and two tunnels. A Hamas battalion commander who was at home in a residential apartment building was also targeted, according to the military. Neither the location nor the condition of the person said to be a battalion commander was immediately clear. But Gaza health officials said that the bodies of three civilians had been removed from the ruins of the building. Two of them Amira Soboh, 58, and her son Abdelrahman, 17, who had cerebral palsy were said to be members of a family living three floors below the apartment of the person alleged to be a commander. They were killed by falling rubble, said Ms. Sobohs older son, Osama Soboh. Mr. Soboh, a 31-year-old civil servant, questioned why Israel had targeted a civilian building. Its not a military barracks its not posing any danger to Israel, he said. This was an old woman with a child with cerebral palsy. Patrick Kingsley and In Pictures: Fighting escalates in Gaza and Israel. Israels anti-missile system in Ashkelon, intercepting rockets from Gaza. Dan Balilty for The New York Times Gaza City on Wednesday. Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse Getty Images Taking shelter in the basement of a building in Tel Aviv. Gideon Markowicz/Agence France-Presse Getty Images A damaged apartment in Gaza. Mohammed Abed/Agence France-Presse Getty Images Burning vehicles in Ashkelon. Agence France-Presse Getty Images The funeral of a victim in the Gaza Strip. Hosam Salem for The New York Times A refinery hit by Hamas rockets in Ashkelon, Israel. Ilan Rosenberg/Reuters Israeli troops at the Gaza border. Dan Balilty for The New York Times slide 1 slide 2 slide 3 slide 4 slide 5 slide 6 slide 7 slide 8 Violence is escalating in Gaza and Israel, with Israel carrying out airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and militants in Gaza firing rockets into Israel. A holy site at the center of the latest violence: The Aqsa Mosque. Israeli security forces deployed at the Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on Monday. Credit... Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse Getty Images The latest outburst of violence in the Middle East erupted after weeks of rising tensions between Israelis and Palestinians around the Old City of Jerusalem and particularly at the Aqsa Mosque compound one of Islams holiest sites and a frequent flash point of Israeli-Arab clashes. Hamas, the Islamist militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, has cast itself as the Palestinian defender of the contested city of Jerusalem. It has issued threats and ultimatums demanding that the Israeli police withdraw from the site and release any protesters who were arrested. On Monday, the Israeli police raided the mosque compound to disperse crowds and stone-throwing protesters with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber-tipped bullets. More than 330 Palestinians were wounded, at least three critically, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. At least 21 police officers were wounded. The Aqsa Mosque, in the heart of the Old City, is part of an internationally recognized heritage site sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews. The site, which Jews call the Temple Mount and Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, has been a flash point between Israelis and Palestinians since the 1967 war, when Israel captured East Jerusalem, which includes the Old City, from Jordan. The compound, home to two ancient temples, is Judaisms holiest site. The first temple was built by King Solomon, according to the Bible, and was later destroyed by the Babylonians. The second stood for nearly 600 years before the Roman Empire destroyed it in the first century A.D. An Islamic trust run by Jordan administers the site, as it did before the 1967 war. But the Israelis control access to the site, and religious tensions have occasionally exploded into violence there. In 1990, deadly riots erupted after a group of Jewish extremists sought, unsuccessfully, to lay a cornerstone for a temple to replace the two destroyed in ancient times. In 2000, a visit to the site by the right-wing Israeli leader Ariel Sharon, who later became prime minister, led to an angry Palestinian backlash that swelled into their second uprising, or Intifada. In 2017, a deadly shooting at the site led the Israeli authorities to restrict access and install metal detectors, enraging Muslim worshipers and causing a crisis with Jordan. The crisis eased after Israel dismantled the extra security. Patrick Kingsley, Isabel Kershner and Advertisement Continue reading the main story As fighting rages nearby, Chevron shuts down a big Israeli gas platform. The Tamar Platform, left, is about 12 miles away from the Gaza Strip. Credit... Ahikam Seri/Agence France-Presse Getty Images With fighting raging between Israel and Palestinian groups, Chevron, the American energy giant, said Wednesday that it had shut down a major offshore natural gas facility in the eastern Mediterranean on orders from the Israeli government. In accordance with instructions received from the Ministry of Energy, we have shut-in and depressurized the Tamar Platform, Chevron said in a statement. The company said that it was continuing to supply customers through another platform in Israeli waters called Leviathan that also processes gas from an offshore field. Chevron acquired a 25 percent stake in the Tamar Platform and its gas field and wells through its $4 billion acquisition of Noble Energy last year. The deal was the first entry of a major Western oil company into exploration and production of oil and gas in Israeli waters. The Tamar Platform is about 12 miles from the Gaza Strip, where militants have been launching rockets toward Israel and Israel has been aiming airstrikes. Leviathan is further away. The two gas facilities are major sources of fuel for the Israeli economy, especially for electric power generation. In recent years the international oil industry has begun to consider the Eastern Mediterranean region as a potential major hub for natural gas. Israeli gas has also served to increase the countrys energy independence and strengthen economic ties with former enemies like Egypt and Jordan, which are customers for the fuel. Last month Delek Drilling, one of Chevrons Israeli partners, said that it had reached a preliminary agreement to sell its share of Tamar to Mubadala Petroleum, an arm of the government of Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, for around $1 billion. The United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel as part of the Abraham Accords signed in August. This is an area that looks as if it could have the resource quality and the scale to become a pretty significant energy province, said Mike Wirth, Chevrons chief executive, in an interview last year. As the violence escalated, reactions poured in from across the world. Protesters gathered outside the Israeli Consulate in Istanbul on Tuesday. Credit... Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse Getty Images As the new chapter of deadly Israeli-Palestinian strife escalated on Wednesday and reverberated around the world, nations reacted with words of caution and condemnation, some accusing Israel of disproportionate use of force, and others defending Israel's right to defend itself. In some Gulf nations that have taken major steps toward normalizing relations with Israel in recent months, condemnation of the countrys airstrikes on Gaza was widespread. But the easing of relations between Israel and these countries was the result of years of negotiations, and the nations appeared to be carefully balancing their new relationships with Israel with their previous support in words, if not always in deeds for the Palestinian cause. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of Abu Dhabi, the de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates which is among those nations that have moved toward normalizing relations urged caution. The prince spoke about the importance of putting an end to all aggressions and practices that exacerbate tension and wrath in the sacred city of Jerusalem, according to The Associated Press. He held meetings Tuesday with the Bahraini crown prince and prime minister of Jordan. The former Emirati foreign minister and current diplomatic adviser to the countrys president, Anwar Gargash, was more direct. The Emirates stands with the rights of the Palestinians and with ending the Israeli occupation and with an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, he said on Twitter. This is a fundamental, non-negotiable stance. The foreign ministry of Saudi Arabia, which has not normalized relations with Israel, said on Twitter on Tuesday that it condemned in the strongest terms the blatant attacks carried out by the Israeli occupation forces against the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The ministry went on to call for holding the Israeli occupation responsible for this escalation, and to immediately stop its escalatory actions, which violate all international norms and laws. Anti-Israel protests gathered in Kuwait City and Istanbul, among other places. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey condemned the attacks and promised he would do what we can do to make the whole world act, primarily the Islamic world, to stop the terror and invasion from Israel. In Germany, the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that controls Gaza. Steffen Seibert, a government spokesman, said the thousands of rockets fired into Israeli territory had indiscriminately harmed civilians. Nothing justifies this violence, he said. Israel has a right to defend itself against these attacks. Officials of the United Nations beseeched both sides to stop the fighting. Tor Wennesland, the world bodys special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said in a Twitter post that the situation was escalating towards a full-scale war. Stop the fire immediately. Were escalating towards a full scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of deescalation. The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now Tor Wennesland (@TWennesland) May 11, 2021 The United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which provides extensive services to Palestinians registered as refugees in the Israeli-occupied territories and elsewhere in the Middle East, also called for an immediate halt to the hostilities. Gazan students who attend the agencys schools were among those killed. Children are and must be protected under International Law and those responsible for breaching their obligations must be held fully accountable, the agency said in a statement. Ambassadors from European members of the United Nations Security Council read out a joint statement exhorting the antagonists to stand down. We express our grave concern regarding the escalation in and around Gaza and the upsurge in violence in the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory, including in East Jerusalem, as well as in Israel, they said. We urgently call upon all actors to de-escalate tensions, end violence and show the utmost restraint. Until recently, Egypt was one of the few Arab countries with formal diplomatic ties to both the Palestinians and the Israelis, and it has played a role in mediating previous conflicts over Gaza. Now it has once again become a channel for defusing tensions, with Egypts foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, telling a meeting of the Arab League on Tuesday that Egypt had reached out to Israel and other concerned countries to try to calm the violence. Those efforts had not succeeded, he added. Megan Specia, Rick Gladstone and A senior American diplomat is headed to the Middle East to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to urge de-escalation and to bring calm, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday amid mounting violence. Speaking at the State Department in Washington, Mr. Blinken repeatedly affirmed Israels right to defend itself from rocket attacks from Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs the Gaza Strip. There is, first, a very clear and absolute distinction between a terrorist organization, Hamas, that is indiscriminately raining down rockets, in fact, targeting civilians, and Israels response, defending itself, Mr. Blinken said. But he also said Israel has an extra burden to try to prevent civilian deaths, noting that Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli strikes. Almost every morning for the past two decades, Juliet the macaw has been visiting the local zoo in Rio de Janeiro to interact with others of her kind through the metal enclosure. She is the only wild macaw in the Brazilian metropolis, and this is her only opportunity to socialize. Macaws are social birds, so loneliness is a tough burden to bare for Juliet, a beautiful blue-and-yellow macaw who calls Rio home. She is the only wild specimen seen in city since 1818, and no one really knows much about her. Zoo staff named the bird Juliet, but they dont even know if she is actually female. Its really hard to tell with macaws, and to establish her true gender they would need to capture the bird, and either examine her gonads or take blood or feather samples. And theres really no need to put Juliet through all that stress just to satisfy human curiosity. Photo: Christopher Kuszajewski/Pixabay All that everyone knows is that Juliet loves coming to the zoo every morning to be with others of her species. Sometimes she engages in grooming behavior through the metal fence, other times she just sits there simply enjoying the company, before flying off to God knows where for the rest of the day. Macaws have an average life expectancy of about 35 years, and Juliet has been around for at least two decades, so shes no spring chicken. Yet, she has never had a mate, built a nest or had chicks, and she probably never will, because theres just no one to do it with, which is pretty sad, if you think about it. Theyre social birds, and that means they dont like to live alone, whether in nature or captivity. They need company, Neiva Guedes, president of the Hyacinth Macaw Institute, told AP, adding that Juliet very probably feels lonely, and for that reason goes to the enclosure to communicate and interact. Luckily, there is hope for Rios loneliest bird. Through Refauna, an initiative which reintroduces species into protected areas, scientists want to raise some 20 chicks that will receive training on wild food sources, as well as predator and power line avoidance, before being released into the wild. The birds will be released into Rio de Janeiros giant Tijuca Forest National Park, where Juliet is believed to spend her nights. Scientists hope the birds will help maintain balance in the local eco-system, by using their big beaks to crack seeds that other birds cant, thus dispersing those seeds. But they will also become welcome company for Juliet, allowing her to fly with others of her kind for the first time in 20 years. And, who knows, maybe shell even find love. What you stand for is more important than ever, RBB Communications CEO Christine Barney tells Doug Simon in the latest PRs Top Pros Talk video interview, and making sure a companys views and opinions are effectively communicated to all stakeholders is one of the biggest challenges that PR pros currently face. Companies need to get their message out to both internal and external audiences, Barney says. Employees, she tells Simon, are increasingly looking to their employers as the number-one source of information. They want to know how companies plan to address such hot-button topics as climate change and racial inequities. External audiences, such as vendors and customers, Barney says, want to know what are the issues that are important to you so that they can decide if they want to continue to do business with you, expand their business with you, or in some cases, as we've seen with the cancel culture, make you a poster child for someone who's not doing it right or someone who is an exceptional leader in that space. Authenticity is key for B2B as well as B2C communications. I think many B2B companies were sort of taking a backseat for many years, she says, because it's much easier for a B2C brand to be in the spotlight. But thats not an option in todays marketplace. Even companies who didn't necessarily want a large consumer profile are starting to see that there's value in deciding what they stand for. Thanks to the growing interest in social issues, Barney says that the ESG space will only continue to grow in terms of being an umbrella for what companies need to do to make sure that their value proposition is presented. The future of the workplacevirtual or notis also addressed in the discussion. We've always had a work from anywhere policy. And I think that the pandemic has shown that we can work from anywhere. Increased flexibility can actually lead to things getting done faster, Barney says. I think the decision-making process for everyone is speeded up. That's good and bad. But I just think that it means that we can all look forward to thinking about how do we pivot, how do we take advantage of opportunities. And there's a lot less complacency in the business world, and that's a good thing. View all of the interviews in the PR's Top Pros Talk series. Subscribe to get notified when new episodes are available. Interested in taking part? Contact Doug Simon at dougs@dssimonmedia.com D S Simon Media helps clients get their stories on television through satellite media tours and by producing and distributing content to the media. The company also produces live social media events. Liz Cheney Liz Cheney deserves accolades rather than scorn from progressives for her revolt against the Republican partys cultish worship of Donald Trump and his effort to run roughshod over the US Constitution. The Wyoming Congresswoman spoke forcefully against Trumps bid to delegitimize and undo the legal outcome of the 2020 election. She blamed his lies and distortions for provoking the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riot. If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, Im not your person, you have others to choose from. That will be your legacy, Cheney told her colleagues as they stripped her of the No. 3 GOP leadership post on May 12. Purer-than-the-driven-snow liberals (Hello, Maureen Dowd) cant accept Cheneys war against her party's devotion to Trump and his effort to trample the Constitution. They cast her as an evil incarnate for backing the war-mongering policies of dad, Dick, conservative social policies and over-the-top criticism of Barack Obama as the most radical man to occupy the White House. Rather than knocking Cheney, progressives should embrace her because the 54-year-old promises to fight to save the Republican party from Trump. US democracy relies on the functioning two-party system. A robust American political system depends upon a Republican party interested in governing, rather than reflexively opposing any proposal put forward by Democrats. A strong Republican party also keeps Democratic excesses in check. In ousting Cheney, spineless Republican leader Kevin McCarthy called for a voice vote so his cowardly colleagues wouldnt be on the record for rejecting someone who took a stand for democracy. After that vote, Cheney vowed to do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets near the Oval Office. Progressives should help Cheney live up to her pledge. The Xinhua News Agency, which Reporters Without Borders, says is at the heart of censorship and disinformation put into play by Chinas communist party, is spending big money to influence American public opinion. The New China News Agency has finally complied with demands made by the Justice Dept. to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Its May 5 filing shows spending of more than $8.5M since March 2020 to bankroll bureaus in New York, DC, Houston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Xinhua disputes the notion that it is an entity tightly controlled by the Government of the Peoples Republic of China. In its filing, Xinhua claims that it is a news organization established as an independent legal entity under Chinese law. It is a public institution that is subject to government oversight. With only a small portion of its operational funds now coming from the Chinese government, Xinhua is increasingly relying on its own commercial and subscription revenue to sustain its global news operations, according to the FARA filing. Xinhua on May 12 certainly lived up to the Reporters Without Borders claim that it is Chinas biggest propaganda channel. It took issue with a report in the New York Times and European media about how plummeting birth rates in China could be one of the communist partys gravest and social and economic challenges. Xinhua quoted a foreign ministry spokesperson, saying Chinas population continues to grow and that it is still the worlds most populous nation. Spokesperson Hua Chunying noted that China has more people than the US and Europe combined. I dont know how the relevant reporters turned into demographers and sociologists, or how they came to the conclusion that China is facing a population crisis, said Hua. Note to Hua, the NYT based its story on figures released May 11 by Chinas National Bureau of Statistics. Hua said the western media is hellbent on attacking China at every stage of its development. I hope those who are keen on concocting various arguments about China can live as healthy and happy as the Chinese people, and welcome and witness the realization of the Chinese dream together. Hua should ask Tibetans and the Muslim Uyghurs living in Xinjiang province how that Chinese dream is working out for them. Former first son-in-law Jared Kushner launched the Abraham Accords Institute on May 4 to promote trade, tourism and people-to-people exchanges between Israel and Arab countries. Talk about bum timing. The Institutes debut came just ahead of the resumption of hostilities between Israel and the Palestinians, which UN envoy Ton Wennesland fears could lead to a full-scale war. The current Middle East carnage underscores the weakness of the Abraham Accords, an agreement that normalized relations between Israel, Bahrain and the UAEa trio that was not at war. The Abraham Accords ignored the Palestinians and their quest for an independent state. The Palestinians, in fact, had no clue about the negotiations leading up Kushners treaty. What did the Abraham Accords give the Palestinians? They got a promise from Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt rather than abandon the annexation of the West Bank. That is territory that would make up the land of a Palestinian nation. President Trump hailed the Abraham Accords as a deal to change the course of history that will serve as the foundation for a comprehensive peace across the entire region. Those were empty words. The Abraham Accords may have been a PR win for Trump and his embattled buddy Netanyahu but there wont be a lasting peace in the Middle East until there is peace between the Israelis and Palestinians. Jared should put his Institute on hold until the Abraham Accords can be extended to cover the Palestinians and their independent state. Glenisk and Self Help Africa are replanting 100 acres of former forest land near Glenisk's base in the county as part of their One Million Trees campaign. Vincent Cleary, Managing Director at Glenisk was joined by Self Help Africa CEO, Ray Jordan; campaign ambassador, Kathryn Thomas; and Pippa Hackett, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine to mark the large-scale forestation project, which will see hundreds of thousands of native Irish trees replanted on land adjacent to the Glenisk production facility in Killeigh, Co Offaly. First launched in 2020, One Million Trees is a local-to-global climate action programme by Self Help Africa, supported by Glenisk. The campaigns goal is to plant 1,000,000 native trees in sub-Saharan Africa and a further 100,000 native trees in Ireland, driven through public donations as well as funding and in-store promotions from Glenisk. Such was the respons to the first year of the campaign that the parties have committed to planting another One Million Trees in 2021. So far more than 1,000,000 tree seedlings have been planted in Africa across 138 sites as part of the campaign since March 2020. The initiative has seen 192,100 people trained, 1,900 acres of trees planted as well as an impressive 15 different varieties planted too. In late March, the one-millionth tree was planted on community-managed land close to Lake Ziway, Ethiopia, at a location where over 400,000 tree seedlings have been planted since Spring, 2020. Elsewhere, the campaign planted hundreds of trees on family farms, on community land and on publicly owned lands in Malawi, Kenya, Uganda and Burkina Faso. Planting native trees is vitally important; previous reforestation programs in Ireland have focused only on large conifer plantations used for the logging industry, which have not nourished the local ecosystems. Glenisk have focused on planting native Irish trees which include the likes of Birch, Oak and Wild Crab Apple which will have a far more positive impact on our environment and in supporting biodiversity. Despite the countrys move into lockdown and growing uncertainty around the globalpandemic within weeks of the campaigns launch in 2020, the campaign managed to capture the publics imagination and reach its ambitious target. One Million Trees ambassador, Kathryn Thomas described the support as the people of Ireland, yet again, showing what they are made of. The way they embraced this campaign and supported the efforts to plant trees at home and overseas, when so much else was happening in peoples lives, is a testimony to the Irish spirit, she said. Vincent Cleary, Managing Director at Glenisk is excited for the next chapter of the campaign as the local reforestation project commences. Climate change is yet another global pandemic we face, and now is the time to make meaningful change. We know that sustainability and environmental consciousness are genuine concerns for our customers and for our business, so we are proud to be able to take action through large scale tree-planting projects with Self Help Africa. This is one of many steps for the business in reducing our carbon footprint, as we increase our capacity for renewable energy to power our production and remove plastic from our packaging with new climate neutral pots. "The replanting of the former Glenisk Wood is an important step in reducing carbon from the atmosphere locally, in supporting biodiversity in the region and in the brands heritage. Self Help Africa CEO, Ray Jordan said that planting trees on lands owned by Glenisk in the Midlands was a fitting way to celebrate the success of the tree planting campaign of the past year. Speaking about the initiative he said, This has campaign provided us with an opportunity to raise funds for vital tree planting activities, and also highlight the huge impact that global warming is having on rural poor communities in Africa, where many of the people who are least responsible for climate change are feeling its worst effects. Pippa Hackett, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine is encouraging businesses to get involved in reforestation and other climate action measures: Climate change and the decline in biodiversity is having a significant and harmful impact on people across the globe. Its wonderful to see Glenisk a local Offaly company leading an initiative to plant native trees here in Ireland and in Africa. It demonstrates that there is a role for businesses, large and small, in protecting our environment. For further information on the Self Help Africa campaign visit www.selfhelpafrica.org or to donate 5 to plant ONE tree in Ireland and TEN trees in Africa. Revenue officials and Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) chiefs are being called on to investigate how the main organisers funded an 'illegal' Traveller wedding after party in Longford last week. In excess of 100 revellers celebrated inside a purpose built 2,000 sq ft marquee last Wednesday night only hours after county council bosses secured an emergency court order preventing its staging. The fallout, which courted prolonged local as well as national media attention in the days since, also sparked the hosting of two special circuit court sittings within the space of five days of each other. Now, less than a week on, senior tax and CAB officials are coming under sustained pressure to launch a major probe into how an event which is believed to have cost a high four figure sum was paid for. They (CAB) have been very active of late in Longford, said Chairperson of Longford's Joint Policing Committee Cllr Seamus Butler. Revenue also need to examine the whole thing and it would make sense as they, with CAB, work hand in glove anyway. Cllr Butler, who has led calls for CAB officials to home in on the main players behind Longford's criminal underworld for the past two years, said the move was merited given the goings on of the past seven days. He also said any inquiry would, invariably, gain further traction if engagement with garda management at a local level was made. The guards have profiles on all of these people, so they should be easily enough marked out, he added. Fellow JPC member Cllr John Browne said questions needed to be asked as to how such a large posse of party-goers were allowed to think they were above the law in defying a court imposed order. The issue is how come the law wasn't enforced, he asked. The reality is these people think the law doesn't apply to them. At the end of the day, these fellas ran rings around the guards. MET Eireann has issued a weather warning for 21 counties across the country. The forecaster is warning that scattered thunderstorms can be expected in most places from this Wednesday lunchtime. The status yellow alert, which was issued just after 10am, also warns there is a risk of hail and localised spot flooding in the affected counties. Thunderstorm Warning Level: Yellow Location: Munster, Leinster & Ulster Valid from: 1pm today Valid to: 10pm today https://t.co/Xg3aMJlyuS pic.twitter.com/WwcyC7Y4l2 Met Eireann (@MetEireann) May 12, 2021 The warning, which applies to Leinster, Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan and Munster is valid from 1pm to 10pm. Motorists are being urged to exercise caution if driving during the expected bad weather. A happy winner A happy winner Last May, we offered a DOXA watch. Here is the lucky winner! Last May, we offered a DOXA watch. ... The disease stems from a group of molds called mucormycetes that live inside soil and on plants. These muccormycetes can be found in the United States and are commonly picked up in hospitals by transplant patients if the mold is on hospital gowns or sheets, or if the mold makes its way through ventilation systems. It also can be found in ground-moving construction sites. The desperate COVID situation in Brazil, where the race is set down for November 7, has heightened concerns about the feasibility of Albert Park hosting the F1 drivers and their entourages a fortnight later. Argentina was already hurtling towards its second sovereign default in 20 years when the COVID pandemic struck. President Alberto Fernandez is in Europe this week, seeking support for extra time to pay. Nepals health care system is on the bring of collapse as the country has logged over 8,000 new coronavirus cases every day according to Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 data. As hospitals deal with an influx in cases, oxygen supply is drastically reduced forcing the Nepal Mountaineering Association to urge climbers of Mount Everest to return used oxygen canisters so that they me be used to treat patients. Actress Veena Malik from Pakistan posted a quote attributed to the infamous dictator who systematically murdered two-thirds of the European Jewish population in a now-deleted tweet. When all is said and done, this is not a government that has our best interests at heart. This is not a government that values.. Eurasia Review 03 May 2021 German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed regret that COVID restrictions have separated Muslims from their families and friends for a second year at Eid al-Fitr. However, he said, hope was around the corner. Ten people have filed a criminal complaint against Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, alleging torture and crimes against humanity. DW spoke with two of the individuals seeking justice. Eurasia Review 12 May 2021 Several commanders of the Hamas militant group have been killed in Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, Hamas and Israel announced.. Daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney has drawn ire of many in her party for denouncing ex-President Donald Trumps claims that he lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud German Health Minister Jens Spahn has urged individuals to get vaccinated as soon as they can rather than risk suffering from COVID. Meanwhile, the death toll in India has risen above 250,000. Follow DW for the latest. Eurasia Review 19 May 2021 Life for many expats in the Gulf/West Asian countries is part of a larger struggle against ever-increasing odds of daily.. Eurasia Review 27 May 2021 By Dr. Alon Ben-Meir* Since a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians has been agreed upon, there are those who.. The husband of a British woman who was strangled in front of her 11-month-old baby during a burglary in Greece said he begged.. Belfast Telegraph 12 May 2021 Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin was on Tuesday recommended by an expert panel for phase II/III clinical trial on those aged between two to 18 years, official sources said. The trial will take place in 525 subjects at various sites, including AIIMS, Delhi, AIIMS, Patna and Meditrina Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur. The Allahabad high court has asked the Uttar Pradesh government and the state election commission to rethink the amount of compensation for families of polling officers, who died due to -19 during panchayat elections, and observed that the amount must at least be to the tune of Rs one crore. (MENAFN - Gulf Times) Chinas population grew at its slowest in the last decade since the 1950s as births declined, sowing doubt over Beijings ability to power its economy as it succumbs to the same ageing trends afflicting developed nations like Japan. With growth having ebbed ever since a one-child policy was introduced in the late 1970s, the 2020 results of the countrys once decade census yesterday showed the population of mainland China increased 5.38% to 1.41bn. That was the least since modern census-taking began in 1953. Data showed a fertility rate of 1.3 children per woman for 2020 alone, on par with ageing societies like Japan and Italy. The shrill alarm for Chinas policymakers is that the worlds second-biggest economy may already be in irreversible population decline without having first accumulated the household wealth of G7 nations. The number meant China narrowly missed a target it set in 2016 to boost its population to about 1.42bn by 2020, with a fertility rate of around 1.8. In 2016, China replaced its one-child policy initially imposed to halt a population explosion at the time with a two-child limit. The sharp deterioration in demographics will fuel pressure on Beijing to ramp up incentives to couples to have more children incentives that have thus far failed to offset the impact of career choices and cost-of-living challenges that couples say have deterred them from starting extended families. Analysts said that with substantial ageing of the population already in view, the census numbers will also give ammunition to policymakers arguing in favour of raising the countrys retirement age sooner than later. ''From the trend of population development in recent years, the population growth will continue to slow in the future, said Ning Jizhe, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, speaking after the release of the census results. ''Chinas population will reach a peak in the future, but the specific time is still uncertain. It is estimated that Chinas total population will remain at more than 1.4bn in the near future, Ning said. In recent months, Chinas state media has been increasingly bleak on the outlook, saying the population may start to shrink in the next few years. The United Nations predicts the number of people living in mainland China will peak in 2030 before declining. But in late April, the Financial Times newspaper said the population actually fell in 2020 from a year earlier, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The 2020 number in the nationwide census was actually slightly higher than the 1.4005bn in 2019 estimated in a smaller official survey published in February last year. One bright spot in the data was an unexpected increase in the proportion of young people 17.95% of the population was 14 or younger in 2020, compared with 16.6% in 2010. From 2016 to 2019, the annual birth rate mostly declined with the exception of 2016. Last year, China recorded 12mn births, Ning said, sharply down from 14.65mn in 2019 and the lowest since 1961. ''It doesnt take published census data to determine that China is facing a massive drop in births, said Huang Wenzheng, a demography expert at the Center for China and Globalisation, a Beijing-based think-tank. Even if Chinas population didnt decline in 2020, the expert said, ''It will in 2021 or 2022, or very soon. Urban couples, particularly those born after 1990, tend to value their independence and careers more than raising a family despite parental pressure to have children. Surging living costs in big cities, where most Chinese now live, have also deterred couples from having children. According to a 2005 report by a state think-tank, it cost 490,000 yuan ($74,838) for an ordinary family in China to raise a child. By 2020, local media reported that the cost had risen to as high as 1.99mn yuan four times the 2005 number.MENAFN11052021000067011011ID1102066803 Around 150 Israelis marched through central Jerusalem late Tuesday, demanding an end to the latest cycle of violence that has killed a number of militants and civilians in Gaza and at least three Israelis. The founder of Greensill Capital - the firm which ex-prime minister David Cameron lobbied for - has denied his previous government role allowed him to win contracts for his business. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday said Israel has a right to defend itself while also condemning Hamas as violence and unrest continue to intensify in the region. 23ABC News | Bakersfield 13 May 2021 It's no secret there's some confusion over infrastructure: what exactly it covers, and how President Joe Biden plans to change the.. Fox News Senior Strategic Analyst Gen. Jack Keane said on Wednesday that the Biden administration must call out Hamas as a terrorist without equivocation. President Biden said during remarks on coronavirus vaccinations that he was not supposed to be answering questions. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has condemned Israel and reiterated support for Palestinians, as fatal unrest escalates. The OIC condemns in the strongest terms the repeated attacks by the Israeli occupation authorities against the Palestinian people, the pan-Islamic body based in the Saudi city of Jeddah said in a statement on Tuesday after an emergency session. [] Cheney is no longer conference chair. But until Wyoming voters repudiate her, she will remain an independently elected representative in the party of Lincoln, Reagan and, regrettably, Trump. Which means it remains her duty and her charge to continue to use her voice to speak the truth. That she did in her speech Tuesday night. It was short, but critically important: Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar. Republicans can make her a pariah, but they cannot shut her up. Kano, Nigeria (AFP) May 11, 2021 Nigerian troops repelled an incursion by Boko Haram jihadists into the northeastern city of Maiduguri late on Tuesday, killing five insurgents, military sources and residents told AFP. The attack, which happened as Muslim residents observing Ramadan were about to break their fast, was the latest violence in a more than decade-long insurgency in the region. Around 1700 GMT, militants in In the Tel Aviv suburb of Givatayim, shell-shocked residents were assessing the damage Wednesday after a rocket shattered their districts leafy calm for the first time in its history. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 1,000 rockets towards Israel since Monday evening, according to the Israeli army. Hamas, the Islamist group that controls [] DALLAS (AP) A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the National Rifle Associations bankruptcy case, leaving the powerful gun-rights group to face a New York state lawsuit that accuses it of financial abuses and aims to put it out of business. The case was over whether the NRA should be allowed to incorporate in Texas [...] WPTV News | West Palm Beach 27 May 2021 A member of the United Way of Palm Beach County is raising awareness about the growing number of attacks against Asian Americans.. Supports of both Israel and Palestine clashed on the streets of New York City Tuesday, following violent attacks in the Middle East this week. Protesters supporting Israel and Palestine came out to demonstrate in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and other U.S. cities on Tuesday as the violence escalated between the two sides overseas. A Jewish man was reportedly left bloodied and sought refuge in a New York City store Tuesday amid clashes Tuesday between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel supporters outside the Israeli consulate as tensions continue to flare in the Middle East. SeattlePI.com 22 May 2021 WASHINGTON (AP) The prospects for an ambitious infrastructure deal have been thrown into serious doubt after the White House.. CBS 11 Dallas 11 May 2021 The case was over whether the NRA should be allowed to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, where the state is suing in an.. Eurasia Review 29 May 2021 By Michael Eisenstadt* Since the creation of the Islamic Republic in 1979, Iran has distinguished itself (along with.. President Joe Biden pick Robert Santos, a Latinx statistician, is being hailed as the nations first census director of color. If embattled Americans find that puzzling, they might take a look at the Biden picks actual record. The Texas-born Santos serves as vice president of the Urban Institute, where his... Israeli forces and Palestinian militants continued to exchange firepower on Tuesday in what was the heaviest fighting between the bitter enemies since 2014. At least 14 children in Gaza and Israel were reported killed in the overnight violence between Hamas and Israeli forces. Eurasia Review 29 May 2021 By Sonia Qadir and Junaid S. Ahmad* As part of the ongoing Nakba, Israel has once again unleashed its latest reign of.. 2008-2021 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the federal government to halt arms sales to Israel amid escalating violence in the region. Jerusalem Post 08 Jun 2021 The ambassador explained that Hamas had intelligence and technological research and development offices in the building Israel.. Tiverton Mid Devon Gazette 03 Jun 2021 The 23-year-old Irishman had wins at the Exmoor Foxhounds meeting on Florrie Webb, Bridge Of Spies and Best To Come Some people were telling me to just use it as fuel to be a better comedian, but I just didnt feel that was the right thing to do. Asian-Americans are constantly being told to keep their heads down and become successful and one day all of this will be gone. But look at whats happening to us around the country. Asians are under attack, he said. Microgaming Unveils Flurry of New Slots for May 2021 Published May 12, 2021 by Mike P Mega Moolah Goddess and Ancient Fortunes: Poseidon Megaways are two of the 12 new video slots to release on the Microgaming network in May 2021. May 2021 has proven to be a banner month from UK-based software provider Microgaming, which has released several new games for participating casino sites. Microgaming now depends on a network of third-party studios that develops exclusive content for the provider. Serengeti Gold Developed by Just for the Win, Serengeti Gold is a safari-themed slot game with African buffalos, elephants, leopards, lions, and rhinos. Serengeti Gold includes Hyperhold respins and Static Jackpots with the prospect of a 2,500x Mega Jackpot. 10,000 Wishes Alchemy Gaming developed the 10,000 Wishes slot for release on 6 May with an Arabian theme and the ability to trigger a 10,000x jackpot within the Wheel Bonus. The jackpot round also has smaller tiers to play for, including Mini (15x), Minor (50x), and Major (500x). Scarab Gold Scarab Gold is an Egyptian slot from Inspired, which will also be responsible for the forthcoming release of the Cops n Robbers Megaways slot. In Scarab Gold, users will encounter the Mystery Boost feature within the slots mechanics. Mega Moolah Goddess Mega Moola is one of the most famous Microgaming releases, given that the slot has been developed with a multi-million-euro progressive jackpot. In the brand-new Mega Moolah Goddess slot, users will encounter an Egyptian theme and three scatters symbols that must be obtained to reach the jackpot wheel. Atlantis Rising The next slot is from SpinPlay Games and is entitled Atlantis Rising with the purpose of focusing on the legendary lost underwater civilisation. Released on 11 May, the Atlantis Rising slot incorporates themed special features in the form of Rising Wilds and Wild Blasts. Ancient Fortunes: Poseidon Megaways Partnered with Big Time Gaming (BTG), developer of the Megaways feature, Triple Edge Studios has produced the Ancient Fortunes: Poseidon Megaways for release in May 2021. With Rolling Reels and the ability to win by matching symbols in adjacent reels, the user can win one of 117,645 ways on each spin. Joyful Joker Megaways All41 Studios is the next to partner with BTG this time for the development for the Joyful Joker Megaways slot. Rolling Reels have also been integrated into a retro-inspired slot where the key symbols include bells, fruits, horseshoes, and jokers. Joker spins and free spins have also been included within the special features. Silver Seas Released on 20 May, Silver Seas is new from Gold Coin Studios and can enable users to win 2,000x times their stake by correctly aligning silver symbols. Meanwhile, the Free Spins Wheel can yield up to 30x free spins along with a 3x multiplier. King of Cats While Book of Inti releases earlier in the month from Golden Rock Studios, King of Cats is more eagerly anticipated, based on a third-party partnership with BTG. Developed as a double game, King of Cats lets the user choose to play either a lion or puma version of the video slot. Risitas en Gansters Arguably the strangest release is slated to be Risitas en Gansters, which released later in the month, having been developed by Spanish studio MGA Games. The slot centres on internet sensation El Risitas, who is famous for their laugh. Four years after lawmakers passed a $5.3 billion transportation package, House Speaker Tina Kotek wants to allow money that bill earmarked for the Rose Quarter freeway project to also jump start two additional megaprojects and launch the states congestion tolling program. Koteks bill, known as House Bill 3065, would allow Oregon to borrow as much as $600 million in the next few years to pay for projects to address what the state says are significant freeway bottlenecks in Clackamas County. It also would fund the estimated $300 million to $400 million the Oregon Department of Transportation projects it needs to design and begin operating a tolling system that varies toll rates based on how congested the freeways are at any given time. The two widening and seismic projects would take place at and around the Boone Bridge on Interstate 5 near Wilsonville and the Abernethy Bridge on Interstate 205 between Oregon City and West Linn, both of which state officials expect would fail in a major earthquake. In addition to authorizing new short-term, the legislation would give the state greater flexibility on how to spend the $30 million a year lawmakers allocated for the Rose Quarter project, which will be available starting in 2022. Kotek, a North Portland Democrat, on Tuesday briefed lawmakers on her newly amended bill, which was shaped in conjunction with a work group comprised of officials representing the state transportation agency, Metro, the Oregon Environmental Council plus tri-county officials and Portland transportation leaders. If approved, the bill would allow construction to begin next year on the first phase of what could be a $700 million project at the Abernethy Bridge. That project, which would widen and seismically retrofit the structure spanning the Willamette River, was included in the 2017 transportation package but wasnt funded. Koteks bill would also allow the Rose Quarter money to kickstart plans to widen I-5 and build a new Boone Bridge through Wilsonville. That project is estimated to cost as much as $550 million. The mammoth transportation package set in motion the effort to charge all drivers on portions of I-5 and I-205. But four years later, its not clear how much consensus exists on how to pay for the tolling program or the I-205 bridge project. The specter of a ballot initiative to either restrict the states tolling plans or require monies be spent on certain priorities is also an unsettled factor. Daniel Porter, the lead economist in the state transportation department, outlined a funding scheme that relies extensively on short-term debt predicated on future toll revenues to get the three freeway projects off the ground, while also progressively borrowing against $30 million a year in state gas tax revenue set aside under the transportation bills starting in 2024. Porter said the bureau needs gap funding to pay for these projects before toll revenue rolls in. Tolling is really the idea of how were going to pay for the rest of this, he said of the projects, which could total upwards of $2.5 billion. A $150 million freeway widening project on Oregon 217 was partially funded through the transportation package and is also expected to be built with money allocated in Koteks bill. Big questions loom. The state, for example, does not have an estimate for how much money it could collect via congestion pricing starting in late 2026 or early 2027. The Rose Quarter project, once estimated to cost $450 million, is now projected to cost $715 million to $795 million. That estimate may understate the total costs, as ZGF Architects is studying how the state could build more robust interstate covers, a key request from elected officials in Portland and the nonprofit Albina Vision Trust. The nonprofit is a Black-led organization that has for years advocated reclaiming the historically Black neighborhood that was decimated by the freeway. If the state decides to pursue substantial freeway covers that allow for additional housing or development, project costs could be significantly higher. The state still expects to break ground on the project in 2023, though a lawsuit filed by nonprofits and anti-freeway groups in April seeks to compel a more extensive environmental impact study that would delay the project for years. Kotek told the Joint Committee on Transportation that her bill would give the state nimbleness to build all the projects and includes a stipulation that projects not yet fully designed take into account how freeway pricing would potentially reduce vehicle miles traveled and the future capacity of the highway. The world has changed since 2017 and we need to move with it, she told the committee. The 2017 bill set the stage for congestion pricing but didnt provide ways to pay for it. The reality is, Kotek said of freeway pricing, were not anywhere close to getting that done. It also appears Metro area leaders arent close to agreeing on the matter. The latest iteration of House Bill 3065 stipulates Oregon is pursuing congestion pricing as a means to reduce traffic on Portland-area freeways and raise revenue to pay for freeway and other projects. It includes a provision that toll revenues may be used for multi-modal and transit projects to improve options for people who want to avoid paying the freeway charge but dont have viable alternatives. State transportation officials couldnt answer how much of the money would fund transit projects. Metro Council President Lynn Peterson offered a full-throated endorsement of those provisions, saying Oregon would be at the forefront nationally of efforts to charge drivers a variable rate to use highways. " No community has implemented the comprehensive traffic demand system envisioned by the dash eight amendments, she said, citing the latest iteration of Koteks bill. Students from Harriet Tubman Middle School and climate advocates gathered Tuesday night outside the state transportation departments Northwest Portland offices to demand a more extensive study into a proposed $450 million project to widen Interstate 5 through the Rose Quarter. December 10, 2019. Beth Nakamura/Staff Portland Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who oversees the city transportation bureau, similarly called it groundbreaking but expressed worry that highway expansion would take precedence over transit. I know that we have much work to do, she said. Clackamas County Chair Tootie Smith said she supports widening I-205 and addressing the Abernethy Bridge but said Clackamas Countys board doesnt support tolling. We believe it will have a disproportionate and disparate effect on residents of Clackamas County, she said, noting that I-205 tolls would arrive years before charges for those driving in Multnomah County. We are opposed to that, she said. Wilsonville Mayor Julie Fitzgerald similarly supported the Boone Bridge project but said congestion pricing should produce new improved facilities. And tolls should be implemented simultaneously on I-205 and I-5. TriMet officials told The Oregonian/OregonLive Monday that the agency had not been in contact with the speakers office directly. But the transit agency said it supported the bill, while noting that any funds generated for transit can only be used for capital investments. Additional operating funds may be necessary to serve increased ridership, the agency said in an email. The nearly two-hour public hearing also included a chorus of voices, including from younger metro residents, who said any investment in freeway widening is a vote for climate arson. Adah Crandall, a freshman at Grant High School in Portland who attended Harriet Tubman Middle school which sits adjacent to I-5, told the committee supporting the bill would be climate action, but in the complete wrong direction. We are running out of time, and I am terrified, she said. How do you talk to your children about the climate dystopia you are leaving for them? One such group, Sunrise PDX, said it will continue to picket ODOT facilities and demands a moratorium on all freeway projects like those included in Koteks bill. Joe Cortright, a Portland economist who has been a vocal critical of state freeway expansions for years, said the plan needs to put congestion pricing in place before any freeways are expanded. He said passing Koteks bill would also be a huge financial gamble because the state doesnt know how much toll revenue it will be able to generate and will go into debt with no assurances of getting out of it. The system that we have already built and already invested in is adequate, he said. Tuesdays hearing was noticeably bereft of voices from the trucking and automobile and driver advocate community. AAA of Oregon and Idaho did not testify Tuesday, and Jana Jarvis, the head of the Oregon Trucking Association, declined to comment. The state elected to keep the public hearing open and continue accepting testimony Thursday at the behest of Jarvis and those groups. The speakers office confirmed the bill must be scheduled for a work session sometime this month by Friday or it will die this session. We anticipate more technical changes, a spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. -- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen U.S. health advisers endorsed use of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine in kids as young as 12 on Wednesday, just as expected new guidelines say its OK for people of any age to get the shot at the same time as other needed vaccinations. The sprint to vaccinate millions of middle and high school students has already started in parts of the country, as a long line of kids rolled up their sleeves in suburban Atlanta for a first dose Wednesday. But much of the nation was awaiting recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that Pfizers vaccine, already used for months in those 16 and older, was a good choice for 12- to 15-year-olds, too. The CDC was expected to accept its advisers recommendation. It just felt like a flu shot, honestly, said Meredith Rogers, a 14-year-old middle school student from Decatur, Georgia, after getting her vaccination. Michelle Rogers, Merediths mother, said she hoped the youth vaccinations would help bring some normalcy back. A little apprehensive, but you know what? This is a step towards getting life back to normal so, were all in, Michelle Rogers said with a slight fist pump. Earlier in the week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the two-shot vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech. A study of more than 2,000 12- to 15-year-olds found the same dose adults use is safe and strongly protective in the kids, too. Among the outstanding questions: Is it OK to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the same doctors visit as people receive some routine vaccinations? Thats an urgent back-to-school concern especially for the 12- to 15-year-olds, who have missed out on regularly scheduled vaccines during the pandemic but also an issue for adults, too. The CDC until now has recommended not getting other vaccinations within two weeks of a COVID-19 shot, mostly as a precaution so that safety monitors could spot if any unexpected side effects crop up. But the CDC said Wednesday it is changing that advice because the COVID-19 vaccines have proved so safe and that health workers can decide to give another needed vaccine at the same time. The American Academy of Pediatrics on Wednesday also endorsed the Pfizer vaccine for the 12-and-up crowd and agreed that its fine to give more than one vaccine at the same time, especially for kids who are behind on their regular vaccinations. In the Pfizer study, there were no cases of COVID-19 among volunteers given the two-shot vaccination compared with 16 in the group given dummy shots. Kids also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than vaccinated adults. Side effects are the same as adults experience, mostly sore arms and flu-like fever, chills or aches that signal the immune system is revving up. Vaccinating Americans of all ages will be critical to getting back to normal, and theres plenty of supply for the nations nearly 17 million 12- to 15-year-olds. In addition to the mass vaccination sites and health department rollouts that were key for adults, many states will be offering kids more familiar options -- shipping doses to pediatricians and even to schools. Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize. As for even younger children, both companies have begun tests in youngsters ages 6 months to 11 years. Those studies explore if different doses are needed at the youngest ages, and FDA plans to hold a public meeting next month to debate exactly what evidence is needed. --The Associated Press Portland police issued an arrest warrant for the man they believe shot and killed a 30-year-old woman found dead in a North Portland apartment last week. Henry Deondrae Brogdon, 30, is wanted on second-degree murder charges in the death of Breauna White, who was killed Wednesday, May 5, police said. Investigators confirmed that Brogdon and White were in a romantic relationship. Police responded to North Willamette Boulevard and Charleston Avenue about 10:40 a.m. and found White suffering from gunshot wounds. She died at the scene, police said. The crime scene was a couple of blocks west of a the St. Johns neighborhood retail complex that includes Starbucks and Safeway stores. On the day of Whites death, a TriMet bus that had stopped on North Richmond Avenue was cordoned off, and investigators could be seen inside the bus. Images released Wednesday showed Brogdon on the bus shortly after White was shot, police said. Portland police issued an arrest warrant for Henry Brogdon, seen here on a Trimet bus, who is believed to be responsible for the murder of Breauna White. White was a mother of two children and worked as a bus driver for Trimet. Our hearts go out to Bre and her family, said Roberta Altstadt, a TriMet spokesperson. She was a valued bus operator and will be missed by her co-workers and the entire TriMet team. In an interview with KGW, Whites family remembered her as fun loving and social. She just wanted everyone to have fun, dance and laugh. Thats my Bre Bre, Whites cousin Loomis Hendrix told KGW. I have waves of emotion. Sometimes I find laughter in posts people are putting on my little cousins page about how comical was she was. She was a jokester, she loves comedy. Anyone who knows the exact whereabouts of Brogdon or sees him is asked to avoid contact and call 911, police said in a statement. -- Kale Williams; kwilliams@oregonian.com; 503-294-4048; @sfkale LONGVIEW, Wash. A Happy Valley man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and cyberstalking after he was found outside his ex-girlfriends home with a gun, a shovel, pickaxe and hatchet in his vehicle, authorities said. The Cowlitz County Sheriffs Office said Adam Diggins was booked into jail on five charges Tuesday. It wasnt immediately known if he has a lawyer. Last Thursday, the woman, who shares a child with Diggins, told authorities he was stalking her and had sent messages, lewd videos, pictures of a gun and had threated to kill her roommate, according to the sheriffs office. That night he allegedly said he was on his way to Longview, Washington and this time Im for real, the sheriffs office said. Authorities said they tried unsuccessfully to find him that night. The next day, the roommate called deputies and said Diggins made more threats, and that he was on his way from Gresham, Oregon to Longview to kill him, according to the sheriffs office. Deputies went to the Longview residence and, officials said, was there when Diggins sent another message from a nearby street. Cowlitz County deputies spotted him and took him into custody, authorities said. --The Associated Press First ketchup. Then chicken. Now, Chick-fil-As sauces. An email distributed to customers warned that industry-wide shortages thanks to the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the chains famous sauces. This notification can also be seen for those who have Chick-fil-As app installed and in a banner on the companys website. Due to industrywide supply chain shortages, some items, like sauces, may be unavailable. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience, the short notification stated. In the email to customers, it further elaborated that sauces will be restricted to one per entree, two per meal and three per 30-count order of nuggets. When you order through the app, it cuts you off when you reach your sauce limit. This includes packets of Heinz ketchup, which is experiencing a shortage of its own. However, 8 oz. bottles of sauce are still available through Chick-fil-As app as of Tuesday. You can also buy sauce by the bottle at some retail locations, including Target and Walmart. In central Pennsylvania, you can also find them at Giant and Weis. With all of these stores, the individual location might vary in stock and availability, so be sure to double check before heading out to get some. Other consumer goods affected by the pandemic range from toilet paper to pet food. But, if you are a fan of Grape-Nuts cereal, that shortage is thankfully over. Portland school board candidates have brought in nearly $100,000 in donations and more than one quarter of that cash has so far come from one source: the union representing the districts educators. With a week to go until Election Day, the Portland Association of Teachers has donated $13,000 each to the campaigns of Herman Greene and Gary Hollands, both of whom the union endorsed, campaign disclosure reports indicate. Greenes race, a four-way contest for the Zone 4 position currently held by Rita Moore, is among the most competitive this year. Two of his opponents also have raised and spent campaign donations. Jaime Cale, a Rosa Parks Elementary secretary mounting a write-in bid for the seat, has so far raised about $7,500 and spent $5,200. Brooklyn Sherman, a Portland State University student and 2020 Jefferson High grad, has raised nearly $2,400 and spent $890. But those war chests pale in comparison to Greenes, who as of Tuesday morning reported raising nearly $46,000 and spending about $34,000. At this point in the election cycle, candidates must report all the money and in-kind contributions they received as of seven days ago. Greene has spent nearly as much on lawn signs and brochures as Cale reported raising $6,300. His largest single expense is the $12,500 Greene paid to a campaign consulting firm. Bob Dobrich, Greenes campaign manager, said they decided early on to pump money into literature and social media. They dont plan on hosting in-person events or canvassing due to COVID-19. We have elected not to do that because people dont necessarily want a stranger coming up and knocking on their door, Dobrich said. Margo Logan, a child care consultant and the 2020 Republican challenger to House Speaker Tina Kotek, has not reported raising any campaign funding. Still, the $56,000 the three Zone 4 candidates have so far reported is just $4,000 shy of the total spending in 2019s most competitive race. Back then, Michelle DePass spent $47,000 in her campaign to win in Zone 2. Her opponent, Shanice Clarke, spent $13,000. Both women ended up working with Portland Public Schools in some capacity. Clarke is now the districts director of community engagement. She was hired in 2019 as a deputy to Jonathan Garcia, who was promoted earlier this year from that position to become Superintendent Guadalupe Guerreros chief of staff. All told, five candidates spent nearly $116,000 on their Portland school board campaigns in 2019, according to finance disclosures submitted to the Oregon Secretary of State. The candidates who have reported their campaign spending so far this year have paid out about $61,000. The two candidates who are spending money outside the race for Moores seat are incumbent Julia Brim-Edwards and Hollands, a small business owner seeking the seat now held by incumbent Scott Bailey, who is stepping down after one term. Even combined, campaign coffers from this years election and the most recent one dont come close to the $310,000 board member Amy Kohnstamm and her opponent, incumbent Bobbie Regan, raised and spent in 2015. Andrew Scott, elected in 2019, spent nearly $20,000 against an opponent who did not fundraise. Hollands is similarly running a five-figure campaign against a Zone 5 challenger who hasnt sought financial backing. Family physician Daniel Rodgers hasnt reported any campaign finances to the state elections office. Meanwhile, Hollands has paid the We Win consulting firm more than $18,000. Among his largest donors are another public employee union, AFSCME, which represents state, county and city workers and donated $1,500, and Hollands himself. He gave his campaign $20,000, campaign finance records show. Regan, Kohnstamms opponent in 2015, also donated $200 to Hollands campaign. After the teachers union and Holland, the largest contributor the three campaigns is the other public employees union, which has given $3,000, split evenly between Hollands and Greene. Brim-Edwards, the lone incumbent seeking reelection, is also the only person in the Zone 2 race running with any sort of financial backing. The Nike executive is notably running in the one race where the Portland Association of Teachers declined to issue an endorsement. Brim-Edwards has raised just over $17,000 and has nearly $12,000 left on-hand. Her campaign paid consulting firm Praxis $4,000 and was billed more than $18,000 by Morel Ink for printing, which Brim-Edwards had not reported as paid as of Tuesday evening. Under state law, candidates have seven days after they pay an invoice to report it. Her campaign is funded almost exclusively by individual donors, four of whom gave $1,000. The Stand for Children PAC donated $250. Neither of Brim-Edwards opponents, Max Margolis and Libby Glynn, have filed campaign finance disclosures with the secretary of states office. --Eder Campuzano | 503-221-4344 | @edercampuzano | Eder on Facebook Eder is The Oregonians education reporter. Do you have a tip about Portland Public Schools? Email ecampuzano@oregonian.com. In 2016, the comedian and social commentator W. Kamau Bell filmed an episode of his CNN series, United Shades of America, in Portland. Back then, the question was, had Black Portlanders been forced to move away from their historic Portland neighborhoods after they were gentrified by supposedly hip and cool whites? Bell came back to Portland in 2020, for another episode of his show, which will air Sunday, May 16. The episodes title, Power of Protest, indicates that Bell turned his gaze to protests that rocked the Rose City, especially in the summer of 2020, when then-President Donald Trump sent federal officers to downtown Portland, on the pretext of protecting federal property. The clashes between protesters, and federal agents armed with tear gas and crowd-control munitions, escalated into a pitched political battle. Trump condemned Portland, and Oregon politicians called for the federal agents removal, comparing them to an occupying army. As Bell says in his voiceover early in Power of Protest, Weve been here before, referring to Portland. Back then, though, it was to talk about gentrification, and make jokes about hipsters. Simpler times, Bell says. Though Bell first became known for his stand-up comedy, he has long been outspoken about social issues. In United Shades of America, now in its sixth season, Bell travels around the country to talk with locals, experts and activists to dig into potentially volatile topics. The first two episodes of Season 6, for example, took Bell to the Bay Area for an installment titled Policing the Police, and to Atlanta for Black to the Future, to explore efforts to increase inclusivity among workers in the science and technology fields. The protests in Portland that persisted for much of 2020 were sparked by the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died May 25, 2020, after then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee to Floyds neck for more than nine minutes. In April, Chauvin was found guilty of Floyds murder. After Floyds death, a massive protest movement against police brutality and anti-Black racism swept the country. Portlands protests became national news, as they continued even after demonstrations in other cities waned. Right-wing media played up the confrontations between Portland protesters and police as an example of a city governed by Democratic elected officials falling into chaos. The police came under harsh criticism for their tactics in dealing with protesters. In Power of Protest, Bell focuses on the clash between protesters and the forces called in by Trump. In characteristic style, Bell doesnt pretend to be an objective observer. He refers to the agents sent by Trump as militarized federal nincompoops. The question, Bell poses is, How did a city thats 70 percent white become the epicenter of 2020s Black Lives Matter activism? Answering his own question, Bell says, Honestly, where else but Portland? The city is a bright blue dot thats surrounded by the rest of Oregon, he says, which tends to be more red-state than blue-state. Add to that, Bell says, that in Portland, antifa, anarchists and activists have been fighting white nationalists for years. With this background, Floyds death, and Trump striving to make Portland a national example of lawlessness, Bell says its no surprise that Portland became a hotbed of Black Lives Matter activism. During the Power of Protest episode, Bell interviews Portland activists who want police defunded, wealth redistributed, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency abolished. Protesters recall being gassed, and suffering brutal treatment at the hands of federal agents, in particular. Among the people interviewed are Christopher David, the Navy veteran who went downtown to, as he said, ask federal officers why they were violating their oath to the Constitution. A video of David being beaten with a baton and pepper-sprayed by federal officers made news all over the country. Bell talks about the history of protest movements in the U.S., and how they have led to change, including women fighting for the right to vote, and the civil rights movement advocating for racial equality. Too often, Bell says, in such movements, Black women do a lot of the heavy lifting, while others get the credit. The Black Lives Matter movement was, he says, founded by three Black women, but Black men and white women are often the ones who get media attention. In Portland, Bell speaks with Shirley Jackson, a sociology professor at Portland State University. Its wonderful to have white allies, Jackson tells Bell, as they sit outdoors on the PSU campus. But if those white allies are speaking for Black people who have not asked them to do so, then thats problematic. One of the problems that we see sometimes in the way that people are looking at protests in Portland, Jackson goes on to say, is that its as though you are showing your Blackness if you are out there, supporting Black Lives Matter. But thats not the only way to show your support. Such actions, Jackson says, may be what some whites think that Blacks should be doing, but thats just part of the problem. Blacks should be determining what they want to do, and how their activism should look. It should not be dictated by people who have a stereotype of Black people, or a stereotype of Black activism. The matter of white activists drawing attention away from the cause of Black Lives Matter also comes up in a conversation Bell has with activist Demetria Hester. A regular presence at Portland Black Lives Matter protests, Hester also testified in the sentencing hearing for Jeremy Christian, who assaulted Hester in 2017, one day before he went on to murder two men and seriously injure a third on a MAX train. With Hester, Bell discusses the national media attention directed at the so-called Wall of Moms, a group of women who participated in protests downtown during the time federal agents were in Portland. America loved the wall of mostly white moms, Bell says. They were seen as protectors of democracy, and became instant media darlings. However, he goes on, behind the scenes questions were being asked. Where were all the Black moms in the wall? Bell says. Because, lets be real. Black moms deal with injustice at the hands of law enforcement way more often than white moms do. The Wall of Moms fell apart, and Hester formed a new group, Moms United for Black Lives. Referring to the national image of Portland that emerged in the summer of 2020, Bell says, if he were to believe the right-wingers, the QAnon-ers, and the GOP-ers, and some in the media, visiting Portland in the Fall of 2020 is a terrible idea. The episode cuts to clips of Trump, Fox News and ABC decrying Portland as a city in turmoil, then we cut back to Bell, as he sits calmly at an outdoor cafe table, sipping a glass of red wine. Theres this perception that Portland is sort of burning because its not upholding American values, says Randy Blazak, whom Bell interviews. Blazak, a sociologist and chair of the Oregon Coalition Against Hate Crime, says, My father was convinced that antifa is burning down the city. His mother, Blazak says, called to ask if protesters were trying to burn down my house. Citing the dangerous consequences of extremist views infiltrating conservative media, Bell points to the Jan. 6 insurrection, when Trump supporters broke into the U.S. Capitol. Some of Trumps political allies, Bell says, tried to argue that the attackers were actually members of antifa, masquerading as Trump supporters. Authorities have not found evidence that members of antifa groups infiltrated the ranks of Trump supporters on Jan. 6. That leads to a sequence where Bell meets with two masked people who say they are members of Rose City Antifa. In a darkened room, two people who conceal their identities beneath dark glasses and masks, talk about defending our community from right-wing extremists, such as the Proud Boys. The vast majority of the work that we do is spent doing research and trying to identify people on the Internet, saying violent, racist, disgusting things that they feel empowered to say, because theyre anonymous and on the Internet, says one antifa member, who is also anonymous, cloaked in head-covering gear that disguises their identity. Though United Shades of America addresses timely issues, the Power of Protest episode, seen now, feels more like a time capsule than a reflection of how the conversation in Portland is evolving. The national narrative from Fox News, for example, may still paint the city as a burning apocalypse. Local developments, however, speak to a more complicated situation, in which many Portlanders -- even if they support the Black Lives Matter movement -- are fed up with groups that engage in so-called direct actions, that end with setting fires, breaking windows and vandalizing property. Even ABC News, mentioned in Power of Protest for characterizing Portland as a city in turmoil, recently aired a Nightline segment about how Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and other locals are expressing frustration with the actions of a small group of demonstrators. Bell doesnt interview Wheeler, other Portland elected officials or members of law enforcement in Power of Protest. Instead, he ends the episode by saying that protesting is how Americans who believe in justice and joy will get those in power to make changes. We could avoid all of this, Bell says, if we just lived up to our ideals. Until then, Ill see you on those streets. The United Shades of America episode, Power of Protest, airs at 10 p.m. Sunday, May 16, on CNN. Subscribe to our free weekly What to Watch newsletter. Email: -- Kristi Turnquist kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israel on Wednesday pressed ahead with a fierce military offensive in the Gaza Strip, killing as many as 10 senior Hamas military figures and toppling a pair of high-rise towers housing Hamas facilities in a series of airstrikes. The Islamic militant group showed no signs of backing down and fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities. In just three days, this latest round of fighting between the bitter enemies has already begun to resemble and even exceed a devastating 50-day war in 2014. Like that previous war, neither side appears to have an exit strategy. But there are key differences. The fighting has triggered the worst Jewish-Arab violence inside Israel in decades. And looming in the background is an international war crimes investigation. Israel carried out an intense barrage of airstrikes just after sunrise, striking dozens of targets in several minutes that set off bone-rattling explosions across Gaza. Airstrikes continued throughout the day, filling the sky with pillars of smoke. At nightfall, the streets of Gaza City resembled a ghost town as people huddled indoors on the final night of Ramadan. The evening, followed by the Eid al-Fitr holiday, is usually a time of vibrant night life, shopping and crowded restaurants. There is nowhere to run. There is nowhere to hide, said Zeyad Khattab, a 44-year-old pharmacist who fled with a dozen other relatives to a family home in central Gaza after bombs pounded his apartment building in Gaza City. That terror is impossible to describe. Gaza militants continued to bombard Israel with nonstop rocket fire throughout the day. The attacks brought life to a standstill in southern communities near Gaza, but also reached as far north as the Tel Aviv area, about 70 kilometers (45 miles) to the north, for a second straight day. Were coping, sitting at home, hoping it will be OK, said Motti Haim, a resident of the central town of Beer Yaakov and father of two children. Its not simple running to the shelter. Its not easy with the kids. Gazas Health Ministry said the death toll rose to 65 Palestinians, including 16 children and five women. Islamic Jihad confirmed the deaths of seven militants, while Hamas acknowledged that a top commander and several other members were killed. A total of seven people have been killed in Israel, including four people who died on Wednesday. Among them were a soldier killed by an anti-tank missile and a 6-year-old child hit in a rocket attack. The Israeli military claims the number of militants killed so far is much higher than Hamas has acknowledged. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, said at least 14 militants were killed Wednesday including 10 members of the top management of Hamas and four weapons experts. Altogether, he claimed some 30 militants have been killed since the fighting began. While United Nations and Egyptian officials have said that cease-fire efforts are underway, there were no signs of progress. Israeli televisions Channel 12 reported late Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus Security Cabinet authorized a widening of the offensive. U.N. chief Antonio Guterres condemned the indiscriminate launching of rockets from civilian areas in Gaza toward Israeli population centers, but he also urged Israel to show maximum restraint. U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken called Netanyahu to support Israels right to defend itself and said he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to try to calm tensions. The current eruption of violence began a month ago in Jerusalem, where heavy-handed Israeli police tactics during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the threatened eviction of dozens of Palestinian families by Jewish settlers ignited protests and clashes with police. A focal point was the Al-Aqsa Mosque, built on a hilltop compound that is revered by Jews and Muslims, where police fired tear gas and stun grenades at protesters who threw chairs and stones at them. Hamas, claiming to be defending Jerusalem, launched a barrage of rockets at the city late Monday, setting off days of fighting. The Israeli military says militants have fired about 1,500 rockets in just three days. That is roughly one-third the number fired during the entire 2014 war. Israel, meanwhile, has struck over 350 targets in Gaza, a tiny territory where 2 million Palestinians have lived under a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade since Hamas took power in 2007. Two infantry brigades were sent to the area, indicating preparations for a possible ground invasion. In tactics echoing past wars, Israel has begun to target senior members of Hamas military wing. It also has flattened three high-rise buildings in a tactic that has drawn international scrutiny in the past. Israel says the buildings all housed Hamas operations centers, but they also included residential apartments and businesses. In all cases, Israel fired warning shots, allowing people to flee, and there were no reports of casualties. The fighting has unleashed violent clashes between Arabs and Jews in Israel, in scenes that have not been seen since 2000. Netanyahu warned that he was prepared to use an iron fist if necessary to calm the violence. But ugly clashes erupted across the country late Wednesday. Jewish and Arab mobs battled in the central city of Lod, the epicenter of the troubles, despite a state of emergency and nighttime curfew. In nearby Bat Yam, a mob of Jewish nationalists attacked an Arab motorist, dragged him from his car and beat him until he was motionless. In the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military said it thwarted a Palestinian shooting attack that wounded two people. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the suspected gunman was killed. No details were immediately available. Still unclear is how the fighting in Gaza will affect Netanyahus political future. He failed to form a government coalition after inconclusive parliamentary elections in March, and now his political rivals have three weeks to try to form one. His rivals have courted a small Islamist Arab party. But the longer the fighting drags on, the more it could hamper their attempts at forming a coalition. It could also boost Netanyahu if another election is held, since security is his strong suit with the public. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized power in Gaza from rival Palestinian forces in 2007. The International Criminal Court has launched an investigation into possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas. In a brief statement, ICC prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said she had noted with great concern the escalation of violence and the possible commission of crimes. The ICC is looking into Israeli actions in past wars in Gaza. Israel is not a member of the court, does not recognize the ICCs jurisdiction and rejects the accusations. But in theory, the ICC could issue warrants and try to arrest Israeli suspects while traveling overseas. Conricus, the military spokesman, said Israeli forces respect international laws on armed conflict and do their utmost to minimize civilian casualties. Israel clames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group fires rockets from residential areas. Emanuel Gross, a professor emeritus the University of Haifa law school, said Israel should take into consideration the concerns of the ICC. But he said he believes the military is on solid legal ground while rockets are striking Israeli cities. Thats the real meaning of self defense, he said. If you are attacked by a terrorist group, you defend yourself. --The Associated Press Fred Girod Girod represents District 9-Stayton in the Oregon Senate and is the Senate Republican leader. The vaccines for COVID-19 are incredibly effective. That is a big reason why most states in America are relaxing pandemic restrictions. Around the country, state legislatures are also moving to restore balance to government decision-making. At a time when Oregonians are craving stability, Gov. Kate Browns out-of-control lockdown strategy is giving Oregonians whiplash. They cannot even plan their lives a week in advance. Meanwhile, for more than a year, the Democrat-controlled Legislature has sat back and allowed the governor to repeatedly send thousands of Oregonians to the unemployment line, failed to challenge policies that closed schools and stood by as business closures wreaked havoc on low-wage workers. This pandemic has revealed that our state laws are a dangerous cocktail of unaccountability. The governor cannot run for re-election, so she isnt worried about being accountable to the Oregonians who elected her. The Legislature could pass laws to check the governors powers, but Democrats havent because its easier to blame the governor for any unpopular pandemic-related response and escape responsibility themselves. The result is a runaway train of unbalanced government decision-making that hurts thousands of workers. These same unchecked powers derailed our kids future by locking them out of school for over a year. The governors emergency edicts are still keeping families in limbo with a hybrid model that lowers standards and fails to meet the needs of too many Oregon students. The latest example of this unaccountability is the short-lived lockdown that just ended. Since her first emergency declaration over a year ago, the governor has not been required to consult anyone outside of her own handpicked political appointees. She has been given exclusive power to essentially decide who gets to have a job, who gets to operate a business and who gets to go to school. Our small businesses, workers and low-income families who cannot afford expensive private schooling are the hardest hit. The governors prior lockdowns have resulted in thousands of Oregonians with no jobs to return to. Over 1,000 local restaurants and bars have permanently closed because of her restrictions, according to the Oregon Restaurant and Lodging Association. Yet, to date, no super spreader event has been traced back to Oregon gyms or restaurants. Its past time for the Legislature to rewrite our laws to restore democratic norms and balance to government decision-making. In a democracy, no one person should have all this power. This isnt a new or radical idea. New York, Michigan , and Texas have all rolled back their governors concentrated powers. Its time for Oregon to do the same and restore accountability. Oregon Republicans have offered good-government reforms. We are ready to work in a bipartisan way to protect Oregonians livelihoods. Senate Bill 533 would limit the governors power during a state of emergency by prohibiting the governor from taking action that would keep Oregonians from working or operating their businesses. Senate Bill 789 would require the governor to get the Legislatures approval to extend an emergency declaration after 60 days. House Bill 3399 would guarantee that our kids will be back in school for five days a week of in-person instruction starting this fall. House Joint Resolution 18 would end the governors current emergency declaration to protect livelihoods. To date, Democrats have refused to give these common-sense proposals a hearing. Oregonians deserve their elected representatives to lead. Leadership means taking responsibility for tough decisions. The governor has too much power over the everyday lives of Oregonians. Its time for the Legislature to act as a co-equal branch of government. Sign up for our free weekly Oregon Opinion newsletter. Email: All my friends are coming over, and this is a unique way to make spaghetti for a crowd, the cook says as the person filming the process expresses skepticism. And its fun, its all just right in front of you, you dont have to worry about dishes or a mess or anything like that. Jordan Thierry and Justice Rajee Thierry is a documentary filmmaker and lives in Beaverton. Rajee, a parent of two children in Beaverton School District, is a community organizer and lives in Beaverton. One candidate for Beaverton School Board posted on her campaign Facebook page: Lets run from Critical Race Theory which teaches racism and go towards alternate solutions that creates unity and understanding. Another candidate posted on her campaign Facebook page that CRT (critical race theory) teaches hate. For an election that typically flies under the radar, the emergence of critical race theory as a campaign issue reflects the lingering influence of former President Donald Trump and confusion about what examining race in K-12 education actually means. The mischaracterization of critical race theory is no mistake. It is a platitude that has emerged from the political right in recent years in an attempt to undermine the work of social justice and equity advocates to address racial disparities in education. Last November, Trump commanded the Office of Management and Budget director to order executive agencies to cancel any contracts for training on the topics of white privilege or critical race theory. The memo ends with a similar mischaracterization: The divisive, false, and demeaning propaganda of the critical race theory movement is contrary to all we stand for as Americans and should have no place in the Federal government. These criticisms of critical race theory are rarely accompanied with an explanation or definition. Critical race theory argues that any thinking about race should recognize that race is a social construct with no biological basis. Further, that racism is embedded in our society and institutions. Acknowledging these realities as a starting point can help leaders examine and better understand why racial inequities persist in education outcomes. For example, in the 2018-19 school year, why did only 30% and 28% of Black and Latino 8th graders in Beaverton, respectively, demonstrate grade-level proficiency in math? Or why, more than 65 years after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, are the majority of Black students still attending racially segregated schools? By investigating such phenomena with a critical race theory lens, one can uncover the often difficult-to-see manifestations of systemic racism and reach beyond crude judgements of values and ability. In the classroom, such lines of questioning can also help students analyze the phenomena they experience in their assigned readings, classroom discussions and their own lives outside of the classroom. By acknowledging that racism and other systems of oppression have helped shape todays society, students are posed with valuable questions about how they have been impacted -- positively or negatively -- by those systems. This type of self-awareness is an important aspect in developing the leaders of tomorrow. Fortunately, some of our local leaders have demonstrated a commitment to look deeper at inequities through this type of lens. Over the past four years, the Oregon Legislature passed legislation mandating the inclusion of Indigenous history, the Holocaust, and ethnic studies in public schools. In 2019 the Legislature passed the Student Success Act, adding $1 billion annually to improve access and opportunities for students who have been historically underserved in the education system. These are steps in the right direction. Ironically, critical race theory is not included anywhere in the Oregon Department of Education state standards nor in the Beaverton School District learning targets, though critics have politically weaponized it, painting it as a threat to our schools. Racism and inequality are the real threats. Teaching our children to think critically about these realities is what education should be about. Sign up for our free weekly Oregon Opinion newsletter. Email: We are amid a civics education crisis in our state. Oregon is one of only 11 states without a required high school civics class. As a high school teacher, I know that when theres no mandated course, the quantity and quality of a students civics education depends entirely on the whims of their school, district or teachers. While some schools offer robust civics programs, others offer few options. It is no surprise that only 24% of high school seniors test at or above proficiency in civics or that significant gaps exist between students of color and white students. Teaching civics unlocks the systems that govern our society. If we want our youth particularly our Black and Indigenous students and other youth of color to build a better system with more equitable outcomes, we must teach them how to engage the levers of power. The House Education Committee must change this. Senate Bill 513, which would require one semester of civics education, passed the Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support and backed by hundreds of Oregon teachers. With the recent passage of tribal history, Holocaust education and ethnic studies bills, social studies departments across the state are already engaged in reorganizing the curriculum. Now is the time. Strong civics curriculum already exists, and schools would have five years to incorporate the course. This would not require new hires since social studies teachers are licensed to teach civics. As recent events have underscored the urgency of civics education, teachers are watching the House Education Committee and know they will meet the moment. Beth Merrill, Portland Merrill is a high school social studies teacher in the Beaverton School District. An anti-doxxing bill that passed the Oregon House with broad support could be amended in the Senate to shield public agencies from having to release certain personal information about their employees. In its original form, House Bill 3047 would allow people to sue someone who released personal information about them on social media or in another public forum if they could prove the release was done with the intent to harass or cause harm. It passed the House 58-0 in April. Doxxing is a term frequently used to describe the malicious releasing of a persons home address, personal contact information and other details about their personal lives to the wider public in a move seen as encouraging harassment. On Wednesday, the bill re-surfaced in the Senate Judiciary Committee with a proposed new amendment that would exempt some types of information about public employees from being released under Oregons public records law, including their home address, personal cell phone number, and personal email addresses. Current law exempts the release of this kind of information if its contained in a personnel file but does not directly address its release as part of other types of public records. The proposed amendment to House Bill 3047 would clarify that public agencies could decline to release the information, regardless of what type of document its contained in. Sensitive data such as drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers are never released, and that wouldnt change with this amendment. But Tom Holt, a lobbyist for the Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, said the proposal could significantly increase the cost of obtaining and providing public records, as agencies would have to scrub documents of other types of personal information contained under the exemption. But even if cost wasnt a factor, it could still have sweeping consequences, said Holt. It would interfere with some well-known reporting thats been done in recent years, he said. Reporting around where police actually reside versus the cities that theyre employed in. Or the case of some very senior officials of this state who used personal emails to conduct official business that was revealed through public records requests that would not be available under the terms of this amendment. The amendment was introduced on behalf of the League of Oregon Cities. Its lobbyist, Scott Winkels, said he was surprised at the opposition to the proposal, which he characterized as a technical change. We were just trying to align the language to what a lot of people in the state had always felt like it meant, he said, suggesting that information in a personnel file is already exempt from public disclosure, regardless of whether the document being released is actually part of the personnel file. Whether that information is currently exempt or not is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit between the city of Portland and an attorney seeking the release of cell phone records for Portland police officers. The amendment has the support of the largest union representing state employees in Oregon. Courtney Graham, a lobbyist for SEIU Local 503, said personal information about public employees is more likely to be publicly available because it is subject to public record. She cited recent cases of demonstrations outside the homes of state employees involved in enforcing the COVID-19 regulations on businesses as a reason to limit its release. In 2019, a similar proposal to limit the distribution of personal information about public employees was approved in the Oregon House, but was removed from the bill in the Senate before final passage. At the time, the public employees union argued that releasing home addresses and personal cell phone numbers would aid an anti-union group called the Freedom Foundation that was trying to convince public employees to opt out of union membership. We as a union have a legal responsibility to the people we represent and thats fundamentally different than the Freedom Foundation, SEIU 503 executive director Melissa Unger told The Oregonian/OregonLive at the time. We dont think its a best practice for employers to give out 30,000 emails and allow someone to mass email employees. Anything can be sent to any state employee. I dont know what the public interest is in that. No other employer in the world would release all their employee contact information. Ben Straka, a labor policy analyst for the Freedom Foundation, said the organization is following the amendments progress. Moving away from a more transparent public records law is probably not the way to go, he said. But Rep. Bill Post, R-Keizer, who is one of the sponsors of the underlying anti-doxxing bill, said he doesnt think the amendment should be added to the measure. I am not in favor of it, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee. It has nothing to do with this bill, and I do not believe it would have passed the House. A lobbyist for Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum also spoke out against adding the amendment to the bill. We really think that is a separate issue and would appreciate having that conversation in the Public Records Advisory Council, said Kimberly McCullough. The council was created by Oregon lawmakers in 2017 to evaluate and make recommendations concerning proposed changes to the states public records laws. The Senate Judiciary Committee did not act on the amendment or the original bill during its Wednesday meeting, but could schedule a vote before May 28. Chris Lehman clehman@oregonian.com A move to publicly disclose discipline taken against police officers in Oregon has become one of the more controversial law enforcement reform measures this session. An amendment to a House bill by Sen. James I. Manning Jr., D-Eugene, says a police agency could no longer keep an officers personnel records confidential under the states public records exemption law. The disclosure would include records of complaints or investigations of officers even in cases that dont lead to discipline. The amendment also calls for police agencies to keep disciplinary records defined as any record created for misconduct proceedings, not simply for technical violations -- for at least 30 years. Advocates for more police accountability applauded the amendment Tuesday, saying it would bring Oregon in line with other states. Police union representatives and lobbyists told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that it would be unfair to publicize unjustified complaints against officers. Manning said he intends to meet with both proponents and critics of the amendment to tweak the language to address some of the concerns. He said he doesnt want to curtail an officers due process rights but will work to keep the proposals underlying intent. That is, he said, a measure that holds officers accountable but at the same time doesnt cause any harm in terms of personal well-being. What we want to do is keep the profession as honorable as possible but also make it easier to identify those individuals that should not be wearing the uniform and get rid of them, he said. Rep. Janelle Bynum, D-Clackamas, said she supports Mannings amendment as a way to improve peoples trust in public safety. Bynum led a House subcommittee that helped craft the underlying House Bill 2929 approved by the full House. I believe that sunlight is the best disinfectant, Bynum said, and this is the one way to deliver sunlight to the people of Oregon. Laurie Roberts, state policy advocate for Oregons Innocence Project, said secrecy and police misconduct perpetuate wrongful convictions. The case of Michael Fesser in West Linn is a strong example of that and illustrates how easily an innocent person can be arrested and prosecuted based on false information supplied by untrustworthy officers, Roberts said. West Linn police arrested Fesser, a Black man from Portland, in February 2017 after a theft investigation instigated by Terry Timeus, West Linns police chief at the time. Timeus was doing a favor for a fishing buddy -- who happened to be Fessers boss, Eric Benson. Benson, a West Linn resident, owned A&B Towing Co. in Southeast Portland and targeted Fesser because Fesser had complained about racist comments and harassment at work. Fesser sued West Linn for wrongful arrest, and the city paid $600,000 to settle the federal civil case. Benson paid Fesser $415,000 to settle a separate civil suit. All theft charges against Fesser were dismissed. West Linn fired the lead investigator in the Fesser case as well as the police chief who succeeded Timeus and had defended some of the police actions to City Council members. There is simply no way to know how many other innocent people have been victimized the way that Michael Fesser was, Roberts said. Oregon has one of the strictest laws exempting certain police misconduct documents from the public record and should follow the trend of states such as New York, Maryland and Virginia, Roberts said. Those states have passed bills in the past year to expand access to police disciplinary records. In June, for example, New Yorks Legislature repealed sections of the states civil rights law that allowed the disciplinary records to remain secret. Attorney Juan Chavez, director of the Oregon Justice Resource Centers civil rights project, said the amended bill is long overdue' and would be a victory for transparency and civil rights. The records often stay under wraps until someone files a civil suit against an officer, he said. For a profession as powerful and potentially dangerous as law enforcement, the public needs a way to access and track discipline and misconduct allegations levied against the police force, Chavez said. He argued that criminal defense attorneys shouldnt have to rely on prosecutors to learn about allegations against officers who arrested a client. The state cant hold all the cards, he said. Attorney Dan Thenell, general counsel for the Oregon Fraternal Order of Police that represents officers across the state, and Michael Selvaggio, lobbyist for the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs, argued against the amendment. Thenell said the amendment goes too far in stripping away, without any safety mechanisms, the privacy interests of a public servant, who is subject sometimes to many, many complaints that are unfounded. He offered to work with lawmakers on the amendments language. Selvaggio said the coalition would support House Bill 2929 as it stands, but is concerned that baseless, anonymous complaints would be made public under the amendment and follow officers throughout their career. This is why public records exemptions exist in the first place for public employees, even for elected officials, Selvaggio said. If lawmakers pursue the amendment, Selvaggio said hed invite them to publicize any unsubstantiated allegations theyve faced. The underlying bill requires an officer to report misconduct by a fellow officer to a direct supervisor, someone in their chain of command or to the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training, the states police certification agency. An investigation into the reported misconduct would have to be completed within three months, unless extenuating circumstances exist. Any substantiated misconduct would have to be reported to the Department of Public Safety Standards and Training. -- Maxine Bernstein Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212 Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian Oregon lawmakers are on track to once again boost K-12 school spending by hundreds of millions of dollars above what state analysts say is necessary to maintain the status quo. By the end of this week, lawmakers are set to vote out of committee a state school fund budget that would send $9.3 billion to districts around the state to largely spend as local officials decide. Its roughly $300 million more than the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Office determined districts would need in order to continue todays level of programs and services for the next two years. That boost, coming during a pandemic and its associated economic downturn, could push Oregon closer to national average spending on public schools. The most recent federal data, from 2017-18, indicated Oregons average $11,900 per-student school spending was 6% below the U.S. norm, while neighboring Washington was 3% above it. In the coming two years, the Oregon Department of Education expects K-12 enrollment to remain essentially flat with prior years, rebounding from its one-year pandemic-induced slump. A significant reason for the states projection that schools dont need more money to hold steady: employee pension costs will drop. School districts on average had to pay an 18% premium on payroll toward retirement in the current budget, but that will drop to 14% in 2021-23, state officials say. A legislative analyst wrote that the lower pension rate was the primary factor that held the cost to continue existing K-12 programs and services at a hair below the current state school fund of $9 billion. Gov. Kate Brown and top legislative budget writers recommended allocating slightly more, $9.1 billion. Still, school administrators, the statewide teachers union and others testified that some districts would be forced to make layoffs and other cuts unless lawmakers approve a $9.6 billion state school fund. Nearly all the money for the state school fund comes from the general fund, lottery revenues and a business tax. But lawmakers want to get $200 million for the 2021-2023 by tapping a reserve account known as the education stability fund. Lawmakers already withdrew $400 million from the education fund during a special session last summer and the balance now stands at $415 million, according to state economist Josh Lehner. At the time, it was early in the pandemic and the latest state revenue forecast showed the state could face a $2.7 billion budget shortfall. Tax revenues turned out to be stronger than predicted and the state is now on track to bring in more than expected this biennium, so its unclear how lawmakers would justify a withdrawal from the education reserve account given the requirements to show a decline in the revenue forecast or employment. Dexter Johnson, the legislatures top lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment. The state school fund budget, Senate Bill 5514, is scheduled for a Ways and Means subcommittee vote at 1 p.m. Wednesday and a committee vote at the full Ways and Means committee at 8 a.m. Friday. All committee meetings are streamed live online. On top of the $9.3 billion state school fund, lawmakers are separately considering approving more than $1 billion in early childhood and K-12 education. That includes at least $800 million from a business tax approved in 2019 to fund non-competitive student investment grants, $307 million for career technical education and other programs aimed at boosting graduation rates under a 2016 ballot initiative and $329 million for early childhood intervention and education funding, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office. School districts can also count on a roughly $1 billion infusion from federal pandemic recovery aid. This would be at least the fourth biennium in a row that Oregon lawmakers funded the state school fund well above what legislative analysts say is necessary to continue current services and programs. -- Hillary Borrud; hborrud@oregonian.com; @hborrud Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories. Former clients of Portland online banker Simple remained unable to access their accounts Tuesday, and they were unable to reach the bank that now holds their money after its customer service systems crashed amid a flood of calls from outraged customers. Simple was owned by Spanish banking giant BBVA, which announced in January it would shut down the Portland banker and transfer clients accounts to BBVA. That transition took place on schedule Saturday, but BBVA botched the handover and locked many customers out of their accounts. While BBVA said clients can still use their debit cards and make ATM withdrawals, customers say they have been unable to make other transactions or access their accounts online since Saturday. Simple customers turned to social media to express their outrage. FYI for any @simple customers trying to get into their new @BBVA_USA accounts: I spent an hour on hold only to be told once I got to a live person that the whole system is down and I should try again in 90 minutes, one wrote on Twitter Tuesday afternoon. Absolutely FUBAR. FYI for any @simple customers trying to get into their new @BBVA_USA accounts: I spent an hour on hold only to be told once I got to a live person that the whole system is down and I should try again in 90 minutes. Absolutely FUBAR. Dont bother waiting on hold today. Katie Padilla (@katie_padilla) May 11, 2021 BBVA declined comment on the ongoing mess but said Tuesday afternoon on Twitter that its phone lines were automatically disconnecting some calls and that a system outage is preventing call center operators from accessing the information of customers who do get through on the phone. Technical teams are working to resolve both problems, the bank said. Your patience is appreciated as our agents work to resolve calls quickly and efficiently. Customers responded angrily online. Ive been patient for FOUR DAYS, one wrote. Ive spent countless hours on the phone trying to get through to someone and your lines just hang up on me!!! Simple customer Nick Welch was planning to make a down payment on a new home in Portland this week but lost access to his new BBVA account when Simple shut down. Since BBVA doesnt have a branch in Portland, he spent $500 to fly to California on Tuesday and wire his down payment directly from a BBVA branch near San Francisco. As of Tuesday afternoon, he was officially a homeowner. Despite the ludicrous reasoning, the trip itself was quite pleasant, Welch said. I was even able to get a celebratory lunch at In-N-Out with a good friend. Founded in 2009, Simple helped pioneer a new class of online-only banking customized for the smartphone generation. It gained a devoted following, but not a large one, and in January parent bank BBVA announced plans to permanently shutter Simple and laid off the bulk of its 220 employees. Simples former employees reacted with sadness online Tuesday as they watched BBVA flail. I assumed that everybody just closed their accounts, but sadly, it looks like many people gave BBVA the benefit of the doubt, Simple co-founder Shamir Karkal wrote on Twitter Monday. Karkal worked as a BBVA executive after Simples sale, then launched his own financial technology startup, Sila. I assumed that everybody just closed their accounts, but sadly, it looks like many people gave BBVA the benefit of the doubt. Shamir Karkal (@shamir_k) May 11, 2021 -- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699 Netflix ordered two sequels, both directed by Rian Johnson and starring Craig, after the smash success of the original mystery film, which also featured an ensemble cast. Both sequels will stand alone. Wildlife Recovery Association in Shepherd recently released a longtime guest: a merlin. According to Barb and Joe Rogers of Wildlife Recovery Association, merlins are among the smaller species of falcons and their coloring provides good camouflage among tree branches. Their anatomy, paired with their secretive nature, makes spotting them an often-difficult task. Merlins tend to nest in spruces or thick conifer trees near a river, sometimes building off an abandoned crows nest. A typical clutch includes four eggs that hatch within a month; in another month, the fledglings are ready to leave and make their own home. As they mature, merlins exchange their downy baby feathers for striped brown bellies in their first year. A fully mature merlin will have a blueish grey back and buffy underside. Much of a merlins knowledge of danger and hunting tactics come from their parents, which will dive at and buzz around predators or call loudly to draw attention away from the nest. The Rogers explained that merlins have also faced problems in recent decades due to pesticides becoming prevalent in their environment, similar to the issues bald eagles experienced due to DDT. There was a time that merlins were almost gone from Michigan. Just as eagles have made a fantastic recovery, Merlins are now showing up in areas where they have not been seen before, at least in anyones memory even in backyards within suburbs. Range maps will show them to nest in Michigans Upper Peninsula and north into Canada, but we are now seeing them in the mitten and throughout Michigan, Barbara said. A young male merlin in the area ran into trouble last autumn when he fell into a window well with an injured wing. Barbara suspects the bird had flown into a window and fell into the well where he was trapped; she explained this is a typical injury in birds. A local man retrieved the bird and contacted local rehabilitator Carol Schreiber who in turn reached out to Wildlife Recovery Association. Upon further inspection, the merlins wing suffered no fractures, but took several weeks to heal. Rogers placed him in one of the organizations five flight cages to recover and condition his flight muscles. By that time, we were well into winter, and we determined that it would be better to release this young falcon in spring, Barbara said. A small group, including Joe and Barbara Rogers, gathered on Saturday at Chippewa Nature Centers wetlands area to send the merlin off. Elli Cline, who has interned and volunteered with Wildlife Recovery Association since January 2018, personally released the merlin. Cline, who has worked with another merlin at Wildlife Recovery Association for educational programs, was honored to help release the bird, as she will soon be leaving for Alaska. As a budding wildlife biologist, this is the end goal, Cline said. As Cline released the merlin, it flew a few yards before resting in a tree. Joe explained that typically birds will perch between five to 20 minutes after theyre released to reorient themselves and calm down after being handled by humans. Sure enough, the merlin bobbed around for about 10-15 minutes, attracting the attention of several smaller birds nearby, before fully taking off. Merlins have been listed on the Michigan Endangered Species list. Perhaps we can keep the environment clean and safe enough for these beautiful small falcons to better survive well into the future, Rogers said. If an owl, hawk, or eagle is in need of rescue, call the Wildlife Recovery Association at 989-772-1538, and leave a message. Wildlife Recovery Association is a 501(c)3 charitable organization dedicated to education, rehabilitation and research of wildlife. To donate to help these magnificent birds, visit wildliferecovery.org or write to Wildlife Recovery Association, 531 S. Coleman Road, Shepherd, MI 48883. Lauren Smit of Midland and Nolan Kukla of Auburn, students at Alma College, have been selected for membership in Phi Beta Kappa, Americas most prestigious scholastic honorary society. The newest members were inducted during an in-person ceremony on April 22 at Zimmerman Hall, in the colleges Wright Leppien Opera House. The ceremony was one of the first large, in-person gatherings held at Alma College this past year, organizers said, and was a return to normalcy after last years induction ceremony was held virtually, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Among those in attendance were President Jeff Abernathy, as well as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Kathleen Dougherty. Several students who were inducted last year attended and were inducted in-person at this years event. Phi Beta Kappa is the highest honor the college can bestow on our graduates. Your work here exemplifies the work we hope all students will do, Abernathy told the students in attendance. Congratulations to each of you for all you have accomplished here and for the remarkable achievement that is the honor of joining Phi Beta Kappa. The event was highlighted by two finalists for the 2021 Barlow Trophy, Kaleb Ramon and trophy winner Maggie Patterson, who was selected by five separate inductees to introduce them to the organization. The practice a member-read introduction message on behalf of inductees, an idea conceived by PBK inductee Elizabeth Flatoff was implemented for the first time this year by acting president Nhan Le to build relationships between generations of members and inductees. Despite the in-person nature of the event, organizers conducted it in strict classroom decorum as stipulated by Alma Colleges safety protocol throughout the school year. Everyone attending in-person wore a face covering and maintained social distancing, forgoing customary gestures like hugs and handshakes in favor of warm greetings. This year marks the 41th anniversary of Alma Colleges chapter, which was founded in 1979. The colleges Eta Chapter is one of 290 in the United States and one of eight in Michigan. NEW YORK (AP) Children ages 12 and older can now roll up their sleeves for COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S., offering parents and schools a chance to relax their pandemic precautions and bringing the country a step closer to controlling the virus. A government advisory committee recommended Pfizer's vaccine for children 12 and older on Wednesday, after the Food and Drug Administration expanded authorization of the shots to the age group earlier in the week. Heres what you need to know: ARE THE SHOTS THE SAME AS THOSE FOR ADULTS? Yes. The dose and the schedule are the same; the two shots are given three weeks apart. WHERE CAN KIDS GET THE SHOTS? Pharmacies, state sites and other places that are already vaccinating people 16 and older with the Pfizer vaccine should be able to give the shots to all authorized ages in most cases. All those sites can simply extend down to the younger age group, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDAs acting commissioner, said in a call with reporters after the agency expanded authorization. School districts are also preparing to host vaccination clinics to speed up the campaign. And since parents might feel more comfortable with their pediatricians and primary care doctors, health officials are working to make the shots more widely available at private practices. WILL KIDS NEED A GUARDIAN? Parental consent will be needed, but exactly how its obtained could vary. For vaccinations at school-based clinics, for example, parents might be able to give consent by signing a form, said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and president of Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Walgreens said a parent or guardian will need to be present and sign a consent form, but noted guidelines on parental consent vary by jurisdiction. In Pennsylvanias Montgomery County, anyone under 18 needs to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Proof of guardianship and the childs age arent being checked, said Kelly Cofrancisco, a spokeswoman for the county, which began vaccinating younger teens Tuesday. HOW WAS THE VACCINE VETTED FOR KIDS? Pfizer's late-stage vaccine study tested the safety and efficacy of the shots in about 44,000 people 16 and older. The study then enlisted about 2,200 children ages 12 to 15 to check for any differences in how the shots performed in that age group. This is just extending it down from 16 and 17 year olds, and getting further information, Woodcock said. None of the children who got the real shots in the study developed COVID-19, compared with 16 who got the dummy shots. That confirmed previous finding among adults that the shots are highly effective. Children were also followed for two months after the second shot as part of the study. Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children's Hospital, said theres no reason the shots would be less effective or have any unique safety issues in children compared with adults. WHY ONLY THE PFIZER VACCINE? Because only Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with its German partner BioNTech, has completed studies in younger teens. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, but regulators still need to review the results before it can be offered to younger people. WHAT SIDE EFFECTS ARE EXPECTED? Common side effects were similar to those experienced by adults, and included fatigue, headache, muscle pain and fever. Except for pain in the arm where the needle is injected, the effects were likelier after the second shot. Dr. Michael Smith, medical director of the Duke Children's Health Center Infectious Diseases Clinic, noted that younger people tend to have more robust immune systems that respond better to vaccines. That explains why side effects were more common in the 12 to 15 age group than among adults, he said. It's also why trials for children younger than 12 are testing different doses. You need to find that dose that is enough to give a good immune response, without giving too many side effects, Smith said. Dosages for children and adults are the same for many other vaccines, he noted. CAN KIDS GET OTHER ROUTINE VACCINATIONS AT THE SAME TIME? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it's updating its guidance to say other routine vaccinations can be given at the same time as the COVID-19 shots. It previously advised against other vaccinations within a two-week window so it could monitor people for potential side effects. The American Academy of Pediatrics said it agrees with the position. WHEN WILL YOUNGER KIDS BE ELIGIBLE? Its unclear how long the ongoing trials or regulatory reviews will take. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, recently suggested it could happen this year. We think by the time we get to the end of this year we will have enough information to vaccinate children of any age, he said. WHY SHOULD KIDS GET VACCINATED? Even though children are far less likely to get severely ill if infected, health officials note the risk isn't zero. Vaccinating children is also key to ending the pandemic, since children can get infected and spread the virus to others, even if they dont get sick themselves. About 20% of the U.S. population is younger than 16, according to Census data. That included about 16.7 million children ages 12 to 15 in 2019. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. LANSING, Mich. (AP) Michigan Republicans' lame-duck maneuver to weaken voter-proposed minimum wage and paid sick leave laws was unconstitutional, organizers of the ballot initiatives said in lawsuit filed Tuesday. The complaint came more than 16 months after the state Supreme Court declined to issue a rare advisory opinion on the legality of the move, which could have prevented a lengthy court fight. In 2018, the GOP-controlled Legislature engaged in adopt and amend, a controversial and unprecedented strategy. To prevent minimum wage and sick time ballot drives from going to the electorate, after which they would have been much harder to change if voters had passed them, legislators approved them so they could be made more business-friendly after the election with simple majority votes and the signature of the outgoing Republican governor, Rick Snyder. The suit filed against Attorney General Dana Nessel in her official capacity in the state Court of Claims says the state constitution forbids the Legislature from amending an initiative petition that it has enacted in the same session. The laws are null and void," and the original bills are in full force and effect," according to the filing. One new law gradually increases the states minimum wage to $12.05 an hour by 2030, instead of to $12 by 2022, as was initially enacted. It also reversed a provision that would have brought a lower wage for tipped employees in line with the wage for other workers. The other law exempts employers with fewer than 50 employees from having to provide paid sick days, a change that is estimated to leave up to 1 million employees without the benefit unlike what was proposed. It also limits the amount of annual mandatory leave at larger employers to 40 hours, instead of 72 hours. Plaintiffs include Michigan One Fair Wage and Michigan Time to Care which organized the ballot drives other groups and two residents who say they lost out on wages, earned sick days or both. What they did was immoral, and unconstitutional, said David Woodward, a former Democratic state legislator and a leader with One Fair Wage. "Today, we go to court to fix a wrong, and raise wages for Michigan workers. In 2019, Nessel, a newly elected Democrat, declined to review the constitutionality of the move noting the Supreme Court had agreed to hear arguments. Her predecessor, Republican Bill Schuette, had endorsed the strategy's legality. The suit accuses Nessel of blocking raises and paid sick time by not superseding or rescinding his opinion. She also refused to issue an opinion after the high court decided not to weigh in early, said Mark Brewer, the plaintiffs' lawyer. A spokeswoman for the attorney general declined to comment. ___ Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00 The Midland community has an unprecedented opportunity to weigh in on how a citizen-led commission should draw up new districts for the U.S. House of Representatives, the Michigan House of Representatives and the Michigan Senate. Historically, this had been a task of the Legislature, but voters in 2018 passed a constitutional amendment to place the responsibility in the hands of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. Voters approved the measure in an effort to end partisan political gerrymandering. The advisory body is holding public hearings throughout the state, including one in Midland on May 25, from 6 to 9 p.m., at the Great Hall Banquet & Convention Center, 5121 Bay City Road, in Midland. The League of Women Voters (LWV) of the Midland Area is publicly urging voters in Midland County to attend this public hearing. Redistricting in Michigan has been a very political process that has historically taken place behind closed doors and out of the public eye, said Kim Steinke, LWV president. This new independent process gives everyday Michigan residents the ability to draw the states legislative and congressional districts which is why public participation in these hearings is an important part of the democratic process. Members of the public can attend the public hearing in-person or virtually. Virtual meetings can be accessed on the Redistricting Michigan Facebook Page or Michigan Secretary of State YouTube Channel. Voters, said the LWV, can find registration links and the procedure for making public comments on the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting (MICRC) website. The commission has scheduled 16 public hearings, beginning with a May 11 session in Jackson and concluding with a July 1 hearing in Grand Rapids. This new process will result in political boundaries being established for the next decade. The district lines are expected to be determined no later than Nov. 1, 2021, and will be in effect for the 2022 primary and general elections. Midland's LWV, along with local leagues across the state, has undertaken widespread educational efforts to help voters understand redistricting and to ensure the commission respects communities of interest throughout its process of drawing new maps. So-called communities of interest may be made up of ethnic, religious, or immigrant communities, tourism areas, media markets, outdoor recreation or natural resource areas, among other distinguishing factors. The idea, officials said, is to build new districts that serve these communities well, something critics maintain was not necessarily happening with prior redistricting efforts. The 13 commissioners that comprise the MICRC were randomly selected from over 9,000 applicants across Michigan. They represent diverse backgrounds and different political interests, officials said. The LWV of the Midland Area will hold an informational town hall at 7 p.m. May 17 on Zoom. Visit LWV-Midland.org for the Zoom link. Public hearings are not the only option for voters to provide input to the redistricting commission. The state has set up a public comment tool at www.michiganmapping.org and will also accept emails directed to redistricting@michigan.gov. If youre interested in receiving updates on commission meetings, subscribe at www.michigan.gov/micr. With many city board and commission sitting vacant, Midland City Council members discussed who should interview candidates and how long they should serve. These discussions happened during this week's Midland City Council meeting after the topic was discussed in another meeting on April 12. Some commission members were not in favor of term limits for these positions while others were adamant in perusing them. After council member Steve Arnosky requested that city staff look into term limits during the April 12 council meeting, City Manager Brad Kaye surveyed 36 municipalities in Michigan to see if they had term limits for boards and commissions. These ranged from large ones like Detroit, to smaller ones like Bay City and Mount Pleasant. From this research, Kaye said 31 of the 36 municipalities have no term limits at all, two had term limits on all their boards, and the rest had limits on just one or two boards and commissions. Arnosky said when board and commission members reach the end of their terms in Midland, the city asks if they want to stay on the board. If they yes, they would remain on the commission, with the position never open to the public. He initially suggested hard term limits. Sensing that many other council members were not in favor of absolute term limits, Arnosky said he would be in favor of having council and board members go through an interview process at the end of their terms. This will allow for other community members to apply as well. Council member Diane Brown Wilhelm said she does not think term limits are a good fit for the Midland community, and believes the current process works. She is also concerned there is an agenda being pushed with pushing for term limits. What is the issue that we're trying to solve by doing this? Wilhelm said. I do not see an issue with the way we are running and operating now. Why are (we) going to change something that has been working well? Wilhelm and Midland Mayor Maureen Donker are also concerned about the lack of interested candidates for these vacant positions. Donker said she reached out to other municipalities herself and said they laughed at the idea of term limits, saying they had trouble filling the positions as is. It is a volunteer position, so people are volunteering their time, Wilhelm said. If they are doing a good job, we need to provide that opportunity for them to continue giving back to the community. Arnosky said that no matter how good of a job they are doing, there needs to be fresh faces looking over boards and commissions, to bring new ideas with them. He said some of these board and commission members have been serving for around 10 to 20 years. No matter how good a job they're doing, you at some point in time, you have to say, it is time for a change, Arnosky said. Along with term limits, Arnosky wants a more formal process for deciding which council members interview candidates for certain boards and commissions to better represent the community. Wilhelm was indifferent to recording names, since she said council rotates these responsibilities overall. Donker thinks term limits will be a point of discussion moving forward for the council. We have people who have been on there for a long time because they have something to offer, Donker said. Do you say, go away because they have served us for so many years? I think it warrants more discussion, and we have to find a balance in that too. My country is at war. I worry for my family, my friends. I worry for my people, Gadot posted on Twitter and Instagram. This is a vicious cycle that has been going on for far too long. Israel deserves to live as a free, safe nation. Our neighbors deserve the same. I pray for the victims and their families, I pray for this unimaginable hostility to end, I pray for our leaders to find the solution so we could live side by side in peace. I pray for better days. Midland County's register of deeds joined her state counterparts Tuesday to oppose new legislation local officials say will give away Michigan taxpayers property data to big tech firms for free. House Bills 4729-4732 are up for consideration on in the Michigan House Commerce & Tourism Committee and should be defeated, according to the Michigan Association of Registers of Deeds (MARD). MARD reports the legislation will eliminate the statutory fees required for copies and images of data from Michigan property ownership records. These user fees are what pay for Michigans system of recording property ownership, sales mortgages and more. "Without these user fees, Michigans taxpayers will be required to foot the bill to maintain the very electronic systems these technology giants are profiting from," states a news release from MARD that Midland County Register of Deeds Julie K. Atkinson forwarded to the Midland Daily News. "But, under the proposed legislation, out-of-state big tech companies would essentially pay nothing as they data mine detailed personal and property information on millions of Michigan families and use it to generate big profits through the services they sell as they devise ways to repackage and further monetize the information. Michigan has a well-functioning system that ensures funding for the technology and infrastructure needed to securely record property ownership, mortgages and other real estate transactions, stated MARD President Michelle Stevenson. But, if these bills become law, Big Tech companies will avoid paying their fair share for the information that has turned some into billion-dollar companies. We need to stop the Big Tech giveaway. Currently, Michigan law requires that a fee of $1 per page is paid when property record searches are done at county register of deeds offices. "But, national technology companies want to conduct massive data mining operations on Michigan property owners in order to profit on selling real estate-based services across the country," MARD's release states. "That is why they are pursuing legislation that would essentially leave them with all of our data for only the cost of a thumb drive and the cost of postage needed to mail it to Silicon Valley. Furthermore, eliminating fees for these types of data mining operations may only make it easier for criminals and scammers to obtain and use property owners information in any number of criminal activities that will hurt Michigan residents. Michigans Registers of Deeds are the local officials charged with the responsibility of securely recording every property transaction and preserving these records in perpetuity. This not only means documents recorded electronically today, but also the microfilm, digital images and even paper documents that go back 150 years. "That responsibility requires a funded system of well-trained staff, advanced technology, climate-controlled storage, and cutting-edge security to stop online hackers and scammers who attempt to defraud property owners and mortgage companies each and every day," MARD's release states. "MARD strongly opposes the bills because Michigan taxpayers would be forced to continue funding our property record infrastructure on their own. Meanwhile, 'big tech' would get to use that system nearly free-of-charge to generate billions in revenue and profit for themselves by selling the personal data of Michigan residents." Cancer. Cardiovascular disease. Diabetes. Suicide. All those are very familiar and among the top leading causes of death in the United States. They also are clearly recognized, and rightfully so, as health priorities in Michigan thanks to dedicated, funded, state department sections and units. Most of us are also way too familiar with Alzheimers disease and its growing personal and economic burden. While Alzheimers is one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the United States, it still does not have adequate support and recognition in Michigan. As our population is aging, more Americans and Michiganders are living with the disease. In 2020, an estimated 6.2 million Americans over 65 had Alzheimers disease, including 190,000 in Michigan. By 2025, this number is expected to increase 15.8%. Because of lack of local/state resources and/or cost-of-care, many family and friends are serving as Alzheimers caregivers. In Michigan alone, 463,000 caregivers provided a total of 491 million hours of unpaid care, valued at a total of $8.5 billion. As Alzheimers disease is still uncurable, death rates continue to climb. One in three seniors dies of dementia, including Alzheimers, killing more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. Since 2000, death rates in other major diseases have remained flat or decreased while deaths due to Alzheimers have increased by an alarming 145%! The costs are unsustainable. For the fifth consecutive year, the cost of caring for individuals with Alzheimers is surpassing a quarter of a trillion dollars. Here in Michigan, the Medicaid costs of caring for people with Alzheimers are estimated at $1.4 billion. By 2025, these costs are projected to increase by 16.9%. Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia impose significant health care costs as well as an incalculable human toll on individuals and their caregivers. More help and resources are needed to educate, support and inform Michiganders. As it is already the case for the other main leading cause of death, direct funding for a Dementia Unit within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is long overdue. It is a necessity to lay the groundwork, and organize efficiently state resources, for tackling this growing and devastating public health crisis. We need dedicated staff, statewide collaboration with various agencies, and a dementia public awareness campaign here in Michigan just as we do for many of the other top 10 leading causes of death. I have seen first-hand, like many of you, the devastating effect of a family member diagnosed with Alzheimers dementia, and I sadly expect it to happen again. I have, as a scientist, been working for two decades on the understanding of Alzheimers disease, hoping that it will lead in the near future in the development of molecules that can slow, stop or even prevent its progression. This is a cause that couldnt be closer to my heart. Its also something I hope future generations dont have to experience. Recently, the Alzheimers Association Michigan Chapter hosted its annual Advocacy Day. People living with dementia, their families and caregivers have met with Michigan legislators, and advocated for the creation of a Dementia Unit here in Michigan. I greatly appreciated the time and energy given by lawmakers present during Advocacy Day. But we must now do more than talk. We must take action. Michigan can and must do more to address adequately Alzheimers and dementia, as they do other leading causes of death, by investing in a Dementia Unit to best serve the health care needs of Michiganders right now and until a cure is found. Yannick Marchalant, the interim director of the Neuroscience Program at Central Michigan University, is an Alzheimers Association volunteer and advocate who resides in Midland. I can think of no individual better suited to take on this role than Ms. Phylicia Rashad, Howard University President Wayne A.I. Frederick added. As we reintroduce our campus community and the world at large to Howards College of Fine Arts, the dean will play an instrumental role in ensuring an auspicious beginning for this reestablished institution. Given Ms. Rashads reputation as well as her capabilities and impressive list of accomplishments, she will undoubtedly empower the college to transcend even our incredibly high expectations. Under her leadership, Howard will continue to inspire and cultivate the artists and leaders who will shape our niche and national cultures for generations to come. Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - Domestic and foreign pressure is now mounting against the Sudanese army to expediently hand over the soldiers who fired at peaceful demonstrators, killing at least two and injuring dozens of others on Tuesday Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) - The Sudanese Army has set up a Committee to investigate Tuesday's shooting by soldiers of demonstrators commemorating the death two years ago of youth camping outside the Army Headquarters in Khartoum Khartoum, Sudan (PANA) The United States on Wednesday condemned the use of live ammunition against peaceful protesters in Khartoum and called for a probe into the incident and prosecution of the perpetrators Now in its fifth year, the ongoing partnership between Swiss watch brand Richard Mille and luxury British supercar maker McLaren Automotive takes the form of the RM 40-01 Automatic Tourbillon McLaren Speedtail. Both watch and hypercar will be produced as an exclusive limited edition of 106. RM 40-01 Tourbillon Automatique McLaren Speedtail Mathieu Cesar Design Covering 112 metres per second, the McLaren Speedtail, the third car in McLarens Ultimate Series, owes its eyewatering speed to 1,070 horsepower but also to its design. Based on a droplet shape, the most aerodynamically efficient shape found in nature, it enables the Speedtail to reach a top speed of 402kph/250mph. McLaren Speedtail John Wycherley Like the hypercar on which it is based, the RM 40-01 Automatic Tourbillon McLaren Speedtail mimics this droplet form with a case (41.80 x 48.25 x 14.15mm, in titanium and Carbon TPT for lightness and resistance) that is wider at 12 oclock than at 6 oclock, with a further taper between the bezel and the caseback. Bezel indentations reference the bonnet openings on the Speedtail, while pushers recall the air outlets behind the front wheels. The orange line that runs from the 6 oclock position onto the strap is a shoutout to the vertical stoplight in the Speedtails rear screen. Because collaboration also implies adaptation, Richard Milles casing department devoted 2,800 hours to perfecting the cases lines for a seamless combination of both partners design cues. RM 40-01 Tourbillon Automatique McLaren Speedtail Richard Mille Mechanism Part of the watchs protective coating, grade 5 titanium is also the material of choice for the rotor core, baseplate, bridges and bridge screws. In a first for a Richard Mille in-house tourbillon, the CRMT4 calibre introduces a function selector, a power-reserve indication and a large date. A pusher at 4 oclock switches between winding, neutral and time-setting, with the corresponding function shown in an aperture at 3 oclock. Across from it, at 9 oclock, is the power reserve of up to 50 hours when the movement is fully wound. The date, at 12 oclock, is adjusted by a pusher located at 8 oclock rather than the more obvious 11 oclock position for visual balance. Mirroring the Speedtails powerful engine, the RM 40-01 Automatic Tourbillon McLaren Speedtail beats at 28,800 vph. RM 40-01 Tourbillon Automatique McLaren Speedtail Richard Mille The crossover between hypercar and hyper watch is not only visible on the outside; multiple references to McLaren are found on the inside of the watch as well. For example, several of the wheels are machined with the automakers logo, while the winding rotor in platinum and 5N red gold looks to the Speedtails bonnet. This new movement architecture took 8,600 hours of development, a large part of which went into finalizing details. RM 40-01 Tourbillon Automatique McLaren Speedtail Fabien Nissels RM 40-01 Tourbillon Automatique McLaren Speedtail Richard Mille So, ready for life in the hyper fast lane?! Corvallis, OR (97331) Today Rain showers this morning with overcast skies during the afternoon hours. High 68F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Cloudy this evening with showers after midnight. Low 49F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40%. Major players in the citrus industry have backed using the pesticide as orange production has plummeted in recent years, in part because of citrus greening disease, which is transmitted by a type of insect. But farmworker and environmental groups have fought the use of aldicarb, contending it poses threats to workers and wildlife. This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact the Parsons Sun office at (620) 421-2000 if you have any questions As Apple's WWDC 2021 event inches closer, Apple has published a series of press releases promoting developer programs and developer apps to pump up the troops. Today, Apple has published a press release titled " Coders, designers, and entrepreneurs thrive thanks to Apple Developer Academy," wherein they note that "Thousands of students worldwide will have access to expanded Apple Developer Academy programming." The first Apple Developer Academy opened in Brazil in 2013, with the goal of providing the tools and training for aspiring entrepreneurs, developers, and designers to find and create jobs in the thriving iOS app economy. Since then, the company has opened more than a dozen academies across the world with two more on the way: one in Korea, and one in Detroit, Michigan, the first-ever US location. The program has empowered students around the world with app development and entrepreneurial training, many of whom have gone on to start their own businesses, create and sell apps on the App Store, and give back to their communities. With the expansion plans underway, thousands more students worldwide will now have access to these opportunities each year. The new academy programs in Detroit and Korea will join more than a dozen other sites in Brazil, Indonesia, and Italy. Across the world, whether students are in Naples, Italy, or Jakarta, Indonesia, academy participants learn the fundamentals of coding as well as core professional competencies, design, and marketing, ensuring graduates have the full suite of skills needed to contribute to their local business communities. The curriculum also incorporates Apples values throughout the coursework, encouraging students to design inclusively and make a positive impact in the world. (Click on image to view in Jumbo mode) Apple Developer Academy graduates around the world have gone on to start their own businesses, create and sell apps on the App Store, and give back to their communities. Apple offers two distinct training programs as part of the Apple Developer Academy: 30-day foundations courses that cover specific topic areas, including an introductory course for those considering app development as a career path, and a more intensive 10- to 12-month academy program that dives deeper into coding and professional skills. Applications for the first academy cohort in Detroit Apples first Developer Academy in the US open this week. The academy, part of Apples Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, is scheduled to open in October in a newly redesigned space in downtown Detroit. All Michigan residents 18 and over are welcomed to apply, regardless of prior coding experience, at developeracademy.msu.edu/students. For more on this, read the full Apple press release. Other recent Press Releases related to developers: 01: Three apps enabling financial wellness for all (Click on image to Enlarge) 02: Celebrating Mothers Day with the creators of Winnie, an app to find childcare Dr Gordon Ofei-Larbi, a Cardiothoracic Surgeon, says children with hole in heart conditions at the National Cardiothoracic Centre, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, are in dire need of help. He, therefore, appealed to benevolent organisations and individuals to support the Unit to provide timely healthcare services to them. Dr Ofei-Larbi made the appeal when he received some support on behalf of the Cardiothoracic Centre from Angel Smile Foundation Ghana (ASF-Ghana), a non-profitable organisation. ASF-Ghana donated 170 half pieces of cloth and headgears to women on admission at the Cardiothoracic Centre and Maternity Wards of the Hospital to mark the Mothers Day celebration. Madam Iris Kwashie, the Secretary to the Foundation, said the gesture was in recognition of the selfless and unconditional love mothers gave to children, hence the need to commend and appreciate them. She said mothers sacrificed so much to raise children and such efforts must be acknowledged and rewarded. On Mothers Day, we, the Angel Smile Foundation Ghana, want to wish mothers in a special way. Our founder, Prophetess Beatrice Ayorkor Adjetey, was a single mother so she knows the pain and challenges of motherhood., she said. As part of celebrating mothers, she decided to show love and kindness to mothers in a way of congratulating and encouraging them to have hope, do more and never give up on their good work. We celebrate mothers more because it is the mother who has close contact with the child and, as a result, influence how children behave. Madam Kwashie said mothers must, therefore, take interest in everything their children did, including the friends they chose, to ensure the child was influenced positively to grow into a responsible citizen. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Government has with immediate effect dissolved Operation Vanguard which was dedicated to the fight against illegal gold mining menace. The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor, reiterated this at the Meet the Press at the Ministry of Information on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. The Minister stressed that no task force has been sanctioned to go after or harass illegal miners. He, however, pledged the governments commitment to resolving the menace, stressing no person or mining machinery is permitted along areas that have been earmarked as red zones and a 100-meter boundary. The red zones and 100-meter boundary are areas where no person is allowed to undertake a mining activity, Hon. Jinapor explained. ''We've also observed that some [should I say] rogue imposters are taking advantage of the atmosphere and the quest for enforcement [to go about] to go around the country harrassing small-scale entities, people who are in involved in small-scale mining. I want to clarify that what the Military are engaged is being codenamed or dubbed 'Operation Halt 2' and the Minister for Defence has been very clear about it...that relates to only the red zones, water bodies, forest reserves. ''In case of water bodies, 100 meters away from the banks of any water body in our country. Forest reserves, we are clear about them. So, that is the current ongoing operation. The Military are not involved in any other operation. If there's going to be any other operation outside the 'Operation Halt 2', that will be sanctioned by the official authorities, either by myself or Minister for Defence or National Security or whoever or the government establishment.'' He made it ''very clear that taskforces which are moving about the country harrassing small-scale miners, whether they're involved in legal or illegal mining, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has not mandated the operation of any taskforces. I believe that's very clear...The activities and operations of 'Operation Vanguard' have been suspended for the time being. Operation Vanguard is no more in operation as we speak''. The Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul, speaking at the event, also accentuated that any person caught mining within the 100-meter radius will be dealt with and their machines (excavators) burned down. Over 200 police personnel deployed Over 200 police officers have been deployed to various mining sites across the country to enforce the recently announced directives on artisanal mining as well as ward off illegal miners. The deployment comes on the back of a similar deployment of officers from the Ghana Armed Forces. Speaking at an event to dispatch the officers, Deputy Minister-designate for Mines and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker urged them not to allow themselves to be compromised with financial inducements as this will ruin the good intentions of government. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Kenya has banned all flights from neighbouring Somalia just a week after the two countries announced they had restored ties following months of a diplomatic row. A notice issued from the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority said only medical emergency evacuation flights and those on Un humanitarian missions would be allowed into Kenyan airspace. No reason has been given for the suspension, but the director-general of Kenyas aviation authority told a local television station that the directive came from the government. The Ministry of Foreign affairs is yet to issue a statement on the ban. Kenya and Somalia have been embroiled in a bitter maritime border dispute since 2014, when Mogadishu brought a case against Kenya at the International Court of Justice. The row concerns a 62,000 sq mile (160,000 sq km) triangle in the Indian Ocean which is thought to be rich in oil and gas. Somalia also accuses Kenya of interfering in its internal affairs by backing the administration of the semi-autonomous Jubaland region against the federal government. Kenya denies this. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Ghana Armed Forces have commenced "Operation Halt 2" to stop illegal gold mining activities along the river bodies and forest reserves in the country. "Operation Halt 2" is a second phase of the Military action to remove persons and machinery in the mining areas with the aim of restoring the river bodies to its purest form. The operation, which began on Friday, May 7, 2021, has so far been very successful. Minister of Defence, Dominic Nitiwul disclosed this at the 'Meet The Press' series organized by the Ministry of Information on Tuesday, May 11. Speaking to the press, the Minister stated that a joint team of the Ghana Army, Ghana Navy and the Ghana Air Force have been deployed to undertake the operation. He revealed that the Military has since last Friday set fire to twenty-eight (28) excavators and further destroyed 267 changfang machines and five (5) canoes among other mining machinery. The activity was undertaken along the river bodies specified in the President's statement such as River Pra and other areas prohibited for mining. " . . within the specified areas, the Armed Forces destroyed twenty-eight (28) excavators. The last time it was nine (9) but this time 28 excavators were destroyed. It's clear to me that people are not listening. In fact, they don't care . . . Two hundred and sixty-seven (267) changfang machines with platforms were destroyed . . . A changfang is a floating vessel or floating platform where they sink some pipes under and scoop the sand and wash the sand in the middle of the river with chemicals. If you have a river where you have over 300 of such machines washing every minute for 24 hours, you could imagine the devastation that this will cause to the people of Ghana. "So, you could imagine the damage that these people are causing to the kidneys of the young people in the area, innocent young people. How many of them will be able to buy excavator but they're forced to drink this now orange-looking water because somebody says I must make money. It's terrible. So, 28 excavators were destroyed, 267 changfang machines with the platforms were destroyed, 18 water-pumping machines were destroyed, 1 milling machine was destroyed, 1 dredging machine was destroyed, 2 industrial pumps - huge industrial pumps - were also destroyed, 10 plastic fuel tanks were destroyed, 5 canoes were destroyed, 1 wooden accommodation building destroyed...'', the Minister said. The Minister commended the Military for their commitment to end the illegal mining (galamsey) menace. "I want to first congratulate the troops to have travelled over a 100 kilometers in the last episodes because they did over 100 km strecth with virtually no roads, very difficult terrain. It's not easy job. They had to go into difficult muddy waters. They could easily have gotten drowned and NADMO was graciously enough to also assist [us] all of them with these life-saving jackets and they had to tie ropes around their [neck] waist to ensure that nobody could get drowned because you would see a flat plain and you think that it's normal but, when you step in there, you're sinking into the mud and anybody could have died. That's how bad the situation is and I would wonder how many of our young people have died as a result . . . the bad nature that these people have left." Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul says no arrest of illegal miners have been made since the Military commenced operations in the mining areas. A combined team of the Ghana Armed Forces, Ghana Navy and the Ghana Air Force have been deployed to stop illegal mining activities along the river bodies and forest reserves. Updating the media on the Military operation during the Information Ministry's 'Meet the Press' held in Accra, the Minister revealed that a total of 28 excavators have been burned since last Friday and 267 changfang machines destroyed during the Military operation. He explained there have been no arrests because the illegal miners ran away upon seeing the Military personnel. ''There was no arrest made because most illegal miners took to their heels. The moment they see the Military, they took to their heels but the Military decided that, at this face, they will not be shooting anybody. So, they run off and so they couldn't get people to arrest and for the, even the safety of the troops themselves, they decided that, if somebody is running into the forest, into the bush, you don't know what he is carrying, you don't know what he is doing; the only thing you could have done is to have shot him but they decided that this is not the time to do that. Maybe in future, it may happen; I don't know but, for now, this is not the time to do that and so we couldn't make any arrest for now.'' He, however, advised the illegal miners not to take it as a weakness of the Military for them to have been able to escape. " . . take that not to be a weakness, arrest will be made and people will be prosecuted," he assured. The Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has instructed the Military to remove all persons and machinery involved in illegal gold mining. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video No cruise line is involved in the suit. But executives have been vocal about the governments slow pace of allowing the industry which has been shut down since March 2020 to resume operations. Some lines have started operating cruises out of foreign ports. And Frank Del Rio, the CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., has threatened to move his companys ships out of Florida. The Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, Samuel Abu Jinapor has justified why excavators used in mining areas deserve to be razed to ashes. The Minister, speaking at the ''Meet the Press'' series held at the Ministry of Information, stated that it is not his delight nor his Ministry's to hope for gold miners' excavators to be burned, but the illegal miners have ignored his warning to them. He told the press that his Ministry gave a 7-day ultimatum to the illegal miners to evacuate their machinery from the mining areas but they have refused to heed. ''The Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources issued a statement under my hand and gave a window of escape. Even that, some people criticized it that why do you give a warning? But we thought that we should be sensitive. We should be humane. We gave seven (7) clear days for people to evacuate and here we are, the instructions are being enforced and as always, as it happens in our part of the world, you will have people begin to raise issues here and there.'' He renamed the burning of the excavators a ''decommission'' exercise saying he supports the Military's action to destroy them. ''What will an excavator be doing on River Pra? What will an excavator be doing on River Offin or a changfang be doing on River Pra? Ghanaians and all of us, I will respectfully submit, that we should interrogate the issue from that point before we get to the stage of what has happened to that excavator and that is it right or wrong to decommission that excavator. "In terms of the social debate, I will once again contend that we begin the debate from what will an excavator possibly be doing on a river body and if, as a people, we're able to answer that question that, yes, an excavator can be there to construct a road or do some sort of activity which is in the interest of the public or which is good and so on and so forth, then we can begin to make some efforts and can begin to move forward on that. But if we come to the conclusion that an excavator ought not to be on a river body and it's not as though we woke one night overnight and said all excavators on river bodies will be decommissioned. We never did so," he stressed. To him, the Military's action is a patriotic one and needs to be commended. "I very strongly but respectfully conclude by saying that it's either we're fighting this menace or we're not. It's either we're determined to clear our water bodies and forest reserves or we are not. We cannot waver in this matter. So, the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources and, for that matter, government supports the Ghana Armed Forces in this patriotic work they're engaged in." Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Covid-19 pandemic was preventable, an independent review panel has said. The panel, set up by the World Health Organization, said the combined response of the WHO and global governments was a "toxic cocktail". The WHO should have declared a global emergency earlier than it did, its report said, adding that without urgent change the world was vulnerable to another major disease outbreak. More than 3.3 million people around the world have now died of Covid. While the US and Europe are beginning to ease restrictions and resume some aspects of pre-pandemic life, the virus is still devastating parts of Asia. India in particular is seeing record-breaking numbers of new cases and deaths, with severe oxygen shortages in hospitals across the country. Countries neighbouring India, such as Nepal, are also seeing surges of the virus. What did the report say? Covid-19: Make it the Last Pandemic, was compiled by the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response. Its aim was to find answers as to how the virus had killed more than 3.3 million people and infected more than 159 million. "The situation we find ourselves in today could have been prevented," co-chair Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a former president of Liberia, told reporters. "It is due to a myriad of failures, gaps and delays in preparedness and response." The panel argued that the WHO's Emergency Committee should have declared the outbreak in China an international emergency a week earlier than it did. It should have done so at its first meeting on 22 January last year, the report said, instead of waiting until 30 January. The month following the WHO's declaration was "lost" as countries failed to take appropriate measures to halt the spread of the virus. The WHO was then hindered by its own regulations that travel restrictions should be a last resort, the panel said, adding that Europe and the US wasted the entire month of February and acted only when their hospitals began to fill up. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Three more African countries - Algeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria - have now detected the Indian variant of coronavirus, Dr. Ngoy Nsenga, from the World Health Organization (WHO), has told the BBC. The confirmation brings to seven the number of African nations that have confirmed the B.1.617 mutation, which initial studies show spreads more easily than other variants Dr Nsenga, who coordinates the WHO's Covid-19 response in Africa, said he had no further details on the number of cases or travel history of the people who tested positive in Algeria, Dr Congo and Nigeria. Four African countries have already confirmed the presence of the B.1.617 variant all linked with recent travel to India. They are: Kenya: five cases Morocco: two cases South African: four cases Uganda: one case. The WHO has recently classified the Indian mutation, which was detected in October 2020, as a "variant of global concern". It is being studied to establish whether it is responsible for a deadly surge in India, which is currently overwhelming hospitals and crematoriums. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has urged closer cooperation between the armed forces of African countries to deal with crises on the continent. In his inauguration speech, he said the growing insecurity in Libya, several countries in West and Central Africa, Somalia and Mozambique, had to be addressed. He blamed the situation in Libya, and as a result several of its neighbours, on the "arrogant and irresponsible actions" of Western nations who attacked the North African country despite the African Union opposing the move. He said Africa needed to defend itself from "aggressors". "The huge concomitant suffering of the Africans in Libya and the surrounding countries have proven that, if any proof was needed, Africa can defend itself against any and all aggressors, if we coordinate," Mr Museveni said. Source: BBC Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, former Special Representative and Head, United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), has urged Chad to us solid democratic principles to build a sustainable society. He said African leaders needed to be careful not to excuse the necessity to go through basics and ensure that ultimately a sustainable peaceful society was created in Chad, where all Chadians could aspire to be included in various processes and also in the benefits of the resources of the country. Dr Chambas made the appeal in his submission during the Council on Foreign Relations-Ghana (CFR-Ghana) Virtual Conference Series dubbed, Chad After Idriss Deby Issues and Challenges. President Deby was assassinated on April 19, 2021, during a visit to the frontlines of the Chadian Armys fight against the Front for Alternation and Concorde in Chad (FACT) rebels. Dr Chambas noted that the African Union (AU) already had a normative framework - protocols and mechanisms for dealing with conflict situation such as in Chad. He said an AU Team was already in Chad conducting their facts finding work, adding that the Team would then take their findings to the Peace Security Council. He said it was regrettable that unlike with ECOWAS, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) did not have a very well-defined protocols on conflict mechanism for prevention, mediation, additional protocols on democracy and good governance. So, there is a void in that regard but I think the AU is there, we have our normative framework. We need to insist on at least some minimum standards to be maintained, otherwise, bad precedence would be set and it becomes a problem down the lane, Dr Chambas said. He noted that ECOWAS had started to collaborate rather closely with ECCAS, which perhaps would be an opportunity to rather solidarize with ECCAS regarding the situation there, which was strictly within the ECCAS domain. This, he also said, was because of the widen implications of the situation in the Lake Chad Basin and the Sahel and the involvement of Chad through its military. We have an interest there, dont forget that Ghana forfeited its candidature at the AU recently in solidarity with Chad, precisely because of the role that it is playing, he stated. So, we acknowledge that role, however, at this point when some naked truths are also stirring us in the face, how do we go beyond the short term to start dealing with the situation. The discussant at the debate all held the view that Chad had an overblown army, which was not professionally structured, they turned to be tribal youth, who were hurriedly recruited and thrown into battle, they show a lot of bravery, bravado and they win some battle field victories and but one could not talk of a professional army in Chad and that needed to be addressed going forward. Dr Chambas said the level of poverty was incredible in a country like Chad in the midst of huge resources. He said going forward, serious efforts were needed in achieving sustainable development that impacted the population. He called for judicious resource utilization to avoid state capture by a family or a clan or a few elites that denied the rest of population resources and which were at the roots of all these different rebel movements that kept coming up one time or the other. He reiterated that the nature of recruits to the Chadian Army and the nature of the resource capture by the state and governance needed to be relooked. He said as part of efforts to promote good governance in Chad, there was the need for the participation of citizenry, the ability to do so every so often freely and in a credible manner choose their leaders. In the short term, maybe one can accommodate some levels of Chadians particularities for a transition, but going forward there cannot be acceptance or variance to accepted norms of good governance, good democratic transitions. Weve all gone through it in countries, Dr Chambas said. We didnt wake up one day and be a model of democracy in Africa. We went through processes where we built block by block and Chad has to start somewhere. Source: GNA Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video More than 30 wooden structures and a metal container were yesterday morning razed down by fire which consumed the slum opposite the Krofuom Market in the Kumasi Metropolis. The area which served as a dwelling place for squatters was also used to sell foodstuffs and the manufacturing of local footwear. The fire which was said to have started around 1a.m. destroyed personal effects of the dwellers in the slum, and also destroyed the wares of the provision store operators living in the area. Most of the residents lost all their property as they could not salvage anything because of the intensity of the fire. There were no casualties but items worth several millions of Ghana cedis were destroyed in the fire which lasted close to three hours. Fire Service The Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service, Divisional Officer Mr Desmond Ackah, told the Daily Graphic that although the fire started somewhere around 1a.m., the Manhyia Office of the service received the call about the fire at 2:11 a.m.. He said due to the inaccessible nature of the place coupled with the intensity of the fire, the personnel managed to bring the fire under control around 3a.m. and completely extinguished it at around 4:16 a.m. He said if the call had come earlier, the personnel could have controlled the spread of the fire and brought it under control earlier, thereby limiting the extent of the damage. Mr Ackah said the affected people were initially trying to salvage their items and quench the fire on their own, and only called the service when it got out of hand. Cause He said the cause of the fire could not yet be established but said investigations were underway. He said the service had to deploy two fire engines to be able to extinguish the fire due to non-availability of fire hydrants in the area. Statistics So far, the region has recorded 127 fires in the first quarter of this year as against 353 for the same period last year. According to Mr Ackah, even though the number of fires recorded this year were far lower than those recorded for the same period last year, there is the perception that this year has recorded more fires. He said that could be due to the attention the media has given to the fire incidents that were recorded this year. Mr Ackah said the service would continue to intensify its education and outreach programmes to ensure that some of those fires were reduced to the barest minimum. According to him, the region continues to experience some of those fire incidents due to the illegal electricity connection, use of overage wires and gas leakages. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Frank Agyekum, a former minister of information under the Kufuor-led administration has said that the religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Christians in the country appear to be under threat. It follows the raging controversy after the Wesley Girls Senior High School banned a Muslim student from fasting in the ongoing Ramadan. The school has since turned down a request from the Ghana Education Service (GES) to allow the student in questions to fast. The development has been met with mixed feelings with some Muslim students calling for the removal of the headmistress of the school. According to Agyekum, a national debate on religious tolerance in schools is required. What is worrying, however, is that in the interim, some hotheads seem using it as pretext to ramp up disaffection as they busily try to accentuate the difference between the two bodies. Such people should be stopped and the authorities must rein them in as quickly as possible so their tirade do not escalate, he posted on Facebook. Agyekum added: Most religious strife, have started this way and if left unchecked could soon degenerate into unstoppable turmoil with dire consequences for our dear nation. More importantly, perhaps, it is now time we had a national debate as a nation on religious tolerance in schools and clear directives given to all schools as to how to treat such circumstances, as in Achimota and Wesley Girls, when they arise. Below is the full post: Time for cool heads. Lately, the religious tolerance and peaceful coexistence we have been experiencing as a country, and which has been the envy of many a nation, seem to come under severe strain. Interestingly, the schisms have occurred in some of the most prestigious second-cycle schools in our country. First, it was the ruckus over the refusal of Achimota school to admit two brilliant Rastafarian students because it fell foul of the schools regulations. That matter is still in court. Then, authorities of Wesley Girls High School, arguably, the best girls school in Ghana, stopped a Muslim student from observing her Muslim obligations of fasting during this Ramadan period. Among reasons why fasting is prohibited in the school is because it could injure the health of students and also affect their academic output. This issue has resulted in opposing and seemingly entrenched positions from the Muslim and Chritian communities which hither to had been accommodating of each and co-existed amicably. For instance on his 100th birthday two years ago, the Chief Imam visited a Catholic church in Accra, and among the specially invited guests to his birthday celebration were numerous Christian clergy. Indeed, it is a common and heart-warming occurrence to see the Chief Imam and Christian clergy deliberating on national issues in a peaceful and convivial manner. The two bodies have representation on the National Peace Council, which many believe has been the glue holding the two religions together. All this seem to be put to harsh trial now as both parties try to find a way out of the present conundrum. What is worrying, however, is that in the interim, some hotheads seem using it as pretext to ramp up disaffection as they busily try to accentuate the difference between the two bodies. Such people should be stopped and the authorities must rein them in as quickly as possible so their tirade do not escalate. Most religious strife, have started this way and if left unchecked could soon degenerate into unstoppable turmoil with dire consequences for our dear nation. More importantly, perhaps, it is now time we had a national debate as a nation on religious tolerance in schools and clear directives given to all schools as to how to treat such circumstances, as in Achimota and Wesley Girls, when they arise. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Turkey is determined to use education as one of the strong pillars to enhance its cooperation with Ghana, the Turkish Ambassador to Ghana, Mrs Ozlem Ergun Ulueren, has said. She said the establishment of the Maarif International School, which is operated by the Turkish Maarif Foundation, for example, would be instrumental in establishing perpetual links between Ghana and Turkey. "I sincerely believe that the foundation of the International Maarif School in Accra will be instrumental to establish perpetual links between the two countries, between the two peoples," she said. The ambassador was speaking at a ceremony to mark Turkey's National Sovereignty and Children's Day at the Maarif International School in Accra on April 23. Children's day April 23, 1920, was the date of the opening of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, the first Parliament of the Republic of Turkey. However, in 1929, the republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, presented the April 23 festival as a gift to the children of the world. In 1929, it was celebrated as Children's Day for the first time. In 1979, children from many countries of the world began visiting Turkey, giving the day international recognition. Memory "Today marks the foundation of the Turkish Grand National Assembly 101 years ago when Anatolia, our homeland, was invaded by the most powerful armies of the time. Thus, it is a remarkable day on which the Turkish nation declared sovereignty with utmost determination to end the invasion," she said. She added that " the Commander General of the Turkish army during the War of Independence and the founder of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, dedicated April 23 to the children of the world to emphasise that they are successors of the future. "April 23 Childrens day in Turkey is a unique event that we celebrate with joy," she said. The ambassador said the celebrations stayed as a part of the most colourful memories of her childhood. "Excitement of taking part in colourful stagings and celebrations usually culminated with traditional Turkish shadow game Karagoz and Hacivat, have been unforgettable," she 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. Featured Video The Bishop of the Sekondi Diocese of the Methodist Church of Ghana Rt Reverend Daniel De-Graft Brace has hit out at President Akufo-Addo and his government for overburdening Ghanaians with excessive taxes. Rt De-Graft Brace made the comments at the just-ended 60th annual Synod of the church at Dixcove in the Ahanta West Municipality of the Western Region. The event was under the theme: Discipleship: Teaching Everyone to live Like Jesus Christ: The Role of the Holy Spirit. The Methodist Bishop accused President Akufo-Addo of reneging on his promise he made to Ghanaians in 2016 saying when the then-candidate Akufo Addo, now the President was campaigning in 2016 general elections, we met him at Tarkwa-Abosso and his words were that Ghana has a lot of resources, but due to bad governance and leadership that is why many are wallowing in abject poverty. So, today I ask what has changed that he is heaping soo many taxes on us. Where are the resources he talked about, he fumed Most Reverend DeGraft-Brace added that he was getting disappointed as the days slip by as his expectations have not been met. He, therefore, called on President Akufo Addo to demonstrate real leadership and direction to give hope to Ghanaians. Yes it is true that coronavirus has had a negative impact on economies across the world but I dont believe that the way to go is to heap all these on the citizenry. People are really finding it difficult to make ends meet, so the President must do something different than what he is currently doing, he stated. He expressed sadness that though most Ghanaians professed a lot of faith in God, they were yet to demonstrate the real deeds of the Holy Spirit, which enjoined all to live a holy and disciplined life. He charged the government not to relent in its renewed fight against galamsey and declared that he supports the burning of excavators. Source: starrfmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video As part of its Birthday Stars initiative, Vodafone Ghana Foundation has celebrated Mothers Day with children and staff of Porters Village in Dodowa, Accra. The event featured celebrities including; Wutah, Beverly afaglo, Ama K. Abebrese, and Rev. Mary Ghansah, all of whose birthdays fall on various days in the month of May. The event also saw the cutting of the cake, health screening, serving of food and drinks and donation of cash to the Orphanage. Speaking at the event, Head of Vodafone Ghana Foundation, Rev Amaris Nana Agyei Pebi, said the May Birthday Stars and Mothers Day events compliment the Vodafone Ghana Foundations goal of making the world a better place. Earlier, we had an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) screening for about 120 children of this home, followed by a time with a Doctor where all present including our volunteers and Godmothers had a one-on-one session to discuss pertinent health issues with the doctors. We believe with these activities, we are contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 3: Good Health and Well-being, Goal 10: Reduced Inequality and Goal 17: partnerships to achieve a common goal. He added Mothers deserve to be celebrated and honoured for their positive contributions and as such this is the Vodafone Ghana Foundations special way of celebrating the mothers at the Potters Village for taking care of these young children here. We have six yards of cloth for all the 20 caretakers and staff. We also have medical consumables such as malaria test kits, anti-malaria treatments, vitamin c-fortified tablets, dewormers, paracetamol, and a storage facility aimed at curbing the present situation in which food items go bad as a result of lack of a storage area. These items will assist them in their work to care for the children, he added. Expressing her appreciation to the Vodafone Ghana Foundation, the Founder of the Orphanage, Madam Jane Adu, advised parents to spend more time with their children, exercise more patience with them and nurture them to be God-fearing. She also appealed for more support from other Institutions as the Orphanage lacks other facilities. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Federal health advisers were meeting Wednesday to issue recommendations on how to vaccinate those 12 to 15 years old with the shot. Earlier in the week, the Food and Drug Administration cleared expanded use of Pfizers shots, citing evidence they worked as well for the younger age group as for those 16 and older. Pressure group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) has added its voice to the ongoing #FixTheCountry campaign. The Pro-NPP group says the campaign which is been sponsored by some political gurus is without merit and must not be given any attention. They claimed in a statement that the initiative is a disguised action with strong political undertone The Alliance for accountable governance considers its action in bad faith by a few disgruntled persons hiding behind a non-political colouration yet attempting to mislead the public to think their actions were spontaneous. We consider this movement politically motivated and not out of the vacuum. The Statement read Read AFAGs full statement below: #FIX THE COUNTRY MAKES NO SENSE- AFAG It is worrying to wake up overnight in a non-dictatorial regime to initiate a disguised action with strong political undertone in the name of # fix the country. The Alliance for accountable governance (AFAG) considers it an action in bad faith by a few disgruntled persons hiding behind a non-political colouration yet attempting to mislead the public into thinking their actions were spontaneous. We consider this movement politically motivated and not out of a vacuum. This action is very political in a sense that the organisers have failed to bring suggestions to an otherwise resilient economy which was on a strong path of economic development( economic growth, structural transformation & equitable distribution of resources ) but ruined overnight by COVID-19 and its attendant effect. FIXING BANKS TO FIX ECONOMY; Indeed, can the organisers discount the billions of Ghana cedis which had to be paid to customers including corporate institutions because of the near-collapse of banks in Ghana? That was a mess under a previous regime which was fixed by a new government. Can the organisers justify why the NDC took over an economic growth rate of over 8% of GDP in 2008 and shrunk it at its worst to 3.4% in 2016 for the new government sound economic management measures to move it to about 6.5% in 2019? Can there be money in the pockets (microeconomy) if there are no aggressive macroeconomic gains ? Which government fixed the economy for IMF to exit its programme that was blocking off even public sector recruitment in Ghana? FIXING TOILETS TO REDUCE CHOLERA; Indeed, can the organisers justify why government had to fix toilets in houses along the coast or in selected areas in Accra as a national program in other to stop open defecation & the number of lives lost during the cholera outbreak in 2014 that claimed 127 lives with 14,411 cases? Among others; FIXING THE NMS HOSPITAL PROJECT Can the organisers justify why former minister Seth Tekpe refused to renew the LCs for the NMS project in August 2016 after a whopping 85% of the monies were released to contractors but about 50% of hospitals were done under the NMS projects? This had to be fixed just in 2021 after its back & forth of how to raise monies to complete a few including European hospital at Takoradi etc. FIXING COMMUNITY ROADS: Can the organisers help government fix the poor roads in our neighbourhoods by advocating for government to raise the toll booth levy to competitive levels as in Europe/ USA etc so as to complete community roads leading to our homes? One a kind we could all hold the government accountable to justify how much it raised from a current toll booth levy of 1ghs to say a minimum of GHS10 ($6) so our community roads are fixed? FIXING HOUSING: Without justifying why Kufours affordable houses which were well completed and set to be moved in were abandoned by the NDC government. Can the organisers say same about the salagmi project which looks completed on the outside but cannot be inhabited because of drains, plumbing works etc not been completed? However monies meant to fix 5000 housing units were used to fix a little over 1000 housing units even with that, it looks good on the outside but remains uninhabitable. May be the time to fix the issue is to get Hon Collins Dauda arrested and prosecuted for varying parliamentary approval and causing financial loss. FIXING LIVES BY FIXING VACCINES; How do we fix this now when government is looking for money to fix your lives, and lives of all by pushing most disposable funds into the COVID-19 fight & vaccine purchases. These vaccines are to be administered free. Currently, the average fob per dose is about $20. Meaning our already financially challenged government due to COVID-19 will pay $40( 240ghs) per Ghanaian. Can the organisers help with ideas so as to get these excruciating COVID-19 vaccine prices on the low so government can fix our lives first? Even so sad to say again is the fact that, with money in hand, developing countries are struggling to get vaccine to desperately save the lives of their citizens because those who manufacture in the western world need them too and we (Ghana) remain helpless. Can the organisers help government fix the country by finding reliable sources by getting any businessman they know regardless of their political association or not to augment government efforts to bring in vaccines to fix the lives of citizens because people matter? TEMPORARY DUMSOR TO FIX OUR NATIONAL GRID. BEST MAINTENANCE CULTURE; Fellow countrymen, we all attest to the poor maintenance culture in Ghana and how national assets wear & tear over a short period of time. What is there to fix if a government had decided to expand its power transmission capacity, replace non-performing transformers? Relocate power badges to the middle belt all within 5 to 6 months, so Ghanaians can all enjoy continuous & uninterrupted supply of power. Who will allow his father or relative to work on power transmission lines without shutting that transmission line down? Meaning certain parts of the country at that or any point will have to bear with government or for that matter the energy ministry so as to get at least some works done. Can the organisers fix the national grid maintenance with engineers who are able to work while there is power still flowing in the high tension cables? FIXING A DEBATE TO GET TO UNDERSTAND # FIX THE COUNTRY ORGANISERS POSITION; Finally, AFAG challenges the organisers to a debate on debt stock, debt servicing, sudden increase in debt/GDP ratio to about 76% from 67%(due to freebies, PPE purchases and high expenditures on saving Ghanaians because of COVID-19), gains in the fight against COVID-19, domestic revenue mobilisation under COVID-19 times & borrowing. If indeed there is one solution that fixes it all then that #fixthecountry will win their pursuits but for now a little understanding of the toxic mix situation we find ourselves in will do. Source: king Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A distant relative of former President John Agyekum Kufuor is using his name to defraud people, Member of Parliament for Assin Central Kennedy Agyapong, has said. Mr Agyapong revealed that the gentleman by name Kufuor is duping unsuspecting people and seizing their plot of lands in cantonment. He warned him to stop his behavior and also detach the former Ghanaian leader from his nefarious activities. A distant relative of former President Kufuor is defrauding people, seizing their lands in Cantonment, he said on his television network on Monday May 10. Mr Agyapong further warned him to Stop tarnishing the image of Kufuor because he will not do such a thing. He further alleged that bigwigs of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) are using solders to confiscate peoples properties from them, especially land. Source: 3news.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Kwadaso (MP), Dr Kingsley Nyarko, has called for effective collaboration between Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and their Members of Parliament (MPs) to stimulate development in their various constituencies. According to him, closer working relations between the two parties would not only help to bring the needed development but also peace and harmony in constituencies. Meeting Speaking at a town hall meeting organised at Tanoso, Dr Nyarko said unity between key stakeholders and leadership from the various interest groups was key to community building and development. The meeting, the eighth in the series, was to afford the MP and the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Richmond Agyenim Boateng, the opportunity to learn at first hand the challenges facing residents and how best they could work together to resolve them. Platform Dr Nyarko said the town hall meeting was to provide residents the platform to discuss the development of their communities and suggest means of resolving them. He took the opportunity to thank the people for voting for him to represent them in Parliament and appealed to them to unite and support him and the MCE to bring the needed development to the area. He presented quantities of nose masks, hand sanitisers and LED bulbs to the assembly member for Tanoso, Mr Richard Kofi Karikari, for distribution to the people in the area. Dr Nyarko also donated four motorbikes to some police stations to help fight against crime in the constituency. The beneficiaries were the Asuoyeboah North, Tanoso, Apire and Sofoline police stations. The MP said it was important for community members to decide projects which were of priority to them for consideration and implementation and pledged to work closely with the MCE to beef up security in the area. Rally Mr Richmond Agyenim Boateng, on his part, appealed to the people to rally behind the assembly to help bring the needed development in the area. He said the government was committed to completing the Tanoso-Abuakwa road and asked them to be patient as the government continued to work on the ongoing project. The Abuakwa District Police Commander, Police Chief Superintendent, Yaw Asubonteng, who received the motorbikes, expressed gratitude to the MP for supporting the police to fight crime. He appealed to the people to involve themselves and establish community watchdogs to support the police to combat crime. The Assembly Member for Tanoso, Mr Richard Kofi Karikari, praised the MP for engaging residents to know the challenges facing them and finding the best ways that could be used to resolve them. Source: graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science of the University of Ghana, Dr Alidu Seidu, has said the adoption of a one man, one vote system by political parties to elect their flag bearers will help deepen internal party democracy in the country. That, he said, was because it would expand the franchise to every qualified party member to vote in the election of a flag bearer. The good thing is that when you do one man, one vote, you are expanding the franchise. It means every person who is qualified as a party member can vote and that deepens internal party democracy which can catapult to the national level, Dr Seidu told the Daily Graphic. He was sharing his thoughts on suggestions made by another Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Ghana, Prof. Ransford Gyampo, for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to adopt the system to elect its flag bearer for the 2024 election. Challenges Dr Seidu said in spite of the benefit of the system, it came with some challenges, one of which was the financial implication of using such a system. The biggest challenge is the money to run it. To be honest with you, it means you will do double elections among your membership. It is expensive in the sense that the party has to spend so much money to get it done across the country and it is also expensive for those who will be running for the position because rather than target a few delegates, you have to go to the 16 regions, polling stations, every electoral area and constituency to campaign, he explained. In addition to that, he said, was the issue of infiltration by opposing party members, citing the situation when the National Democratic Congress (NDC) used a similar system with the allegation of NPP members infiltrating the ranks of the NDC as an example. Those that infiltrate the system can vote to elect an incompetent candidate who will lose in the general election, he said. The political scientist agreed that if political parties could have an up-to-date voters register and update it every six months, that could also help address the problem of infiltration. So if they can start from there by keeping an accurate voters register of members across the length and breadth of the country, it will be good, 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. Featured Video President Nana Akufo-Addo is in his fifth month following his re-election into office but since assuming his second term, his government has not yet been fully formed. There is a worrying delay in the appointment and vetting of Deputy Ministers, Boards, Chief Executive Officers and so forth, hence leaving many people to wonder if he is actually committed to fulfilling the promises he made to Ghanaians for which they voted him into power for the second time. President Akufo-Addo's delay in forming his government begs the question when should Ghanaians expect his government's complete formation and how does the delay impact economic development? Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in an exclusive interview with Peacefmonline.com, has offered a response. According to the Minister, President Akufo-Addo hasn't gone to sleep over his responsibilities and that, although his government setup has delayed, he is working to deliver on his promises. He explained the delay to be as a result of some bottlenecks that characterized the inception of the President's second-term administration. ''Unlike the 2016 election, the 2020 election started off with a contestation and therefore even the whole spirit around which government was formed was a bit different in this second term. In the first term, there was very less apprehension. Parliament was very speedy in approving the President's Ministers and therefore that also gave room for the quick approval of Deputy Ministers, formation of Boards, Chief Executive Officers etc. In this particular instance, you will notice that the kind of cooperation was a bit different from the first. Nonetheless, the President has got his Ministers in place'', he said. He added that, in order to speed up the process despite these challenges, Parliament has vested ''residual powers in Speaker to be able to forward or ferry the President's request to the Appointments Committee even during the recess. That hasn't necessarily been completed and so you haven't seen the vetting take place. But I do know that the President has a clearly penned-down list of who he wants to put in what position to deliver and as quickly that as Parliament gets the next level out of the way, he will complete the appointment of Deputy Ministers and consequently Boards and Chief Executives''. ''The process for the appointment of the Municipal and District Chief Executives is also just commencing. The President has in place the framework to assess the work of those who worked in the first term and based on that have an opportunity to make a decision on the second term. In 2017, there were no carry-over MMDCEs from his own adminstration per se, so that was a clean slate and therefore easier to deal with. It's not exactly the same at this time round," he continued. When asked about specific timelines for the completion of the government formation, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah stated that it doesn't lie in the hands of the Executive to give a deadline, nonetheless, he is very optimistic it will soon be done. He explained, "Parliament will decide, for example, how long it will take. When it will complete it, when it will put before the House and all of those processes. So, it is not something for the Executive alone to give a deadline that, by this time, I would have finished. No, you've got to do it in consultation with the other arms of government.'' The Minister, however, acknowledged the impact of the delay on Ghana's economic progress but reposed confidence in the President not to fail Ghanaians. "Admittedly, it chips a bit at how much we would have wanted to do by now as an administration but I guess, it's not too far off the template or the expected timelines and so though you can agree that it will have chipped from how much work we would have wanted to do within this period, we can also be optimistic that, as quickly as possible, we can finish with this exercise so that full throttle, government can deliver on its commitments," he emphasized. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Minister of Information, says President Nana Akufo-Addo hasn't backed down on his promise to construct eighty-eight (88) and nine (9) district and Regional hospitals in the country. It could be recalled that the President, during one of his regular nation addresses on COVID-19 last year, pledged to construct these hospitals. President Akufo-Addo's Promise On Sunday, April 26, 2020, the President said: "There are eighty-eight (88) districts in our country without district hospitals; we have six (6) new regions without regional hospitals; we do not have 5 infectious disease control centres dotted across the country, and we do not have enough testing and isolation centres for diseases like COVD-19. We must do something urgently about this. That is why Government has decided to undertake a major investment in our healthcare infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will, this year, begin constructing eighty-eight (88) hospitals in the districts without hospitals.'' He gave a breakdown as follows; (10) in Ashanti, nine (9) in Volta, nine (9) in Central, eight (8) in Eastern, seven (7) in Greater Accra, seven (7) in Upper East, five (5) in Northern, five (5) in Oti, five (5) in Upper West, five (5) in Bono, four (4) in Western North, four (4) in Western, three (3) in Ahafo, three (3) in Savannah, two (2) in Bono East, and two (2) in North East Regions. "We have also put in place plans for the construction of six (6) new regional hospitals in the six (6) new regions, and the rehabilitation of the EffiaNkwanta Hospital, in Sekondi, which is the regional hospital of the Western Region. We are going to beef up our existing laboratories and establish new ones across every region for testing. We will establish three (3) infectious disease control centres for each of the zones of our country, i.e. Coastal, Middle Belt and Northern, with the overall objective of setting up a Ghana Centre for Disease Control," the President added. Update In a recent update by the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, the 88 district hospitals yet to be constructed have been increased to 111. Mr Agyeman-Manu said given the number of hospitals to be constructed, the cost had gone up to make room for 13 additional hospitals. Answering questions before the Appointments Committee at his vetting in Parliament, he said, We must do something urgently about this and that is why the government has decided to undertake such major investment in our healthcare infrastructure, the largest in our history. We will, this year, begin constructing 88 hospitals in the districts that do not have hospitals. Mr Chair, the initial costing was done on the basis of averages and we are looking at a cost between $5 million to $7 million per hospital.'' President's Commitment Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, in an interview with Peacefmonline.com, said the President is committed to the promise. To prove the President's commitment, he disclosed that some parcels of land have been acquired and validated for the construction of the hospitals. "My understanding is that he is very committed to it. He put in place a working Committee to deal with it. That Committee has done extensive work. They've made available or they have reported on parcels of land that have been made available by districts across the country. Then they went into a validation exercise. Over 85 percent of those parcels have been validated as being without encumbrance and available for this purpose. ''The President put in place a Committee to do that job including accessing lands from the various district Assemblies, validating those parcels of land; in some cases, I understand issuing award letters to it. Now, the next step that they have ahead of them is to put all the work they've done together and update the country that this is where we are, this is where it is commencing and this is where or this is when you expect these projects to be completed," he stated. On when the construction of the hospitals will commence, its completion deadline and whether they can be built in a year, the Minister said; "Those are the timelines that the consultants have made available that, because of technology they're using, when they start, they can finish it within the 12-month period." Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Somalia has rejected the appointment of former Ghanaian President John Mahama as the African Unions (AU) special envoy to help mediate its political impasse with Kenya. Somalia argues that the former Head of State has extensive links with Kenya, and has written to AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat notifying him that Somalia will no longer support Mr. Mahama in his new role. Mohamed Abdirazak, Somalias Foreign and International Cooperation Minister, says the Ghanaian ex-leader is closely associated with the leadership in Kenya, without specifying who in particular. Based on this alone, he says, Mr. Mahama cannot be trusted to be impartial and deliver an acceptable solution. In a letter riddled with grammatical mistakes, Mr. Abdirazak claims that the AU did not thoroughly scrutinise Mr. Mahamas background before appointing him to the role. Read Full Story .... africanpolicy.com >>> : Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Seasoned journalist, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako Jnr., has expressed utter disgust over the orders to the Military to burn mining equipment used in illegal gold mining. According to him, instead of burning the excavators, those caught with the excavators must be penalized through prosecution and their excavators handed over to the Police. This, he said, is the most lawful way of confronting the issue. ''It's mindless. It's lawless because this is a law-governed society. And if you make laws and feel the laws are impossible to implement, there is an option. Just amend the law but you don't make which I have here and actually let the law prevail but go out there to violate the law and it's a State institution or State actors who are engaged in that violation, that mindless, lawless action. ''...the law says when you seize it, those using it illegally must be taken to court and by the time you're sending them to court, you must leave those things in Police custody. When the court is done and convicts them, the court hands over the equipment to the appropriate Ministry; in this case it will be Lands and Natural Resources or so. And then they, on behalf of the State, determine which State institution to give them to. ''...The law says if you see these things, send them to the Police custody and so when you seize them and don't send them to Police custody, you have violated the law and you're liable for prosecution'', he stated. He also deflated the argument that refusing to burn the excavators might result in the re-occurence of missing excavators saga during the ''Operation Vanguard'' exercise when the taskforce seized the excavators used by illegal miners. ''Is that how weak we are as a State? That assuming we have one negative experience, meanwhile those who cause that negativity, they're human beings. They're alive. They were State actors, some powerful; some middle. Are they not prosecutable? Are they not subjects of investigation?'', he queried. Kweku Baako likened the burning of excavators to ''anarchy''. ''It is almost anarchy. It is a sign that we're capable of managing ourselves. That's incredible. I'm not about to accept that verdict that the State of Ghana is so weak, so impotent, so disorganized that we make laws and we intend not to follow the laws because others are breaking the law. Maybe we should take that to Somalia, not Ghana. We're a law-governed stable country'', he said on Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo''. Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Having had a successful legal challenge against social media influencer, Rosemond Brown, popularly known as Akuapem Poloo, for her nude picture with her seven-year old son, the Executive Director of Child Rights International, Bright Appiah, has been emboldened. He has received the vim to now pursue other legal issues against celebrities who do things considered illegal such as those who use their children as a source of income through endorsement deals and as brand ambassadors. Mr Appiahs intentions, which he gave a hint about in a radio interview recently, is not one that sits well with some celebrities, particularly actress Kafui Danku, who has called off the bluff of the organisation and urged Bright Appiah and his team to channel their energies into productive ventures. Speaking with Graphic Showbiz, the mother of two whose children, Baby Lorde and Baby Titan, have significant following on social media pointed out that the broken focus of the organisation had spurred it on to pursue issues of no interest. "There's obviously someone not doing their work right and what we are witnessing is the rippling effect of how they want a wider reach. Celebrities have the numbers, get them in the news and everyone is talking about it. Is it not surprising that there has been an active Child Rights Organisation in this country all this while yet there are children all over the streets, being abused in their homes or being molested, among others, with no one or any organisation fighting for them? "They should set their priorities right because social media is a bubble and chamber of content. Most of these children at Child Rights International have not in a day come face to face with celebrity children who are certainly living comfortable lives. If they are really committed and care about the welfare and the abuse of the rights of children, there are many street children and those in orphanages whose parents have abandoned them. They need help, not the ones who have comfortable lives so they should keep their energies for the right issues and those who lack basic rights," she stated. According to Kafui Danku, who has featured in a number of movies including 4Play Reloaded, Heal My Heart, A Little Affair and Sin of The Soul, it would be very appropriate for Child Rights International to engage in vigorous public education and awareness about child rights and abandon the strategy of using celebrities to draw public attention to itself. "Child Rights International should invest in public education and awareness and leave celebrities and their children alone, unless theyre paying them to use their platforms to promote their works. Haven't there been countless situations where kids who have been defiled have their perpetrators walking free? What about those who even abandon the choice of lodging a complaint at the police station because they don't have money to pay for medical reports? There are so many issues derailing the rights of children, among other relevant issues; but as usual, the authorities are quick to act on things that aren't beneficial to the majority of Ghanaians," she said. For Kafui Danku, the social media pages created for their children are not just for fun but an important means to educate and inform their large followers. "My children are currently not signed as brand ambassadors to any Ghanaian company but have deals with some companies in Canada. But as I was saying, as the parent and administrator of the pages, they were not created because they are fashionable but to educate people. For instance, mothers go on one of the pages of my children for tips on nutrition for their babies and on another page where I teach how to get children to take part in both indoor and outdoor games. "Obviously, these pages are having positive impacts so they should focus on saving children who really need attention, she said. Source: Graphic Showbiz Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. and other Pennsylvania lawmakers are sponsoring legislation aimed at reducing the chance police encounters with those with disabilities or mental health issues will end tragically. Casey, D-Pa., is sponsoring what hes dubbed the Law Enforcement Education and Accountability for People with Disabilities (LEAD) Initiative. It includes two bills that would divert some emergency calls away from 9-1-1 and toward human services and mental health support agencies, Caseys office said. The package would also offer more training for police when they engage with people with disabilities or mental health issues. Casey cited the fatal shootings of Walter Wallace, Ricardo Munoz and Osaze Osagie in pointing to the need for such legislation. As lawmakers, we must do everything in our power to prevent tomorrows tragedies. The Pennsylvania families of Walter Wallace, Jr., Ricardo Munoz and Osaze Osagie needed mental health crisis support and they didnt get it. It is time to take action, Casey said in a statement Monday. The LEAD Initiative would connect people and police with the resources they need, reduce demands on police and provide law enforcement with the knowledge and skills necessary in a crisis situation. Wallace was fatally shot by Philadelphia police in October 2020 after authorities say he ignored orders to drop a knife. His familys lawyer said the family had called for an ambulance to get him help with a mental health crisis. The fatal shooting added to tensions between police and city residents. Munoz was fatally shot by a Lancaster police officer last September. Body-camera footage showed him running at the officer with a knife as the officer flees and shoots him. Munoz suffered from schizophrenia and paranoia, according to the family, who said they had been having difficulty getting help. Lancaster District Attorney Heather Adams ruled the shooting was justified. Munoz was awaiting trial on charges that he stabbed four people, including a teenager. In 2019, the parents of Osagie, a State College resident with autism and mental health issues, called police because they were concerned for his well-being. Officers shot and killed Osagie when he ignored their commands to drop the knife and ran at the officers, police said. Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna concluded the officers were justified in the use of force, but the shooting led to changes in the way State College police handle mental-health calls. Caseys office cited a Ruderman Foundation report, which studied 2015 shootings by law enforcement; the study found one-third to half of all shootings that year involved a person with a disability. One bill, the HELP Act, would divert non-criminal and non-medical emergency calls from 9-1-1 systems to state and regional 2-1-1 and 9-8-8 systems. The measure would also provide aid to improve those systems, Caseys office said. The legislation would create an oversight panel for those networks, including community representatives of those with disabilities, seniors and minority groups. Another bill, the Safe Interactions Act, would provide provide grants to non-profit organizations to develop programs to help guide police when they encounter individuals with disabilities. U.S. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Bucks County, and Susan Wild, D-Lehigh County, are co-sponsoring the legislation. We must do more to ensure that interactions between law enforcement and people experiencing a mental health crisis or living with a disability are rooted in best practices for the safety and wellbeing of all parties, Wild said in a statement. Patrick Yoes, National President of the Fraternal Order of Police, issued a statement in support of the effort. Without sufficient training, it can be difficult for a law enforcement officer to identify someone who has a disability and know how to interact with that person to avoid any miscommunication, Yoes said in the statement. The Safe Interactions Act will help provide officers access to such training, which will be developed in partnership with those who do have disabilities, in order to create safer communities. Pennsylvanias 2-1-1 network is available statewide and can connect those with health and human services needs. The United Way supports the 2-1-1 network in Pennsylvania and across the country. Suzanne McCormick, U.S. President of United Way Worldwide, said the legislation means that more people can get the help they need, particularly those with mental health and other challenges. U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. are among the sponsors of the bills. More from PennLive Police and mental health: Would social workers accompanying police protect mentally ill, keep them out of jail? 3 women honored for trying to help children involved in fatal shootings In allowing the younger age group to be vaccinated, the FDA said about 1.5 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported among people 11 to 17 years old by April 30. While this age group typically has milder symptoms, there have been some hospitalizations, the agency said. U.S. health advisers endorsed use of Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine in kids as young as 12 on Wednesday just as planned new guidelines say its OK for people of any age to get a coronavirus shot at the same time as other needed vaccinations. The shots will let kids safely attend camps this summer and help assure a more normal return to classrooms next school year, concluded advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And this is another way to get closer to ending this horrible pandemic, said adviser Dr. Camille Kotton of Harvard Medical School. The sprint to vaccinate millions of middle and high school students has already started in parts of the country, as a long line of kids rolled up their sleeves in suburban Atlanta for a first dose Wednesday. It just felt like a flu shot, honestly, said Meredith Rogers, 14, from Decatur, Georgia, after getting her vaccination. Michelle Rogers, Merediths mother, said she hoped the youth vaccinations would help bring some normalcy back. A little apprehensive, but you know what? This is a step towards getting life back to normal so, were all in, Michelle Rogers said with a slight fist pump. Pfizers vaccine has been used for months in people 16 and older, and earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration cleared its use for those as young as age 12. But before rolling it out to the younger kids, much of the nation was awaiting recommendations from CDCs advisers and the panel concluded the same dose adults use is safe and strongly protective in those 12 to 15 years old, too. The CDC was expected to rapidly accept its advisers recommendation. A key question: Is it OK to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the same doctors visit as people receive some routine vaccinations? Thats an urgent back-to-school concern especially for the 12- to 15-year-olds, who have missed out on regularly scheduled vaccines during the pandemic but its an issue for adults, too. The CDC until now has recommended not getting other vaccinations within two weeks of a COVID-19 shot, mostly as a precaution so that safety monitors could spot if any unexpected side effects cropped up. But the CDC said Wednesday it is changing that advice because the COVID-19 vaccines have proved very safe and that health workers can decide to give another needed vaccine at the same time for people of any age. The need for catch-up vaccination in coordination with COVID-19 vaccination is urgent as we plan for safe return to school, CDCs Dr. Kate Woodworth told the panel, citing millions of missed doses of vaccines against tetanus, whooping cough and other health threats. The American Academy of Pediatrics on Wednesday also urged that kids 12 and older get the Pfizer vaccine and agreed that its fine to give more than one vaccine at the same time, especially for kids who are behind on their regular vaccinations. Children are far less likely than adults to get seriously ill from COVID-19 -- but they do sometimes die, and thousands have been hospitalized. By last month, those ages 12 to 17 were making up slightly more of the nations new coronavirus infections than adults over 65, a group thats now largely vaccinated. The two-dose vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was studied in more than 2,000 kids ages 12 to 15. There were no cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated kids compared with 16 in the group given dummy shots. Kids also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than vaccinated adults. Side effects are the same as adults experience, mostly sore arms and flu-like fever, chills or aches that signal the immune system is revving up. CDCs advisers did caution that those temporary shot reactions may be even more common if people get a COVID-19 shot at the same time as another vaccination. President Joe Biden hailed Wednesdays vote, noting that means 17 million more people in the U.S. now qualify to get vaccinated. I encourage their parents to make sure they get the shot, he said. As I promised last week, were ready. This new population is going to find the vaccine rollout fast and efficient. In addition to the mass vaccination sites and health department rollouts that were key for adults, many states will be offering kids more familiar options -- shipping doses to pediatricians and even to schools. Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize. As for even younger children, both companies have begun tests in youngsters ages 6 months to 11 years. Those studies explore if different doses are needed at the youngest ages, and FDA plans to hold a public meeting next month to debate exactly what evidence is needed. ___ Lauran Needgaard and Mike Stobbe of The Associated Press wrote this story. AP reporters Ron Harris in Decatur, Georgia, and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. YTL, Longli and TIYA log splitters with Briggs & Stratton 205cc engines have been recalled after two users suffered broken wrists. According to an announcement from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, An incorrect ignition coil and flywheel can lead to hard starting and the engine kick back, posing an injury hazard to the operator. About 19,630 of the recalled models were sold in the U.S. at stores including Lowes, Atwood, Big Blue, D&B Supply, North 40 Outfitters and others nationwide from March 2016 to February 2021 for $1,400. Product details are: The recall involves YTL, Longli and TIYA log splitters powered by Briggs & Stratton 250cc engine model number 15T232-0011-F8, with serial numbers 160331883074 through 2012073736714, and model number 15T232-1850-F1, with serial numbers 2004260782583 through 2012284118417. The brands are: Black Diamond (model number BDBS32T - 32 ton and YTL-015-134 - 30 ton) Crimson (model number YTL-590-012 - 32 ton) Lumberjack (model number YTL-007-414) Performance Built (model number YTL-007-308 and YTL-016-476 30 ton) Brute (model numbers YTL-140-701 - 30 ton and YTL-140-473 - 35 ton) Country Pro (YTL-019-880) Boss (model number WD32T) Oregon (model 3000 Series 30 ton) Consumers should contact an authorized Briggs & Stratton dealer for a free inspection and repair. For more information, contact Briggs & Stratton at 800-999-9444 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT, Monday through Friday, or go to www.briggsandstratton.com and hover over support, then click recalls. YTL, Longli and TIYA log splitters with Briggs & Stratton 205cc engines have been recalled after two users suffered broken wrists. READ MORE A former Orlando-area Burger King employee claimed she was fired solely because she had to use a trachea tube to breath. She sued, and the jury awarded her more than $2 million, a report said. According to Orlando Sentinel, Ashley Merard took legal action against franchisee Magic Burgers LLC in the U.S. District Court in Orlando. Merard had worked for the company for six weeks, her attorney David Barszcz told the newspaper in a phone interview on Monday. The newspaper reports Merard was in a car accident in 2017 about a year before working for the company. As a result of the accident, she needed the tube, according to the lawsuit. The general manager who hired her was informed of the tube, which was made visible during her initial interview. However, the lawsuit says that after she had started working, a higher management official came to the store and said she had to go because of the tube. According to the lawsuit, Merard was terminated in August 2017, for no other reason given other than her disability. The suit sought damages for violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the newspaper noted. Barszcz told the newspaper, You cant tell her to take the tube out. Shed die, he said. Its a question of right and wrong, and thats wrong. How much did the jury award? Court records revealed $2 million in punitive damages was awarded by the jury, as well as $30,000 for emotional pain and mental anguish, and $15,519.60 for lost wages. Its a verdict Jesse Drawas, one of Magic Burgers attorneys, said the company plans to appeal. Drawas noted that the $2 million award could also potentially be reduced, as the companys attorneys plan to seek statutory caps for a reduction, the report noted. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, for businesses with more than 500 employees, Barszcz said that $300,000 is the cap for punitive damages. Was she fired, or did she quit? According to court documents, Magic Burgers said Merard voluntarily left her job without notice. In a phone interview with the news outlet, Drawas said, She simply stopped showing up to work without telling anybody. Barszcz disagreed, pointing out to the newspaper that Merard, now 21, is employed and a student. People dont normally show up to work after you fire them, he said. Shes very hard working. READ MORE: The Historic King Mansion at 2201 N. Front Street in Harrisburg is one of the most iconic structures along the Susquehanna Riverfront. The mansion was built in 1923 for Horace B. King, a corporate tax attorney, and his family. The mansion pairs Mediterranean-inspired grandeur with simplistic urban elegance. The home was originally inhabited by King and his family until his death in 1938. It was built with Indiana Limestone to create a Mediterranean-inspired style with the cost of construction between $150,000 and $200,000 which translates to $2.4 to $3 million in current times. The property has been utilized by various businesses over the years before being purchased by Marc Kurowski to house his firm, K&W Engineers. Kurowski also had an eye on hosting weddings and large events at the mansion. Once we got in the building [we said] this is absolutely what needs to happen in this space, Kurowski said. Two years later the mansion began to hold a few events and is now in full swing. The engineering firm resides on the second floor while the entire first floor was fully renovated. The event space can now hold events for up to 250 guests for a cocktail-style reception and the new Conservatory Ballroom can host a seated reception with a dance floor for up to 125. Rooms that previously served as office areas have been converted into more wedding-friendly areas such as a bridal salon with a sitting room, a lounge with a mini-fridge and five hair/makeup stations. The groom can also be spoiled with a full gentlemens lounge with a flat-screen television, billiard room and adjoining kitchenette. The gentlemens lounge is located on the opposite side of the mansion from the bridal salon. Kurowski said this is one of his favorite parts of the renovation. Kurowski also said that the building is a community asset that should be shared. My goal is to get as many people in that building and just experience it, he said. Daniel Urie contributed to this story. Want more Cool Spaces? See all of our stories showcasing the neatest homes in central Pennsylvania by clicking here. Know of any Cool Spaces? Submit ideas to . READ MORE: The man suspected of fatally shooting six people before dying by suicide early Sunday morning at a Colorado Springs birthday party was identified by police as Teodoro Macias Jr. Macias, 28, was angry that his girlfriend did not invite him to the party and responded by killing her and five adult relatives, police said at a Tuesday press conference. At the core of this horrendous act is domestic violence, Colorado Springs Police Chief Vince Niski said, adding that Macias displayed power and control issues in the relationship. Macias was dating Sandra Ibarra for about a year before he killed her, police said. The other five victims were identified as: Jose Ibarra, Sandras brother Mayra Ibarra Perez, 32, Sandras sister Melvin Perez, 30, Mayras husband Jose Gutierrez, 21, Melvins brother Joanna Cruz, 53, Jose and Melvins mother The families gathered Saturday night to celebrate birthdays for Melvin Perez, Joanna Cruz and another relative, 28-year-old Nubia Marquez, who left the party about two hours before the shooting. Marquez identified her family members to local newspaper The Gazette prior to police releasing their names Tuesday. Three children were in the residence at the time of the shooting, and none was physically injured, police said. -- Joseph Wilkinson of the New York Daily News wrote this story. 2021 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. By ALAN FRAM and KEVIN FREKING, The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) House Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Cheney from her post as the chambers No. 3 GOP leader on Wednesday, punishing her after she repeatedly rebuked former President Donald Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in fomenting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. GOP lawmakers gathered privately in the Capitol Visitor Center on Wednesday. Cheney, R-Wyo., is Congress highest-ranking Republican woman and a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney. In an audacious signal that she was not backing down, Cheney took to a nearly empty House chamber Tuesday evening to deliver an unapologetic four-minute assault on her GOP adversaries and defense of her own position. Remaining silent and ignoring the lie emboldens the liar, she said, adding, I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former presidents crusade to undermine our democracy. Cheneys replacement was widely expected to be Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who entered the House in 2015 at age 30, then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Stefanik owns a more moderate voting record than Cheney but has evolved into a vigorous Trump defender whos echoed some of his unfounded claims about widespread election cheating. It was initially unclear when the separate vote on Cheneys replacement would be. Stripping Cheney, 54, of her leadership job could stand as a striking, perhaps historic moment for the GOP. One of the nations two major parties was in effect declaring an extraordinary admission requirement to its highest ranks: fealty to, or at least silence about, Trumps lie that he lost his November reelection bid due to widespread fraud. In states around the country, officials and judges of both parties found no evidence to support Trumps claims that extensive illegalities caused his defeat. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., arrives as House Republicans meet at the Capitol to decide whether to remove Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from her leadership post, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP Its been clear that Cheneys days as No. 3 in leadership were numbered as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., No. 2 leader Steve Scalise, R-La., joined Trump and other Republicans from across the partys spectrum aligned against her. Critics said Cheneys offense wasnt her views on Trump but her persistence in publicly expressing them, undermining the unity they want party leaders to display as they message in advance of next years elections, when they hope to win House control. Its not about right or wrong. Its about the focus of House Republicans, Scalise said Tuesday. Many Republicans also agree with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., whos said the allegiance many GOP voters have to Trump is so intense that the party cant succeed without him. A small number of Republicans have spoken out against removing Cheney. It will do nothing but drive some people away from our party, said Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the GOPs 2012 presidential nominee and one who has clashed often with Trump. More: Capitol Police watchdog worries lawmakers, telling them the force has experienced issues detecting threats York County voters will cast ballots in a slew of races for seats in local boroughs, township supervisory boards as well as school boards in the upcoming May 18 primary. Among the marquee races in the off-year contest are races for row offices, the mayor and city council races in the City of York and a legislative race to fill a vacancy left by the death of an incumbent. While the primary is a closed primary, meaning only voters registered with the Democratic or Republican parties may vote for candidates in their respective parties, the special election for the 48th Senate District seat is open to all registered voters who live in the district. There are also ballot questions that are open to all registered voters. The race for the 48th Senate District will fill the seat of the late state Sen. Dave Arnold, who died of brain cancer in January. The 48th Senate District covers parts of York and Dauphin counties and all of Lebanon County. The four candidates vying for the seat include: Calvin Doc Clements, Democratic Christopher Gebhard, Republican Ed Krebs, Independent Tim McMaster, Libertarian The winner of the race will serve out the remaining two years left in Arnolds term. Three candidates are vying for two nominations in the York County Court of Common Pleas race. Judges serve 10-year terms. Candidates include: Republican Joe Gothie, and Suzanne S. Smith and Steve Stambaugh, both of whom have cross-filed. The ballot features York County row offices contests, all of which are uncontested, with Republican incumbents seeking re-election for 4-year terms. These include: District Attorney: Dave Sunday Controller: Gregory Bower Coroner: Pam Gay Recorder of Deeds: Laura Shue In the race for Mayor of the City of York incumbent Michael Helfrich, a Democrat, is unopposed in the primary. No Republican candidates are on the primary ballot. Four candidates are vying for two open seats on the York City Council. All four are Democrats and include: Betsy Buckingham; Dr. Felicia O.A. Dennis; Ryan Supler; Christopher M. Velez. City Council members serve four-year terms. Candidates for Magisterial District Judge seats are vying for one nomination respectively per district. District judges serve six-year terms: District 19-1-01 Gabriel Chorno, cross-filed Tom Harteis, Democrat Linda Williams, incumbent, cross-filed District 19-1-02 James H. Morgan, incumbent, cross-filed District 19-2-01 Barry Bloss Jr., incumbent, cross-filed District 19-2-05 Jennifer JP Clancy, incumbent, cross-filed District 19-3-01 John H. Fishel, incumbent, cross-filed District 19-3-03 Laura S. Manifold, incumbent, cross-filed Candidates who win nomination on May 18 move on to the ballot in the general election Nov. 2. Here is a complete list of all candidates vying for statewide, municipal and county seats in the May 18 primary. There are also four questions on the ballot, including two questions relating to the governors powers in disaster declarations. All registered voters are eligible to weigh in on the ballot questions; unlike most of the primary elections, they arent limited to those affiliated with a political party. Polls on Tuesday, May 18 open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The deadline to register was May 3. Not sure if you are registered? Find the status of your voter registration online at www.votespa.com. More from PennLive Check out the PennLive Voters Guide for the 2021 primary election Independents can vote on ballot questions, and more things to know about the May 18 primary Most of Deep Guptas nieces and nephews contracted COVID-19. As what appears to be a new variant of the coronavirus rampages through his home country, Gupta and the many other Asian Indian Americans who live in central Pennsylvania are watching the fallout from afar. It is very sad, but what can be done? he asked. Its the same thing as last year in New York City. Not enough beds. Not enough oxygen. Not enough facilities. Gupta is doing what he can to help. Gupta, who came to the Harrisburg area from India in 1969 and worked for nearly four decades in the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, is the founder of the Mechanicsburg-based Asian Indian Americans of Central Pennsylvania organization. Since 1993, AIACPA has been providing a variety of activities, services and support for Asian Indian families, both here and in India. During this crisis, Gupta and the members of the nonprofit are stepping up once again, sending both monetary donations and much-needed home-use oxygen tanks. And with many of central Pennsylvanias 7,500 Asian Indian families worried over sick relatives in India, or grieving a recent loss, they are also here to support one another, and to offer a shoulder to cry on albeit a socially distanced one. We try to offer some mental happiness and peace, he said. Gupta is lucky. His relatives in India have recovered. Many are not so fortunate. The World Health Organizations chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, said the situation in India is very worrying as COVID-19 infection rates and deaths soar, the Washington Post reported on Tuesday. While the country has seen a slight decrease in daily infections in the last couple of days, the WHO is still concerned over what appears to be a more transmissible variant that is possibly more resistant to antibodies. The Associated Press is reporting the number of confirmed cases in India has doubled in under two months to more than 23 million. Along with more than 240,000 reported deaths, India has had the second highest number of confirmed cases after the U.S. All of the figures are almost certainly a vast undercount, experts say. Chirag Patel, who manages the Tikka Shack Indian Grub restaurant in Mechanicsburg, agrees that the actual numbers are much higher than what is being reported. Chirag Patel, manager of the Tikka Shack Indian Grub restaurant in Mechanicsburg, is worried about his brother back in India, where the coronavirus is spreading at an alarming rate. (Steve Marroni/PennLive.com). You can find a case in each and every home, said Patel. While most of his family is here in the Harrisburg area, his brother, Chindan, lives in India, where he owns two businesses. His brother has a 1-year-old daughter, too, which concerns Patel further. But they are healthy, they are staying home, and they are taking precautions, Patel said. He does have one good friend who just tested positive yesterday, but he is healthy so far. Patel said he is asking his brother to apply for a visa to come to come to the U.S. to visit until this passes over, but he doubts he will do that. He, like many Asian Indian Americans, finds it difficult to watch the news and to see the images of crowded hospitals and funeral pyres from his home country. It is extremely difficult to watch and extremely difficult to hear, said Dr. Nirmal Joshi, president of the Joshi Health Foundation in Mechanicsburg. Dr. Nirmal Joshi, Chief Medical Officer for Mount Nittany Health discuses the coronavirus COVID-19 on March 13, 2020. Joe Hermitt | jhermitt@pennlive.com Joshi has been keeping a close eye on what is going on in India not just as a medical professional, but as someone who is directly affected by it. The area of Lucknow, where he went to medical school, is being hit particularly hard by this new wave of COVID-19. In a recent guest editorial for PennLive, Joshi wrote about one of his former professors Ravi who contracted COVID-19 and could not find a hospital bed in the very medical school where he taught. Faced with the countrys dwindling supply of home oxygen, his professors family thought they managed to secure a hospital bed for him in New Delhi. They made the 10-hour trip, Joshi explained, only to find all of the beds were taken. They returned home, and Ravi died days later. Its a heartbreaking story, Joshi said on Tuesday. Its not just the loss, but its the way people are passing away from a lack of resources. Its one of those nightmare things that should never, ever happen. A family member places a sari, a traditional garment worn by women, on the pyre of a COVID-19 victim as he performs the last rites at an open crematorium on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Karnataka state, India, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)AP Ravis case is not uncommon. Joshi has two close relatives who have died, and he said almost every Asian Indian family he knows has at least one sick family member in India. But why is this happening more than a year into the global pandemic, considering India did comparatively well early on? There are a number of factors, Joshi said. In the early days of his medical career in India, Joshi worked through a tuberculosis outbreak, and he saw firsthand just how strained the public-health system is. The resources are limited, and when faced with the sheer number of people needing care now, the system collapses, he said. In India, there is not enough medical infrastructure to take care of that much of a population, Gupta added. No country in the world could handle it if everyone walks into a hospital at one time. There wont be enough room. Additionally, there isnt a well-established health-insurance system. Joshi said patients have to pay out of pocket, and if they dont have the resources, they often do not get the care they need. This forces them to recover at home, not only potentially infecting family members, but also combating the home-oxygen-tank shortage. None of these factors alone are to blame, he said. Its all of them, together, coupled with this particular strain of the coronavirus. Im personally convinced its the severity of this strain that is causing death and destruction the way it is, Joshi said. People line up to get tested for COVID-19 in Jammu, India, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)AP It accounts for such a large number of cases in so short of a period of time with extremely high hospitalization and mortality rates, he said. Whats of particular concern is how quickly it spreads to not only family members, but to healthcare providers, too, he said. You do what you can from here to help, though, Joshi said. Some families here are trying by phone and Zoom to set up appointments for their loved ones in India, frantically calling hospitals for bed availability and begging old friends in their hometowns to help them coordinate. As a physician who is trained in infectious diseases, Joshi offers his services to doctors in India, staying in touch through the Whasapp app. He hears what they are doing on the ground. If he learns about something that is working, he passes that information on to others in health care. If a particular practice or medication is not working in India, Joshi does his research to find out why and to recommend an alternative. Joshi also works with Guptas organization and conducts online seminars to share his knowledge and advice. In fact, Joshi and the AIACPA are holding a free webinar and Q&A session at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday on Zoom. Follow this link to participate. There may not be much one individual can do, Joshi said. But together, they can make a difference. Gupta agrees. And the bit of good news is that it is easier to stay in touch now than it had been before. With cellphones, FaceTime, Zoom and apps like Whatsapp, Gupta said families are staying in contact from opposite ends of the world. Our people are very sad. We are in contact with other people locally and family and friends in India on a daily basis, sometimes two or three times per day, Gupta said. We try to comfort local folks who lost family members and we try to hold COVID sessions every few weeks. We do what we can locally. Joshi said what is happening in India should be a reminder to the rest of the world that the pandemic is not over. Increasingly, what we are finding in our experiences over the past year is this disease does not respect geographic boundaries, Joshi said. According to the International Federation of the Red Cross, what we need globally is whats happening locally, but on a much larger scale support. More people have been diagnosed with the disease in Asia over the past two weeks than in the Americas, Europe, and Africa combined, Red Cross Asia Pacific director Alexander Matheou said, according to The Associated Press. Right now, we need global solidarity for regional support with more medical equipment, support for prevention and urgent access to vaccines. While vaccination campaigns are underway in the region, the Red Cross said in a statement they are hampered by shortages, hesitancy and the costly logistics of reaching many areas across the region. To bring this pandemic under control, we need greater global cooperation so that lifesaving resources, medical equipment, vaccines and money get where they are needed to help people most at risk, the statement said. Were only safe when everyone is safe. Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine was approved for children ages 12-15 Wednesday afternoon. Central Pennsylvania vaccine providers planned to quickly announce distribution details. Here are answers to important questions related to COVID-19 vaccine for children. Q: How do we know the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective for children? With Pennsylvanias COVID-19 mitigation measures about to be lifted and vaccination rates on the rise, Gov. Tom Wolfs administration is developing plans to begin calling back more state government employees to commonwealth worksites. According to a spokesman for the governors Office of Administration, the commonwealth is modernizing its approach to work just as private sector and other public sector agencies have to ensure employees remain safe as they return to the office. At the same time, spokesman Dan Egan said in an email response sent on Wednesday the Office of Administration and state agencies are crafting new teleworking rules that will apply to some of the 73,000 state employees who work under the governors jurisdiction. The undertaking will make sure that agencies that shifted IT resources to allowing teleworking during the pandemic have the support in place to help employees smoothly return to the office while we build on the lessons we have learned and the improvements we have made in technology over the last year, Egan said. Some other state agencies outside of those under the governors jurisdiction also are taking a fresh look at their teleworking policies in light of the past years experiences, when many employees worked remotely to avoid spreading or contracting the virus. Since last spring, Egan said about two-thirds of commonwealth employees have continued to report in-person to their workplaces across the state, with the rest teleworking all or part of their work schedules as they delivered services and responded to constituent needs. A memo sent out to commonwealth employees last week included a reminder to temporary teleworkers that they should begin to make arrangements to prepare for the potential return to government offices after June 30. Those given the opportunity to continue to telework will continue to be expected to make and maintain dependent care arrangements to permit concentration on work assignments. The memo goes on to say the commonwealth is not requiring employees to get vaccinated but the governors order requiring face coverings until 70% of Pennsylvania adults are fully vaccinated will be followed. Jan Murphy may be reached at jmurphy@pennlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @JanMurphy. More from PennLive COVID-19 vaccine for early teens heres what you need to know Pa. raises capacity for indoor, outdoor events beginning May 17 This horrific act of hate and terror ... could have divided us, but we came together stronger than ever before, he said. Orlando swore as a community to never forget those we lost that night. Their stories, their images, their memories and their spirits and memories must live on in our hearts. ... Together we will open minds and hearts, we will make the Pulse memorial a national symbol of hope, love and change. A homeless man who tested positive for Hepatitis C is facing charges after police say he bit a nurse and spit on her at a hospital in northwestern Pennsylvania. The incident occurred March 20 at Penn Highlands in DuBois, WJAC is reporting. DuBois police have charged 40-year-old Jason Arnold with aggravated assault, reports indicate. A nurse was caring for Arnold in the hospitals Emergency Department when Arnold bit her on the elbow and spat in her face, reports indicate. His bite broke the nurses skin, and Arnold later tested positive for Hepatitis C, reports indicate. According to reports, the nurse was treated for her injuries and is being monitored for Hepatitis C exposure. There are warrants out now for Arnolds arrest, reports indicate. A convicted felon who robbed a Good Samaritan at gunpoint after breaking into the victims Dauphin County home has failed to convince a state appeals court that his 20- to 40-year prison sentence is too long. That ruling issued Wednesday by a panel of the Superior Court upholds the punishment imposed by county Judge Scott A. Evans on 28-year-old Vincent J. Crockenberg. Evans called Crockenberg a menace to society. Police said Crockenberg burglarized the victims West Hanover Township home in February 2018 after failing to return to a privately run work-release center for prisoners transitioning back into society. Crockenberg was in the center finishing a sentence for a series of burglaries committed in Philadelphia. The victim had tried to help Crockenberg by providing him with jobs from time to time. The home invasion robbery prompted temporary lockdowns at several area schools as authorities searched for Crockenberg. As Judge Victor P. Stabile noted in the state courts opinion, Evans levied the 20- to 40-year sentence after Crockenberg pleaded guilty to robbery, burglary and theft charges. Crockenberg claimed on appeal that his sentence is excessive and that Evans didnt consider all pertinent factors in choosing that penalty. Stabile disagreed. The state judge cited Evans conclusion that Crockenberg created an extremely dangerous situation when he broke into the victims house and that his actions, coupled with his past criminal record, justified the decades-long stint behind bars. An Allentown man is facing homicide charges in connection with a New Years Day crash that killed a woman and her 1-year-old son. Lazarus Roldan, 31, initially faced charges of accidents involving death and related charges in the Allentown crash. On Tuesday, Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin announced he was adding homicide by vehicle, aggravated assault by vehicle, and other charges. Roldan was arraigned in the new case and bail was set at 10% of $50,000 for the new charges. An attorney has not yet entered an appearance for him in the case, according to court records. Police were called at about 2:44 a.m. Jan. 1 for a crash in the 1200 block of South Eighth Street in Allentown, and found the wreckage of a BMW and a Trailblazer. Kisha Cora, 22, and her 1-year-old son were in the BMW with two other people, police said. Roldan was driving the Trailblazer. Kisha Cora was pronounced dead shortly after the crash. Rivera Cora was pronounced dead later at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township, the Lehigh County coroners office said. Both died from multiple blunt force trauma. Two other people in the sedan were treated for their injuries, police said. Police said the morning of the crash, the BMW was traveling north on South Eighth Street, and the Trailblazer was traveling south. Roldan lost control of the Trailblazer and traveled into the opposing lane of traffic, hitting the drivers side of the BMW, police said. An off-duty state trooper came upon the scene shortly after the collision, and briefly spoke to Roldan, who then fled, investigators said. Roldan later surrendered to authorities. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. More: Passenger hits state trooper as he speeds away after traffic stop: police One more blow could have been fatal: Harrisburg man gets 15 to 30 years in prison for two brutal rapes A central Pennsylvania lawyer who is facing federal charges that he threatened to kill his wife and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate has been disbarred by consent by the state Supreme Court. The action that prevents Kenelm Shirk III, 71, of Cornwall, Lebanon County, from practicing law comes as Shirk prepares for a trial scheduled in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg for August. Shirk maintained a law practice in Ephrata, Lancaster County. The federal charges were lodged against Shirk in February, several days after his arrest by state police. Investigators said Shirk had an AR-15 rifle, two handguns, a large quantity of ammunition, rope, gloves, and about $5,000 in several rolls of $50 bills when he was arrested at a convenience store near Shippensburg on Jan. 21. Police said they used Shirks cell phone to locate him. The feds charged Shirk with influencing, impeding, or retaliating against a federal official. He pleaded not guilty in February and remains in federal custody. A Lehigh Valley doctor traveling by helicopter hit a band of snow showers before his deadly crash last month in a remote area of Pennsylvania, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its preliminary report. Dr. Sanjay Kansara, of Upper Saucon Township, was piloting the four-seat Robinson R44 helicopter that crashed the night of April 23 in state game lands near Forkston. The NTSB said the pilot was fatally injured and the helicopter was destroyed; the agency does not identify people involved in aircraft accidents. The night of the crash the helicopter departed from Allentown Queen City Municipal Airport shortly after 8 p.m. and was headed for Bradford County Airport in Towanda. Kansara had a passion for flying and flew himself between his home in the Lehigh Valley and Guthries Sayre Campus, the hospital said in a news release. Shortly after passing Kasson Brook, Pa., the helicopter encountered a band of snow showers and entered a descending spiral until track data was lost about an hour after takeoff, the NTSB said. The helicopter collided with trees and terrain in a remote wooded area, and then caught fire, the safety board said. The Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert for a missing aircraft, and the wreckage was found on state game lands in Wyoming County. The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating. Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. More: Woman was on her way to buy fentanyl when she caused fatal crash: police What caused the 2015 plane crash that killed a Sunbury attorney? Judge to decide The pace of the return to the office is starting to pick up across Pennsylvanias state government offices but signs point to a more liberal use of teleworking as a side effect of the COVID-19 era. Remote working could be here to stay in some state agencies. A motorist who claims tens of thousands of E-ZPass users are being gouged for millions of dollars in unjustified charges and fines by the Pennsylvania Turnpike is trying to drive home her allegations in a lawsuit filed in Dauphin County Court. Julie E. Thomas contends the alleged gouging is the result of deliberate scheme. She is seeking to have the case declared a class action, which would open it to participation by nearly everyone who has used E-ZPass since May of 2017. Thomas suit comes as the Turnpike Commission has been instituting a series of toll increases and has gone to fully electronic tolling. Drivers now using the highway are charged via E-ZPass or if they dont have E-ZPass are charged based on the recording of their license plates as they pass through the old toll booths. Those without E-ZPass pay higher tolls. The turnpike commission isnt the only target of Thomas suit. She and her Philadelphia-area attorneys Daniel C. Levin and Carmen A. De Gisi also have named Transcore, the Tennessee-based firm that manages the turnpikes electronic tolling, as a defendant. Turnpike spokeswoman Rosanne Placey said Wednesday that her agency does not comment on pending litigation. Thomas, a regular E-ZPass customer who uses the turnpike to commute between Perkasie and Plymouth Meeting, says her suspicions were aroused when she was assessed for about $950 in fees, penalties or other undisclosed charges an amount that is outrageous, excessive and completely untethered from the value of the underlying toll. She claims E-ZPass equipment malfunctions which are well known to turnpike officials and Transcore are behind the supposedly unjustified charges. For example, she contends that older E-ZPass transponders do not properly register with updated recording equipment, resulting in the users being wrongly charged higher fees and penalties. Turnpike officials knew of the problem but didnt warn E-ZPass users, Thomas contends. Meanwhile, her suit states, customers who challenge the fees are encumbered by an unnecessarily complicated login and security system and the further encumbered by customer service representatives who provide incorrect, confusing and often misleading information. Thomas says she did dispute charges she claims were unjustified and secured a refund and another transponder for her car, although she contends she continued to be hit with undeserved charges. In seeking class action status, Thomas estimates tens of thousands of E-ZPass holders would be eligible to join her suit. She is seeking unspecified financial damages on claims including unfair trade practices, fraudulent concealment and breach of contract. A rocket launch from Wallops Island, Va., on Wednesday night could be noticable in Pennsylvania, if the weather cooperates. The launch has been scrubbed four times before. NASA will try again, no earlier than 8:05 p.m. May 12, to launch the Black Brant XII sounding rocket from the Wallops Flight Facility. If that doesnt work, NASA plans to try again through May 16. When the rocket takes off, a colorful vapor cloud will visible along the East Coast, across Pennsylvania and beyond. To watch it, youll need a clear view of the southern sky. I love counting, counting to the number four Were on night four of counting down to launch a Black Brant XII sounding rocket. Winds are cooperating tonight! So we need clear skies in Bermuda to launch. Window opens at 8:04 p.m. ET. Live now: https://t.co/smUMQQ7FlF pic.twitter.com/MSmFLyf5aX NASA Wallops (@NASA_Wallops) May 11, 2021 Updates will be posted to the Wallops Flight Facility Facebook page. NASA explains what the rockets for: The KiNET-X sounding rocket launch will be releasing vapor tracers into the atmosphere. Scientist use vapor tracers primarily to study atmospheric winds in upper atmosphere and ionosphere. When released after launch, the tracers make it possible to directly observe the winds. The vapors release harmlessly between 217-249 miles above the Earth. The launch will be available on video, with a short delay: https://video.ibm.com/channel/nasa-tv-wallops. More: NASA simulation confirms theres no technology able to stop a massive asteroid from hitting Off Topic: Digital tech sharpens images of astronauts Shepard and Collins during historic space shots | Jones Watch amazing 360-degree panoramic view taken by the NASA Perseverance rover on Mars Blaming his actions on a fit of frustration and anger, a Bucks County man pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of harassment and was sentenced to one year of probation for threatening to kill Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolfs family members last year. Brian Rafferty, 62, repeatedly apologized for making the threats during a phone call to Wolfs office and said he never intended to actually harm Wolf or his family. I am truly sorry for what I did, Rafferty told Bucks County Judge Diane Gibbons during a hearing in her Doylestown courtroom. It will never happen again, cross my heart and I swear. Gibbons accepted his apology, noting that Rafferty, of Oakford, had cooperated with investigators from the beginning and didnt seem to be a threat to the community. The nature of the communication demonstrates frustration and anger, and while I would never justify it we have an individual who has used threatening language out of that transitionary anger, Gibbons said. Rafferty was arrested in April of last year after making the threats during a phone call with a staff member in Wolfs office. I live right down the street from the governors daughter and granddaughter and theyre dead, you hear me? Rafferty said, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. Theyre dead. His unemployment benefits were delayed by the coronavirus. Then he threatened to kill Gov. Wolfs family, police say. Hours later, state police troopers took him into custody. Rafferty admitted to police that he made the threats, the affidavit said. He told the troopers he was upset due to not receiving his unemployment money and being unable to make contact with anyone in the unemployment office. At the time, Rafferty had been temporarily laid off from Classic Transportation, the Bensalem business where he has been employed for nearly 30 years. He has since gone back to work. Initially, Rafferty was charged with terroristic threats a more serious charge and harassment. But prosecutors, led by Deputy District Attorney Monica Furber, agreed to replace the threat charge with another count of harassment. In making that decision, Furber said her office took into account that Rafferty had never been arrested before, and had not made attempts to contact Wolf or threaten him again. Additionally, she said, lawyers for the governor felt satisfied that Rafferty did not pose an ongoing threat to Wolf. Rafferty also underwent mental health treatment after his arrest and said Tuesday he was willing to continue that treatment if asked by the court. Raffertys attorney, Louis Busico, said after the hearing that he was pleased with the outcome. Ive said from the beginning that Mr. Rafferty never threatened anyone he lost his temper during the most difficult time in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and said some things he shouldnt have, Busico said. Nevertheless, were grateful that Gov. Wolf, as he has demonstrated throughout this pandemic, exercised compassion and forgiveness where Mr. Rafferty was concerned. ___ Vinny Vella of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote this story. (c)2021 The Philadelphia Inquirer Visit The Philadelphia Inquirer at www.inquirer.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Gov. Tom Wolf announced on Wednesday that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) will invest $10 million in state grant funds for work at 12 Pennsylvania airports. Aviation plays a vital role in keeping our states economy moving, Wolf said in the press release. These investments will help Pennsylvanias airports operate safely, expand to meet current demands, and sustain growth well into the future. As of April 2021, Pennsylvania ranks 16th in the country in the number of public-use aviation facilities with 124 airports, heliports, and seaplane bases, the release said. Heres a list of the airports and the improvements planned for each: Allegheny County: Pittsburgh International Airport $2.4 million for continued commercial air cargo facility development, including air cargo buildings, aircraft and vehicular access and parking. Bedford County: Bedford County Airport $187,500 to replace the floor in its first unit hangar built in 1991. Blair County: Altoona-Blair County Airport $100,000 for continued construction of a corporate hangar facility. Bucks County: Doylestown Airport $150,000 to repave and reseal aircraft parking areas and taxiways. Quakertown Airport $150,000 to make exterior improvements and increase the energy efficiency of the terminal building. Cambria County: John Murtha Johnstown Cambria County Airport $100,000 to continue the update of the passenger terminal facility, including energy efficiency improvements. Cumberland County: Carlisle Airport $3 million for South Middleton Township to acquire this privately-owned airport that will help preserve the future of this facility within its jurisdiction as a public-use general aviation airport. Public ownership typically provides for a more stable environment to preserve and improve an airport. Acquisition cost includes airport land and existing facilities, runways, aircraft parking, hangars, and aviation fuel storage. Jefferson County: DuBois Regional Airport $450,000 to improve facilities including hangars, administration building, and other airport structures. Lehigh County: Lehigh Valley International Airport $1,778,500 million to continue terminal connector and security checkpoint expansion as well as enhance terminal commercial development connectivity. Lycoming County: Williamsport Regional Airport $322,500 for site work and $761,500 for construction of a 12,000 square foot hangar complex. Venango County: Venango Regional Airport $150,000 for continued rehabilitation of the airports aviation fuel storage system. Westmoreland County: Arnold Palmer Regional Airport $450,000 for improvements to the terminal building, including informational signage, and construction of an aircraft deicing fluid containment facility which will be a safeguard against environmental contamination. For more information visit www.PennDOT.gov and click on the Aviation tab, and to learn more about the states airports visit Travel in PA. ALSO READ: Report ranks best, worst US airports for cheap domestic flights [Rubio] has used the Senate as a stepping stone for his political ambitions as opposed to serving the people of Florida, she said. And I happen to believe that the people of Florida deserve a senator, at least one, who is more focused on what their issues are at their kitchen tables than on their next political position. In this Thursday, May 14, 2020 photo, a doctor holds his stethoscope during a patient visit in Blackburn, England, amid the coronavirus pandemic. Doctors in British Columbia are being warned they could face investigation or penalties from their regulatory body if they contradict public health orders or guidance about COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Hannah McKay/Pool Photo via AP Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holds a press conference in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. Trudeau is rejecting accusations from Albertas justice minister that his federal government is part of a trio rooting for that provinces health system to collapse due to COVID-19. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Pharmacist Barbara Violo arranges all the empty vials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines at the Junction Chemist during the COVID-19 pandemic in Toronto, on Monday, April 19, 2021. Ontario says it'll sit on 254,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arriving next week and about 50,000 more it has in stock - until it decides when and if to offer second doses of the shot. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette Troopers say Corrado was passing other vehicles in a no-passing zone on westbound Keystone Road near the intersection of Meadows Drive, when the driver of an SUV in the eastbound lane was forced to swerve onto the shoulder to try to avoid a collision. Dvoress Clinches His First GGPoker Super MILLION$ Title May 12, 2021 Matthew Pitt Daniel Dvoress can tick off the GGPoker Super MILLION$ from his list of must-win tournaments because he clinched its title, and the $394,852 top prize, on May 11, 2021. Dvoress gave himself a great chance to win this massive tournament by reaching the nine-handed final table second in chips. He seized the opportunity and ran out a most worthy champion. Super MILLION$ Final Table Results Place Player Country Prize 1 Daniel Dvoress Canada $394,852 2 DaiMin141319 UAE $312,889 3 McDavid97 Canada $247,939 4 Guillaume Nolet Canada $196,472 5 Preben Stokkan United Kingdom $155,688 6 Fabrice Touil Morocco $123,370 7 Mike Watson Canada $97,761 8 Idris Ambraisse Morocco $77,468 9 Ami Barer Canada $61,387 Ami Barer went into the star-studded final table armed with enough chips for sixth place at the restart but he was the first player out of the door. The action folded to Barer on the button, and he raised to 150,500 with pocket tens at the 35,000/70,000/8,500a level. Guillaume Nolet woke up in the small blind with the powerhouse hand that is pocket aces, and he three-bet to 441,000. Barer responded with an all-in bet worth 1,572,964 in total, and Nolet made the easy call. Nolet flopped top set, and Barer was drawing dead on the turn. Eighth place went to Idris Ambraisse after his timing was out against Nolet. A min-raise to 160,000 from Nolet, which he made with ace-queen after being the most active player at the table by some margin, was three-bet all-in for 981,908 by Ambraisse with king-jack. Nolet called the extra chips and won the hand courtesy of a queen on the flop. The waters grew less shark-infested when Mike Watson crashed out in seventh place. Everyone folded to Dvoress on the button and he ripped it in with jack-eight of hearts. Watson looked down at pocket sevens and called off his 2,146,210 chips. An eight on the flop and jack on the turn sent Watson to the showers. Everyone was now guaranteed a six-figure prize for their efforts, $123,370 to be exact. Fabrice Touil was the player who received this prize, busting out during the 80,000/160,000/20,000a level. Touil was all-in from the big blind holding queen-nine and he lost to the ace-king of Nolet. Fernando "JNandez" Habegger Explains How You Can Win WSOPC Cash Game Rings Dvoress Gets Lucky Against Stokkan Preben Stokkan was the next player out of the door, the Norwegians fifth place finish resulting in a $155,688 payday. Stokkans final action in this weeks Super MILLION$ was to call off his 7.8 big blinds from the small blind with ace-queen after Dvoress open-shoved from the cutoff with what turned out to be the lowly king-deuce. The two of diamonds was the door card and it proved to be enough to reduce the player count by one. Nolet and Dvoress were neck and neck in terms of chips going into four-handed play and everything looked set for that duo to be heads-up at the business end of the tournament. It was not meant to be because Nolet bowed out in fourth place and had to make do with a $196,472 consolation prize. Three hands made Nolet go from hero to zero. The first saw him double up the super-tight McDavid97 with king-queen versus the short stacks pocket sixes which went on to flop a set. Nolet then doubled the stack of DaiMing141319 when his suited king-queen lost to ace-eight. The third and final hand saw Nolet get his chips into the middle with king-queen against the jack-ten of DaiMing141319. Ouch. Reichtenstein & Mackoff Latest WSOPC Ring Winners at GGPoker McDavid97 Turns $525 Satellite Into Almost $250,000 McDavid97 busted in third when he. shipped in his last 2.7 big blinds with ace-king and lost to the king-ten of DaiMing141319 after a ten appeared on the turn. McDavid97 only played 12% of his hands at the final table yet still managed to secure the $247,939 third place prize. DaiMing141319 went into their heads-up battle with Dvoress trailing slightly with 9,306,594 chips to the Canadians 9,793,406 stack. DaiMing141319 edged in front and was hitting the board regularly, which made a victory look likely. Dvoress won a huge pot when both players flopped a pair of queens. DaiMing141319 held queen-nine but Dvoress held king-queen. That hand put the ball firmly in Dvoress court and he wasted little time in getting his hands on the rest of his opponents chips. The final hand occurred during the 200,000/400,000/50,000a level. Dvoress moved all-in with ace-six, and DaiMing141319 called off his 14 big blind stack with suited king-jack. Ace-high held for Dvoress and he won his first Super MILLION$ title. The decision raises a chilling question: What if a police officer had told Darnella, 17, to shut off her camera as Floyd agonizingly died during her 9-minute recording of former Officer Derek Chauvin with his knee jammed on Floyds neck? Should she have had to inform police that they were not lawfully doing their duty in order to continue filming? Would Chauvin have been convicted without Darnellas disturbing evidence? Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. South Carolina's head of education said Wednesday that she disagreed with Gov. Henry McMaster's executive order issued Tuesday evening that allows parents to opt their children out of wearing masks in school. Molly Spearman, the state's superintendent of education, said the order has caused "chaos" in schools across the state and that she was not consulted by McMaster on the decision, which was issued around 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. The governor's order allows parents to sign a form to "opt their child out of mask requirements imposed by any public school official or public school district." When the governor issued the order, though, there was no form available. "Unfortunately, due to the late release, there was no time for school districts to prepare or a form ready to be sent out for parents to sign," Spearman said Wednesday. By early Wednesday, however, state health officials released an opt-out form for parents to use if they wished for their children to be allowed to go mask-free at schools where such coverings are required. In posting the form, the Department of Health and Environmental Control also expressed its own split from the governor's decision, noting: "All students, staff and others in schools should continue to wear masks through the end of the current school year. After the governor released his order, the S.C. Department of Education rescinded its mask mandate. Spearman explained this decision by saying it was done to try and establish order and so schools can operate with "peace and quiet." Spearman said she felt it was best to keep the mask mandate in place through the end of the school year, when she planned on removing it. She had chosen this path to prevent changing the rules with so little time left in the school year. With the mandate now removed, Spearman said it makes "vaccination of students more crucial than ever." On Wednesday, U.S. health advisors endorsed Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 12. Spearman said she has heard from many parents, which she described as the "silent majority," across the state who are concerned about sending their children to school and that schools are now dealing with requests from parents for their children to go virtual. Dr. Edward Simmer, director of the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, said he "hopes parents continue to do the right thing" and have their child wear a mask to school. Simmer also said DHEC is opposed to McMaster's executive order. The Aiken County Public School District has made mask wearing on campus optional for faculty, staff and students for the remainder of the school year. Federal orders still require masks to be worn on school buses. "Our goal is to continue normal operations without further disruption to our instructional program," King Laurence, Aiken County superintendent, said in a statement. "As such, we will not collect opt out forms from parents." The Palmetto State Teachers Association released a statement Wednesday criticizing McMaster's decision, as well as its timing. "...Rather than providing empowerment, the Governor's actions mean many families and staff no longer have a choice for in-person learning if those individuals desire to follow the clear instructions of our public health authorities, including the recommendation for face mask use in schools made by Dr. Edward Simmer, the individual selected by the Government to lead DHEC," the statement read. The Associated Press contributed to this report. An Army soldier training at Fort Gordon in nearby Georgia has admitted to possessing child pornography, authorities said Wednesday. Bryan Stills, 26, recently pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography, according to David H. Estes, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. Stills could face up to 20 years in prison as well as fines. Stills is awaiting sentencing, according to a Justice Department announcement. A search of Stillss living quarters in late 2019 turned up devices with hundreds of images and videos of child pornography. At the time, Stills was training with the 369th Signal Battalion. U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command will continue to actively pursue soldiers who engage in this heinous crime, regardless of where they are in the world, said Edward LaBarge, the director of the investigation commands specialized cybercrime unit. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children helped with the investigation. Fort Gordon is home to the Army's cyber center of excellence. COLUMBIA Gov. Henry McMaster ordered an immediate end to mask mandates in South Carolina, saying the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines means governments should stop dictating when and where people cover their face. The May 11 order makes null and void any local COVID-19 restrictions tied to his ongoing pandemic emergency declarations, requiring at the very least that city and county governments rewrite their own ordinances to keep them in place. "With the COVID-19 vaccine readily available and case numbers dropping, I will not allow local governments to use the state of emergency declaration as a reason for implementing or maintaining mask mandates," McMaster said. "Everybody knows what we need to do to stay safe including wearing a mask if youre at risk of exposing others but we must move past the time of governments dictating when and where South Carolinians are required to wear a mask," he continued. "Maintaining the status quo ignores all of the great progress weve made, the governor added. The move comes two weeks after McMaster warned local officials he'd do "whatever's necessary" to put an end to government-mandated mask wearing if they didn't act on their own. Since then, several local governments have extended their mandates. At least six counties and dozens of cities still had one in place. That includes Columbia City Council, which voted 6-1 moments before McMaster issued his order to extend the capital city's mandate through June 5, to match what Richland County Council had already done. Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin agreed the city's newly minted ordinance is invalid as written. He doesn't expect city leaders to draft a new one for approval. Instead, the focus will shift toward encouraging people to get vaccinated, he said. Minutes later, Charleston City Council voted unanimously to turn its mask mandate into a recommendation, effective immediately. Its rules were already set to expire in two days. McMaster's order aims to end mask mandates in schools by directing the state's public health agency to create a form for parents to sign to exempt their child from any face-covering requirements. "With every adult in our state having the opportunity to receive a vaccine, it goes against all logic to continue to force our children especially our youngest children to wear masks against their parents wishes," McMaster said. "Whether a child wears a mask in school is a decision that should be left only to a student's parents." But his order puts no deadline on that form going out. It's unclear if that could happen before the school year ends or even be available in time for summer programs. The state Department of Education requires masks to be worn when entering a school, in the hallways, when dropping off or picking up students and on school buses. The state agency leaves it to teachers and district administrators whether to require masks worn in the classroom or during outside activities. Those rules are based on guidance from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. "If this in fact means DHEC is adjusting it's public health guidance to school districts, we will, effective immediately, rescind our guidelines," said education agency spokesman Ryan Brown. "We are not public health experts, so we're relying on public health experts." But that's not happening, said DHEC Director Edward Simmer. DHEC will comply with McMaster's order to create a waiver form for parents. But even with the governor's order, the agency is not changing its standing recommendation that everyone continue to wear a face mask, he said. "All students, staff and others in schools should continue to wear masks through the end of the current school year," Simmer said, pointing to federal pandemic guidance. Unlike other states, South Carolina never had a statewide mask mandate, though McMaster encouraged local governments last year to pass their own ordinances. That encouragement officially ended when he lifted his mandate for face coverings in state buildings March 5, but local ordinances still cited his prior declarations. As a preemptive move against "vaccine passports," McMaster's order also bars local officials and public agencies from requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of receiving government services or entering public property. About 35 percent of South Carolinians ages 15 and up have completed their vaccination process, while 44 percent have received at least one shot. The supply of vaccines in the state has exceeded demand for weeks and with many appointments going unfilled, providers have eliminated the need to sign up ahead of time. Children younger than 16 haven't been eligible to get a shot but should be soon. On May 10, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 15. Stephen Fastenau contributed from Columbia. South Carolina Rep. Bill Taylor, left, R-Aiken, and Rep. Russell Fry, right, R-Surfside Beach, discuss their strategy for a bill that would call for a convention to propose amendments to the U.S. Constitution on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Columbia, S.C. Supporters said South Carolina would be the 16th of the 34 states needed to call the convention. Carl Golden is a senior contributing analyst with the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University in New Jersey. You can reach him at cgolden1937@gmail. More health care for others is something new to celebrate this Mothers Day and a long overdue milestone. I know from personal experience that Medicaid has always been a critical program for moms and their babies. Over half the births in Florida are paid for by Medicaid. I was a recipient of Medicaid when I was pregnant with my first child and know firsthand the limitations of 60 day coverage. No new mother should have to worry about losing her health care just at the moment she may need it most. The U.S. Small Business Administration this week awarded the first $2 billion of Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants to more than 16,000 food-and-beverage outlets, including at least one Charleston-area restaurant, which means some restaurant bank accounts by May 11 contained evidence of work by the Independent Restaurant Coalition. Without the IRC, I dont know if it would have gotten done, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a news conference celebrating the $28.6 billion program designed to help restaurants overcome pandemic losses. With the government still accepting grant applications, the IRC is keeping a tight focus on lining up federal assistance. But restaurant owners across the country, inspired by the grassroots organizations influence and empowered by its success, are looking into forming similar groups at the state and local level. Regional associations which have popped up since the start of the pandemic include New York Citys ROAR (Restaurants Organizing, Advocating and Rebuilding); FARE (Food, Agriculture, Restaurants and beverage Establishments) Idaho; Los Angeles Independent Hospitality Coalition; and the Independent Restaurant Alliance of Oregon. Restaurant and chefs had a political voice in the past but theyve never used it for themselves, IRC Executive Director Erika Polmar said. Theyve used it to fight cancer or support farms. According to Polmar, the IRC has no plans to launch state chapters, although the idea has been floated. I wouldnt say never, she said, stressing the organizations short history and responsiveness to members needs. Yet for now, if South Carolina independent restaurateurs want to come together to lobby for their interests, theyll have to do exactly that. Over the past year, food-and-beverage makers and sellers across the state have trekked to Columbia to address issues specific to the South Carolina hospitality industry. Those include the alcohol curfew enacted in response to COVID-19; bills allowing some diners to openly carry handguns; oyster permit legislation; and the prospect of E&J Gallo tasting centers. At the same time, restaurant owners are still contending with pandemic-related losses and various government-imposed fees. Even so, Independent Restaurant Coalition leader and Charleston restaurant owner Michael Shemtov doubts any kind of official group will emerge in South Carolina, which has never been a hotbed of collective organizing. It is a leading tourist destination, though, which means most restaurant owners are exceptionally busy with day-to-day responsibilities. Somebodys got to do the work to form it, Shemtov said. I dont think youre going to see that. Charleston restaurant owners already have the option to join the Lowcountry Hospitality Association, an arm of the Charleston Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. Members who pay $700 in annual dues automatically receive membership in the South Carolina Restaurant & Lodging Association and the National Restaurant Association. In the eyes of Independent Restaurant Coalition stalwarts, the National Restaurant Association and its affiliates serve an important function, but their leaders arent always attuned to the priorities of restaurateurs who own a single non-franchised restaurant. The National Restaurant Association in March acknowledged as much by hiring a new executive to strengthen the associations voice in speaking for restaurants of all sorts, including small independents. Had it just been the MRA (Massachusetts Restaurant Association) and NRA, I dont know that the world would have really understand the importance of restaurants and the suffering they went through, said Jody Adams, the legendary Cambridge, Mass., chef and a founding member of Mass Restaurants United. Sign up for our food & dining newsletter. We publish our free Food & Dining newsletter every Wednesday at 10 a.m. to keep you informed on everything happening in the Charleston culinary scene. Sign up today! Email Sign Up! What were trying to do is create a real working organization that can work in tandem with the MRA, Adams said. Were a little bit grittier and closer to the ground. When Adams and her colleagues first got together to petition state leadership to cap delivery fees and help restaurateurs cope with standing expenses during shutdowns, they werent certain they needed to exist as a standalone group. But the obstacles encountered by many restaurant owners during the Paycheck Protection Programs first round persuaded the grassroots crew that it needed to put newly gained political skills to lasting use. We felt was there was a whole swath of restaurants small independent sub shops, coffee shops, pizza places, little Mexican restaurants, little Vietnamese restaurants that needed representation, Adams said. A lot of MRA members have access to bankers and access to lawyers. I dont know that the MRA necessarily understood the difficulty that those small independents had. Since its spring 2020 launch, Mass Restaurants United has worked with elected officials to expand outdoor dining, adjust liquor laws and create a statewide Distressed Restaurant Fund. Its members also made sure that Massachusetts congressional delegation understood the significance of the Restaurants Act, the predecessor to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Theyre all Democrats and they all love restaurants, so it was not a super-heavy lift, Adams said. It was not the lift that the folks in Texas have. Sue Bette, owner of Bluebird Barbecue in Burlington, Vt., said Vermont Independent Restaurants has also benefitted from being in a small state where legislators are easy to reach. We were able to get in touch with folks in government just to let them know what was happening. We were able to have influence on restrictions, Bette said. Just as Mass Restaurants United wasnt first conceived as a polished political network, Vermont Independent Restaurants began as a bunch of restaurant-owning friends who were worried about the future and needed a forum for talking about their fears. We got together for mutual support and that evolved into using our voices, Bette said. Bette called Vermont Independent Restaurant Association a lifeline. As we move into recovery, its unclear to me if last year was the hard year or the one coming up is, Bette said. But I do feel like at least we have a group working together. And at least in Massachusetts, Adams said, people in power are listening. Boston is preparing to elect a mayor in November. A dozen candidates have entered the race, which became competitive when incumbent Marty Walsh resigned to join President Joe Bidens Cabinet. Every one of them, Adams said, has come up with a restaurant agenda. South Carolina's gig economy workers, nonprofits and truckers were bracing for the short-term financial impact after a cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline caused the shutdown of its massive fuel-distribution system last week, leading to higher prices and less gasoline availability. Later in the day on May 12, Colonial Pipeline operators announced they started to resume operations following the ransomware attack but said in a statement that it would take several days for service to return to some areas. This week, lines at the pump continued to grow throughout the state, and some customers began to panic amid rising prices and declining amounts of fuel. But experts were encouraging people to stay calm and explained the gas delays are a short-term problem. Many South Carolinians have taken to social media to complain and spread speculation of a long-term gas shortage this week. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warned customers in a May 12 tweet that they should "not fill plastic bags with gasoline" as some flock to the pumps to horde extra gallons. And as of 4 p.m. May 12, at least 45 percent of stations throughout South Carolina were completely out of gasoline, according to Patrick DeHann, an oil and refined products analyst at GasBuddy.com. The Palmetto State followed behind North Carolina at 68 percent and Virginia at 49 percent. Despite the numbers, Mark Vitner, a senior economist at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, said the temporary delays in the gas pipeline should be put in perspective, and that the problem is absolutely temporary. "The better way to describe it is a supply chain disruption," Vitner said May 12, before the pipeline was up and running again. "There's no long-term shortage of gasoline. And we're amply supplied from a national standpoint. But there's only a couple of pipelines that supply the major population centers in the South and in the Southeast. And the largest of those is out of commission right now." And while the surge in prices and scarcity at some gas stations is temporary, Vitner acknowledged it only piles on hurt to an economy that is still wounded and trying to heal from the COVID-19 pandemic. The national average price of gasoline surpassed the $3-per-gallon mark on May 11, shattering a milestone not seen since 2014. For gig economy workers such as Ryan Hausemann, a 34-year-old Uber Eats driver from West Ashley, even the short-term inconvenience can cause anxiety. He said the current availability of gasoline was more scarce than he has seen during storms in the past. Its worse in some ways than having a hurricane coming because if you go further inland you can still find gas, Hausemann said. I was lucky, I was watching the news and I filled up Monday and got a couple of extra gas cans, as well. Hausemann said he can drive as much as 600 miles in a week with UberEats and works about four hours a day making deliveries. Now, he's holding his breath and hoping the fuel delay will be resolved as soon as possible. Sign up for our new business newsletter We're starting a weekly newsletter about the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina. Get ahead with us - it's free. Email Sign Up! I figure Im good until early next week, Hausemann said. If this thing extends into late next week or next weekend, then Im in trouble. Vitner of Wells Fargo said shortages have happened before. But what is new is the impact it has on the vastly growing gas-powered gig economy that has sprung up over the last five years. For those who rely on ridesharing, food delivery and transportation for their paychecks, these next couple of days could be difficult. "Since the last time we've had a disruption like this, the gig economy wasn't as large as it is today," Vitner said. He added that "for folks that are working in those types of jobs, many are likely to be more selective. You're going to weigh the potential that you can earn versus saying, 'Do I have enough gas to get this done?'" Rick Todd with the State Trucking Association said long-haul drivers are anticipating some short-term issues, as well. Most supply trucks, however, run on diesel. But other smaller forms of gas transportation may be affected. "Well assume things will be back up and running soon, but meantime, there may be a few days of shortages and extra effort to find fuel," Todd said in a statement. While businesses and gig workers brace for the delays amid the gas shortage, nonprofits that rely heavily on transportation are still trying to help those in need. East Cooper Meals on Wheels is expected to make deliveries to about 300 people on 21 routes driven by some of its 450 volunteers, the nonprofits president, George Roberts, said May 12. The meals will go out no matter what," Roberts said. "No one has indicated they have an issue. But, as we do each delivery day, we will have multiple backup drivers available and we have drivers who are willing to drive two routes if needed. Roberts said they check in with all the drivers ahead of time to make sure they're prepared and the nonprofit has its own Meals on Wheels Subaru Outback, which has a full tank in case staff members need to pick up any possible slack. If there are delays, they'll send extra meals out with their drivers. While the delays are slowly decreasing each day, the gas prices may take longer to drop down. Tiffany Wright, a spokeswoman for AAA Carolina, said vacationers for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday may lead to increased prices on road trips. "Once the pipeline is back online, gas prices will most likely still remain high as it takes time for things to settle... also, demand will increase as we hit Memorial Day, and as demand increases, prices are likely to follow," Wright said. WEST COLUMBIA An Arkansas-based pharmaceutical company paid Lexington County's Nephron Pharmaceuticals $7.9 million to settle a pair of federal court cases claiming it stole trade secrets when it hired former employees of the South Carolina company. U.S. Compounding Inc. and its parent company, Adamis Pharmaceuticals, agreed to the sum that ended the three-year legal battle this week. Adamis did not immediately respond to The Post and Courier's request for comment. The fight centered around two employees who went to work for U.S. Compounding after leaving Nephron and providing Nephron's confidential customer and pricing information to their new employer, a direct competitor. One of the women was a sales representative in the Midwest and had worked for Nephron for about 16 years, selling its products to hospitals in that area. The other's sales territory covered New Jersey. "I had no idea someone working within our organization would do something like this," Nephron CEO Lou Kennedy said. According to court documents, on her last day of employment with Nephron, the first former employee downloaded data from the company's customer management system onto a hard drive that included contacts for current and prospective customers, customers' order history and purchasing habits, as well as pricing details for those orders. Sign up for our Columbia business and real estate newsletter. Get all the latest industry happenings from the Midlands, plus exclusive development news and more in your inbox each week. Email Sign Up! This is despite having signed a non-disclosure agreement with Nephron upon her employment with the company. Nephron found out about the downloads after it was forwarded an email which the former employee had sent in her new role with U.S. Compounding to an existing Nephron customer, stating her new employer could offer the same drugs at a better price, Kennedy said. Kennedy said her lawyers had to argue that this data fell within the legal definition of trade secrets. Ultimately the settlement amount was based on testimony by an expert witness for Nephron who enumerated the monetary value of the data. In a recent financial filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Adamis maintained that Nephron's claims were without merit, but it opted to settle after losing several pretrial motions, citing the legal expenses and uncertainty of ongoing litigation and trial. The settlement also included a permanent injunction against the companies and employees, forbidding any future use or sharing of the data. We are pleased with the outcome of this matter, Kennedy said. This represents a win for the good guys and serves as a reminder that there is a right way and wrong way to do business, that people should conduct themselves with integrity and that there is no substitute for hard work." COLUMBIA Financial incentives being offered to lure a California wine giant to South Carolina could help pay for the expansion of a state park and wildlife area famous for its rare spider lilies. In Chester County, an hour north of Columbia, where E&J Gallo has proposed to build a $400 million wine bottling and distribution plant, there is a fair number of wetlands, including on Gallo's 630-acre tract. In order to satisfy federal environmental requirements, the company must replace those covered over by its planned East Coast hub with a new wetlands area. That's where Landsford Canal State Park, home to the world's largest population of rocky shoals spider lilies, and surrounding wildlife management areas come in. As part of a larger incentive package being negotiated with Gallo, lawmakers gave initial approval for the state Department of Commerce to raise $8.3 million to cover the cost of the wetlands mitigation, as well as $350,000 for road improvements, to include a turn lane for the facility. The money will be raised through a bond sale, unless lawmakers later agree to fund it within the state budget. The Gallo mitigations are part of a partnership between the S.C. Department of Natural Resources and the state park system and a larger plan to expand wildlife management areas that are open to public hunting near the park. Lawmakers also gave the first nod to DNR's $1 million purchase of 385 acres, located about 6 miles from the town of Fort Lawn, that borders the agency-owned wildlife area's current 1,049-acre footprint. The land will be bought from New York-based environmental nonprofit Open Space Institute using funds raised from timber harvesting on state land, relicensing funds from utility companies and various unspent grant money. "The property primarily consists of forested uplands that provide habitat for deer, turkey, and small game species," DNR wrote in its request. The Gallo-related portion of this project is 109 acres, located on the eastern side of the Catawba River, across from the state park. Both funding requests still need agency approval from the State Fiscal Accountability Authority. Meanwhile, incentives for the winemaker have already been a point of contention. The economic development deal made waves when Gallo asked lawmakers for changes to the state's liquor laws, allowing it to open three satellite tasting rooms in tourist areas around the state. Liquor store owners opposed that, as it created a new point of competition not previously allowed. The General Assembly approved the law change May 4. In addition, Chester County Council has given initial approvals to enter into a deal for tax incentives with Gallo, though the specifics of what those tax breaks will be are still being discussed, and a full agreement has yet to be drafted, said county attorney Joan Winters. The amount and duration of the incentives will be decided when the agreement is given a final vote, which is expected to take place June 16, Winters said. And the winemaker will likely be eligible for state tax credits tied to the number of jobs it creates at a rate of $25,000 per position annually, for up to five years. Gallo has promised to hire up to 500 workers in the first phase of development and could eventually employ more than 1,000. COLUMBIA University of South Carolina President Bob Caslen's resignation offer should have been discussed among the school's entire board instead of being rejected solely by the board chairman, two trustees told The Post and Courier. Three of four trustees reached May 12 said they only learned about Caslen's resignation offer, made after he plagiarized a portion of his commencement speech, from news reports. The president offered to leave if he had lost trust of the board. "I was very surprised, shocked," trustee Miles Loadholt, a former board chairman, said about learning of Caslen's offer. "I don't know why the board was not consulted." Loadholt added that how the decision was made does not help a school recovering from a troubled presidential search: "I think that does hurt." Trustees said they have reached out to USC Board Chairman Dorn Smith about his rejection of Caslen's resignation offer, which was revealed a day after the president issued an apology for plagiarizing lines from a Navy SEAL in charge of the mission to take out terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and calling the school "the University of California" during a commencement speech. "We needed to have a meeting on this when the fiasco happened," USC trustee Charles Williams said. "It's been several days, and I'm still waiting for us to call a meeting since this is a board decision. I keep learning this stuff at the same time like the rest of the public." USC has not issued any word of a special meeting. The full board is not scheduled to meet again until June 25. Smith did not return calls or text messages on May 12 seeking comment. USC trustee Eddie Floyd said he thought the entire board might not need to be involved if Caslen did not submit a formal letter of resignation, but like Williams and Loadholt, he learned about the president's offer to leave from news reports. "It may have just been conversation," Floyd said. USC declined to answer questions on details about Caslen's resignation offer, including when it took place or whether it was delivered in a letter or verbally. Caslen remains at USC as his No. 2, Provost Bill Tate, prepares to leave to become president at Louisiana State University. Smith not telling trustees about Caslen's resignation offer did not follow the best practices laid out by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, consultants hired by USC for $146,000 after accreditors requested changes to board rules. "The board chair should share information with the board," said Henry Stoever, the governing boards' chief executive who compared college board leaders to coaches of a team. "And the board needs to make decisions together." The USC chapter of the American Association of University Professors wrote in a letter to the board May 12 that Caslen's commencement speech violated the school's code of ethics that emphasizes practicing personal and academic integrity, and his resignation offer was "an appropriate acknowledgement of the transgression." The chapter wrote it hopes trustees deliberate process Caslen's fate publicly: "The universitys reputation is at stake." The brouhaha over Caslen's plagiarism has angered some lawmakers, who question the board's direction. State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Columbia Democrat whose district includes USC, introduced a bill May 12 to reduce the size of the board from 20 trustees to 11, which would give the state's largest college the state's smallest college board. The bill also would remove all the current trustees. A similar bill was introduced after the problematic search that led to Caslen's hiring in 2019. The group of finalists included only one former college leader and no women. The board voted initially to not select any of the finalists. Later, accreditors scrutinized the USC board over political influence after Gov. Henry McMaster lobbied trustees to hire Caslen. "Caslen is a symptom," Harpootlian said. "The disease is the board." Harpootlian's bill was introduced on the next-to-the-last day of the regular 2021 session and will need to be taken up in 2022. Floyd, now in his 40th year on the board, said lawmakers can do what they think is necessary. The previous effort to remake the board by lawmakers was set aside amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "If they don't think we're doing a good job, then they should make changes," Floyd said. Caslen is scheduled to speak May 15 at a recognition ceremony for the 2020 graduates whose commencement last year was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like the commencements last weekend, the ceremony will be held at Williams-Brice Stadium. Chef Matthew Raiford titled his cookbook Bress n Nyam: Gullah Geechee Recipes from a Sixth-Generation Farmer, using the Gullah words for bless and eat. Writing beautifully of this heritage, Raiford explains: The Gullah Geechee are defined by their relationship to water. It is where we go to feed our families. It is where we return time and time again to seek guidance from the ancestors. My family are descended from the Freshwater Geechee, the ones who reshaped the land to craft irrigation systems for rice fields from the brackish rivers and creeks." Raiford has returned to these roots after a journey through the military, college, the elite Culinary Institute of America and the helm of numerous restaurant kitchens. Now he farms, cooks and writes at Gilliard Farms, on acres that he inherited from his great-great-great-grandfather outside of Brunswick, Ga. Through stories, photographs and recipes, in Bress n Nyam Raiford shares his legacy of the Gullah Lowcountry. It is a memorable feast. The Countryman Press. $30. Nanas Egg Pie with Breakfast Potatoes Nana made a quiche about once a week, but she never called it that. It was an egg pie to her, and whether its called a quiche, a frittata, or a strata it will always be an egg pie to me. The secret to this pie is twofold: its freshness and its utility. In the spring, when we have an abundance of eggs because as the days get longer the hens lay more and the spring vegetables come in quicker than we can pick them, this recipe makes the most of the bounty of our farm. This egg pie also offers a great way to use up the ends of bread. Ingredients For the egg pie: Olive oil spray 1 teaspoon pink Himalayan salt 1 teaspoon salt-free vegetable-pepper seasoning blend 1 dozen large eggs 2 cups coconut cream 4 cups stale bread, cut into cubes 2 cups spinach leaves, roughly chopped or torn 1 large ( cup) portobello mushroom cap, sliced 1 small onion ( cup), finely diced 1 bell pepper ( cup), seeded, stemmed, and diced Sign up for our food & dining newsletter. We publish our free Food & Dining newsletter every Wednesday at 10 a.m. to keep you informed on everything happening in the Charleston culinary scene. Sign up today! Email Sign Up! 2 jalapeno peppers ( cup), seeded, stemmed, and diced 1 tablespoon basil, roughly chopped 1 tablespoon flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped 1 cup crumbled feta 2 Roma tomatoes, sliced For the potatoes: 3 Yukon Gold potatoes, medium diced 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon minced garlic bunch scallions, white and green parts finely sliced Directions Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray the bottom and sides of a 3-quart baking dish or a 10-inch cast-iron skillet with olive oil. In a small bowl, mix together the salt and vegetable-pepper blend. In a large bowl, whisk together half of the salt-and-pepper combination with the eggs and cream. Gently fold in the bread cubes, spinach, mushrooms, onions, peppers, basil, parsley, and cup of the feta into the eggs. Pour the egg pie mixture into the prepared dish or skillet, then top with the remaining feta and the tomatoes. Let the egg pie sit for 15 minutes. While the egg pie rests, toss the potatoes with the olive oil, garlic, and remaining salt and pepper mix. Place the potatoes on the prepared baking sheet, then place both the egg pie and the potatoes into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, turn the egg pie 180 degrees and cook for 20 minutes more, until the egg pie is firm and golden. The potatoes should be browned and fork-tender. Remove the egg pie from the oven and let it rest 5 minutes before serving. In a medium bowl, toss the cooked potatoes with the scallions. Serve the egg pie and potatoes together. Tip: I use a combination of sourdough and brioche breads for the cubes. Tip: You can make the egg pie a day ahead. Cover the uncooked egg pie with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator overnight. Remove the egg pie at least 15 to 20 minutes before you pop it into the oven to allow it to come to room temperature. Then bake it as directed. In light of Gov. Henry McMaster's orders to immediately end local mask mandates and allow parents to decline school mask requirements, Grand Strand public schools are having to adjust their protocols. McMaster's order directed the Department of Health and Environmental Control to make a waiver form for parents to fill out if they want to opt-out of any face covering requirements in schools. Horry County Schools said it will start accepting completed forms May 13. Students who are uncomfortable with attending classes in-person due to opt-outs will be allowed to work from home for the remainder of the year, Spokesperson Lisa Bourcier said in a statement. Parents must submit a request for remote learning by May 17, and these students will be required to work from home for the remainder of the school year. HCS employees, besides bus drivers, will also no longer be required to wear masks. Horry County's school year ends on June 17. The opt-out form also brings another issue to light: seating in classrooms. DHEC"s current standards allow students to be less than six feet apart only if plexiglass separates them and all are wearing masks. Because of McMaster's order, HCS said a student who is not wearing a mask within six feet of a student who tests positive for COVID-19 will be required to quarantine for 10-days to comply with DHEC requirements. HCS said final exams for newly remote students will take place via Google Classroom. State-required tests must be taken in school, though students who do not feel safe to report in-person for these tests will not be penalized. Georgetown County School District will also be accepting waiver forms, citing low incidence rates of COVID-19 and high vaccination rates throughout the county. The district offered no other information, such as allowing students to work from home like HCS, as of the evening of May 12. The South Carolina Department of Education said McMaster does not have legal grounds to remove school districts mandates, though as of May 12, SCDOE rescinded their face covering policy, except on school buses, which is required by the federal government. "The Governor thoroughly understands the rule of law and surely recognizes this but has been successful in his mission of circumventing public health guidance by inciting hysteria and sowing division in the waning days of the school year," said Ryan Brown, spokesperson for the state's Department of Education through a prepared statement. Sign up for our Myrtle Beach weekly update newsletter. Sign up for weekly roundups of our top stories, news and culture from the Myrtle Beach area. This newsletter is hand-curated by a member of our Myrtle Beach news staff. Email Sign Up! McMaster cited the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines as reason to end local mask mandates and introduce the opt-out form. Vaccine skepticism runs high in South Carolina, and public health leaders are concerned about reaching herd immunity. Seventy percent of the population needs to be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, according to Johns Hopkins University. About 35 percent of South Carolinians ages 15 and up have completed their vaccination process, while 44 percent have received at least one shot. Children younger than 16 havent been eligible to get a shot but should be soon. On May 10, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizers COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 15. The city of Myrtle Beach announced May 13 it would no longer require masks in government buildings. Spokesperson Mark Kruea said masks are still encouraged but not required indoors, and that the decision to lift the government buildings mandate was made to keep up with McMaster's order and Center for Disease Control guidance. As of May 13, the CDC said those who are fully vaccinated can resume most indoor and outdoor activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing. Georgetown County no longer has a mask mandate in place, but the city of Georgetown recently renewed its mask mandate until July 30 or until the governors state of emergency ends. Georgetown Mayor Brendon Barber the governor's order supersedes his order and he will respect it. Barber also emphasized while he is following McMaster's orders, it is still important to practice safety in Georgetown by getting vaccinated, especially as the tourist-attracting city enters the spring and summer seasons. "We're still not clear, out of the woods yet. We have to get folks who are still not vaccinated yet, vaccinated," Barber said, adding that the city is aiming for its public offices and facilities to be fully open by July 1. GEORGETOWN Despite weeks of community outcry, Georgetown County Council gave a crucial approval to rezone a plot of land for a proposed affordable housing development by Wedgefield Plantation. The approval passed 4-2, with one councilmember abstaining from the vote. But the controversy is far from over the rezoning of the land to allow for multifamily housing was approved, but the building of the development itself will have to go back through planning commission and county council and be approved separately. For weeks, Wedgefield residents have fought with planning commission and council over the rezoning. Residents say building affordable housing outside its gates would cause a medley of problems, including a dip in property values and increased traffic flow. A lack of specificity, though, is the main point of contention for residents of Wedgefield. Resident Bonnie Myers said she felt like the rezoning and development was moving too quickly with too little detail. "We feel like we have been rushed into something... that will impact this community for years to come," Myers said. Georgetown Memorial Hospital originally bought the 64 acres off Wedgefield Road and North Fraser Street in 2008 to build a medical facility, but the project fell through. Now, the hospital is looking to sell 16 acres of it to Foursix Housing and Blue Line development for an affordable housing complex. A recent study conducted for the county expressed the immediate need for affordable housing such as Foursix and Blue Line's proposed development. Based on the most recent census data, the average household income in Georgetown was just above $48,000 per year. This makes affordable rent in the county no more than $1,200 a month, or 30 percent of income. The proposed apartments would be restricted to families with low income a family of four, for example, could make no more than $38,700 a year if they wanted to live there, based on median household income in the county. Tony Cates with Foursix said rent at the 90 proposed units would be between $400 and $975, depending on the income of the residents and how many bedrooms were in a unit. The development would have units ranging from one to four bedrooms, but exact counts for how many units of each were not yet available. Because council approved the rezoning, more conceptual, engineering and site planning information will be available in a few months. Cates said the developers can now submit the plan to S.C. Housing Authority by May 28, and SCHA will likely respond by July or August. Then the developers will go through the same process of planning commission and county council, only this time for the project itself rather than just the zoning. Sign up for our Myrtle Beach weekly update newsletter. Sign up for weekly roundups of our top stories, news and culture from the Myrtle Beach area. This newsletter is hand-curated by a member of our Myrtle Beach news staff. Email Sign Up! At county council May 11, most of the 23 people who spoke for more than an hour were Wedgefield residents in opposition of the rezoning. Myers said residents who oppose it have been called racist, and several residents at the meeting said their lack of support for the development was not about race. Jackie Williams, a Black resident of Georgetown, though, disagreed. "One lady said that this is not about race, she is absolutely correct. This is not just about race, this is about race and classism at its best," Williams said. Her comments were met with shouts and interruptions from others in the crowd, including one resident who said "White people are poor, too." Councilman Bob Anderson voted against the approval because of tax issues. "What I have a problem with is the state and federal government using social engineering to tell me how to use your tax dollars and my tax dollars and doing what they want us to build where they want us to build it," Anderson said. The abstaining vote, Councilman Everett Carolina, said there are other areas besides this that the county needs to consider for an affordable housing development. Other plots in the county, though, have not been considered and will not be considered, Cates said, because they would be unlikely to qualify for state housing funding. Cates said Foursix and BlueLine were interested in the spot outside Wedgefield because it fit into a census tract that the state housing authority identified as the areas in greatest need of affordable housing. Councilman and Chairman Louis Morant represents the district Wedgefield resides in, and voted for the approval. Morant told council and its attendees that while he listened to their concerns, the only thing up for a vote May 11 was a simple rezoning of a plot of land, and not yet an actual development. "Most of the items related to this matter touch upon why this should not occur, I keep looking for comments that say it can occur," Morant said. "I never remember American being a place of 'can't.' I don't think Georgetown County is a place of 'can't.'" Final approval of the rezoning will happen at the next county council meeting May 25. GREENVILLE The city of Greenville was the first local government in South Carolina to pass a mask ordinance as the pandemic escalated. Now, after close to a year in place, the city has deemed the rule "no longer valid." Regulations that require face coverings inside retail establishments and personal services businesses will no longer be enforced, city spokeswoman Beth Brotherton said May 12 in a statement. The news comes one day after Gov. Henry McMaster issued a sweeping executive order nullifying mask requirements enacted by local governments. The order means masks won't be required at events, as has been custom during the course of COVID-19 health protocols recommended by the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. Furthermore, the order means the city will lift mask and capacity restrictions at public events like the Saturday Market that were in place, though people are encouraged to continue to follow DHEC guidelines, Brotherton told The Post and Courier in an interview. The city is debating whether to expand the segregated pod format for its weekly Sound Check evening Wednesday concert series, Brotherton said. The pod system, which involves having a reserved spot at the concert, has been popular, she said. The protocols were put in place to reopen city events that were canceled during the course of 2020. "Frankly, nothing is enforceable now," she said. "After a lot of deliberation by lawyers and city leaders, you have to realize the governor's orders supersede whatever we may have thought was wisest in Greenville. In his announcement, the governor cited the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccines and the "latest key indicators, metrics and data elements" measuring the impact of the coronavirus. Sign up for our Greenville weekly update newsletter. Sign up for weekly roundups of our top stories, news and culture from the Upstate. This newsletter is hand-curated by a member of our Greenville news staff. Email Sign Up! McMaster said mask requirements are no longer necessary and that "circumstances are such that South Carolinians can make responsible choices and take appropriate precautions to protect themselves and their communities." Last June, the city was the first in South Carolina to pass a mask ordinance, which at the time applied to grocery stores and pharmacies. The governor had already issued orders governing masks in bars and restaurants. The mask regulations required the city to declare a state of emergency every 60 days, which it did and along the way required face coverings in every retail establishment. Mayor Knox White told The Post and Courier that the city likely would have let the next deadline for state of emergency declaration pass. "The city mask ordinance expires in a few weeks and was likely not to be renewed," White said. "Like the governor, we will continue to encourage the precaution of wearing masks indoors when reasonably distancing is not possible. Increasing the vaccination rate is the main goal everyone should have." Throughout the past year, the city hosted briefings where high-level health experts pleaded with the public at critical times to wear masks whenever possible. As recently as April 28, Dr. Wendell James, Prisma Health-Upstate's chief medical officer, said masks would likely be needed through the end of the summer. "We're getting close," he said. "We're just not quite there yet." South Africa: SAPS forensic laboratories clearing backlog, says Cele The case backlog experienced at the South African Police Service (SAPS) Forensic Science Laboratories has begun to clear, Police Minister Bheki Cele has told Parliament. He was addressing Members of Parliament during a debate on Tuesday. Over the past two years, the effective provision of service ground to almost a halt, due to budget constraints and ineffective and weak contract management. Challenges in the service began with funding suspension of the criminal justice system by the National Treasury due to changes to its strategic objectives. This move meant there was an increased reliance on the operational budget in order to continue with the business of policing, he said. During 2019/2020 financial year, the allocated operational budget was depleted by July 2019. A request was then made for additional funding which was allocated in November 2019. No procurement could be initiated in December 2019. Added to that, the SAPS stopped all procurement from a supplier providing many forensic products to the SAPS, said Cele. During this period, several contracts were coming to an end due to the non-availability of funding while new contracts were not activated. To avoid fiscal dumping, no procurement could be facilitated at that stage. As a result, the core function of the laboratories was at a standstill until August of the 2020/2021 financial year, he said. From June 2020, no electronic track and trace functionality was done due to the discontinuation of the system by the service provider. As a result, tracking and tracing of exhibits could only be done manually. This manual work saw a rapid build-up of cases, as forensic analysts were only processing a fraction of what could be processed with the discontinued system. As a result, testing of specimens for DNA also reached a bottleneck. This was a direct result of the shortage of Quantification Kits (DNA consumables). These kits are essential for DNA testing at the SAPS laboratories. The reality is that this particular shortage was due to poor contract management in the SAPS. Currently, the backlog stands at 208 291 cases. Of these, over 60 000 are at the laboratories but have not been analysed. Just over 36 626 are DNA related while 82 000 are related to cases of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide. Of the four SAPS Forensic Science Laboratories, the Gauteng province experienced the largest degree of DNA backlogs at 115%. The Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape followed with 113%, 81% and 44%, respectively. The huge backlog is unacceptable, conceded Cele. We totally agree. Turnaround plan Despite this, SAPS management has in recent months been hard at work to implement an urgent turnaround plan for the sake of all victims of crime, especially women and children. About 42% of dockets for crimes committed against women and children that had been outstanding for over a year, have been finalised, he said. It was for this reason, he said, all cases relating to GBV and Femicide were being prioritised based on guidance from the National Prosecuting Authority. Over 77 480 such court-ready but have outstanding results are being processed. Already, over 2 500 such cases have so far been finalised. Our goal is to bring normality back to the operations of the SAPS Forensic Science Laboratories within the next 18 months, he said. In an effort to expand the countrys forensic capacity, the SAPS was already constructing a DNA analysis capability building at the Eastern Cape Forensic Laboratory. The Eastern Cape and the KZN laboratories are currently providing limited services. We are certain that once fully operational, they will further assist towards the achievement of the 18 month stabilization target, said the Minister. Added to this, an inability to track and trace exhibits in its laboratories, as a result of the withdrawal of a service provider, was another dilemma facing the SAPS. However, in collaboration with the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), the SAPS have developed the now operational Forensic Exhibit Management (FEM) System. Replacing its predecessor, the system went live on 6 April and was rolled out to the four SAPS Forensic laboratories. [Before this forensic analysts] processed around a thousand specimens a week. Within a month, a total of 63 576 cases were registered, tracked and traced electronically. Over 33 750 of the total of cases were registered in the biology environment, said the Minister. Contract management Cele said SAPS was currently undertaking a contract management system in the laboratories. He assured the National Assembly that this was receiving urgent attention to address the backlog. Additional R250 million allocated towards responding to the challenges in laboratories He said COVID-19 protocols were compromising the availability of operational capacity in laboratories. SAPS management was increasing human capacity building to meet demand. In this regard, 128 internal scientists have been and are now working in the operational environment of the laboratories. A further 28 appointments are set to be finalised to provide support services. We are also recruiting outside the organisation for forensic analysts, who will work at a Warrant Officer level. When this recruitment process is finalised, there will be an additional 150 analysts to add to the existing staff complement by July 2021, said Cele. He said the SAPS goal was to have 40% of human resources dedicated to addressing backlogs and 60% of staff complement handle incoming cases. The Minister said it was important that the critical service was never again compromised. Checks and balances in place It was for this reason that the SAPS was putting checks and balances in place to avoid a repeat. We are also developing an early warning system for effective response to system anomalies and to address teething problems experienced in the FEM system, said Cele. There will also be weekly technical and mechanical progress evaluations by SAPS and the DNA board. Lastly, there will now be collaborative work between the SAPS, Department of Justice and the NPA. Officials in the departments will meet monthly to fast track long outstanding court cases requiring DNA analysis reports. He said while the SAPS was not out of the woods, progress was being made. We are fully aware of the significant and severe impact that the backlog and delays have caused. However, we remain confident in our intervention measures that are aimed at regaining public confidence and equally restoring organisational reputation and image, he said. SAnews.gov.za This story has been published on: 2021-05-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, presides over a symposium on the special government allowance system in Beijing, capital of China, May 11, 2021. Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the symposium. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday called for unremitting efforts to foster a social atmosphere that respects science, knowledge and talent and spurs innovation and creativity. Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks while presiding over a symposium on the special government allowance system. Vice Premier Han Zheng, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, attended the symposium. Several representatives of the allowance receivers spoke at the meeting, offering suggestions on improving the allowance system, supporting young talents and other matters. China's special government allowances are granted as rewards and honorary titles to outstanding talents that are deemed highly professional or skilled in their specialized fields of work such as scientific study, medical treatment, education and technical operation. Lauding the achievements the special government allowance system has made over the past three decades since its inception, Li called for more efforts in improving talent incentive mechanisms to pool wisdom and strength for China's high-quality development and modernization. More emphasis should be placed on the training of the basics in cultivating talents, Li said, calling for more support for basic research that might bring no fame and research that demands a long-term commitment. Li urged efforts to promote the spirit of science, craftsmanship and professionalism. He also called for more international exchanges and cooperation to boost innovation and creativity. He further emphasized a favorable environment for talents to grow and play their roles, and said various reforms must be deepened to remove restrictions. More outstanding young researchers should be encouraged to play leading roles in major scientific research projects, he said. Although there are many bills and many options laid out in front of Congress, partisan polarization has made it almost impossible to move on any of them. I am urging Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio to speak to congressional leadership from both parties about including a pathway to citizenship in the upcoming infrastructure bill. With only a majority vote needed to pass this bill, it is even more critical to be vocal and supportive now. This pathway to citizenship could be a reality in 2021. An order from Gov. Henry McMaster putting an end to mask mandates statewide prompted emergency meetings as schools and local governments worked to understand how the ruling affected them. The announcement also earned a sharp rebuke from the state's chief of public schools. In a statement sent to all of the school superintendents across the state, the S.C. Department of Education derided McMaster's order as "circumventing public health guidance by inciting hysteria and sowing division in the waning days of the school year." State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman's office said its legal experts don't believe McMaster possesses the authority to override the Department of Education on its mask advice. Regardless, the office ceded to take away its face covering policy "rather than wage a debate over constitutionality." Spearman said school districts had no time to prepare, and the governor's order created "chaos." School buses are an exception. A federal order requires students to wear masks while on board buses because of close quarters. McMaster's May 11 order places the decision about whether to wear masks in schools in the hands of parents, rather than school districts or the state Department of Education. It also dissolves any mask mandate in place in municipalities across the state if they hinge on the state's ongoing state of emergency. McMaster's new rule rests on the reasoning that COVID-19 cases and deaths are declining, and vaccines are widely available to adults across the state. "The governors order accounts for what we know and the governors fundamental belief that parents opinions cant be ignored when it comes to whats best for their children," Brian Symmes, spokesman for the governor, said in a statement. "Parents should be the ones deciding whether their children wear a face mask in a public school setting." So, as of May 12, parents can fill out a form, available online, exempting their kids from wearing masks in school. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control made quick work of drafting the waiver, at the governor's direction. But the agency was clear in its advice that students and staff should continue wearing masks. The state's school districts have had a mixed response the day after McMaster's order. The Greenville County School District announced May 12 its mask mandate remains in effect for employees, but will comply with the order giving parents the option to opt out on behalf of their kids using the waiver. Unmasked students are at a greater risk for missing school, however, in the event of an exposure. The school district pointed out that if a student who doesn't wear a mask and sits in a plexiglass pod tests positive for the virus, then other unmasked pod-mates must quarantine for 10 days. Other districts the Berkeley County School District included simply notified parents and guardians they could use the opt-out form and return a copy to their school. Berkeley County is the only district in the state that has not required masks since the beginning of the school year. Instead, masks have been "strongly encouraged" and principals have been able to decide how schools would use the masks on an individual basis. The Charleston County School District Board of Trustees held an emergency special-called meeting the day after the order. After an executive session in which the board received legal advice about the order, the Rev. Eric Mack, chairman, said the district will comply with the mask order and offer waivers for parents to opt out. "Teachers and staff have respected students and families all year long by serving children five days per week," he said. "We are strongly urging all families to respect teachers by having your child wear a face mask for the remainder of the school year." The district has received criticism from parents who protested the district's mask requirement at board meetings on April 26 and May 10. At both meetings, parents expressed their frustration with the requirement that their children wear masks while in the school, citing concerns about their children's breathing and social-emotional learning. Sign up for our new health newsletter The best of health, hospital and science coverage in South Carolina, delivered to your inbox weekly. Email Sign Up! Jessica Zeigler, whose daughter is a kindergartner at Carolina Park Elementary in Mount Pleasant, was one of the parents to speak against masks at both of the meetings. In an interview after the board's May 12 meeting, Zeigler said "it's a great day for parents in South Carolina." "Now we have vaccines, we have new information, new data, new numbers and it's time to move on," she said. "It's time to give our children the freedom and the gift of normalcy going into the summer." The Beaufort County School District's superintendent, Frank Rodriguez, notified students and employees late in the evening May 11 that masks will no longer be required in the district's facilities. "If you choose to wear one, you may," he said. Emily Mayer, a fifth-grade teacher in Beaufort County, said she started the school day by talking to her students about the importance of respecting their peers' decisions to wear masks or not. She said a handful of her students showed up for the day not wearing face coverings and had notes from their parents. Mayer explained to the class that she would still be wearing one. She complimented all of the school district's behind-the-scenes work to keep up with changing COVID-19 recommendations. But Mayer expressed frustration that the mandate came suddenly, at the end of the school year. "I don't really understand why it was done at this juncture," she said. "Districts could have had all summer to plan." Spearman said she is concerned that keeping track of which students are supposed to be wearing masks and which are not creates an administrative burden for schools. The superintendent said she urged the governor's office not to make the order. DHEC Director Dr. Edward Simmer said McMaster did consult with the public health agency before issuing his mandate though that doesn't mean the two are in agreement. "It probably would have been better to wait for another month or two before relaxing mask mandates in this way," Simmer told reporters the afternoon of May 12. The governor has been clear for weeks he wants to see government-imposed rules around face coverings lifted. McMaster rescinded his mandate that everyone wear masks inside state buildings on March 5. The governor's office says part of the reason for its May 11 order is evidence of a downward trajectory in cases and deaths. Indeed, the weekly count of deaths attributable to COVID-19 is at a low point not seen since the state first began to see outbreaks in March 2020. The majority of the elderly population, most at risk of hospitalization and death, is fully vaccinated in South Carolina, according to the CDC. A report from the White House generated weekly since President Donald Trump's administration still lists South Carolina as having "substantial transmission" of the virus, however. And the threat of a surge in cases due to variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 lingers. In South Carolina, mask use has been on the decline since the beginning of the year, according to Facebook surveys conducted by Carnegie Mellon University. While around nine in 10 South Carolinians reported wearing masks in public, that figure was down to about eight in 10 by early May. Summerville, SC (29483) Today Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 90F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Cloudy skies. Low 74F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Brand is proof that great people and great things do come from Williamsburg County CAROLINA FOREST Carolina Forest residents brought up issues regarding traffic, lighting and noise pollution and fire gates for a proposed 50-bed Conway Medical Center hospital off of International Drive during a community meeting on May 11. Residents of The Farm, a subdivision on the corner of Carolina Forest Boulevard and River Oaks Drive, were the most concerned about the proposed hospital. Along with residents of the area, environmental and political activists raised concerns regarding the Lewis Ocean Bay Preserve and a proposed mitigation bank. They are worried the hospital could negatively impact both environmental areas and that the state's Department of Natural Resources would not be able to do their prescribed burns. DNR will burn land in areas behind The Farm and along International Drive to maintain the natural wildlife. DNR is currently opposed to the project. Carolina Forest residents asked CMC officials if they would be willing to put a buffer in between The Farm and the hospital to maintain some wildlife in between residents' backyards and the hospital. CMC President and CEO Bret Barr said he had no issues with that suggestion. "I want to be the best neighbor," Barr said. Currently the property is zoned to allow multi-residential homes and is owned by LandBanks. Interim Planning and Zoning Director David Jordan said if the hospital is not approved, the current owners could build close 2,500 multi-family homes on the property. "It's the lesser of two evils," said April O'Leary, Horry County Rising Founder. Barr said the current property does have developers who are interested in purchasing the land for multi-family homes. "Somebody will develop this," Barr said "That is not a made up thread ... I'm telling you that is the environment in Horry County right now. We feel like this the superior option." The Post and Courier Myrtle Beach was not able to contact the LandBanks developer immediately following Tuesday's meeting. Richard McAndrew, who moved from Massachusetts in 2011 with his wife Judy, raised concerns about the development being close to their backyard as they live on the backend of The Farm. We all moved here, and as soon as we moved here we didnt want anyone else to come here, McAndrew jokingly said during the meeting. The development will now go back to the Planning and Zoning Commission for during their workshop on May 27 and meeting on June 3. It will also go to Horry County Council for its first reading on June 1. There are two other medical facilities that are looking to build in Carolina Forest: Tidelands Health and McLeod Health. Editorials represent the institutional view of the newspaper. They are written and edited by the editorial staff, which operates separately from the news department. Editorial writers are not involved in newsroom operations. Goose Creek, SC (29445) Today Overcast. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 89F. Winds SSW at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Cloudy. Low around 75F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Now, some of the reports findings are pretty depressing like the fact that Orlando has fewer small- and mid-sized businesses than most regions our size. That we lack a diverse economy. That, thanks to our sorry transit options, workers who rely on public transit have convenient access to only 1% of the job opportunities as those with cars. And that metro Orlando is a place where way too many full-time workers struggle to pay rent or mortgages. COLUMBIA South Carolina could soon resume death penalty executions with a bill heading to Gov. Henry McMaster's desk for his expected signature. The Senate agreed 32-11 on May 12 to the House's changes to a proposal that makes electrocution the default method of execution, with the added option of dying by firing squad. After the vote, McMaster repeated his promise to sign it. Senators rejected attempts to further amend the bill, which would have sent the measure to a joint House-Senate panel to work toward a compromise. Democrats questioned why rush ending the debate on the next-to-last day of the regular legislative session, while advocates countered that "no" votes could jeopardize resolution of an emotional issue they've debated for five years. "Those victims' families deserve the justice the state of South Carolina told them they would get," said its sponsor, Sen. Greg Hembree, a former solicitor who has prosecuted death penalty cases. "I wish we could all guarantee this could get resolved tomorrow. That's one more chance to take it off the rails. Weve got an opportunity right here, right now to pass the bill and tell those victims' families were going to do the right thing." State law has given condemned inmates the option to die by injection since 1995. But with all of the state's supply of drugs used to carry out lethal injection expired and pharmaceutical companies unwilling to sell any more for executions, the South Carolina prisons agency can't carry out an execution order unless the prisoner chooses to die strapped in the chair nicknamed "Old Sparky." That hasn't happened since 2008. The last execution, a decade ago, was by lethal injection, according to the state Department of Corrections. Three inmates on South Carolina's death row have had their lives spared at least temporarily because of Corrections' inability to execute them. Under the bill, lethal injection becomes an option if drugs become available again. With its passage, Corrections will inform the state Supreme Court it can carry out executions. Officials are already working on the protocols for carrying out an execution by firing squad, the agency said in a statement after the vote. State Sen. Nikki Setzler, in his first term when the Legislature voted to reinstate the death penalty in 1977, said he supported it then and he supports it still. But the West Columbia Democrat opposed agreeing to the House version, which removed the requirement that the condemned sign and date his own death decision and get the signatures of two non-inmate witnesses. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! Hembree called that a "nothing thing" not worth holding up passage. Senators urged against bringing emotion into a debate Democrats and Republicans contended was not about the death penalty itself. But both sides recounted gruesome details. Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Hartsville, gave his colleagues a step-by-step explanation of what it takes to die by electrocution and the excruciating pain and literal fire several jolts can bring. He conceded that death by firing squad is quick and far less prone to botching than either electrocution or lethal injection. "What people dont like are the optics of the firing squad," he said about the option added to the bill in March at the urging of fellow Democratic Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a former solicitor. "Im not advocating for the firing squad either," Malloy added. "What are we going to consider cruel and unusual?" he asked. He proposed putting in state law a list of 22 prohibited methods of execution dating back to medieval and even biblical times, including flaying, quartering, impalement, disembowelment, stoning, and crucifixion. He contended the list would signal legislators contemplated what the U.S. Constitution bars in the Eighth Amendment. Hembree, R-Little River, called a listing completely unnecessary. "We dont have to guard against these chamber of horrors because we have an Eighth Amendment," he said before senators voted 32-12 to reject the proposed list. Sen. Stephen Goldfinch, R-Murrells Inlet, went through his own list, recounting the torturous details of several of the murders committed by death row inmates. "We've focused a lot on the defendant, what he goes through, his pain, what is undoubtedly a terrible execution. But we haven't focused on the victim," he said. "Each one of these victims deserve recognition and justice. There are people in this world who are horrible, horrible people. Like it or not, its a scary, horrible, terrible thing, but they deserve to die." There are 36 inmates housed on death row at Broad River Correctional in Columbia. Another man sentenced to death in South Carolina is currently in a California prison. COLUMBIA Gov. Henry McMaster ordered an immediate end to mask mandates in South Carolina, saying the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines means governments should stop dictating when and where people cover their face. The May 11 order makes null and void any local COVID-19 restrictions tied to his ongoing pandemic emergency declarations, requiring at the very least that city and county governments rewrite their own ordinances to keep them in place. "With the COVID-19 vaccine readily available and case numbers dropping, I will not allow local governments to use the state of emergency declaration as a reason for implementing or maintaining mask mandates," McMaster said. "Everybody knows what we need to do to stay safe including wearing a mask if youre at risk of exposing others but we must move past the time of governments dictating when and where South Carolinians are required to wear a mask," he continued. "Maintaining the status quo ignores all of the great progress weve made, the governor added. The move comes two weeks after McMaster warned local officials he'd do "whatever's necessary" to put an end to government-mandated mask wearing if they didn't act on their own. Since then, several local governments have extended their mandates. At least six counties and dozens of cities still had one in place. That includes Columbia City Council, which voted 6-1 moments before McMaster issued his order to extend the capital city's mandate through June 5, to match what Richland County Council had already done. Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin agreed the city's newly minted ordinance is invalid as written. He doesn't expect city leaders to draft a new one for approval. Instead, the focus will shift toward encouraging people to get vaccinated, he said. Minutes later, Charleston City Council voted unanimously to turn its mask mandate into a recommendation, effective immediately. Its rules were already set to expire in two days. McMaster's order aims to end mask mandates in schools by directing the state's public health agency to create a form for parents to sign to exempt their child from any face-covering requirements. "With every adult in our state having the opportunity to receive a vaccine, it goes against all logic to continue to force our children especially our youngest children to wear masks against their parents wishes," McMaster said. "Whether a child wears a mask in school is a decision that should be left only to a student's parents." But his order puts no deadline on that form going out. It's unclear if that could happen before the school year ends or even be available in time for summer programs. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! The state Department of Education requires masks to be worn when entering a school, in the hallways, when dropping off or picking up students and on school buses. The state agency leaves it to teachers and district administrators whether to require masks worn in the classroom or during outside activities. Those rules are based on guidance from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control. "If this in fact means DHEC is adjusting it's public health guidance to school districts, we will, effective immediately, rescind our guidelines," said education agency spokesman Ryan Brown. "We are not public health experts, so we're relying on public health experts." But that's not happening, said DHEC Director Edward Simmer. DHEC will comply with McMaster's order to create a waiver form for parents. But even with the governor's order, the agency is not changing its standing recommendation that everyone continue to wear a face mask, he said. "All students, staff and others in schools should continue to wear masks through the end of the current school year," Simmer said, pointing to federal pandemic guidance. Unlike other states, South Carolina never had a statewide mask mandate, though McMaster encouraged local governments last year to pass their own ordinances. That encouragement officially ended when he lifted his mandate for face coverings in state buildings March 5, but local ordinances still cited his prior declarations. As a preemptive move against "vaccine passports," McMaster's order also bars local officials and public agencies from requiring proof of vaccination as a condition of receiving government services or entering public property. About 35 percent of South Carolinians ages 15 and up have completed their vaccination process, while 44 percent have received at least one shot. The supply of vaccines in the state has exceeded demand for weeks and with many appointments going unfilled, providers have eliminated the need to sign up ahead of time. Children younger than 16 haven't been eligible to get a shot but should be soon. On May 10, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 15. Stephen Fastenau contributed from Columbia. Some GOP members of South Carolina's congressional delegation voted to oust U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney from Republican leadership, citing her criticism of former President Donald Trump and claiming she was no longer a unifying force in the political party. During a 16-minute, closed-door meeting on May 12, Cheney was stripped of her role as GOP House Conference chair. A voice vote determined her fate, meaning there is no record of who supported or opposed the Wyoming congresswoman. Six of the state's seven U.S. representatives are Republicans. Of these, four acknowledged they voted to oust Cheney and explained why. One of the Republicans, Rep. Tom Rice of Myrtle Beach, did not respond to The Post and Courier, and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of Charleston declined to comment about her vote. The lone Democrat in Congress from South Carolina is Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-Columbia. U.S. Rep. William Timmons, R-Greenville, voted to oust Cheney and supported the House GOP Conference for doing so. Members are entitled to disagree," Timmons said. "In fact, disagreement is healthy. But the role of the Conference chair is to represent the majority views of the Republican Conference and help communicate our message, and Rep. Cheneys message had become inconsistent with that of the conference." U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-Laurens, wrote a large statement on Facebook criticizing Cheney and said he felt the Wyoming politician had lost touch with everyday Republican voters. "When she spoke, as a leader, she should be cognizant that her words might be construed as reflecting the opinion/will of the whole Republican Conference," Duncan said in a Facebook statement. "They did not." "In addition, she was defiant and showed no humility when a large majority of the Conference asked her to clarify, retract or differentiate between personal feelings and those of Republicans as a whole," he added. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! While many Democrats pointed to Cheney's frequent critiques of Trump and Cheney's support for impeachment efforts against the former president, many Republicans claim that wasn't the main reason for her removal. U.S Rep. Ralph Norman, R-Rock Hill, said Cheney had already survived a February vote related to her stance on impeachment. But now, Republicans saw more damage happening among the ranks. "Rep. Cheney was removed because she allowed herself to become an icon of division within the Republican Party a role that she appeared to embrace at times," Norman said in a statement. U.S Rep. Joe Wilson, R-Columbia, voted to oust Cheney as well. A spokeswoman for the congressman said that "moving forward, the Republican Party needs a uniting Conference chair in order to address issues currently facing American families" Wilson's spokeswoman also said he supports U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., to replace Cheney in the leadership role. Rice was one of 10 Republicans, alongside Cheney, who voted to impeach Trump in January. Mace's first weeks in Washington were defined by her critiques of Trump following the violent Jan. 6 riot upon the Capitol. COLUMBIA A bill to let concealed weapons permit-holders carry handguns openly in public is on the brink of becoming law after the state House voted to send it to Gov. Henry McMaster's desk. The Republican governor has long said he would sign the legislation into law and is expected to take that action soon. It will not take effect until 90 days after McMaster's approval due to an amendment that passed in the Senate seeking to give law enforcement more time to prepare for it. Passage by the House in an 83-34 vote May 12 came after they again rejected an attempt by some conservative Republicans to expand the bill by letting all legal gun owners carry openly regardless of whether they have a permit, which would open it up to people who may not have had any firearm training or background checks. State Rep. Jonathon Hill, R-Townville, argued for the second time this legislative session that lawmakers should insist on the broader bill, known as permitless carry or "constitutional carry," which passed separately in the House but has not been taken up by the Senate. "If you didn't want it to pass, why did you vote for it?" Hill asked his fellow Republicans. "If you do want it to pass, why won't you fight for it?" But other Republicans, led by state Rep. Micah Caskey of West Columbia, countered that Hill's effort could risk creating an impasse with the Senate, leaving South Carolina as one of just five states without any form of open carry law on the books. "I can understand why it may be confusing to some about the legislative process, particularly if you've never successfully passed legislation," Caskey said. "But for those of us who have, who internalize how difficult it can be here, we have an opportunity to meaningfully for the first time in decades advance the Second Amendment." After the House voted Hill's proposal down 67-48, it approved amendments that the Senate had tacked on to the bill, including shortening the time court clerks need to report incidents that could block people from getting a gun, like criminal indictments, and extending the effective date of the bill to 90 days after the governor signs it. Other approved amendments eliminated a $50 fee applicants have to pay for concealed weapons permit training, let judges with permits carry anywhere in the state and set a minimum number of 25 rounds people would have to fire during training and required the State Law Enforcement Division to provide a training course. Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! Among other provisions, the bill would add extra training requirements for concealed weapons permits, including on how to properly holster guns and de-escalation techniques for hostile situations. It would also maintain many of the limitations in place under state law for locations where guns are allowed, meaning they could not be taken into businesses or private residences if the owners do not want them. They would also be banned from government buildings, including the Statehouse. As they did during the initial debate in March, Democrats again proposed changing the bill to allow guns in the Statehouse, prodding the Republican majority to embrace their pro-gun stance in a more personal way. "What makes us any different from the communities in which we serve?" state Rep. John King, D-Rock Hill, asked his colleagues. The amendment failed. Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said he and Charleston Police Chief Luther Reynolds have lobbied against the open carry bill in the Legislature. Tecklenburg said they repeatedly asked lawmakers to allow cities to opt out if they choose, but he said nobody was interested in "honoring that request." Still, Tecklenburg pointed out that it would be up to private businesses to decide whether they allow people to openly carry guns into their establishments. As a result, Tecklenburg said he would advocate for every business in Charleston to notify customers that weapons are not allowed in their stores, restaurants and hotels. "It's not welcome here, and I don't think it leads to public health or to public safety," Tecklenburg said, as he was flanked by business owners along King Street. COLUMBIA The longtime leader of South Carolina's elections agency submitted her letter of resignation May 12, informing the commission's chairman that she will leave her post at the end of the year after almost two decades on the job. In the letter submitted to chairman John Wells and obtained by The Post and Courier, S.C. Election Commission executive director Marci Andino did not specify a reason for her departure but referenced an undisclosed discussion she had with Wells last week. "I have dedicated most of my life's work to ensuring my fellow South Carolinians had the opportunity to vote in fair and impartial elections," Andino wrote. "As I near the fulfillment of the duties of my current post, I stand proud of my accomplishments," she added. "And as I plan for future opportunities, I will always remain steadfast in my dedication to the preservation of our democracy." A spokesman for the agency declined to comment beyond the contents of the letter. Wells, a Kershaw County attorney, also said he would not discuss his private conversations with Andino. "All I can say is that Marci Andino was a very good executive director," Wells said. "She knows South Carolina elections probably better than anyone on the planet and she will be sorely missed." Andino has served as the commission's executive director since 2003, managing the day-to-day operations of an agency tasked with overseeing the state's ballot box process. But she came under fire from top Republicans last year after she recommended a series of changes to the state's election procedures that Democrats then used to file multiple lawsuits over the process. Among her suggestions during the coronavirus pandemic, Andino encouraged lawmakers to let all voters cast absentee ballots, let voters apply for an absentee ballot online, remove a witness signature requirement for absentee ballots, let voters submit their absentee ballots in drop boxes and give election officials more time to process them. Lawmakers adopted some of those proposals but rejected others. Democrats fought all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to try to get the witness signature requirement dropped, but the high court ultimately sided with the Republicans who wanted that measure to remain in place. In her resignation letter, Andino touted her agency's handling of the 2020 election as one of her top achievements, calling it the state's "best general election in history under the worst circumstances." Sign up for updates! Get the latest political news from The Post and Courier in your inbox. Email Sign Up! "Legislation and court decisions changed the rules frequently, but we adapted and stayed focused on making sure reasonable precautions were taken and every voter had the information they needed to cast their ballot," Andino wrote. "The results were extraordinary." S.C. Democratic Party chairman Trav Robertson alleged that Andino's departure is part of a "Republican attempt to stop people from voting." "This is a travesty and a blow to open and fair elections in S.C.," Robertson tweeted. "Director Andino has always been an honest broker and always spoken the truth." State Sen. Chip Campsen, who chairs a subcommittee that oversees the election agency, said he disagreed with Andino's pandemic recommendations but did not want to see her go. "I've really had a good relationship with her and worked with her on election law changes," said Campsen, R-Charleston. "But to me it was inappropriate (for Andino to suggest absentee voting expansions) because the Legislature is the policymakers." Andino's resignation comes as Republicans in the Statehouse have looked to give her agency more control over local election officials. Powerful S.C. House Speaker Jay Lucas, R-Hartsville, proposed a bill this year that would empower the state Election Commission to "supervise and standardize the performance, conduct, and practices of county election commissions." That legislation passed the House but has not yet moved in the Senate, where lawmakers instead voted for a different bill that would add confirmation votes for the governor's Election Commission nominees but maintain county authority over the local process. The five current members of the board, including Wells, were all appointed by Gov. Henry McMaster. The governor will be on the ballot himself in 2022 when he seeks reelection to a second full term in office. Prior to her 2020 tussles with Republican politicians, Andino also drew scrutiny in 2019 for her relationship with the country's largest voting equipment company. Andino served on an advisory board formed by Elections Systems and Software, known commonly as ES&S, and the state then later paid the company millions to purchase voting machines. She said her connection to the company played no role in the state's decision to give it the contract. After traveling more than 1,500 miles and completing a 14-day quarantine, Daniel Marshall finally rolled up his sleeve to get his COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday. Marshall, a businessman and engineer, is among the American expatriates in the region who have already made their way to Guam for vaccination and vacation. No visiting American citizens are denied the federally funded vaccines, and Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has tasked her chief medical adviser, Dr. Michael Cruz, to develop an operations plan to vaccinate American expatriates coming to Guam. Marshall, 66, said he's grateful that Guam's doors are open for American expatriates like him. At his age and medical condition, he said it's "very important" that he gets vaccinated against COVID-19. But in the Philippines, where he's been living for more than 11 years, there was no telling when he would have gotten vaccinated, he said. "The rollout of their vaccine program is very limited now to just government personnel and front-line workers. I don't expect the vaccine rollout for the general populace until late this year or early next year," he told The Guam Daily Post, during his vaccination. He said he'd been keeping an eye on Guam for months. "Actually, the travel was the hardest part," he said. "Getting in the quarantine was pretty good, the food was really good, the National Guard did a wonderful job. The shot was probably the easiest thing. So I'm very thankful for everyone that's helped me on my journey, and I look forward to going home to my family." Marshall booked an appointment to get vaccinated at the University of Guam Calvo Field House, where the number of people coming in to get their shot has been steadily declining the past several days. He chose to get the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, saying it's been a trusted brand as far as he can remember. Marshall said he will be staying on Guam until he can get a visa to return to his family in the Philippines. A third-generation Navy veteran, he also plans on making an appointment with the Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in Guam to get his medical testing done while he's here. There are a lot of expats in Asia who probably need to be vaccinated, he said, and Guam is a good place to get it done. "It sure has very nice weather, warm temperature and nice beaches," he said. "Looking forward to my time here and hopefully get some swimming in and see some of the nice places in Guam." 'Workable plan' for Air V&V Guam Visitors Bureau President and CEO Carl Gutierrez said as of Wednesday, there's no update on the 1,500 doses that GVB requested from the governor for the bureau's Air V&V (vaccination and vacation) program as well as the operations plan to vaccinate American expats coming to Guam. "No update but we believe we came to a workable plan with Dr. Mike Cruz and Public Health," he said. "Awaiting their approval." The former governor said there are more than 200,000 American expats in Japan, Korea and Taiwan, and more than 350,000 expats and dual citizens in the Philippines alone. But he said Guam's Air V&V will include expatriates not just from the Asia-Pacific region but all over the world. For Marshall, getting the vaccine is a personal choice for everyone. He said those who are thinking about it should do their research first and think about their health problems. "To travel from border to border, you know we have to defeat this virus," he said. "I'd just like to thank the National Guard and the government of Guam for giving me this opportunity." Community push Some 60% of Guam's population at least 16 years old have been fully vaccinated. The governor hopes to achieve 80% herd immunity, with at least 100,000 Guam residents fully vaccinated, by July 21. Capt. Denise Chargualaf, task force medical commander for Joint Task Force 671 with the Guam National Guard, on Wednesday said there has been less and less demand for the vaccine at the UOG clinic but she said there's a push to get out more to the community. On Tuesday, the National Guard held its first drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination clinic, at the old carnival grounds at Tiyan, where the Department of Public Health and Social Services also held drive-thru testing. Chargualaf said of the 111 individuals vaccinated at the drive-thru clinic, 100 came for their first dose and 11 came for their second dose. That's a good sign, she said, that there are still people willing to get vaccinated. Guam currently has ample supply of three COVID-19 vaccines: Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson. Chargualaf said the National Guard is ready to serve an influx of adolescents age 12 to 15, along with their parents, once final federal approval is given for this age group to be vaccinated. Were really putting our money where our mouth is when it comes to protecting the state of Florida and particularly our coastal communities from the risks of flooding and storms, DeSantis said during an event to sign the bills (SB 1954 and SB 2514) at Rusty Bellies Waterfront Grill in Tarpon Springs. When the pandemic first hit the governor waived the work search requirements because there were no jobs available, it made no sense to go out searching for work when the economy was shut down because of COVID-19, Eagle said. However, jobs are plentiful now ... we want to help and theres no reason not to feel safe anymore. I dont think we have yet written about the current conflict in Israel. In the last two days, Hamas has launched, as of the last total I have seen, more than 700 rockets into Israel. Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities have come under attack. Several Israelis have been killed, despite that countrys robust civil defense system. Israel has responded in its usual fashion, with targeted strikes against Hamas leaders and facilities. As always, the IDFs Twitter feed is a good place to go for information. This tweet shows some of the areas that have come under attack: The last 24 hours in Israel: pic.twitter.com/XzajmMGxhW Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2021 One Hamas rocket struck a bus: One of the 100s of rockets that were just fired from Gaza toward Tel Aviv and central Israel exploded on a civilian bus. Hamas intentions are clear: kill Israeli civilians. We wont stand by and let this happen. pic.twitter.com/aNsA3dlgMe Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2021 A number of Hamas terrorists have been killed; this video shows one such strike: Raw Aerial Footage: This is the moment that the IDF & Israel Security Agency carried out a targeted strike against Islamic Jihad commander, Samah Abed al-Mamluk & other senior members of his unit. They were among those responsible for hundreds of rockets fired at Israelis. pic.twitter.com/3DLj2UVdCm Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2021 Palestinians claim that several children have been killed by Israeli air strikes. This is certainly possible, as the terrorists always use human shields and then rush to publicize their deaths to sympathetic global news organizations. It is also possible that these civilian casualties were victims of a Hamas rocket that blew up prematurely or fell short of its target. It will be some time before that becomes clear. Here in the U.S., the usual suspects are all in for the terrorists. Their view, evidently, is that Israel should allow Hamas to bombard its population with hundreds or thousands of rockets and then stand by impotently. It is hard to imagine a position more contemptible than, say, Ilhan Omars: Many will tell you Israel has a right to defend itself, to safety and security, but are silent on whether Palestinians have those rights too. Until we can defend the rights of Palestinians just as we do Israelis, we have no leg to stand on when it comes to justice or peace. Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 10, 2021 The right to launch indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israeli cities, evidently. Andrew Yang came out if favor of Israels right of self-defense and was torched by his fellow Democrats. This one, retweeted by Omar, is stupid on multiple levels: In New York City in 2012, a judge invoking the first amendment, gave the greenlight to racist and Islamophobic pro-Israel ads in the subway by Pamela Geller. I was arrested for spray painting over one of the ads in Times Square-42nd St station. Andrew Yang is like those ads 1/ pic.twitter.com/S6jTC2qt8g Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) May 11, 2021 I believe this is the bus ad in question. We wrote about it here. As I said at the time: This is one of the most perverse reversals of common sense ever. Praising the killing of Jews isnt hate speech, that is perfectly fine. But exposing the fact that Hamas advocates killing Jewsthat is hate speech, and Islamophobic bigotry which good people are obligated to condemn! In the Democratic Party, such perversity not only lives on, but becomes increasingly dominant. Partly because COVID led many graduating high school students to defer applying to college last year, this years college application numbers set a record. This may turn out to be a last hurrah for the old college model, however, as colleges are on the brink of a demographic cliff. The decline in the U.S. birth rate that accelerated during the housing finance crash of 2008 is expected to diminish the pool of college-bound students starting in the next few years. And if Democrats succeed in making community colleges and state colleges cheaper or free, how will private tuition-dependent colleges fare? Likely not well. But there are other more immediate storm clouds. My favorite story of the week concerns the certifiably insane Evergreen State College in Washington, which has had a year-long search underway to replace its current president, George Bridges, who is very likely the worst college president in America. As with most such organizational searches, Evergreen had narrowed the selection down to three finalists. Last Friday, all three finalists withdrew from the search. Say what? Everyone is being tight-lipped about what is behind this startling outcome, with some speculation that Evergreen States trustees disliked the three finalists, while there is other speculation that the finalists were shaken by their late interactions with the faculty and the trustees, and realized they were boarding a sinking ship crossed with an insane asylum. Evergreen States enrollment has fallen by one-third since the disgraceful episode a few years ago that led to the ouster of premier faculty members Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, who expressed dissent from the campuss anti-racism agenda. Well try to keep an eye on this story, but there is one comment in the Chronicle story linked above that sums it all up: I graduated from TESC in 1989 and returned for fun in 2015. What a difference 30-years makes! The place is a disaster!!!! There is NO learning taking place. NO teaching taking place. There is only elitism and justification for what we now call cancel culture. Ive got stories that would shock even the most liberal of alumni. Truly the inmates are being allowed to run the asylum, and the teachers are afraid of them afraid of what might be said in their evaluations. . . the inmates are running the place into the ground. Meanwhile, there is some evidence that what might finally cause colleges to adopt some common sense is . . . liability insurance rates. According to several reports, liability insurance rates for colleges are soaring right now. GeeI wonder why? Could it be their no-due-process kangaroo courts for Title IX? By one count, there are currently over 700 lawsuits against colleges for violating students due process rights in Title IX matters, and there have been numerous costly settlements that several colleges have had to make for their heedless trampling of basic civil rights. But Title IX is only one part of the increasing liability exposure of colleges today. Heres another notable story from March: University of Iowa officials who wrongly de-recognized a Christian student group for objecting to same-sex relationships can be held personally liable for their unconstitutional actions, a federal appeals court has said. The decision came in a second lawsuit relating to the universitys treatment of campus religious groups. A three-judge panel with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on March 22 overturned part of a lower courts decision which held that dean of students Lyn Redington, assistant dean Thomas Baker, and Iowa Memorial Union executive director had qualified immunity. Instead, the panel said they could be ordered to pay damages for treating the Christian group Business Leaders in Christ more strictly than other student groups, the Associated Press reports. And then of course there was the Oberlin lawsuit, reported before here, here, here, here, here, and here. Let a thousand Oberlin-style lawsuits bloom! (Like this one at the University of Virginia.) Colleges wont rid themselves of the many repulsive ideologues who have ruined them until the pain gets too great for their boards of trustees to tolerate. California is cruising toward a 100% green energy future, or so the states leaders tell us. But how, exactly, will that objective be brought about? In March of this year, the responsible state agencies issued a plan to achieve 100% carbon dioxide-free electricity by 2045. That is an achievable goal if you use nuclear power. Unfortunately, California is trying to do it with wind and solar. Francis Menton weighs Californias plan in the balance and finds it wanting: [Wind and solar] dont work all the time, so to start with you need to build far more capacity than your peak usage. Californias peak power usage is currently about 40 GW, and that is projected to increase substantially as more of the economy gets electrified, for example automobiles. So the Plans call for the addition of some 97.6 GW of solar capacity and 22.6 GW of wind capacity by 2045, on top of 26.5 GW of those two currently existing. With the additions, California would have a total of some 146.7 GW of wind and solar capacity, which may be around triple peak usage after you account for incremental electrification of the economy by 2045. Of course, the intractable problem with wind and solar is that most of the time, they dont generate any electricity. Californias solution to this problem is battery storage. But this is where elementary mathematics comes in: [H]ow much storage will we need? They give a very specific figure: 52.8 GW. Which will cost, including the new wind and solar facilities, a mere $6.4 billion more per year. But there is a problem with Californias arithmetic: All discussion in the Plans of storage needs and capacity is expressed in units of gigawatts (GW). Now, GW of capacity can certainly be relevant in this context, because assuring that power can be delivered from these massive batteries quickly enough to satisfy peak demand is definitely an important engineering challenge. But another whole subject is gigawatt hours (GWH); in other words, is the total amount of energy stored by the system sufficient to carry you through the longest possible period when demand will exceed supply? How about if there are entire seasons like winter when days are short, cloudiness is high, the wind has extended periods of calm, and batteries could be getting drawn down for weeks or even months on end? How much will you need in the way of GWH of storage capacity to support this entirely-wind-and-solar system; and how much will that cost? Not to keep you in suspense, the answer is something like $6.7 trillion, given that electricity would have to be stored for up to seven or eight months. Californias gross domestic product is less than half that amount. My colleague Isaac Orr carried out a similar calculation for just one state, Minnesota. Isaac found that to store enough electricity to meet Minnesotas needs for one day would cost around $38.7 billion. He used a battery cost, $250 per kilowatt hour, that is in the same range that Francis used, based on pricing data from Tesla, which ostensibly will supply Californias batteries. Battery storage is prohibitively expensive, and if you think it is expensive now, just wait until the worlds supplies of lithium and cobalt are further depleted by governments voracious appetite for green energy. The idea that wind and solar power will ever fuel our power generation sector, let alone our entire economy, is ludicrous. But the amount of damage that will be done by pursuing that chimera will be incalculable. Jewish Insiders Daily Kickoff drives me nuts on most days, but this morning it leads off with a useful summary of the latest from Israel (links omitted below): Violence between Gaza and Israel intensified last night, with Hamas shooting hundreds of rockets towards the Tel Aviv metropolitan area for the first time since 2018. More than 1,000 rockets have been fired at Israel since the latest round of clashes began. Rockets rained down nearly nonstop on much of Israel yesterday evening and continued overnight. The death toll in Israel rose to six, including an Indian foreign worker killed in Rishon Lezion and an Arab father and daughter killed near Lod. The IDF continued heavy strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian Health Ministry officials put the death toll in Gaza at 43 Palestinians, including 13 children. A state of emergency was declared in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod, where violent clashes and riots continued yesterday, including Arabs setting fire to a synagogue in the city. Heavy clashes also raged in the mixed coastal city of Acre. In a live address last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Hamas would pay a heavy price for its aggression and warned Israelis that a campaign against Gaza will take time. Daily Kickoff to the contrary notwithstanding, I believe nothing derived from Gaza health officials. Concerned about their own health, they are all puppets of Hamas. Their reports about the number of children killed as the IDF targets Hamas chiefs with great precision should be heavily discounted without independent verification. Daily Kickoff also includes a link to its podcast with Elliott Abrams, who comments on the current hostilities as well. Events in the Israeli city of Lod are shocking. Israeli Arabs seized the opportunity to go on a rampage and burn down three synagogues, among other unsavory activities. The New York Post takes up that story in Netanyahu declares state of emergency in Israeli city over riots. Sad but true: Twitter proves its value in the case of breaking news. Check out the excellent IDF Twitter feed here. As of the moment I am writing, the IDF reports that terrorist continue to fire rockets into Israel. The IDF also posts impressive operational footage, such as the video in the tweet below. Raw Aerial Footage: This is the moment that the IDF & Israel Security Agency carried out a targeted strike against Islamic Jihad commander, Samah Abed al-Mamluk & other senior members of his unit. They were among those responsible for hundreds of rockets fired at Israelis. pic.twitter.com/3DLj2UVdCm Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 11, 2021 One more below. WATCH as the Iron Dome Aerial Defense System intercepts rockets over southern Israel: pic.twitter.com/xUz3bMuTzz Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) May 12, 2021 The Times of Israel is also invaluable on the breaking news from Israel. Its live blog was updated seconds ago. Check it out here. Michael Doran and Tony Badran set the Hamas/Palestinian Islamic Jihad offensive in the context of the Biden administrations back to the future foreign policy. Their illuminating Tablet column is The realignment. Was it just last year that we celebrated peace agreements between Israel and former Arab enemies on the White House lawn? This year Iran is dictating terms for its appeasement to the White House so it can intensify its war against Israel. Apparently, something happened. Donald Trump, the former president of the Untied States and the current de facto leader of the Republican Party, is barred from Twitter. The ban is permanent. Twitter says that even if Trump were to run for president again, he could not use its platform. The ban is for inciting violence. I think its true that Trumps words inspired violence on January 6. However, Trump did not advocate violence, nor did he celebrate it. Hamas, by contrast, is engaging in violence and celebrating it on Twitter. Here is what Hamas leader posted: The bombing of Tel Aviv and the oil pipeline facility between Ashkelon and Eliat [picture attached]. God is great and glory is to God alone. Then, theres Irans leader, Irans Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He funds the violence against Israel and backs it on Twitter with these words: Palestinians are awake and determined. They must continue this path. One can only talk with the language of power with these criminals. They must increase their strength, stand strong, confront the enemy, and force them to stop their crimes. #FreePalestine Nor is this the only time the Ayatollah has urged Palestinians to attack Israel. Philip Klein provides a sampling. Will Twitter ban Khamenei and Hamas for inciting and supporting violence on its platform? I doubt it, given Twitters tolerance of the Ayatollahs past writings and what I take to be its sympathies and biases. But well see. Yes, no matter what Yes, but it depends on variety No, for medical reasons, uncertainty No, principle Vote View Results We are no longer a free state, Fried said last week after Desantis signed a law that elections supervisors said would make voting harder in the state, in a private ceremony only covered by Fox News. This governor has infringed upon our rights once again. ADVERTISEMENT Controversial Yoruba actor, Yomi Fabiyi, is currently protesting the continued detention of his colleague, Baba Ijesha, who is in police custody for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor. Mr Fabiyi alongside, dozens of protesters, took off from Casino Cinema/Rove Park to the Lagos Police Command in Panti-Yaba. They are currently at the State Criminal Investigation Department where Baba Ijesha is being detained. Details later Controversial Yoruba actor, Yomi Fabiyi, on Wednesday, led a peaceful protest over the continued detention of his colleague, Olarenwaju James, popularly known as Baba Ijesha. Baba Ijesha has been in police detention since April 22 for allegedly sexually assaulting a minor. Mr Fabiyi, alongside dozens of placard-bearing protesters, took off from Casino Cinema/Rove Park to the Lagos Police Command in Panti-Yaba. They ended the protest at noon and then converged at the State Criminal Investigation Department where Baba Ijesha is being detained. The actor told PREMIUM TIMES that they are demanding that Baba Ijesha be released on administrative bail pending when his trial commences. Demands Some of their placards bore captions like It is illegal to use a child as props/bait in an illegal setup, Illegal police detention: Dont wait until it is done to your relative, brother, sister, or us. Other captions read, Nigerian police must respect human rights and honour bail for all bailable offences; denying bail is a human rights violation; Nigeria police, please allow the law to dictate to you; not Iyabo Ojo, Princess and co and Please release Baba Ijesha, say no to set up. Say no to torture. Say no to forceful torture, and (obtaining) statement under duress. Speaking with this newspaper after the protests ended, the actor said although his views are largely unpopular, the protest is also to kick against human rights violations. He said, This is about human rights, this is about the fact that policing is becoming what we dont expect it to be. We are growing up to understand that policing is oppression and most of the things that we have seen police are supposed to be the historian of human rights, they are supposed to enforce and also be the frontiers of human rights. What we are growing up to is horrible. We are going to be having children as well and then our children are going to be inheriting the same thing from us. Police react The Deputy Commissioner of Panti SCID, Adegoke Fayoade, appreciated the protesters for their concern and peaceful conduct. He said, We must say it categorically clear that we detained Baba Ijesha within a specified time. Baba Ijeshas case, as we are aware, has gone to The Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP)and the DPP has advised us on what to do. What we are waiting for is for the court to resume. Mr Fayoade said Baba Ijeshas prolonged detention is as a result of the ongoing strike action by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN). However, Mr Fabiyi, responded, saying the DPP has no constitutional authority to hold the suspect in detention without granting him administrative bail. DPP advice is legal advice. DPPs advice is not the court. We should educate the citizenry that we respect human right by following the rule of law because it is sacrosanct, he said. In his response, the DCP Fayoade said, You have made all your complaints, we will collate all your complaints and forward to to the CP and we will do the needful, I assure you. Last Tuesday, the Attorney-General of Lagos, Moyosore Onigbanjo, said, following the advice given on the case by the (DPP), the suspect will be tried under five provisions of the criminal law of Lagos State. ADVERTISEMENT Human rights Mr Fabiyi also urged the Police to work within the ambits of the law and not emotions and grant Baba Ijesha an administrative bail. Police should understand that irrespective of offence, irrespective of the emotions around, of the law, says you are eligible to bail, they should grant you your bail, perhaps an administrative bail to a reliable surety, he said. It is wrong to anybody to assume youre guilty or innocent until the court of law says so. The police are not the court of law. When you look at this particular case at hand, there is so much unnecessary evil that we should not allow in our society. Number one is a trap, trapping somebody is a criminal offence. Before you know it, to distinguish which one is the truth, which one is the right when you start accepting civilians to trap themselves, then suicide will become a new normal. Using a child, I never believe that despite the fact that the police, seeing a child, the police saw footages, evidence, that this is a minor, they did not even hold the person that aided and abetted. How do you bring a child to submit her body for molestation, for rape, for abuse? Where are the social services in Lagos State? First and foremost, I believe in human dignity, I decided to choose human rights because I wasnt raised with brutality. I have never seen my parent involved in violence, I wasnt raised that way. I notice the fact that some people believe that now that you have offended me, I will put the law into my hands. Im beginning to see a new normal that will continue to set this country on fire, that will create a very bad antecedent. The fact remains that social media is a very good tool but if we allow illegality to become a new normal on it and when we come offline, there will be a danger. I can see the danger ahead, now children will be used as a trap. No police officer can even use a child as a trap, anything could go wrong, a child can be killed, can be molested, you dont do that but unfortunately, the majority are keeping quiet because they think this one has committed a crime but at the end of the day, they scream rape. Fabiyi calls for Princess arrest The human rights activist cum actor also called for the arrest of Princess, the alleged victims foster mother, and others involved who used the child as bait for another molestation. We want the police to be honest. If the police are truly following the Child Right Act Protection law, why are they not arresting the adults that used a child as bait, that is even worse than what they did to the girl in the first place. You dont subject a child to (re)molestation. You dont even aid anybody, no excuse whatsoever must you aid anybody to molest and abuse a child. It is criminal, it is evil, it is demonic and it is unlawful. Setting up is not going to be the new normal, I cannot keep quiet. Backbiting in the Yoruba movie industry My Fabiyi said his colleagues are trying to tread softly instead of coming out to condemn wrongdoing. First and foremost, with due respect to all my colleagues, this is an issue of a minor, and of course, majority may not be able to come in so that they would not offend the law, he said. Even me that Im speaking and saying the right thing, you can see the way they are misconstruing me. They are trying to throw me under the bus, despite the fact that I have personal sympathy for minors or anything children. However, you can ask yourself again, how many artists have been helped in their time of trouble? Those are part of the few things I have been advocating, for some time now. There is backbiting in our industry. They sometimes insult me that Im the only person that takes care of ailing actors. Everybody thinks about competition, they dont think about welfare. We said we have an association, knowing fully well that they wont support you in anything that will displease them or teach their name but if it is part, they will want to stand. But I have dedicated my life to helping people, Mr Fabiyi said. Background Baba Ijesha is under investigation by the Lagos State police command on allegations of rape. The actor has been accused by a Nigerian comedienne, Princess, of raping a minor (when she was 7-year-old) who was kept in her care. The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, Hakeem Odumosu, has also confirmed that Baba Ijesha is currently a suspect in a sexual assault investigation and not rape as it is currently being bandied. Baba Ijesha struggled during his early years in show business and considered calling it quits and even delved into music at some point. He finally caught a break after starring in Omo Orita which was written and produced by Saheed Balogun. After many years of being scandal-free, the prominent Yoruba actor became a household name. Sadly, the allegations against him involve rape, which has, in recent times, branded its name into the nations consciousness. Since April 22, 2021, when PREMIUM TIMES reported the incident, he has faced some serious backlash and lost his goodwill. ADVERTISEMENT The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has reported 47 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 165,515. The NCDC disclosed this on its official Twitter handle on Tuesday. It stated that the 47 additional infections were recorded on Tuesday in six states and the Federal Capital Territory. The agency said that Adamawa State topped the list with 19 cases, Lagos followed with 16 infections, while Enugu and Kaduna had three cases each. Akwa-Ibom, Delta and the FCT recorded two cases each. It also announced that no person died from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. In total, the nation had seen 2,065 deaths related to the virus. The public health agency said that 40 people had been successfully treated and were discharged from the isolation centres across the country on Tuesday, bringing the countrys recovery number to 156,358. The NCDC said that the country tested 1,977,479 people since the beginning of pandemic on February 27, 2020. It added that a multi-sectoral national emergency operations centre (EOC), activated at Level 3, continues to coordinate the national response activities. The public health agency said that the countrys active cases stand at 7,085. Meanwhile, the NCDC added that anti-COVID-19 vaccines work by preparing the immune system to defend the body against diseases. Persons who are in quarantine should endeavour to complete their quarantine period before receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, it advised. The agency stressed that the government would ensure that only safe and efficacious vaccines are supplied for all phases of the vaccination campaign in the country. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the health authorities said only eligible population from 18 years and above will be vaccinated in four phases. The current phase of vaccination covers health workers and other frontline workers although Nigerians from other groups are also getting vaccinated. As of Tuesday, Nigeria had received 1,713,306 vaccines, representing 85.2 per cent of the 4.1 million Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccine. Meanwhile, the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) has also approved the commencement of the second dose of the Oxford/Astrazeneca vaccination in all states of the federation and the FCT. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT A job-seeker resident in Akwa-Ibom State, Blessing Godwin, has narrated how she was also lured to the same place where Inibong Umoren was raped and killed. Miss Umoren, 26, was allegedly murdered by Frank Akpan, whom the police said has confessed to being a serial rapist and killer. Mr Akpan had invited the recent UNIUYO graduate for a job interview at Airport Road, Ibiaku junction on April 29, but that was the last heard of the deceased until her corpse was found 48 hours after. The gruesome killing of the job-seeker had sparked reactions from prominent Nigerians and groups across the country who have continued to demand justice. The police promised to arraign the suspect as soon as the courts resume from their nationwide strike. However, Ms Godwin, another unsuspecting victim of Mr Akpan, on Tuesday, told PREMIUM TIMES that she was invited for the same interview, scheduled for the same venue, but could not honour the invitation because she was far away. Her telephone number was one of the numbers extracted from a Newswire publication. The online newspaper had earlier published the details of Mr Akpans call logs obtained from a mobile network provider. An analysis of the leaked data (above as published by Newswire) showed Mr Akpan was putting calls across to Misses Umoren and Godwin sequentially. Around 1.17 PM on April 29, Frank Akpan placed a call to Hiny Umoren, which lasted for 124 seconds. It is fair to extrapolate that this was a call where he gave directions to her regarding where she should go for the purported interview. At 1.21PM, he then placed a call to a Blessing Godwin, which lasted 147 seconds. Was he chatting up another potential victim of the same job interview snare? It is impossible to say for now, the report read. Premium Times has reached out to Miss Godwin. Narrating how she was almost snared by Mr Akpan, she said she had applied for a job a day before the proposed interview. I saw a job advert online, the previous day (April 28) for a hotel job. I have forgotten the name of the hotel. So, I applied for it since it was online. They said accommodation will be provided and the rest of it and I needed the job. So, I applied for it. The next day (April 29) in the afternoon, the number called me and said that they saw my application. I said Yes. He said could I come to Airport Road? That there is a farm there and Im to work in the secretary office. Miss Godwin said Mr Akpan had informed her that knowledge of computer operations was an added advantage, of which she responded that she might be rusty because it has been a while she operated a computer set. I said I would have loved to come but I was not in Uyo but my local government (Ibeno). He said what I should do is to send my CV and save his number as Ezekiel, she added. Ibeno local government area, according to Google map, is over 60 kilometres from where the suspected killer was. Ms Godwin said she was surprised and sad when she came about the story of the deceased on social media. She also prayed for the repose of her soul. A Superintendent of Police, Samuel Ezeugo, and a civil servant, Kufre Effiong, have explained their links to Frank Akpan, the suspected killer of the slain job-seeker, Iniubong Umoren. According to records obtained from his mobile network provider published Monday by Newswire, Mr Akpan, shortly before his arrest, had telephone conversations with Messrs Ezeugo and Effiong, a revelation that has raised suspicion of conspiracy. Mr Ezeugo heads the police division that supervised the arrest of Mr Akpan while Mr Effiong, a civil servant at the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta, is a close relation of the suspect. However, in separate interviews, both men explained to this newspaper that they were only in talks with the culprit to facilitate his arrest. Background PREMIUM TIMES reported how 26-year-old Ms Umoren, a fresh graduate of the University of Uyo, was found dead 48 hours after she left home to honour a job interview scheduled by Mr Akpan at a location on the outskirts of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. The murder suspect, who, according to the police, later confessed to being a serial rapist, confirmed raping and killing the missing lady. He also claimed he buried her in a shallow grave in his fathers compound, after raping her. On 30/04/2021, the Command received a report on the disappearance of the victim. Following available leads, men of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the Command, led by CSP Inengiye Igosi, consolidated on the initial great progress made by the DPO Uruan, SP Samuel Ezeugo and arrested the perpetrator who confessed to have lured his victim to his house in the guise of giving her a job but ended up sexually and physically assaulting her which led to her death. To cover his tracks, he dragged and buried her in a shallow grave in his fathers compound, Odiko MacDon, the Akwa Ibom Police Command spokesperson, said. Timeline The timeline of events showed that Ms Umoren set out for the interview on April 29. Her Lagos-based friend, Umo Uduak, who initially raised the alarm on social media, informed the Uruan police division on April 29 but the operatives did not swing to action until April 30, following a 24-hour guideline. The police usually wait for 24 hours to see if people declared missing would reappear before launching a search for them. Mr Akpans father was arrested on April 30 and the culprit was arrested later that day. The police announced the suspects arrest on May 1. The Ezeugo, Effiong connection As Nigerians continue to demand justice for the late Ms Umoren, Newswire, on Tuesday, published the call logs of Mr Akpan between April 14 and April 30. Using open-source intelligence tools like cell site locators and true caller app, the newspaper identified some persons the suspect spoke with before his arrest, including Messrs Ezeugo and Effiong. According to the newspapers analysis of the available data, Mr Akpan put a call across to Mr Effiong at noon on April 30. The latter called back shortly after the first call ended. A few minutes after, Mr Effiong sent Mr Ezeugos telephone number to the culprit, who called the police officer immediately after. The conversation between the senior police officer and Mr Akpan went on for 93 seconds. What they discussed remained unclear since Newswire said it was unable to access a recording of their conversation. While details of their discussions remained unknown, the Newswire article suggested connivance between Messrs Akpan, Ezeugo, Effiong, and the other people who spoke with him on the telephone. The report suggested some might have colluded to kill Ms Umoren while some others might be engaged in a cover-up scheme to free the suspect. The article also conjectured that some people who telephoned Mr Akpan or stay in locations around where Mr Effiong was as he communicated with the suspect might be connected to a human parts trafficking syndicate. ADVERTISEMENT As of the time of this reporting, PREMIUM TIMES could not access the conversation records of the suspect and those he spoke with and was, therefore, unable to determine the culpability or otherwise of the individuals. In any case, call logs alone do not offer sufficient evidence upon which individuals can be accused of crimes, law enforcement veterans say. At 4.32 PM on April 30, Frank then makes one of the most interesting phone calls in this entire story. Truecaller pulls up the details of the recipient of the phone call with the number +2348032939326 one Kufre Effiong. Unlike the other people Frank has been known to associate with, Kufre Effiong appears to be from a different world, Newswire reported. On April 30, at 4.40 PM, Frank Akpan placed a call to someone with the number +2348034386086. At this point, I trust it will not shock you to know that when I ran this number through Truecaller, the name that came up was none other than (Mr Ezeugo) In other words, while the Akwa Ibom Police Command is releasing statements claiming to be solving a crime by arresting a suspect, the suspect was actually making telephone calls to one of the police officers who would later arrest him, and speaking to him for a minute and a half, it read further. So putting the entire picture together, we have what appears to be a well-connected criminal gang in Akwa Ibom with links to the police and the Federal Ministry of the Niger Delta, which specialises in sourcing human organs either for the purpose of selling to the international black market or to service local politicians who believe in ritual human sacrifice, the paper stated, tracing their address to Plot 58, G Unit, Ewet Housing Estate, the Uyo branch office of a medical NGO called the Center for Clinical Care and Research (CCCR Nigeria). The first is that the Uyo Branch office of an organisation which specifically offers supply chain management of health commodities may have been commandeered by an illegal organ trafficking ring to feed the booming global black market organ trade, the report speculated. Meanwhile, there was an unknown number (+2348122386922), which was more frequent in the logs but could not be traced to anyone. This unknown person contacted Mr Akpan no fewer than 12 times between April 4 and April 27, with an estimated talk time of over 192 seconds. Finding the individual who owns the telephone number +2348122386922 is central to unravelling the mystery of why Iniobong Umoren had to die, how many more like her have died in the past, and most importantly, who are the big fish behind the entire operation. Exactly what is going on at 58, G Unit, Ewet Housing Estate is another key question that must be answered. Effiong, SP Ezeugo speak PREMIUM TIMES made efforts to speak to all the numbers extracted from the Newswire report but only five of them responded. The number identified with the most frequent calls was amongst the telephones that could not be reached throughout Tuesday and Wednesday morning. But of the successful five, one belonged to Nonso Obosi, another to one Blessing Godwin (an unsuspecting victim of Mr Akpan), two were traced to Mr Effiong and one to Mr Ezeugo. Mr Obosi abruptly terminated the call after our reporter announced the intent of calling enquiry into their relationship with the suspect. Ms Godwin shared her near-death experience with Mr Akpan. Also, Messrs Effiong and Ezeugo, after this reporter pressured them repeatedly, agreed to speak on their connections to the suspect. Mr Effiong, who is a civil servant as reported by Newswire, further revealed that the suspected murderer is his relation. This boy is related to me in a way. He is my little cousin that did this thing and I didnt want my hands to be connected with this, he said, explaining the reason for not speaking up earlier. He said he had been inundated with telephone calls from social media users who rang him on Tuesday to curse him. Speaking further, he said he played a role in the arrest of Mr Akpan carried out on April 30. That boy contacted me on the 30th (of April) while in my brothers house who is the Chairman of Uruan local government. They were all seated in his place with the DPO (Ezeugo) and DSP when the boy called, demanding for where his father was because the father had been arrested previously. I told the DPO that this boy had contacted me. The DPO said we should see how we can bring him. That was exactly what I did. The DPO went to pick him up and handed him to the anti-kidnapping unit of the Akwa Ibom State Police Command. I did so, so that they can release his father to go and take drugs, he said, justifying his call to Mr Akpan. When asked if he knew Mr Akpan was engaged in crime since they are related, Mr Effiong said, I dont live with him. I dont know anything about him. They returned to the village three years ago. So I dont know anything. I dont know he is into all these kinds of things. Pressed further on his previous conversations with the culprit, Mr Effiong said although he had following the matter on social media before the arrest of the suspect, he had not spoken to him until he (Mr Akpan) called that afternoon. On that day (maybe he felt running to us we would be able to assist him but unfortunately when he came around, he called when the policemen were there and I now had to bring him out. I facilitated his arrest. That was why I sent him the DPOs number. Not known to him (Frank) that the DPO was around. He added that he wrote a witness statement against Mr Akpan at the police headquarters in Uyo, saying the culprit had brought shame on the family and the entire village. On his part, Mr Ezeugo defended himself, saying he had no prior knowledge of the suspect until a report was made on April 29. If Im in talk with him before or after arrest, does it make any sense? Who arrested the young man you are talking about? I did. If I had spoken to him before or after his arrest, does it make any sense? When you are doing an investigation, you can use any means, provided it is legally fit, to trace a suspect. The Divisional Police officer said he could have been accused of collusion if the suspect had absconded. He is in custody as we speak. This case was reported to me by a girl from Lagos, Mr Ezeugo said. I was not in the office then, so I called my boys. I told them to get information from the tracker and give us a specific address. When we got the address, we started moving there but unfortunately, the young man was not there but we met his father. After tracing the fathers conversation with him. We found out that the man was in contact with his son, thats how we picked the father to my station. He further explained that the complainant went to the headquarters and met with the commissioner of police, who instructed the anti-kidnapping unit to take over the case. However, he told PREMIUM TIMES that he is still following up on the case despite the fact that it has been transferred to command headquarters. Asked if he knew Mr Effiong before now, the senior police officer did not give a definite response. I may not know him by that name, he said in this papers first interview with him. He directed our reporter to the state commands spokesperson, Odiko MacDon, when the question was repeated with a clearer description of Mr Effiong. Mr MacDon, when contacted on Tuesday, said Mr Akpan is still in custody and would be arraigned when courts resume nationwide. He declined comments on Mr Akpans arrest and the role of Messrs Effiong and Ezeugo in it. CCCR seeks retraction Meanwhile, the Centre for Clinical Care and Clinical Research (CCCR) has reacted to the Newswire publication, demanding a retraction and an apology over the suggestion that it might be part of an organ trafficking syndicate. Since 2010, the Centre for Clinical Care and Clinical Research has provided health and social services to millions of Nigerians in over 9 states. In Akwa Ibom state, CCCRN provides health, protection, education, nutrition and household economic strengthening services (among others) to more than 100,000 orphans and vulnerable children and their households, working with the Government of Akwa Ibom state and Nine (9) reputable Community Based Organizations, the organisation said. It said contrary to the Ghost NGO claim in the publication, CCCR has a functional website www.cccr-nigeria.org containing its track records, physical addresses, email addresses and contact persons for its seven offices in Nigeria. We also have an email to which the reporter could have sent an enquiry email info@cccr-nigeria.org. It is obvious that the investigative reporter conveniently ignored these opportunities to validate who we are and mischievously labelled a charitable organization with over 250 professional staff a Ghost NGO. The reporter further speculated or alleged that our Uyo Office may have been commandeered by an illegal organ trafficking ring to feed the booming global black market organ trade. Our business is to save lives which we have done creditably over 10 years. We also demand a retraction and apology by NewsWireNGR and Mr David Hundeyin immediately, the statement read. The chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdulrasheed Bawa, has said $153 million and over 80 properties have been recovered from a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke. Mr Bawa said the 80 properties recovered from Mrs Alison-Madueke were worth about $80 million. The EFCC boss made the disclosure is an interview in the April edition of the commissions magazine, EFCC Alert. The publication was part of excerpts from the interview Mr Bawa had during One-on-One programme of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). Until his appointment as the EFCC chair in February 2021, Mr Bawa headed the commissions investigative team set up to probe the broad corruption cases involving the former minister, associates and their interests. Mrs Alison-Madueke, who is believed to have escaped to the United Kingdom and remained there after her exit from public office, ran the petroleum ministry which superintends over the opaque Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) between 2010 and 2015 under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Her name has featured either as the main defendant or an accomplice in numerous corruption cases filed in court by the EFCC since her exit from office. Bringing her back to Nigeria to face pending charges against her has proved to be a hard nut to crack for the EFCC. Updates Asked in the interview to give an update on the progress in the cases involving the former minister, Mr Bawa said the $153 million recovered from her was in respect of one of the cases. There are several cases surrounding that. As you may have read, I was part of that investigation, and we have done quite a lot. In one of the cases, we recovered $153 million; we have secured the final forfeiture of over 80 properties in Nigeria valued at about $80million, Mr Bawa said. We have done quite a bit on that, he said, giving an indication about the exhaustive nature of the cases involving the former minister. The EFCC boss added, The other cases as it relates to the $115 million INEC bribery as the media has sensationalised it, is also ongoing across the federation. We are looking forward to the time when we will, maybe, have her in the country, and of course review things and see what will happen going forward. The case has certainly not been abandoned. Stalled extradition PREMIUM TIMES reported how the Federal High Court in Abuja, in March, adjourned one of the cases involving Mrs Alison-Madueke, for EFCC to give an update on the efforts to extradite her. Ijeoma Ojukwu, the trial judge, had adjourned the case till May 17 (Monday), but the proceedings are likely not to materialise due to the ongoing nationwide strike by judiciary staff workers. The adjournment was the latest in the series of postponements the money laundering case had suffered due to the absence of the former minister since it (the case) was filed over two years ago. The judge had on a couple of occasions shifted deadlines issued to EFCC to extradite to EFCC to Nigeria to face her trial. The EFCC always told the court that the commission was pursuing the extradition along with the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation without indicating the exact stage the process has reached. ADVERTISEMENT Earlier on October 28, 2020, Ms Ojukwu refused to grant EFCCs request for the issuance of a warrant of arrest against the former minister. The judge had said the summons she issued on July 24, 2020, ought to be sufficient for the commission to process her extradition to Nigeria to face her trial. She then adjourned the matter till December 3 for EFCC to report on its efforts to bring the former minister to Nigeria. On December 3, EFCCs prosecuting counsel, Farouk Abdullah, appeared before the judge pleading for more time to enable the anti-graft agency to enforce the court summons against Ms Alison-Madueke. The judge then adjourned till March 3, 2021 for possible arraignment of the defendant. She further adjourned the case till May 17 following the former ministers absence from the March 3 proceedings. Management of recovered assets Mr Bawa also assured that recovered assets were being properly managed, although some of them were still being bogged down by appeals. But what I can guarantee is that there is no EFCC official that will recover an asset and then he will go ahead and sell that asset, or he will rent it out and then take the proceeds. How can he even do that? Because different departments do these things. Investigators are the ones that trace, the lawyers are the ones that go to the court to get them, and then the department of asset forfeiture is the one that manages them. The Chief Executive doesnt see assets, only on paper, he said. He added that steps were also being taken to stop ensure that forfeited assets were not re-acquired through proxies. The EFCC boss said, certainly (there are checks) on finally forfeited assets from being re-acquired by proxies. Looking at individuals that come forward, you have to look at their financial viability, whether or not they are not proxies. You have to look at their profile, their pedigree. The auctioneers are there, all of these things are being carried out under the office of the Secretary to the Commission. But as we say in money laundering, somebody somewhere is the ultimate beneficial owner, that he can even hire somebody that will stand in as the beneficial owner. It is at times very difficult, but we have the expertise to detect. It is very difficult for property to be recovered from somebody and then the person will get it back. EFCC had earlier in March issued a statement containing an excerpt of the NTA interview where the youthful Mr Bawa vowed to resign if pressured to act against his conscience or rule of law. Seven All Progressives Congress (APC) governors were among the 17 southern governors who on Tuesday faulted President Muhammadu Buharis handling of the security situation in the country. The governors, 15 of whom were personally in attendance and others represented by their deputies, met in Asaba, the Delta State capital to discuss the state of the nation. The APC governors in attendance were Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Hope Uzodinma (Imo), Dave Umahi (Ebonyi), and Rotimi Akeredolu (Ondo), who briefed journalists after the meeting. Like the governors, Mr Buhari is a member of the APC, under whom he has won two terms in office. The APC governors were joined by PDPs Godwin Obaseki (Edo), Nyesom Wike (Rivers) Douye Diri (Bayelsa), Okezie Ikpeazu (Abia), Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Enugu), Ben Ayade (Cross River), Seye Makinde (Oyo), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), who hosted the meeting. Also in attendance was Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State who belongs to the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Gravely concerned The governors, according to the communique issued after the meeting, expressed very grave concern on the security challenge currently plaguing the nation and strongly urged that Mr. President should address Nigerians on the challenges of insecurity and restore the confidence of our people. They also banned open grazing of cattle in the southern region as a solution to the unending cases of farmer-herder clashes and other security threats. i) (We) affirmed that the peoples of Southern Nigeria remain committed to the unity of Nigeria on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness and peaceful co-existence between and among its peoples with a focus on the attainment of shared goals for economic development and prosperity; ii) observed that the incursion of armed herders, criminals and bandits into the Southern part of the country has presented a severe security challenge such that citizens are not able to live their normal lives including pursuing various productive activities leading to a threat to food supply and general security. Consequently, the meeting resolved that open grazing of cattle be banned across Southern Nigeria; III) Noted that development and population growth has put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local populations in the South. Given this scenario, it becomes imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the South (including cattle movement to the South by foot). Other recommendations The governors further recommended that the federal government should support willing states to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems. On restructuring, the governors agreed that the progress of the nation required that urgent and bold steps be taken to restructure the Nigerian Federation leading to the evolution of state police. They called for a review of the revenue allocation formula in favour of the sub-national governments and creation of other institutions which legitimately advance our commitment to and practice of true federalism. Surprising development The assent of the APC-governed states to the resolutions might be a surprising development to political actors because of their rarity in forums critical of Mr Buharis administration. Only PDP Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State and Mr Nyesom of Rivers have been considered vocal enough to criticise the presidents moves on the worsening security situation in the country. And when they do, more often than not, the presidency is always quick to react, attacking the critics vehemently. Apparently, none of the APC governors opposed the resolutions of the Asaba meeting as Mr Akeredolu, who presided over the meeting told Channels TV on Wednesday morning that the resolutions were collectively agreed upon by the governors. ADVERTISEMENT The position of the southern governors also came a few weeks after the APC interim national leadership, admitted that the current security situation across the country was worrisome. John Akpanudoedehe, the partys interim national secretary, said the Buhari administration was achieving a lot in infrastructural development but only in safety can we enjoy the current infrastructure revolution Earlier in the month, the PDP senators and their APC counterparts disagreed over Mr Buharis handling of the security situation. But the APC lawmakers said the administration was doing its best to tackle insecurity. But while many Nigerians lauded the move by the Southern governors because it reflects the current realities, some have feared that the resolution might end up like many recommendations: not implemented. Resolutions akin to APC panel recommendation This newspaper recalled that an All Progressives Congress committee on restructuring led by Kaduna Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, presented its report with several recommendations in 2018. Some of the key recommendations are resource control, making local government an affair of states, constitutional amendment to allow merger of states, state police, state court of appeal and independent candidacy. Lamentably, over two years after, the recommendations, formed from opinions of various Nigerians, are yet to be implemented. Reactions Meanwhile, telephone calls and texts seeking the presidencys reaction to the Southern Governors resolutions were not responded to by Mr Buharis publicists, Garba Shehu and Femi Adesina, as of press time on Wednesday. It is empirically true that the people of Nigeria, not just the citizens in the Southern part, are willing to be in a Nigeria that gives them socio-economic and political justice. But when Governors, most of whom owe workers backlog of salaries, only weep after collecting security votes, come together to discuss justice, one needs to interrogate the sincerity of such meeting, says Olorunfemi Adeyeye, the publicity Secretary of African Action Congress (AAC), on Wednesday. Mr Adeyeye considered the intervention of the governors later than expected. It is unfortunate that governors would have to congregate to urge a President to address the nation on an issue as important as security at a critical time like this. Here is a President who swore before Nigerians to uphold the constitution of the country, wherein one of the provisions- Section 14(2) makes it clear that the primary responsibility of government shall be the security and welfare of the citizens. Addressing the country would not cushion anything as recent history has shown that many of the addresses of the President end up as colossal as his silence. Also, Sani Farouq, a member of the PDP in Lagos, said he is uncertain of any significant improvement from the actions of the governors. This is not the first time governors would meet and make resolutions but has anything changed even in the South-west where you have the noise about Amotekun? They should go beyond making resolutions. Amotekun is the security outfit established in the Southwestern states to tackle insecurity in the region. They have banned open grazing. Fine. I want to see the first governor out of the 17 to implement this without considering the presidents body language, Mr Farouq told PREMIUM TIMES. A social commentator and human rights activist, Festus Ogun, also expressed his worries on implementation. While the intentions behind the resolutions are noble, implementation remains a serious challenge. The simple reason is because the political will to drive home the reforms is absent amongst our ruling class. The resolutions appear to be an offshoot of the clamour for restructuring our country. The question is: are the political heavyweights in the country ready to restructure the country? The guess is as good as mine. Our country remains a risk until we find the courage to restructure. Barring last minute change, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) will announce the extension of the deadline for the ongoing registration for its 2021 unified tertiary matriculation examination (UTME) and the direct entry (DE) programme. This decision may not be unconnected to the difficulties being experienced by candidates in their attempts to generate the required codes towards setting up profiles using their unique national identification number (NIN). PREMIUM TIMES has exclusively learnt that as of Wednesday afternoon, roughly 72 hours to the May 15 deadline set by the examination body, only 1,012,000 candidates have so far registered for the UTME and about 30,000 candidates for the DE programme. This figure is low when compared to about 1.9 million UTME and 200,000 DE candidates already captured within the same period in 2020. Investigations revealed that as of Wednesday about 600,000 prospective candidates, who have initiated the registration process, are yet to receive the required codes meant to be transported to their mobile lines by the network operators. Challenges Some officials of the examination body, who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES confidentially, claiming they were not authorised to speak on the matter, said the problem is caused by the adoption of the mandatory use of NIN for the registration. The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) that is responsible for the issuance of NIN is expected to generate the linked number to be transported to candidates as soon as they input their required USSD code. But this has been difficult for the agency due largely to inadequate manpower and lack of required technical skill, one of the sources told our reporter on the phone. Another source blamed the mobile telecommunication operators for the delayed response to transporting codes generated to candidates, saying this is the worst outing being recorded by JAMB since the adoption of the USSD system in its registration. Some ad hoc staffers of the examination body, who were meant to register using the same procedure ahead of the examination, have also expressed frustration in their attempts to be registered for the exercise. We keep sending the codes to 55019 as instructed by JAMB but the response is always that it is being processed and that we should await SMS. But the SMS never comes even after more than 48 hours. I can now imagine the problem the prospective candidates are going through, an ad hoc staffer who does not want to be quoted told our reporter on the phone. Meanwhile, a parent, Bassey Udo, who was trying to change his sons course of study for the ongoing 2020 admission at a university, told our reporter on the phone that even after paying the required fee, the one-time password (OTP) required to complete the transaction has not been received for more than three days. Till now we cannot complete the transaction. I spoke to MTN and I was asked if I had activated the Do not disturb system on my line. But they found out I did not. So they concluded there was no basis not to receive a message from a third party. But still, the situation has remained the same. I dont know what would be the fate of this boy if we are unable to complete the task, Mr Udo told our reporter. JAMB keeps mum Meanwhile, the director of public affairs and protocol for the examination body, Fabian Benjamin, refused to comment on the matter. He said he would respond to PREMIUM TIMES enquiry soon. His promised response, however, did not come as of the time of filing this report. It would be recalled that JAMB had earlier scheduled its mock examination for April 30 but later rescheduled it to hold on May 20. The abrupt change might not be unconnected with the difficulties being experienced in the registration exercise. Meanwhile, a highly placed source in the agency who does not want to be mentioned told this newspaper that the best solution would have been to waive the use of NIN for candidates. If we do that, I can assure you that in two days the whole exercise would be completed. But we cannot because the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy was impressed by our efforts and has even written appreciation to our supervising ministry and also to the federal executive council. So we cannot backtrack on that for now, the source said. The examination body is billed to meet with stakeholders including members of various groups such as civil societies and media ahead of the examination. ADVERTISEMENT One of such meetings is billed to hold on Friday, May 14, where the JAMB registrar, Is-haq Oloyede, is expected to address the groups. He may use the avenue to announce the deadline extension. Network operators deny culpability Meanwhile, the mobile network operators have denied being responsible for the challenges being faced by candidates in their efforts to be registered for the examination. The operators umbrella body- Association of Licenced Telecommunications Operators in Nigeria (ALTON) said its role is simply to transport the codes to the candidates and not to generate. In his response to our reporters enquiries, the associations chairman, Gbenga Adebayo, said the delays cannot be from the systems of the telecommunication companies. Telecommunication companies dont manage the process of generating the code for candidates, we only provide the transport access to their servers and we rely on the examinations agency to generate the code. We dont manage their database and as such were not responsible for generating the said examination code, Mr. Adebayo said. When confronted with the claim of the existing generated codes yet to be transported, Mr Adebayo said; If the codes are generated and their servers do not upload them to the operators, there would be nothing on the link to deliver. Operators are just a medium of transport, and if their servers dont deliver the codes, the link (transport) will be empty. Maybe theres something theyre not saying. Ask them again and let them show a proof! NIMC fails to respond When reached for reaction, the authorities at the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) failed to respond. The agencys head of corporate communications department, Jamila Ahmed, who failed to pick many calls sent to her telephone line later responded to our reporters message that she was on leave. Ms Ahmed also directed our reporter to speak to a man identified simply as Kayode. But efforts to reach Mr Kayode were not successful as his provided mobile telephone line did not go through. A message sent to the number was yet to be replied as of the time of filing this report. Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday and Palestinian militants fired multiple rocket barrages at Tel Aviv and the southern city of Beersheba in the regions most intense hostilities in years. We take a look at the international communitys reaction. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres: Guterres spokesman said the secretary-general was saddened by the increasingly large numbers of casualties, including children, from Israeli air strikes in Gaza and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza. Israeli security forces must exercise maximum restraint and calibrate their use of force. The indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars towards Israeli population centres is unacceptable, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The United States: The White House said Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks but said Jerusalem must be a place of co-existence. White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said President Joe Bidens support for Israels security, for its legitimate right to defend itself and its people, is fundamental and will never waver. European Union: The European Union said Palestinian rocket attacks into Israel were totally unacceptable and called on all sides to aim for de-escalation and to prevent more civilian casualties. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also condemned evictions of Palestinian families in East Jerusalem, calling them illegal and saying they only served to fuel tensions. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson: The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas: The rocket attack on Israel is absolutely unacceptable and must end immediately. Israel has in this situation the right to self-defence. This escalation of violence can be neither tolerated nor accepted. Arab League: Arab League chief Ahmed Aboul Gheit said the Israeli air strikes were indiscriminate and irresponsible. He said Israel was responsible for a dangerous escalation in Jerusalem and called on the international community to act immediately to stop the violence. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: Zionists understand nothing but the language of force, so the Palestinians must increase their power and resistance to force the criminals to surrender and stop their brutal acts, Khamenei said. Russian President Vladimir Putin: Putin urged Israel and the Palestinians to halt fighting and called on the parties to de-escalate tensions and peacefully resolve the emerging issues. Turkey: The Israeli government must finally understand that it will not be able to suppress the Palestinian peoples legitimate rights and demands by using indiscriminate and disproportionate power, the Turkish foreign ministry said. Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC): The OIC praised the steadfastness of the Palestinian people stationed in the occupied city of Jerusalem and their response to the Israeli attacks on the holy sites. International Committee of the Red Cross: He called for rapid, safe and unimpeded movement for ambulances and for staff and volunteers of both the Palestinian and Israeli medical services.Middle East director Fabrizio Carboni said international humanitarian law prohibits indiscriminate attacks against civilians, any attack must be proportionate, and all necessary precautions must be taken to avoid civilian casualties. International Criminal Court (ICC): Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the ICC was concerned about the possibility that war crimes were being committed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in and around Gaza, and was monitoring developments. ADVERTISEMENT France 24 is Premium Times syndication partner. We have permission to republish content. ADVERTISEMENT The national leader of All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, has urged Nigerians to continue to pray for the country. Mr Tinubu gave the advice in a statement on Wednesday in Lagos. Let us remember President Muhammadu Buhari and his government in our prayers so that they may be given the strength and wisdom to protect the nation, defeat the challenges that confront us, and help establish Nigeria as a more prosperous and just land, said Mr Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State. Let us pray for our brave soldiers and security agents confronting insurgents and bandits. We must keep in close remembrance, those whose lives have been lost to or impaired by terrorism as well as those who have been lost to or harmed by the global pandemic COVID-19. May we see an end to this disease and its consequences in no distant time, Mr Tinubu said. He urged Muslims to be better and treat one another with greater compassion and understanding as Ramadan fast ends. He also advised Muslims and other Nigerians to build a better society that would free from violence and hatred. We must never condone works and words of those who would do evil or put a brother against a brother and Nigerian against a Nigerian. Now that the holy month of Ramadan is ending, we must counsel ourselves not to forget its great lessons. We must be better than we were. I join Muslims in Nigeria and across the world in marking the faithful completion of this years Ramadan fast one of the most critical pillars of Islam, he said. Mr Tinubu noted that Ramadan taught love and compassion, among other virtues. We observe this holy month in order to bring more compassion and love unto this world and in our relations with all we meet friends as well as strangers, fellow Muslims as well as those of other faiths or beliefs, he said. The former governor of Lagos State added that Ramadan teachings must guide Muslims actions and conducts. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT No fewer than 115 inmates in Enugu recorded credit passes in English Language and Mathematics in the last National Examination Council (NECO)-organised Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) (External). Monday Chukwuemeka, Public Relations Officer of Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Enugu State Command, disclosed this in a statement in Enugu on Wednesday. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that NECO released the results of its 2020 SSCE on Friday (May 7). Mr Chukwuemeka said that inmates in Enugu had been excelling in SSCE. According to him, in 2018, 84 inmates got credit passes in English Language and Mathematics while 136 inmates got credit passes in English Language and Mathematics in 2019. He said that all the inmates were tutored within the custodial centre. The Nigerian Correctional Service under the visionary leadership of Mr Haliru Nababa focuses on educational development as a viable tool for reforming offenders. With the NCoS Act of 2019; the service has created a paradigm shift in the treatment of inmates in custody. The paradigm shift to correction and reform has given rise to the opportunity for inmates to actualise their educational aspirations while in reformatory/rehabilitation process, he said. The spokesman said that the Controller of Enugu State Command of NCoS, Joseph Emelue, had commended the inmates for the feat. Mr Chukwuemeka said the controller appealed to members of the public to see the inmates as reformed upon release and avoid any form of stigmatisation. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT Three persons including an infant on Wednesday died in a gas explosion that occurred in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that the incident occurred around 3 p.m. at Oke-Egunya, along NTA Road in Abeokuta South Local Government Area. According to a witness, the incident occurred when a technician was topping up gas of a faulty refrigerator at a residence in the area. In the process of topping up gas into the refrigerator, there was an attraction of fire from someone cooking with firewood and there came an explosion, the witness said. Confirming the incident, the Director of Fire Service in the state, Fatai Adefala, said after receiving the distress call, his men rushed to the scene. According to him, upon getting to the scene, we discovered it was gas explosion. He confirmed three were burnt to death as they were caught up with the explosion. We received a distress call at 3:15 p.m. at Oke-Igbore. We learnt it was a spark of fire. On getting there, we discovered it was a gas explosion. What really happened was that they were cooking outside with fire and unfortunately the gas exploded. They were trying to top the gas in the fridge, in the process, it exploded. Three lives were lost, one infant was among them. For now, the bodies are still lying there. You know it was those who are living in that house that were affected. It is an ancient building, he said. Meanwhile, Babatunde Akinbiyi, the Spokesperson, Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) also confirmed the incident. Mr Akinbiyi said that seven injured victims were rescued and taken to the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Idi Aba, Abeokuta, while the deceased had been buried by their families according to Islamic rites. (NAN) The Nigerian Army has arrested Awurum Eze, second in command of the Eastern Security Network (ESN), the militant arm of the outlawed pro-Biafra group, IPOB. Army spokesperson, Mohammed Yerima, revealed this in a statement on Wednesday. According to him, Mr Eze is the assistant to the late Ikonso, the ESN commander, who was killed weeks back in a gunfire exchange with security agents. PREMIUM TIMES had reported how a security team made up of officials of the Nigerian Army, the police and the State Security Service (SSS) raided the headquarters of the ESN. At least 11 people were killed in the ensuing battle including four security operatives and a man described as the second in command of the ESN, an official said. According to officials, Mr Ikonso was killed in a gun battle with the security team alongside six of his commanders. Security agencies had blamed the group, which wants an independent country for Igbos, for the attacks on security officials and facilities but IPOB denied being responsible for the attacks. Dozens of security officials have been killed in the South-east and South-south regions of Nigeria in recent attacks on security officials and facilities. In the statement on Wednesday, the Army said Mr Eze was one of the main sponsors of the recent coordinated attacks on security agents in Imo State. The statement also said Mr Eze and the late Ikonso had direct link with the leader of the IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu. Read full statement by the Army: SECURITY FORCES ARREST ANOTHER IPOB/ESN TERRORISTS HENCHMAN The Second in Command to the neutralised IPOB/ESN Terrorist leader Ikonso, Awurum Eze, has been arrested by security operatives in Aba, Abia State. The 48 years old Awurum Eze, a native of Umoneke Nta, Isiala-Mbano LGA, Imo State, had on the 4th of May 2021 escaped when operatives of Intelligence Response Team (IRT) stormed his village house in Isiala Mbano where he was hiding. Intensive manhunt was thereafter launched towards tracing and arresting him. He was eventually apprehended on Wednesday, 12 May 2022, in Aba after weeks of unrelenting follow-ups by operatives. Awurum Eze is one of the main sponsors of the numerous killings in Imo State and has been on the wanted list of security agents for more than 3 months. Many of the arrested IPOB /ESN terrorists had earlier mentioned him as their key sponsor, mastermind and Second in Command to late Ikonso. According to them, amongst all their leaders in Imo State, only Ikonso and Awurum have direct communication link with Nnamdi Kanu. He can be seen in several photographs posing with the fugitive terrorist leader, Nnamdi Kanu. Investigation by the combined team of security operatives continues. Mohammed Yerima Brigadier General Director Army Public Relations May 12, 2021 ADVERTISEMENT Nollywood actress Genevieve Nnaji will join the cast of the audio adaptation of FELA Fela Ten Twenty, written and directed by filmmaker Funa Maduka. A statement issued on Tuesday by the organisers said the audio play would be premiered on Clubhouse, the popular drop-in audio chat platform, on May 15 and May 16, with shows at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on both days. Clubhouse is a social platform, built around drop-in audio chat, featuring ephemeral real-time voice conversations that any user can listen to but cannot record. The statement said the proceeds from the show would support GEANCO, whose work provides full tuition, healthcare and social and psychological support to young female survivors of terrorism and gender inequality in Nigeria and across the continent. The statement quoted Nnaji as saying: The contemporary issues highlighted in the script are what sold me; this is an artful retelling of Felas story and Im honored to be a part of it. I grew up on radio plays and the experience is nostalgic for me the power of voice to influence minds and touch hearts is undeniable. Fela Ten Twenty, the title of the audio adaptation, will feature an exciting new interpretation of Bill T. Jones and Jim Lewis Original FELA! Script, framing the ongoing #EndSARS movement in the context of Fela Kutis legacy. Music for the production would be recorded in Lagos, Nigeria, by The Cavemen, the widely-celebrated band rekindling Nigerian highlife with their new album Roots. Funa Maduka, writer, director and producer of Fela Ten Twenty, commended the actress for her efforts to see the play come to reality. For this adaptation, I tripled speaking roles for women by bringing the voices of the Kalakuta Queens, women who fought and performed alongside Fela, to the forefront. Women have long been at the centre of political movements, especially in Africa. To have a woman of Genevieves calibre play a Kalakuta Queen, only elevates this legacy of leadership, fortitude and grace. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Genevieve Nnaji is a Nigerian actress, producer and director. She won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2005. In 2011, she was honoured as a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic by the Nigerian government for her contributions to Nollywood. Her directorial debut movie, Lionheart, was Nigerias first submission to the Oscars. Nnaji frequently uses her platform to advocate for social causes, including #EndSARS, which the Fela Ten Twenty script adaptation centres. She joins a talented cast of actors from Nigeria, the UK and the U.S., including Sir Marcell as Fela Kuti, Jumoke Fashola as Funmilayo Kuti, NC Grey as Najite a Kalakuta Queen and Nneamaka Nwadei as Omolara a Kalakuta Queen. ADVERTISEMENT Others are Malikat Rufai as Sandra Izsadore, Uche Ogodi as J.K. Braimah, Comfort Dangana as DJ Switch, Adeola Adebari as Tunde, Muhammed Agboluaje as the Driver, LaToya Ransom as the Radio Journalist and Aliu Ajala as the Babalawo. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The governors of the 17 states in Southern Nigeria met in Asaba, Delta State, on Tuesday. At the meeting, they discussed several issues including security, open cattle grazing and restructuring of Nigeria. They arrived at 12 resolutions including banning open grazing of cattle in all their states. Read the 12 resolutions reached by the governors below. FREETOWN, Sierra Leone The hearings in the war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi got underway on Tuesday after a two week delay because of judges illness. The court, held at a secret location, as it had been in Monrovia, heard from three witnesses a woman and two men. Defence and prosecution teams tried to establish whether Massaquoi could have been in Liberia to commit crimes in 2003 as many Liberian witnesses claimed but while Massaquoi was under witness protection in Freetown. The second witness, codenamed 21, to protect him from intimidation was called by the Defence team. A male he had been a close friend of Massaquoi whom he got to know him in 1999 after Massaquoi was freed from prison here. 21 said that Massaquoi told him he went to Liberia in 2001 for peace talks with the President Charles Taylor to release some peace keepers he adopted from Sierra Leone, and that he stayed in Liberia for six months. He said he did not know whether Massaquoi went to fight in Liberia. When Massaquoi returned to Sierra Leone in 2001, he was contacted by the Sierra Leone Special Court to testify against former President Charles Taylor, so he could not go back to Liberia in 2002 because he was afraid for his life, 21 told the court. So he send me to get his woman and his daughter from Liberia in 2002 because he heard Taylor wanted him dead, just as he killed General Mosquito to stop him from testifying against him before the Special court. By then Gibril was under witness protection and the special court provided him security because he was giving them information, so they had to protect him. When asked to point out a traumatic event that made him believe that it was in 2002 he went to Liberia for Massaquois family, he replied: When I went for Massaquois wife and child, I remembered it was 2002 because there was an attack at Clay Junction on that day between Charles Taylors forces and LURD forces, and I was caught up in between and I felt the fear, so I can remember that day very well. Defence lawyers are trying to establish that Massaquoi was in Sierra Leone in 2002 to 2003 under witness protection, and could not have been in Liberia that period to commit the atrocities alleged by over 60 witnesses in Liberia. Nineteen witnesses testifying before the Finnish Court in Freetown are all called by the defence lawyers defending Massaquoi in the ongoing trial in Finland. The Finnish Court moved from Liberia to Sierra Leone after the hearings of over 60 witnesses there. Background Massaquoi, is being prosecuted in Finland for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Liberia. Massaquoi was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the RUF and an assistant to the rebel groups founder, Foday Sankoh, during the Sierra Leonean Civil War. In 2005, Massaquoi was granted immunity from prosecution for crimes in Sierra Leone in return for his testimony in the war crimes trials in Sierra Leone. Experts said he was instrumental in the convictions of several rebel leaders including former Liberian president Charles Taylor with whom he was close to during the civil conflicts in both countries. Finland granted Massaquoi residency for his role in the Sierra Leone Special Court. But when Civitas Maxima, of Switzerland and Liberia-based Global Justice Research Project presented Finnish investigators with evidence of Massaquois war crimes in Liberia, they arrested him in March 2020 for his role in that war. Massaquois trial began on February 1 in the city of Tampere, where he had been living. Rather than transport more than 50 witnesses set to testify to Finland in the midst of a pandemic, the Finnish court traveled to the witnesses. The first witness, codenamed 18, was a woman and a cousin to Masaquoi. She told the Finnish Court that she ran for office in 1999 and Massaquoi was a strategic family member on her campaign team along with family in their town called Blama Massaquoi in Sierra Leones Pujehun district. She said Massaquoi was always in Freetown in 2002 and 2003 under witness protection. I met him in 2002 in Freetown, where he lived with his wife and children. I also met him in Freetown in 2003, but did not ask where he lived but we used to meet, at times we met at the centre of the town, other times, in other parts of Sierra Leone when he used to call to meet me. But I cannot remember the time, in 2003 when I met him. Changing testimony But her testimony changed from one minute to the next. One minute she would say he was in Freetown in 2002 and 2003 and the next she would say he went to visit his mother in Sierra Leone bordering town Bo waterside. ADVERTISEMENT He was always in Freetown, but only used to go visit his mother in Bo waterside, bordering Liberia to spend a day of two with her and return to Freetown. He used to move around freely in Sierra Leone along with his friends, she said. ALSO READ: Typhoid delays Massaquoi war crimes hearings in Sierra Leone As to if it was possible to for him to have crossed into Liberia, she said it was possible to cross in to Liberia but motor cars could not cross because ECOMOG was stationed there. If he had traveled to Liberia, I would have known because his wife or other close relative would have told me, she said. But 18 also helped the prosecution case with her clear understanding that Massaquoi faced no restrictions in his movement when he was under witness protection in 2002-2003. When she was asked if Massaquoi wanted to travel out of Freetown in 2003, and if anybody could stop him, she said nobody could stop him from traveling out of Freetown, because he was a free man. As to whether she knew if he was under witness protection, she said he was a free man in Freetown who went out with friends. He never told me he was in a secure house, he only told me that they wanted him to testify against Charles Taylor, and he said some Liberian people were not satisfied about it, but did not say who wanted him to testify. I always thought of Massaquoi as a free man, because by then there was no war in Sierra Leone, she said. The third witness, codenamed 41 said he has known Massaquoi since 1991 when they joined the RUF together as junior commandos in Pujehun District. He said Massaquoi did not go to Liberia because he was afraid of General Mosquito. Massaquoi was in Freetown in 2002, but I was in prison by then, so I do not know if he took part in RUF activities outside of Freetown, 41 told the court. The Sierra Leone war was finished, in 2002 even the former President Kabba announced it in 2002, so how could RUF be present in Liberia or are you saying they were ex RUF rebels? Furthermore, Massaquoi took part in the 2002 general and Presidential elections, so how could he have been in Liberia? When the prosecution lawyers started asking him more questions about the RUF leadership and ranks, he became impatient and blew up: Why are you asking me about RUF, I thought I was going to be asked about Massaquoi leading troops to Liberia to fight as the Finnish Police asked me two years ago? Why are you asking me about RUF activities and ranks, I am confused here because this was not what I was asked to speak about? he said. After the incident, the court adjourned without further comment. The trial continues on Wednesday. This story was a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the West Africa Justice Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The funder had no say in the storys content. . ADVERTISEMENT The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Abia State has confirmed that part of its office at Amaekpu in Ohafia Local Government Area of the state has been set ablaze. The State Commandant of the agency, Bamidele Akingbade, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Umuahia that the attack took place at about 3 p.m. on Tuesday. Mr Akingbade blamed the attack on hoodlums, adding that only a section of the office complex was set ablaze. He said that the assailants intention was to free the suspects who were detained in the facility. However, the suspects were relocated out of the facility, in the wake of Mondays attack on the nearby office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, he said. He said the agency recorded no casualties and that their weapons were intact, adding that important official documents were stored in a fire-proof safe. The Abia State Government, in its reaction to the incident, vowed that it would spare no efforts to get the masterminds of the attack. According to the Commissioner for Information, Okiyi Kalu, the government will get the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Facilities belonging to state institutions, including police formations and an INEC office, have come under attack by gunmen in the last few days. States in the South-east and South-south regions of Nigeria are grappling with severe security challenges, including an increase in abduction for ransom. The security situations in these states are compounded by the spate of deadly attacks on security agencies. IPOB, a pro-Biafra group, has denied accusations that they were responsible for the attacks. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT A police officer was killed on Wednesday by some gunmen in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The police spokesperson in the state, Odiko MacDon, confirmed the killing in a statement on Wednesday. Mr MacDon identified the slain police officer as Edogi Bassey, a police constable. The officer was said to have been killed while repelling the attacks, in the company of colleagues. At about 6:30 a.m. today, armed men, in their numbers, armed with AK 47 Rifles and other dangerous weapons, in two vehicles attacked the rented building housing the Etim Ekpo Area Command and Division, Mr MacDon said in the statement. The undaunted and vigilant Police Officers on duty, gallantly fought back, repelled them and averted the intended carnage. Unfortunately, a dedicated Officer, one PC Edogi Bassey paid the supreme price while a small portion of the building was torched. According to Mr MacDon, the gunmen proceeded to another local government area Ika Local Government Area, to attack a police division there, but were repelled again by the officers at the station. Wednesdays attack is the second attack on Ika Division in less than two weeks. The gunmen, who proceeded to Ika Division to perpetrate their nefarious activities, were successfully repelled, leaving the Station intact, without loss of lives or arms, the police spokesperson said. The death of Mr Bassey brings to 22 the number of police officers so far killed in the state during attacks by gunmen. READ ALSO: y bandits The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, on Monday, visited the police headquarters in the state to condole with families of the slain officers and the police authorities over the loss. Mr Emmanuel, during the visit, announced a N60 million donation to the families of the slain officers. The commissioner of police in the state, Andrew Amiengheme had told the governor that the police in the state have lost 21 officers so far since February this year. The spate of attacks on security agents in the South-south and South-east regions of the country has been on the rise. Teachers at the Community Staff School in Asokoro, Abuja, have halted their two-week protests against poor pay and general work conditions. PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the workers reluctantly took the decision following a memo by the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the school owned by Nigerias top intelligence service, the State Security Service (SSS), promising to look into part of their demands. The BoTs May 7 memo was addressed to the teaching staff through the chairman of the schools branch of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Agu Nwagu. The memo was followed by an extra-ordinary meeting of the NUT where the teachers identified that some of their critical demands were downplayed by the school management. But they reluctantly resolve to halt their industrial action with a view to adopting broader strategy to press home their demands. It was gathered that the workers resumption was rescheduled from Wednesday till Monday, May 17, due to the Eid-el-Fitr holiday declared to be observed on Wednesday and Thursday. Agitation This newspaper, in April, reported how the workers embarked on protests against the refusal of the school authorities to comply with court judgments ordering their integration into the federal public service. Established in 1995, the school, comprising primary and secondary sections, is but run as a private institution. The school, whose administrative positions are occupied by SSS officials, is headed by an Executive Secretary, who is appointed by the Director-General of the secret police, while the academic staff members are largely recruited outside the service. The Executive Secretary is usually in the rank of a Director, an Assistant Director or Deputy Director, and is the sole administrator of the school. Members of staff of the school have held series of protests as part of their agitation for integration into the federal public service like the staff members of the SSS which owns the school. In 2014, they obtained a judgment of the National Industrial Court affirming their status as federal public servants. The judgment was upheld by the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division, in July 2018. The staff members held their last round of protests and stayed away from work in April demanding the implementation of the judgments. Call for resumption PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday obtained a May 7, 2021 memo of the schools BoT expressing commitment to addressing their welfare and terms and conditions of service. It called on the teachers to resume work while the school authorities pursued the process of implementing their deeper demands. On May 4, 2021, the Board of Trustees (BoT) of Community Staff Schools (CSSA) Asokoro, during its first of 3rd Term 2020/2021 Academic Session Board Meeting, passed the following resolutions: That the issue of regularisation of staff appointment from private to public Servants may not be feasible at present. This is in view of certain consultations, which must take place with critical stakeholders. ADVERTISEMENT Therefore, all teachers are advised to return to class, the memo, signed on behalf of the BoT Chairman, by an unnamed person, read in part. The BoT assured that the school authorities were committed to addressing the welfare of teachers in terms of their pension, promotion, salary review, etc. The school management is to set up a committee to collate areas to enhance the welfare of Teachers for the Board of Trustees (BoT) consideration and action, it added. Reluctant resumption The schools NUT chairman, Mr Nwagu, said the teachers decided to resume work, although some of their critical demands were downplayed by the BoT. This is contained in the communique issued after the unions meeting where the BoTs memo was reviewed on May 7. That the teachers main reason of agitation which is to OBEY COURT VERDICT by confirming the status of our appointments as public servants which we are, may not be feasible at present. That the Board is committed to addressing the welfare of Teachers in terms of their pension, promotion, salary review, gratuity and so on, Mr Nwagu wrote in the communique. The staffs request that our employer/proprietor or his representative should communicate us in writing has been met, he stated. But Mr Nwagu added, the issues of regularising our appointments from private to public as well as recall of our disengaged colleagues which are critical and sacrosanct in this struggle were intentionally downplayed by the management. He said the union decided to relax the protest and resume duties based on the undiluted love we have for our dear students/pupils especially those preparing for external exams, also passionate pleas from our well-meaning parents. He noted that the relaxation of the protest was in the light of the unions resolution to diversify our operational strategy. That comrades should get ready to impact knowledge to the children beginning from Monday, May 10, 2021, the communique added. The Nigerian Army has confirmed the foiled attempts by Boko Haram terrorists to attack part of Maiduguri, the Borno State Capital. According to a statement by the Army spokesperson, Mohammed Yerima, on Wednesday, the terrorists were countered by combined gallant troops in conjunction with the police, youth vigilante and hunters. It said heavy casualty was inflicted on the terrorists by the troops as nine of them were neutralized while many escaped with gunshot wounds. Troops of Operation HADIN KAI on Friday, 11 May, 2021, foiled attempts by Boko Haram terrorists to attack an outskirt of Maiduguri, Borno State. The terrorists, who tried to advance from Aldawari axis, attempted to attack soft targets along Jiddari Polo, were countered by combined gallant troops in conjunction with the Nigerian Police, Youth Vigilante and hunters leading to terrorists withdrawal in disarray, the statement said. PREMIUM TIMES had reported how troops of the Nigerian military repelled an attack on Maiduguri by the terrorists on Tuesday. Heavy shootings were heard at about 6 p.m. when the insurgents attacked the outskirts of Jiddari Polo neighbourhood of Maiduguri. The attack was the first since Muslims commenced the Ramadan fast 29 days ago. Residents living in the neighbourhood were seen fleeing into the city centre as soldiers engaged the attackers. The army said in the statement that about nine of the terrorists were killed while several weapons were recovered. Read full statement by the Army: TROOPS FOIL ATTEMPTS BY BOKO HARAM TERRORISTS TO ATTACK OUTSKIRTS OF MAIDUGURI Troops of Operation HADIN KAI on Friday, 11 May, 2021, foiled attempts by Boko Haram terrorists to attack an outskirt of Maiduguri, Borno State. The terrorists, who tried to advance from Aldawari axis, attempted to attack soft targets along Jiddari Polo, were countered by combined gallant troops in conjunction with the Nigerian Police, Youth Vigilante and hunters leading to terrorists withdrawal in disarray. Following a hot pursuit by troops, heavy casualty was inflicted on the terrorists as nine of them were neutralized while many escaped with gunshot wounds. One Buffalo Gun Truck, three motorcycles, three Browning Machine Guns, a Rocket Propelled Gun and four AK 47 rifles were recovered from the terrorists. Other items recovered include one Improvised Explosive Device, sixteen 12V batteries among other items. The Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Ibrahim Attahiru has commended the gallantry of troops and urged them to keep up the tempo of the operation. Members of the public are requested to remain calm and are assured of security during the festive period and beyond. ADVERTISEMENT Mohamamed Yerima Brigadier General Director Army Public Relations 12 May 2021 Cape Town, South Africa (PANA) For the second successive day, pro-Palestine protestors converged on Parliament on Wednesday to condemn the wave of attacks by Israeli armed forces President Muhammadu Buhari has felicitated with all Nigerians and Muslims across the globe on the occasion of the Eid-Al Fitri, which marks the end of the Ramadan fasting. In a goodwill message contained in a statement by his media aide, Garba Shehu, on Wednesday, the president urged all Nigerians to seize the opportunity of the Eid-Al Fitri to pray against all forms of insecurity that is currently bedevilling the country. He also called for continued observation of the COVID-19 prevention protocols while urging citizens not to be carried away. Muslims across the world began the one month long fasting about a month ago. The federal government has declared Wednesday and Thursday as public holidays to mark the end of the fast. Below is the full text of the statement: ON THE OCCASION OF EID, PRESIDENT BUHARI CALLS FOR UNITY AND SOLIDARITY President Muhammadu Buhari sends his best wishes to all Nigerians and Muslims across the globe as they mark the Eid Al Fitr following the completion of a month of fasting. In a message signed by him, President Buhari says: On this blessed occasion, I wish that the Eid festival brings with it peace, safety, security, brotherhood and love amongst all. Unity and solidarity among all citizens, Muslims and Christians, are imperative, especially at a time when our country is faced with multiple challenges which are surmountable only when we come together as one. It is important that we remember how we share, through our faiths, common bonds that should serve to unite us and not allow ourselves to succumb to those who seek to divide us, using our two great religions, for their own selfish advantages. We should jointly pray against the tragic incidents of kidnapping and banditry and the desperate quest for political power expressed through blackmail against the existence of our country as a united entity. We must resist the temptation to retreat into our communities. I urge our political and religious leaders as well as traditional rulers to encourage our citizens to turn towards one another in love and compassion. According to the President, it is noteworthy and delightful to see Christians breaking fast and in some instances, extending goodwill and gifts to Muslim faithfuls during the Ramadan. This model also shone through with Muslim groups joining Christian festivities. These are practices that promote brotherhood and forgiveness, he says. President Buhari also urges Nigerians to continue to observe all COVID-19 prevention measures and celebrate responsibly during the holidays. Garba Shehu Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity) ADVERTISEMENT May 12, 2021 ADVERTISEMENT A former UK ambassador, Craig Murray, has been jailed for eight months over blogs he wrote about the trial of Alex Salmond, a former first minister in the UK. He was jailed for breaching a court order protecting the identities of women who accused Mr Salmond of sexual assault. Mr Murray wrote a series of blog posts after attending two days of the former first ministers High Court trial last March over sexual assault allegations. The judge had made an order during the trial to protect the identity of the women involved or any information which could lead to them being identified from being disclosed, the UK guardian reported But, Mr Murray, who knew there were court orders giving the women anonymity deliberately risked jigsaw identification. On Tuesday, the judge, Lady Dorrian, said his actions were so grave that it could only be dealt with by a prison sentence. His actions had struck at the heart of the fair administration of justice and created a real risk that complainers would be reluctant to come forward in future cases, particularly high-profile ones, the judge ruled. She said his repeated breaches, which included refusing to take down the blog posts despite legal warnings from the Crown Office, were a contempt of considerable gravity. His actions strike at the heart of the fair administration of justice, she added It appears from the posts and articles that he was in fact relishing the task he set himself, which was essentially to allow the identities of complainers to be discerned which he thought was in the public interest in a way which did not attract sanction. These actions create a real risk that complainers may be reluctant to come forward in future cases, particularly where the case may be high profile or likely to attract significant publicity. The actions strike at the heart of the fair administration of justice. Notwithstanding the previous character of the respondent and his health issues, we do not think we can dispose of this case other than by way of a sentence of imprisonment. The former diplomat will, however, not go to prison immediately as the court has given his lawyers a period of three weeks to submit an appeal. The order has been suspended until later this month so that his lawyers can prepare an application to the High Court to grant them permission to appeal their decision to the UK Supreme Court. His lawyers are also set to argue that their client should receive bail if the case is given the go ahead to proceed to the UK Supreme Court. As Muslims in Nigeria join their counterparts across the world to celebrate this years Eid-el-fitr, many Nigerian leaders have felicitated with the celebrants and enjoined them to use the opportunity to pray for peace for Nigeria. Some of the leaders who released goodwill messages to mark the Thursday event include President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu. In his goodwill message contained in a statement by his media aide, Garba Shehu, on Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari urged all Nigerians to use the opportunity of the Eid-el-Fitri to pray against all forms of insecurity that is currently bedevilling the country. He also called for continued observation of the COVID-19 prevention protocols while urging citizens not to be carried away. On this blessed occasion, I wish that the Eid festival brings with it peace, safety, security, brotherhood and love amongst all. Unity and solidarity among all citizens, Muslims and Christians, are imperative, especially at a time when our country is faced with multiple challenges which are surmountable only when we come together as one, Mr Buhari said. Senate President Ahmad Lawan, in his message, urged Nigerians to imbibe the lessons of peace and hope taught by the fasting month Ramadan. He noted that, amidst the security challenges in the country, the National Assembly will continue its quest to ensure the lives of Nigerians are secured wherever they are. Let us remain strong in our hope that Nigeria will become what we fervently want it to be: a nation that fills its citizens with happiness and pride, Mr Lawan said. Every true Muslim feels joy at participating in the Ramadan fast, which is a key obligation in Islam. May Almighty Allah therefore reward us for the spiritual voyage and grant our earnest wishes for ourselves, families and dear country. Because of the current security and economic challenges, our country Nigeria needs the prayers of every patriot now more than ever before to achieve the peace, unity and progress that were the dreams of the founding fathers. His counterpart at the lower chamber, House Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, also called on Muslims to pray for Nigeria, while they play their part in ensuring peaceful coexistence. He, in a statement signed by his aide, Lanre Lasisi, urged Muslims to internalise the lessons learnt during the month of Ramadan for a better society. The Islamic religion emphasizes peace, which is why every Muslim must be peaceful in their conduct wherever they find themselves, he said. Likewise, Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, called on all Nigerians to take advantage of the festivity period to reflect soberly and intensify prayers for the peace, security, unity and progress of the country. A statement he mailed to this newspaper stressed the need to use the occasion of the Eid-el-fitr to promote positivity for the nation to surmount its security, socio-economic and public health challenges. It is impressive that the Ramadan fast was observed most devotedly amid the coronavirus pandemic, with the relevant government regulations observed by the Muslim faithful in the state. The Holy month of Ramadan is an opportunity for our Muslim brothers and sisters to deepen their relationship with Allah (SWT), promote a life of sacrifice, charity and love for one another. ADVERTISEMENT There is no better time to show love and togetherness than now when we are joining forces in battling a common enemy. This is why it is remarkable that the bond among our people is growing amid these very difficult times. His colleague from Niger State, Abubakar Bello, also called for sober reflection and fervent prayers in view of the prevailing security challenges in the state and the country. I enjoin Muslims to draw from the enduring lessons of Ramadan and allow the spiritual benefits of the religious obligation to permeate and positively influence attitudinal change towards a better society. I call on all Muslims to apply the lessons of self-control, discipline, sacrifice and perseverance, derived from fasting in the month of Ramadan, and stay off evil in the overall interest of the state and country, he said. Mr Bello also reiterated his administrations resolve to protect the interest of the citizens and assured of continuous support for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) while efforts are made to reunite them with their original communities. Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde also praised Muslims for their devotion during Ramadan amid the coronavirus pandemic. He tasked them to remain steadfast by applying the virtues of Ramadan through sustained supplication, hospitality and good neighbourliness for the peace, security and economic prosperity of the state and the nation. The Holy month of Ramadan is an opportunity for our Muslim brothers and sisters to deepen their relationship with Allah (SWT), promote a life of sacrifice, charity and love for one another. There is no better time to show love and togetherness than now when we are joining forces in battling a common enemy. This is why it is remarkable that the bond among our people is growing amid these very difficult times, Mr Makinde noted. In the same vein, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Saliu Mustapha, urged faithfuls to use the spirituality surgery which Ramadan has had on them to usher in renewed hope for Nigeria by promoting peace and the spirit of oneness among fellow compatriots. Indeed, Ramadan has taught us that empathy and restraint are key pillars of our existence. We can use this lesson to improve on how we relate with one another. By this, we can, as a people, achieve a common goal for the good of all. This is the best we can do at this period of uncertainty. The many challenges dogging us as a people can best be fought when we come together as one, because individually we can strive, but together thrive. Let us shun what divides us and promote what unites us. Our belief in God, both as Muslims and Christians, should be a rallying point for us to see the picture of what we stand to benefit when we support ourselves. Muslims celebrate this years Eid-el-fitr Thursday after a thirty-day Ramadan fasting ritual wherein they abstained from food, drink and sexual pleasure from dawn to dusk. ADVERTISEMENT Members of the House of Representatives from the 17 states in Southern Nigeria have endorsed the 12-point communique issued by the state governors on Tuesday. The 17 governors, under the aegis of Southern Governors Forum (SGF), rose from a meeting in Asaba, Delta State and resolved to ban open grazing, which has been a source of conflicts across the country between armed herders and farmers. PREMIUM TIMES had reported the details of the 12 resolutions by the governors which included the call for the restructuring of the country. In a statement released by Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta) and signed by 20 lawmakers, across the two major political parties (Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) and from the three geopolitical zones, the federal lawmakers hailed the decisions of the governors. Some of the lawmakers that signed the statement include the Deputy Leader of the House, Peter Akpatason (APC, Edo), Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu), Deputy Chief Whip, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha (APC, Abia), Leader of the PDP Caucus, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) and others. The lawmakers said the position is in a firm restatement of our insistence that our nation must exist and govern on the platform of democratic tenets of social justice, equity, fairness, mutual respect, true federalism, rule of law and constitutional order, and we are ready to deploy all legislative instruments at our disposal for actualisation. Against this backdrop, the members of the House of Representatives from the South, without regard to any other affiliations, firmly support our governors on the immediate ban on open cattle grazing across Southern Nigeria. They expressed commitment to national dialogue to ensure fairness, justice, equity to engender national stability, productivity, and peaceful co-existence. The lawmakers also called for the creation of more ports in the southern part of the country, to ensure the decongestion of Lagos. They also promised to use the ongoing constitutional amendment process to ensure the speedy process of the reforms recommended by the governors. Furthermore, our platform commends our governors for the concern for the asphyxiation of economic activities in Southern Nigeria resulting from the continued congestion in ports in Lagos and the gridlock on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. This challenge has led to losses in billions of naira to businesses and other economic activities in the industrial and commercial activities of not only in the Southern Nigeria but the nation at large. The Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, who represents Surulere II federal constituency of Lagos State, was not a signatory to the statement. Lagos is in the south western part of Nigeria. The Kogi State Government says it has started registration of the poor and vulnerable economically impacted by COVID-19 pandemic for them to be able to access the emergency Social Interventions Support. The state Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Asiru Idris, who disclosed this in Lokoja, advised Kogi indigenes to take advantage and get themselves registered. The commissioner added that the government would sensitise the people toward the success of the programme. He advised the concerned citizens to respond to messages on their phones and get registered in view of the numerous advantages embedded in it. Mr Idris emphasised that the programme known as Rapid Response Register (RRR), was designed as a shock response framework by the National Social Safety Net Programme (NASSP) in collaboration with the World Bank to cushion the effect of COVID-19 pandemic. He added that the RRR would provide emergency social interventions to poor and vulnerable households in challenging circumstances such as natural disaster, epidemic, pandemic, economic downturn among others. The RRR is, therefore, a Subset of the National Social Register (NSR) and State Social Register (SSR) but only deployed for emergency circumstances and interventions. The Kogi Government under the leadership of Alhaji Yahaya Bello, in collaboration with Federal Government efforts, has designed to target and capture the urban and semi-urban areas in Kogi State that are economically impacted by COVID-19 pandemic. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic has pushed people deeper into poverty and vulnerability. In Nigeria at large and Kogi in particular, the economic impact of the pandemic has been felt mostly by urban and semi-urban dwellers, many of whom lost jobs, businesses and consequently incomes. Although Kogi remains the safest state so far, the global economic downturn, due the pandemic, has brought enormous hardship on our people. In response to these economic shocks, the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development in partnership with the World Bank is building the RRR as an intervention to identify and document the urban and semi-urban poor, who have lost their income and consequently become poorer because of COVID-19. The Register is being built in Kogi to target those in the category of non-traditional poor people in urban and high-density locations or slums, where the pandemic has affected economic life. Individuals and households in the RRR will be paid a monthly stipend for at least six months under an expanded Cash Transfer Programme (CCT) of the Federal Government. This will boost their consumption and help to build resilience. To identify those made poorer in urban and semi urban areas for registration, geographical satellite remote sensing technology to locate urban poor wards and high-density settlements is deployed to Kogi. Targeting and enrolment of affected individuals will be done, using cellphone short messaging service (SMS) technology that allows residents of identified communities to register to be assisted by following simple steps via USSD codes. This technological approach is integrated with the National Living Standard Survey assessments and will be complemented by existing databases of NGOs, local self-help-support groups and neighborhood structures in the communities, he said. He further explained that Mobile phone numbers of applicants, validated and deemed eligible for assistance, would be linked to digitized bank accounts to receive N5,000 monthly stipend. ADVERTISEMENT He added: The RRR will also serve as a database to deliver social assistance and emergency response during future emergencies or disasters. The register targets a total of 20 million Nigerians. The Kogi government is using this medium to sensitise her citizens to respond promptly to messages on their phone and get registered. His Excellency, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has directed this sensitisation and wishes all Kogites to respond to the messages on their phones and get registered accordingly as the benefits are enormous. Earlier, Noah Alilu, the coordinator, Kogi State Operation Coordinating Unit (SOCU), Social Safety Net (SSN) office, commended the governor for his commitment to providing succour to the poor and the vulnerable households in the state. Mr Alilu said the governor had ensured uninterrupted payment of the 10 per cent counterpart fund to the World Bank which had ensured that over 90,000 enrolled poor and vulnerable households benefitted from the social intervention programme. Kogi and Cross Rivers are the two states in Nigeria that are officially skeptical about COVID-19 and have refused to cooperate with federal agencies in the fight against the disease. ADVERTISEMENT The police in Katsina State have arrested four suspected cattle rustlers with 208 animals. The police spokesperson in the state, Gambo Isah, said this in a statement he issued on Tuesday in Katsina. He named the suspects as Isiya Halliru, Nasiru Bature, Bello Hamza and Hassan Iliyasu. On May 10, 2021, at about 11:00hrs, based on credible intelligence, the command succeeded in smashing a notorious syndicate of bandits terrorising Kankara and its environs. They were arrested with 170 cows and 38 sheep suspected to be rustled animals, he said. Mr Isah said during investigations, the suspects confessed that the animals belonged to their masters living in the dreaded Rugu forest. The police spokesperson further said that the owners failed to show up and claim ownership of the animals. He said the animals have already been handed over to the States Standing Committee for further necessary action while investigations were going on. (NAN) The Edo Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may be poised for a showdown with Governor Godwin Obaseki over his alleged plan to dissolve the party executive at all levels in the state. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Mr Obaseki had on May 8, hosted a meeting of state party leaders at the Government House, Benin, with a proposed agenda to dissolve the PDP executives at all levels in the state. Following the proposal, the state chairman of the PDP, Tony Aziegbemi, and the Secretary, Hillary Otsu, wrote a letter on behalf of the elected officials to the national leadership of the party. In the letter, which was made available to NAN, the expanded State Working Committee of the party rejected the proposal by Mr Obaseki to dissolve a legitimately elected executive. The letter reads in part: The expanded State Working Committee and Local Government chairmen of the Edo State PDP reject in its entirety, the proposal to dissolve the legitimately elected executive committee members of the PDP at the Ward, Local Government and State levels. We also condemn totally, the convening of such a meeting aimed at ambushing our State Chairman, who is constitutionally empowered to call such a meeting. The party executives noted that only three old PDP members: Raymond Dokpesi, Tom Ikimi and Mike Oghiadomhe, were in attendance, as against 10 members from Mr Obasekis team that decamped from the APC to PDP. We hereby reiterate to the National Executive Committee of our party that the issue of dissolution of executive committees in Edo State is subjudice and it will be an act of contempt of court to revisit it. The genesis of this looming crisis results from the acquiescence of the National Working Committee members who negotiated Mr Obasekis movement to the PDP. (The committee did not) reach a verbal or written agreement on the integration of the new members, vis a vis, the sharing of appointments, after the elections had been won. We, therefore, condemn Governor Obaseki for re-appointing his former Secretary to the State Government (SSG) without any consideration for the legacy PDP he joined. To this end, they have consistently sang a tune of harmonisation ever since Obaseki was sworn in, now that he has the yam and the knife. We have resolved strongly that if any harmonisation must take place, it must start from the Governors office, where his Deputy Governor should resign and a deputy nominated from the old PDP is sworn in. This can be a spring board for broad harmonisation across the state party organs. The proposed dissolution and, or, harmonisation are designed to hold Edo people and the PDP to ransom by the Obaseki-led administration. We will not accept this. Edo people voted for PDP and Godwin Obaseki to deliver the dividends of democracy to them. If he wishes to appoint only his friends and former APC colleagues in his cabinet and sundry positions and leave out the legacy PDP members, so be it. We, the state PDP leadership will not accede to any form of harmonisation that has no backing or interpretation in our party constitution. ADVERTISEMENT The state party leadership said the governor was being misled by some groups of politicians in the state. It was difficult to get Mr Obasekis comment for this report as the governor was yet to appoint a spokesperson since his re-election. (NAN) ADVERTISEMENT The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said on Tuesday that its operatives have arrested 11 suspects over illegal oil bunkering in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The suspects were arrested in two separate operations based on verified intelligence obtained by the Commission, the commissions spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, disclosed this in a statement on Twitter. Mr Uwujaren said six of the suspects were arrested on May 7, along Nigerias Port Authority (NPA) Road while the other five were arrested at the same location two on May 9, two days after the first arrest. He identified the first set of suspects as Adinadu Chinonso, Chinedu Okoh, Paul Ejiofo, Christian Nweke, Nnaji Chidinma and Donatus Nnamani. Others are Francis Ezeakalam, Uchenna Asiegbu, Uchenna Okah, Ibrahim Olapade and Ndidi Akuneho. According to Mr Uwujaren, several items were recovered from the suspects, including three Mack Trucks without any registration number, one Volkswagen bus and one Nissan car. The trucks, according to the EFCC, were loaded with products suspected to be illegally refined Automotive Gas Oil (AGO), while the remaining two vehicles were loaded with cellophane bags containing the same products. The suspects will be charged at the conclusion of the investigations, the agency said. ADVERTISEMENT The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Imo State said one of its officers died while on anti-bunkering duty in the state. The NSCDC Commandant in the state, Michael Ogar, who disclosed this to reporters in Owerri on Wednesday, said the Command also lost two other officers who were killed by stray bullets, according to a report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). The report, apart from saying that Mr Ogar expressed regret over the loss, did not mention when the incidents happened and the circumstances around them. Mr Ogar also told reporters that the agency on Tuesday intercepted a truckload of crude oil and apprehended four persons suspected to be pipeline vandals. The truck and the suspects were arrested at the Okigwe axis of the Enugu Port Harcourt expressway at about 10 p.m., he said. He said the officers on duty confirmed that the suspects, who initially claimed to be moving from Umuahia to Okigwe were actually conveying the 4,000 litres of crude oil from Port Harcourt to Kano. The commandant expressed the commitment of the NSCDC to training, retraining and the welfare of its men and officers for optimal output. Mr Ogar pledged full compensation for the families of officers who lost their lives while on active duty in line with NSCDCs memorandum of operation. He assured Imo residents that the command would continue to collaborate with other security agencies to ensure their safety. (NAN) A coalition of pan-Yoruba groups has attacked the Lagos State Police Commissioner, Hakeem Odumosu, over the police chiefs claims that members of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) are planning to attack Lagos. The groups alleged in a statement that Mr Odumosu aimed at using his claims to pit Igbos against Yorubas in the state. The statement was signed by leaders of Oodua Nationalist Coalition (ONAC), Femi Ajibola; Agbekoya, Kunle Oshodi; Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC (Reformed), Taofik Adeyemi; Oodua Liberation Movement (OLM), Diran Obalola; Yoruba World Congress, (YWC-Lagos State Chapter), Femi Agbana. Others are Oodua Peoples Congress, (OPC-Reformed), Rasaq Arogundade; Oodua Women Coalition (OWC), Eunice Okunola; Network for Yoruba Alliance, (NENA), Goke Otunla, and Apapo Oodua Koya (AOKOYA), Ahmed Korede. Mr Odumosu had claimed during a security town hall meeting on Monday that the Nnamdi Kanu-led IPOB are planning to attack soft spots in Lagos, an allegation the group immediately denied. In their statement, the groups argued that rather than the announcement, the police should discreetly go after the IPOB members to arrest them unless the police is not sure of its information. The police statement carries the possibility of being misinterpreted as an Igbo plot against Lagos and Yoruba people. This is dangerous given the fragile nature of Nigeria. We are deeply concerned that the Police publicly declared allegations tempts the prospect of setting Yoruba in the South West against Igbos. This is very unfortunate at a time that state institutions are increasingly being turned to instruments for pursuing primordial ethnic interests. The Yoruba will work never to allow this to happen. The group also attacked the police for not addressing the Fulani herdsmen crisis like it is doing in the case of IPOB. We are concerned that terrorists and armed herdsmen of Fulani extraction have openly been attacking, kidnapping, raping, and killing Yoruba people in the South West but at no time did the police call a press conference to announce such plan before or after each horrendous killings. There was also never a time the police linked such attacks to any ethnic group. Only recently, Yorubas in Mile 2 were attacked by these people, the police did not make any attempt to speak about the ethnic identity of the perpetrators yet we know they are largely from a section in the North. We are concerned that the police allegation risks setting a greater danger of ethnic conflict between Igbo and Yoruba people, conscious that this will benefit a certain group who think setting Igbo against Yoruba will meet the objective of scuttling the search for peaceful self-determination by the two great civilisations They also urged the Yoruba people to ignore the attempts to cause ethnic conflict between Igbos and Yorubas at this time that both ethnic groups need each other. The police should avoid ethnic profiling. It is dangerous. The Pan Yoruba groups assure of our collective desire to sustain peaceful coexistence between Igbo and Yoruba and avoid any slide into ethnic conflict, an ill wind that blows no one any good. To this end, we shall set up a Committee to work out a platform to sustain ethnic harmony in Lagos. On a police plan to attack agitators for Yoruba self-determination, We urge the police to have respect for international laws and signify the basic democratic principle which is the right of a people to debate their political and economic future, the group said. Rabble-rousing Meanwhile, the African Action Congress (AAC), Lagos branch, in a statement on Wednesday described Mr Odumosus claims as rabble-rousing. We have observed very closely the utter reluctance and cowardly attitude with which Hakeem Odumosu approaches real crime issues in Lagos State and how he readily jumps to his feet to respond to his masters calls to quell citizens who are exercising legitimate rights that are enshrined in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the group said in the statement by its publicity secretary, Elias Ozikpu. ADVERTISEMENT The party accused the police of ignoring criminals and, instead, going after groups fighting for self-determination. The AAC urges Nigerians to ignore the bunkum spewed by a cowardly Hakeem Odumosu, whose only achievement since assuming office as Lagos State Commissioner of Police has been the harassment and illegal arrests of unarmed peaceful protesters across Lagos. We further urge Nigerians to not back down in their quest for justice and freedom from an evil and blood-shedding government. PARLAMENTUL REPUBLICII MOLDOVA 2010 The Moldovan Parliaments website design was supported by the Democracy Support Programme in Moldova" an initiative financed by the European Union and implemented by the Council of Europe ADVERTISEMENT The Yaba College of Technology in Lagos State has described as laudable, winning of 100,000 USD Ford Foundation grant by three of its researchers/staff members. A Deputy Registrar of the college, Joe Ejiofor, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos that the fund would further support efforts to develop the institution. Mr Ejiofor listed the three researchers who jointly wrote a proposal that won the grant to include Dr Adeleke Abiodun of the Department of Chemical Science and Dr Funmilayo Doherty of the Department of Biological Science. The other researcher is Odun Orimolade of the Department of Fine Arts, according to Mr Ejiofor. The researchers have done well; we are proud of them for not only bringing honour to YABATECH but also for achieving something that will be of great support. This years funding will support further development, art exhibition and presentations that relate to issues of advocacy for youth development, sexual harassment and gender-based violence, in addition to other planned activities, Ejiofor said. According to the deputy registrar, who is also the institutions publicist, the research team also won a similar grant two years ago. The first grant they won in 2019 was used to develop an institutional policy on sexual harassment and gender-based policy, as well as set up a museum for the college. We have proposed to use this second grant for the Yaba Art Museum. The Yaba Art Museum has been recognised and listed as one of the Lagos State Tourism Sites, he said. Mr Ejiofor said the museum would host an archive presentation of Living Blue on the life and work of Chief Nike Okundaye, who was committed to youth development and gender advocacy. It will also accommodate Yaba Cartoon Nation which will present archives of cartooning as a tool for social justice advocacy in Yaba alumni pursuits. We sincerely thank Ford Foundation for finding our institution worthy of the grant. It is a thing of honour to our reputable college, and we are happy to be associated with the foundation, Mr Ejiofor said. (NAN) Increase in adoption of automation in the oil & gas industry and rise in drilling activities due to the development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources drive the growth of the global robotic drilling equipment market. Moreover, by region, the market across North America dominated in 2019 with highest market share and is expected to continue its dominance throughout the forecast period. PORTLAND, Ore., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Robotic drilling equipment Market by Application (Land and Water), Installation (New Installation and Modernize), and End-user Industry (Oil and Gas): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202027." According to the report, the global Robotic drilling equipment industry generated $804 million in 2019, and is expected to garner $1.01 billion by 2027, witnessing a CAGR of 8.4% from 2020 to 2027. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities Increase in adoption of automation in the oil & gas industry and rise in drilling activities due to the development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources drive the growth of the global robotic drilling equipment market. However, interoperability of rig control systems used in robotic drilling and issues related to cyber security for automated systems restrain the market growth. On the other hand, increase in major steps taken toward the safety of workers working on oil & gas rigs in onshore and offshore and rise in exploration activities in ultra-deep water in the Arctic region for extraction of oil & gas create new opportunities in the coming years. Download Sample PDF: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/9715 Covid-19 Scenario Owing to the lockdown imposed by governments, the consumer spending patterns were hindered, which in turn, impacted the demand for robotic drilling equipment. During the pandemic, the national and international transport has been hampered as well, thereby disrupting the market. The government bodies, however, have loosened off the restrictions thereby assisting the companies to reinitiate their processes. The modernization segment to maintain its leadership status during the forecast period Based on installation, the modernize segment contributed to the highest market share, accounting for around half of the global robotic drilling equipment market in 2019, and will maintain its leadership status during the forecast period. In addition, the segment is projected to maintain the highest CAGR of 9.1% from 2020 to 2027. This is owing to adoption of automation in the pre-installed systems. The oil segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period Based on end use industry, the oil segment accounted for the largest share in terms of revenue in 2019, holding more than four-fifths of the global robotic drilling equipment market, and is expected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. This is owing to its large scale consumption around the world. On the other hand, the gas segment is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 9.3% from 2020 to 2027. This is due to use of LPG and CNG in automobiles. Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the BIM in Construction Market: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/9715 North America to maintain its dominance in terms of revenue by 2027 Based on region, North America held the highest market share in 2019, accounting for nearly half of the global robotic drilling equipment market, and will maintain its dominance in terms of revenue by 2027. This is attributed to large scale installations of oil & gas rigs by the companies in the region. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to manifest the largest CAGR of 11.3% during the forecast period, owing to rising extraction activities of oil & gas, carried out by the countries and companies in this region. Leading market players Precision Nabors Abraj Energy Huisman National Oilwell Varco Ensign Energy Services Drillmec Sekal Rigarm Automated Rig Technologies Drillform Technical Weatherford International. Interested in Procure Data? Visit: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/9715 Access AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model) at: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access Avenue is a user-based library of global market report database, provides comprehensive reports pertaining to the world's largest emerging markets. It further offers e-access to all the available industry reports just in a jiffy. By offering core business insights on the varied industries, economies, and end users worldwide, Avenue ensures that the registered members get an easy as well as single gateway to their all-inclusive requirements. Avenue Library Subscription | Request for 14 days free trial of before buying: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/avenue/trial/starter Similar Reports We Have: Drilling Machine Market - Global drilling machine market is projected to reach $28.76 Billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 7.1%. Robotic Welding Market - Global Robotic welding market is expected to reach $10,784.4 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 8.7% from 2019 to 2026 Mining Equipment Market - Global mining equipment market is projected to reach $165,827.8 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 5.7% from 2020 to 2027. Tunnel Boring Machine Market - Global tunnel boring machine market is projected to reach $7,552.1 million by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 6.0% from 2020 to 2027. Deep Hole Drilling Machines Market - Global deep hole drilling machines market is expected to reach $784.1 million by 2027, registering a CAGR of 6.2% from 2020 to 2027. Pre-Book Now with 10% Discount: Construction and Mining Equipment Market - Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2028 Global Tunneling and Rock Drilling Equipment Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2028 About us: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact us: David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: 1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg SOURCE Allied Market Research The entire BSIST program can be completed within 3 years, versus a traditional 4 year-long bachelor's program. The innovative curriculum of the BSIST program will enable students to learn applied skills needed in the employment market in the early years at the start of their bachelor's curriculum, rather than the traditional bachelor's degree curriculum which imparts these skills in the second half. "This partnership with Sabio allows Alliant to meet the changing needs of today's workforce and the rising demand for technically trained workers," said Dr. Rachna Kumar, dean of the California School of Management and Leadership at Alliant International University. "Giving students the flexibility and accessibility to work in their chosen technology field while also attaining a degree is a win-win for the student and employers." Employment in computer and information technology occupations is projected to grow 11 percent from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Through this new partnership, Sabio and Alliant will allow students to start their new careers while they are getting their bachelor's degree. This is due to Alliant's flexible class options that are online or for our ground program is in the evenings or one weekend per month, making it accessible for those interested in pursuing a career in technology. "Sabio Coding Bootcamp was established to help smart and highly-motivated people become exceptional software developers throughout the country, and by partnering with Alliant International University, we are leaders in merging effective job training with a degree," said Liliana Aide Monge, Sabio Co-Founder & CEO. "Through this innovative partnership, students will enroll at Alliant International University and be eligible for federal and state financial aid, which allows low-and-moderate income students to secure the tech skills that are in-demand in the innovation economy." Aligning with Sabio's mission to give underrepresented communities access to opportunities in the software field, Sabio will offer $5,500 Women in Tech Scholarships for those qualified women who enroll in the new BSIST undergraduate program. About Alliant International University Alliant is a private university accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) which offers programs in psychology , education , business management , forensic studies , and law . Alliant's mission is to prepare students for professional careers of service and leadership, and to promote the discovery and application of knowledge to improve the lives of people in diverse cultures and communities around the world. Alliant's vision: An Inclusive World Empowered by Alliant Alumni. More information is available at www.alliant.edu . About Sabio Coding Bootcamp Sabio is one of the oldest software development bootcamps and is taught exclusively by senior industry software practitioners. The current instructors are alumni of companies such as Fox, Gamefly, Stack Overflow, TMZ and UCLA. Sabio's software development program focuses on .NET/C# and trains across the full-stack in Mobile, Front End, Back End, Source Control, Database and Development platforms. Sabio's alumni now work at amazing companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tesla, Activision, MedMen, UCLA, and USC. Sabio has partnered with both Skills Fund and SallieMae to help students finance their education. SOURCE Sabio Related Links http://www.sabio.la HOLLYWOOD, Fla., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aluf Holdings, Inc. ("AHIX") ("the Company") (OTC PINK: AHIX) announced major milestone in strengthening its financial position by reducing Convertible Notes Payable and Accounts Payable by a total of $751,908 as of March 31, 2021. Of that, Accounts Payable was decreased by $173,685; while Convertible Notes Payable was decreased by $578,223, of which $362,723 was settled in full (not converted). "In an effort to position Aluf Holdings for execution of our acquisition strategy, we took great care in eliminating debt from our balance sheet with minimal impact to shareholders. We were able to settle a majority of convertible debt without conversion, deceasing potential dilution significantly. While most OTC companies fall prey to toxic noteholders, our debt partners are taking part in our future growth," says Teresa McWilliams CFO of Aluf Holdings. "We plan on making updates on our acquisition strategy and progress to date in the near future." Aluf Holdings, Inc. (AHIX) is a holding company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, FL, engaged in acquiring, operating, and managing subsidiary companies in the development and sale of proprietary software. The Company's strategy is to build a large portfolio of companies with more diverse enterprise software solutions through strategic acquisitions and managed growth as it acquires profitable businesses with strong growth potential and a solid business plan. Our technology acquisitions stem from a surge in momentum in the tech space; especially in areas of biometrics and cyber security, cloud-based software services (SaaS), medical applications, energy production, IoE (Internet of Everything) services, and global law enforcement and military-based offensive and defensive applications. in the software and technology industries. About Aluf Holdings, Inc.: Aluf Holdings, Inc. is a publicly traded holding company whose core competency is to acquire, manage and propel "Next Gen" technology companies into the future. Our focus includes the Biometric, Blockchain, Cybersecurity, AI, Computer Vision and Software/Hardware verticals. For more information go to www.aluf.com Safe Harbor Statement: This release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E and/or 27E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 that are based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including statements as to the future performance of the company and the risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations or any of its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, the company's ability to raise necessary financing, retention of key personnel, timely delivery of inventory from the company's suppliers, timely product development, product acceptance, and the impact of competitive services and products, in addition to general economic risks and uncertainties. Corporate Contact: Aluf Holdings, Inc. Teresa McWilliams Chief Financial Officer 866-793-1110 SOURCE Aluf Holdings, Inc. Related Links https://alufinc.com/ PHILADELPHIA, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Axalta (NYSE: AXTA), a leading global coatings company, today announced it has entered into a Tenth Amendment to its Credit Agreement in order to, among other things, increase commitments available pursuant to the revolving credit facility, which is currently undrawn, from $400.0 million to $550.0 million and extend the maturity of the revolving credit facility to 2026. The Tenth Amendment is supported by a lending syndicate arranged and led by Barclays Bank PLC, as administrative and collateral agent. "The amendment to our revolving credit facility is a strategic move intended to bolster our long-term capital structure, which we believe, coupled with our strong free cash flow generation, will allow Axalta to continue on its path of disciplined growth while enhancing our financial flexibility," said Sean Lannon, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Axalta. "The increased capacity and extension of our revolving credit facility will continue to support our intentions to execute and capitalize on our strategic growth initiatives." Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding Axalta and its subsidiaries. Axalta has identified some of these forward-looking statements with words such as "anticipates," "believes," "expects," "estimates," "is likely," "outlook," "projects," "forecasts," "may," "will," "should," "plans" and "intends" and the negative of these words or other comparable or similar terminology, and such forward-looking statements include statements about Axalta's growth, long-term capital structure and execution on its strategic growth initiatives. All of these statements are based on management's expectations as well as estimates and assumptions prepared by management that, although they believe to be reasonable, are inherently uncertain. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, economic, competitive, governmental and technological factors outside of Axalta's control, including the effects of COVID-19, that may cause its business, industry, strategy, financing activities or actual results to differ materially. The impact and duration of COVID-19 on our business and operations is uncertain. Factors that will influence the impact on our business and operations include the duration and extent of COVID-19, the extent of imposed or recommended containment and mitigation measures, and the general economic consequences of COVID-19. More information on potential factors that could affect Axalta's financial results is available in "Forward-Looking Statements," "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" within Axalta's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, and in other documents that we have filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Axalta undertakes no obligation to update or revise any of the forward-looking statements contained herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Axalta Coating Systems Axalta is a global leader in the coatings industry, providing customers with innovative, colorful, beautiful and sustainable coatings solutions. From light vehicles, commercial vehicles and refinish applications to electric motors, building facades and other industrial applications, our coatings are designed to prevent corrosion, increase productivity and enhance durability. With more than 150 years of experience in the coatings industry, the global team at Axalta continues to find ways to serve our more than 100,000 customers in over 130 countries better every day with the finest coatings, application systems and technology. For more information visit axalta.com and follow us @axalta on Twitter. Contact Christopher Mecray D +1 215 255 7970 [email protected] SOURCE Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. If they can truly get out of bad living situations, that can impact multiple generations, McGee says. Its just scary for them to think about getting a loan, looking at properties, doing a home inspection everything that comes with buying a home. Moral and practical support is big for them, for becoming who theyre supposed to be. MARLBORO, Mass., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Baker-Polito Administration has proclaimed May 12th to be MA School Nurse Day to honor the dedicated nurses who protect our children's health and safety by serving in Massachusetts' schools. MA School Nurse Day is a time to celebrate the specialty practice of school nursing, and comes to our state as a part of a national effort to recognize school nurses with a special day annually since 1972. Since its origin, School Nurse Day was established to foster a better understanding of the role of school nurse expertise in the educational setting. This year's MA School Nurse Day is especially relevant as parents, schools, and officials continue to ensure a healthy and safe return to school for children throughout the Commonwealth. While it has taken dedicated efforts on the parts of many to get this far, our school nurses have uniquely contributed to public health throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by serving on the frontlines to stop the spread in MA schools and keep students and staff healthy and safe. The Massachusetts School Nurse Organization (MSNO) is excited to take part in this important day that acknowledges the accomplishments of school nurses in MA, especially throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. MSNO President, Doreen Crowe, added "This day is the perfect opportunity to honor school nurses as the important public health servants they are. The Governor's proclamation is a critical action that provides the recognition to our school nurses that they deserve." The Commonwealth's nurses work tirelessly to meet the needs of today's students by improving the delivery of health care in schools. The Baker-Polito administration's expression of gratitude for this work through their proclamation of MA School Nurse Day is well-timed and applauded by the Massachusetts School Nurse Organization. CONTACT: Doreen Crowe, MSNO President, [email protected] SOURCE Massachusetts School Nurse Organization VANCOUVER, BC, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Barsele Minerals Corp. (TSXV: BME) (the "Company" or "Barsele") is pleased to announce that it has executed a non-binding letter of intent ("LOI") with Agnico Eagle Mines Limited ("Agnico Eagle") to acquire Agnico Eagle's indirect 55% interest in the Barsele Project (the "Proposed Transaction"). The Company currently holds the remaining 45% interest in the Barsele Project and upon completion of the Proposed Transaction, would consolidate control of the Barsele Project. The completion of the Proposed Transaction will be governed by the terms of a definitive agreement to be entered into between Barsele and Agnico Eagle. Gary Cope, President, CEO and a director of the Company commented, "The opportunity to acquire a 100% controlling interest in the Barsele Project represents a tremendous milestone for Barsele. We plan to significantly increase the drilling activity on the project with the goal of growing the current mineral resource estimates. We are excited to start a new chapter in the development of the Barsele Project and are thankful to our joint venture partner Agnico Eagle for the work we have completed together. We now look forward to having Agnico Eagle as our largest shareholder." Sean Boyd, Chief Executive Officer of Agnico Eagle commented, "We see Barsele's consolidation of the Barsele Project as a positive outcome for all stakeholders. The monetization of our interest in the Barsele Project will allow Agnico Eagle to focus on the most advanced projects in our exploration and development pipeline, while retaining an interest in the Barsele Project as a significant equity investor and royalty holder. We wish Barsele success as they undertake the next phase of exploration at the project and are confident that they have the required skill set to continue to advance the project." Guy Gosselin, Senior Vice President, Exploration of Agnico Eagle added, "Agnico Eagle's Swedish exploration team significantly increased the mineral resources and geological understanding of the project, while also building strong social acceptance of the project during this phase of exploration. I am proud and thankful for what our team has accomplished and look forward to closing the Proposed Transaction and watching Barsele's future success at the project." Terms of the LOI The LOI provides that the Company and Agnico Eagle will negotiate and enter into a definitive purchase and sale agreement containing customary terms and conditions for a transaction of its nature, whereby Barsele will acquire Agnico Eagle's 55% indirect interest in Gunnarn Mining AB (which holds the Barsele Project). The purchase price payable by Barsele to Agnico Eagle will consist of the following: (i) a cash payment of US$45,000,000 (the "Cash Amount"), with the option, at Barsele's election, to settle a portion of the Cash Amount through a vendor-take-back note; (ii) the issuance of common shares of Barsele such that Agnico Eagle will hold 14.9% of Barsele's common shares upon the closing of the Proposed Transaction (the "Consideration Shares"); (iii) the issuance of warrants exercisable into 6,000,000 common shares of Barsele (the "Warrants"); (iv) a 2% net smelter return royalty on all minerals produced from the Barsele Project (the "NSR"); and (v) a contingent value right with respect to future gold mineral reserves and mineral resources identified at the Barsele Project (the "CVR"). Each Warrant will have a five year term and will entitle Agnico Eagle to purchase one common share of Barsele at an exercise price equal to the greater of: (i) C$1.25, (ii) a 20% premium to the twenty-day volume weighted average price of the Barsele common shares immediately prior to the date of issuance of the Warrant, and (iii) in the event that Barsele issues convertible debt in connection with its financing of the Cash Amount, the conversion price of such convertible debt. The NSR is expected to contain customary terms and conditions, and Barsele will be able to repurchase 1.0% of the NSR at any time for US$15 million. There is an existing 2.0% net smelter return royalty on the Barsele Project pursuant to an agreement dated June 11, 2015 between Orex Minerals Inc., Gunnarn Mining AB, Agnico Eagle Sweden AB and Agnico Eagle (the "Existing NSR"), which includes a repurchase right for US$5,000,000. The LOI anticipates that the Existing NSR, including the repurchase right, will be assigned and assumed by Barsele at closing of the Proposed Transaction. Upon closing of the Proposed Transaction, Barsele will grant Agnico Eagle the CVR whereby Barsele will agree to pay Agnico Eagle US$2,500,000 for each additional 1,000,000 ounces of gold mineral reserves and mineral resources identified at the Barsele Project above the Barsele Project's current mineral reserves and mineral resources. The CVR will run with the Barsele Project, but not be payable until the earliest to occur of: (i) a construction decision on the Barsele Project is made, (ii) a change of control of Barsele, or (iii) the 10th anniversary of the closing of the Proposed Transaction. Payments under the CVR will be capped at an aggregate maximum of US$20,000,000 over the CVR's 20-year term. Also, Barsele may satisfy the first US$5,000,000 of any future CVR payments by applying such amount to the repurchase of the Existing NSR rather than payment of the CVR. Upon closing of the Proposed Transaction, Agnico Eagle and Barsele will enter into an investor rights agreement that will grant Agnico Eagle a participation right in certain future financings to maintain its pro rata or 14.9% (and following the exercise of the warrants, 19.9%), whichever is greater, interest in Barsele, grant Agnico Eagle certain information rights and grant Barsele a placement right in connection with certain proposals by Agnico Eagle to sell Barsele common shares. Barsele intends to finance all or a portion of the Cash Amount through the issuance of debt and/or equity. Barsele has also agreed that upon closing of the Proposed Transaction, it will have no less than C$5,000,000 in working capital available net of any costs associated with the Proposed Transaction. Barsele has agreed to use its best efforts to complete such financings as soon as practicable. Barsele and Agnico Eagle have agreed to an exclusivity period ending on July 30, 2021, with a view to settling the definitive documentation for the Proposed Transaction by such date. Such exclusivity period may be extended for an additional 31 days in certain circumstances. The LOI is non-binding and there can be no assurance that the Proposed Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. The definitive agreements are expected to contain other representations, warranties, covenants and conditions as are customary for a transaction of this nature. The closing of the Proposed Transaction is subject to the completion of due diligence; the negotiation of the definitive agreement and other final documentation; compliance with applicable laws in Sweden relating to the transfer of the Barsele Project; and corporate and regulatory approvals, including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the Proposed Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. The Consideration Shares and Warrants to be issued to Agnico Eagle are expected to be subject to a four-month and one day statutory hold period in accordance with applicable securities law. Advisors and Counsel BMO Capital Markets is acting as financial advisor to Barsele in connection with the Proposed Transaction and Stikeman Elliott LLP is acting as Barsele's legal advisor. About the Barsele Project The Barsele Project is located on the western end of the Proterozoic "Skellefte Trend", a prolific volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits belt, that intersects with the "Gold Line" in Northern Sweden. Both polymetallic deposits and intrusive hosted orogenic gold deposits are present in this region and on the property. Current and past producers in the region include Boliden, Kristineberg, Bjorkdal, Svartliden and Storliden. About Barsele Minerals Corp. Barsele is a Canadian-based junior exploration company managed by the Belcarra Group, comprised of highly qualified mining professionals. Barsele's main property is the Barsele Gold Project in Vasterbottens Lan, Sweden, a joint venture with Agnico Eagle. An amended NI 43-101 Technical Report on the Barsele Project with an effective date of February 21, 2019, was filed on SEDAR on December 16, 2020. Technical Information and Qualified Person Art Freeze, P.Geo. is a Qualified Persons as defined in NI 43-101 and takes responsibility for the technical disclosure contained within this news release. On Behalf of the Board of Directors Gary Cope President and CEO Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking information under the provisions of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information with respect to Barsele including but not limited to: comments regarding the terms upon which the Proposed Transaction will be completed; the potential effects of the Proposed Transaction; potential financings that will occur in respect of and following the Proposed Transaction; and the repurchase of the Existing NSR. Forward-looking information is necessarily based upon a number of factors and assumptions that, if untrue, could cause the actual results, performances or achievements of the Company to be materially different from future results, performances or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the price of gold, anticipated costs and ability to achieve goals. In respect of the forward-looking statements concerning the anticipated completion of the Proposed Transaction, Barsele has provided them in reliance on certain assumptions that they believe are reasonable at this time, including assumptions as to the time required to negotiate a definitive agreement and complete matters relating to the Proposed Transaction; the ability of the parties to receive, in a timely manner, the necessary regulatory, corporate and other third party approvals; and the ability of the parties to satisfy, in a timely manner, the other conditions to the closing of the Proposed Transaction. Forward-looking statements address future events and conditions and therefore involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Such factors include, among other things: risks and uncertainties relating to the Proposed Transaction not closing when planned or at all or on terms and conditions set forth in the LOI; the failure to obtain necessary regulatory and third party approvals in order to proceed with the Proposed Transaction; the benefit of the Proposed Transaction not being realized; the ability of the Company to obtain additional financing, the need to comply with environmental and governmental regulations, fluctuations in the prices of commodities, operating hazards and risks, competition and other risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's financial statements, management discussion and analysis ("MD&A") and current annual information form available on www.sedar.com. The risk factors identified in the financial statements, MD&A and annual information form are not intended to represent a complete list of factors that could affect the Company. Actual results may differ materially from those currently anticipated in such statements and the Company undertakes no obligation to update such statements, except as required by law. SOURCE Barsele Minerals Corp. Related Links www.barseleminerals.com NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BBH New York announced the expansion of its creative department with the addition of two new Group Creative Directors, as Kasia Canning joins from 72&Sunny and Estefanio Holtz joins from McCann New York. The announcement follows the recent solidification of the BBH NY leadership team, which includes President Amani Duncan, Chief Creative Officer Rafael Rizuto, and Chief Strategy Officer Tom Callard, and are a part of BBH's exciting new trajectory, as BBH New York is experiencing increased growth and momentum. Kasia Canning and Estefanio Holtz Join BBH New York as Group Creative Directors. "I couldn't be more excited to welcome the dream team, Kasia Canning and Estefanio Holtz, to our flock," said Rizuto. "I have been a huge fan of their work for a very long time. We have incredible momentum at BBH New York right now, and I'm beyond happy to have them joining us." "Kasia is an amazing writer; she's the brains behind one of my most favorite ideas of all time: the double Cannes Grand Prix winner, ING Bank's The Next Rembrandt. She's also the author of one of my favorite Instagram accounts, Sandwich Monsters," Rizuto added. Prior to joining BBH New York, Canning ran Carl's Jr./Hardee's and Grubhub as creative director at 72andSunny, Little Caesars and Bob's Discount Furniture at Barton F. Graf, and led the rebrand of MassMutual at Johannes Leonardo. Before that, she spent two years in Amsterdam where she ate cheese and won two Cannes Grand Prix for ING's The Next Rembrandt. She also spent time at TBWA\Chiat\Day and Translation. Canning was named most awarded female creative in Cannes 2016. "There are certain opportunities that come your way that make you think, 'I'd have to be crazy to say no to this,'" said Canning. "Seeing what Rafa, Amani, and Tom have been able to do at BBH in such a short amount of time made this one of those rare opportunities. Coming to BBH was the easiest decision ever." "Estefanio is, in my opinion, one of the best art directors in the world. Period," said Rizuto. "His craft is out of this world. When he's not doing great work for clients, he's working on his side projects like High Art, The definitive guide to getting cultured with Cannabis. He directs music videos, too." Holtz began his career in his native Brazil, before emigrating to the U.S. in 2015, where he worked as creative director at Pereira O'Dell San Francisco and New York, before becoming a vice president creative director at McCann New York. Holtz has worked with brands including Mini BMW, Chick-fil-A, Microsoft, Fifth Third Bank and others. His work has been honored with numerous awards including Cannes Lion Festival, D&AD, One Show and Clio Awards, amongst others. "We always dream of working with the best and most famous brands in the world, so imagine getting the opportunity to make it happen with the clients and the agencysimultaneously," said Holtz. "It's BBH. It's an honor. It's a very special moment and it's about people you're proud to work with. I couldn't be more thankful to Rafa, Amani, Tom and everyone at BBH New York for letting me be part of such an amazing journey and, finally, call myself as an authentic blacksheep." About BBH NY Helmed by the trio of President Amani Duncan, Chief Creative Officer Rafael Rizuto and Chief Strategy Officer Tom Callard, BBH NY "zags" where other agencies "zig," making ambitious ideas for ambitious clients. Leveraging the power of creativity for outsized impact on culture and business growth, BBH NY works with some of the most innovative marketers in the world, including Google, Samsung, Martell US, Marvel, and Brighthouse Financial. For more information, visit bbhny.com. SOURCE BBH New York WASHINGTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Berkeley Research Group, LLC ( BRG ), a global consulting firm with more than 1,200 associates worldwide, today announced that its Healthcare Performance Improvement (HPI) practice is collaborating with healthcare solutions provider Mednition to utilize KATE , Mednition's artificial intelligence(AI)powered real-time triage decision-support solution designed specifically for emergency department (ED) nurses. "Every clinician in every ED has been under tremendous strain this past year, and we are committed to helping healthcare organizations find innovative ways to reduce the stress on these clinicians while improving processes and enhancing patient care," said Jason Moretz, an associate director and expert in ED operations for BRG. "We began working with Mednition last year creating and refining return-on-investment models for KATE. We developed a greater understanding of how we can apply KATE's proven AI to the ED to achieve greater triage accuracy at the point of care, elevated strategic alignment of ED goals and a sustainable new model for healthcare improvementall with the ultimate result of dramatically enhanced patient outcomes and a significant ROI." KATE was developed by clinicians for clinicians and designed with emergency nurses in mind. The machine learningpowered software as a service (SaaS) solution integrates easily into popular electronic health records (EHR) systems and existing triage processes. It is the only solution architected to read, extract and understand the entirety of a patient record, recognize potential errors in triage acuity assignment and communicate with nurses in real time. Underlying KATE is the Mednition Clinical Data Engine of more than 10 billion deidentified patient clinical data points, providing deep clinical insight for every patient. "Our collaboration with BRG is a major milestone in our mission to advance healthcare by providing emergency nurses innovative solutions to assist them in unobtrusive ways while enabling them to add their expertise to proven machine learning solutions," said Steven Reilly, CEO and cofounder of Mednition. "BRG is at the forefront of healthcare performance improvement and is working with many of the world's leading hospitals and healthcare systems. We're proud to be collaborating with them." Moretz outlined three primary areas in which BRG consultants will seek to leverage KATE and its massive Clinical Data Engine for ED performance improvement in the future: Right Patient, Right Place, Right Time : Help ED nurses quickly identify the accurate acuity in each patient, expedite care and improve patient satisfaction : Help ED nurses quickly identify the accurate acuity in each patient, expedite care and improve patient satisfaction Clinician Satisfaction : Provide nurses increased support via a "safety net" in triage decision making and a continuous learning tool, reduce stress on nurses and decrease staff turnover : Provide nurses increased support via a "safety net" in triage decision making and a continuous learning tool, reduce stress on nurses and decrease staff turnover Operations Efficiency: Expedite patient care, optimize clinician skill sets and reduce patient wait times and overall length of stay, resulting in greater operational efficiencies and increased revenues The SaaS-based KATE is available immediately on a subscription basis, requiring no capital expense. It supports the leading EHR and clinical messaging software, requiring no change to clinical workflow, no downtime and minimal training. For more detailed information, visit KATE . About BRG Berkeley Research Group, LLC (BRG) is a global consulting firm that helps leading organizations advance in three key areas: disputes and investigations, corporate finance, and performance improvement and advisory. Headquartered in California with offices around the world, we are an integrated group of experts, industry leaders, academics, data scientists and professionals working across borders and disciplines. We harness our collective expertise to deliver the inspired insights and practical strategies our clients need to stay ahead of what's next. Visit thinkbrg.com to learn more. About Mednition Mednition was founded in 2014 with a passion to help clinicians improve healthcare delivery and save lives. The company is funded by a select group of private investors and major healthcare financial institutions, including Concord Health Partners with participation by its limited partner the American Hospital Association Innovation Fund. The company also has partnered with the Emergency Nurses Association to help bring machine learning capabilities into ED nursing training. The company is based in Burlingame, CA. For more information, please visit Mednition . SOURCE Berkeley Research Group, LLC BRASILIA, Brazil, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CAIXA ECONOMICA FEDERAL ("CAIXA"), the largest Brazilian bank in terms of number of clients, loans, digital accounts and savings accounts announces its consolidated results for the first quarter of 2021 (1Q21). HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE PERIOD (1Q21): Net Income of R$4.6 billion in 1Q21, up by 50.3% over 1Q20. in 1Q21, up by over 1Q20. ROE totaled 16.33% , up by 1.14 p.p. over 1Q20. , up by over 1Q20. Financial margin of R$11.0 billion , up by 4.1% over 4Q20 and by 6.8% over 1Q20. , up by over 4Q20 and by over 1Q20. Basel Ratio of 17.6% in 1Q21, with Tier I Capital reaching 13.0% . in 1Q21, with Tier I Capital reaching . Total loan portfolio balance of R$799.6 billion , up by 14.3% over 1Q20. , up by over 1Q20. 103.1% growth in SBPE mortgage loans over 1Q20. growth in SBPE mortgage loans over 1Q20. Portfolio of R$12.9 billion in payroll-deductible loans, the highest amount for a first quarter in 10 years. in loans, the highest amount for a first quarter in 10 years. 125.9% YoY increase in loan portfolio balance for micro and small enterprises, reaching R$49.0 billion . YoY increase in loan portfolio balance for micro and small enterprises, reaching . Delinquency over 90 days totaled 2.04% , reducing by 1.10 p.p. over 1Q20. , reducing by over 1Q20. Delinquency coverage ratio reached 216.2% , increasing by 58.0 p.p. over 1Q20. , increasing by over 1Q20. Saving accounts balance totaled R$368.5 billion , up by 14.8% YoY. totaled , up by 14.8% YoY. 44 leased properties were returned , generating savings of R$119.0 million in 1Q20. , generating savings of in 1Q20. CAIXA has 31.0 million Individual ID registered for PIX, ranking first among the largest banks. Individual ID registered for PIX, ranking first among the largest banks. R$5.0 billion in financial volume from the IPO of CAIXA Seguridade. in financial volume from the of CAIXA Seguridade. 17.25% of CAIXA Seguridade's shares were sold to 150 thousand investors. of CAIXA Seguridade's shares were sold to investors. 5 Strategic Partnerships were signed with CAIXA Seguridade, totaling R$9.8 billion . were signed with CAIXA Seguridade, totaling . 3 co-brokers were selected to operate jointly with Caixa Seguridade. to operate jointly with Caixa Seguridade. 2 Strategic Partnerships were signed with CAIXA Cartoes, totaling more than R$420.0 billion . were signed with CAIXA Cartoes, totaling more than Sale of CAIXA's total stake in Banco PAN, generating an estimated profit of R$2.0 billion . of CAIXA's total stake in Banco PAN, generating an estimated profit of . Distribution of FII CAIXA Imoveis Corporativos, in the amount of R$404.0 million . WEBCAST FOR THE 1Q21 RESULTS: May 12, 2021, 9:00 a.m. (US EDT) https://webcastlite.mziq.com/cover.html?webcastId=c5a68e66-d980-4524-b675-1f7f5dc1348d 1Q21 EARNINGS DOCUMENTS: earnings release, presentation and financial statements available at: www.caixa.gov.br/sobre-a-caixa/relacoes-com-investidores/ About Caixa Economica Federal (www.caixa.gov.br): CAIXA is the largest Brazilian bank in terms of number of clients, loans, digital accounts and savings deposits. SOURCE Caixa Economica Federal Related Links https://www.caixa.gov.br SACRAMENTO, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the California Lawyers Association (CLA) and the D.C. Bar shared crucial findings from a groundbreaking research project that offers insight into the personal and workplace risk factors for mental health problems, substance use, and attrition among practicing attorneys. In 2020 , the California Lawyers Association and the D.C. Bar announced their participation in the project, which has now yielded the first of several forthcoming papers. Entitled "Stress, Drink, Leave: An Examination of Gender-Specific Risk Factors for Mental Health Problems and Attrition Among Licensed Attorneys," the research was published today in the peer-reviewed, scientific journal PLOS ONE. This first-of-its-kind research project generated significant, alarming, and highly instructive data which will greatly enhance the legal profession's efforts to improve the health and well-being of its members. Key findings from the study include: Roughly half of practicing attorneys are experiencing symptoms of depression and anxiety, with approximately 30% of those falling in the mild range and nearly 20% falling in the moderate-severe range. Over half of the attorneys screened positive for risky drinking, and 30% screened for high-risk hazardous drinking (which is interpreted as alcohol abuse or possible dependence). Women are experiencing meaningfully worse mental health than men and are drinking more hazardously. Considering the higher rates of mental health distress experienced by female attorneys, an expected but nonetheless troubling result is that 1 in 4 women is contemplating leaving the legal profession due to mental health problems, burnout, or stress. 17% of male attorneys report the same thoughts. The research project was led by attorney mental health and well-being expert Patrick Krill , who collaborated on the work with Dr. Justin Anker from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Minnesota. "The legal profession continues to have significant work ahead of it to improve mental health and gender disparities among practicing attorneys. Our hope is that this essential research will be a useful tool for performing that work in a timely and effective manner," said Krill. Their research found that mental health problems and hazardous drinking are exceedingly high among currently employed attorneys. Most notably, a significant gender disparity was revealed, with female attorneys experiencing more mental distress, greater levels of overcommitment and work-family conflict, and lower prospects of promotion than their male counterparts. Additionally, the findings raise meaningful concerns about the stress levels of both male and female attorneys, and the possible impact of that stress on the delivery of effective legal services. CLA's CEO and Executive Director Ona Alston Dosunmu emphasized the importance of this research for the organization and its members. "We at CLA are so grateful to have this rigorous, data-based analysis to back up what we have all known intuitively. This study will enable us to develop targeted, effective programs to enhance the well-being of our membersparticularly women." The results of this study highlight the importance of addressing the structural, cultural, and organizational infrastructures responsible for this mental health gender disparity and are an important step towards achieving the profession's longstanding goals around improving mental health and the retention of female attorneys. "The D.C. Bar deeply appreciates the study's authors and our participating members, without whom this critical work would not have been possible," said D.C. Bar CEO Robert Spagnoletti. "These insights will enable us to better serve our members and help drive awareness about the severity of mental health issues and gender disparities in the legal profession." To view the complete findings from this research project, visit the published article in PLOS ONE . About California Lawyers Association: Established in 2018, CLA is the bar association for all California attorneys. CLA's mission is to promote excellence, diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and fairness in the administration of justice and the rule of law. About the District of Columbia Bar Since 1972 the District of Columbia Bar (D.C. Bar) has been enhancing access to justice, improving the legal system, and empowering lawyers to achieve success. It is the largest unified bar in the United States, with more than 111,000 members in all 50 states and over 80 countries and territories. The D.C. Bar serves the legal community through its award-winning Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program and publications, in addition to its vast array of online resources, events, and professional services. Learn more at www.dcbar.org. SOURCE California Lawyers Association Ning Jizhe, deputy head of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Seventh National Population Census and commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics, made the following remarks at the press conference. According to age demographics, the number and the proportion of people aged 14 and under both rose during the 2010-2020 period. The number of people aged 14 and under increased by 30.92 million from 2010, marking a 1.35 percentage point growth in proportion of the total population. China's second-child policy has contributed to a rise in newborns, with the share of newborns who are the second child in a household surging from around 30% in 2013 to around 50% in 2017. China's population aged 14 and under rises http://english.scio.gov.cn/pressroom/2021-05/12/content_77490169.htm SOURCE China SCIO Activating the Divine Feminine: The Path to Wholeness helps listeners find harmony with the feminine and masculine energies within each of us, and return to peace in mind, body, and spirit. By exploring the relationship we all have, regardless of gender, to the cooling, lunar, and receptive feminine qualities of life, balanced by the solar, warming, and active energies of the masculine, we restore wholeness to our systems both personally and collectively. The 21-Day program takes participants on a journey to discover the power of living in communion with the Divine Feminine while exploring love, compassion, empathy, and inner peace. Each 20-minute daily meditation opens with guided wisdom and storytelling from Keys, followed by a lesson and a meditation session from Dr. Chopra. "I believe the Divine Feminine is an extremely powerful force within all of us," says Keys. "It helps you grow, it helps you create, it cultivates who you are. There's a major imbalance in our world, and we can all feel it. To counteract it, we have to open the door to the Divine Feminine in us and its ability to repair and create. It's been an adventure to travel on this journey of self-exploration with my brother Deepak Chopra. He believes in wellbeing for everyone, as do I, and knows we could all use some extra healing vibes in this moment. That's one of the reasons we and the team at Chopra Global put together a 21-day exploration of the Divine Feminine. As we climb out of the pandemic, we can use self-care and self-love to balance out the loss and brokenness around us. I hope this experience will help us be our best, brightest selves, live healthier and more joyful lives, and find a piece of peace in a broken world." For more than two decades, Chopra Global has been at the forefront of health and wellness, empowering personal transformation for millions of people worldwide to expand our collective well-being. Anchored by the life's practice and research of Dr. Deepak Chopra, Chopra Global's commitment to democratize and advance well-being for all has cultivated one of the world's largest mindfulness communities with signature programs that have been proven to improve overall well-being through a focus on mental, physical, and spiritual health. "The Divine Feminine is often overlooked or silenced by structures that promote an imbalance of masculine energy," says Dr. Deepak Chopra. "Love, compassion, and receptivity exist at the source of the Divine Feminine and when we allow these energies to emerge in our lives, we create space for nurturing and healing both personally and collectively. I am forever grateful to Alicia for this partnership, she is an incarnation of the Divine Feminine and her words will help bring people together and provide peace and solace that the world needs." The 21-Day Meditation Experience franchise first launched in 2013 with Dr. Chopra and Oprah Winfrey and has since become a global phenomenon, with millions of participants and meditation groups around the world. The catalogue currently features 19 different programs, including Renew Yourself: Body, Mind & Spirit, a bilingual program launched in 2020 with international music superstar and Latin Grammy Award winning artist J Balvin. In celebration of this new program, Keys Soulcare, a lifestyle beauty brand born from Keys' personal skincare journey and her passion for bringing light into the world, will offer a special self-care package that will help develop a daily meditation ritual. The new ritual includes offerings to integrate into, and enhance the 21-Day Meditation Experience including the Sage + Oat Milk Candle, Reviving Aura Mist and Comforting Balm, and is currently available at KeysSoulCare.com. Keys Soulcare will also enlist Lightworkers to participate in the program and share their experience through a series of first-person content across the Chopra and Keys Soulcare social channels. Chopra Global has partnered with YourMomCares, a non-profit dedicated to children's mental wellness, founded by celebrity and influencer moms including CEO Sharon Feldstein (mom of Jonah Hill and Beanie Feldstein), Terria Joseph (Alicia Keys' mom) and Patsy Noah (Adam Levine's mom) to distribute the free program to moms and mental health partners in their network. YourMomCares creates and funds the most innovative and groundbreaking programs and solutions in kids' mental health and is changing the dialogue from mental illness to wellness. The meditations are easily accessible from a tablet, computer, or Chopra Global's Apps available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play. To join the social media conversation, use #21daymeditation and interact with the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. About Chopra's 21-Day Meditation Program: The 21-Day Meditation Experience is a meditation journey that focuses on the life-changing benefits of meditation and mindfulness practices. Each program centers around a unique theme, offering deep wisdom, practical tools, and refreshing insights to help participants grow and evolve in just 20 minutes a day. Every day is coupled with a series of thought-provoking reflection questions designed to anchor the teachings with a centering thought and mantra. Inspired by the notion that it takes 21 days to create a habit, this three-week experience allows listeners to enjoy the life-changing benefits of meditation, including: reduced stress and anxiety; improved immune function and decreased inflammation; better sleep and increased energy; deep states of peace and well-being; and achievement of peak living. About Chopra Global: Chopra Global is a leading whole health company that is empowering personal transformation for millions of people globally to expand our collective well-being. Anchored by the life's practice and research of Dr. Deepak Chopra, a pioneer in integrative medicine, Chopra Global's signature programs have been proven to improve overall well-being through a focus on physical, mental and spiritual health. Chopra Global has been at the forefront of health and wellness for more than two decades with a portfolio that includes an editorial archive of more than 2000 health articles, expansive self-care practices and meditations, a comprehensive mobile app, masterclasses, teacher certifications, immersive live events and personalized retreats. In 2020, Chopra Global launched The Chopra Meditation & Well-being app on iOS, which offers simple, self-care guidance and meditation for mind, body, and spirit. The vast library of content features hundreds of meditations and practices with an integrative approach to help create and sustain a healthier life, with an emphasis on stress, energy, sleep, mood management, purpose, relationships, and growth. By providing tools, guidance and community, Chopra aims to advance a culture of well-being and make a healthy, peaceful and joyful life accessible to all. For more information, interact with the team on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. About Keys Soulcare: Keys Soulcare is a lifelong vision of global superstar artist, producer, actress, and New York Times best-selling author Alicia Keys. Born of Alicia's personal skincare journey and her passion for bringing light into the world, the brand vision is more than skin deep. Keys Soulcare shares the soul of beauty through dermatologist-developed, clean formulas, skin-nourishing ingredients and soul-nurturing rituals. With an inclusive point of view, an authentic voice, and a line of skin-loving, cruelty-free offerings, Keys Soulcare aims to bring new meaning to beauty by honoring ritual in our daily life and practicing intention in every action. Available at keyssoulcare.com and nationwide at Ulta Beauty stores and on ulta.com. Learn more by visiting www.keyssoulcare.com. About YourMomCares: In 2014, YMC Co-Founders and longtime friends Sharon Feldstein (Jonah Hill and Beanie Feldstein's Mom) and Patsy Noah (Adam Levine's Mom) were brought together by the White House along with other moms, including Terria Joseph (Alicia Keys' mom) to do a PSA for the Affordable Care Act. Inspired by the amazing group of women and leaders involved and immediately recognizing the power in the "Your Mom Cares" concept and brand, YourMomCares was born. Today, YMC helps all children by creating and funding innovative, cutting-edge programs and solutions which have a direct impact on children's mental health. To learn more, visit YourMomCares.org. SOURCE Chopra Global Related Links https://chopra.com/ SpendEdge's reports now include an in-depth complimentary analysis of the COVID-19 impact on procurement and the latest market data to help your company overcome sourcing challenges. Our Heavy-Duty Trucks Market procurement intelligence report offers actionable procurement intelligence insights, sourcing strategies, and action plans to mitigate risks arising out of the current pandemic situation. The insights offered by our reports will help procurement professionals streamline supply chain operations and gain insights into the best procurement practices to mitigate losses. Information on Latest Trends and Supply Chain Market Information Download Our FREE Sample Report Insights into the Market Price Trends Suppliers in this market have moderate bargaining power owing to moderate pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants. Buyers can benchmark their preferred pricing models for Heavy-Duty Trucks Market, Procurement, Management with the wider industry information and identify the cost-saving potential. Insights to help buyers identify and shortlist the most suitable suppliers for their Heavy-Duty Trucks Market requirements. This procurement report answers the following questions: Am I engaging with the right suppliers? Which KPIs should I use to evaluate my incumbent suppliers? Which supplier selection criteria are relevant for? What are the Heavy-Duty Trucks Market category essentials in terms of SLAs and RFx? Grab your Free Sample now to unlock further information on other key aspects of this market Insights into strategies that will help buyers optimize their category management practices. The report answers the following questions: What should be my strategic procurement objectives, activities, and enablers for the Heavy-Duty Trucks Market category? What negotiation levers can I pull for cost-saving? What are Heavy-Duty Trucks Market procurement best practices I should be promoting in my supply chain? Some of the top Heavy-Duty Trucks Market suppliers enlisted in this report This Heavy-Duty Trucks Market procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. Daimler AG AB Volvo PACCAR Inc. Scania AB Tata Motors Ford Motor Company FAW Group Co. Ltd. ISUZU MOTORS LIMITED CNH INDUSTRIAL N.V Ashok Leyland MAN SE Get access to regular sourcing and procurement insights to our digital procurement platform- Contact Us . Table of Content Executive Summary Market Insights Category Pricing Insights Cost-saving Opportunities Best Practices Category Ecosystem Category Management Strategy Category Management Enablers Suppliers Selection Suppliers under Coverage US Market Insights Category scope Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more https://www.spendedge.com/request-for-demo Contacts SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager US: +1 630 984 7340 UK: +44 148 459 9299 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOURCE SpendEdge Related Links https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us "It is such an honor to work along with partners like Takeda and our advocacy groups to end the stigma and empower anyone who has been impacted by lung cancer," said Mike Hennessy Jr., president and CEO of MJH Life Sciences, the parent company of CURE Media Group. "Together as one community, our second annual Lung Cancer Heroes awards program will continue to raise awareness, and most importantly acknowledge and celebrate the remarkable individuals contributing to advancing research and improve lung cancer patient outcomes." Nominations can be submitted online by colleagues, advocates, patients, friends and family of the remarkable individuals from across the globe who have significantly impacted the lung cancer community. Three winners will be named Lung Cancer Heroes and awarded for their heroic contributions in the field of lung cancer or the lives of people with the disease. "Collaborations between industry and the advocacy community are critical to advancing cutting-edge science and outsmarting cancer so that more patients can benefit from and have access to life-transforming medicines," said Dion Warren, vice president, head, U.S. oncology business unit, Takeda Oncology. "We are honored to support CURE on this important initiative to increase awareness and end the stigma around lung cancer and recognize individuals who are making a difference in the lives of the more than 2 million people affected by this disease." The 2021 Lung Cancer Heroes virtual celebration will be held this fall. For more information and to submit a nomination, click here. This event is sponsored by Takeda and in partnership with The American Lung Association, GO 2 Foundation for Lung Cancer, LUNGevity, Lung Cancer Foundation of America, and Lung Cancer Research Foundation. About CURE Media Group CURE Media Group is the leading resource for cancer updates, research and education. It combines a full suite of media products, including its industry-leading website, CUREtoday.com ; innovative video programs, such as CURE Connections; a series of widely attended live events; CURE magazine, which reaches more than 1 million readers; and the dynamic website for oncology nurses, OncNursingNews.com , and its companion publication, Oncology Nursing News. CURE Media Group is a brand of MJH Life Sciences , the largest privately held, independent, full-service medical media company in North America dedicated to delivering trusted health care news across multiple channels. CURE Media Group Contact Alexandra Ventura, 609-716-7777 [email protected] SOURCE CURE Media Group Providers may ask people to wait for a brief period after getting a shot in their arm due to possible severe allergic reaction. An adverse reaction can occur within minutes to an hour after being inoculated, the FDA said in a fact sheet. For this reason, patients should be observed if medial attention is needed. PALM DESERT, Calif., May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CV Strategies, a full-service communications and community engagement firm, is pleased to welcome veteran multimedia journalist and video producer Allyssa Dickert as its Director of Multimedia. Dickert assumes responsibility for directing the firm's storytelling efforts, managing video projects across California, and ensuring project accountability. Dickert's background is in television news, where she worked for more than a decade as an anchor, reporter, producer and writer. "Allyssa is a valuable addition to our growing video branch," said Erin Kaiman, Founder and President of CV Strategies. "With her background as an influential and Emmy-nominated television news reporter, she brings the talent and skills that will further enhance services for our clients." Dickert is as comfortable tackling quick turnaround shoots as she is with major projects stemming from weeks of filming. As Director of Multimedia, she ensures all videos can adapt to a variety of formats, from advertising spots to documentaries, and guides each project from pre-production to the final cut. Originally from the Los Angeles area, Dickert became interested in video production at a young age. Her passion for storytelling sparked growing up watching her dad, Meteorologist Rick Dickert, on KTTV- Fox 11 in LA. Dickert's love for the industry evolved while she was a student at California State University, Fullerton. "I am thrilled to join CV Strategies and work with the team to further develop their video production services," Dickert said. "I have a passion for storytelling and I'm excited to bring each client's vision to life through video." CV Strategies produces all its work in-house, allowing the creative team to have full control over the production process. Dickert will add another lens of creativity and innovation to the video department. Her ability to develop dynamic, high-quality content, combined with her creative energy, enthusiasm, and advanced technical skills make her an integral part of the CV Strategies team. About CV Strategies CV Strategies was founded in 2007 by former television news director Erin Kaiman. The firm is actively engaged with more than 100 clients across California. In addition to web design services, CV Strategies offers social media and advertising services, strategic counsel and communications planning, copywriting, photography, video and crisis communications assistance. SOURCE CV Strategies Related Links http://www.cvstrat.com SELBYVILLE, Del., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global Market Insights Inc. has recently added a new report on the data annotation tools market which estimates the market valuation for data annotation tools will cross US$ 7 billion by 2027. The steadily growing uptake of data annotation tools by healthcare institutions for medical image labeling and classification of medical literature is likely to drive the industry demand. Data Annotation Tools Market size is set to surpass USD 7 billion by 2027, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. The text annotation tools segment will witness a rapid growth rate of over 30% from 2021 to 2027 as textual data labeling becomes increasingly crucial for developing document classification algorithms and performing sentiment analysis. Textual data annotation is also gaining importance in social media text mining as federal agencies and national security authorities monitor the behavior of citizens for potential terrorist threats. Using deep learning neural networks integrated with text annotation solutions, security agencies can monitor potential threat topics and objectional material mentioned in social media handles. Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/3823 The manual data annotation tools segment held a substantial market share in 2020 due to the better quality of labeled data compared to automated data labeling. Manual data labeling is performed by highly skilled professionals with strong expertise in the nature and content of data. Human annotators can detect and handle even the smallest of discrepancies in the input data, which are prone to be missed by automated data labeling tools. The agriculture segment is anticipated to register exponential growth over the forecast period due to the increasing proliferation of artificial intelligence in precision agriculture. Data labeling solutions enable enterprises to develop computer vision models, which are used for a variety of agricultural end-uses such as livestock monitoring, crop monitoring, pest & disease control, soil quality assessment, and crop harvesting. Europe is set to witness a lucrative growth rate of nearly 30% by 2027 due to the extensive adoption of AI technologies by European business corporations. The region has a mature AI industry with several countries including Germany, the Netherlands, and the Nordics being regional leaders in the implementation of machine learning applications. The European Commission has also prioritized the importance of machine learning in improving the digital economy of the region with an allocated budget of over USD 775 million for AI-related projects in its Horizon 2020 digital strategy. Companies operating in the data annotation tools industry are focusing on various business growth strategies including investments in new data labeling solutions, strengthening partner network, and geographical expansion. Through such strategic moves, companies are trying to gain a broader market share and maintain their leadership in the market. For instance, in January 2020, IBM launched a cloud annotation tool to automate image labeling processes with the help of AI applications. The tool helps developers to annotate data without manual inputs and for easy data labeling. Some major findings of the Data Annotation Tools market report include: The growing importance of accurately labeled textual data to develop novel technologies, such as natural language generation, text-to-speech, and voice recognition, will create a positive outlook for the data annotation tools market. Data scientists are reaping the benefits of automated data labeling tools, which will facilitate quick & accurate labeling of large-scale datasets including support for big data and Hadoop platforms. Some of the leading market players are Amazon Web Services, Inc., Clickworker GmbH, CloudApp, Inc., Google LLC, and IBM Corporation. Data annotation tool providers are focusing on strategic collaborations and long-term contracts with clients to gain market share. Request for customization of this research report at https://www.gminsights.com/roc/3823 Partial chapters of report table of contents (TOC): Chapter 3 Data Annotation Tools Industry Insights 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Industry segmentation 3.3 Impact of COVID-19 outbreak 3.3.1 Global outlook 3.3.2 By region 3.3.2.1 North America 3.3.2.2 North America 3.3.2.3 Europe 3.3.2.4 Asia Pacific 3.3.2.5 Latin America 3.3.2.6 Middle East & Africa 3.3.3 Industry value chain 3.3.3.1 Suppliers 3.3.3.2 Data annoation technology providers 3.3.3.3 Marketing and distribution channels 3.3.4 Compeitive landscape 3.3.4.1 Strategy 3.3.4.2 Distribution network 3.3.4.3 Business growth 3.4 Evolution of data annotation tools 3.5 Data annotation tools industry architecture 3.6 Data annotation tools industry ecosystem analysis 3.6.1 Data annotation software vendors 3.6.2 Cloud service providers 3.6.3 Distributors and resellers 3.6.4 Third party service providers 3.6.5 End-users 3.7 Investment portfolio 3.8 Patent analysis 3.9 Technology & innovation landscape 3.9.1 Pseudo labelling 3.9.2 Online content moderation 3.10 Regulatory landscape 3.10.1 North America 3.10.1.1 NIST Special Publication 800-144 - Guidelines on Security and Privacy in Public Cloud Computing (U 3.10.1.2 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 (U 3.10.1.3 Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act [(PIPEDA) Canada] 3.10.2 Europe 3.10.2.1 General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 3.10.2.2 German Privacy Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz- BDSG) 3.10.3 APAC 3.10.3.1 Information Security Technology- Personal Information Security Specification GB/T 35273-2017 (China) 3.10.3.2 Secure India National Digital Communications Policy 2018 - Draft (India) 3.10.4 Latin America 3.10.4.1 National Directorate of Personal Data Protection (Argentina) 3.10.4.2 The Brazilian General Data Protection Law (LGPD) 3.10.5 MEA 3.10.5.1 Law No. 13 of 2016 on protecting personal data (Qatar) 3.10.5.2 Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 on the use of ICT in Healthcare (UAE) 3.11 Industry impact forces 3.11.1 Growth drivers 3.11.1.1 Rising demand for annotated data to improve machine learning models 3.11.1.2 Increasing investments in the development of autonomous driving technologies 3.11.1.3 Growing adoption of data annotation for medical imaging data 3.11.1.4 Surging uptake of text annotation for document classification 3.11.2 Industry pitfalls & challenges 3.11.2.1 Inaccurate data labelling due to poor content quality 3.11.2.2 Lack of skilled professionals 3.11.2.3 High costs associated with manual data annotation 3.12 Growth potential analysis 3.13 Porter's analysis 3.14 PESTEL analysis About Global Market Insights Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology. Contact Us: Arun Hegde Corporate Sales, USA Global Market Insights, Inc. Phone: 1-302-846-7766 Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688 Email: [email protected] Related Images data-annotation-tools-market-size.jpg Data Annotation Tools Market size worth over $7 Bn by 2027 Data Annotation Tools Market size is set to surpass USD 7 billion by 2027, according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. SOURCE Global Market Insights Inc. SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Embraer (B3: EMBR3,NYSE: ERJ) has agreed the sale of nine new E175 jets to Alaska Air Group and its subsidiary Horizon Air. The E175 aircraft will fly exclusively with Alaska Airlines under a Capacity Purchase Agreement (CPA). The value of the contract, which will be included in Embraer's second-quarter backlog, is USD 449.1 million, based on current list prices. "We have navigated through the pandemic and we're on a solid path to recovery. The E175 remains a key part of our strategy," said Nat Pieper, Alaska Airlines senior vice president of fleet, finance and alliances. "We're excited about growth in the years ahead, which has always been at the heart of Alaska's DNA. The E175 is a terrific plane to help us add new routes and frequencies, and to complement our mainline aircraft to meet fluctuating demand with the right capacity." Alaska Airlines, a new member of the oneworld Alliance, currently has 62 Embraer E175 jets in their fleet, operated by Horizon Air and SkyWest Airlines. The 76-seat aircraft will be delivered in Alaska's livery and three-class configuration, starting in 2022. Joe Sprague, President and CEO of Horizon Air, said, "Our customers love the comfort and convenience of the E175, especially their two by two layout, meaning no one has to sit in the middle seat. The size and efficiency of the E175 also allows us to boost flying in key markets, giving our customers more of the flexibility they crave." Mark Neely, VP Sales and Marketing, The Americas, Embraer Commercial Aviation, said, "The E175 is truly the backbone of the North American regional market; Embraer's market share in the region's 70-90-seat segment is 85%. There are currently 588 E175s serving U.S. and Canadian carriers in cities across Canada, the USA, Mexico, and Central America." Alaska Air Group also announced today a commitment for eight more E175 aircraft with SkyWest Airlines. Once all 17 E175 aircraft announced today are delivered, Alaska Air Group will have 79 E175s in its regional fleet operated by Horizon and SkyWest. Horizon is converting nine options from its April 2016 contract to firm orders. Added to Horizon's three remaining firm orders on backlog, they will have a fleet of 42 E175s flying for Alaska Airlines, when all aircraft are delivered. The E175 has been a lifeline for carriers as they are perfectly suited to rebuild frequencies and add incremental capacity to meet rebounding domestic demand. During 2020 it was the first aircraft type to bounce back, achieving 100% of Alaska's 2019's schedule by Nov. 2020. Last October, the E175 started replacing larger aircraft on several intra-Alaska routes. Alaska Airlines has also been building its presence in California with the addition of new seasonal routes between cities in the Golden State and Montana with the E175. Aircraft photos: https://embraer.imagerelay.com/share/a5b91ed5eee44458bc7d97eb038ad2a3 Follow us on Twitter: @Embraer About Embraer Embraer is a global aerospace company headquartered in Brazil. It manufactures aircraft for Commercial and Executive aviation, Defense & Security, and Agricultural customers. The company also provides after-sales services & support through a worldwide network of wholly-owned entities and authorized agents. Since it was founded in 1969, Embraer has delivered more than 8,000 aircraft. On average, about every 10 seconds an aircraft manufactured by Embraer takes off somewhere in the world, transporting over 145 million passengers a year. Embraer is the leading manufacturer of commercial jets up to 150 seats and is the main exporter of high value-added goods in Brazil. The company maintains industrial units, offices, service and parts distribution centers across the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Europe. PRESS OFFICES Headquarters (Brazil) North America Europe, Middle East and Africa China Asia Pacific Corporate Communications Alyssa Ten Eyck Guy Douglas Mirage Zhong Nilma Missir-Boissac [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Cell: +55 11 98890 7777 Cell: +1 954 383 0460 Cell: +31 (0)657120121 Cell: +86 185 1378 5180 Cell: +65 9012 8428 Tel.: +55 11 4873 7984 Tel.: +1 954 359 3847 Tell: +31 (0)202158109 Tel.: +86 10 6598 9988 Tel.: +65 6305 9955 SOURCE Embraer S.A. ROCKVILLE, Md., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Emmes, a global, full-service Clinical Research Organization (CRO) dedicated to supporting the advancement of public health and biopharmaceutical innovation, today announced that it has acquired Orphan Reach, a company headquartered in the United Kingdom with offices in Ireland, Germany, India, Canada, and the U.S. Started nearly 20 years ago, Orphan Reach is a CRO dedicated to clinical research in rare diseases. This is Emmes' second acquisition in the past four months, following the acquisition of Neox s.r.o., an EU-based CRO, in December 2020. Neox and Orphan Reach expand Emmes' global reach with their international footprints and add a larger and more diverse set of biopharmaceutical clients. According to Emmes Chief Executive Officer Dr. Christine Dingivan, "Our acquisition of Orphan Reach will accelerate our growth, establishing us as an industry leader in clinical research for orphan and rare diseases. Orphan Reach has an outstanding reputation, with experience in 60 rare disease clinical trials and over 50 biopharma clients throughout the world." She continued, "We believe that Orphan Reach and Emmes will be highly synergistic; we will combine Emmes' deep strategic drug development and advanced statistical capabilities with the exceptional patient-centered global operations experience of the Orphan Reach team. With more than 7,000 rare diseases identified and only 400 treatments available, this represents a large research opportunity and demonstrates our commitment to advancing public health and addressing unmet medical needs for all populations." Orphan Reach Founder and CEO Thomas Ogorka said, "Orphan Reach and Emmes share a passion for the research we do, a dedication to the patients in our trials, and successful, long-term collaborations with our clients. I look forward to this new chapter in our history and to further extending our leadership in rare and orphan disease research that leads to new treatment options for these patients." Ogorka and the company's leaders will continue in their current roles. "I am looking forward to working with Thomas and the Orphan Reach team, particularly as we broaden their research opportunities in the United States," added Dr. Dingivan. "I am also very optimistic about collaboration between Orphan Reach and Neox and the potential for leveraging our growing global footprint and client relationships." Last month, the company announced that Rhonda Henry, a 30-year industry veteran, had been hired to become president of Emmes BioPharma, further reinforcing Emmes' commitment to expand more aggressively in this market. About Orphan Reach Headquartered in the United Kingdom, Orphan Reach has built a reputation for outstanding clinical research addressing rare diseases. Created in 2002, the company has management teams in Europe, Asia and the U.S., and supports patients with rare diseases in more than 70 countries. The team's goal is to accelerate access to new treatments in a wide range of orphan therapeutic areas. About Emmes Founded in 1977, Emmes is a global, full-service Clinical Research Organization dedicated to excellence in supporting the advancement of public health and biopharmaceutical innovation. The company's clients include numerous agencies and institutes of the U.S. federal government and a wide range of biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device companies throughout the world. To learn more about how our research is making a positive impact on human health, go to the Emmes website at www.emmes.com. SOURCE Emmes Related Links www.emmes.com HUNTINGTON, W.Va., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Energy Services of America Corporation (the "Company" or "Energy Services") (OTC QB: ESOA) announced financial results for the three and six months ended March 31, 2021. Energy Services generated revenues of $25.6 million and $57.6 million for the three and six months ended March 31, 2021, respectively. Net loss available to common shareholders was $1.4 million and $2.1 million with an adjusted EBITDA of ($798,399) and ($467,317) for the three and six months ended March 31, 2021, respectively. Gross profit percentage increased from 0.4% to 7.3% and from 5.5% to 8.2% for the three and six months ended March 31, 2021 as compared to 2020, respectively. Douglas Reynolds, President, commented on the announcement. "We experienced an increased demand for our services across all our lines of business for the first and second quarters of fiscal year 2021, which resulted in increased revenue and gross profit when compared to the same periods in 2020. Our December 31, 2020 acquisition, West Virginia Pipeline, contributed immediately with $1.2 million in revenue and $394,000 in gross profit for the three months ended March 31, 2021." Reynolds continued, "Our efforts to increase distribution revenues are paying off and we are expecting to be busy in our gas & water distribution and electrical & mechanical services for the second half of fiscal year 2021. At the same time, we have invested in growing the business by acquiring a solar installation company and establishing a general contractor subsidiary. Our backlog at March 31, 2021 was $61.2 million as compared to $60.7 million at December 31, 2020." Below is a comparison of the Company's unaudited operating results for the three and six months ended March 31, 2021 and 2020: Three Months Ended Three Months Ended Six Months Ended Six Months Ended March 31, March 31, March 31, March 31, 2021 2020 2021 2020 Revenue $ 25,605,412 $ 18,072,400 $ 57,615,208 $ 43,915,707 Cost of revenues 23,731,889 18,001,931 52,898,626 41,488,496 Gross profit 1,873,523 70,469 4,716,582 2,427,211 Selling and administrative expenses 3,823,913 2,345,509 7,419,743 4,941,281 Loss from operations (1,950,390) (2,275,040) (2,703,161) (2,514,070) Other income (expense) Interest income 4 - 151,769 53,249 Other nonoperating expense (32,887) (42,741) (85,510) (76,679) Interest expense (142,993) (112,017) (219,510) (298,862) Gain on sale of equipment 479,269 223,775 492,311 519,766 303,393 69,017 339,060 197,474 Loss before income taxes (1,646,997) (2,206,023) (2,364,101) (2,316,596) Income tax benefit (335,526) (511,412) (404,968) (547,871) Net loss (1,311,471) (1,694,611) (1,959,133) (1,768,725) Dividends on preferred stock 77,250 77,250 154,500 154,500 Loss available to common shareholders $ (1,388,721) $ (1,771,861) $ (2,113,633) $ (1,923,225) Weighted average shares outstanding-basic 13,621,406 13,783,546 13,621,406 13,877,243 Weighted average shares-diluted 13,621,406 13,783,546 13,621,406 13,877,243 Loss per share available to common shareholders $ (0.102) $ (0.129) $ (0.155) $ (0.139) Loss per share-diluted available to common shareholders $ (0.102) $ (0.129) $ (0.155) $ (0.139) Please refer to the table below that reconciles adjusted EBITDA with net loss available to common shareholders: Three Months Ended Three Months Ended Six Months Ended Six Months Ended March 31, 2021 March 31, 2020 March 31, 2021 March 31, 2020 Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Unaudited Net loss income available to common shareholders $ (1,388,721) $ (1,771,861) $ (2,113,633) $ (1,923,225) Less: Income benefit (335,526) (511,412) (404,968) (547,871) Add: Dividends on preferred stock 77,250 77,250 154,500 154,500 Add: Interest expense 142,993 112,017 219,510 298,862 Less: Non-operating income (446,386) (181,034) (558,570) (496,336) Add: Depreciation expense 1,151,991 1,122,509 2,235,844 2,217,791 Adjusted EBITDA $ (798,399) $ (1,152,531) $ (467,317) $ (296,279) Certain statements contained in the release, including without limitation statements including the words "believes," "anticipates," "intends," "expects" or words of similar import, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the "Exchange Act"). Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements of the Company expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, general economic and business conditions, changes in business strategy or development plans and other factors referenced in this release. Given these uncertainties, prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The Company disclaims any obligation to update any such factors or to publicly announce the results of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect future events or developments. SOURCE Energy Services of America NAPLES, Fla., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Florida Citizens Alliance is asking Gov. Ron DeSantis and Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran to halt the adoption of English Language Arts textbooks to ensure they do not contain Critical Race Theory. In addition, the organization wants the state to prohibit any school district in Florida from accepting federal grants related to Critical Race Theory and similar topics. "The Governor has the executive power as Florida's Governor and with the 10th Amendment to just say no," said Keith Flaugh, a Founder and Managing Director of Florida Citizens Alliance (FLCA). "If not, Critical Race Theory will be a huge embarrassment in Florida; and it will be infused into our classrooms for the next 4-6 years." The FLCA, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that champions K-12 education reform in Florida, believes making Critical Race Theory part of school curriculum teaches kids to be ashamed of their race. Critical Race Theorists contend institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans. The FLCA recently published an open letter on the topic and has gathered support from about 50 other organizations across the state. Some organizations joining in signing the letter include: Defend Florida, We The People IRC, American Christian Civil Rights Movement, Pinellas Patriots, Moms for America, Women Fighting for America, Gulf Coast Classical Academy, Save Florida Schools and several 912 Groups around the state. The public is invited to join the petition at GOFLCA.com. It specifically requests Governor DeSantis and Education Commissioner Corcoran to: 1. Stop the adoption of ELA textbooks until the FL DOE can be 100% confident that all the textbooks and teacher editions are completely free of Critical Race Theory and its many tentacles. 2. Strictly prohibit any school district in Florida from accepting a direct federal grant related to Critical Race Theory or its many tentacles. "Right now, all 67 Florida school districts are adopting and purchasing English Language Arts (ELA) textbooks," Flaugh said. "Many of these materials are published by the same progressive publishers that gave us, and the rest of nation, Common Core." For more information about the initiative, visit GOFLCA.com. SOURCE Florida Citizens Alliance Related Links http://GOFLCA.com JERSEY CITY, N.J., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Verified Market Research recently published a report, "Food Processing Equipment Market" By Mode of Operation (Automatic and Non-Automatic), By Type (Processing Equipment and Pre-Processing Equipment), By Application (Bakery & Confectionaries, Meat, Poultry and Seafood & Others), and By Geography. According to Verified Market Research, the Global Food Processing Equipment Market was valued at USD 53.88 Billion in 2020 and is projected to reach USD 84.88 Billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 5.85% from 2021 to 2028. Download PDF Brochure: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/download-sample/?rid=6630 Browse in-depth TOC on "Food Processing Equipment Market" 202 - Pages 126 Tables 37 Figures Global Food Processing Equipment Market Overview One of the primary growth drivers of The Global Food Processing Equipment Market is the rising concerns about the nutrition value and safety of the food. This is evident by the fact that the 2019 R&D survey by foodprocessing.com reveals that. According to Innova, close to three-quarters of American consumers "strongly agree" that it's important for foods to have mostly recognizable ingredients. According to a poll by PR agency Ingredient Communications, just about that many are willing to pay more for such products. The rising concern about the quality of food is the due to an increase in population and a rise in disposable income. Market players also try to come up with new and improved food products by the means of increase in their research and development activities. In a 2019 R&D survey by Foodprocessing.com, more than 35% of the participants laid their emphasis on the introduction of new food products in the market. Increased R&D to introduce new food products in the market increases the demand for food processing equipment, thus helping to grow the Global Food Processing Equipment Market. The world's top 61 leading food and drink companies collectively invested 8.7 billion in R&D in 2012. Out of these 61 companies, 17 are based in the EU and invested 2.3 billion in 2012. The amount of incremental expenditure on research and development is expected to be responsible for further market boom. Rising government concerns about the quality of food is also propelling market growth. Key Developments in Food Processing Equipment Market In 2021, Italy launched its first ever mega food park project in India involving food processing facilities as the two sides plan to expand ties in the backdrop of PM Narendra Modi's proposed visit there. launched its first ever mega food park project in involving food processing facilities as the two sides plan to expand ties in the backdrop of PM Narendra Modi's proposed visit there. In 2019, GEA had launched a new high-performance system for improving the quality and yield of meat and poultry products, without interrupting the production process. The MultiJector is an automated brine injection system, which will make it easier for food processors and result in a juicier and more flavourful final dish, especially for lean cuts of meat that tend to dry out during cooking. In 2020, Middleby Corporation acquired RAM Fry Dispensers, a business unit of Automated Equipment LLC based in Red Wing, Minnesota , U.S., which specializes in automated frozen fry dispensing equipment The major players in the market are JBT Corporation (U.S), SPX Flow, Inc. (U.S), Krones AG (Germany), The Middleby Corporation (U.S), Marel (Iceland), Tetra Laval International S.A. (Switzerland), Buhler AG (Switzerland), GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft (Germany), BAADER Group (Germany), Alfa Laval (Sweden) among others. Verified Market Research has segmented the Global Food Processing Equipment Market On the basis of Operation, Type and Application and Geography. Food Processing Equipment Market by Mode of Operation Automatic Semi-Automatic Food Processing Equipment Market by Type Processing Equipment Pre-Processing Equipment Food Processing Equipment Market by Application Bakery & Confectionaries Meat, Poultry, & Seafood Beverage Dairy Fruit, Nut, & Vegetable Grains Others Food Processing Equipment Market by Geography North America U.S Canada Mexico Europe Germany France U.K Rest of Europe Asia Pacific China Japan India Rest of Asia Pacific ROW Middle East & Africa & Latin America Browse Related Reports: Indoor Farming Technology Market by Facility Type (Indoor DWC System, Container Farm, Indoor Vertical farm, Glass or Poly Greenhouse, and Others), by Growing System (Soil-Based, Aquaponics, Aeroponics, Hydroponics, Hybrid, and Others), by Crop Type (Fruits and Vegetables, Flowers and Ornamentals, Herbs and Microgreens, and Others), by Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027 Active Hydroponics Systems Market by Product Type (Aggregate Systems, Liquid Systems), by Product Equipment (Hydroponic Drip, Ebb and Flow (Flood and Drain), Nutrient Film Techniques, Water Culture Hydroponic, Wick, and Aeroponic), by Crop Type (Flowers, Fruits, and Vegetables), by End-User (Residential, Commercial), by Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027 Qatar Agriculture Market by Production Type (Tomato, Cucumber, Sweet pepper, Zucchini, Other) by Farming type (Organic, Conventional Farming or Inorganic Farming), by Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027 United States Fresh Noodles Market by Type (Wide Strip, Narrow Strip, Waves Strip, & Others), by Application (Residential, Food Services, Institutional & Others), by Geography, Forecast, 2020-2027 Top 10 food processing equipment manufacturers adopting mass production methods Visualize Food Processing Equipment Market using Verified Market Intelligence:-: Verified Market Intelligence is our BI Enabled Platform for narrative storytelling of this market. VMI offers in-depth forecasted trends and accurate Insights on over 20,000+ emerging & niche markets, helping you make critical revenue impacting decisions for a brilliant future. VMI provides a holistic overview and global competitive landscape with respect to Region, Country, and Segment, and Key players of your market. Present your Market Report & findings with an inbuilt presentation feature saving over 70% of your time and resources for Investor, Sales & Marketing, R&D, and Product Development pitches. VMI enables data delivery In Excel and Interactive PDF formats with over 15+ Key Market Indicators for your market. About Us Verified Market Research is a leading Global Research and Consulting firm servicing over 5000+ customers. Verified Market Research provides advanced analytical research solutions while offering information enriched research studies. We offer insight into strategic and growth analyses, Data necessary to achieve corporate goals and critical revenue decisions. Our 250 Analysts and SME's offer a high level of expertise in data collection and governance use industrial techniques to collect and analyze data on more than 15,000 high impact and niche markets. Our analysts are trained to combine modern data collection techniques, superior research methodology, expertise and years of collective experience to produce informative and accurate research. We study 14+ categories from Semiconductor & Electronics, Chemicals, Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Energy & Power, Healthcare, Pharmaceuticals, Automotive & Transportation, Information & Communication Technology, Software & Services, Information Security, Mining, Minerals & Metals, Building & construction, Agriculture industry and Medical Devices from over 100 countries. Contact Us Mr. Edwyne Fernandes Verified Market Research US: +1 (650)-781-4080 UK: +44 (753)-715-0008 APAC: +61 (488)-85-9400 US Toll Free: 1 (800)-782-1768 Email: [email protected] Web: https://www.verifiedmarketresearch.com/ Follow Us: LinkedIn | Twitter SOURCE Verified Market Research DUBLIN, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "HIV Drugs Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Implications and Growth to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Major players in the HIV drugs market are ViiV Healthcare, Gilead Sciences, Merck & Co., Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Janssen (Johnson & Johnson), F. HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE LTD, Boehringer Ingelheim (C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Ko. KG), AbbVie, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline plc, and Mylan Pharmaceuticals. The global HIV drugs market is expected to grow from $30.52 billion in 2020 to $31.28 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.5%. The change in growth trend is mainly due to the companies stabilizing their output after catering to the demand that grew exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The market is expected to reach $36.46 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 3.9%. The novel corona virus outbreak has augmented the growth of global HIV drugs market. HIV drugs are repurposed to treat Covid 19 infections. Currently, several countries are evaluating and using antiretroviral drugs (for instance lopinavir boosted with ritonavir (LPV/r)), for treating corona virus infection. Side Effects of HIV Drugs have always been a major challenge in antiretroviral therapy. Antiretroviral drugs are used to treat HIV and AIDS as these drugs help lower viral load, control the growth of the virus, boosts the ability to fight infections, prevent HIV transmission to others and help stop or slow down symptoms. These drugs come with both short-term side effects (diarrhea, difficulty in sleeping, dizziness, fatigue, headache, muscle pain) and long-term side effects (depression, diabetes, heart disease, insomnia). There are several side effects associated with the therapy, thus impacting the growth of the market. Antiretroviral drugs market is increasingly implementing multi-class combination products for treatment of anti-retroviral therapy. Combination drugs combine multiple medications into one drug form. Example for multiclass combination drugs or single-tablet regimens (STRs), include both NRTIs and NNRTIs: doravirine, lamivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (Delstrigo). Based on drug class, drugs are segmented into Integrase Inhibitors, Protease Inhibitors, Multi-class Combination Products, Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRTIs), Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs) and Others. Multi-class Combination Products is the rising burden of HIV and new drug approval. According to WHO, around 690 000 people died from HIV in 2019. Many companies are focusing on developing breakthrough products for the treatment through antiretroviral drugs in order to maintain their competitive advantage and penetrate new regional markets. Increasing awareness among people regarding diagnosis and treatment of HIV disease acts as an important driver for the growth of the HIV drug market. HIV/AIDS is one of the most chronic diseases and the high prevalence of the disease in almost all parts of the world has resulted in an unprecedented awareness regarding the disease. According to WHO, 26 million people were diagnosed with HIV/AIDS in 2020, whereas, 32.7 million people died of AIDS related illness at the end of 2019. The federal government agencies, and various associations across the globe have introduced many initiatives and education campaigns for community awareness to address HIV prevention, treatment, and care. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. HIV Drugs Market Characteristics 3. HIV Drugs Market Trends And Strategies 4. Impact Of COVID-19 On HIV Drugs 5. HIV Drugs Market Size And Growth 5.1. Global HIV Drugs Historic Market, 2015-2020, $ Billion 5.1.1. Drivers Of The Market 5.1.2. Restraints On The Market 5.2. Global HIV Drugs Forecast Market, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 5.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 5.2.2. Restraints On the Market 6. HIV Drugs Market Segmentation 6.1. Global HIV Drugs Market, Segmentation By Type, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NRT's) Non- Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRT's) Protease Inhibitors Integrate Inhibitors Fusion Inhibitors Chemokine Receptor Inhibitors Others 6.2. Global HIV Drugs Market, Segmentation By Application, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Hospital Pharmacies Retail Pharmacies Online Pharmacies Others 6.3. Global HIV Drugs Market, Segmentation By Administration, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Oral Parenteral 7. HIV Drugs Market Regional And Country Analysis 7.1. Global HIV Drugs Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 7.2. Global HIV Drugs Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Companies Mentioned ViiV Healthcare Gilead Sciences Merck & Co., Inc. Bristol-Myers Squibb Company Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) F. HOFFMANN-LA ROCHE LTD Boehringer Ingelheim (C.H. Boehringer Sohn AG & Ko. KG) AbbVie, Inc. GlaxoSmithKline plc Mylan Pharmaceuticals Pfizer TEVA PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES LTD Hetero Drugs Daiichi Sankyo Emcure AstraZeneca CIPLA Alexion Pharmaceuticals Shionogi Theratechnologies Abbott Laboratories Inc. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/97y6fm Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com DUBLIN, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "CAR-T Therapy Pipeline Analysis Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Growth and Change to 2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. This report focuses on CAR-T therapy market which is experiencing strong growth. The report gives a guide to the car-t therapy market which will be shaping and changing our lives over the next ten years and beyond, including the markets response to the challenge of the global pandemic. Major players in the chimeric antigen receptor -T therapy market are Novartis AG, Kite Pharma, Pfizer Inc, Juno Therapeutics, Celgene Corporation, CARsgen Therapeutics, Sorrento Therapeutics, and Legend Biotech. The global car-t therapy pipeline analysis market is expected to grow from $1.08 billion in 2020 to $1.4 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.6%. The growth is mainly due to the companies resuming their operations and adapting to the new normal while recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $3.15 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 22%. North America was the largest region in the global car-t therapy pipeline analysis market, accounting for 61% of the market in 2019. Western Europe was the second largest region accounting for 38% of the global regional preview market. The CAR-T therapy market covered in this report is segmented by target antigen into CD19, CD22, others. It is also segmented by application into acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, diffuse large b-cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, multiple myeloma, others. The limitations on the application of CAR-T therapy limits the growth of the market. The limitations on CAR-T therapy includes its failure to treat other types of cancer, side effects and the high cost of treatment. CAR-T therapy is widely used as a treatment for a particular type of blood cancer and fails to treat other types of cancers such as lung cancer or breast cancer. Further, in many cases the application of CAR-T therapy results in cytokine release syndrome (CRS). CRS is severe flu like condition causing high fever, nausea, chills, headache, rash, and troubled breathing. Further, the high cost limits the growth of the market. According to an article in HealthLeaders in 2019, the cost of one CAR-T therapy session can be up to $375,000 excluding the overhead charges such as hospital bills. Thus, the growth of the CAR-T therapy is restricted by the various limitations on the application of CAR-T therapy. The companies in the CAR-T therapy market are conducting clinical trials to assess the ability of CAR-T therapy to treat multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is a type of white blood cell cancer where the cancer cells accumulate in the bone marrow and surrounds the healthy blood cells. CAR-T therapy is being tested as a treatment for multiple myeloma. CAR-T cells are modified to target the multiple myeloma causing cells to treat the relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). For instance, Sorrento Therapeutics, a USA based developer of therapeutic approaches to treat different types of cancer, developed CAR2 anti-CD38 CAR-T cell therapy to treat RRMM. The CAR2 anti-CD38 CAR-T cell therapy is in phase 1 of its clinical trial with 72 participant recruitments made by the end of 2019.The aim of the clinical trial is to evaluate the efficiency and safety of CAR2 anti-CD38 CAR-T cell therapy. The trial is expected to be completed in 2020. In 2019, Novartis, a Switzerland based global medicines company, acquired CellforCure for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition is aimed to increase Novartis' internal production capacity for cell and gene therapies. CellforCure is a French based contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) that provides manufacturing facility for cell and gene therapy. CellforCure assisted Novartis in 2017 to manufacture CAR-T treatment named Kymriah. The CAR-T therapy market is driven by the increasing financial support provided by different organizations to promote the development and consumption of CAR-T therapy. The government and non-government organizations provide financial support to the companies in CAR-T therapy market for research and development and to the patients for their treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). For instance, in 2019, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment of New Zealand announced its contribution of $4.9 million over 5 years to its partnership scheme with Malaghan Institute (MI), in order to support the development of CAR T-cell manufacturing in New Zealand. Further, governments in some countries provide subsidy to patients undergoing CAR-T therapy owing to the high cost of the treatment. For example, in 2019, the government of Australia included the CAR-T therapy on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS). The inclusion of (Kymriah) CAR-T therapy in MBS reduces the cost of the treatment for almost 30 paediatric and young adult (ALL) patients per year in Australia. The financial support provided by different organizations towards CAR-T therapy positively drives the growth of CAR-T therapy market. Key Topics Covered: 1. Executive Summary 2. CAR-T Therapy Market Characteristics 3. CAR-T Therapy Market Trends And Strategies 4. Impact Of COVID-19 On CAR-T Therapy 5. CAR-T Therapy Market Size And Growth 5.1. Global CAR-T Therapy Historic Market, 2015-2020, $ Billion 5.1.1. Drivers Of The Market 5.1.2. Restraints On The Market 5.2. Global CAR-T Therapy Forecast Market, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 5.2.1. Drivers Of The Market 5.2.2. Restraints On the Market 6. CAR-T Therapy Market Segmentation 6.1. Global CAR-T Therapy Market, Segmentation By Target Antigen, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion CD19 CD22 Others 6.2. Global CAR-T Therapy Market, Segmentation By Application, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Follicular Lymphoma Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Multiple Myeloma Others 7. CAR-T Therapy Market Regional And Country Analysis 7.1. Global CAR-T Therapy Market, Split By Region, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion 7.2. Global CAR-T Therapy Market, Split By Country, Historic and Forecast, 2015-2020, 2020-2025F, 2030F, $ Billion Companies Mentioned Novartis AG Kite Pharma Pfizer Inc Juno Therapeutics Celgene Corporation CARsgen Therapeutics Sorrento Therapeutics Legend Biotech Mustang Bio Immune Therapeutics Atara Biotherapeutics Aurora Biopharma Inc. Eureka Therapeutics Autolus TILT Biotherapeutics Fortress Biotech. Autolus Therapeutics PLC bluebird bio Carina Biotech CARTherics Endocyte, Inc. F1 Oncology, Inc. Fate Therapeutics Inc. Gilead Oxford BioMedica PLC. PeproMene Bio Inc. Tessa Therapeutics Pte Ltd. TILT Biotherapeutics Ltd. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/flbq0e Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com LAS VEGAS, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- GNCC Capital, Inc. (GNCP.PK) ("The Company" or "GNCC") confirms that further to our Press Release dated April 28, 2021, that we have agreed with our lenders to make the first of what we expect to be three synergistic acquisitions. The Company is acquiring a Canadian MSB that is licensed to include: Foreign exchange dealing, Cashing or selling money orders, Money transferring, Transmission of money (or representation of money), cashing cheques payable to customers, Direct IBANS to collect clients' funds in their names, Authorized to Provide Money Remittance, Taking intermediary payments between a payer and a supplier through telecommunication, digital, and IT devices, offering payment services for bills and capable of accepting Wechat payments. It has an additional license for activity with cryptocurrencies. This pending acquisition is being facilitated by a secured loan and upon generally accepted commercial terms to your Company. We will not be issuing any of our shares of Common nor Preferred Stock in respect of this initial and further transactions. We have elected to provide far more detailed information through OTC Market Filings and until such time as we have appointed a PR firm to deal with shareholder communications and investor presentations. Your Directors wish to quietly get on with business and not have to constantly deal with a barrage of E Mail messages full of demands and coupled with endless vicious attacks on Internet Stock Chat Forums. Your Directors cannot afford to expend management time having to be engaged with these issues. In summary, we are redoubling our efforts to appoint a suitable and credible Public Relations company to provide our shareholders with information on a daily basis. We, going forward will focus solely on business matters and day to day operations and will not be dealing with shareholder interaction, press releases and other issues that our shareholders deserve from a professional. We can assure our shareholders that a suitable appointment will be made and as fast as is possible. We would have preferred to expand upon our planning in this Press Release but following lengthy deliberation, a decision was made late yesterday to leave that to the professionals. Forward Looking Statements:- This press release may contain forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "expect," "should," "intend," "estimate," "projects," variations of such words and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, but their absence does not mean that a statement is not a forward-looking statement. These forward-looking statements are based upon the Company's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ significantly from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file with the OTC Markets Group. Contact Information: GNCC CAPITAL, INC. Telephone: (702) 990-0156 E Mail: [email protected] Investor Relations Contact: E Mail: [email protected] Twitter: https://twitter.com/ gncccapital SOURCE GNCC Capital, Inc. HEFEI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Thunderstorms, strong wind and hail have hit east China's Anhui Province, local authorities said Tuesday. Beginning Monday, severe convection has been ravaging cities in Anhui, bringing up to 75 mm of precipitation and gales blowing up to 35.2 meters per second, the provincial meteorological bureau said. Hailstorms were also reported in the city of Huangshan. The spire of a 60.8-meter-high ancient pagoda in the city of Anqing was blown down at around 6:30 p.m. on Monday, causing no casualties, according to the local government. Enditem I would like the city administration to let me know what I can afford, what I can afford to do and not do, what would be the financial impact for the city, and would that mean raising fees, revenue, taxes to pay for it, Alexander said. ULTRA Beer Run is an unprecedented program that allows people to exchange their miles, push-ups, downwards dogs or any exercise activity for the unmatched experience of grabbing a cold one with friends, post-workout. A relentless champion of living an active, balanced lifestyle, Michelob ULTRA believes workouts are better with others and that it's only worth it if you enjoy it. This epic, one-of-a-kind program inspires active seekers all over the U.S. and rewards them with refreshing Michelob ULTRA to celebrate their pursuits. To participate, 21+ consumers download the MyCooler app and register. Then simply upload proof of a workout via a post-workout selfie, screenshot of a fitness app or workout summary - it's that easy! Michelob ULTRA will email runners, yogis, bodybuilders, and anyone in between a digital prepaid card valued at $5 that they can use to purchase a Michelob ULTRA. For more information and to get excited about an active summer together, visit ULTRABeerRun.com. "Workouts that end with a 'cheers' are the best kind! As the world begins to safely reopen, Michelob ULTRA's Beer Run looks forward to people being active together and rewarding them for doing so with a refreshing beer after a run or workout," said Ricardo Marques, Vice President of Marketing, Michelob ULTRA. "At just 95 calories and 2.6 carbs, ULTRA is a perfect complement to an active lifestyle." To spread the word, on Saturday, May 15, Michelob ULTRA is taking over popular running locations in New York and Chicago where they will reward people for their physical activity with beer, hand out branded premiums and sign them up to trade in their miles for beer. The Michelob ULTRA Beer Run is a fully integrated, summer-long campaign that includes OOH, social media giveaways, retail activation, experiential and PR. In addition, there will be an emotive :30 film entitled "The Pursuit" -- a story of why people workout -- that will live on social with a :15 version airing on TV. To learn how to participate in the ULTRA Beer Run, follow @MichelobULTRA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube and the #ULTRABeerRun hashtag. For more information visit www.MichelobULTRA.com . Program Disclosures: ULTRA BEER RUN GIVEAWAY. No Purchase Necessary. Open to US and DC residents (excluding AL, CA and TX residents) who are participants of the "My Cooler Rewards Program" who are 21+. See Program Terms and Conditions at Mycooler.com/beerrunrules for prizes and details. Message and data rates may apply. Void where prohibited. Prize is a $5 virtual card that can be used to purchase one (1) Michelob ULTRA. About Michelob ULTRA Introduced in 2002, Michelob ULTRA is currently the fastest growing beer brand in the United States by share and the No. 2 beer in the industry by dollar sales. With just 95 calories, 2.6 carbs and no artificial flavors or colors, it is a superior light beer that celebrates the active, balanced lifestyle of its drinkers that includes both fitness and fun. Michelob ULTRA's choice of grains and extended mashing process leads to its refreshing taste and fewer carbohydrates. It is brewed with the finest barley malt, rice, hops, and a pure-cultured yeast strain, all of which reflect Anheuser-Busch's commitment to brewing quality. Michelob ULTRA reminds you to always drink, and sweat, responsibly. About Anheuser-Buschs Lets Grab A Beer Michelob ULTRA's Beer Run initiative is part of Anheuser-Busch's "Let's Grab A Beer" platform that aims to make the moments we come together over a beer even better. To learn more about "Let's Grab A Beer," visit us on YouTube. Anheuser-Busch has always stood by their consumers and communities, and the brewer is proud to build on that legacy by continuing their efforts to lead the safe and strong recovery of the country. With "Let's Grab a Beer," Anheuser-Busch is looking forward to the reopening of our neighborhood restaurants and bars, cheering on our favorite teams, and safely gathering in person again. Please drink responsibly and socialize safely by being aware of and compliant with your local COVID-19 guidelines. About Anheuser-Busch For more than 165 years, Anheuser-Busch has carried on a legacy of brewing great-tasting, high-quality beers that have satisfied beer drinkers for generations. Today, we own and operate more than 120 facilities, including breweries, wholesaler distribution centers, agricultural facilities and packaging plants, and have more than 19,000 colleagues across the United States. We are home to several of Americas most recognizable beer brands, including Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob ULTRA and Stella Artois, as well as a number of regional brands that provide beer drinkers with a choice of the best-tasting craft beers in the industry. From responsible drinking programs and emergency drinking water donations to industry-leading sustainability efforts, we are guided by our unwavering commitment to supporting the communities we call home. For more information, visit www.anheuser-busch.com or follow Anheuser-Busch on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For More Information: Jessica Thorpe [email protected] Kelly Ricci [email protected] SOURCE Michelob ULTRA Related Links http://www.michelobultra.com PEORIA, Ill., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OSF Innovation and its partners at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP) and Illinois State University (ISU) in Normal, Illinois, have received a federal Human Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) grant to continue work to expand childhood vaccinations to children of low-income families in Central Illinois. Recent CDC data shows fewer children were vaccinated on time this year compared to last year, in part, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. HRSA invited grant applicants to propose and implement innovative approaches to increase access to and utilization of well-child visits and immunization services. OSF is already part of the federal Vaccines for Children (VFC) program providing free vaccines to children whose families meet income guidelines. This new grant will fund vaccinations for children in families that might not qualify under those low-income guidelines. In addition, OSF will use the funding to purchase refrigerators for the mobile OSF Care-A-Van to store vaccines when going out into the community. A small portion of the grant will also support vaccine education in communities. "The HRSA award is a competitive, multi-stage grant, and we will be working toward a second round of funding in the fall," said OSF Design Lab Director Scott Barrows. "Our vision is to possibly expand the program throughout the state and refine efforts from what we have learned and data collected." "This mobile vaccine effort is part of a large-scale initiative using OSF Innovation Labs to improve the conditions that lead to health disparities. Each lab has its own best fit, and often projects can involve collaboration among the labs to ensure practical application of solutions to help vulnerable populations," said John Vozenilek, MD, vice president and chief medical officer for OSF Innovation and Digital Health, at Jump Simulation & Education Center.. The Innovation Labs are creating scalable solutions that can improve access and quality of care for Medicaid patients throughout the state. OSF OnCall Digital Health enables community health workers to use well-designed tools that leverage analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence for outreach to underserved populations. OSF Innovation has engaged in targeted partnerships to develop the pipeline for diverse, future health care workers through its STEAM and Pre-Surgical Immersion offerings via Jump Simulation. Through the mobile vaccination effort, OSF Innovation is tapping resources in its Data Science and Advanced Informatics Lab, Children's Innovation Lab and its Design Lab to use advanced AI-informed technology to fuel mobile outreach. Pediatric nurses and doctors, along with community partners, will use the OSF Care-A-Van to expand vaccinations for children in underserved areas. Barrows says the OSF Design Lab has again partnered with Dr. Adam Cross of UICOMP who is also clinical informaticist for the OSF Innovation Children's Lab, Dr. Mary Stapel, director of OSF Community Care Clinics, and Population Health Manager Elise Albers of OSF HealthCare Children's Hospital of Illinois, as well as with Dr. Shaoen Wu of ISU. The project aligns with the current Illinois Innovation Network (IIN), ISU research grant and current Jump ARCHES grant research. The grants are receiving additional research support from interns at the U of I, ISU, University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and Bradley University. Dr. Stapel will be working with community members and developing partnerships, particularly with schools that have a large percentage of low-income families. As summer approaches, community outreach will accelerate to meet families where they are. Photos associated with this story are available for download on the OSF Newsroom OSF HealthCare is an integrated health system owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis, headquartered in Peoria, Illinois. OSF HealthCare employs more than 23,600 Mission Partners in 147 locations, including 14 hospitals 10 acute care, four critical access with 2,097 licensed beds, and two colleges of nursing throughout Illinois and Michigan. The OSF HealthCare physician network employs more than 1,500 primary care, specialist and advanced practice providers. OSF HealthCare, through OSF Home Care Services, operates an extensive network of home health and hospice services. It also owns Pointcore, Inc., comprised of health care-related businesses; OSF HealthCare Foundation, the philanthropic arm for the organization; and OSF Ventures, which provides investment capital for promising health care innovation startups. More at www.osfhealthcare.org/. OSF Innovation, launched in 2016, is a multidisciplinary innovation center focused on internal and external innovation to solve the largest health care challenges. More at www.osfinnovation.org and www.osfhealthcare.org. Jump Simulation, a part of OSF Innovation, is a collaboration between University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria and OSF HealthCare. The Jump center replicates a variety of patient care settings to ensure novice and seasoned clinicians can practice handling medical situations in a life-like environment. Boasting six floors and 168,000 square feet, the center is one of the largest of its kind and provides space for conferences, anatomic training, virtual reality and innovation. For more information, visit www.jumpsimulation.org University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP) educates 244 medical students and nearly 300 physician residents annually. The College of Medicine is home to the Cancer Research Center, the Center for Outcomes Research and is a collaborator in Jump Simulation. Learn more about UICOMP at peoria.medicine.uic.edu/. Illinois State University School of Information Technology provides premier undergraduate and distinguished graduate programs to develop highly competent professionals who contribute to and succeed in the rapidly evolving field of information technology through excellence in education and research. Learn more at it.illinoisstate.edu/. Contact: Colleen Reynolds | Media Relations Coordinator, OSF HealthCare| cell (309) 825-7255 SOURCE OSF HealthCare Related Links http://www.osfhealthcare.org "The opening of this unit brings St. Elizabeth's Medical Center's bed count to 308 and is crucial to furthering our ability to provide the highest-quality care and experience for our patients as the tertiary care facility for Steward Health Care here in Massachusetts," said Paul Smith, Chief Operating Officer at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. The unit is located within the sixth floor of the hospital's Connell Building, which was built in 2009 with shelled upper-floor space included in anticipation of future demand for additional patient beds on the hospital campus. While a conceptual design of this unit had been completed in prior years, the hospital didn't begin full design in earnest until March of 2020. Led by the design team at HED , and working closely with our engineering partners from BR+A, this new med/surg unit adds 16 patient beds, including 2 isolation rooms, to the hospital's existing 140 med/surg bed count. The 10,000 square foot project was designed in just 30 days and construction documents completed in 10 weeks in order to add new, flexible, acuity-adaptable beds as quickly as possible. The suite was built in just 8 months by the team at Consigli Construction for $6.3 million in construction cost. The project's innovative planning approach was crafted with the flow of staff and patients in mind, separating circulation paths for these groups, increasing staff efficiency, and minimizing activity and noise for patients located in the perimeter rooms. Five dispersed nursing stations provide visible observation of all 16 patient rooms around the L-shaped unit. These stations maintain a centralized orientation to reduce the isolation that can sometimes be experienced by med/surg unit staff. HED's design team utilized a DIRTT modular wall system for patient room headwalls throughout the suite, a design solution that provides maximum flexibility for the facility in anticipation of evolving clinical demands and healthcare technology in the years to come. Solid surface countertops and sinks were utilized in patient care and work areas as well, designed as a direct response to the heightened sanitation climate brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. 'The custom-designed DIRTT headwall units were pre-built with all the medical gas piping and electrical wiring installed in the factory. The units were then brought on-site and inserted into all 16 patient rooms within just a few days, which saved considerable construction time," said Jackie Royer, AIA, LEED AP, an Architect with HED who helped lead the assignment.' Now in 2021, as hospital admissions are rebounding, the opening of this Medical Surgical Unit at St. Elizabeth Medical Center comes just in time to help the hospital's team further the health of the community in and around Brighton. ABOUT HED At HED, great design is about thinking creatively to overcome challenges and improve real world outcomes. Our firm has a long history and reputation for excellence because we believe that all the facets of our design, from architecture, consulting, engineering, and planning, must create a positive impact for our clients, the community, and the world through responsive, innovative, and sustainable design solutions. This belief has allowed our firm to succeed and grow in a broad range of markets in eight U.S. offices (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, and Sacramento). See how HED advances your world at www.hed.design. ABOUT ST. ELIZABETH'S MEDICAL CENTER St. Elizabeth's Medical Center, a Boston University Teaching Hospital, offers patients access to some of Boston's most respected physicians and advanced treatments for a full range of medical specialties, including family medicine, cardiovascular care, women and infants' health, cancer care, neurology care, and orthopedics. The 308-bed tertiary care facility is part of Steward Health Care. Learn more at www.semc.org. Media Contact: Nicole Marshall 504.644.7335 [email protected] SOURCE HED Related Links hed.design NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hostelling International USA (HI USA), the nation's largest hostel network, will begin a phased reopening of its hostels beginning with the reopening of HI Chicago Hostel and HI Santa Monica Hostel on May 19. These hostels join the already reopened HI NYC and HI Boston as well as their CA Bay area properties which are currently operating as vacation rentals. HI USA closed all of its hostels last April due to COVID-19 restrictions. Following the Chicago and Santa Monica reopenings will be HI San Francisco Downtown and HI San Diego Downtown hostels on May 26, HI Truro and HI Martha's Vineyard hostels in June and HI NOLA over Labor Day weekend. The remaining HI USA hostels will reopen in the fall. In September 2020, HI USA reopened its flagship New York hostel as well as its historic Boston property. The organization instituted new policies during COVID, including reconfiguring their guest rooms and public spaces to allow for more distancing, and creating new health and safety proceduresits "Let's Stay Safe, Together" programin order to welcome guests back to its hostels. Currently, all dorm rooms are being rented at 50% capacity or to groups traveling together. HI USA has also adapted various hostel properties to best meet the needs of travelers. In September 2020, HI USA also announced a temporary conversion of three of its CA Bay-area properties HI Point Montara Lighthouse Hostel, HI Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel and HI POINT REYES HOSTEL into vacation rentals. The company also converted HI Sacramento into a group rental and event venue space. The vacation rentals are ideal for groups or families. They can be rented as private units or the entire hostel facilities, including their kitchens and indoor and outdoor public areas, for a completely private and expansive stay. They also offer abundant outdoor activities, making them an ideal vacation this summer. Rates vary by rental unit and date. When HI Truro and HI Martha's Vineyard reopen in June they will also be offered as vacation rentals. HI Truro offers a six-person dorm room with three sets of bunks, and a three-person dorm with a bunk bed and twin bed accommodating 9 people total. The hostel also offers a full kitchen, spacious living room, large back deck and is just five minutes from the beaches of the Cape Cod National Seashore. Rates start at $750 for the property. On Martha's Vineyard, the hostel, which can accommodate up to 32 people, making it the ideal site for extended family gatherings, is located in serene Vineyard Haven. There are four dorm rooms: Small Dorm, which accommodates five people with two sets of bunks and a twin bed Large Dorm, which accommodates 10 people in five sets of bunks Large Dorm 2, which accommodates 12 people in six sets of bunks Private en Suite room which offers a set of bunks and twin bed plus private bathroom There is also a full kitchen and dining area, large living room and outside picnic area. The property is close to the beach and has a bus stop right in front, for easy access to the town and other parts of the Vineyard. Rates start at $750 for the property. Guests at HI Chicago can experience the ultimate pod or "stay within a stay" vacation. The hostel's 7th floor has rentable apartments with four, two and one-bedroom options as well as full kitchens, living rooms and a full bathroom. These are also ideal for families, groups or couples traveling together who want a private stay with ample space as well as the flexibility to prepare their own meals while also enjoying great savings. Rates for "pods" start at $150 for the one-bedroom apartment and can be reserved through Booking.com. At HI Boston and HI NOLA, dorm rooms are configured railroad style with bunk beds aligned on one side of the room facing the wall, so no guests face each other in their bunks. Each bunk has a locker, personal shelf with docking station and charger, outlets and reading lights. Each dorm room has a hallway bathroom located directly outside for room occupants to use exclusively. Four, six, seven and eight-bedded dorms are available, making them ideal for groups of friends or families traveling this summer. HI NYC offers privacy panels, so each bunk has a curtain surrounding it to give guests more privacy. All the city hostels, including HI Santa Monica, HI SF Downtown and HI San Diego Downtown, offer private single and double rooms in addition to dorms. Rates for the city hostels start at $49. "Let's Stay Safe, Together" To give guests and staff added comfort upon reopening, HI USA has introduced its "Let's Stay Safe, Together" program, which includes safe distancing guidelines, mask requirements for all staff and guests, temperature checks at check-in and for all staff daily, enhanced cleaning, and contact tracing. Initially, hostel kitchens will have limited services, cafes will be closed, and kitchens, lounges and public areas will have reduced capacity. Hostels' dorm rooms will be sold at very reduced occupancy, so individual guests and small travel parties will have exclusive use of their dorm rooms. Organized group social activities remain suspended until further notice. "We are excited to reopen the majority of our hostels to welcome guests this summer," said Russ Hedge, CEO of HI USA. "So far, our health and safety program has been really well received and guests who have stayed at our New York and Boston properties and our California hostels have responded really favorably. We are also pleased to be able to offer many different options from full vacation property rentals to apartment spaces to best accommodate the needs of our guests." A core mission of HI USA is to bring together people from different cultures and countries. During the pandemic, while in person gatherings haven't been possible, HI USA has offered virtual gatherings. Sessions include sustainable travel, solo travel, diversity and culture awareness when traveling and more. For more information about HI USA or to make a reservation at one of its hostels that are reopening, stay updated on the openings of additional hostels or learn about their new vacation rental units, visit www.hiusa.org or @hiusa. About HI USA Hostelling International USA (HI USA) is a nonprofit, member organization founded on an enduring belief in the power of travel to foster a deeper understanding of people, places, and the world. HI USA promotes a dynamic community of global citizens who have the wisdom and humanity to actively make the world a better place. As the nation's leading hostel brand, HI USA hosted more than 1 million overnight stays in 2019, with guests from more than 100 countries. For over 80 years, HI USA has provided a network of affordable hostels in converted mansions, reinvented lighthouses, and historic urban buildings across the country. Visit www.hiusa.org for more information. HI USA is part of Hostelling International (HI), a collection of hostels in nearly 90 countries, whose roots stretch back to the beginning of the hostelling movement more than 100 years ago. The HI brand is a seal of approval recognized around the world. Media contact: Gabby McNamara, GMAC Communications, (908) 461-5260, [email protected] SOURCE Hostelling International USA NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In light of International Nurses Day, Hispanic Star and NurseHeroes.org have announced their collaborative scholarship program, 'Hispanic Star Nurse Heroes' . This program aims to address the shortage of nurses while creating opportunities for Latinas in the healthcare industry. Alex Charlton, Chairman and CEO of Carlyle Global Partners who launched NurseHeroes.org a year ago stated: "There is an accelerating shortage of nurses around the world. Within three years we will have about 1 million fewer nurses than we require in the United States, we must act now" The Hispanic Star Nurse Heroes Scholarship program is dedicated to fighting the shortage of nurses while also creating opportunities for Latinas and their families. A $150,000 donation will fund the tuition of 20 future nurses, providing each scholarship awardee with $7,500 to cover tuition. The goal is to cover the education costs for 1,000 Latinas studying to become nurses and raise $7.5 million from partners to cover their tuition expenses. 92% of current nurses are women and even though we anticipate the majority of scholarship grantees to be women, this program is open to all Hispanics. "Latinas are the multiplier effect, they are more likely to live in multigenerational homes, so when a Latina rises, she supports both her parents and their children, creating the opportunity for long-lasting upward mobility" Claudia Romo Edelman, Founder and Chairwoman, We Are All Human Foundation. Employment opportunities for nurses are projected to grow faster than all other occupations through 2026, however, Hispanic nurses are underrepresented in this occupation. Currently, Hispanic nurses only account for 4.6% of nurses in the nation. "Latinas make excellent nurses-yet the pathway to a career in nursing can be challenging as many Latinas continue to work while going to school. A scholarship would really lessen the financial burden so Latinas could focus academically on their career." Dr. Adrianna Nava, a nurse herself and President of the National Association of Hispanic Nurses. In addition to supporting a future nurse's education, donors will have additional benefits depending on the number of scholarships they fund. For example, corporate ambassadors will have the opportunity to co-host the 'Nurse Heroes Love Concert!' to be held in the fall. A concert that will build on the more than 10 million viewers that watched the previous concert 'Nurse Heroes Live!' held last year and featuring iconic artists including Black Eyed Peas, Andrea Bocelli, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Emily Estefan, David Foster, Katharine McPhee Foster, Josh Groban, Carole King, Maluma, Leslie Odom Jr., Pitbull, Allen Stone, The Wailers, Adrienne Warren, Stevie Wonder, host Whoopi Goldberg, and special appearances by Marc Anthony, Billy Crystal, Oprah Winfrey, and more. For more information on how to get involved and donate to the Hispanic Star Nurse Heroes, please visit 'Hispanic Star Nurse Heroes' . About Hispanic Star The Hispanic Star is a national collective effort to unify and advance the Hispanic community. It is the largest network of its kind, combining corporate leadership and community organizations at the national and local level to accelerate the upward mobility of Hispanics. At its core, the Hispanic Star is founded on the simple premise that what is good is for Hispanics is good for America. For more information, visit www.hispanicstar.org and We Are All Human . About Nurses Heroes.org Motivated philanthropists, celebrities and media organizations have joined forces to honor our Nurse Heroes and raise much needed funds to create a future without a shortage of nurses in the workforce. For more information, visit nurseheroes.org About NAHN (National Association of Hispanic Nurses) Since 1975 the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) is the nation's leading professional society for Latino nurses. With a growing membership in 47 local chapters, NAHN, represents the voices of Latino nurses in our country. For more information, visit nahnnet.org Media Contact: Mariana Hernandez, [email protected] SOURCE We Are All Human Related Links weareallhuman.org Hologram's mission is to connect any device to any network, instantaneously, anywhere. Their culture is grounded in the core values of mindfulness, transparency, and ownership. In addition to a remote-first workplace, Hologram's benefits include unlimited personal time off, mandatory mental health days, 14 weeks paid parental leave, unlimited e-books and audiobooks, and more. Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organization's benefits were also audited to determine the company's overall score and ranking. "We're honored and humbled to win two of Inc.'s prestigious awards for Best Workplaces and Prosperous and Thriving," says Ben Forgan, CEO and cofounder of Hologram. "We've always taken great pride in developing a company culture that values our hardworking team members and encourages a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe our benefits are more than just perks but what every company should offer their employees to underscore their value and commitment to them." "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." Hologram also announced this year it has grown in four main areas - revenue, device usage, lead generation and team members. To learn more about career opportunities at Hologram, please visit here . About Hologram Hologram's mission is to connect any device to any network, instantaneously, anywhere. With Hologram, SIM cards automatically switch network access to the best coverage across more than 550 carriers in more than 200 countries. To learn more about Hologram, please visit www.hologram.io or join Hologram on social media at Twitter here , Facebook here , and LinkedIn here . About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com . About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. SOURCE Hologram Related Links http://www.hologram.io CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this Indonesia data center market report. Indonesia data center market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 6% during the period 20202026. Indonesia data center market research report includes market size in terms of area, investment, power capacity, and colocation revenues. Get insights on 40 existing data center and 5 upcoming facilities spread across 11 cities. Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Jakarta is the major data center hub in Indonesia , hosting over 17 unique third-party data centers accounting for over 35% of the existing power capacity addition. In 2020, Jakarta accounted for over 60% of the total investment in Indonesia by data center operators. The Indonesian Government's program 'Making Indonesia 4.0' will put Indonesia among the top ten global economies by 2030 by implementing digital transformation in different industry verticals such as manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and more. New entrants will provide a major boost to market growth during 2021-2026, supporting the wholesale needs of local enterprises and cloud service providers in the region. By 2025, the Indonesian Government plans to achieve a renewable energy usage of 23% in the overall energy generation and reach a goal of 31% by 2050. Owing to power unreliability in Indonesia , there will be increased interest shown by the government and utility companies to enhance the stability of the grid supply supporting critical facilities like data centers. Key Offerings: Market size & forecast by area, power capacity, investment, and colocation revenue | 2020-2026 Impact of COVID-19 on Data Center Market Snapshot of existing and upcoming third-party facilities in Indonesia Facilities Covered (Existing): 40 Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 5 Coverage: 11 Cities Existing vs. Upcoming (Data Center Area) Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity) Data center colocation market in Indonesia Market Revenue & Forecast (2020-2026) Retail Colocation Pricing Wholesale Colocation Pricin Market Dynamics Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities Market Segmentation A detailed analysis by IT infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, and tier standard Key Market Participants List of 7 IT infrastructure providers, 4 construction service providers, 14 support infrastructure providers, and 6 data center investors Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/indonesia-data-center-market-analysis-2025 Indonesia Data Center Market Segmentation The increasing usage of social media platforms in the region will lead to the development of new data centers to store the data generated, thereby fueling the demand for high-capacity storage solutions. The storage systems market was driven by the increased adoption of all-flash storage arrays with a sizable contribution from hybrid storage arrays. Indonesian data centers are a major adopter of DRUS systems, with generators mostly used in N+1 redundant configuration. For instance, GTN's West Java data center has adopted HITECH DRUPS system in N+1 redundant configuration, and Biznet's Technovillage data center has adopted N+1 redundant KINOLT (Euro Diesel) DRUPS systems and N+1 generator for non-critical power. data center has adopted HITECH DRUPS system in N+1 redundant configuration, and Biznet's Technovillage data center has adopted N+1 redundant KINOLT (Euro Diesel) DRUPS systems and N+1 generator for non-critical power. 42U rack units are adopted majorly by many colocation providers in Indonesia , such as GTN, NEX Data Center, Keppel Data Center, and more. Data center facilities open and under construction from 2020 to June 2021 added over 4,400 rack cabinets. Market Segmentation by IT Infrastructure Servers Storage Systems Network Infrastructure Market Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure UPS Systems Generators Transfer, Switches & Switchgears Rack PDUs Other Electrical Infrastructure Market Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure Cooling Systems Rack Cabinets Other Mechanical Infrastructure Market Segmentation by General Construction Building Development Installation & Commissioning Services Building Design Physical Security Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) Market Segmentation by Tier Standard Tier I & Tier II Tier III Tier IV Market Segmentation by Geography Jakarta Other Cities Indonesia Data Center Market Dynamics In 2020, Indonesia cloud computing market grew at a rate of over 45% compared to the last five years. Many organizations are adopting cloud-based services. For instance, Amar Bank Indonesia deployed the first digital-only bank in Indonesia, and Telecommunication company XL Axiata is migrating to Google Cloud to bring cloud capabilities such as Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to its on-premises data centers. Alfamart retail and e-commerce service provider has adopted cloud services with around 10,000 connected stores and over 10 million customers. COVID-19 has boosted cloud adoption in the country, with healthcare and educational institutions adopting both public and private cloud and SaaS being the major contributor. The PaaS and IaaS markets are expected to be the fastest-growing markets during the forecast period. Key Drivers and Trends fueling Market Growth: Internet Users and Social Media to Impact Data Center Investments Digital Transformation to Boost Data Center Investments Big Data and IoT Spending to Support Data Center Investments Colocation Investments to be Driven by Hyperscale Cloud Service Providers Indonesia Data Center Market - Existing Vs. Upcoming Data Centers Existing Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity West Java Jakarta Bali East Java Banten Riau Islands Riau North Sumatra South Sumatra South Sulawesi Central Java List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity) Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/indonesia-data-center-market-analysis-2025 Key Market Participants IT Infrastructure Providers Cisco Systems Dell Technologies Fujitsu Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) IBM Inspur Lenovo Construction Service Providers Asdi Swasatya AWP Architects DSCO Group NTT Facilities Support Infrastructure Providers ABB Caterpillar Cummins Delta Electronics Eaton Cyber Power Systems HITEC Power Protection Fuji Electric Legrand Piller Power Systems Rolls-Royce Power Systems Schneider Electric STULZ Vertiv Group Data Center Investors DCI Indonesia DTP (PT. Dwi Tunggal Putra ) ) Keppel Data Centres Biznet Data Center NTT Global Data Centers Space DC Explore our data center knowledge base profile to know more about the industry. Read some of the top-selling reports: About Arizton: Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services. We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts. Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports. Mail: [email protected] Call: +1-312-235-2040 SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence ATLANTA, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- An investor group led by Bartow Morgan, Jr., has completed the acquisition of the Georgia Banking Company, following the private placements of $125 million in common equity and $55 million in subordinated debt, it was announced today. The company will use the proceeds raised from the equity and debt sales to help build a commercial and private banking franchise with the technology and breadth of products to serve middle market businesses across several key sub-markets in northern metro Atlanta. Commercial lending, including commercial real estate, will be paired with treasury management services. The bank plans to move its headquarters later this year from Sandy Springs to 1776 Peachtree Road in Atlanta. Patriot Financial Partners was the lead institutional investor in the equity raise with FJ Capital Management as the second largest institutional investor. Both investors will have representatives serve on the company's board of directors. Long-time Georgia banker Jim Lientz, a partner in Safe Harbor Consulting, will serve as chairman of the board. The bank will also continue to provide its unique set of mortgage products to independent mortgage bankers across the nation. Key executives and other personnel from this organization will remain. "There is a need for an entrepreneurial community bank where the senior management team has established relationships throughout metro Atlanta and can provide a broad range of deposit and lending services," said Morgan, who will serve as chief executive officer. "With the local economy's projected growth, we see plenty of opportunities to reach small- and medium-size businesses that need a local lender." Performance Trust Capital Partners served as exclusive financial adviser and sole placement agent for both the common equity and debt offerings. Troutman Pepper served as legal advisor. The acquisition completes Morgan's return to banking in metro Atlanta. His great, great grandfather, E.M. Brand, founded Brand Bank in Gwinnett County in 1905, making Morgan the fifth-generation family member in the banking business. Brand Bank was sold to Renasant Corporation in 2018. About Georgia Banking Company Georgia Banking Company, Inc., a banking holding company with approximately $652 million in assets, provides a variety of financial services, including mortgage warehouse banking, construction lending, retail banking, government-guaranteed lending, specialty lending and commercial banking, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Georgia Banking Company. SOURCE Georgia Banking Company AUSTIN, Texas, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In an effort to promote sustainable and efficient IoT products and services, as well as the greening of all areas of connected solutions, IoT Marketing hosted the "Going Green with IoT" edition of Industry Insights Webinars. The live virtual event featured the Green, Lean, Machine2Machine contest, which consisted of two award categories: the Most Sustainable IoT Solution and the Most Efficient IoT Solution. The Green, Lean, Machine2Machine contest, featured on the "Going Green with IoT" edition of Industry Insights Webinars, recognizes businesses that have developed sustainable and efficient IoT products and services. Panelists and judges for the event include Ramesh Elaiyavalli of SourceLogix, smart city expert Bill Pugh, agtech expert Alexander Conrad, and sustainability innovator, Kerry Babb. Winners were awarded Video, PR, and Social Media packages provided by IoT Marketing and a free IoT and Cloud consulting package from SourceLogix, an Amazon AWS partner. This included architecture sessions, promotional credits to run systems on AWS and training. For qualifying businesses, some restrictions do apply. The Most Sustainable IoT Solution recognized businesses that have developed an IoT product or service geared towards achieving a greener, cleaner, and more sustainable future. Winners include Xylem Water Solutions, Ship Shape Urban Farms, and Webee. The Most Efficient IoT Solution recognized businesses that have developed an IoT product or service that enables organizations the ability to improve operational or energy efficiency. Winners include Blue Planet Energy, Atmosic, and Ragno Electronics. Host of Industry Insights Webinars, Tiffani Neilson shared, "Our vision is not only to share how to incorporate green best practices, but to also showcase real companies making real change." Founder and CEO of IoT Marketing, Johannes Beekman added, "People have found value in our ability to take the complexity out of connected ecosystem topics. Our numbers are growing every month, which tells me we're doing a good job bringing high-quality content to our community members." IoT Marketing is seeking experts, thought leaders and solution providers for its upcoming Industry Insights Webinars with topics including Demystifying Data Security, The Future of Smart Travel, Building Smart with IoT, and the Space Tech Special Edition. Industry Insights Webinars will host the second annual Industry Insights IoT Awards this December to further recognize the IoT ecosystem with categories that span a vast number of industries and verticals. About IoT Marketing: Based in Austin, Texas, IoT Marketing is a digital agency specializing in launching and fueling the growth of IoT and high-tech companies. With deep industry knowledge clients benefit from working with one outsourced firm offering end-to-end communications services, from websites to webinars, to handle all their marketing and PR needs. For more information, please visit IoTMktg.com. About Industry Insights Webinars: Industry Insights Webinars is a virtual community of thought leaders, industry experts, business professionals and solution providers, who share their knowledge and expertise about the Internet of Things through webinars. The monthly series educates those in need of connected solutions and aligns them with relevant information and suggestions from IoT and technology ecosystem partners. Media Contact Rose Begonia [email protected] (614) 695-1403 SOURCE IoT Marketing Related Links https://iotmktg.com/ ROSWELL, Ga., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark Professional today announced a donation of over 1 million face masks and cleaning products to school districts across the country. The donation, consisting of Kimberly-Clark Professional General Purpose Face Masks, Scott 24 Wipes and Scott Gel Hand Sanitizer with Moisturizers, will support over 235,000 K-12 students, faculty and administrators in nearly 400 schools across 15 states where Kimberly-Clark employees live and work, including locations in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin, among others. Dr. Brian Shumate (left), the superintendent of the Troup County School System in LaGrange, Ga., is pictured with Joe Franklin (right), a maintenance technician at Kimberly-Clark. Carlos Rivera, the head custodian at Bethel Middle School in Connecticut, sits next to donated masks and cleaning products. "We know that many schools across the country are still in need of proper supplies to help protect students and faculty as they work to finish the school year strong," said Susan Gambardella, President, Kimberly-Clark Professional North America. Operating schools safely during the pandemic requires additional resources. According to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), school districts on average must invest an additional $55 to $442 per student to ensure they can reopen in the safest possible manner. "In these times where towns are working to do more with less resources, this donation from Kimberly-Clark Professional helps support our students and school staff and will help allow us to get back fully to normal school operations more quickly," said John Barile, Superintendent of Schools, Brookfield, Conn. This donation comes as schools are evaluating not just their year-end protocols, but how they will address learning in the fall. While requirements in public and private spaces vary by state, the CDC continues to recommend the consistent and correct use of masks, hand hygiene, cleaning and disinfection to help ensure the safe delivery of in-person instruction in schools. These guidelines are all part of the CDC's 'Operational Strategy for K-12 Schools through Phased Prevention.' "Care underlies everything we do at Kimberly-Clark Professional, and we are proud to care for the communities where we operate and help assist the school districts where our employees live and work as they prepare for the upcoming school year," said Gambardella. Kimberly-Clark Professional has continued to care for and support our communities by operating as an essential business throughout the pandemic. The company launched a new standalone global PPE business unit, including new manufacturing of 100% made in the USA industrial N95 respirators, approved by the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), to support critical infrastructure workers. Additionally, Kimberly-Clark is committing $2.5 million to COVID-19 relief efforts in India, including support to UNICEF of $2.2 million, to help secure critical medical equipment such as oxygen concentrators and the setting up of oxygen generation plants. These actions extend Kimberly-Clark's commitments last year to assist with COVID-19 response and relief efforts around the world by partners including UNICEF, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the American Red Cross, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. About Kimberly-Clark Professional Kimberly-Clark Professional partners with businesses to create Exceptional Workplaces healthier, safer and more productive. We are committed to making a positive impact on people and how their work gets done through our world-class portfolio of trusted, recognized brands such as Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech and KleenGuard, industry-leading expertise, breakthrough innovation and being responsible partners in sustainability. To see how we enable businesses and people around the world to move forward and thrive, please visit KCProfessional.com and follow us on LinkedIn. [KMB-B] SOURCE Kimberly-Clark Professional NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BrainPOP , the online educational solution that makes rigorous learning experiences accessible and engaging for all students, today announced BrainPOP Science a new solution designed to help 6-8th grade science teachers navigate recent shifts in science, engineering, and technology standards, assessments, and learning environments. Through scaffolded investigations, embedded assessments, and actionable diagnostics, BrainPOP Science facilitates "three-dimensional" learning and builds student mastery in science. Recent research from Gallup and the RAND Corporation shows that BrainPOP is already one of the most widely used digital learning tools that elementary and middle school educators turn to for teaching students science. In the last year alone, more than 3.1 million students have completed at least one science activity on BrainPOP's platform. "BrainPOP has always provided educators with resources to make difficult topics understandable, relatable, and relevant for students," said Scott Kirkpatrick, CEO of BrainPOP. "New standards challenge educators to rethink how they teach science and meaningfully measure student learning. Science has become such a focal point during the last year, and we are especially excited to support educators who are inspiring kids to truly engage in scientific thinking and practice." Each BrainPOP Science investigation includes student-driven activities: examining phenomena, collecting evidence, articulating claims and reasoning, and checking for understanding along the way. BrainPOP Science was designed with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in mind and can be aligned to all state standards. Districts will also have the option to align BrainPOP Science units to their unique curriculum needs. "BrainPOP Science's standards-aligned investigations provide my students with the opportunity to explore scientific concepts through real-world applications. All of my students found the phenomena-driven investigations to be engaging learning experiences," said Donna Falk, a middle school science teacher in Manalapan, New Jersey. "The customizable activities make it easy to enhance my lesson plans, and the actionable diagnostics allow me to track students' mastery against our state's standards." Key features of BrainPOP Science include: Simulations allow students to strengthen their conceptual understanding by observing science principles in action, manipulating models to test hypotheses, and collecting evidence. allow students to strengthen their conceptual understanding by observing science principles in action, manipulating models to test hypotheses, and collecting evidence. Data manipulatives empower students to improve data literacy skills by interacting with scientific data used in real-world scenarios. empower students to improve data literacy skills by interacting with scientific data used in real-world scenarios. 3D Worlds enable students to explore real-world phenomena, and encourage scientific argumentation and debate. enable students to explore real-world phenomena, and encourage scientific argumentation and debate. Exclusive science movies leverage the power of BrainPOP's animations to explain hard-to-teach concepts. leverage the power of BrainPOP's animations to explain hard-to-teach concepts. Unit-level diagnostics and embedded formative assessments deliver actionable insights on student mastery aligned to NGSS and state standards. Collectively, BrainPOP Science investigations address all three dimensions of learning crosscutting concepts, science and engineering practices, and disciplinary core ideas. They also align with the 5E Model of Science Instruction, which invites students to engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. BrainPOP Science builds on advances in science education, learning and assessment design, psychometrics, and data science, supported with evidence from efficacy studies conducted over the years in collaboration with researchers, educators, and students. "Effectively engaging students in three-dimensional learning and cultivating mastery is a challenging task in traditional science classrooms, but it is an essential step toward closing the achievement gap in the U.S.," said Yigal Rosen, PhD, SVP of AI and data science at BrainPOP. "This gap is not inevitable. The approach put forth by the NGSS provides a guiding framework for designing deeper, more rigorous learning and formative assessment solutions to build science mastery among all students." Schools and districts will have the opportunity to become early adopters of BrainPOP Science beginning in August 2021. They will be able to access new content and features throughout the 2021-22 school year, and will have the opportunity to provide feedback and impact future product enhancements. Since its founding in 1999 by Avraham Kadar, M.D., BrainPOP has been continuously innovating to prepare students to become the leaders of tomorrow. Over the last 22 years, BrainPOP has reached more than 300 million learners worldwide. From the beginning, the BrainPOP approach engaged kids' curiosity through short animated movies that make complicated ideas simple and clear, helping them experience the sudden burst of understanding that Dr. Kadar called a "brain pop." Today, schools and districts nationwide utilize BrainPOP to raise academic achievement and strengthen students' critical, computational, and creative thinking skills. About BrainPOP BrainPOP is an online educational solution that makes rigorous learning experiences accessible and engaging for all. Proven to raise academic achievement, it has been a trusted resource to more than six million educators and has engaged the hearts and challenged the minds of over 300 million learners worldwide. 70% of K-8 U.S. schools have turned to BrainPOP as a go-to resource for remote learning, and nine out of 10 educators would recommend it to a friend or colleague. BrainPOP provides endless opportunities for kids to take agency over their learning through playful, knowledge-building content and learner-driven projects that strengthen critical, computational, and creative thinking across the entire curriculum. The company is committed to empowering kids to succeed and thrive in the classroom and beyond. SOURCE BrainPOP Related Links https://www.brainpop.com OTTAWA, ON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nanometrics today announced that it has been awarded a five-year, $10 million dollar contract to recapitalize AFTAC's seismometer and data acquisition systems for their authenticated global monitoring network. With more than 3,600 sensors operating across 31 locations worldwide, maintaining the largest global network of nuclear event detection equipment in the U.S. Air Force is no small challenge. AFTAC's global network is used to monitor nuclear treaty compliance and detect and report technical data from foreign nuclear explosions to national decision-makers. AFTAC is looking to update its seismometers and data acquisition system in addition to enhancing its network with the latest technological advancements in seismic monitoring. Over the next five years, Nanometrics will work with AFTAC to deploy stations designed specifically for global monitoring applications, featuring data authenticating hardware capable of multi-sensor integration using long period and short-period seismometers as well as infrasound and meteorological sensors. Working with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the US Department of Defense, AFTAC provides direct technical, analytical and evaluative support through enhanced safeguards inspections to monitor nuclear proliferation activities, involving weapons of mass destruction, in signatory states. "We are proud to partner with AFTAC to upgrade and enhance their IMS network, which is critical in civil protection and emergency planning. Nanometrics' integrated solutions will be instrumental in delivering near real-time, high-quality seismic data to national security decision-makers." Bruce Townsend, General Manager Seismology and Executive Vice President, Nanometrics. This contract is a further acknowledgment that Nanometrics is the leading provider of monitoring solutions and equipment for monitoring man-made and natural seismicity. Nanometrics has designed and deployed real-time seismological networks on every continent. Nanometrics has sold over 27,000+ instruments across 100+ countries. To find out more about this project, please contact [email protected]. About Nanometrics www.nanometrics.ca With over 30 years of experience, Nanometrics is a global, award-winning company providing monitoring solutions and equipment for studying man-made and natural seismicity. Specializing in collecting and analyzing critical real-time data for global, regional, and local seismic networks, we deliver world-class network design, installation, and training services. About AFTAC https://www.16af.af.mil/Units/AFTAC/ Photo(s): https://www.prlog.org/12869347 Press release distributed by PRLog SOURCE Nanometrics Inc. BLAIRSVILLE, Pa. and HUNTSVILLE, Ala., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM) proudly announces the appointment of John Schmitt as the Executive Director of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation and Integration Center (AMIIC), a new Limited Liability Company (LLC) based in Huntsville, Alabama. AMIIC Executive Director John Schmitt "The NCDMM team has had the privilege of working with John throughout his career as a U.S. Army Acquisition Corps Officer and afterwards," said Gary Fleegle, NCDMM President and CEO. "John is a high-caliber professional with advanced manufacturing expertise, the strategic vision, and natural leadership abilities necessary to carry out AMIIC's mission and establish it as an advanced manufacturing center of excellence in Northern Alabama. He is a dynamic individual, who is committed to and engaged in the community of Huntsville. We are proud to welcome John to our leadership team." AMIIC represents a collaboration among government, industry, academia, and the defense community to bridge Alabama's workforce gap. AMIIC seeks to provide students and workers with more opportunities for training, certifications, and apprenticeships to fill available, highly skilled positions. AMIIC will achieve these goals by developing an agile, collaborative, and innovative environment for the maturation and demonstration of advanced manufacturing technologies centric to meet the modernization manufacturing needs of the U.S. Army and the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Aviation & Missile Center in Redstone Arsenal, Ala. "It's an honor to be named the Executive Director of AMIIC," said Mr. Schmitt. "I am excited to collaborate with our strategic partners on our mission of leveraging innovative technologies and promoting education and workforce development opportunities to empower Alabamians with the skills needed to compete and succeed in tomorrow's highly skilled workforce." Prior to his AMIIC appointment, Mr. Schmitt contracted with the NCDMM through his consulting firm, Schmitt Consulting Group LLC, working closely with personnel in the NCDMM Huntsville office. In 2019, Mr. Schmitt retired as a Lieutenant Colonel after more than 20 years of service from a diverse career as a U.S. Army Aviator and Acquisition Corps Officer. He completed two combat tours in Iraq as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot, maintenance test pilot, and company commander. In 2012, he moved to Huntsville, serving as an Acquisition Corps Officer at Redstone Arsenal tasked with the development and delivery of major weapon systems. His assignments in this capacity included the Fixed Wing and Apache Program Offices, the Joint Multi-Role Technical Demonstration office, the Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation and Missile Center, and the Cargo Helicopter Project Office. Within the Huntsville community, Mr. Schmitt is an active, dynamic, and dedicated participant. He proudly serves on the boards of Little Orange Fish, a community-based mental health nonprofit; GeneCapture, Inc., a biotechnology company; and Rocket City Civil Rights LLC, a nonprofit that seeks to archive, advocate, and assist in social reform rooted in Huntsville's contribution to the Civil Rights Movement. Additionally, he is a founding member of the Inner Defense Initiative, a research collaborative committed to serving victims of post-traumatic stress through biopsychology. He is also a published songwriter and founder of Listen Local Huntsville LLC. Prior to moving to Huntsville, Mr. Schmitt was an Assistant Professor and Course Director within the Department of Chemistry and Life Science at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Mr. Schmitt holds a B.S. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Davis and an M.S. in Microbiology and Immunology from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. For more information, visit ncdmm.org and amiic.us. About NCDMM NCDMM delivers innovative and collaborative manufacturing solutions that enhance our nation's workforce and economic competitiveness. NCDMM has extensive knowledge and depth in defense manufacturing to continually innovate, improve, and advance manufacturing technologies and methodologies. Our experienced team specializes in identifying the needs, the players, the technologies, and processes to attain optimal solutions for our customers. We connect the dots. That's the NCDMM methodology. NCDMM also manages America Makes and the V4 Institute. NCDMM is the cornerstone of the recently formed Manufacturing Technology Deployment Group, Inc. (MTDG). About AMIIC The Advanced Manufacturing Innovation and Integration Center (AMIIC) was established to accelerate the adoption of state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies and build the Northern Alabama workforce of tomorrow. AMIIC will work to stimulate Alabama's economy, workforce, and advanced manufacturing sector through the creation of a state-of-the-art demonstration facility and a significant expansion of education and workforce development programs available to both students and workers. Based in Huntsville, Ala., AMIIC is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining (NCDMM). Contact: [email protected], 724-675-6254 Related Images amiic-executive-director-john.jpg AMIIC Executive Director John Schmitt AMIIC Executive Director John Schmitt SOURCE National Center for Defense Manufacturing and Machining SAN FRANCISCO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Nextdoor released the fifth installment of their neighborhood insights series: The changing consumption patterns of U.S. neighbors . As vaccinations increase, businesses reopen, and vacation plans emerge, this report addresses how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted neighbors' finances and spending habits. More details can be found on the Nextdoor Enterprise Blog and the full report can be downloaded here . "Nextdoor has unique visibility into neighborhoods around the globe, and brands are getting value from our local insights now more than ever," said Nextdoor CEO Sarah Friar. "Our need to connect with those nearby has guided Nextdoor from the start and we continue to see strong momentum as we bring together neighbors, local businesses, public agencies, and nonprofits." Highlights from the report: New spending habits Online shopping surged, and neighbors bought more electronics, furniture, and healthcare items in 2020. The outlook looks positive for the next six months, too: Around 1 in 5 say they're planning to buy a car. Online shopping surged, and neighbors bought more electronics, furniture, and healthcare items in 2020. The outlook looks positive for the next six months, too: Around 1 in 5 say they're planning to buy a car. Increased media consumption Neighbors spent more time on smartphones, streaming TV and gaming. The average neighbor now spends two hours a day on social media, though they are selective in which apps they use. For instance, 16% of Nextdoor neighbors have not visited Facebook in the past month, and 47% haven't used Instagram. Neighbors spent more time on smartphones, streaming TV and gaming. The average neighbor now spends two hours a day on social media, though they are selective in which apps they use. For instance, 16% of Nextdoor neighbors have not visited Facebook in the past month, and 47% haven't used Instagram. More conscious shopping Neighbors expect brands to behave in a more socially and environmentally responsible manner. In the next six months, 3 in 10 say they plan to buy more sustainable products, while 36% want to cut back on the plastic and packaging they use. Neighbors expect brands to behave in a more socially and environmentally responsible manner. In the next six months, 3 in 10 say they plan to buy more sustainable products, while 36% want to cut back on the plastic and packaging they use. Hobbies & going out Daily patterns and activities continue to change. 42% took up a new hobby because of the pandemic New Yorkers were the most likely to do so. Neighbors increased their work out frequency in the middle of last year, but have since returned to their pre-pandemic schedules. 44% of neighbors are excited to get back to eating out and 20% look forward to getting back to the gym. Daily patterns and activities continue to change. 42% took up a new hobby because of the pandemic New Yorkers were the most likely to do so. Neighbors increased their work out frequency in the middle of last year, but have since returned to their pre-pandemic schedules. 44% of neighbors are excited to get back to eating out and 20% look forward to getting back to the gym. Emphasis on local One-fifth of neighbors say they rely more on local businesses now than they did before the pandemic. 75% of neighbors said they have been a recipient of a random act of kindness that includes small, local purchases like someone paying for their coffee or groceries. You can find all of the reports to-date from Nextdoor's insights series here: About Nextdoor, Inc. Nextdoor is the app where you plug into the neighborhoods that matter to you. Our purpose is to cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on. Neighbors turn to Nextdoor daily to receive trusted information, give and get help, and build real-world connections with those nearby neighbors, local businesses, and public agencies. We believe connecting with others is a universal human need. That truth, and the reality that neighborhoods are among the most important communities in our lives, have been guiding principles for Nextdoor since the beginning. Today, neighbors rely on Nextdoor in 276,000 neighborhoods around the world, including the United States (nearly 1 in 3 U.S. households), the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and Canada, with many more to come. Nextdoor is a privately held company based in San Francisco with backing from prominent investors including Benchmark, Shasta Ventures, Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Riverwood Capital, Bond, Axel Springer, Comcast Ventures, and others. For additional information and images: nextdoor.com/newsroom. SOURCE Nextdoor, Inc. Related Links www.nextdoor.com VICTORIA, Seychelles, May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OKEx (www.okex.com), a world-leading cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange, is pleased to announce the listing of SHIB, the first native crypto asset of the Shiba Inu network. Deposits of SHIB opened over the weekend, and the token can now be traded against USDT on the OKEx spot and perpetual swap markets. Withdrawals opened at 10:00 am UTC on May 10. SHIB, also known as a "meme coin," has emerged as a top 30 cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap. Dubbed the "Dogecoin killer," SHIB is an ERC-20 token that started as an experiment to create a spontaneous decentralized community. With the goal to ensure a fair distribution of tokens, the founders put away 50% of the total SHIB supply in Uniswap, while the rest were burned in honor of Vitalik Buterin, one of the co-founders of Ethereum. SHIB is the first cryptocurrency token to be listed and incentivized on ShibaSwap the Shiba Inu project's own decentralized exchange. "We are pleased to welcome Shiba Inu to the OKEx platform. I appreciate their experimental spirit, which is exactly what the blockchain and crypto space needs. As an exchange, we are delighted to be able to offer a diverse portfolio of cryptocurrencies, including memetic tokens, to allow a comprehensive investment experience for our valued customers. The Shiba Inu community has been gaining strong momentum from the weekend deposits, and we look forward to witnessing its robust development. We are happy to be the first major exchange to offer SHIB to open the crypto gateway to these enthusiasts," said OKEx CEO Jay Hao. END About OKEx OKEx is a world-leading cryptocurrency spot and derivatives exchange that offers some of the most diverse and sophisticated products, solutions and trading tools on the market. Trusted by millions of users globally, we believe that cryptocurrency will reshape our money and society, enabling all people to live with dignity and freedom. With our extensive range of crypto products and services, and our unwavering commitment to innovation, our mission is to promote and advance cryptocurrency globally and empower every individual on earth. Follow OKEx Twitter: https://twitter.com/OKEx Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/okexofficial/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/okex/ Medium: https://medium.com/@OKEx Telegram group (English): https://t.me/OKExOfficial_English Telegram group (Russian): https://t.me/okexofficial_ru Disclaimer: This material should not be taken as the basis for making investment decisions, nor be construed as a recommendation to engage in investment transactions. Trading digital assets involve significant risk and can result in the loss of your invested capital. You should ensure that you fully understand the risk involved and take into consideration your level of experience, investment objectives and seek independent financial advice if necessary. SOURCE OKEx AUSTIN, Texas, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- To support growing customer demand for cloud services in Brazil, Oracle today announced the opening of the Vinhedo Cloud region. This follows the launch of its Sao Paulo Cloud region last year, making Brazil Oracle's latest country offering dual cloud regions. The opening marks Oracle's 30th Cloud region worldwide and is part of Oracle's global plan to operate 38 Cloud regions by the end of 2021. The digital transformation efforts in Brazil have been accelerated by the global pandemic and Oracle is working with organizations across Brazil to help them move to the cloud securely and in compliance with data sovereignty regulations. "We're thrilled to open Oracle's Vinhedo Cloud region as our second region in Brazil. Part of our strategy has been to build a true disaster recovery solution with two regions to help our customers bring their most critical workloads to Oracle Cloud," said Scott Twaddle, vice president, product, industries and partnerships, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. "With the Vinhedo Cloud region, customers across South and Latin America are able to move to the cloud faster and build resilient workloads that meet data sovereignty requirements and keep their data or metadata within borders." Oracle continues to make significant investments in Brazil to support a fast-growing number of customers and partners. Today's news follows the recent announcement that Oracle and Microsoft expanded their cloud interoperability partnership to help joint customers worldwide, like TIM Brasil, run their mission-critical workloads across Oracle Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The planned Interconnect location in Brazil means enterprises can build workloads that seamlessly interoperate between Microsoft and Oracle cloud regions in Brazil. Oracle has a unique dual-region cloud strategy that enables customers to deploy resilient applications in multiple geographically separated locations for disaster recovery and compliance requirementswithout having sensitive data leave the country. Oracle is the only major cloud provider with dual cloud regions in Brazil, enabling organizations to run their mission-critical workloads in Oracle Cloud. The new cloud region will deliver Oracle Cloud Infrastructure services, including Oracle Autonomous Database, Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes, Oracle Cloud VMware solution, and Oracle Cloud Applications services. It will also provide multiple benefits to customers, especially to those in highly regulated industries with restrictions on servers outside the national territory. Oracle is also working to drive renewable energy adoption, improve water efficiency and attain environmental certifications. Oracle Cloud offers customers the opportunity to drive business value and reduce their environmental impact, from Oracle's sourcing of materials and renewable energy to cloud features like flexible compute, which enable customers to precisely match the resources they provide to workload needs in a granular way, which reduces their resource consumption and costs. Customers and Partners Benefit from the Vinhedo Cloud Region Oracle is helping companies of all sizes and sectors accelerate their journey to the cloud, such as TIM Brasil and SKY, providing them with maximum control and a high level of data security. The Vinhedo Cloud Region provides continuous availability of up to 99.995%, helping ensure no interruptions. In addition, the move to the Vinhedo Cloud Region helps security-focused enterprises that need to help address demanding data residency requirements, as well as, reducing operational costs and modernizing legacy applications. TIM Brasil is one of the largest telecommunications carriers in the world and recently migrated 100 percent of its data centers in line with the company's strategic plan, which involves digitizing all processes, including service and relationship platforms. In partnership with Oracle and Microsoft, TIM Brasil is working to improve customer service processes, internal operations, billing, collection and management of digital platforms with speed, scalability and security, in a project that combines innovation, sustainability and efficiency. "Our proposal is to take the customer experience to a new level, with more efficiency and agility, always with the highest levels of security. We are the first operator to promote a change of this dimension, also anticipating initiatives related to governance and sustainability, within a larger project, related to an ESG agenda that permeates all of TIM's operations. We are following the market movement and investing in areas such as analytics and digital, which are fundamental for the expansion of the company's business, and we have partners that meet the highest levels of quality to highlight our pioneering spirit and reference for the telecommunications sector," said Pietro Labriola, CEO, TIM Brasil. SKY's digital transformation journey began in 2018, when the satellite TV operator chose to use Oracle Autonomous Database to perform automated analyses in real time with agility and security, bringing more value to their customers. SKY plans to migrate 80 percent of its data centers to the Oracle Cloud later this year. According to Andre Nazare, Director of Infrastructure and IT at SKY, "We need to have the convenience of experimenting with products to develop new solutions. With OCI, we will have the opportunity to innovate, test and create new offers." Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect provides dedicated connectivity to Oracle Cloud regions and OCI services. FastConnect provides an easy, elastic, and economical way to create a dedicated and private network connection with higher bandwidth, lower latency, and more consistent performance versus public internet-based connections. FastConnect is available via FastConnect Partners or direct connection. FastConnect is available through partners Ascenty and Lumen Technologies. Oracle Cloud Region Global Expansion Oracle opened 12 Cloud Regions in 2020 and currently operates 30 regions globally - 23 commercial, seven government and multiple dedicated regions for U.S. intelligence services - the fastest expansion by any major cloud provider. To help customers build true business continuity and disaster protection while meeting in-country data residence requirements, Oracle plans to establish at least two regions in almost every country where it operates. The U.S., Canada, E.U., U.K., South Korea, Japan, Brazil, India and Australia already have two Cloud regions. Upcoming Cloud regions include second regions in U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, additional E.U. regions in Italy, Sweden, and France; as well as new regions in Singapore, South Africa, and Israel. Currently available Oracle Cloud regions include: Asia Pacific : Tokyo, Osaka , Seoul , Chuncheon, Mumbai , Hyderabad , Sydney , Melbourne Tokyo, , , Chuncheon, , , , Americas: San Jose, Phoenix , Ashburn , Toronto , Montreal , Sao Paolo, Vinhedo, Chile San Jose, , , , , Sao Paolo, Vinhedo, Europe : Frankfurt, London , Zurich, Amsterdam , Wales Frankfurt, , Zurich, , Middle East : Jeddah, Dubai Jeddah, Government: two general U.S. Government regions, and U.S. National Security regions, three U.S. Department of Defense specific Government regions, two in the United Kingdom About Oracle Oracle offers suites of integrated applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com. Additional Resources Read more about Oracle's second Cloud region in Brazil Learn more about Oracle Cloud Regions Learn more about Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Trademarks Oracle, Java, and MySQL are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation. SOURCE Oracle Related Links www.oracle.com BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Penske Automotive Group, Inc. (NYSE: PAG), a diversified international transportation services company, today announced that Michelle (Shelley) Hulgrave, the company's Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller, has been named Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, effective June 1, 2021. Ms. Hulgrave will replace J.D. Carlson, who is retiring effective June 1 from his role as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Ms. Hulgrave joined our company in 2006 as Corporate Accounting Manager, was promoted to Vice President and Corporate Controller in 2015 and was promoted again to Senior Vice President in February 2020. Prior to joining us, Ms. Hulgrave held various positions for DaimlerChrysler Financial and Ernst & Young. Ms. Hulgrave has a strong operational and technical background in finance and accounting and her experience and tenure with the Penske Automotive organization will help maintain the integrity and discipline of our worldwide financial operations, and provide a solid foundation for success. The company also announced the promotion of Aaron Michael to Executive Vice President, Financial Services and Global Risk Management, and Treasurer. Mr. Michael has served as our Senior Vice President, Financial Services since 2014 and has been the Company's Treasurer since 2006. In this role, Mr. Michael will continue to manage the Company's capital structure, relationships with lending partners and real estate portfolio. He is also assuming the additional responsibility of oversight for the Company's risk management function. From 2001 through 2006, Mr. Michael was employed by Penske Corporation in various finance and treasury roles. Prior to working with Penske, Mr. Michael was a commercial lender for Comerica Bank. Mr. Michael has been instrumental in reducing the Company's leverage and optimizing its capital structure during the challenging pandemic year. About Penske Automotive Penske Automotive Group, Inc., (NYSE:PAG) headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, is a diversified international transportation services company that operates automotive and commercial truck dealerships principally in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Western Europe, and distributes commercial vehicles, diesel and gas engines, power systems and related parts and services principally in Australia and New Zealand. PAG is a member of the Fortune 500, Russell 1000, and Russell 3000 indexes, and is ranked among the World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune Magazine. For additional information, visit the company's website at www.penskeautomotive.com. Inquiries should contact: Anthony R. Pordon Executive Vice President Investor Relations and Corporate Development Penske Automotive Group, Inc. 248-648-2540 [email protected] SOURCE Penske Automotive Group, Inc. Related Links http://www.penskeautomotive.com EAGAN, Minn., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- At least one-third of people incarcerated in Minnesota county jails may be struggling with a mental illness, and many others are undiagnosed. They need help but often there are too few resources available. People Incorporated Mental Health Services is hoping to change that with the launch of a new Corrections Integrated Support program funded through a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) expansion grant. The grant is provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The program provides individuals in Minnesota county jails easy access to a multi-disciplinary team of People Incorporated mental health professionals. These professionals will provide mental health assessments, diagnosis, person-centered mental health, substance use treatment planning, and care coordination. Post-release transition support is also available, which extends beyond mental health, helping people connect to employment, housing, income programs, vocational/educational counseling, and more. "The lack of access to social support services in our county jail system is an ongoing crisis," says Wendy Waddell, chief operations officer at People Incorporated Mental Health Services. "Many in our community may not be able to identify their own mental health or substance use needs, or where to receive support, and therefore find themselves revolving through systems that are not equipped to provide the appropriate help they need. Our Corrections Integrated Support program will create a positive path forward for these individuals -- helping reduce recidivism and enhance long-term recovery and wellness." In 2016, Minnesota's legislative auditor determined the need to fund and implement a more comprehensive set of community-based mental health services in county jails. Yet finding a source for funding and staffing made providing this level of support challenging. That's why People Incorporated jumped at the chance to apply for the CCBHC grant to help Minnesota county jails create a continuum of care. The goals of the program include: helping county jails increase their capacity to identify inmates with mental health needs, improve quality of life among jail inmates pre-and-post release, and enhancing community health and safety. "Receiving this grant is an important step forward toward designing a system of care that create a critical lifeline for those in our county jail system," says Waddell. "Mental health is community health, and we have to continue to partner with our community to build systems of support for the vulnerable and underserved. It's the only way to make care truly accessible to all." People Incorporated is seeking licensed Mental Health Professionals, Adult Rehab Mental Health Services (ARMHS)/Care Coordinators, Peer Support Specialists and more to be part of the Corrections Integrated Support team. For full job descriptions and to apply, visit People Incorporated's website. About People Incorporated Mental Health Services: People Incorporated was founded in 1969 on the belief that those living with mental illness could be 'incorporated' back into society, and society itself could be incorporated into efforts to support these individuals who are most vulnerable and in need of care. Since then, People Incorporated has been committed to supporting mental health and wellness in communities through collaboration, innovation, integration of care and training throughout Minnesota. The Training Institute of People Incorporated brings the experience of a leading mental health agency into delivering mental health training to communities across the U.S. and globally. PEOPLEINCORPORATED.ORG Contact: Christine Anderson, People Incorporated Mobile: 612.756.4275 Email: [email protected] SOURCE People Incorporated Mental Health Services Related Links https://www.peopleincorporated.org/ Dr. Fang was most recently Chief AI Officer and Senior VP at Change Healthcare, where she was responsible for driving all AI initiatives. She led an extensive team of AI Product, Data Science, Engineering, and Behavioral Science/UI/UX and launched the Healthcare AI-First platform with HIPAA compliance and a comprehensive portfolio of AI-First healthcare financial management solutions. "Dr. Fang has a long track record of delivering customer-centric, high impact products. We are thrilled that she is joining us in our mission to transform the patient experience and deliver the information they need in real-time to their mobile device, while they're with their healthcare provider," said Chris Blackley, CEO of Prescryptive Health. "She is an industry-recognized pioneer in delivering AI-First in the healthcare space and will be instrumental in driving our goal--empowering consumers to take control of their health." "I'm excited to join the Prescryptive team," said Dr. Fang, "because we share the same passion about transforming the prescription drug market and the healthcare system at large, putting patients at the center, and having a positive impact on millions of people's lives." Dr. Fang is Co-Founder and Co-Chair of the AI in Healthcare Compliance and Certification Institute (AIHCCI), a non-profit organization providing certification services to evaluate effectiveness and safety of AI/ML-based products for healthcare use and establish their compliance to FDA regulatory frameworks. Prior to Change Healthcare, Dr. Fang was Founder and Head of AI Labs, VP, at Expedia Group, where she led the successful delivery of the Expedia AI-First platform and 20+ AI-First products in 20+ countries and 11 languages. She has also held senior roles at eBay, Microsoft Azure, Cisco, and AT&T, and has 10 U.S. patents. Dr. Fang is a frequent speaker, keynote, and chair in major global AI and Networking tech conferences and has authored or co-authored more than 100 publications. Dr. Fang holds a Ph.D. in computer science, AI, from Flinders University, Australia, and a M.S. in computer science, AI, from Brigham Young University. About Prescryptive Health Founded in 2017, Prescryptive Health is a healthcare technology company delivering solutions that empower consumers with the information they need to make informed decisions and take control of their health. Prescryptive's mobile-based solutions are powered by blockchain and scaled through the cloud to provide consumers with the choice, transparency, and control they need in real-time. To learn more about Prescryptive Health, visit www.prescryptive.com SOURCE Prescryptive Health Related Links https://www.prescryptive.com HOUSTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rafail Insurance Agency, in partnership with the Community Response Task Force (CRTF), will host an educational meeting and Q&A on flood plain changes and insurance implications at the Atascocita Volunteer Fire Department on May 14th from 1:00 PM 2:00 PM. CRTF monthly meetings are designed to enhance individual and community preparedness for disasters such as flooding which is timely during this National Hurricane Preparedness Week. The meeting will be available live and recorded on the website https://crtf.org/. "Flooding is the number 1 disaster in Houston," says Mark Rafail, President/Principal Broker of Rafail Insurance Agency. "The reality is that with so much new construction near the Gulf Coast, low-risk areas are slow to be mapped into higher-risk flood zones. Statistics show that 25% to 30% of flooding is now occurring in areas defined as low to moderate risk. Financial preparedness through insurance is critical. Families have had to take a second mortgage to repair damages from flooding because they were not defined at risk and did not have flood insurance." Rafail was interviewed this week by Houston Channel CW39's Meteorologist, Carrigan Chauvin, also covering National Hurricane Preparedness Week. "Success often depends on the initial community response," says Phillipe Cras, CRTF President. "Our biggest asset during a disaster is the local community and the personal network of people." CRTF resumed in-person meetings at their home base, Atascocita Fire Department, in January of 2021 following a shut down due to Covid-19. Rafail Insurance Agency will donate $1,000 to the organization and will be personally involved in assisting residents in disaster areas through the CRTF. "Communities will survive through their personal network and with the tools to rebuild," says Rafail. "Our goal on the 14th is to educate on the changing flood plains and preparedness for if and when recovery is necessary." About Rafail Insurance Agency Rafail Insurance Agency was awarded the #1 Flood Insurance Agency out of 65 local agencies in 2019 and 2020. They are an insurance and financial services agency, managing nearly 4,000 commercial and residential insurance policies. Rafail Insurance Agency manages approximately $5,200,000 in insurance premiums annually with a staff of 6 individuals They were nationally recognized for Commercial & Residential Insurance Production/Product Knowledge by Farmers Insurance 2009-2020. About CRTF CRTF's mission is to enhance community emergency preparedness and response in coordination hundreds of partners. CRTF members employ knowledge and skills acquired through their professions, volunteer activities, and past times to support the community during an emergency. Monthly meetings offer opportunities to enhance individual and community preparedness as success often depends on initial community response. SOURCE Rafail Insurance Agency The court saw Perwaiz when he was on the stand and testified at trial, Yusi wrote. He is obviously an intelligent man, but also an arrogant, indignant man who lied to the Court and the jury, and blamed everyone but himself for the damage he caused to these women. He even blamed and continues to blame the victims. NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new report offered by Research Dive, the Global Zero Trust Security Market is projected to surpass $66,741.3 million, increasing from $18,500.0 million in 2019, at a CAGR of 17.6% from 2020 to 2027 timeframe. Covid-19 Impact on the Zero Trust Security Market The global zero trust security market is expected to witness a positive growth in the estimated timeframe. This growth is attributed to the vast usage of digital technologies such as cloud services, due to work from home trend, internet connectivity, and utilization of BYOD device. Furthermore, VPN (Virtual Private Network) security measures and increase in the demand for cyber-security is also estimated to surge the growth of the market during the forecasted period. Access Our Comprehensive Analysis of the Impact of Covid-19 on Zero Trust Security Market Factors Affecting the Zero Trust Security Market Growth The global zero trust security market is estimated to augment due to the rise in cybercriminals who are successful in breaching security of organizations systems. Threats and targets on network systems are on the rise in the recent years, for stealing vital information. These aspects are predicted to drive the global market in the forecasted period. However, high cost regarding the incorporation of zero trust security solutions is stipulated to hinder the market growth. On the other hand, increase in the demand for high quality visibility of users accessing network from various places is expected to create opportunities in the market during the forecasted period. The report classifies the report on the basis of solution type, deployment, authentic type, organization size, vertical type, and regional outlook. Download FREE Sample of ZERO Trust Security Market Report End-Point Security Sub-Division to Hold the Largest Share From the solution type division, the end-point security sub-division was accounted for $38,47.2 million in the year 2019, enhancing at a CAGR of 16.50% during the timeframe. The sub-division market surge is attributed towards the usage of technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud, connected devices, and internet of things by company organizations. On-Premise Sub-Division to be the Most Profitable From the deployment division, the on-premises sub-division is estimated to garner a revenue of $29,914.1 million by the end of 2027, from a market size of $10,511.4 million in 2019. Augmentation in the desire to build trust, support local, changing work patters, and community spirit is expected to drive the sub-division market during the timeframe. Large Enterprise Sub-Division to Grow Rapidly Among organization type, the large enterprise sub-division is predicted to generate a revenue of $34,498.3 million by 2027, from a market size of $12,152 million in 2019. The sub-division growth is due to higher salaries provided by the large enterprises as compared to the small and medium enterprises. Multi-Factor Authentic Type Sub-Division to Achieve Maximum Revenues The multi-factor authentic type sub-division is predicted to cross $38,629.0 million by 2027, rising from a market share of $9,781.4 million in 2019 during the forecasted timeframe. Rise in the amount of online transactions is considered as the main reason for the growth of the sub-division market in 2020-2027. Retail Type Sub-Division to Gain Massive Profits Among the vertical, the retail type sub-segment is estimated to cross $15,642.9 million by 2027, rising from $4,520.8 million in the year 2019 during the timeframe. Expansion of marketing channels and sales like mobile & social commerce is expected to boost the sub-division market growth from 2020 to 2027. Regional Analysis: North America Zero Trust Security Market The North American market of zero trust security, was held at $5864.5 million in 2019 and is expected to reach $19,955.6 million by 2027. The market is on the rise due to escalation in the internet users, stringent rules by government for businesses, and surge in the adoption of IoT devices. Inquire Before Purchase: Strategic Overview of Zero Trust Market in the North America Region Top 10 Market Players and Business Strategies The leading players of the global zero trust security market are 1. McAfee Corporation 2. IBM Corporation 3. Fortinet 4. Symantec Corporation 5. FireEye 6. Cisco Systems 7. Akamai Technologies 8. Palo Alto Networks 9. Okta, Inc 10. Check Point Software Technologies. These players are aiming for product developments and launches to gain an upper edge in the market worldwide. For instance, in March 2021, Xage, a zero trust real-world security company, declared the launch of its zero trust remote access solution via cloud. The company is offering critical features that safeguard remote accessibility for OT environments. - Inquire and Get Quick Access to Top Companies Development Strategies Summary Report [80 pages] More about ZERO Trust Security: Global Zero Trust Security Market: Propelling with the Growing Incidents of Cyber-Attacks Top 5 Reasons Why Enterprises Should Implement Zero Trust Security Trending Topics: 1. Managed Security Services Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20192026 Request to Download Report 2. CDN Security Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Request to Download Report 3. Cyber Security Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Request to Download Report 4. Data-Centric Security Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027 Request to Download Report About Research Dive Research Dive is a market research firm based in Pune, India. Maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the services, the firm provides the services that are solely based on its exclusive data model, compelled by the 360-degree research methodology, which guarantees comprehensive and accurate analysis. With an unprecedented access to several paid data resources, team of expert researchers, and strict work ethic, the firm offers insights that are extremely precise and reliable. Scrutinizing relevant news releases, government publications, decades of trade data, and technical & white papers, Research dive deliver the required services to its clients well within the required timeframe. Its expertise is focused on examining niche markets, targeting its major driving factors, and spotting threatening hindrances. Complementarily, it also has a seamless collaboration with the major industry aficionado that further offers its research an edge. Contact: Mr. Abhishek Paliwal Research Dive 30 Wall St. 8th Floor, New York NY 10005 (P) +91-(788)-802-9103 (India) Toll Free: 1-888-961-4454 E-mail: [email protected] Website: https://www.researchdive.com Blog: https://www.researchdive.com/blog/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/research-dive/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ResearchDive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Research-Dive-1385542314927521 SOURCE Research Dive BREA, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Service Champions Group, a leading U.S. Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning establishment, today announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which Service Champions will acquire Hobaica Services. Founded in 1952, Hobaica, the well-known family owned, and operated residential service company provides residents of the Phoenix metropolitan area with honest and ethical cooling, heating, plumbing, drain & sewer, electrical, security and custom wine cellar services. The acquisition, together with the December 2020 acquisition of ProSkill Services of Phoenix, positions Service Champions as the top provider in the Phoenix area marketplace. Service Champions is a portfolio company of Odyssey Investment Partners. Leland Smith, Founder and CEO of Service Champions, said, "The addition of Hobaica to the Service Champions family of businesses, including the recently acquired ProSkill, cements our place as the leading provider of best-in-class customer service in the heating and cooling industry to Valley of the Sun residents. With an unwavering focus on exceptional customer service, Hobaica is well-known in the area for treating their customers like family. This philosophy is identical to the core tenets that Service Champions was founded on and has practiced for more than 20 years. We are very excited about the meaningful contribution this partnership brings to the company's long-term growth plan to be the largest provider of residential services in the Western United States." The second generation of the Hobaica family sits at the helm of the industry leading services group, with Louis Hobaica serving as President and CEO, along with his brothers Paul and Mike. "We are extremely pleased to join such a dynamic organization and bring together our complimentary businesses, talented teams and customer-focused cultures. The strength of the Service Champions and the Hobaica brands partnership is the value we bring to our customers and employees. Our goal to be the most likable people you have ever met, will continue along with Service Champions. I promise, You'll likaHobaica," Louis Hobaica said. Service Champions' Chief Operating Officer, Frank DiMarco, echoed Mr. Hobaica's remarks. "Service Champions' interest in Hobaica reflects the success of our strategy to identify the right partners. The combined company will have an exemplary and extended portfolio of home services. We intend to leverage this platform to significantly grow the business and gain even more market share in the Phoenix area while maintaining continuity and stability of our valuable customer relationships." Service Champions' CFO, Daniel Hamm, added, "Acquiring Hobaica adds both a solid brand to our portfolio and positions the company to continue expanding into dynamic vertical markets. Our goal is to be the biggest and the best in the home services arena. This transaction brings us one step closer to making that happen. It's our 11th acquisition in 24 months and we are actively pursuing future investments in the Western United States and beyond," said Hamm. About Service Champions Group Based in Orange County, CA, Service Champions is a leading provider of essential home services specializing in heating, air conditioning and plumbing services. With the mission to maintain long term relationships with its customers, Service Champions is dedicated to delivering timely, high quality services across a comprehensive suite of HVAC and plumbing products. Service Champions goes to market with several trade names including; Service Champions, Bell Brothers, Moore Home Services, ASI, Adeedo! and ProSkill Services. For more information, please visit https://partnerships.servicechampions.com. About Odyssey Investment Partners Odyssey Investment Partners, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, is a leading private equity investment firm with more than a 25-year history of partnering with skilled managers to transform middle-market companies into more efficient and diversified businesses with strong growth profiles. Odyssey makes majority-controlled investments in industries with a long-term positive outlook and favorable secular trends. For further information about Odyssey, please visit www.odysseyinvestment.com. M&A Contact: Daniel Hamm, CFO E: [email protected] P: 562.212.3694 Media Contact: Dana Rosenberg E: [email protected] P: 310.702.1539 SOURCE Service Champions Plumbing, Heating & AC Related Links https://partnerships.servicechampions.com LAS VEGAS, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Silver State Schools Credit Union (SSSCU), a Las Vegas-based financial institution, celebrating over 70 years of serving its members, has exceeded $1 Billion in total assets during the first quarter of 2021. Leading SSSCU to the $1 Billion asset mark is President/CEO, Scott Arkills, who has been with the credit union since 2016. The SSSCU Board of Directors, Executive Team and Staff has been instrumental in achieving this strategic milestone. "We celebrate this achievement with all of our members. To reach the $1 Billion asset milestone is all about serving our members and their families from our educational community and the Southern Nevada community at large," stated Scott A. Arkills, President/CEO, Silver State Schools Credit Union. "We thank all of our loyal members who continue to place their trust and confidence in SSSCU to reach their financial goals and dreams. Reaching this historic milestone will enable SSSCU to continue to provide our members with innovative, best-in-class products and services well into the future." "We have demonstrated that we understand economic change and the financial climate. The credit union recognizes economic responsibility about growth," adds Ray Wilson, Senior Vice President/CFO, Silver State Schools Credit Union. "Despite the challenges of the past year, we have followed our fiscal strategies to maintain a strong credit union providing reliable, secure, and personal financial services for our members." As a not-for-profit financial institution, SSSCU supports its members with financial products that are insured with strong liquidity and stable capital. The Credit Union gives back to the community by providing scholarships to graduating High School Seniors, supporting the educational needs of the community, and providing financial literacy tools both online and in the classroom. Silver State Schools Credit Union has been recognized as the Gold Standard in Las Vegas Credit Unions after receiving the Gold Award as "Best Credit Union" in the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Best of Las Vegas Poll for three years running since 2018. SSSCU will continue to build upon its success in serving the greater Southern Nevada community, by providing innovative financial solutions that both enhance and protect their members financial well-being. SSSCU, founded in 1951, is a state-chartered financial co-operative Prioritizing People Over Profit. The Credit Union serves over 56,000 members of the educational community, as well as the community at large and their families with ten branches in Southern Nevada. SSSCU provides "Excellent Member Service and Financial Solutions for Life!" via a wide range of banking products that are simple, secure, and convenient. As of March 31, 2021, SSSCU reported total assets of $1.056 Billion, deposits of $958 Million, and loans of $583 Million. Liquidity remains strong at $279 Million, and the credit union is well-capitalized with a regulatory net worth at $95 Million, equal to 8.98% of total assets. Accounts insured up to $500,000. American Share Insurance insures each account up to $250,000. Excess Share Insurance Corporation provides up to an additional $250,000 of insurance per account. This institution is not federally insured. For more information, visit silverstatecu.com. Media contact: Jennifer Bradley [email protected] 702-234-9385 SOURCE Silver State Schools Credit Union LEHI, Utah, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SimpleNexus ( https://simplenexus.com/ ), developer of the leading homeownership platform for loan officers, borrowers, real estate agents and settlement agents, today praised the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) for naming federal remote online notarization (RON) legislation as a core issue of its National Advocacy Conference. "Our industry has taken sweeping measures to provide mortgage consumers with the mobile and online home buying experience they prefer, but existing notarial laws impede the shift in technology," said SimpleNexus Founder and CEO Matt Hansen. "To date, only 32 states have passed RON-enabling legislation, hindering the housing finance industry's ability to provide a broad swath of American homebuyers with the safety and convenience of a remote online closing ceremony. SimpleNexus commends the Mortgage Bankers Association for leading the charge on this critical issue." The MBA is coordinating with association partners and members to encourage Congress to reintroduce and enact The Securing and Enabling Commerce Using Remote Online Notarization Act (SECURE Notarization Act). Initially introduced with bipartisan sponsorship as Senate Bill 3533 in March 2020, the SECURE Notarization Act would permit immediate nationwide use of RON with minimum standards necessary to protect consumer data and provide certainty for the interstate recognition of RON. States with existing RON laws on the books would retain the flexibility to implement their own RON standards. Each year, the MBA organizes housing finance stakeholders for its National Advocacy Conference to directly educate lawmakers about key industry policy priorities and hear directly from elected officials. This year's conference will be held virtually, May 11-12. About SimpleNexus, LLC: SimpleNexus is a homeownership platform transforming the mortgage experience and connecting borrowers, loan officers, real estate agents and settlement service providers throughout the homebuying process. The platforms' native mobile toolset enables lenders to originate, process and close home loans from anywhere with increased efficiency and convenience. Loan officers can manage their loan pipelines, order credit, run pricing, send pre-approvals, sign disclosures and execute eClosings - all on the go. SimpleNexus provides borrowers with a single sign-on experience from home search to the application, document upload, eClose and beyond for a more streamlined homeownership journey. Twitter: @SimpleNexus #digitalmortgage #mortgagelending #RON @MISMO @MortgageBankersAssociation. This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com SOURCE SimpleNexus CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SPX FLOW, Inc. (NYSE: FLOW), a leading provider of process solutions for the nutrition, health and industrial markets, today completed its $65 million acquisition of mixing solutions provider Philadelphia Mixing Solutions, Ltd. from Thunder Basin Corporation, an affiliate of Wind River Holdings, L.P. The addition of Philadelphia Mixing Solutions to the SPX FLOW portfolio further bolsters SPX FLOW's position as a leading global provider of essential products and process solutions that help make the world safer, healthier, and more sustainable. The Philadelphia Mixing Solutions brand will become part of the broader SPX FLOW mixing solutions portfolio, which includes the Lightnin, APV, Plenty, Stelzer and Uutechnic brands. Based in Palmyra, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Mixing Solutions employs approximately 150 people and generated nearly $50 million in revenue in 2020. The company has more than six decades of experience in multi-industry mixing products and services, along with a reputation for world-class innovation, technical support, testing, analysis and field service. "With our recent acquisitions of UTG and Philadelphia Mixing Solutions, we continue to execute our strategy of creating new opportunities for synergy and growth and broadening our portfolio of comprehensive mixing solutions for customers in the chemical, water & wastewater, petrochemical, mining, pharmaceutical, and nutrition & health markets," said Marc Michael, President and CEO of SPX FLOW. "We are excited to welcome the Philadelphia Mixing Solutions' team and their proven track record of customer focus, technical expertise, quality and on-time delivery." PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance LLC is serving as SPX FLOW's financial advisor, and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP as legal counsel. For Thunder Basin Corporation, Boenning & Scattergood, Inc. is serving as financial advisor and Hogan Lovells is serving as legal advisor. About SPX FLOW, Inc. Based in Charlotte, N.C., SPX FLOW, Inc. (NYSE: FLOW) improves the world through innovative and sustainable solutions. The company's product offering is concentrated in process technologies that perform mixing, blending, fluid handling, separation, thermal heat transfer and other activities that are integral to processes performed across a wide variety of nutrition, health and industrial markets. SPX FLOW had approximately $1.4 billion in 2020 annual revenues and has operations in more than 30 countries and sales in more than 140 countries. To learn more about SPX FLOW, please visit www.spxflow.com. About Philadelphia Mixing Solutions Philadelphia Mixing Solutions provides innovative products, technical services and field support to customers around the world. Extensive in-house testing and analysis allows customers to visualize expected results, saving time and material costs. Backed by 65 years of industry experience and with a rich tradition of technology, the company's research and development teams use cutting edge testing and process modeling to create unique mixing solutions to meet individual customer requirements. For more information, visit www.philamixers.com. Media Contact Peter Smolowitz External Communications Manager [email protected] 704-341-2915 Investor Contact Scott Gaffner VP, Investor Relations and Strategic Insights [email protected] 704-752-4485 SOURCE SPX FLOW, Inc. Related Links http://www.spxflow.com TAMPA, Fla., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- From standing up COVID-19 units overnight to vaccinating the first nurse in Florida, Tampa General Hospital team members have worked tirelessly to care for COVID-19 patients and for all patients and their families. During Nurses Week and Hospital Week, Tampa General Hospital is sharing the thoughts and feelings of those who have been on the front lines of treating coronavirus patients for more than a year. In this video, Tampa General Hospital looks back on an unprecedented battle against a global pandemic. CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Technomic has released the beverage category sizing report exploring how COVID-19 impacted foodservice beverages. This report is a deliverable of the Away-From-Home Beverage Navigator program, which offers a comprehensive assessment of both hot and cold beverage categories, including market sizing, historical tracking, predicted growth, consumer insights, operator responses, major trends and market dynamics. "While the beverage category took a hit due to the pandemic, it remains a critical piece of revenue and profitability for foodservice operators. Going forward, operators will need to focus on keeping up with changing dynamics and planning for the industry's recovery," explains David Henkes, senior principal and head of strategic partnerships at Technomic. "From focused daypart strategies to re-establishing themselves into consumers' post-pandemic routines, operators will need to understand changing consumer habits in order to guide foodservice beverage strategies." Key findings: Overall beverage sales were down 31% on a volume basis and 29% in consumer spending Cold dispensed beverage volume was down 30%, while hot beverages were down 34% in volume in 2020 35% of operators reduced the number of beverages that they were offering due to COVID-19 52% of consumers who ordered food from foodservice without a beverage say they did so because they already had a beverage at home, up from 47% who said the same in 2019 Learn more: https://www.technomic.com/reports/multi-client-studies/away-from-home-beverage Contact: Patrick Noone, (312) 506-3852, [email protected] About Technomic Technomic Inc., a Winsight company, was founded as a management consulting firm in 1966. Since then, Technomic's services have grown to encompass cloud-based B2B research tools, consumer and menu trend tracking and other leading strategic research and analytic capabilities, to prioritize and size business opportunities. Our clients include food manufacturers and distributors, restaurants, retailers and multiple other business verticals aligned with the food industry that are looking to make informed decisions to support their business growth. Visit Technomic at www.technomic.com. Winsight LLC is a portfolio company of Pamlico Capital. SOURCE Technomic Related Links http://www.technomic.com COVID test management suite expands horizons, moving to Miami to join tech migration and lead healthcare industry Tweet this With clients for its SaaS software product in the U.S. and international locations, the company has decided a Miami location will bring it closer to potential partners and clients worldwide that are looking at ways to revolutionize wellness management for the next century. Noting the rapid growth of the start-up sector in Florida and Miami's focus on innovation and reinvention, TESTD CEO Nicholus Andrews said, "I look forward to seeing TESTD grow alongside the Miami tech ecosystem." TESTD's automated platform TESTD was developed to give consumers power over their medical data, while allowing managers and regulators the ability to safeguard the workforce, manage outbreaks, and make responsible business and public health decisions. With its self-working scheduling component, TESTD's easy-to-use software frees corporate users from the burden of scheduling tests and checking-in test takers, automates the process of on-boarding test takers, and gathers pertinent medical histories. The platform integrates with clinical lab software and includes a medical provider portal. The dashboard provides a company manager with unparalleled insight into trouble spots in a department, at a location, or across an entire company population. Andrews explained that blockchain technology protects data from corruption, theft, misreporting, and mistakes, and makes it instantly available to public health officials responding to immediate needs. Plus, "With data encrypted and out of the control of central authorities, consumers don't need to fear who is looking at that data and how it is being used," he said. TESTD is currently touring prospective sites for its growing operation. "We are fielding more and more requests, even though there are encouraging signs about the COVID pandemic winding down. Clearly, no one wants to get caught like this again no business, no government, no individual," Andrews said. "TESTD is here to help us through this one and make sure we're all ready for all the health needs in a community moving forward." More information is available at www.TESTD.com TESTD Inc. provides electronic medical record (EMR) technology, based in Fort Lauderdale, FL. It was founded in March 2020. TESTD's initial product is its platform TESTD, which automates medical test scheduling, manages testing data, and organizes the data for easy reporting. For sales, contact Eric Forst at 310-403-4589. CONTACT: Alan Goodman, 6465432526, [email protected] SOURCE TESTD Inc. Related Links http://www.testd.com/ SOURCE Testd DAYTON, Ohio, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Oberer Companies announced that they have submitted a Petition for Annexation of approximately 34 acres located on the northwest intersection of Hyde and Spillan Roads, to be annexed into the Village of Yellow Springs. Map of land to be annexed. This process started in September of 2020 with an Annexation Agreement that was signed between the Village of Yellow Springs and Miami Township. The Greene County Commissioners approved the annexation Petition from Oberer in late April 2021, which will be heard by the Village in early July and is anticipated to become effective in August 2021. The purpose of the Annexation is to allow Oberer to develop a residential neighborhood on the annexed property and on adjacent property that is already in the Village of Yellow Springs. As Oberer is not permitted to begin the zoning process for the new neighborhood until the annexation is completed, it is not anticipated that plans and products for the new neighborhood will be made available to the public until that submission can be made. Oberer is working with our in-house professional staff and third-party consultants to create a neighborhood design that will be sensitive to the context of the adjacent neighborhood. Per the President of Oberer Companies, George Oberer, Jr., "We are working on bringing a variety of existing and new product types to Yellow Springs that will be offered at a wide price range. We look forward to working with the Village on those products as the approval process continues." While final plans and new home products will be pending the approval and input received from the Village, Oberer intends to open the neighborhood area for new home sales in the Spring of 2022. NEWS RELEASE Contact: George Oberer, Jr. | 937-531-5501 Related Images exhibit-a.jpg Exhibit A Map of land to be annexed. SOURCE Oberer Companies BANGALORE, India and BLUE BELL, Pa., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) today announced that Unisys Stealth has been named a winner in the category of "Innovation in Cybersecurity" in the 11th Aegis Graham Bell Awards. The winner was selected based on its ability to address a pertinent market problem as well as its innovativeness, impact on business objectives and social impact. As today's cyber threats grow in scope and complexity, a focus on perimeter security alone is insufficient. A recent report from the U.S. National Security Agency noted that embracing a Zero Trust model can better position organizations to secure sensitive data, systems, and services. However, implementation can be complex, especially as many companies have struggled to adapt security policies to accommodate the rise in remote workers over the past year. Stealth uses micro-segmentation, encryption and dynamic isolation to contain threats and protect public, private, hybrid, multi-cloud and on-premises environments. Stealth can be implemented with no impact on an organization's existing infrastructure, making Zero Trust a viable and effective cybersecurity approach for organizations. This is even more critical in a post-pandemic world where enterprise boundaries are fading like never before. Stealth provides virtual agent support across operating systems, including macOS, iOS, iPadOS, Windows and Android, enabling support for the broadest array of digital infrastructure in the IT industry. "We are extremely proud to be recognized with this prestigious award. With the increase in remote working and reliance on cloud technology, organizations need to both simplify and strengthen their security posture. We offer a solution that simplifies the complexity of implementation, representation, and deployment of the product across thousands of endpoints," said Sumed Marwaha, Regional Services Vice President and Managing Director, Unisys India. The Aegis Graham Bell Awards are a tribute to the father of the telephony and great innovator, Alexander Graham Bell. Initiated by India's Aegis School of Business, Data Science and Cyber Security, the awards promote innovation and recognize outstanding contributions by innovators. This award marks the latest recognition for Unisys. The company recently announced that leading global analyst firm NelsonHall named the company as an overall market segment leader in cognitive and self-healing IT infrastructure management services. Global research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. recently named Unisys a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Managed Workplace Services, and leading global technology research and advisory firm Information Services Group (ISG) recognized the company as a global leader in digital workplace services in their reports on the U.S., the U.K. and Brazil. For more information on Unisys' security offerings, go to: stealthsecurity.unisys.com. About Unisys Unisys is a global IT services company that delivers successful outcomes for the most demanding businesses and governments. Unisys offerings include digital workplace services, cloud and infrastructure services and software operating environments for high-intensity enterprise computing. Unisys integrates security into all of its solutions. For more information on how Unisys delivers for its clients across the government, financial services and commercial markets, visit www.unisys.com. Follow Unisys on Twitter and LinkedIn. RELEASE NO.: 0512/9835 Unisys and other Unisys products and services mentioned herein, as well as their respective logos, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Unisys Corporation. Any other brand or product referenced herein is acknowledged to be a trademark or registered trademark of its respective holder. UIS-C SOURCE Unisys Corporation The pay proposal includes bonuses of 12mln or more PLCs ( ) remuneration package for chief executive Pascal Soriot has been just about approved on Tuesdays annual general meeting. Nearly 40% of shareholders voted against it, with 60% voting in favour. The pay proposal includes bonuses of 12mln or more, as the award would be 2.5 times his base salary plus eligibility for long-term share awards worth 6.5 times his salary. The French businessman could pocket as much as 17.8mln for 2020 if shares in the pharma giant keep rising. The Committee recognises that a meaningful proportion of shareholders were not able to support the new policy, the FTSE 100 company said. The Committee will continue to engage and listen to ensure investors' concerns regarding the approach to executive remuneration are understood. Since their appointment, the Executive Directors have driven a remarkable turnaround in the company's performance, resulting in a TSR close to 300% over the last eight years and 77% over the last three years, it continued. This decision was taken in the interests of all stakeholders to support the future growth of the company, and provide us with the flexibility required to reward outstanding achievements with competitive pay for performance packages. ( ) and ( ) have voted to block the proposal, it was revealed in the weekend, as they fear the pay raise would tarnish the pharma giants reputation after vowing to deliver COVID-19 vaccines not for a profit during the pandemic. Shareholders have also approved the proposal to acquire rare disease specialist Alexion Pharmaceuticals for US$39bn as announced in December. Shares dipped 1% to 7,622p on Tuesday afternoon. NEW YORK and LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Unmind , the leading workplace mental health platform, has closed a $47 million oversubscribed Series B funding round as it gathers global momentum partnering with some of the world's top employers. This latest round of funding led by EQT Ventures follows a year where demand for Unmind's proactive and preventative approach to mental health increased substantially in the wake of COVID-19, with the company growing revenues more than 3x in the last 12 months. The investment supported by Sapphire Ventures, as well as existing investors Project A, Felix Capital, and True now makes Unmind one of the best-funded workplace mental health startups. Over the past year, COVID-19, lockdowns, and their impact on work-life balance have taken an enormous toll on the wellbeing of employees around the world, with 78.5% of employers reporting an increase in requests for mental health support1 and 90% concerned that their employees are experiencing burnout.2 However, the pandemic has also catalyzed positive change as organizations look to rethink the way they support their people. A majority of employers (about 70%) report they plan to invest in mental health resources by starting, continuing, or expanding benefits in 2021,3 with 88% of large employers expecting to provide access to online mental health support this year.4 Dr. Nick Taylor, Clinical Psychologist, Co-founder, and CEO of Unmind, said: "Unmind was built on the belief that everyone has the right to a healthy mind. Thanks to the support from our investors, this round of funding gives us the opportunity to scale our team while further developing the product with clinically backed insights and research. In turn, this will help us to meet growing global demand from employers looking to drive positive cultural change around mental health in the workplace. At Unmind, we see the future of mental healthcare rooted in prevention. After all, we all have mental health, all of the time, and just like physical health or dental health, there's a range of ways we can proactively nurture and improve it." Going beyond the traditional and often stigmatized approach of providing support only to those experiencing signs of mental ill-health, Unmind's scalable platform complements reactive services like EAPs or teletherapy by providing access to proactive, self-guided tools that empower all employees to measure, understand, and nurture their mental wellbeing. Supporting a diverse range of topics, from sleep to connection, calmness to coping, Unmind is available to more than 2 million employees in 110 countries and is used by some of the world's top employers, including Uber, British Airways, Marks & Spencer, and Samsung. Alastair Mitchell, Partner at EQT Ventures, said: "It is now universally recognized that our mental health is as important if not more important than our physical health but has long been neglected. That is now changing rapidly. As a result, there has been a massive rise in the popularity of consumer mental health apps, which is now being matched by surging demand from employers and employees for the same in the workplace. Unmind is the leading mental health app for the enterprise, and we are so excited to work with Dr. Nick and the team to support their scaling globally. Along with our investment EQT Ventures is delighted to announce the rollout of Unmind across the whole EQT group and to some of our portfolio companies in the near future." Andreas Weiskam, Co-founder and Managing Director of Sapphire Ventures, said: "Mental health and wellness is an incredibly important topic in society and the workplace. Too often, employees let their feelings of stress, anxiety, loneliness, and work-life balance fall by the wayside. And when they do prioritize taking care of themselves, the issues are often compounded and they don't know where to begin. Unmind addresses this critical challenge, enabling employees to proactively and preventatively measure and manage their mental wellness so that they can lead more fulfilling and balanced lives. At Sapphire, we invest in companies of consequence, companies with the power to improve the lives of individuals. Unmind is doing exactly that, and we are thrilled to partner with founder and CEO Dr. Nick Taylor and the entire team." Unmind will use the new capital to accelerate its international growth and continue to develop the breadth and diversity of its content, features, and integrations. This will be enabled by increasing headcount to 200 people by the end of 2021, across their offices in London, New York, and Sydney. Unmind + REBA, COVID-19 and Employee Mental Health Research, May 2020 Unmind + WELCOA, 2021 Workplace Resilience Survey Report, March 2021 McKinsey & Company, National Surveys Reveal Disconnect Between Employees and Employers Around Mental Health Need, April 2021 Mercer, Digital Tools for Mental Health, 2020 About Unmind - unmind.com Founded in 2016, Unmind is the leading workplace mental health platform, empowering more than 2 million employees around the world to live more fulfilling and balanced lives. Underpinned by clinical psychology and powered by technology, the platform helps employees proactively measure, understand, and nurture their own mental health across seven core areas of wellbeing fulfilment, coping, calmness, happiness, connection, health, and sleep. With Unmind, leaders are empowered to drive positive cultural change across their organization by accessing aggregated and anonymised insights into the wellbeing of their people. Uber, Virgin Media, The John Lewis Partnership, Gymshark, and Standard Chartered are some of the many organizations that have partnered with Unmind to create a world where mental health is universally understood, nurtured, and celebrated. Further information about Unmind is available at: https://unmind.com/ SOURCE Unmind Related Links http://www.unmind.com LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Navy has turned to global security and aerospace company Lockheed Martin and enterprise applications company IFS to deliver an intelligent maintenance solution that will help power its digital transformation of multiple legacy systems into a single, fully modernized and responsive logistics information system. The solution will ensure personnel spend more time focused on the mission and less on aircraft and ship repairs. The IFS solution comprises capabilities for planning and executing maintenance, repair, and overhaul of more than 3,000 assets including aircraft, ships, and land-based equipment. The Naval Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (N-MRO) solution combines artificial intelligence (AI), digital twin capabilities and predictive analytics to anticipate and react to potential equipment failures before they happen, which will contribute to the enhanced support of maintenance, supply logistics, real-time fleet management and other business functions for more than 200,000 sailors. Following a comprehensive and competitive evaluation process, the U.S. Navy selected Lockheed Martin together with IFS's acclaimed industry-specific functionality already used by some of the world's largest aerospace and defense (A&D) organizations. With the added support of software developer Beast Code, the solution will initially be fielded at multiple U.S. Navy sites to help sailors and Marine Corps maintainers break down operational silos and work towards a common maintenance workflow across all ship and aircraft platforms. The digital transformation of the U.S. Navy's maintenance systems will see a consolidation of assets and parts data in a central repository visualized to the users through an intuitive, mobile-friendly experience. This initiative will lead to increased data accuracy, streamlined workflows and ultimately less asset downtime and fewer unscheduled maintenance events. Enabling Total Asset Readiness through N-MRO will ensure information is always readily available to help the U.S. Navy achieve its desired materiel readiness and operational availability objectives. For instance, Navy personnel will be empowered to document faults, request parts, and report work completion at the point of maintenance, thereby reducing asset downtime while increasing data accuracy as an enabler of enhanced planning and procurement. "Our goal is to provide capabilities that create real value across the Navy's complex, multi-site operations and optimize its mission-critical maintenance processes," said Reeves Valentine, Lockheed Martin Vice President of Enterprise Sustainment Solutions. "We want to empower Navy personnel with tools that are easy and effective to use with intuitive interfaces, streamlined workflows and timesaving, intelligent features. IFS distinguished itself by providing all of these capabilities through a single, commercial-off-the-shelf solution." Scott Helmer, President, Aerospace & Defense, IFS, added, "We are proud to be part of N-MRO, which will set a new global standard for Total Asset Readiness and the way defense organizations manage asset maintenance and logistics, both ashore and afloat. A&D has been a key focus industry at IFS for decades and this landmark deal stands as testament to the success of our long-term strategy and determination. Working with Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy, we are already making great strides and look forward to a long and successful collaboration." Learn more about how IFS empowers A&D organizations at www.ifs.com/corp/industries/aerospace-and-defense/. Contact: David DeRosa, Director, Marketing Communications, IFS Aerospace and Defense. Phone: 1-613-314-2952, [email protected] About N-MRO N-MRO is part of the U.S. Navy Naval Operational Business Logistics Enterprise (NOBLE) family of systems and encompasses both the Naval Aviation Maintenance System (NAMS) and Naval Operational Maintenance Environment (NOME) requirements. Learn more here. About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 114,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. Please follow @LMNews on Twitter for the latest announcements and news across the corporation. About IFS IFS develops and delivers enterprise software for companies around the world who manufacture and distribute goods, build and maintain assets, and manage service-focused operations. Within our single platform, our industry specific products are innately connected to a single data model and use embedded digital innovation so that our customers can be their best when it really matters to their customersat the Moment of Service. The industry expertise of our people and of our growing ecosystem, together with a commitment to deliver value at every single step, has made IFS a recognized leader and the most recommended supplier in our sector. Our team of 4,000 employees every day live our values of agility, trustworthiness and collaboration in how we support our 10,000+ customers. Learn more about how our enterprise software solutions can help your business today at ifs.com. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/ifs/r/u-s--navy-selects-lockheed-martin-and-ifs-to-deliver-intelligent-ship-and-aircraft-maintenance,c3344937 The following files are available for download: SOURCE IFS "West Shore Home is proud to be a Pennsylvania based company. We are thrilled to expand our footprint within the commonwealth," said B.J. Werzyn, President and CEO, West Shore Home. "With our Norristown location, we can now provide Philadelphia area homeowners with the convenience and efficiency of the West Shore Home experience." Founded in 2006, West Shore Home has grown from a locally based home remodeling company to a national brand with over 20 operational locations in 12 states. The company specializes in window, door, and bath remodeling and replacement, with most projects completed in just one day. West Shore Home was founded on the principle that each customer receives honest, reliable and quality service. It is one of the fastest growing home improvement companies in the nation, currently operating in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. The Norristown office provides office space, sales training facilities and a warehouse for custom bath, window and door products. It will add dozens of jobs to the region. Those interested in employment opportunities should visit the careers link on the company website. About West Shore Home West Shore Home, headquartered in Mechanicsburg, Pa., is a leading technology-enabled home improvement company with continued national expansion plans. Founded in 2006, West Shore Home's mission is to provide the fastest, most convenient home remodeling services in the market. West Shore Home is an established industry leader driven by its use of technology to simplify the remodeling process. With a customer-first mindset, its goal is to bring happiness to every home. For additional information visit westshorehome.com. SOURCE West Shore Home Related Links https://www.westshorehome.com/ LONDON, HOUSTON, and SINGAPORE, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- At a time when countries and organisations around the world pledge greener economies and net-zero ambitions, the electrification of the global energy system is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Wood Mackenzie - a leading provider of commercial intelligence for the world's natural resources sector - is developing Lens Power, a completely new capability for the market which will enable asset-specific valuations at the touch of a button. With its analytics-ready power and renewables data, Lens Power will empower organisations to maximize investment opportunities in clean energy and be on the forefront of the energy transition. Today, Wood Mackenzie welcomes Vestas a leader in sustainable energy solutions as a Development Partner for the Lens decision intelligence platform. Vestas joins a growing list of companies across utility, financial, manufacturing, and oil and gas industries partnering with Wood Mackenzie on this future offering. Wood Mackenzie's Lens platform has helped organisations across the globe transform how they manage their investment in upstream oil and gas. Now, scaling across the natural resources value chain, Wood Mackenzie is collaborating with early adopter clients to design a power solution that provides a holistic understanding of what's happening in the world of energy, allowing organisations to quickly and confidently digest vast amounts of power data in an integrated, easy-to-use platform. Ian Roberts, Wood Mackenzie Chief Digital and Product Officer, said: "At Wood Mackenzie, our customer-centric approach to product design is at the heart of what we do. We strive to develop solutions that match our clients' workflows, so they can make confident, data-driven decisions. We are delighted to partner with Vestas, the world's leading wind OEM* and a company with over 40 years of expertise in wind turbine technology. We are excited about the insight into decision making they will bring as leaders in sustainable energy solutions which we can apply to Lens Power." Nick Fridberg, Senior Director of Global Intelligence & Corporate Strategy at Vestas commented: "An important part of our job is to discover and process market information and turn it into actionable insights that enable stakeholders across our organisation to make better and faster decisions. We welcome the opportunity to work together so we can strengthen our ability to support Vestas' strategy execution and development. Being able to influence the design and concept of Lens Power and gain early access to new, innovative tools in the market will help us sharpen our competitive edge and achieve our vision to become the global leader in sustainable energy solutions." Wood Mackenzie serves clients across many industries looking to adapt to a low-carbon future. Powering the energy transition is a technology-based switch from fossil fuels to renewables, supported by an almost ubiquitous societal push towards a sustainable future. Ben Kellison, Director of Energy Transition Research for Wood Mackenzie said, "There is a massive, ongoing electrification of the global energy system; where electricity is less than 20% of the energy mix today, it will more than double over the coming decades, with renewables at the forefront of this growth." EDITOR'S NOTES *According to Wood Mackenzie's Global wind turbine OEMs 2020 market shares report, Vestas tops the global ranking. About Wood Mackenzie Lens Wood Mackenzie's Lens platform is the industry standard in critical decision-support, harnessing the power of big data to provide answers to complex questions, enabling customers to manage their operations, processes, and capital swiftly and efficiently, wherever they are. Stay informed of Lens Power solutions at http://go.woodmac.com/lens-power. About Wood Mackenzie Wood Mackenzie, a Verisk Analytics business, is a trusted source of commercial intelligence for the world's natural resources sector. We empower clients to make better strategic decisions, providing objective analysis and advice on assets, companies and markets. For more information, visit: www.woodmac.com or follow us on Twitter @WoodMackenzie. WOOD MACKENZIE is a trademark of Wood Mackenzie Limited and is the subject of trademark registrations and/or applications in the European Community, the USA and other countries around the world. About Vestas Vestas is the energy industry's global partner on sustainable energy solutions. We design, manufacture, install, and service onshore and offshore wind turbines across the globe, and with more than 132 GW of wind turbines in 82 countries, we have installed more wind power than anyone else. Through our industry-leading smart data capabilities and unparalleled more than 117 GW of wind turbines under service, we use data to interpret, forecast, and exploit wind resources and deliver best-in-class wind power solutions. Together with our customers, Vestas' more than 29,000 employees are bringing the world sustainable energy solutions to power a bright future. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1482968/Wood_Mackenzie_Logo.jpg SOURCE Wood Mackenzie Ltd Related Links https://www.woodmac.com The market is expected to be driven by factors such as the increased demand for personalized or customized medical devices, increasing adoption of 3D printing technology by medical professionals, and rising cost efficiency and enhanced productivity. Request a Free Sample Report 3D Printing Medical Devices Market: Opportunities Governments across the world are increasing their healthcare budgets and introducing various healthcare programs. For instance, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in South Korea is exploring fast-track approval options for 3D-printed medical devices. Besides, the rapid growth of the aging population and rising disposable incomes have increased the need for advanced healthcare. Many such factors are expected to create significant growth opportunities for market vendors during the forecast period. 3D Printing Medical Devices Market: Segmentation by Application Based on the segmentation by application, the market generated maximum revenue in the orthopedic and spinal 3D printing medical devices segment in 2020. The segment is driven by the increasing adoption of 3D printing by hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers to fabricate orthopedic implants. Also, the increasing prevalence of orthopedic and spinal disorders, rising demand for patient-specific orthopedic and spinal implants, growing need for advanced surfaces and structures in the implants, and the aging population are expected to contribute to the growth of the segment during the forecast period. 3D Printing Medical Devices Market: Segmentation by Geography North America held the largest market share in 2020 and the market growth in the region is expected to be slower compared to the growth of the market in Asia and Europe. The growth of the market in North America can be attributed to the availability of improved healthcare infrastructure, high adoption of 3D printing medical devices in healthcare facilities, and the presence of established vendors. In addition, the proliferation of vendors in the region will fuel the growth of the 3D printing medical devices market during the forecast period. Develop strategies to make the most of future growth opportunities Grab an Exclusive Report Now! 3D Printing Medical Devices Market: Major Vendors 3D Systems Corp. The company offers 3D printing medical devices such as ProJet 360, ProJet 460 Plus, ProJet 5500X, and ProJet 3500 HDMax. Autodesk Inc. The company offers productive business solutions through powerful technology products and services. The company offers 3D printing medical devices such as Fusion 360. EnvisionTEC GmBH The company offers a wide range of 3D printers with varying surface finishes, functionality, and speed. The company offers 3D printing medical devices such as Micro Plus CDLM, Envision One CDLM HT, Vida HD cDLM, and others. General Electric Co. The company offers a range of diagnostic imaging and clinical systems, life science products and services, and digital solutions. The company offers 3D printing medical devices such as Arcam EBM Q10plus. Materialise NV The company develops and delivers medical software solutions, medical devices, and other related products and services. The company offers 3D printing medical devices such as materialize mimic InPrint, Materialise 3 Matic Medical and others. Request for a complete report to know the strategy adopted by Vendors during the COVID-19 recovery phase Related Reports on 3D Printing Medical Devices Market: Global 3D Printing Materials Market Know about the latest consumer trends, major vendor offerings, and factors impacting the growth of the 3D printing materials market. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Dental 3D Printing Devices Market Global dental 3D printing devices market is expected to witness maximum growth in North America during 2021-2025. Explore information on the production, sustainability, and prospects of several leading companies. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global 3D Bioprinting Market Analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the 3D bioprinting market, adopt better marketing tactics, and prepare for what's next. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Orthopedic 3D Printed Devices Market The global orthopedic 3D printed devices market is expected to benefit from the increased demand for personalized or customized orthopedic devices and the rising focus on R&D of 3D bioprinting. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global 3D Dental Scanners Market Global 3D dental scanners market is segmented by product (desktop or laboratory 3D dental scanners, intraoral 3D dental scanners, hand-held 3D dental scanners, and CBCT), type (3D dental light scanners and 3D dental laser scanners), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia, and ROW). Download Exclusive Free Sample Report 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 Application Market segments Comparison by Application Orthopedic and spinal - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Dental - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Hearing aids - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Others - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Market opportunity by Application 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 Asia - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ROW - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Market drivers Market challenges Market trends Vendor Landscape Overview Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors 3D Systems Corp. Autodesk Inc. EnvisionTEC GmBH Formlabs Inc. General Electric Co. Materialise NV Renishaw Plc SLM Solutions Group AG Stratasys Ltd. The ExOne Company Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses 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/3d-printing-medical-devices-market-industry-analysis SOURCE Technavio Related Links http://www.technavio.com The growth of the global annuloplasty rings market was impacted by the pandemic in 2020. Hospitals were temporarily closed for non-emergency surgical treatment in the first half of 2020. This led to a slight dip in the demand for annuloplasty rings. However, the market is expected to have a healthy growth in 2021 owing to the increasing prevalence of heart valve diseases, coupled with the rising aging population. The market is expected to be driven by factors such as the increasing prevalence of heart valve diseases, increasing preference for mitral valve repair over mitral valve replacement, and technological advances. Request a Free Sample Report Annuloplasty Rings Market: Opportunities The lack of awareness of heart valve diseases, lack of skilled cardiologists, and high cost of advanced annuloplasty rings, especially in developing regions are creating a high unmet demand for quality healthcare. This is encouraging vendors in the market to expand their operations in such regions and tap the growth potential. Also, the high prevalence of valvular heart diseases globally is expected to create several opportunities for market players during the forecast period. Annuloplasty Rings Market: Segmentation by Application Based on the segmentation by application, the market generated maximum revenue in the mitral valve repair segment in 2020. The segment is driven by the increasing prevalence of MR and the rise in the number of mitral valve repair procedures. Also, increasing investments in R&D by vendors is expected to fuel the growth of the segment during the forecast period. Annuloplasty Rings Market: Segmentation by Geography North America held the largest market share in 2020 and the market growth in the region is expected to be slower compared to the growth of the market in Asia. The growth of the market in North America can be attributed to the availability of improved healthcare infrastructure, the increasing adoption of advanced annuloplasty rings, and the strong presence of established vendors. Also, the rapid rise in the geriatric population is expected to contribute to the growth of the angioplasty rings market in North America during the forecast period. Develop strategies to make the most of future growth opportunities Grab an Exclusive Report Now! Annuloplasty Rings Market: Major Vendors Abbott Laboratories The company offers products for rhythm management, electrophysiology, heart failure, vascular, structural heart, and neuromodulation. Attune Flexible Adjustable Annuloplasty ring is the key product offered by the company. AFFLUENT MEDICAL SA The company designs and develops endovascular prosthesis, mitral annuloplasty, prosthesis, and other related devices for the treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysm, urinary incontinence, and mitral valve repair and replacement. The key products offered by the company include Kalios, Epygon, and Artus products. Mitral annuloplasty ring is the key product offered by the company. BioStable Science & Engineering Inc. The company generates revenue by developing and commercializing proprietary valve repair technologies. This company offers HAART 200 Aortic Annuloplasty Device. Boston Scientific Corp. The company offers technologies for diagnosing and treating coronary artery disease and other cardiovascular disorders including structural heart conditions, products to diagnose and treat peripheral arterial and venous diseases, and products to diagnose, treat and ease various forms of cancer. IRIS mitral annuloplasty ring is the key product offered by the company. LivaNova Plc The company is involved in the development, production, and sale of cardiopulmonary products, heart valves, and advanced circulatory support products. AnnuloFlex annuloplasty ring is the key product offered by the company. Request for a complete report to know the strategy adopted by Vendors during the COVID-19 recovery phase Related Reports on Annuloplasty Rings Market: Global Anesthesia Devices Market Know about the latest consumer trends, major vendor offerings, and factors impacting the growth of the anesthesia devices market. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Systems Market ambulatory blood pressure monitoring systems market is expected to witness maximum growth in North America during 2021-2025. Explore information on the production, sustainability, and prospects of several leading companies. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Advanced Wound Care Market Analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the advanced wound care market, adopt better marketing tactics, and prepare for what's next. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Ureteroscopy Devices Market The global ureteroscopy devices market is expected to benefit from the presence of integrated systems in hybrid operating rooms and the growing prevalence of kidney stones and ureteral cancer. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Robotic Surgery System Market Global robotic surgery system market is segmented by product (instruments and accessories, system, and services), end-user (hospitals and ASCs), application (gynecology, general surgery, urology, cardiac surgery, and others), and geography (North America, Europe, Asia, and ROW). Download Exclusive Free Sample Report 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 Application Market segments Comparison by Application Mitral valve repair - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Tricuspid valve repair - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Market opportunity by Application 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 Asia - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ROW - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Market drivers Market challenges Market trends Vendor Landscape Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors Abbott Laboratories AFFLUENT MEDICAL SA BioStable Science & Engineering Inc. Boston Scientific Corp. CORONEO Inc. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. Genesee BioMedical Inc. LivaNova Plc Medtronic Plc Valcare Medical Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses 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/annuloplasty-rings-market-industry-analysis SOURCE Technavio Related Links http://www.technavio.com The market is driven by factors such as the increasing incidence of hypertension coupled with the geriatric population, favorable reimbursement scenario, and advanced technology support and improved monitoring techniques. Request a Free Sample Report Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Systems Market: Opportunities The rising prevalence of high blood pressure and the expanding geriatric population is increasing the demand for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring systems. In addition, an increase in risk factors such as smoking, lack of proper physical activity, older community, and an increased intake of fat-rich and fast foods have increased the prevalence of heart diseases and hypertension. In addition, a rise in detection and screening and increased public awareness regarding ABPM systems will create significant opportunities for market vendors during the forecast period. Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Systems Market: Segmentation by Product Based on the segmentation by product, the market generated maximum revenue in the arm-based ambulatory blood pressure monitoring systems segment in 2020. The segment is primarily driven by the rising prevalence of hypertension worldwide. Besides, technological advances and the launch of innovative products by vendors are contributing to the growth of the segment. Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Systems Market: Segmentation by Geography North America held the largest market share in 2020 and the market growth in the region is expected to be slower compared to the growth of the market in other regions. The growth of the market in North America can be attributed to the high prevalence of high blood pressure causing white coat hypertension, a growing number of technologically advanced ABPM systems, and the presence of sophisticated healthcare infrastructure. Also, the rapidly expanding geriatric population is expected to fuel the growth of the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring systems market in North America during the forecast period. Develop strategies to make the most of future growth opportunities Grab an Exclusive Report Now! Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Systems Market: Major Vendors A&D Co. Ltd. The company offers a wide range of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring systems such as TM-2440, TM-2441, TM-2430, Doctor Pro 3 (TM-9501), and others. BOSCH + SOHN GmbH u. Co. KG The company offers ambulatory blood pressure monitoring systems such as TM-2450, 24-hour blood pressure monitor. Contec Medical Systems Co. Ltd. The company offers the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring system, namely ABPM50 which is a handhold ambulatory blood pressure monitor designed according to oscillography theory. Halma Plc The company offers various medical devices to monitor blood pressure and others. The company offers blood pressure monitors through its subsidiary, Cardios. Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. The company offers ABPM 7100 ambulatory blood pressure monitor that helps avoid white coat hypertension, track sleep readings, and tailor drug therapy regimens with simple, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Request for a complete report to know the strategy adopted by Vendors during the COVID-19 recovery phase Related Reports on Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring Systems Market: Global Blood Pressure Transducers Market Know about the latest consumer trends, major vendor offerings, and factors impacting the growth of the blood pressure transducers market. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Blood Pressure Monitoring Device Market Global blood pressure monitoring device market is expected to witness maximum growth in North America during 2020-2024. Explore information on the production, sustainability, and prospects of several leading companies. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Blood Pressure Cuffs Market Analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the blood pressure cuffs market, adopt better marketing tactics, and prepare for what's next. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Pulse Oximetry Market The global pulse oximetry market size is expected to grow by $ 891.28 million, registering a CAGR of over 8% during 2020-2024. Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Global Respiratory Monitoring Devices Market Global respiratory monitoring devices market is segmented by product (pulse oximetry, spirometry, and capnography) and geography (North America, Europe, Asia, and ROW). Download Exclusive Free Sample Report Executive Summary Market Landscape Market ecosystem Market characteristics 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 Product Market segments Comparison by Product Arm-based - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Wrist-based - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Market opportunity by Product 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 Asia - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 ROW - Market size and forecast 2020-2025 Key leading countries Market opportunity by geography Market drivers Market challenges Market trends Vendor Landscape Vendor landscape Landscape disruption Vendor Analysis Vendors covered Market positioning of vendors A&D Co. Ltd. BOSCH + SOHN GmbH u. Co. KG Contec Medical Systems Co. Ltd. Halma Plc Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. Microlife Corp. Nihon Kohden Corp. OMRON Corp. OSI Systems Inc. SCHILLER AG Appendix Scope of the report Currency conversion rates for US$ Research methodology List of abbreviations About Us Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses 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/ambulatory-blood-pressure-monitoring-systems-market-industry-analysis SOURCE Technavio Related Links http://www.technavio.com SAN DIEGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CannabizTeam , the world's largest cannabis-focused executive search and staffing firm, today announced the release of its latest Cannabis Industry Salary Guide for Q2 2021. This is the third edition of CannabizTeam's national Salary Guide, created to help clients and prospective cannabis employees understand real-time changes in the dynamic cannabis industry and make informed business decisions. The in-depth report covers hot jobs and hiring trends in the U.S. cannabis industry, top states for cannabis jobs in 2020 and national salary ranges for more than 60 popular cannabis positions covering 36 states. Cannabis Jobs in US According to data from Leafly , the U.S. cannabis industry currently supports 321,000 full-time cannabis jobs, a remarkable 32% increase from a record number of jobs in 2020. With adult-use cannabis now legalized in 17 states and counting, the industry is poised to support 500,000 full-time jobs and top $35 billion in annual sales in the U.S. by 2024. "The cannabis industry proved its strength and resiliency in 2020 and enters 2021 as the fastest-growing industry in the United States," said Liesl Bernard, CEO of CannabizTeam. "With so much hiring, growth and investment activity, we're seeing a red hot cannabis job market at the start of Q2 2021. The future is bright, and we look forward to our continued role in connecting exceptional talent with the cannabis industry's leading companies." A few highlights from the Q2 2021 report: Cannabis salaries are up across the board with increased demand driving double-digit increases in compensation for experienced managers and C-suite executives. Salaries continue to increase above cost of living index due to competition and a shortage of employees with specialized cannabis experience or specific transferable skills. for experienced managers and C-suite executives. Salaries continue to increase above cost of living index due to competition and a shortage of employees with specialized cannabis experience or specific transferable skills. Larger multi-state operators are increasingly recruiting from outside of the cannabis industry, bringing in talent from some of the country's largest companies including Pfizer, John Deere, Proctor and Gamble, Bayer, Google and Tesla Competitive demand for top cannabis talent continues to skyrocket in emerging adult-use markets including Arizona , Illinois , Michigan , New York and New Jersey as hundreds of new licensees are building intra-state supply chains to serve ever-increasing retail stores. Salary ranges in the Q2 2021 Salary Guide are based on CannabizTeam's proprietary salary data, salary surveys and independent research from trusted sources collected through the end of Q1 2021. To view the Q2 2021 Cannabis Industry Salary Guide in its entirety, visit: CannabizTeam.com/cannabis-salary-guide . About CannabizTeam CannabizTeam is the world's largest cannabis-focused executive search and staffing firm providing services for the top cannabis, CBD and hemp businesses in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Founded in 2016 by internationally acclaimed executive recruiter Liesl Bernard, CannabizTeam identifies and delivers superior talent that possesses the drive, skills and cultural fit unique to each client and company role. Headquartered in San Diego, CannabizTeam now has offices in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Newark, Miami, Orlando and Santa Rosa. Through extensive global reach and unparalleled business relationships, CannabizTeam and its five staffing divisions (CT Executive Search, CannabizTeam Direct Hire, CannabizTemp , CT Board Placement and CT Outplacement Services) place over 1,000 candidates a year for clients. Sign up for the CannabizTeam newsletter to receive weekly updates on the top candidates in cannabis: https://cannabizteam.com/top-talent/ . Media Contact Morgan Whitehouse [email protected] 802 373 4686 SOURCE CannabizTeam Related Links http://www.cannabizteam.com WASHINGTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Embattled religious minorities and dissenting members of majority religious communities suffer extraordinarily including harassment, discrimination, and genocide as freedom of religion or belief has deteriorated worldwide. Congress has been an advocate for this essential human right and sought to ensure continued support for it as a central focus of U.S. foreign policy. 21Wilberforce tracks the progress of Congressional efforts regarding international religious freedom or belief and has just published the International Religious Freedom Congressional Scorecard for the 116th Congress. The scorecard evaluates Members of Congress on their public support for international religious freedom or belief during the 116th Congress based on their sponsorship of bills, resolutions, and amendments, related caucus work, and votes in the House and the Senate. Sixty-two legislators (38 Democrats and 24 Republicans) are recognized as "Notable Leaders" for their efforts. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Representative Brad Sherman (D-CA) earned the overall top scores in each body. "The freedom to practice or live out one's faith according to one's conscience is a sacred right that no government has the authority to take away. Tragically, this fundamental human right remains under constant assault around the world," Senator Rubio said. "I am proud to continue to advance policies that ensure protections for freedom of religion or belief, as well as impose serious consequences on the governments and non-state actors who engage in gross abuses of religious freedom." 21Wilberforce scored thirty-seven (37) items in the Senate and fifty-four (54) items in the House from the 116th Congress. Out of a combined 91 items scored, the largest number, 47, focused on Asia, over half of all the actions scored. Two laws related to international religious freedom passed with an overwhelming majority and were enacted into law during the 116th Congress: the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 and the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020. Dr. Randel Everett, President of 21Wilberforce said, "I am pleased that results in this Scorecard demonstrate that international religious freedom issues continue to transcend the partisan divide. The scorecard encourages legislators to take even bolder steps in support of this freedom and it provides citizens with a nonpartisan, concise summary of public actions Congress has taken on issues related to international religious freedom." The 116th Congress IRF Congressional Scorecard can be viewed at: https://IRFscorecard.org. Contact: Louann Sabatier 703-216-2941 [email protected] SOURCE 21Wilberforce Related Links http://www.21wilberforce.org/ How some Internet companies are fighting back online fraud successfully AMSTERDAM, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Scamadviser analyzed 7 million domain names and discovered that 3% of all websites have a Trust Score lower than 20 out of 100, meaning that they are (very) likely to be a scam. The company also discovered that some Internet companies do a much better job at preventing scammers from accessing their services than others. Good Registrars The percentage of Low Score Domains differs strongly per registrar (where you register a domain name). Companies like Network Solutions and 1&! IONOS are able to keep the number of possible scam sites below 1%, while others have more than three to four times the industry average. Registrar Hosted Domains Low Score Domains % Low Score Domains Network Solutions 82,531 532 0.60% 1&1 IONOS 49,002 483 1.00% FastDomain 33,624 552 1.60% ENOM 91,405 1,650 1.80% GoDaddy.com 528,752 15,876 3.00% PublicDomainRegistry.com 92,461 3,074 3.30% GMO INTERNET, INC. 29,825 1,039 3.50% NameCheap 119,754 12,546 10.50% NameSilo 40,710 5,340 13.20% Alibaba Cloud Computing 35,925 5,139 14.30% Good Hosting Companies Website hosting companies like Google and GoDaddy perform remarkably well with only 1.7% and 2.0% of the websites researched being considered malicious. Far below the industry average of 3% ISP Hosted Domains Low Score Domains % Low Score Domains Google 175,561 2,975 1.70% WebsiteWelcome.com 64,214 1,140 1.80% GoDaddy.com 105,755 2,127 2.00% Unified Layer 68,850 1,334 2.00% OVH 78,024 1,690 2.20% Hetzner Online 52,249 1,204 2.30% DigitalOcean 60,215 1,459 2.40% Cloudflare 326,325 11,905 3.70% Amazon Technologies 75,150 3,372 4.50% Shopify 45,407 3,802 8.40% Namecheap 48,116 8,456 17.60% Good Registries The registry owns the top-level domain such as .com, .biz or .store. The Chinese .cn top-level domain seems hardly misused (0.36%) at all. The .co extension, on the other hand, is often misused (5.4%) by scammers as it gives potential scam victims the impression that it is a legit .com site. Registry Hosted Domains Low Score Domains % Low Score Domains cn 72,014 190 0.36% au 30,503 366 1.20% nl 52,255 699 1.30% it 31,259 467 1.50% pl 25,431 392 1.50% org 105,805 1,753 1.70% de 82,464 1,552 1.80% co.uk 58,587 1,839 3.10% net 135,170 4,317 3.20% com 1,832,842 72,243 3.90% ru 78,952 3,457 4.40% co 25,024 1,342 5.40% How to Make the Internet Safer? Clearly, some Internet companies are much better at keeping scam sites at bay than others. The trick seems to be fair pricing and well-structured Know Your Customer (KYC) processes. The companies struggling the most with a high number of scammy domains seem to be price fighters. For example, some registrars sell domains with the extension .ltd as little as $6.98, .top for $3.98 and .store for $1.88 per year! Several hosting providers, registries, and registrars have improved their KYC policies with remarkable results. The Danish .dk registry for example was able to reduce the number of online stores selling fakes by 80% in one year by just asking for an ID. Contact: [email protected]. Download full report . SOURCE Ecommerce Foundation (Scamadviser.com) The raise will provide seed capital for our fledgling reforestation and carbon sequestration unit," said chief executive Paul Dolan Woodbois Ltd ( ) increased the size of an equity fundraising to receive 6mln, up from a proposed 5mln, amid strong demand. It issued 100mln new shares priced at 6p each through a placing, share subscription and retail offer. "We are pleased to have successfully closed this limited and oversubscribed fundraise, said chief executive Paul Dolan. The raise will provide seed capital for our fledgling reforestation and carbon sequestration unit: this is a pivotal time in the development of the Voluntary Carbon Markets and we intend to leverage our experience and presence to help meet the rapidly growing corporate demand for high-quality emission offsets. Dolan added: These funds will also enable us to double our Gabon veneer production during H2 2021 and again during 2022, to broaden our forest concession footprint there as well as allowing us to generate value from our waste product through the production of blockboard. The equity funding was announced after market hours on Tuesday. Originally, a total of 5mln was sought with a placing led by broker Canaccord along with a 1.4mln share subscription by the companys largest shareholder Rhino Ventures. Proceeds are earmarked for a push into the carbon sequestration market via a project to acquire and reforest degraded land in Gabon, while progressing parallel discussions for large-scale reforestation projects with corporations who are looking to generate carbon offsets. Funds will also help the company expand its forestry concessions, by acquiring 56,000 hectares close to its operations in Mimongo, Gabon. It expects to enhance production capacity through the construction of infrastructure for a pair of veneer lines which are due online next year. Additionally, a blockboard line will be bought to utilise waste product and expand revenue potential. Woodbois also noted its current trading highlighting a strong start to 2021 and said it remains on-track to turn cashflow positive and to deliver record revenues this year. Revenue for the first quarter increased more than 44% on the prior three months as sawn timber and veneer production rose by 83% and 44% respectively. The company said it expects higher activity levels in the second quarter though noted that the shipping remains tight amid COVID-19 restrictions. PRINCETON, N.J., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For the first time since its inception during last fall's COVID surge, a color-coded hospital visitation guide shows all regions of New Jersey are in level green, signaling a loosening of visitor restrictions. The system, developed by the New Jersey Hospital Association and adopted by hospitals statewide, reflects trends in COVID activity including new cases and hospitalizations both of which are declining. Under level green, most patients may be allowed two visitors at a time, although additional restrictions may remain for patients with COVID or those who are immunocompromised. "This is a very welcome milestone for patients and their loved ones," said NJHA President and CEO Cathy Bennett. "The NJHA visitation color codes were established to protect patients, but we also know how important it is to have emotional support from family and friends. With the COVID trends moving in the right direction, we are able to welcome more visitors into our hospitals." Hospital visitation was suspended when COVID first arrived in New Jersey in March 2020. In November, the state's hospitals adopted NJHA's color-coded system which is built on data in four key areas: COVID-19 levels in the community; the level of hospitalized COVID-19 patients; staffing levels; and supplies of personal protective equipment. The visitation levels are reassessed weekly. The new level green visitation will take effect Thursday and will continue unless the COVID data triggers a return to increased visitation limits. Under level green: No visitors are allowed for COVID-19 patients, except for circumstances approved by the care team. No visitors are allowed for those who are immunocompromised, except for circumstances approved by the care team. Other types of patients may have two visitors at a time. They must follow requirements on masking, symptom screening and other precautions. New Jersey has been at level yellow for the past several weeks, which limits visitors to one at a time. Under level red, no visitors are allowed, with limited exceptions. Patients and visitors are encouraged to confirm with their hospital any added screening or precautions in place to protect patients. More information on the visitation color codes is available from NJHA at http://www.njha.com/coronavirus/hospital-visitation-codes/. SOURCE New Jersey Hospital Association Related Links http://www.njha.com/ PARK RIDGE, Ill., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For all the patient care they deliver, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) recognizes and honors the contributions and perseverance of Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and other nursing professionals during International Nurses Day today. "Nurses around the worldincluding advanced practice registered nurses such as CRNAshave shown heroism in the face of the COVID-19 health crisis. Their courage and profound devotion to patients have not gone unnoticed in our nation and the world at large," said AANA President Steven M. Sertich, CRNA, MAE, JD, Esquire. "CRNAs possess a critical care nursing perspective, that, in addition to their training, education, and expertise in advanced airway management and ventilation, allowed CRNAs to lead many of the teams caring for patients and saving lives." From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, CRNAs stepped forward to help patients and healthcare colleagues. CRNAs were often part of taskforces and led ICU rapid-response teams, helping to secure airways and invasive lines so ventilated patients could be moved to the prone portion to help their breathing. When cancelled elective surgeries furloughed CRNAs, many travelled to New York and other hotspots to serve on the COVID frontlines. CRNAs in the military drew upon their clinical care experience and military training to help protect healthcare teams against the virus. Other CRNAs stayed close to their rural hospitals to help the community receive care close to home. CRNAs administer more than 49 million anesthetics every year in the United States with a high degree of autonomy and responsibility. These dedicated healthcare providers practice in every setting in which anesthesia is delivered, offering obstetrical, surgical, pain management, and trauma stabilization services. CRNAs provide care across all settings and in all patient populations and are the primary providers of anesthesia care in rural and underserved areas and on the battlefield in forward surgical teams. The International Council of Nurses and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement celebrate International Nurses Day on May 12, the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale. It is an opportunity to laud nurses around the world, and in particular those managing an unprecedented workload by treating patients with COVID-19 while also maintaining other essential health services. The AANA joins these entities in honoring nurses and thanking them for being at the forefront of healthcare and patient safety. SOURCE American Association of Nurse Anesthetists Related Links www.aana.com Against the backdrop of accelerated vaccine administration and an anxious workforce increasingly being called back to the workplace, half of U.S. workers believe that their employers' have not done enough to address the mental health impacts of COVID-19. Further, survey findings reveal that the vast majority of workers do not feel that their employer has created an open workplace culture when it comes to mental health. A staggering 86% say that they want their employer to build a corporate culture that encourages candid conversations and honest dialogue about mental health issues and challenges. "Many corporate leaders are not fully aware of the range of issues and challenges their employees are facing." These findings align with a pre-pandemic poll by the American Psychiatric Association stating that as many as half of U.S. workers say they are not comfortable talking about their mental health in the workplace; and one third are worried about the consequences of those conversations. "Many corporate leaders, while caring and empathetic, are not fully aware of the range of issues and challenges their employees are facing; nor the fear employees have about coming forward seeking help," noted Louis Gagnon, CEO, Total Brain. "The face of anxiety, depression and PTSD is not always what one imagines. Mental health issues are often silent and invisible." Added Gagnon, "Measuring and benchmarking mental health issues within an organization; bringing conversations to the forefront; and encouraging your employees, especially those in leadership positions, to open up about their own challenges has never been more important." In response to the survey findings, Total Brain has launched #thisisnormal, a multi-channel brand campaign designed to break the stigma associated with mental health and bring mental health struggles out of the shadows. Over the next month, and extending through the year, Total Brain will leverage a mix of targeted digital, social, print and experiential advertising. Total Brain is challenging people's preconceived notions about what mental conditions look like. The company is inviting business leaders, employees and mental health clinicians to reflect on their own mental health; and encouraging them to defy the stigma surrounding mental health by sharing a photo of themselves and their story of mental health challenges. To learn more or to join in the campaign and to read Louis Gagnon's honest and authentic story about his struggle with PTSD visit: https://www.totalbrain.com/thisisnormal "Large employers understand that the transition back to the workplace for many employees may create additional stress, on top of existing anxieties and other negative impacts of the pandemic era," said Colleen McHugh, executive vice president of the American Health Policy Institute and strategic advisor of HR Policy Association. "While the latest Mental Health Index shows a 51% increase in the risk of PTSD among employees ages 40-59, large employers are engaged at the c-suite level in tackling this and the stigmatization around all mental and behavioral health problems. Through the increase in new initiatives and technologies, our hope is that conversations around mental and behavioral health begin to normalize and there will be better access to providers and support services for employees and their families." "The data shows that recent events present leaders with a golden opportunity to improve the future of work for workers and organizations," said John Boudreau, professor emeritus of Management and Organization and a senior research scientist with the Center for Effective Organizations, University of Southern California. "Improving mental health and mental fitness can offer immense mutual benefits." Additional details on the back-to-work opinion poll findings are available online. Survey Methodology: This survey was fielded April 13 - 23, 2021 via online questionnaire to a nationwide sample of 425 full-time workers working remotely through the pandemic and expected to return to the workplace in the coming months. The sample is nationally representative and balanced by gender, age and geographic location according the U.S. Census Bureau. The survey has a 95% confidence level and a 4.76% margin of error. About Total Brain: Total Brain is based in San Francisco and publicly listed in Sydney, AUS (ASX:TTB). Total Brain is a mental health and brain performance self-monitoring and self-care platform that has over 1M registered users. Benefits for employers and payers include better mental healthcare access, lower costs and higher productivity. totalbrain.com For More Information Contact: Kelly Faville, Rocket Social Impact [email protected] 978-621-6667 SOURCE Total Brain Related Links https://www.totalbrain.com/ RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- AgBiome , a leader in developing innovative products from the Earth's microbial communities, announced the company has been recognized by Inc Magazine as a Best Place to Work for 2021. Hitting newsstands May 18 in the May/June 2021 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. Each year, Inc Magazine, an online and print publication for executives and entrepreneurs, facilitates an online survey of company employees. This year, the Best Workplaces survey was sent to all AgBiome employees -- containing 30 scored items across six categories designed to measure employee engagement and other workplace factors including: communication and resources, individual needs, manager effectiveness, personal engagement, team dynamics, and trust in leadership. "We're very pleased to be ranked among some of the most respected companies," said Elizabeth Claypoole, Chief People Officer at AgBiome. "AgBiome's founders knew exactly what type of company culture they wanted from the beginning. We've cultivated and maintained a unique commitment organizational structure and collaborative culture." "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." "AgBiome's ability to imagine a new future and execute that vision is made possible by a highly committed and purpose-driven team," continued Claypoole. "We've built a unique culture and organizational structure that values workplace happiness as essential for high productivity and thrives on constant learning, transparency, respect, creativity, decisiveness, self-management, and above all, trust." About AgBiome AgBiome partners with the microbial world to improve our planet. AgBiome discovers and develops innovative biological and trait products for crop protection. The proprietary GENESIS discovery platform efficiently captures diverse, unique microbes for agriculturally relevant applications, and screens them with industry-best assays for insect, disease, and nematode control. Through its commercial subsidiary, AgBiome develops and sells proprietary crop protection solutions. The first of these, Howler, is a revolutionary fungicide for disease control in a broad variety of crops. AgBiome and Genective recently formed a strategic partnership to establish a new leader in insect traits. AgBiome has a global R&D collaboration with Elanco Animal Health Incorporated, to develop nutritional health products for swine. AgBiome's investors include Polaris Partners, ARCH Venture Partners, Fidelity Investments Inc., UTIMCO, Pontifax AgTech, Innotech Advisors, Syngenta Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, and Novozymes. For more information, visit http://agbiome.com . About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com . SOURCE AgBiome Related Links http://www.agbiome.com CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a research report "Aircraft Pumps Market by Type (Hydraulic pumps, Fuel pumps, Lube and scavenge pumps, Water and waste water pumps, Air conditioning and cooling pumps), Pressure, End Use (OEM, Aftermarket), Technology, Aircraft Type and Region - Forecast to 2026", published by MarketsandMarkets, the global Aircraft Pumps Market size is projected to grow from USD 3.3 billion in 2021 to USD 4.5 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 6.3% from 2021 to 2026. The market is driven by various factors, such as increase in aircraft renewals and need for more flexible and light aircraft with improved, lightweight systems and compact pumping systems. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=84962943 Increasing in demand for aircraft renewals and deliveries will drive the demand for fuel pump segment The fuel pump segment is expected to be the largest market by value. The growth of the fuel pump segment of the aircraft pumps market can be attributed to the increase in aircraft renewals as a short-term goal for the commercial aircraft industry In the near term, the COVID-19 shock has shifted the focus to replacement after a decade of growth bias. The current downturn is expected to lead to the replacement of many older airplanes. The above 3,000 psi segment is projected to witness a higher CAGR during the forecast period Based on pressure, the above 3,000 psi segment is projected to be the highest CAGR rate for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. The growth of the above 3,000 psi segment of the aircraft pumps market can be attributed to the low-weight, high-pressure hydraulic pumps enabling weight reduction of the aircraft especially for military applications. The electric motor driven segment is projected to witness a higher CAGR during the forecast period Based on the technology, the electric motor driven segment is projected to be the highest CAGR rate for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to various applications of electric motor driven pumps. Auxiliary boost fuel pumps, hydraulic systems in different aircraft types, water and wastewater systems, and air conditioning and cooling systems can all be driven with an electric motor. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period Based on the aircraft type, the unmanned aerial vehicles segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. UAVs are commonly termed drones and are mostly known for their wide usage in various military missions such as border surveillance. They are also used for mapping, surveying, and determining weather conditions of a specific area. Certain remotely piloted UAVs are designed to operate as loitering munition for defense forces. The OEM segment is projected to witness the highest CAGR during the forecast period Based on the end use, the OEM segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR rate for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. OEMs are responsible for the installation of pumps in an aircraft during the assembly stage and are then made available for delivery to aircraft manufacturers. Over the years, there has been a significant rise in the demand for different aircraft types across regions. According to Airbus, it delivered 863 commercial aircraft to 99 customers in 2019. Browse in-depth TOC on "Aircraft Pumps Market" 624 Tables 49 Figures 329 Pages Inquiry Before Buying: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_BuyingNew.asp?id=84962943 The North America market is projected to contribute the largest share from 2021 to 2026 North America is projected to be the largest regional share for the aircraft pumps market during the forecast period. The key factor responsible for North America, leading the aircraft pumps market owing to the rapid growth of the technologically advanced pumps in the region. In North America, the rise in aircraft orders and supplies is encouraging manufacturers of aircraft pumps to increase their sales year on year. The increasing demand for commercial aircraft and the presence of some of the leading players operating in the market, such as Parker-Hannifin Corporation (US), Woodward, Inc. (US), and Crane Co. (US), and Collins Aerospace (US), are expected to drive the aircraft pumps market in North America. These players are focusing on R&D to increase their product lines and using technologically advanced systems, subsystems, and other components for manufacturing aircraft pumps. The aircraft pumps market includes major players Safran (France), Eaton Corporation plc (Ireland), Parker-Hannifin Corporation (US), Woodward, Inc. (US), and Crane Co. (US). These players have spread their business across various countries includes North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. COVID-19 has impacted their businesses as well. Industry experts believe that COVID-19 could affect aircraft pumps production and services by 710% globally in 2020. Related Reports: Aircraft Hydraulic System Market by Type (Open-Center, Closed-Center), Component (Reservoir, Filters, Pumps, Accumulators, Actuators, Hydraulic Fluid), Platform (Fixed, Rotary) and Region - Global Forecast to 2021 Aircraft Fuel Systems Market by Application (Commercial, Military and UAV), Engine Type (Jet engine, Turboprop engine, Helicopter engine and UAV engine), Component, Technology & Region - Global Forecasts to 2020 About MarketsandMarkets MarketsandMarkets provides quantified B2B research on 30,000 high growth niche opportunities/threats which will impact 70% to 80% of worldwide companies' revenues. Currently servicing 7500 customers worldwide including 80% of global Fortune 1000 companies as clients. Almost 75,000 top officers across eight industries worldwide approach MarketsandMarkets for their painpoints around revenues decisions. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors. MarketsandMarkets now coming up with 1,500 MicroQuadrants (Positioning top players across leaders, emerging companies, innovators, strategic players) annually in high growth emerging segments. MarketsandMarkets is determined to benefit more than 10,000 companies this year for their revenue planning and help them take their innovations/disruptions early to the market by providing them research ahead of the curve. MarketsandMarkets's flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "Knowledge Store" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. Contact: Mr. Aashish Mehra MarketsandMarkets INC. 630 Dundee Road Suite 430 Northbrook, IL 60062 USA: +1-888-600-6441 Email: [email protected] Research Insight : https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/ResearchInsight/aircraft-pump-market.asp Visit Our Web Site: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com Content Source : https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/aircraft-pump.asp SOURCE MarketsandMarkets COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Data Systems Corporation (NYSE: ADS), a leading provider of data-driven marketing, loyalty and payment solutions, today announced its intention to spin off its LoyaltyOne segment, comprising its Canadian AIR MILES Reward Program and Netherlands-based BrandLoyalty business. The spinoff is expected to be tax-free, resulting in two independent, U.S.-based, publicly traded companies, Alliance Data and "Spinco," positioned to pursue their respective unique growth opportunities and build long-term value. Immediately following the transaction, Alliance Data stockholders will own shares of both companies, with Alliance Data retaining a minority stake in Spinco. At the time of the spinoff, Spinco expects to complete a debt financing and dividend the net proceeds to Alliance Data. Alliance Data will use all of the net proceeds to retire a portion of its corporate debt. Alliance Data expects the spinoff to be completed by the end of the year. "Alliance Data is committed to continuing our strategic transformation to deliver long-term, sustainable value for our stockholders as well as our associates, partners, customers and other stakeholders. Our plan to spin off our LoyaltyOne segment is a logical next step in our transformation journey and will position both entities for future growth," said Ralph Andretta, president and CEO of Alliance Data. "We are confident that this transaction, once completed, will provide distinct benefits to each company, enhancing the businesses' ability to execute against their respective strategic priorities." Alliance Data: Card Services Segment Alliance Data continues to execute successfully on its multi-year transformation strategy to streamline its operations, while strategically investing in the Card Services business and leadership talent, as well as outsourcing its core processing platform to drive greater scale, efficiencies and flexibility to add more payment products and capabilities. The business offers a robust suite of digital-first payment solutions, including private label, co-brand, general purpose and business credit card programs, digital payments, including Bread buy now, pay later and installment products, and Comenity-branded financial services. Card Services continues to maintain its disciplined approach to risk and operational management as it broadens its product suite to offer more direct-to-consumer options. Key standalone Card Services segment metrics for the year ended December 31, 2020 include: $3.8 billion in revenue in revenue $24.7 billion in credit sales in credit sales $16.4 billion in average credit card and loan receivables in average credit card and loan receivables Over 6,450 associates Alliance Data Card Services, including Bread, has 630+ merchant partners Spinco: LoyaltyOne Segment Upon completion of the spinoff, Charles Horn, currently executive vice president and senior advisor, Alliance Data, will be named chief executive officer of Spinco. Blair Cameron and Claudia Mennen will continue to lead AIR MILES and BrandLoyalty, respectively. The remainder of the Spinco leadership team and board of directors will be announced over the next several months. As a standalone company, https://www.loyalty.com/Spinco will own and operate the AIR MILES Reward Program, Canada's most recognized loyalty program, and Netherlands-based BrandLoyalty, a global provider of tailor-made campaign-based loyalty solutions for high frequency retailers. The AIR MILES Reward Program provides its clients, called Sponsors, with a full-service coalition loyalty platform designed to deliver actionable insights and drive business outcomes. AIR MILES' proprietary data and analytics capabilities distribute targeted and personalized marketing communications across AIR MILES, Sponsor and off-network digital channels. Sponsors pay a fee per AIR MILES reward mile issued when their customers, referred to as Collectors, shop across a broad range of retailers, financial services and other providers. Collectors then redeem AIR MILES for travel, merchandise, cash-back and other rewards, generating greater engagement and loyalty to AIR MILES Sponsors. BrandLoyalty, a worldwide leader in campaign-based loyalty solutions, designs, implements, conducts and evaluates innovative and tailor-made loyalty programs to connect high frequency retailers, partners and consumers in ways that positively impact consumer behavior. These programs are tailored for the specific client and are designed to reward key customer segments based on their spending levels during defined campaign periods. Key standalone LoyaltyOne segment metrics for the year ended December 31, 2020 include: $765 million in revenue in revenue $186 million in adjusted EBITDA in adjusted EBITDA Over 1,400 associates worldwide Loyalty programs in over 50 countries Transaction Details The transaction will be in the form of a distribution to Alliance Data stockholders of approximately 81% of the shares of Spinco, a new entity holding the LoyaltyOne segment, which is intended to qualify as tax-free to Alliance Data and its stockholders for U.S. federal income tax purposes. Immediately following the transaction, Alliance Data stockholders will own shares of both Alliance Data and Spinco. At the time of the spinoff, Spinco expects to complete a debt financing and pay a dividend to Alliance Data of the net proceeds of the debt issuance. These net proceeds will be used for corporate debt reduction at Alliance Data. Alliance Data will retain approximately 19% of the shares of Spinco at the time of the distribution, with the intent to monetize that stake as appropriate to provide for incremental corporate debt reduction at Alliance Data. The proposed spinoff is subject to customary conditions, including final approval by Alliance Data's Board of Directors, receipt of a favorable tax ruling from the Internal Revenue Service, the filing and effectiveness of a Form 10 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, approval for listing of Spinco's common stock on a national securities exchange and completion of any necessary financings. Additional details of the spinoff are expected to be announced in the coming months, including additional detail regarding the Board and executive leadership of Spinco. No assurance can be given regarding the form that a spinoff transaction may take or the specific terms or timing thereof, or that a spinoff will in fact occur. Advisors Morgan Stanley is serving as financial advisor for the transaction. Davis Polk is serving as legal advisor. About Alliance Data Alliance Data (NYSE: ADS) is a leading provider of data-driven marketing, loyalty and payment solutions serving large, consumer-based industries. The Company creates and deploys customized solutions that measurably change consumer behavior while driving business growth and profitability for some of today's most recognizable brands. Alliance Data helps its partners create and increase customer loyalty across multiple touch points using traditional, digital, mobile and emerging technologies. A FORTUNE 500 and S&P MidCap 400 company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, Alliance Data consists of businesses that together employ nearly 8,000 associates at 45 locations worldwide. Alliance Data's Card Services business is a comprehensive provider of market-leading private label, co-brand, general purpose and business credit card programs, digital payments, including Bread , and Comenity-branded financial services. LoyaltyOne owns and operates the AIR MILES Reward Program, Canada's most recognized loyalty program, and Netherlands-based BrandLoyalty , a global provider of tailor-made loyalty programs for grocers. More information about Alliance Data can be found at www.AllianceData.com . Follow Alliance Data on Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn , Instagram and YouTube . About the AIR MILES Reward Program The AIR MILES Reward Program is Canada's most recognized loyalty program, with an active Collector base representing approximately two-thirds of all Canadian households. AIR MILES Collectors get Miles at more than 300 leading Canadian, global and online brands and at thousands of retail and service locations across the country. It is the only loyalty program of its kind to give Collectors the flexibility and choice to use Miles on aspirational Rewards such as merchandise, travel, events or attractions or, instantly, in-store or online, through AIR MILES Cash at participating Partner locations. For more information, visit: www.airmiles.ca. About BrandLoyalty BrandLoyalty is the leading global loyalty platform, providing campaign-based loyalty solutions that positively impact consumer behaviour on a mass scale. We provide purpose-driven, digitally enhanced, tailor-made solutions which improve performance - on a transactional and emotional level - by changing consumers' behaviour. We pride ourselves on being a business with purpose by connecting high-frequency retailers, partners & consumers to create sustainable solutions for today's challenges. Our concepts can create impact by addressing global issues, from childhood obesity to food waste. Follow BrandLoyalty on LinkedIn and YouTube. Forward Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements give our expectations or forecasts of future events and can generally be identified by the use of words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "project," "plan," "likely," "may," "should" or other words or phrases of similar import. Similarly, statements that describe our business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions or goals also are forward-looking statements. Examples of forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements we make regarding, and the guidance we give with respect to, our anticipated operating or financial results, initiation or completion of strategic initiatives including this proposed spinoff, future dividend declarations, and future economic conditions, including, but not limited to, fluctuation in currency exchange rates, market conditions and COVID-19 impacts related to relief measures for impacted borrowers and depositors, labor shortages due to quarantine, reduction in demand from clients, supply chain disruption for our reward suppliers and disruptions in the airline or travel industries. We believe that our expectations are based on reasonable assumptions. Forward-looking statements, however, are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the projections, anticipated results or other expectations expressed in this release, and no assurances can be given that our expectations will prove to have been correct. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, factors set forth in the Risk Factors section in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recently ended fiscal year, which may be updated in Item 1A of, or elsewhere in, our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed for periods subsequent to such Form 10-K. Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and we undertake no obligation, other than as required by applicable law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, subsequent events, anticipated or unanticipated circumstances or otherwise. Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measure Adjusted EBITDA presented herein is consistent with the Company's historical financial reporting practices. The non-GAAP financial measure presented herein may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other companies, or identical to corresponding measures used in other various agreements or public filings. Reconciliations to the comparable GAAP financial measure is available in the Company's Form 10-K, which is posted on the Company's website: www.AllianceData.com . Alliance Data Brian Vereb Investor Relations 614-528-4516 [email protected] Shelley Whiddon Media 214-494-3811 [email protected] Rachel Stultz Media 614-729-4890 [email protected] SOURCE Alliance Data Systems Corporation Related Links http://www.alliancedata.com MORRISVILLE, N.C., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Applied LifeSciences & Systems (ALSS) announced today the initial close of a $7 million Series B equity financing. The financing was co-led by Merck Animal Health and Mountain Group Partners. Oval Park Capital, a Raleigh-based early-stage investment firm also has participated in the round. ALSS integrates its proprietary technologies in high-speed imaging, feature recognition, artificial intelligence, robotics and microfluidics in a system currently developed for the commercial poultry industry. This system can individually and accurately vaccinate up to 100,000 chicks per hour against diseases such as coccidiosis, infectious bronchitis and Newcastle disease. The Series B investment will allow ALSS to accelerate the commercialization of its automated and individualized poultry vaccination systems. "At ALSS, we have developed a series of patented platform technologies to rapidly and accurately vaccinate individual animals. This will ensure the best protection against some of the most harmful diseases and significantly increase proactive vaccination to further prevent the spread of disease and reduce the use of antibiotics and chemicals in the protein production industries today. Our initial product line has successfully demonstrated targeting and vaccine delivery at the high speeds and accuracy needed to integrate and support improved bird performance within current commercial poultry operations," said Ramin Karimpour, ALSS Founder and CEO. "We look forward to the successful commercialization and launch of our systems in 2022. We are highly excited to continue our partnership with Merck Animal Health, a leader in the global animal health industry, Mountain Group Partners, one of the top investors in Life Sciences and Animal Health industries, and Oval Park, a local early-stage investment firm." "We are delighted with the progress by the ALSS team," said Stephen Murray, B.V.Sc., executive director, Merck Animal Health Ventures. "Merck Animal Health's investments in early-stage technology have the potential to deliver meaningful innovation to our customers, which complements our own portfolio of medicines, vaccines and technology services. Leveraging our knowledge of poultry vaccination alongside ALSS is enabling their breakthrough technology to significantly increase vaccination rates and enhance poultry production, management and health outcomes." "We are very pleased with the progress that ALSS has made toward commercialization of its disruptive vaccine delivery technology. ALSS's technology will significantly improve vaccination efficiency and provide a great tool to producers. We look forward to working with ALSS as they take this next step forward into commercialization" said Rob Readnour, Managing Director at Mountain Group Partners. "The ALSS team has made tremendous progress developing their novel individual vaccine delivery system for the poultry industry," said Justin Wright-Eakes, Managing Partner at Oval Park Capital. "We are delighted to continue supporting ALSS as it transitions into the commercialization and growth phases, and we're excited to watch the transformative impact of ALSS' technology on global protein production in the coming years." About Applied LifeSciences & Systems Based in Morrisville, NC, ALSS is a Biomedical Systems company poised to transform animal protein production industries worldwide by bringing affordable, individualized care technologies to the market. World meat consumption is expected to double by 2050. The world's growing population along with the popularity of animal protein is responsible for the growth in meat consumption. While the industry has improved efficiency, production processes, and veterinary care to meet this increasing demand, the recent demand for antibiotic-free protein, driven by consumers and regulatory changes, makes the achievement of this target challenging in the future. When antibiotics are removed from the production process, animals not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated are susceptible to infections leading to sickness and death. The industry trend towards antibiotic-free production has led to producers' demand for novel solutions to improve health standards and vaccination procedures allowing for a similar level of productivity in the absence of antibiotics and other chemicals. ALSS is bringing advanced technology solutions to the Poultry, Aquaculture and Swine industries to address this demand. For more information, visit www.als-s.com. About the Investors Merck Animal Health For 130 years, Merck, a leading global biopharmaceutical company, has been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Merck Animal Health, a division of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA, is the global animal health business unit of Merck. Through its commitment to The Science of Healthier Animals, Merck Animal Health offers veterinarians, farmers, pet owners and governments one of the widest ranges of veterinary pharmaceuticals, vaccines and health management solutions and services as well as an extensive suite of digitally connected identification, traceability and monitoring products. Merck Animal Health is dedicated to preserving and improving the health, well-being and performance of animals and the people who care for them. It invests extensively in dynamic and comprehensive R&D resources and a modern, global supply chain. Merck Animal Health is present in more than 50 countries, while its products are available in some 150 markets. For more information, visit www.merck-animal-health.com or connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter at @MerckAH. Mountain Group Partners Mountain Group Partners ("MGP") is an investor dedicated to investing in and actively guiding transformational businesses in the Life Sciences, Animal Health, and Technology sectors. Founded in 2002, MGP has invested in more than 50 companies in these sectors. MGP invests in seed and early-stage companies. Within Life Sciences, the firm focuses on MedTech, Diagnostics, and Opportunistic Drug Development. MGP places a premium on those innovations that have existing intellectual property or a novel scientific foundation for building intellectual property. Animal Health investments focus on disruptive technologies that have a meaningful impact on global animal health and animal agriculture. Technology investments focus on business and healthcare technology, targeting those ideas with quantifiable development risk and a rapid path to market. For more information, visit www.mtngp.com. Oval Park Capital Oval Park Capital invests in early-stage deep tech companies with exceptional founders, operating in underserved markets, and commercializing disruptive technologies that solve costly problems in large, inefficient global industries. Oval Park strives to support traditionally underrepresented founders and places special emphasis on investments that have the potential to not only provide strong investment returns but also generate strong positive social and environmental impact. For more information, visit www.ovalpark.com. ALSS Media Contact: Jason Fryar 919-522-3901 [email protected] SOURCE Applied LifeSciences & Systems Related Links https://www.als-s.com CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- We did it again! Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas said today that her office will be returning $2.7 million to homeowners who called the "Black and Latino Houses Matter" live phone bank she hosted with ABC 7 Chicago today, Wednesday, May 12. In March, Treasurer Pappas and ABC7 Chicago returned $12.5 million to homeowners, raising the total amount to nearly $15.2 million. Staff from the Treasurer's Office, fluent in Spanish, Polish, Chinese and English helped homeowners find refunds, apply for property tax exemptions and avoid the annual Tax Sale of delinquent taxes. "All houses matter, but I launched the 'Black and Latino Houses Matter' initiative because the Tax Sale disproportionately impacts people of color in the county" Pappas said. "Over 75 percentage of all properties are located in Black and Latino communities." Samantha Chatman, consumer investigative reporter with ABC 7's I-Team, reported on the phone bank during the station's morning, afternoon and evening newscasts. Property owners who did not call the phone bank, may visit cookcountytreasurer.com to: Search $76 million in available property tax refunds in available property tax refunds Check if they are eligible for $46 million in missing tax exemptions in missing tax exemptions Verify if their property is on the Tax Sale list of delinquent taxes SOURCE Cook County Treasurer's Office Related Links http://www.cookcountytreasurer.com ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) today announced an agreement to acquire certain Willis Towers Watson plc reinsurance, specialty and retail brokerage operations as part of a proposed regulatory remedy for the pending Aon plc and Willis Towers Watson plc combination. The transaction is expected to close during the second half of 2021. "This acquisition will accelerate our long-term strategy by significantly expanding our global value proposition in reinsurance, broadening our retail brokerage footprint and strengthening key niches and specialty brokerage offerings," said J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO. "The powerful combination of expertise, geographic reach and scale that this acquisition presents will greatly enhance our offerings to clients and prospects, while also providing significant value for our colleagues, carrier partners and shareholders. Most importantly, I look forward to welcoming more than 6,000 new colleagues to our growing Gallagher family of professionals." Benefits of the acquisition are expected to include: Expanded global value proposition within reinsurance brokerage Broadened global footprint in retail property casualty and health & benefits brokerage Increased depth in key niches and specialty operations such as energy, construction, cyber, space, and aerospace products A comprehensive suite of analytics capabilities including catastrophe modeling, dynamic financial analysis, rating agency analysis and capital modeling Stronger relationships with major insurance carriers and new relationships with middle market and large account retail clients Added platforms for future tuck-in acquisitions Acquired Operations The combined operations, which include certain of Willis Re's treaty and facultative reinsurance brokerage operations, as well as certain U.K. specialty, European and North American brokerage operations, generated $1.3 billion of estimated pro forma revenue and $357 million of estimated pro forma EBITDAC, in each case for the year ended December 31, 2020. These pro forma 2020 estimates incorporate potential revenue breakage (as defined below), as well as normalization of operating expenses and additional necessary investments. Reinsurance Brokerage The reinsurance brokerage operations, which include both treaty and facultative reinsurance, generated approximately $750 million of estimated pro forma revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020. The business represents over 750 insurance and reinsurance company clients, across more than 25 countries, and places over $11.5 billion of premium annually. United Kingdom / European Brokerage The U.K. and European brokerage operations generated approximately $500 million of estimated pro forma revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020. European retail brokerage includes certain operations in Germany, Netherlands, Spain and France, including the vast majority of French insurance broker, Gras Savoye. Specialty operations in the U.K principally include cyber, space and aerospace products. North American Brokerage The North American brokerage operations generated approximately $50 million of estimated pro forma revenue for the year ended December 31, 2020. This includes certain property/casualty brokerage business from predominantly middle-market and large-account clients located in select markets such as San Francisco, Houston and Bermuda, across niches such as construction and energy. Key Transaction Terms Under the agreement, Gallagher will acquire the combined operations for gross consideration of $3.57 billion. Gallagher expects to finance the transaction using a combination of long-term debt, short-term borrowings, free cash and common equity. The final funding contemplates Gallagher maintaining its investment grade debt rating. Integration is expected to take approximately 3 years with total non-recurring integration costs estimated to be approximately $350 million. After giving effect to these assumptions and pro forma results discussed above, the acquired operations would have been approximately 9% to 11% accretive to Gallagher's 2020 adjusted GAAP EPS excluding earnings from clean energy investments (see table for 2020 non-GAAP reconciliation). Other Acquisition Transaction Information The transaction is subject to European Commission, U.S. Department of Justice and other regulatory approvals, including regulatory approvals related to the pending Aon plc and Willis Towers Watson plc combination and the proposed remedy. More information, including a presentation outlining the transaction, can be found on the company's website at www.ajg.com. The estimates provided in this release and the presentation on the company's website, may be updated before the transaction closes as more information becomes available. Conference Call Information In conjunction with this announcement, J. Patrick Gallagher, Jr., Chairman, President and CEO, will host a conference call on Wednesday, May 12, 2021 at 9:00 am ET/ 8:00 am CT. The conference call will be broadcast live through Gallagher's website at www.ajg.com and a conference call replay will be available on the company's website approximately one hour after the broadcast. The replay can be accessed by going to Investor Relations and clicking on Archived Presentations. Breakage Refers to Gallagher's estimate of revenues and associated expenses reported in the acquired operations' 2020 financial statements that has been lost since December 31, 2020 plus an estimate for clients that may not renew before the transaction closes and during the integration period and the departure of key brokers and other employees. Other Cost Adjustments - In addition, specific costs have been identified as adjustments to the acquired operations' 2020 financial statements in order to better reflect Gallagher's estimate of pro forma EBITDAC. Specifically, these cost adjustments include the normalization of operating expenses to reflect the extraordinary impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and additional investments in operations attributed to the target business based on the estimated costs to provide specific services from the center. Advisors Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC and BofA Securities acted as financial advisors and Sidley Austin LLP acted as legal advisor to Gallagher on this transaction. About Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE:AJG), a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. The company has operations in 56 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements relate to expectations or forecasts of future events and use words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "contemplate," "forecast," "project," "intend," "plan," "potential," and other similar terms, and future or conditional tense verbs like "could," "may," "might," "see," "should," "will" and "would." You can also identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Examples of forward-looking statements regarding the acquisition described in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding expected benefits of the proposed transaction, the expected consideration to be paid in the proposed transaction, the expected revenue, EPS (including adjusted EPS excluding clean energy), and EBITDAC impacts of the proposed transaction, the size and status of the combined organization within various jurisdictions, required regulatory approvals, the expected timing of the completion of the proposed transaction, expected duration and cost of integration, and the anticipated financing of the proposed transaction. Readers are cautioned against relying on any forward-looking statements, which are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include (a) risks related to the integration of the acquired operations, businesses and assets into our company; (b) the possibility that the proposed transaction is not completed when expected or at all because required regulatory approvals are not received or other conditions to the closing are not satisfied on a timely basis or at all; (c) the risk that the financing required to fund the proposed transaction is not obtained on the terms anticipated or at all; (d) potential adverse reactions or changes to business or employee relationships, including those resulting from the announcement or completion of the proposed transaction; (e) the possibility that the anticipated benefits of the proposed transaction, including cost savings and expected synergies, are not realized when expected or at all, including as a result of the impact of, or issues arising from, the integration of the acquired operations into our company; (f) the possibility that our estimates of lost revenue in the acquired operations from breakage due to departing key brokers and other employees and the loss of clients are incorrect and actual lost revenue is greater than expected; (g) the increased legal and regulatory complexity of entering additional geographic markets, including the risks associated with the labor and employment law frameworks in certain countries where Gallagher does not currently operate; (h) conditions imposed in order to obtain required regulatory approvals; (i) uncertainties in the global economy and equity and credit markets and their potential impact on Gallagher's ability to finance the proposed transaction on acceptable terms, at favorable pricing, in a timely manner, or at all; (j) the possibility that the proposed transaction may be more expensive to complete than anticipated, including as a result of unexpected factors or events; (k) diversion of management's attention from ongoing business operations and opportunities; (l) the inability to retain certain key employees of the acquired operations or Gallagher; (m) risks associated with increased leverage from the proposed transaction; (n) competitive responses to the proposed transaction; (o) uncertainties as to the timing of the consummation of the proposed transaction and the ability of each party to consummate the proposed transaction; (p) that financial information subsequently presented for the acquired business in our subsequent public filings may be different from that presented herein and (q) additional factors discussed in the section entitled "Information Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" in Gallagher's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2021 and "Risk Factors" in Gallagher's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic currently amplifies, and in the future could continue to amplify, the risks, uncertainties and assumptions, reflected in such forward looking statements and risk factors. Any forward-looking statement made by Gallagher in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable law, Gallagher does not undertake to update the information included herein. Non-GAAP Measures This press release refers to EBITDAC and adjusted EPS excluding clean energy, measures not in accordance with, or an alternative to, the GAAP information provided herein. EBITDAC is defined as earnings from continuing operations before interest, income taxes, depreciation, amortization and the change in estimated acquisition earn out payables. EBTIDAC with respect to the acquired business is prepared based on the unaudited financial and other information made available to Gallagher as well as management estimates. Gallagher believes EBITDAC provides a meaningful representation of its operating performance and improves the comparability of results between periods by eliminating the impact of certain items that have a high degree of variability. The most directly comparable GAAP measure is earnings from continuing operations. Please see "Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Measures" on Gallagher's website at www.ajg.com under "Investor Relations" for the purpose of this measure. Adjusted EPS excluding Clean Energy is defined as net earnings, excluding the earnings and cost impacts of our clean energy investments, net of applicable taxes, presented on a per share basis. The impact of our clean energy investments is excluded from EPS excluding Clean Energy because upon the sunset of Section 45 tax credits at the end of 2021, our clean energy investments will no longer impact earnings, so we believe this measure is useful to investors to provide comparability between historical and future periods. This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any security of Gallagher, nor shall there be any sale of a security in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. Reconciliation of 2020 Non-GAAP Measures (Unaudited) Revenues Cost of Revenues Estimated (Loss) before from Consolidated Acquisition Before Income Reimbursements Clean Coal Facilities Compensation Operating Interest Depreciation Amortization Earnout Payables Taxes Year Ended Dec 31, 2020 Brokerage, as reported $ 5,167.1 $ - $ 2,882.5 $ 687.2 $ - $ 73.5 $ 411.3 $ (29.7) $ 1,142.3 Net gains on divestitures 5.8 - - - - - - - 5.8 Acquisition integration - - (14.9) (10.2) - - - - 25.1 Workforce and lease termination - - (35.7) (8.2) - - - - 43.9 Acquisition related adjustments - - (19.2) - - - (6.2) (25.6) 51.0 Brokerage, as adjusted $ 5,172.9 $ - $ 2,812.7 $ 668.8 $ - $ 73.5 $ 405.1 $ (55.3) $ 1,268.1 Risk Management, as reported $ 821.7 $ - $ 517.5 $ 162.6 $ - $ 49.4 $ 6.0 $ (3.2) $ 89.4 Workforce and lease termination - - (7.5) (0.4) - - - - 7.9 Acquisition related adjustments - - - - - - (0.2) (0.4) 0.6 Risk Management, as adjusted $ 821.7 $ - $ 510.0 $ 162.2 $ - $ 49.4 $ 5.8 $ (3.6) $ 97.9 Corporate, as reported $ 863.1 $ 882.1 $ 66.5 $ 56.7 $ 196.4 $ 22.2 $ - $ - $ (360.8) Income tax related impact - - - - - - - - - Corporate, as adjusted $ 863.1 $ 882.1 $ 66.5 $ 56.7 $ 196.4 $ 22.2 $ - $ - $ (360.8) (from above) Net Earnings Net Earnings (Loss) (Loss) (Benefit) Attributable to Attributable to Earnings Before Income for Income Net Earnings Noncontrolling Controlling (Loss) Taxes Taxes (Loss) Interests Interests per Share Year Ended Dec 31, 2020 Brokerage, as reported $ 1,142.3 $ 276.3 $ 866.0 $ 4.9 $ 861.1 $ 4.42 Net gains on divestitures 5.8 1.1 4.7 - 4.7 0.02 Acquisition integration 25.1 5.8 19.3 - 19.3 0.10 Workforce and lease termination 43.9 9.9 34.0 - 34.0 0.17 Acquisition related adjustments 51.0 11.3 39.7 - 39.7 0.20 Brokerage, as adjusted $ 1,268.1 $ 304.4 $ 963.7 $ 4.9 $ 958.8 $ 4.91 Risk Management, as reported $ 89.4 $ 22.5 $ 66.9 $ - $ 66.9 $ 0.34 Workforce and lease termination 7.9 1.9 6.0 - 6.0 0.04 Acquisition related adjustments 0.6 0.2 0.4 - 0.4 - Risk Management, as adjusted $ 97.9 $ 24.6 $ 73.3 $ - $ 73.3 $ 0.38 Corporate, as reported $ (360.8) $ (286.0) $ (74.8) $ 34.4 $ (109.2) $ (0.56) Income tax related impact - 1.1 (1.1) - (1.1) (0.01) Corporate, as adjusted $ (360.8) $ (284.9) $ (75.9) $ 34.4 $ (110.3) $ (0.57) Investors: Ray Iardella VP - Investor Relations (630) 285-3661 / [email protected] US Media: Kelli Murray Director Global Public Relations (630) 277-0347/ [email protected] UK Media: Emma Banks PR and Media Relations +44(0) 207 204 6189 / [email protected] Lynn Rouse PR and Media Relations +44 20 3425 3416 / [email protected] SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Related Links http://www.ajg.com ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG) ("Gallagher") today announced an underwritten public offering of 9,000,000 shares of its common stock. Morgan Stanley is acting as sole book-running manager for the offering. Gallagher also intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase an additional 1,350,000 shares of common stock from Gallagher. Gallagher intends to use the net proceeds of the offering to fund a portion of its previously announced acquisition of certain Willis Towers Watson plc reinsurance, specialty and retail brokerage operations (the "WTW Transaction"), which is part of a proposed regulatory remedy for the pending Aon plc and Willis Towers Watson plc combination. The offering is not conditioned on the closing of the WTW Transaction and there can be no assurance that the WTW Transaction will be completed. The public offering is being made pursuant to an effective shelf registration statement on Form S-3 dated March 8, 2021 that has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). A preliminary prospectus supplement related to the offering will be filed with the SEC and will be available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the prospectus supplement and the base prospectus relating to these securities may be obtained from Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, by mail at 180 Varick Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10014, Attention: Prospectus Department. The information in the preliminary prospectus supplement, the accompanying prospectus and this press release is not complete and may be changed. This press release is neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of an offer to buy any of the common stock or any other security of Gallagher, nor shall there be any sale of the common stock in any jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. About Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. is a global insurance brokerage, risk management and consulting services firm, and is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. Gallagher has operations in 56 countries and offers client service capabilities in more than 150 countries around the world through a network of correspondent brokers and consultants. Information Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements relate to expectations or forecasts of future events and use words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "contemplate," "forecast," "project," "intend," "plan," "potential," and other similar terms, and future or conditional tense verbs like "could," "may," "might," "see," "should," "will" and "would." You can also identify forward-looking statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. Examples of forward-looking statements regarding the underwritten public offering of common stock and the proposed WTW Transaction described in this press release include, but are not limited to, the successful launch, pricing and closing of the underwritten public offering of common stock, required regulatory approvals, statements regarding expected benefits of the proposed WTW Transaction, the expected timing of the completion of the proposed WTW Transaction, the use of proceeds of the underwritten public offering of common stock and the anticipated financing of the proposed WTW Transaction. Readers are cautioned against relying on any forward-looking statements, which are neither statements of historical fact nor guarantees or assurances of future performance. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include (a) risks related to the integration of the acquired operations, businesses and assets into Gallagher; (b) the possibility that the proposed WTW Transaction is not completed when expected or at all because required regulatory approvals are not received or other conditions to the closing are not satisfied on a timely basis or at all; (c) the risk that the financing required to fund the proposed WTW Transaction is not obtained on the terms anticipated or at all; (d) potential adverse reactions or changes to business or employee relationships, including those resulting from the announcement or completion of the proposed WTW Transaction; (e) the possibility that the anticipated benefits of the proposed WTW Transaction, including cost savings and expected synergies, are not realized when expected or at all, including as a result of the impact of, or issues arising from, the integration of the acquired operations into Gallagher; (f) the possibility that our estimates of lost revenue in the acquired operations from breakage due to departing key brokers and other employees and the loss of clients are incorrect and actual lost revenue is greater than expected; (g) the increased legal and regulatory complexity of entering additional geographic markets, including the risks associated with the labor and employment law frameworks in certain countries where Gallagher does not currently operate; (h) conditions imposed in order to obtain required regulatory approvals; (i) uncertainties in the global economy and equity and credit markets and their potential impact on Gallagher's ability to finance the proposed WTW Transaction on acceptable terms, at favorable pricing, in a timely manner, or at all; (j) the possibility that the proposed WTW Transaction may be more expensive to complete than anticipated, including as a result of unexpected factors or events; (k) diversion of management's attention from ongoing business operations and opportunities; (l) the inability to retain certain key employees of the acquired operations or Gallagher; (m) risks associated with increased leverage from the proposed WTW Transaction; (n) competitive responses to the proposed WTW Transaction; (o) uncertainties as to the timing of the consummation of the proposed WTW Transaction and the ability of each party to consummate the proposed WTW Transaction; (p) that financial information subsequently presented for the acquired business in our subsequent public filings may be different from that presented herein and (q) additional factors discussed in the section entitled "Information Concerning Forward-Looking Statements" in Gallagher's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarterly period ended March 31, 2021 and "Risk Factors" in Gallagher's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic currently amplifies, and in the future could continue to amplify, the risks, uncertainties and assumptions, reflected in such forward looking statements and risk factors. Any forward-looking statement made by Gallagher in this press release speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable law, Gallagher does not undertake to update the information included herein. Investors: Ray Iardella Media: Kelli Murray VP - Investor Relations Director Global Public Relations (630) 285-3661/ [email protected] (630) 277-0347/ [email protected] SOURCE Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Related Links http://www.ajg.com AstraZeneca, Rio Tinto and Glencore are part of a long list of companies that are facing backlash over remuneration packages An unusually heated AGM season is underway in London as shareholders are protesting proposed pay hikes for bosses. Last year, only 5% of shareholders voted against pay reports in the UK on average, according to data provider Proxy Insight. But this year PLC ( ) was just the last one on a long list as activist investors push fellow shareholders to block generous awards for reputational or ethical reasons. Chief executive Pascal Soriot is still in line to pocket a salary as high as 17.8mln for 2020, although nearly 40% of votes were against it. Its understandable why. Only just emerging from a painful pandemic, throwing big money at your top team might look insensitive, said Lee Wild, head of equity strategy at interactive investor. Too many chief executives are overpaid for underperformance. AstraZenecas Pascal Soriot is not one of them. AstraZeneca justifies the significant hike in Soriots already generous pay package with the well-worn excuse that you have to pay big bucks for quality CEOs. But in this case, theyre right. Conversely, ( ) is going ahead with plans that will allow a 20% pay rise to former chief executive Jean-Sebastien Jacques, despite 60% of shareholders did not green light it. Jacques left the FTSE 100 mining giant after it blasted the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge heritage areas in Australia to access iron ore. Since the AGM vote is only advisory, he may take home up to 28mln anyway. Remaining in the mining world, advisory group Glass Lewis advised against s ( ) proposed salary of up to US$10.4mln for new chief executive Gary Nagle. Glass Lewis said the package was excessive for a newly appointed CEO with no previous experience of running a publicly listed company, but 74% of shareholders voted in favour. Glass Lewis also criticised PLCs ( ) plans to throw an extra 2mln at chief executive Charles Woodburn so he wouldnt leave the defence contractor after being approached by another company. Three-quarters voted in favour. People come and people go, as it happened at publisher ( ) where Sidney Taurel stepped down as chairman after defending the proposed 7.2mln bonus for chief executive Andy Bird. A third of shareholders voted against it but Taurel said it was necessary because Bird was an outstanding candidate. Drug company ( ), instead, faced a backlash after including former boss Shaun Thaxter, who last year pleaded guilty for misinformation on the label of anti-opioid treatment Suboxone Film, in the remuneration report. With only 38% of shareholders opposing it, he could receive up to 2.2mln in share awards and options. Among those that will review their policy there is Group PLC ( ), where 39% of shareholders didnt support the potential 1mln bonus to chief executive Nic Budden. Investors were concerned about giving the payout because the share price is still 35% below pre-pandemic levels and the estate agent has received 7mln in government support. It was akin to Group PLC ( ), part of the uber-battered travel sector, where chief executive Gary Morrison and chief financial officer Caroline Sherry will receive a bonus equivalent to 112% of their salaries after it was withheld during the pandemic. At last months AGM, 29% of shareholders voted against the remuneration package and around a quarter opposed allowing the company to make political donations. It is not the companys intention to make donations to political parties, or to make other political donations within the normal meaning of that expression, and the directors have no intention of changing that policy, the hostel operator said. London Stock Exchange PLC ( ) shareholders were spooked by how fast chief executive David Schwimmer was getting bonuses, though only 24% voted against them. Although shareholders were broadly supportive of the underlying principle of the CEOs increase in base salary post completion of the Refinitiv transaction we recognise that certain shareholders would have preferred the increase to have been phased, the company said. Mirza Baig, global head of ESG research and stewardship at fund manager ( ), told the FT companies should be careful with handing out money while the pandemic isnt over yet. Now is not the time to be handing out salary increases to already well-paid executives. Companies should freeze increases and revisit next year at the earliest, he said. NEW YORK and BASEL, Switzerland, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Aruvant Sciences ("Aruvant"), a private company focused on developing gene therapies for rare diseases, today announced the selection of an abstract for presentation at the European Hematology Association (EHA) Virtual Congress which will take place June 9 to 17, 2021. The data is on ARU-1801, a one-time gene therapy designed to cure sickle cell disease (SCD). The abstract is now available on the EHA website at ehaweb.org and the poster presentation will be available on June 11, 2021. "The data being presented at EHA demonstrate that it is possible to tailor the reduced intensity melphalan dose required prior to infusing ARU-1801, a potentially curative gene therapy for sickle cell disease patients," said Will Chou, M.D., chief executive officer of Aruvant. "Some patients with SCD process melphalan differently than others. The data emerging from our Phase 1/2 trial is important because it highlights an opportunity to individualize our reduced intensity conditioning dose of melphalan and maximize the potential for ARU-1801 to engraft. The unique promise of ARU-1801 is combining the favorable toxicity profile of RIC with the potential for a cure." The poster presentation will review the potential of a model-based, individualized melphalan dosing strategy for ARU-1801 in SCD. Melphalan exposure (AUC) after a single dose of 140 mg/m2 conditioning was observed in three patients with SCD in the ongoing Phase 1/2 MOMENTUM study and compared to predictions from a population pharmacokinetics (PK) model, based on patient covariates collected prior to melphalan infusion. These data suggest that a simple algorithm for individualized melphalan dosing based on a few covariate values has potential to achieve optimal melphalan exposure and reduce variability, which may result in improved patient outcomes after treatment with ARU-1801. Presentation Information Abstract: EHA-1833 Title: Towards Patient-Specific Dosing of Melphalan Conditioning for ARU-1801, A Novel Gene Therapy for Treatment of Sickle Cell Disease Date and Time: Friday, June 11, 2021 Abstract: The abstract was published today at the EHA website. About Aruvant Sciences Aruvant Sciences, part of the Roivant family of companies, is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing gene therapies for the treatment of rare diseases. The company has a talented team with extensive experience in the development, manufacturing and commercialization of gene therapy products. Aruvant has an active research program with a lead product candidate, ARU-1801, in development for individuals suffering from sickle cell disease (SCD). ARU-1801, an investigational lentiviral gene therapy, is being studied in a Phase 1/2 clinical trial, the MOMENTUM study, as a one-time potentially curative treatment for SCD. Preliminary clinical data demonstrate engraftment of ARU-1801 and amelioration of SCD is possible with one dose of reduced intensity chemotherapy. The company's second product candidate, ARU-2801, is in development to cure a devastating, ultra-orphan disorder that affects multiple organ systems and leads to high mortality when not treated. Data from pre-clinical studies with ARU-2801 shows durable improvement in disease biomarkers and increased survival. For more information on the ongoing ARU-1801 clinical study, please visit www.momentumtrials.com and for more on the company, please visit www.aruvant.com. Follow Aruvant on Facebook, Twitter @AruvantSciences and on Instagram @Aruvant_Sciences. About Roivant Roivant's mission is to improve the delivery of healthcare to patients by treating every inefficiency as an opportunity. Roivant develops transformative medicines faster by building technologies and developing talent in creative ways, leveraging the Roivant platform to launch Vantsnimble and focused biopharmaceutical and health technology companies. For more information, please visit www.roivant.com. SOURCE Aruvant Sciences Related Links https://www.aruvant.com DURHAM, N.C., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Attorneys for Ronnie Long, who was wrongly imprisoned for over 44 years and finally granted a pardon of innocence in 2020, have released the following statement regarding the civil case filed on May 3, 2021 in Raleigh federal court: "Whether it's 1976 or 2021, the injustice that Ronnie Long experienced should never happen in our criminal justice system. Our suit is about trying to hold accountable those who contributed to his wrongful conviction and 44-year imprisonment, and demonstrating that such behavior will have grave consequences in the United States. Mr. Long lost the prime decades of his life. His family suffered; his parents died before he was exonerated. Our case is about demanding accountability, closing this horrific chapter in Mr. Long's life, and trying to ensure the same fate never befalls another innocent person." The attorneys are Chris Olson of Olson Law in Raleigh and Coleman Cowan and Hoyt Tessener, part of the Law Offices of James Scott Farrin with 16 locations in North Carolina and one in South Carolina. In 1976, authorities in Concord tried Long for rape. Long maintained his innocence, but was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Long continued to plead his case, and in September 2020, a federal appeals court overturned his conviction, citing an improper investigation and trial. The exoneration effort in federal court was led by Jamie Lau of the Duke Law Wrongful Convictions Clinic. In December, Gov. Roy Cooper pardoned Long. Long's time served in prison is the third longest in U.S. history for an exonerated defendant. The civil suit cites violations of Long's constitutional rights to due process and fair access to the courts, among other state and federal claims including withholding and falsifying evidence. It seeks accountability, answers, and monetary damages from the City of Concord and officers and officials working with the Concord Police Department whose actions caused Ronnie Long's 44-year wrongful incarceration. Long's civil attorneys are available for comment upon request. ABOUT THE LAW OFFICES OF JAMES SCOTT FARRIN The Law Offices of James Scott Farrin is one of the largest personal injury firms in North Carolina and has helped over 50,000 injured people since 1997. Operating from 16 offices in NC and one in SC, many of the firm's 50+ accomplished attorneys are recognized professionals in their fields. The firm focuses on providing quality legal services to as many people as possible in the following practice areas: personal injury, car accidents, workers' compensation, nursing home abuse, whistleblowing, defective products, eminent domain, mass torts, class actions, and Social Security Disability. Offices in Durham (main), Raleigh, Charlotte, Greensboro, NC and Greenville, SC. Attorney J. Gabe Talton: 280 South Mangum St., Suite 400, Durham, NC. Contact Information: David Chamberlin 280 S. Mangum Street Suite 400 Durham, NC 27701 866-900-7078 https://www.farrin.com/ SOURCE Law Offices of James Scott Farrin Related Links https://www.farrin.com NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BentoBox , a website, e-commerce, and marketing platform for over 7,000 restaurants, today announced the addition of three key members to its executive leadership team. On the heels of an unprecedented year for the restaurant industry, BentoBox will welcome its first ever Chief Marketing Officer and Chief People Officer, along with a new Chief Operating Officer to further its mission of empowering restaurants by building their digital presence. These foundational members of the c-suite will report directly to the CEO and round out an executive team that is 50% women. Joining the BentoBox team is: Darcy Kurtz , Chief Marketing Officer: With over 25 years of experience in small-business marketing, Darcy will orchestrate planning and development of BentoBox's product and brand marketing initiatives. Based in Atlanta, GA , Kurtz previously worked as Vice President of Global Product Marketing at Mailchimp, where she helped reposition the company from an email-only provider to an end-to-end marketing solution for SMBs. Darcy will seek to further BentoBox as a fixture of the restaurant community by creating dynamic, engaging stories highlighting how its world-class solution and experience solve the problems of restaurants. Jessi Marcoff , Chief People Officer: Hailing from Boston, MA , Jessi will lead global talent development and employee engagement practices at BentoBox. With over 15 years of experience building and scaling the workforce at software companies like Privatar and Brandwatch, Jessi will play an integral role in designing the company's future and building best-in-class people development practices. Jessi will work to define BentoBox's culture as one of engaged and highly motivated teams by doubling down on competitive perks and benefits, career progression opportunities, and a pay-for-performance mentality. Dan Chapman , Chief Operating Officer: With a proven track record of scaling growth-stage startups, Dan will lead sales and operations for BentoBox. Originally from Atlanta, GA and with a wide-ranging 20+ year career, Dan is a former U.S. Army Captain and was previously a management consultant at McKinsey and Strategy & Operations Lead at Google. Prior to joining BentoBox, he led Business Strategy & Operations for Fullstory, a digital experience analytics company. Dan will apply his passion for hospitality and technology to lead BentoBox in building a scale-ready sales organization and an impact-oriented operations team. "We're thrilled to welcome Darcy, Jessi and Dan to the BentoBox team," said Krystle Mobayeni, CEO and co-founder of BentoBox. "In addition to the wealth of experience they bring to their roles, even more important is the passion they bring for restaurants. The landscape in hospitality is dramatically different from a year ago, and we're committed to making sure every restaurant has the necessary tools to thrive. Expanding our leadership is the first step." BentoBox enables restaurants with online tools that drive direct, high-margin revenue through their websites, bypassing third-party services that come between them and their guests. About BentoBox BentoBox empowers restaurants to own their presence, profits and relationships. The hospitality platform disrupts third-party services that come between the restaurant and the guest. BentoBox puts the restaurant first and offers tools that drive high-margin revenue directly through the restaurant's website. BentoBox is trusted and loved by over 7,000 restaurants worldwide including Union Square Hospitality Group, Eleven Madison Park, Jose Andres' Think Food Group, Manresa, Dominique Crenn Dining Group and H-Town Hospitality (Hugo's, Xochi). Based in New York City, BentoBox is one of Inc. 5000's fastest-growing companies . Contact [email protected] SOURCE BentoBox Travis VanderZanden, founder and CEO of Bird, commented: "Bird was founded with the mission to provide environmentally friendly transportation for everyone. Since 2017, we have driven adoption of micromobility which has resulted in rapid growth. During this time, we have advanced our operating model, supported by proprietary technology and hardware, to scale our mission and reach more cities. This foundation has driven our strong unit economics and delivered our successful track record to date. As we look ahead, we intend to build upon our market leadership and grow our business, which currently only scratches the surface of the estimated $800 billion annual market opportunity for micromobility." Jim Mutrie and Scott McNeill, Co-Chief Executive Officers and Directors of Switchback, commented: "As a category creator for the shared micromobility space, Bird has capitalized on its first-mover advantage to address the significant market opportunity while also providing an efficient and eco-friendly transportation alternative. With its market leadership position, experienced and innovative leadership team, compelling current revenues and business model, along with identified levers for growth, Bird satisfies all the investment criteria we were seeking and we are pleased to announce the definitive agreement for this combination." Bird Investment Highlights: Addressing the estimated $800 billion annual market opportunity, Bird established a market leadership position as one of the first companies to develop a robust business targeting shared electric micromobility, leading the creation of a new transportation category that is accessible, eco-friendly, and reliable. annual market opportunity, Bird established a market leadership position as one of the first companies to develop a robust business targeting shared electric micromobility, leading the creation of a new transportation category that is accessible, eco-friendly, and reliable. Since its founding in 2017, Bird has rapidly expanded its global footprint to over 200 cities worldwide, facilitating more than 95 million rides to date. Under the leadership of its founder, Travis VanderZanden , and a highly experienced management team, Bird possesses a demonstrable track record of operating success and has generated compelling unit economics even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, due in part to its Fleet Manager Program. , and a highly experienced management team, Bird possesses a demonstrable track record of operating success and has generated compelling unit economics even during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, due in part to its Fleet Manager Program. Capital investment in continued vehicle innovation, operational improvements, and global expansion efforts coupled with strong tailwinds coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, including favorable regulatory changes, operating model improvements, and industry consolidation, positions Bird to capitalize on its significant growth opportunities with a scalable path to profitability. Strong balance sheet underpins Bird's attractive growth profile with $667 million of pro forma cash and cash equivalents, including $208 million raised as part of an April 2021 Senior Preferred Convertible equity offering led by Bracket Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Valor Equity Partners, and further supported by access to a $40 million fully committed vehicle financing credit facility with Apollo Investment Corporation and MidCap Financial Trust (each managed or advised by Apollo Capital Management, L.P., or its affiliates). of pro forma cash and cash equivalents, including raised as part of an Senior Preferred Convertible equity offering led by Bracket Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Valor Equity Partners, and further supported by access to a fully committed vehicle financing credit facility with Apollo Investment Corporation and MidCap Financial Trust (each managed or advised by Apollo Capital Management, L.P., or its affiliates). The transaction is priced at a multiple of 2.8x estimated revenue for fiscal 2023, a meaningful discount to its publicly traded peer group. Transaction Overview The transaction implies a pro forma enterprise valuation for Bird of $2.3 billion. The business combination agreement contemplates that existing Bird shareholders will roll-over and retain 100% of their existing equity, owning approximately 82% of the combined company's pro forma equity (assuming no redemptions by Switchback's existing shareholders). The transaction will enable the combined entity to retain net proceeds of up to $428 million of cash following the closing (assuming no redemptions by Switchback's existing shareholders) to fund operations and growth initiatives and for general corporate purposes. Aggregate funding combines Switchback's $316 million cash-in-trust and $160 million of private placement proceeds, which have been fully committed by Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC and other investors, and Bird's access to a $40 million asset financing facility with Apollo Investment Corporation and MidCap Financial Trust. The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors from both Bird and Switchback, is subject to approval by Switchback's shareholders, the effectiveness of a registration statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") in connection with the transaction, and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the third calendar quarter of 2021. Additional information about the proposed transaction, including a copy of the business combination agreement and investor presentation, will be provided in a Current Report on Form 8-K to be filed by Switchback with the SEC and will be available at www.sec.gov . Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC ("Credit Suisse") is acting as exclusive financial and capital markets advisor to Bird. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC ("Goldman Sachs") is acting as exclusive financial advisor to Switchback. Latham & Watkins LLP is acting as legal advisor to Bird and Vinson & Elkins L.L.P. is acting as legal advisor to Switchback. Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs are acting as co-lead placement agents on the private placement. Investor Conference Call Information: Bird and Switchback will host a joint investor conference call to discuss the proposed transaction Wednesday, May 12, 2021 at 9:00 AM ET. Interested parties may listen to the prepared remarks via telephone by dialing (855) 327-6837 or (631) 891-4304 if calling internationally. Please reference Conference ID 10014571 when prompted. The conference call webcast, a related investor presentation with more detailed information regarding the proposed transaction, and a transcript of the investor call will be available at bird.co/investor and https://swbk2.com/ . The investor presentation will also be furnished today to the SEC, which can be viewed at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. About Bird: Bird is an electric vehicle transportation company dedicated to bringing affordable, environmentally friendly transportation solutions to communities across the world. Today, it provides a fleet of shared electric scooters to riders in over 200 cities and makes its products available for purchase at www.bird.co and via leading retailers and distribution partners. Bird partners closely with the cities in which it operates to provide a reliable and affordable transportation option for people who live and work there. Founded in 2017 by transportation pioneer Travis VanderZanden, Bird is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and is rapidly expanding. Follow Bird on Instagram ( www.instagram.com/bird ), on Twitter at @ BirdRide , and find more information at www.bird.co . About Switchback II Corporation: Switchback II Corporation was formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, amalgamation, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses or entities. Switchback focused its search for a target business in the broad energy transition or sustainability arena targeting industries that require innovative solutions to decarbonize in order to meet critical emission reduction objectives. Important Information About the Proposed Transaction and Where to Find It In connection with the proposed business combination, Switchback and Bird Global, Inc., a Delaware corporation and wholly owned subsidiary of Bird ("Bird Global") will file a registration statement on Form S-4 (the "Form S-4") with the SEC. The Form S-4 will include a proxy statement of Switchback and prospectus of Bird Global. Additionally, Switchback and Bird Global will file other relevant materials with the SEC in connection with the business combination. Copies may be obtained free of charge at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov. Security holders of Switchback are urged to read the proxy statement/prospectus and the other relevant materials when they become available before making any voting decision with respect to the proposed business combination because they will contain important information about the business combination and the parties to the business combination. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, the websites referenced in this press release is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this press release. Participants in the Solicitation Switchback and its directors and officers may be deemed participants in the solicitation of proxies of Switchback's shareholders in connection with the proposed business combination. Bird, Bird Global and their respective officers and directors may also be deemed participants in such solicitation. Security holders may obtain more detailed information regarding the names, affiliations and interests of certain of Switchback's executive officers and directors in the solicitation by reading Switchback's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, and the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials filed with the SEC in connection with the business combination when they become available. Information concerning the interests of Switchback's participants in the solicitation, which may, in some cases, be different than those of their shareholders generally, will be set forth in the proxy statement/prospectus relating to the business combination when it becomes available. Forward-Looking Statements The information in this press release includes "forward-looking statements." All statements, other than statements of present or historical fact included in this press release, regarding Switchback's proposed business combination with Bird, Switchback's ability to consummate the transaction, the benefits of the transaction and the combined company's future financial performance, as well as the combined company's strategy, future operations, estimated financial position, estimated revenues and losses, projected costs, prospects, plans and objectives of management are forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words "could," "should," "will," "may," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "expect," "project," the negative of such terms and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain such identifying words. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and assumptions about future events and are based on currently available information as to the outcome and timing of future events. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, Switchback. Bird and Bird Global disclaim any duty to update any forward-looking statements, all of which are expressly qualified by the statements in this section, to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release. Switchback, Bird and Bird Global caution you that these forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, most of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the control of Switchback, or Bird or Bird Global. In addition, Switchback, Bird and Bird Global caution you that the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are subject to the following factors: (i) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could delay the business combination or give rise to the termination of the agreements related thereto; (ii) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Switchback, Bird or Bird Global following announcement of the transactions; (iii) the inability to complete the business combination due to the failure to obtain approval of the shareholders of Switchback, or other conditions to closing in the transaction agreement; (iv) the risk that the proposed business combination disrupts Switchback's or Bird's current plans and operations as a result of the announcement of the transactions; (v) Bird's ability to realize the anticipated benefits of the business combination, which may be affected by, among other things, competition and the ability of Bird to grow and manage growth profitably following the business combination; (vi) costs related to the business combination; (vii) changes in applicable laws or regulations; and (viii) the possibility that Bird may be adversely affected by other economic, business and/or competitive factors. Should one or more of the risks or uncertainties described in this press release occur, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results and plans could different materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning these and other factors that may impact the operations and projections discussed herein can be found in Switchback's periodic filings with the SEC, including Switchback's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020. Switchback's SEC filings are available publicly on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov . No Offer or Solicitation This press release shall not constitute a solicitation of a proxy, consent, or authorization with respect to any securities or in respect of the proposed transaction. This press release shall also not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any states or jurisdictions in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Investor Contact Caitlin Churchill [email protected] Media Contact Jed Hamilton [email protected] SOURCE Switchback II Corporation PORTLAND, Ore., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackbird today announced the official release of the world's first educational version of JavaScript . Blackbird's Educational Version of JavaScript, for the first time, makes it feasible for middle school students and teachers to learn to code and forms the foundation of Blackbird's online system for middle school-focused code education . "Traditionally, code teaching systems use unmodified programming languages. These are engineering tools, and are very unfriendly to beginners," said Ness Blackbird, cofounder of Blackbird. "Our educational version of JavaScript enables middle school students and teachers to learn real-world coding skills in a supportive, educational environment all while having fun making their own games and animations." "Not every student will grow up to be a software developer, but knowing how computers 'think' and how to logically solve a problem by breaking it down into steps, are skills that every student is going to need in the modern workforce," said Gordon Arnold, computer science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. "Educational versions of programming languages, such as Blackbird's, seek to address this need by providing an environment where students can learn the coding concepts in a simple way, with immediate constructive feedback, enabling them to learn at a student-appropriate pace, and in an enjoyable manner." Now in use in middle schools and coding academies throughout the country, Blackbird was built from the ground up to address the middle school gap in coding education in a fun and engaging platform that can be administered by non-technical and technically trained teachers, instructors and parents. Blackbird's curriculum guides students through coding lessons aligned with standards identified in the Next Generation Science Standards and Common Core State Standards for Math and English as well as the Computer Science Teachers Association Computer Science standards. Blackbird's integrated LMS enables instructors to easily track student progress, review code and make direct comments. Blackbird Educational JavaScript: First educational version of a standard programming language Fully functional version of JavaScript optimized for education rather than engineering Built-in explanations provide real-time help for student mistakes, replacing cryptic error messages Includes friendly debugger to help students track down and fix mistakes Makes it possible for middle-school students to learn coding Blackbird Education Platform: Bridges the middle school CS gap between graphical teaching for elementary students and engineering tools in high school classes Can be administered by all instructors and parents regardless of technical expertise Integrated Learning Management System (LMS) Certified Pedagogical Quality First three stages (42 lessons) provided for free Aligned to Common Core, Next Generation Science and CSTA Learning Standards Pricing and Availability: The Blackbird education platform is now open for students, parents and instructors. Blackbird begins with a free, foundational section with additional advanced lessons available through a simple and affordable pricing structure that includes full support and professional development. For more information, visit Blackbird on the web at https://www.BlackbirdCode.com . SOURCE Blackbird HOUSTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Calhoun Port Authority and Max Midstream, a Texas-based energy company, today announced the first successful loading of Texas oil at the Port of Calhoun Terminal in Point Comfort, Texas. This marks the official beginning of the new partnership between the Calhoun Port Authority and Max Midstream to ship Texas oil to global markets. "Today's announcement demonstrates that the terminal is officially in business," said Todd Edwards, President and CEO of Max Midstream. "For the first time, we have moved oil across our docks, and it's just the beginning. We will offer a comprehensive package of services from transporting oil across Texas, to getting it to the port, to fueling the ships that will take the product to the European market. This is a great first step, and we are excited for the future of what's to come" Launched in 2020, Max Midstream is a Houston-based energy company that acquired the Seahawk Pipeline and Terminal from Oaktree Capital at the Port of Calhoun last year. Max Midstream has connected the port directly to the Eagle Ford Basin and will soon be connected to the Permian Basin, with plans to transport 20 million barrels a month upon completion. For more information on Max Midstream and this project, please visit www.maxmidstream.com. SOURCE Max Midstream CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Capital Health , a regional leader in providing progressive, quality patient care, has selected SwipeSense as its safety technology platform to prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), and avoid preventable harm, such as patient falls, by ensuring consistent and safe care delivery. To tackle these issues, Capital Health will implement SwipeSense's Hand Hygiene and Nursing Insights applications system-wide in its two New Jersey hospitals. Hand hygiene compliance is one of the most critical patient safety measures. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), poor hand hygiene contributes to 1.7 million HAIs annually and 100,000 of those HAIs result in deaths. A recent SwipeSense survey also found that 81% of patients said they would feel safer in a hospital with electronic hand hygiene monitoring in place. Electronic hand hygiene monitoring also positions hospitals, like Capital Health, to meet The Leapfrog Group's updated hand hygiene standards. SwipeSense's cloud-based sensor network provides complete transparency into hand hygiene data for each department, unit, room, and individual to drive behavior change and accountability without workflow disruption. "Our team is passionate about delivering the best care to our patients and their families which means safeguarding their health and well-being both inside and outside of our hospital walls," said Louis D'Amelio, MD, Vice President of Clinical Performance at Capital Health. "We are thrilled to partner with SwipeSense not only to bring their mission-critical technology to our patients and our staff but also to build upon our already strong relationship with those we serve and maintain patients' high level of trust in the healthcare system." Capital Health will also leverage SwipeSense's Nursing Insights application to mitigate preventable harm like patient falls. The application enables nursing teams to sustain Purposeful Hourly Rounding and Bedside Shift Reporting both proven best practices for keeping patients safe. According to The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), there are nearly 1 million patient falls annually in U.S. hospitals -- and it's estimated that the average cost of a patient fall is $14,000. The SwipeSense Nursing Insights application empowers Capital Health's nursing leaders to address these gaps in care by capturing actionable, real-time data about time-based activities. "Capital Health is paving the path forward for prioritizing patient safety and acknowledging safety technology as an essential component of any hospital's innovation ecosystem," said Mert Iseri, CEO of SwipeSense. "Their expert team understands that investing in safety infrastructure is critical to both keeping patients safe and driving overall growth. We're very pleased to partner with Capital Health to protect their patients while also protecting their bottom line from costly HAIs and falls." About Capital Health Capital Health is the region's leader in providing progressive, quality patient care with significant investments in our exceptional physicians, nurses and staff, as well as advanced technology. Comprising two hospitals (Regional Medical Center in Trenton and Capital Health Medical Center Hopewell), the Hamilton outpatient facility, and various primary and specialty care practices across the region, Capital Health is a dynamic health care resource accredited by DNV GL - Healthcare. A four-time Magnet-recognized health system for nursing excellence, Capital Health serves as a Level II regional trauma center, comprehensive stroke center, regional perinatal center (including a Level III NICU), and emergency mental health screening center. Capital Health also offers the region's first and most experienced Pediatric Emergency Department and most recently, New Jersey's first Autism-Friendly Pediatric Emergency Department. About SwipeSense SwipeSense is a Chicago-based healthcare technology company on a mission to eliminate harm and waste in healthcare delivery networks through an advanced safety platform. The platform's sensor network collects millions of data points and delivers robust insights to hospital leadership, clinicians, and staff, which not only support a culture of safety, but also reduce the cost of care and improve operational efficiency. Hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) leverage the company's safety platform to prevent infections, optimize use of their equipment, reduce falls, protect their staff, and drive positive, lasting behavior change. To learn more, please visit www.swipesense.com. Media Contact: Todd Stein, 510-417-0612, [email protected] SOURCE SwipeSense, Inc. Related Links http://www.swipesense.com CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CCC Information Services Inc. ("CCC"), a leading SaaS platform for the P&C insurance economy, today announced that it will report its first quarter 2021 financial results after the U.S. financial markets close on Thursday, May 20, 2021. In conjunction with this announcement, CCC will host a conference call on Thursday, May 20, 2021 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss CCC's financial results and financial guidance. To access this call, dial 855-940-5321 (domestic) or 929-517-0421 (international). The conference ID number is 1711638. A live webcast of this conference call will be available on the Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. (NYSE: DGNR) "Investor Relations" page (https://www.dragoneergrowth.com/DGNR/) and a replay will be archived on the website as well. About CCC CCC is a leading SaaS platform for the multi-trillion-dollar P&C insurance economy powering operations for insurers, repairers, automakers, part suppliers, lenders, and more. CCC cloud technology connects more than 30,000 businesses digitizing mission-critical workflows, commerce, and customer experiences. A trusted leader in AI, IoT, customer experience, network and workflow management, CCC delivers innovations that keep people's lives moving forward when it matters most. Learn more about CCC at www.cccis.com. CCC and the CCC logo are registered trademarks of CCC Information Services Inc. Contact Information Brian Denyeau ICR, Inc. (646) 277-1251 [email protected] Important Information and Where to Find It A full description of the terms of the proposed business combination between CCC's parent corporation, Cypress Holdings, Inc. (the "Company") and Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp. ("Dragoneer") (the "transaction") can be found in the registration statement on Form S-4, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") by Dragoneer on March 31, 2021 that includes a prospectus with respect to the Company's securities to be issued in connection with the transaction and a proxy statement with respect to the shareholder meeting of Dragoneer to vote on the transaction, each of which remains subject to completion. The registration statement has not yet been declared effective by the SEC and CCC and Dragoneer expect to make further changes to the registration statement, which may be material to an investor. Accordingly, investors are cautioned not to rely on the registration statement, including the accompanying prospectus and proxy statement, until it is declared effective and other than for its intended purpose. Dragoneer urges its investors, shareholders and other interested persons to read the preliminary proxy statement/prospectus as well as other documents filed with the SEC because these documents will contain important information about Dragoneer, CCC and the transaction. After the registration statement is declared effective, the definitive proxy statement/prospectus to be included in the registration statement will be mailed to shareholders of Dragoneer as of a record date to be established for voting on the proposed business combination. Once available, shareholders will also be able to obtain a copy of the proxy statement/prospectus, and other documents filed with the SEC without charge, by directing a request to: Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp., One Letterman Drive, Building D, Suite M500, San Francisco, California, 94129. The preliminary and definitive proxy statement/prospectus to be included in the registration statement, once available, can also be obtained, without charge, at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). Participants in the Solicitation Dragoneer and CCC and their respective directors and executive officers may be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies with respect to the potential transaction described in this press release under the rules of the SEC. Information about the directors and executive officers of Dragoneer is set forth in Dragoneer's final prospectus filed with the SEC pursuant to Rule 424(b) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act") on August 17, 2020 and is available free of charge at the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov or by directing a request to: Dragoneer Growth Opportunities Corp., One Letterman Drive, Building D, Suite M500, San Francisco, California, 94129. Information regarding the persons who may, under the rules of the SEC, be deemed participants in the solicitation of the Dragoneer shareholders in connection with the potential transaction will be set forth in the registration statement containing the preliminary proxy statement/prospectus when it is filed with the SEC. These documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. Non-Solicitation This press release is not a proxy statement or solicitation of a proxy, consent or authorization with respect to any securities or in respect of the potential transaction and shall not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy the securities of Dragoneer, the Company or CCC, nor shall there be any sale of any such securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of the Securities Act. Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements that are based on beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "intend," "plan," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "project," "potential," "continue," "ongoing" or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. These statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding future events, growth and innovations. Such differences may be material. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements in this press release will prove to be accurate. These forward looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, among others, challenges inherent in product research and development, including the ability to generate a comprehensive estimate; competition, including technological advances and new products marketed by competitors; changes to applicable laws and regulations; laws related to use of artificial intelligence or photos; insurer claim practices and other risks and uncertainties, including those included under the header "Risk Factors" in the registration statement on Form S-4 filed by Dragoneer with the SEC and those included under the header "Risk Factors" in the final prospectus of Dragoneer related to its initial public offering, both of which can be obtained, without charge, at the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). The forward-looking statements in this press release represent our views as of the date of this press release. We anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause our views to change. However, while we may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we have no current intention of doing so except to the extent required by applicable law. You should, therefore, not rely on these forward-looking statements as representing our views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. SOURCE CCC Information Services Inc. Related Links https://www.cccis.com MEXICO CITY, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cobre del Mayo, S.A. de C.V. ("CDM") announces today that it has accepted for exchange all of the $120,116,745 aggregate principal amount of its Senior Secured PIK Toggle Notes due 2021 (ISIN: XS1354863612 and XS1354862564; Common Codes: 135486361 and 135486256) (the "Existing Notes"), or approximately 95.92% of the $125,228,986 aggregate principal amount outstanding of its Existing Notes, that have been validly tendered and not validly withdrawn as of 11:59 p.m., New York City time, on May 7, 2021 (such time and date, the "Expiration Date), in its previously announced offer (the "Exchange Offer") to Eligible Holders described below to exchange any and all of its Existing Notes. In conjunction with the Exchange Offer, CDM obtained consents representing approximately 95.92% of the Existing Notes outstanding, pursuant to the terms and subject to the conditions of the consent solicitation (the "Consent Solicitation") to amend the indenture governing the Existing Notes to eliminate most of the restrictive covenants set forth in such indenture (the "Proposed Amendments"). On the settlement date of the Exchange Offer, which is expected to occur on May 13, 2021, CDM will issue $18,718,288 in aggregate principal amount of its Senior Secured Notes due 2026 (ISIN: XS2343881343 and XS2343881772; Common Codes: 234388134 and 234388177) and $106,653,522 in aggregate principal amount of its Senior Secured PIK Toggle Notes due 2030 (ISIN: XS2343881855 and XS2343881939; Common Codes: 234388185 and 234388193). Please click to the link below to see the press release that summarizes the final results of its Exchange Offer and Consent Solicitation. Securities offered in the exchange offer will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act and are offered pursuant to applicable exemptions from the registration requirements of the Act. http://www.cobredelmayo.com/misc/CDM-Press-Release-Final-Results12-May2021.pdf The press release is also available through the website www.cobredelmayo.com SOURCE Cobre del Mayo, S.A. de C.V. Related Links http://www.cobredelmayo.com PLANO, Texas, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Community Hospital Consulting, the management and consulting arm of Community Hospital Corporation (CHC), is pleased to announce a new, three-year management agreement with Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services (RMCHCS), Gallup, New Mexico, effective May 3, 2021. "Last August, the Board sought a management company with industry leaders who know the importance of maintaining the independence and financial viability of the hospital," said Steve McKernan, RMCHCS Board Chair. "At that time, the Board hired a nationally recognized hospital management firm to provide an experienced interim CEO. The RMCHCS Board believed that engaging a management company with the expertise and experience with similar rural hospitals would be important and helpful. The RMCHCS Board decided in favor of expanding its relationship with CHC Consulting in order to be able to access much needed operational resources to assist with performance improvement." Craig Sims, CHC Senior Vice President of Hospital Operations, shared, "We are excited to extend CHC's expertise in hospital management and talent across many areas of hospital operations to RMCHCS." In addition to placing Interim CEO Don Smithburg, CHC Consulting conducted an in-depth Operational Assessment of the organization. In collaboration with RMCHCS leadership, CHC Consulting will begin the implementation of an action plan focused on operational, financial and clinical productivity improvements. McKinley County, where Gallup, New Mexico is located, has a diverse population of approximately 75,000, largely Native Americans. RMCHCS serves communities beyond that primary service area. On July 1, 2021, its new Family Medicine Residency Program will offer opportunity for new practitioners to train in a rural environment alongside experienced family medicine doctors and specialists. Since its inception 25 years ago in 1996, CHC has remained a not-for-profit company whose sole mission is to help hospitals remain community-operated and governed. CHC owns, manages and consults with hospitals across the United States. About Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services Rehoboth McKinley Christian Health Care Services (RMCHCS), Gallup, New Mexico, is a private, not-for-profit integrated delivery system located in rural McKinley County. RMCHCS is committed to improving the health and wellness of communities in northwestern New Mexico and eastern Arizona (aka The Four Corners Region). Its history dates back to the early 1900s, when Rehoboth Christian Hospital and St. Mary's Hospital provided healthcare services to the people of Gallup and the Native Americans living on the nearby Navajo and Zuni reservations. St. Mary's Hospital, located near downtown Gallup, became McKinley General Hospital in the late 1970s. In 1983, Rehoboth Christian Hospital, located on the east side of Gallup, merged with McKinley General Hospital in order to pool their resources so they could better serve the population. Visit www.rmhc.org . About Community Hospital Corporation HELP WHERE HOSPITALS NEED IT Community Hospital Corporation owns, manages and consults with hospitals through CHC Hospitals, CHC Consulting and CHC ContinueCARE, which share a common purpose to guide, support and enhance the mission of community hospitals and healthcare providers. Based in Plano, Texas, CHC provides the resources and experience community hospitals need to improve quality outcomes, patient satisfaction and financial performance. For more information about CHC, please visit www.communityhospitalcorp.com . CONTACT: Anne Block [email protected] 972-943-6470 SOURCE Community Hospital Corporation Due to the proximity of several targets, the Redback drill program was completed in conjunction with other programs at Wattle Dam, including S5 Prospect, Wattle Dam South, Redback linking structure and the Wattle Dam East nickel target. A total of around 4,270 metres was drilled in the overall diamond drill program, with 1,900 metres completed at Redback. Resources Ltd ( ) has intersected high-grade gold with results of up to 3 metres at 17.2 g/t at Redback deposit within the Wattle Dam Project in Western Australia, supporting a resource estimate upgrade scheduled following the completion of the second phase diamond drill program. Multiple occurrences of visible gold have been observed within four of the seven completed holes with the high-grade shoot extending by around 40 metres and intersecting a high-grade domain. The best result was 6 metres at 9.4 g/t gold from 257 metres, including 3 metres at 17.2 g/t with the shoot remaining open down-dip/plunge and along strike. The Redback diamond drilling program forms part of near-term strategy aimed at building value by increasing gold resources across the greater Wattle Dam Area, leveraging from the considerable existing mine infrastructure at Wattle Dam Gold Mine for future project development. Plan view of the Redback Deposit area illustrating geology drill-hole data. Exceptional intersections Managing director Tim Wither said: The first phase of the Redback drill program has been very successful, with several exceptional intersections. These final assay results show strong continuity within the high-grade shoot confirming that mineralisation at Redback remains open down-plunge. The deeper step-out holes to the north show strong zones of alteration and sulphide mineralisation highlights that mineralisation remains open to the north, towards Wattle Dam. Mineralisation of the Redback high-grade shoot can now be traced from around 40 metres to around 250 metres below surface. The results from the first phase are being incorporated into the geological database and provide invaluable information in planning further drill programs including the upcoming EIS co-funded holes to potentially double the down-plunge extent at Redback. Inferred JORC resource The Redback deposit area has a JORC (2012) inferred resource of 440,000 tonnes at 3 g/t for 42,900 ounces and is around 600 metres south-southeast of the previously mined high-grade Wattle Dam Gold Mine. Local geology at Redback is similar to that observed at the high-grade Wattle Dam Gold Mine with a high component of visible gold hosted within deformed ultramafic lithologies (komatiite). The high-grade gold mineralisation often occurs proximal to the contacts between both felsic intrusives with the ultramafic lithologies, and adjacent to interflow metasediments. Forward plan WOONSOCKET, R.I., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) announced that COVID-19 vaccine appointments for adolescents ages 12 to 15 are now available for scheduling at more than 5,600 CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide, following Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Emergency Use Authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for this age group. Starting tomorrow, May 13, participating CVS Pharmacy locations will begin administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to this newly eligible population. Parental or legal guardian consent is required, and children must be accompanied by an adult. "With every new wave of eligibility our teams have worked around the clock to ensure vaccine access as soon as possible," said Karen Lynch, President and Chief Executive Officer, CVS Health. "Offering vaccinations to younger populations at thousands of locations across the country brings us one step closer to prevailing over the pandemic." Because the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the only FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine for adolescents in this age group, patients are encouraged to schedule an appointment online at cvs.com or through the CVS Pharmacy app to ensure availability. Walk-ins are also accepted. The scheduling tool will only display appointments at CVS Pharmacy locations that have the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine once the patient's age is provided. Return Ready, CVS Health's comprehensive COVID-19 testing and vaccine solution for businesses, schools and other organizations will also meet the expanded eligibility for adolescents ages 12 to 15. Schools, businesses and other organizations with more than 48 participants can sponsor an on-site clinic with COVID-19 vaccines administered by CVS Heath for eligible populations. Learn more and complete the online clinic submission form here. CVS Health has administered more than 17 million COVID-19 vaccines in long-term care and retail settings and will be offering vaccinations at more than 9,600 CVS Pharmacy locations across 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. as of this Sunday, May 16. Nearly 85% of the U.S. population resides within 10 miles of a CVS Pharmacy. Multimedia assets, including b-roll and still photography from in-store COVID-19 vaccinations, are available here. More information on steps CVS Health has taken to address the pandemic is available at the company's frequently updated COVID-19 resource center. About CVS Health We are a diversified health services company with more than 300,000 employees united around a common purpose of helping people on their path to better health. In an increasingly connected and digital world, we are meeting people wherever they are and changing health care to meet their needs. Built on a foundation of unmatched community presence, our diversified model makes us an integral part of people's everyday health. From our innovative new services at HealthHUB locations, to transformative programs that help manage chronic conditions, we are making health care more accessible, more affordable and simply better. Learn more about how we're transforming health at www.cvshealth.com. Media contact Christine Cramer 401-626-5675 [email protected] SOURCE CVS Health Related Links http://www.cvshealth.com WASHINGTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Diem Association is pleased to announce a partnership between its wholly-owned subsidiary, Diem Networks US, and Silvergate Capital Corporation (NYSE: SI). Under this partnership, Silvergate Bank ("Silvergate") will become the exclusive issuer of the Diem USD stablecoin. The Association is also announcing a strategic shift to the United States, resulting in a move of Diem's primary operations from Switzerland to the United States. Diem has built a blockchain-based payment system to support financial inclusion and responsible financial services innovation. Silvergate will become the exclusive issuer of the Diem USD stablecoin and will manage the Diem USD reserve. Diem Networks US will run the Diem Payment Network (DPN), a permissioned blockchain-based payment system that facilitates the real-time transfer of Diem stablecoins among approved network participants. The formation of this partnership is an important step in preparation for a Diem USD pilot. "Silvergate is a leader in financial innovation and an ideal partner for Diem as we move forward with a blockchain-based payment system that protects consumers and enhances the integrity of the financial system," said Stuart Levey, chief executive officer of Diem. "We are committed to a payment system that is safe for consumers and businesses, makes payments faster and cheaper, and takes advantage of blockchain technology to bring the benefits of the financial system to more people around the world. We look forward to working with Silvergate to realize this shared vision." "We believe in the future of U.S. dollar backed stablecoins and their potential to transform existing payment systems," said Alan Lane, chief executive officer of Silvergate. "We're inspired by Diem's technology and commitment to building a regulatory compliant payment system that offers a safe and secure way to move money. We're excited to be at a place in the process where we can announce this product with confidence and look forward to continuing our work with Diem to bring this to market." In parallel with establishing this partnership, Diem is simplifying its plans for the Diem USD stablecoin issuance by shifting its main operations from Switzerland to the United States. This shift is consistent with Diem's initial strategic focus on the United States and reflects Diem's consideration of the evolving digital currency regulatory environment in the US. As a result, Diem is withdrawing its application for a payment system license from the Swiss Financial Markets Authority (FINMA), as a FINMA license is not required under the new model. Silvergate is a California state-chartered bank and a member of the Federal Reserve, and Diem Networks US will register as a money services business with the US Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. "While our plans take the project fully within the US regulatory perimeter and no longer require a license from FINMA, the project has benefited greatly from the intensive licensing process in Switzerland and the constructive feedback from FINMA and more than two dozen other regulatory authorities from around the world convened by FINMA to consider the project," said Levey. About Diem The Diem Association is a member-based association dedicated to building a blockchain-based payment system that supports financial innovation, inclusion, and integrity. Its 26 members include merchants, payment service providers, social impact partners, and other entities. Diem Networks US is Diem's primary operating entity. The Diem Payment Network offers a faster, lower cost way to make payments with robust controls to protect consumers and fight financial crime. It is designed to enable interoperability between network participants, which will drive competition and benefit consumers, and to complement public sector infrastructure and integrate with central bank digital currencies if they become available. SOURCE Diem Association LEHI, Utah, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DigiCert, Inc ., the world's leading provider of TLS/SSL, IoT and other PKI solutions, today announced that it has been selected by the Telecom Infra Project (TIP) to provide global PKI-based security services for TIP's OpenWiFi platform. The DigiCert IoT Device Manager, built on the DigiCert ONE platform, will provide highly scalable, fully automated digital certificate management to advance OpenWiFi's goal of expanding next-generation Wi-Fi accessibility. "We are excited to be working collaboratively with TIP to enable zero-touch provisioning for the OpenWiFi platform and support its goals of improving Wi-Fi whitebox solutions for small and medium-sized businesses," said DigiCert Global Director of IoT Security Kris Singh. "DigiCert's focus on providing the best global PKI technology with rich automation and high scalability to address any challenge makes us the leading choice across many industry-driven communities, including telecom. We look forward to collaborating with the many great technologists associated with TIP." "TIP's rollout of a secure RootCA infrastructure is a key enabler of true disaggregation and multi-vendor support for OpenWiFi. DigiCert and its DigiCert ONE platform offer the right mix of services, infrastructure and experience to support TIP's global rollout of PKI for OpenWiFi Access Points that have gone through TIP's Test & Validation process," said David Hutton, Chief Engineer, Telecom Infra Project. IoT Device Manager uses container-based, cloud-native architecture to address the security needs of the TIP OpenWiFi Project. It also provides rapid deployment within minutes, not months, for on-premises, cloud and DigiCert-hosted PKI services. IoT Device Manager offers rich automation, deep integration capabilities and the ability to manage digital certificates at any scale. It also allows users to track metadata on their devices for end-to-end device lifecycle management tied to device identity, authentication, data encryption and device integrity. The goal of the OpenWiFi platform is to increase the availability of next-generation Wi-Fi networks and to enhance innovation by encouraging open-source community development of Wi-Fi solutions. TIP OpenWiFi is a disaggregated Wi-Fi software system, offered as free open source that includes both a cloud controller SDK and Access Point (AP) firmware, capable of running on a rich variety of indoor and outdoor AP hardware, designed and validated by TIP to work seamlessly together. OpenWiFi includes Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) based on PKI over the public internet, a key requirement for securely authenticating Wi-Fi Access Points to Cloud Controllers. TIP's disaggregated PKI approach enables secure software updating, remote reconfiguration and repointing of access points between different cloud services. This combined TIPDigiCert solution benefits consumers, equipment vendors and service providers alike. The OpenWiFi initiative, driven by a global base of operators, managed service providers, vendors and industry organizations, makes it easy for vendors to optimize or reduce their R&D spend, specialize in their innovation and offer a new breed of interoperable enterprise-grade Wi-Fi solutions across cloud services and cutting-edge hardware access points. This in turn offers service providers a greater choice of competitive suppliers from across the globe to choose from. This new ecosystem-driven initiative from TIP will enable the innovation of next-generation Wi-Fi networks. About DigiCert, Inc. DigiCert is the world's leading provider of scalable TLS/SSL, IoT and PKI solutions for identity and encryption. The most innovative companies, including 89% of the Fortune 500 and 97 of the 100 top global banks, choose DigiCert for its expertise in identity and encryption for web servers and Internet of Things devices. DigiCert supports TLS and other digital certificates for PKI deployments at any scale through its certificate lifecycle management solution, CertCentral. The company is recognized for its enterprise-grade certificate management platform, fast and knowledgeable customer support, and market-leading security solutions. For the latest DigiCert news and updates, visit digicert.com or follow @digicert. About DigiCert ONE DigiCert ONE reimagines PKI with cloud-native architecture and container-based technology as the PKI infrastructure service for today's security challenges. DigiCert ONE offers multiple management solutions and is designed for all PKI use cases. Its flexibility allows it to be deployed on-premises, in-country or in the cloud to meet stringent requirements, custom integrations and airgap needs. It also deploys extremely high volumes of certificates quickly, using a robust and highly scalable infrastructure. DigiCert ONE delivers end-to-end centralized user and device certificate management, providing trust across dynamic IT architectures. About the Telecom Infra Project The Telecom Infra Project (TIP) is a global community of companies and organizations that are driving infrastructure solutions to advance global connectivity. Half of the world's population is still not connected to the internet, and for those who are, connectivity is often insufficient. This limits access to the multitude of consumer and commercial benefits provided by the internet, thereby impacting GDP growth globally. However, a lack of flexibility in the current solutions - exacerbated by a limited choice in technology providers - makes it challenging for operators to efficiently build and upgrade networks. Founded in 2016, TIP is a community of diverse members that includes hundreds of companies - from service providers and technology partners, to systems integrators and other connectivity stakeholders. We are working together to develop, test and deploy open, disaggregated, and standards-based solutions that deliver the high-quality connectivity that the world needs - now and in the decades to come. Find out more: www.telecominfraproject.com SOURCE DigiCert, Inc. Related Links www.digicert.com DENVER, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- DispatchHealth is pleased to announce several additions to its executive leadership team. These new roles align with the company's rapid growth strategy and support its mission to create a patient-centered organization enabled by technology. Daniel Graf has been appointed to chief product officer. In this new role, Graf will be responsible for the company's technology platforms, products, and teams. He brings nearly three decades of progressive product and technology experience in disruptive companies such as Uber, Twitter, and Google. has been appointed to chief product officer. In this new role, Graf will be responsible for the company's technology platforms, products, and teams. He brings nearly three decades of progressive product and technology experience in disruptive companies such as Uber, Twitter, and Google. Dean Dalili , MD, MHCM, joins the company as president of market operations. Dalili is charged with driving operational execution and ensuring patients receive care by optimizing DispatchHealth's clinical operations in the company's current and future markets. , MD, MHCM, joins the company as president of market operations. Dalili is charged with driving operational execution and ensuring patients receive care by optimizing DispatchHealth's clinical operations in the company's current and future markets. Erin Denholm, RN , MSN, joins as the company president of clinical operations. As a proven healthcare innovator, Denholm will expand DispatchHealth's clinical operation focus to include a robust care coordination model and virtual care strategies. "To say I am energized about the next phase of DispatchHealth's growth is an understatement," said Dr. Mark Prather, CEO and co-founder. "We are working to build the world's largest in-home care system and Daniel is joining at a critical time to help realize our vision. He has a deep understanding and experience with transforming an organization and skillfully ties together the success of technology products to the success of the company that we will benefit greatly from. And while I believe we have made solid progress on the technology front, I know Daniel's expertise will allow DispatchHealth to truly become a technology-enabled organization." "DispatchHealth is quickly becoming a leader in the in-home care sector, and I am thrilled to join a growing organization focused on improving patient outcomes," said Graf. "I truly believe that the combination of the clinical and operational world with technology enables better care. I look forward to building out an integrated technology and product approach, backed by data and analytics, together with the DispatchHealth teams." Dr. Prather added, "Erin and Dean are highly regarded healthcare leaders. Their addition builds upon the focus of driving market operations and clinical excellence. With the breadth and depth of experience, Erin and Dean bring to DispatchHealth, I am confident their addition will provide strong leadership and support for the teams across our markets." The expansion of the leadership team comes at a significant time of DispatchHealth's strategic growth. The recently announced partnership with Humana to support the growing demand for in-home services coupled with the company's latest investment of $200 million furthers DispatchHealth's rapidly expanding market presence and lines of service. About Daniel Graf An entrepreneur and innovator at the core, Graf has held numerous leadership positions at technology start-up companies such as Uber, Twitter, and Google. Most recently, Graf was Chief Executive Officer at Mindstrong Health, a healthcare innovation company dedicated to transforming mental health through innovations in digital measurement and virtual care models. At Uber Graf helped transform the transportation industry as product lead while being a member of the Uber Management Team. Another notable career highlight includes overseeing Google Maps and Google Local, each with over one billion active users, and led the creation of Google Maps for iOS which resulted in the most successful mobile app launch with over 10 million downloads in 48 hours. In 2013 Graf was named one of the top five Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company. About Dean Dalili, MD, MHCM Dalili comes to DispatchHealth with nearly two decades of experience in medicine and the management of physician practices within hospital systems. He brings his operations management skills, driving clinical quality, and exceptional physician leadership to this new role at DispatchHealth. Before joining DispatchHealth, Dean served as president of hospital medicine at Envision Physician Services. He is a graduate of Emory University School of Medicine, completed his Internal Medicine training, and held a faculty position at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He has also served in the United States Senate as a Healthcare Policy fellow and received his Master of Healthcare Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. About Erin Denholm, RN, MSN Denholm, a visionary strategic and operational healthcare executive backed by a nursing foundation, brings over 30 years of experience in leadership roles at regional and national health systems. Having spent her career dedicated to supporting health care in the home, Denholm is laser-focused on enabling clinicians and putting patients first. She is known nationally for her innovative programs, including hospital-level care at home and virtual care programming. Denholm also created a robust telehealth program for congestive heart failure patients led to Colorado Medicaid granting the first-ever reimbursement for telehealth visits. Most recently, Erin served as CEO of Trinity Health at Home, part of one of the largest integrated delivery systems in the country spanning 23 states. Erin developed a 24/7 virtual care program that proved to decrease hospital readmissions and ER visits for 38,000 seniors. About DispatchHealth DispatchHealth is building the world's largest in-home care system to deliver trusted and compassionate care to all. DispatchHealth offers on-demand acute care and an advanced level of medical care for people of all ages in the comfort of their own homes. DispatchHealth's emergency medicine and internal medicine trained medical teams are equipped with all the tools necessary to treat common to complex injuries and illnesses. DispatchHealth works closely with payers, providers, health systems, EMS, employer groups and others to deliver care in the home to reduce unnecessary emergency room visits, hospital stays and readmissions. Acute Care medical teams are available seven days a week, evenings and holidays and can be requested via app, online or a quick phone call. DispatchHealth is partnered with most major insurance companies. For more information, visit DispatchHealth.com. SOURCE DispatchHealth Related Links www.dispatchhealth.com INGLEWOOD, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The nation's largest dental association, American Dental Association, has recognized ten exceptional practitioners with its signature award in 2021. Included on this prestigious list is Dr. Caroline Zeller, a General Dentist and Oral Surgery Provider at SmileKeepers in Salem, Oregon. Selected out of more than 100 submissions, Dr. Zeller has been recognized for her achievements in making an impact on the dental profession in less than 10 years after graduating from dental school. Since earning her DDS from the University of Missouri in 2016, Dr. Zeller has received many honors for driving dentistry forward through her dedication to practice excellence, leadership, and advocacy. A champion of health inequities, unconscious bias, and social injustices in dentistry, Dr. Zeller has held many leadership positions at the Oregon Dental Association, written articles for a wide range of publications, and produced her own podcast, "Removing the Bite Block." Her personal mission is to "connect the dental community, educate its listeners on issues impacting dentistry, and to encourage every person to have a voice in what our profession becomes." To demonstrate her passion for progress on the legislative front, Dr. Zeller recently testified at the Senate Healthcare and Finance Committee as the dental representative from Oregon Dental Association for the Dental Therapy Licensure Bill. "Dr. Caroline Zeller's success is a testament to InterDent's commitment to excellence, both in our dental practices and our larger communities. We are proud to have a network of experienced and forward-thinking dentists who will guide our company now and well into the future. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Zeller for her ADA nomination in 2021." Roderick Place, Co-Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer About InterDent & SmileKeepers InterDent Service Corporation provides comprehensive dental support and administrative services to 175 supported dental practices employing more than 450 dentists in eight states. SmileKeepers offices, along with offices under the brands of Blue Oak Dental and Gentle Dental, are supported by InterDent, and deliver high-quality dental care with a personal touch. To learn more, visit www.interdent.com or www.interdent.com/smilekeepers. Contact: Chris Smith, 310-765-3507, [email protected] SOURCE InterDent Service Corporation Related Links www.interdent.com CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) today announced it is offering virtual reality training services branded "Virtual Crew" to energy companies and contractors nationwide. With Virtual Crew, Duke Energy can customize simulated field training and qualifications to meet each company's specific needs, as well as offer existing virtual reality (VR) training modules. Industrial Training Services (ITS) will collaborate with Duke Energy to pair interested clients with the service and provide a compliance-tracking solution. "The benefits of VR training are clear. With our experience in this area, Duke Energy now is uniquely positioned to offer informed, customized VR programs tailored to meet the needs of energy companies both large and small," said Brian Weisker, chief operations officer of natural gas at Duke Energy. "ITS, with its history of providing innovative service dedicated to the energy industry, is the perfect choice to help us expand this training to energy companies nationwide." In addition, VR training completed in Virtual Crew will be documented just like any traditional written exam, performance evaluation or training record, thanks to integration with ITS' learning management system, OnBoard LMS. "Virtual Crew is a natural extension of ITS' history of innovation, using technology to simplify and enhance worker training," said Stephanie Balmer, president and COO of ITS. "ITS is thrilled to work with Duke Energy to add virtual reality to our portfolio of industry-leading training and curriculum, and we look forward to future product enhancements that continue to meet the needs of the energy industry." Existing VR modules include natural gas leak detection surveys, line purging, joining plastic pipe and electric substation inspection. Programs also can be created for non-utility scenarios, such as active shooter response. "Since introducing the Virtual Crew program to employees in our natural gas business unit in 2020, Duke Energy has continued to develop engaging, immersive virtual reality training," Weisker said. "Building on that success, we've expanded the program to include training for the company's electric employees." Duke Energy's natural gas business unit will realize savings of approximately three hours in training time per technician per course through the use of VR, and forecasts annual savings of more than $500,000 in operational costs, including travel and instructor expenses. Technicians trained through VR were able to perform tasks three times faster than technicians receiving classroom-based training. Other benefits of VR training include: An immersive and interactive experience: The user can interact with the virtual environment in lifelike simulations. The user can interact with the virtual environment in lifelike simulations. The opportunity for sensory reaction: Immersion triggers the user's emotions in addition to multiple senses, giving the sensation of reality. Immersion triggers the user's emotions in addition to multiple senses, giving the sensation of reality. Real-time feedback: Users can experience the real-time consequences of their choices in a safe environment. Users can experience the real-time consequences of their choices in a safe environment. Increased focus: VR uniquely focuses the user's attention on the training experience. To learn more about the development of the VR technology behind Virtual Crew, visit Duke Energy's illumination site. Companies interested in Virtual Crew can email [email protected] for more information. Duke Energy Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK), a Fortune 150 company headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., is one of America's largest energy holding companies. Its electric utilities serve 7.9 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, and collectively own 51,000 megawatts of energy capacity. Its natural gas unit serves 1.6 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio and Kentucky. The company employs 27,500 people. Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy strategy to create a smarter energy future for its customers and communities with goals of at least a 50 percent carbon reduction by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The company is a top U.S. renewable energy provider, on track to operate or purchase 16,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by 2025. The company also is investing in major electric grid upgrades and expanded battery storage, and exploring zero-emitting power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear. Duke Energy was named to Fortune's 2021 "World's Most Admired Companies" list and Forbes' "America's Best Employers" list. More information is available at duke-energy.com. The Duke Energy News Center contains news releases, fact sheets, photos and videos. Duke Energy's illumination features stories about people, innovations, community topics and environmental issues. Follow Duke Energy on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook. ITS Industrial Training Services, a woman-owned small business headquartered in Murray, Ky., has provided innovative training products and best-in-class support to the energy industry for over 30 years. ITS is dedicated to maintaining lasting customer relationships by providing groundbreaking and industry-proven compliance tools, training, and products to streamline complex operations and help meet safety, regulatory, and qualification standards. ITS has been the first to market for a variety of digital products to support the pipeline industry, helping to replace cumbersome, outdated paper processes and give business leaders the peace of mind their employees are well-trained and records are secure. ITS is also approved as an Accredited Provider by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET), demonstrating compliance with ANSI/IACET Standards and authorized to offer IACET CEUs. ITS clients are found in all 50 states and are among the largest energy compliance providers in the nation. For more information or to contact a member of the ITS team, visit its-training.com. Follow ITS on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Media contact: Jason Wheatley Office: 704.731.4034 Media line: 800.559.3853 SOURCE Duke Energy Related Links www.duke-energy.com NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ATSG, a tech-enabled managed services and solutions company, announced today CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Elizabeth Kubycheck, Chief Marketing and Administrative Officer, to its 2021 Power 60 Solution Providers list, an elite subgroup of honorees chosen from the highly regarded Women of the Channel list. The women honored on this year's list pushed forward with comprehensive business plans, marketing initiatives, and other innovative ideas to support their partners and customers, helping them through the uncertainty brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic. CRN celebrates these exceptional women for their leadership, dedication, and channel advocacy. The Power 60 Solution Providers are chosen by the CRN editorial team based on their contributions, expertise, and dedication to building strong solution provider businesses. The award recognizes an exclusive subgroup of elite industry role models who continue to drive professional success through leadership and dedication to their own organizations and the entire IT channel. As a 20+ year veteran of the technology industry and ATSG's executive leadership team, Mrs. Kubycheck has been instrumental in the positioning of ATSG, driving demand and opportunity through a focus on the entire channel lifecycle. Throughout ATSG's expansive growth, Mrs. Kubycheck has worked strategically to integrate acquired teams into the ATSG family and unify the organization as a true tech-enabled managed services provider. As Chief Marketing & Administrative Officer, Mrs. Kubycheck is responsible for ATSG's brand marketing strategies and communications initiatives and continuously works to improve corporate culture and how the organization works together as a whole. "CRN's 2021 Women of the Channel list acknowledges accomplished, influential women whose dedication, hard work, and leadership accelerate channel growth," said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. "We are proud to honor them for their many accomplishments and look forward to their continued contributions to the IT channel." "Elizabeth's thoughtful and strategic approach to executive leadership is displayed across all of her critical areas of responsibility. She has been instrumental in unifying ATSG as we continue to rapidly grow organically and acquire companies. Her ability to act as an ambassador of our market-facing initiatives, while leading our internal employee development and engagement programs, is truly astounding," said Anthony J. D'Ambrosi, CEO at ATSG. "Her fierce support of delivering on our promises to all of our stakeholders, clients, strategic partners, and investors alike, drives both ATSG's strategic vision and company culture as a global, tech-enabled managed services enterprise. We are incredibly proud of her achievements and honored to have her contributions recognized in our industry." The 2021 Women of the Channel and Power 60 Solution Provider award will be featured in CRN Magazine on May 10th and online at www.CRN.com/WOTC. About About ATSG ATSG is a global tech-enabled managed services and solutions company focused on innovative solutions to enhance today's digital enterprise and end-user experiences. ATSG provides Intelligent IT through Technology Solutions as a Service (TSaaS) to a variety of customers; leveraging an offerings portfolio of rediTech, rediManage, rediCloud, and rediSecure, which delivers reliable, elastic, dynamic infrastructure, collaboration, applications, as well as world-class IT operations. Headquartered in Manhattan, New York, ATSG is a portfolio company of RunTide Capital, a private equity firm focused on building tech-enabled growth companies. ATSG is a privately held company headquartered in Manhattan, New York. For more information on ATSG, please visit us on the web at http://www.atsg.net/, like us on LinkedIn, follow us on Twitter, or become a fan on our Facebook page. #AboutATSG About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end- users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. 2021. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Contact: Stacey Loew ATSG [email protected] SOURCE ATSG Related Links http://www.atsg.net Signed a non-binding letter of intent with LAND for the District motorcycle with the Coil Driver order volume of up to 2,000 units after the unit is validated by LAND. Entered into the expanded strategic collaboration agreement and made the strategic investment of US$ 5 million to SEA Electric providing Exro with the platform to demonstrate and accelerate development of the BCS. to SEA Electric providing Exro with the platform to demonstrate and accelerate development of the BCS. Secured a 36,966 square foot facility in Calgary which will include production lines, product showroom and office spaces. The facility is targeted to open for late Q4 2021, with automotive certified production by end of 2022. CALGARY, AB, May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Exro Technologies Inc. (TSXV: EXRO) (OTCQB: EXROF) (the "Company" or "Exro"), a leading clean technology company which has developed a new class of power electronics for electric motors and powertrains, is pleased to announce its financial results for the quarter-ended March 31, 2021. "Our current focus is attracting top engineering talent and building a robust pipeline of versatile partners across different segments to validate our technology. We are also ramping up the design and construction of the new 36,966 square foot facility in south Calgary that will be capable of producing automotive compliant Coil Driver units in late 2022," said Sue Ozdemir, Chief Executive Officer of Exro. "During the first quarter of 2021, LAND Electric Motorcycles ("LAND") signed a letter of intent to purchase up to 2,000 units, which was a milestone for us on our path to revenue," commented Josh Sobil, Chief Commercial Officer of Exro. "We signed an expanded strategic collaboration agreement and made a US$ 5 million investment with SEA Electric Pty Ltd. ("SEA Electric") to showcase the Battery Control System ("BCS") while expanding on the Coil Driver commercialization scope. In April, we entered into a supply agreement with Vicinity Motor Corp. ("Vicinity") to deploy Exro enhanced electric buses. Vicinity will test and validate the Coil Driver powertrain integration with the intent of implementing it in future serial production batches of the electric bus product line." On April 6, 2021, the Company issued 1,100,000 stock options to certain directors, employees, and consultants with an exercise price of $4.77 per common share. The options are exercisable for a period of five years from the grant date. 1,050,000 of the options granted will vest 33% six months after grant, 33% twelve months after grant and the remaining 18 months after grant. The remaining 50,000 stock options granted will vest 25,000 on April 30, 2021 and 25,000 on December 31, 2021. On January 22, 2021, Exro engaged VSA Capital Ltd. ("VSA Capital") as European financial advisor and corporate broker. VSA Capital, is an independent financial advisor and corporate brokerage firm based in London, UK. VSA Capital will be paid an annual fee of 40,000 and will run for a minimum term of 12 months after which this agreement may be terminated by either VSA or Exro giving the other not less than three months' notice. Exro and VSA Capital act at arm's length, and VSA Capital has no present interest, directly or indirectly, in Exro or its securities. The fee paid by Exro to VSA Capital is for services only. The agreement is subject to approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the "TSXV"). Q1 2021 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS Comprehensive loss of $6,676,520 (Q1 2020 $1,525,182 ). (Q1 2020 ). General and Administration expense increased by 474,572 to $919,972 Payroll and consulting fees increased by $507,253 to $1,225,830 to Research and development increased by $1,525,270 to $1,701,152 to Share based payments expense increased by $2,206,722 to $2,351,405 The main drivers for the overall costs increase are due to additional expenditures incurred as the Company is transitioning from a proof-of-concept stage to a commercialization phase and preparing for future Coil Driver production. Research and development expenses increased by 71% due to testing and validation of several projects to achieve its goals for commercialization. Exro is still spending a considerable amount of time and effort to recruit top talents and to increase the awareness of its technologies and progress. FIRST QUARTER OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS On February 4, 2021, Exro announced that it signed an agreement with LAND to produce up to 2000 units of the Coil Driver in early 2022 subject to successful on road testing. Exro and LAND have agreed to cooperate to optimize the powertrain for the District motorcycle with the Coil Driver. This integration is expected to improve performance for the District motorcycle and enable a new powertrain system solution in the emerging lightweight electric motorcycles industry. On February 9, 2021, the Company announced that it expanded its strategic partnership with SEA Electric to accelerate development of Exro's BCS. The agreement expands on the initial scope to commercialize the Exro Coil Driver in SEA's electric trucks with volume production targets of 400 trucks minimum by the end of 2022. There are technical risks that this timeline may not be achieved. The Company and SEA Electric will co-demonstrate the Exro-enhanced electric fleet trucks in the North American market by the second half of 2021. As part of the agreement, Exro invested US $5 million into SEA Electric by subscribing for 124,380 Series A Preferred Shares (the "Shares") at a price of US $40.1995 per Share. The Shares are convertible into common shares of SEA at the option of Exro and automatically covert to common shares under certain conditions, including SEA completing a going public transaction. On March 16, 2021, the Company entered into a ten-year lease commencing on August 1, 2021 for a 36,966 square foot warehouse facility and office in Calgary. Pursuant to this new lease agreement, the Company is obligated to pay basic monthly rent of $49,288 for the first 5 year-term plus operating costs and $50,828 for the following five-year term ending July 31, 2031 plus operating costs. The lease provides for eight months of free rent commencing August 1, 2021 till March 31, 2022 on 100% of the building and an additional 12 months of rent on 25% of the building commencing April 1, 2022 till March 31, 2023. After the quarter-end, on April 27, 2021, the Company announced that it has signed a supply agreement with Vicinity to deploy Exro enhanced electric buses. Vicinity (formerly Grande West Transportation Group) is a leading supplier of advanced shuttle transportation vehicles for public and commercial use. Exro will supply the Coil Drive System technology and Vicinity will conduct operational validation through deployment of an optimized electric powertrain for Vicinity's suite of electric buses. Vicinity will test and validate the Coil Driver powertrain integration with the intent of implementing it in future serial production batches of the electric bus product line. LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES As of March 31, 2021, the Company had cash of $39,174,239 and accounts receivable of $201,029, which primarily consist of GST refund. The Company has accounts payable and accrued liabilities of $1,925,152. RESULTS OF OPERATIONS AND SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA Year ended Revenue Net and comprehensive loss Basic and diluted loss per common share Weighted average number of common shares March 31, 2021 - (6,676,520) (0.06) 116,343,905 March 31, 2020 - (1,525,182) (0.02) 76,314,552 OUTSTANDING SHARE DATA As of May 11, 2021, there were 120,268,656 Common Shares issued and outstanding, and other securities convertible into Common Shares as summarized in the following table: Number Outstanding as of May 11, 2021 Number Outstanding as of March 31, 2021 Common Shares issued and outstanding 120,268,656 82,880,249 Options 10,642,085 9,432,500 Warrants 1,860,561 2,430,831 As at March 31, 2021 and May 11, 2021 there were no shares held in escrow. (December 31, 2020 nil) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION The audited consolidated financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2020, dated April 6, 2021, can be viewed at www.exro.com/investors or on SEDAR under Exro Technologies Inc. at www.sedar.com. Unless otherwise noted, all figures are in Canadian currency, Cdn. About Exro Technologies Inc. Exro is a clean technology company pioneering intelligent control solutions in power electronics to help solve the most challenging problems in electrification. Exro has developed a new class of control technology that expands the capabilities of electric motors, generators, and batteries. Exro enables the application to achieve more with less energy consumed. Exro's advanced motor control technology, the Coil Driver, expands the capabilities of powertrains by enabling two separate torque profiles within a given motor. A major advancement in the sector, dynamic motor configuration enables efficiency optimization for each operating mode resulting in reduction of energy consumption. The controller automatically selects the appropriate configuration in real time so that power and efficiency are intelligently optimized. For more information visit our website at www.exro.com. LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/exro-technologies-inc Twitter https://twitter.com/exrotech Facebook https://www.facebook.com/exrotech/ ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Sue Ozdemir, Chief Executive Officer CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (together, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, are forward-looking statements. Generally, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "plans", "expects", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates", "believes" or variations of such words, or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward looking statements involve risks, uncertainties and other factors disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulators, that could cause actual results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing these forward-looking statements are reasonable based upon the information currently available to management as of the date hereof, actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. Readers are therefore cautioned not to place undue reliance on these statements, which only apply as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed times frames or at all. Except where required by applicable law, the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Exro Technologies Inc. CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In recognition of recent U.S. mental health trends and Mental Health Awareness Month, leading telemedicine provider First Stop Health (FSH) releases a Guide to Mental Health Solutions for Employees. Whether it's anxiety about returning to offices or the stress of constant digital connection to work environments, this year's Mental Health Awareness Month has never been more relevant to employers and their workers. According to an American Psychological Association (APA) report, nearly 80% of surveyed adults said the COVID-19 pandemic has been a significant source of stress in their life, while 67% said they have experienced increased stress over the course of the pandemic. According to 2021 data from Mental Health America, 57% of adults (26 million individuals) are experiencing a mental illness that is going untreated. Considering the continuation of negative mental health trends due to the ongoing pandemic, and with an aim to help employers support their workforces, the FSHSM guide contains information to help employers understand the current state of mental health in the U.S. and how to evaluate potential benefit solutions to support their workforces. "More employers are recognizing not only the link between good mental health and good physical health," said FSH CEO Patrick Spain, "but the relevance of providing mental health services to all employees, regardless of whether or not they have reported a mental health issue." According to a recent survey, more than half of employees are experiencing burnout and 61% of remote workers report that it has been more difficult to unplug during off hours. While more employers are responding to workforce needs by investing in mental health support for their employees, for some company leaders, the landscape of mental health resources may be uncharted territory. "There are a number of barriers between individuals and mental health resources today including awareness, stigma, cost, ease of access and available options," said Spain, "While employers consider solutions for their workforces, we want to make sure they fully understand those barriers so they can provide meaningful access that will help make a difference in their employees' mental health." Learn more about First Stop Health by visiting fshealth.com. About First Stop Health First Stop Health provides care that people love. Patients can access care 24/7 via mobile app, website or phone. We help them save time and money with safe, convenient, high quality care. Our Telemedicine and Virtual Mental Health services are available as an employee benefit from employers, and to students/staff at higher education institutions. Media Contact Nick Severino | VP, Marketing | First Stop Health 888-691-7867 x-410 | [email protected] SOURCE First Stop Health HONG KONG, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FWD Group ("FWD") today announced the launch of season two of its popular podcast series: Changing the way people feel about insurance with FWD. It follows the company's first season of nine episodes, where FWD's executives talked about the innovations and insights behind creating a new type of insurer in Asia - from building a regional business to creating an inspirational brand and leveraging digital channels to reach customers across 10 diverse markets. Since its introduction in January, the podcast has broken into Apple Podcast's Top 100 in several markets, including the business podcast category in Hong Kong and Singapore, while attracting a global audience spanning 50 countries.* The second season will feature some of FWD's innovators who are constantly striving to make insurance a simpler, faster and more positive experience for customers. They will share more on how the company seeks to bring its customer-led vision to life from simplifying policies to communicating with customers, driving service innovations and more in conversation with Fiona Mattesini from The Podcast People who continues as host. The first episode of season two was released today and features Leon Dorai, Assistant Vice President in FWD's Brand & Marketing team, who shares the company's fresh approach to bringing insurance products to life beyond traditional brochures to enhance customer understanding and engagement. Azim Mithani, FWD Group Chief of Staff, said, "A sincere thank you to all of our listeners and subscribers from around the world who tuned in throughout the first season of our podcast series. In our second season we will bring more inspiring stories and we hope our audience enjoys listening as much as we enjoy changing the way people feel about insurance." The podcast is available on all major platforms including Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify with options to follow or subscribe. Alternatively, listeners can use this link (hit 'subscribe') to show the different apps that can be downloaded to keep listening. All episodes from season one are available on-demand, including: FWD: The team, the vision, the big idea Huynh Thanh Phong , Group CEO , Group CEO How to build a brand to match a vision Bernadette Stevens , Group Vice President, Brand , Group Vice President, Brand Creating ripples and waves in customer experience Troy Barnes , Group Chief Transformation and Integration Officer , Group Chief Transformation and Integration Officer Reinventing insurance from the inside out Sim Preston , Group Chief Operating Officer , Group Chief Operating Officer Putting the power of digital technology to work Ryan Kim , Group Chief Digital Officer , Group Chief Digital Officer The new insurance ecosystem Binayak Dutta , Group Chief Distribution Officer , Group Chief Distribution Officer Using technology to solve real life customer problems Sandeep Pandey , Group Chief Technology Officer , Group Chief Technology Officer The power of digitisation and ecommerce in insurance David Broom , Group Chief Officer New Business Models , Group Chief Officer New Business Models Changing how to work in insurance Lee Murphy , Group Chief Human Resources Officer *According to real-time and independent data from host site, Podigee. About FWD Group Established in Asia in 2013 with a trailblazer mentality, FWD is the primary insurance business of investment group, Pacific Century Group. FWD Group spans 10 markets in Asia including Hong Kong SAR & Macau SAR, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and Cambodia, offering life and medical insurance, general insurance, employee benefits, Shariah and family takaful products across a number of its markets. FWD is focused on creating fresh customer experiences and making the insurance journey simpler, faster and smoother, with innovative propositions and easy-to-understand products, supported by digital technology. Through this customer-led approach, FWD aims to be a leading pan-Asian insurer by changing the way people feel about insurance. For more information please visit www.fwd.com SOURCE FWD Group Related Links http://www.fwd.com The second hole intersected semi-massive sulphide skarn mineralisation with visual chalcopyrite and returned 5.92% copper and 4.6 ppm silver within a 0.92-metre intersection at 1.92% copper and 1.3 ppm silver. Results are consistent with the geological model the company has developed for Greater Falun. Ltd ( ) has intersected semi-massive sulphide skarn mineralisation with visual chalcopyrite in the second hole drilled at Stone Lake target within the Greater Falun Copper-Gold Project in Sweden. Assays returned 0.27 metres 5.92% copper and 4.6 parts per million (ppm) silver from 124.2 metres, as part of an interval grading 1.92% copper and 1.3 ppm silver over 0.92 metres. This hole has also revealed the presence of native copper. The company believes Stone Lake has the key features required for intrusion-related, polymetallic skarn mineralisation, which means it is entirely consistent with the geological model developed for Greater Falun. Highly promising result Alicanto managing director Peter George said: This is a highly promising result. The intersected mineralisation, together with its textbook skarn alteration, strongly indicates that we have identified another intrusion-related copper skarn system, less than 10 kilometres away from the world-class Falun deposit. The semi-massive character of the intersected copper-skarn system, some 80 metres beneath historic workings with similar mineralisation, in combination with the most intense, proximal and prograde skarn alteration so far encountered at Greater Falun, highlights the potential for significant mineralisation nearby. Shares are up almost 7.7% intra-day to A$0.14. Drilling at prospect Alicanto has completed the drilling of two drill holes at Stone Lake prospect. Both holes drilled to date have intersected an intensely skarn altered sequence of volcano-sedimentary rocks (hornfels) and interbedded limestones (marble massive skarn) in contact with a strongly deformed granitoid. The combination of high-grade mineralisation and the significant alteration footprint underlines the areas prospectivity for copper-gold skarn mineralised bodies. Alicanto is undertaking follow-up geophysics, including ground magnetic surveys and down-hole EM, in a bid to identify nearby copper-gold and polymetallic skarn mineralisation. Greater Falun exploration The company is undertaking fieldwork and a fully-funded 20,000 metres drilling program within the Greater Falun Project and along strike from the historical Falun mine, which has produced 28 million tonnes at 4.0% copper, 4.0 g/t gold, 35 g/t silver, 5.0% zinc and 2.0% lead. Greater Falun is in the highly endowed Bergslagen Mining District of Sweden. CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Gibraltar Business Capital, an industry leader in asset-based lending for lower middle-market businesses, announced an expanded financing partnership with Bank of America through a new $150MM line of credit. The line of credit provides Gibraltar the necessary capacity to serve its growing portfolio of lower mid-market businesses seeking flexible, reliable financing while they solve short-term challenges or seize growth opportunities. The new relationship will also support Gibraltar's evolution as it builds toward serving more businesses and continuing its growth trajectory. "This expanded financing relationship with Bank of America provides us with strong capital backing to continue delivering value-added lending services to businesses through nimble, creative financing solutions," said Gibraltar CEO Scott Winicour. "Having reliable capital backing in this environment through Bank of America builds on our immense growth momentum that's occurred since joining Hercules Capital in 2018." GBC's new senior line of credit was facilitated by Bank of America as the agent and includes Truist Bank and People's United Bank as participants. Bank of America, a participant in prior financing arrangements with Gibraltar, took on a new role in leading the syndicate. The $150MM line of credit includes added flexibility through an accordion feature that allows for GBC to access up to $200MM. "Using an asset-based lender like Gibraltar can help businesses increase their borrowing power and gain access to capital to support their fluctuating needs. Every business needs a reliable financing partner that is flexible and responsive," said Steve Pomerantz, Senior Vice President at Bank of America. "We are pleased to support Gibraltar in its mission to provide stability during periods of transformation to help enable the successful growth of businesses across a number of diverse industries." Gibraltar has underwritten credit facilities for over 300 borrowers and extended over $650MM in total commitments. The company has become a leader in its industry by leveraging its experience in a variety of business sectors, innovation in developing customized credit solutions and expertise in working with private equity and other financial partners. For more information, visit www.gibraltarbc.com . About Gibraltar Business Capital: Chicago-based Gibraltar Business Capital is a well-capitalized, specialty finance company delivering working capital in the form of asset-based loans from $3 to $20 million. Gibraltar is an expert financial partner providing lower mid-market companies nationwide access to capital when they need it most to solve challenges or fuel growth at any stage of the business lifecycle. With more than 70 years' experience, Gibraltar's team is trained to listen, think differently, and take unique circumstances into account. Gibraltar Business Capital is a portfolio company of multi-billion dollar specialty finance company Hercules Capital, Inc. (NYSE: HTGC ). For more information, visit www.gibraltarbc.com . About Bank of America: Bank of America is one of the world's leading financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle-market businesses, and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving approximately 66 million consumer and small business clients with approximately 4,300 retail financial centers, including approximately 2,700 lending centers, 2,600 financial centers with a Consumer Investment Financial Solutions Advisor and approximately 2,400 business centers; approximately 17,000 ATMs; and award-winning digital banking with approximately 40 million active users, including approximately 31 million mobile users. Bank of America is a global leader in wealth management, corporate and investment banking and trading across a broad range of asset classes, serving corporations, governments, institutions and individuals around the world. Bank of America offers industry leading support to approximately 3 million small business households through a suite of innovative, easy-to-use online products and services. The company serves clients through operations across the United States, its territories and approximately 35 countries. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. CONTACT: Jessica Moyer [email protected] SOURCE Gibraltar Business Capital Related Links http://www.gibraltarbc.com NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- New market research commissioned by IBM (NYSE: IBM ) found that almost one-third of IT professionals surveyed globally say their business is now using artificial intelligence (AI), with 43 percent reporting that their company has accelerated their rollout of AI as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. While recent advances in the technology are making AI more accessible than ever, the annual survey also found that a lack of AI skills and increasing data complexity are cited as top challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the rollout of AI Global AI adoption figures COVID-19 accelerated the use of automation Trustworthy and explainable AI is critical to business Accessing data anywhere is key for increasing AI adoption NLP is at the forefront of recent AI adoption Top barriers to AI adoption Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8668657-ibm-global-data-ai-growth/ The "Global AI Adoption Index 2021," conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, revealed that while AI adoption was nearly flat over the last year, momentum is shifting as the need for AI has been accelerated by changing business needs due to the global pandemic. AI is already changing the way businesses operate today, from how they communicate with their customers via virtual assistants, to automating key workflows, and even managing network security. The "2021 CEO Study" from IBM's Institute for Business Value recently revealed that more than half of CEOs surveyed expect AI to deliver tangible business benefits in the next few years. Highlights from the "Global AI Adoption Index 2021" include: Business adoption of AI was basically flat , but significant investments in AI are planned: Almost one-third of companies reported using AI in their business, similar to 2020 findings. For those deploying or exploring AI, they report it is being driven by multiple pressures and opportunities businesses are facing, from the COVID-19 pandemic to advances in the technology that make it more accessible. A third of global IT professionals report their company plans to invest in both skills and AI solutions over the next 12 months. Almost one-third of companies reported using AI in their business, similar to 2020 findings. For those deploying or exploring AI, they report it is being driven by multiple pressures and opportunities businesses are facing, from the COVID-19 pandemic to advances in the technology that make it more accessible. A third of global IT professionals report their company plans to invest in both skills and AI solutions over the next 12 months. COVID-19 accelerated how businesses are using automation today: 80 percent of companies are already using automation software or plan to use this technology in the next 12 months, and for more than one-in-three organizations, the pandemic influenced their decision to use automation to bolster the productivity of employees, while others found new applications of this technology to make themselves more resilient, such as helping to automate the resolution of IT incidents. 80 percent of companies are already using automation software or plan to use this technology in the next 12 months, and for more than one-in-three organizations, the pandemic influenced their decision to use automation to bolster the productivity of employees, while others found new applications of this technology to make themselves more resilient, such as helping to automate the resolution of IT incidents. Trustworthy and explainable AI is critical to business: 91 percent of businesses using AI say their ability to explain how it arrived at a decision is critical. While global businesses are now acutely aware of the importance of having trustworthy AI, more than half of companies cite significant barriers in getting there including lack of skills, inflexible governance tools, biased data and more. 91 percent of businesses using AI say their ability to explain how it arrived at a decision is critical. While global businesses are now acutely aware of the importance of having trustworthy AI, more than half of companies cite significant barriers in getting there including lack of skills, inflexible governance tools, biased data and more. The ability to access data anywhere is key for increasing AI adoption: The proliferation of data across the enterprise has resulted in over two thirds of global IT professionals drawing from more than 20 different data sources to inform their AI. Almost 90 percent of IT pros say being able to run their AI projects wherever the data resides is key to the technology's adoption. The proliferation of data across the enterprise has resulted in over two thirds of global IT professionals drawing from more than 20 different data sources to inform their AI. Almost 90 percent of IT pros say being able to run their AI projects wherever the data resides is key to the technology's adoption. Natural language processing is at the forefront of recent adoption: Almost half of businesses today are now using applications powered by natural language processing (NLP), and one-in-four businesses plan to begin using NLP technology over the next 12 months. Customer service is the top NLP use case with 52 percent of global IT professionals reporting that their company is using or considering using NLP solutions to improve customer experience and it was the use AI case IT professionals were most likely to report that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased their focus on. "As organizations move to a post-pandemic world, data from the Global AI Adoption Index 2021 underscores a major uptick in AI investment," said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, IBM Cloud and Data Platform. "A large majority of those investments continue to be focused on the three key capabilities that define AI for business - automating IT and processes, building trust in AI outcomes, and understanding the language of business. We believe these investments will continue to accelerate rapidly as customers look for new, innovative ways to drive their digital transformations by taking advantage of hybrid cloud and AI." While adoption is poised for growth, some global businesses are still facing a multitude of challenges when it comes to adopting AI. Persistent barriers across markets and industries highlight the need for continued focus on addressing skills and solutions gaps. The survey determined top three barriers to AI adoption for businesses are: Limited AI expertise or knowledge (39 percent), increasing data complexity and data silos (32 percent), and lack of tools/platforms for developing AI models (28 percent). IBM is working to accelerate adoption by delivering AI designed for the needs of businesses. To give businesses, data scientists and developers the capabilities they need to scale AI, IBM is continually bringing new innovations to IBM Watson from IBM Research that help enable organizations to better understand the language of business, automate processes and IT, and drive trust in their AI outcomes. Additionally, IBM Global Business Services brings deep technology, industry and process design expertise to co-create solutions with customers that embed AI into core business processes and create intelligent workflows at scale. Download the full report here. Methodology The data sheds new light on the deployment of AI across 5,501 businesses in China (500), France (500), Germany (500), India (500), Italy (500), Latin America (1,000 across Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Peru), Singapore (500), Spain (500), the United Kingdom (500), and United States (501). The polling was conducted online through Morning Consult's proprietary network of online providers in April 2021. All respondents were required to have significant insight or input into their firm's IT decision-making. See full details on the methodology at the end of the summary. About IBM Watson Watson is IBM's AI technology for business, helping organizations to better predict and shape future outcomes, automate complex processes, and optimize employees' time. Watson has evolved from an IBM Research project, to experimentation, to a scaled, open set of products that run anywhere. With more than 40,000 client engagements, Watson is being applied by leading global brands across a variety of industries to transform how people work. To learn more, visit: https://www.ibm.com/watson Media Contact: Zachery Bishop IBM Media Relations [email protected] SOURCE IBM Related Links www.ibm.com DUBLIN, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Government and Industrial/Financial Blockchain: Market Shares, Strategy, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2021 to 2027" report from Wintergreen Research, Inc has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. A $4.47 million market worldwide in 2020, it is anticipated to grow rapidly to $83.3 billion in 2027 as central banks figure out how to use blockchain in their digital currency initiatives. Worldwide markets are poised to achieve continuing growth as blockchain proves its value by managing digital transactions in real time across national boundaries, encouraging collaborative business efforts. Lowering transaction management costs is a key benefit. Blockchain can be implemented in an IBM mainframe that is already a core technology for virtually every bank. Blockchain updates the security in transaction processing, implementing end to end encryption. Government blockchain is used to implement Web 3.0. the ability ot transfer money as easily as people send an email. The question becomes, what does Web 3.0 look like? It looks like a distributed ledger system providing immediate currency exchange worldwide that mimics how the Internet is used to exchange e-mail. Web 3.0 features enhanced security added to a real time digital economic process. The government blockchain market does not include what has been the biggest use of blockchain - to hide the money of criminals and terrorists - perform money laundering. After an inauspicious beginning, government blockchain has moved to digital currency, government blockchain is on the cusp of phenomenal growth, ready to reach $83 billion worldwide by 2027 as it creates new digital economic infrastructure. ConsenSys acquired Quorum, the blockchain platform belonging to JPMorgan in a move that will solidify an ongoing relationship between the JPMC and ConsenSys. The-Quorum-blockchain is a premier transaction management system, settling $5 trillion in transactions per day. The government blockchain market moves into rapid growth mode as the digital economy takes hold. As the banks and finance industry move into the modern age of real time transaction processing, blockchain is a core enabling technology for central banks. This market segment previously has been held back in part by the outdated aspects of the mainframe computing technology. IBM Blockchain and others are spurred by more modern ways to manage global transactions across national borders from IBM, Microsoft, and Accenture. Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger system providing enhanced security to the real time digital economic process. Blockchain is comprised of blocks of digitally recorded data. The global market for blockchain at $4.47 billion in 2020 is anticipated to reach $83 billion in 2027. IBM, ConsenSys, and Microsoft are driving blockchain as their clients are making the transition to cloud services. Accenture has measurable market share as well. Key Topics: Distributed Ledger Web 3.0 Blockchain Cryptocurrency Digital Economy Central Bank Transactions Digital Transactions Digital Currency Data Center Infrastructure Enterprise Application Industry Trends Enterprise Application Market Financial Ledger Internet Financial Architecture Transactions in Real Time Enhanced Security Collaborative Business Across National Boundaries Key Topics Covered: 1. Government Blockchain: Stable Value Currency Market Description and Market Dynamics 1.1 Government Blockchain Market Description and Market Dynamics 1.1.1 Blockchain and Cyber Attacks 1.1.2 Central Banks Seek to Master Stable Value Digital Currency 1.1.3 Digital Virtual Currencies Goal: Stable-Coins that Have a Consistent Value 1.2 Blockchains: Cryptographically Secured Distributed Ledgers 1.2.1 Central Bank Currencies: Wholesale and Retail 1.2.2 Advantages of Central Bank Digital Currency 1.2.3 Blockchain Companies Initial Coin Offerings - ICOs 1.2.4 Transfer of Social Trust: From Institutions to Systems Using Well-Tested Computer Code 1.3 Central Banks Exploring Creation of Digital Currency Issued by Government -Accepted as a Method of Payment 1.3.1 Fed System as It Exists Now 1.3.2 Digital Currency Approach Uses Blockchain To Verify and Track Transactions 1.3.3 Individuals Would Hold Accounts Directly at The Central Bank 1.3.4 Sovereign Digital Currencies 1.3.5 Digital Currencies as Payment Methods 1.3.6 Enterprises to Speed Up Digital Transformation 1.3.7 Role of Central Banks in Digital Currency Interoperability 2. Government Blockchain Stable Value Digital Currency: Market Shares and Forecasts 2.1 Government Blockchain Stable Value Digital Currency Market Driving Forces 2.1.1 Replacing Client Server Data Center Architecture with Blockchain Brings New Digital Efficiencies 2.1.2 Blockchain Leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) 2.1.3 Governments Use Blockchain Distributed Ledgers to Achieve Business and Fiscal Transparency 2.2 Government Blockchain Market Shares 2.2.1 Blockchain Market Shares, Dollars, Worldwide, 2020 2.2.2 IBM and Microsoft 2.2.3 IBM Blockchain 2.2.4 IBM Implements AI Support for Blockchain 2.2.5 IBM Blockchain Decentralized Ledger in Supply Chains 2.2.6 IBM Blockchain Decentralized Ledger in Medical Industry 2.3 Government and Industrial/Finance Blockchain Market Forecasts 2.4 Blockchain Market Forecasts: Banking, Finance, and Insurance, Healthcare, Cybercurrency, Supply Chain, and Internet of Things (IoT) 2.4.1 Rapid Adoption of Technology 2.5 Government and Financial Blockchain Applications 2.5.1 BFSI: Blockchain Impact on Stock Market 2.5.2 Blockchain for Healthcare 2.5.3 Blockchain for Contracts and the Legal Industry 2.5.4 Blockchain for Supply Chain 2.5.5 Blockchain for Internet of Things 2.5.6 SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son Sees 1 Trillion Devices for Internet of Things 2.6 Blockchain Pricing 2.6.1 Microsoft Blockchain Pricing 2.7 Central Bank Digital Currency Blockchain Regional Market Segments 2.7.1 US 2.7.2 Covid-19 Pandemic Toll on US Communities 2.7.3 US Fed Exploring the Use of Innovative Technologies to Enhance Payments Efficiency 2.7.4 Japan Central Bank Digital Currency 2.7.5 Europe 2.7.6 Bank of China 2.7.7 China Opens Its Financial System to The World 2.7.8 China Ending Anonymity of Virtual Accounts to Cryptocurrency Exchanges 2.7.9 Korean Blockchain Association 2.7.10 UK 3. Government and Industrial/Financial Blockchain Central Bank and Vendor Activities 3.1 Government and Central Bank Planning for Digital Coins and Tokens 3.2 Boston Fed Looking at 30 to 40 Blockchain Networks for Digital Dollar 3.2.1 US Fed and Digital Currency 3.3 EU and Digital Currency 3.3.1 Sweden's Central Bank, Riksbank 3.3.2 Germany and Italy 3.3.3 Bank of Spain 3.4 China's Retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) 4. Blockchain Research and Technology 4.1 On a Blockchain, a Node Replicates Data for All Nodes 4.2 Blockchain Electricity Usage - Moving to Asynchronous Process 4.3 Accenture Patent Tied To "Editable Blockchain" 4.4 Digital Currency Models 4.4.1 Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) 4.5 Facebook Libra - Diem Association 5. Blockchain Company Profiles 360 Blockchain Inc Abra Accenture Amazon Axoni Batavia Binance Exchange BitFury Group BlockCypher BMW BofA BTL Group Chain ConsenSys Corda R3 Deloitte Digital Asset Holdings Eris Industries Ethereum EzyRemit Facebook Fidelity Investments Global Arena Holding Goldman Sachs Government Blockchain Association (GBA) Hitachi HIVE Blockchain Technologies HSBC IBM Intel JP Morgan Chase Kube MQ Lenovo Luno Microsoft Oracle Overstock PokitDok Provenance Quorum R3 Red Hat Ripple Samsung Nexledger SAP Scorechain Slock.It TATA Consultancy Services TON Visa Wishknish For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ic21wo Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com PASADENA, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, GuRu Wireless, Inc., a global leader in customizable, over-the-air power solutions, and Motorola announce efforts to bring over-the-air wireless power to its smartphones. Motorola's track record of transformative innovation gives them an unprecedented ability to develop the first smartphones to power over-the-air at a meter, leveraging GuRu's innovative technology. "At Motorola we are constantly working to bring innovations to the market that can improve our consumers' lives. With this solution we will provide a glimpse of the freedom and flexibility that users can enjoy with a revolutionary over-the-air, wireless power technology," said Dan Dery, VP of Product at Motorola. "With GuRu, we imagine a new generation of wirelessly powered devices." GuRu RF Lensing powers devices at watts-over-meters, bringing a new wave of energy to consumer devices. This proprietary technology revolutionizes the consumer experience and helps to remove power as an everyday concern. GuRu's patented, miniature modules will enable devices to be powered at long range by precision power transfer. Motorola and GuRu, will work together to match Motorola's rigorous requirements of quality, power efficiency and safety. "Innovation has always been part of Motorola's DNA. The company has long enriched our lives with its ecosystem of smart devices and solutions," said Florian Bohn, CEO and co-founder of GuRu. "We are excited to join forces with an industry leader whose goal is to improve the consumer experience. Together, we will introduce true mobility for portable smart devices and IoT sensors." GuRu leverages an impressive portfolio of innovation, rooted in two decades of development at Caltech. GuRu envisions a rich landscape of opportunities and invites partners to team up with GuRu and discover the power of GuRu RF Lensing. About GuRu Wireless GuRu Wireless, Inc. enables safe, effective and customizable transmission of power over-the-air using proprietary millimeter-wave (mmWave) integrated circuits, modules and proprietary Smart RF Lensing technology. A miniature-sized power transfer system delivers power at an unprecedented distance efficiently and with precision. GuRu's wireless solution can be used as a charging hub or a power source in many settings where access to an energy source is needed. It is easy to install, safe, and sophisticated enough to find and adjust for various power levels to sync with the needs of any device. Even during use, it continuously charges devices and as a safety measure, reroutes power as necessary. Founded in 2017 by a team of scientists and engineers from Caltech, GuRu aims to ensure access to power be as ubiquitous as WiFi. For more information, please visit www.guru.inc , and join the conversation on LinkedIn and Twitter . About Motorola Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) is a US$50 billion Fortune Global 500 company, with 63,000 employees and operating in 180 markets around the world. Focused on a bold vision to deliver smarter technology for all, we are developing world-changing technologies that create a more inclusive, trustworthy and sustainable digital society. By designing, engineering and building the world's most complete portfolio of smart devices and infrastructure, we are also leading an Intelligent Transformation to create better experiences and opportunities for millions of customers around the world. Motorola Mobility LLC was acquired by Lenovo Group Holdings in 2015. Motorola Mobility is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lenovo, and is responsible for designing and manufacturing all Moto and Motorola branded mobile handsets. SOURCE GuRu Wireless, Inc. SAN FRANCISCO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Hagens Berman urges Skillz Inc. (NYSE: SKLZ) investors with significant losses to submit your losses now. A securities fraud class action is pending and certain investors may have valuable claims. Class Period: Dec. 16, 2020 Apr. 19, 2021 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: July 7, 2021 Visit: www.hbsslaw.com/investor-fraud/SKLZ Contact An Attorney Now: [email protected] 844-916-0895 Skillz, Inc. (NYSE: SKLZ) Securities Fraud Class Action: In past months, Skillz and senior management repeatedly touted the company's revenue growth and projections to support its valuation. The complaint alleges Defendants misled investors with these and other statements because they concealed that (1) three of the company's games responsible for a majority of Skillz's revenues had substantially declined and (2) the company's revenue recognition policy misrepresented the company's actual financial condition. Defendants' statements were first brought into serious question on Mar. 8, 2021, when analyst Wolfpack Research published a scathing report, accusing Skillz of concealing that revenues from three games responsible for 88% of Skillz's total revenues (Blitz, Solitaire Cube, Blackout Bingo) substantially declined and effectively gutted the company's growth projections. Next, on Apr. 18, 2021, Eagle Eye Research published a report claiming Skillz's revenue recognition practices were "like round-tripping where the company is effectively giving its customers money to spend on SKLZ and recognizing revenue from it, i.e. generating no net economic profits." Eagle Eye concluded "that true cash revenue is less than of what management portrays to investors." These events sent the price of Skillz shares sharply lower. "We're focused on investors' losses and proving Skillz engaged in fraudulent accounting and financial reporting," said Reed Kathrein, the Hagens Berman partner leading the investigation. If you are a Skillz investor and have significant losses, or have knowledge that may assist the firm's investigation, click here to discuss your legal rights with Hagens Berman. Whistleblowers: Persons with non-public information regarding Skillz should consider their options to help in the investigation or take advantage of the SEC Whistleblower program. Under the new program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Reed Kathrein at 844-916-0895 or email [email protected]. About Hagens Berman Hagens Berman is a national law firm with eight offices in eight cities around the country and over eighty attorneys. The firm represents investors, whistleblowers, workers and consumers in complex litigation. More about the firm and its successes is located at hbsslaw.com. For the latest news visit our newsroom or follow us on Twitter at @classactionlaw . Contact: Reed Kathrein, 844-916-0895 SOURCE Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP Related Links https://www.hbsslaw.com NOIDA, India, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A comprehensive overview of the Hardware-as-a-Service market is recently added by UnivDatos Market Insights to its humongous database. The Hardware-as-a-Service market report has been aggregated by collecting informative data of various dynamics such as market drivers, restraints, and opportunities. This innovative report makes use of several analyses to get a closer outlook on the Hardware-as-a-Service market. The Hardware-as-a-Service market report offers a detailed analysis of the latest industry developments and trending factors in the market that are influencing the market growth. Furthermore, this statistical market research repository examines and estimates the Hardware-as-a-Service market at the global and regional levels. The Global Hardware-as-a-Service market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 25% from 2021-2027 to exceed US$ 300 billion by 2027. Market Overview The global Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) Market is witnessing significant growth on account of escalating digitalization, technological advancement in the hardware, devices, or services, and the rising preference towards cloud adoption, etc. Also, surging investment by the small-medium enterprises in the hardware as a service model due to limit their spending on the infrastructure is leading to the growth of the market. As per a survey by the U.S Based tech company "Spice works", approximately 48% of the SMEs and large organizations in North America and Europe are leasing one or more types of hardware as of 2019. Among these, printers are the most preferred hardware to lease, and around 40% of organizations lease printers in the workplace, while less than 10 percent lease other types of hardware After printers, the other preferred devices are servers (8%), networking equipment (8%), desk phones (7%), desktops (6%), laptops (6%), smartphones, (5%), or tablets (3%). Moreover, the adoption of HaaS is on the rise owing to its benefits such as cost savings, easy maintenance, etc. As per Spiceworks, 12% of organizations that lease tablets use the HaaS model to service them as of 2019, and the number was expected to reach 24% by 2020. Moreover, 10% of organizations that lease laptops use HaaS to service them today, and that number is expected to grow to 16% by 2020. Request Sample Copy of this Report @ https://univdatos.com/report/global-hardware-as-a-service-market-current-analysis-and-forecast COVID-19 Impact COVID-19 pandemic gave a robust boom to the adoption of hardware as a service. Due to the work from home mode operating mode of the companies, the HaaS has witnessed a sharp rise. In a study, it was found that 8% of IT Decision Makers said they would continue IT Capex investment and 55% said they would explore "as-a-service" solutions for either hardware or software. Also, 53% say they will explore a managed service for a turnkey hardware/software solution. Moreover, 24% of IT Decision Makers consume half of the IT solutions 'as-a-service' as of 2019. After the pandemic, the growth of hybrid workplaces will drive the consumption of 'as-a-service' solutions to 72% over the next 12 to 24 months. Also, the companies launched numerous solutions in COVID-era to make operations easy. For instance: o In 2020, Zoom video launched hardware as a service (HaaS) to help customers scale video conference rooms and phones with budget-friendly hardware options. Ask for Price & Discounts @ https://univdatos.com/report/global-hardware-as-a-service-market-current-analysis-and-forecast Hardware-as-a-Service Market report is studied thoroughly with several aspects that would help stakeholders in making their decisions more curated. By Components, the market is primarily bifurcated into Hardware Services The hardware segment dominated the by product type segment of the Hardware-as-a-Service market and grabbed more than 50% market share in 2019. However, the services segment would witness the highest CAGR in the forthcoming years. By Models, the market is primarily segmented into Hardware Model Platform as a Service Desktop/PC as a Service Infrastructure as a Service Device as a Service Professional Services Amongst hardware models, desktop/PC as a service accounted for the largest share and is expected to maintain the same trend of dominance in the forecast period. However, the Infrastructure as a Service segment would witness a considerable share in 2019. By Deployment, the market is primarily segmented into On-Premise Cloud In 2019, the on-premise segment dominated the global Hardware-as-a-Service market with nearly 61% of the market share and it is anticipated by 2027. However, it is expected that the cloud segment would witness robust growth in the forecast period. By Enterprise Size, the market is primarily segmented into Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Large Enterprises In 2019, the large enterprises segment dominated the global Hardware-as-a-Service market. However, the small & medium enterprises to witness considerable market share in forthcoming years. By Application, the market is primarily segmented into Government Manufacturing Telecom & IT Retail Healthcare Energy & Utility Education Others In 2019, the retail segment dominated the global Hardware-as-a-Service market with nearly 30% of the market share and it is anticipated by 2027, the segment will dominate the market as well. Hardware-as-a-Service Market Geographical Segmentation Includes: North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the World Based on the estimation, the North America region dominated the Hardware-as-a-Service market with almost 50% revenue share in 2019. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow with the highest CAGR over the forecast period owing to the emergence of new players in the industry coupled with the new offerings of solutions by the players. Ask for Report Customization @ https://univdatos.com/report/global-hardware-as-a-service-market-current-analysis-and-forecast The major players targeting the market includes Fujitsu Ltd. FUSE3 Communications Ingram Micro Inc. Navitas Lease Corporation Phoenix NAP Amazon.com Lenovo Group Ltd. Machado Consulting Design Data Systems, Inc. Dell Inc. Competitive Landscape The degree of competition among prominent global companies has been elaborated by analyzing several leading key players operating worldwide. The specialist team of research analysts sheds light on various traits such as global market competition, market share, most recent industry advancements, innovative product launches, partnerships, mergers, or acquisitions by leading companies in the Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) market. The leading players have been analyzed by using research methodologies for getting insight views on global competition. Key questions resolved through this analytical market research report include: What are the latest trends, new patterns, and technological advancements in the Hardware-as-a-Service market? Which factors are influencing the Hardware-as-a-Service market over the forecast period? What are the global challenges, threats, and risks in the Hardware-as-a-Service market? Which factors are propelling and restraining the Hardware-as-a-Service market? What are the demanding global regions of the Hardware-as-a-Service market? What will be the global market size in the upcoming years? What are the crucial market acquisition strategies and policies applied by global companies? We understand the requirement of different businesses, regions, and countries, we offer customized reports as per your requirements of business nature and geography. Please let us know If you have any custom needs. For more informative information, please visit us @ https://univdatos.com/report/global-hardware-as-a-service-market-current-analysis-and-forecast About UnivDatos Market Insights UnivDatos Market Insights (UMI) is a passionate market research firm and a subsidiary of Universal Data Solutions. We believe in delivering insights through Market Intelligence Reports, Customized Business Research, and Primary Research. Our research studies are spread across topics across the world, we cover markets in over 100 countries using smart research techniques and agile methodologies. We offer in-depth studies, detailed analysis, and customized reports that help shape winning business strategies for our clients. Contact UnivDatos Market Insights Pawnendra Pawan Client Development Lead Ph: +91-7838604911 Email: [email protected] Website: https://univdatos.com/ Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1225049/UnivDatos_Logo.jpg SOURCE UnivDatos Market Insights PALO ALTO, Calif. and LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- A healthcare system focused on symptoms of the sick rather than a proactive approach to wellness poses a significant challenge in a post-COVID world, Babylon CEO Dr. Ali Parsa told CNBC's Healthy Returns Summit. Parsa, speaking alongside healthcare executive and investor Molly Joseph on a panel entitled, "Reimagining Healthcare: Putting Prevention Over Cure," noted the role technology can play in moving the focus from simply treating the sick to keeping people healthy a shift that will improve the system, increase the accessibility of quality care, and decrease downstream costs long-term for both patients and providers. "The COVID pandemic isn't the only pandemic that we have on our hands," said Babylon CEO Dr. Ali Parsa. "We are also in a major crisis for mental health and chronic conditions and up until now, we've waited for those crises to hit individuals and then we spend a ton of money and effort scrambling to fix big issues when it's almost too late." On the heels of Babylon announcing its position as a leading digital-first, value-based care provider in the U.S., the session covered Babylon's rapid U.S. expansion and how the company combines a value-based care model with a digital-first approach to deploy a highly scalable platform aimed at keeping patients at the peak of health. "We are big believers in value-based care, aligning the incentives of the payer, provider and patient," said Parsa. "We need to change our lens and instead of dealing with crises, we need to make sure that people stay healthy. That can be done with technology. Technology is a tool that allows us to look at someone ahead of time, collect data, and try to prevent the situation before it happens." Both Parsa and Joseph made a call to action for the widespread adoption of a new care approach that bridges the gap between high quality healthcare and technology. "There is an opportunity to bring together best-in-class technology and best-in-class healthcare models in a way that we haven't," said Molly Joseph, Managing Partner at Cypress Pass Ventures. "Both industries have been developing separately, and it's about bringing those together." More information about the invite-only CNBC Healthy Returns Summit and breakout session can be accessed here . About Babylon Babylon is a leading global, digital-first, value-based care company whose mission is to make high-quality healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone on Earth. We are re-engineering healthcare, shifting the main focus from sick to preventative care so that patients experience better health and reduced costs. This is achieved by leveraging a highly scalable, digital-first platform combined with high quality, virtual clinical operations to provide all-in-one, personalized healthcare. We endeavor to keep patients at the peak of health and get them back on their feet as quickly as possible, all from their devices, with the aim to promote longer and healthier lives. When sick, Babylon provides assistance to navigate the health system, connecting patients digitally to the right clinician 24/7, at no additional cost. Founded in 2013, we have since delivered millions of clinical consultations and AI interactions, with ~2m clinical consultations and ~3.9m AI interactions in 2020 alone. We work with governments, health providers and insurers across the globe, and support healthcare facilities from small local practices to large hospitals. SOURCE Babylon CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- HubSpot, Inc. (NYSE: HUBS), the customer relationship management (CRM) platform for scaling companies, announced today that Kate Bueker, the Company's Chief Financial Officer, and Chuck MacGlashing, the Company's Head of Corporate Treasury and Investor Relations, are scheduled to present virtually at the J.P. Morgan Technology Conference on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. ET. All interested parties can access the webcast live on the Company's investor relations website at ir.hubspot.com . The Company will also host virtual 1-on-1 investor meetings on the same day. About HubSpot HubSpot is a leading CRM platform that provides software and support to help companies grow better. The platform includes marketing, sales, service, operations, and website management products that start free and scale to meet our customers' needs at any stage of growth. Today, nearly 114,000 customers across more than 120 countries use HubSpot's powerful and easy-to-use tools and integrations to attract, engage, and delight customers. Named Glassdoor's #4 Best Place to Work in 2021, HubSpot has been recognized for its award-winning culture by Great Place to Work, Comparably, Fortune, Entrepreneur, Inc., and more. HubSpot was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The company's thousands of employees work across the globe in HubSpot offices and remotely. Learn more at www.hubspot.com . SOURCE HubSpot Related Links http://hubspot.com FRANKFURT, Germany, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Iconic Funds' Physical Bitcoin ETP (ISIN: DE000A3GK2N1, Ticker: XBTI) will be listed and begin trading on Deutsche Borse's Xetra on May 12, 2021. The exchange traded product ("ETP"), physically backed by Bitcoin, becomes the most cost-effective way for investors to gain exposure to Bitcoin on Xetra with a total expense ratio of 0.95%. The ETP is issued by Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH, a subsidiary of Iconic Funds GmbH (collectively branded as "Iconic Funds"). Iconic Funds Structured as a traditional ETP, comparable to Xetra Gold, the Bitcoin ETP aims to remove the technical complications of investing in and holding Bitcoin for investors in an industry-leading cost-effective manner. Each fully Bitcoin-collateralized Note of the ETP represents a claim on a specified amount of Bitcoin, less applicable fees. With the confirmation of listing on Xetra, the Iconic Funds team has begun exploring international listings of the ETP. "Iconic's mission is to drive the adoption of crypto assets by creating trustworthy investment vehicles for investors to seamlessly gain exposure to the evolving asset class," said Patrick Lowry, CEO of Iconic Funds and publicly traded Cryptology Asset Group. "We are elated to see our Bitcoin ETP listed on Germany's flagship market and look forward to working with our partners and regulators to bring more products forward for crypto-hungry investors." Michael Geister, Iconic's newly appointed Head of Crypto ETPs, said "Iconic is a pioneer in the crypto asset ecosystem due to its history as an investor in blockchain and crypto companies and as regulated manager of crypto investment products. To me, it's a natural step for Iconic Funds to expand its product range by offering physically backed crypto ETPs. Our Crypto ETPs are designed to meet the highest standards in terms of security, trust and cost efficiency. We have teamed up with the most reputable partners to ensure the most robust structure and maximum level of transparency." Iconic Funds is perpetually at the forefront of driving crypto asset adoption, investing in the crypto space since 2017 and having issued one of the EU's first fully licensed crypto asset index funds in early 2020. By issuing a physically backed Bitcoin ETP - and one of the most cost effective of its kind - Iconic further cements itself as one of the most innovative asset management groups in the world. Product name Iconic Funds Physical Bitcoin ETP Ticker Xetra / Bloomberg XBTI / XBTI GY ISIN / WKN DE000A3GK2N1 / A3GK2N Total Expense Ratio 0.95% Product Currency USD Product Structure Physically replicating Securities Lending No Lending Domicile Germany Issuer Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH Administrator State Street Bank International GmbH Security Trustee Bankhaus von der Heydt GmbH & Co. KG Custodians Fidelity Digital Assets Ltd Coinbase Custody International Ltd Market Maker Flow Traders B.V. Authorized Participant(s) Flow Traders B.V. Jane Street Financial Ltd. DRW Europe B.V. Enigma Securities Ltd. Xetra Listing date May 12, 2021 Important Notices: This notice does not constitute an offer to sell securities, nor is it a solicitation or an offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation is unlawful. This notice does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in the United States and the securities referred to in this notice may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. This notice may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, including with respect to the expected offering size, the terms of the Notes including the anticipating timing for the pricing and settlement date and the listing of the Notes on the regulated market of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Forward looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Iconic Fund's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, capital markets conditions and the ability to successfully market the Notes, global and local economic and business conditions. All forward-looking information in this notice speaks as of the date of this notice. Iconic Funds does not undertake to update any such forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise except as required by law. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained in Iconic Fund's filings with securities regulators, including its latest annual information form and MD&A. These filings are also available at Iconic Fund's website at https://funds.iconicholding.com. The price performance of cryptocurrencies is highly volatile and unpredictable and past price performance is no guarantee of future price performance. The approval of the Prospectus should not be construed as an endorsement of the securities offered or admitted to trading on a Regulated Market. Prospective investors should read the Prospectus before making any investment decision in order to fully understand the potential risks and rewards of deciding to invest in the securities. The prospectus and all supplements to the prospectus is available at https://funds.iconicholding.com/xbti-iconic-funds-physical-bitcoin-etp. About Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH: Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iconic Funds GmbH and the issuer of a physically backed Bitcoin Exchange Traded Product ("ETP") (ISIN: DE000A3GK2N1; Ticker: XBTI). Iconic Funds GmbH is the holding company of a series of subsidiaries that manage and issue crypto asset investment products. Collectively, Iconic Funds GmbH and its subsidiaries are branded as "Iconic Funds." Iconic Funds is a joint venture between Iconic Holding GmbH and Cryptology Asset Group p.l.c. (ISIN: MT0001770107; Ticker: CAP, formerly 4UD). Iconic Holding is a portfolio company of FinLab AG (WKN 121806 / ISIN DE0001218063 / Ticker: A7A), leading German-VC group High-Tech Grunderfonds ("HTGF"), Cryptology Asset Group p.l.c. (ISIN: MT0001770107; Ticker: CAP), founded by Christian Angermayer and Mike Novogratz, and Titania Investment Group OU. Press contact: Iconic Funds BTC ETN GmbH: [email protected] https://funds.iconicholding.com Related Images iconic-funds-physical-bitcoin-etp.jpg Iconic Funds' Physical Bitcoin ETP Listing on Deutsche Borse's Xetra SOURCE NEWSWIRE.COM LLC (RESELLER ACCOUNT) DALLAS, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ID90 Travel welcomes airline and travel industry veteran Steve Livezey to its leadership team roster. Effective immediately, Steve takes the role of Chief Technology Officer, reporting to CEO Mike Stacy, and will oversee the development and execution of the company's global technology roadmap. ID90 partnered with Artemis Consultants to conduct a comprehensive search to identify highly qualified technology leadership executives. These efforts resulted in Steve's candidacy and eventual hire. "We are always innovating our technology to make sure that we keep the organization and our e-commerce platform moving forward," said Mike Stacy, CEO of ID90 Travel. "Steve brings the right combination of software development and airline industry expertise to our organization to launch us into our next phase of growth. We are excited about the contributions he will make to ID90 Travel." Steve has held leadership roles in software architecture at Travelport, Southwest Airlines and Sabre. He also served as a Military Intelligence Officer in the US Army and is a West Point graduate. As Chief Technology Officer, Steve will be responsible for spearheading ID90 Travel's e-commerce and business to business strategies. "ID90 Travel's solutions virtually eliminate the cost of airline staff travel programs and bring much-needed innovation, which is critical for airlines right now that are struggling during the pandemic," said Steve Livezey, CTO of ID90 Travel. "I'm looking forward to continuing the great work that's already in place at ID90 Travel and building on this strong tech foundation." About ID90 Travel ID90 Travel provides airlines around the globe a SaaS platform that automates and reduces costs associated with airline employee travel programs. It is a one-stop, comprehensive solution for airlines' employee travel needs. ID90 Travel provides Online and Interline ticketing for employees to fly for leisure or company business on their own carrier or partner airlines. ID90 Travel is the first company in the airline industry to provide employee pass-travel programs with the ability to seamlessly book discounted hotels, rental cars, and cruises. About Artemis Artemis is a leading national recruiting firm that supports the SaaS, Technology, Data and B2B Services industries for their hiring needs in Sales, Marketing, IT, Product, Analytics and Executive Leadership roles. We exist for two primary reasons. To support companies by recruiting highly coveted and qualified candidates. And to help professionals find opportunities that positively impact their careers and personal lives. Contact: Chris Gardner [email protected] SOURCE Artemis Consultants; ID90 Travel Related Links https://www.artemisconsultants.net The company is considering a capital raising via a Havilah-sponsored IPO where eligible shareholders would be offered priority share subscription rights. The companys exploration licences north of the Barrier Highway are highly prospective for Tertiary palaeochannel-hosted uranium deposits. ( ) (FRA:FWL) is focused on realising the latent value of its uranium assets in South Australia during the current period of positive sentiment towards the uranium sector in Australia and globally. The company is exploring its options after the withdrawal of Aroha Resources Pty Ltd from a binding MOU for the exploration and potential development of Havilahs uranium interests that was to be facilitated via an initial public offering (IPO) sponsored by Aroha. A capital raising via a Havilah-sponsored IPO is one option now being considered, where eligible shareholders would be offered priority share subscription rights. Shares in the company were up 30% to 30 cents, which represents a new high of more than three years. World-class uranium province Havilah technical director Dr Chris Giles said: Our uranium assets are located in the world-class Frome Basin uranium province in South Australia, which also includes the Beverley uranium mine (owned by Heathgate Resources Pty Ltd) that has been operating continuously for over two decades. There is widespread roll front uranium mineralisation on our tenements that is under-explored and also a well-defined uranium JORC resource at our Oban uranium deposit. We will update shareholders on future plans for our uranium assets during the coming weeks, as we advance our planning. Havilahs exploration licence area covered by the previous MOU uranium rights (green boundary). Assets economic potential Many of Havilahs exploration licences north of the Barrier Highway are highly prospective for Tertiary palaeochannel-hosted uranium deposits similar to the nearby Boss Energy Ltds ( ) (OTCMKTS:BQSSF) Honeymoon uranium project, which is being readied for production. Curnamona Energy, a 100%-owned subsidiary of Havilah after its takeover during 2012, identified numerous potentially economic-grade uranium intersections in its extensive drilling campaigns across the region and delineated the 4.6 million pound eU3O8 Oban JORC inferred resource. New techniques and processes over the last decade, especially advancements in the use of resins, have given the company considerable cause for optimism that Oban and similar prospects within exploration licences covered by the MOU can be economically exploited, along with the ongoing improvement in uranium market sentiment. NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Human psychology is complex. It's a dynamic and sometimes contradictory system. Compounding this problem is the rapid progress of technology and social media, toppling boundaries like never before. In this complicated and fast-evolving setting, how prepared is the intelligence community to identify, assess, and mitigate possible threats before they become realities? Cobwebs Technologies Fortunately, the other side of the coin involves positive aspects. As our scientific understanding of human psychology evolves, so does the intelligence community's understanding of motives and threat factors previously not accounted for. As technological tools evolve, so do the effectiveness and accuracy of protective intelligence and threat assessment investigations. To predict specific future violence, a protective intelligence investigation must determine: "Whether an individual has the motive and means to develop or act on an opportunity to attack a protected person. A primary task of the investigator is to gather information, some of which may later be used as evidence, that can be used to determine whether the individual poses a threat to a protected person." Protective Intelligence and Threat Assessment Investigations: A Guide for State and Local Law Enforcement Officials, U.S. Department of Justice In gathering such information, history has repeatedly shown that creating a demographic assessment of the potential attacker would, in most situations, prove to be reductionist. It would be inadequate in understanding the complexities of people's motivations. Among attackers and attempters are both men and women - some young, some middle-aged, some old, some more educated than others. When it comes to emotional assessment, U.S. data show that while these threat actors often have histories of social isolation, depression, harassing others, or angry behavior, few were incarcerated in prison before their attack or attempt. Some have turned to suicidal ideation or even a suicide attempt; others had interests in militant or radical ideas. There isn't a single psychological aspect that fits all. "One should not speak of terrorist psychology in the singular, but rather of terrorist psychologies." Jerrold Post, founder of the CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. In addition, it would be simplistic - and in most cases, wrong - to assume attackers and attempters are mentally ill. To plan an assassination requires a certain level of rational thinking and organization. While these individuals might not be the model of emotional health, data suggests only a few suffered from clinical mental illnesses that led them to attack. All that said, potential attackers often resort to similar attack-related behaviors and actions before their attacks. To attack a prominent figure requires one or more of the following steps: research, logistical planning, obtaining weapon(s), studying the security situation, an attack plan, and an escape plan. These are breadcrumbs that can be identified and followed. Creating a Database and Sharing Information All across the world, especially in the west, security intelligence services, law enforcement, and counter-terrorism units have greatly expanded their use of technology to be able to "follow the breadcrumbs" and predict specific future attacks. Many agencies now proactively deploy dual-use technologies to ensure local, national, international security and law enforcement. In many countries, there are now separately established government technology centers that support border control and national security. These centers create databases and share information internally, and externally with one another as needed. This can be crucial in preventing a potential attack, assassination, or kidnap attempt. But sharing information can save lives only if the quality of the information given is good enough and actionable. This is where advanced technologies such as AI-powered internet monitoring software and computer investigation software can make an impact on the success of the investigation. By continually crawling the endless internet, identifying suspiciously behaving users, and offering location based investigation information, these automated intelligence solutions help identify those breadcrumbs that were seemingly too small, unrelated, or unimportant. A Systems Approach Can Support the Use of Technology An attacker rarely operates in full isolation. There's always a wider context and interactions with others such as friends and family, and other social circles. In some cases, potential attackers interact with community organizations, social services organizations, healthcare facilities, mental care providers, and even the criminal justice system. Thus, there is, more often than not, a trail of specific interactions such as cyber threats on social media or something as simple as telling a friend. Monitoring the open, deep, and dark web, day in and day out is humanly not possible. This is why many agencies turn to OSINT and SOCMINT tools to identify a potential attacker, their motivations, and attack plan before it's too late. Attackers come from all types of backgrounds and have a wide variety of psychologies and motives. It's their behavioral breadcrumb trail that, when proactively identified by a web investigation platform such as Cobwebs Technologies, can make or break an investigation. To learn more, visit: www.cobwebs.com or email: [email protected] Related Images threat-assessment-investigations.jpg Threat Assessment Investigations SOURCE Cobwebs Technologies RADNOR, Pa., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The law firm of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP reminds investors that a securities fraud class action lawsuit has been filed against Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE: CS) ("Credit Suisse") on behalf of those who purchased or acquired Credit Suisse American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs") between October 29, 2020 and March 31, 2021, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Investor Deadline Reminder: Investors who purchased or acquired Credit Suisse ADRs during the Class Period may, no later than June 15, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class. For additional information or to learn how to participate in this litigation please contact Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP: James Maro, Esq. (484) 270-1453 or Adrienne Bell, Esq. (484) 270-1435; toll free at (844) 887-9500; via e-mail at [email protected]; or click https://www.ktmc.com/credit-suisse-class-action-lawsuit?utm_source=PR&utm_medium=Link&utm_campaign=credit_suisse Credit Suisse is a global financial services company based in Zurich, Switzerland. Greensill Capital ("Greensill"), who for filed for insolvency protection on March 8, 2021, was a financial services company based in the United Kingdom and Australia focused on the provision of supply-chain financing and related services. Archegos Capital Management ("Archegos") is a family office investment fund run by Sung Kook Hwang. Archegos' investment holdings are primarily in the form of total return swaps, a financial instrument where the underlying securities are held by the banks that broker the investments. On March 1, 2021, Credit Suisse froze $10 billion in funds that were invested in Greensill's financial products and held by its supply-chain investment funds. On March 8, 2021, Greensill filed for insolvency protection, as it found itself unable to repay a $140 million loan to Credit Suisse. According to the Financial Times, more than 1,000 investors in the Greensill funds marketed were unable to exit their positions. By March 10, 2021, media reports revealed that Greensill investors had retained counsel and intended to sue Credit Suisse for their losses because Credit Suisse continued to market the biggest of the funds as a fully insured, low-risk product despite a decision by insurers during the summer of 2020 not to renew coverage. As the market digested this news, the market price of Credit Suisse ADRs fell from its close of $14.70 per ADR on March 1, 2021 to close at $12.85 per ADR by March 12, 2021, a decline of almost 13%. Then, on Friday, March 26, 2021, several of the large banks offering prime brokerage services to Archegos including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and UBS suddenly began liquidating billions of dollars' worth of shares that Archegos had swap positions on at fire sale prices after Archegos had failed to meet a margin call. By the time Credit Suisse tried to liquidate its own holdings of stocks underlying Archegos' swap contracts over the ensuing weekend, prices had already collapsed and Credit Suisse quickly racked up billions of dollars in losses. Credit Suisse issued a press release on March 29, 2021 conceding that "the loss resulting from this exit . . . could be highly significant and material to our first quarter results." The Financial Times then pegged Credit Suisse's estimated losses at between $3 billion and $5 billion, more than a year's worth of Credit Suisse's net profit. The Wall Street Journal reported on March 31, 2021 that Credit Suisse "had a core capital buffer of 12.9% at year-end" and "[i]f the Archegos hit is $4 billion, that ratio could fall by roughly 1 percentage point to well below the 12.5% minimum targeted by the lender." The market price of Credit Suisse ADRs fell another nearly 20% following this news, declining from a close of $13.21 per ADR on March 25, 2021 to close at $10.60 per ADR on March 31, 2021. The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, the defendants concealed material defects in Credit Suisse's risk policies and procedures and compliance oversight functions and efforts to allow high-risk clients to take on excessive leverage, including Greensill and Archegos, exposing Credit Suisse to billions of dollars in losses. Credit Suisse investors may, no later than June 15, 2021 , seek to be appointed as a lead plaintiff representative of the class through Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP or other counsel, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member. A lead plaintiff is a representative party who acts on behalf of all class members in directing the litigation. In order to be appointed as a lead plaintiff, the Court must determine that the class member's claim is typical of the claims of other class members, and that the class member will adequately represent the class. Your ability to share in any recovery is not affected by the decision of whether or not to serve as a lead plaintiff. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP prosecutes class actions in state and federal courts throughout the country involving securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duties and other violations of state and federal law. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is a driving force behind corporate governance reform, and has recovered billions of dollars on behalf of institutional and individual investors from the United States and around the world. The firm represents investors, consumers and whistleblowers (private citizens who report fraudulent practices against the government and share in the recovery of government dollars). The complaint in this action was not filed by Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP. For more information about Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP please visit www.ktmc.com. CONTACT: Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP James Maro, Jr., Esq. Adrienne Bell, Esq. 280 King of Prussia Road Radnor, PA 19087 (844) 887-9500 (toll free) [email protected] SOURCE Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP Related Links http://www.ktmc.com CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In-depth analysis and data-driven insights on the impact of COVID-19 included in this India data center market report. India data center market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 12% during the period 20202026. India data center market research report includes market size in terms of area, investment, power capacity, and colocation revenues. Get insights on 79 existing data center and 23 upcoming facilities spread across 6 states. Key Highlights Offered in the Report: India hosts over 75 colocation data centers currently, operated by over 20 data center service providers, including NTT Global Data Centers (Netmagic), ST Telemedia Global Data Centres, Sify Technologies, and Bharti Airtel (Nxtra), among others. New entrants and existing operators in the market have signed MoUs with state governments to develop hyperscale facilities spanning over 100,000 square feet in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh. Maharashtra is the data center hub in India and hosts 27 unique third-party data centers accounting for over 50% of the existing capacity, followed by Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. AdaniConneX, Princeton Digital Group, Mantra Data Centers, and Equinix are new entrants that will boost India's data center capacity in the coming years through announced hyperscale development. Digital India , proposed data localisation law and data center polices by the central and state governments are the major driving factors behind India's data center boom in the recent years. Telecommunication providers such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea are targeting the deployment of 5G networks by the end of 2021 or early 2022, that will lead to more edge data center deployment. 23 upcoming data centers have been announced or are currently being built and will be operational in the next two to three years in India . Key Offerings: Market size & forecast by area, power capacity, investment, and colocation revenue | 2020-2026 Impact of COVID-19 on Data Center Market Snapshot of existing and upcoming third-party facilities in India in Facilities Covered (Existing): 79 Facilities Identified (Upcoming): 23 Coverage: 6 Prominent States & Other States Existing vs. Upcoming (Data Center Area) Existing vs. Upcoming (IT Load Capacity) Data center colocation market in India Market Revenue & Forecast (2020-2026) Retail Colocation Pricing Wholesale Colocation Pricing Market Dynamics Leading trends, growth drivers, restraints, and investment opportunities Market Segmentation A detailed analysis by IT infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, general construction, and tier standard Key Market Participants List of 12 IT infrastructure providers, 7 construction service providers, 18 support infrastructure providers, 10 data center investors, and 6 new entrants Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/india-data-center-market India Data Center Market Segmentation In data centers, the procurement of 100 GbE switches across the aggregation and core layers will continue to grow and handle more data traffic. The market will also witness the deployment of 200 GbE switches at the core layer after 2021. 5G networks will boost the digital economy of the country and enhance the demand for high-bandwidth networking infrastructure. In terms of capacity, large and mega data centers are procuring generators with a capacity of 3 MW and above. As a result, generators with a capacity of more than a 1 MW capacity are likely to dominate in the market. GPX Global Systems, Web Werks, NTT Global Data Centers (NetMagic), CtrlS, Pi Data Centers, and Rack Bank are some colocation providers in India adopting diesel generator systems in their data center facilities. adopting diesel generator systems in their data center facilities. Data centers in India follow a flexible design that allows customers to use up to 52U rack sizes. NetRack Enclosures is among the leading pure-play rack vendors in the market and competes with vendors such as Schneider Electric and Vertiv for the supply of rack solutions. Market Segmentation by IT Infrastructure Servers Storage Systems Network Infrastructure Market Segmentation by Electrical Infrastructure UPS Systems Generators Transfer, Switches & Switchgears Rack PDUs Other Electrical Infrastructure Market Segmentation by Mechanical Infrastructure Cooling Systems Rack Cabinets Other Mechanical Infrastructure Market Segmentation by General Construction Building Development Installation & Commissioning Services Building Design Physical Security Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) Market Segmentation by Tier Standard Tier I & Tier II Tier III Tier IV Market Segmentation by Geography Maharashtra Tamil Nadu Other States India Data Center Market Dynamics Digital India is the government's flagship program transforming the country into a digital knowledge economy and empowered society. These initiatives will lead to the development of data centers to store the data in the country itself. In 2020, government-owned organizations such as the National Payments Corporation of India, State Bank of India, and Information Technology Department Tamil Nadu invested in data centers to improve the digital (cloud-based) services offered by various government agencies in the country. In November 2020, The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) drafted a data center policy, as a party of Government Initiatives to fuel data center growth. Key Drivers and Trends fueling Market Growth: COVID-19 Impact on Data Centers in India Rise in Hyperscale Investments through Entry of Global Providers Cloud Adoption Enhancing Data Center Investments Procurement of Renewable Energy in Data Centers India Data Center Market - Existing Vs. Upcoming Data Centers Existing Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity) in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity) Maharashtra Tamil Nadu Karnataka Telangana West Bengal Uttar Pradesh Other States List of Upcoming Facilities in the region (White Floor Area and Power Capacity) Get your sample today! https://www.arizton.com/market-reports/india-data-center-market Key Market Participants IT Infrastructure Providers Arista Networks Atos Broadcom Cisco Systems Dell Technologies Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Huawei Technologies IBM Juniper Networks Lenovo NetApp NEC Corporation India Construction Service Providers AECOM DSCO Group Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Prasa Sterling and Wilson (Shapoorji Pallonji Group) Turner & Townsend Vastunidhi Support Infrastructure Providers ABB Blue Box (Swegon) Caterpillar Cummins Climaveneta Climate Technologies (Mitsubishi Electric) Delta Electronics Eaton Kirloskar Oil Engines Ltd (KOEL) Legrand NetRack Enclosures Panduit Rolls-Royce Power Systems Rittal Reillo Elettronica Group (Riello UPS) Schneider Electric Siemens STULZ Vertiv Group Data Center Investors Airtel India (Nxtra Data) CtrlS NTT Global Data Centers (Netmagic) Pi Data Centers RackBank Reliance Jio Infocomm ST Telemedia Global Data Centres India Sify Technologies Web Werks Yotta Infrastructure (HIRANANDANI GROUP) New Entrants Adani Group (AdaniConneX) Bridge Data Centres Colt Data Centre Services (COLT DCS) Equinix (GPX Global Systems) Mantra Data Centers Princeton Digital Group (PDG) Explore our data center knowledge base profile to know more about the industry. Read some of the top-selling reports: About Arizton: Arizton Advisory and Intelligence is an innovation and quality-driven firm, which offers cutting-edge research solutions to clients across the world. We excel in providing comprehensive market intelligence reports and advisory and consulting services. We offer comprehensive market research reports on industries such as consumer goods & retail technology, automotive and mobility, smart tech, healthcare, and life sciences, industrial machinery, chemicals and materials, IT and media, logistics and packaging. These reports contain detailed industry analysis, market size, share, growth drivers, and trend forecasts. Arizton comprises a team of exuberant and well-experienced analysts who have mastered in generating incisive reports. Our specialist analysts possess exemplary skills in market research. We train our team in advanced research practices, techniques, and ethics to outperform in fabricating impregnable research reports. Mail: [email protected] Call: +1-312-235-2040 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/818553/Arizton_Logo.jpg SOURCE Arizton Advisory & Intelligence DUBLIN, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Motor Control Centers Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2021-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global motor control centers market reached a value of US$ 5.5 Billion in 2020. Motor control centers (MCCs) are enclosed assemblies of centralized systems that control the functioning and regulate the distribution of power to industrial motors. Consisting of several components such as frequency drives, programmable controllers, metering apparatus, busbars and wire-ways inside an integrated panel, they significantly aid in increasing productivity and reducing operating expenses. Furthermore, they can simplify wiring, rearrange units, minimize downtime, reduce repair time and facilitate monitoring of the equipment. Owing to these benefits, MCCs find extensive application across various industry sectors such as oil & gas, metals & mining, utility, chemicals and petrochemicals, etc. The rising trend of industrial automation, along with increasing power generation capacities is the key factor driving the growth of the market. Initiatives to upgrade the existing power infrastructure to meet the global energy requirement has significantly enhanced the adoption of MCCs across the globe. Furthermore, energy providers are increasingly emphasizing on developing reliable electricity supply and maximize safety in the distribution and transmission networks. The introduction of intelligent MCCs is also contributing to the market growth as they offer real-time monitoring facility, enable predictive maintenance and assist in conducting advanced diagnostics of the electronic systems. Moreover, the adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled MCCs have encouraged the vendors to develop advanced control modules and integrate smart devices with medium voltage variants. Other factors, including various technological advancements, implementation of loss detection feature and rapid urbanization, are also projected to drive the market further. Looking forward, the publisher expects the global motor control centers market to exhibit moderate growth during the next five years. Competitive Landscape: The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined with some of the key players being ABB, Atmel Corporation, Eaton Corporation, Fuji Electric Co., General Electric, Larsen & Toubro, Mitsubishi Electric, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens AG, TESCO Controls Inc., WEG Industries, etc. Key Questions Answered in This Report: 1. What was the global motor control centers market size in 2020? 2. What will be the motor control centers market outlook during the forecast period (2021-2026)? 3. What are the major global motor control centers market drivers? 4. What are the major trends in the global motor control centers market? 5. What is the impact of COVID-19 on the global motor control centers market? 6. What is the global motor control centers market breakup by type? 7. What is the global motor control centers market breakup by voltage? 8. What is the global motor control centers market breakup by component? 9. What is the global motor control centers market breakup by end use sector? 10. What are the major regional markets in the global motor control centers industry? 11. Who are the leading motor control center industry players? Key Topics Covered: 1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 2.1 Objectives of the Study 2.2 Stakeholders 2.3 Data Sources 2.3.1 Primary Sources 2.3.2 Secondary Sources 2.4 Market Estimation 2.4.1 Bottom-Up Approach 2.4.2 Top-Down Approach 2.5 Forecasting Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global Motor Control Centers Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Type 6.1 Conventional 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 Intelligent 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 7 Market Breakup by Voltage 7.1 Low Voltage 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 Medium Voltage 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 8 Market Breakup by Component 8.1 Overload Relays 8.1.1 Market Trends 8.1.2 Market Forecast 8.2 Circuit Breakers & Fuses 8.2.1 Market Trends 8.2.2 Market Forecast 8.3 Soft Starters 8.3.1 Market Trends 8.3.2 Market Forecast 8.4 Busbars 8.4.1 Market Trends 8.4.2 Market Forecast 8.5 Variable Speed Drives 8.5.1 Market Trends 8.5.2 Market Forecast 8.6 Others 8.6.1 Market Trends 8.6.2 Market Forecast 9 Market Breakup by End-Use Sector 9.1 Industrial Sector 9.1.1 Market Trends 9.1.2 Market Forecast 9.2 Commercial Sector 9.2.1 Market Trends 9.2.2 Market Forecast 10 Market Breakup by Region 10.1 North America 10.2 Asia Pacific 10.3 Europe 10.4 Latin America 10.5 Middle East and Africa 11 SWOT Analysis 11.1 Overview 11.2 Strengths 11.3 Weaknesses 11.4 Opportunities 11.5 Threats 12 Value Chain Analysis 13 Porters Five Forces Analysis 13.1 Overview 13.2 Bargaining Power of Buyers 13.3 Bargaining Power of Suppliers 13.4 Degree of Competition 13.5 Threat of New Entrants 13.6 Threat of Substitutes 14 Competitive Landscape 14.1 Market Structure 14.2 Key Players 14.3 Profiles of Key Players 14.3.1 ABB 14.3.1.1 Company Overview 14.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.2 Atmel Corporation 14.3.2.1 Company Overview 14.3.2.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.3 Eaton Corporation 14.3.3.1 Company Overview 14.3.3.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.3.3 Financials 14.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.4 Fuji Electric Co. 14.3.4.1 Company Overview 14.3.4.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.4.3 Financials 14.3.4.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.5 General Electric 14.3.5.1 Company Overview 14.3.5.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.5.3 Financials 14.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.6 Larsen & Toubro 14.3.6.1 Company Overview 14.3.6.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.6.3 Financials 14.3.6.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.7 Mitsubishi Electric 14.3.7.1 Company Overview 14.3.7.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.7.3 Financials 14.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.8 Rockwell Automation 14.3.8.1 Company Overview 14.3.8.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.8.3 Financials 14.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.9 Schneider Electric 14.3.9.1 Company Overview 14.3.9.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.10 Siemens AG 14.3.10.1 Company Overview 14.3.10.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.10.3 Financials 14.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.11 TESCO Controls Inc. 14.3.11.1 Company Overview 14.3.11.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.12 WEG Industries 14.3.12.1 Company Overview 14.3.12.2 Product Portfolio For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/yeuldx Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leaders from eight Italian American community organizations, including the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the Order Sons of Italy in America, the Commission for Social Justice, the Italian American One Voice Coalition, Unico National, The Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, the Columbus Heritage Coalition and the Italian Sons and Daughters of America, along with the Columbia Associations of FDNY, SDNY and the NYPD are gathering at the NE Corner of Columbus Circle on May 12, 2021 at 11AM to call upon Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor of New York City's Board of Education Meisha Ross Porter to cease their attack on the celebration and recognition of Italian American Heritage and Culture in New York and in the United States. Angelo Vivolo, Chair, Columbus Citizens Foundation, said, "In this time when we strive for unity and respect for the civil rights of all, Mayor de Blasio and his education department violated the civil rights of the tens of thousands of Italian American students in New York City." "They seek to spread the virus of hatred to destroy unity and understanding. But their efforts will fail because today, we stand in unity," Vivolo said. This gathering will call on the Mayor and the Chancellor to stop advancing false narratives about Columbus, despite the overwhelming historical research to the contrary. They also encourage the celebration of other cultures without sacrificing the achievements and contributions of anyone else. Arthur Aidala, Past-President of the Columbian Lawyers Association, said, "We are looking at all of the avenues available to us to make sure that Italian American heritage is properly secured, and will use every proper and legal channel to do so." "It is an absolute disgrace that Columbus Day, celebrating such an iconic symbol to generations of Italian Americans, was ripped away from us by the New York City DOE," said Executive Board Member Andre DiMino of the Italian American One Voice Coalition. "The members of our organization, from across the country, demand Mayor de Blasio and the DOE do the right thing, end this attack on all Italian Americans by restoring Columbus Day permanently in New York City Schools now." "Diversity should be celebrated not by substitution or subtraction, but by addition," said Robert M. Ferrito, National President- Commission for Social Justice of the Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America. "The 50 member organizations of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations demand that Mayor de Blasio reinstate Columbus Day as NYC school holiday," said President Basil Russo. "Our community is further insulted by de Blasio's politically expedient claim that he is proud of his Italian heritage. If he were, he would understand the deeply symbolic and spiritual connection Columbus has to our community's historical struggles to overcome prejudice, bigotry, and hostility in our effort to gain acceptance in our country." Dr. Mary Kovach, Order Sons and Daughters of Italy in America National CSJ Committee Member, said, "It's unfortunate that the legacy of Christopher Columbus, a man who discovered the Americas and promoted Christianity through his actions and words, has been distorted and twisted into a villainous historical character ultimately segregating ethnic groups and causing unnecessary and unwarranted conflict. Revisionism isn't fair to future generations and must stop." The gathering believes that the idea of cancelling Columbus Day is an act of cowardice to "eliminate" a day that honors Italian-American devotion and contributions to our City, which was and should always remain a "Gorgeous Mosaic". Contact: Juda Engelmayer 212-220-3898 x 700 [email protected] SOURCE HeraldPR DALLAS, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Jacobs (NYSE:J) was presented with three awards from The American Planning Association (APA) Federal Planning Division (FPD). The awards, which recognize teams for outstanding federal planning work, leadership and innovative solutions, were given during the May 12, 2021 virtual awards ceremony as part of the FPD portion of the APA Conference. The Hurricane Michael Recovery Project, Tyndall Air Force Base (TAFB), Florida, won the Citation Award in the Outstanding Federal Planning Project category. In October 2018, Hurricane Michael, a Category 5 hurricane hit the base, resulting in irreversible damage to many of its assets. Jacobs supported the Air Force in rebuilding a resilient, sustainable and smart Installation of the Future (IotF). The Federal Planning Division Awards Committee jury recognized TAFB as a largescale program incorporating sustainability, quality urban design, innovative problem solving and an effective planning process to ensure that assets could recover successfully in future natural disasters. The Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan for U.S. Army Garrison (USAG) Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, won the Merit Award in the Environmental Planning category. During this project, our team's research led to a stormwater pollution prevention plan improving the management, function and quality of stormwater runoff across all U.S. Army Garrison Rheinland-Pfalz sites. The jury recognized the project for improving storm water management, reducing annual stormwater discharge fees and minimizing the impact of development on the natural environment. The Kadena Industrial Park (Chibana District) Area Development Plan (ADP), Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, won the Honor Award in the Outstanding Area/Site Development Plan category. The Chibana District, in the Kadena Industrial Park, is a 55-acre greenfield site planned to accommodate the relocation of 14 industrial and administrative facilities from Camp Kinser and Torii Station, both located in Okinawa. In this plan, our team ensured compatibility between systems, both on-base with the U.S. network and off-base with the Japanese network, taking general utility and transportation requirements into consideration. The jury commended the team for implementing sustainability and quality best practices within the project. "These awards show how diversity of thought, broad, technical expertise and master planning go hand in hand to bring value to our clients and the communities where the projects are located," said Jacobs Federal & Environmental Solutions Senior Vice President and General Manager Tim Byers. "I commend our teams, who exemplify Jacobs' commitment to delivering projects that deliver for our clients and help make the world better for all of us." At Jacobs, we're challenging today to reinvent tomorrow by solving the world's most critical problems for thriving cities, resilient environments, mission-critical outcomes, operational advancement, scientific discovery and cutting-edge manufacturing, turning abstract ideas into realities that transform the world for good. With $14 billion in revenue and a talent force of approximately 55,000, Jacobs provides a full spectrum of professional services including consulting, technical, scientific and project delivery for the government and private sector. Visit jacobs.com and connect with Jacobs on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter. Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking statements as such term is defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and such statements are intended to be covered by the safe harbor provided by the same. Statements made in this release that are not based on historical fact are forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on management's current estimates and expectations as well as currently available competitive, financial and economic data. Forward-looking statements, however, are inherently uncertain. There are a variety of factors that could cause business results to differ materially from our forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the related reaction of governments on global and regional market conditions and the company's business. For a description of some additional factors that may occur that could cause actual results to differ from our forward-looking statements, see our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended October 2, 2020, and in particular the discussions contained under Item 1 - Business; Item 1A - Risk Factors; Item 3 - Legal Proceedings; and Item 7 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations, and our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended January 1, 2021, and in particular the discussions contained under Part I, Item 2 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations; Part II, Item 1 - Legal Proceedings; and Part II, Item 1A - Risk Factors, as well as the company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is not under any duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this press release to conform to actual results, except as required by applicable law. For press/media inquiries: Kerrie Sparks 214.583.8433 SOURCE Jacobs Related Links http://www.jacobs.com SAN DIEGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaylee's Culture, the probiotic bubbly water, has launched its brand new ambassador program. With this new initiative, people across the United States will have the opportunity to partner with Kaylee's Culture to help people live healthy, vibrant lives. If you are passionate about the brand and want to help others improve their wellbeing, Kaylee's Culture ambassador program will allow you to do just that. Kaylee's Culture The ambassador program allows you to help your family, your friends, and your community to follow their health goals by introducing them to the clean and delicious Kaylee's Culture. The program has the added benefit of growing your income; by helping your community live well, you will be able to earn uncapped commissions for anyone you refer. You will have the chance to be the first to learn about and try the new products. You can also receive promotional pricing on all products from Kaylee's Culture. Kaylee McLaughlin, the founder and creator of Kaylee's Culture has been excited about the launch of the ambassador program from some time now. The mother of three, military spouse, and inspirational female business leader has been featured on ABC 10, San Diego Reader, FOX 5 San Diego, and Whole Foods Magazine. Kaylee McLaughlin was named as Top Influential Women of 2021 with other female founders who are making a difference. Kaylee's Culture is a New Beverage Showdown Top 6 finalist as well. The Kaylee's Culture ambassador program will allow those who are passionate about Kaylee's Culture to truly make a difference in their world. Ambassadors will spread the word about living the healthy, vibrant life they have dreamed of. Sharing your passion through social media while earning extra cash is the perfect combination. Kaylee McLaughlin, founder and creator of Kaylee's Culture, is proud and excited to announce the full launch of the Ambassador Program to allow everyone who is passionate about the brand to change the world. Donald Schmidt Publicity For Good [email protected] Related Images image1.jpg SOURCE Kaylee's Culture DENVER, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- KND Labs, a leading manufacturer of hemp-derived ingredients, has launched two new best-in-market products, FreeFlow RELAX 2:2:1 Distillate & FreeFlow UPLIFT 1:1:2 Distillate. KND Labs' in-house food scientists and chemists formulated the two new best-in-market products FreeFlow RELAX Distillate & FreeFlow UPLIFT Distillate. RELAX & UPLIFT each combine the perfect blend of cannabinoids and terpenes for a desired effect, allowing KND customers to efficiently formulate and build SKUs with less R&D required. KND Labs RELAX & UPLIFT are first-to-market combinations of specific cannabinoids and terpenes commonly found in hemp plant varieties. Based on feedback from customers, RELAX brings a calming feeling to both the mind and body while UPLIFT acts with an uplifting response, boosting the energy and mood of the mind and body. "Adding RELAX & UPLIFT to KND's market-leading FreeFlow distillates removes the guesswork for formulators and brands," said Nicholas Wilson, President of KND Labs. "As the hemp-derived ingredients sector matures, our customers are looking to strengthen their brands. "With the launch of these new products, KND is proud to support our customers as they add new SKU's, refine efficacy in their existing products or efficiently launch entire new brands." In addition to ready-to-use oil formats, KND's new RELAX & UPLIFT products are available in KND's two industry-leading water soluble formats, KND APEX Water Soluble and KND Superior Water Miscible. These powder and liquid formats serve as key ingredients for cosmetics, topicals, supplements and beverages. "Having both RELAX & UPLIFT as a part of our water soluble technologies is a game-changing shift for the industry and reinforces KND's industry-leading commitment to innovation, quality and certifications," said Dave Swaniwck, Director of Sales for KND Labs. "I am especially excited for use of these new products in upcoming beverage and supplement formats." To learn more about RELAX & UPLIFT in FreeFlow form, KND APEX Water Soluble and KND Superior Water Miscible, and order these groundbreaking products, please contact [email protected] or call 1-844-KND-4-CBD. In its two state-of-the-art facilities in Lakewood, Colo. and Arvada, Colo., KND is focused on extracting quality, finished bulk ingredients for brands and manufacturers. KND is able to control the manufacturing process of its hemp-derived ingredients by extracting specific cannabinoid profiles to produce CBD, CBG and the isolation of other hemp-derived cannabinoids in a variety of forms including powdered isolate, distillate oils and liquid or powder water-soluble products. PR Contact: Eli Davis | [email protected] About KND Labs KND Labs is a leading manufacturer of hemp-derived ingredients, extracting quality bulk ingredients for brands and manufacturers of both human and pet products. Focused on certification and compliance in the CBD market, KND is a certified NASC supplier, cGMP 111 and 117 certified and Kosher certified. With two state-of-the-art facilities in Lakewood, Colo. and Arvada, Colo., KND Labs produces hemp-derived cannabinoids such as CBD, CBG, and other hemp-derived cannabinoids in powered isolate form, distillate oil form, and liquid or powder water-soluble form. Related Images image1.png SOURCE KND Labs Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices. Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation of the pros and cons of prevalent pricing models. Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers. Request a Free Sample Report for More Information Insights into buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers: Several strategic and tactical negotiation levers are explained in the report to help buyers achieve the best prices for Laboratory Animals and Supplies market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Laboratory Animals and Supplies pricing levels, pros, and cons of prevalent pricing models such as volume-based pricing, spot pricing, and cost-plus pricing and category management strategies and best practices to fulfill their category objectives. Insights on buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers Key Drivers and Trends Fueling Market Growth: The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants have resulted in the low bargaining power of suppliers. Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors. During the forecast period, the market expects a change of 4.00%-5.00%. Identify favorable opportunities in Promotional Products TCO (total cost of ownership). Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes. Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities. Some of the top Laboratory Animals and Supplies suppliers listed in this report: This Laboratory Animals and Supplies procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings Charles River Laboratories International Inc. The Jackson Laboratory Taconic Biosciences Inc. Envigo JSR Life Sciences Corp. Horizon Discovery Group plc Janvier Labs Hilltop Lab Animals Inc. Ketchum Manufacturing Inc. Related Report on Pharma and Healthcare Include: To access the definite purchasing guide on the Laboratory Animals and Supplies that answers all your key questions on price trends and analysis: Am I paying/getting the right prices? Is my Laboratory Animals and Supplies TCO (total cost of ownership) favorable? How is the price forecast expected to change? What is driving the current and future price changes? Which pricing models offer the most rewarding opportunities? Table of Content Executive Summary Market Insights Category Pricing Insights Cost-saving Opportunities Best Practices Category Ecosystem Category Management Strategy Category Management Enablers Suppliers Selection Suppliers under Coverage US Market Insights Category scope Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more https://www.spendedge.com/request-for-demo Contacts: SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us SOURCE SpendEdge Related Links https://www.spendedge.com/request-for-demo ALBANY, N.Y., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstLight, a leading provider of fiber-optic data, Internet, data center, cloud, and voice services to enterprise and carrier customers throughout the northeast, announced today that Lackawanna College has selected FirstLight as the fiber provider for its new satellite center in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. The new Center will offer traditional associate degree and certificate programs and be the new home for the College's School of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Lackawanna College, a college with seven satellite centers located through northeastern Pennsylvania and located just west of Scranton, chose FirstLight for a dedicated Internet connection for the new campus. The School of Petroleum and Natural Gas at Lackawanna College prepares students to be operations technicians responsible for the production and processing of oil and gas. Students learn concepts in oil and gas discovery, drilling, production, pipelining, processing, and other industry-related skills, many of them involving computer skills and online student research. "As is the case with most other disciplines, a degree program in petroleum technology involves a significant amount of digital learning, hands-on labs, and computer simulations, so having access to a dedicated broadband delivered over a high-speed fiber network is critical to our program's success," said TJ Eltringham, Lackawanna College Chief Operating Officer. "FirstLight has network near our campus, so it made sense to consider FirstLight. They met an aggressive timeline, and we couldn't be happier with their service and speed." The two-year associate degree program includes 160-hour internships, and trains students for careers in states including Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, West Virginia and New Jersey. "We're pleased to have Lackawanna College as one of our newest customers in Pennsylvania, adding to our growing portfolio of higher educational institutions," said Kurt Van Wagenen, FirstLight President and CEO. "Pennsylvania is an area in which FirstLight is increasingly investing resources and expanding its network, particularly in the Scranton region. We're honored to contribute to the future success of students who are learning innovative and environmentally responsible ways to power our industry and economy." Last year, FirstLight announced plans to acquire the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER) network, which will expand its presence into Western Pennsylvania as well. Future expansion is also planned for Reading, Harrisburg, and Wilkes-Barre. About FirstLight FirstLight, headquartered in Albany, New York, provides fiber-optic data, Internet, data center, cloud, unified communications, and managed services to enterprise and carrier customers throughout the Northeast and mid-Atlantic connecting more than 10,000 locations in service with more than 30,000 locations serviceable by our more than 24,000-route mile network. FirstLight offers a robust suite of advanced telecommunications products featuring a comprehensive portfolio of high bandwidth connectivity solutions including Ethernet, wavelength and dark fiber services as well as dedicated Internet access solutions, data center, cloud and voice services. FirstLight's clientele includes national cellular providers and wireline carriers and many leading enterprises, spanning high tech manufacturing and research, hospitals and healthcare, banking and financial, secondary education, colleges and universities, and local and state governments. To learn more about FirstLight, visit www.firstlight.net, or follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Media Contact: Maura Mahoney [email protected] About Lackawanna College: Founded in 1894, Lackawanna College is a private, accredited college serving the people of northeastern Pennsylvania. With the main campus situated in downtown Scranton, Lackawanna's expanding footprint also includes satellite centers in Hawley, Hazleton, Sunbury, Towanda, the Environmental Education Center in Covington Township, and the new Tunkhannock Center. Learn more at www.lackawanna.edu. SOURCE FirstLight Related Links http://firstlight.net ( ) continues to take steps aimed at retaining the Wizard Lake Oil & Gas Project in Alberta, Canada, as it maintains encouraging production rates. Earlier in the year, the companys 100%-owned Canadian subsidiary, Salt Bush Energy Ltd (SBE), filed a Notice of Intention to Make a Proposal pursuant to Subsection 50.4(1) of the Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Whitebark intends to retain the Wizard Lake asset and, via its subsidiary Ironbark Energy (IBE), has bid C$2 million comprised of C$336,000 in cash and C$1,664,000 in forfeit of an existing loan made by Whitebark to SBE. The process was initially open for a period until March 31, 2021, and was extended by a further 45 days to May 13, 2021, with no competing bids for the assets received during this time. Whitebark is working through the process of asset reacquisition and transaction completion is expected on or around May 19, 2021 subject to approval by the Court of Alberta and payment of C$336,000. Production remained strong During the March quarter, SBE continued to operate Wizard Lake in Canada and reported production of 8,768 barrels of oil and 102,417 metric cubic feet of gas, averaging 97 barrels of oil per day and 1,138 metric cubic feet/day of gas - equating to around 287 barrels of oil equivalent/day. Over the final seven days of the quarter, production averaged 90 barrels of oil/day and 1,124 metric cubic feet/day which equates to 276 barrels of oil equivalent/day. Receipts from customers during the March quarter were $935,000, up 27.6% compared to the December 2020 quarter, due to oil price increases and increased sales volumes. Notably, well performance levelled out in the quarter due to improved wellbore management practices. The company has also identified several opportunities to optimise the field through minimising overheads and stabilising production, and is investigating the preferred scenario going forward. Additional mineral lease During the quarter, SBE acquired the remaining interests in Wizard Lake it did not already own from the receiver of Inc (PLX), on the following key terms and conditions: The effective date of the transfer is June 8, 2020 (the date the receiver was appointed); SBE makes no further claims against PLX and releases PLX from paying the amount owed to SBE calculated by SBE to be C$996,481; and SBE assumes the assets on an as is, where is basis. The transaction is not subject to Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) approval, however the AER is required to approve the transfer of the two well licenses (Rex-1 and Rex-2). Upon completion, SBEs land position will increase to 6400 acres from 5632 acres prior to the transaction. SBE now owns 100% of the Rex-1,2 & 3 wells and all associated facilities and infrastructure. Strategic review underway The company has conducted a strategic review (completed subsequent to end Q3 FY21) of the Wizard Lake Oil Field, which included a review of booked 1P and 2P reserves and resources; revisions are being audited by a SPE accredited competent person in Canada using May 2021 price assumptions, Opex and decline curves. Whitebark will provide an update to shareholders once this process is complete. Board and interim CEO On March 3, 2021, Matthew White and Duncan Gordon were appointed to the board of Whitebark and David Messina and Stephen Keenihan resigned. Subsequent to the end of the quarter, Dr Simon Brealey was appointed as interim chief executive officer, following the commencement of the strategic review. The new board of directors is also re-assessing the Warro Gas Project in Western Australia to determine whether to retain or dispose of the asset. Planned activities In the June quarter, the company intends to finalise the acquisition of Wizard Lake in subsidiary Ironbark Energy. Other planned activities include: Relocation of the Whitebark office and control of the administration and finance function from Perth to Adelaide; A review of operations, overheads and actions to tighten fiscal control and reduce expenses; and Establishment of new accounting system for the Australian parent and Whitebark subsidiaries. The companys cash balance as of March 31, 2021, was $633,000. In this roundtable, an interdisciplinary panel of researchers will outline a framework for advancing translational science in research and school settings to: Further the understanding of the Science of Reading (SoR) and evidence-based reading instruction as it applies across educational contexts. Integrate effective practices and instructional pedagogy to support all learners with a focus on students with reading difficulties and diagnosed disabilities. Empower educators and researchers to work collaboratively toward promoting reading achievement for all students. Organized by The Windward Institute, a division of The Windward School, this webinar provides an interactive platform to discuss the September 2020 publication of Translational Science: A Road Map for the Science of Reading , and it is designed to bring educators and researchers together to promote achievement for all students. Attendees will leave the roundtable with actionable, effective practices and pedagogy to support all learners as well as insight into the Science of Reading and evidence-based reading instruction. The roundtable is free to attend, and registration is available at www.thewindwardschool.org/roundtable . About The Windward Institute The Windward Institute (WI) is a division of and serves The Windward School and the broader educational community by: Providing research-based, proven professional development for educators, researchers, parents, and all who are interested in delivering effective instruction to all students; for educators, researchers, parents, and all who are interested in delivering effective instruction to all students; Forming partnerships with leading education institutions like Haskins Laboratories; Advocating for students with language-based learning disabilities; and Expanding The Windward School's reputation and expertise The Windward Institute offers more than 60 courses and workshops throughout the year for educators, researchers, psychologists, clinicians, professionals in allied disciplines, and parents to attend. Additionally, The WI is accredited for its Teaching and Instructor of Teaching levels by The International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC) and offers national certification in Multisensory Structured Language Education to teachers at The Windward School and many other schools. Learn more at www.thewindwardschool.org/wi . SOURCE The Windward Institute Backlog increases to $37.6M at April 30 from $16.4M at January 31, 2021 , an increase of 129% in 3 months at from at , an increase of 129% in 3 months Entered into Phase II of the Skywell relationship with a bus order of 10 Fuel Cell Units VANCOUVER, BC, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Loop Energy (TSX: LPEN) today announced consolidated financial results for the first quarter ending March 31, 2021. All amounts are in CAD dollars unless otherwise noted and have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). "During Q1 2021, Loop Energy completed its $100M IPO on the TSX," said Ben Nyland, President and CEO, Loop Energy. "This historic event marks the first time in the Company's history of having sufficient capital to execute on a commercial roll-out and scale up of Loop Energy's proprietary eFlow technology. With this recent round of investment, the Company has started the process of expanding our sales and amplifying our technology and product development teams, and the results are now beginning to show." Q1 2021 Financial Results Highlights (all comparisons are to Q1 2020 unless otherwise noted) Closed $100M in equity from IPO. in equity from IPO. Loss and comprehensive loss were $4.9 million as compared to $1.9 million to the same period in 2020 or an increase of 152%, due to increased research, product development, and general and administrative costs, including one time costs of $2.1 million related to the IPO. Q1 2021 Business Highlights Loop Energy announced the shipment of its first unit of eFlow fuel cell modules to ECUBES, a developer of hydrogen electric systems for stationary power applications based in Slovenia . This represents the first commercial shipment to the European Union. . This represents the first commercial shipment to the European Union. As the Company continues to expand availability of products and services throughout Europe , China and other key global markets, Loop Energy also entered agreements with Rheintal-Transporte in Germany to provide fuel cell modules and expertise for heavy-duty trucking applications, and Morello in Italy to provide fuel cell modules for integration into hydrogen electric heavy-duty tractors, purpose-engineered for the handling of extra-heavy loads inside industrial plants. , and other key global markets, Loop Energy also entered agreements with Rheintal-Transporte in to provide fuel cell modules and expertise for heavy-duty trucking applications, and Morello in to provide fuel cell modules for integration into hydrogen electric heavy-duty tractors, purpose-engineered for the handling of extra-heavy loads inside industrial plants. In North America , Loop Energy and BayoTech, in New Mexico , entered a joint market development agreement for the deployment of hydrogen vehicles and hydrogen fueling infrastructure. 2021 Outlook and Investment With the successful completion of Loop Energy's $100M IPO, the Company plans to focus throughout 2021 on the Heavy and Medium-Duty Motive applications, including bus, commercial truck, as well as stationary and material handling markets, with a goal of continuing to increase geographic penetration in China and Europe , while maintaining a presence in California . IPO, the Company plans to focus throughout 2021 on the Heavy and Medium-Duty Motive applications, including bus, commercial truck, as well as stationary and material handling markets, with a goal of continuing to increase geographic penetration in and , while maintaining a presence in . The Company's inbound business development queries have greatly increased to broaden its customer base in core mobility markets. Loop is seeing a widening of fuel cell applications into more stationary, portable and new charging applications resulting in a total backlog of over $37M . . In the bus market, Loop Energy recently announced the shipment of 10 fuel cell units to be integrated into Skywell fuel cell electric buses in Nanjing China. This is Loop's largest shipment to date, representing a major milestone for the Company in the 1-10-100 sales phase approach. It is the second phase of a multi-year project to deploy 300 fuel cell vehicles in Nanjing as part of an MOU signed in January of 2020 between the Lishui Economic Development Zone and InPower Renewables, Loop's joint venture manufacturing partner in China . With the first unit delivered in the summer of 2020, this estimates a nine-month timeline to move a customer from phase one into phase two. as part of an MOU signed in January of 2020 between the Lishui Economic Development Zone and InPower Renewables, Loop's joint venture manufacturing partner in . With the first unit delivered in the summer of 2020, this estimates a nine-month timeline to move a customer from phase one into phase two. A portion of product and technology investments focuses on Loop Energy's next generation stack technology, which is expected to yield significant performance improvements and allow the Company to meet the needs of the 250-kW long haul truck market. The Company has broken ground on the initial stages of setting up the stack and module assembly plants in China and will have portions of the operations go live throughout 2021, with the whole plant estimated to be completed by the end of 2021. Q1 2021 Financial Summary The Company will host a conference call at 11:00 a.m. EST on Thursday, May 13 for a more detailed discussion of Loop Energy Inc. Q1 2021 results. Dial-in by phone 5-10 min prior to the scheduled start time and ask to join the Loop Energy call: Toll Free Dial-In Number: +1 8449314996 International Dial-In Number: (639) 380-0062 Conference ID: 1229298 The Company's financial statements and management's discussion & analysis are available at investors.loopenergy.com, www.sedar.com, and sec.gov/edgar.shtml About Loop Energy Inc. Loop Energy is a leading designer of hydrogen fuel cell systems targeted for the electrification of commercial vehicles, including, light commercial vehicles, transit buses and medium and heavy-duty trucks. Loop's products feature the Company's proprietary eFlow technology in the fuel cell stack's bipolar plates. eFlow was designed to enable commercial customers to achieve performance maximization and cost minimization. Loop works with OEMs and major vehicle sub-system suppliers to enable the production of fuel cell electric vehicles. For more information about how Loop is driving towards a zero-emissions future, visit www.loopenergy.com. This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities legislation, which reflect management's current expectations regarding future events. Forwardlooking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forwardlooking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to execute on its strategy and the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the final long-form prospectus of the Company dated February 18, 2021. Loop disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. Source: Loop Energy Inc. SOURCE Loop Energy /NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/ VANCOUVER, BC, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Luminex Resources Corp. (TSXV: LR) (the "Company" or "Luminex") is pleased to announce the closing of its previously announced private placement financings (refer to the Company's press releases dated April 21, 2021 and April 23, 2021) to raise an aggregate of approximately C$12.5 million (the "Offering"). A total of 10,152,000 common shares ("Shares") were sold at a price of C$0.72 per Share (the "Offering Price") under the brokered portion of the Offering, and an additional 7,210,000 Shares were sold at the Offering Price under the non-brokered portion of the Offering. The brokered portion of the Offering was completed through a syndicate of agents (the "Agents") led by Haywood Securities Inc., and including PI Financial Corp., and Red Cloud Securities Inc. The Company plans to use the net proceeds from the Offering for drilling and PEA work at its Condor project, drilling at its Cascas project and for general corporate purposes. The Shares issued under the Offering will be subject to a statutory four month and a day hold period that will expire on September 13, 2021. In connection with the brokered portion of the Offering, the Agents received compensation of C$413,722. In connection with the non-brokered portion of the Offering, finders' fees of 4% were paid on the proceeds from certain subscribers to Trimark Capital. Certain related parties of the Company participated in the Offering. The issuance of common shares to related parties is considered to be a related party transaction within the meaning of TSX Venture Exchange Policy 5.9 and Multilateral Instrument 61-101 ("MI 61-101"). The Company has relied on the exemptions from the valuation and minority shareholder approval requirements of MI 61101 (and Policy 5.9) as the fair market value of the Shares issued to such persons does not exceed 25% of the Company's market capitalization. The Company did not file a material change report more than 21 days before the expected closing of the Offering as the details of the Offering and the participation therein by related parties of the Company were not settled until shortly prior to closing and the Company wished to close on an expedited basis for sound business reasons and in a timeframe consistent with usual market practices for transactions of this nature. The securities offered pursuant to the Offering have not been, and will not be, registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This news release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Luminex Resources Luminex Resources Corp. (TSXV:LR) is a Vancouver, Canada based precious and base metals exploration and development company focused on gold and copper projects in Ecuador. Luminex's inferred and indicated mineral resources are located at the Condor Gold-Copper project in Zamora-Chinchipe Province, southeast Ecuador. The Company is currently drilling its 100% owned Cascas project. Luminex also holds a large and highly prospective land package in Ecuador, including the Tarqui and Pegasus projects, which are being co-developed with BHP Group plc and Anglo American respectively. Further details are available on the Company's website at https://luminexresources.com/. To receive news releases please sign up at https://www.luminexresources.com/contact/contact-us/. LUMINEX RESOURCES CORP. Signed: "Marshall Koval" Marshall Koval, CEO and Director Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include but are not limited to statements or information with respect to the Company's intentions regarding the use of proceeds of the Offering. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as "will" or variations of that word and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "will", "could" or are "intended to" be taken, occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about general business and economic conditions, the prices of gold and copper, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive. Although management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to: risks associated with the business of the Company; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the supply and demand for labour and other project inputs; changes in commodity prices; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions (including with respect to the tonnage, grade and recoverability of reserves and resources); risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters); risks relating to adverse weather conditions; political risk and social unrest; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time in the Company's continuous disclosure documents filed with Canadian securities administrators. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. SOURCE Luminex Resources Corp. BOCA RATON, Fla., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Mediavine, the largest exclusive full-service ad management firm in the U.S., has been named to Inc. magazine's sixth annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. The list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. Mediavine is recognized in the overall Best Workplaces list and a winner in the Medium: Employee size 50-99 category. Inc. Best Workplaces 2021 Mediavine earned this prestigious recognition for the company's strong suit in attracting, developing and maintaining its workforce. A fully remote company with employees across 31 states, Mediavine understands the importance of creating a cohesive, positive workplace. The core of Mediavine is company culture, focusing on an environment that supports team building, career growth investments, unmatched employee rapport and work perks. Diversity, equity and inclusion are at the forefront of Mediavine's operation, with initiatives including broadening talent pools, curating safe spaces for groups and leading conversations important to its diverse employee base. "We are humbled and honored to stand out among thousands as one of Inc.'s Best Workplaces of 2021," said Eric Hochberger, CEO and Co-Founder of Mediavine. "The past year was tough for so many. Even though Mediavine was already remote and possibly better prepared to weather everything COVID-19 threw at businesses, we too saw major shifts in work-life balance for our employees. We see it as our duty to foster an environment where employees feel encouraged, included, heard, healthy, passionate, innovative and motivated. We will continue to grow together and strive to maintain a place where people want to show up every day." Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out just 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organization's benefits were also audited to determine the company's overall score and ranking. "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Scott Omelianuk, Editor-in-Chief of Inc. Magazine. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." About Mediavine Mediavine is the largest exclusive full-service ad management company in the United States, representing and monetizing nearly 8,000 publisher partner websites in addition to its owned and operated properties. Mediavine proudly ranks as a Comscore top five lifestyle property with 130 million unique monthly visitors and 17 billion monthly ad impressions. Additionally, Mediavine is an award-winning Google Certified Publishing Partner, Trustworthy Accountability Group (TAG), Ads.txt and GDPR compliant, and is also a member of the Coalition for Better Ads and Prebid.org. To learn more about Mediavine, visit www.mediavine.com or follow us on Twitter , Facebook , LinkedIn and Instagram . Media Contact: Alysha Duff Media Relations Specialist - Mediavine 888 705 1246 [email protected] SOURCE Mediavine Related Links https://www.mediavine.com/ OXFORD, United Kingdom, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- MIRICO announced the public release of MIRICO CLOUD to the oil & gas industry. This online platform enables real-time visualisation of emissions data collected from their high precision gas sensing instruments. MIRICO CLOUD enabling visual emission detection and quantification in real-time MIRICO CLOUD takes this data and lets customers visualise the detection, localisation and quantifification of gas emissions across multiple oil & gas sites, all in one place. By producing results in real-time, customers can act quickly to fix issues causing changes in emissions. Enabling them to decrease or even stop downtime and reduce the risk of fines from environmental authorities. To help customers react as quickly as possible, MIRICO CLOUD also offers the facility to receive notifications based on custom parameters, either via SMS or email. For example, to be alerted of a new emission that is above a certain size, or about an existing known emission that has started to grow. The easy-to-use interface allows customers to see the layout of each of their sites, and overlay this with information such as path averages, location of detected emissions and quantification of any leaks. This information can all be viewed in real-time with the ability to see historical data and track changes over time. Through the customisable dashboard customers can also view high level, key information. For example, they can see average emissions over the last 24 hours or see how emissions vary by asset type. "It's great to be able to broaden the service we provide our customers" said Dr Linda Bell, CEO of MIRICO. "We really feel this is a big step forward in helping the oil & gas industry to quickly identify emission issues at scale and ultimately help them in their goals to reach net zero". MIRICO CLOUD is currently available for demonstration purposes. If you would like to see how it could benefit you, find out more and book a demo at: https://mirico.co.uk/mirico-cloud/ or contact MIRICO at: [email protected] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mirico-ltd- Twitter: https://twitter.com/miricompany About MIRICO: MIRICO was founded in 2015 as a spin out from the Laser Spectroscopy Group at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. MIRICO's instruments revolutionise gas sensing by offering the unique combination of real time analysis with high sensitivity, accuracy and stability, a wide dynamic range and the ability to perform remote sensing across a range of challenging conditions. Contact: Rob Gibbs, Digital Marketing Manager, MIRICO, Phone: +44 (0)1235612404, Email: [email protected] SOURCE MIRICO Related Links http://www.mirico.co.uk CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Keller Lenkner LLC Partners Ashley Keller and Warren Postman have been named to the National Law Journal's list of 2021 Plaintiffs' Lawyers Trailblazers. The fifth-annual award program recognizes 52 lawyers from throughout the United States as leaders within the plaintiffs' bar. NLJ recognized Keller for his work leading law-and-briefing efforts in consolidated product liability litigation, including his persuasive arguments in trial and appellate courts against federal preemption. NLJ cited Keller's work in the consolidated California proceeding regarding Essure contraceptive devices, where Keller successfully briefed and argued preemption and helped to ensure that the Court noted the distinction between duties (which are preemption concerns) and causation (which is not). "This difference is crucially important and comes up in virtually every pharmaceutical or medical device mass tort," Keller said. Keller also chairs the Law & Briefing Committee for plaintiffs in the Zantac MDL and is counsel on numerous appeals from that MDL to the 11th Circuit. "In every case, I do everything I can to make sure a judge is well-armed and equipped to make the best possible decision, because we presented the facts and the law," Keller said. Before co-founding Keller Lenkner, Keller co-founded the litigation finance firm Gerchen Keller Capital, which grew to more than $1.3 billion in assets under management and was the world's largest private investment manager focused on legal and regulatory risk. Keller also is a former partner at Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott LLP. NLJ recognized Postman for his role as a leader of Keller Lenkner's groundbreaking arbitration practice, which has pioneered the strategy of pursuing individual arbitrations for thousands of clients whose claims are subject to arbitration clauses with class-action waivers. Postman's work in arbitration is one of the most significant recent developments in civil litigation and has won numerous precedent-setting victories requiring defendants to arbitrate. Through arbitration-related matters, Keller Lenkner has secured more than $375 million in settlements for more than 100,000 individual clients. Postman has also helped develop the business and technological operations that allow Keller Lenkner to serve thousands of clients simultaneously. "Our firm is very focused on systems and processes to allow us to pursue smaller claims efficiently," Postman said. "Absent a class action, it is a challenge to vindicate smaller claims, but there are many more tools through technology and at scale to pursue them." Before joining Keller Lenkner, Postman was Vice President and Chief Counsel for Appellate Litigation at the U.S. Chamber Litigation Center. While there, he managed appellate strategy for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a pro-defendant organization that participates in more than 150 cases each year to shape the law on issues affecting businesses. Postman also was previously an attorney in the Issues & Appeals practice at Jones Day. ABOUT KELLER LENKNER: Keller Lenkner LLC represents plaintiffs in complex litigation matters in federal and state courts throughout the nation. The firm acts for clients in many types of cases, including class and mass actions, arbitrations, and multi-district litigation matters. Its team includes four former law clerks at the Supreme Court of the United States and former partners and associates from the country's leading law firms. Since its founding in 2018, the firm has secured results for more than 100,000 clients. Related Links: www.kellerlenkner.com SOURCE Keller Lenkner LLC Related Links http://www.kellerlenkner.com/ Successful issue of a US$1 billion sustainability-linked bond; Avon synergies raised in April to between US$350 million and US$450 million SAO PAULO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Natura &Co (NYSE NTCO; B3 NTCO3) recorded another quarter of double-digit revenue growth in the first quarter, again outperforming the global Cosmetics, Fragrance, and Toiletries market thanks to a strong increase in digital sales, while EBITDA was up more than four-fold. Consolidated net revenue in Q1 stood at R$9.5 billion, up 25.8% in Brazilian Reais and 8.1% at constant currency, driven by sales growth in BRL at all four of the Group's iconic brands. Reported EBITDA grew by 470.7% to R$829.1 million, with margin up 690 basis points to 8.8%, and adjusted EBITDA, which excludes transformation costs and Avon-related acquisition effects, rose 68.5% to R$963.2 million, with margin of 10.2%, up 260 basis points. This strong Q1 performance was powered by further growth in digital social selling and e-commerce across all brands. Total group online sales were up a very strong 166%. At the Natura brand, digital sales were up by 253% and Avon globally also recorded triple-digit growth of 132%. Aesop's total online sales grew 102% in the quarter, representing 29% of revenue. The Body Shop continued its pivot to e-commerce and direct selling channels, up respectively by 119% and 251%, to jointly represent 51% of total sales. Relationship selling using apps advanced vs. Q1-20, with Avon e-brochure sales up by 175% globally. Considering Natura brand in Latin America, the average number of consultants sharing content increased by more than 350%, and orders through the 1.3 million+ consultant online stores in the region grew by 80% vs. Q1-20. Natura &Co also made further advances in its integration of Avon, with a new commercial model being rolled out. At its recent Investor Day in April, Natura &Co raised its synergies target for the Avon integration by US$50 million to between US$350 million and US$450 million by 2024. Earlier this month, Natura &Co also successfully completed a US$1 billion bond issue linked to sustainability goals. The issue was carried out by its subsidiary, Natura Cosmeticos SA ("Natura"), with Natura & Co Holding S.A. acting as the guarantor. The transaction commits Natura to meet two material environmental performance indicators by end-2026: i) reduction of its relative greenhouse gas emissions intensity by another 13% across scopes 1, 2 and 3, and ii) reaching 25% of post-consumer recycled plastic in packaging. These goals are aligned with the Group's "Commitment to Life", its Sustainability Vision for 2030, and support Natura &Co's efforts to address the global climate crisis and move towards full circularity. Roberto Marques, Executive Chairman and Group CEO, declared: "Natura &Co turned in another strong performance in the first quarter despite a persistently challenging environment, demonstrating again the strength of its direct-to-consumer, multichannel model. All of our brands and businesses posted growth in Brazilian Reais in the quarter, and our continued pivot to digital and online sales allowed us to once again outperform the global CFT market. The recent successful completion of our US$1 billion bond issue with clear and advanced sustainability-linked targets shows the company's consistency in connecting financial and environmental targets." Natura &Co Latam's net revenue increased by 24.6% in BRL in Q1. The Natura brand's net revenue rose by 29.6% in BRL, with strong growth both in Brazil (+12.6%), and Hispanic Latam (+60.4%). The Avon brand's net revenue increased by 20.0% in BRL, with strong growth of 35.1% in Hispanic Latam more than offsetting a 2.8% drop in Brazil. Adjusted EBITDA for Natura &Co Latam surged 119.2% to R$630.3 million, with margin of 12.2%, up 690 bps. Natura &Co's clear CFT leadership in Latam was confirmed by Euromonitor, reaching market share of 12.5% in 2020, +70 basis points vs. the prior year, with a strong 17.0% in Brazil, 10 basis points vs. 2019. Avon International posted Q1 net revenue growth of 11.4% in BRL, with market share gains in all eight of its top markets, including the UK. Adjusted EBITDA was R$97.4 million, with 4.1% margin (-70 bps), reflecting the impact of the global pandemic in key categories, mainly in Europe, and strategic investments in areas such as digital and commercial to accelerate future growth. The Body Shop posted another strong quarter, with net revenue increasing 47.7% in BRL. It succeeded in offsetting lost retail sales, notably in Europe, thanks to its continued ramp-up in its direct sales channel and e-commerce. EBITDA in Q1 was R$194.2 million, with margin of 14.7% (-30 bps). Aesop posted another outstanding performance in Q1, with strong double-digit growth in both sales and profitability in Reais. Net sales grew 71.9% in Q1, with growth in all regions despite continued store closures in Europe, Canada and parts of Australia, with a remarkable performance in Asia and a strong increase in digital sales. EBITDA more than doubled to R$156.6 million, with margin up 390 basis points to 26.7%. About Natura &Co Natura &Co is a global, purpose-driven, multi-channel and multi-brand cosmetics group which includes Avon, Natura, The Body Shop and Aesop. Natura &Co posted net revenues of R$36.9 billion in 2020. The four companies that form the group are committed to generating positive economic, social and environmental impact. For 130 years Avon has stood for women: providing innovative, quality beauty products which are primarily sold to women, through women. Founded in 1969, Natura is a Brazilian multinational in the cosmetics and personal care segment, leader in direct sales. Founded in 1976 in Brighton, England, by Anita Roddick, The Body Shop is a global beauty brand that seeks to make a positive difference in the world. The Australian beauty brand Aesop was established in 1987 with a quest to create a range of superlative products for skin, hair and the body. SOURCE Natura &Co Related Links https://naturaeco.com SEATTLE and NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Amperity, the #1 enterprise Customer Data Platform for consumer brands, today announced that it is partnering with Persado, the leading AI content generation and decisioning platform that unlocks the value of the right words at every customer interaction, to enable hyper-personalization at scale for brands and marketers. This partnership empowers marketers to better identify their ideal targets and deliver the right emotive and engaging message to the right customer. Benefits of the partnership include an increase in marketing-led revenue, more leads generated per campaign, a reduction in customer acquisition costs, and improved conversion on open rates and click through rates across all marketing channels. "Every marketer seeks the holy grail of personalized content to drive that one click for customers to upgrade, join a loyalty program, add to cart, or refer a friend, but the path to get there at scale isn't easy," said Kabir Shahani, CEO of Amperity. "Brands must make customer data the lifeblood of personalization, and Persado's strength lies in helping marketers determine how to engage consumers to take action. Its AI-driven personalization technology combined with our first-party data customer insights, finally allows marketers to connect with their customers with more authenticity and humanity." Amperity Customer Data Platform connects data across disparate systems and uses multi-patented AI-based technology to create a complete Customer 360 data foundation. Persado's patented platform uses natural language generation and machine learning to predict the optimal messaging to use when communicating with individual prospects and customers. Through this partnership, brands can use Amperity to resolve identities across systems without requiring a common unique identifier, transforming raw data into individual profiles and specific customer segments that Persado's algorithms then leverage to quickly identify and create the right message for that individual. Together, Amperity and Persado make it possible for brands to ensure that every message speaks to and connects every individual creating a better experience for customers and unlocking new sources of value for the business. Using data from Amperity in Persado means that a marketer can now: Dynamically segment high value or high potential customers such as those with a high propensity to spend, primary spenders for a household, customers likely to churn, and others. Generate personalized messaging to precise segments across all channels (email, web, IVR, SMS, push, paid media) to engage each customer based on their needs and interests to drive new customer acquisition via promotions or coupons, loyalty membership sign ups and upgrades, tailored customer support, and more. Automatically track conversion and revenue user-level data giving teams the insights and rich analytics they need to accelerate and drive content performance. "Businesses who have invested millions, sometimes billions, in their data and digital transformation capabilities are now realizing that they need to focus on personalizing the message to truly unlock the value of those investments," said Alex Vratskides, CEO of Persado. "Our partnership makes 'last-mile personalization' possible at scale by matching Amperity's impressive customer profile accuracy with our ability to deliver the most effective, individualized message to that person. This makes the promise of true 1:1 marketing a quest marketers have been pursuing for decades now possible as the ability to identify individuals and understand their unique language preferences come together." Amperity connects to a wide ecosystem of partners that enable a variety of use cases through Amperity Datagrid. Amperity customers will be able to utilize Persado's AI-powered custom messaging insights starting today. For more details head here or contact [email protected] . About Persado Persado is an AI platform that unlocks a lever of value creation using the right choice of words for all customer interactions across the enterprise. By unlocking the power of words, companies win every customer moment, experiencing dramatic new levels of brand engagement and revenue performance. Leading global brands, including Chase, Humana, Williams Sonoma, American Express, Vodafone, Dell, Microsoft, and Verizon rely on Persado to generate content in a dramatically new way to unlock the value of messaging and emotionally engage consumers, one by one, moment by moment, at scale. The Persado platform uses sophisticated AI, data science, computational linguistics, and machine learning to generate the perfect message by leveraging the world's most advanced language knowledgebase of more than one million tagged and scored words and phrases. Companies can gain full visibility with quantifiable results and data-driven insights to identify the trends and language that wins every moment in the customer journey while ensuring the message always reinforces brand voice. For more information about Persado visit www.persado.com , and follow Persado on LinkedIn. About Amperity Amperity's mission is to help companies use data to serve their customers. The company has revolutionized the way brands identify, understand, and connect with their customers by leveraging AI to deliver a comprehensive and actionable Customer 360. This unified view improves marketing performance, fuels accurate customer insights, and enables world-class customer experiences. With Amperity, technical teams are freed from endless integration and data management, and business teams have direct access to the comprehensive data they need to build long-term customer loyalty and drive growth. Amperity serves many of the world's most loved brands, including Alaska Airlines, Michaels, Lucky Brand, Kendra Scott, Planet Fitness, Kenneth Cole, Tapestry, Crocs, Servco, First Hawaiian Bank, and many more. To learn more, visit Amperity.com. SOURCE Amperity Related Links https://www.amperity.com REDWOOD CITY, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Zeno Functional Food's SOBAR protein bar, the world's first food specifically designed to reduce alcohol absorption, was the winner of the gold award at the Specialty Food Association's sofi competition. The Honey Peanut flavor topped all the competition in the Wellness bar/gel category, which includes lifestyle, nutritional, as well as protein bars. SOBAR is available in three delicious flavors. Think before you drink "We are thrilled to produce a food that tastes this good," said SOBAR inventor Joseph Fisher, MD PhD. "The primary focus of product development was around function and how well the SOBAR could reduce alcohol absorption. At the same time, we knew that SOBAR had to taste great to appeal to consumers. Winning in a blinded taste test with a panel of expert judges was more than we could have hoped for." The sofi Award Out of nearly 1,500 products competing, SOBAR won the gold award in the Wellness Bar & Gel category as part of the Specialty Food Association's (SFA) 2021 sofi Awards, a top honor in the $158 billion specialty food industry. The Wellness category of snacks also includes the very popular nutritional and protein bar segment. In the competition, products were judged in an anonymous sampling for taste - including flavor, appearance, texture, and aroma - ingredient quality, and innovation. The sofi judging was held at the prestigious Rutgers Food Innovation Center in April 2021 following strict safety guidelines. The sofi Awards competition is open annually to members of the Specialty Food Association; the Awards have been given each year since 1972, and they recognize extraordinary specialty food and beverage products and the people who create them. About SOBAR SOBAR is a tasty and convenient 130-calorie protein bar that uses a patent-pending mix of ingredients, termed Alco-HOLD, designed to hold alcohol in the stomach longer where it can be more effectively inactivated. This food demonstrated remarkable efficacy in a published and peer-reviewed clinical trial, reducing alcohol absorption by about 2x as much per calorie compared to the control foods evaluated. SOBAR is currently available in the U.S. in 3 flavors on Amazon.com, in select retailers, and is planned to be distributed in Asia by Q4 2021. Related links: https://www.getsobars.com Social Media: @getsobars WARNING DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE. Eating a SOBAR or any other food: (1) does not prevent all alcohol absorption and you can still become intoxicated. (2) will not sober you up or lower your blood alcohol level if you are already intoxicated. (3) can slow alcohol absorption and you may experience a delayed effect from the alcohol consumed. CONTACT: Joseph Fisher, MD, PhD, President Phone: 650-262 1259 Email: [email protected] SOURCE Zeno Functional Foods, LLC CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Extreme weather has prompted most Americans (54%) to worry more about climate change. Over the past 12 months, extreme weatherranging from heat waves to forest fires to unexpected frigid temperaturescaused home damage or higher electricity bills for nearly half (41%) of homeowners. A new survey of more than 1100 homeowners conducted by Sense ( sense.com ) found that nearly half (48%) looked for ways to reduce electricity consumption and took practical steps such as maintaining or upgrading their HVAC system (29%) or tightening up their home's envelope with insulation or upgraded windows (27%). But costlier upgrades that could reduce energy bills and carbon impact were not on the menuwith only 11% replacing their current HVAC system with a heat pump in the past year. Simple measures were overlooked too: less than half (44%) turn off home electronics when not in use and even fewer (11%) use a utility app or home energy monitor to track their energy usage to find ways to save. Extreme weather prompts costly changes by a third of homeowners In one area, many homeowners made expensive investments: hardening their homes against extreme weather impacts. A third (33%) of homeowners made costly improvements to protect against wildfires and power outages, such as adding a backup generator, solar panels with battery backup or fireproof siding or roofing. The cost of these updates can be thousands of dollars. The vast majority of these homeowners (71%) took action to address the impacts of extreme weather. According to NOAA , disaster events during 2020 caused $95 billion in damages, more than double the 41-year average of $45.7 billion. There were a record number of named Atlantic storms, as well as the largest wildfires recorded in California. Tornado Alley residents took a big hit from extreme weather Tornado Alley in the Midwest and South has been hammered by record-breaking storms and frigid winters in the past year. Homeowners there reported bigger impacts from extreme weather than any other region of the country. Seventy-six percent (76%) of homeowners in the region personally experienced extreme weather (compared to 53% in the rest of the country) and most homeowners (59%) reported they were feeling it in their pocketbook with higher utility bills or home damage (compared to 36% in the rest of the country). It's perhaps no surprise, then, that the vast majority (78%) who made changes to their homes in the region over the past year aimed to save money, and only a fifth (20%) had a goal to reduce carbon emissions. Survey highlights: Most homeowners (59%) believe that they can have an impact on climate change. Nearly half (48%) looked for ways to reduce their home's electricity consumption in the past year. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of homeowners have personally experienced extreme weather such as heat waves, forest fires or unexpected frigid temperatures in the past year, and 54% are more concerned about climate change as a result of extreme weather. Extreme weather increased utility bills or damaged the homes of 41% of homeowners nationwide. Only a quarter (27%) of homeowners nationwide chose reducing carbon as a primary goal of changes to their home; 71% cited cost and energy savings. Homeowners take practical steps to reduce energy While many homeowners (48%) looked for ways to reduce their home's electricity consumption or took steps to improve the efficiency of their heating and cooling systems, other potential changes that could have an impact were overlooked. Vampire power sipped by consumer electronics and other devices that stay on continuously in the home accounts for 23% of the average home's electricity bill, but only 44% of homeowners surveyed say they turn off consumer electronics when not in use. of the average home's electricity bill, but only 44% of homeowners surveyed say they turn off consumer electronics when not in use. Only 12% replaced their HVAC system with a heat pump, a far more efficient approach than conventional systems. Experts say that heat pumps will be a key technology to adapt homes to climate change. Just 11% took the easy step of using their utility's free app or a home energy monitor to track their energy usage and get more insights into exactly what's using most of the energy in the home so they can address it. About a third (29%) of homeowners had installed smart thermostats in the past year. According to the EIA, more than half (51%) of an average household's annual energy consumption goes to just two energy end uses: space heating and air conditioning. In the last year 27% of homeowners added insulation or upgraded windows and 29% upgraded or maintained their HVAC system. Tightening the home's envelope and making HVAC systems more efficient can have a substantial impact on home energy usage. What homeowners can do to reduce their home energy costs and impact climate change Most homeowners think they can have an impact on climate change, and they're right. Residential energy use accounts for roughly 20% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. Reductions will make a significant impact. To slow climate change, experts say the country will need to electrify everything. Instead of burning carbon emitting fuels like natural gas and heating oil in homes, we need to move to heating and cooling from heat pumps, transportation in electric vehicles, electricity from photovoltaics and low carbon energy flowing from the grid. While today's electricity supply from the grid is a mix of fuel sources, including those same carbon emitting sources, over time the grid is shifting to low carbon energy. The shift to electrification of homes and transportation takes advantage of this major, centralized shift to low carbon energy sources. The transition is already underway and consumers can expect to see significant incentives from state and federal governments as well as businesses. Technology advances like smart thermostats and smart home energy monitors will also help consumers to manage their home energy more efficiently while making their homes more reliable. Here are some of the most impactful steps a homeowner can take: Understand your own energy patterns with a utility app or home energy monitor that gives you a detailed picture of your home electricity usage in real time, so you can figure out where you're wasting energy. that gives you a detailed picture of your home electricity usage in real time, so you can figure out where you're wasting energy. Take advantage of utility programs that help you shift energy usage during peak periods and extreme weather events. Not only does this help reduce the risk of blackouts, you're likely to save money if your utility rates rise during peak periods. Consider solar panels , which can dramatically reduce your utility bill while generating low carbon energy. California is one of the states offering significant incentives. , which can dramatically reduce your utility bill while generating low carbon energy. is one of the states offering significant incentives. Maintain your HVAC equipment annually and take advantage of utility rebates to upgrade to more efficient systems that will save you money over the long run. Change to heat pumps , especially if you plan to live in your house for many years to come. , especially if you plan to live in your house for many years to come. Turn off consumer electronics when not in use or put them on smart strips with timers. This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to cut back electricity use. Identify gadgets that stay on, like pool pumps, and replace them with more efficient versions that use variable speed motors. consumer electronics when not in use or put them on smart strips with timers. This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to cut back electricity use. Identify gadgets that stay on, like pool pumps, and replace them with more efficient versions that use variable speed motors. Always buy ENERGY STAR rated appliances. The savings in energy costs will make a difference. Look for ways to tighten your home's envelope, especially if you live in an older or larger home. Check your windows and insulation to see how you can improve. and to see how you can improve. Get rid of smaller energy wasters that add up, like incandescents in ceiling fixtures, which can be replaced by far more efficient LEDs. Survey Methodology The survey of 1,142 homeowners was conducted by Sense via SurveyMonkey. The region dubbed Tornado Alley includes North Dakota and Minnesota south to Texas and Louisiana, and the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama; in other words, US Census regions West North Central, West South Central and East South Central. About Sense Sense's mission is to reduce global carbon emissions by making homes smart and efficient. We empower people to care for their homes and families while contributing to a cleaner, more resilient future. Founded in 2013 by pioneers in speech recognition, Sense uses machine learning technology to provide real-time insights on device behavior, even for those devices that are not "smart." Customers rely on Sense for a wide range of uses including monitoring their home appliances, determining whether they left appliances running and identifying how to reduce their energy costs. Sense has received investments from two of the world's largest energy technology companies, Schneider Electric and Landis+Gyr. Sense is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. To make sense of your energy, visit: https://sense.com . Contact: [email protected] SOURCE Sense Related Links www.sense.com By GaoWencheng On May 8, 2018, the US government unilaterally backed out of the Iran nuclear deal and had kept escalating the maximum pressure on Iran ever since, once again opening the pandoras box of an Iranian nuclear crisis. Three years later, stakeholders of the deal held talks in Vienna about Americas resumed fulfillment. The New York Times commented, maximum pressure on Iran has failed. A return to the nuclear deal is the first step out of the morass. Casting to the wind any moral scruples, the US has ramped up sanctions against Iran at the height of COVID-19, which has seriously obstructed Irans anti-virus efforts and threatened its peoples lives, writing a new debt of human rights under Americas name. JavaidRehman, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, noted in a recent report that the difficulties encountered by the Iranian government in battling coronavirus partially come from the cumulative effects of America-imposed sanctions, which, condemned by Iran as economic terrorism and medical terrorism, have crippled the countrys health system and economic situation. In addition to slapping sanctions on countries like Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba, the US is throwing its weight around all over the world. It has left no stone unturned in stiringup the Xinjiang and Hong Kong issues, blatantly interfering in Chinas internal affairs under the disguise of human rights and democracy. It has waged the trade war and tech war against China, illegally arrested Chinese citizens, and groundlessly cracked down upon Chinese firms in the attempt to undermine Chinas international competitiveness and thwart its robust development momentum. At the recent G7 foreign ministers meeting, the US once again drummed about the China threat and engaged in anachronistic bloc politics with its allies. The US didnt pull punches when wielding the coercive diplomacy on its allies either. During his March visit to Brussels, the US Secretary of State Blinken demanded the EU halt construction of Russias Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, warning Germany that any entity involved in the project risks US sanctions. This is not the first time the US maliciously suppressed competitors for its own commercial interests. Alstom of France, Ericsson of Sweden, and Siemens of Germany have all tasted its hegemonic tricks. Barbara Wesel, a senior correspondent for Deutsche Welle, commented that European countries have to pay a high political price to keep their alliance with the US alive. With coercive diplomacy, the US, leveraging its economic and military superiority, is forcing other countries to obey its demands and change their behaviors in order to achieve its strategic objectives and maintain its dominance through inappropriate means. Both the Iranian nuclear quandary and the general trend of the times point to a dead end for such coercive diplomacy. The historical trend towards multipolarity and democratic international relations is unstoppable; hegemony and power politics can find no support or future. The acquisition of Mid Farm has allowed the company to successfully integrate its farm in the Proserpine farming precinct of North Queensland. This provides the foundation for Tassal to deliver 20,000 tonnes of annual prawn production. Tassal Group Limited ( ) has acquired Mid Farm, an 800-hectare property neighbouring the companys existing Proserpine prawn farm and Billy Creek property in north Queensland. The Mid Farm acquisition allows Tassal to successfully integrate its farm holdings to underpin future prawn production and this area will be known as the Proserpine farming precinct. Besides this, the company has also sold all its surplus land at Exmoor Station. Sitting between the companys Proserpine and Billy Creek properties, Mid Farm provides the potential for further pond production capacity, increased operational efficiencies and effective best practice biosecurity measures. Potential to improve operational aspects Tassal managing director & CEO Mark Ryan said: Securing Mid Farm, which is located between our Proserpine farm and Billy Creek property, creates the potential to substantially improve operational aspects for the whole Proserpine farming precinct. The completion of these property acquisitions provides the foundation for Tassals Strategic platform to deliver 20,000 tonnes of annual prawn production. Surplus land divested In line with actively managing the companys property assets, Tassal has divested all of the surplus land at Exmoor Station. However, the company has retained the most productive and economical land parcels at Exmoor Station for future farming development. Pursuant to the divestment, these transactions will be net cash positive for FY2021, with funds from divesting surplus land at Exmoor Station financing the purchases of Billy Creek and Mid Farm. Largest prawn farm The geographical diversity of Tassals prawn farms results in water quality being one of the cleanest and highest quality in the industry, while allowing it to harvest fresh Australian grown prawns over an extended season from November through to May. The acquisition will further enhance Proserpine, which is Tassals largest prawn farm, with more than 200 hectares of land-based pond systems across the site. Tassals Proserpine prawn farm received the internationally renowned third-party Best Aquaculture Practices certification in October 2019. The companys website explains: Sustainability is at the core of all that we do at Tassal Group, and farming prawns is no different. We believe that it is our role to protect the environment that we operate in, ensuring that the prawns that we supply are of the highest quality and produced so that our consumers can enjoy them now and into the future. This new, limited-edition 11 Year Old Lagavulin aged for four months in former Guinness Beer casks from the Open Gate Brewery in Maryland is a true father-son creation. After a job well done, it is ritual for Nick and Ric to enjoy a well-earned beverage, be it Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch or Guinness Beer. This year on Father's Day, they will uncork a bottle of Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish to toast to their mutual love of both tipples, and the arduous work required to taste and select the perfect Single Malt for the occasion. Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish is the second iteration from Nick Offerman and Lagavulin following the launch of Lagavulin Offerman Edition Aged 11 Years in October 2019. "The opportunity to collaborate on this truly sublime, smoky giggle-juice renews my gratitude for the simple things in life, like a father's love, and the good manners he taught me," said Nick Offerman. The inventive spirit of this collaboration is brought to life in the newest video in the ongoing Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky series, 'Nick Offerman's Father's Day Part Five.' The adventurous tale reveals the lengths to which Nick went to create Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish for his dad. Now, Nick, Ric and Lagavulin are proud to announce their new dram of choice after a hard day's work, which they recommend enjoying neat or on ice but always over tales of whisky. Lagavulin and Nick Offerman's partnership began in 2014 with the introduction of the Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky series. Ric has appeared in various spots over the years, showcasing everything from his master woodworking skills to his insistent preference for medium-rare steaks. The entire Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky series can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/c/MyTalesofWhiskyOfficial, and the full collection of Nick and Ric's comic shorts can be found here for your Father's Day viewing pleasure. Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish is a glorious adventure in 'sweet peat' through the combination of the intense peat and charred wood notes of Lagavulin with the roasted coffee, dark chocolate and sweet caramel notes from the Guinness casks. The limited-edition Single Malt has an SRP of $79.99 and will be available in the U.S. wherever fine spirits are sold, as well as via ReserveBar.com, Drizly.com, and the Drizly app where shipping and delivery are available. While sharing tales this Father's Day, please enjoy a dram of Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish responsibly. More information on Lagavulin Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky and the distillery can be found at www.malts.com/en-row/distilleries/lagavulin/. About Nick Offerman Nick Offerman is an actor, writer and woodworker, best known as the character of Ron Swanson on NBC's hit comedy series Parks & Recreation, Karl Weathers in the acclaimed FX series Fargo, the co-host and executive producer of NBC's Making It, and in the role of Forest on FX's DEVS. Offerman has penned four New York Times Bestselling books: Paddle Your Own Canoe, Gumption, Good Clean Fun, and most recently The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, written with his wife, Megan Mullally. In his spare time, he can be found at his woodshop in Los Angeles building hand- crafted items ranging from fine furniture to canoes to ukuleles. About Diageo Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Casamigos and Don Julio tequilas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Tanqueray and Guinness. Diageo is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Follow us on Twitter for news and information about Diageo North America: @Diageo_NA. SOURCE Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch Whisky DUBLIN, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "North America Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul Distribution Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (Power Transmission, Automation), by End-use (Food, Beverage & Tobacco) and Segment Forecasts, 2021-2028" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The North America maintenance, repair & overhaul distribution market size is expected to reach USD 178.85 billion by 2028 registering a CAGR of 2.9%. Increasing product penetration in the manufacturing industry on account of standardization of critical services and equipment is expected to drive the market growth. Moreover, increasing product demand from other end-use industries is also likely to support market growth. The periodic maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) activities help reduce overall costs and enhance the productivity of industrial operations, which is expected to drive their demand. The MRO distribution or supply chain was traditionally considered an indirect component of industrial operations. The lack of focus and investments in MRO processes in the past resulted in the slow growth of the industry. However, the recent global pandemic has contributed to raising awareness regarding crisis management of the supply chain in the manufacturing industry, which is expected to benefit the market growth. The value chain of this market includes manufacturers, specialists, generalists, partnerships, integrated supply, and retailers. Manufacturers play a major role across the value chain, by possessing definitive control over the market as they monitor the product pricing. They usually command pricing on a customer-by-customer basis rather than on a distributor-by-distributor basis. North America MRO Distribution Market Report Highlights Power transmission-pneumatics are expected to witness the fastest growth from 2021 to 2028 on account of the rising utilization of automated transmission in manufacturing facilities The food, beverage, & tobacco end-use industry accounted for a revenue share of 13.24% in 2020 owing to the increased focus of key companies on improvements in machine capabilities for enhanced food production Minnesota and Missouri were the major contributors to the region's overall product demand owing to increased investments in the manufacturing and transportation sectors and were the major contributors to the region's overall product demand owing to increased investments in the manufacturing and transportation sectors The manufacturing sector in Canada is anticipated to witness the fastest growth as the majority of the manufacturers are planning to invest in new equipment and machinery to gain a competitive advantage is anticipated to witness the fastest growth as the majority of the manufacturers are planning to invest in new equipment and machinery to gain a competitive advantage Moreover, manufacturers are trying to expand their customer reach through e-commerce platforms to access a wide range of categories, with significant expertise in the industry Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope Chapter 2. Executive Summary 2.1. Market Outlook 2.2. Segmental Outlook 2.3. Competitive Insights Chapter 3. Market Variables, Trends, and Scope 3.1. Market Segmentation 3.2. Industry Value Chain Analysis 3.3. Market Dynamics 3.3.1. Market Driver Analysis 3.3.2. Market Restraint Analysis 3.4. Business Environmental Tools Analysis: North America MRO distribution market 3.4.1. Porter's Five Forces Analysis 3.4.2. PESTLE Analysis Chapter 4. North America MRO Distribution Market: Product Estimates & Trend Analysis 4.1. North America MRO Distribution Market: Product Movement Analysis, 2020 & 2028 4.2. Abrasives 4.3. Chemicals 4.4. Cutting Tools 4.5. Fasteners 4.6. Hand Tools 4.7. Pipes, Valves & Fitting 4.8. Power Tools 4.9. Power Transmission - Hydraulics 4.10. Power Transmission - Pneumatics 4.11. Power Transmission - Electrics 4.12. Rubber Products 4.13. Seal 4.14. Welding Equipment & Gases 4.15. Automation Chapter 5. North America MRO Distribution Market: End-use Estimates & Trend Analysis 5.1. North America MRO Distribution Market: End-Use Movement Analysis, 2020 & 2028 5.1.1. Market estimates and forecasts, 2017 - 2028 (USD Million) 5.2. Food, Beverage, & Tobacco 5.3. Textile 5.4. Wood & Paper 5.5. Mining, Oil, & Gas 5.6. Metal Processing & Foundry 5.7. Rubber, Plastic & Non-Metallic 5.8. Chemicals 5.9. Pharmaceuticals 5.10. Electrical & Electronics 5.11. Transportation 5.12. Construction Chapter 6. North America MRO Distribution Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis 6.1. Regional Movement Analysis & Market Share, 2020 & 2028 6.2. North America MRO Distribution Market: Regional Movement Analysis, 2020 & 2028 6.3. North America Chapter 7. Competitive Landscape 7.1. Key Global Players, Their Initiatives, & Its Impact on the Market 7.2. Vendor Landscape 7.3. Company Market Position Analysis 7.4. Company Dashboard Analysis 7.5. Strategic Framework Chapter 8. Company Profiles 8.1. Company overview 8.2. Financial performance 8.3. Product benchmarking 8.4. Strategic initiatives Hillman Group, Inc. Wajax Industrial Components FCX Performance SBP Holdings R.S. Hughes Co., Inc. DGI Supply Lawson Products, Inc. AWC Hisco, Inc. Kimball Midwest Bisco Industries Kaydon Corporation BDI For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/4vedp Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com COLUMBUS, Ohio, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The newest member of the Crocodile Cloth lineup of disposable cleaning cloths has teeth. Nuvik USA is introducing Crocodile Cloth Power SCRUB, a dual-action cleaning cloth with a textured surface for scouring and scrubbing. Bryce Kenimer, the Sales Director for Nuvik USA, says, "This is our toughest cleaning cloth yet. It has the size and durability of the original Crocodile Cloth, but with extra scrubbing power for gunky, caked-on messes." Crocodile Cloth Power SCRUB is two-sided for dual cleaning action. One side is smooth to polish and absorb, and the other side is embedded with an abrasive grit to scour through greasy, sticky messes and dried- or baked-on dirt. The scouring side is tough on grease and grime but will not scratch hard surfaces. The disposable cleaning cloths were designed to meet the needs of mechanics, manufacturing workers and others facing big messes requiring scrubbing power. The new Power SCRUB product joins the existing line of Crocodile Cloth disposable cleaning cloths, which are known for their extra-large size, durability and cleaning power. The company produces an array of related products including specialty cleaning cloths for automotive, paint, grill, marine & boating and more. They also produce antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizers. Jim Reid, the President and CEO of Nuvik USA, says, "We created Crocodile Cloth Power SCRUB to respond to the needs we were hearing from our manufacturing and automotive users. They loved our original Crocodile Cloth, but needed something with extra teeth for their messiest applications. We are continuing to innovate to create new specialty cleaning products to help our customers tackle tough messes at work and at home. Like all of our products, Power SCRUB is bigger and tougher than the competition for a truly fierce clean." Crocodile Cloth Power SCRUB is now available for pre-order by Nuvik USA's distribution partners. Distributors interested in adding Power SCRUB to their shelves can contact Nuvik Sales at [email protected] or 855-552-5684. About Crocodile Cloth Crocodile Cloth is an imprint of Nuvik USA, a US-based manufacturer of pre-moistened wet cloths. Nuvik USA created Crocodile Cloth to address the problems with ordinary, wimpy cleaning wipes. Crocodile Cloth cleaning cloths are bigger, thicker and super-absorbent, so one cloth is all you need for most jobs. SOURCE Crocodile Cloth Related Links https://crocodilecloth.com The ReadyCheckGo testing program is now underway at the LEAP Academy in Cincinnati and the Ohio School for the Deaf and Ohio School for the Blind, both in Columbus. The first round of testing began today and continues through the end of the school year. Ohio is the first state to participate in this new nationwide testing program. The program provides school districts with testing options that are turnkey, economical, highly sensitive and accurate and easy to implement. Samples are collected using a single or pooled swab format and will be sent to certified labs at Dayton Children's Hospital, Ohio State University and Ohio Department of Health laboratories. The program is being funded by Gov. DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health, using money allocated by the Biden Administration to help states administer screening testing programs in support of U.S. efforts to return to in-person classroom instruction. "Safely reopening Ohio's K-12 schools for full-time, in-person learning is critical for our students' academic success and their mental health and well-being," said Ohio Governor Mike DeWine. "This testing program, coupled with vaccination for staff and eligible students and ongoing prevention measures, is another tool to help teachers and students feel confident they are safe in the classroom." Thermo Fisher developed the ReadyCheckGo testing program in partnership with Color Health, which brings extensive experience and a comprehensive software platform that streamlines registration, consent, sample management and reporting. Color currently supports similar testing programs in schools and higher education institutions across the country. ReadyCheckGo removes the complexities and logistical burdens that schools have been facing as they launch COVID-19 testing programs and delivers a turnkey program that leverages Thermo Fisher Scientific's testing expertise and existing network of labs to deliver PCR-based testing at scale. The ReadyCheckGo testing program is the second collaboration between Thermo Fisher and Governor DeWine's office. In April 2020, Thermo Fisher supported the scale-up of labs across the state to support the dramatic increases in COVID-19 testing during the height of the pandemic. That same laboratory infrastructure is now being used to support the ReadyCheckGo program. "It's time to get students back to in-person learning, but it must be done safely," said Mark Stevenson, executive vice president and chief operations officer of Thermo Fisher. "The ReadyCheckGo testing program is an important step in making this happen and we're pleased to once again partner with Governor DeWine and his team. He's recognized the need for broad-based testing and done a great job providing Ohioans access to it." "We know from experience that a convenient, sustainable testing program in K-12 schools is the most effective way to reduce the risk of a campus outbreak," said Othman Laraki, CEO of Color Health. "The key is to reduce the logistical burdens on schools and staff - and make testing so easy for schools and families that it disappears into the background. Governor DeWine is demonstrating the type of innovative approach needed to help our communities get back to normal." More information about the ReadyCheckGo Testing program can be found by visiting www.thermofisher.com/safeschools. About Thermo Fisher Scientific Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $30 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 80,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit www.thermofisher.com. About Color Health Color is a leader in distributed healthcare and clinical testing. Color makes population-scale healthcare programs accessible, convenient, and cost-effective for everyone. Color works with health systems, employers, and national health initiatives around the world, including the million-person All of Us Research Program by the National Institutes of Health. For more information about Color and its response to COVID-19, visit www.color.com. Media Contact Information: Charlotte McCormack Phone: 781-622-1202 E-mail: [email protected] Color Health Contact Information: Ben Kobren Phone: 914-262-0824 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE Thermo Fisher Scientific Related Links http://www.thermofisher.com SAN FRANCISCO, May 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On Lok will kick off its 50-year anniversary with On Lok Celebrates on Thursday, May 13. The virtual event will be open to the community and is the first of many planned events this year celebrating the organization's five decades supporting Bay Area seniors. "We are pleased to celebrate this historic milestone of 50 years with a festive (albeit virtual) event that will bring together supporters, partners, staff and the community, to reflect on an incredible five decades," said Grace Li, CEO of On Lok. "Never before has our work been more impactful than during the past year. I am proud of our team's tireless dedication to our mission of keeping seniors safe and supported." On Lok was founded 50 years ago with the belief that every individual should be empowered to age at home with dignity and independence. On Lok founded PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly), a full-service healthcare program that includes medical, home care, transportation, and other support services for frail seniors, which allows eligible seniors to live at home, for as long as possible. The nonprofit also provides health programs, wellness classes, activities, case management services and meals for active seniors. On Lok Celebrates will kick off the organization's golden anniversary on Thursday, May 13th from 5:00 6:00pm. It will be hosted by TV and radio personality Liam Mayclem, who will return for a fifth year as Emcee. It will also include remarks by special guests U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco Mayor London N. Breed, and Chef Martin Yan, and feature a live auction hosted by Warriors "Hype Man" Franco Finn. To attend, RSVP at https://support.onlok.org/e/9EzBsQ. About On Lok On Lok is a nonprofit organization that empowers older adults to age with dignity and independence. With 50 years of experience, On Lok is a trusted resource in San Francisco, Santa Clara County, and the Tri-City area of Alameda County. On Lok founded and still operates the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), which allows eligible seniors to live at home for as long as possible by providing comprehensive medical care and social services. On Lok 30th Street Senior Center, the largest multipurpose senior center in San Francisco, provides a second home, health programs, activities, and case management services to active seniors. The On Lok Mission Nutrition Program provides more than 250,000 meals annually to seniors through its dining locations and meal delivery program. For more information, please visit www.onlok.org. SOURCE On Lok Related Links onlok.org HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEX: 2318; SSE: 601318) today announced the initial close of Ping An Voyager Partners, LP, a growth stage venture fund that will make investments in fintech, healthtech and related businesses around the world. Targeted at institutional investors, Voyager Partners has secured approximately US$200 million in commitments toward its planned US$475 million offering. Voyager Partners will be managed by Global Voyager Fund (HK) Company Limited ("Global Voyager"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ping An with a significant track record in venture investing in fintech and digital health. In 2017, Ping An committed US$1 billion to support Global Voyager's investment strategy. Global Voyager is an investment manager licensed by Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission and today comprises 22 professionals. Global Voyager focuses on investment opportunities with fintech, digital health and related businesses that have achieved product-market fit, have meaningful revenues and viable unit economics, and are on a clear path to widespread commercial traction. Typically, such businesses have been in existence for more than five years and are at a Series C funding stage or beyond. Voyager Partners will continue this strategy, investing between $15 million and $35 million per target. Jonathan Larsen, Chief Innovation Officer for Ping An Group and Chairman and CEO of Global Voyager, said, "There is no doubt that the digital revolution in finance and health is here to stay. Ping An is well placed to identify and bring value to promising new companies in these sectors. We have achieved considerable success investing in growth-stage fintechs and digital health companies and are confident we can bring this experience to bear at Voyager Partners." Businesses where Global Voyager has led recent funding rounds on behalf of Ping An include iCapital Network, a US based financial technology platform for alternative investing; Laiye Technologies, a China based AI and RPA platform; PlusDental, a German teledentistry business; and Snapsheet, a US based provider of cloud native insurance claims management software. In addition to financial backing from Ping An, Voyager Partners' first close includes, among others, two leading North American insurers and a top-tier insurer based in Europe. Donald Lacey, Global Voyager's Chief Investment Officer, said, "Ping An believes that fintech and digital health are now at an extremely appealing inflection point, driven by mainstream user adoption and traditional financial institutions' aggressive embrace of new technologies, such as AI and cloud native core operating platforms. One of the ideas behind Voyager Partners is to combine Ping An's capabilities with resources from other leading financial institutions around the world, creating a vehicle that will be even better placed to add value to the businesses we invest in." Ping An anticipates a final closing for Voyager Partners in the third quarter of 2021. About Ping An Group Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 220 million retail customers and 611 million internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world. Ping An focuses on two over-arching domains of activity, "pan financial assets" and "pan health care", covering the provision of financial and health care services through our integrated financial services platform and our ecosystems; in financial services, health care, auto services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystem" transformation strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Group is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In 2020, Ping An ranked 7th in the Forbes Global 2000 list and ranked 21st in the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 38th in the 2020 WPP Kantar Millward Brown BrandZTM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list. For more information, please visit www.group.pingan.com and follow us on LinkedIn - PING AN. SOURCE Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. Related Links www.group.pingan.com LEVALLOIS, France, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Plastic Omnium has announced a partnership with Hopium, the French manufacturer of high-end hydrogen cars, to develop the hydrogen storage system for the future Hopium Machina. This high-end vehicle, first announced in October 2020, aims to be the first French hydrogen-powered sedan to hit the market in 2026. The Machina prototype is due to be unveiled to the press in June 2021. It will be equipped with a 700-bar Type IV* vessel made by Plastic Omnium in its Herentals plant (Belgium), which is operational since fall 2020. Building on this initial collaboration, Hopium and Plastic Omnium have established a partnership to develop the Hopium Machina hydrogen storage system for the production series. Based on almost 40 patents and a range of in-house developed, certified hydrogen storage vessels, Plastic Omnium will provide Hopium with a prototype high-pressure Type IV* hydrogen vessel for testing. This new generation will be optimally integrated into the vehicle chassis, enabling Hopium to maximize the quantity of hydrogen stored and achieve its ambitious 1,000-kilometer target range. Laurent Favre, Chief Executive Officer of Plastic Omnium, says: "With Hopium, we are convinced of hydrogen's major role in tomorrow's sustainable mobility. Plastic Omnium is proud to provide its expertise in hydrogen technologies and help develop the Hopium Machina storage system, an innovative project for low-carbon mobility." Olivier Lombard, Chairman and CEO of Hopium, adds: "As the first 100% hydrogen car manufacturer, Hopium stands at the forefront of green technologies. This partnership with Plastic Omnium shows our desire to collaborate with a key hydrogen mobility player to develop the Machina, a new generation of zero-emission vehicule." * composite high-pressure vessel comprising a thermoplastic liner reinforced with a carbon-fiber shell winding About Plastic Omnium Around the world, Plastic Omnium provides carmakers with innovative solutions for more connected and sustainable mobility. A global leader in its three businesses, the Group develops and produces intelligent exterior systems, clean energy systems and customized complex modules. With an international footprint of 135 plants and 25 R&D centers, Plastic Omnium relies on its 31,000 employees to meet the challenges of clean and smart mobility. Innovation-driven since its creation, Plastic Omnium is now paving the way for the zero-carbon car through its investments in hydrogen solutions, for which the Group has ambitions to become world leader throughout the entire value chain. Plastic Omnium is listed on Euronext Paris, compartment A, and is included in the SRD (deferred settlement service) and SBF 120 and CAC Mid 60 indices (ISIN code: FR0000124570). About Hopium Olivier Lombard, the youngest winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans, founded Hopium, a manufacturer of high-end hydrogen-powered vehicles, as an achievement resulting from his experience acquired on the racing circuits. With the automotive culture in his heritage, Olivier Lombard has driven for 7 years hydrogen-powered racing cars, making him the world's most experienced racer in this field. As an open-air laboratory, the race has allowed Olivier Lombard and his team to reflect on new mobility solutions to meet today's environmental challenges. While the transportation sector alone is responsible for 20% of greenhouse gas emissions, the company is positioning itself as a player in climate change. Hopium brings together a team of experts and leading partners at the forefront of innovation in the fields of hydrogen fuel cells, technology and automotive engineering. Hopium (ISIN code: FR0014000U63 - Mnemonic: MLHPI) is listed on Euronext Access+ and is eligible for PEA-PME. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1432668/Hopium_Logo.jpg Hopium Press: [email protected] Plastic Omium Press: Myriam Malak +33 (0)1 40 87 65 41 [email protected] SOURCE Hopium Related Links https://www.hopium.com/ DUBLIN, Ohio, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- In a year when healthcare has become increasingly complex and difficult to navigate, Quantum Health, the industry-leading healthcare navigation and care coordination company, continues to raise the bar on human-centered healthcare innovation and better outcomes through its proprietary combination of technology, data analytics and personalized care coordination. Quantum Health is proud to announce that this technology and data analytics leadership has earned the company the 2021 MedTech Breakthrough Award for Best Overall Patient Engagement Company. The MedTech Breakthrough Awards celebrate outstanding digital health and medical technology products, services and companies around the world. This year's competition drew more than 3,850 nominations, and winners stood out in a field that included some of the world's most recognized and respected companies. "Consumers are at the heart of everything we do at Quantum Health, and our commitment to understanding their needs and helping them runs deep. So, our solutions are powered by the most comprehensive data set in the industry, which we couple with our holistic approach to technology innovation all focused on improving the healthcare experience for our members and their families while reducing costs for employers," said Shannon Skaggs, president, Quantum Health. Quantum Health proactively engages benefits plan members through its proprietary Real-Time Intercept Smart Engine, an advanced technology platform that leverages comprehensive industry, member and provider interaction data. The analytics from these interactions enable Quantum Health to assess risk and engage members up to 120 days before a first claim is received. This early intervention ultimately sets members on the best path to positive health outcomes and helps prevent unnecessary costs along the way, both for them and their employers. The RTI Smart Engine is just one example of how Quantum Health uses artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML) and a cloud-based tech stack to turn data into meaningful, real-world insights that transform members' healthcare experiences, produce industry-leading Net Promoter Scores and drive continual innovation for Quantum Health's self-insured clients. The insights derived from Quantum Health's application of AI and ML help proactively identify risks and gaps in care, so that individuals are engaged in a personalized way and receive the right care, at the right time and with the best outcome for their situation. In addition to helping members have a less confusing, more satisfactory experience, this focused care is more effective, efficient and helps avoid unnecessary costs along the way. NLP technology also powers Quantum Health's Care Coordinators' engagement with members, while simultaneously, ML algorithms continually derive insights that help streamline and automate processes, resulting in an even more efficient real-time member experience. "Not only do we integrate leading technologies into our platform, but we also deliver our optimized experience seamlessly across multiple channels," said Skaggs. "This leads to better, more consistent engagement, because members interact with us in the channels they prefer, whether email, phone, chat, text, or through our member app or portal." Quantum Health's MedTech Breakthrough Award recognition was driven by several accomplishments in 2020, including Quantum Health's record-high and industry-leading Net Promoter Scores. In a challenging pandemic year, Quantum Health's member NPS was 77, the highest annual score in the company's 22-year year history. And during the difficult initial phases of the pandemic, the company's scores exceeded 78 every month from April through July, reaching an unprecedented 81 in June and July. "We are in the business of recognizing and celebrating innovation, and Quantum Health is a shining example of how data analytics and technology solutions can be used to not only power a company's mission, but to create an entire category of high-value services in an ever-changing healthcare marketplace," said James Johnson, managing director, MedTech Breakthrough. "We congratulate them on their award and look forward to their continued innovation and success." About Quantum Health Quantum Health is the industry-leading consumer healthcare navigation and care coordination company that delivers an unparalleled consumer experience to its members, as well as validated claims savings and high satisfaction rates for its self-insured employer clients. Quantum Health's proprietary Real-Time Intercept model identifies opportunities for early intervention in a member's healthcare journey, resulting in better engagement, outcomes and cost efficiencies. The company was founded in 1999 and is based in Dublin, Ohio. Since its inception, Quantum Health has earned numerous awards and honors, including being named among the Fastest-Growing Private Companies by Inc. 5000, and a Great Place to Work by FORTUNE Magazine and Entrepreneur Magazine. The Women Presidents' Organization has ranked Quantum Health as one of the 50 Fastest-Growing Women-Owned/Led Companies, and Columbus Business First has honored Quantum Health as a Best Place to Work. To learn more about the company, visit www.Quantum-Health.com, and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Media Contact: Susan Simkins Quantum Health, Corporate Communications [email protected] 800-257-2038 x 13494 SOURCE Quantum Health Related Links http://quantum-health.com PERTH AMBOY, N.J., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Debately App founder, Rich Castaldo stated earlier this week that Debately app will begin research into wireless downloadable energy, a technology he believes will revolutionize the world as we know it. Rich Castaldo Castaldo released the following statement, "In the midst of developing our one-on-one debate app we became intrigued with the idea of being able to instantly recharge your battery no matter where you were at the moment and without having to plug into an external charging device. While our company remains focused on developing the most intuitive and innovative video debate platform, we are devising a team to do research into what we believe can be a world changing technological advancement that would shape the future of mankind indefinitely." When asked on how he believed it would be possible he stated the following, "The entire world around us that we perceive as reality is just an interpretation of electrical signals by our brain that pieces them together and forms our reality. What we believe is a solid object is just a more densely populated energy field that appears as a solid when in reality if you look deep enough nothing is really solid. Even when you go down to the quantum levels we are unable to see an actual electron, we can only estimate through other factors where it was before we viewed it." Debately app plans to release its initial flagship version around summer time this year. The company has no plans to change business models but will create a research department that can analyze the viability of ancillary technologies. Rich Primo Castaldo is an entrepreneur, technology business innovator and crypto currency investor. His companies are based out of New Jersey. Rich has been recognized by various prestigious organizations as a rising star innovator and business person. Media contact: Steven Gates [email protected] 7187173958 SOURCE Debately App TSX: SIL | NYSE American: SILV VANCOUVER, BC, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - SilverCrest Metals Inc. ("SilverCrest" or the "Company") is pleased to report the Company's unaudited financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2021, and an update on construction and exploration activities at the Company's Las Chispas Project ("Las Chispas") located in Sonora, Mexico. The unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2021 are available under the Company's SEDAR profile on www.sedar.com or on SilverCrest's website www.silvercrestmetals.com. All amounts herein are presented in United States Dollars, unless otherwise stated. Highlights Q1 2021 and Subsequent Events On February 2, 2021 , the Company announced positive results from a feasibility study (the "Feasibility Study") for the Las Chispas Project. Details of the Feasibility Study, including an updated Mineral Resource Estimate and an initial Mineral Reserve Estimate, are provided in a technical report filed under the Company's SEDAR profile entitled, "NI 43-101 Technical Report & Feasibility Study on the Las Chispas Project" with an effective date of January 4, 2021 (the "Technical Report"). The Technical Report was prepared by Ausenco Engineering Canada Inc. and its affiliate (together as "Ausenco") with the assistance of several other independent engineering companies and consultants. , the Company announced positive results from a feasibility study (the "Feasibility Study") for the Las Chispas Project. Details of the Feasibility Study, including an updated Mineral Resource Estimate and an initial Mineral Reserve Estimate, are provided in a technical report filed under the Company's SEDAR profile entitled, "NI 43-101 Technical Report & Feasibility Study on the Las Chispas Project" with an effective date of (the "Technical Report"). The Technical Report was prepared by Ausenco Engineering Canada Inc. and its affiliate (together as "Ausenco") with the assistance of several other independent engineering companies and consultants. The Company estimates that the initial capital cost (estimated at $137.7 million ) and construction schedule (from January 1, 2021 to end of construction projected to be in H1, 2022) outlined in the Feasibility Study for the Las Chispas Project, remain valid. ) and construction schedule (from to end of construction projected to be in H1, 2022) outlined in the Feasibility Study for the Las Chispas Project, remain valid. Overall, the Project is on schedule and on budget. As of March 31, 2021 , the construction progress estimate was 14.3% (Q1 2021 target of 10.9%) and aggregate construction costs of $27.7 million (or 20.1% of $137.7 million ) were recorded under mineral property, plant and equipment. These costs include certain payment advances to vendors for which the related construction at Las Chispas may not have been completed as of March 31, 2021 . Construction activities included; mobilization of the Ausenco Team on-site, concrete work on foundations, completion of mechanically stabilized earth ("MSE") wall for crusher installation, procurement of major long lead equipment, underground development progress, and improvement of underground ventilation. , the construction progress estimate was 14.3% (Q1 2021 target of 10.9%) and aggregate construction costs of (or 20.1% of ) were recorded under mineral property, plant and equipment. These costs include certain payment advances to vendors for which the related construction at Las Chispas may not have been completed as of . Construction activities included; mobilization of the Ausenco Team on-site, concrete work on foundations, completion of mechanically stabilized earth ("MSE") wall for crusher installation, procurement of major long lead equipment, underground development progress, and improvement of underground ventilation. During Q1, 2021, the Company completed 33,382 metres of in-fill and expansion drilling, and 2.0 kilometres of underground decline development including in-vein drifting. The Company also stockpiled an additional estimated 18,000 tonnes of mineralized material at grades estimated to be in-line with the Las Chispas Feasibility Study Mineral Reserve Estimate. On February 22, 2021 , the Company, using its base shelf prospectus previously filed on June 9, 2020 , completed a bought deal prospectus offering of a total of 15,007,500 common shares at a price of $9.20 per common share for gross proceeds of $138.1 million . , the Company, using its base shelf prospectus previously filed on , completed a bought deal prospectus offering of a total of 15,007,500 common shares at a price of per common share for gross proceeds of . As at April 30, 2021 , SilverCrest is well funded with cash and cash equivalents of $218.0 million and $90.0 million available under a Credit Facility. COVID-19 Update The Company continues to adjust to the unprecedented COVID-19 conditions. In May 2020, the Company installed a fully confined temporary camp with a capacity for 160 essential persons to continue its exploration, underground development, and construction of early works with the objective of limiting potential exposure of personnel and nearby communities to the virus. Before entering the confined camp, all persons are tested for COVID-19 (rRT-PCR test) and following receipt of negative tests, are transported to site using strict health and safety protocols. Once on site, all appropriate COVID-19 related protocols are enforced. As of March 31, 2021, the Company incurred approximately $5.9 million of cumulative expenditures related to COVID-19, the majority of which were for the construction and operation of the new fully confined camp at Las Chispas and for providing assistance with medical needs in the local communities. During Q1, 2021, the Company completed Phase 1 (320 rooms) construction of the new 520 single occupancy room camp and expects the construction to be completed in Q2, 2021. Las Chispas During Q1, 2021, the Company completed 33,382 metres of drilling. As of March 31, 2021, the Company had drilled an estimated cumulative 508,213 metres (1,891 drill holes) since inception of the Las Chispas Project. During Q1, 2021, the Company completed approximately 2.0 kilometres of underground decline and lateral drifting, including 717 metres of in-vein drifting, and stockpiled an additional estimated 18,000 tonnes of mineralized material at grades estimated to be in-line with the Las Chispas Feasibility Study Mineral Reserve Estimate. By the end of March, 2021, cumulatively, the Company had completed approximately 10.9 kilometres of underground workings, including 2.1 kilometres of in-vein drifting. For 2021, the Company has budgeted to incur approximately $113.7 million of the estimated initial capital costs of $137.7 million (see Technical Report). Overall, the Las Chispas Project construction is on schedule and on budget. During Q1, 2021, the construction progress estimate was 14.3% (compared to Q1, 2021 target of 10.9%) and aggregate construction costs of $27.7 million (or 20.1% of $137.7 millions) were recorded under mineral property, plant and equipment. The Company's Q1, 2021 progress on its 2021 planned construction and development activities are as follows: 2021 Planned construction Q1 Progress Completion of detailed engineering; Detailed engineering has been progressing well and is expected to be substantially completed during Q2, 2021. Advancing process plant construction; Mobilized Ausenco team on-site, awarded the majority of procurement orders, substantially completed earthworks, and initiated concrete work in the grinding, leaching and counter-current decantation ("CCD") areas. Start of construction of electrical grid powerline; Completed the right-of-way contracts, signed contract with Comision Federal de Electricidad ("CFE") and presented detailed engineering to CFE. Upgrade of main access road and bridge construction; Initiated work on both the access road and the bridge. An additional 6,800 metres of underground development; Completed 1,298 metres of waste development and 717 metres of in-vein drifting. Underground infrastructure work and stockpile growth; and Progressed planning on underground infrastructure, installed twin surface ventilation fans in the Babi Main area and stockpiled additional mineralized material. Commencement of tailings facility construction. Finalized contract and commenced detailed engineering. Las Chispas Expenditures During Q1, 2021, the Company recorded $12.1 million under mineral properties for the Las Chispas Project, which primarily consisted of: decline construction and underground working of $5.2 million ; ; drilling expenses of $2.8 million ; ; salaries and remuneration of $1.0 million ; and ; and field and administrative costs of $1.8 million . The Company also recorded additions, during Q1, 2021, of $21.1 million for cumulative expenditures of $50.0 million under construction in progress related to the Las Chispas Project. El Picacho The Company completed 18,237 metres of drilling at Picacho during Q1, 2021 and incurred a total of $2.0 million for the Picacho property under exploration and evaluation expenditures. As of March 31, 2021, the Company had drilled an estimated cumulative 24,059 metres (84 drill holes) since acquiring the Picacho property in 2020. Financial Results At March 31, 2021, the Company held $226.0 million as cash and cash equivalents. The primary factors that contributed to the increase in cash and cash equivalents from December 31, 2020 to March 31, 2021 include $131.2 million generated by financing activities net of associated costs, including the completion of a bought deal prospectus offering on February 22, 2021, for $138.1 million and the exercise of stock options. These cash inflows were offset by $30.8 million paid towards mineral property, plant, and equipment. Furthermore, the cash inflows were also offset by $11.7 million paid on the Company's operating activities, which was primarily made up of $2.0 million incurred on the exploration program at Picacho, $3.2 million paid on accounts payable and accrued liabilities and $3.1 million paid on net value-added taxes. During the three months ended March 31, 2021, comprehensive loss was $12.7 million (Q1, 2020 $12.4 million). The Qualified Person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects for this news release is N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng, and CEO for SilverCrest, who has reviewed and approved its contents. ABOUT SILVERCREST METALS INC. SilverCrest is a Canadian precious metals exploration and development company headquartered in Vancouver, BC, that is focused on new discoveries, value-added acquisitions and targeting production in Mexico's historic precious metal districts. The Company's top priority is on the high-grade, historic Las Chispas mining district in Sonora, Mexico, where it has completed a feasibility study on the Las Chispas Project and is proceeding with mine construction. Startup of production at the Las Chispas Mine is targeted for mid-2022. SilverCrest is the first company to successfully drill-test the historic Las Chispas Property resulting in numerous high-grade precious metal discoveries. The Company is led by a proven management team in all aspects of the precious metal mining sector, including taking projects through discovery, finance, on time and on budget construction, and production. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" (collectively "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and United States securities legislation. These include, without limitation, statements with respect to: the strategic plans, timing and expectations for the Company's exploration programs at the Las Chispas Project and the Picacho Property and the start up of production at the Las Chispas Mine by mid-2022. Such forward looking statements or information are based on a number of assumptions, which may prove to be incorrect. Assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; the reliability of mineralization estimates, the conditions in general economic and financial markets; availability of skilled labour; timing and amount of expenditures related to rehabilitation and drilling programs; and effects of regulation by governmental agencies. The actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of risk factors including: uncertainty as to the impact and duration of the COVID-19 pandemic; the timing and content of work programs; results of exploration activities; the interpretation of drilling results and other geological data; receipt, maintenance and security of permits and mineral property titles; environmental and other regulatory risks; project cost overruns or unanticipated costs and expenses; and general market and industry conditions. Forward-looking statements are based on the expectations and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The assumptions used in the preparation of such statements, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date the statements were made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements included in this news release if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change, except as otherwise required by applicable law. N. Eric Fier, CPG, P.Eng Chief Executive Officer SilverCrest Metals Inc. SOURCE SilverCrest Metals Inc. Related Links www.silvercrestmetals.com Moho director Ralph Winter shares what the company is doing on the exploration front and how they are focusing on making the mining of East Samson Dam a reality. s ( ) journey to mining at East n Dam is getting closer to fruition as the company works towards their first JORC resource. With the gold pricing repositioning for another move upwards, timing for Moho could not be better. In this Rooster Talk Episode 37, Ralph Winter shares with us what the company is doing on the exploration front and how they are focusing on making the mining of East n Dam a reality. The takeaway from this episode is that Moho is now valued at $8M and the company is about to make mining and hence self-funding a reality. With things looking positive here, this may be the time for investors to do some DYOR and consider MOH as a potential investment opportunity. Chapters 00:00 Introduction - What has been happening 01:47 Update on the JORC Resource 04:10 What Empress Spring means to Moho 05:39 When could you be mining at East n Dam 07:45 Investors like Moho even more as a low market cap explorer 08:38 How is the Burracoppin project? 11:35 Why the management is quality 12:32 New flow 16:36 The Nickel Chairman factor 18:00 Conclusion PODCAST About Ralph Winter Commercial Director, Moho Resources Limited Specialising in corporate affairs & finance, marketing & promotion and business development in both exploration and development companies, Ralph was involved in the listing of Trafford Resources Limited, Limited, Limited, Mineral Products. He is also currently a Director of Breast Cancer Care WA and Owner of Australian Remote Assistance. About Moho Resources Limited Silver Swan North The Silver Swan North project is located about 50km northeast of the regional mining centre of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia. The project covers approximately 55km2 and encompasses granted tenements within the Kalgoorlie terrane. Moho believes that the Silver Swan North project area is considerably underexplored and highly prospective for gold and nickel mineralization. Moho will focus on shear hosted and porphyry related gold mineralization and identifying komatiite-hosted nickel sulphide deposits. The Silver Swan North project sits on the eastern flank of the Kanowna/Scotia dome within the Boorara domain. The regional Mount Monger-Moriarty fault runs through the middle of the project area, which effectively straddles two major tectonic domains, the Kurnalpi terrane to the east, and the Kalgoorlie terrane to the west. Burracoppin The Burracoppin project is located within the Southwest terrane, the southwestern element of the Archean aged Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia. The project tenements consist of five granted exploration licenses and two exploration licenses under application covering approximately 480 sq. km. The Burracoppin project is located close to two regional shears and in particular on the aero-magnetic well defined north-south regional shear which is also associated with Tampia gold mine mineralization to the south. The operating Edna May mine is located approximately 22km east of the Burracoppin project area, in the Westonia Greenstone Belt. Empress Springs The Empress Springs Project is located 50 km to the south of the town of Croydon and comprises thirteen adjacent exploration permits with a total area of 2,889 km. The project is located about 25km due south of the town of Croydon and 700km west-northwest of Townsville in North Queensland. The Croydon Goldfield, which extends from north of the town, contained over 300 gold occurrences with historical production estimated at 1.2Moz of Au. The Empress Springs project is a joint venture with (IGO). Moho considers Empress Springs has the potential to host large Tier 1 gold deposits due to the presence of the intersection of significant interpreted structures within the tenements, some of which penetrate down to the earths mantle and are potential fluid flow paths and traps for mineralization, mafic dyke swarms reflecting major melting episodes, and coherent gold, antimony and bismuth anomalies coincident with the regional structures and gravity anomalies. Please let Samso know your thoughts and send any comments to info@Samso.com.au. Remember to Subscribe to the YouTube Channel, Samso Media and the mail list to stay informed and make comments where appropriate. Other than that, also feel free to provide a Review on Google. For further information about Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talks visit: www.samso.com.au About Samso Samso is a renowned resource among the investment community for keen market analysis and insights into the companies and business trends that matter. Investors seek out Samso for knowledgeable evaluations of current industry developments across a variety of business sectors and considered forecasts of future performances. With a compelling format of relaxed online video interviews, Samso provides clear answers to questions they may not have the opportunity to ask and lays out the big picture to help them complete their investment research. And in doing so, Samso also enables companies featured in interviews to build valuable engagement with their investment communities and customers. Headed by industry veteran Noel Ong and based in Perth, Western Australia, Samsos Coffee with Samso and Rooster Talk interviews both feature friendly conversations with business figures that give insights into Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) companies, related concepts and industry trends. Noel Ong is a geologist with nearly 30 years of industry experience and a strong background in capital markets, corporate finance and the mineral resource sector. He was founder and managing director of ASX-listed company Siburan Resources Limited from 2009-2017 and has also been involved in several other ASX listings, providing advice, procuring projects and helping to raise capital. He brings all this experience and expertise to the Samso interviews, where his engaging conversation style creates a relaxed dialogue, revealing insights that can pique investor interest. Noel Ong travels across Australia to record the interviews, only requiring a coffee shop environment where they can be set up. The interviews are posted on Samsos website and podcasts, YouTube and other relevant online environments where they can be shared among investment communities. Samso also has a track record of developing successful business concepts in the Australasia region and provides bespoke research and counsel to businesses seeking to raise capital and procuring projects for ASX listings. Disclaimer The information contained in this article is the writers personal opinion and is provided for information only and is not intended to or nor will it create/induce the creation of any binding legal relations. Read full disclaimer. CONCORD, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutter Health | Aetna today announces its plans to offer fully insured products to employers across Northern California for the 2022 enrollment season. The announcement follows issuance of a Certificate of Authority from the California Department of Insurance (CDI), designating the joint venture healthcare company as an independent insurance carrier in the state. Sutter Health | Aetna currently offers self-insured Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO) and Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) commercial health plans to large employers in its 16-county service area. Today, if an employer wants a fully insured product, it must select an Aetna plan that includes the Sutter Health | Aetna performance network. Upon CDI approval, the joint venture will be able to sell its own fully insured products to employers, unlocking the full value of the Sutter Health | Aetna member experience. The joint venture's integrated delivery, retail, and financing system (IDRFS) model aims to revolutionize healthcare. Built on the strong foundations of its parent companies and further complemented by the capabilities of CVS Health, Sutter Health | Aetna's IDRFS platform virtually integrates payer, provider, and retail stakeholders. Plus, through coordinated and proactive care delivery, the platform is designed to offer the market high-quality care at an affordable cost. "The support and investment by Sutter Health and Aetna for the fully insured license further demonstrates the organizations' commitment to the coordinated care model created by our virtually integrated delivery, retail, and finance system," said Sutter Health | Aetna CEO Jeb Dunkelberger. "Independent licensure for Sutter Health | Aetna supports the most progressive form of value-based care, further demonstrating our organizations' collective commitment to the clinical and financial experience of our members and underscores our commitment to materially evolving the market via affordable, high-quality care and customized member experiences." "Our collaboration with Aetna on a joint venture was driven by our desire to invest in value-based payment models that reward our integrated delivery system for outcomes and efficiency and not volume," says Phil Jackson, CEO of Health Plan Partnerships & Products at Sutter Health. "With its own fully insured license, Sutter Health | Aetna will be well positioned to deliver on these tenets and return value back to the purchasers of healthcare." "Employers across the region should see this as one of the strongest signals that Sutter Health | Aetna is fully aligned to their interests," said Kristen Miranda, Aetna's Senior Vice President of Markets. "Through this fully insured licensure, the joint venture's vision organically aligns to that of the member accessible, affordable, innovative, and community-based." About Sutter Health | Aetna Sutter Health | Aetna is a joint venture that brings together Sutter Health's network of nationally recognized, high-quality doctors and hospitals with Aetna's health plan expertise, data, analytics and health information technology, and shared care management capabilities. This joint venture aims to deliver a differentiated, personalized experience for members and is designed to improve efficiency and lower the cost of care, resulting in greater affordability. For more information about Sutter Health | Aetna, visit SutterHealthAetna.com Health benefit plans are administered by Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC. Sutter Health and Aetna Insurance Company received its Certificate of Authority from the California Department of Insurance and plans to offer and/or underwrite health insurance products upon approval. Sutter Health | Aetna is the brand name used for products and services provided by Sutter Health and Aetna Administrative Services LLC. Sutter Health | Aetna is an affiliate of Sutter Health and of Aetna Life Insurance Company and its affiliates (Aetna). Aetna plans are offered, underwritten and/or administered by Aetna Life Insurance Company and/or its affiliates. About Sutter Health Sutter Health's integrated, not-for-profit network of aligned clinicians, employees and volunteers support more than 3 million Northern Californians in communities across 22 counties. Headquartered in Sacramento, Calif., the Sutter Health system provides access to high quality, affordable care through its network of hospitals, medical foundations, ambulatory surgery centers, urgent and walk-in care centers, telehealth, home health and hospice services. For more information about the Sutter Health network visit: sutterhealth.org | facebook.com/sutterhealth | youtube.com/sutterhealth | twitter.com/sutterhealth. About Aetna Aetna, a CVS Health business, serves an estimated 34 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental and behavioral health plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services, workers' compensation administrative services and health information technology products and services. Aetna's customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, visit aetna.com and explore how Aetna is helping to build a healthier world. About CVS Health We are a diversified health services company with more than 300,000 employees united around a common purpose of helping people on their path to better health. In an increasingly connected and digital world, we are meeting people wherever they are and changing healthcare to meet their needs. Built on a foundation of unmatched community presence, our diversified model makes us an integral part of people's everyday health. From our innovative new services at HealthHUBTM locations, to transformative programs that help manage chronic conditions, we are making healthcare more accessible, more affordable and simply better. Learn more about how we're transforming health at cvshealth.com. SOURCE Sutter Health | Aetna GREENVILLE, S.C., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX), a leading provider of distribution, systems design and integration services for the technology industry, today announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named 16 SYNNEX executives to the highly respected 2021 Women of the Channel list, with two making the Power 100 list. This annual list recognizes the unique strengths, vision, and achievements of female leaders in the IT channel. The 2021 Women of the Channel list acknowledges women from all over the IT channel, including vendors, distributors and solution providers. "The recognition of this esteemed group of women is a testament to the leadership and breadth of talent across the entire SYNNEX organization," said Peter Larocque, President, North America Technology Solutions, SYNNEX Corporation. "Their innovation and collaboration throughout the IT channel equips our reseller partners with the solutions and services to grow their business and solve real business challenges for their customers, furthering the industry as a whole." The Power 100 honorees award recognizes a select group of incredible women who have gone above and beyond inspiring their peers through their leadership and unwavering commitment to the success of their partners, customers and the entire IT channel. The two SYNNEX honorees for 2021 are: Willa Flemate , Vice President, Sales Flemate is responsible for leading the Integrated Solutions team and aligning SYNNEX design services to support customer requirements and recommend custom solutions. These services enable partners to build out purpose-built intelligent devices and computing infrastructure in AI, IoT, Data Center Modernization and other segments to support accelerated demand curve, resulting in impressive growth. Flemate is responsible for leading the Integrated Solutions team and aligning SYNNEX design services to support customer requirements and recommend custom solutions. These services enable partners to build out purpose-built intelligent devices and computing infrastructure in AI, IoT, Data Center Modernization and other segments to support accelerated demand curve, resulting in impressive growth. Reyna Thompson , Senior Vice President, Product Management Under Thompson's leadership, the Security and Networking Solutions group has continually expanded the SYNNEX line card with key vendor partners, in addition to launching several initiatives focused on delivering fully converged technology solutions. These efforts resulted in the acceleration of Digital Transformation innovation and adoption in the channel. The other SYNNEX executives recognized as 2021 Women of the Channel are: Emily Chen , Vice President, Product Management In a year where communication was key, Chen and her team worked closely with vendors and partners to prioritize their needs, while focusing on the forecast and inventory management. These efforts were critical to providing resellers with the right products and maintaining SYNNEX' market leadership position. In a year where communication was key, Chen and her team worked closely with vendors and partners to prioritize their needs, while focusing on the forecast and inventory management. These efforts were critical to providing resellers with the right products and maintaining SYNNEX' market leadership position. Ashley Finley , Senior Director of Sales Finley helped launch and manage the Integrated Advisory Council, comprised of select OEMs and Systems Integrators to promote and strengthen SYNNEX strategic channel partner relationships. Through interactive discussions and collaboration on best practices, the Integrated Advisory Council helps solve partner business challenges and find new opportunities. Finley helped launch and manage the Integrated Advisory Council, comprised of select OEMs and Systems Integrators to promote and strengthen SYNNEX strategic channel partner relationships. Through interactive discussions and collaboration on best practices, the Integrated Advisory Council helps solve partner business challenges and find new opportunities. Ashley Huntley , Senior Director, Marketing As the acceleration of Digital Transformation continues, Huntley and her team have evolved SYNNEX marketing strategies to help partners and their customers adopt by improving data management practices, virtual event strategies, digital marketing and social media strategies, and lead generation options. As the acceleration of Digital Transformation continues, Huntley and her team have evolved SYNNEX marketing strategies to help partners and their customers adopt by improving data management practices, virtual event strategies, digital marketing and social media strategies, and lead generation options. Becky Lozada , Director, Cisco Services & Software Lozada led the creation of a new business development team focused on SYNNEX Cisco channel partners, working with top partners to ensure they hit their renewal metrics and are taking advantage of all the resources SYNNEX Comstor offers. Lozada led the creation of a new business development team focused on SYNNEX Cisco channel partners, working with top partners to ensure they hit their renewal metrics and are taking advantage of all the resources SYNNEX Comstor offers. Jessica McDowell , Vice President, Business Development for Security and Networking - Recognizing the need to quickly outfit new, remote working environments with proper network optimization and security, McDowell led her team to deliver the necessary tools, enablement and support that channel partners needed to deliver solutions quickly to the market. Recognizing the need to quickly outfit new, remote working environments with proper network optimization and security, McDowell led her team to deliver the necessary tools, enablement and support that channel partners needed to deliver solutions quickly to the market. April Petty , Vice President, Field Sales Despite being virtual, Petty continued to brand herself and SYNNEX to stay top of mind with their partner community last year, delivering information about SYNNEX solutions, events, service offerings and their overall value-add. Despite being virtual, Petty continued to brand herself and SYNNEX to stay top of mind with their partner community last year, delivering information about SYNNEX solutions, events, service offerings and their overall value-add. Lisa Schroeder , Vice President, Sales Leading the US National Major Accounts division, Schroeder and her team found new and unique ways to collaborate with the product management team and engage with reseller partners to accelerate their success, even when interactions were virtual. Leading the US National Major Accounts division, Schroeder and her team found new and unique ways to collaborate with the product management team and engage with reseller partners to accelerate their success, even when interactions were virtual. Molly Sherwood , Senior Director, Marketing Sherwood used the challenges of last year to lead her team to think more creatively and provide a more diverse and comprehensive portfolio of marketing offerings to support vendor and reseller partners. Sherwood used the challenges of last year to lead her team to think more creatively and provide a more diverse and comprehensive portfolio of marketing offerings to support vendor and reseller partners. Kristen Stallard , Director, Product Management, SYNNEX Stellr Stallard has driven outstanding results and growth for the Stellr business, playing a pivotal role in developing incremental proposals for new investment programs and partnerships with service providers and vendors. Stallard has driven outstanding results and growth for the Stellr business, playing a pivotal role in developing incremental proposals for new investment programs and partnerships with service providers and vendors. Sandi Stambaugh , Vice President, Product Management, VISUAL Solv , COLLAB Solv , and Device Mobility Stambaugh's commitment to reseller enablement, strategic product positioning, and her team's customer-first approach led to considerable growth in Visual Solutions, Device Mobility and Collaboration, and allowed her organizations to creatively and quickly respond to the ever-changing market. Stambaugh's commitment to reseller enablement, strategic product positioning, and her team's customer-first approach led to considerable growth in Visual Solutions, Device Mobility and Collaboration, and allowed her organizations to creatively and quickly respond to the ever-changing market. Diane Sullivan , Vice President, HPE & HP Inc. Business Development and Vendor Operations Sullivan and her team helped partners successfully navigate various vendor program changes this past year, educating resellers on best practices and how to use the changes to their advantage. Sullivan and her team helped partners successfully navigate various vendor program changes this past year, educating resellers on best practices and how to use the changes to their advantage. Jessica Tanoury , Vice President, Product Management, Stellr Mobility Tanoury helped drive new programs and investments within the Stellr community to better serve partners in the current economic and social environment, including onboarding new vendors and supporting the launch of the 5G acceleration initiative. Tanoury helped drive new programs and investments within the Stellr community to better serve partners in the current economic and social environment, including onboarding new vendors and supporting the launch of the 5G acceleration initiative. Calhoun Taylor , Director, Product Business Management Taylor and her team are known for their delivery and execution against strategic plans to drive results, create new routes to market, launch new vendors, and increase overall channel share. In 2020 they quickly created new services and offerings to support fully remote work models to support a record year for the Security business. Taylor and her team are known for their delivery and execution against strategic plans to drive results, create new routes to market, launch new vendors, and increase overall channel share. In 2020 they quickly created new services and offerings to support fully remote work models to support a record year for the Security business. Shannon Warner , Vice President, Cloud & Ecosystems Leading the 5G acceleration initiative, Warner and her team partnered with key market leaders across the industry to provide strategic guidance around 5G, Connectivity, and IoT, resulting in substantial growth in SYNNEX cloud business. She grew SYNNEX' productivity and hybrid cloud businesses, delivering record revenue through the launch of SYNNEX exclusive partner programs with an expanded and growing list of new vendor partnerships. "CRN's 2021 Women of the Channel list acknowledges accomplished, influential women whose dedication, hard work, and leadership accelerate channel growth," said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. "We are proud to honor them for their many accomplishments and look forward to their continued contributions to the IT channel." The 2021 Women of the Channel and Power 100 award will be featured in CRN Magazine on May 10th and online at www.CRN.com/WOTC. About SYNNEX Corporation SYNNEX Corporation (NYSE: SNX) is a Fortune 200 corporation and a leading provider of a comprehensive range of distribution, systems design and integration services for the technology industry to a wide range of enterprises. Founded in 1980, SYNNEX Corporation operates in numerous countries throughout North and South America, Asia-Pacific and Europe. Additional information about SYNNEX may be found online at synnex.com. Safe Harbor Statement Statements in this news release that are forward-looking, such as features and capabilities of products and services, security product offering expansion, technology trends, and general success of collaborations, involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance that may be suggested in this release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release. Copyright 2021 SYNNEX Corporation. All rights reserved. SYNNEX, the SYNNEX Logo, STELLR and all other SYNNEX company, product and services names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of SYNNEX Corporation. SYNNEX, the SYNNEX Logo, Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. Other names and marks are the property of their respective owners. About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn , and Facebook. 2021. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. The Channel Company Contact: Jennifer Hogan The Channel Company [email protected] SNX-G Media Contact : Bill Fox Hughes Agency For SYNNEX Corporation (864) 271-0718 [email protected] SOURCE SYNNEX Corporation Related Links http://www.synnex.com BOSTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Banks must reinforce their risk management capabilities now and brace for the impact of substantial loan losses in coming months as the ending of government relief programs reveals the full financial impact of the pandemic, according to a new report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, titled Global Risk 2021: Building a Stronger, Healthier Bank, cautions that the year ahead for banks is likely to be marred by company defaults and business insolvencies as the toll of the pandemic is fully reflected in corporate financial statements. This follows a year in which banks' strengthened risk provisions ensured greater resilience and enabled much needed support for their customers. US banks set aside considerably more for potential loan losses in 2020 than they did in 2019with average provisions growing by 137%. European institutions similarly increased their provisions by 113%. But this cushion could be eroded as the pandemic enters its second year. If the global economic outlook worsens, the impact is likely to be felt differently from country to country. BCG findings suggest that banks in nations where tourism, real estate, or transport make up a larger share of the industrial mix will be most affected. Gerold Grasshoff, a BCG managing director and senior partner and a coauthor of the report, said: "Banks have learned from the global financial crisis of 20082009 regarding capitalization, liquidity management, and crisis response. Today, well-positioned and resilient banks are actively identifying opportunities for consolidation and growth. They need to remain cautious, however, as the measures supporting the economy wind down, revealing underlying issues involving nonperforming loans. Institutions now have a real opportunity to seize the moment and secure their own stability and resilience by reinforcing their core processes and working models, solidifying their foundations, and boldly acting on emerging opportunities." Banks Must Establish Safeguards Now to Lead in the Postcrisis Period According to the report, banks must apply six core levers to help them emerge from the crisis in a position of strength: Upgrade scenario planning using refreshed data that allows banks to effectively evaluate operational, business, and financial vulnerabilities at the portfolio level. Shift to active credit portfolio management by establishing a dedicated credit-portfolio management unit tasked with deriving optimization recommendations. Augment collections and workout capabilities while creating supporting digital infrastructure. Optimize the balance sheet and P&L, working methodically to examine each core area and optimizing layer by layer. Advance compliance and nonfinancial risk management by formalizing and standardizing governance frameworks. Accelerate digitization with an emphasis on cloud adoption to gain agility and resilience. As banks contend with the volatile landscape ahead, strengthening foundational capabilities that will define the next generation of leading institutionsincluding operational resilience as well as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk managementwill ensure that they get a jump-start on recovery. "The banks that are ahead of the curve have already integrated ESG risk management into their strategy and are now working on integrating ESG into their core banking processes and methods," said BCG's Gerold Grasshoff. "Institutions that take advantage of this opportunity will not only satisfy regulatory requirements but will set themselves up for success after the crisis." A copy of the report can be downloaded here. To arrange an interview with one of the authors, please contact Eric Gregoire at +1 617 850 3783 or [email protected]. About Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group partners with leaders in business and society to tackle their most important challenges and capture their greatest opportunities. BCG was the pioneer in business strategy when it was founded in 1963. Today, we work closely with clients to embrace a transformational approach aimed at benefiting all stakeholdersempowering organizations to grow, build sustainable competitive advantage, and drive positive societal impact. Our diverse, global teams bring deep industry and functional expertise and a range of perspectives that question the status quo and spark change. BCG delivers solutions through leading-edge management consulting, technology and design, and corporate and digital ventures. We work in a uniquely collaborative model across the firm and throughout all levels of the client organization, fueled by the goal of helping our clients thrive and enabling them to make the world a better place. SOURCE Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Related Links www.bcg.com DUBLIN, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Agricultural Biologicals Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The agricultural biologicals market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 11.02% over the analyzed period to reach a market size of US$19,699.792 million in 2026 from US$9,477.038 million in 2019. Agricultural biologicals are a distinctive group of natural products, derived from naturally occurring micro-organisms, beneficial insects, plant extracts, and other organic matters. Biological products, such as agricultural biologicals, are the fastest-growing segments in the agricultural input market. the key developer of this industry is the growing demand for eco-friendly, chemical-free products for better yield. Chemical fertilizers and pesticides do increase yield, at the cost of the quality of the crop. The chemicals may end in the end product, harming the health of the consumers. Agricultural Biologicals, on the other hand, do not contain chemicals and make the plant and yield more nutritious and healthier. Bio-stimulants helps in increasing plant metabolic and enzymatic process, thus improving the production level and the crop quality. Bio-pesticides protects the plant from incest and other microbes attack, saving the yield. The market growth is driven by many factors which include R&D and innovation to meet the growing food demand as a result of the surging global population. Further, consumer interest in organic products will also drive the market. Furthermore, insects and weed resistance towards chemicals used in agriculture accompanied with rising environmental concerns will have a positive impact on the agricultural biologicals market. Rapid Urbanization and Industrialization, along with growing disposable income will have a positive impact on the market, driving the demand further. The prime driver of growth in the agricultural biologicals market is anticipated to be the growing demand for food owing to booming population growth. The World population is expected to increase to 9.8 billion by end of 2050, from 7.8 billion in 2019. This growth will increase the demand for food products. Further, rapid industrialization and urbanization, especially in developing countries, will decrease the arable land available for cultivation. Hence, intense pressure will be on agricultural lands to increase yield. Farmers will turn towards agricultural biologicals which helps in increasing yield. Moreover, growing disposable income will also boost the market. growth in disposable income redefines a better standard of living. Along with this, consumers are becoming more health-conscious and are demanding natural, organic products. To meet this demand, farmers are employing bio-products. These factors combined will boost the market for agricultural biologicals. Constraints facing agricultural biologicals market. Major hindrances faced by the agricultural biologicals market are its low shelf life and lack of awareness. Agricultural biologicals are plant-based or bio-based with minimum or no involvement of chemicals. In repercussion, biologicals product has a lower shelf life, i.e., same cannot be used for a longer period. Hence, it cannot be stocked and stored by farmers. Moreover, these products are less adaptive and cannot be transferred easily from one container to another. Lack of awareness of these products s another constraint facing the market. Soil Treatment and Foliar Spray to hold significant market share. By Application, the market is segmented into Soil treatment, Seed treatment, and Foliar Sprays. Of these, soil treatment and foliar sprays are anticipated to hold a significant market share due to awareness and non-technical usage. The seed treatment segment of the market will also hold a noteworthy share and is anticipated to increase at a considerable rate with growing awareness. Based on the source of agricultural biologicals, the market is classified into biochemicals, microbials, and others. The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to grow at the fastest pace. Based on geography, the market is segmented into North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Asia Pacific regions. The Asia Pacific region is predicted to grow at the fastest rate during the forecasted period, owing to rapid urbanization and growing industrialization. The region will also encounter a population boom in the coming years, especially India and China, which will become the first and second most populated countries, respectively. Moreover, growing disposable income in the area and raised standard of living have increased the demand for natural products. Surging health concerns has also significantly influenced demand for organic products. The governments, as well, are supporting the use of agricultural biologicals for sustainability and health. The government of India, for instance, made it compulsory for farmers, in August 2020, to purchase a bag of bio-fertilizers with every bag purchase of urea. The government intends to promote the use of bio-fertilizers, along with discouraging the use of chemical fertilizers, with this regulation. The North American region is also estimated to employ a noteworthy market share, owning to their state-of-art infrastructure. Education and awareness also play a significant role in the promotion of agricultural biologicals in the region. COVID pandemic and Agricultural Biologicals industry. The coronavirus pandemic had a positive impact on the Agricultural Biologicals industry. The pandemic forced the governments to scrutinize their policies and employ sustainable means to reduce human carbon footprint. Further, raised safety and security standards have encouraged the consumption of healthy, natural, and organic products for better immunity and health. Key Developments March 2021 , Arizona -based, Gowan company announced its acquisition of all shares of Piemme S.R.L., from its shareholders and Giorgio Basile . , -based, Gowan company announced its acquisition of all shares of Piemme S.R.L., from its shareholders and . March 2021 , Bayer AG has announced that it will be launching Vanity Citrus, a bio-pesticide that targets citrus farm pests. The company claims that its Vanity Citrus does not generate resistance or any residue in harvest or the environment. , Bayer AG has announced that it will be launching Vanity Citrus, a bio-pesticide that targets citrus farm pests. The company claims that its Vanity Citrus does not generate resistance or any residue in harvest or the environment. October 2020 , Kerala state inaugurated its first bio-fertilizers and organic manure quality control laboratory in Pattambi. The laboratory would enable farmers to resolve issues regulating their bio-products along with understanding government policies. , Kerala state inaugurated its first bio-fertilizers and organic manure quality control laboratory in Pattambi. The laboratory would enable farmers to resolve issues regulating their bio-products along with understanding government policies. August 2020 , the government of India mandated the purchase of bio-fertilizers along with the purchase of urea. The government regulation states that for each bag of urea purchased, the farmer has to purchase a bag of bio-fertilizer. The intention behind implementing this rule is to encourage the use of biofertilizers over chemical fertilizers. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 1.1. Market Definition 1.2. Market Segmentation 2. Research Methodology 2.1. Research Data 2.2. Assumptions 3. Executive Summary 3.1. Research Highlights 4. Market Dynamics 4.1. Market Drivers 4.2. Market Restraints 4.3. Porters Five Forces Analysis 4.3.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.3.2. Bargaining Powers of Buyers 4.3.3. Threat of Substitutes 4.3.4. Threat of New Entrants 4.3.5. Competitive Rivalry in Industry 4.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis 5. Agricultural Biologicals Market, by Type 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Biofertilizers 5.3. Biopesticides 5.4. Biostimulants 6. Agricultural Biologicals Market, by Application 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Soil Treatment 6.3. Seed Treatment 6.4. Foliar Sprays 7. Agricultural Biologicals Market, by Source 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Biochemicals 7.3. Microbials 7.4. Others 8. Agricultural Biologicals Market, by Geography 8.1. Introduction 8.2. North Americas 8.2.1. North America Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Type 8.2.2. North America Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Source 8.2.3. North America Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Application 8.2.4. By Country 8.2.4.1. United States 8.2.4.2. Canada 8.2.4.3. Mexico 8.3. South America 8.3.1. South America Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Type 8.3.2. South America Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Source 8.3.3. South America Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Application 8.3.4. By Country 8.3.4.1. Brazil 8.3.4.2. Argentina 8.3.4.3. Others 8.4. Europe 8.4.1. Europe Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Type 8.4.2. Europe Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Source 8.4.3. Europe Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Application 8.4.4. By Country 8.4.4.1. Germany 8.4.4.2. France 8.4.4.3. United Kingdom 8.4.4.4. Spain 8.4.4.5. Others 8.5. The Middle East and Africa 8.5.1. The Middle East and Africa Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Type 8.5.2. The Middle East and Africa Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Source 8.5.3. The Middle East and Africa Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Application 8.5.4. By Country 8.5.4.1. Saudi Arabia 8.5.4.2. South Africa 8.5.4.3. Others 8.6. Asia Pacific 8.6.1. Asia Pacific Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Type 8.6.2. Asia Pacific Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Source 8.6.3. Asia Pacific Agricultural Biologicals Market Analysis, By Application 8.6.4. By Country 8.6.4.1. China 8.6.4.2. India 8.6.4.3. South Korea 8.6.4.4. Japan 8.6.4.5. Others 9. Competitive Environment and Analysis 9.1. Major Players and Strategy Analysis 9.2. Emerging Players and Market Lucrative 9.3. Mergers, Acquisition, Agreements, and Collaborations 9.4. Vendor Competitiveness Matrix 10. Company Profiles 10.1. Biolchim SPA 10.2. Marrone Bio Innovations 10.3. BASF SE 10.4. Valent BioScience 10.5. Syngenta 10.6. Isagro 10.7. Arysta LifeSceince 10.8. Koppert Biological Solutions 10.9. Certius USA L.L.C. 10.10. Agricen For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/sc2t5y Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com WASHINGTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Who: The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) is the world's leading association of travel agents (also referred to as advisors), representing 160,000 travel advisors across the country, 98 percent of which are small businesses. What: The Society will kick-off their lobbying day with a press conference at the National Press Club where a powerhouse panel of travel CEOs will discuss the travel industry recovery, the challenges we face and the opportunity on the horizon. Zane Kerby , President & CEO of the American Society of Travel Advisors , President & CEO of the American Society of Travel Advisors Jackie Friedman , President of Nexion Travel Group , President of Nexion Travel Group Alex Sharpe , President & CEO of Signature Travel Network , President & CEO of Signature Travel Network Jennifer Wilson-Buttigieg , Co-President & Owner at Valerie Wilson Travel , Co-President & Owner at Valerie Wilson Travel Matthew D. Upchurch , Chief Executive Officer, Virtuoso , Chief Executive Officer, Virtuoso Olga Ramudo , President & CEO of Express Travel Where: National Press Club, 529 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20045. Contact [email protected] to join us in-person or join virtually & register for the Live Webcast. When: Tuesday, May 18, from 2:00 pm 3:00 pm ET Why: As headlines about ravaged commercial airlines and empty hotels swirled, Congress worked to provide relief to the travel and hospitality industry. But while the government doled out assistance to airlines, restaurants, and other highly visible sectors, one lesser known, but no less critical, group went unaccounted for. The travel agency industry's predominantly small, woman-owned businesses have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic and yet they've been virtually ignored in relief bills to date. Travel agencies are an economic lifeline for the entire tourism ecosystem. Pre-pandemic, travel advisors had experienced five consecutive years of record sales and profits. In 2019, advisors sold $116.8 billion of travel including: 44 percent of all airline tickets (830,000 tickets per day); 66 percent of cruises and 31 percent of hotel bookings. Despite the devastating blow of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is now a strong increase in overall demand for travel with 89 percent of travelers indicating their readiness to travel by the end of 2021 according to ASTA's consumer research. As a result of the surge in demand, travelers are turning to the experts for advice. Our research indicates that after the pandemic is over, nearly half of travelers (44%) are more likely to use a travel advisor. This trend was also cited in a recent New York Times feature: Make Way for the Travel Agents. Again. While some bright spots have started to emerge, the fact of the matter is that travel advisors face a long road to recovery with the State Department and CDC continuing to discourage international travel, while cruise lines remain shuttered and business travel is still at a fraction of 2019 level. Topics We'll Cover: COVID-19 impact and recovery from the perspective of the largest travel agency consortia leaders. Cruising and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Conditional Sail Order (CSO). Travel trends in 2021 and beyond for both leisure and business travel. Contact: Erika Richter [email protected] or (586) 604-9226 SOURCE American Society of Travel Advisors The implications of the governor's energy pipeline shutdown, focusing on the risks and burdens to other state's and nation's energy security, economies, and the environment. The risk that Michigan's actions pose to the tunnel project. (Under terms of the agreements between the state of Michigan and Enbridge, if Enbridge were forced to shutter the pipeline involuntarily, the state risks termination of the company's obligation to build the tunnel.) Statement: The wellbeing of millions of Americans and Canadians living in the Great Lakes Region was built on collaboration between our two countries. Forcing Line 5 to close would be bad for jobs, bad for families struggling with the cost of living, bad for energy security, bad for the international partnership our countries have worked so hard to create and, ultimately, bad for the environment. It would be hard to think of a more effective way to produce hardship for so many people on both sides of our common border. Our joint action today is unprecedented. It is a reflection of a combined commitment to moving the Great Lakes region's economic prosperity forward. Energy infrastructure is the number one driver of economic growth. The future continued expansion of our intertwined economies depends on the recognition of Line 5 as a vital energy lifeline that supports industries, employers and workforces. The Great Lakes economy is the third biggest in the world -- the engine that powers North America. Our amicus brief, submitted by three state chambers and two national chambers, emphasizes the importance of economic security for the court's deliberation. Unilateral decision-making by any official that undermines energy supply and economic security is detrimental to the entire region. As leading business organizations representing thousands of employers and millions of workers in the U.S. and Canada, we stand together to urge a positive resolution to the issues involving Line 5. For decades, the Great Lakes States and Provinces, the United States and Canada have been neighbors who are good friends, business and trading partners, and typically close allies. For a governor to issue an ultimatum to shut down an essential oil and gas pipeline that serves much of the North American heartland is a horrible idea, unprecedented, and simply outside her authority. Building the Great Lakes Tunnel is a commonsense and a widely supported answer to protect the waters of the Great Lakes and preserve energy supply. We are extremely concerned that Governor Whitmer, by her arbitrary shutdown order, is jeopardizing Enbridge's private investment and obligation to build the Great Lakes Tunnel. This is not the outcome any of us in the region want. SOURCE Michigan Chamber of Commerce Related Links http://www.michamber.com From staffing to budgeting to compliance and technology planning, this report provides segment-specific data and insight Tweet this "As if a pandemic wasn't enough, our profession was impacted by shifts and 'variants' on almost every front," observed Securitas President and CEO, North America Guarding, Greg Anderson. "From staffing to budgeting to compliance and technology planning, this report provides segment-specific data and insights from industry peers as well as our own experts." There has been a shift in areas of concern since the protective services leader released its last report in 2019. For example, not even on the radar in the 2019 report, the COVID-19 global pandemic emerged as the top security concern for 2021. And as an indicator that the pandemic has altered the way organizations plan for large-scale business disruptions, business continuity/organizational resilience recaptured the report's second-place ranking. Another indicator of the impact of recent events on the security profession: civil unrest made the biggest move, rising from 22nd to a tie for 6th with the threat of active shooter, which slipped from its 2nd place standing in the 2019 report. The latest findings of the biannual study indicate that the top five security threats are: COVID-19 Pandemic Business Continuity Planning/Organizational Resilience Cyber/Communications Security Workplace Violence Prevention/Response Employee Selection/Screening/Rescreening (including Insider Threats) In addition to providing analysis of the most pressing security priorities, the report also contains guest content from trusted thought leaders, including industry principals and Securitas experts. Guest content explores COVID-19 response and recovery perspectives, including how the pandemic accelerated the growth of the remote work model and the impact of that shift on security. Other assessed topics include latest deviations in cyber security, the accelerating evolution of Security Operations Centers (SOCs), and a look at "Project Freedom" Securitas North America's multi-year, client-centric technology and business transformation. "We've made it a priority to continue to operationalize intelligence across our organization," said Securitas Chief Operating Officer, North American Guarding, Jose Castejon. "Our Top Security Threats report is a prime example of how we turn that intelligence into insights that can have a tangible impact on our clients' security operations." Sparks Research, an independent national marketing research firm based in Clemson, S.C., conducted the survey on behalf of Securitas USA. To request a copy of the entire report, please visit https://www.securitasinc.com/Why_Securitas/thought-leadership/top-security-threats-2021/. About Securitas: Securitas is the world's leading intelligent protective services partner. Our guarding, electronic security, fire and safety, and risk management solutions enable more than 150,000 clients to see a different world. We are present in 48 countries and our innovative, data-driven approach makes us a trusted partner to many of the world's best-known companies. Our 355,000 employees live our values of integrity, vigilance and helpfulness, and fulfill our purpose to "Help make your world a safer place." SOURCE Securitas Security Services USA, Inc. With 94.69 out of 100, Trailer Bridge is one of the highest-scoring businesses in America for the second year in a row. "I am so proud of each and every one of our TB family members for creating a culture where people love coming to work," said Trailer Bridge CEO, Mitch Luciano. "Even through an exceptionally challenging time, our team continues to show integrity, heart, and a commitment to keeping supply chains moving for the livelihood of others. Our strong culture is exactly why we've earned this prestigious award for the second year in a row." With 94.69 out of a possible 100, Trailer Bridge is one of the highest-scoring businesses in America for the second year in a row. The company saw a more than 1-point increase in its 2021 score over its 2020 score. "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." An award-winning, full-service logistics provider, Trailer Bridge provides ocean transport between the U.S. and the Caribbean with its fleet of ocean-going deck barges as well as over-the-road trucking, cross-border logistics, intermodal, and third-party logistics services providing a full supply chain solution for shippers around the globe. Connect with a member of the Trailer Bridge team today for a personalized look at your supply chain needs at 1.844.TB.SHIPS or email [email protected] to request a quote. About Trailer Bridge Trailer Bridge is a privately held asset-owned logistics company that transports cargo across land, air, rail, and sea. A leader in transportation services, Trailer Bridge strives to provide customers the best possible service. This commitment to exceptional service has earned Trailer Bridge the Logistics Management Quest for Quality Award as #1 Ocean Carrier, Inc Magazine's Best Workplaces in America 2020, as well as recognition as one of the Best Places to Work in Jacksonville, Florida, a Fastest Growing Company in Jacksonville and a Top Maritime Business in Jacksonville. Trailer Bridge is headquartered in Jacksonville, FL, and operates 12 offices with more than 200 employees across North America. For more information about Trailer Bridge, visit https://www.trailerbridge.com. About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. Contact: Whitney Croxton, (904) 751-7453, [email protected] SOURCE Trailer Bridge Related Links http://www.trailerbridge.com CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Treacy & Company welcomes Francesco Fazio to our Chicago office as Senior Partner and Innovation Practice Lead. Francesco brings 20+ years of experience and has a passion for innovation and exceptional client service. "Francesco's expertise in breakthrough innovation and dedication to helping his clients become better innovators makes him a perfect fit for Treacy & Company and our clients. We're really excited to have him join our Chicago office" said Managing Director, Josh Coleman. Michael Treacy, Founder and President added, "Francesco has deep experience in helping companies think about how innovation can accelerate their growth strategy in more powerful ways. We're looking forward to working alongside him work with clients to challenge their thinking in how they view growth." When he's not helping clients become better innovators, you can find Francesco spending time at the zoo and Lake Michigan with his wife and three daughters. Francesco also enjoys cooking Italian food and watching F1. Please join us in welcoming Francesco to our team. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or through LinkedIn. SOURCE Treacy & Company Related Links https://www.treacyandco.com LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Trust Payments today announced it has entered the Nordic market via two initial strategic partnerships. The company has partnered with Global Sales Partner (GSP) to deploy omnichannel solutions into the market, as well as with POS ONE, a leading cloud-based, hardware agnostic integration solution for merchants needing multiple channels to market. The partners will use TRU Link, Trust Payments' latest product. TRU Link integrates with a merchant's existing ePOS or Property Management System, allowing merchants to synchronize data, automatically reconcile and drive operating efficiencies. Jonathan O'Connor, Chief Commercial Officer, commented: "The Nordic market is attractive to Trust Payments for its high usage of electronic payments and low use of cash as well as high internet and mobile penetration. We have started out in Denmark, where cash withdrawals are declining, and it is estimated that the average citizen performs over 400 digital payment transactions per year. Denmark is just the tip of the iceberg for us, and we look forward to expanding into Norway, Finland, Iceland and Sweden via similar strategic partnerships." Stefan Nielsen, Director, GSP, commented: "We selected Trust Payments as our sole payments partner in the Nordic region as they are focused not only on POS systems but on an entire ecosystem of technology, offering ample choice to retailers in the Nordics. Our goal is to take all of the admin and headaches out of payments for our customers." GSP has a strong presence in Denmark, collaborating with James App from the Danish version of Shark Tank on a solution for Salling Group, the biggest supermarket chain in Denmark. TRU Link will now support key client expansion in the region including the Marcussen Hotel; and Coffee Ten, a chain of coffee shops with international ambitions. TRU Link, a semi-integrated solution Along with the launch into the Nordic region, Trust Payments has also launched TRU Link, a semi-integrated cloud-based solution targeting a number of industry verticals. The solution integrates with a merchants' ePOS or Property Management System. The first merchant to go live with this solution was Umiddelbar, a popular bakery in Denmark. Anders Ven, owner of Umiddelbar commented: "We are a super busy bakery in Copenhagen, serving our delicious products to over 300 customers daily. Previously we had to manually enter hundreds of transactions each day into our POS terminal, passing it back and forth between our staff and customers. Not only was this a headache for our staff, but it also increased risk of Covid infection from constantly touching the terminal and added potential for human error - for example typing in the wrong amount. We are delighted that we are now fully automated with our POS connected to our ePOS system. The installation process has been smooth and quick. It really transformed our business, helping us to serve our customers even more quickly, reduce the amount of physical contact in the shop and reduce reconciliation errors." Russel Fernandes, Head of Product, Trust Payments said: "We believe TRU Link will make life easier for merchants like Umiddelbar in the Nordic region and beyond. TRU Link connects the payment channels and POS setup, integrating into the merchant's existing software, allowing them to work together. Whether a company is taking a payment online, from a card machine or from a tablet, the data can be synchronised, reconciliations are seamless, and we can help the retailer save time and money." Trust Payments plans to expand rapidly into the Nordics through 2021. About Trust Payments Group Trust Payments is a global unified payments group for global pay-in, pay-out and customer journey technologies. Our mission is to help businesses to optimise their sales and customer experience through facilitating speedy and seamless payments, loyalty, and data management creating truly Converged Commerce. Our global technology platform connects to 50+ global banks to support multi-acquirer processing, as well as our own merchant acquiring solution in the EU, acquiring.com. The group holds an Authorised Payment Institution (API) License from the UK FCA, Principal Memberships with Visa and Mastercard, as well as money transmission and gaming vendor licences in the US. Our trusted and robust technology solutions process 5bn+ in annualised volume for 20,000+ businesses across eCommerce, mobile and Point of Sale (POS) in 15 like-for-like settlement currencies. Partners, developers and merchants who work with us benefit from our 24 years of payments experience in Retail, Travel, Hospitality, Gaming, Education, Financial Services and Emerging Verticals. Visit us at www.trustpayments.com. Media enquiries [email protected] Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1503077/TRUST_Payments_Black_Logo.jpg SOURCE Trust Payments Predictable cash flow from long term triple net leased real estate Attractive funds from operations (FFO) multiple Sustainable pipeline of potential acquisitions What does: (NYSEAMERICAN:PW) is a specialized real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns sustainable real estate related to infrastructure assets, including properties for controlled environment agriculture (greenhouses for the cultivation of food and cannabis), renewable energy, and transportation. The Old Bethpage, New York-based company was built upon the legacy of its wholly-owned Pittsburgh & West Virginia Railroad subsidiary, the first listed infrastructure REIT in the US that was based on its railroad property. s railroad assets include 112 miles of track and related real estate located within the Marcellus and Utica Shale regions, stretching from western Pennsylvania to eastern Ohio. Railway has a 99-year lease on the property with unlimited renewal options, but is contracted to pay Power REIT more than $17 million in a termination fee upon default or failure to renew. Power REIT also owns 600 acres of utility-scale solar farms, which generate enough kilowatts to power 4,600 homes each year. The company has long-term power purchase agreements for its sun-powered energy with high credit quality counterparties. In July 2019, Power REIT expanded its focus to include agricultural real estate with an emphasis on Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), which is an innovative method of growing plants that involves creating optimized growing environments for a given crop indoors. Going forward, Power REIT intends to concentrate on CEA-related real estate for growing food as well as cannabis with its sustainability Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Triple Bottom Line a commitment to profit, planet and people. To that end, the company owns 50 acres of land with 297,000 square feet of greenhouse/processing space for medical cannabis cultivation in place and under construction. Power REIT also boasts an acquisition pipeline in excess of $100 million at various stages of negotiations. Power REIT is led by CEO David Lesser, who has more than 30 years experience in real estate investment and finance and is currently president of Hudson Bay Partners, LP, an investment firm focused on real estate, real estate-related situations and alternative energy. How is it doing: Power REIT is charging forward on its growth path in 2021 with some notable property deals. In May, the company signed an agreement to acquire 522,530 square feet (sq ft) of high-tech greenhouse and cannabis processing space in Michigan for a purchase price of about $18.5 million. Power REIT said the greenhouse will be operated as a Michigan Regulated Cannabis Cultivation and Processing Facility and will be the largest of its kind in Michigan and one of the largest in the US. The company noted that the state-of-the-art facility features advanced greenhouse cultivation controls and a state-of-the-art irrigation/fertigation system a turnkey setup that is ready to start growing immediately. Earlier in the same month, Power REIT said it has acquired a 35-acre property located in southern Colorado, through a wholly-owned subsidiary, that it plans to use for cannabis cultivation and processing. The property currently has multiple greenhouses and support buildings, and the company said it plans to both upgrade the existing infrastructure and build additional greenhouse space. Upon completion, the property will comprise approximately 102,800 square feet of greenhouse and related space. Power REITs total capital commitment for the project is about $3.9 million, including the acquisition cost. The property also has ample acreage for future expansion, the company noted, which it intends to finance. In April, Power REIT revealed it had acquired 4.0 acres of land, consisting of two adjacent property parcels, in Crowley County, Colorado through its wholly-owned PropCo subsidiary for sustainable greenhouse cannabis cultivation. The company said the transaction was valued at about $2.95 million, which included the construction of a 38,440 square foot greenhouse cultivation facility. As well, the companys PropCo subsidiary agreed to lease the cannabis cultivation facility to Cloud Nine Farms LLC, a minority-owned business, for a period of 20 years, with two, five-year renewal options. Cloud Nine is expected to maintain a medical marijuana license but is prohibited from making retail sales from the property. Power REIT noted the lease, as structured, is immediately accretive to the companys core funds from operations (FFO) and with annual rent of about $552,870, it represents an unleveraged FFO yield of about 18.7% on the invested capital. Meanwhile, in March, Power REIT announced that it had acquired an additional 2.2 acres in Colorado for greenhouse cannabis cultivation. It said the land parcel in Crowley County offers a very favorable business setting and growing environment for sustainable greenhouse cultivation. Power REIT also agreed to fund about $2.1 million to acquire land and construct nearly 24,500 square feet of greenhouse and processing space for its new tenant, Gas Station LLC. As part of the deal for the additional acreage, which was signed through a Power REIT subsidiary, the company entered into a 20-year triple-net lease with Gas Station, which will operate the cultivation facility. Under the terms of the lease, Gas Station will be responsible for all property-related expenses. Once the initial 20-year term expires, the lease provides two, five-year renewal options and has a personal guarantee from the owners of Gas Station, according to Power REIT. Power REIT told investors that the rental payment will provide its subsidiary with a full return on its invested capital over the next three years and thereafter at a 13.3% yield, which will increase at a rate of 3% per year after that. The current lease also provides straight-line annual rent of about $301,000 an unleveraged FFO yield of about 19% on the invested capital. Looking at Power REIT's finances, in May, the company reported first-quarter 2021 earnings per share of $0.33, a 275% year-over-year increase as the company continued to make accretive acquisitions to boost its bottom line. The REIT also said its Core Funds from Operations (FFO) increased by 142% year over year to $0.46 per share. The company noted that it has been able to realize dynamic growth due to the attractive yields it is able to achieve with its strategic CEA investments. As well, Power REIT said it has an active pipeline of acquisitions and hopes to announce additional activity in the near future. The company ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of about $37 million as of March 31, 2021, up from $5.6 million at the end of December. Inflection points: Significant growth through accretive acquisitions Increasing cash flow Participation in US cannabis industry growth What the boss says: Commenting on the companys recent Colorado land acquisition, Power REIT CEO David Lesser said in a statement: Power REITs relatively small size combined with the attractive investment yields that we are generating through CEA property acquisitions, positions us for continued outpaced growth. We believe Power REIT represents an attractive investment proposition based on our relatively low trading multiple than REIT peers with a clear growth trajectory, Lesser added. Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com BETHESDA, Md., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwest Biotherapeutics (OTCQB: NWBO) ("NW Bio"), a biotechnology company developing DCVax personalized immune therapies for solid tumor cancers, today announced that an application for certification of the manufacturing facility in Sawston, UK has been submitted to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The Company also provided a process update on the DCVax-L Phase III Trial. On May 7, the application package was submitted to the MHRA requesting the certification of the Sawston facility to produce Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) clinical grade medical products for patients. This application represents the culmination of more than 2 years of preparations, including more than a year conducting these efforts under challenging COVID-19 restrictions and conditions. As previously reported on March 16, 2021, the preparations have included the physical buildout of Phase I of the facility, development of over 500 regulatory documents (including Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all aspects of operations, batch manufacturing records, and other formal documents), development of a Sawston team of nearly 40 persons with all of the required types of expertise for production of Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs) and training in regard to the DCVax technology and processes. The next step will be an on-site inspection of the facility by MHRA. Following the inspection, a report of the inspection results and any findings needing any corrective action will be issued by MHRA. Following completion of any actions, the Company is hopeful that an initial license will be issued and production of GMP DCVax-L products in the Sawston facility may begin by around the end of Q3. In addition to the MHRA submission activities, a prototype of the Flaskworks system has been delivered to the Sawston facility, and the Company currently anticipates that initial practice runs with the system may begin at the Sawston facility during the summer. Meanwhile, manufacturing of vaccine products for compassionate use patients ("Specials") has been and is continuing at the GMP facility in London. The process outlined in the Company's October 5, 2020 announcement relating to the Phase III trial of DCVax-L is continuing to move forward. The process includes review and analysis of the raw data by independent statisticians and experts, and preparation of summaries of the Trial results for review by the Company, the Principal Investigator, the Steering Committee of the Trial, the Scientific Advisory Board, and a panel of independent brain cancer experts in preparation for public announcement and scientific publication. The Company continues to be in a quiet period while this process is under way. The Company appreciates shareholders' patience, and their understanding that the Company cannot make partial disclosures during this process and cannot comment on the Phase III trial schedule or its data until the announcement of the results. We remain committed to completing the full plan outlined on October 5, 2020. About Northwest Biotherapeutics Northwest Biotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on developing personalized immunotherapy products designed to treat cancers more effectively than current treatments, without toxicities of the kind associated with chemotherapies, and on a cost-effective basis, in both North America and Europe. The Company has a broad platform technology for DCVax dendritic cell-based vaccines. The Company's lead program is a 331-patient Phase III trial of DCVax-L for newly diagnosed Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). GBM is the most aggressive and lethal form of brain cancer, and is an "orphan disease." This Phase III trial is now completed, with the trial data now being analyzed. The Company is also pursuing development of DCVax-Direct for inoperable solid tumor cancers. It has completed a 40-patient Phase I trial and, as resources permit, is preparing for Phase II trials. The Company previously conducted a Phase I/II trial with DCVax-L for advanced ovarian cancer together with the University of Pennsylvania. Disclaimer Statements made in this news release that are not historical facts, including statements concerning future treatment of patients using DCVax and future clinical trials, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "expect," "believe," "intend," "design," "plan," "continue," "may," "will," "anticipate," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. We cannot guarantee that we actually will achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in our forward-looking statements and you should not place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. Specifically, there are a number of important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, such as risks related to the Company's ability to enroll patients in its clinical trials and complete the trials on a timely basis, uncertainties about the clinical trials process, uncertainties about the timely performance of third parties, risks related to whether the Company's products will demonstrate safety and efficacy, risks related to the Company's ongoing ability to raise additional capital, and other risks included in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") filings. Additional information on the foregoing risk factors and other factors, including Risk Factors, which could affect the Company's results, is included in its SEC filings. Finally, there may be other factors not mentioned above or included in the Company's SEC filings that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statement. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or developments, except as required by securities laws. CONTACTS 4800 Montgomery Lane Suite 800 Bethesda, MD 20814 t (240) 497-9024 f (240) 627-4121 www.nwbio.com OTCQB: NWBO SOURCE Northwest Biotherapeutics "This mid-band spectrum is a tremendous asset that will be a critical part of a strategic, multi-band network deployment strategy," said Hakan Ekmen, umlaut's US Managing Director. "As US carriers begin the work to get this valuable spectrum cleared and deployed, we believe that the mobile network operators that can provide consistently low latency, and ultimately availability, will be able to differentiate and win customers in the enterprise space and best monetize their investment in this spectrum." Highlights and findings from the C-Band Whitepaper include: The unfolding competitive situation - evolving enterprise and industrial demands is being shaped first and foremost by spectrum strategy. C-Band will surely play an essential role in enabling services that will address enterprise, industrial wireless use cases. 5G's unique characteristics scalable bandwidth, dramatically lower latency and leveraging MEC to move applications and use cases to the network edge, will enable wireless extensions of existing time sensitive network (TSN) applications. The potential for TSN applications over 5G is clearly one of the drivers in the pursuit of private networks and network slicing, and in umlaut's view, C-Band will be a solid spectrum choice to deploy a new generation of TSN. In the long-term, all three national US wireless providers will benefit from the auction. That being said, competition continues to expand in this industry, from the cable providers serving as MVNOs getting into the wireless game and claiming a major chunk of customer growth, to the potential of Google, Amazon and Apple and others becoming more aggressive in this space. In addition, the industry should be greatly impacted by the fourth US national wireless provider Dish, and their pending 5G deployments beyond buying Sprint's prepaid business. In addition, the US national providers will also face competition from enterprising companies able to use unlicensed spectrum. With the upcoming FCC auction for the lower end of the C-Band (3.45 3.55 GHz) spectrum range, the interest from potential new market entrants could grow to acquire this valuable spectrum and add competition to a very competitive industry. It remains to be seen to what degree new market entrants leveraging unlicensed spectrum could gain momentum and capture some of the US MNOs' market share and revenue streams. With the initial 5G spectrum strategies for carriers now more or less set, operators must move head long into the fight to achieve operational excellence. With C-Band holding a central position in the new 5G world order, umlaut believes that the next competitive fight on the horizon will be based on latency, and ultimately availability. "When you combine the fact that C-Band radio units and antennas are both widely available and aggressively being installed now, and that the vast majority of new 5G capable devices support C-Band out of the box, C-Band deployments will be unleashed sooner than many expect," said Ekmen. "This deployment will provide the carriers with the ability to enhance their 5G networks with massive additional capacity, lower latency and higher sustained speeds." The full 2021 C-Band White Paper can be downloaded here: https://www.umlaut.com/uploads/documents/2021_umlaut_Whitepaper_C_Band.pdf About umlaut umlaut is a global, full-service, cross-industry, end-to-end company that offers advisory and fulfilment services to clients all over the world. In-depth domain expertise, broad practical knowledge and interdisciplinary collaboration allow them to add value, quality and focus to their clients' organizations, services and products, in disruptive times in which industries are increasingly converging. Within an able and agile collective of 20 consultancies and engineering firms spread across 50 locations all over the world, 4,500 specialized experts and engineers provide innovative solutions and help lead transformation across all industries, organizational cultures, structures and processes, while also proudly serving the public sector. For more information please visit www.umlaut.com. Media Contacts Annette Skorupski cell +1 248 914 7373 [email protected] Olaf Gerwig cell +49 151 571 33 248 [email protected] Media Relations Office CREAM COMMUNICATION Bettina Leutner T +49 40 40 113 10 10 [email protected] SOURCE umlaut Related Links http://www.umlaut.com WASHINGTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has established five new advisory committees in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. Additionally, the Commission is seeking nominations of qualified and bipartisan candidates who reside in these particular territories for consideration for appointment as voluntary Special Government Employees of these advisory committees. The Commission is currently accepting nominations and applications to each of the five U.S. Territory advisory committees. The committees are composed of 11 to 15 members and must be bipartisan with a diversity of viewpoints and experiences. The Commission will appoint the members of each committee to a four-year term by majority vote of the Commission's Commissioners. The Commission will also appoint the Chair of each committee. Each committee will hold at least four meetings per calendar year either in-person or virtually. Interested applicants may self-nominate or be nominated by another individual or organization. Submission of U.S. Territory Advisory Committee nominations for membership (Residence in territory nominated for is required) can be made to David Mussatt, Ph.D., Supervisory Chief of Regional Programs, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Kluczynski Federal Building, 230 S. Dearborn St., Suite 2120, Chicago, IL 60604, ATTN: US Territory Advisory Committee Nomination or via email at [email protected], SUBJECT: US Territory Advisory Committee Nomination. Individuals who would like to self-nominated may apply directly at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/S7WCLL6. The Commission endeavors to ensure the membership of the U.S. Territory advisory committees is fairly balanced in terms of political membership, points of view represented, and that individuals from a broad representation of gender, and ethnic and minority groups, as well as individuals with disabilities, are considered for membership. Appointments shall be made without discrimination on the basis of age, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or cultural, religious, or socioeconomic status. U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Advisory Committees provide independent advice and recommendations to the Commission about civil rights matters within each committee's particular geographical jurisdiction. These committees operate as Federal Advisory Committees under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and under the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' jurisdiction, policies, and procedures for its advisory committees. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, established by the Civil Rights Act of 1957, is the only independent, bipartisan agency charged with advising the President and Congress on civil rights and reporting annually on federal civil rights enforcement. Our 51 state Advisory Committees offer a broad perspective on civil rights concerns at state and local levels. For information about the Commission, please visit www.usccr.gov and follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Contact: Angelia Rorison Email: [email protected] Phone: 202-376-7700 SOURCE U.S. Commission on Civil Rights Related Links http://www.usccr.gov WASHINGTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Leaders of the National Press Club and the National Press Club Journalism Institute called Wednesday for the military junta in Myanmar to release the several dozen journalists it has jailed and to reverse restrictions on press freedom in the country. According to independent observers, at least 40 journalists remain detained in Myanmar, where protests have been raging since a military coup overthrew the government in February. The junta has instituted a variety of other limitations on press coverage, ranging from satellite TV bans to internet blackouts, censorship and legal threats. "The military in Myanmar must cease its efforts to silence local and foreign coverage of the protests taking place in the country," said NPC President Lisa Nicole Matthews and NPC Journalism Institute President Angela Greiling Keane. "The international community must not grow accustomed to the human rights violations taking place in Myanmar, including the massive crackdown on the country's free press." NPC leaders also urged the government of Thailand not to repatriate Burmese journalists and activists who were recently arrested after crossing the border into Thailand. Three senior reporters with the independent Burmese broadcaster Democratic Voice of Burma, along with two activists, were detained by Thai police and charged with illegal entry into Thailand. Since the early February coup, many Burmese journalists have fled Myanmar in order to avoid the prospects of arrest, potential torture and death. Some have sought to cover the protests remotely from nearby countries, including Thailand, relying on videos and photographs submitted by citizen journalists and activists in Myanmar. "The Thai government can demonstrate its support for press freedom to the world by immediately releasing the detained Democratic Voice of Burma reporters and granting them sanctuary," Matthews and Greiling Keane said. "These journalists will likely face arrest, physical abuse or worse if they are sent back to Myanmar, where the military has a long history of violent intolerance toward independent journalism." Since the February coup, over 80 journalists have been arrested by the junta with over half that number still in detention, according to a May 2 statement from Western diplomatic missions to Myanmar. Nearly 800 people participating in protests against the coup have been killed by security forces, according to human rights groups. Founded in 1908, the National Press Club is The World's Leading Professional Organization for Journalists. The Club has 3,000 members representing nearly every major news organization and is a leading voice for press freedom in the United States and around the world. The National Press Club Journalism Institute, the Club's non-profit affiliate, promotes an engaged global citizenry through an independent and free press and equips journalists with skills and standards to inform the public in ways that inspire civic engagement. PRESS CONTACT: Lindsay Underwood for the National Press Club [email protected] (202) 662-7561 SOURCE National Press Club Related Links http://press.org PARAMUS, N.J., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- NS Pharma, Inc. (NS Pharma; President, Tsugio Tanaka), a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. (Nippon Shinyaku; President, Shigenobu Maekawa), announced today that new, long-term efficacy and safety data (interim analysis at 109 weeks) from the open-label extension of a Phase 2 study of VILTEPSO (viltolarsen) injection will be presented at the PPMD 2021 Annual Conference being held virtually from June 23-26. "This VILTEPSO data we are presenting at the PPMD Annual Conference represents some of the longest treatment times with exon-skipping therapy reported to date," said Leslie Magnus, MD, Vice President, Medical Affairs. "This data, compared to a matched historical control group, provides information on the potential long-term effectiveness and safety of VILTEPSO that is critical for healthcare professionals and Duchenne patients and their caregivers." In addition to this Phase 2 open-label extension study, NS Pharma continues to investigate the efficacy and safety of VILTEPSO in the confirmatory Phase 3 RACER53 trial. This study was initiated in October 2019 and is currently enrolling patients. The purpose of this Phase 3 trial is to confirm the clinical findings that were submitted under the Accelerated Approval pathway. About VILTEPSO (viltolarsen) injection Prior to its approval in the U.S., VILTEPSO was granted Priority Review as well as Rare Pediatric Disease, Orphan Drug and Fast Track Designations. In March 2020, VILTEPSO was approved in Japan for the treatment of patients with DMD who are amenable to exon 53 skipping therapy. Prior to its approval in Japan, VILTEPSO was granted with the SAKIGAKE designation, Orphan Drug designation, and designation of Conditional Early Approval System. Indication VILTEPSO is indicated for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) in patients who have a confirmed mutation of the DMD gene that is amenable to exon 53 skipping. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on an increase in dystrophin production in skeletal muscle observed in patients treated with VILTEPSO. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in a confirmatory trial. Important Safety Information In clinical studies, no patients experienced kidney toxicity during treatment with VILTEPSO. However, kidney toxicity from drugs like VILTEPSO may be possible. Your doctor may monitor the health of your kidneys before starting and during treatment with VILTEPSO. Common side effects include upper respiratory tract infection, injection site reaction, cough, and fever. About NS Pharma, Inc. NS Pharma, Inc., is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd. For more information, please visit http://www.nspharma.com. NS Pharma is a registered trademark of the Nippon Shinyaku group of companies. Contact U.S. Media Contact: [email protected] SOURCE NS Pharma Related Links http://www.nspharma.com "Buildings in Texas just aren't constructed or insulated to withstand even short bursts of below freezing temperatures," said DryMore Company president Jessica Lykins. "Freezing temperatures, no power, and burst pipes affected the entire state of Texas, which made it very difficult for companies in our area to keep up with the need." According to Lykins, whose restoration company was among many companies working throughout Texas after the storm, trained technicians must act as quickly as possible after a building sustains water damage. Moisture inside building materials can hold mold spores, so if left untreated the growth of mold and bacteria can begin within 48 hours. "The key to mold control is moisture control, and unfortunately for many people that just wasn't possible," she said. "By the time we were able to help customers with the cleanup and dry out after this storm, mold had already begun to grow." The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says mold growth may cause potentially risky health effects, from a stuffy nose and sore throat to coughing or wheezing. People with asthma, mold allergies and those who are immune-compromised people could have even more dangerous symptoms. There are many stories of homeowners affected by not only the freeze, but also the delay in fixing the after-effects. Lykins, told of an insurance agent called on behalf of an elderly Houston resident on February 24, 10 days after the freeze began. He worked with her to get help with water damage caused by the ice storm, but by the time DryMore's technicians arrived mold growth had already begun in her home. The resident was already experiencing breathing difficulties due the mold. Technicians brought in volunteers to help remove wet materials until a crew was able to completely clean up and dry out her property. DryMore Company is a family owned and operated small business servicing the greater Houston and surrounding areas. DryMore has earned an A+ rating and the BBB Award for Excellence for 10+ years. For more information visit https://drymore.com/. Contact: Jessica Lykins, [email protected], 281-930-0100 SOURCE DryMore Company Related Links https://drymore.com BOSTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With its customers already reaching new heights in terms of pipeline revenue, Drift, the world's leading revenue acceleration platform, today announced the addition of two talented individuals to lead its customer success organization: Bart Hammond as Chief Customer Officer, and Ryan Schultz as Vice President of Customer Success. The appointments come as customers have used Drift to influence more than $2.1 billion in sales pipeline in the past three months, impacting more than 86,000 sales opportunities for customers like Gong, Okta and Skillsoft. The mounting success is due in part to Drift's centralization of customer-facing teamssales, customer success and supportinto one unified organization: Global Field Operations. Hammond and Schultz will have integral leadership roles in Global Field Operations, with a focus on building world-class customer experiences across onboarding, retention, professional services and expansion. The team will be overseen by Chief Revenue Officer Todd Barnett. "We love seeing our customers accelerate their revenue and we're committed to building momentum around customer success," said Barnett. "Drift's founding principle is to put the customer at the center of everything we do. Bart and Ryan will evolve our customer-facing processes to ensure that every customer sees revenue impact from Drift." Hammond joins Drift with 30 years of customer success experience across the entire post-sales lifecycle with previous roles at Ping Identity, Dell EMC and Interlink Group. Schultz is a technologist with an entrepreneurial spirit who joins Drift from Okta where he was leading their North America Enterprise Customer Success organization, having previously worked for world-class brands like NRG Energy and American Airlines. Together, they'll lead the charge as Drift creates world-class experiences for its customers that directly impact their bottom lines. "When you look at what Drift has built, and the billions of dollars we've impacted, it's easy to see why customers love it," said Hammond. "My role here is to ensure that we're constantly evolving and innovating in ways that lead our customers to growth. We help brands create world-class experiences that enhance their customer experience and directly impact revenue. When they succeed, we succeedso we're deeply invested in making sure our partners have every tool available to make that happen." About Drift Drift is the Revenue Acceleration Platform that uses Conversational Marketing and Conversational Sales to help companies grow revenue and increase customer lifetime value faster. More than 50,000 businesses use Drift to align sales and marketing on a single platform to deliver a unified customer experience where people are free to have a conversation with a business at any time, on their terms. Media Contact [email protected] SOURCE Drift Related Links https://www.drift.com/ NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- WOC - Women of Color in Fundraising and Philanthropy is thrilled to announce its partnership with the Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) around the Remember, Record, Respect initiative, as an important gesture of allyship and solidarity among people of color. Hate against Asian American and Pacific Islanders is on the rise again. The roots of this racism are not new. Both organizations are documenting what's happening now so history never forgets. MOCA Nancy Yao Maasbach, President of MOCA, said, "In work and in life, a partner is meant to make you stronger, better, wiser. With our inaugural partnership with WOC , MOCA has found a partner who does just that Everyone at MOCA is honored and humbled to join with WOC to share stories collected around acts of support and encouragement by AAPIs during the pandemic and acts of hate toward AAPIs. Only when we record and remember our stories, can we begin to have respect for one another. Thank you, WOC , for seeing MOCA." WOC Founder Yolanda F. Johnson remarked, "Over the past year, the Asian American and Pacific Islander community have been targets of nearly 4,000 reported hate incidents in the United States. We must speak out against violence. We must stand by our colleagues and friends who feel threatened and vulnerable. We encourage you to join WOC and MOCA in taking meaningful action towards unlearning these racist and hateful systems with this initiative." As part of this partnership, WOC Members are invited to submit their stories, letters, emails, texts, videos, recordings, reflections, conversations, photos, social media posts, art, poetry, or songs created in response to anti-AAPI violence. Three submissions may be selected for the promotion of a public program series sponsored by WOC in conjunction with Remember, Record, Respect and for potential inclusion in the exhibit. Please e-mail your submissions to [email protected]. The deadline is Monday, May 17, 2021. By making your submission, you are giving WOC permission to use all elements of your submission for marketing/media purposes and public use. For more information, please visit: https://www.woc-fp.com/new-now/in-partnership-against-anti-aapi-racism About WOC : WOC (pronounced "woke"), endeavors to be the "hub" and "heart" for women of color in the fundraising and philanthropic communities around the world. Individuals receive a variety of membership benefits including professional development programs; exclusive partner discounts; membership events; and much more. https://www.woc-fp.com CONTACT: Christine Kite Kelly: [email protected], 203.505.8816 SOURCE WOC; MOCA Related Links https://www.woc-fp.com HARRISBURG, Pa., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, a West Berks Water Authority worker, Cody Gipprich, was tragically killed on the job in Wyomissing. Pennsylvania AFL-CIO President Rick Bloomingdale and Secretary-Treasurer Frank Snyder issued the following joint statement: "Our thoughts go out to the family of Cody Gipprich, who was killed today at the West Berks Water Authority. The Pennsylvania AFL-CIO puts the health and safety of all workers above all other issues, whether they are organized in a union or not. This latest tragedy once again shines a light on the fact that some 500,000 Pennsylvania public sector workers do not have the same OSHA-like protection as all other workers in the State. For more than thirty years, Pennsylvania's unions have been fighting for public sector OSHA Year after year, this legislation comes before the General Assembly, stalls, and fails because of reasons we cannot comprehend. There is no reason to put profits before the life of a human being. How many more lives will be lost before Pennsylvania's lawmakers once and for all pass this legislation? This is not a partisan issue. It is an issue of life and death. While we cannot eliminate all risks from all professions, we must do all that we can. It is time we guarantee when a worker steps on to the job, whether on an assembly line, a public bus, a hospital floor, a classroom, a mine shaft, or a trench, their Commonwealth stands beside them. There is dignity in all work. There should be safety for all workers. Tragically, he becomes one of 18 workers killed on the job every day in this country. We are not about to allow this death to become just another statistic. Workers and loved ones need more than prayers. They need action." SOURCE Pennsylvania AFL-CIO LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Global Ratings said today that has assigned Worldline S.A. an ESG Evaluation score of 83 (see "ESG Evaluation: Worldline"). The company's ESG Evaluation score is the result of an ESG profile of 76, combined with strong (+7) preparedness. Higher numbers indicate stronger sustainability, in our evaluations. Worldline's ESG evaluation of 83 indicates that in our view, the company has put environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues at the core of its strategy and has a strong preparedness for potential risks and opportunities in the sector. It has a strong governance structure, supported by transparent and extensive reporting, as well as a highly diverse board. However, the governance score is affected, to a degree, by the large number of directors on the board, following past acquisitions. As the integration progresses, we expect the board to gradually revert to its pre-merger size. Due to the critically important and highly sensitive nature of its activities, Worldline has developed strong data privacy and security policies, as well as systems to address cyber risks. The company has good employee retention, improving employee satisfaction, and a relatively diversified workforce, resulting in lower staff turnover than peers. It shows strong supply-chain management and monitoring. It is also reducing its environmental footprint, progressing toward its ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets and reducing the life cycle environmental impact of its terminals. France-based Worldline is the foremost provider of payment services in Europe, and is the leader in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and the Baltics. It has a global presence, with operations in 50 countries. Following the Ingenico acquisition in November 2020, the enlarged entity generated about 4.8 billion of pro forma consolidated revenue in 2020. The largest revenue stream comes from merchant services (47% of total 2020 revenue on a proforma basis including 12 months of Ingenico), financial services (19%), and mobility and e-transactional services (7%). The remaining 28% stems from its terminals, solutions & services business, which is currently under strategic review. What Is An ESG Evaluation? S&P Global Ratings' ESG evaluation is a cross-sector, relative analysis of an entity's capacity to continue to operate successfully. It is grounded in how ESG factors could affect stakeholders, potentially leading to a material direct or indirect financial impact on the entity. 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S&P Global Ratings, 55 Water Street, New York, NY 10041 SOURCE S&P Global Ratings HempFusion said it is hopeful the Dubai-based customer will generate over a million dollars annually for the company moving forward The multi-billion-dollar Dubai-based company has been a customer for over six years and distributes products throughout the Middle East Wellness Inc ( ) ( ) (FRA:8OO) said it has received a $216,000 purchase order from a long-standing customer based in Dubai, the first significant purchase order the company has received in more than a year. said the multi-billion-dollar Dubai-based company has been a customer for over six years and distributes products throughout the Middle East, primarily in the United Arab Emirates. We are excited to see sign of a return to normal business practices across the globe. As people return to normal life, we're excited to see increases in further international channels such as Ireland, the United Kingdom and China, Wellness CEO Dr. Jason Mitchel said in a statement. This purchase order may be a great indication of what's to come in 2021 and beyond, Dr. Mitchel added. HempFusion Wellness Head of International Development Patrick Bucaro added: We are pleased to see more and more of our international sales resume, and we believe this initial +$200,000 purchase order is just the beginning of increased international revenue for 2021. We are hopeful this particular customer will generate north of a million dollars annually for us moving forward. HempFusion noted it remains focused on growing revenues both domestically and internationally through organic channels, in addition to the pursuit of merger and acquisition opportunities, as the company looks to expand revenue through accretive acquisitions. It added it maintains a strong cash balance, including over a year of working capital with no further financings planned. HempFusion distributes its family of brands, including HempFusion, Probulin Probiotics, Biome Research, and HF Labs, to around 4,000 retail locations across all 50 states of the US and select international locations. In addition, HempFusions wholly-owned subsidiary Probulin Probiotics is one of the fastest-growing probiotics companies in the US, according to data technology company SPINS. The subsidiary offers the unique MAKtrek 3-D system that ensures more probiotics arrive alive. Contact Sean at sean@proactiveinvestors.com DUBLIN, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Agricultural Microbial Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global agricultural microbial market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 12.61% over the forecast period to reach a market size of US$9,087.791 million in 2026 from US$3,956.654 million in 2019. Agricultural microbial refers to the microorganisms used in agriculture to enhance crop productivity and quality of yield. Microbial inoculants used in agriculture have target specific functions, and thus are suitable for use in various crops. They consist of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses that are beneficial for assisting various agricultural practices such as crop protection and soil improvement. Microbes act as an important active ingredient in various biostimulants that help improve crop yields. In recent times, they have emerged as an effective substitute for synthetic agrochemicals. Moreover, they have functional superiority that encourages crop development by complementing the soil microbiota by enhancing nutrient uptake and increasing soil fertility. The growing trend of adopting organic farming as an alternative to conventional farming practices to achieve sustainability and lower the negative impact on the environment has contributed to driving the market growth. The promising growth potential of organic agriculture practices is anticipated to complement the growth of the agricultural type of microbial. This is also expected to drive natural plant growth regulators and crop protection products in the forthcoming years. According to a 2019 Organic Survey by the National Agricultural Statistics Service, there has been a rise of 17% in the certified organic farms in the U.S. between 2016 and 2019. The strong emphasis of the government to adopt organic farming has led to increased acceptance of such microbial globally. However, the major factors hampering the market growth and adoption of agricultural microbial are the high application cost and delayed effects of microbial inoculants as compared to conventional chemical agrochemicals. Manufacturers are witnessing several challenges in their growth due to the presence of several counterfeit products in the market and the implementation of government regulations. Growth Factors. Rising population and increasing demand for food security The growing need to feed an ever-growing global population, coupled with the increasing demand for sustainable agricultural practices and the concern of the general public over environmental safety is one of the leading drivers for the agricultural microbial market. An increase in urbanization and less availability of arable land are motivating farmers to adopt efficient crop-protection techniques. There has been a broader acceptance and recognition of the increasing benefits of microbial. With the amount of arable land per person declining and the expansion of population, global crop yields must increase to meet the food production needs. As a result, an increase in the demand for microbial products and agricultural production is being witnessed. Along with this, the high demand for microbial to achieve sustainable crop intensification is expected to favor market growth. This has boosted their popularity and demand as a biological source to improve production, and their incorporation in integrated farming practices is likely to narrow the yield gaps. Increasing awareness regarding the harmful effects of synthetic chemicals The use of synthetic pesticides and fertilizers has shown various detrimental effects on the environment and human health. According to the United Nations and the Food and Agriculture Organization, synthetic fertilizers account for 13% of the total agricultural greenhouse gas (GIG) emissions. There have been numerous efforts to improve agricultural management practices as synthetic fertilizers cause widespread damage to the ecology. The prominent players in the market and various government and non-government organizations support sustainable agricultural practices by providing funds and subsidies on agricultural microbial. They help mitigate the efforts and act as a valuable ingredient for enabling sustainable agriculture practices. Restraints. Low Adoption Besides the various benefits of agricultural microbial, it is witnessed to have relatively low adoption rates than synthetic chemicals. This is mainly due to the lack of awareness and low commercialization of biologicals. Along with this, there are considerable challenges with the utilization of microbes and their mode of application. For instance, the microbial culture used for seed treatment o impairs the convenience of sowing seeds. Furthermore, the storage-stability of microbial hinders their effective utilization as they have low on-seed survival rates. Hence, the farmers often refrain from using microbes. Key Developments April 2020 - Sumitomo Chemicals Company successfully acquired four South American subsidiaries of Nufarm Limited - in Brazil , Argentina , Chile , and Colombia , respectively - to expand its global footprint in the crop protection business in various regions around the world. - Sumitomo Chemicals Company successfully acquired four South American subsidiaries of Nufarm Limited - in , , , and , respectively - to expand its global footprint in the crop protection business in various regions around the world. April 2020 - Sumitomo Chemicals invested USD 30 million into a joint venture with Conagen, a US biotechnology company. Through this, the company aimed to promote its strategic business alliance with Conagen further and develop innovative high functional products and processes by way of innovative use of biologicals. - Sumitomo Chemicals invested into a joint venture with Conagen, a US biotechnology company. Through this, the company aimed to promote its strategic business alliance with Conagen further and develop innovative high functional products and processes by way of innovative use of biologicals. March 2020 - a new automated greenhouse facility was developed in Marana, Arizona , US, by Bayer CropScience, for providing growers with the most innovative, sustainable, and technically advanced agricultural solutions, focusing on crop protection solutions. - a new automated greenhouse facility was developed in , US, by Bayer CropScience, for providing growers with the most innovative, sustainable, and technically advanced agricultural solutions, focusing on crop protection solutions. January 2020 - BASF SE, for its Agricultural Solutions business in Singapore , developed a multipurpose facility designed to handle six different formulation technologies and supply the company's patented crop protection products to farmers across the fast-growing Asia Pacific region. - BASF SE, for its Agricultural Solutions business in , developed a multipurpose facility designed to handle six different formulation technologies and supply the company's patented crop protection products to farmers across the fast-growing region. October 2019 - Bayer CropScience launched its latest biological innovations, collectively known by the brand name, Biologicals, by Bayer at 2019 Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting (ABIM). Impact of COVID - 19. The COVID - 19 pandemic is expected to hurt the growth of the agricultural microbial market as due to the pandemic, supply chains around the globe were disrupted leading to an inadequate supply of microbial to farmers in need. Moreover, restrictions imposed on the movement and gathering of people led to a decline in agricultural activities, thus, reducing the demand for microbial. Competitive Insights Prominent/major key market players in the global agricultural microbial market include Certis USA, BASF SE, Novozymes, Sumitomo Chemical, and Bayer CropScience among others. The players are implementing various growth strategies to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors in this market. Major market players in the market have been covered along with their relative competitive strategies and the report also mentions recent deals and investments of different market players over the last few years. The company profiles section details the business overview, financial performance (public companies) for the past few years, key products and services being offered along with the recent deals and investments of these important players in the Global Agricultural Microbial Market. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 1.1. Market Definition 1.2. Market Segmentation 2. Research Methodology 2.1. Research Data 2.2. Assumptions 3. Executive Summary 3.1. Research Highlights 4. Market Dynamics 4.1. Market Drivers 4.2. Market Restraints 4.3. Porters Five Forces Analysis 4.3.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.3.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers 4.3.3. Threat of New Entrants 4.3.4. Threat of Substitutes 4.3.5. Competitive Rivalry in the Function 4.4. Function Value Chain Analysis 5. Global Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Type 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Bacteria 5.3. Protozoa 5.4. Viruses 5.5. Fungi 6. Global Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Crop Type 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Cereals and Grains 6.3. Fruits and Vegetables 6.4. Oilseeds and Pulses 6.5. Others 7. Global Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Function 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Crop Protection 7.3. Soil Amendment 8. Global Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Mode of Application 8.1. Introduction 8.2. Soil Treatment 8.3. Seed Treatment 8.4. Foliar Spray 9. Global Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Formulation 9.1. Introduction 9.2. Dry Formulation 9.3. Liquid Formulation 10. Global Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Geography 10.1. Introduction 10.2. North America 10.2.1. North America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Type 10.2.2. North America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Crop Type 10.2.3. North America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Function 10.2.4. North America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Mode of Application 10.2.5. North America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Formulation 10.2.6. By Country 10.2.6.1. United States 10.2.6.2. Canada 10.2.6.3. Mexico 10.3. South America 10.3.1. South America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Type 10.3.2. South America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Crop Type 10.3.3. South America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Function 10.3.4. South America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Mode of Application 10.3.5. South America Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Formulation 10.3.6. By Country 10.3.6.1. Brazil 10.3.6.2. Argentina 10.3.6.3. Others 10.4. Europe 10.4.1. Europe Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Type 10.4.2. Europe Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Crop Type 10.4.3. Europe Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Function 10.4.4. Europe Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Mode of Application 10.4.5. Europe Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Formulation 10.4.6. By Country 10.4.6.1. Germany 10.4.6.2. United Kingdom 10.4.6.3. France 10.4.6.4. Others 10.5. Middle East and Africa 10.5.1. Middle East and Africa Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Type 10.5.2. Middle East and Africa Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Crop Type 10.5.3. Middle East and Africa Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Function 10.5.4. Middle East and Africa Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Mode of Application 10.5.5. Middle East and Africa Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Formulation 10.5.6. By Country 10.5.6.1. Saudi Arabia 10.5.6.2. South Africa 10.5.6.3. Others 10.6. Asia Pacific 10.6.1. Asia Pacific Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Type 10.6.2. Asia Pacific Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Crop Type 10.6.3. Asia Pacific Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Function 10.6.4. Asia Pacific Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Mode of Application 10.6.5. Asia Pacific Agricultural Microbial Market Analysis, By Formulation 10.6.6. By Country 10.6.6.1. China 10.6.6.2. Japan 10.6.6.3. India 10.6.6.4. South Korea 10.6.6.5. Others 11. Competitive Environment and Analysis 11.1. Major Players and Strategy Analysis 11.2. Emerging Players and Market Lucrativeness 11.3. Mergers, Acquisitions, Agreements, and Collaborations 11.4. Vendor Competitiveness Matrix 12. Company Profiles. 12.1. Certis USA 12.2. BASF SE 12.3. Novozymes 12.4. Sumitomo Chemical 12.5. Bayer CropScience 12.6. Queensland Agricultural Seeds 12.7. Syngenta AG 12.8. Dow AgroSciences 12.9. Novagreen Inc. 12.10. XiteBio Technologies For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ypgcqq Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1904 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com DUBLIN, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Smart Grid Software Market - Forecasts from 2021 to 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The smart grid software market is evaluated at US$6.030 billion for the year 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 21.21% to reach a market size of US$23.180 billion by the year 2026. A smart grid is a self-sufficient electricity supply network that uses digital communications technology for monitoring, control, and analysis within the supply chain and can act remotely on network incidents, improving the supply and relationship with the environment by providing reliable and efficient power supply through various smart grid applications and technologies. Smart grid software is an important part of the smart grid infrastructure that helps simplify the implementation and functionality of the smart grid and improve process efficiency and reduce energy production costs. The digital transformation trend in the energy sector is leading to the use of more and more smart grid software which is anticipated to propel the market growth even further in the coming years. Moreover, the governments of various countries are providing support to the technology including smart grid software which is further expected to supplement the market growth during the forecast period. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease initially impacted the smart grid software market due to worldwide lockdown in most countries of the world, due to which the progress of smart grid systems got halted. All the travel and manufacturing activities were shut down during that period due to which the smart grid market had a negative impact leading to the downfall of the smart grid software market. Even after the lifting of the lockdown, there were various restrictions on travel, rules related to safety measures, and social distancing which remained a hindrance in the year 2020, leading to supply chain disruptions. Due to the non-availability of workers owing to the various restrictions, the manufacturing activities were still slow after the lifting of the lockdown. As the lockdown has been lifted in most parts of the world and the activities are moving towards their previous normal, along with the Covid-19 vaccination being carried out in many countries, the deployment of new smart grid systems has started again which is expected to recover the smart grid software market so that it continues to grow at its normal pace from 2021 onwards. Digital transformation in the energy sector. One of the key factors supplementing the Smart Grid Software market growth includes the escalation of digital transformation trends in the energy sector. According to World Economic Forum, the digital transformation of the electricity sector is projected to capture a value of $1.3 trillion from 2016 to 2025. It also stated that the grid optimization and aggregation initiatives can provide the customers with smart savings, create new jobs and reduce the peak demand which gives way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and thus is projected to be worth $440 billion to industry and $1.2 trillion to society in a period of ten years. This carbon-emission nature of digitalization in the energy sector is anticipated to propel the market growth of smart grid software in the coming years. According to the article - The digital transformation of energy published in SETIS, European Commission, the energy sector has been moving towards digitalization of energy owing to developments in data, analytics, and connectivity, which include increasing volumes of data, due to the declining cost of sensors and data storage; rapid progress in advanced analytics such as machine learning; greater connectivity of people and devices; and faster and cheaper data transmission. According to International Energy Agency, digitalization can save around USD 80 billion per year, or about 5% of total power generation costs per year. The digitalization of the energy sector is energy efficient in nature, which is increasing the adoption of digitalization in the energy sector, which is having a positive impact on the market and is anticipated to play a major role in bolstering the growth of the smart grid software market during the forecast period. Government support for smart grid technology The governments of various countries around the world are supporting the smart grid technology which is anticipated to be a prominent factor for the growth of the smart grid software market, as smart grid software is used in smart grid systems. The U.S. Department of Energy runs the Smart Grid Investment Grant (SGIG) program in which it provides financial assistance to projects related to smart grid technologies, tools, and techniques. According to the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, three new smart grid projects were sanctioned under the National Smart Grid Mission which received 30% funding from the Ministry of Power. The NSGM is also supported by the U.S.-India bilateral program, PACE-D, which supports the mission for capacity building programs, It supported a pilot project at AVVNL, Ajmer to demonstrate Smart Metering functionality by deploying 1000 meters. The Smart Grid National Programme of India is implementing Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) which includes software applications for meter data acquisition systems. The government of Indonesia through the National Medium Term Development Plan (RPJPM) plans to build and operate 25 new smart grid systems. The Indonesian government stated that the smart grid is the solution to enhance the reliability of electric power systems in the country has set a goal to achieve the national energy mix target of 23% by 2025 by using smart grid technology. According to European Commission, it targets to use smart meters in place of around 80% of current electricity meters by 2020 when a positive result is shown in the cost-benefit analysis. These initiatives are having a positive impact on the smart grid software market and are anticipated to propel the market growth during the forecast period. North America holds a prominent market share. Geographically, the North American region is anticipated to hold a significant market share owing to investments in power supply, supportive government measures prevalent in the region, and the presence of technologically advanced countries like the United States. The Asia Pacific region is anticipated to witness substantial growth due to rapid digitalization in the region, and the rise in software technologies. Competitive Insights Prominent/major key market players in the smart grid software market include Chetu, Schneider Electric, Smarter Grid Solutions, among others. The players are implementing various growth strategies to gain a competitive advantage. The company profiles section details the business overview, financial performance (public companies) for the past few years, key products and services being offered along with the recent deals and investments of these important players in the Smart Grid Software market. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 1.1. Market Definition 1.2. Market Segmentation 2. Research Methodology 2.1. Research Data 2.2. Assumptions 3. Executive Summary 3.1. Research Highlights 4. Market Dynamics 4.1. Market Drivers 4.2. Market Restraints 4.3. Porters Five Forces Analysis 4.3.1. Bargaining Power of End-Users 4.3.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers 4.3.3. Threat of New Entrants 4.3.4. Threat of Substitutes 4.3.5. Competitive Rivalry in the Industry 4.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis 5. Smart Grid Software Market Analysis, by Software Type 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Advanced Metering Infrastructure 5.3. Grid Asset Management 5.4. Distribution Management System 5.5. Network Management System 5.6. Substation Automation 5.7. Grid Security 5.8. Billing and Customer Information System 6. Smart Grid Software Market Analysis, by Market 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Consulting 6.3. Deployment and Integration 6.4. Support and Maintenance 7. Smart Grid Software Market Analysis, by Geography 7.1. Introduction 7.2. North America 7.2.1. North America Smart Grid Software Market, By Software Type 7.2.2. North America Smart Grid Software Market, By Market 7.2.3. By Country 7.2.3.1. USA 7.2.3.2. Canada 7.2.3.3. Mexico 7.3. South America 7.3.1. South America Smart Grid Software Market, By Software Type 7.3.2. South America Smart Grid Software Market, By Market 7.3.3. By Country 7.3.3.1. Brazil 7.3.3.2. Argentina 7.3.3.3. Others 7.4. Europe 7.4.1. Europe Smart Grid Software Market, By Software Type 7.4.2. Europe Smart Grid Software Market, By Market 7.4.3. By Country 7.4.3.1.1. Germany 7.4.3.1.2. France 7.4.3.1.3. UK 7.4.3.1.4. Others 7.5. Middle East and Africa 7.5.1. Middle East and Africa Smart Grid Software Market, By Software Type 7.5.2. Middle East and Africa Smart Grid Software Market, By Market 7.5.3. By Country 7.5.3.1. Saudi Arabia 7.5.3.2. UAE 7.5.3.3. Others 7.6. Asia Pacific 7.6.1. Asia Pacific Smart Grid Software Market, By Software Type 7.6.2. Asia Pacific Smart Grid Software Market, By Market 7.6.3. By Country 7.6.3.1. China 7.6.3.2. India 7.6.3.3. Japan 7.6.3.4. South Korea 7.6.3.5. Others 8. Competitive Environment and Analysis 8.1. Major Players and Strategy Analysis 8.2. Emerging Players and Market Lucrativeness 8.3. Mergers, Acquisitions, Agreements, and Collaborations 8.4. Vendor Competitiveness Matrix 9. Company Profiles 9.1. Chetu 9.2. Schneider Electric 9.3. Smarter Grid Solutions 9.4. Oracle 9.5. IBM 9.6. Globema 9.7. Accenture 9.8. Landis+Gyr 9.9. PSI Software AG 9.10. Siemens For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/cemy80 Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 SOURCE Research and Markets Related Links http://www.researchandmarkets.com GUANGZHOU, China, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Yatsen Holding Limited ("Yatsen" or the "Company") (NYSE: YSG), a leader in the rapidly evolving China beauty market, today announced that it will release its first quarter 2021 financial results on Wednesday, May 19, 2021, before the open of the U.S. markets. The Company will hold a conference call on Wednesday, May 19, 2021 at 7:30 am Eastern Time (7:30 pm Beijing/Hong Kong Time) to discuss the financial results. Listeners may access the call by dialing the following numbers: United States (toll free): +1-888-346-8982 International: +1-412-902-4272 Mainland China (toll free): 400-120-1203 Hong Kong (toll free): 800-905-945 Hong Kong: +852-3018-4992 Conference ID: 10155919 A live and archived webcast of the conference call will be available on the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.yatsenglobal.com/. A replay of the conference call will be accessible by phone one hour after the conclusion of the live call at the following numbers, until May 26, 2021: United States: +1-877-344-7529 International: +1-412-317-0088 Replay Access Code: 10155919 About Yatsen Holding Limited Yatsen Holding Limited (NYSE: YSG) is a leader in the rapidly evolving China beauty market with the mission of creating an exciting new journey of beauty discovery for consumers in China and around the world. Founded in 2016, The Company has launched and acquired seven color cosmetics and skincare brands including Perfect Diary, Little Ondine, Abby's Choice, Galenic, DR.WU (its mainland China business), Eve Lom and Pink Bear. The Company's flagship brand, Perfect Diary, became the top color cosmetics brand in China in terms of online retail sales value three years after launch. Leveraging its digitally native direct-to-customer business model, the Company has built a platform with core capabilities which enables it to launch and scale multiple brands quickly while offering a wide selection of products to a growing variety of customers. The Company reaches and engages with customers directly both online and offline, with expansive presence across all major e-commerce, social and content platforms in China. For more information, please visit http://ir.yatsenglobal.com/. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: In China: Yatsen Holding Limited Investor Relations E-mail: [email protected] The Piacente Group, Inc. Emilie Wu Tel: +86-21-6039-8363 E-mail: [email protected] In the United States: The Piacente Group, Inc. Brandi Piacente Tel: +1-212-481-2050 E-mail: [email protected] SOURCE Yatsen Holding Limited Related Links www.yatsenglobal.com SHANGHAI, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: ZTO and SEHK: 2057) ("ZTO" or the "Company"), a leading and fast-growing express delivery company in China, today announced that it will hold its annual general meeting of shareholders ("AGM") on Wednesday, June 2, 2021, at 14:00 (local time), at Building One, No. 1685 Huazhi Road, Qingpu District, Shanghai, 201708, China. Holders of record of ordinary shares of the Company at the close of business on May 12, 2021 (Hong Kong time) are entitled to notice of, to attend and vote at, the AGM or any adjournment or postponement thereof. Holders of the Company's American depositary shares ("ADSs") as of the close of business on May 12, 2021, New York time who wish to exercise their voting rights for the underlying Class A ordinary shares must act through the depositary of the Company's ADS program, JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. The board of directors of ZTO fully supports the Proposed Articles (defined in Exhibit B to the Notice of AGM) and recommends that shareholders and holders of ADSs vote in favor of the resolutions set out in the Notice of AGM. The Notice of AGM and form of proxy for the AGM are available on the Company's website at http://zto.investorroom.com. ZTO has filed its annual report on Form 20-F, including its audited financial statements, for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. ZTO's Form 20-F can be accessed on the Company's website at http://zto.investorroom.com, as well as on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. ZTO has also published its annual report for Hong Kong purposes pursuant to the Rules Governing the Listing of Securities on The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited ("HKEX"), which can be accessed on the Company's website at http://zto.investorroom.com as well as the HKEX's website at http://www.hkexnews.hk. About ZTO ZTO is a leading and fast-growing express delivery company in China. ZTO provides express delivery service as well as other value-added logistics services through its extensive and reliable nationwide network coverage in China. ZTO operates a highly scalable network partner model, which the Company believes is best suited to support the significant growth of e-commerce in China. The Company leverages its network partners to provide pickup and last-mile delivery services, while controlling the mission-critical line-haul transportation and sorting network within the express delivery service value chain. For more information, please visit http://zto.investorroom.com. For investor and media inquiries, please contact: Investor Relations E-mail: [email protected] Phone: +86 21 5980 4508 SOURCE ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. Highly experienced explorer in Argentina Gold focused portfolio with discovery potential Strong management What Golden Arrow does: ( ) ( ) is a member of the Grosso group of companies and has been a pioneer of exploration in Argentina for 27 years. The group has been involved with four major world-class discoveries previously in South America, which are either in production or about to be. The firm does not take projects into production itself. Its expertise is to acquire assets and advance them up the value-chain to the pre-feasibility stage. The goal is to sell the discoveries for cash or for cash and a 'carried participation' production royalty for the life of mine. Golden Arrow is currently advancing three key properties Tierra Dorada, Flecha de Oro and Rosales. In Paraguay, one of the last under-explored areas of South America, it has the Tierra Dorada gold project, where historic work has shown multiple targets. In Argentina, the firm has the Flecha de Oro gold project, which comprises an option to earn 100% of around 140 square kilometres (km) in three properties. The asset has high and low sulphidation epithermal gold targets and high grades have been found in surface samples. The firm also owns the recently acquired Rosales copper project, which spans 1,450 hectares in Chile and which lies 90 km from Copiapo by road and boasts excellent infrastructure. Golden Arrow has applied for a further 874 hectares of adjacent concessions. In Argentina, the company also has the Caballos copper-gold project in La Rioja province, the Don Bosco copper-gold asset in San Juan province, the Mogote copper-gold project, the Pescado gold project and the Potrerillos gold-silver asset, also in San Juan. The company has a market cap of around C$20 million. How is it doing: Despite the operational challenges of navigating the coronavirus pandemic in South America, the past year or so has been dominated by transactions and exploration news flow from Golden Arrow. In June, Golden Arrow and Mirasol Resources Ltd ( ) (OTCPINK:MRZLF) (FRA:M8R) inked an option agreement on Mirasols drill ready 14,500-hectare silver-gold-lead project in Argentina. The advanced Libanesa exploration project with multiple attractive drill targets lies about 70 km west of the port of Puerto Deseado and near two producing gold mines owned by Inc (NYSE:AUY) ( ) and Corp (CVE:CERT). The contract gives Golden Arrow an option to acquire a 75% undivided interest in the project by spending $4 million in exploration and making staged cash payments totaling $1 million over a six-year period. CEO Joseph Grosso told investors that Libanesa presents an excellent opportunity for discovery and provides Golden Arrow with a new exploration entry into an exciting area of Santa Cruz, which "hosts multiple high-grade gold and silver mines." Earlier in April, the company provided an update on the trenching program at the Esperanza property on its Flecha de Oro gold project, in Argentina, which was started in December 2020 and initially focused on the Puzzle area before prioritizing Esperanza. Notably, the company said that results from a single vein at Esperanza had returned significant gold intervals in two separate trenches about 160 metres apart. Significantly, in January the company said it had hit high-grade gold during a shallow campaign at its Tierra Dorada project in Paraguay. Assays included 143.5 grams per ton (g/t) gold over 0.5 meters, within an intercept of 6 metres averaging 14.5 g/t gold, and 11.8 g/t gold over 3.2 metres within 7.8 metres averaging 6.1 g/t of the yellow metal. Programs at Tierra Dorada continue the work at the Alvaro area to delineate high-grade, quartz vein-hosted gold prospects and refine targets for a larger drill program. Notably, the firm has identified multiple new targets at Tierra Dorada as part of an induced polarization survey, including a 1,700-metre anomalous trend that is open to the northeast and southwest. In September last year, Golden Arrow also said fieldwork was now underway at its recently staked Rosales copper project in Region III in Chile. Rosales spans 1,450 hectares and sits 90 km from the mining centre of Copiapo. It is already home to priority target areas, which are characterized by zones of near-surface copper stockwork mineralization, including the Margarita Trend target and the NW target. Away from exploration, in March this year, Golden Arrow announced a definitive agreement to option its Caballos copper-gold project to Hanaq Argentina SA.The latter is an explorer with metal projects throughout the country and it now has the opportunity to earn a 70% interest in Caballos by spending US$4 million on exploration over six years. Caballos is one of several copper-focused projects within Golden Arrow's 180,000-hectare portfolio in Argentina that, it said, had demonstrated potential from preliminary geological work. Inflection points: More exploration results/ findings Gold and copper price moves Striking option agreements, and royalty and streaming agreements What the boss says: On April 29, 2021, in its statement on the trench results from Flecha de Oro, Brian McEwen, Golden Arrow's vice-president (VP) of exploration and development, said: "We have seen from our previous surface sampling that there is widespread gold in the system at Esperanza, so we are encouraged to find some broader intervals in the near-surface that will help us vector into the heart of the system." Contact the author at giles@proactiveinvestors.com FTSE 100 recovered some of yesterdays lost ground after latest UK GDP data came in ahead of expectations. Londons leading index rose 51 points to 6,999 in early trading. The UK economy shrank 1.5% in the first quarter, though it rebounded 2.1% in March thanks to the reopening of schools and better retail sales. Analysts expect the GDP to continue growing as restrictions ease. ( ) posted a near 1.5bn loss in its latest half-year as revenues dropped 89%. The travel group said summer prices are climbing already as holidaymakers start booking trips again. PLC ( ) has agreed on a 2.6bn cash offer by private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. Directors unanimously voted in favour and recommend shareholders approve the deal. ( ) has started the eagerly awaited underground access decline at its Havieron gold-copper joint venture project in Western Australia. "This is a momentous step in the development of Havieron as a world-class gold-copper mine, said Greatland chief executive Shaun Day. ( ) Minto mine has had its estimated mine life doubled in a new technical study. The expected life in now 8 years to 2028. ( ) has signed a milestone agreement with US giant Corteva Agrisciences for its seed treatment application. The deal covers exclusive commercialisation, supply and distribution rights in the EU, UK and Serbia. The company is now well placed to commence the early works program emphasising critical plant and infrastructure in Eritrea to support the full-scale development. Additional proceeds of A$464,400 will be received from Danakali directors, subject to shareholder approval. ( ) ( ) ( ) (FRA:SO3) has completed a A$20.3 million placement to support the early works program at its Colluli Potash Project in Eritrea, East Africa. Funds have been received from domestic and international, institutional and sophisticated investors and Danakali will also receive another A$464,400 from directors - subject to shareholder approval at Danakalis Annual General Meeting planned to be held in June 2021. Strong support for the placement validates the world-class potash project that hosts large near-surface resources, is close to infrastructure and is favourably positioned to supply the worlds fastest-growing markets. Executing early works program The company appreciates the strong support of existing and new shareholders and is now well placed to commence the early works program emphasising critical plant and infrastructure in Eritrea to support the full-scale development. Danakali executive chairman Seamus Cornelius said: We are grateful for the ongoing support of our shareholders, ENAMCO and other stakeholders. Our team is well prepared to execute on the early works program and will keep the market up to date as we move forward. Well funded going forward The Colluli Project is 100%-owned by Colluli Mining Share Company (CMSC), a 50:50 joint venture between Danakali and the Eritrean National Mining Corporation (ENAMCO). Proceeds from the placement will be used for early work including site road development, geotechnical optimisation, reverse osmosis plant completion and installation, exploration camp relocation and mine camp installation. Some of the proceeds will also be allocated towards detailed engineering for the project. Tel Aviv, May 12 : One person was killed on the outskirts of Tel Aviv on Tuesday evening after a rocket attack by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. According to media reports, a woman was killed in the town of Rishon Lezion when a rocket hit her directly; the Zaka aid organisation confirmed her death. A bus in the city of Holon was also struck by a rocket and burned out, leaving at least six people injured in the attack, DPA news reported citing Times of Israel. Initial reports about a woman being killed in the bus incident were later not confirmed. The greater Tel Aviv area was in the cross-hairs of Palestinian militants, who sent a barrage of rockets towards the coastal metropolis, marking the heaviest attack the city has faced so far. The Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv was closed to landings and departures due to the attacks, and flights were diverted to Cyprus. The Islamist Hamas movement in charge of the coastal enclave had vowed a "harsh" rocket attack on Tel Aviv. Washington, May 12 : US top health officials on Tuesday testified before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on efforts to combat Covid-19, urging people to get vaccinated. "We are at a critical turning point with the coronavirus and it will depend on continued vaccination to get us back to some form of normality," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the National Institutes of Health, Xinhua reported. "We are in a race between the vaccine and the virus, if left to its own devices, (Covid-19 cases) will continue to surge based on experience thus far in this country and globally," said Fauci. "I feel confident that if we continue to vaccinate people at the rate that we're doing, that we will very soon have a situation where we will have so few infections in this country, we will begin to return to normality that all of us desire so much," the top infectious disease expert noted. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky echoed Fauci, imploring everyone to get a Covid-19 vaccine as soon as possible as a way to "end this pandemic". She urged parents to get their children vaccinated now that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech shots for children aged 12-15. "I am so proud to report the administration of more than 261 million vaccine doses," Walensky said, adding that over 84 per cent of Americans aged 65 and older and over 58 percent of all adult Americans have received at least one vaccine dose. But "globally, the pandemic is more severe than ever," she said. "Surge of cases (in India) is tragic and a reminder that the virus can rapidly outstrip our efforts to contain it. If we are not careful, we will not end this pandemic without working hand in hand with countries around the globe to fight Covid-19." Along with continuing the effort to vaccinate every American, "we must also maintain public health measures," namely mask, hand hygiene, and physical distancing, Walensky said. David Kessler, chief science officer for the federal administration's Covid-19 response, expressed concerns that vaccination efforts alone won't end the pandemic. "I am concerned that even after we finish vaccinating most of the people who want to be vaccinated, by this summer there will still be a significant number of cases and an unacceptable number of deaths," he said. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tel Aviv, May 12 : Hundreds of rockets were fired upon Israel from Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip throughout Tuesday, as Israel pummelled the tiny coastal territory with airstrikes and the death toll mounted on both sides. The cross-border violence, which erupted on Monday following weeks of rising tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem, is the worst the region has experienced in years. More than two dozen Palestinians have been killed in the last day, including several children. Three Israelis died from Gaza rocket fire on Tuesday, DPA news agency reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the attacks on Gaza, which have targeted some 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad positions since Monday, would intensify. "This operation will take time, but we will bring security back to the citizens of Israel," he said late Tuesday. Hamas, which rules the coastal strip, would "receive blows it did not expect," Netanyahu had said hours earlier in remarks after a meeting with military officials. An Israeli military spokesperson said that at least 20 members from the two groups have been killed so far in Gaza, including senior officials, and some 150 missile-launchers had been destroyed. Many of the targets were located in places where civilians reside, spokesperson Jonathan Conricus said, so civilian casualties could not be ruled out, though the army was trying hard to avoid them. Rocket warning sirens were a persistent sound across Israeli communities. The greater Tel Aviv area was in the cross-hairs of Palestinian militants, who sent a barrage of rockets towards the coastal metropolis, marking the heaviest attack the city has faced so far. The rocket fire prompted flights to be halted at Israel's main international airport outside of the city. The Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv was closed to landings and departures due to the attacks; flights were diverted to Cyprus. One person was killed on the outskirts of Tel Aviv in rocket attack. According to media reports, a woman was killed in the town of Rishon Lezion when she was hit directly. The Zaka aid organization also confirmed her death. The rockets were fired toward Tel Aviv after the Israeli army destroyed a building containing offices of members of the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip. Residents of the building were warned by Israeli forces before the attack and told to leave, witnesses said. A Hamas spokesman had earlier threatened a "harsh" rocket attack on Tel Aviv if the Hanadi Tower building was destroyed. In the southern city of Ashkelon, two women were killed when their homes were struck, according to the Zaka aid organization. Impacts were also reported on residential buildings in Ashkelon as well as a school where no lessons were being conducted. In total, Gaza militants aimed around 480 rockets towards Israel over 24 hours. Of these, some 200 were intercepted and 150 failed to properly launch, the Israeli military said Tuesday evening. The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, claimed responsibility for the attacks, which it said were in retaliation for a deadly Israeli strike on a high-rise residential building in the western part of the Gaza Strip. The apartment belonged to a member of Islamic Jihad, according to witnesses. In total, the Gaza Health Ministry put the death toll in the latest round of violence at 28, including 10 children. More than 100 people were injured, it said. According to local media and witness reports, three children were killed by Israeli airstrikes and others by misdirected rockets fired by extremists. Israel said it was targeting rocket production, storage and training facilities as well as military posts. The airstrikes and rocket attacks followed violent clashes in recent days at Jerusalem's holy site known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims. Demonstrations continued on the ground in Israel on Tuesday between police and Israeli Arabs in numerous cities throughout Israel. Stones were thrown at police officers and several cars were set on fire. In the city of Lod, a 25-year-old Arab man was shot and killed during the riots. Media reported that a 34-year-old arrested after the event was a Jewish resident of the city. The Islamist Hamas movement had issued a Monday night ultimatum telling Israel to withdraw settlers and police from the Jerusalem holy site, parts of which had been cordoned off, and from the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Shortly after the deadline expired, mass rocket attacks began, with sirens wailing in Jerusalem. Netanyahu said the militants crossed a "red line" by directing missiles towards Jerusalem, and Israel in turn shelled targets in Gaza. Leaders around the world expressed concern about the escalating violence, calling on both sides to show restraint. "This spiralling escalation must cease immediately," a spokesperson for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text The company noted that its current treasury stands at approximately $6.1 million, sufficient to undertake its aggressive 2021 exploration program Altamira Gold also said it has launched its 3D Induced Polarization and Resistivity (IP) ground geophysical survey at the 100% controlled Apiacas Project, located in Mato Grosso State, Brazil ( ) ( ) (OTCPINKEQTRF) said it has raised an additional $1,104,490 from warrant exercises over the past few days bringing proceeds from recent exercises to $2,537,077. The company noted that its current treasury stands at approximately $6.1 million, sufficient to undertake its aggressive 2021 exploration program. In a statement, Michael Bennett, Altamira Gold president & CEO commented: "These additional funds allow us to aggressively explore our 3 main projects and continue to advance our growth strategy. Once again, we would like to thank our long-term shareholders for supporting the Company through the process of exercising these warrants and we look forward to commencing a significant and well-financed exploration drill program in the next few months." As previously disclosed, officers and directors of the company exercised a total of 1,072,800 warrants for proceeds of $160,920. Of this total, Bennett exercised a total of 672,800 warrants representing proceeds of $100,920, and the company's chairman exercised a total of 400,000 warrants representing proceeds of $60,000. In connection with the exercise of the warrants, the CEO and the chairman sold 284,000 and 170,000 common shares respectively for proceeds of $102,458 and $61,320. Mutum IP Survey Altamira Gold also said it has launched its 3D Induced Polarization and Resistivity (IP) ground geophysical survey at the 100% controlled Apiacas Project, located in Mato Grosso State, Brazil. The program is centered on the large-scale Mutum gold target and incorporates areas covered by ongoing geochemical rock sampling and geological mapping programs. The IP survey is intended to assist with the identification of sulfide mineralization related to the gold mineralizing system at Mutum and will guide subsequent trenching and drill targeting. Recent surface mapping has delineated a large area of pyritic mineralisation and sericitic alteration in addition to extensive historic artisanal colluvial gold workings over an area encompassing several square kilometres. The company said it expects the IP results to generate drill targets to be tested within the next couple of months. The 17 line-program covers an area of 4 square kilometres and is expected to be completed by the end of June. The Mutum gold target is part of the Apiacas Project located 50 kilometres west of Altamira's Cajueiro gold project which hosts 43-101 compliant indicated resources of 5.66 million tonnes (Mt) at 1.02 grams per ton gold for a total of 185,000 ounces and inferred resources of 12.66Mt at 1.26 g/t gold for a total of 515,000 ounces. An estimated 1 million ounces (Moz) of colluvial gold was historically recovered from the Mutum area, suggestive of the presence of a significant underlying hard-rock deposit. Recent exploration has identified four high-grade vein structures with channel samples returning values up to 3 metres at 10.39 g/t gold. Silver assays have also returned high-grade values up to 871 g/t silver. Altamira Gold is focused on the exploration and development of gold projects within western central Brazil. It holds 8 projects comprising approximately 190,000 hectares, within the prolific Juruena gold belt which historically produced an estimated 7Moz to 10Moz of placer gold. The company's advanced Cajueiro project has NI 43-101 resources of 5.66Mt at 1.02 g/t gold for a total of 185,000 ounces in the Indicated Resource category and 12.66Mt at 1.26 g/t gold for a total of 515,000 ounces in the Inferred Resource category. Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com New Delhi, May 12 : The shades of dusk are falling -- it is time to exit this space. But people continue to come in with their dead. The quiet synonymous with a cremation ground is replaced by ambulance sirens, relatives in PPE suits and crackling of burning wood. The cremation grounds at Sector 25 in Chandigarh has never witnessed so many pyres ever since it was established decades back. Equipped to handle 50 cremations at a given time, it is running to almost full capacity ever since the second wave of Covid-19 struck. Sanjeev Kumar, 28, who has been working here for the past seven years starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 7 p.m. He says it is tough to take a break too nowadays. Being inside the PPE kit for hours on end is now taking its toll. "The weather, the heat from the pyres, and this kit over clothes -- so many times I feel I am having an anxiety attack. Not to mention, one gets dehydrated very soon." Adding that while there is a rush of Covid bodies, the situation is not as bleak as Delhi where there is a wait for hours, Kumar says here they are ensuring that the relatives get to be part of the last rites, while following all the protocols. "We understand their fear, and also the guilt if they do not execute the rituals that have been part of our culture for hundreds of years. One has to find a middle-ground..." Earning Rs 15,000 a month, he assures that he has fear of contracting the virus. "Not because we take all the precautions, but the fact that fear would not really help us in any way. One has to earn, no? We are not expecting any special perks from the administration even as our workload has almost doubled," he says. Bodies, not just from the region but places, including Delhi are also being cremated here. "Many people from other cities have been admitted for the treatment of Covid-19 in multiple hospitals in Chandigarh. If they pass on, their last rites are done here only. Admitting that his family members are perpetually nervous considering the fact that he is in close proximity with the infected bodies, Kumar says: "I take a long shower with hot water before going home. However, most workers here including myself have told our families to keep a distance from us -- as much as possible." Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Lucknow, May 12 : Intensifying the preparations to protect children from the Covid infection, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered special arrangements at hospitals on the lines of ICU to ensure top class treatment. Soon, paediatric beds with all the resources, known as PICU, will become functional in hospitals of all metropolitan cities, including Lucknow, to protect children from the deadly Coronavirus. The government spokesman said that the chief minister has given instructions to set up at least 100 paediatric beds in every district. Salman Khan, a paediatrician at Dufferin Hospital in Lucknow, said that the decision of the Yogi government to set up 50-100 paediatric beds in all the major cities would prove very effective in the treatment of children. He stated that all the facilities have been provided in PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit) for children above one month, NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) for children below one month and SNCU (Sick Newborn care Unit)- established at maternity hospitals. These beds will be small in size and will have railing on the sides. Severely infected children will be provided with treatment and oxygen. The chief minister has already said that if needed, assistance will be taken from ex-servicemen, retired officers. He also said that students receiving medical education can train and provide tele consultation to the patients. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) May 12 : With the second wave of the COVID-19 crisis devastating the country, cinema halls are shut and will not open anytime soon. In such a scenario, digital platforms are doing well in entertaining people at the comfort of their homes. Many Bollywood actors are exploring the new platform and doing movies exclusive for digital spaces as well as web series. Aditya Roy Kapur, who made his digital debut last year with Anurag Basu's Ludo, has reportedly signed another web project. The Malang actor has signed a contract with Netflix for an action project. The project is currently being scripting and will reportedly go on floors later this year. The upcoming project with the streaming giant will mark the actors full-fledged show on the digital platform. Meanwhile, Aditya will be next seen in Om: The Battle Within. Helmed by Kapil Verma, the action thriller also stars Sanjana Sanghi in the lead role. The film is being jointly produced by Ahmed Khan, Shaira Khan and ZEE Studios. While the film was slated to hit the theatres in the summer of 2021, due to the current coronavirus pandemic, the makers failed to complete production work, and hence, the release of the film is expected to to be postponed. Aditya has also signed another action-packed film, the Hindi remake of Thadam. While the actor plays the lead in the film, he will be seen in a double role. It will mark the Aashiqui 2 actors first double role ever. The film also stars Mrunal Thakur as the female lead. Murad Khetani, the producer of Kabir Singh, will back the film. The film was supposed to star Sidharth Malhotra in the lead but Sidharth politely opted out of the film as he didnt like the new screenplay. After the success of Malang, Aditya was reportedly flooded with offers and the actor was busy reading several scripts. However, the actor is taking time to choose the scripts as he wants to challenge himself with different and diverse roles. Panaji, May 12 : The dean of the state government's apex health facility, the Goa Medical College, has defended the use of ivermectin as a preventive drug for Covid prevention for all persons above 18 year in Goa even as WHO believes otherwise. The dean Dr. Shivanand Bandekar said that ivermectin is a "very good drug" and that there were clinical trials to prove the same. "There are many trials on this. It is considered to be a very good drug. It is a very good drug and our expert committee, the state expert committee has accepted it no," the dean has said. The top official's comments come a day after Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at the World Health Organisation cautioned against the using the drug without clinical trials. "Safety and efficacy are important when using any drug for a new indication. @WHO recommends against the use of ivermectin for #COVID19 except within clinical trials," Swaminathan had tweeted on Tuesday. The Goa Opposition has also opposed the indiscriminate use of ivermectin, a drug which is used to combat parasite infections, as a preventive drug in the state's Covid management protocol. "#GoaCovidCrisis Who prescribed #Ivermectin to corrupt Health Minister @visranefor Prophylaxis Treatment to Goans? Did he obtain approval from @PMOIndia, @MoHFW_INDIA? Is the treatment approved by @WHO? Will @ICMRDELHI respond? @goacm @GovtofGoa must clarify immediately @INCGoa," state Congress president Girish Chodankar had tweeted. "An intensely scary #COVIDSecondWave made scarier by imposing unproven treatments on unsuspecting #Goans. Who's running this show? Where's this heading? Who's profiting from this? #WHO #Ivermectin #COVIDEmergencyGoa," former Dy. CM and Goa Forward Party MLA Vijai Sardesai had also tweeted. The Goa government on Monday had amended its Covid treatment protocol, recommending that all persons above the age of 18 should take five tablets of ivermectin, to prevent the viral load, which more of then than not causes excessive trauma and even death in Covid-19 positive patients. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Bulandshahr : , May 12 (IANS) The Parwana village in Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh has sealed itself to prevent the spread of Covid infection. Barricades have been put up at the entry points of the village, with a banner declaring that the "entry of outsiders in the village is prohibited -- by order district administration." The decision comes after over two dozen persons died in the past one and a half months, ostensibly due to Covid. Villagers are also taking care to maintain social distancing and sanitize their hands at regular intervals. People are wearing masks and even children are being forced to follow safety protocols. The village head, Syoraj Singh, said that 28 to 30 people have died in just over a month. "The deceased include both, elderly and the young," he said. Senior government officials did not give an exact figure of the dead, but admitted that 'several' have died. Subhash Singh, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Syana, said, "There have been several deaths due to natural causes too. Widespread sampling was done on May 5 and 41 villagers tested positive out of 160. More samples were taken after that and the report is awaited." District magistrate of Bulandshahr, Ravindra Kumar, said that several teams have been sent to the village and the situation will be brought under control soon. "This (the deaths) did come to my notice. I immediately spoke to the health department officials. We have sent screening teams to the village. People who have tested Covid-19 positive have been put in isolation," he said. Syoraj Singh said that people are ill in every second house. Each time the condition of a person deteriorates, we have to rush him to a hospital in Bulandshahr city, which is about 20 kms away. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Lucknow, May 12 : Former IPS officer, Amitabh Thakur, has challenged his compulsory retirement order in the Lucknow bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). He was given compulsory retirement by the UP Government on March 23 this year. Amitabh Thakur said in his petition that the Government of India and UP Government orders are completely incorrect. He said these orders have been passed merely for malafide intent because of personal and systemic bias against him, which has adversely affected his entire family. Thakur said the UP Government arbitrarily and randomly selected his name for compulsory retirement, without any material and grounds before it, which was approved by the central government. The government, he said, refused to provide him the relevant records related to the orders. Amitabh Thakur said this refusal to provide documents makes it apparent that the order is incorrect and the concerned governments want to hide facts. Hence, he has prayed for quashing of the order and providing him all service-related benefits for the given period. New York, May 12 : Five men who had worked at a Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) temple have filed a case in a federal court alleging that they were made to work as "forced labour" in the construction and maintenance of the shrine in New Jersey, according to court documents. The case was filed on Tuesday in a federal court in New Jersey on behalf of the men described in the court papers as Dalits from Rajasthan, who had worked at the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Robbinsville, which is reportedly the largest Hindu temple in the US. They allege that the defendants in the case - those who recruited and supervised them - "weaponised" the caste system to "coerce" the men from Dalit castes because of their vulnerabilities in India. Their 42-page case document, which was obtained by IANS from the court system, alleges that they were made to work at the temple for more than 12 hours a day, seven days a week with days off only occasionally for which they were paid less than $1.20 an hour - an amount far less than the state minimum wage that was $10 in 2019 and $11 in 2020. Their court papers, however, say that they were instructed while applying for their visa to tell the US embassy staff that they were going to the US for "volunteer work at the temple" and "would be performing the work as a service to the deities" even though they assert that they were not members of BAPS. According to the court document, although came to the US with an R-1 visa, which is granted to missionaries and religious workers, they did not perform any religious work and instead were made to do "dangerous" manual work at the temple. The men filing the case are Mukesh Kumar, Keshav Kumar, Devi Laal, Niranjan, Pappu, and Brajendra. They asked the court to treat their case as a class action suit, which would automatically include about 200 workers who they said had worked there under similar conditions. The case lists as the defendants in the case four BAPS organisations and five individuals who it says are connected to the temple and were their supervisors. They could not be reached for their reaction, but the New York Times quoted one of them identified as Kanus Patel telling it, "I respectfully disagree with the wage claim." The newspaper also reported that BAPS Spokesperson Lenin Joshi said, "We are naturally shaken by this turn of events and are sure that once the full facts come out, we will be able to provide answers and show that these accusations and allegations are without merit." New Jersey 101.5 radio station reported that Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents were at the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir on Tuesday, according to a local official. It added that FBI spokeswoman Doreen Holder said in an email, "The FBI is there on court-authorised law enforcement activity. No further comment." The radio station also said that the state Labour Department had "issued a stop-work order on April 30 against Cunha's Construction Inc. and owner Nuno Cunha based on repeated and ongoing violations of state wage and hour laws after visits to the BAPS temple in Robbinsville and Edison." But that contractor does not figure in the court papers. Just last week Surgeon-General Vivek Murthy had praised the BAPS at a White House briefing on Covid-19 response last week for its involvement in the Covid-19 vaccination effort. He said, "I want to highlight BAPS Charities, a Hindu-American organisation that has turned their temples into vaccination centres. For elderly members of these temples, it's been easier to get vaccinated at their own temple, surrounded by trusted friends and familiar settings, than it may have been for some of them to get vaccinated at an unfamiliar location." According to the court document, the workers allege that their passports were taken away on their arrival in the US and they were not allowed out of the temple complex alone and they were watched with cameras and guards. They assert that they were paid only $450 per month, of which they received $50 in the US and the rest were deposited in rupees in their accounts in India. They alleged that their pay was cut if they spoke to outsiders or if they did not follow rules like wearing helmets. One of the workers identified as "Moham Lal died while he was subjected to forced labour at the temple" and that the officials mentioned in the case retaliated against the workers who demanded that the man's final rites be conducted according to their tradition and that their working conditions be improved. The case papers allege that the "defendants intentionally recruited workers from the Scheduled Caste, also known as Dalit, and other marginalised communities in India" because of their vulnerability "did what they could to remind these marginalised workers of their place in the social hierarchy." They allege that a swami "called the workers 'worms,' thus exacerbating the psychological coercion the workers experienced." While applying for visas they were allegedly told the embassy staff that they would be doing decorative painting or carving work known as nakkashi on stones for the temple. But because the nakkashi work was done mostly in India, they allege that they ended up "cutting stones, laying stones, removing garbage, road work, dipping stones in chemicals, and other tasks." There has been a high profile case of case of "forced" labour of Indian men in the US. In that case involving an American company, a federal court in 2015 ordered it to pay five of them $12 million. Most of them were from Kerala. Signal International had recruited about 500 Indian men to repair oil rigs and facilities damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 in Mississippi reportedly with promises of green cards after they had paid $10,000 to recruiters. But when they arrived in the US they found they were not going to get green cards and were made to pay $1,050 per month to live in restrictive labour camps. With 11 more cases pending against the company, it declared bankruptcy and settled all the cases for $20 million. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed @arulouis) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : Facebook-owned Instagram has announced to let users add up to four pronouns to their profiles, which they can then display publicly or only to their followers. It's another way to express yourself on Instagram and the feature is now available in a few countries today with plans for more. The company, however, did not specify which countries have this feature at the moment. "Now you can add pronouns to your profile with a new field. It's another way to express yourself on Instagram and we've seen a lot of people adding pronouns already, so hopefully this makes it even easier. Available in a few countries today with plans for more," said Vishal Shah, VP of Product at Instagram. People can fill out a form to have a pronoun added, if it's not already available, or just add it to their bio. The news comes at a time when a coalition of 44 US Attorneys General has signed a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg urging Facebook not to launch "Instagram for Kids", citing mental health and privacy concerns. The "Instagram for Kids" app will allow children under the age of 13 to begin using the popular photo-sharing app. However, the attorneys general urged Facebook to abandon its plans to launch this new platform. Currently, children under 13 are not allowed to have an Instagram account unless it is explicitly written in the profile description that the account is being managed by a parent or guardian. Manchester, May 12 : Manchester City were confirmed as Premier League champions once again after Manchester United were beaten 2-1 at home by Leicester City. City missed the opportunity to secure a third league title under Pep Guardiola on Saturday when a missed penalty from Sergio Aguero proved costly as Chelsea came from behind to win 2-1 at the Etihad Stadium. United beat Aston Villa on Sunday and needed another victory to delay the celebrations once again -- but a side showing 10 changes could not see off the Foxes, who took an early lead through a fine volley from teenager Luke Thomas which was cancelled out by Mason Greenwood's neat finish, DPA reports. Caglar Soyuncu headed in a corner midway through the second half to secure all three points, which left City as champions with three games still to play. Even if United, set for a rescheduled league match against Liverpool on Thursday as well as the Europa League final, could have produced the required performance, it would have only delayed City's seemingly inevitable march towards the title. "I have been in Spain, I have been in Germany, and I can say this is the toughest league by far," Guardiola said in a video posted on the Manchester City's Twitter account. "To achieve five Premier League (titles) in 10 years means a lot for this organization." Guardiola will now take his side to Newcastle on Friday safe in the knowledge of having delivered another major trophy back to the Etihad Stadium, reclaiming the league crown from Liverpool. The manager will relish the opportunity to celebrate with the club's supporters when some are allowed into the ground for the final home match of the league season on May 23. "I am looking forward to the Everton game, we will lift the trophy with 10,000 people I think who will be coming to the stadium, it will be incredible," he said. "This business without these people is not the same, and hopefully next season we can enjoy it at all the Premier League teams." City will also have European dominance firmly in their sights, with the chance to set the record straight when they tackle Chelsea in the Champions League final on May 29. Thiruvananthapuram, May 12 : The mortal remains of Kerala's Soumya Santhosh, who was was killed on Tuesday in a rocket attack in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, where she has been working as a caregiver, will be brought to her home, said relatives and authorities. Soumya, 31, has been working in Israel for the past nine years and she last visited her home in Idukki four years back said her grieving husband Santhosh. Sources said that the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine has now become a subject of growing concern for the Kerala nurses who work there as caregivers. Recalling the incident, Santhosh said they were speaking on a video call and suddenly he heard a huge noise and there was no answer from the other side. "After a while, I could hear loud noise of some people there as the video call was connected. Later, I was informed that she along with a few others had died," told Santhosh. "We had told her to go to another place and she was taking care of an elderly lady. On Tuesday, while being on my call, she called the son and daughter of the lady. The son had told her to get ready and he will come to take her. And she had packed the bags of her's and the elderly lady and was about to have some kanji (gruel) as she was doubtful of getting such food to the area she was moving," said Santhosh. "Now she has gone and that's it," he added. Meanwhile Union Minister of State for External Affairs V.Muraleedharan informed that all steps are being taken to bring home Soumya's body, which is now kept at a hospital in Bursail, Ashkelon. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text "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 London, May 12 : Samsung, Sony and Hitachi have invested in UK heathtech company Huma Therapeutics Limited in its latest Series C funding round with financing of approximately $130 million, the company said on Wednesday. Leaps by Bayer and Hitachi Ventures led the Series C funding round, which also saw strategic and financial investors like Samsung Next, Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, Unilever Ventures and HAT Technology & Innovation Fund by HAT, as well as individuals Nikesh Arora (former president of SoftBank) and Michael Diekmann (Chairman of Allianz). The investment will scale Huma's modular platform which can power digital 'hospitals at home' nationally, and support the pharmaceutical and research industries to run the largest ever decentralised clinical trials, the company said in a statement. The company said an additional $70 million can be raised at a later date as part of the Series C funding, taking the total financing to more than $200 million. "We're already demonstrating how 'hospital at home' can transform healthcare, and how decentralized clinical trials can advance research in ways that weren't imaginable even one year ago. Now we want to accelerate the pace of change and continue to innovate for better care and research worldwide.," said Dan Vahdat, Founder and CEO of Huma. The new investment will be used to expand Huma's digital platform in the US, Asia and the Middle East. Its digital 'hospital at home' was co-created with clinicians and has been independently shown to almost double clinical capacity, reduce hospital readmissions by over a third and has patient adherence levels of over 90 per cent. "The service is supporting governments' pandemic responses on a not-for-profit basis and is now used for a range of patients," the company said. Huma works with leading life science companies including AstraZeneca, Bayer and Janssen and academic institutions such as Stanford Medicine, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Cambridge. "We are excited to explore how the Huma platform and its digital biomarkers portfolio could work with the Samsung ecosystem for lasting impact in proactive care across hospitals, life sciences and population health initiatives," said Jonathan Machado, Senior Investment Director of Samsung Next. Lucknow, May 12 : Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (ADCP) Lucknow, Chiranjeev Nath Sinha, has been conferred the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India Award in appreciation of his efforts to feed animals during the lockdowns. Chiranjeev Nath Sinha and his police team have been distributing bananas and chickpeas to stray monkeys and cows in Lucknow. The police team has fed the stray animals in Khurram Nagar Kukarel area of Lucknow. Food was also fed to stray animals and monkeys in the lockdown last year by the ADCP. "There is a lot of problem in getting food for animals when the lockdown is imposed. Community animals can starve and suffer in a lockdown because they depend on our leftover foods for survival," he had told reporters. PETA India CEO, Dr Manilal Valliyate, said in a release on Wednesday, "PETA India is recognizing this honourable officer for lending a hand to animals in need and setting an example of compassion for everyone to follow." He said that PETA India is encouraging kind people to continue feeding community animals during lockdowns, noting that it is safe to do so while complying with basic protocols, such as wearing a mask and maintaining distance from others. Chennai, May 12 : Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Wednesday announced Rs 25 lakh compensation to the families of 43 doctors who had lost their lives while on Covid-19 patient treatment duty. Stalin also announced incentives to those medical service personnel who were involved in treatment of Covid-19 patients. As per the incentive scheme for the three months -- April, May and June -- when the second wave of Covid-19 spread, doctors will be paid Rs 30,000, nurses and trainee doctors Rs 20,000, and others like sanitary workers, people working in CT scan department, ambulance workers Rs 15,000. Stalin also extended greeting to the nurses on the International Nurses Day that falls on May 12. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Ambedkar Nagar : , May 12 (IANS) Five persons have died and seven have been hospitalised after consuming spurious liquor in Ambedkar Nagar district on the Azamgarh border. Hours after they consumed liquor on Tuesday in Makhdoompur village, they complained of uneasiness and some lost consciousness. They were rushed to a nearby private clinic in Zaidpur police station area. While three died on the way, two others succumbed at the district hospital, where they were later shifted. The police could send only two bodies for autopsy while the villagers hurriedly cremated those who died soon after. Five people have been arrested, including the liquor shop owner in Mittupur area of Azamgarh. Superintendent of Police, Ambedkar Nagar, Alok Priyadarshi, said that station house officer of Zaidpur police station, a sub-Inspector and two beat constables have been suspended for laxity. "The death toll is currently five and we are investigating the illegal sale of spurious liquor. We are waiting for the autopsy report of one of the victims and have filed a case in Zaidpur police station," he said. Chennai, May 12 : Amid spiralling coronavirus cases, the Greater Chennai Corporation has decided to roll out "oxygen parlours" for Covid patients across three regions of the city. Each region will have a 100-bed hospital with oxygen facility. This will be for people who have breathing difficulty and whose oxygen saturation is between 90-92, but still need the oxygen support. Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner Gagan Singh Bedi has said that the corporation has already ordered for oxygen concentrators and 2,700 of them will reach the city soon. The Chennai corporation has also made some changes regarding the RT-PCR tests and the report of the test will not be given directly to positive patients. Doctors will first check the blood pressure, oxygen saturation and respiration rate of the patient. Based on these parameters doctors and medics will decide whether the patient needs home isolation or treatment at a hospital. The corporation will also provide a medical kit immediately to all patients who are undergoing an RT-PCR test with symptoms of fever, loose motion, loss of smell and taste and body pain. According to officials, this is to ensure that the patient isn't left unattended till the arrival of the results of RTPCR. Thirty thousand such medical kits are already ready for providing to patients. The Chennai Corporation Commissioner told IANS, "This method is to ensure that positive patients are not venturing out and spreading the disease even unknowingly." The city has reported over 7,000 fresh Covid cases on Tuesday. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Geneva, May 12 : The Indian coronavirus variant (B1617), which has now been declared a "variant of global concern" has spread to 44 countries, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. The B1617 variant, first identified in India in October, has been detected in over 4500 sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database, till May 11, "from 44 countries in all six WHO regions," the global health agency said in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic on Tuesday. The WHO has also "received reports of detections from five additional countries", the update said. The Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) is a German non-profit organisation, launched in 2016 as a database for sharing flu genomes. The WHO's SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution Working Group on Tuesday determined that viruses within the lineage B1617 areA a variant of concern. The B1617 variant was, till now, deemed a 'variant of interest' by the WHO. It now has been added to the list of other Covid-19 "variants of concern" -- UK (B117), South African (B1351) and Brazilian (P1) variants. The B1617 variant was declared as a variant of concern based on early evidence of higher rates of transmission, including its observed rapid increases in prevalence in multiple countries. The UN health body also cited "preliminary evidence", which suggests that B1617 variant reduces effectiveness of treatment of Covid patients with Bamlanivimab -- a monoclonal antibody. It also pointed out lab studies that showed "slightly reduced susceptibility to neutralisation antibodies". Approximately 0.1 per cent of positive samples in India have been sequenced and uploaded to GISAID to identify SARS-CoV-2 variants, the WHO said.A The agency said that spread of B1617, alongs with other more transmittable variants, are one of several factors fuelling India's dramatic surge in new cases and deaths. The number of new Covid-19 cases and deaths globally decreased slightly this week, with over 5.5 million cases and over 90, 000 deaths, the update said.A "India continues to account for 95 per cent of cases and 93 per cent of deaths in the South-East Asia Region, as well as 50 per cent of global cases and 30 per cent of global deaths,", the update added. India on Wednesday recorded 4,205 deaths due to Covid, highest till date with 3,48,421 fresh cases, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Mumbai, May 12 : Idea-phase accelerator fund 9Unicorns on Wednesday said it has led an undisclosed pre-Series A funding round in electric vehicle (EV) mobility solution provider ElecTorq. The round also saw participation from institutional and individual investors including AdvantEdge Founders, Sumant Sinha, Founder and CMD of Renew Power and Samir Khurana, serial investor. Founded by five IIT Delhi alumni, ElecTorq is a full-stack EV solution provider to businesses involved in last-mile mobility of goods and people. "We are seeing great traction from major fleet-based businesses in India and are certain that with great Partners like 9Unicorns, Sumant Sinha, and AdvantEdge on our side we will succeed in our mission of making the majority of the commercial 2Ws in India to be electric by 2025," said Anubhav Sharma, Co-Founder & CEO, ElecTorq. ElecTorq was among the 17 companies selected by LightSpeed Venture Partners for its 'Extreme Entrepreneurs Cohort 2021'. ElecTorq said the its suite of intelligent mobility and fleet management solutions are designed for commercial-first applications such as food delivery, grocery deliveries, ride-sharing, e-commerce, and self-drive mobility. To generate revenue, the company leverages a hybrid business model. It sells its hardware at a markup price and charges a subscription free for its data and fleet management tools. "On the back of its innovative solution, the brand is equipped to capture a market opportunity in India estimated to be worth $4 billion by 2025," said Anil Jain, Co-founder of 9unicorns. 9Unicorns provides funding of $100K-$200K per startup in the first round, and may invest further $500K-$2 million in successive rounds with its co-investors. Lucknow, May 12 : In a scathing attack on the Election Commission, the higher courts and the government, the Allahabad High Court has said that they "failed to fathom the disastrous consequences" of permitting elections in a few states and the panchayat election in Uttar Pradesh. A single-judge bench of Justice Siddharth Verma made these observations on Monday while granting protection from arrest 'on special grounds', till January 2022, to a builder based in Ghaziabad. A case had been filed against the builder by Uttar Pradesh Police over an alleged property possession default. The order also listed out what the special grounds were, saying "the apprehension of death on account of reasons like the present pandemic of novel coronavirus can certainly be held to be a ground for grant of anticipatory bail to an accused". In detailed observations, part of the 18-page anticipatory bail order, the court highlighted how Covid has now reached villages in Uttar Pradesh, with the recent panchayat election in the state, contributing to the surge. "The state government is having a tough time in controlling the spread of novel Coronavirus in urban areas, and it would be very difficult to conduct the test, detect and treat the village population found suffering from the disease. The state lacks preparation and resources for the same at present," the Allahabad High Court said. The court also pointed out that the UP panchayat polls contributed to the Covid surge. The court further observed that "On account of the recent panchayat elections in the state, a large number of FIRs have been lodged in the villages. Even otherwise, the crime rate in the village is quite high in the state. Keeping in view the overall situation of the villages after the panchayat elections, a large number of accused persons may be infected and their infection may not have been detected." Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12: Chinas desperate attempts to bring about a patch-up between the two warring factions of the Nepal Communist Party have come a cropper, plunging the Himalayan country into a political crisis at a time when the deadly Covid-19 pandemic has also peaked in the country. After the fall of the KP Sharma Oli government on Monday, Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari has called the country's political parties to form a new government by Thursday. She has asked Oli to be the caretaker prime minister till then. According to sources, during the past couple of weeks, Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, had lobbied with senior Nepalese MPs to gather support for Oli to ensure his victory in the vote of confidence on the floor of Parliament. China wants someone loyal to Beijing as PM and it was concerned over the weakening communist influence in South Asia with the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) splitting into two factions - one led by prime minister Oli, and the second by former prime minister Prachanda, who is also the executive chairman of the party. Chinese ambassador Hou Yanqi's efforts to settle the differences between Oli and Prachanda proved futile and last week, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) - a key faction led by Pushpakamal Dahal "Prachanda" withdrew support to the government. Consequently, Oli lost the vote of confidence in Parliament on Monday. Many analysts believe that Oli is down but he still has a chance to regain power. Nepal President Bidya Devi Bhandari has initiated the process to form a new government under Article 76 (2) of the constitution and in cases where no party has a clear majority in the House of Representatives, the President shall appoint as prime minister a member of the House of Representatives who can command majority with the support of two or more parties, according to the Nepalese constitution. If the opposition parties fail to form a new government, the President, as per the constitution, has to invoke Article 76 (3), which says " in cases where the prime minister cannot be appointed under Clause (2)... or the prime minister so appointed fails to secure a vote of confidence within 30 days from the date of appointment, the President shall appoint as prime minister the parliamentary party leader of the party which has the highest number of members in the House of Representatives." Advantage Oli? In the current equation, Oli's Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) popularly known as CPN-UML, with 121 representatives, is the party with the largest number of members in the House but the Madhav Nepal-led faction of CPN-UML with 32 lawmakers abstained from the voting process. The Nepal-Khanal faction for the last few days had been saying that its lawmakers would resign. However, they did not. And instead, on Monday morning, they decided to remain absent. A UML Standing Committee member close to Oli said the party has no plans to initiate action against the Nepal-Khanal faction lawmakers as that could make it easier for the opposition parties to form a new government. In fact now Oli is trying to "pacify" them. There are currently 271 MPs in the parliament and for any faction would need 136 votes to form the government. Nepal's political situation is such that no single party now can form a government without the support of at least one other party. "Given the voting pattern, it looks like things are moving the way Oli wants them to move. Now the onus to form a new government and unseat him lies with the opposition parties, but they cannot do so because of their own differences," says Sharad Singh Bhandari of NCP. According to observers, if the opposition parties fail to form a government under Article 76 (2) and if Oli gets re-appointed as per Article 76 (3), he needs to win the vote of confidence within 30 days from the date of the appointment and failure to do so would lead to House dissolution and fresh elections and China is preparing for that too. China's Covid card Meanwhile, Nepal's Covid-19 tally crossed the 400,000 mark and reached 403,794 on Monday with the addition of 9,127 fresh cases and PM Oli has asked for help. "I have appealed to the international community to help us with vaccines, diagnostic tools, oxygen kits, critical care medicines and equipment, to support our efforts to save lives. Our urgent goal is to stop preventable deaths," Oli said. China has said that it will continue to do its best to offer support to Nepal in its fight against Covid-19. "We believe the Nepalese people will defeat the virus at an early date," Chinese ambassador in Nepal, Hou Yanqi said in a tweet. "The first batch of oxygen cylinders and ventilators donated by the Chinese government will arrive in Kathmandu tomorrow! We wish friendly Nepali people an early victory over the pandemic! China will continue to do its best to offer support to Nepal in its fight against #COVID19," she added. (This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative/ Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12: For the first time since his taking over in August 2020, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Monday spoke to Jammu and Kashmirs senior mainstream politicians-including the former Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Ghulam Nabi Azad-on telephone and sought their suggestions with regard to his governments response to the coronavirus pandemic. Sinha elaborated on the arrangements made by his government from dealing with the pandemic to the infrastructure development and acquisition of equipment, medicines and vaccines. He expressed his disappointment over the 'disinformation campaign' run by some elements with the sinister design of creating panic and crippling the whole Covid management system which, he asserted, was robust. He said that hundreds of general and ICU beds fitted with oxygen supply and other logistic support had been added to the hospitals across Jammu and Kashmir. As regards the reports of scarcity of oxygen, Sinha told the politicians that there were a total of 17 oxygen manufacturing plants in Jammu and Kashmir when he took over as LG in August 2020. "We have installed 27 more oxygen plants in the last 6-7 months and we have 44 plants operational today. We are commissioning 10 more plants in the next few weeks", Sinha explained. The LG observed that the present Covid situation in the Union Territory was well under control. Besides, the government had ensured an uninterrupted supply of oxygen cylinders. Sinha observed that the representatives of public and political leaders had an important role to play in these trying times. "With everyone's support and cooperation, we can successfully break the chain of the spread of Covid pandemic", he told the politicians invariably. "Let us all come together to protect and save precious lives by discharging our duty towards the society". 'The administration is committed to the safety of the people. We are working round-the-clock and doing our best to ensure the availability of all the necessary medicare facilities, besides taking comprehensive measures to strengthen the rapid response mechanism to deal with the emerging situation", Sinha asserted in the telephonic conversations. During his telephonic interaction with the politicians, Sinha invited their suggestions for strengthening the control measures being taken by the Government to curtail the spread of this deadly virus. They invariably assured the LG their cooperation in Covid containment efforts of the UT Government. Sinha has been individually meeting different politicians including NC's Devinder Singh Rana, CPI (M) Secretary Mohammad Yusuf Tarigami and many from the BJP at the Raj Bhawan. However, it was for the first time that he himself initiated the outreach, called the politicians and sought their views. Former Deputy Chief Ministers Dr Nirmal Singh (BJP) and Muzaffar Hussain Baig (Peoples Conference), former Ministers Ghulam Ahmad Mir (Congress), Syed Altaf Bukhari (Apni Party), Sajad Lone (PC) besides the former Union Cabinet Minister Saifuddin Soz (Congress), J&K BJP President Ravinder Raina, President Panthers Party Bhim Singh, Congress spokesman Ravinder Sharma and Devender Singh Rana of National Conference joined the telephonic conversation with the LG. While Farooq Abdullah represented the former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other NC leaders, Mehbooba Mufti's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was conspicuously absent from the LG's outreach. Even as the LG on Monday itself ordered shifting of the senior PDP leader and former Minister Naeem Akhtar from a detention centre to his home, he is understood to have ignored Mehbooba and other PDP leaders in view of the former Chief Minister's tough stand on restoration of Article 370, 35-A and the erstwhile State flag. Even after her party participated in the District Development Council elections, Mehbooba has called the changes made in August 2019 irreconcilable. Unlike her, leaders of all other parties have been calling and meeting the LG. The NC President Farooq Abdullah is the only J&K politician visited by Sinha when he was under treatment for Covid at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura early this year. On papers, Farooq is still chairperson of the so-called Peoples Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) which has NC and PDP as its key constituents and restoration of Article 370 and J&K's Statehood as its key demand. (This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative/ Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : The Nagaland's BJP unit is set to launch a campaign to provide 'One-Time Meal' to the frontline workers in Kohima town. The one time meal to frontline workers will be provided by the Nagaland BJP ST Morcha. As per the plan, initially frontline workers in Kohima town will be provided one time meal and later on the programme will be extended in the rest of the state. Nagaland BJP ST Morcha President Wanphong Konyak told IANS that 'one time meal programme' for frontline workers in Kohima Town will start from May 15 and it will continue till the lockdown. Amid rising cases of Covid cases in the state, Nagaland government has imposed a week long lockdown from May 14 to May 21. "In the start of one time meal programme police and traffic police personnel in the Kohima Town will be reached out. In later days, we will reach out sanitation workers and healthcare workers," she said. Konyak pointed out that since the surge of Covid cases, the frontline workers have been consistently providing their strength, courage, dedication and tireless efforts for the safety and well being of the society throughout these challenging times. "And a gesture of appreciation, as well as to show absolute support to combat the deadly pandemic, Nagaland BJP ST Morcha, under the guidance of Party Chief J.P Nadda and State Unit Chief Temjen Imna along, have taken the responsibility to provide one-time meal to the frontline workers in Kohima Town," Konyak said. As per the plan, the BJP Nagaland ST Morcha workers will distribute packed food to frontline workers at traffic points of the Kohima town. Nagaland BJP unit has asked its workers to extend all possible help to citizens across the state. While the Nagaland BJP ST Morcha is starting distribution of food for frontline workers, the youth wing has started blood and plasma donation and the Women wing is distributing face masks. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : Zydus Animal Health and Investments Limited (ZAHL) a wholly owned material subsidiary of Cadila Healthcare Limited, has entered into a Business Transfer Agreement (BTA) and other ancillary agreements to sell and transfer its Animal Healthcare Established Markets Undertaking to Multiples Alternate Asset Management led consortium. Zydus AH is the animal health business of ZAHL focused on India and certain other countries. The consortium, including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and RARE Enterprises has agreed to purchase the undertaking through an SPV controlled by them, in the name of Zenex Animal Health India Private Limited. The deal is to sell one of the two business undertakings of ZAHL, called Animal Healthcare Established Markets Undertaking on a slump sale basis as a going concern, for a lump sum consideration of Rs 2,921 crore on a cash free and debt free basis, subject to certain closing date adjustments and other conditions. Zydus AH is the second largest and one of the fastest growing animal health businesses in India. The business enjoys leadership position across a wide spectrum of therapeutic and nutritional products for livestock and poultry animal segments. It employs approximately 700 people and has one manufacturing facility in Haridwar. Pankaj Patel, Chairman, Cadila Healthcare Ltd., said, "Over the last 3 decades Zydus AH has grown to become a pioneer and market leader in the Indian animal health industry. With Multiples and its consortium partners committed to growing the business, we are sure that Zydus AH will continue to grow and strengthen its position in the industry." Arun Atrey, Managing Director, ZAHL said, "The Zydus AH business has a very strong franchise in the market and is extremely well positioned to take advantage of the continued industry growth in India and select exports markets. We expect this process to be seamless for our customers, suppliers and other stakeholders, with no disruption to our operations." Commenting on the transaction Renuka Ramnath, Founder and CEO, Multiples Alternate Asset Management shared, "Zydus AH is a strong leader in the Indian animal health market with strong brands, comprehensive product portfolio and extensive distribution network. We are excited to back Zydus AH's top quality management team led by Arun Atrey and be able to invest in a business that has been helping farmers enhance their productivity and incomes by delivering innovative animal health solutions". "I expect Multiples to do many such large transactions in the coming years. We are also delighted to partner with CPP Investments and RARE enterprises for our first consortium deal. We look forward to working with them and, help the Company unlock its full potential and create value for all stakeholders" Ramnath added. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Partner, RARE Enterprises said "We are delighted to partner with CPP Investments and Multiples in investing into a market leading business , in a segment which has huge growth potential and has a top quality management team". ZAHL has another animal healthcare business undertaking which is expected to commence animal health business in the US and certain European countries and this business undertaking is not part of the transaction. Zydus continues to develop the animal health business products for those markets and at present, this business is in the development and investment phase. Business transfer details Multiples, along with its consortium partners, will acquire 100% business of Zydus AH through a slump sale transaction. The transaction is subject to closing conditions and receipt of all statutory and other approvals and is expected to be completed within a period of 90 days. New Delhi, May 12 : The Aluminium Association of India (AAI) has pushed for speedy implementation of the RoDTEP Scheme (Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products) for the Indian Aluminium industry on priority to survive these challenging times. In a letter to senior officials of ministries of Commerce & Industry and Finance & Corporate Affairs, AAI expressed the urgent need for at least 5% remission rate for the Aluminum Sector under RoDTEP Scheme to ensure its global competitiveness. The AAI also requested a separate budget allocation for the aluminium industry, being a strategic sector, to realize the immense potential to double Aluminium exports over the next 2-3 years. Highlighting the urgency of the matter, the AAI said, the Government needs to notify the actual remission rates as per actual sectoral data submitted to the RoDTEP Committee. The inordinate delay in notifying the sector-wise remission rates is creating a precarious situation and a high level of uncertainty for the Indian exporters. It is adversely impacting exports due to ambiguity w.r.t. pricing of exports goods and absence of any clarity on the mechanism of duty remission/ drawback rates for exports. The situation for exporters further aggravates with the withdrawal of MEIS, as to date the exporters are unable to avail the MEIS benefit for exports already made during FY- 20 and FY- 21 (Apr-Dec) due to the blocking of the online MEIS module for applying claims. The Commerce Ministry / DGFT are yet to notify the rates due to Government's current situation pertaining to budgetary constraints. Union Budget 2021-22 has allocated only Rs 13,000 Cr for RoDTEP Scheme against Rs 50,000 Cr announced by Hon'ble Finance Minister in Sept, 2019. This allocation is just one-third of the Rs 39,097Cr allocated in FY-20 for MEIS (Merchandise Exports from India Scheme). Supporting the rates calculated by RoDTEP by an extensive exercise conducted through detailed discussions, due diligence and analysis done for various sectors, AAI said that implementation of its rates will give flexibility in increasing the rate in the future based on budget allocation to increase exports without any objection from WTO. Throwing light upon the current dilemma of the Indian Aluminium industry, it further highlights the plight of the Indian Aluminium exports struggling to retain competitiveness in international markets as compared to the major exporting countries, specially China, which extends various support measures for export competitiveness. In India, the high incidence of numerous unrebated Central & State taxes/ duties impedes the growth potential of Aluminium sector in India. The various taxes constitute ~15% of Aluminium production cost which is amongst highest in the world. This adversely impacts the sustainability & competitiveness of Aluminium industry and further renders Indian exporters vulnerable and uncompetitive vis-A -vis global players in international markets. These duties and taxes should not be exported as such and should be remitted back to the domestic producers to encourage domestic value addition and export of finished products. Under MEIS, the Aluminium exports were eligible for a 2% reward rate which itself didn't provide ample cushion to remain competitive against the current bearish market condition. Government support is extremely crucial at this juncture to reduce the burden of high taxes/ levies with an adequate remission rate of at least 5% under RoDTEP to boost exports and survive this challenging phase. Recognized as one of the 12 champion sectors, India has the 2nd largest Aluminium production capacity (4.1 million tons/ annum) and is the 3rd largest Aluminium producer. Huge investments of Rs 1.2 Lakh crore ($20 billion) have been made to enhance domestic production capacity to cater to domestic demand as well as enhance exports of high quality finished Aluminium products. The industry has generated more than 8 lakh jobs and developed over 4000 SMEs in the downstream sector. Aluminium exports alone contributed $5 billion to India's Forex earning in FY-21, i.e. ~2% of India's export basket and have massive potential to double the exports to the tune of $10 billion Forex earning in future. New Delhi, May 12 : As petrol crossed Rs 100 a litre mark in many parts of the country, the Congress has taken a jibe at the government saying, Vikas is back after elections. Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala on Wednesday tweeted, "Vikas had to be suspended briefly due to state elections. Parivar of "Reformists" & "Positivists" will be pleased to note that Vikas is now firmly back on track. As petrol has now crossed Rs 100 in Bhopal." The fuel prices increased for the third day in a row on Wednesday as state-owned fuel retailers hiked rates of petrol and diesel by 25 paise per litre each in the national capital. In Delhi, petrol now costs Rs 92.05 per litre and diesel is priced at Rs 82.61 up from yesterday's level of Rs 91.80 and Rs 82.36 a litre respectively. Across the country as well the petrol and diesel prices increased on Wednesday but its quantum varied depending on the level of local levies in respective states. In Mumbai, petrol now comes for Rs 98.36 a litre and diesel for Rs 89.75, according to a price notification from oil marketing companies. Petrol prices in some states including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and in some places in Maharastra have breached the Rs 100 per litre mark while premium petrol has been hovering above that level for some time now. Islamabad, May 12 : Pakistan reported the lowest number of Covid-19 cases since March 16 as the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) issued guidelines for Eidul Fitr prayers on Tuesday. The Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), on the other hand, released data about the number of doctors and paramedics who lost their lives to coronavirus, the Dawn reported. According to details shared by the NCOC, 3,084 cases were detected and 113 patients died throughout the country in a single day. Earlier, less than 3,084 cases surfaced on March 16 when 2,351 people got infected. The highest figure in the third wave was recorded on April 17 when 6,127 people tested positive. The data further showed that 607 ventilators were in use while the number of active cases was 78,959 as of May 11. The overall death toll has swelled to 19,106 while 5,353 patients were under treatment in hospitals across the country. A meeting of the NCOC reviewed the mobility control measures to be implemented during Eid holidays. Minister for Planning, DevAeAlopAAment and Special InitiaAtives Asad Umar and Lt Gen Hamooduz Zaman Khan prAeAsided over the session whAiAch was also attended by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan via video link. In the wake of the ongoing restrictions in force till May 16, the forum urged the nation to stand united in supporting the steps taken for the well-being of the citizens. It also approved guidelines under which it suggested that Eid prayers be organised in open spaces under strict Covid-19 protocols. "If there is a compulsion to offer prayers in the mosque, then windows and doors should be left open for good ventilation," an NCOC statement said, adding that two to three Eid prayers at one venue with staggered timings should be held to minimise strength. The forum recommended that Eid sermon should be kept brief to reduce exposure and discourage sick and elderly people and children below 15 years of age from attending the prayers. It would also be mandatory to wear masks and ensure multiple entry/exit points at the prayer venue. The guidelines suggested arranging thermal screening and sanitisers at entry points as well as six-foot social distancing markings at the venue. Worshippers will be encouraged to perform ablution at home and bring their own prayer mats. Socialising/embracing and handshakes after prayers will be discouraged and gathering not allowed. The guidelines proposed installing banners/panaflexes at prominent places at the venue highlighting Covid-19 protocols, and arranging well laid-out parking areas for crowd management. As many as 202 doctors and 30 paramedics have so far died of Covid-19 in the country. According to data released by the PMA, out of 202 doctors, 74 were from Punjab, including Islamabad, 65 from Sindh, 53 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, six from Balochistan, one from Gilgit-Baltistan and three from Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Among the casualties were 24 medical officers, 19 general physicians, 13 paediatricians, 11 anaesthetists, 10 from administrative posts, nine professors of medicine, nine ENT specialists, seven gynaecologists, six pathologists, six psychiatrists, four orthopaedics, four pulmonologists, four dentists, three ophthalmologists, three postgraduate trainees, three radiologists, two surgeons and two cardiologists. PMA secretary general Dr Qaisar Sajjad requested the government to protect all doctors and paramedics by providing uninterrupted supply of personal protective equipment (PPE). "Doctors serving in coronavirus-designated hospitals know that they are examining Covid-19 patients so they remain careful but general practitioners and other specialist doctors do not know whether their patient has the virus or not. Such doctors are more vulnerable, therefore all those serving in coronavirus-designated hospitals or at any other health facility were frontline soldiers in the war against Covid-19," he said, urging the government to take all appropriate measures to protect them. Talking to Dawn, Dr Sajjad said the government should declare vaccination mandatory for healthcare workers as it would help protect their lives. "The PMA salutes doctors who are serving the nation in this difficult time. They are on the frontline in the war. In the present situation they are examining patients at the cost of their lives; even their families are at risk. Immediate steps should be taken for the protection of doctors and paramedics," he said, adding that the PMA demanded that the government immediately provide Shuhada package to the aggrieved families who are passing through a hard time due to financial hardships. World Health Organisation (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said that "globally, we are now seeing a plateauing in the number of Covid-19 cases and deaths, with decline in most regions, including the Americas and Europe - the two worst-affected regions". However, he said, it was an unacceptably high plateau, with more than 5.4 million reported cases and almost 90,000 deaths last week. "Any decline is welcome, but we have been here before. And cases and deaths are still increasing rapidly in WHO's South-East Asia region, and there are countries in every region with increasing trends," Dr Ghebreyesus said. He said high- and upper-middle income countries represented 53 per cent of the world's population, but had received 83pc of the vaccines. By contrast, low- and lower-middle income countries account for 47pc of the world's population, but have received just 17pc of the vaccines, he added. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) May 12 : Twinkle Khanna has been sharing special posts on her Instagram handle, mentioning the contributions done quietly by Bollywood celebs towards COVID-19 relief work. Earlier, she praised Vidya Balan, now the actor-turned-author showered praise on her neighbour Hrithik Roshan. Praising Hrithiks contributions towards COVID-19 relief, Twinkle shared a sun-kissed picture of Hrithik and wrote, Going beyond help thy neighbour, mine is doing his bit during this crisis in multiple ways. A big shout-out @hrithikroshan. Hrithik Roshan had recently joined hands with Hollywood actors to raise funds for relief work in India. The War actor, together with a host of American and Hollywood stars, raised about USD 3.68 million. The actor himself contributed USD 15,000 to the fundraiser, which included Hollywood stars like Shawn Mendes, Jada, Will Smith, Jamie Kern Lima and many others. Hrithik has also donated N95 and FFP3 masks to the municipal workers of Mumbai and had joined hands with an NGO to facilitate food packages to underprivileged people. Recently, Twinkle shared a black and white picture of Vidya Balan on her Instagram handle and wrote, Thank you @balanvidya! A woman with immense talent and an even larger heart for quietly helping those in need. Recently, Twinkle had also shared on social media that she and her husband Akshay Kumar donated 100 oxygen concentrators for the COVID-19 patients. Akshay Kumar has also contributed Rs 1 crore towards relief work. Twinkle also urged her fans through an Instagram post to donate towards procuring oxygen supplies for the COVID patients as the country faces an acute shortage. Twinkle also took to Twitter to respond to a troll who criticised her for urging people to donate towards COVID-19 relief when she herself can contribute as her husband Akshay Kumar is one of the highest-paid actors in Bollywood. Responding to a retired IAS officer, Twinkle wrote on Twitter, Have donated 100 concentrators toward this cause & in multiple other ways. As Ive said before, its not about me or you but what we can do collectively for those in need. Sad that at this point, instead of pitching in, we expend energy in pulling people down. Stay safe. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : After war of words erupted between Congress and the BJP over the handling of the pandemic, Congress leader Kapil Sibal on Wednesday said, its time to stand together and not a time to criticise. "Stand Together India, it's time to stand together not time to criticise after this battle is finally won will find out who was wrong and who was right," Sibal said in a tweet. The Congress has been attacking the government over mishandling of the pandemic and not heeding to the advise of ex-PM Manmohan Singh and the opposition parties. The Congress on Tuesday accused the BJP of being "arrogant", soon after BJP President J.P. Nadda shot off a letter to interim party chief Sonia Gandhi, saying that raising issues and making suggestions to the government on the pandemic is the duty of the opposition parties. In his letter to interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Nadda lashed out at her party saying that in the fight against the pandemic, the conduct of topmost Congress leaders, including its former chief Rahul Gandhi, will be remembered for its "duplicity and pettiness". Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken said the situation in the country is pathetic as dead bodies were seen floating in the Ganga river in Bihar's Buxar district on Monday. "The government is unable to provide treatment, vaccines and even honourable last rites to the deceased," Maken said, as he asked the government to shed the arrogance and help the people. The party said the BJP should follow 'Rajdharma' as the Congress is only doing its duty and the government should accept its mistake in handling the pandemic and start free vaccination for all. The Congress also reiterated its demand for an all-party meeting on the Covid situation. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi, May 12 : There is no stock of -- Covaxin for those between 18-45 of age and around 100 newly setup vaccination centers at government schools will administer Covishield only. The Kejriwal administration said, as of now, there is no idea when Covaxin will be available in Delhi as the manufacturing company has refused to supply the vaccine to Delhi. The state administration, with Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCDs) has set up around 125 vaccination centers in around 17 government run schools in different parts of the city. "Delhi government has demanded 67 lakh Covaxin. Manufacturing company (Bharat Biotech) in a letter to Delhi Government on May 12 replied that it won't give supply," Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said in a press conference on Wednesday. Reading out part of the reply in the letter, "We are making dispatches as per the directive of the concern Government officers. We therefore, sincerely regret that we can not make any additional supply demanded by you (Delhi Govt)," Sisodia read the letter while addressing the press conference. The Delhi government has raised alarm of vaccine shortage on Tuesday itself and received reply from Bharat Biotech. A total of 1,39,261 doses of vaccines were administered in the last 24 hours, highest till date in Delhi. Vaccination centers will, however, continue administering Covishield as the Delhi government will receive supply of 2,67,690 doses of Covishield on Wednesday. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Thiruvananthapuram, May 12 : Matching the theme for the 2021 International Nurses Day which is -- Nurses: A Voice to Lead - A vision for future healthcare, perfectly fits the bill for 35-year-old Kerala male nurse P.M. Arun Kumar as he can be called the poor man's Thomas Alva Edison on account of the various things he has made for safe handling of the Covid pandemic, and for health care professionals. Kumar after eight years of serving at the Pondicherry JIPMER hospital, got into the Kerala Health Service and from 2018 he is serving as Nursing Officer at the Idukki Medical College hospital and by now he has to his credit four 'inventions' which have made life easy for the hardworking medical professionals at the hospital. Kumar told IANS that with the hospital operating on a shoe string government funding and little funds available at their free disposal to get state of the art safety equipment, he on his own with the financial support of doctors at the hospital and other staff by now, has made four inventions. "Collection of swabs daily means they needed at least 8 PPE kits and when it became tough as PPE kits was more in need for their colleagues at the wards, he put on his thinking cap and with a funding of Rs 7,000 collected from doctors he made a swab collection room where the doctors in normal dress stand inside the hospital room and the patient stands outside a window. Through this the collector of the swab need not wear a PPE kit and he can operate his foot pump which sprays the sanitizer into the gloves after the swab is collected. Then there is hair drier which has been modified and placed outside and after each sample is collected the gloves which are left outside are sanitised and dried and the next sample is collected," said Kumar. The drier which is available in the open market costs Rs 8,500 and upwards, but for Kumar it costs just Rs 1,500. He said washing of hands by the medical professionals also had become a problem with the test positivity rate at the hospital started to climb and is hovering above 20 per cent. "Since the hospital is located in the old block, most of the water taps are old and given the present pandemic situation, it's not safe to open the taps and hence I have converted all these taps into an elbow tap made out of SS steel bars. A regular elbow tap in the market costs Rs 1,000, while I spend Rs 60 for each to convert these into elbow taps," added Arun. Arun's invention doesn't end as the most recent problems faced by his hospital is the various vaccines which are kept in ice boxes and when the ice packs melt the temperature goes up and if not timely replaced with a fresh ice pack, the efficacy of the vaccines gets poor. "So what I did is I have made a digital vaccine box and from anywhere in the room we can see the inside temperature and the moment it increases, anyone can put a fresh ice pack. Before one had to open and see the ice pack and every time the box is opened, it isn't good and now only once you need to open the box. All it cost me was Rs 500," added Arun, whose wife is also a staff nurse working in a nearby state run hospital and gives all the support for his inventions. Yet another and the most latest invention came last week when he designed a viral transport medium tray made out of composite aluminium panels and it's used to transport the samples of RT-PCR, which hitherto was packed in zip lock bags. "It costs me Rs 1,500 and we have a few trays and here also the money for this came from a staff. If not for the encouragement of the team of our doctors working here, I would not have made all these and today, we are getting numerous calls from people who have known what we have done. Due to lack of time, I tell them the way these are to be made and when I have time, I do make it for them at cost price," added Arun. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text New Delhi, May 12 : Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Wednesday slammed the government for celebrating Vaccination Day on April 12 and claimed that the vaccination rate was down by 82 per cent within 30 days. She also said that it is impossible to fight coronavirus without delivering the vaccines door to door. In a series of tweets in Hindi, Vadra, who is also in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Congress, said, "India is the biggest manufacturer of vaccines. BJP celebrated vaccine day on April 12 but did not make arrangements for vaccines and within 30 days vaccination rate was down by 82 per cent. (Prime Minister Narendra) Modiji went to vaccine industries and got his picture clicked." "Why did his government order the vaccines in January 2021? US and other countries ordered for vaccines with Indian government much earlier. Who will take responsibility of the same? It is impossible to fight Covid-19 without delivering the vaccines door to door," she said in another tweet. Her remarks came on the day when India recorded 4,205 deaths in 24 hours, the highest in a single day so far, with 3.48 lakh Covid cases. Several states have red-flagged the shortage of vaccines to the central government. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Prosecutors challenge review of recovery of $4 mln from lawyer Tretyakov RAPSI, Vladimir Burnov 13:15 12/05/2021 MOSCOW, May 12 (RAPSI) The Moscow Regions Prosecutor Office has lodged a cassation appeal against an order to review a ruling on the recovery of 308.5 million rubles ($4 million) from lawyer Igor Tretyakov, according to the records of the Moscow District Commercial Court. The appeal will be heard on May 20. In March, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals ordered the first instance to reconsider Tretyakovs bid to review recovery of 308.5 million rubles ($4 million). The court thus overturned the ruling of the Moscow Regional Commercial Court of late October 2020 refusing to rehear Tretyakovs case upon the applicants appeal. In late November 2018, the Moscow Regional Commercial Court ordered recovery of the money Tretyakov allegedly received in the S.A. Lavochkin Scientific Union under the pretence of legal services. The court also declared 21 contracts signed by the Scientific Union and the lawyer between July 2016 and January 2018 invalid. The court therefore granted a claim filed by the Moscow Region Prosecutors Office on behalf of the Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimushchestvo) and the state corporation Roscosmos. Prosecutors insisted that the agreements were invalid as Tretyakov had not participated in court proceedings himself. Thus, the lawyer has only created a semblance of his activity. In May and September 2019, the Tenth Commercial Court of Appeals and the Moscow District Commercial Court upheld the ruling. Currently, Tretyakov is a defendant in the case on embezzling 330 million rubles (about $5 million) from Roscosmos. In late December, the case was returned to prosecutors, according to the lawyers attorney Stanislav Shostak. He is in detention now. Two other defendants, ex-CEO of the S.A. Lavochkin Scientific Union Sergey Lemeshevsky and chief of the Unions legal department Yekaterina Averyanova were also detained. Later, Averyanova admitted guilt and signed a deal with investigators in exchange for release from detention under house arrest. According to investigators, the defendants have stolen assets of Roscosmos by signing fraudulent contracts for provision of legal services with the law firm. All the works were allegedly performed by the corporations own specialists. The overall sum of payments to the firm reached 330 million rubles. Tretyakov pleads not guilty. New York, May 12 : As the mega-billionaire couple Bill and Melinda Gates are heading for divorce, a biographer has spilled the beans about the Microsoft co-founder's and described him as a womanising party-boy during his early years, the Daily Mail reported. The biographer James Wallace has claimed that Gates once allegedly held naked parties with strippers during his wild bachelor days. The alleged parties took place at Gates' Laurelhurst, Washington home and were first detailed in Wallace's 1997 book, Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace. He described the parties as "wild" and said the racy events would often see Gates and his entourage flock to one of Seattle's all-nude nightclubs and "hire dancers to come to his home and swim naked with his friends in his indoor pool." Wallace also described a young Gates as a renowned "womaniser", with his antics reportedly placing a strain on his relationship with Melinda while they were dating,AThe Sun reported. "Though Gates began dating French (Melinda's maiden name) in 1988, he continued to play the field for a while, especially when he was out of town on business, when he would frequently hit on female journalists who covered Microsoft and the company industry," a passage of the book reads. "His womanising was well known, although not well reported, because Gates and Microsoft spoon-fed stories to industry writers for such papers as the New York Times, and none of them wanted the flow of information to stop," it added. Melinda was said to be "well aware" of Gate's womanising and "consequently their relationship ran hot and cold," the report said. Vern Raburn, Gates's longtime friend and former Microsoft executive, also spoke to the Daily Mail to corroborate Wallace's claims. Raburn agreed that Gate's rampant womanising plagued his early relations with Melinda after they began dating in 1988. However, Gates put all playboy antics behind him when he and Melinda tied the knot in 1994, Raburn said. Recently, the couple announced that they were ending their marriage after 27 years together. They reportedly waited until their third and youngest child turned 18 before announcing the split. According to reports, Melinda Gates filed for the divorce asserting that their marriage was "irretrievably broken". -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Jaipur, May 12 : It has been over a month that pictures of two male Great Indian Bustards allegedly poached in Pakistan's Cholistan desert have gone viral, but no stern action by Islamabad has left the Indian conservationists shocked and surprised. On April 2, the two male GIBs were poached and the poachers made it a point to photograph with the carcasses of birds in their hands and guns on their shoulders -- a trophy moment. As the pictures went viral they invited the ire of wildlife conservationists from all across the world. The Tourism & Wildlife Society of India (TWSI) strongly condemned the poaching of GIBs, while expressing surprise that the people in the neighbouring country continued to kill this rare species of birds when India is trying to save the endangered species. "It cannot take place without the cover provided by the government authorities in Pakistan. This incident should be probed thoroughly and the poachers punished," TWSI honorary secretary Harsh Vardhan told IANS. "As Rajasthan shares the international border with Pakistan's Sindh and Punjab provinces, it is suspected that Indian-bred GIBs fly across to Pakistan's desert and are easy prey for the gun-toting poachers there. This incident is a clear indication of the things to come," Vardhan said. Wildlife Institute of India's Dean and senior scientist, Yaduvendradev Jhala said the project teams had surveyed the border areas near Bikaner and had not found any GIB there. The habitat in Cholistan, where the GIBs were killed, looked much better than the Indian side, as it had no cattle, he said. Jhala along with his scientist colleague, Suthirtha Datta, assisted wildlife authorities in Rajasthan in successfully breeding of GIB in captivity in the Desert National Park (DNP), Jaisalmer, after a prolonged debate, on how and why to do it. The GIB's population, which is less than 100 in Rajasthan, accounts for 95 per cent of its total world population. Sixteen chicks of GIB are currently (as in May 2021) being reared in DNP by a team technically supported by the Houbara Breeding Centre of United Arab Emirates, located in Abu Dhabi. At a time when India had stepped up breeding initiatives of the GIB, such an incident taking place in Pakistan was "most horrendous", said Vardhan adding that the TWSI even shot off a letter to the Pakistan High Commission seeking a probe by its government and calling for stringent punishment to the poachers. The Pakistani environmentalists' group, Save the Wild, has also sought the intervention of Army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa in the matter, since the main culprit is a retired Army officer. The group has appealed to Gen. Bajwa to ensure the survival of wildlife in Cholistan, so that the GIB, facing the threat of extinction, is protected. Save the Wild has appealed to Bajwa to take action against the accused. "A heartfelt appeal to Chief of Army Staff, Qamar Javed Bajwa regarding former MNA Major (retd) Syed Tanveer Hussain. "Dear Sir, Your intervention will play a key role in the survival of the country's and the nation's asset i.e., the Wildlife along with other resources available in Cholistan. Otherwise, many people like Tanveer Shah will rise in the future and that will eradicate Wildlife in Cholistan and Pakistan," it tweeted. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), a global authority on species survival, categorised the GIBs as "endangered" in 1994, and later, it was forced to upgrade the species to the status of "critically endangered" in 2011 because of continued threats faced in the survival of these large birds. Chandigarh, May 12 : With Haryana districts around the national capital showing an alarming high positivity rate as most of the Covid cases are being reported from the rural areas, the Manohar Lal Khattar government has gone into action mode, officials said on Wednesday. At state's positivity rate of 21.46 per cent, national capital region (NCR) districts of Gurugram (2,659), Faridabad (1,255) and Sonepat (609) reported the highest number of fresh infections on Tuesday. The state Health Department tested 64,874 samples. The virus has so far claimed 144 lives. Officials told IANS a majority of the cases have been coming from four districts that lie within 50-60 km of Delhi. After Muslim-dominated Nuh (Mewat) and upscale Gurugram, the predominantly rural districts of Faridabad, Sonepat and Palwal have become state's coronavirus hotspots, triggering fears of surge in cases ringed around the national capital, admitted a health official. At 37 per cent, Haryana was among the highest positivity rate, second after Goa's 48 per cent, the Union Health Ministry said on May 5. Taking cognizance of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the rural areas after a meeting with senior officials, Chief Minister Khattar on Tuesday directed the officers to set up isolation centres in villages that come in the hot-spot category by May 15 and medical investigation in these villages should be started at the earliest. He said during the medical screening campaign those having Covid like symptoms should immediately be quarantined in the isolation centres set up in the villages. At the meeting the Chief Minister was apprised that initially there was a plan to set up 1,000 isolation centres for conducting the health checkups of the villagers. The Chief Minister directed that to prevent the spread of the pandemic the velocity of work should be like a war-like situation. He said 110 minibuses of Haryana Roadways are being converted into ambulances. Five ambulance buses each will be made available in every district, apart from this, one air-conditioned bus will also be available in every district, which can be used as an isolation centre. He directed that oxygen tanks should be constructed as soon as possible for storage of oxygen in medical colleges. He also directed to install five to 10 new ventilators in every district. Two-time former Chief Minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Hooda has advised the government to formulate a special policy for the rural areas with the sudden surge in cases. "A large population in villages has been hit by Covid and they are fighting for their lives due to lack of treatment. While the villages have been hit, there is no system of testing or to treat them, forcing the people to use home remedies to save their lives," said Hooda, currently the Leader of Opposition in the Haryana Assembly. "There have been reports of deaths in village after village and many families have lost their loved ones, but the figure of deaths in rural areas is not being shown in the government records," he said. Hooda said the government would not be able to assess the exact situation without collecting data from the villages along with the cities. Also, there was an urgent need to scale up medical facilities in rural areas. The Chief Minister had already launched a special Covid screening drive in all the villages by constituting 8,000 multidisciplinary teams. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Bhopal, May 12 : Amid the surge in Covid-19 cases across Madhya Pradesh, the state government has distributed over two lakh medical kits to patients infected with the virus as well as encouraged people to undergo treatment for the infection at home. This is the reason that there are a large number of people in home quarantine. Madhya Pradesh Urban Development and Housing Minister Bhupendra Singh said 2,26,901 medical kits have been distributed in 52 districts. Covid-19 kits are being distributed through fever clinics and home delivery in central urban areas from April 18. According to the Minister, medical kits have been distributed to Covid patients in home quarantine as per the instructions of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Ghaziabad, May 12 : A massive fire broke out in a carton manufacturing factory in the Kavi Nagar Industrial Area in Uttar Pradesh's Ghaziabad district on Wednesday morning. However, no loss of life or property has been reported till now. Fire brigade personnel arrived at the site on receiving information and brought the fire under control. The intensity of the flames was such that they could not be doused for nearly an hour. As a result, the fire started spreading to other factories nearby. The fire reportedly began from the cartons stored in the factory. Chief Fire Brigade Officer Sunil Singh said 20 fire tenders battled the blaze. The fire spread rapidly as the factory had a large amount of chemicals stored. Police officials have been deployed at the spot and the cause of the fire is being ascertained. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Chennai, May 12 : With Covid cases on the rise in Chennai, a study shows that the spread is not even. While there is a stagnation and reduction in Northern Chennai, Central Chennai has an increase. South Chennai showed just a marginal increase, according to a press release of the Greater Chennai Corporation. The number of streets under strict containment (more than 10 cases), has increased twice from April till May. However there is no even increase but an exponential increase in Central Chennai. In both Central and South Chennai it has almost doubled while North Chennai had shown only a 4% increase. The Central Chennai zone contributes to 60% of all the cases while South Chennai has an increase of 26% and North Zone the rest. Ambattur, Teynampet, Kodambakkam, Valasaravakkam, Alandur and Adayar have more than 100% increase in the number of containment zones. Of this Valsaravakkam has recorded a four fold increase from April last week to May first week. Madhavaram and Tondiarpet Zones have recorded a decrease in the number of zones while in Royapuram there was no net increase in the past 11 days. A senior official with the Greater Chennai Corporation told IANS, "We are expecting a reduction in the number of containment zones in all parts of Chennai soon and efforts are on that line. However at present Central Chennai is showing a rapid increase and North a decline. Southern parts of Chennai have a marginal increase only." Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Kanpur : , May 12 (IANS) Surjeet Kumar Das, an assistant registrar at IIT, Kanpur committed suicide at his official residence here. The deceased was reportedly depressed. His family said his younger son, who is just one and a half-years-old, had tested Covid positive and hence Surjeet's depression had deepened. Kalyanpur police station's Inspector Veer Singh said, "As per an initial investigation, the deceased Surjeet Kumar Das was in a depressed state and was under the treatment of a doctor based in Delhi." Police said Das was found hanging from a ceiling fan in his residence on Tuesday evening. The body has been sent for post-mortem. "The deceased Surjeet was a native of Assam and lived with his wife Bulbul, mother-in-law and two sons. His elder son is eight years old while the younger one is one-and-a-half years old. Kumar was under treatment for depression since 2011," Inspector Veer Singh said. --IANS San Francisco, May 12 : The Joe Biden administration has agreed to remove Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi from the blacklist imposed by the earlier Donald Trump administration that designated it as a "Communist Chinese military company" and barred the firm from doing business with the US firms. Xiaomi was added to a US military list of alleged Chinese military companies in January this year. The Chinese conglomerate had filed a lawsuit against the ban. On Tuesday, the US Department of Defense agreed to remove Xiaomi from the blacklist. The news led to over 6.5 per cent rise in Xiaomi shares. "The Parties have agreed upon a path forward that would resolve this litigation without the need for contested briefing," read the court filing. In March, a US court temporarily halted the ban on Xiaomi, saying the company was likely to win a full reversal and would "suffer irreparable harm in the form of serious reputational and unrecoverable economic injuries." Xiaomi and the US Department of Defense will now work on a "joint proposed order" on or before May 20 to be submitted to the court. Xiaomi had earlier reiterated that it is "a widely held, publicly traded, independently managed corporation that offers consumer electronics products solely for civilian and commercial use". "We are committed to working with our global partners to let everyone in the world enjoy a better life through innovative technology," a company spokesperson had said in a statement. "The company confirms that it is not owned, controlled or affiliated with the Chinese military, and is not a 'Communist Chinese Military Company' defined under the NDAA. The company will take appropriate course of actions to protect the interests of the Company and its shareholders". In July 2020, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) designated Chinese telecom companies, Huawei and ZTE, as national security risks to America's communications networks. Lucknow, May 12 : Senior Samajwadi MP Mohd Azam Khan's condition is now stable though the next 72 hours are crucial for him. According to Rakesh Kapoor, director Medanta hospital, "The oxygen requirement of the veteran leader has come down but the severity of the ailment continues. He is in the ICU and is being treated by a team of doctors." Azam Khan, who was lodged in Sitapur jail, had tested positive for Covid earlier this month. He was admitted to the hospital on Sunday after he complained of breathlessness. His son Abdullah Azam is also Covid positive and is being treated at the same hospital. However, the director said that his condition is stable and he is recovering. New Delhi, May 12 : Johns Hopkins Medicine Rehabilitation Network has prescribed a phased rehabilitation program for Covid patients to help them return to their way of life and enjoy full health. As Covid-19 attacks the body and mind - Johns Hopkins Medicine said rehabilitation efforts aim to restore the whole person, helping you return to your previous quality of life. Common impairments of Covid-19 include weakness, fatigue and shortness of breath with activity, and difficulty with walking and performing daily tasks. "When you experience these physical impairments, it can lead to stress, which negatively effects the mind. Fear and depression can both impact the health of the body. Early intervention through exercise and activity aimed at treating the whole person will play an important role in the recovery process and can be started at home during self-isolation," it said. The solution is to start moving. Movement heals the body and is a way to restore the mind and soothe emotions. By engaging in movements that the human body is already used to, we can begin the process of recovery and healing with exercises and movements. There are five layers of human movement that repair and optimize the whole person's health in body and mind, Johns Hopkins said. The five layers are human movement are -- Breathe Deep, breathe deeply, filling the lungs up from the bottom to the top. *Turn on vestibular system. The vestibular system controls balance and sensory input from the body and is turned on by moving our head and eyes. *Cross your body-Engage in crossbody patterns such as crawling, marching or walking. *Build Strength-Increase muscle strength. *Gain endurance-Increase tolerance for physical activity and movement "Our movement patterns develop during childhood and throughout our lifetime. Movement patterns depend on the body systems to work well. Exercises that strengthen the entire person will help the body to repair and recover. According to the Johns Hopkins, the exercises address these body systems: Cardiopulmonary (heart and lungs) Neuro-vestibular (balance and coordination) Musculoskeletal (muscles and joints) Mental/cognitive (brain and thinking). Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Hyderabad, May 12 : Muslim leaders on Wednesday appealed to their community in Telangana to offer Eid-ul-Fitr prayers at home in view of the statewide lockdown. Various religious leaders of the community held a webinar on the issue and made a joint appeal to the people to offer prayers at home. Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) chief and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said the leaders took a collective decision that in view of the lockdown and the government order for closure of all places of worship, 'Namaz-e-Eid' should be offered at home. "Three to four persons will offer prayers in mosques because we can't leave mosques deserted but all others should pray at home," Owaisi said. He called for strictly observing all Covid guidelines like wearing masks and maintaining social distance. Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali was informed about the decision and he told the Muslim leaders that he would speak to the Director General of Police. Owaisi said that the lockdown will hit poor people hard. "I have always been against lockdowns but this is a high court order and the government has also issued a GO," he said. The MP appealed to the people to make a special supplication during their Eid prayers at home for an end to the pandemic for the sake of entire humanity. A ten-day lockdown came into effect across Telangana on Wednesday. The government is giving a four-hour relaxation every day from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. to enable people to buy essential items. Eid-ul-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramzan, will be celebrated on Thursday or Friday depending on the sighting of the new moon. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Chennai, May 12 : DMK lawmakers M. Appavu and K. Pitchandi were on Wednesday sworn-in as Speaker and Deputy Speaker, respectively, of the 16th Tamil Nadu Assembly, after they were elected unopposed to the posts. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin proposed the name of Appavu, a four-time MLA from Radhapuram constituency in Tirunelveli, for the Speaker's post, and Works Minister Duraimurugan seconded it, at the chamber of Assembly Secretary, K. Srinivasan. Appavu was subsequently escorted to the Speaker's chair by Chief Minister Stalin and Leader of Opposition and former Chief Minister K. Palaniswami. Pitchandi, who was earlier named pro-tem Speaker to swear-in the new legislators, is the MLA from Kilpennathur constituency, and a former minister. Later in the day, the new Speaker visited the memorial of former Chief Minister and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi and paid floral respects. "It is a great honour to be the Speaker of the Tamil Nadu Assembly and I will discharge my duties without any prejudice or favour and to the best of my capabilities," Appavu told IANS. Mumbai, May 12 : Actor Anshuman Jha says his new release "Hum Bhi Akele Tum Bhi Akele" is special for him because it was his last film that his mother saw before she died last year. "My mother was and will always continue to be my pillar of strength in my heart. Hum Bhi Akele Tum Bhi Akele is the last film she saw of mine, which is why this is even more special for me. This one is for her," he says. The film also stars Zareen Khan. The story revolves around a road trip taken by a gay man and a lesbian woman from Delhi to Mcleodganj, and how they discover the true meaning of love and companionship during the trip. The actor says that the film was challenging to shoot. "My training as an actor is not just to be the best I can, but to be the best I can in the worst circumstances. This character was challenging and even more so because of what was happening at home but I hope I have been able to do justice to Veer. And I am very grateful for the love coming for the film, especially from the LGBTQ+ community," he says. The film is currently streaming on Disney+ Hotsar. -- The story has been published from a wire feed without any modifications to the text Cairo, May 12 : At least five people were killed and 16 wounded on Wednesday in a crash involved a minibus and a private car at Sohag desert road in southern Egypt, state-run Ahram newspaper reported on its website. Initial investigations said the high speed of the bus driver caused the accident, the Xinhua news agency reported. Ambulances have transferred the wounded to Sohag Public Hospital, and teams were immediately sent to clear debris that halted the traffic. Daily road accidents are common in Egypt because of poorly maintained road infrastructure and loosely applied traffic regulations. Over the past few years, Egypt has been upgrading its road network by establishing new roads and bridges to reduce traffic accidents. New Delhi, May 12 : The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea by activist Gautam Navlakha, who sought bail in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist link case of Maharashtra's Bhima Koregaon. Navlakha had challenged the Bombay High Court's February 8 order, which declined to grant him bail, holding that the alleged illegal detention period cannot be considered to compute maximum 90 days' time, which is mandatory to file charge sheet, or the accused could get statutory bail. A bench comprising Justices U.U. Lalit and K.M. Joseph dismissed Navlakha's appeal. The top court on March 26 had reserved its verdict on Navlakha's plea. Pronouncing the verdict, Justice Joseph said it is dismissing the appeal filed by Navlakha against the High Court order. On March 3, the top court had sought reply from the NIA on Navlakha's plea where he argued that the charge sheet was not filed within the stipulated time period and hence, he was entitled for default bail. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing Navlakha, had contended before the top court that his client should be released on default bail, as the charge sheet was filed after 93 days of his custody. Sibal had also submitted before the top court that two days period of transit from Delhi to Mumbai should also be counted in 90 days period. The top court had on March 16 last year declined anticipatory bail to Navlakha and asked him to surrender within three weeks before the NIA. On April 8, last year, the top court gave Navlakha one more week to surrender in the case. The FIR against him was re-registered in January 2020, and he surrendered before the NIA on April 14 last year. Navlakha had spent 11 days in the NIA's custody till April 25, and since then, he is in judicial custody. The High Court on February 8 had dismissed Navlakha's plea saying, "it sees no reason to interfere with a special court's order", which earlier rejected his bail plea. Navlakha had moved the high court last year, against the special NIA court's order of July 12, 2020, which rejected his plea for statutory bail. Hyderabad, May 12 : Telugu star Varun Konidela posted on Instagram on Wednesday urging everyone to stay at home. "Need of the hour is to stay at home. #stayhomestaysafe," Varun wrote alongside the image. Varun's post comes in context of the devastating second wave of Covid-19 across the country and lockdown in Telangana, which starts tomorrow. On the work front, the actor will next be seen playing a boxer in his upcoming film. Tentatively called #VT10, the film is helmed by debutant director Kiran Korrapati. Varun will also be seen in the sequel of the comedy "F2: Fun And Frustration". The film is titled "F3". Patna, May 12 : Four members of a family were allegedly killed by unidentified men and their bodies thrown into a dam in Bihar's Nawada district, said a police official. The bodies were spotted by some fishermen during early morning. The incident occurred at Phulwaria dam under Rajauli police station in Nawada district. Darbari Chaudhary, Station House Officer (SHO) of Rajauli police station, said, "We received information about bodies found floating in a dam. Subsequently, we reached there and recovered the bodies with the help of divers." "Preliminary investigation reveals that the man and woman killed were reportedly husband-wife. Beside them, two bodies of minor children were also recovered from the dam, reported to be the couple's children. The identification of the victims is not complete yet. We are trying to identify the place where they were killed by the accused," Chaudhary added. "We have videographed the bodies and sent them for post-mortem. Some sharp wounds were found on the bodies of the children," he said. "There is another theory of mass suicide emerging in this case. The actual reason for their deaths would be ascertained only after post-mortem. We have recovered a mobile phone from the pocket of the deceased woman. The mobile phone was sent to forensic laboratory to find clues and identification of the deceased," the police official added. Chennai, May 12 : Garment units in Tamil Nadu's Tiruppur will down their shutters from Friday evening till May 24 in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus, said a top official of the Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA). The decision would alo impact the reputation of the industry here as there will be delay in export order fulfillment, TEA President Raja M. Shanmugam told IANS. "We have decided to shut down the units from Friday till May 24 as a measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. The industry here is structured in such a way that there will be movement of people for various processes," he said. Shanmugam said the industry is currently doing a total business of about Rs 400 crore per day, divided equally between exports and domestic sales. "It is only now the European and the US markets that have opened up and orders have been placed. The closure due to Covid-19 will impact the delivery schedules and may affect the reputation and future orders. But we decided to close down so that the coronavirus spread is stopped," he said. According to him, all the units are implementing the Covid-19 safety protocols. As on Tuesday, a total of 3,912 persons in Tiruppur were undergoing treatment for Covid-19 and the daily new infection case numbered over 500. The District Collector had also shared his apprehensions about surge in Covid-19 numbers and the resultant demand on hospital beds and oxygen. As a result, the industry has decided to go for a shutdown. On the risk of migrant workers going back to their native states due to the closure, Shanmugam said those who wanted to go back home have gone back during the past ten days. "The remaining workers have stayed back and the units employing them will take care of their needs during the lockdown period," he said. According to him, orders for casual wear for men, women and children are there. Last fiscal, the hosiery units in Tiruppur closed with a total business of about Rs 45,000 crore, of which exports were Rs 25,150 crore down from Rs 27,250 crore registered during 2019-20, TEA Executive Secretary S. Sakthivel had told IANS recently. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday expressed its displeasure with Delhi government for not fully operationalising the 1,241 bedded Indira Gandhi Hospital, which currently has only 80 beds for non-serious COVID patients. A bench comprising of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said the state government should learn from the bitter experience of the people amid the ongoing second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, submitted before the bench that completion of the hospital was not a pressing issue and cited that around 4,500 beds were currently available in the national capital. The bench pointed out that if the Delhi government were to take up hospital completion as a pressing issue, then the facility would have been completely functional now. The court was also informed that there was no piped oxygen, ICU beds or ventilators available at the hospital. "If a third wave comes, as many experts are warning it might. and your facility is not up and running (to full capacity)", said the bench, adding "again we would be back to this situation." The court noted that due to the lethargy of the state the health care project has not been completed. Mehra argued that in the backdrop of availability of such a large number of beds, there exists no "grave urgency" to completely operationalise the hospital. The bench took note of the Delhi government contention that situation in connection with the availability of beds may have improved. However, the court said it cannot overlook the grim situation which existed just couple of days ago when serious COVID-19 patients were desperately searching for medical oxygen, ICU beds, ventilators and medicines. The bench further added that the patients were finding it extremely difficult to get admission in hospitals, and also many patients died without receiving proper treatment. The bench noted that there is no reason why the state government should not complete the project and in the backdrop of prediction of third wave, the government should use its resources to the hilt to complete ongoing health care projects. The bench cautioned that Delhi government that there may come a situation where it could run out of hospital beds and face extreme stress on medical infrastructure. Mehra contended that there isn't any lethargy from the state government, and blamed the Centre for not allocating beds for the national capital as it had promised. The High Court directed the state government to file an affidavit, detailing on time lines that were initially set for completion of the hospital. The court also asked the government to come up with realistic time frame to complete the project. The court has scheduled the matter for further hearing on May 24. The High Court made sharp observations after it was told only 80 beds were operational in the Indira Gandhi Hospital. he High Court on Tuesday had expressed displeasure with the Delhi government for making an incorrect statement on May 10 that 250 beds in Indira Gandhi Hospital, COVID facility in Dwarka, were already operational. Later, the government informed the court that 150 beds would be made operational during the day and additional 100 would be operational on Wednesday. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mumbai, May 12 : Low-cost carrier GoAir said on Wednesday that it will commence a programme to get its entire workforce vaccinated free of cost. Accordingly, GoAir has tied up with various hospitals in different cities for the vaccination programme. "The airline will pay the cost for both dozes of vaccination," it said. Besides, GoAir has planned to allow vaccinated employees to take two days' leave over and above the entitled threshold. At present, the airline has 4,481 employees in its workforce, who will get vaccinated. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Chennai, May 12 : The Tamil Nadu government has decided to go in for global tender to source Covid-19 vaccines as the allotment by the central government is insufficient. A decision to this effect was taken at the meeting chaired by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin in which several ministers and officials participated. In a statement issued here the state government said the allotment of 13 lakh vaccine doses is insufficient to vaccinate the population in the age group of 18-44. The state government also pointed out that the Union government had asked the states to source the vaccines on its own while supplying the same for those who are 45 years of age and above. Stalin also asked the industries and health departments to beef up production and sourcing of oxygen from steel units in other states by trains. Though the central government has increased the oxygen allotment to Tamil Nadu to 419 tonnes from 280 tonnes, the quantity is still insufficient. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Bengaluru, May 12 : Karnataka chief secretary P. Ravi Kumar on Wednesday said that the state government was ready to help any pharma company that will come forward to produce the Sputnik V vaccine in the state. As of now only two vaccines manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech are allowed in India for mass inoculation programme, but these companies are struggling to meet the country's overwhelming demand for vaccines amid the ferocious second wave that has seen India's Covid burden go up manifold. After his meeting with officers in Vidhana Soudha here, Kumar told reporters that there are no vaccine manufacturers in Karnataka, if anyone comes forward, the state will provide the all required assistance to establish one. "Already our Central Drug authorities have cleared this viral vector vaccine for Covid-19 developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology of Russia. We need more manufacturing centres to meet the demands of our population," he said. Answering a question, the Chief Secretary said that the state will give first preference to those who have already got their first dose, which is the right thing to do, when a country is in need of anti-Covid vaccine. He added there is no point in answering the same question about when we will be able to complete the vaccine drive. "It is no easy task to inoculate the whole population. First we need that many vaccines available. The manufacturing companies are working overtime and even augmenting their production capacities too. Once everything happens, then only we can expect a smooth supply of anti-Covid vaccines regularly," he explained. According to him, no government can assure about the time frame of completing anti-covid vaccine drive. "With present inflow of anti-Covid vaccine deliveries, the only right thing to do is to complete those who have already got their first dose of vaccine, so at least those are brought under the safety net of vaccines," he argued. Responding to a question, he said that no government can give anyone the timeline to complete the drive. "Going by the pace at which Karnataka is getting its share of anti-covid vaccines, we might need a few years to inoculate the entire population. So, it is anybody's guess, how much time will it take to complete the drive," he said. He added that that the union government had allocated 15 lakh doses to Karnataka for every fortnight but the state was receiving only around Eight lakh dose, hence it would be difficult to meet both demands of first dose and second dose, therefore, the state has decided to give first preference to administer those are due for the second dose. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA). The MoU would enhance cooperation between the Institutes to work together to strengthen the Accounting profession and entrepreneurship base in Qatar. ICAI has a strong membership base of over 6000 members in Middle East and Qatar (Doha) Chapter is amongst the most vibrant Chapters of ICAI. ICAI members hold key positions in various private and public companies and are actively involved in support and development of the accounting profession in Qatar. The signing of this MoU would provide an additional impetus to prospects of the ICAI Members in the entire Middle Eastern Region to have better recognition, together with working to support Indian businesses desirous of doing business in Qatar and thus supporting the growth of Qatar and India's economies. The ICAI also has an active Chapter in Doha, Qatar which was established in the year 1981 and is the oldest among the 36 overseas Chapters of the ICAI. The membership of the Chapter has grown steadily since its founding days and presently has over 300 members who hold key positions in various private and public companies and are actively involved in support and development of the accounting profession in Qatar. This MoU will benefit Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Qatar Financial Centre Authority. As per the MoU, both sides would endeavour to increase opportunities for members of ICAI to provide professional services through setting up practice for providing professional services in the State of Qatar in the areas of assurance and auditing, advisory, taxation, financial services and allied areas. ICAI shall also nurture and develop local Qatar professionals, entrepreneurs and students through a specialized training programme, in collaboration with QFCA. ICAI and QFCA will work together to explore the opportunities for Indian businesses in Qatar by organizing roundtables, networking events etc., as the case may be mutually agreed. Panaji, May 12 : The Bombay High Court bench in Goa on Wednesday told top government officials that no death should occur in the state's apex health facility, the Goa Medical College, due to lack of oxygen, Nikhil Pai, advocate for one of the petitioners, the South Goa Advocates Association said. The Court, which is hearing a bunch of petitions which have alleged mismanagement in the state government efforts to tackle the pandemic, also said that its primary responsibility was to save lives at the moment. "A solution is being worked out. The HC was concerned as to how lives can be saved even today. They wanted an assurance (from the government) that not a single death should occur due to lack of oxygen tonight," Pai said. 26 patients died in the Covid ward of the Goa Medical College on Tuesday night due to unavailability of oxygen, Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had said. The Health Minister's claim was rejected by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday, with the latter insisting that the deaths occurred due to mismanagement at the hospital. At Wednesday's hearing during which top government and health ministry officials were present virtually, the HC said that its primary motive was to ensure that oxygen supply was maintained at the top health facility and not fix responsibility for the mismanagement for now. "The matter has been kept for tomorrow to see what further can be done to address oxygen crunch," Pai said. New Delhi, May 12 : Impose quantitative restrictions on 'primary steel' exports to rein in soaring domestic prices, EEPC India has said. Accordingly, the export promotion council urged the Centre on Tuesday to employ both tariff as well as non-tariff measures in controlling steel prices. It cited that value-added steel products exported from India are becoming uncompetitive in the international market due to rising domestic prices of primary steel. At present, primary steel is used as a key raw material by local manufacturers. Besides, the council pointed out that export duty could be raised to make steel available in the domestic market at reasonable and competitive prices. "There has been a substantial jump in export of primary steel in recent months while many value-added steel products shipped from the country have seen a 15-35 per cent decline," said EEPC India Chairman Mahesh Desai. "We have therefore suggested the government to take non-tariff and tariff measures as part of the raw material export policy. Otherwise, many MSME exporters will be out of business and it will lead to unemployment of skilled people." Chandigarh, May 12 : Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an inquiry into the purchase of faulty ventilators under the aegis of the PM CARES Fund. There were reports that 71 out of the 80 ventilators received by Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in Faridkot under the fund were found to be defective. In a letter to the Prime Minister, the SAD President said, "I am sure you would agree with me that supplying defective and inferior quality ventilators during a time of national health emergency is a criminal offence. The company responsible for this should be booked and should be proceeded against as per the law." Sukhbir Badal also told the Prime Minister that it is equally important to probe the entire purchase order. "It is very important to ascertain if defective ventilators were purchased deliberately because the entire issue smacks of a big scam. Action should be taken against all those responsible for endangering the lives of Covid patients, however big they may be," he said. The SAD chief also requested the Prime Minister that all purchases under the PM CARES Fund be subjected to the same vigorous process of selection as is done for the orders of the Union government. "All medical equipment bought under the PM CARES Fund should be of international standards and should ideally be purchased after placing a global tender. Stringent quality standards should be laid out for all medical purchases to ensure patients' lives are not put to risk under any circumstances." he added. Explaining the issue in his missive to the Prime Minister, the SAD President said the faulty ventilators had caused loss of lives in Punjab besides hampering the country's fight against the Covid pandemic. In another request to the Prime Minister, Sukhbir Badal brought it to his notice that the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) had applied for permission to import Covid vaccines to supplement the Union government's efforts. He requested the Union government to grant permission to the SGPC for this humanitarian cause. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : A Delhi Court on Wednesday granted bail to Matrix Cellular CEO Gaurav Khanna, vice president Gaurav Suri and two others in connection with the alleged black marketing of oxygen concentrators. The order was passed by Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Saket court, Arun Kumar Garg and bail was subjected to a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and surety of like amount. The court granted bail in case registered after a stock of oxygen concentrators was seized by the Delhi Police from locations in Lodhi Colony and Mehrauli last week. All five accused were arrested by the Delhi Police last week soon after the raids. According to the prosecution, the accused had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to wrongfully make money by selling imported oxygen concentrators at an "exorbitant rate", amid the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 pandemic. The counsel for the accused had argued before the court that there was no black marketing of oxygen concentrators. The counsel, seeking bail for the accused, contended that in the absence of any government order, which capped the price, the sale price was fixed after considering the various costs incurred by Matrix Celluar, which included importing and selling the equipment. The court noted that the government had itself not regulated the sale price and also pulled up the police for the arrest of private persons who were selling imported oxygen concentrators at an "exorbitant rate" to consumers. While reserving the bail order, the court had noted each business was based on a "cost-benefit analysis" and the state should be fair to them. The counsel for the accused termed the investigation as a fishing and roving inquiry and pointed out that the oxygen concentrators were imported not only from China but Europe as well. On the aspect of mobile app, XFactor which was used for sale of the oxygen concentrators, the counsel added that it was there since 2016. Matrix Cellular's plea seeking immediate release of seized oxygen concentrator stock is pending before the Delhi High Court. Mumbai, May 12 : Nearly a month after a Maharashtra activist alleged a massive scam in the supplies and availability of key anti-viral drug Remdesivir injections, the Chief Vigilance Commissioner has finally ordered a probe. Taking cognizance of a petition by Barrister Vinod Tiwari, the CVC has ordered the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilisers to investigate the issue in detail. In a communication to Tiwari dated May 11, the CVC has said that "the complaint has been duly examined by the Commission and having regards to the nature of the issues raised therein", it has been sent to the CVO of the ministry for a probe. The development comes nearly a month after Tiwari's plea to the Centre on April 13 alleging a rampant corruption scam involving many people and the pharmaceutical sector to sell Remdesivir at exorbitant prices by creating an "artificial scarcity" in the past few months, as first highlighted by IANS (April 16-17). In his petition to the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), a statutory authority under the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO), Tiwari had demanded a high-level probe into the "artificial scarcity, hoarding, blackmarketing and misuse of the drug which could run into a racket of over Rs 25,000 crore under the nose of the NPPA," in the past ten months since the drug was launched after the pandemic was declared. "Lakhs of Covid-19 patients had been systematically fleeced as the Centre failed to bring Remdesivir under the DPCO - the motives for which are not clear - and subsequent data indicates the scam could be over Rs 1 lakh crore - bigger than the 2G, Coal-gate or other similar scandals - and all those who exploited the people in this pandemic must be booked criminally," Tiwari contended. Incidentally, rattled by the plea, the Centre post-haste brought the drug under the DPCO and slashed the MRP of Remdesivir by around 60 per cent on April 17, though Tiwari feels it can be reduced even further since the pharma companies and other officials "have already profited massively from the tragedy of the Covid patients and their families". Incidentally, Maharashtra was the first state to make efforts to bring Remdesivir under the ambit of the DPCO, but its efforts were allegedly stonewalled by the Centre and others. Tiwari has questioned why the NPPA shirked its statutory responsibility to bring Remdesivir under the DPCO regime, since, as per the DPCO Act, 1995, issued under the Essential Commodities Act, the Centre is empowered to include any item of medical importance, like Remdesivir currently, within the DPCO list to control its manufacture, stocking, distribution, sale, etc and make it easily available at a reasonable price to the patients. "The Covid pandemic is the biggest afflicting mankind since 2020. Why did NPPA wait for so long? Who's responsible and what were the ulterior motives behind the delays?" demanded Tiwari and said that the CVO probe would unravel the truth and the conspiracy. The petition was sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Union Ministers D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Harsh Vardhan, and Mansukh Mandaviya, the Central Vigilance Commission and departments concerned, seeking a hearing. The CVC was the first to take note of the plea by seeking more details, even as the country reeled under a shortage of Remdesivir with the "medical mafia" playing havoc with patients who need six doses (injections) for Covid-19 treatment. (Quaid Najmi can be contacted at q.najmi@ians.in) Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : The National Students Union of India (NSUI) has filed a 'missing person report against Union Hone Minister Amit Shah with the Delhi Police, over the 'disappearance of the country's Home Minister at the time of the pandemic. NSUI general secretary Nagesh Kariyappa filed the complaint against Shah with the Parliament Street police station. Kariyappa said that politicians are supposed to serve the nation, and not run away from a crisis situation. He said that when the country is suffering from a deadly pandemic and the citizens are facing a crisis, it is the duty of the politicians to be accountable, not only towards the government of India or the BJP, but also towards the people of the country. NSUI national secretary and in-charge of its media and communication wing, Lokesh Chugh, said that until 2013, the politicians were responsible towards the citizens, but things changed totally after the BJP came to power in 2014, and now the 'second person in command' in the Central government is 'missing' amid the pandemic. Chugh alleged that when people need the government to take care of them, its office-bearers are nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, Kariyappa also said that the entire country is suffering from a disastrous pandemic and all that the people need now is the government to support the citizens and be answerable for its deeds. The current government has failed to do so and as a result the NSUI has filed a missing person complaint against the Home Minister, and is waiting for the government to answer to its people, Kariyappa added. Kolkata, May 12 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting him to approach the major vaccine manufacturing companies so that they open franchise operations in the country to enable India meet the huge demand for vaccines. Urging the Prime Minister to approach the global giants in vaccine manufacturing, Banerjee said, "Reports indicate that globally there are many manufacturers now. With the aid of scientists and experts, it is possible to identify the reputed and authentic manufacturers who have international reputation and credibility, and it is possible for us in this country to speedily import vaccines from those ends across the different parts of the world. I urge you to embark upon this endeavour without any further delay. Liberal, pro-active and discerning import of vaccines is the paramount need today." The Trinamool Congress supremo also expressed her willingness to provide land for the purpose. "It may kindly be considered that if we could encourage the world players to open up franchise operations in our country, even the national players could be inspired to go for the franchisee mode for bulk production of vaccines. "We are ready to provide land for manufacturing/franchisee operation for authentic vaccine manufacturing and any other support required," Banerjee said in the letter. "You are aware that as per experts, vaccination is now the real antidote to the prevailing Covid pandemic. It seems, however, that the production (and hence, the supply and distribution) of vaccines in the country is extremely inadequate and insignificant in the context of the massive need of the people at large. About 10 crore people in West Bengal and 140 crore people in the country need vaccination, but only a microscopic percentage has been covered so far," the Chief Minister wrote. By Nie Shuyi Serial bombings near a school in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, on May 8 killed at least 68 people and injured another 165. On the same day, the Afghan security force came into armed conflicts with the Taliban in several provinces, killing 288 Taliban members and wounding another 132. The New York Times said the first week of May 2021 registered the highest single-week death toll in Afghanistan since October last year. Ever since the US and NATO announced their plan to pull out from Afghanistan on April 15, terrorist attacks and violent conflicts have been increasing in the country, seriously threatening its security, peace and stability and the peoples life safety. Military interference from foreign countries has forced Afghanistan to constantly change its regime, but has not ended its domestic instability. The country is home to too many tribes and factions as well as their complicated relations, and there are various warlords or bandits other than the Afghan government and Taliban, as well as extremist and terrorist organizations such as IS and Al Qaeda. The latest bombing, for instance, took place in one of Kabuls Hazara neighborhoods, a Shiite ethnic minority, which has been a constant target of Sunnite armed forces for many years. The Washington Post commented that the withdrawal of American and NATO troops amid the worsening security situation in Afghanistan had left the Afghanis, including Hazaras, worried that bombings like that on August 8 will only increase. Although American troops overthrew the Taliban regime in Afghanistan with an overwhelming sweep in 2001, the deeper-seated political, religious, and social problems in the country, such as those among religious factions and tribes, have not been properly addressed over the past two decades. Now that western troops are about to depart, the parties are all on their toes to seek maximal interests for themselves in the new playing field, making an exacerbated security situation unavoidable. More importantly, the US and NATO decide to withdraw their troops more for geopolitical reasons, which will further complicate the situation in Afghanistan. For Washington, as the Afghan war drags on and its casualties increase, it has become a second Vietnam War that is considered a negative asset by American politicians. Meanwhile, as the US changes its Middle East policy from all-round expansion to comprehensive contraction and local enhancement, and as it diverts its attention to the Gulf region, Afghanistan has become strategically less important, so much so that Washington cannot wait to shrug off this burden. Ever since Obamas time, the US government has tried many times to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and the Trump administration even broke the convention of never negotiating with terrorist organizations by having direct peace talks with the Taliban. It is precisely Washingtons eagerness to pull itself away from Afghanistan and to rush into a peace deal with the Taliban without involving the Afghan government that has reinforced the Taliban, which already controls about 40% of the national territory, in its political and security position. Annie Pforzheimer, former Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Afghanistan of the US Department of State, wrote an article published on Politico that Bidens decision to withdraw all troops by September 11 will lead to a sad replay of the post-2009 dynamic, thus boosting the Talibans confidence. In fact, not long after Biden announced the withdrawal, the Taliban declared they would not attend a peace conference to be held in Istanbul at the end of April on the grounds that the US failed to honor its earlier commitment to completing the withdrawal before May 1. Since that day, the Taliban has launched a series of attacks in the capital cities of key provinces across Afghanistan, including an American military base thats been transferred to the Afghan government. Such a situation has raised concerns that the Taliban may start a civil war again as the withdrawal of American troops leaves a security vacuum and would address domestic contradictions through military rather than political means. In that case, all previous efforts for peace in Afghanistan would have gone down the drain. After twenty long years of war, people in Afghanistan have got nothing left but a ravaged country in ruins, while the western forces are turning their back after wreaking havoc on its soil. The US, on the other hand, also has to swallow the bitter fruit of its interference. Guwahati, May 12 : The Assam police will register 'attempt to murder' case if any one violates the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) enforced to curb the Covid-19 pandemic, Director General of Police Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta said on Wednesday. He requested the people to strictly follow all the provisions of the new SOPs and said if anyone is found violating the protocols, stern action including 'attempt to murder' case would be registered against them. While addressing the media, Mahanta said: "Violating the government's orders and SOPs, if anyone or any organisation organises any function or any event, it would be treated as betrayal against the society. In that case we would not apply the simple IPC (Indian Penal Code) or provision of the Disaster Management Act, strictest law would also be applied against them." 'Attempt to murder' case like charges would be faced by those organising any function, party, get together or any kind of gathering," the DGP added. "No crowding would be tolerated in public places, shopping complexes, markets. Police would resort to lathicharge in such cases even during the curfew relaxation period." The top police official said there are reports that some traders while downing shutters on the front side of the shops are doing business inside using the back door. These businessmen will be in deep trouble and will be booked under the relevant act. Mahanta said that containment zones would see zero tolerance. "Anyone trying to use Covid-19 excuses to come out and found violating the SOPs would be put into jail." With 5,500 to 6,200 new Covid cases reported everyday during the past few days in Assam, the state government on Wednesday issued new SOPs with effect from Thursday. According to the SOPs, the curfew timings across Assam have been advanced to 2 p.m. from the earlier 6 p.m. The fresh SOPs, issued by Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua, said that all shops and commercial establishments would be shutdown at 1 p.m. on all days instead of 2 p.m., weekly markets would not be allowed for 15 days, all educational institutions including schools, colleges and Universities must provide quality virtual options, no physical classes would be allowed for 15 days and all government and non-government offices would be closed for 15 days with effect from Thursday. Health officials said that till late Tuesday night, the number of Covid active cases rose to 39,264 and the positivity rate climbed to 9.13 per cent while 85 people died due to Covid-19. Assam has so far registered 3,04,429 Covid-19 positive cases while 1,838 people succumbed to the dreaded disease. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Sydney, May 12 : A minimum ratio of one nurse to four patients for day shifts can successfully improve patient care, with a 7 per cent drop in the chance of death and readmission, and 3 per cent reduction in length of stay for every one less patient a nurse has on their workload, according to a study across 55 hospitals in Queensland, Australia. In 2016, 27 public hospitals in Queensland were required to instate a minimum of one dedicated nurse for every four patients during day shifts and one for every seven patients for night shifts on medical-surgical wards. The study, published in The Lancet, examined more than 400,000 patients and 17,000 nurses in 27 hospitals that implemented the policy and compared with 28 hospitals that did not. The comparison hospitals had no change in staffing, with six patients per nurse in 2016 and the same ratio (1:6) in the follow-up period in 2018. The findings showed that the chance of death rose between 2016 and 2018 by 7 per cent in hospitals that did not implement the policy, and fell by 11 per cent in hospitals that did implement the policy. The chances of being re-admitted increased by 6 per cent in the comparison hospitals over time, but stayed the same in hospitals that implemented the policy. Between 2016 and 2018, the length of stay fell by 5 per cent in the hospitals that did not implement the policy, and by 9 per cent in hospitals that did. Further analyses found that when nurse workloads improved by one less patient per nurse, the chance of death and readmissions fell by 7 per cent, and the length of hospital stay dropped by 3 per cent. "Our findings plug a crucial data gap that has delayed a widespread roll-out of nurse staffing mandates. Opponents of these policies often raise concerns that there is no clear evaluation of policy, so we hope that our data convinces people of the need for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios by clearly demonstrating that quality nursing is vital to patient safety and care," said lead author, Matthew McHugh from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, US. New Delhi, May 12 : The Delhi Police have worked out six cases of inter-state cyber fraud relating to families of Covid-19 patients and arrested four people. In a statement, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Central Delhi said that with the arrest of Ritik Singh, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Farukhabad, three more persons --Yogesh Singh, Mohammad Arzoo and the alleged mastermind Ravish -- all residents of Haryana's Gurugram, were arrested. He said that Karol Bagh police station has made a significant breakthrough in busting an organised Covid loot syndicate. The DCP said that on May 3, a complaint was received from Kshitij Mehra, a resident of Karol Bagh. In his complaint, Mehra stated that he called on a mobile number asking for oxygen cylinders for his friend. "The accused introduced himself as Ritik and demanded a payment for the same. The complainant paid a total of Rs. 47,500 to Ritik through various online modes," he said, adding that on the basis of that a case was registered. He said that the police investigated the trail of money, fake accounts and sims used zeroed in on Ritik. The DCP said that Ritik was arrested from Farrukhabad on May 7. Following Ritik's disclosure, the police arrested Yogesh Singh, Arzoo and the alleged mastermind namely Ravish on May 10. He said that during the investigation, Ravish stated that he had undergone a training for cyber fraud in Jharkhand's Jamtara where he learnt all the ways to dupe people. Further, they used to target innocent people and lure them to open different bank accounts in different banks by offering them a fixed salary per month. "The mobile phone used to cheat innocent people and the credit and debit cards used to withdraw the amount from said account were recovered from their possession. Fourteen SIM cards have been recovered and seized and the ATM cards used have been recovered," he said. The police said that with the arrest of four accused, they have solved six cases registered at Karol Bagh, Uttam Nagar, Kotla Mubarakpur, Najafgarh, Kalkaji and Hauz Khas. He said that police also recovered 4 smart mobile phones having two SIM cards used in cheating and 14 suspected SIMs, two normal Phones (T9 Dictionary), one laptop, one Activa Scooter, one Royal Enfield and one Yamaha R15 Motorcycle and multiple ATM cards and credit cards, along with 13 Aadhar and eight Pan cards. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi/New York, May 12 : Noted science writer Nicholas Wade, who has worked with some of the world's most distinguished science magazines and journals, penned an exhaustive article last week explaining why Coronavirus has all the hallmarks of being engineered in a laboratory. Wade is the latest among many other experts on science-related issues to make such a claim. In his article on the origin of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), he wrote, "From early on, public and media perceptions were shaped in favour of the natural emergence scenario by strong statements from two scientific groups. These statements were not at first examined as critically as they should have been." A group of virologists and others wrote in the medical journal Lancet on February 19, 2020, when it was really far too soon for anyone to be sure what had happened, "We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin." Scientists "overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife", they said, with a stirring rallying call for readers to stand with Chinese colleagues on the frontline of fighting the disease. In a scathing criticism of the Lancet, Wade wrote further, "Contrary to the letter writers' assertion, the idea that the virus might have escaped from a lab invoked accident, not conspiracy. It surely needed to be explored, not rejected out of hand. A defining mark of good scientists is that they go to great pains to distinguish between what they know and what they don't know. By this criterion, the signatories of the Lancet letter were behaving as poor scientists: They were assuring the public of facts they could not know for sure were true." It later turned out that the Lancet letter had been organised and drafted by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance of New York. Daszak's organisation funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. If the SARS2 virus had indeed escaped from the research he funded, Daszak would be potentially culpable, Wade wrote, adding that this acute conflict of interest was not declared to the Lancet's readers. To the contrary, the letter concluded, "We declare no competing interests". Virologists like Daszak had much at stake in the assigning of blame for the pandemic, Wade wrote. For 20 years, mostly beneath the public's attention, they had been playing a dangerous game. In their laboratories they routinely created viruses more dangerous than those that exist in nature. They argued they could do so safely, and that by getting ahead of nature they could predict and prevent natural "spillovers", the cross-over of viruses from an animal host to people, Wade said. If SARS2 had indeed escaped from such a laboratory experiment, a savage blowback could be expected, and the storm of public indignation would affect virologists everywhere, not just in China. "It would shatter the scientific edifice top to bottom," MIT Technology Review editor, Antonio Regalado, had said in March 2020. A second statement which had enormous influence in shaping public attitudes was a letter (in other words an opinion piece, not a scientific article) published on March 17, 2020 in the journal Nature Medicine. Its authors were a group of virologists led by Kristian G. Andersen of the Scripps Research Institute. "Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus," the five virologists had declared in the second paragraph of their letter. "Unfortunately, this was another case of poor science, in the sense defined above," Wade wrote. "True, some older methods of cutting and pasting viral genomes retain tell-tale signs of manipulation. But newer methods, called 'no-see-um' or 'seamless' approaches, leave no defining marks. Nor do other methods for manipulating viruses such as serial passage, the repeated transfer of viruses from one culture of cells to another," he wrote. "If a virus has been manipulated, whether with a seamless method or by serial passage, there is no way of knowing that this is the case. Dr. Andersen and his colleagues were assuring their readers of something they could not know," Wade wrote in his piece. The article went on to say: "Natural emergence was the media's preferred theory until around February 2021 and the visit by a World Health Organization commission to China. The commission's composition and access were heavily controlled by the Chinese authorities. Its members, who included the ubiquitous Dr. Daszak, kept asserting before, during and after their visit that lab escape was extremely unlikely. But this was not quite the propaganda victory the Chinese authorities may have been hoping for. What became clear was that the Chinese had no evidence to offer the commission in support of the natural emergence theory." This was surprising because both the SARS1 and MERS viruses had left copious traces in the environment, Wade wrote. "The intermediary host species of SARS1 was identified within four months of the epidemic's outbreak, and the host of MERS within nine months. Yet some 15 months after the SARS2 pandemic began, and a presumably intensive search, Chinese researchers had failed to find either the original bat population, or the intermediate species to which SARS2 might have jumped, or any serological evidence that any Chinese population, including that of Wuhan, had ever been exposed to the virus prior to December 2019. "Natural emergence remained a conjecture which, however plausible to begin with, had gained not a shred of supporting evidence in over a year. And as long as that remains the case, it's logical to pay serious attention to the alternative conjecture, that SARS2 escaped from a lab," Wade argued. Though Wade's works have featured in Nature, Science, the New York Times and other significant platforms, he self-published his article on the origin of SARS2 on the online publishing platform, Medium. In the article, Wade has said that even as the case for SARS2 originating in a lab is substantial, the scientific community has reason not to talk about it. "Government research funds are distributed on the advice of committees of scientific experts drawn from universities. Anyone who rocks the boat by raising awkward political issues runs the risk that their grant will not be renewed and their research career will be ended. Maybe good behavior is rewarded with the many perks that slosh around the distribution system," he wrote. The US government, Wade wrote, "shares a strange common interest with the Chinese authorities: Neither is keen on drawing attention to the fact that Dr. Shi's coronavirus work was funded by the US National Institutes of Health". Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mumbai, May 12 : On the occasion of International Nurses Day on Wednesday, Bollywood celebrities took to social media to express gratitude to nurses for their selfless service, especially at a time when the world is battling the deadly Covid-19 pandemic. Akshay Kumar, who was recently hospitalised after testing Covid positive, tweeted: "When I was hospitalised recently, what totally moved me was the amazing capacity of nurses at work. Selflessly and non-stop. Thank you to the real heroes. #InternationalNursesDay." Kajol posted: "In times like this let's raise a toast to our very own practical gods and goddesses! #InternationalNursesDay." Abhishek Bachchan wrote: "The nurses have kept humanity above everything else working long hours & risking their lives to protect their patients. This #InternationalNursesDay I salute their relentless efforts & their undying spirit to fight Covid-19. We'll always be indebted to you all." Sanjay Dutt tweeted: "In the past few days, I've come across news of nurses trying to uplift the spirit of their patients while they themselves are going through emotional & physical stress. My heartfelt gratitude to you all for everything that you're doing for us #InternationalNursesDay" "Their isn't enough words to express the gratitude we have for you, because you are walking right into the fire so that we can get through. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all the frontline health workers. #InternationalNursesDay," shared Suniel Shetty. "Our nurses have bravely led the fight against Covid-19 from the front. Saluting your commitment, hardwork, efforts to save so many lives and improve recoveries in these trying circumstances. Your selfless service is forever unforgettable. Dil se thank you #InternationalNursesDay," expressed Nushrratt Bharuccha. Randeep Hooda wrote: "Thank you for doing your best to nurse humanity back to health #InternationalNursesDay" "A big thank you to all the nurses and all the frontline workers. Your tireless efforts are keeping us all going, your kindness gives hope #InternationalNursesDay #InternationalNursesDay202," tweeted Rasika Dugal. Diana Penty shared on Instagram: "Cannot thank you enough for your care and compassion. To all the nurses in the world #HappyInternationalNursesDay Rajeev Khandelwal tweeted: "To all the nurses in the world and more so in India in these times. Take a bow today and forever. Happy #InternationalNursesDay" "In these extraordinary times your commitment to saving lives, your compassion and humanity is everything to every nurse and midwife, we are grateful to you and wish you good health. #InternationalNursesDay #SupportNursesAndMidwives," posted Dia Mirza Chitrangda Singh shared: "Our frontline warriors, our superheroes in this battle against COVID. Without you, we don't stand a chance. Thank you for your service #InternationalNursesDay." "You leave behind your loved ones to take care of ours. It's your sacrifices that keeps us safe. Thank you for being the warriors you are! We are truly grateful for your service. #InternationalNursesDay," producer Ritesh Sidhwani posted. "It takes a lot of courage & strength to do what you do EVERY SINGLE DAY. Thank You - our health care workers, our front liners, our real warriors. Forever grateful for your sacrifices to keep us safe in these tough times! #InternationalNursesDay," shared producer Ronnie Screwvala. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Panaji, May 12 : Amid the ongoing tussle in Goa between Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane over the death of 26 patients due to shortage of oxygen at a top government hospital, a ruling BJP MLA has demanded the latter's resignation and urged Sawant to take over the key portfolio. Atanasio Monserrate also said that Rane had behaved "irresponsibly" as Health Minister and his request to the Bombay High Court on Wednesday to probe the death of the hospital patients between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. on Tuesday morning was tantamount to shirking of responsibility. "CM distributes the portfolio. What stops the CM from keep that (health) portfolio with him until the crisis gets over. There can only be one captain of the ship, there cannot be two captains," he told reporters here. While Sawant has maintained that the deaths occurred due to mismanagement, Rane has insisted that the death occurred due to lack of oxygen supply to the hospital and has urged the Bombay High Court to probe the issue. Monserrate, however, claimed that Rane is allegedly shirking responsibility for the deaths, because they occurred on his watch as Health Minister. "You should address the issue, rather than asking the HC to probe it. Is the Minister sleeping during this hour (2 a.m. to 6 a.m.) in la la land?" Monserrate asked, adding that Sawant was kept in the dark over the alleged mismanagement at the top government hospital by the Health Ministry. "I have written to the CM to call for a party MLAs meeting. I want to have a face to face with those who have murdered people," Monserrate said. He also said that accountability for the deaths should be fixed on the person responsible for them, for the sake of the kin and relatives of patients who died due to lack of oxygen. Mumbai, May 12 : The Maharashtra Congress has demanded that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre must strongly condemn the Israeli attacks on the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem at the fag-end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan, killing scores of Muslims and injuring many, here on Wednesday. A delegation led by ex-minister and Working President Naseem Khan called on Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and submitted a memorandum to this effect. "The Indian government must condemn these atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli armed forces and send a clear message that India stands firmly behind the Palestinians," Khan said. The delegation comprising ex-MP Ubaidullah K. Azmi, former legislator Yusuf Abrahani, Raza Academy convenor Saeed Noori, and others told the Governor that Indian Muslims were stunned to see the indiscriminate firing by Israeli soldiers on innocent children and women when they were praying at the Al Aqsa Mosque - considered the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina. Comparing the attacks with Hitler's "genocide of Jews", the delegation said that it has sparked huge anger among the Indian and global Muslim brotherhood. "We were planning to organise massive demonstrations against these cowardly attacks but exercised restrain in view of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown restrictions However, the Government of India should convey our sentiments to the people of Palestine by flaying Israel," Khan urged. Calling upon the Centre to end its silence since the country has always stood firmly behind Palestine, he said India's message expressing solidarity with the Palestinians should be effectively conveyed to the whole world. The meeting came in the wake of the Israeli air-raids in Tel Aviv's Al Aqsa and Gaza in the past 48 hours which have killed more than two dozen Palestinians, leading to protests from all over the world. New Delhi, May 12 : There will be no Covaxin doses available at any vaccination centre in the national capital from Wednesday onwards as the stock has finished, prompting the state government to shut around 100 centres. The Delhi government, which raised an alarm regarding Covaxin shortage on Tuesday evening, on Wednesday said the last available stock of Covaxin was administered earlier in the day. "We had just 16,900 doses of Covaxin stock for today (Wednesday) which was administered and we have no Covaxin stock left for any centre. Now, Covaxin will not be administered at any vaccination centre from tomorrow until vaccine supply is received," said AAP MLA Atish, while giving details of the Delhi government's vaccination scheme to the press on Wednesday. Delhi on Wednesday received 2,67,790 doses of Covishield vaccine for people in the 18 to 44 years age group. Amid the nationwide second wave of the Covid pandemic, the Delhi government has been struggling to provide beds, oxygen, medicines for Covid patients in the hospitals and at homes. For the last few days, the capital is also struggling for vaccines. The Delhi government has relentlessly flagged the dwindling stock of vaccines in the capital, saying the manufacturers were not supplying enough doses to meet the target of inoculating the city's adult population in the next three months. This has come a week after the state administration set a target of three months to complete the vaccination of all the citizens in Delhi. Mass vaccination was kicked off for the 18-44 years age group on May 3. Earlier in the day, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that Covaxin maker Bharat Biotech has refused to supply doses to Delhi under instructions from the central government. Sisodia accused the Centre of controlling the supply of Covid shots and of vaccine mismanagement. He said the Delhi government has ordered 67 lakh doses of both vaccines - Covaxin and Covishield each. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Thiruvananthapuram, May 12 : There seems to be no respite from the rising number of daily Covid positive cases in Kerala as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday said that 43,529 turned positive from 1,46,320 samples tested in the past 24 hours. The tally was the highest so far, and the test positivity rate stood at 29.75 per cent, while the state has 4,32,789 active cases. Vijayan said the day also saw 34,600 people turn negative, taking the total number of cured in the state to 15,71,738. Another high for the day was that there were 95 Covid deaths taking the total death toll to 6,053. Ernakulam district continues to have the highest number of active cases, at 67,180, while Thrissur with 54,543 cases comes next. There were 740 hot spots in the state. On Wednesday, police collected fines amounting to Rs 34.50 lakh after more than 15,000 cases were registered against people who violated Covid norms. Vijayan also notes out that on Thursday the state will celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr and requested all the Muslim brethren to ensure that given the present grave situation, there should be no celebrations and all the prayers should be held at their homes. He said that with regards to the supply of vaccines, the state has on numerous occasions requested the Centre to supply the vaccine doses for those aged above 45 at the earliest. "The population in this age group here is around 1.13 crore and hence we require 2.26 crores doses. We wish that the supplies arrive at the earliest as this is one way to keep the death rate to the least minimum," Vijayan said. Vijayan also pointed out that heavy rains are predicted in the state in the coming days and asked the Health Department to ensure that all steps are taken to see that generators are kept ready at all hospitals, in case of any power outages. In reply to a question on when his second government would be sworn in, he said as things stand it can happen on May 20, and the final decision on this would be taken at the meeting of the Left Democratic Front to be held on May 18. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Los Angeles, May 12 : Filmmaker Rob Savages horror film "Host", which recently released digitally, features non-actors. The filmmaker says anyone with an internet connection was eligible to be part of the film. The film was shot entirely on the Zoom Video calling during lockdown last year. It all started when Savage played a prank on his friends during a live video interaction. In a zoom session, he told his friends that there was someone in his cellar. He then proceeded to the cellar to show them a video of him being eaten up by a zombie live. Talking about the shoot of the film, Savage says that his team tried to reach out to people who were searching for work. "It's been incredible, it was really exciting, we knew that anyone with an internet connection could be part of our film. We made a cool list of people who were layoff and basically were looking for an opportunity to do something. We got our ways to reach out to them through friends and that's how we got them on board," he says. The film features Haley Bishop, Jemma Moore, Emma Louise Webb, Radina Drandova, Caroline Ward, Teddy Linard and Seylan Baxter. The film has been released by PictureWorks and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. It will also release in India in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu, apart from original English version. New Delhi, May 12: How rich is the Taliban? In the last fiscal year that ended March 2020, the Taliban reportedly "earned" $1.6 billion. This is according to Mullah Yaqoob, son of the late Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, who revealed the Taliban's income sources in a confidential report commissioned by NATO and in comparison, the Afghan government brought in about $5.5 billion that too in aid, during the same period. With so many resources at its command, Taliban has become a state within a state, with sufficient income flows to fight a prolonged civil war after American forces depart this September. Also Read: Can the son of the 'Lion of Panjshir'-Ahmad Shah Massoud-also rise to shape Afghanistan's future? Apart from illicit opium trade ( Afghanistan accounted for approximately 84% of global opium production), Taliban's major source of income is about $464 million per year. That comes from mining iron ore, and controls over copper, gold, zinc and lithium mines, apart from their command over quarries of much-in-demand Afghan marble. Beside the Taliban have under their thumb other metals including rare-earth minerals , which go into everything from cell phones to laptops. Besides, both small-scale mineral-extraction operations and big Afghan Mining companies pay Taliban militants to allow them to keep their businesses running. Those who don't pay have faced death sentences. According to the Taliban's Stones and Mines Commission, or Da Dabaro Comisyoon, the group earns $400 million a year from mining. At present, the Taliban and local warlords control around 75 per cent of total mining sites in Afghanistan. According to the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum (MoMP), 748 mining areas in different parts of Afghanistan, about 283 are controlled by the Taliban, 281 by the government and the remaining by powerful warlords, Pajhwok News Agency reported. While, mining areas under government control are 139 in Kabul, 37 in Badakhshan, 24 in Farah, 19 in Logar, 13 in Khost, and 49 in 11 other provinces, the Taliban controls 165 in Badakhshan, 16 in Helmand,11 in Nuristan, as many in Kunduz, eight in Uruzgan and 72 in 21 other provinces. Similarly, the mining sites under the control of warlords include 127 in Kunar, 10 in Samangan, 10 in Baghlan, nine in Maidan Wardak, six Kunduz and 27 in seven other provinces. With resources widely distributed, along lines of conflict there is enough fuel from an extended civil war. Over the years, the Taliban has taken control of mining sites and extorted money from ongoing legal and illegal mining operations. Lack of security and infrastructure has meant mine reserves in Afghanistan remain largely untapped, and according to a report by the United States Institute of Peace, up to 10,000 deposits are estimated to be outside government control. Much of it is in remote northern regions like Badakhshan, where Taliban revenue collectors have moved in, working with smugglers to ship stones out of Afghanistan for processing. The report says that a bulk of looted minerals is smuggled openly across the Afghan border through government checkpoints. Apart from the Taliban and "Islamic State" (IS) jihadists, the Afghan warlords also want their share in the mineral wealth. Pakistan has been a major recipient of these illicitly obtained minerals. Maheullah Noori, a spokesman for the ministry of mines, said the government had no official estimate of the amount raised by insurgents from mining, but local MP Safiullah Muslim said the figure ran into millions of dollars a month. "Gold, emeralds, rubies, and amethyst are all illegally mined by local militiamen and the Taliban who profit by hundreds of millions of afghans monthly," he told a news agency. The corruption-mired Afghan mining sector is the second-largest source of funding for the Taliban and one of the reasons behind violence in mineral-rich areas. According to a US report of 2010, Afghanistan has a vast treasure trove worth at least $1 trillion in resources. The report said that the deposits could sustain the Afghan economy and generate thousands of jobs, reducing corruption and reliance on foreign aid. Currently, with 60 percent of the country's budget provided by foreign donors, foreign investment is crucial. An internal Pentagon memo also claimed that Afghanistan could develop into the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," referring to the mineral that is an integral component of laptop and smartphone batteries. Report also acknowledged the inability of the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum to handle a burgeoning resource industry. "This is a country that has no mining culture. Unfortunately, we have failed to manage and well control our mining sector," Mohammad Haroon Chakhansuri, Minister of Mines and Petroleum told Bloomberg News in October, "With the current fragile and messy situation, it's really hard to say when Afghanistan should expect any profits from it." According to the table provided by the ministry, there has been no mining activity in 14 areas. However, mining has been ongoing at one site for 40 years, at three sites for 30 years, at six sites for 20 years, at two sites for 18 years and at three other sites for 15 years. Illegal mining thus helps to prolong the ongoing conflict, especially in the northern and eastern provinces where warring groups compete for mineral wealth. According to the experts, it was Soviet geologists who mapped the country's wealth and Afghan mining experts have been able to document the data, with details of the various local and foreign attempts to exploit the country's resources. According to a report, the Chinese company China Metallurgical Group Corp. (MCC) controls the $3 billion mine, having obtained rights to the area in 2007 . But operations have not commenced because of security concerns and the discovery by archaeologists of ancient relics dating back to the Bronze Age. Today, nobody is seriously talking about a viable resource industry funding the country's future. (This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative/ New Delhi, May 12: The Sheikh Hasina governments new challenge is to contain the rise of the outlawed militant organisation Ansar al Islam, an affiliate of the Al Qaeeda. What is worrisome for the Hasina government is the fact that the militant outfit is now planning to embark on an aggressive recruitment drive. In a report published by the Bangladesh based newspaper Prothomalo, Ansar Al Islam plans to hire youth from secondary schools, madrasahs, universities, Islamic parties and others associated with militant groups. The Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) - a department under the police has recently retrieved documents related to the militant organisation's recruitment plans. In a shift from its recruitment policy, Ansar al Islam has also spoken of recruiting men as well as women. "One year's training would be a pre-condition for full membership. Ansar Al Islam had previously never spoken about the inclusion of women, but this time their leaflets addressed both men and women," the newspaper said. Separately a report by Dhaka Tribune noted that the CTTC even concluded that "operatives of outlawed militant outfit Ansar al Islam plotted to carry out attacks on the patrols of police and Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB)." The Diplomat last year noted that while external funding for terrorism "remains an important challenge, funding from internal sources in Bangladesh is no less important." "The latter sources of terrorist fundraising in Bangladesh can be garnered through self-funding, criminal activities, and legitimate businesses. Funds raised from domestic fronts are arguably harder to detect, especially as they tend to be enmeshed within a broader and deeply entrenched economic ecosystem that includes legitimate businesses," it said. Hasina' action against extremism Bangladesh fell into the grip of violence and extremeism between 2013 and 2016. Secular activists, writers and bloggers were being particularly targeted and killed. The Hasina government has now set up two anti-terrorism police units to tackle Islamist groups in the country and over 100 "suspected Islamists have been killed in anti-terror raids across the country and hundreds arrested," Al Jazeera said. Last year Global Terrorism Index by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) ranked Bangladesh at the 33rd position out of a total of 163 countries. Though in 2019, Bangladesh was placed 30 th and a year earlier grabbed the 25 th position, the Hasina administration has managed to overall stem the tide of Islamic terrorism that was threatening the nation of over 161 million in the first decade of the 21 st century. The country has not witnessed a major terror strike since the horrific Holey Artisan Bakery incident in 2016. The gruesome Holey Artisan Bakery terror attack in 2016, carried out by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen group, left 29 dead including an Indian student. Two analysts India Narrative spoke to, said that the Bangladesh Prime Minister has stepped up efforts to weed out extremist elements from the society. "She has shown will power and grit. She has been handling extremist elements effectively though challenges keep coming for her. The country has benefited immensely as it has focused on economic development and poverty reduction. Though such reports (on Ansar al Islam) are concerning, it is to be seen how the government deals with it," one of the two analysts said. (This content is being carried under an arrangement with indianarrative.com) --indianarrative/ Jaipur, May 12 : The UK strain of Covid virus is the reason behind the deadly second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in Rajasthan, state Health Minister Raghu Sharma said on Wednesday. This information came out recently in the genome sequencing reports of the samples that were from the state for sequencing, Sharma told mediapersons on Wednesday. He said the UK strain is spreading the infection rapidly in the state, including in the villages. "The genome sequencing facility is available at 10 locations in the country which are under the government of India. The pendency was quite high there as all the states are sending their samples and hence we received the report two to three days back," he said. "We approached the facility to know which of the corona strains in the state is making people sick and the report has confirmed that it is the UK strain, which spreads rapidly," Sharma said, adding, "The Rajasthan government has now decided to start genome sequencing at the SMS Medical College in Jaipur." "We will soon have the facility of collecting the genome sequencing reports quickly to know which virus is attacking more - the double mutant or triple mutant -- which can help the doctors decide the line of treatment," added Sharma. He also expressed concern over the fact that active cases have crossed the 2 lakh-mark in the state, which is being counted among the top five states in terms of active caseload. Hence the government is carrying out door-to-door surveys and has so far sampled 6 lakh ILI (influenza like illness) cases, the minister said. "Now we will be open for an antigen test too which although has less credibility, but it can identify positive cases in 15-20 minutes. Then the remaining patients with ILI symptoms will be taken for RT-PCR test. The aim is to check the infection from spreading fast in state," Sharma said. Speaking on a possible third wave, he said that the government has been informed that it can affect kids and children under 18 years of age. "Hence we are working to provide centralised oxygen plants in all children's hospitals," he said. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mumbai, May 12 : Actor Arjun Bijlani has tied up with an initiative that helps Covid patients find beds in hospitals across the country. He says that it is imperative for everyone to come forward and pitch in with efforts to fight the virus. The actor has been appointed as cause ambassador of India's International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN)'s Find A Bed initiative. The initiative was started by over 20,000 students across 160 cities. "This initiative is the need of the hour. To fight the dreaded disease, we all need to come together and pitch our contribution. I hope this campaign helps as many people as possible. These students have done an incredible job, and they have my full support," he told IANS. "This is a platform where all information about beds is available. Also, you can spot your nearest Covid centre and you can also build a Covid centre. I am glad to be part of the cause as the cause ambassador for this initiative," said Arjun, who is currently in Cape Town to shoot the stunt-based reality show "Khatron Ke Khiladi". On Tuesday, the movement had named Aahana Kumra as a cause ambassador. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) San Francisco, May 12 : Fortnite developer Epic Games has been trying to convince Sony, Microsoft and other publishers to bring their titles to Epic Games Store and is also willing to spend millions to do so, media reports said. According to The Verge, a 222-page confidential document, filed as part of the Epic vs Apple trial, reveals a broad effort to compete with Steam during 2020 with free games, Fortnite promotions, and more. The documents also show that Epic offered Sony $200 million for at least four first-party PlayStation games last year, ahead of a bigger push by Sony to bring more of its PlayStation games to PC. The document was created in September 2020 and was published and then quickly deleted last week, the report said. Epic Games has also been trying to convince Microsoft to bring its first-party games to the Epic Games Store. "Their PC Game Pass leader is against what we're doing," notes the document and Microsoft is "effectively bidding against us for content", the report said. Epic has also been meeting with Riot Games, Activision/Blizzard and EA in a bid to get more PC game content for its store, it added. "League of Legends is a longshot," admits Epic in the document, while also noting that the deal to launch Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 on the Epic Games Store could lead to more in the future. Kolkata, May 12 : In a controversial development, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar to resist himself from 'communicating and 'dictating' the state officials surpassing the CM and her Council of Ministers. The Chief Minister also asked the Governor to proceed 'unilaterally' to the violence affected places by 'violating the long-standing norms as evolved over several decades'. In a strong letter to the Governor, Banerjee said, "Kindly refer to my No.91-CM/2020 dated September 26, 2020 wherein, inter alia, I had requested and specifically advised you 'to refrain from surpassing the Chief Minister and her Council of Ministers and communicating with and dictating the state officials', in excess of your power under the Constitution and directing them to attend before you." "I find that you are steadily ignoring this advice, solemnly rendered by me to you, and have been communicating with and dictating the state officials. You have also been seeking reports from them directly. I urge you and again request and advise you to refrain from this. I am asking my Chief Secretary to go by this norm," the Chief Minister added. Banerjee's letter came after the Governor summoned Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay and DG Virendra to the Raj Bhawan and sought a report on the post-poll violence in the state. He even expressed displeasure over the Home Secretary failing to apprise him on the law-and-order situation with regard to the post-poll violence. Dhankhar tweeted that the Home Secretary did not forward the reports of the state's DGP and Commissioner of Kolkata Police to him in this regard. "Chief Secretary @MamataOicial has been called upon to see me today before 7 PM as ACS Home @HomeBengal failed to impart a status report on law and order regarding post-poll violence," the Governor said in his tweet. Banerjee also asked the Governor not to take abrupt and unilateral decisions regarding his visit to any violence-hit place. "The programme for the Governor's visits to places in the districts is finalised by the Secretary to the Governor after obtaining before recommending a request to the Governor for acceptance, whether it is from a private party or a government institution. The Secretary to the Governor consults the government and the commissioner of the division and the district officer who are in charge of the proper execution of the overall programme," she wrote. "I find from social media that you are unilaterally proceeding to the district of Cooch Behar on May 13 and, sadly, I find that to be violative of the long-standing norms as evolved over several decades. I, therefore, would expect that you will kindly follow the well-established norms of protocol, as stated above, and desist from abrupt decisions with regard to field visits," she added. However, on the same day, Dhankhar wrote that he would be visiting Assam to meet the Bengali refugees stationed in the camps of Ranpagli and Srirampur. "Governor WB Shri Jagdeep Dhankhar will be visiting RanpagliAand Srirampur camps in Assam where due to post poll retributive violence @MamataOfficial some people of WB had taken refuge for safety. Governor Dhankhar will be reaching Ranpagli Assam at 9.45 am by BSF Helicopter," Dhankhar tweeted. Hyderabad, May 12 : Bharat Biotech has said that it is disheartening to hear some states complaining about its intentions regarding supply of its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin. Bharat Biotech co-founder and Joint Managing Director Suchitra Ella tweeted this on Wednesday amid reports of some states voicing their unhappiness over supplies. "...18 states have been covered though in smaller shipments. Quite disheartening to the teams to hear some states complaining about our intentions," she tweeted. "50 of our employees are off work due to covid, yet we continue to work under pandemic lockdowns 24x7 for U," the top official added. Her tweet comes on a day when Delhi government said that Bharat Biotech has informed that it cannot provide additional doses of Covaxin. Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Bharat Biotech informed the Delhi government that it cannot provide vaccines due to unavailability, under instruction from concerned government official. "It means that the central government is controlling supply of the vaccine," Sisodia said. The Hyderabad-based company had stated on Tuesday that has been directly supplying Covaxin to 18 states since May 1. The states are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The company, however, has not come out with details of the supplies like the number of doses supplied to the states. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Mumbai, May 12 : Actor Aadar Jain on Wednesday got his Covid-19 shot and said that all of us can be responsible citizens by getting vaccinated. "We can all be responsible citizens by getting vaccinated. Our healthcare professionals are working day in and day out trying to keep us safe from the virus and now we can all do our bit by safeguarding our health and getting the vaccine," Aadar said. He thanked all frontline and healthcare workers for their efforts. "I thank all the frontline warriors, doctors and medical staff for all their sacrifices and dedication in these times of need. I would like to sincerely urge everyone to register themselves and get vaccinated as soon as possible. It'll help us all defeat this virus and restart our country!" Aadar was recently seen in the digitally-released film "Hello Charlie". Hyderabad, May 12 : Union Health and Family Welfare Ministerv Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday assured Telangana that the Centre will enhance its quota of oxygen, medicines and vaccines. He gave the assurance during a video conference he held with the state government. On the instructions of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, Finance Minister Harish Rao participated in the videoconference. According to the Chief Minister's Office, Harsh Vardhan expressed satisfaction over the decrease in the intensity of Covid in Telangana, and assured that supply of oxygen, medicines and injections like Remdesivir, vaccines, testing kits, ventilators and other corona-related drugs and essentials would be done immediately and the state's quota would also be increased in this regard. Harish Rao explained the curtailment measures taken by the state government and urged the Union Minister to enhance the quota. He said that the state government had enhanced the basic infrastructure considerably by the time the second wave arrived. During the first wave, there were only 18,232 beds, which were increased to 53,775 during the second wave. The oxygen beds were increased from 9,213 to 20,738 and ICU beds from 3,264 to 11,274. The Health Department is conducting door-to-door fever survey, with 27,039 teams consisting of the ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and ANM staff visiting each and every households to conduct the tests, he said, adding that 60 lakh households have been covered so far. Harish Rao also informed the Union Minister that health kits comprising the essential medicines to treat Covid are supplied to suspected patients. This survey programme is helping in preventing the spread and also the deaths due to the virus, he said. Pointing out that patients from state like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra are coming to Hyderabad for the treatment, he demanded that quota of medicines, oxygen and others should be fixed keeping this in view. The shortage of medicines and others in the state was due to the difference in the calculation of positive cases, he xplained. Harish Rao also demanded that 450 tonnes of oxygen for the state should be increased to 600 tonnes per day. He wanted oxygen tankers be brought into the state from the neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra, and not from distant states like Odisha as it would help quick delivery and supply. He said supply of Remdesivir injunctions should be increased to 20,000 vials per day. Since patients are coming to Telangana by air ambulances, the supply of Tocilizumab injections should be increased from 810 to 1,500 per day. He said the Telangana needs two lakh testing kits per day and they should be supplied forthwith. Harish Rao said on the instructions of the CM, the second dose of the vaccine is being administered all over the state. To vaccinate people above 45 years of age, 1.29 crore vaccines are required. There is an urgent need of 13 lakh vaccines till end of this month and they should be supplied immediately. He also wanted the immediate supply of 2,000 ventilators, which are very much needed for the state. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Ghazipur : , May 12 (IANS) Few days back, Satish Kumar, an assistant professor at the Swami Sahajanand Post Graduate College in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, found his father suffering from Covid-like symptoms. Though his RT-PCR report was still awaited, the doctors prescribed medicines for Kumar's father, which were promptly provided in a kit by a Gujarat-based businessman, who is from the district and is busy helping the poor and the needy in these times of crisis. Meet Sanjay Rai, a businessman based in Kutch, Gujarat, who belongs to Sherpuria village in Ghazipur district and has deep-rooted connection with his village. Rai has been involved in social work in the past as well. According to Kumar, the work which is supposed to be done by the government is now being carried out by Rai in the area. Kumar, a resident of Ravindra Colony in Ghazipur, also said that a mobile van provided by Rai is conducting Covid tests in the area, besides providing medicine kits useful for the treatment of the dreaded disease. Rai is lending a helping hand to the people in these trying times by providing oxygen concentrators, cylinders and other medical requirements, besides making arrangements for testing the rural population in the area. On Wednesday, he handed over 50 oxygen concentrators to the district authorities besides giving one to the local journalists' association. Ghazipur District Magistrate, M.P. Singh, has thanked the entrepreneur for the gesture and appealed to the people to come forward to help the needy. The Gujarat-based businessman is even helping in the last rites of the Covid victims whose family can't afford wood for the cremation. He is providing wood on purchase price to those who can afford them, and giving them for free to those who can't. Afaq Hussain, a social worker living in Rajdepur in the district, said, "Amid the raging second wave of the pandemic, Rai is working for the people of the area, helping those in distress through his NGO by providing medicines besides testing the rural population. Also, the creation of a wood bank for the last rites has been of great help." According to Rai, through his NGO, relief materials have been provided to around 15,000 people in the past three weeks in the district, while they are also working to support the district administration. "We have provided 100 oxygen concentrators, repaired ventilators and established a 50-bed ICU in the district hospital premises in Ghazipur and Mohammadabad," Rai said. His NGO is running a fully air-conditioned mobile bus for testing people, with a target of testing about 1,100 people on a daily basis. However, Rai said that the people are reluctant to get themselves tested, which is a matter of concern. Through his NGO, Rai has also arranged an ambulance fitted with ventilator to ferry the infected persons to the hospitals. A team of 20 doctors is also running a telemedicine facility in the district. Many locals have also come forward to join the efforts but they don't want to be named as they fear that the administration may act against them. These people are providing food and other essentials to the people in the hospitals. NGOs and locals have also come forward to help perform the last rites of Covid victims in Ghazipur. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) New Delhi, May 12 : Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday that vaccination is a big weapon in the fight against Covid-19. Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday interacted with the health ministers and principal secretaries/additional chief secretaries of eight states/UT in the presence of Union Minister of State for Health, Ashwini Kumar Choubey. The eight states/UT included Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and Telangana, all depicting a rise in the number of daily cases with growing positivity rate. At the meeting, Harsh Vardhan highlighted the trajectory of Covid in these states/UT and brought to their attention the consequent stress on the medical infrastructure. He stressed on the continued need to follow Covid appropriate behaviour along with renewed and stringent focus on containment measures for addressing the present surge. He also noted that stringent adherence to implementation of micro-containment zones has helped. Underlining the critical importance of the vaccination drive, Vardhan said, "Vaccination is our big weapon in the fight against Covid-19. India is the fastest country globally to reach the landmark of administering 17 crore doses in 114 days." He pointed out that of these, 13.66 crore people have been administered the first dose, while the second dose has been given to 3.86 crore persons. "It is very important that we first focus more on second dose vaccination. States should not lose sight of those who are to get the second dose of Covid vaccine: 70 per cent doses at minimum ought to be allocated to meet the requirement of the second jab, while 30 per cent ought to be reserved for the first dose," he said. The Health Minister also urged the states to ensure that the healthcare workers and frontline workers are fully vaccinated, as they form the vulnerable categories. Harsh Vardhan said that under the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy, along with free vaccination under government of India channel, states can use the non-GoI channel to have holistic vaccination coverage of their population. "Every month, 50 per cent of the vaccine doses of every manufacturer would be available for direct procurement by the state governments and private hospitals while the government of India would continue to procure its share of 50 per cent of the vaccines and would continue to make them available to the state governments totally free of cost as was being done earlier," he said. The Health Minister also pointed out that various measures are being taken by the Union government to ramp up vaccine production in the country and the production capacity of the vaccine manufacturers is also being augmented, adding that it will touch 8 crore doses by May, and will touch 9 crore in June. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) San Francisco, May 12 : Enterprise software major VMware on Wednesday announced to appoint Raghu Raghuram as its new Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, effective from June 1, 2021. VMware also appointed Sumit Dhawan, currently serving as Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer, as President who will lead all go-to-market functions including worldwide sales, worldwide partner and commercial organisation, customer experience and success (CXS), marketing, and communications. "I am thrilled to have Raghu step into the role of CEO at VMware. Throughout his career, he has led with integrity and conviction, playing an instrumental role in the success of VMware," commented Michael Dell, chairman of the VMware Board of Directors. Since joining VMware in 2003, Raghuram has helped steer the company's strategic direction and its technology evolution throughout VMware's rich history. He helped grow the core virtualisation business, drove VMware's software defined data centre strategy, constructed and guided VMware's cloud computing business and SaaS transformation efforts, played a pivotal role in the company's M&A strategy, and has been key in driving partnerships with Dell Technologies, hyper-scalers and other strategic partners. "VMware is uniquely poised to lead the multi-cloud computing era with an end-to-end software platform spanning clouds, the data centre and the edge, helping to accelerate our customers' digital transformations," said Raghuram Sanjay Poonen, currently Chief Operating Officer, Customer Operations, has made the personal decision to leave VMware after seven years at the company. The big changes came as Dell Technologies last month announced to spin out VMware -- a move that will generate more than $9 billion for the company that acquired VMware as part of the $58 billion EMC acquisition (announced as $67 billion) in 2015. Dell plans to offer VMware shareholders a special dividend of between $11.5 and $12 billion. Since it owns approximately 81 per cent of those shares, Dell will generate around $9.3-9.7 billion. Hyderabad, May 12 : Granules, a vertically-integrated pharmaceutical company headquartered in Hyderabad, on Wednesday announced it has pledged to provide the Telangana government paracetamol-500 mg tablets free of cost to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The company will provide one crore tablets every week, starting from May 12, aggregating to 16 crore tablets worth Rs 8 crore over next four months. Granules India Executive Director Uma Devi Chigurupati said that they believe that this contribution will complement Telangana's efforts in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in the state. She met state Industry and Information Technology Minister K.T. Rama Rao on Wednesday to hand over a letter in this regard. "As a company, Granules is always in the forefront of taking up corporate social responsibilities and contributing to society. Paracetamol is one of the most important drugs in the Covid treatment regimen. Being one of the largest producers of paracetamol, it's is our responsibility to make it available to the patients," she added. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Hyderabad, May 12 : Actor Harshvardhan Rane, who sold his bike to arrange oxygen concentrators for needy, donated one of them to the Cyberabad police. On behalf of Harshvardhan Rane Shirtoff Foundation, volunteer Abhilash Elaprolu handed over the oxygen concentrator to Cyberbad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar on Wednesday. Last week, the 37-year-old actor sold his bike Royal Enfield Continental Gt to raise funds to donate oxygen concentrators to help people fight Covid. He wanted to donate one to frontline workers who are working day and night to help citizens in this pandemic. Sajjanar and the Society for Cyberabad Security Coundil (SCSC) appreciated the actor's generosity. Harshvardhan, an avid biker, had earlier this month posted pictures of his yellow Royal Enfield bike on Instagram and wrote that he wants to exchange his motorbike for a few oxygen concentrators to help needy people in combating Covid-19. "Giving my motorcycle away in exchange for a few oxygen concentrators which we together can provide to people in need combating Covid," wrote the actor, who has also contracted coronavirus last year. "Good news. Thanks to your swift help and prompt offers on instagram, 3 oxygen concentrators have reached Hyderabad. Few more expected soon," he posted last week. Harshvardhan Rane had made his Bollywood debut with 2016 film "Sanam Teri Kasam". He also acted in Telugu films like "Naa Ishtam", "Prema Ishq Kaadhal", "Avunu 2", "Kavacham" and "Anaamika". Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Tirupati, May 12 : Alleging that 23 persons had died in the Ruia Hospital tragedy here, Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary K. Narayana on Wednesday accused the Andhra Pradesh government of hiding the facts. The state government had stated that eleven persons had died at the Ruia Hospital in Tirupati on Monday following disruption in oxygen supply due to delay in arrival of an oxygen tanker from Tamil Nadu. Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, the CPI leader read out the details of 23 persons who had allegedly lost their lives in the tragedy. He also wondered why the state government, led by Chief Minister Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy, is unable to corner the Central government on oxygen shortage that is plaguing the state. "The state government is not coming out with the facts on the death toll in the Ruia Hospital tragedy. Won't they get oxygen tankers at least two days in advance," he questioned. "The enquiry committee formed by the government will not serve any purpose," he added. Chennai, May 12 : Tamil Nadu Minister and senior DMK leader Durai Murugan on Wednesday questioned the BJP's central leadership and the Union government for nominating three MLAs to the Puducherry Assembly without consulting the Chief Minister. In a statement here, he said that the people of Puducherry are "sceptical of the BJP's sinister design to sneak through the backdoor to enjoy power in Puducherry" and urged the BJP and the Union government not to indulge in such acts and to work for the welfare of the people "instead of such petty political games". "The newly-elected Chief Minister of Puducherry, N. Rangasamy is admitted to hospital for Covid-19 treatment and this move of the central BJP and Central government without consulting the Chief Minister of their alliance will undermine the new government's efficiency and pull down the government," Durai Murugan claimed. He called upon the Central government to reverse its decision on the nominated MLAs and "forgo its attempt to create an unsafe environment for the newly-elected government in the state". "This is not proper way to handle things... the Central government should work for the welfare of the people during this time of crisis and not to indulge in playing politics when the world is staring at a pandemic. The Chief Minister of Puducherry is under treatment for Covid-19 and without taking him into confidence, how can they do this," Durai Murugan told IANS. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Bengaluru, May 12 : With the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) warning of a cyclonic storm in the Arabian Sea by May 16, the Indian Coast Guard on Wednesday ordered Karnataka fishermen to return to the shore. "The Coast Guard instructed Karnataka fishermen to return from the high seas, as the storm 'Tauktae' is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm over east Arabian Sea by May 16," a Defence Ministry statement said. The IMD on Tuesday predicted formation of a low-pressure area over southeast Arabian Sea later this week. "The Indian fishing boats have also been warned not to venture into the sea in the wake of the IMD alert," said the statement. Coast Guard ships and Dornier aircraft relayed the weather warning to fishermen at sea on very high frequency (VHF) channel and asked them to return to land. Patna, May 12 : Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi on Wednesday urged Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to avoid depending on the Centre and Indian pharmaceutical companies and purchase vaccines from foreign countries to inoculate the people of the state. In a series of tweets in Hindi, Sushil Modi, who is currently a Rajya Sabha MP, said: "The Nitish Kumar government, instead of depending on the Narendra Modi government and domestic pharmaceutical companies, should initiate a process of global tender to buy vaccines from any country in the world." Noting that the population of Bihar is above 11 crore and the state government will need crores of vaccines for the vaccination of people above 18 years old, he said: "The supply of crores of vaccines is not possible from Indian companies. Hence, there is only one remaining way to get vaccines - through global tender." He pointed out that several states like Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, and Delhi are considering global tenders. "Bihar government has an adequate fund of Rs 4,165 crore for the vaccination programme. It has already allocated Rs 1,000 crore for it. Why is the state government delaying it? Why is it waiting for domestic companies which cannot fulfil the demand despite starting production of vaccines day and night," he asked. Jaipur, May 12 : The Rajasthan government on Wednesday decided to float a global tender to procure Covid-19 vaccine doses from the international manufacturers in the absence of adequate supply of vaccine shots for the 18+ age group. In a virtual Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, the proposal to float a global tender to import Covid vaccine doses was approved. Around one crore vaccine doses will be imported under this process. To ensure a quick process, expression of interest (EoI) will be generated by making the National Health Mission a nodal agency. At the meeting, the ministers expressed concern over the rising number of Covid cases in the state and said that vaccinating people at a fast pace is the need of the hour. The Chief Minister had earlier said in a tweet, "Due to lack of Covid vaccine in the country, many states are taking out global tender to get vaccines from other countries. It would have been better had the Central government taken out the global tender and bought vaccines and distributed them to the states, and collected payments from the state governments later." The issue of providing free vaccination to the 18+ group was also discussed in the meeting, and it was informed that the state government would spend around Rs 3,000 crore collected from its resources for the free vaccination drive. Gehlot also appealed to the people of state to maintain discipline and follow the protocols during the two festivals of Eid (May 13-14) and Akshaya Tritiya (April 14). Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rome, May 12 : Russia's Aslan Karatsev continued his good form by taking out compatriot and third seed Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 6-4 in the second round of the Italian Open on Wednesday. "I'm super happy," Karatsev said after the match. "It was a really tough match. Against Medvedev you never know, he's a big server. It's tough to return, but I managed it well." Madrid Open champion Alexander Zverev of Germany picked up from where he had left off in his Italian Open opener, racing past qualifier Hugo Dellien 6-2, 6-2. Karatsev and Medvedev were facing off for the first time, but the Russians were familiar with each other's games having won the ATP Cup together this year. With Medvedev coming out slow, Karatsev made the first move with a break for 3-2 followed by a second break to lengthen his lead to 5-2. The world No. 27 served it out comfortably, winning 90 per cent of his first-serve points across the match and needing to save just one break point. Karatsev used his forehand and aggressive court positioning to put pressure on Medvedev, who was passive from start to finish. Karatsev maintained his focus in the second set and a series of slick winners, including a flick-of-the-wrist forehand passing shot and a sharp volley, helped him get a break for 4-3. It was smooth sailing from there to serve it out. Anchorage, AK -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/12/2021 -- Crowson Law Group is a law firm that represents individuals and their families that have suffered personal injury or death in car accidents, motorcycle accidents, and more due to the negligence of others. Their representation is based on a contingent fee agreement. The law firm's focus is always on helping injury victims recover all damages associated with their claims. Typically, they handle all aspects of representation so that clients can focus on getting better from the injury they sustained and move forward with their life. The company spokesperson said, "Traumatic brain injuries linked to car accidents can be extreme depending on how severe the initial impact was. When this happens, medical treatment is of extreme importance to determine the extent of the brain injury. And since these cases are usually complex, hiring a professional personal injury attorney can be the best decision ever. They can help the victim secure compensation for their medical expenses, time-lost away from work, and pain and suffering. These cases also require the use of an expert witness to remove confusion about the case. This expert can be a medical or accident reconstruction expert. The testimony they provide can help in supporting the case. Looking for Alaska's top motorcycle accident lawyer? At Crowson Law Group, they have professional lawyers who have extensive experience pursuing car and motorcycle accidents in several areas. They have detailed knowledge about Alaska's motorcycle accident cases and thus, have the insights necessary to help their clients recover from their injuries. Additionally, they understand the insurance claims process and know how to negotiate with insurance companies effectively. The company spokesperson added, "Since car accident claims are usually linked with negligence, four negligent elements must always be proven by the injury victim. These elements include a duty of care was owed, the existence of a breach of the duty of care, and injuries and causation. The element of causation describes the reason something happened. To prove causation, a 'but for' test must be carried out determining, 'but for the existence of X, would Y have occurred'. So, it is necessary for the traumatic brain injuries suffered by the injury victim to be directly linked or connected to the accident. To prove this, a physician must record the injury linking the damage to the accident. As such, a personal injury lawyer can also help in providing proof that the plaintiff's injury is a direct result of the accident." Motor vehicle accidents are one of the most common causes of injuries in the US. Whether one's accident resulted in minor injuries or serious injuries, they shouldn't settle for less than what they deserve. At Crowson Law Group, their personal injury lawyers can help car accident victims determine the value of their claim and fight the insurance companies to ensure they get it. They have the knowledge, expertise, and experience needed to deal effectively with insurance companies as they have foreknowledge of their dealings with negligence claims. So, get car accident attorney in Alaska today from the law firm. About Crowson Law Group Crowson Law Group provides experienced representation in Wasilla, Alaska, regarding a wide range of personal injury cases. It has the best car accident lawyer in Alaska. Contact Details Crowson Law Group Anchorage Office: 637 A Street Anchorage, AK 99501 Telephone: (907) 677-9393 Wasilla Office: 850 Roberts Street, Ste. 500 Wasilla, AK 99654 Telephone: (907) 519-0193 Email: info@crowsonlaw.com Website: https://www.crowsonlaw.com/ Mumbai, May 12 : In anticipation of rising travel demand on the back of an accelerated vaccination programme, several domestic airlines are planning to initiate an internal inoculation drive for their workforce. Accordingly, low-cost carrier GoAir will soon commence a programme to get its entire workforce vaccinated free of cost. The airline has tied up with various hospitals in different cities for the vaccination programme. "The airline will bear the cost for both vaccine doses," it said. Besides, GoAir has also planned to allow the vaccinated employees to take two days' leave over and above the entitled threshold. At present, the airline has 4,481 employees in its workforce, who will get vaccinated. Another airline -- SpiceJet -- will start an inoculation drive for all its employees from May 17. The company-sponsored vaccination drive will start from Delhi and Gurugram and will cover SpiceJet employees across all the stations on the airline's network. In addition, the airline will make efforts to facilitate vaccination for the families of employees going forward. "The first ones to get vaccinated will be the frontline employees of the airline, including airport staff and in-flight crew," SpiceJet said in a statement. "The vaccination programme will be undertaken as per the government rules and guidelines and on the basis of availability of vaccine doses," it added. Last week, the Centre had issued enabling guidelines to facilitate vaccination of the civil aviation community. The development came after the Civil Aviation Secretary in a letter requested all the state governments to consider the personnel involved in aviation and related services as a priority group under the vaccination programme. As per the guidelines, all players in the sector have been advised to cover their personnel under the ongoing vaccination drive. The guidelines stated that the organisations which have already made arrangements for vaccination of their employees may "continue to do so". Bengaluru, May 13 : The Chief Commissioner of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Gaurav Gupta, said on Wednesday that the civic body would focus on administering anti-Covid vaccine to those who are due for the second dose, given the shortage of vaccine supply in the city. Gupta told reporters that as there is a shortage of vaccines, priority will be given to those who are due for the second dose and to those above the age of 45 years. "Those between 18 and 45 years of age will be administered vaccine once there is an adequate supply of the same. So the youngsters need not throng the vaccination centres unless they already have a scheduled appointment," Gupta said after visiting the Dasappa Hospital near Town Hall where he reviewed the ongoing vaccination programme. Responding to a question, Gupta said that there is no dearth of vaccine storage facilities in the city but due to low supply from the manufacturers, the government hospitals are bound to prioritise their available stocks. He said all citizens must pre-register on the CoWin portal and visit the vaccination centres only after the schedule is fixed. "This will prevent large gatherings at the vaccination centres. In addition, as there is a vaccine shortage in a few private hospitals, vaccination drives are being carried out only in some hospitals," he said. According to Gupta, the state needs at least three crore vaccines to inoculate those aged 18 years or more across the state. "The state government has submitted its purchase order based on this requirement," he noted. Rebutting the allegations of Bengaluru labs facing shortage of swabs, Gupta said that there is no shortage of testing kits I the labs, and he has already issued a directive that people with symptoms, their primary contacts, and others who have come in close contact with them must get themselves tested immediately. Bengaluru, May 13 : Owing to the short supply of Covid vaccines, Karnataka on Wednesday decided to 'temporarily suspend' vaccination drive for those aged between 18 to 44 years. In a series of tweets, the Karnataka Health department said that the state government has decided that the vaccine procured directly by the state government for vaccination of persons between 18 to 44 years too will be utilised for vaccination of beneficiaries who are due for the second dose. "Therefore, all vaccines available with the state government i.e. supplied by union government and procured directly by state will be utilized for vaccination of beneficiaries due for second dose," the Karnataka health department tweet explained. The Health department added that vaccination drives for the 18 to 44 age group including those who have already booked appointments will be temporarily suspended from May 14 till further orders. According to the health department, the state government on May 7 had decided to utilise the complete supply of vaccines provided by the union government for vaccination of persons above 45 years, for vaccinating beneficiaries who were due for second dose. "But under the changed circumstances and severe shortage of vaccine, the vaccine procured directly by the state government for vaccination of persons between 18 to 44 years too will be utilised for vaccination of beneficiaries who are due for second dose," a senior health department official told reporters on the condition of anonymity. The health department added that this order will be applicable for Covid vaccination at all state-run Covid vaccination centres in the state. As of now, only two vaccines manufactured by Pune based Serum Institute of India (SII) and Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech are allowed in India for mass inoculation programme, but these companies are struggling to meet the country's overwhelming demand for vaccines amid the ferocious second wave that has seen India's Covid burden go up manifold. Karnataka symbolically launched anti-Covid vaccination drive on May 1 but ever since it has failed to take off due to short supply of vaccines. Karnataka Health minister, K. Sudhkar was first to state on April 30 that it was better to put off the launch of the drive on May 1 as the state had not received required stock and this was even endorsed by Chief Minister, B.S. Yediyurappa on that day. But, Yediyurappa the next day launched the vaccination drive symbolically on May 1. Latest updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) -- Except for the title, this story has not been edited by Prokerala team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed Panattoni and Tchibo signed a lease agreement for a distribution center in the Panattoni Park Cheb industrial zone. The 102,000 sqm warehouse thus ranked second behind the Amazon distribution center at Panattoni Park Prague Airport near Dobroviz in Central Bohemia . The modern hall is financed and the Cheb [] The program for the 2022 iaedp Symposium is being created by a diverse group of professionals who work in therapeutic settings with patients, says Bonnie Harken, Managing Director at the iaedp Foundation. The International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals (iaedp) has announced the deadline of June 30, 2021 for Proposals for the 2022 iaedp Symposium slated for March 24-27 in Orlando, Florida at the Omni Resort at ChampionsGate. The program for the 2022 iaedp Symposium is being created by a diverse group of professionals who work in therapeutic settings with patients, says Bonnie Harken, Managing Director at the iaedp Foundation. Each and every year, our goal at iaedp is to provide an exciting and quality program that is applicable and inclusive for all health professionals when working with patients. The iaedp Foundation asks that professionals include experiential or interactive components in their presentations. Preference is given to unique presentations offered for the first time. iaedp plans to continue its focus on a diversity of topics, presenters and ideologies at its 2022 Symposium. According to Harken, iaedp seeks treatment providers from all disciplines to convert ongoing research, brain imaging and treatment updates into meaningful eating disorder treatment protocols. The iaedp Foundation is pursuing abstracts on inventive treatment modalities for the many phases of the eating disorder clients journey-- from denial and resistance to treatment and ultimately recovery. The 2022 iaedp Symposium will mark a return to iaedps traditional in-person program. Both the 2020 and 2021 Symposium programs were virtual programs in their entirety because of the impact of the coronavirus. Currently, the 2021 iaedp Symposium is in progress until September 1, 2021 and registration is still open. The 2021 Symposium allows total participation in the over 80 sessions and workshops and the interactive Exhibit Hall with an opportunity to secure 40 Continuing Education Units (CEU). For complete information about registration for the 2021 iaedp Symposium, go to iaedp.com. More information about all aspects of the iaedp Symposium and the 2022 Call for Proposals can be found online. About the iaedp Foundation: Since 1985, the International Association of Eating Disorders Professionals has provided education and training standards to an international and multidisciplinary group of various healthcare treatment providers and helping professions. The Presidents Council provides iaedp support and includes: Alsana; Center for Change; Center for Discovery; Eating Recovery Center; Laureate; The Meadows Ranch; The RenfrewCenters; Rogers Behavioral Health; Rosewood Center for Eating Disorders; Selah House; SunCloud Health; Timberline Knolls; Veritas Collaborative; and Walden Behavioral Care. "Those companies who figured out how to accommodate for this workforce segment helped continue to put food on the table for families and staff essential businesses to keep the economy going." - Express CEO Bill Stoller Despite recognizing the importance of retaining caregivers in the workforce, 40% of U.S. hiring decision-makers report employees have left their company since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to care for children or other family members. This is according to a new survey from The Harris Poll commissioned by Express Employment Professionals. Of those 40% who left companies for care obligations, 27% said it was for children, while 25% left to care for other family members. Substantial proportions say employees have changed their work schedule (37%) and/or reduced the number of hours they work (32%) due to family obligations. Although the majority of U.S. hiring decision-makers (79%) believe their company is doing just the right amount to help employees balance work with caregiving responsibilities, more than 2 in 3 (68%) say their employees have expressed an interest in having them offer services to help balance caregiving responsibilities. Notably, only 32% of U.S. hiring decision-makers say one of their companys most important priorities right now is continually updating programs to accommodate employees who are caregivers, and a similar proportion (33%) say leadership being more flexible in accommodating employees schedules and needs will be a permanent effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. When it comes to working parents specifically, more than 3 in 4 hiring decision-makers (78%) agree it is important to their company to nurture and grow working parent leaders within their organization. Still, only 30% say retaining working parents is one of the most important priorities for their company right now. And, less than 2 in 5 (38%) say their company offers programs to help employees who are parents stay in the workplace; among those, the most common programs are flexible work schedules/flex-time (52%), telecommuting/remote work (44%) and/or employer-funded/subsidized childcare (36%). Both Terri Greeno and John Dickey, Express franchise owners in Crystal Lake, Illinois, and Andover, Massachusetts, respectively, say they have seen employees leave jobs in their market where virtual work is not feasible and no dependent care is available. Extended family may not be able or willing to help care for children due to their own fears of exposure, Greeno said. Without options, employees have to stay home. Dickey said employers have been more understanding of altering work schedules or reducing the number of hours at work to accommodate these family obligations. I have made these accommodations for my employees, but this isnt across the board, he said. Factory workers cant work from home. Greeno agrees that many companies are going above and beyond to help employees during this time to balance work and caregiving responsibilities by allowing children in the office certain days of the week and offering remote work, unlimited PTO or split shifts, as long as objectives are met. It is vitally important for parents to have a role in the workforce and companies definitely encourage it, she said. Healthy families make healthy communities and economies. Some states are even introducing new legislation to support working parents, such as Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML) in Massachusetts. The law allows for up to 26 weeks of paid leave for medical or family reasons like the birth of a child. Good companies stress the concept of family first, Dickey said. Its a balancing act. Our workforce depends on working parents, and companies are doing what they can to keep parents engaged and employed. Theres no doubt the last year has been especially challenging for caregivers, Express CEO Bill Stoller said. Those companies that figured out how to accommodate this workforce segment, however, helped continue to put food on the table for families and staff essential businesses to keep the economy going, he said. Support should continue well beyond the pandemic for caregivers to get the labor force back to full strength and health. Survey Methodology The survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of Express Employment Professionals between Nov. 16 and Dec. 7, 2020, among 1,002 U.S. hiring decision-makers (defined as adults ages 18+ in the U.S. who are employed full-time or self-employed, work at companies with more than one employee, and have full/significant involvement in hiring decisions at their company). Data was weighted where necessary by company size to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. *** If you would like to arrange for an interview with Bill Stoller to discuss this topic, please contact Sheena (Karami) Hollander, Director of Corporate Communications and PR, at (405) 717-5966. About Bill Stoller William H. "Bill" Stoller is chairman and chief executive officer of Express Employment Professionals. Headquartered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the international staffing company has more than 830 franchises in the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Since inception, Express has put more than 9 million people to work worldwide. About Express Employment Professionals At Express Employment Professionals, were in the business of people. From job seekers to client companies, Express helps people thrive and businesses grow. Our international network of franchises offers localized staffing solutions to the communities they serve across the U.S., Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, employing 526,000 people globally in 2020. For more information, visit http://www.ExpressPros.com. All AdventHealth hospitals in Tampa Bay have once again maintained safety as the top priority, even during a pandemic, by receiving the highest marks possible for patient safety and quality with a Leapfrog grade A from the prestigious Leapfrog Group. The safety grade is awarded based on a hospitals performance in preventing medical errors, injuries, accidents, infections, and other harms to patients in their care. AdventHealth proactively implemented specific precautions such as PPE compliance training, hiring additional infection preventionists and integrating additional infection control technology to continue to deliver the safest and best practices in patient care. AdventHealth is the only health care system in the Greater Tampa Bay area to maintain all A scores for the spring 2021 Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades. This past year has challenged our teams in insurmountable ways, but they continue to rise to the occasion to continuously provide the best care possible, said Mike Schultz, President and CEO, AdventHealth West Florida Division. These scores are a testament of our ongoing efforts and commitment to raise the bar on providing safer care in our communities. All participating hospitals in the AdventHealth West Florida Division also received an 'A' or 'B' in patient safety from the Leapfrog Group, including: AdventHealth Carrollwood 12th consecutive A AdventHealth Dade City A (hospital acquired in April 2018) AdventHealth Lake Placid B AdventHealth North Pinellas 16th consecutive A AdventHealth Ocala B (hospital acquired in August 2018) AdventHealth Sebring 7th consecutive A AdventHealth Tampa 7th consecutive A AdventHealth Wesley Chapel 12th consecutive A AdventHealth Zephyrhills 7th consecutive A Achieving the highest possible scores in safety and quality at all times is the standard for our organization, and while accomplishing this during a pandemic can be a challenge, our teams ensured our patients were safely cared for at all times, said Dr. Robin McGuinness, Senior Executive Officer, Patient Outcomes, AdventHealth West Florida Division. Every member of our team plays an integral role in consistently being recognized for excellence in keeping patients safe, and providing high quality and exceptional care in all of our hospitals. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade uses up to 27 measures of publicly available hospital safety data to assign grades to more than 2,700 U.S. acute-care hospitals twice per year. The Hospital Safety Grades methodology is peer-reviewed and fully transparent, and the results are free to the public. To see grade details on all participating hospitals and access patient tips for staying safe in the hospital, visit hospitalsafetygrade.org and follow The Leapfrog Group on Twitter and Facebook. About AdventHealth West Florida Division The West Florida Division of AdventHealth has some of the nations brightest medical minds making lifesaving breakthroughs with surgical pioneers, scientists and researchers using leading edge technology and innovation to deliver our brand of whole-person care. Our network of care includes AdventHealth Carrollwood, AdventHealth Connerton, AdventHealth Dade City, AdventHealth Lake Placid, AdventHealth North Pinellas, AdventHealth Ocala, AdventHealth Sebring, AdventHealth Tampa, AdventHealth Wauchula, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth Zephyrhills, as well as five freestanding offsite Emergency Rooms including AdventHealth Brandon ER, AdventHealth Central Pasco ER, AdventHealth Palm Harbor ER, AdventHealth TimberRidge ER, and AdventHealth Westchase ER. We are more than hospitals, as we have a robust system of care including specialty acute care, over 200 primary care and specialty employed physicians, Express Care at Walgreens clinics, urgent care centers, wound care, physical therapy, home care, mobile mammography and more. AdventHealth is a faith-based not-for-profit health care system with a mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ. AdventHealth has hundreds of care sites and nearly 50 hospitals across the United States. For more information about AdventHealth, visit AdventHealth.com, or Facebook.com/AdventHealth. About The Leapfrog Group Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrogs other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. The demand seems to be increasing daily with the anticipation of the travel limitations being lifted AirplaneManager.com has seen an increase of over 25% in new customer signups in the past 12 months. Cooper said, the demand seems to be increasing daily with the anticipation of travel limitations being lifted soon. We have a finger on the pulse of the industry here because private jets and private aircraft mostly now use flight scheduling software such ours. The scheduling of flights is increasing daily and are being scheduled out 6 months in advance. As flights are scheduled, our system helps facilitate the needed arrangements for these aircraft such as fuel, flight planning, international handling, customs, hotels, and catering. Cooper added, currently the demand looks to quickly put the industry back to max capacity and Airplane Manager is preparing for more increases by adding new features and server capacity. In a pandemic, we never know what is ahead however, the private aircraft industry is ready and willing to take on the demands. There is a strong and steady growth rate within the shared ownership segment of the industry. Weve seen families coming together to purchase their own jet or turbo prop aircraft. Recently, six families purchased a one turbo prop airplane and quickly they learned that they would need a scheduling software such as Airplane Manager to organize and track their flights. As the industry adjusts to this increase and change in demand Airplane Manager expects growth to continue well into 2022. Since early 2020, the commercial airlines industry took a big hit with the pandemic and shutdown. During a time when everyone was afraid to travel, most commercial airline companies had received bailouts and grants by the government as part of the Covid-19 stimulus packages. The world was in a bleak place of the unknown and travelers were afraid to board commercial planes, many of the flights were shut down, and customer service was not readily available due to layoffs and furloughs. However, this leveraged and put the private jet industry more in demand and Cooper, President of the corporate and private jet industrys scheduling software company, Airplane Manager, said that his scheduling software company experienced an increase in sales in the private and corporate jet industry. Safety in the privacy of a corporate jet or general aviation aircraft was now very attractive by anyone who could afford it. True, limitations on travel have slowed the industry down for several months and the unknown had some worried about the future. However, recently the business class and first-class passengers have started buying up aircraft or shares of flights. This is ramping up to look like the largest boom the private jet industry has ever seen in a short period of time many in the industry feel. AirplaneManager.com is a web-based software and app system owned by Charter Matrix LLC a Nevada based company. Airplane Manager was launched in 2009 as a flight scheduling software for the air charter and private jet industry. Airplane Manager provides air charter software, private jet scheduling software, and aircraft management systems. Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies Early Career Fellowships supports scholarship on Chinas societies, histories, cultures, religions, economies, art, cinema, environment, and technologies. Humanistic approaches to the study of China are more vital than ever, framing current affairs in historical and cultural perspective. ACLS is proud to support talented scholars and we look forward to the books, articles, and public presentations based on their research. The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) proudly announces the 2021 recipients of Early Career Fellowships in the Luce/ACLS Program in China Studies. The program is made possible by the generosity of the Henry Luce Foundation, with additional funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Now in its ninth year, the program supports scholarship on Chinas societies, histories, cultures, religions, economies, art, cinema, environment, and technologies, from earliest times to today. With Chinas role in the world growing in significance, the study of the nation and its people past, present, and future are increasingly important, said ACLS President Joy Connolly. Humanistic approaches to the study of China are more vital than ever, framing current affairs in historical and cultural perspective. ACLS is proud to support talented scholars and we look forward to the books, articles, and public presentations based on their research. The 2021 Luce/ACLS China Studies Program made awards totaling $550,000 to 11 outstanding pre-tenure scholars for a wide variety of research projects. Each fellow will receive a $50,000 stipend for research intended for publication. Awards will commence between June 1, 2021 and September 30, 2022. Projects supported this year include a study of gender and reproductive labor in Chinas manufacturing industry; mural painting and representations of Buddhist paradise and water management in Medieval China; and the archeological study of skeletons and other biological materials of a Late Shang neighborhood. Portions of four fellowships were supported by funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities. See the full list of 2021 Luce/ACLS China Studies Early Career Fellows here. The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to enrich public discourse by promoting innovative scholarship, cultivating new leaders, and fostering international understanding. Established in 1936 by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time, Inc., the Luce Foundation advances its mission through grantmaking and leadership programs in the fields of Asia, higher education, religion and theology, art, and public policy. Formed in 1919, the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a nonprofit federation of 78 scholarly organizations. As the preeminent representative of American scholarship in the humanities and related social sciences, ACLS holds a core belief that knowledge is a public good. As such, ACLS strives to promote the circulation of humanistic knowledge throughout society. In addition to stewarding and representing its member organizations, ACLS employs its $140 million endowment and $35 million annual operating budget to support scholarship in the humanities and social sciences and to advocate for the centrality of the humanities in the modern world. As a group of people with varied backgrounds, skill sets and interests, our shared values are at the heart of everything we do and keep us grounded on the same path, said Chris Forman, CEO and founder of Appcast. Appcast, the global leader in programmatic recruitment advertising technology and services, today announced that it has been named to Inc. magazines 2021 Best Workplaces list. Based on employee feedback, the annual list recognizes American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. The global pandemic redefined the workplace in 2020. In being named to Inc. magazines Best Workplaces list, Appcast joins an impressive group of top organizations dedicated to fostering employee growth and company culture despite a year of uncertainty. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks and employee engagement. The organizations benefits were also audited to determine the companys overall score and ranking. The survey findings show that 100% of Appcast employees are engaged, with 95.65% characterized as highly engaged. Eighty-eight percent of both male and female employees see professional growth and career development opportunities at Appcast, underscoring Appcasts commitment to providing all employees equal access to learning and professional development opportunities. The Appcast team is incredibly honored to be recognized by Inc. as a top U.S. workplace. As a group of people with varied backgrounds, skill sets and interests, our shared values are at the heart of everything we do and keep us grounded on the same path, said Chris Forman, CEO and founder of Appcast. To deliver cutting-edge recruitment technology solutions and continue delighting our customers, we must put our people first. We are thrilled to be recognized for our commitment to creating an environment where our people feel engaged and supported, where they have opportunities to learn and grow, and where their contributions and successes are shared within the communities where we live and work. The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year, says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this years list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic. About Appcast Appcast is the global leader in programmatic recruitment advertising technology and services. With advanced technology, unmatched market data and a team of the industrys best recruitment marketers, Appcasts technology and services manage over half a billion dollars in job advertising annually on behalf of more than 1,500 clients. Headquartered in Lebanon, N.H. with offices in Boston, Mass., New Brunswick, Canada and Minsk, Belarus, Appcast is a subsidiary of StepStone, one of the worlds largest job classified businesses, and a proud member of the Axel Springer SE family. To learn more, visit https://www.appcast.io/ and follow on Twitter @appcast_io. About Inc. Media The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. Paleontologists have discovered what they say is the oldest macrofossil evidence of Paullinieae, a diverse group of tropical and subtropical climbing plants that belong to the soapberry family Sapindaceae. Paullinieae are tropical and subtropical woody vines, herbaceous climbers, and seldom shrubs. With six genera and 475 species, they comprise nearly one quarter of all species in the Sapindaceae family. Although the fossil record of Sapindaceae is rich, Paullinieae macrofossils are extremely rare. The newfound Paullinieae fossils are roots, but nonetheless provide strong evidence of the climbing habit based on wood anatomy associated with climbing in Sapindaceae. This is evidence that lianas have been creating unusual wood, even in their roots, as far back as 18 million years ago, said Dr. Joyce Chery, a wood anatomist in the School of Integrative Plant Sciences at Cornell University. Before this discovery, we knew almost nothing about when or where these lianas evolved or how rapidly they diversified, added Dr. Nathan Jud, a plant biologist at William Jewell College and the Florida Museum of Natural History. The 18.5-million-year-old fossils of the new species, named Ampelorhiza heteroxylon, were recovered from the Cucaracha Formation in Panama. Panama was a peninsula 18.5 to 19 million years ago, a volcanic landscape covered with tropical forest in North America and separated from South America by a Central American seaway, Dr. Jud said. While these forests contained North American animals, the plants mostly descended from South American tropical plants that had dispersed across the seaway. The fossil we described is the oldest macrofossil of these vines, and they were among the plants that made it to North America long before the Great American Biotic Interchange when large animals moved between the continents some 3 million years ago. The findings were published in the journal PLoS ONE. _____ N.A. Jud et al. 2021. Climbing since the early Miocene: The fossil record of Paullinieae (Sapindaceae). PLoS ONE 16 (4): e0248369; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248369 We look at this as a multi-million-dollar commitment to supporting our clients through the rapid transformation thats happening in the healthcare industry Ascendient Healthcare Advisors, a top-50 consulting firm for healthcare strategy, planning, and feasibility, today announced the addition of three managing consultants with nearly four decades of combined experience. In more than 25 years, weve never added this kind of seasoned talent all at one time, said Dawn Carter, Ascendients founder and senior partner. We look at this as a multi-million-dollar commitment to supporting our clients through the rapid transformation thats happening in the healthcare industry. The new consultants bring deep expertise in finance, strategy, and planning: Greg Flicek is a CPA with more than 15 years experience in accounting and finance, including a focus on medical groups and multi-unit physician practice networks. He earned his MBA from Meredith College, where he recently taught courses in business strategy and accounting. Erin Nelson brings special expertise in complex data analytics, honed by more than a decade in healthcare strategy focused on facility planning, market assessment, and financial feasibility. She earned her MHA from Cornell University. Kathryn Reilley has spent more than 10 years in planning, analysis, and strategic decision support at academic medical centers, including the University of Pennsylvania and University of Virginia. She holds a Master of Health Science degree from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. With the latest staff growth, Carter believes Ascendient is uniquely positioned to help clients capitalize on the lessons of Covid-19. The pandemic is already serving as a catalyst for healthcare leaders facing critical questions about improving population health, quality, and patient experience, all while reducing costs. Years ago, we designed our Healthytown model with those very issues in mind, and were glad to see them bubbling up in the national conversation. These experienced hires will allow us to respond to growing interest in the Healthytown model as clients plan their future in a rapidly transforming landscape. About Ascendient: Ascendient Healthcare Advisors is a top-50 healthcare consulting, strategy, planning, and feasibility firm. We provide future-focused research and analysis to help facilities positively transform the way they deliver care. Our specialized team combines academic insight with decades of experience to help healthcare organizations adapt and thrive. For more information, please contact stephanieforbes@ascendient.com. Attentive, the most comprehensive text message marketing solution, has been named to Inc. magazines annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Attentive, the most comprehensive text message marketing solution, has been named to Inc. magazines annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Attentive is one of the 429 honorees Inc. singled out this year. As one of the fastest growing SaaS companies to date, Attentive empowers the most innovative brands to create meaningful interactions through personalized text messaging. Attentives vision is to reinvent business to consumer communication and commerce for the mobile age. The companys 700+ team is focused on building the most powerful platform to change the way brands interact with consumers. Attentives greatest strength is our people. Our team hit quite a growth spurt in 2020 to meet market demand for our product. Our headcount increased 229% and we arent showing signs of slowing down. As we continue to scale, were proud of fostering and investing in a curious, collaborative, and inclusive workplace, said Kellie Valladares, Chief HR Officer of Attentive. The list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organizations benefits were also audited to determine the companys overall score and ranking. The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year, says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this years list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic. For more details on what employees shared that draws them to Attentive, check out the blog post here. Interested in being part of the Attentive team? Visit our careers page, Linkedin and check out @attentivemobile on Instagram. About Attentive Attentive is the most comprehensive text message marketing solution, driving 18.5% of total online revenue for businesses by creating thoughtful SMS experiences. Using real-time behavioral data, Attentive automatically sends engaging text messages to each subscriber at every step of the customer lifecycle. Over 3,000 leading businesses like CB2, Pura Vida, Urban Outfitters, Rebecca Minkoff, Steve Madden, and more rely on Attentive and see strong performance, like 30%+ click-through rates and 25x+ ROI. Attentive is backed by Coatue, Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia, IVP, and other leading venture firms. To learn more about Attentive or to request a demo, visit http://www.attentivemobile.com. About Inc. Media The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. The Dentists at Belle Meade Family Dentistry Recently Remodeled Their Practice At Belle Meade Family Dentistry, we believe in placing dental implants in a minimally invasive, gentle manner, leveraging the most advanced technologies available for maximum accuracy and comfort. Belle Meade Family Dentistry recently expanded and remodeled their practice, creating a state-of-the-art facility to offer the most advance dental care in Nashville, TN. In addition to five new surgical spaces, they added a new Planmeca Emerald intraoral digital scanner that dentists Dr. James Pace Sr., Dr. Temp Sullivan, and Dr. James Pace Jr. will utilize to enhance dental implant treatment. The practice also invested in Zmachine Synergy, advanced technology that enables home testing for individuals suffering from sleep apnea. At Belle Meade Family Dentistry, we believe in placing dental implants in a minimally invasive, gentle manner, leveraging the most advanced technologies available for maximum accuracy and comfort, said Dr. Pace Sr. The practice already uses advanced software programs and 3D scans of the jawbone, associated nerves, and sinuses to identify the proper position to place dental implants. This eliminates the need for taking messy impressions with traditional molding materials. The dentists also perform socket preservation, a bone grafting procedure that helps maintain bone in the empty site after a tooth is extracted to improve dental implant outcomes. The ergonomically designed Planmeca Emerald intraoral scanner makes taking digital impressions easier for both dentists and patients. In addition to being small and comfortable, the Planmeca Emerald produces true-to-life colors with flawless detail. The scanner offers highly accurate digital impressions that enable creating tooth replacement restorations that fit beautifully. Those with missing teeth in Nashville, TN can work closely with the dentists at Belle Meade Family Dentistry to customize their new smiles. Whether a person a person needs one, several, or a full arch of dental implants, this new scanner will help us improve patient comfort and results, added Dr. Pace Sr. Unlike dentures, dental implants can replace one tooth or a complete arch of missing teeth. The implants fuse with the jawbone, providing a strong and permanent support for the new crowns. Because dental implants stimulate the jawbone, they keep the mouth healthier and prevent deterioration of bone and soft tissue. To benefit from the innovative new technologies available at Belle Meade Family Dentistry, call 615-298-2030 to schedule an appointment. About the Dentists Belle Meade Family Dentistry serves the Nashville, TN area with full-service family dentistry, for 43 years running. Dr. James Pace Sr. has served as a Chairman of the Nashville Peer Review Committee and as a delegate to the Tennessee Dental Association. He was selected by his peers in 2019 as one of the Top Dentists in Nashville, has consistently received recognition by the Tennessee Dental Association for his hours of continuing education, and has led and participated in multiple dental and medical mission trips to the Dominican Republic. Along with Dr. James Pace Jr. they have been honored each year from 2015-2019 as Patients Choice Award Winners. Dr. Pace Jr. has also received the 2011 Tennessee Dental Associations Ace Award. Dr. Temp Sullivan earned his fellow in laser dentistry at World Clinical Laser Institute and serves as a delegate for the Tennessee Dental Association and as a member of the Peer Review committee for TennCare. The team at Belle Meade Family Dentistry strives to provide the finest quality dental care for patients in a warm, caring, and clean environment. They execute the most advanced dental care with every service, including dental implants, Invisalign, the Pinhole Surgical Technique and laser dentistry. To learn more about the dentists at Belle Meade Family Dentistry and the services they offer visit http://www.bellemeadedental.com or call 615-298-2030. Bode has a long history of providing forensic support in New York and we are excited to be able to offer forensic genealogy to help solve cold cases throughout the state. Bode Technology (Bode), a leading provider of forensic DNA services, and Gene By Gene, a leader in genetic testing and owners of the FamilyTreeDNA database, announce approval of a combined solution to provide Forensic Genealogy Services (FGS) in New York. For the first time, these services are approved by the New York Department of Health and available to law enforcement, attorneys and innocence networks. The service offering creates a powerful investigative tool, joining Bodes forensic experience with Gene By Genes advanced SNP testing and the FamilyTreeDNA database. Forensic genetic genealogy originally gained publicity after the identification of the Golden State Killer. Since then, hundreds of cold case homicides and unidentified remains, previously thought to be unsolvable, have new investigative leads as a result of this technology. Bode and Gene By Gene have partnered on many of these cases including the arrest of an accused serial rapist (Durham, NC), serial rapists in CT, and the identification of a suspect in a decades-old cold case homicide (Portland, OR). Forensic genealogy has also provided new information in post-conviction cases. Bode has a long history of providing forensic support in New York and we are excited to be able to offer forensic genealogy to help solve cold cases throughout the state, said Mike Cariola, President and CEO of Bode Technology. Most of our forensic genealogy cases include challenging evidence and require our advanced DNA sampling and extraction methods. Bode has performed DNA testing on thousands of samples in New York, including more than 15,000 sexual assault kits and more than 20,000 unidentified remains from the World Trade Center attack. Through these efforts, Bode developed proprietary technologies to obtain DNA from challenging samples and degraded remains. Gene By Gene has been Bodes primary partner for the SNP testing required for forensic genealogy testing and a significant majority of the investigative leads developed to date have been generated from the FamilyTreeDNA database. We have seen first-hand the incredible positive impact the FamilyTreeDNA database has in improving public safety and the closure it has provided for victims of crime, said Connie Bormans, Laboratory Director of Gene By Gene. The use of forensic genealogy has provided closure for families that have been seeking answers for decades. We encourage more citizens to join us as we continue to solve these cases. Through the FamilyTreeDNA database, investigators can upload unknown profiles from violent crimes such as homicides, rapes, and unidentified remains. To date, hundreds of investigative leads have been provided to law enforcement in cases previously thought of as unsolvable. Bode and Gene By Gene both offer high-quality and accredited services. The shared focus on quality and responsible implementation of this technology enabled the combined solution to be approved for use throughout the state of New York. About Bode Technology Bode operates one of the most internationally respected private forensic DNA laboratories and provides a comprehensive set of state-of-the-art forensic DNA collection products, DNA analysis services, and research services to law enforcement, the justice system and other government agencies around the world. Bode is accredited by ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) to ISO/IEC 17025:2017 for Forensic Testing and Calibration Laboratories. Bode also maintains compliance with the FBI Quality Assurance Standards for Forensic DNA Testing Laboratories and DNA Databasing Laboratories. Bode also maintains AABB accreditation for relationship testing and holds a CLIA certification for diagnostic testing. About FamilyTreeDNA and Gene By Gene Founded in 2000, FamilyTreeDNA is the pioneer of the genetic genealogy and direct-to-consumer DNA testing industry, and the top choice for consumer privacy, according to U.S. News and World Report and Consumer Report. FTDNA is a privately held company located in Houston, Texas. http://www.familytreedna.com. Gene By Gene is a CAP and CLIA accredited laboratory located in Houston, Texas which processes genetic tests for commercial customers, along with consumer DNA tests for its FamilyTreeDNA division. http://www.genebygene.com. What separates Career Group Companies from any other recruiting firm is our fantastic people. Career Group Companies has been named to Inc. magazines annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Hitting newsstands May 18 in the May/June 2021 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organizations benefits were also audited to determine the companys overall score and ranking. "This year has certainly been unique in many ways. In our almost 40-year span, we have persevered and maneuvered through many tough times, but this year was unlike what weve seen before," says Career Group Companies' Chief Executive Officer Susan Levine. "What separates Career Group Companies from any other recruiting firm is our fantastic people. We are a strong company with a strong culture, and our core values reflect that. We have come together, stood united, and though we have been presented with challenges, it has been invigorating to see our team of professionals grow, learn, and stick to our values and core competencies of putting excellent talent back to work. I have a tremendous amount of respect for all of our employees and friends here at Career Group Companies who have been, and remain, so committed to maintaining a positive and optimistic outlook. Its not easy to get through the negative times, but I know we all feel incredibly grateful to be here for one another, and to build upon each others strengths. We couldn't have made it through without our dedicated team members who make our culture strong, meaningful, and positive. The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year, says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this years list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic. See the full list here: https://www.inc.com/best-workplaces About Career Group Companies: At Career Group Companies, the best talent is within reach. For nearly four decades, weve partnered with our valued candidates and clients to cultivate perfect career matches for administrative, creative, fashion, and executive professionals at top companies nationwide. We are proud to be a Woman Owned Business, certified by the WBENC. As a premier recruiting agency with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, New York City, and Greenwich, we are certain to find your perfect match. Please visit http://www.careergroupcompanies.com to find out more. About Inc. Media: The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace: Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. At Cyara, we truly believe that when you establish a company culture that cultivates and raises the skill level and knowledge of employees through training and education, it shows employees that you value their work and youre willing to invest in their career. Cyara, provider of the leading Automated Customer Experience (CX) Assurance Platform, has been named to Inc. magazines annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Hitting newsstands May 18 in the May/June 2021 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. Cyara was selected for Inc. magazines Best Workplaces for 2021 due in part to the companys commitment to investing in employees professional and personal development while emphasizing a learning mindset. Cyaras Lifelong Learning program allots each employee funding to learn about anything they are interested in from art classes to coding courses. Cyara employees are supported and encouraged to continue learning about things that interest them and make them happy. This approach to ongoing employee education fosters a growth mindset, resulting in satisfied, well-adjusted employees. It also allows Cyara to promote people from within - allowing employees to shift and grow into new roles as opportunities arise and their areas of expertise expand based on their interests. At Cyara, we truly believe that when you establish a company culture that cultivates and raises the skill level and knowledge of employees through training and education, it shows employees that you value their work and youre willing to invest in their career, said Alok Kulkarni, CEO and Co-Founder of Cyara. When employees feel appreciated and invested in, they know that their role and work serve a valuable purpose. Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organizations benefits were also audited to determine the companys overall score and ranking. The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year, says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this years list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic. As a global company with offices and employees around the world, Cyara is blessed with an extremely diverse workforce including all races, religions, sexual orientations, and belief systems. This diversity encourages innovative thinking through all the various perspectives and backgrounds our individuals bring to the team. Cyara cultivates this spirit of innovation by hosting annual diversity and inclusion training sessions. Cyara also has a track record of hosting many company team-building exercises and events, including group volunteer opportunities, go-cart racing, scuba diving, white-water rafting, and other collaborative activities. Generous budgets are set aside annually for in-person events to make sure employees have ample opportunities to receive job-related training and build relationships with their co-workers. As employees are upskilled, they gain confidence in themselves and their abilities, which reinforces the company culture through their internal evangelization of the effectiveness of ongoing employee education. Confidence is contagious, and Cyara has seen firsthand that bolstering employee confidence leads directly to improved business performance, as customers trust and value working with sure, capable partners. Cyara employees are also encouraged to volunteer and give back to their communities. Employees are able to use one half-day per quarter to put towards a cause of their own choosing. To learn more about career opportunities and workplace culture at Cyara, visit cyara.com/careers. About Cyara As the worlds leading Automated CX Assurance platform provider, Cyara accelerates the delivery of flawless customer journeys across digital and voice channels while reducing the risk of customer-facing defects. Every day, the most recognizable brands in the world trust the Cyara Platform to deliver customer smiles at scale. For more information, please visit cyara.com. About Inc. Media The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. Media Contact: Laura Asendio 925-271-8220 10Fold Communications for Cyara cyara@10fold.com ### Partnering with Defiance Ventures perfectly positions Joi for rapid expansion through the direct sales industry, said Michael Stevens, CEO of Joi. Defiance Ventures, the Charlotte-based venture builder, today announced its investment in Joi, an AI-driven bot that allows distributors in the direct selling industry to sell products on social media platforms. In addition to the initial investment, Defiance will become an advisor to Joi, and Tareq Amin, Chairman and Co-Founder of Defiance, will be serving on the board of Joi. Joi fits well into the Defiance portfolio, said John Espey, CEO of Defiance. Although consumer-facing, the Joi platform is truly B2B technology, equipping distributors for direct sales companies with an intelligent, forward-thinking tool to close transactions in a frictionless and measurable way. Weve been impressed with Michaels understanding of the direct sales market and identification of opportunity within the space. In 2021, the direct sales market is expected to reach $55 billion in the US alone, according to IBISWorld. These transactions can most naturally occur on social media platforms, which, until today, have left a gap in the transaction process. Today, Joi connects Facebook with the inventory and payment systems of direct sales companies, allowing distributors to sell directly on Facebook. Buyers simply tap a shop now button and then the Joi bot messages them in Facebook Messenger to complete the payment no more insecure checkouts, redirects, unwanted subscriptions, or discussions required. Although focused on Facebook today, Joi plans to expand its platform to Facebook Live, Instagram, and other social media platforms in the near future. Partnering with Defiance Ventures perfectly positions Joi for rapid expansion through the direct sales industry, said Michael Stevens, CEO of Joi. Our development team has worked tirelessly building the bot and connecting Facebook with direct sales software, and this investment allows us to confidently move forward into the next phase of our efforts. Tareq and John offer a wealth of B2B knowledge and experience, and were excited to work closely with their incredibly talented team to make Joi a success. About Defiance Ventures Defiance Ventures is a venture builder focused on B2B enterprise technology companies. It combines capital and early stage investment expertise with real world capabilities spanning marketing, branding, sales, application development, and cloud architecture to help its portfolio of technology companies to disrupt their respective industries. Visit https://defianceventures.com/ About Joi Joi is a sales bot that allows distributors in the direct sales industry to sell products on social media platforms. By eliminating friction in the payment process, Joi simplifies purchases and increases revenue for direct sales companies and distributors alike. Visit http://www.meetjoi.com to learn more. Diane Helbig was hand-selected to join the community based on her proven expertise in business growth and strategic planning. Diane Helbig, Chief Improvement Catalyzer and Founder of Helbig Enterprises, a business advisor, trainer, author, and podcast host, has been accepted into Newsweek Expert Forum, an invitation-only community for pioneering thinkers and industry leaders. Diane Helbig was hand-selected to join the community based on her proven expertise in business growth and strategic planning. As a member, Diane is part of a curated network of thought leaders from a broad range of influential industries and professions who share unique insights and analysis with one another and publish thought-provoking content. Scott Gerber, founder of Newsweek Expert Forum, says, "We are honored to accept Diane Helbig into the Newsweek Expert Forum. When experts gather in curated, private settings, they can share advice and build trusted relationships that further their mutual success. Helbig brings important insights about sales, structure, systems, and business growth to this community. Im thrilled to be joining this community of thought leaders. Its an honor to have the opportunity to connect, learn, and share throughout the community as well as provide my expertise on a variety of business topics. Becoming a member of the Newsweek Expert Forum allows me to reach a broader audience of business owners and provide insights, ideas, and suggestions to help them reach the results they seek. Members of Newsweek Expert Forum have opportunities to connect with peers in a private online forum and to publish thought leadership articles on Newsweek.com. Benefits also include access to Newsweek Premium, personal brand-building opportunities, discounts on business services, and invitations to VIP experiences. Newsweek Expert Forum, which launched early in 2021, provides a unique industry-leading peer group to members selected for their accomplished minds and expertise. Members of the Newsweek Expert Forum are top thinkers and professionals in business, culture/arts, health, lifestyle, money, science, sports, technology, and travel. Newsweek is a premier news magazine and website that has been bringing high-quality journalism to readers around the globe for over 80 years. Newsweek provides the latest news, in-depth analysis, and ideas about international issues, technology, business, culture, and politics. Diane Helbig http://www.helbigenterprises.com diane@helbigenterprises.com Lakewood, Ohio (888) 229-3357 Dr. Joshua Pressman Provides Full Mouth Dental Implants in Huntington Park, CA To prevent the systemic problems associated with missing teeth, Dr. Pressman recommends that those suffering from tooth loss seek a permanent tooth replacement solution immediately. Highly experienced dentist, Dr. Joshua Pressman of EternaDental, recently remodeled his practice, creating an even more efficient and innovative facility to place dental implants. Some of the upgrades include a new intraoral scanner, CT scanner, and Medit Smile Design software, allowing patients to fully customize their full mouth dental implants in Huntington Park, CA. When a person suffers with a mouth of severely decayed or missing teeth, not only does their oral health suffer, but their overall health can suffer as well. Missing teeth have systemic consequences. For example, shifting of remaining teeth cause a misaligned bite which can lead to chronic headaches. This can also create hard-to-reach pockets between the teeth that can cause a buildup of bacteria, leading to issues such as gum disease. Further, with healthy teeth, a tooth root stimulates the jawbone. When teeth are missing, the lack of a tooth root causes the jawbone to deteriorate, resulting in a sunken face and risk of further oral health concerns. To prevent the systemic problems associated with missing teeth, Dr. Pressman recommends that those suffering from tooth loss seek a permanent tooth replacement solution immediately. With years of experience in implant dentistry, Dr. Pressman provides state-of-the-art full mouth dental implants at his Huntington Park, CA practice. Utilizing advanced technology in-house, Dr. Pressman can customize treatment to meet the specific needs of each patient. With the Medit Smile Design, Dr. Pressman works one-on-one with a patient to customize the patients dream smile. After using the minimally invasive intraoral scanner, Dr. Pressman creates digital impressions of the patients mouth. Together, he and the patient then redesign the patients smile digitally to meet the patients aesthetic desires. Utilizing this advanced technology, Dr. Pressman creates a full arch of new teeth that match the patients face shape and smile. The technology also allows the patient to make changes to their future smile before treatment even begins. During treatment, Dr. Pressman uses guided dental implant technology from Blue Sky Bio to ensure the most reliable and predictable results. Patients who receive full mouth dental implants from Dr. Pressman boast of a renewed confidence, as well as the strength to bite and chew with no discomfort and the ability to enjoy the food they love again. Those seeking a permanent solution to missing teeth in Huntington Park, CA can connect with Dr. Pressman for a full mouth dental implant consultation. To schedule an appointment at this newly remodeled, state-of-the-art practice, call the office at 323-582-2200 or visit http://www.eternadental.com. About the Implant Dentist EternaDental is a modern general dentistry practice utilizing industry-leading technology to offer advanced care in Huntington Park, CA, including dental implants and cosmetic dentistry. Dr. Joshua Pressman received his dental degree from the University of Southern California and went on to receive intensive training in both the surgical and restorative processes of implant dentistry with the California Implant Institute. Dr. Pressman always strives to offer the latest and most advanced techniques available in the industry in a familiar and compassionate manner. To learn more about EternaDental, Dr. Pressman, and the services available at this state-of-the-art practice, visit http://www.eternadental.com or call 323-582-2200. Private Patient Room The level of care in our acute physical rehabilitation hospital setting cannot be provided in other settings such as skilled nursing facilities (SNF). Everests free standing comprehensive physical rehabilitation hospital will be constructed on 3.97 acres of land at 3037 Haverhill Rd in the heart of West Palm Beach Florida. Everest Rehabilitation Hospital is known for its unmatched physical rehabilitation patient care and for developing identical, modern, 40,000 square foot, 36-bed, single story physical rehabilitation hospitals. With each of the 36 private rooms complete with contemporary art, 55 flat screen TVs and a private luxury bathroom, staying at Everests hospitals are more compared to a luxury hotel versus a typical hospital setting. Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals are predesigned with an option to add an additional 17 private rooms should the market dictate the need for expansion. To better serve the needs of patients, Everest hospitals include spacious, technologically advanced equipped inpatient and outpatient physical therapy gyms, a large outdoor mobility courtyard for therapeutic use, aqua therapy, a completely furnished life skills training apartment with a full kitchen and bathroom, in-house dialysis, and an in-house pharmacy. Everest understands the importance of the support system surrounding the patients as well. Included in the facility are several family gathering areas, an extra-large dining hall and an outdoor patio. The hospital will serve patients recovering from stroke, brain injury, neurological conditions, trauma, spinal cord injury, speech impediments, amputation, pulmonary disease, orthopedic injury, COVID-19, and other medically complex conditions. Everest Rehabilitation Hospital in West Palm Beach, Florida will create over 100 jobs and provide for an $8 million-dollar a year payroll to the community. We are ecstatic for the opportunity to serve the West Palm Beach, Lake Park, Boynton Beach, Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Cypress Lakes and surrounding communities. We absolutely believe that patients thrive when their environment and their level of care surpass their expectations. The level of care in our acute physical rehabilitation hospital setting cannot be provided at other levels of care such as skilled nursing facilities (SNF). The average length of stay at a comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation hospital is one-third of a typical stay at a skilled nursing facility with far better results. Jay Quintana, Everest Rehabilitations CEO said. We provide one to one physical therapy, five to seven days a week, daily medical visits by rehabilitation physicians and a strong 24 hour a day nurse to patient ratio that contributes to optimal outcomes and the highest quality of care. Everest Rehabilitation Hospital West Palm Beach will feature a comprehensive interdisciplinary physician-led experienced team of rehabilitation therapists focused on increasing patient strength and endurance and improving quality of life in a modern, state of the art setting. About Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals, LLC Everest Rehabilitation Hospitals LLC, based in Dallas, Texas, is a multispecialty acute care physical rehabilitation hospital company focused on providing high quality, physical rehabilitation care. Everest is passionate about patient care; striving to create healing and nurturing environments for all patients that not only meet their medical needs but address their emotional and social needs as well. Patients are guided through the necessary steps to reclaim daily life, recover function, and return to an optimal quality of life by combining the latest treatments, technologies, and research with a unique interdisciplinary team approach involving the patient and family from day one. Everest provides the highest level of care available to patients with disabilities caused by injuries or illnesses, or from traumatic accidents. http://www.everestrehab.com Jay Quintana, CEO/ Co-Founder jquintana(at)everestrehab.com 469-713-1145 Heartland drops home loan rates to new lows: 1.85% p.a. 1-year fixed, 1.95% p.a. floating Heartland Group Holdings Limiteds subsidiary Heartland Bank Limited (together, Heartland) has disrupted the home loan market again, this time with the reduction of its 1-year fixed and floating term loan rates. This announcement comes shortly after Heartland broadened its mortgage offering with New Zealands lowest revolving credit facility rate. The challenger bank now offers the following fixed and floating rates, which are each the lowest of their category: 1.85% p.a. 1-year fixed 2.35% p.a. 2-year fixed 2.45% p.a. 3-year fixed 1.95% p.a. floating term loan 2.35% p.a. floating revolving credit In the quarter ended 31 March 2021, the fintech lender saw a 173% increase in average monthly drawdowns compared with the previous quarter ended 31 December 2020, and has received over 6,600 applications since re-entering the residential mortgage market in October 2020. Heartlands online process allows for a faster home loan approval than the traditional process with other lenders. Those who meet the eligibility criteria can fill out the digital application in minutes and get a decision online, with no need to make an appointment or arrange for someone to come to them. People shouldnt need to pay so much for their mortgage, explained Heartland Bank CEO Chris Flood. Our approach to home loans is disrupting the traditional market in favour of a digital solution, one which can offer customers market-leading rates and time savings. Please see the link below for details Heartland drops home loan rates to new lows: 1.85% p.a. 1-year fixed, 1.95% p.a. floating Source: Heartland Group Holdings Limited Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: Precinct Properties New Zealand Limited (NZX: PCT) Announces $284 Million Revaluation Uplift 10th June 2021 Morning Report Me Today Limited (NZX: MEE) Opening of Offer to Retail Investors Mercury NZ Limited (NZX: MCY) FY2021 EBITDAF Guidance Revised to $460 Million 9th June 2021 Morning Report SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited (NZX: SKC) AUSTRAC ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATION 8th June 2021 Morning Report Fletcher Building Limited (NZX: FBU) Share Buyback to Commence on 10 June 2021 4th June 2021 Morning Report 3rd June 2021 Morning Report DeSoto County Fire and Rescue train for pediatric emergencies using Health Scholars VR Real-to-life VR training offers an exciting new educational option for maintaining pediatric emergency preparedness in EMS and ED settings. - Phyllis L. Hendry, MD, FAAP, FACEP, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville Health Scholars, recognized for voice-directed virtual reality (VR) clinical training, and the Orlando Medical Institute (OMI), are teaming up to deliver in-person VR-powered emergency medical training for first responders and EMS in rural communities across Florida. Supported by a grant from the Florida Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Section, the free training program led by OMI will target rural counties across Florida to address gaps in EMS education, including preparedness for pediatric emergencies. Children account for only a small percentage of pre-hospital emergencies but their care requires specialized training that is often unavailable for rural paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). Rural EMS agencies often lack the funds to provide specialized pediatric training for their EMTs and paramedics, said OMI President Felix Marquez, BS, NRP, a veteran EMS educator who is also a recently appointed member to Floridas Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Advisory Committee. Thanks to the grant from the state of Florida and support from Health Scholars, this program will fill that gap with free training for hundreds of EMS professionals using the latest VR technology and educational content. Marquez has started his road tour with EMS educators with the goal of training over 300 EMS providers across 39 Florida counties. Marquez has already coordinated training for three regional hub locations: including North Florida College in Madison County, DeSoto County Fire Rescue in Arcadia, and Monroe County Fire Department in Crawl Key, Florida. It is a nuanced art to determine whether a child is severely ill and then initiate life-saving aid, said Brian Gillett, MD, President of Health Scholars. The training Felix is providing is essential to overcome skills decay since pediatric assessment is so rarely used. With Health Scholars VR, EMS providers can experience real scenarios that align with American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) standards and professional safety guidelines, helping them to recognize critical symptoms in children in high-stakes situations. Through this collaboration, EMS professionals will have better access to advanced training in pediatric medical emergencies, including practice of critical cognitive skills necessary to treat these emergencies in the field, said Janna Patterson, MD, FAAP, Senior Vice President of Global Child Health and Life Support for the AAP. The Florida program is a good testing ground to determine whether a blended-learning program utilizing VR can make real-life training more accessible and scalable to EMS personnel across the country. Currently, pediatric emergency preparedness training is difficult to prioritize among EMS, especially in rural fire agencies, because it can be time-consuming, costly, and labor-intensive. Yet the training is especially critical because children have anatomical and physiological differences that mask early indicators of severe illness and make resuscitation difficult to manage. Participants in OMIs training program will complete an evidence-based blended learning curriculum that has EMS using Oculus Quest VR headsets and Health Scholars voice-directed VR simulation to practice the role of team lead and care for acutely ill pediatric patients in multiple settings. Learners evaluate infants and children to identify underlying conditions and intervene with pediatric resuscitation workflows in accordance with ILCOR evidence-based review and American Heart Association guidelines. Health Scholars Pediatric Emergency Assessment trains them to recognize the subtle indicators of severe illness across a spectrum of ages, ethnicities and skin color so they can confidently assess and initiate stabilization or CPR when indicated. Real-to-life VR training offers an exciting new educational option for maintaining pediatric emergency preparedness in EMS and ED settings, said Phyllis L. Hendry, MD, FAAP, FACEP, Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine Jacksonville. These ultra-realistic visualizations and interactions mimic care situations with great accuracy so EMS providers are prepared to handle these scenarios when they happen in the field. About Health Scholars Our mission is to advance healthcare quality through virtual reality, making experience-based training scalable, accessible, affordable, and measurable to help healthcare professionals reduce errors and improve patient safety. With our on-demand, voice-directed VR training healthcare organizations and EMS agencies can easily deliver the competency and confidence their providers, and patients deserve. Learn more at HealthScholars.com. About Orlando Medical Institute Orlando Medical Institute is a fully accredited institution in the State of Florida. We offer training programs in the fields of Emergency Medical Care, Nursing, and Continuing Education. Our educators are all dedicated medical professionals eager to share their knowledge and expertise in our best-in-class facilities, which provide the most realistic simulation training possible. Our accredited programs include EMT and paramedic training, A.S. degree in Emergency Medical Services, and continuing education programs from the American Heart Association (AHA), National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians (NAEMT), and the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT). Learn more by visiting https://omi.edu. Impact Advisors, a leading healthcare consultancy providing strategy, operations, revenue cycle, and technology services, has been named one of Inc. magazines Best Workplaces for 2021. This is the firms first time being recognized on this prestigious list. Our Impact family is absolutely thrilled to receive this workplace award from Inc. magazine as a result of our very first year of participating in this particular survey, said Michael Nutter, vice president and Happyologist at Impact Advisors. Our associates live and breathe our Impact mission each and every day and this award is a testament to our teams commitment to truly creating a positive Impact in the healthcare industry. As part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture, whether teams are operating in person or remotely. Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks and fostering employee growth. The organizations benefits were also audited to determine the companys overall score and ranking. The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year, says Inc. Editor-in-Chief Scott Omelianuk. Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this years list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic. Impact Advisors adds this honor to a growing list of industry and workplace awards that include Best in KLAS for 14 consecutive years, Forbes Best Management Consulting Firms and Beckers Hospital Reviews 150 Top Places to Work in Healthcare. We value this recognition as our people are our most important asset, said Andy Smith, president at Impact Advisors. We are proud of our team and how we have collectively responded during these tumultuous and trying times and we look forward to celebrating with them. The firm will be featured in the May/June 2021 issue of Inc. magazine. About Impact Advisors Impact Advisors is a nationally recognized healthcare management consulting and technology services firm that is solving some of the toughest challenges in the industry by delivering strategic advisory, technology implementation and operational improvement services. Our comprehensive suite of strategic planning, digital health, clinical optimization and revenue cycle services spans the lifecycle of our clients needs. Our experienced team has a powerful combination of clinical, revenue, operations, consulting and information technology experience. The firm has earned several prestigious industry and workplace awards including Best in KLAS for 14 consecutive years, Healthcare Informatics HCI 100, Crains Chicago Business Fast Fifty, as well as best place to work awards from: Modern Healthcare, Consulting Magazine, Beckers Hospital Review and Achievers. For more information about Impact Advisors, visit http://www.impact-advisors.com. About Inc. Media The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through- employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. RapidScale's Cloud Solutions Consultant, Jeanine Sicinski Her accomplishment confirms that she continues to be a prominent leader for women in this industry. RapidScale, a Cox Business Company, this week announced that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Jeanine Sicinski, cloud solutions consultant for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City markets, to the highly respected Women of the Channel list for 2021. This annual list recognizes the unique strengths, vision, and achievements of female leaders in the IT channel. The 2021 Women of the Channel list acknowledges women from all over the IT channel, including vendors, distributors, and solution providers. The women honored on this years list pushed forward with comprehensive business plans, marketing initiatives, and other innovative ideas to support their partners and customers, helping them through the uncertainty brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic. CRN celebrates these exceptional women for their leadership, dedication, and channel advocacy. Sicinski has been on CRNs Women of the Channel list for five consecutive years. Since joining RapidScale in 2018, she has built strong and trusted relationships with her partners, refining their go-to-market strategies and setting them up for success. Sicinski has a proven track record for guiding her partners to win more business by expanding their portfolios of cutting-edge cloud technologies. Her agents have been effective in positioning themselves as trusted advisors and expanding their customer base. CRNs 2021 Women of the Channel list acknowledges accomplished, influential women whose dedication, hard work, and leadership accelerate channel growth, said Blaine Raddon, CEO of The Channel Company. We are proud to honor them for their many accomplishments and look forward to their continued contributions to the IT channel. Jeanine is well-deserving of this recognition as she is certainly an inspirational and talented member of our team, said Andrew Laughter, director of sales, East at RapidScale. She always has innovative ways for her partners to drive more opportunities and win deals as they continue to grow their cloud businesses. Her accomplishment confirms that she continues to be a prominent leader for women in this industry. The 2021 Women of the Channel list will be featured in CRN Magazine on May 10th and online at http://www.CRN.com/WOTC. About RapidScale Flexible enough for the SMB and powerful enough for the enterprise, RapidScale, a Cox Business company, is a global managed cloud services provider helping organizations increase IT productivity, improve security, and empower remote workforces. Some organizations partner with RapidScale to manage portions of their IT, while others offload it all. Through our global network of data centers and our 24/7/365 high-touch support team, we obsess over creating an exceptional IT experience through a human approach to managed cloud. For more information on RapidScale, visit http://www.rapidscale.net. Cox Communications owns Cox Business and is a facilities-based provider of voice, video, and data solutions for commercial customers. More information about Cox Communications, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, is available at http://www.cox.com. Media Contact: Nikki Salazar RapidScale 949-299-5263 Nikki.salazar@rapidscale.net About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end-users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequaled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. http://www.thechannelcompany.com Follow The Channel Company: Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. 2021. CRN is a registered trademark of The Channel Company, LLC. All rights reserved. The Channel Company Contact: Jennifer Hogan The Channel Company jhogan@thechannelcompany.com Keyfactor CEO Jordan Rackie Over the past year, most companies have been pressure tested, challenged to evolve and stretched during these stressful times. The difference between a business that bends versus breaks is one with a strong culture and values, and respect for one another. Keyfactor, the leader in PKI-as-a-Service and crypto-agility solutions, today was named to Inc. magazines annual list of Best Workplaces for 2021. The list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. At Keyfactor, our company culture and core values are a compass and clear business differentiator, said Mary Mathews, vice president of human resources and business operations. When the company started working remotely last March, we immediately instituted remote engagement initiatives to support and inspire our employees. Remote engagement initiatives included: virtual cross-functional lunches, live working sessions, weekly and monthly all-hands company calls, cross-functional one-on-one meetings, virtual lunch and learn sessions, Leadership Cohort Programs (inclusive to all employees) and health and wellness reimbursements. The company also introduced the concept of Second Fridays, with a recognized, company-wide vacation day the second Friday of every month. The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year, says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this years list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic. Nominated companies took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks and fostering employee growth. The organizations benefits were also audited to determine the companys overall score and ranking. In addition to its guiding core values, Keyfactor supports causes and programs both within the business and across its communities. Employees have donated time and supplies to support local food banks working to minimize the pandemics impact on hunger, marked and memorialized Juneteenth, promoted women in technology leadership and supported LGBTQ initiatives. At the corporate level, Keyfactor is committed to fostering skills training and diversity in the cybersecurity industry through its partnerships with Per Scholas and Workforce Connect IT. As a cybersecurity company, we are used to a highly dynamic industry where new challenges and requirements present themselves continually, said Jordan Rackie, CEO at Keyfactor. We have always been a people first business. Over the past year, most companies have been pressure tested, challenged to evolve and stretched during these stressful times. The difference between a business that bends versus breaks is one with a strong culture and values, and respect for one another. Im happy to see that the focus on our team has resulted in top-tier survey ranks, earning Keyfactor a spot on Inc.s 2021 Best Workplaces list. Keyfactor is actively hiring technical, sales and corporate operations roles. To view all open positions, visit: https://www.keyfactor.com/careers. About Keyfactor Keyfactor is the leader in cloud-first PKI-as-a-Service and crypto-agility solutions. Its Crypto-Agility Platform(TM) empowers security teams to seamlessly orchestrate every key and certificate across their entire enterprise. The company helps its customers apply cryptography in the right way from modern, multi-cloud enterprises to complex IoT supply chains. With decades of cybersecurity experience, Keyfactor is trusted by more than 500 enterprises across the globe. Built on a foundation of trust and security, Keyfactor is a proud equal opportunity employer, supporter and advocate of growing a trusted, secure, diverse and inclusive workplace. For more information, visit http://www.keyfactor.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. About Inc. Media The worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit http://www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. The Marble Falls Chamber of Commerce proudly announces the return of the Lakefest Boat Races held on August 7th & 8th after a three-year long hiatus. In partnership with the Southern Drag Boat Association, Lakefest provides spectators the rush of adrenalin as drag boats race along Lake Marble Falls at 200 MPH. To start off the competition, visitors and locals will have free entry to the ever favorite Show & Shine where they will get an insider look at the extreme sport. Drag boats will be on display and attendees will be able to meet the drivers in Johnson Park Friday night from 5-8PM. Qualifying races begin Saturday morning at 9AM and will continue into the afternoon. Elimination rounds will begin on Sunday morning at 9AM and awards will be given to the winners Sunday night in Johnson Park at 5:30PM. All gates will open at 7AM. Single day admission for adults begins at $20 per day and children ages 7-12 begin at $10. Children under 7 years old have free entry. For veterans and seniors over the age of 65, tickets will begin at $15 and visitors should be prepared to show ID at the gate. Limited beach seating packages come with six two-day admission tickets, with the ability to bring a 10 X 10 tent for $400. Reserved grass area seating is available for $60 for a two-day admission to guarantee a great view with front row seating at the water edge. Maps of seating areas can be found on MarbleFallsLakefest.com. To enjoy a full weekend of fun, adult, veteran, and senior tickets include a FREE Lakefest T-shirt valued at $20 when purchasing a two-day admission online before July 5th. Coolers will be allowed at the event for a $20 cooler fee each day. Attendees can purchase the Cooler Passes online, or at the gate. This is a Bring-Your-Own-Beverage event; organizers will not be selling any alcohol. Food trucks and vendors will be available inside the gate for non-alcoholic beverages and food. Branded Lakefest T-shirts and hats will be available for purchase at the event. Craft makers, bakers, and style creators from around the Hill Country will be situated outside the gate for free entry, so attendees will be able to explore these vendors for great gifts and treats on Saturday from 8AM-6PM. Attendees can purchase the Top Eliminator Package, which includes two-day admission; full weekend access to the Lakeside Pavilion Lounge with A/C, breakfast, lunch, and three drink tickets (21+); and an event T-shirt for $150. For children between the ages of 6-12, tickets are $60. The racing will take place in Lakeside Park (305 Buena Vista Dr, Marble Falls) and the Show & Shine and the awards ceremony will be located in Johnson Park (230 Ave J, Marble Falls). Tickets and a full schedule of events can be found on http://www.MarbleFallsLakefest.com. Questions can be directed towards the Chamber of Commerce Event Coordinator Mindy Miller at Mindy@MarbleFalls.org or 830-693-2815. About Marble Falls Chamber of Commerce The Marble Falls Chamber of Commerce is a non-profit that makes much of its funding from large events. Our mission at the Marble Falls Chamber of Commerce is to support local businesses through education, networking, and tourism promotion through citywide events. For information on alternative events and future fundraising efforts, please visit https://www.marblefalls.org/. About Marble Falls Marble Falls is a small Texas town in the Highland Lakes region of the Texas Hill Country. Founded in 1887, its first settlers took advantage of nearby Granite Mountain and the Colorado River to build an economy at the turn of the century, with the towns population exploding in the decade after its founding. In 1917, Marble Falls became the first Texas town to elect a woman as Mayor, and Ophelia Crosby "Birdie" Harwood took office 3 years before womens suffrage was established in the United States. The town remained relatively sleepy until the end of World War II, when a boom in population doubled the towns size. Growth continued at a steady clip until the present, when Marble Falls retains its small town status without sacrificing the amenities and luxuries of a larger, more cosmopolitan city. Marketsmith Inc. has teamed up with the New Jersey Department of Human Services on a new campaign to help New Jersey residents fight addiction. "Our goal is to dispel inaccurate, negative perceptions about the use of medication in treating individuals impacted by the disease of addiction. Taking a holistic approach in treatment that includes medicine with counseling helps saves lives," said Sarah Adelman, DHS Acting Commissioner. Marketsmith Inc. has teamed up with the New Jersey Department of Human Services (DHS) on a new campaign to help New Jerseyans fight addiction. Using the tagline, Your Recovery From Addiction Starts Here, the program utilizes billboards, print and digital ads, TV commercials and social media to build awareness of the ReachNJ helpline and Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) so that people can get help. Addiction is a sensitive subject that must be handled with care. At Marketsmith, it is in our DNA to be an active participant in our partners initiatives. We care deeply about this topic and understand the importance of being a resource for those that are facing challenges with addiction, said Monica C. Smith, CEO and Founder of Marketsmith. To build awareness about the states addiction recovery resources, Marketsmith collaborated with DHS to create a wide-ranging marketing campaign that reaches individuals and health care professionals. Billboards, posters, and bus ads incorporate concise messaging to communicate to an audience in transit, and its powerful, clear messages seek to drive action. We sought to authentically connect and engage with the audience, while providing clear steps for them to take action, continued Smith. We sought to approach people with empathy, while providing important information. The campaign encourages people to Ask About Medication That Can Support Recovery by calling the help line. Video allowed the Marketsmith team to explore real-life stories, using blurred, time-lapsed backgrounds to symbolize how people deal with missing out on enjoying time with family due to addiction. Our goal is to dispel inaccurate, negative perceptions about the use of medication in treating individuals impacted by the disease of addiction. Taking a holistic approach in treatment that includes medicine with counseling helps saves lives, said Department of Human Services (DHS) Acting Commissioner Sarah Adelman. DHS is offering people across the state the means to seek and sustain recovery regardless of their insurance status. Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), also known as medication that can support recovery, has proven to be clinically effective, and has largely reduced the need for inpatient detoxification services. This approach has been shown to increase patient survival, decrease illicit opiate use and misuse of alcohol, increase ability to gain and maintain employment, and dramatically improve birth outcomes for pregnant women with substance use disorders. New federal rules have allowed a wider range of practitioners to prescribe some of these medications in recognition of their proven effectiveness and the need to increase access to treatments. ReachNJ connects individuals who need counseling to live, trained addiction experts who answer the 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week helpline (844-REACH NJ) and get callers help, regardless of their insurance status. In addition to DHS, Marketsmith represents an array of New Jersey state clients including the Division of Highway Traffic Safetys Distracted Driving Campaign, the Mental Health Association of N.J.s Hope and Healing Crisis Counseling program, the N.J. Department of Banking and Insurance Get Covered N.J., N.J. Lottery, and the N.J. Board of Public Utilities Clean Energy Program. About Marketsmith, Inc. Marketsmith Inc., is one of the largest independent, woman-owned agencies of its kind and is among the nations fastest-growing integrated marketing agencies. Headquartered in Morris County, N.J., for over 20 years, the full-service firm offers marketing, media, creative and data solutions. Marketsmith has built its reputation and business on its patented analytics software predicting outcomes with 94% accuracy and human ingenuity. LGBT- and WBENC-certified, the firm makes challenger brands champions. http://www.marketsmithinc.com. Admittedly, the past year has been full of unexpected experiences. In nursing school, you learn a certain set of skills, and then you really learn everything once you start your first job. Add the pandemic to it and thats something no nurse, regardless of experience, could prepare for. To help celebrate the Year of the Nurse and National Nurses Week, Mediaplanet today announces the launch of its cross-platform campaign Nurse Appreciation. This campaign will take an in-depth look at the field of nursing in order to educate current and aspiring nurses, while also taking a look back at 2020, highlighting all that these healthcare heroes did and continue to do for us on the front lines of this pandemic. This campaign also aims to inspire the next generation of nursing students and professionals by showcasing notable academic institutions and leaders making this powerful and rewarding career accessible to students of all backgrounds. Rightfully so, 2020 was declared "The Year of the Nurse," as the entire world looked to those in this profession to guide us through the COVID-19 pandemic. Millions of nurses stood by their oath to serve patients and stepped up as leaders in healthcare facilities. However, as we continue to face this global health crisis, the nurse shortage across the country Is becoming a dire situation. In fact, according to the American Nurses Association, there will be more available jobs for RNs to fill through 2022 than any other profession in the United States. The print component of Nurse Appreciation is distributed within todays edition of USA TODAY in the Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, DC/Baltimore, San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, Philadelphia, and the Carolinas markets, with a circulation of approximately 150,000 copies and an estimated readership of 450,000. The digital component is distributed nationally through a vast social media strategy, and across a network of top news sites and partner outlets. To explore the digital version of the campaign, visit educationandcareernews.com/campaign/nurse-appreciation. Featured on the cover of the print campaign is Jennifer Stone, a multi-talented actress who starred as Harper Finkle in Disney Channels Wizards of Waverly Place before pursuing a career as an ER nurse. However, just because she decided to earn her nursing degree, the curtain didnt come down on her acting career. Now she is stepping up to shine a light on this rewarding career, while also sharing her personal journey. Admittedly, the past year has been full of unexpected experiences, Stone says in an exclusive interview. In nursing school, you learn a certain set of skills, and then you really learn everything once you start your first job. Add the pandemic to it and thats something no nurse, regardless of experience, could prepare for. This campaign was made possible with the support of Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing, American Association for Men in Nursing, American Nephrology Nursing Association, Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association, National League for Nursing, University of Kentucky, Ohio State University, University of Tennessee, Frontier Nursing University, Florida Southern University, Seattle University, Moxie Apparel & Scrubs, and Stryker. About Mediaplanet Mediaplanet specializes in the creation of content marketing campaigns covering a variety of industries. We tell meaningful stories that educate our audience and position our clients as solution providers. Our unique ability to pair the right leaders with the right readers, through the right platforms, has made Mediaplanet a global content marketing powerhouse. Our award-winning stories have won the hearts of countless readers while serving as a valuable platform for brands and their missions. Just call us storytellers with a purpose. Please visit http://www.mediaplanet.com for more on who we are and what we do. Press Contact: Chloe Addleson chloe.addleson@mediaplanet.com 561-235-1227 Linda Bastone Mercy College announces the appointment of Linda Bastone, Ph.D., as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, effective June 1, 2021. In this role, she will work collaboratively with faculty, deans and administrators to strengthen the Colleges infrastructure for faculty personnel and development, student academic support and program accreditation all with the goal of advancing student success. Most recently, Bastone worked at Purchase College, State University of New York (SUNY) as Associate Professor of Psychology and Program Director of the NIH-funded MARC U-STAR Honors Program, an initiative designed to increase the academic, social and economic capital of students from underrepresented groups who aspire to obtain doctoral degrees and pursue research careers in STEM. Previously, she served in several other administrative roles at Purchase College, including Director of the School of Natural and Social Sciences, Chair of Psychology and Chair of Liberal Studies. We are very pleased that Dr. Linda Bastone will join us at Mercy, said Jose Herrera, Ph.D., Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs. She has demonstrated a deep commitment to great teaching and student success. We look forward to working with her to ensure that we are fulfilling the Colleges mission, delivering transformational education and helping our students thrive. "I am truly honored to have been selected as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, said Bastone. I am excited to work with Provost Herrera and Mercys dedicated administrators, faculty and staff as we continue to ensure that all students have access to an excellent education and the resources they need to succeed." As an educator, researcher and administrator, Bastone has worked to understand the factors that facilitate or impede academic success and to design interventions to ensure that success is attainable for all students. Her commitment to students was recognized with several awards, including the SUNY Chancellors Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1999, the SUNY Chancellors Award for Faculty Service in 2004 and the Friend of Educational Opportunity and Merit Access Programs in 2013. Bastone has many years of experience designing and refining courses, curricula and programs to facilitate students success. She taught courses in psychology, college writing, research methods and behavioral statistics. She designed Purchase Colleges first freshman seminar and coordinated summer advising and registration for incoming students before the college created and staffed an advising center. She also directed other externally funded initiatives to support transfer students, underrepresented students in psychology and community college students studying the social sciences and humanities. Her research interests include the causes and consequences of stereotyping and prejudice as well as factors that promote the academic success and engagement of underrepresented students. She uses psychological theory to design interventions that increase students sense of belonging, feelings of efficacy, academic identity, focus on the future and connection to a community of scholars. Her scholarship also includes examinations of the ways in which faculty and administrators can work together to increase equity in higher education. Bastone earned her Ph.D. in social-personality psychology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York and her bachelors degree in psychology and philosophy from the State University of New York at Binghamton. About Mercy College Mercy College is the dynamic, diverse New York City area college whose students are on a personal mission to get the most out of life by getting the most out of their education. Founded in 1950, Mercy is a coeducational and nonsectarian college that offers more than 90 undergraduate and graduate degree and certificate programs within five schools: Business, Education, Health and Natural Sciences, Liberal Arts and Social and Behavioral Sciences. With campuses in Dobbs Ferry, Bronx, Manhattan and Yorktown Heights, the vibrancy of the College culture is sustained by a diverse student body from around the region. NAHREPs tool provides a never-before-seen view of Hispanic homeownership that can be useful to policy makers and housing advocates, said 2021 NAHREP President Sara Rodriguez. The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals released an addendum to its 2020 State of Hispanic Homeownership Report today which measures Hispanic homeownership by U.S. congressional district, allowing constituents, advocates, policy makers, and lending and housing professionals to evaluate district performance at a glance. Hispanic homeownership is vital to economic strength of local communities across the nation and is predicted by housing experts to account for 70% of homeownership growth over the next 20 years, said 2021 NAHREP President Sara Rodriguez. NAHREPs tool provides a never-before-seen view of Hispanic homeownership that can be useful to policy makers and housing advocates. Homeownership is one of the most accessible vehicles for building generational wealth and a key indicator of community resiliency. Members of Congress whose districts Latino homeowners dramatically underperform the market need to be more attentive to homeownership issues. The NAHREP Hispanic Homeownership by Congressional District Tool uses 2019 census data, the latest congressional district level data available through the United States Census Bureau. Highlights Excluding districts in Puerto Rico, the highest Hispanic homeownership rates (65%+) mostly come from suburban neighborhoods in Arizona, Illinois and Texas. The lowest homeownership rates (below 30%) mostly come from urban neighborhoods in California, Massachusetts and New York. The top five districts where Latinos outperform the overall market IL-1 (Bobby Rush), TX-30 (Eddie Johnson), TX-1 (Louie Gohmert), IL-7 (Danny Davis), IL 2 (Robin Kelly). The top five districts with the lowest Latino homeownership rate relative to the districts general homeownership rate. MA-9 (Bill Keating), MA-4 (Jake Auchincloss), MA-1 (Richard Neal), CT-2 (Joe Courtney), CT-1 (John Larson) The top five districts where Latino homeownership is rising fastest are TN-7 (Mark Green), AR-4 (Bruce Wasterman), GA-6 (Lucy McBath), AL-6 (Gary Palmer), GA-10 (Jody Hice). The five districts where Latino homeownership is falling fastest are PN-10 (Scott Perry), PN-6 (Chrissy Houlahan), TX-3 (Nicholas Taylor), HI-1 (Ed Case), MA-4 (Jake Auchincloss). NAHREPs online tool will be updated annually and allows for easy search and sorting of data across 343 congressional districts. The NAHREP Hispanic Homeownership by Congressional District Tool also includes each districts median Hispanic income and Hispanic population as a percentage of overall population. It excludes any congressional district with a Hispanic population of less than 5%. Use the NAHREP Hispanic Homeownership by Congressional District Tool today on the NAHREP website. About NAHREP: The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, a nonprofit 501(c)6 trade association, is dedicated to advancing sustainable homeownership for the Hispanic community in America. NAHREP has a network of over 40,000 real estate professionals and 100 local chapters nationwide, hosting several national events per year and publishing multiple industry cornerstone reports annually. Join us in advocating for policies that grow sustainable Latino homeownership, read our 2021 policy priorities here. Press Contact: Katherine Wood press@nahrep.org (619) 719-4814 Shaming is a misguided remedy for racism, says Irshad Manji. Shaming fuels fear, incites defensiveness, and widens divides. The healthier approach is to cultivate Moral Courage speaking truth to the power of our defensive brains." Let Grow, the national nonprofit that promotes independent thinking and emotional resilience in young people, introduces Moral Courage ED to empower students to hear, not fear different perspectives. Innovated by bestselling author and Oprah award-winner Irshad Manji, the research-backed Moral Courage Method offers practical tools to turn contentious issues into constructive conversations and shared action. This is a critical skill for reaching durable solutions to Americas biggest challenges. Moral Courage ED provides a unifying alternative to intersectionality and related models of anti-racism. The no-shaming practice allows students to grow beyond cancel culture. Shaming is a misguided remedy for racism, says Manji. Shaming fuels fear, incites defensiveness, and widens divides. The healthier approach is to cultivate Moral Courage speaking truth to the power of our defensive brains. By first lowering our own emotional defenses, we can lower the defenses of others. We lead by listening. Thats what the Moral Courage Method teaches. Moral Courage ED supports middle and high school teachers, student cohorts, parent groups, and entire educational districts. Its offerings include LIVE virtual workshops, faculty book studies, and professional certification through Oxford University. In addition, the organization will soon be launching an online course for educators called Diversity Without Division. Renowned scholar and activist Cornel West describes Moral Courage as a powerful force for good. Dr. West helped Manji launch the Moral Courage Channel on YouTube and exemplifies its values in his own cross-ideological friendships. Raquel Majeski, assistant head at Lawrence Academy in Groton, MA, says that Moral Courage has been transformational for her schools culture. Its one thing to talk about social justice. But when youre empowering students, faculty, and staff to courageously address disagreement and discord, thats the real work. To learn more about Moral Courage ED, visit moralcourage-ed.org. Watch a preview of the Moral Courage Method here. About Moral Courage ED Moral Courage ED empowers students to hear, not fear, different perspectives. By providing the tools to communicate across lines of difference and disagreement, the Moral Courage Method achieves diversity without division. Moral Courage ED is led by Irshad Manji, winner of Oprahs inaugural Chutzpah Award for boldness and The New York Times bestselling author, most recently, of Dont Label Me: How to Do Diversity Without Inflaming the Culture Wars. Manji teaches with Oxford Universitys Initiative for Global Ethics and Human Rights, academic partner of Moral Courage ED. It is presented by Let Grow, the national nonprofit that promotes independent thinking and emotional resilience in young people. To learn more, visit moralcourage-ed.org. About Let Grow Let Grow is the national nonprofit that promotes independent thinking and emotional resilience in young people. Founded by Free-Range Kids pioneer Lenore Skenazy, research psychologist Dr. Peter Gray, former chairman of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education Daniel Shuchman, and NYU Prof. Jonathan Haidt, co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind, Let Grow innovates programs for elementary as well as secondary school students. In the Pre-K-8 space, Let Grow provides two free, easy-to-implement offerings for schools: The Let Grow Project and Let Grow Play Club. These initiatives get students doing, exploring, and playing more on their own. As a result, they organically develop social-emotional skills including empathy, problem-solving, creativity and confidence. For middle and high schools, Let Grow also presents Moral Courage ED, which empowers students to hear, not fear different perspectives. Let Grow has been featured in The New York Times, NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard, PBS and more. To learn more about Let Grow, visit letgrow.org. Tilt Renewables Limited is pleased to release its financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2021 (FY2021), together with key highlights for the year and an investor presentation. Financial references in this release are in Australian Dollars unless noted. Key highlights for FY2021 FY2021 has been a landmark year for the TLT business with the delivery of two key construction projects and external validation of the value accumulated in the TLT platform, all against the backdrop of a global pandemic. The Scheme Implementation Agreement (SIA), signed with Powering Renewables Australia Fund (PowAR) and Mercury NZ Limited at the end of FY2021, sets the business up to accelerate the transition to renewables in Australia and New Zealand. The shareholder value recognised through the SIA is material, with the NZ$8.10 offer price equivalent to a 106.6% premium above the undisturbed TLT share price prior to the announcement of Infratil Limiteds strategic review of its interest in TLT on 4 December 2020. Looking beyond the pending sale of TLT, FY2021 has been a busy year with Management focused on completing the delivery of the Waipipi Wind Farm (Waipipi) in March 2021 and advancing the Dundonnell Wind Farm (Dundonnell) towards its final commissioning milestones during the year. Guidance Guidance for FY2022 has been split by portfolio across Australia and New Zealand. Ramp up of Dundonnell production is budgeted to continue through the first half, resulting in an Australian EBITDAF range of A$58 to 66 million. The New Zealand EBITDAF guidance range, incorporating a full 12 month contribution from Waipipi, is expected to be A$46 to 48 million, assuming average AUD/NZD rate of 0.93 and P50 wind production. Group FY2022 EBITDAF guidance is $A104 to 114 million based on P50 wind. Please see the links below for details Tilt Renewables results for the financial year ended 31 March 2021 Tilt Renewables Limited Financial Statements for year ended 31 March 2021 Tilt Renewables Limited FY2021 Full Year Results Presentation NZX Results Announcement Form Source: Tilt Renewables Limited Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. 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Related News: Precinct Properties New Zealand Limited (NZX: PCT) Announces $284 Million Revaluation Uplift 10th June 2021 Morning Report Me Today Limited (NZX: MEE) Opening of Offer to Retail Investors Mercury NZ Limited (NZX: MCY) FY2021 EBITDAF Guidance Revised to $460 Million 9th June 2021 Morning Report SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited (NZX: SKC) AUSTRAC ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATION 8th June 2021 Morning Report Fletcher Building Limited (NZX: FBU) Share Buyback to Commence on 10 June 2021 4th June 2021 Morning Report 3rd June 2021 Morning Report Transpara is like having a colleague providing a second opinion, I use it routinely for clinical mammography when in doubt. Another key publication, this time in the European Radiology journal, shows the benefits of using Transpara breast AI with 3D mammography. Here are the key findings from the publication by S L van Winkel, A Rodriguez-Ruiz, L Appelman, A Gubern-Merida, N Karssemeijer, J Teuwen, A J T Wanders, I Sechopoulos, R M Mann. Impact of artificial intelligence support on accuracy and reading time in breast tomosynthesis image interpretation: a multi-reader multi-case study. European Radiology (2021) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-021-07992-w Key points: Radiologists improved their cancer detection accuracy in digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT) when using an AI system for support, while simultaneously reducing reading time. The stand-alone breast cancer detection performance of Transpara matched the average performance of radiologists for reading digital breast tomosynthesis exams. The use of Transpara could allow for more cost-effective breast cancer screening programs with DBT. Transpara, based on deep learning technology, is CE marked and FDA cleared for both 2D and 3D mammography within the same solution. This means customers who start using it for 2D mammography have a seamless transition to 3D without the costs of changing hardware. In addition, this study highlights the efficiency savings that can be realised using AI as decision support. Our experience is that users become more confident with the system once they've used it and confirm their trust in it. Ritse Mann, Radiologist, UMC Radboud in the Netherlands who was one of the investigators of the study stated, Transpara is like having a colleague providing a second opinion, I use it routinely for clinical mammography when in doubt. Pieter Kroese, Chief Commercial Officer at ScreenPoint Medical said, One of the main challenges of the transition from 2D to 3D mammography is the doubling of reading time. This study shows that by using Transpara AI decision support, radiologists can not only read 3D mammograms more quickly, but they can also improve their accuracy. This is a win-win situation and could help knock down one of the main barriers to 3D adoption in screening programs globally. Clinical Scientist, Alejandro Rodriguez-Ruiz added, Transpara is setting the benchmark for evidence in breast AI with an unprecedented eight independent peer reviewed publications in high Impact journals including Radiology and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Our clinical partners have helped with the most robust body of evidence for the use of Transpara in both 2D and 3D mammography, across multiple vendors and mammograms from a wide range of demographics in over 10 countries. Transpara is being used daily in more than 20 countries worldwide with well over a million mammograms processed. ScreenPoint Medical is delivering on its promise of bringing highly effective AI to the fight against breast cancer. About ScreenPoint Medical BV. ScreenPoint Medical is the leading developer of AI driven image analysis technology which enables the automated reading of mammograms and digital breast tomosynthesis examinations. With proven accuracy at least matching that of experienced radiologists, ScreenPoints Transpara system is the most advanced available, exploiting Big Data, Deep Learning and the latest advances in Artificial Intelligence. The system can identify high risk breast lesions quickly, enabling earlier detection, earlier treatment and a greater chance of survival. ScreenPoint Medical was founded in 2014 by Professor Nico Karssemeijer and Professor Sir Michael Brady, two internationally respected experts in breast imaging, machine learning and computer aided detection. The companys Head Office is in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. For more information, please email info@screenpointmed.com As the first wine group to grant its customers unparalleled levels of transparency into the wine's origins, the JCB Collection is cementing its position as an innovative leader in its industry Avery Dennison Corporation and supply chain transparency provider SUKU today announced a new collaboration with the Boisset Collection, one of the worlds leading family-owned fine wine companies. By leveraging Avery Dennison's and SUKU's NFC (Near-Field Communication)-enabled tagging solution within the wine label itself, wine connoisseurs can simply tap their smartphone on the label to find out more about the wine, including exclusive content, stories, videos, origin, tasting notes, and a personalised message from creator Jean-Charles Boisset (JCB). The technology, which uses the Avery Dennison Smartrac Circus NTAG 213 integrated within SUKU Omni's supply chain transparency solution, launches today for VIP guests of the JCB Tasting Salon in Yountville, California. Feedback from this exclusive group will help shape plans for a wider launch in summer 2021, which will see the technology gradually introduced across the range of wine offerings within the Boisset Collection. The JCB label is placed on the JCB Passion bottle and utilized as a powerful protection against the multi-billion dollar problem of wine counterfeiting, and to provide access to one of a kind marketing and personal stories from creator Jean-Charles Boisset available via the NFC label. Unlike QR or barcodes; an NFC tag does not use any readable space on the label, nor does it require line-of-sight or adequate lighting conditions to scan. With NFC technology now incorporated within most modern smartphones, consumers simply hold their device near the branded JCB label and instantly access a consumer experience coupled with digital ledger-enabled validation through SUKU. Jean-Charles Boisset, founder of the JCB Collection, explains: Wine lovers increasingly want to immerse themselves with our world. They want to know how the wine is made, where it comes from its source, and the personality behind its creation as well as the obvious tasting and pairing recommendations. You cant convey this on a standard label which is where NFC tagging, made possible by Avery Dennison and SUKU, inspires a new energy and dynamic vision for our wine. Today is our first step towards the digitization of the JCB Collection, which initially we are sharing exclusively with our JCB Collectors & Connoisseurs. However, this is just the start, and their feedback will shape the experiences of more of our consumers to come in the months ahead. Amir Khoshniyati, head of NFC business at Avery Dennison Smartrac, adds: We are excited to collaborate with the JCB Collection and bring the World of Jean-Charles Boisset to life using our Circus NFC Tags. NFC is standardized in all smartphones today and is utilized more than ever as we are experiencing a growing demand in the direction of going contactless post-COVID. This is a great opportunity for wine enthusiasts to grow closer to the JCB Collection and consistently push the barriers of creativity. Yonathan Lapchik, CEO of SUKU, shared, "We're very excited to support the Boisset Collection with our digital-ledger based supply chain transparency solution that enables this renowned wine group to share its commitment to sustainability and transparency in a deeper way with wine connoisseurs and enthusiasts. As the first wine group to grant its customers unparalleled levels of transparency into the wine's origins, the JCB Collection is cementing its position as an innovative leader in its industry." Media contact Christian Achenbach Communications Manager, Avery Dennison Smartrac christian(dot)achenbach(at)eu(dot)averydennison(dot)com About Avery Dennison Avery Dennison Corporation is a global materials science company specializing in the design and manufacture of a wide variety of labeling and functional materials. The companys products, which are used in nearly every major industry, include pressure-sensitive materials for labels and graphic applications; tapes and other bonding solutions for industrial, medical, and retail applications; tags, labels and embellishments for apparel; and radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions serving retail apparel and other markets. Headquartered in Glendale, California, the company employs more than 32,000 employees in more than 50 countries. Reported sales in 2020 were $7.0 billion. Learn more at http://www.averydennison.com. About JCB by Jean-Charles Boisset Created by Jean-Charles Boisset, Proprietor of the family-owned Boisset Collection, JCB embraces and represents a new height of luxury, uniting the worlds of wine and fashion in luxurious tasting locations and experiences that transcend terroir, reaching beyond the traditional confines of wine to embody style and sophistication. The JCB collection of limited-edition wines and spirits unite centuries of Burgundian family tradition with the graceful exploration of sophisticated terroir. Dedicated to capturing style, JCB wines, spirits and accessories embody an uncompromising personality that transcends the traditional confines and are audacious, unique, and mysterious. For more information, please visit: http://www.jcbcollection.com. About SUKU SUKU aims to make commerce more transparent and efficient with distributed ledger powered supply-chain solutions. By leveraging the traceability enabled by distributed ledgers, SUKU provides brands and retailers with the transparency they need to meet the demands of a growing base of conscious customers. To incentivize the participation of small suppliers, SUKU rewards participants with tokens that grant the holder access to key financial services, such as microloans, that are not otherwise available to them. The SUKU team consists of a group of successful entrepreneurs and corporate leaders with a background in supply chain and distributed ledger technology from Deloittes Blockchain Lab. SUKU is developed by its parent company Citizens Reserve, Inc. headquartered in Los Gatos, California. For more information, please head to http://www.suku.world, engage with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter or chat with our team on Telegram. Dr. Wladimir Gedeon Provides Skilled Wisdom Tooth Extractions in Danbury, CT He assures the patient is comfortable, taking time to answer any questions a patient might have before the procedure. Respected Danbury, CT oral surgeon, Dr. Wladimir Gedeon, provides skilled wisdom tooth extractions to his community. With years of training and over two decades of experience as an oral surgeon, Dr. Gedeon offers highly skilled care with every treatment he performs. He provides wisdom tooth removal and other advanced oral surgery treatments at his practice, CT Dental Implant Center, located in Danbury, CT. Out of all dental professionals, oral surgeons undergo the most educational training in order to receive their degree. To become an oral surgeon, Dr. Gedeon received his bachelors degree, doctorate in dental studies, and went on to study four more years to receive his oral surgery certificate. Additionally, Dr. Gedeon attends regular continuing education courses to stay up to date with the most advanced technologies and treatments available in the industry. The dedication Dr. Gedeon has to his education is parallel to the dedication he pours into providing excellent service for every treatment he provides. With his level of skill and education, Dr. Gedeon provides a service that is unparalleled in the Danbury, CT area. When performing wisdom tooth extractions, Dr. Gedeon provides a patient first approach. He assures the patient is comfortable, taking time to answer any questions a patient might have before the procedure. Additionally, he only removes wisdom teeth that are necessary for removal. He analyzes each patients situation and advises them on which teeth need to be removed, leaving all healthy teeth in place. He only removes wisdom teeth when it is necessary for the overall health of the patient. As a patient ages, wisdom teeth may become impacted and can begin to disrupt the other teeth in the mouth. Dr. Gedeon recommends patients remove problem wisdom teeth as soon as possible to avoid reaching a stage where the problem teeth cause pain. When patients have waited too long to remove wisdom teeth, Dr. Gedeon can still provide excellent service, not only removing the wisdom teeth, but removing the pain as well. Those interested in receiving wisdom tooth extraction from Dr. Gedeon can also benefit from the sedation services he offers in house. To help ease the pain and anxiety surrounding wisdom tooth extractions, Dr. Gedeon provides nitrous oxide, IV sedation, or local anesthesia. Those looking for wisdom tooth extraction in Danbury, CT can connect with the trusted oral surgeon, Dr. Wladimir Gedeon, for a consultation. To schedule an appointment, visit http://www.ctdentalimplantcenter.com or call 203-744-1240. About the Oral Surgeon Dr. Wladimir Gedeon has provided expert oral surgery to Danbury, CT at his practice, CT Dental Implant Center, for nearly two decades. Dr. Gedeon received his Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) from Columbia University, where he graduated in the top 10 percent of his class. He completed his oral and maxillofacial surgery training at Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center in Brooklyn, NY. With over 20 years of experience, Dr. Gedeon has placed thousands of dental implants. He offers a variety of highly skilled treatments, including wisdom teeth removal, bone grafting, and TeethXpress full mouth dental implants. Dr. Gedeon finds joy in providing revolutionary oral health care, enhanced by industry leading technology, to his Danbury, CT community. To learn more about Dr. Gedeon, CT Dental Implant Center, or the treatments available at this advanced oral surgery practice, visit http://www.ctdentalimplantcenter.com or call 203-744-1240. 77% of frontline security teams believe they need to upgrade their communication solutions and 90% of teams believe automation would increase their productivity. Orion Labs, Inc., the leading voice-first intelligent collaboration platform that empowers deskless workers, today released a study citing that 77% of frontline security teams believe they need to upgrade their communication solutions and 90% of teams believe automation would increase their productivity. Orion conducted the survey with over 190 security professionals from a wide range of industries, including retail, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, government, energy, and property management. Of those professionals, 42% use radios, 27% use cell phones, 28% use multiple devices, and 3% use social apps and other means as their main communication tools for their security teams. Orions survey results coincide with the problems we see in the market and the solution the Orion Security Collaboration Platform provides, said Michael Schwartz, Orion Chief Marketing Officer. Orion created its voice-first intelligent collaboration platform to address the problems security teams face today and well into the future with advanced offerings like location services, security process automation, and situational intelligence amplification. Of the 77% of security professionals that indicated they need to upgrade their communication solutions, 68% believe they need to upgrade their solutions in the next three years or less. Its no secret security teams have needed a better communication solution, said Ellen Juhlin, Orion Head of Product. Orion provides security teams with unified, secure collaboration on one platform. Orions end-to-end encrypted collaboration solution is multimodal, so teams can communicate with voice, text, photos, videos, and files on any device. Of the survey respondents, almost all (90%) indicated that automation would increase their productivity. We use Orions advanced bot technology and workflow engine to provide automation for both routine and dynamic processes to improve security team productivity and incident response, said Greg Albrecht, Orion Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer. With the Orion Security Collaboration Platform, security professionals can automate processes and trigger workflows, such as proactively calling for help in emergencies, automating safety check-ins, monitoring for incapacitation, and setting up geofence location breach alerts. These findings and more were detailed in a recent Security Magazine webinar hosted by Orion, titled 5 Reasons Radios Hold Security Teams Back and the Modern Alternative. About Orion Labs, Inc. Orion is the leading voice-first, intelligent platform that empowers deskless workers by enabling real-time team collaboration, process automation, location mapping, and access to enterprise systems to improve workforce productivity, safety and compliance, and customer engagement. Orion holds 28 patents that support its award-winning solutions, has been named an IDC Innovator, and was awarded a Top 10 Industrial IoT Solution Provider 2020 by Manufacturing Technology Insights. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading investors. For more information, visit http://www.orionlabs.io. Stay in touch with Orion Labs | LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter | Blog Oswego County Joins the Empire State Purchasing Group by BidNet Direct The Empire State Purchasing Group will help us extend the reach of our solicitations, and it can help our vendors find more local opportunities. Oswego County is joining BidNet Directs Empire State Purchasing Group and will be publishing and distributing upcoming bid opportunities for county government projects on the online system. BidNet Directs Empire State Purchasing Group is a single, online location that connects participating local government agencies from across New York State to a large vendor pool and streamlines the bid and vendor management process. BidNet Direct is a free service that counties may use to help promote their bids and requests for proposals, in addition to our traditional advertising, said County Legislature Chairman Jim Weatherup. It informs our local businesses of opportunities for them inside and outside of the county, and also helps increase competition. The service provides notifications to registered vendors of new relevant solicitations, as well as any addenda and award information. Vendors may register on the Empire State Purchasing Group at http://www.bidnetdirect.com/new-york. We are always looking to increase our vendor pool and competition, said Oswego County Administrator Philip Church. The Empire State Purchasing Group will help us extend the reach of our solicitations, and it can help our vendors find more local opportunities. We will also continue to comply with New York State law by publicly advertising bids and posting all bids and RFPs on our web site at http://www.oswegocounty.com. Vendors who register with BidNet Direct can access all open bids, related documents and files, additional attachments, and award information. In addition, the Empire State Purchasing Group offers a value-added service to notify vendors of new bids targeted to their industry, all addenda and advance notification of expiring term contracts. Registered vendors have access to not only Oswego County bid opportunities, but also to bids from all other participating agencies. BidNet Direct provides participating businesses with targeted government bid opportunities that match their business needs, said Legislator John Martino, chairman of the Legislatures Finance and Personnel Committee. The company provides a vendor support team to answer any questions regarding the registration process or the bid system. In addition to Legislator Martino, members of the Finance and Personnel Committee are legislators Stephen Walpole, vice chair, and David Holst, Linda Lockwood, Laurie Mangano, Patrick Twiss, and Terry Wilbur. BidNet Direct, powered by mdf commerce, is a sourcing solution of regional purchasing groups available at no cost to local government agencies throughout the country. BidNet Direct runs regional purchasing groups, including the Empire State Purchasing Group, across all 50 states that are used by over 1,500 local governments. To learn more about how government agencies gain better transparency and efficiency in purchasing, please visit https://www.bidnetdirect.com/buyers. Oswego County businesses can reach the BidNet Direct vendor support team by calling 800-835-4603 option 2. Necessary Evil: The Path to Self-Forgiveness Part 1: Childhood: a gripping work of self-reflection. Necessary Evil: The Path to Self-Forgiveness Part 1: Childhood is the creation of published author, Pastor Warrior, a praying mother and devoted daughter of divorced parents. The author shares, In self-forgiveness, the most important thing to remember is that God cannot forgive us unless we forgive ourselves, the true us, the one that no one sees. It is time to bury the skeletons, place the worms back in the soil, and defeat this tactic of the devil: self-unforgiveness. It is high time we face ourselves in the mirror and look at our true selves and at our true identity beyond the facade, then replace it with Gods image and see who we really are. For it says clearly in the Word of God, in 1 Cor. 13:12 (KJV), For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. So now look, look hard, and you will see in the mirror the image of God, designed to forever worship Him for all eternity in Spirit and truth (John 4:23). God is my guidance in writing this book. Every word is inspired by Him, even the format when something is written. Again, as we begin this journey together, I must warn you there will be triggers, memories, and other things that are too harsh for a new Christian. This is for only mature Christians, period. This journey is not for the faint of heart, but I say, do not lose heart. There is freedom at the end of this road of Necessary Evil: The Path of Self-Forgiveness. We will cover the following in this book: What are the Types of Forgiveness and Their Definition? Where I Am Coming From? How It Affected Me What God Has to Say Doubt Albert Allen: Journey Is the Destination and the Destination Is the Journey Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Pastor Warriors new book encourages readers to examine the things from their pasts that could be causing harm to their current lives. Beginning with the abuse suffered at a young age and continuing through later childhood, the author explains the basis for her trauma, how she has overcome the consequences, and how she hopes to guide others to forgiveness. View a synopsis of Necessary Evil: The Path to Self-Forgiveness Part 1: Childhood on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Necessary Evil: The Path to Self-Forgiveness Part 1: Childhood at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Necessary Evil: The Path to Self-Forgiveness Part 1: Childhood, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Steinhafels has Become 100% ESOP Owned We partnered with PCE due to their vast knowledge and expertise in structuring and closing a transaction and appreciate all the guidance and leadership that Eric and the PCE team provided from start to finish in the ESOP transaction. PCE Investment Bankers, a leading financial services firm for mid-market companies, is pleased to announce that the Steinhafels family has sold its stock to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), making the company 100% employee-owned. Gary Steinhafel, Mark Steinhafel, Ellen Steinhafel-Lappe, and Andrew Steinhafel decided to secure the future of the business while acting in the long-term best interest of Steinhafels associates. Each time our family has transitioned the business to a new generation, we have tried to balance doing what's right for our associates with ensuring the long-term health of the company, said Gary Steinhafel, Our news today is about securing the future of Steinhafels for all of us for many years to come. Steinhafels is more than just a business to us. It is our family legacy. Deciding to move forward as an employee-owned company helps to ensure that that legacy continues into the future. For the past 87 years, Steinhafels' mission has been to serve its customers with high-quality furnishings and provide its associates with a stable, secure, and rewarding work environment. The shift to employee ownership will help preserve Steinhafels' culture as a family business that values its associates, customers, and communities they serve. We believe that becoming an employee-owned company allows us to leverage our greatest strength, and that is our valued associates. Being part of an employee-owned company means that our associates will benefit directly from the companys continued success., said Steinhafels President, Andrew Steinhafel. Steinhafels associates will participate in the ownership of the company through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Similar to a profit-sharing plan, an ESOP is a long-term retirement benefit plan in which associates will be granted shares of the company on an annual basis. These shares will vest over several years and have a share price based on the company's success. Through this change, Steinhafels will remain a family-led company. Andrew Steinhafel will serve as president and will lead Steinhafels with the support of Mark, Ellen, and Gary, along with the executive team. The structure and day-to-day operations of our business will remain exactly the same, but as an employee-owned company, the success of Steinhafels is directly tied to the efforts of the employee-owner associates more than ever before, added Andrew Steinhafel. PCE guided the Steinhafels ownership and team through the ESOP feasibility study, which provided a road map of their many options. PCE efficiently managed the ESOP transaction process, including structuring the transaction, negotiating with the ESOP trust on behalf of the selling shareholders, and ultimately delivering every desired goal. Eric Zaleski of PCE stated, throughout the decision-making process, Steinhafels ownership set up the ESOP to provide further benefit to their most prized asset the employees. It was clear from the start that the iconic Steinhafels name and brand would be the ideal candidate for a very successful ESOP, which will enhance its already strong company culture. I am very appreciative of Gary, Mark, Ellen and Andrew, and their team for having a clear vision and then allowing PCE to execute for all involved. Andrew Steinhafel added, We partnered with PCE due to their vast knowledge and expertise in structuring and closing a transaction and appreciate all the guidance and leadership that Eric and the PCE team provided from start to finish in the ESOP transaction. About Steinhafels: Since 1934, Steinhafels Furniture has been a family-owned, locally-operated business providing quality home furnishings, mattresses, and home decor to southeastern Wisconsin. Steinhafels is Wisconsins leading retailer for furniture and mattresses, with more than 550 associates and 16 locations in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. http://www.steinhafels.com PCE is a leading financial services firm for middle market companies, offering clients a full range of investment banking, valuation, and advisory services. PCE delivers M&A support, ESOPs, management buyouts (MBOs), bankruptcy advisory, restructuring, and fairness and solvency opinion advisory services. Experienced in all market sectors, PCE has established several specialty practice areas, including Construction & Building Products, Food & Ag, Diversified Industrial, Healthcare, and Transportation & Logistics. Offices in Orlando, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York. http://www.pcecompanies.com. Follow PCE on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/119402 Its incredible to now be aligned with PCF and its network... PCFs commitment to our legacy and the success of our staff is what made our decision so easy said John Michel, founder and agency principal of Trade Risk Guaranty. PCF Insurance Services (PCF) is thrilled to announce the completion of a new partnership with Trade Risk Guaranty Brokerage Services (TRG) based in Bozeman, Montana. PCFs investment in this strategic partnership will enable TRG opportunities for cross-selling by offering its unique vertical of benefits and other P&C lines to other agencies and its existing clients throughout the United States. The Michels achieved incredible success building TRG into one of the premier U.S. Custom Bonds and Ocean Marine Cargo Insurance brokerages nationwide. Prior to starting TRG, John served as a national underwriter for one of the largest custom bond companies. John, Laura and the TRG team currently have an impressive Paydex score of 80. The Michels are recognized as strong leaders in the industry with over 30 years of experience. John and Laura Michel, founders and agency principals of Trade Risk Guaranty, will continue to lead all operations of TRG while becoming owners and Partners of PCF Insurance Services. TRG has great experience and longevity within the industry, as well as a rapidly growing niche with U.S. Custom Bonds and Ocean Marine Cargo Insurance, an area were thrilled to expand upon, said Peter Foy, chairman, CEO and founder of PCF Insurance Services. Trade Risk Guaranty will continue to operate under its best-in-class area of expertise with U.S. Custom Bonds and Ocean Marine Cargo Insurance. TRG will also continue to live by its mission statement of providing import solution services to the international trade community with a strong focus on innovation and affordability, which empowers its customers to achieve professional goals. Its incredible to now be aligned with PCF and its network, said John Michel, founder and agency principal of Trade Risk Guaranty. PCFs commitment to our legacy and the success of our staff is what made our decision so easy. Joining forces with PCF just means being a part of a larger network with access to greater resources, added Laura Michel. The unwavering commitment to our autonomy is huge. PCF will bring added infrastructure and operational support to TRG through its Shared Services team. This elite team of experts offer tailored support in the areas of finance and accounting, human resources, information systems, carrier relations, communication and marketing, and growth operations. With 36 acquisitions in 2020 and over 60 agencies dotted across the United States, PCF is establishing its place on the national stage among the industrys most active acquirers. Learn more about Trade Risk Guaranty Brokerage Services here: https://traderiskguaranty.com/ ### About PCF Founded in 1987 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, PCF is a full-service insurance brokerage firm which provides complete risk management solutions with a broad array of property & casualty, life and health, employee benefits and workers' compensation insurance products. Due to its scale and growth, PCF is a top 50 broker in the United States by revenue. Additional information can be found at http://pcfinsuranceservices.com/. About TRG Trade Risk Guaranty was founded in 1991 in a Chicago suburb, Barrington, by John Michel. TRG relocated to Bozeman, Montana in 2008 due to a large talent pool and rapidly growing infrastructure. Two years prior in 2006, TRG officially began offering brokerage services. They offer a very niche business within the industry of U.S. Custom Bonds and Ocean Marine Cargo Insurance. Additional information can be found at https://traderiskguaranty.com/about-trg/. Warm Water: The Last Act of Compassion: a poignant anthology of death and grace. Warm Water: The Last Act of Compassion is the creation of published author, Pepper Cappuccio, a dedicated and compassionate Hospice Nurse. Cappuccio shares, Pepper, a Hospice Nurse, cares for his patients as they are dying and shortly after their death. He is responsible for guiding them through that last journey as well as providing emotional support and comfort for the patient's loved ones. "Pepper takes the reader on his journey from his own home to that of the patients. He describes in detail what he is thinking and feeling along the way. Once in the home, Pepper weaves a story, using sights, sounds, and smells, to describe the surroundings as he treats each patient's symptoms and allow them a peaceful death. "Once the patient has passed, he bathes them in warm water' as a gentle gesture of dignity and respect before they are taken away for final arrangements. "Each of these tales had a spiritual connectedness between Pepper and the loved ones of each patient. Together, they experience a catharsis as the loved ones begin their journey of grief. "Pepper encourages the loved ones to relive their life's experiences they shared with the now recently departed. It is through this discussion that Pepper realizes how much all of us have in common when dealing with the loss of someone we love. Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Pepper Cappuccios new book is a heart-rending collection of stories as told through the eyes of a seasoned hospice worker. Cappuccios writings will leave a definitive impact on readers as they witness the strength and grace offered to each family as they grieve the loss of their loved one. View a synopsis of Warm Water: The Last Act of Compassion on YouTube. Consumers can purchase Warm Water: The Last Act of Compassion at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, or online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. For additional information or inquiries about Warm Water: The Last Act of Compassion, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919. Dr. Andres Sanchez Participates in the University of Michigan Microsurgery Webinar Series Because the cutting action is less invasive, collateral tissue damage is minimal, resulting in reduced postoperative pain and faster healing for our patients. Periodontist Dr. Andres Sanchez participated in the recent University of Michigan School of Dentistry Microsurgery Webinar Series to improve the efficacy of gum disease and dental implant treatments available at his practice, PerioWest in Eden Prairie, MN. The primary course objective focused on a paradigm shift for periodontal and implant-related surgeries leveraging the use of loupes or the operating microscope with micro-instruments. Participants in the courses learned the fundamental advantages of a minimally invasive approach for wound healing and were introduced to a variety of surgical procedures that can be accomplished with an operating microscope, including intraoral hard- and soft-tissue regeneration. Dr. Sanchez participates in ongoing advanced training to enhance his periodontal skills. As a highly skilled periodontist, Dr. Sanchez has dedicated his practice in Eden Prairie, MN to placing dental implants and treating gum disease using state-of-the-art techniques, including PIEZOSURGERY and LANAP. He leverages proven, minimally invasive techniques when he places dental implants that allow patients to regain maximum use of their teeth while maintaining jaw strength, a natural appearance, and restored function. When it was introduced in 2001, PIEZOSURGERY revolutionized bone surgery for periodontists and offered a host of benefits to patients. This technology utilizes a patented, controlled 3D ultrasonic vibration to precisely cut bone without penetrating sinus membranes, gingival or soft nerve tissue. PIEZOSURGERY is an ideal, more precise, and safer approach for treatment including sinus lifts and alveolar ridge augmentation. Because the cutting action is less invasive, collateral tissue damage is minimal, resulting in reduced postoperative pain and faster healing for our patients, said Dr. Sanchez. LANAP is a faster, gentler, non-invasive method for treating problems associated with periodontal disease that is scalpel- and suture-free. It is an FDA-approved laser gum disease treatment that is proven to promote gum tissue regeneration. In the hands of experienced periodontist Dr. Sanchez, the innovative laser enables deep cleaning of periodontal pockets that have formed between a patients teeth and gums due to gum disease, while sparing healthy tissue. Studies have shown that several months after LANAP treatment, up to 99 percent of gum disease-causing bacteria in the periodontal pockets is eliminated. Most patients see a significant reduction in the depth of their pockets. The laser is ultra-precise, which results in very little post-procedural loss of tooth and bone structure and quicker recovery. When left untreated, gum disease has many negative consequences including tooth and bone loss, systemic infection, and an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, dementia, and pregnancy complications. Some studies suggest periodontal disease also significantly raises the risk of kidney, pancreatic, and blood cancers in men. Dr. Sanchez provides quick and efficient gum disease treatment in Eden Prairie, MN, allowing patients to improve both their oral and overall health. Individuals with tooth loss or gum disease in Eden Prairie, MN are encouraged to contact PerioWest for a consultation with experienced periodontist Dr. Sanchez to discuss PIEZOSURGERY, LANAP, or dental implants. Schedule an appointment by calling 952-567-7457 or visiting http://www.periowestmn.com. About the Periodontist PerioWest is a periodontal practice offering personalized dental care for patients in Eden Prairie, MN and the Twin Cities areas. Dr. Andres R. Sanchez received his Certificate & Masters Degree in Periodontics from the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. He is a board-certified periodontist and a Diplomate of the American Board of Periodontology. In addition, Dr. Sanchez has been involved as a primary author in more than ten scientific papers published in major periodontal and implant dentistry journals. His associate, Dr. Eleni Voltidi is a prosthodontist who completed her Fellowship in Dental Oncology and Maxillofacial Prosthetics from the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. PerioWest provides state-of-the-art dental implant treatment, LANAP laser therapy, and advanced periodontal care to Eden Prairie, MN and the Twin Cities areas. To learn more about Dr. Sanchez and the services provided at PerioWest, please visit the practice website at http://www.periowestmn.com or call 952-567-7457. NorthWest Healthcare Properties Management Limited (NorthWest), as manager of the Vital Healthcare Property Trust (Vital), is pleased to provide this update as at 31 March 2021. Vital recorded an 11.7% increase in net property income for the three months ended 31 March 2021 (Q3FY21) and a 9.6% increase financial year to date from the prior corresponding periods reflecting acquisitions, developments and rental growth. This increase in net property income helped Vital record a 14.6% increase in adjusted funds from operations or AFFO per unit for the financial year to date. Over Q3FY21, Vital recorded a 3.1% increase in net tangible assets per unit. This increase reflects the valuation gains referred to below and favourable foreign exchange movements as the New Zealand dollar weakened versus the Australian dollar. As noted below, the property valuation increases do not reflect independent valuations which will be undertaken at 30 June 2021. Consistent with FMA guidance, we are not publishing total return performance for the 12 months ended 31 March 2021. We expect to release total return performance for the 12 months ended 30 June 2021 later this year. The New Zealand government has also announced a proposal to consolidate the 20 existing district health boards into a single agency, Health New Zealand. It is currently unclear what impact, if any, this may have on Vital but we applaud any attempts to improve public health systems in New Zealand and Australia. We echo the hopes of one of our key operating partners, Southern Cross, that the private sector will be part of securing a healthier future for New Zealanders. We have capital, your capital, available to invest in health facilities across New Zealand and Australia to help address our widely acknowledged infrastructure deficit. Please see the link below for details Vital Third Quarter Update Source: Vital Healthcare Property Trust Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. 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Related News: Precinct Properties New Zealand Limited (NZX: PCT) Announces $284 Million Revaluation Uplift 10th June 2021 Morning Report Me Today Limited (NZX: MEE) Opening of Offer to Retail Investors Mercury NZ Limited (NZX: MCY) FY2021 EBITDAF Guidance Revised to $460 Million 9th June 2021 Morning Report SkyCity Entertainment Group Limited (NZX: SKC) AUSTRAC ENFORCEMENT INVESTIGATION 8th June 2021 Morning Report Fletcher Building Limited (NZX: FBU) Share Buyback to Commence on 10 June 2021 4th June 2021 Morning Report 3rd June 2021 Morning Report Point Park's Downtown Campus We wanted to grow our online programs, originally created under an OPM model, with a partner that is aligned, innovative, and collaborative. - Nelson Chipman, Assistant Vice President of Point Park University Online After an extensive review process, Sextant Marketing has been chosen by Point Park University to develop comprehensive marketing and enrollment strategies to grow its online programs. Sextant, a fee-for-service higher education marketing company, delivers omnichannel marketing and end-to-end enrollment solutions exclusively to higher education clients. Nelson Chipman, Assistant Vice President of Point Park University Online, said the University wants to build on the success of its online programs and enhance enrollment marketing efforts. We wanted to grow our online programs, originally created under an OPM model, with a partner that is aligned, innovative, and collaborative in helping us build our own capabilities and accomplish our mission, said Chipman. That mission is to prepare students of diverse backgrounds with the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to lead meaningful lives as informed citizens and successful professionals. A cornerstone of Sextants partnership approach involves working as a seamless extension of a Universitys team, developing the understanding and collaboration which delivers insightful, data-driven recommendations and results. Our partnership with Point Park University presents an opportunity that aligns with our intention to provide unbundled services that offer the most value and transparency, said Adrian Marrullier, CEO and founder of Sextant Marketing. Were excited Point Park chose us as their partner, and we look forward to working with their team to achieve their goals, build their brand, and accomplish their mission. Decades of experience across the full continuum of higher education marketing and enrollment have helped Sextant lead the way into the next iteration of higher ed marketing. Sextant has already built a track record for helping schools increase enrollment and revenue. With more than fifty current programs, clients in fifteen states, and a growing five-state, forty-plus employee base, the companys growth trajectory mirrors the impact and success theyve delivered for their clients. Press Contact Matthew Speer COO & Managing Partner matthew@sextantmktg.com Office: (800) 691-9980, Ext.106 Cell: (703) 862-8876 http://www.sextantmktg.com About Point Park University Point Park University, immersed in the heart of Downtown Pittsburgh, focuses on student success through innovative experiential learning opportunities. Point Park enrolls nearly 4,000 students in over 100 undergraduate, masters, and doctoral programs offered through its Conservatory of Performing Arts, Rowland School of Business, and schools of Arts and Sciences, Communication, and Education. The Universitys alumni and students represent all 50 states and 34 countries around the world. Visit PointPark.edu to learn more. About Sextant Marketing Sextant Marketing is a Tampa-based, independently owned, fee-for-service marketing and consulting company delivering omnichannel marketing and end-to-end enrollment cycle solutions exclusively to higher education clients. Recognized by HolonIQ as a leading Global OPX company, Sextant is uniquely positioned to understand and articulate higher education brand and program value propositions while seamlessly delivering efficient, effective, and turn-key full-funnel recruitment, enrollment, and retention services. Learn more about our innovative approach and how weve helped build hundreds of programs through our decades of enrollment and marketing experience at Sextantmktg.com. Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C) and The Acta Group (Acta) are pleased to announce that Dennis R. Deziel, former Regional Administrator, Region 1 (New England), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Todd Stedeford, Ph.D., DABT, ERT, ATS, former Senior Science Advisor in EPAs Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT), have joined our firms. Dennis R. Deziel, Senior Government Affairs Advisor for B&C and Acta, provides the firms clients with an extraordinary depth of experience and knowledge of the regulatory process and government advocacy, honed through a career of senior leadership roles at EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and The Dow Chemical Company, among other significant positions. As Administrator of EPA Region 1, Mr. Deziel led the regions 500-plus employees in managing energy, environment, and sustainability policy and programs, building coalitions across a wide range of stakeholders, including members of Congress, governors, federal and state government officials, industry, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and local communities. Prior to that appointment, Mr. Deziel was Director of Federal Government Affairs for The Dow Chemical Company, responsible for regulatory compliance initiatives across the full portfolio of product categories, including energy, chemical management, automotive, plastics, building and construction, and pharmaceuticals. Other highlights of Mr. Deziels career prior to joining B&C and Acta include serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary at DOE; chemical security director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; and policy advisor at the Council for Environmental Quality. Mr. Deziel earned a B.A. at the University of New Hampshire and a Master of Public Policy degree from Boston University. Todd Stedeford, Ph.D., DABT, ERT, ATS, Of Counsel for B&C and Senior Science and Regulatory Advisor for Acta, delivers exceptional legal acumen and scientific experience to firm clients. Dr. Stedefords most recent EPA appointments include Senior Science Advisor/Senior Leader, OPPT, Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), Acting Chief, Chemical Risk and Reporting Enforcement Branch, Waste and Chemical Enforcement Division, Office of Civil Enforcement (OCE), and Chief of Assessment Branch 2 for New and Existing Chemicals, Risk Assessment Division, OPPT. Highlights of Dr. Stedefords stellar legal and scientific career include serving as in-house counsel and toxicology advisor, Health, Safety and Environment Division, Albemarle Corporation; Toxicology Manager, Reduced Risk Products, Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, JT International S.A.; Environmental Health Scientist, Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), National Center for Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, EPA; Law Clerk, Environmental Crimes Section, Environment and Natural Resources Division, U.S. Department of Justice; and Law Clerk, Criminal Investigation Division, Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, EPA. Dr. Stedeford is a Diplomate of the American Board of Toxicology (DABT), a European Registered Toxicologist (ERT), a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences (ATS), and a member of the Bars of the District of Columbia and the State of New York. He holds a Ph.D. in Toxicology and Risk Assessment from the University of South Florida and a J.D. from the Levin College of Law, University of Florida. Lynn L. Bergeson, B&C Managing Partner and President of Acta, commented regarding these appointments: Dennis and Todd are exceedingly gifted professionals, both top in their respective fields and perfectly suited for our diverse global practice areas. I have known Dennis and Todd for years and could not be more pleased they are part of our team. Mr. Deziel and Dr. Stedeford join a powerful team of EPA alumni at B&C and Acta, offering clients an unmatched wealth of experience and unparalleled record of scientific, legislative, and business accomplishment for substances and products regulated by the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and global chemical analogs. About Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. -- Located in Washington, D.C., B&C is a law firm focusing on conventional, biobased, and nanoscale industrial, agricultural, and specialty chemical product regulation and approval and associated business issues. Additional information is available at http://www.lawbc.com. About The Acta Group -- Acta, a consulting affiliate of B&C with offices in Washington, D.C., Brussels, Belgium, and Manchester, United Kingdom, offers expertise with regulatory programs and chemical product approvals in North America, South and Central America, Europe, Asia, and Eurasia. Acta supports clients products from concept to approval so they get to market quickly and efficiently. Additional information is available at http://www.actagroup.com. Prophecy International Prophecy is proud that the sovereign cyber capability of Snare has been recognized by the Australian Defence Export Office and we are proud to be exporting Australian innovation to the world, CEO Brad Thomas said. Prophecy International (ASX:PRO), has today announced the acceptance of the companys flagship cybersecurity solution Snare into the 2021 Australian Defence Sales Catalogue. Produced by Australian Military Sales (AMS), the Australian Defence Sales Catalogue showcases selected products and services from Australian defence industry and Australian Defence Force (ADF) surplus equipment available for sale under government-to-government arrangements. The role of AMS is to support Australian sovereign capability and military sales programs through the planning and execution of international government-to-government transfer of: Australian Defence Organisation materiel Australian-origin sensitive technology Products and services of Australian defence industry Selection for the catalogue by AMS means that Snares log management solutions - originally designed for Australian defence and military purposes by defence personnel - passed strict requirements by the Australian Defence Organisation and will join 214 Australian defence industry companies with world-leading products and services available for sale under government-to-government arrangements. Snares centralized log management, threat detection, and analytics solution is used across the defence and military market in Australia, USA, UK, and in the Middle East. Prophecy is proud that the sovereign cyber capability of Snare has been recognized by the Australian Defence Export Office and we are proud to be exporting Australian innovation to the world, CEO Brad Thomas said. The fifth edition of the Catalogue was released by the Minister for Defence Industry, the Hon Melissa Price on 7 May 2021. Original Media Release ### About Prophecy International Holdings Limited Prophecy International Holdings Limited is a listed Australian company (ASX:PRO) that has been operating globally since the 1980s. More recently the focus at Prophecy has been on growing the eMite and Snare lines of business. eMite service intelligence platform combines analytics, correlation, capacity, and performance, availability, and SLA management into a single, out of the box solution to provide customers with real time insight. The Snare product suite is a highly scalable platform of security products designed to find, filter and forward event log data. Snare log sources include Windows, flat files, databases, Linux, Mac, and Solaris with coverage for desktops and servers. Prophecy operates globally from Adelaide and Sydney in Australia, London in the United Kingdom and in Denver, USA. Visit prophecyinternational.com. Dr. Pawel Kalinski will now lead the Department of Immunology and the Division of Immuno-Oncology at Roswell Park. The work Dr. Kalinski leads is stunning in its scope, its uniqueness and its potential for improving patient care and survival. We look forward to seeing all that he will accomplish and the achievements he will inspire our team to realize. - Dr. Kalinski has attracted more than $22.5 million in active grants His innovations have potential to significantly improve patient care Will oversee all team-science efforts at the cancer center Following a national search, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center has promoted Pawel Kalinski, MD, PhD, to Jacobs Family Endowed Chair of Immunology, Chief of the Division of Translational Immuno-Oncology and Senior Vice President for Basic Science. On staff at Roswell Park since 2017, this sought-after physician-researcher has helped to elevate both the profile and potential of Roswell Parks immuno-oncology team. Dr. Kalinski has previously served as Vice Chair for Translational Research, Director of Cancer Vaccine and Dendritic Cell Therapies, Rustom Family Endowed Professor for Molecular Therapeutics and Translational Research and Co-Leader of the Tumor Immunology & Immunotherapy Program. The work Dr. Kalinski leads is stunning in its scope, its uniqueness and its potential for improving patient care and survival, says Candace S. Johnson, PhD, President & CEO and M&T Bank Presidential Chair in Leadership at Roswell Park. We look forward to seeing all that he will accomplish and the achievements he will inspire our team to realize. Dr. Kalinski directs a portfolio of more than $22.5 million in active grants. These include a $14.5 million award from the National Cancer Institute for a multicenter collaboration supporting five separate collaborative clinical trials and a $6.42 million project thats part of a larger U.S. Department of Defense Breakthrough Award, led by Dr. Kalinski himself, which supports two clinical trials. We could not attract and keep talent of this caliber without the support of community leaders like the Jacobs Family, who created the endowment supporting this area in 2007, and we acknowledge a deep debt of gratitude to them for their long support of immunology innovators at Roswell Park, says Dr. Johnson. Dr. Kalinski is a graduate of Warsaw Medical Academy in Poland and the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. He is active in the American Association of Immunologists, American Association for Cancer Research, Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer and American Society of Clinical Investigation, a prestigious medical honor society. An online version of this release is available on our website. Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is a community united by the drive to eliminate cancers grip on humanity by unlocking its secrets through personalized approaches and unleashing the healing power of hope. Founded by Dr. Roswell Park in 1898, it is the only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center in Upstate New York. Learn more at http://www.roswellpark.org, or contact us at 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or ASKRoswell@RoswellPark.org. Managed WordPress Hosting With HostPapas help, were now able to really scale support, development, and marketing, to help drive our core mission of providing the ultimate managed WordPress hosting experience for our customers. Rocket.net, the complete Managed WordPress Hosting Platform, announced today that it has accepted an invitation to be part of HostPapas exclusive accelerator program. As part of the program, Rocket.net has also secured $1.1 million in financing from the Canadian-based cloud services provider. These funds will assist in accelerating the implementation of Rocket.nets strategic plan. In addition to the capital, Rocket.net will take advantage of HostPapas extended support services, which includes access to customer support, marketing, and product development resources. Were beyond excited to be working with Jamie and his talented team at HostPapa, as we continue to accelerate, protect, and deploy WordPress at the edge of the Cloud, said Ben Gabler, Chief Executive Officer of Rocket.net. Since launching Rocket.net, weve focused on driving value to the WordPress community with our edge-first approach. With HostPapas help, were now able to really scale support, development, and marketing, to help drive our core mission of providing the ultimate managed WordPress hosting experience for our customers. We launched our accelerator program with companies like Rocket.net specifically in mind, said Jamie Opalchuk, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of HostPapa. Not only do Ben and Aaron bring extensive industry knowledge and experience, but they are passionate about making a difference in the WordPress community. The managed WordPress platform theyve created is already steps ahead of the competition, and over the next year the others will be chasing them. We are thrilled to be a part of it. Launched in June 2020, Rocket.nets Managed WordPress Hosting platform has seen impressive growth due to their unique, all-in-one approach. Every WordPress install on its platform routes through Cloudflares enterprise offering, providing customers with a huge advantage when it comes to speed and security for their WordPress sites. Feedback from customers and industry experts notes that Rocket.net continues to provide the fastest WordPress experience available, with Time to First Byte (TTFB) averaging 70ms around the world. Rocket.net end user and agency customers also benefit from enhanced WordPress security thats typically only available to Fortune 1000 customers, at no additional cost. Rocket.net was founded on providing the ultimate WordPress experience for its customers. This includes: Providing superior page load acceleration and delivery Offering the ability to auto-scale content globally for performance peaks and spikes Enhanced security features to provide the ultimate protection from threats Proactive monitoring and alerts to potential events Flexible payment and contract options to avoid vendor lock-in HostPapa will provide support as Rocket.net continues to build and grow their platform, while also making the Managed WordPress Hosting product line available to its own customers. Rocket.net has already proven itself successful in such a short time while being bootstrapped, said Jamie Opalchuk. With our funding and strategic partnership, I expect them to grow faster than ever. About Rocket.net Rocket.net, based in West Palm Beach, Florida, is a Managed WordPress Hosting provider designed for websites of all sizes. Since its launch in early 2020, Rocket.net provides an all-in-one solution built on top of Cloudflare, providing each WordPress website with an enterprise-level experience, including prioritized traffic routing and caching in every Cloudflare location. This service, traditionally hard to configure and out of reach for website owners and agencies alike, requires zero configuration or advanced knowledge, making it possible for website owners to focus on what really matters most: content. About HostPapa, Inc. HostPapa (http://www.hostpapa.com), based in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, is a web hosting and cloud services provider for small businesses around the world. Since its founding in 2006, HostPapa has been committed to providing a complete array of enterprise-grade solutions to every business owner. These services, traditionally out of reach to smaller businesses, are offered in a one-stop-shop, making it quick and easy for customers to select the services they need to grow. HostPapa backs these offerings with 24/7 awardwinning multilingual customer support provided by a team of experts. Contact information: Rocket.net Name: Aaron Phillips Address: 308 Tequesta Dr. Suite 8, Jupiter, FL, 33469 Email: aaron.phillips@rocket.net Website: Rocket.net HostPapa, Inc. Name: Emily Dean Address: 5063 North Service Road 102, Burlington, Ontario, Canada, L7L 5H6 Email: press@hostpapa.com Website: http://www.hostpapa.com The Periodontists at Shoreline Periodontics Provide Bone Grafting in New London, CT When you receive bone grafting at Shoreline, our periodontal and surgical experience ensures maximum stability for your dental implants and beautifully sculpted soft tissue to complement your new crowns. Respected periodontists, Dr. Gregory Toback and Dr. Marianne Urbanski offer bone grafting in New London, CT, helping patients with missing teeth and bone loss to save their smiles and oral health with dental implants. Bone grafting is a technique used for those with insufficient healthy natural bone in their mouth to support dental implants. With decades of experience placing dental implants, Drs. Toback and Urbanski are among the best in the industry at preparing the mouth for this long-lasting and life-changing procedure. Bone loss and shifting of remaining teeth are common issues that can occur with missing teeth. Inadequate bone can also be caused by development defects, gum disease, and facial injury or trauma. When a tooth is lost due to injury or decay, the socket must be filled, or it can collapse. If this happens, a dental implant cannot be placed because of the lack of healthy bone. During a bone grafting procedure, Drs. Toback and Urbanski use a bone graft from the patient or a donor to repair or rebuild bones. They rebuild the jaw so that it is strong and reliable enough to secure dental implants permanently. When a dental implant is placed, the titanium post of the implant fuses with the jawbone to provide a strong base for the crown. Dental implants are considered the gold standard tooth replacement solution due to their longevity, functional benefits, and natural appearance. They are comprised of a post, abutment, and crown that mimic the function of natural teeth. Dental implants are a versatile and permanent option for one or multiple missing teeth because they integrate with the jawbone and will not shift. At Shoreline Periodontics, vast expertise coupled with advanced surgical technology optimizes treatment outcomes and long-term success for dental implant patients. When you receive bone grafting at Shoreline, our periodontal and surgical experience ensures maximum stability for your dental implants and beautifully sculpted soft tissue to complement your new crowns, said Dr. Urbanski. Those with missing teeth who are considering dental implants are encouraged to seek treatment as soon as possible to prevent or limit bone loss. To schedule a personalized consultation, call Shoreline Periodontics in New London, CT at 860-443-2428 or the Westerly, RI office at 401-596-0000, or visit http://www.shorelineperio.com for more information. About our Experienced Periodontists Shoreline Periodontics is a periodontal practice offering personalized dental care for patients since 1998 and is located in New London, CT and Westerly, RI. Leading board-certified periodontist, Dr. Gregory A. Toback, received his B.A. from St. Johns University and his Doctorate of Dental Medicine from the University of Connecticut. He also received advanced training in periodontics and dental implants at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. Dr. Marianne Urbanski has been voted one of Connecticuts top dentists for more than seven years by Connecticut Magazine. Dr. Urbanski graduated cum laude from the College of Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts where she earned a Bachelors degree in Biology. She also received her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree and her Masters of Dental Science degree from the University of Connecticut Dental School. Dr. Urbanski and Dr. Toback pride themselves on offering caring, professional treatment to each patient. Dr. Toback and Dr. Urbanski focus on minimally invasive surgeries including LANAP laser gum surgery and are certified to offer the Chao Pinhole Surgical Technique for treatment of gum recession. To learn more about Shoreline Periodontics and their dental services visit their website at http://www.shorelineperio.com or call 860-443-2428 for the New London, CT location, or 401-596-0000 for the Westerly, RI office. SIUE Chancellor Randy Pembrook I think the institution would be better served by a new leader with a fresh spirit Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Chancellor Randy Pembrook today announced his intent to retire at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. Pembrook became the ninth chancellor in SIUEs history on August 1, 2016. After the last 15 months, nearly losing my father to COVID, seeing our two daughters spend some time in Edwardsville and then move away to Chicago and Pittsburgh, respectively, and realizing that the pace I believe the chancellors position requires is no longer sustainable for me, I think the institution would be better served by a new leader with a fresh spirit, Pembrook said. Despite the challenges, Pembrook did find the 2021 academic year rewarding. The last 15 months have deepened my respect for this institution even more, he said. In March 2020, we pivoted quickly with a concern for COVID safety while maintaining educational excellence, led by core values related to equity and inclusion. We truly can shape a changing world and have continued doing that under extremely challenging conditions. This is a tribute to our outstanding faculty, staff, students and administrative leaders. The Metro East native earned both a bachelors and masters in music education/piano performance from SIUE in 1978 and 80, respectively. For a student to return to his alma mater and serve as chancellor is a remarkable honor, he said. To see how this institution has progressed since I left in 1980 is tremendously satisfying. Our returning alumni are awed by the changes. That is an ongoing tribute to those who have invested their careers in this institution. SIU System President Dan Mahony thanked Pembrook for his assistance during Mahonys first year in office. He has been helpful to me in many ways as I transitioned into this new role and dealt with all of the challenges we faced, Mahony said. I have also truly been impressed by the fact that he is a consistently compassionate leader who always considers the impact of every decision on faculty, staff, and especially students. Mahony said the search for the 10th SIUE chancellor is in its earliest stages. We will quickly engage a search firm and begin moving forward with a national search, he said. In the coming weeks, we will hold a series of town halls to gather feedback from the SIUE campus community on what qualities the next chancellor should possess. We will convene a search committee that is representative of the University and its many stakeholders which will review applications, conduct initial interviews, and assist in bringing candidates to campus during the fall semester. Mahony hopes to make a candidate recommendation to the SIU Board of Trustees at its December meeting. Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high-quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose to shape a changing world. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi Rivers rich bottomland and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of nearly 13,000. Smart Press Shop, a Joint Venture for body parts production between Porsche and Schuler, has won the SAP Innovation Award 2021 with Syntax's leadership. Syntax helped Smart Press Shop develop a fully public cloud-based, integrated SAP solution consisting of SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud and SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud for Execution for a new press shop in Halle (Saale) in Germany. This is one of the world's first installations of its kind in discrete manufacturing, making it a model project for industrial companies looking to move to the public cloud with SAP S/4HANA. As a pure cloud installation, the award-winning solution requires no computing capacity and no on-site IT team. Syntax has taken over the system's operations. It has been running productively since March 2021 as an application-based managed service. With Syntax managing the system, Smart Press Shop can now concentrate fully on its core business: producing car body parts. "We are very pleased and proud that the award committee has recognized and honored us," said Hendrik Rothe, Managing Director of Smart Press Shop. "And who better to judge the innovation potential of an SAP solution than the software manufacturer itself. My thanks go to the entire team, the Smart Press Shop staff and the experts from Syntax and SAP. Syntax gave us excellent support from solution design to go-live and helped us win the award." "If you want to be innovative, you also need a fair amount of courage," said Bjorn Bartheidel, Vice President Intelligent Industry Services at Syntax. "The Smart Press Shop team not only had an idea of what they wanted to achieve with their new SAP solution; they also had the courage to embark on an adventure with Syntax that virtually no one had taken before. For that, they have my great respectand I'm delighted that this courage has been rewarded with the SAP Innovation Award." Smart Press Shop is a joint venture between Schuler AG, a subsidiary of the Andritz Group and Dr. Ing. h. c. F. Porsche AG. Together, they are setting up a company for the production of car body parts in Halle (Saale). Efficient, innovative and flexible, the press shop will soon be a reliable partner for all car manufacturers. The focus will be on producing outer panel parts in aluminum or steel. To learn more about how Syntax helps SAP customers, visit the Syntax Case Studies page. Also, visit the SAP insights page to access SAP whitepapers, webinars, data sheets and much more. ### About Smart Press Shop Smart Press Shop GmbH & Co. KG is a joint venture between Schuler AG, a subsidiary of the Andritz Group and Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, and is a company for body parts production jointly set up in Halle (Saale). Efficient, innovative and flexible, the press shop will soon be a reliable partner for all automobile manufacturers as. The focus will be on the production of outer skin parts in aluminum or steel as well as the production of small batches. About Syntax Since 1972, Syntax has been providing comprehensive technology solutions to businesses of all sizes with thousands of customers trusting Syntax with their IT services and ERP needs. Today, Syntax is a leading Managed Cloud Provider for Mission Critical Enterprise Applications. Syntax has undisputed strength to implement and manage ERP deployments (Oracle, SAP) in a secure, resilient, private, public or hybrid cloud. With strong technical and functional consulting services, and world-class monitoring and automation, Syntax serves corporations across a diverse range of industries and markets. Syntax has offices worldwide, and partners with Oracle, SAP, AWS, Microsoft, IBM, HPE, and other global technology leaders. Learn more about Syntax at http://www.syntax.com. As a member of the dynasty that underwrote the Renaissance, bankrolled Columbus expedition to the New World and invented our modern banking system, de Medici counts among his ancestors three Popes Leo X, Clemente II and Pius IV and two French queens Mary and Catherine de Medici. Bruce Merrins Celebrity Speakers Bureau has reached an agreement to represent noted Italian artist, philanthropist, international investor, fashion expert, food historian and automotive designer Prince Lorenzo de Medici, a descendant of the historic House of Medici. De Medici, who speaks five languages, is available for speaking appearances worldwide, including corporate events and meetings, conventions, retreats, seminars, workshops and more. As a member of the dynasty that underwrote the Renaissance, bankrolled Columbus expedition to the New World and invented our modern banking system, de Medici counts among his ancestors three Popes Leo X, Clemente II and Pius IV and two French queens Mary and Catherine de Medici. He also is a renowned philanthropist whose charitable contributions and voluntary activities include nonprofit projects in Zimbabwe, AIDS awareness campaigns through the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) and support for Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a private, nonprofit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics and quantitative biology. True to his roots, he also is working to revive the Medici banking tradition. In 2020, he partnered with financial leaders formerly at American Express and Germanys online Fidor Bank to launch Medici Bank in the United States. This digital-only bank serves small and midsize international businesses in a tech- and crypto-friendly way and has been hailed as one of the most innovative banks on the planet. De Medici loves nothing more than to inform, educate and entertain live and virtual audiences with his presentations on art, finance, food, fashion, architecture and more, all while pulling the curtain back on 700 years of family secrets. With his charming Italian accent and fun-loving demeanor, this larger-than-life trendsetter engages his attendees with legendary insider info they are unlikely to hear anywhere else. Since 1973, Bruce Merrins Celebrity Speakers Bureau has provided corporate meeting and event planners with worldwide booking services for an elite clientele, ranging from Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali to every U.S. President beginning with Ronald Reagan. For more information on Prince Lorenzo de Medici and Bruce Merrins Celebrity Speakers Bureau, visit https://brucemerrinscelebrityspeakers.com. SIUEs Jason Stacy, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of History. "Dr. Stacy models scholarly activity for his students with his own work, while also offering intellectual and practical guidance that allows our graduate students to earn their degrees in a timely manner. Southern Illinois University Edwardsvilles Jason Stacy, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Department of History, has been named the 2021 Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Award recipient. The highly competitive award is annually presented by the SIUE Graduate School to a faculty member who has a proven record of combining scholarship and teaching. The recognition demonstrates the belief that to be a good teacher, one must also be a good scholar. Award recipients have made significant contributions to original research or creative activities, and have successfully integrated those contributions into their teaching practices. I am honored to receive this award, shared Stacy. I started my career as a high school history teacher and pursued graduate work because it enhanced my teaching. As I moved forward with my doctoral work, I discovered that research contributed to my history lessons and that my years as a teacher provided a broad contextual foundation on which to build my research. The Paul Simon Award recognizes this cross-fertilization which teachers and scholars experience throughout their careers. Stacys research interests include the U.S antebellum period, social science pedagogy and Walt Whitmans journalism. Since joining the SIUE faculty, he has published four books, four book-length editions on historical and pedagogical topics, and five digital editions of Walt Whitmans journalism for the Walt Whitman Archive. Dr. Stacy is one of the foremost scholars of Whitmans literary and journalistic writing in the United States, and an expert on antebellum intellectual and social history, wrote Allison Thomason, PhD, professor and chair of the Department of History. His inspiration and involvement with many of our masters and cooperative PhD students is also exceptional. Dr. Stacy models scholarly activity for his students with his own work, while also offering intellectual and practical guidance that allows our graduate students to earn their degrees in a timely manner. Last fall, Stacy joined the University of Nebraska-Lincolns (UNL) Walt Whitman Archive as an editor contributing to a three-year, $250,000 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant-funded initiative, entitled Walt Whitmans Journalism: Finding the Poet in the Brooklyn Daily Times. Stacy has worked on numerous projects for the Walt Whitman Archive, which has received 1.2 million-page views and nearly 500,000 unique users from approximately 220 countries. In 2016, Stacy and colleagues received a grant from the Madison County Regional Office of Education to start an online encyclopedia and digital archive for Madison County. He has since worked with numerous undergraduate and graduate students to compile, edit and present information via Madison Historical: The Online Encyclopedia and Digital Archive of Madison County, Illinois. At SIUE, Stacy has taught courses on antebellum U.S. history, U.S. intellectual history, social science pedagogy and applied historical methods. He includes students in his research projects as an Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (URCA) mentor, and is a key member of many doctoral students research projects and committees. While being a great educator and researcher is at the crux of this award, it is important to note that Dr. Stacy applies these skills toward the professional development of his students, wrote Nichol Allen, PhD candidate in SIUE/SIUCs cooperative doctoral program. He applies his experiences, research, knowledge and education towards the advancement of students from all walks of life, and openly shares the techniques, resources and tools of his craft to help propel them further. Stacys most recent book, Spoon River America: Edgar Lee Masters and the Myth of the American Small Town, was published in May. His work comments on Edgar Lee Masters Spoon River Anthology, a collection of poems that became a bedrock myth of life in small-town America. Stacy discusses the ways readers embraced, debated, and reshaped Masters work in literary controversies and culture war skirmishes. He also analyzes Spoon River Anthology as the source of three archetypespopulist, elite and exilethat endure across the landscape of American culture in the 21st century. This month, Stacy discussed his motivations for writing the book on the presss blog. As the Paul Simon Outstanding Teacher-Scholar Awardee, Stacy will present to graduate students and faculty on his integration of research and teaching during the Graduate Schools Fall Awards Ceremony. By preparing the next generation of leaders in a knowledge-based economy, SIUEs Graduate School fulfills the regions demand for highly trained professionals. Graduate school offerings include arts and sciences, business, education, engineering, nursing, and interdisciplinary opportunities. SIUE professors provide students with a unique integration of theoretical education and hands-on research experiences. Students can obtain graduate certificates or pursue masters degrees, and be part of a supportive learning and rich intellectual environment that is tailored to the needs of adult learners. The Graduate School raises the visibility of research and creative activity at SIUE, which ranks highest among its Illinois Board of Higher Education peers in total research and development expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation. Doctoral programs are available in nursing practice and educational leadership. Cooperative PhD programs in history, environmental resources and policy, engineering science, and computer science are offered with SIU Carbondale. Page Content The late Hubert Benjamin Hughes passed away on Friday, May 7, surrounded by his family. His political career began in 1976, where he was first elected to the House of Assembly and served as Chief Minister of Anguilla on three occasions. Hughes was a great friend of the St. Maarten people. On behalf of the Council of Ministers, I extend my deepest condolences to the government, the people of Anguilla, the friends and family of the former Chief Minister of Anguilla, Mr. Hubert Hughes. Anguilla and the rest of the Caribbean have lost a dedicated public servant whose legacy will be cherished throughout the region for generations to come," stated Prime Minister Jacobs. "Tony is the embodiment of our awards - a pioneer, whose cutting-edge approach to social media and the digital world has impacted and inspired millions across the world." - SMSA co-founder Birgit C. Muller. Global entrepreneur and top life and business strategist, Tony Robbins, conveyed his delight that many brands and industries are "using technology to improve peoples lives" as he was honored with The Social Icon Award at the 2021 Social Media Superstar Awards (SMSA) virtual event. Mr. Robbins spoke of how he and many others using digital connectivity have helped millions of people around the world. In a special message recorded for the SMSA, Robbins reflected on his desire to continue his work helping people, to lead by example, and that the secret to living is giving. "Tony is the embodiment of our awards - a pioneer, whose cutting-edge approach to social media and the digital world has impacted and inspired millions across the world, said SMSA co-founder Birgit C. Muller. Robbins shared his insights on how social media was not just pervasive, but a positive inspiration, during the pandemic: "Im so grateful that all of us have worked so hard to take digital connectivity and turn it from something that really doesnt just connect people, but hopefully improves peoples lives, gets them to grow and expand and to help others who are in need as well. I can tell you over the last year by finding this way to adapt to a whole new world, weve been able to reach more people than ever. In a typical year for me, I travel all over the Earth. In 2019, Id go to 118 cities, 16 countries, some of them two and three times around the world, and Id see maybe a quarter of a million people at live events, which was amazing, 10,000 -15,000-person size events for multiple days. But this last year, weve been able to help people where they needed it most, where they were in their homes, locked up. We did one event for 865,000 people for six days, to give you an idea, we did that for free to help people around the world. Weve reached almost 1.5 million people this year. All our programs are bigger. Were reaching people everywhere and using this technology to show people it doesnt have to be static to be very dynamic. And were also trying to use this to try and help the people most in need. So many people lost their jobs. One of the things Ive been doing for the last six years now, Ive been feeding people since I was 17. I got fed when I was five years old and so I swore I was going to do this for others. So at 17, I fed two families, and then four, and then eight, and then I eventually got it to a million people, and then eventually four million people a year, and then about six years ago, I decided I wanted to feed a billion meals in 10 years and right now were at 700 million meals, but we doubled up all the events we did, anybody who bought an event and paid for it, we donated meals, usually 100 meals each. Its been beautiful to see people being helped who normally wouldnt be reached, both in their homes and their families, and their businesses, but its also been nice to use this tool to both lead by example and inspire other people to come with us and help people in need. So I think in the end, as corny as it may sound, I really believe the secret to living is giving and thats what makes life meaningful. Robbins closed his speech on a positive note: Life isnt always happy every moment, but it can always be meaningful and I think if were doing something for more than ourselves, the rewards go beyond anything that anyone could ever imagine or measure. I know you all know that or you wouldnt be doing the things youre doing, and I just wanted to say thank you again for this special award and hope you continue to spotlight all of those people who are using technology to improve peoples lives. Its happening everywhere. Thats the good thats come out of this COVID situation and I know much more good will come as well. So Im sorry I cant be there in person, but Im grateful to send this message to thank you all. Blessings. I hope to see you soon. Live strong and live with passion. The Second Annual SMSA event was by necessity virtual, and honored business pioneers and brands achievements, whose creativity and campaigns on online platforms have created significant cultural impact. Ross King, MBE hosted the 2021 SMSA, created by The Brand Ambassador and PRrppd in collaboration with The British American Business Council LA and supported by BABC San Francisco. The event was sponsored by Investcloud, SafetySpect and Zadig And Voltaire, and was screened on Instagram Live and Vimeo as well as many other newsfeeds. Other winners at the virtual ceremony included Volkswagen, Netflix's Tiger King, Nike, The Smith Group, Microsoft Surface, Bank of America, and Warby Parker. Nominees Tea with Victoria Summer (Teen Cancer America), Horses in our Hands (World Horse Welfare), and Jane Owen PR (Heroes Wear Masks for the CDC Foundation) all tied for the Excellence in Social Interaction Award. The Pioneer Award and Transatlantic Business Award are yet to be announced. Full details of their successful campaigns can be seen at https://bit.ly/2SiW9TF. For more information, visit http://www.socialmediasuperstarawards.com. Video Material for the event is available for complimentary usage, but must be credited: Social Media Superstar Awards 2021. Visit https://bit.ly/3vwYdFJ An exclusive Q and A with Tony Robbins, as well as his biography, is also available upon request. For interview requests and further information on The Social Media Awards, please email pr@brandamb.com or birgit@babcla.org. For Tony Robbins, please email Jennifer Connelly at jconnelly@jconnelly.com. TuneCore, the worlds leading independent digital music distributor has expanded its groundbreaking TuneCore Rewards program to include six additional languages: French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian, and has also launched to users of the localized website in India. TuneCore is owned by Paris-based Believe and together they distribute a significant percentage of the worlds digital music. TuneCore Rewards is a first of its kind, multi-level educational loyalty program where artists can unlock discounts and other rewards through career education. It is a free program for TuneCore artists and part of the companys ongoing efforts to be more than just a distribution company, by providing more value for independent artists who choose TuneCore as their distributor. The program was launched at the end of March on TuneCores main US site and met with widespread success. In just one month, over 50,000 TuneCore artists have used the rewards website. Stated Andreea Gleeson, Chief Revenue Officer and Co-Head of TuneCore, TuneCore Rewards was designed in order to equip independent artists with advice and instruction on best practices for marketing and promoting their music. Were had great usage and feedback from the clients who have used it and are looking forward to including even more TuneCore artists as we roll out the program internationally. Commented Faryal Khan-Thompson, VP of International, TuneCore, International expansion continues to be a top priority for our organization, and that means thinking globally from the start with everything we do. We want to make sure that our artists have access to all TuneCore has to offer and a delightful experience no matter where in the world they are based. Im extremely proud of our team on the first localized launch of our ground-breaking awards program, and I look forward to continuing to follow through on our commitments to our international artists. Said Nick Krus, Senior Director of Client Marketing, TuneCore, We spoke directly to our artists when creating this program and got their input throughout the entire process. And it shows since launch, we have received overwhelming positive customer satisfaction rates and glowing feedback of how immensely helpful this program has been. We are artist-first at TuneCore and I could not be more thrilled to help our TuneCore community grow their careers as independent artists. Up next for TuneCore rewards is a second round of Master Classes with input from TuneCore store partners, as well as further education surrounding music publishing, an area of the music business many artists continue to seek clarity on. As the program is continually built out, additional classes, across more languages will be forthcoming. About TuneCore TuneCore is the global platform for independent musicians to build audiences and careers with technology and services across distribution, publishing administration and a range of promotional services. TuneCore Music Distribution services help artists, labels and managers sell their music through Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, JioSaavn, Deezer, TikTok and more than 150 download and streaming stores worldwide, while retaining 100 percent of their sales revenue and rights for a low annual flat fee. TuneCore Music Publishing Administration assists songwriters by administering their compositions through licensing, registration, worldwide royalty collections, and placement opportunities in film, TV, commercials, video games and more. The TuneCore Artist Services portal offers a suite of tools and services that enable artists to promote their craft, connect with fans, and get their music heard. TuneCore, part of Believe, is headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, with offices in Los Angeles, Nashville, Atlanta, and Austin, and global operations in the UK, Australia, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Russia, India, Brazil as well as the LATAM, Africa and SEA markets. http://www.tunecore.com About Believe Believe is a world leading digital music company, helping artists and labels to build their audiences and careers, at all stages of their development, in all local markets around the world with respect, expertise, fairness and transparency. Pioneer in the digital world, Believe has developed an in-house technology & data organization, providing global distribution and digital marketing solutions. With more than 1,500 professionals in 50+ countries, Believe owns several brands, labels and companies including TuneCore, Nuclear Blast, Naive, Groove Attack and AllPoints.http://www.believe.com Mr. Huntley A. Lawrence, acting chief operating officer and director of aviation of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. We are thrilled to have Mr. Lawrence, a good friend and supporter of Vaughn College, delivering the address at this years commencement, said Vaughn College President Dr. Sharon B. DeVivo. Vaughn College will celebrate its 89th Commencement on Saturday, May 15, 2021 at 1 p.m. Mr. Huntley A. Lawrence, acting chief operating officer and director of aviation of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) will deliver the commencement address virtually to more than 200 graduates and their families. Mr. Lawrence, a 35-year veteran of PANYNJ, was named acting chief operating officer (COO) in January 2021 and director of aviation in January 2017. As Acting COO, he is responsible for working with the Port Authoritys five lines of businessAviation, Port, PATH, Tunnels, Bridges and Terminals, and the World Trade Centeras well as the operations services department. As director of aviation, he is responsible for managing one of the worlds largest airport systemsJohn F. Kennedy (JFK) International, Newark Liberty International, LaGuardia, New York Stewart International and Teterboro airportswith revenues of $2.5 billion and a staff of more than 1,500 aviation professionals. Prior to becoming director, Mr. Lawrence served as deputy director of aviation, a role he had held since May 2014. He moved with his family from London to Queens in 1969, where he lived a stones throw from LaGuardia Airport (LGA)and attended the aviation program offered at P.S. 127 where he learned firsthand about flight at LGA and JFK. During Mr. Lawrences time at August Martin High School he attended core science classes that focused on the different types of weather a pilot may face and how it affects travel. Shortly before graduating high school, Mr. Lawrence had passed his written pilots test. We are thrilled to have Mr. Lawrence, a good friend and supporter of Vaughn College, delivering the address at this years commencement, said Vaughn College President Dr. Sharon B. DeVivo. His lifelong interest and dedication to aviation and his Queens roots will resonate with many of our students. He is the perfect role model for graduates to emulatestarting as an intern in a field he loved at The Port, and working his way through the ranks to run one of the largest transportation systems in the country. During his tenure as director, Mr. Lawrence has successfully led the airport system through a once-in-a-generation transformation, including unprecedented investment in airport facilities, 21st century customer experience, and the implementation of a more effective governance structure. Major components of a new LGA opened, and significant progress continues on a new terminal at Newark Liberty while planning advances on the future redevelopment of JFK. He has consistently been a strategic visionary with the ability to unify staff towards a common vision, establishing a well-deserved reputation as a leader of the highest caliber. Most recently, Mr. Lawrence led the implementation of best-in-class COVID-19 safety protocols at the airports as part of a vision to deliver world-class service at world-class airports. Im excited to speak to this class of graduates, whose hard work during a difficult time is especially impressive, Mr. Lawrence said. From our initial response to the ongoing recovery, the aviation industry has seen an increase in the need for highly skilled professionals. These graduates are entering the workforce at a pivotal and exciting moment and we stand ready to welcome them. Mr. Lawrence holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Florida Institute of Technology and a Masters of Business Administration from Dowling College. He is vice chairman of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) Airport Legislative Alliance, chair of the International Facilitation Sub-committee, and a member of AAAEs Policy Review Committee and the Federal Aviation Administrations Management Advisory Council. He is a member of the board at Airports Council International-North America, the Wings Club Foundation, NYC & Co. and USO Metropolitan of New York, and a member of the NextGen Advisory Committee. Mr. Lawrence is also a licensed pilot. VAUGHN COLLEGE: Founded in 1932, Vaughn College is a private, nonprofit, four-year college that enrolls more than 1,500 students in masters, bachelors and associate degree programs in engineering, technology, management and aviation on its main campus in New York City and online. The student-faculty ratio of 14 to 1 ensures a highly personalized learning environment. Ninety-nine percent of Vaughn College graduates are placed in professional positions, 89 percent in their field of study, or choose to continue their education within one year of graduation. The institution serves many first-generation college students and is recognized by the US Department of Education as a Hispanic-Serving Institution. Vaughn was ranked no. 1 in upward mobility nationwide in a study conducted by The Equality of Opportunity Project. Skilled Nursing Week and Nurses Week are the perfect opportunities for us to express our deepest appreciation and gratitude to our incredible nursing staff. - Heidi Capela, Chief Clinical Officer at Windsor Windsor Care Centers (Windsor), providers of skilled nursing and rehabilitation services across California and Arizona, celebrate National Skilled Nursing Care Week (NSNCW) and National Nurses Week. These week-long events recognize the dedication of front-line healthcare workers and employees. NSNCW, established by the American Health Care Association (AHCA) in 1967, recognizes the essential role of skilled nursing care centers in caring for Americas frail, elderly, and disabled. The week starts each year on Mothers Day and is celebrated through the following Saturday. The theme this year honors the collaborative commitment of skilled nursing care facilities and their staff in providing compassionate care to their residents during this unprecedented time. (American Health Care Association, n.d.) National Nurses Week, an initiative of the International Council of Nurses, began on May 6 and concludes on May 12, Florence Nightingales birthday. Similar to NSNCW, Nurses Week, honors the hard-working essential workers who go above and beyond by caring for others every day. Over the past year, our nursing staff has faced unprecedented challenges, says Heidi Capela, Chief Clinical Officer at Windsor. We are incredibly proud of their dedication and stead-fast commitment to the care and compassion of their residents and patients, day in, and day out. Skilled Nursing Week and Nurses Week are the perfect opportunity for us - the management, residents and family-members - to express our deepest appreciation and gratitude to these incredible people. Windsor care centers across the state have planned daily activities, parties, prizes and themed luncheons for their employee and staff. About Windsor: Windsor Care Centers provide advanced clinical programs in a warm and compassionate environment. From state-of-the-art therapies and preventative interventions for common medical conditions, to customized, patient-specific care plans, Windsor delivers consistent clinical expertise that minimizes hospital readmissions and promotes speedy recovery and discharge. Windsor employs professionals that provide nursing, therapeutic, sub-acute and rehabilitation care. For more information, please contact 310-854-8424. We are setting the precedent for flying UAS at airports and ensuring this valuable tool advances operations safely. Woolpert recently conducted nighttime unmanned aircraft system operations at McGhee Tyson Airport (TYS) in Knoxville, Tenn., under its Federal Aviation Administration Part 107 Waiver 107.29. Woolpert also has earned the first of its kind FAA Class C airspace authorization to operate UAS anywhere on an airfield for Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport (SAV) through the FAA Safety Risk Management process. These clearances are the most recent received by Woolpert to deploy UAS safely and effectively to support and advance airport operations. Woolpert UAS Technology Manager and Team Leader Aaron Lawrence said this waiver and this authorization enable the firm to test strategies for providing perimeter surveillance at TYS and address wildlife management at SAV, respectively. Animal activity presents a threat to airport operations everywhere. Coyotes are always a problem, as are birds and deer, and as you move to different geographies you tend to see other things like gators, Lawrence said. By being able to provide surveillance around the clock, we increase airport safety. Woolpert has been working with SAV for multiple years on integrating UAS into airport operations. The firm recently underwent an FAA Safety Risk Management panel to receive the Class C authorization. Lawrence said that, to his knowledge, this is the first approval of its kind granted by the FAA. During the review, we shared our documented aviation and UAS procedures and experience and our history working with SAV, whose operations officials have been collaborating and supporting this process, Lawrence said. We have logged more than 1,000 hours with UAS in controlled airspace at airports, mostly flown in B, C and D airspace. We are setting the precedent for flying UAS at airports and ensuring this valuable tool advances operations safely. About Woolpert Woolpert is the premier architecture, engineering, geospatial (AEG) and strategic consulting firm, with a vision to become one of the best companies in the world. We innovate within and across markets to effectively serve public, private and government clients worldwide. Woolpert is an ENR Top 150 Global Design Firm, recently earned its fifth-straight Great Place to Work certification and actively nurtures a culture of growth, inclusion, diversity and respect. Founded in 1911 in Dayton, Ohio, Woolpert has been Americas fastest-growing AEG firm since 2015. The firm has over 1,100 employees and 42 offices in three countries. For more, visit woolpert.com. Xplore's Redmond Campus "Xplores 22,000 sq. ft. facility accommodates the research, development, production and operation of 20 spacecraft per year." - Lisa Rich, Founder & COO Xplore Inc., a commercial space company providing Space as a Service today announced they are opening a satellite manufacturing facility in Redmond, Washington. Their new, state-of-the-art campus is a key step in the companys mission to expand mass manufacturing of the XCraft the companys highly-capable, ESPA-class satellite, and the LightCraft, Xplores highly-maneuverable spacecraft for deep space missions. The company will move into its new headquarters in June 2021. Angela Birney, Mayor of the City of Redmond, said, We are delighted that Xplore is establishing its headquarters in Redmond and employing Washington space professionals to grow the space economy. She continued, Redmond is a magnet for vision, technology, and talent. Xplore joins our community of thriving aerospace, high tech, and biotech companies, and thousands of small businesses where over 85,000 people are employed. Thank you for choosing Redmond. Lisa Rich, Founder and Chief Operating Officer said, Xplores 22,000 square foot facility is tailor-made for satellite manufacturing. It is large, expandable, and can currently accommodate the research, development, production and operation of 20 spacecraft per year. We plan to build multiple Xcraft and LightCraft simultaneously. Our clean rooms, electronic fabrication areas, meeting spaces, offices, mission operations center, and enormous high bay will be put to immediate use. Xplore is a one-stop shop that provides mission design, payload integration, testing, launch procurement, mission operations, ground communications and data product distribution all under one roof. Their end-to-end solutions accelerate and streamline missions to space, achieving significant time and cost savings for customers that include commercial companies, NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force. The company is well-funded, beginning manufacturing and expanding its team rapidly. New hires will have the opportunity to work with space veterans who have led many advanced space missions. Xplore has attracted a team of world-class advisors who include Dr. Alan Stern, principal investigator of the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper belt; Dr. Lou Friedman, who founded the Planetary Society with Carl Sagan, Keith Masback, former Army and NGA executive; and Rob Meyerson, operating partner at C5 Capital and member of Axiom Spaces board of directors. Meyerson, who previously served as the President of Blue Origin said, Xplore's new facility further strengthens the Pacific Northwest as the national leader for satellite and spacecraft development. I look forward to seeing the Xcraft and LightCraft in production." Xplore is singularly focused on advancing the commercial space economy with their hosted payload platform and communication relay missions to low Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, Venus, Lagrange points and near-Earth asteroids. The team is rapidly moving toward flight programs and is currently recruiting space professionals. Employees at Xplore enjoy competitive benefits and a friendly work environment. Openings at their Redmond headquarters include operations and engineering roles. Applicants may visit Xplores career page for details. Visit: https://www.xplore.com/careers.html Lisa Rich said, We value our team members and are pleased to offer our employees a highly-unique, hands-on opportunity as we prove out our capabilities and advance the commercial space industry. About Xplore Xplore is a commercial space company offering Space as a Service. Xplore provides hosted payloads, communication relay services and exclusive datasets to its customers via the Xcraft and LightCraft, the companys multi-mission spacecraft. Xplores mission is to expand robotic exploration via commercial missions at and beyond Earth, to the Moon, Mars, Venus, Lagrange points and near-Earth asteroids for commercial companies, national space agencies, national security agencies, sovereign space agencies and non-profit entities. Visit: https://www.xplore.com Four books were selected by a panel of guest judges as the finalists for the 2020 BookLife Prize Nonfiction Contest. One title was chosen from each of the following genres: Self-Help/Relationships, Memoir/Autobiography, Inspirational/Spiritual, and Business/Personal Finance. Here we meet the finalists who are each now in-the-running for the grand prize, which will be announced on May 24. Self-Help/Relationships I Hear Some People Just Have Sex (An Infertility Memoir with an Ambiguous Ending) by Sandra Vasher What the judge said: What an engaging read. I have never struggled with infertility but found myself unable to put down this honest and compassionate memoir about pregnancy and love and learning to survive the unimaginable. Sandra Vashar's voice is so human, I felt that I knew her by the last page of the book. It's filled with important information and valuable guidance, but also with humor and support and kindness. - Celeste Headlee How did you find a balance between telling your own story and providing guidance for others who might be facing infertility? It was important to me for my story to serve as more than just venting, and I wanted to be helpful to other people. Infertility guidance is tricky, though, because no one's experience is the same as any other's. So I tried to focus each chapter on a few broad lessons I had learned and that I thought might apply to other people, and I used my own story to illustrate how those lessons played out in my life. As you were experiencing all that you write about in your book, where did you yourself look to for support, guidance, and wisdom? Therapy! (Partly kidding.) Really, though, infertility can be so lonely, and initially I isolated myself from my friends, family, and even my husband as I dealt with everything. Then later I realized what a mistake that was, and I became a lot better at letting in friends who were willing to listen and those who could help me get out of my head. My husband and I grew a lot together, too, and I think we have become each other's best support system. We are far better now at failing, succeeding, and learning together. Your storytelling is so warm, candid, and funny. How do you think you managed to write so openly about such a painful topic? Actually, this book was easier for me to write than almost anything else I've written because all I had to do was organize my thoughts and be honest about my story. Then it was cathartic to let everything pour out onto the page. I wish my fiction would spill out that way! I had a lot of material, though, so I think that helped. I also believe in the power of vulnerability and letting go of shame, especially when it comes to infertility. Because yes, infertility is a painful topic, but it's not as painful when talking about it can make life better for someone else. When did you first decide to write the book and why? It didn't seem like the right time for me to write this book for a long time, and I wasn't sure I was the right person. Then, exactly when I thought my infertility journey was about to end childless, I got pregnant, and it turned out to be a very high-risk pregnancy. So at that point I realized I needed to write the book before the baby was born, while infertility was still very much a part of my life, and while I was still in touch with how it felt not to know if I would ever have children. I'm glad I took the chance to write and publish it when I did! It would have been challenging to do with a newborn. Any plans to publish the memoir traditionally? I'd love to see this book traditionally published, but I don't have any plans at the moment. What are you working on now? I'm working on an audiobook version of I Hear Some People Just Have Sex, and I'm plugging away at my teen sci-fi/fantasy series, the Mortal Heritance, which I also indie publish. I'm hoping to get the third book in that series published in the fall. Memoir Generation Zero by Sabreet Kang Rajeev What the judge said: In Generation Zero, Sabreet Kang Rajeev explores not just the South Asian immigrant experience, but the weight of having disappointed her father by being born a girl and the toxicity of so-called positive stereotypes that kept her working class family in a kind of hiding and shame. The particular beauty of this book lies in its contradictions and intersections, as Rajeev empathically depicts the heroism and nobility of her immigrant parents, despite having carried the burden of feeling unwanted due to her gender. Both timely and timeless, the once 'voiceless' Rajeevs incredibly intimate voice is a gift. - Gina Frangello When did you start writing Generation Zero? Did you always plan for it to be a published memoir, or did you initially write it as a more personal project? Generation Zero started off as a personal project to understand my immigrant roots. There was a two year stretch in my life where I read almost every immigrant nonfiction book or memoir I could find. Every single book I read, instead of feeling connected, I felt isolated. I was trying to understand how to feel both American and Indian, but the lack of representation made me feel invisible. I could not shake off this feeling that I needed to do something about it. I realized that I needed to write a book. Despite the hardships that you recount in your book, theres more a tone of gratitude pervading the sections than there is bitterness. How did you achieve this? As a Sikh woman, appreciation runs deeply throughout my soul. Regardless of the experiences my parents and I have faced in America, we knew that the grass really isnt greener on the other side. To understand that failure is part of the process of being an immigrant and is something my father has taught me. There was never a problem that wasnt too big or too small that we couldnt solve if we had each other. Every sorrow helped us appreciate our joyous moments more. You write a lot about parental pressures and the push for perfection, which I think many readers will relate to. How have you ultimately reconciled others ideas of what your life should become with your own needs and expectations? In short because I did not fit into my Indian and American identities and always wondered why. Having a hyphenated identity made me realize early on that I was different. My Indian identity isolated me because I did fit into the Smart Indian model minority myth. What I discovered as I tried to figure out my identity was that the larger battle was between my self image and others perception of me, including my parents. No community or person could truly understand what it felt to be me. Since I couldnt perfectly be enough of these identities, the parental pressures I felt for perfection seemed foolish. Can you talk specifically about the stresses that accompany adapting to new cultural expectations while also holding on to those of the old? My parents, like many immigrants, felt a duty to provide financial security for their familyboth their current family and their future children who had not yet been born, my brother and me. Fulfilling that duty required a great sacrifice: leaving India and immigrating to a new country. As the child of immigrant parents, sacrifice and commitment to ones duty is typically the primaryand often onlyway you see love expressed. This results in a mindset that love is something you earn (by fulfilling your duty and making sacrifices) not something youre given just for being born. One of the qualities of Generation Zero thats striking is your ability to both critique and empathize with your family members. Was this a challenge to write honestly about their circumstances and feelings? The chapter "Hidden Pain" had a million and one revisions. I went back and forth with my editors about removing or keep that part in. Ultimately I realized that as I critique members of my family, I paint one narrative. By not providing details on how they have felt would be a story about my truth alone. There are multiple ways to view any one event. Trying to understand the full picture is more time consuming but gives us the beauty of understanding the full picture and how there are multiple sides to any one event or lived experiences in a family. What was the experience like piecing together your family history? What were some of the greatest surprises you encountered in the process? Piecing together my familys history was like playing Jumanji. There were so many intricacies that I could honestly write a trilogy for each member of my family. Learning about my familys history was the biggest emotional adventure I have ever experienced. What surprised me during my journey was how much I empathized and understood every decision my parents have ever made. It was through this journey that I realized that my parents are humans first and my parents after. What do you hope readersparticularly those who might feel voiceless themselvesultimately take away from reading Generation Zero? I hope my readers feel empowered to look within themselves to understand the experiences that make them unique. Never feel embarrassed or ashamed of the traumas you have experienced. You are beautiful and brave. Learn to invest in your relationship with yourself as much as you invest in the relationships you have other others. Love your flaws and strengths and realize the only way to end your suffering is to let your inner voice shine through by becoming self-aware of everything that makes you, well, you. Inspirational/Spiritual How Are You Feeling, Momma? (You Dont Have to Say "I'm Fine") by Shelby Spear and Lisa Leshaw What the judge said: "I appreciated Spears and Leshaws commitment to offering this work as a joint gift to moms. Their different faith backgrounds enriched the reflections and was an example of real-life unity in relationship. In a time where many Americans are divided along the religious and political spectrums, it was refreshing to receive their words. As a momma myself, I found the short chapters honest, approachable, and catalysts of meaningful personal reflection. Thank you, Shelby and Lisa, for creating a work that stitches us closer together in a time of such unraveling. - Ashlee Eiland I'd love to know more about the origins of your book. How did you come to write it together? Spear: After forming a beautiful online friendship, I asked Lisa to join me on a 31-day online writing challenge in 2018 called Psalms for Moms. (She'll try to convince you that I coerced her.) The idea was something God whispered to me during meditation. Since Lisa is Jewish and I am Christian, the Psalms were a perfect reference as we lamented over the many emotions of motherhood in our written reflections. The challenge was so well-received by mommas on Facebook that we decided to compile all the reflections into a book. Lisa and I have yet to meet in person, so we crafted the entire book project remotely. Leshaw: Truth be told, Shelby coerced me after reading one of my stories in Guideposts magazine and a number in Chicken Soup for the Soul. Her coercion was so gracious that I couldn't say no. How did you select the psalms you included? Do you each have a favorite that particularly guides or resonates with you? Spear: As God would have it, my Bible has a chart in the Psalms that lists 31 emotions tied to a specific psalm scripture. Many of our psalms came from that reference, and the rest are hand-picked verses we felt captured the essence of the emotion discussed. Leshaw: Shelby is the psalm whisperer and the chooser of the psalms. If I pick my favorite, she'll likely engage me in a thought-provoking dialogue to try and ascertain the reasons behind my choice. I'll stay within my safe zone by saying that every one of the 31 psalms in our book reached me in my core. If you had to distill the book down to one message for moms, what do you think it would be? Spear: There isn't a mother on earth who doesn't struggle or feel overwhelmed with emotions, so we gain nothing by pretending to be fine when we're not. It's okay not to be okay. It's okay to be honest about how we feel because that's when healing begins. God always knows what's in our hearts anyway and is ready to help. Leshaw: No one is doing it any better than you despite your perceptions otherwise. Motherhood often requires superhuman strength. Together, as a sisterhood, we generate the stamina needed to sustain ourselves. The past year has been so challenging for so many moms. Do you see any silver linings for families who have made it through the worst of the lockdowns? Spear: I am hopeful moms realize their worth and genuinely believe they are more than enough for their kids. Under normal circumstances, we spend far too much time beating ourselves up and holding onto toxic guilt instead of recognizing all the positive things we do for our children. Hopefully, managing a family during a pandemic proves we are stronger and more capable than we give ourselves credit for while also shining a light on how our kids are stronger and more resilient than we may have imagined. Leshaw: To me, seeing ourselves and our children adapt to such challenging, surreal times and being here to talk about it is a testament to our resilience. We'll carry this life lesson into our futures and be stronger for it. Mothers often feel as though they need to 'power through' challenges without expressing their feelings of frustration, fear, or anxiety. Is there power to be found in not having all the answers and not always being "fine?" Spear: I believe there is tremendous power in being vulnerable and transparent about how we feel because choosing to embrace our authentic self is cleansing and life-giving. Pretending and 'powering through' at the expense of our real emotions only depletes us and can lead to more hopelessness. Validating our emotions creates space for other moms to feel seen and heard, which ultimately empowers all of us because we realize we aren't alone in our struggles. Leshaw: We owe ourselves authenticity. That comes in being honest about where we're at emotionally and spiritually. And admitting when we're lost. Not having every answer can lead to a truth-seeking journey. Mothers don't need to have all the answers. Sometimes our children have them; sometimes our friends; always God Do you plan to write more together? Spear: Absolutely! We have also discussed starting a podcast for moms called TALEgate, which would be a place to gather and share real and raw stories about motherhood. Leshaw: I have never been so confident in anything. There will be a second book. Perhaps with quotes from the Torah. Business/Personal Finance Rough Diamonds by Wilfried Vanhonacker What the judge said: My favorite book among the semifinalists is Rough Diamonds. Ive been watching the open education movement grow, and I sit on an advisory committee for a post-graduate communications program, so I care about the topic of education. I also think its a particularly timely topic, as we are all taking a closer look at our education systems and how students learn. Dr. Vanhonacker emphasizes that the goal of post-secondary institutions should be to create lifelong learners who can think critically and adapt to new situations. Even in the span of my career, Ive seen many hard skills replaced by AI, and that rate of replacement is getting faster and faster. I also appreciate that Dr. Vanhonacker isnt afraid to poke at the core pillars of post-secondary education, from the way campuses are designed to the pedagogies professors adopt. There isnt a better time to turn education on its head, and this book spotlights the areas we need to overturn first." - Kiirsten May Can you share a bit about your background as a student, academic, and business professional? I grew up in Belgium in a large family. My siblings and I were the first generation in my entire family to get an education beyond high school. But my parents gave us all the educational opportunities they could afford, and then some they barely could. I was very fortunate in the opportunities I had during my academic career, and I made them count in every way I could for myself, my colleagues, and my students. I lived an academic career that most could only dream about. I had my hands in building two new business schools and was dean of both of them: CEIBS in Shanghai (Chia) and MSM SKOLKOVO in Moscow (Russia). Today, CEIBS is the leading business school in China and MSM SKOLKOVO is the leading private business school in Russia. You write in the book that the ideas you present about our current system of education were formed long before Covid. Nevertheless, what are some lessons that we might take away from the last year? Crises typically do two things: they accelerate history, and they expose cracks that were already there but that are now visible for all to see. Both are huge challenges for education. On one hand, the future is a lot closer now, and we have no time to waste getting ready for it. On the other we need to fix many things but do it with a mindset that is inspired by the future and not one that is frozen in the past. What are some of the lessons we can draw so far? We should not let our past take us hostage. Most educational institutions see the pandemic as just a logistical challenge to their delivery model. They fail to see it as an opportunity to reinvent themselves. We should refocus on our core responsibility: equipping the students in our classes today for the future. We should not just focus on straightening the dominos where they got knocked over. We need to pick them up and see what new pattern we need to put them in. We are ill prepared for fragility events such as a pandemic. We need to future-proof it as well as make it intelligent and agile. What is coming is not a new normal but a new abnormal. For those who havent yet read the book, can you explain what you see as some of the primary flaws in our current model of education? What are some fundamental changes that need to happen going forward? I see seven changes that need to be made in our current model and approach to formal education. We need to move: from efficient delivery to effective learning from a teacher-centric model to a student-centric model from standardized delivery to adapted delivery from vertical, one-way delivery to horizontal, co-learning from passive to active student engagement from discrete, disjointed assessment to continuous, unobtrusive assessment, and from mechanical matching to intelligent matching But we cannot approach any of these with our current, ingrained mindset. We need to fundamentally shift to a lifelong learning mindset, and from there re-engineer formal education. We have a long way to go because, as I write in my book, education has outsourced the learning part to the students. We need to come back from that. What does critical thinking mean to you in our current era of excess information? 'Critical thinking' refers to an ability to think in an independent and inquisitive manner. As I write in my book, one also needs to know the tools and techniques of scientific rigor to become fully information literate. One needs to understand and be able to assess source credibility, convergent validity, false equivalence, etc. Hence, we need a mindset that is critical and inquisitive, and we need a toolbox to help us separate fact from fiction in the misinformation cyclones that are circling around us. Who would you envision as your ideal reader? (Or who do you believe can most benefit from reading your book?) We all (parent, student, educator, policy maker, etc.) have a responsibility when it comes to the education of future generations. If we do not live up to that, not just the future generations lose out but we all do. In that sense everyone will find things in the book that will resonate well and lead to much needed reflection. The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Flamboyan Foundations Arts Fund have jointly established the Letras Boricuas Fellowship, which will support emerging and established Puerto Rican writers of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and childrens literature. Each of the 30 fellowships will come with an unrestricted $25,000 grant, with the first 15 writers to be announced this November. The fellowships are open to Puerto Rican writers living in Puerto Rico and from across the diaspora in the United States. Applications may be submitted in either Spanish or English. The deadline is June 20. The literature of Puerto Ricopoems, memoirs, fiction, nonfiction, and creatively mixed genresis an open window into Puerto Ricos rich and complex cultural lineages, on the island and in diaspora, Mellon Foundation president Elizabeth Alexander said in a statement. Mellons program initiative and funding in Puerto Rico was one of my first commitments when I came to lead the Foundation, and we are now thrilled to partner with our friends at the Flamboyan Foundation to fund the Letras Boricuas Fellowship. Carlos Rodriguez Silvestre, executive director of Flamboyan, added: We cant think of a better way to honor the rich heritage and diversity of Puerto Rican literature in the archipelago and the diaspora than creating a fellowship that lets writers do what they know how to do best. Our Flamboyan Arts Fund recognizes the existing lack of support for this particular sector and the absence of funding opportunities for them in Puerto Rico and abroad. Since 2018, the Mellon Foundation has committed more than $11 million in funding to support the arts and humanities in Puerto Rico, with the Flamboyan Foundation providing more than $10 million of its own in the wake of hurricanes Maria and Irma. The two foundations also worked jointly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to provide $1 million in emergency relief to 89 art organizations and 450 individual artists in Puerto Rico in 2020. WWE NXT REFEREE MISSES TV TAPING TO ARGUE AGAINST MASKS IN FLORIDA SCHOOLS, TOOK PART IN SIMILAR BEHAVIOR WHILE BACKSTAGE LAST WEEK WWE NXT referee Drake Wuertz (aka former Death Match performer Drake Younger) missed last night's NXT taping in order to attend a school board meeting for the Seminole County Public Schools, arguing to the Superintendent that, despite the current COVID-19 pandemic, he should refuse the masking of children in the schools, claiming that the dangers of wearing the masks "outweighs" the dangers of COVID-19 and that by not doing so, he was going against the wishes of God. You can see Wuertz's full remarks below as he basically cuts almost a wrestling promo, claiming the Superintendent has allowed "these precious children to be victims of a tyrannical overreach" - Wuertz also argued against the wearing of masks to protect the health of the teachers in the classroom stating that in Seminole County, "God's country, we put the needs of our children first", citing a biblical verse that states it would be better for an adult to die by drowning than potentially "lead a little one to stumble." He also argued that wearing masks in school assist predators who "wish to prey upon our children" and that by requiring children be masked, they have disrespected the wishes of the parents. Wuertz also claimed that teachers would not be able to identify their own students if the students were forced to be masked. Wuertz missing the taping last night followed a similar instance last week where Wuertz, wearing his WWE NXT gear while backstage at the Capitol Wrestling Center, took part in a Zoom call for the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners, arguing against the local mask mandate being used to protect against COVID-19, citing an online conspiracy theory that "child sex traffickers love COVID masks." Given that WWE has instituted a mask policy for those working for the company, Wuertz publicly arguing against masks while technically in the middle of his work day while wearing company clothing seemed to have turned the tide against him with some who had previously felt he had every right to his opinion, now feeling he lost that right when he was expressing it on company time. Wuertz recently took to his Facebook page to defend his stance, writing, "My wife said some folks are apparently writing about our Radical Views . *Human Trafficking is modern-day slavery and we seek to eradicate it *Abortion is Murder and needs to be Abolished *Children in my community that are being forced by local government to wear masks for 8 hours a day against their parents wishes is abuse. We have a God-ordained duty to speak up for the least of these and petition our magistrates to prevent harm upon children. If this is Radical then label me an extremist for Christ. Were not called to fit in with the world. Were called to serve God!We ought to obey God rather than men. Acts 5:29" A number of WWE talents and staff have expressed concern for Wuertz's actions in recent weeks and a number have pointed to last night's speech as reason for the company to step in, with one source citing a "pattern of behavior that is becoming increasingly concerning." Whether WWE opts to address remains to be seen. If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here! The Defender Europe 21, a large-scale military exercise held in Europe by many NATO countries, kicked off in Estonia on May 5, local time. It will be conducted in 16 European countries with approximately 28,000 military personnel involved. Senior Colonel Du Wenlong, a military expert, believes that NATO countries have deliberately chosen Estonia, which abuts Russia, as the country for the opening of the Defender Europe 21 exercise, in order to show the outside world that this military move targets Russia and NATO can pose a direct threat to Russia in the border areas through large-scale military mobilization and various exercises. The Defender Europe 21 exercise is claimed to be the largest one in Europe by the US-led NATO countries in the past 25 years. The Biden administration intends to use this large-scale exercise to strengthen military ties with NATO allies and further strengthen its strategic encirclement around Russia. The Biden administration has inherited the so-called great power competition strategy and the strategy of confronting Russia from the previous administrations, and it has also continued to restore relations with its European allies. Under such circumstances, large-scale exercises can not only reflect the US government's tough attitude towards Russia, unite NATO countries to encircle Russia, and also further strengthen the military ties between the US and NATO allies. In response, Russias Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has said on April 27 that the actions of the US and NATO in Europe are increasing regional military risks, and Russia pays close attention to the movement and deployment of NATO forces in Europe. Du Wenlong said that various large scale exercises against Russia conducted by European countries under the leadership of the US will inevitably escalate the mutual mistrust between the US and Russia and between Europe and Russia. The smell of gunpowder in the US-Russia confrontation and Russia-Europe confrontation will also grow stronger. Such large-scale drills will lead to increased military risks in the region. If NATO involves live ammunition in various exercises and conducts operations in accordance with the actual combat plan, Russia will inevitably conduct corresponding drills. If their drill areas overlap in the air and at sea, it is easy to cause conflicts. As the US and NATO conduct large-scale drill, potential regional risks are gradually increasing. Editor's note: This article is originally published on military.cnr.cn, and is translated from Chinese into English and edited by the China Military Online. The information, ideas or opinions appearing in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of eng.chinamil.com.cn. The news from Jerusalem is depressingly familiar. An emotionally charged landlord-tenant dispute headed for Israel's Supreme Court has become a cause celebre. The "international community" has decided to chime in. Anti-Israel activists and NGOs outrageously accuse Israel of ethnic cleansing. Arab radicals use it as an excuse to terrorize civilians. Hamas terrorists launch missiles into residential neighborhoodsthis time barraging Jerusalem itself. Life is getting back to normal, and not a day too soon. But scientists warn that another pandemic could smack us. While we're letting down our guard, the federal government should be preparing for that possibility. The 581,000 deaths and economic destruction our nation suffered were caused more by unpreparedness and poor decision-making than by the virus itself. President Joe Biden is riding high in the polls for his handling of the pandemic, but a closer look shows he's flubbing protecting us from a future germ threat. Biden and congressional Democrats consider preparedness a lower priority than new cradle-to-grave entitlements, racial equity and other politically correct causes. They're also ignoring the threat from China. On Wednesday, Biden will discuss his $4 trillion spending spree with congressional leaders. Less than 1% is for equipping the U.S. with early disease detection, building a domestic supply chain, stockpiling masks and other supplies, readying nursing homes and hospitals and other readiness measures. Biden warns it's "likely" his administration will face another biological threat. But his spending plan makes preparedness a far lower priority than eliminating local control of zoning and expanding multifamily housing in suburban areas, or replacing fossil fuels, gas prices be damned. Biden is also punting on the origins of the virus -- a dangerous decision if China turns out to be the culprit instead of nature. China is stonewalling, denying access to patient data and records from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The Institute was researching how to make viruses found in nature more contagious and lethal to humans. Congressional Republicans are calling on the Biden administration to pressure China directly instead of relying on the World Health Organization. "The world deserves answers," insists Iowa Republican Joni Ernst. Biden suggests that the U.N. and the World Health Organization will help keep America safe next time. It's fairytale thinking. He proposes a new position in the office of the U.N. secretary-general to "respond to biological threats." He also suggests strengthening International Health Regulations, which China broke when it concealed from the world that the coronavirus spreads human to human. As if words on paper will matter when WHO has shown it will go along with China's deceptions. Biden even seems poised to surrender the United States' primacy in vaccine development in favor of what his Pandemic Preparedness Plan calls "multilateral vaccine development and distribution." Vaccine sharing. That would be suicide for the U.S., but it sheds light on Biden's reckless offer last week to suspend patent protection on COVID-19 vaccines. Advocates of global vaccine sharing claim "nobody wins the race until everybody wins." They want countries to limit their own vaccinations until all countries have doses. Agreeing to such a scheme in a future pandemic would prevent America from ever getting to herd immunity and rebounding. Right now, Biden says he's willing to go along with a World Trade Organization request to suspend patent protection to help poor countries. Congressional Democrats, fueled by an ideology that deplores profits in health care, pressed for it. It's senseless. These countries lack manufacturing capacity, know-how and raw materials to make shots, even with the recipe. Instead, Biden's proposal would hand a gift to China on a silver platter. China has been waging vaccine diplomacy, offering shots to poor countries like Chile and Bolivia. But it's that China refused to publish clinical data. Studies by other countries show China's most widely distributed vaccine, Sinovac, works only 50% of the time. Biden's proposal would enable China to manufacture vaccines that work. No wonder E.U. leaders ridiculed Biden's move. It would tell vaccine manufacturers to forget about researching booster shots or a vaccine against a future germ, sabotaging future U.S. readiness. There's no predicting the next pandemic. But Biden should make readiness a priority. He should also install competent people at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which failed us on testing, masking and school reopenings, to name a few. If the U.S. is prepared and government performs competently, a new contagion reaching our shores doesn't have to lead to another preventable catastrophe. COPYRIGHT 2021 CREATORS.COM Democrats have already passed H.R. 1, also known as the For the People Act, in the House of Representatives; fortunately, the bill faces a much tougher road in the Senate. Among the bills many serious problems are a wide array that I would characterize as mechanical, in the sense that they dictate the nuts and bolts of how states would run elections. H.R. 1 attempts to dictate these elements in a way that is either impossible to put into effect or would gut the effective administration of elections. One example is how H.R. 1 dictates, through its Section 1621, that states must deal with signature verification a cornerstone of election security, especially with the growth of mail-in balloting. A bit of context is in order. Today, most states have a variety of security steps to protect their elections, such as requiring voters to show a picture I.D. or list their drivers license number on mail-in ballots. However, in parts of H.R. 1 other than Section 1621, many of these current security practices are outlawed. You read that right outlawed. For example, the 36 states that today require voter I.D. would be banned from imposing such requirements. It is apparently irrelevant to the drafters of H.R. 1 that every category of Americans supports voter I.D. to secure elections, including Democrats, blacks, and Hispanics. So its important to realize as one considers the signature-verification rules in Section 1621 that other forms of security are not taking its place rather, under H.R. 1 those other forms of security would be stripped from state laws. Back to Section 1621: It would require the agreement of at least two judges, including at least one from each party, to reject a ballot-signature match. Typically, when mail-in or absentee ballots are reviewed and verified, two judges, one from each major party, are called on to compare the signature on the returned ballot with the signature on file in the voter rolls. Either judge can question whether the signatures match. H.R. 1 puts forth a new standard: In order to reject a ballot based on an unverifiable or incorrect signature, both judges would have to agree that the signature on the ballot is questionable. Since the standard operating procedure in most localities is that two judges be present, H.R. 1 essentially states that the authorization of only one judge is needed to approve signatures, regardless of how they compare with the signatures on file. This failure of election mechanics opens the door to a partisan veto built into the process. H.R. 1 would devastate the effectiveness of signature verification, as regardless of any issues with signatures no matter how clear or evident either party could choose to verify any amount of dubious signatures. This is a truly dangerous standard. In essence, it will allow either party to decide to approve any mail-in ballots based on the signatures provided. Without the agreement of judges from both parties, any and all ballots would count, regardless of evidence suggesting that the signatures are fraudulent. Further, there is nothing in the bill to prevent either party at the local, state, or national level from encouraging its election judges to refrain from rejecting ballots. One could argue, convincingly, that an election judge would be violating his oath if he were to refuse to reject dubious ballots. But there is no enforcement mechanism to force judges to render unbiased decisions on this issue; they would be making personal determinations. Thus, there would simply be no consequence for judges making politicized decisions on ballot signatures. In short, Section 1621 of H.R. 1 would open up our elections to partisan interference and fraud. By intentionally barring even the most basic verification of mail-in ballots, H.R. 1 would worsen Americans distrust of our election system. Section 1621 is one important reason but far from the only one why H.R. 1 is wrong for America and should be defeated. Good morning, its Wednesday, May 12, 2021. On this date in 1883, Mark Twains publisher released Life on the Mississippi, a biographical account of his boyhood. Many of its stories had appeared eight years earlier in The Atlantic Monthly and this book was published while Twain was working on a sequel to his 1876 classic, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. That novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, would appear in 1884. In revisiting his youth, Twain saw the need to refresh his memories by returning to a place he hadnt been to in 21 years -- to see the river again, and the steamboats, and such of the boys as might be left. In a moment Ill have more on this poignant memoir, which I wrote about several years ago. First, Id point you to RCPs front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors: * * * To Curb Extremists Power, Abolish Partisan Primaries. Nick Troiano offers this prescription for our unhealthy politics. The Elephant and Donkey Go Plunging Over the Cliff. Charles Lipson laments the path both parties are intent upon following. H.R. 1 Would Eliminate Key Signature Verification Safeguard. Ken Cuccinelli writes that a provision of the For the People Act allows just one judge to approve a questionable mail-in ballot signature, which would override a second judges objection. Did Biden Reopen Old Wounds for Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan? At RealClearHistory, Mustafa Tuncer argues that the presidents genocide declaration will make it harder to unite the peoples of the oft-troubled region. Dont Give Up on Soft Power. At RealClearPolicy, Ev Ehrlich reminds U.S. leaders to wield American culture and values as assets in our relationship with China. Legislation Would Target Women Retailers on Sites Like Etsy. Also at RCPolicy, Krisztina Pusok and Edward Longe assail an unintended consequence of the INFORM Act, which requires transparency in eCommerce. How to Adapt to the Hybrid Workplace Future. At RealClearMarkets, Daniel Freedman outlines ways to preserve the benefits of remote work while also unifying employees under a common company culture. Regulatory Loopholes Worsen the Opioid Crisis. RealClearHealth editor Jerry Rogers warns that rules for implementing the STOP Act will allow opioids to continue being shipped into the U.S. via the postal service. Liberty Funds Mission More Vital Than Ever. At RealClears American Civics portal, Mike Sabo highlights the many resources offered by the Indianapolis-based civic institution. * * * Life on the Mississippi opens with a physical description of the great waterway and spends a couple of chapters on the political history of the river, at least from the time white men discovered it in 1542. But it is Twain's own history the reader is drawn to, and by Chapter 4, titled The Boys Ambition, the story is off and running: When I was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a steamboatman. We had transient ambitions of other sorts, but they were only transient. When a circus came and went, it left us all burning to become clowns. Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. These ambitions faded out, each in its turn; but the ambition to be a steamboatman always remained. As Samuel Clemens, he briefly attained this ambition. As Mark Twain, he did, too -- for the purposes of this book. He persuades steamboat captain Horace Bixby, his old mentor, to let him apprentice once again. Bixby himself doesnt seem much changed, at least to Twain. (Why, Horace, you are as young as ever, says Twain as he shook hands with his old friend. Its a curious thing to leave a man 35 years old, and come back at the end of 21 years and find him still 35.) Yet nothing, really, is the same, not even the river, and certainly not the author. As they travel upriver from New Orleans, Twain finds the banks of the Mississippi so altered he cannot locate any of his favorite landmarks. The dozen riverboats per hour he saw as a young man are now a tickle: fewer than half that number in an entire day. One morning, they spotted only a single riverboat, and its name The Mark Twain -- suggests time travel more than a river tour. The story is nostalgic and wonderful, but in the end this journey is also about progress and change and how the currents of human history flow as inexorably as the great river. At the storys conclusion, Twain leaves the Mississippi by train for another, more modern world: We struck the home trail now, and in a few hours were in that astonishing Chicago -- a city where they are always rubbing the lamp, and fetching up the genii, and contriving and achieving new impossibilities. Carl M. Cannon Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics @CarlCannon (Twitter) ccannon@realclearpolitics.com In the 19th century, when political parties worried about voters who couldnt speak English or read campaign flyers, they adopted animal symbols. Despite originally being a symbol of ridicule, the Democratic Party came to embrace its inner donkey. Likewise, the Republican Party grew to love the elephant. It was an easy way to identify their candidates. Today, the elephant and donkey are less-beloved mascots and more like Wile E. Coyote, who continually plummets over the cliff in futile pursuit of the Roadrunner. The GOP pachyderm took the plunge on Jan. 6. Outgoing President Donald Trump sat unsteadily atop the beast, where he remains, and contributed mightily to losing two Senate seats in Georgia. His behavior after the November election alienated many undecided voters and even some erstwhile supporters. He fumed and fulminated, contested the election results without winning in court, and stampeded GOP congressional leaders over the size of the next round of stimulus checks. His refusal to accept certified vote totals challenged basic constitutional norms. That behavior hurt the candidates he ostensibly backed in Georgia, costing his party its Senate majority. Outgoing Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was furious and said so publicly. Most of his Republican colleagues agreed but remained silent. They knew Trump would retaliate for any criticism and his die-hard supporters would back him. The giant splat of the elephant hitting the canyon floor was the sound of Republicans losing the upper chamber. That loss has had immense political consequences. It is the dominant fact of Joe Bidens presidency so far. The only way to moderate his agenda, aside from court decisions, would have been Republican control of the Senate. With their slender majority, Democrats gained control of all Senate committees and held the sole power to conduct hearings and subpoena witnesses. Since Democrats already controlled the House of Representatives, albeit narrowly, they found themselves in control of both Capitol Hill and the White House. That gave them free rein, something donkeys are unused to, and they used it to reign freely. They proceeded to do exactly what Trump had done after November: gallop at full speed toward the cliffs edge. The Democrats seized the moment. Damn what they told the electorate in the run-up to November, when Joe Biden sat frozen in his basement, read (poorly) from a teleprompter, avoided press conferences (with no pushback from partisan journalists), and promised to govern as a bipartisan president who would work as hard for those who voted against him as he did for those who supported him. Remember those campaign promises? Thanks to those surprising Georgia victories, he didnt have to keep them, and he hasnt. He and his party made a fundamental choice to use their momentary advantage to push through every progressive proposal on their wish list. Opportunities like this are rare. The decision to go big and fast seems to have been based on the Democrats revisionist notion that Barack Obama had not accomplished enough in his first two years, when he held similar control on Capitol Hill. Although Obamacare was a huge achievement, it was the presidents only big win. This time, Democrats wanted to accomplish much more. Even though they lacked a national mandate for large changes, they have rammed through liberal bills on party-line votes. They aim to lock in their new legislation, making it virtually impossible for a future Republican president and Congress to repeal it. They would even consider changing both the legislature and federal courts to solidify their partys long-term control. With this ambitious agenda in mind, the Democrats strapped a wobbly, aging, and none-too-clever Joe Biden atop their donkey and whipped it ahead at full speed. They know the path almost certainly leads them over an electoral cliff. They nearly lost the House in 2020, and, despite the presidents current popularity, most observers expect them to lose it next year. While they certainly hope to avoid that disaster, they have decided to accept the risk so they can accomplish big things during this fleeting moment. Democratic leaders have decided their party should: Not moderate their legislative proposals or compromise with Republicans. Pass as many large, progressive policies on their wish list as possible, even if voters oppose them and the policies lack a broad national consensus. Make their new policies permanent by making them entitlements, which are difficult to repeal. Convert their temporary advantage on Capitol Hill into a long-term one, if possible, by adding two new states (expected to add four additional Democratic senators) and packing the federal courts (expected to override existing conservative judicial majorities). Progressives may not achieve all these goals, but they are determined to try. So far, Biden is going along for the ride. Democrats could never have attempted these policies without control of the Senate. For that, they thank Donald Trump every day. Silently, of course. GOP office holders are silent, too. They cant utter that obvious truth since Trump still controls the party, not in some titular sense but in a very real one. Any Republican he opposes will face a serious primary opponent. If history is any guide, the insurgent is likely to win. So, unhappy Republican incumbents (and major party donors) grumble behind the scenes and worry about whether Trump will run again in 2024. Until he decides, he blocks the partys next crop of presidential candidates. None can afford to incur Trumps wrath since they need his voters. While Republicans try to scrape their elephant off the canyon floor and revive it, Democrats are busy propelling their donkey toward the same precipice. They have logged on to Acme Supply and ordered truckloads of anvils, boomerangs, and clever traps. As Wile E. Coyote would say, Genius. The Internet is awash in hot takes about what is perniciously, existentially wrong with the Trump-era GOP and the partys disturbing willingness to embrace the Big Lie of election fraud as its new purity test. But what is missed almost entirely in the diagnosis of what ails the party are not the symptoms, but the root cause driving all of it: Our broken election system is empowering a small fraction of voters to wield an outsized influence in party primaries and push our leaders to the extremes. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy knows that former President Trumps incitement of violence on Jan. 6 was an affront to our democracy. He said as much days after the attack: The president bears responsibility for [the] attack on Congress by mob rioters. But aspiring-Speaker McCarthy has come to accept Trumps staying power, and is facilitating the ousting of Rep. Liz Cheney as conference chair because she defended the rule of law. Similarly, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis knows that mail-in ballots are not ripe with fraud. In 2018, 53,000 more Republicans voted by mail in Florida than Democrats enough to help deliver DeSantis his ultimate vote margin of just 32,463. But presidential-hopeful DeSantis has bowed to the myth that greater voting access benefits Democrats, and recently signed into law new voting restrictions, including on mail-in ballots. Why are McCarthy, DeSantis, and so many other Republican leaders running to the fringe? Why doesnt defending democracy seem to matter to them, or telling the truth? Because the incentives for gaining and maintaining political power matter more. Their actions lead us to the answer: If we want to save the Republican Party from its authoritarian, anti-truth spiral and taking the rest of our country down with it we must change todays political incentives by solving the primary problem in our politics. While a majority of Republicans (55%) believe the 2020 election outcome was the result of illegal voting or election rigging, only 26% of all Americans do. Those figures mean that while campaigning on a conspiracy theory wont win a competitive general election, it may be necessary to win a Republican primary. Our leaders are keenly aware of this fact. The vast majority of congressional seats lean heavily Democratic or Republican, and in these districts the primary is the only election that actually matters. Very few voters participate, and those who do tend to be more partisan and ideologically extreme. In fact, in 2020, just 10% of all voters effectively decided 83% of all congressional elections in the primaries, according to a report by the Unite America Institute, an organization I run. Just look at what happened in the 2020 GOP primaries: Former Rep. Denver Riggleman was tossed out of office by just 2,500 Republican delegates in a Virginia church parking lot during a drive-thru convention in favor of a candidate who referred to COVID-19 as a phony pandemic. Former Rep. Scott Tipton was primaried in Colorado by Lauren Boebert, who on the morning of the Jan. 6 insurrection tweeted: Today is 1776. In open seats, widely covered Stop the Steal freshmen Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Madison Cawthorn won primary run-offs with 8% and 5% support, respectively, from all eligible voters in their districts sealing their victories in solidly Republican districts months before Election Day. Of course, any system that is, by its design, producing unrepresentative outcomes can be redesigned to produce more representative outcomes. Alaska voters did just that by passing a major electoral reform at the ballot last November that will replace their states partisan primaries with a single nonpartisan primary beginning in 2022. Under this new system, voters select their preferred candidate regardless of party in the primary, the top four finishers advance to the general election, and whoever earns majority support -- through a ranked-choice instant runoff, if necessary -- wins. The impact of the Alaska reform was immediate. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who is up for reelection next year, voted to convict former President Trump in his impeachment trial knowing full well that her decision will be judged by all of the voters she represents, not just the base of her party, in the next election. Notably, the same goes for three House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump; they come from the only two other states with nonpartisan primaries, California and Washington. Even if a fringe group of activists and conspiracy mongers want to make the GOP an anti-democratic cult of personality that denies basic facts, most Republicans do not. The same poll that found widespread belief in 2020 election fraud also found that 70% of Republicans believe it is important for government to make it easier for people to vote. America needs a healthy Republican Party, including to check the ideological extremism of the left, which is driven by Democrats own primary problem. We will not get that healthy party, however, until we cure the underlying electoral disease. The most important thing we can do to protect our democracy is to exercise it by adopting nonpartisan electoral reforms at the ballot and through state legislatures across the country to abolish partisan primaries and give all voters more voice, more choice, and more power in their elections. In a political system where elections truly represent the will of the people, big lies wont have such long legs. FILE - In this April 13, 2021, file photo, kindergarten students participate in a classroom activity on the first day of in-person learning at Maurice Sendak Elementary School in Los Angeles. All 4-year-olds in California could go to kindergarten for free under a new proposal Wednesday, May 12, 2021, from Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration, part of a broad new education spending package made possible by the state's surprise budget surplus. Athens, GA (30605) Today Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High 83F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Variable clouds with showers and scattered thunderstorms. Storms more numerous this evening. Low around 70F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%. John Koopmann, a Lake Host at Spofford Lake, in Spofford, N.H., talks with Michael Collier, from Walpole, N.H., about places the boat has been before the boat goes into the water on Tuesday, June 8, 2021. General Assignment Reporter Chris Mays is a general assignment reporter for the Brattleboro Reformer. He has been with New England Newspapers Inc. since 2012. Brattleboro, VT (05301) Today A mix of clouds and sun. High near 80F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Mainly clear. Low 51F. Winds light and variable. Christian Sheckler South Bend Tribune SOUTH BEND Theres no dispute over whether Kyle Doroszko shot and killed 19-year-old Traychon Taylor in April 2019. Instead, Doroszkos murder trial will hinge on whether he acted in self-defense by opening fire when Taylor and his friends tried to rob him at gunpoint, and whether he was legally allowed to protect himself with deadly force even though he was selling marijuana. Doroszkos trial opened this week in a case that could test Indianas self-defense law, which at face value denies people the right to use force to protect themselves while engaged in even nonviolent or low-level crimes. There wont be any dispute Kyle Doroszko was a drug dealer in South Bend and set up a deal to sell drugs, prosecutor Stanley Levco said in his opening statement Tuesday. What is in dispute is whether Kyle Doroszko could shoot Traychon Taylor and not be held legally responsible for his death. According to police and court records, the April 28, 2019, shooting came after Doroszko, then 19, set up a deal to sell two ounces of marijuana to Jeremiah Williams, a friend of Taylor, for $400. But Williams and Taylor planned to rob Doroszko instead. Doroszko and a 17-year-old friend arrived at the meeting place behind Franks Place bar and liquor store, at Marion and William streets, in an SUV. When Taylor, Williams and two other friends arrived in a car, Taylor got in the back of the SUV. Inside the SUV, according to Doroszko, Taylor tried to rob him. At the same time, at least one of Taylors friends approached the vehicle with a gun. Doroszko shot Taylor three times during a struggle, and the SUV sped away, while one of Taylors friends, Atlantis Branch, fired at least three shots at the vehicle. Taylor fell from the SUV and lay in the middle of William Street. This is not a murder case; this is a self- defense case, one of Doroszkos attorneys, John Kindley, said in his opening statement, saying his client was ambushed by four armed men who threatened his life and the life of his best friend. Doroszkos lawyers will try to show he was protecting himself and his friend from death or injury and were the victims of a forcible felony, which are legal justifications for the use of deadly force. His attorneys said Taylor put a gun to the back of Doroszkos head before the shooting started. One witness said he saw Taylors friends picking up items from around where he lay after the shooting, but the witness did not know if there was a gun. Even if Doroszko was using force to protect himself, prosecutors will argue, state law takes away his right to self-defense because he was engaged in a crime. Indiana courts have struggled to interpret the law, with appellate judges finding a literal reading would lead to absurd results. For example, self-defense would not be an option for someone playing in an illegal card game. Most recently, state appellate courts have said a person can be barred from self-defense if their crime has an immediate causal connection to a violent confrontation. Arguments in Doroszkos trial will focus on the extent to which Doroszkos marijuana dealing caused the confrontation that led to Taylors death. The trial continues Wednesday. U.S. health advisers endorsed use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in kids as young as 12 on Wednesday just as planned new guidelines say it's OK for people of any age to get a coronavirus shot at the same time as other needed vaccinations. The shots will let kids safely attend camps this summer and help assure a more normal return to classrooms next school year, concluded advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "And this is another way to get closer to ending this horrible pandemic, said adviser Dr. Camille Kotton of Harvard Medical School. The sprint to vaccinate millions of middle and high school students has already started in parts of the country, as a long line of kids rolled up their sleeves in suburban Atlanta for a first dose Wednesday. It just felt like a flu shot, honestly, said Meredith Rogers, 14, from Decatur, Georgia, after getting her vaccination. Michelle Rogers, Merediths mother, said she hoped the youth vaccinations would help bring some normalcy back. A little apprehensive, but you know what? This is a step towards getting life back to normal so, were all in, Michelle Rogers said with a slight fist pump. Pfizer's vaccine has been used for months in people 16 and older, and earlier this week the Food and Drug Administration cleared its use for those as young as age 12. But before rolling it out to the younger kids, much of the nation was awaiting recommendations from CDC's advisers and the panel concluded the same dose adults use is safe and strongly protective in those 12 to 15 years old, too. The CDC rapidly accepted its advisers' recommendation. A key question: Is it OK to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at the same doctors visit as people receive some routine vaccinations? That's an urgent back-to-school concern especially for the 12- to 15-year-olds, who have missed out on regularly scheduled vaccines during the pandemic but it's an issue for adults, too. The CDC until now has recommended not getting other vaccinations within two weeks of a COVID-19 shot, mostly as a precaution so that safety monitors could spot if any unexpected side effects cropped up. But the CDC said Wednesday it is changing that advice because the COVID-19 vaccines have proved very safe and that health workers can decide to give another needed vaccine at the same time for people of any age. The need for catch-up vaccination in coordination with COVID-19 vaccination is urgent as we plan for safe return to school, CDC's Dr. Kate Woodworth told the panel, citing millions of missed doses of vaccines against tetanus, whooping cough and other health threats. The American Academy of Pediatrics on Wednesday also urged that kids 12 and older get the Pfizer vaccine and agreed that it's fine to give more than one vaccine at the same time, especially for kids who are behind on their regular vaccinations. Children are far less likely than adults to get seriously ill from COVID-19 -- but they do sometimes die, and thousands have been hospitalized. By last month, those ages 12 to 17 were making up slightly more of the nations new coronavirus infections than adults over 65, a group thats now largely vaccinated. The two-dose vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was studied in more than 2,000 kids ages 12 to 15. There were no cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated kids compared with 16 in the group given dummy shots. Kids also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than vaccinated adults. Side effects are the same as adults experience, mostly sore arms and flu-like fever, chills or aches that signal the immune system is revving up. CDC's advisers did caution that those temporary shot reactions may be even more common if people get a COVID-19 shot at the same time as another vaccination. President Joe Biden hailed Wednesday's vote, noting that means 17 million more people in the U.S. now qualify to get vaccinated. I encourage their parents to make sure they get the shot, he said. As I promised last week, were ready. This new population is going to find the vaccine rollout fast and efficient. In addition to the mass vaccination sites and health department rollouts that were key for adults, many states will be offering kids more familiar options -- shipping doses to pediatricians and even to schools. Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize. As for even younger children, both companies have begun tests in youngsters ages 6 months to 11 years. Those studies explore if different doses are needed at the youngest ages, and FDA plans to hold a public meeting next month to debate exactly what evidence is needed. ___ AP reporters Ron Harris in Decatur, Georgia, and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institutes Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. In a few minutes of legislative fun during the lingering pandemic, the state House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a bill that would proclaim pizza the State Food. The appetizing legislation would place the popular lunch or dinner or cold breakfast in the State Register & Manual along side the State Bird (American Robin), the State Mammal (sperm whale), the State Insect (Praying Mantis), the State Hero (Nathan Hale) and the State Heroine (Prudence Crandall). In light of the difficult year the state has suffered and experienced, this bill can hopefully bring some levity to all of our lives and residents of this great state where pizza has played such a great role, said Rep. Dan Fox, D-Stamford, co-chairman of the Government Administration & Elections Committee. After introducing the bill, Fox touted his local pizzerias, including the landmark Colony and Ninos Pizza in Darien. Pizza serves as a source of pride, appreciation and can be a source of economic promotion, Fox said, stressing their plethora of independently owned pizzerias throughout the state. It has brought us many good times and good food. After a brief 15-minute debate, in which Rep. Tim Ackert, R-Coventry briefly suggested another state favorite, from the briny deep, is a high-profile treat in southeastern Connecticut. Not that Im a fan of pizza, I think that as a matter of fact, lobster roll was actually brought, that it was made, it was actually invented, so to say, if you want to call invented in Connecticut, Ackert said. I thought Coventry was going to be the pizza capital of Connecticut, because weve got five pizza joints in the tiny town of Coventry. Lets not fool ourselves here, New Haven is the capital of pizza, said Rep. Kurt Vail, R-Stafford. New Haven is the pizza capital of the world, and thus I think this is a good bill. Veteran state Rep. Pat Dillon, from New Haven, the cradle of the states pizza civilization celebrated on Wooster Street, said she and state Sen. Gary Winfield filed the legislation to highlight the food in what has been a tough COVID pandemic. You cannot go wrong with Connecticut pizza, she said. To be honest I was partly interested because we have had such a difficult year and sometimes we take the good things for granted. Connecticuts good at pizza. You cannot go wrong with Connecticut pizza and this celebrates not just the food, but people who can create joy by making things with their hands, and also a food that generally, I think, you should not eat alone. Its something that celebrates community. We can eat pizza in good times and in sad times. Other lawmakers gushed over their pizzerias in Milford, Ellington, New Canaan, Norwalk, and even upstate Willington, Ashford and Tolland. I see we need a field trip to try all the great pizzas we have in this state, said the culinary embracing state Rep. Michelle Cook, D-Torrington, who was acting as House speaker for the debate. And the speaker has never had a slice of cold pizza, for the record. The bill passed 131-9 and was immediately transmitted to the Senate for action as early as Wednesday night, possible after a dinner of take-out pizza. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT When Its More Than Just Your Parkinsons TORRINGTON A veteran sergeant with the police force was terminated Tuesday for allegations of excessive force against an individual in police custody last May, the departments police chief announced Wednesday. Chief William Baldwin said Sgt. Gerald Jay Peters, who was with the police department for 19 years, was terminated in connection with a May 23, 2020, incident where he used pepper spray. Peters maintains that he did not violate department policy. Body camera footage from the incident, released by the department Wednesday from two officers at different angles, shows a man in handcuffs, sitting in a wheelchair. I will beat the (expletive) out of you, bro, the individual in handcuffs can be heard saying on the footage. Keep threatening the officers, youre going to get sprayed, Peters can be heard responding, referring to his department-issued pepper spray. Seconds later, as the man is responding to Peters, the footage appears to show Peters use his pepper spray on the handcuffed man. The sergeant gave no warning to other officers before spraying. The footage then appears to show Peters grab the man by the back of the neck and pull him to the ground. Weve had enough, Peters can be heard saying on the footage while the man is cuffed, face down. Are you done yet? Are you done yet? Are you done with the kicking and the fighting with the officers? Are you done yet? Are you finished? Youre going to go in a cell, youre going to relax, and then youll be treated like a gentleman after you knock it off. Baldwin said the man who was pepper sprayed did not have any significant injuries. On Wednesday, Peters read a statement to members of the media and said that the videos capture just seconds of action and not all of the facts and circumstances present that led to my actions. I maintain that I acted in accordance with department policy and didnt do anything wrong, Peters said. Its unclear if Peters intends to appeal his termination, but he said he has retained the services of an attorney. At least four other officers can be seen on the body camera footage that day. None of them said or did anything to stop Peters actions. A police accountability bill, passed in Connecticut last year, now requires police officers to intervene and report another officers use of excessive force. The bill also prohibits retaliatory action against the intervening officer. Under the bill, any police or correction officers who fails to intervene in this type of incident may be prosecuted and punished for the same acts as the officer who used unreasonable, excessive, or illegal force in accordance with criminal liability for acts of another, the bill states. Baldwin said a shift commander reviewed the incident, found the sergeant to have violated department policy and reported it to his supervisors, who launched an internal investigation. It was determined, based upon the significant of the event, that a criminal review would be conducted, Baldwin said. The case was brought to the Litchfield States Attorney, who requested Connecticut State Police investigate the use of force. When state police finished the investigation, Baldwin said, it was decided no criminal charges would be brought against Peters. Torrington police launched an outside, independent investigation into the matter. Baldwin said that probe, which wrapped up in April, reiterated the findings of the internal review, finding Peters used excessive force in violation of department policy. This does not reflect on the professionalism of the hardworking men and women who continue to support and protect the members of his community, upholding the standards that they took an oath to perform, Baldwin said. I will continue to uphold my officers to the highest standards of this profession and agency. WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans sought to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 insurrection during a rancorous congressional hearing Wednesday, painting the Trump supporters who attacked the building as mostly peaceful patriots and downplaying repeatedly the violence of the day. Democrats, meanwhile, clashed with Donald Trump's former Pentagon chief about the unprepared government response to a riot that began when hundreds of Trump loyalists bent on overturning the election broke through police barriers, smashed windows and laid siege to the building. The colliding lines of questioning, and a failure to settle on a universally agreed-upon set of facts, underscored the challenges Congress faces as it sets out to investigate the violence and government missteps. The House Oversight Committee hearing unfolded just after Republicans in the chamber voted to remove Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership post for rebuking Trump for his false claims of election fraud and his role in inciting the attack. Former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, testifying publicly for the first time about Jan. 6, defended their agencies' responses to the chaos. But the hearing almost immediately devolved into partisan bickering about how that day unfolded, with at least one Republican brazenly stating there wasnt an insurrection at all. I find it hard to believe the revisionist history that's being offered by my colleagues on the other side," Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat, proclaimed in exasperation. The violence of that day is well-established, particularly after an impeachment trial that focused on the clashes between rioters and police that left officers beaten and bloodied, including one who was crushed between a door and another shocked with a stun gun before he had a heart attack. Some of the insurrectionists threatened to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence and menacingly called out for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in an apparent effort to find her in the building. But Republican lawmakers on the committee sought to refocus the hearing's attention away from those facts, repeatedly equating the insurrection with violence in American cities last summer that arose from racial justice protests that they said Democrats had failed to forcefully condemn. Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona played video footage of violence outside the federal courthouse in Portland last summer. Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia said that while there were some rioters on Jan. 6, it was a bold-faced lie to call it an insurrection and likened it in some ways to a normal tourist visit. In ways that fundamentally rewrote the facts of the day and the investigations that resulted, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona said the Justice Department was harassing peaceful patriots." He described Ashli Babbit, a California woman who was fatally shot by an officer during the insurrection after climbing through the broken part of a door, as having been "executed, even though prosecutors have said the officer won't be prosecuted because the shooting did not break the law. "It was Trump supporters who lost their lives that day, not Trump supporters who were taking the lives of others, said Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, downplaying the violent tactics used by loyalists to the president, including spraying officers with pepper and bear spray. One Capitol Police officer who was injured while confronting rioters suffered a stroke and died a day later of natural causes. Dozens more were severely injured, some of whom may never return to duty. This was a violent white supremacist mob who assaulted the nations Capitol" said Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. "It was a deadly and dangerous insurrection that was incited by Donald Trump. For their part, Democrats clashed with Miller over the hours-long gap between when National Guard support was first discussed and the time troops arrived. Rep. Ro Khanna of California told Miller he was dumfounded we had someone like you in that role. After Miller described a statement from Lynch, the Massachusetts congressman, as ridiculous, Lynch replied that Miller himself was ridiculous. You were AWOL, Mr. Secretary, said Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. That's completely inaccurate, Miller replied. That's completely inaccurate. In testimony aimed at rebutting broad criticism that military forces were too slow to be deployed, Miller told the committee he was concerned before the insurrection that sending troops to the Capitol could fan fears of a military coup and cause a repeat of the deadly Kent State shootings in 1970. No such thing was going to occur on my watch, but these concerns, and hysteria about them, nonetheless factored into my decisions regarding the appropriate and limited use of our armed forces to support civilian law enforcement during the Electoral College certification, Miller said. My obligation to the nation was to prevent a constitutional crisis. Miller said that though military involvement in domestic law enforcement should be a last resort, he regarded the speed at which the National Guard was dispatched as among the most expedient deployments in history. He said he stood by each decision he made that day. He said that though he believed Trump had encouraged his supporters to protest the election results, he did not believe Trump's rhetoric which led to his impeachment was the unitary factor in the riot. That drew complaints from Democrats, who said Miller appeared to be softening criticism of Trump that he voiced in earlier media interviews. Trump was ultimately acquitted by the Senate of having incited the riot. Miller denied that Trump had any involvement in the Defense Department's response, saying the two of them did not speak that day. Democrats nonetheless honed in on Trump and his role in the riot. The failures of Jan. 6 go beyond the craven lies and provocations of one man," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a New York Democrat and the committee's chairwoman. Rosen in his testimony defended the Justice Department's preparation and also said there was no evidence of widespread election fraud that could have caused the results to be voided. His former boss, William Barr, has said the same. ___ Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant in Washington contributed to this report. EDEN, Texas (AP) A West Texas man accused of fatally shooting two sheriff's deputies was angry they were in his yard trying to catch a dog and he told them he would open fire if they didn't leave, a witness said. They walked up towards him, rushed him, and he pulled a gun, and shots were fired, David Hutchings told the San Angelo Standard-Times. The shooting happened Monday evening in Eden, a city of about 1,300 people roughly 210 miles (340 kilometers) southwest of Dallas. Officials say Concho County deputies Stephen Jones and Samuel Leonard were killed and city employee Ronnie Winans was injured. DPS said Wednesday that Nicholas opened fire on Jones and Leonard after they made contact with him while responding to a dog complaint. Officials have said little else about what happened before the shooting, which is being investigated by the Texas Rangers. Jeffrey Nicholas, 28, is jailed in nearby Tom Green County Detention Center on two charges of capital murder of a peace officer. Hutchings, a city employee who helps with animal control, told the newspaper that the officers were helping city employees collect two dogs that had bitten someone earlier in the day. The deputies had already caught one of the dogs and the other one ran into Nicholas yard. Hutchings said Nicholas did not own either animal. Nicholas told the deputies they couldn't enter his yard to get the dog, then that they should get off his property and that he has his civil rights, Hutchings said. He said Nicholas told the deputies that he would shoot them, and then opened fire. Hutchins said Winans, who is his boss, was shot in the stomach when a bullet went through door of a city pickup. DPS said Wednesday that Winans was in stable condition. The funeral for Leonard is set for Monday, Jones' funeral is set for Wednesday. The Senator was a ham - Barry Goldwater and amateur radio Marilyn Murphy, Communication Manager for the Arizona Historical Society, announces that the Arizona Historical Society is hosting a virtual program looking at Arizona's most famous amateur radio operator, Barry Goldwater. The virtual event will take place on May 19th, between 6:00-7:00 AZ/PT. The Registration Link is: https://bit.ly/3mRPwTz The announcement states: Amateur or "ham" radio is a hobby and communication service that has been bringing people together for over a century. Join ASU Associate Professor of History Eric Nystrom to discover the history of Arizona's most famous ham radio operator, U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater. Goldwater's association with amateur radio began in his Arizona youth when he constructed his own equipment, and the politician again picked up the hobby as an adult after a long hiatus. He was famous for his longtime ham radio shack in Paradise Valley, now preserved and on display at the Arizona Historical Society. Known on the airwaves as K7UGA, Goldwater sponsored legislation to shape the regulation of amateur radio in the United States. Using his radios, Goldwater and a group of organized volunteers connected service members stationed in Vietnam with their families back in the United States. Learn about ham radio's importance to Goldwater and his impact on the evolution of the amateur service in America. OPDX TAMAQUA The theft of antique items from the historic Hegarty Blacksmith Shop last month is being investigated by borough police. Meanwhile, the Tamaqua Historical Society, owner of the building, is offering a $500 reward for anyone with information leading to an arrest or the location of the stolen items. Dale Freudenberger, society president, said someone broke into the building sometime on or before April 24. Among the numerous items stolen were two cast iron anvils, a cast iron swage block with round and square holes cast in it, a horses tail attached to a handle and a variety of blacksmith tools, including iron tongs and hammers. Freudenberger said the thief or thieves also made off with a bell-shaped iron horse tether, several barn lanterns, a railroad wick lamp, a bench top grindstone and a wooden barn box, painted red with yellow striping. Also stolen was an orange-painted wooden wheelbarrow that society members believe was used to transport the heavy items from the shop. Freudenberger said those who stole the items crawled onto the roof, which is obscured by trees in the secluded area. They pulled away several boards to make just enough room for someone to crawl inside, he said. Freudenberger said they were able to take as long as they needed because the building appeared to be locked up. The double stable doors are locked from the inside by a large beam, just like they would be on a farm, he said. We never anticipated anyone breaking out of the building, Freudenberger said. The blacksmith shop has a rich history in not only Tamaqua, but Northeast Pennsylvania. It was built by Thomas Hegarty, who came to the United States from Kenmare, County Cork, Ireland, in 1848, and operated the business until his retirement in 1900. The shop, at Lafayette and Nescopec streets, had been in the Hegarty family for 125 years until it was turned over to the historical society. The shop is open for live demonstrations and tours during the boroughs annual Summerfest and Heritage Festival and attracts hundreds of people to see firsthand the job of a blacksmith. Tamaqua police said their investigation is ongoing under the direction of Patrolman Michael Weaver. Anyone with information can call police at 570-668-5000. Freudenberger said that anyone who may have seen any of the items or knows where they are can call the society at 610-597-6722 or email him at dalefreud@gmail.com. 100 years ago 1921 Over the last weekend, the editor of The REPUBLICAN, along with some other well-known newspapermen of Pennsylvania, was the guest of State College officials, and given an opportunity with the splendid facilities of that institution for the state, young and old, male and female, in the various phases of practical life, general business and the higher ethics of knowledge. 75 years ago 1946 Outstanding recognition has come to three Schuylkill County arts students two of them from Pottsville High School through a contest staged nationally by Scholastic Magazine. Helen I. Lubyck, Pottsville High senior, has been awarded a scholarship to the McDowell Designing and Dressmaking School in New York. Evan Keehn, Pottsville High freshman, has been awarded second prize a cash award for his pencil drawing. 50 years ago 1971 RINGTOWN The American Legion Auxiliary met recently in the post home of Mrs. Ben Foose, president, in charge. The meeting was opened in prayer by the chaplain. The unit voted to send $10 to the department for the presidents project, which this year is camp-lend-a-hand. 25 years ago 1996 BROCKTON It sounded like a locomotive barreling through the village, but homeowners believe it was a tornado that destroyed and damaged 150 homes and uprooted huge trees. A full damage assessment was not available yet, but estimates indicate it is well into the tens of thousands of dollars countywide, according to Arthur D. Kaplan, Schuylkill County emergency management coordinator. Several people were treated for minor injuries, including John E. Kristoff, 63, who needed 31 stitches after his leg was cut by flying glass. Kaplan said no major injuries were reported. Brockton and its Schuylkill Valley neighbors, MaryD and Middleport, were the hardest hit by the 3:30 p.m. storm. Two mobile homes one owned by Andy Fayash, the other by Bernard and Marian Hill were destroyed by falling trees in MaryD, while eight homes in Brockton were reported to have major damage. Proposed solutions Solutions proposed to better track legislative spending: Pennsylvania legislators could be required to post all their expenses online, along with detailed explanations about the spending. The legislature overall could itemize its spending, rather than lumping it under broad categories that mean little to the public. The legislature could require receipts for reimbursement for lodging and food. The General Assembly could enact a law requiring an in-depth annual audit by the state auditor general, who is currently prohibited by law from auditing the legislature. New Delhi, May 12 (PTI) The Delhi Police has arrested a Cameroon national for allegedly duping people on the pretext of providing Remdesivir injections, officials said on Wednesday. The accused has been identified as Ashwingwo Ashelly Azenmbuh, a resident of Kumba in the west African nation of Cameroon, they said. Forty names and phone numbers of victims were found in the message box of the recovered phone. Police have identified 23 victims who have been cheated of around Rs 7.50 lakh and further efforts are being made to trace the remaining victims, they said. Twelve bank accounts of the accused have been identified that are located across India. These accounts have been blocked with an overall existing balance of over Rs 85,000, police said. On May 6, one Rakhi Gupta lodged a complaint alleging that she was in need of Remdesivir injection for her relative. She got a number on social media and contacted the person, a senior police officer said. Gupta said the person asked her to give the prescription slip of the patient and demanded Rs 5,000 per vial. She agreed and transferred Rs 25,000 in an account, but did not receive the injections, the officer said. "During investigation, police identified that the accused persons were hiding at Khanpur, Devali. On Sunday morning, police entered the house and arrested Azenmbuh. Her accomplice had already absconded," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer North) Rajiv Ranjan Singh said. During interrogation, it was found that she works with her boyfriend Elumara Christian from Nigeria. They put the details on social media and introduced themselves as suppliers of Remdesivir injections, police said. They asked the patients and their relatives to deposit money in their bank accounts after which they would assure them of supplying the injection. When the patient deposited the money, they did not respond to them and later blocked their contact numbers, the DCP said. They have cheated around 40 people across India. Preliminary investigation revealed that they charged Rs 3,000 to 10,000 for one injection and did not supply a single shot to the victims, police said. Police recovered 10 SIM cards and five mobile phones from the accused, they added. PTI NIT HDA (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Amid undulating COVID-19 figures on graph and medical crisis witnessed by the nation amid second wave, on May 11, the Indian Air Force C17 Globemaster was directed to task an airlift of 35 tonnes of COVID-19 medical supplies from Frankfurt, Germany to Mumbai. Air base Hindan is an Indian Air Force base under the Western Air Command. It is the biggest and largest air base in Asia and 8th in the world. The aircraft got airborne from Hindon Air Base during early morning hours and landed at Frankfurt airport Germany after a twelve hours flight. After a quick turnaround and loading, the aircraft departed for Mumbai airport on the same day and reached after about 10 hours of flying. Indian Air Force IL-76 airlift medical supplies from Jakarta The Indian Air Force IL-76 on Tuesday airlifted oxygen containers from Jakarta. Transfer of personnel of Indonesia's defense forces on completion of Service courses in India was also undertaken. As far as global support is concerned, continuous airlifting is being done by the IAF of medical supplies from France, Singapore, Amsterdam, and from within India. Around 534 sorties have been airlifted by the IAF so far. Outpouring solidarity in the form of medical aid from several countries Exponential hike in COVID-19 infections across India since the inception of the second wave has evidently overburdened Indian production sectors, the medical infrastructure, and thousands of frontline medical staff in the country. While COVID-19 management and curbs have been harder for India to attain, solidarity has been an outpouring from numerous countries. Amid ascending COVID-19 figures in India, media reports, and gutting images of collapsing medical infrastructure, several countries have been outpouring solidarity with India's ordeals. Previously, Thailand, Qatar, Ukraine, Israel, Netherlands, Romania on behalf of the European Union, United Kingdom, United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, China, Singapore, Bhutan amongst few that have come forward in providing assistance to India in procuring tonnes of liquid medical oxygen, transporting mobile oxygen plants, drugs, vaccine and other medical amenities to cater as requirements against the destructive COVID-19 second-wave. COVID-19 tally in India 3,48,421 new cases were reported in the country in the last 24 hours. Indias total active COVID-19 caseload has dipped to 37,04,099 today. It now comprises 15.87% of the country's total positive cases. A decline of 11,122 cases is recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in the last 24 hours. This is the second consecutive day of decline in the active cases. 13 States cumulatively account for 82.51% of Indias total active cases. As the country battles against the devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian Naval Ship Tarkash brought two containers with 20 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen each and 230 oxygen cylinders to Mumbai from Qatar on Wednesday. The Indian Navy has deployed its various ships to import oxygen and other medical equipment to the country under operation 'Samudra Setu II'. The oxygen containers were provided by France under its mission 'Oxygen Solidarity Bridge' and the cylinders were gifted by the Indian diaspora in Qatar. The consignment was handed over to Maharashtra's civil administration for further action, the Navy said. The Ministry of External Affairs hailed the Indian Navys tireless efforts to augment oxygen availability in the country as it delivered 2 cryogenic tankers with 20 MT liquid medical oxygen through INS Tarkash. The MEA also expressed gratitude for the support from France and Qatar for the prompt facilitation of medical equipment to the country. Operation Setu-II - a sea bridge that continues to deliver. INS Tarkash arrives in Mumbai (India) carrying 2 cryogenic tankers with 20 MT liquid medical O2 each. A tireless effort to augment our O2 availability. pic.twitter.com/SWwrlzc1oA Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) May 12, 2021 Deeply value this continuing support from our friend & partner France. Grateful to our friend Qatar for the prompt facilitation in collaboration with the French Embassy in Qatar. pic.twitter.com/80xhRxmFBR Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) May 12, 2021 A special thanks to the Indian community based in Qatar who have generously gifted 232 oxygen cylinders that came aboard INS Tarkash. Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) May 12, 2021 INS Trikand brings 40 MT oxygen from Qatar On Monday, INS Trikand brought 40 MT liquid medical oxygen to Mumbai from Qatar as part of the French mission to support India's fight against the pandemic. The Navy has stepped up its efforts as ships from all three naval commands in Mumbai, Visakhapatnam and Kochi were deployed to bring oxygen and other medical equipment under operation 'Samudra Setu II'. Last year, the 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 Maldives, Sri Lanka and Iran. As India battles a devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, several friendly countries have come forward and sent crucial medical supplies, including oxygen-related equipment, to help it overcome the crisis situation. (With inputs from agency) New Delhi, May 11 (PTI) The Delhi government will float a global tender for procuring coronavirus vaccines, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia announced Tuesday, while accusing the BJP-ruled Centre of "forcing" state governments to compete among themselves in the international market for anti-Covid shots. The BJP hit back at the AAP leader, saying his global tender announcement was aimed at "diverting" attention from his earlier claim that the Delhi government has placed orders with two manufacturers within the country to supply 1.34 crore doses. Only three vaccines have been approved to be sold in India -- Covaxin, Coveshield and Sputnik V. Sputnik V has been approved to be imported from Russia by Dr Reddy's, but is yet to be widely available in the country. Addressing an online briefing, Sisodia alleged that the BJP-ruled Centre was forcing the states to compete and fight in the international market for vaccines. "We will also do it. We have talked to some states. The Delhi government will do it, some other states are preparing for it," Sisodia said about global tender for procuring Covid-19 vaccines. Besides Delhi, the governments of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana on Tuesday joined several other states which have decided to issue global tenders for procurement of COVID vaccines as the domestic supply fails to keep up with the rising demand amid the fierce second wave of the pandemic. Sisodia said, "If states are asked to purchase vaccines internationally through global tenders, then the state with the largest coffers would unfairly procure the maximum number of doses. This will lead to fights among them and further bashing and criticism of the country before the international community." Alleging that the Centre failed in managing the pandemic and the vaccine rollout, Sisodia demanded it to launch a nationwide COVID vaccination drive on the line of pulse polio campaign. He charged that by pitting the states against each other and asking them to float global tender for procurement of vaccines, the BJP government has caused embarrassment" to the country. At a time when the Central government should have tried to float global tenders on the behalf of the states it was busy selling vaccines to Pakistan, Afghanistcoan, Iran, Sri Lanka and other countries, he said. The Centre's Covid-19 management is a complete "disaster" and India is being ridiculed all over the world, he claimed, adding a similar situation will play out when Indian states compete with each other in the global market for vaccines. All other countries including the United States and those in Europe prioritised vaccinating their own people first, while the BJP government overlooked the needs of Indian citizens, and sold 6.5 crore doses to 93 countries, he said. "The Central government raised a question to the Delhi government over why we haven't passed a global tender to procure vaccines. The Centre already exported vaccines that could have been used in India, and is now sowing a discord among states," Sisodia said. Responding to the charges, Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana said Sisodia is trying to divert attention from his claim on Monday that the Delhi government has ordered 1.34 crore doses from two vaccine manufacturers in the country. "We demand him to present proof of orders for vaccine. Actually, he tried to pass on intent letters written by the Delhi government to manufacturers as orders for the vaccine," Khurana claimed. What is the need for a global tender if the Delhi government has already placed orders for 1.34 crore vaccines, he asked. "Sisodia knows that the Delhi government did not order vaccines on time and to cover up this failure he is now talking about global tender and also blaming the Central government." It is "utterly shameful" on part of AAP government that they are playing with the lives of Delhi people and doing "dirty" politics over vaccines, he added. PTI VIT SLB TIR TIR (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) As the Goa state battles the 2nd wave of Covid-19 pandemic with sudden surge in COVID cases, Vedanta Sesa Goa Iron Ore has committed to add 100-bed infrastructure capacity at Goa, to support the state Govt.in combating COVID pandemic. 100- Bed infrastructure will be rolled out as extension to Goa Medical College at Bambolim, Goa in order to enhance the healthcare facility at Goa state to tackle crisis situation posed due to COVID. Out of 100 beds, 80 would be oxygenated beds, 20 would be critical care beds and 5 ventilators with all related equipment and bed. Additionally, all necessary equipment essential to run a full-fledged hospital will be provided. The committed infrastructure set up is expected to be complete in next 15-20 days' time. Vedanta Sesa Goa has also committed its support to Goa Govt. and district administration for supply of 3 tons of free Liquid oxygen per day from Amona plant and has already supplied over 60 tons. Vedanta has also committed to provide 200 oxygen concentrators out of which, 100 have already been supplied. Goa CM Appreciated Vedanta for the support in combating COVID through tweet "I am thankful to the Vedanta Sesa for volunteering to supply 3 Tonnes of liquid oxygen per day from their VAB plant at Amona, Navelim during this difficult phase of pandemic." Mr. Sauvick Mazumdar, CEO, Iron & Steel, Vedanta Limited said, At Vedanta, "Care" for our community, and development of our nation is our DNA that we strive by. We believe, in giving back to the communities and support, during this unprecedented situation due to COVID-19 pandemic. We are constantly supporting Goa Govt. in combating COVID through various means, and through our collective efforts, we will tide over this COVID pandemic" During the first wave of COVID-19, Vedanta Sesa Goa Iron Ore Business has extended support to state/ district administrations, Frontline COVID warriors and communities around, through various support activities such as food and groceries in the mining belt, providing mask & Sanitizers, awareness campaigns, Sanitization drives at public places etc. About Vedanta Limited Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the worlds leading Oil & Gas and Metals company with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, and Aluminium & Power across India, South Africa, Namibia, and Australia. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing to Indias growth story, currently contributing 1 percent of Indias GDP. The company is among the top private sector contributors to the exchequer with the highest ever contribution of INR 42,560 Crore in FY 2019. Governance and sustainable development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety, and environment and on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company has been conferred the CII-ITC Sustainability Award, the FICCI CSR Award, Dun & Bradstreet Awards in Metals & Mining, and certified as a Great Place to Work. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange in India and has ADRs listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Eid ul Fitr, also known as the Festival of Breaking the Fast, is celebrated by the Muslim community living all over the world. The auspicious day arrives at the end of the Ramadan month that is observed with dawn to sunset fasting by all the Muslims. The day is celebrated either on the 29th or the 30th day of Ramadan depending upon the sighting of the moon. Is Eid ul Fitr a national holiday? As Eid Ul Fitr is celebrated all over India, the festival has been added to the national holidays list. This year, Eid ul Fitr has been slated to celebrate on Friday, May 14, 2021, which is subject to change on the sighting of the moon. The festival is considered to be one of the important occasions for Muslims all over the world as they believed that Quran was revealed to Prophet Mohammad during the Ramadan period. On this day, Muslims offer prayers called Salat Al Eid and visit mosques. Many of them even perform charitable offerings to the poor called Zakat Al Fitr and greet their friends and families by wishing them Eid Mubarak. The festival is not only celebrated in India but also in a number of other countries such as Iran, Turkey, Arab Gulf states, Yemen, Egypt, Somalia, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Myanmar, Albania, Taiwan and several others places. The festival begins during the sunset after the sighting of the moon and in many countries, it is even celebrated for two to three days. Muslims do not fast on Eid and many of them offer money to the poor before performing their prayers on this day, followed by a lavish feast of a variety of delicious dishes. National Holidays list 2021 Eid ul-Fitr- Friday, 14 May 2021* Eid al-Adha- Wednesday, 21 July 2021* Independence Day- Sunday, 15 August 2021 Gandhi Jayanti- Saturday, 2 October 2021 Dussehra- Friday, 15 October 2021 Prophet's Birthday- 1819 October 2021* Diwali- Thursday, 4 November 2021 Christmas Day- Saturday, 25 December 2021 (The dates for Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are subject to change based on moon sightings; Prophet's birthday will be observed when the sun sets on October 18 and will continue till the sun sets on October 19.) IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK St. Louis Police Department set up road blocks at Tucker and Clark after inmates at the City Justice Center in downtown St. Louis smashed windows and tossed burning clothing and debris down onto the street late Easter Sunday night, April 4, 2021. It was the second uprising at the Justice Center in less than two months. Eid ul Fitr marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan and the beginning of Shawwal, which is the tenth month in the Islamic calendar. Muslims around the world celebrate this occasion with a grand feast. The date and time for Eid ul Fitr vary from one geographic location to another as it heavily depends on the lunar calendar. Last year, the countries situated in the western hemisphere like Canada, Ecuador, etc. celebrated this event on May 24. Let's find out the Eid ul Fitr 2021 date in Canada. When is Eid ul Fitr 2021 in Canada? This year, the Islamic calendar lists Eid ul Fitr on Wednesday, May 12. However, countries around the world generally celebrate this event a day after Saudi Arabia. According to the Fiqh Council of North America, astronomers expect the Eid ul Fitr 2021 date in Canada to be Thursday, May 13. Since this day is considered an important Islamic holiday, people from the Muslim community typically celebrate this day by waking up early, chanting salat ul-fajr (daily prayers), visiting a nearby mosque and holding a special feast at home to break the fast. Muslims also believe in dressing up for this event and decorate their homes with lanterns and lights. It is believed that Allah had commanded Muslims to continue fasting till the last day of Ramadan. Moreover, it is mentioned in the Holy book of the Quran that devotees must pay the Zakat al-Fitr (charitable contributions) before offering their congregational prayers for Eid. Eid ul Fitr is not a public holiday in Canada, as a result, business hours are open across the country during this day. However, many political leaders have come in support of this festival and make it a point to wish Eid Mubarak in Canada. With the COVID-19 pandemic setting in, Eid this year is expected to be low-key pertaining to the social distancing norms and lockdown restrictions unique to the country. As of May 11, Canada has reported 1.3 million COVID-19 cases. Although the situation isn't as bad as the previous year, it is advised to maintain the COVID-19 guidelines throughout the festival and celebrate intimately. Happy Eid ul Fitr 2021! IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK French lawmakers on May 12 have supported President Emmanuel Macrons plan to unveil a new COVID-19 health pass even as the deputies resisted the move saying it was discriminatory for those who are yet to receive the vaccination. As per reports, Macron wanted the health pass in order to expedite the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in the country as the nationwide immunisation campaign also acquires pace. The proposed pass would be used to travel outside France and enabling the people to produce proof of getting the jab and the latest COVID-19 negative test or recovery from the disease. Frances parliament backed the pass on Wednesday after the opposition denounced the move citing the risk of discrimination because millions of people are yet to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. As per reports, some of the most loyal deputies of Macron also retracted their support of the bill and said that it lacked the details on how the pass would be actually put to use. It was this disagreement over the bill that lead to its initial defeat by 108 votes to 103 in the lower-house National Assembly. However, in the wee hours of Wednesday (local time) the bill passed with 208 to 85 votes. EU's Covid health pass to be used by June Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) on Monday said that it is fully on track to ensure that all its citizens and residents are able to have a free COVID-19 health pass in June to ease the travel. A European Commission spokesperson Christian Winand told a news conference that, It will be ready for summer to facilitate safe travelling, so it will be ready to use... by the end of June. Another spokesperson Johannes Bahrke reportedly added that 18 EU nations and non-member Iceland would be testing the digital document over the course of the next two weeks to make sure that any loopholes or bugs in the process are eradicated. The health pass is viewed as an essential tool to save the European summer vacation period and allowing the nations that are dependent on tourism are able to kickstart their post-COVID-19 pandemic recovery. IMAGE: AP/Unsplash As governments across the globe impose restrictions on travellers from India, Maldives has recently joined in the list as the restrictions have been tightened due to a surge in COVID-19 crisis. The Indian Ocean archipelagos Health Protection Agency said that the residents of Male will be required to stay indoors from 4 p.m., until 4 a.m. Also, visas for tourists from India and other nations in South Asia will be halted from May 13. As a precautionary measure against the spread of COVID-19, entry is temporarily suspended for tourists originating from South Asian countries, effective from 13th May 2021. With this change, all categories of visa holders originating from South Asian countries are now temporarily restricted to enter Maldives, until further notice, read the press release. Temporary suspension for tourists and all other categories of visa holders originating from South Asian countries. Read more: https://t.co/justraPKiM pic.twitter.com/C76H79W8nL Maldives Immigration (@ImmigrationMV) May 11, 2021 The temporary suspension of entry to the Maldives for all categories of visa holders from South Asia may impact flights between India & the Maldives. Indian tourists already in the Maldives may make necessary travel arrangements to return to India. https://t.co/I8XyjUmxCA India in Maldives (@HCIMaldives) May 12, 2021 As per the release, these restrictions apply on travellers from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Also, this applies to travelers transited in South Asian countries for the past 14 days. The healthcare professionals with valid work permits have been exempted from this. However, the healthcare professionals are required to hold a PCR negative result with a sample taken 96 hours prior to their departure to the Maldives. They will also have to undergo home quarantine for 14 days. They will only be released from home quarantine after they show a negative PCR test. Also, all inbound travelers from other countries are obliged to hold a PCR negative result with a sample taken 96 hours prior to their departure from the first port of embarkation en-route to the Maldives. Current situation in Maldives Last week, Maldives imposed night curfew in lieu of a sudden spike in the COVID-19 cases . The cases surged due to the indoor gathering in the holy month of Ramadan, and the onslaught of tourists from abroad. Maldives health protection Agency announced the concern of the rising cases and chaired a special committee to discuss measures for the containment of fresh COVID-19 infections. The country quickly ramped up its vaccination campaign as it announced the second dose drive of Indias exported Covishield vaccine at the Social Center and Hulhumale' Vaccination Center for the population that was administered with the first shot in February. This is to ensure that people receive their second dose before the 12-week period is over, the health agency said on Twitter as it appealed to the public to come forward and get the jab. Health Protection Agency (HPA) announced that it was tightening the COVID-19 curfew hours and was imposing restrictions on nonessential movements, including in the Greater Male Region. While the local population was advised to exercise the strictest caution in adherence to the health protocols, tourists were asked to produce mandatory negative PCR tests to enter the country. Last month, as the Maldives held its local council's election on April 10 at schools, government buildings, and stadiums, health authorities feared the spread of the virus due to large gatherings. As the elections coincided with the Ramadan festivities, people also gathered to offer prayers in the capital Male contributing to the onslaught of new infections. (Image Credits: Unsplash/PTI) The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF WPS) on Wednesday, May 12, said that a maritime patrol on Sunday, May 9 spotted the presence of 287 Chinese maritime militia (CMM) vessels scattered over the various features of the Municipality of Kalayaan, both within and outside the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the country. As per a statement signed by NTF WPS chair and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr, huge groups of CMMs were spotted at the artificial islands which have been built by China. Also, some were observed near islands occupied by the Philippines. WATCH: The Philippine government steps up its presence in the West Philippine Sea amid Chinas incursions. In this video, a BFAR vessel (MCS 3001) is seen challenging a Chinese vessel at the Sabina Shoal within PH's EEZ last May 7. | : courtesy of NTF-WPS pic.twitter.com/DOleHSya7m Phil News Agency (@pnagovph) May 12, 2021 WATCH: Philippine Coast Guard personnel on board two rubber boats escort a Chinese vessel out of Sabina Shoal on May 8. | : courtesy of NTF-WPS pic.twitter.com/cuUbEv8M8o Phil News Agency (@pnagovph) May 12, 2021 Chinese maritime militia spotted The body further said that it spotted 2 CMM vessels and 2 Houbei-class missile warships inside Panganiban (Mischief) Reef, one CMM off Lawak (Nanshan) Island. Also, 11 CMM vessels located approximately 29 nautical miles southwest of Recto (Reed) Bank; and another CMM vessel off Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. In a statement, the NTF WPS said, As for the features forming part of the Pagkakaisa (Union) Banks, the 9 May 2021 maritime patrol reported the presence of 34 CMMs at Juan Felipe (Whitsun) Reef (JFR), two Vietnamese (VN) logistics/supply ships, and one VN Coast Guard vessel at Sin Cowe East (Grierson) Reef and 77 CMMs in Chigua Reef. The statement further said, It is part of Philippine territory inasmuch as it is located within the overlapping 12 NM (nautical mile) territorial seas of McKennan (Chigua) Reef and of another possible high-tide feature, Grierson (Sin Cowe East) Reef, also our territories under the Municipality of Kalayaan. During the time period between May 3 to May 10, the Area Task ForceNorth reported an average of 4 CCG vessels at Bajo de Masinloc (BdM) (Scarborough Shoal). Also, an average of 1 CCG each for both the Pag-asa Islands and Ayungin (Second Thomas) Shoal. It also reported that an average of 10 Filipino fishing boats were seen fishing inside the BdM lagoon from May 7 to 9. Despite Chinas illegal unilateral 'fishing ban' covering its fishing vessels in waters north of 12 degrees latitude in the South China Sea, from 1 May to August 16, 2021, two CMMs were nonetheless observed harvesting shells inside the lagoon of the BdM. The ATF-West 9 May 2021 maritime patrol reported 14 CMM vessels and one CCG vessel positioned off the main Pag-asa Island, and 16 CMMs at Zamora (Subi) Reef. An earlier 6 May 2021 patrol sighted 24 CMMs, complemented by one CCG anchored at the Pag-asa Cays showing no visible activity, read the statement. G7 ministers slam China This comes after foreign Ministers Group of Seven (G7) countries rebuked China on military assertiveness in the South China Sea. They raised serious concerns about the regional stability amid China's unilateral actions. Disputes over the South China Sea have compelled several foreign entities to outpour their opinions and inculpate China. Leaders raised concerns about the situation in and around East and South China Sea. The G7 ministers said, "We remain seriously concerned about the situation in and around the East and South China Seas. We underscore the importance of peace and stability across Taiwan Strait, and encourage the peaceful resolution of cross- Strait issues". IMAGE: AP Two women have told the Associated Press that a former leader of the World Health Organization's efforts to combat Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo used his position to attempt to gain sexual favours from employees. Shekinah was working as a nurse's aide to support her mother and two children when she says Dr. Boubacar Diallo, then a leader of the World Health Organization's (WHO) efforts to combat the deadly disease in the DRC offered her a job paying twice what she was earning to help with the crisis. But the Congolese woman later found there were conditions attached. "The economic crisis pushed me to accept this offer," says the young mother, who asked that only her first name be used. "But I also saw that he was a great leader within the WHO, that he has a lot of influence within the WHO. So, I had no other choice but to sleep with him." "He slept with many girls," she says. "I was not the only victim; there were many of us." A WHO staffer and three Ebola experts working in Congo during the outbreak separately told management about general sex abuse concerns around Diallo, The Associated Press has learned. They said they were told not to take the matter further. WHO has been facing widespread public allegations of systemic abuse of women by unnamed staffers, to which Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared outrage and emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said, Frankly, right now, we have absolutely no details of any of the individuals, any of the specific allegations. But an AP investigation has now found that despite its public denial of knowledge, senior WHO management was not only informed of alleged sexual misconduct in 2019 but was asked how to handle it. The AP has also for the first time tracked down the names of two doctors accused of sexual misconduct, Diallo and Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu, both of whom were reported to WHO. When reached by the AP, both Diallo and Ngandu denied wrongdoing. The investigation was based on interviews with dozens of WHO staffers, Ebola officials in Congo, private emails, legal documents and recordings of internal meetings obtained by the AP. Diallo said he first heard of the allegations from the AP, and that he was never informed of any investigation by WHO. "I have never offered a woman a job in exchange for sex and I have never sexually harassed a woman in my life," said Diallo, who said his contract with the agency ended last July. An internal investigation failed to substantiate the claims against Diallo, but a whistleblower told the AP that investigators did not interview any of the women or the staff members who flagged the harassment allegations. The WHO declined to comment on any specific sex abuse claims or how they were handled by senior management, but in an email response, an agency spokesperson said: "We are aware that more work is needed to achieve our vision of emergency operations that serve the vulnerable while protecting them from all forms of abuse." Diallo was WHO's incident manager in the DRC's Kivu province. Sources tell the AP he often bragged about his connections to the agency's director-general, and that Diallo was considered "untouchable." Shekinah says she knew she was not qualified for the new job, but that she couldn't resist the $1,200 monthly salary. "Sometimes, my colleagues on duty start to insult me saying, 'The boss's wife is untouchable, because you come to work whenever you want,'" she said. The AP also talked with several women who told similar stories about Diallo. Anifa, a hospital worker, says the married doctor offered her a job at five times her current pay if she would sleep with him. "I told him, no. That it would dishonor me," says Anifa, who also asked to be identified by her first name only. Anifa says these aid workers were supposed to be in her country to save lives. "He sullies the name of WHO everywhere he goes," she says. "I condemn WHO for not sanctioning Dr. Boubacar Diallo." The revelations come at a time when the U.N. health agency is winding down its response two recent Ebola epidemics in Congo and Guinea, and is already under pressure for its management of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO declined to comment on specific sex abuse allegations, and none of the 12 WHO officials contacted responded to repeated requests for comment. Spokeswoman Marcia Poole noted that Tedros announced an independent investigation of sex abuse in Congo after media reports came out in October. Findings are due at earliest in August, investigators have said. (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) The world's 'most vaccinated country' Seychelles has been witnessing a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases raising doubts about the effectiveness of coronavirus vaccines. With more than 60 per cent of its population fully vaccinated, Seychelles set an example for everyone when it began to offer free vaccinations early this year. However, the island nation is once again facing the brunt of the deadly pandemic as it witnessed a renewed surge of infections. Despite the best efforts to inoculate its people, the island nation in the Indian Ocean reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita the last week. The Health Ministry of Seychelles said on May 10 that the number of active cases had more than doubled since last week to 2,486 people. More alarming is the fact that 37% of these cases are the people who received two vaccine doses. COVID-19 vaccination in Seychelles With a population of less than 100,000 people, Seychelles has reported nearly 8,000 COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. Seychelles' economy largely depends on tourism and the island nation started an accelerated vaccination drive in January with the hope to get back to normal soon. However, the seven day rolling average of positive cases increased from 120 on April 30 to 314 on May 8 raising alarms. Nearly 62.2% of its population has received at least two doses of coronavirus vaccines so far. Nearly 57% of those who were fully inoculated received China-made Sinopharm shots while the rest were administered Covishield, a vaccine made in India under a license from AstraZeneca Plc. Speaking on the increase in cases despite vaccination, the World Health Organization has said that vaccine failure in Seychelles couldn't be determined without a detailed assessment. In February, the country reported a case of the B.1.351 variant, first identified in South Africa late last year. AstraZeneca's vaccine appeared to be less effective against that variant in a study, and South Africa halted plans to use those injections. Are vaccines working? A large Phase III trial of Sinopharm has shown that two doses, administered at an interval of 21 days, have an efficacy of 79% against symptomatic infection, 14 or more days after the second dose. AstraZeneca said in March its COVID-19 vaccine was 76% effective. Of those cases, 84% are Seychellois and the rest are foreigners, Daniel Lucey, Clinical Professor of Medicine at Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, said in a blog post. Just under two thirds of those are either unvaccinated or have only had one dose, and the rest have had two doses, he said. "A comparison between Sinopharm, Covishield, and unvaccinated infected persons could be done using genetic sequencing and data on the severity of their infections, a Clinical Professor of Medicine Dr. Daniel Lucey said in a blog post. Given the widespread international use of these two vaccines there are global implication to what is happening now in the Seychelles e.g., international travel, mass gatherings events whether religious, musical, or the Olympics, he said. The variant B.1.351 or a novel variant must be ruled out ASAP by large-scale genetic sequencing, Dr. Lucey added. Amid widespread doubts over vaccine effectiveness, President Ramkalawan said the vaccine is effectively helping to protect people from getting sick. He noted that the two vaccines that the country has administered have served the population very well. However, the health ministry statement said but the rate of transmission remains high and is of concern. "People may be infected but they are not sick. Only a small number are. Isn't this how the vaccine is supposed to help us? So, what is happening is normal," he said. WHO on COVID surge in Seychelles WHO is closely following the situation in the Indian Ocean nation and on May 11 said that it was reviewing coronavirus data from Seychelles. Both the ministry and the WHO stressed that the majority of those who tested positive had not been vaccinated or had only received one dose. The health ministry of the island nation also no one who had died was fully vaccinated and that nearly all severe or critical cases were unvaccinated. Earlier on several occasions, the WHO had warned that vaccination alone would not stop transmission entirely, and preventive health measures such as social distancing, mask-wearing and hand washing must continue. COVID surge in Seychelles worse than India On May 7, the country's active coronavirus cases doubled raising concerns that inoculation is not helping turn the tide in some places. Seychelles this week reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases per capita. While India has not even 3 per cent of its population fully vaccinated, the island nation's total inoculation is more than 60%. According to Our World in Data, the latest rolling 7-day average for daily new COVID-19 cases per capita in Seychelles is more than twice Indias. With the alarming rise in infections recently, the country has announced new measures, including shutting down schools and cancelling sporting activities. Seychelles Health Minister Peggy Vidot told a press conference that the COVID-19 situation in the country is critical despite all the exceptional efforts. The mandate also bans weddings and other gatherings of more than four people; cancels in-person meetings, conferences and sporting events; and require shops, bars and casinos to close at 7 p.m. Tourists can still visit Seychelles In March, the tropical paradise lying off the east coast of Africa opened borders to international travellers even as other countries continued to keep borders closed. Currently, anyone visiting the country must provide proof of a negative PCR test result received no more than 72 hours prior to arrival. While it is not mandatory for the visitors to be vaccinated, a health authorisation form has to be filled up along with proof of travel insurance. There is no minimum stay or quarantine requirements and travellers can stay in any certified hotel. Maldives facing similar surge As the cause of the surge in cases in Seychelles is yet to be determined, it is not the only country that is facing a rise in cases despite inoculation. The Maldives has also been seeing a rise in fresh cases. The country has the most new cases per 100,000 people and active cases jumped from 4,978 to 9,423 on May 9. The Maldives has so far inoculated 35% of the population with two shots of vaccine using Sinopharm and Covishield. As of May 8, over 300,000 people in the Maldives had received at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the Health Protection Agency. Amid the world mulling over the mysteries of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a key development, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, on Wednesday announced that an independent inquiry into the handling of the pandemic will be held next year. Informing about the inquiry, Johnson told the lawmakers they will be given wide-ranging statutory powers to conduct the same in an efficient way so that the government learns lessons from the details. "This process will place the State's actions under the microscope," Johnson told the Parliament. It is pertinent to mention here that families of those who have died during the pandemic had been calling on Johnson to call an inquiry since last summer, but the Prime Minister has consistently been shrugging it off saying that the time wasn't right. Now, he has finally made the announcement and has assured that the inquiry will start by next spring. Johnson, who had been accused by the opponents of reacting slowly to the crisis, especially at the time of onset, failing to supply sufficient protective equipment and bungling the testing system, opined that by Spring 2022, these accusations would die down, and there would be an unbiased inquiry. It is pertinent to mention here that as per sources, the UK has reported 44,39,691 COVID infections. As far as the death toll is concerned, it stands at 1,27,629, which is Europe's highest virus-related death toll. Panel report on the response of WHO to COVID-19 On the global front, a panel of independent experts who reviewed the World Health Organization's (WHO) response to the Coronavirus pandemic criticized countries for their lethargic response to COVID-19 while stating that the countries waited to take action against the pandemic until it was too late to control the surge of COVID-19. The panel also criticized the global leadership and the restrictive nature of powers with WHO to respond to the pandemic, which 'hindered' the functioning of the WHO. Having said that, the panel asserted that the world health body should be granted guaranteed access rights in countries across the world to probe the emerging outbreaks of viruses and diseases. However, whether the member countries would support this idea or not is a bone of contention. (Credit-AP/Pixabay) Britains Queen Elizabeth II on May 11 unveiled the governments plans for the year in her first official event since the death of her husband, Prince Philip. According to AP, in the ceremony, which was stripped back because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Queen read out bills the government hopes to pass during the next year on everything from job creation and health care to stripping back post-Brexit bureaucracy. In her speech, which was written for her by the government, she presented PM Boris Johnsons agenda to tackle inequality and level up the country. The 95-year-old Queen wore a day dress instead of the usual robes and crown. She was accompanied by her eldest son Prince Charles, who had been at his mothers side on previous formal occasions as well while Prince Philip was ill. She did not wear a mask and she delivered the speech slowly and deliberately before a socially distanced audience, all of who needed to have a negative COVID-19 test in order to attend. In the House of Lords, the Queen said, My governments priority is to deliver a national recovery from the pandemic that makes the United Kingdom stronger, healthier and more prosperous than before. The speech is one of the Queens most important symbolic duties and forms the centrepiece of the State Opening of Parliament ceremony. It took her around 10 minutes to read the speech from the throne in the House of Lords chamber. She said that her government will level up opportunities across all parts of the UK, supporting jobs, businesses and economic growth and addressing the impact of the pandemic on public services. UK governments proposal As per reports, Johnson and his cabinet have put together the list of proposals after a year of lockdowns and COVID-19 restrictions triggered the UKs deepest economic slump in three centuries. The UK government is also facing renewed calls for Scottish independence and unrest in Northern Ireland fueled by Britains departure from the EU. The UK PM will pursue the agenda from a position of strength, with his Conservative Party holding 365 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. Much of Queens speech on Tuesday comprised policies and proposals already flagged. Her speech also referenced a contentious plan to require voters to provide proof of their identity when taking part in elections. The Queen also confirmed that Johnsons government is planning to ban so-called conversion therapy, the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change a person's sexuality or gender identity. (With inputs from AP) Washington, May 12 (PTI) Describing the current COVID-19 crisis as the biggest India has ever faced, an eminent Indian-American philanthropist and venture capitalist from the Silicon Valley has urged the diaspora community to help support the Indian people. India has been severely affected by the unprecedented second wave of the coronavirus and hospitals in several states are reeling under the shortage of health workers, vaccines, oxygen, drugs and beds. This is the biggest crisis India's ever seen. So, what I urge them to do is two things: One is make sure you support your family and friends in India. But this is the one time that everybody should do more, Indiaspora founder M R Rangaswami, an entrepreneur and philanthropist who lost his sister in Chennai due to COVID-19, told PTI. Silicon Valley-based Rangaswami said that he has been working around the clock to galvanise as much funds and resources as the diaspora community from the US and other parts of the world can do for the people in India, which is experiencing the worst ever public health crisis post-independence. This is the one time that we should give more than what we can; more than what we think; more than what we want to do. This kind of crisis doesn't come across every day, Rangaswami said in response to a question. Indiaspora, a network of eminent diaspora leaders, has raised over USD 2.5 million. Over the weekend, he was part of a Help Tamil Nadu Breathe campaign that raised USD 1.5 million. In addition, Rangaswami has been involved in multiple campaigns to raise funds for India, which he says is crucial to save lives not only in India but also in the region and the world. The problem is if India doesn't contain it, it's going to hit Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, many countries around India. This could cause a big human toll and economic toll. We don't want to be solving this in three months in America, he said, adding that the variant of COVID-19 in India is much more contagious and damaging to people. Rangaswami said that the diaspora in the US has done very well in getting to the US administration to make them see how important this is not just for Indian-Americans but for the US and the world as well. Members of the diaspora community are in close touch with different people in the administration, he said. The community leaders are also in touch with the Indian side, he said as he appreciated the recent decisions of the Indian government to waive and reduce various taxes including import duty and GST. That was a big deal. Things like that are happening. Now the diaspora is also calling for maybe a waiver of the FCRA (Foreign Contribution (Regulations) Act) rules which prevents sub granting of money so that we can have friction free flowing of money to the last mile, he said. Noting that the diaspora community is closely observing the developments in India, Rangaswami hoped that it would soon slow down. We don't know when they will reach their peak. But we all in general, our prayers are with them, our thoughts are with them, our support is for India, and we will keep all that this goes away, he added. After recording over four lakh fresh cases for four consecutive days, India witnessed a single-day rise of 3,66,161 COVID-19 cases on Monday and 3,29,942 infections on Tuesday. PTI LKJ CPS (Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from a syndicated feed; only the image & headline may have been reworked by www.republicworld.com) Malaysia on May 12 said that the US Department of Justice has returned $452 million of funds recovered from assets related to sovereign fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). According to Bloomberg, Malaysian and the US investors had said that at least $4.5 billion was stolen from 1MDB between 2009 and 2014, in a wide-ranging scandal that implicated high-level officials, banks and financial institutions around the world. The US has been returning funds it has recovered from seized assets that were allegedly bought with stolen 1MDB money. On Wednesday, the Malaysian Finance Ministry in a statement said that the US DOJ remitted about 1.9 billion ringgit of seized 1MDB funds to the government. The ministry added that funds have now been placed in Malaysias Assets Recovery Trust Account. Further, it added that so far, the account has received 16.05 billion ringgit of seized and repatriated 1MDB funds, which will be used to repay debts of 1MDB and former unit SRC Internations Sdn. The finance ministry also informed that the Malaysian government has so far repaid 12.4 billion ringgit of 1MDBs debt and 3.1 billion of SRCs debt. The balance of debts still outstanding currently totals 39.8 billion ringgit (1MDB) and 2.57 billion ringgit (SRC). The balance excludes the settlement amount that will be received by Deloitte PLT and AmBank Group, Malaysia said, adding that negotiations are also currently ongoing with KPMG. 1MDB files 22 lawsuits to recover assets As per reports, over the last three years, Malaysia has been trying to recover 1MDB funds from global banks, financial institutions, individuals and other entities it says have caused losses from the 1MDB scandal. Earlier this week, 1MDB even filed 22 lawsuits in a court in Malaysia to recover assets worth in excess of $23 billion. Those being sued include Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan and Coutts & Co. Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs, which helped raise billions for 1MDB, has already paid $2.5 billion to settle a Malaysian probe into the investment bank's role in the 1MDB scandal. It reached the settlement with the Malaysian government in exchange for criminal charges being dropped. It had reportedly also promised to help Malaysia recover assets with $1.4 billion. (Image: Twitter/Unpslash) Sin Khun is the 29th CNRP activist to be beaten by unknown assailants since March. Sin Khun displays the injuries he received in an attack by unknown assailants in Phnom Penh, May 12, 2021. An activist with Cambodias banned opposition party who has worked to provide food relief to people forced to stay home during a coronavirus lockdown became the latest victim of an attack by unidentified men on Wednesday, leaving him hospitalized with a fractured skull. Many residents of the capital Phnom Penhs so-called red zones, areas of the city locked down amid a recent surge of COVID-19 infections, have been forced to stay at home for weeks without work. The order has been met with criticism as people who live in the zones have been blocked from earning money and going out to make purchases needed to feed their families. Sin Khun, a 31-year-old activist with the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) who in recent weeks has worked to deliver food purchased with overseas donations to those trapped in the red zones, said he was beaten by four assailants armed with metal bars and pipes on Wednesday, and that his injuries required a dozen stitches. He said he had filed a complaint with police but does not expect that the suspects will be apprehended. I dont have any hope because in the past many activists have been arbitrarily attacked and justice has never been served, he told RFAs Khmer Service. I am a victim of this attack and I dont have any faith in the court system or the government. Wednesdays assault brings to 29 the number of attacks on CNRP activists since March alone. None of the suspects have been brought to justice. Phnom Penh Municipal Police spokesman San Sok Seiha told RFA that authorities are working on the case without political discrimination. He questioned Sin Khuns lack of faith that the police would carry out their duties. If he does not have faith in the police, why did he file a complaint? he asked. It is important that he provides information and allows the authorities to work on the case. We dont discriminate against anyone. When there is a complaint, we will resolve it. CNRP lawmaker and senior official Um Sam An told RFA he believes the attacks on CNRP activists were orchestrated by the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) to intimidate the opposition, which was dissolved in November amid allegations of a plot to overthrow the government. The ban, along with a wider crackdown on NGOs and the independent media, paved the way for the CPP to win all 125 parliamentary seats in the countrys 2018 general election. Um Sam An urged the government to end violent assaults on CNRP members and return to democracy. This attack is a systematic plan by the CCPthat is why the authorities cant bring any suspects to justice, he said. Am Sam Ath of Cambodian rights group Licadho told RFA that police must investigate the case if they hope to avoid criticism over political discrimination. No suspects have been brought to justice, even though the attacks keep occurring, he said. Kem Sokha, leader of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), is shown in a file photo. AFP Call for reconciliation The latest attack came as CNRP President Kem Sokha, who is facing charges of conspiracy stemming from his September 2017 arrest, continued to call for a political reconciliation between his party and the government as part of a Khmer talking to Khmer campaign, despite CPP spokesperson Sok Ey San saying that the ruling party cannot hold negotiations with him while his case is pending at court. Last week, a top official with the CNRP told RFA Kem Sokha is trying to convince Prime Minister Hun Sens CPP to discuss a political solution to the countrys prolonged political stalemate and has asked other countries for help. Kem Sokha posted a comment on Facebook Wednesday after distributing food aid to villagers impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, saying that he could not close my eyes, be selfish and betray the will of the voters. I am doing everything within my power for the sake of Khmers, he wrote. I am working on diplomacy and communicating with Khmer leaders in the country for the benefit of all Khmers. RFA was unable to reach the CPPs Sok Ey San for comment Wednesday, but he said last week that the ruling party wont negotiate with Kem Sokha because doing so would interfere with the court. He said that the CPP can hold talks with Kem Sokha only after the court issues a verdict on his case. The party was dissolved by the court, he said at the time. Kem Sokha is no longer a party president. The government and the ruling party cant work with him. International intervention called for Kem Sokha was put on trial beginning in January 2020 but the hearings were suspended two months later on the pretext of the coronavirus pandemic. Hun Sen has hinted that the trial may not resume for years, and may not conclude until 2024, long after the next election cycle. In the meantime, Kem Sokha remains under judicial supervision pending the outcome of his trial and must refrain from engaging in political activities within Cambodia, though he met with the European Unions ambassador to the Southeast Asian nation, at his residence last week. Political analyst Em Sovannara said Kem Sokhas comments wont help usher in political talks because the ruling party holds all the power and wont negotiate without international intervention. It is obvious that Khmers needs to talk to Khmers, but without intervention by the international community, Cambodian politicians wont be able to resolve their differences between themselves, he said. He suggested that Kem Sokha should continue his humanitarian campaign, meet with supporters, and seek more international backing, despite his ongoing ban from politics. Hun Sens crackdown has cost Cambodia its preferential trade treatment by the European Union, and drawn U.S. sanctions on some Phnom Penh officials, but the countrys ruler since 1985 has largely shrugged off these measures while deepening his ties with China. Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. Recent statistics from Beijing showing fast population growth among ethnic minority groups have been falsified, rights activists say. Official claims that China's ethnic minority populations are growing faster than the majority Han population are being used to justify genocidal policies in Xinjiang, commentators said. "The growth rate of population of ethnic groups excluding Han is significantly higher than that of Han ethnic group over the last decade," the official English-language China Daily newspaper reported on Tuesday. Han Chinese currently account for 91.1 percent of the total population, with a population growth rate of around 4.9 percent compared with the 2021 census, it said. "The growth rate of the population of people from other ethnic groups is about 10.3 percent," the paper cited the 2020 census figures as showing. All newspapers allowed to operate in China undergo constant monitoring and direction from the propaganda department of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But commentators said the claim in official media that the Han Chinese population is growing more slowly than other ethnic groups, including the Turkic-speaking Uyghurs, are intended to justify the CCP's mass incarceration of Uyghurs, as well as the forced sterilization, organized rape, and forced marriage of Uyghur women, as reported by Uyghurs once incarcerated in the northwestern region of Xinjiang. Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress exile group, said that birth-rates have fallen sharply among Uyghurs in the past two years, as the authorities in Xinjiang incarcerated as many as 1.8 million people in "re-education" camps, put their children in state-run orphanages, and sterilized large numbers of Uyghur women. "The Chinese government is using its claim that ethnic minority groups are growing more quickly than the Han Chinese to mask its plans to eradicate the Uyghur ethnic group," Raxit said. He cited earlier government figures as showing that Xinjiang saw a marked decline in population from 2017, when the "re-education" camps became widespread in the region. The regional birth rate fell from 15.88 percent in 2017 to just 8.14 percent in 2019, Dilxat Raxit said. "The natural population growth rate fell from 11.4 percent in 2017 to 3.69 percent in 2019, a slowdown of more than 67 percent," Dilxat Raxit said. "The Chinese government has been planning and implementing population control measures for the Uyghur people, including forced sterilizations and abortions," he said. Unfounded claims Serikzhan Bilash, an ethnic Kazakh from China who founded the rights group Atajurt after moving to neighboring Kazakhstan, agreed. "This claim that the birth rate of ethnic minority groups is twice as high as that of the Han Chinese is unfounded," he said. "First, the CCP has always implemented strict family planning policies in Xinjiang, encouraging and forcing party members and civil servants to have only one birth or late marriage and late childbirth," he said. "Second, there have been mass incarcerations of Kazakhs and Uyghurs in Xinjiang since 2017, and almost no children have been born in Xinjiang to Kazakhs and Uyghurs ... in the past five years," he said. "We have evidence to show that many maternity hospitals and child healthcare centers have been turned into concentration camps," Serikzhan said. In findings that support the assertion that China is suppressing Uyghur birthrates in Xinjiang, German researcher Adrian Zenz published a report in June 2020 showing a dramatic increase in forced sterilizations and abortions targeting Uyghurs in the XUAR. Zenz, a senior fellow in China Studies at the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, drew from a sizable cache of official documents to show that population growth fell by 84 percent in the XUAR's two largest Uyghur prefectures from 2015 to 2018, and declined further in 2019. He wrote that since the campaign of mass incarceration was launched in the region in April 2017, Uyghur women with three or more children were increasingly subjected to heavy fines, required to submit to pregnancy tests and examinations, and forced to implant intrauterine devices (IUDs) or undergo sterilization surgeries. 'Cooking the books' Serikzhan accused the authorities in Xinjiang of deliberately falsifying people's ethnic identities to ensure this wasn't reflected in the official population statistics. "They have allowed large numbers of Han Chinese to change their identities to Kazakhs and Uyghurs -- they did this deliberately so they could falsify [the figures]," he said. Kazakh scholar Reis Khan said he regarded the figures with strong suspicion, too. "The CCP cooks the books to meet its own needs," Khan said. "They want to use this census data as part of their wolf warrior diplomacy efforts [to change the narrative on] human rights abuses in Xinjiang." "They want the rest of the world to believe that there aren't any human rights abuses or concentration camps in Xinjiang," he said. Ning Jizhe, head of the National Bureau of Statistics, told a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday that he expects China's population to stay above 1.4 billion "for some time." China's working-age population, or people aged between 16 and 59, stands at 880 million, with an average age of 38.8. But he added: "Data shows that China's population has continued to maintain slow growth in the past decade." Ning cited a fall in the number of women of childbearing age, couples choosing to delay having children, and the rising cost of childbirth and parenting. Amid increasing scrutiny of Chinas policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the U.S. government in January designated abuses in the region part of a campaign of genocidea label that was similarly applied by the parliaments of Canada, The Netherlands, and the U.K. China has dismissed the allegations and sought to undermine claims by former detainees by coercing their relatives to call them liars on camera. Reported by Qiao Long and Gao Feng for RFA's Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. A draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from , 2020 appears set to spark an exodus of expats from the city, according to a survey conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham). More than 40 percent of the 325 AmCham members who responded to the poll are definitely planning to leave, or are thinking about it, according to the survey published on . Three percent said they were getting out immediately, while 10 percent said they would do so by the summer's end, and 15 percent were planning to be gone by the end of the year. A further 48 percent said they would likely leave in the next 3-5 years. Of those planning to leave Hong Kong, 62 percent included discomfort with the national security law among the reasons, while 36 percent said they feared it would affect the quality of their children's education. The Hong Kong government recently launched an ongoing campaign to "educate" secondary-school students about the law, which has left most of the city's political opposition behind bars and criminalized public criticism of the authorities and democratic political activity as "subversion," "secession," or "collusion with foreign powers." Schools have been made responsible for ensuring that their students are "educated" about the new law, with morning assemblies and class registration sessions to include reference to the phrase "upholding national security is the constitutional responsibility of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region." Riot police march in Wan Chai district, a touristic area where foreigners gather in bars, in Hong Kong on October 4, 2019, as people hit the streets after the government announced it had banned people from wearing face masks in a bid to put an end to months of protests. Credit: AFP Arrests belie Carrie Lam's claims The government of chief executive Carrie Lam claims that there has been no change to "the various rights and freedoms," including freedom of the press and of association, in Hong Kong since the law took effect. But the arrest and charging of 47 members of the pro-democracy opposition camp for taking part in a democratic primary election, the arrest of radio talk show host Giggs for "incitement to arouse hatred or contempt for the governments of the People's Republic of China and the HKSAR," has left many concluding that there is no longer room for peaceful dissent or a political opposition. A citywide crackdown on anyone linked to the 2019 protest movement intensified when the law took effect, and has included cases brought under colonial-era sedition laws as well as "illegal assembly" charges. Almost all of the city's prominent pro-democracy figures, opposition lawmakers and social activists are now either behind bars or in exile. The U.S. has sanctioned officials charged with implementing the national security law, while the U.K. has said it is in breach of the bilateral Sino-British Joint Declaration governing the status of Hong Kong after the 1997 handover. Hong Kong economist Law Ka-chung said that even if only a certain percentage expresses the intention to leave Hong Kong now, it could spark a stampede. "This kind of mass behavioral effect is a bit like selling shares on the stock market," Law said. "As soon as one lot starts selling, the others will follow suit." "We're not seeing this stampede effect yet, but when people who are leaving start holding farewell dinners, this is going to make even those who weren't planning to leave start thinking about it," he said. 'Unrecognizable' with three to five years He said Hong Kong could be "unrecognizable" with three to five years. According to AmCham's survey, those who are leaving are mostly looking at relocating to Singapore, Taipei, Tokyo and Bangkok. Simon Lee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong business school said Singapore was an acceptable alternative to many wishing to evade CCP direct rule in Hong Kong. "Singapore is pretty similar to Hong Kong, and of course they share certain political characteristics," Lee said. "But the legal system and relative lack of corruption are pretty clearly there." "[In Hong Kong,] the huge gap between a democratic system and the Chinese [authoritarian] system creates a lot of uncertainty," he said. "Singapore actually has elections ... and it is one of the foremost locations in the world in terms of competitiveness, which is reassuring for businesses," Lee said. AmCham quoted one of the anonymous respondents as saying: "Previously, I never had a worry about what I said or wrote when I was in Hong Kong. That has changed." "The red lines are vague and seem to be arbitrary. I don't want to continue to fear saying or writing something that could unknowingly cause me to be arrested," the AmCham member said. Reported by Lu Xi and Chan Chun-ho for RFA's Mandarin and Cantonese Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie. The controversy over the presence of Chinese ships in the Philippine EEZ has led to criticism of President Rodrigo Dutertes alleged softness toward China. Philippine Coast Guard personnel aboard their ship, the BRP Cabra, monitor Chinese vessels anchored at Sabina Shoal, in the South China Sea, May 5, 2021. Manila said Wednesday that patrols had spotted nearly 300 Chinese militia ships in and around its exclusive economic zone earlier this week, amid bilateral tensions over the lingering presence of such vessels in Philippine-claimed waters of the South China Sea. Manila has been lodging daily protests with Beijing since last month after China refused to remove the more than 200 ships which, the Philippines said, were spotted in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in March. A report about the latest sightings in the Spratly Islands was submitted to the relevant agencies for potential further diplomatic action, Philippine National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said. In its latest maritime patrol on 9 May 2021, the Area Task Force-West reported the presence of a total of two hundred eighty-seven (287) Chinese Maritime Militia (CMM) vessels scattered over various features of the municipality of Kalayaan, both within and outside the EEZ of the Philippines, Esperon said in a statement Wednesday. The Kalayaan municipality is a chain of islets and reefs that the Philippines administers as part of its southwestern Palawan province. Esperon said bigger groups of CMMs were seen at some Chinese-built artificial islands, while others were seen near islands occupied by the Philippines. On May 9, Philippine patrols had spotted two Chinese Houbei-class missile warships at Mischief Reef, and three other warships at Fiery Cross Reef, he said. China has turned both reefs into artificial islands with harbors for its vessels. The patrols also found four China Coast Guard ships at Scarborough Shoal, and one each at Second Thomas Shoal and off Thitu Island, Esperon said. Thitu called Pag-asa Island by the Philippines hosts a small civilian community and a marine detachment. Earlier this week, Philippine armed forces chief Gen. Cirilito Sobejana said the military planned to ask President Rodrigo Duterte for funds to build a logistical hub on Thitu. Our objective is to drive away Chinese maritime militia and other Chinese vessels from our exclusive economic zone, Sobejana told CNN Philippines on Monday. Last month, Sobejana said the Philippines was considering building structures in Manila-claimed areas in the South China Sea. He had accused China of doing the same, despite a 2002 agreement barring new or expanded construction in disputed waters. 34 Chinese vessels still at Whitsun Reef Meanwhile, Manilas patrols also spotted Chinese fishing boats and a small number of Vietnamese ones, officials said. Between May 3 and May 10, Philippine patrols observed two Chinese vessels harvesting shells inside the lagoon at Scarborough Shoal, in contravention of Beijings unilateral fishing ban supposedly in effect from May 1 to August 16, Esperon noted. In 2012, the Chinese seized Scarborough Shoal, a traditional fishing ground within the Philippine EEZ, after a two-month standoff with the Philippine Navy. The Philippine government continues to strengthen its presence in the WPS [West Philippine Sea] with a view towards law enforcement, deterrence of illegal, unreported, unregulated fishing (IUUF), and protection of the welfare and safety of our fisherfolk, said Esperon, who is also head of the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea. The latter are encouraged to sail and fish in the WPS. The West Philippine Sea is Manilas designation for territory it claims in the South China Sea. The task force will continue to assert our territorial and sovereign rights as upheld by the 2016 arbitral ruling, Esperon said. A July 2016 international arbitral award declared the Philippines claim to its EEZ in the South China Sea valid over Chinas sweeping territorial claims in the maritime region. The Philippines went to an arbitral court after China refused to with its vessels from Scarborough Shoal. Beijing has refused to recognize the award. Esperon said that 34 Chinese vessels were still at Whitsun Reef, where Manilas discovery of 240 such boats in March resulted in the latest spat with Beijing. Whitsun is located within the Philippine EEZ, and Beijing also claims the reef in the Spratly Islands as part of its South China Sea territory. Meanwhile, Philippine Coast Guard ships, backed by vessels from the fisheries bureau, drove out three suspected Chinese militia vessels at Sabina Shoal on May 7-8, according to the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS). A Chinese coast guard ship illegally shadowed and challenged vessels of the Philippine coast guard and the fisheries bureau on May 4, the NTF-WPS said. This [May 4] incident, along with the continued illegal incursions of foreign vessels sighted near Philippine-held islands have been submitted to relevant agencies for possible diplomatic actions, said Esperon. The Philippines, he said, shall not yield an inch of our territory. The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a BenarNews request for comment on Esperons statements. A national tragedy The controversy over the presence of Chinese ships in the Philippine EEZ has led to criticism of Dutertes alleged softness toward China, despite territorial disputes. The president had recently defended his stance, saying his government owed a debt of gratitude to Beijing for supplying the country with COVID-19 vaccines amid a global supply crunch. Then last week, he said it would be impossible to compel Beijing to respect the arbitral award, and called it just a piece of paper that he would throw in a wastebasket. Dutertes attitude toward Beijing is a national tragedy, Albert del Rosario, who was the countrys top diplomat when Manila took China to court, said last week. Grand larceny is how Antonio Carpio, a former supreme court justice who helped argue and win the South China Sea case, described Dutertes statement on the arbitral award. Six Asian governments Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam have territorial claims or maritime boundaries in the South China Sea, in addition to Beijings sweeping claims in the waterway. While Indonesia does not regard itself as party to the South China Sea dispute, Beijing claims historic rights to parts of that sea overlapping Indonesias EEZ. Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Bangladesh is a sovereign country and will make its own decisions about foreign policy, its foreign minister says. Bangladeshi foreign minister A.K. Abdul Momen (left) speaks with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi during a meeting in Beijing in a July 5, 2019 photo. Bangladesh expressed anger on Tuesday over very unfortunate and presumptuous comments made by Chinas envoy a day earlier, when he warned Dhaka against participating in the United States-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue on the Indo-Pacific region. On Monday, Ambassador Li Jiming had said that ties between Bangladesh and China could be substantially damaged if the South Asian country joined any initiative by the four-nation Quad. Bangladesh is a sovereign state and will make its own decisions about the nations foreign policy, Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen shot back on Tuesday. Usually China does not interfere in others affairs. The aggressive way the ambassador spoke is very unfortunate, Momen said in response to reporters questions about Lis comments from a day earlier. Quad members the United States, Japan, India, and Australia have said that the Indo-Pacific region is their focus specifically an Indo-Pacific region which is free, open, inclusive, healthy, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion. And in March, the four nations agreed to deliver 1 billion COVID-19 vaccines to Indo-Pacific nations by 2022. According to Momen, no Quad member had talked to Bangladesh about joining the group or participating in its efforts in the Indo-Pacific region, and so Li had made too many assumptions. The organization he [Li] speaks of has shown no interest in us, so [Lis] statement was presumptuous, Momen said, referring to the Quad. Li had told reporters at a virtual meeting with the Diplomatic Correspondents Association that Bangladesh would gain nothing by participating in the Quads efforts. It is not wise to ponder over joining [initiatives] with such a small group or club. [The Quad] is a narrow-purposed geopolitical clique, and Bangladesh should not join it, Li said. That was for Bangladesh and not China to decide, Foreign Minister Momen said. We are an independent and sovereign state. We decide our foreign policy. But yes, any country can uphold its position, Momen said. But we will decide what we will do. This is a matter of the interest of our country. We do things we need to for the welfare of our country. Bangladeshs top diplomat said his country remained non-aligned and maintained a balanced foreign policy. We will continue to do it. What he [Li] said is fine. We have no special comment on that. [But] We didnt expect such behavior from the Chinese. Well listen to what they say. But well decide what is good for us. A minor anti-China initiative A Bangladeshi political analyst, who has watched China-Bangladesh ties for decades, was also taken aback by Ambassador Lis comments Usually, diplomats dont speak in such language, Delwar Hossain, a professor of international relations at Dhaka University, told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. China sees this alliance as threat, [but] Bangladesh didnt join the Quad, and did not even express a desire to join. So, making such comments is against diplomatic norms. However, according to Chinese state media, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe conveyed a message similar to Lis to the Bangladesh president last month. Xinhua news agency said that Wei told President Abdul Hamid that Beijing and Dhaka should make joint efforts against powers outside the region setting up a military alliance in South Asia. Wei did not mention the Quad by name, according to the report. But Li did mention it, at least once. China always maintains that the U.S.-led Quad is a minor anti-China initiative, Li told reporters on Monday. It is aimed against Chinas resurgence and its relationship with neighboring countries. Reported by BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Analysts and activists talk of a failed state or civil war while citizens worry about eating. Protesters flash the three-finger salute in defiance of the ruling junta on on 100th day of coup in Myanmar in Kyimindaing, Yangon, May 11, 2021. Hundreds of protesters hit the streets of Myanmars largest city on Tuesday, the 100th day after the military seized power, flashing the three-finger salute of anti-junta defiance, while some analysts said the Southeast Asia nation was at risk of civil war or becoming a failed state. Mass protests drawing hundreds of thousands in Yangon and other cities in the weeks after the Feb. 1 military putsch which were met with army gunfire, killing nearly 800 civilians have given way to smaller flash protests voicing opposition to the ouster of Aung San Suu Kyis democratically-elected government. But the State Administration Council (SAC), as the junta calls itself, also faces a determined Civil Disobedience Movement of striking workers, professionals, and civil servants that has crippled banking, business and government activities across the complex, multi-ethnic country of 54 million people. A shadow government of former ministers and respected ethnic leaders was launched in mid-April and is trying to form an army. Away from the cities, the feared Tatmadaw Myanmars armed forces, one of Southeast Asias strongest militaries is taking casualties from ragtag local militias with homemade hunting rifles, and from well-equipped ethnic armies that have been fighting the central government for more autonomy for decades. Myanmar is heading toward a full-blown civil war and becoming a failed state, said a prominent political analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity for his personal safety. I think the armed conflicts will intensify soon. Business will completely shut down. The country is almost collapsing, he added. The death toll since the Feb. 1 coup reached 783 as of Tuesday, while 3859 civilians have been arrested or charged, according to a Thailand-based NGO called the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. With as many as 75 percent of nearly 20,000 government medical workers now joining the CDM, state-owned hospitals and local clinics are shut down, and the military has said some hospitals are still operational with army doctors and nurses. Education is also paralyzed, with about 80 percent of educational staff staying off the job in support of the CDM, and only ten percent of students, most opposed to the junta, having returned to school as the school year resumes. The coup d'etat has succeeded, but it is not successful, Yangon-based journalist Sithu Aung Myint told RFA. They cannot calm down the country in the face of peoples widespread protests. The military council is trying to force its departments to be operational, but they are not operational, added Sithu Aung Myint. Fear and hunger haunt many people in Yangon, which had already been on lockdown for many months in an effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic. It has been 100 days. I feel unsafe in my own home. I feel the same way when I am going out, said a Yangon housewife. In terms of livelihood, I have no income at all. She told RFA that 30,000 kyats (U.S. $19) used to buy groceries for a week, but now stretches only three days. Our lives are difficult, and the situation makes it hard for me to go out and work, she said. I dont want to live under military rule. The Asian Development Bank says the coup has shrunk GDP by 10 percent, the U.N. World Food Programme says that 3.4 million urban residents could go hungry in the next six months, and the U.N. Development Program warns that junta rule and the COVID-19 pandemic together could drive nearly half the population into poverty in 2022. Families in and around the commercial center and former capital Yangon, home to 7.3 million people, were skipping meals, eating less nutritious food and taking on debt to feed themselves after losing jobs and incomes, a recent U.N. report said. Junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun has not answered RFA telephone calls for weeks, while Nandar Hla Myint, spokesman for the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development, declined to comment on the 100-day milestone. But Thein Tun Oo of Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, a pro-military think tank made up retired military officers, said the military has handled the unrest calmly and steadfastly, although the protestors have been engaging in violence and provoking the authorities in many ways. There is no chance that the situation will develop into a civil war. It is more likely that there will be war against terror, the analyst said, echoing junta accusations against the protest movement, without offering supporting evidence. Some hours before the army pundit offered his optimistic view, however, three junta soldiers were killed and at least 10 others were injured in a shootout Monday night with the local People's Defense Force in Sagaing division. The northwestern Myanmar region bordering India is where dozens of security forces have been reported killed by local fighters with homemade hunting rifles since March. No civilians were injured but three died and about 10 were wounded on their side during the incident, said a resident of Sagaings Taze town, describing a half-hour-long clash. Monks protest in Mandalay on the 100th day since the coup, May 11, 2021. Credit: Citizen journalist. Cheering for ethnic armies In Kachin state, in far northern Myanmar, the junta faced opponents with far bigger guns Tuesday, as local residents reported fresh clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of the many ethnic armed organizations operating in the countrys border regions. We could hear the explosions of heavy weapons since morning. The fighting died down around 10 a.m. and just now around 12 noon, a jet flew overhead and dropped some bombs, said a resident of the town of Mansi, areas around which were evacuated. The fighting in Kachin state, which borders China, has intensified since the KIA captured a junta military camp in April. On Friday, local witnesses said 30 regime troops were killed when the junta tried to retake the camp, but RFA was unable to confirm the figures. Similar reports emerged this week of high casualties from intensified fighting in Kayin state in eastern Myanmar near the Thai border. Fighters from the Karen National Union killed 11 troops of the pro-military Karen Border Guard Force on Sunday, according to local witnesses. The KNU says there have been 407 clashes between KNU and junta or supporting forces since the coup on Feb 1, with 104 people killed and 216 wounded. RFA could not confirm the casualties. Tay Zar San, an anti-coup protest leader in Mandalay, said the only upside to 100 days of junta rule has been increased understanding between the majority Bamar (Burmese) people and ethnic minority groups. Bamars, who make up two-thirds of the countrys population, are now on the receiving end of military brutality. Ethnic groups like Karen, Kachin and Shan have been fighting against the military regime for the last 70 years. Now, we Bamars have gotten a better understanding about their fight, he told RFA. Human rights activist Nicky Diamond agreed, saying that the military has seen its popular support fall down to zero since the coup, when in the past fights against ethnic armies had some backing in the Burmese heartland. The people are now supporting their enemy ethnic armed groups instead. They are happy when the military troops lose battles or their outposts are captured by the ethnic armed groups, said Diamond. Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Paul Eckert. What they were telling us was in total contrast to what was happening on the ground, says Capt. Aung Sin Phyo A soldier looks at a banner attached to a military vehicle outside Myanmar's Central Bank during a protest against the military coup, in Yangon, Myanmar, February 15, 2021. Capt. Aung Sin Phyo had been a loyal soldier in the Tatmadaw, Myanmars military, stationed in Tarlay, a town in eastern Shan state near the borders with Laos and Thailand. When the military ousted the countrys democratically elected government on Feb. 1, Aung Sin Phyo saw it as a power grab by the Tatmadaws leaders. After seeing news reports of violent suppression of anti-coup protests, he decided he would defect. He made contact with the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), a shadow parliament group made up of ousted lawmakers, and together with his wife escaped to a confidential location in an area under the control of a rebel army. Washington, D.C.-based RFA Myanmar Service reporter Khin Maung Soe conducted a telephone interview with Aung Sin Phyo, who said he would continue to serve the country he was sworn to protect. The interview was edited for clarity. RFA: Please identify yourself. Aung Sin Phyo: Im Aung Sin Phyo. Serial number 64495, from the 55th graduating class of the Defense Services Academy. I served in the 572nd Light Infantry Battalion based in Tarlay until I defected to the liberated area about a month ago. RFA: Why did you defect? Aung Sin Phyo: Since the military takeover on Feb. 1, Ive been seeing on social media the juntas inhumane killing of innocent people. I felt very upset and angry seeing these reports every day and thats why I left the military. The junta are wicked and will do anything to stay in power. RFA: How did you know where to defect? Aung Sin Phyo: I contacted some civil servants in the CRPH. I did not tell anybody the day I left my unit, but I told them I had left only after reaching this side. RFA: What will you do now that you have defected? Aung Sin Phyo: I have joined the Peoples Defense Force. I will fight injustice along with the people. RFA: What do you think of the actions of the military leaders? Aung Sin Phyo: Their actions are not in line with what they preach. They shut down social media and the internet in our cantonments and told everybody to watch (military-run) Myawaddy and MRTV only. Everybody had to watch the commander-in-chief giving speeches. Apart from that, there was a total news blackout. What they were telling us was in total contrast to what was happening on the ground. Officers and all other ranks were forced to buy shares from the military-controlled MEHL Myanma Economic Holdings Ltd. and the profits were only enjoyed by them, the leaders. We also heard about their unlawful dealings like drug and gem smuggling. They are using the name of Tatmadaw for the benefit of themselves and their relatives. Its like we are serving them, not the country. RFA: How many others in the military do you think want to defect? Aung Sin Phyo: A lot of people know what is actually happening because no one can hide anything in the internet era. Some in the military are just foolhardy and others do not know how to get out. There are also those who dare not take the risk of leaving as they fear it might bring their families into harms way. RFA: Why do you think the military leaders took over the country? Aung Sin Phyo: It is simple. The handful of leaders at the top wanted to take over state power for their own benefit. RFA: How do you think the present situation will pan out? Aung Sin Phyo: Citizens and civil servants all over the country are united in resisting the coup and I believe they will be successful. RFA: You also brought your wife with you when you defected. Can you speak about her? Aung Sin Phyo: Yes, she was working Tarlay Civil Hospital and was part of the Civil Disobedience Movement. She is now with me and we are going to do our part to serve the country. Reported by Khin Maung Soe for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Myanmar poet Khet Thi, who wrote that the revolution against Myanmar's military junta 'is in the heart,' dies under torture at the hands of his interrogators. A Myanmar poet known for writing verse supporting the resistance movement against the ruling military junta died less than 24 hours after his arrest, and his body was returned with organs including his heart removed, his wife and supporters said Tuesday. Khet Thi, also known as Zaw Tun, was taken into custody on Saturday for questioning at a detention center in Sagaing, a region in northwestern Myanmar that has been the scene of heavy protests against military rule. When Khet This body was retrieved by family members Sunday at a hospital in the Sagaing capital Monywa, it was badly discolored and stitching indicated that at least some internal organs had been removed, said his family. His family was told by the army that the 45-year-old poet had died of a heart attack, they said. Speaking on Monday in a panel discussion held by the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand, Richard Horseya Myanmar adviser for the International Crisis Groupnoted that Khet Thi had penned a line, now widely quoted, saying They shoot us in the head, but they dont know that the revolution is in the heart. When Khet This body was returned, his heart was gone, and authorities said that he had died of a heart attack, Horsey said. I think the message was pretty clear. He wrote that line, and he lost his heart. His death makes three poets from Sagaing to be killed for working to oppose the junta, sources say. The first was Chan Win, a poet from Monywa whose real name was Chan Thar Swe. The second was Kyi Lin Aye. Both were shot dead on March 3 in Monywa. Khet This wife Chaw Su, a worker for the Telecommunications Department who was active in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) of work stoppages in opposition to military rule, had also been interrogated, but was released on Saturday and allowed to return home, sources said. Simple, transparent poems When [Khet Thi] wrote poems, they were not just literary. They were about ideas, another poet and protest veteran in Monywa told RFAs Myanmar Service on Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity. And his ideas were motivated by politics. The difference between his poems and the work of others was that his poems were not subtle. They were simple and transparent, he said. Another poet, Yoe Khat, called Khet This death a loss to the world of poetry, and said he would continue to be honored by those resisting military rule in Myanmar, where a democratically elected civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted by the military on Feb. 1. From time immemorial, poets have fought back with their hearts and with their minds, Yoe Khan said, adding that Khet Thi had been doing this since the beginning of the revolution. He inspired the people to revolution by imparting knowledge. This is a great loss to the world of poetry, and we will continue to honor him, he said. Khet This funeral Monday evening in his hometown Pale was closely watched by plainclothes police and singing was banned, though many in the crowd could be seen raising the three-finger salute, a symbol of resistance to junta rule, family members told RFA. He was a good man. He was loved by all his friends, and at home he would always cook for his family, one family member said. Now, when I wake up in the morning, I feel so empty and yet I cannot cry. There is no turning back time, though. He will never be forgotten. Khet Thi, who had been married only two years, had made a living in Pale by making and selling cakes and ice cream. His brother is now under arrest in Monywa Prison for taking part in anti-junta protests, with family members keeping the news a secret from his mother. Attempts by RFA to reach Myanmars Deputy Information Minister Major General Zaw Min Tun for comment this week were unsuccessful. Reported by RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Richard Finney. Rights and press groups urge authorities not to deport the Democratic Voice of Burma reporters. In this photo released by the San Sai District Administrative Office, a Thai officer checks the temperature of journalists working for Democratic Voice of Burma, at San Sai District in Chiang Mai province north of Thailand Sunday, May 9, 2021. Three Myanmar journalists arrested in Thailand after they fled a crackdown by the military junta should be set free because they would face severe punishment if they were deported back to Myanmar, their supervisor and human rights groups said Tuesday. Police in Thailands northwestern city of Chiangmai arrested the three Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) journalists along with two political activists in a house in the citys Sansai district on Sunday. DVB began as an exile media organization prior to Myanmars democratic reforms, broadcasting uncensored news on TV and radio into the country before relocating there in 2012, a year after political changes in Myanmar began. But the junta that ousted Aung San Suu Kyis democratically elected government on Feb. 1 revoked DVBs license in March, amid a crackdown on all independent media in Myanmar, driving the outlets journalists into hiding as they continued to broadcast news over satellite and through social media outlets. The three DVB journalists who fled across the border had planned to continue their work from Thailand, their employer told RFAs Myanmar Service on Tuesday. The Thai police arrested them during a surprise check, because they had no official travel documents, said Aye Chan Naing, DVBs executive director. DVB had previously operated in Chiangmai before relocating to Myanmar, but this time reporters had to flee on short notice under pressure from the military regime. We didnt just suddenly start up shop unannounced back then. We took the time to set up our base there and make sure of our security matters. But now, in this case, we have had to leave the country in a rush, so we had no time to make preparations, he said. We were working there in Chiangmai for nearly 20 years. If we had had enough time to prepare and discuss with the Thai authorities, we wouldnt be seeing these arrests, he said. Aye Chan Naing said that the three journalists took the step of quarantining for a 14-day period after they entered Thailand, and the only charge they face is illegal entry. If deported back to Myanmar they could face harsh punishment. We issued a statement today and have asked the Thai government not to hand them over to the military and to just send them to a safe place. We have asked the U.N. High Commission for Refugees office in Bangkok to ask the authorities not to deport our people back to Myanmar, he said. The five Myanmar nationals are being held in the Chiangmai central prison for investigation and they have legal representation, Chiangmai police on Tuesday told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. The five have pleaded not guilty to illegal entry and refused to provide information about themselves during a court hearing on Tuesday, Chiangmai Police Chief Tapanapong Chairangsi said. Those five men were charged under immigration law and the Thai landlord was charged with giving sanctuary to aliens. I believe they crossed illegally into the northern region about a year ago, but they moved to Chiangmai recently, he added. It was not immediately clear why the police chiefs account contradicted DVBs statement that the journalists had fled the military crackdown. Thai authorities concerned are coordinating to find humanitarian solution to the recent case of journalists from Myanmar, said Tanee Sangrat, a spokesperson for Thailands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but he did not elaborate when asked for more information. A spokesman for Thai national police said investigators had 30 days to wrap up the five Myanmar nationals cases. Normally, a deportation is done only after a court ruling under immigration law. Police, however, will bring other factors into consideration whether to deport one or not, spokesman Col. Krishna Pattanacharoen told reporters via a text message. At the moment, we are not considering deporting them yet. Certain arrest and persecution New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement urged Thailand to provide protection to the journalists, saying that if they were sent back, the junta would arrest and punish them. The juntas hostile actions towards DVB were made clear when it revoked the DVBs media license in March. Just last week, the junta criminalized ownership of satellite dishes, in part to prevent DVBs satellite broadcasts from reaching the Burmese people, said Brad Adams, HRWs Asia director. The Thai government should immediately release these five journalists and activists, allow UNHCR access to provide them with protection, and ensure they can remain temporarily in Thailand, Adams said. The Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) said it was seriously concerned over the arrests. These five individuals would face certain arrest and persecution, if not worse, for their work and association with the DVB, and under no circumstances should they be deported back to Myanmar. Rather, the DVB journalists and their associates should be released from detention, urgently offered protection, and granted the right to remain temporarily in Thailand, the FCCT said in a statement. The statement noted that more than 70 journalists were among about 5,000 people arrested by the junta since the Feb. 1 coup, and most remain in detention. UNESCO says 71 have been arrested since Feb. 1. The FCCT also cited the satellite ban as an example of the junta specifically targeting DVB and another outlet Mizzima News as it had been the primary method for both networks to broadcast in Myanmar. The world is watching what the Thai authorities do in this important case for press freedom in Myanmar and the region, and for the protection of those fleeing the juntas brutal crackdown on independent media and civil society, the FCCT said. Reported by Aye Aye Mon for RFAs Myanmar Service and BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Translated by RFAs Myanmar Service. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Former Iranian hard-line President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has registered his candidacy for a third term in office in next months election. State television reported on May 12 that Ahmadinejad marched with supporters to the Interior Ministry, where he filled out the required registration forms. Considered an ultraconservative in the past, the 64-year-old ex-Tehran mayor has been more critical of the establishment in recent years. He was barred from running at the last presidential election in 2017. During his two terms in office, between 2005 to 2013, he pushed Iran into open confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, and his disputed 2009 reelection sparked the biggest mass protests in the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran on May 11 opened registration for potential candidates in the June 18 presidential election amid continued high tensions with the West and uncertainty over Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers. After the five-day registration process, entrants will be screened for their qualifications by the Guardians Council, a hard-line constitutional watchdog that has in the past disqualified many moderate would-be candidates. The Holocaust-denying Ahmadinejad has previously been banned from running for the presidency by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2017, although then, he registered anyway. The Guardians Council ultimately disqualified him then. The council is to announce a final list of candidates by May 27, triggering a 20-day campaign season ahead of the vote. President Hassan Rohani, a relative moderate whose government is taking part in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement, cannot seek reelection after having served two consecutive four-year terms. With the poll just a month away, no immediate favorite has emerged among the many rumored candidates, but many view the hard-liners as ascendant. Turnout could be hit by rising discontent over steep rises in consumer prices and high unemployment as the Iranian economy has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic and U.S. economic sanctions reimposed after Washington in 2018 pulled out of the nuclear accord, which lifted international sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. Iran responded to the U.S. moves by stepping up its violations of the accord by enriching uranium to a greater purity, stockpiling more than allowed, and introducing more advanced centrifuges. Several rounds of talks with world powers in Vienna on reviving the nuclear accord have yet to make major progress. Iranian hard-liners took control of parliament last year in polls that saw 42.5 percent turnout, the lowest turnout since the 1979 revolution that brought a clerical regime to power. Ahmadinejads political style, which included threats against Israel, denial of the Holocaust, and claims that Iran had no homosexuals, contributed to marginalize Iran on the international stage. At home, he drew support from the countryside for his populist cash handouts and home-building programs, but even some of his conservative allies had abandoned him toward the end of his time at the presidency. After leaving office in 2013, Ahmadinejad sought to reinvigorate his political fortunes in public and on social media. In 2017, Ahmadinejad accused the hard-line judiciary of "dictatorship" and said that it is more powerful than the supreme leader, who has final say on all state matters in Iran. With reporting by AP and dpa Former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, who is currently being held in a prison in The Hague for war crimes and genocide, will serve the remainder of his sentence in Britain. Karadzic, 75, was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 2016 after being convicted of genocide for the July 1995 Srebrenica massacre of more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb forces. In 2019, UN judges at The Hague extended the prison term to a life sentence. "Radovan Karadzic is one of the few people to have been found guilty of genocide. He was responsible for the massacre of men, women, and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians," Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab announced on May 12. He also said Britain "should take pride" in the country's support for the 30-year effort to bring the former Bosnian Serb political leader to justice. Karadzic was also found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity for the almost four-year-long siege of Sarajevo by the Bosnian Serb forces and for overseeing a campaign of ethnic cleansing that drove Croats and Muslims out of Serb-claimed areas of Bosnia. Karadzic and his military chief, General Ratko Mladic, were among the last suspects put on trial by the UN tribunal in The Hague for the civil war. Karadzic was arrested in Belgrade on July 18, 2008, after spending more than a decade in hiding. He was handed over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and after his conviction he was held at court's detention center in The Hague. On June 8, UN judges will rule on Mladic's appeal against his genocide conviction. Mladic was sentenced to life in prison in 2017 for the Srebrenica massacre and for war crimes and crimes against humanity in general during the 1992-95 Bosnian war. With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- The parliament in Bosnia-Herzegovinas predominantly Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, has rejected a request from the countrys international overseer to revoke awards recognizing convicted war criminals. Lawmakers at the entity's National Assembly voted on May 11 to endorse conclusions rejecting the request by High Representative Valentin Inzko. Two opposition parties abstained from voting. In his first reaction to the move, Inzko called nationalist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik "a coward" and said he would notify the European Union of the lawmakers decision. In February, Inzko sent a letter to the National Assembly of Republika Srpska requesting the annulment within three months of decorations issued to people convicted of war crimes committed during the 1992-95 Bosnian War. Those awarded included Radovan Karadzic, Momcilo Krajisnik, and Biljana Plavsic, whose actions shocked the worldand caused unimaginable human suffering, Inzko wrote. Dodik is the Serb member of Bosnias tripartite presidency. The ruling majority in parliament is led by his Alliance of the Independent Social Democrats (SNSD). More than 100,000 people were killed in the Bosnian conflict that ended in a U.S.-brokered peace agreement in 1995 that divided Bosnia into two entities -- the Muslim and Croat federation and Republika Srpska -- held together by joint central institutions. Karadzic, Krajisnik, and Plavsic have been convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Karadzic, the wartime president of Republika Srpska, was sentenced to life in prison by the court in The Hague in 2019 for his role in the 1995 mass killings at Srebrenica that the tribunal ruled was genocide and persecution of Bosniaks and Croats throughout Bosnia. Dubbed the Butcher of Bosnia, he was also found guilty of terrorizing the Sarajevo population by shelling and sniping, and of taking UN peacekeepers hostage. Plavsic, Karadzic's successor as president, was sentenced to 11 years in 2003 for committing war crimes. She was released in 2009 after serving two-thirds of her sentence. Krajisnik, who was parliamentary speaker during the war, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2009 on charges of persecuting and forcibly expelling non-Serbs, and crimes against humanity. He was released in 2013 after serving two-thirds of his sentence, and died at the age of 75 in Republika Srpska. ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Police in Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, have detained at least nine protesters who have been picketing the Chinese consulate for 93 days to demand the release of relatives they say are being "illegally" held in China. Two of the protesters, Baibolat Kunbolat and Tursungul Nuraqai, were released several hours after they were detained late on May 11. The whereabouts of the others is unknown. Kunbolat told RFE/RL on May 12 that he and other protesters, mainly women, were detained after they rallied in front of the Chinese Consulate and then moved to picket a Chinese bank and a Chinese gasoline station in Almaty. According to Kunbolat, police held him for several hours and interrogated him over his role in the ongoing protests. "I did not sign a protocol and did not write down any testimony. They let me go after 9:00 p.m. but ordered me to come back for questioning the next day," Kunbolat said. In recent years, many similar protests have taken place in Kazakhstan, with demonstrators demanding Kazakh authorities officially intervene in the situation faced by ethnic Kazakhs in Xinjiang. The U.S. State Department has said that as many as 2 million Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and members of Xinjiang's other indigenous, mostly Muslim, ethnic groups have been taken to detention centers. China denies that the facilities are internment camps but people who have fled the province say that thousands of ethnic Kazakhs, Uyghurs, and other Muslims in Xinjiang are undergoing "political indoctrination" at a network of facilities known officially as reeducation camps. Kazakhs are the second-largest Turkic-speaking indigenous community in Xinjiang after Uyghurs. The region is also home to ethnic Kyrgyz, Tajiks, and Hui, also known as Dungans. Han, China's largest ethnicity, is the second-largest community in Xinjiang. In the wake of the fatal school shooting in Kazan on May 11, the question of how to prevent such incidents -- which have become increasingly common in Russia in recent years -- jumped to the top of the national agenda. Some officials of longtime President Vladimir Putin's authoritarian government were quick to propose measures that could further boost the state's role in citizens' lives. Other commentators, though, have suggested the example the government sets by resorting to violence in the face of political challenges and blaming failures on outside "enemies" could be contributing to the deadly violence. Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the State Duma, the lower chamber of Russia's parliament, wrote on Telegram that "it is necessary to discuss" proposals to restrict "anonymity on the Internet." Such restrictions would "reduce the volume of content promoting violence and lionizing extremism," Volodin said, purportedly summarizing the arguments of proponents of the idea. Speaking on the YouTube channel of hard-line state-media moderator Vladimir Solovyov, Tatarstan ombudswoman for children's rights Irina Volynets blamed the Kazan shooting, in which nine people were killed and 23 injured, on "the absolute absence of a state ideology." "As long as we do not have a state ideology, as long as children are not busy outside of school hours like they were in the Soviet Union -- and that activity has to be organized by the state -- if we don't fundamentally change our system, then unfortunately this situation will repeat itself," Volynets said. State Information Abuse The Education Ministry in the northern Murmansk region, in response to the Kazan tragedy, ordered the creation of a database of students and recent graduates who are "inclined to disciplinary problems" and who "demonstrate unmotivated aggression." However, the ministry's order, which appeared in several local publications, contained a web address of such a database that included personal information on hundreds of students, even though the file was apparently only created at 2:25 p.m. on May 11, Moscow time. The database was quickly taken offline when journalists noticed it, but not before reporters from Mediazona found notations describing individual students that included "brought a knife to school," "shows suicidal behavior," "swears," "participated in a protest supporting [imprisoned opposition politician Aleksei] Navalny," "has opposed Russian laws," and "does not recognize authority." The file reportedly contained information about students from cities and towns throughout the region, including, in some cases, their social-media accounts. Kazan political commentator and civic activist Darya Kulakova told RFE/RL that the government had a clear track record of misusing security measures for political ends. When surveillance cameras were installed throughout the city, she said, the authorities used them primarily to identify and punish anti-government demonstrators. "In January, after the demonstrations against Putin in Kazan, a Telegram channel called Krasnaya Kazan was created where they published lists of people who demonstrated and threatened them," Kulakova said. "Since only the police have access to the cameras and the facial-recognition technology connected to them, it is not difficult to conclude that, most likely, the police were somehow involved in the release of this personal data. The organizers of the channel warned about retribution against protesters, but the police somehow ignored these threats." 'Enemies Everywhere' The state's behavior could well be a cause of the problem, Moscow-based political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin said. People don't understand what is happening," he told RFE/RL. "They are told constantly that we are surrounded by enemies and the whole world is controlled by unknown forces. Then conspiracy theories begin agitating vulnerable minds." Analyst and former Kremlin speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov offered a similar perspective. "People have become accustomed to seeing enemies everywhere and to looking for the reasons for their failures outside themselves," he said. "Just as the Russian government does. People pick up the behavioral models that they are used to seeing around them." In the past, the Russian government has been unwilling to entertain similar criticism. In July 2020, RFE/RL contributor Svetlana Prokopyeva was convicted of "justifying terrorism" for a commentary she made about the November 2018 suicide bombing of the Arkhangelsk office of the Federal Security Service (FSB) by a teenager. Prokopyeva suggested that the teen's actions could have been motivated by feelings of despair and desperation caused by the repressive political climate in Putin's Russia. Psychologist Denis Davydov told Current Time, a Russian-language network headed by RFE/RL in collaboration with VOA, that Russia really needs more scientific and transparent studies of such violent incidents in order to respond comprehensively. "The first thing Russia needs is to organize a really serious research group under the patronage of a powerful ministry -- not the Education Ministry," Davydov said. "In America, the Secret Service does this work, recruiting the best and best-known psychologists. They publish regular reports on their research. Here, scientists in general have no access to factual data about what is happening." Meanwhile, in a post on Facebook, pro-Kremlin analyst Sergei Markov praised 25-year-old Elvira Ignatyeva, an English-language teacher who was shot dead during the Kazan tragedy, and the other teachers at the school. "They fulfilled their duty and tried to save the children," Markov wrote. "They showed that we have a morally healthy society." And pro-Kremlin commentator Solovyov published a YouTube video with the title: Western Structures Are Taking Over VKontakte Groups. Who Might Be Behind The Attack On The School In Kazan? RFE/RL's Russian and Tatar-Bashkir services and Current Time contributed to this report U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has told Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden wont waver in responding to aggression from Moscow in the United States or elsewhere. "Secretary Blinken reiterated President Bidens resolve to protect U.S. citizens and act firmly in defense of U.S. interests in response to actions by Russia that harm us or our allies," U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said, adding that Blinken made the point in a telephone call with Lavrov on May 12. The call comes amid ongoing tensions between Washington and Moscow over a number of issues, including Russias troop buildup in and around Ukraine, allegations of Russian meddling in U.S. elections and the recent cyberattack blamed on a Russia-linked criminal network on a key U.S. oil pipeline. Blinken and Lavrov are set to meet in person for the first time next week on the sidelines of the Arctic summit in Reykjavik. The two will discuss "key issues of mutual relations and the international agenda" during their meeting, planned for May 20, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on May 12. The U.S. State Department also confirmed the date. Whether the two will discuss a possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Joe Biden is unclear. Biden had suggested the two meet in a third country, but Putin has so far not responded publicly. The meeting marks the end of Iceland's two-year chairmanship of the Arctic cooperation forum, which then passes on to Russia for the next two years. Alongside Russia and the United States, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Canada, Norway, and Sweden are also members of the council. With reporting by dpa, AP, and Reuters KEMEROVO, Russia -- The prosecutor in the high-profile case of a deadly mall fire in 2018 in Siberia has asked a court to sentence eight defendants to prison terms between five years and 14 1/2 years. Prosecutor Aleksandr Korobeinikov asked the Zavodskoi district court in the city of Kemerovo on May 12 to hand the longest sentence to Yulia Bogdanova, former director of a company that owned the Zimnyaya Vishnya (Winter Cherry) mall in the city, where a fire killed 60 people, including 37 children, in March 2018. The prosecutor also asked the court to sentence former mall manager Nadezhda Suddenok and the mall's former technical director, Georgy Sobolev, to 14 years and 13 years in prison, respectively. Korobeinikov asked that Igor Polozinenko, the chief of a company that installed a fire alarm system in the mall, and his assistant, Aleksandr Nikitin, get 6 years and 8 months and 5 1/2 years in prison, respectively. The prosecutor asked the court to sentence Andrey Bursin and Sergei Genin, the individuals who led firefighting operations at the blaze, to six and five years in prison, respectively. All of the defendants were charged with violating fire safety rules and negligence that led to human loss of life. Bogdanova, Suddenok, and Sobolev pleaded partially guilty, while others pleaded not guilty. The 2018 fire was one of the deadliest in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was the last in a long series of disasters caused or exacerbated by the corrosively deadly effects of negligence, carelessness, corruption, corner-cutting, and crumbling infrastructure. Residents, relatives of the victims, and Russians nationwide blamed corruption and government negligence for the high number of casualties. Days after the fire, investigators said that blocked fire exits, an alarm system that was turned off, and "glaring violations" of safety rules before the blaze started led to the high death toll. A total of 16 people, including leaders of the regional Emergency Ministry and officials who had approved the mall's operations, have been charged with crimes that investigators say led to or aggravated the tragedy. With reporting by Meduza YEKATERINBURG, Russia -- Russian opposition politician and former mayor of the Urals city of Yekaterinburg Yevgeny Roizman has been sentenced to nine days in jail for his online posts about a January 31 rally to support jailed opposition politician Aleksei Navalny. On May 12, the Oktyabr (October) district court in Yekaterinburg found Roizman, who is also a former parliamentary deputy, guilty of organizing an unsanctioned rally. Roizman pleaded not guilty, saying his posts were neither calls for people to attend the rall, nor an attempt to organize it. Nationwide demonstrations held on January 23 and January 31 were against the arrest of Navalny, who was detained at a Moscow airport on January 17 upon his arrival from Germany, where he was recovering from a poison attack with what several European laboratories concluded was a military-grade chemical nerve agent in Siberia in August. Navalny has insisted that his poisoning was ordered directly by President Vladimir Putin, which the Kremlin has denied. The rallies were met with a harsh response from authorities, with many of those taking part either receiving fines and short jail terms and some facing several years in prison. Russia has also ramped up pressure on domestic and foreign social networks, accusing them of refusing to delete opposition content. Moscows Tagansky district court fined Telegram five million rubles ($67,000) on May 12 for not removing calls "inciting minors" to join protests, TASS reported. Moscow has repeatedly fined foreign Internet companies, including Facebook, Google and Twitter, for failing to comply with Russian legislation. Roizman wrote on social networks on the eve of the January 31 rally that "It is necessary to come out on the 31st. I will," and "They are bastards, let's come out." He also wrote wryly: "They are doing everything to make as many people as possible come out. It is important not to impede this move by the morons." Prosecutors said at the hearing that since Roizman's posts "included the date and the site" of the rally, he can be considered an organizer of an unsanctioned public event. The posts, however, did not list any specific site for a demonstration, he countered. In February, a Moscow court ruled that, while in Germany, Navalny had violated the terms of parole from an old embezzlement case that is widely consideredto have been politically motivated. Navalny's 3 1/2-year suspended sentence from the case was converted to a jail term, though the court said he would serve 2 1/2 years in prison given the amount of time he had been held in detention. With reporting by Znak, Meduza, AFP, and TASS President Vladimir Putin was hopeful in remarks on May 10 about the coronavirus pandemic in Russia. The situation with the virus in the country, according to specialists, is stable, he said in Sochi, urging Russians to get vaccinated. According to official statistics as of May 12, there have been 4,905,059 coronavirus infections in the country and 114,331 fatalities. Those numbers, however, are widely regarded as severely understated. Deputy Prime Minister Tatyana Golikova acknowledged in December that the countrys data was questionable. She estimated that 81 percent of the 229,700 excess deaths that Russia, according to official numbers, experienced in the first 11 months of 2020 could be attributed to COVID-19. That means the death toll would have been more than 186,000, while the Rosstat statistics agency was reporting a pandemic death total of just 57,000 at the time. Prominent Russian demographer Aleksei Raksha thinks even those numbers are unrealistic, indicating that the true scope of the pandemic in Russia may never be known. It is simply a fact that we do not know how many infections we have had, Raksha told RFE/RL, adding that methods of estimating the number of infections in the absence of large-scale epidemiological studies are far from ideal. It is all just guesswork. I think that in Russia, no less than one-third of the population has had the virus. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the figure is closer to 40 percent. That is my estimate. That would put the total figure for coronavirus infections since the pandemic hit early in 2020 at over 47 million. A Matter Of Priorities Furthermore, Raksha argues that the government prioritized its political goals over coping with the public-health emergency in the crucial months of the first half of 2020. The Kremlin proceeded with a controversial national plebiscite on a raft of constitutional amendments in June and July 2020, a package that included a provision that could keep Putin in power until 2036 by allowing him to run for two more six-year terms. The problem in Russia is not how many people died, but how many people were infected. And so many people were infected because we had powerful propaganda and people were duped because the tsar had to reset himself to zero, he said, referring to the amendment that allows Putin to run again by stating that the four terms he will have served by 2024 do not count toward the constitutional two-term limit. This is our main problem. Our government, for the sake of its own goals, threw away the lives of about 300,000 people, he added. Of course, most of them were elderly, but they were nonetheless thrown away. If everything had been done properly, our excess deaths would have been a maximum of 150,000 to 200,000, instead of half a million. The plebiscite itself was problematic from the epidemiological point of view, and it also provoked a major wave of protest actions across the country. Raksha was fired from his post as a health demographer at Rosstat in July 2020 for disputing how the country was counting its coronavirus fatalities. At the time, Russia officially had 11,439 COVID-19 deaths, a figure that government officials were using to argue that the states response to the emergency had been effective. Raksha insisted at the time that at least 30,000 people have died due to the coronavirus. He continues to rail against the governments numbers. I categorically do not recommend that nonspecialists look at the data from Stopkoronavirusa and Rospotrebnadzor, he said, referring to the governments official website of statistics on the pandemic and the state consumer-protection agency, which also reports coronavirus numbers. You need to forget they even exist because it is harmful. It is simply disinformation. Under pressure from Rosstat, he asserted, regional officials have been producing statistics out of thin air. When they post daily numbers on infections that are practically identical from one day to the next, that is a clear indication that these so-called statistics are just made up in their headsby officials who called Moscow or neighboring regions and agreed on figures, he said, adding that the numbers were again evened out by Rosstat before being published. These are purely creative numbers...and the talent of these artists is not very impressive. Demographic Reversal Raksha notes that the coronavirus pandemic was a considerable setback to Putins longtime goal of improving the countrys demographic situation. In the period from 2006 until 2019, the government managed to raise life expectancy in Russia by 8 1/2 years. The pandemic, however, reduced life expectancy by 1.8 years, bringing the country back to the levels of 2014-15. Women, he said, suffered disproportionately, perhaps because in the educational and medical fields and in retail, most of the workers are women. They had a larger chance of becoming infected and, consequently, of dying, he said. This reversal of Russias population growth must be taken into consideration when calculating the countrys excess deaths. By simply comparing the number of deaths in 2020 with the figure from 2019, we underestimate the excess deaths, Raksha said. In addition, he notes, the first quarter of 2020 actually saw 13,000 fewer deaths than the same period in 2019, indicating that Russia was on its way to posting another year of demographic improvement before the pandemic hit. Taking these factors into consideration, Raksha estimates Russias excess deaths for 2020 at about 355,000, and he puts the figure for the entire pandemic so far at about 500,000. He said he believes all the excess deaths can be attributed directly or indirectly to COVID-19. The government has reported that deaths from causes totally unrelated to the pandemic -- accidents, suicides, murders, poisoning, cancer, AIDS, tuberculosis, and others -- fell in 2019. Child mortality also decreased. But we know from medics that [COVID-19] strongly affects illnesses of the circulatory and respiratory systems, as well as those of the digestive system, he told RFE/RL. But Golikova has not reported on the dynamic of these classes of causes of death, which means that it went up. I think the Health Ministry has reclassified a large portion of the COVID-19 fatalities to other causes. They are lying to us as if we are morons and suckers, he concluded. And that is how they treat us: Well, the slaves are dying and dying. Thats the way it seems to me. Written by RFE/RL senior correspondent Robert Coalson based on reporting by correspondent Svetlana Prokopyeva of the North.Realities desk of RFE/RLs Russian Service Soldiers pick up their packages. (Photo by Wu Yinghao) By Sun Xingwei and Sun Chengcheng BEIJING, May 12 -- The transportation and delivery office of the Logistic Support Department under the Central Military Commission (CMC) is working with the State Post Bureau and China Post Group Co., Ltd. on formulation of concrete measures to further extend postal services to the border and coastal defense points in remote areas. In June last year, the successful military-civil joint efforts made the Sanshili Camp in Pishan County in southern Xinjing had access to express mail service (EMS). From then on, the troops stationed there have been able to enjoy convenient and efficient postal express services. It is learnt that China Post Group Co., Ltd. has spared no effort to ensure that the EMS will be opened at 120 remote border and coastal defense points before 1st of July this year, except for several islets and plateau localities that do not currently have the conditions for regular postal services. To meet the demands of the troops, the China Post can adjust EMS business hours timely and increase the distribution frequencies. In addition, post offices in barracks and dedicated postal routes will be opened to further ensure the troop units stationed in remore areas with poor transportation have access to convenient EMS. In an email to employees posted last week on Cruise Hives website, Duffy urged all Carnival employees to get vaccinated as soon as possible but acknowledged some live in places where vaccinations are rolling out slowly. Carnival will provide opportunities for those employees to be vaccinated, she said, just as it arranged to vaccinate crew members aboard Breeze and Vista. A group of lawmakers in the Russian parliament's lower chamber, the State Duma, have introduced a bill that would ban lawyers from recording meetings with their convicted clients inside penitentiaries, a move that has sparked sharp criticism from rights activists as a way of muzzling prisoners such as opposition politician Aleksei Navalny. Civil society advocates say the initiative is linked to ongoing online statements by Kremlin-critic Navalny, a growing number of political prisoners, and a number of other high-profile cases of torture in Russian penitentiaries that came to the attention of the public via video recordings made in prisons. The bill, which was placed on the State Duma's website and registered for debate on May 6, would ban attorneys from bringing "any communication devices" into penitentiaries. Such a move would fly in the face of a recent Supreme Court statement saying that lawyers have a right to enter prisons and jails with all types of mobile communication, emphasizing that attempts by the wardens at some penitentiaries to implement such a ban at their facilities were illegal. Several attorneys who talked to RFE/RL on the issue said that the bill would also violate the rights of inmates and eliminate the last tool inmates have to use to document violations of their rights such as torture. Maksim Olenichev of the Team 29 group of attorneys told RFE/RL that written complaints about torture in Russian prisons have never been enough to bring such cases to trial, meaning photos and videos are crucial to helping successfully defend inmates' rights. "We think the main reason the bill was introduced is the appearance of multiple instances of proof of violence [against inmates] in prison in various regions. Yaroslavl, Karelia, Priangarye, [incidents] which came to public knowledge and had probes launched, were only because of photos and video recordings made by lawyers.... The bill would also stop the statements Navalny has been making from prison," Olenichev said. Lawyer Dmitry Dmitriyev from the Siberian city of Irkutsk told RFE/RL that many penitentiaries have not been allowing lawyers to have mobile phones or cameras when visiting their clients in prisons and jails for years, but some lawyers fought against such bans citing the current law which allows them to bring devices inside penitentiaries. "Only well-known lawyers have managed to make penitentiary administrations follow the law and had mobile phones with them when meeting with their clients. Such lawyers were mainly those whose clients were involved in high-profile cases, such as Navalnys case, because their words were cited [by media] and the public reacted to them. Because of that, the opposition politician has been able to communicate with people even from his cell. Each word Navalny sent from behind bars has been discussed even more actively. I think this bill was hastily proposed for debate to stop that," Dmitriyev said. The head of the Gulagu.net human rights project, Vladimir Osechkin, told RFE/RL that his sources in the State Duma told him that the main goal of the bill was to prevent the flow of information about torture in prisons and stop Navalny's online statements from prison. "According to the sources, the authors of the bill have tried to push the draft law for several months, and only now did it get a "green light" from the presidential administration and made its way to the State Duma. And this comes at a time when statements about torture in Russian prisons have become systemic, when a new case of torture becomes public each week. And Navalny keeps on irritating [the authorities] with his statements from behind bars," Osechkin said. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling on authorities in the Russian republic of Tatarstan not to contest the appeals of two correspondents for an independent news website who have been found guilty of interfering with traffic and disobeying police. A local court on May 9 convicted Aleksei Solovyov and Damir Manzhukov. Solovyev was sentenced to five days of administrative arrest, while Manzhukov was fined 2,000 rubles ($27) and released. The journalists denied the charges, Solovyov told CPJ, adding that he filed an appeal in his case and that Manzhukov planned to do so as well. Police have not returned their equipment that was confiscated during the arrest, he said. Solovyov and Manzhukov work for the Rosderzhava news website, which primarily writes about alleged police corruption. Their YouTube channels -- Zhukman and Aleksei Svist -- regularly post videos on the same topics that receive tens of thousands of views. In a statement on May 11, CPJ called on the authorities to not contest the journalists appeals, release Solovyov from detention immediately, and ensure that their equipment is returned and that they can do their jobs without being pressured and persecuted by the state. Russian law enforcement must stop punishing journalists for doing their jobs, and must investigate allegations of corruption instead of prosecuting journalists who report them, said Gulnoza Said, the New York-based media freedom watchdog's Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. On May 8, Solovyov and Manzhukov were driving in Vysokogorsky district when they spotted a group of police officers at the side of the road, some of whom were allegedly failing to wear pieces of headwear that are required by all officers, according to Solovyov. The journalists stopped their car and Solovyev told the officers he wanted to file a complaint about the alleged violation, but they refused to accept the complaint, according to the journalist. The officers then confiscated the journalists video cameras, phones, and dashboard camera, and took them to the district police station. During their detention, police officers twisted Solovyovs right arm, and a local hospital doctor told him that it had extensive bruising and inflammation, he told CPJ. ASHGABAT -- The authorities in Turkmenistan's capital have temporarily restricted traffic in an effort to give its nearly 900,000 residents a two-week respite from the growing air-pollution problem. Beginning on May 10, most private vehicles have been banned from the streets and residents have been advised to use public transport. Some Ashgabat streets are off-limits to cars, with exceptions for government vehicles. Turkmen media reported that city residents support the campaign, which is part of measures to mark Ashgabat's 140th anniversary this month. But while many residents might agree with the campaign's environmental benefits, they also complain of poor planning that they say is severely disrupting their lives. With the ban on cars, passenger numbers on public transport have skyrocketed. But no additional buses or bus routes were added to handle the increase. Ashgabat's public transport system consists only of bus and minibus services. Citing local residents, RFE/RL correspondents in Ashgabat say those vehicles are struggling to cope with the sudden spike. The overcrowding has led to confrontations and arguments among passengers vying for space, the correspondents say. The situation is particularly acute for tens of thousands of commuters during the morning and evening rush hours. Multiple people told RFE/RL they'd been late to work due to a shortage of buses. They spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation from the authorities in the strictly controlled Central Asian state. Residents are also being encouraged to walk or cycle to work whenever possible. But there are not many bike lanes in the city. With dawn-to-dusk fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan -- and temperatures reaching 30 degrees Celsius -- many people in the Muslim-majority country found it hard to walk several kilometers to work. Meanwhile, taxi fares have risen sharply along with demand and competition for rides, Ashgabat residents complain. One local resident told RFE/RL on May 12 that a 15-minute taxi ride from her home in the city's 30th district to the Optom Bazaar shopping mall normally costs about $4. "But on the first day of the campaign, the price for the same route rose to about $14," she said. Medical Chaos The green campaign has also disrupted ambulance services amid uncertainty over whether such emergency vehicles can freely move in all areas of the city. In several cases documented by RFE/RL, patients who contacted emergency services were told that the ambulances couldn't reach them. The patients were advised to contact nearby medical facilities instead. They included a diabetic patient who never received the medical attention that he needed. In some cases, patients were told that ambulances were only allowed to operate outside normal business hours, starting at 8 p.m. The shortage of public transport has prompted some patients to cancel scheduled medical appointments. The Center for Neurological Diseases was almost entirely empty on May 11, after officials said many patients postponed visits until after the green campaign ends. Some cafe and restaurant owners say their businesses have been disrupted without vehicles to deliver fresh supplies. Residents also complain that the authorities have failed to provide clear and timely information about the details of the campaign, to allow city residents and businesses to prepare for it. The green campaign concludes on May 25 with public celebrations to mark City Day. Written by Farangis Najibullah with reporting by RFE/RL's Turkmen Service correspondents in Ashgabat KAZAN, Russia -- Nine victims from an attack on a school in the capital of the Russian republic of Tatarstan have been buried as investigators search for answers as to why a teenager went on a deadly shooting spree. The victims were buried on May 12 in cemeteries in Kazan and several other districts in Tatarstan in accordance with Islamic traditions as the republic holds a day of mourning following the tragedy a day earlier that also injured more than 20 people, most of whom were students at School No. 175. Four boys and three girls, all eighth-graders, died in the attack, as well as a teacher and another school employee. Around 100 people, some of them wearing face masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic, gathered at a traditional Muslim funeral for Elvira Ignatieva, an English teacher who was among the victims. "My niece was like a shining star: she took off, lit up, and faded away," her aunt Anna Ignatieva told AFP, crying and wearing a black scarf. "She was protecting her children ... She was protecting (them) and didn't hide away," Talgat Gumerov, a Kazan resident told Reuters. Amir Shaikhutdinov, a 14-year-old student killed in the attack, was also buried. Thanks to all of you and from the town for all of the supportWithout it I would not have been able to cope, his father, Fanil Shaikhutdinov, said in comments reported by RFE/RL. A 19-year-old man, identified by local media as Ilnaz Galyaviyev, was arrested on suspicion of setting off an explosion in the school before opening fire on students as they scurried to flee the building, some jumping from third-floor windows to escape the carnage. According to Interfax, Galyaviyev was enrolled at a nearby business school, the Tatarstan University of Management, but was expelled one month ago for poor academic performance. The Russia-born founder of encrypted messenger Telegram, Pavel Durov, said on May 12 that his team had "acted quickly" to block Galyaviyev's account, one hour after receiving initial complaints over his channel. Durov said Galyaviyev announced his plans in a private Telegram channel, where he was the only member, just minutes before the attack. "Fifteen minutes before the attack, the shooter made the channel public, apparently intending to leave it as a death note," Durov said. The region's commissioner for childrens rights, Irina Volynets, was quoted by the state TASS news agency as saying on May 12 that the motive for the attack is still not known. "He did not come into the spotlight of any law enforcement agency: his family [was not monitored] as a dysfunctional family, the shooter himself [had] no police record and was not registered with the commission on juvenile affairs," Volynets said. "One thing is clear -- the family evoked no suspicions in anyone. At his place of study, he was described as an even-tempered, polite, and neatly dressed young man, an ordinary student.... Rumors that he committed this crime out of revenge, to punish someone...appear groundless because he came to this school four years after graduation," she added. Within hours of the incident, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow, about 700 kilometers west of Kazan, that President Vladimir Putin had immediately ordered the head of the Russian National Guard, Viktor Zolotov, "to hammer out new regulations on the types of weapons which are designated for civilian use, and which weapons may be in the possession of citizens, including the types of small arms the gunman used in this shooting." The school, located on Dzhaudat Faizi Street, has more than 1,000 students. The alleged gunman was issued a permit for a Hatsan Escort PS shotgun on April 28, Aleksandr Khinshtein, a lawmaker in the lower house of parliament, wrote on social media. Khinstein also said that the school had no security aside from a panic button. Despite being on the rise, attacks at schools in Russia and other former Soviet republics remain uncommon and the shooting sent shockwaves across the country. Tatarstan's Deputy Prime Minister Leila Fazleyeva told reporters that in all 23 people were injured in the shooting spree. Mikhail Pospelov, a doctor at the Children's Hospital in Kazan, said on May 12 that 20 of the injured people are children, of whom six, including one in an "extremely serious" condition, are currently being treated in an intensive care unit. Pospelov also said that surgeries had been performed on all of the children. The injuries treated included gunshot wounds and fractured bones suffered as the students jumped out of the schools windows while being hit by bullets shot by the attacker. Five children will be transported to hospitals in Moscow for treatment, he added. These grants go way beyond the simple abuse of public funds, and constitute active support of purveyors of antisemitism, Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Referencing the government institute that disperses the funds, he said: The National Institute of Freedom should change its name to National Institute of Freedom to Hate. Thane: Two Covid-19 patients have died due to mucormycosis, a serious but rare fungal infection, in Maharashtra's Thane district, a health official said on Wednesday. Besides, six other patients are currently undergoing treatment for the disease, also known as black fungus, the official said. Photo A 38-year-old patient from Mharal in Thane rural and another one from Dombivli town died of the fungal infection while undergoing treatment at different Covid-19 care centres in Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) limits, the civic body's health officer Dr Ashwini Patil said. Six other patients were undergoing treatment for mucormycosis and two of them were admitted in the ICUs, she said. The official also said Covid-19 patients need not panic as this fungal infection is mostly being found in those having diabetes. Such patients need to keep their blood sugar level under control, she said. Photo Mucormycosis is being detected in Covid-19 patients and there should not be an excessive use of steroids for their treatment, the official said. According to health experts, the symptoms of mucormycosis include headache, fever, pain under the eyes, nasal or sinus congestion and partial loss of vision. This time he was late to respond to the outbreak. Thats because he and his political rivals are still negotiating over forming a government following elections in March, Israels fourth in two years. For months and much of those past two years Netanyahu has been a caretaker prime minister in charge of a transitional government. On Monday, in fact, he appeared to be just days away from losing power to a coalition of his opponents. This SoCal Couple Designed Their South Park Home from the Ground Up Two weeks ago in an Escondido backyard, Erika Shawver witnessed something she never thought shed see: Her 3-year-old son Caiden went for a swim. Caiden has a sensory-processing disorder. Over the past year or so, every time Erika took her son to a pool for paid lessons, hed end up in hysterics, fearful of the water, of being touched or being approached by an instructor. Then Caiden met Cori. Cori is a 1-year-old golden/Labrador retriever mix in training to become a certified water rescue dog. Cori offers canine assistance to swimming instructors, which means she can make pool time fun, educational and less scary for children with special needs. Advertisement As soon as Cori leapt into the swimming pool with Caiden that day, the boys anxieties over strangers, being touched, noise and other sensory issues washed away. He can get overwhelmed so easily, so I was shocked when I saw how quickly he responded to Cori, Shawver said. He had confidence in the dog, which made him confident in himself and it made him want to swim with Cori. Then he began to trust the teacher because she was helping him be with Cori. At his third swim lesson this week, Caiden plunged into the water without Cori, clung happily to the instructor and held his breath underwater for the first time. Caiden Shawver, center, grips the handles on the safety vest of water rescue dog Cori in an Escondido pool. With them are swim instructor Jodi Powell, rear, and dog handler Deb Parker. Caiden, who has a sensory processing disorder, is learning to swim with Coris help. (Charlie Neuman /San Diego Union-Tribune ) Cori is the latest canine prodigy owned by Judy Fridono. The Escondido dog trainer is better known for her other pet, Surf Dog Ricochet, who has more than 230,000 followers on Facebook. Ricochet is a gentle-natured, 9-year-old golden retriever and certified therapy dog who has won national acclaim riding waves with children and veterans with special needs. Fridono, 59, became a full-time certified dog trainer in 2003 when rheumatoid arthritis forced her to give up her career in health care. Ricochet hadnt made the grade as a regular therapy dog, but she excelled in surfing. So Fridono started the nonprofit foundation Waves of Empowerment, which provides free surf training with Ricochet for children and adults with special needs. Because Fridonos mobility is limited, she has relied over the years on volunteer Deb Parker to serve as the water handler for Ricochet, and now Cori. Parker, who is a chef by training, said Cori has come a long way. As a puppy, she was afraid of the water and showed zero talent for surfing. Judy Fridono, right, watches her 1-year-old retriever mix Cori leap into her backyard swimming pool with Logan Powell, 6, left, and his brother Sawyer Powell, 4, during a swim lesson. (Charlie Neuman / San Diego Union-Tribune ) Advertisement Then, on a beach trip in May, Parker said she noticed that Cori would pull to shore any children who grabbed her leash or collar. And in Fridonos backyard, above-ground swimming pool, Cori would leap into the water after children and push them with her fast-paddling front legs toward the stairs. Cori just has a natural instinct, Parker said. Judy doesnt push dogs into doing anything. She believes every dog has their purpose. If we listen to them, they will tell us what that is. The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place in June, when Fridono and Parker met Jodi Powell at a Waves of Empowerment autism paddleboard camp in Carlsbad. Powell was there because her 6-year-old son, Logan, has sensory processing issues. She also runs Special Fishies Swim & Play, a 20-year-old swim school for children with special needs, including autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. Advertisement Powell said that many children on the autism spectrum dont feel connected to their bodies, but when theyre in the water that connection occurs, so it can be a very freeing experience if they can learn to swim. However, Powell said she has spent up to three years with some students because every special-needs child learns in different ways, some slower than others. After she saw how her son Logan interacted with Ricochet at the camp, and later with Cori in the pool, she wondered if dogs might be the missing ingredient in making a breakthrough with the hardest-to-reach children. Over the past three month, the trio of women have worked intensively with Cori and Powells two sons, Logan, and 4-year-old Sawyer, Caiden and others to practice different swim-training techniques. Fridono has reached out to the Scuola Italiana Cani Salvataggio a school in Italy where dogs are trained as working lifeguards about getting Cori certified for water rescue. She has also outfitted Cori with an Italian-made, life-saving vest. The buoyant vest has handles on the back that children can grip to be pulled around the pool, something Caiden Shawver especially enjoys. Advertisement The trio plans to apply for grants to create a nonprofit program for canine-assisted swimming. For now, theyre offering lessons on a sliding scale to special needs students through Powells company (specialfishies.org). Eventually, they hope to build a permanent pool and sensory education center where both Powell and Parker can work full time. Until then, theyre all volunteering their time, watching what Parker calls breathtaking work between Cori and the swim students. Cori is the bridge between the instructor and special-needs children, Parker said. What she does is create a bridge of trust between them and then the magic can happen. Advertisement pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com A degree of mystery has shrouded the states allegations against Runcie and Myrick ever since news of their indictment broke on April 21. Runcies demand for specifics about his perjury charge was met with some details about allegedly dishonest statements he made about who he contacted as he prepared to testify in front of the grand jury on March 31 and April 1. Close The World Health Organization yesterday said the new Indian COVID-19 variant responsible for the fast acceleration of explosive outbreaks in India had been detected in dozens of countries worldwide. AN NDTV report said that according to the UN health agency, the new strain identified as B.1.617 variant of COVID-19, originally discovered in India in October 2020, had been detected in over 4,500 samples uploaded to an open-access databank from 44 nations in all six regions of the WHO. In its weekly update on the COVID-19 crisis, WHO said it received reports of detections from five countries more. Outside of India, WHO said Britain had reported they had the largest number of COVID-19 cases caused by the said new strain. Earlier this week, the health organization declared B.1.617, counting three so-called sub-lineages with a bit different mutations and features as a "variant of concern." ALSO READ: Volunteer for Pfizer's Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Shares Side Effects from Trial Indian COVID-19 Variant The new Indian COVID-19 variant was consequently added to the list that contains three other variants of the virus, those first traced in Britain, Brazil, and South Africa. The said variants are observed as more dangerous compared to the original version of COVID-19 since they are more communicable, fatal, or can get past some vaccine shields. The WHO yesterday explained that the said new variant was added to the list as it seems to be transferring more easily compared to the original virus, referring to the rapid rise in occurrence and prevalence in several countries. Furthermore, the organization pointed to initial evidence that the strain was more resistant to treatment with the Bamlanivimab monoclonal antibody, and emphasized too, early stub studies that specified limited reduction by antibodies in neutralization. The WHO elaborated though that real-world effects on the vaccines' efficacy against the variant, for example, may be limited. 'Double Mutant' Variant WKMS reported a new strain identified in India has reportedly more than a dozen mutations, although a pair, in particular, have been found to be the more concerning. According to Cambridge University microbiologist Ravi Gupta, these said mutations are detected on an essential part of the virus where the immune system attacks. Therefore, said the microbiologist, the reason they were labeled a "double mutant," because they had these two big mutations in two big locations, and that's what's causing all the worries and apprehensions. This news report specified that each of the said mutations has separately cropped up in other areas of the world, specifically, one in Brazil, and another in California. More so, research has shown that by themselves, each of the mutations provides the virus with an advantage against the immune system. It lessens the antibodies' ability to combat the virus. Hope for Vaccine Efficacy Against the Indian Variant Gupta said the individual mutations reduced vulnerability to neutralization by vaccine antibodies, so, it does somewhat, cause a drop in reaction to vaccines. To know what happens when two mutations join forces, Gupta, together with his team took antibodies from those who got vaccinated with Pfizer and then sought to see how much the pair of mutations together lessen the antibodies of people to kill the virus. What they observed, the expert said, was hopeful. The double mutant behaved so much like a single mutant and therefore, it was not double trouble. Gupta also said, consequently, there did not appear to be "this addition of one on top of the other." And that was indeed quite, this microbiologist thinks, that's really essential as that's what the supposition has been, that's causing all the panic. Together, the data suggested that the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines will work efficiently against the variant in India. These jabs may be less effective at warding off disease, although they should continue offering high protection from mortality and severe disease. This is quite great news for the US where the said vaccines are available. However, in India, the most commonly used vaccine is the one AstraZeneca developed. A related report is shown on Global News's YouTube video below: RELATED ARTICLE: Volunteer for Pfizer's Experimental COVID-19 Vaccine Shares Side Effects from Trial Check out more news and information on COVID-19 on Science Times. An audit found the district split up a nearly $1 million purchase into two contracts just shy of $500,000, the maximum the district is allowed to spend without School Board approval. The district used a piggyback contract with a government agency in Minnesota to make these purchases. Myrick told prosecutors she asked questions about these to Coker, who did not work in the district at the time but had researched it for an audit. The dunes are kind of our last line of protection, said Samantha Danchuk, Broward Countys beach erosion administrator. The dune can easily be eroded unless the vegetation is there to keep the dune in place. Time after time, we can see the roots held those dunes in place. The sea oats can easily be damaged by walking or trampling on them. Ryan told investigators the last time he saw Cavett and her young son is when they took off in a black car with a group of men who wanted to party with her, according to his arrest paperwork. But video surveillance shows no such thing, and instead shows that the last time Cavett was seen alive on July 25, she was riding in the passenger seat of Ryans gold Lexus while he drove away from a RaceTrac gas station. The pipeline, which delivers about 45% of what is consumed on the East Coast, was hit on Friday with a cyberattack by hackers who lock up computer systems and demand a ransom to release them. The attack raised concerns, once again, about the vulnerability of the nations critical infrastructure. Authorities in India said Tuesday they have yet to determine the cause of death of dozens of people found dead in the Ganges River. Officials in Bihar state said 71 bodies were recovered Monday, while officials in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh said around 100 bodies were found, some on Tuesday. Images of the bodies floating in the river sparked anger and speculation they died from COVID-19, which is surging throughout the South Asian country at a faster rate than anywhere else in the world. Some medical experts voiced concern that the coronavirus can be spread through contaminated water. "Although there is no global research on how the virus may spread through dead bodies in water bodies, I strongly believe that the water is now polluted," said Dr. Mohsin Wali. "It is not worth drinking anymore and when these bodies rot, it will be even more dangerous." Authorities performed autopsies but could not confirm the cause of death because the bodies had decomposed. India had nearly 330,000 new coronavirus cases and 3,867 related deaths on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. India has the second highest number of confirmed cases worldwide with nearly 23 million and the third highest death toll with nearly 250,000, although experts say the actual figures are almost certainly much higher. The surge has prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to travel to Britain for the Group of Seven summit next month, the Indian Foreign Ministry said Tuesday. Modi has been criticized for allowing massive gatherings at a religious festival and holding huge election rallies over the past two months even as infections sharply increased. The killings are eligible for the death penalty because each was committed while Long was in the act of committing another capital offense, namely the killings of the victims, Willis notice of intent says. Each killing was also outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman in that it involved depravity of mind and was committed during an act of domestic terrorism, the notice says. A 63-year-old San Anselmo security guard was arrested this week on suspicion of making phone calls threatening violence against Mayor Brian Colbert, Colbert told The Chronicle. Gerald Welty was arrested Monday at his home by Central Marin police and booked on suspicion of making threats with an intent to terrorize. police said. Officers confiscated several firearms at the residence. Police did not say whom the threats were directed at in a news release, but Colbert said Wednesday he was the target. Colbert, a member of the San Anselmo city council since 2017 who is serving as mayor this year on a rotating basis, said police played for him on Monday two recorded phone messages left by Welty on the city hall phone line. He made violent, racist threats, the mayor said, including using the n-word twice. Colbert, who is Black, said hearing the threat sickened him and added that, in my mind, I went back to the days of Reconstruction. To use that epithet is to reduce a human being to a piece of property, the mayor said. According to a police statement, Weltys messages threatened physical violence and were racist in nature. Colbert, a lawyer who works as a medical office consultant in San Francisco, said he could not recall ever meeting Welty and did not know of any particular dispute. He said he is considering installing a security system at his home. Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF I think the state legislators in this race should come together and jointly submit their letters of resignation, Hardy said. When we do that, we must also put the governor on notice that he has no excuse not to coincide the special elections for our seats with the special election for Representative Hastings seat. If we do this together, and if we do it right, the governor should have no choice but to do the right thing, or suffer the consequences when he runs for re-election next year. San Francisco transit officials are cutting security guard services at some city-owned parking garages, which are filling to just 40% of pre-pandemic use and seeing a drop in car break-ins. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency owns 38 off-street parking garages, most of which were closed or open only to monthly users during most of the pandemic. Now, with spaces still mostly empty and few car break-ins occurring, the agency has paused a contract for security services at several of the busiest garages. Instead, the agency will assign existing employees to roam the garages, Erica Kato, an agency spokeswoman, said Tuesday. The agency, which handles all things transportation-related in San Francisco, has been replacing parking systems in its garages, installing alarms, two-way intercoms, public address speakers, video cameras and payment systems. In those locations, it has eliminated cashier windows and reassigned those employees to handle customer service, which includes roaming the garages and looking for people who may be casing or breaking into cars. We still have that personal presence, that visual deterrent, she said. But a lot of the security depends on new technology including more than 300 video cameras and round-the-clock monitoring. Workers who spot a break-in or suspicious person are directed to call the San Francisco Police Department and not to intervene. Monitors can get on the public address system and attempt to scare off would-be criminals and are also instructed to call police. SFMTA data show that the pandemic put the brakes on vehicle break-ins in the citys parking garages over the past year, a time when many of the garages were closed along with many retail business and employers. But records show vehicle break-ins in garages dropping sharply even before the pandemic. They fell from a high of 207 in April 2017 to 39 in April 2019. Auto break-ins in all locations citywide plunged in 2020 and the trend is continuing this year, according to crime data from the San Francisco Police Department. Were dealing with all-time lows or at least lows for the last four years, Kato said Despite those trends, and with the state expected to fully reopen on June 1, the SFMTA is keeping an eye on the garages and vehicle break-in rates on a daily and weekly basis and can add more security guards with a days notice, she said. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan The East Bay kindergarten teachers email to families Monday offered a simple update: She was heading to Mexico for 12 days to attend her sons wedding and, while she would teach remotely from there, her online classes would be canceled on certain days, given travel or family activities, requiring students to work on their own. All supplies and materials will be provided ahead of time for any class activities that will take place while I am out of the country. Please contact me ahead of time if you have any concerns. Wishing you a sunny week ahead, wrote the teacher, whom The Chronicle is not naming because of the potential for harassment. While the teachers district, West Contra Costa Unified, reopened classrooms on a hybrid schedule for families who opted in, the teacher had not returned to in-person instruction, which was voluntary in her district. No medical waivers are needed. Still, the teachers plan appeared to violate district policy, which requires teachers to take a leave of absence when they leave the country. State education code requires daily live interaction between teachers and each student during distance learning. The message stunned parents in the class, according to a family at the school and an education advocacy group, before hitting social media, where parents and supporters of reopening schools questioned why the teacher could not be back in her classroom with her students if she could travel out of the country. I was very upset, one parent with a child at the same school said via text. I had assumed she chose not to return to the classroom due to concerns about COVID, but clearly this is not the case if she is traveling to Mexico. This parents child was not able to return to in-person instruction because not enough teachers volunteered. By giving teachers the choice to return or not for any reason, the district has taken the choice away from so many children, the parent added. The incident seemed likely to deepen suspicion and mistrust of public education in communities where many students remain in distance learning despite widespread vaccinations and dramatic declines in coronavirus case rates. Tensions have run high for months as parents have pushed for face-to-face instruction, while battles between teachers unions and districts have stymied reopening, with labor leaders questioning the guidance of local health departments. West Contra Costa Unified School District spokesperson Robert Jordan said in an email that the district cannot comment on personnel issues, but that any travel outside of the country for any reason requires a leave of absence. Board of Education Trustee Mister Phillips wrote in an email that there are protocols for employees to take time off. I do not know if they were followed in this situation. He added that the superintendent is looking into the incident. The teacher and the districts teachers union did not respond to requests for comment. A parent whose child is in the teachers class confirmed the email was legitimate. West Contra Costa teachers approved a reopening plan last month that allowed all willing students to return to classrooms on April 19. Some students attend in person from 10 a.m to 2 or 3 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, but the amount of time students are actually in-person varies by school, according to the district. Students who need additional help can attend in-person instruction for an extra two hours in the morning or the afternoon. The plan was voluntary for families and teachers, with a classroom aide providing supervision for in-person students when the instructor remained online only. For months, a consensus of health officials, politicians and mental health experts have urged schools to reopen for in-person learning given the devastating effects of distance learning on many students. In California, educators were among the first to receive lifesaving vaccines so they could return to classrooms. Yet in many districts, schools have remained closed or only allowed some students to attend in person, and then only part-time, with teachers and union officials continuing to question the safety and working conditions of their members. Families have increasingly questioned why some districts have fully reopened while others just miles away remain closed. COVID Resources Coronavirus Map Tracking COVID-19 cases across the Bay Area and California. While the East Bay teachers trip might be an isolated, rare or extreme example, it fuels concerns that such abuses are widespread. The extreme stories can sometimes appear the norm when theyre not, said Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, a research and advocacy organization. They complicate what I think is a much more consensus view: Our teachers are so valued. In fact, the pandemic has reinforced the fact that teachers are highly valued, with their face-to-face interactions in classrooms critical for the well-being of the vast majority of children, Lempert said. Theres nothing more important to ensuring a kids educational success than the teacher, he said, which is why the presumably rare story of a teacher jetting off to Mexico sparks anger, fear and suspicion of a wider problem. Many teachers are working really hard and it is sad that our teachers poor choice is making other teachers look bad, the parent said. Jonathan Zachreson, founder of Reopen California Schools, received the teachers email from a concerned parent, and posted screenshots of the message on the advocacy groups Twitter account Tuesday. It just was absolutely ridiculous hearing about what was happening, he said, adding that the incident exemplifies why the state should not allow a distance-learning option next school year. These institutions are abusing any leverage or any flexibility that they have, he said. If we give them an inch, they take a mile. Emma Talley and Jill Tucker are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: emma.talley@sfchronicle.com, jtucker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @emmat332, @jilltucker Killiney Kopitiam, Singapores oldest cafe, is on an expansion tear in the Bay Area. The U.S. franchisee is opening five new locations in the Bay Area this year in Cupertino, Santa Clara, Mountain View, Livermore and Walnut Creek as part of an ambitious plan to bring Killineys popular kaya toast and laksa to dozens of locations in California and Washington. The second U.S. Killiney Kopitiam, following the first in Palo Alto, will open at 19110 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Cupertino in the next month or so. Then will come 3010 West Jack London Blvd. in Livermore, 1520 N. Main St. in Walnut Creek and, toward the end of the year, the Westfield Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara. Killiney Kopitiam is also finalizing a location at the San Antonio Village in Mountain View. Amanda Toh Steckler, a Singapore native and former Palo Alto resident, is now Killiney Kopitiams master franchisee for the United States. Her driving goal has been to make Singaporean food part of the mainstream in America. Richard Reyes, the chains business developer, has been tasked with executing that vision: Theyre planning to open 62 locations over the next eight years. Theyre starting in the Bay Area and then will expand to Southern California and Washington, focusing on upscale malls and areas with similar demographics to the Bay Area. Were looking to grow exponentially, Reyes said. The first U.S. outpost of the Singaporean chain opened in downtown Palo Alto in September 2020 after numerous delays. The Killiney Kopitiam menu includes that famed kaya toast (kaya jam and salted butter on toasted, soft Pullman bread) as well as curries, nasi lemak, roti prata and other Singaporean dishes. At the Palo Alto location, diners can watch staff make Singaporean coffee from traditional long-spouted kettles. The new locations will serve similar fare but Reyes said theyre hoping to add some new dishes as well. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Killiney Kopitiam is also teaming up with Bay Area chef Nora Haron to open two locations of Table at 7, an upscale restaurant the company runs in Singapore. Table at 7 will be opening in Walnut Creek and at Valley Fair in Santa Clara. The restaurant will serve dishes like Harons laksa raviolo handmade pasta with green rau ram, which is Vietnamese cilantro and a prawn-sambal filling and Singapore chicken rice with crispy chicken instead of poached. Some of Harons dessert creations, including pandan sponge cakes and turmeric and makrut lime shortbread, are now available at the Palo Alto Killiney Kopitiam. And this wont be all, Reyes said. They plan to eventually expand beyond the Killiney Kopitiam and Table at 7 concepts as well but declined to share details at this time. Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @ekadvany The House of Prime Rib has an issue with its flagship meat: The iconic San Francisco restaurant admitted Tuesday that some of its prime rib may be connected to reports of foodborne illness. After a San Francisco Department of Public Health investigation last month and new reports swirling on social media this week, the more than 70-year-old restaurant said on Instagram that it recently had an isolated issue with some of our prime rib which was immediately discovered and addressed. Owner Joe Betz told The Chronicle that his team has been trying to determine what might be causing diners to fall ill, though he said none of the employees who eat the prime rib every Saturday have gotten sick. The restaurant has been fielding calls from upset customers and refunding meals while more people left negative reviews on the House of Prime Ribs Yelp page with detailed accounts of symptoms following in-person and takeout meals. We tried to isolate this and tried to isolate that, Betz said. We really dont have an answer but I think we're getting closer to the problem, and maybe its the product. We go through every possibility if there's a problem. Word started spreading in April that there might be an issue at the House of Prime Rib, which has been booked solid since reopening for indoor dining. The health department received six complaints of foodborne illness and inspected the Van Ness Avenue business on April 7. At the time, it found two lower risk violations that have since been fixed: food debris buildup on a meat grinder, which was immediately cleaned and sanitized, and the menus absence of an advisory warning that certain raw or undercooked foods such as meat or eggs may increase risks of foodborne illness. The inspection report confirmed that no staffers had gotten sick. But Monday, the health department received four new complaints from a total of 12 people who alleged that they became ill and developed symptoms after eating the restaurants food. The unit counts multiple reports from people who live in the same home as one complaint. DPH is responding accordingly and will take further additional steps if epidemiological information suggests a link between the practices of the restaurant in question and the recent alleged food borne illness complaints, the department said in a statement. Betz said that a new inspection from the health department late Tuesday did not find any violations; Department of Public Health public information officer Veronica Vien confirmed this. We couldnt find any direct causal link between the alleged foodborne illnesses and the observations that we made today, Vien said Tuesday evening. In April, people started reporting on Yelp that theyd gotten sick after House of Prime Rib meals, including as recently as this weekend. Some members of the popular Bay Area Eats Facebook page alleged that they felt ill after takeout and dine-in meals from April into early May, while others said theyd eaten the food without incident. Some said they got a refund after reaching out to the restaurant. Betz confirmed that they refunded meals for people who claimed they got sick. He wasnt sure how many hed given, but its a continuation of a longtime philosophy at the restaurant. If somebody complains who is unhappy, we refund them, Betz said. And though Betz is trying to determine the source of any potential health issues, he worries about the unverified nature of social media posts. Not everybody who is putting something on Instagram had something to do with it. Its a lot of copycats, he said. There is no way in the world that many people got sick. We would know it. Warren Ng, a San Francisco resident whos been a regular at the House of Prime Rib for over two decades, said he, his wife and three children got sick after eating in the dining room on Mothers Day. His children woke up in the middle of the night with diarrhea, which continued the next day. Ng said it hit him Monday morning. They also dined at a different restaurant for brunch Sunday morning, Ng said. Ng reported their symptoms to a House of Prime Rib general manager, who apologized and told him it was an isolated incident and (that) theyre working on a solution with health officials, Ng said. The restaurant refunded the familys meal. Ng did not call the health department but submitted the report to crowdsourced website iwaspoisoned.com and posted a Yelp review. Food Guide Top 25 Restaurants Where to eat in the Bay Area. Find spots near you, create a dining wishlist, and more. Weve been going there for over 25 years. I know theyll find the problem and get it fixed, Ng said, but its going to leave a scar. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, norovirus which spreads through infected people and contaminated foods and surfaces is the leading cause of foodborne illness. Common symptoms of foodborne diseases are nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhea. The CDC recommends food businesses prevent the spread of norovirus by making sure that employees practice proper hand washing and avoid touching ready-to-eat foods, such as raw fruits and vegetables, with their bare hands before serving them. Vien of the health department said the number of complaints of foodborne illness in San Francisco arent anything considered to be significant. The same is true across the country: According to the CDC, there was a sharp decrease in norovirus outbreaks during the pandemic. From August to April there were 144 norovirus outbreaks reported in participating states, compared to 1,033 outbreaks during the same time period the previous year. The number of outbreaks reported during the 2020-21 seasonal year fell below the range reported during the same period over the previous seven years, according to the CDC. Given that San Franciscos numbers have been so low, Vien cautioned against reading into any early spikes though states including Nebraska and Texas are reportedly seeing an increase in norovirus cases as COVID-19 restrictions loosen. Were expecting to see a natural increase in complaints as they city reopens and folks are going back into restaurants, Vien said. This story has been updated with new comment from Joe Betz and DPH. Elena Kadvany is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: elena.kadvany@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ekadvany Area health departments and providers are gearing up to vaccinate 12- to 15-year-olds, who are poised to become eligible for the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine as soon as Thursday following the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations decision this week to allow the vaccine to be used in adolescents. Now that U.S. vaccine supply is plentiful, expanding the shots to adolescents will mostly mean tapping the existing vaccine infrastructure, with a few tweaks. Vaccine clinics for adults and older teens will expand to those as young as 12. Drive-through vaccination sites will add lanes for the younger age group. Some counties plan to bring shots to schools. It is unclear exactly when shots will start going into the arms of adolescents, but it could happen Thursday, California health officials said. The states vaccine appointment scheduling system, MyTurn, will start allowing people to make appointments for 12- to 15-year-olds Thursday morning, said state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan. Local providers are ready once two procedural steps happen a recommendation by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to allow adolescents to be inoculated, expected Wednesday, followed by a ratifying decision by a Western states group that includes California. Were prepared, as soon as we get the go-ahead, to start scheduling appointments and vaccinating 12-to 15-year-olds at our existing site, said Dr. Ted Chaconas, chief medical officer for UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital Oakland. The Oakland campus runs a vaccine clinic for patients and community members ages 16 to 21, and will expand it to inoculate those as young as 12, Chaconas said. The hospital also is considering bringing vaccine to schools. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle Going to where kids are, as opposed to having them come to us, makes a lot of sense, Chaconas said. If were going to try to get to the level of immunity we hope to, were going to have to be very successful at vaccinating children. Chaconas said once there is more clarity on the start date, he will email pediatricians and community health clinics in the area to let them know that their patients ages 12 to 21 can get shots at the Childrens Hospital Oakland campus. Once the vaccine is authorized for Californias 2.1 million 12- to 15-year-olds, anyone in that age group can go to any county-run vaccination clinics, with or without an appointment, said Will Harper, a spokesperson for Contra Costa Countys health department. Health officials are also planning vaccination events at schools for all eligible students 12 and older for later this month, he said. A spokesperson for Kaiser said shots for children as young as 12 will be available by appointment at Kaiser vaccination clinics. Stanford Health Cares two drive-through vaccination sites at the Cisco parking garage in San Jose and the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton will add lanes for cars with 12- to 15-year-olds, said Kelly Frank, a spokesperson for Stanford Childrens Health. And Stanford will use its teen health van, which has been giving shots to people of all eligible ages at several Bay Area schools, to also vaccinate 12- to 15-year-olds. Some individual pediatricians and family doctors could offer the shots eventually, but it will take time to work out the logistics because the Pfizer vaccine must be stored in ultra-cold freezers that many medical practices do not have. And each vial of Pfizer vaccine contains six doses, which presents a challenge for smaller practices that may need to vaccinate only one or two patients at a time. Most minors in California need consent from a parent or guardian a signed form, verbally over the phone or FaceTime, or in person to get a COVID-19 vaccine, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, Californias health and human services secretary. He urged young Californians to be vaccinated. Young people have shouldered much of the burden throughout the pandemic, missing important milestones and experiencing anxiety and depression, Ghaly said. Getting them vaccinated, he said, will allow them to resume seeing their friends and family again, to experience that sense of normalcy that they have been missing. Now Playing: Video: Manjula Varghese / The Chronicle Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho Hyatt Hotel heir John Pritzker was 19 when his older sister took her own life in 1972. The family didnt discuss or even mention her mental illness for years. And that is the motivation behind the planned Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building in San Franciscos Dogpatch neighborhood. John Pritzker and his former wife, Lisa Stone Pritzker, have donated $60 million toward construction of a five-story structure a block from UCSF Benioff Childrens Hospital. Putting Nancys name on the building is to honor her and to bring mental illness out of the shadows and shine a light on the notion that people can be helped, said John Pritzker, a longtime San Francisco resident. This building was designed with stigma in mind. When you walk inside it will be filled with light and art and not like any other building in the behavioral sciences. When it opens in the fall, the Nancy Building, as John Pritzker calls it, will be one of the first stand-alone psychiatric facilities anywhere to put physical and mental health under one roof. The patients will range in age from early childhood to early adulthood. There will be a sleep lab, a gym, a therapeutic kitchen for patients with eating disorders, and multiple programs and clinics for patients who have serious disorders and may not have responded to standard treatments. It will also house the world-renowned Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, whose 70-year-old building at UCSF Parnassus will be demolished as part of a major renovation of that campus. This building will transform the experience for children, families and adults seeking mental health care at UCSF, said Dr. Matthew State, chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at UCSF. That department, approximately 100 faculty members plus UCSF medical students, residents and trainees, will relocate to Pritzker. Theyve been spread among the Laurel Heights, Parnassus and Mission Bay campuses, necessitating a lot of time on shuttle buses. The Nancy Building will be clinical only, not an inpatient facility. To bring together all of our missions in one building is extraordinary, State said. It just isnt that common for major donors to support mental health and be open and up front about it. That was as much a function of Lisa Stone Pritzker as it was her former husband. Eighteen years ago, she volunteered on the psychiatric floor at San Francisco General Hospital, which is operated by UCSF. Right away she was shocked to see the waiting room, windowless and dark, where previously traumatized kids under the age of 5 were seated next to adults in psychiatric distress. All that will change with the Nancy Building, a project budgeted at $235 million. It will have a separate entrance and separate departments for children, with natural light and cheery decor. This is a way for young people with mental health issues to feel encouraged to seek out help, because the stigma can be quite great, said Stone Pritzker, who serves on Board of Directors at UCSF. The Pritzkers divorced two years ago, but they continue to support UCSF through separate foundations. At the time of her death, Nancy Pritzker was a Stanford graduate with a retail management job in Chicago and a sunny disposition. But there was resistance in the Pritzker family, as in most families at that time, to being open about depression and seeking treatment. Nancy was brilliant beautiful and funny and a great athlete, her brother said. She had the wind at her back. Sam Whiting is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: swhiting@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @samwhitingsf Two people were killed in a two-vehicle car crash in the Berkeley Hills on Tuesday afternoon and 1,000 residents were left without power due to a damaged pole, police said. The collision occurred near Marin Avenue and Spruce Street at 1:39 p.m., Berkeley Police Department spokesperson Officer Byron White said Tuesday evening. Its unclear how the crash happened. The vehicles collided witih such force that theres significant distance between where they came to rest, about a block away from each other, White said. Were still trying to piece all of the pieces together. Somewhere in there, one of the cars hit a power pole. The female passenger of one of the cars was pronounced dead at the scene, according to White. The male driver of the car was rushed to the hospital where he later died of his injuries. A woman was traveling with her young child in the other car. She was taken to the hospital with moderate injuries. The child appears to be largely unscathed. Residents in the area will be without power for six to seven hours, according to White. Investigators are on the scene and urging people to avoid the area. Marin Avenue is currently blocked off from San Benito Road to Cragmont Avenue. Meghan Bobrowsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: meghan.bobrowsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MeghanBobrowsky The San Francisco County Transportation Authority on Tuesday approved a panels report that will guide the citys effort to resolve the fate of Golden Gate Parks John F. Kennedy Drive, the eastern portion of which has remained closed to car traffic during much of the pandemic. However, while the latest development in the lengthy bureaucratic process to determine JFK Drives future illustrated residents passionate debate over keeping it car-free, it also highlighted several uncertainties. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Recreation and Parks Department plan to bring a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors to vote on by the end of the year, according to a timeline included in the 38-page report approved by the transportation authority. But the two agencies leaders could not yet say whether they plan to recommend that the Board of Supervisors make permanent changes surrounding access to Golden Gate Park, or whether they will suggest more temporary modifications in the form of a one-year pilot. Also unclear is whether these recommendations will arrive by the time San Francisco ends its COVID-19 emergency order a formal but pivotal event that kickstarts a running clock to end many of the temporary efforts that have reshaped the citys streetscape. Programs such as Slow Streets, temporary transit-only and HOV lanes, and car-free JFK Drive must be terminated 120 days after the emergency order is lifted, unless the city creates a public process to make them permanent. It is unclear when, exactly, Mayor London Breed will lift the emergency order, though San Francisco entered the states least-restrictive yellow tier earlier this month and Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to reopen Californias economy June 15. This is one of the reasons why we want to work expeditiously and in collaboration with the community so that we can bring recommendations, SFMTA Director Jeffrey Tumlin told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. The action framework approved Tuesday makes 42 short- and long-term recommendations to improving access to Golden Gate Park, some of which city officials said would be implemented soon. Examples include installing blue zone parking on the parks streets to improve accessibility for visitors with disabilities and monitoring occupancy levels in parking garages to determine the times when space is unavailable to visitors arriving by car. Whats clear is the city remains months away from deciding what JFK Drive will look like after the pandemic. This is really just the beginning of a community conversation, said Supervisor Connie Chan, who represents the Richmond District adjacent to Golden Gate Park. Chan urged residents to reject the false choice of either close it or open it. Heres how the rest of the process will play out: Tuesdays approval of the working groups report kicks off a new months-long effort by the SFMTA and parks department. The public agencies will study and analyze accessibility to Golden Gate Park and traffic patterns on the citys greater west side. There will be community meetings to collect public feedback, city staff said. Concurrently, the city will conduct a separate equity study of Golden Gate Park proposed by Supervisor Shamann Walton, though it will require funding approval at a later meeting. After that, Muni and parks leaders will announce a recommendation in October and the two agencies will hold a joint hearing before putting it on the desk of the Board of Supervisors at the end of the year. For decades, the city has debated accessibility at its flagship park. Whether the city will keep some or all of the 1.5-mile portion on eastern JFK Drive closed to car traffic remains among the most divisive questions as San Francisco appears to near the end of the pandemic. Tuesdays meeting drew significant public interest: More than 130 people wrote to the transportation authority about the issue ahead of the meeting, according to SFCTA staff, and about 100 others weighed in during the virtual meetings public comment portion, with most expressing support to keep JFK Drive closed to cars. Supporters of a permanent car-free JFK Drive at Tuesdays meeting described the streets closure to car traffic as a silver lining during a deadly pandemic that helped them rediscover their joy and appreciation for the park. Others in opposition to car-free JFK Drive said the streets closure and other pandemic-related street alterations such as closing traffic to part of JFK Drive and the Upper Great Highway, and Slow Streets, have created more road congestion on neighboring streets. The frustration many are feeling about these changes isnt about a single street, its about the cumulative disruptions on travel patterns, said Supervisor Gordon Mar, who represents the Sunset District south of the park. Thomas Campbell, director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, said JFK Drive should be reopened to cars as soon as possible while the city studies the issue, saying its closure has limited visitors and staffs access to the de Young Museum and hampered its logistical operations. Advocates for closure of JFK have taken advantage of COVID and the temporary Safe Streets closure of JFK to push their agenda for permanent closure in part by creating a false sense of crisis that is based on distorted statistics and unsubstantiated emotional rhetoric, Campbell said. Western and eastern portions of JFK Drive are part of the citys high-injury network. Between 2014 and 2019, 30 of 118 traffic collisions in Golden Gate Park east of Transverse Drive happened along JFK Drive, according to an SFCTA presentation. Another 27 ocurred at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Highway 1. Before the pandemic, about three-fourths of 8,000 or so cars that traveled through the now-closed portion of JFK Drive each day were using it to commute to other parts of the city rather than visit the park, itself, Tumlin said. Frankly, I think there are very real concerns about access that we are all working to address, but I dont think we need to accommodate using our parks as mini freeways, Supervisor Dean Preston said. To me, thats not a legitimate public interest that we need to accommodate. Ricardo Cano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: ricardo.cano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByRicardoCano BROUSSARD, La. (AP) A police chief in Louisiana is retiring after more than 20 years at the helm of his force amid accusations of sexual harassment made by former officers. Brannon Decou Broussard Police Departments longest-serving elected leader sent his resignation letter to Louisiana Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin and Mayor Ray Bourque on Monday, news outlets reported. In a statement addressed to city leaders, police and citizens, Decou said his last day as chief will be June 1 to help provide for an orderly transition. I will take some much needed rest, and allow someone else to take over with a fresh set of ideas that hopefully will continue the forward momentum that our city deserves, he wrote. The letter didnt address the harassment allegations. Decou took a leave of absence April 27 while the city investigated an envelope of text messages between the chief and a former deputy that officials said they had received. Three former officers described the work environment at the Broussard Police Department to The Acadiana Advocate in an article published earlier that month. They said unwanted sexual advances were the norm, and those who spoke up faced retaliation. Taylor Jones, 28, shared screenshots with the newspaper of inappropriate messages he said were from Decou. The messages included a request for the then-employee to send scandalous pics. Bourque said in a statement that he will work with the city council to determine an interim police chief. Decous term was through the end of 2022, and city residents will elect a new chief in an upcoming election. I have been in constant communication with our police commanders, and I want our City to rest assured that the Broussard Police Department has been running smoothly, actively policing our community, and will continue to do so," Bourque said. A Stockton police officer was fatally shot by a man Tuesday morning while responding to a domestic violence call, authorities said. A second police officer shot and killed the man after seeing the man choke a young child, police said. Officer Jimmy Inn, 30, responded to a report from a caller who heard screaming and saw a bleeding woman with a ripped shirt on the 4400 block of La Cresta Way in Stockton, police said. Shortly after Inn arrived outside the residence at 10:07 a.m., police said, a man shot him. A second police officer arrived outside the home and shot toward the suspect, who police said briefly entered his home and returned moments later holding a young child. The suspect, whose name has not been released, started strangling the child and refused police commands, police said. Police said a community member tackled the suspect and when the officer approached the suspect, police said the officer discharged his duty weapon, striking the suspect. Inn and the suspect were both taken to local hospitals, where they both died. The condition of the child and the woman were immediately unknown on Tuesday afternoon. Inn was hired by Stockton police in December 2015 and was a member of the Police Departments Honor Guard. He is survived by wife, Tela, who is also a Stockton police officer, a 7-month-old son, a 12-year-old stepdaughter, and a 14-year-old stepson. Multiple Bay Area law enforcement agencies mourned Inns death on social media on Tuesday afternoon. Police in San Francisco, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Milpitas each extended their condolences to Stockton police and Inns family. Shortly after 6 p.m. Tuesday, Stockton police live-streamed dozens of police vehicles driving in procession for Inn, each vehicle flashing their red and blue lights in silence. This incident is being investigated by multiple agencies including the San Joaquin County district attorneys office, the California State Department of Justice, the San Joaquin County medical examiner, and Stockton police. Police said they are interviewing witnesses, reviewing video footage and processing evidence. Lauren Hernandez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: lauren.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByLHernandez Mr. Runcie should take what he has rightfully earned and leave. If you think hes worth keeping, support him and use the judicial process as a teaching moment for students. If you think what hes accused of warrants his dismissal, let the consequences be what they are. This muddled middle is nothing to be proud of. It hurts taxpayers and ruins the remaining credibility of elected officials. From this settlement, you would think that the Broward school board is located in the city of Tamarac. Not long ago, Kevin McCarthy suffered a lapse of devotion to Donald Trump, caused by a schism over the then-presidents dispatching of a murderous mob to the House minority leaders workplace. But it was an anomalous, momentary crisis that ultimately brought McCarthy nearer to his dear leader. The Bakersfield Republican known to Trump as my Kevin has graduated from collating candy offerings for the former president to helping him purge the party of apostates who dare doubt its all-important equivalent of the Nicene creed: the false insistence that Trump did not lose the 2020 election. A few months ago, McCarthy maintained that House Repubicans ever-tinier tent could accommodate both Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the party scion with the audacity to keep insisting that a presidentially incited assault on Congress was a bad thing, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, the conspiracy theorist who advocated the assassination of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and accused Jewish financiers of starting the Camp Fire with lasers from outer space. Now McCarthy has decided that one of them has to be cast into the wilderness, and its not the one with the lasers. Cheney, the daughter of a former vice president who was the Houses third-ranking Republican, was ousted from her leadership post Wednesday. It didnt appear to matter that, by the partys former supposed principles, Cheney is a more conservative and faithful Republican than McCarthys choice, Rep. Elise Stefanek of New York. Cheney ran afoul of the partys organizing principle by telling the truth about the Capitol riot, the election and Trump. McCarthy has an organizing principle, too, or an organizing absence thereof. As evidenced by his ricocheting from one political stance to another and back within the space of a few months, it comes down to keeping himself in power at any and all costs. McCarthys willingness to sacrifice American democracy to his amoral ambition is even more frightening given that only a few seats separate him from the House majority and the speakership. With the help of partisan gerrymandering, voter suppression and a few Democratic senators who would rather preserve the filibuster than democracy, McCarthy and his fellow Republicans could gain enough votes to succeed in their next attempt to overturn a presidential election. Its an outcome made more likely by McCarthys push to cleanse the party leadership of all remaining loyalty to Constitution, country or any principle other than power which is remaking his caucus in his own craven image. This commentary is from The Chronicles editorial board. We invite you to express your views in a letter to the editor. Please submit your letter via our online form: SFChronicle.com/letters. Regarding Not keen on green: Organic farm criticized for harming land (sfchronicle.com, May 9): This report did a wonderful job highlighting corporate abuse of the public perception of organic farming, but did not do enough to explore positive alternatives. The ending phrase implies that it is impossible to create large-scale organic farms without causing more environmental damage than conventional farms, yet earlier in the article, it is mentioned that Gunsmoke Farms did not follow either of the management plans provided to it by the USDA and Gary Zimmer. Yes, organic farming is extremely challenging, especially on a large scale, but no style of farming is easy. Instead of decrying organic farming as an unrealistic marketing ploy, explore the costs and challenges of doing it right. In addition, a comment on why these plans were ignored for the most part would be intriguing. By expanding the article in this way, you show both the difficulty and potential organic/regenerative agriculture holds, while retaining the original expos of corporate faux environmentalism. Convincing large farms to adopt environmental practices past appearances will require government action, which only happens with public support. People need to know how organic farming can and should work. Milo Kagiwada, Santa Cruz Biggest water users Regarding 39 more counties under drought (Front Page, May 11): Once again, we hear from our legislators, water officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom that we, the residents of the state of California, must cut back on our use of water. They have just proclaimed that California has a drought that they discovered. This particular drought started at least 6 months ago when rainfall totals were meager beginning last Fall. Where were their rationing plans then? Lets be clear about one thing: We residents should never waste this precious commodity, but we are not the big water users in California. We use only 20% of the total water supply. Its big corporate agriculture and big corporate oil companies that use the other 80% of California water. They are quite wasteful in the use of large amounts water while we residents could be fined if we are judged to use too much. The agriculture industry has been getting as much cheap water as they need due to senior and junior water contracts with the state of California Water Board. The California Almond Growers Exchange (CAGE) has strong connections in Sacramento and is a particularly heavy user of water. One almond takes a gallon of water to grow. Fred Dias, Walnut Creek Dont see the connection Miki Kanedas article Operas Orientalist problem (Open Forum, May 9) is an almost inexplicable misinterpretation of the operas she writes about. Of course we can agree with Professor Kaneda that the recent surge in anti-Asian violence and racism is appalling, but the suggestion that it is fueled by the popular operas she discusses makes no sense at all. Madama Butterfly is about a sensitive, loving Japanese girl who has the misfortune to fall in love with an American navy lieutenant who is clearly portrayed as an insensitive pig. If there is a political/social dimension to Madama Butterfly, its an indictment of American imperialism and exploitation. And how did Carmen become an Oriental opera? Its set in Spain! Yes, Carmen is a Roma, but last I heard, Roma come from Central Europe, not Asia. Aida is set in ancient Egypt, and the background is a war between Egypt and Ethiopia. No East-West conflict. No one gets redeemed; the tenor is executed for treason, and Aida chooses to die with him. So Professor Kanedas suggestion that these operas are somehow connected to the current surge in anti-Asian racism is absurd. Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE If you live in San Francisco, you may have heard the thunderous roar of a low flying airplane on Tuesday afternoon. It zoomed quickly above about 2:35 p.m., and since were months away from Fleet Week, many took to Twitter to try to figure out what was going on. Thanks to an earthquake, and years of public dismay, two of San Franciscos most disliked freeways the Embarcadero Freeway and Hayes Valley section of the Central Freeway came down in the 1990s. Now, as part of President Joe Biden's forthcoming massive infrastructure bill, Oakland's controversial Interstate 980 may see the same fate. The short, sunken 2-mile freeway was completed in 1985 and bisects Oakland's downtown, separating the citys busy Broadway and Telegraph corridors from the largely Black and working-class neighborhoods of West Oakland. The freeway has long been criticized for ruining West Oakland, isolating the historic neighborhood, and sending it into several decades of decline. It represents an injustice, Warren Logan, a policy director in Mayor Libby Schaafs office, told the Mercury News. And frankly, the city doesnt need a freeway bisecting downtown and West Oakland. California Senator Alex Padilla called out the freeway in a recent statement supporting the The Reconnecting Communities Act, a separate bill intended to "reconnect and revitalize areas harmed by the construction of the Interstate Highway System." "For far too long, some Californians have faced historic barriers to mobility and economic opportunity due to highway construction. This injustice has deliberately targeted communities of color by demolishing homes and small businesses," the statement said. "In Oakland, California, local leaders are considering opportunities to repair the inequities caused by the I-980 freeway and reconnect West Oakland to the citys downtown." In 2015 Schaaf requested $5.2 million from the Alameda County Transportation Authority to begin planning studies of an I-980 conversion. San Francisco Chronicle urban design critic John King supported the mayor's plan. "The freeway that has outstayed its welcome is Interstate 980, a broad swath of landscaped asphalt that separates residential West Oakland from the citys downtown," King wrote. "With imaginative engineering and design, it could be replaced by a boulevard lined with housing at all price levels, reknitting the urban landscape." The freeway was originally planned as the eastern approach to the San Francisco Bay Southern Crossing a long planned but never built second Bay Bridge joining Oakland and San Francisco. In 2017 the freeway was named in the top 10 list of urban freeways to tear down in a report by the The Congress for the New Urbanism, which described I-980 as a blight on the community. If removed, plans for the 40 city blocks left behind, endorsed by Schaaf and advocacy group Connect Oakland, include a tree-lined, four-lane surface street and conversion of the 17 acres of surrounding land into parks, housing and other developments. The resulting boulevard will look something like San Francisco's Octavia Street, where the Central Freeway used to stand, according to the group's vision. If Biden's $2.3 trillion in infrastructure bill, which is currently being debated in Congress, passes, that vision may become a reality, and Oakland may finally see the back of I-980, the freeway that has split the city for 36 years. NEW YORK (AP) Andrew McCarthy admits he fled from his shaggy-haired 1980s persona and didnt look back for decades. Much like the slouchy blazers he wore in movies like Pretty in Pink and St. Elmos Fire, that Brat Pack moniker and image never really fit. But time has put a soft filter on that era for the actor and hes ready to reflect on his early days as a movie star in his new memoir, Brat: An 80s Story, which debuts this week. Now a TV director, acclaimed travel writer, and best-selling author, McCarthy has been busy in recent years, if under the radar. He decided it was the right time to look back on his early life in acting and share stories about his adventures in Hollywood, complicated family relationships, addiction and recovery. The book helps explain the evolution of the Brat Pack a group of young actors including Molly Ringwald and Judd Nelson who dominated movies in the 1980s and set cultural trends and how McCarthy and others swept into its vortex became the nostalgic avatar of peoples youth. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, he discussed reconciling his Brat Pack membership, his kids choosing to act, and which of his movies should be remade. Responses have been condensed for brevity and clarity. AP: Why write the book now? McCarthy: I think I probably grew up enough to look at it. It was certainly one of, if not the defining, sort of moments in my life. My life changed because of that. And we wouldnt be talking if those couple of years hadnt happened. I think it came at me so quickly when I was young that I just sort of fled from it and it took me just a long time to sort of go, Lets look under that rock. It was actually quite liberating to me. AP: Some may be surprised to read about your alcohol abuse during that time. Was that difficult to write about? McCarthy: There were three things that were dominant in my life in that period in the 80s. If I was going to capture it, I needed to look at all three of them, which was being successful in movies, my drinking and my relationship with my father. If you wrote about any two, without the other one, its incomplete, like a stool that would have tipped over. It felt like I had to sort of address that. AP: You explain the evolution of the Brat Pack. How do you look at that now? McCarthy: Im a pretty solitary person in many ways, and so I wasnt in the center of a group of friends. And I lived in New York, they all lived in L.A., and they were very nice to me. I didnt feel alienated by them, I felt a bit alienated from them, just because thats my nature... And I suppose it took me so many years to write the book, to really come to terms with that, what that whole notion of the Brat Pack was and became and is, because I think theyre very different things. When I started, it was cast in this very sort of pejorative way. And its evolved over time to be this kind of nostalgic memory of youth that we all our generation looks back on so fondly. And Im sort of the avatar of peoples youth in a certain way... It took me a long time to kind of embrace that notion, but thats sort of a beautiful thing. AP: You include some fun stories about being young in Hollywood. When was the moment you most wondered How did I get here? McCarthy: Early on, getting my first movie and suddenly doing love scenes with Jacqueline Bisset, that was like, Oh my God, what just happened to me? After that, everything else sort of paled in the degree of How did I get from here to there? AP: Your teen daughter and son are both acting. How do you feel about that choice? McCarthy: Acting save my life, you know? It almost cost me my life in a certain way, but it saved my life. It gave me a place in the world. I felt like me when I did it. And Id never felt that way before I did it. And I was able to locate myself in acting. And if someone else feels that way, who am I to tell them not to do that? My kids certainly didnt grow up with any illusions about how glamorous and wonderful it all is, because its a job. AP: How do you view your 80s movies and should they be remade? McCarthy: Those movies suddenly took young people seriously in a way that movies hadnt really, that their struggles and their emotional life which is massive it was valid and real. And I think we kind of take that for granted now, whereas in those days that was not represented before in film. So that was a big revelation But if people want to remake them it wouldnt matter to me. I think St. Elmos Fire pick up those guys 30 years later, theyre all old and fat, you know? (laughs) The only one that probably should be remade is Weekend at Bernies. (laughs) LOS ANGELES (AP) When Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins was considering adapting Colson Whiteheads Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the Underground Railroad into a limited series, he kept hearing the same thing: Impossible. It would be emotionally and mentally draining, Jenkins knew. And he questioned the ethics of such a production: Do people really need to be reminded about the horrors of slavery? Ultimately, Jenkins worked through the doubts. The result is The Underground Railroad, an unflinching portrayal of Cora, an enslaved woman who escapes a Georgia plantation and its horrors only to be pursued by an unrelenting bounty hunter. Along the way she must confront the anger she feels for her mother, who left her at the plantation when she was 10. The 10-hour limited series, which premieres Friday on Amazon, is at times unbearably painful to watch and at others achingly beautiful. Early reviews have declared the series a triumph and something only Jenkins could have pulled off. It was the most satisfying creative experience of my life, said Jenkins, who won an Oscar in 2017 for Moonlight and was nominated again the next year for "If Beale Street Could Talk. It was also the biggest challenge hes ever faced. The story is so, so large and wide-ranging. Before doing this, I spoke to Steven Soderbergh and Cary Fukunaga, who did True Detective and The Knick, and they both said Its impossible. Its going to kill you because theres no way to properly prep that many hours of any story, he said in a recent interview. "It was going to be a test of my skills to do that. It was also an irresistible opportunity to, as he puts it, "re-contextualize how we view my ancestors." When this trailer came out, someone said, Oh, I dont want to see another show about slaves. I want to see positive imagery. And Im like, Oh, that inherently says that any imagery depicting my ancestors is negative,' Jenkins said. No, we have to really relearn how to look at these people." To him, enslaved people showed "one of the greatest acts of collective parenting the world has ever seen. If everyone had taken up arms and decided they were going to rebel, everyone would have perished and there would have been all these children left behind, he said. The choice was to protect these children out of faith that at some point this thing would end and these children would go on and carry the legacy. During production, Jenkins said the most important thing to him was to protect himself, the cast and the crew from being devoured by the barbarity." To make sure of that, a counselor was on set at all times. And the cast says Jenkins went to great lengths to make sure that they knew they could say when they were too close to the line or simply needed a break. I remember Barry saying lots of times, Everyone, it looks very real. Everything looks very real. So, when you get on set, just be aware that you are in a position where this could bring up stuff for you, said Ugandan actor Sheila Atim, who plays Cora's mother. And bring up stuff it did. For everyone. The emotions that were brought up were all the emotions that the character dealt with, ranging from rejection, abandonment, a huge sense of loss, running from self and all of that, said Thuso Mbedu, a South African newcomer who plays Cora. I had to be extra aware of who I am and where I was personally at every step because those are very heavy states of being to carry and being someone who struggled with depression in 2016, I personally couldnt afford to allow myself to get into that space, especially because were going to shoot for 10 months. For Atim, it did bring up a lot of anger about injustice and also the understanding that race-based oppression is still a thing and racism is still a thing in the world. That's part of what drove Jenkins and the cast. They hope their work helps spark more conversations about race, inequality and injustice. Australian actor Joel Edgerton, who plays the bounty hunter pursuing and tormenting Cora, said its important to remember that were not that far away from what youre seeing in The Underground Railroad. We were able to go to towns and dress them up without too much ... and you go, OK, those buildings are still there where things took place, where environments, plantations still exist, he said. Things have morphed and shifted ... but theres a lot of problems and there always sadly, will be. But I think we need to have conversations and art is a great way of sparking conversations. The series should lead everyone to question their role in society and whether we could all be doing more, said William Jackson Harper ("The Good Place"), who plays a free-born man in "The Underground Railroad." I think that we all would like to think that we would go back to 1850-something and we would all be abolitionists, he said. And thats not true. We wouldnt. Theres a lot of things that are going on right now and a lot of us sitting on the sidelines and I include myself. Theres ways in which Im sitting on the sidelines of things that need to be changed, and Im like, Someone should change that but oh well. Im hoping that we all feel in a certain way indicted and that we start to ask ourselves really tough questions and ask our family members and our friends really tough questions about who we would have been in this time and who we are in this moment." LOS ANGELES (AP) Elon Musk moved a cryptocurrency's value and TV ratings with his Saturday Night Live appearance. Last weekend's show averaged 7.3 million viewers, making it the third most-watched episode for the season behind the ones hosted by Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock, according to Nielsen figures. A good outcome for the billionaire's first time hosting SNL, although reviews of his attempts at comedy ranged from charitable to meh. The biggest pan, however, may be the response to jokes mocking the cryptocurrency dogecoin, for which Musk actually has been a steadfast booster: In the hour after the show started, dogecoin's already volatile price fell 23% and bounced up and down the following day. Saturday Night Live" included an opening exchange between Musk and his mother, who grimaced when he said that dogecoin would be her Mother's Day gift, and an Update bit in which Musk appeared as a faux financial analyst, Lloyd Ostertag. Anchor Michael Che reacts to Ostertag's convoluted description of dogecoin as the future of currency with deep skepticism, calling it a hustle. Musk in character echoes the sentiment: Yeah, it's a hustle. In prime-time last week, CBS was the most-watched network with an average 4.8 million viewers. NBC had 3.2 million, ABC had 3 million, Fox had 2.3 million, Univision had 1.3 million and Telemundo had 960,000. Fox News Channel topped the cable networks, averaging 2.1 million viewers in prime time. MSNBC had 1.5 million, HGTV had 1.2 million and CNN had 907,000. ABCs World News Tonight was first in the evening news ratings contest, averaging 7.95 million viewers. NBCs Nightly News had 6.46 million and the CBS Evening News had 4.86 million. For the week of May 3-9, the top 20 programs, their networks and viewerships: 1. NCIS, CBS, 8.68 million. 2. FBI, CBS, 8.06 million. 3. 60 Minutes, CBS, 7.78 million. 4. The Equalizer, CBS, 7.224 million. 5. Chicago Fire, NBC, 7.221 million. 6. Chicago Med, NBC, 7.09 million. 7. Young Sheldon, CBS, 6.64 million. 8. 911, Fox, 5.91 million. 9. Blue Bloods, CBS, 5.87 million. 10. American Idol, ABC, 5.74 million. 11. Chicago P.D.," NBC. 5.69 million. 12. The Voice, NBC, 5.64 million. 13. NCIS: Los Angeles, CBS, 5.60 million. 14. Bull, CBS, 5.53 million. 15. FBI: Most Wanted, CBS, 4.89 million. 16. Mom, CBS, 5.29 million. 17. The Neighborhood, CBS, 5.19 million. 18. 911: Lone Star, Fox, 5.11 million. 19. Magnum, P.I., CBS, 5 million. 20. NCIS: new Orleans, CBS, 4.96 million. NEW YORK (AP) The once-deserted steps outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art are filling up with visitors again. Hotel lobbies are losing their desolate feel. Downtown, people are back to taking selfies with the Charging Bull statue near Wall Street. Tourists who vanished from New York Citys museums, hotels and cultural attractions when the coronavirus pandemic hit a year ago are trickling back in as restrictions loosen. Theres still a long way to go before the still-closed theater district is mobbed with international travelers again. But lately, indicators like hotel occupancy and museum attendance have ticked up, thanks to domestic travelers and day trippers who dont mind seeing the city operating at less than its usual hectic pace. Ive always wanted to come to New York, just because Ive watched the movies, said Chazmin Fuhrer, 26, a first-time visitor from Concord, California, who came into the city for a handful of days recently to celebrate a friends birthday. Lounging at a table in Times Square as three street performers started their dance moves nearby, Fuhrer said she knew it wasnt anywhere near as busy as usual. But she was OK with that. Its kind of nice without a lot of people out," she said, noting that the pre-pandemic crush of people would probably now make her nervous, with the virus still circulating. City officials are optimistic, even in the wake of an incident in Times Square on Saturday, when three people including a child were injured by stray bullets when a dispute led to gunfire. In the end, people want to come to this city, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. It is an overwhelmingly safe city, when you look at New York City compared to cities around the country, around the world. In 2019, an estimated 67 million people visited the city. In 2020, that plummeted to slightly more than 22 million, mostly those who came before the pandemic began rampaging in New York in March. Restaurants and stores were forced to close, as were some hotels, bringing the city's available rooms from 124,000 to 88,000, according to city tourism officials. On top of that, unrest over racial injustice in late spring led to two days of property destruction and stealing. While the damage was limited and cleanup quick, the city suffered through months of bad press as then-President Donald Trump, eager to bash his Democrat-run hometown, publicly smeared it as having succumbed to anarchy. The daytime Times Square shooting brought a fresh round of handwringing. But after a moribund year, things are looking up. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, for example, has reached 9,000 visitors on some recent days. That's still far less than the swarms of 25,000 who once packed in on the busiest days pre-pandemic, but far more than the museum was seeing when it reopened in late August. Ridership is up on the ferries that take visitors from the southern tip of Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty, where the grounds and a museum are open even as the statue's interior remains off limits. Rafael Abreu, vice president for marketing at Statue Cruises, said it had been fairly slow" through February, but ridership had risen in March and April to about 25-30% of pre-pandemic times. Hotel occupancy, which had been running in the 30% range, has been in the 50% range over the last few weeks, said Fred Dixon, president and CEO of NYC & Company, the citys tourism agency. New hotels are opening, and the number of rooms is expected to reach 118,000 by year's end. Its just really wonderful, Dixon said of the city's cautious reawakening. And so, its given us a lot of hope. The agency is predicting just over 31 million visitors in 2021. City and state officials in recent weeks have been making moves to open the city up as much as possible. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the city's subway system would return to 24-hour service in mid-May. Capacity restrictions on businesses are being lifted, although 6 feet (2 meters) of space between patrons will still be required. The Yankees and Mets have been allowed to boost crowd capacity at games, with no restrictions at all on people who can show they have been vaccinated. De Blasio last month announced a $30 million tourism marketing campaign that NYC & Company will launch in June. The city and state are also setting up vaccination stations offering free shots to tourists. We think this is a positive message to tourists. Come here. Its safe. Its a great place to be and were going to take care of you, said de Blasio, a Democrat. In a city where multitudes are dependent on tourism for their livelihoods, things can't get better quickly enough. Michael Keane, an owner of OHaras Restaurant and Pub near the World Trade Center site, said things have been looking up. Its been a slow crawl but were seeing more and more tourists every week come in the area, he said, noting that he's keeping a nervous eye on how the virus has continued to ravage some other countries. I cant imagine going through that again." Limitations remain. Broadway shows won't start running again until September. Some attractions require timed reservations to keep crowds down. Others are still closed. But even with things moving slower, Fuhrer said she was definitely not disappointed with her trip. Back home, I feel like people are still a little bit cautious out there with COVID, she said. Meanwhile, in New York, I feel like everybody out here is trying to get their life going. She and girlfriend Gabbi Allen, 23, both vaccinated, felt like they got to experience some of that New York vibe. All the sirens, all the honking," Allen said. People yelling at each other in the middle of the street," Fuhrer added. The lower-key New York City has actually been wonderful, said Stephanie Piefke, 24, of Atlanta, a frequent visitor out recently for some touristy activities with her friend, first-time visitor Danielle Jenkins. The women, both vaccinated, said at the Empire State Building there were maybe a few dozen people cruising through a waiting area set up to handle what Piefke said would have been a miserable snaking line. She didn't think the quieter New York City would last, though, once the city fully reopens. Yall are gonna be like, Oh God, theyre here,'" she said, and itll be like a tsunami of tourists that have been wanting to come. Anton Migdal, a 15-year-old Berkeley High sophomore, said he first caught wind of a little jump a dirt ramp at the top of the Berkeley Hills last summer. He had recently picked up mountain biking as a fun, thrilling outdoor activity to pass the time during the pandemic, and he quickly made it his goal to master the jump. Which he did. Then in September, his friend Theo Fleig, 16, proposed the idea of building a little something there, Migdal said. Fleig assembled a small crew of friends, including Migdal, and they dug in. Now, The Jumps has an official, capitalized name, and its in trouble. The fate of the dirt biking course that four Berkeley friends devoted months of labor and time into will likely be decided on Friday, when the boys will meet for a second time with City Councilmember Susan Wengraf. In all likelihood, The Jumps will be torn down by the city of Berkeley despite what appears to be large swaths of support from the Berkeley community. Over the course of four months, Migdal, Fleig and two other teenaged friends Leif Carlson and Max Kuchen logged off from Zoom school, which ended at around 1:30 p.m., and spent four or five hours a day building their course. This construction project was inspired by the boys burgeoning interest in biking, but it was also a creation of necessity, Migdal said. They needed a space where enthusiastic mountain bikers could express themselves freely without obstructing trails intended for hikers. I really think there's a lack of mountain bike trails and mountain bike support in Berkeley in the East Bay, said Migdal. There are a couple fun ones but there are so many hikers; they always get mad at you. That's kind of why we built The Jumps, he continued. We wanted a little sanctuary for mountain bikers to come up to be supported and to have fun. The Jumps in its final form is now considerably robust, a winding, circuitous trail made up of a bunch of dirt rollers or curved ramps supported by sandbags to help bikers gain air. There are also some drops higher up the hill to get more acceleration. Even today, The Jumps is constantly being tweaked and maintained. It was a labor of love for the group, and it started getting noticed via mountain biker word-of-mouth. We got better and the jumps got bigger and we made friends with a lot of new people, Migdal said. Mountain bikers, they came up to help they helped a lot with building jobs. The crew that helped build the course ended up growing from four to more than a dozen, including volunteer mountain bike enthusiasts who helped out in their spare time. Ive become friends with more than 15 people just from the Jumps, Kuchen, 15, proudly told SFGATE. Courtesy of Anton Migdal Nearby parents have started to bring children on their tricycles and training bikes to ride around, in effect turning the Jumps into a small bike park not just for mountain bikers, but for their families, too. What really surprised me was, you know, usually Berkeley has a reputation of being a little cranky, Migdal said. I've gotten yelled at a couple times just for skating down the street. Its weird, but everybody who came up to [The Jumps] who were walking the dogs there were super nice. They love the spot. Migdal recalled one lovely event over the Thanksgiving holidays when a neighbors extended family came by to visit. They checked out The Jumps with their young children in tow, and cheered the boys on for a half-hour just, like, in support, he said. But two incidents stood out to the boys as having caused a bit of unwanted attention. The first was a removal of a tree branch to make a retaining barrier, Kuchen said. A neighbor caught wind of the plan and expressed concerns about the boys causing a spark if they hit a metal piece in the branch with their power tools. Another more foolish decision Carlsons words may have triggered The Jumps demolition. About a month ago, the boys crafted a fire pit in the area and had a barbecue with a few other friends. They didnt think it was a problem until they drew the ire of neighbors, still understandably reeling from the past few wildfire seasons. Although we were being extremely safe, digging a deep hole for a fire to sit in, clearing out the area around the pit, having loads of water on standby, and having at least five people around the fire at one time, Carlson said, we now understand how foolish and unsafe we were due to the fire risk in that area. Migdal agreed. I know how much of a threat fire is up here, he said. Even though it was a mistake, it was the wrong thing to do, I do not think it should impact The Jumps because that's a community spot. It shouldn't be taken down and just because of a stupid mistake. A city letter, dated May 7 and posted by the Office of the City Manager, warned those "people who frequent this area that it is City of Berkeley right of way and that there have been actions of concern that are unsafe in this area." (That said, the letter did not specify who owned the land it appears it is on EBMUD and Zaytuna College property.) The note also warned that The Jumps would be removed within the span of one week. When I saw the sign I was devastated, Kuchen said. I knew they would get torn down eventually but over the last eight months, every day I felt the risk of getting a letter from the city drop down and down. The boys mobilized. Migdal posted a Change.org petition; Carlson shared the story of the Jumps on Nextdoor. The response was overwhelmingly positive. The petition received more than 1,500 signatures; the Nextdoor commentariat was, perhaps for the first time in modern history, supportive. One commenter pointed out the dearth of resources for mountain bikers, skaters and other independent sports, while others celebrated the boys ingenuity and industrial spirit. Some, however, expressed concern about the course blocking roads for fire trucks in case of a wildfire, in addition to the concerns over the campfire incident. The boys met with City Councilwoman Susan Wengraf, who agreed to temporarily postpone the demolition and meet again this Friday but explained that the citys concerns came from liability issues and the risk of fires from the firepit incident a month ago. (Its worth noting that some Nextdoor posters were a little more doubtful of the alleged safety risks, given that nearby Codornices Parks concrete slide is still intact.) The fire liability is huge. This property is located in an extremely vulnerable area, and given that the fire season has started early we just had four days of red flag warnings there is a lot of concern, Wengraf told SFGATE, noting that she was tipped off to the boys' campfire by some neighbors. The problem is these particular boys seem to be extremely thoughtful. Theyre Berkeley boys, theyre aware of what the issues are. What happens when people come in from other areas that dont have that same awareness? What happens when they smoke cigarettes or weed? Its a situation that has the potential to be problematic, she said. She also expressed concerns about the undue attention that would come if The Jumps became a cause celebre and a hot spot in the area, as opposed to a small, community-oriented hangout. (Some of the boys also were worried about their secret spot getting blown up, so we are not revealing its coordinates.) The boys are staying hopeful about what might come of another meeting with Wengraf, though the odds are stacked against them that she and the city will permanently drop their plan to demolish The Jumps. Perhaps unintentionally, or perhaps as a sign of some wise-beyond-his-years negotiating skills, Migdal floated an alternative arrangement to SFGATE that the city could consider. I think that Berkeley should definitely build a mountain bike park and try to make more trails accessible, he said, and maybe even make purpose-built bike trails so hikers don't get mad at us and we don't get frustrated. Ive spent a lot of time staring at the corner of Glenbrook and St. Germaine Avenue in San Franciscos Twin Peaks. Not walking my dog or taking a leisurely urban hike, but on my screen, with Pegman, at night, furiously swooshing the little fella around the map with my finger until he shows me exactly what I want to see. It had been two hours since I started watching "Experiment in Terror," the exquisite 1962 crime thriller in which an asthmatic stalker threatens to kill two sisters if they dont rob a downtown San Francisco bank. But the movie hadnt even gotten to the experiment, let alone any terror. I was stuck, around 20 minutes in, repeatedly pausing, rewinding, playing, pausing, grabbing Pegman, twisting him around. Is that the house Lee Remick lived in NOW? Swoosh swoosh. No its her sisters! But why did she turn right on Palo Alto Avenue? Wrong way Pegman! Ooh theyre going downtown, come on Peggy lets hit Market Street. Swooooosh. Im never trying to solve some big mystery, just unearthing tiny geographic puzzles. Images and moments from the citys history I need to find on that unending map, but its so much more than a map. Its a real life gallery documenting ten million miles of the earth's roads through 170 billion photographs. And Pegman has seen them all. Ive always been obsessed by maps. Growing up on the windswept southwestern tip of England, surrounded by narrow labyrinthian farm lanes, having a map is a necessity. (Theres only one straight road in North Devon, the Romans built it.) Maybe its that addresses dont really make much sense in England (the official address of the farm I grew up on is seven lines long and includes the words "in the wood"). Or maybe its because Street View was launched the same time in 2007 as I moved across the world from those winding English lanes to San Francisco. I had a new world to explore, and I had Pegman as my trusty man-on-the-street. Street View was launched at first in nine cities, including San Francisco, and was almost immediately met with controversy. After some slightly dubious images made their way onto the platform including a woman in her underwear, sunbathers, and identifiable men leaving strip clubs in May 2008 Google gave people the ability to flag images to be pulled down. They soon automated the blurring of license plates and faces from Pegmans omnipotent gaze and later allowed residents to request that their homes be blurred out. If my forays into Street View are a rabbit hole, the Pegman is my carrot. Hes the drag-and-drop icon that acts as the primary user interface for interacting with the map. At first he was an eyeball, but Google found moving an eyeball around a map not very appetizing for users. Then came Pegwoman, then, um, Tofu Man (really) and then they finally settled on the current iteration. If you move Pegman a little too quickly hell fly around and swing pendulously over the globe. When you release the click he drops to the map, and 2D suddenly opens up to a panoramic view from the ground. Google Street View On special occasions, Pegman dresses up for you: Around the coast of Hawaii he grows a mermaid tail; around Loch Ness he becomes a cute little nessie in a cap; and if you should venture towards Area 51, he becomes a UFO, hovering over the sand, waiting to show you the mysteries of the Nevada desert. Google Street View Street View photography is mostly captured via the iconic Street View car (no, you cant drive it) but boats and snowmobiles are also used. Underwater cameras shot the West Nusa Tenggara coral, the Liwa Desert was captured via camelback and on a ten-day trek with Apa Sherpa, Mount Everest was documented. The International Space Station is even on there now (and yes, Pegman turns into an astronaut). You cant take 170 billion photos without capturing some weirdness, and outside of car accidents, drug deals and darker images that have seen the light of day, many people have pranked the passing high tech camera as it approaches, like the flock of pigeon people in Tokyo or the Norwegian scuba divers. A Scottish man had to apologize to the police when they came to visit him a year after he staged a fake murder in front of the Street View vehicle. "There are pictures of men on Google flashing their bums but we thought we would be more classy, Dan Thompson told the BBC. "We had forgotten about it when the police arrived a year later and we apologized for wasting police time. They found it funny." But its not the gimmicks and pranks that interest me, its the magical ability to pull up the curious corners of San Francisco in seconds. Like the corner of Burritt Street where Miles Archer got done in in the Maltese Falcon or the car wash on Cesar Chavez where Steve McQueen started the greatest chase ever filmed. Why am I compelled to seek out the exact spot where Tom Hardy does a ridiculous motorcycle jump in Venom? (Its 1001 Vallejo St, but shot on Taylor.) Is it because these amazing actors and directors were once immortalized on screen right there? No, Venom is not a good movie. Is it because I live so close to the most cinematic city on earth, but just out of reach? Or is it because internet rabbit holes are the lifeblood of aging millennials, and sometimes you just cant stop diving. Sony Pictures Google Street View Outside of the movies, the true crime corners of the city always draw me in. The spot at Washington and Cherry where Zodiac committed his last (?) murder, or the bus stop on Oak and Masonic where Kevin Collins was last seen with a blond man and a dog. I even managed to turn this obsession into work. Over the last year Ive written about a cryptic noir corner over the Stockton Tunnel, a tiny haunted corner in Lower Pac Heights where Mary Ellen Pleasant made history, and a road on Sonoma Mountain that defies physics. I mapped 10 houses in the Haight where heroes and villains of the 60s lived, and all the greatest movie corners in North Beach. I even found a strange tower on Telegraph Hill without an address. I went to all of these places on foot, but the adventures all started on Street View. There are frustratingly some spots in the city out of Pegmans viewshed, such as some very expensive cul-de-sacs in Sea Cliff or the prestigious Presidio Terrace. I know what youre thinking, does this person not have anything better to do than cavort around the world through a screen with a privacy-stealing big tech-birthed man named Peg? I do not. Of course, walking the streets and taking in the magical San Francisco air and meeting real people is better, but its been a rough year. Sometimes the internet is bad. But sometimes its incredible. (Oh and heres that corner of St Germain and Glenbrooke in Experiment in Terror, and on Street View. The current 2021 view shows the house hidden under bushes and construction, so I used the time travel option now available on the app to show it in 2014, for that feature, Pegman sometimes dresses up as Doc Brown.) Columbia Pictures The National Police have dismantled a criminal gang believed to have committed 11 robberies in offices and warehouses in Marbella. Five people three Spaniards, one Briton and one German, all aged between 23 and 38 have been arrested for their suspected participation in the group. Goods worth 270,000 euros, mostly clothes and shoes stolen from the warehouse of a popular fashion brand in Puerto Banus, as well as a helmet dating back to the First World War, have been recovered. The investigation stemmed from an arrest made on 22 March. A 25-year-old Briton was caught by police after a witness told the authorities that they had seen two men loading a van with merchandise taken from a warehouse in Puerto Banus which had been forced open. The First World War helmet. / SUR Investigators were later able to connect him to a highly specialised organisation dedicated to robbing industrial units, shops and offices. Each of the young men involved in the group had a specific function: from loading the vehicles, to gathering information about the target buildings, to carrying out the thefts. They gained entry to the premises by forcing locks and deactivating alarm systems and security cameras. Curiously, the group had also stolen a World War One helmet in one of their operations. The police tracked this down after it was put up for sale on an online portal for second-hand items, leading to the arrest of another gang member. At first, it seemed like a case of Silicon Valley d-baggery. The man is shown smirking at the camera, seemingly knowing that he got away with this potentially deadly stunt. When the first story was published on SFGATE, it seemed like a cut-and-dry case: A guy is putting others in danger by back seat driving his Tesla across the Bay Area, and, after some calling out of the CHP, he was caught just days later when the CHP received calls of him pulling the same stunt Monday night, the CHP said. Param Sharma, 25, was arrested Tuesday and charged with reckless driving and disobeying a peace officer. But the story doesnt end there. An onslaught of emails came in the days after SFGATE first reported on Sharmas antics. Some were from people who said they were former classmates of his at Albany High. One read: Please revoke his license. Another came from a person who identified himself as Sharma, saying that he was the owner of the car behind the stunt and offering his phone number to chat. And, in effect, he may have admitted to the crime: That was my Tesla and I got it only to commute from the back seat, the man claiming to be Sharma said in an email to SFGATE. A bit of digging revealed that he did, in fact, want to be seen doing this driverless Tesla stunt. He posted it on his YouTube and Instagram accounts. (In them, he wears the same Ralph Lauren cap as he does in the YouTube video recorded by a third party that went viral.) He seems to relish the infamy. Sharma recorded himself lip syncing to a song by NorCal rapper Mozzy from his backseat, while controlling the steering wheel with his foot; that post was shared on Instagram the Monday before his arrest. The caption read, Bitch tell the chp I bought my license. Another post, showing off the Daily Mails coverage of his back seat driving on an iPad, reads, I came outta the pandemic in a self driving car U blue blue collar peasants cant understand my life. A bit more digging found that this is all in line with his past behavior. Sharma went to Albany High in the early 2010s, where he pulled similar stunts, according to a classmate who spoke to SFGATE and was granted anonymity in accordance with Hearsts ethics policy. Hes just been really kind of one of those guys who acts out, one of those guys who really needs to be the center of attention and to an extent turning dangerous or unacceptable, pretty much a constant thorn in the side of the school administration, the classmate said. Sharma said he was the most popular kid at my school in one interview. The former classmate said Sharma also encountered trouble with local police for another act of dangerous driving. He allegedly was arrested for driving on the opposite side of the road multiple times in Albany. Albany police did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE. A spokesman with the CHPs Golden Gate Division told SFGATE that hes been cited in the past for the reckless driving, however, meaning his current charges will likely be more severe this time around. (He got off with a warning once before, the spokesman said.) But as Sharma was gaining local notoriety in the Bay Area, his online persona began to draw global attention. Fashioned in the style of New York City pseudosocialite Anna Delvey and Lil Tay the viral child flexer-turned-rapper who recently re-entered the headlines for family turmoil Sharmas shtick is to knowingly deploy signifiers of wealth and status into social media notoriety. He uses the name ItsLavishBitch on social media; sometimes altered to GoldCollarLavish. The bio of an Instagram likely belonging to him reads: Im a gold collar u a blue collar 25 left the pandemic richer than ever before. Derision of blue-collar labor, fancy cars, including a Lamborghini, and wads of cash feature heavily in his account. Everything Sharma has done online seems calculated for maximum outrage and viral potential, a walking, talking algorithm engineered for clout. He says he only uses toilets filled with sparkling water. He holds bands of cash in his mouth. He reportedly has six iPhones. Hes launched social media tirades on Soulja Boy, Kim Kardashian and other celebrities way above his pay grade. He once accused Rihanna of jacking his style. Other outlets especially those with a penchant for novelty and controversy ran exposes and Q&As. The headlines were breathless, if not always complimentary. The Internet's Celebrity Bashing Brat King, read Vices. Is this the most spoiled kid in the U.S. or is it just a hoax? asked the Daily Mail. He's "Instagram's Richest Teen," an MTV story declared. A Digital Trends article dubbed him Instagrams richest troll. Hes also the slightest bit self-aware, knowing that his trolling gets a rise out of people. People feed off the crazy things I do, like pooping in sparkling water, he told Vice. Im using wealth as comedy. But behind the exasperated intrigue surrounding him is a reality thats perhaps a bit more grim. Sharma, then 18, was arrested in 2014 for an incident involving an iPhone, and was placed in the jails psychiatric ward. His then-lawyer told KGO that another inmate tried to kill him. Aside from being annoying and absurd, until now his viral antics really didnt harm anyone, except for the 1% of celebrities who were the subject of his taunts. He seems to crave any press in an effort to rack up more followers on the 'gram. Normally, we wouldn't fall for it but now that his ploys for fame could have real-world consequences, he's unfortunately become a newsworthy figure. Sharmas follower count is a lot less now on a new account more than 5,000. At one point, his follower count peaked at 400,000, before the account was taken down. The classmate said Instagram deactivated his account due to an excess of fake followers on the platform. But it's unclear what punishments Sharma will face; the Alameda County District Attorney's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from SFGATE. I dont wish ill on anyone, but hes one of those guys who you see hes in jail and youre not surprised, the classmate said. PHILADELPHIA (AP) Gunfire on a southwest Philadelphia street killed one man and wounded three others, one critically, police said. The four were shot while standing on the highway" in the Kingssessing neighborhood shortly after 4 p.m. Wednesday, police said. LAS VEGAS (AP) Gambling giants MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment said Wednesday were opening their Las Vegas Strip gambling floors at 100% capacity with no person-to-person distancing requirement, after state regulatory approval. Most of the resort corridor's biggest properties were affected by the Nevada Gaming Control Board decision based on workforce vaccination rates. Currently Reading Alert: Hamas says Israeli airstrike killed Gaza City commander, highest-ranking militant to be killed since 2014 war TOKYO (AP) An American lawyer on trial in Japan on charges related to reporting of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosns compensation asserted his innocence Wednesday, testifying he acted legally and in Nissan's best interests. Greg Kelly, a former executive vice president at Nissan Motor Co., told the Tokyo District Court he was worried Ghosn might job-hop after taking a big pay cut in 2010, when Japan began requiring disclosures of high executive pay. He became a retention risk, Kelly said in response to questioning by his chief defense lawyer, Yoichi Kitamura. We were fortunate to have a CEO as talented as Carlos Ghosn, he said. Starting in 2010, Ghosn's annual pay was cut by about half, or 1 billion yen ($10 million). Company officials had worried about potential public criticism since big executive paychecks are rare in Japan. After the pay cut, Ghosn was making considerably less than his counterparts at U.S. and European automakers. Ghosn and Kelly were arrested in late 2018. Ghosn was charged with underreporting his compensation and with breach of trust. But he fled to Lebanon while out on bail. Kelly is facing charges of conspiring with Ghosn to underreport his pay. A key focus of the trial is whether the unpaid money was ever decided upon. Ghosn, who led Nissan for two decades, says he is innocent and the money was not decided upon or paid. Testimony and documents presented during the trial show Kelly sought ways to compensate Ghosn through possible post-retirement consultancy fees and a deal paying him not to leave for a rival company, known as a non-compete agreement. Prosecutors says they're confident about their cases against both Ghosn and Kelly. During Wednesday's hearing, Kelly said that before the trial began he had never seen detailed calculations of Ghosn's potential pay, which were handled by another Nissan executive who reported directly to Ghosn. Kelly worked as a labor and environmental lawyer in the U.S. before joining Nissan in 1988. He testified that his exchanges with the executive, Toshiaki Ohnuma, tended to be short and superficial because Ohnumas English was limited and Kelly doesnt speak much Japanese. Ohnuma took a plea bargain and testified last year for the prosecution, outlining how he worked on Ghosns unpaid compensation. If convicted, Kelly faces up to 15 in prison. The conviction rate in Japan is higher than 99%. A verdict isnt expected for months. Yokohama-based Nissan has sunk into losses since the Ghosn scandal surfaced, and the pandemic has added to those woes. Its new chief executive, Makoto Uchida, has promised a comeback. ___ Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter https://twitter.com/yurikageyama CARBONDALE, Illinois (AP) Below is an analysis of public record laws in all 50 states. It is based on an analysis of statutes and court opinions as well as interviews with experts. To stay up to date with the rapidly changing laws, visit Legislative Responses for Policing-State Bill Tracking Databas e. ___ This reporting is funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. ___ ALABAMA-RESTRICTED Police disciplinary records are available to the public, but agencies can require that requesters state the reason for their request. A 1995 opinion by then Alabama Attorney General Jeff Sessions opened the door to agencies withholding documents, said Sam Stecklow, a journalist with the Invisible Institute, a nonprofit journalistic group focused on public accountability. Agencies can deny requests because the release of the records could reasonably be expected to be detrimental to the public safety or welfare, and records the disclosure of which would otherwise be detrimental to the best interests of the public. Stecklow also points out that the law does not address release of misconduct records where there is no punishment. Alabama enacted a law this spring to create a statewide database of police misconduct to help police departments avoid hiring officers with problems. But the law closes the database to the public. ALASKA-MOSTLY CLOSED Police misconduct records in Alaska are generally not available because state employees personnel and disciplinary records are exempted from the Alaska Public Records Act (A.S. 39.25.080). There is also no database that tracks shootings or use of force in the state. The Alaska Supreme Court ruled last year that disciplinary records for Alaskan State Troopers are confidential. Alaska has come under fire from local media organizations and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for this exception. When a police department fires an officer or disciplines an officer for serious misconduct, it must report the discipline to the Alaska Police Standards Council. If the disciplined officer does not contest the action, the information is confidential. If the officer contests the action, there is a public hearing process. Dozens of police officers with criminal records have worked in Alaskas cities, despite a state law that should have disqualified them, an investigation by the Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica found. One of these officers was Nimeron Mike, a registered sex offender who had spent six years in prison and been convicted of assault, domestic violence and other crimes. Outrageous: Convicted criminals serve as Alaskan police amid public safety crisis, investigation finds ARIZONA-MOSTLY PUBLIC Police misconduct records are generally available to the public as long as any investigation concerning the misbehavior has been completed according to Arizona Statute 39-128. Local TV station abc15 compiled the Brady lists from all the counties - lists of officers not considered honest enough to testify in court. The lists totaled 1,400 officers. The station found that prosecutors often failed to disclose that an officer was on the list. The Arizona House passed a bill this year, supported by the Phoenix Law Enforcement Association, that would have closed the list. It hasnt passed the Senate. Another investigation conducted by the Arizona Republic, discovered that Phoenix police frequently purge officers records to keep police misconduct a secret. Arizona also provides an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index on the International Association of Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Trainings website but it doesnt disclose the names of officers disciplined in this bulletin. Arizona is one of 11 states that provides this public bulletin. ARKANSAS-MOSTLY CLOSED Police misconduct records are not available to the public unless one can prove a compelling public interest and they deal with an officers official suspension or termination. Personnel records are not eligible to be requested to the extent that disclosure would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy according to Arkansas Code 25-19-105. CALIFORNIA-RESTRICTED In 2018 the states legislature passed SB1421, the Right To Know Act, which grants access to certain instances of excessive use of force, any incident where an officer fires a gun at a person and records relating to sexual misconduct. Before this, most law enforcement misconduct records were closed and typically could not be obtained by the public, or the court system for criminal proceedings. Instances where the public can access police misconduct records in California include: An incident regarding the discharge of a firearm. An incident in which use of force by an officer resulted in death or serious injury. An incident in which a sustained finding was made by any law enforcement agency or oversight agency that a peace officer or custodial officer engaged in sexual assault involving a member of the public. An incident in which a sustained finding was made by any law enforcement agency or oversight agency of dishonesty by a peace officer or custodial officer directly relating to the reporting, investigation, or prosecution of a crime, or directly relating to the reporting of, or investigation of misconduct by, another peace officer or custodial officer, including, but not limited to, any sustained finding of perjury, false statements, filing false reports, destruction, falsifying, or concealing of evidence. Anything falling outside of these categories is still restricted. Most investigations into allegations of police misconduct are still closed under the law, Stecklow said. (See more: ACLU Access to CA Police Records). COLORADO-RESTRICTED Police misconduct records will be made public in Colorado under SB 20-2017, the states criminal justice reform bill, which goes into full effect in 2023. Before, these records were often denied but now agencies will be required to release unedited audio and video footage from body and dash cameras of any incident where misconduct is alleged. Other transparency provisions in the bill include the public reporting, in an online searchable database, of extensive information on use of force by law enforcement officers that results in death or serious injuries and the reporting of interactions between officers and the public, according to the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. But Stecklow points out the new law is limited because it is not retroactive and has language that currently requires requesters to know of specific instances of misconduct, rather than allowing requests for records in general. CONNECTICUT-RESTRICTED Police misconduct records in Connecticut are generally public because of the precedent set by the state Supreme Court in 1993 in Perkins V. Freedom of Information Commission, which stated records could be withheld only if they do not pertain to matters of public concern. However a new contract with state troopers limits the access to misconduct records by only making them accessible if a complaint is sustained. Most complaints are not sustained. According to a study compiled by the ACLU of Connecticut, many departments make it difficult to file a misconduct complaint against an officer and 42% of the departments in the state surveyed by the ACLU suggested that they are not complying with state law requiring public access to complaint policies. A new contract for State Police running from 2018-2022 passed in Connecticuts Legislature will make it more difficult to access troopers personnel files. Any misconduct investigations that end with an officer being exonerated or a complaint labeled as unfounded or lacking evidence, would be closed to the public. Connecticut is one of the 11 states that provide an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index where it makes the names of these officers public. However this integrity bulletin doesnt provide 100% transparency and an investigation by the ACLU of Connecticut f ound that none of the prosecutors had Brady lists of dishonest cops. WASHINGTON, D.C - MOSTLY CLOSED Police misconduct records are mostly closed in D.C., but activists, including the DC Open Government Coalition, are pushing for reform. The Washington City Paper reports that the D.C. government regularly invokes the personal privacy exemptions in Section 2-534(a)(2) of the D.C. Freedom of Information Act. Strong police unions advocate keeping the records private. DELAWARE-MOSTLY CLOSED Police misconduct records are closed and exempt from public disclosure in Delaware by both the Delaware Freedom of Information Act and under section 12 of the states Law Enforcement Bill of Rights. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, law enforcement organizations in Delaware are sometimes willing to provide general statistics but are usually unwilling to provide specific records in response to information requests. Fifteen states have versions of a LEOBOR (Law Enforcement Bill of Rights) statute, but only Delawares statute makes internal police investigation records completely confidential forever, according to the ACLU of Delaware. FLORIDA-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement misconduct records in Florida are generally available under the states Freedom of Information Act/Sunshine laws (Florida Statute 119) if the investigation is closed. All active investigations are exempt from public information requests until they are closed or completed. Misconduct records in Florida are sent to a database that is maintained by the states Criminal Justice Standards and Training Commission and this is open for public inspection. Florida is one of the 11 states that provides an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index where offending officers names are public. GEORGIA-MOSTLY PUBLIC Under the Georgia Open Records Act, law enforcement misconduct records are available to the public unless the investigation into the misconduct is active and ongoing. HAWAII-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records in Hawaii are closed unless they relate to the firing of an officer or if the records in question pertaining to an officers suspension are part of a pending court case. These records are also destroyed after 30 months according to a police spokeswoman interviewed by the Honolulu Civil Beat. The Honolulu Civil Beat found a group of Honolulu officers falsified drunk driving tickets to get overtime but kept their jobs, despite 200 DUI cases being dismissed as a result. In another case, Russel Won beat an inmate and watched his sergeant club him in the head with a blackjack, according to the Civil Beat. A federal grand jury charged him with a felony for lying about the incident; he pled down to a misdemeanor. He was allowed to take a leave of absence while he served his prison sentence but remained a cop, according to the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. More of these cases can be viewed here. A new law amending Hawaiis public record laws passed the state legislature in July, 2020. It requires county police departments to disclose to the Legislature the identity of an officer suspended or discharged. It also allows public access to information about suspended officers. IDAHO-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are closed under Idahos Freedom of Information Act requests according to Section 74-106 of the Idaho Public Records Ac t. ILLINOIS-MOSTLY PUBLIC Most law enforcement misconduct records in Illinois are available because of the precedent set in 2014 in Kalven V. City of Chicago. Law enforcement agencies in Illinois must provide a misconduct registry detailing general information about what an officer was cited for. In June 2020, in City of Chicago V. Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 7, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that misconduct records must be preserved and cannot be destroyed every five years, as the Chicago Fraternal Order of Police advocated. There is a Professional Conduct Database maintained by the state board responsible for certifying and decertifying officers. Local police departments must report to the database when an officer resigns, is fired or is suspended for violating department policy. However a police reform law passed this year closes the database including supporting documents. To get statewide records, a person would have to contact each of the hundreds of police departments. INDIANA-RESTRICTED The Indiana legislature passed a bi-partisan police reform law this spring, signed by Gov. Eric Holcomb, that provides publication of the names of decertified officer s on the website of the Indiana law enforcement academy. But Stecklow says the law allows police agencies to close cases where there is no discipline. The Indiana Law Enforcement Training Board has revoked 45 licenses since 2007, with only five in the past two years. Indiana is one of the 11 states that provides an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index where it makes the names of these officers public. IOWA-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement records in Iowa are closed but in cases where officers are fired the fact that they were fired can be stated under Iowa Code 22-7-11. However even when records should be public under Iowas law, law enforcement agencies find ways to deny them. Newspapers have taken cases to the Iowa Supreme Court because agencies have refused to turn over names and records relevant to the public. KANSAS-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are closed under the Kansas Open Records Act (Kansas Statute 45-221.) SB270 would make certain law enforcement disciplinary/misconduct records available to the public and prevent the hiring of officers with a history of serious misconduct allegations. It is still in the States Senate Judiciary Committee. Kansas is one of the 11 states that provide an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index, but it does not disclose the names of officers disciplined unless the names are requested. The Kansas City Star has been fighting these exemptions to obtain records of the Overland Park severance agreement with former officer Clayton Jennison, who shot a 17-year-old to death in 2018 while making a welfare check on the youth. KENTUCKY-RESTRICTED Access to police misconduct records through the Kentucky Open Records Act is limited and up to the discretion of the law enforcement agency or department involved. Departments can use KRS 61.878(1)(a) to claim a general exemption for the records because of privacy concerns for the employee or officer. However, the Kentucky Attorney General has ruled that for the most part, misconduct records should be made public and specified this in the Linda Toler v. City of Muldraugh case in 2004 (03-ORD-213.) An investigation by the Louisville Courier Journal uncovered that police concealed and lied about as many as 750,000 documents in an investigation of sexual misconduct by officers in the Explorer Scout program where police were abusing minors. The Courier Journal sued to uncover these records and a small portion was released. The FBI has since opened an investigation into the Explorer program. LOUISIANA-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement misconduct records are generally public and are not an exception to the Louisiana Sunshine Laws, but some departments may try to deny them based on the States privacy protections. In one such case, the city of Baton Rouge tried to deny records to the Capital City Press and the paper appealed the decision. While misconduct records in Louisiana are mostly public, an investigation by the Southern Poverty Law Center found serious gaps in the collection of other police data by law enforcement agencies, including data dealing with racial profiling. MAINE-RESTRICTED Law enforcement misconduct records are available to the public if the investigation is completed or closed. However, investigations that dont result in discipline or that have findings that are not sustained are not made available to the public. An investigation conducted by the Bangor Daily News and the Pulitzer Center found that these records often hide misconduct and lack transparency, by not fully describing the incidents in question. Maine only requires that the final findings of an investigation are public, according to their reporting, not the internal investigations leading up to a disciplinary decision. One of the examples cited by the Bangor Daily is the case of Matthew Shiers, whose public records show that he was fired, but exclude that the internal investigation was prompted by the fact he was charged with aggravated assault, domestic violence and cruelty to animals after fighting with his girlfriend. MARYLAND-MOSTLY PUBLIC In April 2021 the states House and Senate passed Antons Law which will expand access to police misconduct records and increase the use of body cameras in the state, where previously law enforcement investigations and misconduct records were sealed to the public in Maryland. The law, passed over the governors veto, also repealed the Law Enforcement Bill of Rights. Now the public will have access to misconduct records. MASSACHUSETTS-MOSTLY PUBLIC A new law opens law enforcement misconduct records in Massachusetts, which had previously been closed. MICHIGAN-RESTRICTED Police misconduct records are not explicitly secret in Michigan, however they are often denied and considered an unwarranted invasion of privacy under the states Freedom of Information Act (Section 15.243.1(a)). This summer, Michigans Attorney General Dana Nessel, called for the creation of a database that would track police misconduct statewide through the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards. The database has not been created. MINNESOTA-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement misconduct records are open to the public under Minnesotas Public Record Laws. Minnesota is one of the 11 states that provides an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index where it discloses the names of disciplined officers. MISSISSIPPI-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are closed and inaccessible to the public. MISSOURI-RESTRICTED Law enforcement misconduct is usually secret in Missouri, but in 2015 a Missouri court ordered the release of police misconduct records relating to police abuse of World Series tickets Chasnoff v. St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners. The court said police had no right to privacy in the records. Stecklow explains, The Chasnoff decision hinged on whether the allegations being investigated could have a criminal element or not; if yes, the records should be released. The states POST commission does not disclose the names of officers decertified, although it responds to requests for information, Stecklow says. Also information becomes public if an officer contests decertification and appeals to a hearing board. (See more: Police officers have no constitutional right of privacy in records of their official misconduct). MONTANA-MOSTLY CLOSED Police records are generally withheld from the public through Montana Code 2-6-102 and Article II, Section 10 of the Montana Constitution. The phrasing in section 10 of the Montana constitution, below, The right of individual privacy is essential to the well-being of a free society and shall not be infringed without the showing of a compelling state interest allows police departments to argue that most public disclosure of police records does not have a good enough public benefit to justify harming an officers individual privacy. However, in some cases, judges have ruled in favor of the records being disclosed under section 9 of the Montana constitution. Montana is one of the 11 states that provides an integrity bulletin to the National Decertification Index but it does not disclose the names of officers decertified unless the names are requested. NEBRASKA-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are secret in Nebraska. A proposed bill that was introduced in the states legislature Jan. 20 2021, would create a police misconduct database, but it has yet to be voted on. NEVADA-RESTRICTED Law enforcement misconduct records are restricted in Nevada and it is up to the discretion of individual law enforcement agencies if they are disclosed. NEW HAMPSHIRE-RESTRICTED Law enforcement misconduct records were closed in New Hampshire under a personnel exemption to public record requests, but 2020 state Supreme Court decisions limited the use of the personnel exemption and opened some records. For example, the states Supreme Court ruled that lists of police with credibility issues, such as the Laurie List of 270 dishonest officers cannot be kept confidential. But the court still has to determine if release of the names violated the officers privacy rights. NEW JERSEY-RESTRCITED Law enforcement misconduct records have historically been closed in New Jersey, but the attorney general won a court decision last year that would open the records of the officers who faced discipline for the most serious misconduct. NEW MEXICO-RESTRICTED Police departments have routinely used New Mexico Statute 14-2-1 (A)(3) to withhold records from the public. The statute says that some records are matters of opinion, so the department will argue that the disciplinary account is simply ones opinion regarding the officer and the resulting disciplinary action. But a 2009 state attorney generals opinion and a 2010 state court decision Cox v. New Mexico Dept of Public Safety found that citizen complaints should generally be open. NEW YORK-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement misconduct records became public in New York in August 2020 following nationwide protests after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. New Yorks police unions strongly opposed this change and five of them united and sued the state when it passed. (See more: CPRS INTERVENTION MOTION IN NYPD MISCONDUCT DATABASE CASE). They were unsuccessful in preventing the release of records and a database revealed more than three decades of complaints. Some police departments are still finding ways to make conduct inaccessible, like when the Town of Manlius Police Department in New York attempted to charge the non-profit organization MuckRock $47,504 to access their records. NORTH CAROLINA-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are secret in North Carolina. If an officer is dismissed, demoted, or suspended the disciplinary action and date are publicly available but not the reason. (NCS 153A-98 and 160A-168,). NORTH DAKOTA-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement misconduct records are available to the public in North Dakota. OHIO-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement misconduct records are available to the public in Ohio. OKLAHOMA-MOSTLY CLOSED Records of police officers can only be publicly accessed if they are records of an officer losing pay, being suspended, being demoted, or being terminated (51 O.S. 24A.8). OREGON-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are mostly closed in Oregon and are often denied if there is no discipline, according to Stecklow. Decertified police officers in Oregon and are tracked in a statewide online database maintained by the agency responsible for law enforcement certification. This database was created during a special legislative session in 2020 that called for more police accountability. Oregon does release the names of officers who have been decertified in the state. It began doing this after the death of George Floyd in 2020. Oregon is one of the 11 states that provides an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index, but it doesnt not disclose the names of officers disciplined unless they are requested. PENNSYVANIA-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are mostly closed in Pennsylvania and their release is up to the discretion of the law enforcement agency, according to Stecklow Under the states Right to Know Act, a performance rating or review, all documents relating to written criticisms of an employee, grievance material, documents related to discrimination or sexual harassment, information regarding discipline, demotion or discharge contained in a personnel file, arbitration transcripts and opinions, most complaints of potential criminal conduct, and investigative materials, notes, correspondence, videos and reports are all secret and exempt from public record requests (Section 67.708(b) of Pennsylvanias Right-to-Know Law). If an officer is discharged or demoted, the fact but not the reason of the disciplinary action will be made public. In 2020 Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill into law that created a database to track police misconduct statewide and force agencies to check the database before hiring an officer. Like Illinois, this database is confidential and off limits to the public. RHODE ISLAND-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are secret in Rhode Island. SOUTH CAROLINA-RESTRICTED The public has restricted access to law enforcement misconduct records in South Carolina. South Carolina police departments have kept records from being released based on South Carolina statute 30-4-40 saying certain releases of information would be a violation of officers privacy. This was pushed back against in Burton v. York Sheriffs Department which said that public interest often outweighed the privacy interest of police officer cases. In certain instances, records can be released with the personal identifying information of the officer involved is redacted. SOUTH DAKOTA-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are secret in South Dakota. TENESSEE-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement misconduct records are fairly accessible according to the Tennessee code. In certain cases however, such as Contemporary Media v. Gilless departments have been able to hold records by arguing that they were part of ongoing or recent criminal investigations. If personal information of an officer is included in requested reports, the officer must be notified. However an investigation by WREG in Memphis Tennessee, found that some departments are using an outdated, paper based system that makes it nearly impossible to receive the requested data, or charges the requester excessive fees. The July 2020 article said: In January, WREG asked for records of excessive force and firearm discharge from 2015 to 2019. We were told that would cost nearly $7,500 because there were 24,000 pages of documents and it would take 88 hours to retrieve and redact information. On Feb. 6, we narrowed the timeline to just six months. Now almost six months later, were still waiting. TEXAS-RESTRICTED DEPENDING ON CITY According to research conducted by WNYC radio: Texas Government Code 552 generally renders police disciplinary records public. However, many cities in Texas are also covered by Local Government Code 143, which requires police departments to maintain civil service personnel files on each police officer. Those civil service files are available for public inspection and contain records of disciplinary actions, but only if the officer received at least a suspension or loss of pay. If the only discipline was a written reprimand, the records are instead placed in a confidential internal file. UTAH-RESTRICTED Law enforcement records are public in Utah unless their release would interfere with an active investigation. Utah is one of the 11 states that provides an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index, but it doesnt disclose the names of officers disciplined in this bulletin. Only cases that result in discipline are always public, Stecklow said. The rest are subject to a balancing test weighing privacy and public interests, and which can often come down on the side of privacy. VERMONT-MOSTLY PUBLIC Vermont keeps the names of officers about whom complaints are filed secret unless a state board decides to impose discipline, in which case the names and details are public. Records containing the names of officers who engaged in misconduct should be released if the public interest outweighs the privacy interest of the officer, the state courts ruled in Rutland Herald v. City of Rutland where the court ordered release of the names of officers who had viewed pornography on departmental computers. Vermont is one of the 11 states that provides an i ntegrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index, and it makes the names of these officers public. VIRGINIA-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are secret in Virginia ( Section 2.2-3705.1 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act). WASHINGTON-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement misconduct records are available to the public in Washington. Washington is one of the 11 states that provides an integrity bulletin in accordance with the National Decertification Index, and it makes the names of decertified officers public. WEST VIRGINIA-RESTRICTED Similar to Vermont and South Carolina, police departments can withhold records if they would be against privacy interests (statute 29B 1-4), but often courts will rule that public interest outweighs privacy interests of officers. Charleston Gazette v. Smithers set the precedent that conduct of police officers while they are on the job is public record. This rule is now in the West Virginia Code 29B. WISCONSIN-MOSTLY PUBLIC Law enforcement records are generally available to the public in Wisconsin. Wisconsin Statute 19.36(10)(b). WYOMING-MOSTLY CLOSED Law enforcement misconduct records are kept secret and hidden from the public in Wyoming. ___ Kallie Cox is the editor-in-chief of The Daily Egyptian, the student newspaper of Southern Illinois University Carbondale and can be reached at Kcox@dailyegyptian.com or on Twitter @KallieECox. William H. Freivogel is a professor at Southern Illinois University and member of the Missouri Bar. Zora Raglow-DeFranco, a law student at Case Western, contributed to this report. This story is part of a project on police accountability funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. RICHMOND, Va. (AP) The conviction of a retired U.S. Air Force officer who used a racial slur while speaking to a Black store clerk and Black customer was overturned Tuesday by a federal appeals court that found his speech was protected by the First Amendment under the circumstances. Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Jules Bartow, who is white, was arrested after he used the slur while shopping for boots at the Quantico Marine Corps Exchange in November 2018. Prosecutors and witnesses at his trial said he posed several bizarre rhetorical questions, including asking the customer, while referring to the store clerk, If I called her a (slur), would she still say good morning? Bartow was convicted of violating Virginia's abusive language law. Bartow's conviction was overturned by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found that the First Amendment permits criminalization of abusive language, but only if the government proves the language had a direct tendency to cause immediate acts of violence by the person to whom it was addressed. The ugly racial epithet used by Bartow undoubtedly constituted extremely abusive language. But because the Government failed to prove (or even to offer evidence) that Bartows use of this highly offensive slur tended to cause immediate acts of violence by anyone, his conviction cannot stand, Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote in the unanimous ruling. The court noted that the store clerk testified that after she greeted Bartow and asked if she could help him, he responded by raising his voice and saying, If I had indigestion, diarrhea, or a headache, would you still address me as good morning? Bartow drew attention from other customers in the store, including a Black man in civilian clothes. The clerk testified that the customer explained to Bartow that employees at the exchange greeted customers with sir or maam because they are buying merchandise on a military installation. She said Bartow, who continued trying on boots, then said: If I called her a (slur), would she still say good morning? A store security officer testified that when she got to the area, she observed a heated conversation between Bartow and a white lieutenant colonel who was very animated and pointed his finger at Bartow. The officer said she escorted Bartow out of the store and he was arrested by base security officers. Bartow pleaded not guilty and the case went to trial before a magistrate judge. The judge concluded that Bartow directed (the slur) at an African American man who was talking to him. The judge found Bartow guilty and fined him $500, the maximum penalty under the Virginia law. On appeal, a U.S. District Court judge upheld the conviction. The court did not discuss who Bartow directed the epithet at, but seemed to rely on the apparent friction between the white lieutenant colonel and Bartow as a basis for concluding that Bartows use of the racial slur 'elicited an impending breach of the peace,' the 4th Circuit panel said in its ruling. The 4th Circuit noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that there are a few types of narrowly defined speech that can be restricted consistent with the First Amendment, including "fighting words. But the Supreme Court has repeatedly stated that whether speech constitutes fighting words must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis and courts must consider the circumstances surrounding such expression, the 4th Circuit wrote. Over the decades, the Court has repeatedly determined that the First Amendment places considerable limits on the criminalization of speech. We must abide those limits, even if that means, as it does here, that shameful speech escapes criminal sanction, the 4th Circuit said in its ruling. Federal Public Defender Geremy Kamens declined to comment on the ruling. The U.S. Attorney's Office did not respond to a request for comment. Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, praised the ruling, "because the alternative is for courts to proceed down the slippery slope of speech that is unprotected because it is offensive to one or many groups. Most of us agree that what was said in the store was deeply offensive and disgraceful, but the First Amendment is designed to protect unpopular speech, he said. It often means that as free speech advocates, we are forced to defend the speech of people who engage in obnoxious and deeply upsetting language. CANBERRA, Australia (AP) A Chinese-born political adviser on Wednesday lost his challenge in Australias highest court against laws banning covert foreign interference in domestic politics. John Shi Sheng Zhang also lost his High Court challenge in a unanimous decision of seven judges to the validity of search warrants executed by police at his Sydney home and offices last year as part of an investigation into illegal foreign interference on behalf of China. Zhang was an adviser to New South Wales state lawmaker Shaoquett Moselmane, whose membership in the opposition Labor Party was suspended after he was also the target of police raids. The raids in June 2020 were the first police investigation to grab public attention since the foreign interference laws came into force in 2018 and the government bolstered funding to security agencies in late 2019 to enforce them. Chen Hong, director of East China Normal Universitys Australian Studies Center, wrote in the Global Times, a Chinese Communist Party English-language, after the raids that Moselmane unfortunately fell prey to the anti-China hysteria in Australia. Zhang, a 63-year-old Australian citizen who immigrated from China in 1989, had asked the High Court to rule the foreign interference laws were invalid because they infringed on his freedom of political communication implied in the Australian Constitution. He had also asked the court to quash the search warrants and to order that evidence seized or copied by police be returned or destroyed. His case argued the foreign interference law was invalid and that the warrant did not precisely identify the substance of the offenses. Police seized phones, computers and other electronic devices from Zhang. The warrants allege that Zhang engaged with Moselmane through a private social media chat group and other fora ... to advance the interests and policy goals of a foreign principal, the Chinese government. Part of the conduct was covert because it involved communications over an encrypted private social media chat group, the warrants said. Lawyers for Attorney General Michaelia Cash had argued in court that covert could be read as involving some element of nefarious concealment or secrecy. The law made it illegal to engage in conduct on behalf of a foreign principal in circumstances where the accused person is reckless as to whether the conduct will influence political or governmental process or democracy in Australia and if any part of the conduct is covert. The offense carries a potential maximum penalty of 15 years in prison. The court upheld the charge and rejected Zhangs argument that the warrants were invalid because the foreign principals identity was unclear. Cash said her government had never been more determined to keep Australians free and safe from foreign interference. The government takes the threat of foreign interference very seriously and welcomes the High Courts judgment, she said. We will continue to take strong action to deter acts of foreign interference as the threat evolves, defend against them when they occur, and uphold our laws, she added. Australian Federal Police said its investigation was continuing. Zhangs lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. PORT ALLEN, La. (AP) A Louisiana defense lawyer was arrested for attempting to smuggle prescription painkillers into a jail for an inmate, authorities said. Michael Fontenot was arrested by U.S. Marshals at his Baton Rouge home Tuesday on felony charges of criminal conspiracy and trying to bring contraband into a prison, news outlets reported. According to an affidavit, the 71-year-old is accused of coordinating with a work-release inmate to bring the powerful opioid Percocet into the West Baton Rouge Parish Jail. The sheriffs office learned of the plan when reviewing calls made on a jail phone line at the end of March between Fontenot and the worker. A detective wrote in the affidavit that the lawyer agreed to give the drugs to the worker, who would then smuggle them into the jail for an inmate in physical pain, The Advocate reported. Investigators determined during their probe that this sort of distribution had happened before. Fontenot told WBRZ-TV as he walked into jail Tuesday that he did not try to bring drugs to the jail. He was released after posting his $45,000 bail, the station reported. State records show the lawyer has practiced in Louisiana for more than four decades and has never been disciplined before, according to news outlets. This will not be tolerated, Maj. Zack Simmers from the West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriffs Office told WBRZ. It shows that nobody is above the law, lawyers, police anybody. If you are trying to smuggle drugs into our jail you will eventually be caught. SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) Bosnian police have arrested a woman on suspicion of financially supporting her husband and other Bosnians who joined Islamic fighters in Syria and Iraq, authorities said Wednesday. Sena Hamzabegovic was arrested upon her arrival to Bosnia at the airport in the central town of Tuzla on Tuesday, Bosnia's security agency said in a statement. Pedro Sanchez sent his spending plans for Spain's EU recovery funds to Brussels this week, but he might not be in power long enough to execute them. The regional election in Madrid on Tuesday - in which one of the Socialist leader's few outspoken critics more than doubled her seats in the region's assembly - was in essence a vote of no confidence in the PSOE-led coalition government. And it lost that vote, badly. Throughout 2020 and for the first part of this year, Isabel Diaz Ayuso has often been alone in questioning Sanchez's shotgun Covid tactics, and arguing instead for lighter restrictions to keep the economy healthy. When her Popular Party's national leader, Pablo Casado, ought to have been railing against the national administration, Ayuso took his place, becoming the voice of an otherwise neutered opposition. She argued that the lockdown restrictions were too tough, that they were ruining lives and businesses, and that Spain's regions should be able to decide, for themselves, how to tackle the pandemic. Tuesday's result proves that Ayuso's libertarian, federalist approach enjoys more support in the Spanish capital than the Socialists' methodology - namely, shutting everything down, indiscriminately, for indefinite periods. The PSOE's junior coalition partner, Podemos, is also losing momentum, even though it increased its number of Madrid seats on Tuesday. But when Pablo Iglesias quit politics that same day, the party was suddenly robbed of much of its identity and appeal. It can't rely on his first-pumping speeches of defiance and hope any more, nor is it obvious what will replace them as a means of galvanising voters. Perhaps Podemos' best work is already behind it, though: in his farewell address, Iglesias said that he was proud to have "led a project that has changed the history of our country". Podemos' rise from rebellious newcomer to national government within seven years is a remarkable achievement. But since realising its wildest dreams, the party has struggled for clout in the Socialist-led coalition, a task which will be even harder for Iglesias' successor, employment minister Yolanda Diaz. There was also something wasteful and anti-climatic about Iglesias' departure from politics this week: it's as if, after working so hard to achieve national presence, the changes he sought didn't come soon enough, so that's it, he's off. Or perhaps, like Sanchez's cannily timed resignation as PSOE leader in late 2016, this retirement is merely the first move in a long game. The ricochets of the Madrid election - itself triggered by seismic shifts in the government of Murcia earlier this year - are headed in Sanchez's direction. Rather than settling down to spend Brussels' recovery funds, the Socialist leader first needs to survive the political earthquake that's rumbling towards Moncloa. Unless he succeeds, he may lose his sliding, shaking grip on power completely. Jay Janner/american-statesman/TNS DALLAS (AP) A California judge has dismissed a Twitter lawsuit against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in which the social medium accused the Republican of using his office to retaliate for Twitter's banning the account of former President Donald Trump. Twitter had imposed the lifetime ban following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in which five people died. Days later, Paxton announced an investigation into Twitter and four other major technology companies for what he called the seemingly coordinated de-platforming of the President. The attorney generals office demanded that the companies produce various records related to their content moderation policies and troves of internal communications. DENVER (AP) The Colorado House passed a measure Wednesday that would require people facing domestic violence protection orders to report their firearms, coming just days after a man shot and killed six people in a domestic dispute in Colorado Springs. The legislation would require the person who is issued a protective order by a judge to report the type and location of firearms in their possession within a week. It's getting more attention after 28-year-old Teodoro Macias went to a birthday party thrown by the family of his girlfriend, 28-year-old Sandra Ibarra, and fatally shot six people before killing himself early Sunday. He was upset he wasn't invited to the gathering, police said. Macias had a history of controlling and jealous behavior and the shooting was an act of domestic violence, Colorado Springs police Lt. Joe Frabbiele said Tuesday. Police said there were no reported incidents of domestic violence during the relationship and that the shooter didnt have a criminal history. No protective orders were in place. Its not all just black eyes and bruises that are indicators of abuse," said Tamika Matthews, community impact manager for Violence Free Colorado, a group that educates and seeks to end domestic abuse. The warning signs for domestic abuse can include tactics that enforce that element of one person maintaining power over another such as possessiveness in relationship, threatening or endangering pets, or even controlling money, she said. Democratic Rep. Monica Duran, one of the bills sponsors, shared her personal experience with her high school sweetheart turned domestic abuser. I lived every day and I mean every day in fear, shame and isolation, Duran said, her voice cracking. After the physical, emotional and mental threats didnt work, Duran said her husband then turned to threatening her with a gun. She cited a report that found abusers with firearms are five times more likely to kill their victims and said that made her think about her own life. A 2020 study by the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit research and advocacy group that works to prevent gun deaths and injuries in the U.S., said 65% of all murder-suicides involved an intimate partner, 95% were women killed by their intimate partners and 92% involved a gun. "A person suffering abuse needs to be able to count on an effective mechanism for enforcing the law that removes firearms from an abusive partner," Duran said of the legislation. Rep. Matt Gray, another Democratic sponsor of the bill, said Colorado is a mandatory arrest state for domestic violence, meaning that when there is probable cause that domestic violence has occurred, the person has to be arrested and held in jail without bond until a judge issues a protection order. The suspect also must relinquish their firearms, he added. The legislation is for people who don't follow the protection orders and are still at a very high likely rate to commit acts of violence against their partner, Gray said. Republican Rep. Terri Carver offered several amendments, saying she believed the bill created a serious Fifth Amendment issue" because of the paperwork for identifying the location and type of firearms in someone's possession. Carver said the paperwork could be used as evidence to convict them in a criminal case, leading to self-incrimination, which the Fifth Amendment protects against. Carver's amendments failed. The legislation will head to the Senate next. ___ Nieberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) An Upper Midwestern oil pipeline continued operating Wednesday, despite a shutdown demand from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that the operator warned could lead to fuel disruptions similar to those resulting from a cyberattack on an East Coast system. Whitmer ordered Line 5 closed last November because of the potential for a spill in a channel linking two of the Great Lakes. As her May 12 deadline arrived, Canadian pipeline company Enbridge said only the federal government has regulatory authority over its operations. Enbridge, backed by numerous chambers of commerce and Republican legislators in Michigan, seized on last week's hack of the Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the gasoline consumed on the East Coast. The resulting shutdown led to panic-buying that has left thousands of filling stations without fuel and motorists in long lines. The cyberattack that triggered an unplanned, temporary closure brings to the forefront what consumers could face, said Mike Moeller, Enbridge's director of operations for the Great Lakes region. Without Line 5, consumers will shoulder the burden of supply disruptions and related price increases, particularly for propane and transportation fuel. Whitmer's office said in a statement that the Colonial Pipeline interruption shows the danger of relying heavily on a single energy supply. Thats why Governor Whitmer has put in place a plan to protect jobs, diversify and expand our renewable energy resources, and ensure Michigans energy needs are met, while also taking action to get the oil out of the water as soon as possible. Line 5 critics said previous shutdowns, including one last summer when a pipe support was damaged, caused no gasoline shortages or price gouging. Drawing connections to the Colonial Pipeline is "fraudulent and nothing more than a last-ditch effort to scare people, said Rich Bergmann, owner of Lake Charlevoix Brewing Co. Line 5 moves oil and natural gas liquids for 645 miles (1038 kilometers) through northern Wisconsin and Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario. The nearly 23 million gallons (87 million liters) it carries daily are refined for gasoline, jet fuel and propane in several Midwestern states, as well as Ontario and Quebec. A roughly 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) segment divides into two pipes that cross the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The state in 1953 granted an easement to place the pipes on the straits bottom. Whitmer revoked it, saying Enbridge hadn't met its safety provisions, which the company disputes. The state sued to enforce the order, which is pending as a federal judge considers whether to retain jurisdiction or send the case to a Michigan court. Whitmer warned the company Tuesday that continuing to operate the line would be trespassing and the state would claim Enbridge's profits from doing so. Business groups filed a brief this week in support of Enbridge, saying a shutdown would have tremendous consequences for regional and national economies. They contend it would cost billions of dollars in economic activity and tens of thousands of jobs in the region. Christopher Guith, a senior vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, accused Whitmer of political theater and pandering to the most extreme activists. Unfortunately, millions of Americans and Canadians are likely to pay the price for it," he said. A forced shutdown also could give Enbridge legal cover to abandon its planned $500 million tunnel to house a replacement for the straits pipeline segment, said Valerie Brader, an attorney who filed the business groups' brief and formerly led the Michigan energy agency. Environmentalists and native tribes planned rallies in Detroit, Lansing and the Straits of Mackinac area. They accused the company of flouting the law and endangering the worlds largest freshwater system. The scale and impact of a Line 5 oil spill would be an unprecedented ecological and economic disaster, said Liz Kirkwood, executive director of Traverse City-based For Love of Water. This migration season has been a hard one for whales in California. After four grey whales were found dead around the San Francisco Bay in only 9 days last month, a fifth was later found at Fort Funston. News has now come in from Southern California that two endangered fin whales were found dead on the hull of an Australian naval ship after it pulled into Naval Base San Diego. The destroyer HMAS Sydney was approaching into a pier at the base when the carcasses of the two animals dislodged from the hull under the surface, the Australian Department of Defence told KSWB. Fin whales are the second largest animal on Earth, after the blue whale. After being heavily hunted in the 20th century, the species was listed as endangered in the 1990s. The whales are long, fast and slender and live in all the major oceans. Naturalist Roy Chapman Andrews once described them as "the greyhound of the sea, for its beautiful, slender body is built like a racing yacht and the animal can surpass the speed of the fastest ocean steamship." One of the whales found on the hull of the Sydney was 65 feet long, the other around 25 feet. The pair could have been a mother and her calf, John Calambokidis, research biologist at the Cascadia Research Collective, said. Because of the speed and size of large ships, it's not uncommon for the whales they strike to be discovered only when the ship slows down. In the vast majority of cases I'm familiar with, the ship is unaware of having struck the whale," Calambokidis said. Ship strikes also were suspected in the deaths of two of the gray whales found in the Bay Area. The Sydney has been holding joint exercises with the U.S. Navy in the area since early April. The Navy takes marine mammal safety seriously and is disheartened this incident occurred, a U.S. Navy statement said. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ATLANTA (AP) National and state Democratic officials have reached a joint fundraising deal to increase aid to state parties, with an extra boost for those in Republican-dominated states. The agreement, which follows weeks of negotiations, is intended to allow the partys wealthiest backers to contribute up to $875,000 annually to a combined fund that, under federal campaign finance rules, can be distributed to party accounts around the country. Top party leaders confirmed the arrangement to The Associated Press ahead of a planned call later Wednesday between the Democratic National Committee and state party leaders. DNC Chair Jaime Harrison touted the deal as a 50-state strategy that honors President Joe Bidens promise not to abandon down-ballot Democrats heading into the 2022 midterms. Its not just about battlegrounds states but about all states, Harrison said in an interview. We know what history says, that the party in power loses seats. But we also know you can make your own history. The deal, which Harrison said has the backing of the White House, is intended to run through 2024, meaning the next Democratic presidential nominee won't have to negotiate a new arrangement. Harrison said Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are expected to help Democrats raise money under the model, as they did in 2020, after the Biden campaign established a joint fundraising plan when he became the presumptive nominee. Under the agreement, state parties will get $12,500 each month from the DNC, up from the $10,000 they received during much of President Donald Trumps tenure. State parties will have no restrictions on the money, though most are expected to hire more staff. The deal also extends a data sharing arrangement among the DNC, state parties and other national committees, including Democrats Senate and House campaign committees. All participants get access to DNCs main voter file and then share whatever new information each gleans from individual voters during an election cycle. Democrats fought for years over such a model, establishing an exchange only after Trumps 2016 victory showed Republicans had used their own version to lap Democrats in using data to reach voters. A new additional program will boost payments to Democratic parties in GOP-dominated states, defined as meeting two of three measures: a supermajority Republican legislature, no Democrat in the governors office or U.S. Senate, or a congressional delegation that is at least three-fourths Republican. Democrats said 18 states qualify. They'll get an additional $2,500 in monthly support, plus be eligible for grants to fund specific programs, such as voter registration. We have to invest in these red states if we want them to become purple states, said Ken Martin, a Minnesotan who leads Democrats' national organization of state chairs. Even in states Democrats can't flip completely, Martin said, they can win more legislative and congressional seats. The stipends pale in comparison to figures now being thrown around in U.S. politics. As a 2020 Senate candidate himself, Harrison raised nearly $60 million in one quarter against Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who ended up winning reelection. The DNC raised $48 million in the first three months of 2021, with the Republican National Committee not far behind at $44 million. But Democratic officials said the point is to provide a basic, permanent infrastructure that allows credible candidates, like Harrison, to capitalize. Campaign finance has evolved so that many candidates, even in non-presidential years, have significant resources on their own, said DNC executive director Sam Cornale. The finite commodity in politics is really time. It takes time to identify and (register) voters ... to recruit volunteers. This is our guaranteed commitment to state parties and the grassroots to help them do that work now. BEIJING (AP) Xinjiang in far western China had the sharpest known decline in birthrates between 2017 and 2019 of any territory in recent history, according to a new analysis by an Australian think tank. The report from the Australian Strategy Policy Institute, obtained exclusively ahead of publication by The Associated Press, showed the 48.74% decline was concentrated in areas with many Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other largely Muslim ethnic minorities, based on Chinese government statistics over nearly a decade. Birthrates in largely minority counties fell 43.7% between 2017 and 2018 alone, with over 160,000 fewer babies born. That compares to a slight increase in births in counties populated mostly by China's Han majority. Such an extreme drop in birthrates is unprecedented in the 71 years since the United Nations began collecting global fertility statistics, beating out even declines during the Syrian civil war and the genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia, said Nathan Ruser, an ASPI researcher and co-author of the report. As far as its possible to find out, it is by far the largest drop there is, Ruser said. It makes you realize the scale of these family planning policies and the scale of this crackdown, the scale of societal control that authorities are looking for. The ASPI report corroborates an AP story and a report by German researcher Adrian Zenz last year that found the Chinese government was systemically slashing Uyghur birthrates with sterilizations, abortions and intrauterine devices, and fining and detaining people with three or more children. The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Xinjiang government did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Zenz and ASPI have come under increasing attack from Beijing. The AP confirmed many of the figures were based on Chinese government statistics. Over the past four years, the Chinese authorities have carried out a brutal campaign of forced assimilation targeting the Uyghurs, an ethnic Turkic minority native to Xinjiang. Officials cracked down after a series of bombings and knife attacks by separatist Uyghurs, sweeping a million or more people into a network of newly built camps and prisons. The crackdown has triggered sanctions from the West, and on Wednesday a group of Western countries are slated to hold a U.N. event on Chinas repression of the Uyghurs. Eysa Imin, a Uyghur from Korla in the center of Xinjiang, recalled eight people in his neighborhood detained for having too many children. When he himself was thrown in a detention center in 2017, he ended up sharing a cell with an old schoolmate who had been arrested, tortured, and interrogated for having four children. When they arrested him, they said it was a sign of extremism, Imin said. The government started connecting having many children with Islamic extremism. ... It feels like they want to eliminate us. Experts note that the tightening birth control measures must be understood in the broader context of fear that's pervasive among Xinjiangs minorities. Just for self-survival, youre going to be publicly compliant, for fear that you or your family might be detained, said Timothy Grose, a professor specializing in Xinjiang at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana. Any sign of resistance could get you sent to reeducation. For decades, China had one of the most extensive systems of minority preferential treatment in the world, including hiring quotas and extra points on college entrance exams. The government also allowed ethnic minorities two or three children, even as it restricted its Han majority to just one child. Such benefits have been rolled back and even reversed under President Xi Jinping, Chinas most authoritarian leader in decades. State-backed scholars began calling on the government to crack down on large religious minority families, calling them breeding grounds for terrorism and extremism. In April 2017, Xinjiang's top official called for the effective containment of illegal births specifically in southern Xinjiang, where most Uyghurs live. In the eyes of Chinese officials, the current measures taken are simply correcting lax birth controls for minorities. The government has repeatedly said that abortions, sterilizations and IUD insertions in Xinjiang are voluntary, and on paper, both Han Chinese and Uyghurs can have two children. However, in practice, minorities appear to be singled out and targeted for especially draconian birth control measures, the report said. Birthrates in heavily minority counties fell by nearly two thirds since the new measures were implemented, the analysis shows, while Han Chinese counties saw much milder declines in line with the rest of China. Han-majority districts in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, even saw booming birthrates. The recent two-year decline in birthrates in Xinjiang is far larger than that of China over the entire 36-year length of the one child policy, under which Han Chinese were subject to stricter birth restrictions, Ruser noted. ASPI also unearthed government notices showing that Xinjiang officials are being given quotas to lower birthrates, with punishments meted out to those who failed to meet family planning targets. A target set in one heavily Uyghur county is lower than the birthrate of South Korea, the lowest in the world. The crackdown comes even as Chinese officials mull lifting restrictions on births nationwide. On Tuesday, officials announced that Chinas population has barely grown over the past decade, fueling fears that the country faces a demographic time bomb. The report also found that about half of Xinjiangs 106 county-level administrative units have not published birthrate figures for 2019, though they should have been published last year. These statistics have become politically problematic, Ruser said. Its easier to simply not publish the data. Americans can begin applying for $50 off their monthly internet bill on Wednesday as part of an emergency government program to keep people connected during the pandemic. The $3.2 billion program is part of the $900 billion December pandemic-relief package. The government is increasing spending on broadband as the pandemic made stark that millions of Americans did not have access to, and could not afford, broadband at a time when jobs, school and health care was moving online. It's unclear how long the money will last but it's expected to be several months. Tens of millions of people are eligible, although the Federal Communications Commission, which is administering the program, did not specify a number. For example, your household is eligible if you receive food stamps, have a child in the free or reduced-price school lunch program, use Medicaid, or lost income during the pandemic and made $99,000 for single filers, or $198,000 for joint filers, or less. There are other eligibility requirements, too see https://getemergencybroadband.org to find out if you qualify. The website, where people submit applications for the benefit, on Wednesday afternoon said the program was having connectivity issues" due to high demand. Submitting an application resulted in an error message. A phone number for the program played a message saying there was a high volume of calls and to try back later. The FCC said it is working to resolve issues and increasing resources to meet demand for the program. The agency did not say how long the fix will take. You can get the discount even if you owe your phone or cable company money. That's important because some people have been barred from low-cost plans offered by internet service providers when they owed their service provider money. More than 800 cellphone and home-internet companies are participating, including AT&T, Charter, Comcast, T-Mobile and Verizon. People in tribal areas are eligible for up to $75 off their bill. There is also a $100 reimbursement for desktop computers, laptops or tablets in that case, you must pay between $10 and $50 of the cost of the device yourself and buy it through your broadband provider. The discount could apply to a household's whole bill, or you can use it to trade up to a more expensive offering and your bill is partly covered. The Emergency Broadband Benefit is a more robust, although temporary, program to help people afford internet than Lifeline, the FCC's other affordability program, which subtracts only $9.25 a month from phone or internet bills. A household can use both the Lifeline and EBB programs. The Biden administration has proposed $100 billion to get Americans connected, and even before that, billions of dollars are going to improve internet access. The FCC on Tuesday approved a $7.2 billion program for schools and libraries to connect students in their homes. The Treasury Department is also setting up a $10 billion fund for improving internet connectivity. The money for both came from the $1.9 trillion March pandemic relief package. There has also been hundreds of billions more in general funds sent to states that could be spent on broadband access. BRUSSELS (AP) In the latest setback to European Union efforts to tackle corporate tax avoidance, a court on Wednesday annulled a ruling by the European Commission that a tax deal between Amazon and Luxembourg's government amounted to illegal state support. The EU's executive branch ordered the U.S. online retailer in 2017 to pay around 250 million euros ($300 million) in back taxes to Luxembourg. But judges at the EU's General Court said the European Commission didn't prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group." Amazon said it welcomed the courts decision, which is in line with our long-standing position that we followed all applicable laws and that Amazon received no special treatment, the company said in a statement. Were pleased that the Court has made this clear, and we can continue to focus on delivering for our customers across Europe. The European Commission's decision related to Luxembourgs tax treatment of two companies in the Amazon group: Amazon EU and Amazon Europe Holding Technologies. Margrethe Vestager, the EU official in charge of antitrust issues, argued at the time that Amazon had unfairly profited from special low tax conditions since 2003 in tiny Luxembourg, where its European headquarters are based. As a result, almost three quarters of Amazons profits in the EU were not taxed, she said. We will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps," Vestager said in a statement. Both Luxembourg and Amazon challenged the decision with the EU's General Court. The EU has taken aim at deals concluded between individual countries and companies used to lure foreign multinationals in search of a place to establish their EU headquarters. The practice led to EU states competing with each other and multinationals playing them off one another. Judges at the General Court have backed the European Commission in several cases, but the EU's efforts to crack down on favorable tax deals suffered recent setbacks in cases involving Starbucks and Apple. Wednesday's ruling can be appealed to the 27-nation bloc's highest court, the European Court of Justice. The EU remains at odds with Amazon on other issues relating to competition. Last year, EU regulators filed antitrust charges against the e-commerce company, accusing Amazon of using its access to data from companies that sell products on its platform to gain an unfair advantage over them. In another judgment Wednesday, the General Court found the existence of a tax advantage in rulings granted by Luxembourg to companies in the Engie group, a French multinational electric utility company. Three years ago, the European Commission had found that Luxembourg allowed two Engie group companies to avoid paying taxes on almost all their profits for about a decade and said the country should recover about 120 million euros in unpaid tax. The Luxembourg government welcomed the Amazon decision and said in a statement that neither ruling calls into question the country's commitment to transparency in tax matters and the fight against tax avoidance practices. ___ Kelvin Chan contributed to this story from London. Four members of the animal activist group, PETA, gathered outside of Reed Arena on May 12 to protest during a graduation ceremony for biomedical sciences students. BRUSSELS (AP) European lawmakers are planning to return to Strasbourg for their June plenary session as the coronavirus situation improves, the Parliament's press office said on Wednesday. It will be the first plenary session held in the eastern French city in more than a year. Previous meetings planned in Strasbourg have been held remotely because of the dangers posed by traveling during the COVID-19 pandemic. CLANTON, Ala. (AP) A former Alabama high school band director accused of having a sexual relationship with an 18-year-old student will avoid jail time after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge Tuesday. Ashlee Elizabeth Steinman, 29, a former Chilton County High School worker entered her plea to a reduced charge of distributing obscene matter to a student, according to court records. ROANOKE, Va. (AP) A former Rockbridge County Regional Jail superintendent has been sentenced to more than four years in prison for failing to protect inmates from physical abuse and preventing an inmate from getting medical care. John Higgins was sentenced Tuesday to 51 months in prison after his January conviction on federal civil rights violations and corruption charges. LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) The New Mexico Republican Party is moving their three-day convention and retreat this weekend to Amarillo, Texas, citing speakers' concerns over New Mexico's COVID-19 restrictions. Mass gatherings in New Mexico are limited to 150 people or less in most counties. Restrictions are based on county-level infection and vaccination metrics, with the state planning to fully reopen once 60 percent of eligible residents are fully vaccinated. HONOLULU (AP) A former CEO of Hawaii company accused of defrauding banks of money meant to assist businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic pleaded not guilty Wednesday. Martin Kao, who was CEO of Martin Defense Group LLC, formerly known as Navatek LLC, is charged with bank fraud and money laundering. Authorities say he defrauded banks of more than $12.8 million through the Paycheck Protection Program. Congress authorized the program to provide emergency financial assistance through forgivable loans to small businesses for job retention and other expenses. Kao transferred more than $2 million into his own personal accounts, according to an indictment. Investigators talked to an executive and a former employee who said the company wasnt affected by the pandemic, court documents said. He stepped down as CEO in November, a spokeswoman said. Authorities describe his company as a research, engineering, design, and innovations company that specializes in novel systems for the Department of Defense and other partners in academia and other scientific fields. During a brief arraignment via telephone Wednesday, defense attorney Michael Green entered the not guilty plea on behalf of Kao. Kao said he understands the nature of the charges. Trial is scheduled for July. Green said he anticipates the trial will be postponed because the case involves thousands of pages of discovery." __ This version corrects Kao's position in the company. He is no longer CEO. On Monday afternoon, Virginia Republicans nominated their candidate for governor - Glenn Youngkin, a former CEO who launched his campaign with an "election integrity task force." On Monday night, a thousand conservatives gathered in South Dakota's Corn Palace to hear MyPillow founder Mike Lindell predict that the Supreme Court would hold a "9-0 vote to pull the election down." Tomorrow, House Republicans will probably vote to remove Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, a Republican, from their leadership team, after former president Donald Trump called on them to do so. The 2020 presidential election ended six months ago. It has dominated Republican politics ever since. As Senate Democrats mark up their version of the House's election reform bill, supporters are sounding more anxious and desperate about the situation facing them without it, imagining "minority rule" by Republicans that they will never be in a position to reverse unless they federalize most election laws and prevent how GOP-led states can change them. Those states have already changed their laws, though, or are in the final stages of changing them. Trump has latched onto countless baseless theories of how the election was stolen from him, from trivia such as the number of "bellwether counties" he won ("18 of 19") to his confusion that Democrats did better after ballots from urban and suburban precincts got counted. Republican state legislators, who have shared best practices and model bills, have focused more on taking power away from localities run by Democrats. In the absence of voter fraud claims, the party has focused on how to make sure only "legal votes" are cast, clarifying that any votes cast without rules approved by state legislatures were illegal and technically unconstitutional. The Founders said that "the state legislatures" determine election rules; in their litigation and legislation, Republicans have argued that ballots cast under emergency pandemic procedures that state legislators didn't sign off on were functionally illegal. "There are election irregularities and an unconstitutional overreach, which is why I objected to certain states," Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., told the Washington Examiner this week, explaining why she voted not to accept election results from Arizona and Pennsylvania. (She also has advanced false accusations about Georgia's vote.) Democrats don't currently have the votes to pass H.R. 1, which would eliminate or neuter the state-level laws they're worried about. Those laws have already begun to reshape the electorate; were the 2020 election run again today, several voting practices that were allowed last year would be illegal today. In several states, the number of votes cast by methods since eliminated or banned by legislators was comparable to the final margin between Joe Biden and Trump. Georgia. Last year, to ease pressure on polling places and on voters who couldn't easily or safely reach them, Atlanta's Fulton County launched two "mobile voting units," buses that functioned as fully staffed voting booths. For a cost of around $750,000, the county collected 11,200 votes across both buses, which stopped in different Atlanta locations at times announced by the county in advance. Joe Biden would go on to carry the county with 73% of the vote. The new law grounded those buses, mandating that mobile voting stations "shall only be used in emergencies declared by the Governor." It also altered the state's provisional ballot rules, requiring voters who show up to the wrong polling place before 5 p.m. to relocate and find their real polling place before 7 p.m. Voters arriving at the wrong precincts tend to cast most provisional ballots, which must be validated after the election; 11,120 valid provisional ballots were cast in the state last year, breaking about 2-to-1 for Biden over Trump. Combined, the ballots cast by both methods are nearly double the margin by which Biden won Georgia. Texas. Hours before Election Day last year, nearly 127,000 people in Houston's Harris County waited to hear whether their votes would count. They'd taken advantage of a new drive-through voting system, put in place by then-county clerk Christopher Hollins, a Democrat. A group of Republicans sued to toss their ballots, arguing that "unless stopped, illegal votes will be cast and counted in direct violation of the Texas Election Code and the United States Constitution." A Republican-appointed judge threw out that case, but the election bills moving closer to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's desk would have prevented Harris from ever setting up the drive-through sites. The Senate version of the bill requires early voting to take place in a "stationary structure," then specifies a few locations that wouldn't count: "a tent or other temporary movable structure or a parking garage, parking lot, or similar facility designed primarily for motor vehicles." That, says Hollins, would have made the drive-in vote impossible, and it was non-White voters and voters under 40, who disproportionately used drive-through voting, who would have been most affected. "We often heard stories of women who voted drive-through because their children were in the car with them or who were caretakers for their parents and didn't want to expose themselvesto covid-19," Hollins said. One in 10 Harris County voters had taken advantage of a system that won't be legal going forward, unless the legislation is unexpectedly altered before Abbott signs it. Florida. Republicans initially pointed to Florida as a 2020 outlier, a case of best practices being followed and a result coming out quickly. By processing early votes before Election Day, Florida avoided the problem that caused so much Republican paranoia in Pennsylvania: A slow count of Democratic-leaning ballots that came in after Trump led in more promptly counted Republican areas. "In Florida, you can check online to see if your vote is being counted, and if your signature matched," Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican, told The Trailer shortly after the election, as he geared up to help Republicans in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoff. The state's GOP quickly joined the effort to change election laws anyway, targeting drop boxes, which about 1.5 million Floridians used to cast ballots last year. Mobile drop boxes, in use last year, are now banned. Drop boxes at county election offices may be open for 24 hours, but drop boxes elsewhere must be closed when the polls are closed, and failure to adhere to that will lead to $25,000 fines for election offices. That will make ballot access more complicated in big cities; the county election office in Miami-Dade County, for example, is in Doral, a ways from Miami's major population centers. Wisconsin. Through at least January 2023, Democrats control the governor's office in Madison, with power to veto any new election laws that don't get bipartisan support. The GOP legislature's bills aren't at all likely to become law, but they set out what a new Republican governor could sign before the next presidential election. One bill would prevent ballot-collection events any time before the final two weeks leading up to an election; that would have prevented Democracy in the Park, a September 2020 event organized by election officials in Dane County, the state's Democratic stronghold, where 10,813 ballots were collected. One would prohibit election officials from filling in missing (but known) voter information on absentee ballots, which was used to complete more than 5,000 mail-in ballots from Dane and Milwaukee County. We know the total from those counties for a simple reason: The Trump campaign sued to get them disqualified, as it sued to get the Democracy in the Park ballots tossed. Michigan. For a few days in November, Trump and other Republicans pressured members of the state Board of Canvassers to reject the certified vote, potentially sending the election into court. Aaron Van Langevelde, a GOP member of the board, voted to certify the election; two months later, the state GOP opted not to nominate him for a new term. Although Van Langevelde's replacement praised his "integrity," the conditions for a deadlock if one party doesn't want to certify election results remain, and are not being altered by the various election bills the state's GOP wants to get passed as ballot language if it can't survive a gubernatorial veto. (Michigan's unique ballot measure system allows a state legislature to pass ballot measure language into law without an election if enough voters have signed on to get the language onto the ballot.) Some of these post-election changes have been specific and tailored to each state, and to the questions Trump and Republican voters raised after November, when they tried to prove that Democrats had stolen the election. Other changes come from the theory that Republican voters could have done more last year to stop the Democrats, such as Texas's proposal to empower poll watchers - partisan volunteers with the power to challenge a voter's validity. If today's proposals had been in place last year, poll watchers could have videotaped voters they deemed suspicious, and local officials wouldn't have had the ability to stop them. "We would not have been able to eject poll watchers for bad behavior," said Harris County's Hollins. Florida, Texas, and the rest of the states re-fighting 2020 would also have prevented an election tactic that its proponents were proud of last year: philanthropic grants for local election officials. As the pandemic bit down, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg poured $350 million into the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which offered grants to election officials who said they were not ready to open the polls under lockdown conditions. The grants were popular with election officials, partisan and nonpartisan, with big, urbanized places such as Texas's Harris County and Florida's Palm Beach County collecting millions of dollars and using them to upgrade machines or buy protective gear for poll workers. But after the election, they emerged as another potential villain in the story of why Trump lost. At CPAC, where Trump made his only public political speech since leaving the presidency, multiple panels discussed a Time magazine cover package on the "shadow campaign" to save the 2020 election, ironically noting that there was a "conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes," just not the one Trump was talking about. The irony has been lost in the months since the story ran. Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, proudly announced that "Zuckerbucks" were no longer welcome in Florida, joining other Republicans who have prevented private money from ever again going to election officials. Had this rule been in place last year, elections in big counties could have been underfunded by hundreds of millions of dollars. If Trump runs for president again in 2024, it'll be on rules he inspired, and asked for. - - - In the states Former Carlyle Group CEO Glenn Youngkin secured the Virginia GOP's gubernatorial nomination on Monday after the state's experimental, 39-location, ranked-choice convention vote put him ahead of businessman Pete Snyder. Youngkin, who'd never run for office before, led in each round of the vote, adding more to his total as weaker candidates were eliminated, crossing the threshold after second-choice votes for state Del. Kirk Cox and state Sen. Amanda Chase were redistributed. "Virginians have made it clear that they are ready for a political outsider with proven business experience to bring real change in Richmond," Youngkin tweeted after his victory. Virginia's Republicans have alternated between primaries and conventions from cycle to cycle. Years ago, the conventional wisdom was that a higher-turnout primary boosted more moderate candidates. As the party's base has grown more conservative, losing votes in the District of Columbia suburbs while adding them in Appalachia, that stopped being true; 2017 gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie nearly lost his nomination to right-wing county official Corey Stewart, and one year later, Stewart grabbed the party's U.S. Senate nomination. This year, 30,566 delegates cast ballots, fewer than had signed up for the convention, and conservative candidates won the vast majority of votes. Eighty-six percent of the first-round vote went to Youngkin, Snyder, Chase, or to three lesser-known conservatives who also ran to the right, like Trump administration veteran Sergio de la Pena. The rest went to Cox, who took hits during the campaign for a 2018 deal that expanded Medicaid in the state, made when he was speaker of the House. (Cox's Republicans added work requirements to the deal, which Democrats scrapped when they took control in 2019.) Youngkin out-campaigned and outspent, the field. He spent $6 million of his own money, raising more than $1.5 million on top of that, and defining himself early as a conservative outsider who was the sole candidate in the race praised by Donald Trump. (One of his ads used footage of Trump mentioning Youngkin and the "great" Carlyle Group at a White House event.) He and Snyder, at times, seemed to be in a race to take advantage of the issues bubbling up for conservative voters, from "big tech" ("I'll fine big tech companies that silence Virginians") to voter ID; he also displayed a knack for finding new issues, as when he seized on a bureaucratic discussion of the state's math standards to warn that Democrats might try to get rid of accelerated math for high-schoolers. He also benefited from not being Chase, a Trump supporter who participated in the Jan. 6 protest of the election certification and was seen by Democrats as their best possible opponent. Youngkin, with some political alliances but no record to defend, campaigned with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and hired Axiom Strategies, which made Cruz a presidential contender, to help him win the nomination. Democrats will pick their nominee in a June 8 primary, with former governor Terry McAuliffe leading in every poll and lapping his rivals in fundraising. He had two reactions to Youngkin's win: One in which he invoked Trump three times ("Glenn Youngkin has gone all in on Trump's most dangerous, divisive conspiracy theories") and one, after Trump officially endorsed Youngkin, that hit the same notes. "Glenn Youngkin spent his campaign fawning all over Donald Trump, and now Trump has returned the favor by wholeheartedly endorsing him," McAuliffe said. "Virginians have rejected Donald Trump's hate, conspiracy theories, and dangerous lies at every turn, and we're going to do it again to his handpicked, extreme right-wing candidate Glenn Youngkin this November." Virginia Republicans also nominated Del. Jason Miyares for attorney general and former delegate Winsome Sears for lieutenant governor; Sears is the party's second Black nominee for the job and its second female nominee. In New York City, former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia nabbed the endorsement of the New York Times, a coup for a candidate who had not broken through even as a rival, Andrew Yang, kept saying he wanted to hire her. The Times backed Christine Quinn in the Democrats' 2013 primary, which did not save the former city council speaker's flailing campaign. But Quinn was an early favorite who kept losing support; Garcia has polled in the single digits, an afterthought to the flashy Yang campaign, the moderate campaign of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and the struggling effort by Comptroller Scott Stringer to get past a former volunteer's accusation of sexual harassment. "Voters will have to come to their own conclusions," the editorial board wrote. While boosting Garcia, the paper did some damage to former HUD secretary Shaun Donovan and former Citi executive Ray McGuire, both of whom were lost on a question about the current cost of housing in Brooklyn. Asked by Mara Gay what the "median sales price" for a home in the borough was, Donovan guessed $100,000, while McGuire guessed "somewhere in the $80,000 to $90,000 range." The real number: $900,000. (Garcia guessed $800,000.) - - - Ad watch - Melanie Stansbury, "Always."House Democrats who narrowly lost reelection in 2020, or who came close to losing, frequently blamed two factors: the adoption of the "defund the police" slogan by criminal justice reform advocates and allies, and the slowness with which Democrats' main campaign groups rebutted Republican attacks on the issue. In New Mexico's 1st Congressional District, Republican state Sen. Mark Moores has attacked Stansbury, a Democratic state legislator, for supporting the activist-written BREATHE Act, which hasn't been introduced in Congress but would end federal police grants. Two weeks after Moores went on the air with that, Stansbury's rebuttal reflects those post-2020 regrets: A retired cop says Stansbury "delivered the tools we need to fight violent crime in Albuquerque." - Jack Ciattarelli, "Gone."A runner-up in the 2017 GOP gubernatorial primary, Ciattarelli was the first Republican to challenge Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, in this election, and has stuck to the argument that Murphy was too out of touch to manage the state through the pandemic. "Gone are our favorite pizza places, our salons, the corner bakery," Ciattarelli says, contrasting his family's business history with the "Wall Street" experience of Murphy. "Gone are the jobs they provided and the people who worked there." - Pete Snyder, "Corrupt Union Bosses."On his way out of Virginia's GOP gubernatorial primary, Snyder bought an ad that could have previewed his argument against Democratic poll leader Terry McAuliffe: He didn't fight to reopen schools. "Politician Terry McAuliffe stood silent," says a female narrator, asking whether support from teachers' unions explains why McAuliffe, who has not held a political office since leaving Richmond in 2018, did not fight for schools to return to in-person teaching. Virginia's one-term rule puts Republicans in a tricky position if McAuliffe wins next month: How to frame the popular ex-governor as an unpopular incumbent. - Terry McAuliffe, "Requel."The Democrat Snyder and other candidates expect to grab the party's nomination in next month's primarylaunched his campaign with a promise of billions in new education funding, and has continued to focus on the question of how school-age Virginians will recover from covid-19 and lockdowns. McAuliffe has frequently stepped back in his advertising, and that style continues here, with mother and activist Requel McKeever saying she trusts the Democrat to help children make up for the year at home. "There is no other way to make up for what our kids have lost," she says. - Clean Virginia, "Jennifer Carroll Foy for Governor." The former Democratic delegate has gotten six figures in campaign donations from Clean Virginia, an environmental group that's also running this spot to thank her for legislation that requires that Dominion, the state's major power provider, to clean up coal ash. The goal, with early voting underway: Convince liberals who are comfortable with McAuliffe that Carroll Foy also has the gravitas to win. - - - Poll watch Do you support the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom? (Berkeley IGS, 10,289 California voters) No: 49% (+4 since February) Yes: 36% Voters have cooled on the idea of removing Gov. Newsom since his tumble in the polls this winter, when the recall got momentum. The state's economy has improved since February and shutdowns have been rolled back; Newsom also has announced a plan to distribute relief checks from the state's budget surplus, although that wasn't known when this poll was taken. Recall proponents simply haven't broken through outside conservative areas, with support at 39% in San Diego County and at 45% in Orange County - two population centers that have shifted left since backing the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis by a landslide. None of the GOP's contenders have broken through, either, with 2018 GOP nominee John Cox and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer polling at 22% each when voters were asked which Newsom alternative they might support. Former congressman Doug Ose was just behind, at 14%. Far behind them, with just 6% of voters inclined to support her, was Caitlyn Jenner, whose run has attracted plenty of media attention but little support, and who has done just two TV interviews and no public events since announcing last month. Seventy-six percent of all voters say they would not consider backing Jenner, a number that includes 62% of Republicans. By contrast, no more than 15% of Republicans say they'd rule out voting for Cox, Faulconer or Ose. Do you favor or oppose allowing illegal immigrants to get some type of limited driver's license? (Monmouth, 706 New Jersey adults) Favor: 57% (+24 since 2009) Oppose: 41% (-21) How much has New Jersey, a blue state that is open to electing Republican governors, changed since the state's last Democratic governor faced reelection? Twelve years ago, the ideas of letting noncitizens enroll in the state college system, get in-state tuition rates, or obtain licenses that would let them drive legally were wildly unpopular. Support for each idea is higher now, with anti-immigrant sentiment falling since 2009. Most voters say that "immigration," left undefined, is a serious problem, but a smaller minority of voters now say immigration has been bad for New Jersey specifically. - - - Special elections Just days before the start of early voting, the Democrat and Republican in New Mexico's 1st Congressional District met for their first two-candidate debate. (The Libertarian nominee had joined them last week.) Melanie Stansbury, the early favorite in a seat that Joe Biden carried by 23 points, pitched herself as a liberal Democrat who'd fully back Biden's recovery plans, and said Republican Mark Moores was too partisan to represent the state. "We need to get workers back into jobs, and we need to get small businesses reopened," Stansbury said near the start of the debate, hosted by KRQE. "I'm glad Ms. Stansbury finally said she supports small businesses, because she has been hostile to small businesses," Moores said, arguing that her ads that call him hypocritical for taking pandemic recovery money while not supporting the national recovery bills were attacks on "40,000 New Mexico small businesses." Her support for the $15 minimum wage, he said, was "radical." In the first debate, when asked who had won the 2020 election, Moores had said only that Biden "is the president." Pushed again, after Stansbury said that the district needed a representative who would fight to hold Jan. 6 rioters "accountable" and acknowledge the result, Moores was more definitive. "He won the election and we need to move forward," Moores said of Biden. "President Trump's not on the ballot in this election." The Democrat had been caught flat-footed in the first debate when the topic moved to crime, with Moores relentlessly pointing out her praise of the BREATHE Act, a Black Lives Matter proposal to kill federal law enforcement grants. She once again moved past that specific topic; her campaign told The Post last week that she would not support the BREATHE Act if it wasn't good for the state. "Crime, obviously, is one of the top issues in our city," Stansbury said, emphasizing that she had increased public safety funding and, after a prompt, describing the aftermath of a break-in at her home. Moores hit back, emphasizing that the BREATHE Act would eventually abolish federal prison - "Think about who's in prison right now. El Chapo. The Unabomber" - and pointing to a man named Sam, the husband of a murder victim, in the audience. "I think Sam deserves an answer," Moores said. "He is very concerned about your sanctuary policies and your willingness to defund prisons." After a pause, when it was unclear whether Stansbury was responding to the moderator or Moores's guest, she said she was sorry for his loss and would talk to him when the debate was over. But a full quarter of the debate time was spent discussing crime, which helped Moores emphasize the issue that he believes can win over swing voters in a seat that has drifted far away from the GOP. - - - 2024 South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, will appear at Iowa FAMiLY Leader's summit in mid-July, her first stop at a social conservative event that's built, in part, to be a showcase for potential presidential candidates. The invitation came after a drawn-out battle on transgender rights in South Dakota, which seemed to damage Noem. After vetoing a ban on transgender girls playing in girls' sports, Noem was criticized by conservatives such as Tucker Carlson for buckling to the left; explaining that she saw the bill as legally unworkable, she issued an executive order on the issue, then unsuccessfully urged legislators to revisit it. HELENA, Mont. (AP) The state of Montana has no valid reason to require a man to register as a sex offender based on his conviction for having gay sex in Idaho in 1993, a federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen on Tuesday prevented the state from requiring Randall Menges of Butte to register as a sex offender under Idaho's Crimes Against Nature law. None of the governmental interests in maintaining a sexual offender registry are served by Menges inclusion, Christensen wrote. Engagement in intimate sexual contact with a person of the same sex, without more, cannot be said to render someone a threat to the public safety. The state was wrong in not allowing Menges to challenge the registration requirement even though his conviction in Idaho was for actions that are now constitutionally protected, the judge found. I guess I'm just grateful, honestly, that the judge actually listened and was fair because for the last few years of my life .... I don't feel like anything's been fair," Menges said Wednesday. Christensen ordered the state to remove Menges from the registry on or before May 21, expunge any records indicating he was ever subject to registration and alert all agencies that may have been provided information about Menges' registration. The attorney general's office is appealing the ruling, arguing it weakens the state's sex offender registry law and opens it up to additional challenges from out-of-state lawyers who are more interested in politics than the safety of Montana children, spokesperson Emilee Cantrell said in a statement. You don't violate someone's constitutional rights to strengthen your own laws, Menges said after hearing the state's reason for appealing the decision. Montanas sexual offender registry law states that if people are required to register in another state, they are required to register in Montana. Menges, 45, filed the lawsuit in December, arguing the registration requirement violated his constitutional rights. His complaint also said the registration requirements were hurting his ability to find employment and housing. This case involves the lingering effects of centuries of homophobic sodomy prohibitions, his attorney Matthew Strugar wrote in the original complaint. After hearing arguments on the case, Christensen found the registration requirement was an ongoing violation of Menges' rights to due process, equal protection and privacy. Montana is imposing adverse legal consequences on Menges for engaging in the sort of conduct constitutionally protected by Montana's right of privacy, the judge wrote. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court found that sodomy laws, which typically ban oral and anal sex, are unconstitutional. Strugar and the American Civil Liberties Union are suing Idaho over its law that criminalizes oral and anal sex. Menges, who served seven years in prison for his 1994 conviction, is a plaintiff in that case as well. SEATTLE (AP) King County will buy a hotel that has been housing people who are homeless in Seattle for roughly a year as well as four or five other hotels in the coming weeks as part of an effort to house 1,600 people in hotels by the end of 2022. County Executive Dow Constantine has been promising such a purchase since 2020, when he asked the Metropolitan King County Council to pass a sales tax to pay for the move, The Seattle Times reported. Its a response in part to the growing number of tents Seattle has seen emerge since the pandemic began, and in part a response to homeless advocates asking elected leaders to end the old form of overnight homeless shelter. Weve got to get to the point where we can say to the next person whos showing up with their tent, I have a better alternative for you. Its not a place with a mat on the floor where youre going to get kicked out in the morning, Constantine told the newspaper before his public announcement during Tuesdays state of the county address. The county has been pulling from its reserves to keep hotel shelters open since the pandemic began, leaving residents and homelessness nonprofit leaders worried that people staying in them could be evicted suddenly. Now, the 80 or so people already staying at the Inn at Queen Anne wont necessarily have to find another place to stay when the pandemic ends because the county will buy the hotel for $16.5 million. The residents, who are over age 55, initially came to the inn from the St. Martin de Porres shelter near downtown, where they slept on mats 6 inches apart. They wont be required to leave, according to Dan Wise, deputy director of nonprofit shelter operator Catholic Community Services, and will have access to caseworkers and medical, behavioral health and housing resources. Constantine hopes the purchases made this spring will house between 500 and 600 people this summer, although the county wont yet announce the other locations, some of which are outside Seattle. Constantine said the county has welcomed aid from the Washington state government, which provided millions to counties for shelter. Constantine and the county council imposed a 0.1% county sales tax with a $400 million bonding package to pay for these hotels. States like Oregon and California have been buying dozens of hotels since last year, investing hundreds of millions of dollars. A few other hotel shelters that were set up quickly last year around Seattle have generated outcry in the surrounding communities. We will work with the cities, city governments and agree on the hotel or hotels we will pursue, Constantine said. Its different than the hotels during the COVID crisis those were emergency response and emergency declaration to a global pandemic. When asked for comment on the hotel purchase, Kamaria Hightower, a spokesperson for Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, said 60% of homeless people receiving city-funded services became homeless outside of the city. More housing is needed in Seattle, but Seattle alone cant solve the homelessness crisis for all the cities in King County, Hightower wrote. if the people of Biafra want Republic of Biafra, it will be a reality during my administration. ----Donald Trump Donald Trump I wi... BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) Less than a month after the North Dakota Legislature adjourned, a group of lawmakers will return to the Capitol next week to decide study topics that may result in legislation for the 2023 session. The Legislative Management committee, a 17-member panel of lawmakers that supervises business between sessions, will meet May 19 to select the topics the Legislature will study during the next 18 months. The committee will meet again on June 9 to assign the subjects to study committees. Each of the Legislatures 141 members will be surveyed on committee preferences. Legislative Management also will choose a legislative committee that will study redistricting plans this summer, its chairman, Grand Forks Republican Sen. Ray Holmberg, said Wednesday. The Legislature is expected to meet again this fall to approve a proposal to redraw the states political map. The redistricting plan is one of a dozen mandatory studies from legislation passed before adjournment. Other required studies include a review of the Public Employees Retirement System, access to private and public land for hunters, higher education affordability, prescription drug pricing, state agency fees, and potential uses of earnings from the Legacy Fund, the voter-approved oil tax savings account. Another 72 studies are considered optional. Holmberg estimated that at least half of those studies will be assigned to committees. The panel has 13 Republicans and four Democrats, and includes the floor leaders of both parties. Republicans have two-thirds majorities in both the North Dakota House and Senate, and they control the study and committee selection process. Bismarck Democratic Sen. Erin Oban said study priorities for her party include areas of health and wellness, issues that impact youth and families, education and workforce, infrastructure and responsible government. Holmberg, who has been in the Senate for 45 years, has headed Legislative Management four times during his tenure. Committee vice-chairman and Republican House Majority Leader Chet Pollert headed the group during the last interim. North Dakota is one of four states where the Legislature meets every other year. Holmberg said he will recommend that Democrats head some of the committees, as he has done in the past. The committee chairman also may assign additional studies during the interim. Each committee will compile a report and any suggested legislation prior to the 2023 session. BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) With no votes to spare, the Louisiana House agreed Tuesday to place new limits on police officers wide immunity from civil lawsuits after Black lawmakers made emotional pleas for passage of the bill aimed at addressing police misconduct. We live in two different Americas. We live in two different Louisianas. And some of the issues we have to face, I hope you never have to face," Democratic Rep. Edmond Jordan, who is Black, said to his white colleagues. The debate silenced the usually raucous House as Democratic Rep. Ted James, chairman of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, told the chamber: Some of you think that the issue were trying to solve is frivolous. Some of you think that dead Black and brown bodies at the hands of police officers is frivolous. The House voted 53-42 for Jordan's bill to put new restraints on qualified immunity, available to law enforcement officers as a defense against damage claims for wrongful death or injury. That was the exact number of votes needed to pass, prompting applause and hugs among Black lawmakers. Republican House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, who won his leadership job with support from Black lawmakers, voted for the measure. The bill which has divided law enforcement agencies heads next to the Senate for debate. Before lawmakers sent the measure to the Senate, however, they adopted language that heavily watered down the purpose, a provision seeking to discourage civil lawsuits against police officers by requiring anyone who loses in a qualified immunity lawsuit to pay all court costs and attorneys fees. Supporters intend to try to strip that provision in the Senate. That language was added by bill opponent Rep. Bryan Fontenot, a Republican from Thibodaux who is a former police officer. He said he was trying to protect officers from frivolous lawsuits, but bill supporters called the language a poison pill aimed at gutting the measure's impact. Supporters of the proposal say qualified immunity is so sweeping its nearly impossible to hold officers accountable for excessive force when prosecutors refuse to bring criminal charges. Opponents said legal avenues exist to prosecute police for inappropriate behavior and excessive force. House Republican leader Rep. Blake Miguez, of Erath, suggested that the changes could damage law enforcement recruitment and send the wrong message to existing officers who are doing their jobs well. Jordan's bill would not allow qualified immunity as a defense for claims of wrongful death or injury caused by a police officer if a court determines the officer's conduct to be unreasonable. It also would expand what's considered malfeasance in office for a police officer. The language was a compromise struck by a task force created to recommend policy changes aimed at addressing police misconduct. The group included lawmakers, advocacy groups and law enforcement organization leaders. While the Louisiana Sheriff's Association supported the bill, lawmakers said they received notes of opposition from the state Fraternal Order of Police and the association representing police chiefs, even though they had representatives on the task force who didn't object to the recommendation when it passed. Whats the incentive to get together and work if at the end of the day it amounts to nothing? asked Jordan. Other task force proposals advancing in the Legislature would change the handling of complaints against police officers, place new limits on chokeholds and no-knock warrants and add requirements for anti-bias training. They would require detailed policies for when body cameras and dash cameras must be turned on by officers who have them and stepped-up minority recruitment efforts for police departments. ___ The bill is filed as House Bill 609. ___ Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte. PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Thanks to a forecast for healthy economic growth, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on Wednesday proposed increasing the state's share of primary education costs to 55% meeting a goal established in a voter referendum more than 15 years ago. The education spending boost, which would help schools while easing local property tax burden, is part of the governor's supplemental budget proposal that builds on the budget already approved. Our economy is on track for a strong recovery. Its time then to fully fund education, the governor told reporters via Zoom. The proposal, which would lift the state's total upcoming two-year budget to $8.8 billion, includes $187 million to meet the states obligation to pay 55% of local K-12 education costs for the first time. "With this historic announcement, Gov. Mills fulfills a long overdue promise to Maine students and schools and to the communities they serve, said Education Commissioner Pender Makin said in a statement. Democratic leaders praised the budget adjustments to help Mainers in the pandemic and to further invest in education. This is a historic change that Maine students will benefit from for generations, said House Speaker Ryan Fecteau. Some Republicans reacted cautiously. House Republican Leader Kathleen Dillingham said she was pleased to see the governor offering some tax relief for low- and middle-income Mainers but suggested even more can be done. Meaningful income and property tax relief is achievable due to the substantial federal relief that is flowing into Maine, she said. The proposal comes more than a month after the Democratic-controlled Maine Legislature approved an $8.3 billion budget without Republican support. Mills promised at the time that there would be a second part that took into account revenue projections and federal stimulus money for the state. Last month, the revenue forecasting committee projected the state will collect $941 million more than expected over the next two years. Her supplemental budget complements the governors Maine Jobs and Recovery Plan, funded through $1.1 billion in federal stimulus money, and a $140 million bond proposal for transportation improvements and land conservation. Unlike the budget, adopted with a majority vote, the new proposal would require a two-thirds majority to take effect when the new fiscal year begins. Rep. Sawin Millett, R-Waterford, said he's glad the governor is pressing for bipartisan support, noting that the Democrats' decision to push through the initial budget on a party-line vote poisoned the atmosphere at a time when cooperation is needed. The supplemental budget proposal increases state revenue sharing with town and city governments and includes $151 million for MaineCare to expand dental care for adult and increase payments to health providers, among other things. For education, it also includes $47 million for higher education, $20 million to boost need-based grants for undergraduate students, and $50 million for the school revolving renovation fund. It also would add $52 million to the rainy day fund, boosting it to nearly $320 million, the highest level in state history. AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) Maine lawmakers are considering a proposal designed to protect teachers and other school employees from bullying. A bill submitted to the Maine Legislature would require school districts to have internal policies to address and stop bullying and harassment against educators and staff. A legislative committee approved of the proposal on Tuesday. LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) A Happy Valley, Oregon man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and cyberstalking after he was found outside his ex-girlfriends home with a gun, a shovel, pickaxe and hatchet in his vehicle, authorities said. The Cowlitz County Sheriffs Office said Adam Diggins was booked into jail on five charges Tuesday. It wasnt immediately known if he has a lawyer. LOS ANGELES (AP) Prosecutors on Tuesday filed arson charges against a man suspected of throwing a firebomb at a Los Angeles police station over the weekend. Police said Jonathon Rosin approached the Topanga station at 12:55 a.m. Sunday, lit a glass bottle containing a flammable liquid and threw it at the front window, where the bottle shattered and ignited. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) A 20-year-old man has pleaded guilty in the death of a Kansas woman who was hit by a bullet during an arts event in Kansas City in 2019. Deonte Copkney, of Kansas City, pleaded guilty Thursday to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Aug. 3, 2019, death of Erin Langhofer, 25, of Overland Park, Kansas. OMAHA, Neb. (AP) A bill to legalize and tightly regulate medical marijuana died in the Nebraska Legislature on Wednesday, setting the stage for a much less restrictive ballot measure with a good chance of passing. Supporters of the bill fell two votes shy of the 33 they needed to break a filibuster and force lawmakers to vote on it. The 31-18 vote came as no surprise, as lawmakers have repeatedly rejected legalization measures, but the looming ballot measure could leave Nebraska with an uncharacteristically liberal medical pot law. Supporters said the bill would have given Nebraska one of the nation's most conservative medical marijuana policies, and they promised to take the issue to voters. Medical marijuana ballot drives have generally been successful in other states, and it's widely believed that Nebraska would see the same result. No amount of money or opposition is going to silence the people of Nebraska on this issue, said Lincoln Sen. Anna Wishart, the bill's main sponsor. Wishart said she introduced the bill to give lawmakers one last chance to approve something that they can control before backers take the matter to voters in 2022. She said her bill was so watered down from previous versions that she's gotten pushback from legalization advocates and people who would be excluded from getting the drug. It's time to accept the fact that this is the last train out of town if you want to regulate this, said another supporter, Sen. Steve Lathrop, of Omaha. The bill would have legalized the drug for medical uses, but only for 17 diseases and ailments, including cancer, glaucoma and post traumatic stress disorder. Smokable marijuana would have remained illegal, and the state would have limited the number of dispensaries and required doctors to get extra training before they could recommend it to patients. Patients would have been barred from growing their own supply or possessing more than 2.5 grams at once, and those who violated the law would have been permanently disqualified from the program. Attention will now turn to a ballot petition drive that would guarantee a constitutional right to use marijuana for medical reasons, with no other restrictions. Supporters easily qualified medical marijuana for the ballot in 2020 collecting 196,000 signatures amid the coronavirus pandemic but the Nebraska Supreme Court blocked it on a technicality that supporters said they've since fixed. Opponents argued that marijuana is still illegal under federal law, even though most other states allow some form of public access. Others viewed it as a slippery slope toward legalization for recreational use and say they are worried about the impact on public health. Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts is fervently opposed as well. All of this to me is a gateway, said Sen. Joni Albrecht, of Thurston. I'm not going to stand here and develop a policy when I just don't know what it's going to do to people. Sen. Curt Friesen, of Henderson, said he believes voters would approve a legalization measure if it goes to the ballot. But he said he doesn't think state lawmakers are qualified to decide whether it's safe for medical use. I think people need to be educated as to what the dangers are, he said. Sen. Matt Williams, of Gothenburg, said he doesn't doubt public opinion polls that show strong statewide support for legalization, but his constituents have largely told them that they're opposed. In my district, I've been sent a clear message," he said. Sen. John Lowe, of Kearney, said he had grave concerns about legalization and noted that the drug is more potent now than in the past. He asserted that heavy users often face long-term health consequences, and said he was worried about people driving impaired. The statements carried little weight with some supporters, who accused of opponents of making unserious arguments and not addressing the specific merits of the bill. Some senators cast the refusal to legalize the drug as an embarrassment that would make it harder for Nebraska to attract new residents. Pretty soon, not even the old people will want to live here," said Adam Morfeld, of Lincoln. Sen. Megan Hunt, of Omaha, said lawmakers were having a 1992 level discussion" that didn't acknowledge the national movement toward legalization. We aren't starting from a serious premise, she said, adding that she has tried marijuana before, because I'm 35 and I'm normal. ___ Follow Grant Schulte on Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrantSchulte LANSING, Mich. (AP) A Michigan Republican known for challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election has turned his attention to those who fact-check the claims of public officials. State Rep. Matt Maddock this week introduced the Fact Checker Registration Act," which would force journalists and others who perform fact checks to register with the state and insure themselves with a $1 million fidelity bond. His legislation also would fine fact checkers $1,000 every day they don't register. The proposal, which critics argue would violate First Amendment protections for the press and free speech, appears unlikely to be a priority, even in a legislature controlled by his fellow Republicans. This is a clearly unconstitutional prior restraint on free speech," said Len Niehoff, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. No responsible legislature would pass such a law, and no competent judge would uphold it." The proposal came after social media posts in which Maddock questioned the identity of those who check facts online. The bill would apply to people who are employed by a fact-checking entity that is a member of the International Fact-Checking Network, a group of media organizations that adhere to standards established at the Florida-based Poynter Institute, a journalism training organization. The Associated Press is a member of the network. If you're a paid fact checker and you're out there destroying people and businesses, then you need to be 100% accurate," Maddock said Wednesday. I say put your money where your mouth is." Baybars Orsek, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, said requiring journalists to register with the government is a clear violation of constitutional rights. Its an overt attack on press freedom," he said. The Michigan bill comes as several other Republican-controlled legislatures are pushing l egislation that takes aim at social media companies, which have angered conservatives by removing posts, flagging them as false or suspending the accounts of those who regularly make false or misleading statements. That legislation was introduced in roughly two dozen states and would allow civil lawsuits against the big social media platforms. Other states this year had considered legislation that would have required media outlets to publish follow-up reports on the outcome of any civil, criminal or ethics proceedings, though none of those passed. Maddock, of the Detroit suburb of Milford, was among 12 Republicans in the state House who sought to join Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn President Joe Bidens win in Michigan and other states. The filing claimed that Michigans Legislature unconstitutionally delegated the certification of the presidential results to election officials. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the suit. He also was among Republicans who unsuccessfully asked former Vice President Mike Pence to delay confirmation of Bidens Electoral College win on Jan. 6, the day of the deadly insurrection in the U.S. Capitol. Maddock spoke at a rally in Washington, D.C., the day before the riot. Some Democratic legislators have said Maddock should be censured for backing the big lie about last year's elections, while the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has called for his resignation or removal from office. ___ Izaguirre reported from Lindenhurst, New York. ___ Associated Press coverage of voting rights receives support in part from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for this content. BRAZIL, Ind. (AP) A western Indiana woman who vanished after shopping last month has been found dead inside her crashed SUV, which investigators discovered in a deep ravine along a state highway. Vigo County Sheriff John Plasse said Monday that Jessica Nascimbene's body was found in her Nissan Pathfinder after crews pulled it from a ravine along Indiana 59 in Clay County. JACKSON, Miss. (AP) The Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a life sentence for a man convicted of a marijuana possession charge because he had previous convictions and those made him a habitual offender. Allen Russell, 38, was sentenced to life in Forrest County in 2019 after a jury found him guilty of possession of more than 30 grams (1.05 ounces) of marijuana. In Mississippi, a person can be sentenced to life without parole after serving at least one year in prison on two separate felonies, one of which must be a violent offense. Russell was convicted on two home burglaries in 2004 and for unlawful possession of a firearm in 2015. By law, burglary is a violent offense in Mississippi, whether or not there is proof that violence occurred. That was not the case when Russell was sentenced for home burglary in 2004. Then, burglary was only considered a violent crime if there was proof of violence. The law changed in 2014. In his appeal, Russell argued that a life sentence constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and is grossly disproportionate" to his crime of marijuana possession. The Court of Appeals disagreed in its majority opinion, stating that Russell's life sentence is in accordance with Mississippi law. Russell is not being sentenced solely for having marijuana, but for being a habitual offender, the judges said. But several dissenting judges argued that the court can and should make exceptions. "The purpose of the criminal justice system is to punish those who break the law, deter them from making similar mistakes, and give them the opportunity to become productive members of society," Judge Latrice Westbrooks wrote. "The fact that judges are not routinely given the ability to exercise discretion in sentencing all habitual offenders is completely at odds with this goal." Russell was given two concurrent 15-year sentences after pleading guilty to burglary in April 2004. The charging documents in those cases indicate the two burglaries involved the same house and occurred two days apart. He served a little more than eight and a half years, and was released from prison in February 2014. Russell pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon as a convicted felon in October 2015. He was sentenced to 10 years but was only required to serve two. He was then arrested on November 29, 2017, for possessing marijuana. Under Mississippi law, possession of between 30 and 250 grams (1.05 and 8.8 ounces) of marijuana can carry a punishment of up to three years in prison, a $3,000 fine, or both. Russell was found with five bags of a leafy green substance. Two of the bags, weighing around 44 grams (1.55 ounces), were tested by a lab and confirmed to be marijuana. Earlier this year, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a criminal justice bill into law that expands parole eligibility for some people, but not habitual offenders. Senate Bill 2795 will become law July 1. ___ Willingham is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Missouri lawmakers pushed back Wednesday against local coronavirus restrictions, passing legislation limiting the duration of public health orders that have shut down businesses and schools and limited how many people can gather. The legislation would limit emergency orders restricting businesses, churches, schools or gatherings to 30 days, unless extended by the local governing body. It would take effect immediately upon Gov. Mike Parson's signature, meaning it could affect pandemic restrictions still in place in St. Louis County or other jurisdictions. It also would affect any future local health orders. We want to be able to get this enforced as soon as possible, said House Speaker Pro Tem John Wiemann, a Republican from OFallon who handled the bill. The House and Senate passed the legislation by overwhelming votes and with little discussion. Lawmakers have complained repeatedly during this year's session about local pandemic restrictions that they say infringe on individual liberties and the ability to earn a living. The legislation would allow local governing bodies to halt public health orders at any time by a majority vote. It also would prohibit cities and counties that receive public funds from requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination to use public accommodations or transportation systems. Lawmakers also were nearing final approval Wednesday on separate legislation that would allow businesses affected by restrictive city of county orders to receive a property tax credit for the time their property use was limited. If a county shuts down a business, then they dont have to pay taxes while they were shut down, said Sen. Andrew Koenig, a Republican from St. Louis County who sponsored the bill. Another part of that legislation seeks to boost movie theaters and concert venues that took a hit due to the pandemic. It would provide a sales tax break for tickets and concessions they sell during a nearly two year period beginning Aug. 28 and extending through June 30, 2023. Coronavirus cases in Missouri have declined significantly from their winter peak and many local officials have relaxed restrictions that were introduced to slow the spread of the disease. After initially imposing statewide restrictions, Republican Gov. Mike Parson allowed businesses in Missouri to reopen in May 2020, just months into the coronavirus pandemic. Since then, he has deferred to local officials to impose restrictions. St. Louis city and county jointly announced the easing of some restrictions on May 2, including the decision to allow restaurants to reopen to full capacity after more than a year of reduced capacity and hours due to the coronavirus. A midnight curfew also was lifted. But some restrictions remain. Social distancing is still required and some restaurant owners say that restriction means they cant truly reopen to full capacity. Tables and parties must still be 6 feet apart. Also, organizers of events involving more than 500 people must still submit safety plans to the county health department. And St. Louis County continues to require face coverings inside businesses, even for those who are fully vaccinated. Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed suit against the county on Tuesday seeking a court order to remove the restrictions. Democratic County Executive Sam Page said Wednesday that the countys efforts to control the spread of COVID-19 have been challenged many times unsuccessfully, and that hes confident the court wont intervene. ___ Associated Press writer Jim Salter contributed to this report from O'Fallon, Missouri. SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) Bulgarias president on Wednesday appointed a retired general as interim prime minister in hopes of ensuring stability in the country until an election is held in July. Presenting the new Cabinet, President Rumen Radev said the group made of experts aspires to embody democratic unity and prove that it is possible for democrats of various political affiliations to overcome obsolete divisions and red lines. He said that while the Cabinet will work for a short time, it will tell the truth and will not conceal the real condition of the country. It will make initial steps to strengthening statehood and show Bulgarians that their country can be run with honesty, transparency and responsibility, Radev said. Radev has been at odds with outgoing Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and his GERB party and is a vocal supporter of the protests last year that accused the government of maintaining links to the mafia, refusing to fight corruption or reform the judiciary and suppressing freedom of speech. Borissovs partys popularity faded during his third term as prime minister because of the slow pace of reforms to eliminate graft and poverty and to overhaul the judicial system. The new prime minister, Stefan Yanev, 61, takes the lead of a caretaker government whose main task will be to restore stability in a nation shaken by months of anti-government protests and political bickering. The retired brigadier general has served the last four years as a security adviser to Radev and is an alumnus of the National War College in Washington. He also was defense minister in an earlier caretaker government appointed by Radev in 2017. The new premier will be backed by a Cabinet of experts for his main tasks to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and organize a fair election in the country, which is a member of the European Union and NATO. Yanev vowed after taking the oath of office that he and his Cabinet will work in line with the rule of law to the benefit of the citizens. With another decree, the president dissolved parliament on Wednesday and set the date for an earlier vote on July 11. Radevs move comes after the inconclusive vote in April produced a fragmented parliament in which the center-right GERB party of three-time Prime Minister Borissov scored best in the election, but still saw its support fall to just 26% due to public anger over graft and poverty and because none of the other parties were willing to join it in a coalition. Analysts predict similar developments after the July vote, which would lead to more political instability and stand in the way of the EUs poorest member to effectively tap the blocs coronavirus recovery fund. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) The North Carolina legislature plowed thorough dozens of measures on Wednesday in meeting its traditional parliamentary deadline, whittling down the universe of bills that could become law during the next two years. House and Senate members held floor sessions and voted on more than 45 bills combined on the eve of the crossover deadline. The Senate voted unanimously for bipartisan criminal justice and police reforms and a measure to raise the minimum age to marry from age 14 to 16. The House wrapped up its work for the week by dinner time, but not before passing on a party-line vote a Republican measure to prevent K-12 schools from embracing certain concepts on race and gender. Another divisive measure that was approved allows lawmakers with concealed weapons permits to carry their hidden pistols inside the Legislative Building. They and other elected leaders statewide with permits could be similarly armed at an array of otherwise prohibited locales if they are performing official duties. The Senate had another dozen bills to consider Thursday morning. Bills unrelated to state spending or taxes, elections or amending the state constitution that don't pass at least one chamber by Thursday are considered dead through the end of 2022. While there are ways to get around this blockade especially if chamber leadership agrees bills that fall short this week face long odds for passage. The two chambers considered more than 90 pieces of legislation combined on their respective floors Tuesday, when the House met well into the evening. But House Speaker Tim Moore noted late Wednesday that the midnight or early-morning sessions of past crossover weeks were avoided. Committees had been meeting at full throttle over the past couple of weeks, as lawmakers seeking to advance their ideas or those of lobbyists or constituents sought to get them over their first major legislative hurdles. Many approved bills received little or no floor debate. Many also passed by overwhelming margins, such as a House measure that would bar local governments and state agencies from paying ransom to hackers a current issue in light of the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack. Crossover week is organized, but like any deliberative body, especially in a representative democracy, it's organized chaos," said Rep. Billy Richardson, a Cumberland County Democrat who first came to the House in the 1990s. After the deadline, he added, we have to be very careful and really vet the bills that have come over to make sure that theres not unintended consequences in their passage. Other bills not ready for prime time were voted down in or withdrawn. The full House on Monday defeated a bill mandating active prison sentences for someone convicted of causing a death while steering a boat while drunk. On Wednesday, House leaders pulled from planned debate a bill that would have required cities to set rules to encourage their employees such as police to report internal wrongdoing and to protect such whistleblowers. Still, some are hopeful their ideas will be revived after the deadline. A Senate measure requiring state and local governments to make public when requested more information about their workers' personnel history was returned to a committee before its scheduled floor debate Tuesday. So it would appear the bill, backed by the North Carolina Press Association, would miss the deadline. But Sen. Norm Sanderson, a Pamlico County Republican, said Wednesday he's been told by Senate leadership that a way will be found to advance the measure this year after more adjustments are made to the bill. A common tactic is to insert the bill's language in another piece of legislation that passed before the deadline or is otherwise exempt, approve the edited bill and return it to the other chamber. Im hoping that the House will receive it and take it up, Sanderson said. But I want to make sure that before they do that theres not a problem that theyve got to fix. The deadline essentially marks the completion of the first stage of the General Assembly's primary work session this year. GOP lawmakers next will likely turn their attention to passing a two-year state budget, with the hopes of working out an agreement with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. But House and Senate Republicans are behind schedule in fashioning a spending plan because they've yet to decide how much money they intend to spend in the fiscal year starting July 1. ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) Children between the ages of 12 and 15 can get vaccinated in New York effective immediately, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday, after the state's vaccine advisory task force and state health commissioner reviewed safety data. New York City health officials and national pharmacy chain CVS had already said Wednesday that they're prepared to start vaccinating children ages 12 to 15 as early as Thursday, after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions vaccine advisory committee formally recommend the Pfizer vaccine for that age group in a Wednesday meeting. Cuomo had said the state's task force had to review the data and make a recommendation to him before that could happen. Vaccine authorization for a younger population will allow the state to continue its tremendous progress towards winning the war against COVID," he said in a statement announcing the expansion. CVS had said children ages 12 to 15 can start getting vaccinated Thursday at over 365 CVS pharmacies that offer the Pfizer vaccine around New York state. Parents or guardians have to provide consent for vaccination, and children must be accompanied by an adult. The mayor and health officials in New York City had also said they have plans to start vaccinating children ages 12 to 15 on Thursday. "We have a full plan to reach young New Yorkers and get them vaccinated," Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters Wednesday. It's unclear when people can start signing up for appointments, but a spokesperson for the city's health department said appointments will be listed as soon as possible. City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said more than 250 sites in the city administer the Pfizer vaccine, including the American Museum of Natural History, neighborhood pharmacies and pop-up vaccination sites. The sites are also taking walk-up appointments, he added. Last fall, Cuomo was one of a handful of governors who announced he wanted his state to analyze data from vaccine clinical trials before allowing residents to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Cuomo at the time said some people were expressing reluctance to get vaccinated. He cited concerns that former President Donald Trump's administration was exerting political pressure to quicken the pace of vaccine development. New Yorks task force whose members include doctors at New York City hospitals unanimously recommended the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines after they received federal approvals in December and March, according to press releases issued by Cuomo's office. This was the first time that Cuomo has announced New York's task force has to OK the use of vaccines in new age groups. In California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup was reviewing the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations emergency use authorization for children ages 12 to 15. It was expected to make its decision Wednesday. ___ AP writer Karen Matthews contributed reporting from New York. WICHITA, Kan. (AP) A doorbell camera captured video of a mountain lion trotting along a residential back alley in Wichita earlier this week, Kansas wildlife officials confirmed. Kansas Department of Wildlife Research Biologist Matt Peek said its the first confirmed cougar sighting in Wichita. We havent heard any more about the lion, so were hopeful that the lion managed to work its way back along the river and left the residential areas, Peek said Wednesday. The video was captured early Monday on Cris Boyles doorbell camera, showing the large cat padding along the alleyway in the Riverside neighborhood. The wildcat can even be heard growling as it passes by Boyles house. Wildlife officials have notified Wichita police of the sighting, Peek said, so that if someone else reports seeing a mountain lion on their property, police know to take it seriously. BOSTON (AP) The owner of a Nantucket-based commercial and residential painting business has been sentenced to two years in prison for cheating the IRS out of more than $2 million in tax payments, according to federal prosecutors. Durvan C. Lewis, 51, was also sentenced in federal court in Boston on Tuesday to two years of probation, fined $10,000 and ordered to pay full restitution, according to the U.S. attorney's office. He pleaded guilty in February to charges including tax evasion. HONOLULU (AP) A former Maui police chief will lead the Hawaii board that reviews police shootings, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Wednesday. Gary Yabuta, director of the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area in Hawaii, was unanimously selected Tuesday by the Law Enforcement Officer Independent Review Board to serve as chairman at the board's first meeting in 15 months. We have a job to do, plain and simple. We were chosen for this job, said Yabuta, a 31-year veteran of the Maui Police Department. "Its quite a task, but looking at the talent here and the dedication and the greatness about all of you, we are definitely on the right track. The meeting came amid questions about two recent shootings where officers killed a Black man and a Micronesian teen. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser questioned why a large part of the meeting was closed to the public at a time when use of deadly force has sparked outrage nationwide over transparency and other issues. A spokesman for the state attorney general's office told the newspaper in an email that there's a broad statutory confidentiality provision in the law that required the board to meet in executive session. The board was created in 2017 under the state attorney general's Criminal Justice Division. Its members review all shootings by police officers in Hawaii, evaluate the fairness of criminal investigations and determine whether prosecution or further investigation is needed. But the panels recommendations are nonbinding, and their proceedings and recommendations are mostly confidential. The families of 29-year-old Lindani Myeni and 16-year-old Iremamber Sykap, killed in April, deserve answers now, said Georgia Thompson, who testified before the committee as a concerned mother of three young adult Black children. The board still seems to be unsure of themselves, their purpose and their procedures, four years after being established," she told the newspaper. I did not get the sense that they have a solid plan, timeline or firm procedures to review the backlog of 25 other officer-involved fatalities that have occurred since they were established in 2017. The board also discussed hiring a public information officer. The board's last meeting was in January 2020 because of concerns arising from the coronavirus pandemic and the resignation of several board members. The nine-member board has two vacancies for Kauai and Hawaii counties. WARSAW, Poland (AP) Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of a Polish bishop following a Vatican investigation into alleged negligence in addressing cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests under the bishop's authority. The forced departure of Bishop Jan Tyrawa was the latest in a string of sanctions the pope has meted out since mid-2020 to Polish Catholic Church leaders over cases of cover-up of sexual abuse by other priests. CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) A man who fatally stabbed and beat his girlfriend inside a southern New Jersey home and then tried to make it look like she had killed herself has been charged with her murder, authorities said Wednesday. Edwin Zavaleta, 28, of Camden, also faces tampering with evidence charges in the death of Tonia Yamileth, according to the Camden County Prosecutors Office. Zavaleta remains jailed pending a detention hearing, and it wasn't known Wednesday if he has retained an attorney. HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) The Pennsylvania attorney general said Wednesday his agency has begun looking into a breach of COVID-19 contact tracing data that may have compromised private information of some 72,000 people. Any allegations of sensitive personal information being mismanaged or leaked is a serious matter," Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, said in a written statement. "My office has opened investigations into this data breach on multiple fronts, and as such we will have no further comment at this time. CAIRO (AP) Egyptian prosecutors said they have shelved their months-long investigation into an alleged 2014 gang rape of a 17-year-old girl at a luxury Cairo hotel, ordering the release of all suspects for lack of evidence. The case shocked Egypts conservative society when it was revealed last year by a social media account that tracks alleged sexual assaults in the country. In a detailed statement late Tuesday, prosecutors said evidence collected during their nearly nine-month investigation was not enough to refer the case to a criminal court. The statement said witnesses gave conflicted testimonies. Prosecutors ordered the release of the four suspects, who were arrested last year and jailed pending investigations. Three of them were arrested in Lebanon and deported to Cairo last year. Prosecutors said the probe could be reopened if new evidence emerges. The alleged gang rape involves a group of young men from wealthy and powerful families. They allegedly drugged the teen at a party at a five-star Cairo hotel, then took turns raping her. Accounts of the alleged assault surfaced amid a renewed #MeToo campaign on social media that swept Egypt last summer. Potential witnesses in the suspected gang rape case and acquaintances were arrested as private, explicit videos purportedly from their phones circulated via private messenger apps. Some of them were later released. In a joint statement Wednesday, seven Egyptian rights groups asked prosecutors to reconsider their decision. The groups, including the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, said prosecutors ignored the arrest and intimidation of some of the witnesses, which undoubtedly contributed to such regrettable outcome. The investigation into the hotel case uncovered another alleged gang rape in the North Coast resort on Mediterranean. Three suspects were referred to criminal trial last month in that resort case. LONDON (AP) British Prime Minister Boris Johnsons office said Wednesday that a court order against Johnson over an allegedly unpaid debt is totally without merit. Private Eye magazine uncovered an October 2020 county court judgment against Johnson for 535 pounds ($755). The court record, which names the debtor as Boris Johnson of 10 Downing St. in London, doesn't disclose the identity of the creditor. A mother of a 10-year-old boy with special education needs is suing Seattle Public Schools for denying her child an education and for keeping him in what the former principal described as a "cage" in 2019, the lawsuit alleges. The mother, whom The Washington Post is not naming because she is a domestic violence survivor, is seeking damages to be decided by the court, attorney's fees and costs, and other relief the court deems equitable. The lawsuit alleges the school district discriminated against the boy based on his disability and race, and was negligent in protecting him from harm among other claims. Seth Rosenberg, attorney for the mother, told The Washington Post in an interview Tuesday that the district knew about the tactics of former View Ridge Elementary School principal Ed Roos but did nothing about it until a groundswell of parents started objecting. "Ed is gone, but that doesn't solve all the problems," Rosenberg said. "The boy, even though he might have a complex educational picture, is still entitled to an education. If the school can't meet his needs, they have to pay for him to go elsewhere." The boy has attention deficit hyperactive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. He also has a sensory, mental or physical disability. He, his mom and other siblings had been experiencing homelessness around the time he started being guarded by the former principal and staff, according to the lawsuit and local reports. Staff members told public-radio station KUOW in December that the boy was kept in the enclosure because he would leave the school building. His behavior such as throwing tantrums and items, threatening people and running around the school were also commonplace, staff told the news outlet. According to the lawsuit, the boy would be locked in what Roos called "the cage or whatever we call it," in full view of students and staff where they would look at him "like an animal in the zoo." He would be locked up multiple times a day and multiple days out of the week, the complaint alleges. He would often eat lunch alone in the enclosure, seated on the cold pavement, as no table or desk was provided, the complaint alleges. Teachers and staff complained to Roos about the child's treatment, the lawsuit alleges, but they were largely ignored. Jacquelyn Flaherty, a kindergarten teacher and the only Black instructor at the school, complained directly to Roos but faced retaliatory action, according to the lawsuit. Flaherty told KUOW that she was deeply disturbed to see one of the few Black students in the mostly White, affluent area being treated the way the boy was. She told the custodian holding keys to the enclosure that she was uncomfortable with what she was seeing and had the boy released before she escorted him to her classroom to work on a pillow-sewing project with other students, KUOW reported. "I have never seen, in all these years, a child being locked into an area like that," she told the station. "It was like a cage." An investigative report by the school district found that Roos instructed custodians to secure the enclosure with chains and padlocks and to secure and lock adjacent doors that essentially cut off access to the school, leaving the boy in a space that he couldn't leave at his own will, according to the lawsuit. The enclosure had approval beyond Roos, KUOW found. A district official came up with the idea because the school lacked an isolation room for students, and special education officials approved it, he told the outlet. The lawsuit alleges that the district "failed to provide statutory and procedurally required notice to [the mother] when isolation and restraint procedures were utilized." District spokesman Tim Robinson told KUOW that the person who oversees discipline in the school district would never recommend a young person to be locked in an outdoor space. Robinson told The Post that because a lawsuit has been filed, the district has no further comment on the case. Roos remained principal until November, the outlet reported. Rosenberg said the bus that's supposed to pick the boy up and transport him to school is unreliable, and the behavior therapist who has volunteered to make sure he gets to school hasn't been permitted to do so by the district. The family is currently housed, but they are still in a precarious living situation, he said. "The main thing is that the boy is still not getting his needs met and, with the life of me, I still don't understand why," he said. "This is a real challenge. Like anybody, the school is supposed to be there to educate your kids." MILTON, Fla. (AP) A Florida man faces homicide charges after investigators following up on a tip about a missing woman found human remains buried in his backyard. The Santa Rosa Sheriff's Office said Tuesday that they are working to identify the remains found in the yard of Johnny Edwards Malisham, 60. A tipster told the Butler County Sheriff's Office in Alabama on Sunday that Malisham killed Cynthia Hoover, 60, with a hatchet and then buried her body under a burn pit behind his home near Milton, WEAR reported. They alerted officials in Santa Rosa County, and they began searching the yard, the sheriff's office said on Facebook. Hoover was last seen March 8, and her ransacked car was found along Interstate 10 two days later, the report said. WEAR reported that the woman who tipped authorities said Malisham had tried to get her to help him with the body. The woman has known Malisham for about 15 years, an arrest report said. The woman told investigators Malisham asked her to be a lookout while he buried the body, and threatened her if she refused, the report said. She ran to her home when she heard Malisham dragging the woman's body, WEAR reported. According to the woman, Malisham later told her he drove Hoovers car to I-10 and abandoned it. He then threw her keys in the river. She said he called her to pick him up, but she refused. So he called another woman who brought him home. Investigators said the other woman is elderly and did not remember much about the incident. Carol Miller, who lives two houses away from Malisham, told WEAR he often cut grass for the neighbors and was friendly. She said she could not believe it when she saw investigators digging up his backyard. They just let us know John was safe. We never thought yeah, hes safe in jail, she told the television station. He now faces up to life in prison, Santa Rosa Sheriff Bob Johnson said. Obviously you take a life, you need to forfeit a life, he said. Malisham remains in the Santa Rosa County Jail. Jail records do not list an attorney for him. WASHINGTON (AP) A House hearing about what went wrong in the Jan. 6 Capitol siege frequently spiraled into partisan shouting matches on Wednesday, with lawmakers more often blaming each other than thoroughly questioning witnesses about the events of the day. Democrats and Republicans have so far been unable to agree on a bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection, and officials involved in responding to the attack have pointed fingers at one another. The latest witnesses, including former acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, were called by Democrats who are conducting their own set of investigations in the House. Amid the rancor, the hearing yielded few new answers about the confusion that day, including why it took so long for the National Guard to arrive at the Capitol as the rioters supporters of former President Donald Trump beat and injured police defending the building and sent lawmakers running as they broke through windows and doors. Five people died, including a Capitol Police officer who collapsed afterward and a woman who was shot by an officer as she broke through a broken window adjacent to the House chamber with lawmakers still inside. Two other police officers took their own lives in the wake of the riot. Takeaways from Wednesdays House hearing: PARTISAN FRICTION Democrats focused on Trump from the start, with House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney saying the riots were incited by shameless lies told by a defeated president. The House impeached Trump shortly after the attack for telling his supporters that day to fight like hell to overturn the election and for pushing lies about election fraud. He was later acquitted by the Senate. Republicans defended the former president, who baselessly says the election was stolen from him even though his claims were debunked by election officials across the country and his own attorney general. And some defended the rioters, painting them in a patriotic light. It was not an insurrection, said Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde, a freshman Republican. He described the rioters as peaceful and said video of their presence in the Capitol didnt look much different from a normal tourist visit, despite the fact that they injured police outside, broke through windows and doors and breached the Senate floor moments after senators had evacuated. They tried to beat down the doors of the House as well, but were stopped by police. Some menacingly called out for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and chanted for the hanging of Vice President Mike Pence. Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona defended a woman who was shot and killed by the Capitol Police as she tried to break into the House chamber, saying Ashli Babbitt was executed and casting her as a martyr because she was an Air Force veteran and was wearing an American flag. The Department of Justice decided after an investigation not to charge the police officer who shot her. Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said the Republican narrative was "outrageous, Orwellian revisionist history and showed the need for a bipartisan commission. CHANGING THE SUBJECT Many Republican members turned the subject to riots in cities around the country instead of what happened at the Capitol, a contrast that resonates with base GOP voters. Democrats continue to demonize tens of millions of Americans who support President Trump and have legitimate questions about the integrity of the elections, said Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the top Republican on the panel, about those who believe Trumps false claims. He said individuals who take to crime, violence and mob tactics are wrong, and that was true on Jan. 6 and also during last summers riots in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of police. Comer said its hypocritical that Pelosi and Democrats are focused on Jan. 6 instead. Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs played videos of riots last summer in Portland, Oregon, comparing an attack on a federal courthouse there to the Capitol siege. FEW NEW ANSWERS The hearing ultimately fell short of its advance billing as addressing unexplained delays and unanswered questions. Theres still confusion on why law enforcement didnt bolster security prior to Jan. 6 after weeks of public concerns about pro-Trump extremists descending on Washington for a rally near the White House. Timelines issued by law enforcement agencies and the military conflict on what authority the D.C. National Guard believed it had as rioters ransacked the Capitol, with hours elapsing before a quick response force set up prior to Jan. 6 arrived to help restore order. And who was ultimately in charge remains in doubt. The Associated Press has reported that Pence told military leaders at 4:08 p.m. to clear the Capitol. But Miller said Wednesday that he didnt consider Pences statements a direct order since the vice president wasnt in the chain of command. He also said he didnt speak to Trump that day because he believed the then-president had given him the authority he needed earlier. Miller did describe a conversation he had with Trump three days earlier. On Jan. 3, Miller said, Trump told him to do whatever was necessary to protect the demonstrators that were executing their constitutionally protected rights. PENTAGON DELAYS Democrats attacked Miller repeatedly at some points screaming at him about what they argue were unnecessary delays by the Pentagon in sending help to an overrun Capitol. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told Miller that he has never been more offended by a witness statement than he was at Millers testimony defending his own actions. As the former acting defense secretary became more combative, Khanna told him that your pugnacious style is not going to override the Democratic process and said he was after total self promotion. Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia speculated that Miller may have slow-rolled troops and asked if Trump or any officials had pushed for a delay. 110%, absolutely not, Miller responded. No, that is not the case. Under questioning from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Miller said he agreed at 3 p.m. to move guardsmen to the Capitol. A Defense Department timeline includes that direction but also adds that at 4:32 p.m., Miller provided verbal authorization for the Guard to conduct perimeter and clearance operations. During those 92 minutes, rioters continued to rampage inside the building as lawmakers and others inside huddled for safety. Miller testified that D.C. National Guard Commanding Gen. William Walker was preparing a formal plan a concept of operations for the Guard to enter the Capitol. Walker has testified that the concept of operations his superiors wanted was unusual. Miller retorted Wednesday that Walkers request could have been met in a matter of seconds with an oral briefing. Asked by Ocasio-Cortez if he doubted Walkers testimony, Miller said, I can understand theres an inconsistency and perhaps disagreement. The rate of infection among those who got tested for variants stood at 27.2 percent, compared to 7.2 percent from a month earlier. Another 576 people have tested positive for the Californian and Indian variants, raising the total even further to 2,473. According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the number of cases with the U.K., Brazilian and South African variants stood at 808 as of Tuesday, up from 632 the previous week, while another 1,089 people are suspected of being infected after coming into contact with carriers. The southeastern port city of Ulsan seems to have become a small incubator for the U.K. variant to reach 501 infections since February, when the variant was first reported. According to health officials, 51 out of 58 people who tested positive for the Indian variant came from overseas but the rest were infected here. Meanwhile, vaccination uptake has increased slightly. Some 21.4 percent out of 2.99 million people aged 65 to 69 who are eligible for AstraZeneca shots signed up on Monday, the first day of applications for that age group. In contrast, the uptake among people aged 70 to 74 was only 11.5 percent on the first day. But experts say more incentives are needed to get more people to get AstraZeneca shots amid fears of severe side effects. As of Wednesday morning, the number of total infections increased by 635 from a day ago to 128,918, while deaths rose by five to 1,884. HARVARD, Ill. (AP) A 27-year-old northern Illinois man was arrested after police during a traffic stop discovered nearly 900 tabs of LSD in his vehicle. The (Crystal Lake) Northwest Herald reported that Alek A. Montemayor of Harvard was arrested Friday after Harvard police responding to a report of an impaired driver spotted the vehicle he was driving swerve across the center line of a roadway at speeds of 80 mph. DENVER (AP) Two small airplanes collided in midair Wednesday near Denver, leaving one aircraft nearly ripped in half and forcing the pilot of the other to deploy a parachute attached to the plane to land safely. Remarkably, no one was injured, officials said. Both planes were getting ready to land at a small regional airport in a Denver suburb when they collided mid-morning, according to the National Transportation Safety Board and South Metro Fire Rescue. Every one of these pilots needs to go buy a lottery ticket right now, Arapahoe County Sheriffs Deputy John Bartmann said. I dont remember anything like this especially everybody walking away. I mean thats the amazing part of this. June Cvelbar told the KUSA TV station that she witnessed the collision while walking in Cherry Creek State Park. I saw two planes in the sky. I saw a larger green plane, which I thought was a tow plane, along with what I thought was a glider being towed by it. I heard a noise but didnt realize that the two planes had collided, she told KUSA in an email. Cvelbar said she saw the green plane fly off and shortly after saw the smaller plane deploy its parachute. She said she initially thought it was a training exercise. When I realized that the small plane was going down I ran toward it. The pilot and his passenger were up and about, Cvelbar said. The pilot was the only person aboard a twin-engine Fairchild Metroliner that landed at Centennial Airport despite suffering major damage to its tail section. The plane is owned by a Colorado-based company called Key Lime Air that operates cargo aircraft. A pilot and one passenger were on the other plane, a Cirrus SR22 single-engine plane that unleashed a red and white parachute to float to a safe landing in a field near homes in Cherry Creek State Park, Bartmann said. It was not immediately known who owned the Cirrus plane, he said. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet it was sending staff to investigate the incident. Key Lime Air will cooperate with the investigation, the company said in a statement. LONDON (AP) U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Wednesday urged global cooperation to combat cyberattacks by hostile state actors" and criminal gangs. Raab also pledged 22 million pounds ($31 million) in support to vulnerable countries in Africa and the Indo-Pacific to improve their digital defense capacity. He said Britain and the West must step up on cybersecurity or face the multilateral vacuum being filled by China and Russia. We need the combination of resilient defenses but also offensive capabilities, and the global diplomatic clout which comes with being a modern cyberpower, Raab said in a speech at a National Cyber Security Centre conference in London. He said the funding would go to national cyber response teams, awareness campaigns and an Interpol operations hub in Africa. The foreign secretary accused Moscow and Beijing of being among the authoritarian regimes failing to take action against cyberattacks coming from their own soil. He said elections had become a prime target for interference, with the aim of destabilizing democratic states. The Biden administration last month announced sanctions against Russia and expelled diplomats over a massive hacking campaign which targeted federal agencies, known as the SolarWinds breach, as well as for vote meddling. Russia, which denied involvement in the breach, responded in kind against what it called unprovoked action. China in April denied links to work by hackers to spy for months on dozens of high-value government, defense industry and financial sector targets in the U.S. and Europe through Pulse Connect Secure devices. Raab also highlighted attacks on COVID-19 vaccine research programs and supply chains in the U.K., as well as universities, schools and hospitals. It seems that almost nothing is off limits for cyber criminals, he said. Raab had met with Group of 7 foreign ministers in London earlier this month, with security high on the agenda. Top diplomats from Australia, India, South Africa and South Korea had also been invited, with Raab saying gaining the trust of like-minded countries was essential. UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. chief on Wednesday appointed veteran British diplomat Martin Griffiths, a seasoned negotiator with wide global experience, as the new U.N. humanitarian chief. Griffiths brings extensive leadership experience in humanitarian affairs at headquarters and country levels, both strategically and operationally," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, as well as senior level experience in international conflict resolution, negotiation and mediation. Griffiths has spent the last three years as the U.N. special envoy for Yemen and he briefed the U.N. Security Council earlier Wednesday on his latest efforts to peacefully resolve the six-year conflict. Guterres said Griffiths will continue to serve as the U.N.s top envoy for Yemen until a transition has been announced. Griffiths will replace Mark Lowcock, a Briton who has served as undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator for four years and was highly regarded. Guterres said he is deeply grateful for Lowcocks dedicated service to the organization and commitment in mobilizing assistance and resources to protect and alleviate the conditions of the many people affected by humanitarian crises. The U.N.s top humanitarian post has traditionally gone to someone from Britain, part of an unofficial division of top U.N. posts among the five permanent Security Council nations -- the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France. There have been calls to end this practice and open up the U.N.'s most important jobs to other countries, but so far they have not been unsuccessful. In 1994, Griffiths served in Geneva as director of the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which preceded the establishment of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which he will now head. From 1999 to 2010, he was the founding director of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, where according to the U.N. he specialized in developing political dialogue between governments and insurgents in a range of countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. Griffiths, 69, served as the first executive director of the European Institute of Peace from 2014-2018 and he served as special adviser to three U.N. special envoys for Syria and as deputy head of the U.N. mission in Syria from 2012-2014, during the early years of the ongoing conflict there. Earlier in his career, he was a British diplomat and worked for various international humanitarian organization, including UNICEF, Save the Children and Action Aid. UNITED NATIONS (AP) Martin Griffiths, a U.N. diplomat with wide global experience who has spent the last three years trying to help end the war in Yemen, has been selected by the secretary-general as the new U.N. humanitarian chief, diplomats said Tuesday. The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the selection process has been private, said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was expected to announce the appointment of Griffiths, who is British, in the coming days. The post of undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs has traditionally gone to someone from Britain, part of an unofficial division of top U.N. posts among the five permanent Security Council nations -- the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France. He will replace Mark Lowcock, a Briton who served in the high-profile position for four years. In 1994, Griffiths served in Geneva as the director of the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which preceded the establishment of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which he will now head. From 1999 to 2010, he was the founding director of the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, where according to the U.N. he specialized in developing political dialogue between governments and insurgents in a range of countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. Griffiths, 69, was appointed U.N. special envoy for Yemen in February 2018 and is scheduled to brief the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday about his latest efforts to try to get warring Houthi rebels and the internationally recognized government to sit together and negotiate an end to the six-year conflict. In 2014-2018 he served as the first executive director of the European Institute of Peace and in 2012-2014 he served as special adviser to three U.N. special envoys for Syria and as deputy head of the U.N. mission in Syria. Earlier in his career, he was a British diplomat and worked for various international humanitarian organization, including UNICEF, Save the Children and Action Aid. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the mandate of the nearly 3,700-strong peacekeeping force in the disputed Abyei region on the Sudan-South Sudan border until Nov. 15. It also asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to provide recommendations for reconfiguring and ending the mission, although Guterres informed the council early last month that he couldnt provide such options because of differences between the two countries. Both Sudan and South Sudan claim ownership of the oil-rich Abyei area. The 2005 peace deal that led to South Sudans independence from its northern neighbor in 2011 required both sides to work out the final status of region, but it is still unresolved. The U.N. force, known as UNISFA, has been in Abyei since 2011. The resolution asks Guterres to conduct a strategic review of UNISFA assessing recent political developments between Sudan and South Sudan and provide detailed recommendations by Sept. 30 on reconfiguring the mission and establishing a viable exit strategy." It should prioritize the safety and security of civilians living in Abyei, account for stability of the region, and include an option for an exit strategy for UNISFA that is not limited by the 2011 agreements, the council said. When the Security Council extended UNISFAs mandate last November it asked the secretary-general to hold joint consultations with Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and other key parties to discuss an exit strategy and develop options for its reduction. Guterres said in the April letter that joint consultations could not be held because of the COVID-19 pandemic so he held separate meeting with senior officials in the three countries. He said Sudan indicated a reduction in UNISFAs strength could be considered immediately, but should proceed gradually over a one-year period to allow time for both countries to comply with a 2011 agreement on temporary administrative and security arrangements. It would also enable both sides to consult with the African Union and the regional group IGAD on successor arrangements, he said. Guterres said South Sudan insisted that security concerns in Abyei and in neighboring Western Kordofan warranted UNISFAs continued presence. South Sudan rejected the establishment of joint institutions with the Sudan, arguing that previous attempts had resulted in two wars ... due to a lack of trust between the parties, Guterres said. He said Ethiopia believes the premature withdrawal of UNISFA would likely lead the security situation in the Abyei area to deteriorate -- a view echoed by the African Union. Guterres said because of the differences no options that would be minimally acceptable to the parties could be formulated. The resolution adopted Tuesday expressed concern about Sudan and South Sudans efforts to impede UNISFA from fully executing its mandate, including by withholding visas for police, blocking appointment of a civilian deputy head of mission and denying access to Athony airport, which would ease UNISFAs logistical challenges, reduce transport costs, and enhance safety and security for UNISFA personnel. It said the delayed deployment of U.N. police prevents UNISFA from fulfilling its security and protection mandate and holds the potential to create a security vacuum in Abyei. The Security Council urged Sudan and South Sudan to make progress in establishing temporary administrative and security arrangements for Abyei and encouraged the African Union and the U.N. special envoy for the Horn of Africa to intensify their mediation role to achieve those arrangements, which are stipulated in the 2011 agreement. The union representing thousands of Connecticut nursing home workers poised to strike said Wednesday it's hopeful that contract agreements can be made, but said Gov. Ned Lamont and the General Assembly need to find more money to address the long-standing problem of low wages in these long-term care facilities. Rob Baril, president of District 1199 New England, SEIU, said the union hopes to extend and engage dialogue with the owners of 26 nursing homes, even though the governor has said he's made his last best offer of an additional $280 million in state funding. So there needs to be some continued movement. And we are hopeful that the administration and the Legislature will put the priority on caregiving that it deserves. he said during a news conference. There are the resources that are available to help move people out of poverty. The union contends the 4.5% annual wage increase for the next two years under Lamont's offer would not be enough to establish a $20 per hour minimum for unionized certified nursing assistants, something thats needed to attract more workers to the field. State funds, mostly in the form of Medicaid payments, make up 80% to 90% of the revenues at most of the unionized nursing homes, according to District 1199. House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, said Wednesday he remains optimistic that the union and management can reach an agreement and avoid a strike, but did not say whether the General Assembly would commit more funds to nursing homes beyond Lamont's offer. Originally, 3,400 staffers were scheduled to walk out at 6 a.m. on Friday at 33 facilities. However, the union announced Wednesday it has delayed a planned strike at seven homes owned by RegalCare Management Group until May 28 because the company did not take the union's original strike notice seriously and only planned to evacuate" residents to other facilities if there was a strike on Friday. Now, about 2,800 workers at 26 facilities are set to walk off the job on Friday. The owners of those homes have arranged contracts with staffing replacement agencies. Messages were left seeking comment with RegalCare administrators. A spokesman for the Connecticut Department of Public Health confirmed Wednesday the agency has not yet approved RegalCares strike contingency plans and has been trying to exert pressure on RegalCare regarding its contingency staffing and care planning, and will continue to do so. Besides the RegalCare facilities, which employ about 600 affected workers, strikes are also planned on May 28 at six other homes. SEIU has also issued May 21 strike notices affecting more than 2,000 unionized workers at six group home agencies with more than 200 sites. __ Associated Press Writer Dave Collins contributed to this report. Armando Franca/AP LISBON, Portugal (AP) A prominent Venezuelan opposition activist said Wednesday that his movements recent offer to negotiate with President Nicolas Maduros administration was prompted by the countrys urgent humanitarian crisis and prolonged political stalemate. Leopoldo Lopez told the Associated Press that his opposition group has not yet received a response to its proposal from the Maduro government. The two sides have for years been locked in a standoff. COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) Sandra Kunz had been worried for her safety while working as a cashier at a Walmart in Aurora, Colorado, during the pandemic, said her sister, Paula Spellman. The 72-year-old had lung disease, Spellman said. She was uncomfortable because so many people (were) coming in with coughs. But Kunz didnt complain to the government agency tasked with protecting workers, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. ___ This story was produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Marylands Philip Merrill College of Journalism in conjunction with investigative journalists at Boston University, the University of Arkansas and Stanford University. The Howard Center is an initiative of the Scripps Howard Foundation in honor of the late news industry executive and pioneer, Roy W. Howard. ___ Sandys not a complainer, Spellman said. She went out and just purchased her own mask and her own gloves. It wasnt enough. On April 20, 2020, Kunz died from COVID-19 following an outbreak linked to the Aurora Walmart. At least 18 employees got sick and one other worker at Walmart, Lupe Aguilar, died. So did Kunzs husband, Gustavous, who Spellman said fell ill after she did. The Walmart where Kunz worked was one of at least 151 Walmart facilities in 10 states with available data where multiple COVID-19 illnesses were recorded, a reporting consortium led by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism found. On average, one quarter of the companys stores and distribution centers in those states were affected. In New Mexico, COVID-19 hit nearly every store. *** Walmart, the nations largest private employer, provides a window into OSHAs performance during the pandemic. Many of the retailers nearly 1.6 million U.S. workers are vulnerable to COVID-19 due to income disparities, racial discrimination or language barriers. They depend on OSHA to guarantee safe and healthy workplaces. But the worker-safety system is fragmented, reporting from the University of Maryland, Boston University, the University of Arkansas and Stanford University found. Responsibility is splintered among federal OSHA, state agencies and even local boards of health. As a result, there is little accountability for the failure of government watchdogs to keep workers safe from COVID-19. The consortium documented that worker safety oversight rarely results in meaningful consequences for companies that arent protecting workers. In Massachusetts, Walmart challenged OSHAs investigation into the death of a worker. The company cited OSHAs pledge to use discretion in holding certain employers responsible for COVID-19 cases in the workplace, and wasnt penalized. When workers submit COVID-related complaints to OSHA, only a fraction lead to inspections, and even fewer result in a citation. As of late March, 3% of closed COVID-19 complaints to federal OSHA offices deemed valid by the agency resulted in an inspection, 12.5% of which led to citations. The average penalty was $13,000; OSHA reduced over a third of the fines. For Walmart, slightly fewer complaints resulted in inspections 2.6%. No inspections led to a citation. The Biden administration proposed an emergency temporary standard April 26 that would give OSHA greater power to enforce COVID-19 workplace-safety rules. Meanwhile, the cost of the 14-month delay since the pandemic began can be tallied in deaths and thousands of worker illnesses. *** In Grants Pass, Oregon, in 2020, Walmart workers and customers filed over 24 complaints about the lack of COVID-19 safeguards with the state worker-safety agency.Yet between December and March, at least 18 people were infected in an outbreak linked to the Walmart. Karla Holman worked customer service at that Walmart until late January and heard about cases through workplace rumors, never from her employer. Walmart was silent about it, Holman said. Workers in other states also said Walmart concealed COVID-19 cases from employees. Walmart spokesperson Scott Pope said we communicate with associates in stores where there has been a confirmed case. Any time you operate more than 5,000 facilities across the country there is the opportunity for variance in how a recommended process is executed, he said. Since April 2020, OSHA has released an updated list, including company names, of complaints related to COVID-19 that the agency has deemed valid. In Colorado, approximately 98% of workplaces with reported COVID-19 outbreaks did not appear on that list as of March. Twenty-one states have their own OSHA plans overseeing private businesses. They must meet all the federal standards but can impose stricter rules if they choose. In those states, the rate of complaints was five times higher than in states where the federal government exclusively oversees workplace safety. More complaints dont guarantee more inspections. In Oregon, which is among the states with the most COVID-19 complaints for Walmart, only one complaint led to an inspection. As of March 24, at least 10 Walmart locations in the state were linked to outbreaks with over five cases, including a Hermiston distribution center linked to 124 recorded cases, the consortium found. A study in Occupational & Environmental Medicine, a peer-reviewed journal, found that infection rates were significantly higher at a grocery retail store than the surrounding community. Moreover, it said store workers who had direct contact with customers were five times more likely to contract COVID-19 than workers who did not. Rebecca Reindel, the AFL-CIOs director of occupational safety and health, said the public-health response focused on cheaper measures, such as masks and hand sanitizer, which shifted the burden of protection onto workers themselves. *** It is difficult to know the full extent of COVID-19 in Walmart stores. The company tracks, but does not publicly disclose, COVID-19 cases. Federal OSHA does not track COVID-19 outbreaks. And state agencies responsible for tracking outbreak data rarely disclose it. When they do, state practices vary widely. Only some release names of companies with COVID-19 outbreaks, and there is no consistent definition of how many cases constitute an outbreak. Walmart spokesperson Casey Staheli said the company instituted a range of policies, including mask requirements for associates and customers, limiting store hours and capacity, deep cleanings, screening associates health, installing plastic guards and implementing social distancing in all facilities. Workers said whats on paper often doesnt match the real world. Of 10 Walmart employees in five states interviewed by the Howard Center, just three said they felt safe from COVID-19 exposure at work. Some workers said they face retaliation if they complain about safety conditions. Lorinda Dudley was fired from a St. Albans, Vermont, Walmart in March 2020 after asking her manager for protective gear, according to a lawsuit she filed against Walmart in February. She was frightened after a customer coughed repeatedly at her checkout station. Dudley said her manager rejected her requests, then terminated Dudley when she said she would need to buy her own protection before returning to the register. Walmart tried to block Dudleys unemployment claim, saying she quit, Vermont Department of Labor records show. I just wanted to be safe, Dudley said. Walmart denies Dudleys allegations and plans to defend the company in court, said Pope, Walmarts spokesperson. *** Federal OSHA has no consistent means to determine if violations reported by state plans are COVID-related, a U.S. Department of Labor spokesperson, who would not be quoted by name, told the Howard Center. As a result, there is no detailed national picture of how well the agency is protecting workers during the pandemic. OSHAs inaction has shifted some enforcement responsibilities onto local health departments, many of which are already overwhelmed. It just became the theater of the absurd, said Shaun McAuliffe, director of the Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Board of Health. They were just dumping onto the local health directors. We didnt have the time... We didnt have the training. The Department of Labor spokesperson said OSHA investigates every complaint, but has modified its approach to allow remote inspections and informal methods of enforcement during the pandemic. A February report from the Department of Labors Office of Inspector General compared OSHA results from 2019 to 2020, finding OSHA received 15% more complaints in 2020, but performed 50% fewer inspections. In lieu of on-site workplace inspections, OSHA calls the employer, describes the alleged hazard(s), and then follows up with a fax, email, or letter, the report said. *** Lani Eklund said her mother, Yok Yen Lee, was scared of contracting the virus. Lee, a 69-year-old Chinese immigrant, was a greeter outside the Quincy, Massachusetts, Walmart store, state workers compensation records show. During the second week of April 2020, Lee wasnt feeling well, Eklund said. On April 20, her daughter said Lee was found unresponsive in her apartment, then was rushed to the hospital and put on a ventilator. She died May 3. OSHA records from May 7 show at least 16 other workers there also contracted COVID-19. Walmart denied responsibility for Lees death and contested her familys claim for workers compensation, according to state records. Pope said there isnt a way to scientifically show that the conditions of any facility definitively led to confirmed cases. Eklund said the company settled months after her mothers death for an amount that barely exceeded her funeral costs. Lees death also triggered an on-site OSHA inspection beginning May 8, 2020 at the Quincy store, which Walmart challenged, according to OSHA inspection records obtained by the Howard Center consortium. The records show phone interviews were interrupted and stopped prematurely by Walmart officials when OSHA asked questions about Lees death. In response to a subpoena issued by regional OSHA investigators, Walmart cited OSHA headquarters own COVID-19 guidance in objecting to any investigation into whether coronavirus cases were work-related, the records show. That guidance, part of an April OSHA enforcement memo, applied to private employers not involved in health care, emergency response nor corrections.It said the employers may face difficulty in determining whether employees with COVID-19 caught it at work, and so OSHA would exercise enforcement discretion. On Dec. 30, 2020, OSHA closed its investigation of the Quincy Walmart. A Department of Labor spokesperson said the inspection identified no violations of OSHA standards and declined further comment. Records show no citation was issued. In a February note to associates, John Furner, CEO and president of Walmart U.S., boasted about the companys amazing increased sales. Thank you for an incredible year! he wrote. ___ Also contributing to this story were Victoria Daniels, Gabriel Pietrorazio, Aadit Tambe, Carmen Molina Acosta, Elisa Posner, John Kwak, Nicole Noechel, Rachel Logan, Jummy Owookade and Manuela Lopez Restrepo from the University of Maryland; Jackson Ripley, Nathan Lederman and Alaina Mencinger from Boston University; Abby Zimmardi, Mary Hennigan and Rachell Sanchez-Smith from the University of Arkansas; Cade Cannedy from Stanford University. SUBSCRIBER E-EDITION AND ONLINE LOGIN DIRECTIONS Current print subscribers: click "Get Started" below and use your subscription account number (Found on the top left of your newspaper mailing label) to activate your FREE access to the e-Edition and online stories. Log in with the username and password you registered on this website. SAN DIEGO (AP) Two dead fin whales were dislodged from the hull of a Royal Australian Navy ship that has been conducting exercises in Southern California, authorities said. The destroyer HMAS Sydney was pulling into a pier at Naval Base San Diego on Saturday morning when the carcasses of the two whales dislodged from the hull under the surface, the Australian Department of Defence told KSWB-TV. One whale was 65 feet (19.81 meters) long and the other was about 25 feet (7.62 meters) long, KGTV-TV reported. The Sydney has been holding joint exercises with the U.S. Navy in the area since early April. The Navy takes marine mammal safety seriously and is disheartened this incident occurred, a U.S. Navy statement said. U.S. and Australian agencies will jointly review the incident. Fin whales are found off the San Diego coast all year long, and the dead whales could have been a mother and her calf, John Calambokidis, research biologist at the Cascadia Research Collective in Washington, told KSWB-TV. Because of the speed and size of large ships, its not uncommon for the whales they strike to be discovered only when the ship slows down, Calambokidis said. In the vast majority of cases I'm familiar with, the ship is unaware of having struck the whale, he said. Ship strikes also are suspected in the deaths of a fin whale and two gray whales found last month in the San Francisco Bay Area, experts said. The causes of death haven't been determined for a pygmy sperm whale and five other gray whales found dead in the Bay Area this year, according to The Marine Mammal Center. MADISON, Wis. (AP) Wisconsin voters with disabilities urged lawmakers on Wednesday to reconsider two Republican-backed bills passed by the state Senate that would make it more difficult to cast absentee ballots as part of the broader GOP push to make it harder to vote by mail following Donald Trump's defeat. Advocates and those with disabilities said the two measures put people with physical challenges at a particular disadvantage. Disability Rights Wisconsin estimates that 23% of registered in voters in the state have some sort of disability, based on data from the American Association of People with Disabilities. Ultimately, theyre harming a very large minority," said Stephanie Birmingham, who has the condition osteogenesis imperfecta and uses a wheelchair. Birmingham, who lives in Sturgeon Bay, joined others on a virtual news conference to speak out against the bills. One of the measures that the Wisconsin Senate passed on Tuesday would prohibit anyone other than a member of a voters immediate family, a legal guardian, or a non-family member designated by the voter in writing from returning a completed absentee ballot for another person. Violators would be guilty of a felony. That is a particular hardship for people who may not have an immediate family member alive or nearby to return a ballot, said Melanie Ramey, of Madison, who has low vision due to macular degeneration. It could also make it more difficult to find someone willing to return a ballot because doing so would carry the risk of being charged if a person doesn't have the appropriate paperwork, said Andy Thain, of Thorp, who has cerebral palsy. Thats going to dramatically reduce my options and make it more difficult to vote," Thain said. Republican Sen. Duey Stroebel, the bills sponsor, responded to the criticism by noting that voters still have the option to return an absentee ballot by mail. Stroebel said he wanted to prevent the practice known as ballot harvesting, where political parties systematically collect absentee ballots from voters. Supporters of the bill also note that other states have more restrictive laws, including some that permit only the voter to return the absentee ballot. Ramey urged lawmakers to focus on measures that would make it easier for some of Wisconsin's most vulnerable citizens" to vote. Someday, they will become senior citizens and they may have age-related disabilities," Ramey said, referring to legislators who support the proposed voting restrictions. "Perhaps tomorrow they will be in a car accident and end up in a wheelchair. How would they deal with these atrocious bills? Under a second bill the Senate passed, local elections officials would be barred from filling out missing voter information or making corrections to absentee ballot certificates, which also serve as the envelopes that voters use to return ballots. Trump, in his failed attempt to overturn President Joe Biden's win in Wisconsin, tried to discount 5,500 absentee ballots that clerks had made changes to in the Democratic strongholds of Milwaukee and Dane counties. The small print on ballots is often a challenge for people who have vision problems, leading to minor mistakes or missing information on absentee ballots that clerks can easily correct, said Barbara Beckert, director of Disability Rights Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Disability Vote Coalition. Republican Sen. Alberta Darling, who introduced that bill, did not immediately reply to a message seeking comment Wednesday. Both bills would need to pass the Assembly and be signed by Gov. Tony Evers before they could become law. Evers, a Democrat, is expected to veto the measures. Evers said during a virtual news conference Wednesday that he wants any bill that reaches him to enhance peoples ability to vote. Getting more people to vote in a democracy is a good thing, the governor said. Even with vetoes looming, voters with disabilities and their advocates said they fear the proposals could return. Our goal is to insure that legislators take another look at these bills and they realize there would be consequences they may not have considered," Beckert said. Were looking at the long term here. ___ This story has been corrected to expand the types of people who would be allowed to legally return a completed ballot on behalf of a voter to include a non-family member whom the voter has designated in writing. By Jana Kadah Bay City News Foundation "Free, free Palestine" echoed through the streets of San Jose's Santana Row as more than 200 protesters marched Monday evening. Local advocacy groups American Muslims for Palestine, BLACK Outreach S.J. and the Palestinian Youth Movement held a protest to voice their outrage against the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the United States' funding to Israel. "In these last days of the month of Ramadan, Israel and its occupying forces have escalated the attacks against Palestinians in Jerusalem and Gaza," Ghiyath Alazzah, an organizer with Palestinian Youth Movement, said in front of The Counter restaurant. "They have stormed Al-Aqsa mosque and fired rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters at Palestinians worshipping in and around the mosque and in Sheikh Jarrah." In recent months, several Israeli court rulings have ordered the forced expulsion of many Palestinian families from their homes in East Jerusalem, including the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, and the handover of those properties to Israeli settler organizations, according to the United Nations. Over the last week, tensions were heightened in Sheikh Jarrah because a legal challenge by the Nahalat Shimon settler organization resulted in court-ordered expulsions of eight Palestinian families, according to the UN. In response, many Palestinians took to the streets of Sheikh Jarrah to protest. The UN reported that on Friday, Palestinians protesting threw rocks at Israeli police and were met with stun grenades and violence from Israeli forces. The violence resulted in 200 Palestinian civilian and 17 Israeli police injuries, according to the UN. The violence also extended to Al-Aqsa mosque -- the third holiest site for Muslims around the world -- where Israeli forces reportedly used stun grenades and skunk water on worshippers on the last Friday of Ramadan, considered one of the most holy days for Muslims, Alazzah said. And when Hamas fired rockets into Israel in response to Israeli actions in Jerusalem, Israel responded with air strikes that killed Palestinians. The emergency protest in Santana Row was seen by local organizers as an act of solidarity with those in Sheikh Jarrah and Palestinians in Jerusalem and Gaza. "It was basically our responsibility to amplify everything that was going on on the ground," said Nora Abushaban, organizer with American Muslims for Palestine. "That's what Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah are asking us to do." For Alazzah and Abushaban, who are both Palestinian Americans, protesting Israeli actions is personal. "It is settler colonialism happening right in front of us," Abushaban said. "Israel is forcibly removing Palestinians who have lived in their homes for decades so that a new Jewish Israeli population can live there. It's what they are currently doing in Sheikh Jarrah and it's what they did to my family decades ago." The San Jose protest drew people from many backgrounds including Black, Korean, Filipino, Kashmiri and Mexican as well as indigenous people. Many said they were at the protest to stand in solidarity with Palestine, to speak out against the $3.8 billion in annual American funding to Israel and to draw connections between international struggles for liberation. "What is going on in Palestine is similar to what's going on in San Jose and all over the U.S.," said Pamela Emanuel, vice president of BLACK Outreach S.J. To Emanuel and other protesters, that common thread is police violence, settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing of indigenous peoples and state-sanctioned violence against a particular group. In the U.S., state sanctioned violence has historically been an effort to ethnically cleanse the Native Americans, state-sanctioned violence is used at the border to prevent Latinx immigrants from coming in and police violence is used against Black and brown communities, she said. But is it fair to say they are connected? Abushaban and Emanuel said absolutely. This is because American police departments are often trained in Israel, according to human rights group Amnesty International. In Santa Clara County, Sheriff Laurie Smith attended a training at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America in 2005 and in 2013, officials from her department attended another training in Israel, according to a database by research group RAIA, Researching the American-Israeli Alliance. The county's District Attorney Jeff Rosen attended a training in Israel in 2017 as part of the Bay Area Law Enforcement Delegation that included prosecutors, police officers and judges, the same RAIA database showed. "When the U.S. police is trained by the (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers, it literally means that our tax dollars are going to a foreign military to use Palestinians as test dummies, so that they can refine their tactics and then bring them back home and use them against anyone trying to protest in the U.S.," Abushaban said. However, Israeli officials say tax dollars are used to defend themselves against Palestinians. On Tuesday, The Israeli Foreign Ministry tweeted that Israeli airstrikes in Gaza were a form of self-defense against "Hamas' deliberate targeting of civilians ... which caused a fatality, multiple injuries & sent millions of Israelis to bomb shelters." However, the Gaza Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll in Gaza climbed to 43 people, including 13 children and more than 200 injured as a result of Israeli air strikes. Both Palestinian and Israeli actions drew criticism from U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price, who said there was "no excuse for violence." "This includes Friday's (May 7) attack on Israeli soldiers and reciprocal 'price tag' attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank," Price said in a statement. The UN also denounced the violence but was stronger in calling out Israeli actions -- especially the court-ordered expulsions of families. Because Jerusalem is Palestinian territory under international law, imposing Israeli laws and mandating that Palestinians leave their homes is a violation of international law, UN spokesperson Rupert Colville said. Protesters in San Jose called on the international community and those living in the U.S. to do more. "Israel's policies in violation of international law will not come to an end as long as the international community does not take concrete actions," Alazzah said. 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. Washington wants to pick up the tab for tens of millions of Americans' internet connections. That may include yours. The Emergency Broadband Benefit, or EBB, was launched Wednesday to help a surprisingly wide range of people hit economically by the coronavirus pandemic. It can pay $50 every month toward the cost of your internet service, and it is available to all families who lost some income in the last year and earn less than $198,000, among others. With $3.2 billion up for grabs, the EBB is the largest federal program to help with internet bills in the three decades Americans have been going online. But there's a catch. You can get the EBB discount on your home internet or cellphone bill only if you sign up. I'll show you how. Just know it may require some patience: so many people are applying, the government's website to prove you're eligible for the EBB went down for some people on Wednesday morning. The program reflects one clear lesson from covid-19: An internet connection has become just as important to American life as electricity and water. Watching many people struggle to go to school, consult the doctor or work online during the pandemic helped Congress realize that the high price of broadband is a root cause of America's digital divide. Okay, maybe it took Congress a few too many months to realize that - but better late than never. Lawmakers authorized the EBB in December as part of a $2 trillion coronavirus aid package. Now the Federal Communications Commission finally has the program up and running in every state and territory with more than 875 internet service providers, or ISPs. For many, the EBB discount may make going online totally free. The money goes straight to your ISP, which will deduct it from your bill every month until six months after the pandemic is officially over - or, more likely, until the program runs out of money. That's one good reason to sign up as soon as possible. But before you can get the EBB, you have to prove you're eligible. The good news: Many, many Americans are eligible for a range of reasons - so many, that not even the FCC has been able to figure out exactly how many people the EBB could affect or how long the money will last. I went through the application process with some of America's largest internet providers. For most people, signing up is a two-part process of proving your eligibility to the government, and then telling your ISP that you want the discount. It involves uploading (or physically mailing) some paperwork, but the FCC says the process shouldn't take more than 10 minutes. Before you start, it's helpful to know the lingo. The new monthly discount program is called the Emergency Broadband Benefit, or EBB. There's a different government program called Lifeline that provides basic service for low-income people. People already enrolled in Lifeline can also get the EBB, but the EBB covers many more Americans. Below are the EBB basics, and my advice on how to avoid some complications from ISPs that might want to make you jump through hoops to get the money. Q: How much money can you get from the EBB? A: There's $50 per month off the price of a broadband connection per family, with the money coming straight off your internet bill - not through a rebate check or through your taxes. You can apply it to a home internet connection or wireless cellphone bill, but not both in the same household. Just note: Not all internet plans are eligible, particularly ultrafast ones. The average American monthly internet bill is about $65, estimates Consumer Reports. If your bill is less than $50, you won't get to pocket what's left over from the EBB. The EBB benefit increases to $75 per month for families that live in tribal areas. And there's an additional one-time $100 discount available for people who purchase new equipment like a laptop or tablet through a participating company. Q: Can you apply the EBB to a bundled service plan? A: Technically, you can't use the EBB to pay for cable TV or voice service. But if you've got an internet bundle package that includes one of those, your provider can apply the EBB to the part that pays for internet. Q: Who can get the EBB? A: The FCC has a "Do I Qualify" page online that I recommend reading for the details, but eligibility boils down to three big categories: - Americans who lost jobs or substantial income during the pandemic - which, at the lowest point in May 2020, was about 50 million Americans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. - People who receive food stamps, Medicaid, supplemental Social Security income, federal public housing assistance, have a child who qualified for free and reduced-price lunch at school or received a federal Pell Grant for education. You also can get it if your income is 135 percent or less than the federal poverty guidelines, which vary by household size and state. - Americans who already receive subsidized or low-income internet service, such the FCC's Lifeline or ISP-sponsored programs such as Comcast's $10 per month internet Essentials. Q: Can retirees apply for the EBB? A: Yes, but just being retired won't qualify you. You'll have to prove you meet another one of the criteria listed above. For example, a family of two that meets the poverty threshold - $23,517 in the 48 contiguous states, D.C. and territories - can apply. Q: Is the EBB only open to U.S. citizens? A: No. All U.S. residents can apply. Q: Can you get the EBB if you lost income in 2020, but got a new job in 2021? A: Yes. You don't need to prove continued unemployment, but you will need to prove that your current annual income is below $99,000 for a single person or $198,000 for a family. Q: Is your ISP participating? A: Your first step in signing up for the EBB is to make sure your internet provider is participating in the program. The United States has thousands of ISPs, some serving just particular counties or Zip codes - and none is required to participate. I was initially suspicious that the voluntary system would leave large swaths of the country uncovered, but I've been impressed. Even Loving County, Tex. (population 169), has a few participating ISPs. Some ISPs, like satellite company Viasat, tell me they've signed up with the FCC to join the program but they're still finalizing details so don't yet show up on the EBB website. The website GetEmergencyBroadband.org links to a page where you can look up which companies are participating in your area by Zip code. Some of the largest wired and wireless internet providers, including Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Charter have dedicated Web pages about the program. If your ISP isn't participating but there's another in your area that is, you can switch and still get the benefit as a new customer. Q: How do you sign up for the EBB? A: For most people, the process will begin by applying online at the website GetEmergencyBroadband.org, which is available in English and Spanish. This website is run by a company called the Universal Service Administrative Co., but it's still the official government site for signing up. The site ask you to prove your identity, such as by sharing a Social Security number, driver's license, passport or other ID. Then you'll have to upload copies of documents that prove your eligibility, such as a layoff notice or unemployment application and your 2020 tax returns. (You can scan them or even snap a photo with your phone.) You should get notice within two days about whether you've been approved. If you don't have the capability or internet speed to apply online, you can also download and print an application, and then mail it. After you've been approved by the government's verification system, you'll need to go to your ISP and tell them. Some let you flag that online or in store, while others require you to give them a call. Applying is simpler for people already enrolled in Lifeline or programs such as internet Essentials from Comcast. By participating in these programs, your eligibility is already verified - you just need to notify your ISP that you want to take advantage of the EBB benefit. Q: How do you apply for the EBB if the broadband bill is under your roommate or partner's name? A: The EBB applies to "households," which the FCC says includes "an adult who lives with friends or family who financially support him/her." When it comes time to apply, though, that has to happen in the name of the person who qualifies for the benefit. Comcast told me if someone else in the house currently pays the monthly bill, the company might ask to change the name on the account to the person who applied for the benefit. Q: Can you get the EBB if you're already behind on your internet bills? A: The FCC's rules say even if your bill is delinquent, your ISP still has to let you sign up for the EBB. But you'll still have to pay your past-due bills. Q: Can your ISP use the EBB to play tricks with your bill? A: Some ISPs might try to use this as an opportunity to upsell you on faster - and more expensive - service plans. For example, Verizon makes you call a phone number and speak to a rep to sign up. It wouldn't tell me whether the call would involve a sales pitch, and there aren't any rules preventing it. I've also found a number of ISPs claiming their older plans aren't eligible for the EBB. Technically, the rules for the EBB allow for this - they just have to make the EBB available on at least one service for low-income customers. Again, I can imagine some providers trying to use EBB sign-ups as leverage to get people onto new plans that are more expensive. (And ISPs wonder why they're among the least-admired American companies.) Just remember, if you do upgrade your plan, you could be on the hook for higher monthly fees when the EBB money runs out. Q: What happens when the EBB money runs out? A: The EBB money will flow until six months after the federal government declares an end to the covid-19 health crisis - or when the money runs out, whichever comes first. The FCC says it will be watching its totals and will provide notice online when it's nearing the bottom. Of course, Congress could extend the program, which some lawmakers have proposed. Q: Will the EBB close America's digital divide? A: We've been talking about the digital divide for years, yet at least 18 million Americans still lack speedy and reliable connections, the FCC found in a report released last June. Some think that tally still undercounts the real problem. What's different about the EBB is that Congress is addressing the cost of broadband, rather than just building out more physical infrastructure to rural areas, says Jonathan Schwantes, a senior policy counsel for Consumer Reports. "The bigger problem is that broadband is just too darn expensive," he says. In the long run, though, subsidies alone won't fix problems that include a lack of pricing transparency and uniformity of service. Q: What if I have more questions - or discovered some shenanigans? A: You can call the EBB help line at 833-511-0311. Made You Look is a dizzying story about fraud, deception and delusion in the art world. But its a story that also questions how we experience art itself. If we fall in love with a painting for its beauty, will its value and allure diminish once we discover that it wasnt made by Jackson Pollock but, say, an elderly math teacher in Queens, New York, instead? To what lengths will we go to maintain the illusion that the painting we love is real, even when forensic scientists, art experts and government officials say otherwise? These are the critical questions that director Barry Avrich probes in Made You Look, a true crime-style documentary which investigates how Knoedler Gallery, an esteemed 165-year-old institution in New York City, sold nearly $80 million worth of forged Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Robert Motherwell paintings. A deep dive in the largest art forgery scandal in U.S. history, the film not only exposes corruption in the art world, but explains why its actors were likely complicit. At the center of this controversy is Ann Freedman, Knoedler Gallery's then-president and director. It all began in 1995 when Freedman purchased a stash of allegedly unseen Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Rothko paintings from a soft-spoken art dealer named Glafira Rosales. There was no reason to trust this person, said M.H. Miller, a New York Times journalist interviewed in the film. She didnt have a great pedigree, she was just some lady from Long Island. Regardless, Freedman purchased a number of paintings from Rosales over the next few years. It was like discovering raw land, Freedman said in the film. Netflix Despite the fact that the paintings were vetted by multiple art institutions, their provenance, or history of ownership, could not be traced. Provenance is a crucial part of the verification process, and yet Freedman only knows that the paintings allegedly came from an anonymous Mexican dealer named Mr. X. She does not treat this as a cause for concern, instead wistfully stating that there was mystery in provenance. Ultimately, Freedmans stoic optimism becomes a key element of the film, driving its main questions moving forward. Why did she continue to ignore the forged paintings telltale signs? Why was she so certain of their authenticity? Who was she trying to convince, her clients or herself? Throughout, collectors argue that she was well aware that she was defrauding the art world. But one interviewee, author Maria Konnikova, suggests that the answers arent so clear-cut. A con artist isn't a good speaker, a con artist is a good listener. And Rosales, it turns out, was an exceptional listener who capitalized on Freedman and Freedman, in turn, capitalized on New York City sophisticates. For various reasons, she and her peers needed this discovery. Over the course of the next 20 years, Freedman experienced enormous success, selling the forged paintings for millions of dollars at auction houses and to private collectors. The film demonstrates the enchanting power of art, suggesting that a rare painting significantly elevates social status even if it is dubious. The De Sole family purchased a Rothko from Freedman for $8.3 million, knowing full well that it lacked provenance. But just as Miller said, It was better for everyone if it was real. Netflix Eventually, the grand illusion begins to fall apart. A Motherwell painting gets debunked as a fake, catalyzing an FBI investigation. In 2011, Pierre Lagrange, another private collector, files a lawsuit over a Silver Pollock painting he bought from Freedman for $17 million. Careful analysis revealed that the painting had a yellow pigment that was only available until after 1970 years after Pollock had died in a 1956 car crash. Finally, an investigation by the New York District Attorney reveals that Freedmans paintings were not, in fact, authentic abstract expressionist works, but replicas made by a genius 75-year-old Chinese artist and math teacher, Pei-Shen Qian. With Qians help and the help of Rosales boyfriend, Jose Carlos Bergantinos Diaz, (who was accused of trafficking and involved in a 2006 forgery lawsuit), they crafted and distributed these masterfully forged paintings. The film culminates in an explosive trial between Knoedler and the De Soles. Rosales confesses, and Freedman finally admits that the paintings are fraudulent. Documents show that Michael Hammer, then-owner of Knoedler, made hundreds of thousands of dollars off of these forged works, as did Freedman. While Knoedlers employees were able to settle and avoid a guilty verdict, Rosales faced a criminal sentence and served time. She was the only actor who suffered real consequences, ultimately serving as a pawn in the art world: something which has always been, and will continue to be, a rich persons game. Ariana Bindman is a freelance writer in the Bay Area, find her on Instagram at @ariana.bindman. The spokesperson gave no further details, including the nationalities of the illegal migrants, the Xinhua news agency reported on Wednesday. Valletta, May 12 (IANS) A group of around 70 migrants were brought to Malta after being rescued to the south of the island on Monday night following a distress call, a spokesperson from the Home Affairs Ministry said. The migrants were swabbed for Covid-19 upon arrival on land and were escorted to a detention centre where they will be kept in isolation until the authorities investigate their provenance and whether they are entitled to asylum, the spokesperson said. Migrant departures from North African shores have increased significantly in recent days, possibly owing to the arrival of good weather. Alarm Phone, an NGO that monitors rescue calls from migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean, said on Monday that there were over 400 migrants in five boats in Malta's search and rescue zone. Last September, Prime Minister Robert Abela warned European Council President Charles Michel during a meeting here that Malta is at its full capacity and cannot take any more migrants. Malta insists that member states on Europe's southern border cannot be left alone to deal with the problem created by illegal migration. It contends that other EU countries have to share the burden. Last summer, Malta resorted to housing migrants on tourist boats outside Maltese territorial waters in a standoff with other European countries which dragged on for more than a month. --IANS int/rs Bengaluru: Karnataka Home Minister Basavaraj Bommaihas stated that "step-down hospitals" should be set up in hotels with the help of private hospitals in the state to treat Covid-19 patients. Stepping up efforts with step-down centres A virtual meeting on Wednesday was chaired by Basavaraj Bommai along with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Chief Commissioner Gaurav Gupta to discuss the setting up of step-down hospitals in hotels in the state amid the rising Covid-19 cases and subsequently increasing demand for hospital beds. How it works Step-down facilities will be used to monitor patients who are discharged from hospitals and are in stable condition. The meeting was held with the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) team, along with Special Commissioner (Health) Rajendra Cholan, Chief Health officer Dr Vijendra and other zonal health officers. Health with a touch of hospitality In the meeting, Basavaraj Bommai stated that these step-down hospitals in the hotels should be opened up with the support of private hospitals as soon as possible to start treating the Covid-19 patients. He also instructed the officers to find more such facilities in their BBMP zones and gradually increase the number of beds in the step-down hospitals too. Chief Commissioner of BBMP said that whichever private hospitals have registered under KPME Act can tie up with the hotels in their neighbourhood and start a health facility immediately. Prioritising emergency care He further said that these step-down facilities will help a large number of patients who are in an emergency who can directly be sent to hospitals and whoever is the hospital and are stable can be shifted to step-down hospitals for monitoring. In this regard, Chief Commissioner said that on-priority hotels should be identified and PHANA should tie up with hotels and increase these step-down facilities and the number of beds in these facilities. This was also informed to the hotel associations. The Health and Family Welfare Department will be providing necessary doctors and nurses to these facilities, said the officials. Even retired doctors and students can also be utilised in these facilities. These step-down hospitals/facilities will also have oxygen concentrators installed. Chain of progress Hotel Association President PC Rao said, "Already with the help of 13 hospitals around 1,200 bed facilities have been made in the hotels. Another 15 hotels are being identified to convert them into step-down hospitals/facilities." The home minister also suggested the hotel association to increase these numbers to 2,000 beds as soon as possible and asked the Commissioner of BBMP to follow this process closely. As expected, most of the students put in a great deal of resources and effort to prepare for the Graduate Management Admission Test or GMAT as it is a very important part when applying for business schools. No one wants to take the GMAT multiple times or put more time than necessary. In this article, were going to discuss all things related to GMAT scores and how yours might not be as good as you think it is. Were also going to look at some frequently asked questions and clarify some myths about your GMAT score. Read on to find out more! What Constitutes a Good GMAT Score? It can be quite confusing to know if your GMAT score is good enough, especially if this is your first time taking the exam. You shouldnt listen to baseless rules or recommendations such as any score over 730 or 740 is the same thing. This is just false. The score that you should be targeting depends on which schools youre applying and your profile. This will determine which scores youll be compared against. The first thing you should do is to research the average GMAT scores for your targeted schools. You can use this average GMAT score as a baseline on what you should work towards. A lower score may be enough if you come from an under-represented group or have distinct life experience. On the other hand, if you come from an over-represented group, youll more likely to need a higher score. You should be honest about your experiences as MBA programs are quite attracted to more accomplished applicants. The average GMAT score of your targeted schools adjusted for your profile can be a great guideline for your ideal score. Do note that a lower score may keep you from being accepted, even a great MCAT score such as 760 or 770 does not guarantee acceptance. Additionally, having a great score instead of a good score will increase your chances of receiving merit-based scholarships. In summary, a good GMAT score will entirely depend on the average scores of targeted schools. Make sure to research them thoroughly. Why is the GMAT so Important for Business Schools? MBA admission officers care about your GMAT score for several reasons. In this section, were going to look at why and hopefully help you prepare for your GMAT exams properly. A good GMAT score means you are competent with the coursework Good GMAT scores will tell business schools that you are competent enough to keep up with the coursework and programs provided. A business schools coursework will include subjects such as economics, strategy, and finance. According to Examdays blog your score will be used to evaluate if you can keep up with all these subjects. The main goal of any admission team is to only recruit students that have the ability to succeed in the program. Some post-MBA employers will look at your GMAT scores In various cases, your GMAT scores will affect your potential employment opportunities. Numerous employers, especially in finance and consulting, use GMAT scores as a big factor when looking for students to interview. These employers include big names such as McKinsey, BCG, and Bain. Having higher GMAT scores can give you a significant advantage and paints you as a strong candidate for interviews. MBA rankings are based on average GMAT scores GMAT scores matter a lot for Business schools as both them and the applicants care about rankings. More qualified individuals are attracted to schools with higher rankings and thus in return improve the schools overall ranking and average. If a school successfully enrolls a large number of strong and capable students, it will increase the schools reputation and ranking. This will lead to better employment rates and enhance the classroom experience. Myths About the GMAT Score There are plenty of myths and misconceptions about the GMAT scores. Lets clarify some of them. This is so that youll know what to focus your time and resources on, instead of on misconceptions. 1. You can easily rely on your calculator when it comes to hard questions Nope, false. Calculators are only allowed on the Integrated Reasoning (IR) section of the exam. The calculator provided in the IR section is also very simple and limited. If youre not confident in your mental arithmetic skills, youre going to struggle. The good news, however, is if theres no calculator allowed, the questions in the GMAT can be reasonably solved without using one. 2. The math section in the GMAT exam is extremely tough This is not true. It may not look like it at first, but the math section is quite simple; high-school level math simple. The GMAT will assume that youve mastered the basic concepts of math during high-school. It will challenge your application of the concepts rather than your analytical skills. The math section will require proper strategy and critical thinking. 3. Your GMAT score wont help you pay for your MBA This is very wrong. There are plenty of MBA programs that provide scholarships for candidates that did exceptionally well on their GMAT exams. Your GMAT score, alongside your GPA, resume, extracurricular work, and personal statement will play a huge role on whether youre accepted or not. Now you know why your GMAT might be as good as you may think. It entirely depends on the business schools youre trying to pass for. Make sure to research their average GMAT scores thoroughly and pass higher than average. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds in the United States on Monday, marking the next crucial step in the fight against the pandemic. Its the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the United States for this age group. The vaccine is administered in a series of two doses, three weeks apart the same dosage and dosing regimen in place currently for people 16 and older. Todays [Monday] action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic, said Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock. Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations. The FDA determined that the vaccine has met the statutory criteria to amend the emergency use authorization to allow for 12- to 15-year-olds to get inoculated. An emergency use authorization is not an FDA approval of a vaccine. Federal health officials also said the known and potential benefits of this vaccine in individuals 12 and older outweigh known and potential risks, supporting the vaccines use in this age group. Why was it authorized for this age group? The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized for use in this age group following the results of an ongoing randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial that included 2,260 participants. Of the total participants, 1,131 adolescents received the vaccine and 1,129 received a saline placebo. More than half were followed for safety for at least two months following the second dose. Participants will continue to be monitored for long-term protection and safety for an additional two years after their second dose. Was it effective for this age group? According to the FDA, an analysis of COVID-19 cases occurring among participants ages 12 to 15 was conducted seven days after the second dose. In this analysis, among participants without evidence of prior COVID-19 infection, no cases of coronavirus occurred among 1,005 vaccine recipients and 12 cases of coronavirus occurred among 978 placebo recipients. This means the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, according to the FDA. At this time, there is limited data to address whether the vaccine can prevent transmission of the virus from person to person or how long the vaccine will provide protection. What are the side effects in adolescents? The most commonly reported side effects in adolescent clinical trial participants, which typically lasted one to three days, were pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, chills, muscle pain, fever and joint pain, according to the FDA. With the exception of pain at the injection site, the FDA said more adolescents reported these side effects after the second dose than the first dose. Its important for vaccination providers and recipients to expect there may be some side effects after either dose, but more so after the second. These side effects were consistent with those reported in clinical trial participants 16 and older. The FDA said its important to note that while some people experience side effects following any vaccination, not every individuals experience will be the same, and some people may not experience side effects. Who shouldnt get the Pfizer vaccine? The Pfizer vaccine shouldnt be given to anyone with a known history of a severe allergic reaction, including anaphylaxis, to any component of the vaccine, according to the FDA. Since its authorization, rare severe allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, have been reporting following administration of the Pfizer vaccine in some recipients. When can adolescents 12 and older get the vaccine? Following the FDAs decision, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet to discuss recommendations for use of the vaccine in adolescents 12 to 15 based on the emergency use authorization that was expanded. If the committee endorses the vaccine, administration will likely begin soon after. An announcement is expected Wednesday, and shots could begin as soon as Thursday following the committees decision. What about kids younger than 12 years old? Pfizer and BioNTech began testing the vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 in March, extending the clinical trial to younger children ages 2 to 5 in April. The companies also plan to test children as young as 6 months old. According to the companies, the pediatric study evaluating the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in kids 6 months old to 11 years old is ongoing. They expect to submit for authorization of the vaccine for kids 2-11 years old in September, and for kids 6 months old to 2 years old by the end of this year. Associated Press material was used in this report. FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A 29-year-old woman stands accused in a violent robbery were authorities allege the female victim was pummeled with a shopping cart, kicked and punched in New Brighton. Kara Foster was arrested on May 5 in connection with the attack on April 21 at about 6 p.m. on Jersey Street near Benziger Avenue, according to police and the criminal complaint. The suspect lives on the 200 block of Jersey Street, just down the block from the alleged incident. A 25-year-old woman told police that while walking on Jersey Street, she was approached by two individuals. Foster and an accomplice punched the victim multiple times in the head and body and snatched the victims cell phone from the ground where it had fallen, according to the complaint. The suspects repeatedly kicked the victim and then bashed the victim with a shopping cart, police said. As a result of the beatdown, the complaint alleges that the victim suffered serious physical injuries, including but not limited to a punctured lung, a fractured rib, [and] a laceration to the head that required stitches, bruising, swelling and substantial pain. Foster has been charged with robbery, assault, and criminal possession of a weapon. The identity of the second suspect known to the District Attorneys Office was not disclosed in the complaint. Foster, who has been released on her own recognizance, is due back in Criminal Court on July 7. Ms. Foster denies these allegations and expects that she will be fully exonerated when all the facts come to light, said her attorney, Louis Gelormino. ROBBERIES ON S.I. There were 59 robberies on Staten Island through May 9, according to NYPD CompStat data, a 28% drop from the same period in 2020. Twenty-eight of those robberies occurred in the St. George-based 120th Precinct, the most in the borough. Still, that 120th Precinct figure is down 18% from the same period last year. RELATED COVERAGE: Crime on Staten Island Blackshear, GA (31516) Today Sun and clouds mixed. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High 93F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Some clouds. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Police arrested a man in connection with a fatal shooting last December on a bustling commercial strip in Tompkinsville. Brandon Rivera, 28, of the 400 block of Van Duzer Street, was apprehended on Monday in connection with the death of Joseph Evans, 22. Evans was walking in his neighborhood in the vicinity of Cebra Avenue between Victory Boulevard and Rosewood Place at about 4:55 p.m. on Dec. 19 when a male shooter approached on foot. The shooting was sparked by a dispute between the suspect and the victim, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation. Rivera did cause the death of Joseph Evans by intentionally shooting him three times, resulting in his demise, according to the criminal complaint. Authorities based in their findings on a review of records maintained by T-Mobile, video surveillance and conversations with witnesses known to the District Attorneys Office, according to the criminal complaint. The fatal assault unfolded shortly after sunset on that Saturday, near a typically active bus stop and multiple businesses. The victim lived blocks away from where he was killed. Evans was shot in the arm, back and head. Emergency medical responders transported him to Richmond University Medical Center in West Brighton, where he was pronounced dead at about 8:35 p.m., according to a previous statement by police. Rivera has been charged with murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon. He has been remanded and is scheduled to appear in Criminal Court on Friday, according to public records. An attorney for the defendant did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A GOOD KID Playful and bright, Evans was a good kid, his mother told the Advance/SILive.com in December. He tried to stay out of trouble. Evans was walking to a nearby deli to pick up a sandwich when he was shot, according to his family. He was born in the Bronx and moved to Georgia when he was young. He moved to Staten Island in 2014 and graduated from Curtis High School, according to his mother, Lil Burns. He is light, he is the light of the party, he is the light that would light up the room, said Burns. He was very playful, he didnt take anything really serious. Police investigate a shooting in Tompkinsville at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Cebra Avenue on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Paul Liotta) Police investigate a shooting in Tompkinsville at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Cebra Avenue on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Paul Liotta) Police investigate a shooting in Tompkinsville at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Cebra Avenue on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Paul Liotta) Police investigate a shooting in Tompkinsville at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Cebra Avenue on Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Paul Liotta) RELATED COVERAGE: Crime on Staten Island STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Ramon Ramirezs lawyer told a federal judge at a sentencing hearing on Wednesday that his client is generous to a fault. Ramirez has let homeless people stay in his house, said attorney Matthew J. Kluger. Hes given others money. Ramirezs wife, whose suspected lover he was convicted of conspiring to kill, had even sent a letter of support to the court. (The plot failed, despite the hiring of a hit man.) Hes a hard-working, middle-class person who built himself up, Kluger said, noting that before his arrest Ramirez, a Staten Islander, had a thriving refrigeration business which employed up to 10 people. Judge P. Kevin Castel said he had taken all those factors into account. Even so, he hit Ramirez with a 10-year prison sentence, twice the time which Kluger had sought in a sentencing memorandum. This is a very difficult sentencing decision, said Castel. In addition, as a Nicaraguan native, Ramirez, 50, potentially faces deportation after serving his sentence, the judge said. Castel also sentenced a co-defendant, Vance (Big AK) Collins, to 12 years behind bars. Each man is subject to three years post-release supervision. Neither defendant made a statement to the court, as they apparently intend to appeal. In October, a Manhattan federal court jury found Ramirez and Collins guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and of murder-for-hire, said officials. Collins, 52, was also convicted of possessing a firearm after having a prior felony conviction. Collins had three guns in his possession when arrested. The plot unfolded in late 2017, said officials. Ramirez believed his wife was having an affair. So, he enlisted Collins, a Bronx resident and an alleged high-ranking gang member, to hire someone to rub out the man he suspected to be his wifes paramour, said officials. Collins sought out a member of his gang. Collins and Ramirez promised to pay the man $25,000 to slay the intended victim, said prosecutors. Collins would also forgive a $3,000 drug debt the gang member owed him. In addition, Collins gave the would-be hitman $300 to buy a gun. Ramirez provided the gang member with the intended victims photo and addresses, said prosecutors. He also placed a GPS tracking device on his wifes car in part to help him determine where the target lived. The hired man sought the aid of another gang member, said officials. Those two gang members located the intended target and placed him under surveillance, authorities said. They planned to stab or shoot the man to death. One night in October 2018, the two hitmen encountered the victim at his home, said officials. However, the presence of another person thwarted their plot, and the victim was not killed, authorities said. One of the hitmen was busted shortly afterward in an unrelated matter. Thats when the murder-for-hire plot was revealed, said officials. The defendants were subsequently arrested in June 2019. During the bust, Collins was found to be in possession of three firearms two .25-caliber pistols and a .44-caliber revolver said a superseding indictment. In a sentencing memorandum, Kluger, Ramirezs lawyer, recommended a 60-month sentence. His pointed to his clients good deeds over the years and letters of support submitted by his wife and her family. My husband is extremely missed and very well-loved, Ramirezs spouse wrote, according to the memo. Ramon is the love of my life, my soulmate He is a truly wonderful man; hardworking, honorable and loving. Eric R. Breslin, Collins lawyer, acknowledged his client has a criminal history. But he said nearly all those offenses had occurred many years ago. This man is not a monster, said Breslin. We are asking you to read the book of the defendants life not all good, but not all bad, either. There is a worthy person here capable of redemption. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam S. Hobson asked the judge to impose the sentence recommended by the federal Probation Department: 210 to 240 months for Ramirez, and 235 to 293 months for Collins. Those sentences would have essentially run consecutive prison terms for the defendants convictions. It is very, very lucky that (the intended victim) is not dead today, said Hobson. Ramirez was clearly the instigator of this, the prosecutor said. He was clearly the driving force of this murder-for-hire. As for the co-defendant, he said Collins viewed Ramirezs request to take out the suspected romantic rival as a business opportunity. Collins had the means to carry out this murder because of his criminal lifestyle, said Hobson. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The shows must go on! After receiving the green light from Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Broadway is coming back at full capacity starting Sept. 14. Many shows have already begun selling tickets for the upcoming months. Productions, theaters and guests will be subject to the states health guidance, but specific guidelines are subject to change as the pandemic continues. Here are the shows that are ready to make their return to Broadway later this year. THE LION KING Broadway wouldnt be Broadway without Disneys The Lion King. The Lion King is about young lion cub, Simba, who cannot wait to be King of the Pride Rocks. He finds himself in a transformative life-changing situation, when his evil Uncle Scar conspires, alongside the hyenas, to overtake the kingdom and establish a dictatorship. With advice from his old counselors (Zazu and Rafiki), help from his new friends, Timone and Pumbaa, and the unexpected warning of a familiar face, Simba will unshackle the Savanna from Scars reign of terror and return the natural order to the Circle of Life. For more information on how to purchase tickets, click HERE. THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA Seven-time Tony Award winner The Phantom of the Opera will resume shows at its Majestic Theater starting Oct. 22. The Phantom of the Opera takes place in a Paris opera house believed to be haunted by a mysterious cloaked figure obsessed with one particular girl, Christine Daae, an understudy, whose main interest is her love for Raoul De Chagny, her fiance. Tickets to the production are available on VividSeats. ALADDIN Aladdin will make its post-pandemic debut Sept. 28 at the New Amsterdam Theatre, according to the shows official website. Set in the fictional Arabian city of Agrabah, the story follows the familiar tale of a poor young man who is granted three wishes by a genie in a lamp, which he uses to woo a princess and to thwart the sultans evil Grand Vizier. WICKED Wicked plans to return to its New York City theater this year, resuming its record as the fifth longest running show on Broadway. Tickets range from $166 for seats in the mezzanine to $1,149 for center orchestra. Run time: 2 hours and 45 minutes, including intermission. Find out how to secure your seats HERE. Long before Dorothy arrives, there is another young woman, born with emerald-green skin, who is smart, fiery, misunderstood and extraordinarily talented. When she meets a bubbly blonde who is exceptionally popular, their initial rivalry turns into the unlikeliest of friendships, until the world decides to call one good and the other one wicked. CHICAGO Mark your calendars, all that jazz is coming back to NYC. Chicago returns to its iconic New York theater Sept. 14. For tickets, visit chicagothemusical.com. Set in Chicago in the jazz age, the musical is based on a 1926 play of the same name by reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins, about actual criminals and the crimes on which she reported. The story is a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and the concept of the celebrity criminal. Bob Fosse choreographed the original production, and his style is strongly identified with the show. DEAR EVAN HANSEN Dear Evan Hansen makes its Broadway return Dec. 11. The six-time Tony Award-winning musical tells the story of a high-schooler loner who, in the wake of a classmates suicide, becomes entangled in a web of lies (not to mention other peoples lives). Wagner College alumni Alex Boniello was once part of the Dear Evan Hansen cast. Tickets are available for purchase on Telecharge. COME FROM AWAY Come From Away resumes Sept. 21. Tickets are currently on sale for show dates and times following opening night. Come From Away is based on the true story of when the isolated community of Gander, Newfoundland, played host to the world. What started as an average day in a small town turned into an international sleepover when 38 planes, carrying thousands of people from across the globe, were diverted to Ganders air strip on Sept. 11. Undaunted by culture clashes and language barriers, the people of Gander cheered the stranded travelers with music, an open bar and the recognition that were all part of a global family. JAGGED LITTLE PILL The musical inspired by Alanis Morissettes Grammy Award-winning music, Jagged Little Pill, will open Oct. 21 at Broadhurst Theatre. The musical is inspired by the 1995 album of the same name by Morissette and deals with pain, healing and empowerment. For tickets, and more information, visit the productions official Broadway site. AINT TOO PROUD Aint Too Proud, a musical about The Temptations, will return Oct. 16 at Imperial Theatre. The musical follows The Temptations extraordinary journey from the streets of Detroit to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With their signature dance moves and unmistakable harmonies, they rose to the top of the charts creating an amazing 42 top 10 hits with 14 reaching No. 1. Tickets are available for purchase online. DIANA THE MUSICAL Diana the Musical, which tells the story of Princess Diana, will reopen Dec. 1. In 1981, an assistant kindergarten teacher married the Prince of Wales and, overnight, became the most famous woman in the world. But behind the fairytale, there was a troubled marriage and a young woman struggling to find her voice. Facing an entrenched monarchy and unprecedented media scrutiny, Princess Diana surprises everyone including herself as she grows into a global phenomenon and manages to change the world. For tickets and available dates, visit TicketsonSale.com. SIX SIX, a musical about the six wives of Henry VIII, starts Sept. 17 at the Brooks Atkinson Theater with an official opening night on Oct. 3. To purchase tickets, visit SIXonBroadway.com. MRS. DOUBTFIRE Mrs. Doubtfire opens in previews on Oct. 21 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, with opening night on Dec. 5. Here is the premise of the show, according to its official website: Daniel Hillard, a struggling, out-of-work actor, will do anything for his kids. After losing custody in a messy divorce, he creates the kindly alter ego of Scottish nanny Euphegenia Doubtfire in a desperate attempt to stay in their lives. As his new character takes on a life of its own, Mrs. Doubtfire teaches Daniel more than he bargained for about how to be a father. For tickets and updated information, mrsdoubtfirebroadway.com. JERSEY BOYS Though this show is considered off-Broadway, it deserves mention that the Jersey Boys are back in town. The show will return New World Stages on Nov. 15. For more information on how to purchase tickets, visit jerseyboysinfo.com. Heres the shows premise, according to its official website: They were just four guys from Jersey, until they sang their very first note. They had a sound nobody had ever heard and the radio just couldnt get enough of. But while their harmonies were perfect on stage, off stage it was a very different story a story that has made them an international sensation all over again. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Massimo Felici is feeling a boom on the way for the economy. As business gets back to normal again, hes delighted to see patrons populating his newly expanded VINUM in Stapleton. With the Open Restaurants program in New York City, hes put tables in a roadside corral and on three different backyard levels, courtesy of tents in formerly al fresco spaces. Being shut down like that for a year, people want to get outdoors, even if its for a drink or cocktail. I dont think people are going to go away a lot this summer. If theyre traveling theyll stay a lot more local, said Felici. He added, Our clientele will not be going to Manhattan anytime soon theyll be frequenting the neighborhood places. Manhattan has become dirty and dangerous. Here's a closeup of that chop. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri) In this version of The Dish, we take a tour of Felicis labyrinth of dining areas. And for lunch, the chef serves a double-cut pork chop, a charcuterie platter of cured duck and wild boar meats plus a delightful, pounded and breaded veal chop topped with Fontina and Italian ham. Also rounding out this days lunch options are VINUMs signature meatballs stuffed with a little surprise and an herbaceous version of a gin and tonic made with Hendricks gin. What would Felici change in this recovery period if he had the ear of local politicians? They have to revamp the Health Department, he said. Why are you walking in my restaurant at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night? Because were an ATM machine, Felici said. He opined, The city is out of touch about what it takes to keep a restaurant open and generate revenue. Hear more of what Felici has to say about winning a Michelin designation called Bib Gourmand. And find out some of the restaurant news happening on Forest Avenue in this weeks episode of The Dish where we talk about all Staten Island food. Pamela Silvestri is Advance Food Editor. She can be reached at silvestri@siadvance.com. Massimo Felici thinks that patrons will come out in full force this summer as they stay more local due to COVID concerns in the recovery stage of the pandemic. He thinks it will be great for restaurants. (Staten Island Advance/Pamela Silvestri) And for more of The Dish tune in next Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. on the Staten Island Advance Facebook platform. For now, here are prior episodes. Cinco de Mayo 2021 on Staten Island is so much better than last year | The Dish After the steak and thick-cut bacon came the raspberry-spiked brownies | The Dish Return of the power lunch on Staten Island | The Dish A bit of Del Posto restaurant comes to Staten Island | The Dish Dining by the water and talking restaurant nostalgia | The Dish West Brighton bar turns into a full-blown restaurant during COVID-19 | The Dish 3 new dining ventures on S.I. and they couldnt be more different | The Dish Making mozzarella, enjoying the Great Kills marina and Greek food on Staten Island | The Dish 3 Easter food tours around Staten Island | The Dish 3 S.I. restaurant proprietors sum up the state of the business | The Dish Watch: What The Staaten looks like as catering halls reopen | The Dish Tasting Taste of India II | The Dish Novellis Brings Back the Mozzarella Bunny | The Dish Throwing a party? Here are some tips in the pandemic | The Dish A Forest Avenue restaurant conversation. Join in | The Dish Food Network welcomes restaurant owner Ed Canlon to a new reality cooking show |The Dish Watch: Dolce Fantasia for French-Italian food and fresh pastries on Forest Avenue | The Dish Exploring a few of Rosebanks breakfast and vegan eats | The Dish Juicy Lucy on her alter-ego restaurant, the new Juicy Lucia | The Dish Beans n Leaves tests a Superior hot cocoa | The Dish Take a tasty tour of a chocolate factory on Staten Island | The Dish Watch a chocolate bomb explode and taste gourmet smores on Staten Island | The Dish STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Since the Global Medical Relief Fund Pop-Up Food Pantries were such an enormous success in the past, organizers are hosting yet another elaborate distribution set for Saturday, May 15 from noon until 2 p.m. at 112 MacFarland Ave. at the corner of Sand Lane, across from PS 39, in Arrochar. Since the others were so successful over the last few months while some other food pantries have become depleted during the coronavirus pandemic GMRF is reprising the offering in order to offer assistance to those in need in the community of Staten Island. Available will be packaged foods, canned goods, cereals, tissues, paper towels, and other much-needed items that will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, some of which is being supplied by City Harvest, New York Citys largest not-for-profit food rescue organization. Elissa Montanti, director and founder of the organization, said she decided to invest in a food distribution to give back to our community during this sensitive time when so many have been affected in one way or another by the coronavirus. Montanti, as well as other organizers, ask that participants wear a mask or facial covering and practice social distancing while picking up food packages. Those who would like to donate unexpired, non-perishable items may do so before Saturday and are asked to drop off items at the same location from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The mission of GMRF is to help children in need who are victims of war, natural disasters or other catastrophes locally and worldwide. For additional information phone 718-448-6984, extension 103. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. The internet has exploded the last few days with news of Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck rekindling their romance, but the reunion started way before then, as in February 2021, when Affleck starting lavishing his ex-fiance J-Lo with love letters via emails, according to TMZ. Back in early February, J-Lo was in the Dominican Republican filming Shotgun Wedding but was in regular contact with Affleck, who expressed his love and longing for her in his emailed missives, said a source to TMZ. Affleck reportedly told J-Lo how beautiful she looked and how he wished he couldve been with her. The source says Affleck, after seeing photos of Jennifer in the D.R., wrote J-Lo to tell her how beautiful she looked, and how much he wished he could be down there with her. At the time, J-Lo was still engaged to former New York Yankee, Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod and J-Lo broke up in April 2021. According to TMZ, the emails went back and forth until the conclusion of J-Los filming in late April. Recently, J-Lo and the Oscar winner-Affleck have been spotted multiple times going to J.Los California home during the day, according to the N.Y. Post, after having been picked up in a white Escalade SUV that allegedly belongs to Lopez and then taken to her nearby mansion. According to the Post, the reunited Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez were spotted on May 8, vacationing in Montana. They stayed at the Yellowstone Club, an exclusive resort known for its romantic scenery. Past guests have included Bill Gates, Justin Timberlake and Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- If you dream of hitting the lottery, you may want to keep close tabs on Lucky Larry DiAntonio, store manager of Stop & Shop in Port Richmond. The Castleton Corners resident is known as Lucky Larry for good reason. This week his store on Forest Avenue sold a $32,000 dollar Take 5 lottery ticket. Thats the fourth big winning ticket that a store run by Lucky Larry has sold in the last three years, and each win took place at a different Stop & Shop location on Staten Island. In 2018, DiAntonio was running the Hylan Boulevard Store in New Dorp when it sold a $245.6 million dollar Powerball ticket. And DiAntonio was in charge of the Richmond Avenue Stop & Shop on Staten Island in 2019 when two $1 million tickets were sold there. For this reason, Lucky Larry has been touted as Staten Islands very own good luck charm. I feel really good when people win. You hope whoever wins that kind of money will donate a portion of it to help take care of less fortunate people, said DiAntonio, who has been employed by Stop & Shop as a store manager for the last 17 years. It also makes me feel good that maybe I brought some luck to these people. Having worked in the supermarket industry for more than 45 years, DiAntonio said the best part of his job is meeting new people. I have circulated around Staten Island and New Jersey, working in different Stop & Shop stores. The thing you miss most about moving from one store to another is not the store itself, its the people who work there and the customers, he said. Ive become familiar with a lot of our shoppers. Its almost like an extension to your family, added DiAntonio. FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOK and TWITTER STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said former House Republican Chair Liz Cheney could no longer serve in that capacity because her opinion was not in line with the majority of the conference she represented. Staten Island and South Brooklyns freshman congresswoman told the Advance/SILive.com, All members are entitled to their own opinion, but when that opinion is out of sync with the majority of our conference, you cannot serve as chair. She continued, Instead of joining Speaker Pelosi in demonizing President Trump, Republicans must be united to stop the destructive path our country is currently on under one party Democrat rule. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) was removed from her position on Wednesday following a closed-door vote. The removal comes after Cheney publicly spoke about her opposition to former President Trumps rhetoric and her partys backing of a stolen election. We cannot both embrace the big lie and embrace the Constitution. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office, Cheney said after the vote, the Daily News reported. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement about Cheneys removal, calling her a leader of great courage, patriotism and integrity. For the sake of our democracy, reasonable Republicans across the country must take back their party, Pelosi said. Soon after the vote, Rep. Elise Stefanik announced her candidacy for conference chair. We know that the American people overwhelmingly reject the radical Democrats Socialist agenda, but we need to ensure they are hearing our unified conservative vision on the issues that matter to them. Our communications posture must be to go on aggressive offense ever single day to break through the biased media. Our Conference must engage across all media platforms including conservative outlets and alternative tech platforms, Stefanik said in a letter announcing her run. Shortly after, Malliotakis announced her backing of Stefanik, whom she calls a good friend and strong leader. .@EliseStefanik is a good friend and strong leader. As a fellow New Yorker, she understands the destruction caused by one party Democrat rule and will work hard to stop it. She will make a fantastic Conference Chair and has my full support, Malliotakis tweeted Wednesday. FOLLOW KRISTIN F. DALTON ON TWITTER. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. A 1,300-foot container ship will float past Staten Island next week and become the biggest vessel to dock on the East Coast, the Daily News Reported. The CNA CGM Marco Polo, exiting the Strait of Gibraltar Tuesday night, is slated to drop off goods at the Elizabeth-Port Authority Marine Terminal on May 20 passing under the Verrazzano-Narrows and Bayonne bridges. The Marco Polo is slightly larger than the CNA CGM Brazil the ship that last held the crown for the largest to call at a port on the East Coast, the report said. Containers are see on the Marco Polo (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images) Getty After it docks in New Jersey, the Marco Polo will then continue down the coast towards Norfolk, Virginia, the report said. The ship, built in 2012, is able to pass under the Bayonne Bridge after its roadway was raised in recent years in an effort to accommodate larger, 21st Century vessels. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Donate electronic devices to help support these high school students on their mission to foster a love of language through literacy in children. Bridge to Literacy, a student-led international nonprofit organization, will be hosting an electronics drive at Staten Island Technical High School on Saturday, May 15 from 10:00 AM 1:00 PM. Through Best Buys trade-in program, the organization will trade in donated mobile electronic devices in exchange for money to purchase new tablets for elementary and middle school students in Kenya and Ukraine. The tablets will serve as useful learning tools for the students school work as well as Bridge to Literacy learning programs. They will be delivered to the students through Bridge to Literacys partners, Mishpacha Orphanage in Ukraine and World Meets Kenya. Today, Bridge to Literacy has more than 100 volunteers from all over the United States and world including California, Egypt, Belarus, and India and approximately 70 students. Gary Shteyman and Elizabeth Shvarts, who are both juniors at Staten Island Tech, co-founded the Presidential Volunteer Service Award certified organization in 2019. Shteyman and Shvarts are both first-generation immigrants whose parents instilled in them a deep appreciation for language and literacy. Both have competed nationally in activities centered around language Shteyman as a debater and Shvarts in spelling bees Elizabeth and I had a lot of reading studies. And then when we got older, we realized that a lot of the kids around the world dont have the same opportunities as we did, said Shteyman. Elizabeth explained that she began to notice disparities in education and access through debate and spelling. A lot of these competitions are based on how much financial resources a school has or how much financial resources you have, said Shvarts. She referenced study materials and expensive tutors as examples of resources that only some students may have access to not only for extra-curricular activities but also schooling in general. So, we really wanted to address the root of that situation and ensure that everyone could receive the same education opportunities we did, no matter their geographical location or financial background, she continued. Bridge to Literacy asks that all donations be placed in Ziploc bags with the name and model number of the devices written on the outside. Devices should be in fairly good condition and must have their data wiped before being donated. Also, include the charger for the device in the bag. Any high school students that donate to the drive are eligible to earn five hours for National Honor Society. Send any questions you have to bridgetoliteracysi@gmail.com STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. With the June 22 primaries approaching, candidates continue to lay out their cases, and rack up support from a variety of sources. Assemblyman Mike Cusick is joined by (from left) Assemblyman Charles Fall, Borough President candidate Mark Murphy, City Councilwoman Debi Rose, and State Sen. Diane Savino during an endorsement announcement for Murphy Thursday, May 6, 2021. (Staten Island Advance/ Paul Liotta) BOROUGH PRESIDENT CANDIDATES EARN ENDORSEMENTS Last Thursday, Staten Islands delegation of Democratic elected officials offered their support for Mark Murphy, a Democratic candidate in the race to replace Republican Borough President James Oddo. Murphy, the son of former Democratic Rep. Jack Murphy who served as the Islands congressman from 1963 to 1981, had already earned the endorsement of the local Democratic Party after it February convention. On Thursday, State Sen. Diane Savino (D-North Shore), Assemblyman Mike Cusick (D-Mid-Island), Assemblyman Charles Fall (D-North Shore), and City Councilwoman Debi Rose (D-North Shore) made their official endorsements of Murphy on the steps of Borough Hall. Knowing this borough, and being a son of Staten Island, and being somebody who has lived here and knows the issues, the problems that people face thats why Mark Murphy will make a fantastic borough president, Cusick, who also chairs the local Democratic Party said. Lorie Honor, one of Murphys opponents in the upcoming Democratic primary, earned some endorsement of her own. Longtime Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Brooklyn/Manhattan/Queens) and Chris Smalls a former Amazon employee on Staten Island turned labor organizer both voiced their support for Honors candidacy this week. Amazon fulfillment center workers walk off the job due to what they deem unfavorable working conditions as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Monday, March 30, 2020. (Staten Island Advance/Alexandra Salmieri) Maloney, a member of Congress since 1993, is the first federal official to weigh in on the race, and described Honor as an energetic champion for equality and for Staten Island. Smalls, who is leading a union organization effort at Staten Islands Amazon facility, credited Honor for her work to put workers first. Since I first met Lorie, she has been a dedicated organizer in the community and always stood alongside workers fighting for their rights, Smalls said She has been extremely supportive of our movement at Amazon, and I look forward to working alongside her when she is elected. On the Republican side, City Council Minority Leader Steven Matteo (R-Mid-Island), who received the local partys endorsement, earned the support of the city police Captains Endowment Association (CEA). Matteo has also been endorsed by the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), the Detectives Endowment Association, and the Lieutenants Benevolent Association. You recognize the need for police and the importance of supporting them, CEA President Chris Monahan wrote to Matteo Thursday. We look forward to working with you on any and all issues that affect organized labor and/or law enforcement in your community. One of his Republican primary opponents, Leticia Remauro, also secured an endorsement from former NYPD Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who also served as the citys correction commissioner and briefly as the interim Minister of the Interior of Iraq in 2003. Tough. Loyal. Clear eyed. Unafraid. Smart. These are leadership qualities. This is also how many describe Leticia Remauro, which is why shell make an excellent Staten Island Borough President, he said. Im supporting Leticia for BP because today we live in a world where leadership is lacking, and Staten Island needs the best of the best. PBA YET TO WEIGH IN ON MAYORAL RACE While the PBA has weighed in on a number of Staten Island races, the citys largest police union has yet to make its voice heard in the mayoral race. On Monday, President Pat Lynch said theyd been in contact with several candidates, but had yet to make any final determination. After a shooting in Times Square over the weekend, multiple candidates, including Democratic front runners , including Andrew Yang and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, calling for an increased focus on public safety. If these candidates want to make the city safer, they need to say clearly and emphatically that they will support New York City police officers in our public safety mission, Lynch said. Then, they need to lay out a very detailed and realistic plan for turning those words of support into action. Thats what cops are looking to hear from our next mayor, whoever it may be. COMPTROLLER CANDIDATE LAYS OUT PLAN FOR STATEN ISLAND Apart from the 13-person Democratic mayoral primary, this years Democratic primary for comptroller is the most crowded citywide with 10 candidates. Councilman Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn) became the first to announce a specific plan for Staten Island, that he says will make government work better. One of the races more progressive candidates, Lander has supported policies like housing the homeless in the citys hotels, and defunding the police during his time in office. Landers plan to benefit Staten Island if elected comptroller includes things like property tax reform, transportation and resiliency infrastructure, and longterm waterfront investment. I see the comptrollers office as being the office assigned to taking the long-term view, he said. Other elected officials are going to focus on whats in that headline tomorrow, but the comptroller is supposed to be thinking years down the road. STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday said that New York State could approve the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for kids between the ages of 12 and 15 as soon as Thursday. The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use of the vaccine for kids of those ages. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to do the same on Wednesday, paving the way for New York to act. Citing low infection rates among children and safety precautions being taken in schools, Mayor Bill de Blasio said that COVID-19 vaccinations would not be required for children in city public schools. The state had announced earlier that students attending SUNY and CUNY schools this fall would have to be vaccinated. Vaccines can only be mandated if the FDA approves them for full, not just emergency, use. The coronavirus pandemic has turned our world upside-down, and we need information like we never have before. How many new cases were there on Staten Island today? How many deaths? How many people have been released from the hospital? What are out elected officials, federal, state and local, doing to keep New Yorkers safe? What other news is top of mind? More importantly, when are we going to get back to normal, whatever normal is? Its almost too much to keep up with. So every day around 4 p.m., Mark and I take to Facebook Live to give you all the information you need. You can then look for this written wrap-up on SILive.com at the end of the day. Well give you the numbers and all the latest news. Well answer your questions. Well follow up on your news tips. Well share the good news too, the way that the Staten Island community is coming together in this time of crisis. Or well just share this strange and unique pandemic moment with you, as fellow Staten Islanders. Were all in this together. Well all get through this together. By Mariam Mokhtar Umno-Baru celebrated its 75th anniversary on 11 May. Its president Zahid Hamidi currently faces a slew of charges in court from CBT to money laundering. He was forced to put a brave face on what would normally have been an auspicious celebration, but the whole nation will reflect on Umno-Baru's performance. Zahid was right to claim that Umno-Baru was the biggest party in Malaysia and enjoyed a long track record of governing the country for 63 years. However, many of us will disagree with his boast that Umno-Baru was a party which Malaysians trusted. Really? Today, Umno-Baru is a party divided. From a party that claimed to defend the Malays, there is internal squabbling, openly hostile displays of power grabbing because its leaders are aware that with power comes the ability to make millions of ringgits on the side. Instead of a party that once helped champion the rights of Malaysians, it is viewed as a party of leaders who feather their nests, reward their family members and cronies, and abuse their powers. In other words, the leaders only look after their own interests. Umno-Baru was spawned from Umno during Malaysia's worst constitutional crisis of 1988, in a series of events created by its former president Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Today, Malaysians would be hard pressed to imagine that the party Bersatu, or the coalition Perikatan Nasional (PN), are different from Umno-Baru. They are not! Both are clones of Umno-Baru and the former coalition of Barisan National (BN). Several leaders of Bersatu are former members of Umno-Baru. They may have a different uniform and logo, but they still exhibit the traits of Umno-Baru. What can Umno-Baru claim to have achieved after 75 years? If not for the Sheraton power grab, the anniversary would have been celebrated with much pomp and ceremony. Today, Malaysia is almost bankrupt and the party has been stripped of its former glory. This is perhaps best for the nation, as its leaders, party members and supporters have become too arrogant. The party has been knocked off its perch and emasculated. Whom are Zahid and other Umno-Baru leaders trying to fool when they label Umno-Baru as "trusted"? In other countries, people who steal and commit terrible financial crimes are called thieves. We honor such people by making them prime ministers. The party has a string of leaders who have been charged with corruption, CBT and money laundering. They are awaiting trial or have been sentenced. The convicted criminal Najb Abdul Razak, Abdul Azeez Abdul Raheem and Adnan Mansor are some of the big names associated with sleaze. They have brought shame on the nation and in particular the Malays whom the party seeks to defend. The nation is today divided, just as the party is splintered. In the run-up to Merdeka, Malays, Chinese and Indians rose as one to gain independence from the British. Today, Malaysians claim that they have a new colonizer. Intolerance and religious extremism are on the rise. People of other religions are often insulted by the majority race and religion, but no court dares to charge the people who tried to inflame violence. Malays have a proud history and tradition of culture, dress and language, but in today's Malaysia, many emulate the people of Saudi Arabia. Even this anomaly has been criticized by the Sultan of Johor when he said Malays have no need to be Arabicized. The private lives of Malaysians, in particular the Malays, are minutely monitored by the moral police in what appears to be an influence of the Wahhabi culture of Saudi Arabia. We are a divided nation with non-Malays of Indian and Chinese descent insulted with labels of "pendatang" (immigrants) even though many are 9th or 10th generation Malaysians. Many of the Umno-Baru leaders are themselves of non-Malay stock. They are Bugis, Javanese or Keralan. The gap between the rich and the poor has widened. Many claim that affirmative action policies were successful in lifting some Malays out of poverty, but the policies were then abused by elite Malays. The poor have become poorer and the rich are richer. After they enter politics, Umno-Baru leaders reward their friends, family members and cronies with contracts worth millions of ringgits. Others claim that the social ills of the Malay community have increased, but the leaders have failed to address the problems of child marriages, incest, single mothers, abandoned babies, drug abuse, Mat Rempits and unemployed Malay youth. As recent revelations have shown that Umno-Baru leaders have had their fingers caught in the till. The pilgrimage fund, the retirement fund for the Armed Forces, Mara, Felda and MAS are some of the institutions which Umno-Baru political appointees have pilfered and ruined. Under Umno-Baru's watch, drug and human trafficking cartels and large scale corruption have plagued the police, government and ministerial departments. In other words, if Umno-Baru leaders had been more responsible instead of abusing their powers, Malaysia could have taken a different path instead of being a nation which foreign investors openly avoid. After 75 years of Umno-Baru, Malaysia's good name has been tarnished by its leaders. We are infamous as a kleptocratic nation led by thieves and criminals. Only the will of the people can drag us out of this morass. Source: 1. YouTube: Ucapan khas presiden Umno sempena hari ulang tahun Umno yang ke-75 2. The Star: Ex-Tabung Haji chairman Abdul Azeez fails in bid to quash 13 charges for corruption, money laundering 3. Malay Mail: Stop aping Arabs, Johor Sultan tells Malays 4. Sarawak Report: 10b in bonds looted from EPF to raise $4b for Najib (Mariam Mokhtar is a Freelance Writer.) To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! News featured Winkler Gallery hosts exhibit Thompson announces Congressional Art Contest winners at Winkler Gallery Elaine Haskins / Elaine Haskins U.S. Rep Glenn GT Thompson is shown talking with Perry Winkler, center, and Brian Musser, at Saturdays 2021 Congressional Art Competition exhibit held at the Winkler Art Gallery and Education Center in downtown DuBois. Elaine Haskins / Elaine Haskins Artwork of finalists who participated in the 2021 Congressional Art Competition is displayed at the Winkler Gallery and Art Education Center in downtown DuBois. Elaine Haskins / Elaine Haskins Shown is the winning artwork of Isabella Kern, a senior at Richland High School, who won first place in the 2021 Congressional Art Competition for the 15th District. The title of her art piece is Americas Working Woman. DuBOIS U.S. Rep. Glenn GT Thompson announced the winner of the 2021 Congressional Art Competition Isabella Kern, a senior at Richland High School during an exhibit Saturday at the Winkler Gallery and Art Education Center in downtown DuBois. Kern, of Cambria County, won for her oil paint on canvas titled, Americas Working Woman. Her teacher is Martha Ringler. An independent panel of judges selected Kerns work from a record 70 entries, which is one of the largest groups of students to participate in Pennsylvanias 15th Congressional District Art Competition. Taking second place was Elk County Catholic High School student, Moira Stanish, of Kane, for her graphite pencil art work. Her teacher is Elizabeth Scacchitti. Third place winner was Addison Semelsberger, from Ebensburg, and Central Cambria High School for her graphite on poster art work. Her teacher is Brian Dumm. Fourth place winner was Gina Carnovale, of St. Marys, and Elk County Catholic High School for her graphite art work. Her teacher is also Scacchitti. Fifth place winner was Marcie Orinko, of Brockport, and Brockway Area High School for her watercolor art work. Her teacher is Melanie Oknefski. The Congressional Art Competition began in 1982 to provide an opportunity for members of Congress to encourage and recognize the artistic talents of their young constituents. Since then, more than 650,000 high school students have participated in the nationwide competition. Kerns art work will be displayed in a special exhibit in the U.S. Capitol for one year with winners from each congressional district in the nation. She is invited to attend a reception in Washington, D.C. with other winners, which will take place in June. Stanishs work will be hung in Thompsons office in Harrisburg for one year. Ten students received Honorable Mentions in the competition. Locally, those included: Olivia Matha, Elk County Catholic HS; Madison Hoyt, DuBois Central Catholic High School; Haven Baker, Brockway Area High School; and Liliane Sysko, Brockway Area High School. Congratulations to Isabella Kern on winning this years Congressional Art Contest. Ms. Kern is an incredible artist and I look forward to showcasing her artwork in the halls of Congress for the next year, said Thompson. The talent displayed at the Winkler Gallery of Fine Arts is remarkable. Thank you to all who participated for their hard work and dedication. Additionally, I want to thank the family, friends, and teachers who continue to nurture and support these creative talents and all who helped make this years showcase a success. Closely watched payments unicorn Airwallex has vowed to improve its internal culture after employees in its legal and compliance departments savaged the company in a survey measuring job satisfaction. Leaked screenshots from an internal messaging platform sent in January, obtained by The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, show the majority of Airwallex compliance and legal employees would not recommend it as a place to work to others at that time. These teams registered an employee net promoter score (eNPS) of between negative 12 and negative 15 in a survey taken at the end of last year. Airwallex scored a negative result in a survey that measures job satisfaction across its compliance and legal operations. Credit: The eNPS is a commonly used tool to measure corporate culture and identify problems in an organisation, and a score below zero is considered a sign that a company needs to make significant changes. Airwallex was founded in Melbourne and has become one of the nations most celebrated tech startups. It is the fastest startup in Australia to achieve unicorn status a private market valuation of more than $US1 billion. The company is challenging big banks by offering cheaper and quicker solutions for sending money offshore. Australian artificial intelligence company Appen has been hit by claims of racism in its recruitment processes after it asked job candidates to take a paper bag test about their skin colour. A recruiter for Appen contacted Houston based Charne Graham to apply for a role as a social media evaluator at Appen. But after selecting Black or African American from a drop down box on the online application she was then asked to select her complexion as Light - pale white, White- fair, Median - white to light brown, Olive - moderate brown, Brown - dark brown or Very dark brown to black. Ms Graham posted a screen shot of the question to Twitter and tweeted I did not continue with the [application] after seeing the paper bag test. Charne Graham was perplexed by the questions when she applied for a job at Appen. A paper bag test is a term to describe a colourist discriminatory practice from the 20th century in which an individuals skin tone was compared to the colour of a brown paper bag. Matt Ginsberg is a magician, a stunt pilot and a sub-standard crossword-solver. It annoyed me that I was so terrible, the Oregonian told Jane Wakefield, the BBCs tech reporter. Doubly annoying, as Ginsberg also built crosswords for US papers, often getting stumped by his own clues in hindsight. Enter Dr Fill, no relation to the TV psychologist, yet no less verbal. Ginsberg made the computer program some 10 years ago, as the man is also an AI scientist when not flying loops or vanishing rabbits. A virtual solver, Dr Fill has evolved into a crossword devourer, this year achieving the impossible. Stuck on a crossword? The cyber-solver has arrived. Credit:Tanya Lake A month ago, more than 1000 carbon-based solvers (alias humans) sweltered over tricky grids for the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. Guess who won? Yes, Ginsbergs baby with Wikipedia plus a million words uploaded. Not that Dr Fill collected the prize that went to IT grad Tyler Hinman but the whip-smart program topped every speed-solving table. First time in a decade of trying. Shove over, mammals the cyber-solver has arrived. Though Dr Fills triumph needs a few footnotes, since 2021 offered optimal conditions for the software. Alyce Tran, who has sold her stake in accessories label The Daily Edited. Alyce Tran, one half of popular accessories brand The Daily Edited, has sold her stake to her former business partner after the pair became embroiled in a court dispute over the past two years. Tania Liu, with whom Tran launched the brand while they were working as corporate lawyers about 10 years ago before taking it full time in 2014, took action against her former business partner in a WA court in 2019 over claims Tran had misused company funds. The court action made national headlines in March after affidavits filed to the Supreme Court of NSW by Liu claimed Tran had used funds from the business, whose annual turnover is about $25 million, to fund outside business ventures, personal events and even repairs on her Sydney home. Tran has denied any wrongdoing, and had filed a defence and cross-claim with the court. On Wednesday, Tran confirmed she had sold her stake in the business to Liu for an undisclosed sum, effectively ending the court action between the pair. Airborne transmission didnt begin with COVID-19. What about the over-perfumed person who walks down the aisle of the bus or train, leaving everyone else a bit groggy in their wake? You might argue this is better than a bad case of BO. But is it really? Spare a thought for Napoleon next time you overdo the perfume. Credit:Pixland Give the typical schoolteacher a choice between the smell of 30 sweaty teenage boys and the smell of 30 teenage boys marinated in Lynx, and 90 per cent of teachers will say: Youre right, I really must give up teaching. Its even worse when the boys are wearing Lynx Africa and the girls are wearing Impulse Romantic Spark. I just hope the romantic spark doesnt involve any form of ignition, or the whole classroom could go up. At the function, Qantas took its regular two tables, honouring a tradition of hosting federal departmental secretaries including Treasury Secretary Steven Kennedy , Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo , and DFATs Frances Adamson . But a notable omission was Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce who didnt make it down from Canberra for the post-budget spread. Joyce wouldnt have needed to glad-hand in Canberra, given how just one week ago he had trousered millions of dollars in state incentives and tax relief after sending state premiers Daniel Andrews , Gladys Berejiklian and Annastacia Palaszczuk into a tailspin after floating the idea of moving Qantas and Jetstars headquarters interstate. Amazon, Westpac, BHP were all there to glad-hand Treasurer Josh Frydenberg , who recounted a post-budget encounter with a tough critic his four-year-old son Blake, who was told to shush by his mother Amie during the budget address. Blake later told him attending last nights budget was the most boring thing hes ever done. No-one knows how many millions the trio threw at the airline only for Qantas to announce its headquarters would remain at Mascot in Sydney with its 3500 employees, while its budget arm Jetstars office would remain in Collingwood, Melbourne with 750 staff and the groups heavy aircraft maintenance facility would stay open at Brisbane Airport. We particularly liked the Victorian governments announcement of its failure to wrest the Qantas HQ away from Sydney, in a release headlined More Qantas Jobs To Land in Victoria. Talk about a lipstick on a pig press release, Minister for Industry Support and Recovery Martin Pakula. Given any interstate move Qantas would have had to offer its staff in HQ a redundancy, the likelihood of that was not high. Joyce said each state had put a lot of effort into their offers. You dont say. COUNT DOWN Federal Parliaments stately marble entrance foyer had all the atmosphere of an international departures lounge on Tuesday evening as corporates and political supporters turned out for a packed roster of events for budget 2021. While electorate staffers and good-natured volunteers stood with taxi-style signs ready to ferry guests deep into the parliamentary corridors for private functions for Employment Minister Stuart Robert, Nationals MP David Gillespie and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher, other MPs made up the welcoming party themselves. Step forward Energy Minister Angus Taylor who cut a prominent figure in the foyer waiting for a table of guests he was hosting at the NSW and federal Liberals major budget night function inside Parliaments Great Hall. Taylor was spotted deep in conversation with recruitment magnate Andrew Banks, before the pair walked into the event. The function attracted almost 700 supporters with guests including former Labor leader Simon Crean, investment boss Will Vicars and COVID-19 Commission chair Nev Power. Packer family matriarch Ros Packer was a late-ish arrival, after kicking off the evening as a guest at an intimate drinks event held by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. So too was Industry Minister Christian Porter who made a swift entry only moments before Trade Minister Dan Tehan, Assistant Minister for Women Amanda Stoker and Assistant Defence Minister Andrew Hastie walked out after the national anthem to press the flesh at other, more intimate affairs around the building. A friend of the woman who accused Christian Porter of rape has made a Federal Court bid to stop a high-profile Sydney barrister from acting for him in his defamation case against the ABC. Jo Dyer, who was a debater with the woman in the late 1980s, filed an urgent application in the Federal Court, seeking an order to restrain defamation barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC, from acting for Mr Porter on the basis that she previously advised Ms Dyer in a separate matter. Sue Chrysanthou, SC, is acting for Christian Porter in his defamation case against the ABC. Credit:AAP Ms Chrysanthou, who has acted successfully for a string of famous clients including actor Geoffrey Rush and Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, is part of the star legal team Mr Porter has assembled in his defamation case against the ABC and journalist Louise Milligan. His team is headed by prominent silk Bret Walker, SC. The former attorney-general, now the Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, is suing the ABC and Milligan over a February 26 online article about a rape allegation against a Cabinet minister. Mr Porter was not named but he alleges he was identifiable. Everybody wins in this cash-splash budget except those on social welfare. Again, we see the Coalition government forget the most disadvantaged. The government should remember there will be an election in 2022 and they have already antagonised women, the Indian community, now those on pensions and unemployment benefits. Robert Pallister, Punchbowl People deserve to have their say on council mergers On May 12, 2016 the NSW Liberal government forcibly merged 44 councils against the will of their communities (Mergers have failed, time to split, May 12). This broke an election promise to not force amalgamations. The government relied upon a KPMG report that it still refuses to release to the public and it denied polling to test the will of affected communities. Experts warned that these forced mergers would fail financially and would result in greatly diminished representation and loss of community support. This is exactly what has happened. Premier, you admitted you got it wrong. The time has now come to allow these communities to have a properly conducted referendum and, if it is their wish, get their councils back. Phil Jenkyn, Hunters Hill Northern Beaches Council goes from strength to strength, five years after amalgamation. We are financially stable, despite a $30m financial impact caused by COVID-19, operating efficiently and savings generated from the merger are being reinvested in our community. We have paid down more than $67 million in legacy debt and increased expenditure on maintenance by some $19m pa compared to 2014/15. We are able to spend more than the former smaller councils on new and renewed assets (like playgrounds, playing fields and surf clubs), for example on average an additional $10m/year has been spent in the Pittwater area than before amalgamation. As a result of our sound financial position we could provide $9.4million in COVID rate and fee relief to local businesses and ratepayers. And we have increased many services, using the highest service level of the previous councils, extending library and customer service hours and providing increased cleaning services. Like any new organisation we have faced our challenges but we continue to strive for efficiency and service excellence. I am proud of how far we have come and how much more we can now offer our community. Michael Regan, Northern Beaches Mayor Five years ago we had to rally in the streets to show our displeasure but the government ignored us. Five years later, the chickens are coming home to roost. The bigger amalgamated councils have all ingested up to $25 million each from the government to merge their councils. Unfortunately it appears not to have been enough and now nearly all the merged councils are millions in the red. There is no doubt smaller councils are better at managing their affairs and demergers must be considered by referendum. Penelope Pryke, Mosman There was never a rational justification for these mergers. Tumbarumba and Tumut shires have little in common apart from sharing different halves of the mountain between them. Today our communities face financial disaster thanks to lack of local control, council mismanagement and diseconomies of scale. Neil Hamilton, Maragle The former Bombala Council managed our affairs efficiently and effectively represented our community. The forced merger into the new enormous Snowy Monaro Regional Council saw us lose our cash reserves of over $10 million and local access to council offices except for a 180km round trip by car. Now our mega council is planning a $4.5 million loss for the next financial year. We have no community of interest with Cooma or Snowy and never will have. Grantley Ingram, Bombala Policy failure is choking Sydney Minister Rob Stokes should pause and consider that it is his governments massive motorway developments, coupled with poorly thought out public transport projects and cuts to existing services that has led to Sydney choking on cars (Sydney is choking on cars: minister, May 12). Electric vehicle policy is a different issue to improved public transport. We need both. Tom McGinness, Randwick The minister is wrong about EVs producing more particulates. EVs use regenerative braking to slow down, converting kinetic energy back into electrical energy to make them more quiet and efficient. They rarely use their brake pads. If the minister is truly concerned about weight and particulates, maybe he should ban SUVs instead? Lets see evidence-based policy that supports clean transport. We lag on fuel quality, emissions standards and EV policy. Its time we caught up. Jasper Lee, Ashfield Is this the last word in disingenuous spin? Heres Planning Minister Rob Stokes decrying the congestion on Sydneys roads, while being the prime advocate on behalf of the NSW government for more and more population. The infill housing, the so called missing middle, the apartment blocks side by side Hong Kong-style, the ultimate in developer-led development. This is a huge failure of planning for which who else but the Planning Minister must take responsibility? David Catchlove, Newport Last Saturday it took me 45 minutes to drive from Marrickville to Balmain, some six kilometres away. It took 12 sets of lights to move from Johnston Street onto the crescent at Lilyfield. No accident, no roadworks, just immovable traffic. Sydney is not choking. Its a corpse. Put the deceased estate sign up. Public transport was an answer a long time ago. Too late now. Ross Elliott, Balmain Stock excuse It is good to find humour in the news. Imagine: a third of stockbrokers who sat the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority exams have failed (Stockbrokers furious after mass failure in ethics test, May 12). Take a bow, Commissioner. But there is more. The added chortle was that the industry would be happy to fund a new exam tailored to stockbrokers. I bet it would. Arfer Daily couldnt have said it better. May I suggest that a new, simpler and cheaper exam might be the Ten Commandments, to be found in Exodus 20: 2-17, the study of which was probably overlooked in their earlier years. This suggestion might be a bit old fashioned, but Im sure a lot of clients would benefit from practising its tenets. Les Sisley, Bathurst Thirty one per cent of stockbrokers fail an ethics test, so they call for the test to be scrapped - which largely explains why they failed in the first place. Steve Bright, North Avoca Mountain of waste Good to know that there is now a good reason for climbers of Mt Everest to stop dumping empty oxygen bottles behind on the slopes (Everest climbers told to return empty oxygen tanks, May 12). The number of Nepalese dying from COVID without oxygen support has prompted authorities to look to more responsible and sustainable practices that should always have been in place for international adventurers. Lorraine Hickey, Green Point Fossil fallacy Thank you Bruce Mountain, Bruce Robertson and Ted Woodley for their expert analysis on fossil energy (NSW is dropping $78 million on fossilised energy, May 12). The NSW government must explain why we need to generate more energy from fossil fuels, how the Tallawarra B power station will not become a stranded asset and why we are paying the now Chinese-owned Energy Australia to deliver it when banks declined to finance it. What an extreme waste of money contrary to expert advice. Keith Woodward, Avalon Beach Burning question Given that we now know that hazard reduction burns have little impact on todays bushfires, can we please stop choking Sydney with smoke with such gusto (Bushfires too fierce for mitigation, report finds, May 11). Paul Doyle, Glenbrook Vanishing vaccine In the Herald this week we read that the much-vaunted vaccination hub is up and running and that putting Olympic athletes at the front of the queue will not disadvantage anyone (I havent seen anything like it: Inside Sydneys mass vaccination hub, May 11). Then we received a phone call informing us that the appointment it took two hours to organise, for which we have waited six weeks, is postponed for another two weeks due to lack of supply. Is it surprising that we are becoming more than a little cynical? Anne Dorey, Hornsby Heritage value How strange to argue that North Sydneys MLC Building should go because its an exact copy of one in New York (Letters, May 12). The Statue of Liberty is an exact but larger copy of several in Paris, but no one objects. The MLC Building has state significance and has been recommended for heritage protection. It does matter and it should stay. Diana Wyndham, North Sydney North Sydney Mayor Jilly Gibson believes the council is visionary and forward-thinking when rejecting the heritage value of the MLC Building. Yet she used heritage value to stifle the bike ramp proposal for the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The council may attract more workers to the North Shore if they had easy access to ride to work. Gerard Delany, Shell Cove Despite qualified bodies and individuals stating that the MLC Building is worth preserving and should be placed on the NSW Heritage List, the Mayor of North Sydney is siding with developers wanting to redevelop the site. Her statement that you can see the building falling to pieces must be discomforting to residents and workers who walk and drive past it, let alone those working in it. When are we going to get a government that will establish an independent body of experts to make decisions regarding the preservation of whats left of Sydneys history, instead of unqualified and potentially compromised politicians and the like being able to exert influence over planning decisions? Graeme Kethel, Balmain Send cats in to bat A plague of mice: where are all those feral cats when you need them (Desperate farmers want government action on mouse plague, smh.com.au, May 12)? Linda Veloskey, Hunters Hill Generational gap My husband has always said if he had known how good grandparenting was he would have skipped the children and gone straight to grandchildren (Letters, May 12). So good second time around more time! Mary Williams, Cobargo I am often Spoilsport Grandma, calling out Settle down, too much noise not to my grandchildren but to their noisy, rambunctious grandfather who has a habit of getting them all shrieking with delight and nonsense, usually just before bedtime. Joy Paterson, Mount Annan Apostrophe now How sad to read of the death of John Richards, the day after Id struggled vainly with placement of the apostrophe in Mothers /Mothers Day. Fran Kirby, Castle Hill Jobs jobs jobs Thanks for recalling the now sadly departed, if reliably tedious, Jobson Grothe. At least Jobson got about, where his younger siblings Finn an Shirl are total layabouts, refusing to budge it at all (Letters, May 12). Rosemary OBrien, Ashfield Jobson Grothe is no doubt CEO of some mining company by now, handing out millions to the PM for the next election. Vicky Marquis, Glebe A man has died after he was allegedly assaulted by a man known to him at an apartment block in Rushcutters Bay. Police arrived at the scene on Kings Cross Road in Sydneys inner east about 1.50pm on Wednesday and found a man, believed to be aged 39, unresponsive in a basement parking area. Emergency services on the scene of the alleged assault in Rushcutters Bay. Paramedics performed CPR on the man, before he was taken to St Vincents Hospital in a critical condition. Police confirmed he died a short time later. A crime scene was established and an investigation has commenced into the circumstances surrounding the death. A council is recommending referring its own dealings to police and corruption investigators after it bought a plot of land at an inflated price for a little-known company to build a controversial project. The potential dual probe into the transaction between Murray River Council and Murray River Energy has been slated just weeks after the states council watchdog confirmed it would launch an investigation at the behest of Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock. Moama farmer Guy Anderson next to the site of the proposed ethanol plant. Credit:Kate Geraghty However, a report on which the council on the NSW-Victorian border will base its decision on whether to refer the Moama ethanol plant deal to the Independent Commission Against Corruption and NSW Police is likely to remain secret due to lawyers advising against its release. There is sufficient evidence ... of seriously important, outstanding questions to warrant referral to ICAC & NSW Police as authorities with the power to investigate thoroughly the MRE development, in particular the flow of [council] loan moneys to end beneficiaries, published council papers say. Scientific research has backed up the effectiveness of nurse-to-patient ratios introduced by the Queensland government, showing they demonstrably prevented re-admissions, shortened hospital stays, and reduced costs. The state government introduced the measure in 2016, ensuring a minimum number of nurses-to-patients was to be maintained across Queensland hospitals. Research has confirmed nurse-to-patient ratios introduced in Queensland in 2016 have saved both lives and money. Credit:Joe Armao The government asked experts from the University of Pennsylvania to conduct a real-time assessment of the scheme to make sure it was having a favourable effect. The University of Pennsylvania collaborated with researchers from Queensland University of Technologys School of Nursing for the study, and they have now officially published the results of the review. Combating COVID-19 and future pandemics will require a complete overhaul of indoor air quality standards, an international group of researchers says. Queensland University of Technology air quality expert Lidia Morawska has led a group of nearly 40 researchers from 14 countries calling for a change in thinking around air quality in the wake of the pandemic. QUT air-quality expert Distinguished Professor Lidia Morawska is leading calls for global indoor air quality standards. Credit:QUT They are specifically calling for the World Health Organisation to extend its indoor air quality guidelines to include airborne pathogens, and officially recognise the need to control airborne transmission of respiratory infections. Professor Morawska, who is the director of QUTs International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health, said there needed to be a paradigm shift in the way we deal with air quality in buildings, especially in offices and workplaces. A woman who inflicted a permanent and life-changing head injury on a three-year-old boy she was babysitting could soon meet her own daughter, after a judge said she need only spend three more months in jail. Xing Tong Shen is already eligible for parole after two years in jail. Credit:Penny Stephens Shen and boyfriend Xi Zhang were meant to be caring for the boy while his mother was unwell, but the toddlers stay ended with him suffering a head injury that caused a language disorder and might lead to cognitive problems for the rest of his life. The boys walking was affected in the months after his injury and a paediatrician found he will have ongoing learning, social and physical problems. He spent 12 weeks in hospital. Now aged five, he attends school part-time and requires speech pathology and physiotherapy. A claim by the Victorian government that $93 million was cut from Commonwealth hospital funding has been labelled misleading by the federal Health Minister, who says the state itself asked for less money. The dispute came as the Grattan Institute argued Victoria was getting a raw deal on road and rail spending and would have received an extra $1 billion for transport infrastructure over the next four years if the federal funding allocation matched the states population. Greg Hunt has contradicted Martin Foleys claims about health funding. Credit:Sydney Morning Herald On Wednesday morning Victorian Health Minister Martin Foley said it beggars belief that, during a pandemic, the federal government would cut hospital funding by what his department advised him was $93 million. Mr Foley claimed the drop-off in funding for 2021 would lead to less services, less doctors and less support. The AFL has been collecting contact details from every person who attends matches so it can reach every ticket-holder with this kind of information. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Anyone who travelled on the 5.28pm Craigieburn to Southern Cross service or the Flinders Street to Craigieburn departing at 10.20pm on Friday night has been asked to get tested urgently and isolate until receiving a negative test result. The service is considered a tier-two exposure site. We are working with AFL clubs to reach their members in what we expect to be many hundreds of people on that train, Mr Foley said. Victoria has recorded no further cases of coronavirus in the past day. The Wollert man is counted in Wednesdays numbers as a case acquired interstate. Health officials are still waiting to find out what strain of COVID-19 the man has contracted. Curry Vault restaurant in the CBD. Credit:Eddie Jim Authorities are calling on people who were at listed exposure sites to get tested and isolate, amid concerns not everyone was using the QR code check-in system at the city restaurant the infected man visited. Testing commander Jeroen Weimar said the new case was a wake-up call for Victorians to abide by the very few basic coronavirus restrictions left. Wear a mask on public transport, and in taxis and when you cant isolate, [and] use the QR system wherever you go. Its pretty simple, and thats what we need to retain all these privileges that we have. Loading The government is relying on people who attended exposure sites and did not sign in to come forward for testing. The Health Department has increased testing capacity at 20 sites. There are four tier-one exposure sites, including the TIC group office in Altona North (where the man worked), a Woolworths supermarket and the India Gates Spices and Groceries in Epping, and the Curry Vault Indian Restaurant in Melbournes CBD. The sites were being deep cleaned on Tuesday evening. Late on Tuesday night, the Health Department added the two Metro train services to tier-two exposure sites. Anyone who caught the Craigieburn to Southern Cross service departing 5.28pm and arriving at 6.07pm on Friday, or the Flinders Street to Craigieburn service departing 10.20pm and arriving 11.05pm, is advised to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result. The other tier-two sites are the TIC back warehouse in Altona North and the 7-Eleven on the corner of High and Cooper streets in Epping (between 6.30pm and 7pm on Thursday and between 11.10am and 11.40am on Saturday). Pact Group said workers had been advised to self-isolate and get tested and that its Altona North site had been deep cleaned and was temporarily closed as a precaution. The Wollert man tested positive for coronavirus a week after he had returned to his home from Adelaide, where he had been quarantining in a CBD hotel after departing India via the Maldives and Singapore. The Victorian government wants the federal government to reconsider funding its proposed medical quarantine facility at Mickleham in Melbournes north, after Tuesdays federal budget contained no financial support for it. Mr Foley pointed to a similar facility at Howard Springs in the Northern Territory as an example of why Mickleham should also be funded. We are disappointed that the Commonwealth didnt take the opportunity to fund a medical facility, Mr Foley said. If we want to have a safe system that protects us from this raging pandemic, as the Prime Minister described last night, it is going to be by having the best possible quarantine system in place that requires a partnership between the states and the Commonwealth. The Mickleham proposal is the best partnership model going around. South Australia has become the latest state to announce border restrictions in response to the new case in Victoria. SA Police Commissioner Grant Stevens signed a new direction on Wednesday restricting the arrival of anyone who had visited the exposure sites used by the Wollert man before he tested positive and went into quarantine. Mr Stevens also said authorities had launched a seven-day crackdown on venue check-in avoidance in the state, with police being sent to businesses to warn and potentially fine patrons and owners who dont use QR codes. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Its a stark reminder to us that COVID-19 is in our community. We are currently containing it within many hotels, but there was no guarantee that we wont have an outbreak in the future, so we need the capacity to be able to quickly trace anyone whos been possibly exposed, Mr Stevens said. Loading Anyone travelling from Melbourne to NSW is required to complete a declaration form confirming they have not attended any venues of concern linked to a new COVID-19 case. The new rule came into effect on Wednesday and applies to anyone who has been in greater Melbourne in the previous 14 days. Victorians travelling to Queensland will be forced to quarantine if theyve attended one of the Melbourne exposure sites, and Western Australia is requiring anyone arriving from Victoria who visited exposure sites at the specified times to get tested immediately for COVID-19 and quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure. You can find your nearest COVID-19 testing site here. A parliamentary inquiry has been launched into why Australia lists only one offshoot of Lebanese militant group and political party Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews last week re-listed Hezbollahs External Security Organisation as a terrorist organisation but maintained Australias longstanding position not to do the same for the other wings of the Iranian-backed group. Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews re-listed Hezbollahs external security wing as a terrorist group last week. Credit:Rhett Wyman Parliaments powerful security and intelligence committee on Wednesday said it would review the re-listing of Hezbollah and would probe whether Australia should list the entire group, or at least the rest of its military wing, as a terrorist organisation. The inquiry will place further pressure on the Australian government to explain why it distinguishes between the organisations various wings, a position questioned by MPs from both sides of politics in recent years. Emergency workers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder can access compensation faster and easier in Queensland under laws passed on Wednesday. Frontline workers including police officers, firefighters, child safety and youth justice officers, State Emergency Service volunteers, prison officers, mine rescue teams, emergency doctors and nurses, and paramedics would no longer have to prove their PTSD was work-related. The new laws will apply for first responders. Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace said first responders faced some of Australias biggest challenges, including dealing with catastrophic bushfires, floods, child abuse, car crashes, horrific domestic violence incidents and COVID-19. Each and every day, our first responders are exposed to traumatic incidents that most of us could never imagine, she said. It slows down the response when people havent taken the opportunity [to check in]. Weve now got the data but its taken a little while whether its through delivery sources, credit cards, financial transactions to track down everyone who was at the restaurant. Education and compliance measures are under way, and as we move towards a single QR code system, operators will be guaranteed there will be enforcement planned. Asked whether the owners of the Curry Vault would be fined, Mr Foley said: Im not an authorised officer. Well take advice from authorised officers as to whether there has been a breach. There are pretty strong penalties in place now for breaching public health orders. Curry Vault owner Kailash Sharma said not all customers checked in on the night. It is frustrating, but we cant force everyone, he told Nine News. We cant force people but our duty is to remind them. Victoria Police can issue on-the-spot fines of up to $1652 for adults and $9913 for businesses for refusal or failure to comply with emergency or public health directions. There are penalties of up to $20,000 for individuals and $100,000 for corporations if the matters go to court. Cars queue at a COVID-19 testing site in Craigieburn on Wednesday. Credit:Jason South Opposition frontbench MP David Davis said while both businesses and patrons had a shared responsibility to using QR codes, the government had been inconsistent in its approach to enforcing the system. I think the whole thing is a shambles in Victoria, Mr Davis said. I think the state government has not provided leadership or support for businesses, with many of them weak and vulnerable because of the multiple shutdowns. We need to get the system right. That does mean more assistance, more background support by the government, but it also means proprietors have got to take responsibility and customers need to take responsibility. On Wednesday, South Australia Police Commissioner Grant Stevens announced a seven-day operation to send officers to businesses to warn and potentially fine patrons and owners who do not use the states check-in system. Catherine Bennett, Deakin Universitys chair in epidemiology, said peoples compliance with requirements to wear face masks on public transport and to check into restaurants with QR codes had plummeted following Victorias 75-day streak of no new locally acquired COVID-19 cases. But she said these measures were critical in curbing the spread of an outbreak and allowing contact tracers to move as quickly as possible. Loading This is a real problem because it just slows everything down, Professor Bennett said. We need to maintain vigilance. If you dont use a QR code to check into a restaurant, they will find you if youve paid by your credit card anyway or you might come forward for testing. But it just makes it so much easier if theyve got those details and they can immediately let people know and start the process of doing whats needed to assess the risk. Victoria recorded no further cases of coronavirus on Wednesday. The Department of Health said genomic sequencing released late on Wednesday supported the hypothesis that the Wollert man had acquired COVID-19 while in hotel quarantine in Adelaide. South Australia has banned people who visit Melbournes high-risk exposure sites from entering the state. Those who have arrived in South Australia after visiting one of the sites are required to quarantine for 14 days, and get tested on days two and five. Victorians travelling to Queensland will be forced to quarantine if they have attended one of the Melbourne exposure sites. Western Australia is requiring anyone arriving from Victoria who visited exposure sites at the specified times to get tested immediately and quarantine for 14 days from the date of exposure. There are four tier-one exposure sites, including the TIC group office in Altona North (where the man worked), a Woolworths supermarket and the India Gates Spices and Groceries in Epping, and the Curry Vault Indian Restaurant in Melbournes CBD. The sites underwent deep cleaning on Tuesday evening. TIC Group in Altona North, now called PACT Retail Accessories, is one of the listed COVID-19 exposure sites. Credit:Eddie Jim Late on Tuesday night, the Health Department added two Metro train services to tier-two exposure sites. Anyone who caught the Craigieburn to Southern Cross service departing at 5.28pm and arriving at 6.07pm on Friday, or the Flinders Street to Craigieburn service departing at 10.20pm and arriving at 11.05pm has been advised to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result. Those who caught the Craigieburn to Southern Cross service departing at 5.28pm and arriving at 6.07pm on Friday, or the Flinders Street to Craigieburn service departing at 10.20pm and arriving at 11.05pm have been advised to get tested and isolate until they receive a negative result. Contact tracers are working with the AFL to track down hundreds of fans who attended the clash between Richmond and Geelong on Friday and then travelled on the same Craigieburn line train as the Wollert man. The other tier-two sites are the TIC back warehouse in Altona North and the 7-Eleven on the corner of High and Cooper streets in Epping (between 6.30pm and 7pm on Thursday and between 11.10am and 11.40am on Saturday). Restaurant and Catering Association chief executive Wes Lambert echoed calls for Victorian businesses and customers to diligently use QR codes, but warned that punishing those who breached the restrictions would not always work. If you already subscribe to our print edition, sign up for FREE access to our online edition. Thanks for reading The Henderson News. First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on May 15, 1981. ROME, Thursday. Pope John Paul II, wounded in six places by a gunman yesterday, spent a tranquil night after emergency surgery to repair his intestines, but was running a slight fever, a medical bulletin issued this morning said. Pope John Paul lies wounded in St. Peter's Square after the assassination attempt. Credit:Reuters/Vatican Handout Police are guarding all entrances to the Gemelli Policlinico Hospital, the most modern in Rome, where the Pope was taken after the assassination attempt in St Peters Square yesterday afternoon. Italian police today charged Mehmet Ali Agca, 23, a convicted Turkish terrorist with the attempted murder of the Pope, as well as the attempted murder of two women also wounded in the attack. Agca was charged after a night of interrogation at the Rome police headquarters. He was held by some of the 15,000 in St Peters Square after yesterdays shooting. Cairo: Egypt has announced plans to widen and deepen the southern part of the Suez Canal where a hulking vessel ran aground and closed off the crucial waterway in March. The head of the Suez Canal Authority, Lieutenant General Osama Rabe, announced details of the plan in a televised ceremony in the canals city of Ismailia. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi and top government officials attended the ceremony. The plan includes widening the canals southernmost stretch by about 40 metres to the east, on the side of the Sinai Peninsula, Rabei said. That segment would also be deepened to nearly 23 metres, from the current 20 metres. That part of the canal is 30 kilometres long. The plan also includes a 10-kilometre-long extension of a second lane of the waterway that opened in 2015. That would bring the double-lane stretch of the canal to 82 kilometres, allowing more vessels to pass through the canal. New York: A prosecutor says that the man accused of killing eight people at spas in and around Atlanta had targeted some of the victims because they were of Asian descent, and said she was planning to seek the death penalty against him. The suspect, Robert Aaron Long, 22, who is white, was formally indicted on murder charges on Tuesday, US time, in the four killings at two massage businesses in Atlanta, which shook the country in March amid a wave of anti-Asian hate crimes. The women were Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63. One of the massage parlours where a gunman killed several Korean women in Atlanta. Credit:AP Grand jurors also indicted Long on one count of domestic terrorism, saying he had intended to intimidate the civilian population of Georgia. PHILIPSBURG:--- On Thursday, 7 May 2021, University of St. Martin (USM) President Dr. Antonio Carmona Baez and Dean of Academic Affairs Dr. Rolinda Carter welcomed the first and third vice-presidents of the Collectivite de Saint-Martin to the university campus at Philipsburg. Madame Vice-President Valerie Damaseau, third Vice-President for Education, Madame Sofia Carti-Codrington, and their assistants set foot on USM campus last Thursday morning to engage in an introductory meeting with the university administrators and to explore the possibilities for USM to enhance its services to the local population living in the French territory. Dr. Carmona reminded the French side authorities that USM was founded in 1989 to serve the entire island (Sint Maarten/Saint-Martin) and that it has grown from being a training school in hospitality to a full-fledged institution of higher education and research. The islands sole university for locals sees students, faculty, and staff hail daily from across the border. Our mission is to contribute to the socio-economic development of the entire island. Since 2018, when I assumed the head administrative position at USM, it has been my intention to strengthen ties with the community in the North and receive recognition from the Collectivite and the government of France. Today I feel that we have taken a step closer to those goals, said Carmona. Dr. Carter, who was born and educated on the French side prior to pursuing her tertiary education at USM, took the chance to share with those in attendance her successful transition from the French to the Anglo-Saxon system, the programmes that USM offer, and how such a partnership can further benefit the island as a whole. While the university plays a role in providing degree programmes that help shape the community, the availability of these are based on research and in consultation with government data. Having a clearer view of what the island, and not just the South, needs will further foster tertiary education in the island of St. Martin. VP Damaseau and 3rd VP Carti-Codrington informed USM that as of late, legislation allows for French authorities to sponsor or financially support students in their academic endeavors outside of French territory. We can explore the implications of this legislation for our island and USM, and look further to other areas where the university can be of service stated Carti-Codrington. Damaseau, who recently participated in a public forum on International Womens Day sponsored by USM and Telem, recognized the efforts made by Carmona and Carter in promoting higher education, and applauded USM for its rebranding and continued commitment to the islands diverse community. The dignitaries expressed their satisfaction with the meeting and look forward to following up with other authorities of local government as well as by informing the Prefecture of the possibilities of collaboration. In new research projects in the areas of sustainability, food security, economic diversification, and climate change challenges, USM hopes to engage stakeholders, including the Collectivite. PHILIPSBURG:---Independent MP Christophe Emmanuel said that it is his opinion that the board of SMMC outright lied to the Minister of VSA Omar Ottley when it stated that the Australian national it brought in to run SMMC was here on an evaluation only. The board knew full well what its intentions were until the plan got exposed, the MP said. MP Emmanuel highlighted last week that the board was going to appoint Grant Muddle, an Australian, as Director of the St. Maarten Medical Center. The MP also disclosed Muddles questionable history at his previous hospital tenure in Papua New Guinea and called for the reversal of the decision to appoint him post-haste. The MP also called for the dismissal of the entire board who feel like kings in their own castle. So here comes the board back-peddling a lying. A total lack of acceptable corporate practices by making a candidate (their words) privy to hospital information he should not be privy to as just a candidate, the MP said. He explained that by the time Muddles pending appointment became public, he had reportedly already met with the general contractors of the hospital INSO and provided updates on the progress of the project. According to media reports, the MP continued, Muddle was also asked to leave a meeting with the board and The Windward Islands Healthcare Union (WIHCUA). He was in a meeting where the union was fighting for the workers to get a 10% increase in salary rather than 5% the board is proposing. Thats how much they value the workers and the board wanted Muddle to understand that, the MP said. He was present and involved from the start because had his appointment not been made public, they would have gone ahead as normal like nothing happened. So the board lied to the Minister. The Minister now should tell them, to tell the gentleman thanks, but he can stay in Australia. And if he is here, and him send back with a friendly thank you. This foolishness of appointing non-nationals above locals must stop, the MP stressed. When and where was this vacancy advertised? And for how long was it advertised? How is it that nobody on St. Maarten knew about this vacancy? What are we doing in this country by continuously relegating our people as onlookers while others get the opportunities at top positions? This is not right and stifles any form of nation-building and is insulting to the people of St. Maarten, not to mention insulting their intelligence, the MP said, adding that the Minister must ensure that the other candidate mentioned by SMMC is from St. Maarten. We have enough qualified people here, offer it to them. The MP urged Ottley not too naive when faced with the likes of Jim Rosen and Robert Jan James of the SMMC. Remember Only We Can Save We and your strong stance for St. Maarten people. Send a message and tell them to send the gentleman home, the MP said. According to the media in Papua New Guinea, some of the allegations labeled against Muddle there include misappropriation of hospital funds (failure to reimburse the hospital with funds which were paid to him as advance salary), breach of public service laws in that country, mismanagement and unilaterally putting a stop to all training programs funded by the hospital, when training and further education is an important component in upgrading staff. He was eventually sidelined until a replacement could be found according to the media. PHILIPSBURG (DCOMM):--- The application process for the annual Hurricane Passes for the 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season which starts June 1 and runs through November 30, commences on Wednesday, May 12. There are two types of passes, the Disaster Pass and the Hurricane Pass. No passes will be issued to business owners, only with some exemption categories as noted below. The pass allows the bearer to access the public road to visit the place of business to assess possible damage to the property. No company passes will be accepted during curfew hours. This can only take place during certain hours that will be stipulated and announced by the Prime Minister in a curfew situation. Potential applicants have until June 15 to present all relevant information related to the process of requesting a pass. Disaster Passes are issued to the following crucial disaster relief organizations and are valid for three years. The disaster relief organization consists of the following: Emergency Operations Center staff, Emergency Support Services staff, Crucial governmental organizations and entities involved in disaster management such as medical institutions, general practitioners and pharmacies, Red Cross, WIEMS, White & Yellow Cross, National Security Service VDSM, Sea Rescue, Shelter Management, Ministers and their drivers. The following categories qualify for a Hurricane Pass which is valid for two-years: Essential Government personnel without a disaster pass; Essential personnel of crucial companies or organizations: NV GEBE, Seven Seas Water, Telecom and Internet providers, Princess Juliana International Airport, Port St. Maarten, Hotels and Guesthouses, Marinas, Fuel distributors and gas stations, Commercial banks, Medium and large sized supermarkets, Restaurants (those providing food services to emergency services), Importers and Wholesale Companies for perishable goods (Only requests can be submitted for refrigeration and or generator technicians). The crucial organizations as listed above (disaster & hurricane passes) can request personal passes for their key personnel. The Office of Disaster Management that falls under the Ministry of General Affairs is handling the application process for the passes on behalf of the Prime Minister. The Hurricane Pass is valid for the 2021 hurricane season and will remain the property of the Government of Sint Maarten. Please note that no company passes will be accepted during curfew hours. The pass system is a mechanism to maintain public order during emergency situations. The Prime Minister assesses the damage in conjunction with Emergency Disaster Management entities of the Government after a disaster has occurred and can impose a curfew if the extent of the damage poses a threat to the safety and security of the community. An application form can be requested by sending an email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Emails should include the following: Name of organization; Request for disaster or hurricane pass. When submitting the application the following documents need to be attached: - copy business license fee paid (or receipt) for 2021; - proof of 2021 registration at the Chamber of Commerce; - copy valid Sint Maarten ID-card of applicant; - Nafl. 50,- in leges stamps per application (to be obtained at the Receivers Office or the Simpson Bay Public Service Center), this is a non-refundable handling fee; - One (1) passport picture for new applicants. The application form has to be completed and submitted to the offices of the Fire Department & Disaster Management, to the attention of the secretary located at Jackal Road 5 (Office hours Monday-Friday 9.00AM to 4.00PM), Cay Hill, by June 15, 2021, with all necessary documents attached. Applicants will be informed by email or telephone when to pick up the pass at the aforementioned address. ~ Government sends letter to PM Rutte. ~ PHILIPSBURG: --- Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs announced on Wednesday that St. Maarten is yet to receive the NAF39M that was promised by the Netherlands. The NAF39M is the 3rd tranche of the liquidity support that was expected earlier this year but was delayed due to the petition filed by the parliament of St. Maarten to the United Nations. While the State Secretary Raymond Knops guaranteed that St. Maarten will receive the promised liquidity support, Jacobs said the government of St. Maarten dispatched a letter to the Kingdom Council of Ministers asking that Prime Minister Mark Rutte follow up on the decisions that were made two and a half weeks ago on the liquidity support for St. Maarten. Jacobs said even though a decision was taken two and half weeks ago by the Kingdom Council of Ministers St. Maarten did not receive one penny thus far, neither did the Minister of Finance received the loan agreement for signature. Jacobs said even that St. Maarten did not receive a written confirmation BZK also agreed to dispatch the 3rd tranche, therefore the government of St. Maarten dispatched a letter to the Dutch Government. PHILIPSBURG:---The Government of St. Maarten has received the first batch of requested vehicles under the Emergency Recovery Program 1 of the Sint Maarten Trust Fund. The vehicles were procured by the National Recovery Program Bureau (NRPB). The vehicles, many of which are replacing stock damaged during the passing of Hurricane Irma, will be used by the different ministries for various operational government services. Amongst the procured items are four ambulances, three fire trucks, one thirty-seater bus, and ten command vehicles for the Ambulance and Fire Department. In addition, several fieldwork vehicles have been procured, including 34 SUVs, 17 pick-up trucks, and three mini-busses (two regular and one protocol). Two crane trucks have also been ordered for the Ministry of VROMI. Prime Minister and Minister of General Affairs Silveria Jacobs has expressed her enthusiasm for the arrival of the first vehicles to the government administration building. She stated, "Both from a disaster management and preparedness perspective and executing day-to-day activities of the various departments, these vehicles will aid us in being more efficient as a government apparatus. These vehicles could not be timelier with the upcoming hurricane season." As the vehicles have been financed through the Trust Fund, the governments budget has not been affected. The first batch of vehicles has already started to arrive and have been handed over to Facilities Management. The remainder of the vehicles will be delivered as they become available in the next few months. EnWave Sells 60kW REV? Machine to AvoLov, LLC d.b.a. BranchOut? Food for the Production of Innovative Avocado Snacks and Ingredients Posted by Publisher Internet EnWave Corporation (TSX-V:ENW | FSE:E4U) (?EnWave? https://www.commodity-tv.com/ondemand/companies/profil/enwave-corp/)?announces today that it has completed the sale of a 60kW Radiant Energy Vacuum (?REV??) machine to AvoLov, LLC d.b.a. BranchOut Food (?BranchOut?), a company based in Bend, Oregon that produces a lineup of ?better-for-you? avocado and fruit snacks and ingredients. The 60kW REV? machine will provide BrachOut with large-scale drying capacity to meet the increasing demand for its portfolio of innovative products made using EnWave?s technology. ?? EnWave also signed a new royalty-bearing commercial license agreement with BranchOut, granting certain manufacturing exclusivity for its line of avocado snacks and ingredients within North, South and Central America (the ?License Agreement?). Under the terms of the License Agreement, BranchOut will pay a royalty to EnWave for all products sold that are manufactured using REV? technology. The License Agreement also stipulates certain performance measures that are required to maintain exclusivity, including minimum annual equipment purchases and annual minimum royalties payable to EnWave. BranchOut has spent the last three years perfecting its lineup of REV?-dried products, which are marketed under its BranchOut? (www.branchoutfood.com) and AvoLov? (www.avolov.com) brands in the United States. BranchOut markets a lineup of clean-label, better-for-you snacks and ingredients made using REV? technology and has recently confirmed new distribution with U.S. retailers including Costco, Sam?s Club and Walmart. With the addition of a large-scale 60kW REV? machine, BranchOut will be able to scale-up manufacturing to meet growing demand. EnWave?s scalable and reliable REV? technology can be used to produce shelf-stable fruit and vegetable products that are among the best in nutritional value, taste, texture and colour. EnWave has signed 44 royalty-bearing commercial license agreements with companies that are bringing innovative new products to market using the Company?s patented technology. Grant of Equity Incentive Options to Investor Relations Consultant The Company also announced today that it has granted 25,000 incentive stock options pursuant to the Company?s Stock Option Plan to Jochen Staiger of Swiss Resource Capital, an investor relations firm providing consultation services to the Company for the European capital markets. The incentive stock options granted to Jochen Staiger are exercisable at a price of $1.37 per share, the last closing price per share on the Company?s common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange on the date of the grant. The incentive stock options are exercisable for a term of five years and will vest quarterly over the next twelve months.? The stock option grant is subject to regulatory approval. About AvoLov, LLC (d.b.a. BranchOut? Food) BranchOut is a family-owned consumer packaged goods comapny based in Bend, Oregon, that is focussed on the development and marketing of ultra-premium better-for-you products that meet the highest standards of quality and taste demanded by today?s consumers. BranchOut?s mission is to disrupt the snacking market with nutritious, healthy fat substitutes that promote and impact healthy living. BranchOut? ?offers a healthy and nutritious lineup of fruit snacks and powders that utilizes premium ingredients sourced from the Northern Patagonia region of Chile. For more information please visit: www.branchoutfood.com and www.avolov.com About EnWave? EnWave Corporation, a Vancouver-based advanced technology company, has developed a Radiant Energy Vacuum (?REV??) ? an innovative, proprietary method for the precise dehydration of organic materials. EnWave has further developed patent-pending methods for uniformly drying and decontaminating cannabis through the use of REV? technology, shortening the time from harvest to high-quality, marketable cannabis products.? REV? technology?s commercial viability has been demonstrated and is growing rapidly across several market verticals in the food, and pharmaceutical sectors, including legal cannabis. EnWave?s strategy is to sign royalty-bearing commercial licenses with innovative, disruptive companies in multiple verticals for the use of REV? technology. It has signed over forty royalty-bearing licenses to date in twenty countries worldwide. In addition to these licenses, EnWave established a Limited Liability Corporation, NutraDried Food Company, LLC, to manufacture, market, and sell all-natural dairy snack products in the United States, including the Moon Cheese? brand.? EnWave has introduced REV? as a disruptive dehydration platform in the food and cannabis sectors: faster and cheaper than freeze drying, with better end product quality than air drying or spray drying. EnWave currently offers two distinct commercial REV? platforms: nutraREV? which is a drum-based system that dehydrates organic materials quickly and at low cost, while maintaining high levels of nutrition, taste, texture, and colour; and, quantaREV? which is a tray-based system used for continuous, high-volume low-temperature drying. More information about EnWave is available at www.enwave.net. Safe Harbour for Forward-Looking Information Statements: This press release may contain forward-looking information based on management\-\-s expectations, estimates and projections. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the Company\-\-s strategy for growth, product development, market position, expected expenditures, and the expected synergies following the closing, are forward-looking statements. All third-party claims referred to in this release are not guaranteed to be accurate. All third-party references to market information in this release are not guaranteed to be accurate as the Company did not conduct the original primary research. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release PROTECT, CONNECT, AND STRENGTHEN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD! Learn more about the LMCR Project HERE and join us on Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at the Rutgers Community Center at 200 Madison St. from 6:30 8:30 p.m. This meeting will focus on the waterfront from Montgomery Street to the Brooklyn Bridge. *This is a paid advertisement. Leading UK brokerage, Newable Finance, to partner with property development software company, Haast Leading UK brokerage, Newable Finance, dedicated to finding finance for SMEs and property backed businesses, has partnered with Haast, a property development software company. Haast helps property developers manage projects and associated finance. Haast have built a software platform that automates the entire development process. On completion of answering a short questionnaire, Haast will build a project plan, timeline and appraisal. The company?s goal is to ensure clients save time and improve performance and support with management and implementation. Haast?s clients? will have a real time view of their developments as well as the funding they received from funding partners such as Newable Finance. Haast?s all in one software system allows clients to check feasibility, connect with suppliers and complete tasks with ease. Max Fitzgerald, Co-Founder of Haast comments ?Both Haast and Newable Finance have a focus on customer experience and it was clear to us from early on that our ambitions were aligned towards making the world of property development and its financial component straight forward and transparent.? Newable Finance forms a key part of Newable, a leading UK provider of money, advice and workspace to SMEs; established in 1982. Newable Finance is an FCA authorised finance broker specialising in property finance. Newable Finance is reported to have decades of experience in complex development finance, direct relationships with senior, junior and equity mezzanine funders, and a successful track record in supporting developers through multiple projects. Clearfield, PA (16830) Today Partly cloudy this morning. Increasing clouds with periods of showers this afternoon. High 83F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Showers this evening becoming less numerous overnight. Low 62F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. The government is considering freeing fully vaccinated people from a ban on gatherings of five or more people. At present, the government only waives self-quarantine rules and lockdown applies even to fully vaccinated people. Interior and Safety Minister Jeon Hae-cheol said in a recent interview, "We proposed an incentive to people to get their vaccine shots. We need to consider a waiver of the ban on gatherings of five or more people or eased restrictions on operating hours for small-business owners as they are directly related to their livelihood." Algiers, 10 May 2021 (SPS) - The UNHCR representative in Algeria, Agostino Mulas, on Monday launched a call for greater support for the Sahrawi refugees and the most vulnerable people living among the community of refugees, adding that the support of these people "is needed more than ever." In a statement on the occasion of the end of the holy month of Ramadan, "the refugees in the Sahrawi camps, those in Algiers and asylum seekers are vulnerable. They find themselves in different and difficult conditions and require urgent care and special needs," Mulas said in a statement. He stressed that the global pandemic has had an impact on the fragile health system in the Sahrawi camps, and has worsened the difficult situation of a population which lives in "difficult conditions in the Sahara desert, and which depends solely on humanitarian aid" Coinciding with the holy month of Ramadan, UNHCR launched the global fundraising campaign "Every Second Counts". Donations received in the form of Zakat, Sadaqah, or general donations can ease the burden on forcibly displaced families who are far from home and loved ones. The UNHCR representative affirmed that "Algeria has a long tradition of solidarity with refugees" but the humanitarian needs are great, therefore, we urgently need the international community and private donors to respond to this initiative that focuses on the donations of individuals to change the lives of refugees and displaced families. Mulas revealed that financial support is needed for UNHCR to continue providing life-saving assistance to refugees and the most vulnerable, stressing that UNHCR protects and provides assistance to Sahrawi refugees living in the five camps near Tindouf and to urban refugees and asylum seekers in Algiers (SPS) 062/090/700 Occupied Aaiun, May 11, 2021 (SPS) - The Moroccan occupation forces kidnapped and tortured a Sahrawi activist, Hasan Dalil, member of the Sahrawi Initiative against Moroccan Occupation (ISACOM) and of the NGO Environmental Protection in Western Sahara, the organization said on Monday. "The Sahrawi activist was forcibly evicted from the home of the activist and former political detainee, Hasanna Douihi, and transferred to the Moroccan Occupation Security Directorate, where he was subjected to psychological and physical torture," ISACOM clarified, noting that the reason for his arrest may have been for raising the SADR national flag on the roof of his home. Moroccan occupation forces and intelligence teams subsequently surrounded Douihi's house to prevent human rights activists and Sahrawi media from visiting it. In a recent joint communication to the Moroccan government, UN human rights experts confirmed "the systematic and widespread violations perpetrated by the Moroccan regime in occupied Western Sahara, pointing to a" hostile environment "for human rights work. Man in this non-autonomous territory. The victims mentioned in the joint communication are well-known Sahrawi activists from the occupied territory who have submitted human rights complaints to the UN. They are, among others, Nazha El Khalidi, Aminatou Haidar, Mahfouda Bamba Lafgir and Yahya Mohamed Elhafed Iaazza. Experts expressed concern "about what seems to attest to a lack of security and a hostile environment towards human rights defenders in Morocco and Western Sahara", citing other forms of repression, including acts of torture, prosecution, threats and constant surveillance. SPS 125/090/TRA As beaches open up for the summer, favorite local seafood restaurants are also opening their doors to hungry swimmers, sandcastle builders and sun bathers. And for those who dont want to go far from the beach to find a meal, youre in luck. A woman described in paperwork as Fotis Dulos best friend is suing to get a $148,000 deposit back from the bond company that covered Dulos $6 million bail issued when he was charged last year with kidnapping and killing his estranged wife, Jennifer Dulos. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in February, Anna Curry, a North Carolina resident who was living with Fotis Dulos when he was arrested, alleges that she is owed the $148,000 deposit she gave 24/7 Bail Bonds, an agent of Palmetto Surety Company, since the company moved to withdraw the $6 million bond on Jan. 28, 2020. Fotis Dulos was charged with murder and kidnapping in the disappearance and death of Jennifer Dulos on Jan. 7, 2020. He was released from custody following his arraignment on Jan. 9 when Curry paid 24/7 Bail Bonds a deposit of $148,000, documents said. Curry was prepared to pay the rest of the $420,000 deposit in installments over several months, filings show, but Fotis Dulos attempted suicide the morning of Jan. 28, 2020. At the time, Palmetto Surety Company, based in South Carolina, was about to revoke the $6 million on the grounds it exceeded the limitations of risk outlined in Connecticut state law, filings show. Fotis Dulos died two days later. Curry now wants the $148,000 deposit returned, but her attorney, Stephen Curley, said 24/7 Bail Bonds and Palmetto Surety Company are refusing to do so, according to filings. The lawsuit claims the bond and surety companies misappropriated her deposit. In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Attorney A. Ryan McGuigan, representing the bail bond company, contends his client fulfilled its obligations by getting Fotis Dulos released from custody. The owner of the company went to his home on Jan. 28 when Fotis Dulos didnt show up in court and found police attempting to resuscitate him, court filings said. We moved to dismiss the claim because she doesnt have one, McGuigan said Wednesday. The bond was never declared bad. Based on the facts and circumstances agreed upon, she doesnt have a claim for relief. McGuigan said in the motion to dismiss that Palmetto withdrew its motion to revoke the bond while Fotis Dulos was in a New York hospital being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning. New York officials confirmed that Fotis Dulos committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning weeks after his death. Currys attorney did not return a request for comment Wednesday. Jennifer Dulos was reported missing on May 24, 2019. She is believed dead by police and her family and her remains have not been found. Arrest warrants indicate that police believe Fotis Dulos was lying in wait for his estranged wife to return home after dropping their five children off at school the morning of May 24, 2019. At the time, the couple was in the midst of in a contentious two-year divorce and custody battle over their children. She was reported missing that evening. New Canaan police investigating the missing persons report found blood and evidence of a clean up in the garage of her home, according to arrest warrants. Fotis Dulos and his girlfriend Michelle Troconis were charged about two weeks later with tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution after they were captured on Hartford surveillance cameras dropping garbage bags in trash bins along a busy street the night Jennifer Dulos was reported missing, arrest records show. The bags contained items stained with the blood and DNA of Jennifer Dulos, arrest warrants said. Troconis and attorney Kent Mawhnney were charged with conspiracy to commit murder on Jan. 7, 2020. By that point, Troconis had been ordered to stay away from Fotis Dulos as their criminal cases proceeded. Troconis told investigators that she was wrong to trust Fotis Dulos, according to court filings by her defense attorney. Curry was listed on bond documents as Fotis Dulos best friend. She had been living at his home in Farmington when he was charged with the murder of his estranged wife. Curry had left the house and was expecting to meet Fotis Dulos at Stamford Superior Court for the hearing on the $6 million bond on Jan. 28, 2020, she told police. She arrived to find Farmington police officers attempting to revive him. President Joe Biden is seizing on this week's dramatic moment of Republican discord by inviting a parade of officeholders from both parties to grapple with major national challenges, hoping to portray himself as working to solve the country's problems in contrast to the Republicans' internal bloodletting. From a bipartisan meeting with governors on the coronavirus on Tuesday to a session with GOP senators on infrastructure on Thursday, Biden is attempting to highlight a contrasting approach to government as a series of big legislative battles loom. The divergent images will crystallize on Wednesday with an unusual split screen. Just before noon, Biden is convening the top party leaders for the first time at the White House - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. That directly follows what is expected to be a dizzying scene on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue as House Republicans oust Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., from her position as their third-ranking leader. Cheney is being targeted for her forceful challenges to the falsehood that former president Donald Trump won the last election. Some Republicans suggested that the turmoil in the House GOP was a distraction. "Hopefully they'll get some of these things settled down in the House and we can unite as a party and focus on the real threat here, which I think is the Democrats' agenda and what it can do to the country," said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, added, "Trying to re-litigate an election which is over and has been concluded by President Trump's own Justice Department as being free and fair is not productive." Democrats, meanwhile, said it made sense to press ahead while the GOP was embroiled in internal warfare. "There's an iron rule in politics, which is that when your opponents are destroying themselves, don't interfere," said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii. He added that Biden "understands that keeping a steady demeanor is not just good personally, it's great politics." This week's flurry of meetings comprises Biden's most concerted effort yet to entice Republicans into a deal on an infrastructure package, even as he conceded last week that he doesn't fully understand the Republican Party as it goes through what he called "a mini-revolution." White House officials view this week as a crucial barometer of how much agreement they can find with Republicans, if any. The White House urgently wants at least one bipartisan accomplishment to tout by the 2022 midterms, and beyond the infrastructure bill, talks are underway on a bill to confront China and on a police overhaul measure. But serious hurdles remain, including Democrats' internal divisions and McConnell's signals that he is determined to deprive Biden of a bipartisan win. Biden also has talked this week with key Democratic centrists, speaking Monday with Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Tuesday with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden is attempting to avoid Republicans' internal squabbles. "At no point is our effort to fight for bipartisanship about being an arbiter or mediator between intraparty fighting in the Republican Party," Psaki said. "So we'll let the intraparty squabbling happen at the table over here, and at the table over here - or a smaller table in the Oval Office - we're going to have a discussion about how we can work together." Many of the Republicans' internal debates surround the last election and Trump's role in the party. That applies not just to Cheney's expected ouster, but also to an unorthodox recount underway in Arizona, Trump's insults of McConnell, and a series of battles within state GOP parties. Biden's meetings this week, by contrast, focus heavily on policy - infrastructure spending, semiconductor chip shortages, police restructuring, job creation. "We are continuing to work, even with the family excitement that's happening on the other side of the aisle," Psaki said. Biden held a chummy virtual meeting Tuesday with six governors - three Democrats, three Republicans - to showcase bipartisan efforts to combat the coronavirus. It began with Biden engaging in familiar banter, as he addressed the governors by their first names and joked about the weather. He told a Bidenesque tale about visiting the New York Yankees' spring training accompanied by a Secret Service agent who was wearing socks with a Boston Red Sox logo, adding that he left with a bat from slugger Alex Rodriguez. The president heaped praise on his guests for their work on vaccinations. "Governors in so many states, particularly the six that are here, have been essential partners in this effort," Biden said, adding, "It isn't Democratic progress and Republican progress. It's American progress. And now we've got to take the next step together." Joining the bipartisan tone, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota told Biden that he and his Republican predecessor, Tim Pawlenty, had gotten vaccinated together. Walz added that he tells Republicans in Minnesota that they should get vaccinated, if only so they can stay healthy enough to vote against him. Biden is approaching the talks over his infrastructure plan with far more patience - and, Republicans say, seriousness - than he did the negotiations over his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package in February. Biden had held a meeting with 10 Senate Republicans to discuss the earlier measure, but much of that session involved Biden and his staffers batting down GOP ideas, and the White House concluded the Republicans were not making a serious effort to find common ground. Rather than prolong the discussions, Biden plowed ahead with a package that attracted no Republican votes. This time, Biden and top Senate Democrats have taken a slower approach that includes repeated engagement with Republicans, and have signaled they are willing to compromise on smaller-scale bills if that's what it takes to win GOP support. Biden has set a deadline of Memorial Day to show signs of progress on his spending plans, but so far has not made clear just what type of progress he means. Democrats said Biden's meetings this week are not just for show, but are part of a strategy. "This is a textbook case of how you systematically work to build a coalition," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. "You meet with senators individually. You meet with senators in groups . . .You stay in touch by phone." Wyden recalled being at home recently, barely awake after an exhausting legislative session and dazedly considering whether to make a sandwich, when Biden called just to check in. "His background, his resume, is senator for most of his life," said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill. "He knows how the Senate works and knows how votes are counted. And he's open to talking to people." Meanwhile, some Senate Republicans are signaling they might be willing to compromise with Biden's on an infrastructure plan. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.V ., has released a counterproposal to Biden's $2.3 trillion package. Although it's far below Biden's spending levels, her proposal has been received by the White House as a serious offer. McConnell on Sunday said that he would be open to an infrastructure spending package of up to $800 billion. On Wednesday, McCarthy was in a sense set to embody the Republican divisions. He called the meeting to oust Cheney, largely because she has continued to say forcefully that Biden is the legitimate president. Then McCarthy will head to the White House for the meeting with Biden, whose election victory many in his party question. Psaki said Tuesday that Biden is not bothered by McCarthy's move to oust Cheney. The debate over Cheney is part of the wider fissure in the Republican Party over fealty to Trump, with some eager to move past the former president and others saying that loyalty to him is their path back to power. "The most popular Republican in America - it's not Lindsey Graham, it's not Liz Cheney, it's Donald Trump," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday. "People on our side of the aisle believe that Trump policies worked. They're disappointed that he lost, and to try to erase Donald Trump from the Republican Party is insane." He added, "The people who try to erase him are going to wind up getting erased." But some Republicans worry that Trump is damaging the party's ability to win over women, minorities and suburban voters, who have moved solidly into the Democratic camp in recent elections. "I think it's unfortunate that the former president continues to buttress his ego rather than strengthen the cause of democracy," Romney said. "We should recognize that Joe Biden is president. He's a legitimate president." Others said the party should be able to have tough discussions without turning them into existential dramas. "We need every warm body in the Republican Party," said Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind. "This is something that we're going to have to get through . . . so that even when you have intraparty spats like this, that it's not a discussion [of] 'is it going to put us into irrelevance?' " Other Republicans, however, dismissed the political danger, saying few voters are paying attention to the Washington squabbles. "We have our internal issues like every large group or large family does, especially a large, diverse one," said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. But "to be honest with you, if I sat down in the mall in Bismarck and talked to 100 unmasked Republicans, they wouldn't even know what you're talking about." RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina's Senate approved a bill Tuesday that would require doctors to provide the same duty of care for a child who is born alive after an attempted abortion that they would for any other newborn. Those who fail to make such effort to safeguard a child born after an abortion attempt could face civil penalties and be charged with a misdemeanor, which includes a fine of up to $250,000. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper rejected a similar measure in 2019, citing unnecessary interference between doctors and their patients." Republicans overturned his veto in one chamber, but did not have the votes to do so in the other. The latest proposal likely would face a similar Cooper veto. Sen. Joyce Krawiec, a Forsyth County Republican and a sponsor of the born-alive bill, said her proposal does not aim to limit a woman's decision about whether to go through with her pregnancy. This has nothing to do with abortion access," Krawiec said. This has everything to do with a living human being breathing outside its mothers body a citizen of this state and of the United States. But Sen. Natalie Murdock, D-Durham, believes Senate Bill 405 is a solution in search of a problem and will have a damaging impact on families. This bill does not protect babies," Murdock said. "It makes it harder for doctors to provide the safe and legal medical care that they are trained to provide. It does not address an actual problem that exists in this state. While Krawiec acknowledged she could not quantify the scope of the problem of children born after an attempted abortion, Sen. Todd Johnson, R-Union, was adamant it does happen in many states, including North Carolina. Abortion rights groups, including Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, oppose the measure, as they consider it an attack on a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina warned that if the bill becomes law, doctors would be forced to make futile efforts to keep alive infants with no chance of survival. Medical professionals are trained to make appropriate decisions about what actions they should take in certain scenarios, Liz Barber, an ACLU of North Carolina policy analyst, said in a news release. It is unimaginable that lawmakers would interject themselves into those final moments in a way that disregards a familys wishes and a doctors training during such a difficult time. Anti-abortion activists say the bill deserves more widespread support. Everyone should be able to agree that the circumstance surrounding a child at birth should not determine their right to life," Tami Fitzgerald, executive director of the conservative North Carolina Values Coalition, said in a release. The vote this afternoon by the North Carolina Senate guarantees compassion and perinatal medical services to any infant born alive as a result of an abortion. The bill passed by a vote of 28-21 and now heads to the House. If given final approval, the measure would head to Cooper's desk. ___ Follow Anderson on Twitter at https://twitter.com/BryanRAnderson. ___ Anderson is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) South Carolina's public schools chief on Wednesday said that the state's governor had no legal basis for allowing parents to opt their children out of wearing masks in schools, writing that Gov. Henry McMaster is "inciting hysteria and sowing division as the school year ends. In guidance sent to state education superintendents on Wednesday, education officials said the agency could find no legal grounds for the governor to set aside a policy instituted by another constitutional officer, under his or her own powers and not due to an emergency declaration. On Tuesday, the governor issued an executive order letting parents opt their children out of wearing masks in public schools, citing widespread coronavirus vaccine access for adults across the state. In response, education officials said that state Superintendent Molly Spearman had opted to rescind a face-covering policy, with an exception of a federally instituted school bus mask mandate, rather than wage a debate over constitutionality that would pit elected officials, students, and families against one another. Guidance had required that students, teachers and staff wear face coverings while entering school buildings, moving through hallways and other instances where social distancing is not possible or optimal. Education officials also wrote that they continue to urge schools and districts to follow DHEC's public health guidance as they have throughout the pandemic. On a media call Wednesday, Spearman said she did not speak with the governor before he issued the order but that she told his staff not to issue it. Brian Symmes, a spokesman for McMaster, said the governor appreciated the cooperation and willingness to follow the law from state education officials. Earlier Wednesday, state health officials released an opt-out form for parents to use if they wished for their children to be allowed to go mask-free at schools where such coverings are required. In posting the form, the Department of Health and Environmental Control also expressed its own split from the governor's decision, noting: "All students, staff and others in schools should continue to wear masks through the end of the current school year. At least one school district, Lexington-Richland 5, has removed its mask mandate this week, even after school board members learned employees were threatening to sue, The State newspaper reported. McMaster's order also banned state and local government agencies from requiring people to show proof of vaccination in order to receive government services or access public buildings and facilities as well. It also limited local governments from issuing mask ordinances based on his prior emergency declarations related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those governments will have to find justification for such mask rules within their own ordinances. Everybody knows what we need to do to stay safe including wearing a mask if youre at risk of exposing others but we must move past the time of governments dictating when and where South Carolinians are required to wear a mask, McMaster said Tuesday. Maintaining the status quo ignores all of the great progress weve made. McMaster himself never implemented a statewide mask rule, instead calling on South Carolinians to show personal responsibility in practicing social distancing and other public health guidelines. ___ Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. ___ Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) The track record of global energy giant Iberdrola's U.S. subsidiary Avangrid has sparked concerns among utility regulators and others as the company seeks approval for a multibillion-dollar merger with New Mexicos largest electric provider. Ashley Schannauer, a hearing examiner with the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, said during a meeting Tuesday that utilities owned by Avangrid have been assessed a total of $25 million in penalties and disallowances in the past 16 months for poor performance and customer service issues in Maine, Connecticut and New York. While the information was disclosed in filings with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, Schannauer said Avangrid has been less than forthcoming with New Mexico regulators. He said the company failed to provide information about the enforcement actions in the other states as the Public Regulation Commission considers the company's proposed merger with PNM Resources. He also pointed to audits requested by regulators in Maine and Connecticut that are aimed at the organizational structure of Avangrid affiliates and utilities in those states. He called the failure to disclose the information troubling, saying it's relevant to the credibility of testimony provided by Avangrid's witnesses in the merger case and the transparency by which Avangrid and PNM would conduct their business if the merger is approved. These enforcement actions are clearly relevant to the commissions consideration of the request in this case in my opinion. Will there be similar problems in New Mexico if the merger is approved? he asked. Brian Haverly, an attorney for Avangrid, said the company has nothing to hide and will provide the information requested by the hearing examiner. The deadline was set for next Tuesday. Staff members with the Public Regulation Commission in a filing Friday reiterated their concerns about the proposed merger. At issue is whether the deal is in the public's interest. Some critics have said a proposed settlement agreement between Connecticut-based Avangrid and PNM Resources the parent company of Public Service Co. of New Mexico doesnt go far enough when it come to customer benefits or funds to support economic development in the state. PNM and Avangrid announced concessions in April after their initial proposal failed to win the necessary support. The latest proposal includes $50 million in rate credits for customers, economic development donations of $7.5 million, additional money for energy efficiency assistance for low-income customers over five years, and promises of more jobs and being carbon-free by 2035. Still, attorneys for some of the parties pointed Tuesday to Avangrid's regulatory troubles, saying New Mexico customers deserve to be protected and that more is at stake here because PNM is a vertically integrated utility that owns its own transmission and generation infrastructure in addition to selling electricity to customers. Peter Gould, an attorney for the New Mexico Affordable Reliable Energy Alliance, accused Avangrid of not negotiating in good faith. He said not providing New Mexico regulators with information about the enforcement actions is just one example. We have had very much difficulty in this case dealing with this company because they do not seem to understand that they have to play by the rules, he said. State Attorney General Hector Balderas, who serves as the top consumer advocate for New Mexicans, signed off on the proposed settlement agreement in April, saying improvements were made that would prioritize underserved tribal communities and provide more resources for union workers and coal miners affected by the planned closures of two coal-fired power plants in northwestern New Mexico. Matt Baca, a spokesman for Balderas, said Tuesday that the attorney general will advocate for strong consumer protections as the case proceeds. New Mexico must have the highest customer service standards in addition to greater investment in impacted communities, he said. The Biden administration is considering sanctions over Chinas alleged use of forced labor in production of solar panels and other components in renewable energy, climate envoy John Kerry told lawmakers Wednesday. Kerrys comments at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing sought to defuse one of the main arguments that congressional Republicans have cited against President Joe Bidens push for a climate-friendly makeover of the U.S. economy: China's manufacturing dominance risks implicating buyers of Chinese-made solar panels, batteries and other green-energy tech in that countrys human rights abuses. Much of the worlds polysilicon, used in photovoltaic cells for solar panels, comes through Chinas Xinjiang province, where China is waging a sustained campaign against Chinese Muslims and ethnic minorities. That includes detention of more than 1 million people, who rights groups, news organizations and governments say are forced into labor in factories and other workplaces. China's foreign ministry last month called the accusations "lies and false information concocted by anti-China forces. Republicans have cited those human rights concerns about Chinese-made renewable-energy components, and Chinas status as the worlds largest emitter of climate-wrecking fossil fuel pollution, in countering Democratic calls to step up U.S. solar and wind production and wind down coal and petroleum use. How can you assure us that slave labor coming out of China, where genocide is taking place as we speak, are never a part of the climate solution in the United States? asked Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the senior Republican on the committee. Kerry told McCaul he was absolutely correct to raise the concern. It is a problem, Kerry said. He cited solar panels that we believe in some cases are being produced by forced labor. Kerry also listed rare earth minerals produced by China and used in things such as magnets for wind turbines, among other uses. Kerry said the administration was assessing whether to add those to the list of products from Xinjiang province that the United States is already penalizing. He said he did not know where the administration was in that review. The State Department did not immediately respond to a question seeking details. Biden is calling for the United States to put trillions of dollars into his jobs plan and other proposals that would retool U.S. power and transportation sectors to pump out less fossil fuel pollution. That includes promoting U.S. use of solar, wind and other renewable energy and boosting the country's patchy production of components vital to those industries. The best thing we could do is be more competitive when it comes to China's dominance in the field of climate-friendly tech, Kerry said. Other countries are cornering the market on that why arent we? he asked. Kerry is a former secretary of state under President Barack Obama who now serves as Biden's envoy for climate and natural security. Under pressing from the committee's Republicans, Kerry also repeated his denial of a claim that he once shared with Iran's foreign minister information that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times. The New York Times reported late last month that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made that claim in a recording that subsequently leaked. Zarif described himself as astonished at that news from Kerry, the newspaper said. On no occasion. Never, Kerry said, in one of several flat denials to GOP lawmakers' demands for more details. That didn't happen. End of story. Kerry also said he had never seen or heard a report of 200 such attacks before the article was published. LANSING, Mich. (AP) Michigan health officials on Wednesday urged primary care physicians to enroll to administer COVID-19 vaccines, as the state prepared to quickly begin vaccinating 12- to 15-year-olds following U.S. authorization. The most important thing we can do right now is to make vaccines available for whenever someone is ready, Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state's chief medical executive and chief health deputy, said during a news conference. We know that patients trust their doctors and when they are ready to get vaccinated, we want you to have vaccine on hand. She encouraged doctors to check if their patients have been vaccinated and if they have any questions. About 55% of Michigan residents ages 16 and older have been vaccinated. Later Wednesday, federal health advisers endorsed vaccinating children as young as 12, days after the Food and Drug Administration cleared the expanded use of Pfizer's shots. We are ready to go in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said. The push to make doses available in physicians' offices will complement the state's focus on taking mobile clinics to places such as churches, and vaccinating people who are homebound. Dr. Srikar Reddy, president-elect of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, said it is time to shift attention to residents who are hesitant about the vaccine and to the newly eligible who are 12 to 15 years old. It only makes sense to visit your family physician to get vaccinated and to get your teenager vaccinated, too, he said. The Michigan State Medical Society, a group of more than 15,000 physicians and medical students, welcomed the decision to expand providers' ability to request and provide vaccines. As of Tuesday, pediatricians, family doctors, internal medicine physicians and OB-GYN specialists had administered roughly 188,000, or 2.5%, of nearly 7.5 million doses in Michigan. More than 83% of shots had been administered by local health departments, pharmacies and hospitals. Vaccinations of 12- to 15-year-olds could begin Thursday. Adolescents have been infected and hospitalized with COVID-19 in increasing numbers during the spring surge as the presence of variants has grown in Michigan, said Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association. "This vaccine proved to be 100% effective in trials of this age group, and even more importantly, extremely safe meaning young people who get vaccinated can return to doing so many things theyve missed over the last year. Michigan reported an additional 17 deaths and nearly 2,200 cases. The state still had the country's highest two-week case rate, according to Johns Hopkins University, but numbers continued to improve. The seven-day average of new daily cases was 2,680 on Monday, down from 4,856 on April 26 and the third surge's peak of 7,873 a month ago. ___ Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00 Gov. Ned Lamont's chief of staff said Tuesday that an additional $280 million in state funding proposed for nursing homes is the administration's last best offer in an effort to avoid strikes at dozens of nursing homes across Connecticut, but the union representing the workers said it falls short of addressing poverty wages. The union, District 1199 New England, SEIU, contends the 4.5% annual wage increase for the next two years would not be enough to establish a $20 per hour minimum for unionized certified nursing assistants, something that's needed to attract more workers to the field. We are facing a critical situation in the nursing home industry with workers trapped in poverty. Operators cannot find enough job applicants to hire at current industry wages, said Rob Baril, the union president, in a statement. He said current staff are facing ruthless workloads given staffing shortages and the residents are receiving less direct care. Paul Mounds, the Democratic governor's chief of staff, told reporters during an evening news conference that the administration will not be offering more money. He said Lamont's proposal would provide for the highest wage increase ever seen for these frontline workers." He said Lamont was urging union leaders and representatives of the nursing homes to return to the negotiating table and avoid a strike, which would be a devastating and unnecessary disruption of care for our nursing home residents. According to the union, about 4,000 workers at 39 nursing homes are still making preparations for a strike. The first group of 3,400 staffers is scheduled to walk out at 6 a.m. on Friday at 33 facilities. Strike notices have also been sent to six additional homes, where about 600 workers could walk out on May 28 at 6 a.m. Dr. Deidre Gifford, acting Department of Public Health Commissioner, said her agency is currently reviewing strike plans submitted by the affected homes to make sure there will be adequate staff on hand to care for the residents. She said DPH has been reaching out the staffing agencies being hired by the homes to make sure they have enough employees to cover the needs. Its been challenging in some cases for these facilities to find replacement staff. And we won't approve those plans until they give us the documentation," said Gifford, adding that she is confident, however, there will be enough replacement staff if a strike happens. Gifford said DPH, as well as members of the Connecticut National Guard, will be monitoring the situation in nursing home if the workers walk out. STAMFORD Stamford schools announced this week a change to both quarantine and contact tracing protocols, reducing COVID-19 restrictions further as the school year nears its end. The district had required a 14-day quarantine all year for anyone who contracted the virus or was deemed a contact of someone who did. On Tuesday, that rule was reduced to 10 days for those who do not exhibit any symptoms. Further, officials also announced that elementary schools would no longer quarantine entire classrooms when a positive case was discovered. Instead, contact tracing would be conducted to identify close contacts, who would then need to quarantine. A letter to the community stated that the decision to reduce quarantine time was reached after review of the current federal and state recommendations as well as local data. We are pleased that these changes will help to keep more of our students in our classrooms, the letter reads. Stamford Department of Health Director Dr. Jennifer Calder did not respond to multiple requests from The Stamford Advocate over the previous few months for an explanation of why Stamford remained at a 14-day quarantine much longer than any school district in the region. School districts like Norwalk, Darien, Greenwich, New Canaan, and Fairfield all require 10 days for quarantine. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to recommend a 14-day quarantine, the public health agency also states that a 10-day quarantine is acceptable without testing and no symptoms reported. If testing is available, quarantine can end after seven days with a negative test, the CDC says. Recently, rates of COVID in Stamford schools are on the decline. Last Friday, only eight new cases had been reported over the previous seven days, and 52 people were in quarantine as a result. The week before, 23 people has contracted the virus,with 168 in quarantine. Besides the relaxed quarantine and contact tracing protocols, the district has also scaled back other restrictions. School playgrounds were re-opened late last month, for the first time since the pandemic began, and equipment and instruments were reintroduced into science, arts, music and physical education classes. But even those changes came with accompanying health protocols. For instance, students at playgrounds must still wear masks. Only one class may use the recreational equipment at any one time, and students are told to wash their hands before and after. In music classes, woodwind and brass instruments are not be allowed, but students can use percussion instruments. Singing is still not allowed indoors, but students can sing outdoors if they are 6 feet apart from others and all are facing the same direction. ignacio.laguarda@hearstmediact.com STAMFORD Children in Stamford ages 12 to 15 will be able to get a COVID vaccine starting on Thursday through both Stamford Health and Community Health Center, according to city officials. Mayor David Martin announced that both the Stamford Health supersite in the South End and Community Health Centers site at the Lord & Taylor parking lot will start vaccinating kids with the Pfizer shot later this week, just days after the FDA authorized its use for children. With this age group, now about 85 percent of Americans are vaccination eligible. Were really getting to the point where we can get those numbers up, Dr. Gerald Rakos, chair of pediatrics at Stamford Health, said at the citys weekly COVID update. There are about 75 million people under the age of 18, so if we dont get good penetration in this age group (and) the older teens... its leaving a huge swath of the population thats still susceptible. The newly eligible teens and tweens are only part of the picture. In recent weeks, Stamford expanded vaccine access by making clinics mobile. Vaccine events have popped up across neighborhoods, particularly those with lower vaccination rates, and providers have mostly ditched appointment requirements. On top of that, the city just received $1.8 million in additional funding to promote those pop-up clinics, which Stamford calls destination sites, and to promote vaccine literacy in the greater community. We never thought wed get as much as we asked for, but we did, Stamford Department of Health Head Dr. Jennifer Calder said. The Department of Health plans to use the funds to grow its vaccine canvassing initiative. When we have a destination clinic in an area, well be going out with volunteers and paid staff to canvass the neighborhood and tell them, Hey, weve got vaccinations right here right now why dont you come on over? said Mayor David Martin, who claimed that the strategy has been particularly successful in the Rippowam Park area. The canvassing that was done helped almost double the number of people who got vaccinates, he said. The grant money will also help finance education efforts, which Rakos said were particularly important with the new wave of eligible children. Parental concerns about childrens safety can run amok in the rollouts nascent stages. There will be a lot of parental anxiety. The numbers that were behind this approval are relatively small. We have millions of doses now in adults... and we have a lot of experience in this. We dont have anywhere near those numbers in kids, he said. Theres going to be some legitimate parental anxiety. They should talk to their pediatricians, but theres a lot of experience with vaccines in kids. But beyond the fears, the approval provides hope to children, according to Rakos. One of the carrots that we can try and get the kids to get vaccinated with is that, certainly, their lives will return to normal to a certain extent, Rakos said. Camps, school teams, maybe even dropping masks in certain situations, but well have to follow the CDC for that. veronica.delvalle@hearstmediact.com This page requires Javascript. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Posted Tuesday, May 11, 2021 8:03 am Both Clark Countys recent COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are high enough that the county would move back into Phase 2 of Healthy Washington reopening if numbers dont drop. Clark County Public Healths May 11 update puts the county at 276.6 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the past 14 days, up from 250 cases per 100,000 the week prior. The county also saw its hospital admission rate rise to 5.2 individuals per 100,000 population in the past seven days, up from 3.8 per 100,000 last week. In order to remain in Phase 3, Clark County would need to drop its recent case rate to below 200 per 100,000 in 14 days, and below 5 per 100,000 in COVID-19 hospital admissions in seven days. The next evaluation by the state for counties to move phases is next week, following a two-week pause announced by Gov. Jay Inslee last week. Clark County Public Healths update Tuesday put the county at 22,190 confirmed COVID-19 cases since the outbreak began. There were also 1,118 probable cases based on antigen testing. Another confirmed COVID-19 death was reported by the health department Tuesday a man older than 80 with underlying health conditions. There have been 264 COVID-19 deaths in Clark County, including 232 confirmed to be due to the disease and 32 suspected. Clark County Public Health reported 677 active COVID-19 cases in the county May 11, which are ones still in the isolation period. There were 42 patients with confirmed COVID-19 in county hospitals reported that day, and an additional four patients awaiting test results. By Ben Mikek mikekben@grinnell.edu Grinnells summer-long farmers market will be opening on May 13 with many of the same COVID-19 precautions as last year. Grinnell residents will be able to purchase everything from fresh fruits and vegetables to kettle corn twice a week in Central Park. The excitement for market seems to be the same every year for me: its just seeing all of our vendors again, said Kendra Vincent, who organizes the market for the Grinnell Chamber of Commerce. You really get to form a bond with all of our vendors, and we dont really see them in the off season, so were really excited to see them and have access to the products they sell. There are 25 individual vendors currently signed up for slots at the market, including 11 full time vendors for Saturdays, 17 for Thursdays and four part-time vendors who wont be participating for the entire summer. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of vendors has held steady from pre-pandemic years, said Vincent, even increasing a bit on Saturdays. Participants have to pay the Chamber a fee of $115 for a yearly Thursday slot, and $105 for a Saturday slot. One of those vendors is Esther Huedepohl, 82, who sells pies, sweet breads and other baked goods. Huedepohl has been a fixture at Grinnells farmers market for 10 years, and before that attended the Cedar Rapids farmers market for 30 years. Its just nice to have something, after all this horrendous COVID and everything, she said. [Im most looking forward to seeing] my old customers, because I do keep in touch with some of the customers. Its different than being in a large town because theres more of a personable relationship between, you know, the customer, and when they come, its interesting because when you see them walk up you know what theyre looking for. Its fun. Last summer, the market went ahead despite public health headwinds, but introduced some virus safety measures. Vendors were required to wear masks or face shields thats a policy that will continue this year. Stalls were also widened from the previous 10 feet to 20 feet to keep sellers and customers further apart. This year, the size of stalls has been reduced to 15 feet, leaving 5 feet separation between each table, according to Vincent. There will also no longer be physical barriers between stalls. Unlike vendors, though, customers were not and will not be required to wear face coverings. While the Chamber heavily encourages customers to wear masks, Vincent said it cannot require it because the market is held on public land in Central Park. Masks havent been required in public in Iowa since Governor Kim Reynolds proclamation of February 6. Huedepohl said she wasnt worried about her own health while selling last year, and she is now vaccinated in time for this summer. Beckey Anderson is another returning vendor from last year. The social distancing was great, people were really mindful of that. We were actually kind of isolated by ourselves, and then just came forward when somebody came up, she said. Im not quite as worried about it this year because weve [my husband and I] both been vaccinated. Anderson, who is 64, has been a regular vendor at the farmers market since 2009; this year, she is selling kettle corn, microgreens, and cut flowers. The flowers wont be ready until next month, though, because of unusually cold and dry weather, she said. With many Iowa residents like Anderson vaccinated, Vincent said she hopes that some of the activities that were cancelled last year, like a partnership with Drake Community Library to provide books to children and live musical performances, will also be able to return by mid-summer. The market will be in operation each Thursday and Saturday until October 23. A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Turnover of trade 2021, April Published: 12 May 2021 Turnover increased in all industries of trade in March According to Statistics Finland, turnover in total trade adjusted for working days grew by 6.8 per cent in March from March 2020. Over the same period, the working day adjusted volume of sales in total trade, from which the impact of prices has been eliminated, increased by 3.8 per cent. The positive development of turnover in trade that started in January of the current year has accelerated as the first quarter progressed. In March, growth was boosted especially by the livelier motor vehicle trade. The development of trade industries was partly affected by the exceptionally weak growth one year ago caused by the corona pandemic. Annual change in working day adjusted turnover and sales volume in total trade (G), % Motor vehicle trade shows strong growth in March Turnover and sales volume grew in March in all trade industries except for sales volume in wholesale trade. Among the industries of trade, motor vehicle trade grew most. Motor vehicle trade has developed briskly throughout the early part of the year. In March turnover in motor vehicle trade rose by as much as 20.3 per cent and sales volume by 18.3 per cent from one year back. The positive development in the turnover of the biggest trade industry, wholesale trade, which started in February, continued in March as well, up by 3.6 per cent. In turn, the sales volume in wholesale trade fell by 1.2 per cent from one year back. The more favourable development in turnover than in sales volume in wholesale trade is explained by risen prices especially of processed petroleum products. In retail trade, working day adjusted turnover grew in March in total by 6.3 per cent and sales volume by 6.4 per cent. Among retail trade industries, department store trade grew clearly fastest, as turnover there went up by 16.9 per cent and sales volume by 17.2 per cent. In specialised store trade, turnover increased by 5.6 per cent and sales volume by 7.5 per cent from March 2020. Among retail trade industries, the development was most moderate in daily consumer goods trade, where turnover rose by 3.8 per cent and sales volume by 1.8 per cent from a year ago. The brisk growth in department store trade was particularly influenced by the weak development one year ago caused by the corona pandemic. Annual change in working day adjusted turnover and sales volume in industries of trade, March 2021, % (TOL 2008) Both turnover and sales volume increased compared to February Seasonally adjusted turnover in total trade grew by 1.1 per cent in March compared to February. Seasonally adjusted sales volume grew by 0.3 per cent during the same period. In February, turnover rose by 1.5 per cent and sales volume by 0.8 per cent from the month before. Change in seasonally adjusted turnover and sales volume in total trade (G) from the previous month, % Trend of turnover and sales volume in total trade The calculation of indices of turnover of trade is based on the Tax Administrations data on self-assessed taxes, which are supplemented with Statistics Finlands sales inquiry. The volume index of sales is calculated by removing the effect of price changes from the value index series. The factors caused by the variation in the number of weekdays are taken into account in adjustment for working days. This means taking into consideration the lengths of months, different weekdays and holidays. In addition, seasonal variation is eliminated from seasonally adjusted series, on account of which it makes sense to compare observations of two successive months as well. The data for the latest month are preliminary and they may become significantly revised particularly on more detailed industry levels in coming months. Source: Turnover of trade, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Suvi Kiema 029 551 3509, Mauri Niiniaho 029 551 3409, palvelut.suhdanne@stat.fi Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja Publication in pdf-format (288.8 kB) Updated 12.05.2021 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Turnover of trade [e-publication]. ISSN=1799-0939. March 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 10.6.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/klv/2021/03/klv_2021_03_2021-05-12_tie_002_en.html Published: 12 May 2021 Greater Helsinki lost population to other parts of Finland in 2020 According to Statistics Finland, the combined total net migration of municipalities in Greater Helsinki was 6,752 persons, under one half of the previous years level. Total net migration includes migration gain from elsewhere in Finland and from abroad. In internal migration, migration in Greater Helsinki turned negative and migration loss was even historically high in Espoo. Internal net migration of Greater Helsinki municipalities in 1980 to 2020 In 2020, the total net migration of the Greater Helsinki region was 6,752 persons, while in the previous year the region still received a migration gain of 13,867 persons. The gain from total net migration in Greater Helsinki was 8,297 persons for foreign-language speakers and the loss was 1,545 persons for those speaking national languages. Greater Helsinki lost 240 persons in internal migration. The internal migration loss of Greater Helsinki was caused entirely by those speaking national languages. The net migration of national language-speakers to Greater Helsinki was 2,129 moves negative, while the corresponding figure for foreign-language speakers was 1,889 positive. Finland's migration gain from abroad grew for the second year in a row Finland's migration gain from abroad rose to 17,814 persons in 2020, from 15,495 persons in the previous year. The reason for the higher migration gain was especially a decrease in emigration. The number of emigrants from Finland was 15,084, which is over 2,000 fewer than in the previous year. A total of 32,898 persons moved from abroad to Finland, good 100 persons more than in the year before. Migration between Finland and other countries 19942020 Finnish citizens return migration highest in at least 30 years Finlands migration gain from foreign citizens was 16,705 persons, which is 94 per cent of Finland's total migration gain. After a long negative period, net immigration by Finnish citizens turned positive, 1,109 in 2020. Immigration by Finnish citizens rose by over one thousand to 9,638 moves and emigration declined by good one thousand to 8,529 moves in 2020. Immigration by Finnish citizens was highest in at least 30 years in 2020. Most of Finlands migration gain still came from those having moved from outside the EU Finlands migration gain consisted mostly of persons having moved from outside the EU. In 2020, Finland's migration gain from outside the EU totalled 13,730 persons, having been over 14,000 in the previous year. Migration gain from EU countries grew from the previous year's close on 2,000 to 4,146 migrants. The immigration gain was largest among Russian citizens, 1,855 immigrants, and second largest among Iraqi citizens, 1,189 immigrants. The third largest immigration gain came from Finnish citizens, especially due to the large return migration of Finnish citizens. Migration gain for regions from immigration All regions received migration gain from international migration. Taking that into account, the number of regions with migration loss falls somewhat. The sum of net immigration and net internal migration was negative in seven regions. Migration in Finland Most migration gain for Pirkanmaa, biggest migration loss for Ostrobothnia In 2020, the largest gain from internal migration was seen in Pirkanmaa, Uusimaa and Southwest Finland. Ostrobothnia, Kymenlaakso and Satakunta lost their population most to other parts of Finland through internal migration. Uusimaa suffered historical migration loss of those speaking national languages The migration gain of the region of Uusimaa from the rest of Finland was 1,950 persons in 2020. Examined by native language, the region of Uusimaas migration loss was over 1,200 persons speaking national languages. The migration gain for Uusimaa was nearly 3,200 persons from foreign-language speakers. During the past 30 years, Uusimaa has earlier lost national language speakers as migration loss only in 2003. Internal net migration of regions by language in 2020 Pirkanmaas migration gain from elsewhere in Finland was fully based on those speaking national languages as their native tongue, because for foreign-language speakers Pirkanmaa experienced migration loss to the rest of Finland. Kainuu and Lapland had the lowest migration losses in over 40 years In 2020, the migration losses of the regions of Kainuu and Lapland to the rest of Finland were smallest in over 40 years. Laplands migration loss was 239 persons to the rest of Finland. Lapland's migration loss to the rest of Finland was last lower than this in 1976. Internal net migration in regions of Kainuu and Lapland in 1970 to 2020 For those speaking national languages, Lapland received migration gain for the first time in over 30 years. The migration loss of foreign-language speakers turned net migration to the rest of Finland negative. Tampere and Vantaa received the biggest migration gains Tampere (2,094 persons) and Vantaa (1,039 persons) received the largest migration gain from intermunicipal migration. The migration gain of Tampere consisted of persons speaking national languages, while in Vantaa it concerned foreign-language speakers. Migration gains of over 600 persons were also received in Kuopio (678 persons), Turku (659 persons), Kaarina (630 persons) and Oulu (619 persons). Around one municipality in three received migration gain from migration within Finland, while in 2019 only one municipality in six got migration gain. Helsinki and Espoo have the biggest internal migration losses Migration losses from intermunicipal migration were biggest in Helsinki (1,044 persons) and Espoo (602 persons). In Espoo migration loss was biggest in over 70 years and in Helsinki since 2005. Espoos migration loss consisted of persons speaking national languages, while in addition to that, Helsinkis migration loss was caused by foreign-language speakers. Migration losses were next biggest in Mikkeli (436), Kouvola (423) and Kotka (356 persons), which were the three biggest migration loss municipalities in 2019. Examined in relative terms, migration loss was largest in the municipalities of Punkalaidun, Siikajoki and Siikainen. Source: Migration 2020. Statistics Finland Inquiries: Juhana Nordberg 029 551 3051, Markus Rapo 029 551 3238, Joni Rantakari 029 551 3401, info@stat.fi Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala Publication in pdf-format (303.0 kB) Updated 12.05.2021 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Migration [e-publication]. ISSN=1797-6782. 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 10.6.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/muutl/2020/muutl_2020_2021-05-12_tie_001_en.html Published: 12 May 2021 Number of university degrees continued growing According to Statistics Finlands education statistics, a total of around 35,800 university degrees were completed in Finland in 2020. The number of degrees increased by 13 per cent from the previous year. The number of lower university degrees went up by 12 per cent and that of higher university degrees by 14 per cent. The number of doctorate degrees grew by seven per cent. Number of university degrees in 2002 to 2020 Most degrees, good 8,900, were completed at the University of Helsinki. The second most degrees were completed at the University of Tampere, nearly 4,300. Some 3,500 degrees were completed each at Aalto University, the University of Turku and the University of Jyvaskyla. The smallest universities based on the number of degrees were the National Defence University (around 300 degrees) and the University of the Arts Helsinki (UniArts) (about 370 degrees). Most degrees were completed in the field of business, administration and law (around 6,500). The number of degrees completed in humanities and arts was around 5,800 and in social sciences about 4,700. Doctorate degrees were completed most in the field of health and welfare (in total 416), natural sciences (in total 325) and technology (in total 293). Around 30,500 new students began their university studies in 2020. The number is 13 per cent higher than one year earlier. The number of students starting studies for a lower university degree grew by 12 per cent from the year before and the share of those starting studies for a higher university degree by 16 per cent. The number of those starting studies for a doctorate degree was 10 per cent higher than in the year before. A total of nearly 156,600 students attended university education leading to a degree in 2020. There were around 77,900 students studying for a lower university degree and about 59,900 studying for a higher university degree. Some 18,700 students studied in education leading to a post-graduate degree, around 600 of whom were studying for a licentiate degree and around 18,100 for a doctorate degree. Women made up 55 per cent of all students. Women completed nearly 60 per cent of all university degrees. The share was on level with 2019. Examined by field of education, the highest numbers of students were studying in the field of arts and humanities, around 25,200 students. Around 23,500 students studied in the field of technology and around 23,200 in the field of business, administration and law. Women studied clearly more often than men in the fields of education (eight out of ten were women), arts and humanities, health and welfare, and social sciences, journalism and information (seven out of ten were women). Men, in turn, studied more often than women in the fields of information and communication technologies (eight out of ten were men), services and engineering, manufacturing and construction (seven out of ten were men). In 2020, the University of Helsinki had the highest number of students, around 31,600. The next biggest universities by the number of students were the University of Tampere (close on 21,000 students) and Aalto University (good 18,000 students). More detailed time series data on university students and degrees by education and university are available in the database tables . Source: Education. Statistics Finland Inquiries: Vesa Hamalainen 029 551 2594, koulutustilastot@stat.fi Head of Department in charge: Hannele Orjala Publication in pdf-format (166.6 kB) Updated 12.5.2021 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Students and qualifications [e-publication]. ISSN=2737-0410. 2020. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 10.6.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/opiskt/2020/opiskt_2020_2021-05-12_tie_003_en.html A more recent publication of this set of statistics is available. Latest publication: Index of turnover in industry 2021, April Published: 12 May 2021 Turnover in industry grew by 4.7 per cent in March According to Statistics Finland, working day adjusted turnover in industry (TOL BCD) increased in March by 4.7 per cent year-on-year. Turnover grew in all main industries. Among the main industries, turnover increased most in the textile, clothing and leather industry, by 26.0 per cent, and in electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply, by 15.8 per cent year-on-year. Seasonally adjusted turnover in industry (TOL BCD) decreased by 0.2 per cent in March compared with February. Annual change in working day adjusted turnover in manufacturing (BCD), % (TOL 2008) Turnover in mining and quarrying grew by 12.9 per cent in March from one year ago. Turnover in the electronic and electrical industry was 9.1 per cent higher and turnover in the forest industry 8.8 per cent higher than one year earlier. In addition, turnover grew in the chemical industry, 4.8 per cent, in the metal industry, 3.4 per cent, and in the food industry, 1.2 per cent from the previous year. Annual change in working day adjusted turnover in manufacturing by industry, March 2021, % (TOL 2008) Export turnover grew in March in nearly all main industries Export turnover grew in March in nearly all main industries. The growth in export turnover was strongest in the textile, clothing and leather industry, 37.7 per cent, and in mining and quarrying, 36.2 per cent from the previous year. Export turnover in the forest industry was 12.4 per cent higher, in the electronic and electrical industry 11.2 per cent higher and in the chemical industry 8.4 per cent higher than in the previous year. Export turnover in the metal industry increased by 1.2 per cent year-on-year. Export turnover decreased only in the food industry, by 1.1 per cent from the previous year. Annual change in working day adjusted export turnover and domestic turnover in manufacturing by industry, March 2021, % (TOL 2008) Domestic turnover grew in most main industries in March. Domestic turnover grew most in the textile, clothing and leather industry, by 17.4 per cent from one year ago. In the metal industry, domestic turnover was 6.1 per cent higher and in the electronic and electrical industry 4.6 per cent higher than one year previously. Domestic turnover decreased only in mining and quarrying, by 4.0 per cent, and in the chemical industry, by 1.9 per cent year-on-year. Trend series of turnover, export turnover and domestic turnover in manufacturing (BC), 1/2007 to 3/2021, % (TOL 2008) The index of turnover in industry describes enterprises whose main industry is manufacturing. The calculation of the indices is based on the Tax Administrations self-assessed tax data which are supplemented with data obtained with Statistics Finlands sales inquiry. The monthly turnovers of manufacturing enterprises can vary considerably, especially in the metal industries. The variation is mainly due to invoicing practices. The final invoice for major machinery deliveries and projects may be recorded in the sales of one month, even if the delivery had required the work of several months or years. The factors caused by the variation in the number of weekdays are taken into account in adjustment for working days. This means taking into consideration the lengths of months, different weekdays and holidays. In addition, seasonal variation is eliminated from seasonally adjusted series, on account of which it makes sense to compare observations of two successive months as well. The data for the latest month are preliminary and are released at a delay of around six weeks. The data may become significantly revised particularly on more detailed industry levels in coming months. Revisions to the data may be particularly significant on the more accurate industry levels of export turnover and domestic turnover. Source: Index of turnover in industry 2021, March, Statistics Finland Inquiries: Maija Sappinen 029 551 3348, Heli Suonio 029 551 2481, myynti.teollisuus@stat.fi Head of Department in charge: Katri Kaaja Publication in pdf-format (338.3 kB) Updated 12.5.2021 Referencing instructions: Official Statistics of Finland (OSF): Index of turnover in industry [e-publication]. ISSN=1798-596X. March 2021. Helsinki: Statistics Finland [referred: 10.6.2021]. Access method: http://www.stat.fi/til/tlv/2021/03/tlv_2021_03_2021-05-12_tie_001_en.html Yes, the agency has been ineffective No, funding is critical to support economic growth in Frankfort Some reduction needed, but fiscal court has gone too far Vote View Results Wednesday, 12 May 2021 11:59:22 (GMT+3) | Istanbul In March this year, Turkey's cold rolled coil (CRC) imports increased by 2.3 percent month on month to 48,310 mt, down 25.2 percent year on year, according to the data provided by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). The value of these imports was $35.78 million, increasing by 12.2 percent compared to February and up 5.7 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the first three months of this year, Turkey's CRC imports amounted to 157,397 metric tons, down 32.6 percent year on year, while the revenue generated by these imports totalled $108.33 million, decreasing by 8.6 percent compared to the same period of 2020. In the first three months of this year, Russia ranked first among Turkey's CRC import sources, supplying 110,411 mt, down 12.21 percent year on year. Meanwhile, in the given period, Turkey's CRC imports from Ukraine totalled 10,399 mt. Turkey's main CRC import sources in January-March are as follows: Country Amount (mt) January-March 2021 January-March 2020 Change (%) March 2021 March 2020 Change (%) Russia 110,411 125,766 -12.21 31,960 34,433 -7.18 Ukraine 10,399 8,467 22.82 4,413 671 557.68 Netherlands 9,504 6,369 49.22 3,034 1,026 195.71 South Korea 6,976 19,732 -64.65 2,119 10,940 -80.63 China 5,675 4,335 30.91 2,957 - - Belgium 4,238 32,636 -87.01 1,050 3,534 -70.29 Italy 2,289 4,893 -53.22 219 701 -68.76 Austria 2,013 1,304 54.37 747 616 21.27 Sweden 1,814 801 126.47 657 528 24.43 Romania 1,243 24,663 -94.96 102 10,595 -99.04 Turkey's CRC import sources in January-March can be seen in the graph below: A new batch of Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca) vaccine with 129,600 doses will arrive on Thursday at the Cantacuzino National Institute for Medical-Military Research and Development, according to the National Committee for Coordinating Activities regarding vaccination against COVID-19. The transport is ensured by the manufacturing company, and the vaccine doses will be brought to Bucharest by land. "The doses will be deposited at the National Storage Center, and during the following period they will be distributed in the existing regional centers at a national level. The National Storage Center of vaccines against COVID-19 within the Cantacuzino Institute is completely authorized and endorsed by the National Agency for Medicines and Medical Devices (ANMDMR), the national authority which has competence in the field of medication for human use," the quoted source says. Until now, Romania has received 2,201,200 vaccine doses produced by the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company, and starting with February 15, 657,318 were already used for immunizing the population. Romanian mountain climbers Horia Colibasanu, Marius Gane and Slovak climber Peter Hamor have decided to interrupt their attempt to open up a new route, a world first, on the northwestern face of the Dhaulagiri Peak (8,167 m), after escaping an avalanche. The three adventurers reached, on Tuesday, the safety of the Base Camp of Dhaulagiri Peak (Nepal), after being caught in their tents by an avalanche on Sunday night (May 9 to 10). The avalanche lasted less than a minute and buried them under a meter-thick layer of snow, transforming the ascent into a race against time for survival, according to a release sent to AGERPRES. "It never happened to us for the avalanche to come from the side. At a certain point probably the snow fell on the ice wall that was protecting us. It simply crushed us inside. We tried to fight it to keep a small pocket of air around our mouths. (...) The avalanche stopped. It was completely dark and, though we were all three in the same tent, I couldn't head my colleagues. It fell silent. All I could do was search as fast as possible the knife in my chest pocket. I knew that this is the procedure for avalanches over tents. If you do not cut the cloth, you cannot exit. I felt that the air was running out. I took out the knife, cut the tent. I had to push through that meter of snow to get out. I was full of adrenaline. I managed to come out with a bandaged arm, the arm with the knife (...) to breathe," said Colibasanu. The incident happened at 6,800 m, on the northwestern face of Dhaulagiri peak (8,167 m). Horia Colibasanu participated in 22 international expeditions during his career, being decorated in 2017 with the most important distinction that the President of Romania can grant: The National Order of the Star of Romania, in rank of Knight. He is the only Romanian mountaineer that received the distinction "Spirit of Mountaineering," on the part of the British Alpine Club, the first and most prestigious mountaineering club in the world. Note: Special one-year subscription at a reduced price for first-time subscribers or for subscriptions that have been expired for at least one year those living in Jackson County and the Cherokee Indian Reservation (28719) addresses qualify. Offer good through Friday, Aug. 2, 2019. We accept Visa, Mastercard and Discover; we do not accept AMEX. Romania's Chamber of Deputies on Wednesday passed, 307 to two abstentions, a bill ratifying the Agreement on Cooperation for the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Projects and Civil Nuclear Power Sector in Romania signed in Bucharest on December 9, 2020, and in Upper Marlboro on December 4, 2020, agerpres reports. The bill is designed to draw new guidelines for the development of nuclear energy capabilities in Romania that require a rapid restructuring, by capitalising on the potential to redefine strategic guidelines in a different key than the one conceived over a decade ago and based firstly on investors coming from countries allied with Romania, in accordance with the provisions of the Romanian Government Memorandum 3 of January 20, 2020 called "New policies and guidelines for the development of the nuclear energy sector in Romania." According to the explanatory memorandum, the entry into force of this agreement will allow the development of the Romanian civil nuclear programme by ensuring technical expertise, regulation, security and nuclear safety and will implicitly contribute to strengthening security, diversity, operational safety as well as and environmental stability in Romania by upgrading Unit 1 and expanding the capacity of Cernavoda nuclear-power plant.The agreement covers several areas of cooperation - the Cernavoda Units 3 and 4 project; refurbishment of Unit 1; regulation, research and development; exchanges between research laboratories and universities; staff training.Following the signing on September 24, 2019 of the Memorandum of Understanding between Romania and the USA on cooperation in the civil nuclear field, the US Embassy sent to the Romanian side a proposal for an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation for the Cernavoda Nuclear Power projects and civil nuclear power sector in Romania. Negotiations took place between 2019 and 2020, with the text of the agreement being completed and initialled in October 2020, in Washington.On November 27, 2020, a memorandum was approved under which the Minister of Economy, Energy and Business Community Virgil Popescu was mandated to sign the agreement on behalf of the government of Romania, and the co-operation document was signed on December 9, 2020 in Bucharest and on December 4, 2020 in Upper Marlboro. Social Democratic Party (PSD) Chairman Marcel Ciolacu announced on Tuesday that he had discussed with Paolo Gentiloni, the European Commissioner for the Economy, about the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, stating that considering "how bad things look now, Prime Minister Florin Citu will return again empty-handed from Brussels", agerpres reports. He stated that, unlike the Romanian Government, the European Commission (EC) understood the importance of dialogue with the Social Democratic Party. "Today we discussed with Paolo Gentiloni, the European Commissioner for the Economy about how we can save the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). Unlike the Romanian Government, the European Commission understood the importance of dialogue with the Social Democratic Party. Considering how bad things look now, Prime Minister Citu will return from Brussels empty-handed. While most states have sent their national plans to the European Commission, PNL and USR do not even follow the basic rules required by the EC,'' Ciolacu wrote on Facebook.In his opinion, "the Government have not yet understood that this money is for the development of Romania and not for feeding the political clientele before their internal elections"."I thank Commissioner Gentiloni for the constructive dialogue and especially for reiterating the European Commission's support for an in-depth dialogue with all political forces, trade unions, employers and civil society on PNRR," the PSD chief added. Arad County will open temporary COVID-19 vaccination sites at the border between Romania and Hungary, border crossing points (PTF) Nadlac I and Nadlac II, as it has been found that increasingly more Romanians who work abroad or own property in Hungary come to Romania just to be immunised, including foreign citizens of the European Union, agerpres reports. Arad County Prefect Toth Csaba told on Wednesday that "recently, there has been an increase in the number of Romanian nationals who come from other countries to get vaccinated." "I wouldn't say it's a phenomenon, but there are a lot of Romanians who work and live in other European countries and come to Arad just to get vaccinated. Some come with their life partners, foreign citizens - Germans, Italians and so on. These people enjoy the possibility of getting vaccinated very easily in Romania, without prior appointment. I know many cases personally, but this trend was brought to my attention at discussions during meetings of the county emergency management committee. Romanians who came home to their families for Easter took advantage and got vaccinated," said Toth.In his turn, the head of the Arad Public Health Directorate (DSP) Horea Timis said that it is about "hundreds of people who in the last weeks crossed the border into Romania to get vaccinated in Arad.""We are not only talking about Romanian citizens settled abroad, but also about nationals of other countries. At this moment, the citizens of the European Union can get their vaccinations in Romania. In fact, I can tell you that many employees of the Romanian diplomatic missions elsewhere in Europe have come to Arad just to get vaccinated. I think we have vaccinated people from all European countries. Because from one day to the next, we've noticed without accurate statistics that increasingly more people are crossing the border just for to get their vaccinations, we decided to open temporary vaccination sites at PTF Nadlac I and PTF Nadlac II," Timis told AGERPRES.He said these border vaccination sites would be operational in no more than two weeks.Also, Timis said that there are no problems regarding the COVID-19 vaccine doses, as they are sufficient in Arad County. Deputy Prime Minister Dan Barna says he has gotten from the media information in connection with the control note of Romania's Anti-Fraud Department (DLAF) and that according to it, he is blamed for the fact that in what regards three recruitment forms, the filling in was not done "face to face", but subsequently. "The conclusions part, at least the one that has reached me, refers to, as far as I am concerned, only this activity of three forms the DLAF counselors deem I shouldn't have filled out, but they make a serious confusion about this. A project's recruitment activity doesn't mean the form the person is signing. The form is a finality of a few days- or weeks-long process where one finds the person, asks them for their resume, the person gathers their documents. Nobody is challenging that activity, neither the DLAF, nor the respective persons. It is only the said form they say it shouldn't have been (filled out), because they were not vulnerable persons, but experts, yet this is a technicality. They are employed within the project," Barna told a press conference today. According to the USR PLUS (Save Romania Union - Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity) co-chair, over 100 persons were involved in the project, considering that 7 to 12 persons were involved within each social economy structure. "Obviously, the registration of each beneficiary was necessary in the social economy projects, a target group registration and the form filling out. I am being blamed for the fact that three forms - there are scores of forms in the project, obviously - the form filling out did not take place 'face to face' and this is the truth, they were filled in after the finalisation of the recruitment process, then they were sent to our Hqs., where I too have signed them. The grave confusion in this note, which I also red flag publicly, is this, from my point of view very erroneous attempt, to assimilate the recruitment activity of some beneficiaries with the formal filling out of the form via which they confirm that they are registering in the project and meet the conditions. A recruitment activity involves far more elements which otherwise were achieved: the person's identification, the resume's checking, the verification of compliance with the eligibility requirements in order to be part of the project," Barna added. He mentioned that the DLAF is an administrative body that carries out verifications referring to the European projects and that if unclear things or suspicions are raised, they must be sent to the National Anti-corruption Directorate (DNA). Barna added that although he requested DLAF for information about the control note, he didn't receive anything. "Following the publication of yesterday's article, I asked DLAF to send me the control note in which they were drawing conclusions regarding the activity of my projects. Yesterday, in the second part of the day, I received a message in which I was told, somewhat ironically, that they received my request and I will receive an answer within the deadline provided by law, but at the end of the day I was able to glean from the media a few pieces of this control note, those that refer to me and the conclusions of that control note and therefore I decided to convene this press conference, just to be very transparent and for all the information that reaches me to be relayed further in the public space, as I promised," the deputy prime minister said. Romania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) welcomes the celebration of five years since the Aegis Ashore Ballistic Missile Defense Facility at Deveselu Military Base has reached its full operational capacity, and the moment "reconfirms Romania's substantial commitment to increasing its profile inside NATO and strengthening its strategic partnership with the United States, two key coordinates of Romania's foreign policy", agerpres reports. According to an MAE press statement, the development of NATO's ballistic missile defence capabilities "represents a transatlantic project of prime importance, while being at the same time a reconfirmation of the allied collective will to strengthen common defence and the steps of continuous adaptation to the realities in the world security environment." MAE reiterates that NATO's missile defence system is entirely defensive, targets threats from outside the Euro-Atlantic area and reflects both the major US contribution to European security and Romania's determination to support strengthening NATO security, while being at the same time one of the essential components of NATO's collective defence and a key component of the transatlantic relationship.The development of this system, says MAE, fully respects both the founding principle of NATO, solidarity among the Allies, by securing the indivisibility of NATO security and covering the NATO land, and the commitment of the democracies making up NATO to observing international law and strengthening security architecture in order to ensure stable and predictable international security."As a responsible and active NATO ally positioned on the southern side of its Eastern Flank and a strategic partner of the United States of America, Romania has been involved in this project to contribute to defence against potential ballistic missile attacks of NATO's populations, land and armed forces, in a world where the proliferation of ballistic missile threats and the interest of state and non-state actors outside the Euro-Atlantic to acquire such technologies are security challenges that cannot be ignored," Romania's Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, a former chief negotiator for Romania of the 2011 Agreement, is quoted as saying in the MAE statement.According to the head of the Romanian diplomacy, "by hosting the Aegis Ashore facility in Deveselu, Romania has thus joined the joint efforts at NATO level, in a complicated, ever-changing international context, ensuring the consolidation of national security and collective defence capabilities at NATO level.""Hosting and making operational the Deveselu Facility is one of the most significant landmarks in Romania's security, and also at NATO level in recent years, a project in which I had the honour to be personally involved from the beginning, by negotiating on behalf of Romania the Agreement Between the United States of America and Romania on the Deployment of the United States Ballistic Missile Defense System in Romania, which 10th anniversary falls this September," said Aurescu.Romania and the United States signed the Agreement Between the United States of America and Romania on the Deployment of the United States Ballistic Missile Defense System in Romania on September 13, 2011, which entered into force on December 23, 2011, this year marking a decade from that moment.The Missile Defence Facility was declared operational on December 18, 2015, and the inauguration ceremony, a declaration of full operational capability of the Aegis Ashore Facility at the Deveselu Base, part of NATO BMD, took place on May 12, 2016. Today's conference titled Romania and NATO's Ballistic Missile Defense System - a Transatlantic Strategic Contribution to Euro-Atlantic Security was a "particularly important" moment, marking five years since the becoming operational of the Deveselu-based missile defense facility that represents a Romanian-American contribution to NATO's collective defense, Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Wednesday. "Today was a particularly important moment, as we marked five years since the anti-ballistic missile facility in Deveselu became operational. The full operational capacity of this anti-missile facility was declared exactly on May 12, 2016. Also, this year marks a decade since the signing and coming into force of the Agreement on the deployment to Romania of the US ballistic missile defense system, a project I have taken care of from the very beginning until the moment it was finalized. I was the chief negotiator of this agreement for Romania and today we discussed about the significance of this project," Aurescu said at the end of the event organized by the Senate's Defense Committee. The Romanian top diplomat added that the Deveselu anti-ballistic missile system represents a Romanian-American contribution to NATO's collective defense. "I brought to mind that on the one hand it represents a joint Romanian-American contribution to NATO's collective defense. The Deveselu system is currently integrated with the NATO anti-missile system that is under development, so this is a developing project we also contribute to. At the same time, it represents an extremely important dimension of the Romania - US security and military cooperation under their Strategic Partnership for the 21st Century," said the Foreign Minister. Referring to the recent B9 Summit co-hosted by President Klaus Iohannis and the latter's talks with US President Joe Biden, Aurescu said that Iohannis recalled President Biden's important contribution to the ballistic missile defense project, in his capacity as US Vice-President at the time. "It was then-Vice President Biden the one who proposed to Romania in October 2009 to join this project, which subsequently materialized in February 2010; a negotiation process followed, which ended in 2011 with the hammering out of this agreement which Romania signed and then ratified," said Aurescu. The conference, organized by the Senate's Committee on Defense, Public Order and National Security in partnership with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the National Defense Ministry was dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the certification of the operational capacity of the Aegis Ashore missile defense system and the 10th anniversary of the signing of the Romania - US Agreement on the establishment of NATO's ballistic missile defense system in southern Romania. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, declared on Wednesday that "there is nothing special" in the Russian Federation's decision of declaring the deputy of the military attache within the Romanian embassy in the Russian Federation a persona non grata, mentioning that "sometimes this type of mirrored reaction response is used in diplomacy". "There is nothing special regarding this decision from the Russian Federation, it is a decision which we anticipated, we expected it, this type of mirrored response reaction is sometimes used in THE diplomatic practice, towards a decision we took. Actually, it is a defensive response towards the decision which we announced on April 26, of declaring the deputy military attache of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Bucharest, who carried out non-compliant activities with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961", Aurescu specified in Parliament, when asked about this topic. The specification of the head of the Romanian diplomacy was made at the end of an event where he took part, dubbed "Romania and NATO defense ballistic missiles system - a trans-Atlantic strategic contribution for the Euro-Atlantic security". On April 26, Alexey Grishaev, the deputy of the military attache of the Russian Federation Embassy in Bucharest, was declared persona non grata. MAE argued the decision given that "his activities and actions contravene the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961". Later, the deputy attache in the field of defence from the Romanian Embassy in Moscow, Alin Iliescu, was also declared persona non grata. Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu recommends Romanian citizens in Israel to be "extremely vigilant, prudent and avoid the areas under a state of emergency, as well as those affected by the conflict". "My message to the Romanian citizens - and we will also issue a specific travel warning during the day - is to be extremely vigilant, prudent, to avoid areas under a state of emergency (there are already certain areas in Israel under this regime), avoid unnecessary travel to the region, to these areas affected by conflict and, if possible, to leave those areas, "Aurescu said on Wednesday at the Palace of Parliament, when asked about this topic. He added that steps to defuse the situation and prevent the loss of human lives are essential. "We have seen that there have already been casualties and we deeply regret the loss of lives on both the Israeli and Palestinian side these days. We want such casualties to be avoided, it is very important that we work towards a de-escalation of this situation and in the next period we want to see concrete efforts to defuse tensions," the Foreign Minister underlined, adding that so far there has been no request for consular assistance from any Romanian citizen there. "According to available data, there are between 320 and 350 Romanian citizens in the Gaza Strip, persons with dual citizenship included," Romania's top diplomat said. In a different thread, Aurescu said he doesn't want to speculate on future developments, but stressed that Romania wants rocket barrages on civilian targets in Israel to stop. "I wouldn't like to speculate on future developments, because they do not depend on Romania, but on the actions of the two parties. However, from Romania's point of view, it is very important for the missile strikes on populated civilian areas in Israel to stop, because they trigger the legitimate response of the State of Israel. We will see how things evolve further. If there are significant developments, we will obviously adapt our action, including in terms of possible assistance to the Romanian citizens in the area," the Foreign Minister pointed out. The Foreign Affairs Ministry announced today the creation, following Minister Bogdan Aurescu's order, of a Task Force which urgently convened for the "permanent monitoring and assessment of the situation in Israel", as well as for identifying the main directions of action to support Romanian citizens and their families in the conflict-affected area. The Foreign Ministry said that it is closely following developments in Israel and strongly condemns the rocket barrages launched from the Gaza Strip at civilian areas in Israel. Bogdan Aurescu participated today in the conference on Romania and NATO's Ballistic Missile Defense System - a Transatlantic Strategic Contribution to Euro-Atlantic Security, an event organized by the Senate's Defense Committee in partnership with the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the National Defense Ministry. The further strengthening of Romania's Strategic Partnership with Poland highlights the special relationship and firm commitment to contribute to regional security, says President Klaus Iohannis in a message conveyed on Wednesday at the international Conference "One People, Two Flags" dedicated to the centennial of the Romanian - Polish defensive alliance held at the Romanian Embassy in the Republic of Poland. The head of the state recalls that the conclusion, in 1921, of the Romanian-Polish defensive alliance was the first collective security project at regional level and the first strategic partnership with Poland. "The conclusion of the Alliance also marked the beginning of a long-lasting friendship. In the spirit of this friendship and of international humanitarian law, in the autumn of the tragic year 1939, Romania contributed to the rescue of the Polish National Treasure and ensured refuge and transit through its territory for about 100,000 Poles, including senior Polish leaders, such as President Ignacy Moscicki and Foreign Minister Jozef Beck," Iohannis notes. "Today, through the Strategic Partnership concluded between Romania and the Republic of Poland in 2009 and renewed in 2015, we continue what our forerunners have begun 100 years ago on the way to developing dialogue and coordination between the two states, as a natural reflection of a long history of joint approaches and actions. We are today what our forefathers would probably have wanted us to be. Our states share common values and ideals, are well integrated, and align their interests in regional and global cooperation structures and frameworks. We will keep on setting an example for Europe and the world in terms of respect and cooperation for the fulfillment of aspirations for peace, harmony and prosperity for the benefit of our countries and citizens. The dynamic political and diplomatic dialogue, as well as the substantive economic and sectoral cooperation represent the foundations of the Strategic Partnership, and strengthening it highlights both the special relationship between the two states and their firm commitment to contribute to regional security," reads the President's message delivered by presidential advisor Andrei Muraru. President Iohannis adds that the concrete commitments and the coordination undertaken by Romania and Poland have resulted in an extended bilateral interaction, through landmark strategic regional constructions - the Bucharest Format (B9) and the Three Seas Initiative, which - he says - will be strengthened in the future. Against this background, Iohannis underscores the importance of the recent visit to Romania of Polish President Andrzej Duda and of his co-hosting the Bucharest Format Summit. "The Bucharest format has reaffirmed the role of our countries in achieving major concrete objectives towards strengthening NATO's Eastern Flank, both in its northern and southern dimensions, in line with Romania and Poland's contribution to promoting and ensuring security and stability in the region. In an extremely complex regional and global context, we will take vigorous and firm action to strengthen EU cohesion and NATO solidarity, as well as to support neighboring states in their efforts of rapprochement to the European values and models. In the spirit of the Convention concluded 100 years ago, our states will coagulate their energy, strength and determination to ensure the prosperity and security of the European and Euro-Atlantic community. The times to come require strong partners and effective coordination, and Romania and Poland are looking shoulder to shoulder at the dawn of tomorrow, with faith in the values and the principles that have brought us close a century ago and that continue to hold us together," Iohannis concludes his message. The Parliament decided on Tuesday to appoint Liviu Popescu as interim director general of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company (SRR), agerpres reports. Liviu Popescu, proposed by Save Romania Union - Party of Liberty, Unity and Solidarity Alliance (USR PLUS), obtained 237 votes for and 134 against. Nicolae Voiculet's candidacy, from Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) was rejected, obtaining 134 votes in favor and 237 against.The vote was secret, with ballots.The Parliament rejected on Tuesday the activity reports of the Romanian Radio Broadcasting Company for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019.As a result, the company's Board of Directors was dismissed by law.The term of office of the interim director general of SRR is six months. Parliament decided to appoint Ramona Saseanu as interim director general of the Romanian Television Broadcasting Corporation (SRTV), agerpres reports. Saseanu, recommended by the National Liberal Party (PNL), garnered 240 votes for and 135 against. The other candidates were rejected. Thus, Adrian Tanta recommended by the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) got 131 votes for and 244 against, while Monica Ghiurco got four votes for and 371 against.At a plenary meeting on Tuesday, Parliament rejected SRTv activity reports on 2017, 2018 and 2019.As a result, the company's Board of Directors was dismissed by law.The term of office of the acting director general of SRTV is six months. Prime Minister Florin Citu says he had a "very constructive meeting" in Brussels on Monday evening on Romania's National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) negotiations with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and that the negotiations will continue on May 12 with other officials of the Commission, agerpre reports. "I had a very constructive meeting with President of the European Commission on the PNRR negotiations, as confirmed by Ursula von der Leyen. Romania has an ambitious plan for sustainable economic growth, following the pandemic. Negotiations and meetings continue tomorrow," Citu wrote on his Facebook page. He said on Tuesday on a visit to Brussels that these days he wants to make sure that the resources that Romania will receive under its National Recovery and Resilience Plan will go to the sectors with the "highest economic productivity.""Now we need to speed up economic growth, and that is why I am going to Brussels to make sure that the resources that Romania will receive, the 29.2 billion euros, will go to those sectors with the highest economic productivity. We have priorities that we own in this government and three sources of funding - PNRR, the national budget, European funds - and when I think of these projects, I think of all three sources of funding, not just one particular source. Today we are talking about PNRR, to make sure that we will have an approved PNRR with our priorities introduced there," Citu said on Tuesday at the end of a visit to Satu Mare County.Citu is scheduled today to meet European Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean, and Executive Vice-Presidents of the EC Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis in Brussels at the European Commission. Prime Minister Florin Citu reconfirmed, during the meeting he had with Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, on Wednesday, in Brussels, the Romanian Government's objective to ensure a post-pandemic economic relaunch and a sustainable economic growth, with emphasis on "reforms and investments." "Reforms and investments, that's what I insisted on! An excellent discussion with Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, regarding the fiscal and budgetary aspects of the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience. I reconfirmed the Government's objective to ensure a post-pandemic economic relaunch and a sustainable economic growth," wrote the head of the Executive on Facebook. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister had discussions with Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport, and Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission. On Tuesday evening, Florin Citu participated in a working dinner with the head of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen. Prime Minister Florin Citu, speaking after his discussion on Wednesday, in Brussels, with European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager on Romania's priorities set out in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), declared himself "grateful" to the European Commission for the offered "support, guidance and cooperation". "I had a detailed discussion with EC Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager on Romania's priorities under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. I am grateful to the European Commission for their support, guidance and cooperation," Florin Citu wrote on Facebook. Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister met with European Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean, with whom he thoroughly reviewed the PNRR infrastructure projects. President Klaus Iohannis had, on Wednesday, a phone call with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, at the request of the Ukrainian dignitary, about the worrying security situation in the region, but also on the status and perspectives of the bilateral relation between Romania and Ukraine. "The President of Romania reiterated the firm support for the sovereignty of Ukraine and its territorial integrity, as well as for its European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. President Klaus Iohannis emphasized, at the same time, that the joint statements of the reunions recently hosted by Romania, especially of the Summit of the Bucharest Format, but also of the trilateral meeting at the level of the ministers of foreign affairs of Romania - Poland - Turkey, which was also attended by the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, reflect support towards Ukraine," the Presidential Administration mentions in a press release. President Iohannis evoked the preoccupation of Romania towards the recent deterioration of security in the Eastern Vicinity and in the Black Sea, near the eastern border of Ukraine and in the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed by the Russian Federation, deeming the position of the Ukrainian counterpart to be of a nature to reduce tensions. The quoted source mentions that the Romanian head of state granted ample space in the phone call to problems relating to the rights of people belonging to the Romanian minority in Ukraine, with emphasis being placed on the right to education in Romanian, and emphasized the necessity of solving them, in the shortest time, through dialogue. In this sense, President Iohannis emphasized the importance of concluding as soon as possible the Protocol for bilateral cooperation in the realm of education between Romania and Ukraine and the resumption, as soon as possible, of the works of the Intergovernmental Joint Committee regarding the rights of persons belonging to national minorities. He appreciated the openness of Ukraine towards the perspective of concluding a comprehensive agreement regarding the rights of persons belonging to the Romanian minority in Ukraine and the Ukrainian minority in Romania and appealed to his counterpart that the local and central Ukrainian authorities involve in consultations ethnic Romanians on matters that regard the rights of persons belonging to the Romanian minority in Ukraine. "President Klaus Iohannis emphasized that the efficient identification of durable solutions in regards to the preservation of rights of people belonging to the Romanian minority in Ukraine will grant an impetus to the consolidation of the bilateral relationship on all levels," the Presidential Administration mentions. President Iohannis informed his Ukrainian counterpart that Romania is ready to make in the coming period a donation of medical equipment and disinfectants, as well as of vaccines, in order to actively combat the COVID-19 pandemic, a further proof of the potential for bilateral cooperation. In his turn, President Volodymyr Zelensky offered thanks for the constant support of Romania in favor of the sovereignty of Ukraine and its territorial integrity, as well as for its European and Euro-Atlantic aspirations. He thanked Romania for support in relation to the worrying security situation in the Eastern Vicinity. "President Zelensky showed that he fully understands the concerns of the Romanian side regarding the rights of people belonging to the Romanian minority and manifested availability for the identification of solutions, so that the cultural and linguistic identity of ethnic Romanians be protected to international standards," the Presidential Administration said. Finally, President Zelensky reiterated the invitation addressed to the Romanian head of state to conduct a visit to Ukraine. The National Weather Administration (ANM) has issued a Code Yellow warning for unstable weather valid through Thursday morning in six western counties, agerpres reports. According to meteorologists, May 12, 16:00hrs - May 13, 10:00hrs, in Banat, Crisana, as well as the southwest of Oltenia, there will be spells unstable weather in the form thunderstorms, hail and torrential rain showers. Precipitation should exceed 25 - 30 l/sq.m. The counties under the Code Yellow warning are: Bihor, Arad, Timis, Caras-Severin, Mehedinti and Dolj.Also, from Wednesday afternoon through Friday at 21:00hrs, there will be an unstable weather warning valid in most of Romania's regions. Thus, first in the southwestern and western parts of the country, then in the other regions, there will be torrential showers, thunderstorms, short spells of wind gust and hail.Precipitation is expected to exceed 15 - 20 l /sq.m. up to 25 - 30 l/ sq.m sparsely. Shares is the leading weekly publication for retail investors. It is packed with investment ideas, news and educational material to help build and run portfolios and get more from your money. Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists. Satellite photos recently revealed that the Iranian IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) is once more building catamaran (twin hull) type combat ships. As of March 2021, three different IRGC controlled shipyards were building at least one of these 76 meter (214 feet) long catamarans. These three shipyards normally build armed speedboats and other small craft favored by the IRGC naval force. The three new catamarans have been named the Shahid (martyr) Soleimani class. This was not the first catamaran-type warship revealed by Iran. In late 2016 Iran announced, with great fanfare and lots of pictures, the newest Iranian warship, the Shahid Nazeri. What was displayed was a 55 meter (180 feet) long catamaran with a small helicopter pad which was shown holding a light (under two ton) civilian helicopter. There were no visible weapons on the helicopter or the ship. The Iranians said 800-ton Shahid Nazeri had a top speed of 50 kilometers an hour and could carry about a hundred passengers and crew. This was clearly a civilian design painted and presented as an unarmed warship. Only one was built and although it carried sufficient fuel to travel up to 10,000 kilometers, never travelled far from Iran. The IRGC talked of making this vessel the flagship of their navy. This type of warship in nothing new. In 2014 Taiwan introduced the Tuo Chiang class corvette. These 60.4-meter catamarans displaced 560 tons and have a top speed of 80 kilometers an hour. The crew of 41 operates several weapons systems, including 16 anti-ship missiles, a 76mm cannon, a 20mm anti-missile autocannon, six torpedo tubes and four 12.7mm machine-guns. The Hsiung-feng 3 is described in Taiwan as a carrier killer to be used against the new Chinese aircraft carriers. Catamaran-type warships are more stable in rough weather, making it easier to operate the helicopter. Meanwhile Iran has been seeing a lot of U.S. Navy Spearhead class EPFs (high speed catamaran transports) in the Persian Gulf. Until 2015 EPFs were known as JHSV (Joint High Speed Vessel) type ships. The U.S. Navy currently has twelve Spearhead EPF and wants to buy three more. The Spearhead class catamarans that displace 1,500 tons and can carry 545 tons of cargo or vehicles in a 1,900 square meter (20,000 square foot) cargo bay. Cargo gets on and off via a ramp that can handle up to 100 tons at a time. That means tanks can be loaded and transported. In addition, 312 passengers (troops or civilians) can be carried on another deck in airline type seats. These passengers can be carried for four days. There are also berths for 104 passengers, who can be carried for up to 14 days. Top speed is 80 kilometers an hour and range of up to 2,200 kilometers on internal fuel. The minimum crew size is 26 but up to 45 are needed for some types of missions. There is a helicopter pad that can handle heavy (up to 30 ton) helicopters. There is also storage space for a smaller (12 ton UH-60 class) helicopter. The U.S. Navy received its first Spearhead in 2013 and the rest arrived by 2017. One advantage of these ships is that they are based on successful and heavily used commercial designs, thus the price per ship actually went down. Each EPF cost about $180 million. This commercial success is what led the U.S. Navy to being using leased commercial versions in 2001 for use in the Pacific. The U.S. Army also tested the design and after 2003 these tests extended to the Persian Gulf. American allies in the Persian Gulf noted this and this led the UAE (United Arab Emirates) to lease one of the U.S. Navy HSV 2s. It arrived in July 2015, just in time to quickly move troops and vehicles from the UAE to Yemen to help the local government deal with an Iran-backed rebellion by Shia tribes. HSV 2 continued carrying supplies and passengers off Yemen until October 2016 when, as it was approaching the Yemeni Red Sea port of Mocha, it was hit by an Iranian anti-ship missile. The damage was severe, mainly because of fire but the HSV 2 did not sink and was towed to a port for further examination. The HSV 2 had, until 2013, been leased by the U.S. Navy to develop new sea transport concepts for the EPF class transports. Noting this, UAE neighbor Oman UAE ordered two similar HSSV transports. These are optimized for the calmer waters of the Persian Gulf and the shorter distances over which the Omani Navy operates it. The U.S. Navy required EPFs for the Western Pacific. Oman has a long coastline (over 2,000 kilometers) and most Omanis live near the coast. HSSV is an effective way to get troops, relief supplies or whatever around. HSSV is a 72 meter (234 feet) long ship that can carry 320 tons of cargo and up to 250 passengers. Top speed is 63 kilometers an hour and the vessel is operated by a crew of 69. Oman had already been using two (65 meter) civilian versions of this vessel as commercial ferries and the navy was impressed with their performance. by Austin Bay May 11, 2021 To quote the U.S. Navy's official announcement, on May 6 the cruiser USS Monterey "seized an illicit shipment of weapons from a stateless dhow in international waters of the North Arabian Sea." The list of weaponry aboard the dhow included advanced Russian-made anti-tank missiles, around 3,000 Chinese assault rifles, several hundred light machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launchers and "advanced optical sights." On a battlefield, those weapons set could arm a light infantry brigade of 4,000 soldiers -- or guerrilla fighters. "Stateless" is diplo-speak indicating the dhow had no flag or other sign of national origin. It suggests the dhow's crew had no valid cargo papers to show the U.S. Coast Guard Advanced Interdiction Team inspecting their vessel. When USN warships enter sea lanes plied by smugglers and pirates, they often have a Coast Guard team aboard with legal authority to address transnational criminal operations. Smugglers prowl the north Arabian Sea (an arm of the Indian Ocean), moving narcotics, stolen electronics, even Persian rugs. But smuggling a calculated weapons mix like the USN seized? Iran's dictators scream plausible deniability but their corrupt state planned, assembled and shipped the weapons. Why? The junta is intrinsically violent. It has been on the State Department's state-sponsor of terrorism list since 1984. Iranian intelligence agents and special forces officers direct or finance violent "meddling operations" in at least 30 different countries while skimming money from drug smuggling and human trafficking. The dhow, however, bore a war-fighting cargo. Right now the regime is waging four proxy wars: 1) in neighboring Iraq, 2) in wretched Syria, 3) in Lebanon, and 4) in chaotic Yemen. Cross off Lebanon and Syria, the dhow would have to transit the Suez Canal. Iraq and Iran share a land border; let trucks smuggle the guns. The dhow's destination was Yemen, an Indian Ocean beach or a small port in the Red Sea. For decades, Iran's dictatorship has seeded violence in Yemen. For over 15 years, it has armed and financed Yemen's major rebel group, the Houthis. Yemen gives Iran a second front in its slow war with Saudi Arabia. Iran supplies its Houthi proxies with armed drones and ballistic missiles, which the Houthis use to attack Saudi Arabia. The Al Quds Force is the elite arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Quds Force controls Iran's international covert and proxy warfare operations and oversees ballistic missile units. StrategyPage.com (full disclosure: I am a contributing editor) recently published a report arguing Iran's late 2020 decision to make a Quds Force general its ambassador to Yemen indicates Tehran is "giving the orders now" to Yemeni rebels. Quds Force officers "supervise Iranian support for combat operations and take a more direct role in running the war." The report links Iranian direction of the Yemen war to "the negotiations to end economic sanctions on Iran" underway in Europe. The negotiations would also revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the ostentatious name former President Obama's administration pasted on its Iran nuclear deal. My guess: The seized weapons were sent to beef up Houthi forces for a new offensive that's timed to affect those ongoing negotiations. Iran's offer as the Houthi offensive kicks off: We'll cool the war if you give us money. On May 10, armed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy speedboats feigned ramming attacks on American vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The Coast Guard Cutter Maui had to fire warning shots to disperse the "swarm." The swarming small boats try to cause collisions between the big ships. The U.S. flotilla included the USS Monterey. Payback or coincidence? For years, Iran has feigned swarm attacks in Hormuz. War, terror and crime are what Iran's dictatorship does. Obama's JCPOA never halted Iran's nuclear weapons program. It failed to penalize the Iranian regime's violent meddling and criminal operations. Ending economic sanctions will just give the mullahs more money to spend on proxy wars like the one in Yemen. Reviving the JCPOA will give the regime the bomb. To believe otherwise is delusion. The Islamic terrorist violence grinds on with the continuing counterterrorism efforts having a noticeable impact. The problem is that the Islamic terrorists and tribal feuds are not going away, nor are the majority of Malians who are increasingly fed up with their elected and unelected leaders. Another example of how the frustration increases is the disappointing performance of the CNT (National Transitional Council), which was formed after the August 2020 coup ejected a corrupt president but failed to establish a military government. Instead, the CNT , an interim (temporary) government was organized, at the insistence of local politicians and major foreign aid donors. The CNT has until March 2022 to organize new elections and disappear. The CNT is composed of 121 members generally agreed to represent the Mali population and institutions. The CNT elected a president and vice-president who are both army colonels who were not part of the coup. The CNT serves as a temporary legislative group to determine and approve measures required to maintain order and organize new the 2022 elections. The CNT has already failed to deliver during its first eight months in power. The most recent issue is the failure of the CNT to revive corruption investigations and prosecutions of military and political leaders that foreign aid donors insisted on if Mali wanted to keep receiving aid. Despite the importance of acting on this issue the CNT has produced only excuses. That indicates deals are being made for the accused to buy their way out of punishment for corruption they are apparently guilty of. It takes time to fabricate a plausible reason to drop the prosecution. There was a similar furor b ack in February when the CNT angered France by insisting it would negotiate with some of the local Islamic terror groups in order to make possible elections in early 2022. France pointed out that Islamic terrorists consider negotiations an acceptable way to deceive your enemies because their opponents will feel obliged to comply with any agreement while a defender of Islam (which is what most Islamic terrorists consider themselves) will violate any agreement when it is most advantageous for them. The CNT government believes that this deplorable Islamic terror group track record of exploiting agreements would not apply here because the CNT wants to address the non-religious grievances of Islamic terrorists in central Mali, where the violence is basically about economic disputes between the aggressive Fulani and other tribes. French criticism could not be ignored as France is the backbone of foreign counter-terrorism and peacekeeping efforts as well as foreign aid in general. France wants the CNT government to concentrate on reducing the rampant corruption in government. This is what most Mali voters see as the primary problem. Many of those who have turned to Islamic terrorism agree. The CNT was forced to agree with the French but since March there has been no progress in dealing with the corruption. When faced with this pressure a favorite ploy of corrupt African politicians is to blame foreigners for all the problems the local politicians have caused. The corruption is perpetuated because senior politicians share the looted aid with their followers and especially members of their clan or tribe. Most Malians have come to realize that accepting these excuses just perpetuates the corruption problem. Many members of the CNT realize that but they also feel some very up close and personal pressure from their key supporters, who are often clan 0r tribal elders, who do not want to lose the income corruption provides. This has always been a problem especially in Africa, where tribal identity often supersedes any national loyalty and dedication to the common good. It is easier to agree that corruption is a major problem than it is to actually do something about it. May 7, 2021: In central Mali (Mopti) three soldiers died and six were wounded when their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb. Many Islamic terrorist groups are active in the area and attacks on convoys are frequent. May 6, 2021: A video of a French reporter, who had been kidnapped a month ago in the northern city of Gao, showed up online. The French hostage pleaded for a ransom to be paid, otherwise he would be killed. News of the April kidnapping had been kept quiet in the hopes that the hostage could be quickly rescued. Currently there are six Westerners being held for ransom in Mali or neighboring countries, several of them for five or six years. It takes longer to negotiate an illegal ransom and the Islamic terrorists recognize this. While these negotiations take longer, they still produce results. Those who arrange the ransoms often have to indicate which local politicians have to be bribed to make the deal possible. For example, at the end of 2020, across the northern border in Algeria, security forces seized $100,000 that was traced to the $10 million ransom recently paid in Mali to get four hostages released. In Algeria the ransom cash seized was being held by known Islamic terrorist supporters. When Algerian officials found out about the large ransom, they warned that it would mean more terrorist activity in Algeria and that happened. Southern Algeria has long been the scene of Islamic terrorist activity. Algeria joined other neighbors of Mali and condemned the payment of ransom for the October release of three Europeans and a prominent Mali politician. The Mali government does not deny that it released 207 imprisoned Islamic terrorists as part of the deal but the suspected payment of over $10 million was officially denied and the cash allegedly came from European sources. Ransoms give Islamic terrorists in Africa even more incentive to kidnap foreigners. The ransoms paid to al Qaeda (over $100 million since 2003) have been a major factor of the continued existence of al Qaeda in general and especially AQIM (Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) in Africa. Most Western governments no longer pay ransoms because they have come to understand that this only makes their citizens, especially when overseas, more likely to be kidnapped. As an alternative the Islamic terrorists will sometimes try to get a swap (for a jailed Islamic terrorist) deal. Making a video of the hostage being killed, usually by beheading, is also a possibility but this has been shown to increase the efforts to track down and kill the kidnappers. These videos still get made, but not usually in the Sahel where the Islamic terrorists are more concerned about the money. AQIM in particular was always more mercenary, and quite good at it. But it is a lot more difficult to get multi-million dollar ransoms these days because it is not only illegal but frowned upon globally and to be done it must be very clandestine. More difficult but not impossible and more effort is made to conceal where the cash came from. During the last eight years France had developed and led a regional effort to find and rescue hostages. This has made it more difficult, and expensive, to hold a hostage until a deal can be made. The Islamic terrorists have access to professional middlemen, most of them based in the UAE, who have contacts throughout the region, including northern Africa, to broker these deals, for a percentage if they are successful in delivering the cash to the kidnappers. These hostage brokers got a major boost when the Somali pirates began seizing ships and crew in 2005 and anchored them off a small Somali port that the pirates, or a partner (warlord) controlled. This business flourished for seven years until an international naval force shut it down. By then many gangsters and Islamic terrorist leaders had phone numbers they could call to contact a broker with a reputation for getting the job done. Many of the Mali hostages are held in Islamic terrorist camps in the remote desert mountains near the Mali-Algerian border. Algeria cooperates with the French and allows French aircraft, (often UAVs) to patrol the border area and share findings with Algeria, which often allowed French warplanes to bomb some of these camps. Otherwise, Algeria will send experienced troops to quietly surround and raid the camp. French commandos will do the same for camps found on the Mali side of the border, where they also carry out a lot of ground and air-searches for camps where hostages are held. As a result of all this activity the number of Western hostages being held in the area has declined by more than half since 2013. Despite the risk, journalists and other foreigners still operate in the area. Many are protected by locals they are performing useful (usually medical or educational) functions and believe they are protected. Many are, but the Islamic terrorists are always on the lookout for an opportunity. When a Westerners is taken local and French security forces will go to the area and trying to arrange a quick, and ransom-free, release. The effort is often cut short when the kidnappers get impatient and go public with a proof-of-life video of the hostage, usually pleading for a ransom. This increases efforts to find and rescue the hostage, which usually means many of the kidnappers are killed, and sometimes the hostage as well. The kidnapping for cash is too profitable for the Islamic terrorists to give it up entirely. May 5, 2021: In the north (near Gao) German peacekeepers are receiving a fourth leased Israeli Heron I UAV (similar to the American Predator). With four of these UAVs one, can be in the air 24/7. There have been three Herons operational in Mali since early 2017. Germany extended the Heron leases to 2020 because the Herons in German service (since 2010) have had an availability rate of 98 percent. Since the late 1990s several hundred Herons have flown over 48,000 hours successfully. Using a variety of payloads, the Herons have been used to detect roadside bombs as well as armed opponents. Heron can also check on the status of local civilians and even monitor crop status and the availability of water. The first Heron 1 arrived in Mali during October 2016 and its initial mission lasted nearly six hours. Peacekeepers in Mali have found Israeli UAVs very useful for keeping an eye on large, thinly inhabited, areas. The first one found there were no serious problems operating in the Mali desert-like conditions. Before that these Herons had served with German forces in Afghanistan. May 1, 2021: In the northeast (south of Gao) in the tri-border area were the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet, there was a terrorist ambush just across the border in Niger that left at sixteen Niger soldiers dead, one missing and six wounded. The soldiers were part of an effort to find and eliminate the Islamic terrorists who attacked three villages in the area a month ago and killed 141 civilians while they looted three villages. These raids are also meant to intimidate local civilians into not cooperating with the security forces. Most Islamic terrorist violence has been the tri-border area were the Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso borders meet. The Mali portion of the tri-border area was the original hot spot for Islamic terrorism in central Africa, predating the rapid growth, and decline of Boko Haram violence in northeast Nigeria between 2013 and 2016. Many Islamic terror groups prefer the tri-border area because they can escape a major counterterror operation in one country by just crossing the border. This has led the three nations to coordinate their counterterrorism efforts in this area. Mali has an advantage as they have the assistance of over 12,000 peacekeepers plus the 5,100 French counterterrorism troops who operate throughout the region. The French helped form a similar equivalent, the 5,000 strong G5 force. This is a local auxiliary to the French Sahel counterterrorism force. G5 troops are supplied by Mali and four neighboring countries while the EU (European Union) supplies millions of dollars a year to provide the G5 troops with additional equipment, weapons, training and supplements to their pay. This enables the French force to operate wherever it detects the presence of Islamic terrorists. The French first allocate a lot of intelligence and aerial surveillance efforts to the Islamic terror groups they locate. This enables the French to identify key leaders (for combat and support functions) and where they are. That information makes it possible for the French to kill or capture a lot of these key personnel. As counter-terror campaigns since the 1990s have demonstrated, this approach weakens and often destroys Islamic terror groups. The inability of local Islamic terrorists operating in or near Mali to carry out large attacks or anything at all in Europe is proof of that. Leave such groups alone that the quantity and quality of attacks will increase. April 26, 2021: In central Mali (Alatona, near the Mauritanian border) a joint French-Mali operation tracked down an Islamic terrorist group that had staged attacks in the area but were successfully tracked and confronted today. Two trucks were destroyed and 26 Islamic terrorists killed or captured. Captives are preferred because interrogation often yields useful data about Islamic terrorist operations in the area. The more fanatical Islamic terrorists will usually fight to the death while those more inclined to make a deal will not. Islamic terrorist groups, especially ISIL, try to identify and purge (expel or execute) the faint hearted as security risks. April 17, 2021: In the northeast (south of Gao) in the tri-border area, there was an attack by armed men riding motorcycles left about twenty villagers dead or wounded. The raiders first fired on a funeral ceremony outside the village and then rode on to the village, continuing to fire at anyone they could see. The gunmen stole goods and vehicles and fled before soldiers or police could arrive. It was unclear if the raiders were Islamic terrorists or bandits. The chaos and lawlessness in the tri-border area caused by the presence of so many Islamic terror groups has led to for formation of some bandit gangs that operate like the Islamic terrorists. These raids start with the raiders firing on everyone to avoid anyone taking cellphone pictures of them, which can assist security forces in identifying them, especially if they are locals, and hunting them down. April 16, 2021: In central Mali (Mopti) a feud between local tribesmen and Islamic terrorists left about a hundred of the fighters on both sides dead or wounded during nearly a week of fighting. Some of the local tribesmen had joined the Islamic terror group and one was challenged by his brother who sided with the tribe when the Islamic terrorists seized some food from a villager and refused demands that it be returned. The tribal militia and local hunter groups were called out and several days of skirmishing and ambushes persuaded the Islamic terrorist leaders to make peace with the tribe. This sort of thing is only a problem if members of tribal militias or local hunting groups are involved. The militiamen and hunters are armed and usually willing to fight. The hunters are particularly lethal because they know the local terrain better than the Islamic terrorists and are often hired by security forces to track Islamic terrorists. These hunters often have to get paid enough to move their families to another area to avoid retaliation. Leading locum tenens provider continues to expand nationwide adding Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) to portfolio DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ICON Medical Network Holdings (ICON), a national locum tenens provider creating solutions for physician and advanced practice staffing, has acquired Independence Anesthesia Services (Independence), an anesthesia provider agency with over 17 years of experience representing locum tenens provider assignments. The strategic acquisition will help in meeting the needs of healthcare staffing across the nation. We are pleased to welcome Independence and Ed Long to our family, and are confident that this addition will only further increase ICONs footprint across the nation in a specialty that is highly desired, said Janet Elkin, president and chief executive officer at ICON. According to The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, CRNAs are among the most utilized healthcare professionals in the country and were ranked in the top 20 of specialties that served the most beneficiaries in non-telehealth care at the height of the pandemic, from March 2020 to June 2020. As more outpatient and elective procedures are starting to take place again, the need for CRNAs to provide essential care in communities nationwide, especially medically underserved and rural, continues to grow, said Elkin. In partnership with Independence, we will be able to provide a solution that is beneficial for both patients and healthcare facilities. Independence is based in Athens, GA with over 17 years of experience specializing in staffing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist CRNA across the country. We are excited to join Janet and her team and together work to develop innovative ways that reach even more providers while continuing to help our clients, said Ed Long, president, Independence. Ashley Simpson, chief development officer at ICON, will continue to grow her role through the acquisition. Simpson will ensure there is a two-way relationship where the ICON team will not only be able to join forces, but also learn from the Independence team and their wealth of industry knowledge. Integrating Independences expertise of CRNAs powers an expanded locum tenens portfolio, allowing ICON to serve a new area of care, said Simpson. I look forward to taking on the responsibilities that come along with acquiring an established provider as they will have a meaningful impact for providers that require the knowledge of CRNAs. Frank Williamson of Oaklyn Consulting served as an advisor to ICON and Independence was represented by Ed Manthey of WMA Healthcare Partners. About ICON Medical Network Holdings ICON Medical Network Holding is a locum tenens provider creating national solutions for physician and advanced practice staffing. Founded in 2010, the company places physicians and advanced practitioners on locum tenens assignments at hospitals, health systems, medical practices, clinics, and other healthcare facilities throughout the United States. For more information about ICON Media Network, visit www.iconmedicalnetwork.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005255/en/ Sarah Ferguson Allison+Partners for ICON Medical Network 972.965.3130 sarah.ferguson@allisonpr.com Source: ICON Medical Network Sumit Dhawan Appointed President, Zane Rowe to Continue as CFO Announces Preliminary Q1 FY22 Results PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- VMware (NYSE: VMW) today announced that its Board of Directors has appointed Rangarajan (Raghu) Raghuram as Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, effective June 1, 2021. An industry veteran, Raghuram is a strategic business leader who currently holds the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Products and Cloud Services at VMware. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005362/en/ Raghu Raghuram (Photo: Business Wire) I am thrilled to have Raghu step into the role of CEO at VMware. Throughout his career, he has led with integrity and conviction, playing an instrumental role in the success of VMware, commented Michael Dell, chairman of the VMware Board of Directors. Raghu is now in position to architect VMwares future, helping customers and partners accelerate their digital businesses in this multi-cloud world. Since joining VMware in 2003, Raghuram has helped steer the companys strategic direction and its technology evolution throughout VMwares rich history. He helped grow the core virtualization business, drove VMwares software defined data center strategy, constructed and guided VMwares cloud computing business and SaaS transformation efforts, played a pivotal role in the companys M&A strategy, and has been key in driving partnerships with Dell Technologies, hyper-scalers and other strategic partners. VMware is uniquely poised to lead the multi-cloud computing era with an end-to-end software platform spanning clouds, the data center and the edge, helping to accelerate our customers digital transformations, said Raghu Raghuram. I am honored, humbled and excited to have been chosen to lead this company to a new phase of growth. We have enormous opportunity, we have the right solutions, the right team, and we will continue to execute with focus, passion, and agility. After a thorough and thoughtful search, the Board concluded that Raghu is the best person to lead the company as CEO, because he embodies our innovative culture, represents our values, and has a clear vision for VMwares future, said Paul Sagan, VMwares lead independent director. We also want to thank Zane Rowe for his leadership as Interim CEO and the crucial role he plays continuing as CFO. VMware also announced that Sumit Dhawan has been named President, leading all go-to-market functions including Worldwide Sales, Worldwide Partner and Commercial Organization, Customer Experience and Success (CXS), Marketing, and Communications. With his broad experience building and scaling subscription businesses and his customer-centric orientation, Dhawan is ideally suited to take on leadership of these teams. Dhawan currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at VMware where he has helped design the business strategy for emerging multi-cloud and subscriptions offerings, transforming how VMwares customers can consume VMware services. Sanjay Poonen, currently Chief Operating Officer, Customer Operations, has made the personal decision to leave VMware after his 7 years at the company, most recently leading Customer Operations and prior to that leading End-User Computing. On behalf of the Board and the company, we thank Sanjay for his many contributions to VMware and wish him well in his future endeavors, commented Sagan. "I extend my warm congratulations to Raghu on his promotion to CEO and know he will take the company to new heights," commented Sanjay Poonen, Chief Operating Officer, Customer Operations, VMware. "I will be cheering on the companys success, as I embark on my next adventure." Preliminary Results for Q1, Fiscal Year 2022 Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2022 is expected to be $2.994 billion, an increase of 9.5% from the first quarter of fiscal 2021. The combination of Subscription and SaaS and license revenue is expected to be $1.387 billion, an increase of 12.5% from the first quarter of fiscal 2021. GAAP operating margin for the first quarter is expected to be 18.7%, and non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be 30.8%. GAAP net income per diluted share is expected to be $1.01 per diluted share, and non-GAAP net income per diluted share is expected to be $1.76 per diluted share. Additional details regarding VMwares first quarter financial results will be announced after market close on Thursday, May 27, 2021. The company will host a conference call at 1:30 p.m. PT/ 4:30 p.m. ET that day to review financial results and business outlook. A live web broadcast of the event will be available on the VMware Investor Relations website at http://ir.vmware.com. The replay of the webcast will be available for two months. About VMware VMware software powers the worlds complex digital infrastructure. The companys cloud, app modernization, networking, security, and digital workspace offerings help customers deliver any application on any cloud across any device. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, VMware is committed to being a force for good, from its breakthrough technology innovations to its global impact. For more information, please visit https://www.vmware.com/company.html. Additional Information VMwares website is located at www.vmware.com, and its investor relations website is located at http://ir.vmware.com. VMwares goal is to maintain the investor relations website as a portal through which investors can easily find or navigate to pertinent information about VMware, all of which is made available free of charge. The additional information includes: materials that VMware files with the SEC; announcements of investor conferences, speeches and events at which its executives talk about its products, services and competitive strategies; webcasts of its quarterly earnings calls, investor conferences and events (archives of which are also available for a limited time); additional information on its financial metrics, including reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures; press releases on quarterly earnings, product and service announcements, legal developments and international news; corporate governance information; other news, blogs and announcements that VMware may post from time to time that investors may find useful or interesting; and opportunities to sign up for email alerts and RSS feeds to have information pushed in real time. VMware is a registered trademark or trademark of VMware, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective organizations. Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures Reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures to VMwares financial results as determined in accordance with GAAP are included at the end of this press release following the accompanying financial data. For a description of these non-GAAP financial measures, including the reasons management uses each measure, please see About Non-GAAP Financial Measures. Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements including, among other things, statements regarding preliminary financial results for the first quarter of VMwares fiscal year 2022 (FY22 Q1), including with respect to expectations for revenue, combined subscription and SaaS and license revenue, GAAP and non-GAAP operating margin and GAAP and non-GAAP net income per diluted share. These forward-looking statements are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors. VMwares expectations about its quarterly results are based on preliminary information about FY22 Q1 and are subject to revision. Although the quarter is now completed, VMware is still completing its standard financial reporting closing procedures. Accordingly, as VMware completes its normal quarter-end closing and review processes, actual results could differ materially from its preliminary estimates. Factors that could cause VMwares actual results for the FY22 Q1 to differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: (1) quarter-end closing and review processes developments, such as changes in preliminary results due to inaccurate data or assumptions, unforeseen expenses, changes in estimates or judgments related to tax liabilities, potential goodwill impairments, potential litigation, bad debts or other contingencies, and facts or circumstances affecting the application of VMwares critical accounting policies, including revenue recognition; (2) disruptions resulting from personnel changes; (3) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our operations; (4) the continued risk of litigation and regulatory actions; (5) VMwares relationship with Dell Technologies and Dells ability to control matters requiring stockholder approval, including the election of VMwares board members and matters relating to Dells investment in VMware; and (6) risks associated with cyber-attacks, information security and data privacy. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, are based on current expectations and are subject to uncertainties and changes in condition, significance, value and effect as well as other risks detailed in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including VMwares most recent reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8- K that we may file from time to time, which could cause actual results to vary from expectations. VMware assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update any such forward-looking statements after the date of this release. VMware, Inc. PRELIMINARY RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP OPERATING MARGIN (unaudited) Three Months Ended April 30, 2021 GAAP operating margin 18.7 % Stock-based compensation 8.8 Intangible amortization 2.6 Acquisition, disposition and other items 0.7 Non-GAAP operating margin 30.8 % VMware, Inc. PRELIMINARY RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP NET INCOME PER DILUTED SHARE (unaudited) Three Months Ended April 30, 2021 GAAP net income per diluted share $ 1.01 Stock-based compensation 0.62 Intangible amortization 0.18 Acquisition, disposition and other items 0.14 Tax adjustment (0.19 ) Non-GAAP net income per diluted share $ 1.76 About Non-GAAP Financial Measures To provide investors and others with additional information regarding VMwares results, VMware has disclosed in this preliminary earnings release the following non-GAAP financial measures: non-GAAP operating margin and non-GAAP net income per diluted share. VMware has provided a reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure used in this preliminary earnings release to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure. These non-GAAP financial measures differ from GAAP in that they exclude stock-based compensation, employer payroll taxes on employee stock transactions, amortization of acquired intangible assets, realignment charges, acquisition, disposition and other items, and discrete items that impacted our GAAP tax rate, each as discussed below. Our non-GAAP financial measures also reflect the application of our non-GAAP tax rate. VMwares management uses these non-GAAP financial measures to understand and compare operating results across accounting periods, for internal budgeting and forecasting purposes, for short- and long-term operating plans, to calculate bonus payments and to evaluate VMwares financial performance, the performance of its individual functional groups and the ability of operations to generate cash. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures reflect VMwares ongoing business in a manner that allows for meaningful period-to-period comparisons and analysis of trends in VMwares business, as they exclude charges and gains that are not reflective of ongoing operating results. Management also believes that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information to investors and others in understanding and evaluating VMwares operating results and future prospects in the same manner as management and in comparing financial results across accounting periods and to those of peer companies. Additionally, management believes information regarding free cash flow provides investors and others with an important perspective on the cash available to make strategic acquisitions and investments, to repurchase shares, to fund ongoing operations and to fund other capital expenditures. Management believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful to investors and others in assessing VMwares operating performance due to the following factors: Stock-based compensation . Stock-based compensation is generally fixed at the time the stock-based instrument is granted and amortized over a period of several years. Although stock-based compensation is an important aspect of the compensation of VMwares employees and executives, the expense for the fair value of the stock-based instruments VMware utilizes may bear little resemblance to the actual value realized upon the vesting or future exercise of the related stock-based awards. Management believes it is useful to exclude stock-based compensation in order to better understand the long-term performance of VMwares core business. . Stock-based compensation is generally fixed at the time the stock-based instrument is granted and amortized over a period of several years. Although stock-based compensation is an important aspect of the compensation of VMwares employees and executives, the expense for the fair value of the stock-based instruments VMware utilizes may bear little resemblance to the actual value realized upon the vesting or future exercise of the related stock-based awards. Management believes it is useful to exclude stock-based compensation in order to better understand the long-term performance of VMwares core business. Employer payroll taxes on employee stock transactions. The amount of employer payroll taxes on stock-based compensation is dependent on VMwares stock price and other factors that are beyond VMwares control and do not correlate to the operation of the business. The amount of employer payroll taxes on stock-based compensation is dependent on VMwares stock price and other factors that are beyond VMwares control and do not correlate to the operation of the business. Amortization of acquired intangible assets . A portion of the purchase price of VMwares acquisitions is generally allocated to intangible assets, such as intellectual property, and is subject to amortization. However, VMware does not acquire businesses on a predictable cycle. Additionally, the amount of an acquisitions purchase price allocated to intangible assets and the term of its related amortization can vary significantly and are unique to each acquisition. Therefore, VMware believes that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures that adjust for the amortization of intangible assets provides investors and others with a consistent basis for comparison across accounting periods. . A portion of the purchase price of VMwares acquisitions is generally allocated to intangible assets, such as intellectual property, and is subject to amortization. However, VMware does not acquire businesses on a predictable cycle. Additionally, the amount of an acquisitions purchase price allocated to intangible assets and the term of its related amortization can vary significantly and are unique to each acquisition. Therefore, VMware believes that the presentation of non-GAAP financial measures that adjust for the amortization of intangible assets provides investors and others with a consistent basis for comparison across accounting periods. Realignment charges. Realignment charges include workforce reductions, asset impairments, losses on asset disposals and costs to exit facilities. VMwares management believes it is useful to exclude these items, when significant, as they are not reflective of VMwares core business and operating results. Realignment charges include workforce reductions, asset impairments, losses on asset disposals and costs to exit facilities. VMwares management believes it is useful to exclude these items, when significant, as they are not reflective of VMwares core business and operating results. Acquisition, disposition and other items. As VMware does not acquire or dispose of businesses on a predictable cycle and the terms of each transaction can vary significantly and are unique to each transaction, VMware believes it is useful to exclude acquisition, disposition and other items when looking for a consistent basis for comparison across accounting periods. These items include: Direct costs of acquisitions and dispositions, such as transaction and advisory fees. Costs associated with integrating acquired businesses. Accruals for the portion of merger consideration payable in installments that may be paid in cash or VMware stock, at the option of VMware. Gains or losses on investments in equity securities, whether realized or unrealized. Charges recognized for non-recoverable strategic investments or gains recognized on the disposition of strategic investments. Gains or losses on sale or disposal of distinct lines of business or product offerings, or transactions with features similar to discontinued operations, including recoveries or charges recognized to adjust the fair value of assets that qualify as held for sale. Certain litigation and other contingencies. VMware, from time to time, may incur charges or benefits that are outside of the ordinary course of VMwares business related to litigation and other contingencies. VMware believes it is useful to exclude such charges or benefits because it does not consider such amounts to be part of the ongoing operation of VMwares business and because of the singular nature of the claims underlying such matters. VMware, from time to time, may incur charges or benefits that are outside of the ordinary course of VMwares business related to litigation and other contingencies. VMware believes it is useful to exclude such charges or benefits because it does not consider such amounts to be part of the ongoing operation of VMwares business and because of the singular nature of the claims underlying such matters. Tax adjustment. Non-GAAP financial information for the quarter is adjusted for a tax rate equal to VMwares annual estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income. This rate is based on VMwares estimated annual GAAP income tax rate forecast, adjusted to account for items excluded from GAAP income in calculating VMwares non-GAAP income as well as significant tax adjustments. VMwares estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income is determined annually and may be adjusted during the year to take into account events or trends that VMware management believes materially impact the estimated annual rate including, but not limited to, significant changes resulting from tax legislation, material changes in the geographic mix of revenue and expenses, changes to our corporate structure and other significant events. Due to the differences in the tax treatment of items excluded from non-GAAP earnings, as well as the methodology applied to VMwares estimated annual tax rates as described above, the estimated tax rate on non-GAAP income may differ from the GAAP tax rate and from VMwares actual tax liabilities. The use of non-GAAP financial measures has certain limitations because they do not reflect all items of income and expense that affect VMwares operations. Specifically, in the case of stock-based compensation, if VMware did not pay out a portion of its compensation in the form of stock-based compensation and related employer payroll taxes, the cash salary expense included in operating expenses would be higher, which would affect VMwares cash position. VMware compensates for these limitations by reconciling the non-GAAP financial measures to the most comparable GAAP financial measures. These non-GAAP financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for or in isolation from, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP and should not be considered measures of VMwares liquidity. Further, these non-GAAP measures may differ from the non-GAAP information used by other companies, including peer companies, and therefore comparability may be limited. Management encourages investors and others to review VMwares financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005362/en/ Paul Ziots VMware Investor Relations pziots@vmware.com 650-427-3267 Michael Thacker VMware Corporate PR mthacker@vmware.com 650-427-4454 Source: VMware, Inc. FILE PHOTO: Representations of virtual currency are displayed in front of the Libra logo in this illustration picture, June 21, 2019. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo By Tom Wilson and Pete Schroeder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Digital currency group Diem Association, formerly known as Facebook Inc's Libra project, plans to launch a U.S. dollar stablecoin as it scales back its global ambitions to focus on the United States, the group said on Wednesday. The association, which comprises 26 financial firms and non-profits, said it was relocating its main operations from Switzerland to the United States and withdrawing its payment system license application with the Swiss financial regulator. Diem Networks U.S., a unit of the Deim Association, will run a blockchain-based payment system that allows real-time transfer of Diem stablecoins and will register as a money services business with the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the group said. Stablecoins are digital currencies pegged to a fiat currency. California-based Silvergate Bank will issue the Diem USD stablecoin and manage the Diem USD reserve. Diem said it would launch a pilot of the stablecoin, but it did not say when. "We are committed to a payment system that is safe for consumers and businesses, makes payments faster and cheaper," the association said. In a statement, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority confirmed Diem's decision to withdraw its application for a payment license. "Diem is planning to launch the payment system from the USA in a first phase because initially the project will focus on the USA as its target market," it said. Facebook first unveiled plans for Libra in June 2019, part of an effort to expand beyond social networking into e-commerce and global payments. It said Libra, alongside partners like payment firms and credit card companies, would create a digital token backed by a wide mixture of currencies and short-term government debt. The social media giant said it hoped Libra would power transactions between consumers and businesses around the globe, and offer more people access to financial services. But the project immediately ran into fierce opposition from policymakers globally, who worried it could erode their control over the money system, enable crime, and harm users' privacy. In April 2020, Libra and its partners abandoned plans to hold a basket of currencies and sovereign debt in favor of stablecoins backed by major currencies and sought the Swiss regulator's approval. In December, Libra rebranded as Diem in a renewed effort to gain regulatory approval, with its scope scaled back further to a single dollar-backed digital coin. Currently, Facebook's digial wallet Novi is one of Diem's 26 members and a minority investor. (Writing by Michelle Price; Editing by Aurora Ellis) VANCOUVER, British Columbia and TORONTO, May 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- American Lithium Corp. (American Lithium or the Company) (TSXV:LI | OTCQB:LIACF | Frankfurt: 5LA1) and Plateau Energy Metals Inc. (Plateau) (TSXV:PLU | OTCQB: PLUUF) are pleased to announce the completion of the acquisition by American Lithium of all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Plateau (Plateau Shares) by way of a statutory plan of arrangement under the provisions of the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) (the Arrangement). The Arrangement became effective as of 12:01 a.m. (Toronto time) on May 11, 2021 (the Effective Time), resulting in Plateau becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Lithium. Highlights Merger combines two of the largest lithium development projects globally Optionality provided by large-scale, advanced uranium project with robust economics Geographic & geological diversity in mining friendly jurisdictions Go forward management and board combines deep technical expertise with global capital markets reach and a track-record of creating value for shareholders Merger creates a leading, Americas focused developer of energy metals at a time when securing a sustainable supply of Critical Minerals is a global priority Strong working capital with approx. $19 million in cash on closing Simon Clarke, Chief Executive Officer & Director of American Lithium stated, We are thrilled to complete this acquisition of Plateau, which significantly increases our portfolio of assets and expands our range of opportunities in the Americas. I would like to take this time to welcome our new colleagues from Plateau, who bring a highly complimentary skill set. Not only is this important for the continued development of the Plateau assets but also their success in producing battery grade lithium at Falchani will be directly relevant as we focus on that milestone at TLC. Dr. Laurence Stefan, Interim CEO & Director of Plateau stated, The merger of Plateau and American Lithium combines two major undeveloped lithium assets and creates a development stage company with one of the largest combined lithium resources globally. The combination also secures the financial strength, capital markets expertise and shareholder support required for us to step up the development of all of our assets and build on the last decade of work undertaken, and milestones achieved, in Peru. We continue to believe that our success will position Peru as a major supplier of energy metals. Completion of the Arrangement Under the terms of the Arrangement, among other things, each holder of Plateau Shares is entitled to receive 0.29 of a common share of American Lithium (each whole share an American Lithium Share) and 0.145 of a common share purchase warrant of American Lithium (each whole warrant an Exchange Warrant) for each Plateau Share held immediately prior to Effective Time (the Exchange Ratio). Each whole Exchange Warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one American Lithium Share at a price of $3.00 until May 11, 2024. American Lithium will use commercially reasonable efforts to list the Exchange Warrants as soon as practicable following closing of the Transaction. Each existing Plateau Share purchase warrant will, upon the exercise thereof on or after the Effective Time in accordance with its terms, entitle the holder to acquire 0.29 of an American Lithium Share and 0.145 of an Exchange Warrant for each Plateau Share the warrant holder would have been entitled to acquire prior to the closing of the Arrangement. Existing Plateau stock options will be exchanged for an option to acquire from American Lithium the number of American Lithium Shares equal to the product of: (A) the number of Plateau Shares subject to such Plateau stock option immediately prior to the effective date of the Arrangement, multiplied by (B) 0.29 of an American Lithium Share for each Plateau Share. Each restricted share unit and deferred share unit of Plateau vested immediately prior to the Effective Time and was exchanged for one Plateau Share, and the holders thereof participated in the Arrangement as Plateau shareholders. Pursuant to the Arrangement, American Lithium acquired 127,213,511 Plateau Shares, representing 100% of the outstanding Plateau Shares. American Lithium intends to delist the Plateau Shares from the TSX Venture Exchange as soon as practicable. American Lithium also intends to cause Plateau to apply to the relevant securities regulators for Plateau to cease to be a reporting issuer. In connection with the Arrangement, Plateau issued to Bedrock Capital Corporation a finders fee equal to $600,625 payable in cash and 2,666,666 Plateau Shares and the Company issued to Axemen Resource Capital Ltd. (Axemen) a finders fee equal to $200,000 payable in cash and 867,882 American Lithium Shares. The American Lithium Shares issued to Axemen will be subject to a four month hold from the applicable date of issuance. The finders fees are subject to the final approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. Go Forward Management / Board of Directors As recently announced, Simon Clarke will be the Chief Executive Officer and a director of the Company going forward. Andrew Bowering will move from his current role as Chief Financial Officer and director to be Chairman of the Company. Michael Kobler will step down from the board of directors of American Lithium but will remain with the Company as General Manager of the US Operations. G.A.(Ben) Binninger remains an independent director and Graham Ballachey remains as VP Engineering. From the Plateau side, Dr. Laurence Stefan will join the Company as President, Chief Operating Officer and director. Philip Gibbs will become the Chief Financial Officer and Ted OConnor will join the board of directors and will also be Technical Advisor and Qualified Person for the Companys projects. Dr. Stefan, the founder of Plateau Energy Metals (formerly Macusani Yellowcake) has over 30 years of experience in the mining industry (exploration, development, mining, processing and marketing), serving as Managing Director in Peru since 2007. Dr. Stefan previously worked at Gold Fields of South Africa and JCI (Pty) Ltd. where he was involved in the beneficiation of a wide variety of solid metal/non-metal commodities. He has vast experience covering over 100 projects on 6 continents and led the discovery team for the Falchani lithium project. Philip Gibbs, the current Chief Financial Officer of Plateau, has extensive experience with listed mining and mineral exploration companies operating in Africa and South America. Mr. Gibbs also serves as Chief Financial Officer of Cobalt BlockChain Inc. and Asante Gold Corporation. Ted OConnor, P.Geo, MSc. is a professional geoscientist with over 30 years of experience in the exploration industry and has been involved with Macusani Yellowcake and Plateau since shortly after inception. Previously, as Director of Corporate Development for Cameco, Ted was responsible for evaluating, directing and exploring for uranium deposits worldwide. He has successfully led new project generation from early exploration through discovery on multiple uranium projects and was also part of the discovery team for the Falchani project. Information for Former Plateau Shareholders In order to receive the American Lithium Shares and Exchange Warrants in exchange for Plateau Shares, Plateau shareholders who hold their Plateau Shares in physical certificates or DRS Statements, must complete, sign, date and return the letter of transmittal that was mailed to each Plateau shareholder with the meeting materials in April 2021. The letter of transmittal is also available under Plateaus profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Plateau Shares held in a trading account will update automatically to reflect the receipt of the American Lithium Shares and the Exchange Warrants, generally within two weeks of the Effective Date. For those shareholders of Plateau whose Plateau Shares are registered in the name of a broker, investment dealer, bank, trust company, trust or other intermediary or nominee, they should contact such nominee for assistance in depositing their Plateau Shares and should follow the instructions of such intermediary or nominee. As previously disclosed in Plateaus management information circular dated March 31, 2021 (the Circular), a Plateau Shareholder wishing to file a tax election under section 85 of the Income Tax Act (Canada) should consult its tax advisor. The deadline for submission of the tax election form to American Lithium is August 9, 2021. All eligible holders who wish to make a Section 85 election should give their immediate attention to this matter, and in particular should consult their tax advisors without delay. Additional Information For further details of the Arrangement, please see the arrangement agreement dated February 9, 2021, and Plateaus management information circular dated March 31, 2021, each of which is available under Plateaus profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com None of the securities to be issued pursuant to the Arrangement have been or will be registered under the United State Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act), or any state securities laws, and any securities issued pursuant to the Arrangement are anticipated to be issued in reliance upon available exemptions from such registration requirements pursuant to Section 3(a)(10) of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable exemptions under state securities laws. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. About American Lithium American Lithium (TSXV:LI | OTCQB:LIACF | Frankfurt: 5LA1) is actively engaged in the acquisition, exploration and development of lithium deposits within mining-friendly jurisdictions throughout the Americas. The company is currently exploring and developing the TLC lithium project located in the highly prospective Esmeralda lithium district in Nevada. TLC is close to infrastructure, 3.5 hours south of the Tesla Gigafactory, and in the same basinal environment as Albemarles Silver Peak lithium mine, and several advancing deposits and resources, including Ioneer Ltd.s (formerly Global Geoscience) Rhyolite Ridge and Cypress Development Corp.s Clayton Valley Project. Please watch our corporate video at https://www.americanlithiumcorp.com and review our informative short project update videos and related background information at https://www.americanlithiumcorp.com/projects/tlc-nevada/ For more information, please contact the Company at info@americanlithiumcorp.com or visit our website at www.americanlithiumcorp.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. About Plateau Energy Metals Plateau Energy Metals Inc., a Canadian exploration and development company, is enabling the new energy paradigm through exploring and developing its Falchani lithium project and Macusani uranium project in southeastern Peru, both of which are situated near significant infrastructure. On behalf of the Board of Directors of American Lithium Corp. Simon Clarke CEO & DirectorTel: 604 428 6128 For further information, please contact: On behalf of the Board of Directors of Plateau Energy Metals Inc. Dr. Laurence Stefan Director, President & Interim CEO +1-416-628-9600IR@PlateauEnergyMetals.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward Looking Information This news release contains certain forward-looking information and forward-looking statements (collectively forward-looking statements) within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These include statements regarding the intent of American Lithium and Plateau (the Companies), or the beliefs or current expectations of the officers and directors of the Companies post closing of the Transaction. Forward-looking statements in this news release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding anticipated benefits of the Transaction, TLC, Falchani and Macusani Uranium (the Projects), listing of the Exchange Warrants and any statements regarding the business plans, expectations and objectives of the Companies. Forward-looking statements are frequently identified by such words as "may", "will", "plan", "expect", "anticipate", "estimate", "intend", indicate, scheduled, target, goal, potential, subject, efforts, option and similar words, or the negative connotations thereof, referring to future events and results. Forward-looking statements are based on the current opinions and expectations of management are not, and cannot be, a guarantee of future results or events. Although the Companies believe that the current opinions and expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable based on information available at the time, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements since the Companies can provide no assurance that such opinions and expectations will prove to be correct. All forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and subject to a variety of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including risks, uncertainties and assumptions related to: the Companies' ability to achieve their stated goals as a result of the Transaction; the estimated costs associated with the advancement of the Projects; risks and uncertainties relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and the extent and manner to which measures taken by governments and their agencies, the Companies or others to attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19 could affect the Companies, which could have a material adverse impact on many aspects of the Companies businesses including but not limited to: the ability to access mineral properties for indeterminate amounts of time, the health of the employees or consultants resulting in delays or diminished capacity, social or political instability in Peru which in turn could impact Plateaus ability to maintain the continuity of its business operating requirements, may result in the reduced availability or failures of various local administration and critical infrastructure, reduced demand for the Companies potential products, availability of materials, global travel restrictions, and the availability of insurance and the associated costs; risks related to the certainty of title to the properties of the Companies, including the status of the Precautionary Measures filed by Plateaus subsidiary Macusani Yellowcake S.A.C. (Macusani), the outcome of the administrative process, the judicial process, and any and all future remedies pursued by Plateau and its subsidiary Macusani to resolve the title for 32 of its concessions; risks regarding the ongoing Ontario Securities Commission regulatory proceedings; the ongoing ability to work cooperatively with stakeholders, including but not limited to local communities and all levels of government; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; the possibility that any future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with our expectations; mining and development risks, including risks related to accidents, equipment breakdowns, labour disputes (including work stoppages, strikes and loss of personnel) or other unanticipated difficulties with or interruptions in exploration and development; risks related to commodity price and foreign exchange rate fluctuations; risks related to foreign operations; the cyclical nature of the industry in which the Companies operate; risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms or delays in obtaining governmental approvals; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the uncertain global economic environment and the effects upon the global market generally, and due to the COVID-19 pandemic measures taken to reduce the spread of COVID-19, any of which could continue to negatively affect global financial markets, including the trading price of the Companies shares and could negatively affect the Companies ability to raise capital and may also result in additional and unknown risks or liabilities to the Companies. Other risks and uncertainties related to prospects, properties and business strategy of Plateau and American Lithium are identified, respectively, in the Risks and Uncertainties section of Plateaus Managements Discussion and Analysis filed on January 19, 2021, in the Risk Factors section of American Lithiums Managements Discussion and Analysis filed on January 29, 2021, and in recent securities filings available at www.sedar.com. Actual events or results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Neither of the Companies undertakes any obligation to update forward-looking statements except as required by applicable securities laws. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Cautionary Note Regarding Plateau Concessions Thirty-two of Plateaus 151 concession are currently subject to Administrative and Judicial processes (together, the Processes) in Peru to overturn resolutions issued by INGEMMET and the Mining Council of MINEM in February 2019 and July 2019, respectively, which declared Macusanis title to the 32 of the concessions invalid due to late receipt of the annual validity payment. Plateau successfully applied for injunctive relief on 32 concessions in a Court in Lima, Peru and the grant of the Precautionary Measures (Medida Cautelar) has restored the title, rights and validity of those 32 concessions to Macusani until a final decision is obtained in at the last stage of the judicial process. If Plateau does not obtain a successful resolution of Processes, Macusanis title to the concessions could be revoked. Source: American Lithium Corp. U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines arrives in Seoul on Wednesday after a stopover in Tokyo and will visit the demilitarized zone. She is set to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue and the upcoming Korea-U.S. summit with South Korean officials and is likely to pay a courtesy call on President Moon Jae-in. The first-ever female DNI chief, Haines supervises 15 intelligence agencies including the CIA and FBI. On Wednesday morning, Haines met the chief of Korea's National Intelligence Service, Park Jie-won, who was also in Tokyo, and their counterpart Hiroaki Takizawa. They are believed to have discussed the Biden administration's new North Korea policy. The talks follow recent meetings between the three countries' national security advisers and foreign ministers. Washington hopes to improve strained ties between South Korea and Japan in order to present a united front to China and North Korea. Kuwaiti budget carrier Jazeera Airways has reported an operating revenue of KD8.1 million ($27 million) for the first quarter. The airlines load factor stood at 58.4%, while yield increased by 105.2% to KD75 ($248.7 million). Announcing the results for the three-month period ending March 31, Jazeera said the airline registered a net loss of KD5.2 million; an improvement of 14% from a net loss of KD6 million in the first quarter of 2020. The number of passengers flown during the quarter reached 104,116, down from 496,484 in the first quarter of 2020, as restrictions continue at Kuwait International Airport. The airlines load factor stood at 58.4%, while yield increased by 105.2% to KD74.9, it added. On the results, Chairman Marwan Boodai said: "While restrictions continued at Kuwait International Airport during the quarter, Jazeera focused on connecting flights, targeting underserved segments of passengers within its network, which accounted for 28% of total passengers." Jazeera, he stated, grabbed a 25% market share of all passengers flown through Kuwait International Airport and launched two new routes to Colombo (Sri Lanka) and Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). These routes serve a resilient demand for travel by expatriates in the region, he added. Commercial flights from 35 countries continue to be suspended at Kuwait International Airport, while arrival capacity at the airport has been limited to only 1,000 Kuwaiti nationals per day since February 7. As the rollout of the vaccination accelerates in Kuwait and worldwide, restrictions at KWI will be lifted slowly in the next three quarters. This will encourage more people to travel and demand is expected to return gradually. Jazeera pilots, cabin crew and supporting teams have already been vaccinated as part of the airlines commitment to the safety of passengers and crews since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Boodai said the airline was also prepared to conduct PCR tests at Jazeera Terminal 5 (T5) upon arrival and was working closely with authorities to ensure its readiness to integrate systems related to vaccinations and PCR test results with the IATA Travel Pass. "As we take the next step, Jazeera is equipped with a strong financial position and an experienced team that continues to deliver excellence and a fast turnaround in challenging circumstances and in every aspect of our business," he noted. Boodai pointed out that the airline had a solid portfolio of travel rights, an efficient fleet and a network that connected passengers from point to point. "Our outlook on demand for travel remains positive and we expect a recovery starting from the last quarter of the year. It is a matter of time as vaccines are administered. Safety measures will continue to be mandated by our airline and at T5 to ensure a safe return to travel," he added. AUSTIN, TEXAS, May 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The statewide nonprofit, Its Time Texas, whose mission is to empower Texans to lead healthier lives and build healthier communities, has awarded $300,000 in sub-grant funding through a Healthy Kids, Healthy Families (HKHF) grant by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX). The HKHF funding supports BCBSTXs commitment to community-based organizations supporting children and families who have been impacted by the health, economic, and social implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its Time Texas, with this sub-grant funding, aims to target the root causes of social and health inequities that COVID-19 has exacerbated, especially in communities of color through a Collaborative Innovations for Community Health (CICH) project. CICH awards will directly support programs and projects that are improving critical health outcomes, addressing root causes of health disparities, removing barriers to access, and advancing conditions for health and wellness in the wake of COVID-19. Resources will be rapidly deployed to communities of Texas where strategic investments of support and resources will improve health outcomes across four designated areas of Texas: Austin, Beaumont, Brazos Valley, and the Rio Grande Valley. Funded project work by each organization began May 1 and commence December 31, 2021. Community-based organizations to receive CICH sub-grants include: Its Time Texas is proud to support the work of these community organizations who are pursuing a pathway to health equity and are working to reduce health disparities within Texas, said CEO Amy McGeady. This gap-filling funding will not only support immediate outcomes to address health-related social needs, and will also provide community access to resources and programs offered by Its Time Texas to build community capacity to sustain and adapt solutions long term. Its important that we support community-based organizations that are directly supporting children and families who have been impacted by the health, economic, and social implications of the pandemic, said Sheena Payne, BCBSTXs director of Community Investments. Our collaboration with Its Time Texas allows us to strategically and directly target organizations that are focused on and moving the needle on health equity solutions. The HKHF programwhich centers on nutrition, physical activity, disease prevention and management, and supporting safe environmentshas awarded $14 million in funding and impacted the lives of close to three million children and their families in Texas. Get to know each of the grantees at www.itstimetexas.org and follow their progress on our social media channels @ItsTimeTX. About Its Time Texas:Its Time Texas is a statewide 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Our mission is to bring people, communities, and organizations together to take action that supports health for all, now and for generations to come. At Its Time Texas we believe that every Texan should have an equal opportunity to live a long and healthy life, but we recognize that social and environmental factors have long prevented that vision from becoming a reality. To truly address health for all Texans, we root our work in the knowledge that unjust systems have created disparities for communities of color, low-income communities, and other marginalized populations. Dramatically improving health and equity requires a systemic approach that centers and values community voices to address the root causes of poor health and also the shaping of the environments in which we live and work to make healthy choices possible and practical for all Texans. We work to create a culture of health where health is a shared value and health equity is a reality. Join us at www.itstimetexas.org and follow us on social media @ItsTimeTX. Tracy Walker It's Time Texas 512-638-7761 tracy@itstimetexas.org Source: It's Time Texas DENVER, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ordermarks Nextbite company, the leader in virtual restaurant solutions, has been named to Inc. magazines annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Hitting newsstands May 18 in the May/June 2021 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. Ordermarks Nextbite company was also named a winner in the categories of Prosperous and Thriving; Medium-Large companies (employee size 100-499) and On the Rise (for those companies from 0-four years old). Nextbite is focused on helping restaurant partners successfully enter the virtual restaurant space by diversifying their menu portfolio, using under-utilized labor and kitchen capacity, and driving demand to increase margins and revenue. Founded in 2019 by restaurateur and entrepreneur Alex Canter, Nextbite is the only complete virtual restaurant solution for existing restaurants and kitchens that pairs a proven ordering/delivery management solution with a selection of highly visible, on-trend, delivery-only brands. Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organizations benefits were also audited to determine the companys overall score and ranking. "We are honored that Ordermark/Nextbite has been named to Inc.s 2021 Best Workplaces list, along with recognition in several categories for our fast growth and being an On the Rise company, said Alex Canter, CEO of Ordermark/Nextbite. This validates the priority we place on creating a great work environment, particularly as we continue to build our team as fully remote. With an emphasis on fostering core company values, we are committed to attracting and developing a fantastic team that is focused on building something better together. The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year, says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this years list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic. About Inc. MediaThe worlds most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com.About Quantum WorkplaceQuantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. About Ordermark/Nextbite Nextbite is focused on helping restaurant partners successfully enter the virtual restaurant space by diversifying their portfolio, using under-utilized labor and kitchen capacity, and driving demand to increase margins and revenue. It enables brick and mortar restaurants to easily enter the delivery-only business, empowering them in the off-premise space. Founded in 2019 by restaurateur and entrepreneur Alex Canter, Nextbite is the only complete virtual restaurant solution for existing restaurants and kitchens that pairs a proven ordering/delivery management solution with a selection of highly visible, on-trend, delivery-only brands. Headquartered in Denver, Nextbite/Ordermark recently announced the close of its $120M funding round led by SoftBank. For more media information, contact: Lisa Hendrickson, LCH Communications for Nextbitelisa@lchcommunications.com516-767-8390 Source: Nextbite TORONTO, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- VitalHub Corp. (the Company or VitalHub) (TSXV: VHI) is pleased to announce that Synopsis has been named winner at the British Data Awards, in the Technology Company of the Year ( Synopsis, the marquis product platform and previously acquired asset of VitalHub subsidiary Intouch with Health (Intouch) has won another award, being honoured at the British Data Awards, in the Technology Company of the Year ( The British Data Awards is an annual campaign that sets out to uncover data success stories. Organisations taking part this year include FTSE 100 giants, tech unicorns, innovative start-ups, public sector bodies, not-for-profit organizations and everything in between. VitalHubs entry into the awards centred around how Synopsis uses data to improve the pre-operative assessment pathway. Synopsis was developed and launched as the first digital pre-op assessment pathway with full integration into the hospital patient administration system (PAS) / electronic patient record (EPR) resulting in efficiencies previously unrealized within pre-operative assessment departments. In another major step forward, Synopsis Home was launched last year, enabling patients to complete their pre-operative assessment from home, then share their data with the hospitals triage team. This functionality has been very important in supporting new infection prevention measures introduced in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The accolade has been awarded following an extensive grading process conducted by a judging panel of technology, data, and medical technology leaders. The 2021 judges include: Neil Carden, COO of Forth Point, Jason Johnson, Co-Founder of Predatech, Mahana Mansfield, Data Science Director at Deliveroo, Tej Parikh, Chief Economist at the Institute of Directors, Harriet Rees, Head of Data Science at Starling Bank and Dr Jo Watts, CEO and Founder of Effini. Id like to extend my congratulations to all our 2021 Winners, said Jason Johnson, Co-Founder of Predatech and British Data Awards judge. With 149 entries received this year, being named a Winner is a great achievement, and all organisations should feel immensely proud. Im really excited to see what the next 12 months holds for our Winners. We are very appreciative of the ongoing recognition of the value of our solutions, as we continue to innovate and drive value for health systems on a global basis, said Dan Matlow, CEO of VitalHub Corp. This award is a demonstration of the applicability of the Synopsis product to in current healthcare landscape, wherein it has become more vital than ever to optimize the operational efficacy and efficiency of health systems. We look forward to continuing to grow our influence in delivering value-added services to our customers. Intouch with Health was also recognised at the awards, as the runner-up in the Healthcare Organisation of the Year award. ABOUT VITALHUB Software for Health and Human Services providers designed to simplify the user experience & optimize outcomes. VitalHub provides technology to Health and Human Services providers including; Hospitals, Regional Health Authorities, Mental Health, Long Term Care, Home Health, Community and Social Services. VitalHub solutions span the categories of Electronic Health Record (EHR), Case Management, Care Coordination, Patient Flow & Operational Visibility, and DOCit Mobile Apps. The Company has a robust two-pronged growth strategy, targeting organic growth opportunities within its product suite, and pursuing an aggressive M&A plan. Currently, VitalHub serves 275+ clients across Canada, USA, UK, Australia, Qatar, and Latvia. VitalHub is based in Toronto, Canada, with an offshore development hub in Sri Lanka. The Company is publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol VHI. ABOUT INTOUCH WITH HEALTH Established in 1999, Intouch with Health is the prime supplier of patient flow management solutions to the NHS acute sector. The Intouch with Health Patient Journey Platform enables NHS Trusts and healthcare organisations to manage entire patient workflows and optimise flow in outpatient care in an efficient manner. The Intouch Platform currently processes over 30 million NHS outpatient appointments annually and supports over 110 NHS Hospitals improve communication and information management, reduce costs, and improve overall quality. The Intouch Platform processes approximately 31% of all NHS Outpatient attendances, utilising real-time data and integrated blended pathways to improve patient flow and support more effective patient care. ABOUT SYNOPSIS The award-winning Synopsis Platform enables hospitals to manage the entire pre-operative assessment digitally, removing paper trail, increasing data security, and delivering significant organisational benefits. Synopsis has been used within the NHS to complete over 120,000 patient pre-operative assessments, contributing to an average saving of 1.4m per Trust. Savings are generated from the reduction of last-minute cancellations of surgery by an average of 20% and further administration time reductions, releasing nursing time back to the departments and increasing patient satisfaction across the surgical pathway. CAUTIONARY STATEMENT This press release includes forward-looking statements regarding the Corporation and its business, which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the appointment of a new directors. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "is expected", "expects", "scheduled", "intends", "contemplates", "anticipates", "believes", "proposes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such statements are based on the current expectations of the management of each entity and are based on assumptions and subject to risks and uncertainties. Although the management of each entity believes that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, they may prove to be incorrect. The forward-looking events and circumstances discussed in this release, may not occur by certain specified dates or at all and could differ materially as a result of known and unknown risk factors and uncertainties affecting the companies, including risks regarding the technology industry, failure to obtain regulatory or shareholder approvals, market conditions, economic factors, the equity markets generally and risks associated with growth and competition. Although the Corporation has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Except as required by applicable securities laws, forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made and the Corporation undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. CONTACT INFORMATION Dan MatlowChief Executive Officer, Director(416) 727-9061dan.matlow@vitalhub.com Source: Vitalhub Corp. TORONTO, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (TSX: WM) (Wallbridge or the Company) is pleased to provide an update of its exploration and development activities at the Fenelon Gold Property (Fenelon or the Property), corporate initiatives and planned spending. Maiden Resource Estimate (MRE) The Company expects to deliver the Maiden Resource Estimate (MRE) on the newly discovered zones (Area 51, Tabasco, and Cayenne) and the Gabbro zones by the end of the third quarter of 2021 as scheduled. The MRE is expected to include both a near-surface and an underground component for all these zones. Surface Exploration Program Drilling Wallbridge is conducting a 170,000-metre drill program in 2021, of which 70,000 metres is planned to be completed by early July 2021, in support of the MRE. A total of 33,962 metres has been drilled as of March 31, 2021. The decision to use directional drilling to control hole deviation, which is slower but optimizes drill hole spacing and meterage for the MRE in the Tabasco, Cayenne and Area 51 zones, means the rate of drilling in the first quarter was lower than the projected 2021 quarterly average. The Company expects to make up any shortfall in metreage during the second half of the year as the resource focused directional drilling gives way to resource expansion drilling and regional exploration. Assays Assay turn-around time (TAT) has increased by 25% to 35% over the past few months, primarily due to COVID-related restrictions at the assay labs. The Company has now engaged the services of three laboratories, and does not expect the increase in TAT to adversely affect the timing of the MRE. Most of the holes drilled at Fenelon intersect multiple gold mineralized zones (Area 51, Tabasco, Cayenne and Gabbro). On average, 70% of core is within mineralized envelopes and is therefore sent for sampling and assaying. For clarity, the Company generally announces the assay results for holes once the assays for the entire hole have been received. Delays in the receipt of assays within a hole, either due to unexpected high grades or the processing sequence used by the labs, can cause delays in reporting the assays from the entire hole. Underground Exploration In January 2021, Wallbridge announced a 10,000-metre underground exploration development program to create exploration platforms that will allow for more tightly-spaced and deeper drilling in the Area 51, Tabasco and Cayenne zones to further de-risk the project. The 2021 portion of the two-year program was budgeted at approximately 4,800 metres with two crews operating simultaneously on development of exploration platforms in each of the Area 51 and Tabasco zones. Management has since optimized the development schedule and productivities and will continue this program with one development crew rather than two. As a result, the Area 51 development will be completed prior to starting the Tabasco ramp and the expected underground development will be reduced to 2,500 metres, with a corresponding decrease in expenditures, during 2021. Permits As disclosed on January 11, 2021, due to the increased size and scope of the project, the Company has paused the permitting process for a small-scale gold operation in the Gabbro Zone. The Company is now focussing its efforts on submitting permit applications, supported by an updated project description and environmental and social impact assessment, for a much larger and more appropriately sized operation following the delivery of the MRE and associated economic studies. Planned Spending At March 31, 2021, cash and equivalents totaled approximately $71 million, and in April 2021 the Company took advantage of an opportunity to complete a flow-through financing for gross proceeds of $20 million (net $18.5 million) at a 58% premium ($0.95) to the then market price of the stock thereby minimizing dilution. Surface, underground exploration and corporate overhead expenditures for the balance of the year based on the revised underground exploration plan discussed above are expected to be approximately $55 million, leaving the Company financed into 2022.. Regional Exploration The 2021 exploration program includes regional drilling and fieldwork in the second half of the year. This exploration will amount to 10-15 % of the budget and will include approximately 20,000 metres of drilling to test for gold mineralization on various properties within the Companys large regional land package which includes the Martiniere, Grasset and Casault target areas. At Martiniere, the Company is planning to evaluate the resource expansion potential of the Martiniere West and Bug deposits, which have a combined historical indicated resource of 7,919,598 t @ 2.32 g/t Au for 590,642 oz and have seen very limited drilling below 350 metres vertical depth. The geology and gold mineralization of these deposits are currently being reviewed internally and an updated 43-101 resource estimate is expected to be prepared along with the Fenelon MRE in Q3 2021. In addition, a number of high-priority grassroots gold targets exist elsewhere on the Martiniere property which may be prioritized for drill testing in 2021. At Grasset, the Company is planning to follow up on historic intersections in the Grasset Gold showing (1.66 g/t Au over 33.00 metres, including 6.15 g/t Au over 4.04 metres) and elsewhere along the Grasset Ultramafic Complex where assays grading up to 216 g/t Au over 0.78 metres have been returned. Nickel-Copper-PGE Assets Wallbridge entered into an operatorship agreement (the Operatorship Agreement) with Lonmin Plc (now Sibanye Stillwater) on October 29, 2019 to operate the privately-owned Lonmin Canada (Loncan) in return for a 20% ownership interest in Loncan (now diluted to 17.8% due to Loncan equity financing, that Wallbridge chose not to participate in). The decision to proceed with the Operatorship Agreement provided Wallbridge with an interest in an advanced stage property that was complementary to Wallbridges own suite of Nickel-Copper-PGE assets. The opportunity, once the Denison Property was closer to production, was to use this project as leverage to advance the Companys Nickel-Copper-PGE assets either through joint ventures, partnerships, and/or spin outs. Economic evaluation of the Denison Property is currently underway. With its acquisition of Balmoral Resources Ltd. in May 2020, Wallbridge added several Nickel-Copper-PGE assets in Ontario and Quebec including the Grasset property with its Nickel-PGM resource. As a result, management now believes that it is in the best interest of its shareholders to assess its current Nickel-Copper-PGE assets with Grasset as the most advanced project. Wallbridge is currently reviewing a number of alternative structures to unlock the value of its Nickel-Copper-PGE assets, including joint ventures, partnerships, spin-outs or outright sales, and will provide an update when available. About Wallbridge Mining Wallbridge is currently advancing the exploration and development of its 100%-owned Fenelon Gold Property which is located along the Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend, an emerging gold belt in northwestern Quebec. The Company completed approximately 102,000 metres of drilling in 2020 and has begun a fully-funded 2021 program of approximately 170,000 metres of drilling and 2,500 metres of underground exploration development (Phase 1 of a 10,000-metre program). The Company intends to complete a maiden mineral resource on the Fenelon Gold System in the third quarter of 2021. Wallbridge now holds several kilometres surrounding its rapidly expanding Fenelon discovery providing room for growth, as well as future mine development flexibility. Wallbridge's land holdings in Quebec along the Detour-Fenelon Gold Trend are over 900.0 km2, improving Wallbridge's potential for further discoveries for over 90-kilometre strike length in this under-explored belt. Wallbridge is also the operator of, and a 17.8% shareholder in, Lonmin Canada Inc., a privately-held company with a portfolio of nickel, copper, and platinum-group metals (PGM) projects in Ontario's Sudbury Basin. This news release has been authorized by the undersigned on behalf of Wallbridge Mining Company Limited. For further information please visit the Company's website at www.wallbridgemining.com or contact: Wallbridge Mining Company Limited Marz Kord, P. Eng., M. Sc., MBA President & CEO Tel: (705) 682-9297 ext. 251 Email: mkord@wallbridgemining.com Victoria Vargas, B.Sc. (Hon.) Economics, MBA Investor Relations Advisor Email: vvargas@wallbridgemining.com This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation relating to, among other things, the operations of Wallbridge Mining Company Limited (Wallbridge or Company) and the environment within which it operates. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding future plans and objectives of Wallbridge, future opportunities and anticipated goals, the Companys portfolio, treasury, management team, timetable to mineral resource estimation, permitting and the prospective mineralization of the properties, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks, assumptions, estimates and uncertainties. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as seeks, believes, anticipates, plans, continues, budget, scheduled, estimates, expects, forecasts, intends, projects, predicts, proposes, "potential", targets and variations of such words and phrases, or by statements that certain actions, events or results may, will, could, would, should or might, be taken, occur or be achieved. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predicted outcomes could differ materially from those contained in such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, regulatory, environmental or other required approval, the actual results of current exploration activities, fluctuations in prices of commodities, fluctuations in currency markets, actual results of additional exploration and development activities at the Companys projects, capital expenditures, the availability of any additional capital required to advance projects, accidents, or pandemic interruptions. 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. These statements reflect the current internal projections, expectations or beliefs of the Company and are based on information currently available to the Company. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. The Company believes that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this press release should not be unduly relied upon by investors as actual results may vary. Risks and uncertainties about Wallbridges business are more fully discussed in the disclosure material filed with the securities regulatory authorities in Canada and available on SEDAR under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com. Readers are urged to read these materials and should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Covid-19 - Given the rapidly evolving nature of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Wallbridge is actively monitoring the situation in order to continue to maintain as best as possible the activities while striving to protect the health of its personnel. Wallbridge's activities will continue to align with the guidance provided by local, provincial and federal authorities in Canada. The Company has established measures to continue normal activities while protecting the health of its employees and stakeholders. Depending on the evolution of the virus, measures may affect the regular operations of Wallbridge and the participation of staff members in events inside or outside Canada. Source: Wallbridge Mining Company Limited Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 11, 2021) - eShippers Management Ltd. (TSXV: EPX.H) ("eShippers") wishes to announce it has entered into a letter agreement dated effective May 10, 2021 (the "Agreement") with ISON Mining Pte Ltd. ("ISON") for an arm's length reverse take-over of eShippers (the "RTO") through eShippers acquiring all of the outstanding shares of ISON from the shareholders of ISON in exchange for common shares of eShippers (the "Common Shares"). About ISON ISON is a private company existing under the laws of Singapore. ISON is the 100% owner of Mineraco ISON do Brazil Ltda. which has acquisition agreements and is in the process of transferring 100% of the mineral rights for the Novo Mundo and Buracao gold projects. ISON has also signed a Heads of Terms and expects to sign a farm-in agreement to acquire up to 90% of the Ouro Fino gold project. The Novo Mundo gold project is comprised of 16,735 Ha and is located in the municipality of Novo Mundo in the state of Mato Grosso, Brazil. The Buracao gold project is comprised of 3,995 Ha and is located at the border between the states of Tocantins and Goias, Brazil. The Ouro Fino gold project is comprised of 11,816 Ha and is located in Niquelandia in the state of Goias, Brazil. ISON currently has 51,561,500 shares ("ISON Shares") issued and outstanding. Other than the ISON Shares, no other securities of ISON are outstanding. Prior to the completion of the RTO, ISON shall complete a private placement of 5,500,000 ISON Shares at a price of US$0.10 per share for gross proceeds of US$550,000 (the "ISON Private Placement"). After completing the ISON Private Placement, ISON will have 57,061,500 ISON Shares issued and outstanding. Part of the proceeds of the ISON Private Placement shall be used to make payments associated with acquisitions costs for the Novo Mundo, Buracao and Ouro Fino gold projects (collectively, the "Projects"). Further details regarding the business of ISON and the Projects will be provided in subsequent press releases, as well as a filing statement of eShippers to be prepared and filed in respect of the RTO. ISON shall also provide eShippers with a technical report(s) in respect of the Projects compliant with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") and acceptable to the Exchange. ISON has retained an independent Qualified Person that has significant experience in completing NI 43-101 compliant technical reports. Information About the Proposed RTO The Agreement sets out the general terms of the RTO as currently contemplated by eShippers and ISON. The precise terms and conditions of the RTO will be contained in a definitive agreement (the "Definitive Agreement"), which eShippers and ISON have agreed to negotiate in good faith on or before June 30, 2021. The RTO will take the form of a share exchange, three-cornered amalgamation or other similar transaction, whereby all of the outstanding ISON Shares will be acquired by eShippers in exchange for a total of 28,530,750 Common Shares. Following the completion of the RTO, ISON will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of eShippers and the business of eShippers (following completion of the RTO, referred to as the "Resulting Issuer") will be the business of ISON, the directors and management of the Resulting Issuer will be reconstituted as described below, and it is expected that the Resulting Issuer will be listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (the "Exchange") as a Tier 2 Mining Issuer. The RTO is subject to the approval of the Exchange. As a condition to the completion of the RTO, eShippers will complete a share consolidation on the basis of 1 new Common Share for each 2 old Common Shares (the "Consolidation"). The Consolidation is expected to be completed immediately prior to the completion of acquisition of the ISON Shares. After completing the Consolidation, eShippers will have 7,030,000 new Common Shares issued and outstanding. Following the completion of acquisition of the ISON Shares (but without giving effect to the Concurrent Financing defined below), the Resulting Issuer will have 35,560,750 Common Shares issued and outstanding, of which 28,530,750 Common Shares shall be owned by former shareholders of ISON and 7,030,000 Common Shares shall be owned by the pre-RTO shareholders of eShippers. The parties anticipate that a concurrent private placement would be conducted by eShippers in connection with the RTO in order to provide additional funding for the business of the Resulting Issuer post-RTO, on terms to be determined by ISON and eShippers (the "Concurrent Financing"). The Concurrent Financing is expected to be completed concurrent with the completion of acquisition of the ISON Shares. The completion of the RTO is subject to the satisfaction of various conditions as are standard for a transaction of this nature, including but not limited to: (i) receipt of all necessary consents, waivers, permissions and approvals for the RTO, including the approval of the Exchange; (ii) the Resulting Issuer satisfying the minimum listing requirements of the Exchange; (iii) the representations, warranties and covenants made by each party being true and correct in all material respects as of the closing date; (iv) no party being in material breach of its obligations under the Definitive Agreement; (v) no event or change occurring that would reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on either eShippers or ISON; (vi) the completion of the Concurrent Financing, as applicable; (vii) the issuance of the Common Shares in connection with the RTO being exempt from prospectus requirements under applicable securities laws; (viii) ISON providing eShippers with such financial statements for ISON as are required for the RTO; (ix) ISON providing eShippers with a technical report(s) compliant with National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects in respect of the Projects acceptable to the Exchange; and (x) if required, ISON providing eShippers with a formal valuation and/or title opinions acceptable to the Exchange. eShippers is not subject to a cease trade order and will not otherwise be suspended from trading on completion of the RTO. No finder's fees are payable in connection with the RTO. Board Changes and Name Change As a condition to the completion of the acquisition of the ISON Shares, the board of directors of the Resulting Issuer will be reconstituted to include three nominees appointed by ISON (being Mr. Christopher Eager, Dr. Marcelo de Carvalho and Mr. Adam Powell) and up to two nominees appointed by eShippers (collectively, the "Board Changes"). The newly reconstituted board of directors will appoint a new CEO, CFO and Corporate Secretary for eShippers. Mr. Eager has worked in the mining industry for over 30 years. After graduating as a mining engineer he worked in an open-pit gold operation in Australia before moving to Ecuador where he managed a gold mining project. Following the completion of an MBA, Mr. Eager worked in mining project finance for NM Rothschild (Australia). Mr. Eager was a co-founder of the Peruvian-focused copper-gold explorer/developer, Monterrico Metals PLC. This company was listed on AIM in 2002 and was acquired in 2007 at a valuation of just under USD 200 million by way of a general offer for the stock. Mr. Eager was also co-founder and Chairman of Asia Energy PLC which listed on AIM in 2004. Since then, Mr. Eager was involved in mining projects in Southern Africa and was a co-founder of Coal Mont that had a premium hard coking coal project in British Columbia. Mr. Eager moved to Brazil in 2016 where he has been developing ISON portfolio of mining projects. Dr. Carvalho earned his PhD in Regional Geology and Metallogenesis from the University of Campinas (Brazil), part of which was completed at the University of Western Australia. Dr. Carvalho has over 20 years experience in exploration and project development in Brazil and Latin America. Included in Dr. Carvalho's prior successes from discover to feasibility is the 2Moz Pilar Mine, which until recently was operated by Equinox Gold. He has extensive experience in exploring, defining resources and operating in all of the districts ISON is focused on. Mr. Powell has over 20 years experience as a senior corporate commercial lawyer, having qualified as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2001. He has significant international experience advising private and public companies, including London Stock Exchange listed companies. He has been a legal advisor for AIM IPOs, including Monterrico Metals PLC, and was a partner in a London law firm before spending the last five years working for one of the largest law firms in the Middle East. He has now returned to the United Kingdom. Mr. Powell has a Masters in Law (LLM) from the University of Dundee, Centre of Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law & Policy. In connection with the RTO, eShippers will also change its name to "Resouro Gold Inc." or such other name as shall be designated by ISON. Shareholder and Regulatory Requirements/Approvals If applicable and as required, eShippers will hold a meeting of its shareholders to seek shareholder approval of: (i) the Board Changes; and (ii) the Concurrent Financing including, if applicable, the creation of any new "Control Persons" (as defined in the policies of the Exchange). If applicable, eShippers will call and provide notice of the record and meeting dates for such shareholders meeting as soon as practicable after the execution of the Definitive Agreement. Subject to the consent of the Exchange, eShippers will not seek shareholder approval to complete the RTO in accordance with the provisions of Exchange Policy 5.2 - Changes of Business and Reverse Takeovers since the RTO is not a Related Party Transaction (as defined in the rules and policies of the Exchange), no circumstances exist which may compromise the independence of eShippers or the interested parties (in particular, eShippers's directors and senior officers) with respect to the RTO, no aspect of the RTO requires the approval of shareholders of eShippers under applicable corporate and securities laws, eShippers is without active operations and is listed on the NEX board of the Exchange, and the Common Shares will resume trading on completion of the RTO. Notwithstanding the above, the RTO may be subject to Exchange Policy 2.10 - Listing of Emerging Market Issuers and, if applicable, eShippers and ISON will use their best efforts to satisfy all of the Exchange requirements that may be imposed pursuant to Policy 2.10. The Common Shares issuable in connection with the RTO may be subject to Exchange escrow or seed share resale restrictions and to hold periods as required pursuant to the requirements of Exchange Policy 5.4 - Escrow, Vendor Consideration and Resale Restrictions and applicable securities laws. Sponsorship of the RTO is required under Exchange Policy 2.2 - Sponsorship and Sponsorship Requirements unless an exemption from the sponsorship requirement is available. eShippers intends to apply for a waiver from the sponsorship requirements. There is no assurance that eShippers will be able to obtain such a waiver. The RTO will be completed pursuant to, and in strict accordance with, applicable corporate and securities law requirements and available exemptions under applicable securities laws. Additional Information Further details about the RTO, including further particulars of the business of ISON and the Resulting Issuer, the Projects and the Concurrent Financing, will be provided in subsequent press releases as required by the Exchange, as well as a filing statement of eShippers to be prepared and filed in respect of the RTO. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the filing statement, any information released or received with respect to the RTO may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of eShippers should be considered highly speculative. All information contained in this press release with respect to eShippers and ISON was supplied for inclusion herein by the respective parties and each party and its directors and officers have relied on the other party for any information concerning the other party. Trading of the Common Shares has been halted and will not resume until completion of the RTO. Upon completion of the RTO. Issuance of the Final Exchange Bulletin and the resumption of trading in the Resulting Issuer's shares on the Exchange remains subject to the completing of customary filings required by the policies of the Exchange. Completion of the RTO is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, Exchange acceptance and if applicable pursuant to Exchange requirements, majority of the minority shareholder approval. Where applicable, the RTO cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the RTO will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular or filing statement to be prepared in connection with the RTO, any information released or received with respect to the RTO may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of eShippers should be considered highly speculative. The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed RTO and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. For further information please contact Leo Berezan, President of eShippers, by email at leo@berezan.ca or by phone at (604) 240-3064. Notice on Forward-Looking Information Information set forth in this news release contains forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current estimates, beliefs, intentions and expectations regarding the future, including, but not limited to, eShippers's completion of the RTO and related transactions, eShippers entering into the Definitive Agreement, the completion of any Concurrent Financing, the proposed directors and officers of eShippers and the conditions to be satisfied for the completion of the RTO. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance. They are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the statements, including risks related to factors beyond the control of eShippers. Such factors include, among other things: the parties may not enter into the Definitive Agreement; the requisite corporate approvals of the directors and shareholders of the parties may not be obtained; the Exchange may not approve the RTO; sufficient funds may not be available or raised pursuant to any Concurrent Financing; and other risks that are customary to transactions of this nature. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forward-looking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits eShippers will obtain from them. Except as required under applicable securities legislation, eShippers undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking information. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept 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/83685 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 12, 2021) - LevelJump Healthcare Corp. (TSXV: JUMP) (OTCQB: JMPHF) (FSE: 75J) ("LevelJump" or the "Company"), a Canadian leader in B2B telehealth solutions, is pleased to announce that it has closed a non-brokered private placement financing of 10 million units at a price of $0.15 per unit (a "Unit") for gross proceeds of $1,500,000 (the "Offering"). Each Unit consists of one common share of LevelJump and one common share purchase warrant ("Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder to acquire one additional common share of LevelJump at an exercise price of $0.20 until March 31, 2024. The net proceeds from the financing will be used towards acquisitions and for general working capital purposes. The securities issued under the Offering have a hold period of four months and one day from the closing date in accordance with applicable securities laws. "We are really pleased with the market response to our offering, and the support of our strategic investors who believe in the vision of the Company," said Mitch Geisler CEO. "We have now strengthened our balance sheet. Given that our CTS subsidiary generates positive cash flow from its current operations we can designate this new capital towards growing the Company." About LevelJump Healthcare LevelJump Healthcare Corp., (TSXV: JUMP) is building a national medical diagnostic imaging company and brand, primarily by providing teleradiology (remote radiology) services to its client hospitals and imaging centers. Additionally, JUMP plans to expand through the acquisition of independent healthcare facilities focused on diagnostic imaging as well as acquiring new disruptive imaging technologies. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF LEVELJUMP HEALTHCARE CORP. Mitchell Geisler, Chief Executive Officer info@leveljumphealthcare.com (833) 840-2020 CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION This news release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the Company's business plans and the outlook of the Company's industry. Although the Company believes, in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate, that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements. The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this release and the Company assumes no responsibility to update them or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances other than as required by applicable securities laws. The Company undertakes no obligation to comment on analyses, expectations or statements made by third-parties in respect of the Company, Canadian Teleradiology Services, Inc., their securities, or their respective financial or operating results (as applicable). Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. The securities being offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "U.S. Securities Act") or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor in any other jurisdiction. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/83719 SAN DIEGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliant International University has announced a new partnership with Sabio, a leading coding bootcamp and developer community, for their BS in Information Systems Technology (BSIST). Students enrolled in the BSIST program at Alliant can start a paid internship while they pursue their undergraduate degree. The entire BSIST program can be completed within 3 years, versus a traditional 4 year-long bachelor's program. The innovative curriculum of the BSIST program will enable students to learn applied skills needed in the employment market in the early years at the start of their bachelor's curriculum, rather than the traditional bachelor's degree curriculum which imparts these skills in the second half. "This partnership with Sabio allows Alliant to meet the changing needs of today's workforce and the rising demand for technically trained workers," said Dr. Rachna Kumar, dean of the California School of Management and Leadership at Alliant International University. "Giving students the flexibility and accessibility to work in their chosen technology field while also attaining a degree is a win-win for the student and employers." Employment in computer and information technology occupations is projected to grow 11 percent from 2019 to 2029, much faster than the average for all occupations according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Through this new partnership, Sabio and Alliant will allow students to start their new careers while they are getting their bachelor's degree. This is due to Alliant's flexible class options that are online or for our ground program is in the evenings or one weekend per month, making it accessible for those interested in pursuing a career in technology. "Sabio Coding Bootcamp was established to help smart and highly-motivated people become exceptional software developers throughout the country, and by partnering with Alliant International University, we are leaders in merging effective job training with a degree," said Liliana Aide Monge, Sabio Co-Founder & CEO. "Through this innovative partnership, students will enroll at Alliant International University and be eligible for federal and state financial aid, which allows low-and-moderate income students to secure the tech skills that are in-demand in the innovation economy." Aligning with Sabio's mission to give underrepresented communities access to opportunities in the software field, Sabio will offer $5,500 Women in Tech Scholarships for those qualified women who enroll in the new BSIST undergraduate program. About Alliant International UniversityAlliant is a private university accredited by the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) which offers programs in psychology, education, business management, forensic studies, and law. Alliant's mission is to prepare students for professional careers of service and leadership, and to promote the discovery and application of knowledge to improve the lives of people in diverse cultures and communities around the world. Alliant's vision: An Inclusive World Empowered by Alliant Alumni. More information is available at www.alliant.edu. About Sabio Coding Bootcamp Sabio is one of the oldest software development bootcamps and is taught exclusively by senior industry software practitioners. The current instructors are alumni of companies such as Fox, Gamefly, Stack Overflow, TMZ and UCLA. Sabio's software development program focuses on .NET/C# and trains across the full-stack in Mobile, Front End, Back End, Source Control, Database and Development platforms. Sabio's alumni now work at amazing companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Tesla, Activision, MedMen, UCLA, and USC. Sabio has partnered with both Skills Fund and SallieMae to help students finance their education. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/alliant-international-university-partners-with-sabio-coding-bootcamp-for-bs-in-information-systems-technology-301289977.html SOURCE Sabio NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BrainPOP, the online educational solution that makes rigorous learning experiences accessible and engaging for all students, today announced BrainPOP Science a new solution designed to help 6-8th grade science teachers navigate recent shifts in science, engineering, and technology standards, assessments, and learning environments. Through scaffolded investigations, embedded assessments, and actionable diagnostics, BrainPOP Science facilitates "three-dimensional" learning and builds student mastery in science. Recent research from Gallup and the RAND Corporation shows that BrainPOP is already one of the most widely used digital learning tools that elementary and middle school educators turn to for teaching students science. In the last year alone, more than 3.1 million students have completed at least one science activity on BrainPOP's platform. "BrainPOP has always provided educators with resources to make difficult topics understandable, relatable, and relevant for students," said Scott Kirkpatrick, CEO of BrainPOP. "New standards challenge educators to rethink how they teach science and meaningfully measure student learning. Science has become such a focal point during the last year, and we are especially excited to support educators who are inspiring kids to truly engage in scientific thinking and practice." Each BrainPOP Science investigation includes student-driven activities: examining phenomena, collecting evidence, articulating claims and reasoning, and checking for understanding along the way. BrainPOP Science was designed with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in mind and can be aligned to all state standards. Districts will also have the option to align BrainPOP Science units to their unique curriculum needs. "BrainPOP Science's standards-aligned investigations provide my students with the opportunity to explore scientific concepts through real-world applications. All of my students found the phenomena-driven investigations to be engaging learning experiences," said Donna Falk, a middle school science teacher in Manalapan, New Jersey. "The customizable activities make it easy to enhance my lesson plans, and the actionable diagnostics allow me to track students' mastery against our state's standards." Key features of BrainPOP Science include: Simulations allow students to strengthen their conceptual understanding by observing science principles in action, manipulating models to test hypotheses, and collecting evidence. allow students to strengthen their conceptual understanding by observing science principles in action, manipulating models to test hypotheses, and collecting evidence. Data manipulatives empower students to improve data literacy skills by interacting with scientific data used in real-world scenarios. empower students to improve data literacy skills by interacting with scientific data used in real-world scenarios. 3D Worlds enable students to explore real-world phenomena, and encourage scientific argumentation and debate. enable students to explore real-world phenomena, and encourage scientific argumentation and debate. Exclusive science movies leverage the power of BrainPOP's animations to explain hard-to-teach concepts. leverage the power of BrainPOP's animations to explain hard-to-teach concepts. Unit-level diagnostics and embedded formative assessments deliver actionable insights on student mastery aligned to NGSS and state standards. Collectively, BrainPOP Science investigations address all three dimensions of learning crosscutting concepts, science and engineering practices, and disciplinary core ideas. They also align with the 5E Model of Science Instruction, which invites students to engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. BrainPOP Science builds on advances in science education, learning and assessment design, psychometrics, and data science, supported with evidence from efficacy studies conducted over the years in collaboration with researchers, educators, and students. "Effectively engaging students in three-dimensional learning and cultivating mastery is a challenging task in traditional science classrooms, but it is an essential step toward closing the achievement gap in the U.S.," said Yigal Rosen, PhD, SVP of AI and data science at BrainPOP. "This gap is not inevitable. The approach put forth by the NGSS provides a guiding framework for designing deeper, more rigorous learning and formative assessment solutions to build science mastery among all students." Schools and districts will have the opportunity to become early adopters of BrainPOP Science beginning in August 2021. They will be able to access new content and features throughout the 2021-22 school year, and will have the opportunity to provide feedback and impact future product enhancements. Since its founding in 1999 by Avraham Kadar, M.D., BrainPOP has been continuously innovating to prepare students to become the leaders of tomorrow. Over the last 22 years, BrainPOP has reached more than 300 million learners worldwide. From the beginning, the BrainPOP approach engaged kids' curiosity through short animated movies that make complicated ideas simple and clear, helping them experience the sudden burst of understanding that Dr. Kadar called a "brain pop." Today, schools and districts nationwide utilize BrainPOP to raise academic achievement and strengthen students' critical, computational, and creative thinking skills. About BrainPOPBrainPOP is an online educational solution that makes rigorous learning experiences accessible and engaging for all. Proven to raise academic achievement, it has been a trusted resource to more than six million educators and has engaged the hearts and challenged the minds of over 300 million learners worldwide. 70% of K-8 U.S. schools have turned to BrainPOP as a go-to resource for remote learning, and nine out of 10 educators would recommend it to a friend or colleague. BrainPOP provides endless opportunities for kids to take agency over their learning through playful, knowledge-building content and learner-driven projects that strengthen critical, computational, and creative thinking across the entire curriculum. The company is committed to empowering kids to succeed and thrive in the classroom and beyond. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/leading-k-8-educational-company-introduces-middle-school-science-solution-301290023.html SOURCE BrainPOP KNOXVILLE and NASHVILLE, Tenn., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Lirio, whose Precision Nudging solution improves health outcomes through AI-powered behavior change, has been named to Inc. magazine's annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Hitting newsstands May 18 in the May/June 2021 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. "We are honored to be recognized by Inc. Magazine and Quantum Workplace as a Best Workplace of 2021," said Emily Moses, Chief People & Culture Officer at Lirio. "This is a testament to our company's commitment to invest in our people and to build a culture that encourages individual contributions, rewards collaboration, and respects diversity, equity, and inclusion." "This is more than a ranking," added Lirio CEO Mike West. "It is a reflection of a long-term commitment to building a culture of innovation and collaboration where the brightest minds in their fields are intentional about improving people's health." Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organization's benefits were also audited to determine the company's overall score and ranking. "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." About LirioLirio's behavior change AI platform combines behavioral science and artificial intelligence to apply Precision Nudging technology to move as many people as possible along their unique journey to better health. Similar to precision medicine's individualized treatment plans, Precision Nudging allows Lirio to apply tailored behavioral science solutions to overcome patient-specific barriers to action. Every Precision Nudge is delivered at the right time and place to help drive scalable, sustained behavior change that enables providers to effectively engage and activate individuals within a population, optimizing care and treatment for everyone. For more information, visit https://lirio.com. About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. Media Contact:Patrick Hunt865.839.5776309767@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lirio-recognized-by-inc-magazines-best-workplaces-of-2021-301289552.html SOURCE Lirio YOUR DAD'S FAVORITE PUB, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- For all the wisdom Nick Offerman carries, he has one man to thank: his dad, Ric. Nick has always held Ric's advice in the highest regard, and we have proof - just look at the last four iterations of the pair's Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky Father's Day videos. But this year, Nick decided to put his best foot forward (or bottle, if you will) and embark on his most ambitious journey yet to create a Father's Day gift worthy of the original Mr. Offerman's approval. Together, ahead of World Whisky Day, and just in time for their Father's Day tradition, Nick and Ric invite you to pour a dram of the newest release from Nick Offerman and Lagavulin Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky - Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish. Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8894751-lagavulin-fathers-day-offerman-edition-guinness-cask-finish/ This new, limited-edition 11 Year Old Lagavulin aged for four months in former Guinness Beer casks from the Open Gate Brewery in Maryland is a true father-son creation. After a job well done, it is ritual for Nick and Ric to enjoy a well-earned beverage, be it Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch or Guinness Beer. This year on Father's Day, they will uncork a bottle of Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish to toast to their mutual love of both tipples, and the arduous work required to taste and select the perfect Single Malt for the occasion. Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish is the second iteration from Nick Offerman and Lagavulin following the launch of Lagavulin Offerman Edition Aged 11 Years in October 2019. "The opportunity to collaborate on this truly sublime, smoky giggle-juice renews my gratitude for the simple things in life, like a father's love, and the good manners he taught me," said Nick Offerman. The inventive spirit of this collaboration is brought to life in the newest video in the ongoing Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky series, 'Nick Offerman's Father's Day Part Five.' The adventurous tale reveals the lengths to which Nick went to create Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish for his dad. Now, Nick, Ric and Lagavulin are proud to announce their new dram of choice after a hard day's work, which they recommend enjoying neat or on ice but always over tales of whisky. Lagavulin and Nick Offerman's partnership began in 2014 with the introduction of the Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky series. Ric has appeared in various spots over the years, showcasing everything from his master woodworking skills to his insistent preference for medium-rare steaks. The entire Lagavulin: My Tales of Whisky series can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/c/MyTalesofWhiskyOfficial, and the full collection of Nick and Ric's comic shorts can be found here for your Father's Day viewing pleasure. Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish is a glorious adventure in 'sweet peat' through the combination of the intense peat and charred wood notes of Lagavulin with the roasted coffee, dark chocolate and sweet caramel notes from the Guinness casks. The limited-edition Single Malt has an SRP of $79.99 and will be available in the U.S. wherever fine spirits are sold, as well as via ReserveBar.com, Drizly.com, and the Drizly app where shipping and delivery are available. While sharing tales this Father's Day, please enjoy a dram of Lagavulin Offerman Edition: Guinness Cask Finish responsibly. More information on Lagavulin Islay Single Malt Scotch Whisky and the distillery can be found at www.malts.com/en-row/distilleries/lagavulin/. About Nick OffermanNick Offerman is an actor, writer and woodworker, best known as the character of Ron Swanson on NBC's hit comedy series Parks & Recreation, Karl Weathers in the acclaimed FX series Fargo, the co-host and executive producer of NBC's Making It, and in the role of Forest on FX's DEVS. Offerman has penned four New York Times Bestselling books: Paddle Your Own Canoe, Gumption, Good Clean Fun, and most recently The Greatest Love Story Ever Told, written with his wife, Megan Mullally. In his spare time, he can be found at his woodshop in Los Angeles building hand- crafted items ranging from fine furniture to canoes to ukuleles. About DiageoDiageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit and Buchanan's whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Casamigos and Don Julio tequilas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Tanqueray and Guinness. Diageo is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, www.DRINKiQ.com, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Follow us on Twitter for news and information about Diageo North America: @Diageo_NA. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nick-offerman-saves-fathers-day-and-every-drop-of-whisky-with-new-limited-edition-lagavulin-offerman-edition-guinness-cask-finish-301289971.html SOURCE Lagavulin Single Malt Scotch Whisky Source: Streetwise Reports (5/12/21) The deal will make Agnico Eagle Barsele Minerals' largest shareholder. Barsele Minerals Corp. (BME:TSX.V) just announced that it has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to acquire Agnico Eagle's 55% indirect share of the Barsele project located in northern Sweden. Barsele already controls 45% of the project. The project is located at the western end of the Proterozoic Skellefte Trend, a volcanogenic massive sulphide deposit belt, that host polymetallic and orogenic gold deposits. "The opportunity to acquire a 100% controlling interest in the Barsele Project represents a tremendous milestone for Barsele," said Gary Cope, president, CEO and a director of Barsele, commented. "We plan to significantly increase the drilling activity on the project with the goal of growing the current mineral resource estimates. We are excited to start a new chapter in the development of the Barsele Project and are thankful to our joint venture partner Agnico Eagle for the work we have completed together. We now look forward to having Agnico Eagle as our largest shareholder." Through the terms of the agreement, Barsele will acquire Agnico Eagle's 55% indirect interest in Gunnarn Mining AB, which holds the Barsele Project, for a payment of US$45 million, the issuance of shares so that Agnico Eagle will hold 14.9% of Barsele's common shares, warrants exercisable for 6 million Barsele common shares, a 2% net smelter returns (NSR) royalty, and a contingent value right (CRV) on "future gold mineral reserves and mineral resources identified at the Barsele Project." Barsele can purchase 1% of the NSR royalty for US$15 million. The company noted that there is an "existing 2.0% net smelter return royalty on the Barsele Project pursuant to an agreement dated June 11, 2015 between Orex Minerals Inc., Gunnarn Mining AB, Agnico Eagle Sweden AB and Agnico Eagle, which includes a repurchase right for US$5,000,000. The LOI anticipates that the Existing NSR, including the repurchase right, will be assigned and assumed by Barsele at closing of the Proposed Transaction." The warrants will have a term of five years and an exercise price of CA$1.25 a share, or a 20% premium to the 20-day volume weighted average of Barsele common shares, or the conversion price of convertible debt if Barsele issues convertible debt as part of the financing of the cash amount of the sale. On the contingent value right, Barsele agrees to pay Agnico Eagle US$2.5 million for each additional 1 million ounces of gold mineral reserves and resources identified at the project above the current reserves and reserves, capped at a maximum of US$20 million. These funds won't be payable until there is a construction decision at Barsele, change of control or the tenth anniversary of the closing of the transaction. Barsele "may satisfy the first US$5,000,000 of any future CVR payments by applying such amount to the repurchase of the Existing NSR rather than payment of the CVR," the release stated. Agnico Eagle will also be granted a participation right in certain future financings so that it can maintain its pro rata or 14.9% interest in Barsele. Barsele stated that it intends to fund either all or a part of the cash amount of the transaction through issuing debt or equity. The companies have established an exclusivity period that ends July 30, 2021, "with a view to settling the definitive documentation for the Proposed Transaction by such date." "We see Barsele's consolidation of the Barsele Project as a positive outcome for all stakeholders," stated Sean Boyd, Agnico Eagle's CEO. "The monetization of our interest in the Barsele Project will allow Agnico Eagle to focus on the most advanced projects in our exploration and development pipeline, while retaining an interest in the Barsele Project as a significant equity investor and royalty holder. We wish Barsele success as they undertake the next phase of exploration at the project and are confident that they have the required skill set to continue to advance the project." A resource estimate released in February 2019 calculated the resource to be 324,000 ounces of gold in the Indicated category and 2.086 million ounces of gold in the Inferred category. [NLINSERT] Disclosure: 1) Patrice Fusillo conducted this interview for Streetwise Reports LLC and provides services to Streetwise Reports as an employee. She owns, or members of her immediate household or family own, securities of the following companies mentioned in this article: None. She is, or members of her immediate household or family are, paid by the following companies mentioned in this article: None. 2) The following companies mentioned in this interview are billboard sponsors of Streetwise Reports: None. Click here for important disclosures about sponsor fees. As of the date of this article, an affiliate of Streetwise Reports has a consulting relationship with Barsele Minerals. Please click here for more information. The information provided above is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to buy or sell any security. 3) The interview does not constitute investment advice. Each reader is encouraged to consult with his or her individual financial professional and any action a reader takes as a result of information presented here is his or her own responsibility. By opening this page, each reader accepts and agrees to Streetwise Reports' terms of use and full legal disclaimer. This article is not a solicitation for investment. Streetwise Reports does not render general or specific investment advice and the information on Streetwise Reports should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Streetwise Reports does not endorse or recommend the business, products, services or securities of any company mentioned on Streetwise Reports. 4) From time to time, Streetwise Reports LLC and its directors, officers, employees or members of their families, as well as persons interviewed for articles and interviews on the site, may have a long or short position in securities mentioned. Directors, officers, employees or members of their immediate families are prohibited from making purchases and/or sales of those securities in the open market or otherwise from the time of the decision to publish an article until three business days after the publication of the article. The foregoing prohibition does not apply to articles that in substance only restate previously published company releases. As of the date of this article, officers and/or employees of Streetwise Reports LLC (including members of their household) own securities of Barsele Minerals, a company mentioned in this article. **WARNING: This article contains some graphic content. A man who brutally beat and raped three young women over a 20-year period including imprisoning one victim in a cell made of hay bales has been sentenced to preventive detention. Nathaniel Ejay Pikitea Webster, 43, was sentenced in the High Court in Tauranga on Friday by Justice Christian Whata. He had earlier been found guilty by a jury of 28 charges of sexual and physical violence, many of which were representative, meaning they covered multiple offences. He also pleaded guilty to two representative charges of male assaults female. Many of the details of Websters offending, including the locations it happened, cannot be reported without revealing the identity of his three victims, each of whom were left severely traumatised by his actions. He met his first victim in 1996 or 1997, when she was about 16 years old. While he was initially kind to the teenager, it was not long before the relationship became abusive and sexually violent. Over the following years he raped and violated her numerous times. On one occasion he invited her to a party, but took her to a nearby field of maize where, treating her like a rag doll, he brutally raped her. In another incident, Webster abducted the girl from her own bedroom, put her in the back of his car and drove her to a barn where he had built a cell made out of hay bales, from which she was unable to escape. Over the following few days, he returned several times and raped her on multiple occasions. She only managed to escape because her cries were heard by a farmhand who helped her out. As the judge pointed out during sentencing, at one stage you were interrupted by your father, but that did not deter you. Websters offending against his second victim, who was 16 when they met, happened over a 10-year period between 1997 and 2007. Over that time he raped and sexually violated her many times. He also frequently physically assaulted and injured her. As Justice Whata noted during sentencing, she gave evidence that she could not even remember how many hidings she received she was kicked, smacked and punched in the head and other parts of her body, sometimes unable to walk. On one occasion, Webster tied a belt around her neck and dragged her around the house. In another incident, he put her in a sleeper hold until she was knocked out. She was pregnant at the time. The third victim, again, was 16 when she met Webster, and was likewise subjected to numerous rapes and beatings, including slamming her head into a truck window on one occasion. All three victims said their lives had been irrevocably changed by Websters violence towards them. They had suffered nightmares and panic attacks, feelings of low self-worth and had turned to alcohol and drugs to cope. As the court was told, Websters father was a patched gang member who lived a life of heavy drinking and parties and used hidings as a means of disciplining his son. Webster himself joined the Mongrel Mob when he was 15. As the judge noted, You saw your father kick peoples heads in and uncles smash-up people. You remember witnessing your uncle viciously beating an aunty until she was unrecognisable, hitting her like she was a man. Justice Whata had the benefit of two psychological reports for Webster, one of which found his offending appeared to be driven by deviant sexual fantasies. He was also observed to be emotionally shallow, such that you avoid close and affectionate relationships, enabling you to perform cruel and instrumentally violent sexual acts. The other report had concluded Webster had a demonstrable capacity for vengeance and sadistic cruelty and use all types of aggression instrumentally. Due to his lack of remorse and personal responsibility, his egocentric outlook and other factors, Webster was assessed to be of very high risk of committing further sexual violence and unlikely to engage and benefit from treatment. Justice Whata sentenced Webster to 18 years and 10 months for the lead sexual violation offending. However even that lengthy sentence was not enough. The combination of the pattern of your offending, your trenchant denial of it, the very high risk of offending posed by you, mean that I consider preventive detention is necessary to protect the public from you. Your clear tendency to manipulate and then to grossly abuse your victims is not something I can be satisfied will be addressed over time. -Stuff/Mike Mather. Teams from the Royal New Zealand Navy and New Zealand Police have combined for a series of exercise scenarios, including a search and recovery scenario of a missing recreational diver. Every year there are around 10 underwater fatalities in New Zealand. Thankfully many of the victims are found relatively quickly due to the prompt action of the Police National Dive Squad, which is on call to respond immediately to any incident in New Zealand. "But there are cases where a more specialist response is required based on the depth the diver was at and how large the area is that needs to be searched," says Senior Sergeant Bruce Adams of the Police National Dive Squad. "Even with an immediate deployment, by the time the squad arrives at the scene the task is not search and rescue but search and recovery. "This is complicated by the fact the lost diver may have moved a considerable distance from their last known position due to sea currents. "That is why we call the Navy in. They have the equipment, personnel and expertise to narrow down any search area and quickly identify an object of interest such as a missing diver, unexploded ordnance or discarded evidence such as knives or firearms." Chief Petty Officer Coady Clark from HMNZS Matataua and Constable Seda Clayton-Greene from the Police National Dive Squad review data from the sweep. Chief Petty Officer Coady Clark of the RNZNs Military Hydrographic Group is well aware of the pressure placed on the team in these situations. "Anyone missing underwater is a tragedy that will have a devastating impact on friends and family, so we do everything we can in the shortest amount of time using our specialist equipment to find the person and have them returned to their loved ones," he says. The Hydrographic Group is part of HMNZS Matataua from the Devonport Naval Base. Able to respond at short notice, the group utilises state-of-the-art Autonomous Underwater Vehicles that can remotely dive to depths of 100 metres under the command of a team member using a control panel and video screen. The AUV, which can travel at five knots, has a sophisticated side scan sonar that can detect objects of interest on the sea or lake floor, or even drifting in the water, up to 50 metres in any direction. "Once the sonar has identified the missing diver and weve ascertained the exact depth and search co-ordinates, the information is given immediately to the Police dive team who then effect the recovery.," says Chief Petty Officer Clark. "Its obviously a sombre time for everybody when the person were seeking is found but we also take quiet satisfaction in the fact we have found them." A crew member from HMNZS Matataua points out a potential object of interest to a Police National Dive Squad member. Senior Sergeant Adams agrees. "These are never easy tasks for anybody involved particularly the family of the missing diver but its because of the families that our dive team and the Navys hydrographers are doing this training to keep our skills honed for whatever task comes our way." The Military Hydrographic Group is primarily tasked with the surveying of sea beds, harbour entrances and beach landing sites to ensure RNZN vessels can access an area where safety of navigation is uncertain, such as following a natural disaster. But they also work with a range of other government agencies including LINZ, DOC, MFAT, GNS, NIWA and Antarctica New Zealand on survey projects spanning from Ross Island to the Equator, and further afield for Defence-specific tasks. A snowfall warning has been issued for the Desert Road, as a cold blast moves it way up the country. A few snow flurries are being forecast about the summit of the road overnight, but little, if any, snow is expected to settle on the road. Frosts are also being forecast for many places tomorrow. The cold air moving up NZ will be locked in by an incoming high pressure zone - meaning frosts are likely across a number of regions overnight tonight, says WeatherWatch.co.nz The main risk zone will be the South Island where high pressure is expanding, while the North Island will have more wind, rain and cloud to limit frosts to perhaps only around Central Plateau. Temperatures tonight in the South Island may well go below -5 in some alpine communities and for lower lying areas -1C to -3C is expected, says WeatherWatch. We have worked hard to try and make it easier to see upcoming frost risks across New Zealand and have two ways you can see the risks. The NZ Frost Forecaster at www.RuralWeather.co.nz has a special Frost button top of the page and this not only shows your very local area (or anywhere in NZ you choose) but it also displays it in graph form to show you when the frost risks really are. This is currently FREE to access so please check it out. Two substantial industrial property sales have been concluded recently by Bayleys Tauranga, one a record price for Tokoroa and the other a $16.1 million transaction in Mount Maunganui. An extensively refurbished and expanded industrial complex at 11-17 Huttloc Drive, Tokoroa, sold to a locally-based investor for $12.75 million at a 6.47 per cent yield. The sale price negotiated by the Bayleys Tauranga sales team of Brendon Bradley, Lynn Bradley and son Ryan Bradley is believed to be a record for a commercial and industrial property in the South Waikato town. This deal reflects ongoing confidence in the industrial sector and continuing demand from investors for provincial offerings providing higher yields than similar quality properties in metropolitan areas such as Auckland, Brendon Bradley says. The 10,660 sq m high-stud industrial premises, with an overall A-grade seismic assessment, features large warehouse areas with more than eight-metre stud heights, modern offices and amenities. Once the Huttloc factory for timber manufacturer Carter Holt Harvey, the original premises has been extended to include new workshop space, offices and amenities. Two additional buildings erected in 2015 and 2018 provide high-quality warehousing. The complex is positioned on a large 3.1132-hectare site adjacent State Highway 1 at the southern entrance to Tokoroa. It has been extensively developed with rock wall front entrances, landscaped grounds and sealed/metaled and concrete yards plus onsite vehicle parking. This was a standout industrial property with every desirable aspect for an astute investor including a long lease to a tenant with a proven trading history and essential business categorisation during Covid 19 lockdown, says Brendon. One of New Zealands largest mineral processors and distributors, Blue Pacific Minerals has a 12-year lease with three six-year rights of renewal. The property is currently generating total net annual income of $825,000 plus GST. Brendon says properties located around the golden triangle of Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty are attracting interest from investors across the country. The site in Tokoroa on Huttloc Drive. With Tokoroa on the outside fringe of the triangle but connected via State Highway One, it is well-positioned to benefit from burgeoning investment across each region, as evidenced by our team concluding 23 sales and leasing transactions in South Waikato over the last financial year. These transactions reflect a strong level of local economic activity which continues to attract investment. he adds. Its been a busy period for the Bradleys with another high-value transaction recorded in Mount Maunganui. A 5,961 square-metre cold storage facility on 1.625 hectares of land in two titles at 7-13 Te Maire Street sold to an Auckland investor for $16.126 million, reflecting a 5.3 per cent yield. The property is located in Mount Maunganuis industrial zone close to Taurangas Port and comprises temperature-controlled storage facilities, canopy cover plus offices and amenities. A substantial, unutilised grassed area offers future development potential. There was huge upside in terms of excess land allowing for expansion to the current facility, Ryan Bradley says. National business Cold Storage Nelson has a 10-year lease plus two of five-year rights of renewal through to July 2039, paying a current annual net rent of $854,630 plus GST. It specialises in the temperature-controlled export sector of the logistics market. Seven parties including investment institutions, of which three were locally based and four out-of-town, submitted tenders for the property, illustrating the attractiveness of the strong tenant covenant and quality of the complex, Ryan says. Our vendor was thrilled with the outcome, having owned the property for many years. Brendon says the transactions reflect strong demand for regional industrial property with long leases to well-established tenants. With yields on good quality industrial property in Auckland now below five per cent, investors are looking further afield for more lucrative returns and add-value opportunities, he adds. Tauranga Chamber of Commerce is welcoming the introduction of a Retail Payments Systems Bill, which will see a reduction in merchant service fees charged to businesses when customers use a credit or debit card. Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark has announced the Bill will be introduced later this year, with the hope of saving an estimated $74 million each year for New Zealand merchants. A 0.8 per cent cap will be introduced on the interchange fee merchants must pay for credit card transactions, whilst a cap of 0.6 per cent will be brought in for online debit card payments. Contactless debit card interchange fees will stay at their current levels of 0.2 per cent or less, and for swiped and inserted debit, it will stay at zero per cent. The new regulatory regime is estimated to result in savings of approximately $74 million each year for New Zealand merchants. Smaller retailers, and those who rely on credit or online sales will particularly benefit from these savings, says Clark. The move has been welcomed by Tauranga Chamber of Commerce, who believe the Bill will make it increasingly easy and advantageous for businesses to take their trading online. It is a great announcement as it complements the government's focus on making it easier for businesses to do more business online, says Tauranga Chamber of Commerce chief executive Matt Cowley. The Government wants to make New Zealand businesses more resilient by developing online purchasing options. The merchant fees eat away at earnings for retailers who already operate on thin margins. Many retailers are in an ultra-competitive market and they are unable to increase prices as they face tough competition from discounted overseas mega-outlets. The Bill will require reductions in interchange fees as soon as possible, enable direct intervention by the Commerce Commission to regulate different participants in the retail payment system and the introduction of a disclosure and reporting requirement to enable better monitoring. Marisa Bidois, CEO of the Restaurant Association, says they have lobbied hard for regulation on merchant fees, with just under 90 per cent of their members believing the merchant fee system needed an overhaul, especially when compared to Australias model. This is a very welcome decision for the hospitality industry, says Marisa. Merchant card fees have been on the increase since contactless payments have come into more general use. These fees have been costing our businesses thousands each year. We still experience higher prices in New Zealand than in Australia and the United Kingdom and pay nearly twice as much as Australian retailers pay in merchant fees. On average, we understand it is estimated to be $13,000 per year more than Australian counterparts. With contactless payment increases over the past year, these fees have become incredibly difficult for our businesses to manage. Bringing transparency to merchant fees will serve hospitality businesses far better over the long term than allowing a hands-off. The Government aims to seek final policy decisions on reducing merchant fees in mid-2021, with a view to the full regulatory regime coming into effect next year. Bay of Plenty Our client has plenty of work in the pipeline and as such they are in need of hammerhands for an immediate start.The successful... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz A survey of rare plants has been completed at Waikatos internationally significant Whangamarino Wetland, with excitement over the rediscovery of a seldom-found carnivorous species. Its been more than a decade since threatened plants have been surveyed at Whangamarino Wetland, with the last survey undertaken in 2009. Covering almost 7000 ha in the Waikato, Whangamarino is the second largest freshwater wetland in the North Island and is one of three RAMSAR wetlands in the Department of Conservations Hauraki-Waikato-Taranaki region. Waikato District Biodiversity Rangers Lizzie Sharp and Kerry Jones, and plant expert Britta Deichmann, waded into the boggy wetland for 12 days between the months of September 2020 and April 2021, searching for botanical treasures. We were particularly excited when we found Utricularia australis or yellow bladderwort, an aquatic carnivorous plant, says Lizzie Sharp. We had several ID books out and a lively debate about whether it was yellow bladderwort or the invasive weed Utricularia gibba or humped bladderwort. The difference between the two plant species is the number of divisions in the leaves, and closer inspection by the team revealed it was yellow bladderwort, which is known only in the North Island. Yellow bladderwort was found at one site in the 2009 survey, and prior to that, at 11 sites based on historic data. By 2009, 10 of those sites had been infested with humped bladderwort, and as more than 10 years have passed since that survey, we expected the worst that we would not find any specimens from this unusual and rare species. The survey requires each person to take turns making a pathway ahead while those following keep their eyes peeled for plants. Travel through dense vegetation in boggy water is slow and physically challenging work, taking several hours to cover 1km. An average day out in the swamp had us wrap up in chest waders, safety glasses and gloves to protect us from the stabber (also known as Schoenus brevifolius, or zig-zag bog-rush) and other spiked wetland plants, says Lizzie. If we spotted anything of interest, we would all huddle around with our field guides, magnifying lenses, cameras and notebooks. The common threats for all threatened plant species in Whangamarino are competition from encroaching weeds, drainage and decreasing habitat and, on occasion, collection by plant enthusiasts or botanists, says Nigel Binks, Senior Biodiversity Ranger. This survey will help us make a plan as to what weed control we need to prioritise and which habitat types to protect to better manage plant population declines. The team also spotted a couple of matuku or Australasian bittern out in the swamp. Whangamarino Wetland is home to the threatened and elusive bird, which can be heard booming during early summer mornings. It is currently classified as threatened- nationally critically, with less than 1000 in New Zealand. The bog in the Whangamarino Wetland is treacherous and can be unpredictable, so visits by members of the public are discouraged. Its best not to venture too deep into the wetland, says Lizzie. There are currently no tracks into the swamp, but the public is permitted on the Maramarua and Whangamarino Rivers and the Reao Stream. Driving around the periphery and looking beyond the band of invasive willow will give you a glimpse of the bog, peat and open water. Anyone near the wetland is encouraged to keep an eye out for weeds, and to clean any gear and boots before moving to a new site. For more information about Whangamarino Wetland and its biodiversity, visit: https://www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/freshwater-restoration/arawai-kakariki-wetland-restoration/sites/whangamarino/about-whangamarino-wetland/ A new book titled White City of Ashgabat by President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was presented at a ceremony at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan. The release of the new book is timed to coincide with the 140th anniversary of the Turkmen capital city. The presentation ceremony was attended by rectors, academic staff and students of Ashgabats higher education establishments, heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Turkmenistan, as well as Turkmenistans ambassadors who joined the presentation online. It was noted during the presentation ceremony that the new book by the head of state describes in detail the history and present day of Ashgabat. The book presents interesting historical facts and rare photographs about the Turkmen capital. In their speeches, the ambassadors of foreign countries whose capitals are twin cities of Ashgabat added special colors to the presentation. The ambassadors of Uzbekistan, China, Kazakhstan and Turkey expressed their admiration for the architecture of the capital city and congratulated the Ashgabat residents on the 140th anniversary of the city. TURKMENISTAN.RU, 2021 Vets say a nationwide shortage of staff, drought and uncertainty due to Covid-19 is pushing them to a breaking point. Veterinary Association (NZVA) chief officer Helen Beattie says the country is between 50 and 100 vets short, which is affecting the well-being of both people and animals. "We know there's a bunch of vets out there that are going well above and beyond and, as we know, that's for a limited time only for all of us." Beattie says NZVA had talked to vets who had stood down temporarily due to work-life imbalance affecting the well-being of them and their families. Geraldine vet Hilary McCullough says her rural practice was struggling to find three more staff which would take pressure off current workers. McCullough says holidays were managed carefully to look after the physical and mental health of vets who were working "extremely hard" at the 24/7 clinic. "Day to day it just means you don't really get a lot of downtime, so when you are trying to get through your workload often you are often skipping breaks, lunch breaks, to try and get the amount of work finished. "Some aspects of our job are really stressful and you don't really get a chance to recover from that before you're into the next job." Some softening of border rules to allow in overseas vets and more effort to retain vets thinking about leaving the industry should happen before their most busy time in spring, McCullough says. The government allowed 30 vets into the country last year and Beattie says the association was discussing further border exemptions with the government - but it was not seeing much progress. "It's certainly come to a bit of a grinding halt at the moment. We've got a second phase of a campaign that we are about to get involved with, in the very short term, but we haven't had any luck getting an exemption for that next cluster of vets that we'd like to see coming on-shore." Beattie says the association would like something similar to new rules in Australia, which allowed veterinarians to request a special exemption to enter the country. "Now we're really worrying whether we are going to be competing with vets who would have come here but may now find it easier to go to Australia." The shortage was spreading pressure to farmers who might not be able to access urgent veterinary care when it was needed, especially with a dry winter forecast, Beattie says. "We are very aware of the importance [of] that relationship that farmers have with their veterinarian. "It's difficult to get a vet on farm, to have something dealt with, and to be able to have that relationship functioning in a timely fashion and have farmers getting the advice that they need. Certainly the impacts on farmers are significant as well." Beattie says vets not being able to attend farms could compromise animal welfare, biosecurity and food safety. Bay of Plenty If you love working out doors and in a small team then we have the role for you. We are needing someone who has either maintenance... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz Cabinet approves MoU between ICAI & QFCA New Delhi, May 12 (UNI) The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and Qatar Financial Centre Authority (QFCA). The MoU would enhance cooperation between the Institutes to work together to strengthen the Accounting profession and entrepreneurship base in Qatar, an official statement said. ICAI has a strong membership base of over 6000 members in the Middle East and Qatar (Doha) Chapter is amongst the most vibrant Chapters of ICAI. ICAI members hold key positions in various private and public companies and are actively involved in the support and development of the accounting profession in Qatar. Current Print Subscribers will be prompted to either login to their current site user account or to create a new one. A confirmation email will be sent when a new user account is created, which must be confirmed within three days in order to provide uninterrupted online access through your Print Subscription. Once the email address is confirmed please provide your Account Number to activate your Print Subscription Service. CAMILLUS, NY Popeyes fast-food restaurant is coming to Township 5 in Camillus. The Louisiana-style fried chicken chain is moving into the Summit Federal Credit Union building in the shopping center, said Kevin Langan, leasing agent for Township 5. Summit is closing that location, he said. The fast-food restaurant will bring its famous chicken sandwich to the western suburbs. It is expected to open this fall, Langan said. The location is between LongHorn Steakhouse and Costco. This will be the fourth Popeyes location in the Syracuse area. Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen has more than 3,100 restaurants, including one on Brewerton Road, Erie Boulevard East, and the food court at Destiny USA. Elizabeth Doran covers education, suburban government and development, breaking news and more. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact her anytime at 315-470-3012 or email edoran@syracuse.com . Tom Cruise defends Covid rant Syracuse-born actor Tom Cruise is standing by his rant on the set of Mission: Impossible 7 where he yelled at staff about the importance of following Covid-19 safety rules. I said what I said, he told Empire magazine. There was a lot at stake at that point... All those emotions were going through my mind. I was thinking about the people I work with, and my industry. Cruise also said he wasnt shouting in front of the entire crew, and asked some staff members to leave the set so he could reprimand select people for standing too close to each other. Theyre back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us... We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf---ers, he said in the recording that went viral. If I see you do it again, youre f---ing gone. Cruise also joked about the moment, telling Empire hes available for Zoom parties and kids parties also! Legends of the Hidden Temple reboot for adults Popular 90s Nickelodeon game show Legends of the Hidden Temple is getting a reboot for adults. Variety reports The CW is taking the TV series, which featured trivia questions and an Indiana Jones-style obstacle course, and turning it into a supersized and reimagined adult version, so participants are no longer kids, but nostalgia-loving millennials. Yes, therell still be the giant talking Mayan head Olmec and names like The Steps of Knowledge, but five teams of contestants will actually move out of the studio into a mysterious jungle with tougher challenges. Stillwater trailer The first trailer for Stillwater shows Matt Damon as an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to France to try and exonerate his estranged daughter, in prison for a murder she says she did not commit. Stillwater, directed by Oscar winner Tom McCarthy and also starring Abigail Breslin, hits theaters July 30. MORE BUZZ: Seth Rogen details wild Tom Cruise encounter in new book ( ET Liam, Noel Gallagher to produce doc about 1996 Oasis concert ( BB Liseys Story trailer: Julianne Moore begins to unravel ( E! Harry Styles accepts BRIT Award with American accent ( ET Edward Norton joins Knives Out 2 cast with Daniel Craig ( SF Phish announces summer, fall tour dates; no Upstate NY shows ( RS Sandra Oh says she hasnt thought about returning to Greys Anatomy ( E! Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin going on joint US tour ( BB See opening scene from Spiral: From the Book of Saw ( SF The Protege trailer: Maggie Q, Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Keaton ( RS Demi Lovato to hunt aliens in new Peacock docu-series ( E! Buffalos Jason Tartick engaged to Bachelor Nation star Kaitlyn Bristowe ( SYR Ciara, Russell Wilson sign first-look deal with Amazon ( BB Sleater-Kinney to release 10th album ( RS Jensen Ackles looks totally different in The Boys behind-the-scenes photo ( E! Buzz is a daily roundup of entertainment news about movies, TV, music and celebrities. Syracuse, N.Y. The federal government has shelled out more than $15 million over the past month to help pay for Covid-19 related funeral expenses and is still accepting applications for assistance. Anyone whos eligible can get the money, regardless of income level. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, is processing applications. People can apply by calling FEMA at 844-684-6333, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday. The government is providing the money through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. FEMA will reimburse up to $9,000 for eligible funeral expenses incurred after Jan. 20, 2020 for deaths caused by Covid-19. As of Monday, FEMA had received nearly 174,000 applications 17,298 of them from New York residents. So far the agency has approved $1.3 million in assistance to New Yorkers. Overall it seems like the program has been unveiled without too many hiccups and folks can find out if they are eligible pretty easily, said Mike Lanotte, executive director of the New York State Funeral Directors Association. The only problem funeral directors are hearing about involves deaths in which Covid-19 is not listed on death certificates, Lanotte said. This happened early last year at the beginning of the pandemic, primarily in New York City and Long Island. Folks were passing away from Covid but death certificates didnt always reference Covid, he said. In these cases applicants must get the death certificate amended. This can be done by contacting the doctor, coroner or medical examiner listed on the death certificate. Applicants can provide evidence to support their claim the death was caused by Covid-19. To be eligible for financial assistance, the death must have occurred in the U.S. FEMA will not reimburse Covid-19 death funeral expenses that were paid prior to death. That means funeral bills paid for by burial or funeral insurance, a pre-paid funeral contract, a pre-paid trust for funeral expenses or an irrevocable trust for Medicaid cannot be reimbursed. Here are some answers from FEMA to frequently asked questions about the funeral assistance program. What funeral expenses are covered? Transportation for up to two individuals to identify the deceased individual, transfer of remains, casket or urn, burial plot or cremation niche, marker or headstone, clergy services, arrangement of funeral ceremony, use of funeral home equipment or staff, cremation or interment costs; cost of producing or certifying multiple death certificates. Can a funeral home apply on behalf of a family? No. Only individuals who incurred the funeral expenses can apply. What is the deadline to apply for Covid-19 funeral assistance? There is no deadline. Once a deadline is established FEMA will announce it. What do I do if I call and get a busy signal? FEMA says it is receiving high volumes of calls. If your call is not answered try again later. You cannot apply online. What if I used life insurance to pay for funeral expenses? Applicants who used life insurance to pay funeral bills are eligible. Thats because life insurance proceeds not intended specifically to pay funeral costs are not considered by FEMA to be a duplication of benefit. Do I need to submit a certified copy of a death certificate to apply? No. A photocopy or electronic image of the certified death certificate is acceptable. Does FEMA consider annual household income when determining how much an applicant is awarded? No. FEMA says it asks applicants income-related questions for demographic purposes only. Who can apply? A U.S. citizen, a non-citizen national or qualified alien who paid for Covid-related funeral expenses after Jan. 20, 2020. See the FEMA website for more information about Covid-19 related funeral assistance. James T. Mulder covers health and higher education. Have a news tip? Contact him at (315) 470-2245 or jmulder@syracuse.com Albany, N.Y. State University of New York campuses wont require Covid-19 vaccines for faculty and staff in the fall, according to The Buffalo News. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced earlier in the week Covid shots will be required for all SUNY students this fall, but did not mention staff members. A SUNY spokeswoman told the News there are no plans to force SUNY employees to get vaccinated. The directive is focused on students. SUNY is developing a plan per the directive announced (Monday), said Holly Liapis, the SUNY spokeswoman, according to the News. She did not answer a question about possible exemptions to the requirement, such as for medical reasons, nor did she elaborate when asked why only students were being included for the 64-campus system mandate, the News said. Cuomo said Monday the vaccine requirement for students will only take effect if the federal government grants full, regular approval to one or more of the Covid shots on the market now. So far, those vaccines are operating through emergency use authorizations, which prevent the state from requiring anyone to get them, Cuomo said. But federal officials are expected to give regular approval to at least one of the shots soon, well before September, he said. Mandating shots for SUNY employees would require negotiations with the various unions representing those workers, according to the News. Cuomo cant order the vaccines for staff the same way he can for students. SUNY employs over 50,000 people at its 29 campuses. That doesnt include its community colleges. The vaccine rule Cuomo announced Monday also applies to City University of New York campuses. Cuomo is encouraging private college to require vaccines as well. Syracuse University, Le Moyne College and Cornell University all previously announced they will do so. MORE ON CORONAVIRUS Coronavirus in NY: Cases, maps, charts and resources Onondaga County health commissioner on Covid vaccine hesitancy: I get it How remote learning will probably be different at CNY schools in the fall How to get up to $9,000 in federal assistance for Covid-related funeral expenses Complete coronavirus coverage on syracuse.com Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 315-282-8598 By Chris Bragg | Times Union, Albany Albany, N.Y. When children go back to school this fall, New Yorks government is unlikely to require them to receive a Covid-19 vaccination. At a press conference on Tuesday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said his administration is not legally allowed to mandate New Yorkers receive a vaccine thats authorized only for emergency use by the federal government. On Monday, the federal Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of a new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in the United States. But Cuomo said that full federal authorization of the vaccine was unlikely to occur before September, when the school year resumes. I dont know that theres going to be a federal approval in time for that, Cuomo said. Cuomo said that pending approval by a New York-based vaccine review panel, the new vaccine could become available at state vaccination sites as soon as Thursday. Children of that age would be required to come to the sites with their parents. Cuomo also announced a television ad campaign focused promoting New York and its reopening, which includes spots narrated by celebrities such as Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Joel. Cuomo was at the Javits Center in Manhattan on Tuesday, where he was rolling out a $1.5 billion expansion completed amid the pandemic. The Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard police blotter of arrests from police agencies around Central New York has been updated today. Most of the new arrests are from the last couple weeks. The police blotter is searchable by name, charge, date and agency. You can search current dates or find arrests made in the past. Our database contains arrests from the current year and two years back. Among the 227 new arrests are: 1 person charged with strangulation 32 people facing DWI charges 2 people charged with unlawful imprisonment 12 people charged with assault 1 person charged with arson You can search the blotter here: Dont see the link? Click here to search the police blotter Information in the police blotter is provided by the arresting agencies. Arrests are also published in the Neighbors pages of The Post-Standard and is available in the ePost-Standard. Contact Brenda Duncan anytime: 315-470-2265 | Email | Twitter Syracuse, NY -- Private and public security cameras cover nearly every square inch of East Fayette Street in front of the blocks-long Parkside Commons apartment complex. Those cameras caught the murder of Hakeem Phillips, 31, on Oct. 23, 2020 in the 2000 block of East Fayette. And a suspect was identified from that video, a Syracuse police investigator revealed Wednesday. Charles Cox, 24, was arrested less than two weeks later in Staten Island, then brought back to Syracuse to face charges On Wednesday, a judge heard testimony from police Investigator Jacob Breen about a nearly two-hour police interrogation inside a New York City precinct in early November. Breen said that footage of Phillips shooting death led to the identification of Cox as the suspected shooter. From there, police spoke to Coxs probation officer, who told them he was staying Downstate. Law enforcement in New York City took Cox into custody, claiming he was wanted on a probation violation. But Breen testified that he and his partner, Investigator Steve Kilburn, explained their real reason for talking to him as soon as the interrogation began -- his alleged involvement in Phillips murder. Defense lawyer Paul Carey questioned whether that deception ran counter to Coxs constitutional rights. He also wondered if Cox seemed in his right mind during the interrogation. To that, Breen responded that Cox tried to deceive them at first, but that the investigator didnt believe Cox was irrational. Its unclear what exactly Cox told them during the interrogation: the entire episode was video-recorded, so the judge will review the interrogation itself in private. But on the way back to Syracuse, Cox asked to use Breens phone and called someone else, mentioning the homicide while on the phone, Breen testified. Cox remains jailed as his case proceeds toward trial. County Court Judge Matthew Doran will decide in the coming weeks whether Coxs statements to police can be used against him later on. No motivation for the murder was alleged in court. Cox faces up to 25 years to life in prison, if convicted. Staff writer Douglass Dowty can be reached at ddowty@syracuse.com or 315-470-6070. Syracuse, N.Y. Police released the identity of a woman found dead Saturday afternoon in a home on Syracuses Far West Side. Kathleen Montreal, 51, of Syracuse, was found dead at a home in the 1200 block of Milton Avenue, said Sgt. Matthew Malinowski, Syracuse Police Department. Her death initially called a suspicious incident has been ruled a homicide, he said. Police did not release how Montreal died or any other details. Montreals death marks the seventh homicide in Syracuse in 2021. Police asked anyone with information about Montreals death to call (315) 442-5222. Did you know Kathy? Do you have a photo of her youd like to share? We would like to tell her story. Please reach out at shouse@syracuse.com. Staff writer Samantha House covers breaking news, crime and public safety. Have a tip, a story idea, a question or a comment? Reach her at shouse@syracuse.com. Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse officials want to install high fines and fees aimed at cracking down on illegal ATVs and dirt bikes speeding through the citys parks and neighborhoods. City lawyers are drafting a new ordinance that would let police charge a vehicle owner up to $2,650 to retrieve an impounded ATV or dirt bike. The Common Council would need to approve that fee. Those high fines are intended to scare off the people who illegally ride dirt bikes and ATVs on city streets, according to deputy police chief Richard Trudell. The real deal here is theyre totally illegal. So you could hang a ton of different traffic citations on these folks. Thats not really what were looking to do, Trudell said at a meeting of the Common Councils public safety committee Tuesday. We want to stop the behavior. At the same time, officials are looking for solutions to the firework problem that hammered the city last summer. Both the illegal vehicles and fireworks have been sources of constant complaints from neighbors in recent years. Last year, the police department received 256 calls about fireworks as they boomed nightly for weeks across the city. It was a problem in cities nationwide, possibly caused by the cancellation of many Fourth of July celebrations due to Covid-19. Young people can be seen regularly driving ATVs and dirt bikes on city streets and in parks illegally and at high speeds. Deputy Mayor Sharon Owens said shes gotten calls about kids riding dirt bikes on the narrow walking path atop the Woodlawn Reservoir. Since 2018, police have documented 22 crashes from dirt bikes and ATVs, including three deaths and 13 serious injuries. In one case, several pedestrians were badly injured by a dirt bike, Trudell said. Currently, the department can issue traffic violations to someone caught on an illegal bike or ATV. If the vehicle is impounded, the owner is charged a daily storage fee. Trudell said that fee is the biggest deterrent the city has, and its not enough. Corporation Counsel Kristen Smith said her department is drafting an ordinance that would make it more expensive for someone caught with an illegal vehicle to get it back when impounded. That would include a $650 impound fee and a $2,000 redemption fee. The ordinance would also make the vehicles illegal on private property, including city property like the reservoirs. Last year, the police department organized 18 details to deal with illegal street vehicles. They towed 33 ATVs and dirt bikes and issued 78 tickets. So far this year, Trudell said, the department has organized two details. They had planned on more, but the bad weather has forced several to be canceled. Theyve issued 33 tickets and seized 10 illegal vehicles. Going forward, Trudell said, there will be a weekly detail on the streets. Each detail involves a sergeant and six officers using unmarked cars to intercept ATVs and dirt bikes. Trudell said officers dont chase illegal dirt bikes or ATVs, but will follow them and ticket and tow if they pull over. Fireworks present a more nuanced challenge. Smith, the citys top attorney, said state law prevents the city from passing a law specifically banning fireworks. Trudell said that if officers respond to a call for fireworks, they often find just an empty or abandoned box of firework shells on a sidewalk or in the road. Charging someone for that is extremely difficult if the officers cant prove who owns them or set them off. Simply possessing or using a firework is a violation charge, not a misdemeanor or a felony, Trudell said. In order to get into those kinds of criminal charges, someone needs to be selling large amounts of illegal fireworks or selling fireworks to kids. Police organized 16 details to crack down on fireworks last year and made 17 arrests, including a big bust on a U-Haul truck moving illegal fireworks into the city. They have also targeted corner stores that sell illegal fireworks. Trudell said there have been no firework details this year, since there havent been many complaints yet. Those details will begin once the calls increase. He hopes this year wont be as bad as the last. Hopefully it was just a Covid, 2020 type situation and were not going to see the same thing in 21, Trudell said. The legalization of some fireworks by the Onondaga County Legislature has led to some confusion about whats legal in Syracuse, Trudell said. The legislature made sparklers and non-projectile fireworks legal in 2018. Anything that leaves the ground or goes boom is illegal, but not everyone knows that, or cares. In summertime, most people will see tents in parking lots advertising FIREWORKS! which might make people think theyre legal now. People dont understand whats legal and whats not legal, Trudell said. Smith, the corporation counsel, said the citys hands are tied by state law when it comes to outlawing fireworks here. If we could locally pass legislation banning fireworks, we would, she said. One Hundred and Four Years Ago: At noon on May 15, 1917, Syracuses most prominent citizens, including Lt. Gov. Shoeneck, Mayor Stone, former governor Horace White, Syracuse University Chancellor Day, and business moguls like Franklin, Chapin, Nettleton, and Soule, gathered in the Hiawatha Room at the sumptuous Onondaga Hotel to host a luncheon for Maj. General J. Franklin Bell. Bell was in Syracuse to visit the State Fairgrounds on the orders the Commander-in-Chief, President Woodrow Wilson. A day earlier, on May 14, Wilson ordered the construction of thirty-two mobilization and training camps, including one here, just four miles away from a thriving downtown Syracuse. The Central City was a prime location for a military installation. Syracuse boasted seven hospitals and its location at the crux of a national transportation network, which included the NY Central and D, L & W Railroads and the canal system. Recruits mustered on the central green at the State Fairgrounds, June, 1917. Courtesy of the Onondaga Historical AssociationCourtesy of the Onondaga Histori The creation of the camp and Maj. General Bells visit was the culmination of weeks of lobbying by the Chamber of Commerce and its president, William Allen Dyer. The men assembled that afternoon recognized the tremendous economic and political benefits a military installation would bring to the city already poised to play a significant role in wartime production and they had worked diligently to bring it to fruition. Congress declaration of war against Germany on April 6, 1917 necessitated a national mobilization not seen since the Civil War. Though the United States military had been engaged in several major military campaigns over the intervening decades, including the Spanish-American War against Spain and the resulting Philippine-American War, which lasted for nearly thirteen years, the scale of the undertaking now before the nation required men and materials on an unprecedented level. The European armies were massive. At the beginning of the Great War, in August 1914, the German army was comprised of 11 million men, while the Austro-Hungarian army was 7.8 million men strong. Amongst the United States allies (though the U.S. did not formally join the Triple Entente), The Russian army contained 11 million men, the French mustered 8 million, while the British army totaled nearly 4 million. Woefully unprepared and under-manned, Wilson signed the Selective Service Act on May 18, which required all men between the ages of 21 and 30 to register for military service. Ultimately, over twenty-four million men registered for the draft, and inductees comprised sixty percent of those who served. Through conscription, the U.S Army grew from a paltry 127,000 men to 1.3 million in a matter of months. By wars end, that number reached 4.7 million. Eventually, tens of thousands of those enlisted men made their way to the nearly six-hundred-acre site overlooking Onondaga Lake. The first recruits arrived at Camp Syracuse on May 22, having most recently fought alongside General John Black Jack Pershing in his campaign against Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. Pershing was one of only a handful of American officers with experience commanding large numbers of troops in battle. Accordingly, President Wilson named Pershing commander of the American Expeditionary Force or Doughboys, as they were affectionally known, that same month. Over the next two weeks, thousands more Doughboys streamed into the fairgrounds and the empty buildings usually filled with fairgoers. In all, the Army created six new units to be trained here during the first phase of mobilization. By June 10, a second encampment was set up on the site, with a third following closely on its heels, until thousands of tents filled the grounds. Camp Syracuse was among the largest of the thirty-two camps built. Troops entering one of the recently completed buildings at the New York State Fairgrounds. Construction of the new buildings began in 1908 and were completed in stages in the decade leading up to the creation of Camp Syracuse. Courtesy of the Onondaga Historical AssociationCourtesy of the Onondaga Histori Nearly 18,000 recruits came in that first wave before being sent off to France. Among these were the men of the 38th Infantry, who distinguished themselves at the Second Battle of the Marne in July 1918. They were instrumental in pushing back the final German offensive of the war, earning the nickname, The Rock of the Marne. After the war, members of the 38th raised funds for a monument in Billings Park to commemorate their victory and to thank the residents of Syracuse for their patriotism and hospitality. In all, Camp Syracuse was home to almost 35,000 soldiers during the summer of 1917. The men made themselves at home in the city. On their downtime, the men in khaki uniforms rode the trolley cars down into the thriving downtown district, taking in shows at the Wieting Opera House and the Empire Theater, and shopping at Edwards or Witherills Department stores. As the Syracuse Herald recounted in March, 1918, the infantry stayed, settled down, dug itself into the ground and into the hearts of the people, and became, for the time being, part and parcel of the city of Syracuse. After closing for the winter due to, well, you know, the Syracuse winter, the base was re-opened in the summer of 1918 as the Syracuse Recruit Camp. It was home to special and limited service who, for one reason or another, were not cleared for full active-duty. In fact, the Syracuse Recruit Camp was the largest limited service personnel training facility in the nation. In early September, approximately 12,000 servicemen arrived from Fort Devens, near Boston. Tragedy ensued. Unbeknownst to anyone, they brought the so-called Spanish Influenza with them. As the citys seven hospitals became inundated with sick soldiers, many of whom were transported via trolley car, the camp and the city found itself in crisis. On September 28, Lt. Col. B.G. Ruttencutter, the Camps commander, placed the camp on quarantine. Over the next eight weeks, the Spanish Influenza ravaged the camp and it spread to the city. On October 7, Mayor Stone shut the city down. Schools, parks, churches, libraries, theaters, and all other public spaces were closed. Public meetings and funerals were also banned. These public health measures lasted for over two weeks. Schools finally re-opened on October 25. By Armistice Day, November 11, approximately 1,000 people in Onondaga County, including over 200 soldiers, had died as a result of the influenza. In the wake of the pandemic and the end of the war, the Syracuse Recruit Camp closed for good in December, having seen nearly 350,000 servicemen pass through its gates. In the last few days, Nikeeta Slades friends have recalled her speeches. One friend remembered a seven-minute speech at the Jerry Rescue statue in Syracuse right after Donald Trump won the 2016 election. Shes played the video of it several times since Slade died. She was representing a sentiment, a collective rage, said Fabiola Ortiz Valez. Another friend, SeQuoia Kemp, remembers Slade having to be coaxed last summer up on the steps of City Hall to speak at a rally against police brutality. With 2,000 people staring back, she immediately started leading the crowd in a chant. Yet another friend picked out one of Slades favorite words, unequivocally. Whenever she spoke, Kemp said, I just believed everything was going to be OK. Slade, 32, died unexpectedly Thursday; two friends said it is unclear at this time what caused her death. Slade was uncompromising, brilliant and a force on a microphone, friends said this week. Slade was a community organizer who captured peoples attention at demonstrations and privately did all the work to back her talk. Often, she was the glue that brought together members of the local Black Lives Matter movement or others pushing for such things as immigration reform and workers rights. Slade, whose calling card was organizing, worked for two separate Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins campaigns, became a union millwright and was one of her friends most trusted companions. Every day she would say something that would point you in the direction of freedom, said Montinique McEachern, a close friend. Slade, who grew up in Killeen, Texas, came to Syracuse for her masters degree in Africana studies at Syracuse University in the early 2010s and never left. McEachern and Slade were introduced to each other one day in 2012 or 2013 by a woman who worked in the LGBTQ resource center. They spent hours talking on the street corner and walked home together. Id never met a Black girl who could talk about the things she could talk about, McEachern said. Nikeeta Slade at a late 2016 protest against police brutality. The protests came shortly after the killings of Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and, locally, Terry Maddox. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com Slade rattled off facts about the Russian Revolution, the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil and Palestinian nationalism. It was often Slades expansive knowledge that drew others in. Ortiz Valdez met Slade in a class about Das Kapital, Karl Marxs critique of capitalism. Slade was one of the few in the class who could make Marxs theories relatable. When the two became friends, they talked about the Zapatista uprising, a revolt against NAFTAs enactment in Mexico. She impressed Hawkins, former Green Party gubernatorial and presidential candidate from Syracuse, with that same knowledge. Slade had read Robert L. Allens Black Awakening in Capitalist America and Mike Davis Prisoners of the American Dream, Hawkins recalled. I realized that I was having a deeper conversation with her than I was with activists two and three times her age that I know, Hawkins said. Slade parlayed those bonds over causes into friendships. She and Ortiz Valdez later worked together at the Workers Center of Central New York, fighting for workers rights and driver licenses for all. Even after Slade left the center, she visited farms outside Onondaga County to help undocumented or immigrant workers. Not long after Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and, locally, Terry Maddox were killed by police, Slade and Black Lives Matter organized rallies against police brutality. Kemp, a relative of Maddoxs, met Slade there and kept organizing with her. Kemp became such good friends with Slade that theyve lived next to each other in the same building in Syracuse. Occasionally, Kemp would hear the steps outside her apartment creak and shed whip the door open, knowing Slade was walking up the steps. Other times, Slade would text Kemp to come over for a few minutes. Then theyd sit and talk for hours. The day Slade later died, it was McEachern who called Slade to talk. McEachern, who used to live in Syracuse, last summer moved to Tacoma, Washington. Slade helped drive her to Washington and, at each hotel they stayed in, Slade would do a small dance in the room. Oh, were fancy or Nothings too good for the working class, shed say. For the last year, even across the country from each other, the two recorded their podcast, QueerWOC (Queer women of color). Slade refused to ever edit it because she didnt want to hear her own voice. But on Thursday, when McEachern called, it was simply about dating. Slade cracked a joke and it helped ease her worry. She was so deeply loved, McEachern said. Theres a space that can never be filled. Nikeeta Slade rallies at Clinton Square in Syracuse after violence in Charlottesville Virginia erupted during a demonstration by a white supremacist group. Dennis Nett | dnett@syracuse.com. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Chris Libonati via the Signal app for encrypted messaging at 585-290-0718, by phone at the same number, by email or on Twitter. WASHINGTON Rep. Elise Stefanik faced a fresh challenge to her bid for the No. 3 House Republican leadership post ahead of a GOP vote today that could oust Rep. Liz Cheney from the position. House Republicans plan to meet privately this morning to vote by secret ballot on the question of removing Cheney from her role as conference chair after the top two GOP leaders called for a change. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, who represents a sprawling Upstate New York district, emerged in the last week as the top contender to replace Cheney, R-Wyoming. Former president Donald Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP Whip Steve Scalise have endorsed Stefanik, who gained national prominence for defending Trump in the 2019 impeachment hearings. But Tuesday night, Stefanik faced her first public challenge from a Republican colleague. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, raised concerns about Stefaniks voting record, noting her opposition to some of Trumps policies including the presidents 2017 tax cuts. The conservative group Heritage Action gave Stefanik a scorecard ranking of 56% for her votes to promote conservative positions over the previous two years, while Cheney had a ranking of 82%. In a memo sent to his GOP colleagues, Roy said we must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats agenda once sworn in that is, that we do not make the same mistakes we did in 2017. Roy encouraged House Republicans not to rush into elevating Stefanik, according to the memo, first obtained by Politico. Stefanik met with other members of the Freedom Caucus on Monday and tried to win over reluctant conservatives by pledging to serve only one term in the leadership post. McCarthy said this week that Cheney is not doing enough to unite the party and has spent too much time focusing on Trump. Cheney has repeatedly criticized Trump for making baseless claims about election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. She remained defiant of Trumps GOP supporters in a speech on the House floor Tuesday night. Cheney said millions of Americans have been misled by Trump as part of his aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. Remaining silent, and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar, Cheney said. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former presidents crusade to undermine our democracy. Cheney was among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January for inciting the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, who also voted to impeach Trump, previously stood by Cheney when House Republicans attempted to oust her from the leadership post in February. Cheney survived that challenge by a vote of 145-61. Katko has not said how he will vote today, and he did not respond to requests for comment. Last week, Katko said he would support Stefanik for the leadership post if something happens with Liz. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, said she will vote to remove Cheney from the No. 3 GOP post. Tenney, a staunch Trump supporter, said she believes Stefanik is the best choice to unite Republicans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Stefanik represents a North Country district that includes the Adirondack Park and Fort Drum. She actively campaigned for Tenney in last years election. McCarthy has signaled that if Cheney is removed from her leadership position today, he may wait a week or more before holding a vote to elect a new GOP conference chair. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 Washington House Republicans voted today to oust Rep. Liz Cheney from a leadership role, opening the door for Upstate New York Rep. Elise Stefanik to succeed her as the GOPs conference chair. The vote was taken behind closed doors. CNN reported that Cheney was removed by a voice vote and members were not required to fill out ballots. GOP leaders did not say when they will vote to choose Cheneys successor for their No. 3 leadership position as conference chair. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, has the backing of former president Donald Trump and the top House Republican leaders, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and GOP Whip Steve Scalise. McCarthy and Scalise had called for Cheneys ouster after she repeatedly criticized Trump for making baseless claims about election fraud in the 2020 presidential election. After the vote today, Cheney told reporters, I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. We have seen the danger that he continues to provoke with his language. Trump responded with a statement: Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. In a House floor speech Tuesday night, Cheney said she will not be silent about Trumps aggressive effort to convince Americans that the election was stolen from him. Remaining silent, and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar, Cheney said. I will not participate in that. I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former presidents crusade to undermine our democracy. Ahead of the vote today, one Central New York House member said she would vote to dump Cheney in favor of Stefanik, who represents a sprawling North Country district that includes Fort Drum and the Adirondack Park. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford, said she and her Republican colleagues lost confidence in Cheneys ability to lead them. Tenney is a staunch Trump supporter. Tenney said she believes Stefanik is the best choice to unite Republicans ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, did not respond to requests for comment about the leadership vote. He stood by Cheney in February when she survived a previous GOP conference vote to oust her from leadership. Katko and Cheney were among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in January for inciting a violent mob to storm the U.S. Capitol. Katko said last week that he would support Stefanik for the post if Cheney is removed. Minutes before the vote, Trump issued the latest in a series of statements encouraging the GOP to part ways with Cheney. The Republicans in the House of Representatives have a great opportunity today to rid themselves of a poor leader, a major Democrat talking point, a warmonger, and a person with absolutely no personality or heart, Trump said. He added, Almost everyone in the Republican Party, including 90% of Wyoming, looks forward to her ousterand that includes me! Stefanik, 36, a four-term House member, gained national prominence for defending Trump in the 2019 House impeachment hearings. Until then, she had a moderate Republican voting record and had opposed some key Trump policies, including his 2017 overhaul of tax laws. Some Republicans in the conservative House Freedom Caucus have raised concerns about Stefaniks record and cautioned party leaders from rushing to coronate her as Cheneys successor. In a memo sent to his GOP colleagues, Rep. Chip Roy R-Texas, on Tuesday pushed back against Stefanik. He wrote we must avoid putting in charge Republicans who campaign as Republicans but then vote for and advance the Democrats agenda once sworn in. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact Mark Weiner anytime by: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751 A Central New York school district has added a Muslim holiday to its calendar. Its believed to be the first public school in the area to do that. Eid al-Fitr will be a day off for all students and staff Thursday in the Jamesville-DeWitt schools the first time the Muslim holiday will be officially observed in the district. The holiday marks the end of Ramadan. Parent Steven Mustafa Abdel-Aziz. who helped lead the push for the schools to recognize the holiday and give students a day off to celebrate it, said hes pleased. It adds meaning to our celebration,' he said. The decision bring equity to students of all religions, he said. Abdel-Aziz had met with J-D school officials early in 2020 about the holiday and presented them with a petition signed by more than 2,100 people. The district then decided to build the holiday into its calendar starting this year. Islam is the second-largest of the three monotheistic religions in the world, the petition read. Just as our school system acknowledges Christian and Jewish holidays, we request that the JD school district recognizes Muslims holidays in an equivalent manner. In Central New York, some districts including J-D and Fayetteville-Manlius, close school for the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur while most others do not. Parents also approached the F-M and Syracuse school districts about adopting the Muslim holidays, but so far that hasnt happened. Nationally, more school districts are adding Muslim holidays to the school calendar, including New York City, Philadelphia and others. Lawmakers in New York identified six additional holidays and proposed allowing districts to add them if the ethnic or religious groups celebrating them made up at least 7.5 percent or more of the population. But that bill hasnt moved forward. Elizabeth Doran covers education, suburban government and development, breaking news and more. Got a tip, comment or story idea? Contact her anytime at 315-470-3012 or email edoran@syracuse.com A Michigan judge was not amused by a defendants explicit screenname during a virtual court appearance. The Daily Beast reports Judge Jeffrey Middleton in St. Joseph County blasted a fool who joined the courts Zoom stream for an arraignment hearing posted on YouTube Tuesday. Nathaniel Saxton was facing a charge of possession of drug paraphernalia in the city of Three Rivers, Mich., but was quickly threatened with contempt of court as he appeared with the username Buttf--ker 3000. Then well bring this fool in, Middleton says at the 17:25 mark as Saxton appears with the uncensored screenname. Good morning, sir, whats your name? My name is Nathaniel Saxton, sir, he said. Your names not Buttf--ker 3000, you yo-ho, logging in to my court with that as your screenname. the judge said. What kind of idiot logs into court like that? Saxton appeared redfaced and denied typing in the name. He tried to apologize, but the judge put him back in the online waiting room. You can sit in limbo for a while and think about what you call yourself on line, Middleton said. Saxton later returned to the video conference call with the username Nathaniel Saxaon, appearing to have misspelled his own name. He said his sister set up the Zoom account, claiming the name was an inside joke. Its not what you think, Im embarrassed. Im sorry, Saxton said. Law & Crime reports Saxton was facing up to 90 days in jail and a $500 fine for possession of drug paraphernalia, a violation of a city ordinance. Prosecutor John Barnes said Saxton was found with items including a used syringe that tested positive for meth residue. Saxton, who reportedly worked at a horse trailer factory, pleaded guilty when Middleton said the normal fine for the violation is $200. He admitted to having the syringe and other paraphernalia and was ordered to pay a fine totaling $200. The judge, who chastised another defendant for wearing a hat during the virtual court session, also gave Saxton a message for his sister. Tell her she almost got you put in jail for contempt of court, Middleton said. Syracuse, N.Y. -- A frosty night tonight will spell the end of a weeklong chilly stretch for Upstate New York. Temperatures on Thursday will finally climb into near-normal category of upper 60s, and much of Upstate is likely to see 70s by Sunday. With lots of sun. Our stretch of cooler than normal weather will soon come to an end, trumpeted the National Weather Service in Buffalo. Temperatures have been substantially below normal for a week, with cold nights and daytime highs as much as 15 degrees lower than is typical for early May. The flip switches on Thursday as a high pressure system slides in from the Great Lakes and parks above the Northeast, shielding us from rain clouds and allowing the sun to take over and make if feel like late spring again. Those clear skies, though, will make for one more cold night tonight. Without cloud cover to act as a blanket, the ground loses heat at night in whats known as radiational cooling. Frost advisories are in place for much of Upstate. Thats likely to be the last time youll need to cover your plants this season. Lows will be in the 40s for the next week across much of Upstate, and the Climate Prediction Center says the next two weeks are expected to be warmer than normal. In Syracuse, normal lows this time of year are in the mid 40s, and highs are in the low 70s. FueLNG completes Singapores first ship-to-ship bunkering of an LNG-fuelled oil tanker The bunkering operation was carried out by FueLNG Bellina, Singapores first Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) bunkering vessel Shells Aframax tanker Pacific Emerald is the first oil tanker to be LNG-bunkered in Singapore FueLNG, together with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), has completed Singapores first bunkering of an LNG-fuelled oil tanker. FueLNG is a joint venture between Keppel Offshore & Marine Ltd (Keppel O&M) and Shell Eastern Petroleum (Pte) Ltd. FueLNG successfully completed the gas-up and cool down operation for the LNG-powered oil tanker Pacific Emerald, including the transfer of 3,000m3 of LNG from FueLNG Bellina, Singapores first LNG bunkering vessel, to the tanker. Pacific Emerald is the first of 10 newbuild Aframax tankers chartered by Shell Tankers Singapore (Private) Limited from Sinokor Petrochemical Co Limited. FueLNG is committed to promoting the adoption of LNG as a marine fuel and has been working closely with partners including MPA to boost the growth of Singapore as a global LNG bunkering hub. Ms Quah Ley Hoon, Chief Executive of MPA, said, Singapore is pleased to have carried out the first ship-to-ship LNG bunkering for an oil tanker in the Port of Singapore. Today marks another milestone in Singapores journey as an LNG bunkering hub. We see increased interest in LNG-fuelled vessels with more of such new vessels on order across various ship types. We look forward to an increase in uptake of LNG as a marine fuel in the Port of Singapore. Mr Chris Ong, Chairman of FueLNG and CEO of Keppel O&M, said, We are pleased to mark another significant milestone for LNG bunkering in Singapore. There is strong demand for LNG bunkering in Singapore and FueLNG, as a pioneer in this sector, is well-equipped with the experience and technical expertise to provide reliable bunkering solutions for customers. This is in line with Keppels Vision 2030 which includes seizing opportunities in LNG. As the industry explores more sustainable marine fuels for the long term, LNG is an important part of the energy transition that enables the Port of Singapore to provide shipowners with the option to reduce vessel emissions today. Tahir Faruqui, Director of FueLNG and Head of Shell Downstream LNG, said, We are grateful to Keppel and MPA for their support in enabling yet another first for Singapore. Emissions are cumulative, and the shipping sector simply cannot afford inaction. LNG is the lowest emission fuel available at scale in the shipping sector today and has a key role in its decarbonisation journey. Shell is actively investing in building a global LNG bunkering network to support the sector with capabilities to tackle emissions with urgency. We are also investing in LNG for our own long-term charter fleet to deliver our products like the oil tanker fuelled today. This milestone follows the completion of Asias first ship-to-containership LNG bunkering operation by FueLNG in March 2021. The bunkering of the Aframax oil tanker is also a demonstration of the FueLNG Bellinas versatile capabilities to provide LNG bunker and conduct the gas-up and cool down operation for receiving vessels with different types of cargo tanks such as Type B and GTT membrane tanks. FueLNG aims to provide a total of about 30 to 50 ship-to-ship LNG bunkering operations in 2021. Besides the Aframax tankers, FueLNG has also lined up bunkering operations for containerships, chemical oil tankers, and bulk carriers. Currently, LNG is an immediately available fuel solution that can reduce the environmental impact of maritime transport. The use of LNG as a marine fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 23% on a well-to-wake basis, compared to current oil-based marine fuels. Vessels that use LNG also emit significantly less of the three main pollutants: 99% less sulphur dioxide, 91% less particulate matter and 92% less nitrogen oxide, compared to oil-based marine fuels. MISC Group financial results for the first quarter of FY2021 MISC is pleased to announce its financial results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2021. Financial Highlights: Group revenue for the quarter ended 31 March 2021 was higher than the corresponding quarter ended 31 March 2020. Group recorded profit before tax for the quarter ended 31 March 2021 compared to the loss in the corresponding quarter ended 31 March 2020 as the corresponding quarter included provision for litigation claims and write off of trade receivables and loss on re-measurement of finance lease receivables relating to the adverse decision on arbitration proceedings by Gumusut-Kakap Semi-Floating Production System (L) Limited (GKL) against Sabah Shell Petroleum Company Limited (SSPC). Mr. Yee Yang Chien, President and Group Chief Executive Officer of MISC said, We opened the financial year for 2021 well by firmly positioning ourselves with resilience despite the lingering global COVID-19 pandemic effects and low oil price. In the first quarter, we took delivery of five assets, in tandem with our focus on delivering new assets into service that will generate long-term revenue. This certainly reflects our sustained progress towards long-term strategic objectives in pursuit of growth prospects, consistent with our track record performance. One year after the challenging market conditions, the global economy is gradually strengthening as the rollout of vaccines becomes more prevalent in most countries. The outcome from the rollout will lead to an increase in oil price given the surge in demand and rebound in oil and gas activities. We maintain our cautious optimism for the year ahead and will continue to strengthen the fundamentals of our business for a meaningful growth in the next quarter. Most important for us now, is that we continue to keep a tight grip on our policies and practices on safety and health for our personnel across the globe; be it at sea or shore as their wellbeing remains as our top priority, he added. Group Revenue, Operating Profit and Profit Before Tax for the Quarter Ended 31 March 2021 Group revenue for the quarter ended 31 March 2021 of RM2,540.9 million was 1.1% higher than the corresponding quarters revenue of RM2,513.8 million contributed by higher revenue from the Offshore Business segment following the recognition of construction revenue for a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO). This however, was offset by lower revenue in the Petroleum & Product Shipping segment mainly from lower freight rates in the current quarter. Group operating profit for the quarter ended 31 March 2021 of RM463.8 million was 45.1% lower than the corresponding quarter's operating profit of RM845.1 million mainly from lower revenue in the Petroleum & Product Shipping segment as mentioned above. In addition, the Marine & Heavy Engineering segment recorded an operating loss in the current quarter compared to an operating profit in the corresponding quarter due to lower number of vessels secured for repair and maintenance works coupled with additional cost provision recognised in current quarter as a result of revised target completion date for an on-going project. The LNG Asset Solutions segment also recorded a lower operating profit mainly due to higher vessel operating costs in the current quarter. However, the reduction in operating profit was softened by the recognition of construction gain for an FPSO in the Offshore Business segment as mentioned above. The Group reported a profit before tax of RM405.7 million compared to a loss before tax of RM1,145.4 million in the corresponding quarter as the corresponding quarter included recognition of provision for litigation claims amounting to RM1,049.2 million, as well as a write off of trade receivables and loss on re-measurement of finance lease receivables of RM846.2 million following the adverse decision by the Arbitration Tribunal on the GKLs arbitration proceeding against SSPC. Groups cash flows generated from operating activities for the quarter ended 31 March 2021 of RM873.8 million decreased by 60.0% from RM2,183.9 million recorded in the corresponding quarter mainly due to lower operating performance in the current quarter as mentioned above while the corresponding quarter included a one-off charter prepayment from a customer. Moving Forward In the LNG shipping market, spot charter rates have fallen sharply in February and March 2021 after hitting historically high levels in January. The decline in charter rates was broadly due to weakening global spot trade as seasonal winter demand in Asia eased. This has been aggravated by a large wave of newbuild LNG carriers being delivered. Furthermore, more US spot cargoes were destined to Europe instead of Asia and thereby requiring less vessel capacity. If this situation persists, spot charter rates could potentially fall further in the near term but there could be some potential upside if countries start stockpiling earlier in the summer for the winter months. Nevertheless, most of the Groups LNG carriers are on long-term charters including the six new Very Large Ethane Carriers (VLECs) that joined the fleet recently which will provide revenue growth to the LNG Asset Solutions segment. In the meantime, the segment will continue to pursue available growth opportunities in the market. Meanwhile, the crude tanker market had a sluggish start to 2021, with rates still suffering from the continuing oil production cuts by the OPEC+ alliance. The recent blockage of the Suez Canal has had a positive impact on spot rates, but its duration was short-lived. Although tanker rates for smaller vessels are rebounding, some of the larger tankers continue to record low freight earnings. On the supply side, demolition has not picked up pace despite the disappointing freight rates during the quarter. In the short-term, the tanker market outlook remains challenging especially in the larger tanker segment, although the gradual return of OPEC+ oil production to the market across May to July 2021 is likely to provide some crude tanker market upside. As the oil price climbs back to pre-pandemic levels, the oil and gas sector is on a gradual recovery path. The expected recovery in oil demand from the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and a more stable oil price environment will pave the way for an increase in activity levels in the global offshore exploration and production space. Notwithstanding the expected increase in activity levels, the Offshore Business segment will be very selective on growth opportunities as it focuses on the execution of the new FPSO project in hand. Nevertheless, the segment will continue to monitor the market for the next major project as and when the right opportunity arises. The existing portfolio of long-term contracts will continue to support the financial performance of the Offshore Business segment. For the Marine & Heavy Engineering segment, aligned with the recent recovery in oil price, several deferred projects have since been revived and its efforts to replenish its order book have generated positive results with the recent award of the EPCIC contract for the SK408W Jerun Development Project, offshore Sarawak. Nevertheless, the volatile industry condition and the wider lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic remain major risks moving forward. As such, the segment maintains its cautiously optimistic stance regarding its business prospects throughout the year and into 2022. Meanwhile, the prospects of acquiring more marine repair projects is highly dependent on the reopening of borders and worldwide recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Hence, the segment expects the marine business to remain challenging. The segment will continue to pursue business opportunities in other areas and new regions to grow its order book. UW American Heritage Center Announces 2021 Fellowship Recipients A professor, three graduate students and a historian are recipients of fellowships from the University of Wyomings American Heritage Center (AHC). Each fellowship supports a 20-day research stay at the AHC. Academic scholars at any level, from graduate students to tenured faculty, were encouraged to apply. Recipients are Assistant Professor Jennifer Helton; doctoral candidates Zephaniah Fleetwood and Rob Konkel; and masters degree student Matthew Brown. This year, we are excited to award the first joint fellowship between the American Heritage Center and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West (BBCW) in Cody to Kathryn McKee, AHC Director Paul Flesher says. The fellowship is named for Peter Simpson, who has been an important influence on the AHC and the BBCW -- and, of course, on UW and on Cody. Award recipients and projects are: Peter K. Simpson Fellowship on the American West McKee, a historian from Raleigh, N.C., will use collections at the AHC and the BBCW to conduct research on several topics related to the mythology of the West to advance her knowledge and understanding about the history and myths of the American West. She plans to submit articles to the North Carolina Historical Review, Journal of Southern History and Montana: The Magazine of Western History. Alan K. Simpson Fellowship in Western Political History Fleetwood, a doctoral student at the University of California-Davis, will explore the papers of former U.S. Secretary of the Interior James Watt for his dissertation in which Watt represented an emerging variant of anti-environmentalism. Fleetwood explains that he will analyze how Watt used evangelical and populist rhetoric to justify and promote his particular understanding of environmental and public land policies. Bernard L. Majewski Research Fellowship Konkel, a doctoral candidate at Princeton University, is charting a global history of the liberal international order and U.S. power in the world through the lens of strategic minerals during the period of two world wars. He argues that rivalries and anxieties over resource interdependence not only drove the creation of interwar trading blocs, but also shaped the form and structure of post-1945 geopolitical entities and international institutions. He will work with the Anaconda Co. geological documents. George A. Rentschler Fellowship on the Study of the American West Brown, a UW masters candidate from Laramie, is writing his thesis on the production of botanical knowledge within institutions of higher education from 1890 to 1930 using former UW Professor Aven Nelson, the Rocky Mountain Herbarium and UW as a case study. Brown will explore a variety of collections including the papers of botanists Nelson, E.B. Payson and W.G. Solheim, and also the records of UWs Department of Botany. Women in Public Life Fellowship Helton, an assistant professor of history at Ohlone College in Fremont, Calif., is writing a book-length history of women and Wyoming politics from the 1850s through the New Deal era. She notes that, despite the fact that Wyoming was the first territory and state to grant full political equality to women, no systematic scholarly book on the role of women in Wyoming politics, and the role of Wyoming in the national and international suffrage movement, has ever been written. The American Heritage Center holds important collections for the study of the American West, in both the long-ago past and recent decades, Flesher says. We are pleased to award fellowships and travel grants to these excellent scholars and students to help bring researchers back to the AHC after our COVID-imposed restrictions. In addition to the five fellowships, the AHC also awarded eight grants of $750 each to assist with expenses for scholars traveling from locations throughout the U.S. researching on a wide variety of topics. Among the subjects are American national parks; antitrust efforts; FBI investigations into the film industry; the eugenics movement; careers of composer Walter Scharf and geographer Edward Ackerman; and the use of musical theater to create a multilayered and often contradictory view of history. The AHC awards travel grants and fellowships annually. The next application deadline is March 2022. For more information about the AHCs travel grant and fellowship program, visit the website at www.uwyo.edu/ahc/grants/. For more information, call AHC Simpson Archivist Leslie Waggener at (307) 766-2557 or email lwaggen2@uwyo.edu. Countries Discuss Post-Pandemic Tax Agenda At UN Council Meeting by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels 12 May 2021 Experts speaking at the UN's Economic and Social Council's annual Special Meeting on International Cooperation in Tax Matters concluded that the international community must do more to tackle tax base erosion and profit shifting and offshore tax evasion. Among other pressing topics, tax policy specialists and senior Government officials throughout the day-long meeting which featured three panel discussions on the role of tax revenue in fighting inequality, combating climate change, and funding health systems, respectively also discussed new proposals to enact a global corporate minimum tax; considered ways developing countries can escape the tax exemption "race to the bottom" as they seek to attract big businesses; and weighed the benefits and drawbacks of taxes on the world's wealthiest people. Keynote speaker Annet Wanyana Oguttu, Professor of Tax Law at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, discussed options for taxing high-wealth individuals. She noted the problems countries have encountered in attempting to tax the wealth of individuals and proposed instead that countries should look instead to tax income and property holdings. In the first panel of the day, on the theme "Taxation and inequality", panelists and other experts drew attention to discussions currently under way in the G20 and other international forums on measures to help developing countries escape the pressure to implement tax exemptions or incentives. The US Government representative at the meeting recalled that the US has recently shared a proposal on the establishment of a global corporate minimum tax. She said this would support both developed and developing economies to increase their tax revenues and create a more equal playing field for all actors. Endorsing that proposal, Pascal Saint-Amans, Director of the Centre for Tax Policy and Administration at the OECD, also joined other speakers in calling for more capacity-building on auditing, noting that over USD1bn has been generated through the Tax Inspectors Without Borders program. During a second panel on "Taxation and the environment", participants shared their national experiences with economic measures implemented to fight climate change and reverse environmental degradation, including comprehensive fiscal reforms that include frameworks of taxes on pollutants and emissions. Speakers considered the role of different financial instruments that can support or hinder climate change mitigation efforts, such as carbon pricing and fossil fuel subsidies, respectively, as well as the role of green fiscal policies in post-COVID-19 recovery plans. Some speakers also sounded the alarm about challenges posed by the pandemic in that critical arena, including scaled back environmental efforts as countries grapple with the pandemic's economic fallout. The third panel focused on the theme "Taxation and financing for health systems". Panelists noted that COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of national and local capacities in all countries, especially least developed countries and others in special situations, and has greatly intensified pressure on public finances. Among other things, they debated the merits of well-designed taxes to promote healthy lifestyles such as those levied on alcohol, tobacco, and sugary or artificially sweetened beverages and discussed a range of other health-related tax policy responses, including tax concessions for health care workers. Hong Kong Issues Tax Returns For Individuals by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong 12 May 2021 On May 3, 2021, the Hong Kong Inland Revenue Department issued over 2.62 million tax returns for individuals for the year of assessment 2020-21. The IRD said that, in general, taxpayers should file their tax returns within one month, making the due date June 3, 2021. For sole proprietors of unincorporated businesses, a three-month period is allowed and the filing deadline is August 3, 2021. Those filing via the eTAX service will be granted an automatic extension of one month. The Legislative Council has passed a bill to temporarily reduce to zero salaries tax, tax under personal assessment, and profits tax for the year of assessment 2020-21, subject to a ceiling of HKD10,000 per case. IRD said that taxpayers should file their returns for the year of assessment 2020-21 as usual and that it will effect the reduction when making assessments. RahulNagaraj BHPian Join Date: Mar 2021 Location: Bangalore Posts: 157 Thanked: 1,708 Times Doing a "Creta / Seltos" in the USA | The Hyundai Palisade & Kia Telluride's stupendous success The popularity of the Kia Telluride in the US markets is said to have resulted in a long waiting period for the SUV. Reports suggest that Kia is actually ramping up production of the Telluride to meet the demand in the US market. The popularity of the two SUVs has further been accelerated with both of them receiving rave reviews in the US. The Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade are considered to be among the best vehicles in their segment. The Kia Telluride also won the 'World Car of the Year 2020' award, further adding to its popularity. However, the main reason for the two SUVs doing so well is their pricing. Both car brands are known to offer models packed with features and equipment, while pricing them competitively making them value-for-money alternatives in their segment. This is true for the Kia Telluride and the Hyundai Palisade as well. The top trims of both the SUVs are priced around US$ 46,000 (exclusive of taxes), undercutting most of its rivals such as the Ford Explorer, Chevrolet Traverse, Honda Pilot and the Subaru Ascent. However, even with the lower prices, the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride offer much more than their rivals. The cabins of both SUVs are packed with features and equipment, across all three seating rows. The two SUVs also look the part. While the Kia Telluride has a boxy design, the Palisade features a more quirky styling in line with Hyundai's latest design philosophy. Both SUVs are powered by a 3.8-litre V6 petrol engine that produces 291 BHP and 355 Nm. It is paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission and an all-wheel-drive system. The strategy used by the two brands for the Palisade and Telluride in the US market seems to be similar to that of the Creta and Seltos in India. Similar to their respective flagship models in the USA, the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos in India are also based on the same platform, have similar features and are powered by the same set of engine and transmission options; all while being competitively priced in their segment. This has allowed the two models to become two of the best-selling products in the mid-size SUV segment in India. Link to Team-BHP news The Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade were introduced in the US markets back in 2019 and 2020, respectively. However, over the short period of time they have been on sale in the country, both SUVs have managed to gain immense popularity, even outselling their American counterparts on multiple occasions.The popularity of the Kia Telluride in the US markets is said to have resulted in a long waiting period for the SUV. Reports suggest that Kia is actually ramping up production of the Telluride to meet the demand in the US market.The popularity of the two SUVs has further been accelerated with both of them receiving rave reviews in the US. The Kia Telluride and Hyundai Palisade are considered to be among the best vehicles in their segment. The Kia Telluride also won the 'World Car of the Year 2020' award, further adding to its popularity.However, the main reason for the two SUVs doing so well is their pricing. Both car brands are known to offer models packed with features and equipment, while pricing them competitively making them value-for-money alternatives in their segment. This is true for the Kia Telluride and the Hyundai Palisade as well. The top trims of both the SUVs are priced around US$ 46,000 (exclusive of taxes), undercutting most of its rivals such as the Ford Explorer, Chevrolet Traverse, Honda Pilot and the Subaru Ascent.However, even with the lower prices, the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride offer much more than their rivals. The cabins of both SUVs are packed with features and equipment, across all three seating rows.The two SUVs also look the part. While the Kia Telluride has a boxy design, the Palisade features a more quirky styling in line with Hyundai's latest design philosophy.Both SUVs are powered by a 3.8-litre V6 petrol engine that produces 291 BHP and 355 Nm. It is paired with an 8-speed automatic transmission and an all-wheel-drive system.The strategy used by the two brands for the Palisade and Telluride in the US market seems to be similar to that of the Creta and Seltos in India.Similar to their respective flagship models in the USA, the Hyundai Creta and Kia Seltos in India are also based on the same platform, have similar features and are powered by the same set of engine and transmission options; all while being competitively priced in their segment. This has allowed the two models to become two of the best-selling products in the mid-size SUV segment in India. A Brand's Guide to Digital Shelf Analytics | eBook What can you do to improve your digital commerce game? The first rule of the digital shelf is to make sure your products can be found. Some might say its mission impossible. Unless, of course, you use digital shelf analytics (DSA). Get the eBook Today! Two out of three global CISOs feel unprepared to cope with a cyberattack, according to an annual survey released Wednesday by a cybersecurity and compliance company. The 2021 edition of Proofpoint's Voice of the CISO report -- based on a survey of more than 1,400 CISOs in 14 countries -- found 66 percent of the executives acknowledged their organizations were unprepared to handle a targeted cyberattack this year. In addition, more than half the CISOs (53 percent) admitted they are more concerned about the repercussions from a cyberattack this year than they were in 2020. "Cyberattacks are coming fast and furious and getting more so by the minute," declared Saryu Nayyar, CEO of Gurucul, a threat intelligence company in El Segundo, Calif. "It feels like we are headed to the point where no company is truly safe, and nothing will be able to stop cybercriminals," she told TechNewsWorld. "So no, no one is adequately prepared to cope with future cyberattacks -- not even CISOs." The survey also found that nearly three out of five CISOs (58 percent) consider human error their biggest cyber vulnerability. Misaligned Mitigation "It's not that CISOs aren't trying their best to prepare. It's that cyberattacks are a very tough thing to prevent in the first place; and most CISOs aren't focusing their resources against the right threats," maintained Roger Grimes, a data-driven defense evangelist at KnowBe4, a security awareness training provider in Clearwater, Fla. As an example, Grimes explained that the vast majority of successful malicious breaches are from social engineering and phishing. Many surveys put phishing as responsible for 70 to 90 percent of all successful cyberattacks. "Yet," he told TechNewsWorld, "most organizations dedicate less than five percent of their IT security budget to it." "It's this fundamental misalignment of mitigations versus the root cause of exploits that is causing cybersecurity to be so ineffectual," he said. "Most CISOs see threats as bubbles in a glass of champagne and aren't told that one or two of these bubbles are far bigger than all the other bubbles added up all together," he observed. "This leads to a bunch of threats being treated more equally than they should be, and unfortunately, with the biggest threats left weakly mitigated," he added. Top of Mind Threats The survey also found that 64 percent of the CISOs feel at risk of suffering a material cyberattack in the next 12 months. Attacks that the CISOs say they expect to face in the coming months include: Business email compromises (34 percent) Account compromises (33 percent) Insider threats (31 percent) Supply chain compromise (29 percent) Ransomware (27 percent) "Insider threats are often overlooked in favor of tools to protect from external threats," noted Morey Haber, CTO and CISO at BeyondTrust, maker of privileged account management and vulnerability management solutions in Carlsbad, Calif. "However, we can't underestimate the insider threat risk," he told TechNewsWorld. "When we think of insider threats, we often imagine disgruntled employees seeking revenge on their former employers' business," he explained. "In reality, a vast majority of these threats are most often caused by honest mistakes such as clicking on malicious links or opening phishing emails." "Either way, insider threats can be very difficult to detect, and pose a threat that businesses struggle to address," he added. Credential Compromise Piyush Pandey, CEO of Appsian Security, an ERP data security and compliance company in Dallas, agreed that threats targeting users should be a top concern of CISOs, especially threats aimed at compromising credentials. "Right now, a user's identity is typically identified by the credentials they login with," he told TechNewsWorld. "Given phishing and brute force attacks are so prevalent, organizations must ensure access to sensitive business data is dynamic and context-aware to ensure privileges are effectively aligned with the level of risk in their access." Insider threats are not limited to people, either. "The volume of threats coming from cloud infrastructure -- such as Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace -- means that the attackers are using trusted systems -- and potentially even the systems that the organization is using themselves -- to attack them," observed Jack Miller, former CISO and current head of global professional services at Menlo Security, a cloud security provider in Mountain View, Calif. "We can't assume that 'my' OneDrive installation is safe," he told TechNewsWorld. "We have to assume that everything is malicious, including our own systems. Phishing and credential theft can make it easy for attackers to plant their threats internally to an organization." Remote Working Challenges Although ransomware as a threat seems to have been played down by the CISOs in the survey, it remains dangerous, especially in a world with more remote workers than ever. "Threat actors have been busy exploiting a wider attack surface because the workforce is now remote," explained Bryan Embrey, director of product marketing at Zentry Security, a zero trust remote access company in Milipitas, Calif. "Workers are using unsecure Wi-Fi, personal devices, and accessing applications and resources across the hybrid IT landscape," he told TechNewsWorld. "All of these offer possibilities for malware exploitation." "And 2020 didn't help CISOs," he said. "Given the workforce's rapid shift to remote work, CISOs added licenses to their existing VPNs as quickly as they could to keep their organizations running and productive. VPNs, however, are often cumbersome and complex, and provide wider access than is needed." Indeed, more than half the CISOs surveyed agreed that remote working made their organization more vulnerable to targeted cyberattacks, with three in five revealing they had seen an increase in targeted attacks in the last 12 months. "Last year, cybersecurity teams around the world were challenged to enhance their security posture in this new and changing landscape, literally overnight," Lucia Milica, global resident CISO at Proofpoint, said in a statement. "This required a balancing act between supporting remote work and avoiding business interruption, while securing those environments. With the future of work becoming increasingly flexible, this challenge now extends into next year and beyond," she explained. "In addition to securing many more points of attack and educating users on long-term remote and hybrid work, CISOs must instill confidence among customers, internal stakeholders, and the market that such setups are workable indefinitely," Milica added. John P. Mello Jr. has been an ECT News Network reporter since 2003. His areas of focus include cybersecurity, IT issues, privacy, e-commerce, social media, artificial intelligence, big data and consumer electronics. He has written and edited for numerous publications, including the Boston Business Journal, the Boston Phoenix, Megapixel.Net and Government Security News. Email John. Normal, IL (61790) Today Mostly sunny early then increasing clouds with some scattered thunderstorms this afternoon. High 88F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Security researchers discovered a new Android banking malware called TeaBot. They claimed that this new trojan virus can steal users' bank credentials to steal their funds. According to the involved cybersecurity researchers, the new Android banking malware was disclosed on Monday, May 10. They explained that hackers can use this new trojan to hijack users' credentials and SMS messages. Once the cybercriminals successfully do this, they can conduct malicious activities against the banks in Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Spain. Aside from this, the security experts claimed that the new TeaBot malware is still in its early stages of development. This means that the trojan virus could be more dangerous if it is not neutralized as soon as possible. The hackers behind the new malware started to conduct malicious activities back in late March. After that, they attacked some of the financial apps in the first week of May in Belgium and the Netherlands banks. How TeaBot Malware Works According to the Hackers News' latest report, the very first appearance of the new Trojan virus was first spotted back in January. Also Read: Ransomware Demands Two Bitcoins: Attack Disguises as Security Software Exploiting VPN Weakness, Two Manufacturing Plants Down "The main goal of TeaBot is stealing victim's credentials and SMS messages for enabling fraud scenarios against a predefined list of banks," said Cleary, Italian cybersecurity and online fraud prevention firm. "Once TeaBot is successfully installed in the victim's device, attackers can obtain a live streaming of the device screen (on demand) and also interact with it via Accessibility Services," the security company added. Aside from this, the security firm Cleafy also confirmed that the rouge Android malware disguises itself as package delivery and media services. These include TeaTV, DHL, UPS, VLC Media Player, and more. On the other hand, experts also concluded that once the hackers successfully exploit the new malware, they can now load a second-stage payload and force their victims to provide bank account permissions. Other Details of the New Malware Cleafy's official website also provided the exact methods used by the new malware. Here are some of them: The malicious application acts as a dropper and dynamically loads a 2nd stage (.dex) where all the malicious code resides Network communications are partially encrypted using the XOR algorithm Usage of "Junk Code" If you want to know more details about the new Android TeaBot malware, all you need to do is click this link. For more news updates about new malicious systems, such as malware, trojans, and more, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Your Internet-Connected Device Could Be at Risk of Bug Exploitation--Singaporean Security Firm Identifies Possible Infected Devices This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Matter may be a scientific term, but for the tech industry, it is the coalition of big techs among Amazon, Apple, and Google that aims to bring smart home solutions and products to the market. The collaboration among the three companies is aiming to bring their collective products by this year, but there is still a lot to consider with its coming launch. While the three companies are known to be rivals in almost anything, and even outside smart home solutions, they have come together for the said project with hopes to debut one of the world's best. There is still no knowledge behind what products the company would soon release, and hails from a company initially called "PROJECT CHIP." Apple's recent smart home release was the 2021 Apple TV 4K and the Siri Remote that integrates the Cupertino giant's streaming capabilities to smart televisions including its popular AI assistant. On the other hand, Google is experiencing a surge in its products especially following a massive success in its Q1 2021 earnings report. Read Also: Google Play Store to Release New Privacy Labels for Apps Following Apple's App Tracking Transparency Matter, Smart Home Collective by Amazon, Apple, and Google Despite having no announced products yet, the project called "Matter" would be like a company of its own, having its dedicated display on stores and logo that represents the three big tech companies. Yes, Amazon, Apple, and Google, Zigbee Alliance, and more are joining hands to create a logo that would resemble a universal sign to distinguish "Matter." According to CNet, Matter Chief Executive Tobin Richardson has revealed that the logo would have three arrows pointing at the center in a triangle-like shaped form. Richardson said that the logo should be like the "WiFI" symbol when seen, representing something that would be easily identified and perceived as "Matter." The collective would have the three big tech companies joining together to develop Smart Home solutions and their accessories, that would then be compatible with the different technologies made by the parent companies. For example, a smart lightbulb can perform its functions even when running natively on an iOS or Android platform, whilst using Amazon's Alexa voice-control. The exact parameters of the product were not yet revealed, and it would vary from the different releases of the company, once it launches this year. When is Matter Coming? According to Michelle Mindala-Freeman (via 9 to 5 Mac), Matter aims to take down the walls on smart home products from the rivaling barriers brought by the difference of the three big tech companies. Matter is looking at a universal answer to home solutions, and "one less thing to worry about" when dealing with house tech. The collective from Amazon, Apple, and Google aims to debut its product within the year, bringing a new generation of smart home solutions to people across the various platforms of the three companies. Related Article: Amazon Removes Accessory Manufacturers, Mpow and Aukey Over an Alleged Fake Reviews This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Isaiah Richard 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Photo : Screenshot From Pexels Official Website) Teen's Death Leads Snapchat to Suspend Anonymous Q&A Apps LMK and Yolo Both LMK and Yolo, two very popular Snapchat apps, are known for allowing users to easily send anonymous messages. However, they are no longer available on the social media platform after Snap, the app's parent company, just suspended them following a crucial incident. Snapchat Suspends LMK and Yolo The suspension reportedly comes in response to a lawsuit that was filed on Monday on behalf of a certain Kristen Bride, the mother of a certain teen from Oregon who took his own life back in 2020 after being bullied through LMK and Yolo for months. The suit alleges that both Yolo and LMK had violated consumer protection law by actually failing to live up to their policies and terms of service. It was also stated that the anonymous messaging apps actually facilitate such bullying to a certain degree where they should be considered as dangerous products. Both of these were integrated along with the supposed Snapchat messaging platform called Snap Kit, the company's own suite of different tools for other third-party developers. Snapchat, LMK, and Yolo According to the story by LA Times, a certain Snap spokesperson gave a statement saying in light of the recent allegations that were raised by the given lawsuit as well as through the abundance of caution that they have for the Snapchat community, they have decided to suspend both LMK and Yoko's Snap Kit integrations while they launch an investigation. The lawsuit's purpose was to seek both LMK and Yolo to be immediately banned from Snap's popular platform. This was along with a number of other apps that had lacked safeguards directly against cyberbullying. The plaintiffs, who now seek to represent all of Snapchat, LMK, and Yolo, which consist of 92 million users, are now also requesting damages for the particular alleged harms as well as misinterpretations. Read Also: Snapchat Dark Mode Android Guide: How to Enable This In-Development Feature; This Method Will Let You Use it Right Away Section 230 1996 Communications Decency Act The case is reportedly part of a brand new wave of litigation that now hopes to hold certain social media companies accountable despite the said Section 230 of the official 1996 Communications Decency Act. This act reportedly holds that the online services are not liable for the actions of their own users. It was stated that one potential way around the Section 230 protection is actually the argument that certain features are dangerous in its design itself and are essentially defective. The official United States 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reportedly appeared to endorse this particular theory when it decided to reverse a lower court's ruling to dismiss a certain case that also revolved around a Snapchat filter which measures the user's own speed then posts it. Plaintiffs in the whole case argue that the particular filter actually encourages people to drive recklessly that then resulted in a fatal crash in 2017. Another strategy which could circumvent the Section 230 immunity would rely on consumer protection laws as well as the idea that tech companies themselves are violating their own terms of service as well as other promises that they make to consumers. Related Article: Tinder Creator Expects This 2021 to be the 'Summer of Love,' Boosting Company Q2 Revenue to $680M-$690M This article is owned by Tech Times Written by Urian B. 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. (Photo : (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)) NORTH LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 31: An exterior view shows an Amazon fulfillment center on March 31, 2021 in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The company is offering employees COVID-19 vaccinations at the facility for eight days. Amazon raffle scams via SMS are swarming people's inboxes. The company tagged, along with the message, is now attempting to combat the scheme. Thus, it sued several individuals in federal court in hopes to unmask the 50 bad actors. You read it right: You didn't win from an Amazon raffle that you don't even remember joining in the first place. If you haven't received the text scam, The Verge shared a sample. The message reads: "Amazon: Congratulations Sean, you came in 2nd in March's Amazon pods raffle!" At the end of the pseudo-prompt, it will ask users to click a link that leads to a website that bears the Amazon logo. The website has a similar design that's colored blue and yellow -- the logo hues of the company. The said webpage will congratulate the victim and ask the user to answer a meaningless survey. According to The Verge, the survey will then lead you to buy seemingly discounted products that, ironically, aren't even from the said e-commerce website. Read Also: Amazon Currently Testing a New Feature That Lets Sellers Contact Customers Through Email Amazon is trying to shut down similar illegal schemes in its legal case filed in the Western District of Washington. The move, according to the company, is an effort to protect its users from fraudulent schemes. Kathy Sheehan, Vice President for Business Conduct and Ethics, said via Business Wire that: "Amazon works hard to build a great, trusted experience for our customers and sellers. These bad actors are misusing our brand to deceive the public and we will hold them accountable." Sheehan also reminded consumers to stay vigilant in shopping online. Moreover, the Better Business Bureau said it received a substantial 771 reports of scams impersonating Amazon in 2020 alone. Amazon impersonations, in addition, ranked second to the most frequent scam reported. Reigning on the top is the Social Security Administration. Netflix is also one of the most clone brands for scams. Amazon vs. Marketing Scams The Seattle-based company has, in the past, filed five lawsuits against individuals illegally profiting from people, Business Wire reports. In June 2020, Amazon said, in a press release, that it had shut down three email scams in Michigan, Colorado, and California. Just recently, in March 2021, the Federal Trade Commission permanently banned four companies offering fake work-from-home opportunities that falsely used Amazon's name, the company said in a separate statement. Other Amazon-Impersonator Scams The popular and menacing Amazon AirPods raffle scam is after your account and financial data. It is a similar congratulatory text message that will ask you to sign in to a phishing website that claims to be the said company. On the other hand, WhatsApp even warned its users to stay away from Amazon scams. Aside from SMS, the bad actors also used the messaging app to congratulate victims for winning a Huawei Mate 40 Pro 5G. It is said to be in celebration of the website's 30th anniversary. Although, the e-commerce website and the China-based company didn't even announce that they were collaborating. Related Article: Amazon Ecobee Scandal: Collecting Private User Data from Smart Thermostats Allegedly Forced by the Big Tech This article is owned by TechTimes Written by Teejay Boris 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The golden mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope will soon have its final test. NASA's JWST is the successor of the current Hubble Space Telescope. This new technology is expected to be more advanced compared to its predecessor model. The United States space agency confirmed that the main goal of its James Webb Space Telescope is to capture the light emitted by the oldest stars in the universe. However, it is still not capable of this kind of space activity since NASA scientists and developers still need to do one thing to complete the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope. To give you more idea, here's what NASA is currently doing to prepare its James Webb Space Telescope. James Webb's Golden Mirror to Have Its Final Test According to the BBC News' latest report, NASA's developers and other space experts have to fold the segmented reflector to fit inside the launch rocket. They also need to make sure that there would be no issue once it is in space during its final process. Also Read: China's State Media Responds to NASA, US Scientists Over Long March 5B's Plunge Near Maldives Because of this, the involved space experts and scientists conducted various deployment simulations. They are doing this on each wing of the James Webb Space Telescope one at a time. "We effectively have that mirror float as it does in space. We designed [the mirror wings] to operate in space, but we have to test them on the ground - and gravity can be pretty humbling," said Scott Willoughby, the program manager of Northrop, NASA's aerospace manufacturer partner. James Webb Space Telescope's Goal Gadgets 360 reported that NASA's upcoming giant space telescope would specifically focus on identifying the light generated by the oldest stars in the universe. This will allow various space experts to look back in time over 13.5 billion years ago. If this becomes successful, NASA will be able to see how the first stars and galaxies formed during the time, which is a few hundred million years after the alleged Bing Bang space event. For more news updates about NASA and its upcoming space inventions, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: NASA Wallops Rocket Launch Virginia: Cancellation Due ot Bad Weather Pushes Back Black Brant XII 3 Times-Would it Happen Tuesday Night? This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Google Pay users will soon be able to conduct overseas payments since the tech giant confirmed that its popular mobile app now has overseas transaction support. As of the moment, the Pay app is available through the official Google Play Store. The new update will greatly enhance the experience of Google Pay customers in the United States. Google Pay's upgrade was created together with financial experts Western Union and Wise. However, there are still some limitations. Right now, the popular transaction app only allows overseas payments to India and Singapore. Although this is the case, Google said that it will still expand its list of available countries in the next few years. This means that the Google Pay users could expect transaction support for more than 200 countries. To give you more idea, here are other details of the new Google Pay update. Google Pay's New Update According to TechRadar's latest report, the search engine giant confirmed that the latest expansion was motivated by the huge growth in international payments. This sudden increase was first seen during the peak of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. Also Read: Google Wants a World Without Passwords: Will Enroll All Users to Two-Factor Authentication By Default Experts said that the massive growth in international payments happened because users are trying to help their friends, family, and other relatives in other countries to pay for essential expenditures. These include bills, education, healthcare, and more. On the other hand, Google explained that the users will be able to send money to more than 200 countries through Western Union in the near future. On the other hand, the mobile app's users will be able to send money to 80 countries through Wise. Aside from these new capabilities, the search engine giant also announced that the app's users will have unlimited free transfers until June 16. "For some, sending money back to their home countries is a regular activity and we are making it more accessible by adding it to the app that you use for your everyday money tasks," said the tech giant company. Sending Money Through Google Play Gadgets 360 explained that sending money through Google Pay is pretty easy. All you need to do is open your app, search for your contact, and then send the money to the person. To do this, you need to click the Pay button. You also need to choose between the Wise and Western Union options. After that, all you need to do is click the Continue option to see the exact amount that your contact will receive and to push through with the transaction. For more news updates about Google Pay and other Google mobile apps, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes. Related Article: Google Play Store to Release New Privacy Labels for Apps Following Apple's App Tracking Transparency This article is owned by TechTimes Written by: Griffin Davis 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. A grand jury on Tuesday declined to indict three Lafayette police officers who shot and killed 31-year-old Trayford Pellerin outside a Circle K store in August. Fifteenth Judicial District Attorney Don Landry announced the decision after an hourlong press briefing in which he presented body camera and surveillance video footage showing the moments leading up to Pellerin's death. It was the first public viewing of any evidence in the case, apart from a low-quality bystander video. Evidence displayed Tuesday appeared to show Pellerin held a knife in his left hand as he walked away from officers and ignored their commands. At one point prior to the shooting, Pellerin turned to face a pursuing officer, who was only a few feet behind, and threatened to stab him. Landry said officers are trained to use deadly force when threatened by a knife-wielding suspect within 21 feet. The threat to stab the pursuing officer was one of seven instances that called for deadly force, Landry said. They included the moment Pellerin reached for the door to the store with his right hand, still holding the knife in his left hand, according to Landry. "These officers went above and beyond the requirements for use of deadly force in this case," Landry said. Landry said the grand jury found no true bill on second-degree murder charges, and lesser charges were never considered. Landry said the officers' identities will remain concealed. The announcement followed nine months of public angst and speculation over the limited information available. Landry said that Louisiana, unlike other states, does not permit immediate release of body camera footage in police shooting investigations. "Believe me, we released as much as we could, Landry said. Warning: The video below is graphic. Can't see the embedded video? Click here. The Pellerin family and their lawyer, Ron Haley, were previously shown a limited selection of evidence in September. After the private viewing, Haley said he had not seen anything definitively showing Pellerin holding a knife as officers pursued him along Evangeline Thruway. After viewing Landry's presentation, Haley said the presence of a knife did not justify deadly force. Although Pellerin made threatening statements, Haley said Pellerin continuously retreated from officers and did not make aggressive moves suggesting an attack and did not commit crimes against others in the lead-up to his shooting. "Im tired of the excuse of failing to comply as a reason to kill Black people in this country. Failure to comply is a misdemeanor, not a death penalty.I do not want to hear from anyone, Hey, if Trayford had just listened somehow hed still be here, because weve seen that movie in this country far too long, that even when people listen to police they still sometimes end up dead," Haley said. The Pellerin family learned of the grand jury's decision when the district attorneys office called Pellerins mother, Michelle Pellerin, on Tuesday afternoon to let her know there would not be any indictments, Haley said. She had testified to the grand jury earlier in the day as part of an arrangement with Landrys office. Grand jury won't hand up indictments in police shooting of Trayford Pellerin, family attorney says A Lafayette grand jury on Tuesday concluded deliberations in the Lafayette Police Department shooting death of Trayford Pellerin and will not Top stories in Acadiana in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Landry previously informed the Pellerin family that State Police classified the shooting as justifiable on April 28. Michelle Pellerin was unable to divulge what she shared with the grand jury. She said the experience has been hard, and that she and her family will continue to seek justice for her son. A wrongful death lawsuit is pending in federal civil court. Michelle Pellerin said she and her family watched along on media live streams with the public as they viewed the bulk of the evidence for the first time. She said limited evidence shown during a family viewing in September barely touched on the full extent of events. A lot of this they could have presented to me early on. They held it back for nine months, not knowing what actually went on. They showed one video that had nothing to do with what they showed today. Why not present that first so I can see?" Michelle Pellerin questioned. Officers initially responded to disturbance calls about a man, later identified as Pellerin, acting strangely and bothering customers at a different convenience store, about a half mile from the one where Pellerin was shot. Surveillance video shown on Tuesday showed Pellerin inside the store for about 20 minutes, for the most part standing by the door as customers walked in and out. A store clerk repeatedly asked Pellerin if he was OK and tried to persuade him to leave, but he was generally unresponsive. Haley and family members said Pellerin's sister, Treneca, worked at the store but was not present the night he was killed. He could be heard on video calling her name, they said. Pellerin eventually grew agitated, disappeared into a back room and then came back out and left the store, throwing a fountain drink into the parking lot. He held a knife as he left. Landry said toxicology reports showed methamphetamine in Pellerin's system at a blood concentration of 2800 ng/mL, which could cause restlessness, confusion, and hallucinations, and violent and irrational behavior. Police officers tried to use tasers while pursuing Pellerin on foot, but they were not effective; one officers taser struck Pellerins bag and made partial contact with his body, while another did not make contact at all. A K-9 unit joined the pursuit, but the dog was not released because the handler feared it might attack an officer, according to Landry. Haley said the District Attorney's Office appeared to rely too heavily on State Police findings in presenting the case to the grand jury. He said from Landry's presentation it seemed they had not sought an outside use of force expert or other expert opinion before presenting the case to the grand jury. He said the State Police are not the most credible agency to investigate police shootings, citing the death of Ronald Greene, a Black man, while in State Police custody, among other incidents. +7 Trayford Pellerin family sues Lafayette Police for acting 'in concert and conspiracy' A highly anticipated federal lawsuit filed Monday morning claims that Lafayette Police officers violated 31-year-old Trayford Pellerins const Haley is representing the family in a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana against 10 unidentified Lafayette officers labeled as John Doe 1-10, former interim Lafayette Police Chief Scott Morgan, the Lafayette Police Department, Lafayette Consolidated Government and two insurance companies identified as ABC Insurance Company and XYZ Insurance Company, claiming the officers violated Pellerins constitutional rights. The claims are based on partial evidence shown to the family at the urging of Lafayette Mayor-President Josh Guillory in September. Haley said the evidence included 20 minutes of footage from one officers body camera, three still photographs and four recordings of disturbance calls to police. Haley said the civil case had stalled as the legal team waited on access to law enforcement documents and personnel, which are shielded until criminal proceedings are resolved. Plaintiffs hope to uncover the officers' identities to determine their service histories, Haley said, noting that the grand jury had considered Pellerin's drug use and history of mental illness. Landry noted on Tuesday that toxicology reports showed high levels of methamphetamine in Pellerin's system. "Did we hear anything in the report that was presented whether or not any of the officers had an excessive force case brought against them? No," Haley said. "But everything about Trayford was there, Haley said. "In this case Trayford wasnt on trial. Trayford wasnt to go to the grand jury, it was these officers. Why not have information about their past and their background? Im not suggesting these officers had one, but if not put that out there," he said. Haley said he and his legal team will also formally request a civil rights review of the case by the U.S. Department of Justice. A Baton Rouge teenager accused of shooting a 74-year-old woman to death during an attempted burglary at her home near Tiger Bend and Antioch roads two years ago will be examined by psychiatrists, a judge has decided. State District Judge Beau Higginbotham appointed a two-doctor sanity panel at the behest of Xavier Cade's attorney. Cade turned 15 several weeks before the fatal shooting of Angela Haymon on Dec. 30, 2019. Now, at the age of 16, he faces a second-degree murder charge. In elderly Baton Rouge woman's killing, boy pleads not guilty to murder charge A Baton Rouge teen accused of shooting an elderly woman to death during a botched December burglary at her home near Tiger Bend and Antioch ro "The accused may lack the mental competence to assist in the defense of this matter based on observations of defendant's counsel and investigators; and/or information from the defendant's family," Margaret Lagattuta, who represents Cade, wrote last week in requesting the appointment of a sanity commission. "The accused may have been suffering from mental illness at the time of the alleged commission of the crime," she added, "and as a result thereof, is not responsible under the law for whatever actions he may have done at that time." Lagattuta asked that two psychiatrists evaluate Cade and report back on his capacity to help his defense, and whether he suffered from mental illness at the time of the offense. Higginbotham on Monday signed an order appointing two doctors to evaluate Cade. The judge scheduled a sanity hearing for Aug. 5. Cade is set to stand trial Sept. 20. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up In 74-year-old woman's 2019 slaying in Antioch Villa, Baton Rouge teen gets September trial date A Baton Rouge teenager accused of fatally shooting an elderly woman during a botched 2019 burglary at her home near Tiger Bend and Antioch roa Haymon's daughter, Becky Everton, said Wednesday the family is "not out for blood" but wants fair, adequate justice. "We are going to just watch and see what the evaluation is," she said. "We're just patiently waiting." Haymon was investigating a noise under her carport on Morel Avenue in the Antioch Villa subdivision when Cade shot her in the chest, authorities have said. Her husband heard the gunfire from inside the house, went outside to confront the teens Xavier Cade and his brother and shot Cade while he fled. Cade was arrested after undergoing surgery. East Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's officials have said the hunting rifle used to kill Haymon had been stolen a week earlier from a vehicle parked right across the street from her house. In 74-year-old's slaying, 15-year-old Baton Rouge boy indicted on second-degree murder A 15-year-old Baton Rouge boy accused of fatally shooting a 74-year-woman during a botched Dec. 30 burglary at her home near Tiger Bend and An Cade faces a life sentence in prison with the chance to seek parole after serving 25 years if found guilty as charged. His brother, 17-year-old Jerome Cade, stands accused of taking part in the burglary at Haymon's house. A juvenile court judge last year found probable cause only for an attempted burglary charge against Jerome Cade. Under pressure from the Legislature, the state's top school board Wednesday approved a revised funding request that includes $800 pay raises for teachers and $400 more for school support workers. The proposal cleared the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education without dissent. BESE earlier requested teacher pay hikes of $400, which mirrored the request of Gov. John Bel Edwards, $200 for support workers and a $40 million increase in state aid for public schools 1.375%. Louisiana school board seeks to double aid requested by governor; includes $400 teacher pay raises Louisiana's top school board Tuesday voted to ask the Legislature for an $80 million hike for public schools, double the amount sought by Gov. But legislative leaders last month asked the panel to send a new request that would double the pay raise for teachers and support employees, and remove the push for more school aid amid three waves of federal school aid sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. The latest request also says that, if the Revenue Estimating Conference recognizes new revenue on May 18, which is expected, BESE is asking that the pay raise be more than $800. Legislative leaders have said they are aiming for raises of $1,000. Louisiana lawmakers plan $1,000 pay raises for K-12 teachers, doubling previous proposal Louisiana lawmakers intend to give K-12 public school teachers a $1,000 pay raise next year, more than double the amount proposed by Gov. John The new request won support from superintendents and teacher groups. "The message we send to teachers on how much we value them is incredibly important," said Wes Watts, president of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents and superintendent of the West Baton Rouge Parish school system. Tia Mills, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators, said $800 raises would be a step in the right direction. 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 Mills said 56% of teachers who responded to a recent LAE poll said they rely on a second source of income in addition to their teacher pay. The state's roughly 50,000 public school teachers are paid an average of $50,923 per year for the 2018-19 school year, the latest figures available. They are paid about $4,000 less than the Southern average, and meeting that benchmark is a longtime state goal. Jim Garvey, the longest-serving member of BESE, said he has heard the Revenue Estimating Conference will recognize an additional $600 million to $800 million next week. Keith Courville, executive director of the Associated Professional Educators of Louisiana, said if the Legislature devoted $600 million to teacher pay salaries would rise by $6,000 and exceed the regional average. The latest request for education totals $3.9 billion and the money helps finance public schools for the 2021-22 school year. The pay raise portion of the plan costs about $80 million. BESE's original request also sought state aid to finance stipends for teacher mentors, who assist teachers new to the profession. Legislative leaders asked that it be deleted. The board voted Wednesday to include a letter with its revised funding request that seeks $4.2 million for 278 teacher mentors if officials recognize new state revenue. State lawmakers can only accept or reject BESE's funding request but cannot change it. The 2021 regular legislative session ends on June 10. The Louisiana House late Tuesday took a significant step toward loosening the states tough stance on marijuana possession, approving a bill to decriminalize possession of up to a half-ounce of the drug. House Bill 652, by Rep. Cedric Glover, D-Shreveport, is one of a host of marijuana-related bills pending the Legislature, which has advanced such proposals further than ever before this year. Among the other bills is a proposal to legalize marijuana for recreational use, which is a step further than decriminalization. The debate comes as opinions about marijuana among the public, and lawmakers, continue to soften. Heres what you need to know about the decriminalization effort: What is decriminalization? Decriminalizing marijuana generally means taking away the possibility of jail time when someone is caught with an amount of marijuana small enough that it appears to be for personal use. Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have already decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The states vary in how they handle it. For instance, North Dakota in 2019 made the maximum penalty for possession of up to half an ounce of marijuana a $1,000 fine. New Mexico made the penalty for a half-ounce or less up to a $50 fine. That means people caught in those states with a relatively small amount of marijuana wont go to jail for it. If people are caught with larger amounts, theyre typically subject to harsher penalties. Bill to decriminalize small-time marijuana possession OK'd by Louisiana House; next up: Senate The Louisiana House has approved a bill to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana, taking away the possibility of jail tim What is current Louisiana law? Currently, someone caught with up to half an ounce of marijuana in Louisiana -- roughly 14 grams -- is subject to a $300 fine or 15 days in jail on the first offense. Beyond that, the penalties ramp up significantly. On the second conviction, people can be jailed for six months. On the fourth conviction, they can be jailed for up to eight years. 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 What would Glovers bill do? If Glovers bill becomes law, any time someone in Louisiana is caught with up to half an ounce of marijuana, they would get a summons instead of an arrest. Instead of the harsher penalties laid out by current law, each possession offense would only be punishable by up to a $100 fine -- and no jail time. The law is similar to ordinances already in place in Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport. In New Orleans, the first offense for possession of small amounts of marijuana carries a $40 fine, though some local officials are trying to reduce that penalty to $1. In Shreveport, the fine is $50, and in Baton Rouge, the fine starts at $40. As key vote to legalize marijuana in Louisiana looms, some experts say downsides exaggerated Proponents and opponents of legalizing recreational marijuana are both mounting a furious last-minute lobbying effort ahead of a potentially d How is it different from legalization? Glovers bill is a step short of legalization. Generally, legalizing marijuana for recreational use -- also sometimes called adult use -- means setting up a legal, private market for selling marijuana. That involves licensing businesses to grow it and sell it to customers who are 21 and older. Rep. Richard Nelson, R-Mandeville, has a bill to legalize the drug for recreational use. It made it to the House floor for the first time ever, and Nelson has delayed a vote as he tries to gain support of a majority of lawmakers. The bill is a much higher hurdle than decriminalization, and Nelson has scheduled the bill for a vote Tuesday. Whats next for Glovers bill? The state House voted 68 to 25 Tuesday evening to approve Glovers bill. Now, it heads to the state Senate, where it must win approval from a committee and then the full chamber. If that happens, Gov. John Bel Edwards would have to sign it for it to become law. The state Senate has generally been more opposed to loosening pot laws in the past, but opinions in the Legislature appear to be changing around marijuana. While influential law enforcement groups like the Louisiana Sheriffs Association and the Louisiana District Attorneys Association are fighting against Nelsons bill to legalize the drug, they havent taken a stance on Glovers bill to decriminalize it. Hong Kong: FS promotes HK to Canada Financial Secretary Paul Chan attended a webinar today to update the Canadian political and business community on Hong Kong's edge and competitiveness as an international financial centre, its active role in national development and the ample opportunities for Canadian businesses. In his opening remarks, Mr Chan said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic's economic fallout and the social unrest that preceded it, Hong Kong's financial market has functioned well with its unique advantages under the "one country, two systems" principle, the rule of law and other institutional strengths including an independent judiciary and the free flow of information, people and capital. He pointed out that even though there have been rumours of fund outflows in the past two years, there is no significant fund outflow from Hong Kong's banking system. On the contrary, a total inflow of US$50 billion into the Hong Kong dollar system had been recorded as at the end of last year, reflecting that Hong Kong's status as an international financial centre remains solid and its competitiveness remains strong. Mr Chan added that the upbeat prospects for Hong Kong's future are affirmed by the national 14th Five-Year Plan, which continues the central government's support for and promotion of Hong Kong's status as an international financial, transportation and trading centre, a global offshore renminbi business hub and an international asset and risk management centre, and supports the city's development as an international hub for both aviation and innovation and technology. He also noted that Hong Kong's integration into national development not only contributes to the country's development, but also creates new impetus for the city's economic growth, which enables improvements in the economy and people's livelihood. The 14th Five-Year Plan also outlines the high-quality development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, which supports the expansion of mutual access between the financial markets of Hong Kong and the Mainland. Mr Chan said the cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect scheme, under which residents in Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in the bay area will be able to invest in wealth-management products distributed by banks in the region, will be rolled out soon. Addressing concerns about the stability of Hong Kong society, Mr Chan highlighted the restoration of social and political stability through the enactment of the National Security Law and the impending improvements to the electoral system of Hong Kong, which has created a safe and secure environment conducive to business and investment for the people of Hong Kong, for Canadian business and investment and for companies from all over the world. The webinar was organised by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and more than 100 people took part. In question-and-answer session, Mr Chan discussed with participants the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's policies and support for promoting green and sustainable finance and innovation and technology, as well as the city's anti-epidemic measures and core competitiveness in professional services. This story has been published on: 2021-05-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. President Moon Jae-in in a speech earlier this week marking the fourth anniversary of his inauguration made an unusual admission. "As far as the real estate market situation goes, the government has no excuses," he said. For years he had been claiming he was "confident" of taming soaring apartment prices, but now, with just a year left in office he "received a wake-up call from the public" in the ruling party's humiliating defeat in the mayoral by-elections last month. But has he really seen sense? Does he really know what went wrong? No. "Our real estate policy is based on prohibiting speculation, protecting end users and stabilization through housing supply," he said. "This policy direction will not change." And even on those terms he failed to deliver. His government blocked the construction of new apartments to boost housing supply and made it nearly impossible to secure housing loans for even homes below the median price by treating half the population of Korea like greedy speculators. The regulations only led to apartment prices going through the roof and people scrambled to buy before things got even worse. The government's belated attempts to boost housing supply are limited to a few new public housing projects by the Korea Land and Housing Corporation, the same public agency where officials were nabbed speculating on real estate. Moon also made no mention of changing policies aimed at protecting tenants and other unrealistic measures that only resulted in soaring rents. Following its humiliating defeat in the by-elections, the ruling Minjoo Party promised to overhaul the government's real estate policies. New MP leader Song Young-gil proposed easing housing loan caps for first-time buyers and comprehensive real estate taxes, which have been raised sharply in a failed bid to get multiple home owners to sell their apartments. The party also appointed Kim Jin-pyo, an opponent of the current real-estate policies, as the head of a special committee on the matter. But any shift in policy is growing less likely due to fierce opposition from hardline Moon loyalists within its ranks. Presidential hopefuls aligned with the ruling party have been arguing over who is to blame. Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung said, "Until now, the president has stressed that he would make it impossible for people to get rich from real estate speculation and stabilize the market, but I wonder if the officials in charge of executing these policies did their work properly." He was taking aim at former prime ministers Lee Nak-yon and Chung Sye-kyun, his putative rivals in the race for president, but stopped short of pointing the finger at Moon himself. Chung fired back at the governor by saying, "Provincial governments probably could have done a lot more." But then he added, "We need to wait until apartment prices stabilize before we make financial regulations and taxes more realistic." Instead of proposing realistic policies, Lee Nak-yon then called for a separate agency to focus on solving the housing problem. Did the housing mess plaguing the country happen because of a lack of a government agency handling it? This is the most confusing cacophony in contemporary politics. In this March 30 file photo, young migrants wait to be tested for COVID-19 at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, in Donna, Texas. Compared to women who had no screening, the multimodal group had a 47 per cent increase in the detection of stage one ovarian cancers and 24.5 per cent decrease in stage four cancers, found the study published in the Lancet. Loading Overall, the incidence of stage one and two cancers was 39 per cent higher and stage three and four 10 per cent lower in the multimodal group. Yet there was no evidence that early detection led to improvements in survival. It would seem that the cancers weve diagnosed early were more aggressive cancers, Professor Jacobs said. Picking them up early just doesnt change the point at which they result in patients dying because the cancer is inherently more aggressive. Professor Jacobs said separate studies involving younger women with family histories of the disease or the BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations may benefit from frequent screening (every three to four months) rather than having their ovaries and fallopian tubes removed when they are identified as high risk. About seven in 10 ovarian cancers are diagnosed in late stages when the cancer has already spread beyond the pelvis. Symptoms often appear long after the cancer has developed and can masquerade as serious conditions. In 2020 an estimated 1532 women were diagnosed and 1068 women died of ovarian cancer in Australia. The chance of surviving five years after being diagnosed is 46 per cent. Christy Smith had assumed her bloating was the innocuous effects of overindulging at Christmas until a sudden and intense pain sent the 34 year-old to the emergency department in February 2020. An ultrasound showed a 20cm cyst had encapsulated her left ovary and part of her fallopian tube. Within hours surgeons had removed the ovary. A biopsy later found a 5cm cancerous tumour. The mother of two had stage 1c ovarian cancer. Christy Smiths ovarian cancer tumour was encapsulated in a cyst that triggered a sudden and excruciating pain. Credit:Kate Geraghty I was told it was extremely rare to catch it so early. I am very lucky the cancer was in that cyst, Ms Smith said. She underwent a hysterectomy and debulking surgery to remove suspicious-looking tissue in the area. Then came six rounds of chemotherapy and hormone treatment to stave off the effects of early menopause. Im looking good at the moment ... My markers are where they should be but Im still at a higher risk of the cancer recurring, she said. To other women diagnosed with ovarian cancer: dont give up hope. It may seem tough at the time but you are stronger than you think you are. Professor Jacobs is an eternal optimist. The challenge of ovarian cancer will be cracked, he said. We either need to find treatments that are more effective for the cases that are detected early (and there are prospects for that), or we need to find tests that can find the cancers even earlier five to 10 years earlier and can actually save lives. Professor Mahesh Parmar, Director of the MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London and a senior author on the paper, said there have been significant improvements in the treatment of advanced disease in the last 10 years ... in women who do have symptoms early diagnosis, combined with this better treatment, can still make a difference to quality of life and, potentially, improve outcomes. Associate Professor Caroline Ford, who leads the Gynaecological Cancer Research Group (GCRG) at UNSW, said there was a sense of disappointment among the entire ovarian cancer community that had been eagerly awaiting the trial results. But it would be a mistake to assume population screening for ovarian cancer is an impossibility, she said. This just shows us where to direct and redouble our efforts, Associate Professor Ford said. Other researchers like my team now have this incredibly important data on which to build our research. I see this as an exciting day. Her own lab is working on an approach that detects DNA released from tumour cells into the bloodstream that could detect the cancer at its earliest stages. Loading The ovarian cancer treatment landscape has also advanced since the study participants were screened and treated between 2000 and 2011, with early diagnosis and newer treatment protocols leading to improved quality of life and potentially longer life. We have far more targeted treatments in 2021, Associate Professor Ford said, such as personalised therapies to PARP inhibitors (able to be used for at least 50 per cent of ovarian cancer patients) that were proving to be incredibly effective at increasing survival time and quality of life. We have the opportunity to take drugs developed for other diseases and use them to treat ovarian cancer. That spectrum of drugs we can use is expanding every year, she said. The study findings were published days after World Ovarian Cancer Day and Ovarian Cancer Australias Overies for Ovaries campaign to raise funds for vital support services. Chief executive Jane Hill said the news was very disappointing, but the focus on symptom awareness and early detection was still the priority. Obviously we cant say to women that based on the trial findings that if the cancer is caught earlier it will save their lives, but women [who] are diagnosed at earlier stages can get access to treatments that werent available when this study was first envisaged and some of these treatments are great to prolong womens lives and give them better quality of life, Ms Hill said. Ovarian Cancer Australia collaborated with the Australian New Zealand Gynaecological Oncology Group and the Australian New Zealand Society of Gynaecologic Oncologists to create a National Action Plan aimed to improving survival rates, reduce incidence and improve quality of life for ovarian cancer patients. What it underscores is that we need much more funding for ovarian cancer, Ms Hill said. Experts are calling for every returned traveller who lands in Australia to be vaccinated against coronavirus as a condition of entry into hotel quarantine system following a spate of virus leaks. Infectious diseases physician Paul Griffin is among a growing group of specialists who want the federal government to consider inoculating every person against coronavirus upon arrival amid fears they could become infected while isolating for 14 days. This is something we should really be seriously investigating because hotel quarantine presents our greatest vulnerability, Professor Griffin said. It is where all our coronavirus cases are coming from. We know there is a lag between being vaccinated and getting maximum protection, but there is also now a growing risk of acquiring the infection in the hotel quarantine system. A jailed former Christian Brother has had his prison term extended for abusing two boys at a Geelong orphanage more than 50 years ago, in crimes a judge labelled perverse and depraved. William Houston was this year found guilty of sexually assaulting the two boys, who were wards of the state, at St Augustines boys home in Highton in the 1960s, in addition to the jail term he was serving for abusing six others. William Houston, pictured in 2002, was told his crimes showed utter depravity and a breach of trust. Credit:Channel Nine Houstons 2016 sentence meant he had an earliest release date of April 2024, but that non-parole term was on Wednesday extended to January 2027 as County Court judge Gerard Mullaly increased the 82-year-olds overall and minimum prison terms. Judge Mullaly, who found Houston guilty of buggery and three counts of indecent assault in a judge-only trial, raised the total sentence imposed in 2016 to 15 years and six months, an increase of two years and nine months. Trump official says in prepared remarks he feared sending troops Jan. 6 would look like coup attempt Universities are warning Australia is at risk of losing critical research capacity after they were overlooked in the federal governments spending-led recovery budget, despite new expectations borders will remain closed until mid-2022. The sectors hopes of an extension of last years $1 billion research funding lifeline to offset the declines in international student fee revenue were dashed on Tuesday night, with universities one of the few areas to miss out on the Commonwealths cash splash. ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt said Australia was at risk of losing huge research capacity after the budget revealed the government expects borders to remain closed for another year. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Australian National University vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt said the surprise revelation in Tuesdays budget that international students would be shut out from the country for another year would imperil research programs unless the government stepped in. I am worried that we are going to lose huge capacity in the research sector that will take decades to recover. Once you let us destroy ourselves because of lack of funding, then the damage is done, Professor Schmidt said. The celebrated New York experimental theater troupe the Wooster Group is returning to Vienna to premiere its production of Bertolt Brecht's The Mother, which will play the prestigious international festival Wiener Festwochen June 8-17. The Group will perform for limited-capacity audiences in accordance with Austrian health mandates, with all company members observing quarantine prior to opening. The Wooster Group is the only American theater company appearing in this year's festival. Conceived as one of Brecht's lehrstucke ("learning plays"), The Mother is about a poor, uneducated Russian mother who becomes a revolutionary. The original play (with music by Hanns Eisler) premiered in Berlin in 1932 and was the last of Brecht's plays to open before the rise of the Nazis, who obviously did not appreciate the work's overtly communist themes. The Wooster Group presents a modern American interpretation of The Mother, with a feminist reimagining of Brecht's heroine. It promises to evoke parallels between contemporary political unrest and the socialist revolutions that inspired Brecht, and highlight the utopian impulse inherent in communism and socialism. The Mother is composed collaboratively by the Wooster Group and directed by Elizabeth LeCompte. It features performances by Kate Valk, Jim Fletcher, Ari Fliakos, Gareth Hobbs, and Erin Mullin. The sound is by Eric Sluyter, the video by Irfan Brkovic, and the lighting by David Sexton. Musician and composer Amir ElSaffar, who works across classical, jazz, and Arabic musical forms, provides new music for the piece. Also joining the tour company is Hai-Ting Chinn (choral music director), Cynthia Hedstrom (producer), Bona Lee (production manager), Erin Mullin (stage manager), Michaela Murphy (assistant director), and Joseph Silvosky (technical director). After its Vienna premiere, The Mother will open this year in New York for a run at the Group's home theater, the Performing Garage, in October-November. For tickets and more information about the Vienna run of The Mother, click here. Minister for Health Celebrates International Nurses Day International Nurses Day is celebrated globally every 12th May, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale's birth. The Ministry for Health & Care is commemorating this important day by shining a light on the contribution that nurses are making to the health and wellbeing of the people of Gibraltar through the Gibraltar Health Authority. Nurses, the largest healthcare profession, play an integral part in planning the future of healthcare. The theme for International Nurses Day 2021 is Nurses: A Voice to Lead, A Vision for Future Healthcare. The Minister for Health celebrated International Nurses Day by inviting nursing staff from across the GHA, including ERS to be part of a recognition ceremony. Minister for Health, Samantha Sacramento, presented nurses from all different grades with specifically produced badges to commemorate their role as they worked throughout and beyond the pandemic. Nursing staff who have been working through the pandemic have crushed the cliched stereotypes of nursing. Within Gibraltar and globally, nations have seen first-hand the fundamental role that nursing plays in patient safety. For nurses in the GHA, they celebrate nurses and nursing everyday as they lead services and advocate safe and effective care. Principal of the School of Health Studies, Professor Ian Peate, notes: The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to the world the important role that nurses play in keeping people healthy across the lifespan. While there has been substantial disruption to how health and care have been provided throughout the pandemic, there has also been much nurse-led innovation that has improved how people access health and care provision.The changes made and the innovations in nursing can ultimately shape the future of health and care provision. Nurses will require further education and training opportunities so they are able to meet the changes and challenges ahead. Director of Nursing and Director of the Gibraltar Ambulance Service, Sandra Gracia, leads nursing services in Gibraltar and provides leadership and professional advice to nursing staff within the GHA. Mrs Gracia commented: The pandemic has very much shone a light on the commitment and courage of the nurses of Gibraltar. It also provides us with an opportunity to explore a range of new models of care where nurses are at the centre of health systems, these nurse-led services and have the patient at the heart of all that is done. With a range of new approaches to care provision this paves the way for transformation. Mrs Gracia added: If Florence Nightingale was working in our GHA today she would be able to clearly recognise the compassion and the care of our nurses. She would also be amazed by the enormous expansion in the roles that contemporary nurses have. I salute the nurses of the GHA and I thank them sincerely for their unstinting contribution that they make to health and care provision in Gibraltar and further afield. Minister for Health, Samantha Sacramento, said: I am so pleased to be celebrating International Nurses Day with nurses from Gibraltar and all around the world. I want to express my best wishes to nurses within the GHA and Care Agency, as well as all the retired nurses who have contributed so much to our society and recognise and thank them for their enormous efforts in providing high quality safe and effective care, especially during a very difficult pandemic. I am extremely proud of you all and thank you enormously. Our government remains committed to investing in the future development of nurses and nursing. Church Events Stay in the loop on church events in West Central Louisiana. Weekend Edition A recap of the most pertinent stories of the week - delivered straight to your inbox! Arts & Entertainment Antifa members and counter protesters gather during a No-to-Marxism rally at Martin Luther King Jr. Park in Berkeley, Calif., on Aug. 27, 2017. (Amy Osborne/AFP/Getty Images) 120 Retired Generals, Military Officers Sign Letter Warning of Conflict Between Marxism and Constitutional Freedom More than 120 retired U.S. generals and admirals signed an open letter warning that the United States is embroiled in an existential fight and urged all citizens to get involved in local and state politics. We are in a fight for our survival as a Constitutional Republic like no other time since our founding in 1776. The conflict is between supporters of Socialism and Marxism vs. supporters of Constitutional freedom and liberty, states the letter (pdf), which was signed by 124 former military leaders, released by Flag Officers 4 America. The letter also posited that opposition to proposed bills and laws that would strengthen election initiatives has troublesome implications. Election integrity demands insuring there is one legal vote cast and counted per citizen. Legal votes are identified by State Legislatures approved controls using government IDs, verified signatures, etc. Today, many are calling such commonsense controls racist in an attempt to avoid having fair and honest elections, the letter states. According to the Flag Officers 4 America website, its a group of former military leaders who pledged to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, whether domestic or foreign. Of note, signatories of the letter include retired Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduca Senate candidate in New Hampshire, retired Army Lt. Gen. William Boykin, and retired Vice Adm. John Poindexterwho was the deputy national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan. China is the greatest external threat to America. Establishing cooperative relations with the Chinese Communist Party emboldens them to continue progress toward world domination, militarily, economically, politically, and technologically. We must impose more sanctions and restrictions to impede their world domination goal and protect Americas interests, the letter says. Other threats they listed include the United States reentering the Iran nuclear deal, illegal immigration, and the stoppage of the Keystone XL Pipeline project. President Joe Biden issued an order halting the pipeline project early in his presidency. Meanwhile, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the retired military leaders said that lockdown orders affecting schools and businesses are tantamount to population control actions. We must support and hold accountable politicians who will act to counter Socialism, Marxism and Progressivism, support our Constitutional Republic, and insist on fiscally responsible governing while focusing on all Americans, especially the middle class, not special interest or extremist groups which are used to divide us into warring factions, the letter states. The letter concluded by urging all citizens to get involved now at the local, state and/or national level to elect political representatives who will act to Save America, our Constitutional Republic, and hold those currently in office accountable. Some former military members questioned the purpose of the letter. Retired Adm. Mike Mullen, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the letter hurts the military and by extension, it hurts the country and said it contains GOP talking points, according to Politico. Meanwhile, in France, dozens of retired generals were sanctioned after they recently sent a letter warning about a possible civil war over the protection of our civilizational values. They blamed Frances leadership for not dealing with what they described as unfettered immigration into the country. Protesters clash with police and security forces at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images) 2 Men Charged With Spraying Chemicals on US Capitol Police to Remain Behind Bars A federal judge ruled that two men charged with assaulting police officers during the U.S. Capitol breach earlier this year must remain behind bars pending trial. Julian Khater, 32, of Pennsylvania, and George Tanios, 39, of West Virginia, have been accused of using a chemical spray on police who were defending the Capitol building on Jan. 6. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan denied bail for the two men after finding that they pose a threat to the community, The Associated Press reported. The judge praised the mens clean records, strong community ties, and family support, but said the actions committed against uniformed police officers on Jan. 6 drove him to make the decision. He added video evidence of the alleged assault leaves little doubt about what transpired. These two gentlemen are law-abiding, respected individuals of their community and it makes it very difficult for the court to make this conclusion, Hogan said.But they still committed this attack on uniformed police officers, and I dont find a way around that. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died of natural causes after suffering two strokes a day after the U.S. Capitol breach, is among the officers who were sprayed with the chemical irritant, which was likely to be bear mace. They havent been charged in Sicknicks death. Sicknick, 42, collapsed and died hours after returning to the office on Jan. 7, said Francisco J. Diaz, the chief medical examiner for Washington. Diaz said the officer suffered two strokes at the base of his brain stem, which was caused by a clot in an artery that provides blood to that part of his brain. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick in a file photo. (United States Capitol Police via AP) Khater was seen in a video obtained by investigators reaching into Tanios backpack after asking him, give me that bear [explicit], according to a criminal complaint (pdf) by the Department of Justice. Hold on, hold on, not yet, not yet its still early, Tanios is then heard telling him, as Khater is holding a canister of what prosecutors say is the chemical spray. A short while later, Khater was spotted in the video while spraying three U.S. Capitol Police officers who immediately retreat from the line and raise their hands to their face. One of the officers was Sicknick. Julian Khater (left) is observed holding a canister in his right hand; Khater (right) is again observed spraying a substance in the direction of law enforcement officers on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington D.C. (Courtesy of Department of Justice) The officers were temporarily blinded by the substance, were temporarily disabled from performing their duties, and needed medical attention and assistance from fellow officers, the complaint reads. They were initially treated with water in an effort to wash out the unknown substance from their eyes and on their face. All three officers were incapacitated and unable to perform their duties for at least 20 minutes or longer while they recovered from the spray. So far, about 400 people are facing charges, or have been charged so far in relation to the Jan. 6 incident, with prosecutors predicting at least 100 more people could be charged. From NTD News A detail of the painting,"A Goldsmith in His Shop," 1449, by Petrus Christus. Oil on oak panel; 39 3/8 inches by 33 3/4 inches. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975; Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain) A Golden Engagement Petrus Christus, a Northern Renaissance master In the painting A Goldsmith in His Shop, a finely dressed couple are eagerly purchasing a wedding ring. The man tenderly wraps his arm around his fiancee, while she happily gestures to the goldsmith who is weighing a ring on a set of scales. The goldsmith, dressed in a rich-red robe, concentrates on his customers request as he prepares the ring for sale. A Goldsmith in His Shop, 1449, by Petrus Christus. Oil on oak panel; 39 3/8 inches by 33 3/4 inches. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975; Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain) On the right side of the painting is a wall full of the goldsmiths tools and the fruits of his trade. Each one is meticulously rendered. Elegant pewterware pitchers are displayed on the top shelf. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met) website, these were created for the citys aldermen, who would offer them to important guests. The bottom shelf displays an open purse of seed pearls, and on a cloth are many precious gems alongside a selection of rings displayed much like wed see them in a shop today. On the bottom shelf, behind the gems, are some of the goldsmiths raw materials: from left to right, crystal, porphyry (a rock containing large crystals), and coral. Rings, petwer pitchers, a string of pearls, and precious raw materials such as gems and minerals are all rendered beautifully by Petrus Christus in this detail from the painting A Goldsmith in His Shop. (Public Domain) Some of the items in the painting look a little out of place, but theyre there to indicate the virtues of the couples pending matrimony. For instance, in the foreground, on the left side of the wooden bench with its wonderfully detailed grain, a discarded red girdle (like a belt) is near the woman. It is rendered as if to enter into the viewers space. The girdle traditionally symbolizes chastity and a readiness to serve, both seen as the contemporary ideals of a traditional marriage. A Goldsmith in His Shop, 1449, by Petrus Christus. Oil on oak panel; 39 3/8 inches by 33 3/4 inches. Robert Lehman Collection, 1975; Metropolitan Museum of Art. (Public Domain) On the far right side of the workbench, a convex mirror reflects the outside world where, standing in front of a row of buildings, two falconers seem to peer into the goldsmiths shop. The mirror indicates vanity, and the falconers represent pride and greed. Its a symbolic warning of the vices that have no place in the bounds of a happy marriage. Some scholars believe that the painting is a portrait of the Bruges goldsmith Willem van Vleuten, who worked for the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good. In 1449, the year the painting was completed, the duke commissioned van Vleuten to create a gift for his great-niece, Mary of Guelders, to celebrate her marriage to James II, the king of Scotland. Researchers further reinforced the possibility that the painting is a portrait, as the artist, Petrus Christus, had corrected the goldsmiths appearance several times in his underdrawing, indicating that he was creating someones likeness rather than an imaginary figure. Petrus Christus Christus was a contemporary of the great Flemish painters Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. Born around 1420 in the Flemish town of Baerle, now in Belgium, Christus worked in Bruges (in the region of Flanders), which at that time was the leading center of Netherlandish art. For over 20 years, after van Eyck died in 1441 and before Hans Memling came to Bruges around 1465, Christus was the leading artist in Bruges. Some sources believe that Christus studied in van Eycks studio, even finishing some of his masters works when he died in 1441. His meticulously detailed paintings certainly mirror van Eycks fastidious paintings, but the brightness that van Eyck brought to his figures isnt quite seen in Christuss works. Nonetheless, Christus made important contributions to Northern Renaissance art. It is believed that he helped spread the Northern Renaissance style of painting to Italy. The pioneering style was defined by van Eycks use of layer upon layer of translucent glazes, resulting in the exceptional blending and detailing on his canvas. Its not known if Christus traveled to Italy himself, but his paintings certainly did. According to The Mets website, nearly half of his known paintings were commissioned by Italians, have an Italian or Spanish provenance, or were known by Italian artists such as Anthony of Messina, who was highly influenced by Christuss work. Art historian E.H. Gombrich explains the difference between Northern and Italian Renaissance art in his book The Story of Art: It is a fair guess to say that any work which excels in the representation of the beautiful surface of things, of flowers, jewels or fabric, will be by a Northern artist, most probably by an artist from the Netherlands; while a painting with bold outlines, clear perspective and a sure mastery of the beautiful human body, will be Italian. Christus mastered single-point perspective in his later paintings, perhaps by replicating perspective in Italian art owned by his patrons, according to The Mets website. Some sources believe that his painting The Virgin Enthroned With Saints Jerome and Francis, at Frankfurts Stadel Museum, is the earliest example of single-point perspective in Northern Renaissance art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York owns five of the approximately thirty Petrus Christus paintings known to exist. To find out more, visit MetMuseum.org Signage is seen at an Amazon facility in Bethpage on Long Island, N.Y., on March 17, 2020. (Andrew Kelly/Reuters) Amazon Wins $303 Million Court Fight in Blow to EU Tax Crusade BRUSSELSAmazon won its fight against an EU order to pay about 250 million euros ($303 million) in back taxes to Luxembourg in another blow to competition chief Margrethe Vestagers crusade against preferential deals. The bloc failed to show that Luxembourg had given the U.S. online retailer special treatment in violation of state-aid rules, the EUs General Court ruled on Wednesday. The victory follows last years landmark defeat for Vestager against Apple, which had contested an order that it pay 13 billion euros ($15 billion) in Irish back taxes. Both Amazon and Apple were targeted by Vestager in a campaign to stamp out tax deals used by EU states such as Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands to attract large companies. The Commission views such agreements as unfair. The Commission did not prove to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group, the Luxembourg-based EU judges said. Amazon in a statement welcomed the ruling, saying it was in line with its long-standing position that we followed all applicable laws and that Amazon received no special treatment. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager holds a news conference at the EU Commissions headquarters in Brussels on Oct. 4, 2017. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters) Vestager said she would examine the ruling before deciding whether to appeal to Europes top court. It wasnt all bad news for Vestager. In a separate case on Wednesday, French utility Engie lost its appeal against an EU order to pay back taxes of 120 million euros ($145 million) to Luxembourg. But the spotlight was on the Amazon decision, which was criticized by groups campaigning for higher taxes to be levied on multinationals. Todays ruling is a blow, said Chiara Putaturo, a tax expert with Oxfam EU. It shows again that case-by-case investigations do not solve large-scale tax dodging. The amount at stake in the Amazon decision was tiny compared to the billions of dollars the online retailer earns each quarter but the decision could help other companies in their appeals against the blocs tax probes. Vestager has successfully made Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands change their tax ruling practices, and spurred the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to aim for a global deal on how multinational companies are taxed. The OECD said last week that the chances of a global deal had never been higher. The European Commission in its 2017 ruling, knocked down on Wednesday, said Luxembourg spared Amazon from paying taxes on almost three-quarters of its profits from EU operations by allowing it to channel profits to a holding company tax-free. In its 2018 decision on Engie, the EU said the arrangement with Luxembourg authorities artificially reduced the companys tax burden, which meant it paid an effective corporate tax rate of 0.3 percent on certain profits in Luxembourg for about a decade. The court sided with the Commission, saying the French utility had benefited from a tax advantage. The cases are T-816/17 Luxembourg v Commission & T-318/18 Amazon EU v Commission. By Foo Yun Chee Arizona Governor Signs Election Reform Bill Updating Eligibility to Remain on Early Voting List Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed into law a bill that updates eligibility requirements to remain on the states early voting list in an effort to protect the integrity of elections. The law, Senate Bill 1485, seeks to keep only active voters on the Active Early Voting List, who wish to vote by mail in elections. Voters who do not return at least one early ballot over the course of four years, or two consecutive primary elections and general elections, will be sent a postcard asking whether they wish to stay on that list. The voter could also be notified via telephone, text message, or email. If they do not respond, then they could be removed from that list. Arizona is a national leader when it comes to election integrity and access to the ballot box, and Senate Bill 1485 continues that legacy. In 1992, our state began offering the ability for Arizonans to vote an absentee ballot. Since then, Arizona has continuously improved and refined our election laws including intuitively renaming absentee voting to early votingand constantly seeking to strengthen the security and integrity of our elections, Ducey, a Republican, wrote in a letter in support of the bill. Duceys announcement comes shortly after the Senate passed the bill in a 16-14 party line vote. Democrats have opposed the bill, which they characterize as a purge bill, arguing that the bill will purge over 120,000 eligible Arizona voters from the early voting list. They claim that the bill will threaten the early ballots of millions of Arizona voters, and will disproportionately impact low-income, black, latino, and Native American voters. The priorities of this legislature are wrong and misguided and SB1485 is one of its most shameful examples. We have one of the countrys best and robust vote by mail systems and yet the legislature is actively creating unnecessary hurdles for people to vote. These voter suppression bills are part of a broader, coordinated attack on voting rights and democratic norms, Arizona Senate Democrats said in a statement. Poll workers count ballots inside the Maricopa County Election Department in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 5, 2020. (Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty Images) On the other hand, Republicans have pushed back on what they say is a false narrative on the bill, arguing that the law is designed to bolster the security of elections and will not disenfranchise any voters. Voters who are removed from the list can still request an early ballot or vote in person, according to the law. Standing with the voters and their desire for secure elections is paramount to maintaining our form of government. This bill is a modest, but critical step toward restoring confidence in our election system, state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R), the bills sponsor, said in a statement. Ducey said in his letter that Arizonas law is not completely novel as it mirrors similar practices in California. But he argued that his states version provides more access for voters than the law in California, as unlike the Golden State, Arizonas law requires County Recorders to proactively reach out to voters and provide notice before voters are removed. If this bill is as bad as some partisan activists have suggested what does that say about their beloved California? Ducey wrote. He also argued that for years, Arizonas legislature has been making updates to the states election system in an attempt to strengthen its security and integrity. The state, for example, expanded access to early voting locations in 2008 and expanded the method to request an early ballot in 2011, he argued. The passage of the bill comes against the backdrop of a Republican push to audit votes cast in Maricopa County in November 2020. Following that election, the Arizona Senate subpoenaed election materials, such as ballots and issued subpoenas for election machines, passwords, and other technology. This booking photo provided by the Crisp County Sheriff's Office shows Robert Aaron Long, on March 16, 2021. (Crisp County Sheriff's Office via AP) Atlanta Spa Shooting Suspect Faces Death Penalty, Hate Crime Charges Atlanta massage parlor shooting suspect 22-year-old Robert Aaron Long was indicted Tuesday on murder charges in both Fulton and Cherokee counties, and a prosecutor said her office would pursue enhanced hate crime charges and the death penalty, according to court filings. The Fulton indictment states that Long was indicted on four counts of murder in the March 16 shootings, along with aggravated assault, domestic terrorism and possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony. Long was also indicted on four counts of murder, criminal attempt to commit murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, and criminal damage to property in the first degree, according to the Cherokee indictment. He is accused of opening fire at three Atlanta-area spas, killing eight people, including six of Asian descent. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also filed notice with the Fulton Superior Court Tuesday that she plans to seek a hate crime sentence enhancement and the death penalty against Long, saying that he targeted some victims because of their race, national origin, sex, and gender. The hate crime charges are based on the actual or perceived race, national origin, sex, and gender of the four women killed, the notice filed by Willis states. It will send a message that everyone within this community is valued, Willis told reporters Tuesday. Last year, I told the voters of Fulton County that I could not imagine a circumstance where I would seek it, she said. And at that time, I did not. Unfortunately, a case has arisen in the first few months of my term that I believe warrants it. Cherokee Countys district attorney Shannon Wallace has not signaled that she intends to seek enhanced hate crime charges against Long. Today we have taken another step forward in seeking justice for the victims of this crime and for their family members, Wallace said in a statement. Georgias new hate crimes law does not provide for a stand-alone hate crime. After a person is convicted of an underlying crime, a jury must determine whether its motivated by bias, which carries an additional penalty. Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds told reporters in March that Long was apparently a frequent visitor at the massage parlors prior to his shooting spree. Many such parlors are known to illegally offer sexual services and are most commonly staffed by Chinese immigrants, many of whom have fallen victim to human trafficking rings. The suspect has been interviewed, which indicated he has some issues, potentially sexual addiction. He may have frequented some of these places in the past, Reynolds said, adding that allegedly, the gunman sought to eliminate the temptation by committing acts of violence against them. Reynolds added that the indicators right now are it may not be. It may be targets of opportunity. Again, we believe that he frequented these places in the past and maybe have been lashing out. Long has asserted that the shootings were not fueled by racism. The FBI is assisting both Cherokee County and Atlanta police in investigating the case. Jack Phillips and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia, is seen Feb. 20, 2007. (Ian Waldie/Getty Images) Australia Risks Become a Lost Kingdom of the South Pacific: Tourism Sector The tourism sector of Australia has decried the new Federal Budget for lacking a clear plan to open the international border, making it harder for the tourism and hospitality industries to survive. It is vital for the Government to begin a staged opening as soon as possible, given the stimulus measures announced tonight, John Hart, the Chair of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said in a statement on Tuesday. Businesses need certainty, and this is especially important after state border lockdowns battered the sector in 2020-21. The sector hinges on a firm commitment to international restart, from generating demand to accessing skills. A $1.2 billion (US$937 million) package will be given to aviation and tourism businesses, including 800,000 half-price tickets to 15 domestic destinations. $274.6 million (US$213 million) will be allocated to support hard-hit businesses, including zoos, aquariums, and travel agents. Further, the current restriction of international students work hours has been lifted to support the sector. However, the sector argued that while these measures are needed, the support will fall short without a clear plan to open the border. Restaurants along Sydney Harbour on December 24, 2020. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images) It is important to note that parts of the sector unable to pivot to domestic tourism still require support until the impact of international visitation starts trickling back in, Hart added. In addition to uncapping international student working hours, which will tide many businesses in the sector through a very tight labour market, the sector also needs access to skilled migrants to fill critical experienced roles. Margy Osmond, the chief executive of Tourism and Transport Forum, said Australia risks become a lost kingdom of the South Pacific. No timetable condemns us virtually to being the lost kingdom of the South Pacific when the rest of the world is opening up, she said. We will see more job losses, and we will see many, many business failures. Tourists gather to watch sunset colours on Uluru, also known as Ayers rock, at the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in Australias Northern Territory on Oct 26, 2019. (Saeed Khan/AFP via Getty Images) Mirrin Locke, a senior lecturer of Tourism and Event Management at the International College of Management, Sydney (ICMS), said she agrees with the sentiments expressed by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We need a plan for re-opening the border. We need for far more than just the tourism industry, too, she said. Students walk around the University of New South Wales campus in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Mark Baker) Australian Education Sector Calls out Government Over Lack of Support in Federal Budget Many in the Australian higher education sector feel left behind in the 2021-22 Budget after a difficult financial year with reduced international student revenue. Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced $19 billion (US$14.8 billion) in funding for universities in his budget speech in Parliament on Tuesday evening. The measures include creating new employment pathways for students, funding scholarships for women in STEM programs, and supporting international science and technology collaborations. Over $216 million in funding will also go into establishing additional nursing scholarships to grow and upskill the aged-care workforce. The federal government also plans to provide around $30,000 (US$23,500) per PhD graduate undertaking industry placements to encourage greater university-industry collaboration under the Research Training Program. However, the peak industry body for the sector, Universities Australia, said the federal governments assumption that borders would remain closed posed very serious challenges for universities. With assumptions around borders being shut until mid-2022 now baked into the Budget, the picture for universities will get worse, Universities Australias chief executive Catriona Jackson said. The sector took a $1.8 billion revenue hit last year. Universities Australia conservatively estimates at least another $2 billion will be lost this year, against 2019 actual operating revenue. Students walk through The Quadrangle at The University of Sydney on May 8, 2013, in Sydney, Australia. (AAP Image/Paul Miller) Universities were pleased, though, to see budget assumptions include pilot programs for international students and warmly welcomed the extra $1 billion for university research. The boost acknowledged the centrality of research to national recoveryit saved jobs and research capacity, Jackson said. The sector will continue to work with Government on long-term plans for research sustainability. The Group of Eight (Go8), which represents Australias most research-intensive universities, applauded the governments commitment to secure the nations economic recovery but said it had one hand tied behind its back in supporting a constructive budget. Post-budget, the Government will have to think through how it best supports the university sector as we, in turn, support the nation, Go8 Chief Executive Vicki Thomson said in a statement. The current system will not achieve this. Our biggest challenge remainsand that is ensuring we can continue to do world-class research, which at its core is all about people, which will change and save livesparticularly through research related to the COVID-19 pandemic, Thomson said. Regional Universities Network (RUN) said their network also felt largely ignored by the budget but welcomed the funding for innovation, women in STEM programs, and the Research Training Program for PhD students. Regional universities are anchor institutions for their regions and make a fundamental contribution to regional economies, RUN Chair Nick Klomp said. The government should support the establishment of innovation precincts at regional university campuses. While the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN) believes the budget missed an opportunity for universities, which it said played a critical role in providing the economy with a highly skilled workforce. ATN is disappointed that the government has not built on its successful investment in innovative and industry-linked university-delivered short courses, ATN Chair Iain Martin said. We hope that the government reconsiders this, acknowledging that these short courses have been meeting significant latent demand. The logo of the Australian National University (ANU) is seen on a building at the campus in Canberra, Australia, on Sept. 16, 2020. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) Education Unions Call Budget a Failure For Public Education Meanwhile, the Australian education unions calling the 2021 Budget a failure for public school and TAFE staff and students. Across primary, secondary and TAFE, this Federal Budget fails students in every corner of our nation, AEU federal president Correna Haythorpe said. Haythorpe claimed public schools face a $19 billion funding shortfall over the next four years as a direct result of the governments failure to put public education first. The Morrison Government is delivering millions of dollars of taxpayers funds to poor quality private colleges and the job network at the expense of TAFE, Haythorpe said. The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) said the government dealt further blows to the countrys fourth-largest export industry, education, in this years budget. If this Government was serious about wanting to invest in skills, education, and training to tackle unemployment, it would invest more in higher education than just 5,000 short course places, NTEU national president Alison Barnes said, referring to the support package for non-university higher education providers. Instead, theres a pittance in this Budget for higher education, from a government which has abandoned Australian university workers and students, Barnes said. The Minister for Education Alan Tudge responded to the criticisms on spending by noting in a media release that the Budget will provide record government spending of $24.4 billion in 2021-22 for Australian schools. The government will also provide $481.2 million to reform and expand the youth employment services program, Transition to Work, to help disadvantaged young people transition from school to work. We are backing young Australians right through their learning journey through our funding across early childhood education and care, schools, and higher education, Tudge said. We are giving Australians the best chance to reach their full potential and to get the skills and qualifications they need to get into a job, now and in the longer term. Illegal immigrants from the reception center board the Asso Trenta ship to be taken to the quarantine ship GNV Azzurra, in Lampedusa, Italy, on May 11, 2021. (Antonio Parrinello/Reuters) Austria Snubs EU Plea to Accept Lampedusa Illegal Immigrants Austria on Tuesday rejected a plea for other European Union countries to accept illegal immigrants from Italy, following a surge in arrivals on Lampedusa that seems likely to expose deep-seated divisions across the bloc over migration. More than 2,000 mostly African illegal immigrants have reached the tiny island off Italys southern coast by boat since Sunday, overwhelming its reception center. On Monday, the EUs home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson called on member states to show solidarity with Italy and support their relocation. The EUs executive said on Tuesday it had not yet received any pledges from countries to take any of them in. Austria would not do so. Austria is steering a very clear course: A distribution [of the Lampedusa immigrants] all over Europe is not an approach that will bring a solution, its Europe minister, Karoline Edtstadler, said in Brussels. Illegal immigrants from the reception center wait on board the Asso Trenta ship to be transported to the quarantine ship GNV Azzurra, in Lampedusa, Italy, on May 11, 2021. (Antonio Parrinello/Reuters) The EU should rather help people in Africa directly, while also sending a message that not everyone who makes it to Europe can stay there, she added. Lampedusa is one of the main landing points for people trying to get into Europe from Africa, and the latest arrivals were being transferred elsewhere in Italy. The 27-nation EU has argued bitterly over immigration since 2015, when over 1 million mostly Syrian, Iraqi, or Afghan refugees reached its borders. Arrivals dropped significantly to about 95,000 last year, according to United Nations data, most to Italy, Spain, and Greece. In 2019, Italy agreed a plan with other European states to redistribute immigrants after they arrived. But that voluntary scheme has not provided a stable solution, and a cross-EU pact to tackle the issue proposed by the Commission last September has not been ratified as Hungary and Poland have refused to participate. The Italian government on Tuesday denied a report by the La Repubblica newspaper that it would ask the EU to pay Libyawhere the vast majority of African refugees travelling by sea depart fromto stop immigrant boats leaving its coast. The bloc struck such a deal with Turkey in 2016 to stem immigrant flows from the Balkans. At the moment there is no initiative regarding creating a similar deal with Libya, an official in the prime ministers office said. The official said the governments view was that the EU must give more attention to the situation in the southern Mediterranean and be ready to offer financial help to all African countries involved in immigrant flows. By Sabine Siebold WEST HARTFORD Conards Gavin Sherry and Chloe Scrimgeour took home individual titles at the CCC Division A championships while the Simsbury girls team completed its revenge tour and the Hall boys battled to a team title Wednesday. Bangladesh Rebuffs Chinas Threat Against Joining US-Led Quad Bangladeshs foreign minister on May 11 rejected remarks by the Chinese ambassador warning the South Asian nation not to participate in the U.S.-led Quadrilateral Security Dialogue because it would damage bilateral relations. The Quad is a four-nation Indo-Pacific alliance led by the United States, along with India, Japan, and Australia. Beijing considers the Quad a small anti-Beijing club. We are an independent and sovereign state, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen said at a May 11 press conference in response to the Chinese threat. We decide our foreign policy. Any country can uphold its position. But we will take decisions considering the interest of people and the country. Momen expressed his surprise regarding the long reach of the Chinese communist regimes wolf warrior diplomacy in interfering with Bangladeshs affairs. He described it as unusual and aggressive, adding, We did not expect such behavior from China. He also said the Quad hadnt contacted Bangladesh to discuss joining the alliance and wondered why the Chinese ambassador made the remarks prematurely. Chinese ambassador Li Jiming had warned on May 10, at an event organized by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association of Bangladesh (DCAB), that if Bangladesh were to join the group, ChinaBangladesh relations would suffer substantial damage. He noted that Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe had delivered the same message during his recent visit to the South Asian country. We dont want any form of participation of Bangladesh in this alliance, Li said. Meanwhile, China also tried to win over Bangladesh and said that China would provide more support to the country in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic by promising to send more vaccines. Approximately 776,000 people in Bangladesh have been infected with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus and 12,000 have died of it, as of May 11. President Joe Biden (L), with Secretary of State Antony Blinken (2nd L), meets virtually with members of the Quad alliance of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on March 12, 2021. (Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images) In March, U.S. President Joe Biden, at a Quad virtual summit, said it would be a vital arena for cooperation in the Indo-Pacific to counter Beijing in the years ahead. Bangladesh joined Beijings Belt and Road Initiative, at the risk of falling victim to its debt-trap diplomacy and losing strategically important ports on the Bay of Bengal to China, which would give the Beijing regime access points to the Indian Ocean. A wind farm, used to generate wind power, stands along the roadside in Iowa in Sanborn, Iowa, on Jan. 16, 2020. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Biden Admin Approves Nations 1st Major Offshore Wind Project The Biden administration has granted approval to a $2.8 billion offshore wind project thats seen as key to a transition to renewable energy in the United States. The Vineyard Wind project, which is set to become the nations first major offshore wind farm, will be built 14 miles off the coast of Massachusetts. The Biden administration hopes the project, which was selected by the state in 2018, will help slash carbon dioxide emissions while generating renewable electricity. It will have a generating capacity of 800 megawatts, with a goal of producing enough energy to power up to 400,000 homes. Up to 84 wind turbines will be built as part of the project. The announcement fits neatly with President Joe Bidens broader agenda to combat global climate change by decarbonizing the nations economy. The president previously outlined a plan for 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. Todays offshore wind project announcement demonstrates that we can fight the climate crisis, while creating high-paying jobs and strengthening our competitiveness at home and abroad, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said in a statement. This project is an example of the investments we need to achieve the Biden-Harris administrations ambitious climate goals, and Im proud to be part of the team leading the charge on offshore wind. While President Donald Trump had stalled Vineyard Winds permitting process late last year, Biden restarted the review within a month of taking office. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said approval of the project will create thousands of jobs that will support families, boost local economies, and address climate injustice. A clean energy future is within our grasp in the United States, Haaland said. The approval of this project is an important step toward advancing the Administrations goals to create good-paying union jobs while combatting climate change and powering our nation. More importantly, it will create a new generation of clean energy jobs and leave a liveable planet for future generations. The project also faces opposition, and news of its approval was quickly condemned by the fishing industry which said its concerns about the projects effect on fish stocks and vessel traffic had been met with silence by government officials. For the past decade, fishermen have participated in offshore wind meetings whenever they were asked and produced reasonable requests only to be met with silence, said Anne Hawkins, executive director of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, a coalition of fishing groups and businesses. From this silence, now emerges unilateral action and a clear indication that those in authority care more about multinational businesses and energy politics than our environment, domestic food sources, or U.S. citizens. Reuters contributed to this report. Streaks of light are seen as Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, May 11, 2021. (Nir Elias/Reuters) Biden Administration Condemns Rocket Attacks Against Israel The Biden Administration on Tuesday issued statements condemning rocket attacks aimed at Israel amid escalating tensions between Jerusalem and the Hamas terrorist group across the Gaza strip. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a press conference that President Joe Biden last week directed his team to engage intensively with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials, as well as leaders throughout the Middle East to communicate a clear and consistent message in support of de-escalation. The Presidents support for Israels security, for its legitimate right to defend itself, and its people is fundamental and will never waver. We condemn ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups, including against Jerusalem, Psaki said at a Tuesday press briefing. We also stand against extremism that has inflicted violence on both communities. Jerusalem, a city of such importance to people of faith around the world, must be a place of coexistence. It is up to the officials, residents, and leaders to restore the city to a place of calm. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan spoke with his Israeli counterpart Meir Ben Shabbat and condemned ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups against Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, according to a White House statement. Rockets are launched by Palestinian militants into Israel, in Gaza, on May 12, 2021. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters) He conveyed the Presidents unwavering support for Israels security and for its legitimate right to defend itself and its people, while protecting civilians. He also conveyed the United States encouragement of steps toward restoring a sustainable calm, the statement reads. Sullivan also spoke with the Government of Egypt about the matter and discussed ways to restore calm. State Department spokesperson Ned Price announced in a statement that Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with his Israeli counterpart Gabi Ashkenazithe first time the two diplomats have spoken since April. Blinken expressed his concerns regarding rocket attacks on Israel and his condolences for the lives lost as a result, Price said. The Secretary and the Foreign Minister also discussed the violence in Jerusalem, in particular on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount and in Sheikh Jarrah. The Secretary reiterated his call on all parties to deescalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence, which has claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children, he said. The Secretary emphasized the need for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in safety and security, as well as enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy. Foreign Minister Ashkenazi and Secretary Blinken acknowledged the steadfast partnership between the United States and Israel, and committed to working together on challenges ahead. Similarly, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) late Tuesday condemned the attacks on Israel by the Hamas terrorist group, saying in a statement, I condemn the escalating and indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas against Israel. Israel has the right to defend herself against this assault, which is designed to sow terror and undermine prospects for peace. Every civilian death is a tragedy that we mourn. Hamass accelerating violence only risks killing more civilians, including innocent Palestinians, she said. The death toll as of early Wednesday rose to at least 40 people35 Palestinians and five Israelisaccording to reports. Former President Donald Trump also issued a statement following the attacks in which he said, America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israels right to defend itself. A pipeline belonging to an Israeli state-owned energy company was hit in a rocket attack from Gaza late on Tuesday, an unnamed Israeli government official and an energy sector official told Reuters. A large fire is seen near the scene of what officials said was a Gaza rocket attack on an Israeli energy pipeline near Ashkelon, Israel, on May 11, 2021. (Amir Cohen/Reuters) Video broadcast by local media showed flames rising from what appeared to be a large fuel vat near the Israeli Mediterranean city of Ashkelon, south of Tel Aviv. Operations at a power plant in Ashkelon were not interrupted, according to a local Israeli media broadcaster. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has been providing updates about the situation on social media. In its latest post, officials said over 1000 rockets had been fired at Israel within a 38 hour period. This. Must. Stop, they wrote in a statement posted at 8.43 a.m. local time Wednesday on Twitter. In an earlier update, the group wrote, Terrorists in Gaza are firing rockets non-stop as civilians in central and southern Israel spend their night in shelters to protect themselves from rocket fire. They said that families had been woken up at around 3 a.m. and rushed to bomb shelters. In another update at 4:37 a.m. local time Wednesday, IDF said that it had experienced hundreds of rockets within the last 24 hour period and responded by striking terror targets and terror operatives across the Gaza Strip. We are currently striking more terror targets in Gaza, IDF said. Late on Tuesday, the group said that one of the rockets fired from Gaza toward Tel Aviv and central Israel had exploded on a civilian bus and shared an image of the incident. Hamas intentions are clear: kill Israeli civilians, the IDF said. We wont stand by and let this happen. One multi-story residential building in Gaza collapsed and another was heavily damaged, according to reports. Smoke rises from a tower amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza City, on May 12, 2021. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters) The IDF earlier Tuesday confirmed it had killed Iyad Fathi Faik Sharir, a high-level commander of the Hamas terrorist group. He was in charge of carrying out anti-tank missile attacks on Israel, the IDF wrote at the time, adding that it would continue to attack Hamas after the terrorist group fired hundreds of rockets into Jerusalem and other parts of the country. Hamass armed wing said it fired 210 rockets towards Beersheba and Tel Aviv in response to the bombing of the tower buildings in Gaza City. Israels military says that around a third of the rockets have fallen short, landing within Gaza. In the mixed Arab-Jewish town of Lod, near Tel Aviv, two people were killed after a rocket hit a vehicle in the area. Lod and other mixed towns have been gripped by angry demonstrations over the Gaza violence and tensions in Jerusalem. The violence followed weeks of tension in Jerusalem during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in and around Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the compound revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Reuters contributed to this report. Body of Missing 2-Year-Old Amari Nicholson Found, Suspect Arrested: Las Vegas Police Police in Las Vegas, Nevada, confirmed the body of 2-year-old Amari Nicholson was found Wednesday, coming after a man was arrested in connection to the case. Amari went missing in early May, and volunteers have been searching ever since. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police confirmed the boys body was located near the 400 block of E. Twain Avenue near Paradise Road. This investigation is ongoing, the department wrote in a tweet. The cause and manner of death will be released by the Clark County Coroners Office. Authorities said that Terrell Rhodes was arrested on murder charges in connection to the case. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center. Rhodes was identified by family members as the boyfriend of Amaris mother. He made his first court appearance Wednesday and was held without bond, reported News3LV. Rhodes, 27, had claimed he was looking after the child when a woman saying she was the toddlers aunt picked him up from the Emerald Suites apartments. They notified themselves as my girlfriends baby-daddys sister, and they said they were here to pick up Amari, Rhodes told reporters last week, adding that they notified me that it was already pre-arranged. However, the fathers side of the family said that Rhodess claim was incorrect and that it never happened, 8NewsNow reported. Later, Lt. Richard Meyers told the news outlet that as the investigation progressed, it became very clear to us that Terrell Rhodes was our primary suspect. Anyone with information about the incident should contact CrimeStoppers at (702) 385-5555 or on their website. Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, at a press conference in McAllen, Texas, on April 7, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) Border Patrol Union: Impossible to Protect American Public With Open Border McALLEN, TexasThe most concerning aspect of the border crisis is the increasing number of illegal aliens who are getting away, says National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd. We dont know who they are, where theyre from, or what their intentions are, Judd told The Epoch Times. When you look at border security, when you look at the border, we have to be able to identify whos coming into the United States. And if we cant do that, its impossible to protect the American public. In February, Border Patrol estimated that around 30,000 illegal aliens crossed the U.S.Mexico border and evaded capture; in March, it was around 37,000; and the preliminary numbers for April show around 42,600 escaped. Thats about 1,400 per day. On May 5, the Webb County Sheriffs Office discovered 76 illegal immigrants locked inside a residence in Laredo, Texas. On top of that, Judd said, its very fair to say that theres a large number of people that are able to get away that we dont even detect. Some of those illegal aliens who manage to bypass Border Patrol then end up getting picked up during a high-speed vehicle chase, or locked in a tractor-trailer unit, or packed by the dozens in a stash house. Others die on ranchland trying to get around a Border Patrol checkpoint, or theyre abandoned by a smuggler because they get sick. Everything that were seeingthis boat that capsizedeverything is related, Judd said, referring to a human smuggling operation gone bad off the coast of San Diego on May 2. A total of 33 people were pulled from the water after a 40-foot trawling-style boat smashed into rocks and broke apart. Three people died. As long as we continue to, in essence, encourage people to cross our borders illegally, were going to continue to see the stash houses, were going to continue to see the boats, were going to continue to see the semis filled with people, Judd said. Its the most inhumane thing Ive ever seen in my life as it pertains to the border, but its being encouraged. Because we have basically an open borders policy right now. In early May, Houston police discovered 97 illegal immigrants in a suburban house in an alleged human smuggling case, according to the Justice Department. The illegal aliens were from Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras, and were aged between 21 and 31. Five people have been charged with human smuggling. Border Patrol agents in the Laredo sector have been involved in dismantling about 140 stash houses since Oct. 1, 2020a 230 percent increase over the total found during the entire previous fiscal year. The rescued were found in very poor conditions, the sheriffs office wrote in a Facebook post. We have seen other cases where, due to the heat and cramped areas, situations like this one have led to death, said Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar. Sheriffs and landowners from all over Texas are saying theyre stretched for resources to deal with the new influx of illegal activity flowing up from the border. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told The Epoch Times that on May 6, a vehicle traveling through town at 140 miles per hour crashed through two buildings while trying to evade law enforcement. Sheriff Pinky Gonzales of Refugio County, Texas, said hes calculated more than 3,000 deputy man-hours since January to deal with cross-border crime. We have just been overwhelmed, overwhelmed with these cases. I have 13 deputies working around the clock, and sometimes I have to call those that are off to come help us, Gonzales said. Further north, in Lavaca County, Sheriff Micah Harmon said his deputies have dealt with numerous vehicle pursuits and bailouts. In one recent pursuit, a pickup truck carrying 18 to 20 illegal aliens crashed into a tree and caught fire. On the state level, Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star on March 6 in response to the burgeoning number of illegal border crossings, as well as human and drug smuggling throughout the state. During the first four weeks of the operation, Texas Department of Public Safety officers referred more than 16,000 illegal immigrants to Customs and Border Protection and arrested 598 criminals, Abbott said on April 1. In addition, state troopers seized 14 pounds of cocaine, 23 firearms, and almost $1 million in currency and arrested nine gang members involved in smuggling contraband, he said. Judd said he doesnt see anything on the horizon from the Biden administration that will reduce the trajectory of illegal activity at the border. When we do not remove people who crossed the border illegally, that is, in fact, an open border, he said. And I think that as the American public starts to recognize and realize this, I think that theres going to be a huge outcry. I think theres going to be a huge pushback. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have said they are concentrating on sending more aid to address the root causes of illegal immigration in Central American countries and Mexico. Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses are pictured at a new vaccination centre run by the Paris fire brigades in Paris, on May 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Michel Euler) Canada Among Countries Raising Concerns Over US Move to Waive COVID-19 Patents Patents lawyer sees no sound justification for Biden administrations decision The U.S. governments decision to waive patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines is self harm, says an intellectual property (IP) lawyer. Canada is among those countries that have not announced support for the move, saying IP safeguards are not whats preventing vaccine access. The U.S. commitment is inexplicable from any sound perspective, whether it be charitable, self-interested, or foreign policy, says Richard Owens, who has specialized in business and commercial law, IP strategy, and patent and technology laws. This is a situation where Canada actually has the option to do not only the right thing, but the most self-interested thing, Owens told The Epoch Times. And the right thing is to completely reject what the U.S. has donecompletely reject the waiver, and just stand up for an industry that it has beaten up on for so long, added Owens, an adjunct professor of law at the University of Toronto. U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai announced on May 5 that the Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines. This move was supported by the World Health Organization. The Value of IP Protection Its been said that IP is the currency of todays knowledge economy. Thus its wealth, and the U.S. proposal amounts to wealth redistribution, which is an aspect of socialism. I think that for any government to wantonly throw away other peoples property is a pretty shameful thing to do, Owens said. And waiving patent protections is no guarantee that vaccines will be manufactured in sufficient quantities with sufficient quality, and be not-for-profit, he said, noting that the health economy could end up with a proliferation of poor-quality and even counterfeit products. So what youve got is a gesture which is going to be completely ineffectual. Its going to benefit the thieves and corrupt players of the world, like China who caused the pandemic, he added. Moreover, IP protections incentivize companies to take risks, knowing they can get rewarded. Owens said the U.S. decision sets a catastrophic precedent. The pharmaceutical companies that have invested billions and years of research and development may no longer be able to reap the rewards for their efforts. What does that have to do with the incentives to invest in life-saving treatments and other inventions around the world? Owens said. Critical Infrastructure Canadas COVID-19 response has been poor compared to other countries of similar economic status and standard of living. No COVID-19 vaccine production is currently taking place in Canada. Weaker patent protections weaken the environment for biopharmaceutical innovators seeking to invest in R&D and undermine access to the newest innovative medicines in Canada, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerces Global Innovation Policy Center, which publishes an annual report mapping the IP ecosystems in 53 global economies. BioNTech, the small German company that partnered with U.S. giant Pfizer to produce the first U.S.-approved coronavirus vaccine last year, is making investors take a hard look at the German biotech scene. In 2020, German biotech companies raised triple the amount of funding they did in 2019equivalent to US$3.7 billion, according to the Wall Street Journal citing an Ernst & Young analysis. The pharmaceuticals and biotech spaces have not only been cited as strategic industries, but they also form part of a nations critical infrastructure. Varying Views A coalition of MPs from all parties in Canadaincluding Conservative Opposition leader Erin OToolesupports a temporary waiving of COVID vaccine patent protections. We need to work with the Americans on ways, even including suspending IP, to help the world fight COVID together. We have to do that, he said. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is not blocking the U.S. move but is working to find a solution. The federal minister responsible says the barriers to vaccine access are unrelated to IP but have to do with supply chain bottlenecks. Mary Ng, minister of small business, export promotion, and international trade, said Canada would take part in negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning the IP waiver proposal. Our government firmly believes in the importance of protecting IP, and recognizes the integral role that industry has played in innovating to develop and deliver life-saving COVID-19 vaccines, she said in a May 7 statement. Germanys Angela Merkel is opposed to the waiver proposal, saying it will negatively affect vaccine quality. And the European Union says that the United States should focus on lifting vaccine export restrictions and that waiving patent protections is not the first step to widening vaccine rollout. At the WTO, South Africa and India have since last October been the main proponents calling for the IP waiver to avoid barriers to timely access to medicines and the scaling up of their manufacturing. General view of the Imperial Oil refinery, located near Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline, which Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered shut down in May 2021, in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, on March 20, 2021. (Carlos Osorio/Reuters) Canada Warns Michigan Oil Line Shutdown Could Undermine US Ties CALGARY, AlbertaA day before Michigans deadline to close down a key crude oil pipeline, Canada on Tuesday issued its strongest remarks so far about the move, warning that it could undermine relations with the United States, its closest ally and trading partner. Canadian company Enbridge Inc is preparing for a legal battle with Michigan and courting protests from environmental groups, betting it can ignore the states Wednesday deadline to shut down Line 5, which runs under the Straits of Mackinac. The Canadian government, intervening in the case to back Enbridge, said in a U.S. federal court filing that Michigan had no right to act unilaterally since a 1977 Canada-U.S. pipeline treaty guarantees the free flow of oil between the two nations. This case raises concerns regarding the efficacy of the historic framework upon which the U.S.-Canada relationship has been successfully managed for generations, Ottawa said. Michigans move threatens to undermine important aspects of that cooperative international relationship, it added. The brief said Canada would suffer massive and potentially permanent disruption from a shutdown. Line 5 brings 540,000 barrels-per-day of oil from western Canada to Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Canada has been lobbying Washington officials to keep the pipeline open in what is likely to be an election year in Canada. The White House has so far kept quiet. We dont weigh in on that it will be decided in court, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm told reporters on Tuesday when asked about the White Houses position on Line 5. The government of Alberta, Canadas main crude-producing province, welcomed the federal governments intervention. Energy Minister Sonya Savage said Michigans attempt to shut down an operating pipeline set a dangerous precedent for future oil and gas projects. In November 2020, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave Enbridge six months to shut down the pipeline that runs four miles along the bottom of Lake Michigan-Huron, citing fears it could rupture. The order needs a confirmatory order from a judge to enforce it, and Enbridge and Michigan are disputing whether the issue should be heard in state or U.S. federal court. The sides are in court-ordered mediation, with the next session scheduled for May 18. We will not stop operating the pipeline unless we are ordered by a court or our regulator, which we view as highly unlikely, Enbridge spokeswoman Tracie Kenyon said in a statement this week. Whitmer, a Democrat, wrote to Enbridge on Tuesday threatening to seize company profits if Line 5 continues to operate past the Wednesday deadline. The State intends to assert claims for trespass and unjust enrichment against Enbridge at the appropriate time, Whitmer wrote, adding Michigan was confident it would win the ongoing legal battle. Litigation could drag on until at least 2024, said Joe Comartin, Canadas consul general in Detroit who is arguing on behalf of Ottawa. I dont see a court jumping the gun and ordering it closed until the litigation and constitutional issues are resolved, he said by phone. Ontario estimates the city of Sarnia, across the border from Michigan, could lose 5,000 refinery and chemical plant jobs. Industry lobbyists say thousands of U.S. jobs are in danger. Environmentalists and indigenous groups opposed to Line 5 say the potential job losses are exaggerated. They plan Evict Enbridge rallies in Mackinaw City, Michigan, on Wednesday and Thursday. By Nia Williams and David Ljunggren Canadian Police Arrest Christian Pastor But with mass shooters and cannibals, Canadian police prove negligent Commentary In the Canadian province of Alberta, Christian pastor Artur Pawlowski recently defied government health rules to hold a church service. Police responded by placing the Polish immigrant under arrest, and according to one account, a SWAT team forced Pawlowski to kneel in the center of a busy highway. Those who find this conduct puzzling might contrast police tactics during a mass shooting in Canada. On the morning of April 18, 2020, Nova Scotia denturist Gabriel Wortman began shooting people at random. An active shooter normally draws an emergency alert sent to phones and announced on television and radio. With Wortman, that didnt happen. Police chose to warn the public through Twitter, which Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Chief Superintendent Chris Leather claimed was instantaneous and a superior way to communicate this ongoing threat. Many Nova Scotians dont use Twitter and had no clue what was going on. By the end of April 19, a Sunday, Wortman had claimed 22 lives before police finally killed him in a shootout. Had the public been warned by television, radio and phone, which had happened with COVID, many of those deaths could have been avoided. The mass shooting recalls another case of police incompetence in Canada. After working at a summer fair in 2008, Timothy McLean, 22, boarded a Greyhound bus for Winnipeg. Taking a seat next to him was Vince Weiguang Li, born in Dandong, China, and a graduate of the University of Wuhan Institute of Technology with a degree in computer science. From 1994 to 1998, Li reportedly worked as a software engineer in Beijing. But in Canada, where Li immigrated in 2001, he took jobs at fast-food restaurants, Wal-Mart and such. Li became a Canadian citizen in 2006. On July 30, 2008, he too boarded the Greyhound bus for Winnipeg. Li suddenly brandished a large knife and began stabbing McLean in the chest. The larger, stronger man killed McLean then cut off his head, displaying it like a trophy to terrified passengers outside the halted bus. Li frightened off any would-be heroes then reentered the bus, where he dismembered McLean and began eating his victims innards. Li had no gun, but a heavily armed Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) squad did not force entry and take down the murderer. Instead, they waited several hours until Li broke through a window. The Canadian cannibal, as headlines described him, was then subdued and arrested. Police found McLeans nose and tongue in Lis pocket, but officers declined to identify the killer or his victim. Li did not know McLean and there was no evidence he had planned the murder. On the other hand, Li had attempted to drive off the bus, which the driver had disabled, and took other evasive actions. That constituted evidence that Li knew what he did was wrong. Even so, the court found Li not responsible for the crime by reason of mental illness. In June 2009, Li was remanded to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre. In 2010, he was allowed outside the locked ward. And in 2012, he was granted short, escorted visits into the city of Selkirk, Manitoba. In February 2017, Li received an absolute discharge with no requirement to attend reviews or abide by conditions. The Chinese immigrant changed his name to Will Lee Baker and reportedly lives quietly in rural Manitoba. Call him Vince Li, or call him by his new alias Will Baker, Toronto Sun reporter Mark Bonokoski wrote in 2017. But also call him what he isa cannibal killer who beheaded his victim in the back of a Greyhound bus, cut out his heart and ate a piece of it. Time does not erase or sanitize those facts. In the case of the cannibal, Canadian police were careless. With mass shooter Gabriel Wortman, they were downright negligent. By contrast, pastor Pawlowski committed no violent crime, and it was unclear whether innocent people had been harmed by any violation of health regulations. In this case, police did not respond with a message on Twitter. Instead, they showed up in force and treated pastor Pawlowski like a violent criminal. Such heavy handed arrests for violations of health rules are hard to find, so if anybody thought the pastor had been singled out for his Christian faith it would be hard to blame them. Now released from custody, Artur Pawloski could be forgiven for likening contemporary Canada to the Polish Communist state he and his family knew from experience. Lloyd Billingsley is the author of Yes I Con: United Fakes of America, Barack em Up: A Literary Investigation, Hollywood Party, and other books. His articles have appeared in many publications, including Frontpage Magazine, City Journal, The Wall Street Journal, and American Greatness. Billingsley serves as a policy fellow with the Independent Institute. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A group of illegal immigrants with Border Patrol after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in La Joya, Texas, on April 10, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) CBP Southern Border Arrests Hit Record Levels in April; Number of Unaccompanied Minors Down Arrests and detentions at the U.S.Mexico border hit record levels in April, although fewer unaccompanied minors entered the United States illegally, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data published on May 11. Immigration arrests and detentions at the southern border last month rose by 3 percent from March, to 178,622the highest one-month total in 20 years, CBP data show. In contrast, the number of teens and children arriving unaccompanied last month declined by about 9 percent from March, to 13,962. CBP continues to see a large influx of illegal migration along the southwest border, CBP Senior Official Performing the Duties of Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement. In order to disrupt criminal organizations that have little regard for human life, CBP is leading the way alongside external law enforcement partners through Operational Sentinel. Day after day, CBP rescues migrants abandoned in harsh terrain, left for dead with no food or water. CBP is committed to enhancing the security of the U.S. border and helping save the lives of vulnerable migrants. BORDER: Watched at least 15 rafts loaded with illegal immigrants cross the Rio Grande during several hours in Roma, Texas, last night. They heard to come to the U.S. and bring kids. #BorderCrisis pic.twitter.com/Wwy61JpCrv Charlotte Cuthbertson (@charlottecuthbo) May 11, 2021 Last months figures mark the first month since President Joe Biden took office that the CBP didnt record a major month-on-month jump in the number of border arrests and detentions, despite reaching record levels. The longer the president maintains his reckless immigration policies, the worse this crisis at our border will get, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said on Twitter in response to the latest CBP data. Twenty Republican governors from states including South Dakota, Georgia, Iowa, Nebraska, and New Hampshire wrote a letter (pdf) to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on May 11, urging the administration to address the crisis at the border. The crisis is too big to ignore and is now spilling over the border states into all of our states, the governors wrote. At a time when our country is trying to recover from a once-in-a-generation pandemic, the last thing we need is a self-created crisis that exploits families, undermines public safety, and threatens our national security. We urge you to take action to end the humanitarian crisis and secure our southern border immediately. While the Biden administration has called the unprecedented surge in numbers a challenge, neither the president nor the vice president has visited the border. On April 25, when a reporter asked Harris why she hasnt visited the southern border, she replied, Im not going to play political games. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on May 4, After coming into office, our administration immediately jumped into action to address the influx of migrants at the bordersomething that began during and was exacerbated by the Trump administration. Charlotte Cuthbertson contributed to this report. High school student Kelly Zhou, 17, receives her first Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine administered by Medical Assistants from St. John's Well Child and Family Center at Abraham Lincoln High School in Los Angeles, Calif., on April 23, 2021. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images) CDC Panel Endorses Pfizer Vaccine for Adolescents as Young as 12 A federal advisory panel approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine on children aged 12 to 15 on May 12. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which offers assistance to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), voted unanimously, 140, in favor of the vaccine, saying that after evaluating trial evidence, it showed no cases of severe allergic reactions or Bells Palsy on the age group, and none of them contracted COVID-19. This will provide protection for 12 to 15-year-olds, said Dr. Henry Bernstein, a member of the advisory committee and professor of pediatrics at Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, according to Reuters. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signed the panels recommendation, and the agency is now recommending the vaccine be used among children aged 12 and older. For vaccination to do its job, we must do our critical part. That means vaccinating as many people as possible who are eligible. This official CDC action opens vaccination to approximately 17 million adolescents in the United States and strengthens our nations efforts to protect even more people from the effects of COVID-19. Getting adolescents vaccinated means their faster return to social activities and can provide parents and caregivers peace of mind knowing their family is protected, Walensky said in a statement. On May 10, the FDA approved the usage expansion for the Pfizer vaccine. Pfizers testing in adolescents met our rigorous standards, FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said in a statement. Pfizer isnt the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize. Last week, Biden administration officials said the goal will be to apply at least one COVID-19 shot to 70 percent of adults in the nation and to get 160 million adults fully vaccinated by Independence Day. The goal comes as authorities encounter increasing opposition against the vaccine due to hesitation over concerns of side effects, safety, efficacy, the speed at which it was made ready, mistrust in pharmaceutical companies, and an aversion to vaccine passports. Some children are already having their sleeves rolled up for inoculation. States such as Georgia, Delaware, and Arkansas started to offer vaccination of younger teens on May 11. According to Quartz, Pfizer is expecting to sell $15 billion in vaccines in 2021 alone. Pfizer is the first company to have been approved for advanced market use, they expect a 6 percent growth in 2021moving toward about $60 billion in earnings from $42 billion made last year, which would make it one of the most profitable drugs on the globe. From Dec. 14, 2020, to May 3, the publicly available Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System received 4,178 reports of deaths among people who received a COVID-19 vaccine. In a recent data update, the CDC states that less than 6 percent of deaths involving COVID-19 were due to COVID-19 alone. For the rest of the cases, there was an average of 4.0 additional conditions or causes per death. According to recent data from the American Academy of Pediatrics: Children were 0.00%0.21% of all COVID-19 deaths, and 9 states reported zero child deaths. In states reporting, 0.00%0.03% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in death. Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Paducah Couple in Court On Drug Charges By West Kentucky Star Staff MCCRACKEN COUNTY - A Paducah couple appeared in court Tuesay to face drug trafficking charges.The cases of 57-year-old Marland Riley and 40-year-old Ashley Riley appeared in district court for a preliminary hearing where their cases were bound to a grand jury. They are scheduled to be arraigned on June 17.They were arrested on January 6 after McCracken County deputies said a search of their vehicle uncovered 93 grams of marijuana packaged to sell and 100 oxycodone pills.Both face charges of trafficking in marijuana, trafficking in a controlled substance (drug unspecified), tampering with physical evidence, drug paraphernalia possession, and prescription not in its original container.Marland is also charged with disregarding a stop sign. Ashley is additionally charged with third-degree possession of a controlled substance. Out of service fuel nozzles are covered in plastic on a gas pump at a gas station in Waynesville, N.C., on May 11, 2021. (Martin Brossman via Reuters) 71 Percent of Charlotte Area Gas Stations out of Fuel; Police Warn of Gas Crisis About 71 percent of gas stations in the Charlotte, North Carolina, area are completely out of gas, as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police described the situation as a gas crisis and requested that nonessential travel be avoided. Patrick De Haan, a top analyst for GasBuddy, said that 78 percent of gas stations in the Greenville area have no gas, and 72 percent of Raleigh-Durham stations, 71 percent of Charlotte-area stations, 69 percent of stations around Greenville, and 65 percent of Norfolk-area stations are out of gas. Authorities with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD), describing the situation as a gas crisis on May 12, told local media that people should limit nonessential travel, check on neighbors, and shouldnt hoard fuel. We are going to get through this, CMPD Capt. Brad Koch told WBTV. Similar to when we have severe weather and we lose a lot of bread and milk at stores. It comes after a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline system that transports fuel from the Gulf Coast to the northeastern United States. According to an update from the firm on May 11, its still working to restart the pipeline. North Carolina update: 78% of Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville/Anderson stns no gasoline 72% of Raleigh/Durham stns no gasoline 71% of Charlotte stns no gasoline 69% of Greenville/New Bern/Washington stns no gasoline 65% of Norfolk/Portsmouth/Newport stns no gasoline Patrick De Haan (@GasBuddyGuy) May 12, 2021 Colonial wrote that its continuing to make progress on its efforts to return the pipeline to service, saying its working to make deliveries in Atlanta, Ga., Belton and Spartanburg, S.C., Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C., Baltimore, Md., and Woodbury and Linden, N.J. Meanwhile, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, issued a state of emergency over potential fuel shortages, saying its designed to prepare the state for fuel supply issues and ensure drivers can have access to gas or diesel. De Haan told The Epoch Times that during fuel shortages, drivers see other drivers sitting in long lines and join them. Self-fulfilling prophecypeople see other people, they read about it, and everyones freaking out, he said. Whereas smaller communities, they may not be on top of it. Theyre apparently driving around to/from work, they see gas lines and they think, Oh man, I better get it, too. Earlier this week, the FBI confirmed that a cybercriminal gang called DarkSide was behind the ransomware attack. DarkSide, which is reportedly based in Russia, claims its apolitical and only wants to make money. Zachary Stieber contributed to this report. State Department Condemns Attack on Epoch Times(May 11) An independent news outlet in Hong Kong is feeling the heat from Beijing. The newspaper has been attacked twice in the span of a month. Its director suspects its part of a crackdown, ordered by the Chinese regime. A grieving mother in China has been arrested dozens of times. Shes looking for answers following her sons death, which she says couldve been avoided. Three leopards escaped a Chinese zoo. But the zoo didnt announce their disappearance until weeks later. One of the big cats is still at large. A curious trend appeared on Chinese social media: Winnie the Pooh. But mentions of the honey-loving teddy bear soon disappeared from trending charts. Thats because Chinese netizens often use Winnie the Pooh as a euphemism for Communist Party leader Xi Jinping. Reports reveal a new, GermanChinese vaccine collaboration. A Chinese drugmaker will give its German counterpart $100 million. In return, the German company will hand over its vaccine manufacturing technology. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more first-hand news from China. For more news and videos, please visit our website and Twitter. Chinese rights lawyer Chang Weiping's parents protest the torture of their son in front of the Gaoxin branch of the Baoji City Public Security Bureau, China, on Dec. 14, 2020. (Source/The Epoch Times) Chinese Lawyer Tortured, Denied Access to Family and Attorneys for Over 6 Months A Chinese rights lawyer has said hes been tortured and denied access to his family and attorneys for six months. Chang Weiping, who is well-known for representing vulnerable groups in China, is currently detained in a detention center in Feng County, Shaanxi Province. On May 4, human rights officials from the United States, the European Union, Germany, France, Finland, Norway, and the Netherlands met in Beijing with Changs wife, Chen Zijuan, to express concern for the lawyer, according to a May 7 post by Chen on Twitter. On April 9, Chen wrote a letter of complaint to a top watchdog in Shaanxi Province, accusing the Baoji City Public Security Bureau and its Gaoxin branch of illegally collecting evidence against her husband. Her allegations include distorting the facts in connection to Changs case and threatening witnesses. Changs parents also protested the Chinese regimes torture of their son in December 2020. A Dangerous Party Changs alleged ill-treatment originated from a party held in Xiamen city, Fujian Province. According to Radio Free Asia, about 20 citizens from different provinces joined the day-long party at a rented house in Xiamen in early December 2019. Attendees included human rights lawyers, including Ding Jiaxi and Chang Weiping, and law scholars including Xu Zhiyong. They discussed challenges mainland Chinese lawyers face in performing their duties. Eighteen days later, on Dec. 26, police launched a nationwide raid against nearly all the participants, on charges of subversion of state power. On Jan. 14, 2020, Chang was subjected to 10 days of secret detention and his certificate to practice law was revoked. He was later released on bail pending trial. Torture After months of silence, Chang exposed shocking details about the physical abuse he suffered, via an 8 1/2-minute video posted on YouTube on Oct. 16, 2020. He also made a statement that he would never commit suicide or harm himself. Such a statement is seen almost as a requirement for dissidents or activists when they face intimidation or torture from the Chinese Communist Party. I was locked in a torture chair in a room of Baoti Hotel for 10 days, 24 hours a dayan extreme form of inflicting pain. The impact on me is that my right hands index and ring fingers remain numb, senseless, or functionally abnormal, the lawyer said. According to former Chinese detainees, a torture chair is colloquially called a tiger chair in Chinese, and it involves fastening a detainees hands and feet so that he or she is immobilized. The detainee is then denied sleep for hours or days. Within those 10 days, the local police interrogated Chang 16 times, searching through his contacts, connections, online speech, and immigration records, only to find nothing, he said. On Oct. 22, 2020, six days after the video was posted, he was taken away by police officers from the Gaoxin branch of the Baoji City Public Security Bureau, who failed to present any legal documents. Since then, he has been held under so-called residential surveillance at a designated location. On April 20, 2021, Margarete von Galen, president of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, wrote an open letter to Chinese leader Xi Jinping (pdf) expressing serious concern over the continued detention of Chang. The letter aimed to draw Xis attention to the U.N. Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers; urged Xi to do everything in his power to ensure Chang has immediate access to his lawyers and to restore his freedom; and requested that Xi take all necessary measures to guarantee that all lawyers in China are able to carry out their professional duties without fear of reprisal, hindrance, intimidation, or harassment. On Nov. 16, 2020, Amnesty International (pdf) called for the immediate and unconditional release of Chang unless there is sufficient credible and admissible evidence that Chang has committed an internationally recognized offense, and that he be granted a fair trial in line with international standards. Hong Ning contributed to this report. Pro-Union activists wave a Union flag (C) as Scottish Saltire and EU flags fly during an anti-Conservative government, pro-Scottish independence, and anti-Brexit demonstration outside Holyrood, the seat of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Feb. 1, 2020. (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images) Clear Mandate for Another Scottish Independence Vote: Experts The Scottish National Party (SNP) has a clear mandate to hold a second Scottish independence referendum, although it may not happen for a while, experts have said. The argument over Scottish independence has intensified in recent days after the SNPs landslide victory in the Holyrood election, which also produced the largest pro-independence majority in the Parliament in the history of devolution. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has since stood by his preelection position, saying the focus should be on the recovery from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic and not on another independence referendum. The SNP fell one seat short of having the overall majority that they desperately wanted during the campaign, Paula Surridge, deputy director at the UK in a Changing Europe initiative and senior lecturer at the University of Bristol, told Epoch Times affiliate NTD on Monday. But theres still a clear majority within the Scottish Parliament if you take the SNP and the Greens, who pick up quite a lot of seats on the list vote and who were also in favour of a second referendum, she said. So theres plenty of support there and a mandate there, if you like, in terms of the number of seats. Scotlands First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Nicola Sturgeon reacts after being declared the winner of the Glasgow Southside seat at Glasgow counting centre in the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, on May 7, 2021. (Andy Buchanan/AFP via Getty Images) Sir John Curtis, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde, also said that the SNP has got a much clearer mandate of a second referendum than it did in 2016. Apart from the fact that pro-independence MSPs now have a majority in Parliament, the crucial difference from the last election in 2016, is what the parties have said in their manifestos, Curtis told NTD on Monday. In a Scottish independence referendum in September 2014, 55.30 percent of Scottish voters voted to remain in the United Kingdom, two years before the UK voted to leave the EU. Curtis said that back in 2016, SNP said they didnt want a second independence referendum unless there was to be a material change of circumstance, referring to Brexit. But this time around, they have simply said, We want another referendum at some point during the course of the next five years, preferably the next two years. So they said something much more direct and much clearer, Curtis said. In so far as politicians gaining their mandate from voters having voted for the manifesto that they stood on, the SNP have this time a much clearer mandate than the one that they had five years ago. SNP Not Ready With regard to when a second Scottish independence referendum may happen, Surridge said its unclear. She said its also unclear whether or not the UK government would support a call for a referendum, but at the moment, people are saying, now isnt the time, because recovering from the pandemic is more urgent. The statue of philosopher David Hume on the Royal Mile, which runs from Edinburgh Castle at the top down to Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Feb. 21, 2012. (Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) Curtis added that there is another reason why the SNP is not yet ready to have the referendum. Asked about the chance of a yes vote, Curtis said it would be a 5050 shot. The opinion polls in recent weeks and over much of the last three years suggested that support for yes and support for no to independence are roughly at 5050 each, Curtis said. And certainly, the message from the ballot box is consistent with that, he added. We are literally just over 50 percent of people voting for the unionist parties on the constituency balloting, just over 50 percent of people voting for the Nationalist Party on the list ballot. So it does look as though the countrys split down the middle. Therefore, Curtis said, neither side is guaranteed to win if a referendum is to happen at the moment. Both sides have a lot of work to do, he said. Above all their arguments, a lot has changed since 2017, he said, adding that both sides would have to marshal their forces to further the debate and shift the dial of public opinion. Both of them have a lot of work to do. And wed really have to wait and see how the Scottish public reacts. If and when we get into a substantial debate about independence, of the kind that so far weve not really been having. Curtis said that both the impact of the pandemic and the nationalist sides own interest point to at least not a rush to try to hold a referendum, but rather something that is going to take place sometime down the track. Reporting by Jane Werrell of NTD, PA contributed to this report. A sign tells customers that no gas is available at a gas station in Smyrna, Georgia, on May 11, 2021. (Elijah Nouvelage/AFP via Getty Images) Colonial Pipeline Cyberattack Exposes Vulnerabilities in Critical Infrastructure What happened in the US could well happen in Canada, professor says News Analysis The cyberattack that shut down the Colonial Pipeline in the United States made clear the consequences of such attacks in a tangible way, as it led to gas price hikes and even fuel pump closures in the American Northeast, causing disruptions to daily life. The incident serves as a sign of things to come if cybersecurity isnt taken more seriously, due to increased connectivity in industrial and critical infrastructure, says Thomas Keenan, a cybersecurity expert and professor at the University of Calgary. It could happen in Canada. We have pipelines. We have the same equipment that they have in the United States, Keenan said in an interview, adding that, similar to the United States, Canada can do little to deter rogue players in non-allied foreign countries. U.S. President Joe Biden has said that there is evidence the cyberattack was launched by actors in Russia, but that so far there is no indication of Russian government involvement although Moscow has a responsibility to deal with the issue. The pipeline was the target of a cyberattack on May 7 involving ransomware, a type of malicious software that allows hackers to take control of computerized systems and to demand payment for releasing control. In response, Colonial pre-emptively shut down the pipeline. The FBI has confirmed that the cybercrime group DarkSide is behind the attack. The hacker group said in a statement that its apolitical and not tied to any government, and is only after money. A spokesperson with the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), Canadas IT security and foreign signals intelligence agency, said that the CSE is monitoring the impact of the Colonial Pipelines cyberattack. CSE has a strong and valuable relationship with its Five Eyes alliance partners, including our intelligence and cyber defence counterparts in the United States. We regularly share information with our partners that has a significant impact on protecting our respective countries safety and security, Evan Koronewski said in an email. Increased Connectivity Gary Miliefsky, a cybersecurity expert and publisher of Cyber Defense Magazine, says that with advances in connectivity capabilities, there are now more inherent vulnerabilities in industrial systems and critical infrastructure. Holding tanks are seen in an aerial photograph at Colonial Pipelines Dorsey Junction Station in Woodbine, Md., on May 10, 2021. (Drone Base/Reuters) Operational technology, or OT, is now merging with information technology, or IT, Miliefsky said in an interview. With very simple commands you can cause two trains to collide. The Feb. 5 incident in Florida, where hackers tried to poison a citys water supply using remote controls, serves as another example of the deadly consequences of cyberattacks. In that case, the attack was averted due to the intervention of an operator who was remotely monitoring the water supply. According to Keenan, the Colonial Pipeline incident is the highest-profile attack experienced so far involving the internet of things, or IoT, referring to connectivity of devices around the world. He says a major reason for incidents like this is that cybersecurity and protection measures havent kept up with tactics used by criminals. A key contributing factor, he says, is increased use of off-the-shelf technology by companies. Using widely available equipment rather than custom-made equipment saves companies considerable cost, but the problem is that wide use means more vulnerabilities can be identified and exploited. When pipeline companies had very specialized controllers that were made just for them and nobody else could get them, it was a lot harder to find out what the vulnerabilities were, Keenan said. And its not just companies, its governments, the militarythey all realized they can save a lot of money by using off-the-shelf technology. Cybercriminals and State Actors Authorities in both Canada and the United States say cybercrime is on the rise, threatening national security and public safety as well as economic well-being. CSE said in a report last year that Canada is vulnerable to attacks from both cybercriminals and states, including China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea. Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers march next to the entrance to the Forbidden City during the opening ceremony of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in Beijing on May 21, 2020. (Nicolas Asfouri/AFP via Getty Images) In the case of cybercriminals, the main targets are large companies and critical infrastructure providers, on the assumption that they would be willing to pay hefty sums of money to get back to operation, the report said. Many Canadian victims will likely continue to give in to ransom demands due to the severe costs of losing business and rebuilding their networks, and the potentially destructive consequences of refusing payment, it said. The report adds that state actors would be looking to develop capabilities to be able to disrupt critical infrastructure, such as to cut off electricity supply. Although these state actors, in the absence of international hostilities, are not likely to launch a cyberattack to cause major damage or loss of life, they may use the potential capability to intimidate other states or to prepare for future activities, the report said. Foreign actors also harm Canada by conducting cyberespionage against Canadian businesses and stealing intellectual property, as well as by interfering in the internal affairs of Canada, such as running influence campaigns during elections, the report said. Keenan says both the Canadian and U.S. governments have active measures or hack back capabilitiesthe ability to hack an asset belonging to a hostile poweravailable as tools of retaliation to serve as a deterrent, but they would only be used following great consideration if geopolitical escalation is at risk. There have been a number of recent cyberattack incidents with suspected hostile foreign power involvement. Late in 2020, U.S. authorities reported a major months-long hacking operation targeting the information technology firm SolarWinds. The prolonged attack compromised the networks of private firms as well as the U.S. government, including the Department of Homeland Security and the Treasury Department. Authorities believe Russia was behind the attacks. In another case earlier this year, hackers attacked Microsoft Exchange servers, accessing personal records on hundreds of thousands of servers around the world. Microsoft said the operation was carried out by a Chinese state-sponsored hacker group. Canadas National Research Councils computer infrastructure was the subject of a major cyberattack by Chinese state-sponsored hackers in 2014. Citing government documents, The Globe and Mail reported that the resulting damage was in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Prevention Miliefsky says the best way organizations can guard against future attacks is to assume theyre being breached every day. If they can start assuming theyre being breached every day, they would probably take steps to never let it last more than a few minutes, rather than days, he said. The SolarWinds logo is seen outside its headquarters in Austin, Texas, on Dec. 18, 2020. (Sergio Flores/Reuters) The Canadian and U.S. governments have taken measures to enhance cybersecurity for critical infrastructure, but recent cases have demonstrated that assets still remain vulnerable to attacks. In the aftermath of recent attacks, such as the hacking of SolarWinds, the U.S. government is intending to issue an executive order to mandate security enhancements for government contractors. However, even with these enhancements, an attack like that against SolarWinds wouldnt have been prevented, says Terry Thompson, an adjunct instructor in cybersecurity at Johns Hopkins University. Thompson writes in a commentary in The Conversation that a lot of the vulnerability is due to foreign dependence and the risks present when the software being used is developed in jurisdictions that our own governments have no control over. He says more government action is required to thwart the risks from outside. [P]reventing ransomware attacks like the Colonial Pipeline attack would require U.S. intelligence and law enforcement to infiltrate every organized cyber criminal group in Eastern Europe, he writes. In the case of the SolarWinds incident, there were also some simple things that should have been done better, such as the use of a stronger password for the companys development server, Thompson notes. Keenan also says that there should be better cybersecurity education for individuals to enhance security practices and boost defences against phishing attacks. What would also help in these situations, he adds, is stronger breach notifications when organizations are attacked, rather than hiding the information from the public. We should get the best minds working on these, he says. Critics Say Dems Election Reforms Will Prompt Flood of Constitutional Challenges Passage of Democrats top legislative prioritythe massive registration and voting reform package named the For the People Act of 2021will prompt a rush to the courthouse steps, according to Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project. There are a number of constitutional infirmities and deficiencies that stem from its treatment of presidential and congressional elections identically, even though Congress has vastly reduced powers to regulate presidential elections under the Constitution, Snead told reporters during a virtual news conference on May 12. There are problems under the 14th Amendment, for instance, when it comes to felon reenfranchisement, because the 14th Amendment clearly allows states to make determinations about whether someone is going to lose their voting rights when they commit a felony and are convicted, Snead said. There are problems with redistricting where, again, the Constitution says state legislatures have that power, but this bill compels by an act of Congress that they effectively cede that to independent redistricting commissions, so there are lots of problems with this, and I think you will see a tremendous number of lawsuits filed as Congress essentially tries to step on the toes of the states. He also noted that 20 state attorneys general recently wrote to Congress in a letter that pointed out just a few of the constitutional issues that would undoubtedly undergird some of their challenges. Also answering reporters questions during the news conference were former Virginia Attorney General and Trump administration alumnus Ken Cuccinelli, who is now chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, and Jessica Anderson, executive director of Heritage Action for America. The Senate Committee on Rules and Administration held a markup session on May 11 on S.1, the upper chambers version of H.R.1, which the House passed earlier this year on a 220-210 vote that included no Republican supporters and one Democratic opponent. The proposal includes huge changes in virtually every aspect of voter registration and voting, incorporating as a national mandate temporary reforms used to make voting easier in the 2020 elections amid the CCP virus pandemic and lockdowns. The reforms include nationwide voting early and by mail, the elimination of virtually all voter qualifications including photo IDs, vote-harvesting practices critics say encourage voter fraud, and allowing voting by illegal immigrants and individuals convicted of murder and other violent crimes. The panel couldnt agree on a final version of S.1 to report out to the full Senate, but the lengthy session that lasted well into the evening voted on a host of proposed amendments, rejecting most but agreeing to a few. One of the amendments that passed was offered by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to eliminate a provision of the proposal that required candidates for redistricting commissions to include in their applications descriptions of their religious activities. Cuccinelli told The Epoch Times following the news conference that the provision requires certain information from individuals who may be selected to serve on the commissions, and among that information is their affiliation with and support for religious organizations. Cuccinelli said he believes Democrats included the provision as a tool to prevent conservative Catholics and evangelicals from being involved in the redistricting commissions. There can be no other reason to request that information, because if you cant use it and it isnt relevant, why would you ask for it? he said. During the news conference, Cuccinelli said Republicans managed to gain adoption of an amendment that struck a provision that would have allowed incumbent congressmen and their challengers to use public campaign financing funds for personal uses. If the bill becomes law, it will allocate $6 in tax funds for every $1 in private contributions received by incumbents seeking reelection and their challengers. How much that provision would be worth to these Democrats in their last election cycles. In my home state of Virginia, that would have been more than $10 million to Mark Warner, Cuccinelli said, referring to Sen. Mark Warner, the Virginia Democrat who was reelected in the 2020 election. Had the provision been in effect for the Senate elections in Georgia, Cuccinelli said, it would have provided an astounding sum, it would have maxed out the bill, which was said in the committee to be worth $80 million [for Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga.]. Anderson said the markup session illustrated for conservatives just how detrimental the provisions of S.1 would be when you saw the discussion of the federal takeover of elections, you saw the discussion of murderers and child molesters voting with the provision automatically allowing felons to vote on release, the discussion around public financing of campaigns, a partisan Federal Election Commission, I mean that back and forth was wild. The committee failed to advance the amended measure on a 99 party-line vote, but it may yet make it to the Senate floor. The Senate is evenly divided 5050 between the parties, with Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties. President Joe Biden has promised to sign the bill into law if it makes it to his desk. Anderson said four Democratic senatorsJoe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Jon Tester of Montana, and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshirelikely will be the most important factors in the bills ultimate outcome. All three of the organizations represented at the news conference are mounting multimillion-dollar public education efforts to inform voters of the problems they see with the legislation and encouraging them to contact their senators. Congressional correspondent Mark Tapscott may be reached at mark.tapscott@epochtimes.nyc US Coast Guard Closes Mississippi River Portion After Large Bridge Crack Found Authorities were forced to close a bridge spanning the Mississippi River between Arkansas and Tennessee after a crack was discovered on the bottom of the bridge truss, prompting the U.S. Coast Guard to halt boat traffic in the area. The Hernando de Soto Bridge, which includes Interstate 40, connecting West Memphis, Arkansas, and Memphis, Tennessee, was shut down after the Tennessee Department of Transportation said in a news conference on Wednesday. Emergency repairs started on the bridge on Tuesday, officials told local media. A routine inspection of I-40 MS River Bridge revealed a crack that requires further investigation were working with [Tennessee officials] to make sure the bridge is safe for motorists before we reopen it, the Arkansas Department of Transportation also wrote. The crack, authorities said, is critical to the bridges structural integrity. This fracture had the potential of becoming a catastrophic event, Lorie Tudor, director of the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said in a news conference, as reported by the Memphis Commercial Appeal. The Tennessee Department of Transportation also released photos on social media of the damaged bridge, showing a significant crack in the truss. Officials said a contractor discovered it. In the meantime, the state agency said that an inspection is still underway and may take a couple of weeks to complete. It urged motorists to use alternate routes. Regarding how long the bridge will remain shut down, a chief engineer with the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Paul Degges, said, Right now we just dont know, according to the Commercial Appeal. Its plausible that this can be months rather than weeks, Degges said. The U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday confirmed it closed a portion of the lower Mississippi River near the bridge. There are currently 16 vessels with a total of 229 barges in the queue, the Coast Guard said in a news release. All boat traffic on the Mississippi River was halted until further notice, said Capt. Ryan Rhodes, captain of the Port of Memphis, reported WREG. The Coast Guard is currently working with Arkansas Department of Transportation, Tennessee Department of Transportation and river industry stakeholders on this developing situation, Rhodes said. Based on the current information available, we have closed a portion of the Lower Mississippi River out of an abundance of caution. The captain of the port is monitoring the situation and will continue to ensure the safety of the maritime environment and surrounding community. Meanwhile, traffic website IdriveArkansas.com suggested that while I-40 is closed, it recommends drivers take Interstate 55, which appears to be severely backed up. Dont Reward Iranian Violence by Ending Economic Sanctions Commentary To quote the U.S. Navys official announcement, on May 6 the cruiser USS Monterey seized an illicit shipment of weapons from a stateless dhow in international waters of the North Arabian Sea. The list of weaponry aboard the dhow included advanced Russian-made anti-tank missiles, around 3,000 Chinese assault rifles, several hundred light machine guns, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades launchers, and advanced optical sights. On a battlefield, those weapons set could arm a light infantry brigade of 4,000 soldiersor guerrilla fighters. Stateless is diplo-speak indicating the dhow had no flag or other sign of national origin. It suggests the dhows crew had no valid cargo papers to show the U.S. Coast Guard Advanced Interdiction Team inspecting their vessel. When USN warships enter sea lanes plied by smugglers and pirates, they often have a Coast Guard team aboard with legal authority to address transnational criminal operations. Smugglers prowl the north Arabian Sea (an arm of the Indian Ocean), moving narcotics, stolen electronics, even Persian rugs. But smuggling a calculated weapons mix like the USN seized? Irans dictators scream plausible deniability but their corrupt state planned, assembled, and shipped the weapons. Why? The junta is intrinsically violent. It has been on the State Departments state-sponsor of terrorism list since 1984. Iranian intelligence agents and special forces officers direct or finance violent meddling operations in at least 30 different countries while skimming money from drug smuggling and human trafficking. The dhow, however, bore a war-fighting cargo. Right now the regime is waging four proxy wars: 1) in neighboring Iraq, 2) in wretched Syria, 3) in Lebanon, and 4) in chaotic Yemen. Cross off Lebanon and Syria, the dhow would have to transit the Suez Canal. Iraq and Iran share a land border; let trucks smuggle the guns. The dhows destination was Yemen, an Indian Ocean beach or a small port in the Red Sea. For decades, Irans dictatorship has seeded violence in Yemen. For over 15 years, it has armed and financed Yemens major rebel group, the Houthis. Yemen gives Iran a second front in its slow war with Saudi Arabia. Iran supplies its Houthi proxies with armed drones and ballistic missiles, which the Houthis use to attack Saudi Arabia. The Al Quds Force is the elite arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The Quds Force controls Irans international covert and proxy warfare operations and oversees ballistic missile units. StrategyPage.com (full disclosure: I am a contributing editor) recently published a report arguing Irans late 2020 decision to make a Quds Force general its ambassador to Yemen indicates Tehran is giving the orders now to Yemeni rebels. Quds Force officers supervise Iranian support for combat operations and take a more direct role in running the war. The report links Iranian direction of the Yemen war to the negotiations to end economic sanctions on Iran underway in Europe. The negotiations would also revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the ostentatious name former President Obamas administration pasted on its Iran nuclear deal. My guess: The seized weapons were sent to beef up Houthi forces for a new offensive thats timed to affect those ongoing negotiations. Irans offer as the Houthi offensive kicks off: Well cool the war if you give us money. On May 10, armed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy speedboats feigned ramming attacks on American vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. The Coast Guard Cutter Maui had to fire warning shots to disperse the swarm. The swarming small boats try to cause collisions between the big ships. The U.S. flotilla included the USS Monterey. Payback or coincidence? For years, Iran has feigned swarm attacks in Hormuz. War, terror, and crime are what Irans dictatorship does. Obamas JCPOA never halted Irans nuclear weapons program. It failed to penalize the Iranian regimes violent meddling and criminal operations. Ending economic sanctions will just give the mullahs more money to spend on proxy wars like the one in Yemen. Reviving the JCPOA will give the regime the bomb. To believe otherwise is delusion. Austin Bay is a colonel (ret.) in the U.S. Army Reserve, author, syndicated columnist, and teacher of strategy and strategic theory at the University of TexasAustin. His latest book is Cocktails from Hell: Five Wars Shaping the 21st Century. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. A large fire is seen near the scene of what officials said was a Gaza rocket attack on an Israeli energy pipeline near Ashkelon, Israel, on May 11, 2021. (Amir Cohen/Reuters) Dozens Dead as Hamas, Israel Escalate Aerial Bombardments Israeli energy pipeline hit in Gaza rocket attack, sources say GAZA/JERUSALEMHostilities between Hamas and Israel escalated on Tuesday, raising the death toll in two days to 32 Palestinians and three people in Israel, with the terrorist group firing rockets at Tel Aviv and Israel carrying out multiple air strikes in Gaza. A pipeline belonging to an Israeli state-owned energy company was hit in a rocket attack from Gaza late on Tuesday, an Israeli government official and an energy sector official told Reuters. Video broadcast by Channel 12 showed flames rising from what appeared to be a large fuel vat near the Israeli Mediterranean city of Ashkelon, south of Tel Aviv. Operations at a power plant in Ashkelon were not interrupted, Channel 13 TV said. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Twitter said at 3:22 a.m. local time, Terrorists in Gaza are firing rockets non-stop as civilians in central and southern Israel spend their night in shelters to protect themselves from rocket fire. In another slightly earlier post, the group wrote, Its 3AM and more rockets are being fired at Tel Aviv. Families are being woken up & rushed to bomb shelters. Gazans reported their homes shaking and the sky lighting up with Israeli attacks, outgoing rockets fired by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and Israeli air defence missiles intercepting them into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Israelis ran for shelters or flattened themselves on pavements in communities more than 45 miles up the coast amid sounds of explosions as interceptor missiles streaked into the sky. Israel said hundreds of rockets had been fired by the terrorist groups. In Tel Aviv, air raid sirens were heard around the city. For Israel, the terrorists targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with the Islamic Hamas group. In the late hours of Tuesday, the IDF had posted a message addressed to citizens of Gaza saying that it is striking Hamas weapons stores hidden inside civilian buildings in Gaza. The Israeli military added, Although Hamas wants to put you in harms way, we urge you to stay away from Hamas weapons sites and get to safety. Our goal is only to strike terror. A 13-story residential building in Gaza had collapsed after it was hit by an Israeli air strike, one of hundreds that Israel said it had carried out against Hamas targets. The aerial exchanges between Israel and Hamas appeared to have escalated to a most intensive state since a 2014 war in Gaza, and prompted international concern that the situation could spiral out of control. U.N. Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland tweeted, Stop the fire immediately. Were escalating towards a full scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation. He added, The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now. The U.N. Security called for emergency consultations for Wednesday on the escalating violence between Palestinians and Israelis. Wennesland is expected to brief the 15 council members virtually at the closed meeting, which is being called at the request of China, Tunisia and Norway. The violence followed weeks of tension in Jerusalem during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and around Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the compound revered by Jews as Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. These escalated in recent days ahead of a now-postponed court hearing in a case that could end with Palestinian families evicted from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers. Streaks of light are seen as Israels Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, as seen from Ashkelon, Israel, on May 11, 2021. (Nir Elias/Reuters) Smoke rises from a building after it was destroyed by Israeli air strikes amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza, on May 11, 2021. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters) A Very Heavy Price There appeared no imminent end to the violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that terrorists would pay a very heavy price for the rockets, which reached the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday during a holiday in Israel commemorating its capture of East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. We are at the height of a weighty campaign, Netanyahu said in televised remarks, adding, Hamas and Islamic Jihad paid and will pay a very heavy price for their belligerence. Hamasseeking the opportunity to marginalize Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to present itself as the guardians of Palestinians in Jerusalemsaid it was up to Israel to make the first move. The terrorist groups leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said Israel had ignited fire in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and the flames extended to Gaza, therefore, it is responsible for the consequences. Haniyeh said that Qatar, Egypt, and the United Nations had been in contact urging calm but that Hamass message to Israel was, If they want to escalate, the resistance is ready, if they want to stop, the resistance is ready. The White House said on Tuesday that Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself from rocket attacks but applied pressure on Israel over the treatment of Palestinians, saying Jerusalem must be a place of coexistence. The United States was delaying U.N. Security Council efforts to issue a public statement on escalating tensions because it could be harmful to behind-the-scenes efforts to end the violence, according to diplomats and a source familiar with the U.S. strategy.State Department spokesman Ned Price urged calm and restraint on both sides, saying, The loss of life, the loss of Israeli life, the loss of Palestinian life, Its something that we deeply regret. He added: We are urging this message of de-escalation to see this loss of life come to an end. Plumes of Black Smoke Israel said it had sent 80 jets to bomb Gaza, and dispatched infantry and armour to reinforce the tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of the last Israeli ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks, in 2014. More than 2,100 Gazans were killed in the seven-week war that followed, according to the Gaza health ministry, along with 73 Israelis, and thousands of homes in Gaza were razed by Israeli forces. Video footage on Tuesday showed three plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the 13-story Gaza block as it toppled over. Nobody was reported killed in the building. The Israeli military said the demolished multi-story building, in Gaza Citys Rimal neighbourhood, housed multiple Hamas offices, including ones for military research and development and military intelligence. The existence of one Hamas office in the building, used by political leaders and officials dealing with the news media, was widely known locally. Civilian residents in the block and the surrounding area had been warned to evacuate the area before the air strike, according to witnesses and the Israeli military. The air strike completely destroyed the building. People in other blocks reported that they received warnings from Israel to evacuate ahead of a possible attack. Israeli political leaders and the military said they had killed dozens of terrorists, and hit buildings used by Hamas. Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Israel had carried out hundreds or strikes, and that buildings will continue to crumble. Gazas health ministry said that of the 30 reported dead, 10 were children and one was a woman. Israels Magen David Adom ambulance service said a 50-year-old woman was killed when a rocket hit a building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion, and that two women had been killed in rocket strikes on Ashkelon. Jerusalem Tensions Clashes at Al-Aqsa on Monday morning were the immediate backdrop to the escalation. More than 300 Palestinians were injured in confrontations with Israeli police, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said. Police said 21 officers were hurt. Jerusalems Old City, with places sacred to Jews, Muslims, and Christians, is the most sensitive site in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its capital, a status not generally recognized internationally. Palestinians want East Jerusalemcaptured by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli waras the capital of a future state. The tensions there have led to an increase in pro-Palestinian protests among Israels 21 percent Arab minority, who are Israeli by citizenship but Palestinian by heritage and culture. In the ethnically mixed Israeli town of Lod, near Tel Aviv, witnesses quoted by Israeli media said one or two armed Jews shot at rioting Arabs, killing one and wounding two. The dead mans father told the Walla news site he had been ambushed while on a family visit. The accounts could not be confirmed. Israeli police said they had arrested two suspects in the incident. Netanyahus office agreed to a declaration of a special state of emergency in Lod. Internal Security Minister Amir Ohana said on Twitter that 16 border police companies would be reassigned to Lod immediately from the occupied West Bank. Lod Mayor Yair Revivo told Israeli Channel 12 News: We have lost control of the city and the streets.In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian and injured another on Tuesday after they shot towards Israeli troops near Nablus, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. The International Committee of the Red Cross urged all sides to step back, and reminded them of the requirement in international law to try to avoid civilian casualties. By Nidal al-Mughrabi, Jeffrey Heller and Stephen Farrell Epoch Times staff contributed to this report. Dunkin Employee Accused of Killing 77-Year-Old Man After He Allegedly Used Slur: Police An employee at a Dunkin location in Florida is accused of throwing a punch that killed an elderly customer who allegedly used a racial slur. Corey Pujols, 27, is accused of killing a 77-year-old man after striking him before he fell back and hit his head, officials told Fox13. Investigators said that the man was annoyed by the service and was asked to leave a location in Tampa. Pujols now faces aggravated manslaughter charges, said the Tampa Police Department. In the incident, officials said the elderly man went through the Dunkin drive-thru at 410 South 50 Street on May 5. He became upset by the service and was asked to leave before he went inside the restaurant and argued with Pujols, said officials. Investigators claimed the man called Pujols a slur and repeated the phrase after Pujols challenged him. After he did, according to police, Pujols hit the man in the jaw, knocking him out, and causing him to fall, according to the Fox affiliate report. The victim, who was not identified, was rushed to a nearby hospital. He died several days later. An autopsy cited by the Tampa Bay Times showed the man suffered brain contusions and a fractured skull. The paper also reported that surveillance camera footage showed that the man hit the back of his head after being punched. Pujols allegedly told police, according to the Tampa Bay Times, the 77-year-old man was a regular customer and was extremely rude. We are deeply saddened by the incident at our franchised restaurant in Tampa, a spokesperson for Dunkin said in a statement about the matter. The franchisee, who independently owns and operates this restaurant, is fully cooperating with the local authorities. As this is an ongoing investigation, we defer any additional questions to the police. Ballard County 'Cops and Bobbers' Today By West Kentucky Star Staff KEVIL - The Ballard County Sheriff's Department is hosting their 2nd annual "Cops and Bobbers" fishing event on Saturday.Sheriff Ronnie Giles invites children 5-15 years old to participate. Everyone will gather at 8225 Conway Road in Kevil, and the event is from 8 am until 1 pm. Children must be accompanied by an adult.Hamburgers and hot dogs will be provided for lunch, and prizes and trophies will be presented in various categories.Contact the sheriff's department for more information. Early Education organizations in Australia have applauded the Federal Budgets new funding for the sector.(Photo's.com) Early Education Sector Applauds New Funding From Federal Budget Early education organisations in Australia have applauded the Federal Budgets new funding for the sector. Other than the previous commitment of $1.7 million for the Child Care Subsidy, the Federal Government last night announced it would further inject $2 billion into early childhood education over the next four years, which will ensure every child receives at least 15 hours a week of early learning in the year before school. This latest announcement provides long-awaited certainty for Australian families and the many service providers that deliver a preschool program, Paul Mondo, the president of Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA), said in a statement on Wednesday. The economic analysis indicates that for every dollar invested in early learning in the year before school, Australia receives $2 back over a childs life, with children, families, businesses and government all benefiting from investments in quality early learning, Mondo said. Other than the funding, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg also announced that the government would be extending the JobTrainer program, with 450,000 funded training places available, particularly for young people. With the critical workforce shortage in the early learning sector, it is vitally important that measures are put in place to build on the existing supply of qualified educators, Mondo said. We believe the commitment to increasing available training places is a powerful start to addressing the problem. (Courtesy of Life Saving Education) The Early Childhood Australia (ECA) echoed ACAs praise of the Federal Budget welcoming the $17.9 million funding invested to children with disability or developmental concerns, the $100.8 million mental health funding to support parents and early intervention, and the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Council. However, the organization said more work needs to be done urgently. We see the $1.7B promised investment in the Child Care Subsidy over five years as a modest investment, Samantha Page, the CEO of ECA, said in a statement on Tuesday. It will benefit less than a quarter of the approximately one million Australian families using early childhood education and doesnt start until July 2022. The organization also expressed its concern about measuring childrens readiness for school. A childs capacity to regulate their emotions, collaborate with peers and feel confident about their learning is much more important than simplistic measures of number or letter recognition, Page said. If the government truly believes that early education is a vital time in a childs development and prepares them for the educational journey ahead we are going to need to see more substantial investment in early education and care, the CEO concluded. Efforts to Vaccinate Americans Include Free Lyft, Uber Rides President Joe Biden on May 11 announced a series of efforts his administration hopes will boost COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States, including free or discounted Uber and Lyft rides for people traveling to get their shots. The feature will launch in the next two weeks and run until July 4, the White House stated, noting that its part of a push to get the United States vaccinated and meet the presidents goal for 70 percent of the U.S. adult population to have one vaccine shot by July 4. Vaccination sites at community colleges will also be set up as part of the push to encourage Americans to get inoculated against COVID-19, the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. The new initiatives come at a time when U.S. demand for vaccines has declined significantly, forcing the administration to figure out new ways to motivate people to get vaccinated. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of May 11, more than 44 percent of adults were fully vaccinated. Ride-sharing company Lyft stated that it will offer anyone in the United States a ride code to cover up to $15 of each trip to or from a COVID-19 vaccination site. The company said it expects the code will erase most, if not all, of riders fares, noting that people will be able to sign up for their code by May 24. Details about Ubers plan werent immediately available, but the company sent a letter to the Biden administration in December 2020 offering help with vaccinations. By helping Americans get a free ride to a vaccination site, Lyft and Uber are eliminating a potential barrier and driving America closer to the presidents goal of getting 70 percent of the U.S. adult population with at least one shot by July 4th, the White House stated. If we will succeed, were going to be able to take a serious step toward return to normalcy by Independence Day, the president told a bipartisan group of lawmakers on May 11. Additional funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency will also be made available for states to conduct phone banks, door-to-door canvassing, and pop-up COVID-19 vaccination sites in houses of worship and workplaces, the White House stated. Companies have started to offer incentives as part of an effort to encourage Americans to get vaccinated. For example, Krispy Kreme is offering one free glazed doughnut every day for people who show that they have had one or two shots of any COVID-19 vaccine in store. It comes as the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations has declined in recent weeks, in part following an 11-day pause in administering the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot as federal health authorities investigated the rare and severe blood clots in the brain in people with low platelet levels. The CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration on April 24 recommended that the distribution of the vaccine continue, but with warnings. Reuters contributed to this report. Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic listens to his sentence at the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, the Netherlands, on March 24, 2016. (ICTY, Pool via AP) Ex-Bosnian Serb Leader Radovan Karadzic To Be Transferred to UK Prison Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader convicted of the massacre in Srebrenica, will be transferred to a UK prison to serve the rest of his sentence, the UK government announced on Wednesday. In a statement, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: Radovan Karadzic is one of the few people to have been found guilty of genocide. He was responsible for the massacre of men, women, and children at the Srebrenica genocide and helped prosecute the siege of Sarajevo with its remorseless attacks on civilians. We should take pride in the fact that, from UK support to secure his arrest, to the prison cell he now faces, Britain has supported the 30-year pursuit of justice for these heinous crimes. Karadzic, 75, who is currently in a United Nations detention unit in the Netherlands, will be moved to an unspecified UK prison. He was one of the chief architects of the slaughter and devastation of Bosnias 1992-95 war, the worst European conflict since the Second World War. Karadzic, as well as former Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic, and Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic orchestrated a mass cleansing of Bosnian Muslims and Croats during the conflict. A Bosnian woman walks among gravestones at Memorial Center Potocari near Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on March 20, 2016. (Amel Emric/AP Photo) One of the worst atrocities he was responsible for was the mass killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995. In a carefully planned operation, Serb forces transported Muslim men and boys to sites around the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia and gunned them down before dumping their bodies into mass graves. Karadzic was also the main culprit in the siege of Sarajevo, which lasted for more than three years and left at least 12,000 dead. He was arrested in 2008 after spending years in disguise, growing an immense beard, and giving lectures on alternative medicine. Karadzic was convicted by a United Nations court in 2016 of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, later increased to life by appeals judges at the court in The Hague. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, accused of fomenting deadly conflicts across the Balkans as Yugoslavia crumbled in the 1990s, died in his cell in The Hague in 2006 before judges could deliver verdicts in his trial. Alex Johnston and The Associated Press contributed to this report. A large fire is seen near the scene of what officials said was a Gaza rocket attack on an Israeli energy pipeline near Ashkelon, Israel, on May 11, 2021. (Amir Cohen/Reuters) UN Warns of Full Scale War Between Israel, Palestinians After Residential Building Collapses Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Gaza on Wednesday after Palestinian militants fired rockets into Tel Aviv and Beersheba, according to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), amid videos showing a 13-story residential tower collapsing in Gazawhile a United Nations envoy warned of a large-scale conflict erupting. Terrorists in Gaza are firing a barrage of rockets into southern Israel, the IDF wrote on Twitter on Wednesday morning. In subsequent tweets, the IDF confirmed that it targeted a multitude of Hamas targets, including Hamas squads operating anti-tank missiles and posted a video when Israeli forces struck a terrorist squad preparing to launch an explosive UAV from Gaza into Israel. It continued, We just struck a Hamas rocket launcher preparing to fire 10 rockets at Israeli families & homes in the cities of Ashdod and Ashkelon. The IDF continues to thwart terrorist squads and rocket fire from Gaza. Gaza officials told the Reuters news agency that at least 49 people were killed in Gaza after the conflict began to flare up on Monday. Six Israelis were killed, officials added. Tor Wennesland, United Nations Middle East envoy, meanwhile, warned on Twitter that the two sides should cease fighting immediately, warning that a full scale war could erupt. Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said the countrys forces attacked many hundreds of targets and killed senior Hamas operatives in Gaza. The Israeli military will continue to attack and will bring about complete and long-term quiet, Gantz told reporters Wednesday, reported Reuters. Only when we achieve this goal, can we talk about calming things down. At the moment, there is no end-date. A 13-story residential tower in Gaza was hit by an Israeli air strike and soon after collapsed, witnesses said https://t.co/uNHbRZ1GD0 pic.twitter.com/IXJAc2kkc6 Reuters (@Reuters) May 11, 2021 On Tuesday, a multi-story building in Gaza collapsed after Israel warned the residents to evacuate. Another building was damaged in airstrikes, Reuters reported. Video footage posted online showed the buildinga 13-story residential towercrumbling under its own weight amid explosions. There were no reports of casualties. IDF officials on Wednesday said they expect more rocket fire from Hamaslong designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. Department of Stateafter six Hamas commanders were killed, according to the Times of Israel. Smoke rises from a building after it was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza, May 11, 2021. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters) We eliminated senior Hamas commanders and this is just the beginning, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as saying by the paper. We will inflict blows on them that they couldnt even dream of. Hamas, meanwhile, told media outlets that it fired 210 rockets into Beersheba and Tel Aviv overnight in response to IDF airstrikes, including the strikes on the Gaza tower building that collapsed. First Nations Lawsuit to Block Gold Exploration at Ontario Site Threatens Prospectors 35-Year Investment in Project Group claims violation of UNDRIP rights; province and junior miner cite over a decade of support for consultation and attempts at engagement thwarted A First Nation in northern Ontario, citing infringement of sacred territory, has sued the province and a prospector for $80 million in damages and an injunction to stop further exploration work and commercialization of hard rock gold claims said to contain tens of millions of ounces. In response, the Ontario government cites support its provided since 2008 to boost the indigenous communitys capacity for consultation including in terms of mineral development. The prospector, now in his mid-70s, similarly points to years of engagement efforts that met with non-engagement and delay, as well as intensive logging and exploration activities that have already occurred on the land under dispute. The gold-rich region in question is near Geraldton, northwestern Ont., north of Lake Superior. Its a historic mining and logging district thats seen prospecting and drilling since the 1930s. From then until around 1970, over two million ounces of gold had been mined there. This northwestern area of Ontario is also home to the Matawa First Nations, of which Ginoogaming First Nation (GFN) is a member community. In the lawsuit, GFN is claiming a lack of consultation over prospecting that disturbed its sacred areas and violated indigenous rights protected under section 35 of the Constitution. It also accuses Ontario of breaking a United Nations doctrine recently enacted in B.C. while similar federal legislation is currently being fast-tracked through Parliament. Damages from Ontario and Quaternary [Mining & Exploration Company Ltd.] for unjustified infringement of Ginoogamings rights and for breach of duty to consult and accommodate in respect of the permit [is] currently estimated in the amount of $80 million, says GFNs statement of claim filed at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Nov. 4, 2020. Ontario breached the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [UNDRIP], it added. Both the Canadian and Ontario governments have committed to the full implementation of UNDRIP. Canadas adoption of UNDRIP has been advocated for by the Assembly of First Nations as well as others. But it has also been criticized by different parties, among them advocates of more resource sector development opportunities for indigenous communities, and those concerned about infringement of sovereignty issues in Canada if the UN standards are adopted. Justice Minister David Lametti makes an announcement about the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Ottawa on Dec. 3, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld) Consultation For prospector Michael Malouf, president of Quaternary and the related Hardrock Extension Inc., the 11th-hour lawsuit means he stands to lose his three-and-a-half decades of effort and some $12.4 million in todays dollars invested in the project. Thirty-five years of hard work, passion, and a great deal of money have been invested in the Hardrock property. If the plaintiff is successful in stopping exploration until the eventual resolution of our lawsuit, our family and the shareholders of Hardrock will have lost our entire investment, Malouf said in his affidavit. Malouf made his first gold discovery in the Geraldton region in 1982. His Hardrock Extension Inc. is a small operation that focuses on one-to-two-man exploration programs during summers where possible and efforts to contact senior mining companies to generate investment interest in winters, according to his affidavit. His latest permit to conduct further exploration on his companys Ferau project site just south of the Ginoogaming Indian Reserve is whats at the centre of the lawsuit. It was issued by Ontarios Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines (ENDM) in June 2019. Malouf says in his April 8 factum that, contrary to the lawsuits claim of lack of consultation, hes been trying to engage with GFN since 2011 and jointly with the ENDM since 2015, without success. He cited a 2011 presentation given to GFN after which no concerns were raised when he asked. In May 2012, he sent a summary report of all work done on the Ferau claims since 1932, including drill results, historic gold value reportings and discoveries. GFN did not respond. Treaty Land Claim In August 2012 GFN filed a treaty land entitlement (TLE) claim with the Ontario and federal governments, stating it had received less Indian Reserve land than was promised according to treaty rights. Malouf says this filing was unbeknownst to him. The GFN statement of claim says the Ferau site is located on a portion of its traditional territory that would fulfill its TLE claim. A nearby site, also south of the GFN reserve but part of a separate proposed project called Caouette, is also involved in the lawsuit, with its owner named as a respondent. Maloufs factum said he only learned of the TLE claim in June 2020. Meanwhile, GFN said it was only in June 2020, when ENDM forwarded to them Maloufs notice of intention to begin work in July, that they first understood the immediate implications of the Permit on the land involved in their TLE claim. GFN then launched its lawsuit that November. The Ontario government says it fulfilled obligations under provincial mining law, and in court documents notes that Ginoogaming thwarted multiple efforts by ENDM to engage. In its April 8 factum. the government also cites assistance it has provided to Matawa and GFN since 2008 to support capacity for consultation and engagement and develop economic opportunities and business partnerships, including funding for a mineral development advisor since 2012. A Very Important Case Against this backdrop, GFN has gone about cultivating its own mining interests in the area. In April 2020, seven months before filing its lawsuit, GFN had announced the launch of a corporation called Minodahmun Development Inc., in partnership with two other First Nations, to manage the economic opportunities expected from their agreement with Greenstone Gold Mines (GGM), a joint venture between mining companies Canterra Gold and Premier Gold. Maloufs affidavit says GGM owns the defunct Hardrock, MacLeod-Cockshutt and Mosher (HMCM) underground mines, an area just south of Geraldton and to the west of the Ferau site and four others of the six sites owned by Malouf. The bulk of the over two million ounces of gold mined in the region until around 1970 came from the HMCM mines. The three First Nations had signed an agreement with GGM in November 2019 to build and operate their own gold mine worth $1.3 billion at the HMCM site. According to an October 2019 shareholder update, then-owner Premier estimated total measured and indicated resources of 7,105,000 ounces of gold for the [GGM] deposit. Premier Gold was acquired by Equinox Gold in April 2021. Malouf told The Epoch Times in an email that the gold content of his claims dwarfs the GGM property and that the lawsuit would put a chill on future investment. Greenstones 7.2 million ounce development and our (Hardrock Extension Inc.s) six major structures have the potential for 60 million ounces. Its all based on structural comparison to past production, but very possible, writes Malouf. Its a very important case because if Ginoogaming can win an injunction based on such a frivolous claim it will mean no smart money will want any part of the camp. In his factum, Malouf says, From 1982 to the present, GFN members were able to exercise their protected rights in the area without issue and in peaceful co-existence with the Prospectors, adding that GFN has abused [Ontarios consultation regime] to achieve its stated goal; total control and management of natural resources in the area. GFNs acting chief Sheri Taylor declined to comment on the lawsuit. Ive just been informed that I shouldnt be commenting on anything at this time. I will reach out to you when we do decide to make a media release on this, Taylor said. Jason Rasevych, the GFN director on the Minodahmun Development Inc. board, also declined to speak about the lawsuit and dismissed the idea of working with Malouf. Theres a lot of reasons [for not working with Malouf]. I dont want to get deep into it, he told The Epoch Times. He added that theres exploration thats happening all throughout the traditional territory, and theres certainly targets that are more culturally sensitive because of history, ancestral archaeological, and so forth. GFNs lawyer Kate Kempton declined an interview for this story. Equinox Gold also didnt provide comments. ENDM Minister Greg Rickford, who also serves as provincial indigenous affairs minister, did not respond to queries from The Epoch Times. Voters cast their ballots for the Florida presidential primary, in Bonita Springs, Fla., on March 17, 2020. (Elise Amendola/AP Photo) Floridas New Election Integrity Law: Fact Versus Fiction Commentary Like Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is being pilloried in the mainstream media because he had the audacity to sign a bill that protects election integrity in the Sunshine State. How dare he! However, when one takes a clear-eyed look at the law, its quite apparent that Floridas new law, like Georgias, is nothing more than an effort to increase election integrity while making it more difficult to commit electoral fraud. Yet, thats not how the new law is being portrayed in the mainstream media. Perhaps its time for some fact versus fiction pertaining to the Florida election law. Fiction: Floridas new law is a veiled attempt at voter suppression. Fact: Floridas new law is absolutely not about voter suppression. The bill signed by DeSantis strengthens Floridas existing voter ID statute. In the Sunshine State, under the new law, all voters must present a government-issued ID to vote in person. This isnt voter suppression. Its voter recognition. Fiction: Floridas new law is Jim Crow redux. Fact: Floridas new law is the antithesis of Jim Crow. Despite the mainstream medias fervent attempts to paint the new Florida election integrity law as Jim Crow 2.0, this simply isnt true. In the Jim Crow South, voting laws were passed to specifically target certain groups (namely black Americans) from exercising their God-given right to vote. This dastardly practice came via poll taxes, literacy tests, grandfather clauses, and all other types of laws intended to prevent specific groups from casting ballots. Absolutely nothing in the new Florida election integrity law, in any manner, prevents specific groups from voting. Playing the Jim Crow race card in relation to the Sunshine States straightforward voting law is a disservice to those who fought for equal voting rights, which was achieved decades ago. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which according to History.com, aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, since the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed, voting among blacks has skyrocketed and remains unencumbered to this day. As History.com puts it: The Voting Rights Act gave African American voters the legal means to challenge voting restrictions and vastly improved voter turnout. In Mississippi alone, voter turnout among Black people increased from 6 percent in 1964 to 59 percent in 1969. Fiction: Floridas new voting integrity law is unnecessary because voter fraud doesnt exist. Fact: Floridas new law is necessary because voter fraud does exist. Before the pandemic, in-person voting was the norm in America. Mail-in voting, though allowed in most states (including Florida), wasnt the default. Moreover, the idea of mailing ballots to all eligible voters on outdated and error-prone voter rolls is absurd. However, thats what happened in several states, under the guise of COVID-19. The new Florida law bans mass mail-in voting, which studies show is much more likely to result in fraud. Even former President Jimmy Carter has spoken out about mail-in voting. Voting by mail creates increased logistical challenges and the potential for vote fraud, was the conclusion reached by Carter and James Baker in their 2005 report (pdf), Building Confidence in U.S. Elections. Of course, all of this is lost on the mainstream media, which continue to perpetuate the completely false notion that Floridas election integrity law is an underhanded attempt to skew elections. Most Americans support the primary elements of the new Florida law, including voter ID. Instead of repudiating governors such as DeSantis and Kemp, the mainstream media should champion their efforts to ensure that elections are as free and fair as possible. Chris Talgo is senior editor at The Heartland Institute. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a news conference after he toured the newly reopened Ruby Bridges Elementary School in Alameda, Calif., on March 16, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Governor Proposes Spending $12 Billion on Stimulus Payments Commentary California is flush with cash and Gov. Gavin Newsom is giving it away. The state found itself with a $75.7 billion budget surplus for the current fiscal year, and Newsom announced May 10 that he wants to give all $12 billion of it away. He said he wanted to fund nearly $12 billion in direct cash payments to Californians hit hardest by the pandemic[including] more than $5 billion in aid to those who need help paying their rent or utility bills. Even so, contributions to the state rainy day fund, or budget stabilization fund, are down from the year-ago period. Last year through April 30, the state had added $14 billion to its stabilization fund. This fiscal year, California used a net $8 billion from the fund. The state pulled $16 billion from the fund earlier this fiscal year, but since deposited $8 billion back into it. It means the accounts balance has decreased about $8 billion over the past year, from $16.5 billion on April 30, 2020, down to about $8.3 billion on April 30. Volatile Tax Receipts Californias taxes are volatile. Largely, thats because it taxes capital gains at the individual income tax rate. If a couple sells its home and makes more than $500,000 on the sale, they generally have to pay their state income tax rate for any gain above $500,000. Years with good stock market returns also cause tax revenues in California to be high. When people sell their stocks with high capital gains, California gets more tax revenue. For the one year period ending April 30, the U.S. stock market as measured by the S&P 500 stock index, was up 46 percent. California, like many other states, created a state stabilization fund so it can put money into the fund when tax receipts are high and take money out of the fund when tax receipts are low. Spending the Windfall According the governors May 10 statement, families that make up to $75,000 will receive $600 direct payments. Qualified families with dependents, including undocumented families, will be eligible for an additional $500. Former San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer, one of the challengers to replace Newsom in the upcoming recall election, responded to Newsoms plan on Twitter. He said: Californians need permanent, real tax relief, not just one-time stimulus checks. Tim Shaler is a professional investor and economist based in Southern California. He is a regular columnist for The Epoch Times, where he exclusively provides some of his original economic analysis. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) talks to reporters after House Republicans voted to remove her as conference chair in the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center in Washington, on May 12, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) House Republicans Oust Rep. Liz Cheney as GOP Conference Chairwoman House Republicans voted Wednesday to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from her House leadership position amid a public spat between her and other House GOP leaders following her increasingly critical comments about former President Donald Trump and the partys messaging. After she was voted out, Cheney, the daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, told reporters that she will work to prevent Trump from becoming president again, but stressed she didnt feel betrayed by her fellow House Republicans. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office, Cheney said after the vote on Wednesday, adding that the nation needs a strong Republican Party based on the principles of conservatism. I plan to lead the fight to do that, she said. An election for who will become the House Republican chair will occur at a later date. Its not clear when. Leading up to the vote, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) threw their support behind Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y) to be the House Republican Conference chairwoman. Stefanik tweeted on Wednesday that she is officially campaigning to take Cheneys spot. In recent weeks, McCarthy and other Republicans in the House increasingly started publicly questioning Cheneys leadership ability, arguing that the House Republican Conference chair position essentially serves as a unifying voice within the party and suggested Cheneys rhetoric was becoming increasingly divisive as Trump is likely still the most popular figure in the GOP. McCarthy argued that the bid to oust her wasnt triggered because of her vote against Trump during his second impeachment. Instead, it was because Cheneys comments were off-message as Republicans attempt to retake the House during the 2022 midterms, he said in a letter earlier this week. It had been my hope that our driving focus would be taking back the House in 2022 and implementing our Commitment to America, McCarthy said in a letter on May 10 to House Republicans. Despite the mainstream media working overtime against us, I believe we still have a great chance to do so. Unfortunately, each day spent relitigating the past is one day less we have to seize the future. But Cheney, in public statements and in a Washington Post opinion article, remarked that the Republican party needs to move away from Trump following his claims about the Nov. 3 election, while calling the former commander-in-chief dangerous and anti-democratic. Cheney, meanwhile, has received scant support from other congressional Republicans other than those who voted to impeach or convict Trump during his second impeachment. Expelling Liz Cheney from leadership wont gain the GOP one additional voter, but it will cost us quite a few, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) wrote on Twitter. In a statement on Wednesday, Trump said he was anticipating her removal, saying that Cheney is bad for our Country and bad for herself, adding that voters in Wyoming are [looking] forward to her ouster. The Epoch Times has contacted McCarthys office for comment. Torah scrolls, Jewish holy scriptures, are removed from a synagogue which was torched during violent confrontations in the city of Lod, Israel between Israeli Arab demonstrators and police, amid high tensions over hostilities between Israel and Gaza militants and tensions in Jerusalem on May 12, 2021. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters) Israel Declares Curfew in Arab-Jewish Town Hit by Violence LOD, IsraelJews cleared Torah scrolls from a torched synagogue on Wednesday and burnt-out cars lined nearby streets in an ethnically mixed Israeli town hit by violence denounced by the president as unforgivable acts by Arabs incensed at airstrikes on Gaza. Moving to head off further violence in Lod, which has also seen assaults by Jews on Arab passersby, police declared a night-time curfew and deployed heavily armed reinforcements. In several other areas populated by Israels 21 percent Arab minority, Palestinian flags adorned electricity poles and hundreds of residents have turned out for protests, sometimes clashing with police or Jewish residents. We have lost control of the city and the streets, Lod Mayor Yair Revivo told Channel 12 News after nightly confrontations in which an Arab townsman was shot dead, a killing in which two Jewish suspects have been arrested. Scores of other people have been arrested in Lod and in majority-Arab towns in central and northern Israel, including Umm al-Fahm along the West Bank border and Jisr al-Zarqa on the Mediterranean coast, police said. In Lod, men carried Torah scrolls through the blackened and debris-strewn yard of the torched synagogue. President Reuven Rivlin described events in terms of recalling anti-Semitism abroad. A man walks inside a synagogue that was torched during violent confrontations in the city of Lod, Israel between Israeli Arab demonstrators and police, amid high tensions over hostilities between Israel and Gaza militants and tensions in Jerusalem on May 12, 2021. (Ronen Zvulun/Reuters) The sight of the pogrom in Lod and the disturbances across the country by an incited and bloodthirsty Arab mob is unforgivable, he said, calling the flying of the Palestinian flag by protesters a brutal assault on shared existence. Israels Arab minorityPalestinian by heritage, Israeli by citizenshipis mostly descended from the Palestinians who lived under Ottoman and then British colonial rule before staying in Israel after the countrys 1948 creation. Most are bilingual in Arabic and Hebrew, and feel a sense of kinship with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They often complain of systemic discrimination, unfair access to housing, healthcare, and education services. Tension in Arab-Jewish towns has risen as Israel conducted airstrikes in Gaza and Palestinian militants fired rockets into Israel in an escalation of violence since clashes in East Jerusalem on Monday morning. Ibrahim, an Arab councilor with the Lod municipality, said: What is happening now is (an) uprising that is going on (in) cities like Ramle, Lod, Jaffa, Acre, and Haifa, calling events in Gaza and Jerusalem a red line for Arabs. In the coastal city of Acre, Uri Buri, a Jewish-owned fish restaurant, was set fire to and some Arab residents said they were scared to leave home. A Palestinian boy walks past the remains of a tower building that was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza City, on May 12, 2021. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters) In Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, Arab protesters clashed with police firing stun grenades to disperse them. We condemn that our peoples solidarity and cohesion with our brethren in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip is being channeled through acts of sabotage to public and private property, as is now happening at Umm al-Fahms entrance, said Samir Mahamid, Mayor of Umm al-Fahm. Neighborhoods with Arab residents, including Lod and Jaffa, were among those where sirens were triggered by rocket fire. An Arab resident of Lod and his daughter were killed on Wednesday when a vehicle was hit by a rocket, Israeli authorities said. In Haifa and Jaffa, and in the Arab city of Nazareth, protesters have chanted slogans in support of Palestinians facing eviction from an East Jerusalem neighborhood under a long-running legal case. Arab citizens of Israel were among the thousands of protesters who have faced off in recent days with Israeli police near Al-Aqsa mosque and elsewhere in Jerusalems Old City. A spokesman for the Hamas Islamist militant group in Gaza encouraged Arab citizens to rise up against our enemy and yours. By Rami Ayyub and Ronen Zvulun Jogger and Dog Comfort Heartbroken Child Outside Funeral of Dad Who Died of Cancer A jogger and her dog who offered comfort to a grieving child outside her fathers funeral received an impromptu invite to come inside, surprising guests. The 6-year-old who is daddys girl, according to her mom, wanted to introduce her beloved father one last time to the stranger. Emily Beineman was out jogging with her Labrador, Blue, on April 28, when she passed McConnell Funeral Home Chapel in Greenwood, Arkansas. Raelynn Nast from Fort Smith called out from the steps to ask if she could pet the dog. Raelynn Nast with Emilys dog, Blue. (Courtesy of Lacey Lee Nast) I was like, Yeah, of course, as long as your parents dont mind,' Emily told CBS News. At this time, the jogger was unaware that Raelynns father, Davey Nast, 41, had passed away after a battle with colon cancer. After a brief conversation with the little girl, Emily was invited inside the funeral home. Dressed in workout gear, Emily knew that entering the chapel would cause a stir, but she let her heart decide. For Raelynn, Emily and Blues presence helped soothe her pain. She helped me feel better by her kindness, Raelynn explained. (L) Raelynn and Blue with (R) Emily Beineman. (Courtesy of Lacey Lee Nast) Raelynns mom, Lacey, recalled guests staring at the unexpected stranger as she walked close to Raelynn, but a mothers intuition told her that they shared an intangible connection. Emily, too, was so touched that she shared the anecdote on Facebook. As Emily walked in with the little girl, Raelynn showed her dads casket and described to her new friend how beautiful everything was. Raelynn at her fathers funeral. (Courtesy of Lacey Lee Nast) Emilys gentle giant had walked into Raelynns open arms of his own volition, she said. The little girl had even asked if Emily and Blue could stay a little longer as she wanted to pet him more. Emily and Blue were then introduced to Raelynns mother, grandparents, aunt, and uncle. The little girls aunt whispered into Emilys ears: I think God led you & Blue over here today for a reason Blues love & gentleness that she has showed her has touched our hearts. Raelynn Nast with her family. (Courtesy of Lacey Lee Nast) Im a strong believer that everything happens for a reason & I truly believe we were meant to meet this little girl, Emily continued. She is the perfect reminder of Gods goodness & faithfulness through every storm. The trio have since reunited for a play date and have plans to keep in touch. Raelynn with her father, Davey. (Courtesy of Lacey Lee Nast) Raelynns sociable personality, said Lacey, comes from Davey. She also believes Davey had something to do with the events of April 28, since Raelynns new Labrador friend is named Blue and blue was Daveys favorite color. It is also the color of the colon cancer ribbon. I think this was his way of telling [Raelynn] that hes still here, and hes going to be looking down on her and guiding her through this process, Lacey told KTVU. The mom of two has also started a GoFundMe page to help alleviate the cost of her late husbands funeral expenses, and an Amazon wish list for her daughters, Raelynn and Gracie. 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 IBM showcases prowess in AI, hybrid cloud From:ChinaDaily | 2021-05-12 16:22 The US tech heavyweight IBM showcased its latest progress in artificial intelligence, hybrid cloud, and quantum computing technologies, as it aims to help clients and partners accelerate digital transformation. The move is part of IBM's broader efforts to build momentum in its hybrid cloud strategy after its $34 billion takeover of open-source software company Red Hat two years ago. "We will look back on this year and last as the moment the world entered the digital century in full force," Arvind Krishna, chairman and CEO of IBM, said. "In the same way that we electrified factories and machines in the past century, we will use hybrid cloud to infuse AI into software and systems in the 21st century. And one thing is certain: This is a future that must be built on a foundation of deep industry collaboration. No one understands this better than IBM, which is one of the reasons we are boosting investment in our partner ecosystem," Krishna said. At the company's Think conference on Tuesday, IBM unveiled its latest hybrid cloud and AI innovations the very technologies that the company believes serve as the building blocks of a new IT architecture for business. IBM said it is all-in on hybrid cloud and AI because the company understands that businesses need a clear and credible path to modernizing their mission-critical systems. A new IBM study on the adoption of AI for business revealed that embedding AI into business processes became more urgent during the pandemic. Of IT professionals surveyed, 43 percent said that their companies had accelerated their rollout of AI. And nearly half of global IT professionals surveyed said they evaluate AI providers in large part on their ability to automate processes. When it comes to IBM's efforts to strengthen cooperation with local companies in China, Ye Ming, vice president of partner ecosystem and technology sales at IBM Greater China, said in April that more than 350 new Chinese partners have joined IBM's ecosystem. As the world's largest hybrid cloud ecosystem platform, IBM welcomes more Chinese companies to join the "big blue ocean", Ye said. The Think conference came after IBM recently introduced a 2-nanometer chip-making technology. IBM said the prototype technology had successfully fabricated 2nm-made chips on a silicon wafer at the company's Albany, New York, lab. Benton Man's Bond Reduced in Child Porn Case By West Kentucky Star Staff Fifty-year-old Randolph Crawford appeared in Marshall Circuit Court, where Judge Jamie Jameson lowered his bond from $25,000 to $8,000. Jameson also ruled that Crawford has to wear an ankle monitor, and he can't possess any device capable of internet access. Crawford was arrested in December of last year as a result of an undercover Internet Crimes Against Children Investigation. The Kentucky State Police Electronic Crime Branch began investigating after allegedly discovering Crawford sharing child pornography online. He faces seventy-four counts of distribution of matter portraying a minor in a sexual performance and twenty counts of possession of matter portraying a minor in a sexual performance. BENTON - A Benton man facing numerous charges related to child pornography was in court Tuesday.Crawford entered a not guilty plea last month and a status hearing was scheduled for July 13. An above-ground section of Line 5 at Enbridge's Mackinaw City pump station in Michigan. The state of Michigan has told Enbridge it must shut down the pipeline by May 12. (AP Photo/John Flesher) Line 5 Shutdown Would Cause Fuel Shortages, Job Losses, and Damage Canadas Economy News Analysis Despite trying to sound the alarm for years, energy affordability advocate Dan McTeague told The Epoch Times that the Canadian government and media may have awakened too late to the potential closure of the Line 5 petroleum pipeline. Until about a couple of months ago, no one took this issue seriously, said McTeague, a former Liberal MP and founder of Canadians for Affordable Energy. Every time I met with Michigan and Ohio representatives, they pleaded with me to ensure that the Canadian media or government was taking this seriously, he said. The navel-gazing by our politicians and by our elites and by our media has been appallingly out of sync with the reality that we could have very little, if any, fuel to drive our economy. Whether we want the transition to the green economy or not, we seem to be completely oblivious to the danger that lurks and lies dead ahead. Last year, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced May 12, 2021, as the expiry date for the 67-year-old easement permit for Line 5. Whitmer wants the pipeline shut down because of concerns about a potential spill in the channel that connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Owned by Calgary-based Enbridge, the pipeline starts in Superior, Wisconsin, and carries up to 540,000 barrels of petroleum each day through the Straits of Mackinac in northern Michigan to Sarnia, Ontario. According to Enbridge, a Line 5 shutdown would mean the refineries it serves in Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania would receive about 45 percent less crude oil from the company than they currently require. The supply from Line 5 is also a petroleum source for the Line 9 pipeline running from Sarnia to Quebec, and Line 9 could be as much as 4050 percent short of its normal supply to Quebec refineries. Gasoline, propane, jet fuel, and other products would be in short supply in those two provinces and three U.S. states. No contingency plan can fill the void. Shipping, trucking, and rail could replace only a fraction of the supplyif the fuel to run them could still be found. Where are you going get your diesel to operate your trucks and trains? And whats the cost going to be, assuming we can get it? asks McTeague. An imminent shutdown would leave Canada with a worst-case economic scenario, he said. Perfect storm, the gathering of all possible worst scenarios come in at once. Youre in a pandemic, youre in a supply crunch. Supply chains are badly stressed right now. Energy prices are going through the roof. Demand for everything is, throughout North America, throughout the world, heating up. Job Losses, Legal Fights A Line 5 closure could triple Ontario gas prices and destroy tens of thousands of jobs. The pipeline, which has been in operation since 1953, provides feedstock for petrochemical facilities in southwest Ontario. The Sarnia-Lambton Petrochemical and Refining Complex employs nearly 5,000 people and indirectly generates another 23,500 jobs. The full picture would be even worse, says Geoffrey Hale, a political science professor at the University of Lethbridge. Supply chain spillover through the Ontario economy would suggest that this is something that the government would be foolish to ignoreespecially if it wants to go into an election, Hale said in an interview. He said momentum against Enbridge began after its 2010 oil spill near Kalamazoo, Michigan. The deal that [Michigans] Governor Snyder worked out before leaving office in 2016 was the most sensible and pragmatic approach to the problem. If you have a recognizable risk from two pipelines sitting on the bottom of Lake Michigan, putting them in a concrete tunnel and then putting other utility connections into them as well is a very sensible way of dealing with it, Hale said. The tunnel project has been held up by two lawsuits, and other cases are also before the courts. There is a legal dispute over the validity of that [pipeline easement] agreement, Hale explained. And then Governor Whitmer has to answer to the court as to her capacity to cancel that agreement unilaterally. I think that process is going to have to work its way through over the next year or so. An international agreement may prevail over state-level legal questions. In 1977, the Canadian government signed a treaty with the United States to declare that petroleum pipelines were federal jurisdiction and that both countries would ensure uninterrupted transmission across their borders. Will the pipeline treaty work? Time will tell, Hale says. Serious Political Theatre Former Alberta energy minister Ted Morton is more confident. Theres almost no chance that well be shut down, he said. Whitmer has political ambitions beyond being the governor of Michigan. Interstate and international pipelines are federal jurisdiction. What shes trying to do violates the 1977 Treaty and it violates NAFTA and USMCA as well. So its political theatre, but its serious political theatre. Natural Resources Minister Seamus ORegan told a parliamentary committee in early March that Ottawa will take whatever measures are necessary to keep Line 5 operating, but didnt explain what the governments strategy is. Politicians have urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to speak directly with U.S. President Joe Biden about the issue. Morton calls Trudeau the Gretchen Whitmer of Canada. As far as Trudeau goes, hes trying to give the appearance of all hands on deck and fighting for Canadas interest, but the problem is he has no moral authority, he said. Hes vetoed Northern Gateway. He sabotaged Energy East. He brought in the tanker ban on the northern B.C. coast. He brought in C-69 that makes pipeline approval next to impossible. And now hes all set to give the aboriginals a veto on pipelines. A dual citizen who lives in Montana, Morton remains concerned for the longer term. Were going to win the battle but were losing the war, because this is just another attempt by the anti-oilsands, anti-pipeline coalition to publicize the issue, raise money, sign up volunteers, and raise publicity. Minnesota Judge Opens Door to Longer Sentence for Chauvin in Floyds Death Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin faces the prospect of a lengthier prison sentence after a judge this week agreed with prosecutors that he abused his position of authority while arresting George Floyd last year. It has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that Chauvin used unreasonable force in restraining Floyd, Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill ruled in a May 11 order made public on May 12, citing how jurors convicted Chauvin of three counts, including second-degree murder. Cahill also sided with the prosecution in agreeing that Chauvin treated Floyd with particular cruelty, that children were present during the time Chauvin was kneeling on Floyds neck and back, and that Chauvin committed the crime as a group with the active participation of at least three other persons. It hasnt been proven that Floyd was particularly vulnerable, according to the ruling. Eric Nelson, Chauvins attorney, declined to comment. 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) Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat, and other prosecutors had presented Cahill in a recent motion with five factors that would trigger an aggravated sentence. 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 in the filing. Nelson opposed each supposed factor, arguing in a brief that the state has failed to meet its burden of proving the existence of the alleged aggravating factors beyond a reasonable doubt. Under Minnesota law, Chauvin faces sentencing for the most serious crime he was convicted of, second-degree murder. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Minnesota convicts serve two-thirds of their sentence in jail and the other third outside of jail. Without an aggravating factor, Chauvins sentence would likely have fallen between 10 years 8 months and 15 years. Cahill will announce the sentence he decides on June 25. The judges new ruling came after two major developments in the case. Chauvins attorney last week asked for a new trial, arguing that the conviction was tainted by prosecutorial and jury misconduct and errors of law at trial. A few days later, federal officials announced that a grand jury indicted Chauvin and three other former officers who were involved with Floyds arrest with violating Floyds right to be free from unreasonable seizure and excessive force. Newsom Signals Possible End to Most Mask-Wearing Mandates LOS ANGELESWith California planning to lift COVID-19 restrictions on business activity and gatherings on June 15, Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week the states mask-wearing mandate will be mostly lifted as wellbut not entirely. Speaking to Fox11 on May 10, Newsom said the state will continue to make recommendations for mask-wearing in select circumstances. But he said when the states Blueprint for a Safer Economy is scrapped as scheduled on June 15, mask-wearing will likely only be required in large-scale indoor gatherings. Only in those settings that are indoor, he told Fox11. Only in those massively large settings, where peoplefrom around the world, not just around the countryare convening, and where people are mixing in real dense spaces. Otherwise, well make guidance, recommendations, but no mandates and no restrictions, he said. Newsom announced in early April that the state plans to lift COVID-19 restrictions on June 15, banking on the success of vaccinations. The move will do away with the color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy that ranks counties into one of four tiers with varying degrees of allowable business and social activities. He insisted at the time, however, that the state would maintain some form of mask mandate. But as more people are becoming fully vaccinated, federal and local health officials have eased back on mask-wearing, particularly in outdoor settings with relatively small numbers of other fully vaccinated people. Newsom told Fox11 mask-wearing in California will likely still be required at huge, large-scale indoor convention events where well use our common sense. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (L) speaks during a press conference as Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff (R) looks on at The Unity Council in Oakland, Calif., on May 10, 2021. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Newsoms Double Whammy to California: Drought Declaration and Incentives Not to Work Commentary California Gov. Gavin Newsoms so-called economic plan, in truth, isnt an economic plan at all. Rather, its a political recovery path for himself as he faces a recall election later this year. Meanwhile, his policies continue to hammer Californias job markets. Despite having the most natural resources of any state, California continues to have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. During the pandemic, Newsom ordered the strictest lockdown regulations in the country. Predictably, Californias small businesses were hit hard and employers throughout the state had to shut down. Estimates indicated that more than half of restaurants in the state wont reopen post-pandemic. Of course, that industry is dominated by workers making less than $40,000 a yearthe people who most need the economy to rebound. Its become a national story that the size and frequency of government assistance to workers has been a disincentive for those workers to return to work. The lack of workers is damaging the prospects for small business recovery throughout the country and therefore, the economic fortunes of so many workers and the nation as a whole. Even The New York Times conceded that expanded benefits were part of the cause and ran a story with this headline: Unemployment Is High. Why Are Businesses Struggling to Hire? Recently, in the San Francisco Bay Area, a restaurant posted this sign: (The Epoch Times) Despite that hiring problem, which is known to most everyone, in order to save his own political fortunes, Newsom is proposing a massive handout for all those making less than $76,000 per year. While that may help him buy votes, it will only exacerbate the damage he has done to small businesses and jobs over the last year. Instead of making it harder for employers to find employees, Newsom should abandon the big government programs of his aunt-by-marriage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in favor of reducing regulations, income taxes, and capital gains tax rates to provide incentives for employers to open new businesses. As I have noted elsewhere, The sum of decades of Democrat rule in California has been a tremendous loss of businesses and, therefore, jobs. At least 50 large corporations have left California since 2014, with the vast majority leaving in 2019 and 2020, taking their jobs with them, according to notes from the California Policy Center, which keeps a Book of Exoduses. Newsoms handouts will also result in future Democratic-imposed tax increases and only exacerbate that job flight. As if the last year of bad policies wasnt enough, Newsom has imposed a declaration of drought across most of the state. While the skies may not have provided enough rain last winter, there can be no excuse for Newsoms failed water policies. Keep in mind that, according to a University of CaliforniaDavis study, the state is experiencing one of its wettest 100 years among the last 7,000 years. However, instead of saving that rain for a lack of a rainy day, Newsom has bowed to environmental demands and refused to collect enough water to satisfy the needs of nearly 40 million Californians. For decades, Californias water storage capacity has remained relatively static, while its population nearly doubled. In 2014, voters approved a water bond exceeding $7 billion for the building of the Sites Reservoir and Temperance Flat Reservoir. Yet, seven years later, not a single shovelful of dirt has been turned for the construction. Meanwhile, over 75 percent of the water that reaches the San Joaquin/Sacramento Delta flows straight out to the ocean, instead of filling our reservoirs, to satisfy the demands of environmentalists at the expense of Californians and their employers. So, once again, Californians will suffer because of the bad policies of Democrats in Sacramento and, principally, Gov. Newsom. Thomas Del Beccaro is an acclaimed author, speaker, Fox News, Fox Business, and Epoch Times opinion writer, and former chairman of the California Republican Party. He is the author of the historical perspectives The Divided Era and The New Conservative Paradigm. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. MPs Grill PHAC Over Failure to Produce Unredacted Documents Concerning Transfer of Viruses to Wuhan Lab A Commons Committee grilled the president of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) over his failure to produce unredacted documents related to the transfer of deadly viruses to Chinas Wuhan laboratory and the agencys removal of two Chinese scientists. The Standing Committee on Canada-China Relations summoned Iain Stewart to testify on Monday after he failed to produce unredacted documents before a 20-day deadline stated by a motion adopted by the committee on March 31. The motion requested that the PHAC submit all information and documents related to its shipment of live Ebola and Henipah viruses from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg to Chinas Wuhan Institute of Virology in March 2019. The committee had also requested the agency produce documents and information regarding its removal of scientist Xiangguo Qiu, who was responsible for the virus shipment, her husband Keding Cheng, and her students from China. Qiu and Cheng both had their security clearances revoked months later in July 2019. But the PHAC failed to produce the unredacted documents. By April 26, the committee had only received redacted copies. During the Monday hearing, Stewart said he didnt produce the unredacted documents because doing so would breach the Privacy Act and jeopardize national security and the ongoing investigation by the RCMP. His answers were similar to the ones he gave during his testimony before the committee on March 22. Its not that were wishing to be uncooperative or unresponsive, Stewart said. The reason weve done so is that as public servants, were bound by law to keep confidential information confidential. Conservative MP Michael Chong argued that theres provision within the Privacy Act that may allow the disclosure of personal information in some cases. Conservative MP Michael Chong rises during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa on Nov. 19, 2020. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) In Section 8(2)(c), [it] says, for the purpose of complying with a subpoena or warrant issued or order made by a court, person or body with jurisdiction to compel the production of information or for the purpose of complying with rules of court relating to the production of information, Chong said. We, as this committee, are a body with jurisdiction to compel the production of information, the foreign affairs critic added. Also, committee members, backed up by parliamentary law clerk Philippe Dufresne, insist they have the constitutional authority to order the production of any documents they please and that their authority takes precedence over any other laws. Stewarts legal adviser, Christian Roy, disagreed, saying that the Justice Department does not recognize the power of committees to compel documents in violation of the Privacy Act or other laws. Conservative MP Garnett Genuis then brought up a 2010 ruling by former Commons Speaker Peter Milliken that found members of Parliament have the right to seek uncensored documents related to the treatment of Afghan detainees from the Harper government. Conservative MP Garnett Genuis responds to a question during a news conference in Ottawa, Canada, on Nov. 26, 2020. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) Is your position the same as Speaker Milliken? Genuis asked Roy, executive director and senior general counsel of health legal services at the Justice Department. I dont think we can square the two in the sense that my recollection of the Milliken ruling is that ultimately he asked that the parties discuss the matter and that they come up with a solution, Roy answered. Youre telling this committee that your position is different from Speaker Millikens position. Do you believe that Speaker Milliken had the authority to make that ruling? And do you believe that his ruling has force of law? the Conservative MP followed up. I do believe Speaker Milliken had the authority to make the ruling and that it applied to the legislative, the legislature in essence, replied Roy. The Speaker ruled though that parliamentary committees have a right to send for documents that you said thats not your position What I dont understand is how you are taking a position that is different from the position that the lawful authority has made in this case, and yet you presume to say that your position is still the legally correct position? Genuis pressed. My recollection is that the facts were different, and that the order that was issued was different, Roy replied. Mr. Roy, I think youve just defeated your own argument, like youve acknowledged your position is inconsistent with the speakers ruling, the speaker had the right to make the ruling, but you still wish to persist in disagreeing with it, Genuis said. Liberal MP Robert Oliphant questioned Roys legal opinion and suggested Stewart get a second opinion. Liberal MP Robert Oliphant rises during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada, on May 7, 2019. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) I think you need a second opinion, because I think that the Justice Department is not giving you the best advice, Oliphant said. Lawyers are not always right and Justice lawyers are particularly in my mind, not always right. Bloc MP Stephane Bergeron told Stewart that he was not respecting the request and goodwill of parliamentarians. I imagine that you would have never dared to transmit redacted documents or refuse to answer before the court. Here, the parliament is acting like a court, Bergeron said. Bloc MP Stephane Bergeron rises in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada, on May 10, 2021. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press) Parliamentarians understand that there is personal information that should not be publicly disclosed if they are related to national security questions or questions related to criminal investigation underway. That is why we offered you the option of communicating this information to us under the protection of an in-camera session, so that we would not share this information with the public. But in spite of having made that offer, as parliamentarians towards you, you have chosen to not respond to any of the requests from the parliamentarians, he added. Due to Stewarts non-disclosure approach, the committee, in a unanimous vote, demanded the PHAC provide all the unredacted documents within 10 days, which the law clerk would then review and advise the committee as to what could be released publicly. Should the agency fail to deliver the unredacted documents again, the committee would seek an order to do so from the House of Commons. With files from The Canadian Press Orange County Pauses Vaccine Digital Verification System The Orange County Board of Supervisors voted to pause the creation of digital vaccination records after more than 700 people gathered at a May 11 board meeting to oppose the move. A motion to halt any plans of establishing digital vaccination records was approved during a 41 vote, with recently elected Supervisor Katrina Foley being the sole dissenter. The motion was created by Chairman Andrew Do after more than 740 people spoke during the meeting to oppose the creation of an optional vaccine verification system. Speakers were limited to 30 seconds each due to the high volume of attendees. If anyone follows this board over the last 12 months, you see a board that has worked very hard to stay within what is mandated by the state that we have to follow, and no more, Do said. We are respectful of peoples privacy and private rights. It is a challenge to balance between public health needs and personal rights, and I believe we have done a good job in balancing that. But be that as it may, we have come to the point where the noise around this whole vaccine passport has reached a point where its becoming counterproductive. He instead proposed halting any discussions of establishing a digital vaccine record, and instead using the hardcopy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) card as proof of inoculation. People gather to protest vaccine passports at the Orange County Civic Center in Santa Ana, Calif., on May 11, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) It will now be up to residents to keep track of their white CDC paper card, Do said, because if its lost, there will be no digital equivalent to replace it. Those who lose the card will need to ask whoever they received the vaccine from for a duplicate. Supervisor Don Wagner quickly backed Dos motion, but said the idea was never to use a digital vaccine record to restrict the freedoms of the nonvaccinated. I want to read the reference to passports thats in the document in front of us, Wagner said. I wrote it. The contract ad hoc committee agreed to it. This is the sole discussion of passports in our contract, Whereas the parties intend that no work done under this contract, be used now or in the future to create a vaccine passport to limit travel or access to county government services. It cant be clearer. Supervisor Lisa Bartlett told The Epoch Times via text message that the May 11 board meeting had the highest number of public speakers for any board meeting since she was elected to office in 2014. During discussion on the topic, Foley said she couldnt support the motion because she felt that the supermajority of the community does support having a digital record. Its critical to our economic engine here in Orange County, which is really dependent upon tourism, theme parks, sporting events, and concert venues that will be now inconvenienced from being able to have maximum capacity because most sales are online and are digital, Foley said, arguing that businesses cannot check vaccination proof when selling tickets online if vaccinated residents dont have a digital option. We are appeasing a very small faction of our community who actually, theyre not going to get vaccinated. Theyve already told us they dont believe in vaccines. She said many of the people who spoke up against the vaccine passport during the May 11 meeting were the same individuals who rallied against masks outside her home last summer. Many of them went to the Capitol and ravaged our most sacred justice and capitol system, Foley said. We should not cater to people who are spreading misinformation and lies. Wagner later shot back at the comment, saying her characterization of those against digital vaccine records was not correct. My good colleague from District Two says that we only have a small minority of right-wing activist, anti-vaxxers, etc., who are here speaking to us, Wagner said. She knows thats not true. I know thats not true because I got some of the very same text messages from the Hispanic Chamber [of Commerce] that she did. The Hispanic Chamber, I assure you, would be very surprised to be characterized as a small minority of right-wing anti-vaxxers. They are representing in part one of the most disadvantaged communities that most needs to be vaccinated. The board said that since the contract with Composite Apps was already signed on April 29, its material terms will not be changing. However, all work relating to developing vaccine verification for third-party entity use will be stopped. Those who received their vaccinations through the Othena app will still be able to view the dates they received their vaccination, but its not something that can be used by businesses as proof of vaccination. If the board ever decides to consider using a digital record or QR code, it will need to agendize the item and address it publicly. Flames and smoke rise during air strikes amid a flare-up of violence in the southern Gaza Strip on May 11, 2021. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/TPX Images of the Day/Reuters) Pentagon Promises Ironclad Support of Israel Amid Conflict With Hamas Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on May 12 stressed the United States ironclad support for Israels right to defend itself amid a military conflict with Hamas, according to a statement from the Pentagon. The statement comes as Israeli officials said that 16 members of Hamass armed wing were killed by airstrikescoming after Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists fired numerous rockets into Israel. Department of Defense spokesman John Kirby confirmed that Austin spoke with Israeli Minister of Defense Benny Gantz on May 12. Austin conveyed the Departments ironclad support for Israels legitimate right to defend itself and its people, Kirby said. Austin, meanwhile, strongly condemned the launching of rockets by Hamas and other terrorists groups that targeted Israeli civilians, according to Kirby. He reiterated the importance of all involved parties to take steps to restore calm. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on May 12 confirmed that the brigade commander for Gaza City was among senior members of the Islamist militant group who had been killed. This is just the beginning. Well hit them like theyve never dreamed possible, he said. Soon after the announcement, a new rocket barrage was fired at the Israeli city of Ashdod, and Israeli media said the military was preparing for new barrages on the Tel Aviv area. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on May 6, 2021. (Susan Walsh/AP Photo) Hamas confirmed the death of the commander and of other leaders and holy warriors in a statement. The confrontation with the enemy is open-ended, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said. In Gaza, a multi-story residential building and a tower housing media outlets, including one linked to Hamas, collapsed after Israel warned occupants in advance to evacuate, and another structure was heavily damaged in the airstrikes. On May 12, another tower in Gaza appears to have been leveled by Israeli forces. Iranian state-run media and Arabic news outlets reported that the Al Sharuk tower was destroyed. At the same time, the Biden administration earlier on May 12 confirmed that its dispatching a top official on Israeli and Palestinian affairs to Jerusalem in a bid to deescalate the conflictconsidered the worst in years. Hady Amr, deputy assistant secretary for Israeli and Palestinian Affairs, will urge on my behalf, and the behalf of President Biden the de-escalation of violence, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters. We are very focused on this. The United States remains committed to a two-state solution. This violence takes us further away from that goal, Blinken said. Reuters contributed to this report. Pentagon Says Afghanistan Troop Withdrawal Up to 12 Percent Complete The withdrawal of remaining U.S. military forces in Afghanistan is making steady headway, with up to 12 percent of the process already complete, the Pentagon has said. The U.S. militarys Central Command, or Centcom, said in a May 11 statement that it estimates completion of between 6 to 12 percent of the entire retrograde process, the technical term for withdrawal of forces and equipment. At the same time, the Pentagon isnt disclosing specific troop drawdown numbers as a precaution against possible Taliban attacks. Centcom said that enough equipment has been decommissioned to fill 104 of the U.S. militarys jumbo transport aircraft, the C-17 Globemaster planes. At the same time, more than 1,800 pieces of equipment have been turned over to the Defense Logistics Agency for destruction, while one facility has been handed over to the Afghan National Army. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters on May 11 that the U.S. military is being deliberately guarded about troop numbers. Central Command has expressed a concern about the release of personnel figures specifically, given that we have to assume, and we are still assuming that this drawdown could be opposed by the Taliban, Kirby said, according to Air Force Times. Kirby in April warned of Taliban threats to the U.S. military drawdown, which is scheduled to be completed by Sept. 11. Weve seen their threats, and it would be imprudent for us not to take those threats seriously, he said at an April 15 press conference. It would also be imprudent for the Taliban to not take seriously what [President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin] both made clear: Any attack on our drawdown, on our forces or our allies and partners will be met very forcefully. By the time its complete, the drawdown will have brought back to the United States all 2,500 or so troops that have been stationed in Afghanistan. President Joe Biden announced the withdrawal on April 14, saying that its time to end Americas longest war. The presidents decision to withdraw the remaining troops has drawn a mixed reaction on Capitol Hill and from security experts, while national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in late April that the Biden administration cant make any guarantees that terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and ISIS wont see a resurgence once the drawdown is complete. The foreign troop withdrawal has sparked a surge in fighting between Afghan security forces and the Taliban, who have waged a decades-long war to overthrow the foreign-backed government. Kirby was asked at a May 10 press conference how Afghan security forces were coping with the renewed fighting and what the prospects are, going forward, given the dwindling support from U.S. airstrikes as the wind-down continues. While declining to comment on the specifics of operations, Kirby expressed guarded optimism, saying Afghan government forces have more capability now than in the recent past. Its important to remember that for a while now, a long while, they have been in the lead in operations in their country. And they are fighters, Kirby said of Afghan security forces. Demonstrators gather in front of Los Alamitos Unified School District Headquarters in protest of critical race theory teachings in Los Alamitos, Calif., on May 11, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Protesters Speak Out Against School Districts Social Justice Standards LOS ALAMITOS, Calif.About 150 protesters gathered outside the Los Alamitos Unified School District on May 11 as the board unanimously voted to implement new social justice standards in classrooms. Opponents said they were concerned the lessons would teach critical race theory (CRT), an ideology that divides society into oppressors and the oppressed based on characteristics such as race, sex, class, or sexual proclivities. The district superintendent denied that the new standards would teach CRT. The rally was held in front of the district office, even though the board met online due to health and safety concerns and recommendations from law enforcement. Parents gathered from throughout the Orange County region to protest the new guidance. They should be teaching facts, not ideology, Harriette Reid, of Long Beach, told The Epoch Times. The anchor domains in the social justice standards are values that the parents should be deciding upon, and not the school. The government schools should be right down the middle. Superintendent Andrew Pulver said during the May 11 board meeting that the standards dont teach CRT, but are a guide for teachers to shape their lessons into a way that is a little bit more culturally relevant. Critical race theory is not something that were implementing, Pulver said. Many of our students of color and different ethnic backgrounds have really expressed that they want to see themselves more within their curriculum. They want to see themselves more within their classrooms and dont want to have to wait until when they get into high school, and then let alone take an elective ethnic studies course. Social Justice Standards The social justice standards are a set of guidelines divided into four domains: identity, diversity, justice, and action. The standards were provided by Learning for Justice, formerly known as Teaching Tolerance, founded by the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center. Demonstrators gather in front of Los Alamitos Unified School District Headquarters in protest of critical race theory teachings in Los Alamitos, Calif., on May 11, 2021. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times) Board president Marlys Davidson said during the May 11 meeting that opposition to the boards decision is an issue of trust. If people remember, you came here because you thought this was a very good place for your children to grow up in, Davidson said. Social justice standards and this ethnic studies curriculumthe work that it will include from TK12[is] at the heart of what our community needs. Opposing Viewpoints More than 30 people took to a podium during the protest to share their concerns about the curriculum. Theyre focused on the narrative, instead of focusing on the truth, and they really should be focusing on academics, Matthew Simmons, father of two children in the Los Alamitos School District, told fellow protesters. Simmons cited a recent comment by Pulver in an article by the Los Angeles Times saying that the board intends to highlight core ethnic studies concepts such as equity, justice and race. Simmons said: Equity is the polar opposite of equality; you cant have both. We believe in equal opportunity and everybody has the same opportunity, but equity is forced outcome. That is critical race theory. He said many parents and students dared not speak out against CRT because of the fear of being ostracized by their peers. I understand for the students because thats not a good situationthey could lower their grades, it could destroy their future if they stand up and take a stand against the teachers, he said. But we as parents and we as a community need to stand up and say, Were against this, and we demand to be heard. Kris Leyvas of Rossmoor said she was taking her grandchildren out of the district because of its terrible standards. Were all equal; we dont need to teach somebody that theyre not equal to somebody else, Leyvas told The Epoch Times. Despite the color of your skin, we are all the same. What theyre trying to teach is the fact that maybe blacks or browns are better than white people, and theyre not. We are all the same. Pulver said in an email to parents and faculty, We have emphasized that we will not engage in white shaming or referring to all white people as racist, however, this accusation continues to be inaccurately repeated. Steve Amundson, of Long Beach, said CTR was being embedded in public education. Theyre trying to strip away all of the greatness of America, and say America was founded on racism. And thats not true at all. We were founded on Christian Judeo principles, Amundson said. Weve really got to get back to the basic founding principles of this country and teach our kids what they need to be taught in order to remain the world leader in technology, such as math, engineering, and science, and let parents deal with the social issues at home over the dinner table. The board of trustees will vote June 1 on implementing an ethnic studies course for grades 912. Record Number of Small Businesses Cant Find Workers: Report A record number of small businesses couldnt find enough workers to hire in April, according to a new report from the largest small-business lobby group in the United States, reinforcing concerns that the pandemic-related federal unemployment boost may be sidelining workers and hurting economic growth. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) said in its May 11 report (pdf) that 44 percent of all small-business owners reported job openings they could not fill in April, up two points from March and a record high. Aprils reading is 22 points higher than the 48-year historical average of 22 percent and is the third consecutive month of growth in unfilled job openings. Small-business owners are seeing a growth in sales but are stunted by not having enough workers, said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg, in a statement. Finding qualified employees remains the biggest challenge for small businesses and is slowing economic growth. The top concern for businesses in April, as in March, was labor quality, the report indicated. A striking 92 percent of small businesses hiring or trying to hire workers in April reported few or no qualified applicants for the positions they were trying to fill, up three points from March. The NFIB report also noted that 37 percent of small businesses have openings for skilled workers, up three points from March, and 20 percent have openings for unskilled labor, up one point. At the same time, a net 21 percent of small-business owners said they plan to create new jobs in the next three months, reinforcing concerns about growing labor market slack, or unmet demand for paid labor. Further highlighting the hiring woes of businesses, job openings in the overall U.S. economy rose nearly eight percent month-over-month to 8.1 million in March, the highest number in the history of the series, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said in a release Tuesday (pdf). Business groups and Republican leaders in Washington have blamed the federal pandemic-related unemployment boost for sidelining workers. Following a lackluster jobs report last week, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for an early end to the federal $300 jobless top-up (above and beyond what states provide) which is scheduled to lapse in September. The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Chief Policy Officer Neil Bradley said in a statement on May 7. One step policymakers should take now is ending the $300 weekly supplemental unemployment benefit. Based on the Chambers analysis, the $300 benefit results in approximately one in four recipients taking home more in unemployment than they earned working. A debate has simmered about whether the Biden administrations policies are creating disincentives for people to take jobs. The federal unemployment benefit has made it almost impossible for service industry businesses to maintain their workforce. In a majority of cases, the unemployment benefits exceed wages earned from working, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement on Twitter. The federal unemployment benefit has had the effect of discouraging return to work, and it is now time for that program to come to an end, he added. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, speaking at a press conference on May 7, sought to dismiss claims that the weekly jobless top-up was discouraging people from taking jobs. I really dont think the major factor is the extra unemployment, she said, arguing that the jobs data tends to be volatile and the broader trend is positive, pointing out that, on average, the economy has added around half a million jobs monthly in the past three months. Theres no question that were hearing from businesses that they are having difficulty hiring workers, Yellen acknowledged, although she said that the hard-hit leisure and hospitality sector showed strong job gains in April. Republican governors in a number of statesincluding Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, South Carolina, and Tennesseeare responding to business hiring woes by ending the federal unemployment boost ahead of its scheduled termination date in September. Princeton Teen Hurt When Vehicle Hits Deer By West Kentucky Star Staff EDDYVILLE - A Caldwell County teen was injured when his vehicle struck a deer late Tuesday night in Lyon County.The Lyon County Sheriff's Office said the accident happened around 10:15 pm on Eddy Creek Road, 8 miles southeast of Eddyville.Deputies said the driver, 18-year-old Devin Kilgore of Princeton was transported by ambulance to Caldwell County Medical Center for treatment of his injuries.Kilgore's passenger, 13-year-old Justus Coleman of Princeton, was not injured in the crash. Rep. Stefanik Makes Bid to Succeed Cheney as House GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) announced she is officially running to be chair of the House Republican Conference, the No. 3 position among House GOP members, after Republicans voted Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) out on Wednesday morning. Former President Donald Trump, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) have said they would support Stefaniks bid. The New York Republican, notably, backed some of Trumps post-Nov. 3 election claims and mounted a defense of Trump during his first impeachment inquiry. I know firsthand the discipline and message it takes to fight back against the biased national media and the entire Democrat and Far-Left infrastructure, Stefanik said in a Wednesday letter, touting her leadership abilities ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. I know what it takes to flip a district and grow the Republican Party. Stefanik, who didnt mention Cheney in the letter, wrote that she will back GOP messaging regarding the illegal immigration crisis along the U.S.-Mexico border, support law enforcement amid anti-police demonstrations and riots, election security, and strengthening the U.S. military to counter adversaries like the Chinese Communist Party. Simultaneously, Stefanik wrote she will develop a communications posture and will attempt to break through the biased media. I will work hard today and every day to listen and earn your confidence and support as House GOP Conference Chair, she added. And I look forward to working with you as we share our unified conservative vision, regain the Majority, fire [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi once and for all. Since January, meanwhile, Cheney has consistently criticized Republicans support of Trump and said the party needs to move away from his embrace. She and nine House Republicans voted with Democrats to impeach Trump, alleging that he incited the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, which ultimately was voted down in the Senate. Cheney told reporters Wednesday after a voice vote that she will work to oppose Trump if he makes another bid for president but stressed she doesnt feel betrayed by the GOP for ousting her. I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office, Cheney said after the vote on Wednesday, adding that the United States needs a strong Republican Party that is based on the principles of conservatism. I plan to lead the fight to do that, she remarked. McCarthy, when he set the vote on Wednesday, wrote to other Republicans that the GOP needs a unified message in order to recapture the House majority in 2022. A mourner reacts as they carry the body of Palestinian man Hussien al-Titi, who was killed during stone-throwing clashes with Israeli forces, at Fawwar refugee camp near Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on May 12, 2021. (Mussa Qawasma/Reuters) Senior Hamas Commander Killed as Israel Strikes Gaza, Palestinians Fire Rockets GAZA/JERUSALEMIsrael said it killed 16 members of the Hamas military wing in an airstrike on Gaza on Wednesday and Palestinian militants rained rockets into Israel as global concern mounted over their most intense hostilities in years. At least 53 people have been killed in Gaza since violence escalated on Monday, according to the Palestinian territorys health ministry. Six people have been killed in Israel, medical officials said. Israels Shin Bet security service said the brigade commander for Gaza City was among senior members of the Islamist militant group Hamas who had been killed. This is just the beginning. Well hit them like theyve never dreamed possible, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. Soon after the announcement, a new rocket barrage was fired at the Israeli city of Ashdod and Israeli media said the military was preparing for new salvoes on the Tel Aviv area. Hamas confirmed the commanders death and the loss of other leaders and warriors and said in a statement: Thousands of leaders and soldiers will follow in their footsteps. A Palestinian source said truce efforts by Egypt, Qatar, and the United Nations had made no progress to end the violence that flared this week after tension during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan and clashes in East Jerusalem. Smoke rises from a building after it was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza, on May 11, 2021. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters) The offensive is the heaviest between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in the Hamas-ruled enclave, and concern is growing that the situation could spiral out of control. In Gaza, a multi-storey residential building collapsed after Israel warned its occupants in advance to evacuate, and another was heavily damaged in the airstrikes. Other airstrikes hit what Israels military said were rocket launch sites, Hamas offices, and the homes of Hamas leaders. Israeli officials said at least 41 Palestinian fighters have been killed in the Gaza hostilities so far. Israel has gone crazy, said a man on a Gaza street, where people ran out of their homes as explosions rocked buildings. Sixteen people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza on Wednesday, Gazas health ministry said. Witnesses and health officials in Gaza said one Israeli airstrike killed three people, including a woman, in a car. Many Israelis also spent a sleepless night as waves of rockets hit Israels heartland. The children have escaped the coronavirus, and now a new trauma, an Israeli woman in the coastal city of Ashkelon told Channel 11 TV. Israelis ran to shelters or lay flat on the pavement in some communities far from Gaza. All of Israel is under attack. Its a very scary situation to be in, said Margo Aronovic, a 26-year-old student, in Tel Aviv. A Palestinian boy walks past the remains of a tower building that was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza City, on May 12, 2021. (Suhaib Salem/Reuters) Along the Gaza border, an Israeli soldier was killed by an anti-tank missile, the military said. Two people were killed by a rocket in Lod, near Tel Aviv. Tension also spilled over in mixed Arab-Jewish towns in Israel where there have been demonstrations over the hostilities. A synagogue was torched in Lod. Defence Minister Benny Gantz told reporters the Israeli military action would continue until complete and long-term quiet was achieved. Gas Platform Shut Down U.S. energy corporation Chevron said it had shut down the Tamar natural gas platform off the Israeli coast on the instructions of the Energy Ministry. Israel said its energy needs would continue to be met. Hamas said it fired 210 rockets towards Beersheba in southern Israel and at Tel Aviv overnight in response to the strikes on the tower buildings in Gaza City. If they [Israeli forces] want to escalate, the resistance is ready, if they want to stop, the resistance is ready, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said. For Israel, the targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with Hamas, regarded as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States. A picture taken with a drone shows the remains of a tower building that was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, amid a flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence, in Gaza City, on May 12, 2021. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters) The violence followed weeks of tension during Ramadan, with clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters near Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. These escalated ahead of a court hearingnow postponedthat could lead to the eviction of Palestinian families from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers. The conflict has led to the freezing of talks by Netanyahus opponents on forming a governing coalition to unseat him after Israels inconclusive March 23 election. Violence has also flared in the occupied West Bank. Medical sources said a 16-year-old Palestinian was killed in clashes with Israeli forces on Wednesday. Gazas health ministry said 14 of the people reported killed in the enclave were children. The Israeli military said it was looking into these reports and that preventing civilian casualties was a priority. Israel has dispatched infantry and armor to reinforce tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of its last ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks in 2014. Witnesses said Israeli aircraft destroyed Gazas Hamas-run police headquarters in the city. Although the latest problems in Jerusalem were the immediate trigger for hostilities, Palestinians have also been frustrated as their aspirations for an independent state have suffered setbacks in recent years. These include Washingtons recognition of disputed Jerusalem as Israels capital, a U.S. plan to end the conflict that they saw as favorable to Israel, and continued settlement building. By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller Serious About Adoption: Parents Bring Home Baby With Dwarfism, Deformed Limbs, Help Her Thrive After battling four miscarriages and having two beautiful daughtersTessa and Rubyparents Byron and Kari adopted Kamari in 2013 and Emmet in 2017. Wanting to adopt a child with special needs, the couple once again got in touch with the Gladney Center for Adoption in 2018. I called our caseworker, Tanya, at the Gladney Center and talked to her about adopting from their Medically Fragile program, Kari told LoveWhatMatters. After three adoptions already, Tanya knew our family well and knew this was something we were serious about. We started the home study process once again and 4 months later, we got THE CALL. The couple didnt take a second to make a decision when they found out they had been picked to adopt a 4-month-old baby girl with a form of dwarfism. After going over her full history and diagnosis, we learned the form of dwarfism Ivy has is called diastrophic dysplasia, the mom explained. Its rare, affecting one in 500,000 births. Diastrophic dysplasia affects all areas of the body: bones, joints, cartilage, hands, feet, neck, and spine. It causes short arms and legs, but a normal size torso. Mobility will be one of her biggest hurdles due to all of the joint issues and pain. The degenerative disease worsens over time. Byronwho was born with a deformed foot, himself, which he had amputatedknew they had to go forward with the adoption. They got custody of the little girl, Ivy, on June 4, 2019. It didnt take the family too long to form a bond. Byron and Kari continued to research the condition and met parents and families who understood the disease. After going to several doctors, they finally found Dr. Mackenzie at Nemours DuPont Hospital in Wilmington through social media. Its not ideal to fly from Colorado to Delaware for appointments, but it is so worth it, and I would fly around the world to make sure she has the best medical care we can find, said Kari. Treatment helped Ivy, and she started to respond to physical therapy. Then after 7 months, she started sitting up, said Kari. Watching her hit those milestones and be so proud of herself was a beautiful thing. She started being able to put weight on her legs shortly after this and on the advice of her doctor, he told us to get her a little walker to get her up and going. The walker seems to have given Ivy a new lease of life. She is now mobile, enjoying herself, and seeming to have a great time. However, since the disease is degenerative, the couple arent sure what the future holds for the little girl. Kari, however, is proud of her. When people look at Ivy, I want them to see her ABILITY before her DISABILITY, the mom said. She is a very capable, strong, healthy little girl who just happens to have a physical difference. She has shown me to not put any limits on her. 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 Signs of the Times Commentary Signs have been a part of Middle East lore dating back to biblical times. People in the region take them seriously, which is why the signs emanating from the Biden administration are having serious ramifications. Recent rioting on the Temple Mount and rocket attacks on Jerusalem and other civilian areas from Hamas bases in Gaza signal that statements and actions (and inactions) by the Biden administration are creating a political vacuum that terrorists and dictators are eager to fill. The Trump administration had supported Israel over those who wished to destroy the Jewish state. Now, President Biden is returning to the policies of President Obamas administration, which clearly placed Israel low on its priority list, encouraging its enemies. In Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere, the sign is clear: Progress made by the Trump administration in forging peace deals with the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan is now off the table. This administration will try to deal with dictators and terrorists who have no intention of living up to any promise they might make. Why should they amidst signs of weakness and pressure on Israel from Washington? U.S.-born Israeli writer Caroline Glick says the region recognizes that the U.S. has changed sides, the Saudis no longer believe that with Israel they can contain Iran. So now they are hoping to cut a deal with the ayatollahs. Since Democrats gained control of the presidency and Congress, the Middle East has been returning to previous behavior. Mullahs have ramped up their heated sermons against Israel and vile labeling of Jews, reminiscent of a not-too-distant past in Nazi Germany. Anti-Semitism is also rising in Europe. All the United States does is issue tepid statements. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said, While we urge de-escalation on all sides, we also recognize Israels legitimate right to defend itself, to defend its people and its territory. This is meaningless if policies dont follow. The Taliban is in the process of retaking Afghanistan as U.S. troops withdraw. It clearly sees this sign as an invitation to return to the days of mandatory burqas for women, denying females jobs, education, and other freedoms they have recently enjoyed. A re-established base for Al Qaeda may soon follow. Another sign taken seriously by enemies of Israel and the West is the Biden administrations determination to re-enter nuclear talks with Iran, a country whose religious and political leaders have refused to stop their enrichment of uranium and have not been deterred in their determination to eradicate Israel. Bargains with the devil do not end well. See Dr. Faust and the Munich Agreement for examples. Trump administration policies were working in the Middle East (with the exception of unilateral withdrawal from Afghanistan). A strong Israel and peace with at least some of its neighbors is the best deterrent against Islamic terrorism. The Biden administration is again engaging in wishful thinking and the belief that American morality can be transposed on others who do not share it. Such a process has proven folly wherever it has been tried. One might think lessons would have been learned by now. It doesnt help that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been unable to form a government and is on trial for alleged corruption, or that the possibility of a Labor Party government could try to appease Israels enemies. In scripture there are at least 85 references to signs. A Google search will reveal how relevant they have always been, especially in light of what is happening in the Middle East and other current events. John Calvin Thomas has been a syndicated columnist, author, and radio commentator for more than 35 years. His latest book is Americas Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers and the Future of the United States. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a news conference to announce the annual International Religious Freedom Report at the State Department in Washington on May 12, 2021. (Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP via Getty Images) US Sanctions Chinese Official for Persecuting Falun Gong The State Department announced sanctions against a Chinese Communist Party official for persecuting Falun Gong, as the Beijing regimes brutal suppression of the spiritual practice approaches its 22nd anniversary. The sanctions will bar Yu Hui, former director of the agency specifically tasked with persecuting Falun Gong in the city of Chengdu, in Sichuan Province, from entering the United States. The penalty also extends to his immediate family. We will continue to consider all appropriate tools to promote accountability for those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in China and elsewhere, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a press briefing as he announced the release of the departments annual report on international religious freedom, which cited arbitrary arrests, house raids, societal discrimination, and forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners. Blinken said the designation was applied to Yu for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners for their spiritual beliefs. The organization that Yu presided over is known as the 610 Office, an extralegal agency established shortly before the onset of the persecution with the express goal of carrying out the brutal campaign. The organization wields enormous power within the Party and enjoys uncontested power to persecute religious minorities. Yu headed the Chengdu branch beginning in 2016 and through February 2018. The spiritual discipline Falun Gong involves three core tenetstruthfulness, compassion, and tolerancealong with a set of meditative exercises. After its founder, Li Hongzhi, first introduced the practice in Chinas northeastern city of Changchun in 1992, Falun Gong gained 70 million to 100 million adherents through word of mouth. The Chinese regime, threatened by the practices popularity, began an eradication campaign in July 1999 aiming to wipe out the faith in China. The State Department sanctions came a day before World Falun Dafa Day, which marks the anniversary of the practices introduction to the public 29 years ago, as well as Lis 70th birthday. The Office of International Religious Freedom within the State Department also recognized the regimes abuse of Falun Gong practitioners. On World Falun Dafa Day, we recognize the countless Falun Gong practitioners the PRC harasses & abuses simply for their beliefs. Yesterday, @SecBlinken designated a PRC official under Section 7031(c) for his involvement in the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong adherents, wrote the office on Twitter on May 13. The sanctions made Yu the second Chinese official punished by Washington for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners. In December 2020, the Trump administration sanctioned Huang Yuanxiong, a police chief in Fujian Province, for particularly severe violations of religious freedom of Falun Gong practitioners. That designation was made on International Human Rights Day. Today, the United States designated a Chinese Communist Party official for his involvement in the arbitrary detention of Falun Gong practitioners. We will continue to promote accountability for those responsible for religious freedom violators around the world. Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 12, 2021 The U.S. decision will surely send a potent message across China that the world is watching and there will be real-world consequences for persecuting Falun Gong practitioners, according to Erping Zhang, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Center in New York. As the news spreads among the [Chinese Communist Partys] security apparatus, it will very likely make some think twice about perpetrating further abuses, he said in a statement. Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, similarly applauded the move. I think it sends a very strong signal to China, he told Epoch Times affiliate NTD. It sends the signal that were not going to let them get away with this war on faith. Related Coverage INFOGRAPHIC: How Falun Gong Is Persecuted in China The World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong, a U.S.-based organization dedicated to the rights of the faith group, named Yu as a perpetrator of the campaign and highlighted two instances of persecution that took place under his watch. Liu Guiying, a senior engineer at a major state-owned telecommunications company called China Electronics Technology Group, was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2017 for her beliefs, after spending two years in detention without trial. Reenactment of one of the torture methods employed by Chinese officials to coerce Falun Gong practitioners to renounce their faith. (Courtesy of Minghui.org) The judge told her lawyer privately, This has been pre-arranged by superiors and I have no way around it. Later in prison, Liu wasnt allowed to bathe, wash her hair, brush her teeth, or use toilet paper, the organization said. Pan Xiaojiang, a judicial assistant with Sichuan Provinces Nanchong Intermediate Peoples Court, was arrested in February 2017 for hanging a banner in public, according to Minghui, a website established by Falun Gong practitioners in the United States to collect first-hand accounts of the persecution. She was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading not guilty in June 2018. Wu Chunlan, an adherent from Jintang County in southwest Chinas Chengdu City, was interrogated 21 times after her arrest in September 2016. In three months, half of her body became paralyzed, Minghui reported. Her husband, who in hospital at the time for serious medical conditions, passed away without seeing her one last time. The Falun Dafa Information Center said Yu was one of 9,000 officials of the 610 Office who was flagged by the State Department earlier this year by advocates for Falun Gong. Practitioners of Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) meditate in Central Park in Manhattan, on May 10, 2014. (Dai Bing/Epoch Times) Minghui has verified and documented thousands who died at the hands of the regime. It notes that the true number of deaths is likely much higher but cant be verified due to the regimes tight-fisted control over any relevant details. Researchers have described forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners as a cold genocide. In 2020, more than 15,000 adherents experienced arrests or harassment, with more than 600 people sentenced to jail, according to Minghui. The oldest person among those who were sentenced was 88. Brownback, in a phone interview, described what the Chinese regime has done to Falun Gong practitioners as hateful and belligerent. They seem to just absolutely want to destroy Falun Gong, he told The Epoch Times. He cited mounting evidence of systemic organ harvesting, which targeted primarily Falun Gong practitioners, but also Christians and Uyghur Muslims. The world can no longer ignore this. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee gives the command to start engines prior to the NASCAR Cup Series All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, on July 15, 2020. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images) Tennessee, Iowa Governors Order End to Federal COVID-19 Unemployment Benefits Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that all federal pandemic unemployment programs will soon end in their respective states. In a statement, Lee cited an increase in job availability in the state and said that the unemployment benefits will stop on July 3. We will no longer participate in federal pandemic unemployment programs because Tennesseans have access to more than 250,000 jobs in our state. Families, businesses, and our economy thrive when we focus on meaningful employment and move on from short-term, federal fixes, he said in a statement. Under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 passed in March, those unemployed can receive federal expanded unemployment benefits of $300 per week through Sept. 6, among other benefits. In Iowa on the same day, Reynolds also announced an end to the benefits, saying that the payments effectively discourage people from going back to work. She said in a statement that regular state unemployment benefits will remain but that its time for everyone who can to get back to work. Federal pandemic-related unemployment benefit programs initially provided displaced Iowans with crucial assistance when the pandemic began, Reynolds said. But now that our businesses and schools have reopened, these payments are discouraging people from returning to work. Our unemployment rate is at 3.7 percent, vaccines are available to anyone who wants one, and we have more jobs available than unemployed people. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announces new restrictions to combat COVID-19 in Johnston, Iowa, on Nov. 16, 2020. (Kelsey Kremer/Des Moines Register/Pool) The federal benefits to end on July 3 in Tennessee and on June 12 in Iowa include: Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), which provides for an additional $300 weekly payment to recipients of unemployment compensation Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), which provides benefits for those who would not usually qualify, such as the self-employed, gig workers, and part-time workers Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), which provides for an extension of benefits once regular benefits have been exhausted Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation (MEUC), which provides an additional $100 benefit to certain people with mixed earnings Lees office announced that any weeks filed before July 3 that are eligible under federal program requirements will continue to be processed for Tennesseans. The Tennessee Workforce Development System stands ready to help Tennesseans return to the workforce. Career specialists are available to help job seekers match with new employment opportunities at more than 80 American Job Centers across the state, reads a statement from Lees office. They can work to identify possible training programs that can help an individual change their career pathway or enter an apprenticeship program so they can earn a competitive wage, while the learn a new trade. Tennessee and Iowa join an increasing number of GOP-led states across the country that have made a decision to end unemployment benefits earlier than by September, citing labor shortages. The states include Montana, South Carolina, Arkansas, Iowa, and Alabama. Florida is expected to follow suit. According to American Action Forum, a center-right policy institute, 37 percent of workers could make more on unemployment at the $300 level than they would earn if they returned to work. A man walks past the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New York City on May 10, 2021. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images) The Department of Labor reported that jobs growth in the nation was much lower than predicted, adding about 266,000 jobs in April compared to an estimate of 1 million jobs. The unemployment rate rose from 6 percent in March to 6.1 percent in April. President Joe Biden on May 10 said that the unemployment benefitsput in place by the CARES Act and subsequent relief packages including the new $1.9 trillion stimulus planare not part of the reasons why people arent looking for work. The line has been because of the generous unemployment benefits, that its a major factor in labor shortages. Americans want to work. Americans want to work, Biden said at the White House. He added later, The law is clear: If youre receiving unemployment benefits and youre offered a suitable job, you cant refuse that job and just keep getting the unemployment benefits. Our economic plan is working. I never saidand no serious analyst ever suggestedthat climbing out of the deep, deep hole our economy is in would be simple, easy, immediate, or perfectly studied, the president added. Some months will exceed expectations, others will fall short. In April, nonfarm payroll employment remained reduced by 8.2 million, or by 5.4 percent, from pre-pandemic levels in February 2020. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said in a statement that the state of the economy as of April is unequivocal proof that President Biden is sabotaging our jobs recovery with promises of higher taxes and regulation on local businesses that discourage hiring, drive jobs overseas. Emel Akan contributed to this report. Impossible Pork, a new plant-based pork product by Impossible Foods, is served at the 2020 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 9, 2020. (David McNew/AFP via Getty Images) Texas House Passes Bill to Prohibit Using Meat to Describe Plant-Based Food The Texas House of Representatives approved legislation on May 11 that would prohibit companies that produce imitation meat from using the terms meat or beef on food labels. The bill, HB 316, states that beef and pork are edible portions from cattle and swine carcasses and that meat, beef, pork, and poultry cannot be used to label or advertise food products that are cell-cultured, plant-based, or insect-based. If they are, the Department of State Health Services will consider the products misbranded. The measure, which was approved by 12421 vote, now heads to the state Senate. This is for those who choose to eat meat, but its also for those who choose to not eat meat, said Republican state Rep. Brad Buckley, according to the Austin American-Statesman. Buckley, one of the authors of the bill, said the most frequent call he has received is from vegetarians who support the bill. Plant-based food companies such as Beyond Meat, All Yalls Foods, and Impossible Foods oppose the measure. Chuck Mains from Impossible Foods said in a March hearing that the bill would impair their First Amendment right to free speech and unduly restrict their ability to accurately describe their product in a way that consumers understand. Organizations such as Alliance for Plant-Based Inclusion, the Good Food Institute, and the Plant-Based Foods Association also oppose the measure. However, Judith McGeary from the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance said at the hearing: We advocate for common-sense policies for local, diversified agricultural and food systems. One of the most basic issues is accurate, clear labeling of foods so that consumers can make informed choices about how and where to spend their money. Without clear, accurate information, the market cannot function. Supporters of the bill also include individual farmers, the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the Texas Poultry Federation, the Texas Pork Producers Association, and the Texas Farm Bureau. Mak Johnson helps to move cattle into pens after they had been sold at the Abilene Livestock Auction in Abilene, Texas, on July 26, 2011. (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Texas has the most farms in the United States and leads the nation for livestock and associated products. About a dozen states have enacted similar laws, including Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, South Dakota, Wyoming, Alabama, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, and South Carolina. Because meat labeling laws directly affect the meat-substitutes industry, plant-based food companies are fighting the measures in courts, with ongoing lawsuits in Mississippi and Arkansas. The First Queen of Mystery: Mary Roberts Rinehart Mary Roberts Rinehart (18761958) almost wound up dead just like one of her own characters. On the morning of June 21, 1947, a disgruntled cook named Blas Reyes pointed a loaded gun at Rinehart and pulled the trigger. The only thing that saved the famous mystery writer was the age of the bullets; the filthy and ancient cartridges did not fire. The gun dropped to the floor. The household servants rushed to save Rinehart. Her personal maid, Margaret Muckian, and her chauffeur, Ted Falkenstrom, tried to subdue Reyes. They only succeeded after Reyes tried another method to dispatch his employerthe mad and likely drunk Reyes placed two kitchen knives in his hands and took a swipe at Rinehart. Once pinned to the floor, Reyes was escorted out of the house by Howard MacFarland, the police captain of Bar Harbor, Maine. The next day, the would-be assassin took his own life in his jail cell. Rinehart paid for the Reyess funeral and burial. Breast cancer had earlier tried to take Rineharts life too, and in 1947 (the same year as the close call with murder), she told the Ladies Home Journal about her decision to undergo a dangerous mastectomy. Rinehart was nothing if not a survivor. Mary Roberts Rinehart in 1922 with her dog. (Public Domain) Tragedy and Triumph This harrowing story was but one tale in the tragic and triumphant life of Rinehart. Born Mary Ella Roberts in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania (today part of Pittsburgh), she grew up in a family beset by financial and emotional difficulties. Her father committed suicide when she was just 19. This forced her to get serious about maturity and money matters. Rinehart graduated from the Pittsburgh Training School for Nurses. While working as a nurse, she met and married Stanley Rinehart, a physician. This marriage produced three children. Following a stock market crash in the early 20th century, Rinehart turned to writing to improve the young familys finances. She proved to be a maestro of the short story form and regularly appeared in The Saturday Evening Post. However, in 1907, Rinehart landed upon the genre and the form that would make her a household name in the English-speaking world: the mystery novel. The Circular Staircase Rineharts debut effort, The Circular Staircase, remains one of the most popular mystery novels ever written. The novel focuses on a wealthy widow named Rachel Innes, who is described as an adventurous woman: a globe trotter, a donator to causes, and a one-time socialist supporter. Innes and her personal maid rent a mansion outside of Pittsburgh for the summer. Little does the pair know that their summer house will become a den of intrigue and murder thanks to a mysterious criminal. Outside of the mansions walls, jewel thefts, a bank heist, and cold-blooded murder have rocked the small town, and before long Inness summer retreat is targeted. The Circular Staircase was first serialized in 1907 and then released as a book in 1908. The Circular Staircase features a narration style, called had I but known, that came to define Rineharts later work. The Circular Staircase, for example, has the murderer hiding in plain sight all along. Rineharts debut effort, The Circular Staircase, remains one of the most popular mystery novels ever written. In 1915, it appeared as a silent movie. (Public Domain) Rineharts first novel created a pop-culture sensation. After its initial publication, The Circular Staircase was recast as the Broadway play The Bat in 1920. Rinehart and collaborator Avery Hopwood turned the Gothic mystery into a pulp-style yarn with the inclusion of a masked and black-clothed master criminal called the Bat. Rachel Innes was turned into Cornelia Van Gorder, a tough woman always shadowed by her skittish nurse, Lizzie Allen. Director Roland West turned the play into a major motion picture in 1926. West was not done with the source material, either. A master of macabre storytelling, he returned to The Bat again in 1930 with the release of The Bat Whispers. The story remained the same, but Wests second adaptation added sound and experimental cinematography. Poster for 1930s film The Bat Whispers. (United Artists) Cinematographers Ray June and Robert H. Planck shot the film in both 35 mm and 65 mm, plus West, June, and Planck utilized the then innovative technique of panning to give The Bat Whispers an incredible sense of excitement. One of the cinemagoers who fell in love with the movie was Bob Kane, the future creator of Batman. Kane wrote in his 1989 autobiography, Batman and Me, that the idea of a caped crusader disguised as a bat came from The Bat Whispers. The film The Bat Whispers, which is based on The Circular Staircase, inspired Bob Kane, the future creator of Batman. Kane posing with artwork of the Batmobile. (Public Domain) Rineharts influence is much greater than her connection to Batman, however. Although called Americas Agatha Christie for a time, Rineharts popularity once overshadowed her British peer, and few can dispute that she wrote long before Christie and clearly influenced the British grande dame of mystery novels. Rineharts 1930 novel The Door is also credited with creating the phrase the butler did it, although that exact wording does not appear in the novel. Rinehart sold millions of bookssome stand-alone novels and some featuring recurring characters like Cornelia Van Gorder, the nurse-detective Hilda Adams (aka Miss Pinkerton), and the international adventurer Letitia Tish Carberry. Rineharts 1930 novel The Door is credited with creating the phrase the butler did it, although that line does not appear in the novel. All characters bore traces of Rineharts real life: She lived alone after her husbands death in 1932 as a rich widow, she was a former nurse, and, during World War I, she worked as a war correspondent for The Saturday Evening Post. In this position, the poor girl from Pittsburgh lived in Belgium and interviewed luminaries like King Albert I of Belgium and Winston Churchill. In other ways, Rineharts life mirrored her fiction. The woman who wrote stories about isolated mansions and summer retreats spent her years alternating between luxury apartments in New York City and Washington, D.C., and her summer mansion in Bar Harbor. Rineharts Legacy Rinehart is little remembered today. Her legacy pales in comparison to Christies larger shadow. If discussed at all, Rinehart is characterized as a writer of cozy and quiet mystery stories. In truth, she was a master of plotting who weaved intricate mysteries that thrilled generations of readers. Her novels and short stories also showcase an all-American mystery mix of scientific crimefighting, the manor-house aesthetic more common in British novels, and the hard-boiled accoutrements of the style made famous by Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Rineharts novels feature corruption and violence, but they are also romantic and humorous fantasies set in familiar worlds. Rinehart deserves new appreciation as not just a great and important writer, but also as a survivor who defeated a murderous cook and breast cancer. Benjamin Welton is a freelance writer based in New England. Times Square Shooting Suspect Farrakhan Muhammad Arrested in Florida: Police The New York City Police Department (NYPD) confirmed that a suspect in a Times Square shooting that left three people injured over the weekend was arrested in Florida. In a news conference on Wednesday, NYPD Chief Dermot Shea said that there is justice, as several hours ago, the shooter was apprehended in Florida and will be extradited back to New York City. NYPD Detectives Chief James Essig confirmed that Farrakhan Muhammad was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in a McDonalds parking lot near Jacksonville, Florida. Muhammad was with a woman believed to be his girlfriend, Essig said. He was taken into custody without incident. Watch as @NYPDShea and @NYPDDetectives update New Yorkers on Saturdays shooting in Times Square. Click below to watch the full press conference, including Q&A. https://t.co/GpCfZZZeB0 pic.twitter.com/wQJerxEyUj NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 12, 2021 Muhammad, 31, is accused of opening fire at Times Square in Manhattan on Saturday, striking three people, including a 4-year-old girl. The girl underwent surgery and is now home, reports said. I was able to run like five steps and I told my mom to take the baby and run, victim Wendy Magrinot, who was shot, told ABC7. I saw a police officer, and I screamed to him, Im shot, I have a 2-year-old. I dont want to die. Please help me.' The other victim who was shot was identified as Marcela Aldana, who was shopping. Times Square, high publicity, more people have heard about it, Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters this week. Times Square is a tourist destination. Times square is iconic New York City. Was it more damaging? Yes, only because it communicated to more people. According to the New York Post, Muhammad has a criminal record stretching back to 2007, including two felony robbery arrests and a 2012 weapons arrest. UPDATE: @NYPDDetectives have identified the suspected wanted in connection to the shooting in Times Square on Saturday, May 8th. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Farrakhan Muhammad please call @NYPDTips at #800577TIPS. Hes 31 years old, 56 and 160lbs.s pic.twitter.com/hneBxZzgbc NYPD NEWS (@NYPDnews) May 11, 2021 The shooting comes in the midst of a spike in crime, including shootings, in New York City in recent months. According to recent data released by the NYPD, in March, the city saw a 68.8 percent increase in gun-related arrests compared with March 2020. Muhammad was listed as an inmate in the Bradford County, Florida, jail database. Its not clear if he has a lawyer. Ledbetter Man Charged with Assault, Kidnapping By West Kentucky Star Staff LEDBETTER - Deputies charged a man with assault, kidnapping and other charges in Ledbetter on Sunday.The Livingston County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to a local hospital, where a woman told them she had been assaulted at a home on Golden Meadow Road.Investigators seized items from the home related to the assault, as well as illegal drugs.Deputies arrested 49-year-old William Hopkins on charges of second-degree assault, kidnapping, strangulation, possession of meth, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was also charged on three other outstanding warrants, one of which was from out of state.Deputies also charged 67-year-old Carl Blankenship with possession of meth, possession of marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and tampering with physical evidence.Both suspects were booked into the McCracken County Jail. Then-President Donald Trump arrives on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, on Sept. 24, 2017. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Trump, Pompeo Criticize Biden Over Hamass Attacks on Israel Former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized President Joe Biden Tuesday, saying his weakness and signal led to the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel. When I was in office we were known as the Peace Presidency, because Israels adversaries knew that the United States stood strongly with Israel and there would be swift retribution if Israel [were] attacked, Trump said in a statement. Under Biden, the world is getting more violent and more unstable because Bidens weakness and lack of support for Israel is leading to new attacks on our allies. The Hamas terrorist group in the Gaza Strip fired rockets toward the Jerusalem area and southern Israel on Monday. Israel launched airstrikes on the northern Gaza Strip in retaliation. According to reports, the death toll as of early Wednesday rose to at least 40 people35 Palestinians and five Israelis. America must always stand with Israel and make clear that the Palestinians must end the violence, terror, and rocket attacks, and make clear that the U.S. will always strongly support Israels right to defend itself, Trump added. Unbelievably, Democrats also continue to stand by crazed anti-American Rep. Ilhan Omar, and others, who savagely attack Israel while they are under terrorist assault. Rep. Ilhan Omars (D-Minn.), Rep. Andre Carson (D-Ind.), and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) issued a joined statement on Monday, saying they are horrified by the violent assault by Israeli forces on the Al Aqsa mosque, and the continued violent attacks on the Palestinian people. The statement said they condemn all violence in this conflict but said, it is long past time we finally take action to protect Palestinian human rights and save lives. Pompeo also pointed out that Bidens foreign policy gave Hamas a signal that the United States no longer values the relationship with Israel as usual. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the CPAC convention in National Harbor, Md., on Feb. 28, 2020. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) Biden delayed his call with Israeli leadership and restarted funding to the Palestinian Authority through the UNboth signal to Hamas & terrorists in the West Bank that America places less value on our relationship with Israel. It matters who leads, Pompeo wrote on Twitter. Biden made his first call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Feb. 17, almost a month after he took office. Trump called Netanyahu two days after his inauguration in 2017. On April 7, the Biden administration restored economic development and humanitarian assistance to Palestinians for a total of $235 million. In comparison, Trump cut nearly $300 million in funding for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees in 2018. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also called the attacks against Israel the result of Joe Biden undermining Americas support for Israel. Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) also criticized Biden over the attacks on Israel. The White House said that Bidens support for Israel will never waver. The Presidents support for Israels security, for its legitimate right to defend itself and its people is fundamental and will never waver. We condemn ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and other terrorist groups, including against Jerusalem, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a Tuesday press briefing. We also stand against extremism that has inflicted violence on both communities. Jerusalem, a city of such importance to people of faith around the world, must be a place of coexistence. It is up to the officials, residents, and leaders to restore the city to a place of calm, Psaki added. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Israels Foreign Minister yesterday and expressed his concerns regarding rocket attacks on Israel and his condolences for the lives lost as a result, according to a statement issued by the Department of State. Blinken also emphasized the need for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in safety and security, as well as enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy. Mimi Nguyen Ly contributed to this report. Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson attends a virtual press conference to announce changes to lockdown rules in England at Downing Street, London, on May 10, 2021. (Dan Kitwood-WPA Pool/Getty Images) UK to Set Up Inquiry Into Governments Handling of CCP Virus Pandemic An inquiry into the governments handling of the CCP virus pandemic will begin in spring 2022, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has confirmed. Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Johnson said the government will set up an independent public inquiry that will have full powers under the Inquiries Act of 2005, including the ability to compel the production of all relevant materials, and take oral evidence in public, under oath. Johnson told MPs that the Duchy of Lancaster Michael Gove had spoken to the first ministers and deputy first ministers of the devolved nations and that the government would consult the devolved administrations before finalising the scope and detailed arrangements of the inquiry. With regard to the timing of the inquiry, the PM said he understood that some MPs and many bereaved families would be anxious for it to begin sooner, but the pandemic is not over, and we must not inadvertently divert and distract the very people on whom we all depend in the heat of our struggle against this disease. Jo Goodman, co-founder of COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said it was a huge relief to hear the news, but spring 2022 is simply too late to begin. It sounds like common sense when the prime minister says that an inquiry can wait until the pandemic is over, but lives are at stake with health experts and scientists warning of a third wave later this year, Goodman said in a statement, quoted by Sky News. A rapid review in summer 2020 could have saved our loved ones who died in the second wave in winter, the statement reads. Downing Street has defended the timescale for starting the public inquiry, saying it requires a great deal of government time when its still under the pressure of the pandemic. The spokesperson said the government doesnt have a set timeframe for selecting a chair for the inquiry, and that it will come forward with terms of reference and name a chair in due course. The spokesperson has also confirmed that a lessons-learned review of the pandemic response has been carried out but declined to say whether it would be published. What youre referring to is an informal, not public-facing work, that as youd expect is standard practice for departments to look into ways to continually improve, the spokesperson said in response to a question during a press briefing. And thats been done previously and thats been done throughout this pandemic. Johnsons announcement comes as a damning report from the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO), said a quicker international response could have stopped the 2019 CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus outbreak in China from becoming a global catastrophe. The time it took from the reporting of a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown origin in mid-late December 2019 to a Public Health Emergency of International Concern [(PHEIC)] being declared was too long, the panel said in a news release. February 2020 was also a lost month when many more countries could have taken steps to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and forestall the global health, social, and economic catastrophe that continues its grip, the statement reads. The WHO declared the outbreak of the CCP virus a PHEIC on Jan. 30, 2020, and declared it a pandemic on March 11, 2020. PA contributed to this report. UK to Help Vulnerable Countries Tackle Cyber Threat From China, Russia Britain will invest 22 million ($31 million) to help vulnerable countries in Africa and the Indo-Pacific tackle cyber threats and to prevent China and Russia from filling a cyberspace vacuum, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Wednesday. In a speech four years on from the WannaCry ransomware attack, which hit the NHS and affected hospitals across England and Scotland, Raab said that hostile state actors and criminal gangs are also using technology to undermine democracy. Addressing the CyberUK conference, Raab warned that the clash between authoritarian and democratic states is playing out very directly, right now, in cyberspace. Youve got authoritarian regimes including North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China using digital tech to sabotage and steal, or to control and censor, he said. Chinese soldiers work at computers. The Chinese regimes cyberattacks against the West have continued despite cyber agreements. (mil.huanqiu.com) In the last year alone, the UKs National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) dealt with 723 major cybersecurity incidents, the highest figure since the agency was formed five years ago, according to the foreign secretary. Some of this activity is aimed at theft or extortion, but it all too often is simply focused on sabotage and disruption, he said. These hostile state actors, the criminal gangs, they want to undermine the very foundations of our democracy. Raab said the British government is trying to broaden the group of like-minded countries cooperating on cyber. We have got to win hearts and minds across the world for our positive vision of cyberspace as a free space, open to all responsible users and there for the benefit of the whole world. And frankly, weve got to prevent China, Russia, and others from filling the multilateral vacuum. That means doing a lot more to support the poorest and most vulnerable countries. The 22 million UK government funding will support cyber capacity building in vulnerable countries, particularly in Africa and the Indo-Pacific region, said Raab. The money will be used to support national cyber response teams and to advise on mass online safety awareness campaigns. The UK government will also work with Interpol to set up a new cyber operations hub in Africa, working across Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda to support joint operations against cybercrime. Jeremy Fleming, director of Britains GCHQ intelligence agency, said in April that the West is facing a moment of reckoning as China and Russia increase their malign activities in cyberspace and other fields of technology. The concern is that Chinas size and technological weight means that it has the potential to control the global operating system, he warned. Reuter and PA contributed to this report. Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest associates, Ukrainian tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, left, speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, on July 18, 2019. (Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin/Pool Photo via AP) Ukraine Charges Putin Ally Medvedchuk With Treason KYIV, UkraineUkraine has indicted a top opposition figure who is a close ally of Russias president with treason and attempts to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea. Along with the Tuesday indictment of Viktor Medvedchuk, security service agents also searched his house in the capital Kyiv. Prosecutor-General Irina Venediktova said that charges under several articles were brought against Medvedchuk business partner Taras Kozak. The charges carry potential sentences of up to 15 years. Medvedchuk is accused of transferring oil and gas production licenses from one of the fields in Crimea to Russian authorities; Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. Medvedchuk, as the organizer of illegal activities, having strong ties with the top leadership of the Russian Federation, began subversive activities against Ukraine, including in the economic sphere, Venediktova said at a briefing. Medvedchuk is also charged with disclosing secret data on the deployment of Ukrainian military units last year. Viktor Medvedchuk talks during an interview with The Associated Press in Kyiv, Ukraine, on July 12, 2019. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo) The 66-year-old heads the political council of the pro-Russian party Opposition PlatformFor Life. It is the largest opposition group in the parliament, with 44 of the 450 seats. He has close personal ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuks daughter. The new charges are part of a broader campaign against Medvedchuk launched by authorities in February, when his financial assets were frozen for three years. In February, authorities also shut down three pro-Russian TV channels, 112, Zik, and NewsOne, which Medvedchuk controlled. His party called the new charges against Medvedchuk an open and cynical political reprisal. A man inspects a handgun inside of the Beretta booth during the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. on April 28, 2019. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters File Photo) US Judge Dismisses NRA Bankruptcy in Victory for New York The National Rifle Association cannot use bankruptcy to reorganize in gun-friendly Texas, a federal judge in Dallas ruled on Tuesday, handing a defeat to the influential firearms rights group that is facing an effort to dissolve it in New York state. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hales decision, following a trial over the legitimacy of the NRAs January bankruptcy filing, means the group will remain incorporated in New York. Letitia James, New Yorks attorney general, had last August filed a lawsuit seeking the dissolution of the NRA, which she accused of corruption and misspending. The question the court is faced with is whether the existential threat facing the NRA is the type of threat that the Bankruptcy Code is meant to protect against, Hale wrote. The court believes it is not. Hales dismissal is without prejudice, meaning the NRA can try again to file for bankruptcy, but the judge said the problems identified in its operations could result in the appointment of a trustee to oversee its affairs. The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Closely aligned with U.S. Republican politicians including former President Donald Trump, the NRA has been instrumental for years in thwarting Democratic-backed gun control proposals in the U.S. Congress. James, a Democrat, has accused the NRA of diverting millions of dollars to fund luxuries for officials including longtime Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre. She also accused it of awarding lucrative contracts to close associates and family members of senior officials. LaPierre and the NRA have denied wrongdoing. New York State Attorney General, Letitia James, speaks during a news conference, to announce a suit to dissolve the National Rifle Association, In New York, U.S., Aug. 6, 2020. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters File Photo) The NRA filed for Chapter 11 protection in January with the goal of reincorporating in Texas and escaping what it called a corrupt political and regulatory environment in New York. James and the NRAs former advertising agency Ackerman McQueen have said the bankruptcy was filed in bad faith and to escape New Yorks oversight, with a lawyer for James during closing arguments of the trial calling the bankruptcy a circus sideshow. President Joe Bidens administration opposed the NRA in the trial. The Justice Departments bankruptcy watchdog, the U.S. Trustee, urged Hale to dismiss the bankruptcy. The NRA has called New Yorks lawsuit politically motivated. LaPierre testified that he filed for Chapter 11 on behalf of the NRA because he feared James would try to put it into receivership. The NRA also has faced internal upheaval in recent years including a failed effort to oust LaPierre over allegations of mismanagement. The NRA was founded in 1871 in New York. Texas is a Republican-governed state whose leaders are friendly to the NRAs stance against gun control. A spate of mass shootings in the United States this year prompted Biden in April to call gun violence a national embarrassment. The Democratic president has taken some executive action on gun control and has called for broader steps that would require congressional passage including banning military-style assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines. By Maria Chutchian US Needs Real Time Reaction Team to Combat Rise in Ransomware Attacks: Sen. Warner The United States needs to step up its preparation for future ransomware attacks, Senate Intelligence Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Wednesday. We have no actual system in place, to make whether its Colonial Pipeline or SolarWinds or any other company, actually mandatorily report that information to the government in real time, so that we could have a full-fledged response, Warner said on CNBCs Squawk Box. We need to put in place an entity that will include the government, the FBI, CISA, but also some of our some of the web services, Amazon, Microsoft, some of the security firms out therewe need a real time reaction team, and unfortunately, we dont have that right now. A cybercriminal group called DarkSide hacked into Colonials network last week, according to the FBI, gaining access to information and prompting the company to shut down certain systems, leading to the stoppage of a major pipeline that spans from Texas to New Jersey. The result has been rising gas prices and shortages in the south and on the East Coast. DarkSide carried out a ransomware attack, which involves using malicious software to block access to information until a company or individual pays for its release. According to federal authorities, ransomware attacks are becoming more sophisticated. Victims are seeing more losses, the FBI has said, citing complaints received by the bureaus Internet Crime Complaint Center and case information. The bureau and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a bulletin on Tuesday that critical infrastructure owners and operators should operators to adopt a heightened state of awareness and implement the recommendations, such as requiring multi-factor authentication for remote access to networks, from the agencies. Holding tanks are seen in an aerial photograph at Colonial Pipelines Dorsey Junction Station in Woodbine, Md., on May 10, 2021. (Drone Base/Reuters) The Colonial attack highlights how ransomware is turning into a very lucrative industry that is supported by cryptocurrencies, which enable attackers to receive payment while staying anonymous, Robert Dauffenbach, senior associate dean of economic development and impact at the University of Oklahomas Price College of Business, told The Epoch Times. Attackers received an estimated $350 million in payments in 2020 alone. Government intervention may be needed to deal with the issue, since many attackers reside outside the United States, he added. Attackers are more powerful than ever thanks to research and development budget access and increasing amounts of money due to bitcoins rise in value, according to Jeremiah Grossman, CEO of Bit Discovery and founder of WhiteHat Security. For the forseeable future, well be fighting against some of the most powerful cyber-criminal tooling weve ever seen, he said in a tweet. Warner is concerned about what would happen if the attacks become broader. My concern is this: we see the effect of this ransomware attack against one pipeline company. We saw end of last year, the SolarWinds attack which was generated by Russia, that hit 18,000 companies, luckily, that was only a espionage where they were trying to exfiltrate information, he said. Lets imagine what would happen if suddenly you had somebody shutting down 18,000 companies across our economy. We would come to a grinding halt, he added. CISA is working on raising the cyber hygiene of private industry, as more ransomware attacks are brought against small- to medium-sized businesses, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters in Washington on Tuesday. CISA is inside the Department of Homeland Security. This threat is not imminent; it is upon us, he said. We are bringing our all-of-government effort, at the presidents direction, to not only address the situation that is upon us today that is galvanizing our attention, of course, but to really focus on critical infrastructure and what we can do to strengthen that critical infrastructure across our government and to make it more resilient to these types of attacks and to raise awareness so that everyone understands the need to prevent and be in a position to respond to these attacks. The Xiaomi logo is seen at a Xiaomi shop in Shanghai, China, on May 12, 2021. (Aly Song/Reuters) US Will Remove Xiaomi From Blacklist, Reversing Action by Trump WASHINGTONThe U.S. Defense Department will remove Chinas Xiaomi from a government blacklist, a court filing shows, marking a reversal by the Biden administration of one of former President Donald Trumps last actions aimed at Beijing before exiting office. The court filing stated that the company and the U.S. government would agree to resolve their ongoing litigation, bringing to an end a brief conflict between the hardware company and Washington. A Xiaomi spokeswoman said the company is watching the latest developments closely, without elaborating. Shares in the company jumped more than 6 percent in Hong Kong as news of the decision spread. The companys share price has tumbled roughly 20 percent since it was placed on the blacklist in January. The Defense Department didnt immediately comment. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The department had designated the firm as having ties to Chinas military and placed it on a list that would restrict U.S. investment in the company. Seven other Chinese companies were also placed under similar restrictions. Xiaomi went on the offensive by filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government, calling its placement unlawful and unconstitutional and denying any ties to Chinas military. In March, a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the blacklisting. The Biden administration has agreed not to challenge that ruling. Soon after that judgment, Reuters reported that other Chinese companies placed on the same blacklist were considering similar lawsuits. Xiaomi was among the more high-profile Chinese technology companies that Trump targeted for ties to Chinas military. Trump had made countering the rise of Beijing a centerpiece of his administrations economic and foreign policy. Xiaomis local smartphone rival Huawei was also put on an export blacklist in 2019 and barred from accessing critical technology of U.S. origin, affecting its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors. The measures effectively crippled the companys smartphone division. Later, the U.S. Department of Defense placed similar restrictions on Chinas Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, a firm key to Chinas national drive to boost its domestic chip sector. Vaccine Skepticism Is Soaring Amid Heightened Government Hype and Steps to Hide Unwelcome Data Commentary How might governments counter the high rate of vaccine skepticism thats foiling their plans to reach herd immunity? According to Gallups 2020 World Poll, 1 billion people indicated they would refuse a COVID-19 vaccine, with rates of skepticism especially high in the developed world. In the United States, many who were willing to be vaccinated early on have had second thoughts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that more than 5 million Americansand countingwho have received a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine are skipping appointments for their second. Over the past month, Americans average acceptance of 3.3 million daily doses has plummeted to under 2 million, with no sign of the freefall ending. The 115 million already fully vaccinated were the easy gets. The many skeptics who remain unvaccinated are anything but. Cheerleading for vaccines by virtually the whole of the medical establishment and mainstream press hasnt been able to turn the tide; neither has widespread censorship by social media of anyone who questions the efficacy or safety of COVID-19 vaccines or an unprecedented U.S. government outreach aimed at winning over skeptics. None of these have been able to overcome persistent reports of harm caused by vaccines, bolstered by official government data showing questionable benefits. Hence, there is a heightened motivation for the CDC to hide unwelcome data and make vaccines look more effective than they are. A current case in point involves breakthrough infections, jargon used to describe COVID-19 infections that occur after people get vaccinated. Although the CDC acknowledges that the existing reporting systems for breakthrough infections already represent an undercount, since reporting is voluntary and not all real-world breakthrough cases will be identified because of lack of testing, that official undercount nevertheless attracted unwanted publicity, making it too high for the CDCs liking. By April 26when the ever-increasing tally of these undercounted breakthrough infections exceeded 9,200the CDC called a time-out, stopped reporting them, and announced that it would arrange for new breakthrough cases to be counted differently as of May 14. To lower the official numbers that come in from U.S. states and territories for breakthrough infections, the CDC wont log breakthrough cases requiring doctor or emergency-room visits, let alone minor adverse events: Itll only report adverse events serious enough to result in hospitalizations or deaths. The CDCs new procedure should reduce the number of new breakthrough infections that they report by approximately 90 percentending their newsworthiness to the press. The CDC faces other challenges in convincing people that COVID-19 vaccines are safe, however, due to another reporting system that documents deaths and side effects following vaccination: its own Vaccine Adverse Events Reports (VAERS). The most recent update, for example, showed that by April 30, 157,277 adverse events had occurred, including almost 4,000 deaths. Although these deaths could be entirely or mostly coincidentalas the CDC and vaccine companies assertmore than 30 percent of the deceased became mortally ill within one day of inoculation and almost 40 percent did so within two days. The coincidencesif thats what they arehave especially jinxed COVID-19 vaccines. As Fox News Tucker Carlson reported last week to an audience of close to 3 million viewers, In just the first four months of this year, the U.S. government has recorded more deaths after COVID vaccinations than from all other vaccines administered in the United States between mid-1997 and the end of 2013. Carlsons comparisons of recent deaths following COVID-19 vaccines with the cumulative deaths that occurred over a period of 15 1/2 years from all other vaccines combinedall based on the governments VAERS dataalso noted that 160 million Americans get the flu shot every year, yet relatively few coincidentally die afterward: 203 deaths in 2019, 119 deaths in 2018, and 85 deaths in 2017. In contrast, far more deaths have followed the far-fewer people fully vaccinated for COVID-19. Coincidence seems to strike those who take a COVID-19 vaccine several dozen times more often than those who take the flu vaccine. Foreign governments have also undermined the CDCs insistence that the vaccines are all safe. Last week, Denmarks health authority broke from the U.S. insistence that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is safe by concluding the benefits of using the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson do not outweigh the risk of causing the possible adverse effect in those who receive the vaccine. Denmark voiced similar concerns last month in abandoning the AstraZeneca vaccine. Without high vaccination levels, the CDC wont reach the numbers it believes are needed to reach herd immunity. That might be a blessing in disguise. The CDC could then rely on a fallback position that might even be superior: the default of acquiring herd immunity through natural infections that humans have used since time immemorial. Lawrence Solomon is a columnist, author, and executive director of the Toronto-based Consumer Policy Institute. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Virginia, Georgia, Florida Governors Declare States of Emergency After Colonial Pipeline Hack Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared states of emergency in their respective states in response to gas shortages following the recent hack of the Colonial Pipeline. The moves come after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency on Monday. Gas stations in multiple states across the country began running dry and gasoline prices rose on Tuesday, after a fuel pipeline halted operations for days following the attack by hackers. Motorists have been panic buying since the May 7 ransomware attack, which effectively restricted access to computer systems while demanding payments to release them. The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday issued temporary waivers of certain fuel standards to increase the supply of gasoline in areas whose reformulated gasoline has been impacted by the shutdown. In particular, it waived the federal Reid vapor pressure requirements for fuel sold in Reformulated Gasoline areas of District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The waiver will continue through May 18. Meanwhile, the Department of Transportations Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration had declared an emergency declaration for 17 states and Washington, D.C. on May 10 to allow flexibility for truckers to transport fuel. Northams emergency declaration (pdf) will allow state agencies to relax state requirements or regulations to mitigate the impact of the shutdown. It also will provide more flexibility and funding for state and local governments to make sure there is adequate fuel supply, according to his office. This emergency declaration will help the Commonwealth prepare for any potential supply shortages and ensure Virginia motorists have access to fuel as we respond to this evolving situation, Northam said in a statement. The order will be in effect for 30 days unless amended. The 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline, carrying gasoline and diesel from refineries in Texas, is the source of nearly half of the fuel supply on the U.S. East Coast. The Biden administration projected that the pipeline would restart in a few days and urged drivers not to hoard. DeSantis in Florida late Tuesday issued an emergency declaration (pdf) that activates the Florida National Guard as needed, as well as call on the director of the division of emergency management to work with local and federal officials to respond to the situation. The declaration also waives certain fuel transport requirements including weight and size restrictions on fuel trucks. It is in effect for 30 days. I think this is something that demands really serious federal attention. This was essentially a cyberattack on critical infrastructure in our country, DeSantis said at a conference on Tuesday, reported WTSP. You cant just say its a private pipeline therefore, were not gonna be involved. No, the U.S. government needs to be involved. They need to help mitigate this. In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency (pdf) which temporarily suspends state sales tax on gas through the end of May 15, among other actions. My office has been in close contact with company and industry officials since we first learned of the Colonial cyber attack over the weekend, Kemp said in a news release. We are taking action to relieve some of the cost burden from Georgians as Colonial recovers by suspending fuel taxes, increasing the weight limit for supply trucks, and prohibiting price gouging. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried on Monday told residents not to panic-buy or hoard gas. She said in a statement that Floridians may expect some fuel pricing and sales issues over the coming days due to several factors including the temporary shutdown of a major fuel pipeline due to the cyberattack. This will mean fuel would need to be trucked in to certain regions amid a shortage of truck drivers, she added. AAA Gas Prices, a website that monitors gas prices, said Florida should remain well supplied with gasoline, despite the pipeline outage, because the state is not largely dependent on the Colonial Pipeline for gasoline. But Mark Jenkins, a spokesman for the organization, said gas prices remain vulnerable to the volatility of price changes. As of May 10, the national gas price average jumped six cents to $2.96. AAA said that if the trend continues, an increase of three more cents would mean the national average is the most expensive since November 2014, when average prices were at $2.99 and higher. A law enforcement official discovers a photograph of Pamela Pitts in the wood stove of a home she shared with two others in Prescott, Ariz., in 1988. (Yavapai County Sheriff's Office via AP) Woman Confesses to Murdering Teen Over 30 Years Ago, but Avoids More Prison Time FLAGSTAFF, Ariz.There was no shortage of tips about who killed Pamela Pitts, a rowdy but compassionate 19-year-old whose body was found burned beyond recognition in a pile of trash in 1988. A Satanic cult. A drug dealer. A cowboy. An ex-lover. A guy nicknamed Halftrack. Or maybe it was an overdose at a spot in central Arizona where people went to party. It would take more than 30 years, some prison calls and an eyebrow-raising plea deal before a convicted murderer would confess and the mystery would partly be solved. But in a shocking twist, a court recently agreed Pitts killer wouldnt spend any more time behind bars. Over the years, investigators couldnt pin down the evidence they needed to arrest anyone. The tips that poured in didnt add up. The slaying had stoked widespread fear about a killer on the loose around Prescott, a tourist town about 100 miles north of Phoenix. And then the case went cold. Yet, suspicion followed Pitts roommate, Shelly Harmon, for the 20 years she spent in prison for fatally shooting her ex-boyfriend, Raymond F. Clerx. As her sentence was ending, police reopened the Pitts case and started monitoring Harmons phone calls, eventually collecting 20 hours worth of recordings, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press. Shelly Harmon after she was arrested in the 1988 death of Pamela Pitts, in an undated photo. (Yavapai County Sheriffs Office via AP) One call gave prosecutors what they said they needed to connect Harmon to Pitts killing. In it, Harmons father said she never told him what actually happened. I had a moment. I had a huge moment, Harmon replied. Dennis McGrane of the Yavapai County Attorneys Office saw it as an admission of guilt. Like a sudden quarrel with the roommate, he said. She wasnt planning it, but she did do it. Harmons attorney, Dwane Cates, said statement could have referred to Clerxs death. Clerx had wanted to end the relationship and was going to take their dogs. In a burst of anger, Harmon shot him as he lay on the roof of a car watching planes overhead. She stored his body in the trunk of her car for two weeks before the smell became overpowering and she dropped it in a mineshaft. Before confessing, Harmon said, I loved him. I was planning to spend the rest of my life with this man. With Pitts death, Harmons story changed over the years: She said Clerx was her alibi. She said she was never at the party spot outside town where Pitts went missing on Sept. 16, 1988. She claimed another roommate strangled Pitts. At one point, Harmon declared, I never killed my roommate. I never wanted to kill anyone. I loved her dearly. Prosecutors tried to draw similarities between the two cases to back up a theory that when Harmon felt threatened or abandoned, she killed. Cates called that a stretch and argued prosecutors may have well said, They were both human, they both breathed air. What prosecutors did have is that Harmon was furious with Pitts over money, for wanting to move out and for sharing news of Harmons pregnancy that she wanted to keep from her father, according to court documents. The same day Pitts went missing, Harmon drove around Prescott looking for her and saying shed kill her if she found her, the documents say. Harmon also said she knew how to conceal a killing: by burning a body or dumping it down a mineshafta statement a judge said could be included at a trial that was supposed to start last week. The site outside Prescott, Ariz., where Pamela Pitts body was found in 1988 among a pile of trash, in an undated photo. (Yavapai County Sheriffs Office via AP) But prosecutors were dealt a huge blow when the court ruled no evidence of Clerxs death could be introduced. The risk of unfair prejudice was too great, the court said. Plus, the autopsy was inconclusive because of the extent of Pitts burns. The court ruled that no one could suggest it was a homicide or probable homicide, though that was listed on the report. Pitts was identified through dental records. Prosecutors acknowledged that they faced a trial without the evidence they had hoped to present. Some witnesses also had died or their memories faded, and the records were incomplete. Thats when they considered a plea deal. It weighed heavily on us, guaranteeing an outcome versus taking a chance at trial, McGrane said. Harmon maintained the evidence was stronger against someone else. A former lead detective on the case recommended charges against another woman in 1990 and would have been the defenses star witness, Cates wrote in court documents. He accused prosecutors of intentionally delaying the case, not taking it to a grand jury until a month after the former detective died in 2017. Harmon was charged with a first-degree murder. Yavapai County sheriffs Lt. Victor Dartt, who got the case as a new detective in 2011, said he followed leads until they no longer checked out. Shelly was the only one that I could keep corroborating, he said. Lt. Victor Dartt works from his office in Prescott, Ariz., on April 21, 2021. (Yavapai County Sheriffs Office via AP) Harmon was living outside Carson City, Nevada, after being released from prison for Clerxs death. She got married, managed rental properties, and did bookkeeping and tax work. Neighbors and friends called her a brilliant and generous Christian woman, entrusting her to care for them, their pets and their homes. Harmon had not registered as a felon as required in Nevada, so she was picked up on that allegation and told of the murder charge once she got to a sheriffs office, Dartt said. In March, she agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder and detail how she killed Pitts. Until then, authorities thought someone else may have witnessed the killing and had not come forward. Harmon said she was alone. In court, Harmon recounted that she was upset Pitts was late on rent and had overdrawn a joint bank account. So, she went looking for her, the two fought and Harmon said, I just lost it. She said she hit Pitts repeatedly against the ground until she was no longer moving, no longer breathing. As voices drew near, Harmon said, she freaked out. I was thinking, Oh, my God, shes dead, shes dead, and I killed her, said Harmon, whose maiden name was Norgard. Authorities at the site outside Prescott, Ariz., where Pamela Pitts body was found in 1988 among a pile of trash, in an undated photo. (Yavapai County Sheriffs Office via AP) The Pitts family found the account unbelievable, ridiculous and weak, like half a story. Harmon did not talk about how Pitts body was burned. It was just to get out of jail, said Pitts brother, Paul Pitts Jr. She got a golden ticket, and she got away with murder. Harmon was sentenced to 20 years but received credit for the time she served for Clerxs death and the years she spent in jail awaiting trial in Pitts slaying. Still, the Pitts family celebratedit wasnt justice, but it was an ending to the decadeslong case. They remembered Pitts, who exuded 1980s rock style and whose room always smelled like Aqua Net hair spray. She loved animals, took care of the elderly, was kind and bubbly but also had a tough, know-it-all side, her family said. Members of the Pitts family surround a photo of Pamela Pitts, who was killed in 1988 outside Prescott, Ariz., in a photo taken on March 1, 2021. (Susan Eazer via AP) Her remains were cremated, and her family spread the ashes by Thumb Butte, a geographical landmark in Prescott, where she liked to hike and visit a creek. Her father bought dinner and drinks at a restaurant after the March 1 court hearing. The family crowded around a framed picture of Pitts and smiled, thankful for the work law enforcement put into the case. Pitts mother, Carol, said Harmon will have to live with killing her daughter for the rest of her miserable life. None of Harmons family or friends were at her final court hearing, according to court documents. Shes barred by the plea agreement from talking about the case. And her usually chatty attorney, Cates, would only say, This is a very sad case all the way around, and it just needed to end. Harmon, now 50, is back in Nevada, friends say. Mary Burgoon said shes had a few meals with Harmon and her husband. She said Harmon was unjustly jailed and believes Harmon pleaded guilty only to avoid prison time. Wouldnt you if that was the only way you could get out of there? said Burgoon, a past president of the Carson City Republican Womens Club. I do not believe that she did it. By Felicia Fonseca Livingston County Food Giveaway Thursday By West Kentucky Star Staff LIVINGSTON COUNTY - Livingston County will offer another USDA Farmers to Families food giveaway on Thursday.The event will occur from 9 a.m. until supplies run out at the Livingston County UK Extension Office Blue Fair Barn at 803 US 60 in Smithland.Through funds obtained from COVID-19 relief, the USDA will provide a free box of food to residents who are food insecure, lack money or lack other resources. The USDA will require those in need to provide their name, number in household, and city of residence on a sign-in form.With 546 boxes of food available, Livingston County officials encourage residents to share the information with those who would benefit from the food.Anyone with questions should contact the Livingston County Judge-Executive Office at 270-928-2105. WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana was sworn into the House on Tuesday, adding some breathing room to the partys tight majority. Carter, 57, represents a majority-Black district centered in New Orleans that extends up the Mississippi River into Baton Rouge. The seat opened after Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond left the position to work as a special adviser to President Joe Biden. Carter had served in a variety of local and state political positions over the course of three decades before winning a runoff election to succeed Richmond. He is the only Democratic member of the Louisiana congressional delegation. Carter said in his inaugural speech on the House floor that his district is known for Mardi Gras, jazz, great food and its vibrant manufacturing base, but he said it also has a lot of needs, including economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, infrastructure investment, environmental justice and education. I commit to working with everyone in the Congress and the White House to address those needs and to stand strong when those needs are not being addressed, Carter said. Carters swearing-in gives Democrats a 219-212 edge in the House, with four vacancies. Of those vacancies, three seats had been held by Democrats and one by a Republican. No party turnover is expected when special elections are held to fill those vacancies. The race to succeed Richmond was a crowded one. Carter and Karen Carter Peterson, both serving as state senators, emerged as the top vote-getters among 15 candidates in the March primary. Carter had the backing of Richmond and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-S.C. Peterson was supported by voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. As is the norm for swearing-in ceremonies, lawmakers put aside their party and political differences. Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 Republican in the House, welcomed Carter, saying that hes committed his life to public service. We look forward to continuing that great tradition as Republicans and Democrats working together for the best interests of our great state of Louisiana as well as for the nation, said Scalise, who also represents Louisiana. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, was also at the Capitol and spoke during a ceremonial event just outside the House floor. He called Carter pretty strong-willed, prompting laughter from Carters family and friends, before he added, but always pleasant to deal with. NORWALK The city Board of Education is weighing significant changes to school governance councils, including limiting the authority of the councils to make decisions for the individual schools they serve. The councils, which are made up of parents, students and school officials, were established five years ago to give parents greater input in how the schools their children attend are managed. The councils have wide authority and are considered the primary decision-making body for a school. But according to Dori Page Antonetti, an attorney with the law firm Shipman & Goodwin, LLP, the district policy governing the councils should be amended to match state law, which does not explicitly give councils the power to make binding decisions. The legislature, as indicated by the statutory language, and the state Department of Education view school governance councils role as one of participation, consultation, advice giving in a wide variety of areas, but not ultimate decision making, Antonetti said at a board policy committee meeting last week. Superintendent Alexandra Estrella said the district asked Shipman & Goodwin to review the policy after a Freedom of Information Act request complaint raised concerns it was not in alignment with state law. One of the things that were trying to do is to well align ourselves to the state guidelines to make sure that in the future we dont have complaints associated to SGCs, partially to those that are mandated by the state, Estrella said, referring to eight student governance councils that are required under state law. In addition to straying from state guidelines, Antonetti said the council policy conflicts with another board policy that vests the responsibility for managing schools with the district administration and not the student governance councils. To avoid conflicting with state guidelines, Antonetti suggested the board change the definition of student governance councils to better reflect their role as advisory boards for the school principal and their staff. Antonetti also recommended the board adjust voting rules for individual councils. Currently, councils must reach consensus or a two-thirds majority for an item to pass. Antonetti suggested the threshold be set at either a simple majority or two-thirds majority. The change is necessary, Antonetti said, because the councils are subject to the Freedom of Information Act and a vote must be officially recorded under state law. Consensus implies that you are just coming to an agreement without having a vote or any formal way to understand what that consensus is, she said. Antonetti also said council term limits should be adjusted from a maximum of two two-year terms to no more than four two-year terms. State law, she said, allows members to serve up to four terms. The recommended changes are far from becoming part of board policy. The committee has not taken any official steps to amend council rules, and some members expressed unease at parts of the proposal. Heidi Keyes, a school board member and the chairperson of the policy committee, suggested altering term limits which would allow council members to serve up to eight years could prevent more parents from participating in the process. I just worry with those longer terms some other parents that really want to be active and join will have to wait that longer amount of time, Keyes said, adding the committee should take more time to consider the recommendation. Still, the possibility of reducing council authority raised alarm among some parents who currently sit on the districts 20 student governance councils. At least seven parents wrote to the council last week in opposition to the proposed changes, including several council members. These changes represent a sharp contrast from efforts by the (school board) just a few years ago to encourage more parent involvement and include parents in the decision making process for their schools, wrote Jason Penta, council co-chairperson at Tracey Magnet School. Mike Raleigh, council co-chairperson for Nathan Hale Middle School, suggested any attempt to limit the power of student governance councils without the input from members could breed mistrust between the community and the district. Any effort to marginalize the helpful role and the positive spirit of the SGCs would be considered a major step backwards, Raleigh said. There are many SGC members in our districts with peer groups that I am sure can be mobilized to engage this issue if a discussion on the subject is desired, rather than doing it quietly in the background. richard.chumney@hearstmediact.com HOUSTON (AP) The whereabouts of a tiger that was found briefly wandering a Houston neighborhood remained unknown on Wednesday as the Texas man who police allege owns the animal was released on bond. An attorney for Victor Hugo Cuevas continued to insist to reporters on Wednesday that his client is not the tigers owner and like authorities is worried about the animals safety. Were going to do everything we can do to try to find this cat and get this cat to a nice, safe place where it can enjoy a nice comfortable life. Thats really what we want to do, attorney Michael W. Elliott told reporters during a brief news conference outside the Fort Bend County Jail. Cuevas had been booked into the jail Monday night after being charged with evading arrest by Houston police in neighboring Harris County. While Elliott has denied Cuevas is the owner or caretaker of the tiger, the attorney has told reporters the animal is a 9-month-old male named India. Cuevas, 26, who stood next to Elliott, did not speak. Elliott declined to answer questions about who the owner of the tiger could be, saying they would do their own investigation to find the tiger as Houston police had not done a good job. Houston police spokesman John Cannon said his agency was still searching for the tiger. We all love animals, including my client ... The public wants to know, we want to know to. We want to find India and were going to work hard to do that, Elliott said. When he was arrested Monday night, Cuevas was already out on bond after being charged with murder in a 2017 fatal shooting of a man outside a restaurant in Fort Bend County. Cuevas has maintained the shooting was self-defense, Elliott said. Cuevas has previously had his bond in the murder case revoked four times and he was set to appear in court on Friday as prosecutors seek to revoke it a fifth time. The last time anyone had an eye on the tiger was Sunday night when residents in a west Houston neighborhood called police after spotting India outside their homes. Several videos taken by residents showed the tiger coming face-to-face with an armed off-duty Waller County sheriffs deputy who lives in the neighborhood. The deputy told police he was alerted about the tiger on Nextdoor, a neighborhood-based social media app. During the encounter, the deputy told Cuevas to get the animal back inside as Cuevas yelled, Dont shoot my cat, according to court documents made public Wednesday. No shots were fired. The deputy witnessed Cuevas putting the tiger in the back seat of a white Jeep Cherokee before speeding off, evading officers after a brief pursuit, according to court documents. Cuevas also apparently had two monkeys in the home, police said. Having a monkey is not illegal in Houston if the animal is under 30 pounds (13.5 kilograms). Tigers are not allowed within Houston city limits unless the handler, such as a zoo, is licensed to have exotic animals. Texas has no statewide law forbidding private ownership of tigers and other exotic animals. ___ Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70 STAMFORD A second man was charged with murder Tuesday in the 2018 shooting death of a 16-year-old boy. John Gotti Montero-Delossantos, 21, of Stamford, was arrested on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder Tuesday afternoon in connection with the fatal shooting of Marcus Hall. Hall was shot multiple times on the night of Sept. 20, 2018, in the area of 62 Pequot Lane, police said. The killing of the Westhill High School student and aspiring skateboarder left the West Side community shaken to its core. Last week, police arrested Isaias Delacruz on charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and carrying a pistol without a permit in connection with the 2018 slaying. Investigator Louis Burdi said in the warrant for Delacruzs arrest that police used surveillance footage, witness testimony and anonymous tips to help build the case against the two men accused. Multiple witness accounts place Delacruz and Montero-Delossantos in the area of the Southwood Square Complex, also known as the Village, on the night Hall was killed, Burdi said in the warrant. Security camera footage in the area of the complex helped police identify a small white sedan with a distinctive dark-colored gas cap door and dark-colored rims as a vehicle of interest, Burdi said. Officers tracked down the vehicles owner, who confirmed picking up Delacruz and Montero-Delossantos on the night of the shooting and taking them to the Southwood Square Complex, the warrant said. The witness told police that the two then disappeared for about 20 minutes, then returned and asked her to drive in the opposite direction, the warrant said. The witness said she had no knowledge of the shooting, the warrant said. This witness account was corroborated by at least three other individuals and video surveillance from the area, the warrant said. One witness told police that Montero-Delossantos had even pulled out the gun allegedly used in the murder during a hangout and bragged that it had been used in the killing of Hall, the warrant said. Montero-Delossantos is in the custody of the Connecticut Department of Corrections and is currently serving a prison sentence on an unrelated drug conviction. COLLINSVILLE The Collinsville School District announced a partnership with Hazel Health to expand health care services available to Collinsville High School (CHS) and Collinsville Middle School (CMS) students. Hazel offers virtual doctor visits or telehealth visits accessible from the school nurses office and from home. The service began May 5 for all CHS and CMS students: those with and without primary care physicians; and those with and without insurance. The Collinsville Community Unit School District #10 Board of Education approved the partnership with Hazel Health at its April 19 meeting. Last Friday, Collinsville Middle School Nurse, Debra Welch, and Director of Special Education, Alison Underwood, talked more about the new system. Welch completed three Hazel Health visits between May 5 and May 7. Its been a really useful tool, Welch said. One of the gaps Ive had throughout the years is sometimes when a student does not have a physicians order for pain or allergy medicine but the come in [to my office] and are continuously having a sinus headache or a headache or something that causes them to miss class time. In her first three times using Hazel Health, Welch said it bridged that gap. Welch said Hazel allows her to service children who normally may not be able to be reached through an outside service. They meet with me and they meet with the student, she said. Within 10 minutes or less, the provider has spoken to me, to the student and has been able to reach out to the parent and has been able to provide a level of treatment. What could have become recurring visits turned into one-time visits, and those students have not lost any more class time. Hazel is an external, independent healthcare service that provides physical and behavioral healthcare to more than 1.5 million students. CHS and CMS parents can opt-in by submitting a signed consent form. If a student isnt feeling well during the school day, school health staff can facilitate a telehealth visit. In addition, families who are enrolled in the program can utilize a video doctor visit from home, even during summer break. However, Hazel Health supplemental and is not meant to replace wellness visits to the family pediatrician or physician. Hazel provides extended student health services including: Medical treatment: stomach aches, headaches, sprained ankles, asthma concerns and everything in-between Medication: doctors prescriptions or over-the-counter meds provided at school when needed Coordination with family physician and school, Hazels on-demand visits use board-certified doctors, physician assistants and nurses who can dispense care in the students preferred language. Hazel provides families with referrals, resources and the follow-up. I think this is also just a fantastic way to connect with our families, our community to do what we can to keep our children safe, said Welch. Director of Special Education, Alison Underwood, led Hazels launch. She pointed out that this program is currently only for district middle and high school students. The reasons we started with middle and high school students is that its more developmentally appropriate for kids that age to be able to speak to their symptoms, Underwood said. Telehealth visits do not work as well with younger students, she added. Another component of the program includes medical carts for the schools. Hazel Health supplied them with a dedicated tablet computer and stand with which to do the visits and a medicine cart. Theres a basket here where we can keep a thermometer, pulse-ox, various tools we use to take vitals and we have a cart. Theres a scale and a tape measure for height and weight. Allergy medications, nasal decongestants, ointments and more over-the-counter medications. Welch said an iTouch unit for photos or video that can be uploaded via the iPad to allow Hazel Health officials to see what the nurses are dealing with from case to case. This will allow us the opportunity to provide another layer of resources and wraparound services for all CHS and CMS students. Hazel is a virtual health care platform accessible for all students, regardless of insurance or ability to pay. Students will be able to access this service from home or in the nurses office if deemed appropriate. Hazel can diagnose a student, recommend over the counter medications and/or prescriptions before the student even leaves the nurses office, she said. Hazel offers an additional tool if a student shows symptoms while at school. If an at-school telehealth visit seems warranted, the school will contact the childs parent or guardian. Following the visit, parents or guardians receive a detailed update. Our health staff members are excited to partner with Hazel Health to better serve our student population, said Head Nurse Lisa Sabatino. It continues to be our goal to keep students well and in school when possible, as well as to assist parents with finding appropriate healthcare resources. Hazel will extend our school health reach, allowing additional health professionals to diagnose, provide over the counter meds and send prescriptions to the familys preferred pharmacy when appropriate. Overall, Hazel Health will allow us to provide families with quicker access to healthcare in order to get students well and ready to resume learning. CHS and CMS families can sign-up for the services by creating an account and providing consent for their students to be seen by the Hazel-licensed providers. For more information and a link to the consent form, visit the Hazel/Kahoks website. We are pleased to offer an additional service to help our high school and middle school families access health care when needed, said Collinsville CUSD 10 Superintendent Dr. Mark B. Skertich. When students arent feeling well, they miss school. We are making doctor visits available to CHS and CMS through Hazel Health to minimize lost academic time as well as disruptions to our families already hectic schedules. Hazel Health, based in San Francisco, California, offers school-based telemedicine visits to keep students healthy and safe. Hazel currently serves school districts representing 1.5 million K-12 students. Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at 618-659-5735 GLEN CARBON The next step has arrived in the effort to get more of the U.S. population vaccinated against COVID-19, and a local doctor is excited about what it could mean. On Monday, U.S. regulators authorized Pfizer and BioNTechs COVID-19 vaccine for use in children age 12 to 15. The vaccine has been available under an emergency use authorization (EUA) to people as young as 16 in the U.S. The vaccine makers said they had started the process for full approval for those ages last week. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it was amending the EUA to include millions of children age 12 to 15. Its a huge deal for these kids, said Dr. Libby Didriksen from Bard and Didriksen Pediatrics in Glen Carbon,to be able to get vaccinated and have a chance to have their lives be a little closer to normal. As weve seen with adults, getting this vaccine out has really reduced the disease and people arent getting hospitalized or nearly as sick from COVID.For kids to be in school, for teenagers, who may not be the best at social separation, this will help to make them much safer. She noted that getting vaccinated also will help with academics, as well as mental and physical health. There are so many layers where it makes a difference, Didriksen said. While she encouraged parents of children age 12 to 15 to get the vaccine, it will not be provided at the Bard and Didriksen office. Youll be able to get it at any of the locations that are already giving the Pfizer vaccine, which requires the minus-80 or 90-degree temperature for shipping and storage, Didriksen explained. Its probably not going to be available in the smaller doctors offices. Moderna doesnt have the super-low temperature requirements that Pfizer does, she continued, and its currently for people 18 and over. You need to use a certain number of doses every day, so you cant, just, do them for your patients as they come through. You need to hold vaccine clinics. When it gets to where the Moderna vaccine is approved for under 18, then I think we will have it at our office. Most children with COVID-19 develop only mild symptoms or none at all. But, children are not without risk of becoming seriously ill, and they can still spread the virus. There have been outbreaks traced to sporting events and other activities for children in this age range. Vaccines are crucial to ending the pandemic. But many health officials are concerned vaccine hesitancy in some adults will be even more pronounced when it comes to their children. Vaccine hesitancy is such a huge subject and I have a significant number of parents who have told me they are not ready for the vaccine and theyre not giving it to their kids, either, Didriksen said. I encourage those parents to get it for themselves, even when their kids cant because it protects the kids by protecting their environment. There are a lot of layers to vaccine hesitancy, but we have done a lot of studies on the vaccines, she said. Millions of vaccines have been given and theyre working hard to collect huge amounts of data. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine was halted for a while as a precaution, but overall, the number of severe side effects has been very small. I think the (government health agencies) have been very transparent about what is going on. Pfizer and BioNTech representatives said in March that they found the vaccine produced robust antibody responses and was safe and effective in those age 12 to 15 in a clinical trial. In the trial, of 2,260 adolescents aged 12 to 15, 18 cases of COVID-19 in the group received a placebo and none among those who received the actual vaccine, resulting in 100% efficacy in preventing the illness the companies said at the time. The studies they did on these kids show that the vaccine was equally effective, maybe even more effective, than it was for the 16- to 25-year-old group, Didriksen said. The side effect profile was no greater than it had been for the others, with similar side effects and only for two or three days and worse on the second dose. Widely vaccinating 12- to 18-year-olds could allow U.S. schools to relax masking and social distancing measures suggested by the Centers for Disease Control. Pfizer and BioNTech representatives asked the Food and Drug Administration to expand their EUA to include the younger age group in early April. Its exciting because theyre testing the vaccine for the 6 to 12 age group, Didriksen said, then there is the 2 to 5 group and the six months to 2-year-old group. For the youngest groups, that may not be until January, February or March, but the 6 to 12 could happen as early as August or September. If we could get it down to age 5 before school starts, we could have a normal school year. EDWARDSVILLE The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis on Wednesday announced it has turned over to Georgia officials the case of a deceased Georgia woman found May 12 in Madison County. In a released statement, Capt. David Vucich of the Madison County Illinois Sheriffs Office and Major Case Squad, Deputy Commander said the death of Tykeisha Marie Dixon, 33, of Roswell, Georgia, has been determined to be a homicide and will be handled by the Atlanta City Police Department. Editors Note: In recognition of National Historic Preservation Month, local historian Cindy Reinhardt tells the stories behind some of Edwardsvilles historic buildings in a series of eight articles in the Month of May. The charming Victorian home at 1103 Second St., Edwardsville, was built in 1893 for Martin Dippold Jr. during a turbulent time in his life. His wife Julia died in February of that year leaving him a widower with four young children, Nancy, 10, John (Jack), 9, Florence, 6, and Elizabeth, 5. On May 4, 1893, Martin purchased four deep lots on Second Street that ran from Union Street north one block to J Street. Four years after building his house, Martin sold a 60-foot wide strip off the west side of the lots to his brother Fred. Freds family, along with Martins widowed mother, moved into a new house at 215 W. Union, just outside Martins back door. No record remains to document why Martin chose to build a new home just after his wifes death, but it may have been because the location was in the center of his universe. Eden Church was a block south. His business, Farmers Milling Company, was on Second Street, located where the Madison County Jail parking lot is today. Martins social club, the Turnverein Hall, was on the next block north. (The Turnvereins promoted German culture, physical fitness and liberal politics.) The old Turner Hall building can still be seen at the corner of North Second and J Streets. Probably most important for a widower with four children though, was that Julias father and numerous other relatives lived within two blocks of the new house. Martin Dippold Jr. was one of six children born to Martin and Anna (Gansleben) Dippold, both German immigrants who arrived in this area in the late 1840s. Martin Sr. was a cooper, that is, someone who made wooden barrels and kegs needed by flour mills and breweries. He trained all five of his sons in the trade and his only daughter, Katherine, married Adolph Klingel, one of his best customers. The Klingel Brewery on the north side of Edwardsville was a big operation in the 19th century. The cooperage owned by Martin Dippold Sr. had locations near the brewery, on Clay Street near the Farmers Mill, and on St. Louis Street. It is reported to have employed 20 men who produced 80,000 barrels annually. These were produced for far more than just local use. Martin Jr. was born in 1858, the same year that Abraham Lincoln visited Edwardsville. He later told reporters that he could remember Civil War soldiers walking through town. In 1883, he married Julia Eberhart, the daughter of a prominent landowner, Leonard Eberhart. Although Julia was a native of Madison County, her parents were also German immigrants. Martin and Julias families, the Dippolds and the Eberharts, were both members of Eden Church and both supported the short-lived German School in Edwardsville where their older children attended classes. They likely all spoke German at home. As referenced above, Martin and Julia had four children. Their daughters all married into well-known Edwardsville families (Whiteside, Overbeck and Yates), but none had children. The only son, John, known as Jack, never married, so there are no direct descendants of Martin and Julia Dippold. Photographs of them were preserved by the Eberhart family under the care of local resident Ron Eberhart. In 1922, three weeks before the last of his three daughters married, Martin married for the second time. Anna Bernreuther was 20 years younger than Martin, but it appears he wore his age well. She was a half-sister to one of his neighbors and likely met through him or their church. Although Martin was 64 when they married, Martin and Anna were married nearly 37 years. Martins career took several turns over the years, and always successfully. He began as a cooper with his father. In the late 1880s, with his brother Albert, he started the Farmers Mill. When it was destroyed by fire in 1903, he did not rebuild, perhaps because Albert had died a few years earlier. For a short time he worked at a feed store before starting a construction and building supply business in 1907. The Martin Dippold Company closed in 1955. For many years, the company specialized in concrete blocks which can be seen on the porch of his house today. The porch was almost certainly constructed of only wood when built. Martin was also active in the community. He joined Edwardsville Engine House #1 in 1879 when he was just 21 years old and was a member his entire life, his last years being as an honorary member. He was also a long-time member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a philanthropic organization, receiving a 50-year pin in 1945. He loved music and dancing and even had an orchestra for a time. Martin and Anna enjoyed travel and excursions out of town, usually accompanied by other family members, and they often entertained at home. They regularly played pinochle with friends and were often listed in the newspaper as among those that won at card club. As mentioned previously, Eden Church and the Turnvereins also played a role in their lives. So much is known about Martin because he lived to be nearly 101 years old. Reporters often interviewed him, asking to what he attributed his long life. He is quoted in a March 24, 1958, Alton Telegraph article. I took care of myself, he said. If I ate or drank anything that went against me, I let it alone, and I never stayed up much, though I danced like any young fella. Maybe once or twice a month I went to parties or dances. Martin died on March 9, 1959, three weeks shy of his 101st birthday. His widow, Anna, died two years later. Martins son, Jack, continued to live in the family house that had been his home since childhood. Jack never entered into business with his father but was in a related field. In 1920, Jack founded the Edwardsville Construction Company which built many of the first hard roads in the area beginning in the 1920s. He retired in 1960. After Jacks death in 1969, the house on Second Street was sold to Ronald and Nancy Badalamenti. Ronnie was a co-manager in the family business, Rustys Restaurant, and later became the proprietor of Ronnie B.s Tavern. Both businesses could be seen from the front porch of the house on Second Street. The garage once served as a laundry for the linens at Rustys. Ronald Badalamenti owned the house for nearly 30 years followed by a number of short-term owners. One of them considered tearing the house down to build a new one, and, according to current owners, that may be why so much of the interior architectural ornament of the house was removed. The exterior of the house, although heavily modified over the years, retains the original Victorian charm and detailing, especially with the front picture window and the triangular window above. These owners have restored the central hall that had been turned into a bathroom and taken care to return the interior of the house to how it once looked. The 10-feet-4 inch ceilings make every room feel large and spacious. If the walls could talk, they would tell of the kind, generous people that lived there and influenced our town. They would tell of family gatherings and parties with friends, of motherless children running out the back door to their grandmothers house. And they would tell the story of how the man who built the house lived to be more than 100. Sources for this article include materials from the Madison County Archival Library, articles from past issues of the Edwardsville Intelligencer, the Recorder of Deeds Office, and a family tree developed for the Dippold family. If you have questions about this article, please contact Cindy Reinhardt at cynreinhardt@yahoo.com or 618-656-1294. GLEN CARBON Just like last Tuesday in Edwardsville, a new mayor was sworn in, along with a new clerk and a new village trustee, as Mayor Robert Marcus took the gavel and the helm of the village. A difference between what happened last Tuesday and this one is that Marcus did not appoint anyone to fill his now vacant trustee seat. Judge Ronald Motil swore in the candidates, starting with village clerk Kathy Perry-Scaturro; the three village trustees, Ben Maliszewski, Mike Sonderegger and Walt Harris; and ending with Mayor-elect Bob Marcus. The biggest announcement at the meeting was about the impending water supply switch from the City of Edwardsville to Illinois-American Water (IAW). The village has been using city water since June of 1996. In 2019, the village announced it was going to detach from the citys water system ahead of a planned rate increase, which the village wanted to avoid passing on to its residents. Before it could change wholesale water suppliers, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its Illinois arm, the IEPA, rescinded any further supply changes until and unless extensive testing was completed first. This was due in part to water situations like what occurred in Flint, Michigan, in New Jersey and in the Chicagoland area. Now that all of the testing is complete and the results are in the villages favor, the switch is projected for June 1. The trustees were presented with a second amendment to the IAW agreement. Bowden said the section that changed is regarding the minimum purchase and allowable rate of delivery. Utility Superintendent John Leezy, Juneau and Associates President, Charlie Juneau, and IAW representatives have been invited to the next two trustee board meetings, May 25 and June 8, to review where the village is now and where it will be headed regarding water supply and transmission. It was Leezy who brought it Bowdens attention that in the original amendment to the IAW agreement, the allowable delivery rate of 850 gallons per minute (gpm), was not enough, in his estimation, to provide storage during a string of hot summer days. After reviewing system specifications with Leezy and Juneau, the amended amount, 1,200 gpm, is more than adequate. IAWs engineers accommodated the change and trustees unanimously approved the amendment Tuesday. In other news, Marcus announced the new seating arrangement on the dais and the voting order. Marcus reaffirmed his department heads Jamie Bowden as village administrator; Todd Link as police chief; Scott Borror as director of finance; Stacy Jose as building and zoning administrator; Rick Tutka as treasurer; James Schrempf as village attorney; Todd Link as emergency services coordinator; and Mark Foley as Glen Carbon regional sewer commissioner. Unfilled positions include public works director, which has been vacant since last October. An interim consultant has filled in when needed on projects. Marcus juggled the committee assignments. For the new term, they are: Building and development committee chairperson: Victor Smith with Ben Maliszewski and Walt Harris as members Finance and administration committee chair: Ben Maliszewski with Mike Sonderegger and the new trustee to be named later as members Public safety committee chair: Walt Harris with Mark Foley and the new trustee as members Public service committee chair: Mark Foley with Mike Sonderegger and Victor Smith as members Marcus listed his appointments for volunteer commission and committee assignments, too. In other action, the village trustees unanimously approved the following items: A new 2021 Ford Interceptor police vehicle for $52,029 from Morrow Brothers Ford in Greenfield Approving any department heads extracurricular activities for the 2021-2022 fiscal year Approval of new, four-year agreements with the following department heads: Village Administrator Jamie Bowden, Police Chief Todd Link and Director of Finance Scott Borror The next village trustee meeting is May 25 at 7 p.m. at village hall, located at 151 N. Main Street, or via Zoom. Reach reporter Charles Bolinger at 618-659-5735 Western KY Guns Linked to Chicago Shootings By West Kentucky Star Staff FORT CAMPBELL - Federal agents arrested three Fort Campbell soldiers Tuesday in connection with an illegal gun pipeline to Chicago, after guns used in a mass shooting were found to be part of a string of illegal weapon transfers of guns purchased in Clarksville, Hopkinsville and Paducah.Demarcus Adams, Jarius Brunson, and Brandon Miller face multiple federal charges, according to Chicago and Nashville media outlets.Dozens of guns purchased by the soldiers have been connected to multiple shootings, including a March attack that left one person dead and seven wounded at a party on Chicagos South Side.Multiple firearms were recovered from the shooting scene and five of the firearms were found to have been recently purchased from federally licensed firearms dealers in Clarksville, court documents show.A broader investigation revealed that since the fall of 2019, the three men had purchased 91 firearms from dealers in Clarksville, Oak Grove, Hopkinsville, Fort Campbell, and Paducah.After the firearms were purchased, Miller would allegedly provide them to his associates in Chicago.On Friday, a federal search warrant was executed at the Clarksville home of Miller and Adams by the U.S. Attorney's office in Nashville.At the residence, 49 empty firearms cases were discovered many of them matched to guns recovered by the Chicago Police Department at recent shootings and homicides.Each solider is charged with transferring a firearm to an out-of-state resident, making false statements during the purchase of a firearm, engaging in the business without a firearms license, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy.On the Net: TN, MO To End Federal Pandemic Unemployment Funds By West Kentucky Star Staff NASHVILLE - Governors of two bordering states have announced they will cut off pandemic unemployment benefits to try to push people back to work.Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday announced the end of all federally funded pandemic unemployment compensation programs in Tennessee, effective July 3.Gov. Mike Parson on Tuesday announced that Missouri is also cutting off all federal pandemic unemployment benefits effective June 12. We will no longer participate in federal pandemic unemployment programs because Tennesseans have access to more than 250,000 jobs in our state, said Gov. Lee. Families, businesses and our economy thrive when we focus on meaningful employment and move on from short-term, federal fixes. Federal pandemic unemployment programs set to end on July 3 include the following: Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) , which provides for an additional $300 weekly payment to recipients of unemployment compensation , which provides for an additional $300 weekly payment to recipients of unemployment compensation Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) , which provides benefits for those who would not usually qualify, such as the self-employed, gig workers and part-time workers , which provides benefits for those who would not usually qualify, such as the self-employed, gig workers and part-time workers Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC) , which provides for an extension of benefits once regular benefits have been exhausted , which provides for an extension of benefits once regular benefits have been exhausted Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation (MEUC), which provides an additional $100 benefit to certain people with mixed earnings Unemployment claimants in Tennessee have been required to complete three weekly job searches in order to remain eligible for benefits since Oct. 4, 2020. Any weeks filed before July 3 that are eligible under federal program requirements will continue to be processed. As federal pandemic unemployment compensation ends in Tennessee, the state encourages claimants to search for work at www.Jobs4TN.gov, which currently has over 250,000 active job postings of all skill levels. Listen to article - Speaker says Nigeria's current challenges should further unite the citizens - Advises President Buhari to act on requests by Southern governors - Expresses belief in a better Nigeria and calls for prayers for the country Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. (Dr.) Mudashiru Obasa, has appealed to Nigerians to see the country's current challenges as an opportunity to further unite them saying this is a sure way to national progress. Speaker Obasa made the appeal in a statement on Wednesday to commemorate this year's Eid-el-Fitr celebrated by Muslims across the world. Obasa expressed belief that the security and economic challenges Nigeria is faced with at the moment are a face from which the country would come out stronger. He also advised President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently act on the requests recently made by the Southern Governors Forum as a way to curb rising insecurity in the country. According to the former chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria, "President Buhari should not only give a thought to the requests made by the governors, he should also implement them for the country to move forward. Appealing to the citizens of the country not to lose faith and hope, the Speaker said: "This year's Ramadan afforded many of us the opportunity to pray for the country. It is obvious that the country has some challenges. "However, the challenges should not be left to the government alone. Every citizen of Nigeria is important and must play that positive role that would ultimately move the country from where it is now to where we want it to be. "We are a religious set of people and the religions practised in the country teach us to live in love and peace with one another as well as be our neighbours' brothers and sisters. "More than ever, we have the responsibility to make the country habitable, devoid of criminal elements, and we must be resolute on this." The Speaker congratulated Muslims in Nigeria for witnessing the end of the Ramadan. "Beyond the celebration, let us all endlessly practise the virtues of love, obey the commandments of Allah, ensure a peaceful, progressive and prosperous Nigeria and continue to pray to God for more grace," Obasa urged. Listen to article There is currently an unprecedented political interest in the selection of a new Vice Chancellor for the University of Jos, as the current VC's tenure elapses this June. This University has an interesting history of having been founded by a Southwestern University located over 800kms away, under the carefree watch of many Plateau neighbors. What became the University of Jos was established in November 1971 from the satellite campus of the University of Ibadan. This was after the then Head of State, Yakubu Gowon failed in his bid for the creation of a satellite campus for Ahmadu Bello University Zaria in Jos. The first students of the University were admitted in 1972 as pre-degree students and the first Bachelor of Arts degree program begun in October the 1973. By October 1975, the then military government under General Murtala Mohammed, with an indigene of Plateau, Joseph Gomwalk as Administrator of the State, established what is now called the University of Jos as an institution. Classes began at the newly reorganized University of Jos in October 1976 with 575 students spreading over the existing four faculties of Arts and Social Sciences, Education, Natural Sciences and Medical Sciences. Post-graduate programs were added one year after. By 1978, Faculties of Law and Environmental Sciences were established and the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences were separated. Less than 50 years later, the University has expanded to over 15 faculties with over 14,000 students, operating in three campuses, producing some of the world's leading Professionals. Little wonder, some two decades ago, the Carnegie Corporation of New York gave Unijos a $2 million grant to upscale its operations. Dozens of related interventions have also come to the institution, making it a favourite destination for many who desire quality University education. However, determined to truncate this massive progress, including an unprecedented infrastructural growth currently ongoing in the University, individuals with yet to be determined motives increasingly create obstacles, mostly with grave implications for peace. In 2020, precisely April, the House of Representatives Committee on Federal Character accused management of the university of violating Federal Character policy on employment and admission. But aside from denying the University the right to fair hearing, the committee ignored Federal University, Dutsinma in Katsina State, where the Chairman of the House Committee on Federal Character, Abubakar Kusada comes from, which has its Vice-Chancellor, Registrar and Librarian all from Katsina State. Similarly, in Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Kaduna State, where Honourable Samaila Suleiman, the lead accuser of Unijos management comes from, the immediate past Vice-Chancellor, the DVC Admin, the Bursar and the Librarian were all from Kano State. Meanwhile in University of Jos where the Committee for whatever reasons refused to acknowledge that aside from the Vice Chancellor and Registrar, all other principal officers are from different regions, reflecting the needed Federal Character. Interestingly, the University has also had dozens of Vice Chancellors from other States and has trained all categories of people, including foreigners. While it is clear that the University's antagonists failed in their attempt to distract management and/or push for their removal from office, likely to institute their own persons of interest and achieve their hidden goals, last February's passing away of the Chairman of the University's Governing Board, Prince Tony Momoh appears to have created a perfect opportunity to resume their schemes. Prince Momoh initiated the process for the selection of a new Vice Chancellor , six months to the expiration of the current VC's tenure, via an advert on 23rd December, 2020, to be concluded in April 2021 before the expiration of the Council's tenure in May 2021. Precedent to this was the constitution of a Search Team. The Governing Council first met and took the report of the Search Team, after which Council elected her own representatives on the Selection Board (Interview Panel). This was followed by a Senate Emergency Meeting which elected two members of the Selection Board. The Selection Board met and shortlisted candidates from the list of applicants and scheduled an interview for 20th - 22nd April. All these were done in compliance with the Universities Act. Council proposed a meeting to take the report of the Selection Board for Friday 23rd April where a VC would emerge. However, the entire selection process was abruptly disrupted and the Council Members summoned by the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) on 22nd April 2021, contrary to the powers and functions of the Commission. Part of the claims being publicized for this action is the supposed absence of a substantive Chairman of Governing Council. But the University of Jos Act Cap U8 LFN 2004, Third Schedule, Article 1(7) states, if the Pro-Chancellor is not present at a meeting of the Council, such other member of the Council present at the meeting as the Council may appoint as respects that meeting shall be the Chairman at that meeting, and subject to Sec 4 of the Act and the foregoing provisions of this paragraph, the Council may regulate its own procedure. The University of Jos Governing Council Standing Orders Article 9 further supports stating that, if the Chairman is not present at a meeting of the Council, such other members of the Council present at the meeting as the Council may appoint in respect of that meeting shall be the Chairman at that meeting. In compliance with the above provisions, which are recognized by the University Autonomy Act, subsisting Council Members through due process elected Dr. (Mrs.) Philomena Mutbam to preside over the Governing Councils meetings. Dr. Philomena Mutbam as acting Chairman of the Governor Council superintendended over all Official duties with respect to the Office of the Pro-chancellor or Chairman of Council without objection from any authority. Such functions include approval of promotions, Finance and General Purpose Meetings including procurements which were all accepted by the Supervising Federal Ministry of Education. Unless Nigeria is an animal kingdom where some animals are more equal than others, in University of Benin, a former Chairman of Governing Council once resigned and contested an election without being replaced. Council members of the same University sat and elected an acting Chairman who presided over a process that saw to the emergence of the present Vice-Chancellor, Professor Lilian Salami. There was no interference from the NUC or any other body. The NUC by the way, was established to carry out regulatory, supervisory and accreditation roles only. One wonders where the body got its powers to suspend a legitimate process. The NUC Act (1974) specifies the functions of the NUC to include: advising the President and State Governors, through the Minister, on the creation of new universities and other degree-awarding institutions in Nigeria; preparing, after consultation with the State Governments, the universities, the national manpower Board and such other bodies as it considers appropriate, periodic (physical) master plans for the balanced and co-coordinated (infrastructural) development of all universities in Nigeria; laying down Minimum Academic Standards in the Federal Republic of Nigeria and accrediting their degrees and other academic awards. The NUC is also empowered to ensure that quality is maintained within the academic programmes of the Nigerian University System. It might carry out other investigations as provided in the Act, on any other matter relating to "Higher Education" (academic affairs), but not Administrative structures. According to the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment) Act 2003 Section (1), "The Governing Council of a university shall be free in the discharge of its functions and exercise of its responsibilities for the good management, growth and development of the university." These functions and responsibilities according to the Act include the appointment and/or removal of a Vice Chancellor in accordance with the Act. Not even the President has powers to appoint or sack a Vice Chancellor except through the Governing Board. However, in the case of University of Jos, not even a Minister, but a Head of an agency is stripping a constitutional Governing Board of its powers and independence, making it useless. By this act, the NUC boss has taken upon himself the fate of an entire University and by extension, the future of the over 14,000 students currently undergoing different programs therein. This is because by suspending the VC selection process a day to the final step of its last duties before its tenure expires, the NUC has created a vacuum that might take half a year to fill. The Universities Act allows the appointment of an Acting Vice Chancellor to serve for six months in the case of the removal or expiration of tenure of an incumbent. The present UJ VC's tenure expires in June, but the University's Governing Board's tenure expired last weekend. This ultimately means taking another series of months to constitute a new council, which might take another several months to start sitting and eventually complete process for the selection of a new Vice Chancellor. By implication, the next student results and convocation might be delayed, likewise other Administrative duties that require substantive Officers. In addition, candidates vying for the Vice Chancellor position who might have been cleared might be caught up by age limit and ultimately disenfranchised. This appears to be the exact plot of the University's enemies - to disrupt smooth running of its affairs and bring in their own interests. Whether academic or political, this interest is already showing signs of disrupting peace in Plateau State. Already, protests have started manifesting, which if not quickly addressed through adopting the right practices in the appointment of the VC might snowball into full-blown conflicts. Findings already suggest brewing agitations amongst indigenous youths who might stage violent reactions if the ongoing illegality continues. But what do merchants of war care as long as it creates room for them to ship their interests into the State, which has been a key target since the 70s when the famous Mohammed Marwa aka Maitasine began his violent uprisings? Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State who is also Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum has a huge work to do here. He is reputed as a peace builder and should deploy that integrity to avert a huge disaster for the State and nation, because whatever affects Plateau affects everyone in it, including foreign Nationals. President Muhammadu Buhari who is the Visitor of the University also needs to act before his selfish lieutenants bring his name to disrepute. Buhari was GOC 3rd Armoured Division Jos before he became Head of State in 1983. He is aware of the conflict dynamics of Plateau, particularly as it affects University of Jos, which has long been encroached upon, causing security threats to students. People of goodwill, Nigerians at home and in the diaspora should also intervene through all legal means to see that this impending crisis is averted. This is because if it succeeds in Plateau, there is no guarantee it will not be replicated elsewhere. Prof. Attahiru Jega, a reputed scholar and former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been appointed as the University's new Pro-chancellor/Governing Board Chairman. A perfect choice at a perfect time. Jega did extremely well while holding similar position in Plateau State University Bokkos. However, one of the contestants for the Vice Chancellor position is from same state with him, which somewhat disqualifies him from presiding over the selection process. According to the Code of Conduct for Nigerian Judicial Officers, a Judicial Officer should disqualify himself in a proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including but not limited to: (a) he has personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or personal knowledge of facts in dispute; (b) he served as a legal practitioner in the matter in controversy, or a legal practitioner concerning with whom he previously practiced law served during such association as a legal practitioner concerning the matter or the judicial Officer or such legal practitioner has been a material witness in the matter; (c) he knows that he individually or as a judicial Officer or his spouse or child has a financial or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding; (d) he or his spouse or a person related to either of them or the spouse of such person (i) is a party to the proceedings, or an officer, director or trustee of a party (ii) is acting as a legal practitioner in the proceedings (iii) is known by the judicial Officer to have an interest which could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceedings. Nigerians are keenly watching to see how this matter goes - whether the concerned parties will tow the path of honor and withdraw their steps or damn the consequences, posing even greater danger to Nigeria's peace, unity and progress. Listen to article May 12, 2021 - Ecobank Nigeria and Vanguard Economic Forum Series have announced that they are convening an MSME virtual summit to promote and encourage lending support for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in the face of changing operating environment in the country. The virtual summit with the theme: Unlocking Credit Growth in a Changing MSME Lending Landscape, will be broadcast and streamed live via zoom platform scheduled for May 21st by 11am. Click here to Register: cutt.ly/ecobankmsme or https://www.vanguardngr.com/2021/05/ecobank-msme-finance-virtual-summit-2021/ The conference in strategic partnership with Nigerian Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (NASME) and Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) will convene keynote speakers and panelist from regulatory agencies of government, policy decision makers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), business and industry thought leaders. The speakers and panelists carefully drawn from the banking, trade associations and other key sectors of the economy are subject matter experts in MSMEs and lending. Confirmed speakers include Mr Olukayode Pitan, Managing Director/Chief Executive, Bank of Industry (BoI); Dr. Dikko Rada, Director General, Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency (SMEDAN); Adenike Adeyemi, Executive Director, Fate Foundation; Eke Ubiji, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Association of Small & Medium Enterprises (NASME) and a representative of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), amongst others. The Guest Of Honour will be the Special Adviser to the President on Ease of Doing Business, Jumoke Oduwole, while Patrick Akinwuntan, Managing Director of Ecobank Nigeria will be the Chief Host. Announcing the conference in Lagos, Emeka Agada, Country Head, SME Ecobank Nigeria Limited said the Summit as a thought leadership content platform would deeply dialogue on the critical role of MSMEs as the economic engine room of any prosperous nation and the need to support the sub sector with capital, including examination of key issues and ways of achieving the objective through digital financial inclusion for the MSMEs. He disclosed that there will be audience engagement of members of various trade groups such as NASME (Nigerian Association of Small & Medium Enterprises) and SMEDAN (Small and Medium Enterprise Development Agency ) with a view to detailing various lending options. He further reiterated that the Ecobank Digital Series is in line with the Banks vision to consolidate a modern pan-African market, contribute to the economic development and financial integration of the continent. Also speaking, Jude Ndu, Director, Vanguard Conferences and The Economic Forum Series says: As a follow up to the hugely successful Ecobank Digital Financial Inclusion virtual summit, we are indeed pleased and delighted with the ongoing high-level strategic partnership with Ecobank Nigeria in the area of concept development, synthesis, design and execution of high profile thematic bespoke events. The upcoming conference speaks to the strong sense of confidence the bank has in us to help curate thought leadership content and context for the brand in line with its marketing objectives. He noted that the MSME conference would help Ecobank communicate and connect with Nigeria's largely MSMEs on its lending options and support, adding that the bank will also showcase its strength in the digital banking space such as its innovative digital payment channels like the OmniPlus, Omnilite and digital sales collections channels like Ecobankpay NQR amongst other financial service offerings to close the large financial Inclusion gap and a direct response to mitigating the economic challenge post-COVID-19. The Ecobank Digital Series is a virtual programme organised by Ecobank to educate and enlighten the public on crucial issues of public interest, especially as it relates to their financial empowerment. Listen to article The Diocese of Ijesa North (Anglican Communion) has bemoaned the current security challenges being faced in parts of Nigeria, calling on the Federal Government to find a lasting solution before its too late. In an address, read by its Bishop, Rt. Revd. Dr. Isaac Oluyamo, at Ijebu-Jesa, on Tuesday; in preparation for its 2021 Synod, the Diocese also called on government at all levels to restore the dignity of the traditional rulers, as they are very key to any meaningful achievements in the war against the security challenges currently facing the country. Oluyamo held that its very unfortunate that Nigerians can no longer sleep with their two eyes closed, as security agents across the country appear to have been overwhelmed; as such become helpless concerning the security situation in the land. The prelate, who called for the strengthening of the Amotekun Corps among other such security networks, said, if urgent steps were not taken concerning the situation, the country might face another civil war. In his words, "the security situation of Nigeria at the moment is very alarming and critical. The nation is bleeding. Nigerians are groaning under insecurity and hunger at the same time. There are killings here and there by Boko Haram insurgents. Armed herdsmen are on the loose, maiming and killing with reckless abandon. Bandits are not letting Nigerians have rest of mind even as kidnapers are having carrying out their evil acts unhindered. Our tertiary institutions are no longer safe for our children, as they are being abducted, tortured and killed in a country where we have leaders. We can no longer travel for the fear of being kidnapped. "We cannot continue like this. We cannot continue to live our lives in fear every day. Something has to be done by the government - and, very urgently, too! The Federal Government should as quickly as possible come up with a strategy to curb the ugly situation we have found ourselves before it's too late", he said. Bishop Oluyamo called on Nigerians to stand firm and unite against the monster of insecurity because it is a challenge to everyone, not just the Northerners or Southerners, stressing that the South-western part of the country is also no longer safe. According to him, one important step towards taming the security threats is for Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnic background or religious bent, to begin to see one another as one and united in the quest to fight insecurity in Nigeria. "We have to really unite against this monster called insecurity. We should stop seeing it as a challenge for the Northerners alone. No part of the country is safe anymore. Even, in Osun State, there are kidnappings here and there. "I urge Mr. President to also call for a national fasting and prayer session for the nation. There is nothing God and prayers cannot do. Every Nigerian should endeavour to be fair and just to one another in all sectors. Traditional rulers should also be given their pride of place again. Surely, they have a huge role to play in getting Nigeria back on her feet", Rt. Revd Oluyamo stated. Listen to article A former Vice Chairman of Lagos Island East Local Council Development Area, Asekun Kehinde Sakiru, has been arrested with cocaine. He was nabbed by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Lagos, the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi, confirmed on Wednesday via a statement. The anti-narcotics agency said the suspect had been on its wanted list following the recent arrest of some traffickers and drug seizures linked to him. The long arm of the law however caught up with the wanted baron at about 9.40 pm on Friday 7th May 2021 while trying to board a Virgin Atlantic airline flight to London, the United Kingdom at the Lagos airport, the statement partly read. At the point of his arrest, Asekun was caught with a kilogramme of cocaine concealed in five pairs of palm slippers packed inside his suitcase. He has been on the wanted list of the MMIA Command of the Agency in connection to a case involving one Azeez Adeniyi Ibrahim, who was arrested with 6.45kg of cocaine in December 2020. According to the agency, preliminary investigation revealed that the London-based suspected drug baron is a seasoned politician. He was at different times between 2004 and 2014 the vice-chairman of Lagos Island East LCDA. He had also contested and lost elections for the House of Representatives in 2007 and Lagos State House of Assembly in 2015. NDLEA added, Although he claims to be an international businessman who deals in automobiles, the investigation is yet to confirm that to be the source of his acquired wealth. In the course of tracking him, the sum of N131million was seized from his account and another N14 million also blocked in the account of one of his traffickers, Azeez Adeniyi Ibrahim, bringing the total sum so far recovered from him to N145 million. Reacting to the arrest, NDLEA Chairman, Brig. General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended the officers and men of the MMIA Command of the Agency for resilience and dedication to duty. He is also confident that with the support of all stakeholders, the problem of drug trafficking and abuse in Nigeria will be drastically reduced very soon. This arrest is yet another message and red alert to those still in this criminal trade whether as barons or traffickers that they will soon enter the dragnet of the Agency, daily being spread across the country, he said. If they fail to back out especially now that we are moving all out for the barons and the big cartels, we will continue to reign in the traffickers. Listen to article Lusaka, Zambia, May 12, 2021 Zambian authorities should drop an investigation into newspaper columnist and academic Sishuwa Sishuwa, who is accused of sedition, and should reaffirm the right to media freedom ahead of the August 12 general elections, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Sishuwa, a lecturer at the University of Zambia, wrote an opinion article published on March 19 in the independent local newspaper News Diggers and republished three days later in South Africas Mail & Guardian newspaper on the potential for unrest in Zambia after the elections, titled, Zambia may burn after the August election. Sishuwa often contributes political commentary to Zambian and regional news outlets, according to a CPJ review of his work. Zambias ambassador to Ethiopia and permanent representative to the African Union, Emmanuel Mwamba, in an April 26 letter to the Inspector General of Police accused Sishuwa of sedition; the charge is now pending investigation, Mwamba told CPJ via messaging app and the news website Lusaka Times reported. A conviction on sedition carries a minimum sentence of seven years in jail, according to Zambias criminal procedure code. Police should not waste taxpayers money by entertaining a complaint of alleged sedition against columnist and academic Sishuwa Sishuwa, who was simply exercising his fundamental right to freedom of speech, said Angela Quintal, CPJs Africa program coordinator, in New York. Authorities must also guard against inadvertently opening the floodgates for those close to the ruling Patriotic Front who may want to weaponize colonial-era sedition laws ahead of the August general elections. Mwamba initially responded to Sishuwas article with a March 29 Facebook post in which he accused the columnist of being a hired gun, calling the opinion piece an attempt to scandalise Zambia, harm its reputation and impose a false and alarming international narrative. Sishuwa then sued Mwamba, seeking unspecified damages for defamation and malicious falsehood in connection with the Facebook post, News Diggers reported April 21. Mwamba retaliated by laying the sedition charge against Sishuwa with police, the Lusaka Times reported. Mwamba told CPJ via messaging app that as a former journalist himself, he supported responsible expression that doesnt defame, is not seditious or [is not] writing that promotes incitement or hate speech. Sishuwa told CPJ via messaging app that the matter should be seen as part of a broader attempt by the authorities to suppress criticism ahead of the elections. By accusing me of sedition, the government wants to intimidate an independent voice, one of the few remaining, seen as having an international audience, he added. Zambia Police deputy spokesperson Danny Mwale and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services did not respond to several CPJ requests for comment sent via phone and WhatsApp, while an email sent to an address provided on the government website bounced. Listen to article The Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling will be presented to Zainab Bala, a broadcast reporter who revealed pernicious child abuse in Nigeria in 2021. The winner was chosen by a respected panel of judges from a pool of 130 applicants. The Almajiri, a compelling documentary created by Zainab Bala, a Nigerian broadcaster with Viewer Television and a host of #TheScoop With Zainab Bala show, focused on children in northern Nigeria who left their homes for Islamic education in the nation's capital, where they were abandoned and humiliated by their religious teachers. She showed gruesome footage of some children being chained and others being forced to beg for food. The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) presents the prestigious award in collaboration with ONE and the Elliott family. It was founded in 2016 in memory of Michael Elliott, an accomplished editor and philanthropist whose life was a testament to the power of storytelling to experience and enhance human conditions. Bernadette Vivuya The prize aims to support young African journalists who are working to enhance people's voices and better their lives. Another winner of Michael Elliott Award for Excellence in African Storytelling in 2021 is Bernadette Vivuya whose entry focused on children working in niobium, cassiterite, and coltan mines in Congo, which produce raw materials used in the production of capacitors for electronic devices. The story, which was published by Equal Times, showed how Congolese children facing crippling poverty were forced into such arduous labor, falling short of the global target of ending child labor. The work of Egypt's Samar Medhat, whose investigative piece, Egypt's Corpseless Coffins, focused on fraudsters faking their own deaths to defraud insurance firms, was also praised by the judges. Kenyan journalists Mercy Juma and Dorcas Wangira, as well as Nigerian journalists Abubakar Ibrahim and Kiki Mordi, have previously won the award. Mordis work demonstrates extreme courage, tenacity, investigative ability and the patience needed to tell such a complex story with undeniable evidence, said Wangira, the 2019 Elliott Award winner and a member of this years jury. It is Africas answer to #MeToo. The work of Egypt's Mahmoud Elwakea, whose Made in Prison multimedia story focused on three generations of jihadists in Egyptian prisons, was also praised by the judges. The judges were blown away by his dedication to unraveling a multilayered narrative and his sparkling visual presentation. I am delighted that the generosity of donors, along with fresh support from The Economist, allows the program to benefit two winners for the first time this year, the awards fifth season, said Emma Oxford, Michael Elliotts widow. Mike would be thrilled by the range and quality of the finalist entries, as were the judges. I am most grateful to my fellow judges and to the staff of ICFJ for their thoughtful review of the entries, and I wish much success to the two talented winners: Zainab Bala and Bernadette Vivuya. The award is a fitting tribute to Mike Elliott, and a brilliant reflection of the richness of storytelling talent in Africa, said Daniel Franklin, executive and diplomatic editor of The Economist and a member of this years jury. This initiative to support rising journalists goes from strength to strength, and The Economist is delighted to support its expansion. Bala and Vivuya will earn a cash prize as well as access to a personalized digital platform aimed at helping them advance their careers. They will learn new skills from media mentors and share expertise with journalists from top newsrooms in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Economist will host one of the contest winners for a virtual internship at the company's headquarters in London. The international panel that chose Bala and Vivuya was headed by Lionel Barber, former editor of the Financial Times and author of The Powerful and the Damned. Among the judges were: Joyce Barnathan, President, ICFJ Matthew Bishop, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Global Economy and Development, Brookings Institution Kate Critchley, Executive Director, Communications and Content, ONE Daniel Franklin, Executive and Diplomatic Editor, The Economist Catherine Gicheru, ICFJ Knight Fellow, Kenya and director of The Africa Women Journalism Project Abubakar Ibrahim, Features Editor, Daily Trust and 2018 Elliott Award winner Mercy Juma, BBC Africa correspondent and 2017 Elliott Award winner Rik Kirkland, Senior Advisor, McKinsey and Company Emma Oxford, Author, At Least We Lived Dorcas Wangira, Feature Writer, Citizen Television and 2019 Elliott Award winner Welsh TV and media star fronts Coleg Cambria Mental Health Awareness Week campaign A TV and media star has joined forces with Coleg Cambria to produce health and wellbeing videos to mark Mental Health Awareness Week. Originally from Llansannan and now living in Cardiff, Tara Bethan recorded three videos in Welsh and English to mark the Mental Health Foundation campaign, which runs until Sunday. A regular on S4C and BBC Radio Cymru, she focused on mindfulness, yoga and how to create a podcast, following the success of her own digital show Dewr, which is set to return on BBC Sounds. Having been in television, theatre, and radio for more than two decades including appearances on the hit BBC show Id Do Anything, with Andrew Lloyd Webber Tara admits the stresses and strains of the industry played a part in her re-evaluating her own approach to health and wellbeing. We all have hearts and minds, so taking care of our mental health is important for everyone, she said. If the Coronavirus has done one positive thing its forcing many of us to reflect and find new ways of living and working. In the videos for Coleg Cambria we touch on that, and how challenging the last year and more has been for students, parents, children and people across the country. Tara, who was on her honeymoon in South America when the pandemic took hold in the UK, added: For so long I was under the spotlight and if there was not an audience in front of me its as if the job didnt exist, but things have changed so much. I was held to a lot of opinions and reached a point where I needed to turn things around and focus on myself, rather than being judged and worrying about what other people thought of me. Yoga and meditation were pivotal in bringing myself back to me; from the work Ive done over past months I think its helped a lot of other people as well, so I hope the videos will be useful and well-received. I cant imagine what its like for young people now trying to navigate social media and other pressures, it must be quite overwhelming so taking time to reset and look at self-preservation is vital. The videos were funded by Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, supported by Cangen Cymraeg Cambria. Branch officer Haf Everiss thanked Tara for providing the resource for learners bilingually, adding: These are sensitive subjects and for many it is easier to engage in the Welsh language, so to have them available for our learners is fantastic. This has been a difficult period for everyone, especially students and the most vulnerable in our communities, so we wanted to do something to help, and to mark Mental Health Awareness Week. Tara how shown how crucial it is to look after our mental health and take time for ourselves, now more than ever before. To watch the videos, visit the Cangen Cymraeg Cambria YouTube channel at www.youtube.com Visit Yoga, Therapi a Siarad Tara Bethan meddwl.org and www.instagram.com/taramwstash for more from Tara Bethan. Phuket suffers first death in current COVID outbreak PHUKET: Phuket has suffered its first death in the current outbreak of COVID-19, and a new cluster of infections in the Phoonpon area of Phuket Town has pushed the infection rate in Phuket higher than the national rate. COVID-19Coronavirusdeath By The Phuket News Wednesday 12 May 2021, 05:20PM The news was confirmed during the daily broadcast this morning (May 12). Screenshot: PR Phuket The COVID fatality was a 71-year-old man who passed away yesterday morning (May 11), Phuket Provincial Public Health Office (PPHO) Dr Kusak Kukiattikoon has explained. The man already suffered from emphysema, and he started to receive hospital treatment for COVID-19 on Apr 13, he added. The man was moved into intensive care on Apr 17, he explained at the meeting of the Phuket Provincial Communicable Disease Committee at Provincial Hall yesterday, headed by Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew. The news was repated during the daily broadcast by porvincial officials this morning (May 12). He had severe pneumonia with the need for breathing apparatus. He was also on 24-hour peritoneal dialysis to prevent kidney failure. He was under care at the hospital for 29 days in total, Dr Kusak said. I am really sorry for his relatives, he said. NEW CLUSTER Dr Kusak expressed concern for a cluster of infections centred on the Phoonpon area in Phuket Town. We conducted proactive screening in the area by testing 131 people. A total of 15 people were confirmed infected, Dr Kusak said. The cluster arose from a group who were drinking together, he added. We have already tested four of the people who were drinking together and they all were confirmed infected, he said. Please avoid gathering for any activities and follow the DMHTT, Dr Kusal said. We have conducted proactive screening in seven locations, testing about 1,500 people in total. Among those tested, six people were confirmed infected, Dr Kusal added. CASES RISING Vachira Phuket Hospital Director Dr Chalermpong Sukontapol explained that 192 people are now receiving hospital treatment in Phuket for COVID infections. Of those, 119 people have very light symptoms or no symptoms at all, he said. Of the remaining 73 people who are receiving treatment for symptoms, 28 have light symptoms, 11 have moderate symptoms and 34 people are suffering pneumonia, Dr Chalermpong said. For the patients in our negative-pressure ICU rooms, right now we have only three cases, as one died and another one was transferred to Songklanagarind Hospital in Hat Yai by a relative, Dr Chalermpong noted. This morning, we just received an Australian patient who has pneumonia. He has prostate cancer and septic shock [sic], he added. BED COUNT Dr Chalermong confirmed that health officials were still concerned with the number of beds available in ICU wards at government hospitals across the island. We are still close to the critical stage. Even though two of our ICU beds are now free, we still have some patients that may develop symptoms of pneumonia later, he said. Dr Withita Jaeng-iam, an epidemiologist at Vachira Phuket Hospital continued, Right now, about 80% of the beds at Vachira Phuket Hospital are occupied, as are 44% of beds at the field hospital set up at PSU [Prince of Songkla University Phuket campus in Kathu], and 50% of beds at Dibuk Hospital. Of the ICU rooms [at government hospitals across the island], about 50% are used. In this outbreak, we have found that a higher number of young people are developing pneumonia than before, Dr Withita said. Dr Chayanon Pucharoen, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies at PSU Phukets Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, noted, For weeks, we have had a rate of infections lower than the national rate, but after this new cluster, our infection rate is higher than the national rate. So, we need to reduce the number of people gathering as much as possible to reduce the risk of infection, he said. VACCINE DELIVERY Dr Chalermpong confirmed that 200,00 doses of the Sinovac vaccine will arrive in Phuket on May 16 to continue the mass-vaccination campaign. One million doses of Sinovac vaccine has arrived in Thailand and has been kept in Bangkok since May 6, and 200,000 of those doses are coming to Phuket on May 16, he said. The 200,000 doses will all be given as the first injection for people registered to receive the vaccine, while another 200,000 doses will come at the end of this month to be their second injection, he added. As for the 140,000 doses of AstraZeneca to be given to elders and people who have any of the seven serious medical conditions [recognised by the government], we have not been informed when the vaccine will come, Dr Chalermpong said. NO DECISION ON RAPID TESTS Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew confirmed that no decision has been made yet on whether or not people arriving in Phuket will be required to undergo a rapid antigen test in order to enter the province if they are unable to prove that they are fully vaccinated or have tested negative for the virus within 72 hours of arriving. I have already ordered Vice Governor Phichet [Panapong] to discuss with relevant officials, the private sector and medical staff to determine whether we will continue to conduct the rapid tests by charging arrivals, or whether we will cease [enforcing the requirement] and enforce a 14-day quarantine measure instead, Governor Narong said. Right now, we have not concluded this issue yet, he confirmed. JULY 1 IN JEOPARDY Governor Narong pointed out that the current rate of infections may jeopardise the reopening of Phuket to receiving fully vaccinated tourists without quarantine from July 1. Provincial officials have set a target of recording only a single-digit number of infections daily by May 15. If the number of daily infections continues at 10-15, the [July 1] plan might not materialise. Let us all work together to bring down the number of daily infections to the lowest possible figure, he said. Southern Pines, NC (28387) Today Thunderstorms with locally heavy downpours. High around 85F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Thunderstorms likely this evening. Then a chance of scattered thunderstorms overnight. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Cymru Knievels to set off from Wrexham on a 1,070 mile charity ride across North Wales A group of Evel Knievels will set off from Wrexham later this month as they embark on a five-day, 1,070 mile ride, the Wrong Way Round Wales to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support. A motorcycle event like no other all the entrants will be dressed as 1970s stunt legend Evel Knievel. The event has become well known in motorcycle circles over the past ten years and is the only UK event endorsed by the Knievel family of Butte Montana, who follow its progress each year on social media. The group of approximately 30 Cymru Knievels will be starting from Wrexham on Thursday, 27 May. They will then follow the north Wales coast west and end the day with cape flapping laps at the Anglesey circuit. Day two they will head south via Portmeirion Village and finish in Aberystwyth. Day three they will travel to Tenby then on Day four they will go from Tenby to Monmouth. On the last day, Bank Holiday Monday, 31 May, they will head back up north, stopping off at Rhug Estate at approximately 3.30pm, before heading back to Wrexham to finish. This is the first year the Cymru Knievels will have included a visit to the Rhug Estate. Event organiser, Jason Lewis, said, To mark the 10th year, for the first time since the events conception back in 2012, the ride has been titled Wrong Way Round and will see the Cymru Knievels flapping our capes in an anti clockwise direction around Wales! Since 2012 Ride Cymru has raised over 135,000 for charity. Entrants raise sponsorship ahead of the event and then fund their own journey around Wales dressed as Evel Knievel. Whilst the 2021 event cannot create any public gatherings please do give us a toot or a wave if we should pass you around the outer edges of Wales and we hope to see you at Rhug on Bank Holiday Monday. Lord Newborough, owner of Rhug Estate, said, We are delighted to be able to host the Cymru Knievels here at Rhug. This is exactly the sort of event we want to encourage at Rhug as it is well situated and the carpark space is perfect for welcoming large groups. We also have the Takeaway and shop for Cymru Knievel supporters to visit. As a supporter of local charitable events and charities it is a pleasure to be able to offer all the Ride Cymru participants a hot drink when they stop off with us on Bank Holiday Monday. It has been so quiet here during the lockdowns it brings a smile to my face to see visitors returning and events such as this taking place once again. The Ride Cymru event is raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Support and people can donate here. Emergency services plea for public to work with us, not against us after rise in assaults on frontline workers Assaults on emergency workers in Wales are on the rise, new data has revealed. Over 4,240 assaults were committed against emergency workers, including police, fire and ambulance crews, in the period April 2019 November 2020, representing a monthly average increase from 202 in 2019 to 222 in 2020, or 10%. Assaults ranged from kicking, punching and head-butting, to spitting, slapping, biting and verbal abuse. More than half (58%) of incidents took place in South East Wales, and over a third (37%) were committed by people under the influence of alcohol. With pubs set to re-open fully in Wales from Monday, emergency workers are asking the public to treat them with respect, and have the following plea to work with us, not against us. There were 629 (15%) assaults on Welsh Ambulance Service staff over the 20-month period, from paramedics to control room staff. Among them was Paramedic Darren Lloyd, who was assaulted by a patient in Bangor, Gwynedd, in April 2019, a result of which the man was jailed for 16 weeks. Darren said: Wed been called to a man who was reported to have taken an overdose, so we administered an antidote to try and revive him. When he came to, he punched me twice and said: Youve f***ed up my last hit. I was caught unawares, I wasnt ready for it. Patients put their trust in you and we put our trust in patients, so when something like this happens, it catches you off guard. It puts you on edge and it changes you. It makes you hyper-aware at other jobs now, and you question everything a lot more. You question why it happened and what you did wrong. In a separate incident in Porthmadog, Gwynedd, in May 2019, Emergency Medical Technician Ann was also assaulted by a patient, who was later jailed for six months. The mother-of-three said: I was pinned to the corner of the inside of the ambulance by a patient who was drunk, and my colleague and a member of the public had to drag him off me. He was shouting in my face, kicking me and verbally abusing me. In the meantime, an urgent Red call came in for a baby who had taken ill so we had to leave. I didnt think it had affected me at the time, but a couple of weeks later, when another patient became irate, I took myself off to the ambulance and burst into tears. I saw him in the street when he got out of prison and my heart was in my chest. Its two years on now, but what happened has stayed with me. The first thing I do when I go into a patients house now is look for the exits. Jason Killens, Chief Executive of the Welsh Ambulance Service, said: Our ambulance crews are there to help people, but they cant fight for someones life if theyre fighting for theirs. Our crews might have no choice but to leave a scene if their personal safety is compromised, and this isnt helpful for anyone, least of all the patient. A split-second act of violence can have a devastating and long-term impact on our staff, both physically and emotionally. The debt of gratitude we owe to our emergency workers has never been greater, so now more than ever, were asking the public to work with us, not against us. Two thirds of the assaults (66%) over the 20-month period were committed against police officers, a third (33%) of which resulted in injury. Pam Kelly, Chief Constable at Gwent Police, said: Emergency services across Wales are committed to doing all that we can to serve the public. We can only effectively do our jobs if people work with us and not against us. With assaults on emergency workers continuing to rise, we are insisting and appealing for this type of behaviour to stop. Too often I see the devastating impact these assaults have on police officers and other emergency workers as they go about their duty to help those in need. It is important to remember that beneath any uniform is a person who has friends, family members and loved ones. An assault on any emergency worker is a crime, be that physical or verbal, and will not be tolerated. Although fewer in number 74 incidents over the 20-month period data shows that assaults on fire and rescue service staff peak in November. Simon Smith, Chief Fire Officer at North Wales Fire and Rescue Service, said: We too are adding our voice to this appeal for the public to work with us, not against us. The vast majority of people recognise the importance of supporting the fire and rescue service while they respond to a range of emergencies that put people, communities, livelihoods and the environment at risk. Sadly, however, there are a few people who think nothing of subjecting our staff to verbal abuse or of attacking crews while they work. Nobody should expect to come under any sort of attack whilst potentially saving the lives of others in an emergency. We urge everyone to commit to working with us, not against us. As the first round of Covid-19 restrictions eased in Wales, July 2020 (256 assaults) and August 2020 (253 assaults) saw the highest volume of emergency worker assaults, increasing 20% above the monthly average of 212. There were just 21 known incidents over the reporting period where an emergency worker was deliberately coughed at by a person who claimed to have Covid-19, but the real figure is thought to be significantly higher. Under the Assault on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act, the definition of an emergency worker includes police, fire and ambulance staff, as well as prison staff, search and rescue workers and NHS workers. Andrew Goodall, Chief Executive of NHS Wales, said: Our emergency workers deserve to feel safe as they serve us on the frontline. Now more than ever, we should appreciate the work they do and do everything we can to reduce their risk of being exposed to violence. We need the public to treat them with respect and let them do their jobs. Behind their uniform they are human beings and when they are exposed to violence it can have a significant effect on their lives. Andrew Hynes, Chair of the NHS Wales Anti-Violence Collaborative, which was set up to improve the reporting of incidents and better support victims through the prosecution process, added: It is a sad indictment on society when some people feel they are entitled to physically or verbally abuse NHS staff. The impact of just a single incident is much greater than people realise. The response of the police, Crown Prosecution Service and the courts is swift and efficient, and the consequences of a momentary lapse in judgement will lead to extremely serious punishments being applied. We ask that people act considerately and with patience when seeking or receiving medical care. In 2018, the maximum sentence under the Assault on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act was doubled from six months to 12 months in prison, but criminals could soon face up to two years in prison under new laws. Tony Dicken, District Crown Prosecutor for CPS Cymru Wales, said: Any assault or abuse of an emergency worker is viewed extremely seriously by the CPS. The fact that the victim has been providing a service to the public is highlighted as an aggravating feature of the offence when courts pass sentence, which can increase the penalty given. Emergency workers are there to help the public and should be able to do so safely and without fear. The CPS is committed to using the full weight of the law to protect them. The With Us Not Against Us campaign is spearheaded by the Joint Emergency Service Group (JESG) in Wales, which is comprised of the blue light services, Armed Forces, NHS Wales and Welsh Government, to consider cross-service issues of mutual interest. Pledge your support and join the conversation on social media using the hashtag #WithUsNotAgainstUs or #GydaNiNidYnEinHerbyn. Today Mostly sunny. Becoming windy this afternoon. High 93F. Winds SW at 20 to 30 mph. Higher wind gusts possible. Tonight Partly cloudy skies with gusty winds. Low 47F. Winds NW at 25 to 35 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 50 mph. Tomorrow Plentiful sunshine. High 77F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph. An ongoing effort to provide Comfort Kits containing essential items for a child entering the foster care system will also start in May. Shanghai dairy company releases flower expo products By:Zheng Qian | From:english.eastday.com | 2021-05-12 17:00 Ahead of the 2021 China Flower Expo, a set of limited-edition products have been released by Guangming Dairy Company: more than 30 varieties of flower-themed and shaped yogurts, pastries and ice creams. It is the first time in history that Guangming Dairy has launched special shaped ice cream. A milk sweet-scented osmanthus flavor ice cream adopts the shape of magnolia, the city flower of Shanghai. Imported milk powder blended with sweet-scented osmanthus fills the mouth with a floral milky fragrance. The mint white chocolate flavor ice cream is in the shape of a Chongming daffodil and is made from imported milk powder with mint leaves and white chocolate ingredients. According to Ma Zhongyuan from the Guangming Dairy Research Institute, the biggest difficulty in research was the shape. Most of the 3D printed ice creams in the market are handmade, using a soft mold to form the shape. However, to ensure the supply of the limited ice creams during the Expo, automatic equipment must be used for continuous production. For this reason, the companys R&D personnel especially went to its cooperating factory to transform and polish the mold in person. During the expo, which is to last from May 21 to July 2, cold drink carts will roam the park selling the tailored products. Meanwhile, customers not at the expo can also place orders on Guangmings online platform and enjoy coupons given amid the consumption-boosting May 5th Shopping Festival. Wales will have a new First Minister, the same as before, Welsh Labours Mark Drakeford. As per the rules nominations were open for the position, with Mr Drakeford the only name put forward and confirmed in the first session of the new Senedd. The nomination will now be put forward to the Queen that the Member nominated by the Senedd be formally appointed as First Minister. The meeting was held in the now normal hybrid format including Members attending via Zoom, however rather than connecting from home or other locations the meeting was notable as they connected from their Cardiff Bay offices: Speaking in the Senedd following being nominated to be First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford gave a short speech: Llywydd, can I begin by congratulating you and the new Dirprwy Lywydd on your election. I also want to congratulate all the members of the Senedd especially the new Members. I look forward to working with you all over the coming five years. This has been an extraordinary election. I am very proud that at this election 16 and 17-year-olds were able to vote for the first time thanks to a law passed in this chamber. Now it is time for all of us to use the mandate we have to put the ideas we campaigned on into practice. To Move Wales Forward. And that is the important starting point for my remarks today. We are still in the pandemic, which has cast such a shadow on our lives. It has stretched our NHS and the people working within it. It has damaged lives and livelihoods. This Welsh Labour Government will go on tackling coronavirus in the careful and cautious way we have done by following the science and protecting the most vulnerable in our communities. And we will lead Wales into a recovery that builds a stronger, greener and fairer future for everyone no one will be held back and no one will be left behind. I make this important pledge to the Senedd today in the very first session of this new term. I will lead a Welsh Labour Government. But we will govern in a way that seeks out consensus and will take on board new and progressive ideas from wherever they come. Ideas that can improve and enhance what we discuss in this chamber. From coronavirus to clean air; from universal basic income to ensuring young people are not priced out of Welsh-speaking communities. This will be a government that listens and will work collaboratively with others where it is in the interests of Wales to do so. My offer to work with others extends beyond this Chamber. To our partners in the public, private and third sectors across Wales. To communities and to people across Wales. We will deepen the social partnership we have developed over the last two decades by putting it into law and use it to focus on recovery and the work we need to do to make Wales a place fit for future generations. And we will work in partnership with other governments too, across the UK wherever that is conducted with parity of esteem and respect. Llywydd, it is my job to stand up for Wales and I will never stand back from doing so when the need arises. But my starting point will be to lead a government which is a constructive, engaged and positive partner in meeting those challenges which dont, and never have, ended at our borders. At all times, I will be accountable to this Senedd and to the people of Wales. All of us here today share one thing in common above all and across party divides. We have a shared commitment to change peoples lives for the better and to realise the potential of this wonderful and unique nation. Let us all work to make Wales stronger, greener and fairer. Diolch yn fawr. EDWARDSVILLE Yenna Hill is used to being compared to her uncle, the late Keith Haring and shes OK with it. Hill who will have her first national solo exhibition Muse User at Good Weather Gallery, 301 N. Main St., in Edwardsville will surely talk about her uncle many more times at the exhibits opening reception 6-9 p.m. on Saturday, May 22. The works of her uncle have experienced a revival, especially with younger generations interested in pop art and styles that grew from the 1980s New York graffiti subculture. More Information If you go: What: Muse User: A Yenna Hill exhibition When: 6-9 p.m., Saturday, May 22 Where: Good Weather Gallery, 301 N. Main St., Edwardsville Info: The opening is free to the public. There will be a virtual exhibit at www.goodweatherartgallery.com, as well as some open hours for in-person viewing at the gallery. For in-person appointments message Good Weather Gallery's Facebook page or call 618-477-9323. The show closes June 19. See More Collapse I think its so cool that younger kids are still into his work, said Hill, 35, who was nearly 5 years old when Haring, at 31, died Feb. 16, 1990, of AIDS-related complications. Haring embraced free street and public art early on, drawing bold chalk figures in New York Citys subway centers on blank black advertising spaces. As his popularity grew and he was commissioned to create large-scale colorful murals, he still voluntarily produced public art for hospitals, schools and spaces for children like his niece, Hill, now a mother of an 11-year-old daughter, Harlow Moon Hill. I was wearing his artwork on shirts growing up, and either people didnt know it or thought I was really rich, Hill said with a laugh. She said she worked as a bartender before the pandemic shut things down and is back at it today a couple times a week in Reading, Pennsylvania, where Haring and Hills mother, writer Kay Haring, were born. Now her mother and her sister, Lana Hill, along with husband Tanner Spaulding, live just outside of Baltimore. Spaulding is a friend of Good Weather Gallerys owner/curator Brooke Peipert of Alton. Yenna Hill lives in Reading, about two and a half hours from New York City. I remember being in New York and remember when hed come visit at our grandmothers house Uncle Keith is coming today, shed say, said Hill of their paternal grandparent, Joan Haring. He was a conduit between the two places Pennsylvania and New York. Talking about Keith is really interesting, she said. Because Ive been talking about him my whole life, I kind of know him better in death than in life. Hill has her own story, too. She went through many stages of artistry before feeling as confident as she does today with bold, black lines a trademark of Harings work. His followers and collectors became some of his closest famous friends such as Madonna. To this day, his unmistakable artwork and expressions of love for Haring are often included in the superstars concert productions and backdrops. I was always interested in line work, but I didnt want to copy him, Hill said. Haring was among the first high-profile New York personalities to contract HIV, develop AIDS and dedicate time as an activist to raise awareness of the virus that spread rapidly in New York in the 1980s, especially among gay men. Haring, an openly gay artist, is a hero to the LGBTQ-plus community and its supporters. He inspired his friends, followers and collectors through his artistic expression, raising awareness about issues such as apartheid, drug abuse and gay rights. There are qualities in my body of work and history related to him and other people, Hill said. My grandfather was a big part of that. He reviewed my artwork and taught me to do things. Her grandfather, Allen Haring, influenced both her uncle and Hill. Hes the one who taught Keith to draw, she said. Weve all done it; the whole family would be drawing. Its just something we did. Hill said she knew she would work in lines; that wouldnt change. Keith loved that heavy black line, she said. But in my early 20s, hanging with artists and creative people, I concluded I had to find my own line. She developed her own style after a 2013 trip to Paris for huge Keith Haring tributes and Sothebys Auction with the Keith Haring Foundation. She also got a Haring tattoo in Belgium. That turned into my art epiphany, said Hill, who bartended on and off to be on the European trip. I was already trying to be a professional artist, but after that show and tat, I felt like something changed, took off, and I completely understood him more from the Paris shows, she said. Hill said that, throughout middle and high school, she was always the go to if someone needed nice lettering or a drawing. I was that person, said Hill, who actually focused more on writing and packing drama classes at that age. I wrote madly until about 25. After I dropped out of college, I was just going to read as many books as I could and figure out how to make money, so I made art. She said that, in 2008 while working a boring 9-to-5 desk job, she started drawing all the time. I ordered these expensive gel pens and figured out these heavy dark lines, making images and asking people what they thought. But it was cool because that helps to self identify, she said. You cant see what other people are seeing. She became hyper-focused on body painting in 2011 while continuing her line work. When 2013 came around she pushed herself to a different level. Because of travel with her mom in Hawaii, she adopted a Polynesian influence. In 2015, a friend told Hill her artwork looked like henna and invited her to Maui which fell into more line work for another year until 2016. Ever since then, Ive been back in Pennsylvania busting my ass, getting deep in the mix, layering lines and images, not just lines, she said. I draw faces all the time masks, protective talismans to bring people something to meditate with, and see something different each time. Hill said she hasmet a lot of people who came to know her as an artist. She also does art modeling, henna, art markets and local group shows. I started bartending right before the pandemic happened, she said. It was good for me, for sociology and forming my inspirations, so much better than holing away just doing art. Besides businesses where her art is hung, opening at Edwardsvilles Good Weather will be her first gallery show. My sister is so supportive of the gallery, Hill said. Without COVID happening, life wouldnt slow down enough to even look at a gallery. COVID was a time to paint. Good Weather Gallery and Hills Muse User exhibit will show at least 20 pieces of Hills work with most, if not all, for sale. There will be a virtual exhibit at www.goodweatherartgallery.com, as well as some open hours for in-person viewing at the gallery. The work can be viewed in-person by appointment. The last opportunity to view Muse User will be June 19, when the show closes. BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Forty-two people have died during anti-government protests that began two weeks ago amid discontent fueled by growing poverty and inequality during the pandemic, Colombia's human rights ombudsman said Tuesday. The government agency added that 168 people had been reported missing during the protests, which were set to continue Wednesday. On May 5, the human rights ombudsman said 24 people had been killed in the protests and 89 were missing. The new figures from the ombudsman are similar to those recorded by Temblores, a non-governmental group that tracks police violence. Temblores said Tuesday that 40 people had been killed during the protests in incidents related to police violence while one policeman was stabbed to death while trying to stop a riot. Colombian police have been widely accused of using excessive force to break up demonstrations and riots that started April 28 after the government attempted to increase taxes in what it said was an effort to reduce its deficit and raise funds for health care and social services. The government withdrew its $6.7 billion tax plan May 2 and the finance minister resigned the following day, but protests have continued across the country. Demonstrators are now pressing demands that include reforming the police, implementing a basic income plan for 10 million people and providing free tuition at public universities. Colombias economy contracted 7% last year and millions of people were left without work by restrictions related to the pandemic. That increased frustration with the government, which had failed to meet demands made during a previous wave of protests in 2019. On Monday night, the governments peace commissioner, Miguel Ceballos, said President Ivan Duques administration was willing to sit down with protest leaders to negotiate on some of their demands. Ceballos asked the United Nations and the Roman Catholic Church to mediate the talks. The protest leaders met with government officials earlier Monday and said that basic conditions for negotiations, such as security guarantees for protesters, had not been met. Protest leaders are expected to respond to the governments new offer later this week. The protests are being staged as coronavirus infections reach record levels in Colombia, where more than 78,000 people have died from COVID-19, the disease that can be caused by the virus. Over the past week Colombia has averaged more than 15,000 new infections a day. The current rate of infections is five times greater than at the beginning of March. EDWARDSVILLE An Alton woman who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of her 14-year-old daughter from diabetes was sentenced to seven years in prison Tuesday. Amber Hampshire, who is herself undergoing treatment for diabetes, could begin serving her sentence in approximately 30 days. Emily Hampshire, 14, died at Cardinal Glennon Hospital on Nov. 3, 2018. Amber Hampshire was charged in late December 2018. She was accused of willfully hiding her daughters diabetes and ignoring or contradicting medical advice. She pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in October, and a second charge was dropped. The first responsibility of a parent is to ensure that their children are safe and cared for, and in this case, a mothers negligence led to the tragic and completely avoidable death of her daughter, Madison County States Attorney Tom Haine said after the sentencing. No sentence can undo the result of this fatal negligence, but justice was served with todays sentencing. He also called it darkly ironic that Amber Hampshire was being treated for diabetes. Assistant states attorneys Kathleen Nolan and Alison Foley did an outstanding job of gathering evidence and prosecuting the case under difficult circumstances, Haine said. Their hard work and determination ensured that Emily received justice in this case. During the sentencing hearing at the Madison County Criminal Justice Center, investigators from the Alton Police Department and Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, as well as one of the medical doctors who treated Emily, testified for the prosecution. Evidence presented included text messages that Emily sent to a friend several months before her death, telling them that she was a diabetic, but that her mother could not deal with that fact. Emotional impact statements also were given, respectively, from a teenager who identified herself as Emilys best friend and from one of Emilys teachers. Prosecutors had asked for a 14-year sentence. The defense called a psychiatrist, who said Amber Hampshire had a personality disorder that made it difficult for her to accept the diagnosis of diabetes in either her daughter or herself, and even now she denies having the disease, even though she recently had to have several toes amputated because of gangrene. Hampshire also read a letter to the court saying her daughters death was a reoccurring nightmare that will not go away, and that she can never be able to express how sorry I am, and that sending her to prison would cause even more harm to her family and remaining child, a son. Defense attorneys asked for probation. In announcing the sentence, Madison County Circuit Judge Kyle A. Napp noted that, Nothing I will do will make anyone whole, but the nature of the crime required prison time. She also noted that while Hampshire serves her time, she will have the opportunity for medical care in a manner you did not afford your daughter. As part of the prosecutions presentation, a girl who identified herself as Emilys best friend since kindergarten talked about the impact Emilys death has had. She said they had talked about going to college and living together. She also talked about the last time that she talked to Emily. The idea she would never come home never entered my head, the girl said, adding they had celebrated Emilys 14th birthday and were planning hers. On my 14th birthday I spent it at her visitation. Teacher Michelle Decker described Emily as a joy to have in class. She also described the girl as a smart, giving girl who strived for perfection in everything she did and would have accomplished great things if she had been allowed to live. The only defense witness was Dr. C. Robert Cloninger. He said Amber Hampshire had a personality disorder that would specifically not allow her to acknowledge diabetes in Emily, or herself. Cloninger said part of that stemmed from the death of Amber Hampshires grandmother from diabetes-related illnesses, and Hampshires own diagnosis of diabetes at about the time that she entered college. He said those issues created a blind spot for Hampshire, which, along with other issues, led to her inability to deal with the illnesses of either her or her daughter. She always had reasons that were rational, but there was something underlying that was irrational, he said. He also put part of the blame on the health care system that he said let her down by not following up on her daughter. It did happen, and it was done without malice, he said of Emilys death. In asking for the maximum penalty, Assistant States Attorney Kathleen Nolan said, It wasnt a mistake. It wasnt an accident, she continued. It was the deliberate repeated ignoring of medical advice. A mother consciously disregarded her daughters health, which led to her death. Nolan also noted it was a painful death. Emily knew how serious it was and she knew her mother wasnt taking care of her, Nolan said. Her death was absolutely avoidable, absolutely preventable, and she should be alive today. In asking for probation, attorney Steve Williams emphasized that Amber Hampshire loved her daughter, something that he and Cloninger emphasized repeatedly. What is to be served by a prison sentence, let alone a sentence of 14 years? Williams asked. He described Hampshire as a flawed human being, who was a wonderful mother, but had a mental defect. In announcing the sentence, Napp called Cloningers assertion that the medical system failed Hampshire hogwash and also rejected the idea that the death of Hampshires grandmother and Hampshires own diagnosis of diabetes created trauma. Thats not creating a traumatic childhood, thats part of life, Napp said. She acknowledged that Emily was loved by her family, but was on her own. She didnt have anyone fighting for her, Napp said. EDWARDSVILLE An Edwardsville man was charged Monday with aggravated DUI after a May 8 incident in Collinsville. Jose D. Rivas Pacheco, 28, of Edwardsville, was charged with aggravated driving while under the influence, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Police Department. According to court documents, on May 8 Pacheco allegedly was found to be driving a 2010 mercury under the influence of alcohol. It was noted he had a suspended license for related charges. Bail was set at $30,000. Other felony charges filed May 10 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include: Michael J. Meyers, 48, of Granite City, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On May 9 Meyers allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $10,000. Paulina M. Suess-Wahala, 43, of Madison, was charged with unlawful possession of methamphetamine, a Class 3 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On May 7 Suess-Wahala allegedly was found to be in possession of less than five grams of methamphetamine. Bail was set at $15,000. Morgan D. Furtwengler, 24, of Collinsville, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Collinsville Department. On May 7 Furtwengler allegedly was found to be in possession of less than 200 grams of Xanax. Bail was set at $30,000. Matthew J. Blanc, 23, of St. Louis, was charged with false report of a vehicle theft, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Alton Police Department. On May 10 Blanc allegedly made a false report that a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe had been stolen. Bail was set at $25,000. Willie E. Williams, 54, of Collinsville, was charged with criminal damage to property over $500, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On Feb. 4 Williams allegedly caused more than $5500 damage to an electronic gaming machine owned by Illinois Gold Rush. Bail was set at $15,000. Jordan E. Friedel, 21, listed as homeless, was charged with obstructing justice, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On May 9 Friedel allegedly gave a sheriffs deputy a fictitious name and date of birth to avoid arrest. Bail was set at $15,000. EDWARDSVILLE Four people were charged with aggravated battery or assault after an Alton incident on West Third Street Saturday. Berton L. Newton, 29, Lasha R. Newton, 31, and Jamie L. Barbara, 32, all of the same address in Alton, and Abriana L. Butler, 22, of St. Louis, were all charged with felonies. Berton Newton was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 1 felony. Lasha R. Newton was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 2 felony. Barbara was charged with aggravated battery, a Class 3 felony. Butler was charged with aggravated assault, a Class 4 felony. The cases were presented by the Alton Police Department. According to court records Berton Newton and Lasha R. Newton allegedly attacked and injured Alton Police officers. Butler allegedly attempted to hit an Alton Police officer, and Barbara allegedlyhit Butler. Bail was set at $60,000 for Berton Newton; $30,000 each for Barbara and Lasha Newton; and $20,000 for Butler. Other felony charges filed May 10 by the Madison County States Attorneys Office include: John C. Holman, 59, of Madison, was charged with aggravated discharge of a firearm, a Class 1 felony; and unlawful possession of weapons by a felon, a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On May 7 Holman allegedly fired a gun in the direction of another person, and was also a felon in possession of a .357 magnum Smith & Wesson revolver. It was noted he had a prior felony conviction assault second degree with a dangerous weapon out of Hennepin County, Minnesota in 1996. Bail was set at $80,000. Christopher A. Haynes, 22, of Madison, was charged with possession of a firearm with an altered serial number, a Class 3 felony; and aggravated unlawful use of weapons, a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On May 8 Haynes allegedlywas found to be in possession of a .40 caliber Smith & Wesson handgun with a removed or obliterated serial number; and had the weapon loaded and accessible in a vehicle without a concealed carry license. Bail was set at $40,000. Leroy Pryor Jr., 55, of Granite City, was charged with domestic battery (seventh subsequent offense), a Class 2 felony. The case was presented by the Granite City Police Department. On May 9 Pryor threw a metal folding chair at a household or family member, striking her in the head. It was noted that he had multiple prior convictions for domestic battery in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2008 and 2009. Bail was set at $50,000. Angela M. Loveless, 42, of Carlinville, was charged with retail theft under $300 (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The case was presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On May 7 Loveless allegedlytook miscellaneous merchandise valued at less than $300 from the Godfrey Walmart, 6660 Godfrey Road. It was noted she has a prior conviction for deceptive practices out of Montgomery County in 1998. Bail was set at $15,000. Amanda M. Stamper, 31, and Timothy S. Roberts, 37, both of Alton, were each charged with retail theft under $300 (second subsequent offense), a Class 4 felony. The cases were presented by the Madison County Sheriffs Department. On May 8 the two allegedly took a drill and a case of soda valued at less than $300 from the Godfrey Walmart, 6660 Godfrey Road. Both had prior felony convictions for related crimes. Bail was set at $15,000 each. Carlette Whitfield, 42, of Alton, was charged with two counts of burglary, both Class 2 felonies. The cases were presented by the Alton Police Department. On April 21 Whitfield allegedly broke into a 2005 Ford Freestyle in the 800 block of Langdon, and on May 6 allegedly broke into a 1995 Chevrolet Silverado in the 600 block of E. Fifth Street. Bail was set at $30,000 for each case. WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans dumped GOP Rep. Liz Cheney from her House leadership post Wednesday for her persistent repudiation of Donald Trumps election falsehoods, underscoring the hold the defeated and twice-impeached former president retains on his party. She defiantly insisted shell keep trying to wrench the party away from him and his destructive lies. Meeting behind closed doors, GOP lawmakers needed less than 20 minutes and a voice vote to oust the Wyoming congresswoman from her job as their No. 3 House leader. The banishment, urged by Trump and other top Republicans, showed his ability to upend the careers of antagonists, even those from GOP royalty. Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has repeatedly rebuked Trump for his oft-repeated falsehood that his 2020 reelection was fraudulently stolen from him and for his encouragement of supporters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6. On Wednesday she unrepentantly lashed out anew. If you want leaders who will enable and spread his destructive lies, Im not your person, she told her colleagues before the vote, according to a person who provided her remarks on condition of anonymity. You have plenty of others to choose from. That will be their legacy. Just minutes after she accused her fellow Republicans of dishonestly buttressing Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters at the White House, I dont think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election. I think that is all over with. McCarthy spoke a week after Trump released a statement saying, The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE! Cheneys critics say her offense wasnt her view of Trump but her persistence in publicly expressing it, undermining the unity they want party leaders to display in advance of next years elections, when they hope to win House control. Several also say GOP voters' allegiance to Trump means the party's electoral prospects without him would be dismal. Cheney's ouster effectively means the GOP is setting a remarkable requirement for admission to its highest ranks: adherence to, or at least silence about, Trumps fallacious claim about widespread voting fraud. In states around the country, officials and judges of both parties found no evidence to support his assertions. Cheney, 54, would seem to have an uphill climb in her quest to redirect the GOP away from Trump. She's told Republicans she's not quitting Congress and will run for reelection next year, but she will have to survive a near-certain GOP primary challenge from a Trump-recruited opponent. Even if she returns to the House, it is unclear how loud her voice will be inside a party that has all but disowned her. Bring it on," Cheney said of a potential challenge by a Trump ally, in a portion of an interview released by NBC News. And though she has establishment lineage and embraces classical GOP conservative stances, it almost seems the party has evolved out from under her. Polls show Trump's hold is deep and wide on the party's voters. And many of the time-tested conservative views she and her father share including a belief in assertively projecting U.S. military force abroad have lost ground to Trump's inward-focused America First agenda. Cheney showed no signs of being bashful about her mission. Outside the GOP meeting, she told reporters that the country needs a Republican Party "that is based upon fundamental principles of conservatism, and I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that thats how this party goes forward, and I plan to lead the fight to do that. She added, I will do everything I can to ensure that the former president never again gets anywhere near the Oval Office. Wednesday's voice vote by House Republicans means there is no precise way to measure how much support Cheney would have had, though only a handful of GOP colleagues have spoken out on her behalf. What happened today was sad, said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., another Trump critic and one of the few Republicans who have publicly defended her. Liz committed the only sin of being consistent and telling the truth. The truth is that the election was not stolen. Hard-right conservatives, among Cheneys fiercest critics, were exultant. And Trump himself took a sharp-elbowed victory lap, saying, Liz Cheney is a bitter, horrible human being. I watched her yesterday and realized how bad she is for the Republican Party. She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country." Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye Liz Cheney, tweeted Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina. You cant have a conference chair who recites Democrat talking points, said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, a conservative leader using the formal title for Cheneys former post. As if to underscore Jordans contention, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said: Congresswoman Liz Cheney is a leader of great courage, patriotism and integrity. Today, House Republicans declared that those values are unwelcome in the Republican Party. But President Joe Biden deflected an opportunity to comment on the matter, telling MSNBC, I have enough trouble figuring out my own party all the time, let alone Republicans. Participants said Cheney received a polite standing ovation after her remarks inside Wednesdays meeting. Then she had to endure what Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said was a deafening voice vote to topple her. Her replacement in the partys House leadership is expected to be Rep. Elise Stefanik of upstate New York, who entered the House in 2015 at age 30, then the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Stefanik owns a more moderate voting record than Cheney but has evolved into a vigorous Trump defender whos echoed some of his claims about widespread election cheating. Some of Washingtons hardest-right conservatives have remained wary of Stefaniks moderate record, but no challenger has emerged. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., said the vote on replacing Cheney will occur Friday. Cheney arrived in Congress in 2017, and by November 2018 was elected to her leadership job unopposed. Her career path seemed to potentially include runs at becoming speaker, senator or even president. She occasionally clashed with Trump during his presidency over issues like the U.S. withdrawal from Syria. But virtually open warfare between the two commenced in January once she became one of 10 House Republicans to back his second impeachment for inciting his supporters deadly Capitol assault. The Senate acquitted him. Cheney withstood a February effort to boot her from leadership in a 145-61 secret ballot, with a McCarthy speech on her behalf credited with saving her. That didn't happen this time. ___ AP reporter Jill Colvin contributed to this report. Three quarters of eligible adults in North Wales have now had first dose of vaccine Almost 80 per cent of the adult population in Wales has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, new data released by the Welsh Government shows. Since the rollout began for the top nine priority groups in December 2020, 1,948,683 people across Wales have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine. 845,411 people have received their second doses and are now deemed fully vaccinated. In North Wales three quarters of eligible adults has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with both Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board and the Welsh Government stating they both on track to offer vaccination to the remaining adult population by the end of July. Overall 640,259 vaccines have been administered across the region 433,350 of which have been first doses and 206,909 second doses. A breakdown provided by the health board of the number of vaccines administered in each group so far, include: People aged 65 to 69: 94 per cent People aged 16 to 64 in an at risk group: 86 per cent People aged 60 to 64: 89 per cent People aged 55-59: 86 per cent People aged 50-54: 85 per cent People aged 40-49: 55 per cent People aged 30-39: 22 per cent People aged 18-29: 44 per cent Last week it was announced that those under the age of 40 (with no clinical risk factors) who have not already received an Astrazeneca vaccine will be an offered an alternative. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board have confirmed that following this advice those aged between 18-39 will now be offered Pfizer. Those aged over 40 will receive the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. This change in the rollout led to a number of appointments being cancelled last week, which have since been rearranged. However this is not expected to affect the remainder of the vaccination process. Those who have already received a first dose of the Astrazenca vaccine are being reassured of its safety. Gill Harris, Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery, said: Over three quarters of adults in North Wales have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and we remain on course to offer vaccination to the remaining adult population before the end of July. This is the largest vaccination programme ever undertaken in the NHS and we simply could not have protected so many people so quickly without the expertise and dedication of our primary care colleagues in GP surgeries, Local Vaccination Centres and community pharmacies. I would like to offer my sincere thanks to all of our primary care partners for the swift and very positive way they responded to last weeks national change in guidance on the use of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Turnout for vaccination remains high across the region, said Ms Harris, however people unable to attend are being urged to get in touch to rearrange or cancel their appointments. Although no vaccines are never wasted, the health board has been offering short notice appointments to people in certain age groups on a first come, first served basis. This week the health board has started publicising vaccine availability on its social media feeds, with people in the 18-49 being asked to either drop in or book an appointment where possible. The health board said when appointments become available, they will be publicised on social media accounts and shared with local media where possible Ms Harris added: It is not possible for individuals to choose which brand of first or second dose vaccine they receive. In line with the latest guidance from the JCVI and MHRA, those aged 18-39 will receive the Pfizer vaccine, and those aged over 40 will receive the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine. Second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine must be the same brand as the first dose, unless there is a clear clinical need for an alternative. There is no current clinical evidence of blood clotting occurring following second doses of any COVID-19 vaccine. Therefore, only those with specific clinical risk factors will be offered an alternative second dose vaccine. Please still attend your appointment if have any concerns about the vaccine, so we can take the time to discuss these with you before you make a decision on whether or not to go ahead with vaccination. BENI, Congo (AP) When Shekinah was working as a nurses aide in northeastern Congo in January 2019, she said, a World Health Organization doctor offered her a job investigating Ebola cases at double her previous salary with a catch. When he asked me to sleep with him, given the financial difficulties of my family . I accepted, said Shekinah, 25, who asked that only her first name be used for fear of repercussions. She added that the doctor, Boubacar Diallo, who often bragged about his connections to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, also offered several of her friends jobs in return for sex. A WHO staffer and three Ebola experts working in Congo during the outbreak separately told management about general sex abuse concerns around Diallo, The Associated Press has learned. They said they were told not to take the matter further. WHO has been facing widespread public allegations of systemic abuse of women by unnamed staffers, to which Tedros declared outrage and emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said, We have no more information than you have. But an AP investigation has now found that despite its public denial of knowledge, senior WHO management was not only informed of alleged sexual misconduct in 2019 but was asked how to handle it. The AP has also for the first time tracked down the names of two doctors accused of sexual misconduct, Diallo and Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu, both of whom were reported to WHO. Ngandu was accused by a young woman of impregnating her. In a notarized contract obtained by the AP, two WHO staffers, including a manager, signed as witnesses to an agreement for Ngandu to pay the young woman, cover her health costs and buy her land. The deal was made to protect the integrity and reputation of WHO, Ngandu said. When reached by the AP, both Diallo and Ngandu denied wrongdoing. The investigation was based on interviews with dozens of WHO staffers, Ebola officials in Congo, private emails, legal documents and recordings of internal meetings obtained by the AP. A senior manager, Dr. Michel Yao, received emailed complaints about both men. Yao didn't fire Ngandu despite the reported misconduct. Yao didn't have the power to terminate Diallo, a Canadian, who was on a different kind of contract, but neither he nor any other WHO managers put Diallo on administrative leave. The AP was unable to ascertain whether Yao forwarded either complaint to his superiors or the agencys internal investigators, as required by WHO protocol. Yao has since been promoted to be director of Genevas Strategic Health Operations Department. Eight top officials privately acknowledged that WHO had failed to effectively tackle sexual exploitation during the Ebola outbreak and that the problem was systemic, recordings of internal meetings show. The revelations come at a time when the U.N. health agency is winding down its response to two recent Ebola epidemics in Congo and Guinea, and is already under pressure for its management of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. WHO declined to comment on specific sex abuse allegations, and none of the 12 WHO officials contacted responded to repeated requests for comment. Spokeswoman Marcia Poole noted that Tedros announced an independent investigation of sex abuse in Congo after media reports came out in October. Findings are due at earliest in August, investigators have said. Once we have these, we will review them carefully and take appropriate additional actions, Poole said. We are aware that more work is needed to achieve our vision of emergency operations that serve the vulnerable while protecting them from all forms of abuse. WHOs code of conduct for staffers says they are never to engage in acts of sexual exploitation and to avoid any action that could be perceived as an abuse of privileges, reflecting the unequal power dynamic between visiting doctors and economically vulnerable women. But an internal WHO audit last year found some aid workers weren't required to complete the agencys training on sex abuse prevention before starting work during Ebola. All of us may have been suspecting for as long as the Ebola response was taking (place) that something like this would be possible, said Andreas Mlitzke, director of WHOs office of compliance, risk management and ethics, during an internal meeting in November. Mlitzke likened WHO officials in Congo to an invading force and said, Things like this have historically happened in wartime. Mlitzke said during the meeting that WHO typically takes the passive approach in its investigations, and that it couldn't be expected to uncover wrongdoing among staffers. What prevents us from doing something proactive is our own psychology, he said. Ryan, meanwhile, said the sexual harassment incidents were unlikely to be exceptional. You cant just pin this and say you have one field operation that went badly wrong, he told his colleagues in an internal meeting. It does reflect a culture as well This is in some sense the tip of an iceberg. Internal emails from November 2019 show WHO directors were alarmed enough by the abuse complaints that they drafted a strategy to prevent sexual exploitation and appointed two focal points to liaise with colleagues in Congo and elsewhere. Directors also ordered confidential probes into sexual abuse problems more broadly and U.N training on how to prevent sexual harassment, along with the independent investigation announced last year. But staffers remain concerned that not enough has been done. At a WHO meeting in January to address sex abuse, Dr. Renee Van de Weerdt, chief of emergency management and support, told colleagues that the risk remains high across our operations and that more robust supervision was needed. Dr. Gaya Gamhewage, head of WHOs learning and capacity development, said at an internal WHO discussion on sex abuse that the impunity with which we have operated is leading to this. She warned, Training is not going to solve this problem. ___ Shortly after Ebola was identified in eastern Congo in 2018, WHOs Swiss headquarters gave the outbreak its most serious emergency designation, allowing Geneva to take control from its Africa office. WHO chief Tedros traveled to Congo 14 times during the epidemic to personally oversee the response, and his emergencies chief, Ryan, made at least seven visits. Over 2018 and 2019, three Ebola experts, including two who worked for WHO at the time, told the AP they raised concerns about sex abuse in general, and Diallo in particular, with senior managers. But they said they were told that controlling the Ebola outbreak was more important, and two said Diallo was considered untouchable because of his relationship with Tedros. Complaints about Diallo were also raised with emergency operations manager Yao, who was responsible for leading WHOs overall Ebola response in Congo, with hundreds of staff, under Ryans supervision. On Feb. 22, 2019, Yao received an email from the WHO outbreak team leader in North Kivu with the subject line, Private. Chat. Chief, please lets have a Private chat tomorrow, the staffer emailed, saying he wanted to discuss Diallo, then an outbreak manager in North Kivu. The staffer didn't want to be identified by the AP for fear of losing his job. We cannot afford to have people tarnishing the sweat and effort of individuals sacrificing themselves thru (sic) inappropriate sexual harassment and bullying, the staffer wrote. I will fill you in (in) private. Yao responded the next morning: Ok we shall talk. The staffer said that Yao told him the matter would be handled, but he didnt believe his concerns were taken seriously and was very upset. He added that he was sidelined for complaining about Diallo. Two WHO officials with knowledge of the situation said the agency investigated complaints that Diallo acted unprofessionally, including an alleged sexual assault, and there was insufficient evidence to corroborate the charges. But investigators failed to interview any of the women involved or the whistleblowers who flagged the harassment claims, according to a senior WHO official who didn't want to be identified for fear of losing his job. Diallo continued to work for WHO months after concerns were raised about him. Diallo was described as a charismatic, outgoing leader with connections to some of WHOs top managers, including Tedros. In a speech in January 2019, Tedros singled out Diallo among the Ebola responders working under heavy gunfire in Beni. On WHOs website, Diallo, Tedros and Yao are pictured smiling and bumping elbows during Tedros June 2019 trip to Congo. On Diallos Facebook page, he appears in more than a dozen photos with Tedros. Several months after Tedros visit, Diallo met Anifa, a young Congolese woman working in an Ebola treatment center in Beni. She said Diallo told her: How can a beautiful girl like you work here, testing peoples temperatures and washing their hands? Thats terrible. She said he offered her another job at five times more than her current salary where the conditions were very simple, according to him. He wanted me to sleep with him, she told the AP, noting that Diallo frequently wore a badge with VIP inscribed in red, attached to his dark blue WHO vest. Anifa declined to share her full name, fearing it could harm her future job prospects. The AP doesn't identify victims of sexual abuse. I told him I studied hard to be employed by the treatment center, Anifa said. She rejected Diallos offer, saying that if he hires me after sleeping with him ... I would be a sex slave, not a WHO employee. Diallo denied the claims outright. I have never offered a woman a job in exchange for sex and I have never sexually harassed a woman in my life, he told the AP in an email. He said he was never informed of any complaints about his behavior at WHO or disciplined for misconduct, and his relationship with Tedros was purely professional. Diallo said his contract for WHO finished at the end of July and he hasn't worked for the agency since. ___ The same manager, Yao, was also told of alleged sexual misconduct by the other doctor, Ngandu, in an email obtained by the AP dated April 23, 2019, with the subject line, Urgent need for your guidance. Outbreak manager Mory Keita wrote in French: I hereby inform you that we have a colleague who has impregnated a girl from Beni. Keita told Yao that a young woman and her aunt had come to the Hotel Okapi in Beni with two armed police officers, looking for senior WHO staff. They said the young woman had been having an affair with Ngandu, and the hospital had confirmed she was now pregnant. Ngandu was avoiding them, the aunt said, so they went to the police to find him. Keita told Yao that when confronted, Ngandu acknowledged a relationship with the girl but said it was only for two weeks. The womans aunt, however, said her niece first spent the night with him about a month and a half ago, and at the time he gave her $100, a detail that Ngandu could not deny, the email noted. The two women demanded payment for all medications and hospital treatment during pregnancy and the purchase of land for the child, given that Dr. Jean-Paul will abandon the girl and she will be obliged to raise her child alone. We have asked Jean-Paul to honor the request from the family of the girl and the aunt and try to find some common ground, Keita said. (Ngandu) suggested that we manage the situation here at our level here in Beni and not inform the hierarchy, but I felt ... you should be informed so that you would tell us your directions for how to better manage this problem. Less than one week later, Ngandu and the young woman signed a notarized contract in which he agreed to pay her $100 a month until her baby was delivered, to provide all necessary health care, and to buy her a plot of land in Beni. Four witnesses signed the document, including two from WHO, Keita and Achile Mboko, a human resources officer. Keita didn't respond to requests for comment, and Mboko acknowledged his signature and presence. Two handwritten contracts signed by the young woman and Ngandu confirmed he paid $2,800 for land with a house in a Beni neighborhood and transferred ownership rights to her in August 2019. This was a private matter and did not implicate WHO, Ngandu told the AP. Ngandu said he wasn't the father of the baby and that he agreed to the settlement after WHO colleagues, including Keita, advised me to settle out of court to avoid sullying the reputation of the organization and myself. Ngandu, who is from Congo, said he wasn't disciplined by WHO and continued to work until his contract ended in June 2019. Ngandu is now based in Namibia and said he is in talks with WHO for potential future employment. The young woman declined to talk to the AP. Paula Donovan, co-director of the Code Blue Campaign, which is campaigning to end sexual exploitation by U.N. peacekeepers, said WHOs attempt to effectively silence the victim was beyond concerning. Its a perversion of justice that WHO thinks they could take the law into their own hands and resolve a case without going to the proper authorities, Donovan said. If this is how they treated one case, how are they treating all the others? In May 2019, Yao was told of yet another unrelated sexual harassment complaint in Bunia, roughly 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of Beni. Two women told the World Bank they were refused jobs at WHO because they declined to sleep with the recruiting officer, in an email seen by an Ebola aid worker. The aid worker, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals, told the AP that the World Bank alerted Yao, but nothing was done. Throughout the summer, Yao was praised for his leadership of the Ebola response. He was named in a July 17 tweet from Ebba Kalondo, a spokesperson for the African Union, as one of WHOs exceptional men and was pictured alongside colleagues, including Diallo. Kalondo urged her followers: Know their names. Write about them. Two months later, a young Congolese woman named Reby, then 20, met Diallo when he came into the Vodacom shop where she was working. He gave her $100 for transport costs to meet him at a hotel and asked her how much she made in the telecommunications job, she told the AP. My God, a beautiful girl like you who gets $60 a month is not enough, he said, according to Reby. If you sleep with me, you are going to be a high-ranking member of the Ebola response in Beni and you are going to receive around $800 a month. Reby declined to use her full name for fear of retribution. She said she refused Diallos offer, but continued to see him when he came into her shop. From that day on, he always called me the difficult girl, she said. In a confidential slide presentation in January 2020, WHO officials reported that an internal U.N. review of the Ebola response in Congo had found a need for safe-guarding mechanisms for preventing sexual exploitation. All staff were to complete training on harassment and other issues. _____ The publication of general sex abuse allegations in Congo in the media last fall set off a flurry of responses from WHO. Yao said in an internal meeting in September that despite U.N. protocols to prevent sexual abuse, it looks like this system is not working at the grassroots level. He added that a recent U.N. assessment hadn't revealed any problems, so we were surprised about a case happening. WHO director-general Tedros called the allegations a shocking betrayal in an email to staff and promised serious consequences, including immediate dismissal and referral to local authorities. At a town hall meeting in November, emergencies chief Ryan said sexual abuse issues had been neglected for years and apologized to his staff. There are behaviors here that are not acceptable, he said. WHO staffers, especially women, were unconvinced. Quite frankly, I think this is not good enough, said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHOs technical lead on COVID-19, at the same meeting. We know in every situation we go in, were at risk. Staffers also worried that problems persisted in the agencys response to another Ebola outbreak in Congo last year. We still do not have a robust (sexual abuse prevention) program in place, Geneva-based project officer Jessica Kolmer said during a meeting in November. She said donors told them their new measures, including posting flyers in their offices and establishing a sexual abuse prevention committee, were not sufficient. Back in Congo, Anifa said she was deeply disturbed that WHO staffers hadn't been disciplined for their treatment of women. I condemn WHO for not sanctioning Dr. Boubacar Diallo because I know already they have complaints against him, she said. I asked myself, Why did the people who came to help us, to fight Ebola here at home, why do they want to destroy our lives? Shekinah said she couldnt count how many times she slept with Diallo. She said she knew about a dozen other women in Beni whom he had similarly victimized. I wanted to quit, she said. But because of my financial problems, I endured it. Shekinah said she was often paid in cash or mobile credit, with little paperwork. Even after she and Diallo separated, she said, he continued to ask for nude pictures or video calls while she was naked. Diallo should be punished for his sexual abuse of all those girls in Beni as a lesson to these international organizations that this should not happen again, she said. I would like justice to be done. ____ Maria Cheng reported from London. Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report. ALTON Olgas Kitchen in Alton is sweetening its offer for job seekers. The restaurant, located inside the Alton Square Mall for more than four decades, is offering $200 sign-on bonus for anyone hired during May. Olgas is conducting open interviews every Wednesday through May, from 2:30-4:30 p.m. Established in Birmingham, Michigan in 1970, Olgas Kitchen was the result of a dream of founder Olga Loizon after returning from a trip to Greece. Owned and operated by TEAM Schostak Family Restaurants, the brand now has 24 locations; all but the Alton restaurant are in Michigan. The Alton restaurant was renovated in October 2019. Its known for its signature, grilled-to-order secret recipe Olga Bread, serving more than 20,000 pieces of every day. The RiverBend Growth Association named Olgas Kitchen its Small Business of the Month for December 2020. EDWARDSVILLE Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Chancellor Randy Pembrook on Tuesday announced he plans to retire at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. Pembrook became the ninth chancellor in SIUEs history on Aug. 1, 2016. After the last 15 months nearly losing my father to COVID, seeing our two daughters spend some time in Edwardsville and then move away to Chicago and Pittsburgh, respectively, and realizing that the pace I believe the chancellors position requires is no longer sustainable for me I think the institution would be better served by a new leader with a fresh spirit, Pembrook said. Despite the challenges, Pembrook did find the 2021 academic year rewarding. The last 15 months have deepened my respect for this institution even more, he said. In March 2020, we pivoted quickly with a concern for COVID safety while maintaining educational excellence, led by core values related to equity and inclusion. We truly can shape a changing world and have continued doing that under extremely challenging conditions. This is a tribute to our outstanding faculty, staff, students and administrative leaders. The Metro East native earned both a bachelors and masters in music education/piano performance from SIUE in 1978 and 1980, respectively. For a student to return to his alma mater and serve as chancellor is a remarkable honor, he said. To see how this institution has progressed since I left in 1980 is tremendously satisfying. Our returning alumni are awed by the changes. That is an ongoing tribute to those who have invested their careers in this institution. SIU System President Dan Mahony thanked Pembrook for his assistance during Mahonys first year in office. He has been helpful to me in many ways as I transitioned into this new role and dealt with all of the challenges we faced, Mahony said. I have also truly been impressed by the fact that he is a consistently compassionate leader who always considers the impact of every decision on faculty, staff, and especially students. Mahony said the search for the 10th SIUE chancellor is in its earliest stages. We will quickly engage a search firm and begin moving forward with a national search, he said. In the coming weeks, we will hold a series of town halls to gather feedback from the SIUE campus community on what qualities the next chancellor should possess. We will convene a search committee that is representative of the University and its many stakeholders which will review applications, conduct initial interviews, and assist in bringing candidates to campus during the fall semester. Mahony hopes to make a candidate recommendation to the SIU Board of Trustees at its December meeting. Over a year into the pandemic, your bookshelves may be so crowded with books that you cant imagine adding another. But a 3-year-old dog named Stella will have you rethinking that. Not familiar with the brown pup with a white belly, a mix of Catahoula and Australian cattle dog? Shes quite the social media sensation, with 788,000 followers on Instagram, 101,000 followers on YouTube and 28,000 followers on Facebook, and now theres a book dedicated to all that shes learned in her short life. Stella can communicate with humans using a device created by her owner, Christina Hunger. In How Stella Learned To Talk, Hunger, a speech pathologist and Aurora, Illinois native, takes us through her journey teaching Stella how to talk via augmentative and alternative communication. AAC is a tool that gives people with severe speech delays or disorders the ability to say words through another medium. The skills and tools she used to help children communicate, Hunger has applied to Stellas communication development. All I wanted was to be able to share this story in its entirety and help people see Stellas communication from my lens as a speech therapist, Hunger said. She programmed recordable answer buzzers with words like play, outside and water, then added walk, bye, help, no and come. These days, Stella knows and uses 48 words or phrases (including love you) on a board on which she communicates with her owners. She can combine up to five words to create unique phrases, ask and answer questions, express her thoughts and feelings, make observations and participate in short conversations. For example, Stella used the phrases help, beach, love you to ask her owners to take her to the beach. She then pressed the buttons to make the phrases love you, water and stood next to her beach collar. And this all started when Hunger asked what would happen if she tried the language interventions with her puppy that she used with her young human clients at a clinic in Omaha, Nebraska. In the book, Hunger draws on her language techniques to take readers through major life shifts with Stella at her side, concluding every chapter with takeaways for those who want to teach their dog to communicate. Hunger said shes received thousands of emails from pet owners with questions about her Hunger method, which she hopes the book answers. I wanted people to understand the whole story because I think when theres something so new and groundbreaking like this, you have to be in the persons perspective and understand how it came to be what it is now, Hunger said. I wanted this full story that showed my perspective, and all of the steps teaching her and how I was processing it, and what I was comparing this to and human language development, she said. But I also knew that I wanted to help people teach their own dogs, and so that was the goal from the start to find a happy medium and a good balance between those. Not to give spoilers, but there are scenes in the book that will have pet lovers and those who have never owned pets smiling: such as Stella saying bye to Hungers guests to usher them out the door since it was past her bedtime. The scenes, coupled with fundamentals about speech and how we learn, are engaging. We talked with Hunger, a Northern Illinois University graduate, before the release of her book to find out more about Stella and Hungers developing relationship and how families can form a stronger bond with their furry family member. The following interview has been condensed and edited. Q: Given the pandemic, your tips could be something fun to engage the whole family. Was that the plan? A: Its kind of funny how it ended up working out with the pandemic because now theres just so many more dog owners in the world, because so many people adopted pets in their home. I think the book will have an even bigger impact now. What I wanted was to show people whats possible (in) this whole new era of interspecies communication. Since it came out, people from around the world have started teaching their own dogs; some people have started teaching cats. And Ive seen people try with some other animals too. Its so exciting to see this enthusiasm, curiosity and empowerment that people can just try something and see how it goes, and see what they discover. Q: Is it easier to teach a young dog tricks versus an older dog? A: Its definitely possible to teach older dogs. A lot of people who have seen this and have immediately started with their pets who are older have had success. I think for my personal journey with Stella, it really helped that she was a puppy because this was brand new, and I was just taking it step by step. I did see Stella as like a blank slate. Q: Can the average person build a communication device on their own? A: I started by buying a box of recordable answer buzzers. Theyre super easy to use. You just put batteries in them and press a button and record any word into them. Recently, I partnered with Learning Resources, the company who makes the buttons, and created a pack that comes with the buttons and also activities and tips written by me, so that when people get their first pack of buttons or more later on, they have some more activities that they can do and some guidance of how to get started with their dogs. Thats all really easy to find on Amazon. Its called the Talking Pet Starter Set. And whats really nice about the buttons is you can just keep adding more if you want to. They come in packs of four buttons. Q: Stella knows 48 words, but are you still adding words? A: I dont think weve reached the threshold yet. Im curious about when shell plateau. Every word that weve introduced so far, shes still learning. Im intrigued because there have been dogs who have been documented to know over 1,000 words, and some dogs have learned several hundred words. Im thinking if dogs can understand upward of 1,000 words, does that mean they would also be able to say that many words if they had access to them? Q: How has your relationship changed with Stella now that she can articulate so well? A: I think we have a very different relationship than most pet and pet owners. Before I even got into teaching Stella words and adding vocabulary for her, I was always thinking why is it that dogs would have to do what we say all the time? Were giving them commands, and theyre never able to say back to us. What if they want us to come or what if they dont want to do something right now? I feel with her ability to use words, we have more of an equal relationship than a lot of pets and pet owners. I really take into consideration her wants and needs and thoughts. And I also just feel like I understand her so much better too. I understand whats important to her. I understand when things are tough, when changes in routines are difficult, when shes upset, when shes really happy. So, I just think we have such a greater understanding of each other because we have this shared language. WILKES-BARRE The former president of the Pennsylvania Bar Association has waived his right to a preliminary hearing on prostitution charges and will appear before a county judge this summer. Attorney David E. Schwager, 58, of Kingston, is due to appear July 29 for a dispositional hearing before Judge Joseph F. Sklarosky Jr. on a misdemeanor count of patronizing a prostitute. Luzerne County detectives charged Schwager last month after he reported he had been the victim of a shakedown by a prostitute. According to police, Schwager told investigators he had responded to an ad for a female escort and met the woman at her Carey Avenue apartment in Wilkes-Barre in December 2019. The woman, Emily Ann Merth, 25, engaged Schwager in sexual activity and began secretly recording them with her mobile phone, according to police. When Schwager asked her what she was doing, she replied that she shoots pornography. Schwager told her he wanted no part of being recorded on video, got dressed and left, according to police. Merth then texted Schwager threatening to post the video everywhere if he didnt pay her $1,000, police said. Schwager told Merth to stop threatening him and she lowered her demand to $700, according to the charges. They made plans to meet at Merths house, where county detectives who were surveilling the meeting arrested her. Detectives say Merth admitted recording the sexual activity without Schwagers knowledge or consent, saying she makes such videos to earn extra money, according to police. Merth was charged with theft by extortion, sexual extortion and promoting prostitution, and is set to be arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Rick Cronauer later this week. Schwager resigned as president of the bar association after he was charged with patronizing a prostitute and was placed on administrative leave from his position as a Luzerne County assistant solicitor. A partner of the Wilkes-Barre law firm of Chariton, Schwager & Malak, Schwager remains free on his own recognizance pending the outcome of the case. Blue Mountain Resort, which has been locally run for more than four decades, is now or soon to be under the management of the private equity-backed company that operates Camelback Resort in the Poconos. KSL Resorts, of California, confirmed late Monday that it will manage Blue Mountain, a longtime resort in Lower Towamensing Twp., Carbon County. KSL Resorts is excited to manage Blue Mountain Resort as its located in one of the Poconos most spectacular settings and is the ideal complement to Camelbacks numerous indoor and outdoor adventures especially with its close proximity, Shawn Hauver, vice president of asset performance for KSL Resorts and managing director for Camelback Resort, said in an emailed statement. Blue Mountain, founded by Ray Tuthill and led by his daughter, President and CEO Barbara Green, referred all questions to a KSL spokesperson. That spokesperson did not immediately answer follow-up questions Tuesday, including when the management transition will occur, whether KSL is taking an ownership interest in Blue Mountain and what changes customers can expect under KSL. Barb Green has done a tremendous job of maintaining the mountains natural splendor, and we are delighted to further our interests here in the Pocono Mountains a community and lifestyle we admire and respect, Hauvers statement continued. Kathy Henderson, director of economic development for the Carbon Chamber & Economic Development Corp., said she knows KSL is coming in to manage Blue Mountain but wasnt sure of the particulars of how the deal was set up as it relates to ownership. But she sees KSL as a strong partner for Blue Mountain as it looks to further grow its offerings. KSL Resorts is affiliated with KSL Capital Partners, a Denver, Colorado, private-equity firm that focuses on investments within hospitality, recreation, clubs, real estate and travel services. Blue Mountain, meanwhile, has made its own investments over the years to become an all-season resort but had been searching for a capital investor to move forward with some of its plans, including on-site lodging. Henderson believes KSL will help Blue Mountain move forward with additional investments, such as a potential mountain coaster. Theyre going to infuse it with a lot of cash, add on some new and exciting attractions and be able to move forward with a lot of their plans that they have put on hold for quite awhile for different reasons, Henderson said. Itll be a big help to them and to creating more jobs in the county. The arrival of KSL at Blue Mountain is just the latest activity within Carbon Countys resort industry. Just two years ago, Colorado-based Vail Resorts Inc. acquired Peak Resorts Inc. for about $264 million, a deal that brought 17 more U.S. ski areas, including Jack Frost and Big Boulder in Carbon County, under Vails umbrella. Jack Frost, Big Boulder in Carbon County involved in $264 million ski resort deal Henderson said the entrance of Vail in Carbon County also has been a positive at the two ski areas, which hadnt received much investment in prior years. For Blue Mountain, the partnership with KSL is the next step in its long history, a time during which many U.S. ski areas have diversified offerings to become year-round resorts as winter weather gets increasingly unpredictable. Its a different industry than it was when Ray Tuthill purchased more than 322 acres in Carbon County in 1962. In 1977, he opened the then-named Little Gap Ski Area, offering four trails and two lifts in its first year of operation. Lift tickets were just $12. Back then, there were around 40 ski areas in Pennsylvania and 735 nationwide, according to a Blue Mountain news release from 2017 in advance of its 40th anniversary on December 22, 2017. During the 2019-20 season, according to the National Ski Areas Association, there were 470 ski areas across 37 U.S. states, a number that has stabilized over the last couple decades. In Pennsylvania, there were 26 ski areas operating during the 2019-20 season, the association said. That trailed New York (51), Michigan (40), Wisconsin and Colorado (31 each), California and New Hampshire (30 each). In 2017, Green said the resorts that have survived have concentrated on snowmaking efficiency while providing all-season activities and remaining customer-focused. The pandemic, of course, presented an even larger challenge to the hospitality industry and cut the 2020 season short at many ski resorts. For example, Camelback Resort in Monroe County temporarily closed at the start of the pandemic and laid off 708 employees. Coronavirus already taking economic toll in the Lehigh Valley: It is going to devastate some people Some of Blue Mountains expansions in recent years have included the opening of the year-round Slopeside Pub & Grill, as well as automated snowmaking investments and a larger terrain-based hill for those learning to ski or snowboard. Some expansions, however, have remained elusive, such as a longtime plan to add lodging to Blue Mountain. In 2016, the resort announced plans for Vista Lodge Residence Club, a four-star condominium resort hotel that would be connected to the event venue at the peak of the mountain. The most recent update on that plan came in 2019 from Blue Mountain, when Green said the resort was waiting for the PennEast pipeline to come through and was seeking a capital investor for the Vista Lodge project. It was unclear Tuesday how KSLs arrival affects that plan. Most people who work in Scranton would again face a tripled annual local services tax of $156 under legislation city council introduced Tuesday. The proposed ordinance to maintain the tripled LST for 2021 retroactive to the beginning of the year comes after Lackawanna County Judge Thomas Munley approved in late April Scrantons request to do so. A tripled LST, allowed under a 2014 revision to state Act 47, is part of the citys financial recovery plan but requires annual court approval while the city remains under Act 47 oversight. Scranton previously received court approvals for an LST of $156, three times the base rate of $52 per year, for each of 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. About 30,000 workers pay the tripled LST, which is expected to generate about $4.95 million this year. Workers earning less than $15,600 annually are exempt. Scranton is slated to exit Act 47 in January and shed the financially distressed designation its carried since 1992. But the city can continue levying the tripled LST after it exits the program for financially distressed municipalities as long as its pensions funds are rated moderately or severely distressed under state Act 205, the distressed pension recovery law. Scrantons aggregate pension fund, which includes the police, fire and nonuniform pension plans, is moderately distressed, according to a state Department of Auditor General compliance audit released in January. That audit covered the period of 2018 through 2019. If the city maintains the tripled tax post-Act 47 which the Pennsylvania Economy League, Scrantons Act 47 financial recovery coordinator, recommends it would be obligated to use all LST revenue generated above the $52 base rate toward its annual required contribution to its three pension plans, known as the minimum municipal obligation. Scrantons MMO for 2021 is $12.47 million, about $3.92 million of which will be covered by state aid. Its 2022 MMO remains to be seen. The city still needs that enhanced LST post-Act 47, PEL senior research fellow Gerald Cross said when reached Tuesday. In our projections of the citys financial stability, we assume the continuance of the ($156) LST as long as the city met the requirements of pension distress. Maintaining the $156 tax under those circumstances after exiting Act 47 would not require court approval, Cross said. Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognettis administration is exploring the potential of continuing the tripled LST post-Act 47 as it considers that and other potential revenue sources in preparation for the 2022 budget, Business Administrator Carl Deeley said. I think its important to say that its in conjunction with the other revenues, because obviously were looking at the other revenue sources and the balance of those, he said. All five council members agreed continuing the $156 LST after Scranton exits Act 47 is necessary to ensure the citys improved financial position is sustainable. Council President Bill Gaughan called the tripled LST a tool that we have to use. Because Tuesday is primary election day, council will next meet Monday. Councils virtual caucus session will begin at 5:45 p.m., followed by its virtual meeting at 6:30. Council will return to in-person meetings at City Hall in June. I met a girl who sang the blues And I asked her for some happy news But she just smiled and turned away American Pie I didnt want to write again about the House Republicans ousting Liz Cheney from their leadership for calling out Donald Trumps big lie. But to write about anything else would be like writing about the weather the day after Watergate exploded or about Ford Theaters architecture after Lincoln was shot. This is a big moment in American history. One of Americas two major parties has made embracing a huge lie about the integrity of our elections a litmus test for leadership in that party, if not future candidacy at the local, state and national levels. In effect, the Trump GOP has declared that winning the next elections for the House, Senate and presidency is so crucial and Trumps ability to energize its base so irreplaceable that it justifies both accepting his big lie about the 2020 election and leveraging that lie to impose new voter-suppression laws and changes in the rules of who can certify elections in order to lock in minority rule for Republicans. House Republicans replacement of Cheney does not constitute the end of American democracy as weve known it, but there is a real possibility well look back on May 12, 2021, as the beginning of the end unless enough principled Republicans can be persuaded to engineer an immediate, radical course correction. If you read about something like this happening in another pillar of democracy, like Britain or France, youd feel like the world was a little less safe. If you heard that a banana-republic dictator had forced such a Big Lie on his sham parliament, youd want to picket his embassy in Washington. But this is us right now. And I fear that weve so defined down political deviance in the Trump years that weve lost the drop-everything, man-the-battle-stations sense of alarm that should greet the GOP crossing such a red line. Were witnessing a daylight mugging of our democracy and I am not talking only about the voter-suppression measures. There also are the new laws to enable Republican legislatures to legally manipulate the administration and counting of the votes in their states. Election expert Rick Hasen explained: At stake is something I never expected to worry about in the United States: the integrity of the vote count. The danger of manipulated election results looms. Were talking about the Georgia law removing the secretary of state from decision-making power on the state Election Board, clearly aimed to curb the powers of the current secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, after he rejected Trumps request that he find 11,780 votes to undo Joe Bidens victory in Georgia. Were talking about Arizonas Republican-led state Senate hiring a company owned by an advocate of the stop the steal movement to examine the November ballots from Maricopa County. And much more. According to a new report by Protect Democracy, Law Forward and the States United Democracy Center, Many of the bills would make elections more difficult to administer or even unworkable; make it more difficult to finalize election results; allow for election interference and manipulation by hyperpartisan actors; and, in the worst cases, allow state legislatures to overturn the will of the voters and precipitate a democracy crisis. Had these bills been in place in 2020, it added, they would have ... raised the prospect that the outcome of the election would have been contrary to the popular vote. As Stanford University democracy expert Larry Diamond summed it up, while were focusing on Liz Cheney and the 2020 elections, Trumps minions at the state level are focused on giving themselves the power to legally get away with in 2024 what the courts would not let them get away with in 2020. And tell me how America can ever again be a credible observer and upholder of democratic elections around the world so vital to our security and the hopes and dreams of democrats who look to America as a beacon of democracy and the rule of law. The next time we want to question election results in Russia or Iran or Poland or Hungary, their elected autocrats will say: Listen to you? Your Republican Party turned a blind eye to a guy who told the biggest election lie in the history of the Milky Way Galaxy. And it was just so he could stay in power, salve his ego and deny he lost. So, thank you, Liz Cheney, for doing something only a conservative Republican could do: force the party to choose whether to stand with Trump and his big lie or with the Constitution and the rule of law. If Trump and friends are not stopped, one day they will lock in minority rule. Democrats and principled Republicans will take to the streets, and it is going to feel like a new civil war. My first reporting experience was living inside the Lebanese civil war in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I saw what happens when democratically elected politicians think that they can abuse their institutions and buy reporters and television stations so that there is no truth. And they think that the system will hold until they can own it. Then one day the whole system breaks down. Whatever frayed bonds of truth and trust that were holding it together completely unravel. And then its gone. And there is no getting it back. THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN writes for The New York Times. Wrexham Enterprise Hub makes series of key appointments Small business and co-working experts TownSq has appointed its new senior community manager as the business expands across the UK. Carl Turner, who was previously the community manager at the Wrexham Enterprise Hub, will now be responsible for overseeing all of TownSqs Northern hubs in Wrexham, Chester and Rhyl as well as working to secure other opportunities in the North West. Pete Rogers will take over day-to-day management of the Wrexham Enterprise Hub as the new community manager and is joined by Elizabeth Stone, who steps into the Community Coordinator role alongside new hire Katy Hughes as Community Assistant. Prior to joining TownSq, Carl worked as a community manager for NatWest Bank, and under his leadership, the Wrexham Hub has grown supporting hundreds of individuals into starting businesses and creating numerous jobs in the local area. The Wrexham Enterprise Hub is delivered by TownSq for Business Wales, and is funded by the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government. Mandy Weston, COO and co-founder of TownSq said the new appointees were a sign of how quickly the business was growing: Weve had an incredible third year, which has seen us add three more spaces to our roster, with more on the way. Carl has been with us since the beginning and we are delighted to be promoting him to the role of senior community manager after his fantastic work at Wrexham and across several of our other spaces. Were very proud of our recruitment process which has helped us consistently hire talented people to support us. This means that as we grow, we can promote these passionate people who go on and help us do what we do best, across the UK. This doesnt happen by accident of course, we work hard to be an attractive employer, and our status as a B Corp means being a responsible and empathetic employer is written into our business structure. Its communities that decide the success of startup spaces, and they are built of positive people. We have that in abundance thanks to people like Carl, but also in those who now move into more senior roles, such as Pete and Elizabeth as well as new hires like Katy. Lawmakers pressing two state constitutional amendments to vastly diminish any governors ability to manage an emergency, and transfer that power to themselves, already have demonstrated why it is a terrible idea. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck Pennsylvania early in 2020, Republican legislative leaders immediately and irresponsibly politicized it, sniping from the bleachers as Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine attempted to navigate, without a map, a global public health crisis that was unprecedented in modern times. Emergency management is an executive branch function, so current state law logically places the administrative machinery and on-the-ground decision-making in the hands of the governor. The two constitutional amendments on the May 18 primary ballot, regarding that power, would require the Legislature to approve an emergency declaration every 21 days rather than the current rule requiring the governor to evaluate and renew it every 90 days and enable the Legislature to terminate a declared emergency at any time without the governors consent. Any legislature is deliberative, rather than action-oriented, and Pennsylvanias is a gerrymandered, politically polarized, special-interest-infused train wreck with 253 members. Apparently for the sake of levity, proponents argue that emergency declarations should be submitted to the peoples representatives. But the governor is elected statewide; his district is Pennsylvania, which cannot be gerrymandered. All of the people get to vote for that position. Lawmakers would render decisions on emergencies as soon as they consulted the assorted lobbyists for their favored interests the same way that they conduct regular business. And, characteristically, the legislators rushed to pass the amendments enabling them to terminate emergency declarations without bothering to tell the public what would come next. The amendments also ignore the administrative machinery regarding emergencies. A state emergency declaration must be in place for the state government to receive federal disaster assistance, yet the sponsoring lawmakers would allow declarations to expire automatically after 21 days, imperiling direct federal assistance, expanded access to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and other aid. As of Tuesday, Pennsylvanians had suffered 1.18 million COVID-19 cases and 26,597 deaths. It is a real and ongoing emergency. The Wolf administration response has not been perfect, and the economic fallout resulting from its emergency measures also is real. But anyone who thinks that the Legislature would do better has not been paying attention to it. To ensure effective state government responses to future emergencies, Pennsylvanians including independent and third-party voters who are eligible to vote on ballot questions during primary elections would be wise to vote No on the first two constitutional amendments on the ballot. YES on two other issues A third proposed constitutional amendment and a separate statewide referendum also are on the ballot, and the Times-Tribune editorial board recommends yes votes on both. The third proposed amendment would outlaw all discrimination based on race or ethnicity. Though such prohibitions are included in an array of state laws, the proposed amendment would enshrine the underlying concept of equality within the constitution. The fourth question also warrants a yes vote. It is not a constitutional amendment. Rather, it asks whether municipal fire departments, volunteer companies with some paid personnel and EMS companies, to obtain loans to purchase equipment from an existing state program now limited to volunteer companies. All fire companies should have access to the program to obtain state-of-the art equipment because fires dont discriminate, and all firefighters should have access to the best equipment possible. Rosemarie McNulty Hedman, 75, a five-year guest at Abington Manor and formerly of Dunmore, died Monday morning at Allied Hospice after an illness. Born Oct. 24, 1945, and raised in South Scranton, she was the daughter of the late Terrence F. Sr. and Margaret Grady McNulty. A graduate of South Scranton Catholic High School, upon marriage Rosemarie moved to New York, where she had worked in the airline industry for several years. Upon her return to the area, she settled in Dunmore while raising her beloved daughter, Bridget. Of devout Roman Catholic faith, Rosemarie was a faithful member of St. Peters Cathedral in Scranton, where she was a familiar face at their daily Mass prior to illness. Rosemarie was one of Boscovs most loyal customers, a fixture at Abington Manors bingo game, and never one to pass up sweets. Above all else came her grandchildren whom Grandma Rose would do absolutely anything for, and she also acted as a grandmother to numerous other children she met. Now at peace, shell always be missed by family and friends. She is survived by her loving family: her daughter, Bridget McAndrew and husband, Jim, Scranton; her grandchildren, Jim III, Mackenzie and Ryan McAndrew; her siblings, Margaret Dubas and husband, Walter, Mechanicsburg; Ann Malosh and husband, John, East Stroudsburg; and Terrence McNulty Jr. and wife, Betty, Scranton; and many nieces and nephews. Her family would like to acknowledge and thank the amazing staffs of both Abington Manor and Allied Hospice for the collective care given to Rosemarie. Mass of Christian Burial will be Saturday at 9 a.m. in St. Peters Cathedral, 315 Wyoming Ave., Scranton, to be celebrated by Monsignor Dale Rupert, pastor, with burial to follow at the Cathedral Cemetery. Family and friends may pay their respects Saturday at the church from 8 a.m. to Mass. Arrangements are under the care of the Kevin K. Kearney Funeral Home Inc., 125 N. Main Ave., Scranton. Please visit the funeral homes website for directions or to leave a condolence. MARISSA BERGEL, Wheeler softball, senior: Bergel hit a two-out, two-run single in the seventh inning to lift Wheeler past Holy Cross, 9-7, in the Class S state tournament. The hit was part of a five-run rally in the inning. JOEY GUARNIERI, Westerly track & field, senior: Guarnieri placed first in two sprints at the Southern Division championships. He won the 100 (11.19) and the 200 (22.73). JOSH MOONEY, Stonington track & field, sophomore: Mooney placed first in the 110 hurdles at the Class M state meet in 14.65. He also finished second in the 300 hurdles (39.87) and second in the javelin (160-0). MARGARET WEEDEN, Chariho track & field, junior: Weeden finished first in the high jump at the Southern Division championships. Weeden cleared 5-1 and also placed sixth in the triple jump at 31-5. Vote View Results Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-11 05:25:00|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close CAIRO, May 10 (Xinhua) -- Egypt condemned on Monday the storming by the Israeli forces of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem. In a statement, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry held Israel responsible for "the rapid and dangerous developments which foretell more tension and escalation." The ministry also stressed the need to stop all practices that violate the sanctity of the mosque, especially during the Ramadan, in line with the rules of international law. Meanwhile, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland, discussed earlier in the day "the dangerous developments in Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories." During a phone conversation, Wennesland informed Shoukry of his contacts with the Israeli side aimed at controlling the situation in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, allowing worshipers to freely practice religious rituals as well as taking all necessary measures to protect the mosque and the holy sites in the city. For his part, the Egyptian minister updated the UN official on the extensive contacts that Egypt has been conducting, stressing Cairo's rejection of Israel's practices targeting Palestinian worshipers. Tension between Israelis and Palestinians has been flaring up over the past few days amid the escalating violence in East Jerusalem between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli forces. Enditem The FTSE 100 rebounded following its large fall yesterday to rise above 7000 points. It closed up 0.82 per cent or 56.64 points to 7,004.63 this afternoon. This was despite the US Labor Department reporting that the consumer price index rose 4.2 per cent in the 12 months through April. That was the largest gain since September 2008 and above what was expected. It was the second time in a week expectations were confounded on a major piece of economic data. The US economy added just 266,000 jobs in April, about one quarter the gain forecasted. Lockdown restrictions saw the UK economy contract by 1.5 per cent at the start of 2021 but the hit was smaller than first feared as growth rebounded in March, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. Travel group Tui recorded a 1.5billion (1.3billion) pre-tax loss in the six months to the end of March as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to heavily limit international holidays and travellers remained reluctant to book holidays. Catering giant Compass Group said it expected any revenue recovery to be gradual as it revealed half-year underlying operating profit fell by nearly two thirds while revenues dropped 30.4 per cent to 8.6billion. > If you are using our app click here to read Business Live Holiday group Tui has admitted that some of its customers have started to defer their travel plans as messaging from governments remains uncertain and ambiguous. Tui said it now had 2.6million customers booked and ready to jet off abroad this summer, as global lockdown restrictions ease and Britain's vaccine programme rolls on. But, this is 69 per cent fewer customers than seen in pre-Covid summer of 2019, and a 'small' reduction since the company's last update. Let's go next year? Tui has admitted that some of its customers have started to defer their travel plans Fluctuations: A chart showing what's happened to Tui's share price over the last few years The drop reflects 'customers choosing to defer their booking to future seasons due to the lack of clarity provided by governments on lifting of travel restrictions', London-listed Tui said. The group saw a collapse in the amount of money coming through its doors in the last six months as the pandemic reduced international travel to a trickle. Tui said it planned to focus on destinations like Greece, Balearics and Canaries which have 'anticipated good vaccinations rates and low infection rates.' The group said that bookings to Portugal from Britain skyrocketed after the southern European country was put on England's 'green list' for quarantine-free travel, and it was adding capacity to meet demand. 'We are putting on Dreamliners instead of 737s, because we couldn't even find the slots,' Tui's chief executive Fritz Joussen, said. Bookings to Portugal over the weekend of 7-9 May rose 182 per cent compared to the previous weekend. Revenue: Tui's revenue for the six months to the end of March came in at 615m Where shall we go? Tui said it planned to focus on destinations like Greece, Balearics and Canaries which have 'anticipated good vaccinations rates and low infection rates' It expects its cruises to 'operate a phased restart with summer itineraries from May', with the full 'Mein Schiff' fleet of seven ships to be in operation by the end of the year. It added: 'Marella is offering UK cruise itineraries with Explorer and Explorer 2 from end of June. From August, Discovery and Discovery 2 are scheduled to operate cruises to the Mediterranean.' Tui's revenue for the six months to the end of March came in at 615million, which is 89 per cent lower than the year before, when it was 5.7billion. It also recorded a hefty 1.3billion loss, up 82 per cent on a year ago. But, there appears to be strong pent-up demand for next summer. He's in charge: Friedrich Joussen is the boss of Tui Nearly three times as many Britons have decided to book with the travel giant for the summer of 2022 compared with 2019. Holidaymakers also seem optimistic that they will be able to travel abroad this winter, with UK bookings up 17 per cent compared with before the pandemic. But, Tui claims that, with vaccinations being rapidly rolled out, it should be possible for customers to start travelling again sooner than that. It said: 'The continued vaccination progress across our key customer markets and destinations, combined with more testing, and comprehensive hygiene measures throughout our eco-system, should enable the safe return to holidays this summer.' The number of people that Tui employs has dropped from 53,525 at the end of March 2020 to 36,029 on the same day this year. Looking ahead, Tui said: 'Due to the travel restrictions in the first half of the year and the current expectations for the summer season 2021, we now expect TUI Group revenue (IFRS 16) in financial year 2021 to be down year-on-year at constant currency rates.' Holidays abroad are permitted from 17 May for people in England and Scotland. Both countries have adopted a 'traffic light' system for foreign travel, indicating how safe a holiday destination is. Portugal, Singapore, Iceland and Israel are currently among the Government's 'green list' of countries, from where travellers will not have to quarantine upon their return. The 'green list' will be reviewed every three weeks and countries can be added or removed at short notice. Not all the green list destinations are actually yet open for tourism and it is the travellers' responsibility to check. FTSE 250-listed Tui's share price is currently down 1.68 per cent or 7.20p to 420.40p this morning. A year ago the share price was 165.77p. Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: 'TUI is entering a crucial phase of its recovery, with just a few glimmers of hope that it may be able to return to some level of profitability.' He added: 'The share price has rebounded strongly since the initial vaccine announcement in November and has added 142% over the last year, as compared to an increase of 37% for the wider FTSE 250. 'However, to put its travails in context, over the last three years the price remains down by 60%, including relegation from the FTSE 100 in March 2020. 'While the potential for a recovery is evident for travel companies in general, investor sentiment towards TUI is currently sceptical, with the market consensus of the shares as a sell still in place.' Marston's finance boss Andrew Andrea will take over the pub operator's chief executive role from Ralph Findlay, who was also once the firm's head of finance. Andrea will assume the leadership post when the current fiscal year ends in early October, 19 years after joining Marston's as a divisional finance director and following 12 years as a board member. The company said he has shown 'exceptional leadership qualities' in his time working for Marston's, where he helped develop its franchise model and organised its operational agreement with Welsh pub chain Brains. New leader: Andrew Andrea will become the new chief executive of Marston's in October Before working for Marston's, Andrea spent time at retail optician Dollond & Aitchinson and beermakers Guinness Brewing and Bass Brewers. Moreover, he is currently a non-executive director at the ceramics maker Portmeirion Group. Marston's chairman William Rucker said the selection process for the chief executive position involved an 'extremely high calibre' of candidates, but Andrea was the 'strongest contender.' 'He has clear drive, ambition and outstanding execution skills and these attributes, together with his deep knowledge of and empathy for - the business, equip him well to lead Marston's through the next stage of its development,' Rucker remarked. Andrea said that he was 'delighted' to take on the role 'at such an exciting time as it [Marston's] embarks on the next phase in its history as a focused pub operator' in spite of the challenges the pandemic has thrown at the business. 'I am confident that we have a great team of energised and engaged people to deliver our vision, and I look forward to working with them and the Board to return the business to growth and optimise the future opportunities available to us,' he added. Findlay announced his intention in March to step down from Marston's after two decades in charge and a quarter-century after he initially joined the firm as its finance director. Leaving: CEO Ralph Findlay announced his intention in March to step down from Marston's after two decades as boss and a quarter-century after he initially joined the firm During his tenure, the company changed its name from Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries to Marston's and bought a number of other breweries, including Jennings and Hampshire-based Ringwood. But throughout 2020, a year Findlay described as 'extraordinarily difficult,' the pandemic forced the group to temporarily close its estate for long periods, annual losses climbed to 297.1million, and 2,150 staff were laid off. During the depths of the health crisis though, the business secured a 780million joint venture deal with Carlsberg UK, which gave them a 220million upfront payment that it used to pay down its debts. Celebration: Pubs across England will be allowed to serve patrons indoors from Monday More recently, Marston's rejected a 666million takeover offer from private equity group Platinum Equity Advisors, claiming it seriously undervalued the business. The Midlands-based group operates around 1,500 pubs employing 11,000 people and Findlay has expressed optimism that trade will recover strongly when its sites reopen due to the majority of them being located outside of city centres. THIS IS MONEY PODCAST What goes up must come down? This is Money Podcast on whether the 18-year property cycle could really predict the next house price crash It initially reopened about 700 English pubs on April 12, with more in Scotland and Wales reopening two weeks later, and is preparing to welcome patrons inside its establishments again next week following a month of outdoor service. From Monday, hospitality venues will still have to abide by social distancing and capacity limits, and customers must order food and drink from their table. The government hopes to lift all restrictions from June 21. But British Beer and Pub Association boss Emma McClarkin has said this is 'not enough,' and has urged the government to lift all curbs by that date to ensure pubs can 'survive and trade viably.' Shares in Marston's ended trading on Wednesday down 0.4 per cent at 96.6p. Amazon has defeated the EU in a legal battle over the blocs order to pay 215million in back-taxes. Brussels claimed the online shopping giant did a deal with Luxembourg that broke competition rules and allowed the firm to pay less than was rightly owed. But European judges overturned the order and said the bloc failed to prove Amazon benefited from preferential treatment. Legal victory: Amazon, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos (pictured with girlfriend Lauren Sanchez), was accused of breaking competition rules by signing a deal with Luxembourg It is a setback to EU competition chief Margrethe Vestagers fight to force tech firms to pay more tax, after a defeat over demands Apple pay more in Ireland. Amazon, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, said the ruling was in line with our longstanding position that we followed all applicable laws and received no special treatment. Luxembourg said the judgment showed the deal was not state aid. Vestager said she would examine the ruling before deciding whether to appeal to Europes top court The maker of Moet & Chandon says that we are set for a 'Roaring '20s' as drinkers splash out in new bars. Moet Hennessy, part of luxury goods giant LVMH, predicted a 'post-Covid renaissance' as consumers celebrate after an austere year. Britons, as well as drinkers in Australia and the US, where restrictions have also lifted, are 'trading up', spending more on higher-quality tipples. Cheers: Leonardo DiCaprio in 2013's 'The Great Gatsby'. Moet Hennessy, part of luxury goods giant LVMH, has predicted a 'post-Covid renaissance' Chief executive Philippe Schaus told the Financial Times: 'Some call it the revenge of pleasure or the new 'Roaring '20s', but it's clear that people are almost desperate to enjoy food and drink again. 'There is purchasing power out there and it seems to be translating, not necessarily to more alcohol consumption, but better consumption, and we are benefiting from that.' Moet Hennessy said there had been a cognac boom in the US following reopening, and that it had struggled to keep up with demand. After a 15 per cent fall in sales last year, revenues have bounced back, rising 12 per cent in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period in 2019. It came as Diageo reinstated its 4.5billion dividend and buyback programme after upgrading profit guidance thanks to booming trade in bars and pubs. Economists have predicted that consumers will unleash some of the 200billion of savings built up during the pandemic money which otherwise would have been spent going out, commuting or travelling abroad. While many poorer households have seen their incomes fall, wealthy families all but escaped the unemployment crisis, with many actually seeing their situation improve thanks to soaring house prices and stock markets. Optimism has flooded back into the luxury sector as a result, with several early signs experts predictions are coming true. Vogue editor Anna Wintour, an all-powerful figure in the fashion industry, predicted a wave of spending as people are desperate to 'get dressed up'. The drinks sector was resilient in lockdown thanks to the return of cocktail culture. Less alcohol was drunk, but consumers bought pricier wines and spirits to treat themselves at home. British exports to the European Union are bouncing back easing fears that Brexit has done permanent damage to trade. Official figures showed goods exports to the EU rose by 8.6 per cent to 12.7billion in March, close to the 13.6billion recorded in December and above the 7.9billion seen in January after the UK finally left the bloc. The rise was driven by a revival in the exports of cars and live animals including fish and shellfish as businesses adjusted to life post Brexit. Brexit boost: Official figures showed goods exports to the EU rose by 8.6 per cent to 12.7bn in March, close to the 13.6bn recorded in December and above the 7.9bn seen in January The Office for National Statistics, which published the figures, said exports to the EU 'are now almost back to their December level'. Matt Hughes, statistician at the ONS, said: 'There's been a recovery in February and March. Businesses have got used to the border requirements, namely trade documentation and additional paperwork. The car market recovery has helped.' The report undermines claims that Brexit has caused permanent damage to trade between the UK and EU. However, in a sign of ongoing disruption, the ONS said imports of goods from the rest of the world are now higher than from EU countries for the first time since records began in 1997. Imports from non-EU countries totalled 54.7billion in the first quarter of the year, while imports from the EU were worth 50.7billion. Ruth Gregory, an economist at Capital Economics, said the trade figures showed 'the UK's goods export values to the EU have now almost reversed January's 43.2 per cent plunge after the Brexit transition period ended'. But she added: 'Imports from the EU have continued to lag behind.' The recovery in export figures helped boost the economy, with output rising by 2.1 per cent in March. It was the strongest month of growth since last August, when spending was fuelled by Chancellor Rishi Sunak's Eat Out to Help Out discount meals scheme. It means that GDP shrank by only 1.5 per cent over the first quarter. The economy now looks poised for a spectacular bounce-back over the summer as huge sectors of the economy return to life. The recovery in exports and GDP, driven by the coronavirus vaccine, suggests that the UK is back on track after a difficult start to the year. The UK signed a Brexit deal with the European Union in the final moments of December last year and, amid the fallout, trade between the two blocs plummeted in January. At the time fears quickly mounted that Brexit had done irrevocable harm as a result of extra customs checks, paperwork and border delays businesses faced. Industry groups and politicians took to the airwaves to denounce the upheaval. Rachel Reeves, then shadow Cabinet Office minister and now Shadow Chancellor, called for an economic impact assessment of the EU trade deal. But there were more moderate voices, notably the Bank of England which said in March that pre-Brexit stockpiling was to blame for January's figures and that trade would then return to normal. Welcoming the latest figures yesterday, Brexit minister Lord Frost said he was 'very encouraged by the continued growth in the value of goods trade between us and the EU. 'Striking that goods exports to the EU now exceed average levels from 2020.' Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-11 18:44:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Workers unload anti-epidemic material supplies donated by the Chinese government from a Chinese cargo plane at Wattay International Airport in Vientiane, Laos, May 10, 2021. The Chinese government-donated anti-COVID-19 material supplies have arrived at Wattay International Airport in Lao capital Vientiane with a handover ceremony held upon their arrival. The Chinese government's emergency assistance to Laos includes ventilators, automatic nucleic acid extractors, medical masks, N95 masks, mobile hospital beds, automatic autoclaves, nucleic acid extraction or purification reagents, and nucleic acid detection kits, etc. (Xinhua/Zhang Jianhua) VIENTIANE, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government-donated anti-COVID-19 material supplies have arrived at Wattay International Airport in Lao capital Vientiane with a handover ceremony held upon their arrival. Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) central committee politburo member, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the National Taskforce Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune and Chinese Ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong attended the handover ceremony on Monday for the emergency assistance to fight the recent COVID-19 outbreak in Laos. Kikeo said when receiving the supplies at the airport that after the outbreak of the new wave of the epidemic in Laos, the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government urgently dispatched a team of medical experts to Laos and provided urgently needed materials to assist the country in the prevention and control of the epidemic, which fully embodies the spirit of a community with a shared future between Laos and China. On behalf of the Lao party, the government and the people, Kikeo sincerely thanked the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government and the fraternal Chinese people for their consistent valuable assistance. He believed that the donation will provide Laos with strong support to win the battle against the virus. The Chinese government's emergency assistance to Laos includes ventilators, automatic nucleic acid extractors, medical masks, N95 masks, mobile hospital beds, automatic autoclaves, nucleic acid extraction or purification reagents, and nucleic acid detection kits, etc. Laos has been witnessing a surge of COVID-19 infections recently. The country confirmed 35 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total number of the cases to 1,362. Laos confirmed its first two COVID-19 cases on March 24 last year. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-11 19:53:43|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A man wearing a mask walks near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France, May 12, 2021. France is on its way to coming out of the health crisis as COVID-19 indicators continue the downward trend and vaccine rollout is speeding up, according to French Prime Minister Jean Castex. (Xinhua/Gao Jing) PARIS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- France is on its way to coming out of the health crisis as COVID-19 indicators continue the downward trend and vaccine rollout is speeding up, according to French Prime Minister Jean Castex. "I say it in the clearest way: we are finally in the process of emerging sustainably from this health crisis," Castex told Le Parisien newspaper in an interview published Monday evening. The country's reopening would be gradual and cautious, allowing the government to implement "braking measures in case the epidemic situation gets out of hand locally," he said. Under the government's four-phase calendar for a return to normalcy, limits on travel were lifted and colleges and high schools reopened on May 3, while a night-time curfew is still in place. From May 19, non-essential shops will reopen. Restaurants and cafes will be allowed to receive on terraces a maximum of six people per table. Museums, theaters, cinemas and sport facilities will also reopen, with a limit of 800 people indoors and 1,000 outdoors. Gyms will resume activities and foreign tourists are allowed entry from June 9 with a "health pass." All the restrictive rules to contain the virus will be lifted at the end of June. Asked whether France could witness a fourth epidemic wave when restrictions are lifted, Castex noted that "nothing should be excluded," while urging people to remain vigilant. On Monday, the number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 decreased for the seventh straight day to 25,666, including 4,870 in intensive care units, the lowest level since March 27. The number of daily infections fell to 3,292, bringing the country's cumulative cases to 5.78 million, of whom 106,684 died. Some 18.1 million people in France have received at least one vaccine dose, representing 34.5 percent of the adult population, and nearly 8 million have received both jabs. The French government aims to administer 20 million shots by mid-May and inoculate a total of 30 million, or two-thirds of the adults, by mid-June. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-11 21:33:46|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Cubans continue to urge the current U.S. administration to dismantle the U.S. embargo against the Caribbean nation. #GLOBALink Produced by Xinhua Global Service Hostilities between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group that runs Gaza escalated on Tuesday as each side attacked the other with aerial bombardments that recalled their last major conflict in 2014. A 13-story residential block in Gaza collapsed after one of several dozen Israeli air strikes, albeit after an Israeli warning, as Israelis reported explosions and sirens more than 70 km (45 miles) up the coast from Gaza. Thirty-one people were reported dead: 28 in Gaza and three in Israel. Late into the night, Gazans reported their homes shaking and the sky lighting up with near-constant Israeli strikes. The fighting between Israel and Gazas armed factions was triggered by clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalems al-Aqsa Mosque on Monday. Even before a barrage sent in retaliation for the destruction of the tower block, which contained a civilian Hamas office, Israel reported that 480 rockets had been fired across the border by Palestinian militant groups, sending entire Israeli communities running to air raid shelters. The White House condemned the rocket attacks, and said Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself, but that the primary U.S. focus was on de-escalation. The International Committee of the Red Cross urged all sides to step back, and reminded them of the requirement in international law to try to avoid civilian casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would step up the strength and frequency of strikes on Gaza, an enclave of 2 million people, in response to the rocket attacks. Israel said it had sent 80 jets to bomb Gaza, and dispatched infantry and armour to reinforce the tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of the last Israeli ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks, in 2014. More than 2,100 Gazans were killed in the seven-week war that followed, according to the Gaza health ministry, along with 73 Israelis, and thousands of homes in Gaza were razed. Video footage on Tuesday showed three plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the Gaza block as it toppled over. Electricity in the surrounding area went out. Residents of the block and the surrounding area had been warned to evacuate the area around an hour before the air strike, according to witnesses, and there were no reports of casualties two hours after it collapsed. Shortly after the attack, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad group said they would respond by firing rockets at Tel Aviv. Air raid sirens and explosions were heard around the city, and the skies were lit up by the streaks of multiple interceptor missiles launched towards the incoming rockets. Pedestrians ran for shelter, and diners streamed out of Tel Aviv restaurants while others flattened themselves on pavements as the sirens sounded. The Israel Airports Authority said it had halted take-offs at Tel Aviv airport to allow defence of the nations skies. Video broadcast on Israeli Channel 12 television showed interceptor missiles rising above the runways. We are now carrying out our promise, Hamass armed wing said. The Qassam Brigades are launching their biggest rocket strike against Tel Aviv and its suburbs, with 130 rockets, in response to the enemys targeting of residential towers. Israels Magen David Adom ambulance service said a 50-year-old woman was killed when a rocket hit a building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion, and that two women had been killed in rocket strikes on the southern city of Ashkelon. But the Israeli military said many of the rockets fired from Gaza had fallen short and wounded Palestinians, and that Israels Iron Dome air defences had intercepted the bulk of those that made it across the border. Jerusalem holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians has been tense during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with the threat of a court ruling evicting Palestinians from homes claimed by Jewish settlers adding to the friction. In the last few days that tension has exploded into violence at al-Aqsa Mosque, which stands in what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary, and Jews the Temple Mount. SOURCE: REUTERS The UN Security Council held another emergency meeting Wednesday on worsening hostilities between Israel and Palestinians, again without agreeing on a joint statement due to opposition from the United States, Israels key ally, diplomats said. According to several sources, 14 of the 15 members of the Council were in favor of adopting a joint declaration aimed at reducing tension. However, the United States saw the Security Council meeting as a sufficient show of concern, diplomats told AFP on condition of anonymity, and did not think a statement would help de-escalate the situation. The United States has been actively engaged in diplomacy behind the scenes with all parties, and across the region, to seek to de-escalate the situation. At this stage, a Council statement would be counterproductive, said one source familiar with discussions, also speaking anonymously. In Washington, chief diplomat Antony Blinken announced that a US envoy would travel to the Middle East to seek to calm tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. In a sign of frustration, four Council members from Europe Norway, Estonia, France and Ireland issued a joint statement later Wednesday. We condemn the firing of rockets from Gaza against civilian populations in Israel by Hamas and other militant groups which is totally unacceptable and must stop immediately, the statement said. The large numbers of civilian casualties, including children, from Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, and of Israeli fatalities from rockets launched from Gaza, are both worrying and unacceptable. We call on Israel to cease settlement activities, demolitions and evictions, including in East Jerusalem, they wrote. When asked about the inability of the Council, the body in charge of world peace, to speak out on the Israeli-Palestinian clashes, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed hope for a turnaround soon. Declaring that there was desire for the Council members find the ability to issue a statement, he added that any international situation will always benefit from a strong and unified voice from the Security Council. UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland had warned Wednesdays meeting that the situation has deteriorated since Monday there is a risk of a spiral of violence, according to a diplomatic source. During a first emergency meeting on Monday, the United States also refused to back a text proposed by Tunisia, Norway and China calling on all parties to refrain from provocation. Renewed rocket fire and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns has fuelled growing fears that deadly violence between Israel and Palestinians could descend into full-scale war. The most intense hostilities in seven years have killed at least 65 people in Gaza, including 16 children, and seven in Israel, including a soldier and one Indian national, since Monday. SOURCE: AFP COLONIE What a difference four months can make. In January, more than half the seats on planes leaving Albany International Airport were empty. The terminal was quiet, the parking garages empty and most concessions were closed. April was a different story. The number of passengers surged since then, nearly tripling. Even as airlines added flights and switched to larger aircraft, those increases didn't keep up with demand. Passengers filled more than 80 percent of available seats. Many reported packed planes. "The terminal is getting busier," observed Doug Myers, the long-time airport spokesman. "We're seeing a lot of vacationers and families." For airlines, the news is good. Many had furloughed their employers and put much of their fleets in the equivalent of long-term parking. The spread of vaccines has made the coronavirus less of a threat, and people are feeling safe about flying again. People who haven't flown in more than a year are traveling again. Jean Gagnon, who operates Plaza Travel in Latham, reports customers are flying domestically, visiting Florida, California and other places. Some are going to the Bahamas, she added, even though they're still required to test negatively for Covid-19. And while the European Union plans to admit vaccinated travelers from the U.S. this summer, details haven't yet been worked out. And countries including New Zealand, Australia and Japan aren't any closer to opening their borders to U.S. citizens. Airline capacity hasn't kept up with rising demand. The result is higher fares. One Raleigh, N.C. resident grumbled that the cheapest fare he could find to Albany was more than $600 round trip. Pre-pandemic, that itinerary could cost as little as $98. Rental car prices have also surged. One local resident would rent a car each summer to take on vacation, Gagnon said, typically paying $900 to $1,000 for the two-week rental. This year, the lowest rate was $1,579, and that wasn't even the company he usually uses. That company, Gagnon said, wanted $2,263. Airlines are adding service, but it isn't like throwing a switch. Aircraft that have sat idle for more than a year need to be checked thoroughly, while pilots have to refresh their skills and knowledge of various procedures. JetBlue is among the carriers at Albany increasing capacity, returning to the larger Airbus aircraft it used before downsizing to small regional jets during the lockdown, Myers said. Meanwhile, Amtrak later this month will return to daily service on its long-distance network, including the Lake Shore Limited that serves Boston, Chicago and New York City from Albany. During the pandemic, long-distance trains operated just three days a week. There too, engineers will have to reacquaint themselves with routes they haven't traveled in more than a year. That was one reason given for the delay in restarting Amtrak's Ethan Allen service to Rutland, Vt., and it will likely be required of engineers on the Adirondack services to Montreal. Both services now go no farther north than Albany, although the Ethan Allen will resume operating into Vermont July 19. As for the Adirondack, Canada remains off-limits. There has been no movement to reopen the border with the U.S. to leisure travelers, and officials privately don't expect that to happen until sometime this autumn. Ted's Fish Fry will close its seven locations on Sundays. The reason? It can't find enough workers. Candidates "aren't even coming in," said one manager. "They're giving them all the money to stay home," he said, referring to the $300 supplemental benefits the federal government pays on top of the state's unemployment benefit check. In Lake George, "we've had some restaurants talk about going to five days a week," said Gina Mintzer, who heads the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce. "They lack the staff." The nation's economy is coming back to life after more than a year of lockdown. But some of the hardest hit sectors during the pandemic were leisure and hospitality, and accommodation and food services. In the five-county Albany metro, the number of jobs in the two sectors were down over the year by 19.2 percent and 20.8 percent, respectively, according to state Labor Department figures. Together, they represent the loss of 13,700 jobs locally. Nationwide, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday that there were 8.1 million job openings across the country at the end of March, the highest figure in records going back to December 2000. Early in the pandemic, employers furloughed a large share of the workforce as leisure travel ground to a halt and retail businesses and workplaces closed their doors. There were few jobs to be had, and people who weren't in essential occupations were told to stay home. But with vaccines becoming widely available and business conditions returning to normal, critics say continuing supplemental federal unemployment benefits may be slowing the recovery. U.S. Labor Secretary Martin Walsh, in a conference call Tuesday afternoon with reporters, argued against that notion. "Are businesses saying this $300 prevents them from being successful? Walsh asked. "I don't see it. The President doesn't see it." Walsh said the administration had done much to help restaurants and other businesses. "Most Americans would rather be working," he added. "Any worker in America, if they turn down a suitable job, they can lose their unemployment benefits," Walsh said. A suitable job, he said, would be one that matches a worker's skills and work experience, and provides a safe workplace. "They can't just arbitrarily turn down the work," Walsh added. The state Labor Department agreed. A spokesperson said recipients of unemployment benefits must certify that they must be available to work, they're actively looking, and that they have a search plan. The Labor Department also maintains a database of job openings that currently has more than 152,000 positions. The Jobs Express website may be found at https://statistics.labor.ny.gov/career-zone/jobs-express.shtml Even some of the region's largest employers have struggled to fill positions. Six Flags Great Escape theme park in Queensbury still has a number of openings despite virtual and drive-through job fairs, and weeks of online recruiting. It had 1,500 positions to fill. "(W)e have yet to meet our hiring goal for this season, but with our excellent hiring incentives and easy application process, we hope to be the employer of choice," spokesman Jason Lee said Tuesday. Two drive-through job fairs drew a total of 21 applicants. Six Flags continues to recruit, and applicants can visit sixflagsjobs.com to apply. Lee said Great Escape was looking for job candidates at all experience levels, from college students to senior citizens. Its Work & Travel program, meanwhile, is bringing in 100 students from overseas under the J-1 visa program. But the restaurant business has, perhaps, been hit hardest, first with lengthy shutdowns, then with sharp limits on occupancy and the risks of Covid-19. "The restaurants suffered through the pandemic," the Ted's Fish Fry manager said. "Now, they're suffering because they can't find workers." BETHLEHEM The building at the Vista Technology Campus in Slingerlands where the ShopRite supermarket is located was sold earlier this year to a group of New Jersey investors for $18.5 million. That's about $600,000 less than the previous owner, a New York City real estate firm, paid to acquire the building in 2012 from the builder when the ShopRite first opened its doors. Although the sale of the ShopRite building might raise some alarms, the real estate transaction is pretty common, especially during the pandemic when real estate values in certain areas of the country have done better than others and the habits of shoppers and employers have drastically changed amid government mandates intended to keep COVID-19 infection rates from spiraling out of control. Dr. Rupan Trikha, an ophthalmologist whose practice is located just north of Newark, N.J., leads a group of investors who purchased the ShopRite building in January from affiliates of a New York City real estate firm, AAG Management. Trikha and his investor group purchased the building with the understanding that ShopRite, which has a long-term lease, will continue operating at the Slingerlands location. The Bethlehem Industrial Development Agency, which granted the original developers of the site long-term tax breaks, signed off on the sale last December with the understanding the supermarket would continue operations and the lease would remain in effect. "Everything is going to stay the same," Sarah Lewis Belcher, an attorney representing Trikha's investment group, told the IDA. There was reason for Bethlehem residents to be worried about the sale of the ShopRite building. The Vista Technology Campus, a major economic development initiative of the town more than a decade ago, has been a failure in achieving its mission of attracting technology companies. Instead, there have been only restaurants, banks, retail and doctors offices that have located at the development, located off Route 85. The one tech company that decided to move there was Monolith Solar, a Rensselaer company that started construction of a new headquarters building at Vista but stopped after putting up a steel frame when it ran into financial problems. The steel frame still stands at Vista, an eyesore at the least and a safety concern. Officials with ShopRite did not return a call seeking comment on the Slingerlands store. The roundabout at the back of the Vista business park near where Monolith started constructing its building has since been blocked off to traffic, with Dead End signs installed. Town officials did not immediately respond to questions why the roadway had been blocked. To get people to stop and stare in New York City is a feat. The resilient metropolis and its unflappable citizens have seen it all it seems, where Nothing surprises me here anymore is uttered as a badge of honor. Perhaps until they see Darren Mays suited up in Times Square, vacuuming a swarm of 50,000 bees like its just another day on the job. Because for the Middletown resident, it actually is. Mays is the NYPDs only beekeeper on staff, meaning hes the man in charge when it comes to safely collecting any swarms of honeybees that cluster throughout the five boroughs during the heat of summer. Little did he know that his journey from South Carolina to the Hudson Valley and New England would help define his future role as a beekeeper. Accidentally discovering a passion project, new career Growing up in the South, Mays rode bikes with his brother and came upon an apiary. We rode our bikes through, kicking over the hives as we went I dont even know why we did it, just being a stupid teen. I was scared to get stung and didnt even like honey growing up, only because Id never tasted the real stuff Id just had that garbage in the plastic bear thats not even real, Mays says. It wasnt until he and his wife visited friends in Massachusetts in 2007 that Mays even knew beekeeping was a thing. Their friend, Richard, had recently taken up beekeeping and practically begged the NYPD officer to come out to the yard for a look at his hive. Darren Mays I didn't want to hurt his feelings, so I said, Okay, Ill take a look, recounts Mays. I stood about 40 yards away I swear, I wanted to be so far away from that thing. He inched closer and closer at his friends prodding, eventually finding himself just feet away from Richs buzzing hive. The next thing you know, Im within two feet, kneeling next to the hive for like, an hour, remarks Mays. I didnt even realize he had left me outside by myself or that they were all at the window laughing at me. Im just on one knee, watching these bees, so intrigued by how close I got to them and how they didn't even care. They were working, going out foraging and coming back with either nectar or pollen it was like a busy airport, coming and going, coming and going. That Christmas, Mays wife decided to feed his newfound passion, gifting him a hive kit and a membership to a nearby beekeeping association. Determined to hone his craft, Mays spent a year learning everything he could about beekeeping and picking the brains of other members in the group before finally purchasing some bees through a supplier in Pennsylvania. My first year, I harvested 80 pounds of honey, which is pretty good for a beginner, he says. I thought to myself, this is easy I can actually do this and have fun. Darren Mays His love for honey stuck and, after a lot of hard work, Mays hives were soon producing between 800 and 1,000 pounds of honey a year. Right around the time Mays was hitting his stride, a fellow NYPD officer retired from duty, leaving an open beekeeping position. Mays threw his hat in the ring at the encouragement of a co-worker and soon found himself splitting his time between being a beat cop in the 104th precinct and the NYPDs only beekeeper. (Although he had a partner for a few years, he was once again a one-man team following that officers retirement.) During peak swarm season (April through August), Mays can be tapped for upwards of six to eight calls a week, most of which are due to the uptick in novice beekeepers throughout the city. Beekeeping was outlawed in New York City for the longest time, and they brought it back into effect in 2010, to encourage the honeybee population, explains Mays. When that happened, people started bringing bees onto their rooftops, and we started having swarms. It seems crazy, but [swarms are] really just honeybees' natural habit of reproduction. In the springtime, if a hive starts producing a new queen, the older queen will take off with half the hive and swarm, while the new queen will stay and maintain the other half of the hive. Creating a head-to-head honey taste test Its rare that the swarms of bees ever get reunited with their owners, so unless another city-bound beekeeper comes forward and expresses interest in rehoming the hive, the bees next stop is usually left up to Mays to determine making the Hudson Valley resident their adoptive father of sorts. Darren Mays He typically drives the bees home to his half-acre property in Middletown (We get in my Subaru Outback I love that car crank the air conditioning and we ride, laughs Mays), transporting bees in an enormous Tupperware container. On one especially busy week, Mays couldnt make it out to the Hudson Valley in between back-to-back swarm calls. I had some extra equipment for an additional hive in my car, so I set it up on the roof [of the 104th precinct, in Queens] temporarily, just to empty the bees out of my vacuum, explains Mays. Turns out, those bees were thriving up on the roof, so I just kept them there, and harvested the honey to compare it to what I get in the Hudson Valley. Though both delicious, the difference between the two honeys was noticeable, with the Hudson Valley honey possessing a more complex and well-rounded taste. The Hudson Valley blows everything out of the water, says Mays, who cites the region's diverse plant life as the main reason for the flavorful nuances. Theres just nothing like the taste of honey that comes from the Hudson Valley. It all has to do with the flowers and vegetation in the area theres also a lot of knotweed around here, which produces the good, dark honey that people love. The officer currently bottles and sells his liquid gold to friends, family, and fellow officers in order to help fund his efforts on behalf of the NYPD. The department doesnt provide me with any extra money for my equipment, like my bee vacuum, or hives, explains Mays. Every time you get a swarm, thats a hive and that whole setup is at least $200. So I give the honey to coworkers in exchange for donations to offset the cost of maintaining the rooftop apiary. Though Mays appreciates the newfound interest in beekeeping that the last several years have ushered into New York City and beyond, he stresses the importance of remembering that, when it comes to nurturing one of Earths most necessary creatures, its not a hobby to take lightly. Darren Mays Theres a big trend upwards in terms of the awareness around beekeeping and the importance of bees, which is great, explains Mays. But there are limitations to it a lot of people jump into it and dont really learn the craft. When I joined the association, I joined it almost a year before I got my first package of bees. Its not just about watching a couple of videos on YouTube or something its a craft, and you need to learn the craft before you start. Newcomers dont necessarily care about learning how to sustain a hive. Theyd rather buy packages of bees every year instead of learning how to keep them throughout the winter and keep the health of the hive so that they dont have to buy. Mays will retire in August from the NYPD after a storied 20-year career including such accolades as Cop of the Year in 2019 and a combined swarm of over 8,000 followers on Instagram and Twitter. But Mays isnt slowing down. His second act? Giving the people of the Hudson Valley what they want. After years of being encouraged to sell his honey locally at greenmarkets, hes officially throwing all his energy into AMAYSing Apiaries, the brand hes created, incorporating both his last name and his yes amazing collection of over 100,000 bees in Middletown. He shouldnt expect much hands-on help at home, though. I have three kids, ages 7, 16 and 23 and they want nothing to do with it, laughs Mays. The little one was into it for a while until she got stung, then that was that. Mays insists that he reaps more than just sweet-tasting honey from his hobby-turned-passion. It brings me calmness and meditativeness, he says. If I had a bad day, I come home and this is my zen. It makes me forget everything going on around me. Anyone can change, adds Mays. Ive gone from not liking bees and stomping them out, to loving and caring for bees. I was embarrassed in the beginning to let people know I was beekeeping, but now I enjoy the craft and Im a big advocate for them. Any time the topic of bees comes up, I just beam. -- Alyssa Longobucco is a freelance writer, editor, and interior design enthusiast. She lives in the Hudson Valley, where she's renovating an 1820s colonial alongside her husband and son, Liam. Cheery bodega debuts on North Pearl Street Food Near Me, a vibrantly colorful convenience store with homemade food including breakfast and lunch sandwiches, subs, salads, vegetable juices and fruit smoothies, as well as the only supply of household basics available anywhere in downtown Albany proper since a Walgreens location closed in February, opened May 3 at 87 N. Pearl St. The space, between The Hollow Bar + Kitchen and the former Capital Repertory Theatre, replaces a minimalist convenience store that was open only weekdays during the day for about 20 years and vanished suddenly last year. The new store is owned by Kevin Skeen, who said he relocated from New York City a few years ago and has been working on Food Near Me for the better part of a year. It is his first venture as a proprietor. The shop also has the expected array of snacks and beverages, and Skeen has applied for a beer license. Regular hours, which have yet to be fully implemented, will be 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday to Wednesday, and until midnight Thursday through Saturday, Skeen said. Yet more bagels for Albany A bagel-focused bakery called Nyx that operates from a commercial kitchen in Albany has opened. Its bagels are for sale at the Delmar Farmers Market and for pickup and local delivery. There is no retail storefront. Last month, Pearls Bagels & Bakery began as a home-baking delivery operation prior to its takeout location opening in late summer in Albanys Whitehall neighborhood. Nyx bagels cost $2.50 each for plain, $3 for flavors including everything, black-and-white sesame, cheddar-scallion, super seed and gojuchang black sesame. Nyx, with a tagline of A Scratch Baking Co., also offers muffins ($3-$4), macarons ($2.50) and cookies ($2). Its products are made exclusively with organic flour grown and milled in New York. Pickup is at 553 Clinton Ave.; delivery, within a 10-mile radius, costs $10. Both are available before 11 a.m. Tuesday to Friday. Order via Nyxs website, nyxbaking.com. Nyx will move from the Delmar market to the Washington Park Farmers Market in Albany when it opens in July. It will also have a presence at the Guilderland Farmers Market starting in June. Select products from the bakery are available at the Brewtus Roasting coffee shop, 1038 Madison Ave., Albany. Nyx, named after the Greek goddess of night, is owned by the local chefs Shannon Dowen-Ronda and Caitlin Sive, both trained at SUNY Schenectadys culinary program and with more than a decade of experience in the local restaurant industry. Eat in the Street returns to Cohoes Remsen Street Launched last summer to lure Cohoes Remsen Street dining district patrons who may have been hesitant about eating inside a restaurant, the weekly Eat in the Street promotion returned May 7, starting with more than a dozen restaurants offering expanded outside tables and four others participating with takeout specials. Hours are 4 to 9:30 p.m. Fridays through October, weather permitting. Check out a map of participating restaurants at bit.ly/3w8iFgL. Remsen Street will be closed to vehicle traffic from 3:30 to 10 p.m. Cross streets will remain open to traffic. The response to Eat in the Street has been tremendous. The restaurant owners and their customers love it, Debbie Jacques, executive director of the Cohoes Local Development Corp., who introduced the idea in June 2020, said. What started last summer as an effort to help sustain our restaurants has turned into a festive new tradition in Cohoes. More vendors are expected to be added throughout the summer, Jacques said. Last year, Asra Batool, a gastroenterologist at Albany Medical, had a very different Ramadan. After her Suhoor or pre-dawn meal, she donned a PPE, and went about her day, caring for people through a pandemic, without consuming so much as a drop of water until sunset. Shed go home to break her fast, and what was usually a joyous communal event was reduced to a socially distanced dish left on the doorstep of her home in Latham. This year is different. Muslims across the Capital Region are hoping to restore the holiday to what it was. I would say about 50 to 60%. Although not 100%, said Batool. This year, the prayers have been resumed with COVID precautions, where everyone has to bring their own prayer mat. They all have to wear face masks. And they have to stand six feet apart with social distancing. Haroon Sarwer, president of the board of directors at Masjid As-Salam said that it was difficult to be there for their community over the past year. According to Sarwer, the mosque has a very diverse congregation, many of whom are not from the most privileged backgrounds and did not always have access to online meeting platforms like Zoom. This year has brought some relief to the community. The biggest change that people missed was Iftar, said Sarwer. We used to have 300-400 people every single day. Many of them were just part of the community who would come to the mosque and break the fast. Everybody was looking forward to the month of Ramadan so they could get together, have meals together and all that. Because of COVID, none of that happened. Sarwer said that praying together had always been a source of comfort for their congregation. And this year will still be difficult as children cannot pray at the mosque and having little ones run around them was always a source of joy for the community. But what got them through last year and has done so again, was their faith. People were a little scared under the previous (presidential) administration, said Sarwer. I guess that what also helped me, was sticking to my faith and making sure that they get representation somehow. Jad Moumen, president of the Muslim Students Association at Albany Medical College, found that while last Ramadan was a lot quieter, he could spend more time praying and reading the Quran. I found that the isolation, it gave me more time to focus on myself spiritually, said Moumen. Ramadan is a very social time, people get together all the time. So since we weren't spending time doing that, I was able to focus on myself more, I had more time to pray. So that's not just me, I talked to a lot of people who said that they felt like, last year, Oh, my God, while it was, you know, isolated, it was a very special Ramadan as well. For Aliya Saeed, a psychiatrist based in Niskayuna, last Ramadan brought a different kind of epiphany. As Saeed fasted and prayed in her home, she also realized that coming back together as a society after so much time apart would take its toll. This Ramadan, Saeed acted on her epiphany and is running for the board of education president in Niskayuna. I really feel that there are new challenges that this year brings that may not have been there in the past, she said. And I think it's very important that our institutions, including our schools, are aware of how we can focus on the well-being of our student community. So that is one of the big reasons why this year was the year that I decided to step up and run for the school board. Saeed spent this Ramadan campaigning from door to door, trying her best to bring about the change she wanted. While she campaigned, Saeed made sure to remember to donate. Charity or Zakat, is one of the five pillars of Islam and is especially important during Ramadan. For most, this was reduced to an online donation last year, but many, like Moumen didnt think it was so bad. On the contrary, because usually there are a lot of people that go out and spend a lot of money on big dinners, so some people that were fortunate had money saved from not going out to eat, so they actually have more money to donate, said Moumen. This year, the local community plans to have as good an Eid as they can. According to Sarwer, it was custom for all the mosques in the Capital Region to have one big celebration. This years socially distant ceremony will be a lot smaller. We hug each other and wish each other for Eid. We cant do that this year, he said. But for people like Batool, to not have to fast through the day in a PPE and to celebrate Eid with her family, it will still be a lot. WASHINGTON (AP) For 50 years the Minuteman missile has been armed and ready, day and night, for nuclear war on a moment's notice. It has never been launched into combat from its underground silo, but this year it became the prime target in a wider political battle over the condition and cost of the nation's nuclear arsenal. Minuteman was not intended to last half a century, so it's overdue to be replaced or refurbished. Some see this as a moment to push for scrapping it altogether, abandoning one leg of the traditional nuclear triad weapons that can be launched from land, sea and air. Most in Congress favor keeping the land-based leg by replacing Minuteman with a new missile; President Joe Biden's position is not yet clear. The outcome of the fight likely will steer nuclear policy and strategy for decades to come. It could influence how U.S. allies in Europe and Asia view the reliability of America's nuclear umbrella the security net that has allowed most of them to forgo developing nuclear weapons of their own. Some argue that it could make the difference between war and peace in an era of rising Chinese military power. Navy Adm. Charles Richard, who as head of U.S. Strategic Command is in charge of nuclear warfighting plans, says Minuteman is so old that Air Force technicians have had to perform magic to keep it fully functional while coping with severely limited spares for components such as missile launch switches. I'm afraid there's a point where they won't be able to pull the rabbit out of the hat and the system won't work, he told a House hearing April 21. Asked later by a reporter if he meant Minuteman had become unreliable, Richard said it's safe and dependable for now but with no more margin for delay in replacing it. Stephen Schwartz, a nonresident senior fellow at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, says Richard's statements are reminiscent of alarming claims made during the Cold War about needing new weapons. Time and again, officials have warned us the sky is falling, and it is never true, Schwartz said. "Congress should critically examine the historical record and apply some healthy skepticism to such testimony. Richard applauds a bipartisan push in Congress to preserve and modernize the entire nuclear arsenal at a cost, depending on how you define it, of more than $1 trillion. Opponents include a former defense secretary, William Perry, who has become an outspoken critic of Minuteman. The Pentagon's current leader, Lloyd Austin, has been publicly noncommittal on Minuteman but favors preserving the nuclear triad. The consensus in Congress is that age is eroding the three main pillars of U.S. nuclear strength long-range bomber aircraft like the 1960s-era B-52, submarines armed with Trident ballistic missiles, and the Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. Relatively few oppose building new-generation bombers and submarines. The most contentious debate is over whether, when and how to replace Minuteman. Arguments over Minuteman boil down to this: Given its age and the nuclear challenges posed by Russia and China, should it be phased out in favor of a new-generation ICBM? Or should it be refurbished at lesser cost, to be replaced later? Or should it be phased out, period, with no replacement? The debate reveals a longstanding American divide. On one side is the view that ICBMs are indispensable to the strategy for deterring any adversary from attempting a nuclear attack upon the United States or its allies. A key piece of the argument is that ICBMs in their 400 underground silos in five Great Plains states act as a warhead sink, or sponge, to absorb the first blow in a nuclear war; the argument is that an attacker would need to expend so many weapons destroying these silos that he would see little chance of winning and thus would be deterred from attacking in the first place. The opposing view is that ICBMs are overkill, given the large amount of firepower in the more elusive sea- and air-based segments of the nuclear arsenal, and that ICBMs make nuclear conflict more likely because an American president might feel compelled to launch one upon a warning of attack that turned out to be a false alarm. Once its launched from its silo, an ICBM cannot be recalled. These differences are more stark in light of expected stagnant defense budgets. Among those eager to build a successor to Minuteman, some see political opportunity in its occasional slipups. For example, when a routine flight test was aborted shortly before launch last week, Rep. Don Bacon tweeted that the incident was evidence that Minuteman must be modernized before its too late, although the Air Force has yet to determine what triggered the abort. Bacon is a Republican from Nebraska home to Strategic Command headquarters and to some Minuteman silos. Biden has not publicly addressed the issue. In March the White House released interim national security guidance promising to take steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy but offering no details. As a candidate in 2019, Biden said he believed the nuclear arsenal could be modernized for less than the projected $1 trillion price tag, but was not specific. Some interpreted this as him doubting the need for new ICBMs, but thus far his administration has given no indication of abandoning the plan it inherited to replace Minuteman with a successor dubbed the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, starting in 2029. Last September, Northrop Grumman won a $13.3 billion contract to develop the successor. The estimated cost of fielding the full system is $95 billion, rising to $264 billion counting sustainment costs over the weapon's expected lifetime into the 2070s. Signs of the Biden administration's nuclear path may emerge in the 2022 budget to be presented to Congress soon. The Pentagon also plans a formal review of its nuclear posture, which likely will affirm the need for nuclear modernization but might not decide certain details. Rep. John Garamendi, a California Democrat, is unconvinced by arguments that Minuteman is just too old to undergo a life extension a refurbishment to keep it in service for decades to come. I need a new one, Richard, the Strategic Command chief, retorted in a heated exchange with Garamendi last month. Richard says there is no room for delay. But a new report by the Government Accountability Office suggests delays are almost inevitable. It concluded that every part of nuclear modernization faces the prospect of delays due to limitations in the workforce, infrastructure and supply chain. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-11 21:49:44|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A staff member transfers a batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines at the Phnom Penh International Airport in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, May 11, 2021. A plane carrying a third batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine that Cambodia acquired from Chinese biopharmaceutical company arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua) PHNOM PENH, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A plane carrying a third batch of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine that Cambodia acquired from Chinese biopharmaceutical company arrived in Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, on Tuesday. "The vaccine's arrival today is another testament to the unbreakable iron-clad friendship between our two countries," Cambodia's Health Ministry secretary of state Yok Sambath told reporters while receiving the vaccine at the Phnom Penh International Airport. Sambath expressed her profound thanks to China for providing the vaccine to Cambodia timely, saying that both China's Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are very safe and effective. The Southeast Asian nation has received COVID-19 vaccines from China and the WHO's COVAX Facility. The country launched an anti-COVID-19 inoculation drive on Feb. 10. To date, more than 1.82 million out of the country's 16 million population had been vaccinated against the virus, a government report said. The kingdom logged 480 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, pushing the national case total to 20,223, with 131 deaths and 8,170 recoveries, the Ministry of Health said. Enditem BALLSTON SPA The legal fallout from Saratoga Countys pandemic pay scandal continues. Spencer Hellwig, the former county administrator who was fired in January, filed an Article 78 in Saratoga County Supreme Court on May 6, seeking to restore his position and lost wages. This follows a notice of claim that Hellwigs lawyer filed last month in which he seeks damages as a victim of "gross negligence, slander, libel and defamation," as well as "intentional infliction of emotional distress." Hellwigs lawyer, Michael Koenig, did not respond to a Times Union request for comment on Monday on the new court filings. Board of Supervisors Chair Todd Kusnierz said he could not comment on the specific litigation, but he added, the Board of Supervisors will vigorously defend the taxpayers of Saratoga County on this issue. Hellwig's firing is a result of the pay debacle that was hatched in the early days of the pandemic by Hellwig, county Director of Human Resources Marcy McNamara, then-Board of Supervisor Chair Preston Allen, Greenfield Supervisor Daniel Pemrick and Saratoga Supervisor Tom Wood. The plan was to pay all employees, including managers like Hellwig, time-and-a-half pay for every hour worked during the pandemic. At the time, McNamara told the law and finance committee that "every municipality is doing it" including Saratoga Springs, Greenfield, Malta and Wilton. However, none of those communities paid their workers time-and-a-half for regular hours during the pandemic. In the court filing, Koenig argued that Hellwig was improperly and unlawfully terminated, that prior to the termination, Hellwig had been a faithful and dedicated public servant of the county since 1988, and that his termination had no sound basis in reason or regard to the facts. When Hellwig was replaced in January, it looked like he was solely bearing the brunt of the controversial plan that ended up being scrapped within weeks. Meanwhile, McNamara's position is currently posted on the countys website. The $125,898 a year job, the posting indicates, comes with "excellent benefits." The chosen applicant will be granted a six-year contract. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. McNamara did not respond to a Times Union request for comment on the future of her position. Kusnierz would not comment on if the job posting and McNamara's actions surrounding the pandemic pay are connected. He did say that McNamaras contract, which was also a six-year agreement, will be up in mid-May. He also said McNamara can apply. The HR committee has decided to post the position, Kusnierz said. This is a very important position at the county and the county administrator by local law makes a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors. The committee decided to move forward with an open posting. The reason for the action is the term expires. PARIS (AP) Dead or Alive. The chilling words were scrawled on photos of three police officers in their uniforms posted last month on a wall in a Grenoble suburb, in southwest France. To French police, feeling endangered and disrespected, this is just one more sign of an upsurge in violence targeting them and making it harder to keep France safe. A police officer was shot to death last week on a routine check at a street corner frequented by drug dealers in the historic district of Avignon, a southern tourist mecca. The murder in broad daylight struck a chord among the French, with thousands of people joining police to pay homage Sunday to the 36-year-old officer, Eric Masson, at Avignon police headquarters. At a solemn national tribute Tuesday to the fallen officer, Prime Minister Jean Castex vowed France would not shirk in its fight against dealers, a national priority that has put officers like Masson in harm's way. On orders from President Emmanuel Macron, Masson was posthumously named Chevalier, or knight, of the Legion of Honor, France's highest award. It was the second national homage to a police official in less than two weeks, after the fatal stabbing April 23 of an official inside the entrance of her station in the Paris suburb of Rambouillet by a man authorities say was an Islamic radical. Violence against police has doubled in 20 years, said Thierry Clair, deputy chief of the police union UNSA, adding that verbal insults or spitting arent uncommon. Experts, however, note that more French police were killed in past decades than today, but that police tactics have hardened in recent years, leading to a deficit in confidence amid claims of systemic racism within the police, racial profiling and videos showing apparent abuse and sometimes deadly violence. Still, French law enforcers have been repeatedly targeted in recent months, and some say that anti-police violence has exploded among delinquents, often drug dealers flush with weapons. The two main suspect in Masson's killings both had records linked to drugs. And this has struck a political chord. It's a reality that there is violence in our society and its swelling, and that each day the role of our police is made more difficult by this violence, the president said over the weekend. Security is a perennial issue in elections and with regional elections next month and next year's presidential election, the topic has special traction. The centrist Macron, who is expected to try for a second term, recently made going after drug dealers a priority. Last month, he blasted drug trafficking as the economic matrix of violence in an interview with the conservative-leaning newspaper Le Figaro. To eradicate them by all means has become the mother of battles." While U.S. legislators are working on a sweeping effort to rein in police powers in the wake of George Floyds death in Minnesota last year, France's government has instead been increasing police powers. Britain is following a similar path with a bill to give police more powers to control increasingly disruptive protests. Police chiefs say an outdated law leaves them without sufficient means to cope. The wide-ranging bill has itself triggered protests, including some violent clashes with police amid critics fears the measure would significantly curb freedom of speech and assembly. In France, police regularly fall prey to night ambushes, in Paris suburbs known for crime and drugs, or in the north, including Tourcoing, where Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin served as mayor. This week, violence erupted in the Mediterranean town of Frejus. In a classic scenario, youth throw fireworks and projectiles at police, and even firetrucks arriving to extinguish a garbage can fire, the bait to draw in police. Yet, Sebastian Roche, a sociologist and expert on police, says that police are less at risk of being killed today than they were three decades ago. He said that 30 officers were killed on average per year in the 1980s, compared to about 10 in recent years, figures that don't include gendarmes, a military corps with jobs like police. Another specialist, Laurent Mucchielli, dismissed claims of a major uptick in violence as a political message, fed by the media. Anti-police posters and family snapshots of officers discovered in housing projects are exceptional, Mucchielli said. Both experts agreed that the yellow vest protests that started in 2018 were bad for the image of police, who used brutal tactics to control sometimes anarchic marches by the protesters seeking economic and social justice. Roche digs further back. Over the past 20 years, France progressively, in stages, engaged police in aggressive policies, notably cordoning off suburban housing projects. These techniques diminished confidence in the police. Today, the people who have the most confidence in the police in France are people who never see them intervene, Roche said after analyzing 10 years worth of data by the national statistics agency. The more people see them intervene, the less confidence they have in them," he said. Roche stressed that people dont reject the police. They reject certain tactics. Police unions have found new leverage in the loss of their colleagues to press longstanding demands, including better protection for forces and backup from what police say is a lax judicial system that fails to translate arrests into convictions and firm punishment. Macron has promised 10,000 more officers in the streets by the end of his term and increased the police budget. At a Monday night meeting with unions, the prime minister laid out a series of measures to ensure courts get tough on anyone dishonoring the uniform and a guarantee of 30 years in prison for the killing of a police officer, the same punishment as for terrorists. More worrisome perhaps for police than danger is what Clair, the union official, said is a growing lack of respect. Its above all this notion of respect, Clair said. When you feel the uniform youre wearing doesnt get the respect of the person in front of you and youre constantly considered badly by a part of the population, you say theres a problem. ___ Sylvia Hui contributed to this report from London. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the name of the town is Tourcoing, not Turcoing. BENI, Congo (AP) When Shekinah was working as a nurses aide in northeastern Congo in January 2019, she said, she was offered a job from a World Health Organization doctor at double her salary in exchange for sex. Given the financial difficulties of my family I accepted, said Shekinah, 25, who asked that only her first name be used for fear of repercussions. She said the Canadian doctor, Boubacar Diallo, who often bragged about his connections to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, made the same proposition to several of her friends. When a staffer and three Ebola experts working in Congo informed WHO management about sex abuse concerns regarding Diallo, they were told not to take the matter further, The Associated Press has found. WHO has been facing widespread public allegations of systemic abuse of women by unnamed staffers, to which Tedros declared outrage and emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said, We have no more information than you have. However, an AP investigation has now found that despite its public denial of knowledge, senior WHO management wasn't only informed of alleged sexual misconduct in 2019 but was asked how to handle it. The AP has also for the first time tracked down the names of two doctors accused of sexual misconduct, Diallo and Dr. Jean-Paul Ngandu, both of whom were reported to WHO. Ngandu was accused by a young woman of impregnating her. In a notarized contract obtained by the AP, two WHO staffers, including a manager, signed as witnesses to an agreement for Ngandu to pay the young woman, cover her health costs and buy her land. The deal was made to protect the integrity and reputation of WHO, Ngandu said. When reached by the AP, both Diallo and Ngandu denied wrongdoing. The investigation was based on interviews with dozens of WHO staffers, Ebola officials in Congo, private emails, legal documents and recordings of internal meetings obtained by the AP. Eight top officials privately acknowledged WHO failed to effectively tackle sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak, emails, recordings of internal meetings, legal documents and interviews with dozens of aid workers and WHO staffers show. WHO declined to comment on any specific sex abuse allegations or how they were managed and said it had taken steps to address the problem. We are aware that more work is needed to achieve our vision of emergency operations that serve the vulnerable while protecting them from all forms of abuse, WHO spokeswoman Marcia Poole said in an email. WHO emergencies chief Dr. Michael Ryan acknowledged in internal meetings that sexual abuse problems during the agencys outbreak responses were unlikely to be exceptional. You cant just pin this and say you have one field operation that went badly wrong, he said. This is in some sense the tip of an iceberg. As WHO struggled to control spiraling Ebola cases in Congo in early 2019, emergency operations manager Dr. Michel Yao received an email with the subject line: Private. Chat. We cannot afford to have people tarnishing the sweat and effort of individuals sacrificing themselves thru (sic) inappropriate sexual harassment and bullying, the staffer wrote, saying he was concerned about Diallo. Yao responded that the matter would be handled, but the staffer said his concerns were dismissed. An internal WHO investigation failed to corroborate the charges, but those who complained about Diallo were not interviewed. Diallo was described as a charismatic manager with connections to WHOs senior leaders, including director-general Tedros. On WHOs website, Tedros, Yao and Diallo are pictured smiling and bumping elbows during one of Tedros 14 trips to Congo during the outbreak. Diallo rejected claims of sexual misconduct. I have never offered a woman a job in exchange for sex and I have never sexually harassed a woman in my life, he told the AP. In April 2019, Yao received another email detailing more alleged sexual misconduct, this time about the other doctor the AP tracked down, Ngandu. I hereby inform you that we have a colleague who has impregnated a girl from Beni, outbreak manager Mory Keita wrote to Yao. Keita told Yao a young woman and her aunt had come to Benis Hotel Okapi looking for WHO managers, with two armed police officers. The womans aunt said the young woman had been having an affair with Ngandu and was now pregnant. They asked WHO to cover the cost of the womans medical costs and for money to buy land, given that Dr. Jean-Paul will abandon the girl and she will be obliged to raise her child alone. Keita said he felt that Yao should be informed so that you would give us your directions for how to better manage this problem. One week after the email was sent, Ngandu signed a notarized contract confirming he would pay the young woman $100 a month until her baby was born, cover her pregnancy costs and buy her a plot of land. Keita and Achile Mboko, a WHO human resources staffer, signed as witnesses. Ngandu said he wasn't the father of the baby and the deal was a private matter. He said he agreed to it after his WHO colleagues, including Keita, advised me to settle out of court to avoid sullying the reputation of the organization and myself. The young woman declined to talk to the AP. It is unclear if Yao reported the abuse allegations to his superiors, as required by WHO protocol. He has since been promoted to be director of WHO Genevas Strategic Health Operations Department. On Oct. 15, Tedros appointed an independent panel to investigate sex abuse during the Ebola outbreak in Congo; no findings are expected until the end of August. At a town hall meeting in November, Ryan acknowledged sex abuse issues had been neglected for years. Many WHO staffers, especially women, were unconvinced. This is not good enough, said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHOs technical lead on COVID-19, at the same meeting. We know in every situation we go in, were at risk. Back in Congo, Shekinah said she couldnt count how many times she had slept with WHOs Diallo after accepting a job for which she was not qualified. I wanted to quit. But because of my financial problems, I endured it, she said. Even after they separated, Shekinah said he continued to message her, asking her to send him nude pictures. Diallo should be punished for his sexual abuse of all those girls in Beni as a lesson to these international organizations that this should not happen again, she said. I would like justice to be done. ___ Maria Cheng reported from London. Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report. WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik is positioned to move into the third spot in House Republican leadership after GOP representatives voted Wednesday to strip U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of her conference chair post. Cheney's ouster was done through a voice vote just after 9 a.m. In a letter to the House Republican Conference released Wednesday morning, Stefanik took aim at President Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. "Despite the media's endless attempts to divide us, our members are united in our laser focus on defeating the radical Socialist Democrat agenda of President Biden and Speaker Pelosi," Stefanik wrote. "Our members believe that the stakes are far too high for us to be divided. We stand shoulder to shoulder in believing that we have a historic opportunity to work as a team to win back the majority in 2022 on behalf of the American people and save our great country." Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, has received endorsements from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., former President Donald J. Trump and other key Republicans in her bid to succeed Cheney in the role. The vote to hand Stefanik the job may come later this week, depending on the ongoing discussions between the GOP leadership and members, sources told the Times Union. In a statement released just after the conference vote, Trump called Cheney "a bitter, horrible human being. ... She has no personality or anything good having to do with politics or our Country. ... I look forward to soon watching her as a Paid Contributor on CNN or MSDNC!" For Stefanik, her ascension to GOP conference chair would place an exclamation point on her meteoric rise among Republicans over the past year and a half. But Stefanik's pursuit of the leadership post may not be without competition. Politico, citing multiple Republican sources, reported Wednesday that Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the Freedom Caucus that Stefanik had met with Tuesday, is considering a bid for the post. Asked about the Freedom Caucus earlier Tuesday, Stefanik said: "We have a great deal of support from the Freedom Caucus and others. In seeking the position, Stefanik has said that if she is selected by her Republican colleagues, she will hold the chairmanship for one term with the objective of propelling the party into the House majority in 2022. Beyond that, the congresswoman has publicly stated that she hopes to lead the House Education and Labor Committee. Stefanik said her intention is to bring the party together and embracing Trump and his supporters are key to doing that. That path has contrasted with Cheney's strategy: She voted to impeach Trump and has blasted his false claims of widespread 2020 election fraud. But Cheney's rejecti0n of Trump has weakened her support in the conference. "We know that the American people overwhelmingly reject the radical Democrats' Socialist agenda, but we need to ensure they are hearing our unified conservative vision on the issues that matter to them. Our communications posture must be to go on aggressive offense every single day to break through the biased media," Stefanik said in her letter to the House GOP Conference. "Our members should be provided key messaging points to fight back against the far-left media narrative on the issues most important to our constituents. A unified leadership team is the key foundation as we work to regain the majority." Over the past few years, the 36-year-old congresswoman has rebranded herself from a moderate Republican with an independent streak and willingness to criticize Trump to one of the former president's most stalwart supporters. When she was sworn into Congress in 2015, Stefanik became the youngest woman elected to the body at that time. Stefanik initially supported former Ohio Gov. John Kasich for president in 2016. After Trump's election, she broke with the president and their party on several issues, including blasting Trump's ban on migrants from specified Muslim counties. She also voted against the 2017 Republican-backed tax law and the party's 2018 immigration bill. But two years ago, Stefanik clashed with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and defended Trump during the House Intelligence Committee hearings for the president's impeachment inquiry. The exchanges vaulted Stefanik into a national spotlight, prompting Trump to call her a "rising star," while flooding her campaign coffers and that of her Democratic opponent with campaign dollars. She joined Trump's impeachment defense team, spoke in support of his reelection at last year's Republican National Convention and voted against impeaching Trump for his actions surrounding the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol. Unlike Cheney, she's also raised questions about election fraud and voting procedures in the 2020 election and voted against certifying the results. Throughout her time in Congress, Stefanik has distinguished herself with sharp messaging and a spirited campaign style. "She is a millennial woman who comes from a small business family in rural upstate New York, earned a degree from Harvard and has shrewdly navigated the choppy waters of both Washington and New York politics," state GOP Chairman Nick Langworthy said in a column endorsing her Tuesday. "She is an effective communicator and the battle-tested leader we need as we face the greatest fight of my lifetime: stopping the radical left from transforming America." A key to her ascent toward conference chair, Stefanik's leadership political action committee has helped other Republican women get elected to Congress by fueling their primary campaigns with funding and offering mentoring. Her work is credited with helping a record 26 Republican women get elected to the House last year far shy of the female Democrats in the House but double what Republicans had previously. Since then, she's continued to support Republican women in special and contested elections. Some of these congresswomen like U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-New Hartford have endorsed her for GOP conference chair and are marshaling support. Stefanik has been working the phones, calling and texting her colleagues to secure the GOP conference job, sources said. With key endorsements and no others positioned to succeed Cheney, she is widely expected to get the position. The few holdouts appear to be members of the House Freedom Caucus, ultra-conservatives, some of whom have raised concerns about Stefanik's voting record and others who worry about her ignoring their group. Freshman firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, said Monday: "Currently, we only have one member running for chair. I want a break before we vote on a replacement. Options are good and so are conservative votes." Punchbowl News reported other members have grumbled about the quick coronation of Stefanik. Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Stefanik was the youngest person sworn in to Congress when she took her seat in 2015; she was the youngest woman. ALBANY State-run pools and beaches can open with social distancing rules in place over Memorial Day weekend, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Wednesday. His goal is for them to reach full capacity by the Fourth of July. Private pools and beaches, and those run by local governments, opened last year under guidelines set by the state health department. Cuomo delivered his Wednesday COVID-19 briefing in Buffalo and reported that rate of coronvirus infections continues to decline, with a rate of 1.1 percent during the most recent 24-hour period. The Capital Region seven-day average is slightly higher, coming in at 1.42 percent. More than half of the state's population has been fully vaccinated, he added, while 60 percent of adults have received at least one shot. Cuomo has said he has avoided picking dates for the removal of all COVID-19 restrictions because the future spread of the virus is too difficult to forecast, but he said based on the current month-long trend of declining numbers, he expects pools and beaches to be able to host full capacity crowds by July 4. The Toronto Blue Jays, which will be playing their home games at Sahlen Field in Buffalo starting June 1, will host half their fans in full-capacity vaccinated sections and half in limited-capacity unvaccinated sections, Cuomo said. He said stadiums and other businesses may decide to reserve increasing portions of their seating for vaccinated people in order to make more money, creating a greater incentive for people to get vaccinated. The Blue Jays will be vaccinating fans on site, he said, and fans will then receive free tickets in the summer of 2022 to a Buffalo Bisons game, the minor league team that calls Sahlen field home in normal years. ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) America's commercial casinos matched their best quarter ever in the first three months of this year, as customers continued returning amid the COVID-19 pandemic and internet and sports betting money helped boost revenue numbers. Figures released Tuesday by the American Gaming Association, the casino industry's national trade group, show the nation's commercial casinos took in over $11.1 billion in the first quarter of this year. That matched the industry's best quarter in history, the third quarter of 2019. The figures do not include tribal casinos. And March was a particularly good month: 12 states reported their highest-ever levels of monthly gambling revenue. The 2021 first-quarter revenue numbers represented a nearly 18% increase over the first quarter of 2020, when the pandemic began to take hold nationwide, and an increase of more than 4% from the first quarter of 2019, before the pandemic began. The numbers were even more heartening to industry executives because they came while most casinos were still operating under capacity restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus. Todays report shows gamings comeback is ahead of schedule, said Bill Miller, the association's president and CEO. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our industry has faced numerous challenges head-on while still reopening responsibly and providing a safe, exciting environment for customers. The gaming industry is generating these impressive results with one hand tied behind our back as capacity and amenity restrictions remain across the country. Some state-mandated closures remained in effect in the first quarter of this year. Casinos in Pennsylvania and Illinois were allowed to reopen from a second mandated shutdown on January 4 and January 16, respectively. In early March, New Mexico became the last commercial gaming market to resume operations after having been shuttered for just under a year. Fourteen out of the 25 commercial casino states home to more than 75% of the nation's commercial casinos limited casino occupancy to below 50% during the quarter. One of the few places where commercial casinos were operating at full capacity in the first quarter was South Dakota. It was the first commercial casino state to reopen last year, on May 7, 2020. Terry Glebocki, CEO of the Ocean Casino Resort in Atlantic City, said customer volumes at her property have been increasing this year, due in part to a multimillion-dollar reinvestment the casino is making. But there is another factor at play, she said. I do think we're seeing more and more people feeling more comfortable coming out to casinos, she said. There's a ton of pent-up demand out there. People want to go out and have fun, and that's what you do at a casino. Callie Driehorst, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts International, said things are looking up. Weve seen significant progress since the start of the year in COVID trends, vaccinations, consumer sentiment, and state-by-state operating restrictions, she said. Its been exciting to see our domestic business improve significantly, and to play a role in the industrys recovery. As business trends continue to improve, well continue to position our business for long-term, sustainable growth." Traditional brick-and-mortar casino games generated 90% of their first-quarter 2019 revenue. March was particularly strong, with revenue from slots and table games coming within 1% of March 2019 totals. Sports betting revenue set a new quarterly record this year at $961 million, up 270% from a year earlier, and surpassing 2019s full-year total of $909 million. Helped by the successful opening of online casinos in Michigan, internet gambling generated $784 million nationwide in the first quarter of this year, more than three times the amount from a year ago. In March, a dozen states set monthly gambling revenue records: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Virginia. ___ Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this story. Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC New guidance from the World Health Organization is calling for the sale of wild animals to be suspended in live animal markets to help prevent emerging infectious disease outbreaks. Many people, however, dont realize that the danger is not limited to Chinas markets or to contact with bats and civets. There is potentially greater danger right under our noses here in New York, where more than 80 live animal markets which slaughter chickens and other animals are in operation. A year ago, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of wet markets in China, It just boggles my mind that when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface that we dont just shut it down. In April 2020, a bipartisan group of 66 members of Congress, including New York's John Katko, sent a letter to WHO, the United Nations, and the World Organization for Animal Health calling for the closure of live animal markets. It stated, As this pandemic continues to threaten the lives of millions, pushes healthcare systems to the breaking point, and devastates economies around the world, it is imperative that we all take action as a global community to protect public health. Last spring, the New York Legislature introduced a bill that would eliminate live animal markets in the state. In the meantime, New York extended a law that prohibits New York City from issuing new licenses to operate live poultry markets and slaughterhouses within 1,500 feet of residential buildings for the next four years. The law, passed in 2016, describes the potential health threats not just from viruses, but from respiratory hazards for those who live near the markets: Often, markets failed to properly dispose of animal entrails, which created undesirable conditions in the streets and on the sidewalks of the city. Floating feathers clogged sewer drains and air conditioning/heating ducts and presented asthma, allergy and respiratory hazards. Lack of monitoring [by state and city inspectors] became especially frightening in light of Mad Cow disease and recent outbreaks of avian influenza (bird flu). Avian viruses have been the source of many of the last centurys pandemics. The 1918 flu pandemic originated in birds and killed more people than the First World War. It mutated with another strain of bird flu to cause the 1957 pandemic, which killed two to four million people (eight times the normal annual flu death rate). That strain mutated with yet another strain of bird flu to cause the 1968 flu pandemic, which killed one million people. Perhaps the most terrifying potential pandemic currently being tracked by epidemiologists is the H5N1 influenza, which raced through U.S. poultry flocks multiple times in the 1990s and early 2000s, leading to massive culls. Thankfully there have been only a small number of human fatalities because unlike COVID-19, the H5N1 virus does not transmit easily from person to person. Nonetheless, nearly two-thirds of people who have caught H5N1 have died of it. In the words of Albertus Osterhaus, one of Europe's top virologists, If this [H5N1 bird flu] adapts to humans, it could be really bad. Civilization ending. And yet live animal markets in New York, where poultry is the main commodity, continue to operate. Passing New Yorks bill A3629/S3182 is a critical first step not only in protecting New Yorkers from the risks posed by live animal markets, but toward reducing the risk of another global pandemic. As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, swift passage of this measure should become a priority for the state. Dr. Ted D. Barnett is the founder and chief executive officer of the Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Group in Rochester. THE STAKES: New York must start regular inspections designed to keep sewage out of a lake that is one of the states natural jewels. THE ISSUE: Algal blooms in Lake George are linked to leaking septic systems, which are not inspected by any state agency. ---- Tests by the Lake George Association have found measurable levels of caffeine and Splenda in the lake. When a body of water starts taking on characteristics of a morning cup of coffee, its a telltale sign human waste is finding its way into Lake Georges supposedly pristine waters. The apparent culprit is most likely leaking septic systems. And it isnt the only sign: Recent algal blooms in some parts of the lake the first anyone can recall seeing point to the same culprit and suggest a significant problem. But as Ry Rivard of the Adirondack Explorer wrote for the Times Union, the roughly 6,000 septic systems along the lake are not tested or monitored by the state. Environmental advocates and many homeowners would like that to change, and rightly so. The push for more monitoring is hardly new or revolutionary. In fact, state lawmakers beefed up the Lake George Park Commission way back in the 1980s and tasked it with monitoring to keep sewage from the lake. Yet today, the commission doesnt have a single person charged with regulating wastewater. And its not as if the commission isnt aware of this duty. As Queensbury Supervisor John Strough pointed out in a recent commentary , it even has a page on its web site for wastewater regulations. The page, however, is blank. Thats inexcusable, as is the states apparent reluctance to take action despite algal blooms that could potentially pose risks for human health. To be clear: No state agency ensures that Lake George septic systems are functioning correctly. The town of Queensbury has, to its credit, stepped into this void by requiring the inspection of septic systems when properties are sold. The results are telling: Roughly 80 percent of inspected systems are found to require some level of repair, proving the need for lake-wide monitoring and showing why the states inaction is so confounding. Routine septic inspections are mandatory on Keuka, Otsego and Cayuga lakes, to name just a few examples from around the state. To protect its water supply, New York City even provides financial assistance to help property owners in the Catskills upgrade septic systems. And yet somehow, no similar protection exists for Lake George. That must change. Objections to septic monitoring usually center on the costs involved, particularly for homeowners whose systems are found to be failing. The concern is understandable, given that new systems can cost around $30,000. But the cost of fixing problems cant be a reason to ignore them. Not when the cost of inaction is so great to the property values of those who maintain their septic systems and those who dont, to tourism, and to the North Country economy. And, most significantly, to the health of the lake and all the people who live on, swim in, and draw drinking water from it. Lake George is, after all, a public resource, and private landowners along its shores have a special obligation to protect its water for everyone. The state of New York does, too. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-11 22:51:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan speaks at a meeting on the college development work held in Beijing, May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) BEIJING, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Sun Chunlan on Tuesday called for efforts to foster a strong workforce of college teachers and develop world-class universities. Sun, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks when addressing a meeting on the college development work. During the country's 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the key to developing a high-quality education system lies in fostering a strong workforce of teachers, Sun said. She urged colleges and universities to provide better scientific research facilities, improve evaluation systems for teachers and reduce the unnecessary burdens placed upon them. Tammy Bible, who owns The Olive Vault with her husband David, serves a fresh salad to guests on the A Bite of History Tour recently. The Olive Vault was one of seven establishments visited on the tour, although the stops do change. Federal prosecutors say an employee of a Department of Defense contractor and another man have been arrested on suspicion of participating in a scheme to steal and sell sensitive Air Force technical data A former Kentucky detective has been sentenced to a year in prison for his role in the wrongful convictions of two men, one of whom spent nearly a decade behind bars before being exonerated Republicans who control Michigans Senate have begun approving a $66.4 billion budget that would spend 5% more than in the current year, thanks to an influx of federal funding, but about $728 million less than what is proposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer [May 12, 2021] Acrisure Backs 'Arts Marketplace' to Support Women and Minority-Owned Artisans Acrisure, a top-10 global insurance broker and fintech services provider, today announced it has become a platinum sponsor of the Arts Marketplace at Studio Park, a platform for women and minority-owned makers and artisans in the heart of downtown Grand Rapids. The Company's commitment will directly support entrepreneurs in West Michigan, particularly groups who face greater economic challenges in starting a business. The announcement follows the launch of Evolution Advisors, Acrisure's joint venture focused on the insurance and financial product needs of minority-owned businesses and diverse communities. Additionally, Acrisure is finalizing a new headquarters in the Studio Park complex, which they hope to occupy in the coming months as pandemic and safety trends improve. "Acrisure is proud to continue our alignment with and support of diverse business owners by partnering with the Arts Marketplace and its goal of empowering women and minority artisans. As we prepare to move into our new Grand Rapids headquarters, we're excited to support our neighbors and help power this diverse aspect of the local economy," said Greg Willams, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Acrisure. The Arts Marketplace at Studio Park features products made by over 50 diverse, independent makers from the greater Grand Rapids area. Studio C, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. and the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce opened the Arts Marketplace at Studio Park in December 2020 anchored by Pack Elephant, a values-driven gifting platform. "We couldn't be more grateful and energized by the generosity and support of Acrisure. The Arts Marketplace at Studio Park is a nonprofit that exists to remove barriers and provide resources that empower women and minority-owned makers to thrive and succeed in the heart of our city, all while creating a bold, unique new retail destination downtown," said Jamie Dionne, Board President of the Arts Marketplace. "Together, we are truly making downtown Grand Rapids a more vibrant, inclusive place for all. We are proud and honored for the support of Acrisure and look forward to continuing this meaningful work in our community." Acrisure is deeply committed to West Michigan, local philanthropic causes and broader social issues. In 2020, the Company pledged $15 million to form the virtual Acrisure Center for Innovation in Children's Health at the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital. Additionally, the consolidation of Acrisure's West Michigan footprint to the new downtown Grand Rapids location will bring hundreds of jobs as the Company continues to grow. About Acrisure As one of the world's top 10 insurance brokerages and the fastest growing in the world, Acrisure provides a broad array of insurance and financial related solutions, including commercial property and casualty, personal lines and employee benefits insurance and Asset Management products and services. Find out more at www.acrisure.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005192/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-11 23:17:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows the archeological site of stone tombs on a mountain area in province of Sohag, Egypt. An Egyptian archeological mission discovered 250 stone tombs that dated back to different periods in the Old Kingdom and the Ptolemaic dynasty, the country's Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism said on Tuesday. (Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities/Handout via Xinhua) CAIRO, May 11 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian archeological mission discovered 250 stone tombs that dated back to different periods in the Old Kingdom and the Ptolemaic dynasty, the country's Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism said on Tuesday. "The tombs were found in the mountain area eastern the Upper Egyptian province of Sohag," said Mostafa Waziri, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). He explained that the tombs of the Old Kingdom spanning from 2700-2200 BC are composed of an entrance leading to a well and a burial room. The SCA's chairman added that hieroglyphic symbols and photos of the dead people and persons who presented sacrifices were inscribed on the tombs. Several small yellow-painted potteries, mirrors, remains of human and animal bones, and limestones that carried ritual words were also found, he said. The discovery is part of a project that has documented so far 300 tombs in Sohag, he added. Enditem [May 12, 2021] Agriculture Analytics Market Worth $2.27 billion by 2027, Growing at a CAGR of 17.5% From 2020 - Exclusive Report by Meticulous Research REDDING, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a new market research report "Agriculture Analytics Market by Component (Solutions, Services), Application (Farm, Livestock, Aquaculture, and Others), Deployment (Cloud, On-premise), Farm Size (Small and Medium-sized Farms, Large Farms), and Region - Forecast to 2027", published by Meticulous Research, the agriculture analytics market is expected to reach $2.27 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 17.5% during the forecast period of 2020 to 2027. Download Free Sample Report Now @ https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5132 The rise in population with an increase in demand for high-quality food products is a major factor influencing the growth of the agriculture analytics market. Moreover, the growing adoption of smart technologies to enable precision agriculture and increasing AI and predictive analytics to improve the yield offer significant growth opportunities for agriculture analytics market players. However, the fragmented agriculture industry and heavy capital investment are expected to restrict this market's growth to some extent. On the other hand, lack of technical know-how among farmers and lack of standardization for data management and data aggregation in the agriculture industry are the key challenges of this market. The increasing number of start-up companies in the agro-tech industry is the major trend observed in the agriculture analytics market. Based on component, the agriculture analytics market is broadly segmented into software and services. In 2020, the software segment accounted for the largest share of the overall agriculture analytics market. This segment's large share is mainly attributed to the growing demand for high-quality food products that enable farmers to solve new type of challenges with modern analytics techniques and approach traditional problems in modern ways. Based on application, the agriculture analytics market is segmented into farm analytics, livestock analytics, aquaculture analytics, and other applications. In 2020, the farm analytics segment accounted for the largest share of the overall agriculture analytics market. This segment's growth is primarily accredited to farmers' growing traction on precision agriculture, enabling them to use modern technology for numerous agricultural applications. However, the livestock analytics segment is projected to witness the highest growth rate over the forecast period. Demand for livestock products is witnessing a consistent surge. This is putting tremendous pressure to derive output of limited livestock. Speak to our Analysts to Understand the Impact of COVID-19 on Your Business: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/cp_id=5132 Based on deployment type, the agriculture analytics market is segmented into on-premise and cloud-based. In 2020, the cloud-based segment commanded the largest share of the overall agriculture analytics market. This is primarily attributed to easy accessibility, less maintenance, affordable pricing, and reliable security provided by cloud-based solutions. Based on farm size, the agriculture analytics market is segmented into small and medium-sized farms and large-sized farms. In 2020, the large-sized farms segment accounted for the largest share of the overall agriculture analytics market. The large share of this segment is mainly attributed to the increasing spending on data-driven technologies to optimize productivity. However, the small-sized farms segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR over the forecast period. Shrinkage of arable lands and convergence of large-sized farms into small-sized farms are the major factors driving agricultural analytics growth. Furthermore, growing awareness about the government's analytics and subsidies for the agricultur sector's digitalization also helps the small-sized farm segment. Quick Buy Agriculture Analytics Market Research Report: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/Checkout/55188858 Based on geography, the global agriculture analytics market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. In 2020, North America accounted for the largest share of the global agriculture analytics market. The market growth in North America is majorly attributed to the rising demand for quality food and shrinking arable land, followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. However, Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period. The rapid growth of this region is mainly driven by rapidly developing economies, rising disposable incomes, rapid infrastructure development, growing proliferation of cloud computing and smartphones, rising number of government initiatives, and the growing sense of responsibility towards the environment. Some of the leading companies operating in the global agriculture analytics market are from the core technology background. These include Deere and Company (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), and Bayer AG (Germany), among others. These companies lead the market due to their strong brand recognition, diverse product portfolio, strong distribution & sales network, and strong organic & inorganic growth strategies. Some of the prominent players operating in the agriculture analytics market are Accenture plc. (Ireland), AgEagle Aerial Systems (U.S.), Agrivi (U.K.), AgVue Technologies (U.S.), aWhere, Inc. (U.S.), Conservis Corporation (U.S.), Deere & Company (U.S.), DeLaval Inc. (Switzerland), DTN (U.S.), Farmer's Business Network, Inc. (U.S.), Farmers Edge Inc. (Canada), GEOSYS, Inc. (U.S.), IBM Corporation (U.S.), Iteris Inc. (U.S.), Bayer AG (Germany), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), and Trimble Inc. (U.S.) among others. To gain more insights into the market with a detailed table of content and figures, click here: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/agriculture-analytics-market-5132 Scope of the report: Agriculture Analytics Market, by Component Solutions Services Managed Services Professional Services Integration and implementation Support and Maintenance Consulting Training and Education Agriculture Analytics Market, by Application Farm analytics Planning Field Mapping Crop Scouting Weather Data Analytics Soil Moisture Analysis Farm Production Irrigation and Water Management Fertilizer Management Crop Growth and Health Farm Labor Management Post-harvest activities Storage Processing Transport Market Access Livestock Analytics Feeding Management Heat Stress & Fertility Management Milk Harvesting Behavior Monitoring and Management Others Aquaculture Analytics Fish Tracking and Fleet Navigation Feed Management Water Quality Management Others Others Agriculture Analytics Market, by Deployment Type Cloud On-Premises Agriculture Analytics Market, by Farm Size Small & Medium-sized farms Large-sized farms Agriculture Analytics Market, by Region North America U.S. Canada Europe Germany U.K. France Italy Spain Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific Japan China India South Korea Rest of Asia-Pacific Latin America Middle East and Africa and UAE South Africa Rest of MEA Download Free Sample Report Now @ https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5132 Amidst this crisis, Meticulous Research is continuously assessing the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on various sub-markets and enables global organizations to strategize for the post-COVID-19 world and sustain their growth. Let us know if you would like to assess the impact of COVID-19 on any industry here- https://www.meticulousresearch.com/custom-research Related Reports- Agriculture IoT Market by Component (Hardware, Software, Services), by Application (Precision Farming, Smart Greenhouse, Livestock Monitoring, Smart Irrigation, Other Applications), and Region - Global Forecast to 2027 https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/agriculture-iot-market-5080 Agriculture Drone Market by Product (Hardware (Rotary Blade, Fixed Wing, Hybrid), Software), Application (Precision Agriculture, Livestock Monitoring, Smart Greenhouse, Irrigation, Precision Fish Farming), and Geography - Global Forecast to 2025 https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/agriculture-drone-market-4986 About Meticulous Research Meticulous Research was founded in 2010 and incorporated as Meticulous Market Research Pvt. Ltd. in 2013 as a private limited company under the Companies Act, 1956. Since its incorporation, the company has become the leading provider of premium market intelligence in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. The name of our company defines our services, strengths, and values. Since the inception, we have only thrived to research, analyze, and present the critical market data with great attention to details. With the meticulous primary and secondary research techniques, we have built strong capabilities in data collection, interpretation, and analysis of data including qualitative and quantitative research with the finest team of analysts. We design our meticulously analyzed intelligent and value-driven syndicate market research reports, custom studies, quick turnaround research, and consulting solutions to address business challenges of sustainable growth. Contact: Mr. Khushal Bombe Meticulous Market Research Inc. 1267 Willis St, Ste 200 Redding, California, 96001, U.S. USA: +1-646-781-8004 Europe : +44-203-868-8738 APAC: +91 744-7780008 Email- sales@meticulousresearch.com Visit Our Website: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/ Connect with us on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/meticulous-research Content Source: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/pressrelease/40/agriculture-analytics-market-2027 Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1213534/Meticulous_Research_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Amber Kegley & Erin Rudy Named CRN's 2021 Women of the Channel WESTLAKE, Ohio, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TRG, the leading solutions provider focused on enterprise mobility, point of sale and payments, is pleased to announce that CRN, a brand of The Channel Company, has named Amber Kegley, Director of Sales Operations & Vendor Management, and Erin Rudy, Director of Marketing, to the highly respected Women of the Channel list for 2021. The women honored on this year's list pushed forward with comprehensive business plans, marketing initiatives and other innovative ideas to support their partners and customers, helping them through the uncertainty brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic. CRN celebrates these exceptional women for their leadership, dedication and channel advocacy. At TRG, Kegley manages vendor programs and increases internal and external visibility of all things TRG/channel related. In her role, she oversees strategic engagement initiatives, implements go-to marketing strategies, develops value-adde service opportunities and executes internal and external growth initiatives. In 2020, Kegley's efforts contributed to and supported triple digit year-over-year growth in hardware sales and significant increases in vendor incentive revenue, despite the challenges brought on by the pandemic. In her role, Rudy oversees all branding, communications, public relations, events and advertising initiatives for TRG. Over the last 12 months, her team has been instrumental in supporting, announcing and building momentum from several transformational projects, including a new website, brand refresh, facility launch, service expansion, partner/vendor marketing program and overall digital marketing overhaul. In 2020, these efforts led to numerous business opportunities from both new prospects and existing customers who had little appreciation for the evolution of TRG, the breadth of our capabilities and the ways in which we can help their operations. To learn more about TRG and their full range of lifecycle management services, visit www.trgsolutions.com. About TRG TRG is a global managed solutions provider focused on enterprise mobility, point of sale and payments. With facilities across the United States, Canada and Europe, we provide the most comprehensive suite of lifecycle management services from warehouse to boardroom and deployment to retirement. Our mission is to Make Technology Simple, helping customers accelerate projects, drive application success, improve employee & customer experience and maximize ROI. We're relentless in our drive to find innovative, effective ways to enhance customer operations and challenge conventional thinking along the way. Learn more about why The Difference is Us at www.trgsolutions.com. About The Channel Company The Channel Company enables breakthrough IT channel performance with our dominant media, engaging events, expert consulting and education, and innovative marketing services and platforms. As the channel catalyst, we connect and empower technology suppliers, solution providers, and end users. Backed by more than 30 years of unequalled channel experience, we draw from our deep knowledge to envision innovative new solutions for ever-evolving challenges in the technology marketplace. www.thechannelcompany.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amber-kegley--erin-rudy-named-crns-2021-women-of-the-channel-301290194.html SOURCE TRG [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Anatha Founder and CEO Edward DeLeon Launches Master Class "Cryptocurrency: What It Is and How It Will Change Everything" SHERIDAN, WYOMING, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (via Blockchain Wire) - Anatha (anatha.io), a ethos-driven technology company founded by Apple, Adobe, Visa, and JP Morgan alumni building decentralized applications with native digital rewards enabling a regenerative economy, today announced the release of the first-of-its-kind master class led by founder, CEO, and crypto innovator, Edward DeLeon. In this free, on-demand, 16 episode master class, titled Cryptocurrency: What It Is and How It Will Change Everything, DeLeon shares his expertise as one of the industrys earliest adopters and educators, giving viewers unique insights into Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, how these concepts have changed the world, and will solve the inefficiencies of the current economic systems. It's important to understand that we're in the infancy of the entire cryptocurrency, non-national digital money sector. Over the decade of that infancy, we've learned a lot of things. Mostly we learned how to do things the wrong way, and now we're going to learn how to do them he right way, said DeLeon. We'll also explore the state of the industry as it is today, which includes all of the major cryptocurrencies. Once we understand where the industry is at, we can start to understand where it's going and where we would like to go. In addition to being the founder and CEO of Anatha, DeLeon is a Honolulu-based visionary who helped bring Hawaii its first Bitcoin ATM and a more comprehensive understanding of the topics of technology, blockchain, and cryptocurrency. Due to the success of his early educational classes on these topics, Edward DeLeon received his certification as a blockchain professional and began leading larger gatherings that drew in countless attendees. Cryptocurrency is the most important invention of our lifetimes. It's so important, in fact, that it is going to have a larger impact on our lives and our future lives more than anything else you've ever seen. It's essentially the internet of money. As big as the impact the internet has had, cryptocurrency and non-national digital money are going to dwarf the impact that the internet has had, said DeLeon. A graduate of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, DeLeon is also working on a book on the subject of blockchain technology called The Information Age of Abundance, where he is able to explain in broader terms what he teaches in his classes. Please visit anatha.io/whycrypto to view DeLeons free master class. About Anatha Anatha (anatha.io) is an ethos-driven decentralized technology company founded by Apple, Adobe, Visa, and JP Morgan alumni dedicated to building the Crypto for the 100%, an information-based, bottom-up regenerative Universal Basic Income (UBI). Anatha designs and builds decentralized economic systems and tools that put human needs first by helping groups, organizations, and causes deploy their own decentralized economies and tools to meet the needs of their communities. The value generated by the Anatha network is returned to the community through a global rewards program where every individual action contributes to elevating the economic standing of all participants, helping to elevate everyone above the global poverty line. Media Contact: Transform Group, Anatha@transformgroup.com Company Contact: human@anatha.io [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Atlantic Broadband Connects Households in Need Through Emergency Broadband Benefit Program Atlantic Broadband, the eighth-largest cable operator in the U.S., will provide broadband connectivity at discounted prices for financially struggling households through the Federal Communications Commission's Emergency Broadband Benefit Program. Under the program starting today, Atlantic Broadband will provide a discount of up to $50 per month towards broadband service for eligible households (and up to $75 per month for households on qualifying Tribal lands) so that they can be connected for distance learning, work from home, telehealth and other critical online destinations during the COVID-19 pandemic. New, existing and prior customers that meet financial eligibility requirements may choose from various internet packages with speeds designed to meet a range of household needs. The Emergency Broadband Benefit discount will be applied as a monthly credit against the cost of the Atlantic Broadband internet service selected by each household. "Atlantic Broadband continues its wholehearted support for initiatives that will help our customers and communities remain connected to the things that are most important to them, especially households that are struggling financially due to the pandemic," said Heather McCallion, Vice President of Products and Programming for Atlantic Broadband. "The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program will ensure that serviceable households have access to powerful broadband speeds up to 1Gbps, delivered over a reliable, fiber-rich network for a great online experience." The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program was created last December when Congress passed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, which provides $3.2 billion to fund the program. The program will conclude when the fund is expended or six months after the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency. It is the second major initiative undertaken by the FCC (News - Alert) in partnership with U.S. internet service providers to help households during the COVID-19 pandemic. Last spring, Atlantic Broadband supported customers through the "Keep Americans Connected" program, launching an affordable "Internet Assist" internet package, temporarily suspending disconnects, waiving late fees, and making its WiFi (News - Alert) hotspots available to the public during the early months of the pandemic. Atlantic Broadband has also supported state and local broadband programs, including Connecticut's "Everybody Learns" initiative, a partnership with the Connecticut Commission for Educational Technology, the Connecticut State Department of Education and local school districts. Households may apply and determine their eligibility for the program by visiting https://getemergencybroadband.org/. Once household eligibility has been confirmed, households may enroll in the program at atlanticbb.com/ebb. ABOUT ATLANTIC BROADBAND Atlantic Broadband, a subsidiary of Cogeco Communications Inc. (TSX: CCA), is the eighth- largest cable operator in the United States, based on the number of television service customers served. The company provides its residential and business customers with Internet, TV and Phone (News - Alert) services in 11 states: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Atlantic Broadband is headquartered in Quincy, Massachusetts. For more information, see atlanticbb.com/ebb. ABOUT THE EMERGENCY BROADBAND BENEFIT PROGRAM The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program is a temporary emergency program operated by the Federal Communications Commission to help financially struggling families obtain internet at a discounted price during the COVID-19 pandemic. Upon its conclusion, regular rates, terms, and conditions for internet services will apply. The Emergency Broadband Benefit is non-transferable and is limited to one discount per serviceable household. Eligibility for the Emergency Broadband Benefits program is determined through the National Lifeline Accountability Database, which can be accessed at GetEmergencyBroadband.org. Other terms, conditions or restrictions may apply. For additional information, see fcc.gov/broadbandbenefit. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005969/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Blue Canyon Technologies to Provide CubeSats for VISORS Space Program to Study the Sun Leading small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider Blue Canyon Technologies LLC ("BCT" or "Blue Canyon"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon (News - Alert) Technologies (NYSE: RTX), today announced the company was selected to provide a pair of 6U CubeSat buses and an Engineering Development Unit for the Virtual Super-resolution Optics with Reconfigurable Swarms, or VISORS, program, a space mission sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The objective of the VISORS program is to detect and study the fundamental energy-release regions in the sun's corona. "Blue Canyon Technologies is providing key components in a program that will, for the first time, reveal individual energy-release sites in the solar corona to test theories of coronal heating," said George Stafford, co-founder and CEO of Blue Canyon Technologies. "Our company's technology will enable the VISORS program to help scientists understand the sun's plasma physics and refine models for nanoflares and corona composition." Under the contract awarded by the University of Illinois, BCT will also be providing an Engineering Development Unit that will allow the program's instrument team to test hardware well in advance of the VISORS launch. Delivery of the buses to Georgia Tech for instrument integration is scheduled for June and September 2022. In addition to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and a number of academic institutions are involved including the Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, Washington State University, Ohio State University, Purdue University (News - Alert) , the University of California San Diego, New Mexico State University, Montana State University, and the University of Colorado. About Blue Canyon Technologies Blue Canyon Technologies BCT), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, offers a diverse portfolio of innovative, reliable and affordable spacecraft that enable a broad range of missions and technological advancements for the new space economy, reducing the barriers of space entry. BCT is currently supporting nearly 50 unique missions with over 90 spacecraft, all in production at their newly developed 80,000-square-foot facility in Lafayette, Colorado. BCT has supported missions for the U.S. Air Force, NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and provided the Attitude Control Systems for the first interplanetary CubeSats, which successfully traveled to Mars. The company has been recognized with awards from Inc. Magazine's 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies, the 2020 Best in Biz Award and the 2020 Tibbetts Award. For the latest news on Blue Canyon Technologies and for other company information, please visit www.bluecanyontech.com. You can follow the company on Instagram here or Twitter (News - Alert) here. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005306/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Bright Machines Welcomes PAC Global as a Manufacturers' Representative Today, Bright Machines, an industry leader in intelligent, software-defined manufacturing, announced a new partnership with PAC Global Inc., a company specializing in solutions for manufacturers of electronic products. With six offices across the Southwestern United States and Mexico, PAC Global will now offer Bright Machines Microfactories --a combination of intelligent software with adaptive hardware to automate repetitive assembly & inspection tasks -- to their customers in the electronics industry. "Bright Machines Microfactories help to dramatically improve quality and consistency in electronics manufacturing assembly and inspection, while reducing reliance on manual labor for tedious tasks," said Steve Heinzen, Business Development Director, Bright Machines. "We're pleased to have PAC Global join our growing roster of manufacturers' representatives; with their support, more manufacturers will be able to achieve the resilient, efficient operations that our microfactories enable." p> "Our mission from day one has been to offer the best solutions for electronics manufacturers, with unparalleled service - adding Bright Machines to our product portfolio will help us in our effort to modernize manufacturing, with innovative, software driven technology," said Eric Culbertson, President of PAC Global. About Bright Machines Headquartered in San Francisco, Bright Machines is an industry-leading technology company that offers a revolutionary approach to intelligent, software-defined manufacturing. It leverages computer vision, machine learning, 3D simulation, and adaptive robotics to fundamentally change the flexibility, scalability, and economics of production. With more than 500 employees worldwide, Bright Machines operates R&D centers in the U.S. and Israel, with additional field operations in the U.S., Mexico, China, and Poland. Bright Machines was named a "Technology Pioneer" by the World Economic Forum and one of "America's Most Promising Artificial Intelligence Companies" by Forbes. Bright Machines is reimagining how products can be designed and produced to address the realities of today and the future ahead. Rethink everything you ever knew about manufacturing. Visit www.brightmachines.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005027/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Broadridge Completes Acquisition of Itiviti, Extending Capital Markets Franchise NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:BR), a global Fintech leader, has completed its previously announced acquisition of Itiviti Holding AB ("Itiviti"), a leading provider of trading and connectivity technology to the capital markets industry. The acquisition enhances Broadridge's position as a global Fintech leader and significantly strengthens Broadridge's Capital Markets franchise. It extends Broadridge's market leading back office capabilities into the front office and deepens its multi-asset class solutions, better enabling the company to help financial institutions adapt to a rapidly evolving marketplace. The addition of Itiviti's footprint in APAC and EMEA also increases Broadridge's scale outside of North America to better serve global clients. Itiviti is a leading global capital markets technology service provider offering highly scalable solutions that financial institutions use to consolidate their trading infrastructure, driving significant cost savings. With offices in 16 countries, Itiviti serves 24 of the top 25 global investment banks and over 2,000 leading brokers, trading firms and asset managers across 50 countries. Itiviti's solutions and services provide financial institutions with comprehensive tools for connecivity and flexible, cross-asset trading solutions that cover the full trade lifecycle. Itiviti will become part of Broadridge's Global Technology and Operations segment and its senior management team, led by CEO Rob Mackay, will remain with the company to drive future growth. About Broadridge Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR), a global Fintech leader with over $4.5 billion in revenues, provides the critical infrastructure that powers investing, corporate governance and communications to enable better financial lives. We deliver technology-driven solutions to banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers and public companies. Broadridge's infrastructure serves as a global communications hub enabling corporate governance by linking thousands of public companies and mutual funds to tens of millions of individual and institutional investors around the world. In addition, Broadridge's technology and operations platforms underpin the daily trading of on average more than U.S. $10 trillion of equities, fixed income and other securities globally. A certified Great Place to Work, Broadridge is a part of the S&P 500 Index, employing over 12,000 associates in 17 countries. For more information about us and what we can do for you, please visit broadridge.com. Broadridge Investors: W. Edings Thibault Investor Relations (516) 472-5129 Media: Tina Wadhwa Corporate Communications Tina.Wadhwa@Broadridge.com (212) 973-6164 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/broadridge-completes-acquisition-of-itiviti-extending-capital-markets-franchise-301289526.html SOURCE Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] CAE to accelerate the design and development of Jaunt Air Mobility's eVTOL aircraft by leveraging the latest simulation technologies Jaunt Air Mobility and CAE sign agreement for eVTOL certification support services CAE will support Jaunt Air Mobility in developing the company's aircraft systems integration lab in Montreal, Canada . MONTREAL, May 12, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - (NYSE: CAE) (TSX: CAE) CAE announced today that it has been selected by Jaunt Air Mobility to lead the design and development of the Jaunt Aircraft Systems Integration Lab (JASIL) for the the company's new all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, the Journey aircraft. Leveraging CAE's 70+ years of experience in high-fidelity simulation, CAE will work hand-in-hand with Jaunt to bring best-in-class simulation and modeling to the aircraft development program from inception. Certification plans for the Jaunt Journey are set to begin in 2023 and culminate in 2026 with entry-in-service (EIS) expected in early 2027. As part of the agreement, CAE and Jaunt Air Mobility intend to build an engineering simulator which will accelerate cockpit design and system development, and will reduce the airworthiness flight test time. The JASIL program is designed to derisk the aircraft program's schedule and manage development costs by identifying integration issues and proving failure modes early in the program. "We are excited to partner in the development of this revolutionary new aircraft, and to add to our commitment and support of the Advanced Air Mobility industry," said Nick Leontidis, CAE's Group President, Civil Aviation Training Solutions. "As a hightechnology solutions company at the leading edge of digital immersion, CAE is uniquely qualified to provide engineering and certification support solutions to help innovative companies such as Jaunt Air Mobility certify their aircraft. Jaunt shares our passion for enabling the next generation of electric aviation and together we look forward to advancing this new industry." "CAE is a natural partner for Jaunt as both companies' core values are to combine the latest technologies with proven performance to ensure aviation safety in their fields," said Martin Peryea, CEO of Jaunt Air Mobility. "By partnering together, we will benefit from CAE's years of industry expertise and leadership in aircraft simulation to de-risk production and accelerate time-to-market and mass commercialization of the Journey aircraft." The Journey aircraft is designed to deliver safe, efficient, and reliable performance while reducing carbon emissions. The Jaunt Journey combines the performance of an airplane with the vertical take-off and landing efficiency of a helicopter to meet the growing demands for faster travel times over urban and regional areas. About Jaunt Air Mobility Jaunt Air Mobility is a transformative aerospace company. Jaunt design and build piloted and autonomous Hybrid and Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft for advanced air mobility, addressing multiple markets. Jaunt is the world leader in Reduced rotor Operating Speed (ROSA) aircraft, combining a fixed-winged aircraft's efficiency and advanced helicopter performance. www.jauntairmobility.com About CAE CAE is a high technology company, at the leading edge of digital immersion, providing solutions to make the world a safer place. Backed by a record of more than 70 years of industry firsts, we continue to reimagine the customer experience and revolutionize training and operational support solutions in civil aviation, defence and security, and healthcare. We are the partner of choice to customers worldwide who operate in complex, high-stakes and largely regulated environments, where successful outcomes are critical. As testament to our customers' ongoing needs for our solutions, over 60 percent of CAE's revenue is recurring in nature. We have the broadest global presence in our industry, with approximately 10,000 employees, 160 sites, and training locations in over 35 countries. www.cae.com Follow us on Twitter: CAE_Inc Facebook: www.facebook.com/cae.inc LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/cae Hashtags: #CAE; #CAEpilot View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cae-to-accelerate-the-design-and-development-of-jaunt-air-mobilitys-evtol-aircraft-by-leveraging-the-latest-simulation-technologies-301289391.html SOURCE CAE INC. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Call for Proposals for Innovative Forest Sector Technologies OTTAWA, ON, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Canada's forest sector is a vital source of jobs for Canadians and provides economic, social and environmental benefits across the country. The sector leads innovation through clean technologies, building on a strong foundation that includes a world leading sustainable forest management system. The Honourable Seamus O'Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources, today launched a call for proposals under the Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) program. Investments in successful projects will help advance Canada's forest sector bioeconomy and low-emission energy future while creating and maintaining jobs in communities across the country. Applications will be accepted until Thursday, July 22, 2021. All eligible organizations are encouraged to apply. The program supports the adoption of transformative technologies and product diversification, increases forest sector competitiveness and supports economic prosperity as the sector recovers from COVID-19. Budget 2021 announced up to $54.8 million over two years, starting in 202122, to Natural Resources Canada to increase the capacity of the IFIT program, following increased uptake and successes in previous years. Investing in innovative forest sector technologies provides greener solutions that tackle climate change and help Canada reach net-zero emissions by 2050. These investments support job creation in the forest industry, help lower emissions and embrace a cleaner future for generations to come. Quotes "The Investments in Forest Industry Transformation program is helping lower emissions, create jobs and reach our climate goals. We're building a clean energy future and supporting workers in our forest sector." The Honourable Seamus O'Regan Jr. Minister of Natural Resources Quick Facts Budget 2019 committed an additional $82.9 million over three years for the IFIT program, starting in 202021, for the continued support for the industrial commercialization and adoption of innovative technologies and processes in Canada's forest sector. Associated Links Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) Call for Proposals Investments in Forest Industry Transformation (IFIT) Program SOURCE Natural Resources Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Censinet Adds Former Intermountain Healthcare CISO Karl West to Advisory Board Censinet, the leading provider of healthcare IT risk solutions, today announced that Karl West, the former Chief Information Security Officer of Information Systems at Intermountain Healthcare, has joined the Company's Advisory Board. The Censinet Advisory Board, an active group of healthcare provider CIOs, CISOs, and industry leaders from third-party vendors, advises the Company on strategic corporate and product initiatives. "We are honored that Karl has joined the Censinet Advisory Board in support of our vision to take risk out of healthcare," said Ed Gaudet, CEO and Founder of Censinet, Inc. "As a former CISO and Censinet customer, Karl brings a unique perspective and broad range of strategic risk and security knowledge, experience and thought leadership that aligns well with our vision and mission in healthcare." "I am pleased to join the Censinet Advisory Board," said Karl West. "Censinet solves a critical problem for every provider and has an opportunity to truly transform the way we manage and operationalize risk across the healthcare industry." For more than 30 years, Karl West has ben involved in information technology and security. West was the former CISO at Intermountain Healthcare, a Utah-based not-for-profit healthcare system with more than 41,000 caregivers and an integrated delivery network of 23 hospitals and 300 clinics. Under his guidance, the healthcare system has become a leader in innovative healthcare technology adoption and in health information security. Before his role at Intermountain, Karl was Vice President and Managing Partner at AT&T (News - Alert) Consulting Services. Karl is a board member of the Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (H-ISAC) and a member of the Utah Health Information Network (UHIN) Privacy and Security Board. He is also a board member of the Association for Executives in Healthcare Information Security (AEHIS), a part of the College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME), and Weber State University's Computer Science department. He is also an active member of the HHS CSA 405(d) Task Group. To learn more about the Censinet Advisory Board, see www.censinet.com/advisory-board. About Censinet Censinet, based in Boston, MA, enables healthcare organizations to take the risk out of their business with Censinet RiskOps, the first and only cloud-based exchange that integrates and consolidates enterprise risk management and operations capabilities across critical clinical and business areas. RiskOps builds upon the Company's foundational success with third-party risk management (TPRM) for healthcare. Censinet transforms healthcare risk by increasing productivity and operational effectiveness while eliminating risks to care delivery, data privacy, and patient safety. Find out more about Censinet and its RiskOps platform at censinet.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005371/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 02:43:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Soldiers take part in a joint military exercise in Smardan firing range, southeastern Romania, on May 11, 2021. Presidents of Romania and Poland attended on Tuesday the joint military exercise within the "Justice Sword 21" drills in Smardan firing range, according to a press release from the Romanian Presidential Administration. (Photo by Cristian Cristel/Xinhua) BUCHAREST, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Presidents of Romania and Poland attended on Tuesday a joint military exercise within the "Justice Sword 21" drills in Smardan firing range, southeastern Romania, according to a press release from the Romanian Presidential Administration. "It is for us, on the Eastern flank of NATO, extremely important to have well trained forces, well trained for defense. We are preparing for defense on the Eastern flank," the press release quoted Romanian President Klaus Iohannis as saying at the military exercise. "It's very important for our soldiers and for the Romanian soldiers that they can see each other and they can work together with their colleagues," said Polish President Andrzej Duda, who is on an official visit to Romania. Poland took part in this exercise with forces and military equipment deployed in Romania, said the Romanian Defense Ministry in a press release. Enditem [May 12, 2021] CEOs and CISOs Doubling Down on Cybersecurity, Converged Approaches, According to WSJ Intelligence and Forcepoint Survey AUSTIN, Texas, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Global cybersecurity leader Forcepoint, in partnership with WSJ Intelligence, today revealed that enterprise leaders who previously viewed cybersecurity as part of traditional infrastructure have shifted to rapidly invest in integrated, cloud-based approaches, with ripple effects on innovation, distributed workforce security and competitive advantages. The new research The C-Suite Report: Business and Security Strategies for Today's Unbound Enterprise is available now. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the "Unbound Enterprise" began to emerge, with operations freed from physical or network infrastructures. The pandemic accelerated this trend, and while some changes made in 2020 were tactical, the significant shift in perception will have far-reaching consequences. Leaders now see cybersecurity as the key to business advantage with 45% stating they have greatly accelerated digital transformation as a result of the pandemic, 48% reporting cybersecurity's bigger role in enabling innovation and 41% agreeing that it delivers a competitive edge. "Industry leaders are emphatically pointing to a very different future for cybersecurity," said Nicolas Fischbach, global CTO and vice president of SASE engineering at Forcepoint. "When 90% of leaders believe the biggest challenge is securing anywhere workers and cloud services, it's clear that infrastructure- or access-oriented security tools can no longer keep up with the needs of today's unbound enterprise." SASE is the new de facto standard for cyber The research revealed clear indications of how decentralized organizations will develop, with 48% substantially increasing the use of cloud-based cybersecurity systems and 58% recognizing the need for a more integrated trust framework. Ninety percent of CEOs have either already adopted SASE (43%) or are currently evaluating SASE with a view to adopt (47%) while 39% have accelerated their adoption of Zero Trust architectures. Converged, cloud-driven approaches will offer huge advantages as remote workers will have even more autonomy to innovate and drive business, but it also means that leaders must find new ways to secure distributed workforces and cloud applications, and drive collaboration and creativity. "As enterprises operate their business in a world with seemingly endless options, cybersecurity professionals will need to evolve their roles," commented Elizabeth Nann, Executive Director of Global Consumer Insights at Wall Street Journal Intelligence. "The research showed that CISOs adapted existing strategy, while the pandemic has really opened the eyes and changed the views of CEOs. This suggests that teams now better understand the importance of an integrated security framework with the agility to adapt to a continuously evolving environment but not everyone has that in place yet." The global survey of 508 CEOs and CISOs from industries including healthcare/life science, finance and retail uncovered key findings such as: Business and Security Landscape Forever Changed: Cybersecurity now Permanenty in the Boardroom 74% reallocated funds to cybersecurity programs during COVID-19 53% recognized the need to more tightly integrate cybersecurity capabilities across traditional product boundaries Moving to Integrated Security to Protect Distributed Enterprises 58% see a need for an integrated "Trust Framework" to accommodate dispersion of users and devices 48% substantially increased cloud-based cybersecurity systems 43% agreed they were challenged to manage an array of products from large number of vendors SASE Acceleration CEOs and CISOs are Bullish on SASE While analysts have estimated 40% of enterprises would embrace SASE by 2024, the WSJ Intelligence report found that COVID may have accelerated this timeline 90% of CEOs and 84% of CISOs indicated they have already adopted or were on a path to adopt SASE For more CEO and CISO insights from The C-Suite Report: Business and Security Strategies for Today's Unbound Enterprise please visit this page to download the report. Visit Forcepoint at the Virtual RSA 2021 Conference Forcepoint is a Platinum Sponsor at RSA 2021. Hear from Forcepoint leaders and product specialists at the following keynote and special speaking sessions. Keynote: Securing Today's Unbound Enterprise Wednesday, May 19 at 8:00 a.m. 8:20 a.m. PT at Presenters: Forcepoint CEO Manny Rivelo and Georgie Barrat , journalist Speaking session: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Human Behavior Reveals it All Monday, May 17 at 2:00 p.m. 2:40 p.m. PT at Presenter: Margaret Cunningham , principal research scientist for human behavior, Forcepoint Speaking session: New Normal, New Security? Five Security Trends to Watch in 2021 and Beyond Wednesday, May 19 at 10:05 a.m. 10:45 a.m. PT at Presenter: Nicolas Fischbach , global CTO and vice president of SASE engineering, Forcepoint and Nicolai Solling, CTO, Help AG For more information on Forcepoint at RSAC 2021 please visit https://info.forcepoint.com/rsa-conference-2021/. Additional Resources About Forcepoint Forcepoint is the global cybersecurity leader for user and data protection. Forcepoint's behavior-based solutions adapt to risk in real-time and are delivered through a converged security platform that protects network users and cloud access, prevents confidential data from leaving the corporate network, and eliminates breaches caused by insiders. Based in Austin, Texas, Forcepoint creates safe, trusted environments for thousands of enterprise and government customers and their employees in more than 150 countries. www.forcepoint.com About The C-Suite Report: Business and Security Strategies for The Unbound Enterprise Based on a quantitative survey of 508 global CEOs and CISOs, conducted by WSJ Intelligence and sponsored by Forcepoint. All U.S. respondents were from companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, and 42% of APAC and European respondents came from companies with $500 million to $999 million in revenue. In field: December 2020 to January 2021. About WSJ Intelligence WSJ Intelligence, a unit of The Wall Street Journal's advertising department, conducts bespoke and secondary research for brands and client brands of The Wall Street Journal | Barron's Group. Through rigorous analysis, WSJ Intelligence provides insights that are relevant, timely, and reliable. The Wall Street Journal news organization was not involved in the creation of this content. Contact: Rachael Lyon rachael.lyon@forcepoint.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ceos-and-cisos-doubling-down-on-cybersecurity-converged-approaches-according-to-wsj-intelligence-and-forcepoint-survey-301289610.html SOURCE Forcepoint [May 12, 2021] Christian Bradeen to Join Perella Weinberg Partners as Partner Perella Weinberg Partners ("PWP") announced today that Christian Bradeen will be joining the Firm as a Partner on June 30, 2021. Based in New York, Mr. Bradeen will provide strategic and financial advice to clients in the industrials sector. Mr. Bradeen joins PWP with more than two decades of experience advising industrial clients, with a particular focus on chemicals and natural resources. Most recently, he served as a Managing Director at Credit Suisse, where he was responsible for advising clients in the chemicals and specialty materials sectors on strategic matters, including mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, leveraged buyouts, restructurings and various debt and equity financings. Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2016, Mr. Bradeen served as an Executive Director at Morgan Stanley, where he covered clients in the chemicals, packaging and diversified industrials sectors. Mr. Bradeen earned a Bachelor of Arts degee from the University of Pennsylvania. "We are delighted to welcome Christian to the Firm," said Peter Weinberg, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of PWP. "We focus on providing deep sector expertise to our clients and with more than two decades of experience advising companies in the chemicals space, Christian's expertise will further augment our industrials franchise. We look forward to working with him and leveraging his unique perspective on behalf of our clients." About Perella Weinberg Partners Perella Weinberg Partners is a leading global independent advisory firm, providing strategic and financial advice to a broad client base, including corporations, institutions and governments. The firm advises clients across a range of the most active industry sectors and international markets. With more than 550 employees, Perella Weinberg Partners maintains offices in New York, Houston, London, Calgary, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Paris, Munich, and San Francisco. For more information on Perella Weinberg Partners, please visit: http://www.pwpartners.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005517/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] CIFAR and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) establish CAD $1M research agreement The funds will support international research collaborations addressing the most important questions facing science and humanity TORONTO, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - In a memorandum of understanding signed today, CIFAR and CNRS agreed to work together on research projects that address issues of global importance, such as the environment, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and the microbiome. Both organizations will commit a minimum of CAD $500,000 over five years to support interdisciplinary research collaborations. Canada - France agreement brings together world-renowned researchers "Fundamental research has the potential to address the most pressing questions of our time," says CIFAR President & CEO Dr. Alan Bernstein. "This agreement will bring together world-renowned researchers from both organizations to exchange ideas and knowledge, build upon important technologies such as AI and quantum computing, and generate new ways forward that will have global impact." "Canada and France have a long tradition of scientific cooperation in many fields," says Antoine Petit, Chairman and CEO, CNRS. "This agreement with CIFAR aims to mobilize researchers from our two institutions and encourage them to cooperate. W expect their mobilization around essential social issues, environment, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and the microbiome, issues for which the contributions of fundamental research are indispensable to society." Under the agreement each partner will contribute CAD $500,000 to joint scientific research activities over five years, and will support research on cutting-edge science and technology as well as its ethical application. The agreement amplifies existing collaborations between CIFAR and CNRS, including a series of CIFAR AI & Society workshops in 2020 that addressed societal implications of AI. Bernstein and Petit were joined at the virtual signing ceremony by Chief Scientific Advisor Mona Nemer, Canada's Deputy Head of Mission et Ministre plenipotentiare, Amy Baker, Canada's Chief Trade Commissioner, Sara Wilshaw, and French Ambassador to Canada, Karen Rispal. About CIFAR CIFAR is a Canadian-based global research organization that convenes extraordinary minds to address the most important questions facing science and humanity. By building long-term, interdisciplinary, global communities of collaboration, we provide the world's top researchers with an unparalleled environment of trust, transparency and knowledge sharing. Our time-tested model inspires new directions of inquiry, creating a culture of risk-taking, accelerating discovery, and yielding breakthroughs across borders and academic disciplines. Through knowledge mobilization, we are catalysts for change in industry, government and society. In 2017, the Government of Canada appointed CIFAR to develop and lead the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, the world's first national AI strategy. Our community of researchers includes more than 400 researchers from 161 institutions in 18 countries. Our fellows, chairs, scholars, and advisors are among the most highly cited researchers in the world. Twenty Nobel Prizes have been awarded to CIFAR-affiliated researchers. We are supported by the governments of Canada, Alberta and Quebec, as well as foundations, individuals, corporations and partner organizations around the world. About CNRS The French National Center for Scientific Research is one of the most recognized and renowned public research institutions in the world. For more than 80 years, it has continued to attract talent at the highest level and to nurture multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects at the national, European and international levels. Geared towards the public interest, it contributes to the scientific, economic, social and cultural progress of France. The CNRS is above all 32,000 women and men, more than 1,000 laboratories in partnership with universities and other higher education institutions bringing together more than 120,000 employees and 200 professions that advance knowledge by exploring the living world, matter, the Universe, and the functioning of human societies. The CNRS ensures that this mission is carried out in compliance with ethical rules and with a commitment to professional equality. The close relationship it establishes between its research missions and the transfer of acquired knowledge to the public makes it today a key player in innovation in France and around the world. Partnerships with companies are at the heart of its technology transfer policy, and the start-ups that have emerged from CNRS laboratories bear witness to the economic potential of its research. The CNRS also provides access to research findings and data, and this sharing of knowledge targets many audiences: scientific communities, the media, decision-makers, economic players and the general public. SOURCE CIFAR [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] CIGNEX, Excellerent & the Ethiopian Embassy to Jointly Present a Webinar on Exploring Ethiopia as a New Offshore Destination for IT LIVONIA, Mich., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- CIGNEX, a leading provider of Open Source, Cloud, and Automation technology solutions and services & Excellerent, a US-based provider of technology and human resource solutions along with the Ethiopian Embassy are hosting a webinar titled "Explore Ethiopia - The New Offshore Destination for IT" on May 26th, 2021 at 10 AM PT. With Ethiopia strengthening its IT infrastructure and policies, this webinar is an ideal way for organizations to understand the possibility & benefits of setting up an offshore development center in Ethiopia. During the webinar, the Ethiopian Ambassador will be sharing the initiatives taken by the Government to support the software development industry in Ethiopia. Apart from this, the panelists will be sharing insights on the current IT industry in Ethiopia, the benefits realized by setting up the offshore center there, and future forecast & business growth opportunities. "We are excited to participate in the webinar amp; share the benefits of investing in Ethiopia and the region at large. At this point in time, we are creating a positive change and inspiring future innovation within Ethiopia. We are glad that via this webinar, we will be able to showcase to the world the potential the region has for growth," said Fitsum Arega, Ambassador of Ethiopia to the United States. "We realize that the country has a huge potential & opportunity for business expansion and growth. We aim to share our knowledge with enterprises across the globe so they can realize the benefits and consider Ethiopia for their upcoming offshore development needs," said Paul Anthony, President Sales, CIGNEX. To register for the webinar, please visit the registration page here. The recording of the webinar will be available to all registrants. About Excellerent Founded in 2012, Excellerent is a US-headquartered provider of technology and human resource solutions with professionals located within the US and Ethiopia. By leveraging both local & international talent, Excellerent delivers digital transformational products and services to its clients. About CIGNEX CIGNEX is a global consulting company offering solutions & services on Open Source, Cloud, and Automation. Since 2000, CIGNEX has been delivering enterprise-class solutions built using leading platforms & tools, which can be integrated with existing systems to achieve unparalleled results. Media Contact Priyanka Sharma Global Head of Marketing CIGNEX +91-79 6701 0345 priyankap.sharma@cignex.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cignex-excellerent--the-ethiopian-embassy-to-jointly-present-a-webinar-on-exploring-ethiopia-as-a-new-offshore-destination-for-it-301282225.html SOURCE CIGNEX Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] CX-5 and CX-9 Receive Mid-Year Updates with New 2021.5 Models New Standard Safety and Technology Features For All Models New standard 10.25" large center display with latest-generation Mazda Connect infotainment CX-5 receives full suite of i-Activsense safety technology standard Mazda Connected Services to be included starting Fall 2021 RICHMOND HILL, ON, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Mazda Canada today introduced mid-model year updates for its best-selling CX-5 compact crossover and seven-passenger CX-9 crossover, which continue to define the standard for a refined driving experience in their respective segments. With this new update, both models see upgrades to technology with the largest infotainment screen to be equipped on CX-5 and CX-9 models, and CX-5 receives the full suite of i-Activsense safety features as standard equipment. New for the 2021.5 CX-5 and CX-9 is a standard 10.25-inch large center display with the latest Mazda Connect infotainment interface. The new infotainment has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto capabilities and will also add Mazda Connected Services, which will be available this Fall. A free trial for Mazda Connected Services will provide the ability to monitor and control the state of the CX-5 and CX-9 remotely. Through the MyMazda app, customers will be able to use features such as remote engine start/stop, locking/unlocking the doors, and viewing a vehicle health status report. For an extra layer of confidence and peace of mind, the 2021.5 CX-5 GX also adds Mazda's i-Activsense safety technology as standard equipment. In addition to the previously standard Smart City Brake Support Front, Advanced Blind Spot Monitoring, and Rear Cross Traffic Alert, the 2021.5 model will also include Mazda Radar Cruise Control with Stop&Go, Smart Brake Support Front, Pedestrian Detection, Lane-keep Assist System, Lane Departure Warning System, and more. Other standard equipment on the GX model includes a wide-angle rearview camera, LED headlights and daytime running lights, automatic on/off headlights, High Beam Control, adjustable heated front seats, cloth upholstery, and rain-sensing front wipers. Updates to other trim levels includes newly available 19-inch wheels for the CX-5 GS with i-Activ AWD, which were previously reserved for higher trim levels. The unique and bold style of the Kuro Edition, introduced for 2021, carries into the 2021.5 model year and now includes the option of black leather with red stitching in addition to the original Garnet Red leather upholstery. With the update to the new Mazda Connect infotainment, wireless Apple CarPlay is no longer available on GT models. GT and Signature models carry over with no additional changes to equipment. The 2021.5 CX-9 GS continues to be well-equipped with premium features for the active family. Mazda's suite of essential i-Activsense safety features is standard, including Mazda Radar Cruise Control with Stop&Go, Smart City Brake Support Front, Smart Brake Support Front, Advanced Blind Spot Monitoring, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, and Pedestrian Detection. Other standard features include heated front seats, leather-wrapped steering wheel and shift knob, three-zone automatic climate control, eight-way power driver's seat with lumbar support, automatic on/off LED headlights with auto-leveling, LED taillights and daytime running lights, High Beam Control, 18-inch dark grey metallic finish aluminum alloy wheels, rain-sensing windshield wipers, noise-isolating windshield, and rear privacy glass. The CX-9 GS-L receives the added benefit of wireless phone charging (Qi), which is moved down from the 2021 CX-9 GT trim. All other equipment and features on the GT, Kuro Edition, and Signature trims carry over from the 2021 models. The 2021.5 Mazda CX-5 and CX-9 will be available in dealers across Canada starting next month. For a full list of equipment and features, please visit Mazda.ca. MSRP1 for the 2021.5 CX-5 and CX-9 models are as follows: 2021.5 Mazda CX-5 Front-Wheel Drive i-Activ All-Wheel Drive CX-5 GX $28,950 $30,450 CX-5 GS $32,150 $33,650 CX-5 GS Comfort Package - $35,150 CX-5 Kuro Edition - $36,950 CX-5 GT - $38,350 CX-5 GT Turbo - $40,500 CX-5 Signature - $42,750 2021.5 Mazda CX-9 i-Activ All-Wheel Drive CX-9 GS $40,300 CX-9 GS-L $44,050 CX-9 GS-L Captain's Chairs $44,350 CX-9 GT $49,300 CX-9 GT Captain's Chairs $49,600 CX-9 Kuro Edition $50,600 CX-9 Signature $52,300 PREMIUM PAINT COLORS: Snowflake White Pearl $200 Polymetal Grey Metallic $200 Machine Grey Metallic $300 Soul Red Crystal Metallic $450 Mazda Canada Inc. is responsible for the sales and marketing, customer service and parts support of Mazda vehicles in Canada. Headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Mazda Canada has a nationwide network of 163 dealerships. For additional information, visit Mazda Canada's media website at www.media.mazda.ca. __________________________ 1 MSRP does not include $1,950 for freight & PDE, taxes, title or additional fees. Dealers set actual sale prices. SOURCE Mazda Canada Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Doma Named One of Inc. Magazine's 2021 Best Workplaces Doma, a leading force for disruptive change in the real estate industry, has been named to Inc. magazine's annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. The list features companies that have created exceptional workplaces, as determined by employees through a comprehensive assessment of culture, growth opportunity, and benefits. Today's recognition comes on the heels of Doma entering into a business combination agreement in March 2021 with Capitol Investment Corp. V (NYSE: CAP, CAP WS and CAP.U) ("Capitol"), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company. Doma is a technology company focused on creating a vastly more simple, efficient, and affordable closing experience for current and prospective homeowners, lenders, title agents and real estate professionals. Founded in 2016, Doma uses proprietary machine intelligence technology, that is being trained on 30 years of historical data, to remove the friction and frustration from the residential real estate closing process. Its Doma Intelligence platform now covers approximately 76 percent of the United States based on gross written premium, providing time and cost savings for lenders, real estate professionals, title agents, and homeowners. "At Doma, we're proud to foster a workplace culture that brings people together in the pursuit of innovation, community, and our mission," said Doma CEO Max Simkoff. "The challenges experienced in 2020 highlighted the strength and engagement of our team members, each of whom shares a commitment to our vision and our core values. We are collectively transforming an industry and working to tirelessly champion our customers' interests." Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by a third party, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organization's benefits were also audited to determine the company's overall score and ranking. "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." The list will hit newsstands May 18 in the May/June 2021 issue of Inc. and will be highlighted as part of a prominent Inc.com feature. About Doma Doma (formerly States Title Holding, Inc.) is architecting the future of real estate transactions. The company uses machine intelligence and its patented technology solutions to transform residential real estate, making closings instant and affordable. Doma and its family of brands - States Title, North American Title Company (NATC) and North American Title Insurance Company (NATIC) - offer solutions for lenders, real estate agents, title agents, and homeowners that make closings vastly more simple and efficient, reducing cost and increasing customer satisfaction. Doma's clients include some of the largest bank and non-bank lenders in the United States. In March 2021, Doma announced plans to become publicly-traded via a merger with Capitol Investment Corp. V (NYSE: CAP, CAP WS and CAP.U). To learn more visit doma.com or statestitle.com. About Capitol Investment Corp. V Capitol Investment Corp. V is a $345 million public investment vehicle with the mission to invest in and help build an industry-leading public company that will aim to deliver long-term value to shareholders. Capitol is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mark D. Ein, and President and Chief Financial Officer, L. Dyson Dryden. The Capitol team has raised $1.5 billion in five SPACs since 2007 and closed four SPAC mergers. Capitol's securities are listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols CAP, CAP WS and CAP.U. About Inc. Media The world's most trusted busines-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multi platform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. About Quantum (News - Alert) Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. Additional Information and Where to Find It This press release relates to a proposed transaction between Doma and Capitol. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or exchange, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or exchange, any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, sale or exchange would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offering of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Capitol has filed a registration statement on Form S-4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the " SEC (News - Alert) "), which includes a document that serves as a prospectus and proxy statement of Capitol, referred to as a proxy statement/prospectus. A proxy statement/prospectus will be sent to all Capitol stockholders. Capitol also will file other documents regarding the proposed transaction with the SEC. Before making any voting decision, investors and security holders of Capitol are urged to read the registration statement, the proxy statement/prospectus and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed transaction as they become available because they will contain important information about the proposed transaction. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the registration statement, the proxy statement/prospectus and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC by Capitol through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. The documents filed by Capitol with the SEC also may be obtained free of charge at Capitol's website at https://www.capinvestment.com/ or upon written request to 1300 17th Street North, Suite 820, Arlington, Virginia 22209. Participants in Solicitation Capitol and Doma and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from Capitol's stockholders in connection with the proposed transaction. A list of the names of such directors and executive officers and information regarding their interests in the business combination is contained in the proxy statement/prospectus. You may obtain free copies of these documents as described in the preceding paragraph. Forward-Looking Statements Legend This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as "estimate," "plan," "project," "forecast," "intend," "will," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "seek," "target" or other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding estimates and forecasts of financial and performance metrics, projections of market opportunity, total addressable market (TAM), market share and competition and potential benefits of the transactions described herein, and expectations related to the terms and timing of the transactions described herein. These statements are based on various assumptions, whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current expectations of Doma's and Capitol's management and are not predictions of actual performance. These forward-looking statements are provided for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to serve as, and must not be relied on by any investor as, a guarantee, an assurance, a prediction or a definitive statement of fact or probability. Actual events and circumstances are difficult or impossible to predict, will differ from assumptions and are beyond the control of Doma and Capitol. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including changes in business, market, financial, political and legal conditions; the inability of the parties to successfully or timely consummate the transactions described herein; failure to realize the anticipated benefits of the transactions described herein; risks relating to the uncertainty of the projected financial information with respect to Doma; future global, regional or local economic, political, market and social conditions, including due to the COVID-19 pandemic; the development, effects and enforcement of laws and regulations, including with respect to the title insurance industry; Doma's ability to manage its future growth or to develop or acquire enhancements to its platform; the effects of competition on Doma's future business; the outcome of any potential litigation, government and regulatory proceedings, investigations and inquiries; and those other factors included in Capitol's final prospectus relating to its initial public offering dated December 1, 2020 (File No. 333-249297) and the registration statement on Form S-4 (File No. 333-254470) filed with the SEC under the heading "Risk Factors," and other documents Capitol filed, or will file, with the SEC. If any of these risks materialize or Doma's or Capitol's assumptions prove incorrect, actual results could differ materially from the results implied by these forward-looking statements. There may be additional risks that neither Doma nor Capitol presently know or that Doma or Capitol currently believe are immaterial that could also cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements. In addition, forward-looking statements reflect Doma's and Capitol's expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this press release. Doma and Capitol anticipate that subsequent events and developments will cause Doma's and Capitol's assessments to change. However, while Doma and Capitol may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Doma and Capitol specifically disclaim any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Doma's and Capitol's assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Accordingly, undue reliance should not be placed upon the forward-looking statements. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005262/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Donations to Child360 Provide Food Assistance to Children and Families Facing Economic Hardship AMERICAN BUSINESS BANK (OTCQX: AMBZ) donated $5,000 to Child360, a Los Angeles non-profit that provides holistic support to children ages 0-5. The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHL Bank San Francisco) matched the $5,000 donation with a COVID-19 pandemic relief grant. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005118/en/ "No matter where we come from, or what we've experienced over the last year, we all have faced hardship during the pandemic. For some communities, this reality has been magnified. This time has revealed that our loved ones are the most precious thing to us, and the ability to care for their fundamental needs and wellbeing should never be a question mark. I'm grateful for Child360 and its intuitive work in the community and ability to make everyone feel like family," said Leon Blankstein, President & Chief Executive Officer of American Business Bank. "The Bank is humbled to support the organization with this donation, as well as the support offered to Child360 by our own EVP/CFO, Karen Schoenbaum serving as a Director on their board." Through this donation, Child360 will provide food assistance to children and families in Los Angeles County, spanning from Long Beach to the Antelope Valley. Child360 will leverage its roots in South East Los Angeles and the Antelop Valley through its current work as Best Start leaders, and specialized work with family childcare homes, neighborhood-based early learning programs who have been lifelines to local families during the pandemic. "Child360 supports children ages 0-5 from every angle. When children are holistically supported, everyone wins. What's unique about our model is that we have a mixed delivery system, meaning we work with family child care providers, centers, faith-based organizations, and community leaders; through these partnerships, we have a pulse on what is needed on the ground, and get to support children how they need it most through the vehicle that impacts them the greatest," said William Sperling, CEO of Child360. "We are grateful to have supporters like ABB who stand behind our vision and mission. Children ages 0-5 experience more brain growth during this window than any other time in life; this donation is a significant precedent of these institutions investing in early childhood education and partnering with us so that all children can achieve their dreams, and families can live their lives to the fullest, no matter the obstacles they face," continued William Sperling. "The holistic nature of the Child360 service model is an invaluable resource for vulnerable children and their families," said Marietta Nunez, Senior Vice President and Community Investment Officer at FHLBank San Francisco. "We are pleased to partner with our member American Business Bank to help Child360 address the pandemic-related food insecurity that too many of the children and families they support are experiencing at this time." ABOUT CHILD360 Child360 is a leading nonprofit working toward a future where every child has the educational opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. This means supporting the development of the whole child, beginning at birth. Alongside trusted community partners, Child360 improves the quality of early learning and elevates the early learning industry through program support, professional development, advocacy, research, and community engagement. From every angle, we are equipping the next generation, empowering them to discover their potential, and advancing our future workforce. Learn more at www.child360.org. ABOUT FHLBANK SAN FRANCISCO FHLBank San Francisco is a member-driven cooperative helping local lenders in Arizona, California, and Nevada build strong communities, create opportunity, and change lives for the better. The tools and resources the Bank provides to member financial institutions foster homeownership, expand access to quality housing, seed or sustain small businesses, and revitalize whole neighborhoods. In response to the escalating economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the communities served by its members, FHLBank San Francisco is matching the donations or contributions they make to support local nonprofits and small businesses. ABOUT AMERICAN BUSINESS BANK American Business Bank, headquartered in downtown Los Angeles, offers a wide range of financial services to the business marketplace. Clients include wholesalers, manufacturers, service businesses, professionals and non-profits. American Business Bank has six Loan Production Offices in strategic locations including: North Orange (News - Alert) County in Anaheim, Orange County in Irvine, South Bay in Torrance, San Fernando Valley in Woodland Hills, Riverside County in Corona and Inland Empire in Ontario. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005118/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] DoorDash Expands Canadian Presence with New Toronto Engineering Hub The company will hire 50 engineering roles for its first international engineering site TORONTO, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ -- DoorDash Inc. (NYSE: DASH), the leading last-mile logistics platform, today announced the launch of a new engineering site in Toronto with plans to hire at least 50 engineers across back-end, front-end and mobile roles by the end of the year. Engineers in Toronto will work on critical business projects with a focus on expanding DoorDash's reach and breadth of services throughout Canada. The work of the team will also serve as the foundation for growing future, global engineering site expansions. The core areas of focus include the following: Launching New Merchant Services: This team will help expand the breadth of services available to Canadian merchants and will be tasked with innovating on behalf of over 30,000 national partners at a time when dine-in remains limited. This includes creating new retail channels for merchant partners to expand their sales, scaling DoorDash's logistics platform, Drive, and building products that help merchants to expand into new geographies with new delivery-only kitchen concepts. This team will help expand the breadth of services available to Canadian merchants and will be tasked with innovating on behalf of over 30,000 national partners at a time when dine-in remains limited. This includes creating new retail channels for merchant partners to expand their sales, scaling DoorDash's logistics platform, Drive, and building products that help merchants to expand into new geographies with new delivery-only kitchen concepts. Scaling a Reliable, On-Demand Logistics App : The team will continue to build and scale features within the DoorDash consumer app that enable customers to seamlessly find and order from their favorite local and national stores. This includes building better language functionality and helping to launch in new markets. The team will continue to build and scale features within the DoorDash consumer app that enable customers to seamlessly find and order from their favorite local and national stores. This includes building better language functionality and helping to launch in new markets. Enhancing Online Ordering for Restaurants: DoorDash Storefront is a commission-free offering for restaurants to turn their websites into ecommerce stores and offer delivery and pickup directly to their customers. This team will work to enhance the product to better empower any small business to create and operate their owned online delivery channel. DoorDash Storefront is a commission-free offering for restaurants to turn their websites into ecommerce stores and offer delivery and pickup directly to their customers. This team will work to enhance the product to better empower any small business to create and operate their owned online delivery channel. Building a Leading Customer Loalty Product: DashPass is DoorDash's subscription product, with over 5M DashPass subscribers worldwide, offering unlimited $0 delivery fees to customers nationwide on orders of $12 or more. The team will help expand the product's offerings through new strategic partnerships and integrations and new features for both restaurant and customer subscribers. Andy Fang , Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of DoorDash. "As our first international engineering hub, the founding team will be mission critical to creating impactful products and programs that set DoorDash up for success in Canada and beyond. Toronto has evolved into an incredible global technology hub and selecting the city for one of our engineering sites was a natural choice when considering our ambitious goals and growth in the Canadian market." Throughout its expansion process, DoorDash worked with Toronto Global, a team of experienced business advisors assisting global businesses to expand into the Toronto Region, as well as the Trade Commissioner and Ontario Senior Economic Officer based in the Consulate of Canada in San Francisco. "As a leader in innovation and technology, combined with a deep talent pool and competitive business costs, DoorDash is set up for success in Ontario," said Premier Ford. "We are laying the foundation for a strong economic recovery in Ontario and companies like DoorDash will play a significant role in our future success." "I am thrilled that DoorDash has chosen to locate its new engineering office in Toronto to take advantage of our skilled and diverse talent pool," said Mayor John Tory. "I celebrate DoorDash's commitment to supporting Canadian merchants and empowering small businesses as we work to restart and rebuild the economy in the Toronto Region." To lead the new site, DoorDash has hired Qaiser Habib, a veteran engineering leader who has extensive experience leading large engineering teams focused on fulfillment. New hires joining Habib will be founding members of the engineering site and will join a growth-oriented team given the autonomy to execute on critical business initiatives which remain deeply connected to the company's mission. "The investments DoorDash is making in Canada will help A&W respond to the growing needs of time-crunched Canadian consumers who are increasingly seeking the convenience of having their favourite meals brought to them," said Robert Cifarelli Director, Mobile Consumer Success, A&W Food Services of Canada. DoorDash first launched in Canada in 2015 and has since grown its presence to serve over 150 communities and over 30,000 merchant partners. DoorDash currently has offices in four cities including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary. The company plans to continue hiring for roles across all sides of the business and increase the company's total Canadian corporate headcount to 200 by the end of 2021. Interested candidates can visit careers.doordash.com to view and apply for open positions. About DoorDash DoorDash is a technology company that connects consumers with their favorite local and national businesses in more than 4,000 cities and all 50 states across the United States, Canada, and Australia. Founded in 2013, DoorDash enables local businesses to address consumers' expectations of ease and immediacy and thrive in today's convenience economy. By building the last-mile logistics infrastructure for local commerce, DoorDash is bringing communities closer, one doorstep at a time. SOURCE DoorDash [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] GovQA Technology Solutions Tackle Growing Demand for Body Camera Video in Wake of New Illinois Legislation WOODRIDGE, Ill., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- New legislation in Illinois is driving dramatic changes for state law enforcement, with the potential to stretch already-limited budgets of agencies as they comply with the mandates, according to GovQA. As part of a criminal justice reform bill recently signed by Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, every police officer in the state will be required to wear a body camera by 2025. "Mandating a body camera for every Illinois police officer will substantially increase the amount of available video footage as well as the volume of public requests for the footage," said Jennifer Snyder, chief evangelist at GovQA. "The biggest challenges are the sheer volume and complexity of information that needs to be reviewed, redacted and approved prior to releaseand the resources needed to comply." Snyder cited a recent California case in which public safety agencies found themselves unable to recover the costs of video redaction. "Police departments that proactively prepare for the state's body camera mandate will fare much better than those who do not," she said. GovQA, along with Veritone and other important technology partners, will offer a free webinar on May 19 at 1:00 p.m. CSTIllinois public safety agencies can take a proactive approach to automating their public records management process, and redact requested audio/video files, while staying compliant in a secure cloud environment. The webinar is open to (and information presented will apply to) participants in all 50 states. Advance registration is recommended. GovQA is the only SaaS-based, public records management platform capable of secure, end-to-end public records disclosure workflows for any document type including electronic documents, videos and audio files. Through its strategic relationship with Veritone, creator of the world's first operating system for artificial intelligence, aiWARE, GovQA customers are able to automate the redaction of sensitive information within video and audio-based evidence up to 90 percent faster than manual methods. "GovQA has a proven track record for providing flexible software solutions that help state and local agencies comply with changing public records laws, fulfill the release of public records at a reduced cost, and address the growing demand for accountability," said Snyder. Visit www.govqa.com to learn more. About GovQA GovQA is the largest provider of cloud-based SaaS automated workflow solutions for government compliance. Customers use GovQA software to more easily process and manage public records and information requests from citizens, the media, and other government offices. With 20 years' experience, GovQA combines trusted tools and security, proven government expertise, and a scalable platform that enables cities, counties, and state agencies to securely collect and control time-sensitive information within, across, and outside governments. Visit www.govqa.com for more information. Media Contact: Patrick McLaughlin patrickm@markitstrategies.com Related Images govqa-logo.png GovQA logo GovQA logo View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/govqa-technology-solutions-tackle-growing-demand-for-body-camera-video-in-wake-of-new-illinois-legislation-301289995.html SOURCE GovQA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Hisense ranks among BrandZ Top 10 Chinese Global Brands for 5th Consecutive Year QINGDAO, China, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - On May 10, at an event in Shenzhen, KANTAR and Google jointly released the BrandZ report listing the Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders, on which Hisense placed 7th, the highest ranking among the firms in the household appliance sector that had also achieved a ranking. This is the fifth year in a row that Hisense has not only been included in the list but also found itself among the top ten. At the same time, Hisense ranked 8th on the inaugural BrandZ list of Top 20 Rising Stars in Emerging Markets, also placing highest among rivals in the household appliance sector. The KANTAR BrandZ Top 50 Chinese Global Brand Builders is one of the world's most informative and watched ranking of brands. The 2021 report surveyed more than 860,000 consumers across 11 markets, resulting in an authoritative evaluation that objectively identifies and classifies the brands that most appeal to consumers worldwide. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/hisense-ranks-among-brandz-top-10-chinese-global-brands-for-5th-consecutive-year-301290259.html SOURCE Hisense [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 03:25:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a hearing of U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Washington, D.C., the United States, on May 11, 2021. U.S. top health officials on Tuesday testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on efforts to combat COVID-19, urging people to get vaccinated. (Greg Nash/Pool via Xinhua) WASHINGTON, May 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. top health officials on Tuesday testified before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on efforts to combat COVID-19, urging people to get vaccinated. "We are at a critical turning point with the coronavirus and it will depend on continued vaccination to get us back to some form of normality," said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases under the National Institutes of Health. "We are in a race between the vaccine and the virus, if left to its own devices, (COVID-19 cases) will continue to surge based on experience thus far in this country and globally," said Fauci. "I feel confident that if we continue to vaccinate people at the rate that we're doing, that we will very soon have a situation where we will have so few infections in this country, we will begin to return to normality that all of us desire so much," the top infectious disease expert noted. U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky echoed Fauci, imploring everyone to get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible as a way to "end this pandemic". She urged parents to get their children vaccinated now that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech shots for children aged 12-15. "I am so proud to report the administration of more than 261 million vaccine doses," Walensky said, adding that over 84 percent of Americans aged 65 and older and over 58 percent of all adult Americans have received at least one vaccine dose. But "globally, the pandemic is more severe than ever," she said. "Surge of cases (in India) is tragic and a reminder that the virus can rapidly outstrip our efforts to contain it. If we are not careful, we will not end this pandemic without working hand in hand with countries around the globe to fight COVID-19." Along with continuing the effort to vaccinate every American, "we must also maintain public health measures," namely mask, hand hygiene, and physical distancing, Walensky said. David Kessler, chief science officer for the federal administration's COVID-19 response, expressed concerns that vaccination efforts alone won't end the pandemic. "I am concerned that even after we finish vaccinating most of the people who want to be vaccinated, by this summer there will still be a significant number of cases and an unacceptable number of deaths," he said. Enditem [May 12, 2021] Investing in Indigenous-Led Forest Economy on Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory WIIKWEMKOONG UNCEDED TERRITORY, ON, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Canada's forest sector is an important source of employment for many Indigenous communities. The Government of Canada is investing in projects to equip them with tools to build greener businesses and promote economic opportunity in the forest sector and within their communities. The Honourable Seamus O'Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources, today announced $155,280 in funding to Wiikwemkoong Unceded Indian Reserve to expand its Forest Resource Inventory business, which will help enhance their ability to bid on forest industry and government procurement contracts. This initiative will also provide more employment opportunities in their community. Funding from Natural Resources Canada is provided through the Indigenous Forestry Initiative (IFI) program, which supports Indigenous-led economic development opportunities in Canada's forest sector. By investing in Indigenous participation in the forest sector, we can advance Indigenous self-determination, close socio-economic gaps and provide greener solutions that tackle climate change and transition toward a low-carbon economy. This investment will create employment, increased knowledge and economic opportunities for Indigenous participation in the forest sector on their traditional lands. We recognize the value, both economically and spiritually, that the forest sector brings to these communities, and we're working toward building a stronger Indigenous forest sector. Quotes "Indigenous Peoples are taking economic development into their own hands and succeeding. The Indigenous Forestry Initiative supports Indigenous forestry workers and businesses with new opportunities to expand operations and grow while bringing local benefits to their communities." The Honourable Seamus O'Regan Jr. Minister of Natural Resources "With the support of NRCan's Indigenous Forestry Initiative, the Wiikwemkoong Dept. of Lands & Natural Resources' Forest Resource Inventory Program looks forward to enhancing its business plan and identifying economic opportunities by incorporating new Drone and LiDAR technology. This will enable the program to remain competitive in the forest resource inventory sector while providing detailed and accurate data to allow its clients to manage annual harvests and future silvicultural applications." John Manitowabi Director, Lands & Natural Resources Wiikwemkoong Department of Lands and Natural Resources Quick Facts Natural Resources Canada is contributing $13 million over three years (20202023) to support Indigenous forestry projects across Canada . To date, the IFI has committed approximately $6.8 million to projects, with approximately $6.2 million available for 20212023. Associated Links Indigenous Forestry Initiative (IFI) Program Wiikwemkoong Unceded Indian Reserve SOURCE Natural Resources Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Do It For the Culture: FloQast Named to Inc. Magazine's Annual List of Best Workplaces for 2021 LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FloQast , a provider of accounting workflow automation software created by accountants for accountants, today was named to Inc. magazines annual Best Workplaces list for 2021. Roughly 3,200 companies were nominated for this year's list, and FloQast was one of just a fraction to receive the honor. Inc's Best Workplaces list is reserved for companies that have created exceptional workplaces through vibrant cultures, deep employee engagement, and stellar benefits. Inclusion on the list is further validation that FloQast has been able to maintain its unique workplace culture and momentum, despite the challenges brought on by the global pandemic over the last year. "We have gone to extraordinary lengths to attract, develop, and maintain our workforce, and that makes being named an Inc. Best Workplace especially meaningful," said Adey Tadesse-Heath, Director of Human Resources at FloQast. We have a relentless drive to service both our employees and our customers, and in turn, our employees make FloQast a great place to work. From top to bottom, our team has shown admirable resiliency during a challenging year, and this, combined with our company culture, perfectly positions us for further growth and success. This honor is part of a continued trend of FloQast recognition as an excellent place to work. In January, the company was named a Best Place to Work in Los Angeles by Built In LA, as well as one of LAs Best Midsize Companies to Work For and a LA Company with the Best Benefits; last year it was named one of the Best Places to Work in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal . Staples of FloQast's award-worthy company culture include: World-class benefits: Employees receive 100% paid healthcare, free access to online therapy, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, unlimited vacation, and mental health days during months without paid holidays to ensure employees stay fresh and take time to unplug. Employees receive 100% paid healthcare, free access to online therapy, 12 weeks of paid parental leave, unlimited vacation, and mental health days during months without paid holidays to ensure employees stay fresh and take time to unplug. Unique career opportunities: The company takes its by accountants, for accountants mantra seriously by attracting accounting professionals and giving them new career opportunities within the tech industry. Roughly a third of FloQast employees have accounting/finance backgrounds. The company takes its by accountants, for accountants mantra seriously by attracting accounting professionals and giving them new career opportunities within the tech industry. Roughly a third of FloQast employees have accounting/finance backgrounds. Unmatched camaraderie: A wide variety of fun and engaging social events [mainly remote over the past year-plus due to the pandemic] and an employee donation matching program contribute to distinguished company culture filled with highly engaged teams. As FloQast announces its status as an Inc. Best Workplace for 2021, opportunities abound to join its rapidly growing team. The company is in the midst of a hiring phase that will grow its workforce by roughly 50% over the coming year, including nationwide in its Los Angeles-area headquarters and offices in Ohio and New York, and globally. For more information on the opportunities available, visit FloQasts careers page . About FloQast Recognized as a 2020 Technology Fast 500 by Deloitte, FloQast is the leader in accounting workflow automation created by accountants for accountants to work smarter, not harder. The cloud-based, AI-enhanced software is trusted by more than 1,000 accounting teams, including those at Lyft, Twilio, Instacart, Zoom and The Golden State Warriorsand proud to be rated #1 across all user review sites. By automating common accounting workflows and helping to streamline and make them more efficient, FloQast is the place where accounting teams want to work so they can focus on what matters most, even when thats just going home on time. Whether automating reconciliations, documentation requests or other workflows such as the month-end close, financial reporting or payroll, FloQast enhances the way accounting teams already work to help them work smarter. Learn more at floqast.com . Contact: Sammy Totah BOCA Communications for FloQast floqast@bocacommunications.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Lackawanna College Selects FirstLight for Campus Connectivity to Fuel Its School of Petroleum and Natural Gas ALBANY, N.Y., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstLight, a leading provider of fiber-optic data, Internet, data center, cloud, and voice services to enterprise and carrier customers throughout the northeast, announced today that Lackawanna College has selected FirstLight as the fiber provider for its new satellite center in Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. The new Center will offer traditional associate degree and certificate programs and be the new home for the College's School of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Lackawanna College, a college with seven satellite centers located through northeastern Pennsylvania and located just west of Scranton, chose FirstLight for a dedicated Internet connection for the new campus. The School of Petroleum and Natural Gas at Lackawanna College prepares students to be operations technicians responsible for the production and processing of oil and gas. Students learn concepts in oil and gas discovery, drilling, production, pipelining, processing, and other industry-related skills, many of them involving computer skills and online student research. "As is the case with most other disciplines, a degree program in petroleum technology involves a significant amount of digital learning, hands-on labs, and computer simulations, so having access to a dedicated broadband delivered over a high-speed fiber network is critical to our program's success," said TJ Eltingham, Lackawanna College Chief Operating Officer. "FirstLight has network near our campus, so it made sense to consider FirstLight. They met an aggressive timeline, and we couldn't be happier with their service and speed." The two-year associate degree program includes 160-hour internships, and trains students for careers in states including Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, West Virginia and New Jersey. "We're pleased to have Lackawanna College as one of our newest customers in Pennsylvania, adding to our growing portfolio of higher educational institutions," said Kurt Van Wagenen, FirstLight President and CEO. "Pennsylvania is an area in which FirstLight is increasingly investing resources and expanding its network, particularly in the Scranton region. We're honored to contribute to the future success of students who are learning innovative and environmentally responsible ways to power our industry and economy." Last year, FirstLight announced plans to acquire the Keystone Initiative for Network Based Education and Research (KINBER) network, which will expand its presence into Western Pennsylvania as well. Future expansion is also planned for Reading, Harrisburg, and Wilkes-Barre. About FirstLight FirstLight, headquartered in Albany, New York, provides fiber-optic data, Internet, data center, cloud, unified communications, and managed services to enterprise and carrier customers throughout the Northeast and mid-Atlantic connecting more than 10,000 locations in service with more than 30,000 locations serviceable by our more than 24,000-route mile network. FirstLight offers a robust suite of advanced telecommunications products featuring a comprehensive portfolio of high bandwidth connectivity solutions including Ethernet, wavelength and dark fiber services as well as dedicated Internet access solutions, data center, cloud and voice services. FirstLight's clientele includes national cellular providers and wireline carriers and many leading enterprises, spanning high tech manufacturing and research, hospitals and healthcare, banking and financial, secondary education, colleges and universities, and local and state governments. To learn more about FirstLight, visit www.firstlight.net, or follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. Media Contact: Maura Mahoney MMahoney@firstlight.net About Lackawanna College: Founded in 1894, Lackawanna College is a private, accredited college serving the people of northeastern Pennsylvania. With the main campus situated in downtown Scranton, Lackawanna's expanding footprint also includes satellite centers in Hawley, Hazleton, Sunbury, Towanda, the Environmental Education Center in Covington Township, and the new Tunkhannock Center. Learn more at www.lackawanna.edu. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lackawanna-college-selects-firstlight-for-campus-connectivity-to-fuel-its-school-of-petroleum-and-natural-gas-301289915.html SOURCE FirstLight [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] LatAm Logistic Properties Signs 31,400 Square Meters Build-to-Suit Agreement with Alicorp in Peru SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- LatAm Logistic Properties, S.A., the leading developer, owner, and operator of modern sustainable logistic real estate in the Andean and Central American regions, today announced that on April 27th, 2021 it has signed a build-to-suit agreement with Alicorp for 31,400 square meters in Lima, Peru. The term of lease agreement is greater than 3 years and includes an additional 6,000 square meters of temporary space for six months starting on July 1, 2021. Alicorp is a leading consumer goods company in the Peruvian market and has presence in other businesses such as business-to-business, aquafeed and crushing. The company operates in ten Latin American countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Uruguay and Peru. The new facility will be located at LatAm Parque Logistico Lima Sur in the Lurin submarket of Lima Peru and will serve as Alicorp's regional distribution center for Peru. LatAm Parque Logistico Lima Sur is the city's premier masterplanned park in Lima, Peru. Upon completion of the build-to-suit, LatAm Parque Logistico Lima Sur will include five buildings totaling 93,300 square meters, with land capable of supporting an additional building and expansion area of 31,700 square meters. "The location of LatAm Parque Logistico Lima Sur was ideally suited to meet our distribution needs, which directly enhances the quality of service we can provide to our clients," said Jorge Caro, Corporate Director of Distribution at Alicorp. "LatAm Logistic Properties is an mportant partner in our expansion efforts, and these state-of-the-art buildings will support our growth in Peru and in the region." "Demand for modern, well-located facilities in Peru remains strong as companies look to optimize their distribution networks," said Alvaro Chinchayan, Peru Country Manager, LatAm Logistic Properties. "We are well-positioned to meet these needs by providing modern, sustainable Class-A logistics facilities." "We are very pleased to start our relationship with Alicorp and accommodate their growing business," said Mike Fangman, CEO, LatAm Logistic Properties. "This agreement is the largest single lease contract signed by LatAm Logistic Properties in Peru and reflects the lack of supply of Class-A logistics facilities in Peru. Consumption is driving solid demand for high-quality logistics facilities throughout Peru, and we are well suited to meet this need in the future." LatAm Logistic Properties is the leading provider of logistic real estate in Peru, with an owned and managed portfolio of 61,900 square meters of logistics and distribution space in Lima, Peru, as of December 31, 2020. ABOUT LATAM LOGISTIC PROPERTIES LatAm Logistic Properties, S.A. is a leading developer, owner, and operator of modern sustainable logistic real estate in high-growth and high barrier to entry markets in the Andean and Central American regions. The Company's customers are multinational and regional companies dedicated to third party logistics, business-to-business distribution, retail distribution and e-commerce fulfillment centers. Our strong customer relationships and insight into the markets will enable future growth through development and acquisition of high-quality, strategically located facilities in target markets. As of December 31, 2020, LatAm Logistic Properties was comprised of an operating and development portfolio of twenty logistic facilities in Colombia, Peru and Costa Rica totaling 313,600 square meters of gross leasable area. After the build-out of the company's wholly owned land bank and co-investment land ventures, LatAm Logistic Properties is expected to reach 600,500 square meters of gross leasable area. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Information contained herein contains "forward looking statements". Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical facts and may be "forward looking statements". Forward looking statements are based on expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those presently anticipated. Forward looking statements may be identified through the use of words such as "expects", "will", "anticipates", "estimates", "believes", or by statements indicating certain actions "may", "could", "should" or "might" occur. Contact: https://latamlp.com/ View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/latam-logistic-properties-signs-31-400-square-meters-build-to-suit-agreement-with-alicorp-in-peru-301289922.html SOURCE LatAm Logistic Properties S.A. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] The LGL Group Reports First Quarter 2021 Results The LGL Group, Inc. (NYSE American: LGL) (the "Company" or "LGL"), announced its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2021. Revenues of $6.5 million declined (24.2%) compared to Q1 2020 revenues of $8.6 million Operating loss of $60,000 versus income of $0.7 million for the prior year period Diluted net income of $0.01 per share compared to $0.04 per share for the prior year quarter Adjusted EBITDA for Q1 2021 was $0.2 million compared to $0.7 million for Q1 2020 Backlog was $20.4 million versus $19.8 million at December 31, 2020 and $22.6 million at March 31, 2020 The Company's President and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Ferrantino, said, "Although we continue to feel the effects of COVID-19 on our businesses, the prospects for LGL are strong and I am privileged to have the opportunity to begin leading LGL this month, an exciting time from both an investment and operating prospective." Commenting on the Company's Q1 2021 results, Bill Drafts, President and Chief Executive Officer of LGL's main operating unit, MtronPTI, stated, "We are committed to streamlining our operations and implementing high-payback capital improvements as we manage the impact of COVID-19 on our customers, suppliers and employees. We are confident MtronPTI will emerge a stronger, more efficient company as business conditions improve." Financial Results Review Revenues were $6.5 million versus $8.6 million for the first quarter of 2020, a decrease of $2.1 million, or 24.2%. Revenues were significantly impacted by the decline in the avionics market and the delay of orders from certain customers experiencing semiconductor component shortages. The comparison also reflects the pre-COVID-19 conditions in all markets during the first quarter of 2020. The backlog was $20.4 million versus $19.8 million last quarter and $22.6 million for first quarter 2020. Quarterly bookings have been improving sequentially over the last few quarters but remain substantially below pre-COVID-19 levels. Improvement in new avionics bookings started this quarter, but deliveries are not being scheduled until early next year. Gross margins were 32.7% compared to 34.3% for the prior year quarter. Gross margins were impacted by the temporary onshoring of production to our U.S. factories after last year's COVID-19 shutdown of India and lower avionics volume at our Yankton plant, resulting in increased production costs. Cost saving measures have been taken, but certain costs continue to be incurred to preserve manufacturing capabilities in both our India and Yankton plants. Operating loss was $60,000 compared to income of $0.7 million for the first quarter of 2020 largely reflecting the reduced revenue and, to a lesser degree, lower margins. Diluted earnings per share were $0.01 per share compared to $0.04 per share in the first quarter of 2020. Weighted average shares outstanding at March 31, 2021 were 5.4 million versus 5.1 million at March 31, 2020. Quarterly adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was $0.2 million in the first quarter of 2021 versus $0.7 million in the first quarter of 2020. (See GAAP reconciliation in the Appendix.) Balance Sheet The Company's strong balance sheet reflects a net cash position including marketable securities of $24.6 million at March 31, 2021 compared to $24.1 million at December 31, 2020. The Company continues to explore growth organically and through diversified merger and acquisitions and believes the relationship with the SPAC has enhanced its strategic profile in this context. The Company's investment in the Sponsor of the SPAC, LGL Systems Acquisition Corp. (NYSE-DFNS), is expected to realize value for shareholders. In March 2021, DFNS announced it signed a business combination agreement with IronNet Cybersecurity, Inc. ("IronNet"), an innovative leader transforming cybersecurity through Collective Defense. The combined company will be renamed "IronNet Cybersecurity, Inc." and will be listed on the NYSE American and trade under the ticker symbol "IRNT". The Company subscribed to a $2.7 million investment into the Sponsor in March 2021 which it funded in May. The investment will be part of the Sponsor syndication of $5.66 million organized to participate in a $125 million private placement ("PIPE") purchase of 12,500.000 shares of DFNS Class A common stock. About The LGL Group, Inc. The LGL Group, Inc., through its two principal subsidiaries MtronPTI and PTF, designs, manufactures and markets highly-engineered electronic components used to control the frequency or timing of signals in electronic circuits, and designs high performance frequency and time reference standards that form the basis for timing and synchronization in various applications. Headquartered in Orlando, Florida, the Company has additional design and manufacturing facilities in Yankton, South Dakota, Wakefield, Massachusetts and Noida, India, with local sales offices in Hong Kong and Austin, Texas. For more information on the Company and its products and services, contact James Tivy at The LGL Group, Inc., 2525 Shader Rd., Orlando, Florida 32804, (407) 298-2000, or visit www.lglgroup.com and www.mtronpti.com. Caution Concerning Forward Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements made in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21 E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements include all statements that do not relate solely to historical or current facts, and can be identified by the use of words such as "may," "will," "expect," "project," "estimate," "anticipate," "plan," "believe," "potential," "should," "continue" or the negative versions of those words or other comparable words. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future actions or performance. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to us and our current plans or expectations and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect current plans, anticipated actions and our future financial condition and results. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are described in greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We are under no obligation to (and expressly disclaim any such obligation to) update or alter our forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. THE LGL GROUP, INC. Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (Unaudited) (Dollars in Thousands, Except Share and Per Share Amounts) For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2021 2020 REVENUES $ 6,536 $ 8,618 Costs and expenses: Manufacturing cost of sales 4,401 5,662 Engineering, selling and administrative 2,195 2,296 OPERATING (LOSS) INCOME (60 ) 660 Total other income (expense), net 93 (423 ) INCOME BEFORE INCOME TAXES 33 237 Income tax expense 6 54 NET (News - Alert) INCOME $ 27 $ 183 Weighted average number of shares used in basic EPS calculation 5,272,204 5,052,184 BASIC NET INCOME PER COMMON SHARE $ 0.01 $ 0.04 Weighted average number of shares used in diluted EPS calculation 5,350,571 5,097,879 DILUTED NET INCOME PER COMMON SHARE $ 0.01 $ 0.04 THE LGL GROUP, INC. Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets (Unaudited) (Dollars in Thousands) March 31, 2021 December 31, 2020 ASSETS Cash and cash equivalents $ 18,678 $ 18,331 Marketable securities 5,918 5,791 Accounts receivable, net 3,913 4,122 Inventories, net 5,339 5,280 Prepaid expenses and other current assets 365 257 Total Current Assets 34,213 33,781 Property, plant, and equipment, net 2,725 2,785 Right-of-use lease assets 396 422 Equity investment in unconsolidated subsidiary 5,721 * 3,072 Intangible assets, net 308 327 Deferred income taxes, net 3,023 3,052 Other assets 64 16 Total Assets $ 46,450 $ 43,455 LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY Total Current Liabilities 6,308 * 3,397 Total Long-Term Liabilities 272 293 Total Liabilities 6,580 3,690 Total Stockholders' Equity 39,870 39,765 Total Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity $ 46,450 $ 43,455 * Includes $2.7 million subscription agreement with Sponsor for PIPE Reconciliations of GAAP to Non-GAAP Measures To supplement our consolidated financial statements presented on a GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) basis, the Company uses certain non-GAAP measures, including Adjusted EBITDA, which we define as net income adjusted to exclude depreciation and amortization expense, interest income (expense), provision (benefit) for income taxes, stock-based compensation expense, investment income and other items we believe are discrete events which have a significant impact on comparable GAAP measures and could distort an evaluation of our normal operating performance. These adjustments to our GAAP results are made with the intent of providing both management and investors a more complete understanding of the underlying operational results and trends and our marketplace performance. The presentation of this additional information is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for net earnings or diluted earnings per share prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. Reconciliation of GAAP Net Income Before Income Taxes to Non-GAAP Adjusted EBITDA: For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2021 2020 (000's, except share and per share amounts) Net income before income taxes $ 33 $ 237 Interest expense, net 3 - Depreciation and amortization 134 135 Non-cash stock compensation 78 10 Investment (income) loss (127 ) 293 Loss on equity investment in unconsolidated subsidiary 76 39 Adjusted EBITDA $ 197 $ 714 Basic per share information: Weighted average shares outstanding 5,272,204 5,052,184 Adjusted EBITDA per share $ 0.04 $ 0.14 Diluted per share information: Weighted average shares outstanding 5,350,571 5,097,879 Adjusted EBITDA per share $ 0.04 $ 0.14 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005908/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz to Keynote and Moderate Panel Discussion for Connecticut Family Caregivers HARTFORD, Conn., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Connecticut Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz will be the featured speaker and moderator of a virtual panel discussion entitled, "Navigating the Role of Family Caregivers After a Pandemic: Resources and Supports Available to Connecticut Families." The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on the significant burdens shouldered by more than 53 million Americans who care for family members with serious medical conditions at home. While the number of family caregivers across the country was increasing prior to the onset of COVID-19, their ranks accelerated rapidly over the past year. Connecticut has been rallying around its family caregivers throughout this difficult time by providing needed services and supports. In 2020, the state of Connecticut was awarded the Pacesetter Prize from the Scan Foundation in recognition of its continuous efforts to increase the access and affordability of programs for older adults, individuals with disabilities, and family aregivers. Joining the Lieutenant Governor as panel speakers are Ross Davis, State Director of Caregiver Homes of Connecticut; Anna Doroghazi, State Director of Advocacy and Outreach for AARP; Professor Julie Robison, PhD, from the University of Connecticut's Center on Aging; and Melissa Lang, President and CEO of the Agency on Aging of South Central Connecticut. The one-hour virtual event will take place on Wednesday, May 12th, from 10 a.m. 11 a.m. and will also feature Linda Hodgson, who will share her experience caring for her mother and the resources she accessed to do so. "We appreciate the opportunity to collaborate with the state of Connecticut and our esteemed panelists on this presentation. We hope that, together, we can answer caregivers' questions about available resources across the state so that they know they are not alone," said Ross Davis of Caregiver Homes. "We are grateful to Lieutenant Governor Bysiewicz for bringing attention to this important issue." Registration is open to the public and available at this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1VDUM1ofSrm_6gD5rbJPLQ?utm_content=166048818&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin&hss_channel=lcp-147669 About Caregiver Homes from Seniorlink Caregiver Homes from Seniorlink is a tech-enabled health services company focused on keeping care in the home, where family caregivers play a pivotal role. Our solutions combine collaboration technology through our proprietary app, Vela; evidence-based clinical protocols; and the human touch of dedicated care teams working in partnership with family caregivers. Seniorlink's solutions lead to improved outcomes, cost savings, and improved consumer engagement and satisfaction for health plans and providers. For more information, please visit www.Seniorlink.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lieutenant-governor-susan-bysiewicz-to-keynote-and-moderate-panel-discussion-for-connecticut-family-caregivers-301289436.html SOURCE Seniorlink, Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] New Survey Reveals High Satisfaction with the Affordability and Quality of Online Degree Programs Supported by Academic Partnerships DALLAS, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Academic Partnerships (AP), a leading online facilitator for affordable higher education, and Chief Outsiders, a leading strategic marketing and management firm, today announced the results of a survey showing that 93% of alumni of AP-supported degrees are satisfied with their online degree program. The survey also showed that 97% of all survey respondents were employed, primarily in nursing, education and business. The survey, conducted by Chief Outsiders in collaboration with numerous university partners, included online surveys with more than 6,200 responding graduates of AP-supported degree programs, the majority of which were working nurses, teachers and business professionals. Other highlights of the survey in addition to those noted above include the following: Alumni expressed high satisfaction with several features of their program, including the quality of the education, affordability, types of degrees offered and convenience with their schedule. Large numbers said their degrees had positive impacts on their career and work, including: 86% agreed their degree improved their industry knowledge. 81% agreed their degree had made them an attractive candidate for employers. 79% agreed their degree prepared them for leadership positions. The survey revealed that the three top factors in selecting their university were affordability, time to completion, and the reputation of the institution and program. It also shed light on why alumni had decided to obtain their degrees, with the top three reasons being a personal goal, greater employment opportunities, and career advancement within their industry. "These survey results underscore the importance of expanding access to top quality, affordable and workforce relevant education," said Rob Ganji, AP CEO. "While we are proud of the role AP plays, the high satisfaction of students is a testament to the trusted brands of our university partners and their high-quality degree progras. As the results show, these degrees make a real difference in the advancement of these students, and importantly, this is all done with a weighted average tuition of $14,000 or less for the entire degree for AP-supported programs overall. The pandemic has only further exacerbated the need for affordable and accessible online higher education, especially in critical areas such as healthcare and education." "The survey results show that Academic Partnerships is delivering on its mission to help universities and students succeed," said Ed Valdez, Partner and CMO at Chief Outsiders. "More than 90% of alumni surveyed in AP-supported degree programs are satisfied with the education they received, giving high marks for quality, convenience, and affordability. These student insights reveal that providing career-advancing degrees has become a university imperative to enable a future-ready workforce; AP is enabling universities to meet that imperative. With 87 percent of professionals experiencing or anticipating skills gaps, online degrees provide a compelling option for reskilling or upskilling in a post-digital era." Based in Dallas, Texas, Academic Partnerships is a leading online facilitator that serves more than 50 universities across the country to help expand access to top-quality, affordable, and workforce-relevant education. About Academic Partnerships Academic Partnerships is an online facilitator that assists primarily regional public institutions of higher education in taking their academic programs online and recruits and retains qualified students through program completion. AP's mission is to expand access to top quality, affordable and workforce relevant education, especially for working and adult students. Founded in digital innovation more than a decade ago, Academic Partnerships brings single-minded dedication, an integrated set of services and data-driven performance to our collaboration with university partnerseven more so as we face the challenges brought on by COVID-19. For more information on innovative online learning solutions, please visit www.academicpartnerships.com. About Chief Outsiders Chief Outsiders, LLC is a nationwide "Executives-as-a-Service" firm, with more than 80 part-time, or fractional, Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) engaged from coast-to-coast. Unlike other strategic marketing and management consulting firms, each CMO has held the position of VP Marketing or higher at one or more operating companies. Chief Outsiders have served on the executive team of over 1,100 client companies to drive growth strategy and execution plans for a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive. For additional information about the companies who trust Chief Outsiders as their premier source for business growth acceleration, click here . View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-survey-reveals-high-satisfaction-with-the-affordability-and-quality-of-online-degree-programs-supported-by-academic-partnerships-301289418.html SOURCE Academic Partnerships [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Panaseer raises $26.5m in series B funding to solve cybersecurity's biggest challenge LONDON and NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Panaseer, the first Continuous Controls Monitoring platform for enterprise security, today announces it has secured $26.5 million in series B funding. The financing round was led by AllegisCyber Capital with participation from existing investors, including Evolution Equity Partners, Notion Capital, AlbionVC, Cisco Investments and Paladin Capital Group, as well as new investor, National Grid Partners. Panaseer's total funding to date is now $43m. Panaseer has pioneered the category of Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM). The technology is solving the biggest challenge in cybersecurity today enterprises do not know if their security controls are providing full protection at any given moment in time. In fact, Gartner's latest Emerging Risks Report highlights 'cybersecurity control failures' as the top emerging risk in the first quarter of 2021. Panaseer's CCM platform is unique in correlating data from all security tools to identify missing assets, control gaps, and underperforming controls. The platform enables quick understanding of zero-day and other exposures as they relate to a business. For example, organisations can immediately understand exposure to FireEye or SolarWinds vulnerabilities to see how they impact business-critical systems or processes, and quantitatively validate and track remediation through accountable owners over time. The number of data breaches in 2020 broke all previous records, with 43% of businesses suffering a security breach. This is despite 12-15% year-on-year growth in enterprise cyber investments and the deployment of more security tools. The average enterprise is running over 50 security tools at any given time. More tools, people, and spending are not strengthening cyber posture, largely as a result of unknown control failures or gaps. Panaseer's CCM technology solves these issues. CCM is fast becoming a required capability for regulated enterprises. Last year CCM was included as a new category in Gartner's Risk Management Hype Cycle. Customers have given Panaseer an average score of 4.6-stars out of 5 on Gartner Peer Insights. Panaseer's annually recurring revenue grew by 3.3X during 2020. This funding round will help accelerate product feature development and enhance customer success and service delivery. Bob Ackerman, Founder and Managing Director of AllegisCyber Capital, and Co-Founder of DataTribe: "The emergence of Continuous Controls Monitoring as a new cybersecurity category demonstrates a 'coming of age' for cybersecurity. Cyber is the existential threat to the global digital economy. All levels of the enterprise, from the CISO, to Chief Risk Officer, to the Board of Directors are demanding comprehensive visibility, transparency and hard metrics to assess cyber situational awareness. Panaseer has demonstrated itself as the leader in this critical new category and we are excited to be working with the team to further advance its leadership role in this essential market." "Existing cybersecurity tools tend to b proprietary and fragmented, so CCM is emerging as a new category to automatically ensure all those tools are operational and to identify gaps," said Ian Cooper, Head of CVC Europe for National Grid Partners. "Some of the world's biggest financial services firms tell us Panaseer's solution is already a critical part of their cybersecurity stack. And with a seasoned management team, the company is poised to seize a bigger piece of a multi-billion-dollar market opportunity." Jonathan Gill, CEO, Panaseer: "Most enterprises have the tools and capability to theoretically prevent a breach from occurring. However, one of the key reasons that breaches occur is that there is no technology to monitor and react to failed controls. CCM continuously validates and measures levels of protection and provides notifications of failures. Ultimately, CCM enables these failures to be fixed before they become security incidents, saving time, cost, and allowing businesses to go faster. Our investors are providing further validation of the market so we can enable more enterprises to evolve their cybersecurity at the speed of their business." Rob Hyde, CISO, Schroders: "Panaseer has allowed us to gain the insight we need into our security controls to always know whether they're adequately deployed and operating effectively." About Panaseer Panaseer is the first Continuous Controls Monitoring (CCM) platform for enterprise security. CCM solves the biggest challenge in cybersecurity today. Enterprises do not know if their security controls are providing full protection at any given moment in time. Panaseer's CCM platform uniquely correlates data from all security tools to identify and measure missing assets, control gaps, and advise on underperforming controls. CCM has become a required capability for regulated enterprises. Last year CCM was included in Gartner's Hype Cycle?under its Risk Management category. Recently, Momentum Cyber included CCM in its Cybersecurity Almanac, as a next generation technology that will shape the future of cybersecurity. ? Panaseer's CCM platform was named as the 'Best Regulatory Compliance Tool and Solution' at the 2020 SC Awards Europe, and it also received the Editor's Choice award from Cyber Defense Magazine for its 'Continuous Controls Monitoring platform.' Panaseer clients include the world's largest institutions and enterprises. Its total funding to date is?$43 million and its investors include: AllegisCyber Capital, National Grid Partners, Evolution Equity Partners, Notion,?AlbionVC, Cisco Investments and Paladin Capital Group.? For more information:?www.panaseer.com? About AllegisCyber Capital AllegisCyber Capital is passionate about identifying companies and entrepreneurs developing disruptive and innovative approaches to address the crucial issues on the fast-changing cybersecurity landscape. AllegisCyber Capital uses an integrated investment platform and a game-changing strategic partnership with cybersecurity start-up studio DataTribe to give its entrepreneurs an unfair competitive advantage. DataTribe, a cybersecurity start-up foundry located in Maryland, focuses on launching start-ups based on cyber domain expertise out of the intelligence community and national laboratories. Representative portfolio companies of AllegisCyber Capital include: vArmour, Shape, Prevailion, Synack, Enveil and Dragos. www.allegiscyber.com About National Grid Partners National Grid Partners (NGP) is the venture investment and innovation arm of National Grid plc., one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world. NGP invests for strategic and financial impact and leads companywide disruptive innovation efforts. The organisation provides a multi-functional approach to building startups, including innovation (new business creation), incubation, corporate venture capital, business development and culture acceleration. NGP is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has offices in Boston, London, and New York. Visit ngpartners.com or follow on Twitter (@ngpartners_) and LinkedIn for more information. About Evolution Equity Partners Evolution Equity Partners, based in Palo Alto, New York City, London and Zurich invests in fast growing technology companies helping exceptional entrepreneurs develop market leading companies. The firm has a focus on Cybersecurity and technology that safeguards our digital world. Evolution's partners have been involved as founders, investors and as senior operating executives in leading software companies around the world. Learn more at www.evolutionequity.com and follow us at LinkedIn and Twitter. About Notion Capital Notion Capital is a venture capital firm with more than $500m assets under management, investing in European SaaS and enterprise technology, with more than 60 investments to date. The Notion team founded, built and exited two highly successful SaaS businesses - Star and MessageLabs - and invests exclusively in enterprise tech and SaaS with the ambition to build global category leaders. The Notion portfolio includes Brightpearl, Currencycloud, GoCardless, Mews, Paddle, Topia, Tradeshift, Unbabel, Tradeshift, Triptease and Workable. For more information visit: www.notion.vc About AlbionVC AlbionVC helps build the future of enterprise and healthcare. With 20+ years' experience in technology investments, the team focus on B2B software and healthcare at series A. AlbionVC manages c.500m of venture funds, currently invested in over 50 companies. AlbionVC is the technology investment arm of Albion Capital Group LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. www.albion.vc About Paladin Capital Group Paladin Capital Group was founded in 2001 and has offices in Washington DC, New York, Silicon Valley, London, and Luxembourg. As a multi-stage investor, Paladin focuses on best-of-breed companies with technologies, products and services that meet the challenging global cybersecurity and digital infrastructure resilience needs for commercial and government customers. Paladin has over $1 billion in committed capital across multiple funds. For updates, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] ProcessMAP Establishes its European Headquarters in Germany to Expand its EHS Software Offering for European Customers ProcessMAP Corporation, the industry leader in offering a cloud-based data intelligence platform for Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) transformation; and Operational Risk Management (ORM) announced today that the company has established its European headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The new headquarters will play a key role in facilitating collaboration with customers, co-innovating solutions specific to local needs, and enabling even stronger customer success engagement at more than 15,000 customer locations across Europe. Strategic Drivers for Growth and Expansion in Europe The 28-member European Union (EU) block has a strong commitment to environmental sustainability, as well as to workplace health and safety. In December 2019, countries in the region adopted the European Green Deal - a set of policy initiatives that aim to ensure that there are no net new emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050 and that the regional economy is decoupled from resource use. Similarly, in the second quarter of 2021, EU countries will present a new Occupational Safety and Health Strategic Framework for the period 2021-27, to update protection standards for workers and tackle both traditional and new work-related risks. Work-related accidents and illnesses lead to an estimated annual loss of around 3.3% of GDP in the EU. Over the past decade, the European occupational safety and health (OSH) policy framework and rules have contributed to considerably improving working conditions. The incidence rate of fatal accidents at work has fallen by nearly 30%1. Reflecting the strategic focus and importance Europe places on EHS areas, the region accounts for more than 25% of the global EHS software market and is the second-largest market after North America. According to estimates published by Verdantix2, an independent research and advisory firm, the European market for EHS software will grow by an overall 70% or a CAGR of 11.2%, from $379 million in 2021 to reach $645 million by 2026. ProcessMAP's Strong Foundation in Europe ProcessMAP already has a strong presence in Europe with more than 60 Fortune 1000 companies with more than 5,000 locations in most countries across Europe. ProcessMAP's European customers include some of the largest automotive manufacturers, leading multinational diversified engineering and industrial manufacturing companies, and many chemicals, pharma, and consumer products companies among others. The company's customer base and platform adoption have experienced phenomenal growth over the past five years with more than 400% increase in driving digital transformation in numerous key EHS processes. ProcessMAP Europe Team ProcessMAP's European headquarters in Eschborn will leverage the advantage of its proximity to Frankfurt, one of the most vibrant business centers in all of Europe, to tap into highly qualified talent, and serve both local and international customers. The current team will be expanded with professionals having experience in HSE, ESG, Industrial Hygiene, Occupational Health and Wellness, and regulatory compliance to support ProcessMAP's growing customer base in Europe. Comments on the News "ProcessMAP's enterprise-grade EHS solutions help drive the EHS digital transformation for organizations across the world. The company has been recognized as a "Leader" for five times in our flagship Green Quadrant report on EHS Software, with most recently in 2021," said William Pennington, EHS Research Director, Verdantix. "Now, with ProcessMAP's new European headquarters, the company will be able to further strengthen its collaboration with local customers and accelerate their journey towards offering a safe and healthy work environment to their employees," he added. "ProcessMAP's expansion into Europe underscores our commitment to collaborate and innovate with our customers, across all geographies, accelerate the digital transformation of their EHS initiatives, proactively mitigate workplace health and safety risks, and foster a safety-first culture," said Dave Rath, CEO of ProcessMAP Corporation. "ProcessMAP has a long history of supporting customer operations across Europe. We are in the process of growing our European team to proactively support our 15,000 existing customer locations as well as to accelerate the HSE digital transformation for new customers," said Harold Gubnitsky, President of ProcessMAP Corporation. 1 - European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan (2021) 2 - Verdantix, Market Size And Forecast: EHS Software 2020-2026 (Global), February 2021 About Verdantix Verdantix is an independent research and consulting firm with expertise in environment, health, safety and quality, operational excellence, smart buildings, as well as ESG & sustainability technologies. Through our research and advisory services, we help corporate managers, investors, technology executives and service firm leaders to make robust, fact-based decisions. We are committed to delivering objective, timely and accurate analysis to help our clients succeed. Visit https://www.verdantix.com/ to learn more. About ProcessMAP Corporation ProcessMAP is the leading EHS process and data intelligence platform that empowers our customers to minimize risk, assure compliance, and ensure safety. ProcessMAP's analytics-driven cloud platform and advanced mobile-first solutions enable digital transformation, process consistency, and data harmonization to drive actionable intelligence. We are headquartered in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with locations across the globe, serving customers in over 140 countries. Visit https://www.processmap.com/ to learn more. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005095/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Market to Reach $9.16 Bn, Globally, by 2027 at 9.9% CAGR: Allied Market Research Requirement of optimizing the value of project investments and rise in complexity of enterprise projects drive the growth of the global project portfolio management (PPM) market. PORTLAND, Ore., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Allied Market Research published a report, titled, "Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Market by Component (Software and Service), Deployment Type (On-Premise and Cloud), Organization Size (Large Enterprise and Small & Medium Enterprise), and Industry Vertical (BFSI, IT & Telecom, Retail, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Government & Defense, and Others): Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 20202027." According to the report, the global project portfolio management (PPM) industry generated $4.33 billion in 2019, and is expected to generate $9.16 billion by 2027, witnessing a CAGR of 9.9% from 2020 to 2027. Download Sample Report: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/10754 Prime determinants of growth Requirement of optimizing the value of project investments, rise in complexity of enterprise projects, and need for collaboration and monitoring tools drive the growth of the global project portfolio management market. However, issues related to data privacy and steep learning curves for PPM software hinder the market growth. On the other hand, reduction in project failure rate by embracing agile methods and adoption of cloud-based PPM integrated applications present new opportunities in the coming years. Impact of Covid-19 on PPM Market: Owing to lockdown imposed in many countries and adoption of "work from home" culture by most of the organizations, the need for project portfolio management services and software increased considerably for efficient tracking and execution of projects. The specialized tools of PPM helped in strategizing and executing projects. During the post-pandemic period, the demand for cloud-based PPM solutions would rise as it provides high level of scalability, reduction in the cost of implementation, and continual availability. Get detailed COVID-19 impact analysis on the Project Portfolio Management (ppm) Market: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-for-customization/10754?reqfor=covid The software segment to maintain its lead position during the forecast period Based on component, the software segment accounted for nearly two-thirds of the global project portfolio management market in 2019, and is projected to maintain its lead position during the forecast period. This is due to resource management, change control, pipeline management, change control, financial management, and most importantly risk assessment and management features provided by software. However, the services segment is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR of 11.6% from 2020 to 2027, owing to the increase in demand for training of employees and maintenance services for organizations. The BFSI segment to maintain its leadership status by 2027 Based o industry vertical, the BFSI segment contributed to the highest market share in 2019, accounting for more than one-fourth of the global project portfolio management market in 2019, and is expected to maintain its leadership status by 2027. This is due to increased multi-regional operations as well as outsourcing activities in the financial institutions. However, the healthcare segment is projected to portray the largest CAGR of 16.4% from 2020 to 2027. This is due to need to integrate various delivery systems to share information and report to agencies along with providing certain aspects of the health services to their patients. For Purchase Inquiry: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/10754 North America to maintain its dominance in terms of revenue by 2027 Based on region, North America held the highest market share in 2019, accounting for nearly two-fifths of the global project portfolio management market, and is estimated to maintain its dominance in terms of revenue by 2027. This is due to the presence of a large number of solution and service vendors in this region. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to witness the fastest CAGR of 12.6% from 2020 to 2027, owing to dynamic increase in the adoption of the internet by enterprises and rapid technological advancements. Leading market players Oracle Corporation Microsoft Corporation lanview, Inc. Broadcom Inc. Workfront ServiceNow, Inc. Upland Software, Inc. Micro Focus Planisware Sciforma Official Press Release: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/press-release/project-portfolio-management-ppm-market.html Similar Research Reports for Information, Communication and Technology: Weather Forecasting Services Market Expected to Reach $2,777 Million by 2023 Neural Network Market worth $38,719 Million Globally by 2023 Enterprise Agile Transformation Services Market Expected to Reach $ 63.82 Billion by 2026 3D Rendering Services Market Predicted to Hit $61.65 Billion by 2026 Telecom Analytics Market Expected to Reach $9.89 Billion by 2026 Network Traffic Analytics Market Expected to Reach $3.11 Billion by 2026 AVENUE- A Subscription-Based Library (Premium on-demand, subscription-based pricing model): AMR introduces its online premium subscription-based library Avenue, designed specifically to offer cost-effective, one-stop solution for enterprises, investors, and universities. With Avenue, subscribers can avail an entire repository of reports on more than 2,000 niche industries and more than 12,000 company profiles. Moreover, users can get an online access to quantitative and qualitative data in PDF and Excel formats along with analyst support, customization, and updated versions of reports. Get an access to the library of reports at any time from any device and anywhere. For more details, follow the link: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/library-access About Allied Market Research: Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions." AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domains. AMR offers its services across 11 industry verticals including Life Sciences, Consumer Goods, Materials & Chemicals, Construction & Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Energy & Power, Semiconductor & Electronics, Automotive & Transportation, ICT & Media, Aerospace & Defense, and BFSI. We are in professional corporate relations with various companies and this helps us in digging out market data that helps us generate accurate research data tables and confirms utmost accuracy in our market forecasting. Allied Market Research CEO Pawan Kumar is instrumental in inspiring and encouraging everyone associated with the company to maintain high quality of data and help clients in every way possible to achieve success. Each and every data presented in the reports published by us is extracted through primary interviews with top officials from leading companies of domain concerned. Our secondary data procurement methodology includes deep online and offline research and discussion with knowledgeable professionals and analysts in the industry. Contact David Correa 5933 NE Win Sivers Drive #205, Portland, OR 97220 United States Toll Free: 1-800-792-5285 UK: +44-845-528-1300 Hong Kong: +852-301-84916 India (Pune): +91-20-66346060 Fax: +1-855-550-5975 help@alliedmarketresearch.com Web: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com Follow Us on: LinkedIn Twitter Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/636519/Allied_Market_Research_Logo.jpg Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 03:35:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A vehicle is seen damaged after a rocket from the Gaza strip landed in central Israeli city of Holon, on May 11, 2021. In the suburb of Holon, south of Tel Aviv, two people were seriously wounded and two others sustained moderate injuries as a rocket hit a bus, Israeli Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical service said in a statement. (Gideon Markowicz/JINI via Xinhua) JERUSALEM, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A woman in central Israel was killed in a rocket attack launched by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday night, Israeli authorities said. Israel's ZAKA rescue service said in a statement that the woman was killed when a rocket hit a building in the city of Rishon LeZion, south of Tel Aviv. Fires broke out in several locations in Rishon LeZion due to the rocket attacks from Gaza, according to a police statement. Simultaneous rocket barrages were fired at Tel Aviv and other major cities in central Israel and the south, where air raid sirens were heard. In the suburb of Holon, south of Tel Aviv, two people were seriously wounded and two others sustained moderate injuries as a rocket hit a bus, Israeli Magen David Adom (MDA) emergency medical service said in a statement. At least 10 more people were injured in the attacks, including a 5-year-old girl, the MDA said. Israel's Airport Authority said in a statement that all flights from the international airport of Ben Gurion near Tel Aviv have been halted. The rockets were fired after Hamas, an Islamist group that runs Gaza, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group in Gaza, warned they will launch a massive rocket attack at Tel Aviv in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike that destroyed a 13-story residential block in Gaza. At least 28 people in Gaza have been killed in the Israeli strikes since Monday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza. The escalation resulted from days of Israeli-Palestinian clashes at East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, in which hundreds of Palestinians were wounded. Enditem [May 12, 2021] Puget Technologies Annual Stockholders' Meeting Date Finalized BOCA RATON, Fla., May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Puget Technologies, Inc. (Puget; OTC PINK: PUGE), a Nevada corporation subject to reporting pursuant to Sections 13 and 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, announces that the 2021 Annual Stockholders Meeting will occur on Monday, June 7, 2021 at 2 p.m. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time). The meeting will be held at our headquarters in Boca Raton (1200 North Federal Highway, Suite 200-A; Boca Raton, Florida 33432), subject to moving it to a larger venue in that city if indications of participation warrant such move. The meeting will also be accessible virtually from our website. Materials pertaining to the meeting will be available starting on May 12, 2021 on our website (https://pugettechnologies.com/2021-annual-meeting). For additional information, please contact Puget at 1-561-210-8535, by email at info@pugettechnologies.com or visit our website for continuing updates at https://pugettechnologies.com . About Puget Technologies, Inc. Puget Technologies, Inc. (pugettechnologies.com) aspires to evolve into an innovation-focused holding company operating through a group of subsidiariesand business units that work together to empower ground-breaking companies to reach their next stage of growth. With a strategy that combines acquisitions, strategic investment strategies, and operational support, Puget intends to provide a one-stop shop for growing companies who need access to both capital and growth resources, while enabling Puget and its stockholders to generate synergies and derive profit through pooled resources and shared goals. Pugets current investment focus ranges from traditional industries like health care that are ripe for business model innovation to new markets that strive to solve big societal problems such as climate change. Publicly traded on the Pink Open Market under the ticker symbol PUGE, Puget is committed to delivering a competitive return to investors. Forward-Looking Statements Any statements made in this press release that are not statements of historical fact, including statements about Pugets beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, and should be evaluated as such. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the terms anticipate, believe, continue, could, estimate, expect, forecast, goal, intend, may, objective, plan, potential, predict, projection, should, will or, in each case, their negative, or other variations or comparable terminology. Puget bases these forward-looking statements or projections on its current expectations, plans and assumptions that it has made in light of its experience in the industry, as well as its perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate under the circumstances and at such time. As you read and consider this press release, you should understand that these statements are not guarantees of future performance or results. The forward-looking statements and projections are subject to and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions and you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements or projections. Although Puget believes that these forward-looking statements and projections are based on reasonable assumptions at the time they are made, you should be aware that many factors could affect Pugets actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements and projections. Puget undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. If Puget does update one or more forward-looking statements, there should be no inference that it will make additional updates with respect to those or other forward-looking statements. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 11, 2021] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP, a Leading Securities Fraud Law Firm, Announces Investigation of Skillz Inc. f/k/a Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. (SKLZ) on Behalf of Investors Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM"), a leading national shareholder rights law firm, today announced that it has commenced an investigation on behalf of Skillz Inc. f/k/a Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. ("Skillz" or the "Company") (NYSE: SKLZ) investors concerning the Company's possible violations of the federal securities laws. If you suffered a loss on your Skillz investments or would like to inquire about potentially pursuing claims to recover your loss under the federal securities laws, you can submit your contact information at https://www.glancylaw.com/cases/skillz-inc/. You can also contact Charles H. Linehan, of GPM at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9224, or via email at shareholders@glancylaw.com to learn more about your rights. On March 8, 2021, Wolfpack Research published a report about the Company alleging that the growth speculations from Skillz and its insiders were "entirely unrealistic" and that Skillz's top three games, representing 88% of Skillz's revenue, reported a decline in downloads since the third quarter of 2020. On this news, Skillz stock price fell $3.00 per share, or 10.9%, to closeat $24.45, thereby injuring investors. On April 19, 2021, Eagle Eye Research posted an anonymous report on Twitter (News - Alert) in which it claimed that, through the use of providing users with incentive Bonus Payments, "the company likely recognizes substantial non-cash revenue and [] cash revenues may be less than of GAAP revenue." On this news, Skillz stock price fell $1.00 per share, or 6.61%, to close at $14.11 on April 19, 2021. Shares continued to decline to close at $12.55 on April 20, 2021, thereby injuring investors further. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook. Whistleblower Notice: Persons with non-public information regarding Skillz should consider their options to aid the investigation or take advantage of the SEC (News - Alert) Whistleblower Program. Under the program, whistleblowers who provide original information may receive rewards totaling up to 30 percent of any successful recovery made by the SEC. For more information, call Charles H. Linehan at 310-201-9150 or 888-773-9224 or email shareholders@glancylaw.com. About GPM Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP is a premier law firm representing investors and consumers in securities litigation and other complex class action litigation. ISS Securities Class Action Services has consistently ranked GPM in its annual SCAS Top 50 Report. In 2018, GPM was ranked a top five law firm in number of securities class action settlements, and a top six law firm for total dollar size of settlements. With four offices across the country, GPM's nearly 40 attorneys have won groundbreaking rulings and recovered billions of dollars for investors and consumers in securities, antitrust, consumer, and employment class actions. GPM's lawyers have handled cases covering a wide spectrum of corporate misconduct including cases involving financial restatements, internal control weaknesses, earnings management, fraudulent earnings guidance and forward looking statements, auditor misconduct, insider trading, violations of FDA regulations, actions resulting in FDA and DOJ investigations, and many other forms of corporate misconduct. GPM's attorneys have worked on securities cases relating to nearly all industries and sectors in the financial markets, including, energy, consumer discretionary, consumer staples, real estate and REITs, financial, insurance, information technology, health care, biotech, cryptocurrency, medical devices, and many more. GPM's past successes have been widely covered by leading news and industry publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times (News - Alert), Bloomberg Businessweek, Reuters, the Associated Press, Barron's, Investor's Business Daily, Forbes, and Money. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210511006276/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 11, 2021] KoineArth launches marketsN, one of the world's first enterprise-grade NFT platforms SINGAPORE, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- TZ APAC, an Asia-based leading public blockchain consultancy supporting the Tezos ecosystem, has been appointed to advise KoineArth, the Singapore-headquartered startup behind one of the world's first enterprise-grade NFT platforms, marketsN , on its public blockchain strategy and implementation. TZ APAC will support KoineArth through strategic advisory, project management, development resources as well as marketing and public relations support, as it launches marketsN. marketsN is powered by the Tezos blockchain, with Tezos India supporting its technical implementation. "We are proud to be working with KoineArth on marketsN , one of the world's first enterprise-grade NFT platforms that operate in an eco-friendly way. As it is built on Tezos, one of the first proof-of-stake blockchains, it operates at efficient energy levels and provides a clean NFT solution, aligning strongly with global sustainability efforts for all businesses," said Scott Littlewood, Head of Business Development and Operations at TZ APAC. "Tezos India is proud to have provided technical assistance to KoineArth in building their project on the Tezos blockchain. KoineArth will be a great example for other companies and corporations in India and outside the region on how businesses can use a decentralised and public blockchain, such as Tezos, to empower their businesses without compromising environmental and sustainability policies, which seems to be the case with many proof-of-work blockchains. We look forward to helping more companies to leverage the value proposition that Tezos has to offer," stated Om Malviya, President of Tezos India. KoineArth's marketsN platform is designed to enable enterprises to digitise and attach imutable metadata to key documents and products in the form of NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The enterprise-grade NFTs are used to ensure proof-of-ownership, transparency and a full-record of any transaction history, to provide greater traceability, visibility and authentication, ultimately facilitating more seamless and trustless trade between parties. Enterprises can also issue publicly verifiable "product passports", which act as a digital record of any product, from cradle to grave including information such as invoices, current ownership, warranty claims, and service records. marketsN's enterprise-grade NFTs can also be used to establish greater compliance across Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) standards, by allowing for greater accountability and traceability across the supply chain and inventory management, and invoicing. Furthermore, the energy efficiency and reduced carbon footprint of the Tezos blockchain ensures that enterprises can use the marketsN platform, without compromising any sustainability objectives. "NFTs are synonymous with the digital art space," said Dr. Praphul Chandra, founder, KoineArth. "KoineArth has taken the innovation of NFTs one step further into sustainable finance, by incorporating it into the marketsN platform, servicing enterprise supply chains. Per our namesake, KoineArth, we intend to deliver enterprise blockchain solutions globally that help support a sustainable future, by using more energy-efficient blockchains such as Tezos, which utilizes a proof-of-stake model." About TZ APAC TZ APAC Pte. Ltd. ("TZ APAC") is a leading Asia-based public blockchain consultancy supporting the Tezos ecosystem. TZ APAC designs value-added blockchain transformation strategies for enterprises and creators with a bottom-up approach, working closely with blockchain experts and other stakeholders in the Tezos ecosystem. TZ APAC is supported by the Tezos Foundation and is headquartered in Singapore. About KoineArth Founded in 2018 by Dr. Praphul Chandra, KoineArth aims to bring the power of blockchain to enterprises. With its marketsN solution, KoineArth offers enterprises a ready-to-use Digital Supply Chain platform. With a few clicks enterprises can create a digital twin of their supply chain. This enables enterprises to create secure, private B2B groups (blockchains) on-demand to coordinate B2B transactions in their supply chain, share data across enterprises, and secure capital from financiers, as needed. Enterprises can also issue NFTs related to their products, documents & other assets. To learn more, visit https://marketsn.com/ About Tezos India Tezos India is an organisation focused on developer adoption, education, and assisting the vibrant and fastest growing blockchain ecosystem in the world to get onboard with Tezos. Tezos India also assists individuals, startups and organisations to develop on Tezos by providing technical assistance and connecting with right partners in the global Tezos ecosystem. To learn more, visit https://tezosindia.org.in . About Tezos Tezos is an open-source decentralized platform, blockchain and ecosystem for assets, applications and services. This platform is backed by a global community of participants such as validators, researchers, developers and builders - all committed to engaging and growing the ecosystem. A self-upgradable blockchain with a proven track record, Tezos seamlessly adopts tomorrow's innovations without network disruptions today. To learn more, visit Tezos.com SOURCE TZ APAC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Daqo New Energy Announces Long-Term High-Purity Polysilicon Supply Agreements with JA Solar SHANGHAI, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Daqo New Energy Corp. (NYSE: DQ) ("Daqo New Energy", the "Company" or "we"), a leading manufacturer of high-purity polysilicon for the global solar PV industry, today announced that its subsidiary Xinjiang Daqo New Energy had signed long-term high-purity polysilicon supply agreements with a subsidiary of JA Solar (SZ:002459). Under the supply agreement with JA Solar, Daqo New Energy will provide JA Solar with high-purity mono-grade polysilicon in a total amount of approximately 78,200 MT between July 2021 and December 2025. Actual volume and prices will be negotiated monthly by both parties according to market conditions. As part of the supply agreement, JA Solar will make an advance payment to Daqo New Energy. Mr. Longgen Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Daqo New Energy, commented, "We are very pleased to further strengthen our cooperation with JA Solar, a leading company of high-quality and high-efficiency solar PV products and solutions. With our Phase 4B project expected to come online in Q1 2022, we will enter another growth phase and be able to provide more ultra-high purity polysilicon to the market. We look forward to continuing to work together with our customers to provide more first-class products and solutions to the fast-growing global solar PV market." About JA Solar JA Solar is a manufacturer of high-performance photovoltaic products. With 12 manufacturing bases and more than 20 branches around the world, the company's business covers silicon wafers, cells, modules and photovoltaic power stations. JA Solar products are available in 135 countries and regions and are used extensively in ground-mounted power plants, commercial & industrial rooftop PV systems and residential rooftop PV systems. With its advantages of continuous technological innovation, sound financial performance, and well-established global sales and service networks, JA Solar has been well received and highly recognized by clients from home and abroad. The company has been listed on Fortune China 500 and Global Top 500 New Energy Enterprises for several consecutive years. About Daqo New Energy Corp/p> For more information, please visit www.dqsolar.com Safe Harbor Statement This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates" and similar statements. The Company may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the Company's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: the demand for photovoltaic products and the development of photovoltaic technologies; global supply and demand for polysilicon; alternative technologies in cell manufacturing; the Company's ability to significantly expand its polysilicon production capacity and output; the reduction in or elimination of government subsidies and economic incentives for solar energy applications; the Company's ability to lower its production costs; changes in the political and regulatory environment; and the duration of COVID-19 outbreaks in China and many other countries and the impact of the outbreaks and the quarantines and travel restrictions instituted by relevant governments on economic and market conditions, including potentially weaker global demand for solar PV installations that could adversely affect the Company's business and financial performance. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the reports or documents the Company has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is as of the date hereof, and the Company undertakes no duty to update such information or any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law. For further information, please contact: Daqo New Energy Corp. Investor Relations Department Phone: +86-187-1658-5553 Email: dqir@daqo.com Christensen In China Mr. Rene Vanguestaine Phone: +86 178 1749 0483 E-mail: rvanguestaine@christensenir.com In the U.S. Mr. Tip Fleming Phone: +1-917-412-3333 Email: tfleming@Christensenir.com For more information, please visit www.dqsolar.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/daqo-new-energy-announces-long-term-high-purity-polysilicon-supply-agreements-with-ja-solar-301289466.html SOURCE Daqo New Energy Corp. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Chinese Companies Gear up to Expand to Europe with TOJOY BEIJING, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Three high-tech companies from China recently signed with global business accelerator TOJOY to expand their businesses throughout Europe. TOJOY Europe recently announced partnerships with Hongtian Langjie Environmental Protection Tech, Jimuyida Sciences, and NOKONDEN. Hongtian produces a line of sterilization products that use a core component derived from the human immune system's bactericidal systems. This new liquid disinfectant is set to be certified for safe use by the European Union in July 2021. Demand for new disinfectants has soared because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the global disinfectant market is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.7% from 2021 to 2028. Jimuyida is a leading provider of 3D digital technology services based in Shenzhen, China. With its 3D scanners, modelling, and cloud design tools, Jimuyida provides 3D tch services for art and home furnishing sales, education, e-commerce, and more. TOJOY Europe will act as EU Importer and Master Distributor for these 2 companies, helping them to have a safe and quick expansions into Europe. TOJOY provides a variety of import services to such companies, including applying for and validating certificates, designing and sourcing new packing, and building websites and e-sales channels. In addition to companies entering Europe for the first time, TOJOY also specializes in optimizing the sales channels of companies that have already established a presence in Europe. One such client is NOKONDEN. NOKONDEN's mobile medical booths take temperatures and disinfect humans, pets, and goods. Its booths are often used at public and private space entrances. The China-based company already has an EU headquarters in Italy but decided to appoint TOJOY Europe as its authorized sales representative for Europe. "TOJOY is not only a business acceleration platform, also a powerful and effective distribution platform for high-quality products from China and around the world for their entry into and expansion in the European Union," said TOJOY Europe CEO Richard Burton. "With the creativity, passion, and outside-the-box thinking we apply to enable these companies to grow in the European market, we are confident about their forecast for success." TOJOY accelerates companies across a wide range of sectors. As more and more Chinese companies are looking to expand their business internationally, TOJOY is serving many as a reliable partner for secure, sustainable expansion into Europe and other markets. SOURCE TOJOY SHARED HOLDING GROUP [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Vivre, 9 years of activity: sales of over 261 million euros and more than 1.1 million customers in 9 European countries BUCHAREST, Romania, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vivre celebrates 9 years since its launch with sales of over 261 million euros in nine countries from Central and Eastern Europe. According to data recorded so far, the company has reached more than 1.1 million customers and aims to exceed a total of 1.4 million unique customers, who have purchased at least once from Vivre platforms, up to the end of 2021. In the first quarter of this year, the company's sales were on an upward trend, marking an increase of about 28% compared to the same period last year. Also, the Vivre Marketplace business line, launched in 2020, which makes it easier for retailers to sell products on Vivre platforms, is booming and includes more than 500 active suppliers to date. Regarding the total number of orders processed in the 9 years of existene, 6.3 million packages reached customers in Romania and the other eight countries where the company operates, most of which are distributed in Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia. The most wanted category of products was furniture, which generated sales of over 80 million euros in its nine years of existence. "Vivre's 9th anniversary finds us in nine countries, with big plans to consolidate these markets in which we operate. The last year has shown us that there is no turning back in e-commerce, so we want to keep up with the fast pace in which this market segment is developing and, in the coming years, to become the main home & decor marketplace in the region. The growth in the first quarter of 2021 shows us that we are in line with the growth rate forecast for this year, respectively 30%, and this gives us confidence to direct important investments in all business areas, to offer our customers unique designs, in the shortest time possible and at attractive prices," said Monica Cadogan, CEO and co-founder of Vivre. Starting with 6th of May 2021, Vivre welcomes customers with a campaign of discounts of up to 80% on furniture, sofas and armchairs, home textiles, kitchen and dining accessories, decorations, carpets, lifestyle items and more. About Vivre Vivre is the main e-commerce in the home & deco industry in Central and Eastern Europe, founded in 2012 by Romanian entrepreneurs, with sales in 9 countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland and Greece. More than 150,000 items of furniture, decorations, textiles and accessories collected from 1,000 brands worldwide are available on Vivre mobile sites and applications. Vivre offers thousands of new products every day for those who want to become their own designers. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1506586/Vivre_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Warehousing Services Market Procurement Intelligence Report with COVID-19 Impact Updates | SpendEdge NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The Warehousing Services market will register an incremental spend of about USD 160 billion, growing at a CAGR of 6.00% during the five-year forecast period. A targeted strategic approach to Warehousing Services sourcing can unlock several opportunities for buyers. This report also offers market impact and new opportunities created due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Download Free Sample Pages Key Highlights Offered in the Report: Information on how to identify strategic and tactical negotiation levels that will help achieve the best prices. Gain information on relevant pricing levels, detailed explanation of the pros and cons of prevalent pricing models. Methods to help engage with the right suppliers and discover KPI's to evaluate incumbent suppliers. Request a Free Sample Report for More Information Insights into buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers: Several strategic and tactical negotiation levers are explained in the report to help buyers achieve the best prices for Warehousing Services market. The report also aids buyers with relevant Warehousing Services pricing levels, pros, and cons of prevalent pricing models such as volume-based pricing, spot pricing, and cost-plus pricing and category management strategies and best practices to fulfill their category objectives. Insights on buyer strategies and tactical negotiation levers Key Drivers and Trends Fueling Market Groth: The pressure from substitutes and a moderate level of threat from new entrants have resulted in the low bargaining power of suppliers. Price forecasts are beneficial in purchase planning, especially when supplemented by the constant monitoring of price influencing factors. Identify favorable opportunities in Promotional Products TCO (total cost of ownership). Expected changes in price forecast and factors driving the current and future price changes. Identify pricing models that offer the most rewarding opportunities. Some of the top Warehousing Services suppliers listed in this report: This Warehousing Services procurement intelligence report has enlisted the top suppliers and their cost structures, SLA terms, best selection criteria, and negotiation strategies. Deutsche Post AG United Parcel Service Inc. Kuehne + Nagel International AG Deutsche Bahn AG XPO Logistics Inc. FedEx Corp. Related Report on Logistics, Warehousing and Transportation Include: To access the definite purchasing guide on the Warehousing Services that answers all your key questions on price trends and analysis: Am I paying/getting the right prices? Is my Warehousing Services TCO (total cost of ownership) favorable? How is the price forecast expected to change? What is driving the current and future price changes? Which pricing models offer the most rewarding opportunities? Table of Content Executive Summary Market Insights Category Pricing Insights Cost-saving Opportunities Best Practices Category Ecosystem Category Management Strategy Category Management Enablers Suppliers Selection Suppliers under Coverage US Market Insights Category scope Appendix About SpendEdge: SpendEdge shares your passion for driving sourcing and procurement excellence. We are the preferred procurement market intelligence partner for 120+ Fortune 500 firms and other leading companies across numerous industries. Our strength lies in delivering robust, real-time procurement market intelligence reports and solutions. To know more https://www.spendedge.com/request-for-demo Contacts: SpendEdge Anirban Choudhury Marketing Manager Ph No: +1 (872) 206-9340 https://www.spendedge.com/contact-us View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/warehousing-services-market-procurement-intelligence-report-with-covid-19-impact-updates--spendedge-301289363.html SOURCE SpendEdge [May 12, 2021] Michelle Bailey Set to Lead Push for Greater Equity in Tech as New CEO of WITI LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Women in Technology International (WITI), the leading organization for the advancement and inclusion of women in technology, announced today that it has hired technology industry veteran Michelle Bailey as its new Chief Executive Officer. The time is now...to realize the economic and business benefits of a fully inclusive technology sector. Under Bailey's leadership, WITI will expand its business services to help women, minorities, and technology organizations to realize a diverse and inclusive workplace. "I am honored to work with the remarkable WITI team and our expansive membership to extend our reach and influence into new regions and specialty areas," Bailey said. "I look forward to new partnerships as we evolve our strategy and advisory business with industry organizations, governments, ad regulatory bodies. The time is now to change workplace culture, align organizations on gender and racial equity, and to realize the economic and business benefits of a fully inclusive technology sector." Bailey succeeds WITI Founder, Carolyn Leighton, who over the last 30 years led the growth of WITI into an international organization with more than 150,000 members and 70 local networks across the globe. WITI pioneered the advancement of women in the technology industry, working with industry leaders and policy makers, most notably partnering with the Federal Glass Ceiling Commission to produce the seminal Glass Ceiling Report. "Michelle is the right person at the right time to lead WITI's next stage of growth," Leighton said. "Her reputation as a social impact thought leader and data guru is critical to help us build on WITI's momentum, expand our networks and platform capabilities, and harness the full influence and expertise of our membership." For the past 25 years, Bailey has advised senior technology industry executives, including CEOs and Board members, Chief People Officers and DE&I VPs. A specialist in emerging and disruptive technologies, she founded and championed diversity and inclusion research and advisory for the technology sector, with an emphasis on under-represented minority employee insight. "Michelle is known for her consistency, focus and collaboration, and clients trust her to guide them towards a transformed work culture," said Rene Redwood, CEO of Redwood Enterprise and fellow Advisory Board member at WITI. "Having worked closely with Michelle for years, there's no doubt that her tenacity for transformation, business experience and commitment to justice and equity in the workplace is the leadership we need to move WITI forward." Bailey is a sought-after keynote speaker at industry conferences globally and is frequently quoted in leading business and technology publications. Most recently, Bailey was Group Vice President & Research Fellow at International Data Corporation (IDC) and previously Chief Research Officer at 451 Research. Her expertise spans Cloud, Digital Infrastructure, Datacenters, AI, Security, and Talent Management & the Human Enterprise. Bailey has a B.S. (Hons.) in Mathematical Statistics from Monash University, Australia. Women in Technology International is the leading organization for the advancement and inclusion of women in business and technology. Our innovative programs and platforms are designed to ensure women, minorities, and technology organizations realize a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our networks, members and employees are experts across dozens of industry and technology fields. Learn more about WITI here. https://witi.com/ Media Contact: Scott Westcott scott@turn-two.co 814.881.0389 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/michelle-bailey-set-to-lead-push-for-greater-equity-in-tech-as-new-ceo-of-witi-301289327.html SOURCE Women in Technology International (WITI) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 03:36:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GENEVA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Henrietta H. Fore on Tuesday called on the Israelis and Palestinians to "prevent further escalation" of violence and protect children amid the recent conflicts in Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Fore said on Twitter that she was "very alarmed by the deteriorating situation on the ground and by the loss of life." "I call on all parties to prevent further escalation and protect all children," she said. UNICEF Palestine announced Tuesday that nine children were killed in the Gaza Strip. UNICEF also declared that an additional 25 children were injured on the Palestinian side, while one child was wounded in Israel. Since Monday afternoon, Israeli airstrikes have killed at least 26 Palestinians in Gaza. At the same time, at least 300 rockets have been fired by Gazan militants at southern Israel. The escalation resulted from days of clashes at East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque compound between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces, in which hundreds of Palestinians were wounded. The Palestinians protested Israel's restrictions on their prayers at the compound during the holy month of Ramadan and its plan to evict some Palestinian families from a neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Enditem [May 12, 2021] ProMIS Neurosciences appoints renowned neuroscientist, Dr. Rudolph Tanzi, as Chair of Scientific Advisory Board TORONTO and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. (TSX: PMN); (OTCQB: ARFXF), a biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of antibody therapeutics selectively targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases, today announced the appointment of Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D, as Chair of the Companys scientific advisory board (SAB). Dr. Tanzi is the Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard University and Vice-Chair of Neurology, Director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit, and Co-Director of the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Rudy Tanzi has been a valuable member of our scientific advisory board for years, and we are thrilled that he has agreed to accept the Chairmans role as we work to expand our portfolio of potential best in class products, stated Eugene Williams, ProMIS Executive Chairman. As an expert neuroscientist in the field of neurodegenerative disorders, with over three decades of outstanding research accomplishments in Alzheimers, ALS, and other diseases, Dr. Tanzi can help us fully develop the potential of our portfolio, capitalizing on the recent strong financial support from a Boston-based group of investors. Commenting on the appointment, Dr. Tanzi stated: I am delighted to take on this new role with the ProMIS SAB. I have been impressed with the progress of the scientific portfolio, based on ProMIS unique technology platform, that continues to create potential antibody therapies highly selective for the toxic forms of proteins. I look forward to advising ProMIS Neurosciences as the Company progresses its innovative programs into the clinic, including PMN310 in Alzheimers disease. Dr. Rudolph Tanzi is a neuroscientist and geneticist with scientific expertise in Alzheimers disease (AD) and brain health. He is one of the worlds leading scientists in research aimed at preventing and treating Alzheimers disease. His research studies and books have also focused on preserving and promoting brain health. In his research achievements, Dr. Tanzi served on the team that was the first to find a disease gene (Huntingtons disease) using human genetic markers, helping to launch the field of neurogenetics. Dr. Tanzi went on to identify all three early-onset familial AD genes: the amyloid precursor protein and presenilins 1 and 2. As leader of the Cure Alzheimers Fund Alzheimers Genome Project, he has identified several other AD-related genes, including the first shown to causing neuroinflammation in AD (CD33). Dr. Tanzi also uncovered the Wilsons disease gene and several other neurological disease-related genes. Dr. Tanzi and his team have used AD genes and human stem cells to create Alzheimers-in-a-Dish - a three-dimensional human stem cell-derived neural culture system that was the first to recapitulate both pathological hallmarks of AD: plaques and tangles. This model has made drug screening for AD considerably faster and more efficient. Using this system, Dr. Tanzi has developed several promising therapeutic candidates for AD including gamma secretase modulators aimed at beta-amyloid pathology. Most recently, Dr. Tanzi and his team have discovered that beta-amyloid may play a role in the innate immune system of the brain operating as an anti-microbial peptide, suggesting a possible role for infection in the etiology and pathogenesis of AD. Dr. Tanzi has published over 600 research papers and has received the highest awards in his field, including the Metropolitan Life Foundation Award, Potamkin Prize, Ronald Reagan Award, Silver Innovator Award, and the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award, the top national award for invention and innovation. He serves on dozens of editorial boards and scientific advisory boards and was named to TIME magazines list of TIME100 Most Influential People in the World. He also co-authored the books Decoding Darkness, and the three international bestsellers, Super Brain, Super Genes, and The Healing Self. Dr. Tanzi is also a musician who professionally records and performs (keyboards), most recently with Joe Perry and Aerosmith. About the ProMIS Scientific Advisory Board The ProMIS SAB brings together a multidisciplinary group of specialists in Alzheimer's disease and neurodegenerative disease along with experts in neurotoxic, prion-like misfolded proteins. In addition to Dr. Tanzi, the current members of the Companys SAB include: Neil R. Cashman, MD is Chief Science Officer at ProMIS Neurosciences and Professor of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Neurodegeneration and Protein Misfolding Diseases and serves as the Director of the UBC ALS Centre. Dr. Cashman is recognized as a pioneer in the field of prion-like misfolded proteins and their role in development of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular ALS and AD. Nil Cashman is co-chair of the SAB; Sharon Cohen, MD is a trained behavioral neurologist and former speech language pathologist. Her memory clinic and dementia clinical trials program at Toronto Memory Programme are the largest and most active in Canada and have contributed substantially to patient care and to global clinical trial cohorts. Through her commitment to knowledge translation and her passion for clinically meaningful outcomes, Dr. Cohen provides a valuable perspective which places the patient at the center of Alzheimers drug development programs; Hans Frykman MD, PhD, is the CEO and medical director of BC Neuroimmunology Lab and Neurocode Labs. BC Neuroimmunology lab has a 35-year history of delivering highly specific clinical neuroimmunology testing to the North American marketplace. The lab is a technology leader and is academically collaborating with several leading centers in Europe and USA. Neurocode labs is Canadas first and only clinical whole exome sequencing facility. It has a particular focus in seizure disorder, cardiac sequencing and sequencing of the neonate. Dr. Frykman is a clinical assistant professor of medicine at University of British Columbia. Dr. Frykman received his postgraduate medical training at Karolinska University Hospital, Mayo Clinic, University of Minnesota, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and University of British Columbia. Dr Frykman received his medical degree from Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, PhD in Bio-organic chemistry from Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and MSc in Chemical Engineering from Chalmers University in Gothenburg; Michelle L. Hastings, PhD is Professor of Cell Biology and Anatomy and Director of the Center for Genetic Diseases at the Chicago Medical School, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Dr. Hastings expertise is in RNA biology and antisense technology. Her lab is leading advances in the field of RNA splicing and how the process can be harnessed to treat disease. Dr. Hastings has utilized small molecules and antisense oligonucleotides to modulate aberrant splicing associated with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), Usher syndrome, Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, Batten disease and cystic fibrosis. She received her Ph.D. at Marquette University and was a post-doctoral fellow at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; William C. Mobley, MD, PhD is Associate Dean for Neurosciences Initiatives, Distinguished Professor of Neurosciences, Florence Riford Chair for Alzheimer Disease at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and the universitys Executive Director of the Down Syndrome Center for Research and Treatment. Dr. Mobleys research focuses on the neurobiology of neuronal dysfunction in developmental and age-related disorders of the nervous system; C. Warren Olanow, MD has authored more than 300 publications primarily related to Parkinsons disease and neurodegeneration. He is the previous Henry P. and Georgette Goldschmidt Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, and is presently Professor Emeritus in the Department of Neurology and in the Department of Neuroscience. He also serves as Chief Executive Officer of CLINTREX, a pharmaceutical advisory firm that has designed numerous clinical trials in neurodegenerative disease for the pharmaceutical industry; Andre Strydom, MD, PhD, is a professor in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at Kings College London, and Honorary Consultant psychiatrist, South London and the Maudsley NHS Trust. His current projects and collaborations include the LonDownS consortium, funded by the Wellcome Trust/ MRC, to study the neurobiology of Alzheimers Disease in Down syndrome to understand the underlying factors that may influence variation in age of onset of symptoms. His research in Down syndrome includes investigation of biomarkers of cognitive decline including those related to excess amyloid production, oxidative stress, and neurodegeneration. His group also conducts neuroimaging studies using high-density EEG, MRI and fNIRS. He has been an investigator on clinical trials of new drug treatment options in Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome and autism; Dr. David Wishart is a Distinguished University Professor in the Departments of Biological Sciences and Computing Science at the University of Alberta. He also holds adjunct appointments with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences and with the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He has been with the University of Alberta since 1995. Dr. Wishart has been studying protein folding and misfolding for more than 30 years using a combination of computational and experimental approaches. These experimental approaches include NMR spectroscopy, circular dichroism, fluorescence spectroscopy, electron microscopy, protein engineering and molecular biology. The computational methods include molecular dynamics, agent-based modeling, bioinformatics and machine learning. Over the course of his career, Dr. Wishart has published more than 430 scientific papers covering many areas of protein science including structural biology, protein metabolism and computational biochemistry. These papers have been cited more than 78,000 times. Dr. Wishart has been awarded research grants totaling more than $130 million from a number of funding agencies including CIHR, NSERC, NIH, Genome Canada, CFI, NRC, APRI, PrioNET, PENCE and Compute Canada. Dr. Wishart currently co-directs The Metabolomics Innovation Centre (TMIC), Canadas national metabolomics laboratory. Dr. Wishart was awarded a Lifetime Honorary Fellowship by the Metabolomics Society in 2014 and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2017. Dr. Wishart has been identified as one of the worlds most highly cited scientists for each of the past 7 years. About ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. ProMIS Neurosciences, Inc. is a development stage biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing antibody therapeutics selectively targeting toxic oligomers implicated in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases, in particular Alzheimers disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinsons disease (PD). The Companys proprietary target discovery engine is based on the use of two complementary techniques. The Company applies its thermodynamic, computational discovery platform -ProMIS and Collective Coordinates - to predict novel targets known as Disease Specific Epitopes on the molecular surface of misfolded proteins. Using this unique approach, the Company is developing novel antibody therapeutics for AD, ALS and PD. ProMIS is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ProMIS is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol PMN, and on the OTCQB Venture Market under the symbol ARFXF. For further information about ProMIS Neurosciences, please consult the Companys website at: www.promisneurosciences.com Follow us on Twitter Like us on LinkedIn For Investor Relations please contact: Alpine Equity Advisors Nicholas Rigopulos, President nick@alpineequityadv.com Tel. 617 901-0785 The TSX has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This information release contains certain forward-looking information. Such information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those implied by statements herein, and therefore these statements should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results. All forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current beliefs as well as assumptions made by and information currently available to it as well as other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Due to risks and uncertainties, including the risks and uncertainties identified by the Company in its public securities filings, actual events may differ materially from current expectations. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3999c685-e7d9-4d52-8964-cc583cc5579b [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] CGTN: How China's people-centered approach works in fight against COVID-19 BEIJING, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ -- The year of 2020 brought one of the toughest tests in modern history as a deadly pandemic wreaked havoc across the world, turning people's lives upside down. China, the world's most populous country, quickly waged a "people's war" against COVID-19 and vowed to protect the people's life and health at all costs. To put the people first is nothing new in China. "Our Party and people stand together, and keep flesh-and-blood ties, which is the basic guarantee of the Party in overcoming all difficulties and risks. As the saying goes, 'He who wins over the people wins the country; he who loses the people loses the country.'" - Chinese President Xi Jinping on July 1, 2016. "He who wins over the people wins the country; he who loses the people loses the country" is a classic quote first recorded in the Book of Rites (Li Ji), one of the Five Classics of the Confucian canon. More than 2,000 years later, the wisdom remains relevant one only has to look at China's handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak for proof. As it became apparent that the country was facing a public health emergency, the Chinese government led the efforts to steer the country and its people out of danger. Its message was loud and clear: People always come first. People's war The main battle against COVID-19 unfolded in central China's Hubei Province and its capital Wuhan City. The nation mobilized its best doctors, equipment and resources there, with the cost of all treatment covered by the government. Over 42,000 medicalworkers were sent to Hubei from across China. Two special-purpose hospitals Huoshenshan and Leishenshan were built, along with dozens of temporary hospitals in Wuhan to meet the needs of patients. To help other cities in Hubei, China launched a "pairing-up support" plan, mobilizing the other provincial-level regions to pair up with communities across the province. On March 10, 2020, President Xi inspected Wuhan, the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. He visited patients, listened to medical staff and community workers and spoke to police officers, military personnel and local officials who were at the frontline. He also emphasized the importance of relying on the public to win the people's war against the virus. "I think China's response was excellent," Stephen McClure, an information sciences consultant with Wuhan University, told CGTN. "There were efforts made from the top, from the national level, that were supporting the people in Wuhan, and then there were efforts from the bottom, from the communities to respond to it and coordinate." "So I just don't think there's any way to deal with the pandemic without having this massive amount of civic engagement to make sure that everyone was okay. I don't see how anyone can do a lockdown, like in Western countries, without having that kind of infrastructure," he added. Rising from the ashes During President Xi's Wuhan visit, he said "the heroic people of the heroic city would definitely defeat COVID-19, rise from the ashes and make more glorious achievements in a new era." All the efforts have paid off and Xi's expectations have come true. After 76 days of persistence and sacrifices, Wuhan ended its lockdown and things began returning to normal in the city. Wuhan's GDP grew by 58.4 percent in the first quarter of 2021 and the city reported a year-on-year increase of 92.2 percent in its foreign trade during the same period. China was hit hard by COVID-19, but it moved quickly to bring the epidemic under control. Now the country is pulling ahead in the global economic recovery. Its economy grew 18.3 percent year on year in the first quarter of 2021. But China is not letting its guard down. It is stepping up its vaccination drive: more than 342.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines had been administered across China as of May 11, according to the National Health Commission. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said the country plans to vaccinate 70 to 80 percent of its population by the middle of next year. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-12/How-China-s-people-centered-approach-works-in-fight-against-COVID-19-10c6ccZkU6Y/index.html View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cgtn-how-chinas-people-centered-approach-works-in-fight-against-covid-19-301289638.html SOURCE CGTN [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] HP Introduces Hybrid Work Print Solutions with HP Wolf Security PALO ALTO, Calif., May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today HP Inc. announced enhanced print services and solutions with HP Wolf Security that allow IT departments to help boost workforce productivity while also helping to protect corporate networks and data1. As part of these enhancements, HP introduced a new Flexworker offering, Internet Printing through HP Advance2 and HP Secure Print3 compatibility for Universal Print from Microsoft. The existing business transformation trends around cloud, as-a-service, and security have seen significant acceleration over the past year, said George Brasher, General Manager and Global Head, Print Services and Solutions, HP Inc. In this hybrid world, where workers are distributed and the risk of cyberattacks has skyrocketed, we see businesses needing scalable and flexible printing solutions that are both secure and manageable. New Flexworker Offering; Part of HP Wolf Enterprise Security Services HPs new Flexworker offering, which is part of HP Wolf Enterprise Security Services, is a scalable cloud-based print service for hybrid workforces. This new extended Managed Print Service (MPS) allows IT departments to arm hybrid workers with secure, company-approved printers to enhance productivity at home. By leveraging the HP Instant Ink and MPS ecosystems, HP is delivering a fully automated enterprise managed print experience that includes financing, technical support, reporting, centralized billing and device security features and monitoring. According to HP Wolf Security Blurred Lines & Blindspots report 4, 45% of IT decision makers say they have seen evidence in their company of compromised printers being used as an attack point in the past year. The same report contains data from KuppingerCole, showing 86% of industry executives said their customers had concerns around the security of their home printers. Flexworker gives enterprises visibility of up to 15 essential security settings5 on devices and leverages Security Manager to continuously monitor and automatically remediate if a device falls out of compliance with corporate policies. As companies extend corporate offices into the home environment, HP is also expanding Flexworker to include select LaserJet Enterprise 400 series models the HP LaserJet Managed MFP E42540f and HP LaserJet Managed E40040dn. The LaserJet Enterprise 400 is HPs smallest enterprise-class printer series providing seamless remote management and the worlds most secure6 printing experience. The LaserJet Enterprise 400 series offers HP Wolf Security, which includes HP Trusted Platform module, HP Sure Start, Run-time intrusion detection7, HP Connection Inspector, and easy, policy-based fleet deployment with HP Security Manager. Secure Printing at Home or In the Office HP is introducing secure Internet Printing through HP Advance, an integrated platform for capture, printand output management. Internet Printing will enable organizations to offer employees the ability to seamlessly and securely print from either the office or at home. HPs new Internet Printing offering features the latest encryption and authentication technologies, including OAuth 2.0 with OpenID connect for Azure AD. The solution also provides job accounting, ensuring companies can track activity both inside and outside the organization. HP also announced HP Secure Print compatibility with Universal Print from Microsoft, which adds a layer of security by requiring authentication before the document is printed. It will also provide analytics about all print activity. Availability HP Advance Internet Printing is expected to be available in June 2021. The HP LaserJet Managed MFP E42540f and HP LaserJet Managed E40040dn are expected to be available as part of Flexworker by July 2021. HP Secure Print compatibility with Universal Print is expected to be available in July 2021. The visibility into up to 15 security settings are expected to be available as part of Flexworker by August 2021. About HP Inc. HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers and 3D printing solutions, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at www.hp.com . About HP Wolf Security From the maker of the worlds most secure PCs8 and Printers6, HP Wolf Security is a new breed of endpoint security. HPs portfolio of hardware-enforced security and endpoint-focused security services are designed to help organizations safeguard PCs, printers and people from circling cyber predators. HP Wolf Security provides comprehensive endpoint protection and resiliency that starts at the hardware level and extends across software and services. Copyright 2021 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. 1 HP Security is now HP Wolf Security. Security features vary by platform. 2 HP Advance works with most network-connected printers and MFPs. On-device authentication requires HP FutureSmart firmware 4.8 or newer. Supported card readers include X3D03A (HP USB Universal Card Reader) and Y7C05A (HP HIP2 Keystroke Reader). Internet connection required for some functionality. For more information, see hp.com/go/advance. 3 HP Secure Print works with most network-connected printers and MFPs. On-device authentication requires HP FutureSmart firmware 4.8 or newer. Supported card readers include X3D03A (HP USB Universal Card Reader) and Y7C05A (HP HIP2 Keystroke Reader). Internet connection required for some functionality. For more information, see hp.com/go/secureprint 4 HP Wolf Security Blurred Lines & Blindspots report, online survey of 8,443 adults in the US, the UK, Mexico, Germany, Australia, Canada and Japan, March 2021. 5 Dependent on device security settings/embedded security features. For visibility into all 15 essential security settings, automatic firmware update needs to be enabled and new releases of firmware uploaded when the firmware is release and the device is online. 6 HPs most advanced embedded security features are available on HP Enterprise and HP Managed devices with HP FutureSmart firmware 4.5 or above. Claim based on HP review of 2021 published features of competitive in-class printers. Only HP offers a combination of security features to automatically detect, stop, and recover from attacks with a self-healing reboot, in alignment with NIST SP 800-193 guidelines for device cyber resiliency. For a list of compatible products, visit: hp.com/go/ PrintersThatProtect . For more information, visit: hp.com/go/ PrinterSecurityClaims . 7 Third-party certification based on Common Criteria Information Technology Security Evaluation ISO/IEC 15408 Standard requirements as of May 2019-2024. Certification applicable to HP Enterprise and Managed devices running HP FutureSmart Firmware version 4.5.1 and later. For more information: https://www.commoncriteriaportal.org/files/epfiles/Certification%20Report%20-%20HP%20Intrusion%20Detection.pdf. 8 Based on HPs unique and comprehensive security capabilities at no additional cost among vendors on HP Elite PCs with Windows and 8th Gen and higher Intel processors or AMD Ryzen 4000 processors and higher; HP ProDesk 600 G6 with Intel 10th Gen and higher processors; and HP ProBook 600 with AMD Ryzen 4000 or Intel 11th Gen processors and higher. A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c8d10a05-e4c1-43bd-bd62-8dc2bc9288e4 MEDIA CONTACTS: Susan Vander May, HP Susan.Vander.May@hp.com http://press.ext.hp.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Logical Design Solutions CEO Mimi Brooks Brings Tech Insights to University of Arizona Humanities Symposium FLORHAM PARK, N.J., May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WHO: Mimi Brooks, founder and CEO of Logical Design Solutions (LDS), a digital strategy and design consultancy for the enterprise WHAT: Will present during the University of Arizonas Humanities Innovators in the Tech World lecture series. WHEN: The virtual event is scheduled for Friday, May 21, 2021. Brooks will speak at 1:30 p.m. Arizona Time. WHERE: To register, visit https://humanitiestech.arizona.edu . DETAILS: Even as the Fourth Industrial Revolution continues the advancement of a digital future, the humanities remain vital to understanding this new reality. The experience of the last year only quickened the pace of transformation, causing progressive organizations to rethink business models and strategies. During the University of Arizonas Humanities Innovators in the Tech World symposium, Mimi Brooks, founder and CEO of LDS, will discuss what it takes to build sustainable, high-performance organizations in this volatile digital age. Accounting for the sustained connection between the humanities and tech, Brooks will examine the impact of large-scale disruptive transformation on todays organizations and consider what it will take to become responsive and resilient by design. Recognizing that new ways of working are a catalyst in this ongoing evolution, Brooks will share thoughts on the future of work and how organizations can become flatter, faster and more fluid. For event information and registration, visit https://humanitiestech.arizona.edu. About Logical Design Solutions Founded in 1990 by Mimi Brooks, Logical Design Solutions (LDS) is a digital strategy and design consultancy for the enterprise. For nearly 30 years, LDS has helped market leaders realize their most important business and people strategies through technological innovation. Our work is focused on the win-win outcome where business performance is elevated and where people feel valued and empowered in their work. Clients come to LDS because of our reputation for intellectual rigor, our foundation in visionary experience strategy, and our commitment to enabling digital transformation for businesses. To learn more, visit lds.com. Note to editors: Trademarks and registered trademarks referenced herein remain the property of their respective owners. Media Contact: Jeanne Achille The Devon Group for LDS jeanne@devonpr.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] HP Inc. Introduces Integrated Security Offering HP Wolf Security includes the worlds most secure PCs1 and printers2 with expansive set of software and services to increase endpoint protection and resiliency. PALO ALTO, Calif., May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ) today introduced HP Wolf Security , a newly integrated portfolio of secure by design PCs and printers, hardware-enforced endpoint security software, and endpoint security services to protect customers from growing cyber threats.3 HP Wolf Securitys Blurred Lines & Blindspots report, also released today, highlights that the global volume of cyberattacks has increased 238% during Covid, with hackers particularly focused on targeting remote workers. The companys new HP Wolf Security platform builds on over 20 years of security research and innovation to offer a unified portfolio for customers focused on delivering comprehensive endpoint protection and cyber-resiliency. The future of work will be more distributed than ever before, with a growing number of people working from multiple locations outside the office. This will unlock exciting new opportunities for greater mobility, but it also creates new vulnerabilities, said Joanna Burkey, Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), HP Inc. HP Wolf Securitys Blurred Lines & Blindspots report reveals that endpoints connected to the internet were experiencing 1.5 attacks per minute globally in 2020. As a result, 91% of IT decision makers surveyed said they spend more time on endpoint security now than two years ago, with a further 91% reporting that endpoint security has become just as important as network security. HP has long been a leader in PC and printer security. By uniting the companys security offerings into a single platform for customers, HP is addressing a growing customer need for comprehensive and resilient endpoint infrastructure and cyber defense. As the importance of endpoint security continues to grow, we saw an opportunity to create a more integrated offering for customers to simplify security and stay ahead of future threats, said Ian Pratt, Global Head of Security, Personal Systems, HP Inc. The leading technology of the future will be secure by design and intelligent enough to not simply detect threats, but to contain and mitigate their impact, and to recover quickly in the event of a breach, which could happen at any time, to any one of us. HP Wolf Security is a new breed of endpoint security tailored for the future of work. Rooted in Zero Trust principles, HP Wolf Security harnesses state-of-the-art technologies to reduce pressure on IT. From self-healing firmware, in-memory breach detection and threat containment via virtualization, to cloud-based intelligence, HP Wolf Security delivers comprehensive protection by: shrinking the addressable attack surface; enabling remote recovery from firmware attacks; enhancing threat data collection; and delivering high fidelity alerts. The newly integrated HP Wolf Security portfolio is categorized by: HP Wolf Security for Home 4 includes a set of built-in security features for select consumer PCs as well as HP Wolf Essential Security software and services. HP Wolf Essential Security is included on select home printers. includes a set of built-in security features for select consumer PCs as well as HP Wolf Essential Security software and services. HP Wolf Essential Security is included on select home printers. HP Wolf Security for Business 5 includes a portfolio of hardware-enforced security features, included with every business PC purchase, designed for businesses of all sizes. includes a portfolio of hardware-enforced security features, included with every business PC purchase, designed for businesses of all sizes. HP Wolf Pro Security, devices, software and services 6 for small to mid-sized businesses. for small to mid-sized businesses. HP Wolf Enterprise Security, devices, software and services for enterprises and government.7 HP adds Sure Access Enterprise8 to HP Wolf Enterprise Security to Defend Mission-Critical Applications from Cyber threats New to HP Wolf Enterprise Security is Sure Access Enterprise, which applies HPs unique isolation technology to ensure critical applications are completely safeguarded from any malware lurking on a users PC. HP Sure Access creates hardware-enforced micro-virtual machines (VM) that can protect key applications forming a virtual air gap between the application and the host PC. The application and data is securely isolated from the host OS, and any malicious actors that may have breached it. This unique, hardware-enforced approach helps by: Securing key tasks such as remote sysadmin activity of mission-critical systems. Allowing users to work securely on multiple virtual Privileged Access Workstations (PAWs) on a single device. Securing browser-based access of critical applications. HP introduces HP Wolf Pro Security Edition 9 platform for small and mid-sized businesses HP redefines PC security for small and mid-sized customers with the announcement of HP Wolf Pro Security. HP Wolf Pro Security integrates Threat Containment based on micro-virtualization, Malware Prevention based on Next-Gen Anti-Virus, and Identity Protection all integrated with HPs hardware security capabilities to deliver superior protection that is simple for IT to acquire, deploy and operate. Threat Containment raises the bar in endpoint protection by providing protection that doesnt rely on detection. Hardware-powered micro-virtualization performs full isolation of threats delivered via all the most common threat vectors, without impacting user experience. raises the bar in endpoint protection by providing protection that doesnt rely on detection. Hardware-powered micro-virtualization performs full isolation of threats delivered via all the most common threat vectors, without impacting user experience. Malware Prevention is a complete Next-Gen AV that uses a combination of AI-based techniques, like deep learning, and behavioral analysis to provide advanced malware protection through predictive detection. is a complete Next-Gen AV that uses a combination of AI-based techniques, like deep learning, and behavioral analysis to provide advanced malware protection through predictive detection. Identity Protection provides defense against credential phishing attacks for all popular browsers. provides defense against credential phishing attacks for all popular browsers. Integrated with HPs built-in hardware security capabilities such as Application Persistence, OS Resiliency and Physical Tamper Protection. Today, HP also announced a new Flexworker offering with HP Wolf Security that allows IT departments to boost workforce productivity while helping to protect corporate networks and data. This new extended Managed Print Service (MPS) allows IT departments to arm hybrid workers with secure, company-approved printers that can be monitored and automatically remediated if a device falls out of compliance with corporate policies. In addition, HP Wolf Essential Security is included with HP+ smart printers, with 24-7 built-in Security. HP+ printers with Smart Security help consumers and small businesses stay two steps ahead of hackers, helping to prevent potential malware attacks and stop your information from ending up in the wrong hands. To support the launch of HP Wolf Security, HP has created a series of creative videos, depicting common security scenarios that have come about due to the shift to remote working during the pandemic. These include: a child clicking on a phishing link when using a parents laptop, a compromised printer being used to send malicious spam to the rest of the company, and an IT team being blindsided by a cyberattack. These videos, starring Christian Slater as The Wolf who walks the line between good and bad, putting to use his hacker mindset to show how an attacker might operate help to demonstrate the impact of such events. About HP HP Inc. creates technology that makes life better for everyone, everywhere. Through our product and service portfolio of personal systems, printers and 3D printing solutions, we engineer experiences that amaze. More information about HP Inc. is available at http://www.hp.com About HP Wolf Security From the maker of the worlds most secure PCs and Printers, HP Wolf Security is a new breed of endpoint security. HPs portfolio of hardware-enforced security and endpoint-focused security services are designed to help organizations safeguard PCs, printers and people from circling cyber predators. HP Wolf Security provides comprehensive endpoint protection and resiliency that starts at the hardware level and extends across software and services. Media Contact Vanessa Godsal vgodsal@hp.com HP Inc. _____________________ 1 Based on HPs unique and comprehensive security capabilities at no additional cost among vendors on HP Elite PCs with Windows and 8th Gen and higher Intel processors or AMD Ryzen 4000 processors and higher; HP ProDesk 600 G6 with Intel 10th Gen and higher processors; and HP ProBook 600 with AMD Ryzen 4000 or Intel 11th Gen processors and higher. 2 HPs most advanced embedded security features are available on HP Enterprise and HP Managed devices with HP FutureSmart firmware 4.5 or above. Claim based on HP review of 2021 published features of competitive in-class printers. Only HP offers a combination of security features to automatically detect, stop, and recover from attacks with a self-healing reboot, in alignment with NIST SP 800-193 guidelines for device cyber resiliency. For a list of compatible products, visit: hp.com/go/PrintersThatProtect . For more information, visit: hp.com/go/PrinterSecurityClaims . 3 HP Security is now HP Wolf Security. Security features vary by platform. 4 HP Wolf Security for Home is planned to be available for select HP Consumer PCs in Spring 2022 and HP Wolf Essential Security Services will be sold separately. 5 HP Wolf Security for Business requires Windows 10, includes various HP security features and is available on HP Pro, Elite and Workstation products. See product details for included security features and OS requirement. 6 HP Wolf Pro Security Service is sold separately. For full system requirements, please visit http://www.hpdaas.com/requirements. HP services are governed by the applicable HP terms and conditions of service provided or indicated to Customer at the time of purchase. Customer may have additional statutory rights according to applicable local laws, and such rights are not in any way affected by the HP terms and conditions of service, or the HP Limited Warranty provided with your HP Product. For full system requirements, please visit www.hpdaas.com/requirements HP Wolf Pro Security is included on select pro level printers. 7 HP Wolf Enterprise Security is an optional service and may include offerings such as HP Sure Click Enterprise and HP Sure Access Enterprise. HP Sure Click Enterprise requires Windows 8 or 10 and Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Chromium or Firefox are supported. Supported attachments include Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and PDF files, when Microsoft Office or Adobe Acrobat are installed. HP Wolf Enterprise Security is included on select enterprise level printers. 8 HP Sure Access Enterprise requires Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise. HP services are governed by the applicable HP terms and conditions of service provided or indicated to Customer at the time of purchase. Customer may have additional statutory rights according to applicable local laws, and such rights are not in any way affected by the HP terms and conditions of service, or the HP Limited Warranty provided with your HP Product. For full system requirements, please visit www.hpdaas.com/requirements. HP Sure Access Enterprise requires Windows 10 Pro or Enterprise and is planned to be available from late 2021. 9 HP Wolf Pro Security Edition (including HP Sure Click Pro and HP Sure Sense Pro) is available preloaded on select SKUs and, depending on the HP product purchased, includes a paid 1-year or 3-year license. The HP Wolf Pro Security Edition software is licensed under the license terms of the HP Wolf Security Software - End-User license Agreement (EULA) that can be found at: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/ish_3875769-3873014-16 as that EULA is modified by the following: 7. Term. Unless otherwise terminated earlier pursuant to the terms contained in this EULA, the license for the HP Wolf Pro Security Edition (HP Sure Sense Pro and HP Sure Click Pro) is effective upon activation and will continue for either a twelve (12) month or thirty-six (36) month license term (Initial Term). At the end of the Initial Term you may either (a) purchase a renewal license for the HP Wolf Pro Security Edition from HP.com, HP Sales or an HP Channel Partner, or (b) continue using the standard versions of HP Sure Click and HP Sure Sense at no additional cost with no future software updates or HP Support. Copyright 2021 HP Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Bluepharma Harmonizes Global Quality Management with Veeva Vault Quality Suite CDMO unifies quality across 20 operational entities for increased efficiency and improved compliance BARCELONA, Spain, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) today announced that Bluepharma adopted Veeva Vault Quality Suite to harmonize quality management across its 20 entities. The global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) uses Veeva Vault QMS and Veeva Vault QualityDocs to bring together quality content and processes for greater efficiency and control. "We expanded our plant and service offerings to help customers deliver products and medicines to patients faster. In doing so, we needed to simplify key processes like documentation, end-user training, and change control," said Sergio Simoes, vice president at Bluepharma. "With Veeva Vault Quality Suite, we now have the quality systems in place to easily scale our manufacturing operations while maintaining compliance across stakeholders." Bluepharma operates a pharmaceutical group that manages activity throughout the entire drug value chain. Using Veeva Vault, the company unified end-to-end quality management to gain easy access to documents and align quality processes across teams and functional areas. By adopting a more connected approach to quality, Bluepharma can now automate document reuse and sharing to improve organizational collaboration. "Bluepharma is a prime example of a fast-growing CDMO investing in modernizing its operations to support the success of their customers," said Robert Gaertner, senior director, strategy, Veeva Vault Quality. "We're thrilled to see Veeva Vault Quality Suite playing a critical role in enabling more efficient, reliable, and compliant drug manufacturing." Learn more about Vault Quality Suite at the upcoming Veeva R&D and Quality Summit Connect Europe, 20 May 2021. The online event is open to life sciences industry professionals. Register and stay up to date on program details at veeva.com/Summit. Additional Information For more on Veeva Vault Quality Suite, visit: veeva.com/Quality Connect with Veeva on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/veeva-systems Follow @veeva_eu on Twitter: twitter.com/veeva_eu About Veeva Systems Veeva is the global leader in cloud software for the life sciences industry. Committed to innovation, product excellence, and customer success, Veeva serves more than 975 customers, ranging from the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to emerging biotechs. As a Public Benefit Corporation, Veeva is committed to balancing the interests of all stakeholders, including customers, employees, shareholders, and the industries it serves. For more information, visit veeva.com/eu. Forward-looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements, including the market demand for and acceptance of Veeva's products and services, the results from use of Veeva's products and services, and general business conditions (including the on-going impact of COVID-19), particularly within the life sciences industry. Any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon Veeva's historical performance and its current plans, estimates, and expectations, and are not a representation that such plans, estimates, or expectations will be achieved. These forward-looking statements represent Veeva's expectations as of the date of this press announcement. Subsequent events may cause these expectations to change, and Veeva disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements in the future. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. Additional risks and uncertainties that could affect Veeva's financial results are included under the captions, "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," in the company's filing on Form 10-K for the period ended January 31, 2021. This is available on the company's website at veeva.com under the Investors section and on the SEC's website at sec.gov. Further information on potential risks that could affect actual results will be included in other filings Veeva makes with the SEC from time to time. Contact: Deivis Mercado Veeva Systems 925-226-8821 deivis.mercado@veeva.com Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1488285/Veeva_Systems_Logo.jpg [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Nightingale College Receives Continuing Education Accreditation From IACET Nightingale College, a national leader in distance learning prelicensure nursing education programs, today announced the College is now an officially accredited provider for continuing education (CE). The International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) approved Nightingale College's accreditation for a full five-year cycle after a virtual site visit. The first course will be an Implicit Bias Training/Workshop, which is being offered at no cost to all College collaborators and learners. Studies show nurses are not immune to implicit bias and that it has consequences, including strained patient/provider relationships and a negative impact on clinical outcomes. Nightingale College is currently developing several additional CE offerings, including: "Learner Engagement in the Online Setting" "Applying Adult Learning Models in the Online Teaching Environment" "Facilitation or Teaching? Which is Supported by Andragogy?" "Recognizing Opportunities for Celebrating Diversity in the Learner Population" IACET developed the Continuing Education Unit (CEU), which allows providers of continuing education and training to deliver high-quality instruction and offer recognized continuing education credits by fllowing the ANSI/IACET 2018-1 Standard for Continuing Education and Training through a rigorous accreditation process. Nightingale College is nationally accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (ABHES). ABHES is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a private, non-profit, independent accrediting agency. In January 2021, the College was accepted as a candidate for regional accreditation by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU). The non-profit membership organization granted the pre-accreditation status after considering evidence provided by the College during 2020 and from a virtual site visit last October. Nightingale College offers a prelicensure bachelor's degree in nursing, Practical Nursing (PN) diploma as well as a Registered Nurse (RN)-to-Bachelor of Science Nurse (BSN) program and a master's degree in nursing education. For more information about Nightingale College, please click here. About Nightingale College Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Nightingale College is a pioneer in distance education for prelicensure nursing; it offers nursing programs at diploma as well as bachelor and master degree levels. The College is dedicated to improving demographic, socioeconomic, and geographic access to nursing education and is enrolling learners across the United States, with supervised on-ground field experiences (SOFE) regions in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. To learn about Nightingale College, its mission and programs, visit www.nightingale.edu. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005341/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 05:05:07|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows explosions following Israeli air strikes in Gaza City. Israeli military chief Aviv Kochavi decided on Tuesday to extend Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip "with no time limit" amid the tensions with Hamas, a Palestinian movement that runs the strip. Three women in Israel and 28 people in Gaza Strip have been reportedly killed since Monday in the worst flare-up of Israeli-Palestinian violence since Israel's major military assault in Gaza in 2014. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) GAZA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The tit-for-tat trade of fire between militant groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel has been mounting on Tuesday, leaving 28 Palestinians and three Israelis killed and dozens of others wounded from both sides. Palestinian militant groups, including the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), fired hundreds of rockets from the besieged coastal enclave at Israeli towns and cities in southern and central Israel. In response, Israeli fighter jets and drones bombed military posts and facilities belonging to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad militants. The fighter jets also destroyed apartments and high-rise buildings that belong to the two groups in the Gaza Strip. The tension between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza started when the militants fired a barrage of rockets at Jerusalem in response to the clashes that broke out at al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli police forces. Since Monday, the buzz of the Israeli fighter jets and drones mixed with the sounds of the bombs were heard all over the Gaza Strip, as gray and black smokes could be easily seen billowing into the sky as result of the Israeli bombings or the firing of rockets by Gaza militants. The current wave of violence between Israel and Gaza militant groups is the first of its kind since the last large-scale air and ground offensive that Israel waged on the Palestinian enclave for 50 days in 2014. Hamas spokesman in Gaza Fawzi Barhoum said in a press statement that Hamas is determined not to pull back from the equation of escalation. "If Israel strikes, the armed resistance strikes back," he vowed. On Tuesday, Israeli fighter jets struck a 14-floor high-rise building in western Gaza city after the Israeli army asked its inhabitants to evacuate. However, Hamas warned Israel against targeting populated houses and buildings. After destroying the building, the al-Qassam Brigades, the Hamas' armed wing, claimed responsibility for firing 130 rockets from the Gaza Strip at Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel. The group said in a short text message that firing the rockets was in response to Israel's targeting of the high-rise building and many other apartments in the Gaza Strip. "Targeting homes and buildings on purpose expressed how brutal the criminal occupation is," Barhoum said, adding that the Palestinian armed resistance "will protect the Palestinian people and will keep defending them." Enditem [May 12, 2021] OpSec Early Warning System Identifies Email Scam Threats LONDON and PHILADELPHIA, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OpSec Security, the leading provider of a complete solution to combat online brand-related threats, is announcing the advanced OpSec Early Warning System reporting and OpSec AntiFraud Monitoring service, part of the OpSec AntiPhishing online fraud protection offering, the best solution to help customers combat online email scams. OpSecs designed our proprietary services to proactively detect and uncover fraudulent websites and email attacks and shut them down at the source. Aggregating domain registrations, DNS records, and SSL certificate creations, the OpSec Early Warning System provides organizations actionable security information to protect their brand assets. Most of our customers utilize the data provided by the OpSec Early Warning System to block or re-route emails from suspicious domains or hostnames at their email gateway, says Stefanie Wood Ellis, Sr. Product Manager, OpSec Anti-Fraud Solutions. This prevents suspicious email from being sent to employees who may unwittingly respond. The data also provides the IT Security organization with the original malicious email that can then be mitigated through OpSecs 24x7 AntiFraud Security Operations Center. The OpSec Early Warning System is an essential component of any brand protection program. Organizations must understand how they are being targeted and why, and the first step is to see how their company identity is being used in the domain registration and email space to ensure communications to their customers is safe and trusted. These solutions have continuously been improved over 20 years of detecting and mitigating phishing attacks. OpSec Security has been recognized as the most innovative leader in developing advnced fraud-detection technology forming strategic partnerships and collaborating with our customers to provide field-tested brand protection solutions around the world. To learn how OpSec Securitys AntiFraud Solutions can be a crucial component of your Online Brand Protection efforts and learn more about the OpSec Early Warning System and AntiFraud services, visit https://www.opsecsecurity.com/opsec-online/antifraud-phishing About OpSec Security OpSec Security is the global market leader in securing and protecting brands. After decades of leadership in brand protection technology, OpSec grew to become the leading provider of fully integrated brand and document security, providing companies and governments with myriad solutions to help our customers ensure brand quality, reputation, and integrity. OpSec is a leading innovator in online brand and digital content protection, offering our clients end-to-end safeguards against counterfeiting, piracy, and unauthorized usage. We continue to innovate, finding increasingly advanced ways to meet an ever-growing range of threats. Even as the counterfeiters, pirates, and other bad actors employ more sophisticated ways to damage your brand, we never stop getting better at protecting it. What is missing from your brand protection program? Find out more at www.opsecsecurity.com. Media Contact Amanda Hershey Marketing Communications Manager Email: media@opsecsecurity.com Phone: +1 (717) 475-9110 www.opsecsecurity.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Emerson Donates Sustainable Refrigeration Technologies to Collaborative Market in Food Desert Emerson (News - Alert) (NYSE: EMR), a global software and technology leader, is donating a unique, sustainable refrigeration architecture developed at its Helix Innovation Center in Dayton, Ohio, to the city's Gem City Market - a collaborative grocery store to provide fresh food amid a local food desert. The Gem City Market, which opens today, is a Dayton Foundation cooperative market initiative to help address food insecurity in downtown Dayton, which has been designated a "food desert" by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. Food deserts are defined as regions with a 20% or greater poverty rate and where a third or more of the residents live more than one mile from retail outlets selling healthy and affordable food. To help ensure safe, high quality food at the market, Emerson is donating its Copeland scroll booster refrigeration architecture - the first technology to be commercially developed at Emerson's Hlix Innovation Center in Dayton. Emerson's scroll booster technology enables Gem City to combine a low-pressure, low global-warming potential refrigerant with a distributed architecture, which is emerging as a sustainable alternative to large, centralized systems. This technology will help retailers face the industry challenge of transitioning to lower global warming potential refrigerants to meet their sustainability goals and achieve regulatory compliance. Working to address food insecurity reinforces Emerson's company Purpose: "We drive innovation that makes the world healthier, safer, smarter and more sustainable." "Creating innovative technologies that help the communities we call home is fundamental to our identity and purpose as a company," said Jamie Froedge, executive president of Emerson's Commercial & Residential Solutions business. "We are proud to put this technology to work and meet a community need in Dayton, where we researched and developed this leading-edge solution. "The industries we serve have long sought environmentally responsible approaches that offer the same high performance. This inventive architecture will make a significant impact for retailers - and make advanced refrigeration solutions more accessible for small-format retail stores who want to make sustainable choices." Emerson, along with business partners Hussmann and Chemours, donated refrigeration equipment in service of this collaborative initiative. Donations include assembly components and 10 low temperature booster systems from Emerson, the assembled refrigeration system from Hussmann and low-GWP refrigerant Opteon XP10 (R-513A) from Chemours. Click here to learn more about Gem City Market. About Emerson Emerson (NYSE: EMR), headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is a global technology and engineering company providing innovative solutions for customers in industrial, commercial and residential markets. Our Automation Solutions business helps process, hybrid and discrete manufacturers maximize production, protect personnel and the environment while optimizing their energy and operating costs. Our Commercial & Residential Solutions business helps ensure human comfort and health, protect food quality and safety, advance energy efficiency and create sustainable infrastructure. For more information visit Emerson.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005034/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] tZERO Signs Agreements With Three Innovative Platforms to Boost Its Access to Private Companies Seeking Continuous Secondary Liquidity tZERO, a leader in blockchain innovation and liquidity for digital assets, announced today that it has signed agreements with three cutting-edge platforms: OmniValley, Inc., an online community and platform housing and connecting startup ecosystem participants, Trellis Platform, Inc. (Trellis), a SaaS (News - Alert) platform for alternative assets, and Wunderfund, Inc., an investment funding platform for private companies. These partnerships will connect tZERO with high-quality private companies seeking to enhance their securities through tokenization, offering a path towards continuous secondary liquidity through tZERO's regulated alternative trading system operated by its FINRA member broker-dealer subsidiary, tZERO ATS. tZERO CEO Saum Noursalehi stated, "We are thrilled to partner with OmniValley, Trellis, and Wunderfund. These progressive platforms have rich networks of private companies and we are eager to introduce these companies to a blockchain-based platform for tokenization and secondary trading." OmniValley OmniValley is an exclusive, online investor network of over 750 accelerators, incubators, venture capital firms, and other large institutions, connecting those who invest in startup companies. OmniValley's tools foster new and meaningful relationships among investors seeking to enter under-ventured and innovative markets. OmniValley CEO and Founder Grady Buchanan shared, "At OmniValley, we've built a platform specifically and exclusively designed for investors that provides transparency and access into entrepreneurial ecosystems. tZERO shares our DNA. We look forward to working with tZERO and providing our network with an innovative solution that is interoperable with the market-leading secondary liquidity solution." Trellis Trellis is a Boston-based company that helps issuers and fiduciaries navigate the private investment process through its SaaS platform. The Trellis platform is built to enable secure, compliant, and paperless investment in alternative assets from deal sourcing and due diligence through subscription, custody, and monitoring. Trellis also facilitates alternative asset liquidity through lending and secondary-market trading services embedded in the Trellis single sign-on platform. Trellis Chief Revenue Officer George Nichols said, "Our partnership with tZERO is a natural extension of enabling alternative asset liquidity through secondary-market trading services. We are excited to collaborate with tZERO and connect our network with a best-in-class venue to access secondary liquidity through the tZERO ATS." Wunderfund Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Wunderfund is a national crowdfunding plaform that democratizes venture capital for all investors by giving both accredited and non-accredited investors the ability to back private companies, such as breweries, tech companies, real estate, and healthcare startups. Wunderfund CEO Marvin Abrinica noted, "We are delighted to partner with tZERO to introduce our diverse network of investment-ready companies to a technology solution that enables secondary liquidity on a regulated trading venue." About tZERO tZERO Group, Inc. and its broker-dealer subsidiaries (tZERO) provide an innovative liquidity platform for private companies and assets. We offer institutional-grade solutions for issuers looking to digitize their capital table through blockchain technology, and trade on a regulated alternative trading system. tZERO democratizes access to private assets by providing a simple, automated, and efficient trading venue to broker-dealers, institutions, and investors. For more information on tZERO, please visit https://www.tzero.com/. tZERO is not a registered broker-dealer, funding portal, underwriter, investment bank, investment adviser or investment manager, and is not providing brokerage, investment banking or underwriting services, recommendations or investment advice to any person, and does not provide any brokerage services. tZERO takes no part in the negotiation or execution of secondary market transactions for the purchase or sale of securities and at no time has possession of investor funds or securities in connection with such transactions. About tZERO ATS tZERO ATS, LLC is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC (News - Alert) and a member of FINRA and SIPC. More information about tZERO ATS may be found at https://brokercheck.finra.org/. Digital securities that trade on tZERO ATS are conventional uncertificated securities. Ownership of such securities is reflected on the traditional books and records of regulated market participants. The term "digital" refers to the blockchain technology elements of a security that are intended to enhance investor experience through added transparency. Investor Notice Investors should note that trading securities could involve substantial risks, including no guarantee of returns, costs associated with selling and purchasing, no assurance of liquidity, which could impact the price and ability to sell, and possible loss of principal invested. Further, an investment in single security could mean lack of diversification and, consequently, higher risk. Potential investors are urged to consult a professional adviser regarding any economic, tax, legal or other consequences of trading any securities as described herein. No Offer, Solicitation, Investment Advice or Recommendations This release is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation for any security, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory or other services by tZERO or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers, directors or employees. No reference to any specific security constitutes a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold that security or any other security. Nothing in this release shall be considered a solicitation or offer to buy or sell any security, future, option or other financial instrument or to offer or provide any investment advice or service to any person in any jurisdiction. Nothing contained in this release constitutes investment advice or offers any opinion with respect to the suitability of any security, and the views expressed in this release should not be taken as advice to buy, sell or hold any security. In preparing the information contained in this release, we have not taken into account the investment needs, objectives, and financial circumstances of any particular investor. This information has no regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation, and particular needs of any specific recipient of this information and investments discussed may not be suitable for all investors. Any views expressed in this release by us were prepared based upon the information available to us at the time such views were written. Changed or additional information could cause such views to change. All information is subject to possible corrections. Information may quickly become unreliable for various reasons, including changes in market conditions or economic circumstances. Forward-Looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements. In addition, from time to time, tZERO, its subsidiaries, or its representatives may make forward-looking statements orally or in writing. These forward-looking statements are based on expectations and projections about future events, which is derived from currently available information. Such forward-looking statements relate to future events or future performance, including financial performance and projections; growth in revenue and earnings; and business prospects and opportunities. You can identify forward-looking statements by those that are not historical in nature, particularly those that use terminology such as "may," "should," "expects," "anticipates," "contemplates," "estimates," "believes," "plans," "projected," "predicts," "potential," or "hopes" or the negative of these or similar terms. In evaluating these forward-looking statements, you should consider various factors, including, without limitation: the ability of tZERO and its subsidiaries to change the direction; tZERO's ability to keep pace with new technology and changing market needs; and competition. These and other factors may cause actual results to differ materially from any forward-looking statement. Forward-looking statements are only predictions. The forward-looking events discussed in this release and other statements made from time to time by tZERO, its subsidiaries or their respective representatives, may not occur, and actual events and results may differ materially and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions. tZERO, its subsidiaries, and its representatives are not obligated to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed in this release and other statements made from time to time by tZERO, its subsidiaries or its representatives might not occur. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005338/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] BK-ALPROF Aluminum Manufacturer Supplied Aluminum Profiles for JFK Airport in New York BELAYA KALITVA, Russia, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BK-ALPROF LLC manufactures extruded aluminum profiles of any shape and size . Orders are produced from 10 up to 20 business days. The company produces aluminum I-beams , rectangular, round, triangle, square aluminum tubing, many types of custom extrusions amongst many others. The geography of BK-ALPROF's supplies includes Russia, the United States, the EU, Asian countries, and the EAEU Customs Union. BK-ALPROF's aluminum products have been used in various buildings throughout the United States. For instance, they were used during the construction of engineering facilities, a hotel complex, and the TWA Flight Center at Kennedy International Airport, as well as the constructio and decoration of the World Trade Center. BK-ALPROF is a frequent participant of various exhibitions, where it presents its production and makes lucrative deals. The company takes part in the annual international exhibition Metal-Expo, which is held in Moscow, Russia every November. At the exhibition, the company presented its capabilities and the range of manufactured aluminum profiles. Representatives of BK-ALPROF held productive meetings with current and potential buyers of the company's products. BK-ALPROF is a manufacturer of extrusion profiles for various purposes from aluminum alloys 6060 and 6063. Raw materials from both its own production and UC RUSAL are used for extrusion of aluminum profiles. The material meets the requirements of all international standards. Having its own foundry guarantees complete protection from interruptions in the supply of raw material for extrusion of aluminum profiles. The main activities of the manufacturer are profile extrusion, coating and anodizing of aluminum shapes, casting of solid cylindrical billets, and production of translucent structures. Taking into account new requirements in construction, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, the manufacturer constantly updates the nomenclature groups of manufactured aluminum profiles, and develops new designs that meet the needs of the construction industry. Contemporary technological achievements make it possible to produce aluminum profiles of any complexity and configuration. The maximum diameter of the circumscribed circle of the items can reach 260 millimeters, and the maximum length can be 12 meters. This year the manufacturer has once again received the regional quality mark "Made in Don" and has successfully passed the certification procedure. This quality mark is assigned only to those Don manufacturers whose products meet the rigorous Russian and international requirements and quality standards. Media Contact Helen Miller +1-718-303-2335 309552@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bk-alprof-aluminum-manufacturer-supplied-aluminum-profiles-for-jfk-airport-in-new-york-301289587.html SOURCE BK-ALPROF, LLC [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Vernon J., CEO of EquityCoin Joins the 'Road to a Billion' Panel at Black Enterprise's 40 Under 40 Summit Hosted by Amazon NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Today it was announced that real estate investor and social entrepreneur Vernon J. has joined the Road To A Billion panel session at Black Enterprise's Inaugural 40 Under 40 Summit, hosted by Amazon. The virtual event takes place on Thursday, May 20, and the Road To A Billion session is scheduled for 1:40 p.m. 2:10 p.m. EST. The discussion will explore topics of building both individual and collective generational wealth, and viewers will be able to participate in a live "text" chat Q&A with attendees. Sign up for the event using this link: https://40under40.blackenterprise.com/en/registration. Vernon J. is the CEO of EquityCoin, the first digital token on the blockchain backed by affordable housing. Through this decentralized approach to community development, EquityCoin plans to transform the real estate funding apparatus while creating generational wealth for underserved communities. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the U.S. has a shortage of 7 million affordable apartments, which has been exacerbated by the economic fallout from COVID-19. To address this national crisis, Vernon created EquityCoin as a vehicle to galvanize communities of color to invest in local affordable housing projects cooperatively. Vrnon plans to democratize real estate investing for everyday millennials by reducing barriers to entry such as high investment minimums and significant net worth requirements. At the same time, he seeks to provide quality housing within America's opportunity zones. Each EquityCoin Token (EQTY) represents a fraction of ownership in the company's growing portfolio of properties. "The integration and application of Blockchain technology within the real estate funding sector is the solution to reducing America's racial wealth gap, which has more than doubled in the last four decades. Through the fractionalization and tokenization of assets, Blockchain technology reduces the minimum investment size, which opens new opportunities previously inaccessible to most Americans. EquityCoin will champion a new sharing equity economy by giving community members the opportunity to own fractions of income-producing properties in the cities that they actually live in," says Vernon. More than just a digital token, EquityCoin adds civility to wealth-building. In fact, the creation of EquityCoin was inspired after Vernon saw the challenges of homelessness first-hand while renting one of his available units in East New York, Brooklyn, NY. to a single mother living in a shelter. "Once I handed her the keys to the apartment, she wept with tears full of joy. That feeling of fulfillment was inexplicable; and it was at that moment I knew my purpose was to offer a helping hand to thousands of other families in need," says Vernon. EquityCoin, Inc. will begin applying its real estate tokenization process with an assemblage of multifamily properties in the East New York section of Brooklyn. The company plans to launch programming and resources in four additional target markets: South Los Angeles, North Miami, West Philadelphia, Newark, New Jersey, and Oakland, California. For more information about EquityCoin's mission, go to https://EquityCoin.org. Media Contact Beatriz Durant 747-900-1387 309694@email4pr.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/vernon-j-ceo-of-equitycoin-joins-the-road-to-a-billion-panel-at-black-enterprises-40-under-40-summit-hosted-by-amazon-301289589.html SOURCE EquityCoin [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (NYSE: BITQ) Launches Bitwise Asset Management, one of the largest and fastest-growing crypto-specialist asset managers, with AUM over $1.5 billion,1 today announced the launch of the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators ETF (NYSE: BITQ). BITQ aims to provide investors with exposure to valuable public companies that are participants in the growing bitcoin and cryptocurrency sector. The new ETF offers a way for investors to gain exposure to the crypto market without the challenges of directly holding crypto assets like bitcoin and ethereum. BITQ seeks to track the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators 30 Index, designed with Bitwise's industry expertise to capture "pure-play" companies engaged in actual, material activity in the crypto sector. Additionally, the index includes companies with at least $100 million of liquid crypto assets on their balance sheet. In most cases, companies in the new index derive at least 75% of their revenue from directly servicing cryptocurrency markets or have at least 75% of their net assets accounted for by direct holdings of liquid cryptoassets. Such companies may, for example, offer crypto brokerage services, financial and banking services, mining solutions, technology solutions, or analytics solutions. The index rebalances quarterly. "Like e-commerce and mobile before it, crypto is a disruptive technology creating massive opportunities for new companies to emerge as winners," said Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise. "Until recently, most great crypto innovators were private companies, but that's changing rapidly. Today, there's a growing set of public companies capitalizing on crypto, and more to come. BITQ aims to identify these businesses and give investors access." The index is designed specifically to capture the unique characteristics of the crypto equity market. For example, the index has a "fast-entry" rule that allows new IPOs and direct listings to enter the index one day after their debut, allowing it to quickly adapt to the rapidly changing market. As an example of this rule's impact, on April 14, 2021, one of the largest names in cryptocurrency, Coinbase, went public. On April 15, 2021, Coinbase qualified for inclusion in the index that BITQ tracks at a 10% weight. "Over the past few years, many investors have had to watch from the sidelines as a select few have reaped the rewards of stellar cryptocurrency returns," said Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise. "We've heard time and again from clients that the primary challenge has been finding a way to access the incredibly complex and fast-moving crypto space. With BITQ, our aim is to make crypto investment opportunities available through traditional investin platforms and a familiar, liquid, and cost-effective ETF. We are thrilled to see this space continue to grow as investors increasingly gravitate toward this transformative asset class." Bitwise manages a growing suite of investment funds, including one of the largest crypto index funds, the first "DeFi" crypto index fund, and a number of other strategies. The firm focuses on partnering with investment professionals, and today serves RIAs, multifamily offices, financial advisors, and other institutional managers. The BITQ fund tracks the Bitwise Crypto Industry Innovators 30 Index. Developed by Bitwise with input from Moorgate Benchmarks' index research team, the index is calculated and distributed by Moorgate Benchmarks, a rapidly growing index calculation and benchmark administration company based in London, England with deep expertise in the index space. Exchange Traded Concepts, an ETF platform provider, serves as the investment adviser to the BITQ fund, and SEI Investment Distribution Co., a provider of investment management services, is the distributor of BITQ. 1 As of May 7, 2021 About Bitwise Asset Management Based in San Francisco, Bitwise is one of the largest and fastest-growing crypto asset managers. As of May 7, 2021, Bitwise managed over $1.5 billion across an expanding suite of investment solutions. The firm is known for managing one of the largest crypto index funds (OTCQX: BITW), and pioneering products spanning Bitcoin, Ethereum, DeFi, and now crypto-focused equities, as examples. Bitwise focuses on partnering with financial advisors and investment professionals to provide quality education and research. The team at Bitwise combines expertise in technology with decades of experience in traditional asset management and indexing-coming from firms including BlackRock, Blackstone, Facebook (News - Alert) , and Google, as well as the U.S. Attorney's Office. Bitwise is backed by leading institutional investors and asset management executives, and has been profiled in Institutional Investor, CNBC, Barron's, Bloomberg (News - Alert) , and The Wall Street Journal. RISK DISCLOSURE AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION Carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risk factors, charges, and expenses before investing. This and additional information can be found in the Fund's full or summary prospectus, which may be obtained by visiting (www.BITQETF.com). Investors should read it carefully before investing. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. There is no guarantee or assurance that the methodology used to create the Index will result in the Fund achieving positive investment returns or outperforming other investment products. Indices are unmanaged and do not include the effect of fees. One cannot invest directly in an index. The Fund is non-diversified and will not invest in crypto assets directly or through the use of derivatives and also will not invest in initial coin offerings. The Fund may, however, have indirect exposure to crypto assets by virtue of its investments in Crypto Industry Innovators that use one or more crypto assets as part of their business activities or that hold crypto assets as proprietary investments. In addition to the normal risks associated with investing, international investments may involve risk of capital loss from unfavorable fluctuation in currency values, from differences in generally accepted accounting principles or from social, economic or political instability in other nations. Emerging markets involve heightened risks related to the same factors as well as increased volatility and lower trading volume. Narrowly focused investments and investments in small companies typically exhibit higher volatility. Investors in the Fund should be willing to accept a high degree of volatility in the price of the Fund's shares and the possibility of significant losses. An investment in the fund involves a substantial degree of risk. Certain of the Fund's investments may be subject to the risks associated with investing in crypto assets, including cryptocurrencies and crypto tokens. Because crypto assets are a new technological innovation with a limited history, they are highly speculative asset. Future regulatory actions or policies may limit the ability to sell, exchange or use a crypto asset. The price of a crypto asset may be impacted by the transactions of a small number of holders of such crypto asset. Crypto assets may decline in popularity, acceptance or use, thereby impairing its price. The technology relating to crypto assets and blockchain is new and developing. Currently, there are a limited number of publicly listed or quoted companies for which crypto asset and blockchain technology represents an attributable and significant revenue stream. Shares of ETFs are bought and sold at market price (not NAV) and are not individually redeemed from the Fund. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns. Exchange Traded Concepts, LLC serves as the investment advisor of the fund. The Fund is distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Co. (SIDCO), which is not affiliated with Exchange Traded Concepts, LLC or any of its affiliates. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005554/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Buildots releases first AI powered mobile control room for construction sites TEL AVIV, Israel and LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Buildots , the AI construction tech start-up, announced the release of the first mobile "control room" to give project managers access to critical information on the go. Profit margins in construction are some of the lowest for any industry, averaging just 2.8%, according to a CE Performance Report. These tight margins leave companies with little room for error and one mistake, like a delayed vendor, can quickly move a project into the red. Indeed, a survey conducted by KPMG found that only 25% of construction projects were completed within 10% of their original deadlines and only 31% came within 10% of their budget, furthermore 98% of megaprojects incur delays or exceed their budget. Buildots provides construction companies with an end-to-end solutin that allows full control of every activity on the construction site. Buildots' AI algorithms automatically validate images captured using hardhat mounted 360-degree cameras, to detect any gaps between plans, scheduling and the reality on the construction site. The new app allows managers to access the critical data during site walks, without the need for internet access or GPS, driving more value from each site visit. The app provides up-to-date information on any visited area, including latest progress reports, delays and issues, allowing managers to respond to problems faster, saving time and reducing costs. With the introduction of Buildots' app, project managers gain on-the-move access to a fully digitized construction control room of the project. "The mobile app adds another layer to an already powerful tool which allows managers to monitor details of the project on the ground while also having a big-picture overview of the entire site," said Aviv Leibovici, Chief Product Officer of Buildots "With Buildots in the palm of their hand, managers can nip problems in the bud early finishing projects ahead of schedule and under budget." The iOS app for tablets is designed to function properly even in environments with limited-connectivity, supporting an offline mode with actions performed in the app being updated in Buildots once a network connection is re-established. Buildots computer vision AI is highly accurate and can detect and analyze every element including an electrical outlet, window, vent or more, validating it against the project schedule and designs. Media Contact Kevin Capon Goldszmidt kevin@westraycommunications.com +972585-190791 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/buildots-releases-first-ai-powered-mobile-control-room-for-construction-sites-301289867.html SOURCE Buildots [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Propper Daley Expands Social Impact Reputation Practice Naming Eric Schultz, Adrienne Elrod, and Neelum Arya as Senior Advisors LOS ANGELES, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Propper Daley today announced three senior advisors as the leading social impact agency further expands its Social Impact Reputation offering. Propper Daley, one of the first social impact agencies, to date has strategized with more than 200 clients to build outcome-oriented social impact programs and leverage culture to create meaningful, positive change. Eric Schultz, Adrienne Elrod, and Neelum Arya will be supporting Propper Daley's work with CEOs and brands as they navigate the new social issues landscape, define operating and governance principles, identify culture change opportunities, and determine how to lead. Within the past year, the demand for corporations to take a stand on systemic inequities and social issues is higher than ever before. "We are in an unprecedented moment in our society to rebuild the country in a just way and it will take all stakeholders to make the change. It is no longer an option for brands and CEOs to stand on the sidelines and take a neutral or silent position on critical social justice issues," said Greg Propper, CEO and President of Propper Daley. "Every brand needs to identify clear corporate values and act in accordance with them, while creating meaningful and deep impact on issues they can authentically affect. Eric, Adrienne, and Neelum share a deep commitment to our mission, and bring a mix of experience in communications, politics, government, law, and social justice, which is exactly what we need to help our clients make meaningful social change while piercing public consciousness." Within the past year, the demand for corporations to take a stand on systemic inequities and social issues is higher than ever before. The pandemic has especially driven younger generations to focus on larger societal issues, encouraging brands and individuals to re-identify corporate values and act in accordance. Two in three consumers shared that they will pay more for products and services from brands that are committed to making a positive social impact and in particular, 78% of consumers ages 18 to 34 expect brands to take a stand on racial justice. Founded in 2012 Propper Daley has seen a massive increase in demand as the world continues to rapidly change and corporate stakeholders increase their commitment to impact, averaging 30%+ year over year growth for the past few years. This expanded offering addresses the emerging need for organizations to redefine their reputation to ensure authentic alignment between organizational programs and communications. With nearly two decades of experience at the highest levels of politics and government, Eric Schultz navigates clients through the intertwined national media and political landscape. Separately, Eric serves as a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama, and counsels a range of corporate and nonprofit clients on expanding and enhancing their respective footprints in Washington. Before joining the Obama White House in 2011, Eric spent nearly ten years on Capitol Hill working for key U.S. Senators, including as communications director to the current Democratic Leader, Charles Schumer. He is also an advisory board member of Democracy Docket, which funds voting rights litigation to enfranchise and protect the rights of citizens to vote. Drawing on his experience, Eric was credited as a political consultant on Netflix's recent reboot of Designated Survivor. Adrienne Elrod has nearly 25 years of experience working on political campaigns, government and communications and specializes in advising clients on influencer engagement and public affairs. Adrienne most recently served as Director of Talent and External Affairs for the Biden Inaugural Committee, where she helped conceptualize a highly-successful inauguration, managing a team that oversaw all aspects of talent recruitment and logistics for swearing-in performers and participants, as well as other ancillary and virtual events. During the 2020 election, Adrienne also served as President Biden's Director of Surrogate Strategy and Operations, where she led a key campaign department tasked with deploying surrogatesincluding elected leaders, celebrities and other high-level influencersacross the country and via multiple platforms. She is a former senior aide to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, and has over a decade of experience on Capitol Hill, including 5 years as a chief of staff. She worked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee during the 2006 cycle that flipped the House, and also held - variety of jobs in President Bill Clinton's administration. Neelum Arya has nearly 25 years of experience working on social justice issues at the federal, state, and local levels. Over the course of her career, she has worked with the leading social justice organizations in the country, mastered multiple reform strategies, and has achieved reforms across numerous issue areas including health, juvenile and criminal justice, education, racial and ethnic disparities, and voting rights. Neelum's main role in the criminal justice field at present is serving as a Policy Advisor to John Legend's FREEAMERICA campaign to end mass incarceration and she also teaches an executive-level policy reform fellowship, Justice Policy Network. Propper Daley is a fast-growing social impact agency with brands, organizations, and influencer clients including but not limited to Activision, UBS, Viacom, John Legend, Kerry Washington, Shawn Mendes, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Everytown for Gun Safety, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Offering clients a holistic and integrated approach to create measurable and outcome-oriented social impact in the world, the agency has been a driving force behind Got Your Six, a collective impact initiative between Hollywood Studios and TV Networks and most major Veteran serving organizations and John Legend's FREEAMERICA , a program designed to change national conversations and policies around the criminal justice system. To learn more about how Propper Daley can help build outcome-driven social impact solutions visit https://propperdaley.com . About Propper Daley Propper Daley is the leading social impact agency to help brands, nonprofits, and philanthropists accelerate positive change in the world. Propper Daley operates at the nexus of the philanthropy, social, corporate and government sectors and serves clients that are at a tipping point, helping them to define and refine goals, identify key populations, and develop a holistic strategy to drive long-term impact. Propper Daley drives social impact campaigns for leading changemakers and brands such as Activision, UBS, Viacom, John Legend, Kerry Washington, Shawn Mendes, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Everytown for Gun Safety, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Founded in Los Angeles in 2012 Propper Daley builds outcome-driven solutions to move the needle on the most pressing issues of our time. To learn more visit www.propperdaley.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/propper-daley-expands-social-impact-reputation-practice-naming-eric-schultz-adrienne-elrod-and-neelum-arya-as-senior-advisors-301289666.html SOURCE Propper Daley [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Vaya Health Selects VirtualHealth to Support its Care Management Program VirtualHealth today announced that Vaya Health (Vaya) has selected the HELIOS platform to support care management for Medicaid members across the 22 North Carolina counties that Vaya serves. Vaya, a public managed care organization (MCO) offering behavioral health and intellectual and developmental disability (I/DD) services, chose the HELIOS platform after performing a comprehensive market analysis. As North Carolina shifts its Medicaid program from a predominately fee-for-service delivery system to integrated managed care, VirtualHealth will provide the technology infrastructure needed to assure Vaya's successful transition to a Tailored Plan beginning July 1, 2022. Through Tailored Care Management, Medicaid beneficiaries will have a designated care manager supported by a multidisciplinary care team to address physical health, behavioral health, I/DD, traumatic brain injuries, pharmacy, long-term services and supports (LTSS) and unmet health-related resource needs. "Our goal was to find a technology partner with the solutions to optimally support data-driven, person-centered care and VirtualHealth's platform consistently rose to the top of our rankings," said Robert Webb, executive vice president and CIO of Vaya. "The HELIOS platform has a proven track record in North Carolina for integrating data sources, delivering intelligent workflows and driving care team efficiencies, which we believe will improve the effectiveness of our care teams and, ultimately, the qualiy of care delivered to our members." The HELIOS platform is designed to ingest data from across the healthcare ecosystem, including both clinical and social determinants of health, to intelligently analyze this information in real time, and automatically serve up the next best action to care managers for the right patients at the right time. This approach is based on VirtualHealth's mission of using cutting edge technology to make healthcare more proactive for all. "We look forward to empowering Vaya's care managers with the tools and resources needed to deliver exceptional care to vulnerable populations across the state," said Adam Sabloff, CEO of VirtualHealth. "We applaud North Carolina's dedication to Medicaid transformation and are thrilled to be partnering with innovative MCOs like Vaya in making this initiative a reality." In addition to this partnership with Vaya, VirtualHealth supports Community Care of North Carolina and WellCare Health Plans, totaling over 2 million members across the state. Beyond North Carolina, VirtualHealth proudly supports nearly 10 million Medicaid, Medicare, and Commercial enrollees residing in all 50 states. For more information on HELIOS, please click here. To learn more about Vaya, go here. About VirtualHealth HELIOS by VirtualHealth is the first comprehensive care management platform purpose-built to power the entire ecosystem of value-based care. Utilized by some of the most innovative health plans in the country to manage millions of members, HELIOS streamlines person-centered care with intelligent case, disease, and utilization management workflows, unmatched data integration, broad-spectrum collaboration, patient engagement, and configurable analytics and reporting. Named one of the fastest-growing companies in North America by Deloitte (News - Alert) in 2018 and 2019, VirtualHealth empowers healthcare organizations to achieve enhanced outcomes while maximizing efficiency, improving transparency, and lowering costs. For more information, visit www.virtualhealth.com. About Vaya Health Based in Asheville, N.C., Vaya Health manages public funds for mental health, substance use disorder and intellectual or developmental disability services in 22 western North Carolina counties: Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Caldwell, Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Swain, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes and Yancey. Access to care and crisis assistance are available 24/7 at 1-800-849-6127. Learn more at www.vayahealth.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005093/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Figure Receives Regulatory Approval to Operate Alternate Trading System Figure Technologies, Inc. (Figure), a leader in transforming financial services through the power of blockchain, today announced that its subsidiary, Figure Securities, Inc. has become a FINRA-approved broker-dealer and an SEC (News - Alert) -registered Alternative Trading System (ATS) for digital securities custodied on Provenance Blockchain. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005365/en/ "Being approved as a broker-dealer and being able to operate our ATS is a transformational event for our company that will have significant impact across the financial services sector," said Mike Cagney, CEO and Cofounder of Figure. "The ability to execute trades of securities across our technology platform will enable significant capabilities across our financial services client roster." The ATS will allow: Figure's blockchain-based cap table management solution, Adnales, to offer secondary liquidity to private companies. Figure's blockchain-based digital fund services solution to provide fund managers the ability to offer secondary trading capability directly to their fund LPs. Asset issuers to create security tokens on Figure's blockchain Provenance and trade them in an efficient, liquid and bi-lateral manner with zero settlement risk. FINRA is authorized by Congress to protect America's investors by ensuring all broker-dealers it accepts for membership operate fairly and honestly. A Broker Dealer is in the business of buying or selling securities on behalf of its customers or its own account or both. FINRA oversees more than 624,000 brokers across the country and analyzes billions of daily market events. Interested parties seeking to list digital securities on Figure's ATS should contact Figure at digitalassets@figure.com. About Figure Figure is transforming financial services through blockchain, bringing speed, efficiency and savings to both consumers and institutions. Figure continues to unveil a series of fintech firsts across the capital markets, investment management, and banking and payments sectors. Figure leverages Provenance for loan origination, servicing, financing and now private fund services. The company was founded in 2018 by serial technology entrepreneur Mike Cagney, who also founded SoFi and built the company into a multi-billion dollar business under his leadership as CEO. Learn more about https://www.figure.com/. About Provenance Provenance is the leading production blockchain for the financial services industry. Over 180 members are currently using Provenance for financial transactions across the globe. Hash is the underlying security token native to Provenance and provides exposure to digital equity in the Blockchain. Provenance is administered by Provenance Blockchain, Inc. Learn more at www.provenance.io. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005365/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 05:58:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution to expand the mandate of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia to include verifying compliance with and implementation of the sentences handed down by the Special Jurisdiction for Peace. Resolution 2574, which won the unanimous support of the 15-member council, also extends the mission's mandate till Oct. 31, 2021. Its current mandate expires on Sept. 15, 2021. The Special Jurisdiction for Peace is a transitional justice mechanism to investigate crimes committed during the five-decade-long armed conflict between the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). The Colombian government and FARC struck a peace deal in August 2016 after four years of negotiations in Havana, Cuba. The Security Council in July 2017 approved the establishment of the Verification Mission to verify the political, economic and social reintegration of former FARC combatants as well as security guarantees. Enditem [May 12, 2021] Asana Named to Inc. Magazine's Annual List of Best Workplaces for the Fourth Year in a Row For the fourth year in a row, Asana, Inc. (NYSE: ASAN) has been named to Inc. Magazine's annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. This year, the award recognizes Asana for creating a company with standout trust in its leadership team and a diverse, equitable and inclusive culture that allows people to thrive. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005280/en/ For the fourth year in a row, Asana has been named to Inc. Magazine's annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. (Graphic: Business Wire) "We're honored to be recognized as a Best Workplace by Inc. Magazine for the fourth consecutive year," said Anna Binder, Head of People Operations, Asana. "Staying aligned with our values and prioritizing employee wellbeing are essential as we continue to grow our 11 global offices, including teams in San Francisco and New York. As we prepare to reunite our teams with our office-centric hybrid approach, we're inspired by our team's commitment to building a purpose-driven culture that focuses on collaboration, inclusion and personal and professional growth." The list is based on wide-ranging and comprehensive measurements of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person, remotely or somewhere in between. Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum (News - Alert) Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organization's benefits were also audited to determine the company's overall score and ranking. "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. For more information, visit www.inc.com. About Asana Asana helps teams orchestrate their work, from small projects to strategic initiatives. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Asana has more than 93,000 paying organizations and millions of free organizations across 190 countries. Global customers such as Accenture (News - Alert) , Estee Lauder, Japan Airlines, Sky and Viessmann rely on Asana to manage everything from company objectives to digital transformation to product launches and marketing campaigns. For more information, visit www.asana.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005280/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] INNIO Jenbacher and SynCraft Intensify Collaboration for the Energetic Use of Biomass INNIO Jenbacher receives two new orders to supply gas engines for innovative SynCraft wood gas power plants. As a result, the two Tyrolean companies, who have collaborated on successful joint projects for many years, have set another milestone in the growing use of biomass for power generation. SynCraft wood gas power plants equipped with Jenbacher gas engines are already successfully operating in Austria, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Switzerland, and Japan, with new projects in Germany, Austria, and Japan currently at an advanced stage of planning. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005587/en/ Marcel Huber, founder and managing director of SynCraft and Carlos Lange, president and CEO of INNIO celebrate their companies' collaboration (Photo: Business Wire) Exemplary wood gas power plant projects INNIO will supply two Jenbacher J412 gas engines, each with an electrical output of 500 kW, for the two new SynCraft wood gas power plants in Upper Austria. Each year the two units will process a total of 6,000 metric tons of residual wood from the wood industry into 7,000,000 kWh of renewable power and 10,000,000 kWh of heat. The two power plants will generate a total 7,000 metric tons of CO 2 savings1 annually. They are of a similar scale to the recently commissioned wood gas power plant belonging to Croatian furniture manufacturer TERSA which is installed in the old warehouse at its former sawmill. Here a total of up to 3,000 metric tons of residual wood are converted into 3,000,000 kWh of power, 4,500,000 kWh of heat energy, and 400 metric tons of biochar each year, saving a total2 of up to 3,000 metric tons of CO 2 annually. The wood gas power plant has a total efficiency of up to 92%. SynCraft and INNIO Jenbacher are also currently in the final phase of installing one of the world's largest gas engine-powered wood gas power plants, with an electrical output of 4 MW, in Frauenfeld, Switzerland. Future plans call for 25,000 metric tons of residual, storm-damaged or infested wood to be used to generate energy at the innovative, jointly optimzed facility, supplying the city of Frauenfeld and a local sugar factory with environmentally friendly and sustainable power and heating. Exploiting synergies for green power generation The use of biomass for decentralized power and heat generation is an increasingly important aspect of the energy transition and associated decarbonization. In contrast to wind and sun, regrowing raw materials such as wood are constantly available and can be used in the form of wood gas to generate power and heat in SynCraft wood gas power plants operated using Jenbacher gas engines. Wood gas has a hydrogen content of around 40%. These plants achieve a fuel utilization rate of up to 92%, as well as offer another valuable advantage: in contrast to conventional plants, they produce high quality biochar, rather than ash. INNIO Jenbacher and SynCraft collaborate closely to develop their products in terms of output, efficiency, and lifecycle costs, while simultaneously achieving the highest possible levels of plant availability, in order to optimize the overall cost effectiveness of the wood gas power plant. "SynCraft is dedicated to exploiting synergies. INNIO Jenbacher is an excellent partner to raise awareness around the world of the enormous potential of biomass for power generation and cooperating to build innovative and highly efficient wood gas power plants," says Marcel Huber, SynCraft founder and CEO. "I am delighted that the results of our long and close collaboration with SynCraft are being so well received in the industry. We will continue to use our synergies and expand our collaboration, jointly driving the energy transition by efficiently exploiting the renewable energy source wood in the form of wood gas ," explains Carlos Lange, President and CEO of INNIO. In 2021, EcoVadis awarded INNIO a silver medal to honor its engagement for a climate-neutral, greener, and more secure energy future. This places INNIO Jenbacher in the top 17% of its peers working towards sustainability. About INNIO INNIO is a leading provider of renewable gas, natural gas, and hydrogen-based solutions and services for power generation and gas compression at or near the point of use. With our Jenbacher and Waukesha gas engines, INNIO helps to provide communities, industry, and the public access to sustainable, reliable, and economical power ranging from 200 kW to 10 MW. We also provide life-cycle support and digital solutions for the more than 53,000 delivered gas engines globally, through our service network in more than 100 countries. We deliver innovative technology driven by decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization to help lead the way to a greener future. Headquartered in Jenbach, Austria, the business also has primary operations in Welland, Ontario, Canada, and Waukesha, Wisconsin, U.S. For more information, visit the company's website at www.innio.com. Follow INNIO on Twitter and LinkedIn. About SynCraft High-efficiency, resource-friendly, and climate-positive energy production: For over ten years now, SynCraft, the Austrian high-tech company based in Schwaz, Tyrol, has been building and installing climate-positive energy systems around the world which use forest residual wood to generate power, heat, and valuable biochar. In 2020 alone, the company commissioned as many turnkey plants as in the first ten years since its founding in 2009, including projects in Japan. It is currently completing its 26th energy system. In 2020 the company received two prestigious awards, the Energy Globe Award, and the TRIGOS Award, for its innovative technology which is the result of years of internal research and development activities. _____________________________ 1 Compared to electricity generated from natural gas (499 g CO 2 e/kWh) and heat production (280 g CO 2 e/kWh) and to a reduced Carbon Removal Factor for the generated charcoal of 3:1 (CO 2 :C). 2 Compared to electricity generated from natural gas (499 g CO 2 e/kWh) and heat production (280 g CO2e/kWh) and a reduced Carbon Removal Factor for the generated charcoal of 3:1 (CO 2 :C). View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005587/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Schneider Electric to integrate new 'Matter' standard within its home & buildings portfolio Schneider is a board member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), previously named the Zigbee Alliance, and advocates for open-source, interoperable and vendor-agnostic IoT solutions is a board member of the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), previously named the Zigbee Alliance, and advocates for open-source, interoperable and vendor-agnostic IoT solutions New global connectivity standard 'Matter' is unveiled today by CSA and its members, including Amazon, Apple, Google, IKEA and Schneider Electric Interoperability is the key for smart homes and buildings of the future, integrating technology such as renewable energy generation and EV charging ecosystems MISSISSAUGA, ON, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Schneider Electric, the leader in digital transformation of energy management and automation, welcomes the new 'Matter' connectivity standard, which it will begin adopting across its connected home and buildings portfolio. Schneider Electric, recognized by Corporate Knights as the world's most sustainable corporation, is one of the 180 most innovative companies within the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) that have contributed to the creation and testing of the new Matter standard. The industry-unifying standard builds upon market-proven technologies and best practices. It aims to simplify connected experiences and provide greater interoperability in smart homes and buildings. Schneider is consistently among the top three certifiers of CSA products, therefore well positioned to adopt the new standard. The new open-source, unified connectivity protocol, Matter, previously named CHIP (Connected Home over IP), will be applicable to many smart home and building solutions including lighting, locks, speakers, HVAC controls, security systems, and routers. With Matter, instead of being limited to only those products that work with the smart system already in place, homes and businesses will now have the choice to integrate the new Matter certified devices that best fit their needs, regardless of brand. Matter is built using IP, the native network technology of the internet and backed by major ecosystem providers. Products with the Matter mark will deliver improved cyber security, native cloud connectivity and device interoperability to consumers, manufacturers, product designers and developers alike. Additionally, with standard definitions for device models, and lifecycle events such as provisioning/onboarding, removal, error recovery, and software update, developers can also be more confident in the consistency and quality of their users' experiences across ecosystems. Putting consumers in the driving seat in the race to net zero However, longer-term benefits don't end there. It is estimated that electricity demand will double by 2040 if we follow the same trajectory. As digitalization becomes the norm, we are also witnessing an increased desire to produce and use more renewable energy. This is coupled with increasing regulatory pressure to make cooking, heating and car charging fully electric. Electricity is the most efficient form of energy and the best vector for decarbonization. When paired with digital, it also offers unrivalled potential to eliminate energy waste. With increased interoperability of the IoT connected devices in the smart home ecosystem, homeowners and builders can create homes of tomorrow with a flexible, future-proof architecture that leverages Matter-connected devices across ecosystems to gain reliable, consolidated and secure visibility of energy consumption. This visibility, coupled with the help of AI-enabled and software-driven smart enrgy management solutions, puts consumers in the driving seat when it comes to how energy in the home is produced, stored, distributed and consumed. It can also enable the smart home system to prioritize green energy, ensuring power-hungry appliances and devices, such as Electric Vehicles (EVs), consume most of their energy from solar or decarbonized energy sources in the home. This is yet another way for the consumer and the planet to benefit from this initiative. Bruno Zerbib, Chief Technology and Digital Officer at Schneider Electric, says: "As the World's Most Sustainable Corporation recognized by Corporate Knights, it is our firm belief that the path to a net-zero future is both electric and digital. With software-based smart energy management solutions, our customers can accelerate their journey towards sustainable net zero homes and buildings of the future. Using open, global standards is essential to achieve digital transformation. Organizations like the Connectivity Standards Alliance are key to creating such standards and we are delighted to partner with other industry leaders to develop IP-based standards, like Matter, that will increase IoT device interoperability in connected smart building ecosystems." Open-source standards shouldn't be limited to smart homes and buildings Schneider Electric is strong advocate of open-source standards. Matter offers adopters and developers a number of benefits, including faster time to market (by leveraging an implementation of the spec), improved quality (as code is tested early and often), and more robust security (as the full development community has transparency to identify and commit patches). Beyond homes and buildings, Schneider Electric has recently pioneered an open-source portable standard for industries of the future, calling for widespread adoption of universal automation. Schneider Electric is fully committed to long-term compatibility with its legacy platforms, whilst continually innovating and collaborating with visionary partners like CSA to ensure customers have a smart, connected, sustainable future. About Connectivity Standards Alliance The Connectivity Standards Alliance, formerly the Zigbee Alliance, is the foundation and future of the Internet of Things (IoT). Established in 2002, its wide-ranging global membership collaborates to create and evolve universal open standards for the products transforming the way we live, work and play. With its Members' deep and diverse expertise, robust certification programs, and a full suite of open IoT solutions the Alliance is leading the movement toward a more intuitive, imaginative, and useful world. The Connectivity Standards Alliance board of directors is comprised of executives from Amazon , Apple , ASSA ABLOY , Comcast ,? Google ,? Huawei ,? IKEA ,? The Kroger Co. , LEEDARSON , Legrand ,? Lutron Electronics , NXP Semiconductors , Resideo ,? Schneider Electric ,? Signify ?(formerly Philips Lighting),? Silicon Labs , SmartThings , Somfy ,? STMicroelectronics ,? Texas Instruments ,? Tuya , and Wulian . Find out more about the Alliance at www.csa-iot.org ,?and about Matter at? www.buildwithmatter.com. CSA Twitter: @csaiot About Schneider Electric Schneider's purpose is to empower all to make the most of our energy and resources, bridging progress and sustainability for all. We call this Life Is On. Our mission is to be your digital partner for Sustainability and Efficiency. We drive digital transformation by integrating world-leading process and energy technologies, endpoint to cloud connecting products, controls, software and services, across the entire lifecycle, enabling integrated company management, for homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries. We are the most local of global companies. We are advocates of open standards and partnership ecosystems that are passionate about our shared Meaningful Purpose, Inclusive and Empowered values. www.se.com SOURCE Schneider Electric Canada Inc. [May 12, 2021] More than half of employees globally would quit their jobs if not provided post-pandemic flexibility, EY survey finds LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- More than half (54%) of employees surveyed from around the world would consider leaving their job post-COVID-19 pandemic if they are not afforded some form of flexibility in where and when they work, according to the EY 2021 Work Reimagined Employee Survey. The survey one of the largest global surveys of its kind canvassed the views of more than 16,000 employees across 16 countries and multiple industries and job roles. It explores employee attitudes and experiences to work throughout the pandemic and into the "next normal". Flexibility The survey finds that nine in ten employees want flexibility in where and when they work. Given the choice, more than half of employee respondents (54%) would choose flexibility in when they work. By comparison, 40% want flexibility in where they work. On average, employees would want to work between two and three days remotely after the pandemic. When pandemic restrictions ease in their countries, 22% would prefer to work full time in the office, with 33% of employee respondents saying they want a shorter working week altogether. More than half (67%) believe their productivity can be accurately measured irrespective of location. Job retention The job roles most likely to move jobs include managers/leaders, those with technology or finance roles, and caregivers. Those most likely to stay in their current roles include baby boomers, individuals with 10+ years of tenure, and those in government or education roles. Attitudes to job retention differ by age, with millennials twice as likely as baby boomers to quit. Despite the apparent willingness to move jobs for more flexible working arrangements, most employee respondents (76%) say they are satisfied with their jobs, and almost all (93%) say they plan to stay in their current roles for the following 12 months. Liz Fealy, EY Global People Advisory Services Deputy Leader and EY Global Workforce Advisory and Solutions Leader, says: "Employees' willingness to change jobs in the current economic environment is a game-changer. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that flexibility can work for both employees and employers, and flexible working is the new currency for attracting and retaining top talent. Employers who want to keep the best people now and in the next normal will need to put flexible working front and center of their talent strategy." Remote working and organizational culture The survey also canvassed attitudes to existing work practices, with employee respondents broadly positive about the impact of remote working. Almost half (48%) say their organizational culture has changed and improved during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, while only 31% believe it has worsened. Health and safety The survey also explored employee respondents' views on the COVID-19 vaccine and found that 61% want their company to make vaccination a pre-requisite for working from the office. Attitudes toward vaccinations vary between geographies, with 66% of respondents in South America agreeing that companies should require vaccination of all employees, compared with a comparative low of 52% in EMEIA. Work from anywhere requires increased technology investments The prospect of increasingly widespread flexible working is leading to more demands for technology, both on-site and in the home office. Sixty-four percent of respondents say they want better technology in the office (e.g. faster internet and videoconferencing), almost half (48%) say they want companies to upgrade at-home hardware (e.g. extra monitors and headsets), and almost the same proportion (47%) would like re-imbursement for high-speed internet/phone expenses. However, despite the shift toward new ways of working and the rapid adoption of virtual meeting technology, 67% would like to travel for business moderately to extensively after the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase from 49% in the previous survey, which was conducted in 2020. Roselyn Feinsod, Principal, People Advisory Services, Ernst & Young LLC, says: "Organizational culture has historically been built based on shared in-person experiences and it is fascinating to see that the new ways of working have improved such culture in the eyes of many employees. As we look toward the longer-term and organizations continue to transform their operations, employers will need to consistently re-assess conceptions of productivity and the impact on their cultures, ensuring their team's approach is optimized for the in-person, hybrid and digital work experience." About EY EY exists to build a better working world, helping create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets. Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate. Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today. EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. Information about how EY collects and uses personal data and a description of the rights individuals have under data protection legislation are available via ey.com/privacy. EY member firms do not practice law where prohibited by local laws. For more information about our organization, please visit ey.com. This news release has been issued by EYGM Limited, a member of the global EY organization that also does not provide any services to clients. About the survey The 2021 EY Work Reimagined Employee Survey was conducted in March 2021 and received 16,264 responses from 16 countries across 23 industries. Millennials represented more than half of all respondents. The survey was conducted using a third-party panel and targeted employees who work for organizations with at least 500 employees. Survey data is segmented by 24 different personal and work-related demographics and preferences. Participant responses ranged from 21 years to 65 years plus, with responses from senior leaders and individuals at all different functions. It provides an update to the 2020 EY Work Reimagined Survey, which included responses from more than 3,600 employees and 700 plus employers. Emile Abu-Shakra Dan Barabas EY Global Media Relations EY Global Media Relations +44 7385 345 103 +44 20 7197 1481 emile.abu-shakra@uk.ey.com dan.barabas@uk.ey.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/more-than-half-of-employees-globally-would-quit-their-jobs-if-not-provided-post-pandemic-flexibility-ey-survey-finds-301289936.html SOURCE EY [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Significance Inc. Secures Headquarters Marine Corp (HQMC) RFE Contract ANNAPOLIS, Md., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Significance Inc. announces today the recent re-awarding of the original HQMC RFE Contract that began in 2016. This contract secures the 4-member team based out of the Marine Corps Personnel and Readiness Headquarters located at the Pentagon in Arlington, VA through May 2022 with four option years extending to May 2026. As part of their continuing service to the US Marine Corps, Significance will be providing the following key services as an integral part of the contract: Financial Execution Level Data Management Analysis and Reporting Civilian Personnel Management and Tracking Field Level Execution Monitoring Corrections and Audit Suppor the United States Marine Corps and other DoD clients and partners have in us to deliver the expertise that is needed to get the job done," said Mary Ahern Snyder , founder and President of Significance. "We look forward to continuing our work with the USMC in the years ahead." About Significance Inc. Significance Inc. is designated an Economically-Disadvantaged Woman-Owned Small Business with offices in Alexandria, VA and Annapolis, MD. Founded in 2014, the company provides government consulting services in the areas of IT, logistics, audit readiness, financial management and real property management. To learn more, visit www.significanceinc.com View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/significance-inc-secures-headquarters-marine-corp-hqmc-rfe-contract-301289676.html SOURCE Significance Inc [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] ADVISORY: Nationwide Initiative Will Address Equity and Innovation in Higher Education Six institutions of higher education across the country have created a national alliance to address equity and innovation for the future of higher education. Microsoft (News - Alert) is set to collaborate. Presidents from the founding institutions of this initiative will provide details during a virtual news conference May 13, 2021. The institutions are Grand Valley State University in Michigan; Amarillo College in Texas; Boise State University in Idaho; Fort Valley State University in Georgia; San Jose State University in California; and Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. Members of the media are invited to attend a news conference held via Zoom on May 13, from 4-5 p.m. EDT. A link to the news conference is below. Link to news conference: Time: May 13, 2021 04:00 PM America/Detroit Join Zoom Meeting https://gvsu-edu.zoom.us/j/93957803372?pwd=cG5OS3FabWZkOThaQUVDMCtXL0Zhdz09 Meeting ID: 939 5780 3372 Passcode: 558616 One tap mobile +13126266799,,93957803372#,,,,*558616# US (Chicago) +16465588656,,93957803372#,,,,*558616# US (New York) Dial by your location +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 9128 US (San Jose) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) Meeting ID: 939 5780 3372 Passcode: 558616 Find your local number: https://gvsu-edu.zoom.us/u/anYEKmf74 Join by Skype (News - Alert) for Business https://gvsu-edu.zoom.us/skype/93957803372 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005688/en/ [May 12, 2021] Juniper Square Debuts Digital-First, Hybrid Workplace Model, a First Mover Within CRE Industry SAN FRANCISCO, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Juniper Square , the leading provider of investment management solutions for commercial real estate (CRE), today announced its adoption of a new digital-first, hybrid workplace model that safeguards its ability to retain and attract top talent by addressing employee demands for increased flexibility and well-being, in addition to expanding its talent pool nationally. In lieu of a central headquarters, Juniper Square has reimagined its workplace into three hubs or clusters of employees with physical offices in San Francisco and Austin, and a third hub in the cloud. Leadership is divided across the three hubs with CEO and co-founder Alex Robinson serving as the general manager of the cloud hub. Consistent with Juniper Squares category leadership in technology innovation, the companys new workplace strategy presents one of CREs first actionable case studies in innovating for its future workforce, where almost one-third (31%) of the industry has made little-to-no progress in modernizing HR processes, technology or capabilities in the past 10 years, according to Deloittes 2020 Human Capital Trends survey. We founded Juniper Square with the vision to make CRE more efficient, transparent and accessible for the benefit of everyone and that includes its workforce, which employs well over 3 million people in the United States, says CEO and co-founder Robinson. Our objective in sharing Juniper Squares workplace case study is so the industry can benefit from our research, insights and steps we have taken as CRE starts embracing a critical workforce evolution. Key research: Employees want flexibility Juniper Square surveyed more than 200 of its employees who have been working remotely since March 2020 to understand the benefits and challenges of remote work and their preferences moving forward. Nearly 80% of employees said they are both productive and personally fulfilled thanks to the flexibility and added time to pursue hobbies, focus on health and wellness and spend time with family. Yet, almost half (48%) would still preer to work in the office a few days per week. Younger employees value the social interaction; those with families like working with fewer distractions; and the majority feel that in-person interaction is essential to building (78%) and maintaining (52%) relationships. More than two-thirds (70%) of Juniper Squares employees temporarily or permanently relocated during the pandemic, and 65% feel its important to maintain their ability to work outside of San Francisco and Austin. To meet the future demand of its rapidly growing, distributed workforce, Juniper Square plans to open offices in cities where large clusters of employees reside. The pandemic opened our eyes to the immeasurable value and benefit of remote working, and gave us a chance to reimagine the traditional workplace model in ways that encourage flexibility and work-life balance, says Robinson. It is possible to create a win-win situation where employees make the best choices for themselves and their families, and our company benefits from higher productivity, happier people and the expanded ability to recruit talent far and wide. Juniper Squares solution: A digital-first, hybrid workplace Juniper Squares workplace strategy is designed to retain the benefits of both remote and in-person work and to address current challenges. When communicating and collaborating, the company thinks digital-first to level the playing field for remote employees and to ensure all employees have access to information regardless of location. To make synchronous collaboration easier, all employees are expected to be available during a set of common hours. Cloud employees will travel quarterly for team building and in-person collaboration, as well as be encouraged to meet-up with their colleagues who live nearby. To help employees stay productive while working at home, Juniper Square provides a standard work set-up for use in their home office, a $150 monthly stipend to cover internet and other home office costs, and a $500 allowance to purchase additional items. Looking ahead, Juniper Square is redesigning its office spaces and hiring a new director of workplace design who will be responsible for ensuring that its offices provide a collaborative, safe place for employees to work and that the hubs are connected and function well together. The response: Where employees are choosing to work After the new workplace plan was shared internally, 45% of Juniper Squares employees elected to work in the cloud permanently, representing its largest hub. Following, 38% of employees selected the San Francisco hub and 17% of employees selected the Austin hub. Interestingly, of employees residing in San Francisco, 20% elected to be based in the cloud, while 18% of those living in the Austin area chose to remain in the cloud. By contrast, in 2019, less than 20% of Americans reported working remotely even some of the time. As employers across the country consider what it will mean for them to return to the office post pandemic, Juniper Square is committed to sharing insights into their transition on their company blog to benefit owners and operators of commercial real estate, most notably in the office sector. ABOUT JUNIPER SQUARE Founded in 2014, Juniper Square is transforming the private funds industry with solutions that streamline fundraising, investment operations and investor reporting. Designed specifically for real estate, Juniper Square is trusted by hundreds of investment sponsors to manage more than $1 trillion in real estate investments. By using Juniper Square, clients such as Tishman Speyer, Rockpoint and Beacon Capital improve investor satisfaction, boost fundraising productivity and save time and money on investment administration. Juniper Square is based in San Francisco and Austin, Texas, and has quickly become the leader in commercial real estate investment management solutions. Learn more at www.junipersquare.com. Contact: Alvina Olivier 714-263-8742 alvina@ideahall.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] BV Investment Partners Announces Majority Investment In Resource Innovations and Add-on of Nexant BOSTON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BV Investment Partners ("BV"), a middle-market private equity firm focused on the tech-enabled business services, software and IT services sectors, announced today that it has made a majority investment in Resource Innovations, provider of demand-side management, energy efficiency, and energy consulting services. Concurrent with BV's investment, Resource Innovations is combining with energy software and consulting firm Nexant, Inc., creating a powerful yet nimble organization for driving best-in-class energy and software solutions for utilities and commercial, industrial, and residential energy consumers. Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA, Resource Innovations' services to utilities in the U.S. include portfolio administration, program implementation, public sector outreach, planning & design services across the residential, commercial and industrial, and market transformation end markets. The experienced Resource Innovations management team is led by Chief Executive Officer Lauren Casentini who will serve as CEO of the new company. Nexant's consulting solutions cover the entire spectrum of an energy efficiency program management. Founded in 2000 and based in San Francisco, Nexant provides turnkey design, administration, and consulting services for energy efficiency, demand-side management, and customer engagement programs for utilities and Independent System Operators throughout the U.S. The combination of Resource Innovations and Nexant leverages the complementary capabilities and cultures of each company to drive even greater impact and results for clients. Additionally, the newly merged companies will increase their product portfolio offerings, creating a more robust platform to accelerate innovation and deliver results through residential, commercial, industrial, and software solutions. "This transaction represents an opportunity for BV to leverage our traditional theme-driven thesis of partnering with founders into the outsourced energy efficiency software and services sector with tremendous long-term potential as clean and sustainable energy investments grow rapidly. By supporting the newly-combined company we can build the company's presence in the demand response market and other sectors, including distributed energy resources and electrification. We're thrilled to work with auren and her team to accelerate innovation in this dynamic industry and we couldn't be more supportive of Lauren's vision for the new, combined company, which is poised for growth," said Justin Harrison, Managing Partner of BV Investment Partners. "A paradigm shift is happening in the way we generate, transmit, and distribute energy," Casentini said. "We're excited to partner with BV and join forces with Nexant, a company that shares our commitment to delivering innovative energy solutions across sectors. This combined team of industry experts, supported by tech-enabled capabilities and solutions, is built to guide the energy industry through the clean energy transition." "We're excited to have found in Lauren Casentini and her Resource Innovations team the perfect partners for taking what we have built at Nexant over the last 20 years to the next level," said Basem Sarandah, founder and CEO of Nexant. "Lauren has assembled a world-class leadership team for the combined company, and the complementary market profiles of both companies will enable significant growth and new opportunities creating a true powerhouse for our industry." Resource Innovations' proven leadership team and track record of innovation, combined with Nexant's industry-leading technical, engineering, and software expertise, will result in a full suite of integrated energy solutions. The companies share similar mission-driven and client-centric cultures. With the added strength of BV Investment Partners, the new Resource Innovations now has an unprecedented opportunity to drive innovation in energy efficiency, demand response, and emerging sustainable energy markets. Eric Ahlgren, Principal of BV Investment Partners, said, "Our investment in Resources Innovations is consistent with our theme-based investment initiatives and we look forward to supporting the company to further develop technology enhancements and identify growth opportunities into new and adjacent sectors. Investing with founders is a BV focus, and we are very pleased to partner with Lauren, whose track record as an innovator speaks for itself, and the Resource Innovations and Nexant teams as they embark on this journey." Resource Innovations was founded by women and uniquely led by an all-women C-suite with decades of industry expertise. Resource Innovations, combined with Nexant, will continue to be substantially woman-owned and led. The company's commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion will now have a greater impact both in the opportunities for employees and leadership internally, as well as broadening opportunities for diverse partners and local communities. For more information about Resource Innovations and Nexant joining forces, visit www.resource-innovations.com. About Resource Innovations and Nexant Together Resource Innovations now combined with Nexant is a substantially woman-owned, woman-led energy consulting firm dedicated to creating equal access to clean resources through diverse partnerships. The company's deep roots and broad expertise in resource efficiency, policy development, coalition and partnership building, and market-based technology support enable the delivery of highly successful energy programs. Nexant brings over 20 years of expertise in demand-side management, grid management, and renewables, as well as a comprehensive suite of software designed to support these initiatives. For more information on Resource Innovations combined with Nexant, visit www.resource-innovations.com. About BV Investment Partners BV Investment Partners is one of the oldest and most experienced sector-focused private equity firms in North America. Since its founding in 1983, the firm has invested approximately $3.9 billion, actively targeting investments in the tech-enabled business services, software and IT services industries. For more information, please visit www.bvlp.com. Contact: Chris Tofalli Chris Tofalli Public Relations, LLC 914-834-4334 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bv-investment-partners-announces-majority-investment-in-resource-innovations-and-add-on-of-nexant-301289953.html SOURCE BV Investment Partners [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] OTC:ILUS, ILUS International (Ilustrato Pictures International Inc), Will be Announcing its First Quarter Results During the Week Commencing 16 May 2021 NEW YORK, NY, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- ILUS International Inc (OTC: ILUS) is a M&A company focused on acquiring and developing technology-based companies globally. The company has already completed 3 acquisitions in 2021 and has also already reached significant progress milestones during the second quarter. ILUS International (ILUS) is focused on building solid foundations which will enable it to pursue its aggressive growth and acquisition plans. This process has continued very well since the new management took over the company in late January 2021. An aggressive administrative clean-up of the company reporting, filings and back office has been underway. The company has also successfully negotiated the settlement of the majority of the historic debt/notes with further details on this being released soon. ILUS is currently undergoing audits in order to be fully reporting. The Form 10 preparation is underway and the official name change will commence once the Form 10 is effective. In addition, the company has submitted an application to the Canadian authorities to have a Cease Trade Order (CTO) lifted that was applied in Canada in 2012/2013. Since the submission, subsequent documents have been supplied and ILUS expects the CTO to be lifted soon. The company is pursuing a number of global strategic acquisitions. These are at various stages of due diligence and/or negotiation. In conjunction with the acquisitions, the company is exploring the opening of a facility in India in order to facilitate imminent contracts; and beyond this, ILUS expects to open its first facility in the USA before the summer is over. The company is currently recruiting a number of senior managers to help facilitate the integration and expansion of the businesses. The ILUS coin was successfully launched and is still in Pre-Sale stage where it can be purchased at a discount to the listing price off the ILUS Coin website. Those who are interested may follow the Coins news on the relevant social media channels. The ILUS coin is expected to assist ILUS with its aggressive growth plans and with social impact, as ILUS strives to make the world safer through the leasing of ILUS Fire and Life Safety Equipment to customers that urgently require the equipment but cannot afford the upfront capital outlay. ILUS will release its Quarter 1 results during the week commencing 16th May 2021. In addition to this, the company will release further question and answer videos as well as more product updates over the coming weeks. Further Dubai facility photos will be released once many of the employees have returned from India where they are currently in a COVID lockdown and restricted from traveling to the United Arab Emirates. ILUS will also finalize the date of its shareholder meeting soon. The company originally intended to conduct its first major shareholder meeting alongside a live product demonstration, however this is proving to be very challenging due to the ongoing COVID travel restrictions; therefore the demonstration and roadshow will be done at a later date in the USA and whilst the shareholder meeting will take place in a virtual format. Following the Eid holiday, the ILUS team will be conducting numerous road shows around the Middle East, talking about the company, its progress and its vision to numerous Ultra High Net Worth Individuals and influential VIPs. ILUS CEO, Nick Link, commented with the following: While the markets at the moment are more challenging than desired, the team remains focused on delivering results and are performing well. We will continue to do well and deliver on our 2021 milestones. We would like to thank our patient and loyal shareholders who continue to support us and believe in our mission. For further information on the companies please see their communication channels: Website: https://ilus-group.com Twitter : OTC_ILUS Contact: Email: IR@Ilus-Group.com Website: https://ILUS-coin.com Twitter: ILUS_Coin Telegram : ILUS-COIN Community Source: ILUS Related Links https://ilus-group.com https://ilus-coin.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 06:09:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A medical worker checks a man's information at a vaccination clinic in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on May 11, 2021. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, announced on Tuesday it will stop administering of the first doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, effective Tuesday, due to increased reports of blood clots. (Photo by Zou Zheng/Xinhua) OTTAWA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Ontario, Canada's most populous province, announced on Tuesday it will stop administering of the first doses of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, effective Tuesday, due to increased reports of blood clots. "This decision was made out of an abundance of caution because of increased instances of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia," said Ontario's Chief Medical Officer of Health David Williams at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon. At least 12 cases of vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia have been confirmed out of more than 2 million doses given. Three women have died in connection with the condition. Ontario is preparing guidance for people who already received the first dose of AstraZeneca on what to do next, Williams said. Ontario reported there are 49,280 doses of the shot remaining in the province out of over 707,000 received. Tuesday morning, Ontario reported 2,073 new cases of COVID-19 and 15 additional deaths. Hospitalizations in the province stood at 1,783, with 802 people in ICU due to COVID-related illness. Ontario's announcement comes hours after Alberta province said it won't give out more first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine for the time being because there aren't any confirmed shipments coming. The AstraZeneca vaccine was being offered to individuals aged 40 and up at numerous pharmacies in Ontario. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged provinces today to maintain strict public health measures until COVID-19 case counts are much lower than they are now so that Canadians can enjoy a "one-dose summer." Trudeau told a press conference that with the steady supply of vaccines now streaming into the country, there will be enough shots to immunize every eligible Canadian with at least one dose by the end of June. He said tough public health restrictions, like the lockdowns in Ontario, should be kept in place for the foreseeable future to drive COVID-19 case counts to more manageable levels. "We can have a better summer, a one-dose summer." Trudeau said provinces should begin to lift public health restrictions only once 75 percent of the adult population has had at least one vaccine dose. He said that a one-dose summer would be followed by a "two-dose fall," when many more Canadians will have access to a second booster COVID-19 shot. According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, 40 percent of the adult population has had one shot already. Enditem [May 12, 2021] Registration Opens for Dynamic Communities' Summit North America Serving Microsoft Users, Signaling a Major Return of Face-to-Face Events The 17th annual Community Summit North America, "The Reunion of Magic," brings advanced technology and dynamic business leaders together for a live event in Houston, Texas that celebrates the power of face-to-face connection and community. Summit is the largest independent event for the Microsoft (News - Alert) user community. "The opportunity to bring thousands of Microsoft community members together in person is something we could not be more thrilled to host," said John Siefert, CEO of Dynamic Communities, the event producer. "It is time to imagine how much we can accomplish by closing our computers, having discussions, learning from each other, and embracing what has made this such a vibrant community of users, partners, MVPs and experts serving the Microsoft Dynamics and Power Platform ecosystem." Summit comes amid growing momentum for in-person events. 78% of businesspeople expect to attend a trade show or event this fall, growing to 94% by winter according to research by Freeman, a leader in event management.1 About three-quarters of corporate travel buyers and procurement professionals project their organizations will resume non-essential domestic business travel sometime this year, if they have not already.2 The nature of work is also changing, and the two-day conference will provide the latest technical and business information regarding the Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, specially geared to help users with advice, tips, tricks and more through education sessions, user group centric hubs and Tech Medic stations. Attendees on both the business and technical sides will have the opportunity to learn from and connect with leaers, fellow users, Microsoft engineers and support technicians. Users who have leveraged Dynamics and Power Platform applications in unique and innovative ways to drive change, fix problems, enable new opportunities and more are encouraged to apply to speak at the Community Summit. Safety is always a top concern. The conference center and conference hotels were selected for advanced physical environments such as ventilation and safety protocols. Detailed travel-safe information will also be provided. "Reunion of Magic" will be held October 12-14, 2021 at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX. Registration opens May 18 with special Early Bird pricing. Learn more at www.summitna.com. About Dynamic Communities Dynamic Communities is a media and events company that helps businesses compete in the acceleration economy. Technology, finance, business and operational leaders turn to us for insights into best practices and emerging solutions in the areas of Cloud Computing, AI/ML, Low Code/No Code, Financial Systems, Analytics, Cyber Security, Robotic Process Automation and Business Applications. For intelligent solutions to create demand with your target audience, visit us at www.dynamiccommunities.com. 1 https://www.freeman.com/resources/eyeing-the-event-future/, March 2021 2 https://www.businesstravelnews.com/Management/Survey-Most-Buyers-Project-2021-Domestic-Travel-Return, March 2021 View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005288/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Armis Announces Risk Assessment Program for Partners PALO ALTO, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Armis, leading agentless device security platform provider today announced a new Risk Assessment Service that empowers qualified Armis Partners with the ability to fully leverage the Armis agentless device security platform and create a more strategic advisory relationship with their clients. Whether the client is going through M&A, divestiture, complying with strict regulations such as FAR889, or concerned about the workforce coming back to the office, the Armis device security platform can quickly, and with high fidelity, provide deep insight into the customer's environment, provide actionable risk data as well as recommendations for mitigation. The Armis device security platform can be used stand alone to deliver the assessment service, or in conjunction with other technologies to deliver a broader solution offering such as Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR). "Visibility of all devices across an organization is fundamental to any security strategy," said Peter Doggart, Vice President of Business Development at Armis. "The risk assessment is a powerful tool for partners, which enables them to help their customers get an accurate inventory of all connected devices and determine their risk so that security professionals can take proactive measures to reduce their attack surface and comply with any regulatory requirements and identify and prioritize all vulnerabilities." Partners are provided full access to the Armis platform and Knowledgebase including device inventory, classification, and device risk assessment for 30 days. This allows our partners to provide their customers with a detailed findings report, which includes a complete overview of all managed, unmanaged, IoT, OT and IoMT devices in their environment along with associated risks, anomalies, and threats found during that period. Partners then have the opportunity to convert this initial Risk Assessment into a licensed product sale by working with Armis to fully deploy the platform. PARTNERS EXPRESS THEIR SUPPORT "The Armis Agentless Securityplatform allows TEKsystems to extend our existing Audit & Assessment program by identifying and reporting risk levels on previously unidentified devices. This is ideal for our clients looking to make fast Merger & Acquisition (M&A) decisions while still performing through due diligence on existing security posture." Adrian Alonso, NDS Practice Manager at TEKsystems. "As we plan, build, and run end-to-end security programs, our joint clients are realizing the benefits of Armis' ability to locate and segment the devices putting their organizations at risk. We were able to move a client from having zero confidence in their network visibility to complete peace of mind on their foreign-owned IoT devices within three weeks." Sean Tufts, practice director, IoT/OT, Optiv. The 30-day Risk Assessment Program for Partners is composed of asset inventory and classification and risk and threat assessment. Data is stored for partners for up to 90-days and is used to create the findings report. To enhance the experience for the Partner and Client, the service also includes support from an Armis Solution Architect. ASSET INVENTORY AND CLASSIFICATION The Armis platform discovers and classifies every device in the customer's environment including servers, laptops, smartphones, VoIP phones, smart TVs, IP cameras, printers, HVAC controls, medical devices, industrial controls, and more. This comprehensive asset inventory provides detailed information such as device type, manufacturer, model, location, username, operating system, installed applications, and connections made over time. RISK AND THREAT ASSESSMENT After identifying a device, Armis calculates its risk score based on multiple factors including: Vulnerabilities such as unpatched software versions, or known hardware exploits. Anomalies such as port scans and devices accessing malicious domains. Threats such as exploitation of vulnerabilities like Solarwinds, EtherOops, Nat Slipstreaming v. 2.0, CDPwn, URGENT/11 or BLEEDINGBIT. Additional Resources Join the conversation with Armis on LinkedIn , Twitter , and YouTube , , and Visit Armis.com to learn more about our agentless device security platform to learn more about our agentless device security platform Apply to become an Armis partner About Armis Armis is the leading agentless, enterprise-class device security platform designed to address the new threat landscape of unmanaged and IoT devices. Fortune 1000 companies trust our real-time and continuous protection to see and control all managed, unmanaged, and IoT devices from traditional devices like laptops and smartphones to new smart devices like smart TVs, webcams, printers, HVAC systems, industrial control systems and PLCs, medical devices and more. Armis provides passive and unparalleled cybersecurity asset management, risk management, and automated enforcement. Armis is a privately held company and headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Media Contacts: Susan Torrey Head of Corporate Communications susan.torrey@armis.com 650-492-1921 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/armis-announces-risk-assessment-program-for-partners-301289988.html SOURCE Armis [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] $330K Subsidy Will Help Gateway CDC Build Affordable Housing in Yazoo City Bank of Yazoo and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas (FHLB Dallas) have awarded a $330,000 Affordable Housing Program (AHP) subsidy to Gateway (News - Alert) Community Development Corp. (Gateway CDC) to help fund the $5.9 million Roberts Estates II development in Yazoo City, Mississippi. "The plan is to create 33 new affordable rental housing units and expand the supply of affordable housing for very low- and low-income households," said Gateway CDC CEO Alpresteon S. Billings. "The funds from Bank of Yazoo and FHLB Dallas will help pay for the construction costs. The board of directors and I are very appreciative of the assistance." The development will consist of 10 two-bedroom and 23 three-bedroom apartments. Construction is expected to begin in December and be completed in about two years. The development will include rental units for the disabled, the chronically homeless and persons with mental illness. It will also offer a variety of services to residents. "This is a project that will help address the significant need for affordable rental housing in Yazoo City," said Jamey Carter, senior vice president for Bank of Yazoo. "We are pleased to join with FHLB Dallas to support Roberts Estates II and the families whose lives will be greatly improved by having a safe, modern place to live with access to an assortment of services." AHP funds are intended to assist FHLB Dallas members in financing the purchase, construction and/or rehabilitation of owner-occupied, rental or transitional housing and housing for homeless individuals. AHP funds must be used to benefit households with incomes at o below 80 percent of the median income for the area. In 2020, FHLB Dallas awarded $19.4 million in subsidies to 38 affordable housing projects. The subsidies will help create 2,749 new or rehabilitated housing units. Included in that total is $2.3 million for 231 units in Mississippi. Since the AHP's inception in 1990, FHLB Dallas has awarded more than $323 million in AHP and Homeownership Set-Aside Programs and has assisted more than 57,000 households. Greg Hettrick, first vice president and director of Community Investment at FHLB Dallas, said that Bank of Yazoo has a history of supporting its communities in the Mississippi Delta. "We applaud their support of this important project, and we are happy to join them in providing funds," Mr. Hettrick said. For more information about the AHP, visit fhlb.com/ahp. About Bank of Yazoo Bank of Yazoo was founded in 1876 and currently operates in Madison, Rankin and Yazoo Counties in Mississippi. Bank of Yazoo is an Equal Housing Lender which provides traditional banking products and services and understands the importance of giving back to the community and supporting the financial needs of the communities in which it operates. For more information, visit bankofyazoo.com. About the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas The Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas is one of 11 district banks in the FHLBank System created by Congress in 1932. FHLB Dallas, with total assets of $61.1 billion as of March 31, 2021, is a member-owned cooperative that supports housing and community development by providing competitively priced loans and other credit products to approximately 800 members and associated institutions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas. For more information, visit our website at fhlb.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005749/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] SparkCognition Government Systems and Intrinsic Awarded United States Air Force Contract to Improve Training Program Using AI AUSTIN, Texas, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- SparkCognition Government Systems (SGS), the first full-spectrum artificial intelligence (AI) company devoted entirely to government and national defense, is pleased to announce that along with Intrinsic Enterprises Inc, a technology services and product development company, it has been awarded a contract with The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) through its SBIR program. The SBIR program is highly competitive and encourages small businesses to engage in Federal Research/Research and Development with the potential for commercialization. Through this contract, SGS will leverage its proven commercial technologies and AI expertise in combination with Intrinsic's expertise in cloud microservice architectures, custom machine learning (ML) modeling, and modern web applications to explore how AI can be used to optimize training programs and improve overall mission readiness. "SGS is absolutely committed to ensuring warfighter readiness, and this spans across a diverse set of missions," said Logan Jones, General Manager and President of SGS. "Through this contract, we're exploring how to upskill and augment team members for the mission at hand particularly in the case of improving pilot training. We're looking forward to working with such an innovative company as Intrinsic to solve this problem for the Department of Defense." The current pilot training method includes rigid quantitative standards that need to be met to progress through various phases and graduate from the program. Together with Intrinsic, SGS is exploring how AI and ML technologies can create a more dynamic training plan that measures qualitative standards, such as mastery. The companies will focus on solving this problem for plot training in the Air Force, with the goal of making training more efficient and cost effective however, this application can be expanded to include other domains such as ground, sea, and more. "Ensuring our Air Force has well-trained pilots ready to suit the needs of various missions is the top focus for us through this contract," said Kyle Metzmaker, CEO of Intrinsic. "Together with SGS, we're looking forward to exploring how technology can disrupt the current training program structure and provide cost savings and efficiency for the DoD." SGS offers next-generation AI-powered systems to address critical national security needs. Using technologies built in the United States, SGS evolves parent company SparkCognition's innovative commercial systems and tailors them for the public sector. AFRL and AFWERX have partnered to streamline the SBIR process in an attempt to speed up the experience, broaden the pool of potential applicants, and decrease bureaucratic overhead. Beginning in SBIR 18.2, and now in 20.R, the United States Air Force has begun offering "special" SBIR topics that are faster, leaner, and open to a broader range of innovations. The contract SGS was awarded to advance readiness falls under this new category of SBIR topics. To learn more about SparkCognition Government Systems, visit www.sparkgov.ai . To learn more about Intrinsic Enterprises, visit www.intrinsic.ventures . About SparkCognition Government Systems: SparkCognition Government Systems (SGS), a wholly owned subsidiary of SparkCognition, is the first full-spectrum artificial intelligence (AI) company devoted entirely to government and national defense. By developing and operationalizing next-generation AI-powered systems, SGS enables government organizations to meet the needs of their most pressing national security missions. Using technologies built in the United States, SGS advances government operations by analyzing complex data to inform and accelerate intelligent decisions, applying predictive and prescriptive analytics to improve logistics, deploying autonomy technology for power projection systems, using natural language processing for large scale processing of unstructured data, and more. For in-depth information about SGS and its offerings visit: www.sparkgov.ai . About Intrinsic Enterprises: Intrinsic is a technology services and product development company delivering modern software solutions for enterprise. Specializing in microservice architectures, custom machine learning models, and modern web applications, Intrinsic provides solutions that run on major cloud platforms like AWS, Azure and GCP, as well as the secure United States Air Force Cloud One. Our Fortune 50 clients specifically hire Intrinsic to lead new product development efforts, at 10x speed and flexibility. For more information on Intrinsic, come visit us at www.intrinsic.ventures . For Media Inquiries: Michelle Saab SparkCognition VP, Marketing Communications msaab@sparkcognition.com 512-956-5491 View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sparkcognition-government-systems-and-intrinsic-awarded-united-states-air-force-contract-to-improve-training-program-using-ai-301290011.html SOURCE SparkCognition Government Systems [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] DATA443 ANNOUNCES RANSOMWARE RECOVERY ENHANCED PRODUCT BUNDLE FOR BUSINESS Dont Underestimate the Power of the DarkSide RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Data443 Risk Mitigation, Inc. (Data443 or the Company) (OTCPK: ATDS), a leading data security and privacy software company, today announced an enhanced product bundle for businesses of all sizes to meet the growing risks of ransomware and virus infections affecting every sector of business and government. This year, the Company released its unique and game-changing Data443 Ransomware Recovery Manager- the only product for the enterprise that both protects sensitive data from ransomware and recovers the device on which it is operating. As attacks continue to proliferate in speed, cost, and impact, the Company has released a new product bundle that leverages the award-winning Data Identification Manager (formerly ClassiDocs) and the long-running leader in secure content distribution Data443 Sensitive Content Manager - (formerly ARALOC). HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT Only IT Vendor to have a full suite that protects, recovers data AND the machine Drastically limits collateral damage on the network Mitigates the risk of any extortion attempts of stolen data Ensures greater privacy compliance and enforcement with more robust policy management Identification of all data types, then select protection of assets in a rapid fashion WHY IT MATTERS: Attacks, infections, and data extortion rates continue to grow in sophistication, cost, and frequency Time to Recovery (ToR) increases significantly directly impacting business continuity Business insurance costs are soaring as a direct result of cybersecurity breaches, in many cases unavailable to many businesses Crucial national security assets are under continued direct risk The sequence of operations enabled by Data443s product line are consistent with effective measures to stymie ransomware infections AND devalue any extortion demands if data does get exfiltrated from the company networks, no matter the method. The following products are bundled together at a starting price of $69/user: (discounts apply for bulk purchases) Data443 Data Identification Manager is deployed to analyze, classify and report on sensitive data on any network servers, laptops or desktops, cloud or data sticks. Data443 Sensitive Content Manager is deployed to consume, encrypt and otherwise secure content that is above any threshold the administrator sets, the data may reside within the company networks, 100% encrypted. Data443 Ransomware Recovery Manager is deployed to all servers, workstations, laptops and desktops and prepares the machine in the event of an infection. This involves proprietary and patent pending techniques including data shapshots, protected drive locations and other administrator defined parameters. It is also able to be managed by Data Identification Manager for protection of identified data. Jason Remillard, Data443s founder and Chief Executive Officer, commented, These three products work in concert one to find the data, one to encrypt the data, and one to recover the data. The icing on top is we also recover the device, thus enabling the business worker to be back in action with a simple reboot, clean, infection-free and a computer that is not spreading infections and working through the network. Ransomware doesnt have to be a liquidation event for a business. It doesnt have to hurt people in a hospital. And it doesnt have to affect your children in the schools or our people in service. We offer the most rounded capability immediately available, in a proven, effective and simple to deploy model that most organizations of any size can deploy quickly from our cloud services infrastructure. Building on our experience with the world's largest payment providers, over 60,000 privacy clients, 400,000 user experience publishers we are pleased to offer this timely and highly effective product bundle to the marketplace. While spoken almost 40-years ago, the movie quote is even more true today; Dont underestimate the power of the DarkSide. About Data443 Risk Mitigation, Inc. Data443 Risk Mitigation, Inc. ( OTCPK: ATDS ), is an industry leader in All Things Data Security, providing software and services to enable secure data across local devices, network, cloud, and databases, at rest and in flight. Its suite of products and services is highlighted by: (i) Data443 Ransomware Recovery Manager , built for the modern enterprise, its capabilities are designed to recover a workstation immediately upon infection to the last known business-operable state, without any end user or IT Administrator efforts; (ii) Data Identification Manager (previously marketed as ClassiDocs and FileFacets),the Companys award-winning data classification and governance technology, which supports CCPA, LGPD and GDPR compliance in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform that performs sophisticated data discovery and content search of structured and unstructured data within corporate networks, servers, content management systems, email, desktops and laptops; (iii) Data Archive Manager (previously marketed as ArcMail), a leading provider of simple, secure and cost-effective enterprise data retention management, archiving and management solutions; (iv) Sensitive Content Manager (ARALOC), a market leading secure, cloud-based platform for the management, protection and distribution of digital content to the desktop and mobile devices, which protects an organizations confidential content and intellectual property assets from leakage malicious or accidental without impacting collaboration between all stakeholders; (v) Data Placement Manager (previously marketed as DATAEXPRESS), the leading data transport, transformation and delivery product trusted by leading financial organizations worldwide; (vi) Access Control Manager (previously marketed as Resilient Access), enables fine-grained access controls across myriad platforms at scale for internal client systems and commercial public cloud platforms like Salesforce, Box.Net, Google G Suite, Microsoft OneDrive and others; (vii) Data Identification Manager (previously marketed as ClassiDocs) for Blockchain, provides an active implementation for the Ripple XRP that protects blockchain transactions from inadvertent disclosure and data leaks; (viii) Data443 Global Privacy Manager , the privacy compliance and consumer loss mitigation platform which is integrated with Data Identification Manager to do the delivery portions of GDPR and CCPA as well as process Data Privacy Access Requests removal request with inventory enables the full lifecycle of Data Privacy Access Requests, Remediation, Monitoring and Reporting; (ix) IntellyWP , a leading purveyor of user experience enhancement products for webmasters for the worlds largest content management platform, WordPress; (x) Data443 Chat History Scanner , which scans chat messages for Compliance, Security, PII, PI, PCI & custom keywords; and (xi) GDPR Framework , The CCPA Framework and LGPD Framework WordPress plugins , with over 30,000 active site owners combined, enables organizations of all sizes to comply with European, California and Brazilian privacy rules and regulations. For more information, please visit http://www.data443.com. Forward-Looking Statements The statements contained in this release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as may, will, could, should, expect, plan, project, intend, anticipate, believe, estimate, predict, potential, pursuant, target, continue, and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding Data443s plans, objectives, future opportunities for Data443s services, future financial performance and operating results and any other statements regarding Data443s future expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, financial conditions, assumptions or future events or performance that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, many of which are beyond Data443s control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, and include, without limitation, results of litigation, settlements and investigations; actions by third parties, including governmental agencies; volatility in customer spending; global economic conditions; ability to hire and retain personnel; loss of, or reduction in business with, key customers; difficulty with growth and integration of acquisitions; product liability; cybersecurity risk; anti-takeover measures in our charter documents; and, the uncertainties created by the ongoing outbreak of a respiratory illness caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus that was recently named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19. These and other important risk factors are described more fully in our reports and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), including under (i) Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, in our Registration Statement on Form 10 filed with the SEC on January 11, 2019 and amended on April 24, 2019; (ii) Part I, Item 1A. Risk Factors, in our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 23, 2021; and, (iii) subsequent filings. Undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements in this press release, which are based on information available to us on the date hereof. Except as otherwise required by applicable law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. The Data443 logo, ClassiDocs logo, ARALOC logo, ARCMAIL, DATAEXPRESS and FILEFACETS are all registered trademarks of Data443 Risk Mitigation, Inc. All product names, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. All company, product and service names used in this website are for identification purposes only. Use of these names, trademarks and brands does not imply endorsement. All other trademarks cited herein are the property of their respective owners. For Further Information: Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/data443Risk Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/data443/ Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/data443-risk-mitigation-inc/ Signup for our Investor Newsletter: https://www.data443.com/investor-relations/ Investor Relations Contact: Matthew Abenante ir@data443.com 919.858.6542 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Barclays Appoints Tim Devine as Co-Head of Financial Institutions Group (FIG) M&A Barclays announces the appointment of Tim Devine as a Managing Director and Co-Head of Financial Institutions Group (FIG) M&A. Mr. Devine will be based in Chicago, and will report to Tim Main, Global Head of FIG Banking, and Larry Hamdan, Head of M&A Americas. Mr. Devine joins Barclays with over twenty-five years of experience in investment banking, most recently as Head of Specialty Finance in the Americas within FIG Banking at Credit Suisse. Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2011, Mr. Devine was a Managing Director and founding member of the FIG team in Citadel's investment bank, where he worked until 2009. Mr. Devine started his banking career in 1996 at Salomon Brothers, which ultimately became part of Citigroup. During his thirteen years at Citigroup and its predecessor institutions, Mr. Devine's primary focus was on the Insurance sector and specialty finance. Mr. Devine has led the origination and execution of a number of high-profile transactions during his career. These include advising Ocwen in connection with Oaktree's $250mm holding company investment and $212mm investment in a limited partnership to invest in mortgage servicing rights, advising American Capital on its $4.1bn sale to Ares Capital and related entities, advising PHH Corporation on its sale of assets to four counterprties and ultimate holding company sale to Ocwen, performing the role of lead bookrunner on a $3.5bn common equity and mandatory convertible raise for SLM Corporation, and advising a Cerberus-led consortium on its $7.1bn acquisition of 51% of GMAC from General Motors (News - Alert) . "Tim is an outstanding addition to our team, and his partnership will ensure that we continue to build upon the already strong momentum in our Financial Institutions Group," said Tim Main, Global Head of FIG Banking at Barclays. "His proven leadership capabilities and extensive experience will further enhance our abilities to provide best in class strategic advice and execution." "Tim's extensive transactional expertise, long-established relationships, and deep sector knowledge will generate considerable value for our clients," added Gary Posternack, Global Head of M&A at Barclays. "His appointment is further evidence of our commitment to operating a top-tier FIG M&A franchise." Mr. Devine will start at Barclays in August 2021. His appointment follows that of Alex Lynch as Chairman of Banking within Barclays Investment Bank in May of last year, the appointment of Gautam Chawla as Vice Chairman in FIG Banking in June, and the appointment of Craig Stine as Vice Chairman in Global FIG Banking in July 2020. Barclays is a British universal bank. We are diversified by business, by different types of customer and client, and geography. Our businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top-tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank, all of which are supported by our service company which provides technology, operations and functional services across the Group. For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com. Barclays offers investment banking products and services in the US through Barclays Capital Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005786/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Zenlayer Raises $50MM in Series C Financing to Boost Its Lead in Edge Cloud Services Zenlayer, a leading global edge cloud service provider, announced the closing of its $50 million Series C financing today. The round was led by a group including Anatole Investment and Prospect Avenue Capital, and included existing investor Volcanics Venture. These investors join F&G Venture, NSFOCUS, and Forebright Capital to bring Zenlayer's total financing to $90 million since inception. Zenlayer will allocate the new financing toward enhancing its edge cloud technology and expanding global network coverage. "I am excited to announce that we have successfully raised $50 million in Series C," said Joe Zhu, Zenlayer's Founder & CEO. "We'll accelerate the development and adoption of our PaaS solutions, and continue to focus on emerging markets, helping our customers to capture the explosive growth of regions like Southeast Asia and South America. This capital will bring us one step closer to realizing our mission of improving digital experiences for every organization and person, anywhere in the world." With its unique edge cloud offerings, Zenlayer enables organizations to instantly deploy compute closer to end users and accelerate their networks to deliver the best digital experience possible. Today, Zenlayer can help organizations reach over 85% of the world's internet population in just 25 milliseconds or less. By using Zenlayer's PaaS solutions, organizations can achieve this without deploying any infrastructure. Zenlayer Highlights include: 180+ PoPs, reaching 37 countries across 6 continents 1,000+ Peers, 230+ Private Lines, and 20+ Tbps of backbone 32 patents filed and granted related to SDN routing algorithm, orchestration, and edge traffic management Recognized by the Pacific Telecommunications Council (News - Alert) (PTC) for Best Networking Innovation in 2019 Accelerates five of the top 10 most popular global mobile games, and three of the top 10 global social media apps Over 40% revenue compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2017 - 2020 No. 229 on The Financial Times (News - Alert) list of The Fastest Growing Companies in The Americas 2021 George Yang, Chief Investment Officer, Anatole Investment: "Zenlayer is an edge cloud technologies leader uniquely positioned to accelerate digital transformation across the world. IT Infrastructure is a critical need for digital enterprises and Zenlayer has demonstrated the immense value companies gain by improving their users' digital experience. We're excited to help Zenlayer accelerate their rapid growth and expansion, and continue to innovate edge cloud computing to new heights." Ming Liao, Founding Partner, Prospect Avenue Capital:> "Zenlayer has a remarkable competitive edge. Its exponential growth has made Zenlayer an ideal investment target for Prospect Avenue Capital. Zenlayer is positioned to meet the demands of emerging markets in Southeast Asia, South America, and Northern Africa with its global coverage, low latency edge cloud solutions, and strong infrastructure." Suyang Zhang, Managing Partner, Volcanics Venture: "We began our relationship with Zenlayer in 2019 and have observed the strength and contributions of their team and growth potential first-hand. We are excited to participate in this latest round of financing to continue Zenlayer's mission of improving digital experiences for everyone in the world through edge cloud services, instantly." For more information about Zenlayer, please visit www.zenlayer.com. About Zenlayer Zenlayer (www.zenlayer.com) offers on-demand edge cloud services in over 180 PoPs around the world, with expertise in fast-growing emerging markets like Southeast Asia, India, China, and South America. Businesses utilize Zenlayer's global edge cloud platform to instantly improve digital experiences for their users with ultra-low latency and worldwide connectivity on demand. About Anatole Investment Anatole Investment Management Limited is an international investment management firm that manages long-term capital for highly sophisticated professional investors and clients globally. About Prospect Avenue Capital Prospect Avenue Capital is a growth equity firm with a focus on IT, financial services, technology, and AI-related sectors. About Volcanics Venture Volcanics Venture (www.volcanics.com) is committed to identifying, investing in, and serving the most promising companies and outstanding entrepreneurs in internet innovation, intelligent technology, and healthcare industries. Volcanics Venture brings a powerful combination of global perspective and local experience to investment management, striving to provide sustainable value-added services to portfolio companies. About F&G Venture F&G Venture (www.fgventure.com/en/index.jsp) is a venture capital fund focused on companies with exponential growth in IT industries, such as IT infrastructure, cloud computing, IoT, SaaS (News - Alert) , big data, etc. It also targets high-end manufacturing businesses, including intelligence devices, robots, and drones. About Forebright Capital Forebright Capital (www.forebrightcapital.com) is a differentiated institutional-quality multi-stage growth equity fund manager investing in selected sectors including advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and business services. It is committed to partnering with visionary business leaders, providing value added services, and contributing to the long-term growth of outstanding enterprises. About NSFOCUS NSFOCUS (www.nsfocus.com) is a network and cyber security provider for telecom carriers, BFSI, enterprises, healthcare, retail, as well as government agencies. It has a proven track record of protecting over 20% of the Fortune 500 companies, including four of the five largest banks, and six of the world's top ten telecommunications companies. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005036/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Amid Nationwide Reopening, Speakeasy Meets Demand with Return of Critical In-Person Communication Development Programs As communication methods and needs profoundly transformed over the past 14 months, Speakeasy, Inc. continued, without interruption, to meet the ever-increasing demand for helping clients drive business results through effective communication. With businesses returning to offices left empty by the pandemic, demand for in-person learning solutions is growing each day. To accommodate that demand, Speakeasy (News - Alert) today announced that all five of its offices globally are offering a full schedule of in-person sessions beginning this month. With a robust combination of available in-person programs and virtual solutions, Speakeasy is positioned to provide companies and clients around the world with the flexible choices they need to manage demand associated with learning and communication effectiveness. "During a time when business performance was more critical than ever, and effective communication was a key differentiator, our clients continued to rely on us to deliver communication development programs that truly sets their teams apart to deliver meaningful business results," noted Scott Weiss, CEO and Global Managing Partner of Speakeasy. "More than 5,000 executives from notable companies and agencies such as EY, Microsoft, Google, Nestle, VISA, Accenture (News - Alert) , and The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, entrust us each year to help them invest in and retain their talent while improving their bottom lines." Speakeasy's shift to virtual and digital was both successful and necessary as clients sought options to support their executives and teams. "Our clients recognize that there is no substitute for the rich, deeply impactful experience that can only be achieved in a live, in-person setting, particularly with executive leadership development," added Weiss. "Zoom fatigue is real. Virtual communication just isn't as critical as it was twelve months ago, and companies are looking for in-person options, in conjunction with virtual, to support enablement and optimization strategies focused on improving overall company performance. Speakeasy continues to be the primary resource for companies looking for that flexibility, and more importantly, it has nearly five decades of delivering reliable resuls through communication." All programs offered in-person at any of Speakeasy's learning environments (Amsterdam, Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, San Francisco and Singapore) will include proper social distancing and COVID-19-related safety protocols. For more information on Speakeasy's offerings, and to learn more about Speakeasy, please visit www.speakeasyinc.com. About Speakeasy, Inc. - Unlocking the Communication Potential Within Us All Founded in 1973, Speakeasy provides interpersonal communication development and business communication consulting services to some of the most influential business leaders in the world. Driven with a unifying philosophy that communication starts from within the individual and all individuals have the capability to be effective communicators, Speakeasy has enhanced the interpersonal communication capabilities of thousands of clients over the past 48 years. From young professionals to some of the most recognized names in business, their corporate communication programs are tailored to empower communicators, at all levels, to look within and realize the communication potential they already possess. Speakeasy's suite of more than 15 proven learning experiences are led by full-time, highly credentialed faculty with decades-long track records of success in inspiring real behavioral change through effective and authentic communication. With corporate communication offices in Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Chicago and Amsterdam, and operational centers around the globe, Speakeasy works each year with approximately 5,000 executives and 350 client companies including Accenture, EY, Microsoft, Visa , Coca-Cola, and Google. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005863/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Government of Canada invests $1.6 million to bring high-speed Internet to 324 more homes in Halton region Ontarians in rural communities to benefit from increased connectivity OTTAWA, ON, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted how much we rely on our connections. Now more than ever, Canadians across the country need access to reliable high-speed Internet as many of us are working, learning, and staying in touch with friends and family from home. Right now, too many Canadians living in rural and remote communities lack access to high-speed Internet. Through the Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) Rapid Response Stream, the Government of Canada is taking immediate action to get Canadians connected to the high-speed Internet they need. Today, Adam van Koeverden, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth and to the Minister of Canadian Heritage (Sport) and Member of Parliament for Milton, on behalf of the Honourable Maryam Monsef, Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development, announced $1.6 million in federal funding for Standard Broadband to bring high-speed Internet to rural residents of Haltonville and Moffat. This project will connect 324 underserved households in Ontario's Halton region to high-speed Internet. The Universal Broadband Fund was launched on November 9, 2020. The project being announced today was approved within six months of the formal launch of the now $2.75-billion program. Projects funded under the UBF, as well as through other public and private investments, will help connect 98% of Canadians to high-speed Internet by 2026 and achieve the national target of 100% connectivity by 2030. Today's announcement builds on the progress the Government of Canada has already made to improve critical infrastructure in Ontario. Since 2015, the federal government has invested more than $2.85 billion in over 4,060 infrastructure projects in Ontario communities with a population of fewer than 100,000 people. These investments mean 452 km of new or upgraded roads that are making our communities safer; more than 938 projects to provide residents with cleaner, more sustainable sources of drinking water; and more than 5,427 additional housing units built in rural communitie, helping ensure all Ontarians have a safe place to call home. Quotes "Today is once again a really important day for so many of our neighbours here in Halton. Fast and reliable Internet is essential for full participation in modern society. Rural households in Nassagaweya deserve the same access to high-speed broadband as city residents. Working from home, taking part in online learning and accessing telehealth services are all normal, daily needs that rely on connectivity. Many rural residents are also farmers, business people and entrepreneurs who depend on reliable online access to the global economy to put food on the table. That is why I am so proud of our government's Universal Broadband Fund, which will ensure that 98% of Canadians will have access to high-speed connectivity by 2026, and 100% of Canadians by 2030. Today's announcement once again demonstrates that for neighbours in rural Halton, progress on connectivity is well under way." Adam Van Koeverden, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Diversity and Inclusion and Youth and to the Minister of Canadian Heritage (Sport) and Member of Parliament for Milton "We are all very excited here at Standard Broadband to expand our fibre to the home network to over 300 rural households and businesses in Nassagaweya. To say that working from home and online schooling during these tough times have been a challenge for everyone living here would be an understatement. With the support from the Universal Broadband Fund, we are able to build a network that will not only meet today's demands but also continue to be scalable as bandwidth requirements grow in the future." Tom Williams, President and CEO, Internet Access Solutions Ltd., o/a Standard Broadband Quick facts Canada's Connectivity Strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to Internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download / 10 Mbps upload. Connectivity Strategy aims to provide all Canadians with access to Internet speeds of at least 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download / 10 Mbps upload. The Universal Broadband Fund (UBF) is a $2.75-billion investment designed to help connect all Canadians to high-speed Internet. Applications to the UBF were accepted until March 15, 2021 , and are now being evaluated. investment designed to help connect all Canadians to high-speed Internet. Applications to the UBF were accepted until , and are now being evaluated. The UBF is part of a suite of federal investments to improve high-speed Internet. The suite includes the Connect to Innovate program, which is expected to connect nearly 400,000 households by 2023, and the recently announced $2-billion broadband initiative from the Canada Infrastructure Bank. Associated links Backgrounder: Universal Broadband Fund and Telesat low Earth orbit satellite capacity agreement Universal Broadband Fund Connect to Innovate Program Project status updates Canada Infrastructure Bank announcement High-Speed Access for All: Canada's Connectivity Strategy Stay connected Follow Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada on Twitter: @ISED_CA SOURCE Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Barclays Appoints David MacGown as a Managing Director in Financial Institutions Group (FIG) Banking Barclays announces the appointment of David MacGown as a Managing Director in Financial Institutions Group (FIG) Banking. Mr. MacGown will be based in New York, and will report to Gary Antenberg and Joel Fleck, Co-Heads of FIG Americas. Mr. MacGown joins Barclays with over thirty years of experience in investment banking, most recently as Head of Balance Sheet and Capital Structure Advisory within FIG Banking at Credit Suisse. Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2014, Mr. MacGown was a Managing Director in Fixed Income at Morgan Stanley, covering investment grade financials. Mr. MacGown started his career at Morgan Stanley, working there from 1990 in Corporate Bond Research. In late 1999, Mr. MacGown joined Citigroup, where he worked until 2009 as a Managing Director in FIG M&A. In late 2009, Mr. MacGown joined Citadel Securities, where he was a founding member of the FIG team in Citadel's investment bank. Mr. MacGown rejoined Morgan Stanley at the start of 2012 as a Managing Director covering financial institutions in Credit Trading and Sales. Mr. MacGown has led the origination and execution of a number of high-profile transactions during his career. These include advising Social Capital Hedosophia V on its pending merger with SoFi valued at $8.65bn, advising The Charles Schwab Corporation on its $26bn acquisition of TD Ameritrade, advising CPPIB on its $2bn acquisition of Antares Capital from GECC, advising Cerberus on its $7.4bn acquisition of 80.1% of Chrysler and Chrysler Financial from DaimlerChrysler and the associated refinancing of $30bn of Chrysler Financial intercompany debt, and advising Citi on its $58bn exchange of preferred and hybrid securities into common equity. "Dave has exceptional knowledge of the financial institutions sector, and his deep roster of key relationships and extensive transactional experience will generate tremendous value for our clients," said Tim Main, Global Head of FIG Banking at Barclays. "His appointment demonstrates Barclays' steadfast commitment to operating a top-tier FIG Banking franchise." "FIG is a critical sector of focus within our Investment Banking business, and Dave's addition to our platform will strengthen Barclays' ability to provide best in class strategic advice and execution for our clients," added John Miller, Global Head of Banking Coverage at Barclays. "We look forward to succeeding together and further accelerating our FIG and broader Banking business momentum." Mr. MacGown will start at Barclays in August 2021. This follows Barclays' appointment of Alex Lynch as Chairman of Banking within its Investment Bank in May of last year, the appointment of Gautam Chawla as Vice Chairman, FIG Banking in June, and the appointment of Craig Stine as Vice Chairman, Global FIG Banking in July 2020. Barclays is a British universal bank. We are diversified by business, by different types of customer and client, and geography. Our businesses include consumer banking and payments operations around the world, as well as a top-tier, full service, global corporate and investment bank, all of which are supported by our service company which provides technology, operations and functional services across the Group. For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com. Barclays offers investment banking products and services in the US through Barclays Capital Inc. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005950/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 06:17:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The UN Security Council on Tuesday renewed the mandate of the UN peacekeeping force in Abyei, a territory contested by Sudan and South Sudan, by six months, till Nov.15, 2021. Resolution 2575, which won the unanimous support of the 15 members of the Security Council, also decides to extend the peacekeeping mission's mandate modification till Nov. 15, 2021. The Security Council first modified the mandate of the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) in December 2011 to add tasks of supporting a Joint Border Verification and Monitoring Mechanism of Sudan and South Sudan, which gained independence from the former in July 2011. The resolution decides that UNISFA should maintain the authorized troop ceiling at 3,550 and the authorized police ceiling at 640. It demands the governments of Sudan and South Sudan provide full support for UNISFA in the implementation of its mandate, specifically the deployment of UNISFA personnel, including the removal of obstacles that hinder UNISFA's work to protect civilians in Abyei. It reiterates that Abyei shall be demilitarized from any forces, as well as armed elements of the local communities, other than UNISFA and the Abyei Police Service, and urges the governments of Sudan and South Sudan and the local communities to take all necessary steps to ensure that Abyei is effectively demilitarized. UNISFA was set up by the Security Council in June 2011 after a flare-up shortly before South Sudan's independence. Enditem [May 12, 2021] Cockroach Labs Ranks Among Highest-Scoring Businesses On Inc. magazine's Annual List Of Best Workplaces For 2021 NEW YORK, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Cockroach Labs has been named to Inc. magazine's annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Hitting newsstands May 18 in the May/June 2021 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture, whether teams are operating in person or remotely. Headquartered in New York City, Cockroach Labs has always prioritized a culture that is centered around excellence, respect, balance, and open and honest communication. The company recently raised a $160M round of funding with a valuation of $2bn and continues to grow rapidly with more than 250 employees and counting across the globe. Cockroach Labs is looking to expand its employee family and has open positions in almost all departments. Cockroach Labs is the creator of CockroachDB, the most highly evolved cloud-native, distributed SQL database on the planet. Helping companies of all sizesand the apps they develop to scale fast, survive anything, and thrive everywhere. CockroachDB is in use at some of the world's largest enterprises across all industries, including Equifax, Bose, Comcast. "From the very beginning, our goal was to build a human-forward business where our emplyees can balance their careers with their personal lives. Over the last several years, we have challenged the status quo and built programs for better recruiting, more flexibility, better support, more opportunities in and out of the office, and fostered an environment where diversity of thought exists and is celebrated," said Lindsay Greenwalt Chief People Officer at Cockroach Labs. " It's an honor to be recognized on Inc.'s best places to work and we will only continue to strive for an innovative and inclusive workplace for all." Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organization's benefits were also audited to determine the company's overall score and ranking. "We named Cockroach Labs after resilience and survival, and after the last year, we really saw the strength of our culture and community," said Spencer Kimball, CEO and co-founder at Cockroach Labs. "The companies on Inc.'s Best Workplaces list set an example that all of us can learn from. We are humbled to be named alongside them." "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." About Cockroach Labs Cockroach Labs is the creator of CockroachDB, the most highly evolved cloud-native, distributed SQL database on the planet. Helping companies of all sizesand the apps they develop to scale fast, survive anything, and thrive everywhere. CockroachDB is in use at some of the world's largest enterprises across all industries, including Equifax, Bose, Comcast and some of the largest companies in banking, retail, and media. Headquartered in New York City, Cockroach Labs is backed by Altimeter, Benchmark, Greenoaks, GV, Firstmark, Index Ventures, Lone Pine, Redpoint Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Workbench. For more information, please visit cockroachlabs.com About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com . About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cockroach-labs-ranks-among-highest-scoring-businesses-on-inc-magazines-annual-list-of-best-workplaces-for-2021-301290166.html SOURCE Cockroach Labs [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Grubhub Announces Filing of Definitive Proxy Statement and Special Meeting of Stockholders to be Held on June 10, 2021 CHICAGO, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Grubhub Inc. (NYSE: GRUB) ("Grubhub"), a leading online and mobile food-ordering and delivery marketplace, today announced the filing of a definitive proxy statement (the "proxy statement") with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The proxy statement is in connection with the proposed acquisition by Just Eat Takeaway.com N.V. ("Just Eat Takeaway.com") of 100% of the shares of Grubhub in an all-stock transaction (the "Transaction") to create one of the world's largest food delivery companies, measured by Gross Merchandise Value and revenue. Grubhub will commence mailing the proxy statement to its stockholders on or about May 12, 2021. Grubhub will hold a special meeting of its stockholders (the "Grubhub Special Meeting") to vote on a proposal to adopt the Agreement and Plan of Merger with Just Eat Takeaway.com and approve related matters as described in the proxy statement. The Grubhub Special meeting is scheduled to take place on June 10, 2021, at 8 a.m. Central Time and will be held exclusively in a virtual format. Grubhub stockholders will be entitled to attend and participate in the Grubhub Special Meeting if they were Grubhub stockholders of record as of the close of business on April 27, 2021, or hold a valid proxy of such a Grubhub stockholder for the Grubhub Special Meeting. The Grubhub Board of Directors believes the Transaction is in the best interests of Grubhub and its stockholders, and recommends that Grubhub stockholders vote "FOR" the adoption of the Agreement and Plan of Merger between Grubhub and Just Eat Takeaway.com, as well as all other proposals included in Grubhub's proxy statement. Highlights of the Transaction, which was previously announced on June 10, 2020, include: It creates one of the world's largest food delivery companies, measured by Gross Merchandise Value and revenue, connecting restaurant partners with their consumers in 24 countries. The Transaction forms a company built around four of the world's most attractive markets in food delivery: the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany . These markets have substantial further opportunities for growth, significant penetration upside and longer-term improvements in profitability. and . These markets have substantial further opportunities for growth, significant penetration upside and longer-term improvements in profitability. Grubhub will be much stronger as part of Just Eat Takeaway.com. The increased scale and resources of the combined group will provide greater flexibility to make strategic, long-term investment decisions. In the U.S., where the market is competitive and fragmented across local regions and cities, Grubhub has unique advantages: a substantial marketplace business; a robust corporate and campus business; a large geographic footprint; extensive customer and restaurant relationships; and a successful hybrid operating model with many restaurants that complete their own deliveries. The enhanced scale and leading positions of the combined group provide an opportunity to leverage best practices from Just Eat Takeaway.com and Grubhub and create the broadest possible offering to both restaurant partners and consumers. The combined group will have a founder-led management team with a proven track record of building leading positions in markets of scale. The new management team has 55+ years of combined experience in the sector. The Transaction is subject to the approval of Grubhub's stockholders at the Grubhub Special Meeting, as well as other customary closing conditions. Subject to satisfaction of the conditions, completion of the Transaction is expected to occur by the end of the second quarter of 2021. To be admitted to the stockholders' portion of the Grubhub Special Meeting at www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/GRUB2021SM, Grubhub stockholders must enter the 16-digit control number found on their proxy card or voting instruction form. The Grubhub Special Meeting will be held virtually. Grubhub stockholders who need assistance in completing the proxy card, need additional copies of the proxy materials, or have questions regarding the Grubhub Special Meeting may contact Grubhub's proxy solicitor: Innisfree M&A Incorporated Stockholders May Call Toll-Free: (877) 717-3936 Banks & Brokers May Call Collect: (212) 750-5833 About Grubhub Grubhub (NYSE: GRUB) is a leading online and mobile food-ordering and delivery marketplace with the largest and most comprehensive network of restaurant partners, as well as 33 million active diners. Dedicated to connecting diners with the food they love from their favorite local restaurants, Grubhub elevates food ordering through innovative restaurant technology, easy-to-use platforms and an improved delivery experience. Grubhub features over 300,000 restaurants and is proud to partner with over 280,000 of these restaurants in over 4,000 U.S. cities. The Grubhub portfolio of brands includes Grubhub, Seamless, LevelUp, AllMenus and MenuPages. Forward-Looking Statements This communication contains "forward-looking statements" regarding Grubhub, Just Eat Takeaway.com or their respective management's future expectations, beliefs, intentions, goals, strategies, plans and prospects, which, in the case of Grubhub, are made in reliance on the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve substantial risks, known an unknown, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements including, but not limited to, the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstances that could give rise to the right of one or both of Grubhub or Just Eat Takeaway.com to terminate the merger agreement; the ability to obtain approval by Grubhub stockholders on the expected schedule or at all; difficulties and delays in integrating Grubhub's and Just Eat Takeaway.com's businesses; risks that the proposed merger disrupts Grubhub's or Just Eat Takeaway.com's current plans and operations; failing to fully realize anticipated synergies, cost savings and other anticipated benefits of the proposed merger when expected or at all; potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships resulting from the announcement or completion of the proposed merger; the risk that unexpected costs will be incurred; the ability of Grubhub or Just Eat Takeaway.com to retain and hire key personnel; the diversion of management's attention from ongoing business operations; uncertainty as to the value of the Just Eat Takeaway.com ordinary shares to be issued in connection with the proposed merger; uncertainty as to the long-term value of the common stock of the combined company following the proposed merger; the continued availability of capital and financing following the proposed merger; the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Grubhub, Just Eat Takeaway.com or their respective directors and officers; changes in global, political, economic, business, competitive, market and regulatory forces; changes in tax laws, regulations, rates and policies; future business acquisitions or disposals; competitive developments; and the timing and occurrence (or non-occurrence) of other events or circumstances that may be beyond Grubhub's and Just Eat Takeaway.com's control. These and other risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors may be amplified or made more uncertain by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused significant economic uncertainty. The extent to which the COVID-19 pandemic impacts Grubhub's and Just Eat Takeaway.com's businesses, operations and financial results, including the duration and magnitude of such effects, will depend on numerous factors, which are unpredictable, including, but not limited to, the duration and spread of the outbreak, its severity, the actions taken to contain the virus or treat its impact, and how quickly and to what extent normal economic and operating conditions can resume. Forward-looking statements generally relate to future events or Grubhub and Just Eat Takeaway.com's future financial or operating performance and include, without limitation, statements relating to the proposed merger and the potential impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on Grubhub and Just Eat Takeaway.com's business and operations. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "anticipates," "believes," "contemplates," "could," "seeks," "estimates," "intends," "may," "plans," "potential," "predicts," "projects," "should," "will," "would" or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. While forward-looking statements are Grubhub's and Just Eat Takeaway.com's current predictions at the time they are made, you should not rely upon them. Forward-looking statements represent Grubhub's and Just Eat Takeaway.com's management's beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this communication, unless otherwise indicated, and there is no implication that the information contained in this communication is made subsequent to such date. For additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results and outcomes to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, please refer to the cautionary statements and risk factors included in Grubhub's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), including Grubhub's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the SEC on March 1, 2021, Grubhub's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and any further disclosures Grubhub makes in Current Reports on Form 8-K. Grubhub's SEC filings are available electronically on Grubhub's investor website at investors.grubhub.com or the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. For additional information concerning factors that could cause future results to differ from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, please refer to Just Eat Takeaway.com's non-exhaustive list of key risks and cautionary statements included in Just Eat Takeaway.com's Annual Report, which is available electronically on Just Eat Takeaway.com's investor website at www.justeattakeaway.com. Except as required by law, Grubhub and Just Eat Takeaway.com assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements or this communication, or to update, supplement or correct the information set forth in this communication or the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to Grubhub, Just Eat Takeaway.com or any person acting on behalf of either party are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements referenced above. Additional Information and Where to Find It In connection with the proposed merger, Just Eat Takeaway.com has filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form F-4 to register the shares to be issued in connection with the proposed merger. The registration statement was declared effective by the SEC on May 12, 2021, and includes a proxy statement of Grubhub/prospectus of Just Eat Takeaway.com. The definitive proxy statement/prospectus was first mailed to the stockholders of Grubhub on or about May 12, 2021, seeking their approval of the respective merger-related proposals. Also in connection with the proposed merger, on or about May 12, 2021, Just Eat Takeaway.com filed with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets ("AFM") and the UK Financial Conduct Authority ("FCA") a prospectus for the listing and admission to trading on Euronext Amsterdam and the admission to listing on the FCA's Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange's Main Market for listed securities of the shares to be issued in connection with the proposed merger (the "Prospectus"). INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE URGED TO READ THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON FORM F-4 AND THE RELATED PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS INCLUDED WITHIN THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT ON FORM F-4, THE PROSPECTUS, AS WELL AS ANY AMENDMENTS OR SUPPLEMENTS TO THOSE DOCUMENTS AND ANY OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED OR TO BE FILED WITH THE SEC, THE AFM AND/OR THE FCA IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROPOSED MERGER, WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE, BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT GRUBHUB, JUST EAT TAKEAWAY.COM AND THE PROPOSED MERGER. Investors and security holders may obtain copies of these documents and any other documents filed with or furnished to the SEC by Grubhub or Just Eat Takeaway.com free of charge through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov, from Grubhub at its website, investors.grubhub.com, or from Just Eat Takeaway.com at its website www.justeattakeaway.com. The Prospectus, as well as any supplement thereto, will be made available on the website of Just Eat Takeaway.com at its website www.justeattakeaway.com. Participants in the Solicitation Grubhub, Just Eat Takeaway.com and their respective directors and certain of their respective executive officers and employees may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies in respect of the proposed merger under the rules of the SEC. Information about Grubhub's directors and executive officers is available in Grubhub's definitive proxy statement dated April 28, 2021 for its 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders. To the extent holdings of Grubhub securities by directors or executive officers of Grubhub have changed since the amounts contained in the definitive proxy statement for Grubhub's 2021 Annual Meeting of Stockholders, such changes have been or will be reflected on Statements of Change in Ownership on Form 4 filed with the SEC. These documents are available free of charge from the sources indicated above, and from Grubhub by going to its investor relations page on its corporate website at investors.grubhub.com. Information about Just Eat Takeaway.com's directors and executive officers and a description of their interests are set forth in Just Eat Takeaway.com's 2020 Annual Report, which may be obtained free of charge from Just Eat Takeaway.com's website, www.justeattakeaway.com. Other information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitation and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, will be contained in the proxy statement/prospectus and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC regarding the proposed merger when they become available. Investors should read the proxy statement/prospectus carefully when it becomes available before making any voting or investment decisions. You may obtain free copies of these documents from Grubhub or Just Eat Takeaway.com using the sources indicated above. No Offer or Solicitation This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. No offer of securities shall be made except by means of a prospectus meeting the requirements of Section 10 of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and applicable United Kingdom, Dutch and other European regulations. View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/grubhub-announces-filing-of-definitive-proxy-statement-and-special-meeting-of-stockholders-to-be-held-on-june-10-2021-301290268.html SOURCE Grubhub Inc. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] Cloud-Based Terrafirma Acquired By Dye & Durham for $20 Million Terrafirma is a U.K. property tech business that focuses on location intelligence The acquisition expands Dye & Durham's capabilities in the U.K. real estate value chain, adding products which are already utilized by Dye & Durham's customer base and accessed through its platform today Through its proprietary workflow technology, Terrafirma provides access to critical intelligence information that enables smarter insights for mission critical decisions TORONTO, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Dye & Durham Limited ("Dye & Durham" or the "Company") (TSX: DND), a leading provider of cloud-based software and technology solutions designed to improve efficiency and increase productivity for legal and business professionals, today announced it has acquired Terrafirma IDC Ltd ("Terrafirma") for approximately $20 million (12 million). Terrafirma's proprietary workflow software and data insights have been critical at transforming how decisions are made in U.K. property transactions. This acquisition is a natural extension of Dye & Durham's workflow platform, and provides its legal and conveyancing client base with seamless access to these valuable insights. "This acquisition is consistent with our stated objective of expanding within the ecosystems in which we operate, and in this case, brings onto our platform mission critical aspects of the U.K. property transaction process," said Matt Proud, CEO of Dye & Durham. "The Company is now at a scale where we can fund these types of acquisitions from the free cash we generate from our operations, leaving our $1.0 billion capital intact to fund larger acquisitions s we execute on our Build to a Billion strategy." While the acquisition multiple is not disclosed, the Company believes that it will be able to achieve post-synergy returns that are consistent with the Company's targeted return model. The transaction was funded through cash generated from operations. The Company currently has access to over $1.0 billion in capital which it plans to deploy on accretive acquisitions. About Dye & Durham Dye & Durham Limited is a leading provider of cloud-based software and technology solutions designed to improve efficiency and increase productivity for legal and business professionals. Dye & Durham provides critical information services and workflows, which clients use to manage their process, information and regulatory requirements. The Company has operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, and has a strong blue-chip customer base that includes law firms, financial service institutions, and government organizations. Additional information can be found at www.dyedurham.com. Forward-looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws, which reflects the Company's current expectations regarding future events. In some cases, but not necessarily in all cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward looking terminology such as "plans", "targets", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "an opportunity exists", "is positioned", "estimates", "intends", "assumes", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". In addition, any statements that refer to expectations, projections or other characterizations of future events or circumstances contain forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not historical facts, nor guarantees or assurances of future performance but instead represent management's current beliefs, expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events and operating performance. Forward-looking information is based on a number of assumptions and is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the factors discussed under "Risk Factors" in the prospectus supplement of the Company dated November 18, 2020 to the short-form base shelf prospectus (including the documents incorporate therein) of the Company dated November 18, 2020. Dye & Durham does not undertake any obligation to update such forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable law. SOURCE Dye & Durham Limited [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Senior Technical Advisor, Office of the Deputy Director for Science Programs, Department of Energy Office of Science Bio Michelle Buchanan is Senior Technical Advisor in the Office of the Deputy Director for Science Programs in the Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC). Prior to joining SC, Dr. Buchanan held the position of Deputy Director for Science and Technology at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, overseeing one of the nation's most extensive portfolios of research and development, spanning physical and materials sciences, energy and engineering sciences, computing and computational sciences, biological and environmental sciences, neutron sciences, and global security, for DOE and other sponsors. Dr. Buchanan also served as the Associate Laboratory Director for Physical Sciences for more than a decade, as director of the Chemical Sciences Division, and as associate director of the Life Sciences Division. She initiated the Center for Structural Molecular Biology at ORNL, serving as its director from 1999 to 2003, and led the Organic and Biological Mass Spectrometry Group from 1986 to 1999. She joined ORNL after earning a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. Paving equipment manufacturer will expand headquarters and manufacturing operations Company will invest $6.2 million, create nearly 130 new jobs to increase production NASHVILLE, Tenn. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe and Roadtec, Inc. officials announced today that the paving equipment manufacturer will expand its operations in Chattanooga. Roadtec will invest $6.2 million to make building and site improvements and relocate its Washington operations to its headquarters in Tennessee. The project represents the creation of 128 new jobs in Hamilton County. Roadtec, a subsidiary of Astec Industries, has operated in Chattanooga for 30 years. Astec Industries is a global leader in equipment manufacturing for road building and aggregate processing. The company manufactures more than 100 products from rock crushing and screening plants to hot mix asphalt (HMA) facilities, concrete plants, milling machines, asphalt pavers and material transfer vehicles. Over the last five years, TNECD has supported 40 economic development projects in Hamilton County, resulting in nearly 6,000 job commitments and $1.6 billion in capital investment. QUOTES Roadtec has been a valued Hamilton County company for over 30 years, and I am grateful that this expansion will bring new jobs to Chattanoogas business community. When companies choose to expand in Tennessee, it underscores our pro-business climate and highly skilled workforce, and we thank Roadtec for its continued commitment to Tennessee. Gov. Bill Lee Thank you, Roadtec, for creating 130 new jobs that are well above the county median wage. Over 80 percent of projects in Hamilton County in the last five years have been expansions, which shows that once a business puts down roots here, it has plenty of reasons to stay and grow. TNECD Commissioner Bob Rolfe Our vision is about building connections whether its to our customers, employees or the communities where we operate. We have enjoyed a strong partnership with the state of Tennessee, city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County. We look forward to strengthening that connection and bringing more growth and opportunity to the area. Barry Ruffalo, president and CEO of Astec Industries, Inc. TVA and EPB congratulate Roadtec, Inc. on its decision to expand operations in Chattanooga. Helping support companies, like Roadtecs commitment to growth in the Valley is fundamental to TVAs mission of service. We are proud to partner with Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, city of Chattanooga, Hamilton County, and Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development to help further that mission and celebrate this announcement. John Bradley, TVA senior vice president of Economic Development Im proud to help announce that Roadtec, Inc. will be expanding their successful operations with the addition of 128 new jobs. It is exciting to see an existing company grow and bring quality jobs and a solid working environment to our area. I congratulate our local officials and economic development leaders, Governor Lee and our Department of Economic and Community Development for their role in bringing this large investment to Hamilton County. It is a pleasure to partner with them in working to bring new and better paying jobs to our citizens. Sen. Bo Watson (R-Hixson) TNECD Media Contact Molly Hair Public Information Officer (615) 878-0063 molly.hair@tn.gov About the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Developments mission is to develop strategies that help make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs. To grow and strengthen Tennessee, the department seeks to attract new corporate investment to the state and works with Tennessee companies to facilitate expansion and economic growth. Find us on the web: tnecd.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram: @tnecd. Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/tnecd. ### Free Decodables to Use at Home to Build Strong Reading Skills Nashville, TNToday, the Tennessee Department of Education announced the free At-Home Decodable Book Series are now available to Tennessee families of kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade children to help our youngest learners become stronger readers. This launch is part of the family component of the states Reading 360 initiative to help boost strong reading skills amongst Tennessee students. Designed for Tennessee children in grades K-2, in partnership with Tennessee teachers and state-adopted instructional materials from the State Board of Education approved list, each free pack has 7 decodable booklets which contain 20+ exciting stories full of sounds and words to help practice phonics and develop strong reading skills. Tennessee families can order one booklet pack for each of their kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students using this order form. Reading and strong literacy skills open doors of opportunity for children throughout their education and well after they graduate. Tennessee has deeply invested in literacy to help strengthen and extend the learning that happens in classrooms every day, said Commissioner Penny Schwinn. From teachers to school and district personnel, state officials to elected leaders, and most importantly, parents and families-- everyone can play a role in helping our youngest learners become strong readers. As a parent, I hope all Tennessee families will order the free At-Home Decodable Book series to support their children in learning and reading together. A decodable is a book or story carefully sequenced to include letter sounds and words familiar to readers that allow them to practice important phonics and decoding skills at their grade level. As part of Reading 360, the At-Home Decodable Book Series was intentionally designed to practice important grade-level sounds and provide adult readers with guidance on how to focus on sounds when reading aloud with their child. Family support for early reading is crucial to student success and I am so excited that families will be able to get free decodables to read with their children at home, said Kristy Brown, Director of Schools, Jackson County Schools. This is a great resource that will support strong literacy skills for students in Jackson County and throughout the state. Teachers can also utilize these resources to help families extend learning that takes place in the classroom. Helping families have access to decodable booklets, which are filled with engaging stories full of sounds and words to practice, will enable them to support their children, who are hungry to read independently at home as they continue to build upon the foundational skills they have acquired in the classroom, said Hannah Cunningham and Brandy Puckett, 1st Grade Teachers at Indian Springs Elementary School, Sullivan County Schools. There is nothing better than seeing the delight and self-confidence students exhibit when they successfully transition to reading stories on their own. As we know, early literacy leads to future success! For family ordering: Families seeking to order booklet packs for their kindergarten, first or second grade students can do so at this link. Booklets will be delivered to the mailing address provided. In addition to the order form, a step-by-step ordering guide, FAQs and additional information can be found online at www.tn.gov/education/decodables. For teachers: Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade teachers participating this summer in the Reading360 Early Literacy Training program will receive At-Home Decodable Reading Series booklet packs for their K-2nd grade classrooms for free. If you are a teacher who will not complete the training, please contact TN.decodables@tn.gov to learn more about how to help your students access these free resources. Tennessee families and teachers are encouraged to share fun and exciting reading moments using these and other reading resources on social media. Join in by using the hashtags #TNDecodables, #Reading360 or #ReadTogetherTN. Reading 360 is a comprehensive statewide literacy initiative to provide optional grants and resources to help more Tennessee students develop strong phonics-based reading skills by supporting districts, teachers, and families. Components of the Reading 360 initiative including the At-Home Decodable Book series are funded with federal COVID-19 relief and stimulus funding. To access additional resources on Reading 360, click here. For Tennessee Department of Education media inquiries, contact Edu.MediaInquiries@tn.gov. ### SMYRNA, Tenn. - The Tennessee National Guards 230th Sustainment Brigade, headquartered in Chattanooga, will conduct a change of command ceremony near the Volunteer Training Site in Smyrna on Saturday, May 15, at 1 p.m. Col. John Gobel, the current 230th commander who resides in Nashville, will relinquish command to Col. Christopher Patterson who resides in Ooltewah near Chattanooga. Gobel served as the commander of the 230th Sustainment Brigade since August 2018. During his command, he led his brigade in supporting Tennesseans throughout the tornado response last March, COVID-19 testing and immunizations, and civil disturbance operations. Patterson currently serves as the deputy commander and executive officer for the 230th Sustainment Brigade and is the National Program Director of Unified Communications for Sharp Business Systems. He has more than 28 years of military experience. The 230th Sustainment Brigade is one of 10 sustainment brigades in the Army National Guard. With more than 1,700 personnel across Tennessee, the 230th is responsible for providing maintenance, transportation, and logistical support to all units in the state as well as combat units when deployed. ******MEDIA COORDINATION INSTRUCTIONS****** Media interested in attending must RSVP by calling the 230th Sustainment Brigade at (423) 634-3864 or email Chief Warrant Officer 1 Alana Fields at alana.j.fields.mil@mail.mil. Media will be met at the 8th Avenue Parade Field near building 250 in Smyrna prior to the ceremony. All CDC guidelines will be adhered to. District 47 - West TN Northern DYER COUNTY, SR-3 (US-51): The repair of bridges on US 51 (SR 3) over SR 211 in Dyersburg will cause temporary lane closures throughout the project. *Speed limit has been reduced to 55 MPH. DYER COUNTY, SR-3 (US-51): The repair of bridges on US 51 (SR 3) over the South Fork Forked Deer River will cause temporary lane closures throughout the project. Restrictions: Beginning January 25, 2021, Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction with a 12 6 lane restriction. DYER COUNTY, SR-3 (US-51): The repair of bridges on US 51 (SR 3) over SR 211 in Dyersburg will cause temporary lane closures throughout the project. *Speed limit has been reduced to 55 MPH. DYER COUNTY, SR-3 (US-51): The repair of bridges on US 51 (SR 3) over the South Fork Forked Deer River will cause temporary lane closures throughout the project. Restrictions: Beginning January 25, 2021, Traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction with a 12 6 lane restriction. DYER COUNTY, SR-20: The repair of bridge on US 412 (SR 20) over Hogwallow Road will cause temporary lane closures throughout the project. *Speed limit has been reduced to 55 MPH. HENDERSON COUNTY (New Lexington By-Pass): The grading, drainage, construction of bridges and retaining walls, signals and paving on US 412 (SR 459) from US 412 (SR 20) west of Lexington to near SR 22 south of Lexington. Motorists should watch for trucks entering and exiting the roadway. HENRY COUNTY, SR-54: The grading, drainage, construction of bridges, retaining wall and paving on SR 54 from near Rison Street to near Smith Road. Motorists should watch for trucks entering and exiting the roadway. *Speed limit has been reduced to 35 MPH. OBION COUNTY, Future I-69 (Phase 3): Grading, drainage, construction of bridges and paving on future I-69 from west of SR 21 to US 51 (SR 3) will cause possible lane closures throughout the project. Tuesday, October 13, 2020: Bethlehem Road north from Clifford Rives Road to Lindenwood Road will be closed. Claude Tucker Road north from Cloys Road to Section Line Road will be closed. Detour routes are posted. WEAKLEY COUNTY, US 45E (SR-43): The repair of bridge on US 45E (SR 43) over the North Fork Obion River and Overflow will cause temporary lane closures throughout the project. TDOT DISTRICT 47 MAINTENANCE: Wednesday, May 12 through Wednesday, May 19, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.: There will be possible lane closures at various locations in Region IV to repair pavement and/or retrace pavement markings on an as needed basis. TDOT Region IV On-Call Retrace: Wednesday, May 12 through Wednesday, May 19: There will be possible lane closures at various locations in Region IV to repair pavement and/or retrace pavement markings on an as needed basis. District 48 - West TN Middle/Southern DECATUR COUNTY, I-40: Thursday, May 13, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.: There will be temporary lane closures on I-40 east and westbound in Henderson and Decatur counties MM 95.0-126.0 for pothole repair. HARDIN COUNTY, SR-69: The construction of a Bulb Tee bridge over Doe Creek along with grading, drainage, and paving may cause temporary lane closures on SR 69 at LM 10.06. Motorists should watch for trucks entering and exiting the roadway. HARDIN COUNTY, SR-128: The grading, drainage and paving on SR 128 from south of Pyburns Drive to north of SR 226 (Airport Road). Motorists should watch for trucks entering and exiting the roadway. HAYWOOD COUNTY, (SR-1): There will be temporary daytime lane closures east and westbound on SR 1 LM 26.7-27.3 for repair of bridges on SR 1 over I-40. One lane will remain open at all times. HAYWOOD COUNTY, SR-19 (Brownsville Bypass): The construction of an I-Beam bridge along with grading, drainage, and paving may cause temporary lane closures on SR 19 (Brownsville Bypass) from east of SR 87 to west of Windrow Rd. One lane will remain. Motorists should watch for trucks entering and exiting the roadway. Speed limit is reduced to 45 MPH within the project limits. Shaw Chapel and King Road are closed at SR 19 and a detour put in place. Haralson St (Old SR19) is now open. HENDERSON COUNTY, I-40: Thursday, May 13, 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.: There will be temporary lane closures on I-40 east and westbound in Henderson and Decatur counties MM 95.0-126.0 for pothole repair. HENDERSON COUNTY, SR-22: The repair of the bridges on SR 22 over Big Beaver Creek and Little Beaver Creek. Motorists should watch for crews and equipment in the roadways. One lane will remain open in both directions. Restrictions: February 1, 2020 there was a 12 width restriction put in place. MADISON COUNTY, I-40 (Concrete Repair): Wednesday, May 12 through Wednesday, May 19, 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.: The On ramps and Off ramps at Exit 93 will have construction activity but will remain open. Flaggers will be present on the ramps. Wednesday, May 12 through Wednesday, May 19, 7:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m.: I- 40 eastbound from MM 87.6 to MM 95.0 will be down one lane for saw cutting and removal and replacement of damaged concrete. LOOK AHEAD Wednesday, May 19 through Wednesday, May 26, 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.: The On ramps and Off ramps at Exit 93 will have construction activity but will remain open. Flaggers will be present on the ramps. Wednesday, May 19 through Wednesday, May 26, 7:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m.: I- 40 eastbound from MM 87.6 to MM 95.0 will be down one lane for saw cutting and removal and replacement of damaged concrete. MADISON COUNTY, I-40: Resurfacing on I-40 westbound from the Haywood County Line to near Lower Brownsville Rd. Sunday, May 16 through Wednesday, May 19, 7:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m.: There will be nighttime temporary inside and outside lane closures on I-40 westbound from MM 67.0 to MM 74.4 for OGFC paving operations. Additionally, there will be intermittent shoulder closures during daytime hours to allow for flowable fill curing time. Speed limit is reduced to 60 MPH during active closures. MADISON COUNTY, I-40: The widening of I-40 east of US 45 (SR 5) MM 82.0 to east of US 70 (SR 1) MM 87.0 in Jackson, including bridges, retaining walls and installation of TDOT Smartway Intelligent Transportation System. Wednesday, May 12 through Wednesday, May 19, 7:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: (AS NEEDED) I-40 east and westbound from MM 82.0 to MM 87.0 will have intermittent left and right lane closures to repair any potholes/maintenance issues. Wednesday, May 12, 7:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: I-40 east and westbound from MM 85.0 to MM 88.0 will have intermittent left lane closures to set a temporary barrier wall for the Watson Rd. crossover. Friday, May 14, 7:00 p.m., through Monday, May 17, 6:00 a.m.: I-40 both east and westbound will have intermittent lane closures from MM 85.5 to MM 86.5. Median crossovers will be utilized during this time frame to allow crews to safely demolish the Watson Rd. overpass bridge. For a majority of the weekend, either eastbound or westbound traffic will have 2 through lanes depending on which portion of the bridge is being demolished. For example, if the South portion of the bridge is being demolished, eastbound traffic will be reduced to one lane and use the temporary crossover to shift traffic to the westbound side, while westbound traffic will still have 2 though lanes. If the North portion of the bridge is being demolished, westbound traffic will be reduced to one lane and use the temporary crossover to shift traffic to the eastbound side, while the eastbound traffic will still have 2 through lanes. (BACKUP DATES: Friday, May 21, 7:00 p.m., through Monday, May 24, 6:00 a.m.) One Lane Closed until Summer of 2021: Campbell St. will be down to one lane in each direction over I-40 for Phase 1 bridge construction activities. Closed until Summer of 2021: Old Henderson Rd. Bridge over I-40 will be closed to thru traffic for Phase 1 bridge demolition activities. Detours will be posted for traffic. Closed until Summer of 2021: Watson Rd. Bridge over I-40 will be closed to thru traffic for Phase 1 bridge demolition activities. Detours will be posted for traffic. LOOK AHEAD Wednesday, May 19 through Wednesday, May 26, 7:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: (AS NEEDED) I-40 east and westbound from MM 82.0 to MM 87.0 will have intermittent left and right lane closures to repair any potholes/maintenance issues. MADISON COUNTY, SR-186 (US 45 Bypass) and I-40: Interchange improvements on SR 186 (US 45) north and southbound from the I-40 ramps to Old Hickory Blvd for paving and construction of retaining walls. Widening of I-40 from just east of Exit 79 to just east of Exit 82. Thursday, May 13 and Friday, May 14, 9:00 a.m.3:00 p.m.: SR 5 (Highland Avenue) will have intermittent left and right lane closures both north and southbound from Vann Drive to the Carriage House/Ridgecrest intersection for signal installation activities. Thursday, May 13 and Friday, May 14, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: I-40 both east and westbound will have intermittent lane closures from Exit 79 to Exit 82 for paving activities. Friday, May 14, 8:00 p.m. through Monday, May 17, 6:00 a.m.: I-40 both east and westbound will have intermittent lane closures from Exit 79 to Exit 82 for paving activities. Monday, May 17 through Wednesday. May 19, 9:00 a.m.3:00 p.m.: SR 5 (Highland Avenue) will have intermittent left and right lane closures both north and southbound from Vann Drive to the Carriage House/Ridgecrest intersection for signal installation activities. Monday, May 17 through Wednesday, May 19, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: I-40 both east and westbound will have intermittent lane closures from Exit 79 to Exit 82 for paving activities. LOOK AHEAD Thursday, May 20 and Friday, May 21, 9:00 a.m.3:00 p.m.: SR 5 (Highland Avenue) will have intermittent left and right lane closures both north and southbound from Vann Drive to the Carriage House/Ridgecrest intersection for signal installation activities. Thursday, May 20 and Friday, May 21, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: I-40 both east and westbound will have intermittent lane closures from Exit 79 to Exit 82 for paving activities. Friday, May 21, 8:00 p.m. through Monday, May 24, 6:00 a.m.: I-40 both east and westbound will have intermittent lane closures from Exit 79 to Exit 82 for paving activities. Friday, May 21, 8:00 p.m. through Monday, May 24, 6:00 a.m.: FULL CLOSURE SR 5 (Highland Avenue) will be CLOSED both north and southbound from Vann Drive to Carriage House/Ridgecrest intersection for milling, final surface paving, and permanent striping. (BAAKCUP DATES: Friday, June 4, 8:00 p.m. through Monday, June 7, 6:00 a.m.) Monday, May 24 through Wednesday. May 26, 9:00 a.m.3:00 p.m.: SR 5 (Highland Avenue) will have intermittent left and right lane closures both north and southbound from Vann Drive to the Carriage House/Ridgecrest intersection for signal installation activities. Monday, May 24 through Wednesday, May 26, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: I-40 both east and westbound will have intermittent lane closures from Exit 79 to Exit 82 for paving activities. TDOT ON CALL GUARDRAIL: Wednesday, May 12 and Thursday, May 13, 8PM-6AM: There will be nighttime lane closures at various locations on I-40 east and westbound between MM 44.0 and MM 134.00 in Benton, Decatur, Carroll, Henderson, Haywood, and Madison Counties for guardrail repair. TDOT District 48 MAINTENANCE: Wednesday, May 12 through Wednesday, May 19, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.: There will be possible lane closures at various locations in Region IV to repair pavement and/or retrace pavement markings on an as needed basis. District 49 - West TNSouthwest SHELBY COUNTY, I-40 Hernando DeSoto Bridge The I-40 bridge over the Mississippi River will be closed indefinitely. https://www.tn.gov/tdot/news/2021/5/11/i-40-hernando-desoto-bridge-shut-down-for-repairs.html FAYETTE COUNTY, I-40: Resurfacing of I-40 from Shelby County Line MM 27.0 (LM 0.00) to near Exit 35 MM 35.0 (LM 8.00). Wednesday, May 12 through Friday, May 14 and Sunday, May 16 through Friday, May 21, 7:00 p.m.-7:00 a.m.: I-40 east and westbound from LM 0.00 (MM 27.0) to LM 8.00 (MM 35.0) will have lane closures for nighttime resurfacing operations. Speed limit will be reduced to 60 MPH during active closures. Weather Permitting. FAYETTE COUNTY, SR-196: The repair of bridge over Shaw Creek will cause a lane closure with temporary traffic signal near MM 7.0. SHELBY COUNTY, I-40: Mississippi River Bridge lighting repair LM 0.00 Monday, May 17 through Wednesday, May 19 7:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: There will be INTERMITTENT lane closures on I-40 east and westbound at MM 0.00 on the Hernando Desoto Bridge to allow for bridge lighting repairs. Weather Permitting. SHELBY COUNTY, SR-3: Monday, May 24 through Friday, May 28, 7:00 p.m. 6:00 a.m.: There will be temporary lane closures on SR-3 north and southbound from near North Watkins to Near Stage Ave. SHELBY COUNTY, SR-14: There will be lane closures on both north and southbound SR 14/Third Street (US 61) over I-55 for bridge repairs. Restrictions: Traffic is reduced to two lanes in each direction with a 12-0 lane restriction. SHELBY COUNTY, SR-14: The grading, drainage, construction of concrete Bulb-Tee and I-beam bridges, signals and paving on SR 14 from east of Old Covington Pike to SR 385 will cause possible lane closures throughout the project. *Speed limit has been reduced to 45 MPH. SHELBY COUNTY, SR-14: Construction on SR 14 for a widening project from SR 385 to east of Kerrville Rosemark Rd. There will be possible temporary lane closures throughout the project. Access to SR 14 from McCalla Rd West will be permanently detoured to Donnell Rd. *Speed limit has been reduced to 45 MPH. TIPTON COUNTY, SR-59: The emergency slide repair of SR 59 near MM 1.0 will cause a road closure with full detour signed. TDOT District 49 Random On-Call Signing Wednesday, May 12 through Tuesday, May 18, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: There will be nighttime lane closures to install overhead signs in Madison County on SR 223 NB, MM 14.6MM 15.0; one lane will be CLOSED. THP will assist with traffic control. Weather Permitting. Wednesday, May 12 through Tuesday, May 18, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: There will be nighttime ramp closures to install overhead signs in Madison County on SR 223 NB On ramp to I-40 EB and on SR 223 NB On ramp to I-40 WB. The ramps will be CLOSED. Weather Permitting. LOOK AHEAD: Wednesday, May 19 through Tuesday, May 25, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: There will be nighttime ramp closures to install overhead signs in Madison County on SR 223 NB On ramp to I-40 EB and on SR 223 NB On ramp to I-40 WB. The ramps will be CLOSED. Weather Permitting. TDOT District 49 On-Call Guardrail/Concrete Barrier Rail Repair Wednesday, May 12 through Tuesday, May 18, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: There will be night time lane closures at various locations on SR 3 (Shelby County), SR 385 (Shelby County), SR 14 (Shelby County), I-40 (Fayette and Shelby Counties), I-269 (Shelby and Fayette Counties), I-55 and I-240. One lane will be CLOSED to repair damaged guardrail. THP will assist with traffic control. Weather Permitting. Wednesday, May 12 through Tuesday, May 18, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: There will be nighttime ramp closures in Shelby County at I-40 WB EXIT 8 Off ramp to SR 14, I-40 EB EXIT 8 Off ramp to SR 14 NB, I-40 EB EXIT 8 On ramp from SR 14 SB, I-240 WB EXIT 25A Off ramp to I-55 SB, I-240 WB EXIT 23B to Airways SB, I-240 EB EXIT 28 On ramp from South Parkway, I-40 EB EXIT 8 to SR 14 NB, I-40 EB EXIT 8 On ramp from SR 14 SB, I-55 SB EXIT 6B to I-240 WB, I-55 SB EXIT 9 Off ramp to Mallory, I-55 NB EXIT 11 On ramp from McLemore, and I-55 NB EXIT 12C On ramp from Metal Museum. Weather Permitting. If weather prohibits, the closures will be on the next available night. Thursday, May 13 through Wednesday, May 19, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.: There will be daytime lane closures at various locations in Lauderdale County, SR 3, MM 7.0MM 21.0, SR 209, MM 15.0 MM 16.2, Fayette County, SR 59 WB, MM 3.63.9, Tipton County, SR 178, MM 3.94.0, and SR 54, MM 0.6MM 0.8. Flagmen will be used to direct traffic where necessary. Weather Permitting. LOOK AHEAD: Wednesday, May 19 through Tuesday, May 25, 8:00 p.m.-6:00 a.m.: There will be nighttime ramp closures in Shelby County at I-40 WB EXIT 8 Off ramp to SR 14, I-40 EB EXIT 8 Off ramp to SR 14 NB, I-40 EB EXIT 8 On ramp from SR 14 SB, I-240 WB EXIT 25A Off ramp to I-55 SB, I-240 WB EXIT 23B to Airways SB, I-240 EB EXIT 28 On ramp from South Parkway, I-40 EB EXIT 8 to SR 14 NB, I-40 EB EXIT 8 On ramp from SR 14 SB, I-55 SB EXIT 6B to I-240 WB, I-55 SB EXIT 9 Off ramp to Mallory, I-55 NB EXIT 11 On ramp from McLemore, and I-55 NB EXIT 12C On ramp from Metal Museum. Weather Permitting. The numbers aren't as devastating as KCMO but KCK only has a population of around 150K people. Here's a peek at crime rising throughout the metro and right across the state line . . . Read more: Another nice thing about the design switch is that we're free to share more content within posts. Accordingly, right now we contemplate a hottie branding move along with pop culture, community news and top headlines. Check-it . . . KC Retail Revival As retail roars back, Kansas City area malls scramble to hire new workers OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - First restaurants now retail. With crowds slowly returning to pre-pandemic levels, dozens of stores at the Oak Park Mall are looking to fill more than 100 positions. From May 19 to 23, businesses at the mall looking for help will have a bright yellow 'Now Hiring' sign indicating they have positions to fill. Northland Designs Future New Clay County commissioners deciding next steps on controversial annex project Clay County taxpayers have spent $4.9 million on a controversial government annex project very few people wanted, according to the latest county figures released to KMBC 9 Investigates.For that price, taxpayers now own a piece of property with a massive hole in the ground surrounded by a fence.Two former county commissioners, Gene Owen and Luann Ridgeway, supported construction of a 60,000 foot annex building at the corner of Missouri 152 Highway and North Brighton Avenue. Kansas City Fix Is In 31st Street bridge over 71 Highway closed for repairs on expansion joints KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Road crews are replacing the expansion joints on bridges that span 71 Highway. A few weeks ago, repairs on the Linwood Avenue bridge were finished, and now the 31st Street bridge will be getting fixed. Crafting Local Comeback Local artists eager to return to in-person festivals this fall KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Three of Kansas City's biggest art festivals are returning this fall after being canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Art Westport, the Plaza Art Fair, and the Brookside Art Annual are all scheduled during the month of September. Suburban Politico Resigns Kansas House Rep. Brett Parker resigns from legislature by: Juan Cisneros Posted: / Updated: TOPEKA, Kan. - Kansas Representative Brett Parker, D - Overland Park, announced that he is resigning from his position in the 29th district. In a tweet, Parker said, "It is bittersweet to wrap up my time in office but I am excited to explore the next step in my career & create more space for friends & family." Show-Me Nature Targeted Missouri black bear season 2021: What you need to know A donation to The Beacon goes beyond the newsroom. We amplify community voices, share resources and investigate systems, not just symptoms. The Beacon in your inbox. In-depth reporting delivered every Tuesday and Thursday morning. The black bear population is bouncing back in Missouri. And with its return comes the state's first-ever black bear hunting season. Kansas Drinking Game Kansas lawmakers want to keep cocktails to go after pandemic TOPEKA, Kan. - The state that made saloon smasher Carrie Nation famous is moving to allow people to get beer and cocktails to go after the coronavirus pandemic. Kansas lawmakers approved a bill last week to allow to-go beer and alcoholic drinks from clubs, bars and restaurants until 11 p.m., as long as the drinks are in sealed containers and clear bags that discourage tampering. Kansas Wildlife On The Prowl First confirmed mountain lion sighting in populated area of Kansas caught on camera Wichita, Kansas, resident Cris Boyle said she couldn't believe her eyes Monday when she got a notification from her home security camera showing a large animal running down the back of her alley."I played it, and I had to look at it and think to myself, 'Is it in my alley? Show-Me Reopen Missouri lawmakers OK limits on local pandemic restrictions JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - Missouri lawmakers pushed back Wednesday against local coronavirus restrictions, passing legislation limiting the duration of public health orders that have shut down businesses and schools and limited how many people can gather. The legislation would limit orders restricting businesses, churches, schools or gatherings to 30 days, unless extended by the local governing body. Tech Shares Teachable Moment Gaming The System: KU Professor Says 'Call Of Duty' Can Help Teach History Can video games like "Call of Duty: World War II" and "Battlefield 1942" be shaping the way young people view history? Andrew Denning thinks so. Denning, an associate professor of history at the University of Kansas who teaches a popular course on Nazi Germany, says he's noticed over the past several years that many of his students became interested in history not from books or movies, but from XBox and PlayStation. Show-Me Insta-FAIL AG Schmitt joins effort to convince Facebook to abandon plans for children's Instagram Missouri Attorney General Schmitt testifying to a Missouri House committee. // Photo by Tim Bommel, Missouri House Communications Nearly every state attorney general, including Missouri's Eric Schmitt, signed onto a letter this week demanding Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg abandon plans to create an Instagram for kids, arguing that the company has a "record of failing to protect the safety and... Trading On Panties Victoria's Secret is becoming a publicly traded company L Brands has officially given up on seeking a buyer for Victoria's Secret and is spinning off the struggling underwear brand to become its own publicly traded company instead. Prez Biden Blocked Crunch time on infrastructure for Biden and congressional leaders President Joe Biden will host top congressional leaders in each party on Wednesday morning at a pivotal moment for his $4 trillion-plus infrastructure and jobs proposal. The president is hoping he can get Republican support for sending hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy through an infrastructure package. Confronting Domestic Drama White supremacist groups pose rising U.S. threat, Garland says Domestic violent extremist groups, particularly white supremacists, pose a growing threat to the United States, Attorney General Merrick Garland told a Senate panel on Wednesday. "The threat of lethality is higher than it ever was ... I have not seen a more dangerous threat to democracy than the invasion of the U.S. GOP CANCELS REP. CHENEY!!! What Liz Cheney told Republican colleagues before they quickly voted her out Rep. Liz Cheney spoke to her colleagues in the House Republican Conference on Wednesday morning shortly before she was ousted as the conference chair by a voice vote. Fox News obtained her comments from a source who was in the room. Big Lie Recanted?!? House Republican Leader McCarthy: No one 'questioning the legitimacy' of 2020 election Hours after Rep. Liz Cheney was ousted from her Republican leadership position for rebuking former President Donald Trump's ongoing claim that the election was "stolen" from him, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told reporters, "I don't think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election." Holy Land Hateration Contd 'It's Against All Of Us': Israel-Hamas Violence, As Seen From The Ground LOD, Israel - Intense exchanges of rocket fire and airstrikes have turned life upside down for people in Gaza and Israel, and the conflict has no end in sight. In many instances, the violence has killed indiscriminately. Local Nurse Goes With The Flow Truman Medical Centers nurse seeks to break record kayaking Mississippi River When Traci Lynn Martin isn't caring for others in her role as a long-term care nurse at Truman Medical Centers University Health, she's trying to inspire them. Her latest feat will be kayaking an estimated 2,350 miles along the length of the Mississippi River. Good Deeds For New Digs Metro Lutheran Ministry's new housing project for struggling families is about to open Metro Lutheran Ministry's new Eileen's Place is almost set to open in Kansas City, Kansas."We went from thinking about a 10-plex to now having a whole campus," said Scott Cooper, executive director.Work crews are finishing up a project that was started in 2014 to help a housing need that's only gotten worse for some struggling families."Working to get them back on their feet again," Cooper said.It's completely new construction. CELEBRATE KANSAS CITY NEXTGEN MUSIC MAN!!! KC's long-running online indie music magazine just debuted in print; why its founder saved advertising for the black-and-white page Aaron Rhodes' underground mentality runs deep. "There are smaller shows out there where sometimes I'm the only one with a camera and the only one writing about it," he said. "I'm covering local artists that don't get covered elsewhere, that aren't getting radio play yet." Sneak Peek This Week Sun peeks out Wednesday and Thursday, rain returns Friday WEEK, THIS WEEK, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT IT. NICK: NOT TODAY, TOMORROW, TODAY, SATURDAY, SUNDAY, IF YOU HAVE OUTDOOR PLANS, SOMEBODY MESSAGED ME THAT THEY HAVE A WED -- WEDNESDAY ON SUNDAY, THINK ABOUT BACKUPS. CITYVIEW CAM, A SMOLDERING SUNRISE ON THE WAY BUT THE CLOUDS ARE MOVING OUT OF HERE. Remi Wolf - Hello Hello Hello is the song of the day and this is the OPEN THREAD for right now. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 06:40:55|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Tuesday called for efforts to stabilize Iraq and ensure peaceful elections. Iraq remains in the grip of a grim security situation, which necessitates unwavering international support for the country's counter-terrorism efforts, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. Remnants of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group continue to launch attacks in Iraq, which have caused civilian casualties in the hundreds so far this year. The international community should assist Iraq in effectively tackling the problem of foreign terrorist fighters and securing the hard-won gains in counter-terrorism, he told the Security Council. On the basis of full respect for Iraq's judicial sovereignty, it is necessary to give play to the role of the UN team investigating IS crimes in Iraq and support Iraq in bringing the terrorists to justice, he said. A peaceful Iraq is contingent on a favorable regional setting. China encourages the parties concerned to respond positively to the UN secretary-general's appeal, uphold the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, fully respect Iraq's sovereignty and territory integrity, and join in a collective effort to build a secure and stable future for Iraq, said Zhang. "Any military operations to take place on the soil of Iraq must have the prior consent of the Iraqi government. Iraq should not become a victim of geopolitical maneuvers," he added. It is necessary to support Iraq in fulfilling an all-important political agenda of this year, namely the upcoming general elections. Iraq has taken active steps to press forward with the preparations, and marked progress has been achieved, he said. "We encourage the Iraqi government to continue its effort to ensure peaceful and smooth elections that fully reflect the will and aspirations of the Iraqi people." Iraq has twice written to the president of the Security Council on election-related issues. The United Nations should play a positive and constructive role in the smooth conduct of the Iraqi elections, he said. China has provided the Iraqi High Electoral Commission with a video teleconferencing system and office computers. China will soon be delivering the second tranche of office supplies for the elections as part of its aid package, said Zhang. Greater unity is vital to a stable Iraq. China welcomes the agreement between the federal government and the Kurdistan regional governments on the 2021 budget bill achieved through dialogue and consultation. China hopes the sides can maintain the current momentum in their continued search for lasting solutions to issues of mutual concern, he said. China commends Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi's appeal for a national dialogue and looks forward to all parties taking a positive and constructive part in the dialogue, he added. Iraq needs support in its response to the COVID-related challenges, said Zhang. "We've seen some recent spikes in new cases in Iraq, which is very worrying. The international community should keep up its support for Iraq's response, focusing on the equitable distribution of vaccines." Since the start of the pandemic, China has sent a medical expert team and multiple shipments of supplies to help Iraq combat the disease. In addition, China has helped build a PCR laboratory and sent two batches of vaccines in close succession to help Iraq tide over the crisis, he said. China encourages and welcomes all countries in a position to offer help to Iraq to do so to the best of their abilities. China supports the renewal of the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq. China will, along with the international community, continue to support Iraq in its quest for lasting peace, development, and prosperity, he said. Enditem The outcry against the Missouri Guv for canceling the "stimmy" has been furious. A brief look at the online debate calls it: "Cruel" "Callous" "Irresponsible" On the other side of the equation . . . Everybody is tired of waiting 45 minutes at Denny's for "Moons Over My Hammy" and a cup of day old coffee. And so people must die. Or not. Reactionaries might suggest that workers are lazy and don't want to return to their gigs because of greed or lack of motivation. More astute denizens of the discourse realize that it's unrealistic to expect anyone to take a loss in revenue when they're getting paid more to stay home. Low wage workers deserve the same "profit motive" consideration as big biz. Of course, there is, in fact, a great deal of hesitation to return to work . . . Axios: Employees grapple with re-entry anxiety as jobs call them back Still, the job market beacons and, generally, the Missouri Guv has the support of most Republicans with this power move that basically ends the pandemic . . . For now. Read more from both sides: Hays Post: Get back to work - Missouri cuts off all federal pandemic jobless benefits KSHB: Kansas Citians voice concerns about child care as Gov. Parson ends federal unemployment benefits Newspaper: Missouri Gov. Parsons unemployment decision will force thousands back into poverty KMOV: 'We know the jobs are out there;' Parson to end federal unemployment assistance on June 12 KRCG: Democrats, Chamber of Commerce respond to federal unemployment benefit programs ending New Yorker: GOP Governors End COVID Unemployment Benefits to Make People Go Back to Work KMBC: New social anxiety? Local docs say hesitancy to return to normalcy is expected Mother Jones: Republican Governors, Again, Turn Down Millions That Would Aid Their Own Constituents Developing . . . Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 09:14:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Tuesday called for Myanmar's return to peace and stability. A one-year state of emergency was declared in Myanmar on Feb. 1 this year and the state power was handed over to the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, chair of newly formed State Administration Council. In a UN statement, Guterres also encourages the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to swiftly follow through on its own commitments, and the international community to support regional efforts. He also calls on the international community to respond to the increased humanitarian needs, said the statement. The secretary-general's special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, is in the region and continues to engage intensively with a range of key stakeholders. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 11:07:16|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close WASHINGTON, May 11 (Xinhua) -- China is in the middle of a rural tourism boom amid the COVID-19 pandemic, CNN reported on Tuesday. Chinese-owned Trip.com, one of the world's largest online travel agencies, said that by March 2021, rural tourism trips in China had increased by more than 300 percent year-on-year, CNN said in a report. In recent days, Chinese tourists are heading not just to domestic historic and natural wonders -- some are looking for something a bit different, like spending a day picking mulberries, watching rice grow, fishing by the seaside and eating home-grown food, the report said. The rapid growth in rural tourism isn't just the result of the pandemic or rapid urbanization in China. It's also a major government policy of revitalizing rural areas, which involves supporting poor citizens in the countryside through a program of poverty alleviation, the report explained. The massive program, it said, involves a lot of spending, loans and public works designed to lift every citizen in the country out of absolute poverty. Such a boom in rural tourism has been backed by concrete government plans, as were laid down in a draft of China's 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), in which the government called for further strengthening "leisure agriculture, rural tourism and the homestay economy," it said. Rural sightseeing is only just beginning to take off and in the future, it will focus more on China's myriad of local cultures, CNN quoted personnel with the tourism industry as saying. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 11:50:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Xinhua writer Wang Lei BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States, Britain and Germany are going to stage on Wednesday a side event at the United Nations over the so-called human rights situation in Xinjiang. The United Nations ought to be a place to promote truth and justice. Yet those Western countries, by staging a hypocritical political show to interfere in China's domestic affairs under the guise of human rights, are using it to spread lies and displaying their ego and prejudice, and have brought blasphemy to the world's most authoritative multilateral body. For quite some time, some Western countries have been obsessed with manufacturing and peddling malicious lies about China's human rights records. In recent days, they are concentrating their smear campaign on Xinjiang. Their accusations such as "religious oppression," "forced labor" and "genocide" are a far cry from the true story. Behind those groundless allegations are some of the Western countries' sinister intentions to try to trigger division and create turbulence in the autonomous region to hold back China's peaceful development. For the records, the issue about Xinjiang is not about ethnicity, religion or human rights, but rather about fighting violence, counter-terrorism and de-radicalization. Lies cannot stand the scrutiny of facts. Xinjiang, which suffered thousands of terrorist attacks between 1990 and 2016, is now at its best time in history, enjoying a stable society and a fast growing economy, and all ethnic groups there are living together in harmony. Over the past 40 years, the Uygur population in Xinjiang has doubled from 5.55 million to over 12 million, while the gross domestic product there has surged by more than 200 times in the past six-plus decades. The remarkable progress and development in Xinjiang has been achieved thanks to the tireless efforts and effective measures the Chinese government has taken. Moreover, China's policy and position on Xinjiang received support from more than 80 countries across the world, including the vast Muslim countries, at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year. Yet it seems that those sanctimonious Western countries which are keen on voicing "concerns" over the region's human rights lack even the slightest interest in learning what is really happening on the ground, not to mention doing something substantial to make Xinjiang a better place. To them, Xinjiang is simply a political tool to meddle in China's domestic affairs. Truth and conscience are something they never care. What they really care about is not the human rights situation of minorities, but how to create a mess in China or at least make China look bad. That can explain why those countries have kept on pointing fingers at China's internal affairs on the pretext of "human right" or "democracy." Countries like the United States, the world's top violator of the human rights of Muslims, should feel ashamed of their disgraceful and even bloody records in human rights, and should look into the mirror before accusing others. The West's anti-China campaign will not undermine Beijing's determination to maintain its national security, sovereignty and territorial integration. The Chinese people will never tolerate any attempt to destabilize Xinjiang. Those self-styled human rights defenders had better take off their disguise, call off their hypocritical political game, and make better use of their time by focusing on their own problems, like saving more souls from gun violence and police brutality. Enditem Researching & planning trips gives me a lot of enjoyment & fun, as Im sure it does for many people on here My planned trip for Jan/Feb 2021 was to be 4-5 weeks in Cebu, Bohol & Palawan, Philippines, before 2-3 weeks in Ko Lanta, Phi Phi & Pattaya, Thailand. Obviously that was all knocked on the head by mid-2020. For Jan/Feb 2022, I think safest to think just 1 country really, and as Vietnam & Philippines (my 2 other favorites) seem likely not to be open still, Im planning the whole trip to be in Thailand, with hopefully 4-5 days in Dubai on the way if possible. I know thats 2 countries really, but stop-overs in Dubai dont really count Id like to re-visit Ko Chang & the islands around it, same for Ko Samui, KP & Koa Tao, but returns to both areas will be in 2023 or 2024 at the earliest. There are always places you want to return to, as well as seeing new places as well. For 2022, Im thinking 4- 5 days in Dubai, then to Patong for a few days as havent stayed there for quite a few years now. Possibly a couple of nights in Bangkok on the way, but its not a place I 'm keen on, but haven't been since 2020. After Patong, head to Karon for 5-6 days, my favorite location in Phuket, followed by 5 days on Phi Phi, which is the place Ive visited most in Thailand over the last 10 years. Then on to Ko Lanta (another island I like a lot) for a week, before quick boat ride down to Ko Ngai for 2-3 days. A gorgeous little island, with stunning tropical beach views. Head back up to Ao Nang for a few days, as I want to visit Railay again, before finishing off with 7-10 days in Pattaya Who knows what will be possible in early 2022, Im certainly not booking flights yet, but happy to book hotels at no cost up-front, with free cancellation. Whats everybody else planning ? I know , i know, what does this have to do with Cuba...lol i have a question, that pertains to Cuba. Inquiring minds want to know.. A Jamaican was brutally attacked by a shark the other day in Westmoreland , Ja. There was a video that showed the horror. An arm ripped off, and the man died on the way to the hospital. Brings a question , do you think because of Covid break, with not many folks swimming, etc, for so long, shark attacks may become more possible... I heading to Cayo Largo, on my next visit.. so not asking for a friend asking for me...lolol !!! Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 12:13:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close FRANKFURT, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A global shortage of semiconductor chips is taking its toll on the European manufacturing industry, hindering the sector's recovery and pushing Europe to rethink its supply chain strategy. Automakers are among the worst hit, as chips are now vital for everything from a car's battery system to in-car computer features. Several car makers in Europe have recently curtailed or halted production after failing to secure crucial components. German automaker Daimler in late April sent employees on short-time work and temporarily halted production at two plants in Bremen and Rastatt due to chip delivery bottlenecks. Audi later also partially stopped production at its Neckarsulm site. "The situation around semiconductor supply is complex and volatile," an Audi spokesperson told Xinhua earlier in an interview following the decision, adding that the company is following closely the development and "reassessing the situation on a weekly basis." The chip shortage has become a major challenge for Europe's manufacturing sector, which is witnessing a robust recovery in the first quarter (Q1) this year thanks to strong global demand. The latest data showed that the German mechanical and engineering sector saw orders surging by 29 percent in real terms year-on-year in March. "At the same time, however, production hindrances increased due to bottlenecks in important supplies. This is a spanner in the works of an otherwise pleasing recovery," said Ralph Wiechers, chief economist of the German Mechanical Engineering Industry Association. German research institute Ifo also found in a recent survey that 45 percent of manufacturing companies in Germany recorded bottlenecks in April, "by far the highest value since January 1991." Shortages of intermediate products, including semiconductors, became a "serious problem" for Germany's manufacturing industry, the institute said last week, warning that it "could jeopardize the recovery of the manufacturing sector." Electronics manufacturers, for which semiconductors are vital, are also closely watching how things unfold. Finnish network equipment manufacturer Nokia said that it will "continue to monitor overall market developments including visibility for semiconductor availability," while listing procurement of chips as one risk factor in its Q1 financial report. Song Sun-jae, an analyst from Hana Daetoo Securities in South Korea, predicted that the chip shortage could last longer than expected, and maybe into the coming year, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported. The reasons behind the current chip shortage felt in the European industries are complex. For one thing, Asian and U.S. chip makers make up a big chunk of the global supply, whereas Europe produces about 10 percent. European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton told Bloomberg in a recent interview that Europe's share of semiconductor manufacturing has dropped over the years because the region has been "too naive, too open." The global pandemic and a recent fire at a chip factory in Japan as well as severe weather in parts of the United States in the early months this year all add to the current supply bottlenecks. In March, as part of its digital initiative for the years to come, the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, announced its goal to double semiconductor production capacity to at least 20 percent of world market share by 2030. This is important for tackling the current bottlenecks, and semiconductors will also be needed for 5G and 6G, autonomous driving, Industry 4.0, the Green Deal, as well as future applications of decentralized data processing, Breton told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in late April. The commission welcomes a joint declaration by 22 EU Member States that "aims to enhance cooperation among Member States and increase investment along the semiconductor value chain on equipment and materials, design, and advanced manufacturing and packaging, where feasible through the Recovery and Resilience Funds," according to a statement on the commission's website on April 26. The joint declaration will "pave the way to the launch of an industrial alliance," Breton was quoted as saying. "A collective approach can help us leverage our existing strengths and embrace new opportunities as advanced processor chips play an ever more important role for Europe's industrial strategy and digital sovereignty," he said, noting that Europe will remain open. The bloc has yet to unveil details of the plan. Over the past two weeks, Breton has been busy exchanging views with European policymakers and representatives from the world's major chip makers. To meet the current and future semiconductor industry demand, Europe will drastically increase production capacity "both on its own and through selected partnerships," Breton tweeted. Enditem Finance Minister Colm Imbert defended the Government's decision to increase expenditure for fiscal 2021 by $2.9 billion. The Minister also touched on relief grants, the energy sector and revealed supplementation of $267 million for the Ministry of Health. We were joined by Dr. Roger Hosein- Economist and Mariano Browne Economist & Former Gov't Minister. Over the past day, May 11, the Russian-occupation troops violated the ceasefire in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) area in eastern Ukraine eight times. Over the past day, eight ceasefire violations were recorded in the JFO area. The enemy opened fire from 120mm and 82mm mortars near Novhorodske (35km north of Donetsk); 82mm mortars and grenade machine guns outside Kalynove-Borshchuvate (61km west of Luhansk); tripod-mounted man-portable antitank guns in the area of Novoselivka (16km west of Luhansk) and Pivdenne (40km north-east of Donetsk); hand-held antitank and under-barrel grenade launchers in the suburbs of Vodiane (94km south of Donetsk); grenade machine guns and tripod-mounted man-portable antitank guns near Lebedynske (16km east of Mariupol), the press center of the JFO Headquarters reports. Moreover, the Russian occupiers used hand-held antitank grenade launchers to deliver POM-2 mines in the direction of Pivdenne. The members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine sustained no combat losses. Ukrainian troops fired back in response to the enemy shelling. 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 12, no ceasefire violations were reported. ol The Armed Forces of Ukraine and other defense forces are 100% ready to repel the armed aggression of the Russian Federation. Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel General Ruslan Khomchak said this at the All-Ukrainian Forum Ukraine 30. National Security on May 12, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. "Militarily, the Armed Forces and other units of the security and defense sector are now ready to repel armed aggression. I can say confidently that they are 100 percent ready. But when the battle begins, you cannot predict today, sitting at this table, how it will go. Only the battle will show," Khomchak explained. According to him, the Ukrainian army has seven years of combat experience. "I responsibly say that we are ready for any actions of the enemy against our state," Khomchak stressed. As reported, Russia announced the withdrawal of its troops from Ukraines borders under the pretext of successful completion of exercises, but at the same time leaves its military presence and technical equipment near Ukraines borders and in the temporarily occupied territories of eastern Ukraine and Crimea. Earlier, the Russian Federation amassed a group of about 110,000 troops near the eastern borders of Ukraine and in the occupied Crimea, raising concerns of the Ukrainian authorities and Western partners. ish Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 12:55:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on Oct. 17, 2020 shows a machine harvesting cotton in a field in Wenjiazhuang Village, Manasi County of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Ding Lei) The United Nations ought to be a place to promote truth and justice. Yet those Western countries, by staging a hypocritical political show to interfere in China's domestic affairs under the guise of human rights, are using it to spread lies and displaying their ego and prejudice, and have brought blasphemy to the world's most authoritative multilateral body. by Xinhua writer Wang Lei BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States, Britain and Germany are going to stage on Wednesday a side event at the United Nations over the so-called human rights situation in Xinjiang. The United Nations ought to be a place to promote truth and justice. Yet those Western countries, by staging a hypocritical political show to interfere in China's domestic affairs under the guise of human rights, are using it to spread lies and displaying their ego and prejudice, and have brought blasphemy to the world's most authoritative multilateral body. For quite some time, some Western countries have been obsessed with manufacturing and peddling malicious lies about China's human rights records. In recent days, they are concentrating their smear campaign on Xinjiang. Their accusations such as "religious oppression," "forced labor" and "genocide" are a far cry from the true story. Children have fun on Dove Lane in Hotan City, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, May 27, 2020. (Xinhua/Sadat) Behind those groundless allegations are some of the Western countries' sinister intentions to try to trigger division and create turbulence in the autonomous region to hold back China's peaceful development. For the records, the issue about Xinjiang is not about ethnicity, religion or human rights, but rather about fighting violence, counter-terrorism and de-radicalization. Lies cannot stand the scrutiny of facts. Xinjiang, which suffered thousands of terrorist attacks between 1990 and 2016, is now at its best time in history, enjoying a stable society and a fast growing economy, and all ethnic groups there are living together in harmony. Over the past 40 years, the Uygur population in Xinjiang has doubled from 5.55 million to over 12 million, while the gross domestic product there has surged by more than 200 times in the past six-plus decades. The remarkable progress and development in Xinjiang has been achieved thanks to the tireless efforts and effective measures the Chinese government has taken. Moreover, China's policy and position on Xinjiang received support from more than 80 countries across the world, including the vast Muslim countries, at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council earlier this year. Yet it seems that those sanctimonious Western countries which are keen on voicing "concerns" over the region's human rights lack even the slightest interest in learning what is really happening on the ground, not to mention doing something substantial to make Xinjiang a better place. To them, Xinjiang is simply a political tool to meddle in China's domestic affairs. Truth and conscience are something they never care. A man and his wife rest in their house at the Qushou Village of Saybag Township in Moyu County, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Nov. 21, 2019. (Xinhua/Zhao Ge) What they really care about is not the human rights situation of minorities, but how to create a mess in China or at least make China look bad. That can explain why those countries have kept on pointing fingers at China's internal affairs on the pretext of "human right" or "democracy." Countries like the United States, the world's top violator of the human rights of Muslims, should feel ashamed of their disgraceful and even bloody records in human rights, and should look into the mirror before accusing others. The West's anti-China campaign will not undermine Beijing's determination to maintain its national security, sovereignty and territorial integration. The Chinese people will never tolerate any attempt to destabilize Xinjiang. Those self-styled human rights defenders had better take off their disguise, call off their hypocritical political game, and make better use of their time by focusing on their own problems, like saving more souls from gun violence and police brutality. The redeployment of Russian forces from areas along Ukraine's borders continues, but the number of Russian troops pulled back from Ukraine's border does not suggest that the threat of armed aggression has passed, Ukrainian Defense Minister Andriy Taran has said. "According to our intelligence and our Western partners, Russia is pulling back its troops very slowly. For example, about 3,500 servicemen were pulled back yesterday, and about 4,000 servicemen were pulled back today. Russian military hardware still remains near our northern border," the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's press service quoted Taran as saying. According to the report, the minister drew attention to the fact that today the situation in the neighboring Republic of Belarus is being closely monitored. Among possible scenarios, Ukraine does not rule out the possibility of an invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops from Belarus or the spread of military aggression through Belarusian territory. "As of now, we do not note such an immediate threat. At the same time, if necessary, we have developed plans and we know how to act if we see signs of the creation of a group of armed forces that can be used through Belarus," Taran added. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Russia had about 100,000 troops deployed near Ukraine's borders as of May 11. Russia announced the withdrawal of its troops from Ukraine's borders on April 23 under the pretext of the "successful completion of exercises," but at the same time, it maintains its military presence around Ukraine's borders and in the temporarily occupied territories of the Donbas and Crimea. op The United States fully supports Ukraines Crimean Platform initiative and will make every effort together with partners to make it successful and to draw international attention to the consequences of Russias occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula. We look forward to supporting Ukraines launch of the Crimean Platform initiative, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Philip Reeker said at the Conference Ukraine in Washington and Beyond on May 11, an Ukrinform correspondent reported. He noted that it would take place in August and would be timed to the 30th anniversary of Ukraines independence. And this will be a really great opportunity to draw international attention to the strategic consequences of Russias occupation and militarization of Crimea, including the far-reaching consequences for security in the Black Sea, the U.S. diplomat said. In this regard, Reeker noted that the United States would make efforts both through the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and through allies and partners to make the Crimean Platform initiative a success. Crimean Platform is a new consultative and coordination format initiated by Ukraine to improve the efficiency of the international response to the occupation of Crimea, respond to growing security challenges, step up international pressure on Russia, prevent further human rights violations, protect victims of the occupying power and to achieve the de-occupation of Crimea and its return to Ukraine. Crimean Platform is expected to operate at the level of heads of state and government, foreign ministers, in the dimension of inter-parliamentary cooperation and expert network. Ukraine is actively inviting world countries to take part in the Crimean Platform activities. The Crimean Platform is to be launched officially at an inaugural summit in Kyiv in August 2021. ol First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk has thanked the Lithuanian side for its readiness to hold the fourth Ukraine Reform Conference in Vilnius on July 7-8, 2021. This was reported by the press service of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. On May 12, Stefanchuk and a delegation led by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky met with Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen. "Ukraine and Lithuania are united by long-term friendship, active economic and cultural cooperation. Lithuania has always been and remains a reliable partner for our country. I thank the Lithuanian side for its constant support of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders," Stefanchuk said. According to him, even in the context of a pandemic, Ukraine and Lithuania continue to maintain an active dialogue and cooperation. Stefanchuk noted that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine plans to continue to maintain a high level of political dialogue with Lithuania. The politician thanked the Lithuanian side for its readiness to hold the fourth Ukraine Reform Conference in Vilnius on July 7-8, 2021. "We hope that this will be one of the most important conferences, which will present the results of key reforms at the international level, outline priorities for the next year, and help attract investment to the Ukrainian economy," he stressed. As Ukrinform reported, during a meeting with Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen on May 12, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Dmytro Razumkov said that the timely reaction of Ukraine's partners, including Lithuania, had helped stabilize the situation along Ukraine's border during the recent escalation. ish The Amsterdam Court of Appeal will deliver its judgment in the case of the Scythian gold collection on September 14, 2021. As the Court's press service told an Ukrinform correspondent, the wrong date was accidentally announced during the court hearing in April. The judgment is to be announced on September 14, 2021, not on August 31, 2021. It is also known that the judgment will be delivered in writing, and the court hearing will not be held. The judgment will be released in Dutch and English on the Court's official website. On April 22, 2021, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal resumed the hearings on the merits in the case of the Scythian gold collection. The proceedings had previously been suspended pending the judge disqualification. Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Yevheniy Yenin and Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine Svitlana Fomenko, as well as Dutch lawyers representing Ukraine in the case, spoke on behalf of Ukraine at the hearing. On October 28, 2020, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal granted Ukraine's motion to disqualify a judge in the Scythian gold case due to confirmation of the presiding judge's link with the lawyers of Crimean museums which could indicate his bias. The collection of Scythian gold had been delivered to the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam as part of the exhibition entitled Crimea the Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea prior to the illegal annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation. On December 14, 2016, the Amsterdam District Court ruled that the exhibits of the Crimean museums had to be returned to Ukraine. The judgment was delivered pursuant to the UNESCO convention, according to which the art treasures should be returned to a sovereign state, which provided them for a temporary exhibition. On March 28, 2017, the Amsterdam Court of Appeal received an appeal against the ruling from the representatives of Crimean museums. Currently, the Scythian gold collection is kept in the Allard Pearson Museum in Amsterdam. ol Lithuania is planning to help Ukraine with vaccination against COVID-19, Speaker of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen has stated at a joint briefing with Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Dmytro Razumkov. "I assured that we would also join vaccination in Ukraine. It is very symbolic, but we want this vaccine to help in the regions of Donbas, she said, an Ukrinform correspondent reports. The parties also discussed the issues of Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic integration, the course of reforms, friendship between the countries. "We also discussed Ukraine's ambitions to participate in projects of the European Union and NATO. We focused on the fact that this is the goal that the Ukrainian state and its people want to achieve, so it will receive constant and continuous support from us," she said. Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen added that on all possible platforms and forums, Lithuania constantly condemns Russia's aggression. As reported by Ukrinform, vaccination campaign in Ukraine began on February 24, 2021. iy 05/11/2021 By Ed Brennen Hacking for Defense team members present the vital sign sensor patch they developed to make patient care more efficient for nurses and EMTs. Teams made their final presentations on Zoom, with project sponsors, H4D staff members and faculty from the Manning School of Business attending. There arent many courses in which an undergraduate student in mechanical engineering, a graduate student in entrepreneurship and a Ph.D. candidate in global studies get to spend the semester working together on a project for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD).But then again, there arent many courses like Hacking for Defense ( H4D ), a DOD-sponsored program that pairs interdisciplinary student teams with defense and intelligence organizations to rapidly address emerging national security challenges, using entrepreneurial methods.The curriculum, originally developed 10 years ago at Stanford University, is now taught at close to 50 schools across the country, including Columbia, the University of California at Berkeley, Ohio State and the University of Chicago.This spring, UMass Lowell became the first university in New England to offer H4D, with six students from engineering, business and global studies taking the pilot course led byAssoc. Teaching Prof.and adjunctBusiness Deansays it was an easy decision to bring the course to UML.Interdisciplinary education is at the core of what we believe in in the Manning School of Business, and we constantly strive for these types of opportunities, she says.Students were divided into two teams and assigned a unique problem to address by the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), which facilitates the course. Students used the Lean LaunchPad methodology, which involves proposing a hypothesis for a business opportunity, defining the essential building blocks, quickly testing assumptions about the market and customer needs by getting out and talking to lots of people, adjusting the product or service based on the feedback, and then launching a minimum viable product.The team of Richard DeBenedetto (a senior mechanical engineering major from Nahant, Massachusetts), Brennan Fournier (a master of science in entrepreneurship student from Sterling, Massachusetts) and Gloria Donkor (a Ph.D. student in global studies from Accra, Ghana) studied how artificial reality and virtual reality could be used as a training tool for first responders.The students worked with Kevin Kelly, technical director of PEO Digital, the Air Forces software development program at Hanscom Air Force Base in Bedford, Massachusetts. They interviewed dozens of public safety personnel to help shape their proposed solution: simulation training for firefighters using virtual reality and drones.I learned that it's important to interview your potential client as much as possible so that you can base your engineering solution around what will solve their current problem, says DeBenedetto, who took the course because hes interested in working for the DOD. This just seemed like a great opportunity to do exactly that.Donkor, who enrolled in the class to learn how entrepreneurship can be used to solve social issues, agrees that getting input up front from potential users of the training tool was her biggest takeaway.Being in class might cause you to think you know the best solution to a problem, but its actually very beneficial to hear from people on the ground, she says. Our solution would not have been possible without this.The second team included Jonathan Aguilar (a senior mechanical engineering major from Lawrence, Massachusetts), Lani Faith Gacula (an M.S. in entrepreneurship student from Tagum City, Philippines), and Wynn Wiggins (an M.S. in entrepreneurship student from Burlington, Massachusetts).Working with Matt Marighni, NSINs northeast regional director, and Claudia Quigley, regional lead at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, the students developed a vital sign sensor patch a product that would use advanced textiles to help nurses and EMTs continuously measure a patients vital signs, thereby making patient care more efficient and effective.Taking this course was an opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship while still being an engineer at heart. It was the perfect combination, says Aguilar, adding that it was also a way to give back to my community for a better future.Like all the M.S. in entrepreneurship students, Wiggins took the course to fulfill the programs capstone requirement.I learned how to take a small idea our skin-sensing technology and turn it into something real, he says.The course uses the flipped classroom model, with students collecting and analyzing data and making presentations each week and faculty serving as mentors and guides. The students made their final presentations on Zoom in late April.There were no lectures and no exams, says Mehta, who intends to continue the course in the fall and eventually extend it to include other UML-developed commercial technology initiatives. Ultimately, the plan is to make this course a model for other similar experiential courses.Gacula, who will begin pursuing her Ph.D. in business administration (entrepreneurship concentration) in the Manning School this fall, says the course gave her valuable insights into how to develop solutions.I would definitely recommend it to students who are interested in creative thinking and who wish to learn how to effectively design solutions to real-world problems, she says. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 13:58:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The library of Goettingen, Germany's time-honored city, hosts a series of documents that record the life of Chinese students there about a hundred years ago. Among the students was Zhu De, one of the major founders of the People's Republic of China and the first of the top ten marshals in the People's Liberation Army. Produced by Xinhua Global Service For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe. Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 14:03:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close VIENTIANE, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) has won "the Chinese people's overwhelming trust" and always put the people's interests first, former Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad has said. On the centenary of the CPC's founding, Somsavat, a former politburo member of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP), expressed confidence that the CPC will "stay true to its founding mission and remember its original aspiration and mission." "In the early days of Wuhan's fight against the COVID-19 epidemic, this metropolis with a population of 10 million swiftly calmed down, when every people strictly followed the requirements of self-isolation at home," Somsavat told Chinese media in a recent interview. "It was the Spring Festival, but all the Wuhan citizens abandoned their traditional festival customs of visiting relatives and friends, and just followed the party's guidance, which fully reflects the Chinese people's overwhelming trust in the Communist Party of China," Somsavat said. After the COVID-19 outbreak, the global economy was in a downturn, but China bucked the trend and achieved full resumption of production and economic recovery, he said, adding that the wise and strong leadership of the CPC is the decisive factor in this achievement. Somsavat, aged over 70, once served as the secretary of the former Lao President Kaysone Phomvihane, the foreign minister and head of the LPRP Central Committee's commission for external relations, and deputy prime minister, and maintained close contacts with China. "The Communist Party of China is a great political party. There would not be New China without the Communist Party of China, which is an indisputable fact," Somsavat said, adding that after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the CPC has been leading the Chinese people to striving for the rapid socio-economic development. "The whole world might not imagine that a huge country like China would develop into the world's second largest economy in just over 40 years. This is a very remarkable achievement," he said. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, Somsavat said the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core has been carrying forward the party's fine traditions, pushing for comprehensively deepening reforms, and leading the socialism with Chinese characteristics into a new era. After the 19th National Congress, with the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the entire party has been uniting and forging ahead to lift China's development to a new level, he said. Completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, Somsavat said, is a new starting point for the CPC to lead the Chinese people to advance the cause of socialism and the Lao side rates highly the CPC's people-centered governing philosophy, which the LPRP also adheres to. Laos appreciates China's commitment to upholding multilateralism, promoting changes in the global governance system, and promoting world peace and development and the progress of human civilization, since it is in line with the aspirations of people around the world, he said. Somsavat expressed confidence that under the strong leadership of the CPC central committee with Xi at its core, China will achieve various goals and build itself into a great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful by the centenary of the People's Republic of China, and will continue to work with the international community to promote the building of a community with a shared future for humanity and build a mutually beneficial and win-win world with peace and development. Enditem WE WENT to Newport for three days last week, two Minnesotans long married, to rediscover the fact that ocean air is delicious and invigorating and can even make you happy. That surely is why the Vanderbilts built their monstrous mansion on the shore: sinking into decadence in a fake palace w Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 15:43:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close JERUSALEM, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Overnight rocket barrages from Gaza have killed a man and his daughter in central Israel, as Israeli airstrikes continued to strike Gaza and violence continued to escalate, officials said Wednesday. An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement on Wednesday that some 850 rockets were fired at Israel since Monday afternoon, and an additional 200 rockets fell inside the besieged coastal enclave. The spokesperson said that about 90 percent of the rockets were intercepted by the anti-rocket Iron Dome system. In an overnight attack, militants in Gaza fired multiple rocket barrages at Tel Aviv and other cities in central Israel. In the attack, Khalil Awad, 52, and his 16-year-old daughter Nadin, Arab citizens of Israel, and residents of Dahamsh, an impoverished town east of Tel Aviv, were killed, Israel's emergency health services and the police said in separate statements. On Wednesday morning, rockets were fired also toward Israel's international Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv, where all flights have been halted since Tuesday, the Airports Authority said in a statement. Before dawn, Israeli war jets struck a building which the army said was used by operatives with the Hamas' military-intelligence apparatus. According to a military statement, several operatives were killed including Hassan Kaogi, head of Hamas' Military Intelligence Security Department and his deputy, Wail Issa, head of the Military Intelligence Counter-Espionage Department. The military's Home Front Command said in a statement that schools in a range spanning from southern Israel to Herzliya, a city north of Tel Aviv, are canceled for Wednesday. Five people in Israel and at least 30 in Gaza were reported dead since Monday, in the worst flare-up since Israel's major military offensive in Gaza in 2014. Enditem Access the Experts: Kristina Hughes In this installment, Hughes answers the question: "What is the best way to live a sustainable lifestyle, both for the environment and personal finances?" In This Installment of Access the Experts Kristina Hughes, Sustainability Coordinator, answers the question: "What is the best way to live a sustainable lifestyle, both for the environment and personal finances?" About Hughes A sustainability expert with more than a decade of experience collaborating on environmental initiatives in Nebraska and Colorado, Hughes holds two bachelors degrees from Colorado State University in forest management and natural resource management. Access the Experts Access the Experts is an innovative partnership between the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and News Channel Nebraska (NCN), where viewers submit their questions to be answered by UNO faculty members. New segments of Access the Experts air every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:46 A.M. and 6:46 P.M. If youre not sure how to tune in, visit News Channel Nebraskas website to view their coverage areas. View all segments on our Access the Experts page. About the University of Nebraska at Omaha Located in one of Americas best cities to live, work and learn, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is Nebraskas premier metropolitan university. With more than 15,000 students enrolled in 200-plus programs of study, UNO is recognized nationally for its online education, graduate education, military friendliness and community engagement efforts. Founded in 1908, UNO has served learners of all backgrounds for more than 100 years and is dedicated to another century of excellence both in the classroom and in the community. Follow UNO on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. (@ChaudhryMAli88) Niamey, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th May, 2021 ) :Five people were killed on Wednesday in an attack on a village in the western Tillaberi region of Niger, near the border with Mali, as the country celebrated the Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a local official told AFP. "The attack took place on Wednesday morning in the village of Fantio. The death toll is five dead and two seriously injured," the official said. The attack was carried out by "terrorists who came on motorbikes", another local source said, without elaborating. Tillaberi is located in the flashpoint "tri-border" region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, the site of frequent bloody attacks by jihadist groups. Soldiers from the G5 Sahel force comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger had been dispatched to Fantio and would "stay in the village for a few days at the request of the governor of the region", a source close to the Tillaberi authorities told AFP. Niger is struggling with both the spillover of Nigeria's Boko Haram extremist movement in its southeast, and that of jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda in its west. Jihadist attacks targeting civilians have multiplied since the start of the year with more than 300 people killed in three series of assaults against villages and camps in the west of the country. Niger is the world's poorest nation, according to the UN's development rankings for 189 countries. (@ChaudhryMAli88) ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th May, 2021 ) :Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection Dr Sania Nishtar Wednesday said 49 Ehsaas Nashonuma centers had been established in 14 districts of the country in the first phase of Ehsaas Nashonuma Programme. She said around 40 percent children in Pakistan suffered from stunting due to malnutrition and other reasons which deprived them of their natural height and mental capacity. The programme, which included cash stipends, vaccinations, nutritional food packs and health related training courses for pregnant and lactating mothers, was aimed at controlling stunted growth in children, she said in a series of tweets. Dr Nishtar said Ehsaas Nashonuma centers had been established at Tehsil level in Badin and Dadu in Sindh, and Kalat and Lasbella in Balochistan. In in the initial phase, she said, the centers were set up in the Upper Dir and Khyber districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Rajanpur, Khanewal and other districts of Punjab. Similarly, the Ehsaas Nashonuma centers had also been established at the Tehsil level in Bagh district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, she added. The SAPM said the programme had focused on improvement of health and nutrition of the children in the first 1,000 days. The registered pregnant and lactating mothers as well as their weak children were provided supplementary food packets, she said. The ratio of quarterly stipends of the girl child had been kept higher than the boys under the Nashonuma programme. The programme, she said, had made it mandatory for the women beneficiaries to participate in the awareness sessions which were organized exclusively in regional languages. The staff at the registration desks registered pregnant and lactating women and their newborn children in the Nashonuma App, she added. The staff also check weight, height and health of the mother and children in a detailed check-up to check if they face stunting issue or not. She said that eight Nashonuma centers have already been established in three districts of Gilgit-Baltistan to prevent stunting. Prime Minister, Imran Khan has announced the establishment of Ehsaas Nashonuma centers in all districts of Gilgit-Baltistan, during his visit of Gilgit on April 30, she added. (@FahadShabbir) ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th May, 2021 ) :Pakistan on Tuesday strongly condemned the airstrikes by Israel in Gaza and called upon the international community to put an end to the blatant use of force and flagrant violation of human rights of the Palestinian people. The airstrikes followed by attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque that resulted in deaths and injuries to large number of innocent Palestinians including children. The indiscriminate use of force by Israeli forces against defenceless Palestinians, causing death and injuries, defied all humanitarian norms and human rights laws, Foreign Office spokesperson in a press release said. "This is yet another reprehensible action during the holy month of Ramadan, following the increased restrictions on the fundamental freedoms of Palestinians, and the attacks in and outside Al-Aqsa Mosque," the spokesman said. Establishment of a viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine, on the basis of internationally agreed parameters, the pre-1967 borders, and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, is the only sustainable guarantee for peace in the region, it was reiterated. BUENOS AIRES (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th May, 2021) Ecuador intends to sign an agreement on the supply of the Russian-made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, President-elect Guillermo Lasso said on Wednesday. "Vaccination is a priority. We are going to sign an agreement on the supply of Sputnik V vaccine with Russia to strengthen our [vaccination] plan. We thank the Russian authorities for their willingness and openness," Lasso tweeted. In late April, days after his victory in the election, the new president asked the leaders of Russia, China and the United States for assistance in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and getting the Ecuadorian population vaccinated. About 200,000 people in the South American country have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while Lasso has promised to vaccinate nine million people in his first hundred days in office. Notably, he is scheduled to be inaugurated on May 24. Ecuador has reached agreements on vaccine deliveries with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Sinovac, as well as through the Covax international mechanism. Sputnik V, the world's first registered coronavirus vaccine, has been approved for emergency use in 64 countries across the globe. The efficacy of the vaccine stands at 97.6%, based on the latest analysis of data on the post-vaccination infection percentage among 3.8 million vaccinated Russians. It is higher than the 91.6% efficacy shown in an interim analysis from the trial published in The Lancet in early February. (@ChaudhryMAli88) A former dancer with the English National Ballet was convicted by a British court on Tuesday for sexually assaulting his students during massages between 2009 and 2016 London, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 11th May, 2021 ) :A former dancer with the English National Ballet was convicted by a British court on Tuesday for sexually assaulting his students during massages between 2009 and 2016. Yat-Sen Chang, a Cuban dancer who joined the English National Ballet in 1993 and performed as a principal dancer until 2011, was convicted of 12 counts of sexual assault and one count of assault by penetration. His conviction follows the death in April of British choreographer Liam Scarlett at 35 following claims over past sexual misconduct with students. The UK's Royal Ballet said it would no longer work with him in reaction to the allegations. Judge Edward Connell told Chang, 49, he faced a "lengthy custodial sentence" for the offences against four female students at the English National Ballet and the London-based Young Dancers academy. The students who studied at the two schools said they were aged between 16 and 18 when Chang inappropriately touched them during massages. Prosecution lawyer Joel Smith said Chang had "used his position" to commit sexual offences against "children, whom he had been trusted to teach". "For his part, he trusted that his fame and his position would protect him from complaint, or from consequences of his actions," Smith said. "The story of this case is sadly often heard -- it is a man with power and prestige using them to abuse younger women," he added. Chang, who is a resident of the northern German port city of Kiel, said he had "no idea" why the allegations had been made against him and denied touching any of the complainants inappropriately or in a sexual way. He was remanded in custody Isleworth Crown Court in London and is due be sentenced on June 18. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not physically attend the upcoming G7 summit in the United Kingdom due to the current epidemiological situation, Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Tuesday NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th May, 2021) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not physically attend the upcoming G7 summit in the United Kingdom due to the current epidemiological situation, Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Tuesday. "While appreciating the invitation to the Prime Minister by UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to attend the G7 Summit as a Special Invitee, given the prevailing COVID situation, it has been decided that the Prime Minister will not attend the G7 Summit in person," Bagchi said. The summit will be attended by the leaders of G7 members Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States and representatives of the European Union. It will be held from June 11-13 in Cornwall, England, as the UK has taken over presidency of the G7 group. Apart from India, the UK has also invited Australia, South Korea, and South Africa as guest countries. The G7 leaders are due to address issues of common concern, including the fight against COVID-19, environmental challenges, among others. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 17:15:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Inside the library of Seoul National University, there is a "Xi Jinping Donation Collection Room," which was opened in October 2015 in honor of the Chinese leader. With over 10,000 books and video materials, it has helped people in South Korea learn more about China. Produced by Xinhua Global Service Moldova's Party of Socialists and the Party of Communists have signed an agreement to create an electoral bloc, Igor Dodon, the country's former president, said on Wednesday CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2021) Moldova's Party of Socialists and the Party of Communists have signed an agreement to create an electoral bloc, Igor Dodon, the country's former president, said on Wednesday. "Today, together with the chairman of the Party of Communists Vladimir Voronin, I signed an official document on the creation of an electoral bloc of the Party of Socialists and the Party of Communists," Dodon wrote on his Telegram channel. Earlier in the day, socialist lawmaker Bogdan Tirdea confirmed that his party decided to enter into the electoral bloc with communists. Early parliamentary elections in Moldova are scheduled for July 11. Iran and Saudi Arabia will hold fresh rounds of talks in the coming days, with the next to be held in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Amer al-Fayez, a member of the international affairs committee in the Iraqi parliament, told Sputnik on Tuesday BAGHDAD (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 11th May, 2021) Iran and Saudi Arabia will hold fresh rounds of talks in the coming days, with the next to be held in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, Amer al-Fayez, a member of the international affairs committee in the Iraqi parliament, told Sputnik on Tuesday. In late April, Arab media reported that Saudi and Iranian officials held several rounds of direct negotiations, including one in Baghdad on April 9, to restore ties between the two countries that were severed five years ago. Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian government spokesperson Ali Rabiei said that Tehran and Riyadh had held two rounds of talks to discuss bilateral relations and ways to resolve regional issues. "The parties will hold several rounds of negotiations during the upcoming period. The next one will be held in Baghdad, and then others may be held on the territory of one of the two countries alternately in Riyadh and then in Tehran, or vice versa," al-Fayez said. The date of a fresh meeting in the Iraqi capital has yet to be set, the lawmaker noted, adding that previous sessions were held at the level of representatives of the two nations' foreign ministries. "The talks took place in Baghdad with Iraqi mediation to bring views [of the two states] closer. At the request of the Iranian and Saudi sides, Iraq [was chosen to] be an arena for negotiations with a purpose to clarify the situation between the two countries," al-Fayez added. When asked about the agenda, the Iraqi lawmaker said that he was not aware of other details related to the key topic. In addition, an informed Iraqi political source told Sputnik on Tuesday that some progress had been achieved in the process of rapprochement between the two middle East powers, "especially during a second meeting." The source did not provide any further details. Iran and Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties in 2016 when Saudi diplomatic missions in Tehran and Mashhad were attacked by violent mobs, seeking revenge for the execution of famous Shiite preacher Nimr Baqir Nimr by the Saudis. Out of solidarity with Riyadh, Bahrain, Sudan, and Djibouti also cut relations with Iran. (@FahadShabbir) Mourners gathered Wednesday for the funerals of students and staff killed by a teenage gunman at a Russian school, a tragedy that spurred calls for tighter controls on guns and the internet Kazan, Russia, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th May, 2021 ) :Mourners gathered Wednesday for the funerals of students and staff killed by a teenage gunman at a Russian school, a tragedy that spurred calls for tighter controls on guns and the internet. After Tuesday's attack left seven students and two staff dead at the school in the central city of Kazan, President Vladimir Putin called on lawmakers to toughen gun control laws and other senior officials demanded stricter regulation of the internet. Flags were flaying at half-mast throughout Kazan, the capital of the majority Muslim Russian republic of Tatarstan. Family members wearing black and students of Elvira Ignatieva -- a 25-year-old English teacher who reportedly died while shielding pupils from the gunman -- laid flowers and read the Koran at her grave during a funeral ceremony. "My niece was like a shining star: she took off, lit up and faded away," her 62-year-old aunt Anna Ignatieva told AFP, crying and wearing a black scarf. The 19-year-old gunman opened fire on Tuesday at School No. 175 in Kazan, armed with a shotgun and at least one improvised explosive device. He was identified as Ilnaz Galyaviev, a former student at the school. Panic spread throughout the building, with some students jumping from windows to escape, and the gunman was detained within about an hour. Galyaviev, who was recently dismissed from a local technical college for poor grades, was shown in interrogation footage leaked online claiming he was God and that he had "a monster" inside him. He was due to make a first court appearance on Wednesday. - 'Huge and unexpected loss' - All the children killed were in Ignatieva's eighth-grade class, so between the ages of 13 and 14. The second staff member killed was a teaching assistant for younger students. At least 18 children were also wounded in the attack, including some who sustained injuries while attempting to escape the school building, the RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday, citing health officials. The agency said that eight students were being treated for gunshot wounds and that two were in a critical condition, with a total of 21 people in hospital. Dozens of mourners carrying flowers and soft toys congregated outside the school on Wednesday to commemorate the dead. "This is a huge and unexpected loss," Irina Krasnikova, 42, told AFP. "We live in such a nice city. It's hard to believe this happened to us... It didn't happen to my children, but it is so painful, it's hard to speak." Putin after the attack offered condolences to the families of the victims and urged lawmakers to make the process of legally obtaining a firearm more strict. - Calls for internet controls - The shooting also prompted calls among Kremlin-friendly lawmakers for even tighter regulation on the internet, which opposition figures in Russia say authorities use to suppress political dissent. The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, called on lawmakers to discuss the possibility of removing internet-anonymity, requiring users to identify themselves to be allowed online. Officials have claimed that young Russians are being increasingly exposed to negative influences online, especially from the West. Russia has relatively few school shootings due to normally tight security in education facilities. Buying firearms legally is also not easy, although it is possible to register hunting rifles. Officials noted that Galyaviev had undergone security and psychological tests to gain a license for the weapon. Public shootings are rare in Russia in comparison with the United States, but Tuesday's attack follows some similar incidents in recent years. In November 2019, a 19-year-old student in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk opened fire at his college, killing one classmate and injuring three other people before shooting himself dead. One year previous, another teenage gunman -- reportedly using the same weapon as Galyaviev -- killed 20 people at the Kerch technical college in Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The United Kingdom will return to Moldova $646,000 in stolen funds that were confiscated from Luca Filat, the son of former Prime Minister Vladimir Filat, the Moldovan president said Wednesday CHISINAU (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2021) The United Kingdom will return to Moldova $646,000 in stolen funds that were confiscated from Luca Filat, the son of former Prime Minister Vladimir Filat, the Moldovan president said Wednesday. "In response to our requests in 2020, London courts ruled to return to Moldova 458,000 Pounds in funds confiscated from Luca Filat," Maia Sandu told reporters. She said the money would go toward caring for people with disabilities, of whom 175,000 registered with the eastern European nation's social services for the first time last year. Sandu spoke after a meeting in Chisinau with Wendy Morton, the UK minister in charge of European neighborhood policies. Morton said she was "delighted we have agreed that Filat's stolen funds will be used in a social assistance project." Pope Francis decision to institute the lay ministry of Catechist should hopefully bring about long-overdue recognition to an essential segment of the African Church often eclipsed by priests and religious sisters. Paul Samasumo Vatican Welcoming Pope Francis decision to institute the lay ministry of catechists in the whole Church, Ivory Coast-based, Father Donald Zagore, a priest and theologian of the Society of African Missions, underscored to Agenzia Fides the importance of this papal decree. In the shadow of priests and sisters Catechists in Africa have been the cornerstone of evangelisation. They have carried out an extraordinary job. They were (and are) not mere collaborators of the missionary fathers, but important actors in the work of evangelisation in Africa, said Fr Zagore. He added, With few resources, both spiritual and material, catechists accompany and carry forward the hope of their brothers and sisters with determination and faith. I believe that without them, evangelisation in Africa would not have had the impact it has had. Unfortunately, when talking about the 'heroes' of evangelisation in Africa, catechists are mostly forgotten to the benefit of religious missionaries, observed the SMA priest. Recognising these men and women of virtue On Tuesday, 11 May 2021, Pope Francis issued a new Apostolic Letter motu proprio that established the lay ministry of catechist in the Catholic Church. The Apostolic Letter called Antiquum Ministerium (Ancient Ministry) is intended to respond to an urgent need for the evangelisation of the modern world, undertaken by laypersons. A decree motu proprio in the Catholic Church refers to a document issued by the Pope on his own initiative and is one personally signed by him. Pope Francis said, in the decree, that the new ministry of catechist will give recognition to those lay men and women who feel called by virtue of their baptism to cooperate in the work of catechesis. The decree clears the way for catechists around the world to be formally installed into this ministry by the local bishop. Clericalism Elaborating on the Popes decree, Vatican Medias Editorial Director, Andrea Tornielli, emphasised that Pope Francis decision to institute the lay ministry of catechist is not meant to clericalise the laity. On the contrary, it is hoped that this further step will actually help to counter the return of clericalism so often publicly denounced by the Pope, Tornielli said. What is Clericalism? It is that attitude that sometimes clerics (Bishops and priests), displayed especially in the past, in our church structures. It is a way of doing things, that sense of self-importance and thinking that clerics are a special class of people set apart and are therefore above everyone else in the Church. Though still alive and well within some church circles today, clericalism was more prevalent in the past. Pope Francis has often railed against this misguided sense of superiority and abuse of clerical power. The vocation of Catechist Catechists did not and still do not become catechists by chance, but do so as a generous response to Christs call, in the same way as priests and sisters are called. The hope would be to ensure that the vocation of a catechist in Africa will no longer be considered second-rate compared to the priestly one, emphasised Fr. Zagore. Fr Zagore further emphasised that the vocation of catechist must be promoted as a vocation in its own right if the papal decree to take root. The idea will be to put in place structures that make this precious gift God himself offers to his sons and daughters grow, said the SMA priest. Our unsung heroes and heroines of the faith Africas full-time catechists keep alive the Catholic faith in remote rural areas. For years they have taught the faith, walked long distances to conduct Sunday Services, buried the dead, defended their vulnerable flock against new religions and prepared the faithful to receive Sacraments. Though full time, their allowance or salary is usually small. Many of them, still have to create time to tend to their farms and provide for their families. Sometimes, Christians make an offering to sustain the catechist, but it is almost always never enough. There is also the urban catechist, usually part-time, in the cities. The profile of a part-time catechist in an African city is one who works a full-time job Monday to Friday but still dedicates the weekend to teach the faith at his or her parish. Sometimes, the catechist is a housewife who feels the urge to contribute to the mission of evangelisation at her parish or in a Small Christian Community. There are also many school-going teenagers whose immense contribution to parishes is sometimes grossly undervalued. The recognition and institutionalisation of the vocation of catechist can only be good for the universal Church but more so for Africa. Logistics and geographical challenges mean that for years to come, the Churchs best ally in evangelisation will be, as has always been, these unsung heroes and heroines of the Catholic faith. (paul.samasumo@spc.va) Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 17:50:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows people attending the launching ceremony of the Ethio-Telecom's mobile money service solution called "Tele-Birr" in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Ethiopia's state-owned Ethio-Telecom on Tuesday evening launched a Chinese-developed mobile money service solution. (Photo by Michael Tewelde/Xinhua) ADDIS ABABA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia's state-owned Ethio-Telecom on Tuesday evening launched a Chinese-developed mobile money service solution. The launch of the Ethio-Telecom's mobile money service solution, called "Tele-Birr", was attended by high level Ethiopian government officials including Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed as well as various foreign dignitaries. The "Tele-Birr" mobile money service solution which took five months to develop and complete was undertaken by Chinese hi-tech giant Huawei. Speaking at the "Tele-Birr" launching ceremony, Ahmed commended all relevant stakeholders that enabled the completion of the project in a short period of time. With the launching of the "Tele-Birr", Ethio-Telecom customers can send, store and receive money by just using their telephone number, said Ahmed. "Tele-Birr aims to extend mobile money services solutions to financially excluded sections of Ethiopian society," he further said. Frehiwot Tamiru, CEO of Ethio-Telecom, said she expects to register 21 million users for the first-year service of "Tele-Birr", eventually rising to 33 million customers in a five years period. "I expect about 40 to 50 percent of Ethiopia's economic activity to be transacted on the "Tele-Birr" platform within a five years period," the Ethio-Telecom CEO said. Ethio-Telecom is also working with various service providers to create a conducive environment for transactions, such as water and sewage, electric service, revenue authorities, supermarkets, gas stations, aid agencies, cafes, transport service providers and print media. Tamiru also commended Huawei for finishing the mobile money services solution project in five months, down from an initial projected completion period of two years. "We mobilized enough resources as part of a new strategy under Project Implementation Plan. Many of our experts came from China, even amidst COVID-19 pandemic scare, to finish the project as soon as possible," said Chen Mingliang, Huawei Ethiopia CEO. Chen also remarked on China's successful mobile money services system, as a way to show it's possible for the Ethiopian economy which is dominated by cash transfers to transition to a cashless economy. "In China we don't bring cash every time, we often use mobile phones to pay through applications on our mobile phone," Chen told Xinhua. "This will be the beginning in Ethiopia of using mobile money instead of cash every time. It's a safer and more convenient way as well as being accessible to all sections of Ethiopian society," Chen said. Ethiopia is undertaking extensive telecom modernization services with the help of Chinese firms as part of the east African country's aim of realizing digital inclusion and boosting the size of its digital economy, with the provision of reliable, high band-width and high-speed telecom services. Enditem The Rt Hon Alok Sharma, President of COP26, discusses the Catholic Church's importance in the fight against climate change and stresses that it all comes down to "how we act, together, because it is all down to the next ten years." By Francesca Merlo A child that is born today, before that child has completed his or her primary education, the future of the planet will effectively be set. This is Alok Sharmas alarming message. As Great Britain and Italy prepare to host COP26 in November, Alok Sharma, President of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, warns that this year is going to be absolutely vital, precisely because the next ten years are going to matter. President Sharma notes that since the world came together in Paris we have seen some action. At the same time, when the United Kingdom and Italy's joint presidency of COP26 was first announced, less than 30% of the world economy was covered by a net-zero target. That figure has now become 70%, and of course we want other countries to make that commitment as well. In recent months, continues President Sharma, all G7 countries are now committed to 2030 emission reduction targets of net-zero by 2050. Pope Francis role in the fight Combatting climate change is a central concern in the pontificate of Pope Francis, who has even described the destruction of our planet as a sin. For President Sharma, When the Holy Father and other religious leaders speak they do so with moral authority and it is right and proper that government leaders around the world sit up and listen to that. The Vatican has also committed to zero-emissions by 2050. President Sharma visited the State on Tuesday, where he spoke with Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin; Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Paul Gallagher; and Cardinal Peter Turkson, President of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. There was a very clear and unified message that came from them, says President Sharma: This is an issue that matters and one that they are channelling through Catholic organisations throughout the world. Our young, desperate leaders But there are other voices with this same message, including young people, for whom Pope Francis fights to give a voice, and who fight to be heard. President Sharma says it is vital that we listen to these young people. I have committed that on every trip I do outside the UK, I will always meet civil society and youth, adding that this is the first COP in which we have a civil society and youth advisory group. Along with young people at this years COP are faith representatives and indigenous people, all coming together to advise me on how we ought to be planning for COP26. "What we do", says President Sharma, "is of course for every generation", but we also have to think very carefully about what we are doing about the legacy we leave for future generations". He repeats, "The next ten years is our best chance to fix this", adding that young people bring an urgency to this discussion that cannot be ignored. Along with young people, there is an opportunity for us to work more closely as well with faith groups around the world. There are 1.3 billion Catholics around the world, notes President Sharma. If we can encourage them all to listen to the Pope, to the young people, when they stress the importance of taking climate change as a key priority in terms of how they conduct their lives, I think that would make a big contribution to tackling climate change". Working together President Sharma notes that working together, besides including different nationalities, ages and ethnicities, must also include different faiths. There is always an opportunity for us to work more closely with faith groups around the world, he notes. There is a clear growing realisation that climate change knows no borders and it is on all of us to work together to ensure that we are playing our part on having ambitious commitments but also then the actions that go with it, he says. An upcoming event, organised together with the British Embassy to the Holy See, and colleagues in the Vatican, aims at doing just that, says President Sharma. This event, planned for later this year will bring together leaders of all faiths as well as scientists. President Sharma says he hopes this will allow even more amplification of this issue around the world, particularly amongst those of faith. International collaboration There is work to be done, says President Sharma, and "I am asking countries to commit to zero-emission by 2050 because even if we stopped all emissions tomorrow, we would still have to deal with the climate change thats taking place. Promises vs reality To be able to deliver on some of the climate action we need finance, and it is developing countries in particular that need support, says President Sharma. Some years ago, donor countries committed to providing a total of 100 billion dollars a year to support these developing countries, says President Sharma. But, he notes, "When I go around the world, developing countries always raise the same concern". He explains that "they note that we are looking for you to raise, collectively 100 billion dollars to support us. That is taking time and yet what you have shown in the face of the global pandemic is that you can raise trillions of dollars to support your economies very, very quickly." This, concludes President Sharma, needs to be evolved... very, very quickly. People in Myanmar's Kachin state protest on May 11 against the military on the 100th day of its Feb.1 coup. Tuesday, May 11, marked 100 days since Myanmars military seized power in a coup on February 1, deposing the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Nationwide protests continue. By Robin Gomes The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has lamented that since the February 1 coup, there have been no signs of a letup in the brutal crackdown by Myanmars military authorities on its opponents in a bid to consolidate their hold on power. Rupert Colville, the spokesperson of the UNs human rights office briefed journalists on Tuesday on the situation in Myanmar, saying according to credible sources at least 782 people have been killed as of 10 May. Since the military coup on February 1, security forces have been continuing to use unnecessary, disproportionate and lethal force, to suppress demonstrations and other forms of public participation. At the same time, there is no weakening of the resolve of the civil disobedience movement and other facets of opposition to the coup leaders. Gross rights abuse continue While much of the worlds attention has been on the number of peaceful protesters and bystanders killed by the security forces, Colville said, the authorities continue to commit other gross human rights violations against the people of Myanmar. Daily raids on private homes and offices are continuing, with more than 3,740 people in detention, whose fate is unknown. These are situations that may amount to enforced disappearances, Colville said. The vast majority of those arrested, he alleged, have not been brought before a judge, while most of the 86 people prosecuted thus far have been tried in secret, with limited or no access to any form of legal counsel. Militarys coercion tactics Over the past month, the military has issued over 1,500 arrest warrants targeting civil society activists, trade unionists, journalists, academics, public personalities and online voices. As a result, many of them have gone underground. Security forces have been rounding up relatives to coerce those wanted to surrender themselves to the police. Since the coup, a nationwide protest, strike and civil disobedience movement has roiled the nation, demanding the release of Suu Kyi and the restoration of democracy. Colville said, The military authorities are also stepping up their efforts to pressure civil servants back to work, by dismissing, removing or suspending more than 3,000 of them, nearly 70 percent of whom are women. 990 university professors, researchers and assistants have been suspended in the last few days for failing to report to work. There are reports that up to 11,000 more educational workers were suspended on Monday. The displaced The UN human rights office also expressed deep concern for people fleeing persecution, especially human rights defenders and journalists. Meanwhile, Myanmars crisis has re-ignited the conflict between the military and some of the ethnic armed organizations, particularly in Kachin and Kayin states. Many of the civilians caught in the fight have sought refuge outside the country. Coville said Myanmars neighbours should provide protection and support to these people. Appeal to ASEAN The UN is urging for greater involvement by the international community to prevent further deterioration of the human rights situation in the country. Coville noted that Myanmars military has shown no sign of abiding by the five-point plan agreed at the April 24 meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He called on the group to react quickly and to intensify its actions to ensure the military keeps to these commitments and to hold them accountable for failing to do so. Pope Francis Pope Francis has made several appeals for dialogue in order to resolve the crisis in the southeast Asian nation. He has expressed his solidarity with the people, especially the young, in their demand for the restoration of democracy for peace, prosperity and the common good of the country. In yet another move, the spiritual leader of the worlds Catholics will celebrate Holy Mass on Sunday, May 16, in the Vatican, for Myanmar Catholics living in Rome. Tourism has been decimated since early 2020 and solutions are still required New outbreaks of infections across the nation are overshadowing Vietnams previous successes in the battle against COVID-19 and are now not only hitting the already hindered tourism industry yet again but also showcasing some of the issues related to decentralisation and disunited efforts of some localities and districts. With a growth rate of 2.91 per cent last year, Vietnam is one of the few countries that can keep its economy running with a positive growth trajectory against COVID-19, a favourable factor to carry out its economic development plan for the next five years. However, the prolonged pandemic has still slowed down economic growth and increased pressure on the new government to implement its economic plans right from the beginning of the term. Meanwhile, the strategies and actions of the government will not only shape Vietnams economic performance in the next five years but also be an important foundation for the country to become a middle-income economy by 2030 and a high-income one by 2045. The reopening of the economy after the last wave of infections has taken a new bump after several localities reported new cases of COVID-19 infections. Although Vietnams new government is deemed to be off to a good start on the back of the growth rate from last year, it will have to cope with a prolonged pandemic that continues to slow growth. Pham Minh Chinh - Prime Minister The governments action plan to implement the resolution of the 13th National Party Congress is crucial. The drafting of the action plan must follow the reality, respect it, and include appropriate measures for a synchronous and comprehensive implementation, with an appropriate roadmap and chosen priorities. Moreover, the action plan must be flexible, feasible, effective, and easy to remember, carry out, monitor, and evaluate, following the spirit of staying true to our principles of promoting democracy and collective wisdom, as well as the decision of the majority, especially if challenges are more complex and more sensitive. In particular, attention should be paid to the key contents on completing the institution of a socialist-oriented market economy and building a socialist rule-of-law state amid difficulties related to an ageing population, climate change, natural disasters, the pandemic, depletion of natural resources, corruption, and other multi-dimensional issues. The spirit of the states action plan is to strengthen management, focusing on building strategies, institutions, and policies, as well as strengthening monitoring. Tourisms recession At the first government member meeting on April 15, new Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh issued several important priority guidelines, including accelerating the COVID-19 vaccination programme and considering applying vaccine passports to reopen Vietnam to foreign tourists. It was stressed that if the measures are not applied to facilitate a safe reopening of the economy, Vietnams tourism industry will find it exceedingly difficult to compete with other countries when the pandemic finally ends. Tourism remains one of Vietnams key economic sectors and the bare top-line figures show the damage that has been caused to the industry by the pandemic. Tourism revenue in 2019 amounted to $31.3 billion but the closure of international borders since last years March has pushed the tourism industry into a recession. Data from the Vietnam Tourism Association (VITA) shows that the industrys revenue in 2020 was just over $10 billion, mainly coming from the first quarter of that year. With more than 90 per cent of businesses shutting down, the remainder operated only moderately. As a result, Vietnam has never had such cheap tourism products as it has today. Many 4- and 5-star hotels currently welcome guests for under $20 while their rates before the pandemic stood between $400-500. After more than a year, the tourism industry remains in the doldrums, although Vietnams overall success in effective anti-pandemic measures has taken the worst off of the industrys shoulders. Nevertheless, the lack of a unified direction of the state has rendered the decentralisation within disease prevention and control in several provinces ineffective, said Vu The Binh, vice chairman of VITA. While some cities and provinces act decisively to prevent the pandemics spread, others are a bit too cautious and even carry out measures that affect the economy. The arbitrary enactment of anti-pandemic measures of cities and provinces has seriously affected the operation of the tourism industry. Some provinces prohibit visitors from tourist attractions places that are not quarantined and not in isolated areas, Binh said. He explained that the rescue of the northern province of Hai Duong during the previous wave of infections has been an issue that needs to be learnt from as new cases appear across the country. The measures of this provinces blockade and social distancing have hindered exports and isolated businesses and people in the whole province from other localities, he said. Redefining priorities Foreign visitors are still the main source of potential growth for Vietnams tourism industry. Thus, Binh recommended that the state needs to prepare new policies so that when the conditions permit, stimulus packages can immediately be launched to attract a large number of international visitors with vaccine visas. As other markets are beginning to implement vaccine passports, it remains open what Vietnam will do with this measure. The upcoming competition on the global tourism market is forecast to be extremely fierce, and Vietnams tourism may need to act faster than others in more developed markets. Some businesses asked VITA to propose to the government to allow a part of the vaccination activities to be socialised, and the association has thus submitted to relevant ministries and agencies a pilot plan to welcome tourists with vaccine visas. The government has also enacted expanded immunisation schemes to fight the pandemic but may still need to redefine priorities to prepare for economic recovery through appropriate policies for the current situation. For the industry, tourists and tour guides are the ones most in need of support of the government. Vietnamese tourism is a labour-intensive industry and has more than 40,000 tourism businesses with about 2.5 million employees, of which more than 1.5 million are indirect workers the most severely affected. The tourism industrys urge may be understandable, but the latest COVID-19 cases suggest that Vietnam remains at a high risk of new outbreaks at any time. This, once again, leaves the industrys stimulus efforts in a vacuum. PM Chinh, when chairing the regular meeting of the government on May 5, gave priority to consider the prevention and control of the pandemic. He found that the complicated and unpredictable developments of the global health crisis are affecting all socioeconomic activities of the country. Moreover, treating the latest infections have proven to be more difficult than previous outbreaks. Vietnams control of the pandemic is causing the new government to suffer from more pressure amid partial neglection of prevention rules by some localities and people, as well as increased illegal immigration. Meanwhile, the number of new infections and deaths in the world continues to increase in regional nations. The new prime minister has very high requirements for disease prevention, while resources, capacity, and time are all limited. The PM asked to renew the measures and policies to suit the new situation, as well as strengthen decentralisation and in pandemic prevention, under the basic direction that the central government cannot perform the job of the provincial, district, and communal authorities, the PM said. A government meeting alone cannot provide enough clues about vaccination programmes and consideration of adopting vaccine passports to reopen the country to tourists, the prime minister said. DPPA pilot to prompt low-carbon adoption, illustration photo To meet renewable energy targets and promote private sector investment in energy, Vietnam is currently reviewing and finalising a direct power purchase agreement (DPPA) mechanism that will allow businesses in Vietnam to procure electricity directly from private companies producing renewable energy and enable them to power their operations with 100 per cent renewable energy. The Electricity Regulatory Authority of Vietnam under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has released a draft circular guiding implementation of a DPPA pilot programme between private renewable power generation companies and power consumers. Global businesses had been ramping up calls for such a pilot over the years, with 26 leading international companies and organisations, who purchase more than 16 million megawatt-hours of electricity and have the total investment in Vietnam worth $1.57 billion, signing a declaration of support for DPPA in Vietnam in 2019. HEINEKEN Vietnam sustainability manager Bui Thi Loan, at the Vietnam Low Emission Energy Program, which assisted with formulating a DPPA in Vietnam, said, We are willing to take part in a DPPA as that is the only chance for us to reach our ambition for sustainability commitments. Loan explained that pursuing sustainability is the right thing to do not only for the business, but for the country the company operates in. We have six facilities across the nation so the demand for energy is high. HEINEKEN Vietnam has set an ambitious target to achieve zero waste, 100 per cent water balance, and use 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025. International clothing brands, which rely heavily on Asian garment factories including Vietnam, are under pressure from shareholders and consumers to reduce emissions in their supply chains. Nikes government public affairs director Giang Vu said that half of Nike products sold globally are made in Vietnam. From now to 2025, Nike aims to reduce CO2 emissions by 6 per cent from rooftop solar and 5 per cent CO2 from the DPPA pilot at partner factories, Vu said. Since Vietnam is Nikes largest supplier, the implementation of a DPPA is of great significance, and has an impact on our global commitments. In Adidas annual report for 2020, the sportswear giant said it is working closely with key suppliers in Vietnam, providing technical guidance and expertise to enrol and access the first off-site renewable energy pilot. The pilot programme features DPPA mechanisms between renewable energy developers/power generation companies and private power buyers/consumers. DPPA mechanisms are surging around the world as a new driver and catalyst for renewable energy projects, it said. As part of its 2021 carbon priorities and goals, Adidas aims to accelerate initiatives that drive low-carbon manufacturing within its supply chain. That is why, in 2021, we will focus on scaling the adoption of renewable energy at existing Tier 1 and Tier 2 facilities, said Adidas senior director of social-environmental affairs Tracy Nilsson. Through the adoption and scalability of renewable energy and coal replacement, our aim is to keep our emissions flat against the 2017 baseline year by 2025. This trend is growing rapidly as large companies are paying more attention to the sustainability of their businesses through their commitments to reduce their CO2 emissions. Moreover, pressure is growing on businesses to become more sustainable, thanks to initiatives such as the Paris Agreement, national and local targets to cut carbon emissions, and more environmentally-conscious consumers. Customers and employers are also demanding sustainable products. Lorenzo Mancini, regional sales director of Total Solar Distributed Generation, said that off-site PPAs are common instruments in the United States and Europe which however are mature and liberalised electricity markets. The generators are a separate entity from the transmission and distribution company; the transmission and distribution company sits between the generators and the consumers and is the market enabler tasked with transferring the energy smoothly and efficiently from one to the other, he said. In Vietnam, on the other hand, the power market is still concentrated, with a single, state-owned player which is both generator and distributor. Enabling a market-based structure in such an environment is a challenge, Mancini added. This is because the supply side is one and the same with the market settler (the grid operator), so the market price is artificially set. In effect the grid operator could set one purchase price to solar photovoltaic developers and a different one to its own gas or coal generating facilities. The grid operator then delivers the electricity at the customer connection point (and is paid distribution and transmission charges to do so). This is where it really gets tricky, Mancini wrote. Because the grid in Vietnam is struggling to cope with surge both in demand, due to new factories being built and in supply, due to solar being injected in the grid. The grid operator has already warned that blackouts and brownouts will be unavoidable in the next two-three years, while grid upgrading work takes place. Expansions emerging in bancassurance services, source: pgbank.com.vn On April 28, Bao Viet Life Insurance Corporation and PGBank the banking arm of Petrolimex inked a comprehensive agreement to provide exclusive bancassurance services. Bao Viet Life and PGBank will gear up their activities with a major focus on providing Bao Viet insurance products through PGBanks channels, payment, and collection services, diversifying banking products. Nguyen Phi Hung, general director of PGBank, said that bancassurance is one of the most appealing distribution channels of insurance services nationwide. The strategic cooperation between banks and insurance is an inevitable trend, thus opening up new opportunities for both sides. We are very honoured to be a trusted partner of Bao Viet Life Insurance to provide seamless, best-in-class insurance products to our customers, Hung added. Bao Viet Life Corporation, meanwhile, is deemed as one of the market leaders with nearly 22 per cent market share of life insurance premium revenue in 2020. Currently, Bao Viet Life boasts a strong network of 76 affiliates expanding in 63 provinces, with more than 360 transaction offices and 170,000 consultants. In March, MSB also signed a monopoly bancassurance agreement with Prudential, the same partner which has had an exclusive partnership with the bank over the past three years in southern Vietnam similar to the Dai-ichi Life deal in the north. The 15-year partnership has brought an estimated upfront fee between $80-90 million for MSB, according to SSI Securities. Meanwhile, Vietcombank Securities said that the cooperation since 2013 brings the partnership between the two sides to a new level in the form of distribution, at the same time proactively providing optimal products and services of Prudential to MSBs customers through existing channels as well as new channels, focusing on digital platforms. Regarding profit accounting from prepayment fees, we believe that MSB is likely to choose the reducing balance method instead of straight-line accounting approach within the next 3-5 years to avoid a sudden and major impact on the banks equity and business plans, Vietcombank Securities noted. Vietcombank Securities estimated that a 15-year exclusive insurance contract with Prudential insurance company could bring MSB VND3.5 trillion ($152.2 million) in upfront fees. By the end of 2020, MSBs insurance sales were in the top 10 of the bancassurance market. The tie-up is estimated by Vietcombank Securities to be worth $370 million, one of the most remarkable monopoly deals in Vietnams insurance market last year. Earlier last year, Prudential Vietnam also created a tie-up with SeABank to form a 20-year exclusive bancassurance partnership to offer investment-linked and life insurance products. And in December, VietinBank and Manulife entered an agreement to establish an exclusive 16-year bancassurance partnership to better meet the growing financial and insurance needs of Vietnamese people; while Sun Life Vietnam formed a 15-year exclusive bancassurance partnership with ACB. Back at Vietcombank, just last month the lender and pan-Asian insurer FWD Vietnam Life Insurance officially launched an exclusive 15-year bancassurance partnership. In the first quarter of this year, Vietcombanks insurance commission revenue increased to VND390 billion ($17 million), much higher than the same period last year. According to the plan, in addition to VND1.7 trillion ($74 million) of upfront fees, it also plans to collect VND1.11 trillion ($47.8 million) of insurance commissions in 2021. If the initial plan is successfully completed, the total amount for Vietcombank will be VND2.8 trillion ($121.7 million) in 2021 from exclusive bancassurance with FWD. General director of Sacombank Nguyen Duc Thach Diem also said that in the first four months of this year, revenue from bancassurance agreement with Dai-ichi Life Vietnam reached more than VND400 billion ($17.4 million). Elsewhere, Ho Chi Minh City-based lender HDBank has not yet decided to team up with any particular suitors in the bancassurance competition. Many international life insurance companies have offered to cooperate with HDBank, but the negotiation has not been completed due to the pandemic, said the banks vice chairwoman Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao at its general shareholders meeting last month. We are not under any pressure to sign an exclusive bancassurance at the moment, because the contract value in 2021 or next year would be much significant. Pham Quoc Thanh, general director of HDBank, said that since the last quarter of 2020 the bank has reinforced insurance cross-selling initiatives, with many positive performances in return. The bank sets a target this year to collect VND1 trillion ($43.5 million) of insurance service fees. Meagre profits for some lead to longer-term hopes, illustration photo One of the worlds largest producers of basa fish, Vinh Hoan JSC, saw its sales rise in all its major markets in the first quarter of the year, with gross profits hitting $11.8 million, up nearly 27 per cent on-year. However, it posted a 14-per-cent loss in profit after tax despite the gross profit gain. Company chairman Tran Le Khanh explained that the US markets consumption is focused on restaurants, while in Europe consumption occurs mostly in supermarkets. Therefore, as restaurants gradually reopen in the US, so do exports. However, Vinh Hoan reported that its profit only amounted to $5.7 million. According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), Vietnams exports reached an on-year increase of nearly 5 per cent to an estimated $103.9 billion in the first four months of this year, in which domestic companies earned $25.76 billion, rising 12.8 per cent on-year and making up 24.8 per cent of the countrys total export earnings. Meanwhile, exports of foreign-invested firms hit $78.14 billion, up 34.4 per cent, taking up 75.2 per cent of Vietnams total export turnover. However, the high costs of logistics due to the shortage of shipping containers and other factors troubles exporting businesses in Vietnam. The PAN Group reported that its shrimp exports, although seeing revenue increase by 36 per cent, only cashed in for an after-tax profit of $1.34 million, a decrease of 23 per cent on-year. The group expressed concerns about the increase in transportation costs the main input cost of many enterprises. Meanwhile, general director of Song Hong Garment JSC Bui Viet Quang said that his company plans to return to growth on 2019 levels this year, based on the recovery of the companys key customer segments. According to the latest GSO data, the price of raw materials, fuels, and other means of production in April increased by 0.37 per cent over the previous month and by 4.47 per cent on year. For the agro-forestry-fishery sector, the latters increase even amounted to 7.82 per cent. Other sectors like industrial production and construction saw increases of 4.95 and 1.95 per cent, respectively. According to Ministry of Industry and Trade, amid the pandemic, the lack of empty containers, increasing shipping rates, and the incident at the Suez Canal and related rising transportation costs, Vietnams import-export activities since the beginning of the year recorded positive results. However, these factors also mean that profits for many exporting businesses remain meagre. Nevertheless, equal growth in important export industries like electronics, textiles, machinery, and agriculture in major markets such as the United States, China, the EU, South Korea, Japan, and ASEAN is forecast and may promise higher profits in the long run. The COVID-19 crisis in India is highlighting the importance of India in the global supply chain. Which products and industries are being affected right now? Vaibhav Saxena, vice chairman of the Indian Business Chamber in Vietnam India has been considered a new power in the global supply chain. It has a favourable business environment and liberal foreign direct investment (FDI) norms, constantly improving ease of doing business rankings, has an enormous consumer base, and also rapidly-improving digital infrastructure. Moreover, the country is home to the second-largest digital citizenry in the world after China, with a reported 718 million internet users. It is expected that India is set to be home to a billion digital users by 2028. The country is well-positioned to be an alternate source of supply to the global chemical industry with permission for 100 per cent of FDI in the sector, dedicated investment zones, availability of raw materials, and a large domestic talent pool. Besides that, the countrys pharmaceutical industry has progressed strongly and today is one of the largest generic suppliers to global markets. In the telecoms sector, India has plenty of enabling factors that should prove attractive to foreign investors considering the country as a destination for their manufacturing plants. These include a phased manufacturing programme to promote the domestic production of mobile handsets, and a subsidy in special economic zones, among others. The success of domestic and multinational auto component players in India over the years also lends robust, credible support for positioning the country as a reliable partner in global auto supply chains. The Automotive Mission Plan 2016-2026 targets triple of growth for the industry and aims to establish India as a manufacturing base and an export hub. In addition to the unprecedented collapse in demand due to the pandemic, there will also be widespread supply chain disruptions due to the unavailability of raw materials, exodus of millions of migrant workers from urban areas, slowing global trade, and shipment and travel-related restrictions imposed by affected countries. The supply chains are unlikely to normalise for some time. The longer the crisis lasts, the more difficult it will be for firms to stay afloat. This will negatively affect production in almost all domestic industries, as well as affect investment, jobs, income, and consumption. Regardless of the current pandemic, what is the future growth potential in bilateral trade and investment ties between India and Vietnam? Vietnam and India will continue to prioritise cooperation in the fields of defence, trade, and investment, as well as seek new opportunities to connect businesses from both sides. With the increasing number of support projects from India, they hope to further promote development projects in Vietnam, according to Indian Ambassador to Vietnam Shri. Pranay Verma. By cooperating with each other in various fields, Vietnam and India will turn the crisis and challenges into new opportunities. Textiles, food processing, pharmaceuticals, IT, construction materials, and renewable energy are also potential areas that businesses of the two countries can invest more in the coming time. Overall, Indian-Vietnamese cooperation has seen positive movements over past years, with noticeable impacts on the Vietnamese economy. Now, with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement going into effect, the Vietnamese economy is heading towards a promising future, attracting more FDI from foreign partners over the world. Indian firms, especially textile producers and manufacturers globally, may set up more subsidiaries in Vietnam to take advantage of these factors. Domestic firms can seize these opportunities to integrate themselves into global value chains and strengthen the evolution of small- and medium-sized enterprises. The rising importance of Vietnam in global supply chains has the potential to strengthen India-Vietnam ties further. Have you seen any new movements from Indian investment in the Southeast Asian country? Vietnams strategic location close to existing manufacturing hubs, its favourable position in accessing other Southeast Asian markets, and its proactive approach towards opening its markets to the world has helped it gain popularity as an attractive manufacturing and sourcing location. India is estimated to have invested nearly $2 billion in Vietnam including funds channelled via other countries. Over 200 Indian investment projects in Vietnam are primarily focused on sectors including energy, mineral exploration, agrochemicals, sugar, tea and coffee, IT, and auto components. Several major Indian businesses such as Adani Group, Mahindra, chemicals major SRF, and renewables giant corporations have shown interest in venturing into Vietnam. According to the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, in 2015, India had 95 investment projects in Vietnam with total registered investment capital of about $324 million. The number rose to by the end of 2020 for India having 294 projects with total registered capital of nearly $900 million. Recently, we have seen some moves from powerful groups. Indian conglomerate Tata Coffee inaugurated and running a freeze-dried coffee production plant in the southern province of Binh Duong in Vietnam. This $50 million coffee facility was commissioned within around 19 months of the groundbreaking ceremony. Another example is HCL Technologies, which is considering establishing a $650 million technology centre in Vietnam and plans to recruit and train over 10,000 engineers within the next five years. Additionally in December after a virtual high-level meeting between the prime ministers of the two countries, Vietnam-India joint Declaration about Peace, Prosperity, and People was released to orient the development of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of Vietnam and India. Sunny FDI outlook amid supply strains, illustration photo In late April, Nguyen Thanh Truc, Deputy Chairman of Binh Duong Peoples Committee, met with Finnish Ambassador to Vietnam Kari Kahiluoto and a delegation of enterprises from Finland seeking business and investment opportunities in environmental hygiene, water, waste treatment, education, technology, construction, and architecture. Kahiluoto said he and the embassy will strengthen ties between Finnish businesses and Binh Duong, while organising seminars on sharing experience in smart city creation. Finnish businesses move is in line with the countrys acceleration in sustainable development and digital transformation. And also importantly, they are gearing to benefit from the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. Finnish businesses are among those from the EU eyeing more opportunities in Southeast Asia and Vietnam in particular, showing their strong confidence in improvement of the local business climate, despite serious regional developments of the pandemic in Cambodia, Thailand, and the increasing humanitarian disaster unfolding in India. New data from the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham) shows that European business leaders started 2021 positive and optimistic about Vietnams trade and investment environment. As shown in EuroChams Business Climate Index, the index hit 73.9 points in the first quarter of 2021 the highest score recorded since the third quarter of 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit global trade and investment. This continues a positive upward trend in the index, with the score rising more than 47 points over the last 12 months. Elsewhere, new movements from South Korea, Singapore, and Japan have been made. Business and investment activities in Vietnam are still stable and continue thanks to good control of the pandemic by the local government, Hong Sun, vice chairman of the Korea Chamber of Business in Vietnam, told VIR. Many South Korean companies are facing difficulties in countries afflicted by COVID-19, including in India and other nations. Many are seeking to shift investments to ease risks, and Vietnam is a target. Jeffrey Wandly, vice president of the Singapore Business Association Vietnam added, At this moment, it is too early to predict what impact COVID-19 may have on investments in Vietnam as the situation is constantly developing. However, I am cautiously optimistic that the impact of the pandemic on Singaporean business and investment activities in Vietnam would be minimal. While there may be a dip in inflows in the immediate aftermath of COVID-19, Wandly noted, Vietnam still remains a key economy for Singaporean business and investment activities due to its long-term economic prospects for businesses and investors, especially with COVID-19 kept under control in Vietnam. Meanwhile, business and investment activities in Vietnam among companies from the likes of India, Cambodia, Thailand and EU nations remain stable. Despite a general improvement in investment activities in Vietnam, money coming in from these regions remains modest, thus not much affecting the countrys overall foreign direct investment (FDI) picture. The Indian Business Chamber in Vietnam expected the two governments recent efforts to promote mutual trade and investment ties will strengthen bilateral cooperation in the fields of energy, science and technology, AI, 5G network, and startup links. The confidence is reflected in the latest statistics from Vietnams Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI). In the first four months of 2021, Vietnam attracted $12.25 billion worth of total newly-registered, added FDI and stake acquisitions, equal to 99.3 per cent on-year, while FDI disbursement rose 6.8 per cent on-year to $5.5 billion. And in the first quarter, the countrys total FDI even reached $10.13 billion, up 18.5 per cent on-year. The MPIs Foreign Investment Agency said that foreign-invested enterprises are continuing their recovery, and maintaining their business operations in Vietnam. Investment from the countrys biggest FDI contributors Singapore, South Korea, and Japan keeps flowing. Singapore remains Vietnams biggest foreign investor, accounting for 39.6 per cent of the countrys total FDI. Japan ranks second, making up 20.5 per cent, and South Korea is third at 12.1 per cent. Nguyen Mai, senior economist and chairman of the Vietnam Association of Foreign-Invested Enterprises said, This is a positive result and better performance than previous months of 2020, demonstrating strong business confidence. This confidence is helping to ease concerns over the breakup of global chains and its impacts on Vietnam. With India considered a fairly new power in the global supply chain, unprecedented collapse in the demand due to the pandemic sits alongside widespread supply chain disruptions due to the unavailability of raw materials. Industry insiders said that as international businesses experienced the interruption of global supply chains last year when the pandemic emerged, they have made future scenarios for possible breaks again therefore, negative impacts may be dampened compared to 2020. Sun from KorCham admitted, South Korean businesses in Vietnam do not rely on supply chains from India and Thailand, but from South Korea, Japan, and China. Moreover, the global market is recovering fast thanks to COVID-19 vaccination programmes. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 18:33:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close A health worker prepares a dose of China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination site at the Diamond Island in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on May 12, 2021. To date, more than 1.82 million out of the country's 16 million population had been vaccinated against the virus, a government report said. (Photo by Phearum/Xinhua) It has been about a year since the dominant computer chip company Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd (TSMC) has announced plans to open a factory in Arizona. Recently, however, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu and TSMC founder Morris Chang have spoken out about their misgivings about opening factories in the U.S. In an effort to boost U.S. standing in the midst of a worldwide computer chip shortage, President Joe Biden set aside $50 billion in his infrastructure proposal to support the American semiconductor industry. The proposal has gained lots of support from those hoping to not fall behind in a computer chip competition that Asian countries have an edge on. But according to Wall Street Journal, some conservatives feel that the semiconductor industry should not be federally subsidized. Cesar Ybarra, Senior Director of Legislative Affairs of FreedomWorks, said U.S. leadership in semiconductors is a laudable goal that should be funded by private enterprise and not the American taxpayer. The Wall Street Journal also noted that the U.S. has gone from producing 37% of semiconductors in 1990, to now only make 12 percent. The reason chip making companies have gone outside the U.S. to build plants is because of a growing network of suppliers overseas and an expanded workforce of skilled engineers needed to operate expensive manufacturing machinery. TSMC is the largest chipmaker in the world and unveiled plans to build a $12 billion factory in Arizona back in May 2020. According to an article on the Fierce Electronics website, in a recent interview on CBSs 60 Minutes, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu believed that U.S. companies and the government should not be focusing on moving chip manufacturers to the U.S.it would be more effective to focus on paying attention to research and development and global collaboration. When asked: Should Americans be concerned that most chips are being manufactured in Asia today? Liu responded: I understand their concern first of all. But this is not about Asia or not Asia. I mean, the [recent chip] shortage will happen no matter where the production is located because its due to the Covid. I think the U.S. ought to pursue to run faster, to invest in R&D, to produce more Ph.D., master, bachelor students to get into this manufacturing field instead of trying to move the supply chain which is very costly and really non-productive. That will slow down innovation because [of] people trying to hold on their technology to their own and forsake the global collaboration, Liu said. Hard to find competent workers TSMC founder Morris Chang also spoke publicly about the downsides to U.S. manufacturing at a forum hosted by Taiwanese media outlets, which was reported on by Asian Times. The United States stood out for cheap land and electricity when TSMC looked for an overseas site but we had to try hard to scout out competent technicians and workers in Arizona because manufacturing jobs have not been popular among American people for decades, Chang said. Chang praised the workhorse mentality and deep pool of high-caliber, industrious talent in Taiwans computer chip production sector. He said that even with government investments and subsidies from other countries, production and manufacturing costs would be higher anywhere outside of Taiwan. In particular, the Chinese Communist Party spent billions in subsidies, which has not got them very far in the current race between the two leaders Taiwan and South Korea whose manufacturing capabilities are still five years ahead of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) and its mainland Chinese peers. It was a breeze for us to rotate technicians and staff among the three fabs across the island and when employees change over from one location to another, they even do not need to move their homes thanks to Taiwans bullet trains and highways and well-rounded transport and logistical support, said Chang. Its unlikely we can replicate all these in Arizona. Beijing has renewed their interest in the small island nation of Kiribati (pronounced Kiribas) contemplating an infrastructure project there which would upgrade an existing airstrip on the strategically located island, reports Reuters. The plans target the Kiribati island of Kanton (also spelled Canton) a small atoll located approximately halfway between China and the Hawaiian islands. Despite Kiribatis small size, it commands one of the largest exclusive economic zones on the planet, with an area of more than 1.4 million square miles. Having gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1979, Kiribati, with a population of approximately 120,000 citizens, is located deep in the South Pacific. It is also the only country in the world to be situated in all four hemispheres. Kiribati fell out of favor with the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) in 2003 when its president at the time recognized the Republic of China (ROC) based on Taiwan. However, cooperation between mainland China and Kiribati restarted in late 2019, under President Taneti Maamau. who ran on a pro-Beijing platform and narrowly won office in the islands most recent election. Kiribati has dropped formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, recognizing the PRC instead. Kiribatis strategic potential The island has been described as a fixed aircraft carrier and would be an ideal location from which to conduct surveillance missions utilizing long-endurance unmanned aircraft. Its location in the South Pacific allows for relatively easy access to numerous locations including Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, and Hawaii. The area is optimal for persistent intelligence-gathering and control of the South Pacific. It would be of significant interest to Communist Chinas military, the Peoples Liberation Army. The island is situated in a similar manner as Chinas man-made outposts in the South China Sea that have garnered significant attention by the U.S. and its allies and threaten to destabilize the region. The U.S. Army Air Force occupied the small island chain during World War II utilizing the area as a ferry route between Hawaii and the South Pacific. Later the U.S. used the islands for space and missile tracking operations up until the 1960s. The site currently has a functioning airstrip measuring 6,230 feet in length with an unimproved length of approximately 8,000 feet. The project, should it go forward, could provide Beijing with the capability to conduct any manner of military activities in the area from bombing runs to full fighter deployments. The next Belt and Road project? It remains unclear whether this project is one of the next in a series of projects under Chinas controversial Belt and Road Initiative. Kiribati opposition party member Tessie Lambourne expressed concern about the intentions of the project and wanted to know whether Beijings interest in her island nation was part of the Belt and Road Initiative. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched by the Chinese government in 2013, is a global infrastructure improvement effort sold as being mutually beneficial to both China and participating nations. In reality, many suspect the initiative amounts to what is referred to as debt-trap diplomacy. Essentially, Beijing loans funds and provides labor to developing nations for infrastructure projects such as airports, roads, railways and dams and, when the debt is unable to be paid back, China leverages that influence for monetary and geo-political gains. The initiative has come under intense scrutiny with the Australian Federal government recently cancelling agreements with Beijing calling the agreements inconsistent with Australian foreign policy. In addition to this, the initiative has been accused of human trafficking in order to supply labor for the projects. Many Chinese, looking for job opportunities overseas, with the promise of good pay find themselves working in what amounts to slave labor in countries alien to them. When mentioning the tropical island Fiji, one does not usually think of double canoes, or waqa drua in Fijian. Instead, one might picture indigenous people in grass skirts adorned with conch shell trumpets. Or, soft white sandalwood beaches under swaying palm trees surrounded by a shimmering aquamarine ocean, not to mention the extraordinary array of underwater marine life and coral reefs. This is the beautiful tropical paradise island of Fiji which lies in the heart of the South Pacific, encircled by 300 islands, approximately 1,000 miles north of the New Zealand coast. As seafaring peoples, traditional canoe voyaging was a part of life in most island groups of the tropical Pacific in earlier times. Before Fiji was Christianized in the 19th century, Fijians believed in many gods. Among the ancestor gods was Rokolat, the patron of carpenters and canoe-builders. He was also the son of Degei, the most important god of Fiji. It has been over 5,000 years since canoe traders settled on the island. Canoes were the source of the communitys livelihood then. They were used for everything from trade and travel to war to fighting against other tribes. Black and white vintage print, depicting a Fijian double canoe or catamaran, with a lateen rigged sail, hatches for entry into each canoe hull, and several men on deck, published in John George Woods volume The uncivilized races of men in all countries of the world, being a comprehensive account of their manners and customs, and of their physical, social, mental, moral and religious characteristics, 1877. Courtesy Internet Archive. (Image: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images) Sacred ships According to Canoes of Oceania Volume I: The Canoes of Polynesia, Fiji, and Micronesia, The double canoe (wangga ndrua, spelt waqa drua in Fijian) was the largest and finest sea-going vessel ever designed and built by natives of Oceania before contact with Europeans. They were plank-built ships and were ingeniously constructed without metals measuring 30 meters (98 ft) in length and 5 feet deep. The double drua could carry 200 men and easily reached around fifteen knots of sailing in good wind. Massive triangular sails of pandanus matting powered drua. The bow (front) could be either end, so to change direction, the rig was moved to the opposite end of the boat. In a double canoe, the beam would be 6 to 8 feet, and a person could comfortably walk in the hold without touching the deck. It is said that A pig could be roasted whole in the open cooking place, and the food and water were easily stowed away for long voyage, and on one occasion a drua carried 12 head of cattle in her holds from Natewa Bay in Vanua Levu to Levuka, a trip of 120 miles, and another carried on deck from Tailevu to Suva a cargo of bagged maize sufficient to load the Alarm ketch of 30 tons, and the Xerifa at 20 tons burden. The steering paddles were also massive. One of the largest measured at 33 feet long with a blade 14 feet to the shoulder and 21 inches wide, The big canoes would carry one at each end because they were too heavy to transport to the other side while shunting. The drua as a cultural icon Drua boat racing, Fiji, circa 1920. (Image: Scan by NYPL/PD-Scan) The building of drua is an almost forgotten art form nowadays and the origins of Fijian boatbuilding is still a huge matter of contention amongst the natives of the islands. Called Kalia in Tonga and Alia in Samoa, the double-hulled canoe was made from vesi loa (Intsia bijuga), which is a hardwood found on the limestone islands in the Southern Lau group of Fiji. This wood is often compared to titanium in terms of hardness. Hulls were constructed from numerous planks sewn together with magi magi, a coconut husk fiber cordage. Only two original small drua artifacts appear to have survived. One, named Sema Makawa, is in the New Zealand Maritime Museum. The second one is Ratu Finau, at the Fiji Museum in Suva. Today, a few communities have carried the boatbuilding tradition forth in the form of smaller versions of these canoes, known as camakau, mainly used for fishing. Recently, the Drua Experience has been introduced to the public. Organized by Moala Takouta, Kaiafa Ledua, and Setareki Ledua of the Lau Islands, the Drua Experience has built a miniature, seaworthy replica of the Ratu Finau Mara canoe. The canoe conducts instructional charters from the Suva Harbor in Fijis capital city, Suva. Regardless of its origin, the Fijian drua were by far the finest sea-going vessels of their time constructed in a collaborated effort by the natives of Oceania. According to sagepub, the nature of the drua culture requires a deeper assessment of Fijian voyaging skills and history than what exists in the literature currently available. The U.N. human rights office is calling for more international pressure against Myanmars military junta, which it says has continued a brutal crackdown on opponents despite a recent agreement to halt violence and begin dialogue. Credible sources report at least 782 people have been killed since Myanmars military authorities seized control of the country on February 1 and ousted its democratically elected leaders. The U.N. Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights says the military shows no sign of easing its crackdown on opponents, who remain defiant and continue to protest against the coup leaders. The High Commissioners spokesman, Rupert Colville, said besides killing protesters, military authorities continue to commit other gross violations of human rights against Myanmars people. There are daily raids on private homes and offices, and more than 3,740 people are currently in detention. We are deeply alarmed that the whereabouts and fate of hundreds of these individuals are unknown. These are situations that may amount to enforced disappearances, he said. Over the past month, Colville said the military has issued more than 1,500 arrest warrants targeting civil society activists, trade unionists, journalists, and academics, and public personalities. He said military authorities increasingly are taking family members of wanted people into custody to force them to turn themselves in to the police. Tw // violence More than 30 Schoolteachers, Students and general public were abducted by Terrorists during a violent crackdown on a coalition strike on 118th St., (72x73 St.), Mandalay, today morning. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #May12Coup pic.twitter.com/O2bZIUC5xA Kim Hsu#Save Myanmar (@HsuMyatAung17) May 12, 2021 He said the international community must put greater pressure on Myanmars generals to abide by a five-point plan they agreed to at a meeting of the regional bloc ASEAN on April 24. The plan includes a call for an immediate cessation of violence and for a constructive dialogue among all parties to look for a peaceful solution. Colville said the military leadership is taking no steps to make this happen. As a result, we are seeing a continuation of the violence, a continuation of arbitrary detention and arrests, continuation of--people starting to flee the country. And, as you say the economy and the whole structure of society being really badly damaged. When you lose your teachers, your university professors, your civil servants, your journalists, you start to have a really crumbling social structures, he said. The U.N. human rights office is calling on ASEAN to react quickly and to intensify efforts to make the military keep its commitments. It adds the 10 Southeast Asian countries that form this bloc should hold Myanmars leaders accountable for failing to do so. The military has justified its takeover of the country by claiming, without evidence, that the 2020 general election won by the ruling National League for Democracy was riddled with fraud. A Zimbabwean chief has summoned former First Lady, Grace Mugabe, to appear before a village court to face charges of inappropriately burying the countrys late former president, Robert Mugabe, at the familys homestead. Chief Zvimba wants Mrs. Mugabe to exhume her late husbands body and rebury it at a gravesite where his mother, Bona, was laid to rest. In a letter dated April 29, 2021, and signed by the traditional leader, Chief Zvimba ordered Mrs. Mugabe to attend the village court next week on Thursday at Gonzo Guzha Hall in Murombedzi Growth Point at 9:30am. The letter reads in part, You are facing charges of burying the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe at his homestead. This is unheard of in Chief Zvimbas area. At the same, time you are accused of abandoning Robert Gabriel Mugabes property which is scattered nationwide. All properties of the late Robert Gabriel Mugabe are supposed to be kept at his homestead and handled in line with our traditions. I want you to rebury the late president in accordance with our traditions and in Zvimba at a place designated by the family and his late mother. These charges you are facing attract a fine of five cattle and a goat. Chief Zvimba further said Mrs. Mugabe is allowed to bring witnesses. We will proceed with the case and make an appropriate ruling if you dont attend the village court without seeking permission. Mrs. Mugabe was asked to fix a date with appropriate authorities if she wont attend the village court on next week. The former first lady and his nephew, Leo Mugabe, were unreachable on their mobile phones. Leo Mugabe was quoted by an online publication recently as saying he was not aware of any moves by Chief Zvimba to summon him to the village court to face charges of breaking traditional rules and regulations of burying people in his area. Mugabe, who was toppled in a defacto military coup in 2017, died of cancer in Singapore. The family is believed to have multiple farms, several companies, including a dairy farm. According to independent economists, the Mugabe family has businesses worth more than US$10 million. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has extended the term of office of Chief Justice Luke Malaba saying the 70-year-old is physically and mentally capable of remaining in office for the next five years. In a letter written to the countrys top legal officer, chief Cabinet secretary, Misheck Sibanda, said Mnangagwa decided to extend Malabas term of office in terms of Zimbabwean laws. His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, has considered your election to continue in the office of Chief Justice beyond the age of seventy years for an additional period of five (5) years. He has further considered and accepted the medical report which you submitted as proof of your mental and physical fitness to continue in that office. Sibanda said the appointment was done in consultation with the Judicial Service Commission and in accordance with section 186(1) of the Zimbabwe Constitution. Parliament recently passed the Zimbabwe Constitution Amendment Bill (Number 2), which the president signed into law a few days ago. Critics of the government say Mnangagwas move will cripple the judiciary arm of the state. A Memorial Celebration of Life will be held for Judy Thornbloom of Osakis who passed away at the age of 59 in April of 2020. It will be held on Friday, June 11, 2021 from 1 - 5 pm at the Osakis VFW Post #7902 in Osakis. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:22:59|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Wang Qiujiao (R) measures head circumference for a baby while paying a home visit in Zhumei Village, Hezhou City of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, May 11, 2021. Wang Qiujiao, 74 years old and a member of the Communist Party of China, has been a village doctor in Zhumei Village for 48 years. Zhumei Village, located in remote mountainous area, was formerly isolated from the outside world due to the poor transportation. Doctors in the village then were scarce and people had to walk to the adjacent city to see a doctor. Most villagers chose not to see a doctor until their desease became severe. Knowing well the predicament of local villagers, Wang returned to her hometown as a village doctor after graduation in 1973. She often walked to see the patients while carrying her medical box, sometimes taking more than one hour on the way. In 2015, she became a signed family doctor for local villagers. Besides regular work, she does physical examination regularly for the elderly and sets up health data for villagers. Nowadays, her son works as a village doctor too, willing to safeguard the health of local villagers together with his mother. (Xinhua/Cao Yiming) Moderate mag. 5.4 earthquake - 14 km east of Ica, Peru, on 12 May 10:56 am (GMT -5) - Moderate magnitude 5.4 earthquake at 49 km depth 12 May 16:00 UTC: First to report: VolcanoDiscovery after 3 minutes. 12 May 16:11: Now using data updates from GFZ 12 May 17:01: Magnitude recalculated from 5.5 to 5.4. 12 May 17:01: Hypocenter depth recalculated from 10.0 to 49.0 km (from 6.2 to 30 mi). Epicenter location corrected by 7.9 km (4.9 mi) towards NE. Update Wed, 12 May 2021, 16:09 5.5 quake 10.1 km southeast of Ica, Peru, 12 May 10:56 am (GMT -5) According to preliminary data, the quake was located at a shallow depth of 10 km. Shallow earthquakes are felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report. Our monitoring service identified a second report from France's Reseau National de Surveillance Sismique (ReNaSS) which listed the quake at magnitude 5.0. A third agency, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), reported the same quake at magnitude 5.5. Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should have been widely felt by almost everyone in the area of the epicenter. It might have caused light to moderate damage. Moderate shaking probably occurred in Atalaya (pop. 22) located 2 km from the epicenter, Los Aquijes (pop. 7,800) 5 km away, Santiago (pop. 10,400) 8 km away, Ica (pop. 246,800) 10 km away, San Juan Bautista (pop. 6,900) 16 km away, and Subtanjalla (pop. 9,100) 16 km away. In San Clemente (pop. 15,800) located 74 km from the epicenter, and Pisco (pop. 61,900) 75 km away, the quake should have been felt as light shaking. Weak shaking might have been felt in Chincha Alta (pop. 153,100) located 95 km from the epicenter. VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you're in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either An earthquake of magnitude 5.5 occurred in the morning on Wednesday 12 May 2021 at 10:56 am local time near Ica, Provincia de Ica, Peru, as reported by the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ).According to preliminary data, the quake was located at a shallow depth of 10 km. Shallow earthquakes are felt more strongly than deeper ones as they are closer to the surface. The exact magnitude, epicenter, and depth of the quake might be revised within the next few hours or minutes as seismologists review data and refine their calculations, or as other agencies issue their report.Our monitoring service identified a second report from France's Reseau National de Surveillance Sismique (ReNaSS) which listed the quake at magnitude 5.0. A third agency, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC), reported the same quake at magnitude 5.5.Based on the preliminary seismic data, the quake should have been widely felt by almost everyone in the area of the epicenter. It might have caused light to moderate damage.Moderate shaking probably occurred in Atalaya (pop. 22) located 2 km from the epicenter, Los Aquijes (pop. 7,800) 5 km away, Santiago (pop. 10,400) 8 km away, Ica (pop. 246,800) 10 km away, San Juan Bautista (pop. 6,900) 16 km away, and Subtanjalla (pop. 9,100) 16 km away.In San Clemente (pop. 15,800) located 74 km from the epicenter, and Pisco (pop. 61,900) 75 km away, the quake should have been felt as light shaking.Weak shaking might have been felt in Chincha Alta (pop. 153,100) located 95 km from the epicenter.VolcanoDiscovery will automatically update magnitude and depth if these change and follow up if other significant news about the quake become available. If you're in the area, please send us your experience through our reporting mechanism, either online or via our mobile app . This will help us provide more first-hand updates to anyone around the globe who wants to know more about this quake. Update Wed, 12 May 2021, 16:00 We are receiving unverified early reports of seismic activity in or around Peru at approximately 15:58 GMT. There are no details yet on the magnitude or depth of this earthquake. We expect more accurate data to emerge in the next few minutes. The location and magnitude mentioned are indicative and temporary until the AllQuakes monitoring service receives more exact scientific data from a national or international seismological agency. Check back here shortly and stay safe. Download the Volcanoes & Earthquakes app to get one of the fastest seismic alerts online: Android | IOS to get one of the fastest seismic alerts online: Earthquake data: [ show map ] Show interactive Map [ smaller ] [ bigger ] please share your experience and submit a short "I felt it" report! Other users would love to hear about it! Also if you did NOT feel the quake although you were in the area, please report it ! Your contribution is valuable also to earthquake science and earthquake hazard analysis and mitigation efforts. You can use your device location or the map to indicate where you were during the earthquake. Thank you! If you felt this quake (or if you were near the epicenter),Other users would love to hear about it!Alsoalthough you were in the area, please! Your contribution is valuable also to earthquake science and earthquake hazard analysis and mitigation efforts. You can use your device location or the map to indicate where you were during the earthquake. Thank you! Data for the same earthquake reported by different agencies Info: The more agencies report about the same quake and post similar data, the more confidence you can have in the data. It takes normally up to a few hours until earthquake parameters are calculated with near-optimum precision. Magnitude Depth Location Source 5.4 49 km Near Coast of Peru GFZ unspecified n/a Peru VolcanoDiscovery 5.6 49 km NEAR COAST OF CENTRAL PERU EMSC 5.1 10 km Near Ica, Peru RENASS 5.5 39 km 10 Km E of Pampa De Tate, Peru USGS 5.3 56 km Near Coast of Peru GeoAu User reports for this quake (91) User reports estimate the perceived ground shaking intensity according to the MMI (Modified Mercalli Intensity) scale Contribute: Leave a comment if you find a particular report interesting or want to add to it. Flag as inappropriate. Mark as helpful or interesting. Send your own user report! Lima / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 minutes : Very long, started softly and increased movement with time | 2 users found this interesting. MALA / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s : TRANQULILIDAD | One user found this interesting. Lima Villa Maria del triunfo (258.8 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s : Senti que se movia el piso en forma horizontal y que sonaban las ventanas 15.4 km W of epicenter [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / vibration and rolling / 30-60 s : lo que senti es que se movia todo 15.4 km W of epicenter [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / vibration and rolling / 30-60 s : lo que senti es que se movia todo Comas, lima (285 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 20-30 s villa el salvador, peru (254.8 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 30-60 s 282.2 km NW of epicenter [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s 268.3 km NNW of epicenter [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 30-60 s (reported through our app / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 30-60 s Lima (266.2 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 15-20 s Lima (276.3 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single vertical bump / 2-5 s : . Miraflores / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : Light swaying Lima, Peru / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 15-20 s LIMA / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s peru, ica / Strong shaking (MMI VI) / single lateral shake / 10-15 s : rico e intenso lima peru / Light shaking (MMI IV) Carabayllo, Lima, Peru (290 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 20-30 s : Se escucho ruido y se sintio el movimiento leve pero duro mas de 20 segundos, y despues se sintio un golpe fuerte donde senti que la casa se movio de un lado a otro y ahi paro el movimiento los aquijes / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 20-30 s : fue muy feo estaba en el 2do piso de mi casa con mis hijos y sacudio la casa fuertemente Lima / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 10-15 s : Senti una sacudida en mi cama Lima / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : felt like a large truck went by Ica, Ica, Peru / Strong shaking (MMI VI) / 10-15 s Lima / Weak shaking (MMI III) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s PISCO (507.2 km ESE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / single lateral shake / 30-60 s : IT WAS REALLY HARD Tinguina / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / 2-5 s Lima / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s Los olivos / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Lima / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s pucusana (219.5 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) : scared! Casa (288.9 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s : Lo tome normal sali al patio hasta que pasara, no me asuste lo pase muy tranquila. Ayacucho / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 1-2 minutes Peru, Ica, Chincha alta (452.7 km N of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 30-60 s 258 km NW of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s Ica / Moderate shaking (MMI V) Lima (273.5 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / very short LIMA / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 2-5 s : . Jiron Moore / Light shaking (MMI IV) / complex motion difficult to describe / 10-15 s Lima, san martin de Porres. / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 5-10 s Lima. San Juan de Lurigancho. / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 15-20 s Ica (149.8 km SE of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single vertical bump / 10-15 s 505.6 km ESE of epicenter [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 1-2 s (reported through our app / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / simple rolling (tilting sideways along one direction) / 1-2 s Lima, Pro Los Olivos / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s : simplemente, senti un poco de miedo nada mas Lima / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 10-15 s Lima, San Juan de Lurigancho / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : senti mucho panico por el tiempo de duracion... Parcona -ica / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / vibration and rolling / 1-2 minutes Barranco Lima Peru / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s Lima (268.4 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 5-10 s Chorrillos (273.8 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt : No senti nada porque estoy en constante movimiento Chincha Alta / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / complex motion difficult to describe / 30-60 s Andahuaylas apurimac / Weak shaking (MMI III) : Un pequeno movimiento Cajamarca (834.2 km NNW of epicenter) [ Map ] / not felt (reported through our app / not felt San Juan de Miraflores / Lima / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 20-30 s Chincha Alta / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : Nada Lima (268.8 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 10-15 s : Temblor constante de alrededor de 20 segundos 260.8 km NW of epicenter [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 5-10 s (reported through our app / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 5-10 s Ica (13 km W of epicenter) [ Map ] / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / vertical swinging (up and down) / 30-60 s San Miguel lima / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / very short Ica / Strong shaking (MMI VI) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / very short : Very calm is usual in the ica city Lima / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 1-2 minutes : Fue fuerte y duro como un minuto Lima (300.5 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / vibration and rolling / 1-2 minutes : Primero fue un movimiento pequeno, luego ya se fue intensificando mas como si un camion estuviera pasando, duro de 1 a 2 minutos solo vibraciones de las ventas, piso y escritorio. No todos lo sintieron solo yo que estoy sentada estudiando. Ica / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / both vertical and horizontal swinging / 10-15 s LIMA CERRO HUACHIPA / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 5-10 s : ME ASUSTE YA QUE FUE IMPLEVISTO Lima / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Lima, Peru / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 20-30 s san antonio / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 2-5 s Santa Maria Beach, Lima, Peru / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s San martin de porres (283.8 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 5-10 s 139.7 km NW of epicenter [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 10-15 s : Angustia Chorrillos Lima (260.3 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 30-60 s Temblor ligero pero con mucho tiempo (reported through (reported through our app / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 30-60 s LIMA / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 20-30 s lima / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 1-2 s : miedo y guite aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Villa El salvador / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating : La verdad se sintio muy debil ICA / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 15-20 s : Muy fuerte San Juan de lurigancho / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 2-5 s Magdalena del mar / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Rimac, Lima (276.5 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s Pisco / Light shaking (MMI IV) / vibration and rolling / 30-60 s LIMA PERU / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / vibration and rolling / 5-10 s lima / Weak shaking (MMI III) / single lateral shake / 20-30 s Lima / Light shaking (MMI IV) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 1-2 minutes LIMA / Light shaking (MMI IV) / single lateral shake / 2-5 s lima peru / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s San borja, lima / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 2-5 s Ica / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 30-60 s Ica / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / horizontal (sideways) swinging / 5-10 s Peru / Weak shaking (MMI III) / 1-2 s : Movimiento Lima / Light shaking (MMI IV) / rattling, vibrating / 20-30 s Callao (283.3 km NW of epicenter) [ Map ] / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / 20-30 s Lima / Very weak shaking (MMI II) / vibration and rolling / 30-60 s : Temblor Ica / Light shaking (MMI IV) / 15-20 s : Walls moving Lima / Weak shaking (MMI III) / rattling, vibrating / 5-10 s : Little shaky Lima / Moderate shaking (MMI V) / single lateral shake / 1-2 minutes Aftershocks More info 2 (=10 sqare miles) as a first-order estimate. The length of the rupture zone thus was probably around 9 km (5 mi). Aftershocks typically occur during the days and weeks following the quake at or near the same fault, at distances of up to approx. two times the length of the rupture zone. The often broadly linear arrangement of aftershock epicenters encompasses the rupture zone of the main shock (check on the Based on its magnitude, the fault that was active during the quake ruptured along a surface of approx. 25 km(=10 sqare miles) as a first-order estimate. The length of the rupture zone thus was probably around 9 km (5 mi).Aftershocks typically occur during the days and weeks following the quake at or near the same fault, at distances of up to approx. two times the length of the rupture zone.The often broadly linear arrangement of aftershock epicenters encompasses the rupture zone of the main shock (check on the map below to verify). 13 May 2021 17:03 UTC | M 4.3 | 56 km (34.8 mi) depth | 20 km (12 mi) distance | EMSC | Details Earlier earthquakes in the same area This can take up to 20-30 seconds. Please wait while we search through millions of records.This can take up to 20-30 seconds. Click here to search our database for earlier earthquakes in the same area since 1900! Laverne Cox Photo: Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for ESSENCE The May 13 Italian-language premiere of Emerald Fennells Oscar-nominated Promising Young Woman has been delayed after a clip in which Laverne Coxs character, Gail, is dubbed by a male actor, Roberto Pedicini, was released on May 6. Italian viewers expressed their outrage with the casting decision on social media. I think this dubbing choice was a straight-up act of violence, Italian actress and voice actress Vittoria Schisano, a trans woman who had previously dubbed Cox in the documentary Amend: The Fight for America, told the Guardian. Its insulting. Id feel bullied if I were [Cox], she added. The Italian versions of Coxs projects have been doing this for years. Her roles on Orange Is the New Black, The Mindy Project, and Doubt are all dubbed by the same man, Andrea Lavagnino. A cis man also voices her Promising Young Woman character in Germany and Spain, where the movie is already out. Universal Pictures International, which handles distribution of the movie in Europe, gave a statement to the Guardian. We are deeply grateful to Laverne and the transgender community for opening our eyes to a bias that neither we nor many in our industry had recognised, it reads. While there was no malicious intent behind this mistake, we are working diligently to fix it. We have begun redubbing Ms. Coxs voice with female actors in our international territories and are pushing back release dates to ensure the correct version is available. We are sorry for the pain caused but are thankful that we can address the situation on this film and prevent similar mistakes from happening again on future projects, it adds. Weve never had Black voice actors not because we didnt want them but because there arent any who have specialized in voice acting, Daniele Giuliani, president of Italys national association of voice actors, said to the Guardian. On that note, never miss an opportunity to watch and rewatch Disclosure. Wednesday's ouster of Rep. Liz Cheney from the House Republican leadership is more important as a symbolic move for Republicans as they embrace Trumpism than it is for the specific action of replacing a third-ranking lawmaker in the party's congressional leadership structure. One thing that places this in historical context is, simply, that there has been a Cheney -- Liz or her dad Dick -- at or near the top of Republican leadership since the 1970s. No more. Dick Cheney started working in Richard Nixon's White House as an intern and was appointed White House chief of staff under Gerald Ford. He rose in Congress to be GOP conference chair -- the same job his daughter just lost -- and minority whip during the Ronald Reagan administration and then was Secretary of Defense during the George H.W. Bush administration. Out of government during Bill Clinton's eight years, Dick Cheney was then vice president for eight years under President George W. Bush, when Liz began working in the State Department. She became a member of the GOP leadership one year after being elected to Congress, in 2016, at the end of the Obama administration. The election of Donald Trump was itself a refutation of previous Republican administrations, but the excision of Cheney is a sign that the party has moved on from the beacon-of-freedom ideals that dominated the party for decades, arguably dating back to Dwight Eisenhower. Certainly from Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush, the GOP pushed democracy as gospel with words, even as it fell far short in deeds. Cheney referenced that lineage when she spoke, defiantly, on the House floor Tuesday night. "As the party of Reagan, Republicans championed democracy, won the Cold War, and defeated the Soviet Communists. As we speak, America is on the cusp of another Cold War -- this time with communist China. Attacks against our democratic process and the rule of law empower our adversaries and feed Communist propaganda that American democracy is a failure. We must speak the truth. Our election was not stolen, and America has not failed." Her stern warning to Republicans is worth reading in full. (House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's explanation for supporting her ouster is also important, as the counterpoint.) If Cheney was heir to that era of the GOP, it feels over as a main strain of Republicanism now that she's been purged from the top of the party for refusing to push the fake reality that Trump won the election. It's hard to be, as Reagan put it in his inaugural address, "a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom," if your party is devoted to rejecting the results of a free and fair election. It's completely impossible to be that beacon when Republicans in Arizona have squirreled some of the state's 2020 ballots behind closed doors, hunting for fraud that does not exist and creating a circus of democracy. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 18:45:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close The Lao people have expressed their heartfelt thanks to a Chinese medical team as the Chinese experts have been working closely with their Lao counterparts to assist in the country's fight against COVID-19. Produced by Xinhua Global Service The images that Dante created in his poem have inspired artists and scholars for centuries. It is hard to imagine that a country as rich in history and culture as Italy could trace a great deal of its heritage back to one single person. However, that is exactly the case with Dante Alighieri. Regarded as The Supreme Poet, Dante's Divine Comedy is considered Italy's most important literary work. Dante's depiction of the afterlife through the Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise is one of the most influential pieces of literature in history. It became the centerpiece for what is now the modern Italian language and changed the way that religion and the afterlife were thought of. Though all three books of Dantes epic are influential, Inferno is regarded as the most important in terms of its influence on religion and art. Never before had someone painted such a clear picture of what hell was like. The horrible images that Dante created in his poem have inspired artists and scholars for centuries. Here are some of the great artists who have been inspired by Dantes work and have shown his influence through what they create. Artists Inspired by Dantes Divine Comedy Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) By the late 1400s, the popularity of The Divine Comedy was growing. In 1481, the first commented edition of the poem was published in Florence. Between 1490 and 1496 Botticelli illustrated The Divine Comedy for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco dei Medici, who also owned the Primavera. The work Botticelli did was extraordinary, and the scale of the illustrations he produced for The Divine Comedy was unprecedented. While it was customary at the time to illustrate books, it was normally only with a few small images to give predominance to the text. However, Dante's epic was so revolutionary and had such a profound influence on Botticelli that such simple illustrations would no longer suffice. Instead, Botticelli created illustrations that were similar to paintings. They were large and complex, and he created one for each canto of the poem. Botticelli also remained extremely faithful to Dante's text which he reflected through his illustrations, which were precisely made for each scene that he deemed to be important. Along with the illustrations for each canto, Botticelli also drew a highly detailed map of the underworld as well as a frightening portrait of Satan on a double sheet. Botticellis Map of Hell is the most accurate representation of the structure of Dantes underworld ever created. It has been interpreted in many ways over the centuries, and some believe that it still houses secrets that have yet to be discovered. Botticellis drawings have since been dispersed, with some being housed in the Vatican Museum, and others in museums in Berlin. Stylistically, they are comparable to his later work as they contain archaic elements and the figures within do not contain traits of realism. In 1495, Botticelli created a portrait of Dante that is believed to have been intended to adorn the library of a scholar. His portrait of The Supreme Poet clearly shows the admiration Botticelli had for Dante. Stradanus (Giovanni Stradano) (1523-1605) Originally of Flemish origin and whose real name was Jan van der Straet, Stradanus lived in Florence and became close with the Medici family. He became a major contributor to the Studiolo of Francesco 1, a private room of Palazzo Vecchio where Francesco 1 would devote himself to his alchemical experiments and housed his collection of rare and strange items. Stradanus contributed two paintings to this private room, one of them being The Alchemists Studio. While he was among the leaders of Italian Mannerism, he did not forget his Flemish roots. It is in his series of illustrations on The Divine Comedy, produced between 1587 and 1588, where we see the presence of these two cultural components. We see the Nordic component primarily in the depictions of The Inferno that contain certain demonic figures or are set in a horrid landscape. The illustrations are preserved in the Laurentian Library in Florence. In 1587, Stradanus was commissioned to paint a series of scenes of the damned in the various circles of hell. This included a series of illustrations and maps of the underworld. In the 2013 mystery/thriller novel Inferno by American writer Dan Brown, Brown references the illustration by Stradanus of Canto 8. In this canto, the wrathful and slothful are punished. It is also the point when Dante and Virgil cross the river Styx with the help of Phlegyas, the infernal ferryman. William Blake (1757-1827) In 1825, William Blake was commissioned to create 102 drawings of Dantes Divine Comedy. However, he died two years later in 1827 and his illustrations were found in varying stages of completion. In his drawings, Blake made of point of paying close attention to the details in Dante's poem. He focused especially on how sin, guilt, punishment, revenge, and salvation were depicted. While he did try to stay true to Dante's vision of hell, he also brought his views of how the underworld looked. Blake was also known to have a critical attitude towards Dante, though he showed signs of intellectual sympathy towards him as well. Paul Gustave Dore (1832-1883) Perhaps the most important and influential of all the artists inspired by Dante is Paul Gustave Dore. Born in Strasbourg in 1832, Dore began to draw at the age of 16 and went on to work as an illustrator, first for newspapers and then for publishing houses. He was renowned for his style, which mixed elements of realism and romanticism, as well as the perfection of the figures he would draw. In 1856, Dore was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. Later in 1865, Dore published a new illustrated version of the Bible, which was a huge success. Dore had planned on devoting a series of illustrations to The Divine Comedy as early as 1855 and would go on to complete the project between 1861 and 1868. So high was Dore's admiration for Dante, that he decided to self-finance the first book Inferno. Dore was not alone in his admiration for Dante, as he was very popular in mid-nineteenth-century France. As a result, Dore's illustrated book was met with immediate success. Later, Purgatory and Paradise were published by the publishing house Hachette in 1868 in one volume. Subsequently, an edition of The Divine Comedy, complete with illustrations by Dore was translated into many languages. The illustrations of The Divine Comedy by Dore are masterpieces and they are some of the most well-known depictions of Dante's epic found today. Dore had the incredible ability to put himself in the place of Dante, so much so that one would think the two were familiar with each other. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that some kind of telepathic connection existed between Dante and Dore. While Dante invented the structure of the afterlife as it is understood today, Dore brought the structure to life with his illustrations. William Bouguereau (1825-1905) A producer of many realistic paintings on mythological and religious themes, Bouguereau's work was unfortunately never appreciated during his lifetime because he rejected the Impressionist and Avant-garde movements. He is best know for paintings such as LAmour et Psyche, but his work of Dante and Virgil in Hell is what ties him to the Divine Comedy. In Canto VII, Dante and Virgil encounter falsifiers, including alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers, and imposters. In Bouguereau's depiction of the scene, the alchemist and heretic Capocchio is attacked and bitten on the neck by Gianni Schicchi, a usurper of a dead man's identity to falsely claim his inheritance. Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) Claiming to have never gone anywhere without a copy of The Divine Comedy in his pocket, Rodin was captivated by Dante's ability to sculpt characters in poems. Born in Paris in 1840, Rodin is widely considered to be the founder of modern sculpture. He was well known for depicting the human body with a sense of naturalism and focused on individual character and physicality. In 1880 he was commissioned to produce a sculpture for Dante known as The Gates of Hell, it remains unfinished. Inspired by the famous Gates of Paradise in the Baptistry of Florence, Rodin decided to make a portal and chose to represent Dante's hell using sketches he had been working on for years. The portal depicts three shades on the top, all devoid of an arm, while Dante himself stands above the abyss. On the right is the recognizable figure of Count Ugolino. On the left, Paolo and Francesca are inserted into a roll of bodies. Everything emerges from bubbling lava and the convulsive figures of bodies display gestures of despair, pain, and punishment. Franz Von Bayros (1866-1924) Born in Austria in 1866, Von Bayros was an illustrator and author famous for his illustrations of erotic books, including The Divine Comedy. He was heavily influenced by the works of Gustav Klimt, Alphonse Mucha, and Koloman Moser. Bayros richly detailed, pre-Raphaelite style is shown in his depiction of the seventh circle of hell (violence). Salvador Dali (1904-1989) To mark the 700th anniversary of Dantes birth in 1951, Dali was commissioned to create a set of illustrations for The Divine Comedy. Dalis style differed from many others, as he used watercolors and woodcuts to depict the scenes. Created between 1950 and 1959, the works are masterpieces in their own right and are regarded as Dalis most important illustrative works. Through the depictions of Dantes epic, Dali wanted to illustrate all of the emotions and feelings that led Dante to create his afterlife. While each one of these artists' work is different from the other, it is clear to see the scale of Dante's influence on western art through the work that he inspired. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 19:30:42|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson said Wednesday that the mainland will carry on implementing a raft of favorable measures to support the development of Taiwan-funded enterprises involved in agriculture and forestry on the mainland. Zhu Fenglian, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks at a press conference. Known as "22 measures on agriculture and forestry," the steps were unveiled in March and cover a variety of aspects including the use of agricultural and forest land, financing and funding support, investment and business operation, research and development, innovation, and local market exploration. Zhu detailed the efforts made by local authorities in Sichuan, Fujian, Zhejiang, Shandong and Guizhou to carry out the measures, ranging from the construction and upgrade of agricultural zones, cooperation and exchange activities to financial assistance for Taiwan-funded enterprises on the mainland. Enditem 40 years ago today gun shots in Rome rang out around the world. Today is the 40th anniversary of the near-fatal assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II, an event that stunned the world. On the fateful day - 13 May 1981 - the Polish pontiff was passing through the thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter's Square, blessing the crowds from his open Popemobile. Suddenly four shots were fired at close range and John Paul II collapsed into the arms of his aides as the Popemobile was driven away at speed, chased by a team of security officers. The 60-year-old pontiff, who had been hit in the abdomen, left hand and right arm, was rushed to Rome's Gemelli hospital where he underwent emegency surgery. Moments before Pope John Paul II was shot in St Peter's Square. Photo Adnkronos. Panic broke out in St Peter's Square as the faithful cried and prayed that the Holy Father would survive the shooting. Two female bystanders were also injured in the attack. The assassination attempt was carried out by 23-year-old Turkish citizen, Mehmet Ali Agca, who was swiftly subdued and arrested. The afternoon's dramatic events were reported live by a Vatican Radio journalist, Benedetto Nardacci, who said: "For the first time there is talk of terrorism even in the Vatican." Italian police announced that Agca, who was on the run from Turkish authorities and Interpol, was a far-right terrorist who had been convicted of the 1979 murder of prominent left-leaning Turkish journalist Abdi Ipekci. Police seized Agca's Browning handgun and said he had travelled to Italy using a false passport. Pope John Paul II recovering in Rome's Gemelli hospital, Karol Wojtyla, elected pope in 1978, underwent critical surgery, lasting more than four hours, which doctors described later that night as "successful." No vital organ had been hit and the pontiff would later credit his survival with the Madonna of Fatima - a vision of the Virgin Mary who first appeared to Portuguese children on 13 May in 1917. Forgiveness On the Sunday morning after the shooting the pope addressed the faithful in a recorded message from his hospital bed, asking people to pray for the man who pulled the trigger, whom he referred to as "my brother" and offered his "sincere forgiveness." Within a few weeks John Paul II had recovered fully and on 27 December 1983 he went to visit his attempted assassin in Rome's Rebibbia jail. In June 2000, after serving almost 20 years of a life sentence in prison in Italy, Agca was pardoned by then Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi - at the request of JP II - before being deported to Turkey. Pope JP II meeting Mehmet Ali Agca in jail in 1983 He was released from an Ankara prison in 2010, five years after the death of Pope John Paul II who would go on to be declared a saint in 2014. Conspiracy theories To this day mystery surrounds the motives of Agca's attempt on the pope's life. Conspiracy theories abound. Some suggest the involvement of the KGB due to Wojtyla's fierce opposition to communism. Now aged 63 and living in Turkey, Agca told Italian news agency ANSA today that: "Certainly full light has not been shed on the attack on Pope John Paul II," adding that "many people's memories are fading in a world full of events." Speaking at today's general audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis recalled the 40th anniversary of the attempted assassination of his predecessor. He was certain that he owed his life to Our Lady of Fatima, Francis said, noting that that this makes us aware that our lives and the history of the world are in Gods hands. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 19:42:52|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISTANBUL, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin discussed Israeli attacks against the Palestinians during a phone conversation, Turkey's presidential office said in a statement Wednesday. Erdogan said the international community should teach Israel a "strong and deterrent" lesson to stop its "reckless attacks" on Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Palestinians. He also noted it is important for the UN Security Council to intervene in before the crisis further worsens. The council should convey "determined and clear" messages to Israel on halting its attacks, said the Turkish leader. At least 48 Palestinians, including 14 children, were killed and over 300 people were injured in the past days during clashes with Israeli security forces in East Jerusalem and other Palestinian territories. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 19:56:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MOSCOW, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan the latest violent clashes in East Jerusalem in a telephone conversation Wednesday, the Kremlin said. Both leaders expressed deep concern over the ongoing clashes in the region and the rising death toll, urging all parties to "peacefully resolve emerging issues." They reaffirmed their support for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on international law, and emphasized the role of the Middle East Quartet (consisting of Russia, the European Union, the United Nations, and the United States) in the negotiating process. Furthermore, the Turkish leader expressed his deepest condolences to the victims of a school shooting on Tuesday in the Russian city of Kazan that resulted in dozens of casualties. According to the Kremlin, Putin confirmed that Russia is ready to supply its Sputnik V vaccine against the COVID-19 pandemic to Turkey. The Russian president also congratulated Erdogan and the Turkish people on the upcoming end of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:02:14|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The mainland will take every necessary measure to severely punish stubborn secessionists who are seeking "Taiwan independence" and hold them to lifelong accountability according to law, a Chinese mainland spokesperson said Wednesday. Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, made the remarks in response to a query involving recent comments on Joseph Wu, an official with Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority. Wu's repeated provocative remarks on "Taiwan independence" gravely jeopardize the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and damage the common interests of compatriots on both sides of the Strait, Zhu said. A firm crackdown on such stubborn secessionists and their activities seeking "Taiwan independence" is imperative to safeguarding the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, Zhu said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:03:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosts the second meeting of China + Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers meeting in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, May 12, 2021. The meeting was attended by Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, and Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov. (Xinhua/Wei Xiang) XI'AN, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday pledged to jointly build a belt of mutually beneficial cooperation and development with Central Asian countries, to forge a community with a shared future for China and Central Asia. The pledge was delivered as Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted the second meeting of China + Central Asia (C+C5) foreign ministers meeting in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province. Wang said that China and the Central Asian countries have constantly injected impetus into coordinated regional development and economic recovery, making concrete contributions to regional peace and development. The collective cooperation between China and Central Asia comes at the right time, with promising prospects, Wang added. Noting that this year marks the 30th anniversary of the independence of the C5 countries, Wang said China and the Central Asian countries have carried forward friendship and explored cooperation over the past three decades. He cited the settlement of historical border issues via peaceful talks, the safeguarding of people's security and their active participation in jointly building the Belt and Road. Wang went on to propose united efforts in response to COVID-19, saying that China is ready to work with all sides to put in place a notification mechanism for major epidemics as soon as possible, give active consideration to offering a new batch of vaccine assistance, and carry out cooperation on development and the joint production of vaccines. On fostering pilot zones along the Silk Road economic belt, Wang said that China is willing to better synergize with C5 countries on markets, products, rules and funding, and improve the quality and scale of trade. He also called for jointly building a grand Eurasian passageway of interconnectivity based on open cooperation. On the subject of boosting regional security, Wang called for cooperation on preventing transnational organized crime and controlling the drugs trade, among other issues. He also urged staunch mutual support on safeguarding national sovereignty and clear opposition to foreign intervention. To ensure a stable transition of the situation in Afghanistan, Wang said that foreign troops based there should withdraw in an orderly and responsible manner. Wang also pledged China's cooperation with C5 countries on the response to climate change and biodiversity protection. Wang briefed the press about three joint statements released at the meeting. Referring to the first, he said that all sides called for deepening cooperation on their response to the pandemic, jointly opposing "vaccine nationalism" and "the gap of immunity." He said the second statement relates to deepening local cooperation and putting in place subnational cooperation mechanisms, while the third concerns working toward peaceful reconciliation in Afghanistan. The meeting was attended by Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbaev, Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin, Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, and Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov. Enditem New York: Lets see, what happens when TikTok meets Palestinian grievances about right-wing Israeli land grabs in Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem? And then you add the holiest Muslim night of prayer in Jerusalem into the mix? Then toss in the most emotional Israeli holiday in Jerusalem? And a power play by Hamas to assume leadership of the Palestinian cause? And, finally, a political vacuum in which the Palestinian Authority is incapable of holding new elections and Israel is so divided it cant stop having elections? What happens is the explosion of violence around Jerusalem on Monday that quickly spread to the Gaza front, and has people asking: Is this the big one? Is this the start of the next Palestinian uprising? Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike in Gaza on Tuesday. Credit:AP The Israeli government, the surrounding Arab nations and the Palestinian Authority all desperately want the answer to be no Israel because it would find little support from a left-leaning White House, let alone the rest of the world, for a big crackdown on Palestinians; the Arab governments because most of them want to do business with Israeli tech-makers, not get mired defending Palestinian rock-throwers; and the Palestinian leadership because it would expose just how little it controls the Palestinian street anymore. But unlike the intifadas that began in 1987 and 2000, when Israel had someone to call to try to turn it off, there is no Palestinian on the other end of the phone or, if there is, hes a 15-year-old on his smartphone, swiping inspiration from TikTok, the video app often used by young Palestinians to challenge and encourage one another to confront Israelis. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:31:03|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISTANBUL, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Turkey and China have managed to further develop and diversify their growing trade relationship despite the COVID-19 pandemic as they celebrate the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties this year. The two countries established diplomatic relations in 1971, and since then, their ties have intensified on political, cultural, and economic levels. Their trade volume is around 24 billion U.S. dollars as of 2020, and despite the pandemic, China and Turkey boosted their commercial ties and transactions significantly, according to experts. The China-Turkey trade volume increased by 44 percent in the first three months of 2021, reaching 8 billion dollars, the Turkish Statistical Institute data revealed. Observers agreed that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which was kicked off to create a global infrastructure and transportation network, made it easier to export to China by freight trains. A railroad from Istanbul covering a distance of 8,693 kilometers across Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, and Kazakhstan to reach the Chinese city of Xi'an is operational since the end of 2020. The cargo transportation time between Turkey and China decreased to 12 days from one month, a breakthrough in commercial understanding, as it slashes costs, Hasan Safak, director-general of the Istanbul-based transport firm Fevzi Gandur Logistics, told Xinhua. Safak also pointed out that freight train trade needs time to reach full commercial maturity. "I believe that over time this alternative to maritime transportation will gain momentum," he said. Safak praised the Chinese government's economic and production policies, calling them "very efficient" at a time when global trade is gaining pace as vaccination programs in major economic players are showing positive results in the fight against COVID-19. "In the coming period, China is bound to be a global production hub," he noted. In the past decade, China and Turkey have diversified their trade, as China is exporting more high technology goods while Turkey is exporting food products to China. Experts believed that the BRI project will change the economic landscape in the region and beyond. "Turkey is participating in this initiative with the Middle Corridor project. And in the past several months, we have seen a boost of trade towards and from China," Selcuk Colakoglu, an expert on China and director of the Turkish Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, told Xinhua. The professor of international relations said that trade cooperation between Ankara and Beijing is on the upward trend and that China is also addressing the problem of Turkey's deficit in the bilateral trade volume. "The trade balance is very much in favor of China, which is a problem from Turkey's point of view. However, China is actively inviting Turkish firms to participate in trade fairs and expos that it hosts to promote Turkish consumer goods to the Chinese market," he said. "This has to be hailed as it aims to narrow Turkey's trade deficit," Colakoglu added. Despite the negative impact of the pandemic on global trade, major Chinese smartphone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo have made direct investments in Turkey in the past year, launching production in Istanbul, Turkey's financial hub. Chinese Internet giant Alibaba also recently invested 350 million dollars in Turkish e-commerce firm Trendyol in a capital increase, according to media reports citing an entry in the country's trade registry. Alibaba purchased Trendyol in 2018. Trendyol, one of Turkey's best-known e-commerce platforms, has drawn backing from foreign investors and holds a leading position in the country's e-commerce market. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:38:35|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close British Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves Downing Street for the House of Commons in London, Britain, May 12, 2021. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Wednesday that an independent public inquiry into the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic will begin in spring 2022. (Photo by Ray Tang/Xinhua) LONDON, May 12 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced Wednesday that an independent public inquiry into the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic will begin in spring 2022. "Amid such tragedy the state has an obligation to examine its actions as rigorously and as candidly as possible" and "learn every lesson for the future", Johnson told lawmakers at the House of Commons, the lower house of the British Parliament. Britain was the first country in Europe to pass the grim mark of 100,000 coronavirus-related death toll. More than 127,000 people have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test since the pandemic began last year, while over 150,000 deaths have mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate, according to official figures. "This inquiry must be able to look at the events of the last year in the cold light of day and identify the key issues that will make a difference for the future. Free to scrutinize every document to hear from all the key players and analyze and learn from the breadth of our response," he said. "That's the right way, I think, to get the answers that the people of this country deserve and to ensure that our United Kingdom is better prepared for any future pandemic," he added. Johnson said his government would work closely with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in setting up the inquiry. Considering the potential threat of new COVID-19 variants and a potential winter surge, Johnson said he expected the "right moment" for the inquiry to begin is the spring of next year. Johnson also announced that a commission on COVID-19 commemoration would be set up. "This national endeavour above party politics will remember the loved ones we have lost, honour the heroism of those who have saved lives and the courage of frontline workers who have kept our country going," he said. More than 35.5 million people have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures. However, experts have warned that despite progress in vaccine rollout, Britain is "still not out of the woods" amid concerns over new variants, particularly those first emerged in South Africa, Brazil and India, and the third wave of pandemic on the European continent. To bring life back to normal, countries such as Britain, China, Russia, the United States as well as the European Union have been racing against time to roll out coronavirus vaccines. Enditem Weber State Business Professor Receives Fulbright Award to Poland May 11, 2021 The U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board announced that Randy Boyle, Weber State University professor of management information systems (MIS) and Willard Eccles Fellow, has received a Fulbright U.S. Teaching Scholar Award to Poland. Fluent in Polish, Boyle will teach at the University of Warsaw. Because the pandemic stalled last years Fulbright awards, 2021 was an exceptionally competitive year with more than 100 Fulbright Scholar applicants to the Poland program alone. Fulbright awards are highly competitive and prestigious awards approved by a presidentially appointed board, Boyle said. The Fulbright Program is the premiere international educational exchange program in the world. Fulbright Scholars are typically leaders in their fields of research. It's a tremendous honor to receive this award." Boyle holds a Ph.D. in management of information systems from Florida State University. His research interests include deception detection, data breaches, and information security. He has published in several academic journals such as Decision Support Systems, Journal of Management Information Systems, and Journal of Computer Information Systems. At Weber State, Boyle has collaborated with industry leaders to develop an innovative formula of curriculum and instruction to meet growing demand for cybersecurity and prepare students for advanced degrees. Under his leadership, the program, which is housed in the John B. Goddard School of Business & Economics, has incorporated advanced applied skills to every class. Students not only learn applications and systems, but they also practice them hundreds of times in real-life scenarios. The practice prepares them to make educated decisions under pressure and communicate complex processes with non-technical business counterparts effectively. His technique is so successful that his students have had an extraordinary track record of admittance to Carnegie Mellon Universitys (CMU) graduate program for information security and information management. CMUs program is ranked No. 1 in the nation with an average acceptance rate of less than 17 percent. This year, 100 percent of the 13 WSU student applicants were accepted to graduate school and five were accepted into the summer internship program, which prepares for the masters. This is the sixth year Weber State students have been accepted to CMUs graduate programs. All Weber State students going to CMU receive an automatic 30 percent minimum scholarship because of an academic partnership established two years ago. Boyle will take his curriculum to Poland, where he will help students prepare to qualify for the CMU program. The demand for cybersecurity professionals is extremely high, Boyle said. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that jobs in cybersecurity will grow 31 percent annually over the next decade, while average job growth will be just 4 percent. The 2020 median pay for cybersecurity professionals is $103,590. Students choosing to enter the cybersecurity field will enjoy a stable, highly-paid and exciting career. In addition to teaching, Boyle loves archeology and running. He also practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and plans to teach youth classes in Poland. His family will join him for the year-long sabbatical. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announced 2021 as the 75th Anniversary of the Fulbright Program. Fulbright, established in 1946, is the most widely recognized and prestigious international exchange program in the world. The program awards approximately 8,000 grants annually between scholars and students from the United States and other participating countries. Boyle is the 13th Fulbright Teaching Scholar from Weber State in the past 22 years. Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:44:56|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TAIPEI, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Taiwan on Wednesday reported 16 new local COVID-19 cases, the highest number of local infections reported in a single day on the island since the beginning of the pandemic, the local disease monitoring agency said. Three of the 16 new cases were linked to an established cluster involving an arcade in Yilan County, while 10 others were contacts of a man who had been diagnosed with the virus on Tuesday. The source of infection in the other three cases remains unknown, said the agency. Authorities urged the public to stay vigilant, strengthen epidemic prevention measures and get vaccinated as soon as possible. Weighed down by the sudden rise in the number of locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, shares in Taiwan closed well down on Wednesday, plunging more than 4 percent. Meanwhile, four imported cases -- three from the Philippines and one from India -- were also reported in Taiwan on Wednesday. The total number of confirmed cases on the island has risen to 1,231, including 12 deaths, the agency said. Enditem The views expressed by public comments are not those of this company or its affiliated companies. Please note by clicking on "Post" you acknowledge that you have read the TERMS OF USE and the comment you are posting is in compliance with such terms. Your comments may be used on air. Be polite. Inappropriate posts or posts containing offsite links, images, GIFs, inappropriate language, or memes may be removed by the moderator. Job listings and similar posts are likely automated SPAM messages from Facebook and are not placed by WFMZ-TV. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:51:38|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese mainland spokesperson on Wednesday condemned Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authority for intentionally distorting the 1992 Consensus and attempting to cheat and mislead Taiwan compatriots. Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told a press conference that DPP's move harbors ulterior motives. Zhu made the remarks in response to the DPP authority's recent claim that the 1992 Consensus is not in line with the public opinion in Taiwan and cannot solve the current issues across the Taiwan Strait. The 1992 Consensus has acted as the common political foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, clearly defines the nature of cross-Strait ties and is the political consensus reached by the two sides across the Strait via authorized institutions, Zhu said. Adhering to the 1992 Consensus and opposing "Taiwan independence" have constituted the political foundation for exchanges between the mainland and Taiwan including the political parties, she said. The peaceful development of cross-Strait relations from 2008 to 2016 is attributable to the essential political mutual trust that both sides gained under the basis of the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus, Zhu said. The setback and even turmoil that cross-Strait relations have encountered since 2016 have been caused by the DPP's denial of the 1992 Consensus, which unilaterally undermined the political foundation for the peaceful development of cross-Strait relations, she added. Zhu said that currently the situation across the Taiwan Strait is grim and complex, and cross-Strait relations remain tense and antagonistic. " The DDP authority and 'Taiwan independence' forces should take the blame for this," Zhu said. "They rely on foreign forces to build themselves up, and have willingly acted as the tool of foreign forces, created cross-Strait hostility, stepped up provocations to seek 'Taiwan independence", gravely undermined the peace and stability across the Strait and seriously damaged the immediate interests of Taiwan compatriots," Zhu said. Zhu warned that if the DDP authority and "Taiwan independence" forces continue their collusion with foreign forces and step up provocations to seek "Taiwan independence", they will further heighten tensions and unrest across the Strait and drag the people of Taiwan into danger. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 21:20:11|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Foreigners wait in a designated area for observation after receiving COVID-19 vaccines at a vaccination site in Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, May 12, 2021. Anhui has recently started COVID-19 vaccination for foreign nationals in the province. Foreign nationals of appropriate age, following the principle of voluntary participation, giving informed consent and assuming personal responsibility for risk, take the COVID-19 vaccine. (Xinhua/Huang Bohan) Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 21:21:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Chinese foreign ministry on Wednesday refuted U.S. and European media outlets claiming that China is facing a population crisis. Foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that China's total population continued to grow and China is still the world's most populous country. Hua made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a query on reports by U.S. and European media outlets claiming that China is facing a demographic crisis, which may even affect the realization of the Chinese dream. China's population on the mainland has maintained steady growth, reaching 1.41178 billion in 2020, an increase of 5.38 percent from 2010, and the average annual population growth rate from 2010 to 2020 stood at 0.53 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. "This data shows that China's population has maintained a slow growth trend in the past 10 years. China's total population continues to grow, and it is still the most populous country in the world," Hua said. Between 2010 and 2020, the education level of China's citizens improved continuously, the gender ratio became more balanced, changes in family-planning policy led to a rebound of new births, population mobility increased and the urbanization rate further elevated, the census data show. Compared with 2010, the Han Chinese population increased by 4.93 percent, while that of ethnic minority groups increased by 10.26 percent, and the proportion of the general population belonging to ethnic minority groups rose by 0.4 percentage points from 2010, Hua noted, adding that the steady growth of the population of ethnic groups fully reflect the all-round development and progress of all ethnic groups in China. At the same time, the census data also reflects some structural contradictions in China's population development, such as the decline in the working-age population and the number of women of childbearing age, the deepening of aging, the decline in the fertility rate and the decline in the number of births, she added. "In response to the concerns of the U.S. media outlets mentioned, I wonder if they have noticed that China's population of 1.41178 billion is still more than the total population of the United States and Europe combined? I don't know how the relevant reporters turned into demographers and sociologists, or how they came to the conclusion that China is facing a population crisis," Hua stated. Declining birth rates and aging populations are common problems in developed countries. Low fertility has become a common problem faced by most developed countries, and it may also be a real problem faced by China in the future, she added. "The impact of population change on the society and economy should be viewed dialectically. China will promote high-quality development and formulate relevant population strategies and policies in a targeted manner," the spokesperson quoted an official as saying at a press conference on Tuesday. In the past few decades, at almost every critical stage of China's development, the West has made various judgments and predictions about China, and there have been various arguments, such as various forms of the so-called "China threat" theory or "China collapse" theory, Hua said. "But as China continued to develop, these arguments were later disproved by the facts." "I hope those who are keen on concocting various arguments about China can live as healthy and happy as the Chinese people, and welcome and witness the realization of the Chinese dream together," Hua added. Enditem Following on the heels of a March which yielded well below average mountain and valley precipitation, April delivered the same pattern of dryness with monthly temperatures once again vacillating from well above average to well below average during the month. "April yielded a little bit of everything in the temperature department. The month began with record warmth at mountain locations, which transitioned the low elevation snowpack to melt by the end of the first week," said Lucas Zukiewicz, water supply specialist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Montana. Although temperatures moderated during the second week of the month, prolonging the snowpack at mid and high elevations, low elevations continued their release of snow water during the month. As of May 1, nineteen low-elevation SNOTEL sites across Montana have melted out, which is slightly more measurement locations than normal for this date. "The low-, and even mid-elevation, snowpack melt is most notable in southwest Montana where some measurement locations have melted out two to three weeks ahead of schedule," said Zukiewicz. The mid- and high-elevation snowpack in the state began the transition to melt during the last week of the April, when temperatures once again rose to above seasonal normal. "The temperatures at the end of April and beginning of May were the tipping point for the snowpack at the mid and high elevations," said Zukiewicz. "As of now, all elevations are melting at a pretty good clip. Now that the bulk of mountain snowpack reservoir is pouring out of mountain locations, rivers and streams will begin their big seasonal increases in flows." This year, both the peaks in Montana's rivers and the overall volume of runoff are likely to be impacted by the weather experienced during March and April. "Since the low elevation snowpack has melted out across the state, and the mid and high elevations didn't add the expected amount of water to the snowpack during April, the resulting seasonal volumes for the remainder of the runoff season are forecasted to be below what was expected on April 1," said Zukiewicz. Streamflow forecasts issued by NRCS on May 1 indicate that while March and April yielded below normal precipitation, near to slightly below average streamflows are still possible for many of Montana's rivers. "October and February saved snowmelt driven runoff in these basins. Without those two months of above normal snowfall, we would be facing the prospect of below normal runoff across the state," said Zukiewicz. For one area of the state, which didn't receive the boost to mountain snowpack in the year and was already experiencing impacts from the lack of precipitation spanning back to last summer, the lack of March and April precipitation has made it more likely that streamflows will be below average to well below average this summer. "Southwest Montana has been persistently dry since last summer and flows in the tributaries to the Jefferson River basin look to be well below normal for overall volumes this spring and summer. Water users in this area, and downstream on the Missouri, should be aware of this possibility, especially if May and June precipitation fails to materialize," said Zukiewicz. The final Water Supply Outlook Report of 2021 will be posted during the first week of June and will summarize May weather patterns, and how that might impact the remainder of runoff this year. A full report of conditions for May 1 can be found in the monthly Water Supply Outlook Report available on the Montana Snow Survey website. In addition, real-time snow survey data can be found at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/mt/snow/ Williamsons TRUSTED news source. Click here to stay informed and subscribe to the Williamson Daily News. Click #isupportlocal for more information on supporting our local journalists. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 21:41:47|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, visits a memorial facility dedicated to Zhang Zhongjing, a famous Chinese pharmacologist and physician of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220), in Nanyang, central China's Henan Province, May 12, 2021. Xi learned about Zhang's life story and his contributions to the development of traditional Chinese medicine. Xi Jinping on Wednesday inspected the city of Nanyang in Henan Province. (Xinhua/Wang Ye) ZHENGZHOU, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, on Wednesday inspected the city of Nanyang, central China's Henan Province. In the afternoon, Xi first visited a memorial facility dedicated to Zhang Zhongjing, a famous Chinese pharmacologist and physician of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220). Xi learned about Zhang's life story and his contributions to the development of traditional Chinese medicine. Xi then went to a theme park on Rosa Chinensis, or the Chinese rose, and a local company producing mugwort products. Xi inspected how Nanyang uses the flower and the herb to develop its specialty industries, create more jobs and boost local employment. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 22:29:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Wang Ke (2nd L) and Permanent Secretary of Tanzanian Ministry of Finance and Planning Emmanuel Tutuba (1st R) show the signed agreement in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on May 12, 2021. China and Tanzania on Wednesday signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation to enhance bilateral friendship. (Photo by Herman Emmanuel/Xinhua) DAR ES SALAAM, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China and Tanzania on Wednesday signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation to enhance bilateral friendship. The agreement was signed in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam by Chinese Ambassador to Tanzania Wang Ke and Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Finance and Planning Emmanuel Tutuba on behalf of the two governments. According to the agreement, the Chinese government will provide new gratis aid for Tanzanian mainland, which will be utilized in the construction of projects negotiated and approved by the two governments. Speaking shortly after the signing of the agreement, Tutuba extended thanks to China for its valuable support and committed to strengthen the existing good relationship between the countries. He said China has been supporting Tanzania in important areas such as railway infrastructure, education, health, information and communication technology and agriculture. The government of Tanzania will take all necessary measures to ensure successful implementation of the projects to be implemented under this grant in order to achieve the intended objectives, Tutuba added. For her part, the Chinese envoy said the agreement is a concrete action of the Chinese side to enhance the friendship between China and Tanzania and to promote bilateral economic and technical cooperation. "China has always regarded Tanzania as an all-weather friend and a good partner," she said. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc worldwide, China stands ready to continue and offer its utmost support to Tanzania and work together with the Tanzanian side to fight against the pandemic and go through difficult times, said Wang. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 23:35:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Smoke rises following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, May 12, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) After tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have been escalated over the past few days, Palestinian analysts warn of a large-scale war in the Gasa Strip. GAZA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- After more than a year of relative peace and stability in the besieged Gaza Strip, Israel and its bitter enemy Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) are again on the brink of a large-scale war, Palestinian analysts warned. The Israeli military continued its bombardment in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, targeting buildings and apartments that led to heavy casualties, mainly among civilians, in the wake of hundreds of rockets fired from the Palestinian coastal enclave. The current wave of violence between Israel and Gaza militant groups is the first of its kind since the last large-scale air and ground offensive that Israel waged on the Palestinian enclave for 50 days in 2014. According to the Israeli military, two Hamas commanders and another two from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have been killed in targeted strikes since Monday evening. Meanwhile, at least six Israelis were killed and more than 100 were wounded by the barrages of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. The Hamas-run health ministry said three days of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip left 48 Palestinians dead and 304 others wounded. An Israeli man injured after a rocket from the Gaza strip landed is evacuated in central Israeli city of Holon, on May 11, 2021. (Nimrod Glikman/JINI via Xinhua) MUTUAL THREATS Israel and Hamas leaders traded threats, regardless of the mediative efforts made by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations. Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh said in a televised speech that his group had received calls from different mediating parties, asking Hamas to stop firing rockets at Israel. "Our response was that the occupation is the one which should stop assaults and attacks on Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Gaza Strip," Haniyeh said. "The one responsible for the current escalation is (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu," Haniyeh added. Meanwhile, Netanyahu said Israel would intensify its strikes on the Gaza Strip, adding that the Israeli army has targeted hundreds of targets and facilities of the Hamas and the PIJ. Hani al-Masri, founder and director-general of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research and Strategic Studies, told Xinhua that the latest escalation "threatens to drag the confrontation between Israel and Gaza militants into a large-scale war in the Gaza Strip." "But the war is very costly," al-Masri said. "The coming hours are crucial." A Palestinian inspects the damage of a house following Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, on May 11, 2021. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua) UNPRECEDENTED TENSION Tension between Israel and the Palestinians have mounted recently when clashes broke out last week between Palestinian worshippers and Israeli police forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Mohammed Hijazi, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Xinhua that Hamas had positively responded to the appeal of the Palestinians to retaliate the Israeli practices in East Jerusalem. "What Hamas did constitutes a positive incentive for all the Palestinians, who must unite before the issue of Jerusalem. Despite the continuing disagreements among Palestinian politicians, there is no disagreement on the issue of Jerusalem," he said. However, Hijazi said that reaching calm or a truce with Israel is also an important option, "because Hamas doesn't want to go for an open war." "Netanyahu is also in a crisis after he failed to form a government in Israel, so he is not interested in a large-scale war that would threaten his political position," he added. Protesters burn tires during clashes with Israeli border police following an anti-Israel protest against the violence in Jerusalem, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, on May 11, 2021. (Photo by Luay Sababa/Xinhua) The Gaza analyst expected Hamas and Israel would reach a truce within the coming two days. "But this option is still uncertain as long as the tit-for-tat trade of fire goes on and escalate," he said. Adnan Abu Aamer, a Gaza political science professor who is specialized in Israeli affairs, told Xinhua that since the beginning of tension in Jerusalem, "Israel tries to avoid involving the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in the tension." "But the harsh and brutal Israeli policy of dealing with the Palestinians was the main reason behind the development of tension that has expanded to the entire Palestinian territories," Abu Aamer said. Since 2008, Israel has waged three large-scale offensives on the Gaza Strip. The largest was in the summer of 2014, which ended when Egypt and other mediators brokered a cease-fire between Gaza militants and Israel. Katrinas eyes are downcast and her hands are raised behind her head. She looks calm, if not a little tired, while lacing up the strings of her yellow hospital gown a garment designed to prevent skin-to-skin contact with viral patients and one that has become a common uniform for health-care workers during the pandemic. Her colleague, Justin, stands nearby wearing a surgical mask and preparing to don his own gown. An ominous black rectangle looms large behind them. Katrinas eyes are downcast and her hands are raised behind her head. She looks calm, if not a little tired, while lacing up the strings of her yellow hospital gown a garment designed to prevent skin-to-skin contact with viral patients and one that has become a common uniform for health-care workers during the pandemic. Her colleague, Justin, stands nearby wearing a surgical mask and preparing to don his own gown. An ominous black rectangle looms large behind them. The scene is the work of Winnipeg painter Clinton Roberts, who, in addition to being a self-taught fine artist, has been employed in the patient transport department of the Health Sciences Centre for the last 12 years. As the coronavirus spread locally, Roberts, 49, realized he was in a privileged position to document the plight of hospital workers amid the pandemic. "My whole interest in art has always been about painting people," he says. "An artist can express so many things about health care with whats currently happening I specifically want to bring attention to the people who do health care." The painting of Katrina and Justin, who work with Roberts in patient transport, is one piece in his ongoing Pandemic Worker series, which blends high-realism portraits with abstract backgrounds. Roberts was known as the "art guy" in high school. He took a job at the former Midtown Gallery on Graham Avenue post-graduation and found a valuable mentor in the gallerys owner, "I was really able to hone my understanding of art and my technique through someone who provided a lot of positive criticism." JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Clinton Roberts, in addition to being a self-taught fine artist, has been employed in the patient transport department of the Health Sciences Centre for the last 12 years. In his early 20s, Roberts was determined to make a career out of his art. He garnered local interest after mounting his first solo show in Winnipeg and moved to England looking for bigger opportunities. He lived and worked in a small cottage in the Sussex countryside that couldve been plucked from a Van Gogh painting and eventually landed a spot in a contemporary art exhibition at the Belgrave Gallery in London. But he missed the wide open prairies and moved home several years later to escape the bustle and the claustrophobic English weather. "An artist can express so many things about health care with whats currently happening I specifically want to bring attention to the people who do health care." Clinton Roberts Even though art was his passion, money was a necessity. He traded in his brushes for a graphic design diploma and made the transition to health care after his daughter was born. "She became my No. 1 priority," Roberts says. "Doing hospital shift work gave me the best means to care for my daughter and be really involved in her life." Painting took a backseat for a long time. With his wifes encouragement, he carved out a small studio in the sunroom of their home a space that is slightly bigger than a closet and sectioned off by curtains to allow their pet bird to sleep during nighttime painting sessions. Roberts piqued the interest of colleagues when he started sketching during his breaks at work. "My co-workers were quite surprised," he says. "At that point it was very easy to get people to volunteer to become models for an artwork." SUPPLIED Clinton Roberts painting, entitled Katrina and Justin, is one piece in a series he is working on about fellow health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic surged and lockdowns went into effect, his co-workers became the only people he could paint. As a patient transporter, Roberts sees himself as the "eyes and ears" of the hospital. He walks more than 20,000 steps a shift and has contact with every department while moving the sick and injured from one area to another. "Healthcare workers are human, they get scared when they know theyre going to be challenged with something that could really harm them." Clinton Roberts "We see a lot of stuff," he says. "We even transport the deceased to the morgue, so we see the end of health care as well. "(It) puts me in a very interesting position to capture a reflection of our health-care workers." His is one of many health-care jobs invisible to the general public, but essential for keeping a very complex machine running smoothly. While burnt-out intensive care doctors and nurses have garnered most of the media attention, the pandemic has been a challenge for everyone who works in the field. "Health-care workers are human, they get scared when they know theyre going to be challenged with something that could really harm them," Roberts says. "And yet, we still have to do our jobs, because thats what is expected of us." JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Roberts in his home studio with portraits he has painted of his health-care co-workers. Roberts speaks passionately about hospital work and cautiously about the larger political and economic factors affecting his day-to-day job. Newer equipment and more resources would improve working conditions, but those issues are well beyond his pay grade. "The responsibility lies closer to the top," he says. "For everyone at the bottom, we have to try to do our best despite the circumstances and those circumstances arent always ideal." Instead, he celebrates the people at the bottom with acrylic paint and careful brushstrokes. "I hope my art can bring attention to the fact that healthcare workers are people and how much value you place on the people that do the job is important." Clinton Roberts So far, Roberts has completed two paintings for his Pandemic Worker series and hopes to feature subjects from a wide range of departments in the future; including housekeepers, lab technicians, nurses and doctors patients are out of the question thanks to the Personal Health Information Act. As an artist, he has always combined realism with abstraction and the world of health care lends itself well to the style. In his painting of Katrina and Justin, the large black mass that dominates the frame is a stand-in for COVID-19 and everything it represents. "Its a presence, its something that you cant see, but its very real," he says. "With the abstract elements, I can put complex issues regarding health care into a visual that allows someone to have a sense of the feelings of such an environment." JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Roberts traded in his brushes for a graphic design diploma and made the transition to health care after his daughter was born. Roberts works night shifts and paints most afternoons. While many people have picked up hobbies new and old to relieve stress during the pandemic, he sees art as a serious endeavour. "If I were to just make nice pictures I could, I have the technical skills to paint as good as anyone," he says. "But if I dont have much to say with it, I never feel like the art is worth the time." Using free time to revisit his workplace has been more than worth it. "This stuff is important," Roberts says. "I hope my art can bring attention to the fact that health-care workers are people and how much value you place on the people that do the job is important." Visit clintonrobertsart.com to view more of his Pandemic Worker series. eva.wasney@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @evawasney WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans in the U.S. Senate mounted an aggressive case Tuesday against Democrats' sweeping election and voter-access legislation, pushing to roll back proposals for automatic registration, 24-hour ballot drop boxes and other changes in an increasingly charged national debate. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., speaks during a Senate Rules Committee hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) WASHINGTON (AP) Republicans in the U.S. Senate mounted an aggressive case Tuesday against Democrats' sweeping election and voter-access legislation, pushing to roll back proposals for automatic registration, 24-hour ballot drop boxes and other changes in an increasingly charged national debate. The legislation, a top priority of Democrats in the aftermath of the divisive 2020 election, would bring about the largest overhaul of U.S. voting in a generation, touching nearly every aspect of the electoral process. It would remove hurdles to voting erected in the name of election security and curtail the influence of big money in politics. At the end of a long, contentious day, the Rules Committee deadlocked 9-9 over advancing the bill to the full Senate in its current form. That leaves it to Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to try to invoke a special process to force the legislation ahead. the Arizona Legislature sent the governor a bill that would make it easier to purge infrequent voters from a list of those who automatically get mail-in ballots, the latest battleground state to push through changes likely to take months or years to finally settle in court. GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is so determined to stop the legislation that he made a rare appearance at Tuesday's Rules Committee session in Washington. McConnell and other Republicans on the panel argued for a wave of amendments against key sections of the bill, which Democrats turned aside in an hours-long voting session. McConnell declared, "Our democracy is not in crisis" and said he wasnt about to cede control of elections to new laws "under the false pretense of saving it." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks at a Senate Rules Committee markup to argue against the "For the People Act," which would expand access to voting and other voting reforms, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. The bill was already passed by Democrats in the House. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) With Democrats holding the White House and narrow control of Congress, they see the legislation as crucial perhaps their best chance to counter efforts by state-level Republicans who have seized on former President Donald Trumps false claims about the 2020 election to push ballot restrictions. Yet even as they tout the measure, Democrats find themselves playing defense, unable to push their legislative response to President Joe Bidens desk. While the elections overhaul has passed the House, theres no clear path forward in the Senate, which is split 50-50. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona have both said they oppose making changes to the Senates filibuster rules, which would be needed to maneuver the bill past unified Republican opposition. Trumps election claims, which have only increased in the six months since his defeat, were rejected by Republican as well as Democratic election officials in state after state, by U.S. cybersecurity officials and by courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court. And his attorney general said there was no evidence of fraud that could change the election outcome. "President Trump told a big lie, one of the biggest ever told. We all know that. Every single person in this room knows that," Sen. Schumer, the Democratic majority leader, said at the hearing. "And its taking root, this big lie is taking root in our country, not just in the minds of his voters but in the laws of the land." The laws emerging around the country "are about one thing and one thing alone: making it harder for Americans to vote," he said. The Democrats' measure would not stop every bill being passed in Republican states across the country. But it would make it difficult, if not impossible, for states to press ahead with many of the new rules. That's because the legislation would create nationwide rules for early voting and no-excuse absentee voting, standardizing the process. Currently, six states dont offer early, in-person voting and a third of states still require an excuse such as illness or planning to be away from home on Election Day to vote by mail, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. A book of amendments awaits Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., at a Senate Rules Committee hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, May 11, 2021. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Republicans walked a narrow line during much of the discussion on Tuesday, criticizing congressional Democrats for seeking to change voting rules while at the same time offering robust support for GOP state lawmakers who are doing the same. The GOP senators cited high voter turnout in last years presidential election during the pandemic as proof that the system worked without the Democrats' changes and voters were not disenfranchised. But they offered little justification for GOP efforts at the state level to impose new limits on voting, particularly mail voting. Republicans also attacked provisions that would create a new public financing system for political campaigns and strengthen the enforcement capabilities of the federal agency tasked with policing elections, as well as dozens of other proposals that would dictate how states conduct their elections. "This bill doesnt protect voting rights, it steals voting rights from the American people," said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. While Republicans argue the new state rules are needed to secure the vote, critics warn the states are seeking to reduce voter access, particularly for Black voters, who are a crucial part of the Democratic Party base. That could usher in a new Jim Crow era for the 21st century, they warn. "These bills moving in state capitals across America are not empty threats, they are real efforts to stop people from voting," said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Rules Committee. Yet moderate members of the Democratic caucus not just Republicans pose a sizable obstacle to the bill becoming law. Manchin has called for any elections overhaul to be done on a bipartisan basis, despite Republican insistence that no changes are necessary. Other Democrats want to pare back the bill to core voting protections to try to put Republicans on the spot. have been making their own changes to draw more support. In the latest version of the legislation, states would have more time and flexibility to put new federal rules in place. Some election officials had complained of unrealistic timelines, increased costs and onerous requirements. States would have more time to launch same-day voter registration at polling places and to comply with new voting system requirements. They would also be able to apply for an extension if they were unable to meet the deadline for automatic voter registration. Officials have said these are complex processes that require equipment changes or upgrades that will take time. Democrats are also dropping a requirement that local election offices provide self-sealing envelopes with mail ballots and cover the costs of return postage. They plan to require the U.S. Postal Service to carry mail ballots and ballot request forms free of charge, with the federal government picking up the tab. But Republicans argue the changes would do little to limit what they view as unwarranted federal intrusions into local elections. "Giving states more time to implement bad policy doesnt make the policy less bad," said Sen Roy Blunt of Missouri, the ranking minority member on the committee. "I think the federal government taking over elections is the wrong thing to do." Cassidy reported from Atlanta. DENVER (AP) Prosecutors have charged seven people after the mummified body of the leader of a spiritual group called Love Has Won was found decorated with Christmas lights and glitter in what appeared to be a shrine in a southern Colorado home. DENVER (AP) Prosecutors have charged seven people after the mummified body of the leader of a spiritual group called Love Has Won was found decorated with Christmas lights and glitter in what appeared to be a shrine in a southern Colorado home. Amy Carlson, 45, who was known as Mother God by her followers, was found dead in a home in the tiny, rural town of Moffat on April 28, according to arrest affidavits. Each of the defendants is facing charges related to tampering with or abusing a corpse as well as child abuse. They appeared in court virtually Wednesday to be advised of the charges, which were filed May 6. A coroners office has not said how or when Carlson died. One of Carlson's followers, who has not been charged, told investigators that he took in the group because they needed a place to stay, and he found the body in a back bedroom when he returned home from a trip to Denver. He called police and said he believed the group had brought Carlsons body to his home from California. The mummified remains appeared to be set up in some type of shrine and have what appears to be glitter type makeup on around the eyes, according to the affidavits. Investigators searched an SUV on the property and said the backseat was laid down in a position consistent with someone transporting the mummified remains. Two children a 13-year-old girl and a 2-year-old boy were in the home at the time, which presumably led to the child abuse charges. The follower who reported the body also told investigators that he was prevented from leaving the home with his son, prompting a false imprisonment charge against one of the defendants. According to the affidavits, the sheriffs office has received many complaints from families across the country saying Love Has Won is brainwashing people and stealing their money. Carlsons followers believe she communicated with angels and that she was leading them to a great awakening, The Denver Post has reported. The group, which established itself in southern Colorado in 2018, offers spiritual intuitive ascension sessions and sells spiritual healing products online. CLEMMONS, N.C. (AP) The nation's largest fuel pipeline restarted operations Wednesday, days after it was forced to shut down by a gang of hackers. Seth Wenig / The Associated Press CLEMMONS, N.C. (AP) The nation's largest fuel pipeline restarted operations Wednesday, days after it was forced to shut down by a gang of hackers. The disruption of Colonial Pipeline caused long lines at gas stations in the Southeast due to distribution problems and panic-buying, draining supplies at thousands of gas stations. Colonial initiated the restart of pipeline operations late Wednesday, saying in a statement that all lines, including those lateral lines that have been running manually, will return to normal operations. But it will take several days for deliveries to return to normal, the company said. In the meantime, drivers have been finding gas stations with little or no gas in some Southeast states. Drivers fill their tanks at the Speedway in East Ridge, Tenn., on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. The concern over the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline has sparked lines at gas stations and empty pumps in the Chattanooga Area. (Matt Hamilton /Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP) hit on Friday with a cyberattack by hackers who lock up computer systems and demand a ransom to release them. The hackers didn't take control of the pipeline operations, but Colonial shut the pipeline down to contain the damage. vulnerability of the nations critical infrastructure. What youre feeling is not a lack of supply or a supply issue. What we have is a transportation issue, said Jeanette McGee, spokeswoman for the AAA auto club. There is ample supply to fuel the United States for the summer, but what were having is an issue with is getting it to those gas stations" because the pipeline is down. A sign marking the location of the Colonial Pipeline is posted on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Charlotte, N.C. Gasoline futures are ticking higher following a cyberextortion attempt on the Colonial Pipeline, a vital U.S. pipeline that carries fuel from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) The pipeline runs from the Gulf Coast to the New York metropolitan region, but states in the Southeast are more reliant on it. Other parts of the country have more sources to tap. For example, a substantial amount of fuel is delivered to states in the Northeast by massive tankers. Jamar Gatison, 36, was filling up his tank in Norfolk, Virginia, Wednesday before a doctors appointment. Im about to run out of gas, so I have no choice, the construction worker said while waiting in line at a 7-Eleven. A customer helps pumping gas at Costco, as other wait in line, on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Charlotte, N.C. Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, halted operations last week after revealing a cyberattack that it said had affected some of its systems. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) Im also an Uber Eats driver. I also need gas for that, said Gatison, who added he probably wont deliver food Wednesday night because he doesnt want to wait in line again while the shortage continues. In North Carolina, more than half of gas stations were out of fuel, according to Gasbuddy.com, a technology firm that tracks real-time fuel prices across the country. Just outside Raleigh, two people were charged with assault after fighting and spitting in each others faces while arguing over their spots in line Tuesday at a Marathon gas station, authorities said. North Carolina Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper urged people Wednesday to only buy gas if their tank is low, and to report any instances of price gouging. A Colonial Pipeline station is seen, Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Smyrna, Ga., near Atlanta. Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, halted operations last week after revealing a cyberattack that it said had affected some of its systems. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) This news is another reason people do not need to panic buy gas right now unless they really need it, he tweeted after Colonial announced it was restarting the pipeline. Georgians and Virginians were also getting squeezed, with about half of stations there out of gas, according to Gasbuddy.com. Along the Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine through some of the most rugged and remote terrain in the Southeast, hikers depend on car and van shuttles to ferry them to and from the trail and get them back to civilization. A man leaves a Murrphy Oil gas station as pumps are seen out of gas, Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Kennesaw, Ga. Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, halted operations last week after revealing a cyberattack that it said had affected some of its systems.(AP Photo/Mike Stewart) If I dont have the gas, Im not running, said Ron Brown of Ellijay, Georgia, who operates Rons Appalachian Trail Shuttles and often takes hikers on hourslong trips from Atlantas airport into the north Georgia mountains, and to and from many points along the trail. Mary Goldburg, 60, of Norfolk, Virginia, waited more than 20 minutes for a slow-operating pump at a 7-Eleven to fill up her tank on Wednesday. Her job includes delivering T-shirts for events and other promotional products. I cant get paid until my customers get their products, Goldburg said. Numerous vehicles line up for gasoline at Costco on Wendover Avenue in Greensboro, N.C., on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. As the shutdown of a major fuel pipeline entered into its fifth day, efforts are under way to stave off potential fuel shortages, though no widespread disruptions were evident. The Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel consumed on the East Coast, was hit by a cyberattack on Friday. (Woody Marshall/News & Record via AP) The disruption is taking place at the time of year when Americans begin to become more mobile, especially as the nation emerges from the pandemic. Four to five cars were lined up at each pump at a Circle K in Clemmons, North Carolina. Several people said they had driven to multiple gas stations to find one that had gas. Across the street, gas stations were out of fuel. Mair Martinez, who works in landscaping, was filling up his lawn equipment and truck after checking several other gas stations without luck. Drivers line up for fuel at a Shell Gas Station attached to Moore's Country Store on Boonsboro Road in Lynchburg, Va., Tuesday, May 11, 2021. More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts say is unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day. In response, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency. (Kendall Warner/The News & Advance via AP) Thats why weve come in today, to fill up everything, he said. Johnathan King, who works for an area towing company, was filling up his tow truck. He said he typically does 10 to 12 service calls a day, driving between several area cities. Its going to be very hard for us. Hopefully well be able to get through it, he said. Cars line up on Pine Plaza Drive for gas at the Costco in Apex, N.C., Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Several gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts say is unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day. (Ethan Hyman/The News & Observer via AP) Multiple U.S. agencies coordinated to relax rules and enable fuel to be shipped faster using trucks, trains or ships, but those changes had little impact Wednesday. The White House said the Department of Transportation is now allowing states served by the pipeline to use interstate highways to transport overweight loads of gasoline and other fuels. But theres a national trucker shortage, so the industry isnt able to put many more trucks on the road. Nationwide there are about 121,000 convenience stores that sell about 5,300 gallons per day of gasoline, accounting for about 80% of retail fuel sales. At many stores demand has been two to five times the normal amount, said Jeff Lenard of the National Association of Convenience Stores, in a conference call with reporters. Retailers were even running out of fuel in parts of Florida that are not dependent on the pipeline, he said. Drivers line up for fuel at a Shell Gas Station on Old Forest Road in Lynchburg, Va., Tuesday, May 11, 2021. More than 1,000 gas stations in the Southeast reported running out of fuel, primarily because of what analysts say is unwarranted panic-buying among drivers, as the shutdown of a major pipeline by hackers entered its fifth day. In response, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency. (Kendall Warner/The News & Advance via AP) Rationing has been imposed after some natural disasters, including Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but there could be resistance to that this time, especially if it looks like the pipeline could return to normal operation in a few days. It could also backfire. Once rationing occurs, more panic buying ensues, said Ryan McNutt, CEO of the Society of Independent Gasoline Marketers of America. The national average price for a gallon of gasoline ticked above $3 for the first time since 2016 Wednesday, according to the AAA. Prices begin to rise around this time every year and the auto club said Wednesday that the average price hit $3.008 nationally. You go to some states, and youre going to see much higher increases, especially in the South, because thats where youre seeing the largest impact in terms of strain of gasoline, or strain of people, McGee said. Bussewitz reported from New York and Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia. Associated Press Writers Frank Bajak in Boston, Jeff Martin in Marietta, Georgia, David Koenig in Dallas and Julie Walker in New York contributed to this report. Questions remained Wednesday about the future of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada as the federal government prepared to receive hundreds of thousands of doses while provinces limited use of the shot. In this Monday, March 15, 2021 file photo a vial of AstraZeneca vaccine is pictured in a pharmacy in Boulogne Billancourt, outside Paris. Questions remained Wednesday about the future of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada, as Manitoba limited use of the shot and Ontario announced it planned to save an incoming shipment to use as second doses. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Christophe Ena, File Questions remained Wednesday about the future of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in Canada as the federal government prepared to receive hundreds of thousands of doses while provinces limited use of the shot. Nova Scotia and Manitoba both announced new restrictions on the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine Wednesday, following similar news out of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec a day earlier. Most provinces said they're pausing the use of AstraZeneca for most if not all first doses due to a lack of supply, and it wasn't immediately clear how the 655,000 doses Ottawa expects to distribute next week will affect those plans. But Manitoba, Ontario and Nova Scotia have pointed to a connection between the AstraZeneca vaccine and a rare blood-clotting condition as part of the reason for their pause. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for his part, said he intends to get a second jab of AstraZeneca. "I talked to my doctor just last week and he recommended that I indeed get a second dose of AstraZeneca in the coming weeks or months when it becomes available," he said in question period on Wednesday. Trudeau urged others to consult with their doctors, too. Manitoba, for one, has said it will continue administering first doses of AstraZeneca to those who are unlikely to get other shots, but will otherwise reserve its supply for second doses. It's due to receive 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca in the next shipment. Ontario, meanwhile, is deciding when and whether to offer second doses of AstraZeneca to those who got a first shot of that vaccine. The province is due to receive a quarter-million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine next week, in addition to about 50,000 doses it has sitting in refrigerators with an expiry date just weeks away. "We don't expect that there will be any, or perhaps just a few doses, that may expire," Health Minister Christine Elliott said. "However, this is out of an abundance of caution, because the safety and well-being of the people of Ontario has to be our top priority." British Columbia, too, has said it intends to use most of its few remaining AstraZeneca doses to give people their second jabs. The uncertainty over AstraZeneca has rankled some who already received their first dose of that vaccine and are undeterred by the risk of vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia, also known as VITT. A group of scientists advising the Ontario government has pegged the rate in Canada at one in 55,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine as of May 8, though it noted that some presumptive cases were still being investigated. More than two million Canadians have received AstraZeneca and 17 have been confirmed to have VITT. Three women have died. Alison Meek, who received her first dose of AstraZeneca last week, said she'd take a second shot of the same vaccine "in a heartbeat." "I would have taken any of the ones that was offered. I think it is important not just for our own health, but to protect those around us. I think it's needed to get out of this these lockdowns that we're in," said Meek, who lives in London, Ont., and teaches history at Western University. She said she had muscle aches and a fever after the shot but is happy with her decision. "I have no regrets whatsoever, and would happily take the second dose," Meek said. Toronto writer Emily Saso, 40, also stands by her decision to get the AstraZeneca shot in late April to guard against the risk of her husband bringing the COVID-19 virus home from work. But Saso said shifting messages surrounding the AstraZeneca vaccine have done little to quell her long-standing fear of blood clots. "It was definitely a failure of communication," she said. "And that added to my anxiety, which was already high." Experts have noted that the risk of clotting is much higher among people diagnosed with COVID-19 than those who received the AstraZeneca shot. Health Canada's chief medical adviser has said that from an authorization perspective, AstraZeneca's benefits against COVID-19 still outweigh the rare risk of VIIT. As questions over the use of AstraZeneca continue to swirl, however, health officials in all provinces are watching for the results of a British study on mixing and matching vaccines. Data could come on AstraZeneca and Pfizer as early as this week, with many health experts expecting very positive results from combining two different vaccines. The ongoing questions surrounding AstraZeneca come as the rate of COVID-19 infection drops modestly, though daily case counts remain high. Alberta continued to have the highest infection rate in the country Wednesday. It reported 1,799 new cases and four additional deaths due to the virus. Saskatchewan counted 183 new cases and two more deaths, while Manitoba recorded 364 new infections and three additional deaths. Ontario had 2,320 new COVID-19 diagnoses and 32 added deaths, while Quebec reported 745 new cases and 11 more deaths. Farther east, New Brunswick added nine new cases of the virus, Nova Scotia reported 149 and Newfoundland and Labrador saw 10. Nunavut, meanwhile, logged eight new cases. Yukon, which has one active case and did not report any more on Wednesday, announced it will vaccinate all kids aged 12 and up with the Pfizer shot. It's aiming to administer first doses by the end of the school year, and fully vaccinate the youths by mid-July. British Columbia reported 600 new COVID-19 infections Wednesday, and one more death, for a total of 1,625 fatalities. The province said more than half of people eligible for a vaccine have had their first dose. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2021. DETROIT (AP) For the next few months, Charlie Gilchrist figures his 11 car dealerships in the Dallas-Fort Worth area will sell just about every new vehicle they can get from the factories and at increased prices. Ford pickup trucks built lacking computer chips are shown in parking lot storage in Dearborn, Mich., Tuesday, May 4, 2021. Automakers are cutting production as they grapple with a global shortage of computer chips, and that's making dealers nervous. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) DETROIT (AP) For the next few months, Charlie Gilchrist figures his 11 car dealerships in the Dallas-Fort Worth area will sell just about every new vehicle they can get from the factories and at increased prices. In normal times, that would be cause for joy. Not so much now. A global shortage of computer chips has forced automakers to slash production. The result has been far fewer vehicles on dealer lots, just as the waning pandemic has fueled a pent-up consumer demand for cars, trucks and SUVs. Given the robust customer demand, dealers like Gilchrist could sell many more cars and trucks, if only they had more. Even at elevated prices the average new-vehicle sales price tops $40,000, up nearly 10% in two years customer demand exceeds supply. It's pretty evident when you pull onto our lots that there's not much selection, said Gilchrist, whose lots carry brands ranging from General Motors and Ford to Nissan and Volkswagen. Our (sales) volume is falling because of the sheer lack of inventory. It will still fall during the next two or three months. The across-the-board surge in auto prices contributed mightily to last month's jump in U.S. consumer prices, the government reported Wednesday. A record 10% increase in used vehicle prices, in fact, accounted for roughly one-third of April's overall rise in consumer prices the sharpest monthly increase in more than a decade. Ford expects to produce only half its normal number of vehicles from now through June. GM and others have resorted to halting production of some cars and smaller SUVs and diverting computer chips to higher-profit pickup trucks and large SUVs. Leading automakers are warning of diminished earnings. In this photo made on Thursday, May 6, 2021, a salesman from the Shults Ford dealership in Wexford, Pa. sits in one of the Ford F150 trucks at their nearby empty pickup truck inventory storage lot. Ford is warning that it expects to make only half the normal number of vehicles from now through June. Bazzy normally stocks 400-500 pickup trucks at his three Ford dealers, but is down around 100. He's confident that he can keep customers happy if they can order a truck and get it in four weeks, but he fears losing business to competing brands with a huge stock. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) The vehicle scarcity and the soaring prices can be traced to the eruption of the coronavirus 14 months ago. As the virus spread, auto factories shut down for a couple of months. With millions more people working from home, demand for laptops and monitors led semiconductor makers to shift from autos to personal electronics. Soon, though, a faster-than-expected economic rebound boosted demand for vehicles, and auto plants tried to restore full-scale production. Yet chip makers couldn't respond swiftly enough. With production slowed, dealer inventories shrank. Now, as the chip shortage has persisted, the shortage of new vehicles has worsened, and analysts foresee no return to normal before next year. Yet so far, automakers have been earning big profits even with a depleted inventory, largely because many buyers have been willing to pay more to get what they want. With government stimulus checks and tax refunds in hand, Americans bought about 1.5 million new vehicles in April. That's an adjusted annual sales rate of 18.5 million the highest such rate since 2005. It's like toilet paper was a year ago, said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Cox Automotive. Everyone is rushing to buy a car. Cox Automotive surveys suggest that 63% of potential buyers will stay in the market even with higher prices and a meager selection of vehicles. With new vehicles prices jumping, the cost of popular vehicles has become eye-opening. The average price of a new Chevrolet Silverado pickup, for example, is now just under $51,000. Even so, the supply of vehicles is dwindling. Last month, the nation's total new-vehicle inventory plummeted 42% from a year ago to 1.9 million. That's enough to supply only 33 days of sales at the current pace 88 days fewer than a year ago, according to Cox. At the same time, discounts fell 5% from March to April and 25% from a year ago to an average of $3,239 per vehicle. Jeremy Smith is seeing the price increases on both ends as he buys and sells pickup trucks for his utility trailer sales business near Buffalo, New York. In March, he bought a used diesel 2020 Chevy Silverado crew cab with 21,000 miles on for $61,000. Comparable trucks are now listed on websites, he said, for $68,000 to $70,000. In this photo made on Thursday, May 6, 2021, Shults Ford dealership owner Richard Bazzy leans on one of the remaining Ford F150 pickups on the front line on their dealership lot in Wexford, Pa. Ford is warning that it expects to make only half the normal number of vehicles from now through June. Bazzy normally stocks 400-500 pickup trucks at his three Ford dealers, but is down around 100. He's confident that he can keep customers happy if they can order a truck and get it in four weeks, but he fears losing business to competing brands with a huge stock. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) At the same time, he's asking $13,995 for a 2011 Silverado crew cab with 178,000 miles on it, a far higher price than he would have thought even a few months ago. You sell high, you buy high, said Smith, who frequently buys trucks for his business. To get one now, he says, people have to move quickly to put in bids with dealers or owners. If you're not on it," he said, "those things are gone. Given the lack of supply, nearly everyone expects new vehicle sales to fall soon. That would mean fewer trade-ins, which would further tighten a low supply of used vehicles. For consumers who can wait, analysts say, it might be wise to delay buying any vehicle until next year or even beyond. An index that measures wholesale U.S. used vehicle prices from auction house Manheim soared 53% in April from a year ago, hitting a record high. Auto dealers buy used vehicles at auctions; the average price there hit nearly $18,000. Dealers mark up wholesale prices when they sell to consumers. The average list price of a used car last month was just over $22,000, 14% higher than a year ago. Dealers are now scrambling for used cars, hoping to sell them to keep cash flowing through the summer as new vehicle supplies dry up. Richard Bazzy, who runs four Ford and Lincoln dealerships in suburban Pittsburgh, said he's formed a team to buy used vehicles. Every car dealer in the world is jamming the auctions right now trying to fill their shelves because of the lack of new-car inventory, he said. Bazzy said he's hopeful that his business will manage OK with used sales, as well as revenue from parts and service. But he wants all the used cars they acquire now to be sold by August, when he expects the inventory of vehicles to start a return to normal. Cox's Krebs said it's hard to predict how long the chip shortage and tight supplies will last. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas cautioned investors not to expect extremely high auto prices beyond the end of this year as new-vehicle supplies recover. The pandemic and chip shortage have made rental cars scarcer, too, driving up prices dramatically and causing long waits as people start traveling again. Rental companies have had trouble getting new cars because auto companies have diverted vehicles away from fleet buyers to more profitable sales to consumers. Higher demand has sent some rental companies to the used car market to find vehicles. Whenever the car shortage ends, GM, Ford and others say they will change business models away from having huge stocks. GM has considered regional distribution centers that could send vehicles to dealers in a matter of days. Ford's CEO Jim Farley has talked of quickly delivering on factory orders. Both companies hope to reduce the interest paid on high inventories and keep discounts low. I do think we are on the verge of possibly a different kind of paradigm for how vehicles are distributed, Krebs said. Still, competition could thwart those plans once factories return to normal production. Bazzy normally stocks 400-500 pickup trucks at his three Ford dealers but is down to around 100. He's confident that he can keep customers happy if they order a truck and can get it in four weeks. But he fears losing business to competing brands with a huge stock. If the guy across the street from me has 300 (trucks) and my guy has to wait four weeks," Bazzy said, I'm going to lose him. WASHINGTON - Political "brinksmanship" in Michigan risks allowing Enbridge Inc. to abandon plans for a $500-million tunnel that would protect an ecologically sensitive Great Lakes waterway from the controversial Line 5 pipeline, business leaders warned Wednesday. This photo taken in October 2016 shows an aboveground section of Enbridge's Line 5 at the Mackinaw City, Mich., pump station. Business leaders in Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin have joined forces with their Canadian counterparts in the legal fight over the Line 5 pipeline. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/John Flesher WASHINGTON - Political "brinksmanship" in Michigan risks allowing Enbridge Inc. to abandon plans for a $500-million tunnel that would protect an ecologically sensitive Great Lakes waterway from the controversial Line 5 pipeline, business leaders warned Wednesday. The Canadian and U.S. chambers of commerce joined forces with their counterparts in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin by filing a joint brief in court to argue against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's bid to shut down the cross-border pipeline. Wednesday marked Whitmer's original deadline for Enbridge to shut down Line 5, which she maintains poses an unacceptable environmental risk along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which connect Lake Huron with Lake Michigan. "The tunnel solution essentially eliminates the risk of an oil spill at the Straits of Mackinac," the chambers argue in their filing, known in legal parlance as an amicus brief. The existing tunnel agreement with Michigan gives Enbridge the right to cancel the project entirely if the pipeline is forced to cease operations, even temporarily, they argue. "Under the termination clause of two agreements ... if defendants comply with the state of Michigan order and involuntarily shut down the pipeline, then defendants can choose to terminate their obligations to construct such a tunnel." The brief anticipates a scenario in which Enbridge is forced to temporarily shut down the line, cancels the tunnel project and then later receives a ruling that allows the line to start back up. "The chambers urge the parties not to create avoidable short-term crises or put at risk the long-term solution (the tunnel) that they agree is superior to the status quo." Enbridge said it would need to re-evaluate things should Line 5 be shut down. "We believe in the tunnel project and believe it is a practical solution. If Line 5 were shut down as the governor desires, like any business whose ability to operate is interrupted we would have to reassess the situation," said an emailed statement sent by company spokesperson Jesse Semko. "All that said, Enbridge completed the engineering and design phase of the tunnel project in March and is actively pursuing state and federal regulatory permits from state and federal agencies," the statement continued. "And we remain committed to providing the people of Michigan and the Great Lakes region with safe, reliable and affordable energy." The so-called "chambers brief" followed a similar filing Tuesday by the federal Liberal government, a rare international foray into U.S. legal proceedings, that urged the court to keep the pipeline running and the two sides to reach a settlement. Wednesday's deadline was expected to pass without incident; talks with a court-appointed mediator are scheduled to continue past May 18 and Enbridge has said it has no plans to accede to Michigan's order. That didn't discourage those opposed to Whitmer's efforts to speak their minds. "This brinksmanship is political theatre," said Christopher Guith, senior vice-president, policy, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Global Energy Institute. "Unfortunately, millions of Americans and Canadians are likely to pay the price for it." Richard Studley, the head of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, didn't mince words, either. "Every Michigan governor I have worked with, until today, has treated our Canadian friends and neighbours with courtesy and respect," Studley told a news conference. Enbridge, he said, has gone to great lengths to assuage the state's concerns, including with the tunnel, promises of round-the-clock monitoring, an emergency buoy system and keeping response teams on standby "only to be demonized for political purposes." "It's really very troubling to the entire business community, to see a governor and attorney general abuse their power like this," Studley said. "The question it raises in the general business community is, 'Who's next?'" In their brief, the chambers spell out in detail a cascade of likely "severe, nationwide and international" consequences if the line is shut down everything from fuel price spikes and supply shortages to an increase in traffic fatalities and greenhouse gas emissions as a result of more tanker trucks on the roads. Oil transported by rail is nearly five times as likely to spill than oil carried by pipeline, and the risk of a spill involving a tanker truck is 10 times as high, said Aaron Henry, the Canadian chamber's senior director of natural resources and sustainable growth. There's also a risk of interstate energy emergencies, the brief notes a phenomenon already on display in several East Coast states as a result of the ongoing shutdown of the Colonial pipeline, a key energy artery that was targeted by a foreign cyberattack. "I think the most important lesson to be learned from the shutdown of the Colonial pipeline is that actions have consequences," Studley said. "Regardless of the motivation, shutting down a second regional, multi-state and international pipeline is virtually certain to have the same economic impact, which is negative: higher prices, lost jobs and a disruption of the daily lives of both individuals and employees and employers." The Colonial crisis again prompted public officials Wednesday to confront the mission-critical reality of America's pipelines as they urged people to stay calm and to resist the temptation to hoard fuel. "I do think it reminds us that we need to make sure that we have the more resilient and flexible infrastructure for the future, especially when it comes to something like energy," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. Both the Colonial shutdown and the collapse of the electrical grid in Texas during a severe cold snap in February should serve as "major wake-up call experiences," he added. The White House refused again Wednesday to talk about Line 5 publicly, noting that it remains before the courts, although press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed the notion that the dispute in Michigan risks impairing Canada-U.S. relations. "We've talked in here about how important of a partner Canada is, and will continue to be on a range of issues," Psaki said. "But this, again, is an issue before the courts, so I'm not going to have more comment on it." This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2021. NEW YORK (AP) Now that a judge has rejected the National Rifle Associations bankruptcy bid, blocking its plan to reincorporate in Texas, the gun rights group is back to fighting a lawsuit that threatens to put it out of business. NEW YORK (AP) Now that a judge has rejected the National Rifle Associations bankruptcy bid, blocking its plan to reincorporate in Texas, the gun rights group is back to fighting a lawsuit that threatens to put it out of business. Harlin Hale, a federal bankruptcy judge in Dallas, dismissed the NRAs case Tuesday. He ruled the organizations leadership sought Chapter 11 protection in bad faith without informing most of its 76-member board and did so to gain an "unfair advantage" in its fight with New York regulators. What does that mean for the NRA and Americas long-running battle over guns? Heres a look at where things go from here. NEW YORKS LAWSUIT Hales ruling ensures New York Attorney General Letitia James lawsuit seeking the organizations dissolution can continue. James, a Democrat, said Tuesday that discovery is ongoing. The case is expected to go to trial next year. "The rot runs deep, which is why we will now refocus on and continue our case in New York court," James said. James sued the NRA in August 2020, alleging executives diverted tens of millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures. NRA chief Wayne LaPierre and three others who have worked for the organization were also sued. The NRA countersued, alleging James who once called the NRA a "terrorist organization" was motivated by political hostility. That case is pending. In filing for bankruptcy protection in January, the Virginia-headquartered NRA made clear it sought to escape regulatory oversight in New York, where it was chartered as a nonprofit in 1871. James has regulatory power over nonprofits incorporated in the state. The NRA had sought to move litigation to a state where it thought it could get an "even shake," board member Charles Cotton said at the time. Aside from putting the NRA out of business, James also wants LaPierre and the other defendants removed from leadership and ordered to repay money they are accused of illegally spending, plus penalties. "Clearly the NRA is in need of oversight and reform, if not dissolution," James said Tuesday. Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine is also suing the NRAs foundation, seeking to have a court-appointed monitor supervise its finances. The organization is also embroiled in ongoing litigation with its former advertising agency. An NRA lawyer said it filed for bankruptcy in part because it feared the lawsuits would result in "death by 1,000 cuts." SELF-DEALING ALLEGATIONS James lawsuit highlights misspending and self-dealing claims involving LaPierre from his wifes hair and makeup to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself. "There are individuals and officers who are using the NRA as their personal piggy bank and they need to be held accountable," James said Tuesday. LaPierre, whos led day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions on private travel and personal security, and accepting expensive gifts from vendors, including African safaris and use of a 107-foot (32-meter) yacht. The lawsuit said LaPierre, 71, spent NRA money on travel consultants, luxury car services and private jet flights for himself and his family, including more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas. LaPierre has defended himself, testifying last month that cruising the Bahamas on a yacht was a "security retreat" because he was facing threats after mass shootings. He conceded not reporting the trips on conflict-of-interest forms, testifying: "Its one of the mistakes Ive made." Phillip Journey, an NRA board member skeptical of LaPierres leadership, said testimony at the bankruptcy trial about the organizations operations could be fresh ammunition for James lawsuit or a potential criminal inquiry. "They were just waiting for all of these transcripts to be completed, all of these exhibits to be admitted," said Journey, a Kansas judge. "I figure theyre going to go throw them in front of a grand jury and see what pops out." SIGHTS STILL SET ON TEXAS The NRA remains interested in moving to Texas and has powerful allies whod be happy to see it set up shop there. But doing so through another bankruptcy attempt would be fraught with risk, and James says she has the authority to block efforts to abandon its New York incorporation. Hale dismissed the NRAs case without prejudice, meaning the organization can refile but he warned a second bankruptcy petition would prompt him to take a hard look at the NRAs lawyers "unusual involvement" in the groups affairs. The judge wrote that the lawyers actions raised concerns the group couldnt fulfill its fiduciary duty, which might lead him to appoint a trustee. That would hand the organizations reins to an outside official selected by the Biden administrations Justice Department. The NRA could still pursue other steps to incorporate in Texas, where it claims to have about 400,000 members. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said on Twitter that he supports the move. But neither Abbotts office, nor that of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whos voiced support in past, responded to questions about the NRAs possible path to Texas. FUTURE OF GUN DEBATE Even as it filed for bankruptcy protection, the NRA claimed it was in "its strongest financial condition in years" but the coronavirus pandemic and mounting legal costs have hurt. The organization, which in January reported total assets of about $203 million, liabilities of about $153 million, and $31 million in bank loans, said in court papers it saw revenues drop about 7% because of the pandemic. To cut costs, it laid off dozens and canceled its national convention. Gun-control groups have seized on its troubles and a recent spate of mass shootings as prime opportunity to advance new legislation. Yet the NRA has promised to "continue to fight on all fronts." Even with Democrats in control of Congress and the White House, gun-control legislation faces barriers. "The fact that the NRA is a shadow of its former self doesnt mean all of a sudden the nations gun-violence problem is going to solve itself," said Adam Skaggs, chief counsel at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "But certainly, the days where the NRA could wield power and exert unprecedented influence in our legislatures and our political system, I think those days are numbered." In March, the House passed two bills requiring background checks on all firearms sales and transfers and allowing an expanded 10-day review for gun purchases. But the legislation faces a tough road ahead, with some Senate Republican support required for passage. Meanwhile, Journey, who requested that a court-appointed examiner investigate LaPierre, worries what will become of the groups non-lobbying work. Hes particularly concerned dismantling the organization will mean the end of things like firearms safety programs. "I think some organizations may be able to pick up some of the pieces," he said, "but most of it will simply go away." ___ Bleiberg reported from Dallas. DOWNEY, Calif. (AP) Hoping to grab a share of the spotlight in California's expected recall election, Republican candidate for governor Kevin Faulconer on Wednesday proposed ending the state income tax for individuals making up to $50,000 and households up to $100,000 as part of a plan to make the notoriously costly state more affordable for families and the middle class. FILE - In this Feb. 2, 2021, file photo, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kevin Faulconer speaks during a news conference in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles. Faulconer announced Wednesday, May 12, 2021, that he wants to eliminate state income tax for some low- and middle-income people if he's elected. He would need support in the Democratically controlled state Legislature. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File) DOWNEY, Calif. (AP) Hoping to grab a share of the spotlight in California's expected recall election, Republican candidate for governor Kevin Faulconer on Wednesday proposed ending the state income tax for individuals making up to $50,000 and households up to $100,000 as part of a plan to make the notoriously costly state more affordable for families and the middle class. Too often when we hear about tax relief, they're cuts for investors, for the Wall Street crowd," Faulconer said Wednesday at a campaign event in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey. This is for young people just starting out, this is for parents who are paying for diapers or college, this is for folks working long days to put food on the table." Faulconer, the former San Diego mayor, is among a growing list of Republican candidates hoping to oust Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in the all-but-certain election expected this fall. His tax plan was unveiled at an increasingly challenging time for Republicans in their longshot bid to oust Newsom in the heavily Democratic state. The governor blessed with an unprecedented $76 billion surplus not of his making, and billions more in federal coronavirus funding has commanded headlines all week by rolling out a series of proposals with obvious political appeal, including checks up to $1,100 for many lower- and middle-income Californians. Faulconer also is trying to keep pace with his two main Republican competitors, businessman John Cox and former Olympian and reality TV personality Caitlyn Jenner, who have garnered more recent attention. The low-key event around the corner from a popular bakery didn't draw a crowd, beyond a handful of TV cameras. A governor has limited power to reduce taxes unilaterally, so Faulconer would need approval from the Legislature to enact his plan. If he wins the recall, he would take office with Democratic supermajorities in the Assembly and Senate, which gives the party a stranglehold on power in both chambers. Faulconer, who worked with a Democrat-majority City Council in San Diego, said he' would seek to win legislative support by first getting public buy-in. Its just too expensive to live in California, period," he told The Associated Press ahead of his announcement. Im a big believer in going out and winning the argument publicly, and then we will win the vote." Under Faulconer's plan, there would be a 0% marginal income tax rate on the first $50,000 in income for individuals and $100,000 for households. That means people making those amounts or less wouldn't pay state income tax, while those making up to $1 million would see a low effective tax rate. Faulconer chose to make his announcement in the small city southeast of Los Angeles that has a median income of just more than $75,000, roughly the same as the median income statewide. It's also known for its financially ascendant Latino community. The former mayor estimated the plan would save individuals nearly $2,000 and families nearly $4,000 annually and said his plan would benefit 99% of taxpayers. Faulconer said his proposed cuts would reduce state revenues by about $15 billion annually and pointed to the state's expected $76 billion surplus this year as evidence the state can afford it. Asked what would happen if the economy tumbled, and if he would slash programs to support a continuing, deep tax cut, Faulconer said such a drastic move wouldnt be necessary. As mayor, having to balance many budgets, its about priorities. Its about spending dollars on whats important, on services that Californians actually need and expect and deserve," he said. He further said Sacramento has a spending problem." But he declined to give any specific details on what views as excess or what he would cut. California's budget relies heavily on personal income tax from the wealthiest Californians those making more than $1 million annually and their taxes would not change under Faulconer's plan. Republicans regularly complain that California's high taxes make the state unaffordable for people and are causing the rich to flee. They point to high-profile examples of companies such as Oracle and Hewlett Packard moving their headquarters out of California. Newsom, meanwhile, proposed on Monday giving tax rebates of up to $1,100 each to more than 11 million low- and middle-income taxpayers. Taxpayers making between $30,000 and $75,000 would get a one-time $600 rebate. Those making up to $75,000 with children would get an extra $500. The governor's campaign did not immediately comment on Faulconer's proposal. A recent study by the Public Policy Institute of California found the state is losing lower and middle-income people and those without college degrees, while it's gaining higher-income people with degrees. State officials announced last week that California's population declined by 182,000 in 2020, and the state lost a U.S. House seat for the first time ever with last month's release of Census data. Faulconer also pledged not to raise taxes if he wins. But a governor also lacks that power. He could veto legislation raising taxes, but the Legislature could override him with two-thirds votes in both chambers. He would also exempt veterans' income from military retirement from being taxed. Faulconer has the most political experience of any Republican in the race, and he's looking to craft himself as a credible alternative to Newsom, compared to his rivals. Cox, who lost to Newsom in a landslide in 2018, last week campaigned alongside a bear as he branded himself the beast" and Newsom a pretty boy" who fails to make tough decisions. Cox will release his own tax cut plan soon, said spokesman Anthony Ramirez, who criticized Faulconer's record on taxes. As San Diego mayor, he proposed raising the hotel tax to raise money for a convention center expansion, infrastructure and tackling homelessness. We welcome Kevin's new-found religion on tax cuts," Ramirez said. Jenner, meanwhile, did not appear well-versed in California's policy issues during her first television interviews last week. Her campaign did not immediately comment on Faulconer's proposal. Ronayne reported from Sacramento, California. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) An outside investigation into the death of a Black doctor while she battled COVID-19 has found that the treatment she received at a suburban Indianapolis hospital did not contribute to her death, its parent organization said Wednesday. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) An outside investigation into the death of a Black doctor while she battled COVID-19 has found that the treatment she received at a suburban Indianapolis hospital did not contribute to her death, its parent organization said Wednesday. However, the review by a panel of six outside experts concluded Dr. Susan Moore suffered from a lack of cultural competence on the part of those treating her at IU Health North in Carmel, parent IU Health said. IU Health in its statement acknowledged a lack of empathy and compassion was shown in the delivery of her care. died Dec. 20, about two weeks after she was released from IU Health North and then admitted to a different hospital. Dec. 4 Facebook post, she said she had to repeatedly ask for medication, scans and routine checks while admitted to IU Health North. She said a white doctor in particular seemingly dismissed her pain, and she said she didnt trust the hospital. IU Health did not specify the :empathy and compassion issues, or identify which caregivers were responsible for Moore' s medical care. We owe it to our patients to always show up for them, to treat them with dignity and respect, to appreciate their perspectives, and to validate their feelings when they are in our care, IU Health CEO Dennis Murphy said in a statement. We did not live up to these values with Dr. Moore and acknowledge that we have more to do to become a more diverse, inclusive and anti-racist health system, Murphy said. Indianapolis Business Journal that no staff members will be terminated, at the recommendation of the outside review panel, which included four Black members. He said a small number of staff members will be placed on administrative leave while they receive diversity training, then will be returned to their clinical roles. The hospital system has begun taking steps including conduct training for all employees to enhance compassion, encourage empathy and facilitate an optimal patient experience after receiving recommendations from the panel. IU Health, the states largest hospital system, also said it also plans to hire more patient care advocates, improve patient care coordination, and increase support for team members who experience burnout and poor patient outcomes. The hospital system said it will talk to community leaders and stakeholders to publicly acknowledge the history of racism in healthcare and Indiana, and how IU Health will work toward reconciliation and change. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-13 02:42:26|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held a telephone conversation on Wednesday afternoon with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani to express his condolences over the recent terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, the Iranian presidency's official website said. On Saturday, three consecutive explosions outside a secondary school for girls in the west of Kabul, capital of Afghanistan killed at least 50 and injured more than 100 others. According to a statement by the Iranian presidency, Rouhani told Ghani that his country considers security in Afghanistan as its own security, and supports a peace process in Afghanistan led by the Afghan people and government. Rouhani voiced Iran's readiness to "help establish peace and tranquility" in Afghanistan, and pointed to a more active role of the United Nations in the Afghan peace process as a means to prevent great powers to unilaterally impose their policies on Afghanistan and the countries of the region. Meanwhile, other Iranian high-ranking officials and groups have expressed solidarity and sympathy with the victims of terrorism in Afghanistan since the attack on Saturday. Enditem The Biden administration is considering sanctions over Chinas alleged use of forced labor in production of solar panels and other components in renewable energy, climate envoy John Kerry told lawmakers Wednesday. The Biden administration is considering sanctions over Chinas alleged use of forced labor in production of solar panels and other components in renewable energy, climate envoy John Kerry told lawmakers Wednesday. Kerrys comments at the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing sought to defuse one of the main arguments that congressional Republicans have cited against President Joe Bidens push for a climate-friendly makeover of the U.S. economy: China's manufacturing dominance risks implicating buyers of Chinese-made solar panels, batteries and other green-energy tech in that countrys human rights abuses. detention of more than 1 million people, who rights groups, news organizations and governments say are forced into labor in factories and other workplaces. China's foreign ministry last month called the accusations "lies and false information concocted by anti-China forces. Republicans have cited those human rights concerns about Chinese-made renewable-energy components, and Chinas status as the worlds largest emitter of climate-wrecking fossil fuel pollution, in countering Democratic calls to step up U.S. solar and wind production and wind down coal and petroleum use. How can you assure us that slave labor coming out of China, where genocide is taking place as we speak, are never a part of the climate solution in the United States? asked Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the senior Republican on the committee. Kerry told McCaul he was absolutely correct to raise the concern. It is a problem, Kerry said. He cited solar panels that we believe in some cases are being produced by forced labor. Kerry also listed rare earth minerals produced by China and used in things such as magnets for wind turbines, among other uses. Kerry said the administration was assessing whether to add those to the list of products from Xinjiang province that the United States is already penalizing. He said he did not know where the administration was in that review. The State Department did not immediately respond to a question seeking details. Biden is calling for the United States to put trillions of dollars into his jobs plan and other proposals that would retool U.S. power and transportation sectors to pump out less fossil fuel pollution. That includes promoting U.S. use of solar, wind and other renewable energy and boosting the country's patchy production of components vital to those industries. The best thing we could do is be more competitive when it comes to China's dominance in the field of climate-friendly tech, Kerry said. Other countries are cornering the market on that why arent we? he asked. Kerry is a former secretary of state under President Barack Obama who now serves as Biden's envoy for climate and natural security. Under pressing from the committee's Republicans, Kerry also repeated his denial of a claim that he once shared with Iran's foreign minister information that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times. The New York Times reported late last month that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made that claim in a recording that subsequently leaked. Zarif described himself as astonished at that news from Kerry, the newspaper said. On no occasion. Never, Kerry said, in one of several flat denials to GOP lawmakers' demands for more details. That didn't happen. End of story. Kerry also said he had never seen or heard a report of 200 such attacks before the article was published. Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut is preparing for the arrival of five Beluga whales from a zoo and amusement park in Canada after navigating approval processes on both sides of the U.S. border and overcoming legal challenges from environmental groups. FILE In this July 5, 2018, file photo, members of the brass ensemble for the 7th Regiment Drum and Bugle Corps, interact with Juno, one of the Beluga whales at Mystic Aquarium, in Stonington, Conn., after playing in front of the Alaska Coast exhibit. Mystic Aquarium is preparing for the arrival of five Beluga whales from a zoo and amusement park in Canada after navigating approval processes on both sides of the U.S. border and overcoming legal challenges from environmental groups. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day via AP) Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut is preparing for the arrival of five Beluga whales from a zoo and amusement park in Canada after navigating approval processes on both sides of the U.S. border and overcoming legal challenges from environmental groups. Government officials from Fisheries and Oceans Canada recently approved the export of the whales from Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario to Mystic, which specializes in Beluga research. That follows U.S. approval of the move last September. Experts from both facilities were in Niagara Falls Wednesday examining the four female and one male Belugas and preparing to fly them to Connecticut as early as this weekend, according to Stephen Coan, the Connecticut aquariums president and chief executive. The whales are expected to spend a few weeks acclimating to their new environment in tanks separated by a gate from Mystic's three current resident Belugas Kela, Juno and Natasha before being fully integrated into the 750,000-gallon habitat. Coan said the whales, which range in age from 7 to 12, were born in captivity and cannot be released into the ocean. He said they will be leaving an overcrowded habitat with about 50 other whales and will be at the center of important research designed to benefit Belugas in the wild. We have state of the art veterinary care and state of the art facilities," he said. This is the largest Beluga habitat in North America. They will be much better off here. Connecticut-based Friends of Animals and other activists sought to block the transport in a lawsuit last fall against the U.S. Commerce secretary and National Marine Fisheries Service, which had approved the research permit. A federal judge in March declined to issue an injunction. Stephen Hernick, the senior attorney for the Friends of Animals Wildlife Law Program, called it a heartbreaking day for the whales. The group claims the U.S. permit violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the National Environmental Policy Act because government officials did not adequately address the potential harm to the belugas of being moved to Mystic. There are other Belugas already in the United States that they can study," he said. "They can study these Belugas in Canada and its unnecessary to do this transport and harm these Belugas in the process in order to do research. Dr. Allison Tuttle, who heads the zoological operations at Mystic, said the animals will be comfortable and meticulously cared for during the transport and once they arrive. She said they will be trained through positive reinforcement a fish, a tongue rub or a fun toy to play with to voluntarily assist in research being done by the world's top experts in the field. That research will be used as a baseline to compare against wild Belugas in studying things like their health and immune systems. These animals are really big and you can't make a Beluga do anything, she said. They are in the water and if they want to open their mouths and let you take a look, they will. If they don't, they will swim away. They get fed and get their enrichment items, regardless. The research permit does not allow for the animals to be trained to perform for the public or to be bred. Coan said they never actively breed animals and the female Belugas will be kept away from the males when ovulating. He said he expects top researchers from around the world will visit Mystic to work with the Belugas, which are known for their white color, bulbous forehead and vocal sounds. We're the only institution really focused on Beluga whale research, he said. And the animals here are really used to non-invasive research techniques. We have a very unique situation here and none of our research is invasive or harms the whales in any way." GENEVA (AP) A panel of independent experts who reviewed the World Health Organizations response to the coronavirus pandemic says the U.N. health agency should be granted guaranteed rights of access in countries to investigate emerging outbreaks, a contentious idea that would give it more powers and require member states to give up some of theirs. FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020 file photo, Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies program, speaks during a news conference at the WHO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. At right is WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. As WHO faces allegations that unnamed staffers were involved in the systemic sexual abuse of women, Tedros has declared he was outraged, and Ryan said, We have no more information than you have. But an AP investigation has found that senior WHO management was not only informed of specific cases of alleged sexual misconduct in 2019, but was asked how to handle them. (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP) GENEVA (AP) A panel of independent experts who reviewed the World Health Organizations response to the coronavirus pandemic says the U.N. health agency should be granted guaranteed rights of access in countries to investigate emerging outbreaks, a contentious idea that would give it more powers and require member states to give up some of theirs. In a report released Wednesday, the panel faulted countries worldwide for their sluggish response to COVID-19, saying most waited to see how the virus was spreading until it was too late to contain it, leading to catastrophic results. The group also slammed the lack of global leadership and restrictive international health laws that hindered WHOs response to the pandemic. Some experts criticized the panel for failing to hold WHO and others accountable for their actions during COVID-19, describing that as an abdication of responsibility. Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University said the panel "fails to call out bad actors like China, perpetuating the dysfunctional WHO tradition of diplomacy over frankness, transparency and accountability. The panel was led by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who were tapped by WHO last year to examine the U.N. agencys response to COVID-19 after bowing to a request from member countries. The situation we find ourselves in today could have been prevented, Johnson Sirleaf said. Beyond the call to boost WHO's ability to investigate outbreaks, the panel made an array of recommendations, such as urging the health agency and the World Trade Organization to convene a meeting of vaccine-producing countries and manufacturers to quickly reach deals about voluntary licensing and technology transfer, in an effort to boost the world's global supply of coronavirus shots. The panel also suggested that WHO's director-general currently Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia should be limited to a single seven-year term. As it stands, the WHO chief is elected to a five-year term that can be renewed once. The suggestion to limit the tenure of WHO's top leader appeared in part designed to ease the intense political pressure that WHO director-generals can face. Last year, the Trump administration repeatedly inveighed against the agency's handling of the pandemic taking aim at WHO's alleged collusion with China. Associated Press investigation in June found WHO repeatedly lauded China in public while officials privately complained that Chinese officials stalled on sharing critical epidemic information with them, including the new virus genetic sequence. Clark said the global diseases surveillance system needed to be overhauled with WHO's role strengthened. WHO should have the powers necessary to investigate outbreaks of concern, speedily guaranteed rights of access, and with the ability to publish information without waiting for member state approval, she said. Sophie Harman, a professor of international politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the panel's recommendations were unlikely to be entirely welcomed by WHO's member countries, and thus, unlikely to be implemented. Which states would actually allow WHO in to investigate an outbreak without their permission? she asked. Many doctors fatigued after treating COVID-19 patients said any reform of WHO should include an evaluation of its ability to properly assess the science of an emerging health threat. David Tomlinson, a British physician who has been campaigning for health workers during the pandemic in the U.K., said WHO failed on the most fundamental aspect in its scientific leadership of COVID-19. He said WHO's failure to acknowledge that much coronavirus transmission happens in the air has amplified the pandemic. WHO has said coronavirus spread can happen in limited circumstances in the air but recommended against mask-wearing for the general public until last June. Clare Wenham, a professor of global health policy at the London School of Economics, said the report overall was good, but questioned its support for the U.N.-backed program for coronavirus vaccines called COVAX, which relies on a donation model. Of the millions of COVID-19 vaccines administered to date, developing countries have received just 7%, WHO said this week. (COVAX) is not addressing one of the main problems, which is we need to rapidly ramp up production of the vaccines and distribution of vaccines, she said. "And its still working on the model of a finite number thats only able be produced by a certain few manufacturing locations. Overall, she suggested politicians needed to budge more than technical institutions like WHO. The problems arent technical. The problems are political. The problems are about like: How do you get governments to behave and think about things beyond their own borders?" Wenham said. I dont think that has been resolved. AP Medical Writer Maria Cheng reported from London. Follow APs pandemic coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak QUEBEC - While political and business leaders across the country scramble to avoid a shutdown of Enbridge Inc.'s Line 5 pipeline, Quebec could be spared the most serious consequences if the oil stops flowing. This June 2020 photo, shot from a television screen provided by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy shows damage to anchor support EP-17-1 on the east leg of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline within the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy via AP QUEBEC - While political and business leaders across the country scramble to avoid a shutdown of Enbridge Inc.'s Line 5 pipeline, Quebec could be spared the most serious consequences if the oil stops flowing. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, backed by environmentalists and Indigenous groups, says the pipeline that runs under Lake Huron and Lake Michigan is vulnerable to a catastrophic spill. She ordered the critical piece of energy infrastructure closed by May 12. Federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Regan said in a recent statement Line 5 does not just affect one province or one region it supports our entire country." The Canadian government has filed a brief in connection with the legal dispute between Michigan and Enbridge. The Canadian and U.S. chambers of commerce have also joined forces with their counterparts in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin by filing a joint brief in court arguing against Whitmer's bid to shut down the cross-border pipeline. "It remains the safest, most efficient way to transport fuel to refineries and markets and is a reliable source of energy for Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ontario and Quebec," O'Regan said, adding that close to half of Quebecs fuel supply derives from that pipeline. But Suncor's refinery in Montreal and Valero's refinery in Levis, Que., south of Quebec City, say they have contingency plans in place. And Pierre-Olivier Pineau, chair in energy sector management at HEC business school in Montreal, says Quebecers wouldnt be seriously impacted if Line 5 were to close. If theres such a strong political reaction in Canada, its because to the contrary of Quebec, other provinces dont have options, Pineau said. Shutting down Line 5, Pineau explained, would be like going back in time. In 2015, before Enbridge received the authorization to operate their pipeline in Quebec, Valero and Suncor received crude oil by boat, rail or from the pipeline between Portland, Maine, and Montreal. If Line 5 is closed, then Quebec's refineries could be served by those three other options, he said. Suncor and Valero didn't want to give details about where they would look to fill the gap left by Line 5. Marina Binotto, spokeswoman for Valero, says the location of Leviss refinery along the St. Lawrence River is key when it comes to diversifying fuel suppliers. We have access to a deepwater port, allowing us to be supplied by ships, Binotto said. It is always desirable to have flexibility in our sources and ways of supply. Sneh Seetal, a spokeswoman for Suncor, said the company and its refinery in Montreal "have contingency plans in place, but as its commercially sensitive, I cant provide specifics." But she added that places such as Eastern Canada, Michigan and neighbouring states might have to import refined fuel products to fill any gaps and "this will come at a cost." Quebec Energy Minister Jonatan Julien said in a statement on Tuesday the pipeline is a crucial infrastructure for the province and the government is in favour of keeping Line 5 in operation. Julien, however, also said Quebec continues efforts to ensure the diversification of our sources of energy." Michigan's governor and Enbridge have agreed to mediation sessions but Enbridge wont budge. The company says it wont cease operations unless ordered by a court, arguing that the pipeline is running safely and reliably. An expert who studies the Great Lakes region disagrees. David Schwab, a research oceanographer at Michigan Technological University, has been studying the Great Lakes for the past 45 years. He pointed to a 2013 investigation by the National Wildlife Federation, which revealed that the 68-year-old pipeline, which runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac and carries 540,000 barrels per day of propane and crude oil, was unsupported and vulnerable to strong water currents. What happened is over time, the sand, mud and certain sections of the pipeline have been washed away, Schwab said in a recent interview. If we were to try and build that pipeline today, would it even be allowed? Schwab argues that the aging pipeline is a catastrophe waiting to happen if nothing is done. The researcher conducted more than 800 simulated spills in 2016, which he said indicated that depending on weather conditions and currents, the oil could reach Canadian shores. The Straits of Mackinac is the worst place in the Great Lakes to have an oil spill, Schwab said. There are so many different places that the oil could go. It could go anywhere! This report by The Canadian Press was first published on May 12, 2021. with files from The Associated Press. SAO PAULO (AP) Authorities in Brazil's most populous state on Wednesday said they have mobilized to try to convince the Chinese government to authorize the export of raw material to make millions of COVID-19 vaccines needed amid a sudden shortage. A health worker gives a shot of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to Sergio Quitanilla, 55, during a priority vaccination program for people with Down syndrome, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Monday, May 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Andre Penner) SAO PAULO (AP) Authorities in Brazil's most populous state on Wednesday said they have mobilized to try to convince the Chinese government to authorize the export of raw material to make millions of COVID-19 vaccines needed amid a sudden shortage. The South American nation is highly dependent on a shot made by pharmaceutical company Sinovac for its immunization efforts, and in recent weeks several Brazilian cities have either suspended or delayed vaccinations due to faltering supplies. The factory that produces the vaccine locally, at Sao Paulo's state-run Butantan Institute, has slowed production due to lack of raw material, and Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro and his economy minister, Paulo Guedes, made statements critical of China this month. Sao Paulo's Gov. Joao Doria an adversary of Bolsonaro's implied their comments may have created the bottleneck. Hours after speaking to Chinas ambassador to Brazil, Doria said in a press conference that Bolsonaro and Guedes should apologize to the Asian nation for their recent comments so China can resume exports. He (Chinese ambassador Yang Wanming) told me he will talk to Chinas ministry of foreign affairs tomorrow to renew his appeal to release the raw material that is ready at the Sinovac laboratory, Doria said. That raw material is ready and available in refrigerated containers, just waiting for the authorization of the Chinese government. Doria added there was risk of a halt in immunization efforts if about 10,000 liters of raw material stuck in China enough to bottle 18 million shots doesn't arrive soon. The Chinese embassy in the capital Brasilia, when contacted by the AP, didn't confirm the call with Gov. Doria took place. Dimas Covas, the head of the Butantan Institute, also said on Wednesday he had called Brazils ambassador to China, Paulo Mesquita, to ask him to step up the pressure on Beijing. He added that a representative of Sao Paulos state government who had been based in Shanghai moved to the Chinese capital one week ago to bolster their efforts. Bolsonaro suggested on May 5 that China had benefited economically during the pandemic and echoed a conspiracy theory that the disease may have been created in a laboratory, without providing evidence. It is a new virus, nobody knows if it was born in a laboratory or by some human being that ate an inadequate animal. But it is there. The military knows what chemical, bacteriological and radiologic war is. Arent we facing a new war? Bolsonaro said during an event at the presidential palace. Which country grew its GDP the most? I wont tell you. Later that day, the Brazilian president denied that he had been referring to China and blamed the media for the blowback. A few days earlier, Economy Minister Guedes said during a live feed of a meeting with the nation's health minister that the Chinese invented COVID-19. How can they attack those who supply us with raw materials and vaccines to save Brazils population? Doria said at the press conference. The AstraZeneca vaccine, the only other that Brazil has so far used on a massive scale, also depends on raw material imported from China. Only 7.3% of the countrys population has been fully vaccinated against the disease, according to Our World in Data, an online research site. More than 420,000 Brazilians have died of COVID-19. Brazils foreign relations ministry said in a statement Tuesday night it is permanently following the process of authorization of raw materials export. It added that foreign minister Carlos Franca has recently spoken with Chinas foreign affairs minister, Wang Yi, seeking more cooperation in the fight against the pandemic (Chinese authorities) reiterated that possible delays are not intentional, given that China is exporting raw material to several countries, which brings an extensive demand and overload both in the fabrication of vaccines and ingredients and in bureaucratic procedures, the foreign relations ministry said in an emailed response to questions. ____ AP reporter Marcelo Sousa contributed to this report from Rio de Janeiro. BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) Slovakia's health minister says he plans to keep AstraZeneca in the country's vaccine arsenal, speaking a day after the country suspended use of the shots after a recipient died. Vials of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine sit in a table at the local vaccine center in Dunajska Streda, southern Slovakia, March 14, 2021. The AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine should remain part of Slovakias vaccination program the countrys Health Minister said on Wednesday, May 12. Slovakia on Tuesday halted use of the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine after Slovakias State Institute for Drug Control concluded last week that the death of a 47-year-old woman who received the AstraZeneca was likely linked to the vaccine. (Edmund Orzsik/TASR via AP) BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) Slovakia's health minister says he plans to keep AstraZeneca in the country's vaccine arsenal, speaking a day after the country suspended use of the shots after a recipient died. Slovakia on Tuesday halted use of the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine after its State Institute for Drug Control concluded last week that the death of a 47-year-old woman who received the AstraZeneca was "likely linked to the vaccine. AstraZeneca is still being administered, however, to those who have already gotten the first dose and are awaiting a second shot. It's currently being given to people between the ages of 18 and 44. Health Minister Vladimir Lengvarsky said the cause of womans death was still under investigation. He said another, and the main reason, for the suspension was that Slovakia does not have enough AstraZeneca shots to continue their administration. Slovakia, like other members of the European Union, have seen a drop in deliveries from the company. We still count on AstraZeneca in our vaccination plan, Lengvarsky said. Millions of doses of AstraZeneca have been safely administered in Europe, but concerns linger over a rare type of blood clot seen in an extremely small number of recipients. Denmark and Norway, countries which are very cautious with all vaccines, suspended their use of AstraZeneca shots in March amid news of the rare blood clots. Lengvarsky said his ministry was working to allow people to have a free choice beginning in June among the available vaccines, including the unregistered ones. Slovakia has 200,000 doses of Russia-made Sputnik V vaccine available but has not allowed its use yet. Lengvarsky said use of the Russian shots might possibly also start in June. He still has to approve Sputnik V's use. Slovakia has been administering Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, and is expected to have Johnson & Johnson soon. It would be only the second European Union nation after Hungary to use Sputnik V, which has not been authorized by the European Medicines Agency. A secret deal for Slovakia to purchase 2 million Sputnik V shots orchestrated by then-Prime Minister Igor Matovic triggered a political crisis in March that resulted in the Slovak governments collapse. Follow APs pandemic coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A conservative legal outfit filed a lawsuit Wednesday against President Joe Biden's administration for its prioritization of restaurants and bars owned by women and certain minorities in its COVID-19 relief package, arguing white men are being pushed to the back of the line" for aid for their eateries. NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) A conservative legal outfit filed a lawsuit Wednesday against President Joe Biden's administration for its prioritization of restaurants and bars owned by women and certain minorities in its COVID-19 relief package, arguing white men are being pushed to the back of the line" for aid for their eateries. The lawsuit led by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty targets the period from May 3 until May 24 during which the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund will only process and fund requests from businesses owned by women; veterans; or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. Eligibility opens broadly after that period. Biden has previously said that female-owned and minority-owned businesses have been disproportionately hurt by the COVID-19 economic crisis. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in East Tennessee names U.S. Small Business Association Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman as the defendant. A Small Business Administration spokesperson, Carol R. WIlkerson, said in an email that the agency does not comment on pending litigation. The group sued on behalf of plaintiff Antonio Vitolo, owner of Jakes Bar and Grill in Harriman, Tennessee. Vitolo applied immediately for aid on May 3, but doesn't qualify to receive aid yet because he is a white male, according to the lawsuit. The group argues the gender and race distinctions are unconstitutional and is seeking an immediate halt to payouts under the program until the government starts processing them on a first-come, first-served basis. Given the limited pot of funds, this puts white male applicants at significant risk that, by the time their applications are processed, the money will be gone, the lawsuit states. The program relies on a definition of "socially disadvantaged" that is limited to people subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias because of their identity as a member of a group without regard to their individual qualities. Groups presumed to be socially disadvantaged include: Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, including Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians; Asian Pacific Americans; and Subcontinent Asian Americans. For the $28.6 billion program, the Small Business Administration announced Wednesday that women, veterans, and socially and economically disadvantaged business owners have applied for $29 billion through more than 147,000 applications. Payments totaling $2.7 billion have already been sent out to 21,000 restaurants, officials said. Beyond just the initial priority groups, the administration said it has received more than 266,000 applications total, representing more than $65 billion. Officials said the application portal will remain open because the administration still has potential money available for businesses with 2019 annual revenue of $50,000 or less. The numbers show that weve been particularly successful at reaching the smallest restaurants and underserved communities that have struggled to access relief," said Guzman, the administrator, in a statement. The program extends to other similar types of businesses that meet a threshold for on-site eating and drinking, from bakeries to breweries. The U.S. Department of Justice and a Small Business Administration spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit. The lawsuit says Vitolo's wife is Hispanic and owns half of the restaurant, but he is not eligible yet for payment. The law says a business is required to have 51% ownership by someone in one of the priority groups to qualify for the early priority for aid. the Biden administration on behalf of white Midwestern farmers over another portion of the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package, alleging last month that they can't participate in a COVID-19 loan forgiveness program because theyre white. Under the Biden restaurant relief program, restaurants and bars can qualify for grants equal to their pandemic-related revenue losses, with a cap of $10 million per business and $5 million per location. The program has set aside $9.5 billion for the smallest restaurants and bars, and a third of the applications were filed by businesses with annual pre-pandemic revenues of less than $500,000. BOSTON (AP) An outside audit three years ago of the major East Coast pipeline company hit by a cyberattack found atrocious information management practices and a patchwork of poorly connected and secured systems, its author told The Associated Press. BOSTON (AP) An outside audit three years ago of the major East Coast pipeline company hit by a cyberattack found atrocious information management practices and a patchwork of poorly connected and secured systems, its author told The Associated Press. We found glaring deficiencies and big problems, said Robert F. Smallwood, whose consulting firm delivered an 89-page report in January 2018 after a six-month audit. I mean an eighth-grader could have hacked into that system. How far the company, Colonial Pipeline, went to address the vulnerabilities isn't clear. Colonial said Wednesday that since 2017, it has hired four independent firms for cybersecurity risk assessments and increased its overall IT spending by more than 50%. While it did not specify an amount, it said it has spent tens of millions of dollars. "We are constantly assessing and improving our security practices both physical and digital, the privately held Georgia company said in response to questions from the AP about the audit's findings. It did not name the firms who did cybersecurity work but one firm, Rausch Advisory Services, located in Atlanta near Colonial's headquarters, acknowledged being among them. Colonial's chief information officer sits on Rausch's advisory board. Colonial has not said how the hackers penetrated its network. How vulnerable it was to compromise is sure to be intensely scrutinized by federal authorities and cybersecurity experts as they consider how the most damaging cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure might have been prevented. has led to distribution problems and panic-buying, draining supplies at thousands of gas stations in the Southeast. Colonial said it initiated the restart of pipeline operations on Wednesday afternoon and that it would take several days for supply delivery to return to normal. attacks have reached epidemic levels as foreign criminal gangs paralyze computer networks at state and local governments, police departments, hospitals and universities demanding large sums to decrypt the data. Many organizations have failed to invest in the safeguards needed to fend off such attacks, though U.S. officials worry even more about state-backed foreign hackers doing more serious damage. Any shortcomings by Colonial would be especially egregious given its critical role in the U.S. energy system, providing the East Coast with 45% of its gasoline, jet fuel and other petroleum products. iMERGEs audit was not directly focused on cybersecurity we found many security issues, and that was put in the report. Colonials statements Wednesday suggest it may have heeded a number of Smallwoods recommendations. In addition, it says it has active monitoring and overlapping threat-detection systems on its network and identified the ransomware attack as soon as we learned of it. Colonial said its IT network is strictly segregated from pipeline control systems, which were not affected by the ransomware. in a statement Tuesday. Smallwoods study was not a cybersecurity audit. It focused on ensuring smooth operations and preventing data theft, which is exactly what Colonial suffered last week. Colonial is not saying what the cybercriminals took before activating the ransomware. The hackers, from a Russian-speaking syndicate called DarkSide, steal data before locking up networks to doubly extort victims. If a victim refuses to pay, they not only refuse to unscramble the data, they threaten to release sensitive material online. Colonial has not said whether it paid DarkSide. Smallwood read portions of his report to the AP but would not share it because he said some of the content is confidential. He said he was paid about $50,000 for it. He cited, for example, Colonial's inability to locate a particular maintenance document. "Youre supposed to be able to find it within 15 minutes. It took them three weeks. Locating such a document could be crucial in responding to an accident or keeping up-to-date pipeline inspection records to prevent leaks, Smallwood said. unacceptable. Colonial says it released the best available data on spill volume as the discovery progressed. Separately, shippers have complained to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that Colonial inflated what it spends on pipeline integrity to deflect accusations it overcharges them. Colonial rejects this, citing the rising costs of safely maintaining its system. Bill Caram, executive director of the nonprofit watchdog Pipeline Safety Trust, called worrisome the allegations of deficient IT management, piecemeal spill reporting and pipeline integrity issues. I think all these things just could paint a picture of the culture at Colonial maybe not taking risks seriously enough, he said. Smallwood said he was reluctant to go public about the Colonial audit for fear of alienating future clients but the gravity of the situation demands that the public know just how fragile some of these systems within our infrastructure are. One of his main recommendations was that Colonial hire a chief information security officer, a position that cybersecurity experts consider essential in any company with infrastructure vital to national security. Colonial said it instead assigned those responsibilities to a subordinate of chief information officer Marie Mouchet. Mouchet was on the advisory board of Rausch when it did a cybersecurity study for Colonial concurrent to Smallwoods audit. Asked if that might present a conflict of interest, Rausch CEO Michael Lisenby said Mochet's advisory board seat is an unpaid, voluntary position. Smallwoods recommendations included a data loss prevention program to ensure highly confidential, marketable data such as details on how the pipeline is used could not be easily removed. Colonial says it has strengthened data-loss-prevention defenses with three different software tools that provide alerts when data leaves the network. Smallwood said he found no security-awareness training, which mostly teaches employees not to fall victim to phishing, the cause of more than 90% of cyber-intrusions. But Colonial said its expanded cybersecurity regime includes regular simulated phishing campaigns for employees. The audit covered environmental procurement, legal risk, business development, asset integrity, accounting and tax safety operations, information technology, (Microsoft) SharePoint and human resources. And so it was a very comprehensive assessment, said Smallwood. Originally founded by nine oil companies in 1962, Colonial is privately held. It's owners include a pair of private equity firms, a Canadian fund manager, a Koch Industries subsidiary and a subsidiary of Shell Midstream Partners. The company does not release earnings or revenue figures. This story has been updated to correct reference to one of the owners of Colonial. It is a Koch Industries subsidiary, not a Koch Brothers subsidiary. JERUSALEM (AP) The Latest on confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians as Israel signals a widening military campaign: An Israeli soldier stands guard next to an Iron Dome air defense system as smoke rises from an oil tank on fire after it was hit by a rocket fire from Gaza Strip, near the town of Ashkelon, Israel,, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) JERUSALEM (AP) The Latest on confrontations between Israelis and Palestinians as Israel signals a widening military campaign: JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is condemning the anarchy of Jewish-Arab violence in cities across the country after a day of tumultuous unrest. Netanyahu said Wednesday that nothing justifies Jews attacking Arabs or Arabs attacking Jews. He vows to restore order after two days of violence unchecked by police. In his words: It doesnt matter to me that your blood is boiling. You cant take the law in your hands. Shortly after he spoke, police reported two people injured in a shooting in the restive city of Lod. Despite large police mobilization under a state of emergency and a nighttime curfew, Lod was the scene of street battles between Jewish and Arab mobs Wednesday night. WASHINGTON U.S. President Joe Biden says that Israel has a right to defend itself amid a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian groups from Gaza. Biden says he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the dayslong outbreak of violence that has killed dozens. Says Biden: My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later. He adds, Israel has a right to defend itself when you have thousands of rockets flying into your territory. Israel escalated its air campaign in Gaza on Wednesday, killing a string of senior Hamas military figures as it hammered the Gaza Strip with airstrikes. Militants in the territory fired rocket barrages into Israel. MOSCOW Russia is calling for a quick meeting of international mediators to help defuse the spiraling Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says it is necessary to call an urgent meeting of the so-called Quartet of mediators, which includes the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Lavrov made the statement after talking Wednesday with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Lavrov says a quick ministerial meeting of the Quartet is the most acute task now. He voices hope that Guterres can help convene such a meeting. Guterres says we are totally committed to revitalizing the Quartet. UNITED NATIONS The U.N. relief agency for Palestinian refugees has condemned in the strongest possible terms" the killing of four children the previous day in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza. UNRWA says the children two siblings and two cousins were killed near the refugee camp of Beit Hanoun. It says they were under the age of 12 and went to schools in the territory sponsored by the agency. Wednesday's statement says: Our hearts go out to their families and friends in communities that have been so cruelly affected by this latest escalation." UNRWA provides critical services to more than 1.4 million Palestine refugees in Gaza and delivers education to some 285,000 Palestine refugee students there. The statement also repeated profound concern regarding the impact of the military escalation on children by placing their lives and futures at risk. The escalation between Israel and Gaza this week has killed 65 Palestinians in Gaza, including 16 children and five women. Seven people have been killed on the Israeli side by rocket fire from Gaza, including a 6-year old and an Israeli soldier, the first military death in this round of conflict. TEL AVIV, Israel A large crowd of ultranationalist Israelis have attacked a car in a Tel Aviv suburb they suspected was driven by an Arab, dragging the driver out of the car and beating him. A video from the scene on Wednesday shows the driver trying to maneuver the vehicle to flee the scene but colliding into two other vehicles. He is then pulled from the vehicle and beaten. TV footage from the scene showed the driver motionless on the ground. Smoke caused by Israeli airstrikes is seen on a residential building in Gaza City, early Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) A doctor at Tel Avivs Ichilov hospital says the driver is hospitalized with serious injuries. Dr. Eyal Hashiva told reporters he suffered major trauma to his entire body but was in stable condition. However, the suburb of Bat Yams Deputy Mayor Eyal Yariv told Channel 12 that police did not respond to city halls calls for assistance. Police said they deployed forces along the citys border with Jaffa to prevent the mob from entering the Arab neighborhood. Violent unrest has involved Jewish and Arab throngs in Lod, Acre, and Tiberias since the latest escalation between Israel and the Palestinians erupted this week. Also on Wednesday, a crowd of around 100 Jewish protesters marched down Jaffa Street in central Jerusalem, chanting death to Arabs. And in the northern city of Acre, an Arab mob attacked and critically injured a Jewish man. Paramedics said the ambulance was also attacked by the crowd en route to a hospital. UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Mideast envoy has told the Security Council the current violence is the most serious escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in years. Diplomats say Tor Wennesland is worried it could erupt into a civil war. He briefed the council on Wednesday behind closed doors for the second time in three days on the deteriorating situation on the ground but the U.N.s most powerful body again took no action. Diplomats said China, Tunisia and Norway, who called the meeting, wanted the council to issue a press statement but the United States objected. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because the consultations were private. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters that Wennesland expressed concern over the growing number of civilian casualties in both Gaza and Israel, and sadness at the death of children in Gaza. Dujarric said the U.N. chief, Antonio Guterres, and Wennesland have both reiterated that indiscriminate launching of rockets and mortars from highly populated civilian neighborhoods towards civilian population centers violates international humanitarian law." Wennesland recognizes Israels legitimate security concerns but reiterated that Israeli security forces should exercise maximum restraint, calibrate their use of force to spare civilians and civilian objects in the conduct of military operations. Four European council members France, Estonia, Ireland and Norway issued a statement after the council meeting urgently calling on both sides to de-escalate tensions, end violence and show the utmost restraint. They condemned the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and called civilian casualties on both sides worrying and unacceptable. Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm America's support for Israels right to defend itself from Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. Blinken spoke on Wednesday with the Israeli leader. The State Department said he also repeated U.S. calls for a de-escalation of violence and the Biden administrations belief that both Israelis and Palestinians have the right to live in safety and security. Blinken announced earlier he was sending a senior diplomat to the region to make similar appeals in person to Israeli and Palestinian officials. He also said that Israel had an extra burden to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to the attacks. According to the State Department, Blinken also told Netanyahu that as he and President Joe Biden have said in the past, the administration believes Israelis and Palestinians should enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Israeli fighter jets have dropped two bombs on a 14-story building in Gaza City and destroyed it. The building housed businesses as well as offices for Hamas Al-Aqsa satellite TV channel. It was located in the old Roman neighborhood, on the busiest shopping street in Gaza. Hamas says it has fired 130 rockets toward Israel in response for the attack on Wednesday. An Israeli artillery unit fires toward targets in Gaza Strip, at the Israeli Gaza border, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. (AP Photo/Yonatan Sindel) The Israeli airstrike was the latest in a series of assaults on targets in the Gaza Strip after a long dispute between Israel and Hamas erupted into an exchange of rocket attacks from Gaza and Israeli retaliation. The building is the third multistory structure that Israeli aircraft have hit directly, reducing two to rubble. The third is still standing but in irreparable condition. WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Israel bears an extra burden to avoid civilian casualties as it responds to rocket attacks from Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. Blinken says Israel has an absolute right to defend itself and its citizens from militant attacks but that it must take all possible steps to protect innocent Palestinians. He said on Wednesday that Israel should do everything it possibly can to avoid civilian casualties even as it is rightfully responding in defense of its people. Blinken made the comments after announcing that he is sending a senior U.S. diplomat to the Middle East to press Israeli and Palestinians officials both to de-escalate the tensions and violence that now verge on war. Blinken condemned the Hamas rocket attacks and stressed that both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to live in peace and security. WASHINGTON U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken says hes sending a senior American diplomat to the Middle East to urge Israeli and Palestinian officials to de-escalate the conflict threatening to erupt into a new war. Blinken told reporters on Wednesday he had instructed Hady Amr, the deputy secretary of state for Israel and Palestinian affairs, to travel immediately to the region. The move comes as the situation deteriorates with intensified rocket attacks on Israel from Hamas militants and Israeli retaliation. Amr is the most senior U.S. diplomat tasked with the matter. He served as deputy Middle East peace envoy during the Obama administration. Blinken did not say who Amr would meet with or how long his mission would last. The Biden administration has been criticized by both sides as well as by lawmakers for not doing enough to try to stop the violence. Blinken said the administration is very focused on the matter and remains committed to a two-state resolution to end the decades-long conflict. JERUSALEM Israeli police are imposing a nighttime curfew on a central city that was the scene of unrest in recent days. Police said in a statement on Wednesday that officers would enforce the ban on people entering the city of Lod, residents leaving their homes, and people in public spaces starting at 8 p.m. Lod has seen two nights of violent protests, including the torching of dozens of vehicles, a synagogue, and violent clashes between Arab protesters and police. Israeli authorities declared a state of emergency in the city and deployed Border Police forces. BELGRADE, Serbia Dozens of Palestinians living in Belgrade have staged a protest in the Serbian capital over an escalation in fighting in the Gaza Strip in recent days. The protesters on Wednesday gathered at Belgrades Republic Square to draw public attention to the conflict that has surged after weeks of violence in Jerusalem. The protesters carried banners reading Gaza needs our voices now, and, Freedom! The latest Mideast fighting is rooted in a long dispute over contested Jerusalem. After Hamas rained rockets inside Israel on Monday, the conflict suddenly erupted and now increasingly resembles the 2014 Gaza war. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Palestinian militant group Hamas has confirmed that its Gaza City commander was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday. Bassem Issa was the highest-ranking military figure in Hamas to be killed Israel since 2014. Wednesday's statement was the first time Hamas acknowledged the death of militants in this round of fighting with Israel. Mourners attend the funeral of Leah Yom Tov, 63, at a cemetery in Rishon Lezion, Israel, Wednesday, May 12, 2021. Yom Tov was killed from a rocket that was fired from Gaza Strip and hit her house in Rishon Lezion on May 11. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner) The armed wing of Hamas said Issa was killed along with a few of his fellow brothers of leaders and holy fighters during the fighting that has been going on for two days in Gaza. Israels internal security agency said a series of airstrikes had killed Issa and several other senior Hamas militants, including the head of rocket development and cyber warfare, the head of rocket production, and the Hamas engineering chief. Issa and several other commanders responsible for the different districts of the Gaza Strip formed Hamas' military council, the highest body deciding on the groups militant operations. The military council is headed by Mohammed Deif. LONDON Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he wants to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions between Israel and Hamas amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Johnson tweeted on Wednesday that the United Kingdom is deeply concerned and urged leaders to step back from the brink. He was one of many leaders around the world offering up advice after longtime tensions in contested Jerusalem erupted into rocket-fire from the Gaza Strip and an intense response from Israel. British Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly told Parliament that Britain unequivocally condemns the firing of rockets at Jerusalem and other locations in Israel. He called Hamas' conduct terrorism and called on militants to end their incitement and rocket fire against Israel. Cleverly said Israel has a legitimate right to self-defense," but added that in doing so, it is vital that all actions are proportionate, in line with international humanitarian law and make every effort to avoid civilian casualties." JERUSALEM Israels firefighting service says it has almost completely extinguished a blaze at a petroleum facility in southern Israel that was set alight by a rocket fired by Hamas militants. The rocket landed Tuesday night near a Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures Ltd. facility south of Ashkelon during a major barrage by Gaza militants. The result was a massive fire in a storage tank that blazed through the night and into Wednesday. Israel Fire and Rescue Services said that 20 teams have been working for 25 hours to extinguish the inferno that issued a column of thick black smoke. Israeli state-owned Petroleum and Energy Infrastructures said the fuel had been transferred to another storage facility. On Wednesday, the plume of smoke was still rising over Ashkelon. Israeli health and environment officials have instructed residents of the area to avoid prolonged periods outdoors. JERUSALEM Israels president says the countrys Arab leaders are giving support to terrorism and rioting by staying quiet about an outbreak unrest in mixed communities. Reuven Rivlin said on Wednesday that the silence of the Arab leadership over violence in mixed Jewish-Arab communities amounts to encouraging the rupture of the society amid the most severe outbreak of violence since the 2014 Gaza war. Rivlin says Israel must pursue the rioters with a firm hand (to) restore security and order to all of us, also while fighting terrorism from Gaza without compromise. The unrest that began at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem has spread across Israel itself. It comes after Hamas called for a full-scale Palestinian intifada, or uprising. In the Israeli city of Lod, a 52-year-old Arab Israeli and his 16-year-old daughter were killed early Wednesday when a rocket landed in the courtyard of their one-story home. Lod also saw heavy clashes after thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man who was killed the previous night, the suspect a Jewish gunman. Israeli media reported that the crowd fought with police, and set a synagogue and some 30 vehicles on fire. JERUSALEM The Israeli military says it has killed several senior Hamas militant commanders in airstrikes in Gaza and Khan Younis. The army released a statement on Wednesday, saying that it carried out a complex and first-of-its-kind operation. Those targeted, it said, were a key part of the Hamas General Staff and considered close to the head of the groups military wing. Hamas had no comment. JERUSALEM Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will use an iron fist if needed to stop widespread protests by Arab citizens that have resulted in injuries, arrests, and property damage. Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel will stop the anarchy after deploying Border Police forces to calm unrest in recent days in the cities of Lod and Acre. The mounting unrest comes after weeks of violence in Jerusalem and heavy fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip in recent days. The fighting is rooted in a long dispute over contested Jerusalem. After Hamas rained rockets inside Israel on Monday, the conflict suddenly erupted and increasingly resembles the 2014 Gaza war. Netayahu says Israel will "stop the anarchy and restore governance to the cities of Israel, with an iron fist if needed, with all forces needed and all authorities required. BERLIN Germany is standing by Israel during the most intense fighting since the 2014 Gaza war. Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht on Wednesday condemned the rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza, saying Germany is standing strongly on the side of Israel. She called for the attacks on Israel to stop, adding that Israel has the right to protect itself. Lambrecht also denounced anti-Semitic acts near synagogues in Germany. She said a spate of Israeli flag-burning and other acts at a time of agony for Israel shows nothing but horrible disrespect for human dignity. German news agency dpa reported that police stopped 13 suspects late Tuesday in the western city of Muenster near a synagogue after an Israeli flag was burned there. Police said that in the western city of Bonn, several people damaged the entrance of a synagogue with stones. Investigators found a burned flag there as well. And in nearby Duesseldorf, somebody burned garbage on top of a memorial for a former synagogue. The justice minister vowed that the perpetrators must be found and held responsible and Jewish institutions must be protected thoroughly. ANKARA, Turkey Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has told Russian President Vladimir Putin that the international community should "give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson over its conduct toward the Palestinians. That's according to the Turkish Presidential Communications Directorate, which said the two leaders talked by phone on Wednesday about the escalating confrontation sparked by tension over contested Jerusalem. The statement said Erdogan stressed the need for the international community to give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson and pressed for the U.N. Security Council to rapidly intervene with determined and clear messages to Israel. The statement said Erdogan suggested to Putin that an international protection force to shield the Palestinians should be considered. Meanwhile, thousands of people in Istanbul defied a nationwide coronavirus curfew late on Tuesday to demonstrate against Israels attacks. A large convoy of cars drove toward the Israeli Consulate, waving Turkish and Palestinian flags. An image of the Palestinian and Turkish flags was projected onto the Israeli building. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Pakistan has condemned Israels actions and called for Muslim nations to stand by the Palestinians. Prime Minister Imran Khan took to Twitter, saying: We stand with Gaza and Palestine. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi meanwhile urged Muslim nations to unite over Israels strikes on Palestinian civilian areas. Protesters are expected to hold a small anti-Israel rally later today in the southern city of Karachi. GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip The Gaza Health Ministry says the death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has climbed to 43, including 13 children and three women. It says nearly 300 Palestinians in the territory have been wounded in the strikes. The strikes began on Monday after Palestinians launched a barrage of rockets into Israel. The worst fighting since the 2014 Gaza war was ignited by clashes in Jerusalem in recent weeks between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police focused on the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a site sacred to Jews and Muslims. The head of Israels emergency service also says one person has been killed and one seriously wounded by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip. JERUSALEM The head of Israels emergency service says one person has been killed and one seriously wounded by an anti-tank missile fired from the Gaza Strip. Eli Bein of Magen David Adom said the Wednesday morning attack hit a jeep. Israeli media reported the assault. The attack came after a night of deadly exchanges of rocket fire between Israel and Palestinians. It was an abrupt escalation of weeks of tension with roots in disputed Jerusalem. MONTREAL - Air Transat has extended the suspension of its flights until July 29, due to continued travel restrictions in Canada and abroad. Air Transat aircraft are seen on the tarmac at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, on April 8, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson MONTREAL - Air Transat has extended the suspension of its flights until July 29, due to continued travel restrictions in Canada and abroad. The airline run by tour company Transat AT advised passengers of the extension of the suspension that was slated to end in mid-June in a travel advisory on its website. It says affected customers will receive a notice informing them of their options. The Montreal-based airline's operations have been grounded since the Canadian government's request in January to stop travel to Mexico and the Caribbean because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Transat reached a deal with Ottawa last month to borrow up to $700 million, nearly half of which will go toward refunding travellers. The company sought the support after Air Canada withdrew its $190-million bid for Transat after learning that European Union regulators would not allow the deal to go ahead. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2021. Companies in this story: (TSX:TRZ, TSX:AC) Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-13 04:46:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Video: U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm on May 11, 2021 urged Americans not to hoard gasoline as the operator of a main U.S. fuel pipeline is expected to fully resume operations in a few days after it was forced to shut down due to a cybersecurity attack. (Xinhua) "My administration will be pursuing a global effort of ransomware attacks by transnational criminals who often use global money-laundering networks to carry them out," says U.S. President Joe Biden. WASHINGTON, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The temporary shutdown of the U.S. largest conduit for gasoline and diesel over the weekend has conspicuously triggered off a dire situation of triple predicament for the Joe Biden administration to cope with, which might escalate and deteriorate on the three fronts of fuel supply, energy development and cyber security if not addressed on urgent basis. A gasoline station running out of gasoline is seen in Arlington, Virginia, the United States, May 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) FUEL SHORTAGES Fuel shortages have worsened across the U.S. East Coast as consumers continue panic buying amid the fallout from the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline last week. The national average for gas prices reached 3 U.S. dollars per gallon on Wednesday, the most expensive level since October 2014, according to FOX Business. The 5,500-mile pipeline system transports more than 100 million gallons of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and heating oil per day, or roughly 45 percent of fuel consumed on the Eastern Seaboard between the Gulf Coast and the New York metro area. A growing number of gas stations along the East Coast are without fuel as nervous drivers aggressively fill up their tanks following the ransomware attack that shut down the critical artery for gasoline. "The panic-buying threatens to exacerbate the supply shock," CNN reported. As of Tuesday morning, 12.3 percent of gas stations in North Carolina and 8.6 percent in Virginia didn't have gasoline, according to outage figures reported by GasBuddy, an app that tracks fuel prices and demand. "We've already seen higher gas prices," Tiffany Wright, a spokeswoman for the American Automobile Association (AAA) in the Carolinas, was quoted by the National Public Radio (NPR) as saying. "They have gone up as high from anywhere from three to 10 cents overnight." Later Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm urged Americans not to hoard gasoline as Colonial Pipeline Co. was expected to fully resume operations in a few days. "The White House and the Department of Energy have been leading an interagency response to the Colonial Pipeline hack," Granholm said at a White House press briefing, noting that the current supply crunch was in the areas that were affected by the pipeline, predominantly the Southeast, such as the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and southern Virginia. Photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows a Colonial Pipeline facility in Baltimore, Maryland, the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) LACK OF REGULATION The ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline has also hit the U.S. energy industry that largely lacks federal oversight, leading to uneven digital defenses against such hacks. The temporary shutdown of Colonial's pipeline, the country's largest conduit for gasoline and diesel to the East Coast, highlights the need for additional protection and oversight to help shield the oil-and-gas companies that power much of the country's economic activity, cyber experts told the media. "The pipeline sector is a bit of the Wild West," said John Cusimano, vice president of cybersecurity at aeSolutions, a consulting firm that works with energy companies and other industrial firms on cybersecurity. Cusimano called for rules similar to the U.S. Coast Guard's 2020 regulations for the maritime sector that required companies operating ports and terminals to put together cybersecurity assessments and plans for incidents. More than two-thirds of executives at companies that transport or store oil and gas said their organizations are ready to respond to a breach, according to a 2020 survey by the law firm Jones Walker LLP. But many don't take basic precautions such as encrypting data or conducting dry runs of attacks, said Andy Lee, who chairs the firm's privacy and security team. Electric utilities are governed by rules enforced by the North American Electric Reliability Corp., a nonprofit that reviews companies' security measures and has the power to impose million-dollar fines if they don't meet standards. There is no such regulatory body enforcing standards for oil-and-gas companies, said Tobias Whitney, vice president of energy security solutions at Fortress Information Security, a company that helps energy firms vet business partners for cyber readiness. Photo taken on May 11, 2021 shows a Colonial Pipeline facility in Baltimore, Maryland, the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie) CYBER THREAT The essential U.S. gasoline pipeline being knocked offline by cyberattack has shown how dangerous, professional-scale hack-for-ransom threat is spreading rapidly and crippling institutions in the United States, reported The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "Attacks are growing in number and scale as millions of people across the country work or attend school remotely, in some cases opening back doors to networks without corporate or institutional security protections," security researchers were quoted as saying. The newspaper reported that senior officials in the Biden administration consider ransomware as the most serious cybersecurity threat to the United States, and are pessimistic about the situation in the years ahead. Ransomware encrypts the contents of the victim's computers and makes them unusable until a payment is made and a decryption key is given to the victims. The Journal said victims often pay ransom because they have no backup copies or because the effort required to restore hundreds of computers is prohibitive. Faced with such a daunting situation, President Joe Biden has vowed his administration is prepared to take additional steps to respond to the cybersecurity attack on the Colonial Pipeline. "The Federal Bureau of Investigation has determined Colonial's network was infected by ransomware, and it's a criminal act, obviously," Biden said, adding the agencies across the government have acted quickly to mitigate any impact on the fuel supply. "My administration will be pursuing a global effort of ransomware attacks by transnational criminals who often use global money-laundering networks to carry them out," added the president. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine has indicted a top opposition figure who is a close ally of Russia's president with treason and attempts to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea. FILE- In this photo taken on, Thursday, July 18, 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest associates, Ukrainian tycoon Viktor Medvedchuk, left, speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia. Ukraine's Prosecutor General on Tuesday, May 11, 2021, has charged Medvedchuk with high treason, dealing a blow to Kremlin's lobby in Ukraine. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Ukraine has indicted a top opposition figure who is a close ally of Russia's president with treason and attempts to steal natural resources from Russia-annexed Crimea. Along with the Tuesday indictment of Viktor Medvedchuk, security service agents also searched his house in the capital Kyiv. Prosecutor-General Irina Venediktova said that charges under several articles were brought against Medvedchuk business partner Taras Kozak. The charges carry potential sentences of up to 15 years. Medvedchuk is accused of transferring oil and gas production licenses from one of the fields in Crimea to Russian authorities; Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. "Medvedchuk, as the organizer of illegal activities, having strong ties with the top leadership of the Russian Federation, began subversive activities against Ukraine, including in the economic sphere," Venediktova said at a briefing. Medvedchuk is also charged with disclosing secret data on the deployment of Ukrainian military units last year. The 66-year-old heads the political council of the pro-Russian party Opposition Platform - For Life. It is the largest opposition group in the parliament, with 44 of the 450 seats. He has close personal ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is the godfather of Medvedchuks daughter. The new charges are part of a broader campaign against Medvedchuk launched by authorities in February, when his financial assets were frozen for three years. In February, authorities also shut down three pro-Russian TV channels, 112, Zik and NewsOne, which Medvedchuk controlled. His party called the new charges against Medvedchuk "an open and cynical political reprisal." MEXICO CITY (AP) The United States filed its first labor complaint with Mexico Wednesday under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, after an old-guard union was caught allegedly destroying ballots at a General Motors plant in northern Mexico. MEXICO CITY (AP) The United States filed its first labor complaint with Mexico Wednesday under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement, after an old-guard union was caught allegedly destroying ballots at a General Motors plant in northern Mexico. The U.S. Trade Representative invoked the rapid response mechanism under the trade pact, known as the USMCA. The mechanism allows a panel to determine whether Mexico is enforcing labor laws that allow workers to choose their union and vote on contracts and union leadership. If Mexico is found not to be enforcing its laws, sanctions could be invoked, including prohibiting some products from entering the United States. Using USMCA to help protect freedom of association and collective bargaining rights in Mexico helps workers both at home and in Mexico, by stopping a race to the bottom, said U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai. Mexican auto workers make one-eighth to one-tenth of the wages of their U.S. counterparts, something that has spurred a massive relocation of auto plants to Mexico and a loss of U.S. jobs. For decades, corrupt Mexican unions signed low-wage "protection contracts behind workers backs, often before plants were even opened. Union votes were held by show of hands, or not at all. Workers at many factories in Mexico were unaware they even had a union until they saw dues deducted from their paychecks. As part of efforts to get the USMCA, which replaced the old North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico passed labor law reforms stating all union votes would be by secret ballot, and workers at all factories in Mexico could vote on whether to keep their current union. It was one such vote among the 6,494 employees of GM transmission and pickup plants in the northern Mexico city of Silao in April that triggered the complaint. Workers at the plant had been asked to vote yes or no on whether to recognize the union that has long controlled the plants labor contract. That union is part of the CTM, which formed part of the the party that ruled Mexico for most of the past century. The Labor Department said that inspectors discovered that at the offices where the union itself had the ballot boxes, ballots that were part of the vote had been destroyed, making it impossible to continue with the vote. Israel Cervantes, who helps lead the Generating Movement campaign to get a new union, and who was dismissed from the plant two years ago, said CTM union officials had broken open ballot boxes, destroyed no votes and replaced them with ballots marked yes." Cervantes said he was encouraged by the U.S. move, because this suggests that there won't be more violations of workers' rights. In a statement Wednesday, GM said it supports the labor provisions of the USMCA, including rapid response, and said it will cooperate with authorities to guarantee the integrity of voting on the union contract at out manufacturing complex in Silao. We do not think there was any involvement of General Motors in the alleged violations that occurred at our plants in Silao, GM said, but noted it had hired an outside consultant to conduct a review of what happened. On Tuesday, Mexicos Labor Department declared the April vote invalid, citing serious irregularities, and ordered it be re-held within one month with extra security to avoid pressure from the company or the old union, to ensure workers that their vote will be peaceful, personal, free and secret. Cervantes praised that decision, saying the (voting) process will be subject to better oversight than the April 21-22 vote, in which ballot boxes were kept at the old union's offices. Even Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is notoriously sensitive about outside pressures, welcomed the USTR decision and said Mexico would respond. It is a good thing, because the treaty before (NAFTA) did not take the labor situation into account, and now the treaty stipulates that employees have to receive fair wages and benefits, and moreover, choose their union representation freely and democratically, Lopez Obrador said. Later Wednesday, Mexico's Labor Department said it had launched an investigation of the case and promised to publish the results and take any measures needed to repair the situation. Mexico is still in the middle of a process of holding votes at workplaces to accept or reject existing unions. The process started in 2019 and ends in 2023, and will have to be repeated at every unionized factory and workplace in Mexico. Some experts have criticized the process, because employees are not allowed to choose between a new union and an old one. Instead, they are essentially asked to decide between the old union and none at all. Labor Secretary Luisa Maria Alcalde has acknowledged it is an uphill battle because some union leaders havent gotten the message that they can no longer operate behind the backs of workers. Fernando Salgado, the CTM assistant general secretary, did not respond directly to the accusations in April, but did say: We have had two fundamental values: equality and the respect we must show for freedom in union organizing. When the old North American Free Trade Agreement was approved in 1994, leaders promised it would boost Mexicos wages, something that never happened, in part because of unrepresentative unions. The USMCA includes some provisions to stem the flood of manufacturing jobs moving south, requiring that 40-45 percent of auto content be made by workers earning at least $16 per hour. On Monday, a group of U.S. and Mexican unions filed their own labor complaint involving the Tridonex auto parts assembly plant in the Mexican border city of Matamoros, where workers have been fighting to join a new union. The outside organizer of that union, lawyer Susana Prieto, has been jailed, harassed and prohibited from traveling to Tamaulipas, the state where Matamoros is located. She says about 600 workers at the Tridonex plant have been laid off in retaliation for supporting the new union. Cardone, the U.S. company that operate the Tridonex plant, said in a statement that we do not believe that the allegations in the complaint are accurate and welcome a full inquiry so that the facts can be disclosed. PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. - A veteran Saskatchewan Mountie is facing a charge of first-degree murder after police say a man's body was discovered in a wooded area. The RCMP logo is seen outside Royal Canadian Mounted Police "E" Division Headquarters, in Surrey, B.C., on Friday, April 13, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. - A veteran Saskatchewan Mountie is facing a charge of first-degree murder after police say a man's body was discovered in a wooded area. Cpl. Bernie Herman, a 32-year member of the RCMP, was serving with the Prince Albert RCMP Traffic Services Unit at the time of his arrest. He is to appear in Prince Albert court on Thursday. The officer, who turns 53 on Thursday, is accused of killing 26-year-old Braden Herman. Investigators said the alleged killing took place while the officer was off duty, but few details have been released. "The victim and the accused in this file are known to each other, but are not related," a news release from the Prince Albert Police Service said Wednesday. It said officers were called to a wooded area in the city Tuesday night after receiving a report that a man's body had been discovered. An autopsy was to take place Thursday in Saskatoon. Police also said officers have secured a vehicle and a home in Prince Albert as part of the investigation. The service's criminal investigations division is leading the case, but city police have requested the appointment of an independent observer to oversee it. "Any time someone's life is taken it is certainly tragic and just really sad," said Charlene Tebbutt, media coordinator with the Prince Albert police. In a release Wednesday night, Saskatchewan RCMP said Herman's duty status as a Mountie is in the process of being modified but did not say how. "The RCMP has processes in place to handle conduct issues, including those as serious as the arrest announced today," the release reads. "Public trust is essential for the RCMP to effectively serve and protect Canadians. As a result, RCMP employees must conduct themselves in a manner that not only meets, but exceeds, the rightfully high expectations of Canadians." The RCMP said any information relating to the arrest and criminal investigation will be released by the Prince Albert Police Service. This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 12, 2021. Uncertain if it would be his last day ever in a public school classroom, Grade 12 student Kenneth Besyk planned to make Tuesday as memorable as possible. Uncertain if it would be his last day ever in a public school classroom, Grade 12 student Kenneth Besyk planned to make Tuesday "as memorable as possible." Within the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, that meant making ample small talk with mask-wearing classmates before the final bell rang at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute signalling the end of in-person classes until at least May 30. "I love coming to school. I love socializing with people. I love making new friends. Its great just being with people and seeing everybody," said Besyk. Thousands of K-12 students who attend schools in Winnipeg and Brandon have shifted to remote learning for the rest of the month amid a growing number of virus cases, exposures in schools, and related staffing challenges. The shift marks the third time since March 2020 that all students in Grade 7 and up, in the provinces two largest cities, have all had to learn from home. This time, there is reason to be hopeful it could be the last. Besyk, 18, who lives in a hot spot, has a vaccine appointment booked for later this month. Teachers at Daniel McIntyre and elsewhere in the city have been discussing the provinces immunization rollout in their classrooms in recent weeks. The provinces approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech shot for anyone aged 12 and up has since prompted further discussion. Mark Dewar issued a challenge to educators over social media to talk about the vaccine, show students where to find accurate information, and share a personal story about getting the jab. Dewar, who teaches at a high school in Winnipeg, said hes surprised at the amount of misinformation his students have about the vaccine, including beliefs about blatant conspiracy theories, such as there being a microchip in the shot. MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Sign announcing the return to remote learning at Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute. In addition to discussing critical thinking and media literacy, he recently livestreamed his vaccination to his students to show them what to expect. "Throughout this pandemic, weve been told to stay home and not do things," he said. "Finally, we have a chance to do something here: get informed about the vaccines, make decisions about the vaccines. We have a chance to do something, and I think a lot of students are excited at the chance of doing something positive to help." In the meantime, before a widespread rollout, Grade 11 twins Anaya and Adonaya Aftab said Tuesday they are in favour of a temporary remote learning period, even though they prefer in-class learning. "It is affecting social life a bit but, you know, at the end of the day, we have to keep ourselves safe to make the social life grow even more in future," said Adonaya, 16. "We are hoping to get a normal senior year so we can graduate with good memories." Anaya said the duo has become more comfortable with online learning because of all the practise they have had with it this year. For the majority of the school year, the twins have attended half-days at Daniel McIntyre and done remote learning part-time. The switch is more drastic for younger students in the city. "Theyre not going into it with bright eyes and bushy tails like the first time, where they thought, This is going to be so easy, Im going to spend all my time looking at a computer, I love computers," said Torrie Vicklund, a Grade 7 math and science teacher, who is also the mother of a middle schooler who will switch to remote learning Wednesday. Vicklund polled her students this week and found they are ecstatic about the prospect of sleeping in, but are anxious about the inability to easily ask questions online and losing their social network again. "Its a real tough day for everybody. Everyone thinks that kids dont want to do work, but the majority of kids love school and want to be here," she said, adding students are worried classes won't resume in June and there will be yet another consecutive anticlimactic end of the school year. maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @macintoshmaggie Decades ago, when Jason Molinski first read the 1941 children's book Paddle-to-the-Sea in which a First Nations boy sets a small carved canoe free in Lake Nipigon and the story follows its encounters the imagery never really left him. Decades ago, when Jason Molinski first read the 1941 children's book Paddle-to-the-Sea in which a First Nations boy sets a small carved canoe free in Lake Nipigon and the story follows its encounters the imagery never really left him. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Jason Molinski created the small, bright-red canoe with a message inside that he plans on releasing on the Red River with his grandkids this weekend. Molinski, now 68, was around the same age as his grandsons (Milo, 9, and Eli, 7) when he first dreamed of sending such a canoe away and plotting its journey. "I always wanted to do something like that with the river here, it was always in the back of my mind," Molinski said Tuesday, of the story adapted for an Oscar-nominated National Film Board of Canada short in 1966. Now, the Winnipegger and his grandsons are doing just that. He made the wooden canoe by hand three-feet-long, five-inches-wide, painted red with two carved paddlers sitting inside over the winter, with the intention of helping his grandsons follow its adventures. It was then the family decided to get the community involved. "I thought it would just be fun for the boys, something theyd enjoy doing," Molinski said. "And then the more we thought about it, we thought, Why not get the public involved to help us along?" Molinski and his grandsons will set the canoe afloat in the Red River at Emerson, just north of the U.S. border, over the May long weekend. They hope the current will keep the small boat travelling through Manitoba, and people enjoying the riverside will find the canoe floating by. Should someone encounter the canoe, a screwed-down lid inside will reveal a message in a blue bottle. The message will contain contact information for Molinskis grandsons, who will then plot the location on a map, and instructions on how to proceed before the finder sets it back in the river. "Wed just like to see how far it would go in one summer; how far we could keep track of it, what is the destiny for this canoe," Molinski said. RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Molinski plans to set the canoe adrift to see how far it will travel and how many people will connect with the message hidden inside the boat. He hopes children who live along the river will be on the lookout for the canoe, and said the family would be delighted to receive selfies or messages from finders to help colour in the journey. "Especially kids, but adults, too; if they know about it, theyll watch for it," he said. The COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions have been hard on families, Molinski said all the more reason to get involved in an outdoor project, in a public area, with your loved ones. "Youre so restricted nowadays, and we thought that anyone living by the river, itd... be something to look forward to." malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: malakabas_ DISABILITY advocates are continuing the call for Manitoba to be transparent about how patients will potentially be prioritized for life-saving treatment, as hospitals fill up in the COVID-19 pandemics third wave. DISABILITY advocates are continuing the call for Manitoba to be transparent about how patients will potentially be prioritized for life-saving treatment, as hospitals fill up in the COVID-19 pandemics third wave. Manitoba does not have a pandemic triage plan to guide doctors in case there is not enough hospital space to go around. The provincial health minister made no commitment to develop or implement such protocols, when asked about the issue during question period Tuesday. In response to a question from Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont, who asked if the government would commit to a plan, Heather Stefanson said only the province continues to work with the disability community. Other provinces, including Saskatchewan, Ontario and Alberta, have publicly released emergency plans, showing what theyll do if hospitals are overwhelmed and cant provide critical care to everyone who needs it. The triage plans in other provinces promise to be guided by medical ethics and advocates for Manitobans with disabilities want assurance they wont face discrimination in any last-minute life-or-death decisions. David Kron, spokesman for Barrier Free MB, a coalition of local advocacy groups, said Manitoba needs a public policy. "I understand the need to have a protocol. We just want to know what it is, so that its done in a timely way and so that theyre not doing it at the bedside in the ICU," he said Tuesday. "So lets have an open conversation about it. If you have scarce resources and you have to triage treatment, what does that look like? What does that mean?" All but emergency surgeries have been cancelled in Manitoba, and non-urgent medical procedures are still on hold. On Tuesday morning, there were 154 COVID-19 patients in Manitoba hospitals; 59 of them in intensive care. Normal ICU capacity is 72 beds, but thats been expanded during the pandemic. Planning is ongoing to meet the demands of the COVID-19 surge, a Shared Health spokesperson said in a statement, saying the organization responsible for overseeing hospitals is "confident" it will meet the demand. "At this time, clinical teams are focused on ensuring sufficient capacity is available to care for patients as demand increases. Should a triage protocol be required, consultations with clinical and ethics leaders will occur at that time," Shared Healths statement reads, in part. In October, the coalition of disability advocates started hearing concerns from its members about what Manitobas protocols might be if hospitals were overloaded and doctors were forced to choose who should receive treatment. They did not want traditionally marginalized people to be judged as having a lower quality of life or to be automatically pushed aside if it came down to a lack of ventilators. "We all hope we dont get to that point, but, you know: what if?" Kron said. The group wrote to then-health minister Cameron Friesen last fall, and renewed its calls for a triage protocol in another letter to Stefanson late last month. They havent yet received an answer. katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay Jordan Belyk may have been in the grip of a drug-induced psychosis when he stabbed 19-year-old stranger Brittany Bung to death, but he knew full well his drug binge could have tragic consequences, a judge said Tuesday before sentencing him to 11 years in prison. Jordan Belyk may have been in the grip of a drug-induced psychosis when he stabbed 19-year-old stranger Brittany Bung to death, but he knew full well his drug binge could have tragic consequences, a judge said Tuesday before sentencing him to 11 years in prison. "There is no question this offence was shocking in its violence," said Queens Bench Justice Joan McKelvey. "A significant sentence is appropriate in order to have denunciatory and deterrent effects on those who voluntarily intoxicate themselves with mind-altering drugs. "Mr. Belyk was aware of the effect such drugs had on his life and indeed recognizes that he may continue to struggle with substance abuse once he returns to the community," McKelvey said. INSTAGRAM Brittany Bung McKelvey credited Belyk for time served since the Oct. 3, 2017 killing, reducing his remaining sentence to just under six years. Belyk, 24, stood trial for second-degree murder, but McKelvey convicted him of the reduced charge of manslaughter, ruling he did not have the state of mind to form the intent to kill. Bung was attacked just minutes after Belyk, who was wearing no shirt or shoes, crossed paths with her at a Lac du Bonnet gas station around 6:30 a.m. At trial, an employee of the station testified Belyk followed Bung to her car and jumped in the front seat, said: "Lets get the f--- out of here," and reclined the seat as if hiding as Bung drove away. Seven minutes later, Bung called 911, telling an operator a man had jumped in her car and started stabbing her. "Without question, what transpired with respect to Ms. Bung was horrific, brutal, unprovoked and senseless," McKelvey said. "No one could listen to her 911 call and not be impacted by the last moments of this young womens life." Bung suffered 14 stab wounds to her face, neck and chest, and 25 defensive wounds to her hands. She died less than an hour later, en route to the hospital in Pinawa. WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS FILES Jordan Belyk stood trial for second-degree murder, but he was convicted of the reduced charge of manslaughter. Belyk, who had no ties to Lac du Bonnet, had been on a drug binge and hadnt slept for days at the time of the killing. An RCMP toxicologist told court that blood sample screen tests found methamphetamine and cocaine in Belyks system, but she was unable to confirm the presence of the drugs to the standard required by the police services forensic unit. However, Belyks behaviour was consistent with a diagnosis of substance-induced psychotic disorder, testified Dr. Edward Cetaruk, a Colorado physician called by the defence, and qualified by the court, as an expert in emergency room medicine and medical technology. Consumption of meth, cocaine and other drugs can change a users behaviour for long periods of time, with sleep deprivation increasing the risk they will suffer a psychotic episode, Cetaruk said. The defence argued Belyks substance abuse problems could be traced to the 2011 killing of his biological mother, who was an addict herself. Just one week before Bungs death, Belyk was spared further custody and sentenced to one-year probation after pleading guilty to a drunken assault on a Winnipeg street. TREVOR HAGAN / FREE PRESS FILES A candlelight vigil was held for Brittany Bung in Lac du Bonnet in the fall of 2017. Belyk resumed using drugs immediately upon his release. McKelvey said Belyk appears genuinely remorseful and committed to addressing his addictions. Bungs killing demands a stiff prison sentence, but for Belyk "rehabilitation will serve as the greater protector for society," McKelvey said. "Hopefully, that will be achieved, and I believe it can," she said. At a sentencing hearing last month, Bungs family and friends provided 17 victim-impact statements, describing the hole her death has left in their lives. "We are still in shock she is gone She deserved to live a full life," said Leann Bung, describing her daughter as a "kind, compassionate and caring soul" who hoped to enrol in culinary school. dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca Public education is a public good that promotes well-being and citizenship for all. Efforts to improve public education should be done for this purpose. Manitoba has instead joined a concerning trend across Canada demanding constant improvement in education with less and less resources, led by private consultants such as Dr. Avis Glaze. Opinion Public education is a public good that promotes well-being and citizenship for all. Efforts to improve public education should be done for this purpose. Manitoba has instead joined a concerning trend across Canada demanding constant improvement in education with less and less resources, led by private consultants such as Dr. Avis Glaze. Glaze has reviewed education systems in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and most recently, Manitoba. The day the Glaze report was publicly released was also the day the province released Bill 64, the Education Modernization Act. The resultant changes centralize control over education under the guise of cost-savings, resulting in privatization and a loss of accountability to the public. Manitoba can look to Nova Scotia for the implications of abolishing school boards and replacing them with Parent Advisory Councils on Education (PACE). When school boards there were wiped out, historically oppressed groups lost representation as school trustee seats reserved for Indigenous and Black Nova Scotians disappeared. Information about PACE is hard to come by for NS parents agendas and minutes hard to find and contact info for representatives is not available. Paul Wozney, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union, called the implementation of PACE by the department of education "an ocean of unkept promises." Parents face barriers to participation in PACE and receive no training, and promised communications with the minister of education were not fulfilled. Without school trustees, Nova Scotia parents have nowhere to turn. Parents on PACE do not have the training or time that school trustees had to advocate for and advise parents on the school system. In some jurisdictions where school boards have been abolished, they have been brought back due to necessity New Brunswick and P.E.I., for example. Research shows that replacing democratically elected school boards with alternative structures does not improve student achievement. Here in Manitoba, local democratic oversight is proven to foster innovation. For example, in Winnipeg a new community hub model is improving educational outcomes and helping to address poverty in the Louis Riel School Division. Abolishing school divisions does not advance inclusion and equity. High child-poverty rates have plagued both Manitoba and Nova Scotia: Manitoba has the highest rate of child poverty and N.S. the third-highest in Canada. Economic insecurity is proven to impact educational outcomes: in Manitoba, 86 per cent of students perform as expected on standardized tests, based on socio-economic standing. Research by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy finds the results of the 14 per cent who do not perform at the expected level are related directly to poverty. Instead of addressing the conditions of poverty through social housing or better income transfers, however, neoliberal governments attack the education system. Standardized testing itself is a problematic measure. International experts have called for a moratorium on Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) testing as it creates an illusion of education quality based on multiple-choice questions and simple solutions to complex problems. Standardized tests such as PISA are used by neoliberal governments to justify authoritarian top-down approaches under the guise of improving test results. The result is a race to the bottom, whereby the education system is judged by test results and is not about supporting well-rounded students in areas important to a healthy democracy, such as history and social studies. The Glaze report (titled Raise the Bar) in Nova Scotia led to the removal of administrators from the Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU), and suggested the creation of a college of teachers as an additional level of bureaucracy for school accountability and to discipline educators. While administrators were removed from the NSTU membership, the NSTU fought against the college of teachers and won. In Manitoba, Bill 64 would remove principals and vice-principals from their bargaining unit and introduce what amounts to business managers for schools. Like the aims of privatization its over reliance on data, school success accountability and neoliberal restructuring each undermines the democratic process of public education as it moves away from collegiality and community and toward punitive performance-based models of education. The forced removal of school administrators from the NSTU supports the model of privatization, since principals are no longer curriculum and learning leaders. In this model, administration exists first and foremost to enact disciplinary measures, carry out performance assessments on staff and report on school success data. Such changes lessen teacher and administrator professional autonomy, and add greater reliance on strict structures to dictate how they will work in their own school communities. This has left administrators in business models of leadership, in which they are gatekeepers for the department of education rather than educational leaders. Nova Scotias K-12 education overhaul is a cautionary tale for Manitoba. Removing democratic oversight makes public education less accountable and more difficult for parents to navigate. Centralizing administration stifles innovation and local ability to respond to local needs. Poverty remains unaddressed when the system is run like a business focused on quantitative results only. Public education is a public good one that cannot be disruptively and quickly overhauled. Molly McCracken is the Manitoba director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Pamela Rogers is Director of Research and Professional Learning at the Canadian Teachers Federation. "Attack on Public Education: Lessons for Manitoba" is available for viewing at youtube.com/c/CCPAManitoba Beginning Wednesday, every adult Manitoban will be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, signalling a turning point in a provincial vaccine rollout often beset by supply and operational setbacks. Beginning Wednesday, every adult Manitoban will be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, signalling a turning point in a provincial vaccine rollout often beset by supply and operational setbacks. During question period Tuesday, just hours after age eligibility was lowered to 24, Premier Brian Pallister said it would be dropped to 18 Wednesday, more than a week ahead of schedule. "We need to get Manitobans vaccinated, and we are," Pallister said in response to questions from NDP Leader Wab Kinew. "And thank you to our vaccination team getting us to 24-plus today, and 18-plus tomorrow." A spokesman for the premier confirmed that an announcement would be made on Wednesday. He urged Manitobans under the age of 24 to wait to book an appointment before the official announcement is made. In the past four days, eligibility expanded at an accelerated pace, with more than 100,000 people becoming eligible in a 72-hour period. On Saturday, the eligibility dropped to 35 from 40; it was lowered again on Monday to 30 years old, and again to 24-plus on Tuesday. The Manitoba government is relocating AstraZeneca vaccines to some higher volume medical clinics and pharmacies to speed up administration of the fridge-stable shot. As of Tuesday, the province said there were 9,811 doses of vaccine with pharmacists and medical clinics, the majority of which were AstraZeneca doses that have been in the province for about a month. click to read more The Manitoba government is relocating AstraZeneca vaccines to some higher volume medical clinics and pharmacies to speed up administration of the fridge-stable shot. As of Tuesday, the province said there were 9,811 doses of vaccine with pharmacists and medical clinics, the majority of which were AstraZeneca doses that have been in the province for about a month. "At this time, Manitoba is not looking to recall any AstraZeneca doses from pharmacists or physicians," a provincial spokesperson said in a statement to the Free Press. "There is an active effort being made to move excess doses from one location to another that may have higher demand and could use the doses for people on waiting lists." According to the province, about 53 per cent of the remaining AstraZeneca shots are in Winnipeg. While health officials continue to recommend that people take the first vaccine that they are offered, uptake of the AstraZeneca shot in Manitoba has been slower due to changes in eligibility criteria, evolving recommendations for use by the National Advisory Council on Immunization and the potential for a rare, but serious, side effect that causes blood clots with low platelets. In Manitoba, the vaccine is currently available to people 30 to 39 with select health conditions, and people age 40 and over, at medical clinics and pharmacies. The spokesperson said despite having a small inventory of AstraZeneca shots available, the province will not begin providing second doses to people who already received the AstraZeneca vaccine. The first AstraZeneca shots were provided to people about seven weeks ago. "The AstraZeneca clinical trials demonstrated much higher efficacy when the second dose was delayed until after 12 weeks," the spokesperson said. "Therefore, Manitoba is recommending that the second doses of AstraZeneca not be given earlier than 12 weeks after dose one." Manitoba has received a total of 84,260 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to date and the federal government has not yet said when more doses of the vaccine might arrive in the province. Close By mid-afternoon, a lineup of more than 100 people, which stretched the length of a city block, snaked from the entrance of 181 Higgins Ave., where an Indigenous-led vaccination clinic was accepting walk-ins. Ariane Gagne, who lives in the prioritized community of St. Vital North, decided to join the queue to see if she could get a shot. "As soon as I can get it, I thought why not try to get the vaccine," the 22-year-old said. "For me, its personal, but being here feels like a sense of community, a sense of doing something for the betterment of society. "I havent felt that in so long," she said with a chuckle. The clinic at the Aboriginal Health and Wellness Centre is one of two Indigenous-led vaccination clinics in Winnipeg that accept a small number of walk-ins. They make it easier for inner-city residents, who would be unable to book an appointment, to get a shot. Currently, appointments at pop-up and mass vaccination clinics in Winnipeg are two to three weeks into the future. Also in line Tuesday, was Hannah, a pregnant 28-year-old teacher, who showed up with her partner, Scott. The pair heard about the clinic through word of mouth, they said. "Myself, being pregnant, I was super happy when (eligibility) opened up," said Hannah, who asked that her last name not be used. "But for my husband, who is 28, I was actually quite surprised. I figured it would take quite a bit longer." Last week, the provinces COVID-19 vaccine task force had promised to reducing age eligibility to 18-plus by May 21, with a strong chance that Manitobans between the ages of 12 and 17 would also become eligible. The task force had suggested age eligibility would be lowered in five-year increments on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It was unclear Tuesday whether the accelerated eligibility schedule was due to lower-than-expected demand for appointments among eligible groups as the number of doses Manitoba will receive over the next three weeks from the federal government had not changed. A provincial spokesman said more details about the new timeline would be provided Wednesday. The task force estimates that 70 per cent of adult Manitobans will have received one dose by June 8, at the latest. Appointments for second doses will open on May 22. Manitoba reported 329 new COVID-19 infections, and no new deaths due to the virus on Tuesday. The triple-digit case count pushed the province past the peak of the seven-day average experienced during the second wave. Cases were reported in all health regions, including 235 in Winnipeg; 28 in Southern Health; 24 in InterlakeEastern; 34 in Prairie Mountain; and 8 in Northern Health. The five-day test positivity rate was 12 per cent in Manitoba, and 14.2 per cent in Winnipeg. There were 3,837 active cases in Manitoba, with 214 people in hospital, 59 of them in intensive care. Since the vaccination campaign began in mid-December, 576,024 vaccine doses had been administered, including 10,116 on Monday; another 13,953 appointments were scheduled Tuesday. Of the approximately, 117,936 doses available in Manitoba, the province said 63,125 were in its control and would be administered over a period of five days. Another 34,210 doses were with First Nations partners, and at most, 9,811 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine remained with pharmacists and doctors to administer. A delivery of 73,710 more doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived in Manitoba on Tuesday morning. By June 2, a total of 235,170 Pfizer doses will have been delivered to Manitoba and 37,600 doses of Moderna will arrive the week of May 17, likely on Thursday. As of Tuesday, 46 per cent of adult Manitobans had received at least one dose of vaccine. with files from Erik Pindera and Larry Kusch danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca There appears to be little or no vaccine hesitancy among the province's MLAs. There appears to be little or no vaccine hesitancy among the province's MLAs. A survey of the 57 members of the Manitoba legislative assembly, conducted through their party caucuses, reveals that 54 had either received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine or booked an appointment as of 9 a.m. Monday. Thirty-three of 36 Progressive Conservative MLAs had either got the jab or booked one, a government spokesman said. JOHN WOODS / CANADIAN PRESS FILES Premier Brian Pallister waves to vaccination staff in Winnipegs convention centre as Dr. Brent Roussin, chief provincial public health officer, prepares his COVID shot last month. Of the three who hadn't done so, one was under the age of 30 and unable to book an appointment by Monday. On Tuesday, the age for booking appointments was lowered to 24 and older. On Wednesday, the province is set to open reservations to all adults 18 and over. The New Democrats reported that 16 of their 18 MLAs had received an initial dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while the other two had booked appointments. Two of the three Liberal MLAs had received their first shots, while the third had made arrangements to do so. SUPPLIED NDP leader Wab Kinew recieves a COVID-19 vaccination from Dr. Marcia Anderson, public health lead, Manitoba First Nation Pandemic Response Coordination Team, at Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre last month. The PCs did not differentiate between those who had received a shot and those who had booked an appointment. All three party leaders have indicated they've received an initial vaccination. Premier Brian Pallister, NDP Leader Wab Kinew and Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont all shared photos of their vaccinations to encourage Manitobans to get a shot. The Free Press did not ask for the names of MLAs who had been vaccinated or not in its initial request to the three political parties. The objective was to learn how many members of the legislative assembly were taking advantage of their ability to be vaccinated. CTV News conducted a similar survey in Alberta. Nineteen of that province's 87 MLAs refused to answer questions about their vaccination plans, even after repeated calls and emails. Eighteen were members of the governing United Conservative Party. TWITTER On April 23 Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont posted on Twitter: "For my birthday, I got my first shot of the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine. #mbpoli #vaccinateMB". Due to the pandemic, seating in the Manitoba legislature has been limited for the past year. Currently, only 10 PC members, five NDPers and one Liberal, plus the Speaker, are allowed in the chamber at any one time. Other MLAs participate remotely through a video link. With the prospect of most or all MLAs being fully vaccinated by fall, the legislative assembly could be full as soon as early October, when members return from their summer break. However, no discussions have yet taken place about the timing of a possible return to business as usual, Speaker Myrna Driedger said in an email Tuesday. Asked about the prospect of a full legislative chamber this fall, government house leader Kelvin Goertzen said in a statement that it has always been the intention of all political parties to have as many members participating in person as is advisable by public health officials. "I am grateful as government house leader for the collaborative efforts of house leaders from each party and the incredible work of assembly staff to make virtual sittings possible," he said. According to the government, 565,000 doses of vaccine have been administered in Manitoba so far. Nearly 45 per cent of Manitobans 18 and up have received at least one dose. larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-13 05:18:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close QUITO, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Ecuador reported a slight decline in hospital congestion, after the implementation of a state of emergency in most of the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. The waiting list for hospital beds dropped to 282 people nationwide, after registering a sustained upward trend before the state of emergency, the ministry's National Director of Epidemiological Surveillance Esteban Arce said during a press conference. On April 23, the administration decreed a state of emergency in 16 of Ecuador's 24 provinces until May 20 to curb the increase in COVID-19 infections and prevent the collapse of the health system. Thanks to these restrictions, which include a night curfew and weekend lockdown, there was also a 73.5 percent decline in emergency care for respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, Arce noted. Bed occupancy in intensive care units across the country fell to 92.5 percent, a slight reduction compared to the 95.5 percent recorded before the state of emergency, while hospitalizations declined from 73 percent to 66 percent. Arce warned that despite this improvement, it is necessary for the population to maintain self-care measures, adding that new variants of the virus circulating in the country "could change the epidemiological and health situation again if health measures are relaxed." Ecuador, one of the hardest hit by the pandemic in Latin America, has accumulated 404,632 COVID-19 cases and 14,107 deaths. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-13 05:54:04|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close HOUSTON, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The operator of a main U.S. fuel pipeline that was forced to shut down for six days due to a cybersecurity attack said it initiated the restart of pipeline Wednesday afternoon. The Colonial Pipeline Company, operator of the pipeline carrying gasoline and diesel fuel to U.S. east and southeast parts, said the first step in the restart process started at approximately 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday. "Following this restart, it will take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal. Some markets served by Colonial Pipeline may experience, or continue to experience, intermittent service interruptions during the start-up period," said the company. "Colonial will move as much gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel as is safely possible and will continue to do so until markets return to normal," it continued. The Colonial Pipeline Company temporarily halted all pipeline operations after the cybersecurity attack involving ransomware was detected on Friday. The Colonial Pipeline is the largest refined-products pipeline in the United States, transporting more than 100 million gallons of fuel daily on the East Coast. Enditem Selfless service highlighted on Nurses Day Nurses are the backbone of our health care system, and selfless in their service to patients and our students. To be the person who takes on the responsibility of looking after the critically ill patient at such a vulnerable stage of dependence; to become their voice, eyes, ears and existence comes with such great accountability. But [it] equally gives great satisfaction as you know you are maintaining their human dignity and assisting in restoring their health and well-being to its highest potential.- Irene Kearns, ICU Nurse. On what is and continues to be a hopeful (and yet at times bleak) fight against diseases and sickness, it takes nurses all over the world to advocate for their patients, make critical decisions and be a companion when they need them the most. As celebrations for International Nurses Day are underway with the 2021 theme 'Nurses: A Voice to Lead A vision for future healthcare', our reflections on the past and present speak of victory led by many nurses, and sometimes comfort given by the same fighters at the end of many peoples lives. Nurses are crafting careers as independent practitioners spearheading new specialities in vital area The Facultys Head of the Department of Nursing Education, Professor Shelley Schmollgruber, looks to the future of the nursing profession as one that needs renewal in leadership and the professional regulatory framework to represent the voices of nurses and shape the future of their profession. As populations around the world look for access to healthcare for all, it is worth noting that all patients will at all stages of their health treatment - be in the care of nurses. This has the potential to create a consequential imbalance within our society. Schmollgruber stresses that there is a looming crisis of the shortage of qualified professional nurses and warns that this will only become worse over the coming decade. However, nursing has in many aspects been a progressive profession with opportunities for nurses to practice in advanced specialities. Nurses are crafting careers as independent practitioners spearheading new specialities in vital areas such as wound care management; oncology and palliative care; primary care; child health and development; nutrition and lactation support and non-clinical fields such as education, healthcare coding and the like, says Schmollgruber. This expansion of nursing extends to using tools and methods of the era of technology such as medical and data sciences to fasttrack adequate care and build on these advancements to provide efficient treatment systems. In the end, it is every patients desire to have a health care worker that prioritises their needs; a companion when they are at their most vulnerable. Whilst the Faculty of Health Sciences is proud to contribute to these advancements in nursing education and producing graduates of high professional quality and exemplary ethical standards; the current national and universal health coverage shortfall is still a concern. Nurses are a critical link between medical teams and the patients that they care for. [Nurses] have a unique position as they coordinate and lead the holistic care of patients based on the art and science of nursing, says Schmollgruber. Therefore, prioritising the absorption of professional nursing staff within the universal healthcare network is key in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As put by Nurse Irene Kearns, Fulfilling such responsible acts within a fast-paced and high-technological environment where you know [that] your clinical judgement of the critically ill patients progress plays a key-role inassisting in directing the plan of care for the patients is rewarding in itself,. The Faculty of Health Sciences would like to express gratitude and respect to all nurses for their selfless service, and honour its staff members for their contribution to strengthening the integrity of health care through their teachings. Happy International Nurses Day! For over three decades, Montana police have been trying to identify the skeletal remains of a woman that were found by a bear hunter in Missoula County. Now, police say, they have identified them as belonging to Janet Lee Lucas, a missing mother from Washington. Her remains were found in 1985 and named "Christy Crystal Creek" by the Missoula County Sheriff's Office (MCSO), due to the location of where they were found. Over the years, the unsolved case has caught the attention of web sleuths and featured on a true crime podcast, partly because of the theory she was a victim of suspected serial killer Wayne Nance. "We cannot rest on our success of having finally identified Janet. We must now seek justice for Janet," said MSCO Detective Captain Dave Conway in a news release on Monday. "Our focus has changed from 'who is Christy Crystal Creek?' to 'what happened to Janet Lucas? This is now a cold case homicide investigation, and we need your help." Earlier this year, after receiving state funding and partnering with a lab, MSCO said they were able to conduct a forensic genetic genealogy investigation on the remains, which identified DNA relatives and family trees of Lucas' family in Spokane. Additional DNA testing was conducted on relatives, and MCSO was able to conclusively identify "Christy Crystal Creek" as 23-year-old Lucas. Lucas' family said they have been searching for the Spokane woman, who was last seen in Idaho the summer of 1983. Her family released a statement on Monday saying she had a contagious smile, warm personality and wore her heart on her sleeve. "After decades of missing Janet, our family is broken hearted to learn that she was tragically taken, unidentified and spent a large amount of years alone," reads the statement. "However, she never spent one moment without being loved. Janet had been missed dearly, searched for but most importantly never forgotten." At the time she went missing, her son was five years old, according to MSCO, and he has spent much his adult life searching for her. Remains were found near Crystal Creek, officials said On September 9, 1985, a bear hunter came across the skeletonized remains in a rural area near Crystal Creek, according to MSCO. No clothing or personal affects were found in the area, according to FBI, and it is believed she died a year earlier. The initial investigation determined she died from two gunshots to the head, according to police. "After a thorough investigation, those remains could not be identified and became known as Christy Crystal Creek," reads the news release. "Despite decades of work with forensic anthropologists and a forensic odontologist, and hours of research scouring missing persons databases here and in Canada, her identity remained a mystery." Officials look for possible links to 'Missoula Mauler' CSO Detective Marta Timmons told CNN affiliate KTMF last year that "she's assumed that she could be a victim of Wayne Nance, because she's found in an area where Wayne Nance used to hang out." Nance, known as "Missoula Mauler," was a suspected serial killer in Missoula during the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Billings Gazette. Lucas' remains were found near another homicide victim "Debbie Deer Creek," the name given to remains of a then-unidentified woman. "'Debbie Deer Creek,' [later] identified as Marcella 'Marci' Bachmann, was a known Nance victim," a spokesperson with MSCO told CNN. "Bachmann was seen with Nance in September 1984 and was believed to have been killed around that time." "It was one of his favorite places to take people. There's an old car there that he liked to sit in," Timmons said. "And it was just one of his favorite places to take people." Nance is believed to have killed six victims in Missoula and Ravalli counties, according to the Gazette. The true number of his victims will never be known, according to police reports. In 1986, Nance was killed when he attacked a young couple inside of their home. MSCO said they are reviewing evidence and reports for any possible links between Nance and Lucas. The investigation continues Police are now trying to piece together Lucas' last years and how she came to be in Montana. They said that there are no records showing her living or spending time in the state. Police released a photo of Lucas from 1979 in hopes that someone may have known or seen her in Missoula in the summer of 1983 or into 1984. "While after 38 years, our family finally has some answers. We also realize there are questions that we may never have the answers to," reads Lucas' family statement. "We are grateful to finally be able to bring her home to us, as well as bring Janet the peace and rest she so deserves." WASHINGTON (AP) - Medicare says it will require nursing homes to report COVID-19 vaccination rates for residents and staff. Officials hope it will be an incentive for facilities to keep giving shots even as the worst ravages of the pandemic ease. The agency expects to start receiving vaccination numbers from nursing homes in the coming weeks and plans to post the information on the internet so residents and families can easily access the details. People living in long-term care facilities have borne a heavy toll from the pandemic. But cases and deaths plummeted after the government launched a concerted effort to vaccinate residents and staff. It's time now to welcome the newest members of our Morning Mug Club -- brought to you Holland Farms Bakery & Deli. On Saturday, June 5, Copper City Community Connection in Rome is hosting a Huge Yard Sale Fundraiser. Right now, they need vendors and crafters. To rent an outside space, it costs $15.00. They accept cash, check and credit card. You must bring your own tables and chairs. Do your Spring cleaning now, and go sell your wares next month. To learn more, call 315-337-8230. Copper City Community Connection is located at 305 E. Locust Street in Rome. Oneida County is preparing to vaccinate up to 11,000 children, ages 12-15, against coronavirus. The FDA has approved the Pfizer vaccine for use in that age group, and a CDC advisory panel has recommended it, with full CDC adoption expected. "If we continue to get a supply of Pfizer, we can begin as early as the next two weeks, maybe even next week," says Oneida County Executive, Anthony Picente, Jr. "It's all gonna depend on the supply of Pfizer." Only the Pfizer vaccine is currently authorized for use in that age group. The county executive has asked school districts to survey parents and gauge their interest in having their 12-15-year-olds vaccinated. Parents in New Hartford got an email survey on Tuesday. Pediatricians locally are seeing an increase in children with COVID-19. "We're seeing kids and teenagers get COVID and there's actually been an increase in kids and Covid in the last couple weeks or months. We think it's because of some of the more circulating variants," says Dr. Taryn Rio, of Slocum Dickson Pediatrics, in Utica. Slocum Dickson is working with the Oneida County Health Department to begin administering the vaccine in their pediatric offices. "The pediatricians here, we're all really excited. We think the vaccine is safe and effective and is going to move us forward in ending this pandemic," says Dr. Rio. "This is what's really gonna give kids back freedom to go to school, go to camp, play sports, hang out with their friends." Picente plans a conference call with the county's school superintendents on Friday, to determine how to collaborate with them to immunize students in that 12-to-15-year-old age group. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) News 18 is continuing our coverage of an investigation into sexual harassment allegations against a local chiropractor. We've heard more details from a former employee of The Spine Worx and her husband. Both allegedly witnessed Dr. James Pucka behaving inappropriately. We did a reference check, and this former employee worked at The Spine Worx for three years. This worker tells us that her complaint made it into the official report from the Indiana Attorney General. "Over the years we would all be like, 'It's just going to take the one wrong person to walk in here and for him to say the wrong thing to the wrong person,' and it happened finally," said a former employee of The Spine Worx, April Robertson. Robertson said she wasn't surprised to see a Facebook post accusing Dr. James Pucka of sexual harassment, but she said it was the severity of the accusations that caught her off guard. "I guess I didn't realize how bad it was until reading it from a patient's perspective," she explained. "It was like really eye-opening." Robertson quit her job at The Spine Worx in Lafayette the day after seeing the post. "I was very conflicted at first because I've worked there so long and because I know him and because I've said for so long, 'This is just Dr. Pucka. That's just how he is,' but, yeah, that's how he is, and it's not okay," Robertson said. She said she saw some of the alleged harassment firsthand. "He would say, 'Well, here we make you take your clothes off or something like that, and of course, everybody laughs," said Robertson. "Always, multiple times a day, 'Get over here. Take your clothes off. Get over here. Get against the wall. Let me put my hands on you.'" She said, at the time, she knew it was inappropriate, but didn't feel she could say anything. "He sets the tone for the office because he's the owner and because he's your boss," Robertson said. "Of course you're going along with what your boss is saying." However, Robertson said she was allegedly a victim too. "He would just say things about, like, my large chest because that can cause back problems," said Robertson. "He'd say, 'Hey April, turn to the side,' and like refer to me when he was talking to another patient." Even after becoming an alleged victim, she says she felt like she couldn't say anything without putting her job in jeopardy. "You don't want to call out somebody saying those things," said Robertson. "It's uncomfortable and it's your job. He said inappropriate things to me, and I would laugh or banter back because that's how you cope with it." So, she said Dr. Pucka's alleged harassment continued. "He'd say, 'Hey, what size bra do you wear?' or 'How much do those cost?'" she said. April's husband Wesley Robertson said he witnessed Dr. Pucka allegedly harassing his wife. "He made jokes about her being crazy and jokes about her chest size," he said. He said he also witnessed Dr. Pucka harassing patients when dropping lunch off to April. "I hated going in there because from the second I walked in the door, I would hear sexual innuendos to customers." Wesley said the experience was damaging to his wife. "When you put in a day's work, yeah you're tired, but you shouldn't be in tears from the trauma of working there," he explained. That's why April said she decided to come forward. "I cannot sit here and not come forward and validate these women's stories because that's not fair to them," she said. "There have been 50 plus women who have come forward in messages, private messages and things like that, that have shared their story, and they're all extremely similar. They're all things that like I'm telling you." She said she felt it was the right thing to do. "I feel like as an employee, I should validate these women and their stories. It's true. It happens. It's not okay. There are tons of women. They're just too scared." Despite the allegations, April said there are many people supporting Dr. Pucka, but said that didn't stop her from filing a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General's Office. "This is not cancel culture," she said. "This is a person who is in a position of power, who took an oath to make you feel comfortable. There are people that come in there that are hurting or have all these multiple things going on that they're sharing with him and that is not the experience that they should be getting." We want to make it clear that Robertson has not filed an EEOC complaint. Despite what we've reported on Monday and Tuesday, including multiple attempts to reach him, we still have not heard from Dr. James Pucka. As we reported Monday, the Attorney General's Office has requested an emergency hearing regarding placing Pucka's license on suspension for 90 days. If you think you may have been sexually harassed in a professional setting, click here for more information on how to file a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General's Office. LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI)-Apps like Nextdoor are becoming the new way neighbors report things they are seeing in their neighborhood. Many may wonder if neighborhood watch programs still exist. In the city of Lafayette, they are alive and well. The Lafayette Police Department says they can be helpful during investigations. "When they see something and they report it to us it gives us the ability to come out and investigate suspicious incidents," said Lieutenant Randy Sherer with the Lafayette Police Department. For the organizer of the watch program, Cheryl Chapman coming together with her neighbors for a common cause is important to her. "Neighborhood watch is personal we are trying to take care of the people that we live in the community with and we aren't all good," said Chapman. According to Lt. Sherer, the Lafayette police department has around 150 sworn police officers. Only about 70 of those are patrolling the city daily. He says neighborhood watch programs serve as their eyes and ears. For that reason, Chapman and the rest of the neighborhood watch continue to meet monthly and engage with police rather than post what they see online. "Not everybody has access to a computer, not everybody has the want to learn how to use another app not everybody has the time to do that," said Chapman. LPD says these tips can help when they are trying to solve a crime, but they warn citizens not to try and start their own investigations. "I definitely don't want somebody else putting themselves in harm's way to intervene," said Lt. Sherer. "If you see somebody that looks like they are acting strange or like they could be high on drugs, call the police let us come deal with it." That's why Chapman says if you see something say something. "You need to communicate and have a relationship with your police department," said Chapman. The Linnwood and Hanna neighborhood watch meetings take place once a month. You can find information about the meetings by heading to our community calendar tab. Books published by William & Mary faculty in 2021 The following books were authored or edited by William & Mary faculty members and published in 2021. Books are listed in alphabetical order within the following categories: arts & sciences, business, education and marine science. Additional categories may be added throughout the year as more books are published. The information contained herein was submitted by the authors. Additional books may be submitted via this online form. - Ed. Arts & Sciences Ars Antiqua: Music and Culture in Europe c. 1150-1330 By Thomas B. Payne (co-editor and contributor of a chapter to the volume), the David N. and Margaret C. Bottoms Professor of Music This volume presents new contributions that address the principal polyphonic musical genres of the late twelfth and thirteenth centuries (organum, motet, conductus). It also treats vernacular and monophonic songs, issues of musical and poetic aesthetics, manuscript tradition and production, authorship, liturgical practices, the continuance of "ars antiqua" ideas well into the fourteenth-century era of the "ars nova," and the role that information technologies may play in future "ars antiqua" scholarship. Published by Brepols Publishers in Turnhout, Belgium | More information The Art of Useless: Fashion, Media, and Consumer Culture in Contemporary China By Calvin Hui, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies (Class of 1952 Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, beginning in fall 2021) Since embarking on economic reforms in 1978, the Peoples Republic of China has also undergone a sweeping cultural reorganization, from proletarian culture under Mao to middle-class consumer culture today. Under these circumstances, how has a Chinese middle class come into being, and how has consumerism become the dominant ideology of an avowedly socialist country? "The Art of Useless" offers an innovative way to understand Chinas unprecedented political-economic, social and cultural transformations, showing how consumer culture helps anticipate, produce and shape a new middle-class subjectivity. Published by Columbia University Press | More information The Impact of Lunar Dust on Human Exploration Edited by Joel S. Levine, Research Professor, Department of Applied Science When the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, they discovered that the surface of the Moon was covered with several inches of very fine, tiny particles composed of very sharp, glassy material. The lunar dust stuck to everything it came in contact with and eroded the astronaut's spacesuits, seals, equipment, instrumentation, irritated their eyes and lungs, etc. As the U.S. is now planning to return humans to the Moon as early as 2024, the lunar dust problem must be significantly mitigated or reduced. This book summarizes the lunar dust problems for human exploration on the Moon and suggests potential dust mitigation/reduction solutions. Published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK | More information Nonlinear Optimization: Models and Applications By William P. Fox, Visiting Professor, Department of Mathematics This book covers nonlinear optimization methods in 2 and more variables with both unconstrained and constrained methods. Both analytical and numerical approximations methods are covered. There are many applied problems as examples. Published by CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group | More information Back to the top Business Human Resources Management and Ethics: Responsibilities, Actions, Issues, and Experiences By Ronald R. Sims, Floyd Dewey Gottwald Professor, and Sheri K. Bias, Adjunct Professor The book explores and provides an in-depth look at the responsibilities, actions, issues and experiences related to HRM and ethics for individual employees, organizations and the broader society. More specifically, the book discusses the ever evolving role of HRM professionals in taking on more responsibility for developing and institutionalizing an ethical culture in their organizations (i.e., public, private, not-for-profit, academic, etc.). Published by Information Age Publishing, Inc. | More information Leadership, Leaders and Leading By Ronald R. Sims, Floyd Dewey Gottwald Professor The book is based on the premise that effective leaders need to be able to establish a shared vision and accompanying strategy that other members of the organization strongly believe in and are willing to help execute. The book argues that we can continue to learn from traditional and contemporary theories and myths about effective leadership & leaders and how they can successfully lead an increasingly diverse and demanding workforce, consumers and the broader society. Published by Information Age Publishing, Inc. | More information Succeeding as a Frontline Manager in Today's Organizations By Ronald R. Sims, Floyd Dewey Gottwald Professor This book examines both the traditional and contemporary skills todays frontline managers must have at a minimum and those they must successfully learn to implement to fulfill their critical roles and responsibilities. The book argues that FLMs will continue to play a critical role in helping their organizations pursue and achieve their strategic, tactical and operational goas efficiently and effectively. Published by Information Age Publishing, Inc. | More information Back to the top Education Career Development Interventions (6th edition) By Spencer Niles, W&M Professor of Education, and JoAnn Harris-Bowlsbey, Kuder, Inc. This is the best selling text on career development interventions used in counseling, psychology, and social work programs to prepare practitioners to foster positive career development in their clients. Published by Pearson | More information Career Flow and Development: Hope in Action By Spencer Niles, W&M Professor of Education, Norman Amundson, Roberta Neault and Hyung Joon Yoon This book is based on the concept of flow and applied to helping university students understand the career development and manage the career development process. Published by Cognella Press | More information Career Recovery: Creating Careers with Hope in Difficult Times By Spencer Niles, W&M Professor of Education, Norman Amundson, Roberta Neault and Hyung Joon Yoon This book is intended for unemployed adults seeking re-entry into the workforce and is especially relevant for the pandemic recovery period. Published by Cognella Press | More information Back to the top Marine Science Chesapeake Bay Explorer's Guide By David Malmquist, Director, VIMS News and Media Services "Chesapeake Bay Explorers Guide" is the perfect reference for those who want to know more about the things they see in and around the famous estuary, whether they are relaxing on a beach, paddling through a saltmarsh or watching workboats duck beneath a drawbridge. Explore more than 14,000 miles of shoreline, myriad hiking trails and scores of wildlife preserves nestled between resort towns and other attractions. With more than 600 full-color photos, this guide highlights plants, animals and cultural artifacts from across the Bay ecosystem, and is aimed at both visitors and resident day-trippers. Published by Globe Pequot | More information Back to the top Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-13 06:02:34|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Wednesday called for efforts to promote peace in Yemen and provide humanitarian assistance to the war-torn country. There is a need to mobilize every diplomatic effort and to work strenuously toward a cease-fire in Yemen, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. The military conflict in Marib has not only displaced civilians with serious humanitarian consequences, but also exacerbated the confrontation between the parties, undermining the efforts toward a military settlement, he told the Security Council. There is no military solution to the conflict. A political solution is in the interests of all parties, he said. China reiterates its condemnation of the attacks against civilian infrastructure in Saudi Arabia, and supports the work of the UN secretary-general's special envoy for Yemen. China welcomes the positive signals from Saudi Arabia and the Yemeni government for a peaceful resolution of the conflict and their commitments in this regard. China hopes that these efforts will get a positive response from the relevant party in Yemen, said Zhang. He asked for efforts to leverage the roles of regional countries so as to push relentlessly for political talks. The proposals for a nationwide cease-fire, lifting the blockade on Sanaa airport and Hodeidah port, and relaunching political negotiations have been on the table for months. But the negotiation process has been delayed again and again, he said. "We hope the special envoy will stay in close communication and coordination with regional countries to identify where the crux lies and encourage those countries with influence on the parties to play a greater role." Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi has put forward a five-point initiative on peace and stability in the Middle East in support of regional countries and peoples playing a major role to find political solutions to the Yemeni and other hot-spot issues. Regional countries have recently expressed their commitments to advancing the peace process in Yemen, and have engaged in friendly interactions among themselves. China hopes these positive signs will translate into tangible action of peacemaking, said Zhang. The international community must increase humanitarian assistance to address the immediate needs of the Yemeni people, he said. Today, across the country, the state of protection of civilians is worrying. The risk of famine is imminent. COVID-19 control is an uphill struggle, and oil supply is very unstable, he noted. China calls on donor countries to disperse their pledges without delay to keep the UN humanitarian relief programs going. All parties to the conflict must ensure safe and unimpeded humanitarian access and keep the avenues open for the import of food, oil and other commodities, he said. China commends Saudi Arabia's decision to provide Yemen with oil products worth 422 million U.S. dollars, and welcomes the arrival of the first shipment to the port of Aden, he said. Over the years, China has provided large amounts of humanitarian assistance to Yemen through bilateral and multilateral channels. From 2017 to 2020, China provided more than 11,700 metric tons of food aid to Yemen. Since last year, China has provided test kits, medical masks, personal protection equipment and other anti-COVID supplies to Yemen. China stands ready to continue playing its part in alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, said Zhang. On the Safer oil tanker, he asked the Houthis to assist the UN technical staff in boarding the vessel to conduct assessment and repairs as soon as possible in order to prevent economic, humanitarian, and marine environmental disasters. Enditem On Monday, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected soon to grant similar authorization, which would allow vaccinations for this age group to begin immediately. President Joe Biden recently stated that roughly 20,000 pharmacies are prepared to administer the vaccine to adolescents. The authorization follows the release of initial results from an ongoing clinical trial by Pfizer-BioNTech, which involves 2,260 participants ages 12-15. The results found 18 cases of symptomatic coronavirus infections in the placebo group and none among the group that received the vaccine. On this basis, the companies have claimed that the vaccine is 100 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. Side effects from the vaccine were comparable to those seen in older age groups. Jane Ellen Norman, age 12, poses for a photo after getting vaccinated at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta on Tuesday, May 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Angie Wang) The initial results of the ongoing clinical trial and the granting of EUA to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been seized upon by the corporate media to press for the rapid vaccination of this age group in order to fully reopen schools and return to normalcy, in the words of the New York Times. As has been the case throughout the pandemic, there are substantial economic motives involved in this campaign, whose fundamental aim is to ensure that all parents are able to return to workplaces as quickly as possible to maximize the production of corporate profits. In its print edition, the Times ran a front-page article Tuesday announcing the authorization, with the subheading: Widespread inoculations may speed a return to classrooms. Author Apoorva Mandavilli wrote that the authorization removes an obstacle to school reopenings by reducing the threat of transmission in classrooms. On Sunday, a day before the FDAs announcement, the Times ran a separate piece by education writer Dana Goldstein titled, Schools Are Open, but Many Families Remain Hesitant to Return. The article bemoans the fact that while only 12 percent of elementary and middle schools remain fully online, the percentage of students learning fully remotely is much greater: more than a third of fourth and eighth graders, and an even larger group of high school students. Inventing a term out of whole cloth and without citing any scientists, Goldstein writes, Experts have coined the term school hesitancy to describe the remarkably durable resistance to a return to traditional learning. She claims that these unnamed expertsin reality, the financial oligarchy for whom the Times speakssee the phenomenon as a social and educational crisis for children that must be combateda challenge akin to vaccine hesitancy. Throughout the past year, Goldstein and the Times have been among the foremost advocates of school reopenings, in the process distorting science, vilifying teachers and elevating right-wing pro-reopening parents. As part of the campaign to rapidly vaccinate children in order to fully reopen schools, the print and broadcast news media is belatedly acknowledging that children can become infected and die from COVID-19, develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) and readily transmit the virus to their parents. These factsproven by multiple studies since last summerhave been downplayed by the entire corporate media and political establishment as tens of millions of children were herded into unsafe classrooms. The studies and their findings have been reported extensively only by the World Socialist Web Site . Just as the media has barely reported recent estimates that over 900,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the US and nearly 7 million worldwide, not a single outlet has reported the CDCs own estimates that nearly 26.7 million children under 18 have been infected with COVID-19. This amounts to more than a third of the total US population in that age group, 74.2 million children. According to the CDC, 3,185 children have been diagnosed with MIS-C and 36 have died, both of which are also surely underestimates. Recent studies have shown that roughly 10-15 percent of all children infected with COVID-19 develop long-term complications, known as Long COVID, including sleep disorders, heart palpitations, gastrointestinal issues, breathing difficulties, muscle and joint pain, headaches, cognitive impairment, lack of concentration and other debilitating symptoms. Using the CDCs estimate of 26.7 million child infections, up to 4 million children may already be suffering from Long COVID in the US alone. The deliberate distortion of science and downplaying of the risks posed to children over the past year constitute a conspiracy orchestrated by the entire political establishment, the corporate media and the teachers unions. This began last summer under the Trump administration, with adviser Paul Elias Alexander writing in a July 4 email, Infants, kids, teens, young people, young adults, middle aged with no conditions etc. have zero to little risk ... so we use them to develop herd ... we want them infected. The school reopening campaign has been intensified under Biden. In February, the newly inaugurated president lied directly to a second-grade student at a CNN town hall event, stating, Kids dont get COVID very often. Its unusual for that to happen. Just last week, he reiterated this lie in an NBC News interview, saying, Theres not overwhelming evidence that theres much of a transmission among these people, young people. He concluded, Based on the science and the CDC, [schools] should probably all be open. Throughout the pandemic, the federal government has refused to implement national surveillance testing of children or any other section of the population. The only database tracking COVID-19 outbreaks at schools was The COVID Monitor, established by Florida whistleblower Rebekah Jones. After logging 762,259 infections tied to K-12 schools, the website now states that it was decommissioned on March 1, 2021, after the Biden administration began an effort to overtake our responsibilities. This was evidently premature, as the White House has yet to set up any comparable tracking system for schools. In the school reopening drive, the teachers unions have played the most pivotal role. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA) and all of their state and local affiliates have suppressed the enormous opposition among educators to the reckless reopening of schools, isolating every strike and protest that has broken out over the past year. It was recently revealed that the AFT directly influenced the CDCs unscientific update of its school reopening guidelines in February, calling for schools to open at any level of community transmission. This set the stage for every major district in the US to resume in-person learning. Throughout the pandemic, children, educators, parents and all of society have been endangered by the powers-that-be. For the political establishment and media, the push to quickly vaccinate adolescents is motivated not by public health concerns, but rather by the profit interests of the corporate-financial oligarchy which they serve. The initial clinical trial results for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine among adolescents appear promising. However, the approval process must not be allowed to be rushed or politically driven. Moreover, the vaccines must not be viewed as a magic bullet to end the pandemic in a given country, which is scientifically impossible. Underscoring the global character of the pandemic, on the same day that the Food and Drug Administration granted EUA status to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified the highly contagious triple-mutant B.1.617 variant spreading in India as a variant of concern, indicating that it poses a major health threat globally. As long as the virus spreads unchecked in any part of the world, the danger will grow that the existing vaccines will lose their efficacy, creating conditions where the pandemic can become endemic and tens of millions more could die worldwide. What is required is a globally coordinated program to fully contain the pandemic. This includes the immediate closure of all schools and nonessential workplaces on a world scale, combined with the provision of ample economic resources for all workers and families affected, as well as universal testing, contact tracing and the safe isolation of all infected patients. Intellectual property rights must be abolished and a global production and distribution system rapidly established to safely vaccinate the world population. Over the past year, educators and other workers across the US and internationally have formed rank-and-file committees independent of the capitalist parties and the official trade unions, which serve as their enforcers, in order to advance this scientifically grounded program. These efforts must be expanded into every workplace and industry in every country, unified through the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees, to prosecute the class struggle and implement the measures necessary to contain the pandemic and save lives. A school shooting in Kazan, the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan in southwestern Russia, has left at least nine people dead, among them seven children. Eighteen children and three adults were hospitalized, at least two in critical condition. The shooter, 19-year old Ilnaz Galyaviev, entered School No. 175 Tuesday morning, armed with an assault rifle. He forced his way into the building, shooting and wounding an elderly man who served as a guard. He then went on to shoot six children and two teachers, one of whom was just 25 years old. Two children jumped to their death when trying to flee. Earlier reports of a bomb exploding during the event have not been confirmed. People stand near a school with flowers after a shooting in Kazan, Russia, May 11, 2021 (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky) Galyaviev surrendered to the police and National Guard after the 20-minute long massacre. He has been charged with multiple counts of murder. Galyaviev, who comes from a poor family in the city and had previously graduated from the school, was by all indications mentally disturbed. Before going on the rampage, he posted a video on the popular social media platform Telegram, in which he described himself as God and announced that he would kill a huge number of people. He said, I didnt immediately understand that I am God, not until two months ago. And in the summer a monster was awakened in me. I began to hate everyone. I have always hated everyone and began to hate everyone even more. He reportedly stopped attending his college classes around January and was recently expelled. The shooting has provoked horror and an outpouring of sympathy across the country and internationally. It is the mass shooting in Russia with the greatest number of fatalities since the Kerch school shooting of 2018 in Crimea, in which two dozen people were killed. In recent years, there have also been several fatal stabbings in Russian schools. Russian politicians have responded to the disaster with a combination of platitudes that seek to deflect attention from the social causes of the shooting and exploit the tragedy for state repression. Such is commonplace in the US after events of this character. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed overly lax gun laws, and the Russian government is now working on a bill limiting the purchase of firearms. The speaker of the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, also declared that the parliament would discuss a bill that would make it illegal for internet users to remain anonymous, in order to fight propaganda of violence and extremism after the Kazan shooting. The Russian government has already heavily censored the internet and banned the use of virtual private networks (VPNs), which hide the IPs of individual users. Not a single politician has been able to honestly address the social roots of this horrific massacre. The mayor of Kazan, Ilsur Metshin, could do little more than declare it a terrorist act of the most base, most degraded kind that you can imagine. However, the fact that a mentally disturbed youth like Galyaviev could conceive of such a horrific act of mass murder cannot be understood outside the profoundly diseased state of Russian society. The crimes of Stalinism, culminating in the destruction of the Soviet Union by the Soviet bureaucracy three decades ago, have left generations without a viable social and political perspective. The vast majority of working class people live in poverty, while a criminal oligarchy has enriched itself to an extraordinary degree by plundering the former property of the Soviet state. Russia is now the most unequal large economy in the world. The coronavirus pandemic has further deepened and revealed the brutality underlying social relations. The past year, during which Galyavievs mental health seems to have deteriorated sharply, was one of social murderabove all of workers and poor peopleon an unprecedented scale in both Russia and internationally. The Russian oligarchy has been as indifferent to the suffering and deaths of the population during the pandemic as its international counterparts. It pushed for a premature reopening of the economy last spring. The COVID-19 death toll in Russia is extremely high. While only 113,647 deaths have been officially acknowledged, Russia lost half a million citizens last year, more than at any time since 2005. Recent estimates, which have put the global death toll of the pandemic at 6.93 million, assume that as many as 593,000 people have died from the disease in Russia, almost as many as in Brazil. The number of people perishing from the virus is so high that the business daily Vedomosti suggested that official statistics now show a lower total number of people living in extreme poverty because so many from this category have died. Despite an effective Russian-made vaccine, Sputnik-V, daily new cases have plateaued at between 8,500 and 9,500 for the past two months. Epidemiologists fear that a third wave may be coming, with substantial portions of the Russian population still not vaccinated. While the poor have suffered enormous hardship and mass death, there are more Russian billionaires now than before the pandemic. According to Forbes, the number of Russians in this category has grown from 99 to 117 during the pandemic. They are now worth a collective $584 billion, up from $385 billion the year prior. The ten richest Russians all became wealthier and are now worth a combined $223 billion, up from $152 billion. The premature death of a vibrant woman at an auto parts plant outside Detroit last month has touched a deep chord among workers more than one year into a deadly pandemic. While the cause of death of Jacqueline (Jackie) Pennington (age 55) has not been made public by the family, the workplace environment at Faurecia as described by her closest family friends and co-workers have left many wondering if these conditions may have contributed in some way to this tragedy. Jackie Pennington Friends of Jacqueline flew in from as far away as Florida to attend the visitation held on April 28. Many spoke warmly of a woman who made everybody laugh and was always caring for those who could not work as hard as she did. Jackie worked a night shift at the plant, which was taken over by the French conglomerate Faurecia in June of 2012 as part of a decades-long war on the jobs, wages, retirement, safety and benefit packages of autoworkers. The company became the dominant supplier for interior parts and exhaust systems for North America by seeking to outdo its US counterparts and by enlisting the support of the unions to impose a program of forced work, brutal speed up and the systematic disregard for even basic safety precautions in handling deadly chemicals and hazardous production processes. At the funeral, Antoenette Foster recounted receiving a call in the middle of the night a couple of years ago. Jackie was really agitated, she said. She had been passed over because of favoritism between the union and the company. I feel like I want to go postal, Jackie cried. Dont tell my momma. I dont want her to know. But, her friend Antoenette continued, I could tell that she was under terrible stress. Regina, a lifelong friend, said, Jackie was the life of the party. With a smile on her face, she would always have you laughing. A very hard worker, she was entertaining and a very caring person. Jackies mother Viverene El was understandably devastated by the loss of her only child, but at the same time very proud of her and the warm support of so many of Jackies friends, and pleased to have the event reported in the World Socialist Web Site. Faurecia plant, Saline Michigan Jackies is only the most recent in a string of premature deaths at Faurecia facilities reported by the World Socialist Web Site. Damien Jones died last July of a seizure in the midst of a grueling work schedule, and James Grady, a former worker at the Faurecia Gladstone plant who has advocated for workers on safety issues, reported a list of early deaths of Faurecia workers due to cancer, most likely induced by the carcinogen hexavalent chromium, a by-product of welding fumes in the poorly ventilated shops the company is known for. Workers are reporting other deaths at Saline from COVID-19, but the full details are being suppressed by the union and the company. Remembering Jackie from the factory floor, Lamont Newton said, When you start a job, you are going in to make money to take care of yourself. You are not going into a slave factory. At least you dont think so. Then when you get in there the stress is unseen, but it is there. That comes from the fact that the union and the corporation have made deals to just blow people off. You have no recourse. You have no one that you can speak to about it. You might switch shifts and get a completely different rap not knowing that it's all the same. I suspect that she went through that and was heartbroken. Then theres the issue of whether or not theyre going to cut her out of her $50,000. If [the death] is related to the plant then the company owes her family $50,000. Lamont continued, The union is not even qualified to investigate what happened to this girl. Their job is just to make sure that that benefit is paid. Her parent deserves that for all of her work. What you are seeing is multiple people die, Lamont said. I almost did, and Im sure my family would not have gotten a thing. What is happening is the first statement to the membership is, Well, it was not COVID. And if it was, it didnt happen here because we have the best safety measures. There was an accident there some years ago. A vat fell on the floor. He was in the puddle so to speak. And the fumes and the stuff from it and the material that touched his skin because he was wearing shorts at the time. Its hot. That guy lost a lot of his nerves. He got twitches and stuff. He was exposed so badly, he could not work any more. He was disabled by the isocyanide. I cant even go in too deep to think about this place because it makes me feel sick. There was a woman who had a heart attack and died on the floor. They didnt move her body for four hours. They told everybody they had to work around her body. And the union didnt do anything. That is traumatic. So when you talk about stress. We had a rat problem. They were laying tape all over the area where we were working. People would be working and we hear all this shrieking and its these rats that were literally trying so hard to get off that tape that they were pulling themselves apart. Thats unsafe, unsanitary. And nobody did anything. A worker said that UAW local 892 president Larry Robinsons answer to everything is, The company is doing the best it can do. We are working with them. We know youre working with them, the worker added, but they are not doing anything to address the problem. You are working with them on lunches and dinners and kickbacks. Thats what youre working on. They are bringing in prisoners. They are paying them anywhere between $9 and $12 an hour. The union fully supported it. The worker spoke about the case of John Stamper, a 53-year-old Faurecia worker who died of a COVID-19-induced heart attack last December. He worked in the battery shop, he continued. So John worked alone. Larry and the rest of the union were saying that it wasnt COVID. Larry Robinson was protecting the company in the case of John Stamper. His kids were supposed to get that check from the company. Do you think they got it? No. Another supporter of the rank-and-file committee in Saline said, You are working with people and you dont know if they are healthy or not. You are contracting whatever they have contracted. Something has got to happen. Why would you put anybody in harms way? She asked. But they do it everyday and dont think anything about it. The money that was used to prop up the stock market should be used to pay peoples wages so that they can shut down and quarantine and social distance to stop the virus. Another supporter of the rank-and-file committee said, They dont tell you when somebody dies, especially if they die of coronavirus. They dont say anything. [Jacqueline] may have had cancer and that could be caused by the chemicals and the bad ventilation. We usually have a week off in July. They dont want to give us that. None of the Ford plants are doing a shutdown this year. A few of the lines already had their shutdown because of the parts shortage. Last year, when the plant manager was exposed for concealing information about coronavirus infections on the lines, rank-and-file workers formed a safety committee at Saline in opposition to the UAW. Now, with a continuing high rate of infections and death in Michigan the demand must be raised for full information on COVID-19 infections in the plant and a four-week shutdown of nonessential production until the virus is contained. On Tuesday, Israel launched a massive aerial bombardment of 140 airstrikes on Gaza, killing a further two Palestinians. This brings the death toll to 40, including nine children and one woman. Thirty-five of the deaths were in Gaza and five people in Israel were killed. At least 122 people have been injured, 41 of them children. More than 12 percent of all injuries were serious, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. One of Israels targets, a 13-storey residential tower in Gaza City that houses an office used by the political leadership of Hamas, collapsed. A medic treats a wounded boy following an explosion in the town of Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, on Monday, May 10, 2021, during a conflict between Hamas and Israel. (AP Photo/Mohammed Ali) Salameh Marouf, who heads the government information office in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that Israel had intentionally targeted service facilities, such as near the water desalination facility to the north of Gaza, which put it out of service. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, Israels military spokesman, said that 15 militants had been killed in strikes by jets and unmanned drones. He said nothing about the civilian deaths and injuries, adding cynically, We are doing everything possible to avoid collateral damage. He reported that the militarys air campaign was still in its early stages, implying that assassinations of Hamas leaders were on the agenda. Gaza, home to nearly two million Palestinians, most of whom are under 25 years of age, has suffered a criminal 14-year blockade, three murderous warsthe last in 2014and numerous assaults at the hands of Israel since 2006. Israels latest attacks on Gaza started on Monday night in response to calls by Hamas to withdraw security forces from Jerusalems al-Aqsa Mosque compound and Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has on several occasions ordered the deployment of security forces to the al-Aqsa compound, the third-holiest site in Islam, during the month-long Ramadan fast that began April 12. None of the authorities have sought to give the slightest justification for Mondays storming of the compound by security personnel who trampled over prayer mats, attacking worshippers with rubber bullets and stun grenades, injuring 520 Palestinians of whom 330 needed hospital treatment. Police Commissioner Koby Shabtai told Channel 12 News that the police had been too soft in dealing with the Palestinians in the compound and that they were going to get tougher. Such military invasions of religious sites are illegal under the 1954 Hague Conventionto which Israel is a signatory. In 1981, UNESCO declared Jerusalems Old City that includes the compound a world heritage site. The storming of al-Aqsa came amid demonstrations against escalating land grabs by Israeli settlers, settlement expansion and the planned eviction of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah, north of Jerusalems Old City. Provocative marches organized by Religious Zionism chairman Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir of Jewish Power, taunted the Palestinians with death to Arabs chants. The situation in East Jerusalem, which is heavily reliant on tourism, has been further exacerbated by the pandemic that has left thousands of young people without an income. The timing of the crackdown on Jerusalem Daythe anniversary of Israels annexation of East Jerusalem from Jordan following the 1967 Warahead of the planned Flags March by Israels settler groups and far right forces through Arab neighbourhoods was planned to precipitate a war with the Palestinians. It prompted angry demonstrations by Palestinian Israelis, in predominantly Arab towns and cities including Lod, Ramle, Isawiyah, Jaffa, the northern port city of Haifa, Nazareth and the central region around Umm al-Fahm, as well as in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, that were met with police repression. In Lod, a Jewish Israeli shot and killed a Palestinian amid violent clashes. On Tuesday, Palestinian Israelis went on strike across the country. This marks a significant shift in the attitude of the mainly young protesters who in the past did not actively solidarise with the Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the occupied territories. Tuesdays air strikes came after Hamas responded to Israels Monday night bombardment with rockets, killing two women and injuring dozens in the southern city of Ashkelon. The scale of the high-tech bombardment makes clear that these latest attacks on Gaza by the most powerful military force in the region mark the start of Israels fourth war on the besieged enclave. Furthermore, the military campaigndubbed Guardian of the Walls is set to escalate and widen. Netanyahu, speaking after the first Gaza rockets were launched on Monday evening, proclaimed that the Palestinians had crossed a red line and that Israel will respond with great force. He followed this up on Tuesday with a pledge to step up the assault, declaring At the conclusion of a situational assessment, it was decided that both the might of the attacks and the frequency of the attacks will be increased. He has refused all calls to calm the situation and has not responded to Egypts offer to mediate between Israel and Gaza, Egypts foreign minister told an emergency Arab League meeting. Israels media and politicians across the political spectrum have supported Netanyahu, parroting the party line about Israel acting to defend itself. Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who is trying to form a coalition government to replace Netanyahu, called for even harsher attacks on Gaza. Yesterday, Defence Minister Benny Gantz approved the call up of 5,000 reserve soldiers, which he said was to deepen home front defence. He instructed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi to continue the attacks on Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza, prepare the home front and rebut false claims by the Palestinians. Gantz approved Public Security Minister Amir Ohanas request for eight companies of Border Police as reinforcements. The police and the army have sealed the crossings into Gaza and closed roads adjacent to the enclave. Aviv Kochavi said all IDF units had to prepare for a wider campaign of indefinite duration, with the onslaught to be expanded to additional targets. Hidai Zilberman, an IDF spokesperson, warned that the Israeli army has its foot on the gas and that attacks on the Gaza Strip would intensify. The military had increased the number of Iron Dome batteries in central Israel in preparation for more rocket strikes. Netanyahus preparations for war against the Palestinians come in the wake of his failure to form a new coalition government that would ensure his ability to evade a trial that is exposing his corrupt relations with media figures. He has calculated that a new Palestinian uprising and a war with Hamas would upend any possibility of his rival Lapid securing the necessary support of both his potential right-wing partners such as Naftali Bennett of Yamina and Mansour Abbas United Arab List, precipitating a fifth election and/or a state of emergency that would ensure Netanyahus continued premiership. He is assured of the continued support of Washington and the European powers who have condemned Gazas rocket attacks on Israel and called for both sides to step back from the brink, absurdly equating Gazas projectiles with Tel Avivs sophisticated weaponry. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded that the rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel stop immediately. Speaking ahead of his meeting with Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi in Washington, he said, I am deeply concerned about the rocket attacks. Netanyahu has also been bolstered by his new-found Arab allies that have normalized relations with Israel, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrainand by implication its patron Saudi ArabiaMorocco and Sudan, all of whom have said little other beyond pro forma statements of concern. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 09:25:58|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KAMPALA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Violet Ayesiza, 32, works as a nurse at Kasangati Health Center in the central Ugandan district of Wakiso. Now she has to work for more than 12 hours a day before she is relieved by her colleagues. She is among more than 70,000 registered nurses and midwives in the country to serve a nationwide population of 45 million people, as the world commemorates International Nurses Day on Wednesday. In an interview with Xinhua before International Nurses Day, Ayesiza said she was overwhelmed with work, like many other nurses and midwives in Uganda who were staying at their posts amid the heavy workload brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the increased workload, she continues to serve diligently and professionally, she said. International Nurses Day falls on May 12 to mark the crucial work of nurses. Since Uganda reported its first COVID-19 case in March last year, its health facilities have been flooded by patients, some infected with COVID-19 and some with other ailments. "The number of people who come to receive treatment for ailments has now even doubled compared before the outbreak (of COVID-19). Many people are now seeking the services of health workers at the facility," Ayesiza said. She said that her health center now treats between 100 to 200 patients in a single day. Teopista Asimwe, another nurse, told Xinhua that despite the meager pay, they still stay at their posts to provide health care to the people who come to the health center. "We have few nurses and midwives providing prenatal, delivery, and postnatal services. Being a health facility that's within the town center, we end up providing delivery and postnatal services, including family planning and immunizations," said Asimwe. "The workload is heavy and we sometimes need extra hands, especially on peak days," said the nurse. Juliet Nalwanga, a 25-year-old mother of two, said she was happy because she at least got the health care provided by the nurses and midwives. "The nurses here are friendly and I feel happy whenever I come here to immunize my children, although sometimes the health center is filled with many people, especially during these pandemic periods," Nalwanga told Xinhua at Goma Health Center in the central district of Mukono. Justus Cherop Kiplangat, president of the Uganda Nurses and Midwives Union, told Xinhua that, although many nurses and midwives work under terrible conditions, they still continue to provide health care. Kiplangat said many health workers do not have decent accommodation and some live far away from their workplaces. The Ugandan government in May 2018 pledged to increase the wellbeing of nurses and midwives, including increasing their lunch allowance. But the government reportedly failed to fulfill the pledge, which forced nurses and midwives to stage a sit-down strike several days ago. Ugandan government officials said the pandemic had changed the government's priority for funding allocations. Robinah Nabbanja, minister of state for health in charge of general duties, told Xinhua that once the pandemic slows down, the medical workers would be the priority. "My advice to nurses and midwives is to remain working as the government looks for funds to fulfill its promise," she said. David Karubanga, minister of state for public service, told reporters that the leadership of the Nurses and Midwives Union had reached a consensus with the government over the payment of their lunch allowance. Enditem Almost two weeks after the Unite union told 400 striking bus drivers at Go North West in Manchester that they had secured a victory against the imposition of savage attacks through a fire and rehire contract, the rotten deal negotiated is being kept secret. On Friday April 30, bottles of sparkling wine were handed round by pickets at the Queens Road depot in Cheetham Hill to celebrate after officials said the threat of fire and rehire was being taken off the table barely a week before the May 8 deadline to dismiss anyone refusing to accept a 2,500 pay cut and an inferior sick pay scheme. Colin Hayden, Unites senior steward at Go North West, told an online meeting that evening that the CEO of parent company Go Ahead had agreed to withdraw the fire and rehire threat, adding that our conditions are not the same as what they were, however, they are not what were in the fire and rehire contract. The proposed agreement was being looked over, but weve got a negotiated contract we are working on, negotiated sick pay, negotiated scheduling and rostering agreement and negotiated holiday and sickness absence policy. Manchester Trades Union Council executive committee member Ian Allinson speaking at a Go North West solidarity meeting In an online May Day event the next day, Manchester Trades Union Council (MTUC) industrial action co-ordinator Ian Allinson claimed that Go Ahead has made an offer which sounds as if it could be an important victory. Union reps were still looking at it in detail but if all goes to plan it seems likely workers will vote on an offer this week. Allinson, a member of the RS21 split off from the Socialist Workers Party, held an executive position in Unite for 10 years up until 2014 and launched an unsuccessful bid to become general secretary in 2016. In his position as industrial action co-ordinator for the MTUC, he has ensured that not a single bus or transport worker has been mobilised in support of the Go North West dispute. Allinson presented an upcoming May Day march and rally in Manchester on May 3 as a prelude to a great victory that will really set back fire and rehire and move us towards a situation where that can be banned in Britain as it is in so many other countries. The refusal to outline the deal and organise a ballot can only mean that what is being proposed is so toxic that Unite is working frantically on how to sell it to the Go North West drivers and to prevent an angry backlash. On May 10, Allinson signed an email from the MTUC stating, Despite tantalising progress which included forcing the withdrawal of fire and rehire, the Unite reps are still negotiating with local management to get a written offer which can be put to members. The strike continues to keep up the pressure for a deal. A solidarity rally was announced for Thursday May 13 outside Go North Wests Queen's Road depot in north Manchester. Allinson noted that strikers are nearing the end of the 12-week period of maximum legal protection. On Thursday they will get the result of a second ballot and (if there is no deal by then) Unite is expected to issue a new notice of action to trigger a second 12-week protected period from 27 May. Yet in an article in the Manchester Evening News dated May 8, Go North West stated, "Following negotiations, an agreement has been struck between Go North West and Unite to resolve this dispute. The agreement is due to be put to a vote of Unite members." In a letter to staff, Go North West Managing Director Nigel Featham provides an account of an intensive summit meeting lasting two days in London, at which Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey was present. Featham reports, "A formal agreement was duly signed by General Secretary Len McCluskey and Go Ahead CE David Brown, confirming the elements of the deal, the end of trade union leverage at Queens Road, the cancellation of the second strike ballot, and an undertaking by Unite to conduct a ballot on the deal with a recommendation to its members to accept. As regards the role of Unites reps in Manchester, Featham states, "The timetable for implementation is now in the hands of Unite's local representatives, and we expect to be moving forward with all due speed within days." To sum up, according to Allinson and the MTUC, Unites local officials are deep in negotiations with Go North West and threatening continued strike action. According to Go North West, Unites national leadership has already signed a deal with its Go Ahead parent and agreed to recommend it to its members. The only role for local officials is to decide a timetable for implementation. Someone is lying through their teeth, and on this occasion, until McCluskey issues a formal denial, it is most likely not Go Ahead management but the trades council and the local reps. Throughout the dispute, various pseudo-left groups have assumed their customary role as apologists for the trade union bureaucracy. But even as they try and claim a victory on Unites behalf, their reports indicate that a betrayal is on the cards. Socialist Alternative wrote April 30 that The juggernaut of fire and rehire has been dealt a colossal blow at Go Ahead, but then added, There is much which is unclear at the time of writing and which drivers will want to examine closely, potentially sick pay and rotas. A May 5 Socialist Appeal article by a Manchester Unite the union member also acknowledged, It is understood that the union has agreed to accept some cost-saving measures. These are likely to affect break times and sick pay. An article by Allinson published on the RS21 website, Ongoing Manchester bus strike defeats fire and rehire, notes the unions concession bargaining approach based upon Unite accepting cuts to pay and conditions to help Go North West remain competitive. Earlier reports of the concessions offered by Unite include inferior terms and conditions and cost cutting proposals of 1.3 million. Allinson makes clear that these are included in the deal. In some cases Unite had only offered them as temporary concessions for a two-year period. But GoNW [Go North West] has not guaranteed to restore the terms. Allinson and the entire pseudo-left cabal are loyal adjuncts of the trade union apparatus, with many holding lucrative posts within its ranks, who act as frontline enforcers shutting down any independent struggle by workers and imposing the dictates of the corporations and their bureaucratic servants. The warning made by the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) in its last article has been vindicated: bus workers should beware of union bureaucrats claiming imminent victory! Since the start of the dispute, Colin Hayden and other union representatives have done everything in their power to intimidate strikers and prevent them speaking to WSWS reporters and reading its coverage, claiming that the WSWS is anti-union. The bitter truth is that Unite and its counterparts are trade unions in name only, acting rather as an industrial police force against its own members on behalf of corporate management. Unite already has a list of betrayals behind it over fire and rehire. If Go Ahead is not to be added to this roster of treachery, bus drivers must draw the necessary lessons, break from the pro-capitalist trade unions and form a rank-and-file committeea genuine democratic organ of class struggle, upholding the interests of workers and not the profits of Go Ahead. Such a rank and file committee must appeal to other bus and transport workers for solidarity action and not to shareholders, false friends in the Labour Party like Mayor Andy Burnham and the Conservative government to legislate against fire and rehire. An online public meeting will be held by the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka) on The COVID-19 pandemic and the need for a socialist strategy on Sunday, May 30 at 6pm Indian Standard Time. The meeting will be conducted in English and Tamil. India has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic with the highest daily cases of any country in the world. The virus is raging uncontrolled throughout the country, with terrible consequences for millions of people, pushing the total number of officially recorded cases to more than 22 million and the death toll to over 240,000. Izhaar Hussain Shaikh, left, an ambulance driver who works for HelpNow, and others pick up a COVID-19 patient from his home in Mumbai, India May 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) Indias chronically underfunded health system has been overwhelmed. Shocking media reports show desperately ill people in major cities unable to gain admittance to healthcare facilities and of patients dying from asphyxiation after their hospital ran out of medical oxygen. In rural areas, where public health care facilities are rudimentary, the catastrophe is greater still. The vaccination campaign is in a shambles with less than 10 percent of the population having received the first shot and just 2.5 percent fully vaccinated. This massive human tragedy is the responsibility of the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the entire political establishment at the national and state level. Like his counterparts internationally, Modi has pursued the criminal policy of opening the economy that puts the profits of big business over human lives. Even now, as the number of daily infections explodes, the government has refused to impose a national lockdown. While the wealth of Indias billionaires has nearly doubled over the past year, tens of millions of Indians have lost their livelihoods and been condemned to poverty. During the limited lockdowns that have taken place, virtually no support has been provided to those thrown out of work. Moreover, Modi is exploiting the pandemic to ram through a new round of pro-market measures that will further destroy jobs and conditions. The rapidly deepening social crisis is fueling opposition. Millions of workers joined two one-day strikes last year against the Modi governments pro-market restructuring. Strikes and protests have taken place in many other sectors. Farmers have now been camped on the outskirts of Delhi for six months against the governments pro-agribusiness farm laws. The trade unions, in particular those dominated by the two main Stalinist partiesthe Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPM and the Communist Party of India (CPI)have confined the struggles of workers to futile attempts to pressure the Modi government, as well as appeals to the opposition Congress Party, the other main party of big business. To defend its most basic rights, including to healthcare and to life itself, the working class has to break free of the shackles of the trade unions and the Stalinists, which are defenders of capitalism, and establish new independent organisationsrank-and-file committeesthrough which it can fight to defend its class interests. This includes the immediate shutdown of all non-essential businesses and in-class education, the provision of full wages to all affected workers, and a vast expansion of the public health system. Such measures inevitably come into conflict with the demands of big business underscoring the necessity of fighting on the basis of a socialist perspective. On May Day 2021, the International Committee of the Fourth International called for the formation of an International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees to unify the struggles of workers around the world against the criminal response of the ruling classes internationally to the pandemic. We encourage all our readers, not only in South Asia but internationally, to support the ICFIs crucial initiative and to attend the online meeting. Deepal Jayasekera, Assistant Secretary of the Socialist Equality Party (SEP) in Sri Lanka, will be the main speaker. Date and Time: Sunday, May 30, 6 PM (Indian Standard Time) Language: English and Tamil Please register to attend the meeting clicking following link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4191651001271117581 In the wake of Saturdays horrific terror bombing outside a school in Kabul, there has been a significant escalation of a campaign within the US ruling establishment for a continuation of the murderous two-decades-long war in Afghanistan. A massive car bomb followed by two other bomb blasts claimed 85 lives, while wounding nearly 200 others in a poor neighborhood of western Kabul that is predominantly Hazara, a Shia minority population. The majority of the victims were schoolgirls between the ages of 13 and 18. U.S. Marines prepare to board helicopters at Forward Operating Base Dwyer, Afghanistan, July 2, 2009. (Photo by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Philippe E. Chasse) Both the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal published editorials Tuesday seizing upon this atrocity to attack US President Joe Bidens announcement last month that all US troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11. The date chosen is the 20th anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. that were utilized as the pretext for the October 7, 2001 US invasion of Afghanistan. Titled Afghanistans Terror Future, the Wall Street Journal editorial states, The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan undermines American security interests, but the humanitarian disaster may be more immediate. The attack on a school in Kabul over the weekend is a likely preview. It concludes that A U.S. presence can't thwart every horrific attack, but leaving means accepting there will be more of them. The Post, under the very similar headline A Grim Preview, editorialized: The horrific bombing of a school for girls in Kabul on Saturday was a grim presage of the catastrophe Afghanistanand, in particular, its women - may suffer with the withdrawal of U.S. and other international forces. It questioned why the United States does not simply retain its relatively small footprint in Afghanistan, which in recent years has consumed less than 10 percent of the Pentagon's budget and cost few U.S. casualties. In the context of the bitter divisions within the US state over the Afghanistan withdrawal, the bombing attack in Kabul assumes a particularly sinister character. While the US puppet government in Kabul along with the American media has sought to blame the Taliban for the mass killing, the Taliban has condemned the bombing and has generally sought not to provoke Washington ahead of its promised withdrawal. As yet, no one has claimed responsibility for the bombing. From the standpoint of who benefits from these killings, there is ample reason to question whether elements within the US military-intelligence apparatus or Afghan ruling circles whose fortunes are directly dependent upon a continued US occupation had a hand in the attack. In terms of both its timing and its target, the bombing was tailor-made to fit the phony narrative promoted opponents of withdrawal that, without US troops, the gains of the last 20 years and, in particular, the rights of women and girls will be extinguished. This cynical propaganda falls into the category of the big lie. It casts the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan as not merely a crusade against terrorism, but also an exercise in humanitarian interventionism aimed at promoting democracy and gender equality. What the big lie conceals is that Afghanistans tragic encounter with US imperialism began not in 2001, but more than two decades earlier, when the CIA, in collaboration with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, recruited Islamist fighters from throughout the Muslim world for a proxy war against Soviet forces supporting a secular government in Kabul. Prominent among the CIAs collaborators was Osama bin Laden, who founded Al Qaeda with the agencys assistance. The Taliban itself was a product of the chaos and destruction wrought by this decade-long war, which claimed the lives of as many as 2 million Afghans. It was initially backed by Washington as the force most capable of restoring order in the country and with which US imperialism could do business on pipelines and other interests. What are the supposed gains of two decades of US bombings and massacres? The conservative estimate is that 175,000 Afghans have lost their lives, though the real toll, including deaths indirectly caused by the war, is likely closer to a million. According to the United Nations Human Development Index, Afghanistan ranks 169, behind most of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority of the population, women as well men, live under conditions of grinding poverty and oppression. This, after Washington has spent $143 billion on Afghanistans reconstruction, enriching a narrow stratum of corrupt politicians and warlords. Whether the Biden administration will make good on its September 11 withdrawal pledge remains to be seen. It should be recalled that Donald Trump announced a complete withdrawal from Syria in 2019. In the face of a firestorm of opposition from the military and intelligence complex, he reversed course, claiming that he was leaving troops behind only to keep the oil. If Biden confronts a similar level of blowback, he will, no doubt, say he is leaving troops only to save the women. Underlying the divisions over the Afghanistan withdrawal are neither concerns over terrorism, nor, much less, the rights of women. At stake are geostrategic interests in a country that provided US imperialism with a beachhead in energy-rich Central Asia and a potential launching pad for wars against China, Iran or Russia. A glimpse into the real reasons for the US intervention in Afghanistan was provided in a 2018 speech by retired US Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was chief of staff to then Secretary of State Colin Powell at the time of the October 2001 US invasion. Wilkerson said that among the aims was the deployment of hard power within military striking distance of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative, which runs through Central Asia. Pointing to Afghanistans narrow border with Chinas western Xinjiang Province, he stated that it would provide the CIA a base of operations to foment unrest among the predominantly Muslim Uighur population and destabilize China. He noted the participation of thousands of Uighurs in the Al Qaeda forces that have served as the CIAs proxy ground troops in the war for regime change in Syria. The Pentagon is preparing for an Afghanistan withdrawal by seeking new bases that will serve the same purposes. Veteran US Afghanistan envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has been sent to the former Soviet republics of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, which border Afghanistan and provide similar proximity to China, Iran and Russia. Washington is also placing pressure on Pakistan to provide an air base. The military brass speaks of maintaining over the horizon forces that can continue the Afghanistan war indefinitely, with bombing raids, drone strikes and ground operations as needed. Meanwhile, it remains far from clear that all US military, not to mention CIA, assets will be withdrawn from Afghanistan. While there are officially approximately 3,300 members of the US armed forces deployed in the country, there are three to four times that number in terms of US contractors, including those directly involved in counter-terrorism operations. Meanwhile, as no troops have reportedly left the war-ravaged country, the Pentagon has deployed B-52 bombers, F-18 fighter jets and an aircraft carrier strike group to the region to supposedly cover the planned withdrawal. Washington has no intention of ending the longest war in US history; at best, it plans only to continue it by other means. Moreover, its strategy in Afghanistan is inextricably bound up with the strategy of great power conflict spelled out in US national security documents, i.e., the preparations for world war against nuclear-armed China and Russia. The propaganda campaign to justify continued war in Afghanistan in the name of human rights and womens rights is mirrored in the lies spread by Washington and its allies about Chinese genocide against the Uighurs. The resurgence of human rights imperialism under Biden is paving the way to a global conflagration. The only way to end the 20-year war in Afghanistan and prevent the eruption of new and even more catastrophic wars is through the mobilization of the working class in Asia, the Middle East and internationally, unifying their growing struggles with those of workers in the US, Europe and the rest of the world in a socialist anti-war movement. Without the revolutionary intervention of the working class, the threat of a third world war will only intensify. The Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand) held an important public webinar last Saturday, titled Ten years after the Pike River mine disaster: Political lessons of the struggle for the truth about the deaths of 29 men. It discussed one of New Zealands worst industrial disasters: the underground explosions at Pike River, where 29 people were killed in November 2010. This was not an accident, but an entirely avoidable tragedy caused by Pike River Coal placing profit and production ahead of safety. The meeting was an international event, attended by workers from New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, India and Norway. Some family members of those who died at Pike River also took part. The speakers exposed the role played by National Party and Labour Party-led governments, abetted by the union bureaucracy, state regulators, the police and the judicial systemfirstly in allowing Pike River Coal to operate with flagrantly unsafe and criminal practices; and secondly, in shielding the companys chief executive Peter Whittall and other senior managers from justice for the past 10 years. They also discussed why successive governments have refused to mount a thorough underground investigation to gather forensic evidence and recover bodies from the mine, despite promising to do so. This has prevented the full truth from coming to light about the cause of the first explosion on November 19, and what happened afterwards, including the cause of a second explosion on November 24. The families and independent investigators have gathered evidence which suggests that there may have been survivors following the first and second explosionscontrary to the findings of the 2012 royal commission of inquiry and claims made by police. SEG member and World Socialist Web Site writer John Braddock, who chaired the event, pointed out that Pike River was far from an isolated case. Governments throughout the world were placing corporate profits ahead of human life by refusing to take steps to stop the spread of COVID-19. He noted that a new study estimates the real death toll from the pandemic at 6.93 million globallymore than twice the official figure. The meeting then heard a recorded speech from Bernie Monk, whose son Michael died at Pike River. He highlighted the complicity of the Department of Labour and the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union (EPMU), which knew the mine was unsafe but did nothing to protect workers. Bernie Monk Monk said Jacinda Arderns Labour Party-led government had reneged on its 2017 election promise to fully investigate the mine and recover evidence for prosecutions. The minister responsible for Pike River recovery, Andrew Little, announced in March that the government would no longer fund the underground investigation to explore the mine workings beyond a roof-fall, because it would be too expensive. Monk pointed out that parliament is due to be renovated at a cost of $250 millionmore than five times the amount spent on the investigation. Were 10 years down the track, still havent got justice, still havent got accountability, and the families have had to go out and do an investigation of their own, Monk said. Our fight is going to continue, were going to bring the truth out... Theyre trying to sweep this under the table, theyre trying to wear us out and hoping that we go away. Well, its not going to happen, he said. Kath Monk, Michaels mother, added that the families wanted every person who goes to work to come home safely. Our men didnt, and no ones been held accountable for that, and thats not right. Richard Healey, an electrical engineer who has spent two years investigating the disaster on behalf of some of the families, denounced the official investigations led by the police as a cover-up. Richard Healey His detailed and damning presentation outlined evidence suggesting that there may have been survivors after the first explosion on November 19, and even the second explosion five days later, if they had been trapped behind the roof-fall. The previous National Party government and the police had falsely claimed that the explosions turned the whole mine into an inferno, leaving no chance of survivors. Healey displayed images taken deep inside the mine by cameras lowered into bore holes, which showed wooden pallets and other undamaged objects. The families have also seen an image of an intact and fully clothed body in the mine. Healey debunked the Labour Party-led governments lies, echoed by the union bureaucracy, that the mine is now too unstable to fully explore. He explained the crucial importance of examining evidence beyond the roof-fall, including the main ventilation unit. The unit, which was operated in a highly dangerous manner, is thought to be the ignition source for the first explosion. Terry Cook, a member of the Socialist Equality Party (Australia), explained that the conditions at Pike River were mirrored in Australia. He described his experience writing about the 1994 Moura mine disaster and interviewing the victims families for Workers News, a predecessor of the WSWS. The families became increasingly angry at mining company BHP, the Queensland state Labor government, and the Construction, Forestry and Mining Union, which knew about dangerous levels of methane but did nothing to prevent people from going underground. Terry Cook, Socialist Equality Party (Australia) Following the disaster, a union representative sat on the official inquiry, which recommended that no charges be brought against the company, its managers or executives. Cook said this gave a green light to the mining companies, that they could continue to kill and maim with impunity. Cook has written recently about the explosion at Anglo Americans Grosvenor mine in Queensland, which left five workers with horrific injuries. Tom Peters, a leading member of the SEG, who has written extensively about Pike River for the WSWS over the past decade, reviewed how the political establishment and the EPMU were complicit in both the disaster and the cover-up. Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group (NZ) He described how the Labour Party and its coalition partners, the Greens and NZ First, had sought to deceive the families in the 2017 election, promising to immediately re-enter the mine and to bring those responsible to justice. He pointed out that the WSWS had warned in January 2018 that the governments pledges cannot be trusted. The WSWS drew attention to the fact that the so-called recovery was being led by Minister Little, who was the EPMU leader in November 2010. Peters played a recording of Littles comments to the media defending Pike River Coals safety record following the disaster. The Ardern government used different tactics to try and achieve what the National Party was unable to do: to shut down the investigation and make sure that no one faces any serious charges, the speaker said. This included attempts to divide the families by breaking up their independent committee. The decade-long fight for justice by the families contains critically important political lessons about the Labour Party and the trade unions, Peters said. He quoted from the International Committee of the Fourth Internationals (ICFI) recent statement, Forward to the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees!, which calls for a break from the pro-capitalist trade unions and the formation of worker-controlled organisations to fight for safety and against attacks on living conditions. The experience of Pike River also demonstrated the need to build a genuine socialist party. Peters said this was the only way to combat the enormous political pressure that is brought to bear by the ruling class to disarm and divide workers, through the instruments of the Labour Party and the unions, and all their allies. After the reports, Peters, Healey and Cook answered several questions. They discussed the cynical attempts by the media to blame workers for Pike River and similar disasters caused by corporate greed. Peters also commented on the way the Ardern government had commemorated the 10th anniversary of the disaster, by seeking to flatter the families and convince them that the government was on their sideeven as it was preparing to shut down the investigation. Healey encouraged listeners to read the WSWS coverage of Pike River, calling it the most straight-shooting, forthright and comprehensive of all media outlets. Dean Dunbar, whose son Joseph died at Pike River at the age of just 17, told the WSWS that the webinar was really productive, and would help to combat the litany of lies about the disaster. In the way that you explain [the history of the cover-up], it is logical, its sensible. After the meeting, Dunbar read some of the WSWS coverage going back to 2010, and noted: Youve been very, very accurate along the way. You have been as close to the mark as one could expect. He said the families had become very aware of how sinister the former National Party government was, and that it represented big business. The Labour government, however, was very good at disguising themselves. He hoped that people were beginning to understand that there were no differences between the major parties. Dunbar also said the trade unions have changed and now most are just branches of government, in the guise of being there to help the common man, the worker. Responding to government claims that it would be too expensive to enter the mine workings, he pointed to the quarter of a billion dollars in government money spent on renovating parliament, and the same amount spent on the Americas Cup yacht race for Rich Listers to cruise their boats around the harbour. We want to bring our children home and we want to convict the people that murdered them, he said. When did that become so wrong? Dunbar stressed the importance of the feasibility study conducted on behalf of the families by several mining experts, including former chief inspector of mines Tony Forster. The document, released yesterday, demolishes the governments claims that it would be too technically difficult and costly to explore the mine workings. It shows that this can be done safely for $8 million. Boris Johnsons Conservative government set out its authoritarian agenda in yesterdays Queens Speech, including attacks on the rights to protest and vote, to free speech and asylum and on judicial scrutiny of the government and the armed forces. The speech also announced plans to streamline the privatisation of the National Health Service and reduce the taxes paid by employers operating in newly created freeports. Of the 30 proposed laws, the most significant is the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which has passed its second reading and is due to become law later this year. The Police Bill places draconian restrictions on protests and threatens protestors with large fines and long prison sentences. The Queen reading out the Johnson's government's legislative programme for the coming year (credit: @RoyalFamily) Legislation continues the assault on the right to protest on university campuses, aiding right-wing forces to strengthen their position. A Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill will place requirements on English universities and students unions to guarantee freedom of speech of staff and visiting speakers. Individuals who claim their freedoms have been infringed will be able to seek recompense through the courts. A director for freedom of speech and academic freedom will be given the power to carry out investigations and impose sanction through the Office for Students regulator. These measures are intended to crack down on criticism and popular protest against reactionary ideologues and provocateurssuch as representatives of the Zionist lobby and far right figures. Voting rights in the UK will be severely curtailed by plans to pass an Electoral Integrity Bill making photo ID mandatory for voting in elections. The move will disenfranchise swathes of working-class communities, especially ethnic minorities. Roughly 11 million voters, or 24 percent of the electorate, do not own the passport or photographic drivers license that will be required to cast a vote. More than 20 charities and civil society groups have opposed the plans, which they explain will disproportionately impact the most marginalised groups in society. It is likely that this shift will later be used to argue for the introduction of a state identity card, which has always met with staunch opposition. A draft Online Safety Bill, announced last December, will empower Ofcom to level fines of up to 18 million or 10 percent of global turnover against social media companies that fail to regulate online harms according to government guidelines. This includes disinformation and misinformation, handing the state the power to decide what is legitimate speech and what is harmful disinformation. Fundamental changes to the UKs asylum laws are aimed at trashing democratic rights established in response to the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Under the New Plan for Immigration legislation, those who do not enter the country via a legitimate route, i.e., through extremely restricted government schemes, will not be automatically entered into the asylum system. The government will seek to deport them if they are deemed to have travelled through a safe country. Even those granted asylum after entering illegally will only be entitled to temporary protection status, meaning they will be repeatedly targeted for removal from the UK, have their rights to family reunion limited and no access to benefits unless destitute. The legislation redefines the criteria for asylum to require a well-founded fear of persecution to block unsubstantiated claims. Asylum seekers will have only one opportunity to present their case before appeal and lawyers will be issued with fines for pursuing meritless claims. Prison sentences will be increased for migrants deemed illegal and for deportees who return to the UKin the latter case from six months to five years. The maximum sentence for people smuggling will be increased from 14 years to life. The government already brands any migrantand jails them on this basiswho so much as places their hand on a boat tiller while making the perilous journey across the Channel as a people smuggler. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees expressed serious concern over these proposals, which it warns will damage lives with real and harmful consequences. The Queens Speech introduced plans for a Judicial Review Bill limiting legal scrutiny of government actions. The Law Society has previously commented: the most controversial proposals would allow unlawful acts by government or public bodies to be untouched or untouchable The effect of the proposals would be a fundamental distortion of the protection judicial review is supposed to provide against state action, undermining the rule of law and restricting access to justice. In a future Northern Ireland Bill, the government intends to restrict or halt prosecutions of British soldiers for crimes committed during three decades of The Troubles, effectively extending the protections granted by the Overseas Operations Bill to UK soldiers who have served in other global military operations. The government announced plans to enact its February White Paper giving ministers more direct control of the National Health Service to s peed-up privatisation. Amid worthless pledges to level up the country with a skills revolution, the Queens Speech indicated that employers operating in eight newly established freeportsestablished by the Tories as part of their plan for a globally competitive post-Brexit economywill pay less national insurance tax for new workers. The raft of anti-democratic legislation planned by the Tory government points to the savage class war agenda it intends to wage. Johnson is preparing to suppress growing resistance in the working class, in the face of the lifting of protections during the pandemic and under conditions of immense social crisis and an escalating assault on jobs, wages and conditions. The speech pledged that public finances are returned to a sustainable path once the economic recovery is secure. Once again no opposition was offered by the Labour Party. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer opened the debate on the Queens Speech by accusing the Tories of squander[ing] a chance to solve the social care crisis, clean up our politics, clean up the mess of the past decade. He almost entirely avoided comment on the governments authoritarian agenda, offering only the mildest criticism of the Judicial Review Bill and Electoral Integrity Bill, as it would suppress turnout in elections and weaken democracy. Earlier, Shadow Foreign Secretary Lisa Nandy coupled token criticisms of the voter ID plans with an endorsement of the warmongering campaign alleging Russian interference in elections: It has been 18 months since the prime minister was handed a report that said that Russia in particular was interfering in our democracy So in todays Queens Speech what I will be looking for is not more action to make it more difficult for people in Britain to vote, but more action to make sure we dont allow other countries to interfere in our democracy. Starmer promised to work constructively with the government, this time on a Counter-State Threats Bill, saying action on Russian and hostile state interference is long overdue. Labour's only criticism of the freeport plan is that employers may not be able to take full advantage of the tax breaks freeport zones offer thanks to the terms of some post-Brexit trade deals signed by the Tory government. Agreements signed by Britain with 23 countries prohibit UK manufacturers operating in freeports from benefiting from the favourable terms agreed in the trade deal. Labour's shadow trade secretary, Emily Thornberry, told parliament Sunday she had urged her Tory counterpart Liz Truss 'to go back to the negotiating table immediately with these 23 countries and get these clauses removed before Britains freeports come into operation later this year. The US retail and food service industry is dealing with a severe labor shortage. According to Landed, a restaurant hiring app, the industry faces a deficit of 3.4 million jobs, a number which is expected to grow. One poll found more than 31 percent of restaurant company leaders have been forced to close stores because of a lack of workers. An additional 44 percent of respondents stated they were still considering whether to close. Retail CEOs and Republican politicians have argued that the $300 weekly federal unemployment benefits supplement incentivizes workers to stay at home instead of returning to work. Earlier this month, Representative David Rouzer tweeted a picture of a Hardees drive thru with a sign that read Closed due to NO STAFF. A hiring sign offers a $500 bonus outside a McDonald's restaurant, in Cranberry Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, May 5, 2021 (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic) This is what happens when you extend unemployment benefits for too long and add a $1,400 stimulus payment to it. Right when employers need workers to fully open back up, few can be found, Rouzer tweeted. Some McDonalds franchisees said the additional $300 per week unemployment payments were driving the shortage. The National Owners Association, an independent group of McDonalds franchisees, sent a letter to its members on Sunday that suggested the industry worker shortage was due to the perverse effects of the current unemployment benefits. Whats going on here? When people can make more staying at home than going to work, they will stay at home, the letter said. In a bid to force workers back to work, multiple Republican governors announced they will stop participating in the federal governments supplemental unemployment benefits program in June. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds (R) announced Tuesday that residents will no longer receive the extra $300 a week after June 12. North Dakota, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Montana have also announced an end to their participation. Others have called for an early termination of unemployment benefits, currently set to continue until September. After the publication of the April jobs report, which reported only 266,000 new jobs compared to the 1.3 million predicted by economists, the Chamber of Commerce urged Congress to end the weekly $300 in federal unemployment benefits. The disappointing jobs report makes it clear that paying people not to work is dampening what should be a stronger jobs market, the Chambers chief policy officer, Neil Bradley, said in a statement. In reality, rather than a worker shortage, the retail and food service industry faces a wage shortage. Workers are not willing to return to work and risk their lives for poverty wages. Workers in the industry have complained of burnout and toxic workplaces after a year of working during the pandemic. A recent report from the Food Labor Research Center at the University of California Berkeley and the non-profit group One Fair Wage found that service workers were deeply concerned with wages. A survey targeting food and restaurant workers indicated 78 percent of respondents said they would stay in their jobs if they could be assured of a full, stable, livable wage. Now, approximately 30 percent of restaurant workers are seeking jobs in other industries, according to a Joblist survey. The pandemic has devastated retail workers. Millions of retail and food service jobs were among the first to go when corporations began mass layoffs early last year. Workers who kept their jobs were forced to endure longer hours and understaffing, while being patronized as essential workers. Many were fearful of catching COVID-19 because some customers who refuse to wear masks take out their frustration on employees. Additionally, those on Wall Street and in the major corporations who lament the federal unemployment supplement ignore the fact that the small stipend exposes the abysmal conditions workers face. A 2020 study from the University of Chicago found more than two-thirds of workers earned more from unemployment benefits than they did while working. At the time, the federal government provided the jobless with $600 a week. Even todays $300 benefits exceed or match what many retail workers take home on average. A Dollar General store made headlines this week after workers at a store in Eliot, Maine quit in protest of low pay and overwork. Workers walked off their jobs and taped signs to the store windows denouncing Dollar General and capitalism. Closed indefinitely because Dollar General doesnt pay a living wage or treat their employees with respect, one sign said. Another read, Capitalism will destroy this country. If you dont pay people enough to live their lives, why should they slave away for you? Shortages of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel are mounting in the Southeastern region of the US and prices are rising across the eastern half as supply was disrupted from the shutdown of the 5,500-mile Colonial Pipeline by a cyberattack late last week. Media reports on Tuesday said that hundreds of filling stations in the Southeast ran out of gas or moved to restrict sales as buying surged amid concerns that supplies would run out. GasBuddy noted on Monday that demand was 40 percent greater in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia than it was one week earlier. A Murphy Oil gas station shows no gas on pumps, Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in Kennesaw, Georgia (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said jet fuel is a concern because it is only stored at airports. Theyre at risk of running out of jet fuels, and airlines have to make alternative plans, loading up aircraft before they fly into those airports, making sure they have supplies before they go to their next destination. In response to the shortages, American Airlines announced it was adding stops to the long-haul flights from Charlotte to Honolulu and from Charlotte to London in order to conserve fuel at its North Carolina hub. The AAA automobile group reported that the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline rose 6 cents in one week and increased an average of nearly 13 cents in South Carolina and 17 cents in Georgia during the same period. Colonial Pipelinebased in Alpharetta, Georgiareported on Saturday that it learned of the ransomware attack the previous day. In response, the company said, we proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations. Ransomware is a computer virus that renders a targeted system inoperable by encrypting all data and demanding ransom in exchange for decryption. Ransomware attacks typically include information about how the ransomsometimes in the millions of dollarscan be paid, including in the form of cryptocurrency. Sometimes the hackers will also threaten to leak confidential data as part of their extortion tactics. The privately owned Colonial Pipeline manages the largest transport system for refined oil products in the US that stretches from Texas to New Jersey and carries up to 3 million barrels of fuel each day. The main lines of the 5,500-mile system are made up of two pipesone is 40 inches, and the other is 36 inches in diameterthe first carrying primarily gasoline and the other carrying petroleum distillate products, such as aviation fuel, diesel and home heating oil. Energy analysts have said that the problem is not a shortage of refined fuel as much as it is products stuck in the wrong places. CNBC reported on Tuesday afternoon that while there are refining facilities across the Gulf Coast, [M]oving it requires a hodgepodge of solutions, and analysts say it will be impossible to meet demand without the pipeline. While some corporate media sources are saying the crisis will be short lived, CNBC warned of the ripple effects of a prolonged shutdown. If the Colonial Pipeline is not back in business by the weekend, prices could continue to rise at the pump, and there will be broader localized fuel shortages across the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions. Michael Tran, energy analyst at Royal Bank of Canada, raised a more alarming prospect. Given the size and the direction of the pipeline and the market that it feeds, the Colonial Pipeline is the single most important artery moving refined products in the country. This is already an earthquake, and the magnitude of the earthquake just grows by the day. Concerned about the possibility of a run on fuel supplies prior to the increase in travel expected during the Memorial Day holiday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki released a short statement saying President Biden is continually assessing the impact of this ongoing incident on fuel supply for the East Coast. We are monitoring supply shortages in parts of the Southeast and are evaluating every action the Administration can take to mitigate the impact as much as possible. Bidens Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm also attempted to downplay the crisis by saying that federal agencies are working around the clock to help the pipeline return to normal operations and that she held several conversations with the CEO of Colonial and who has indicated that by close of business tomorrow, Colonial will be in a position to make the full restart decision. But even after that decision is made, it will take a few days to ramp up operations. Meanwhile, Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed an executive order on Tuesday suspending gasoline taxes through Saturday, which amounts to roughly 20 cents a gallon. Kemp said this decision would help level the price for a little while and cautioned against panic buying, which he said was unnecessary. Democratic Governors Roy Cooper of North Carolina and Ralph Northam of Virginia declared states of emergency in order to suspend some fuel transport rules, such as lifting hours of service limitations and tanker weight restrictions. Colonial Pipeline issued a press release on Monday saying it was working with third-party cybersecurity experts, law enforcement and other federal agencies to restore pipeline operations quickly and safely. The statement went on to say that the company was executing a plan that involves an incremental process that will facilitate a return to service in a phased approach. Although Colonial Pipeline did not disclose any details about its plan or the extent of the malware infection of its systems, it is typical for ransomware attacks to gain access to one unsecure computer within an organization and then replicate itself on all the other systems on the network. Since restoration of operability is never guaranteed with a ransom payment, many organizations opt to replace their entire IT infrastructure from scratch. On Monday. the FBI confirmed in a short statement that the hacking group DarkSide was responsible for the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline. The Biden administration wasted no time attempting to connect the attack to the Russian government, with Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technologies Anne Neuberger saying that DarkSide was a criminal actor, and the US government was looking for any nation-state ties that the group might have. President Biden then also said that although there was no evidence from US intelligence officials that Russia was involved, There is evidence that the actors ransomware is in Russia. They have some responsibility to deal with this. In a statement last week, the Transport Workers Union (TWU) made clear that it would work closely with the major logistics companies including Toll, Linfox, StarTrack and FedEx, to try and ram through pro-business workplace agreements covering its members. At the same time, the union will wage a phony campaign against other corporations, claiming that they are providing insufficient payments to the trucking companies. The announcement followed a statement in the Summer 2020 edition of the TWU Journal, which spelt out that the union would approach the negotiation of upcoming enterprise agreements (EAs) from the standpoint that any improvements to workers pay and conditions would be subordinated to the profit interests of the employers. The union wrote: Our plan is about protecting jobs, defending industry rates and conditions, and bringing up the rates and conditions of competitors in the sector who can afford it right now. And importantly, ensuring those clients who are making profits are brought to the table to bargain directly with transport workers who are doing the job. TWU members at a union rally in 2018 [Credit: TWU Vic/Tas] At the TWUs national council meeting in Darwin, National Secretary Michael Kaine heaped praise on Toll, Linfox and StarTrack, which, he said, provide good jobs with decent standards that support working families. Instead, Kaine insisted, the blame lay with the major retailers, the manufacturers, the oil companies, the banks, who sweat the trucking companies and the owner drivers. The characterisation of multi-billion dollar fleet operators as merely the helpless victims of larger corporations is a cynical attempt to justify the unions alignment with management. The reality is, these companies are massive enterprises. StarTrack is part of Australia Post, the state-owned postal service, which recorded $4.3 billion in revenue for the second half of 2020, a 15.5 percent increase on the same period in 2019. With over $3 billion in annual revenue, and employing more than 24,000 people, Linfox is Australias third-largest privately owned company. Toll, which was sold to Japan Post in 2015 for $6.5 billion, recorded $4.7 billion in revenue in the first half of 2020, a 20 percent increase on the previous year. The companys Managing Director, Thomas Knudsen, described the second quarter as a standout, suggesting that the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will have further increased revenue. June 30 is also the expiry date of the current EA at FedEx, which recorded global revenue of US$69.7 billion in 2020, retaining its ranking of 47 on the Fortune 500 list. The companys Australian trucking operations were largely built from its $6.3 billion acquisition of TNT Express in 2016. Workers could well ask why Kaine included Toll on this list of good employers, given that the union last year claimed to have lodged one of our biggest ever disputes in the Fair Work Commission (FWC) against the company over a litany of complaints in relation to a cybersecurity breach at the company. At the time, the TWU alleged Toll had underpaid or failed to pay workers; attempted to negotiate lower rates with drivers; contravened the EA by standing down workers for disciplinary reasons; refused to pay COVID-19 leave to owner drivers; employed casuals to reduce overtime payments, and failed to offer casual conversion in accordance with the EA, as well as a host of other complaints. Little more than a month ago, Toll eliminated all of its 44 rigid trucks powered by compressed natural gas and made all drivers on the fleet redundant. Toll workers enter into the upcoming negotiation having not received a pay rise for a year because the previous EA expired on June 30, 2020. The TWU struck a deal with the company last year to defer bargaining until April 2021 in exchange for 10 days of paid leave for workers who had to miss work due to COVID-19 self-isolation. The agreement also allowed the company to reduce staff in the event of decreased volume, as long as permanent employees and tied owner drivers were prioritised over labour hire workers. The TWU claims that it is seeking annual pay increases of 3 percent and a pathway to 15 percent superannuationcurrently 14.75 percent at Toll, 14.5 percent at Linfox and 12 percent at StarTrack. Kaine said the union would organise protests and sit-ins targeting Amazon, Apple, Aldi, IGA, Kmart and Bunnings, declaring that those companies are about to face a winter of discontent, followed by a spring offensive. These protests will not challenge the trucking corporations, instead demanding that the multi-billion dollar companies receive a better deal from their customers. Moreover, they will likely be little more than flag-waving stunts. Kaine stressed that the union was being very careful not to contravene Fair Work industrial laws prohibiting secondary boycotts. The legislation was introduced by the Rudd Labor government with the full backing of the unions. Conspicuously absent from the list of companies to be targeted are Australias major supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, which are among the countrys largest retailers and each have greater market share than Aldi and IGA combined. Kaine claimed that Coles was the gold standard, on the basis that the company had signed a safety charter with the TWU late last year. Woolworths signed a similar charter in 2016. The assertion that Coles is the gold standard of anything to do with logistics is extraordinary. Only months ago 350 warehouse workers at the companys Smeaton Grange Distribution Centre in Sydney were locked out for 14 weeks without pay. They now face redundancy after management and the United Workers Union rammed through a sell-out deal for the closure of the facility. Four other warehouses are also slated to be shut. The Coles charter is based on five principles that pay lip service to the genuine safety concerns of workers in the trucking industry. In 2019, 72 percent of all worker fatalities in Australia were related to vehicles, and 56 percent of all road collision fatalities involved heavy vehicles. Truck drivers are 9.4 times more likely than the average worker to be killed at work. Fatigue is a major contributor to these accidents, and is a direct result of drivers being forced by low rates and per-trip or per-kilometre pay to work close to the daily maximum of 14 hours on a regular basis. This is compounded by a lack of adequate rest facilities and large amounts of unpaid time spent waiting at loading docks. Regulatory measures to supposedly combat fatigue are frequently punitive, saddling drivers with heavy fines for working past their legal hours, often because they get caught in unexpected traffic or are unable to find a rest stop when they are due for a break. The adoption of toothless safety charters by retailers will not resolve these issues. The fraudulent character of the TWU campaign is demonstrated by the unions promotion of Coles and Woolworths, which are on the front lines of the offensive against logistics workers. Workers should reject with contempt the TWUs claim that their multi-billion dollar employers are at the mercy of their wealthy clients, and are powerless to improve their conditions. The TWU protests are a diversion, aimed at dampening down mounting discontent, and lining up trucking workers behind their bosses as they prepare further cuts to pay and conditions. The alignment of the TWU with the trucking corporations demonstrates that it is a company union. Like its counterparts, it advances the interests of a privileged bureaucracy by enforcing attacks on the workers it falsely claims to represent. A genuine struggle for trucking workers rights and conditions can only go forward through a break with the union and the establishment of independent rank-and-file committees, to unite workers across the sector, along with their colleagues throughout logistics. The major trucking companies should be placed under public ownership and democratic workers control. That requires a fight for a workers government and socialism. Workers in Greece are protesting draconian new labour laws imposed by the conservative New Democracy (ND) government. Two national strikes took place in Greece last week. The first of these, called by the private sector General Confederation of Trade Unions (GSEE), took place on May 4. On May 6, the ADEDY public sector federation called out its members. The May 6 strike was endorsed by the Athens Workers Centre which represents private sector workers in the capital. Workers holding the banner of the National Research Foundation Union at the May 6 demonstration in Athens reading, Hands off the 8 hour dayPermanent and steady and employmentSocial insurance for all (credit: foititesksana-Instagram) The strikes were called in response to the anti-working-class labour bill submitted to parliament on Wednesday, which will allow employers to increase the working day from a standard eight hours to 10 hours, without paying additional overtime. The government plans to pass the law in June. On both days there were work stoppages on public transport with intercity and suburban rail services completely suspended May 4, and the Athens Metro, trolley and tram services brought to a standstill two days later. The statutory eight-hour day has long been a dead letter in Greece. A survey conducted by GSEE at the start of the year found that over half of respondents work more than the standard working hours on a weekly basis. Of those, a quarter stated that they work one to three hours extra while 17 percent work between three to six hours extra. Significantly, 40 percent of those working overtime do not get paid for it. The government is presenting this measure as favourable to workers since it is nominally a voluntary arrangement with workers being able to claim the additional hours as time off in lieu. Speaking to Skai TV last month, Labour Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said, We are giving greater flexibility to workers without lowering their income. GSEEs survey revealed that there is little support among Greek workers for the new measure with 73 percent stating that they prefer financial compensation for their overtime instead of time off in lieu. In his speech marking May Day, ADEDY president Dimitris Bratis warned the government was preparing to abolish the most emblematic and important gain of the [labour] movement, the eight-hour day. This is so much hot air. The unions long ago played a major role in overseeing the extension of the working day. A law passed in 2011 by the social democratic PASOK government, with no opposition from their partners in the ADEDY/GSEE unions, allows for extending the working day up to 10 hours in workplaces where this has been agreed as part of a collective contract. Major corporations where this is enforced include telecommunications company OTE, Alpha Bank, cigarette manufacturer Papastratos, and drinks manufacturer Ivi. What is animating the union bureaucracy is that the new law undermines their own position, given that the scrapping of the eight-hour day can now be imposed on workers through individual agreements in unionised and non-unionised workplaces alike. Ultimately, the new measure is designed to implement working practices which maximise the extraction of surplus value by intensifying exploitation during peak times. Time off in lieu arrangementsinstead of paying higher overtime ratesensure that even more profit goes to line the pockets of the corporations Another measure within the bill which facilitates this process is an increase in the limit of legally permitted overtime. Currently set at 96 hours a year in manufacturing and 120 hours in all other industries, the new bill aims to impose a 150-hour limit per year across all companies. The bill also undermines the right to strike by stipulating that a minimum guaranteed service of 33 percent in all public utility service providerssuch as the Athens Metromust be provided during industrial action. The new bill is one of many similar measures being undertaken by ruling elites internationally, who are seeking to intensify their exploitation of the working class in order to pay for the raft of corporate bailout measures implemented during the pandemic. Greeces economy, heavily reliant on the tourist industry and hit especially hard by the pandemic, shrank by 10 percent in 2020. During the same period national debt has ballooned to 205.6 percent of GDP, the highest in the eurozone and over 25 percent higher than it was at the end of 2014at the height of the Greek debt crisis. Greeces ruling elite is set to receive 31 billion euros from the EUs 750 billion euro post-pandemic stimulus fund over the next six years as part of an investment programme dubbed Greece 2.0, which is worth a total of 57 billion. The EU is advancing post-pandemic funds to member states over a seven-year period, conditional on austerity measures akin to those imposed by successive Greek governments over the past decade. These were mandated by the EU and International Monetary Fund following the 2008/09 global financial crisis, with Greece transformed into a test case for brutal austerity throughout the continent. The Greek ruling class has become so adept at imposing vicious social cuts that its Greece 2.0 plan was described by an EU official speaking to the Financial Times as one of the best we have seen so far, adding that the [financial bailout] programme experience [has] help[ed] a lot. The opposition pseudo-left Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) endorsed the May 6 strike, with party leader and former prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, and other senior Syriza officials attending the main march in Athens. Tsipras stated, this will be a monumental fight to defend the right of workers and the popular majority to life and dignity. And it is a fight that we will give to the end. These words were uttered by the scoundrel who was swept to power in January 2015 on an anti-austerity ticket only to junk this mandate within weeks. Following the July 2015 referendum, in which workers overwhelmingly rejected a third austerity package, Syriza, along with its junior coalition partner the far-right Independent Greeks, agreed to a bailout package with the EU/IMF a few weeks later. The next four years saw Syriza impose austerity that was even more savage than that enforced by the previous social democratic and ND-led administrations. In 2018, Syriza implemented legislation raising the threshold for a strike vote from a third to at least 50 percent of a unions membership. The Stalinist Communist Party of Greece (KKE) also endorsed the May 6 strike, with trade unions affiliated to its All Workers Militant Front (PAME) taking part in the rally on the day. In an interview, KKE general secretary Dimitris Koutsoumbas stated that the massive strike demonstration for May Day was the first answer by workers who do not want to become the slaves of the 21st century. In fact, there were many such answers by Greek workers in countless general strikes over the previous decade against austerity, all of which were systematically betrayed by the unions. PAME played an instrumental role in this. By posturing as the militant wing of the trade union bureaucracy it ensured, by allowing workers to let off steam while the measures passed regardless, that none of the strikes got out of the bureaucracys control. The lesson of the past decade in Greece is that no confidence can be played in the trade union bureaucracy and their pseudo-left cheerleaders. To take the fight forward workers must set up their own rank-and-file committeesindependent of the unionsand in solidarity with their brothers and sisters throughout the continent who are currently facing the same onslaught on their living standards and working conditions. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 10:04:22|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close President of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Felix Tshisekedi (Front, 2nd R) is welcomed during his arrival in Kampala, Uganda, May 11, 2021. Foreign leaders on Tuesday began arriving for the swear-in ceremony of Uganda's incumbent president Yoweri Museveni for another term. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua) KAMPALA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Foreign leaders on Tuesday began arriving for the swear-in ceremony of Uganda's incumbent president Yoweri Museveni for another term. Museveni in a series of tweets welcomed the heads of state of Ghana, Guinea, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia ahead of the Wednesday function in Kampala, capital of Uganda. Presidents from Burundi, Ethiopia, Namibia, and South Sudan, among others, also have arrived in the east African country for the inauguration ceremony. Several other countries have sent high-level delegations to attend the celebrations, according to Uganda's State House. Museveni hosted the state dinner for visiting heads of state and guests in Kampala on Tuesday evening. At least 11 heads of state and world leaders are expected to attend the swear-in ceremony to be held at Kololo Independence ceremonial grounds under strict COVID-19 prevention measures. At least 4,000 guests have been invited to attend the ceremony after Museveni won the Jan. 14 presidential elections. Museveni, a 76-year-old leader who came into power in 1986 after a five-year guerilla war in the central region, has won several elections. Enditem The Rank-and-File Committee for Safe Education in Turkey supports the International Committee of the Fourth Internationals (ICFI) call for the formation of the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC). At its latest online meeting on Sunday, following the resolution adopted by the Network of Action Committees for Safe Education in Germany, the Committee in Turkey passed the following resolution: (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer) The Rank-and-File Committee for Safe Education in Turkey supports the ICFIs appeal for the building of an International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees. The murderous pandemic policies pursued by the capitalist class and its governments have led to a catastrophe around the world. Only through independent rank-and-file committees unified internationally can workers coordinate their struggles in various workplaces, industries and countries against these policies and the corporatist trade unions. In Turkey, the herd immunity policy implemented by President Recep Tayyip Erdogans government in line with the interests of the ruling class since the beginning of the pandemic has officially led to 43,000 deaths. As bourgeois opposition parties and trade unions do not oppose this policy, after the schools reopened for in-person education in March 2021, April became the worst month of the pandemic in Turkey. However, the pandemic can be contained and deaths can be stopped. The only way to put an end to the mass death is the international mobilisation of the working class. We therefore call upon students, parents, educators and other sections of the working class to support the building of the International Workers Alliance. The meeting of the Rank-and-File Committee for Safe Education was held shortly after a significant workers struggle took place in Istanbul. More than 2,000 electricity workers at Bedas company went on a wildcat strike on April 30 in defiance of an official ban on strike activity in the electricity sector. It also developed in a fight independently from the pro-company trade union, raising and exposing many important issues on the reactionary character of the trade unions and their pseudo-left supporters. The Istanbul electricity workers wildcat strike also constituted a vindication of the perspective advanced by the ICFI. The Rank-and-File Committee for Safe Education also passed the following resolution to support the Bedas workers: Bedas workers, who have illuminated Istanbul: We are parents, education workers and students who have come together independently from the trade unions, demanding: Close schools and nonessential workplaces until the pandemic is contained in order to stop mass deaths. We support your struggle and express our solidarity with you. Your struggle against the miserable conditions imposed on you by the owners of Bedas and the state behind them and your revolt against the complicity of the pro-company union sets an example and inspires the working class in Turkey and internationally. Your struggle is not only a resistance to the social onslaught by the ruling class that has intensified after the pandemic but also a challenge to the official ban on strike activity in the electricity sector. The wildcat strike launched by rank-and-file workers in defiance of the union on April 30 shows how you can gain your social and economic demands, as well as the right to strike. The struggle at Bedas is part of a large number of workers struggles in Turkey against layoffs, forced unpaid leaves and post-pandemic austerity measures. But your fight is also part of the struggles of workers all over the world, who are facing similar conditions and the same class enemy due to capitalism. The only way forward for all of our struggles is to realize that we are part of this international working class, to unite and mobilise internationally. This is only possible by organizing rank-and-file committees independent of the unions that divide us and prevent our struggles. We urge you to set up an independent rank-and-file committee to take the struggle into your own hands and to take part in the International Workers Alliance of the Rank-and-File Committees. The last issue discussed at the meeting was the possibility of the schools reopening after May 17, when the Erdogan government will end its so-called full lockdown launched at the end of April. This lockdown includes closing schools to in-person education until this date. Although the reopening dates have not been determined yet, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca recently said, We should see [daily] cases drop below 1,000 before schools open. This statement is a confession that the government is pursuing a policy of social murder. When President Erdogan announced a gradual normalisation process, including school reopenings with in-person teaching across the country at the beginning of March, there were more than 10,000 daily coronavirus cases in Turkey. As a result of this murderous policy, without any serious objection from unions, the pandemic erupted totally out of control in April, killing 8,000 people in a month. More than 40 teachers have lost their lives since March 2021. The Rank-and-File Committee for Safe Education in Turkey reaffirmed the need for an independent organisation and mobilisation of the working class to oppose this policy of mass death. It explained in its statement: Taking urgent measures to prevent further death and suffering depends on the independent intervention of the working class and youth, including educators, from all establishment parties and trade unions. Under conditions where only 12 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, the overwhelming majority of teachers are not vaccinated, and the pandemic is not under control, the reopening of schools will again mean another massacre. The Rank-and-File Committee for Safe Education calls on all educators, parents and students who oppose this murderous policy to contact us, to establish rank-and-file committees for safe education and to expand this struggle, which is vital for public health. WABASH VALLEY (WTHI) Paleoclimatologists looks at previous climates throughout Earths history. They study this by looking at the chemical make-up of objects that have been on earth for thousands of years. Those objects can range from ice cores, old trees, and fossilized animals and plants. These scientists have been able to gauge how much carbon dioxide was present in the air during the time these objects were alive and thriving. The graph below represents the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere during the last 1 million years. There have been multiple cycles with low and high CO2 levels. Right now we are continuing to soar to new heights. The latest observation was taken at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. As of May 12, 2020, we are currently seeing 418.51 parts per million of CO2. The samples of the atmosphere are taken in Hawaii simply because this site represents the purest air without being influenced by outside sources like cities, roadways, etc... Scientists have been able to correlate rising average temperatures for the earth to the rising levels of CO2 levels. The graph below shows that correlation. The solid line represents CO2 levels since the early industrialization period. CO2 levels were around 290 ppm. And now those levels have risen to over 400 ppm. Global temperatures are represented by the staggered line on the graph. Over the last 140 years, average global temperatures have also risen. We have had about a 2-degree jump in temperatures. The graph below still shows an increasing amount of CO2 in our atmosphere from just this year alone. TUPELO, Miss. (WTVA) - A Caribbean native is looking towards her second home in Tupelo to help those displaced in her homeland. A volcano eruption on the island of St. Vincent displaced many to Kalil Delacoudray's homeland of St. Kitts and Nevis. Now, she is partnering with a Tupelo-based organization to share her culture and support those in need. Delacoudray shared cellphone video from friends and family of the La Soufriere volcano eruption on the island of St. Vincent. It erupted for the first time in 42 years. This area is not far from where Delacoudray is from and she describes it as a beautiful place. The people are warm and friendly," she said. "And especially, with the St. Vincent and the Grenadines community, its very similar to our culture in St. Kitts and Nevis. Several years ago, Delacoudray met Lauren McIlwain, the founder of Cooking as a First Language. Delacoudray led a cooking class, teaching attendees how to cook food from the Caribbean. Since then, the two women remained friends. Now, they are collaborating on a benefit called "Cooking for the Caribbean." Because of the effects of the volcanic eruption, people from St. Vincent and the Grenadines have been displaced," Delacoudray said. "All that loss of a sense of community, you know, its profound and I just thought I needed to do something. We are hoping to work with the Mississippi Red Cross," McIlwain said. "Were talking to them. Im not exactly how yet. Right now, what is supposed to be a sunny day in the Caribbean instead looks like a dreary day because ash fills the air. In a cellphone video shared by Delacoudray, someone describes it as looking like snowfall. Mask wearing is taking on a new meaning," she said. "Ive seen video where people are literally sweeping ash. "Cooking for the Caribbean" will take place Friday, May 14. Those wishing to attend can purchase a $15 ticket and choose an entree between curried chicken, stewed oxtail and baked salmon. There will be side dishes and additional treats to choose from for an additional fee. Tickets can be bought on the Cooking as a First Language website. This is a drive-thru event in the parking lot of All Saints Episcopal Church off of Jefferson Street in Tupelo. Its a win-win situation," McIlwain said. "You get to eat Kalils amazing food, and the money that you spend on a ticket is going toward people who need your help right now. HOUSTON, Miss. (WTVA) - Two people are now behind bars in connection to three home invasions in North Mississippi. Marcques Clinton of Tupelo and Corey Wilson of Houston, both 20, are being held at the Chickasaw County jail. The home invasions happened last month in Pontotoc and Chickasaw counties, and in Starkville. Chickasaw County Sheriff James Meyers said there are 16 total charges for the two, between all agencies. Starkville Police Chief Mark Ballard said he believes money was the motive. "They see a nice car, they see an out-of-state tag and they make the decision, a dangerous decision to kick in the door and rob individuals," said Ballard. "They did so because of cash, they needed cash. I think that's a commonality with each and everyone." Law enforcement said Clinton and Wilson were armed during each invasion. Related - Robbers held victim at gunpoint in Pontotoc County, investigators say Related - Armed robbers invaded home in Houlka, then fled in victim's vehicle MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey is urging people to refrain from panic buying at gas stations after the pipeline cyberattack. Ivey's office said Tuesday that Alabama does not have a fuel shortage but that hoarding gas could create one. Ivey spokeswoman Gina Maiola said U.S. Department of Energy assure the pipeline should be operational in a few days. The governor urged people to only fill up if they need to and to not fill up multiple containers at gas stations. The Colonial Pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel on the East Coast, was hit by a cyberattack on Friday. Related - Mississippi Commerce Commissioner: Refrain from 'panic buying' fuel Please purchase a subscription to continue reading. If you have a subscription, please Log In . Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. If you believe you've gotten this message in error, please Log In. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 11:34:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TRIPOLI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Libya and Malta have agreed to hold an economic forum between the chambers of commerce and businessmen councils in the two countries "to enhance and support bilateral cooperation in the fields of economy and trade," the Libyan Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday. This was agreed when Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush on Tuesday met with Maltese Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo and Finance Minister Clyde Caruana in Malta's capital Valletta, the ministry said in a statement. The Libyan foreign minister discussed with the two Maltese ministers "combating illegal migration, border control, and the importance of resuming flights between Malta and Libya, with the aim of promoting trade and investment," it said. They also agreed to strengthen cooperation in combating smuggling of drug and psychotropic substances, organized crime, sea and air border control, and fuel smuggling, according to the statement. Meanwhile, al-Mangoush urged the Maltese government to help solve the problems facing the Libyan community in Malta, especially by facilitating procedures of issuing entry visas to Malta for Libyans, the ministry said. The Libyan foreign minister also urged the Maltese government to speed up setting a date for signing the Memorandum of Understanding presented by the Libyan side on customs cooperation, as well as creating a mechanism to control smuggling of goods and drugs, among others. "The Maltese Foreign Minister confirmed that his country will continue to work for peace and stability in Libya, so that it can enjoy its wealth, pointing out that Malta would remain open to act as a bridge between Libya and the rest of Europe to achieve security and peace in the Mediterranean and Europe," the statement said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 17:39:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Uganda's incumbent President Yoweri Museveni receives a copy of Uganda's Constitution after swearing in at Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala, Uganda, May 12, 2021. Uganda's incumbent President Yoweri Museveni was sworn in on Wednesday to serve for the sixth five-year term in office. (Photo by Hajarah Nalwadda/Xinhua) KAMPALA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's incumbent President Yoweri Museveni was sworn in on Wednesday to serve for the sixth five-year term in office. Chief Justice, Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny-Dollo swore in Museveni as the president of the East African country at Kololo Independence Grounds in the capital Kampala. "I Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni swear in the name of the Almighty God that I shall faithfully exercise the functions of the president of Uganda," said Museveni amid ululations from hundreds of his ruling National Resistance Movement party supporters who graced the function. "I shall uphold, preserve, protect and defend the constitution and observe the laws of Uganda and that I shall promote the welfare of the people of Uganda," he said. The inauguration ceremony was attended by 11 African heads of state, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo's Felix Tshisekedi who is the current chairperson of the African Union, several government representatives, diplomats from various countries and other dignitaries. After taking the oath of office, Museveni received the instruments of power that included the constitution, national flag, presidential standard flag, national anthem, national courts of arms, national public seal, instruments of national defense and sword. The president and commander in chief then received a national salute and a 21-gun salute before he inspected the guard of honor mounted by the armed forces. At least 4,000 guests had been invited to attend the ceremony after Museveni won the Jan. 14 presidential elections, according to the presidency office. Museveni, a 76-year-old leader who came into power in 1986, has won several elections. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 18:32:05|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Police in Ethiopia's eastern Somali regional state have arrested nine individuals accused of planning terror attacks, an Ethiopian official said on Wednesday. Ali Hassen, deputy chief commissioner of the Somali region Police Commission, said the nine suspects are accused of plotting terror attacks on various religious sites in the region to coincide with the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fatir, which will be celebrated this year on Thursday, Ethiopia Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) reported. In a separate development on Tuesday, Ethiopian security forces arrested 71 individuals accused of plotting terror attacks in the Ethiopian, Addis Ababa, and other major regional cities. The security forces also seized more than 300,000 U.S. dollars in cash and several firearms allegedly intended to be used in the planned terror attacks. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 22:19:20|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIGALI, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Rwanda on Wednesday proposed a budget of 3.8 trillion Rwandan francs (about 3.79 billion U.S. dollars) for the 2021/22 fiscal year that starts July 1 to drive economic growth and revive the economy following shocks from the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget, which represents a 9.8 percent increase from the revised budget of the current fiscal year 2020/21, will be guided by the National Strategy for Transformation program 2017-2024 and economic recovery efforts against the effects of COVID-19 pandemic, said Minister of State in charge of the National Treasury Richard Tusabe when presenting the budget virtually before the parliament in the capital city of Kigali. Domestic resources will finance 67 percent of the entire budget and the remaining 33 percent will be funded through external sources, said Tusabe. The budget for development will amount to 50.8 percent of the total budget, which will support the private sector to invest in the economic recovery, he said. The budget proposal will be submitted to the parliament for approval. Rwanda's economy shrank to 2.3 percent for the financial year 2019-2020 from 8.8 percent recorded the year before, as the coronavirus outbreak dealt a huge blow to the country's economic activities. Enditem Reminder: Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live! Begins in Two Hours - Watch It Here Mass Effect Legendary Edition Comparison - Our Favourite Comparison on the Citadel By Tim Reid WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Over 100 former Republican officials will sign a letter on Thursday declaring that if the Republican Party does not break with former President Donald Trump and change course, they will back the creation of a third party. The letter, headlined: "A Call For American Renewal," is an exploratory move toward forming a breakaway party, two of its organizers said. The group is dismayed by what it says is a modern Republican Party driven by its allegiance to Trump, who continues to falsely claim the 2020 election was stolen from him. "The Republican Party is broken. It's time for a resistance of the 'rationals' against the 'radicals,'" said Miles Taylor, one of the organizers. Taylor, while serving in the Trump White House, wrote an anonymous opinion piece in the New York Times in 2018 headlined: "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." The group first raised the threat in February following the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters to try to disrupt congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential election victory. The letter highlights the wide intraparty rift over Trump. Most Republicans remain fiercely loyal to the former president. House Republicans are expected on Wednesday to oust Representative Liz Cheney from her No. 3 party leadership position within the chamber, because of her refusal to embrace Trump's election claims and her move to back Trump's second impeachment after the Capitol riot. The letter signatories, who include former ambassadors, governors, congressional members and Cabinet secretaries, want the Republican Party to return to "principled" leadership and reject division and conspiracy theories, or face a new party dedicated to fighting for Republicans such as Cheney and against fearmongering and lies. Story continues Backers of the reform group include former Republican Governors Tom Ridge, Christine Todd Whitman, George W. Bush-era Transportation Secretary Mary Peters and former House members Charlie Dent, Barbara Comstock, Reid Ribble and Mickey Edwards. They may face an uphill battle in getting any current Republican officeholders to sign on - including Cheney herself, who in February rejected the idea of a third party, saying it would empower Democrats. A spokesman for Trump, Jason Miller, said: These losers left the Republican Party when they voted for Joe Biden." Evan McMullin, a former chief policy director for the House Republican Conference and an independent presidential candidate in 2016, said if the Republican Party does not reject lies and extremism, part of it "will have no choice but to part ways with it and build something new. We're excited about that prospect." (Reporting by Tim Reid; Editing by Scott Malone and Peter Cooney) Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile systems during the Victory Day parade in Moscow's Red Square, May 9, 2015. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin The US has sought to improve its relationship with countries in Asia to counter China's rising influence. India has been a major target of that effort, but New Delhi's purchase of major Russian weapons may complicate the US's engagement. See more stories on Insider's business page. US efforts to build closer ties with India face a test later this year, when New Delhi is set to receive the S-400, a Russian-made air-defense system that the US has already sanctioned other countries for buying. India will get its first S-400 set by the end of 2021, India's ambassador to Russia said at the end of April, according to Russian state media. New Delhi announced its intention to buy the S-400 in 2015 and signed a contract worth more than $5 billion for five regiment-size sets in 2018. The S-400 - which Russia says can destroy aircraft, cruise, and ballistic missiles, and hypersonic weapons - is set to arrive as India is increasingly focused on countering a Chinese military that fields sophisticated aircraft and long-range missiles. A deadly clash on their disputed border in the Himalayas in June 2020, the first in decades, prompted Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to urge Moscow to speed up the delivery. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi, March 20, 2021. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi The sale has been a sticking point for the US. The Trump administration sanctioned China for purchasing the S-400 in late 2018 and then sanctioned Turkey for buying it in December 2020. Russia has been a major arms supplier to India for decades. Those sales have declined in recent years, but India still uses many Russian weapons, such as fighter jets and warships, and relies on Moscow to maintain them. The Biden administration hasn't taken a public position on sanctions for that purchase. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin discussed the sale with his Indian counterpart in March but said sanctions weren't mentioned. "We certainly urge all our allies and partners to move away from ... that [Russian equipment] and really avoid any kind of acquisitions that would trigger sanctions on our behalf," Austin said in New Delhi on March 20. Story continues "There has been no delivery of an S-400 system, and so ... the issue of sanctions is not one that's been discussed," Austin added. "But we did address with the [Indian] minister of defense the issue of the S-400." The Defense Department has not had "any additional conversations with India about this planned acquisition" since Austin's visit, a department spokesman told Insider, adding that the Pentagon is focused on assisting India with a COVID-19 breakout that is one of the worst in the world. Strategic autonomy Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin hug in St. Petersburg, June 2, 2017. Stanislav Krasilnikov/AP US-India relations have been ascendant, due in large part to shared concern about China's growing influence. The two countries' military cooperation has increased, but India has sought to maintain its ties with Russia, a reflection of its desire for "strategic autonomy." While US sanctions over the S-400 weren't discussed in Austin's meeting, they are seen as likely to undercut Washington's efforts to work closer with New Delhi. "That's going to really undermine the relationship, and we need to avoid that," Joe Felter, deputy assistant secretary of defense for South Asia from 2017 to 2019, said at a recent panel event hosted by the Joint Special Operations University. "But India needs to play ball with us and understand that ... buying US equipment is not only investment in quality defense equipment," Felter added. "It signals who you want to build your relationship with." Indian officials, however, may bristle at sanctions, seeing them as interference in their affairs and disregard for the billions India has already spent on US weapons, while remaining undeterred from purchasing Russian arms. (India already had to navigate US sanctions to pay for the S-400.) President Joe Biden at a virtual meeting with "Quad" nation leaders, at the White House, March 12, 2021. REUTERS/Tom Brenner "For the next couple of years I don't think there is going to be an attempt at jettisoning that relationship [with Russia] from the Indian side," Nandan Unnikrishnan, a distinguished fellow at Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, said at a recent Wilson Center event. While Indian defense spending is likely to continue declining and be spread among more suppliers, "India is going to buy some of the necessities it has from the Russians because it's not available anywhere else," Unnikrishnan added. The 2017 US law that requires sanctions also contains a waiver provision. US officials have reportedly told India it is unlikely to get a waiver, but at least one US lawmaker has called on Biden to grant one. While the Biden administration has said little about the issue, "signaling on the strategic relationship is broadly positive," according to Richard Rossow, Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Austin's visit to India was his first foreign trip, and it came a few days after Biden himself joined his Indian, Australian, and Japanese counterparts at the first meeting of leaders of "the Quad," an informal grouping focused on cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. "Considering our overall awareness that India plans to onboard the S-400 missile-defense system at some point over the next two years, these are key signals," Rossow said. Read the original article on Business Insider By Michelle Nichols NEW YORK (Reuters) -The United States, Germany and Britain clashed with China at the United Nations on Wednesday over the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, angering Beijing by hosting a virtual event that China had lobbied U.N. member states to stay away from. "We will keep standing up and speaking out until China's government stops its crimes against humanity and the genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told the event, which organizers said was attended by about 50 countries. Western states and rights groups accuse Xinjiang authorities of detaining and torturing Uyghurs and other minorities in camps. Beijing denies the accusations and describes the camps as vocational training facilities to combat religious extremism. "In Xinjiang, people are being tortured. Women are being forcibly sterilized," Thomas-Greenfield said. Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard told the event there were an estimated 1 million Uyghurs and predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities arbitrarily detained. In a note to U.N. member states last week, China's U.N. mission rejected the accusations as "lies and false allegations" and accused the organizers of being "obsessed with provoking confrontation with China." While China urged countries "NOT to participate in this anti-China event," a Chinese diplomat addressed the event. "China has nothing to hide on Xinjiang. Xinjiang is always open," said Chinese diplomat Guo Jiakun. "We welcome everyone to visit Xinjiang, but we oppose any kind of investigation based on lies and with the presumption of guilt." The event was organized by Germany, the United States and Britain and co-sponsored by Canada, Australia, New Zealand and several other European nations. Germany's U.N. Ambassador Christoph Heusgen said countries who sponsored the event faced "massive Chinese threats," but did not elaborate. Story continues British U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward described the situation in Xinjiang as "one of the worst human rights crises of our time," adding: "The evidence ... points to a program of repression of specific ethnic groups." She called for China to allow "immediate, meaningful and unfettered access" to U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet. Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth called out Bachelet for not joining the event. "I'm sure she's busy. You know we all are. But I have a similar global mandate to defend human rights and I couldn't think of anything more important to do than to join you here today," Roth told the event. Ravina Shamdasani, deputy spokesperson for the U.N. Human Rights office, said Bachelet - who has expressed serious concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang and is seeking access - was unable to participate. "The High Commissioner continues to engage with the Chinese authorities on the modalities for such a visit," she said, adding that Bachelet's office "continues to gather and analyze relevant information and follow the situation closely." (Reporting by Michelle NicholsEditing by Chizu Nomiyama, Alison Williams and Elaine Hardcastle) Vinted COO Mantas Mikuckas (L) and CEO Thomas Plantenga. Photo: Vinted Vinted, a Lithuanian-based online marketplace for second-hand clothes, raised 250m (214m, $303m) in a Series F funding as it looks to take advantage of the growing trend to shop on the internet amid the pandemic. Vinted allows its users to buy, sell and swap second-hand clothing items and accessories. The investment, which gave the company a pre-money valuation of 3.5bn, was led by EQT Growth, with participation from Vinteds previous investors Accel, Burda Principal Investments, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sprints Capital. In November 2019, Vinted raised 128m in a funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, and also became Lithuanias first unicorn (a startup valued at over $1bn). Vinted will use the proceeds to expand into new regions, as well as improve its user experience by investing into trust and safety, payments, shipping and infrastructure and introducing new tools and features. It also plans to hire more people in the last 12 months it has already increased staff by around 75% to more than 700. Read more: Supermarket chain Asda to start selling second-hand clothes in shops The company, citing a report by data company Statista, said the global apparel market is forecast to reach $2.2tn in revenue by 2025 and the trend to buy second-hand has grown rapidly in recent years. This has continued during the pandemic as consumers increasingly look for ways to shop that fit with their new work-from-home routines and their efforts to make more conscious buying choices, it said. Thomas Plantenga, CEO, said: We are contributing to a seismic shift in the second-hand fashion market, enabling more sustainable, socially-responsible shopping habits. We want to replicate the success weve built in our existing European markets in new geographies. When the pandemic first hit Europe, Vinted said it paused operations in several markets to develop new features that would enable members to trade safely and mitigate potential impact on shipping networks. It said it recorded strong growth in 2020. Story continues EQT Growth Partner Carolina Brochado, who will also join Vinteds board, said: "Vinted is the perfect example of EQT Growth's strategy of backing fast-growing European tech champions that tap into several macro trends, such as the increasing consumer demand for sustainability and continued penetration of online channels within fashion. Vinted has 45 million users spanning 13 markets in Europe, including France, Germany, Belgium and Spain. Watch: What are SPACs? Tina Turner, JAY-Z and Carole King Getty (3) Talk about a stacked list of musicians making history! On Wednesday morning, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced their 2021 Inductees, with the likes of timeless acts including Tina Turner, Carole King and JAY-Z, making up the coveted lineup. Described as "the most diverse list of Inductees in the history of the organization," other artists set to be inducted into the performer category when the ceremony takes place later this year include Foo Fighters, The Go-Go's and Todd Rundgren. Clarence Avant is also set to receive the Ahmet Ertegun Award, while the Musical Excellence Award will go to LL Cool J, Billy Preston and Randy Rhodes. Meanwhile, Kraftwerk, Gil Scott Heron and Charley Patton will recieve the Early Influence Award. RELATED: Eddie Van Halen Remembered as 'Tremendously Gifted Musician' During Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony Gina Shock, Belinda Carlisle, Jane Wiedlin, Charlotte Caffey, and Kathy Valentine of The Go-Gos Tibrina Hobson/Getty Earlier this year, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2021 list of nominees, which included the aforementioned artists alongside an array of others. Those who were nominated but not selected as Inductees this year include Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, Dionne Warwick, Kate Bush, Devo, Iron Maiden, the New York Dolls, Rage Against the Machine and the late Nigerian star Fela Kuti. Never miss a story sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Chris Shiflett, Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins and Nate Mendel of Foo Fighters Lester Cohen/WireImage In order for musicians to be eligible to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, they must have released their first studio recording at least 25 years prior to the year of nomination. King, 79, and Turner, 81, will now become the second and third female artists inducted twice, while Dave Grohl will also become a twice-inducted performer. Seven out of the 16 artists nominated this year were first-timers, including Kuti, Warwick, 80, Foo Fighters, The Go-Go's, Iron Maiden, JAY-Z, 51, and King (as a performer). Story continues RELATED VIDEO: Miley Cyrus Shows Off her 'Rock and Roll' California Home Designed by Mom Tish See Inside! "This remarkable ballot reflects the diversity and depth of the artists and music the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame celebrates" John Sykes, the chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, said in a prior press release. "These Nominees have left an indelible impact on the sonic landscape of the world and influenced countless artists that have followed them." Music lovers cast their votes for their favorite stars beginning in February and lasting through April 30 on the organization's website. Meanwhile, Ohio music fans were able to vote in-person at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum. Last year's ceremony was rescheduled as a virtual event to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. In 2020, fan-favorite hitmakers including Whitney Houston, the Notorious B.I.G and the Doobie Brothers were inducted. The late Eddie Van Halen was also remembered in a tribute. The 36th Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on Saturday, Oct 30 at 8 p.m. ET at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio with a radio simulcast on SiriusXM's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Radio channel 310. The induction ceremony will also be broadcast on HBO and streamed on HBO Max at a later date. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 23:49:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close LUSAKA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Cooperating partners on Wednesday welcomed the Zambian government's commitment to holding democratic and credible elections. In a joint statement, the governments of Australia, Canada, Japan, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States hoped that the August 12 polls will be conducted in accordance with the country's constitution and in line with international standards such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections. "We look to all Zambians to commit themselves to the principles of democracy, good governance, rule of law, and the respect for human rights, as enshrined in the Zambian constitution," the statement said. It adds that cooperating partners were looking forward to an electoral process that was free, fair and absent of violence, adding that all parties and candidates should be accorded equal rights and protection. Zambia will hold its general elections on August 12. Enditem 7 day print subscribers enjoy unlimited access to yakimaherald.com Enter the LAST NAME and the 7 DIGIT phone number on your print subscription account to connect your print subscription to your yakimaherald.com account. Please disable your ad blocker, and refresh the page to view this content. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-13 05:25:39|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close RABAT, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan King Mohammed VI granted pardon to 810 prisoners on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr festival, said a statement from the justice ministry on Wednesday. Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan will be celebrated on Thursday in Morocco. Among the released prisoners were 12 who were arrested for extremism and terrorism and later participated in the Musalaha (Reconciliation) program, a government approach to rehabilitating terrorists. The 12 people have officially announced their rejection of all forms of extremism and terrorism, the ministry statement noted. In addition, the pardon includes 17 people who participated in the popular protests over lack of economic and social development in the northern region of Al Hoceima in 2016, it said. Enditem Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation to dramatically expand telemedicine in Arizona and provide greater opportunities for accessible medical services, fulfilling a priority of his 2021 State of the State Address. Ensuring Arizonans have access to safe and reliable medical services is a top priority, said Governor Ducey. Telehealth expands access to medical services for low-income families and those living in rural areas, protects vulnerable populations, and allows snowbirds visiting our state to receive telemedicine from their home state. Patients and medical professionals know whats best for their needs, and were working to make sure they have access to those services. Im grateful to Representative Regina Cobb for sponsoring House Bill 2454, and to the legislators and medical professionals who supported it. House Bill 2454 puts Arizona at the national forefront of telemedicine. It expands access to telemedicine for patients, ensures doctors receive equal compensation from insurance companies for telemedicine services, and allows out-of-state health care professionals to provide telemedicine in Arizona. Telehealth was an extremely valuable tool during the pandemic, said Representative Cobb. Its helped Arizonans get in contact with health care providers, mental health specialists, speech therapists, and more from the safety of their home. HB 2454 will continue those efforts and ensure that those living in Arizona receive medical service in a safe and convenient manner. Under the bill, medical examinations in the workers compensation space can also be conducted via telehealth if all parties consent. It also prohibits healthcare boards from enforcing any rule that requires a patient to visit in-person before being prescribed most medications. HB 2454 is a win for physicians and patients alike, said Arizona Medical Association President Dr. Miriam Anand. Every patient deserves access to the appropriate care needed to treat their medical conditions. HB 2454 will break down unnecessary barriers to telehealth and help facilitate the delivery of high-quality care to patients across Arizona. HB 2454 also requires medical insurers to provide payment parity for telehealth services using audio and visual features, and allows health care providers who are licensed in other states to provide telehealth services into Arizona under certain conditions. "Telehealth has played a crucial role during the pandemic by providing our patients with continued access to health care," said Dignity Health Arizona Division President and CEO Linda Hunt. "This new legislation will provide Arizonans, including those residing in rural parts of the state where health care options are limited, with expanded access to care." HB 2454 will make telemedicine services provided to Arizonans through the Governors Executive Order last March permanent. This order required health care insurance companies to expand telemedicine coverage for all services that would normally be covered for an in-person visit, and was instituted to ensure that Arizonans who may be sick or under quarantine could access care from their homes and avoid potentially risky trips to a health care provider. On behalf of Phoenix Childrens and our patient families, I would like to thank the Governor and Representative Cobb for their leadership on this important piece of legislation to expand telehealth for Arizonas children, said Phoenix Childrens Medical Group Physician-in-Chief and Chief Operating Officer Dr. Jared Muenzer. Telehealth is a proven tool for connecting children with their clinical teams, improving access to medical and behavioral health care, driving quality outcomes, and giving our Phoenix Childrens patients the hope and healing they need, right in their own homes. Telemedicine in Arizona has gained local appreciation. An article from the Arizona Capitol Times on April 2 recognized efforts by state legislators to increase telehealth and covered benefits of telemedicine including its accessibility, affordability and convenience. Telehealth has proven to be an invaluable aspect of delivering behavioral and integrated health service to individuals and families that would not have received those services otherwise during the pandemic, said Touchstone Health Services CEO Eddy D. Broadway. We are so excited and pleased that telehealth is now a permanent aspect of the service delivery system and will definitely benefit members that we serve a real game changer. On April 20, AZ Big Media published a story on the future of telehealth post-pandemic, and its benefits to health care workers and their patients. Arizonas telemedicine efforts have also gained national attention. The Washington Examiner on February 24 published a story highlighting the legislation and recognizing Governor Duceys work to cut red tape, stating: Duceys administration has long championed regulatory flexibility thats the first of its kind, from universal licensing recognition, which allowed people from all over to move to Arizona and work, to making Arizona the first state in America to have a FinTech sandbox program that allows businesses to launch products on a limited scale without certain regulatory burdens. Implementing this bill would continue that trend. The legislation goes into effect immediately and covers three 2020 Executive Orders issued by Governor Ducey to expand telehealth, so the Governor today rescinded those Orders. Arizona News Phoenix, Arizona - Governor Doug Ducey signed legislation to ensure clean water in nearly 800 Arizona streams, lakes and rivers that are critical for drinking, fishing and recreation. Living in the desert, the value of water is something we in Arizona know well, and we have taken great steps to protect it, including the Groundwater Management Act and the Drought Contingency Plan, said Governor Ducey. But just having water is not enough. We need to ensure our water supplies are clean and safe. Thats why I signed into law another landmark Arizona water protection bill the Surface Water Protection Program providing protections for nearly 800 Arizona streams, lakes, and rivers. House Bill (HB) 2691 implements the Arizona Surface Water Protection Program by creating a list of rivers, streams, and lakes used for drinking, recreation and fishing that are protected from harmful discharge of any pollutant. Specifically, the legislation: Preserves important water quality safeguards and provides clarity and consistency to the regulated community,; Promotes transparency by providing a defined list of protected Arizona waters that will be protected through a permitting program, as well as Geographic Information System map functionality, on the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) website; and Provides an opportunity to develop meaningful and impactful best management practices that will protect these important waterways. This legislation protects and regulates discharges into Arizona surface waters that are used for drinking water sources, fishing, swimming and other recreational activities, said Representative Gail Griffin, who sponsored the legislation, of Legislative District 14. We dont need to rely on the federal government to tell us how to regulate our waters. We have taken this important responsibility that requires best management practices to ensure that discharges do not cause violations in water quality standards. With this legislation Arizona will protect its most important waters that are not currently regulated by the federal government in a streamlined and locally responsive way, said ADEQ Director Misael Cabrera. Governor Ducey applauded the United States Environmental Protection Agencys 2020 decision to improve the federal Clean Water Act and committed that Arizona welcomes the need to protect state surface waters. Unlike previous federal efforts to regulate every dry ditch in the desert, Arizona focused on protecting actual waters with tools specific to Arizona. As Governor Ducey wrote on Inauguration Day, Washington, D.C. should take note of what is happening in the states across the country. When it comes to protecting water, Arizona is leading by example. HB 2691 is the first Arizona-specific water quality protection bill enacted since the Aquifer Protection Permit program in 1991, and together, these two programs will serve to protect the quality of both Arizonas surface and groundwater resources. Yuma News Yuma, Arizona - Yuma County Health Officials confirm 6 new cases of COVID-19 and 0 new deaths, bringing the total cases to 37,151, and total deaths to 834. Health officials are conducting contact investigations. The Yuma County Public Health Services District (YCPHSD) has announced the expansion of vaccine eligibility to all Yuma County residents as the State pushes further to achieve the goal of herd immunity from COVID-19. Starting May 4, YCPHSD will hold vaccine clinics on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the month of May at its location at 2200 W. 28th Street. EACH TUESDAY IN MAY (18th & 25th) YCPHSD will be offering the Johnson & Johnson (1 dose) vaccine, 8:30 11:30 am at the Yuma County Public Health Services District. EACH THURSDAY IN MAY (13th, 20th & 27th) YCPHSD will be offering the Moderna (2 doses) vaccine, 8:30 11:30 am at the Yuma County Public Health Services District. An appointment MUST BE MADE by calling 928-317-4550. There is NO ONLINE registration for these clinics. The Moderna vaccine and currently can be given to anyone aged 18 and over. More information can be found on the CDC's website. Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine currently can be given to anyone aged 18 and over. More information can be found on the CDC's website A State run vaccination POD (Point of Distribution) is in operation at the Yuma Civic Center in cooperation with YRMC. The POD is providing 8,000 vaccinations per week at this time. The clinics hours are 7 AM to 8 PM seven days a week. The POD carries the Pfizer vaccine which is cleared to be given to ages 16 and older. Appointments are available by visiting podvaccine.azdhs.gov or calling 1-844-542-8201. Both the online registration and phone line are available in English and Spanish. The Yuma County Health District expects to receive additional COVID-19 vaccine this week as part of its continuing effort to work with area partners in administering vaccinations. When doses are received, they will be shared with area providers to accommodate vaccination clinics throughout the County. Please visit the Arizona Department of Health Services Vaccine Finder for the most up-to-date information on where vaccine is currently available. The website is updated frequently. NOTE: All new cases of COVID-19 will include any positive cases from Yuma County Correctional Facilities and Testing Blitz locations. Arizona currently has 870,155 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 17,428 deaths Yuma County currently has 37,151 confirmed cases of COVID-19, resulting in 834 deaths Currently 144,012 Yuma County residents have been tested Currently 3 Yuma County Residents are hospitalized AS OF 8 am 05/11/21; please note the hospitalization numbers offer an accurate snapshot at the time of our daily update, but numbers may fluctuate throughout the day Data is provisional and subject to change: Yuma County Schools Snapshot (reported weekly by ADHS) NOTE: Recently the UofA Center for Excellence in Desert Agriculture received funding approval from the Yuma County Board of Supervisors for a wastewater (sewer) surveillance program. This would be used as a potential mitigation tool as part of a layered multi-faceted approach to address COVID-19. The public can learn more about this at the CDCs National Wastewater Surveillance System web page. I HAVE RECEIVED MY COVID-19 TEST, NOW WHAT DO I DO?: When you can be around others depends on different factors for different situations. By following these steps (follow the link) you can continue to help stop the spread: English - What now? Spanish What now? TESTING OPPORTUNITIES: YRMC 2460 S Parkview Loop #2 Yuma, AZ 85364 (928) 336-2160 8:00 - 11:30 am 12:00 3:50 pm Mon-Fri Must have a Doctors order By appointment No fee to you with insurance $125 without insurance (25% discount for not having insurance, and 10% discount if paid within 30 days of test date) YRMC Foothills Walk-in Clinic 11142 S Scottsdale Dr Yuma, AZ 85367 (928) 336-1815 8:00 am 1:00 pm Sat Must have a Doctors order By appointment No fee to you with insurance $125 without insurance (25% discount for not having insurance, and 10% discount if paid within 30 days of test date) San Luis Walk In Clinic - SAN LUIS 1896 E. Babbitt Ln San Luis, AZ 85349 (928) 722-6112 7:00 am 3:00 pm Mon-Fri Rapid testing available No fee to you with insurance 1 time No appointments available, drive up testing Antibody (COVID-19 past exposure test) & Swab (COVID-19 diagnosis test) and Flu Vaccines San Luis Walk In Clinic - SOMERTON 950 E. Main St. Building B Somerton, AZ 85349 (928) 236-8001 7:00 am 3:00 pm Mon-Fri Rapid testing available No fee to you with insurance 1 time No appointments available, drive up testing Antibody (COVID-19 past exposure test) & Swab (COVID-19 diagnosis test) and Flu Vaccines NextCare 1394 W. 16th St Yuma, AZ 85364 (928) 539-0055 8:00 am 8:00 pm Sun-Sat www.nextcare.com Check in online Covid-19 Testing Antibody Testing No fee to you with insurance $161 without insurance Limited number available Doctor determines if the test will be Rapid or Send off San Luis Urgent Care 1233 N Main St Suite 1A San Luis, AZ 85366 (928) 550-5514 9:00 am 9:00 pm Mon-Sat NO RAPID TESTING AVAILABLE Lab ONLY after evaluation with a doctor. Doctor determines if they will test. No fee if you do not have insurance Pinnacle Healthcare 4343 E 31st Place Yuma, AZ 85365 (928) 341.4544 9:00 am 3:00 pm Mon-Fri No appointment needed. Drive-thru Send out testing - $50 Rapid testing - $75 No fee to you with insurance St. Francis of Assisi Yuma Embry Health 1815 S. 8th Ave. Yuma, AZ 85364 (480) 376-2170 8:00 am 2:00 pm Mon-Thurs/Sat/Sun 1:00 pm 6:00 pm Friday No fee St. John Neumann Roman Catholic Yuma Embry Health 11545 E. 40th St. Yuma, AZ 85367 (480) 376-2170 8:00 am 2:30 pm Mon-Fri 8:00 am 3:00 pm Sat No fee Arizona Desert Elementary School Embry Health 1245 N. Main St. San Luis, AZ 85349 (480) 376-2170 1:00 pm 5:00 pm Mon-Fri 8:00 am 5:00 pm Sat & Sun No fee PrimeCare Valley 1581 S 6th Ave Yuma, AZ 85364 (928) 343-0488 Testing Daily 8:00am - 6:30pm Rapid antigen testing available $25 Rapid antibody testing available $70 Regular-Send Out Test (PCR) No fee to you with insurance Regular-Send Out Test (PCR) FREE to you without insurance PrimeCare Central 284 W 32nd St Yuma, AZ 85364 (928) 341-4563 Testing Daily 7:00am - 9:30pm Rapid antigen testing available $25 Rapid antibody testing available $70 Regular-Send Out Test (PCR) No fee to you with insurance Regular-Send Out Test (PCR) FREE to you without insurance PrimeCare Foothills 11279 S Glenwood Ave Yuma, AZ 85367 (928) 345-6830 Testing Monday-Friday 7:00am - 2:30pm Saturday-Sunday 7am-11:30pm Rapid antigen testing available $25 Rapid antibody testing available $70 Regular-Send Out Test (PCR) No fee to you with insurance Regular-Send Out Test (PCR) FREE to you without insurance Question of the Day: I saw the FDA just approved the Emergency Use Authorization of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for individuals 12 through 15 years of age. What side effects were observed during clinical trials for this age group? (Source: United States Food and Drug Administration) The most commonly reported side effects in the adolescent clinical trial participants, which typically lasted 1-3 days, were pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, chills, muscle pain, fever and joint pain. With the exception of pain at the injection site, more adolescents reported these side effects after the second dose than after the first dose, so it is important for vaccination providers and recipients to expect that there may be some side effects after either dose, but even more so after the second dose. The side effects in adolescents were consistent with those reported in clinical trial participants 16 years of age and older. It is important to note that as a general matter, while some individuals experience side effects following any vaccination, not every individuals experience will be the same and some people may not experience side effects. Department of Health Services (ADHS) recent updates can be found on the COVID-19 Reporting Dashboard. You can access the COVID-19 Reporting Dashboard You can access the COVID-19 Cases by Zip Code Please take note of new reporting data available on the dashboard: Summary Demographics COVID-19 Deaths Zip Code Confirmed COVID-19 Cases by Day Hospitalization Hospital COVID-like & Influenza-like illness Surveillance Laboratory Testing Congregate Settings with Positive COVID-19 Cases Hospital Bed Usage & Availability Ventilator Usage & Availability Hospital COVID-19 Specific Metrics HOW can YOU get a flu shot in Yuma County? The 2020-2021 Seasonal Influenza Vaccine is now available at the Health District, 2200 W. 28th Street in Yuma. Seasonal flu vaccinations are available for all individuals 6 months of age and older. The cost is $25.00 for adults and $10.00 for youth 18 years and younger. Medicare Part B, AHCCCS and Private Insurance are accepted upon presentation of card. Flu vaccine is available BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. Please call: (928)317-4559 Yuma County health officials confirm moderate spread of COVID-19 throughout Yuma County. We encourage all residents to take the necessary precautions including physical distancing and staying home if you are sick. Remember to: Wash your hands often with soap and water for 20 seconds. Avoid touching your face, especially your eyes, nose, and mouth. Avoid people who are sick, and avoid groups of 10 people or more. Clean and disinfect frequently-touched surfaces like light switches, door knobs, electronic devices, etc. Stay home if you are sick so you do not expose others. Practice physical distancing, staying 6 feet away from others. Cover your mouth and nose with a cloth face cover when around others. JOINT INFORMATION CENTER (JIC) UPDATE NOTE, some of the below information has been updated from previous releases. Please be sure to read all segments. YUMA COUNTY Yuma County Government Offices PUBLIC visitation hours are (PDF LIST): County Administration, Human Resources and Financial Services offices at 198 S. Main Street are open to public Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The County Assessor, Treasurer, Recorder and Elections Services, located at 197 S. Main Street/192 Maiden Lane, are open to the public Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. County libraries continue to provide public access based on facility size and staffing to minimize exposure to COVID-19: The Main Library, San Luis, Somerton and Foothills Libraries will have metered access based on size and staffing, with a limit on the number of people in the library at one time. Heritage, Dateland, Wellton and Roll Libraries will be by appointment only, due to their smaller staffing. Please visit the Librarys website for more information on hours and available services. CITY OF YUMA City Hall is open 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays. Face masks are required. Patrons should please use the marked social distance spacing in customer service areas. To honor our healthcare workers and the sacrifices they make, the City of Yuma has launched Adopt-a-Nurse Yuma, an initiative to pool local resources to provide meals and other encouragement efforts for our citys healthcare workers. Yumans can participate by making a donation, or dropping off a thank-you, Christmas or holiday card. Residents can also simply reach out to an acquaintance in the healthcare field to thank them for the work they are doing on behalf of our entire region. Individuals, businesses, and community organizations interested in supporting the initiative are encouraged to contact Arlyn Galaviz at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Marine Corps Air Station - Yuma Effective 04 September, the Trusted Traveler Program has been reinstated. Visitors without a CAC or DOD identification will be allowed to enter with a sponsor. Visitors will be required to provide justification for needing access to the installation and granted access to the base with someone who has a CAC or DOD identification card who will be sponsoring/escorting them aboard the base. Under the program, sponsors and/or guests may be subject to a background check. Safety measures are still required by MCAS Yuma in order to help stop the spread of COVID-19. YUMA PROVING GROUND Although certain access restrictions directed by the Department of the Army are in place, Yuma Proving Ground's essential test mission in support of Army modernization priorities continues. Access to Yuma Proving Ground is currently restricted to the following: * YPG residents, including Travel Camp residents * YPG employees * Civilian contractors who work at YPG * Other personnel who come to YPG for an authorized purpose (including personnel on official orders to YPG, DoD retirees/ID card holders, and delivery drivers) PUBLIC is urged to follow on FACEBOOK & TWITTER as well as sign up for Yuma County eNOTIFICATIONS Today Some clouds this morning will give way to generally sunny skies for the afternoon. High 98F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Clear skies. Low 68F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Tomorrow Mainly sunny. High around 105F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-11 21:01:33|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NEW DELHI, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday urged the federal government to share the COVID-19 vaccine formula with other vaccine makers in the country in a bid to ramp up its production. India has been hit hard by a devastating second wave of COVID-19 infections and acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccines is being reported from across the country. "Only two companies are producing vaccines. They produce only 60 to 70 million doses a month. This way, it will take over two years to vaccinate everyone," Kejriwal said. "Many waves will have come by then, so it is important to increase vaccine production and frame a national plan." In India, two companies, Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech, are currently producing the vaccines against COVID-19. Though a third vaccine Russia's Sputnik V has also been cleared but not yet rolled out in the country. Kejriwal said there was a dire need to ramp up vaccine manufacturing in the country for conducting mass vaccination against COVID-19 and several companies should be roped in to accelerate vaccine production. "Centre (the federal government) should collect the formula from these two (companies) and give it to the others who are able to produce vaccines safely," he said, adding that a national plan to carry out vaccination should be devised. India's federal health ministry on Tuesday morning said 329,942 new COVID-19 cases and 3,876 related deaths were registered in the past 24 hours across the country. Enditem New Delhi: Budget carrier SpiceJet has said that the airline will start its COVID-19 inoculation drive for all its employees from May 17, 2021. The company-sponsored vaccination drive will start from Delhi and Gurugram and will cover SpiceJet employees across all the airlines domestic network. SpiceJet will also make efforts to facilitate vaccination for the families of employees going forward, a company statement said. The first ones to get vaccinated will be the frontline employees of the airline including airport staff and in-flight crew, SpiceJet added. The third and largest phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive to inoculate people in 18-45 age group began on May 1. Government across various states have set up the vaccination centres to accommodate the large number of beneficiaries. Live TV #mute Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 01:01:53|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close by Naim-Ul-Karim DHAKA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh looks forward to receiving Chinese friendship vaccine doses, all set to reach Dhaka Wednesday, for resumption of inoculation drive at its earliest, a senior Bangladeshi official has said. Muhammad Faruk Khan, chairman of Bangladesh's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday that the country's vaccination drive, which suffered a setback following exhaustion of the stocks, will soon be resumed thanks to the Chinese vaccine. Khan, who is also a lawmaker and a former minister, said that he would like to thank the Chinese people, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government for sending COVID-19 vaccine doses as gift and the gifts they had sent in the past year to help Bangladesh fight COVID-19. The Bangladeshi official also conveyed his gratitude and thanks to China for sending experts including doctors to Bangladesh for consultation and sharing experiences on COVID-19. Regarding a conference with foreign ministers from countries in the region, which China had hosted recently, he said this is an excellent initiative from the Chinese government to help countries in the region to fight COVID-19 efficiently. With reference to the decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to list China's Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use, he said this is to be a boon for the inoculation drive against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, especially in countries like Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country's COVID-19 vaccination drive on Jan. 28 to rein in the pandemic that has so far spread across Bangladesh. Amid uncertainty over the timely arrival of the next COVID-19 vaccine shipment from India, the Bangladeshi government later halted administering first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine across the country. Enditem New Delhi: Listing out various initiatives taken by the Centre to ramp up the oxygen supply across the country arising due to the rapid surge in COVID-19 cases, the government of India is importing 5,805 metric tonne (MT) of liquid oxygen from abroad, the Ministry of Home Affairs has said. MHA Additional Secretary informed on Tuesday that the Central government has also increased the production of oxygen in the country and is procuring one lakh oxygen concentrators under PM Cares Fund. "5,805 MT of LMO is being exported, out of which 3440 MT is being exported from UAE, 1505 MT from Kuwait, 600 MT from France, 200 MT from Singapore, and 60 MT from Bahrain," MHA said. "Multiple initiatives have been taken to increase oxygen supply. To improve Oxygen availability, production has been increased and 1,619 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) plants have been set up. To enhance tanker availability, 408 nitrogen and argon tanks are being converted. We have also imported 101 tankers and 150 more to come. At least 100 tankers being manufactured domestically. Also to decrease the turnaround time, we are transporting the oxygen tankers through railways and airways," he said during the Ministry of Health and Family Welfares` briefing of the COVID-19 situation in India. The top MHA official said an Oxygen Digital Tracking System for real-time monitoring has been put in place and movements of tankers being monitored through this. "One lakh oxygen concentrators being procured under PM Cares Fund. 5,805 MT Liquid Medical Oxygen being imported. As many as 374 tankers with 7,049 MT capacity have been airlifted within the country, while 81 containers with a combined capacity of 1,407 MT have ben imported through the Indian Air Force. A total of 157 oxygen special trains have moved 637 tankers," the MHA official said. Live TV New Delhi: The Assam government on Wednesday (May 12, 2021) announced to impose more restrictions from May 13 to curb the COVID-19 spread. "A complete lockdown is an option, but we are going gradually in a phased manner. We hope these measures will work in the next two-three days," Chief Secretary Jishnu Barua said. As per the latest order, all offices, religious places and weekly markets have been shut for 15 days in urban and semi-urban areas of the state. Movement of people from 2 PM to 5 AM has also been prohibited. Check what's open and what's closed: -- All standalone shops and commercial establishments in urban and semi-urban places in the periphery of 5 km of municipal areas shall shut down at 1 pm on all days. -- Only home delivery allowed after 1 pm. -- Weekly haats, bazaars, educational institutions and all government and private offices have been ordered to shut for the next 15 days. -- Government officers of deputy secretary and above the rank and senior executive in the private sector along with their key support staff will be allowed to attend office up to 1 PM only for emergency and essential works. -- Restrictions will not be applicable for organisations rendering essential and emergency services, law enforcement services and election works. -- All religious places shall remain closed for 15 days. -- Funeral and last rites related gatherings shall not be more than 10 persons. -- Weddings and religious functions will be only private affairs and be allowed with the presence of a maximum of 10 persons. No reception parties will be allowed post or pre-wedding. -- All public transport will be allowed with 30 per cent of seating capacity. -- Auto-rickshaws, cycle-rickshaws, taxis shall operate with one driver and two passengers only. -- Pillion riding will be totally prohibited in two-wheelers except with women and children. -- All vehicles other than government vehicles will be allowed to ply in accordance with an odd-even formula to be decided by the jurisdictional district disaster management authority between 5 AM to 2 PM. -- A complete ban will be there on the movement of individuals from 2 PM to 5 AM daily. For the rest of the state, all restrictions announced earlier such as night curfew from 6 PM to 5 AM with a total ban on movement of persons at public places on all days will continue, except for those engaged in essential and emergency services. Find the complete order below: In view of rising COVID-19 cases, stricter restrictions to come into force w.e.f. 5 am on May 13 till further orders. All shops, eateries including dine-in to be allowed till 1 pm. Only home-delivery allowed after 1 pm. Weekly markets to remain shut for 15 days: Govt of Assam pic.twitter.com/C1M50fTSdw ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2021 Assam on Tuesday recorded 127 COVID-19 fatalities, its highest in a single day so far, which took its death toll to 1,838. The state also witnessed a record 6,258 new coronavirus cases, following which, its total caseload went up to 3,04,429. Assam currently has 37,500 active cases. (With agency inputs) New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi calling for liberal, pro-active import of COVID-19 vaccines to the state. The Chief Minister stated that West Bengal government is ready to provide land and all support required for manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines. "Production of vaccines in the country is extremely inadequate... Globally, there are many manufacturers now... It is possible to identify the reputed and authentic manufacturers and speedily import vaccines from them from different parts of the world," the Bengal Chief Minister mentioned in the letter. "Liberal, proactive and discerning import of vaccination is the paramount need today," she added. Mamata said world players could also be encouraged to open up franchise operations in India. "We, in West Bengal, are ready to provide land and support for any manufacturing/franchisee operation for authentic vaccine manufacturing," the Trinamool supremo said in the letter to the Prime Minister. Live TV New Delhi: The Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin has got the necessary approval from an expert panel for conducting phase 2/3 trials on those aged between 2 to 18 years. According to news agency PTI, the drug makers anti-COVID vaccine was recommended by an expert panel (Subject Expert Committee) for phase II/III clinical trial on those aged between two to 18 years on Tuesday. Official sources said that the trial will take place in 525 subjects at various sites, including AIIMS, Delhi, AIIMS, Patna and Meditrina Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur. The Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) on Tuesday deliberated upon Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech's application seeking permission to conduct phase II/III clinical trials to evaluate the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of Covaxin jabs in children aged 2 to 18 years. "After detailed deliberation, the committee recommended for the conduct of proposed phase II/III clinical trial of the whole virion inactivated coronavirus vaccine in the 2 to 18 years age group subject to the condition that the firm should submit the interim safety data of phase II clinical trial along with DSMB recommendations to the CDSCO before proceeding to phase III part of the study," a source was quoted as saying. Earlier the proposal was deliberated in the SEC meeting dated February 24 and the firm was asked to submit a revised clinical trial protocol. Covaxin, indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), is being used in adults in India's ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive. The drug maker on Tuesday said that it will continue the steady supply of its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, adding the jab has been directly supplied to 18 states since May 1. "COVAXIN has been directly supplied to 18 states since May 1st. Unflinching in our efforts, we will continue the steady supply of our #vaccine," Bharat Biotech said in a tweet. COVAXIN has been directly supplied to 18 states since May 1st. Unflinching in our efforts, we will continue the steady supply of our #vaccine. Get yourself and your loved ones vaccinated.#BharatBiotech #COVAXIN #COVID19Vaccine #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/B3mlFT6KoT BharatBiotech (@BharatBiotech) May 11, 2021 The states include Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, the Hyderabad-based firm added. Live TV Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday informed that as many as 111 patients, all COVID-19 survivors, are undergoing treatment for `mucormycosis' infection in Mumbai hospitals. It also known as the 'Black Fungus' and can turn fatal if not treated on time. According to Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani atleast 38 patients are being treated from the infection at the civic-run BY Nair Hospital, 34 at KEM Hospital, 32 at Sion Hospital and seven at Cooper Hospital. Further, Kakani said that the mucormycosis infection is not "contagious" and doctors at COVID-19 hospitals are trained to handle it. Meanwhile, state health minister Rajesh Tope on Tuesday said there could be over 2,000 Mucormycosis patients in Maharashtra and with more and more COVID- 19 cases coming up, their number is likely to increase. The state government has decided to select hospitals attached to medical colleges for treatment of Mucormycosis patients as it demands a multidisciplinary approach, Tope said. As per doctors, this fungal infection is mostly found among COVID-19 patients suffering from diabetes. Its symptoms include headache, fever, pain under the eyes, nasal or sinus congestion and partial loss of vision. Though, the good news is if diagnosed at an early stage, it can be cured completely. New Delhi: The matter related to the widening of the Chardham highway project would be heard by the Supreme Court on Friday (May 14) after the Centre said that it involves the question of national security as the road goes up to the China border. The matter came up for hearing before a vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and Dinesh Maheshwari. "It is a matter of border road. We cannot give this much time. It is important," the bench told an advocate, who was appearing in the matter and seeking three-week adjournment, said a PTI report. Attorney General KK Venugopal told the top court that the road goes up to the China border. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, however, opposed the request for a three-week adjournment and said the matter should be heard soon. "This is a question of national security. The road goes up to the China border". The bench, which told the parties to place before it the relevant orders passed earlier in the matter by the apex court, said it would hear the matter on May 14. In its affidavit filed earlier in the matter, the Centre had urged the top court to accept the majority report of 21-members of the High-Powered Committee (HPC) recommending the road to be developed to two-lane with paved shoulders (10 metre wide carriageway) considering the strategic requirement and snow removal needs. The HPC is monitoring the Chardham highway project on the widening of roads up to India-China border in Uttarakhand. Earlier, the Ministry of Defence had sought modification of the top court's September 8 last year order which had asked the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) to follow the 2018 circular stipulating carriageway width of 5.5 metre. In August 2019 the apex court had cleared the decks for the Chardham highway project by modifying a National Green Tribunal order to constitute a high-powered committee to look into environmental concerns. It had said that the HPC shall consider the cumulative and independent impact of the Chardham project on the entire Himalayan valley, besides other things. Notably, the strategic 900-km Chardham highway project aims to provide all-weather connectivity to four holy towns -- Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath -- in Uttarakhand. Refund process starts for Chardham tickets Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand government has started the process of refunding money to the devotees, who booked helicopter tickets in advance for the Chardham Yatra in Kedarnath. This comes nearly two weeks after the state government postponed the pilgrimage in view of the massive surge in COVID-19 cases. The entire booking amount for helicopter services to Kedarnath temple, except Rs 200 taken from each pilgrim as processing fee, would be refunded, according to Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat's order last month. Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN), a government undertaking, collects fare from the devotees on behalf of the helicopter companies through its website. GMVN Director Ashish Chauhan has written to the bank concerned, asking to start refunding money to their accounts. The Chardham Yatra was scheduled for this month and the advance bookings for helicopter services to the Himalayan temple had commenced on April 2. (With Agency Inputs) Live TV New Delhi: Ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr, the Darul Uloom Deoband has issued a fatwa saying that not able to offer namaz is forgiven under such circumstances. The fatwa was issued in view of the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the country. Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi 'naib mohtamim' issued a fatwa and said that offering 'Namaz e Chasht' is better under the current situation. He said to offer Eid namaz in a congregation of 3 to 5 people and added that there is no need to worry if you cannot pray in the congregation because, under such circumstances, it is forgiven to not pray in the congregation. Earlier, the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) had also called upon Muslims to avoid big gatherings on occasion of Eid prayers and ensure the wearing of a mask and social distancing among two worshippers. Leading Islamic seminary Jamia Nizamia had also issued a fatwa that Eid prayers can be offered in any clean open space, function halls and schools by following all COVID-19-related guidelines. Eid is to be celebrated on Thursday (May 13, 2021) or Friday, depending on the sighting of the new crescent. Meanwhile, India witnessed a record 4,205 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours and registered 3.48 lakh new cases, as per the Union Health Ministry's data on Wednesday (May 12). India's death toll has now climbed to 2.54 lakh, while the total caseload has mounted to 2.33 crore after 3,48,421 fresh COVID-19 infections. There are now 37.04 lakh active cases across the country. New Delhi: The number of new cases of coronavirus in the country stood at 3.48 lakh and 4205 deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours. This was the highest number of deaths in a single day. A big share of the new infections and fatalities were recorded in rural India which has become a cause for concern. Zee News Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary on Wednesday (May 12) discussed how the second wave of the pandemic has affected the villages across the country. He also highlighted the plight of the villagers who are suffering due to lack of medical aid. The rate of infection in the country is not going down as the virus has now spread from the cities to the villages. This has been mainly observed in 13 states including Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The infection rate in the rural areas of these states has left the urban areas behind. It points towards a big crisis. In Maharashtra, the number of new cases is around 24,000 per day in urban areas, while in villages this figure is more than 30,000. Similarly in Uttar Pradesh, the new cases in villages are about twice that in cities. In Rajasthan, out of about 12,000 new cases, the cities are recording only about 5000 cases and the rest are being registered in the villages. Similar situations have been found in Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Jammu Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. There are 6.5 lakh villages in the country housing a population of about 90 crore. The situation is indeed quite worrying. There are 11 states where the number of infections is more than ever in the villages. Among them, Punjab tops the list, where 49 percent of the new cases are being found in villages. In Karnataka, this figure is 44 percent and in West Bengal, it is 47 percent. These figures clearly indicate that the virus has spread in the villages. To make things worse, there are limited test centres and medical facilities in the villages. In many places, the villagers have to travel about 50 to 60 km to the district headquarters to get tested for COVID. The health centres are also not adequate. In many villages, people have to walk about 2 km just to get drinking water. They are forced to go out of their houses, which is not advisable in this pandemic. In such a situation, it is very crucial that the government take special measures to take check the spread of the virus in the villages. Live TV New Delhi: The central government on Wednesday (May 12) categorically rejected senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor's claims that the COVID-19 situation is deteriorating in the Andaman and Nicobar and at least 4-5 people are succumbing due to the infection at the GB Pant Hospital and no testing has been carried out by authorities. The government countered Tharoors claims by listing the coronavirus data of the island. Andamans reported 16 COVID-19 related deaths during second wave of pandemic The official Twitter handle of PIB Fact Check stated that the Andamans has reported only 16 COVID-19 related deaths during the second wave of the pandemic. It also stated that the island has a recovery rate of 96 per cent, which is the highest in the country. "The island also has the highest tests per million in the country," the Centre further said. Several false claims regarding the #COVID situation in the Andamans are in circulation#PIBFactCheck __The Island has the highest tests per million in country i.e. 9,43,233 __Number of deaths recorded during the second wave are 16 __Highest recovery rate in the country i.e. 96% pic.twitter.com/l9d3Nz7Isv - PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 11, 2021 "Disturbed to receive reports of a deteriorating #COVID situation in the Andamans, stories of 4-5 deaths daily at the GB Pant Hospital, figures of cases& deaths allegedly suppressed, no testing even of symptomatic cases, only 50 ventilators for 4 lakh people. Media sadly silent," Tharoor had tweeted. Hope my sources were wrong on Andamans COVID figures: Shashi Tharoor However, after the government's clarification on Andamans situation on COVID, the Congress leader expressed his relief and said he was glad to hear it. "My sources are Govt employees on the island, who wrote to me begging for national attention to the problems they were reporting. They are too scared to be identified, so I cant ask them to come forward. I will take your word for it & hope my sources were wrong," Tharoor tweeted. Meanwhile, 28 more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, pushing the coronavirus tally in the union territory to 6,426, a health department official said on Wednesday. All the new cases in the archipelago were detected during contact tracing, the official said. The COVID-19 death toll remained at 78 as no fresh fatality was reported in the last 24 hours, official told PTI. Live TV NEW DELHI: Amid positive signs of declining coronavirus cases in the country, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said a variant of Covid-19 suspected to have caused the explosive outbreak of the deadly virus has been found in dozens of countries all over the world. The UN health agency said the B.1.617 variant of Covid-19, first found in India in October, had been detected in sequences uploaded to the GISAID open-access database "from 44 countries in all six WHO regions," adding it had received "reports of detections from five additional countries". The UN health agency further said that WHO has received reports of detections from five additional countries" in its weekly epidemiological update on the pandemic. Besides India, it warned that Britain had reported the largest number of Covid cases caused by the variant. It may be noted that earlier this week, the WHO had declared B.1.617 -- which counts three so-called sub-lineages with slightly different mutations and characteristics -- as a "variant of concern". It was therefore added to the list containing three other variants of Covid-19 -- those first detected in Britain, Brazil and South Africa. The variants are seen as more dangerous than the original version of the virus because they are either being more transmissible, deadly or able to get past some vaccine protections. 'Rapid increase' The WHO explained that B.1.617 was added to the list because it appears to be transmitted more easily than the original virus, pointing to the "rapid increases in prevalence in multiple countries". WHO also pointed to "preliminary evidence" that the variant was more resistant to treatment with the monoclonal antibody Bamlanivimab, and also highlighted early lab studies indicating "limited reduction in neutralisation by antibodies". It stressed, though, that "real-world impacts" on the effectiveness of vaccines against the variant for instance "may be limited". WHO said the spread of B.1.617, alongside other more transmittable variants, appeared to be one of several factors fuelling India's dramatic surge in new cases and deaths. "WHO found that resurgence and acceleration of Covid-19 transmission in India had several potential contributing factors, including increase in the proportion of cases of SARS-CoV-2 variants with potentially increased transmissibility," it said. It also pointed to "several religious and political mass gathering events which increased social mixing; and, under-use of and reduced adherence to public health and social measures". "The exact contributions of each of these factors on increased transmission in India are not well understood." WHO stressed that so far, only 0.1 percent of positive Covid tests in India had been genetically sequenced and uploaded to the GISAID database to identify the variant in question. The UN health agency also said that India accounted for 46% of the new COVID-19 cases recorded worldwide last week. India, a country of 1.3 billion people, is the world's second-most infected after the United States with nearly 23 million Covid-19 cases, and is currently recording more than 300,000 new cases and close to 4,000 deaths each day. The new surge in cases has ravaged major cities, including the national capital New Delhi and financial hub Mumbai, pushing hospitals to the breaking point and leading to severe shortages in oxygen and beds. Worldwide, 5.7 million new cases were reported last week and more than 93,000 deaths, the WHO said in its weekly epidemiological report. India reported nearly 2.6 million new cases, a 20% increase on the previous week, and 23,231 deaths. There are signs that India`s outbreak is spreading to its neighbours, it warned. Live TV Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 09:14:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SYDNEY, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The world's coral reefs could face mass bleaching and erosion within the next few decades, according to an international team of scientists including those from Australia. Their findings, published this week in the scientific journal PNAS, have particular significance for Australia, which oversees the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), the world's largest coral reef ecosystem and an enormously important drawcard for the nation's tourism industry. The scientists, including marine plant ecologist Guillermo Diaz-Pulido from the Griffith University in the Australian state of Queensland, noted in a related article in the Conversation that the GBR contributes about 6.4 billion Australian dollars (about 5 billion U.S. dollars) to the national economy. Their study, based on the findings from 183 reefs worldwide, looked at the impact of ocean warming and acidification on coral reefs. "Marine heatwaves, caused by ongoing ocean warming, have already had a severe impact on coral reef ecosystems by triggering mass bleaching events," they wrote in the Conversation. The GBR has suffered mass bleaching outbreaks since 2016. "These events are becoming more frequent and intense, and cause mass die-offs across large areas." The scientists believed the rapid reduction of carbon dioxide emissions is essential to protect the reef ecosystems. They predicted if emissions continue to rise unabated, about 94 percent of coral reefs globally would be eroding by 2050. Marine biologist Dr Christopher Cornwall, from the University of Wellington in New Zealand, summed up the team's grim prognosis. "We are already observing global shifts in coral assemblages and severely reduced coral cover due to mass bleaching events," Cornwall said. "Our only hope for these reefs now is converting to alternatives to fossil fuels as soon as possible." Enditem Jerusalem: A 30-year-old Indian woman in Israel has been killed in a rocket attack by Palestinian militants from Gaza, according to officials. Soumya Santosh, who hailed from Kerala's Idukki district, worked as a caregiver attending to an old woman at a house in the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. Ashkelon, which borders the Gaza Strip, has come under massive fire from the Palestinian militants. At least 31 people were killed in spiralling violence till 9 PM (local time) on Tuesday as Gaza-based militants fired hundreds of rockets on Israel since Monday evening. Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes at Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the coastal strip. The Indian woman was said to be living in Israel for the last seven years. She has a nine-year-old son whom she had left with her husband in Kerala. Her 80-year-old elderly charge is said to have survived the direct hit on the house and is hospitalised in a serious condition, local media reports said. The deadly rocket attack directly struck the house of the elderly woman. Channel 12 reported that the rocket shelter was at least a minute's run away from the woman's home and the pair could not manage to reach it in time. The home lacked a fortified room of its own. Some media reports said that a technical glitch with an Iron Dome battery (an all-weather air defence system that intercepts and destroys short-range rockets) during the massive rocket barrage towards the Israeli coastal city prevented some rockets from being intercepted and may have been responsible for the casualties and deaths. Ashkelon's Mayor Tomer Glam said that some 25 per cent of the residents do not have access to a protected area when rockets are fired at the city. "It is impossible when normal life becomes a state of emergency within minutes," Glam told Army Radio. "There are houses from the 1960s where there is no basic protection. It is time for treasury officials and decision-makers to understand what is happening here in the city," he stressed. Israel's ambassador to India Ron Malka on Tuesday took to Twitter to condole the Indian woman's death. "On behalf of the state of Israel, I convey heartfelt condolences to the family of Ms. Soumya Santosh, murdered by Hamas indiscriminate terror attack on innocent lives. Our hearts are crying with her 9 years old son that lost his mother in this cruel Terrorist attack," he said in a tweet. According to Soumya's family in Kerala, she was talking to her husband Santhosh over a video call in the evening when the incident took place. "My brother heard a huge sound during the video call. Suddenly the phone got disconnected. Then we immediately contacted fellow Malayalees working there. Thus, we came to know about the incident," Santhosh's brother Saji told PTI. Newly-elected MLA and Nationalist Congress Kerala leader Mani C Kappan condemned the incident. In a Facebook post, Kappan, who is representing Pala seat in the Kerala Assembly, said thousands of Keralites working in Israel were living in fear. He also sought the intervention of the Central and state governments. Live TV New Delhi: Due to the acute shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in Maharashtra, the state government on Wednesday (May 12) announced to temporarily suspend its drive to vaccinate people in the age group of 18 to 44 and divert the available stock of doses for the above-45 age group, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said. This decision was taken during the state cabinet meeting. SII unable to provide 1.5 crore Covishield vaccines to Maharashtra The minister also revealed that the Serum Institute of India (SII) has informed the Maharashtra government that it would be able to provide 1.5 crore Covishield vaccines to the state only May 20 onwards. "There is no sufficient supply of vaccine vials by the Centre for inoculation of above-45 age group people. Hence, the state cabinet decided to divert the stock, purchased for the 18-44 age group, for the above-45 age group. Therefore, we are suspending the inoculation of 18-44age group for some period," Tope said. While Covishield vaccine is manufactured by Pune-based SII, Covaxin is produced by Bharat Biotech. "Adar Poonawalla of SII has informed Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray of his ability to supply around 1.5 crore vials of Covishield from May 20 onwards. Once we receive the supply, we will resume the vaccination of 18-44 age group," the minister said. On Tuesday, Tope had alleged that the Union government was not fulfilling its responsibility to provide adequate number of vaccine doses to states. No Covaxin left, received 2.67 lakh doses of Covishield, says Delhi govt Meanwhile, the Delhi government announced that there will be no Covaxin doses available at any vaccination centre in the national capital from Wednesday onwards as the stock has finished, prompting the state government to shut around 100 centres. The Delhi government, which raised an alarm regarding Covaxin shortage on May 11 evening, said the last available stock of Covaxin was administered earlier in the day. "We had just 16,900 doses of Covaxin stock for today (Wednesday) which was administered and we have no Covaxin stock left for any centre. Now, Covaxin will not be administered at any vaccination centre from tomorrow until vaccine supply is received," said AAP MLA Atish, while giving details of the Delhi government`s vaccination scheme to the press on Wednesday. Delhi on Wednesday received 2,67,790 doses of Covishield vaccine for people in the 18 to 44 years age group. Amid the nationwide second wave of the Covid pandemic, the Delhi government has been struggling to provide beds, oxygen, medicines for Covid patients in the hospitals and at homes. For the last few days, the capital is also struggling for vaccines. Live TV Bulandshahr: Unlike the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the second wave has found its way to the Indian villages. Several villages in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and other states have reported a sharp rise in infection and deaths. In such a situation, the Parwana village in UPs Bulandshahr district has decided to ban the entry of outsiders in a bid to prevent the import of the virus. The residents have put up barricades at the entry points of the village and placed a banner which reads: Entry of outsiders in the village is prohibited - by order district administration. The decision was taken after over two dozen persons died in the past one and a half months, ostensibly due to COVID-19. There have been several deaths due to natural causes too. Widespread sampling was done on May 5 and 41 villagers tested positive out of 160. More samples were taken after that and the report is awaited, Subhash Singh, sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Syana was quoted as saying by IANS. The village head, Syoraj Singh, said that 28 to 30 people have died in just over a month. "The deceased include both, elderly and the young," he said. Syoraj Singh said that people are ill in every second house. Each time the condition of a person deteriorates, we have to rush him to a hospital in Bulandshahr city, which is about 20 km away. District magistrate of Bulandshahr, Ravindra Kumar, said that several teams have been sent to the village and the situation will be brought under control soon. "This (the deaths) did come to my notice. I immediately spoke to the health department officials. We have sent screening teams to the village. People who have tested Covid-19 positive have been put in isolation," he said. The villagers are following COVID guidelines such as maintaining social distancing and sanitization. Live TV New Delhi: The supply of oxygen is now more than three times of what it was during the peak of the first COVID-19 wave, the Prime Minister's Office said on Wednesday, noting that production of all drugs, including Remdesivir, has been ramped up significantly in the last few weeks as India battles the nationwide surge in infections. At a high-level meeting which Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired to review the availability and supply of oxygen and medicines, it was noted that states are being provided medicines in good quantities with the Centre in regular touch with the manufacturers to enhance their production and extend all help needed. The central government is actively monitoring the supply of drugs being used in the management of COVID as well mucormycosis, a rare fungal infection being reported at some places. Modi said India has a very vibrant pharma sector and the government's continued close coordination with them will ensure proper availability of all medicines. The PMO said Modi was also briefed about the operations of oxygen rail and sorties by IAF planes besides the status of procurement of oxygen concentrators, oxygen cylinders as well as the status of plants being installed across the country to produce the life-saving gas. Amid reports of ventilators lying unused in some states with local authorities blaming quality issues in a few cases, Modi said states should be asked to operationalise them in a time-bound manner and resolve technical and training matters with the help of manufacturers. Live TV Kolkata: On the eve of West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's scheduled visit to post-poll violence-affected Cooch Behar district, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday (May 12) wrote to him claiming that it violates long-standing protocols followed by his predecessors in case of field visits. In her letter, Banerjee also alleged that Dhankhar has been directly communicating with state government officers and dictating them, though she had earlier requested him to refrain from doing so. "I find from social media that you are unilaterally proceeding to Cooch Behar district on May 13 and, sadly, I find that to be violative of the long-standing norms as evolved over several decades. "I, therefore, would expect you will kindly follow the well-established norms of protocol, as stated above, and desist from abrupt decisions with regards to field visits," Banerjee's letter to Dhnakhar read. The CM referred to the 'Manual of Protocol and Ceremonials' of the home department of the state government, which says that visits of governors are finalised by the secretary of the governor after obtaining the orders of the government. The governor on Tuesday said that he will visit areas affected by post-poll violence in Cooch Behar district on May 13. Banerjee also referred to her letter written to Dhankhar on September 26 last year, in which she had urged him to "refrain from surpassing the Chief Minister and her Council of Ministers and communicating with and dictating the State officials, in excess of your power under the Constitution and directing them to attend before you". The CM alleged that the governor is "steadily ignoring" this advice. At least 16 people, mainly from the BJP and the TMC, have been killed in post-poll violence in West Bengal and most of the killings were reported till May 3 when the law and order was under the Election Commission, Banerjee had said on May 6. Political clashes also left a number of people injured in the state since the results of the assembly elections were announced on May 2, when the TMC returned to power in a landslide victory. Live TV Mumbai: Actress Madhuri Dixit Nene on Tuesday took to Instagram to inform fans that she was "back on set". The 53-year-old veteran had taken her second dose of the COVID vaccine a while back, and on Instagram she has posted a series of pictures where she strikes classic poses in a shimmering silver saree and matching blouse. She completes her look with matching neck piece, earrings and a single bracelet on the right hand. She wears her hair open and goes for matching heels in the photo-op of three images. "Back on set," she wrote as caption with the images, along with a film projector emoji. While the actress did not share details about what the shoot, it seems like she faced the camera for a special shoot. Currently, Madhuri is readying to enter the OTT space with the thriller series "Finding Anamika". She plays a superstar actress who goes missing one day. The show also features Manav Kaul and Sanjay Kapoor. New Delhi: Farmers who have been eagerly waiting for the eighth installment of the Prime Minister Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme (PM-KISAN will get it on the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya. The government will transfer Rs 2,000 of the eighth installment to the farmers' account Akshaya Tritiya which falls on May 14, a report in the Live Mint said. The last or 7th instalment of PM Kisan was paid on Christmas, December 25, which is also the birth anniversary of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Scheme was launched by PM Modi in 2019. The Scheme aims to provide income support to all landholder farmer families across the country with cultivable land, subject to certain exclusions. Under the Scheme, an amount of Rs 6000 per year is released in three 4-monthly instalments of Rs 2000 each directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries. In a financial year, PM Kisan installment is credited thrice through --Period 1 from April-July; Period 2 from August to November; and Period 3 from December to March. Live TV #mute PM-KISAN Scheme for only Small and Marginal Farmers' families? ln the beginning when the PM-KISAN Scheme was launched (February, 2019), its benefits were admissible only to Small & marginal Farmers' families, with combined landholding upto 2 hectare. The Scheme was later on revised in June 2019 and extended to all farmer families irrespective of the size of their landholdings The Central Government had notified a decision to extend the benefit of Rs 6,000 per year under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi scheme to all 14.5 crore farmers in the country, irrespective of the size of their landholding. Who are excluded from the PM-KISAN Scheme? Those excluded from the PM-KISAN include institutional land holders, farmer families holding constitutional posts, serving or retired officers and employees of State or Central government as well as Public Sector Undetakings and Government Autonomous bodies. Professionals like doctors, engineers and lawyers as well as retired pensioners with a monthly pension of over Rs 10,000 and those who paid income tax in the last assessment year are also not eligible for the benefits. New Delhi: State Bank of India (SBI) in a newspaper advertisement has issued alert for customers who face potential threat from fraudsters offering various kinds of facilities in the name of the bank. SBI has informed people are doing a scam by fooling innocent customers in the name of the bank. SBI has listed five areas, asking customers to not be a victim of scams. 1. SBI has asked customers to not share their birth date, debit card number, internet banking userID/password, debit card PIN, CVV number, OTP with anyone. 2. Be careful if you get a call from people on calling in the name of SBI, RBI, government office, police, KYC officials. 3. Dont download any link or mobile app from unknown source like telephone calls and email id etc. 4. Don't click on any email link or attachment from unknown and unverified source. 5. Don't respond to any attractive offer sent via email, SMS and other social media sources. Recently, a fake SBI loan offer was floated in the market with the aim of duping innocent customers. Apparently some people have been offered fake loan by SBI Loan Finance Ltd. and other such entities, which SBI says is not a genuine entity. SBI has informed that these companies are doing a scam in the name of offering loans to customers. "BEWARE SBI CUSTOMERS! If you are contacted by SBI Loan Finance Ltd. or any such entities then be informed that these are not associated with SBI. They are giving fake loan offers in order to scam our customers," SBI had tweeted. Live TV #mute Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Wednesday announced Rs 25 lakh compensation to the families of 43 doctors who had lost their lives while on duty to treat COVID-19 patients. According to news agency ANI, the Chief Minister announced Rs 25 Lakh each as compensation for 43 frontline workers and families of government doctors who passed away while carrying their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic. Stalin also announced incentives for those medical service personnel who were involved in the treatment of Covid-19 patients. Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin announced Rs 25 Lakhs each as compensation for 43 frontline workers and families of government doctors who passed away while carrying their duties during #COVID19 pandemic. He also announced incentives for frontline staff for April, May & June. (file pic) pic.twitter.com/lZYuFcXsLi ANI (@ANI) May 12, 2021 As per the incentive scheme for the three months -- April, May and June -- when the second wave of Covid-19 spread, doctors will be paid Rs 30,000, nurses and trainee doctors Rs 20,000, and others like sanitary workers, people working in CT scan department, ambulance workers Rs 15,000. Stalin also extended his greetings to the nurses on the International Nurses Day that falls on May 12. In view of rising cases of new infections, Chief Minister M K Stalin appealed to the general public and industries to donate to the Chief Ministers Public Relief Fund to fight against the raging pandemic. On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu recorded 29,272 fresh COVID-19 cases in the single biggest day spike so far, pushing the caseload to 14,38,509 while 298 deaths in the last 24 hours taking the toll to 16,178. According to a medical bulletin, 19,182 people were discharged, taking the tally to 12,60,150, leaving 1,62,181 active infections. The state capital accounted for 7,466 new infections, totaling 4,04,733 till date. The metropolis also leads in the number of fatalities with 5,368 deaths. Live TV Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 11:55:51|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Workers unload China-donated COVID-19 vaccines and AD syringes shortly after a military transport plane landed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on May 12, 2021. A special plane of the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) carrying the China-donated COVID-19 vaccines and AD syringes landed in capital Dhaka early on Wednesday. (Xinhua) DHAKA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A special plane of the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) carrying the China-donated COVID-19 vaccines and AD syringes landed in capital Dhaka early on Wednesday. Chief of Air Staff of the BAF Masihuzzaman Serniabat along with other senior officials were present at the BAF Base Bangabandhu in Dhaka's Kurmitola to receive the Sinopharm vaccines. A forklift unloaded boxes of the Chinese vaccines from the military transport plane shortly after it landed at around 5:30 a.m. local time. According to an official handout at the air base, the goodwill mission was conducted by a C-130J transport aircraft of the BAF to bring the Sinopharm vaccines and AD syringes provided by China to prevent the coronavirus as a sign of China's friendly relations with Bangladesh. It said the Bangladeshi government has expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for its commendable efforts in combating the coronavirus and unwavering support to countries including Bangladesh. Bangladesh's drug regulator in April authorized emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccines. The Bangladeshi government has also given the green light to a proposal of producing Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in the country. Speaking at a virtual interaction with the journalists here on Monday, Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming said China and Bangladesh are witnessing progress in their joint fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccine aid was "just in time," Li said. "It is the latest outcome of China-Bangladesh anti-pandemic cooperation, which again shows that our two peoples are in the same boat, and we will stand with each other till the end of this battle." "The virus is our common enemy, and cooperation is the only way out," he said. Muhammad Faruk Khan, chairman of Bangladesh's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday that the country's vaccination drive, which suffered a setback following exhaustion of the stocks, will soon be resumed thanks to the Chinese vaccines. Khan, who is also a lawmaker and a former minister, said he would like to thank China for sending the COVID-19 vaccine doses as a gift and the gifts China had sent in the past year to help Bangladesh fight the COVID-19 pandemic. With reference to the decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to list China's Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use, he said this is to be a boon for the inoculation drive against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, especially in countries like Bangladesh. Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the country's COVID-19 vaccination drive on Jan. 28 to rein in the pandemic that has so far spread across the country. Amid uncertainty over the timely arrival of the next COVID-19 vaccine shipment from India, the Bangladeshi government later halted administering the first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine across the country. Bangladeshi Health Minister Zahid Maleque on Tuesday said they were waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines from China to strengthen the countrywide inoculation drive. Enditem Washington: India's recent decision authorising 5G trials without Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE is a sovereign one, a top State Department official has said, asserting that America is deeply concerned about the dangers of installing networks with equipment that can be manipulated, disrupted or potentially controlled by China. India's Department of Telecom last week approved applications of telecom companies Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL to conduct 5G trials but none of them will be using technologies of Chinese entities. State Department Spokesperson Ned Price, at his daily news conference on Tuesday, said: This was a sovereign decision on the part of the Indian government, so we refer you to the Government of India for any comment on that decision. But I would say more broadly, it is true that we are deeply concerned about the dangers of installing networks with equipment that can be manipulated, disrupted or potentially controlled by the PRC (People's Republic of China). Allowing untested, untrusted telecommunication suppliers, like Huawei or ZTE, to participate in or to have any control over any part of a 5G network creates unacceptable risks to national security, to critical infrastructure, to privacy and to human rights as well, Price said. China last week regretted the decision by Indian authorities to not allow Chinese telecom companies to conduct 5G trials in India. "We noted relevant notification, and express concern and regret that Chinese telecommunications companies have not been permitted to conduct 5G trials with Indian telecom service providers in India," Chinese embassy spokesperson Wang Xiaojian said in New Delhi. "To exclude Chinese telecommunications companies from the trials will not only harm their legitimate rights and interests, but also hinder the improvement of the Indian business environment, which is not conducive to the innovation and development of related Indian industries," Wang said. Last year, the US designated Huawei and ZTE as national security threats, saying they have close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China's military apparatus, and they are broadly subject to Chinese law obligating them to cooperate with the country's intelligence services. WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S Defense Department will remove China`s Xiaomi Corp from a government blacklist, a court filing showed, marking a reversal by the Biden administration of one of Donald Trump`s last jabs at Beijing before exiting office. The court filing said the company and the U.S. government would agree to resolve their ongoing litigation, bringing to an end a brief and controversial spat between the hardware company and Washington that had further soured Sino-U.S. ties. Emily Horne, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said "the Biden Administration is deeply concerned about potential U.S. investments in companies linked the Chinese military and fully committed to keeping up pressure on such companies." A Xiaomi spokeswoman said the company is watching the latest developments closely, without elaborating. Shares in the company jumped over 6% in Hong Kong as news of the decision spread. The company`s share price has tumbled roughly 20% since it was placed on the blacklist in January in the waning days of the Trump administration. The Defense Department did not immediately comment. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment. The department had designated the firm as having ties to China`s military and placed it on a list that would restrict U.S. investment in the company. Seven other Chinese companies were also placed under similar restrictions. Xiaomi went on the offensive by filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government, calling its placement "unlawful and unconstitutional" and denying any ties to China`s military. In March, a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the blacklisting, citing the U.S. governments "deeply flawed" process for including it in the ban. The judge last week also suspended an investment ban imposed on Luokung Technology Corp, the Chinese mapping technology company. The Biden administration has agreed not to challenge that ruling. Horne cited the ruling saying "the Trump Administration failed to develop a legally sufficient basis for imposing restrictions on the company and compelled this action." `LOW-HANGING FRUIT` Soon after the victory, Reuters reported that other Chinese companies placed on the same blacklist were considering similar lawsuits. [L1N2LD2YY] Xiaomi was among the more high-profile Chinese technology companies that former President Donald Trump targeted for alleged ties to China`s military. Trump had made countering the rise of Beijing a centrepiece of his administration`s economic and foreign policy. Xiaomi`s local smartphone rival Huawei Technologies Co Ltd was also put on an export blacklist in 2019 and barred from accessing critical technology of U.S. origin, affecting its ability to design its own chips and source components from outside vendors. The measures effectively crippled the company`s smartphone division. Later, the U.S. Department of Defense placed similar restrictions on China`s Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, a firm key to China`s national drive to boost its domestic chip sector. Professor Doug Fuller, who tracks China`s semiconductor sector at the City University of Hong Kong, says that Xiaomi`s win was "low-hanging fruit" for the Biden administration in its efforts to correct the excesses of Trump`s China policy as his term ended. "I think it is a sign that Biden will be a bit softer," he said. "Calling Xiaomi a Chinese military company was always ridiculous. For firms tied to more legitimate defence concerns, or (Chinese province) Xinjiang, however, it will be more difficult." New Delhi: In a story straight out of a movie, a man from Kerala was arrested for allegedly stealing a bus and fooling police officials across four districts which he claimed he did to meet his wife amid the lockdown imposed in state. The man identified as Dinoop, 30, stole a private bus parked at the bus stand near Kozhikode on Saturday and drove off with it to travel to Thiruvalla. He was stopped by the police at two places but he told them that he was asked to fetch migrant labourers from Pathanamthitta and so the police allowed him to pass. Dinoop drove through Malappuram, Thrissur, Ernakulam and to Kottayam district. When he arrived at Kumarakom, the police stopped him and realised that he was driving a stolen bus. They checked the registration number of the bus, searched for the owner's name and number and informed him that his bus was not where he had parked it. The police does not believe Dinoop's story as he has two similar cases against him. He has been booked and a case has been filed against him. A police probe may reveal the truth behind his motice to steal the bus. GAZA/JERUSALEM: Hostilities between Israel and Hamas escalated overnight, with 35 Palestinians killed in Gaza and three in Israel in the most intensive aerial exchanges for years. Israel carried out hundreds of air strikes in Gaza into the early hours of Wednesday, as the Islamist group and other Palestinian militant groups fired multiple rocket barrages at Tel Aviv and Beersheba. One multi-storey residential building in Gaza collapsed and another was heavily damaged after they were repeatedly hit by Israeli air strikes. Israel said it attacked Hamas targets, including intelligence centres and rocket launch sites. It was the heaviest offensive between Israel and Hamas since a 2014 war in Gaza and prompted international concern that the situation could spiral out of control. UN Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland tweeted: "Stop the fire immediately. We`re escalating towards a full scale war. Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation. "The cost of war in Gaza is devastating & is being paid by ordinary people. UN is working w/ all sides to restore calm. Stop the violence now," he wrote. Into the early hours of Wednesday morning, Gazans reported their homes shaking and the sky lighting up with Israeli attacks, outgoing rockets and Israeli air defence missiles intercepting them. Israelis ran for shelters or flattened themselves on pavements in communities more than 70 km (45 miles) up the coast and into southern Israel amid sounds of explosions as interceptor missiles streaked into the sky. Hamas`s armed wing said it fired 210 rockets towards Beersheba and Tel Aviv in response to the bombing of the tower buildings in Gaza City. In Tel Aviv, air raid sirens were heard around the city. For Israel, the militants` targeting of Tel Aviv, its commercial capital, posed a new challenge in the confrontation with the Islamist Hamas group, regarded as a terrorist organisation by Israel and the United States. The violence followed weeks of tension in Jerusalem during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, with clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in and around Al-Aqsa Mosque, on the compound revered by Jews as Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. These escalated in recent days ahead of a now postponed - court hearing in a case that could end with Palestinian families evicted from East Jerusalem homes claimed by Jewish settlers. `A VERY HEAVY PRICE` There appeared no imminent end to the violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that militants would pay a very heavy price for the rockets, which reached the outskirts of Jerusalem on Monday during a holiday in Israel commemorating its capture of East Jerusalem in a 1967 war. The outbreak of hostilities led Netanyahu`s political opponents to suspend negotiations on forming a coalition of right-wing, leftist and centre-left parties to unseat him after an inconclusive March 23 election. Opposition leader Yair Lapid has three weeks left to establish a government, with a new election - and another chance for Netanyahu to retain power - likely if he fails. The Arab League, some of whose members have warmed ties with Israel over the last year, accused it of "indiscriminate and irresponsible" attacks in Gaza and said it was responsible for "dangerous escalation" in Jerusalem. Hamas named its rocket assault "Sword of Jerusalem", seeking to marginalise Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to present itself as the guardians of Palestinians in Jerusalem. The militant group`s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said Israel had ignited fire in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa and the flames extended to Gaza, therefore, it is responsible for the consequences." Haniyeh said that Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations had been in contact urging calm but that Hamass message to Israel was: "If they want to escalate, the resistance is ready, if they want to stop, the resistance is ready." The White House said on Tuesday that Israel had a legitimate right to defend itself from rocket attacks but applied pressure on Israel over the treatment of Palestinians, saying Jerusalem must be a place of coexistence. The United States was delaying U.N. Security Council efforts to issue a public statement on escalating tensions because it could be harmful to behind-the-scenes efforts to end the violence, according to diplomats and a source familiar with the U.S. strategy. State Department spokesman Ned Price urged calm and "restraint on both sides", saying: "The loss of life, the loss of Israeli life, the loss of Palestinian life, It`s something that we deeply regret." He added: "We are urging this message of de-escalation to see this loss of life come to an end." PLUMES OF BLACK SMOKE Israel said it had sent 80 jets to bomb Gaza, and dispatched infantry and armour to reinforce the tanks already gathered on the border, evoking memories of the last Israeli ground incursion into Gaza to stop rocket attacks, in 2014. More than 2,100 Gazans were killed in the seven-week war that followed, according to the Gaza health ministry, along with 73 Israelis, and thousands of homes in Gaza were razed by Israeli forces. Video footage on Tuesday showed three plumes of thick, black smoke rising from a 13-story Gaza residential and office block as it toppled over after being demolished by Israeli air strikes. The Israeli military said the building, in Gaza City`s Rimal neighbourhood, housed "multiple" Hamas offices, including ones for military research and development and military intelligence. The existence of one Hamas office, used by political leaders and officials dealing with the news media, was widely known locally. Residents in the block and the surrounding area had been warned to evacuate the area before the air strike, according to witnesses and the Israeli military. A second residential and office building in the same neighbourhood was heavily damaged in Israeli attacks shortly before 2 a.m. on Wednesday. Residents and journalists working in the building had already left. On Tuesday Gaza health ministry officials put the death toll at 32, but a Hamas-affiliated radio station later said three more people, including a woman and a child, were killed shortly before 2 a.m. on Wednesday in an Israeli air strike on an apartment above a restaurant. Israeli political leaders and the military said they had killed "dozens" of militants, and hit buildings used by Hamas. Defence Minister Benny Gantz said Israel had carried out "hundreds" or strikes, and that "buildings will continue to crumble." Gaza`s health ministry said that of the 30 reported dead, 10 were children and one was a woman. Israel`s Magen David Adom ambulance service said a 50-year-old woman was killed when a rocket hit a building in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Lezion, and that two women had been killed in rocket strikes on Ashkelon. NEW DELHI: Decades-old hostility between Israel and Palestine sparked by weeks of tensions over control of Jerusalem has escalated as the Israeli forces unleashed new airstrikes on Gaza while Hamas militants hit back with hundreds of rockets. The exchange of fire between the two sides has killed a number of militants and civilians in Gaza and at least two Israelis, stoking fresh tension in the Middle East and renewed calls the international community for exercising restraint and dialogue for peace. The current violence, like in past, was ignited by conflicting claims over Jerusalem - home to major holy sites of Islam, Judaism and Christianity. IsraeliPalestinian conflict - How it began? The IsraeliPalestinian conflict is the ongoing bloodier struggle between the two sides that began in the mid-20th century. It is one of the world's most enduring and tragic conflicts, which has failed to find an amicable solution despite several negotiations and agreements for long-term peace in the Middle East region. For more than 100 years, Jews and Arabs have struggled for control over a piece of land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. Between 1882 to 1948, Jews from all over the world started gathering in what later came to be known as Palestine. The movement is called Aliyahs. In 1917, the United Kingdom got control over Palestine after the fall of the powerful Ottoman Empire in WW1. After gaining control over Palestine, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration with the task of establishing a "national home" for the Jewish people in Palestine. During that time, the area was inhabited by a Jewish minority and Arab majority. While the Jews favoured the plan, it was outrightly rejected by the Palestinians. The horrors of the Holocaust - in which nearly six million Jews were killed in Europe by the Nazis - further ignited the demand for a separate Jewish state. Tensions between the two sides further grew after the international community also supported the demand for establishing a "national home" in Palestine for Jewish people. For Jews, it was their ancestral home, but Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and opposed the move. Creation of Israel Unable to resolve the issue, Britain lifted its control over the area in 1948 and the Jews declared the creation of the state of Israel. Since Palestinians strongly objected to the creation of Israel as a separate state, an armed conflict started between the two sides. Expressing solidarity with the Palestinians, troops from neighbouring Arab countries too invaded Israel but they were hit hard by the Israeli armed forces. As a result of the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes this is known as Al-Nakba, or the "Catastrophe". The fighting came to an end following the announcement of a ceasefire. However, by this time, Israel had gained control over most of the territory. War with Arabs Jordan, one of the neighbouring Arab nations engaged in war with Israel, had seized control over part of the land which came to be known as the West Bank, and Egypt occupied Gaza. Jerusalem a sacred place for Christians, Jews and Muslims and home to al-Aqsa mosque, the holiest place for Muslims after Mecca and Medina, was divided between Israel in the West, and Jordan in the East. Since no formal peace agreement was signed, each side continued to blame each other for the tension and the region saw more wars and fighting in the decades to come. 1967 War The Israel-Palestine conflict took a new turn when the Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as most of the Syrian Golan Heights, and Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula in 1967. During those times, Palestinian refugees and their descendants were settled in Gaza and the West Bank, and in the border areas of neighbouring Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. But they were not allowed to return to their homes after the Israeli forces captured the areas in 1967. In its defence, Israel said that allowing Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their homes would threaten its existence as a Jewish state. Israel's capture of West Bank As of now, Israel occupies the West Bank, though the Israeli forces have pulled out of Gaza largely due to United Nations mediation. While Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, the Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state. The United States, a close ally of Israel, is among a handful of countries to have recognised Israel's claim on the whole of Jerusalem. In over five decades, Israel has built numerous settlements in these areas, where more than 600,000 Jews now live a move strongly objected by the Palestinians, who say these are illegal settlements under international law and are obstacles to peace. This has further fuelled tension between the two sides. Palestinian militant group called Hamas now controls Gaza. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars and numerous skirmishes since the militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007. Recent rounds of fighting have usually ended after a few days, often helped by mediation by Qatar, Egypt and others. Israel and Egypt tightly control Gaza's borders to stop weapons from getting into the hands of Hamas. Palestinians claim that they're suffering because of Israeli military actions and retaliation by Hamas in equal measures. Israel, on its part, says, say it is only acting to protect itself from Palestinian violence. Amid all this, fresh tensions have escalated in the region since the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in mid-April 2021, with nightly clashes between police and Palestinians. The forceful eviction of some Palestinians by the Israelis in East Jerusalem has also fuelled the latest conflict. The escalation comes at a time of political limbo in Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu has been the caretaker prime minister since an inconclusive parliamentary election in March. He failed to form a coalition government with his hard-line and ultra-Orthodox allies, and the task was handed to his political rivals last week. One of those rivals is Israel's defence minister, who is overseeing the Gaza campaign. Despite political differences, the Israeli opposition parties have always unanimously expressed support for striking Hamas hard. (With Agency Inputs) Live TV New Delhi: As India continues to face the mounting challenge posed by the second wave of COVID-19, the country on Wednesday (May 12) received coronavirus-related assistance from Switzerland and the Netherlands. Two flights from Switzerland and the Netherlands arrived at the airport in Delhi on Wednesday (May 12) carrying medical aid. India is currently dealing with a second COVID-19 wave that has swept through the nation, straining the country`s health infrastructure and overburdening frontline medical workers. On May 7, the first shipment containing 449 ventilators, 100 oxygen concentrators and other medical supplies from the Netherlands arrived in India as a part of humanitarian assistance. Asserting that India values this support from the Netherlands, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi informed that remaining medical equipment would be shipped over the coming days. Earlier, India had received a consignment of 600 oxygen concentrators, 50 ventilators and other medical supplies from Switzerland. Switzerland stands with India in its hour of need and our objective is to get all possible assistance that we can as quickly as possible, said Swiss Ambassador Dr. Ralf Heckner. "Switzerland stands with India in its hour of need. At this point, our objective is to get all possible assistance to India that we can as quickly as possible. What we are witnessing today is international solidarity at its best. It is impressive to see how many countries and private businesses are stepping up to the plate," said Ambassador Heckner. Several countries around the globe including the UK, Russia, and the US have extended support to India as it continues to struggle with the increase in its health infrastructure needs. India reported a slight dip in new COVID-19 cases with 3,29,942 fresh infections were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to Union Health Ministry on Tuesday (May 11). Live TV Jerusalem: Israel on Tuesday stepped up its attacks on the Gaza Strip, flattening a high-rise building used by the Hamas militant group and killing at least three militants in their hideouts as Palestinian rockets rained down almost nonstop on parts of Israel. It was the heaviest fighting between the two bitter enemies since 2014, and it showed no signs of slowing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to expand the offensive, while Gaza militants unleashed a fierce late-night barrage of rockets that set off air-raid sirens and explosions throughout the densely populated Tel Aviv metropolitan area. 3 women killed, dozens injured in rocket fire in Israel Three women in Israel were killed by rocket fire, and dozens of people wounded. The death toll in Gaza rose to 32 Palestinians, including 10 children, according to the Health Ministry. Over 200 people were wounded. In another sign of widening unrest, demonstrations erupted in Arab communities across Israel, where protesters set dozens of vehicles on fire in confrontations with police. Large plumes of smoke from targeted building rise into air The fighting between Israel and Hamas was the most intense since a 50-day war in the summer of 2014. In just over 24 hours, the current round of violence, sparked by religious tensions in the contested city of Jerusalem, increasingly resembled that devastating war. The booms of Israeli airstrikes and hisses of outgoing rocket fire could be heard in Gaza throughout the day, and large plumes of smoke from targeted buildings rose into the air. Israel resumed a policy of airstrikes aimed at killing wanted militants and began to take down entire buildings -- a tactic that drew heavy international criticism in 2014. In Israel, the nonstop barrages of rocket fire left long streaks of white smoke in their wake, while the explosions of anti-rocket interceptors boomed overhead. Air-raid sirens wailed throughout the day, sending panicked residents scurrying for cover. In a nationally televised address, Netanyahu said that "Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant groups have paid, and I tell you here, will pay a heavy price for their aggression." He claimed that Israel had killed dozens of militants and inflicted heavy damage on hundreds of targets. "This campaign will take time," he said. "With determination, unity and strength, we will restore security to the citizens of Israel." He stood alongside Defense Minister Benny Gantz, a political rival, in a show of unity. "There are lots of targets lined up. This is only the beginning," Gantz said. The military said it was activating some 5,000 reservists and sending troop reinforcements to the Gaza border. The current violence has coincided with the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, a time of heightened religious sentiments. Critics say heavy-handed Israeli police measures in and around Jerusalem's Old City helped stoke nightly unrest. Another flashpoint has been the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where dozens of Palestinians are under threat of eviction by Jewish settlers. Confrontations erupted last weekend at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is the third-holiest site in Islam and the holiest site in Judaism. Over four days, Israeli police fired tear gas and stun grenades at Palestinians in the compound who hurled stones and chairs at the forces. At times, police fired stun grenades into the carpeted mosque. On Monday evening, Hamas began firing rockets from Gaza. From there on, the escalation was rapid. In a televised address, Hamas' exiled leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said Israel bore responsibility. "It's the Israeli occupation that set Jerusalem on fire, and the flames reached Gaza," he said. 3 senior commanders killed in strike, confirms Islamic Jihad Palestinian health officials gave no breakdown on the death toll in Gaza, but Islamic Jihad confirmed that three senior commanders were killed in a strike on their hideout in a Gaza City apartment building. The Health Ministry said 10 children and a woman were also killed. Netanyahu said Israel had attacked hundreds of targets. The fiercest attack was a set of airstrikes that brought down an entire 12-story building. The building housed important Hamas offices, as well as a gym and some start-up businesses. Israel fired a series of warning shots before demolishing the building, allowing people to flee and there were no casualties. The Israeli military said hundreds of rockets were launched toward Israel. Two women, including an Indian caregiver, were killed in separate rocket strikes in the southern city of Ashkelon. Hamas says 130 rockets fired at Israel Then, late at night, Hamas said it unleashed a barrage of 130 rockets toward Tel Aviv in response to the destruction of the high-rise. As the rockets rose into the skies, mosques across Gaza blared with chants of 'God is great,'victory to Islam' and 'resistance.' One rocket killed a woman in the city of Rishon LeZion, and another struck a bus in the nearby city of Holon, wounding three people, including a young girl. The violence was beginning to spill over to Israel's own Arab population, where angry demonstrations erupted across the country. In the central city of Lod, thousands of mourners joined a funeral for an Arab man killed by a suspected Jewish gunman the previous night. The crowd clashed with police, and set a synagogue and some 30 vehicles, including a police car, on fire, Israeli media reported. Paramedics said a 56-year-old man was seriously hurt after his car was pelted with stones. The city's mayor, Yair Revivo, described the situation in the mixed Jewish-Arab city as 'civil war,' and the government ordered a deployment of paramilitary border guards from the West Bank to Lod. Live TV New York: At least a thousand pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed at a demonstration near the Israeli consulate in New York City over the recent escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, a Sputnik correspondent reported from the scene. The demonstration did not turn violent Tuesday (May 11) afternoon, however, it grew tense as both sides faced off near the Israeli consulate. The New York City Police Department separated the demonstrators with metal guard rails with officers standing in between and around the area. Pro-Palestinian protesters in a confrontation with pro-Israel protesters yelled "Free Palestine," "Go back to Europe" and "Fight back." Eventually, pro-Palestinian protesters blocked 42nd Street in Manhattan, waved the Palestinian flag and held up signs that read, "No Annexation, No Occupation," "Support Palestinian Resistance," and "With Every Stomp, Every Shout, Freedom For Palestine Without a Doubt. "Israeli supporters were seen screaming "What is Palestine?" as some waved the national flag of Israel. The largest escalation in recent years at the Gaza border began on Monday (May 10) evening. During this time, more than 600 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel. The Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted 200 of them. Israel also delivered strikes on the Gaza Strip, which, as the Palestinian enclave`s Health Ministry spokesman said earlier, killed 30 people, including ten children, in two days. Earlier, chairman of the political bureau of radical Palestinian movement Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, announced the organization`s intention to protect the interests of Palestinians in Jerusalem and respond to Israel`s actions, thus defining a new balance of forces in the confrontation. Beijing: China has blamed the abrupt withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan for a surge of attacks in the country, days after a series of explosions in Kabul killed over 60 people, mostly girl students. According to South China Morning Post (SCMP), foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was "shocked" by the attacks and "deeply saddened" by the death toll, calling on the US to pull out troops "in a responsible manner". "It needs to be pointed out that the recent abrupt US announcement of complete withdrawal of forces from Afghanistan has led to a succession of explosive attacks throughout the country, worsening the security situation and threatening peace and stability as well as people`s lives and safety," Hua said in a statement. "China calls on foreign troops in Afghanistan to take into full account the security of people in the country and the region, pull out in a responsible manner and avoid inflicting more turmoil and suffering on the Afghan people," she added. Biden announced earlier this month the decision to withdraw troops from the country starting on that May 1 deadline, with the aim of completely withdrawing from Afghanistan by September 11, which would mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that sparked the war in Afghanistan, the longest conflict in American history. Beijing has long feared that instability in Afghanistan would give ground to Islamic fundamentalism that would spill over into China`s predominantly Muslim Xinjiang region, SCMP reported. The withdrawal of troops by the US has already led to a surge in fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces. Observers said Beijing was unlikely to station troops in Afghanistan but might work with other countries in the region to reduce the security risk to China. Pang Zhongying, an international relations professor at the Ocean University of China, said though China was tempted to fill the vacuum, it was unlikely to play a significant military role there because the risk was too high, the SCMP reported. She also said that the UN framework is "too fragile" and it would also be difficult for China to project its strategic influence through this platform. At least three explosions took place near Sayed-ul-Shuhada High School in the west of Kabul on Saturday afternoon. As many as 63 people, all students, were killed in a Kabul school bombing and 150 more were wounded, TOLO News reported citing sources and relatives of victims. The incident was heavily condemned by the international community. However, the Taliban has denied any involvement in the attack. "We condemn in strongest terms the killing of civilians in Dashti Barchi, Kabul, as a result of incessant explosions and call for a neutral and transparent investigation," Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen had said in a tweet. The Taliban later announced that they would observe a three-day ceasefire for the festival of Eid. Live TV Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 15:11:06|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SINGAPORE, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. administration should try to engage with China in a respectful dialogue and find out where the differences between them and where they can collaborate, a renowned Singaporean scholar said recently. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration needs to have a U-turn and a reversal from former President Donald Trump's policies on China, which he described "clearly have failed in every sense of the term," said Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, in an interview with DBS Bank Ltd. He said Trump's policies did not weaken China, strengthen the United States, or bring its friends in solidarity against China, so "obviously it is not in the interest of the Biden administration to carry on in an automatic fashion with Trump's policies on China." In his opinion, the first thing for Biden administration to do is to remove sanctions and tariffs on China, which "have not helped the American workers and consumers." He recalled his recent attendance at an Asia conference held in Harvard University with Harvard professors and some China watchers in the United States, saying when the Biden administration announced that it will not remove sanctions and tariffs on China, they said that is like threatening China by saying "if you don't listen to me I'll shoot myself in my foot again." In dealing with Asian countries, public insults never help, the scholar said. The United States should know that "insulting China is not how we conduct international relations," he said. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 16:00:40|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KABUL, May 12 (Xinhua) -- A succession of explosive attacks in Afghanistan has worsened the security situation in the conflict-battered nation, following an abrupt announcement by the United States of a complete withdrawal of forces from the country. To ensure that Afghanistan doesn't collapse into chaos requires an end to the current violence, the withdrawal of foreign troops in an orderly and responsible manner, and relevant parties to sit down at the negotiation table to advance the country's peace and reconciliation process. On Saturday, three consecutive explosions outside a secondary school for girls in western Kabul killed at least 50 people and injured over 100 others. Meanwhile, militant attacks in Afghanistan have increased, with the Taliban stepping up activities since the start of the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces on May 1. Ending violence is the first step to calm the situation in the country. The growing violence, especially the number of civilian casualties, has deeply concerned the international community, with the United Nations Security Council on Monday stressing the importance of sustained efforts to end violence and protect civilians. In addition, foreign military forces should be withdrawn in an orderly and responsible manner to prevent terrorist groups from taking any chance to create turbulence, and to ensure a peaceful political transition in Afghanistan. A sudden withdrawal at this stage is inappropriate and irresponsible since fighting continues in the country. "The merciless killing of civilians and Taliban attacks on government forces in several provinces demonstrate the outcome of foreign troops pull-out from Afghanistan," Afghan political analyst Nazari Pariani said. U.S. President Joe Biden's recent remarks that Washington has achieved its goal of smashing al-Qaeda's network was doubted by Afghan public opinion. The U.S.-led war on terror in Afghanistan has been described by local observers as a failure. Countless Afghans including civilians, security personnel and Taliban militants have been killed in so-called anti-terror combat, yet the brutal fighting and bloody attacks continue. To prevent the country from being dragged into a protracted war and becoming a heaven for violence and terrorism once again, the only choice is to promote the peace and reconciliation process through dialogue and international cooperation. The fate of Afghanistan should be decided by the Afghan people. Adherence to the principle of "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned," which is in line with the requirements of the Security Council's relevant resolutions, is the only way to realize national security and the reconstruction in the country. In this domestic process, any political arrangement should have broad representation and inclusiveness to make all factions and ethnic groups in Afghanistan equally involved in political life and share state power. Meanwhile, the international community and countries in the region should uphold justice and support the negotiations to achieve peace, instead of moving away from peace. No external force should impose itself on Afghanistan or use Afghanistan for its own selfish gains. An international conference on the Afghan peace process will be held in Istanbul after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, opening a window of opportunity to end the long-running conflict in the war-torn country. All Afghan factions should seize the chance to focus on the interests of the country and the people, advance negotiations, and reach a future political arrangement that is acceptable to all factions. The cessation of war and long-term peace have always been the common will of the over 30 million Afghan people. Domestic efforts together with the support of regional countries and the international community are needed to bring stability to the country. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 16:21:23|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KATHMANDU, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Three Nepali sisters from the same family reached the top of Mt. Qomolangma on Wednesday, becoming the first three siblings ever to conquer the world's highest peak, according to the company organizing their expedition. Nima Jangmu Sherpa, Tshering Namgya Sherpa and Dawa Futi Sherpa, who are from the Rolwaling Valley of Nepal's Dolakha district, "reached the top of the peak at 7am on Wednesday," Dawa Sherpa, a staff member from Imagine Nepal Trek and Expedition, told Xinhua. Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, managing director of the company, shared on his social media account the success of the three sisters along with 12 other expedition members on the top of Mt. Qomolangma. According to Mingma, the three sisters are climbers of the 15-member expedition team, which includes nine Nepalis, five Chinese and one Pakistani. The sisters attempted Mt. Qomolangma under the banner of "Three Sisters on Seven Summit," as they want to become the first siblings to climb the highest mountains on all seven continents, namely Qomolangma, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Mount Vinson and Carstensz Pyramid. In 2018, Nima Jangmu became the first and fastest woman in the world to climb three peaks above 8,000 metres, Mt. Qomolangma (8,848.86m), Mt. Lhotse (8,516m) and Mt. Kanchenjunga (8,586m) within 25 days in a single season. Dawa Futi, the youngest of the sisters, had previously summitted Mt. Amadablam (6,814m) in Nepal. Before attempting Mt. Qomolangma, the three sisters climbed Mt. Lobuche (6,619m) last month, according to the expedition company. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 16:43:28|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MANILA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Philippine soldiers clashed with suspected terrorists in the southern Maguindanao province early on Wednesday morning, leaving four dead, an army officer said. Major General Juvymax Uy, the commanding general of the army's sixth infantry division in central Mindanao, said the fighting broke out around 5:00 a.m. local time between the army forces and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) gunmen on the outskirts of Datu Paglas town. Uy said the terrorists were among those who stormed the public market of Datu Paglas town on Saturday morning that triggered a gunfight with the troops. Uy said the terrorists withdrew, prompting the military to launch a pursuit operation. The BIFF, composed of around 200 men, is blamed for bombings and other atrocities in the Central Mindanao region in the southern Philippines. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 16:47:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Residents are inoculated with COVID-19 vaccine from inside a hospital in Manila, the Philippines, on May 12, 2021. The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 4,842 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,118,359. (Xinhua/Rouelle Umali) MANILA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 4,842 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,118,359. The death toll climbed to 18,714 after 94 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said. The Philippines has been battling one of the worst outbreaks in Asia. During the past week, its average number of daily new cases had hovered between about 6,600 to 7,700. The low number of cases reported on Wednesday is due to "low testing output of laboratories," the DOH said. The Philippines, which has about 110 million population, has tested over 11 million people since the outbreak in January 2020. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 16:48:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on May 12, 2021 shows COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac at a COVID-19 vaccination center in Bangkok, Thailand. Thailand's government is encouraging the public to receive COVID-19 vaccines as the country aims to inoculate 70 percent of its nearly 70 million population by the end of the year. (Xinhua/Rachen Sageamsak) BANGKOK, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Thailand on Wednesday reported a new daily record of 34 COVID-19 fatalities, taking the country's death toll to 486, with 1,983 new infections, according to the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA). Of Wednesday's new cases, 1,974 were domestic infections while nine others were imported cases, the CCSA spokeswoman Apisamai Srirangsan said at a daily news conference. The infections added Thailand's total case tally to 88,907, more than tripled from the beginning of April when the third wave of coronavirus outbreak began to spread from the capital Bangkok. Some 29,378 patients are now under treatment in hospitals, with 1,226 in critical conditions, according to Apisamai. Due to concerns over a highly infectious coronavirus variant first detected in India, Thailand has temporarily suspended the issuance of entry certificates to all foreigners traveling from or transiting through countries including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. The government is also encouraging the public to receive COVID-19 vaccines as the country aims to inoculate 70 percent of its nearly 70 million population by the end of the year. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 18:06:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Chairman of Pakistan's National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) Asad Umar said on Wednesday that the registration of COVID-19 vaccination for citizens aged 30 to 39 will be open from May 16. "As vaccine supply continues to improve and vaccination capacity gets enhanced in all federating units, we continue to expand the categories of those who are eligible to get vaccinated," Umar said on Twitter. "Starting Sunday, the 16th of May, registration will be open to all 30 years and older citizens," the official added. Pakistan also commenced the process of walk-in vaccination for the citizens aged 40 to 49 on Wednesday. The registered citizens will be able to walk into any COVID-19 vaccination center of their choice and get vaccinated. In order to stop the spread of the virus during Eid al-Fitr holidays, Pakistan has barred almost all businesses, hotels, parks, recreational spots and shopping malls, inter-provincial and inter-city public transport from operating from May 8 to 16, covering the Eid holidays from May 10 to 15 in the country. Issuing strict guidelines and safety protocols for holding Eid prayers, the NCOC recommended on Tuesday that the congregations should be held at open spaces with brief sermons, mandatory wearing of masks and maintaining social distancing rules. Pakistan reported 2,869 new COVID-19 cases over the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 867,438, the NCOC said on Wednesday. A total of 104 people died during the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 19,210, according to the NCOC. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 18:44:45|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TASHKENT, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Uzbekistan will double the size of its service sector by 2023 with 300 million U.S. dollars in state funds and a wide range of reforms, a presidential decree said Wednesday. The document signed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev envisages allowing private businesses to rent offices to public organizations and instructs Uzbekistan's National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity to raise 200 million dollars from international financial organizations by the end of this year for tourism, transport and education projects. Since Mirziyoyev was elected president in 2016, Uzbekistan has taken a series of measures to promote economic reforms, including the elimination of foreign exchange controls, a reduction in taxes, and preferential treatment for foreign investment. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:05:30|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close People wearing face masks walk on a street in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 12, 2021. Malaysia recorded its highest single-day death toll from COVID-19 on Wednesday after the virus claimed 39 more lives, bringing the total deaths to 1,761, according to the Health Ministry. (Photo by Chong Voon Chung/Xinhua) KUALA LUMPUR, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia recorded its highest single-day death toll from COVID-19 on Wednesday after the virus claimed 39 more lives, bringing the total deaths to 1,761, according to the Health Ministry. Malaysia has suffered a resurgence of COVID-19 cases which has forced the government to impose a nationwide movement control order till June to curb the spread. The previous record for single day fatalities was reported on Sunday with 26 deaths. Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that the victims ranged from 43 to 88-years-old, with the majority of them suffering from existing health complications. Another 4,765 new COVID-19 infections were reported, of which seven are imported and 4,758 are local transmissions, bringing the national total to 453,222. Some 3,124 patients have been released after recovery, bringing the total number of cured and discharged to 411,360 or 90.8 percent of all cases. Meanwhile, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that 132 individuals had been repatriated from India, where the pandemic has been spreading. Malaysia has implemented a travel ban on India from April 28 and later expanded it to other South Asian countries including Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh over concerns of more infectious variants of COVID-19. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 20:22:19|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close SUVA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Fiji said on Wednesday night that it will tighten up measures to combat COVID-19 after the report of nine new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Pacific island country over the past 24 hours. According to Fiji's Health Ministry, of the new cases, three were reported in co-workers of a case confirmed Tuesday at the Extra Supermarket located in downtown Suva, capital of Fiji. The supermarket has been closed for disinfection. Five of the new cases were all from Nausori, a town about 19 km northeast of Suva. The ninth case was a border quarantine worker. To further contain the spread of the coronavirus, Fiji is expected to impose a 24-hour curfew in Suva and Nausori starting from 11:00 p.m. on Friday to 4:00 a.m. on Tuesday. When the lockdown expires, a daily curfew from 6:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. will be put in place in the two areas. During the curfew hours, local residents must stay at home. Meanwhile, from Saturday, the daily curfew hours for elsewhere in Fiji's main island of Viti Levu will expand to between 6:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m. local time. For the rest of Fiji, the curfew will still be from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. local time. Fiji has reported 161 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 109 recoveries and three deaths since it recorded the first infection in March last year. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 21:04:29|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close DHAKA, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh on Wednesday received a batch of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by China. Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming formally handed over the vaccines to Bangladeshi Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Health Minister Zahid Maleque at a ceremony at the State Guest House Padma in Dhaka. A special aircraft of Bangladesh Air Force returned from Beijing with the vaccines and AD syringes early on Wednesday. On the occasion, Foreign Minister Momen and Health Minister Maleque both thanked China for donating the vaccine to Bangladesh. Maleque said the vaccines arrived at a time when Bangladesh is in dire need for vaccines. "A friend in need is a friend indeed," he said. For his part, Ambassador Li said the donation is "a real action taken by the Chinese government to honor the promise of making COVID-19 vaccines a global public good." Bangladesh kicked off the COVID-19 vaccination drive on Jan. 28 to rein in the pandemic that has so far spread across the country. The country's drug regulator in April authorized emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccines. The Bangladeshi government has also given the green light to a proposal of producing Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in the country. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 03:29:02|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close MADRID, May 11 (Xinhua) -- South Korean tech giant Samsung on Tuesday became the latest company to confirm that it will not attend this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC) due to be held in Barcelona in northeast Spain between June 28 and July 1. In a communique, Samsung explained that fears over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic were behind its decision to not showcase its products "offline" at the event, which had been rescheduled from its usual slot at the end of February to the first week of March this year due to the pandemic. "The health and safety of our employees, partners and customers is our number one priority, so we have made the decision to withdraw from exhibiting in-person at this year's MWC," explained the company, which will participate online at the event. "We look forward to participating virtually and continuing to work with GSMA (the body that represents the mobile communications industry) and industry partners to advance new mobile experiences," the statement said. The decision taken by one of the world's largest smartphone vendors is a major blow to the 2021 MWC after other giants, such as Facebook, Google, Intel, Sony, Nokia and Ericsson, had all previously announced they would not have a physical presence in Barcelona this year. At the Barcelona MWC, the number of visitors allowed will be cut by half, from around 100,000 to 50,000, and they will be required to provide negative tests for COVID-19. Testing sites will be set up for visitors, who will obliged to wear FFP2 face masks at all times and disinfect their hands regularly using the 1,300 hand gel dispensers scattered around the Barcelona FIRA Gran Via exhibition center. The Spanish Ministry of Health said on Monday that the 14-day incidence rate of the coronavirus in Spain was still 188.97 cases per 100,000 people. It was higher still -- 248.61 -- in the Catalan region, where Barcelona is located. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 12:54:01|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close Photo taken on April 16, 2021 shows an outside view of the former residence of Zhu De, a founding father and the first of the 10 marshals of the People's Republic of China, in Goettingen, Germany. (Xinhua/Shan Yuqi) GOETTINGEN, Germany, May 12 (Xinhua) -- With yellowed paper of a student registry from the 1920s and a former residence inscribed with his name, a university town in central Germany kept the distant memory of a student who later became a founding father of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. Zhu De was 36 when he entered the University of Goettingen in 1923. The university library still keeps a registration paper in his own handwriting, indicating that this native of southwest China's Sichuan Province was studying sociology at the department of philosophy. Sociology was then a new discipline at the prestigious university founded in the early 18th century. Zhu's choice was vastly different from other Chinese students at Goettingen, and most of whom chose to study medicine, chemistry or other natural sciences. While most Chinese students were in their early twenties, Zhu came to Goettingen as one of the earliest Chinese communists and an experienced army officer. Born in 1886, he took part in the 1911 Revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty in China's history and fought in various wars in the country. Zhu met Zhou Enlai in Berlin in 1922, and joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) through Zhou's introduction. They both saw the CPC, founded in July 1921, as the only remedy to save the war-torn, poverty-stricken and imperialist-bullied old China. Both were among the major founders of the PRC, also known as New China. Zhou was New China's first premier, while Zhu ranked first among the top 10 marshals of the People's Liberation Army. "Zhu was not young, and he had spent many years in the military," said Rolf Kohlstedt, a historian at Goettingen City Archive. "He wanted to expand his vision here, in an industrialized Western country." The city archive keeps Zhu's residence registration paper from the local police, a yellowed document with a photo of the 36-year-old man in suit and tie. It recorded his move from Wilmersdorf, Berlin to Goettingen, his temporary lodging at "Planckstrasse 3" and return to Berlin in December 1924. At Planckstrasse 3, Zhu lived with a local family. The two-story red-brick house is still intact and has become an essential stop-off point for tourists to this university town with a population of 120,000. In 1986, a marble plaque was attached to its facade, with inscriptions reading "Zhu De, Marshal of the People's Republic of China, 1923-1924," in commemoration of his 100th birthday. In addition to his study, Zhu devoted himself to the work of the CPC. As head of the Chinese students' association in Goettingen, Zhu actively promoted communist ideas and prospect of New China among students who were eager to know more about their home country. Historical documents, including memoirs of Zhu's friends and co-workers, show that he gained important insights in military strategies and publicity skills, said Dagmar Yu-Dembski, a specialist on China studies and honorary president of the Confucius Institute at Free University of Berlin. The city archive still keeps an application filed by Zhu and other Chinese student leaders to the local police department for a demonstration, with an attached flyer entitled "what's going on in China." It condemned a massacre of students and workers in Shanghai on May 30, 1925, demanded changes to the miserable living conditions of the working class and solicited international support for China's fight against imperialism and colonialism. Zhu was arrested twice for his involvement in revolutionary activities before he was expelled from Germany. He later studied military affairs in the former Soviet Union and returned to China in 1926. His activities in Goettingen, however, are still remembered almost a century later. "His name is often heard, and we are all proud to tell others that we are alumni of the same university as Zhu De," said Wang Jiawen, president of the Chinese students and scholars association in Goettingen. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-12 15:55:32|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close KIEV, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Ukraine held naval drills together in the Black Sea, Ukraine's navy reported Tuesday. According to the navy's press service, an island-class patrol boat and an anti-submarine helicopter of the Ukrainian Naval Forces, a flagship of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, and a Legend-class cutter of the U.S. Coast Guard took part in the drills. The drills were held to "ensure security" in the Black Sea, and improve the compatibility of the U.S. and Ukrainian navies for joint maritime operations as part of multinational tactical groups under the standards of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the navy added. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2021-05-13 03:42:36|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close BUCHAREST, May 12 (Xinhua) -- The presidential plane of Romania's former head of state Nicolae Ceausescu, a "Super One-Eleven" Rombac, will be put up for sale in late May, local famous auction house Artmark announced on Wednesday. The plane will be auctioned at a starting price of 25,000 euros (30,335 U.S. dollars) on May 27, according to Artmark, which is organizing the auction. The place was used for the official flights of Ceausescu between 1986 and 1989, the last years of his presidency and life. ROMBAC 1-11, or Rombac One-Eleven, is the first and the only type of jet passenger ever produced in Romania under a British license. Before 1989, Romania built nine aircraft of this type. Another "Negresti" presidential plane, used by former President Ion Iliescu in the first few years of the 1990s, will also be put up for auction at the same starting price. Enditem Wine lovers on wine and the vinous life. For most of my readers, Ian DAgata needs no introduction. I consider Ian to be the top Italia... Transport Minister Kamel el Wazir and Planning Minister Hala el Saaed signed a memorandum of understanding to localize the industry of metro and electric train cars in Egypt. The deal was signed by the National Egyptian Railway Industries Company (NERIC) and South Korean train manufacturer Hyundai Rotem. In a statement on Thursday, the transport minister said that the signing of the deal falls within the political leadership's directives on the localization of railway industry, particularly the industry of multiple-unit trains, within the coming six years. Under the deal, South Korea's Hyundai Rotem will transfer its leading-edge technology in manufacturing railroad cars to NERIC to enable it to locally manufacture 25% of metro and electric train cars within two years, 50% of train cars after four years and 75% of train cars within six years, the statement added. Wazir described the deal as a "quantum leap" in the field of locally manufacturing railcars in Egypt to cater for the country's needs, in In the same context, the transport minister said that Hyundai and SEMAF company sealed a contract to supply 32 air-conditioned trains to Cairo Metro Line 3. For her part, the planning minister said that the signing of this MoU is a serious step to locally manufacture railcars and part of Egypt's structural reform program that was announced by the government this week. She further noted that the government's launch of the National Structural Reform Program (NSRP) aims at localizing industry and creating a conducive climate for the private sector. For his part, the South Korean ambassador underlined the depth of relations between Egypt and South Korea, underlining that fruitful cooperation between the two sides is a reflection of these strong ties. He added that the South Korean side will do utmost effort to strengthen this cooperation. CEO of Hyunda Rotem Yong-Bae Lee expressed his happiness at meeting President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, pledging to exert utmost effort to boost cooperation with NERIC and transfer his company's advanced technology in manufacturing railroad cars to it. Hong Kong: 2nd virus test for helpers set The Government today announced that all foreign domestic helpers (FDHs) working in Hong Kong are required to undergo a COVID-19 nucleic acid test for the second time during the period from May 15 to 30. It will exercise the power under the Prevention & Control of Disease (Compulsory Testing for Certain Persons) Regulation and publish in the Gazette a compulsory testing notice. The Government thanked the 340,000 helpers who contributed to the anti-epidemic efforts by complying with the compulsory testing requirement early this month, under which three confirmed cases involving the N501Y mutant strain were detected in a timely manner to cut the latent transmission chain in the community. After risk assessment and taking into account the job nature of FDHs who have to take care of the elderly and children, the Government considered requiring them to undergo compulsory testing for a second time in view of the N501Y mutant strain cluster. It noted that the testing arrangement is a separate issue from the Labour & Welfare Bureau's announcement yesterday and that it would not pursue the suggestion of requiring FDHs to receive vaccination when applying for employment visas. The testing period covers 16 days, including three weekends, to enable helpers to arrange time for testing. The Government will work with operators to enhance the testing capacity of community testing centres and mobile specimen collection stations particularly over the weekends. As at 3pm today, there were over 600,000 testing slots available for booking during the period from May 15 to May 30. The Government called on employers to arrange for their helpers to undergo testing at community testing centres on weekdays as far as possible and make bookings in advance. As with the previous round of compulsory testing, the FDHs who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine for 14 days are exempted from undergoing the test. Specifically, FDHs who have received the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination on May 16 or before could be exempted from testing. For those who received COVID-19 vaccines in places outside Hong Kong and have received all of the recommended doses on or before May 16, they will also be regarded to have completed the vaccination course of the relevant COVID-19 vaccine. The Government reminded exempted helpers to download their electronic vaccination records or save the printouts of their vaccination records to their mobile phones, or bring along the printouts or copies of their vaccination records to prove eligibility for exemption. This story has been published on: 2021-05-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. press release Two suspects between (47) and (50) were arrested by members of the Hawks Serious Corruption Investigation team together with Mpumalanga Crime Intelligence during a joint intelligence driven investigation. They allegedly impersonated officials from the Department of Health conducting a recruitment drive reaching out to gatherings like churches and other places where they could find youth in numbers. They promised them enrolment at the nursing Training College which would guarantee employment at the Department of Health. The bogus recruiters demanded money for enrolment from all the prospective nursing trainees. More than 75 unemployed youth paid the money into the suspect's accounts between 2016 and 2017 totalling to R610 000-00. After the victims based in Mpumalanga and other provinces paid the money, the suspects started telling them stories about the employment they were promised. The matter was reported to the team in 2018 and investigation revealed that the suspects were not the employees of any department. Two of the three bogus recruiters were arrested and the third is sought by the Hawks. The duo are expected to appear before the Bushbuckridge Magistrate Court on Tuesday 11 May 2021. press release The fourth accused in the Royal Bafokeng fraud case, Aaron Madada (43) was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years direct imprisonment by the Polokwane Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Monday, 10 May 2021. In July 2018, Madanda together with his three co-accused, Goci Nwabisa (32), Tshepo Daniel Sehlapelo (30) and Lefty Nkabe Makalela (44) approached an Absa bank official in Burgersfort posing as signatories of Royal Bafokeng Holdings. The group presented fraudulent identity documents and asked the bank employee to assist in opening an account to transfer over R500 million from Royal Bafokeng Holdings account into the new account. The official became suspicious and alerted the authorities, subsequently the accused were arrested by the Hawks' Serious Commercial Crime Investigation members. Nwabisa, Sehlapelo, and Makalela have since been convicted by the same court and each sentenced to 15 years direct imprisonment. Nwabisa and Sehlapelo were additionally sentenced to another 2 years direct imprisonment for contravention of Sec 18 (1) of the Identification Act 68, 1997. The sentences were ordered to run concurrently. Madanda's 5 years of the 15 year sentence will run concurrently with 8 years sentence that he is currently serving on another unrelated fraud. He was further declared unfit to possess a firearm. press release Investigating officer, Sergeant Galodikwe is lauded for this meticulous investigation which ensured justice is served and the perpetrators gets maximum sentence for the heinous crime they committed. On Friday, 07 May 2021, Mahikeng High Court sentenced Gopolang Abel Maoka (32) and Moleko Johannes Maoka (33) to life imprisonment for the murder of a 64-year-old man who was a relative to the accused. It was on 07 January 2017, when the accused took the victim to the veld in Seoding village near Pampierstad, bludgeoned him to death with a rock and robbed him of his two cell phones. Sergeant Mogomotsi Cecil Galodikwe was assigned to the case and promptly started with investigation that led him to the two accused who tried to claim insurance money on the victim's name. Further investigations led to the discovery of the victim's shoes which had drops of blood and DNA tests were conducted and positively linked the two to the crime. The duo was arrested and remanded in custody for duration of the trial. Both accused were found guilty on two counts and sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and 15 years for robbery. analysis In a rare show of solidarity, Chadians rejected the military junta endorsed by international partners. After the sudden death of Idriss Deby Itno on 20 April, the Transitional Military Council (TMC) led by his 37-year-old son, Lieutenant General Mahamat Idriss Deby took control of Chad. Arguing an exceptional security situation, the TMC immediately suspended the constitution and all republican institutions, promising to conduct an 18-month transition. Many Chadians rejected this unconstitutional takeover - despite it being welcomed by the international community. On 27 April, the public responded to calls for demonstrations by political parties and civil society organisations. A security force crackdown on the protests led to at least nine deaths, several dozen injuries and numerous arrests. These events cast doubt on the TMC's willingness to hold the inclusive dialogue needed to resolve the politico-military impasse brought on by 31 years of the late Deby's presidency. In a rare show of solidarity, opposition parties, civil society organisations and the country's main trade union rejected the TMC and called for talks that include armed groups. The Episcopal Conference of Chad has joined the appeal for a return to constitutional order. A group of dissident army generals has also reportedly taken a stand against the TMC. Key government appointments confirm the military's desire to perpetuate Deby's rule The social discontent and ensuing repression are a major blow to the TMC. It now faces more resistance, in addition to the Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) rebellion in which the former president was killed. On 11 April, FACT members launched an offensive that took them from the Libyan border to Chad's Kanem region, about 300 km from N'Djamena, covering nearly 500 km in one week. FACT eventually changed its position, under pressure from the Chadian army and an attempted mediation by Mauritania and Niger, Chad's partners in the G5 Sahel. However, the TMC - confident in its ability to defeat the rebellion militarily - rejected FACT's proposal for a political solution including all parties. Fighting resumed between Chad's army and the rebels in northern Kanem during the week of 26 April. The TMC ignored the dialogue called for by many sections of Chadian society and made key appointments, including that of Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke. On 2 May, Padacke chose a government which contains two important opposition parties but doesn't reflect the broad inclusion that the opposition and civil society wanted. These appointments confirm the military's desire to perpetuate the former president's rule - based on family, clan, army and political allies. Inclusive national dialogue in Chad is vital. While it is true that the late Deby's presidency brought relative stability to Chad, this was achieved through authoritarian, personal and militarised governance, which neglected diversifying the economy. Using an exorbitant defence budget, the late Deby secured power and diplomacy in the region The population hasn't benefited much from Chad's exploitation of oil since 2003. The third poorest country in the world, Chad is now ranked 187th out of 189 on the United Nations Human Development Index. Yet it has one of the highest defence budgets relative to GDP in Africa. The country's exorbitant defence budget helped secure the late Deby's power and enabled him to maintain a subtle military diplomacy in the region. The idea that Chad is indispensable for the security of the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin allowed Deby to overlook nation and state building and efforts to reduce inequality. This explains the embarrassment of some actors in the international community, notably France, who seem to see Chad only as a provider of soldiers for the fight against violent extremism in the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin - to the detriment of democracy and good governance. In Mali, the junta that took power in August 2020 was forced - notably through sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States - to talk with certain sectors of Malian society and set up an inclusive transition. By endorsing a coup, Chad's many partners show little regard for democratic principles when security interests are at stake. France supports the establishment of a military regime in Chad on the ashes of another one it endorsed for 31 years. The G5 Sahel countries, that depend on Franco-Chadian military arrangements, have also failed to condemn the military coup. The African Union was one of the few institutions to express concern about the TMC's establishment The African Union (AU), through its Peace and Security Council (PSC), was one of the few institutions to express concern about the TMC's establishment. It called for a rapid return to constitutional order. An AU fact-finding mission to Chad will submit recommendations to the PSC. However, divisions among PSC members about the way forward might force the AU to maintain a wait-and-see position. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Chad Governance Conflict By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The instability caused by Deby's sudden death shows that peace shouldn't depend on personalised power, embodied by a leader, regardless of how charismatic they may be. Without dialogue, political parties, civil society organisations and even a section of the army could radicalise and plunge Chad back into a new cycle of violence. The TMC seized power by bending constitutional rules. Using the region's security problems - the FACT rebellion and instability in the Lake Chad Basin and Sahel - doesn't justify this unconstitutional change of government. And the need for Chad to maintain its regional military commitments shouldn't allow the international community to turn a blind eye to the coup. The TMC must open up the government and listen to the Chadian population, which has long suffered at the hands of its leaders, rather than choosing them. Regional, continental and international diplomacy should support the military junta in this delicate exercise, which, if badly handled, could perpetuate instability in the country and the region. Paul-Simon Handy, Senior Regional Adviser and Remadji Hoinathy, Senior Researcher, ISS Dakar analysis With only a few exceptions, states have needed a minimum level of freedom and commitment to rule of law for sustained economic success. On 9 April, Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh won a fifth term in office with 97% of the vote. He effectively ran uncontested after the opposition decided to boycott the election, but the result had never been in doubt. Guelleh has led Djibouti since 1999 when he was selected to succeed his uncle, Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who had served as president since Djibouti gained independence from France in 1977. Guelleh's governments have scarcely tolerated dissent. Most recently, authorities brutally suppressed protests in June 2020 over the alleged torture of Fouad Youssouf Ali, a former air force pilot who had been repatriated from Ethiopia where he was reportedly seeking asylum. Civil and political rights are dismal, as Djibouti ranks 176 out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Border's 2020 World Press Freedom Index. In office, Guelleh has championed a Singapore development model like that of President Paul Kagame in Rwanda. Kagame's reverence for former Singaporean leader Lee Kuan Yew is well documented, but both leaders want to emulate Lee and turn their countries into the "Singapore of Africa". For Djibouti, certain parallels are obvious. Like Singapore, Djibouti's greatest asset is its location. Both countries rely on global trade and busy deepwater ports for economic success. And both are small, have relatively low populations, and few natural resources. These attributes require more creative and service-driven development strategies. One way Djibouti has leveraged its position is to rent out territory for other states to use for military bases. In his 2015 book, The Real Politics of the Horn of Africa, Alex de Waal calls this "security rentierism" and refers to Djibouti as "a Franco-American garrison with a small hinterland". Since then, Djibouti has gone even further. In 2017, it became home to China's first permanent overseas base. It also now hosts Japanese and Italian military facilities as well as German and Spanish troops. While not a particularly elegant approach, this strategy provides the government with considerable rents and has helped it oversee consistent if modest annual GDP growth for the past two decades. Djibouti's economy has received a more significant boost from Chinese investment, especially in large infrastructure projects. From 2012 to 2020, Chinese companies have invested about $14.4 billion in projects such as the $590 million multipurpose Doraleh Port, the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway, and a $4 billion gas pipeline that will transport natural gas from Ethiopia's Ogaden Basin to a Djibouti export terminal on the Red Sea. This investment has the potential to improve Djibouti's economic standing by cementing its position as a gateway to trade in Africa and as the continent's most vital port on the Indian Ocean. But so far, this has not happened and Guelleh's vision of a Singaporean development success story has not become a reality. "Not free" The Singapore development model is frequently misunderstood simply as an authoritarian government delivering national prosperity through rigid planning and a singular focus on economic development at the expense of democracy, human rights, and basic freedoms. Under Lee, Singapore was not a liberal country with strong civil and political freedoms. But nor was it as authoritarian as often imagined. The same holds true today. Singapore scored 50 out of 100 in Freedom House's 2020 Freedom in the World report, earning a "partly free" ranking. Djibouti scored 21 and a "not free" ranking. Leaders such as Guelleh fail to understand that, with only a few special exceptions, states require a minimum level of freedom, a commitment to the rule of law, and trusted government institutions to achieve sustained economic success. Lee recognised this fact. Singapore became an international business hub not just because of its location, but because its officials ensured there was almost no corruption and that the country enjoyed a strong legal system to facilitate trade and investment. Furthermore, political participation, while certainly not as robust as it could be, is still meaningful. Elections are legitimate and Lee's former People's Action Party faces a real political opposition that won nearly 40% of the popular vote in the 2020 election. And most importantly, Singapore's economic success has improved the lives of most Singaporeans, not just a handful of political and business elites. Contrast this to Djibouti, where corruption, including judicial corruption, remains a persistent problem. The most audacious example is the government's 2018 decision to seize the Doraleh Container Terminal from DP World, a Dubai-based company and one of the largest port operators in the world. Djibouti returned control of the terminal to China Merchant Port Holdings, a Chinese state-run conglomerate, following the seizure. The dispute then went to arbitration where the London Court of International Arbitration ruled that DP World's concession is legal and binding. It ordered the Djibouti government to restore it and pay $385 million in damages. Djibouti refused to do so and DP World is now seeking $210 million in additional damages. Moreover, despite significant Chinese investment in infrastructure, critics assert that only Djibouti's political elites benefit. Outward-looking projects, such as the Doraleh Port, have done little to improve local livelihoods, while national unemployment remains at 11.6% and more than 40% of Djiboutians live in extreme poverty. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Djibouti Business Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The strongest indication of Guelleh's failure to actualise his development vision is measuring where Djibouti stands today compared to when he came to power. In 2000, Djibouti ranked 149 out of 174 countries in the UNDP's Human Development Report. Two decades later, after billions of military base rent and Chinese investment, it ranks 166 out of 189 countries. In 2010, Djibouti's parliament unanimously voted to remove presidential term limits, allowing Guelleh to seek a third term. However, it also introduced a 75-year-old age limit for the presidency. Whether Guelleh, now 73, will act to overturn this limit and seek a sixth term is unknown. What is clear is that until Djibouti becomes more democratic and more people benefit from the government's development approach, his dream of transforming Djibouti into a Singapore of Africa will remain just that. John Hursh is a writer and researcher focusing on conflict and development in East Africa. He was Director of Research at the Stockton Center for International Law at the U.S. Naval War College from 2017 to 2020. Previously, he was Policy Analyst for the Enough Project, where he focused on Sudan. The minister at least once ordered the cancellation of an invitation for bids for a contract in favour of the incumbent contractor. Months before her suspension last week, the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Usman, repeatedly faced off with her supervisor, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, over the award of contracts, and Mr Amaechi at least once directed a procurement process be suspended in favour of an incumbent contractor, documents seen by PREMIUM TIMES have shown. The disagreements drew in the Bureau of Public Procurement, the Attorney General of the Federation and the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Gambari, who reported directives from the president to both parties and sought external advice to resolve the issues. Ms Usman was suspended from office Thursday amid allegations by the minister that the NPA failed to remit N165 billion to the federation account. She denied wrongdoing and argued that the agency paid the due amount as provided by the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Her disagreements with the minister are believed to have played a role in her suspension. Presidential spokesperson Garba Shehu announced that Mr Buhari had approved Mr Amaechi's recommendation to set up an administrative panel of inquiry to investigate Ms Usman's management of the NPA. While inaugurating the probe panel Monday, the minister made clear the focus of the investigation is contracts and not remittances to the government. The committee's terms of reference, he said, include examining and investigating the administrative policies and strategies adopted by Ms Usman, and confirming her compliance with relevant laws and rules from 2016 till date. "Examine and investigate issues leading to the termination of other contracts of NPA and confirm compliance with the terms of the respective contracts, court ruling and presidential directives," The News Agency of Nigeria quoted Mr Amaechi as saying. "Examine and investigate compliance with communication channel, as obtained in the public service. "Examine and investigate the procurement of contracts from 2016 to date. "Come up with suggestions and advice that would strengthen the operations of NPA and forestall such occurrences in future. "And any other matter that may be necessary in the course of the assignment." Addressing those criticising the probe, the minister said: "This is in the discharge of our responsibility as a ministry and I don't see why anybody is complaining. "What is wrong in looking at what is happening in NPA? I don't see what is wrong in that. As the Minister of Transportation for four years, I hardly know what is happening and I want to know now. "The president agrees with me that it's my responsibility as minister to find out what is going on. "It worries me that people are saying we should not ask questions. Nobody has been indicted." The NPA Dredging Contract Details seen by PREMIUM TIMES show that in one of the controversial contracts, the NPA had written the Bureau of Public Procurement, requesting to adopt a selective tender method for the engagement of nine dredging companies for the management of Port Access Channels across Lagos Pilotage, Bonny Pilotage, Warri and Excravos Pilotage Districts. This newspaper understands that the value of the contract is N65 billion, with the Lagos channel contract valued at N31billion and the Bonny channel valued at N34 billion. The NPA claimed its resolve to adopt selective tendering was due to the specialised nature of the service. It added that the subsisting contract with the Lagos Port Channel Management Company Joint Venture and the Bonny Channel Company were due to expire in December 2019 and June 2020, respectively. The move was approved by the Bureau of Public Procurement. The minister, however, expressed concerns with the process and ordered it be cancelled and that the contractor be given a one-year extension. The minister said his directive was based on an advisory by the Bureau of Public Procurements to MDAs to suspend non-essential contracts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms Usman said in her memo that Mr Amaechi had complained about his ministry not being "carried along" in the process and had raised concerns about budgetary provisions for the contracts. "You may please recall that in the course of the conversation, you also stated that the Federal Ministry of Transportation was not carried along before the advertisements went public contrary to an earlier Ministerial directive and expressed concern over budgetary provisions and the possible impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the procurement exercise," she wrote in her letter to Mr Amaechi May 18, 2020. Ms Usman argued that the subsisting contractors had been engaged for 15 years and that their contract was due to expire in August 2020. Ms Usman added that a charge made by the minister that the transport ministry was not "carried along" before the advertisement was made public by the NPA was corrected in a letter dated May 6. The NPA boss explained further that concerns raised on budgetary constraints were not applicable to channel dredging which is central to the statutory responsibility of the ports and for which appropriate provisions had been made in the 2020 budget. On COVID-19 concern raised by Mr Amaechi, Ms Usman said that would not affect the tender process because provisions had been made for courier submission and all were being done in line with the procurement law. She concluded that if not satisfied with the facts presented by the NPA, Mr Amaechi should formally authorise the NPA to cancel the advertisement and extend the subsisting contract by an additional year. In a letter dated June 2, 2020, the Ministry of Transport directed the NPA to withdraw the advertisement for the expression of interest for the dredging contract. The letter, signed by Pius Oteh, Director of Legal Services, said the ministry came to the conclusion after Mr Amaechi's review of the NPA's letter to that effect. The ministry also directed that the subsisting contracts be extended by one year. The transport ministry said its decision was made "in the overriding public interest" and the consequence of limited business environment caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic which could create a non-competitive procurement environment. The ministry thereafter referenced a circular by the BPP which directed that all non-essential procurement processes that would not affect the activities of government be suspended in the light of the COVID-19 disruption. The NPA complied with the minister's directive and cancelled the procurement process. But the BPP, whose memo Mr Amaechi had referenced as the basis for his directive, strongly criticised the ministry and the NPA. BPP Rebukes NPA, Ministry In a letter dated June 18, 2020, the BPP argued that contrary to reservations raised about COVID-19, there were some activities of government that should not be delayed. "Nevertheless," it said, "it is the responsibility of the BPP and not the FMT (Federal Ministry of Transportation) to approve the cancellation of a procurement process." The bureau warned that the NPA cannot unilaterally extend the tenures of engagement of the subsisting contractors without recourse to the public procurement act and directed the NPA to follow due process. More importantly, the BPP wondered why the Ministry of Transport and the NPA decided to backtrack and cancel the advertisement of a contract it considered central to the operations of the NPA. "Without any prejudice to the Bureau's observation, the NPA, as the procurement entity, has the responsibility to decide whether or not this procurement is essential to their operations," the BPP argued. "Considering that these contracts have subsisted since 2005 i.e for about fifteen (15) years, it may not be in the best interest of Government to keep them any longer than necessary. As a matter of fact, the Bureau is concerned that the government is presently left at the mercy of the subsisting contractors without valid contracts." The Bureau thereafter directed that rather than cancel the advertisement for tender, it can allow an extension of six months to enable the NPA to carry out an International Bidding Process. It added that if the NPA is thereafter convinced that the cancellation is in the best interest of the public, it can cancel it. Where the procurement is deemed as an essential service, the BPP advised that the NPA should forward all essential documents to it and make provision for prospective bidders to take advantage of courier services. It added that in line with Covid-19 guidelines, bidders are not expected to be present during the bidding ceremony. PREMIUM TIMES learnt that based on the BPP letter, the NPA readvertised the contracts and proceeded with the procurement process. It informed the transportation ministry of that decision. The ministry then indicated an interest in playing a role in the evaluation of the bids submitted by contractors, in what is clearly an unusual situation. The NPA agreed, although the process should have been for the ministry to await submissions by the NPA since it has to grant approval before the bids are forwarded to the BPE and the Federal Executive Council. The bid evaluation session was held in late April, but the NPA was yet to complete the tender process for onward submission to the ministry when Ms Usman was suspended from office. Meanwhile, after the NPA resumed the procurement process, Mr Amaechi's ministry again wrote to the NPA directing it to suspend the tender process. He said instead, the agency should procure equipment and undertake the dredging itself. Ms Usman then wrote to the president lamenting that the ministry's directive was "another way of frustrating the conclusion the transparent process the Authority is conducting in line with the Public Procurement Act". She pleaded with the president to okay the continuation of the procurement process and approve NPA's decision not to procure equipment for channel management as it does not have the skill set required to operate and maintain them. The battle over INTELS contract Aside from the disagreements over dredging contracts, documents seen by this newspaper also showed that both parties clashed over the contractual relationship between the NPA and Intels, a logistics firm. PREMIUM TIMES reported the long-running disagreement between the NPA and Intels, leading to the termination of a boat operation contract being handled by the firm due to failure to comply with the Treasury Single Account directive of the Nigerian government in September 2020. At the height of the crisis, the ministry of transport requested the president to direct the NPA to lift all orders against Intels, which has executed several contracts with the NPA for decades. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In a letter the ministry sent to the NPA, it directed the restoration of all contracts between the NPA and Intels, either suspended or purportedly terminated by the NPA. The letter, dated February 17 2021, refers to its earlier letter conveying a presidential approval to that effect. The president, through the Chief of Staff, thereafter requested the NPA to provide details of its contractual obligations with the logistic giant. The NPA in a letter seen by PREMIUM TIMES, dated January 25, 2021, said the boat contract with Intels reached the end of its contractual period in August 2020 after the firm complied with the TSA directive. It went further to explain that in preparation for the expiration of the contract, NPA initiated a public tender process for the contract. Consequently, Intels and other bidders submitted bids for the tender but the company (Intels) allegedly violated one of the criteria for the tender process and was disqualified. The NPA said the tender process proceeded and the companies with the highest score were prequalified and the result of the tender process sent to the Ministry of Transport for onward transmission to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for consideration. However, the NPA said nothing was heard from the ministry about the tender process yet the nation continued to lose revenue due to the failure to complete the tender process. The NPA also disclosed that having lost out of the tender process, Intels initiated a court action against the NPA citing one of the debts owed one of its sister companies. The NPA argued that this was wrong as both contracts were not linked to one another. Aside from the boat contract, the NPA listed other contractual agreements it had with the logistics firm. In addition to the explanation by the NPA, the president also requested the Attorney-General and the BPP to provide legal advice. In its intervention, the BPP expressed worry over the need to avoid a situation where contractors obtain contracts from government through the courts, rather than through the procurement process. The BPP argued in support of positions canvassed by Ms Usman and the NPA. "The correct procedure is that contracts should be won through a proper procurement process that complies with the provision of the PPA, 2007," the bureau said. "Furthermore, there is need to avoid the kind of monopoly enjoyed by Messrs Intels which has cascaded into the entitlement mentality being demonstrated by the firm." The BPP warned further that monopoly will result in higher prices and erosion of value for money, advising the president to inform the attorney-general to avoid litigation. PREMIUM TIMES reported how dozens of police officers and other security operatives were killed in the past few weeks in the South-east and South-south regions. President Muhammadu Buhari has approved new security measures for the South-east and South-south regions, which have recently witnessed attacks on security officials and facilities. This was disclosed by the acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, after a security meeting in Abuja presided over by the president. Mr Baba briefed journalists alongside the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; and the Chief of Defence Staff, Lucky Irabor. He, however, refused to disclose the new measures, saying a decision was reached at the meeting not to, henceforth, publicise measures to be deployed to tackle insecurity in the country. Mr Monguno said the meeting stressed the need to address the security challenges in the country particularly those that have arisen in the last few months. PREMIUM TIMES reported how dozens of police officers and other security operatives were killed in the past few weeks in the South-east and South-south regions. The government has blamed an outlawed secessionist group, IPOB, for the attacks but the group has denied responsibility for them. Details later... Senditoo Co-founder Takwana Tyaranini and his team are taking over several shows on Star FM, after acquiring presentation rights on the popular Zimbabwean radio station. The move is part of the international money transfer company's communications strategy, as they expand their brand presence in the country and within Africa. They will produce and host several live shows, including Tilder Live, The Breeze with Mai Juda and the Breakout with Olla7. Senditoo has grown in the last five years, starting with airtime transfers before extending its service offer to include money remittances and enabling customers to also pay their bills. "This new partnership with Star FM demonstrates our commitment to establishing a strong presence in Zimbabwe that goes beyond the existing business model," Tyaranini said. Tyaranini said that the partnership, the first of its kind, is a significant step for Senditoo and added that he is delighted to be working with some of the most respected radio personalities and producers to develop a series of entertaining and educational shows. "We have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to create a robust communications initiative that will not only allow Senditoo to reach a wider audience but will also create opportunities for both entities to grow through this collaboration." "Star FM already has a large audience both locally and internationally. The vast digital and podcast opportunities will deliver the brand visibility and recognition we need for our growing business and we look forward to sharing the work we are doing in the weeks and months ahead." President Muhammadu Buhari has endorsed new security measures to tackle the challenges of insecurity in the South East and South-South geo-political zones of the country. The Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, announced this Tuesday while briefing State House reporters after the National Security Council meeting presided over by President Buhari in the presidential villa, Abuja. Baba, however, did not disclose details of the new security measures apparently based on the reason announced by the National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Major-General Babagana Monguno, that operational strategies must now be kept secret. While briefing and fielding questions, Monguno said the meeting also approved a memo he presented on the control of drugs, which, he said, are enablers of insecurity without providing details. The NSA said the meeting underscored the need to address the security challenges in the country particularly those that have arisen in the last few months. There have been constant attacks on security operatives and public infrastructures in the South East and South-South in the past weeks with many security personnel killed and many police stations destroyed. The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, is being blamed for the attacks. The funding which will be allocated to humanitarian projects in eight beneficiary countries. The European Union (EU) says it is committed to assisting vulnerable people in countries in the Sahel and Central Africa with a humanitarian aid of 210 million euros in 2021. The EU made this known in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by Modestus Chukwulaka, the spokesman for the EU Delegation to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). According to the EU, the funding which will be allocated to humanitarian projects in eight beneficiary countries, is a reaffirmation of its solidarity with Africa and the beneficiary countries. The eight countries to benefit from the aid are Burkina Faso (24.3 million euros), Cameroon (17.5 million euros), the Central African Republic (21.5 million euros), Chad (35.5 million euros) Mali (31.9 million euros), Mauritania (10 million euros), Niger (32.3 million euros) and Nigeria (37 million euros). "The life of many in the Sahel and Central Africa countries continues to be disrupted by conflict, poverty, climatic changes, recurrent food crises, or a combination of all. "It is estimated that there are more than 35 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in the eight priority countries covered by the EU's 2021 Humanitarian Implementation Plan for West and Central Africa. "The major humanitarian needs relate to shelter, emergency food aid, access to health care and clean water, treatment for malnourished children, and protection for the vulnerable," it said. The statement continued: "Against this backdrop, the coronavirus pandemic is posing additional challenges, both concerning the pressure on already fragile health systems and also the effects of the containment measures on vulnerable people's access to food and livelihoods. "At the same time, humanitarian actors are facing the combined challenges of delivering humanitarian assistance in an increasingly insecure context, where access is further restricted due to the pandemic." The statement noted that worsening instability and armed conflicts, together with the COVID-19 pandemic and natural hazards, were having a devastating impact in the Sahel and countries in Central Africa. It quoted the EU Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarcic, as saying, "The EU remains committed to help reduce suffering among people in need in the region. "The EU's humanitarian funding in the Sahel and Central African countries is targeted to provide life-saving assistance to the people affected by conflict and to the communities hosting people who had to flee. "While humanitarian aid is there to bring emergency relief, longer-lasting improvements can only be brought about through the political will of national governments and good governance." It further said the humanitarian aid was to also provide protection to vulnerable people and support the respect of International Humanitarian Law and the humanitarian principles. The aim of the aid, it said, was to support measures to address food crises and severe acute malnutrition among children under five in the subregion. The assistance, it said, also aimed to enhance the immediate response in terms of basic services to most vulnerable population, especially concerning healthcare for all or education for children caught up in humanitarian crises. Intervention The EU intervention also aimed to strengthen fragile communities' preparedness for crises, such as mass displacements of people, or recurrent food or climate-related crises, the statement added. "This assistance is part of the wider EU support provided to the region, including through the Team Europe contributions to the Coronavirus Global Response. "It is also part of EU's support to the vaccine distribution effort through the COVAX Facility, and other actions providing longer-term support to strengthen fragile health systems," the statement further said. It recalled that, as part of the EU's Coronavirus Global Response and its target to make COVID-19 vaccines a global public good, Team Europe had earlier provided 2.2 billion euros to the COVAX Facility. "The COVAX Facility is supporting the delivery of 1.3 billion doses of vaccines to 92 low and middle-income countries by the end of 2021 and has recently decided that up to 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be made available for use in humanitarian contexts," it said. The statement also recalled that in 2020, the EU supported humanitarian interventions in the region with more than 213 million euros. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Conflict Aid and Assistance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. It added that the European Commission had also provided 100 million euros in humanitarian assistance to support the rollout of vaccination campaigns in countries in Africa with critical humanitarian needs and fragile health systems. The EU is a leading, long-standing humanitarian donor in the Sahel and Central Africa, one of the world's poorest and most fragile regions, it said. '19 million persons benefited' "More than 19 million people in need benefitted from EU- funded humanitarian operations initiated in 2020 in West and Central Africa. "These included around 6.3 million people who were provided with food security and livelihood support; more than 3 million people assisted on disaster preparedness and risk reduction; around 2.8 million people offered access to health services; and almost 1.8 million people receiving protection support. "In order to support longer-term achievements, the EU is working to build effective synergies between humanitarian, development and peace initiatives," the statement added. (NAN) analysis Around the world, the use of social media continues to grow and to influence commerce. It offers great benefits for marketing businesses. African businesses, too, could gain from the features and popularity of these platforms, though social media use varies widely between regions of the continent. The estimates for 2021 are that 45% of the population in northern Africa use social media, 8% in central Africa, 10% in eastern Africa, 16% in western Africa and 41% in southern Africa. Facebook is the most popular platform in Africa, with 58.74% of social media users. It's followed by YouTube with 23.01% of users and Twitter with 11.75% of users. The internet economy - which refers to businesses performed through the worldwide web or internet markets - is estimated to contribute close to $115 billion or about 4.5% of the continent's total gross domestic product. It is projected to reach $180 billion or 5.2% of GDP by 2025 and $712 billion by 2050. Some of the reasons for using social media in business relate to its low cost, higher level of communication efficiency and a shift towards a consumer driven environment. But the level of interest in Africa, especially among small scale business owners, is less well understood and evidence is relatively scarce. Small and medium sized businesses play an important role in the economy of Africa. More than 90% of businesses are in this sector, which employs close to 60% of the continent's workers. In a study in southwest Nigeria, I explored the experiences of small scale craft workers using social media platforms for business. These business owners spoke about the benefits, risks and obstacles involved in using social media. They shed light on what gaps need to be filled before the full potential of social media in commerce can be achieved in Nigeria. Craft workers on social media I chose 170 craft workers, including dressmakers, goldsmiths, interior decorators, caterers, hair dressers and barbers in the city of Ado Ekiti. Through questionnaires and interviews I sought to gauge their understanding and perception of social media. Over half (55.6%) of the respondents were women; 68% were between the ages of 20 and 29; and 54.1% had tertiary education. Asked about which social media they were comfortable with, 46% named Facebook, 27.8% WhatsApp, 16.7% Twitter and 9.5% BlackBerry messenger. Respondents said social media was relevant to business performance. They believed it had improved their business sales and enabled them to communicate with clients. But they felt that it would not improve their business performance on its own. And the number of respondents who actually used it for business purposes was small. They tended to use it for advertising but not for transacting business. While many of the respondents used the platforms when they first started their business, maintaining the tempo became difficult. Recounting the benefits of using the platforms, most respondents claimed they had met new clients far away from their immediate environment and they had been able to showcase their products online, thus saving the cost of physical showrooms for marketing their wares. Some of the participants did not see a use for the platforms beyond showing pictures of what they made or did. And there was a lack of consistency in the use of the platforms - respondents stopped using them or used them only once in a while or when clients asked to transact that way. One participant mentioned the risk of online fraud. Others said social media was expensive, unsafe and restrictive due to connectivity issues. Connectivity issues refer to the ability to get quality and fast internet for business purposes. In the localities of these entrepreneurs, internet speed and quality were bad. Transacting business through social media platforms thus become challenging. Many felt the policy makers and others had not done enough to create a conducive atmosphere for using social media in business transactions. Small business owners in the study appeared to be getting little from what the digital economy has to offer. Connectivity issues and maintenance costs, limited understanding of the use of social media for business growth and internet security all restricted the use of platforms among the study participants. These issues put together show the gaps that government and others need to fill to provide the infrastructure for small scale entrepreneurs in Nigeria. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Business By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Training, security and costs Training and skill acquisition programmes at all levels are essential to impart the full value of social media in business to users. The issue of internet security needs proper attention. Service providers may need to create cost effective and user friendly services for small business owners. All hands must therefore be on deck to ensure that the right atmosphere is created for small business owners, who make up a great part of Africa's business base. Babatunde J. Omotosho, Professor of Sociology, Federal University, Oye Ekiti Boko Haram insurgents have set some houses on fire in Maiduguri, Borno State capital. There are sounds of gunshots and explosion in different parts of the city, especially around Jiddari Polo area. Daily Trust reports that there is a gun battle between troops and suspected insurgents around Molai and Jiddari in the state capital. Residents are currently fleeing in different directions amid the confusion in the city. "At least 3 loud explosions were heard in Maiduguri. Heavy shooting ongoing now, civilian are fleeing their homes running towards Damboa and old GRA," a security source said. A resident who spoke with Daily Trust over the phone said he was trapped as a result of the situation. "I am currently trapped. I can't go home now. Can you hear the sounds of gunshot from this background?" he said. The insurgents struck when Muslim faithful were about to break their Ramadan fast. The military later repelled the attack but the extent of damages could not be ascertained as of the time if filing this report. The 17 governors in the Southern part of the country, under the aegis of the Southern Nigeria Governors Forum, have resolved that open grazing of cattle be banned across Southern Nigeria. The Forum also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately convoke a national parley on restructuring and address the nation over the worsening state of insecurity across the country. Moreover, the governors expressed very grave concern "on the security challenge currently plaguing the nation and strongly urged President Buhari to address Nigerians on the challenges of insecurity and restore the confidence of our people." Rising from their meeting at Government House, Asaba Tuesday, the Southern Governors Forum observed that the incursion of armed herders, criminals and bandits into the Southern part of the country had presented a severe security challenge. In a communique jointly signed by 15 governors present at the over four hours crucial meeting, the governors reviewed the situation in the nation, focusing on the current security situation and noted that the "citizens are not able to live their normal lives including pursuing various productive activities leading to a threat to food supply and general security." They noted that the development and population growth have put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local populations in the South. "Given this scenario, it becomes imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the South (including cattle movement to the South by foot)", the forum restated. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs Land and Rural Issues By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The Southern Nigeria Governors Forum presided by Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, Governor of Ondo State, rather recommended that the federal government should support "WILLING" States to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems. The governors affirmed that the people of Southern Nigeria remain committed to the unity of Nigeria but on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness and peaceful co-existence between and among its peoples with a focus on the attainment of shared goals for economic development and prosperity. "The forum also recommended that the federal government should convoke a national dialogue as a matter of urgency in view of widespread agitations among our various people for greater inclusiveness in existing governance arrangements. "Review of revenue allocation formula in favour of the sub-national governments and creation of other institutions which legitimately advance our commitment to and practice of true federalism", the governors parley proffered. "In deference to the sensitivities of our various people, there is a need to review appointments into Federal Government Agencies (including Security Agencies) to reflect the federal character as Nigeria's overall population is heterogenous," the governors noted. A former Kaduna Central Senator, Comrade Shehu Sani, has said that the current insecurity situation in the country, particularly in the North East, was fueled by economic hardship among the masses. Shehu Sani was reacting to the recent incessant attacks by Boko Haram terrorists in the North East and other parts of the country. Lamenting the problems on his Twitter handle on Tuesday, the former lawmaker expressed worries over the new policy of the Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists of distributing money to the residents of the towns they attacked in Yobe and Borno states. "Last month, Boko Harama terrorists distributed 20k to the residents of the town they attacked; And now ISWAP terrorists are distributing foodstuffs to some communities in Yobe & Borno; The lesson here is that chronic economic issues fuels terrorism in the North East of our country. "When the terrorists kills the poor, the terrorists are the evil; When the terrorists feeds the poor, the Government is the evil," Shehu Sani added in another tweet. Last month,Boko terrorists distributed 20k to the residents of the town they attacked;And now ISWAP terrorists are distributing foodstuffs to some communities in Yobe & Borno; The lesson here is that chronic economic issues fuels terrorism in the North East of our country. -- Senator Shehu Sani (@ShehuSani) May 11, 2021 A former governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha (APC, Imo), has said over 75% of Nigerian citizens are angry at the turn of events in the country. Okorocha stated this in Abuja when he hosted the Ona of Abaji and dozens of other Muslim faithful, including the physically challenged, to break Ramadan fast on Monday evening. He said that nothing useful can come out of a country with so much bitterness and anger. "You can't solve a problem unless you know the causative factor. "The cause of our Nigerian problem lies in injustice and poverty and the quicker government moves to address the issue of injustice, the better it is for our nation to reduce the level of anger on the nation," he said. Okorocha said the twin factors of injustice and poverty were responsible for the current level of insecurity in Nigeria. The APC Senator said if the government hopes to reduce the level of anger in the country, it must begin to tackle every sense of injustice and do all that is possible to make the people happy. 'Military approach not enough' Okorocha urged the federal government to change its approach at addressing the country's acute insecurity, saying military onslaught only against insurgents and bandits is rather worsening the situation. The lawmaker, therefore, advised the government to engage people in dialogue and establish a national security council at the grassroots. "The Nigerian government must change its style. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "It appears that the old style of force and ordering of military equipment to fight the insurgency war has not helped us. It is even increasing rather in geometric progression despite the efforts of the government. "So, the government must change its style. This is a time to start making more engagement and we should declare our national security council in various rural areas. "People should be encouraged, engaged in discussion and come up with the lasting solution to the problems," he said. 'Blame game not solution' Okorocha said abuses and anger will not help solve the problem. He said what the country needs to find is a new approach to the situation that will replace anger with love. "This is not a period to play blame games, make abuses or criticisms because that has not helped us. "If abuses and anger can solve the problems, they would have helped this nation by now. "So, we have to change our style as a nation and imbibe the spirit of brotherhood, prayers and love," Okorocha said. A meeting of the governors of the 17 Southern States of Nigeria was on Tuesday held in Asaba, the Delta State capital, with a resolution to ban all forms of open grazing in the southern states of the country. Although, the governors came short of calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to reshuffle his cabinent and military chiefs to reflect the federal character against the backdrop of the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural nature of Nigeria, they urged the President to ensure that the sensibilities of the people were respected and reflected in federal appointments. These were among the resolutions taken at the end of the over four-hour closed-door meeting and captured in a communique read out to newsmen by the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN). While affirming the commitment of the peoples of Southern Nigeria to "the unity of the country on the basis of fairness, equity and oneness", the governors expressed grave concern about the security challenge plaguing the country and charged Mr President to act decisively to address the situation. Specifically, the governors of the sounthern states called on President Muhammadu Buhari to convoke a national conference to address the insecurity and other challenges in order to restore the confidence of the citizenry in the Nigerian geo-political entity. The communique said that the 17 governors "observed that incursion of armed herders, criminals and bandits into the Southern part of of the country has presented a severe security challenge such that citizens are not able to live their normal lives including pursuing various productive activities leading to a threat to food supply and general security. "Consequently, the meeting resolved that open grazing of cattle be banned across Southern Nigeria." Similarly, the southern governors "noted that development and population growth has put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local populations in the South. "Given the scenario, it becomes imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the South (including cattle movement to the South by foot)." They recommended "that the Federal Government should support willing states to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems." The governors of Southern Nigeria also "recommended that in view of the widespread agitations among our various peoples for greater inclusiveness in existing governance arrangements, the Federal Government should convoke a national dialogue as a matter of urgency. They f"urther recommended that in reference to the sensitivities of our our various peoples, there is need to review appointments into Federal Government Agencies (including Security Agencies to reflect federal character as Nigeria's overall population is heterogeneous." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. All but two of the 17 member-states of the forum, namely Ben Ayade of Cross River and Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun states, participated in the meeting. The governors of two of the states, Imo and Akwa Ibom, Hope Uzodimma and Udom Emmanuel, respectively, were represented by their deputy governors. Host governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, was joined at the meeting by the governors of Ondo and acting chairman of the group, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), Nyesom Wike of Rivers, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Godwin Obaseki of Edo and Senator Douye Diri of Bayelsa states. Other governors at the meeting were Seyi Makinde of Oyo, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Dave Umahi of Ebonyi, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, and Willie Obiano of Ananbra. The federal government has said that there are no new restrictions over COVID-19, rather it reviewed the country's response in light of the rising trend in several countries and the high risk of a surge in cases in Africa. Recall that on May 4, 2021, the Presidential Steering Committee (PSC) on COVID-19 took a precautionary step by restricting travel to Nigeria from three countries - Brazil, India and Turkey - where there is a high incidence of cases, high fatality rate and widespread prevalence of variants of concern. Additionally, the PSC continued to reinforce the surveillance system at the country's points of entry. The minister of information and culture, Alh. Lai Mohammed, who clarified the stance of the PSC during a meeting with online newspaper publishers in Lagos on Tuesday, said the committee only reintroduced some restrictions on movement and social interactions in the phase four of restrictions. Mohammed said even when the government earlier eased the restrictions on COVID-19, the curfew between 12am and 4 am was still in place. He, however, decried the situation where some Nigerians are behaving as if COVID-19 has gone and gone forever. According to him, "But Nigerians are behaving as if COVID-19 has gone and gone forever, this is the mistake. "India thought they conquered COVID-19 and political campaigns started, festivals started and to compound matters for them, the new variants of COVID appeared. They are now having 400,000 cases per day and 3,000 to 4,000 deaths daily. "There are no new restrictions on COVID-19. The PSC was only reported out of context. The PSC on COVID-19 only introduced the fourth phase of ease of restriction and what we did was reviving the extant regulations on ground. "Even when we eased the restrictions, the curfew between 12am and 4am is still on," the minister stressed. He noted that every three months, PSC reviews the country's response to COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, "Every three months PSC do review where we are and where we are going and the only new thing we introduced is travel restraint. If you are coming from Brazil, Turkey, and India as a Nigerian you must go for compulsory quarantine. "Nothing has changed, we have not opened nightclubs or gyms. The regulation on the use of face masks and social distancing is still in place. But nobody obeys it." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He said that Nigerians have been very fortunate even amidst the fact that Nigerians are indifferent about using a face mask. "We we don't have health infrastructure to handle 3,000 cases a day. How many bed spaces do we have in Lagos?" he asked, adding that if it is the recklessness and abandonment, the nation would have lost more lives. "The COVID-19 protocol is still in place but people have resumed 'owambe' parties now. Political rallies and so on which is a 'super spreader' for COVID-19. "So there's are no new restrictions you can still travel by roads or by air. Please ensure you put on your face mask. If you have a party make sure it is less than 50 people. This is just what we have reiterated no new restrictions at all," he added. RELATED: As 4th Wave Concerns Rise A $100million multipurpose terminal has begun operation and has hereby handled its first container vessel at Onne Port, Rivers State. According to analysts, the multi-purpose terminal will thereby double Eastern Nigeria's modern container handling capacity and providing a catalyst to the region's economic growth. Recall that a vessel, MSC Floriana belonging to Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), berthed at OMT located at Berths 9-11 at Federal Ocean Terminal, Onne Port offloading 1, 297 containers. The second vessel to berth on the heels of MSC Floriana, was Pacific International Line's with 3900TEU capacity Kota Sejarah. To spur Onne's growth as a major multipurpose port, OMT plans to invest in further container handling equipment, IT, oil and gas and other general cargo handling equipment, warehouses, workshops, better access roads and modern health and safety facilities and processes. Speaking on the development, in major infrastructure works as well as investments in additional and bigger equipment. He said, "These are just the first steps. We are bullish on the long-term prospects for the Nigerian economy and we are ready to invest significant funds in OMT. To-date, ICTSI has invested USD35 million in state-of-the-art equipment, IT systems and personnel training. The next step," he elaborated, "will be major infrastructure works as well as investments in additional and bigger equipment totalling USD100 million. We will progressively align OMT's facilities and service capacity to the needs of the diverse customer base the terminal is intended to serve." Also speaking, managing director, OMT, Jacob Gulmann, said OMT is bringing the the berth back to life many years after lying unused. "It has been a pleasure to work with the Nigerian Ports Authority to realize this project. Berths 9-11 had been languishing, lying virtually unused for the last decade. RELATED: Onne Port: No Cargo Spends 48 Hours After Landing - Customs Heavy shootings were heard at about 6 p.m. at the outskirts of Jiddari Polo neighbourhood of Maiduguri. Troops of the Nigerian military have repelled a Tuesday evening attack on Maiduguri by suspected Boko Haram insurgents. Heavy shootings were heard at about 6 p.m. when the insurgents attacked the outskirts of Jiddari Polo neighbourhood of Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State. The attack was the first since Muslims commenced the Ramadan fast 29 days ago. Residents living in the neighbourhood were seen fleeing into the city centre as soldiers engaged the attackers. The shooting ,which involved firing of artilleries, rent the air for about an hour before it subsided. Soldiers were earlier seen trooping towards the direction of the shooting in convoys followed by a military ambulance. An officer at the 7 Division, Nigeria army confirmed the attack in a text message sent in response to journalists' request, saying "troops are already there and responding." The extent of the damage is yet unknown even as unconfirmed sources said some houses were burnt. Military helicopters were also seen hovering over the area of the attack. analysis There are two widely available views of Nelson Mandela, the first post-apartheid president of South Africa. The first is a reverential and uncritical celebration of his life and achievements. It resonated in the obituaries and eulogies when Mandela died in December 2013. Madiba (his clan name) was "sent by God", said Irish newspaper magnate Tony O'Reilly, who's said to have been a friend of Mandela's. His purchase of South Africa's then largest newspaper company, Argus Newspapers, was made possible by Mandela's support. Former American president Barack Obama declared that Mandela changed the arc of history, transforming his country, the continent and the world. A second prevailing view is hostile and dismissive. By 2015, a reputation that had appeared invincible was being shredded in some media outlets, on the streets and especially on university campuses across South Africa. The critique centred on the 1994 negotiated settlement that ended apartheid. It accused Mandela of betraying the black majority to appease the economically powerful white minority. Both narratives - Mandela as secular saint or Mandela as sellout - are poor history. The suggestion that Mandela single-handedly achieved democracy is as intellectually threadbare as its mirror image: that he was responsible for the failure to transform social and economic relations after 1994. Our edited collection, Reassessing Mandela, provides a scholarly counterweight to the two polarised positions. It attempts to begin the task of revisiting the canonical biographies, rethinking aspects of Mandela's life and his politics, and evaluating how he is and should be remembered. Reassessing Mandela The first aspect of Mandela's life reassessed in the book is his family and its background, his childhood and youth, and his Thembu lineage. Two chapters - by the late Phil Bonner and by Xolela Mangcu - complement one another in intriguing ways. Both historians remind us that Mandela's 1994 autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, is an unreliable text. Some of its flaws are replicated in the work of others. Bonner's archivally based chapter corrects some of the shaky chronology in Long Walk. It identifies Mandela's father Gadla Mandela as "a significant if little recognised historical figure" but shows that Mandela's own account of his father defying the white magistrate cannot be read as history. Mangcu's chapter challenges Mandela's own account of his descent. He locates him within a history of the Thembu royal house's "pragmatic co-operation" with colonial rule. Mandela did not mention this. Mangcu emphasises the history of "African political modernity" in the Transkei, a territory comprising a number of African kingdoms and chiefdoms annexed in the 19th century. He also considers Gadla's role in the local administrative body (Bungha), where he is portrayed as resisting both missionary influence and colonial regulations. Bonner and Mangcu underline the complexity of "indirect rule" in the Transkei. They correct the tendency to discuss Mandela's early years through a lens of rural nostalgia. Mandela's political activism A second broad area of reassessment emerges from three chapters which consider Mandela's relationship with the South African Communist Party (SACP), his activism and especially his leadership in underground politics. Tom Lodge produces a fine-grained account of Mandela's "association with South Africa's communist left". His is a study of friendships and social networks, of left-wing readings and writings, and of political alliances and tactics. Paul Landau's chapter focuses on the period between the 1960 Sharpeville massacre of black protesters by apartheid police, and Mandela's arrest in August 1962. It traces the efforts to implement the M-Plan - a template for an underground structure of the liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC). Mandela and a small group of like-minded colleagues sought to use the plan to transform the ANC into a militant vanguard movement willing to employ violence against the state. Thula Simpson's chapter reconsiders Mandela's role as commander-in-chief of umKhonto we Sizwe, (an armed wing set up by the ANC and SACP). He suggests that its campaign of urban sabotage was more effective than generally acknowledged. Three other chapters cast new light on different aspects of Mandela's life: his marriage to Winnie Madikizela-Mandela; his years in jail on Robben Island, and his role in the human rights discourse that shaped South Africa's new constitution. Shireen Hassim provides a compelling rereading of one of the most iconic political marriages in history. First, she establishes Mandela's wife Winnie's own political career and significance. She says it offered "a form of intimate political leadership" to young activists. Secondly, she explores the complex relationship between Winnie's political trajectory and Nelson's, and how a widening political divide accompanied the breakdown of the marriage. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Governance Books By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Martha Evans examines four visits by journalists to Robben Island between 1964 and 1977, their interactions with Mandela and their published accounts. She discusses Mandela's capacity to capitalise on brief contacts from an apparent position of weakness, and shows how incarceration enhanced his iconic status. Recalibrating Mandela These chapters are book-ended by Colin Bundy's introduction and Elleke Boehmer's postscript. Boehmer explores how memories of Mandela are constructed and contested, and what fresh interpretations can teach us. This collection treats Mandela not as an individual miracle-maker or traitor to the cause of transformation. It shows him as one political actor, alongside a multitude of others, within complex political and social forces. It suggests that scholarship on Mandela will continue to explore and explain his politics and his ability to assert leadership. It will also continue to explore the contradictions and continuities of his personal makeup, and his determination over decades to bring people together. All this, while negotiating the corrugated terrain of race and identity in South Africa. Colin Bundy, Honorary Fellow of Green Templeton College, University of Oxford and William Beinart, Professor, University of Oxford analysis Ethiopians will vote in June to elect a new parliament. But electoral registration is patchy and opposition parties plan to boycott the ballot. Experts fear that simmering ethnic tensions will escalate. On June 5, Ethiopians will elect a new parliament as well as regional and municipal councils. The polls were originally scheduled to take place in October last year, but were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Peaceful elections seem increasingly unlikely in this conflict-ravaged East African nation where more than 80 nationalities and ethnic groups reside and unresolved grievances persist. "The big problem is the level of violence we're seeing across the country at this time, which is obviously kind of a run-up to the elections in early June," William Davison of the International Crisis Group (ICG) told DW. This applies particularly to the regional states of Benishangul-Gumuz and Oromia, the latter of which is the largest of Ethiopia's nine administrative regions, and where -- according to Davison -- insurgent activity has increased. It may prove difficult to hold elections in areas where the security situation is fragile, Davison said. Violence is prone to escalate through increased attacks by ethnic militias. Opposition boycott There are also logistical issues. More than 56 million citizens eligible to vote are not registered to do so. Ethiopia's electoral board was unable to carry out voter registration in western Oromia, according to Davison. Security issues also led to massive problems in Benishangul-Gumuz. "There is a civil war going on in Tigray, there is a state of emergency. So there will be no elections in Tigray," Davison said. "There have also been delays in voter registration In the Afar and Somali regions, where there was recent territorial dispute between regional paramilitary forces." As a result of the volatile situation, some opposition parties are boycotting the elections. Electoral success 'in doubt' The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) withdrew, claiming that the detention of some OLF leaders -- not to mention the shutting down of their offices -- had made the party's work impossible. Former rebels from the OLF enjoy widespread among the Oromo people, Ethiopia's largest ethnic group. The powerful Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC) also bowed out. The OFC's party leader, Tiruneh Gamta, said he doubted the success of the elections. "I am not saying this because we are not participating in this election," he told DW. "All parties that have different ideas need to reach a common understanding of at least the main problems and the current situation in the country," Gamta added. "We need to discuss how to reassure the citizens in the conflict and bring back the necessary peace." Call for consensus The Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (EZEMA) party took a different stance. It argued that elections were the best cure for the present unrest. "I am convinced that elections are a must in the current situation in Ethiopia," party chairman Girma Seifu told DW. "We need a national consensus. But creating such a concept is time-consuming." Davison expects EZEMA to mount a strong challenge to Abiy's PP in June. Nevertheless, he said he believes the PP will win in Oromia. "The only question is to what extent a victory can be seen as having popular legitimacy," Davison told DW. It is even less likely that the various opposition parties in Ethiopia will accept such a result and consider the Prosperity Party the legitimate winner, he added. Observers drop out Delays, boycotts and simmering ethnic conflict across Ethiopia are not the only issues with the potential to thwart a successful election next month. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ethiopia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The European Union (EU) recently canceled its observation mission, voicing doubts about the handling of the electoral process. "It is disappointing that the EU has not received the assurances necessary to extend to the Ethiopian people one of its most visible signs of support for their quest for democracy," read a statement by EU foreign policy chief, Josef Borrell. William Davison of the International Crisis Group (ICG) issued a stark warning about Ethiopia's future. "If this electoral process is not accompanied by an attempt to return to all-inclusive politics, then the election could exacerbate Ethiopia's political divisions," he told DW. First, urgent steps would be political amnesty for jailed leaders and the start of comprehensive political negotiations, he said. Otherwise, violence in the country is bound to increase. Seyoum Getou and Jan Philipp Wilhelm contributed to this article, which was adapted from German The Southern Governors Forum on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to urgently convoke a national dialogue to address the wide spread agitations in the country. The call was contained in a 12-point communique read by the forum's Chairman and Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu at a meeting held in Asaba, Delta. "In view of widespread agitations among our various peoples for greater inclusiveness in existing governance arrangements, the Federal Government should convoke a national dialogue as a matter of urgency," it stated. The meeting which lasted for about four hours and had 15 members in attendance also called for restructuring of the country leading to the evolution of state police. It expressed grave concern on the nation's current security challenges and urged President Mohammadu Buhari to address Nigerians on the challenges and restore the confidence of the people. The forum affirmed that the peoples of Southern Nigeria remained committed to the unity of Nigeria on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness and peaceful co-existence between and among its peoples. It said the unity was with a focus to the attainment of shared goals for economic development and prosperity. The forum observed that the incursion of armed herders, criminals and bandits into the southern part of the country had presented a severe security challenge to it. It said that as a result, the citizens were no longer able to live their normal lives including pursuing various productive activities. "This is leading to a threat to food supply and general security. Consequently, the meeting resolved that open grazing of cattle be banned across Southern Nigeria. "Development and population growth has put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local populations in the south. "Given this scenario, it becomes imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the south (including cattle movement to the south by foot)," it stated. The body of governors recommended that the federal government should support willing states to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems. It also called for the review of revenue allocation formula in favour of the sub-national governments and creation of other institutions which legitimately advance the country's commitment to the practice of true federalism. The forum stressed the need for the review of appointments into federal government agencies, including security agencies, to reflect federal character. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The governors' forum also expressed concern on the continued gridlock on the Oshodi -Apapa Expressway and the chokehold it had exerted on the nation's economy, being the sole outlet from Apapa Wharf. It therefore recommended the activation and establishment of ports in other states of the federation to create new jobs and promote socio-economic activities in the country. The forum further expressed concern on the economic implications of another COVID-19 lockdown on the country. It suggested greater coordination and cooperation between the federal and state governments in evolving strategies for dealing with the pandemic. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 13 governors and two deputy governors were in attendance while two were absent. In attendance were Govs. Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Willi Obiano of Anambra, Douye Diri of Beyelsa, Godwin Obaseki of Edo and David Umehi of Ebonyi. Others were Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and Nyesom Wike of Rivers. Hope Uzodimma of Imo and Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom were represented by their deputies, Prof. Placcid Njoku and Mr Moses Ekpo respectively. Govs. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun and Ben Ayade of Cross River were absent. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, says the media report that he blamed the regime of Gen. Murtala Mohammed for spate of insecurity in Nigeria is "fake news and disinformation". The minister said this on Tuesday in Lagos during a meeting with Online Publishers. Mohammed, who expressed dismay over the reports clarified on what he said, when he recently featured on Channels Television's News programme. "It is amazing at times how people interpret ones' opinions and views in a very negative sense. "What happened was that, the lead speaker at a Town Hall Meeting we held in Kaduna recently, made reference to the retreat by the former military Head of State Gen. Yakubu Gowon, after the civil war. "He said that at the end of the retreat, there was consensus that all children born after the civil war must be given free and compulsory primary education. "I simply elaborated on this information and said that if subsequent governments after Gen. Gowon had perfected this pledge, the bandits and kidnappers today will have no market to recruit their followers. "I said we have about 13 million out of school children and if successive government had taken the decision at the Gowon's retreat seriously, we will not be where we are today. "There was nowhere I blamed Gen. Murtala Mohammed, but we are in the era of disinformation and fake news," he explained. The minister said he was also misunderstood on his position that kidnapping and banditry were not offences that could be prosecuted by the Federal Government. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He said while his position was correct, it was not meant to absorb the federal government from the responsibility of fighting crimes as it was misinterpreted by some people. "I was responding to the opposition PDP which said that the Federal Government has not prosecuted any bandits or kidnappers. "I said it is not the responsibility of the federal government to prosecute bandits or kidnappers. "The responsibility of the federal government is to hunt them down, arrest them and hand them over to the states judiciary to prosecute. "Incidentally, this morning, it was reported that 48 kidnappers were neutralised by the military in Zamfara State. "Those who were arrested will be handed over to the Zamfara state government for prosecution," he said. The minister reiterated that there were some laws which were at the exclusive execution by the federal and state level respectively. "As of today and until we amend the law, the federal government cannot prosecute suspected kidnappers and bandits. "That was why the notorious kidnap kigpin, Chikwudubem Onwuamadike, also known as Evans is being prosecuted in the Lagos state court and not in Abuja," he said. The minister said Nigerians must be concerned about the spate and effects of fake news and disinformation. Vanguard News Nigeria The governors of southern Nigeria yesterday held a meeting over the ravaging security crisis in the country and took some far reaching decisions to contain the situation. They banned open grazing in the southern region to stem the incessant herder-farmer clashes, demanded a restructuring of the country for more effective governance, asked for the establishment of state police and the review of the revenue allocation formula. The southern governors also called for the convoking of a national dialogue to arrest concerns of non-inclusion in the polity. The governors, comprising those of the South-South, South East and South West geopolitical zones, further urged President Muhammadu Buhari to address Nigerians to restore the confidence of the people. The governors made these resolutions when they met at Government House, Asaba, Delta State, over the rising insecurity across the country. Reading a 12-point communique after the meeting, chairman of the forum, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, said: "The incursion of armed herders, criminals and bandits into the southern part of the country has presented a severe security challenges such that citizens are not able to live their normal lives, including pursuing various productive activities leading to a threat to food supply and general security. Consequently, the meeting resolved that open grazing of cattle be banned across southern Nigeria." Akeredolu, however, noted that the development and population growth had put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflicts between migrating herders and local populations in the south. The Ondo governor added that given that scenario, it had become imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the South, including movement of cattle by foot. The governor, however, said the federal government should support willing states to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems. The forum equally called for urgent and bold steps to restructure the Nigerian federation leading to the evolution of state police, review of revenue allocation formula in favour of the sub-national governments and creation of other institutions which legitimately advance commitment to and practise of true federalism. The governors also recommended that "the federal government should urgently convoke a national dialogue" in view of what it called "widespread agitations among various peoples for greater inclusiveness in the existing governance arrangement." They also said there is the need to review appointments into federal government agencies, including the security agencies, to reflect federal character as "Nigeria's overall population is heterogeneous." The governors also expressed concern over the economic implications of another lockdown on the country. They, therefore, suggested greater coordination and cooperation between the federal government and state government in evolving strategies for dealing with the pandemic. The forum expressed concern at the continued gridlock on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and the chokehold it has exerted on the nation's economy, being the sole outlet from Apapa Wharf. According to the forum, there is urgent need for the activation and establishment of ports in other states of the federation to create new jobs and promote socioeconomic activities in the country. Akeredolu added that the "peoples of Southern Nigeria remain committed to the unity of Nigeria on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness and peaceful coexistence between and among its peoples, with a focus on the attainment of shared goals for economic development and prosperity." Expectedly, the meeting however attracted heavy security presence in the city which may not be unconnected with security challenges in the area including succession threats and persistent attacks on police assets and killing of policemen in the South East and South South geopolitical zones. While Asaba International Airport was manned by security personnel, various roads, especially the one leading to Government House and other flashpoints in the city were barricaded. The governors at the meeting were Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta; Okezie lkpeazu, Abia; Willie Obiano, Anambra; Duoye Diri, Bayelsa; Ben Ayade, Cross River; Godwin Obaseki, Edo; David Umahi, Ebonyi; Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu; Kayode Fayemi, Ekiti; Babajide Sanwo-olu, Lagos; Dapo Abiodun, Ogun; Rotimi Akeredolu, Ondo; Seyi Makinde, Oyo, and Nyeson Wike, Rivers.Osun and Cross River state governors were absent and not represented while Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State and Chief Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom states were represented by their deputies, Prof Placcid Njoku and Moses Ekpo respectively. Effort to get the chairman of Northern State Governors' Forum and governor of Plateau State, Barr. Simon Lalong, to comment on the issue was not successful as of press time. ACF Backs Southern Governors On Grazing Ban, National Dialogue, Differs On Restructuring The apex northern sociocultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has thrown its weight on the ban on open grazing and call for national dialogue; it, however, differs on issues of restructuring. ACF, reacting to communique issued at the end of the Southern Nigerian Governors Forum (SNGF) in Asaba, Delta State, through the national publicity secretary, Mr Emmanuel Yawe, said, "On the issue of ban of open grazing, I don't think there is much problem here with the stand of the ACF. "At our last National Working Committee (NWC) meeting in Kaduna, the national leader of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) spoke to us at length. He said he and his organisation had decided that the only way forward, and that is in the interest of MACBAN is to embark on ranching and that they were waiting for government's policy on it." Yawe said, "If MACBAN wants open grazing banned, not only in the southern part of Nigeria but all over Nigeria, who are we to say otherwise? We are therefore in support of the stand of MACBAN and the Southern State Governors." On the issue of national dialogue, he said ACF had always believed in it if the aim of the dialogue is to promote the unity and progress of the whole country. "Our Forum will dialogue with any state and group of people that share our cherished ideals of unity, justice, peace and progress," he said. On restructuring, he said that the "ACF believes that before it takes a decision on this, "we should agree on whether Nigeria should remain as one country before deciding on what structure Nigeria should take. "Our position on this is informed by the fact that some of the advocates of restructuring are at the same time advocating the dissolution of Nigeria.. Are they believers in Nigeria at all? We must all agree to let Nigeria be, before we move forward," he said. PMB Okays New Security Measures For South East, South South In view of the rising insecurity in the South East and South South, President Muhammadu Buhari has approved new security measures for the two geopolitical zones. The acting inspector general of police, Usman Baba, alongside the national security adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (retd) and chief of defence staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, disclosed this to State House correspondents after the security council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja. RELATED: Southern Politicians Behind Security Challenges In North - CNG The council also took a decision not to publicise measures to be deployed to tackle insecurity in the country henceforth for a more effective result. The council agreed that the level of insecurity in the country, especially in the last one-month, must be reversed. According to the acting IGP, the security council meeting, which has taken place three times during the last 11 days, assessed the situation in the country, particularly South East and South-South as it affects law and order. He said: "We have some measures which we have outlined and have been approved by the council and we will see how we can change the narrative within the quickest possible means to restore law and order and restore peace in that area. "We solicit all law-abiding citizens to work with us to identify and deal with the situation. That is that. I may not go into the details of how we will do that." During his briefing, Monguno said the meeting stressed the need to address the security challenges in the country, particularly those that have arisen in the last few months. He said the president gave them marching orders to deal with the emerging problems physically. He said: "The first two meetings were inconclusive, but today's meeting is the final of the three meetings. Again, Mr. President's concern at the growing trend of insecurity has been highlighted and the meeting, basically, was briefed by the national security adviser, the chief of defence staff and the inspector-general police. "I briefed the meeting on strategic issues in relation to security, while the chief of defence staff briefed on operational issues, and inspector general of police briefed on constabulary matters. "On my part, I briefed council on the enablers of crime and the need to find quick responses with a view to mitigating the growing threats to society. "These enablers were discussed in detail and Mr. President has already given direction on how to deal with them, specifically issues of drug abuse as propellants for crime, how to make the criminal justice system much more effective, as well as looking at issues of unemployment, which, of course, the federal executive council had given an approval, through previous memos on how to get 100 million people out of poverty; that was also discussed. Then, again, the lack of an effective crime reporting system. "Again, the president has given direction on how to make these things effective. Already, the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has been given certain instructions on how to deal with this, but by and by, council has agreed that the level of insecurity in the country, especially in the last one month, is something that has to be addressed with the immediacy that it requires; and at the operational level, of course, the chief of defence staff has been working with the service chiefs and the recommendations they've made to the council are already being handled." Irabor on his part said far reaching decisions have been made that will boost the operations of the security agencies. "No doubt, far-reaching decisions were made. On our part, just as the national security adviser indicated, I briefed on various measures that the armed forces, in partnership with other security agencies, have taken to stem the tide of insecurity across the country. "The council was pleased with the actions and, of course, the prayers that were made, which council has also graciously undertaken to look into. "These, of course, have to do with manpower development, training and equipment issues, and, thankfully, the glow on my face should, of course, give you an indication as to the graciousness of the National Security Council, in relation to the briefings that we've given in this regard and I believe that going forward, we shall be translating that and it will have some great impact on the security disposition across the country," he said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Resign, Afenifere Tells President The Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot address the many problems confronting the nation, hence the need for him to step aside. The group maintained that the administration of President Buhari had incapacitated the country and had failed to address the increasing wave of insecurity and economic downturn. Afenifere's acting national leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, made the call at the 95th birthday celebration of the leader of the group and the dedication of a church in the honour of Chief Reuben Fasonrati in Iju/Ita Ogbolu in Akure north local government area of Ondo State. According to the elder statesman, with the series of challenges confronting the country, President Buhari ought to have resigned long ago without being forced to. Adebanjo, who insisted that there was no better time to leave than now, noted that Buhari's government can no longer handle the situation of the country. "I have told them that in a better and civilised country, he should have gone long ago. If he has self-respect, he should have gone because everything has fallen. "What is he presiding over? Is it over corruption, security, education? Law and order had broken down in the country for the past three years. It is only because Nigerians are over tolerance of despots, that is why he is still there. "The younger generation has failed the country. The country was not as bad as this when we were demonstrating self-governance. "They want the old men to fight their cause for them. Why should people like me be in the trenches at 93 and Baba Fasoranti at 95? Where are those in their 40s and 30s? When we were at their age, we were in the street, at Lagos, London, everywhere and when we were in the university. "What we have today is jobbery - where you can get somebody in the government to get you a job. "You are PDP in the morning, APC in the afternoon, and SDP in the evening, and they say they are youn; the youth should be ashamed of themselves," Pa Adebanjo said. He, however, expressed optimism that there is light at the end of the tunnel. "As a Christian, I still have hope if Nigerians are conscious of their rights and they know what to do, but where is the demonstration in the country that the Buhari government must go?" he asked. When Gatluak Machuol arrived at the Kakuma refugee camp in 2014, he had no idea what the future held for him. At the age of just 17, his life suffered a tumultuous disruption when a new civil war broke out in his motherland South Sudan, Unity state where he and his family had called home. "My family and I were among the people who were forced out of the country after our home was destroyed. So we had to seek refuge at the Kakuma refugee camp," recalls Machuol. Nothing can ever prepare a person to be a refugee, he says: "One day you are living happily in a country which you love, the next day you have to run away from it to save your life." But even with all that was happening in his life, he chose to immerse himself in education. "Having come from a different education system I had to enroll in Class Seven and did my Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in 2015. I managed to score 367 marks," explains Machuol. He then moved to Nairobi to live with an uncle. At this time, however, his dream of joining high school had to take a back seat when his grandmother fell sick. "I am the firstborn in a family of eight children so I had to stay at home and take care of my grandmother after she fell and fractured her hip. Money was scarce so we could not afford the kind of medical care she needed. Unfortunately, she died a few months later," recalls Machuol. After the death of his grandmother in 2017, Machuol enrolled at Tassia Hill Academy for his high school education, at the age of 20. Paid off He says that no matter how long it took, he knew that one day he would go to high school. His patience and determination paid off on Monday when the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results were announced by Education CS George Magoha. Machuol managed a B plain, scoring B- and B+ respectively in his "favourite subjects", Physics and Mathematics. Interestingly, he says he was pleasantly surprised that he did better in Kiswahili (B plain) than in English (B minus). This, he says, is because he was first introduced to Kiswahili when he and his family arrived at the Kakuma refugee camp in 2014. "In fact, I learnt the first Swahili word 'habari (how are you?)' in 2014 while at the refugee camp. I'm absolutely impressed that I did better in Kiswahili than in English. I have always been fast in learning new things," he offers. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "This journey has been humbling to me. I remember a time when I would have low self-esteem because I am now 24 years old and just finished my high school, whereas my agemates are now graduates. But I'm glad I have gone through the system and I have done it at my own pace." His hope is that he will get the funds to join university and achieve his dream of becoming a teacher. "I come from a humble family and I know paying for university fees will be a challenge. I wish I could join university so that when I go home I take something valuable with me. My passion is in teaching because I believe that through teaching you can change lives by empowering a person through education," he says. "My advice to next year's candidates is to always be sincere with themselves because you can fool everyone around you but not yourself. And always put God first," says Machoul. The High Court has thrown a lifeline to 11 MPs who previously served as MCAs, saying they were not required to resign before contesting their current seats in the 2017 general election. Justice Anthony Mrima said a sitting President, MP, governor or MCA who intends to vie for any position in the general election, upon the expiry of the current electoral cycle need not resign before the election. The judge, however, ruled that a State officer and any other public officer, other than those holding the elective seats, and who intends to vie for any position in the next general election, must resign within 14 days of the issuance of the notice of General Election by IEBC or any time before party nominations are held, whichever comes first. "It, therefore, means that the President, MPs, governors and MCAs do not have to explicitly resign as the law renders them out of office on the second Tuesday of August every fifth year, of course except the President during the temporary incumbency under Article 134 of the Constitution," the judge said. Justice Mrima said a common thread in the term of office for the President, MPs, governors and MCAs is five years and that elections to those offices are held on the second Tuesday of August every fifth year. Current seats In the matter, two Murang'a residents wanted 11 legislators including Mary Waithera (Maragua MP), Catherine Waruguru (Laikipia Woman Rep), Susan Kihika (Nakuru senator), Cleophas Malala (Kakamega senator) and Laikipia West MP Patrick Kariuki stripped of their seats, saying they did not resign from their positions as MCAs as required by law before contesting their current seats. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Others are Joyce Korir ( Bomet Woman Rep), Joash Nyamoko ( North Mugirango MP), Asha Mohammed (Mombasa Woman Rep), Fred Outa (Kisumu Central MP), Mutai Japheth Mutai (Bureti MP) and George Risa (Kajiado West MP). The petitioners, Mr Kennedy Irungu Ngodi and Mr Martin Njuguna, argued that the 11 legislators were ineligible to vie and be elected as MPs in the 2017 general elections. Mr Ngodi and Mr Njuguna said being State officers, the lawmakers were barred from contesting the MPs seats as per Article 260 and Article 99 (2) of the Constitution. They argued that a person who is a member of a county assembly is disqualified from being elected as MP. But through lawyer Charles Njenga, the MPs opposed the case, saying the petitioners had misread the law. Justice Mrima agreed with the MPs, saying if the MCAs are forced to resign where the majority of members aspire for other seats, then it will mean that the county assembly will lack quorum and will not be able to discharge its constitutional mandate for the remainder of its term. A Kenyan scientist has won an award for his contributions to development of two key drugs. Dr F George Njoroge, the chief scientific adviser at Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral & Research Hospital is this year's recipient of the Outstanding Alumnus Award in Chemistry by Case Western Reserve University, USA. "It is my honour to notify you that we have selected you as our outstanding alumnus of chemistry based on your remarkable career achievements," read the invitation letter from the institution. The scientist was supposed to receive the award in April last year but it was postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak. "Some of the previous winners have gone all the way to win Nobel prizes. I was nominated for my work in developing new medicines, especially discovery of a drug that is now being used for the treatment of hepatitis C," he said. In 2012, Dr Njoroge was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a hero of chemistry for the discovery of hepatitis C drug Victrelis (Boceprevir), the first hepatitis C virus protease inhibitor approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2011, and Narlaprevir, a second-generation HCV protease drug licensed to a Russian company, R-Phama. He has also spearheaded the discovery of the anti-cancer drug Sarasar, approved on the November 24, 2020, as Zokinvy for the treatment of progeria. Over 100 patents This saw him get 103 US-granted patents and his 136 papers being published in reputable global journals. He became the first African to be granted more than 100 patents by an American patenting agency. The university is a premier institution that ranks among the best globally and has one of the best medical and biomedical schools in America. Dr Njoroge's vision is to initiate research and manufacturing of medicines as well as bringing awareness of new medical technology to Africa, and especially Kenya. He recently founded the Center of Africa's Life Science (Coals) in Naivasha. The venture is geared towards discovery and manufacture of new medicines as well as dissemination of life science information. "This award will be a catalyst in attracting scientists all over the world to participate in scientific tourism in Kenya, I intend to be more engaged in research work with world accomplished scientists in solving some of the major health issues that afflict human beings," said Dr Njoroge. Grandmother a herbalist Dr Njoroge, who was born in Kamuchege, a village 40 kilometres from Nairobi, in Lari constituency Kiambu county, holds a PhD in chemistry. His traces his fascination with drugs back to his maternal grandmother, who was a herbalist. "I was amazed as to how, even without any formal education, she was able to use various natural remedies to save people's lives. The glamour and respect that my grandmother received from our community encouraged me to get an education where I could be in a career similar to hers," said Dr Njoroge. He said: "After completing a Bachelor's degree in organic chemistry from the University of Nairobi, I joined Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where I undertook graduate studies in both physical and synthetic organic chemistry." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Science By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "I joined the University Hospital of Cleveland, as a postdoctoral student, where I was offered a research position to study the chemistry behind the browning of foods and how it related to the ageing process and diabetes in humans. "It was an interesting encounter since I was the only professional organic chemist working in the entire pathology institute and tasked with finding a solution to such an enormous problem. "I was able to design and execute a number of experiments that clearly illustrated that there was a good connection among those three systems." The 67-year-old is married to Ms Esther Nyambura and is a father two. Their children are in the USA, with the daughter, Joyce Nyaucha, a cardiologist fellow at the University of California, while the son Jesse Kimani, is a pharmacist in Virginia. A parliamentary committee has summoned the management of National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) to explain why it has not refunded Sh200 million in medical cover for the police to the Interior ministry as required by law. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly wants NHIF Chief Executive Officer Peter Kamunyo to explain why it is taking long to have the money refunded. The delays in paying the refund was flagged by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu in her report on the accounts of the Interior ministry for the 2018/19 financial year. Interior Principal Secretary Karanja Kibicho, while appearing before the committee yesterday in regards to the ministry's audit queries for the period under review, said efforts to have the money recovered from NHIF had hit a brick wall. This forced PAC chairman Opiyo Wandayi to order that Dr Kamunyo appears before the committee without fail. "The CEO must appear before this committee to explain where the money is. This is public money and PAC is committed to ensuring that public funds are used prudently," Mr Wandayi, the Ugunja MP, directed. The Sh200 million was a top-up to the Sh4.79 billion comprehensive medical insurance cover awarded to NHIF on September 26, 2017 to cushion members of the National Police Service who might exhaust their limits. The insurance cover was for a two-year period from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2019. Although the amount was refundable at the end of the contract period, Ms Gathungu in the audit report notes that it was yet to be refunded. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "It was not possible to determine whether the National Police Service got value for money that was due for refund at the end of the comprehensive medical cover contract," Ms Gathungu says in the audit report. Yesterday, Mr Kibicho threatened to withhold further payment of insurance premiums to the NHIF until the money is refunded. "As a ministry, we have written to NHIF but it has completely refused to respond to our inquiries," Mr Kibicho told the watchdog committee. "In the meantime, we will use other measures including withholding the Sh200 million premium due to them until they respond," the PS said. Mr Kibicho, however, told the committee that the ministry will have no problem if NHIF provides evidence to show how the money was used as stated in the contract document. Previously, the NHIF was not allowed to engage in the provision of commercial insurance services to public entities and private companies as provided for under section 19 of the Insurance Act. However, through a gazette notice on April 17, 2020, National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani exempted NHIF from the legal provisions, effectively allowing the public insurer to engage in the insurance business. Section 19 of the Insurance Act provides that any insurance provider operating in the country must be registered with the Insurance Regulatory Authority (IRA), the industry regulator. NHIF is not a member of the IRA. In 2012, the government mandated NHIF to provide medical cover to civil servants and members of the disciplined forces --the police and prison officers. The government cited the high cost of private insurance and lack of structures to provide a medical cover of such a magnitude. As schools countrywide reopened on Monday, the fate of more than 1,000 learners in the insecurity-prone Baringo South is still unknown after six institutions remained closed due to the incessant banditry attacks and livestock thefts in the area. More than 10 attacks have been reported in the volatile Kiserian, Chemorong'ion, Arabal and Mukutani villages in the last one month alone. This has resulted in the killing of two people, including a military officer. Hundreds of livestock have also been driven away from the area by armed criminals despite an ongoing security operation to disarm them. Schools yet to reopen Institutions which are yet to reopen include Mukutani and Embosos secondary schools as well as Rugus, Kasiela, Mukutani and Arabal primary schools. Other institutions in the porous area reported low enrolment due to fears of attacks from armed criminals suspected to be hiding in the villages. Among those that have reopened but with low turnout are Chemorong'ion, Chebinyiny, Sinoni and Kapindasum primary schools. At Kasiela Primary School for instance, none of the 150 learners reported to school on Tuesday. According to the school's headteacher William Kandie, following a spate of attacks in the area, most of the parents fled the villages with their children to safer areas like Nyimbei, Sinoni and Mbechot. Most non-local teachers are also yet to report to the said schools, fearing for their lives. "We do not know when learning will resume because most of the villages here are deserted after locals fled with their school going children. They have insisted that they will only come back when normalcy returns. Non-local teachers are yet to report to school as well," said Mr Kandie. The scenario is the same at the neighbouring Arabal, Mukutani and Rugggus primary Schools. Locals flee Despite the efforts by the government and multi-agency teams to restore order in the troubled regions, banditry attacks continue to be reported in Mukutani, Kiserian, Kasiela, Chemorong'ion and Arabal villages in Baringo South with locals being forced to flee from their homes and seek refuge in security camps. Tension is still high in the area following a banditry attack on Friday last week in Chemorong'ion village that saw an unknown number of livestock being driven away by armed criminals suspected to be from the neighbouring Tiaty Sub-County. Parents in the affected areas raised concern of the security of their children who were expected to report to school from Monday, claiming that their security was not guaranteed owing to the spate of attacks and livestock thefts. Deserted villages Mr Paul Kipyemat, a resident of Arabal, said the security officers deployed to restore order are being attacked and wondered how safe the children who are forced to walk several kilometres in deserted villages to get to school are. "If this is the situation, then how safe are our children now that even parents fear to go about their normal duties. We fear that learning will be paralysed in this region if no urgent measures are taken to tame the incessant banditry attacks," said Mr Kipyemat. Mr Richard Chepchomei, an elder from Chemoe in Baringo North, appealed to the government to deploy security officers in all the volatile schools at the border areas so that learning can go on uninterrupted. He noted that most of the villages adjacent to the affected schools have been deserted and it is risky for the learners to walk for more than five kilometres from where they relocated to to access the schools. "The government had deployed security officers in some schools in the volatile borders to beef up security but they were withdrawn with no clear explanation. As we speak, the institutions may not reopen as learners fear to learn in a deserted, troubled area with no security," said Mr Chepchomei. Escaped to police camps Another resident, Mr George Lechuta from Mukutani, complained that they have been forced to flee their homes and put up in police camps in the area for fear of being attacked by bandits. "We cannot move more than 500 meters from the security camps without being escorted by police officers as bandits are still attacking the camps we fled to. Our normal activities have been virtually grounded and we have been forced to depend on well-wishers for our survival. Then, how safe are our children who are needed to report to school? posed Mr Lechuta. According to locals, the perennial insecurity menace has impacted negatively on school enrolment in the affected areas over the years, with several learners dropping out of school after parents flee from the volatile border areas with their school going children. Guarantee security Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Baringo Branch Executive Secretary Joshua Cheptarus has demanded that the government guarantees security to learners and tutors in the banditry-prone areas before they resume learning. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The lives of our children and teachers are paramount. The government should beef up security in the banditry-prone areas and guarantee our teachers and learners of their security because we have lost lives in the past and we cannot take risks. It is better the institutions be closed until normalcy returns," said Mr Cheptarus. Baringo County Commissioner Henry Wafula has, however, assured locals in the affected areas of their security, noting that the government will provide food to the institutions to boost retention and enrolment. "Our aim is to ensure that all school going children in the insecurity-prone areas go to school in a bid to boost literacy levels and end the perennial banditry and livestock theft. Enough security personnel have been deployed in the said areas with others putting up in schools to ensure safety of our learners and teachers," said Mr Wafula. Baringo County experiences periodic ethnic conflicts related to livestock theft and banditry attacks, which have a huge bearing on education, often leaving pupils displaced and schools vandalised or closed altogether. The spiral effect of conflicts is massive school dropout, teenage pregnancies, child labour and pressure or strain on facilities in neighbouring schools that have to accommodate displaced pupils. Some of the schools also act as refuge centres, not just for pupils, but also for adults fleeing volatile areas. The High Court on Tuesday convicted two police officers of manslaughter in the murder of a woman at City Park, Nairobi, three years ago. Justice Stella Mutuku found Godfrey Kipng'etich Kirui and William Kipkorir Chirchir guilty of manslaughter in the killing of Ms Janet Waiyaki, on May 20, 2018. Waiyaki, then aged 41, was shot dead while a relative, Bernard Chege, who was with her at the time of the shooting was left fighting for his life. Read: How rogue police get away with murder by bungling thousands of their cases Mr Chirchir was an Administration Police officer from Makadara Police Station while Constable Kirui was attached to Industrial Area Police Station. It is alleged the two fired 15 bullets into the vehicle that Waiyaki and Mr Chege were in that Sunday morning before Chege was rushed to hospital. "I find that the offence of manslaughter has been proven against the first and second accused persons beyond reasonable doubt," Justice Mutuku said. The judge added that the police officers used excessive force yet they were not in any danger at the time of the incident, and that they were reckless. Nominated Senator Isaac Mwaura has lost his seat in the Senate, four days after the Political Parties Dispute Tribunal (PPDT) upheld his ejection from the ruling Jubilee Party. This is after Speaker Kenneth Lusaka, in a gazette notice dated May 10, 2021, declared the seat vacant. In the notice, Speaker Lusaka said Mr Mwaura had ceased being a senator from May 7, the same day that the tribunal upheld his expulsion. "It is notified to the general public that the seat of member of senate held by Mr Mwaura became vacant with effect from May 7, 2021," Mr Lusaka said. Jubilee, which is divided between the forces that support President Uhuru Kenyatta and those supporting his deputy William Ruto, accused the senator of having violated the party's constitution and membership oath by describing it as a dead party and shifting his loyalty to the United Democratic Alliance (Uda). Remarks against Uhuru Mr Mwaura's troubles started in December last year following remarks he made against President Uhuru Kenyatta in Kwale during a homecoming ceremony for Msambweni MP Feisal Bader. He was among six other senators who had been kicked out by the party's top organ, the National Management Committee (NMC) over indiscipline. He was summoned by the party for disciplinary proceedings which ended with an expulsion recommendation by the NMC. The party's national chairman Nelson Dzuya complained that the senator had been disloyal after he pledged allegiance to Uda, a party associated with Dr Ruto. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Tribunal ruling Mr Mwaura rushed to the tribunal seeking to bar the Registrar of Political Parties from implementing Jubilee Party's decision, pending the hearing of his case. But the tribunal threw out the request. In its ruling, the tribunal found that the party had followed due process in expelling the senator and its internal mechanisms had been exhausted, hence the decision cannot be faulted. Feeling aggrieved, the senator went to court and obtained an injunction order halting his removal. Now Mr Mwaura may move to court to challenge the expulsion and seek to have the execution of the Speaker's decision overturned or plead his case with President Kenyatta. Kenya closed the week with good news in diplomatic circles with Tanzania and Somalia pledging to strengthen bilateral relations with Nairobi. However, the fruits from the optics could take a while, observers say. It began with the state visit of President Samia Suluhu, who vowed to improve business between the two countries. "We have agreed to continue addressing the challenges, especially non-tariff barriers, that keep cropping up at our border points," Suluhu said. "The challenges need to go. Our Joint Commission on Cooperation will be sitting regularly to resolve them." Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to go "as far as strengthening our relations for the benefit of our people". Harmonise Covid-19 protocols One of the immediate resolutions was harmonising Covid-19 protocols. Tanzania now requires a valid negative test for arrivals and those transiting. However, issues on fishing rights, phytosanitary requirements on maize sales and immigration mismatches were back in play after Suluhu left Nairobi. In the meantime, Somalia, which cut relations with Kenya on December 15, 2020, said it would rescind the decision. A statement from Villa Somalia, the official residence of the president, said the decision followed mediation by Qatar. "In interest of good neighbourliness, the Federal Government of Somalia resumes diplomatic ties with Kenya based on mutual benefit and respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity, non-interference, peaceful co-existence and equality," said President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo's spokesman Abdirashid M Hashi. The statement did not say anything on the accusations against Kenya that led to the cutting of ties. It also did not say whether ambassadors Lucas Tumbo of Kenya and Somalia's Mohamud Ahmed Nur Tarsan would resume duty immediately. Because Kenya did not sever ties, it is Somalia to decide when to send the diplomat back. Took note Kenya said it took note of the statement and acknowledged the resumption of relations. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs looks forward to normalisation of relations by Somali authorities, including with regard to trade, communication, transport, people to people relations and cultural exchange," the government said. However, normalisation of ties happens through official diplomatic documents known as Note Verbale. Somalia cut ties in December in a 1am statement by Information Minister Osman Dubbe, who is not a diplomat. Official letters followed two days later. Nairobi had not received official communication by the time we went to press, an envoy familiar with the issue said. And matters did not look better after a video emerged of Tarsan criticising his president for attempting to extend his term. He did not immediately respond to our inquiries, but a spokesperson said he would report to duty as ambassador to Kenya. Opportunity to thrive Horn International Institute of Strategic Studies chairman Mustafa Y Ali said Somalia should take lessons from its abrupt decisions, adding that they have granted Al-Shabaab an opportunity to thrive. "Kenya should (tirelessly) continue offering Somalia assistance using its good offices as it did in the 1990s through 2000-2010, to help the country stabilise," Ali told the Nation. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya External Relations Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "Most importantly, the troubled neighbour should be willing to accept and respect the country that has stood with it in the last troubled 30 years by hosting refugees, providing technical and financial support and fighting Al-Shabaab. Somalia should be more careful." There had been back channels before Qatari special envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani appeared in Mogadishu and Nairobi to deliver a message from Emir Sheikh Tamim Al Thani last week. Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang'i flew to Doha weeks ago and met Qatari authorities, who had been sending emissaries to Farmaajo. The back channels yielded fruit in March when Farmaajo agreed to drop criminal charges against Jubbaland's former Interior Minister Abdirashid Janan. Janan "surrendered" to Somalia from Kenya on March 24, but rather than being taken back to jail from where he had reportedly fled, he was welcomed by security chiefs in Gedo and flown to Mogadishu before he left for the Middle East. The British government is launching a new programme meant to support free media in Kenya, adding to its latest campaigns to improve independent journalism. UK High Commissioner to Kenya, Jane Marriott, revealed on Tuesday her government was launching the Our PROTECT programme which will target crucial players in the media sector and support their work environment. The programme will target players in Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu through local civil society partners such as Article19, Hivos, International Centre for Not for profit Law and Internews. "It is a holistic programme, meaning it is not just involved in the training or mentoring of individual journalists," Ms Marriott said in Nairobi . "It will provide grants to other organisations, for example the Mzalendo Trust which monitors Parliament and the Civil Society Reference Group, and will also give grants directly to journalists in Mombasa and Kisumu to support the production of data journalism stories." Five areas of focus Ms Marriott, who spoke at a virtual event hosted by the Kenya Editors' Guild Press Club on Monday, said the UK will invest more in independent reporting to help press institutions monitor the government, opposition, corporate bodies and other sectors. The Our PROTECT Programme will have five different areas of focus including use of data to check government excesses, service delivery, policy reviews and a programme to support female journalists. It will also have a segment for training media houses on new business models and promoting civic education. It has already been launched in Mombasa and Kisumu and published a status report on the safety of journalists released on World Press Freedom Day. The UK government and partners will also train journalists and run a mentorship programme on data journalism. The High Commissioner spoke a week after UK Minister for Africa, James Duddridge, pledged more support for independent journalism as Kenya and the world marked World Press Freedom Day last week. Ms Marriot said the UK will work with other governments, including Canada, to sustain the Media Freedom Campaign launched in 2019. Five people arrested over the weekend in a police operation to find terror suspects believed to have sneaked into Kisumu have been transferred to Nairobi for further investigations. The suspects were held at Kondele Police Station until Monday, when they were taken to court. Officers from the Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) asked the court to allow them to hold the suspects for 10 more days to complete the probe before preferring charges against them. The five are Jamal Muhamud, Abdul Razzaq, Nadeen Muhammad, Amin Muhammad and Younas Muhammad, all Pakistanis. They were moved at 3.44pm on Monday, according to the Occurrence Book at Kondele Police Station, guarded by about four ATPU officers. Kisumu County Commander Samuel Anampiu said they made the move considering the challenges of a language barrier and difficulties finding an interpreter. "The suspects were escorted to Nairobi, taking into account the Covid-19 issues involved and the need for authentication of documents by the immigration department, among others," said Mr Anampiu. Heightened surveillance The five people were arrested in a two-day operation by a multi-agency team of officers from Kisumu and Nairobi. Mr Anampiu said that acting on intelligence reports, his team arrested two Pakistani nationals at about 11am on Saturday, along Kisumu-Kakamega Road near the Mamboleo roundabout. For the better part of Sunday morning, once again guided by intelligence, police apprehended three more people along Kisumu-Ahero Road. The arrests came as Kisumu heightened surveillance and security operations ahead of Madaraka Day celebrations on June 1, an occasion which President Uhuru Kenyatta will attend. The county is also keenly monitoring travel following eight cases of Covid-19 infections resulting from the deadly virus variant that has ravaged India. Meanwhile, Kenya has added five countries to its list of countries whose nationals must undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine when they travel to the country. The countries are Brunei, Thailand, Kuwait, Pakistan and Czech Republic. Court proceedings at the busy Tigania Law Courts were on Tuesday paralysed after lawyers from Meru County held demonstrations demanding the transfer of the magistrate in charge of the station. They accused him of corruption and high-handedness. Holding placards and blowing whistles, the over 100 lawyers claimed that Principal Magistrate Gathogo Sogomo at times rebukes them in front of their clients, thus embarrassing them. Led by Meru Bar Association Secretary-General Joel Mutuma, the lawyers claimed that the magistrate at times cuts deals with litigants, denying the advocates the right to represent them. The also claimed that the magistrate at times writes rulings behind their backs. "He writes conflicting judgements and appeals and one only comes to learn about it later. There is a lot of 'cartelism' where advocates are being asked to move out of cases and [matters are] handled differently. There are claims of corruption," Mr Mutuma said. Overstayed Lawyer Hillary Sande said Mr Sogomo had overstayed at the Tigania Law Courts and ought to be transferred. There was drama as the lawyers broke down the court's gate which had been locked and cordoned off by anti-riot police. Court officials and litigants quickly took off, leaving the courtrooms empty. The lawyers later presented a petition to the Mt Kenya Bar Association Chairperson Linda Kiome to be handed to the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). Numerous complaints Ms Kiome said there have been numerous complaints against Mr Sogomo and dialogue had failed, thus forcing them to resort to mass action. "Even during the reign of Justice Alfred Mabeya, we tried dialogue but it failed. That's the reason we are picketing -- taking the bull by the horns. We shall not attend his court. We will boycott his court until he is removed, even if it takes a year," she vowed. Ms Kiome urged JSC to quickly take action against the magistrate. All eyes are now on President Uhuru Kenyatta as senators on Tuesday joined their colleagues in the National Assembly in approving the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The move means that Speakers Justin Muturi (National Assembly) and Kenneth Lusaka (Senate) will submit the Bill to the President for assent as detailed in Article 257 of the Constitution, which details procedures of amending the Constitution through a popular initiative. Having styled it as his legacy project, the President now holds the key on the date of the referendum. Article 256 (5) provides that before assenting to the Bill, the President will have to request the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to conduct a referendum within three months. The time will start running the moment he receives the Bill and forwards it to the electoral commission. Moving fast and transmitting the Bill to the commission as soon as he gets it will indicate the President's support and could determine how soon the country will go to a referendum. A total of 65 senators voted in all the three stages - second reading, amendments stage (Committee of the Whole) and the third reading. In the second reading, 52 senators voted in support of the Bill while 12 opposed and one - Mary Seneta - abstained in all the three stages. In the final two stages, 51 senators voted for, 11 against. And for the umpteenth time, Deputy President William Ruto and his Hustler Movement were left leaking their wounds as they fell short of shooting down the Bill, as umbilical cord of President Kenyatta and ODM leader Raila Odinga, proved too strong. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Tangatanga's double tragedy It was a double tragedy for the Tangatanga senators as they soon found themselves on the back heel after the vote on the second reading. Soon after the vote, it dawned on them that they had lost one of their own after the Speaker implemented the decision of the Political Parties Tribunal which upheld the expulsion of Nominated senator Isaac Mwaura as a member of Jubilee party. Senators Aaron Cheruiyot, Kipchumba Murkopmen, Susan Kihika, Irungu Kangata, Kithure Kindiki, all dyed-in-the-wool supporters of the DP railed at the Speaker, accusing him of taking the decision to remove Mr Mwaura even though the senator had a preexisting court order. Mr Mwaura had attended the morning session and even voted in support of the Bill during the second reading. But tables were turned when at the resumption of the debate on the Bill during the afternoon session, Tangatanga Mps raised questions on the validity of his vote because the notice in the Kenya Gazette indicated that the senator ceased being a lawmaker on May 7, four days earlier. The Ruto group also claimed Mr Mwaura had a preexisting court order which stayed the findings of the Political Parties Disputes Tribunal. which upheld Jubilee's decision to expel him. The party, which is divided between the forces that support President Kenyatta and DP Ruto, has accused the senator of violating the party's constitution and membership oath by describing it as a dead party and shifting loyalty to the United Democratic Alliance. Dadaab in Garissa County is known for the tough life and a refugee camp that hosts thousands of Somali nationals who have fled their home country for various reasons, including war. Life has not been the same for thousands of refugees after the national government renewed threats to close the camp. The state described the camp as a recruiting ground for Al-Shabaab terrorists and a base for launching violent attacks in Kenya. On April 8, however, a High Court suspended the government's move to shut down Dadaab and Kakuma camps. The Interior ministry had given the United Nations refugee agency 14 days to come up with a plan for closing the camps, saying "there was no room for further negotiations". Read: Kenya sets new date for closure of Dadaab, Kakuma refugee camps Also read: Kenya to close Kakuma, Dadaab refugee camps by June 2022 Beating the odds But as the national government continued threatening to close the camp, hundreds of students hosted at the camp registered for the national examinations and when the results were announced on Monday, Gedi Secondary School posted an impressive score. Registered in 2017, the school started with only 80 students, who have now flown its flag high with good performance in the past two years. Mr Feisal Gedi, the school's founder and principal, said that despite the long break occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic, the school still managed to post impressive results. Abdikadir Salat Mohamed, from the Ifo refugee camp, emerged the best candidate in the North Eastern region after scoring an A minus of 79 points. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. His parents settled at the camp after fleeing from a war-torn Somalia and Mohamed says the place is home for him. "I am delighted to have emerged the best in North Eastern despite the many odds we have encountered in the academic calendar," he said. Software engineering Mohamed, unlike many other candidates who want to join local universities and pursue different courses, has his eyes fixed on Canada. "I want to study software engineering but in a university somewhere in Canada. I just want to contribute to building the world," he said without giving reasons why he did not choose a local institution. He said that despite being alone in the camp, his parents who are far away have been supportive and ensured he got learning materials. The school posted a mean score of a C+ of 7.41 points after recording one A minus, two B pluses, nine B plains, 11 B minuses, 24 C pluses, 27 C plains, 18 C minuses 10 D pluses, 7 D plains and four D minuses. Mohmed was followed closely in the region by Mowlid Mohamed Muhumed from Wajir High School, with an A minus of 78 points. The Dadaab camp in Kenya's east holds more than 200,000 refugees mainly from Somalia. It has not known peace since the 1991 ouster of long-time dictator Siad Barre. Gedi Secondary School, just like many others, in the region continues to grapple with a shortage of teachers. "Our main challenge has been getting good teachers since few are willing to risk their lives to come to this area," the founder said. A police officer charged with the murder of British aristocrat Alexander Monson on Tuesday told court that the suspect was well when he booked him at Diani Police Station with possession of bhang. Sergeant Naftali Chege, attached to the Tourist Police Unit, said the Briton was locked up in the cells by another officer. Monson, 28, later died in custody. Four officers - Chege, Charles Wang'ombe Munyiri, Baraka Bulima and John Pamba - are charged with his murder on May 19, 2012 at Diani location, Msambweni constituency, Kwale County. Monson, who was the son of the 12th Baron Monson and heir to the family estate in the UK, moved to Kenya in 2008 to live with his mother Hilary Monson. Mr Chege told the court that when they arrested Monson, he was well and there was no confrontation throughout the period. Testifying before Justice Eric Ogola, the accused said he was not aware of what had transpired at a bar Monson was in before the arrest. "After arresting him, we took him to the station. We never knew what had transpired before we arrested him," Mr Chege told the court during cross examination by Senior Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Alexander Muteti. Mr Chege said he did not have a police notebook at the time of arrest. "I did not make an inventory (on items seized) when we arrested him," he said. He took the bhang he had allegedly recovered from the suspect and other exhibits to the TPU office. "At the report office, we searched him and did not find any alcohol," he added. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "So many issues" Asked by the prosecutor whether he was aware that there were drugs in Monson's pockets, the witness said the case had "so many issues". "Hii ni kesi iko na kona nyingi nyingi (this is a case with so many issues). I later learnt that his phone got lost at the station," Mr Chege said. The officer said on the night of May 18-19, 2012, they had been assigned patrol duties along Diani beach. While around Tandoori Restaurant, a bouncer told them that someone was smoking bhang in the establishment. "He had tried to force him out of the restaurant but he had refused, so he asked us to arrest him," said Mr Chege. As the officers approached the bar, they saw the suspect walking to his vehicle. "When I approached the car, I saw him smoking bhang as he reversed from the parking. I took the piece he was smoking. It was our exhibit," said Mr Chege. He then called a senior colleague, who helped in arresting the Briton before they took him to the station. The accused have been put on their defence after the court said it was satisfied that the prosecution had made a case against them. The prosecution closed its case by calling 32 witnesses, among them Monson's mother and an investigations officer from the Independent Policing and Oversight Authority. Hearing continues. pmuyanga@ke.nationmedia.com Juba South Sudan's President Salva Kiir Monday night reconstituted parliament, paving the way for the formation of the Revitalized Transitional Legislative Assembly as stipulated in the 2018 peace agreement. Through a presidential decree read on state-run television, South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation, Kiir appointed 550 lawmakers from all parties who signed the revitalized peace accord. The appointment came a day after he dissolved the National Legislative Assembly and Council States. According to the peace deal, both R-TNLA and Council of States shall be reconstituted to include new appointees from other peace parties. The deal says TNLA will be expanded from 400 to 550 members, comprising representatives from the peace parties, where the former Transitional government will nominate 332 members, SPLM-IO will have 128, and South Sudan Opposition Alliance, 50. Other political parties shall have 30 representatives, while former detainees will nominate 10 members. The peace deal also stipulated that the Council of States, on the other hand, shall be expanded from 50 members to 100. However, the president, in Monday's decree, did not announce expansion and reconstitution of the Council of States. According to Kiir's decree, the revitalized assembly now consists of 550 lawmakers, with the majority from his governing SPLM party, followed by Dr Riek Machar's Sudan People Liberation Movement - In Opposition (SPLM-IO). Other members appointed were from South Sudan Opposition Alliance, Former Political Detainees, National Agenda, and Democratic Change Party. Among the major pending tasks is the unification of the forces into one national professional army, a task stipulated in Chapter II of the 2018 peace agreement. The United Nations Security Council strongly condemned Monday's attack on the UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in which one Malawian blue helmet was killed. The attack, which took place near the town of Beni in the restive North Kivu province, was reportedly carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) armed group. In a press statement issued on Monday, Security Council members "condemned in the strongest terms" all attacks and provocations against the UN peacekeeping in the DRC (known by its French acronym, MONUSCO). They underlined that deliberate attacks targeting peacekeepers may constitute war crimes under international law, and called the Congolese authorities to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice. The members also "stressed the importance of MONUSCO having the necessary capacities to fulfil its mandate and promote the safety and security of the UN peacekeepers, pursuant to relevant Security Council resolutions". They also reiterated their full support for the UN force and expressed their deep appreciation to the mission's troop and police-contributing countries. Highly volatile region Roughly the size of western Europe and rich in natural resources, DRC has been plagued by violence and insecurity for years, resulting in widespread poverty and hunger. It has also suffered frequent outbreaks of deadly diseases, including waves of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), now complicated by the coronavirus pandemic. The situation in eastern DRC, particularly in the provinces of North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, is highly volatile, with clashes between armed groups over control of territory and natural resources. Civilians have borne the brunt of the conflict, with thousands losing their lives in the last few years. The Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militia, one of several armed groups in the region, has been active since the 1990s. It has carried out several attacks against security forces and MONUSCO, including an attack in December 2017, in which 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers lost their lives and 44 others were wounded. "To have a woman of Genevieve's calibre play a Kalakuta Queen, only elevates this legacy of leadership, fortitude and grace." Nollywood actress Genevieve Nnaji will join the cast of the audio adaptation of FELA - 'Fela Ten Twenty', written and directed by filmmaker Funa Maduka. A statement issued on Tuesday by the organisers said the audio play would be premiered on Clubhouse, the popular drop-in audio chat platform, on May 15 and May 16, with shows at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. on both days. Clubhouse is a social platform, built around "drop-in audio chat", featuring ephemeral real-time voice conversations that any user can listen to but cannot record. The statement said the proceeds from the show would support GEANCO, whose work provides full tuition, healthcare and social and psychological support to young female survivors of terrorism and gender inequality in Nigeria and across the continent. The statement quoted Nnaji as saying: "The contemporary issues highlighted in the script are what sold me; this is an artful retelling of Fela's story and I'm honored to be a part of it. "I grew up on radio plays and the experience is nostalgic for me - the power of voice to influence minds and touch hearts is undeniable." Fela Ten Twenty, the title of the audio adaptation, will feature an exciting new interpretation of Bill T. Jones' and Jim Lewis' Original FELA! Script, framing the ongoing #EndSARS movement in the context of Fela Kuti's legacy. Music for the production would be recorded in Lagos, Nigeria, by The Cavemen, the widely-celebrated band rekindling Nigerian highlife with their new album Roots. Funa Maduka, writer, director and producer of Fela Ten Twenty, commended the actress for her efforts to see the play come to reality. "For this adaptation, I tripled speaking roles for women by bringing the voices of the Kalakuta Queens, women who fought and performed alongside Fela, to the forefront. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Entertainment Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. READ ALSO: Audio adaptation of broadway musical 'FELA!' to debut on Clubhouse "Women have long been at the centre of political movements, especially in Africa. "To have a woman of Genevieve's calibre play a Kalakuta Queen, only elevates this legacy of leadership, fortitude and grace". The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Genevieve Nnaji is a Nigerian actress, producer and director. She won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2005. In 2011, she was honoured as a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic by the Nigerian government for her contributions to Nollywood. Her directorial debut movie, Lionheart, was Nigeria's first submission to the Oscars. Nnaji frequently uses her platform to advocate for social causes, including #EndSARS, which the Fela Ten Twenty script adaptation centres. She joins a talented cast of actors from Nigeria, the UK and the U.S., including Sir Marcell as Fela Kuti, Jumoke Fashola as Funmilayo Kuti, NC Grey as Najite - a Kalakuta Queen and Nneamaka Nwadei as Omolara - a Kalakuta Queen. Others are Malikat Rufai as Sandra Izsadore, Uche Ogodi as J.K. Braimah, Comfort Dangana as DJ Switch, Adeola Adebari as Tunde, Muhammed Agboluaje as the Driver, LaToya Ransom as the Radio Journalist and Aliu Ajala as the Babalawo. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda will be inaugurated for a fresh term on May 12. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will represent Nigeria at the sixth inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda. Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja. Mr Osinbajo will be joining several other heads of state and government at the swearing-in ceremony scheduled for May 12, at Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala, Uganda. Nigeria and Uganda share historical antecedents and enjoy good diplomatic relationships, including working together as member-states of the Commonwealth, the African Union, and the United Nations among others. Both countries have signed Bilateral Agreements on Technical Aid Corps, Trade, and on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation. The vice president had earlier participated at the resumed National Security Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. He also travelled to Lagos for a tour of the manufacturing facility of SecureID. SecureID is one of the three smart card manufacturing companies in Africa. Mr Osinbajo will depart Lagos for Kampala on Tuesday evening and will be accompanied by the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zubairu Dada, and the Special Adviser on Economic Matters to the President, Adeyemi Dipeolu. He is expected back in the country on Wednesday. Kenya has suspended flights to and from Somalia, just days after the countries restored diplomatic ties after a five-month break. The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority sent a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) stating that all flights between the two countries are suspended except medivac and United Nations humanitarian flights, according to a Somali official who did not want to be identified because he is not allowed to speak to media. The suspension is effective May 11 until at least August 9. VOA Somali service has seen KCAA's notice, issued on May 10, which confirms suspension of flights. KCAA has not yet announced the reason for the suspension, but it comes a day after Somalia issued a notice reaffirming an earlier ban on flights carrying khat, also known as mirra, from Kenya. "Carrying Mirra to Somalia is still prohibited and the policy of the Federal Government of Somalia did not change regarding the transportation of Miraa to Somalia airports," read a statement sent to airline operators by the Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) on May 9. "Transporting Mirra without clearance from SCAA will be considered an unlawful act and violation of Somali airspace," the notice added. Khat is a green narcotic stimulant grown in Kenya that is widely used in Somalia. Kenya's suspension of flights downgrades relations that seemed to be on the upswing. Just last week, Somalia announced it was restoring diplomatic ties with Kenya after mediation by the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. In December 2020, Somalia had cut diplomatic ties with Kenya, alleging constant violations of Somalia's sovereignty and interference in internal affairs. Kenya denied the accusations. The countries also have an ongoing maritime boundary dispute over who controls Indian Ocean waters believed to contain large deposits of oil and natural gas. Kenya Ministry of Foreign Affairs cautiously welcomed the restoration of ties and said it was looking forward to normalizing relations in terms of trade, communication, transportation, people to people relations and cultural exchanges. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kenya takes note of a press release issued by Somali authorities reestablishing their diplomatic relations with Kenya. pic.twitter.com/oZaaFYEPbO - -- ForeignAffairsKenya (@ForeignOfficeKE) May 7, 2021 Somali authorities initially suspended of all international flights in March 2020 after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the country. The suspension on international flights was lifted in August but a ban on khat flights remained in place. Officials in Somalia insisted the reason for maintaining the suspension is to prevent the coronavirus from spreading. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Somalia Kenya Travel By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. However, last year Somalia started allowing flights from Ethiopia to transport khat. At least four flights carrying Khat arrive in Somalia daily from the eastern Ethiopia city of Dire Dawa, according to traders. A National Airways PLC plane carrying several tons of khat from Ethiopia has arrived at Mogadishu airport on Saturday. This is the first flight from Ethiopia to deliver khat directly to Mogadishu, and it comes as Somalia refuses to allow Kenya khat flights to fly to Somalia. pic.twitter.com/BtqjvIwfBk - Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) October 17, 2020 The khat business has been lucrative for Kenya farmers. Before the suspension, as many as 15 Kenya flights carrying the narcotic stimulant used to make deliveries in several regions in Somalia per day. The continued suspension denies Kenya farmers millions of dollars in earnings from business with Somalia. Somalia activists are pressuring the federal government not to lift ban Khat as they argue the stimulant is associated with poor health and loss of hard currency. Kenya sends us drugs that destroys our society's health & well-being - putting our sense of livelihoods in jeapardy- Somalia sends real business & $$$. Kenya a loser in this transaction. They now doubling down on idiocy. pic.twitter.com/5xDiDmDK0h - Abukar Awale ( Qaaddiid ) (@Abukarawale) May 11, 2021 Salva Kiir, President of South Sudan, speaks to reporters outside the Security Council chamber at United Nations Headquarters in New York in 2009. Juba South Sudan President Salva Kiir on Monday reconstituted the National Legislative Assembly, one day after he dissolved the 400-member parliament in accordance with the revitalized peace agreement. The new parliament must now accommodate 550 members, including additional lawmakers from the formerly warring parties of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-In Government (SPLM-IG), the SPLM-In Opposition (SPLM-IO), the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA), Other Opposition Parties (OPP), and Former Detainees. The former transitional government nominated 332 members, the SPLM-IO nominated 128, the SSOA got 50, the OPP got 30, and the Former Detainees nominated 10. Lam Akol, head of the National Democratic Movement, a member of the umbrella opposition group South Sudan Opposition Alliance, said the parliament should have been reconstituted last year under the peace agreement, noting opposition parties submitted their nominations several months ago but Kiir's ruling SPLM-IG party delayed the process because they had not nominated their members. Akol told South Sudan in Focus that Kiir dissolved parliament now in order to impress U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Ambassador Donald Booth and UK Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Ambassador Robert Fairweather, both of whom arrived in Juba on Saturday. "We are now implementing the activities of the pre-transitional period rather than implementing the activities of the transitional period, so 18 months have gone and we are still talking of formation of government -- what we should have done about 15 months before that. There is no political will to implement the agreement, and the time is ticking and they were talking about extending the transitional period," said Akol. Responding to the agreement's obligations at this late date is not helpful, according to James Okuk, a senior research fellow at the Juba-based Center for Strategic Policy Studies. Okuk is not optimistic about the prospects of an oversized parliament working in the interests of the South Sudanese people, noting that the lawmakers are appointed, not elected, and that most of them are holdovers. "We know their attitudes and we know their behaviors. The best they are going to tax from their country is demanding for loans -- you may call it car loans or also for medical bills -- and this will really consume a lot of money from the government, given the fact that this parliament has been expanded to 550 members," Okuk told South Sudan in Focus. Okuk said if the parliament wants to be taken seriously, it must impeach ministers and fire other top officials "who do not respect public property and who do not respect the laws in the country," adding, "that's the only time I will say we have a real parliament." Although the parties to the peace deal took a long time to reconstitute parliament, Juba resident Oliver Joseph said he is glad it finally happened. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Sudan Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We need those appointed to look at how we can co-exist again. They should raise up those issues in parliament and how we can come up with the strategies to calm the situation in those different areas. Second of all, we need to look at education as a whole, we need to add more budget [dollars] into the education system," Joseph told South Sudan in Focus. Data Gordon, an activist with the OKAY Foundation, a nonprofit that deals with policy advocacy, said he wants the new parliament to take up policy decisions that were left hanging by the previous parliament. "There is also the youth policy, the youth enterprise development fund, the nurses and midwifery policy, as well as the HIV/AIDs policy because this conflict has made interventions in most of these areas a nightmare, so if they can focus on these it's very important. Secondly, let's have a national budget because for almost a year or so the country is running not on a national budget," Gordon told South Sudan in Focus. Analysts have said the lack of a functioning legislature over the past several months has made it nearly impossible for lawmakers to pass laws or approve sweeping reforms stipulated in the revitalized peace agreement. Kinshasa Doubts and perplexities have been expressed by representatives of civil society on the application of the state of siege in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which entered into force on May 6 (see Fides, 7/5/2021). "So far parliament has not yet passed any law regulating the application of the state of siege and the state of emergency, as recommended by the Constitution. This law should specify, for example, how to manage personal freedoms during the state of emergency and the state of siege", said Fr. Telesphore Malonga, professor of constitutional law at the Catholic University of Graben and president of the civil society of Butembo, stating his concern for the absence of a law that specifies how to apply the state of siege, as required by article 85 of the Constitution. The order of May 3 with which President Felix Tshisekedi launched the state of emergency provides for the replacement of the civil authorities of the two provinces by a military governor and a police deputy governor for a period of 30 days. But the military and security apparatus itself is not exempt from criticism, ineffectiveness and even complicity with the armed groups that wreak havoc in the two provinces. "Even within the army there is a malfunction that hinders its professionalism and effectiveness", said Professor Chober Agenonga, an expert in military sociology and lecturer at the University of Kisangani. "These are, for example, the insufficiency of logistics and military equipment, the misappropriation of funds destined to pay the salaries of the soldiers at the front, the existence of parallel chains of command and the complicity with certain armed groups". In the social sphere - continues the professor - the same complicity is sometimes observed between militiamen and members of their communities". "There is also the question of the lack of attention given to young people, which facilitates their enrollment in armed groups. These are all issues that explain, quite clearly, the fact that the state of siege will not be able to provide lasting solutions to the problem of insecurity", adds Professor Agenonga. According to the academic, in order to resolve the crisis in the east of the country, it is necessary to restructure the army by providing it with a unitary and professional chain of command and sufficient resources managed transparently to avoid embezzlement of money by officers and the transfer of weapons and ammunition to armed groups; strengthen the trust and collaboration between the civilian population and the security forces, because no war can be won without the trust and collaboration of the population; accelerate the Disarmament, Demobilization and Social Reintegration (DDRS) program reserved for members of armed groups who are willing to lay down their arms; rebuild the areas affected by violence, with the creation of jobs for young people; strengthen the authority of the State; re-establish inter-community cohesion, broken by the instrumentalization of the tribal militias responsible for the massacres of members of other communities. press release Damanhur In Damanhur Prison, the death penalty was carried out against Wael Saad Tawadros, the former Coptic Orthodox monk convicted of murdering Bishop Epiphanios. He was found dead on 29 July 2018 in the Monastery of San Macario of which he was Abbot. The news of the execution was confirmed on Sunday, May 9th, by the relatives of the man sentenced to death. "We were informed this morning at 8.00 that the execution took place in Damanhur prison, and I am on my way to recover the body", a brother of the man sentenced to death told the Egyptian media. This ends an episode that shocked and wounded the entire Coptic Church and in particular the network of monastic communities (see Fides, 30/7/2018 and 11/8/2018). On July 1, 2020, the Supreme Court in Egypt upheld the death sentence already imposed on Wael Saad Tawadros in the first instance, while a death sentence initially pronounced against his accomplice, the monk Falta'os Al-Makary, was turned into life imprisonment. Throughout the trial, both defendants declared themselves innocent and withdrew previous confessions of guilt, which they said had been blackmailed through investigative psychological pressure. As emerges from the investigations on which the trial is based, there were disputes between the murdered abbot and the two convicts over economic issues and various violations of the monks' rules by the two monks. Anba Epiphanius, aged 64 at the time of the murder, was a native of Tanta and a doctor of medicine. In 1984 he entered the monastery of San Macario in the Wadi Natrun region and was ordained a priest in 2002. As a researcher and scholar, he had worked on translations from Greek into Arabic of various books of the Bible and participated as an expert at the 10th International Conference on Coptic Studies, held in Rome in 2012. The majority of the 100 monks of the monastery of San Macario elected him abbot on February 3, 2013. He was a student of Matta el Meskin - the spiritual father and key figure in the recent history of the Coptic Orthodox monastery - and enjoyed intense spiritual moments with monastic communities of the Catholic Church. The tragic story of Anba Epiphanios accelerated the process of discernment around the monastic life already started some time ago within the Coptic Orthodox Church. On Friday, August 3, 2018, the Committee of the Holy Synod responsible for Coptic Orthodox monasteries approved 12 rules. The rules already ratified by Patriarch Tawadros II should henceforth be obeyed by everyone who lives in a monastic community of the Coptic Orthodox Church. In collaboration with YouTube and MTV Base Africa, acclaimed actor Idris Elba (pictured) will host this year's Africa Day Concert. MTV Base, YouTube, and Idris Elba announce the return of the AFRICA DAY CONCERT 2021, which will be hosted by Golden Globe and SAG winner, Idris Elba this Africa Day, 25th of May. This follows the inaugural Africa Day Benefit Concert At Home in 2020 that brought African and global superstars together to celebrate Africa Day and raise funds to support families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This year's concert will shine the light on Africa's next wave of talent that are making their mark on the global stage. The global event will stream on Youtube at 17:00 GMT (19:00 CAT/18:00 WAT) and on MTV Base (DStv Channel 322) at 19:00 (21:00 CAT/20:00 WAT). The virtual concert will be a Pan African event featuring trailblazing African stars from across the continent. Artists will perform on multiple stages from Lagos to Johannesburg in an event that will be streamed to a global audience on YouTube and broadcast on the MTV channels. Africa is in the midst of a creative and cultural renaissance that has been accelerated by artists who are claiming a unique space in the world. Africa Day Concert 2021 Host Idris Elba commented, "I'm committed to shining a light on African culture, heritage and the arts. During a year when globally we have all had to reflect deeply on our purpose, I've taken inspiration from the continent with its diversity of voices, creativity and innovation. Here's to Africa's Next Global Wave." The concert will shine a light on the leaps in innovation being made by Africans, those who are redefining the narrative of a continent and the exchange of music, creativity and cultural ideas that are taking the world by storm. The event will feature some of the most dynamic emerging artists from the diaspora who will be unveiled in the weeks leading up the Africa Day. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa Entertainment Liberia By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Alex Okosi, Managing Director of Emerging Markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at YouTube commented, "We are excited to work with Idris Elba and MTV Base to celebrate Africa Day this year through another powerful concert event. With African music continuing to connect and inspire people around the world, the timing is perfect to shine the spotlight on the next wave of African artists that will make a global impact on music and culture." Monde Twala, Senior Vice President and General Manager at ViacomCBS Networks Africa commented, "The past year has been an unprecedented one for all of us and it is a tremendous inspiration so see how our African artists and Africans on the continent and globally are lighting the way through creativity, collaboration and innovation. MTV through music, culture and active citizenship unifies and strives to mobilize the youth to drive hope and positive change. We are proud to partner with YouTube and Idris Elba for the Africa Day Concert 2021. As ViacomCBS we are committed to unleashing the potential of content." The concert will be hosted virtually in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with all safety and social distancing measures observed. Viewers from around the global can expect to see a spectacular display of African excellence as the sounds, sights and rhythm of the continent unite Africans once more this Africa Day. Be sure to catch the Africa Day Concert 2021, this Africa Day, 25th of May, streaming globally on Youtube at 17:00 GMT (19:00 CAT/18:00 WAT) and on MTV Base (DStv Channel 322) at 19:00 GMT (21:00 CAT/20:00 WAT). The series will be screened for the first time to the general public starting from May 14 on Netflix. The journey into motherhood is the joy of every woman but in a certain Nigerian village, the death of a pregnant woman brings about prosperity. These are the dominant themes in The Mystic River, a new series that was exclusively screened at the Terra Culture, Victoria Island, on Sunday. The 26-episode series shot in the Ijebu-ode area of Ogun State was produced by Rogers Ofime and directed by Uzodinma Okpechi. The plot, the filmmaker, says, is a reflection of some archaic cultural practices that need to be abolished as well as some that are worthy of emulation. Mr Ofime told PREMIUM TIMES that his project can be described as a story of good and evil. The series, which lasted for about an hour, stars movie veteran actors like Jide Kosoko, who played the role of the king, Dele Odule, who played the role of Balogun, and Joke Muyiwa. Other actors in the production include Ben Touitou, Tonia Chukwurah, Ayo Ewebiyi, Sogade Oluwabunmi, Debby Eloghosa, Folaremi Agunbiade, and Maryjane Ogu. Plot The horror supernatural series follows a story from a remote Nigerian village. Many women in a village start vanishing and all of them have something in common. The ones that vanished from the village apparently were pregnant. This remains a mystery until a doctor comes by with a child and she comes near to uncovering some of the most dangerous secrets covering all of these up. The props, cinematography, and characters show cultural depth, just as the first part of the series is laced with several horror scenes. It is, however, shocking to see that the next victim for the "greater good" of the village, Bisi, a pregnant woman, stabs herself in the place of refuge after escaping from captivity. Asked why he chose to shoot a supernatural horror series, the filmmaker said he is deciding to carve a niche for himself when it comes to storytelling. "I want to be able to tell Africa stories, I want to be able to tell stories that have some impact, I want to be able to tell stories that will provoke people to think, to do something, to change something, that's the niche I'm trying to carve for myself. "I am not going against tradition, I'm not going against culture, I feel like there some things, it's a metaphor, there are somethings we don't like in our country today and we can stand up and do something about it like the doctor stood up to fight tradition, we can stand up and do something, we don't have to leave everything to the government. I believe that standing up, saying something, or making a change will go a long way," he explained. Challenges Mr Ofime, who is best known for producing several notable Nigerian television soap operas, including the successful 'Tinsel', said they encountered many challenges while shooting the series. From having to live in a community with no basic amenities for two months, to navigating unfamiliar terrains. He said getting a good phone network connection required the cast and crew to drive 45 minutes away from the community. He mentioned that some of his crew members were also bitten by reptiles on different occasions. Abimbola, one of the guests at the screening, said the series is worth watching as it brings the Nigerian culture to the global space. "One of the things I love about this movie is the fact that it explores our culture, there are not so many Nigeria movies on foreign platforms that explore the intricacies of some of the things that go on in our communities, our nation, our society, that explore our tradition. This one does," she said. Also, one of the cast members, Jude Chukwuka, who, interestingly is Igbo but describes himself Yoruba-centric, told this newspaper that he rehearsed his lines for two weeks of rehearsal and was on set for a month. He applauded the screenwriter and filmmaker for upholding the African and indeed the Nigerian culture in the project. He also urged more Nigerian filmmakers to follow suit and promote the Nigerian culture in their productions. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Entertainment By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "If you are looking for an American message, you will not find it in an African story. Is our culture, our beliefs not enough lessons? Except you are looking at it from the point of James Bond, for me our culture, telling our story the way we are is enough message. "Create an African environment, Let's tell your story, and let African-ness fly everywhere, that's my point. So, looking for a core message like you would find in Shakespeare, I don't care, let's just bring our African-ness and let people see it. "There is a dearth of African culture and in whatever way we can push it, let's push it. 'The Mystic River' The movie is a must-watch because it is set in African told by Africans in an African setting and unashamedly brought to the global stage". The 'The Mystic River' will be screened for the first time to the general public starting from May 14 on Netflix. press release At the National Assembly, today, the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, stated that since July 2019 to June 2020, 40, 840 drivers have been booked by way of Photographic Enforcement Device for exceeding speed limit. Recalling that the Photographic Enforcement Device Unit (PEDU) was set up by the Traffic Management and Road Safety Unit of the Ministry of Land Transport and Light Rail, Mr Jugnauth informed the House that the Unit is manned by Police Officers from the Traffic Branch and has been operational since December 2008. The PEDU, he said, is responsible for the management of the structure, process, and system of the Photographic Enforcement Devices which capture over-speeding offences through fixed speed cameras. Detailing the Photographic Enforcement Device project, the Prime Minister explained that a network of Fixed Speed Cameras have been installed on roads around the island in zones with indicated speed limits of 40 kilometres per hour, 60 kilometres per hour, 80 kilometres per hour and 110 kilometres per hour to take the photographs of those vehicles, including their registration plates, which exceed the indicated speed limits. The Head of Government underlined that the system does not categorise vehicles in terms of their make and type, as the database system, kept at the PEDU, has been designed to keep records of the registration number, date, time and place of offence as well as the speed, and to capture photographs of the vehicle found speeding. It is linked to the database of the National Land Transport Authority from where particulars and ownership of the vehicles are obtained, he added. Also, declared Mr Jugnauth, the photographs taken by the speed cameras are transmitted to the PEDU, which processes the speeding offences, and Photographic Enforcement Device Notices are sent by post to the road traffic offenders for the payment of relevant fines for exceeding speed limit, in breach of Section 124 of the Road Traffic (Amendment) Act 2018. Luanda Angolan minister of Social Action, Family and Women Promotion stressed Monday the importance of volunteering in the current context of Covid-19 and calamity situations. Faustina Alves, who was speaking to the press after the approval of the Draft Law on Volunteer in the special terms in National Assembly, said that the initiative aims at boosting the spirit of solidarity among people. Approved by 1st, 2nd and 8th Working Commissions of the National Assembly, the document will be forwarded to the plenary meeting on 19th this month for final global vote. In order to attain this goal, the minister defended the need to boost social responsibility and citizenship among civil society agents. She acknowledged the bond of affection and sensitivity of Angolans towards those in need, mainly in the situations of pandemic and disasters. The minister explained that the Draft Law enables the volunteers to get organised, registered and know their rights and duties. However, she clarified that the citizens who volunteer cannot demand compensation. According to her, volunteering does not replace the role of the State. To this purpose, she said, the promoting entities should not engage volunteers in substitution of contracted employees or as a means of avoiding compliance with legal obligations. Fatima Alves said that Voluntary work is open to the public and serve to support the State in certain situations, such as collection, distribution of resources, among other solidarity actions. Bill The Bill aims to lay down foundations for the promotion of a culture of solidarity, social cohesion and strengthen the value of citizenship, through cross-cutting public policies for different public and private entities, in particular individual citizens. The initiative is extensive to national or foreigners and legal persons, who participate in solidarity actions, organised or promoted by entities that promote volunteering. Faustina Alves, who was speaking to the press after the approval of the Draft Law on Volunteer in the special terms in National Assembly, said that the initiative aims at boosting the spirit of solidarity among people. Approved by 1st, 2nd and 8th Working Commissions of the National Assembly, the document will be forwarded to the plenary meeting on 19th this month for final global vote. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Angola Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In order to attain this goal, the minister defended the need to boost social responsibility and citizenship among civil society agents. She acknowledged the bond of affection and sensitivity of Angolans towards those in need, mainly in the situations of pandemic and disasters. The minister explained that the Draft Law enables the volunteers to get organised, registered and know their rights and duties. However, she clarified that the citizens who volunteer cannot demand compensation. According to her, volunteering does not replace the role of the State. To this purpose, she said, the promoting entities should not engage volunteers in substitution of contracted employees or as a means of avoiding compliance with legal obligations. Fatima Alves said that Voluntary work is open to the public and serve to support the State in certain situations, such as collection, distribution of resources, among other solidarity actions. Bill The Bill aims to lay down foundations for the promotion of a culture of solidarity, social cohesion and strengthen the value of citizenship, through cross-cutting public policies for different public and private entities, in particular individual citizens. The initiative is extensive to national or foreigners and legal persons, who participate in solidarity actions, organised or promoted by entities that promote volunteering. PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa yesterday warned water contractors and engineers against poor performance in water projects implementation. "We have performed a huge task of restoring discipline among officials in the public offices, and those who are still rigid, they will change upon experiencing disciplinary measures," the Premier stated yesterday in Dodoma when opening a water stakeholders' meeting. The meeting, organised by the Ministry of Water, involved rural and urban water authorities, contractors, engineers and other stakeholders. He told water engineers to ensure that they effectively supervise contractors in their areas and take actions against shoddy undertaking of projects. "We must ensure that everyone, at his or her work station, implements his or her responsibility in order to make the government realise its target in supplying water," he said, while stressing on ef ficiency, patriotism and effectiveness when implementing water projects. Mr Majaliwa went on censuring dishonest contractors, who inflate costs of projects for their own benefits, while reprimanding them over unnecessary delays in completion of the projects. The government targets to increase water supply in urban areas to 95 per cent and rural areas by 85 per cent come 2025. With this target, Mr Majaliwa issued several directives to the ministry, contractors and water engineers who implement water projects countrywide. Among other directives, the Prime Minister directed that all executives should ensure that water sources are protected and increase more efforts in doing studies to identify new sources. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Tanzania Water By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He specifically told the ministry to work closely with geoscientists for more research works and initiate other projects meant to increase water sources. He went on instructing that places near major lakes of Tanganyika, Victoria and Nyasa are supplied with enough clean and safe water by constructing more water supply infrastructures. As the water sector is a catalyst for the growth of other sectors including agriculture and industry, Mr Majaliwa commended the ministry for increasing water to supply to 72.3 and 86 per cent in rural and urban areas respectively by March, this year. This was through implementation of number of projects in which, a total of 171 water projects, out of which 67 have been completed at a total cost of 756.2bn/- Earlier, the Minister for Water Jumaa Aweso said his ministry has shortlisted perfect contractors to continue working in implementing projects, noting that they have blacklisted a total of 118 engineers. "I have agreed with my people in the ministry that we have sacrificed ourselves to make sure that people get clean and safe water," he said. He said the establishment of the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) has so far recorded strides in implementation of water projects, especially in supervising the projects. Earlier, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Water, Dr Christine Ishengoma, commended the introduction of the Tanzania Water Fund, saying it has been enabled in supplying water in rural places. By Arthur Arnold Wadero The five-year term of the 10th Parliament came to an end yesterday. The closure will now pave the way for incoming MPs who will be sworn in next week from May 17 to 20, followed by elections of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker on May 21. Ms Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of Parliament, hinted on end of business (yesterday) at the start of plenary. "You know Cabinet is getting dissolved. We (Parliament) also want to ensure we finish our work today. This is our last sitting," she briefly communicated. Last Thursday, Ms Helen Kaweesa, the depty director of communications and public affairs at Parliament, told Daily Monitor that the House business would end on Tuesday (yesterday). "This means the 10th Parliament will no longer be in existence and MPs will be expected to take leave of their offices," Ms Kawesa said. She added: "Even MPs who are returning in the 11th Parliament are required to vacate their respective offices gradually. They will be allocated new office space upon their return." However, the minister of Information and Communications Technology, Ms Judith Nabakooba, said Cabinet has not been dissolved. "No. Ministers are still in offices and we will be advised soon by AG (Attorney General)," she said in a text message (yesterday) to our reporter. The AG (Mr William Byaruhanga) is the principle legal adviser to government. Ms Kadaga said the current Parliament has passed on the pending business to the next crop of MPs for action. At an appropriate time, a formal motion will be moved in the 11th Parliament to save the pending business in 10th Parliament. The 10th Parliament passed more than 100 Bills but there are several others, as well as petitions from the general public that have remained pending. A committee set up by Abuja Minister Muhammed Bello submitted its report in December but the victims say they have heard no word since. Florence Nwokoro's dream for 2020 was to expand her business. She was making headway until October 19 when everything went up in flames. That day, her shop and many others at the Apo-Kabusa market in Abuja were torched by arsonists during the ENDSARS protests that shook Nigeria for weeks that month. The market was one of the worst scenes of violence as hoodlums attacked protesters, looted shops and destroyed properties estimated at hundreds of millions of naira. Mrs Nwokoro said she had a foreboding of the mayhem. Her husband had had a dream the night before of her shop being vandalised. But they were helpless to stop it. "We stay around here but we dared not come when they put fire on my shop. I was inside with my husband and our children when we heard about it," the 45-year old mother of four told PREMIUM TIMES as she shared with the reporter a video of her burning shop as recorded on her phone. Ms Nwokoro sells mattresses, paint and other household materials. Her shop is located beside a busy two-lane highway in the Gudu district of Abuja. So, it was easy to access for the hoodlums who had taken it upon themselves to disrupt what had begun as a peaceful protest and use the opportunity to loot, destroy and kill. With tears in her eyes, Ms Nwokoro recalled how she had gone through the Igbo apprenticeship system before becoming a proud owner of the shop stocked with wares she estimated at N21 million. But because she had no insurance cover, she has no way of recovering her loss and is now limited to whatever stocks she can get on credits to keep the shop open. PREMIUM TIMES' initial reports on the EndSARS protests in Abuja captured the heart-rending stories of victims of the violence. When he visited some scenes of the mayhem, the FCT minister, Muhammed Bello, promised to ensure payment of compensation to affected businesses and those who lost properties. "We have seen the level of damage and I must admit that it is unfortunate. However, a committee has been set up to look at all the issues. Those who lost anything should approach the committee. "Compensations will be paid to those who have genuine cases. All the issues will be resolved as soon as possible. We call on everyone to live together and avoid anything that will lead to any disturbance," Mr Bello promised residents and business owners on October 22, 2020, three days after the incident. The EndSARS Protest The EndSARS protest, which started as a peaceful protest against the notorious police unit, SARS, across Nigeria in October 2020 turned violent as hoodlums and politically sponsored thugs clashed with the protesting youths in some states amidst widespread looting of warehouses and businesses. The Apo District in Abuja had its share of such attacks on October 19 when hoodlums, armed with assorted weapons, attacked protesters in Asokoro and later, at the Apo roundabout. The protesters withdrew into the district which houses many small and medium-scale businesses. PREMIUM TIMES witnessed the protest and how the protesters were attacked. No Support Seven months after, however, the affected business owners have not heard a word from the Abuja authorities on the process that the minister put in place towards helping them back to their feet. Worst affected are business owners like Mrs Nwokoro who had no insurance cover. But the shop owner described herself as lucky compared to her counterparts in shopping complexes who have not been able to reopen their shops due to lack of financial support. "As you see this shop, I set it up on credit. I collect from the company. When I sell, I return the money to them, I keep my profit and they give me another one. This is how I now make my daily bread," Mrs Nwokoro said. "It has not been easy, many people left the line (shops). There are new people in those shops." Patrick Okora falls in the category of those referred to by Mrs Nwokoro. A motor mechanic workshop owner, he could no longer stand on his own since the incident. He now shares a half plot space with three other friends in the innermost part of the Apo Mechanic village. With a family to care for, Mr Okora said the months since the hoodlums burnt down his workshop, strategically located on a hilltop in the bustling business district, have been some of the worst in his life. "I lost not only vehicles; my toolboxes were also stolen by the "boola boys" (scavengers)," he said as he took the reporter round what remained of his burnt workshop. The place was littered with the carcasses of vehicles. Most of the burnt vehicles were exotic cars he had worked on and was waiting for their owners to pick up and pay him for his services. He estimated the material loss at over N50 million but said the emotional loss is unquantifiable. "I have relocated because nobody wants to fix a car where almost 20 cars were burnt. Before I left this place, the owners of the burnt cars came to ask what I was going to do about their losses. It started sounding like threats." Irredeemable loss Not far from Mr Okora's abandoned hilltop workshop is the home of Attahiru Muhammad, an Islamic cleric who was killed during the attack. After two days of searching for his widow, this reporter eventually located the 66-year-old woman at an abandoned mass housing estate in the area. On that day in October, Mr Muhammad had received a call that the mosque where he was a Quranic teacher had been vandalized. He was rushing to the mosque at the Apo Market when he ran into the hoodlums who killed him instantly. Finishing touches were being put to the renovation of the burnt mosque in April when this reporter visited for this report. It was confirmed that the renovation was funded by an unnamed man in Jos. During a visit to her house, this reporter was accompanied by someone Mrs Muhammad was familiar with, which allowed her to freely speak on her current situation. She allowed this reporter in and narrated her loneliness and helplessness since the death of her husband, the family's breadwinner. Mrs Muhammad said no government official had visited or called her, six months since the FCT administration said it had set up a committee to investigate the death of her husband and other victims. "Other than family and friends who drop in within the first month after the death of my husband, you are the only person that is visiting to speak on this matter in months," she told this reporter in Hausa. The FCT police said seven persons were killed in the riot but Mrs Muhammad said she doubted whether her husband was identified among them "because we have not seen anyone from there since the incident." And this is despite submitting his name as directed by the FCT authorities to the "Ministerial Committee set up to Assess Losses and Damages occasioned by the #EndSARS Protests in Abuja." Help delayed or withheld? Ms Nwokoro, Mr Okora and other affected business owners had also followed the FCT minister's instruction to register their losses with the committee. Some of the victims said they met its officials at the Investment House in Area 11, Garki where the committee had a temporary office. But in April when this reporter visited the place, a receptionist at the place said the "project has long been concluded" and directed him to "check with the FCDA." However, the chairman of the committee, Abass Idris, said it submitted its report in December 2020. He refused to discuss its recommendations. Mr Idris, who is also the Director-General of the FCT Emergency Management Agency, said the committee did not only consider Apo in its assessment but also those affected in Idu Industrial Layout and all the area councils. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Business Governance Conflict By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "That is where our work stopped, we are not to follow up on the implementation which is now for the administration to do the needful. We were able to get submissions from all those areas you mentioned, we had grey areas and we called them to clarify and then admit them into the report," Mr Idris said. "I'm sure the FCT administration is doing something about it. But you know when it comes to money... As I am talking to you, the FCT budget has not been released by the National Assembly. It might be one of such delays that is affecting the implementation or they await a special grant in case it is not in the 2021 budget for FCT. All these are possibilities. "The FCT has assured us at the submission of our report that there will be consolidation for the victims," the committee chair told PREMIUM TIMES. The FCT minister, Mr Bello, did not answer calls from this reporter for this report. Mr Bello's spokesperson, Anthony Ogunleye, in a phone interview with this reporter, said he did not have answers yet but pleaded to reach out a day after. He has yet to do so. Some states already compensating While the Abuja authorities delay in assisting the victims of the #EndSARS violence, the Lagos State government says it has already supported a total of 1,835 businesses affected by the violence that occurred during the EndSARS protest with N939.98 million. This is separate from those who will be awarded compensation based on the ruling of the panel set up by the Lagos government to investigate police brutality. The panel, which is still sitting, has been awarding compensation to some of the victims. Some local governments in the state have also been supporting people who lost properties during the EndSARS protest. Panels in states like Ekiti and Ondo have also been awarding various sums to victims of the violence that followed the EndSARS protests. However, for Mrs Nwokoro and other Abuja victims, the promise by the Abuja minister is appearing more like a mirage. Nairobi Police are urging members of the public who have fallen prey to fraudsters posing as mobile telecommunication firms' sales agents to volunteer the information so as to trigger action. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) on Tuesday said hundreds of people have fallen victim of a syndicate where fraudsters claim the are running promotions, including upgrading subscribers to the 5G network. They use fake branding and other promotional materials on vehicles which park strategically on crowded streets where they prey on unsuspecting clients. "The well-organized syndicate consists of young men and women, who pose as sales agents of a renown mobile telecommunication company. They operate from the attached vehicle behind Kenya Archives, along Tom Mboya Street, posing as genuine marketers of unreasonably cheap smartphones, iPads, tablets and other flashy electronic products," the DCI said in a statement. The DCI said that due to victims not showing up at police stations or reporting to the Serious Crime Unit, prosecuting the cases has always proven a challenge. "As such, we appeal to members of the public who may have been hoodwinked by the fraudsters to report at DCI Headquarters' Serious Crime Unit, to formally report their experiences with the syndicate for necessary Police action to be initiated," the said. The public was urged to share information through the DCI's hotline 0800 722 203. "This is a toll-free number where calls are made confidentially, with the caller remaining anonymous in that neither their names nor phone numbers are displayed," the DCI added. An attempt by Boko Haram fighters to infiltrate Maiduguri, the Borno State capital and the birthplace of the insurgency group was repelled by the military yesterday evening. THISDAY gathered that the attack, which lasted for over 30 minutes, left many houses burnt, while many children and women were declared missing. Residents of the Maiduguri were thrown into panic when the outskirt of the town, Jiddari Polo was attacked at about 6pm. Many people fleeing from the area into the main town, lamented that their homes were attacked. They alleged that the insurgents shot sporadically in the area, and threw powerful explosive devices on some of the houses. As the sound continued to echo all around the town, women, children, and the aged persons were seen trooping into the city centre for safety. A source told THISDAY that many residential houses were completely burnt down at Jiddari Polo. It was however difficult to ascertain the number of casualties on the side of the combatants and civilian as it was already dark when the shooting ceased and soldiers had already condoned off the area. However, a lot of pictures were shared on social media among people in the town with some people in camouflage believed to be insurgents, felled by bullets. Soldiers were seen moving into the area in armoured vehicles to combat the insurgents. Few minutes later, ambulances were seen by the residents moving into the area to evacuate corpses and the injured. Attempts to get the spokesman of the Operation Hai Kai, the military operation in the area, Col. Ado Isa to speak on the attack was unsuccessful as his calls were not picked. The Ministry of Transportation has explained that it objected to the award of contracts for the management of channels by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) because it is more cost-effective for the NPA to procure necessary equipment and execute the contracts in-house. In a statement issued yesterday by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Dr. Magdalene Ajani, the ministry described the allegation that the Minister, Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, recommended two Chinese companies to execute the contracts as malicious, unfounded and a deliberate attempt to drag the reputation and the integrity of the minister in the mud. The statement disclosed that while channel management contracts had been routinely awarded over the years by the NPA at a cost of between N50 billion and N60 billion on an annual basis, Amaechi had adopted a firm position that the NPA should undertake the job of channel management on an in-house basis through the acquisition of the necessary machinery and professional capacity to stop the humongous annual sums paid out to dredging contractors by the agency. The ministry, in the statement noted that the channel management contracts for the Lagos, Bonny and Port-Harcourt Channels expired in 2020, while the contractual process for the renewal of the said contracts commenced early in 2021. According to the statement, Amaechi, had while responding to a request for the NPA to provide requisite details related to the proposed transactions directed on January 22, 2021: "There is the need for NPA to know that NPA should purchase their own equipment and not award any contract. "The letter requested the NPA to provide the following information for the ministry's records and further necessary action: The current status of the managing agent contract and the measures put in place to cover the vacuum created as a result of the expiration of the contract to prevent revenue loss to the government; "The current status of the Lagos and Bonny/Port Harcourt Channel management companies and the measures put in place to cover the gap created by the expired contracts to ensure the channels are maintained for safe navigation and efficient service delivery; "The volume dredged annually from the channels and the depths achieved from inception management contracts to date and the amount expended; "The number of wrecks removed annually by the Channel Management Companies from inception of the contracts and amount spent; and "The total number of buoys replaced or maintained during the life span of the contract and the amount spent. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Transport By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "I am to also convey the directives on the need for the Authority to procure its equipment for the service and cease from awarding any such contract." The ministry's statement said despite the fact the above letter was duly received by the NPA on February 2, 2021, NPA did not deem it necessary till date to respond to the ministerial directives. The ministry said in keeping with the best traditions of the public service, it would not be drawn into an endless media war. According to the statement, the agenda being pursued in the media could best be canvassed before the administrative panel it has set up to unravel issues surrounding the management of the NPA since 2016. "The panel has been charged to be fair and equitable in its deliberations and will certainly, ensure that the primary purpose of the inquiry is the promotion of the principles of transparency and accountability which are strongly espoused in the present political dispensation," the statement added. Governors of the 17 southern states under the aegis of the Southern Governors Forum have called on the federal government to convoke a national dialogue as a matter of urgency to address widespread agitations among Nigerians for greater inclusiveness in governance. "The federal government should convoke a national dialogue as a matter of urgency," they said in a communique at the end of their meeting yesterday in Asaba, the Delta State capital. The governors also called for the restructuring of the country and end to open grazing in the Southern parts of the country to curb the excesses of armed herders. In the 12-point communique, the governors stressed the need to review appointments into federal government agencies, including security agencies, to reflect federal character and the heterogeneity of the Nigerian population. They said in the communique, read by the Chairman of the forum and Ondo State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, that they had resolved to foster cooperation among the Southern states and the nation at large. The communique added that the governors reviewed the situation in the country and deliberated on the current security situation, agitations/restructuring, prospect for inter-state collaboration and partnerships as well as on the incidence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their conclusion: "We affirm that the peoples of Southern Nigeria remain committed to the unity of Nigeria on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness, and peaceful co-existence between and among its peoples with a focus on the attainment of shared goals for economic development and prosperity." Observing that the incursion of armed herders, criminals, and bandits into the Southern part of the country has presented a severe security challenge such that citizens are not able to live their normal lives, including pursuing various productive activities leading to a threat to food supply and general security, the governors said open grazing has to stop. "Consequently, the meeting resolved that open grazing of cattle be banned across Southern Nigeria," they said, noting that development and population growth has put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local populations in the South. Given this scenario, they said, it has become imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the South, including cattle movement to the South by foot. The governors also recommended that the federal government should support willing states to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems. They added that the progress of the nation requires that urgent and bold steps be taken to restructure the Nigerian federation leading to the evolution of state police, review of revenue allocation formula in favour of the sub-national governments and creation of other institutions which legitimately advance the commitment to and practice of true federalism. "In deference to the sensitivities of our various peoples, there is a need to review appointments into the federal government agencies, including security agencies, to reflect federal character as Nigeria's overall population is heterogeneous." They expressed concern over the continued gridlock on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and the chokehold, it exerted on the nation's economy being the sole outlet from Apapa Wharf. To ease the gridlock, the governors recommended the activation and establishment of ports in other states of the federation to create new jobs and promote socio-economic activities in the country. The governors also expressed concern over the economic implications of another lockdown on the country, and suggested greater coordination and cooperation between the federal and state governments in evolving strategies for dealing with the pandemic. They further "expressed very grave concern on the security challenges currently plaguing the nation and strongly urged that Mr. President should address Nigerians on the challenges of insecurity and restore the confidence of our people. Besides Akeredolu, other governors at the meeting were Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State;; Chief Willie Obiano of Anambra State; Senator Duoye Diri of Bayelsa State; Chief Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State; Mr. Godwin Obaseki of Edo State; Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State; Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State; and Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State. Others are: Prince Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State; Mr. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State; and Chief Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. However, Prof. Ben Ayade of Cross River State and Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun State were absent, while Mr. Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom) and Senator Hope Uzodimma (Imo State) were represented by their deputies. ACF Backs Ban on Open Grazing, Supports Restructuring Meanwhile, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has endorsed the position of the southern governors' forum on the ban on open grazing of cattle. Spokesman of the ACF, Mr. Emmanuel Yawe stated this while reacting to the outcome of the governors' meeting in an interview with THISDAY yesterday. He however said before a decision should be taken on restructuring, Nigerians should first agree on whether the country should remain one before deciding on what structure to adopt. "On the issue of the ban of open grazing, I don't think there is much problem here with the stand of the ACF. "At our last National Working Committee meeting in Kaduna, the National leader of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria spoke to us at length and he said he and his organisation have decided that the only way forward and that is in the interest of MACBAN, is to embark on ranching and that they were waiting for governments policy on this", Yawe said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He stressed further that, "If MACABAN wants open grazing banned, not only in the southern part of Nigeria but all over Nigeria, who are we to say otherwise? "We are therefore in support of the stand of MACBAN and the Southern state governors." He however said, on the issue of dialogue and restructuring, "the ACF has always believed in this if the aim of the dialogue is to promote the unity and progress of the whole country. "Our forum will dialogue with any state and group of people that share our cherished ideals of unity, justice, peace and progress", Yawe said. On restructuring, he said "the ACF believes that before we make a decision on this, we should agree on whether Nigeria should remain one country before deciding on what structure Nigeria should take. "Our position on this is informed on the facts that some of the advocates of restructuring are at the same time advocating the dissolution of Nigeria. "Are they believers in Nigeria at all? We must all agree to let Nigeria be before we move forward." The apex Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, yesterday restated the call for President Muhammadu Buhari to resign or step aside over his alleged inability to address insecurity and the dwindling economic challenges facing the country. The call was made during the 95th birthday celebration of the leader of the group, Chief Reuben Fasonrati, and the dedication of a church in his honour in Iju/Ita Ogbolu in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State. The Acting National Leader of the group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, said the Buhari-led government had incapacitated the country and had failed to address the increasing wave of insecurity and downturn of the economy. Adebanjo said that with the series of challenges confronting the country, Buhari ought to have resigned long ago without being forced to. He said the President had failed the people of the country, adding that there is no better time to leave but now. He argued that Buhari's government can no longer handle the situation. Adebanjo said " I have told them that in a better and civilised country, he should have gone long ago. If he has self-respect, he should have gone because everything has to fall. "What is he presiding over? Is it over corruption, security, education? Law and order have broken down in the country for the past three years. It is only because Nigerians are over tolerance of despots; that is why he is still there". He berated the youth for failing the country, stressing that "the younger generation has failed the country. The country was not as bad as this when we were demonstrating for self-governance. "They want the old men to fight their cause for them. "Why should people like me be in the trenches at 93 and Baba Fasoranti at 95? Where are those in their 40s and 30s? "When we were at their age, we were in the streets, at Lagos, London, everywhere. "You are PDP in the morning, APC in the afternoon and SDP in the evening, and they say they are young; the youth should be ashamed of themselves." Enugu State-based Catholic Priest, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka, has finally bowed to the directive of the Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Rt. Rev. Callistus Onaga, as he has proceeded on a one-month prayer retreat. The priest also announced the shutting down of the Adoration Ministry for the period of his retreat. Mbaka had last Sunday apologised to the bishop for the alleged destruction of facilities at the Bishop's Court during a protest by his supporters last week when his whereabouts was unknown. The ministry had sent out a notice early yesterday morning informing members of the church that Mbaka was proceeding on a one-month private prayer retreat. A message to that effect read: "Our Spiritual Director, Rev Fr Ejike Mbaka, wishes to inform his beloved adorers that he has embarked on a private prayer retreat that will end on June 10, 2021. "Consequently, no ministry activities shall be held in the ministry ground pending his return. "He directs that members of the ministry are to observe this period of his retreat as they used to do during the usual January breaks of the ministry, by praying at their homes, being charitable and fasting according to their ability. Adoration! Holy Spirit is our Power." Followers of the controversial cleric had reportedly broke into the Diocesan Cathedral Church and allegedly desecrated the Holy Altar of sacrifice, vandalised the Diocesan bishop's residence, the Cathedral parish house and the secretariat building complex. These took place after news made the rounds that the priest had gone missing. He, however, resurfaced hours after his followers stormed the episcopal residence demanding to know the priest's whereabouts. Onaga in a statement addressed to the leadership of parishes, chaplains, and religious houses in the Diocese of Enugu, described the May 5 incident as a "heinous act" against the sanctity of the Church, and called on the people of God in the diocese to repent. "I hereby declare and call for a one-week union of prayer in reparation and atonement for this heinous act against our central place of worship and the sanctity of the Church," he said. Addis Abeba Among the ethnic Tigryans who experienced arbitrary arrest are refugees who were repatriated from Saudi Arabia on April 5, 2021. The returnees were jailed in Saudi Arabia and welcomed to Addis Ababa with yet another arrest. They told Addis Standard, "We were detained without charge after being arrested by Addis Abeba police later we were released on bail." Elias (name changed for security reasons) told Addis Standard "I was having coffee with my friends when they took me." He detailed the events that occurred on April 10, 2021 where he and his friends who'd recently returned from Saudi Arabia after two years were having coffee in Mercato's Teklehaimanot square in the capital Addis Abeba. "The police approached us and asked to see our IDs then we were taken to 'amistegna' police station." According to Elias, the police then explained to them that the reason for their arrest was the violation of Covid-19 preventive measures. Elias continued describing the conditions of his arrest by recalling being taken to Gelan police station. "After they took us and we reached Gelan, it became clear that we were arrested because of our ethnic identity. All of the inmates were Tegaru." The incident is similar to a report by Reuters which detailed the experiences of Tigryans who experienced ethnic profiling after conflict broke out in Tigray region in November last year. The report included the testimonies of Tigrayan diplomats, professors, journalists, business people, academicians and military officers who were relieved of their duties or faced arbitrary arrests. Attorney General Gedion Timothewos admitted to Reuters about the presence of ethnic profiling in some state organizations. "I would not rule out that innocent people might be caught up in this situation." According to Elias, there were over 500 ethnic Tigrayans at the detention center among which about 40 were Saudi repartiates. Some of them were residents of Addis Abeba while the rest were people who recently arrived from the Tigray region. "We were held in cold cells for a month until suddenly we were released on the guarantee of our ID cards." Elias said, adding "I left hundreds of prisoners behind. Most of the prisoners don't have family members in Addis Abeba and were daily laborers." Addis Standard contacted the spokesperson of the federal police commission Jelan Abdi who referred to Commander Fasika Fenta, the public relation director of Addis Abeba police commission who in turn declined to answer citing the unavailability of information regarding the arrests. AS Addis Abeba The organizers of the 'Grand Ethiopian Street Iftar 2021', an event that was originally scheduled to take place on Sunday May 9, 2021 and was violently dispersed by security forces, announced on social media that the event will be held today Tuesday May 11. 2021. The announcement that was released yesterday read, "The Grand Ethiopian Street Iftar will be held Tomorrow May 11, 2021 and the location of the event will stretch from Mexico Square to Bambis Supermarket area." The announcement, after detailing the location and time of the event, provided guidelines for event attendees to follow. It read, "The aim of this great event is to share the Iftar meal and prayer and this will be achieved by following two instructions. First we call on every attendee to sue for peace, cooperate with security forces and follow Covid-19 preventive measures. Second and last nothing outside the Official flag of the country is allowed, any signs or materials that contain offensive and provocative sentiments are not allowed as well." Prominent Muslim clerics who responded by issuing a statement after the unfolding if Sundya's events welcomed the move by the city administration to permit the holding of the event. Ustaz Abubeker Ahmed issued a statement in which he thanked the city administration under the leadership of deputy mayor Adanech Abiebie and said, "We agreed to hold the event on May 11 and we agreed it will be a city-wide Iftar program which is way better than before." He explained, "We discussed in detail the structural gaps and suggested a mechanism where such problems are solved in a swift manner." Ustaz Abubeker concluded his statement by thanking the organizers and everyone who helped in making the event possible, explaining that the event is aimed at promoting peace, unity and equality and urging participants to sue for peace and work for the success of the event. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ethiopia Religion By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Ahmedin Jebel went as far as disclosing details about the financial and security nature of the event scheduled to take place today at 4 P.M. He said in a social media post, "The street Iftar event will be held at the same square tomorrow, May 11, 2021 with the government covering its full expenses and under the full protection of the security forces." He concluded, "If we stand together, our other demands will be answered." This comes a day after reactions to the violent disbursement of the event on its previous date by security forces which saw security personnel firing tear gas into the crowd. The reactions that ranged from strongly worded condemnations to anger to demands of swift actions by the government, forced Deputy Mayor Adanech Abiebie to issue a statement in which she offered her apology to the Muslim Community of Addis Abeba. AS Foreign Minister Sameh Shokry received Monday a phone call from UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland, during which the UN official posted the foreign minister on his recent contacts with Israeli officials to restore calm in Palestine. During their conversation, Wennesland stressed that he was keen on making that call with the Egyptian foreign minister shortly before a consultation session at the UN Security Council to discuss the serious developments in East Jerusalem (Al-Quds) Meanwhile, Shoukry held the Israeli government accountable for ensuring calm and security in Al-Quds. He also briefed the UN diplomat on Cairo's intensive contacts with relevant parties in this regard. Shoukry also emphasized Egypt's rejection of all harmful practices by Israel against Palestinian worshipers at al-Aqsa mosque, touching upon the efforts made by some Arab parties and the preparations under way for an Arab League ministerial meeting on Tuesday. In a related context, Shoukry had a meeting with Egyptian Ambassador to Ramallah Tarek Tayel to discuss the recent developments in Al-Quds, including the Israeli incursions into the yards of al-Aqsa Mosque and the recent clashes in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah where five Palestinian families had been expelled from their homes by the Israeli occupation regime for Jewish settlers. President Abdel Fattah El Sisi praised the Egyptian banking sector for its constant support for the development and mega projects, being implemented in Egypt along previous years. Sisi's remarks came during his meeting with governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Amer, and his deputies Gamal Nagm el Dine and Rami Abul Naga, along with presidents of the Banque Misr and National Bank of Egypt, presidential spokesman Bassam Radi said. During the meeting, the president reviewed the activity of the state's banking sector, its assets, and the plans of developing these assets for optimal use. Also, he reviewed the latest updates concerning the presidential initiatives, backed by CBE, especially those concerning providing finance for youths, middle and low-income earners, SMEs and others. Egyptian Ambassador to Russia Ehab Nasr has praised growing ties between Cairo and Moscow. Speaking to Extra News TV channel, Nasr reiterated on Monday that the Egyptian-Russian relations are based on achieving common interests for both countries, lauding strong cultural ties between Cairo and Moscow. The diplomat highlighted the initiative launched by President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in 2018 to launch the year of humanitarian exchange between the two countries. Under this initiative, nearly 200 events will be held in Russia and Egypt this year, covering all domains, he said. Abuja The federal government has described the deadly attacks against the country's security personnel and outfits as a declaration of war against the nation that will be countered with overwhelming force. This is even as the government said the act is to instill fear and evoke a sense of pervasive insecurity among the people, adding that whether known or unknown gunmen, those engaged in this dastardly act will pay dearly for their actions. The minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who disclosed this while addressing a press conference on National Security in Lagos yesterday, also acknowledged the security challenges facing the nation from terrorism to kidnapping, banditry, and farmer/herder conflict. He said in the days ahead, it will confront the challenges headlong and restore law and order, peace, and security in the country. On suspected sponsors of terrorism, the minister said the move to prosecute 400 suspects arrested for allegedly funding terrorism is unprecedented and it's a testament to the government's determination to decisively tackle terrorism and other violent crimes. He also recalled the Attorney-General of the Federation and minister of Justice announcement that the federal government is ready to prosecute them. The minister said the government realises that the security challenges faced today are systemic, hence has - in addition to kinetic efforts - also embarked on various non-kinetic measures to most effectively tackle the challenges opinion New York Data, analysis and information are essential building blocks in our race to save humanity from the clear and present risks posed by the climate crisis. We are headed on a crash course with oblivion, and we need take definitive and far-reaching action if we are going to protect our people and our planet from the devastating impacts of rising seas, spiking temperatures, extreme weather and other climate impacts that are derailing human, social and economic development worldwide. The only problem is that we live in a world of digital haves and have nots. Simply put, we must bridge the digital divide and we must build more effective and actionable climate risk assessments if we are going to save humanity from the truly existential risk of this vast and complicated crisis. Climate risk assessments will future-proof investments for the next 30 years and provide the evidence we need to achieve the targets for low-carbon climate-resilient development outlined in the Paris Agreement. Understanding the challenge While we are making progress in improving our ability to model climate change, there are still large gaps in the overlay of vulnerability, environmental and weather data that hinder our ability to accurately assess future risks and build effective models at the local, regional and global levels. In Africa just 26 percent of weather monitoring stations met WMO reporting requirements as of 2019. Across the developing world, climate data is still being recorded by hand. These data sets go back 30 plus years. But with no way to validate its veracity, it offers very little to aid us as we work to clearly map and plan for various climate scenarios. Our failure to accurately capture and analyze climate and weather data is putting lives at risk and derailing development gains. According to the WMO, "around 108 million people required help from the international humanitarian system as a result of storms, floods, droughts and wildfires in 2018. By 2030, it is estimated that this number could increase by almost 50 percent at a cost of around US$20 billion a year. The situation is particularly acute in small island developing states (SIDs) and least developed countries (LDCs). Since 1970, SIDS have lost US$153 billion due to weather, climate and water related hazards - a significant amount given that the average GDP for SIDS is US$13.7 billion. Meanwhile, 1.4 million people (70 percent of the total deaths) in LDCs lost their lives due to weather, climate and water related hazards in that time period." Bridging the digital divide Progress is underway. In Malawi, data sets dating back decades are now being digitized, hydromet stations are sending live actionable data via the cloud, and public-private partnerships are allowing for increased analysis of climate data. This means poor rural farmers can improve profits and change their practices to adapt to new climate scenarios. It means the government can futureproof large infrastructure investments. In Liberia, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia and other sub-Saharan African nations, low-cost automatic weather stations are being deployed to improve the collection of localized data, private-sector partnerships are improving the capture and analysis information, and vulnerable communities are benefiting from actionable early warnings and climate information. Governments in Asia and the Pacific are making important steps in integrating data analysis into ecosystem-based adaptation approaches to proactively respond to and plan for multiple vulnerabilities. In the Philippines combined mangrove and coastal ecosystem impact is being assessed to protect vulnerable cities. In Viet Nam, geospatial assessment of flood impact is protecting rural infrastructure. In Tuvalu, new data is being collected via state-of-the-art LIDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, technology, to better understand the topography a unique weather patterns of the country's atoll islands. And while large gaps still exist, and more funding is needed, there are ways to apply low-tech solutions with high-tech know-how to leap-frog technologies and apply a new vision for weather and climate services. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa ICT Climate By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The same way Africa skipped providing landlines and now can rely on mobile phones, so too can they use mobile networks to collect and share information, satellite and lightning data can improve cross-border information sharing, rainfade technology can be applied to improve weather forecasts, automated weather stations can be installed on cell-phone towers to ensure energy, security and transmission of information. With far reaching mobile connection, we can now reach the most remote farmers with important climate information and agricultural advisories. By bringing together resources and know-how from the private sector, new technologies and new ways of working, there is a chance to bridge the digital divide and pave the way for a climate-resilient future. Benjamin Larroquette is a Regional Technical Advisor for UNDP's Nature, Climate and Energy team, with a focus on climate information, early warning systems and climate change adaptation. Reina Otsuka, a Digital Innovation Specialist for UNDP's Nature Climate and Energy team, is passionate about facilitating innovation processes and the application of digital technologies for sustainable development. Monrovia The National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) has certified all documents required for the offloading of a ship currently waiting at the Free Port of Monrovia to offload frozen foods, which is gradually becoming scarce on the local market, but the importer's inability to obtain an Import Permit Declaration (IPD) from the Ministry of Commerce remains the hindrance. Over the last few months, local and foreign owned businesses have complained over the refusal of the Ministry of Commerce to issue IPD for the importation of frozen foods. While the ship awaits at the port for the IPD is prepared, the importer is likely to incur more demurrages. Demurrage refers to the charges that the charterer pays to the ship owner for its delayed operations of loading/unloading. The Liberia Chamber of Commerce (LCC), and other civil society organizations have expressed concerns over the IPD issue in the country and have called on the Ministry of Commerce to rescue the situation. For now key commodities like eggs, onions, frozen fish, meat and other staple food are running out of stock on the Liberian market due to the Ministry of Commerce's refusal to sign Import Permit Declaration to allow businesses bring in their goods. Not only has the IPD situation put a strain on most businesses, but it has also put a lot of Liberian jobs at risk - forcing these employers to scale down on man-power due to fall in revenue as a result of these constraints. In December 2020, issued Executive Order No. 103 in an effort to stimulate economic growth. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Food and Agriculture By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The goal of the President was exempt all commercial importers of goods into Liberia from seeking Import Permit Declaration (IPD). The Executive Order stated, "All Commercial Importers of goods into Liberia are exempted from seeking Import Permits and filling Import Permit Declarations. In lieu of the Import Permit Declaration (IPD), the Import Notification Form (INF) is now being used as an administrative document to collect trade statistical data to monitor the inflow and outflow of goods and facilitate trade in the Commerce of Liberia." The lack of adherence to the President's mandate at the Ministry of Commerce, have compelled businesses to seek IPD as the Ministry of Commerce has been reneging on the issuance of the IPD. Some businesses affected by the IPD saga are concerned that the Ministry's action is deliberate and intended to create an unfair market situation and stifle some businesses. Post Views: 2 Paynesville Daniel Johnson, Richmond Jones, and Joseph David were returning from a wake keeping ceremony in the early morning hours of Saturday, May 8, in the Gobachop community of Paynesville when they were hassled and severely beaten by members of a community watch team over unfounded suspicion they were gays. Daniel (name changed to protect his identity), 25, said they were halted by the men as they approached their community. The men, he said, are all residents of Gobachop as well. "When we saw them, we wanted to run," he said tearfully. "They were plenty and they had cutlasses--they started asking us where we coming from. They were slapping and hitting us with the cutlasses while they were questioning us. I told them we live in the community, and my friends were going to my house to sleep because it was very late for them to go home." He said the men, unsatisfied with their answer, asked them to call their landlord to verify their claims of residing in the community. "We called our landlord, but his phone was off. One of them said they know our landlord's brother--they called him to confirm and he told them that we lived there." Following the call, he said things took a downturn for the worst when the men received another call from their landlord's brother, which, he added, intensified their brute. "They started saying we are faggots and they are going to kill us one by one in Liberia. They said they been hunting for us in the community, and now they finally caught us; so they will beat us till we die and nothing will come out of it because Government will back them. "They undressed and tied us up [and] then wasted hot water they were using for their tea on our skin. Beat the cutlasses on my back, legs, and butt, and then used a stick and forcibly pushed it in my anus. From that moment, I wasn't to myself." LGBTI persons continue to come under threats and record instances of assault, harassment, and hate speech, according to the 2020 U.S. State Department Human Rights report on Liberia. Last October, ex-personnel of the Armed Forces of Liberia, Cheeseman Cole, was arrested, for reportedly catfishing over 27 men from social media and brutalizing them when they showed up at his residence, claiming that he was on a divine mission to cleanse Liberia of its LGBT population. Two men--Dominic Renner and Winston Toe-- remain missing from Cole's alleged freakshow. The Liberia National Police continue to remain tightlipped on the status of the investigation. Though Cole was investigated, forwarded to the court, and detained for a brief period at the Monrovia Central Prison, he is currently out on bail awaiting prosecution from the Ministry of Justice. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Justice, Maude Somah, said her boss, Solicitor General Syrenius Cephus, is following up with the county attorney on the status of the prosecution. Liberian law criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual activity between consenting adults. Article 14.74, 14.79, and 50.7 [of the Penal Code of 1976] consider voluntary sodomy as a first-degree misdemeanor, with a penalty of up to one year imprisonment. The country has not defined its stance on the protection of the rights of its LGBT population. But Attorney General, F. Musah Dean, during the launch of the UN SOGIE report in November 2020 said the Liberian constitution guarantees protection for all. With the election of President Joe Biden who promised protection of LGBT people worldwide, the Liberian gay community continues to remain hopeful. Richmond Jones (name also changed to protect his identity), 17, says he experiences severe pain and is unable to move freely due to the treatment he received at the hands of the community watch team members. "They undressed me, tied my feet and hands and dragged me in the middle of the road and beat me with the cutlass on my stomach, my back and used a stick to mark my butt. They hit me on my head with an iron which made blood roll down my face. Currently, I feel pain in my head." He revealed that they were left in a helpless state until daylight when he and Joseph David, another victim, pull themselves together and took an unconscious Daniel home. Police Arrest One Suspect With the help of an outreach officer/human rights activist of the LEGAL Association of Liberia, the case of the trio was registered at the Zone 5 Police Depot in Duport Road as, according to them, they were afraid to do so in Gobachop due to further threats from the community watch team there would be a repetition of a similar act. "We were afraid that due to the fact the perpetrators reside in the community, the case might not be taken seriously," said an outreach staff of LEGAL who spoke anonymously. "However, we were able to register the case at the depot in Gobachop through the instrumentality of one of our protection officers from Solidarity Sisters under LEGAL." The LEGAL outreach officer said the Police were able to make a lone arrest of a suspect who is indirectly connected to the alleged brutalization of Daniel Johnson, Richmond Jones, and Joseph David--the brother of their landlord. According to him, he denied ordering the brutalization of the trio but admitted receiving a call to acknowledge that the victims are tenants of his brother. "He said he knows the men who carried out the act and he will collaborate with the police to have them arrested. However, when contacted Police spokesperson, Moses Carter, said the information has not reached his office, and follow-up will be done with the respective depots. He furthered that every watch team is registered with the community section of the Liberia National Police. The conundrum Daniel, Richmond, and Joseph face is, the Police precinct in Gobachop does not have a record on the watch team which brutalized them, according to the outreach officer of LEGAL. LIPRIDE Condemns Violence The coalition body which covers all human rights organizations in the country, LIPRIDE (Liberia's initiative for the Promotion of Rights, Identity, Diversity, and Equality, has strongly condemned the violation against the three. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Legal Affairs Human Rights By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "It is the government's responsibility to protect all of its citizens, regardless of sexual orientation and gender identity," said the coordinator of LiPRIDE, Maxwell W. Monboe, in a statement. "It is inhumane and this has to stop!" Help Sought for further treatment and relocation While Daniel, Richmond, and Joseph continue to go through daily pain, they are also appealing to the public for help to seek treatment at a better health facility. "We took Daniel to a clinic and the nurse advised that we go to a bigger hospital to do a thorough check-up," said Richmond. "We don't have money. I want to go to hospital as well but I don't have any money." And Daniel said he needs immediate relocation as he fears for his safety. "I am in pain and not feeling safe being here. I want to move but I don't have money." He pays US$10 monthly for a one-bedroom structure built of mud. The foreseeable future looks bleak for the three as they pondered over the whys of their befallen calamity. However, a safe home from marauding gangs and proper medical check at a referral hospital could be one of the best ways to keep them safe from a hostile environment that is yet to come to terms on the issue of sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. journalRAGE is dedicated to the exclusive coverage of Liberia's rainbow community. To support, click here. Ganta A 40-year-old man has died while in the custody of the Ganta Police Detachment barely three days after his arrest. The deceased, Joe Kolleh who was a resident of Gbloryee community in Ganta, was being held by police for allegedly owing his friend, Moses Yeanay, LD$ 6,000, police told FrontPage Africa. Yeanay had hired Kolleh to do a contract for him for the sum of LD$ 40,000 of which amount he paid LD$ 6,000. Kolleh failed to do the contract until he was arrested following a complaint filed by Yeanay on May 4, police say. Kolleh, who was arrested on May 6, was forcibly restrained during a struggle with the arresting officer, a police source told our reporter. Police in the county have remained coy on circumstances that led to the death of Kolleh, but the deceased's family say they suspect a foul play. Fasu Kollie, relative of the deceased, said they found out by text message Sunday from their neighbor that their brother had died in police custody. A distraught Kollie said the family doesn't understand how their relative died in police custody. He said the police had not been updating the family since Kolleh passed out. "Our brother never hurt anyone; he had lot of friends. For me, I feel the police is hiding something from the family because they haven't speaking to us since our brother died," he said. He said it was very sad not to have Kolleh at the house anymore. "We used to laugh at jokes he made and he helped me with my children to get them to school. We are broken down as a family. It's really hard for us to go on," he said. He said they have already contacted a lawyer. Kolleh's death brings to three the number of suspects who have died in the Ganta Police custody in less than two years. Monrovia The political leader of the Alternative National Congress (ANC), Mr. Alexander B. Cummings on Monday met with the Ambassador of the United States of America, Mr. Michael A. McCharty. Their meeting focused on how to better Liberia's economy which has over the years been slumping - a situation compounded by the covid-19 pandemic. The U.S. Ambassador and Mr. Cummings, a key opposition figure, also talked about electoral reforms for Liberia ahead of the 2023 general and presidential elections. Cummings' ANC and the CPP have been very particular about electoral reforms ahead of the 2023 elections. Following the meeting, Mr. Cummings posted to Facebook: "Great meeting with the new US Ambassador to Liberia, Amb. Michael A. McCarthy and his team (not pictured) today. The US-Liberia relationship remains invaluable to our democracy and development. We look forward to an ongoing relationship." Mr. Cummings have often criticized the Weah-led administration for doing too little to improve the lives of Liberians and the economy. He believes that President Weah and his government have shown lack of leadership and direction to govern the country and as a result, the masses are forced into living sub-standardly. During his recent county tour in Bong County, he called on citizens there to vote leaders based on what they are capable of delivering and not based on tribal lines or popularity. He is the first opposition political figure to meet one-on-one with McCharty Ambassador since he took up assignment in Liberia. Ambassador McCarthy arrived in Liberia on January 6, 2021. He was nominated by President Donald Trump to be Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America to the Republic of Liberia on June 2, 2020. Monrovia FrontPageAfrica has gathered from reliable sources that three of five Indians who arrived in the country recently tested positive for covid-19. What is not clear is which variant of covid-19 the Indians arrived with. The Public Relations Officer at the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), Mr. Joseph Wiah, could not comment on the report when contacted by FPA. India is currently experiencing an astronomical surge in the cases of covid-19 due to the new variant - "double mutant"- or B.1.617 variant which was discovered in March. The B.1.617 variant was reported in several Indian states reporting surges including Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh. The country of about 1.3 billion people has seen infections rise by more than 1 million in the past week alone, bringing its total number of cases since the start of the pandemic to more than 18 million. The death toll has surpassed 200,000 and is expected to be much higher. The surge hit as India's government loosened restrictions and struggled to vaccinate its population with variants potentially serving as an accelerant. The variant, whose official name is B.1.617, is described as a bit of a misnomer, because it actually carries 13 mutations, seven of which are in the spike protein. The moniker comes from two notable mutations found in other variants that appeared together for the first time in this new strain: the L452R mutation and the E484Q mutation. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. President George Manneh Weah is yet to sign off on a controversial new protocol that would reportedly quarantine travelers from India. Liberia has seen few casualties from the virus since the pandemic began. Authorities are said to be concerned but covid-19 measures around the country have not been as vigilant as it should be in recent times. Protocol in the air Nevertheless, health authorities have reportedly adopted a protocol which will require travelers from India to be quarantined upon arrival. The protocol however has not been finalized because President Weah's office has reportedly not given the greenlight. Multiple sources confirmed to FrontPageAfrica that part of the protocol entails quarantining travelers from India at the Freezone on Bushrod Island. Several Countrires Ban Flights from India According to travel booking website Wego, 26 countries had banned travel from India as of May 3 in the light of the overwhelming wave of COVID-19 infections in the country, upending many travel plans. Bangladesh and Pakistan have closed air and land borders to arrivals from India. China's curbs on travel from outside its borders have remained very strict even before India's second wave and were therefore not tightened further. Travel remains limited to some essential reasons and comes with extensive testing and hotel quarantine requirements. Limited education opportunities for midwives has been cited as one of the stumbling block in the growth of the midwifery profession. This was cited last week, as Rwanda marked the International Day of the Midwife, during a virtual ceremony that was organised by the Rwanda Association of Midwives. Partners highlighted the need to promote and deliver quality care and support for the sustainability of maternal and new-born health services. This they said however, was attainable with more initiatives in place that would facilitate midwives' education and training to further advance their skills. Josephine Murekezi, the president of Rwanda Midwives association hailed the government's initiative to increase the number of midwifery schools affiliated to the University of Rwanda. Since the inception of the first midwifery school in 1997, the number of midwives have scaled up, rising from five in 1995 to the current 2,142, according to the midwives' association. Murekezi nonetheless held concerns over the recent decrease in number of students enrolling for the profession. "The number of admitted students in the bachelor's science with honours in midwifery has decreased, hence a decreased investment in midwifery," she said. Mathias Gikwerere, a maternal health and midwifery officer at United Nations Population Fund, said that the current milestones are a result of several initiatives to boost the number of competent midwives. What needs to be done is to continue strengthening midwifery education, regulations and associations, he highlighted, adding that organisations like UNFPA have provided scholarships to midwifery lecturers to pursue Master's and PhD programs in preparation of the upcoming launch of the first Master's Program in Midwifery at the University of Rwanda. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Pregnancy and Childbirth By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The UN agency has also supported the University of Rwanda to conduct research to explore the use of blended learning in nursing and midwifery in order to ensure continuity of midwifery education amidst the Covid-19 pandemic," Gikwerere added. Offering her remarks, Mercy Mungai UNFPA Deputy Representative, commended the tireless work of the midwives of safeguarding the health and well-being of women and babies across the world, and promised more support from her institution. "We are also developing innovative remote training solutions for midwives and will continue supporting the scale up of the mobile learning project to ensure continuous professional development and capacity building of in-service midwives even amidst the Covid-19 pandemic," she concluded. According to the 2015 'Trends in Maternal Mortality' report, a woman in Rwanda has a 1 in 85 chance of dying of pregnancy-related causes in her lifetime. The State of the World Midwifery report 2021 highlights that an increase of investments in midwives could reduce maternal mortality by 67 per cent. In Rwanda, that would entail saving 560 mothers per year. The report also adds that the roles of the midwives are not limited to expectant mothers, but also providing family planning services, counselling, sexual and reproductive health information, antenatal care, and help to combat HIV among others. opinion Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Thanks to President Biden, the US now supports a suspension of intellectual property (IP) rights to increase vaccine supplies. However, without vaccine developers sharing tacit technical knowledge for safe vaccine mass production, it will be difficult to rapidly scale up vaccine output. Waiver delayed is waiver denied The CEOs of Pfizer and Astra Zeneca had recently asked the US President to reject the waiver request. Nevertheless, on 5 May, US Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai announced US support for a vaccine waiver. The hope is that many, mainly rich countries will now stop opposing the developing country waiver proposal. The World Trade Organization (WTO) Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) waiver request by South Africa and India also includes COVID-19 tests, treatments and personal protective equipment (PPE), albeit only for the duration of the pandemic. Meanwhile, the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A) remains grossly underfunded, and thus unable to achieve most of its objectives. Many developing countries are still not even able to effectively do mass testing to ascertain those infected and follow up measures. The developing world also faces huge supply gaps, and hence, long delays in treatment. Many 'frontline workers' in poor countries remain poorly protected. All this, of course, adversely compromises the world's ability to contain the pandemic. Foot dragging for profit The waiver request is clearly very specific, modest and limited. Affordably producing the other non-vaccine needs is still desperately needed. Involving patents, they are immediately actionable. Hence, it is crucial for the US to support the full waiver request. As the WTO waiver requires unanimous approval by its members, there is likely to be much foot dragging. Furthermore, even if WTO member states eventually reach a consensus on approving the waiver in principle, there is probably going to be further procrastination in negotiating details. The WTO Director-General hopes to get a decision by December despite the likely difficulties of achieving consensus. Already, the European Union has registered doubts. Hence, many fear the new US position is unlikely to boost supply quickly. Vaccine monopolies not yet IP dependent Getting vaccine developers to actually share the technical information required to rapidly scale up vaccine production can be challenging. After all, no successful vaccine developer has joined the WHO COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) initiative to share such knowledge. There are likely to be many changes to experimental vaccines in response to new knowledge, mutations and problems. Hence, IP per se may not be the most urgent obstacle to improving access to vaccines, even without developers 'evergreening' patents. Patent details must be filed within 18 months, effectively an eternity in trying to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. But patent disclosures do not contain 'trade secrets' and other 'tacit' technical knowledge essential for quickly increasing vaccine output. Vaccine profits kill Pfizer's CEO now projects a steady massive revenue stream as COVID-19 becomes endemic, e.g., requiring vaccine boosters. Unless the pandemic is globally contained, it will continue to threaten the world. While reducing the likelihood of severe infection, existing vaccines do not provide full protection against infection. Vaccine developers -- especially the major pharmaceutical transnational corporations -- have already been dictating prices and other terms to customers. However, as their monopoly powers are not yet reliant on patents, suspending their IP rights does not ensure urgent access to COVID-19 vaccines. Monopolies allow companies to almost unilaterally determine prices. 'Super-profits' can thus be secured with patents. Despite pioneering anti-trust law over a century ago, the US -- the largest producer and market for many patented products -- has no laws against 'price gouging', implying few checks on pricing practices. Last week, Pfizer announced that prices of vaccines sold to the European Union will increase by 60% although development of its vaccine was heavily subsidised by the German government. Earlier, it announced an increase in sales revenue of over 70%, pushing up its share price and executive remuneration. The current vaccination delay has been projected to cause an additional 2.5 million deaths! Delays are likely to allow more virus mutations, further setting back global herd immunity. This will mean many more infections and deaths as well as economic and other losses due to the pandemic and policy responses. TRIPS discourages knowledge sharing Until TRIPS, there were many technology transfer agreements with developing country governments, voluntarily negotiated by companies. But since 1995, TRIPS has induced more reluctance to share knowledge, retarding technological progress. Refusal to share technology is the biggest stumbling block to rapidly ensuring global access to vaccines. Multilateral cooperation is urgently needed, not corporate or national greed. But not a single major company has signed up to C-TAP, the WHO initiative for knowledge sharing to address the pandemic, ignoring Dr Anthony Fauci's appeal to them to do so. Meanwhile, Bill Gates and others misleadingly claim that developing countries do not have the capacity or ability to produce vaccines safely. Presuming developing countries' lack of competence and capacity, without bothering to verify, provides yet another excuse for further delay. In fact, many developing countries have previously produced vaccines. Of course, not all will be able to produce particular vaccines due to their specific technical requirements. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa Coronavirus U.S., Canada and Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Existing COVID-19 vaccines are still experimental, only receiving conditional approval for emergency use. The urgent need to mitigate the severity of pandemic infections with such vaccines, after only Phase Two trials, is also the pretext for indemnity clauses in sales contracts. Globalisation in recent decades has involved internationalisation of supply chains, with even high-tech corporations establishing sophisticated facilities in poor developing countries. But suddenly, developing countries are all dismissed as wanting. Accelerate vaccinations for all Late last month, President Biden reiterated his presidential campaign pledge to share COVID-19 "technology with other countries" and to "ensure there are no patents to stand in the way of other countries and companies mass producing those life-saving vaccines". The Biden administration must use its discretionary powers to accelerate needed progress. Besides making clear US WTO TRIPS waiver support for tests, treatments and PPE, the US has to compel vaccine companies to share the knowledge needed to quickly scale up safe vaccine production. The 1980 Bayh-Dole Act applies to Moderna's vaccine, publicly funded by Operation Warp Speed. The US government can require Moderna to fully honour President Biden's original promise to share vaccine technology. After all, Moderna has promised not to profit from the pandemic. Beitbridge Bureau BEITBRIDGE West constituency villagers in Whunga, Ward 11 have started pooling resources together to construct a clinic in the area to address challenges encountered in accessing primary health care facilities. The Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage who is also the constituency's MP, Cde Ruth Maboyi, has joined the community in mobilising material and manpower. She said there was an acute shortage of clinics and secondary schools in her constituency. Cde Maboyi said she engaged communities and they decided to work together to fund key infrastructure development projects at the grassroots level. "The Government is doing its part in enhancing and accelerate infrastructure development countrywide, but as community members, we felt there was a need to be proactive in addressing our challenges with the few resources we can put together," she said. "So, what we have done is to organise resources to build a clinic in Whunga to minimise the distance villagers are travelling from Dendele, Mazibeli and Whunga areas to access primary health care facilities at Zezani Growth point". The Deputy Minister said so far, the community which is moulding bricks had contributed cement, door frames, and window frames to start the project. She said major civil works were expected to start as soon as they have the requisite quantity of bricks and related material as advised by building experts. Cde Maboyi said they will also use the same model to construct a secondary school in Muthangamutshena area in Ward 12. "We are going to have such projects in all the wards, where we organise ourselves and make contributions to fund the construction of key infrastructure. "However, we will continue to seek assistance from Government and its development partners to ensure that we address all the key infrastructure deficiencies in our constituency," said the Deputy Minister. She said it was important for Zimbabweans in the diaspora and those within the country to put heads together and complement Government's efforts to evenly spread economic and infrastructure development nationwide. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Cde Maboyi said there was also a need to build more clinics and schools, both primary and secondary in all the rural wards to improve people's way of life. The Deputy Minister said they only have one boarding school Zezani High which is equipped with a science laboratory. "Our idea is to focus on one project at a time, before moving on to other initiatives," said Deputy Minister Maboyi. She said the bad state of roads had seen most public transporters pulling off major routes, leaving villagers at the mercy of few private motorists. "Imagine a situation where we have an emergency and one has to be urgently transported to the nearest health facility in a donkey pulled cart. "This is bad business. I have since approached the national leadership at the District Development Fund (DDF) to fix our roads as a matter of urgency," said the Deputy Minister. The development comes, days after residents of Beitbridge town undertook to raise R200 000 to fix eight grounded vehicles at the local district hospital in the next three months. Among the vehicles to be fixed by the Friends of Beitbridge Trust, are five ambulances and three service vehicles. So far one of them which is a Mazda B2200 ambulance repaired at a cost of R13 000 has been handed over to the health institution. THE Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) has called for full utilisation of mining claims in the country to increase export earnings and widen job opportunities for the youths. ZMF vice president, Mr Marufu Sithole, who was speaking during a recent Youth Miners Association workshop in Gweru, said unlocking the value of disused mining claims was critical for the economy. The workshop was organised to empower young miners with key information required for one to venture into successful mining operations and tackling inherent bottlenecks. "Artisanal and small-scale miners have been for years marginalised and yet Zimbabwe has over the years been faced with a high rate of youth unemployment," said Mr Marufu. "Young people represent the opportunity to grow in directions never envisaged and to move the mining industry forward. "The youth also play a pivotal role in Zimbabwe and contribute by any means necessary in nation building and defending the source of our heritage, in this case, our precious minerals. "We endeavour to see all our youth and all other like-minded people equipped with skills in mining and claims towards poverty reduction." Mr Marufu said ZMF now has a secretariat for the youth to enhance their representative as part of measures to mainstream their participation in mining. He also called for adoption of evidence-based approaches that assist the mining sector to achieve inclusivity through scaling up capacity building initiatives. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Mining Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We would also like to share evidence-based approaches for action partnering between public and private sectors to revolutionise mining service delivery in Zimbabwe," said Mr Marufu. "We continue appealing to the Government to put efforts to assist artisanal and small-scale miners with mining equipment and other mining consumables as they play a key role in alleviating poverty in the country." He said ZMF was geared to empower the youth in adapting latest technologies and facilitating loans for capitalisation that enhance output from the mining sector and paid tribute to the Gweru Youth Miners Association for organising the forum. Mr Marufu urged more youths to set up mining ventures and continue formalising their mining operations by applying from licensing from the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development. Gweru Youths Miners Association secretary general, Mr Edgar Benjamin, said the association was keen to work with all youths in mining to contribute to the economy. "We need to change the mindset of the chikorokoza/isikorokoza and turn the youths into professional Miners. "We are also advocating for a mining college for the artisanal in the Midlands, which is affordable for our youths. "Our role is to give as much education as possible about mining activities around us," he said. Did you write my name among the stars with this little Asteroid? Did I serve botany in that way? Not by knowledge of it but rather by love of Herald Correspondent Some parents at Old Windsor Primary School in Ruwa, are complaining over the increase in school fees by US$150, which they say is beyond their reach. The school wants US$450 effective June 2, up from US$300, as first term fees. Parents who spoke to The Herald yesterday said successive Covid-19 national lockdowns had affected their income. "This increase is just too much for us as parents, after all, the school did not even consult us. This is daylight robbery," said a parent on condition anonymity. "We are appealing to education authorities to quickly intervene otherwise parents are being punished in broad daylight." Another parent identified only as Mrs Kagona said: "Parents have been silent for long now and they are taking advantage of that. We should have been consulted on the increase before it was effected. That is what Government encourages. "The school authorities last Thursday held a Zoom meeting with parents where they proposed the fees top up, citing rising costs as well as the National Employment Council (NEC) recommendations to increase salaries for their workers. But the meeting acted as an announcement for things that were already agreed without us being involved." Contacted for comment, Old Windsor Primary School headmaster Mr Andrew Pamire said the NEC had directed that salaries be increased, forcing them to push up the fees. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Education Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We asked the parents to top up fees for the Term 1 (for) 2020. NEC had directed that salaries must be increased. The letter is in public domain. Our (biggest) cost driver is salaries," said Mr Pamire. Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education director of communication and advocacy Mr Taungana Ndoro said fees must be increased after approval. "In line with the ministry's requirements, private schools are also required to increase fees after full consultations with parents. School fees cannot be raised without the approval of a majority of parents attending a meeting called for that purpose and then without the approval of the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education once the school has submitted an agreed position to the Ministry," he said. The school is owned by a Taiwanese family, and has in the past run into problems after effecting unilateral fees increases. In 2019, the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education had to dispatch an officer to attend the school meetings on fees review after parents reported the institution to the ministry following a hefty increase during the transition from the US dollar era to Zimbabwean dollar. Senior Reporter Almost all of the 600 learners who tested positive for Covid-19 in the last two months have fully recovered and have been removed from isolation save for 40 who are in Matabeleland North. The 40 who are still in isolation are at George Silundika High School where 46 learners were isolated nearly two weeks ago. Matabeleland North provincial medical director Dr Munekai Padingani said six learners had recovered and the rest were still in the isolation centres created at the school. "This year only one school was affected by Covid-19 outbreak (George Silundika) and 46 learners were infected. All are isolated at school using dormitories as isolation centres. "We have recorded six recoveries so far," he said. He said everyone at George Silundika had been tested for Covid-19 following the outbreak and authorities had separated infected learners from the rest of the learners. The Ministry of Health and Child Care also installed a satellite clinic at the school to ensure easy access to health care. Dr Padingani said movement of learners and staff had also been restricted while no visits were permitted at the school and the Ministry was making daily follow ups on the infected learners. However, in Matabeleland South more than 400 learners who tested positive to Covid-19 have all recovered and have been removed from isolation. Matabeleland South provincial medical director Dr Rudo Chikodzore said 156 learners at Embakwe High School and 252 learners at Sacred Heart Primary and High Schools had all been removed from isolation. "At Embakwe, we had a total of 156 cases including 1 staff member. There were no hospitalisations and no deaths recorded. All cases were put in isolation and discharged. Currently there are no active cases at the school. "At Sacred Heart, we also do not have active cases. Those who tested positive were de-isolated two weeks ago," she said. Dr Chikodzore said the Ministry had been working on strengthening the infection prevention measures put in place following the rise in cases at the end of March. She said health teams that had been activated were now on high alert, especially with the approaching winter season, to detect any disease among learners and the surrounding communities. "We have a partner who is assisting us to do an assessment on preparedness of boarding schools to respond to Covid-19. All our teams have heightened their surveillance systems especially as we approach winter. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Coronavirus Education Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "This is how we managed to contain the outbreak in schools. Everyone is hands on to make sure that things return to normal," she said. Dr Chikodzore said the health teams had also increased Covid-19 education in schools and surrounding communities working with the Schools Development Committees and the provincial development committee. At St David's High School (Bonda), all 216 learners and seven staff who had tested positive for the disease had been removed from isolation. Manicaland Anglican Diocesan secretary Reverend Edmond Samutereko said the situation was back to normal at the school. "There are no more Covid-19 cases at Bonda at the moment. "All the learners have fully recovered and started their lessons. Everything is now back to normal," he said. The elimination of Covid-19 in schools comes as the institutions are preparing to commence lower sixth form classes following the release of Ordinary Level results by Zimsec last week. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education have been on a drive to intensify enforcement of the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) in all schools as part of measures to control the spread of the pandemic. Handshakes, hugs and sharing of desks in schools are prohibited under the SOPs while break and lunch time are staggered to prevent crowding. Sporting activities have been banned and classrooms are only allowed to accommodate a maximum of 35 pupils to allow social distancing. Kudakwashe Mugari in Entebbe, Uganda President Mnangagwa arrived here yesterday to witness the swearing-in of Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni with the ceremony set to be attended by 4 000 guests and dignitaries in line with Covid-19 guidelines. It was a hive of activity at Entebbe International Airport as delegates arrived for the sixth inauguration of President Museveni. The President, who is accompanied by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Minister Frederick Shava and Deputy Chief Secretary Presidential Communications in the Office of the President, Mr George Charamba, will join other Heads of State and Government at the ceremony to be held today at Kololo Independence Grounds. President Mnangagwa was welcomed at Entebbe International Airport by Zimbabwe's Ambassador to Kenya and Uganda, Winpeg Moyo Soon after arrival, President Mnangagwa went into a briefing with some Zimbabwean and top Ugandan officials before he was whisked to his hotel 40km away with the cheering crowds waving at the motorcade as it passed. In an interview on arrival, Foreign affairs and International Trade Minister Ambassador Shava said: "The President is here to witness the swearing in ceremony of his counterpart. We have good relations with Uganda in the African Union. Uganda also has been our friend since Independence. Just like us, Uganda was colonised by Britain." President Museveni was declared winner with 58 percent of the poll result while his main challenger, Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, also known as Bobi Wine, had 35 percent. According to the Minister for Presidency, Esther Mbayo, 21 heads of State from Africa and the rest of the world confirmed attendance. Ms Mbayo said President Museveni had extended invitation to 42 heads to attend his swearing in ceremony themed, "Securing your future". She said that the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party's goal is to transform Uganda from a peasant to a modern, industrial and prosperous society by 2040. "All invited guests will undergo Covid-19 tests. The National Organising Committee has taken all necessary measures to ensure proper social distancing," she said. Other countries represented are Rwanda, India, Japan, Germany and the East African Community. Zimbabwe and Uganda enjoy cordial relations with President Museveni constantly coming out in support of the country's land reform programme and castigating Western governments for ostracising and demonising Zimbabwe. In 2019 President Museveni visited Zimbabwe where the two leaders agreed to enhance economic cooperation guided by the two countries' General Agreement on Economic, Technical, Scientific and Cultural Cooperation, as well as the current realities of the two countries and the continent at large. President Mnangagwa had said the visit by President Museveni soon after the coming in of the new dispensation was special as it gave both countries an opportunity to reignite the Pan-African spirit engrained in the two nations. "Since the establishment of our diplomatic relations in 1980, Zimbabwe and Uganda have enjoyed cordial relations at the political level. Your visit affords us an opportunity to share our socio-economic and political experiences, to improve the quality of life of our people," President Mnangagwa said then. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Governance Uganda By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Uganda was granted independence by Britain in 1962. President Museveni assumed power in 1986. He immediately appointed a government from across ethnic lines, re-established the rule of law and set up a Human Rights Commission. Foreign investment and tourism were encouraged by this move and Uganda's economy began to grow. According to Ms Mbayo, Uganda's economy has since "expanded by 16 times" and notched up "to Shs64 trillion (about US$24 billion)" under NRM's governance as opposed to "1986 where it was merely at US$1.5 billion". Other heads of State present include Presidents of Ghana Nana Akufo Addo, South Sudan Salva Kiir Mayardit, Democratic Republic of Congo Felix Tshisekedi and Namibia Hage Geingob. Deputy News Editor Police have widened investigations into the smuggling of 23 gold pieces worth US$783 000 by a Zimbabwean who was arrested in South Africa, and are waiting for a detailed report from Interpol officials based in Pretoria, which will be critical in assisting their inquiry. This comes as Parliament has summoned Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister, Kazembe Kazembe, to give a ministerial statement on the security situation at the country's ports of entry and exit following a surge in cases of smuggling which are prejudicing the country of millions of dollars. Minister Kazembe was directed to issue the statement by Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda after a request by Dzivaresekwa legislator, Mr Edwin Mushoriwa. A suspect, Tashinga Nyasha Masinire (33), was found in possession of 23 pieces of gold allegedly smuggled from Zimbabwe. He was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on Sunday by South Africa's anti-organised crime unit, the Hawks and is facing charges of contravening the Customs Act 91 of 1964 and Precious Metals Act 37 of 2005. Masinire has since appeared in the Kempton Park regional court in Gauteng province and granted R100 000 bail and ordered to not leave the country until the matter has been finalised. Masinire was also ordered to report at any nearest police station three times per week. The matter was remanded to the July 1. Ordinary citizens in Zimbabwe are concerned over the circumstances under which Masinire passed through security checkpoints at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, without declaring his luggage, only to be arrested in South Africa. National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi told The Herald yesterday that they were determined to get to the bottom of the matter. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Legal Affairs Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "It is something that we are currently seized with. We are presently waiting for a full report from Interpol offices in Pretoria. It is really a case of interest which the police are investigating. "We want to know if he (Masinire) was alone by the time he got to the airport, was he under escort and did he declare the luggage or was the luggage with someone?" he said. On arrival at OR Thambo International Airport, Masinire was requested to scan his luggage at the international arrivals customs section of the South African Revenue Service (SARS), and 23 pieces of gold were allegedly found in his luggage. It was then established that he had not declared the goods and did not have a permit to transport the gold. The Hawks were then called to effect the arrest. Masinire's arrest comes about seven months after Zimbabwe Miners Federation president Henrietta Rushwaya was arrested at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport with 6kg of gold worth US$366 destined for Dubai. Rushwaya's case is still before the courts. Government has indicated its desire to fight corruption across all sectors of the economy but despite the many arrests in the recent past as the Second Republic intensifies the fight against graft, some officials at ports of entry and exit and in critical offices, continue to engage in the vice. Several top ranking officials including ministers and permanent secretaries such as former ministers Obadiah Moyo and Prisca Mupfumira, have been arrested and appeared in court over corruption and their cases are at different stages. Senior Reporter Government has restructured the national housing development strategy to prioritise affordable housing for low income earners with the $5 billion released by Treasury set to be channelled towards the initiative. National Housing and Social Amenities Minister Daniel Garwe said the move to focus on social housing was on the back of increased support from the private sector in housing development. "We are receiving a lot of support from the private sector so we have now restructured our strategy in terms of housing that is financed through Treasury. "The treasury mandate will now focus primarily on civil servants and those citizens that are on the lower echelons of our economic structure. "The private sector initiative will be to the open market for anyone who can afford it. Already, we have received $5 billion for social housing and our target is civil servants and people who cannot afford upmarket housing," he said. To cater for the youths who have no capacity to buy properties, the Minister said Government was reintroducing the rental markets that would allow people to rent State properties at affordable prices while saving up to buy them. He said the move to develop housing for the people would not only be targeted for urban populations but would also consider those in rural communities. "We also have great interest in developing our rural communities so we are targeting to build houses and social amenities in all our Rural District Councils. We are working on a programme to develop smart cities going forward and this has already gained interest from the private sector, insurance companies and pension funds and the banking community. "Although I cannot mention names yet, as we speak we already have a certain corporate that has written to the Ministry and taken up houses in excess of 4 000 that we will build for their employees," said Minister Garwe. Government had invited more private sector players to join the housing development initiative on a finance, design and build basis and his Ministry was discussing with Treasury for tax holidays and other incentives for such investors. Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube said Treasury would consider awarding prescribed asset status or national project status to private sector investors in the real estate sector. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "All those are things we are considering but we will look at this on a case by case basis. Over time it is our hope that we can increase the capital markets involvement in housing finance through the issuance of real estate investment trust instruments. Those tradable instruments are meant to increase liquidity through the capital markets into the housing sector," he said. "We are aware that the private sector has expressed interest in putting together this structure and this is the first time we are doing something like this. As Minister of Finance I have announced various tax incentives to allow for these instruments to be easily traded. The intention is to increase the quantum of resources in the real estate sector." Prof Ncube said the real estate sector would not be excluded from the general infrastructure development agenda. He said Government also intended to issue infrastructure bonds for additional capital into the housing sector. press release The DA has noted the decision by the SANParks CEO, Fundisile Mketeni, to take special leave after charges of assault and sexual assault was laid against him at the Skukuza police station. His accuser has alleged that he tried to touch her inappropriately, attempted to kiss and assaulted her. These are serious allegations and the DA fully agrees with his decision to step down while legal proceedings take place. We urge the SAPS to launch an independent and transparent investigation into these allegations. If Mketeni is found guilty he must face the full might of the law in order to ensure that justice is served. Furthermore, the DA calls on SANParks to appoint a credible, efficient and effective interim CEO while the investigation is carried out. The entity has numerous challenges that need to be addressed as a matter of urgency, including the recent Table Mountain fires and the rampant poaching of rhinos at Kruger National Park. Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status. After three consecutive meetings, the Inkblot Women In Film (IWIF) held its fourth edition, hosting both new and recurring attendees on May 6, 2021 in Lagos State. The intimately designed event was graced by Actor, Kehinde Bankole; Actor, Producer & Host, Eku Edewor; Lawyer, Bukki Olabiyi; Producer, Abimbola Craig, Post Producer, Patience Lawal; Producer, Matilda Ogunleye; Production Designer, Jennifer Anti; Managing Partner, GLG Communications, Omawumi Ogbe; with Zulumoke Oyibio- co-founder, Inkblot Productions & Convener IWIF. READ ALSO4 arrested for alleged forgery, sabotage in Edo At the event, IWIF did not fail to further enumerate issues faced by cast and crew members in Nollywood. The safe space allowed women in the Nigerian Film industry to express their deepest concerns and challenges along with suggested solutions to be implemented. One key challenge mentioned was that the industry is unstructured. With the industry being unstructured, finances and matters related to funds are many times, undocumented. Lack of information makes it difficult for investors who may be willing to invest in film productions to take action. "It's hard for investors to fund the Nigerian film industry because there is no structure. Oftentimes, investors do not have data and cannot see the numbers to tell if it will be a viable investment' Says Zulumoke Oyibo, convener of IWIF & co-founder, Inkblot Productions. It was suggested that the standardization of the industry, although daunting, will be a good solution. They noted that there isn't a standard amount a production member earns on a movie, therefore, things look like they are in shambles. Even Information provided on the internet is not usually updated. "A lack of transparency is a big issue in the Nigerian film industry unlike Hollywood for example where the film's budget is published and how much the movie makes is also published for all to see, and stakeholders can tell if a movie is successful or not. Talent's fees are also known for the most part" Actor and Producer, Eku Edewor said. The unstable economy in Nigeria was also identified to be a huge source of Nollywood's lack of structure. "To make projections in Nigeria is hard because there is no structure and the economy is unstable. If there is a structure, there'd be accountability. People would be mandated to present figures and be transparent", Actor, Kehinde Bankole stated. "The first solution to the major challenges being first in the industry is access to information. There should be a ready place where people can get information and be educated about the goings-on of the industry and the various resources available to filmmakers and actors", she then proposed. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Entertainment Women By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Still on the industry being unstructured, Zulumoke stated, "When an industry is unstructured, it is hard for women to tap into its resources. Many young actors would come in and wonder 'where is the hope for me coming into this industry?". Unlike the music industry where artists can propel into being 'stars' within a short period, Nollywood actors are barely labelled stars unless they have been putting in so much hard work for years. "There isn't a value system on how well an actor can work. We don't have an infrastructure" Eku Edewor echoed. The matter of insurance was also brought to light. "Insurance is such a big deal. There is such a huge need for it." Lack of insurance was highlighted as one of the reasons why actors seek financial help in times of crisis, even when the cause of the crisis is a work-related hazard. The IWIF which is still in its research stage, was inspired by how young Nigerians have been standing up for themselves and demanding change in recent times. "During the protests, I saw how the women worked together. It was a no brainer for them to arrange food for the protesters or organize buses to transport people in different areas of the country. I thought that was remarkable. I then thought that there are a lot of women in film as well who are affected by different things separate from men and I felt like if we came together and thought of these things as a whole, we'd be able to think of efficient means to nurture our industry," Zulumoke shared. It was revealed that the initiative is set on taking actionable steps to expand its impact including some events that will be announced in due course. Justus Kimeu on his farm in Kithiani village, Makueni County, Kenya. By using the regenerative agriculture technique this farmer produced a bumper maize harvest during a very dry season. Almost 900 farmers in Kenya's two dryland counties of Embu and Makueni are participating in a pilot project to see how regenerative agriculture can be used to improve food productivity. Makueni, Kenya It is an uncommon occurrence to see farms with flourishing healthy crops in Kenya's semi-arid Makueni County. But in Kithiani village, Justus Kimeu's two-acre piece of land stands out from the rest. After embracing the regenerative agriculture (RA) technique, the 52-year-old farmer is looking forward to a bumper harvest of maize as all his neighbours count their losses following this year's failed season. "I have been a farmer for many years, but I have never seen such a healthy crop during such a dry season," Kimeu told IPS. "All the road users who pass by this farm can hardly go away without stopping to have a second look at a crop that has defied the prevailing tough climatic conditions." Kimeu is one of 900 farmers in Kenya's two dryland counties of Embu and Makueni who are participating in a pilot project to see how RA can be used to improve food productivity. The technique, which is being piloted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), is a dynamic and holistic way of farming that involves all the principals of permaculture and organic farming, such as minimum tillage, use of cover crops, crop rotation, terracing to reduce soil erosion, heavy mulching to keep the soils moist, use of basins to preserve soil moisture and the use of composted manure to give the topsoil the texture of a virgin fertile arable land. "The main theory of this technique is actually to return the topsoil back to its original state," Michael Mutua, an associate program officer in charge of RA at AGRA, told IPS. "Instead of feeding the crop, we concentrate on feeding the soil," he said. According the Food Sustainability Index created by Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) and the Economist Intelligence Unit, increased adoption of regenerative farm practices reduces carbon emissions during cultivation and sequesters carbon into the soil. In a proposal of 10 interdisciplinary actions to finding ways to nourish both people and the planet post-COVID-19, one of the suggestions by BCFN was that the world develop internationally agreed-upon standards for RA practices and agroecology, as well as common definitions for healthy and sustainable food systems and food. BCFN experts further acknowledged that regenerative and agroecological agricultural practices have the potential to boost soil health, preserve water resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To popularise the new farming technique in Kenya, AGRA collaborated with the two county governments of Makueni and Embu, and with the Cereal Growers Association (CGA) to identify lead farmers. The farmers were then trained on RA practices and were supported to create plots known as 'mother demos'. "A mother demo is actually a place for farmers' practical lessons," said Mutua. "It consists of four plots, where one plot is done using all the recommended RA practices, the second one using farming methods commonly used in the area, the third one is by using part of the regenerative agriculture principles, and the fourth one is the control plot, where the same crop is planted without any agronomic practice," he explained. Isaiah Esipisu/IPS With regenerative agriculture, weeds are used to form part of the soil. Farmer Justus Kimeu produced a bumper maize harvest during a very dry season using this farming technique. Each farmer then recruited up to 100 smallholder farmers from the neighbourhood to teach them from the mother demo. Once the farmers felt confident, they returned to their own farms to set up a baby demo, which is a single plot using all the principles of AR. "Nearly all our farmers are at the baby demo stage," said Mutua. "But a few bold ones like Kimeu went straight to implementation without doing a small demo for the learning purpose," he said. According to Kimeu, the lessons at the mother demo stage were sufficient, "and doing a baby demo for him, would amount to a wasted season," he told IPS. "When I decided to implement this technique, my farm was bare without much vegetation. So I started by making terraces and after it rained, different weeds sprouted. Together with my household members we manually uprooted all the weeds and left them on the farm to dry and decompose before making small basins in which we were going to plant the crop," explained the farmer. The basins were then filled with organic manure and some topsoil. And when it rained for the second time, hybrid drought tolerant maize variety seeds were planted inside the moist basins and any weed that sprouted was manually uprooted and left to dry and rot on the farm. "We try as much as possible to avoid tillage or any form of disturbing the soil for it to regenerate naturally to its original form," Kimeu said, noting that he also avoided use of conventional fertilisers. Almost 900 farmers from the two counties are expected to graduate from the baby demo stage and implement RA during the 2021/2022 season. "If well implemented, it will more than double food security among the participating households," said Mutua. Bob Kisyula, the Makueni County Minister of Agriculture Livestock and Fisheries, told IPS: "If our smallholder farmers could embrace these techniques and produce such healthy crops, then we will never need alms and food aid even in the toughest seasons." Kisyula said that the County Government also invested in rippers, which are used to ensure that there is minimum disturbance of the soil as part of the RA approach. Today, Kimeu has become a role model and a village hero. "In this short period, I have been approached by hundreds of farmers from my village and other places who are seeking to understand how the technique works," he said. Chief Court Reporter The Registrar-General's Office is reportedly refusing to cooperate with investigators in the case involving passport processing officer, Prisca Moyo, who is facing charges of soliciting for a US$20 bribe for the quick release of a passport. Moyo, who is suspected to be part of a syndicate fleecing desperate passport seekers at the RG's office, was arrested along with Nicholas Chogugudza. Chogugudza allegedly hangs around Makombe Building as a link between the public and workers at the passport office and allegedly facilitates the underhand dealings. It emerged during the bail appeal hearing of Moyo at the High Court recently that the RG's Office must cooperate. The prosecution opposed bail on the grounds of the risk of interference by the RG's office in a bid to protect Moyo. Justice Pisirayi Kwenda dismissed Moyo's application on that basis after finding that nothing could prevent her from interfering with her workmates. The judge also noted in his ruling that Chogugudza was not employed at the Passport Office and had no access to security items like passports. In this case, the passport in question could only have been released by a processing officer, said Justice Kwenda, adding that it was unthinkable that the passport office would not have a record of who among their officials retrieved the passport, noting there was evidence of interference already. "A misdirection only gives this court the leverage to consider, on the argument placed before the court of origin, whether, the appellant (Moyo) ought to have been admitted to bail," he said. "However, in light of clear evidence of interference which can easily be inferred from the unwillingness by the appellant's office to cooperate, I have no reason to interfere with the decision to deny the appellant bail on the basis that the appellant is likely to interfere with investigations." It was the court's view that no bail condition was likely to stop communication between Moyo and his workmates. "As is always the case when a bad practice becomes the norm, there appears to be a pact to protect each other and a mere phone call is enough to enforce the illegal pact," he said. "Accordingly, the decision a quo, dismissing the appellant's bail application cannot be faulted because the risk of interference is high. The appeal be and is hereby dismissed." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Corruption Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Chogugudza and Moyo appeared in court last month and were denied bail by regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje on bribery charges. Moyo has a separate charge of criminal abuse of duty as a public officer. According to the State, on March 25 one Betty Choice Madekufamba who had applied for a passport last year, went to Makombe Building for collection. She was told she was not eligible to get one as she had no permit and was not employed outside the country. Madekufamba was advised that the issuance of ordinary passports had been temporarily suspended by authorities. It is alleged she was approached by a man who solicited US$20 for the search and production of the passport. Madekufamba reportedly approached the Registrar's Office and a report was made and a trap organised. Reports are that he was approached by Chogugudza who allegedly said she wanted US$20 for the passport to be retrieved. He reportedly approached Moyo and the passport was retrieved. He took it to Madekufamba and was given the trap money leading to the duo's arrest. Prosecutor-General Kumbirai Hodzi has filed an application for rescission of a default judgment granted against the prosecution that led to the acquittal of journalist-cum political activist Hopewell Chin'ono on charges of publishing falsehoods. Chin'ono had approached the High Court seeking a review of the Harare Magistrates Court decision to place him on remand arguing that the Constitutional Court had since nullified the section of the law under which he was charged. The State did not file opposing papers to Chin'ono's application. It was on that basis that Justice Jester Charewa treated the matter as an unopposed and granted the default judgment. According to an affidavit deposed by prosecutor Mr Fungai Nyahunzvi, he failed to file the opposing papers to Chin'ono's application for review because of a mix up as he was involved in another case in which the prosecution intended to appeal at the Supreme Court involving the same person. The prosecutor said after he took over the case in which the prosecution was appealing against the High Court decision to have Chin'ono's passport temporarily released, he also became seized with the review application involving the same actor, resulting in a mix up of files. He said when a decision was reached that the appeal case be withdrawn since it had been overtaken by events, the prosecutor inadvertently married two files in error treating both cases as one. Mr Nyahunzvi went on to prepare a withdrawal notice for the Supreme Court appeal case and erroneously closed his file. "It totally eclipsed my mind that I was then also supposed to attend to the application for review that is filing my opposing papers," said Mr Nyahunzvi in his papers. "It was always intended to oppose the application for review. My error of failing to attend to the matter only came to my attention when the default judgment was passed on April 28 as no opposing papers had been had been filed and the error is deeply regretted. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Media Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The view is also held that if the matter had been decided after hearing all the parties, especially the second respondent (State), that application for review would have failed." The charges against Chin'ono stemmed from a Twitter post in which he said a police officer had beaten and killed a child strapped to its mother's back using a baton after a video of the alleged incident went viral. Police later said investigations showed the baby was alive. Chin'ono said at the time the charge fell under an "unconstitutional" law. The journalist-turned political activist was first arrested in July last year on charges of inciting through social media, violent anti-government protests against alleged State corruption. He was arrested again in November on charges of obstructing justice, after tweeting about a gold-smuggling case involving political elites. He is out on bail on the other two charges, which he denies and is accusing the Government of persecuting him. New Braunfels, TX (78130) Today Cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy this afternoon. Hot and humid. High 93F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Clear early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 74F. Winds S at 10 to 15 mph. editorial Any large-scale anti-corruption drive, such as the one Zimbabwe is pursuing, will generate a lot of social commentary, rumour, innuendo and perhaps even corruption among the hunters. At present one official of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, Eric Chacha, has come under fire from a number of people whom he has been formally investigating, plus a raft of social media messages. But, as ZACC has pointed out, there has not been one official complaint to ZACC or a formal report to the police. Those being investigated by Mr Chacha, and presumably that means he is in the team or heads the team that is doing the investigation, want him removed from their investigations. But that is as far as they are willing to go. Not one of these accused officials has submitted a formal complaint with detailed allegations, saying who did what and when. There are those who say that there is no smoke without fire, but the fire could well be effective investigation that some people want extinguished, so they make smoke. Smokescreens are an ancient defensive move. When you think about it from the point of view of a person under investigation, to the level where they are facing formal charges, it makes sense to pour as much doubt as possible on the investigator and even to have that investigator replaced by someone who may perhaps not be so good. As anyone who sits in the criminal courts can easily discover, pouring doubt on the police is a fairly standard defence and this is one reason why these days police investigations are so heavily documented, in order to minimise the effectiveness of that defence. So trashing ZACC and other anti-corruption agencies is an obvious approach by those who could be worried about being caught in their webs. On the other hand, there are documented examples of bad police detective work, or corrupt police officers, that if not uncovered can lead to wrong convictions or criminals going free. The courts can do a good job of separating real evidence from manufactured evidence, evidence produced under duress, and plain bad evidence. And often in those cases the presiding magistrate or judge will make pertinent comments and suggest further investigation. This problem, of "who will guard the guardians themselves", has been a persistent gnawing problem throughout recorded history. Several approaches have been found to work. First there is the personnel selection for the "guardians", looking at track records, levels of dedication and levels of effectiveness. In other words you try and choose the right guardians. But as history shows, even in the most carefully-selected and dedicated teams, you can find a mistake was made. So then there is a system of checks. In almost all organisations dealing with finance, for example, you find auditors. And frequently there are two sets of auditors, the internal auditors who have a quite different chain of command from operational staff, and external auditors. Even more importantly these auditors are not just looking for something dubious. They are responsible for ensuring that systems are in place, with appropriate paper or electronic trails, that first make dubious decisions very difficult, and secondly make them very easy to detect. Having such systems means that the audit staff can be very small in comparison to the operational staff, largely because the system itself throws up notifications of the bulk of dubious transactions that then be investigated in more detail. And as every operational manager knows, these systems are continually refined. It is rare for even the most glowing audit report to not have the odd recommendation for some change to the system in use to make it better. Auditors talk to each other professionally to establish best practices, if only because they do not want to be blamed when something does go wrong. One interesting set of changes in best practice is a regular turnover of audit staff, so that on the positive level you get some fresh thinking, and on the negative side to minimise the risk of a dishonest "guard of guardians" collaborating with dishonest guardians. It would seem sensible to have a similar type of system for criminal investigation units, such as the police, ZACC and similar bodies, especially when they are hunting down people who might have a lot of money, earned dishonestly but still there to be "shared" if necessary. Many modern police forces now do have a special department that does this, called Internal Affairs in many large American forces but with many other names. They not only sift formal complaints, but can also follow their own leads and dig into the processes. In many cases they, like auditors in the financial world, demand that set documentation procedures are followed that not only make investigation easier but which also make malpractice less likely in the first place. And like audit teams staff are rotated in and out so that no one becomes embedded. Such teams, like auditors, have their effectiveness measured not so much by how many dishonest people they catch, but by how little dishonesty goes undetected. And, of course, they are really doing their job when they can clear the innocent as well as catch the guilty, for we need to remember that most people are not criminals and it is wrong that anyone doing their job properly should have to have any cloud hanging over their head. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Governance Corruption By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In a society like Zimbabwe's, where rumour mongering has been a national pastime for decades with the advent of social media just making it possible for everyone to join in, the anti-corruption forces possibly need to think how they can maximise credibility. One possibility would be a small "audit team". To avoid wasting resources that really need to be applied to hunting down criminals, this team could be a joint unit with one or two seconded officers from the police, ZACC and the other agencies involved in the fight that has an independent chain of command and can investigate complaints. It will never satisfy everybody, but reasonable people would respond positively and in the end having the innocent cleared is important. But at the same time we do not need to become enmeshed in "wilderness of mirrors" where effectiveness is lost by chasing down the mirages instead of hunting the real thing. That is the most sophisticated way of trashing a decent enforcement agency. Mashonaland West Bureau JOURNALISTS should always act professionally, adhere to ethics and never abuse their journalistic priviledges, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Deputy Minister Kindness Paradza said in Chinhoyi at the belated World Press Freedom Day commemoration organised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA). Deputy Minister Paradza said while the Second Republic had worked hard to make sure that journalists operated in a conducive environment, with more employment opportunities created through licencing of new radio and television stations, some media practitioners had become political activists hiding behind the 'noble profession'. "This is a noble profession that we all belong to but when we are now deviating from the tenets of this profession and want to be activists, we should leave the profession and let others continue with the profession. If you want to be a political activist, come and join us but if you want to be a journalist, this is a profession where you have to be factual in whatever you do. "What some of you do these days is that they always think negative things. As journalists, you mustn't be angry and be like a doctor who prescribes wrong medicine to patients," he said. Deputy Minister Paradza schooled the journalists that were present at the meeting about being objective and being inquisitive over evidence supplied by sources. "Always know that sources have motives to give you stories. As a journalist, it is always prudent to analyse why the source has availed you the story. There is always a motive around every story and as a journalist, you should always balance the story. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Media Governance Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Always get two sides of the story and this is basic. Just be professional and do not abuse the freedom and privileges that you have got as journalists," said Deputy Minister Paradza. He re-lived his experiences as a journalist during his days at the now defunct Tribune newspaper saying: "During my time as a journalist, I interviewed former President Mugabe five times on a one-on-one basis. If I was focusing only on negative stories about him, would I have gotten those chances?" Media and Broadcasting Parliamentary committee member and former Information Minister Webster Shamu, who also attended the celebrations, said the commemoration served as a reminder to governments on the need to respect their commitment to media freedom. Professional journalism would address the challenges being brought by internet and digital platforms that have been used to increase the proliferation, amplification and promotion of harmful and fake content. Co-regulation between the government and the media, he said, was essential for any nation adding that his committee was inaundated with complaints from media practitioners. MISA-Zimbabwe board of trustees member Davison Maruziva said the best vaccine against fake news coming out on social media was for members of the Fourth Estate to follow the truth. Women's Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Deputy Minister Jennifer Mhlanga bemoaned rising cases of gender based violence, rape and early child marriages before urging media to expose the acts. THREE schools in Hwange District have received sewing machines from the First Lady Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa in a programme to build the capacity of learning institutions to become economic hubs for their communities. The three schools are St Mary's Primary School in Hwange Central, Nechilibi High School in Hwange East and Ndlovu Secondary School in Hwange West. The gesture follows a visit to the district and Matabeleland North province by the First Lady last month where she interacted with communities, educating particularly the youths on cultural values through her ixiba national programme. Amai Mnangagwa noticed the need to capacitate youths particularly those in school and instructed local leadership to identify those that can be given sewing machines so they start income generating projects for themselves and their communities. Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution Richard Moyo handed over three sewing machines, accessories and fabric to Nechilibi Secondary School located at Cross Mabale while St Mary's and Ndlovu will receive theirs in separate ceremonies. Present at the handover ceremony were Chief Dingani-Nelukoba of Mabale, officials from Hwange Local Board and Hwange Rural District Council, heads of Government departments and members of the Joint Operating Command. Minister Moyo challenged schools to think business and use the machines to make school uniforms and clothes that can be sold around the community for self-sufficiency. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Aid and Assistance Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "I am here sent by the First Lady who loves Matabeleland North. She was here recently where we spent the day with her as she met boys and girls and she donated groceries to 400 families. The groceries were distributed to all the seven districts. "She then said we should identify three schools in Hwange that can be given something to use to sustain themselves. Before we knew it we got a call that the equipment had arrived hence we are here to hand it over. "This should help you and you should sew uniforms so that pupils can buy from your textile department," said Minister Moyo. Nechilibi High head Mr Sihauli Nyoni thanked the First Lady for the gesture saying the machines will help improve pass rate at the school especially by capacitating learners in practical subjects. "We are really happy. We have students who have been failing Mathematics and Science subjects and now we can also capacitate them in practical subjects so that they have something in life," he said. Mrs Ellen Simpande, head teacher in the Textile Technology and Design department said the sewing machines will help improve pupils' skills. Form Four pupils Michelle Mbesa and Emmanuel Sibanda who are in the textile class said they were grateful as the new machines will give them access to doing practical lessons and make their learning easy. Representing the Provincial Education Director Mr Jabulani Mpofu, Hwange District Schools Inspector Mr Walter Moyo said the benefits of the sewing machines should improve livelihoods in the whole community. "The President (Mnangagwa) recently said schools should create business hubs, hence this should assist in discharge of learning. The textile department should now start making uniforms and also design clothes that can be sold to the community," he said. Zimbabwe is set to become a regional hub for industrial hemp production as more farmers are receiving better results from their pilot projects. These developments are results of the approval of the production of industrial hemp and medicinal cannabis by President Mnangagwa in 2019. Current successes in pilot projects, which are pointing to increased production in the coming few years, dovetails with the Second Republic's plan to increase agriculture's contribution to gross domestic product from 12 percent to 20 percent by 2030. Although production was initially disturbed by coronavirus pandemic as experts could not move into the country to assist farmers and set up centres of excellence, the easing of travel restrictions has seen first pilot projects taking off in most parts of the country. Once production peaks, Zimbabwe is expected to become the largest producer in the region, which will allow local farmers to secure a niche market for industrial hemp and related products. One company operating in Headlands, Manicaland province, is already recording positive results from a 10-hectare pilot project and indications are that it will meet high yields from the project. The company plans to put an initial of 1,000 hectares of industrial hemp in Headlands and Middle Sabi. During a recent field day organised by the company at its farm in Headlands, plans were revealed for integration of smallholder farmers into industrial hemp production through an out grower scheme. The field day was attended by ZimTrade, Zimbabwe Industrial Hemp Trust Canamedix, Agricultural Marketing Authority, and officials from Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement. Speaking during the tour of the pilot project, Takunda Chifokoyo, the director of Canamedix, said the country has good soils and access to skills necessary for increased production of industrial hemp. "Zimbabwe is ideal for hemp cultivation because it has multi-generational, world class farming expertise and copious amounts of arable land. "Zimbabweans are faced with the choice of becoming competitors in the race to seek economic advantage from hemp," he said. Zimbabwe Industrial Hemp Trust founder and chief executive officer, Dr Zorodzai Maroveke, said the growing interest among farmers to consider industrial hemp indicates the country has potential to be the largest producer in Africa. "There is a realization among farmers that they can grow industrial hemp if they receive enough capacity building and support from partners, and the interest generated so far shows prospects of meaningful production in the coming years," said Dr Maroveke. As most of current production is earmarked for export, industrial hemp will boost Zimbabwe's foreign currency earnings. Allan Majuru, the chief executive officer of ZimTrade - the country's trade development and promotion organisation - said local farmers should take advantage of the growing demand for environmentally friendly products to grow industrial hemp for the African market and beyond. "Demand for industrial hemp is growing across the world and the product offers quick wins for farmers who are looking at diversifying their export basket. "With the growing demand for products that are considered as sustainable and friendly to the environment, the potential for industrial hemp to substitute synthetic products means more markets will rise quickly as perceptions of the product continue to change," he said. According to a research by Grand View Research, the global industrial hemp market size was estimated at US$4,71 billion in 2019 and is expected to register a revenue-based compound annual growth rate of 15,8 percent between 2020-2027. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Agribusiness Business Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The market is driven by the growing demand for hemp oil and fibres in the automotive, construction, food and beverage, personal care, and textile industries. Rising demand for oil paints, varnishes, printing inks, fuel, solvents, chain-saw lubricants, putty, and coatings is expected to further propel the product demand. In addition, growth in the investment towards the production of hemp-based products is expected to drive the market growth. To maximise on projected demand, Mr Majuru said although exporting raw products will earn local farmers foreign currency, there is potential to earn more if they value-add and export finished products such as clothing, paper, canvas, carpets, cordage, and insulating materials. "Production of commodities such as bioplastics and insulation, which normally require imported raw materials, stand to benefit if production of hemp and value addition is increased to meet industry demand," said Mr Majuru. Trust in the government of Botswana's (GOB) approach to management of the COVID -19 pandemic is fading at an alarming rate .During the tenure of the Khama regime , trust of Batswana in the GOB slowly but steadily became worse .Then , when Dr. Masisi came into power , trust in the government increased dramatically , only to wane again rapidly when COVID -19 became prevalent in the country and the State of Emergency (SOE) was proclaimed .After a year , the SOE is still with us and criticism of the handling of the pandemic appears not to be tolerated .The performance of the appointed corona Professor leaves to be desired and even the police have lost confidence in GOB as they have become rather lackadaisical in the implementation of the COVID-19 policies. Let us look a little bit into COVID 19 management , to scrutinize whether the corona professor really know to approach this crisis ,Strict lock downs in the most countries of the world were implemented when the reproduction number increased to above 1.The number indicates how many persons with COVID-19 infects. If the R number ids below 1 , the incidence of the disease will decrease; if the number is above 1 , the disease will multiply rapidly. The higher the R number , the more people will get infected .The corona professor or the Outbreak Management Team advised to institute a lock-down last year March(2020)when Batswana only had a few cases and the R number was below 1 , thus wasting precious funds , productivity and causing loss to public trust. Currently, people in Botswana do not know the R number , as no information is made available to the public .However , looking at the current COVID-19 figures , as provided by the government, the incidence appears to be going down, however the Greater Gaborone zone remains in the lock-down . Active cases as provided by the GOB. Date Daily average 22 March 2021 302 26 March 2021 344 29 March2021 379 5 April 2021 306 Major acceptance methods to avoid infection include keeping 1.5 m distance ,washing hands frequently ,good ventilation and quarantine .Yet our good corona professor keeps stressing the wearing of mask as the most important policy.The wearing of mask has created a false sense of protection , as many people in the country wear below required quality mask , or wear masks below the their nose .And whilst wearing these mask , people still hug each other, without keeping the required distance of 1.5 meter. In addition , the poor ventilation of government buildings may explain why so many civil servants get infected. Another example is the corona professor himself getting infected because he was travelling in a corona team bus , whereas the public is still crowding in public transport. While, with the new emerging variants such as the Indian one , which can make even vaccinated people ill, Botswana should consider or stricter quarantine measures or entry stops from high risk countries. The initial closing of the boarders was obviously a good measure , as many of the covid 19 cases I the country were imported .However , this measure was revoked ,whilst the Greater Gaborone area was once more put into lockdown .This is difficult to comprehend .Furthermore, the GOB fail to officially inform the public of the closing down of the Greater Gaborone Zone .The GOB even went as far as blantantly lying by posting on the website that the issue of the covid permits was temporarily out of order. The government apparently had no intention of resurrecting the permit use through their website, and up to today it is impossible for essiantial service companies based in the Great Gaborone zone ,to obtain a permit to provide much necessary service elsewhere in the country, instead it was decided to award the permit system to the Brastorne company to issue licences through their Besafe application. Initial the app did not work on the phones with Mascom subscriptions , the app still does not work for many other people who do not yet possess or cannot afford a smart phone can no longer obtain permits .And the Besafe app cannot be used to obtain essential -service permits. One may wonder why the public is deprived of much needed information and why the government resorts to sneaky methods of depriving the public of what is going in their own country regarding covid 19.Lack of information breeds dis-trust. Surely transparency in information dissemination would increase the trust and understanding of the people of Botswana in the government and icrease the appreciation of certain measures, rather than having to speculate and become frustrated as to what is going on .To regain public trust soonest and to prevent discontent and potential chaos pleas keep the public informed , share with the people when and why certain zones have to go into temporary lock-down, share the Botswana figures on a daily basis and make the R number public. Re -instate the permit system through the website whereby people can print permits and keep in mind that not all people carry smart phones. Engage reputable companies to develop and implement new apps. Let people hear and see that there is nothing to hide , stop the speculation , only then can things are move forward and trust regained. And last but not least , why is the Botswana Vaccine Institute not asked to reproduce e.g the Astra Zeneca vaccine , similar to the set -up in India. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Botswana Governance Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. ANONYMOUS analysis K.Y. Amoako has had a remarkable life. Born and schooled in pre-independence Ghana, he did a PhD in economics at the University of California, Berkeley and joined the World Bank ("a largely white institution that controlled much of Africa's destiny" (p. 24)), where he was one of the first Africans in the young professionals program. After a stellar career including serving as country economist for Sudan, the Bank's representative in Zambia, and director of the Education and Social Policy Department, he was appointed the Executive Secretary of the UN's Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Not only did he turn ECA into a dynamic institution, but he played a major role in pan-African initiatives on debt relief, gender equity and the African peer-review mechanism. When he left ECA, he founded a think tank, the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) that works on the structural transformation of African economies. Know the Beginning Well, which documents that life, is a heart-warming, sensitive, and deeply reflective memoir, told by someone who expresses his feelings just as comfortably as he does his ideas. As one of few Africans at the World Bank in the mid-1970s, K.Y. experienced racism, being turned down for positions because "African governments would not take advice from natives of their own continent" (p. 58). In Zambia, he had to overcome "the general arrogance of Bank staff as perceived by the Zambians", p. 60) but also the Zambian government's resistance to much-needed reforms. He did this by working with reform-minded policymakers, winning their trust, and helping them convince the President about the reform program. As Director of Education and Social Policy, he grappled with the tension between the Bank's lending program and its knowledge program. The problems of education and social policy required strong technical assistance, possibly accompanied by small loans. The incentives at the Bank were geared towards large lending programs. K.Y. navigated between this Scylla and Charybdis by producing at high volume and high quality. "By the end of 1994, we were on our way to finishing eight major analytical reports or policy papers in two years. Yes, career technocrats get very excited about these things" (p. 153). When the UN Secretary-General offered him the ECA position, K.Y. was reluctant because his career was progressing well at the Bank, his wife was building her career, and his daughters were in high school and college. But his two senior mentors at the Bank and his wife pointed out that this was K.Y.'s dream of serving the African continent. He took the job. At the ECA, he managed a turnaround by holding Open Space forums with all staff and drawing on some of the most distinguished experts on Africa. He won support for his reforms from both the staff and the Finance Ministers of Africa. He then launched a program of partnerships with other organizations aimed at mobilizing resources for Africa--for debt relief, development, and for gender equity. These high-profile initiatives were mostly successful although K.Y. realized that the binding constraint in Africa was not money but good governance. The ECA started producing a set of governance indicators for the continent, merging later with the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. K.Y. also played a pivotal role in the African Peer Review Mechanism, a program where African countries review the quality of policies and institutions of other African countries. Finally, he harnessed his extensive network of African leaders, scholars, and technocrats to create ACET, a think-tank dedicated to arguably the most important problem facing the continent, namely, the lack of structural transformation. What is striking about this book--what makes it more than a memoir--is that almost all of the challenges that K.Y. faced throughout his career are, in one form or the other, still with us. The racism that K.Y. encountered almost fifty years ago is prevalent today, as Celestin Monga (2020) recounts, not to mention the events that triggered the "Black Lives Matter" movement. While the arrogance of Bank staff may have diminished, the resistance to reform has not. The problems that K.Y. encountered in Sudan in the late-1970s, including exchange rate misalignment, debt, and agricultural subsides, are there today. The tension between the World Bank's lending and knowledge functions remains--and has been the cause of several reorganizations. That tension is sharpened by another tradeoff, between mobilizing more resources for development and making better use of existing resources. While the usual answer is to do both, campaigns to raise resources can undermine efforts to improve the efficiency of resource use, as I, among others, have pointed out (Devarajan 2015). Raising more resources enables governments to postpone taking the politically difficult decisions needed to improve efficiency. And governance remains the binding constraint to Africa's development. Tackling it in a forum of government ministers is difficult because some of the ministers may be the source of weak governance. In light of the fact that the challenges facing Africa and the world today are similar to those K.Y. encountered over the last half century, it is tempting to ask whether there was something we could have done differently. Despite all of K.Y.'s successes in bringing about reform in Zambia, developing the World Bank's program in education and social policy, turning around the ECA, and mobilizing resources for Africa, the one piece I found missing was the engagement with everyday people. In Zambia, he forged a consensus between reformist and non-reformist ministers. But the people who stood to gain were the poor in Zambia who were suffering under the distorted policies. Amplifying their voice could have led to more sustained growth and inclusion. Likewise, the debate over whether lending or knowledge is more important for education should be resolved by the poor people who care desperately about their children's schooling. Discussions on mobilizing resources for Africa take a different turn when you ask ordinary Africans what they want. In 2011, I held face-to-face consultations with about a thousand Africans from all walks of life on what they thought was needed for Africa's future. Not one of them mentioned resources; almost all mentioned good governance. Moreover, governance can only be improved by making sure that governments--ministers, bureaucrats, service providers--are accountable to the citizens. These lessons are particularly relevant for ACET because it is people--not governments nor scholars nor leaders--who will bring about structural transformation. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa Business Books By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In sum, this book is much more than a brilliant window into K.Y.'s mind and his heart. It is a platform for charting Africa's future. As the book's title suggests, to chart that future, we need to know the beginning well. References Devarajan, Shanta. 2015. "Shame on me: Why it was wrong to cost the Millennium Development Goals," Future Development, Brookings Institution. Monga, Celestin. 2020. "Discrimination and prejudice in development," Future Development, Brookings Institution. World Bank. 2011. Africa's future and the World Bank's support to it. Board Report. World Bank, Washington, DC. Debating Ideas is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. Abuja President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday said that the European Union, EU, remains the largest trading partner with Nigeria and members of the Union the largest investors. The President also said that the EU has been of help to Nigeria in diverse ways, including humanitarian and trade relations, President Muhammadu Buhari has said. President Buhari spoke at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, while receiving in a farewell audience, the Ambassador/ Head of the EU Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, His Excellency Ketil Karlsen. Also read: Insecurity: Nobody is safe in Nigeria -- Osagie, Ex-Reps minority leader A statement issued by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, said Buhari "appreciated the fact that the EU remains the largest trading partner with Nigeria, while members of the Union equally remain the largest investors." The President thanked the outgoing Ambassador for facilitating the visits of French and German leaders during his tour of duty, noting that it was during Prime Minister Angela Merkel's visit that the door to a relationship with Siemens of Germany on power was opened. Ambassador Karlsen, who spent four years here, said he enjoyed "excellent collaboration" with President Buhari, and with Nigeria, saying the cooperation included trade, military, humanitarian assistance, and many others. Troops of 8 Division, Nigerian Army operating in Zamfara and adjoining states have stated that they made tremendous progress in the ongoing fight against banditry and other violent crimes in the North-west. The troops in a statement signed by the Director Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Mohammed Yerima, said they successfully cleared many bandits' camps in Jaya, Kadaya, and Bayan Ruwa amongst several others and successfully neutralised 48 bandits. They added that the bandits' leader in the area Jummo sustained a gunshot wound on his leg while the troops rescued 18 kidnap victims from the bandits' enclave. Moreover, eight AK-47 rifles and one G3 rifle, as well as one PKT and a machine gun were recovered from the bandits. The division had earlier launched Operation Tsare Mutane following the directives of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru for the division to stabilise the area in order to facilitate the return of socio-economic activities. The General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Division, Maj. Gen. Usman Yusuf launched the first phase of Operation Tsare Mutane which lasted from March 23 to April 2, 2021 in Maradun LGA of Zamfara State. In continuation with the second phase of Operation Tsare Mutane, troops sacked several other bandits' camps around Gabiya, Bozaya, and Mereri and the adjoining forests in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State from 19 April to 3 May 2021. "The areas which were heavily infested by bandits were successfully cleared by the highly spirited troops. "Key bandits' leaders including Yellow Mai-Bille, Sani Meli, Dan-Katsina, and Sama'ila Bakajin Bari were neutralised in the process while the main leader Nasanda narrowly escaped with fatal injuries. "Equally neutralised in the operation was one Isan Heshi who is a close ally of a notorious bandit called Nagala. Isan Heshi was the second in command to Heshi before he joined Nagala following Heshi's death in an earlier operation," the statement read in part. Items recovered in the second phase of Operation Tsare Mutane include 4,600 rounds of ammunition, two AK-103 rifles, eight AK-47 magazines, 1,628 rounds of AK-47 ammunition, fifty-four rounds of PKM as well as one motorcycle and five Techno mobile phones. Ibadan, Nigeria The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us that global health challenges cannot be solved only by health sector interventions. Many of the recent epidemics -- Ebola, Zika and even Covid-19 -- are emerging infectious diseases transmissible from wildlife species. In addition, other global health challenges greatly impact people, livestock, wildlife and agriculture which results in adverse effects on local, national, and global economies. To truly tackle prospective pandemics, Africa's higher education institutions need to promote a more integrated approach to healthcare training that breaks down the silos between doctors, veterinarians, laboratory scientists and other aligned professions to embrace a "one health" approach. In short, every discipline is affected and all must be taken into consideration when applying solutions. We must begin to coordinate and optimise resources across human, veterinary and environmental sectors for prevention, detection and control of infectious disease outbreaks The One Health approach refers to the collaboration of multiple disciplines working locally, nationally, and globally towards optimal health for people, animals, plants, and the environment. It brings together different disciplines to tackle issues holistically and is critical for Africa since most of the emerging and re-emerging diseases have been linked to wildlife. The concept has been already been endorsed by several national and international organisations and is beginning to be implemented in several medical schools in North America. But not in Africa. Take, for example, Nigeria where the education model encourages competition and territoriality among professions instead of collaboration in practice. Currently, only 2% of clinical trials conducted globally occur in Africa, according to Tom Kariuki, director of programmes at the African Academy of Sciences. This could hinder the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccine in terms of gaining an understanding of immune response and safety in African populations. There are historical challenges that have limited vaccine trials in Africa. In Nigeria, these challenges are exacerbated by professional tussles. Whereas drug and vaccine approval is under the purview of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), the oversight of conduct of clinical trials involving human subjects lie with National Health Research Ethics Committee, Nigeria (NHREC). This at times portends bureaucratic difficulties. Some African countries do have networks involved in One Health training, research, and outreach. However, most of these are not integrated in approach and practice. For example, the Nigerian Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (NFELTP) is a service-oriented training program with three different options or tracks: applied epidemiology, public health laboratory practice, or veterinary epidemiology means the different tracks still maintain their traditional professional territory. Recently, while working at the frontlines during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as the leader of the Decontamination and Containment arm of the Covid-19 Taskforce for Oyo State, Nigeria, it became clear that healthcare workers still lacked an understanding of what a One Health approach means in practice. Most requests to decontaminate facilities where Covid-19 patients had been evacuated were either not communicated, were delayed or relayed through wrong channels. The lack of synergy in information communication has significant implications for the overall efforts to curtail the spread of the virus. A global One Health approach requires individuals who have technical competencies to work across sectors, disciplines, and borders to successfully manage complex health issues and disease outbreaks. We have already seen examples of this in action on the continent. Through curriculum development workshops the University of Rwanda's School of Veterinary Medicine, in association with Tufts University, revised its curriculum to incorporate collaborative skills across disciplines in order to better prepare graduates for the reality on the ground. The approach has been endorsed by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus who said "we can only prevent future pandemics with an integrated #OneHealth approach to public health, animal health and the environment we share". While it is not possible to immediately refashion all medical, veterinary and environmental health practitioners transformed into One Health workforce, we can start by organising ongoing in-service professional development in One Health keep practitioners abreast of best practice cross-sectoral responses. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Higher Education institutions must incorporate One Health concepts, skills, and competencies to create enhanced curricula and programmes. Finally, we must strengthen communication among medical, veterinary, and environmental Health practitioners on the field. COVID-19 has shown that we need to act fast as changes at the interface of humans, livestock and wildlife are driving increased risk of emerging disease threats across the globe. We must begin to coordinate and optimise resources across human, veterinary and environmental sectors for prevention, detection and control of infectious disease outbreaks. By doing so, we will be better prepared for the next pandemic. Olanike Adeyemo is a Professor in the Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria and a 2021 Aspen New Voices Fellow. She advocates for an integrated one health workforce to support a cohesive approach for a healthier world. Follow her on Twitter @OlanikeAdeyemo1. Follow @OlanikeAdeyemo1 THE government has pledged to give Tanzanian youth who graduate from Colleges and Universities especially in science and industrial engineering course, an opportunity to participate in the country's economic growth. Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade, Exaud Kigahe told the parliament here that Mzumbe University introduced the Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering Management in 2015 and that the government utilizes experts from the institution. The degree course, he said, is aimed at having a good number of local experts who are capable of managing production in both government and private owned industries. That was when the Deputy Minister was responding to the a primary question from Christine Mnzava (Special Seat-CCM), who wanted to know the number of experts and their fields participating in fostering the industrial growth. He told the Parliament that since 2017/18 to 2019/20, most of the graduates in the Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering management have been employed in the private sector. Mr Kigahe said most of them are serving in the field of cement production, beverages, beer, textile, food, timber processing, cooking oil and mining industries. He said some are serving in the public entities especially those dealing with quality including Tanzania Bureau of Statistics, Small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO), Mzumbe University, Tanzania Industrial Research and Development Organisation (TIRDO) and Tanzania Engineering and Manufacturing Design Organization (TEMDO). He said the government industrial drive economy invests on experts to ensure the goals are attained, adding that the graduates are majorly engaged in various industrial development projects both in public and private sector. He said since 2017/18 to 2019/20 the number of students, who graduated in the course, are 228, where 55 of them have been employed in the mining sector and seven more in the public sector and the remaining in private industries. SwRI's Fuselier elected to the National Academy of Sciences SAN ANTONIO -- May 4, 2021 -- Dr. Stephen Fuselier, executive director of Southwest Research Institute's Space Science Directorate, was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for his distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. NAS membership is one of the highest honors given to a scientist or engineer in the United States. With this distinction, Fuselier was also elected to the Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science of Texas (TAMEST) as well. TAMEST is composed of the Texas-based members of the three national academies -- of medicine, engineering and sciences -- the Royal Society and the state's 11 Nobel Laureates. Fuselier was among 120 engineers and scientists elected this year to NAS, which has 2,461 active members. Notable past members include Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and Orville Wright. Approximately 500 current and deceased Academy members have won Nobel Prizes. "This is a great honor for Stephen and a great honor for Southwest Research Institute," said Dr. Jim Burch, vice president of SwRI's Space Science and Engineering Division. "Stephen's research has contributed vastly to a better understanding of the solar wind, magnetic reconnection and auroras." Fuselier, who joined SwRI in 2011, is well known for fundamental contributions to understanding the physics of the interactions of the solar wind with Earth's magnetosphere, comets and the interstellar medium. He holds key positions on several NASA missions, including coinvestigator for the Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP), coinvestigator and sensor lead for the Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission, and coinvestigator and lead for the Hot Plasma Composition Experiment (HPCA) instrument for the SwRI-led Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission. He is also coinvestigator for the Twin Rocket Investigation of Cusp Electrodynamics (TRICE) and deputy principal investigator for the Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites (TRACERS) missions. He also contributed to prior missions, serving as coinvestigator for the SwRI-led Imager for Magnetopause to Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) mission and as lead U.S. coinvestigator for the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis (ROSINA), an instrument onboard ESA's Rosetta mission. Fuselier has authored or coauthored more than 460 papers published in scientific journals and conference proceedings. He has received several honors during his 35-year career, including the American Geophysical Union's Macelwane Medal in 1995 and the European Geosciences Union Hannes Alfven Medal in 2016. Fuselier holds a bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Southern California and a master's degree and doctorate in physics from the University of Iowa. The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit honor society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to furthering science and technology for the general welfare. Established in 1863, NAS has served to "investigate, examine, experiment and report upon any subject of science or art" whenever called up to do so by the government. ### For more information, visit https:/ / www. swri. org/ industries/ space-science . Release url: https:/ / www. swri. org/ press-release/ fuselier-elected-national-academy-of-sciences?utm_source= EA!&utm_medium= Distribution&utm_campaign= Fuselier-PR Client service link: https:/ / www. swri. org/ industries/ space-science?utm_source= EurekAlert!&utm_medium= SwRI&utm_campaign= Fuselier-PR This story has been published on: 2021-05-12. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Woburn, MA (01801) Today A mix of clouds and sun. High 74F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 52F. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. THE High Court has upheld a 20- year jail sentence imposed earlier on Nyamhanga Chacha by the district court after he was found guilty of committing three offences, including illegally possessing weapons and hippopotamus meat. Serengeti district Court had earlier sentenced the appellant into 20-years- imprisonment after he was found guilty of committing three related economic crimes including unlawful entry into Serengeti National Park where he committed other criminal acts. Judge John Kahyoza ruled against Chacha, alias Kibiti, the appellant, after dismissing the appeal he had lodged to oppose the decision of the trial District Court of Serengeti. "I find no basis to disturb the trial court's findings. I am satisfied that the prosecution proved the appellant's guilt beyond reasonable doubts," the judge ruled. According to him, the trial court had all the reasons to find the accused person guilty and convict him of the offences of unlawful entry into the National Park, unlawful possession of weapons in the National Park and possession of government trophies. "I hereby dismiss the appeal and uphold the conviction and sentence imposed by the trial court. I impose an additional sentence of one year imprisonment for the offence of unlawful possession of weapons in the second count which was skipped by the trial court. The sentences shall run concurrently," he ruled. On March 28, 2019, two Serengeti park rangers found the appellant and his co-accused walking along Mto Mara River bank within Serengeti National Park. The two were conducting their routine patrol within the national park with other rangers. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Tanzania Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The two potential prosecution witnesses testified that they found the appellant and the coaccused in possession of the two spears and two pieces of fresh hippopotamus meat. They arrested them and prepared a seizure certificate, which the appellant and his co-accused signed. After full trial, the district court found the appellant guilty and convicted him as charged. The trial court sentenced the appellant to pay a fine of 100,000/= or to serve an imprisonment term of six months for the offence of unlawful entry into the national park. The trial court skipped to sentence on the appellant on the second count of unlawful possession of weapons into the national park. The trial court also imposed a custodial sentence of twenty years for the offence of unlawful possession of government trophies. It ordered the sentence to run concurrently. Having being aggrieved with the findings, the appellant took the matter to the High Court. During hearing of the appeal, the appellant complained, among others, that the offences he was charged with were not proved and that there was no independent witness when he signed seizure certificate. In his deliberation, the High Court judge noted that the appellant did not explain why the prosecution witnesses should not be trusted and their evidence be treated credible. "I am unable to find any ground to discredit the evidence of (the two) park rangers. It is settled law that witnesses must be trusted unless there is a cogent reason to question their credibility," he said. PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa urged higher learning institutions especially research and development organizations, to work closely with the private sector and use of locally developed technologies as well as innovations to accelerate socio-economic development. Speaking at the climax of the National Competition of Science, Technology, and Innovation (MAKISATU) 2021 in Dodoma, the Premier said the goal should be to develop, monitor and coordinate inventions in the country. "Various stakeholders in all institutions must continue to employ innovations and find solutions from young people in their areas... the goals in this is to prepare innovators and increase the tools that solve challenges in the society," he said. Expounding, he said it was equally important for the institutions to promote and protect intellectual property for researchers and innovators to reap the benefit of their work. "Many innovations can be protected through intellectual property (IP) rights; unfortunately statistics show that for last year only eight patent applications from Tanzania were submitted to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), while South Africa submitted 1,514 applications," he said. He added: "All institutions dealing with innovation should prepare a patent plan and submit more applications to WIPO to protect the interests of inventors, whose technologies are truly groundbreaking and commercially successful," MAKISATU is a platform that gives a chance to grassroots innovators from all over the country to showcase their innovations stand a chance to win awards and be supported to develop their prototypes further. It comprises seven categories (primary school, secondary school, the informal sector, vocational training, tertiary level; university; and research and development institutions). Some of the Stakeholders who have sponsored the competition and innovation week in partnership with the government include United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) to mention a few. The Premier also directed the Ministry for Education, Science, and Technology to organize innovation week every year starting from the grassroots level and conclude with the global innovation week to be able to visualize various innovations in the country. Earlier, Vice-Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Community Services and Development, Mr Aloyce Kamamba, said there were only a few young innovators who have succeeded in reaching the national level. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Tanzania Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "It is important to look for a good system that will reach all Tanzanians and young people who are at the grassroots and are unable to reach the national level," he said. UNDP Representative, Godfrey Mulisa said innovation is part of the solution that will push Tanzania into the industrial agenda. In collaboration with COSTECH and the ministry of education, they will launch the 'Funguo' project on May 17, this year during the opening of innovation week. According to Mr Mulisa, the project will focus on supporting innovation, access to finance from the private sector and other stakeholders to expand the scope of participation from various innovators in the country. Commenting, Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Education, Mr Omary Kipanga said the competition, which started in 2019 is one of the ministry's strategies to visualize, identify and develop innovations and discoveries made by Tanzanians especially those at the grassroots level. NATIONAL Institute of Transport (NIT) has signed a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) with Ethiopia's Dire Dawa Polytechnic College to explore collaboration in academic exchange programme and research activities. NIT Rector, Prof. Zacharia Mganilwa said in Dar es Salaam, "NIT's collaboration with Dire Dawa Polytechnic College is working under the support of East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP). The five-year project funded by the World Bank and implemented in Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya is set to increase access and improve the quality of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes that will be offered by the selected Regional Flagship TVET Institutes (RFTIs)," he said. He added: "Therefore, the MoU with Dire Dawa Polytechnic College will benefit all institutions by stimulating and promoting education, professionals and intellectual activities involving students and staff." "We will take it forward for the benefit of the students and staff members of both respective institutions,". "We are aiming forward for the joint collaboration in academic exchange programme, joint curriculum development, as well as knowledge, skill and technology transfer," Prof Mganilwa insisted. The Rector said that in this academic year, the National Institute of Transport is expecting to receive four academic staff from Dire Dawa Polytechnic College. Two of them are licensed welders and the rest are Computer Numerical Control (CNC) professionals. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Tanzania Ethiopia Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We are expecting that the licensed welders from the Ethiopian college will assist our institute in improving curriculums in the ship building and repair course as well as the oil and gas programme," he observed. Prof Mganilwa said the Dire Dawa Polytechnic College's professionals in CNC will come at NIT to improve the teaching manuals to the Institutes' manufacturing engineering programme. "The Institute is on procurement process to buy machines for Computer Numerical Control Programming (CNC programme). Currently, we are sending our students to University of Dar es Salaam and Arusha Technical College for practicals, therefore soon after getting the machines, all practicals will be held at our Institute," he said. However, Prof Mganilwa also said that through the EASTRIP's exchange programme, students and academic staff from Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya will benefit from the project. "Students and academic staff from Ethiopia and Kenya will come in Tanzania for an exchange programme at either the National Institute of Transport (NIT), Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) or Arusha Technical College (ATC)," he said. THE government has expressed its commitment to support coffee farmers, saying the move is aimed at improving production as identified in the plan to boost the agricultural sector. For the start, the government has started producing and distributing drought-resistant hybrid coffee seeds, as one of the measures in increasing production. Coffee is in the list of strategic cash crops that are given special focus by the government. However, due to climate change, a section of coffee farmers across the country have abandoned the crop cultivation due to low yields caused by climate change and other factors. Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Hussein Bashe told Parliament that the government is doing everything in its capacity to address the challenge. Mr Bashe made the remark, while responding to Saasisha Mafuwe (Hai-CCM) question on the measures that are taken by the government to revive the cash crop's cultivation. He further said the government is also looking forward to reviving Farmers Cooperative Unions-the bodies that once oversaw massive production and sale of the crop within and outside the country. He named Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union as one of the associations and union that the government is working on to ensure it supports farmers to increase production. Elaborating, Mr Bashe said Hai District in Kilimanjaro region in particular is one of the areas that have dropped in coffee production from 3,486 tonnes in 2014/2015 to 1,428.80 tonnes in 2020/2021. He said the situation has been caused by several reasons including climate change and poor performance by the coffee cooperative unions, adding that hence, the farmers decided to opt for other crops instead of the coffee cultivation. Moreover, he said, farmers who were under the irrigation schemes were affected as well with the climate changes, and experienced no reliable rains. He further said the whole scenario, called for the intervention of the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute (TaCRI) to come up with the best seeds with high yields. THE government plans to relocate temporarily the fish market in Kasanga Ward of Kalambo District in Rukwa Region after the current one was submerged due to rising water level in Lake Tanganyika. Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, Dr Rashid Tamatamah announced this after touring the Kasanga Modern Fish Market in the area that has halted operations due to rising water levels and floods since last year. "I have been sent by the Minister of Livestock and Fisheries, Mashimba Ndaki to inspect the area; it is unfortunate that we cannot do anything to rescue the situation here. I will therefore advise the ministry to find another area then allocate funds to build another market," he said. Dr Tamatamah added that in the budget for the 2020/21 fiscal year ending June, the ministry had allocated 78m/- for minor renovations in Kasanga Market. He further said that the Kasanga Market located along the shores of Lake Tanganyika started its operations in March last year after staying idle for eight years since completion in 2011, the 802.4m/- facility's main donor being the European Union (EU). In March 2020 after it started operating, a few days later it was closed after its buildings submerged due to an increase in Lake Tanganyika water level caused by floods. It is estimated that 70,000 people living in villages close to the modern fish market engage in fishing activities, and annually they produce more than 170,000 tonnes of fresh fish. According to him, fishermen at the facility are forced to resort to what they used to do in the old days, selling fish to neighboring Zambia at low prices because they had no choice. For his part, the Officer in charge of Fisheries Resources in the Central Region of Tanganyika, Mr Juma Makongoro said following the increase in water levels in Lake Tanganyika, it has also affected their Fisheries Resources Management Office in Kasanga Center. Mr Makongoro urged fishermen who want to sell fish to Zambia to follow the right procedures by involving people or companies licensed to export fish so that they can sell fish legally instead of smuggling. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) and chairman of the Presidential Steering Committee, (PSC) on COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, has clarified misrepresentation in the briefing of the PSC on Monday. Mustapha, who spoke to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja, said it was erroneously reported that the federal government had re-introduced nationwide curfew between 12 a.m. and 4 a.m. as part of the COVID-19 safety protocols. He, however, said the announcement by the National Incident Manager, Dr. Mukhtar Mohammed, during the PSC press briefing was taken out of context because the federal government did not relax the curfew imposed earlier under Phase Three of the eased lockdown. Rather, he explained that what Mohammed said was that the federal government was maintaining the curfew under the Phase Four of the phased restriction of movement. "Under the Fourth Phase of restriction of movement, night clubs, gyms and others will remain closed till further notice; while all citizens will also ensure that mass gatherings outside work settings do not exceed maximum of 50 people in an enclosed space. "These restrictions have been in existence under the Third Phase but are being maintained under the Phase Four of the phased restriction of movement," said the SGF. He further said because people had been violating the safety protocols, they had forgotten that the protocols were never relaxed in the first place. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "Therefore, the PSC hereby reiterates that there is no newly introduced lockdown. There is no need for the panic that followed the announcement of the Fourth Phase of the phased restriction of movement. "We will continue to appeal to members of the public to comply with these restrictions because they are necessary safety measures against contracting the dreaded coronavirus, which is still ravaging human populations across the world," said Mustapha. NAN reports that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the transition of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 to PSC on COVID-19, which took effective from April 1, with a modified mandate to reflect the non-emergent status of COVID-19 as a potentially long-term pandemic. "The structure of the PSC shall reflect the new focus of the response with a targeted approach on vaccine oversight, risk communication, international travel quarantine processes, and sub-national engagement; and that the tenure of the PSC shall last till 31 December, 2021," said the president. He added that the PSC would maintain the present constitution, functions and strategies of the PTF; be supported by a slim technical and administrative structure. Mohammed is expected to formally take over from the National Coordinator, Dr. Sani Aliyu, and function as the Head (Technical Secretariat) and member of the PSC. NAN African e-commerce giant Jumia today shared its earnings for the first quarter of 2021 that ended in March. While its customer count grew, a drop in the company's revenues spoke to the fact that it is still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most areas in Africa where Jumia operates have lifted their lockdown restrictions, but some countries like Morocco and Kenya still have curfews. Jumia said while these measures didn't lead to meaningful changes in consumer behavior, its supply and logistics chain -- especially for its food delivery business JumiaFood -- was disrupted. The University of the Gambia (UTG) on Thursday 6 May 2021 gathered stakeholders to validate the introduction of local languages in the school curriculum by next semester. The event was held at the university campus in Kanifing. The validation process was initiated by the university and championed by the school of Arts and Sciences as linguistic expects in local languages demonstrated the value of local languages in the educational system as independence. Speaking at the ceremony, the vice chancellor of the UTG, Professor Faqir Mahammad Anjum, said in national rehabilitation of cultures and languages, there is a need to talk about the importance of languages and culture in the economic and personal development of people and its country. Prof. Anjum emphasised that it is only through the usage of Gambian languages that will ensure equality and democratic participation of the people in the development of the country. He pointed out that the usage of English language as the country's official language is the losing ground in both educational system and the poor performance of the pupils and students are largely associated with the lack of understanding of the language used in classrooms as a medium of instruction. Vice Chancellor Anjum highlighted that his institution is working on establishing linguistic department which will give students the opportunity to explore Gambian languages in phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics all in a quest for developing the country. Pierre Gomez, the acting vice chancellor, Academics, described the validation as a turning point in the history of the university as linguistics expect longed for it and as the means of self discovery. "The university will lead the creation of Mandinka 101, Fula 101 and Wollof 101 etc in the university curriculum and later expand linguistics in the school structures where people can write BA in local language in The Gambia," he said. Professor Gomez said that students are taught in various foreign languages in the Gambia but they are not taught in their local languages. "And yet we call ourselves independent and what type of independence is that, when you cannot even speak your own local language without knowing how your language is." He further said that there is a need to decolonise curriculum as well as the mindset of people regarding local languages to empower them to take the lead. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Gambia Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Dr. Abdul Karim Kamara, the dean of School of Arts and Sciences, said that his department has initiated the teaching of local languages in the school for the advancement of education in the country. He stated the local languages are fading away and if something is not done about it, it is going to have a negative impact on the generation to come. He noted that the university should take the lead and prevent the local languages from dying, adding that native languages should be preserve before it is too late. Honorable Sidia Jatta, a linguistics specialist, said that for over centuries, the country has been denied of being independent by the colonial masters because people without language have no identity. He described language as a fundamental factor that defines who one is as a human being and it is rooted in the culture. Hon Jatta added that there is a need for chain of liberation, and the linguistics means will pave the way for development. Agriculture is important to the development of any nation including The Gambia. The sector accounts for a greater percentage of the country's GDP. Young people are therefore pivotal in this curtailed sector of our economy hence they are physically active. Development of the country cannot be achieved when young people remain inactive towards agriculture. Ministry of Youth and Sport seeks to encourage youth participation in the sector by initiating district youth farms. This effort will require changing the negative perceptions youth have in agriculture; that is farmers, from the uneducated, unskilled, physical labourers with extremely low economic returns are the ones who go back to the land. I firmly believe that if youth are given all what they need and they consent to go back to the land in large numbers this country can indeed feed itself. However, it is high time we initiated or introduced new technologies and knowledge to youngsters that will lead to diversified and modern farming practices. When this happen, it will increase employment for young people and also hopefully reduce the phenomenon of rural-urban migration. This country will hardly feed itself much more to export, if young people who are able, energetic and strong do not take agriculture seriously. The old men and women who are left in the rural areas cannot make us achieve food self-sufficiency. I therefore, encourage all youth from across the country to consider doing something to boost agriculture. The country has all it takes in terms of arable farm land and fresh water to grow more food for both domestic consumption and export. The only thing needed is the motivation and change of attitude on the part of young persons. I command the government's policy on agriculture and national efforts meant to boost agriculture, while calling for a more encouragement to attract youth into this important sector. Young people from the rural areas who do come to the cities for jobs should consider returning back to their villages and help their weak and old parents in their farming activities. Lamin Barrow, the chairman of the Association of Wood Re-exporters and Forest users in The Gambia has decried the rampant malpractice surrounding the exportation of containers of wood to China, claiming that despite government currently imposing a ban on the exportation of wood, some 'unscrupulous' individuals are still exporting containers to China. Barrow was speaking over the weekend at Sinchu Alhagie during a presentation of 110 50kg bags of rice and 110 five litres of oil to its members. Gambians, Barrow added, need to respect the government ban on the exportation of wood outside the country. "However, due to the selfish interest of certain individuals, exportation of wood outside the country is still on-going. This needs to be stopped because the country is losing huge revenue," he said, adding that his members have no hand in the on-going exportation of wood to China. The Ministry of Environment, he claimed, should be in position to know those "unscrupulous" individuals who are bent on exporting containers of wood despite the ban. "I believe the ministry is aware of those people but they are just muted about it without doing anything and the country is losing a lot of revenues. I want to reiterate that our members are not part of the issue because they're law abiding and they respect the Forest Act." In this year Koriteh, he said, the association will only slaughter two bulls and that the meat will be sold to only its members. This move, he stated, is geared towards complementing the efforts of its members who are not working at the moment due to the ban imposed by the government, claiming that they have been working tirelessly in bringing understanding between the producers and the exporters. "I can emphatically make it clear that members of our association are not involved in exporting timbers outside the country. In fact, since our formation, our members are not involved in any malpractice in the country," Bakary Jammeh, the association's vice president said. Ebrima Lowe, a member of the Association said the donated items will go a long way towards complementing their efforts, adding that the items are commodities that they need much. In this illustration, a womans profile can be seen at a maternity ward in a hospital in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. One woman in Butembo an aid hub during the 2018 to 2020 Ebola crisis told the Thomson Reuters Foundation and The New Humanitarian that she had a baby after a man gave her a job with the World Health Organization in exchange for sex. Butembo More than 20 Congolese women have accused aid workers of sexual abuse in new claims that include rape and unwanted pregnancies, with United Nations investigators uncovering similar allegations of workers exploiting vulnerable women. The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation spoke to 22 women in Butembo who said male aid workers responding to an Ebola crisis in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo offered them jobs in exchange for sex. The claims come as donors pressure aid groups to do more to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse while assisting the world's most vulnerable, and follow a joint investigation by reporters last year in which 51 women in the nearby city of Beni made similar allegations. Several workers have already been dismissed in the wake of the initial investigation by The New Humanitarian and Thomson Reuters Foundation. Aid organisations said several other investigations were underway. Fourteen of the 22 women in Butembo - an aid hub during the Ebola outbreak - said the men identified themselves as workers with the World Health Organization (WHO), one of the lead agencies in the crisis, which killed 2,200 people between 2018 and 2020. "WHO is committed to taking prompt and robust action, including collaborating with relevant national authorities on criminal proceedings, in all cases where WHO staff may be found guilty of perpetrating (sexual exploitation and abuse)," said WHO spokeswoman Marcia Poole. A total of seven organisations were named, including two other U.N. agencies. One woman said she was raped by a man who said he was with the WHO, and reporters learned of three others who said they had become pregnant. One of those women died after a botched abortion as she tried to conceal the pregnancy from her husband and children, her sister said. "If I give you work, what will you give me in return?" read a WhatsApp message shared with reporters by another woman who said she drank a poisonous concoction to terminate her pregnancy - common in Congo, where abortion is illegal. She said the message was from a Congolese man she met in a bar in 2019 who had arrived in a vehicle with the WHO logo. The message continued: "You are a woman. I think you know what you can give me." The woman said she had sex with the man and was then employed by the WHO as a cleaner. She said after she was given work, she was expected to sleep with him regularly. When she became pregnant, the man blocked her on WhatsApp and she ended up having an abortion, she said. 'SEXUALLY EXPLOITATIVE RELATIONSHIPS' The WHO said the U.N.'s investigative Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) had identified two women in Butembo as "potentially having had sexually exploitative relationships with individuals connected to WHO". It said the information would be shared with an independent commission set up in October to investigate claims of sexual exploitation and abuse during Congo's Ebola outbreak. In response to the allegations of rape, pregnancy and the woman's death from abortion-related complications, the WHO said it had been instructed to refer all allegations relating to the response during that time period to the commission. "The commission will take the lead in investigating these allegations and will issue recommendations to the Director-General," Poole said in an email. "Clearly, there is a gap in the number of allegations (reporters) received and those reported. There may be a number of reasons for this - from reporting mechanisms that needed improving, to victims' reluctance to speak up." A spokeswoman for the independent commission, Kadidia Coulibaly, said its team began investigating on the ground in early May and the commission aimed to publish its report at the end of August. Coulibaly said the commission "will spare no efforts" in reaching out to all victims and gathering their details and testimonies "with the utmost security, comfort and discretion". "The presumed culprits, once identified, will also be heard by the investigating commission according to international standards," she said in emailed comments. Reporters in Butembo conducted more than 40 interviews with the 22 women, aid workers, hotel staff and others who worked in the Ebola response over a five-month period. A total of 23 women were involved, including the mother who died from an abortion. Most women were hired as cleaners in Ebola treatment centres where they would disinfect clothing and bedding for the sick and for responders. Others went to villages where they burned the belongings of Ebola victims or worked on awareness campaigns. Medical records and phone messages were also reviewed by reporters to cross-check information and rule out copy-cat testimonies. Full names were given for nine men and partial names for seven. Four of the men were thought to be foreign aid workers and 18 were Congolese, mainly from the capital, Kinshasa. Facebook profiles matched some men's names with the organisations they said they worked for. Some of the women showed reporters their identification badges with organisations' logos and photos of them doing jobs they said they were given after having sex with the men. 'LAST SAFE HAVEN' In September's investigation by The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation in Beni - 60 km (38 miles) northeast of Butembo - the 51 women said dozens of men, mostly foreigners, had coerced them into having sex in exchange for jobs. The majority of those claims were also against men who said they worked for the WHO, which initially said the allegations stemming from the investigation were under review internally and encouraged the women involved to contact the WHO. The following month, the health agency announced the creation of the independent commission "to swiftly establish the facts, identify and support survivors, ensure that any ongoing abuse has stopped, and hold perpetrators to account". WHO spokeswoman Poole said "appropriate" action would be taken once the commission delivered its findings. A sweeping report by British lawmakers in January found sexual exploitation was endemic in the aid sector, which they dubbed the "last safe haven" for abusers. Lawmakers launched the inquiry after being frustrated over the sector's failure to stem sexual exploitation and abuse in the wake of the 2018 Oxfam sex scandal in Haiti, where its staff were accused of using sex workers, some underage. In April, Oxfam was back in the news - this time with two senior managers in Congo suspended amid accusations of sexual exploitation, bullying, and fraud. No women in Butembo told reporters they had been abused by Oxfam workers, but the charity said it had confirmed one of 51 cases reported in Beni last year, which involved a woman who said she was raped by an Oxfam worker. Oxfam said the man was no longer working for the charity, and the woman was being given assistance. The charity said it could not comment further on the separate investigation into allegations against its Congo staff. "Aid workers knew what was happening," said one former Oxfam worker, who was part of the Ebola response in Congo and spoke on condition of anonymity. "There were reports made about this behaviour. It was happening everywhere." "We are doing everything possible to improve accountability and end sexual exploitation and abuse through strong prevention and response measures, centered on victims and survivors," said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. A RAPE CLAIM The latest allegations in Butembo included a rape claim. One woman said she thought she was going for a job interview. Instead, she said she was raped in a hotel room by a Cameroonian man who said he worked for the WHO. In 2019, the mother of four was told by a friend working for the WHO that her supervisor was looking to hire a new cleaner. There was one condition, said the friend: "No matter what he tells you, just agree". The two women went to the man's hotel room. After a brief introduction, the friend took a phone call and abruptly left the room. The man quickly came to the point, the 32-year-old woman said - have sex with him and she could have a job. She said she tried to leave but the man blocked her. "He pushed me onto the bed, forced himself on top of me and started to take my clothes off. I tried to get out from under him, but he was so strong and he held me there. Then, he violated me," she said. "It was devastating. I thought I would come to talk about employment - like a job interview." Several days later, she said he called to tell her she could start work. "Every day at work it was miserable," she said. "He was there." After a few weeks, she said she began to feel pain and went to a clinic where she tested positive for syphilis. She showed a reporter her lab test results. Her husband still doesn't know of the alleged rape. "I still feel guilty about it," she said. The WHO said it was unable to respond to the allegation of rape but would refer the information on to the independent commission. BOTCHED ABORTION Another woman said her sister died in 2019 after paying $300 on the black market for a concoction to end her pregnancy. She sought an abortion after having sex with a man who said he worked for the WHO and gave her a job as a cleaner. Desperate for money to provide for her three children - and with a husband who had been away for months in another part of Congo - she agreed to have sex with him and was terrified when she fell pregnant, fearing her husband would soon return. She thought the abortion would have allowed her to keep the secret from her husband and children. "If it weren't for this Ebola response, my sister would still be alive and fighting for her children," said the woman, 37, whose identity has been withheld to ensure the privacy of the family. The WHO said it was unable to respond to the allegation but would refer the information they were given to the independent commission. Much of the alleged abuse in Butembo occurred in a handful of hotels used by aid workers. With its green lawns and tropical flowers, Hotel Butembo was a popular haunt for aid workers, who plied women with drinks and coaxed them up to their rooms, four hotel staff said. The workers spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs and asked that their positions not be identified given the small number of staff at Hotel Butembo. The medical charity Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) occupied the property at the beginning of the response in 2018, but after unidentified assailants attacked its treatment centre in February 2019, it withdrew and WHO workers moved in. One hotel worker, who was an employee at the time and has been employed there for three years, told reporters that MSF staff had strictly enforced a ban on outside visitors and a night-time curfew. "When WHO took over, everything changed," the worker said. "We would see young women from town constantly entering at the front gate ... All the rules were relaxed." Another hotel worker described women arriving in marked WHO vehicles, and noted that several women became pregnant. The WHO noted the claims but said it was not aware of any allegations of misconduct by its staff at Hotel Butembo. A hotel worker who was an employee at the time and has been employed there for several years said: "What was happening here was plain to see. Anybody living here would've known that it was happening. It wasn't a secret." Staff at Hotel Butembo declined to share the owner's phone number or email. A message with a contact number left by The New Humanitarian and the Thomson Reuters Foundation at the reception desk for the owners went unanswered. OTHER ORGANISATIONS ACCUSED In addition to the 14 claims against the WHO, two women in Butembo also accused workers who said they were from the U.N. migration agency IOM; another two identified men who said they were with Congo's health ministry. IOM said it had not received any such claims relating to Butembo, and the U.N.'s OIOS was unable to corroborate the claim made by one woman against the migration agency in last year's investigation in Beni. Congo's ministry of health did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Minister of Human Rights Andre Lite Asebea said "investigations have not progressed", referring to the eight allegations made against health ministry workers in Beni last year. Single claims were made in Butembo against men who said they worked for the U.N. Children's Fund UNICEF, the medical charity ALIMA, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the International Medical Corps (IMC). Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Congo-Kinshasa International Organisations Women By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. UNICEF said it was not aware of any allegations in Butembo but that OIOS had investigated last year's claims in Beni, where three women said they were abused by men who said they worked for UNICEF, and one former staff member is under investigation. ALIMA said it launched an investigation following last year's reports of abuse in Beni, two of which involved ALIMA, but added that it had not uncovered any such allegations. IMC said it had not received any complaints from Butembo but had corroborated two complaints since August 2018 in Congo involving three staff who are no longer employed by the organisation. A third complaint is still under investigation. IRC said it was "deeply concerned by these reports" and is "continuously investing in and improving our systems to keep staff and clients safe". 'ON MY OWN' Despite the U.N.'s "zero tolerance" policy towards sexual abuse and exploitation, the women in both Beni and Butembo told reporters they did not report the allegations. Some said they were desperate to keep their jobs, while others feared being shamed by their family or community. The women said the abuse took place in an area where jobs are scarce. Some 27 million people are facing acute hunger in the country. Much of eastern Congo remains a hotbed for armed conflict, despite a formal peace agreement in 2003. President Felix Tshisekedi this month declared martial law in two eastern provinces amid a surge in violence that has left hundreds dead. "Given that we have record levels of unemployment it is difficult (for people) to speak out against any act that brings us work," said Alphonsine Lusenge, head of the Association for the Defense of Women's Rights in Butembo. Women have paid a high price for their silence. One 27-year-old said she is now homeless and jobless and has an eight-month-old baby to support. The woman said she became pregnant after having sex with a Congolese man who said he was a chauffeur with the WHO in Butembo and promised her a job in exchange for sex. Soon after she was given work with the WHO, taking travellers' temperatures at a roadblock. When she later learned that she was pregnant, the man denied the child was his and blocked her calls, she said. The WHO said it was unable to respond to the allegation but would refer the information to the independent commission. As the pregnancy progressed, the woman said she felt sick and lost her job. When her family found out, they kicked her out of the house. "I'm tired," said the woman, holding her child and describing how she had been staying with different friends. "If I didn't have church, I'd just want to roll up and die," she said through tears. "I have a child to raise on my own, no home, my family won't speak to me." (Additional reporting by Katy Migiro and Paisley Dodds in London, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith, Katy Migiro, Andrew Gully and Josephine Schmidt. The Thomson Reuters Foundation is the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org) Construction of the mausoleum of Gambia's first president, Alhaji Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, has finally begun in earnest in the premises of National Assembly where he was buried in August 2019. The construction of the mausoleum, which is handled by the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure is meant to honour the late Gambian president, while allowing people, visitors and tourists to visit and pay respect to the late president and learn about the life he lived taking into consideration the significant items from his past. Former President Jawara's mausoleum is going to be a place of attraction for everyone both national and international tourists who can visit to remember or mourn, reflect on the life of the late president in a peaceful environment, mediate and allow people to interact with some of his personal possessions among other things. Following the death of the late President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara, "the National Assembly expressed desire to have a memorial for his contributions to the country and remember him about what he stood for in terms of peace and stability," Mr. Matarr Ceesay, director of technical services, Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure stated. He added that the mausoleum known as "DK Memorial Centre is very important to the nation and it is in honour of the country's first president." Mr. Ceesay says this is a big project for the country as the National Assembly wants something similar to what does exists in western countries like U.S., where former presidents are honoured with libraries or memorials that symbolise what they represented when they were alive. Giving details of the DK Memorial Centre, he said there were about three or four concepts submitted and reviewed by the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure. It was done in collaboration with the representatives of the immediate family of late President Jawara and National Centre for Arts and Culture - would be custodian of the memorial complex. Mr. Ceesay further disclosed that the mausoleum would cost D25 million and will occupy 324sqms with some facilities including archive, store, water pools/fountain, cafeteria, and library and stalls/gift shops around it among other modern facilities. On the design, "the building is a suspended one which basically sits on top of his burial ground. In designing it, importantly, the cultural and religious aspects, to avoid having any issue on it, were incorporated in the design. So visitors to the place can look down and pay their respect without any interference with the burial ground," Mr. Ceesay clarified. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Gambia Construction By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He indicated that the construction will be completed in 13 months and "we are very much looking forward for the progress of the project because the Ministry as from day one, has taken it as a legacy project and we are happy and glad that we are entrusted with it." Hassoum Ceesay, director general of National Centre for Arts and Culture, said late President Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara really deserves the mausoleum and visitors' centre as it will serve as museum/library and place of attraction "where generation and future generations can come and pay homage to his remains and also see some of his artifacts materials which he had worked with such as his books, clothes, papers among others." "It is for people to learn about what he represented when he was alive in terms of stability, peace, rule of law and respect for human rights-the virtue which he stood for. Therefore is going to be more than a resting place but a place of inspiration, education and knowledge for the generations of Gambians and non-Gambians today, tomorrow and those to visit The Gambia in future." Abdul William, the assistant secretary general and Omar Sanyang, the national youth president for the Gambia for 5 Year Peace Building Pro-democratic Movement on Monday joined the United Democratic Party (UDP). Speaking to executives and supporters at the UDP political bureau in Manjai, Abdou William said he shifted his allegiance to the United Democratic on the grounds that the President Barrow administration is not going in the right direction. "With all the series of political activities in the Gambia there is no political party where one can find my name. But today I'm a member of the UDP," he told UDP supporters. The new UDP adherent sent a strong message to the government, saying he will never allow anyone to be a dictator or deny Gambians from enjoying their fundamental rights. William dismissed claims that he was bribed to join his new party and said "no person has ever even used money to join the UDP." "Why should I be paid to do a service for a place where I belong? I belong to the UDP. I came on board because I believe that we all should give the Gambia the best of the futures," he said. Omar Sanyan, former national president for (GFYPB), said his former organisation was formed to be apolitical, noting it was meant to defend the constitutional order as well as maintain peace in the country but later the Barrow government turned it to a political organisation. "However, today, I have declared myself a UDP child forever," he told the gathering. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Gambia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He said Lamin Jammeh of National People's Party (NPP) was supposed to shift his alliance with them but he failed to appear at the ceremony due to circumstances beyond his control. "President Barrow cannot make it," he declared. In his welcoming statement, Hon. Ousainou Darboe, the leader and secretary general for UDP, described the Gambia for 5 Years and Peace Building executive members joining the UDP as a major political decision. He said that the decision will earn them a place in the history of the country. "In fact, you are earning yourselves a greater place in the country because you are coming to join the rest of the patriotic Gambians who are going to usher a new political dispensation that will take into consideration the view expressed by the majority of the Gambian people," he asserted. He added both Messrs. William and Sanyang shifted their allegiance to the United Democratic Party because they have the same value with the party. However, he said: "The leadership of UDP has been very careful of what we say GFYPB because we believe that this is their view and that it must be respected." Momodou Sabally, the man behind that ceremony said he would not force any youth to join his party but he only approaches them humanely. He assured to urge more development oriented youth to join UDP. analysis Since the 1990s, West Africa has become a major transit and repackaging hub for cocaine and heroin originating from the Latin American and Asian producing areas to European markets. Drug trafficking is far from new to the region. However, the phenomenon rapidly expanded in the mid-2000s as a result of a strategic shift of Latin American drug syndicates towards the rapidly growing European market and in response to more robust U.S. anti-narcotics strategies. This strategic shift led the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to state in 2008 that '... the crisis of drug trafficking ... is gaining attention. Alarm bells are ringing ... West Africa has become a hub for cocaine trafficking. This is more than a drugs problem. It is a serious security threat' (UNODC 2008: 1). West Africa presents an ideal geographical choice for the narcotics trade. First, it serves as a logistical transit center for drug traffickers: its geography, particularly, Guinea Bissau with its numerous uninhabited islands and archipela goes makes detection difficult and facilitates transit; the region boasts well-established networks of West African smugglers and crime syndicates, leading international analysts to conclude in 2004 that there are definitive African criminal networks emerging; and a vulnerable political environment that creates opportunities for such operations. In several countries, civil wars, insurgency operations, and coups d'etat have led to diminishing human capital, social infrastructure and productive national development assets. They have also generated instability, with an increase in the number of armed groups operating in the region and an increase in flows of small arms and light weapons (SALW). Instability in North Africa has also seen flows of heavier weapons entering through the Sahel region (Aning and Amedzrator 2012). As in the case of Mali, drug traffickers have often exploited such instability to further their own interests. While violence on the scale of Latin American drug trafficking is yet to manifest itself, the potential for the drug trade to become a source of violent political competition in some countries nonetheless exists. More recently, and as reports on drug use in the region increase, experts have highlighted the human security threats posed by drug trafficking, for which institutions and policy makers are particularly ill-prepared to respond to. One of the main challenges lies in the fact that the predominant approach to drug trafficking in the region to date has been based on the international narcotics control regime which is centered on stemming the supply of drugs through law enforcement efforts. Limited focus has been placed on the health and developmental aspects of the spill over effects of drug trafficking, which over time could constitute a greater security threat to West Africa than currently acknowledged. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines West Africa Legal Affairs Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Over the past few years, the UN Security Council has periodically discussed the growing threat posed by drug trafficking in Africa, and more recently, West Africa and the Sahel Region. The latter has led to the adoption of several important UN Security Council Presidential Statements (PRSTs) in which the UN Secretary-General was urged to consider mainstreaming the issue of drug trafficking as a factor in conflict prevention strategies, conflict analysis, integrated missions' assessment and planning and peace building support. In February 2012, the president of the Council issued a statement '... calling for system-wide United Nations action to help combat the spread of illicit weapons and drug trafficking, piracy and terrorist activity in a cross-section of fragile countries already struggling to overcome the consequences of years of civil war and instability.' The Secretary-General's July 2012 report on the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA) activity stated that the region continues to be a transit point for cocaine and heroin and countries in the region are not prepared to deal with the related rising consumption rates. The existence of trafficking routes through the Sahel has also generated concern, because it remains outside the control of most government forces, elevating the fear that insurgent and terrorist groups reap the rewards of trafficking there. A US-based Rwandan researcher, Prof. Aristide Gumyusenge, has been appointed as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the department of materials science, making him the only black faculty member in the department. The 29-year-old is a research scientist and materials science engineer with a background in polymer chemistry, having obtained his PhD in chemistry with focus on organic semiconductors from Purdue University in 2019. "It is a great honour, generally speaking, a dream coming true! But as a black faculty member, as a Rwandan, it speaks great volume. It means that someone like me from extremely humble beginnings can work hard and make it this far. I hope it inspires many more, especially the youth in Rwanda and elsewhere, to believe in themselves, to believe they can go very far, as far as the best institute of technology in the world," Gumyusenge told The New Times in an exclusive interview. His research interests are in the design and processing of novel organic materials for bioelectronics and neuromorphic computing devices. As a tenure-track assistant professor, Gumyusenge will teach graduate and undergraduate courses in the materials science department, and will run a research group at MIT focusing on the development of new materials for biology-inspired electronics. His research role involves securing research funds, leading cutting-edge research projects, and mentoring graduate and post-graduate researchers. He also aims to utilize both his platform and expertise in materials science and engineering to pioneer sustainable solutions to global challenges such as clean water scarcity, clean energy, and advancing healthcare, especially on the African continent. Gumyusenge in 2019 worked with his colleagues led by Prof. Jianguo Mei to discover polymers that can sustain extreme heat, higher than 220 Celsius. Their discovery was published in one of the most prestigious US journals called Science Magazine. "So far, my PhD research has opened a new direction of research for organic materials in high temperature electronics. It has allowed for better understanding on how these materials operate under harsh environments and has led to new electronic circuit designs. It has been great to see it continue to unfold. In fact, the original design was patented for technology development and I aim to further pursue that direction," he said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. More about Aristide Gumyusenge Born on a small farm in Kamonyi District, Southern Province, his family survived the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. Against all odds, he was a straight-A student right from primary level. He joined Petit Seminaire St Leon in Kabgayi for high school where he majored in Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics and scored distinctions in all subjects in the national exams at the end of high school in 2010. He especially scored the second-best score in chemistry that earned him the Rwandan Presidential Scholarship to attend university in the USA. He taught himself how to speak English by listening to BBC and VOA stations and as a result, passed the interview as part of the 18 presidential scholars that were received by Hendrix Consortium. He then attended Wofford College in South Carolina and majored in chemistry with a minor in mathematics. Besides MIT, Gumyusenge is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Stanford University's Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials (GLAM) Postdoctoral Research Fellow where he enrolled in January 2020. Tunis/Tunisia The executive board of the Association of Tunisian Judges (French: AMT) strongly denounced the "Israeli colonialist practices in al-Quds" and condemned its "terrorist acts" which "constitute a violation of international laws and the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination" as well as an "aggression against their territories and their Nation". In a statement issued on Tuesday, the AMT expressed its solidarity and full support to the residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood in al-Quds East and the entire Palestinian people for the recovery of their legitimate rights, on their occupied territories, and the establishment of an independent state with al-Quds as its capital. It condemns "the systematic killings perpetrated by the Zionist occupier against unarmed Palestinians in al-Quds and the Gaza Strip, which have resulted in countless victims, including women and children", pointing to "state terrorism carried out by Zionist forces against civilians". It calls on the international community to assume its responsibilities in protecting the Palestinian people against the heinous crimes and serious human rights violations of which they are victims and to bring the perpetrators before international criminal justice. It also calls on the parliament to speed up the adoption of the draft law on the criminalisation of normalisation with the Zionist entity. The AMT also welcomes Tunisia's call, as an Arab member of the Security Council, for a meeting on Monday on the escalating violence and hostilities of the Israeli authorities against the occupied Palestinian territories. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has killed 24 people and injured more than 100, including several in serious condition, over the past two days, in addition to causing extensive material damage. Tunis/Tunisia Tunisia refuses the creation, on its territory, of a centre for migrants heading to Europe, Hichem Mechichi stressed. During his participation in the Euro-African Conference on Migration held in Portugal, Mechichi affirmed Tunisia's rejection of any operation endangering its sovereignty. Tunisia has started to implement a global strategy aimed at limiting the phenomenon of irregular migration. Tunisia has taken into consideration security, professional training and the development of solidarity in the Mediterranean countries. Migration should not be considered as a permanent threat but rather a factor of economic, social and cultural development as well as a factor of rapprochement between peoples, he added. He also stressed the need to continue the 5+5 dialogue launched at the level of the Mediterranean countries in order to work as a platform to reflect on adequate solutions to the problem of migration. Refugees queue to get their food allowance loaded onto their smartcards (file photo). The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have started rolling out a new mechanism in Rwanda to prioritise general food assistance to the most vulnerable refugees. Ahmed Baba Fall, UNHCR's Representative to Rwanda said the organisation has funding shortfalls due to the protracted nature of the refugee crisis in Rwanda. He added that these shortfalls have been further aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic. "To avoid these cuts affecting the most vulnerable refugees, we have established a targeting system that will allow us to prioritize extremely vulnerable refugees who depend entirely on humanitarian assistance and to ensure that their basis needs are met," he said. Under the new mechanism, eligibility criteria for targeted food assistance has been defined in consultation with refugees, and here, refugees have been classified into three groups. The first group comprises those considered highly vulnerable and most in need. These are eligible to receive a full ration of food assistance. The second group is made up of moderately vulnerable refugees. These are eligible to receive 50 per cent of a full ration of food assistance. The third group is of those refugees considered the least vulnerable. These will no longer be eligible to receive food assistance. Edith Heines, WFP Rwanda Representative and Country Director said the new mechanism is the right step at the right time when donors globally are under greater pressure than ever because of the impact of COVID-19 and growing demands. "By targeting we prioritize funding to the refugees who are most in need of assistance while we work to mobilise more resources and find long-term solutions," she said. "The size of the food assistance ration for refugees depends on the availability of funding. Should funding not permit full assistance, WFP gives priority to those in highest need," read a joint statement from UNHCR and WFP. This targeting mechanisms only applies to food assistance. All refugees, including those in the least vulnerable group, will continue to receive other assistance from WFP and UNHCR, including cash for non-food items, access to education and health services, school meals and supplementary food assistance to treat and prevent malnutrition. "UNHCR and WFP will monitor implementation of the targeting mechanism to assess changes in refugees' vulnerability and will adapt the approach as the situation evolves," read the statement from the two organisations. An assessment by UNHCR and WFP in December 2020 in all camps in Rwanda found that vulnerability levels remain high, in regard to food. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Aid and Assistance Refugees By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The new changes have been established in close collaboration with the Ministry of Emergency Management (MINEMA) and with technical support from the Joint UNHCR-WFP Programme Excellence and Targeting Hub, according to WFP and UNHCR. Rwanda is the first country in Eastern Africa where WFP and UNHCR have jointly implemented targeting and prioritization of humanitarian assistance, with the support of the hub. "We are confident that by investing in programmes that promote access to livelihoods and economic opportunities, education enrolment and access to land and financial services, part of the refugee population will be able to improve their livelihoods and support themselves. With this, I believe development partners will come forward with additional resources to support programmes targeting refugees and host communities for more sustainable solutions," said Fall. Meanwhile, MINEMA, UNHCR and WFP have an appeal mechanism for refugees who feel their households were placed in the wrong group. "Refugees can call a hotline and their requests are reviewed on an individual household basis and decisions are taken based on their eligibility for assistance," read a statement from UNHCR and WFP. Namibia yesterday launched a utilisation strategy for the two-decades-old African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), with a specific objective to increase the country's exports to the United States (US). This joint effort between the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and Namibia's industrialisation and trade ministry is part of US efforts to expand mutually-beneficial trade with Namibia, enabling Namibia to export over 6 400 products tariff-free to the US market. The strategy recommends steps to address the policy, supply and market challenges faced by potential Namibian exporters. A body, composed of private and public sector representatives, will drive the implementation of this AGOA strategy. According to the US ambassador to Namibia, Lisa Johnson, Namibia, through the ministry of trade and other stakeholders, prioritised the numerous products to support diversification of exports from Namibia to the US. These products include meat and meat products, dates, specialty foods, leather handbags, handicrafts, accessories and cosmetics. "The US government will continue to support Namibian firms with market entry and entry-enhancing services to meet the US market entry requirements and increase exports from the priority sectors," said Johnson. AGOA is a unilateral and non-reciprocal trade preference program that provides duty-free market access into the US for eligible products from eligible sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. The Act has been in existence for two decades and has since inception been amended half a dozen times since its promulgation on 18 May 2000. The current AGOA cycle stretches from July 2015 to September 2025, which is the longest extension in the history of the trade preference program. Some of the benefits Namibia will get from AGOA is duty free treatment for eligible products, tariff exception to increase competitiveness against products from non-AGOA countries, availability of AGOA-related trade capacity building support from US agencies, potential for increased foreign direct investment (FDI) and export growth. It is envisaged that increased utilisation of AGOA will result in more local job opportunities, while Namibian companies that utilise AGOA will be exposed to the US market, where they can create sustainable strategic alliances with US firms. Through the application of this strategy, minister of trade Lucia Iipumbu hopes Namibia will be able to maximise AGOA's trade potential in trade, investments and skills transfer. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Trade AGOA By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Iipumbu made these remarks at the launch of the utilisation strategy yesterday. Although Namibia was initially part of AGOA at the onset of the programme but never had a strategy in place, Iipumbu stated that Namibia's efforts to fast-track the crafting of the strategy was ignited in 2019 during an AGOA forum in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. "It was also at this platform where we were informed of the possible extension of this very important framework. Now, with a strategy in place, we will unleash the full potential market the USA has to offer," she stated. Namibia's total trade with the United States has stagnated in terms of growth over the past 10 years. In 2019, Namibia's overall exports to the United States market were valued at N$1.97 billion, accounting for only 2.1% of Namibia's exports to the rest of the world. The main export products for Namibia to the United States market are uranium ore, diamonds and artwork. According to Iipumbu, the strategy concludes with a proposed action plan, covering implementation, monitoring and evaluation framework as well as an institutional structure. She added the strategy hinges on a number of national policy documents, particularly the outward looking Growth at Home Strategy (Namibia's Execution Strategy for Industrialisation), which is the implementation strategy for the country's industrial policy, providing the nuts and bolts of industrialisation and export value addition. - mndjavera@nepc.com.na A 22-year-old man is accusing the Namibian police in the Ohangwena region of wrongful arrest, assault and denying him access to medical treatment. Jeremiah Mushunina, who spent five months and two weeks in police custody before being released, claims his rights were violated when he was wrongfully incarcerated, as he is an innocent man. He claims he was arrested simply for being a friend to a person accused of stealing a cellular phone in 2012. The police have since denied the allegations. Narrating his story, Mushunina said during the night of 25 August 2012 while at home in Onhuno, Ohangwena and asleep in his bed, the police barged into his room and informed him that he was being arrested because of a cellular phone that his friend allegedly stole from a female victim. "During the arrest, the police assaulted me with a gun handle, and it resulted in a head injury. I still have the scar to this day," said Mushunina. With his bleeding head wound, Mushunina requested the police to take him to the hospital so he can receive treatment, but his request was denied. After spending five months and two weeks in jail and making several court appearances, the case against him was withdrawn due to lack of evidence, he said. However, he wanted justice, so on 21 June 2019, he went back to the Ohangwena police to enquire why he was really arrested as his friend who was accused of stealing the phone never got detained. According to Mushunina, the suspect was in Windhoek at the time of his arrest. He also tried to open a case of assault against the police, but they allegedly denied him that right. "Upon inquiry, they could not come up with any answers. But they told me that the stolen phone was traced in Angola and the person who was in possession of it was killed by the Angolan police," explained Mushunina. Due to the police's reluctance to investigate the matter and give them paperwork for their investigations, he and his mother decided to conduct their own investigations. Their investigations revealed that no Namibian suspect was shot and killed by the Angolan authorities. "I was simply arrested for doing nothing. I spent all those months in police custody, and I missed out on school. I need them to tell me why they arrested me when I did not do anything illegal. How can I be arrested for simply being someone's friend? I want justice for what was done to me," said Mushunina. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In response to the allegations, Namibian police spokesperson Kauna Shikwambi said the police are aware of Mushunina's case, but the allegations are unfounded. "The claims that 'he was informed by the police that he got arrested because his friend stole a phone' that is false information. He was arrested, charged and appeared before the court as one of the suspects in a robbery case after he was positively identified by the victim who was his neighbour," clarified Shikwambi. Shikwambi said the case was withdrawn pending the identification and arrest of the outstanding suspect who has since fled from the area and who is known to Mushunina because they lived together. On the issue of the police denying Mushunina access to medical treatment, Shikwambi said the police can under no circumstances deny inmate access to medical service unless it is not reported. Inmates who presented their cases and those scheduled for follow-up are taken to the hospital, almost daily. Thus, he was not denied access to medical help. "The regional police have acted accordingly, and that status quo will be maintained and or repeated. Unfortunately, the police are always blamed even in incidents where they have performed well," said Shikwambi. According to the police, has been advised to open a case and is still at liberty to take that action. Josephina Mwashindange Obrein Simasiku OMUTHIYA - The Ministry of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development affirmed its support for small businesses amid the pandemic that harshly impacted the sector. This affirmation was made during a stakeholder engagement with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Omuthiya, where the ministry boosted 20 small businesses with grants. "It is a fact that Covid-19 has hampered many businesses. However, the ministry has made provision and awarded grants amidst Covid-19. About 20 businesses were awarded grants in Oshikoto region. We want to bring the small business sectors into the economy. We are not going to make you pay what you cannot afford but we want to put you in formal structures," said trade minister Lucia Iipumbu. The meeting was conducted in conjunction with the Development Bank of Namibia (DBN). Iipumbu said they came to engage and discuss with entrepreneurs on matters pertaining to business development and to listen to the challenges that are hampering their business operations and survival in the region and nation at large. "Consultative meetings are primarily aimed at exchanging ideas on how to collectively support and innovate mechanisms on resuscitating the Namibian economy and business revival, particularly in areas within the ministry's mandate such as manufacturing, industrialisation and value addition," said Ipumbu. "There is a need to transform the Namibian economy to increase industrial capacity and output to use local resources by adding the highest possible degree of value to create new economic benefits and employment. The ministry and all its partner organisations responsible for industrialisation and business operations have a crucial role to play in spearheading economic development in the country," she added. Furthermore, amid public concerns, Iipumbu acknowledged "the business registration process was quite long and hectic because entrepreneurs had to run from one office to another, but now, it has been made much easier through an online system that can be done in a click of a button, provided that all the requirements are met." In addition, the participants questioned the rationale used to award funding, arguing that it is always easy to share information and apply but yet very difficult to become a beneficiary. Youthful entrepreneur, Naftal Nuule said Oshikoto is one of the regions with high unemployment; hence, such occasions are important as they help empower the grassroots businesses. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He, therefore, appealed to the ministry to further extend its funding programme to boost many businesses, which will eventually grow the economy. In the same vein, the ministry's spokesperson, Elijah Mukubonda added that the platform seeks to collect undiluted primary data from stakeholders and development partners. The ultimate aim is to obtain practical views from the audience to incorporate them into programmes and activities of the ministry. The entrepreneurs were also informed that the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade's 'Buy Local, Grow Namibia' campaign, which was launched last year October, has resulted in securing a significant market shelve space for the locally-made produce. They were also advised to formalise and structure their business. The Namibia Press Agency (Nampa) made a comprehensive loss of N$7.7 million during the 2018/19 financial year, auditor general Junias Kandjeke has found. The information is contained in the agency's recent audit report for the 2018/19 financial year that was submitted to the National Assembly by information minister Peya Mushelenga a fortnight ago. Kandjeke in the report said that the agency incurred a net loss of N$7 685 387 during the year ended 31 March 2019. He goes on, "A material uncertainty exists that may cast a significant doubt on the entity's ability to continue as a going concern." A going concern in the accounting diction refers to a company's ability to make enough money to avoid bankruptcy. "The agency is highly depended on government funding, therefore, any significant reduction in the government funding to the agency will significantly affect the agency's operations, its investments [and] financial obligations," he said. During the period in question, Nampa's subsidy from government was slashed from N$22 million to N$15 million, the report shows. Furthermore, the report shows that Nampa's total assets value stood at N$94.3 million in 2018 while in 2019, the value was N$81.6 million. On the revenue generation front, the report shows that the agency made N$3.7 million in subscription news in 2018. The same amount was generated in 2019. From information technology (IT) income, Nampa made N$91 855 and N$80 336 in 2019 and 2018 respectively. As far as audio-visual andpublication income, the state-owned agency generated N$188 795 [in 2019] and N$93 457 [in 2018], the report shows. Responding to questions, Nampa CEO Linus Chata said the N$7.7 million loss did not come as a surprise because Nampa received a reduced government subsidy of about the same amount in the year in question. Chata further lamented Nampa's classification as a non-commercial entity as a major stumbling block on its revenue generation prospects. "For example, our clientele base is strictly limited to a few newspapers and radio stations in the country who are in turn not obligated to subscribe to our offerings," he said. More so, the advent of the Covid-19, which has brought the global economy on its knees, did not spare Nampa and the agency had to revise its strategic focus by streamlining and redefining its offerings, he added. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. From property rentals, Nampa made N$2.3 million in 2019 and N$2.3 million in 2018. The entity has also deployed an array of cost-cutting measures by scaling down its expenses and freezing some positions. "But these measures can only be stretched up to some point. Beyond a certain point the scaling down strategy ceases to be effective. It actually becomes counterproductive," Chata said. He added that the agency is unable to capitalise on some new projects. Meanwhile, Nampa paid N$9.3 million in subscription fees and editorial pay costs in 2018 and N$9.4 million the following year. IT trading - maintenance cost the entity N$307 479 in 2018 and N$73 592 in 2019. During the period under review, in 2018, Nampa spent N$504 184 in board fees. The following year, 2019, it spent N$432 683. On other board-related fees, the entity spent N$63 902 in 2018. -Nampa The value of Namibian exports in March 2021 increased by 6.3% to N$6.5 billion from a level of N$6.2 billion recorded in February 2021. However, when compared to N$9.1 billion recorded in March 2020, exports declined by 28.3%. These figures were confirmed in the recently released Namibia Trade Statistics Bulletin for March 2021 from the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA). According to the NSA, the pandemic caused a massive and instant reduction of global economic activity. This significant decline led to reduced demand for commodities, representing a substantial demand shock and leading to a sharp drop in commodity prices. Supply chain disruptions due to hold-ups at ports when importers or exporters went into lockdown disrupted commodity exporters' revenue streams. Statistician General, Alex Shimuafeni stated that for the period under review, imports stood at N$9.2 billion, increasing by 3.1% and 23.8% compared to N$8.9 billion and N$7.4 billion recorded in February 2021 and March 2020, respectively. "Following the developments in exports and imports, Namibia's total merchandise trade with the rest of the world (ROW) increased by 4.4% from N$15.1 billion obtained in February 2021 to N$15.7 billion recorded in March 2021. A further decline of 5% was observed in the country's total trade when compared to its level of N$16.5 billion registered in March 2020," said Shimuafeni. The trade balance compares the country's trade flow with the ROW in terms of export earnings and expenditure on imports. During the month under review, Namibia recorded a trade deficit to the tune of N$2.6 billion compared to a deficit level of N$2.7 billion in February 2021. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Furthermore, the report stated that in March 2021, total re-exports stood at N$3.8 billion after recording N$3.6 billion in the previous month and N$3.3 billion during the same month of last year, thus improving by 5.3% and 13.9%, respectively. Re-export products are commodities imported by residents who assume short-term ownership of them. These commodities are subsequently exported without undergoing any significant industrial transformation. "Even though no substantial transformation is done, re-exports have the potential to benefit the intermediate country by rendering services such as sorting, repackaging, storage, transport and trade mediation services. This implies that the country's services sector greatly benefits from activities of re-exports. Additionally, re-exports serve as an indication of favourable corporate tax in the intermediate country," read the report. -mndjavera@nepc.com.na Tonota While the importance of qualifications cannot be over emphasised, Reverend Father Anthony Kornu has noted that handiworks such as art and weaving too could put food on the table. He said this during Self-Empowerment Business Formation in Tonota recently. The event was geared to wards empowering less privileged members of the society without income to have a share in the economy of the country by paying tax. Rev. Father Kornu said some people mistakenly pride themselves in the many certificates and degrees awarded to them and look down upon those who do not have them. Unfortunately, he said, some of the certificate holders do not even have any little gasp of the subject matter in which those certificates or degrees awarded to them carry. Rev. Father Kornu noted that while they may be boasting about their certificates and scholarships, when little problems confront them, they become helpless in solving such matters by themselves. "The ones to whom they appeal for help turn out to be poor, practical people who, because of one problem or the other, could not afford to attend school to the level of acquiring certificates or a chain of degrees," he said. On the other hand, he said many governments in Africa had been trying to direct their educational system towards enabling their citizens to use their education to solve their personal and national problems. He noted that after much money has been spent on researching and instituting some reforms, practical education still got frowned and the educational reforms often remained merely paper work and a waste of money and other resources and time. Rev. Father Kornu further said any serious educational policy that sought to address personal and national problems would need to introduce and promote subject areas or disciplines that trained minds, hearts and hands towards turning raw materials into finished products to create employment and for economic growth. "As citizens, we should be aware that no government will be able to provide employment for all her citizens," he said, adding that people should look and see the needs of society and rise up towards providing services by addressing such needs. By so doing, people would be able to earn money, become great and popular entrepreneurs, created employment to fellow citizens and contribute towards national economies. Councillor for Borotsi ward, Mr Neo Sefume said working together was a process and coming together was the beginning of achieving goals. Councillor Sefume said he desired to see changes in people's lives by creating awareness and linking them with entities such as Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), Citizen Entrepreneurial Authority (CEDA), National Development Bank (NDB) among others. Also, he noted that as COVID-19 was taking money from government coffers every day, people should think outside the box and come up with ways of making money. LEA business consultant Ms Tebelelo Mabona said her organisation gave information to entrepreneurs at no cost to start or improve their businesses or apply for loans with CEDA, NDB. She advised them to compile their business plans and own them instead of employing consultant as they would remain clueless on the business they wanted to run. Manager of Lala's Nest Tapestry Weaving, Ms Lizar Tainton, who started weaving in 1987, said handy-work could take people somewhere. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Botswana By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Ms Tainton said life as a lesson, could change at the same time. She said that she started weaving on a small scale, but as orders increased to as far as Europe and the United States of America, she had to increase production so as to meet demand. Ms Tainton said she did not wait for anyone to help her, as she had to gather herself to do something after realising that in life, a challenge was a promotion, adding that she had now realised that her life was better than when she was formally employed. She highlighted that she won the President's Day competitions award, Botswana National Museum, Monument and Art Gallery award, BOCCIM, Embassy of Cuba, Embassy of America, High Commission of Namibia, South Africa High Commission and Botswana Ash awards. Source : BOPA Children use a boat in the flooded Kenyan village of Kakola Ombaka on May 12, 2021. The government has started providing food and temporary shelter among other aid support to families affected by the recent heavy rains across the country. This is according to Philippe Habinshuti, the Director for the Response and Recovery Unit at the Ministry of Emergency Management. Habinshuti told The New Times on Tuesday that the government is also still gathering information about the extent of the damages caused by the rains. Nyamasheke District is the latest victim of the prevailing heavy rainfall. At least 39 houses in the district were totally swept away by landslides occasioned by Monday night's heavy down power while 117 houses were damaged, the official said, disclosing that hundreds of families were displaced. No deaths were recorded. Over 208 houses in Burera District were damaged while hectares of crops and hundreds of livestock were affected. The displaced families, he said, will need support to relocate or build new houses. The Nyamasheke District Mayor, Appolonie Mukamasabo, said that 74 families made up of 395 members have been given temporary shelter. Some 43 families made up of 236 people are yet to be relocated. This is in addition to more than 14,000 households that were displaced by disasters last year that need shelter. Habinshuti said that constructing of shelter for the over 14,000 households is at 71 per cent complete. Out of these, the government is building houses for 11,696 households whereas 2,355 were offered plots of land in safe zones because they can build houses for themselves. Rwanda Housing Authority earlier announced that 48,000 households that live in high-risk zones need resettlement. Habinshuti said the classification of high-risk zones needs to be looked into. Official projects suggest very heavy rains between May 8 and 12 in the Southern, Western and Northern provinces. The expected impacts, meteo says, include widespread flooding of major rivers and catchments, damage to infrastructure, landslides, loss of livestock and risk to human life. It also projects increased accidents and danger to life due to fast-flowing and deep water. In another forecast, meteo says rainfall expected between May 11 and May 20 will range between 40 and 120 millimetres across the country with intense rainfall activities expected in the Northern part of the country. Celebrations of the Eid al-Fitr are expected to take place on Thursday, May 13. Eid al-Fitr - which means 'festival of the breaking of the fast - is celebrated at the end of Ramadan, a month when many adult Muslims fast. A communique issued by the Rwanda Muslim Council (RMC) on Tuesday, May 11, signed by Mufti Salim Hitimana informed Muslims about the development. "RMC is glad to inform all Muslims and Rwandans in general that the Holiday of breaking the month-long Ramadhan fast is expected to be on Thursday, May 13," read the statement in part. "We take this opportunity to wish Muslims and all Rwandans a good Eid al-Fitr holiday," it continued. Also known as "Lesser Eid," Eid al-Fitr was originated by the Islamic prophet Muhammad. According to certain traditions, these festivals were initiated in Medina after the migration of Muhammad from Mecca. Anas, a well-known companion of the Islamic prophet, narrated that, when Muhammad arrived in Medina, he found people celebrating two specific days in which they entertained themselves with recreation and merriment. At this, Muhammad remarked that Allah had fixed two days of festivity: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Traditionally, Eid al-Fitr begins at sunset on the night of the first sighting of the crescent moon. It is forbidden to fast on the Day of Eid, and a specific prayer is made on this day. In addition, as an obligatory act of charity, money is given to the poor and the needy on the day. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Religion By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Muslims in Rwanda, like many of their counterparts around the world, began the fasting month of Ramadan on April 13. Like it was in 2020, the fasting period was not a usual one as nations continue implementing measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. Here, for example, religious gatherings, among other usual rituals like visiting and taking care of the less privileged during the fasting period were limited. This year's Eid al-Fitr celebrations are also expected to be affected by Covid-19 preventive measures, among which places of worship are not allowed to host numbers exceeding 50 percent of their seating capacity. As a result, a number of Muslims may end up having their prayers at home, during this festival. Meanwhile, the other Muslim Eid known as Eid al-Adha or "Big Eid" is always celebrated in July. It is the latter of the two Islamic holidays celebrated worldwide each year. It honours the willingness of Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God's command. Known as the "Festival of the Sacrifice", Eid al-Adha is considered the holier of the two Islamic Eid festivals. It is marked as Muslims take part in slaughtering animals as sacrifice to God, in addition to sharing meat and other material things with the needy. Ruhengeri Referral Hospital in Musanze District has opted for a strong antibiotic to disinfect its neonatal care unit after 19 prematurely born babies died in March 2021, an unprecedented death toll, according to hospital authorities. In a statement that the hospital issued on Tuesday, May 11, it said that after observing the problem, extensive laboratory tests were carried out in order to uncover the reason underlying such neonatal deaths. Usually, the premature infant mortality rate at the hospital varies between eight and 11 percent, Dr Philbert Muhire, Director General of Ruhengeri Referral Hospital told The New Times. However, Muhire said, such rate rose to 18 percent in March, as it had admitted 104 infants that month, of which 19 died. The issue, he said, was first observed mid-March when infants suffered from the same condition that was not clear, indicating that they had fever that could not go away with the treatment of common drugs. It was suspected that the neonatology unit was infected with microbes that are resistant to drugs used to treat usual types of microbes. This is an area equipped with, among other facilities, an incubator (an apparatus for maintaining a premature infant in an environment of proper oxygenation, humidity, and temperature). According to the hospital management, the tests performed confirmed that the neonatology unit was infected with two types of multi-resistant microbes (namely enterococcus and staphylococcus Haemolyticus) that have resistance to usual drugs, and required the use of a strong antibiotic called vancomycin. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Health Children By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Since then, it said, a set of actions have been undertaken to tackle the problem, including treatment with vancomycin administered to all babies presenting neonatal infection, relocation of all admitted babies in a separate room and application of rigorous infection prevention and control measures in the neonatal intensive care unit. The hospital condoled with the grieved families and said it is conducting investigations to establish whether there were any cases of gross negligence and assured that, if so, those involved will be held accountable. Meanwhile, Muhire said that on April, 11 of the 105 infants that the hospital had admitted died, accounting for about 11 percent. This April statistics, he said, points to an improvement compared to the March data. "The affected area was effectively disinfected to ensure that it is free from the germs," he said, pointing out that the hospital is committed to saving the lives of infants. Major causes of premature infant deaths Muhire said that the main causes of premature infant deaths include congenital malformation such as malformed organs which cannot allow a newborn to survive. Others are prematurity complications including respiratory problems, and neonatal infections. Specifically for the March infant deaths, three infants died from prematurity complications, two died from congenital malformations, while 14 died from neonatal infections. Security agents at the National Assembly have introduced measures to verify and identify vehicles and persons entering the complex in response to Boko Haram threats. Following this development, circular titled: 'Strict Compliance with Security Protocol in the National Assembly,' has been addressed to all senators, honourable members; Deputy Clerk to the National Assembly, Clerk, Senate Clerk, House of Representatives; all secretaries; Deputy Clerk, Senate Deputy Clerk, House of Representatives; all directors (including clerks to committees); and all members of staff. The Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr. Amos Ojo wrote the memo dated May 7, 2021, through the Secretary, Human Resources and Staff Development, Abiodun Oladoyin. The circular read, "I am directed to inform all legislators and staff that in view of the prevailing security situation in the country and the National Assembly in particular, it has become imperative to beef up security measures to prevent the infiltration of undesirable elements into the National Assembly complex. "Consequently, security personnel have been mandated to search all vehicles and persons entering into the National Assembly." "I am, therefore, directed to request that legislators and staff cooperate with the security agents and personnel in the National Assembly to enable them to perform their duty effectively to ensure the safety of lives and property within the National Assembly. "Furthermore, legislators and staff are reminded to hang their ID cards at all times while in the complex to enhance the identification of all persons entering the complex." Only the Oba of Benin or anyone duly authorised by him could hold discussion over the looted Benin artifacts. The Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, has disowned two groups which he described as "impostors" fronting for the return of artifacts which the British looted from the palace in 1897. This was contained in a statement jointly signed by the Secretary to the Benin Traditional Council (BTC), Frank Irabor, and the Secretary, Oba Ewuare II Foundation, Dennis Osaretin on Monday in Benin and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). The statement reads in part: "The individuals and persons who parade themselves as official representatives of the 'Legacy Restoration Trust' and 'Legal Restoration Trust' were neither known nor authorised by the Oba of Benin." The statement affirmed the Oba of Benin as the original owner of the looted artifacts and the custodian of Benin customs and tradition. It cautioned that anyone caught engaging in such unwholesome activities would be treated as a fraudster and perceived as an enemy working against the interest of the Benin Kingdom and the Benin people. The statement particularly mentioned Enotie Paul Ogbebor, and warned him, his agents and privies to stop their "unsolicited activities." The statement said it was only the Oba of Benin or his duly authorised representatives that could interact or have dealings with any foreign donors or missions or any other international institutions globally in respect of the looted Benin artifacts. "For avoidance of doubts, His Royal Majesty, Omo N' Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, Oba of Benin remains the legitimate custodian of all insignia, symbols and such other artifacts depicting the rich cultural heritage of the Benin people." The statement said the Oba of Benin, in conjunction with the Benin Traditional Council, "has set up a very robust framework and body corporate to midwife and coordinate all efforts aimed at retrieving the looted and stolen artifacts from all over the world." It added that the only recognised legal entities for this remained the Oba Ewuare II Foundation and the Benin Traditional Council. Notwithstanding pockets of incidents of insecurity in the country, the Federal Government, has assured that it would continue to work hard towards ensuring the safety and peaceful atmosphere for International Oil Companies, IOCs, operating in the Niger Delta region. The Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who gave the assurance while receiving the United States, US, Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard, who paid him a working visit in his office in Abuja, said, the government's determinations in guaranteeing peaceful atmosphere for IOCs and other companies working in the region to operate will be mutually beneficial not just to the companies that are coming in but also to the host communities. Meanwhile, the United States, US, Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, has said that her country was looking forward to the early passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, noting that the PIB becoming a reality can be a predictable basis for companies who are operating in that sphere in a predictable sort of expectations for the population of the Niger Delta in that regards. According to Akpabio, As at today, you can see the very difficult challenges in the country, the Niger Delta region is probably one of the most peaceful. This ministry is mandated by Mr. President to work very hard to ensure that the peace remains and the IOCs and the other companies working in the region have a very peaceful atmosphere to operate because it will be mutually beneficial not just to the companies that are coming in but also to the host communities. "On the issue of the PIB, I believe the Senate and the national assembly is addressing that very seriously. "And then on the issue of the peace in the Niger Delta region, we are also working very hard. We are engaging stakeholders and we are also engaging the youths. "But do not mind some of the things you see on social media because even the war in Rwanda I understand came from a rumour that this person has killed this person and before you knew it over a million people had died. "So you must find a way to suggest how we can curb some of the excesses that goes into social media and we must distill the information to actually find the truth. "The Niger Delta region has been quite peaceful, we have had infiltration of recent from the South Eastern region particularly those people agitating for what they will not have because we must remain one nation; from IPOB and from Boko Haram infiltration and all that in some of the areas but the government is up to its responsibilities and the government is working very hard to ensure a peaceful nation. "The US Embassy is always very concerned when something happens in Nigeria, I think other embassies should also be concerned because with the population of over 200 million people if there is a refugee crisis in Nigeria, West Africa cannot contain us, the population of Nigeria double the population of all the countries in West Africa put together. "So it is in the interest of the global community for Nigeria to remain peaceful because we can have multiplier effect negatively on the economies and even the wellbeing and the social structures of other countries. "For the parastatal under the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, the NDDC, we are currently doing the forensic audit of the NDDC; there was need for that because even the staff who had worked there and retired are very excited that for the first time there pensions are going to be guaranteed. "The way thing were going, there were not sure they were going to get their pension. "We have submitted two interim reports so far through the Chief of Staff to the Mr. President for evaluation and we are hoping that in the next three months maximum we should be out of the forensic audit. "And as to the issue of formation of board for the NDDC of which some people have sponsored a lot of write-ups, it is not an issue. We have had a board for 19years they didn't see much on ground. "The good example is the 26 years old structure which is the headquarter building which was not completed by any board and which no board even visited since 1996 after OMPADEC started the structure. "But in 2016 this administration was determined to bring it to an end by awarding the contract and again it was abandoned in 2017 but when we came on board in August 2019 we took up the project and to the glory of God today that project is completed. "And I must also say that even with the fear of the forensic audit we have completed over 75 roads that are now ready for commissioning and many other projects that are useful to the people. "And we have directed that they should publish these projects as an advertorial in newspapers so that we can begin to commission them for the benefit of the people of the Niger Delta. "And I believe that by the time we are through and a new organogram comes on board, we shall have a new NDDC, we are not going to be in power forever, but 2023 I believe we will get out of this place but we would have positioned the NDDC to become more productive than what it has been in the last 19 years. "And we would have reduced the loopholes of leakages in the system that led to more money entering the pockets of people without much being seen on the ground. "So we are determined to transform and that is why the director of press calls me the uncommon transformer, so we believe that we will transform the region uncommonly and we need your assistance. "We also found that in the ministry here, we are grappling with two sets of master plans; the first is the regional master plan that was done by the Ministry of Niger Delta, and the second is the NDDC action plan for the development of the Niger Delta region. We will like to see a harmonized Niger Delta plan so that every person can key in. "And we have recently developed what we call the CTC which is a web-based monitoring system that at the touch of a button you can see what is actually happening in every state of the Niger Delta whether the infrastructure is put by an IOC, whether it is a donor agency, no matter what so that we can monitor and be sure that those things are the things that are needed by the people. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "So we will definitely come out stronger at the end of the day but we need your assistance in the area of harmonization of the two master plans. So we can have one regional plan for the entire Niger Delta, for the nine states of the Niger Delta region." In her remarks earlier, the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard said with the completion of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Headquarters, the commission, should be focused in addressing the issues of infrastructural development and youth empowerment. According to her, "The NDDC had completed its headquarters and now it is a good moment that the base is established, pause a little bit and think about the direction moving forward in the programme to address all those areas that you mentioned in terms of development, infrastructure, and youth empowerment. "There was a road map that was supposed to go to 2020, many of us have had our experience for 2020 not going exactly how we thought they might give the global pandemic. "So expectedly we are going to hear a little bit about how our timetable or activities will be revised to reach all of the important goals of development, infrastructure, and security for this very important area. "Also we are looking forward to PIB becoming a reality so that there can be a predictable basis for companies who are operating in that sphere in a predictable sort of expectations for the population of the Niger Delta in that regard." Vanguard News Nigeria Worried by the rising wave of insecurity in the country, Southern governors yesterday met in Asaba, the Delta State capital, and called on President Muhammadu Buhari to address the nation on the issue. It will be recalled that the 17 governors of the South, operating under the aegis of Southern Governors Forum, had reconvened virtually last week, several years after the Forum had been in limbo. Those in attendance include the host, Governors Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta; Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia; Willy Obiano of Anambra; Douye Diri of Bayelsa; Godwin Obaseki of Edo; and David Umahi of Ebonyi. Others are Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu; Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti; Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos; Dapo Abiodun of Ogun; Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo; Seyi Makinde of Oyo; and Nyesom Wike of Rivers. While Hope Uzodimma of Imo was represented by his deputy, Prof Placid Njoku; Udom Emmanuel of Akwa-Ibom by his Deputy, Mr Moses Ekpo; Governors Gboyega Oyetola of Osun and Ben Ayade of Cross River States were absent. The governors met on a day President Muhammadu Buhari also, for the third time in two weeks, met with service chiefs and heads of other security agencies, and approved new security measures to curtail insecurity in the South-East and South-South geopolitical zones of the country. 'Convene national dialogue now' Rising from the meeting which started at about noon and ended at about 4:20pm, the Southern governors urged the Federal Government to convene a national dialogue as a matter of urgency and insisted on the ban of open grazing across Southern Nigeria. They also expressed concern over the continued gridlock on Oshodi - Apapa Expressway and the chokehold it has exerted on the nation's economy, being the sole outlet from Apapa Wharf. The governors in the 12-point communique read by chairman of Southern Governors Forum and governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, "affirmed that the peoples of Southern Nigeria remain committed to the unity of Nigeria on the basis of justice, fairness, equity and oneness and peaceful co-existence between and among its peoples, with a focus on the attainment of shared goals for economic development and prosperity. Communique The communique read: "Governors observed that the incursion of armed herders, criminals and bandits into the Southern part of the country has presented a severe security challenge such that citizens are not able to live their normal lives, including pursuing various productive activities, leading to a threat to food supply and general security. "Consequently, the meeting resolved that open grazing of cattle be banned across Southern Nigeria. Governors noted that development and population growth has put pressure on available land and increased the prospects of conflict between migrating herders and local populations in the South. "Given this scenario, it becomes imperative to enforce the ban on open grazing in the South (including cattle movement to the South by foot); recommended that the Federal Government should support willing states to develop alternative and modern livestock management systems. Call for restructuring "Governors agreed that the progress of the nation requires that urgent and bold steps be taken to restructure the Nigerian federation, leading to the evolution of state police, review of revenue allocation formula in favour of the sub-national governments and creation of other institutions which legitimately advance our commitment to and practice of true federalism. "Recommended that in view of widespread agitations among our various peoples for greater inclusiveness in existing governance arrangements, the Federal Government should convoke a national dialogue as a matter of urgency. "Governors recommended that in deference to the sensitivities of our various peoples, there is need to review appointments into Federal Government agencies (including security agencies) to reflect federal character as Nigeria's overall population is heterogenous. "Resolved to foster cooperation among the Southern states and the nation at large; expressed concern on the continued gridlock on Oshodi- Apapa Expressway and the chokehold it has exerted on the nation's economy, being the sole outlet from Apapa Wharf. 'Activate ports in other states' "The meeting, therefore, recommended the activation and establishment of ports in other states of the federation to create new jobs and promote socio-economic activities in the country. "The meeting expressed concern on the economic implications of another lockdown on the country, and, therefore, suggested greater coordination and cooperation between federal and state governments in evolving strategies for dealing with the pandemic. "It expressed very grave concern over the security challenge currently plaguing the nation and strongly urged that Mr. President address Nigerians on the challenges of insecurity and restore the confidence of our people. The meeting expressed gratitude to our host, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, for his generosity and hospitality. Buhari okays new security measures for S-East, S-South Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday rose from a security meeting with his service chiefs and other security heads, with an approval for new security measures to curtail insecurity in the South-East and South-South. The new measures were adopted at the end of the security meeting presided over by the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The National Security Adviser, NSA, Major General Babagana Monguno, retd, also said a decision had been taken not to publicise measures to be deployed to tackle insecurity in the country henceforth for more effective results. The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Usman Alkali Baba, who addressed State House correspondents on the approval of new measures, did not, however, disclose the measures to be taken. New drug control measures The President also approved a memo presented by the National Security Adviser, NSA, on the control of drugs, which he described as enablers of insecurity but did not also elaborate. However, the NSA said the meeting stressed the need to address the security challenges in the country, particularly those that had arisen in the last few months. He said President Buhari is concerned about the worsening security situation in the country and had given marching orders to deal with the security issues. He also said the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, was given instructions on how to deal with crime reporting system. The council agreed that the level of insecurity in the country, especially in the last one month, must be reversed. The acting IGP, Usman Baba, flanked by the NSA and the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, said far-reaching decisions on how to deal with the heightening security situation in the country were taken. The security chiefs, who were joined by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Femi Adesina, noted that President Buhari had presided over the security council meeting three times in two weeks, adding that it "shows the premium the President and the administration has placed on security issues." The acting IGP said the security council meeting, which had taken place three times during the last 11 days, assessed the situation in the country, particularly in South-East and South-South, as it affects law and order. He said: "We have some measures which we have outlined and have been approved by the Council and we will see how we can change the narrative within the quickest possible means to restore law and order and restore peace in that area. "We solicit all law abiding citizens to work with us to identify and deal with the situation. That is that, I may not go into the details of how we will do that." Security chiefs got marching orders from Buhari -- NSA On his part, the NSA, Gen. Monguno said the President gave marching orders to security heads to deal with the emerging problems physically. He said: "The first two meetings were inconclusive, but today's meeting is the final in the three meetings. Again, Mr. President's concern at the growing trend of insecurity has been highlighted and the meeting, basically, was briefed by the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector-General Police. Enablers of crime "I briefed the meeting on strategic issues in relation to security, while the Chief of Defence Staff briefed on operational issues, and Inspector General of Police briefed on constabulary matters. On my part, I briefed council on the enablers of crime and the need to find quick responses, with a view to mitigating the growing threats to society. "These enablers were discussed in detail and Mr. President has already given direction on how to deal with them, specifically issues of drug abuse as propellants for crime, how to make the criminal justice system much more effective, as well as look at issues of unemployment, which, of course, the Federal Executive Council, FEC, had given an approval, through previous memos on how to get 100 million people out of poverty. That was also discussed. "Again, the President has given direction on how to make these things effective. Already, the Nigeria Communication Commission, NCC, has been given certain instructions on how to deal with this, but by and large, the council has agreed that the level of insecurity in the country, especially in the last one month, is something that has to be addressed with the immediacy. "Of course, the Chief of Defence Staff has been working with the service chiefs and the recommendations they've made to the Council are already being handled." Irabor on his part, said far reaching decisions had been made to boost the operations of the security agencies. He said: "No doubt, far-reaching decisions were made. On our part, just as the National Security Adviser indicated, I briefed on various measures that the Armed Forces, in partnership with other security agencies, have taken to stem the tide of insecurity across the country. "The council was pleased with the actions and, of course, the prayers that were made, which council has also graciously undertaken to look into. These have to do with manpower development, training and equipment issues, and thankfully, the glow on my face should, of course, give you an indication as to the graciousness of the National Security Council, in relation to the briefings that we have given in this regard. I believe that going forward, we shall be translating that and it will have some great impact on the security disposition across the country." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Nigeria Land and Rural Issues By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Stop selective approach to issues, PANDEF tasks FG Reacting to the federal government's move last night, the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, advised it to stop being selective in handling issues that affect the country. The National Publicity Secretary of PANDEF, Hon Ken Robinson, in Port Harcourt yesterday, noted that the problem that had affected the country was the selective approach of FG to handling issues. Robinson said: "The federal government should not be selective. This is one of the problems of this country. The the main issue that is causing disaffection, dissolution and the hopelessness in the country, is the bias manner issues are being handled. "Why the selective setting up of security arrangements for South-South and South-East? What of North-West and North-Central and North-East? "The country needs a new security arrangement and we said when the new service chiefs appointed, it was not about the new service chiefs, it is about the whole security architecture of the country. "Students in schools and innocent Nigerians are being kidnapped and livelihoods are being decimated in the North-West, people are being killed in the North-Central and, of course, Boko Haram is having a field day in the East. "Why the selective approach to set up special security for the South-South and South-East?Nigeria is at war and the Commander-in-Chief should realize this and begin to act dispassionately and address the insecurity in the country. "We are not in anyway happy with what is happening. The lives of every Nigerian is important. PANDEF has long before now condemned the attacks on security formations and we restate that position and condemn it. "It is unacceptable. But the Nigeria government must stop this selective approach in handling situations in he country. Nigeria is one country and the security system needs to change. The attitude of the President and those in government needs to change. "Nigeria is in trouble and the sooner we realize it and begin to act decisively in a manner that will satisfy everyone, the better for us." Vanguard News Nigeria The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, said, yesterday, that if President Muhammadu Buhari has self-respect, he should have resigned or stepped aside. Afenifere's acting National Leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, said this during the 95th birthday ceremony of Pa Reuben Fasoranti and the dedication of a church in his honour, at Iju/Ita Ogbolu, in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State. Adebanjo said that President Buhari ought to have resigned over his administration's inability to address insecurity, and the dwindling economic challenges confronting the country. He said: "The President has failed the people of the country; there is no better time to leave but now. Buhari's government can no longer handle the situation. "I have told them that in a better and civilized country he should have gone long ago. If he has self-respect, he should have gone because everything has fallen apart. "What is he presiding over? Is it over corruption, security, education? Law and order have broken down in the country for the past three years. "It is only because Nigerians are over-tolerance of despots that is why he is still there." The Afenifere chieftain also berated the youths, saying they have failed the country. "The younger generation has failed the country. The country was not as bad as this when we were demonstrating self-governance. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "They want the old men to fight their cause for them. Why should people like me be in the trenches at 93 and Baba Fasoranti at 95? Where are those in their 40s and 30s? "When we were at their age, we were on the streets, in Lagos, London, everywhere and when we were in the university. You are PDP in the morning, APC in the afternoon and SDP in the evening, and they say they are young. The youths should be ashamed of themselves." Adebanjo, however, expressed optimism that there is light at the end of the tunnel. "As a Christian, I still have hope. If Nigerians are conscious of their rights, and they know what to d,o but where is the demonstration in the country that Buhari government must go?" In his remarks, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State described Fasoranti as one of the best assets to the Yoruba nation and a hero of democracy who should be celebrated. Speaking through his deputy, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, the governor said: "We are gathered here to celebrate one of the best from the Yoruba nation. His selfless service stands him out and he remains one of the heroes of democracy in the country today. "His presence is a symbolic asset to the Yoruba race. We should all stand to join him in his dream to bring about a united and strong Yoruba nation." Vanguard News Nigeria The apex Islamic body in Nigeria, Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), under the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar III, has asked the federal government to address agitations for break-up of Nigeria by improving security, tackling the economic hardship and addressing the massive unemployment in the country. The Islamic body in its end of Ramadan fasting message said addressing those challenges would reinvent the spirit of patriotism among the citizens for an indivisible Nigeria. The statement signed JNI Secretary-General, Sheikh Khalid Abubakar Aliyu also urged Muslims to give out Zakatul-Fitr (Ordained Alms Giving at the end of Ramadan Fasting) despite the economic and intractable security challenges bedeviling the country. According to JNI, "bearing in mind that by Allah's will, tomorrow Wednesday, 12th May or next tomorrow Thursday, 13th May, 2021 shall mark the end of Ramadan fasting, to witness Eid-el-Fitr celebration in-shaa'Allah. In the light of which Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI) under the leadership of His Eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto and the President-General, uses this medium to, once again show gratitude to Almighty Allah, the Exceedingly Merciful for sparing our lives to have observed the 2021 Ramadan Fasting - Alhamdulillah. "This however, shows the mortal nature of man and that time is transient. The valuable lessons learned in this year's Ramadan fasting is that despite the seeming economic hardship and pervasive insecurity, the fasting was observed well and almost all mosques observed the Tahajjud (night) prayers. "Muslims are therefore enjoined to sustain the virtuous acts learnt in Ramadan and remain self-disciplined, dedicated and ever God fearing in all their undertakings. Once again, Muslims are reminded on the importance of giving Zakatul-Fitr (Ordained Alms Giving at the end of Ramadan Fasting) despite the economic and intractable security challenges bedeviling the country. The Zakatul-Fitr should be given from today to the needy before the commencement of the 'Eid prayer. This if promptly done, will assist those who do not have the means for a meal during the forthcoming Sallah festivity within the Muslim Ummah. "JNI wishes all Muslim faithful accepted Ramadan fasting and successful Eid-el-Fitr celebrations. "In the same vein, Muslims are urged not to forget the Sitta-Shawwal fasting, i.e. the six days recommended fasting, that follows Ramadan Fasting as recommended by the Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We will also like to remind all travelling for Sallah festivity to drive with caution and a lot of prayers, as kidnappings and other criminal acts on the highways seem not to have been overturned. May Allah, the Most High, continue to protect us all. Aamin. "By and large, Nigerian Muslims are implored to reflect their minds on the good virtues of the month of Ramadan and keep to its teachings all through their respective lives, as the Lord of Ramadan, is still and shall remain The Lord of other months. We must all be reminded to keep to the ordinances of the Glorious Qur'an, for the prestige of the Muslim Ummah. "Likewise, we call on the government in respect to the perceived calls for the fragmentation of Nigeria from different quotas, to take the trend as a wake-up call to improve and/or rejig the security network, tackle economic hardship and transparently address the seeming unemployment bog in order to reinvent the spirit of patriotism for an indivisible Nigeria. "Lastly, while wishing us all Allah's pardon in these sacred days and after, we pray fervently for an accepted Ramadan Fasting as well as the Eid-el-Fitr, we also pray to Allah, the Ever Hearing and Exceedingly Merciful to ease for our leaders the difficult terrain and burden of governance. "May He as well keep the Nigerian nation intact and restore back peace and security in our dear country. Aamin," JNI prayed. Kampala, Uganda Farmers who produce high quality products will always access market in the East African region and abroad, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries, Vincent Ssempijja. Ssempijja, who was speaking during the handover ceremony of solar powered irrigation system to Bugomola Integrated Farmers Group in Lwabenge sub-county, Kalungu district, said the market for agricultural products is available but the biggest challenge is quality. "Make sure you produce high quality products and you will get the market," he said adding that farmers also need to widen their market access to include China and United Kingdom riding on Uganda Airlines network expansion. Uganda Airlines, which now flies mainly in the East African region including Nairobi, Mombasa and Mogadishu, plans to launch flights to Guangzhou and London Heathrow soon once all the relevant documentation are completed. Ssempija's comments were in response to the farmer's cry that there's a lot of price fluctuations for their agricultural products - tomatoes, maize and coffee and others - making their returns very unpredictable and in most cases far lower that their expectations. Antonio Querido, Country Representative FAO, said FAO's interest is to address water scarcity in the Uganda's drought hit areas to boost food production. "We believe that we can push agriculture to the level that we want," he said, adding that FAO is committed to supporting farmers to improve food security for their families and income. Meanwhile, Benita Nalusiba, chairperson of Bugomola Integrated Farmers Group, said they appreciate FAO and the agriculture ministry for availing them with the much needed irrigation facility. "We are very happy that we shall be able to produce food throughout the year," she said. She, however, called upon the two entities to consider expanding the facility to include two more groups in the area to increase the beneficiaries. However, FAO's water engineer, Denis Besigye said FAO will look into its budget and if funds allow, the facility could be expanded. He said it is now the responsibility of the farmers to take care of the water irrigation facility to ensure that they benefit from it maximally. He revealed that the facility worth Shs260million has a capacity to irrigate four acres of land in three-four hours. Government, in partnership with the World Bank, has handed over twenty thousand (20,000) wheelchairs to the Ghana Federation of Disabilities Organisations as part of ongoing interventions to improve their livelihoods and wellbeing. The manual and powered wheelchairs, to be distributed by the Ministry of Health through the various District Health Directorates, will enhance personal mobility, a precondition for enjoying human rights and living in dignity. It will equally assist persons with disabilities in becoming more productive members of our communities. Handing over the wheelchairs at a brief ceremony in Accra on Tuesday May 11, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, assisted by the Minister of Health, Hon Kwaku Agyeman Manu and Dr Anthony Seddoh, World Bank Country Lead for Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, said the donation was further evidence of Government's renewed commitment to building a fair and inclusive society, which ensures that all citizens share in the country's wealth and prosperity, irrespective of their background. "Without a doubt, the past one year has been challenging for many of us because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Problems of social equity, how to defend the weak and most vulnerable in society, how to provide social housing, how to improve equitable access to health care to all citizens in the country regardless of where they live, how to ensure increased access to the education of all Ghanaian children, have always been at the core of our social policy challenges. These challenges have always been there. COVID-19 just amplified the challenges. "As we are all aware, persons with disabilities are always confronted with these challenges, which prevent them from having a decent quality of life and fulfilling their true potential. "The Government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is not insensitive to these challenges, hence the implementation of several initiatives to ease and to eliminate the obstacles many of you face in your everyday lives." Some of the initiatives undertaken since 2017 include the presentation in 2020 of Ghs4 million to two thousand (2,000) disabled men and women entrepreneurs under the Presidential Empowerment for Male Entrepreneurs with Disability (PEMED) and the Presidential Empowerment for Women Entrepreneurs with Disability (PEWED) respectively; and the handing over of 10,000 hospital beds to the Minister for Health for distribution across the country. Through the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC), Government also provided students living with disability in selected tertiary institutions with assistive technology-enabled devices and training to promote their digital inclusion in 2019, and also provided 240 fit-for-purpose gender and disability friendly school sanitation facilities to over 231,870 school pupils of low-income communities in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) through the GAMA Sanitation and Water Project. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ghana Aid and Assistance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "Government is also exploring opportunities to remove existing barriers in public buildings, educational systems, healthcare and in the job market to provide opportunities for all. The challenge for us is how our collective actions can minimize some of the circumstances that deny other citizens the benefits of personal mobility," he added. Citing World Health Organisation reports which indicate that except for infectious diseases such as polio, malaria, and meningitis, the foremost cause of disability is road accidents, Vice President Bawumia expressed worry that such accidents, particularly from motorised accidents, do not only cause death but could also leave occupants and innocent pedestrians disabled. "I therefore urge road users to abide by the traffic rules and regulations. A great mind once said, 'Nothing is of greater importance than the conservation of oneself.' Let us remind ourselves that to walk is a right, to drive or to ride is a privilege." A Representative hopeful of Bong County electoral District number two by-election, James M. Kolleh has broken grounds for the construction of a youth center and a guest house in Blameyea Town in Bong County. Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony May 3, 2021, Aspirant James M. Kolleh said the Youth Center and the Guest house constructions are in fulfillment of a request from the young people and elderly of the Blameyea Town to assist them in the construction of those facilities. He furthered that the construction of the Youth Center is intended for recreational purpose in other to help change the society of the younger generation in Blameyea Town and its environs. "To leave the farm as a young man to come and go straight to bed, I think it is not helping our younger generation and being part of this 21st century generation and contesting in this election I thought of helping my people in this District," Aspirant Kolleh added. The Bong County electoral District number two Representative Aspirant put the estimated cost of the projects as 5,000USD. Not just did he make the pronouncements, but he has provided all the materials intended for the construction of the projects in the area, donated twenty-one bags of cement, two bundle of zincs, eight steel raw and eight thousand Liberian Dollars to Lehleh Town for the construction of public toilets in the Town. Aspirant Kolleh is who is now the youngest for now in the Bong County Electoral District#2 by-election has said that his intention of contesting the seat is to give hope to the young generation. Additionally, Mr. Kolleh broke ground for the construction of a Youth Center in Tolomia Town in electrical District number two, Bong County. He further provided material for the construction of the Youth Center in Tolomia Town. For their part, the Youth President of Tolomia Town, Stephen Wama, Nyamah Flomo and Christopher Gornokollie of Blameyea lauded the Bong County Electoral District number two Representative aspirant for the initiative in the District. They at the same time pledged their town's commitment in making sure that the youthful representative aspirant is elected in the pending by elections in the County. Gaborone Gaborone District AIDS Coordinator, Mr Oageng Batshani, says HIV/AIDS still presents as a problem in the society and people are urged to continue practicing infection prevention methods such as using condoms consistently and correctly. In an in an interview on recently, Mr Batshani further stressed the need for people to know their status, be faithful to one partner and those that are positive should enroll for ARV therapy at the nearest health facility. He said people living with HIV (PLWHA) have not been spared the wrath of COVID-19, which had proved to be more dangerous to people with underlying conditions. "People living with HIV/AIDS have compromised immune systems due to opportunistic infections and sometimes due to the side effects of the ARV therapy, so in the midst of this pandemic, we see PLWHA also losing their lives due to COVID-19 complications" he said. Mr Batshani pointed out that COVID-19 had had a significant impact on HIV health services, saying that they were experiencing a slight increase in the number patients who default on getting ARV treatment from facilities. This he said was due to the fact that some of their clients stayed far away in areas that may require a permit for them to come to Gaborone. He said some of them had decided to go to other clinics that were nearer to them, while others were defaulting. He said most had difficulty in accessing the travelling permits and therefore ended up not turning up for appointments. Mr Batshani said experience had shown that the most effective strategies to spread the message of HIV was through mass campaigns amongst other things, which have now stopped due to COVID-19 restrictions. He also stated that school health programmes had also been interrupted due to the health protocols, adding that they therefore anticipated high numbers of teenage pregnancy and consequently an increase in the number of new infections amongst both school going and out of school youth teenage girls. Mr Batshani stated that there had been a significant budget cut, which negatively impacted planned district activities, such as campaigns, AIDS Day Commemoration, saying however that 'the budget naturally and rightfully so, has been diverted to the most pressing issue at the moment, which is COVID-19'. He said there had seen service providers, especially health service providers, that are also key stakeholders in the fight against HIV/AIDS, being overwhelmed by the workload brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, which makes it difficult to implement some of the planned activities because of lack of manpower. Meanwhile, Mr Batshani said some COVID-19 restrictions, such as limited hours for alcohol sale, may have a positive on the spread of HIV. "The truth is alcohol abuse contributes to the spread of HIV" he stated, adding that even though they do not have the statistics, they anticipate a reduction in the number of new infections in the general public, due to the fact that people were not allowed to gather and drink alcohol. He also said due to less movement owing to curfew restrictions, there were minimal cases of casual sexual interactions, due to risks of contracting COVID-19 from strangers or from multiple partners. Mr Batshani further said they have realised that some people who had tested positive for HIV, had voluntarily registered to be initiated on ARV due to fear of having compromised immune systems, which would lead to them being vulnerable to serious COVID-19 complications. He said during COVID-19, it has been a challenge to offer HIV and AIDS services and activities, such as condom distribution, which are key in prevention. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines AIDS Coronavirus Botswana By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He however said the Ministry of Health and Wellness continues to liaise with other stakeholders such as NAPHA, to ensure that HIV and AIDS messages continue to be shared on different media platforms like radio, TV and newspapers, as well as the use of technology, where possible, especially for the youth. Mr Batshani indicated that TB Preventive therapy was back and everybody, who tested HIV positive and had not been in the programme for at least two years, was eligible to enroll. Furthermore, he indicated that facilities in Gaborone also offer pre-exposure prophylaxis, for instance in the event where a discordant couple want to have a child, saying the HIV negative partner would start the pre-exposure treatment, to prevent the transmission of HIV between them, until they achieved conception. Source : BOPA Gaborone Botswana Exporters and Manufacturers Association (BEMA) continues to seek market access for local companies both regionally and globally. In an interview with BOPA, BEMA chief executive officer Ms Mmantlha Sankoloba said even though the organisation had encountered challenges, more successes than setbacks were realised in the quest to secure international markets on behalf of Botswana manufacturing entities. Ms Sankoloba said at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the association made intensive efforts of prospecting for groundnuts markets and found South Africa to be a key market. The country, she said, required groundnuts for value addition processes and Botswana had the best potential of being a key supplier considering both environmental and other factors. In addition, Ms Sankoloba said Botswana had been found to have the right climate for strawberry farming. "As an association, we have identified the European market and the American market to be key procuring destinations for Botswana strawberries. There are also existing potential markets within the SADC region," she said. Explaining that the association's mandate was to impact the lives of communities through empowerment initiatives, she said it had embarked on a drive to help them identify viable commercial projects. Communities would then be aided with skills training and requisite resources to kick start the projects, she said. She said the objective was to contribute towards sustainable job creation and improvement of locals' livelihoods. "The Botswana Exporters & Manufacturers Association has recently signed an MOU with the Indian Importers Chambers of Commerce & Industry. This is a development that we are very much excited about," she said. Ms Sankoloba said although loaded with potential such as a population of over one billion consumers, a stable democracy and many importers dealing in a large variety of products from all over the world, the Indian market was under-utilised "They import products such as foodstuff, jewellery, oils, industrial products, health care products, furniture, construction materials and handicrafts and at the association we have within our membership, companies dealing in the said products and we were excited to have them start trading with India," she said. Another lucrative market identified was that of Pakistan with the association already having had engagements with the Trade Commission of Pakistan, she said adding that key areas of trade collaboration had been mapped out. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Botswana Trade By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Ms Sankoloba said Pakistan had trading partners within Sub-Saharan Africa but desired more as Pakistani companies sought to purchase input commodities. She said over the years, BEMA had been challenged to continue to tirelessly steer the sector towards propitious prospects. The BEMA chief said the association represented different key government entities such as the National Technical Committee on Market Access (TCMA) and the National Trade, Industry, Finance and Investment (TIFI) committee. Ms Sankoloba said BEMA also co-chaired the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) reference group for the purpose of creating a presence and awareness of the progressive opportunities offered by the American market to local manufacturers. "Our presence at regional and global levels is also significant, as we partake in key SADC, SACU, and African Union forums intended to grow individual economies at a harmonious pace," she said. Ms Sankoloba reiterated that Botswana's small population could not fulfil the growth ambitions of the manufacturing sector hence the need to explore external markets. BEMA is a business membership organisation established to serve as the voice of all local manufacturing and exporting companies. Its services include business consultancy, networking opportunities, business advocacy, establishing business linkages and policy advisory. Source : BOPA Kazungula Botswana-Zambia's dream of facilitating bilateral and regional trade became a reality Monday when President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi and his Zambian counterpart, Mr Edgar Lungu opened the colossal Kazungula bridge and one-stop border post. The P2.7 billion project, co-financed by Botswana and Zambia, has been hailed as an important milestone in the facilitation of trade between the two states and beyond. The presence of African Union (AU) chairperson and Democratic Republic of Congo president Mr Felix Tshesekedi, who also officiated, signifies the economic importance of the project. Also gracing the historic event were Mozambique president and current SADC chair, Mr Filipe Nyusi, Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa, acting eSwatini prime minister, Senator Themba Masuku and Namibian vice president Dr Nangolo Mbumba. The state of the art bridge is expected to ease access to international markets and help maximize the SADC north-south corridor operational efficiency as well as promote regional economic integration. It is also anticipated to significantly cut down on both freight and passenger transit time thanks to the one-stop border post components on either side of the border. SADC executive secretary, Dr Stergomena Lawrence-Tax said the commissioning of the project was going to enhance regional integration, generate revenue and increase economic development. The masterpiece of the two neighbouring states, according to Dr Lawrence-Tax, symbolised the SADC motto of unity of purpose towards a common future. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Trade Botswana By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "I am confident that SADC member states will take forward this noble practice of working together for a common goal and expedite the construction of other regional gateways," she said. Realisation of increased inter-regional trade, economic growth and jobs, especially for the youth, depended on improved transport networks and trade facilitation, she pointed out. President Emmerson Mnangagwa described the successful completion of the bridge and its commissioning by Botswana and Zambia as a milestone in the SADC region. He therefore thanked presidents Dr Masisi and Dr Lungu who in 2018 extended an invitation to Zimbabwe to be part of the project. President Mnangagwa promised that in the fullness of time, Zimbabwe would be part and parcel of the initiative which he said accelerated regional integration efforts. Source : BOPA The police say the suspects were arrested with 170 cows and 38 sheep suspected to be rustled animals The police in Katsina State have arrested four suspected cattle rustlers with 208 animals. The police spokesperson in the state, Gambo Isah, said this in a statement he issued on Tuesday in Katsina. He named the suspects as Isiya Halliru, Nasiru Bature, Bello Hamza and Hassan Iliyasu. "On May 10, 2021, at about 11:00hrs, based on credible intelligence, the command succeeded in smashing a notorious syndicate of bandits terrorising Kankara and its environs. "They were arrested with 170 cows and 38 sheep suspected to be rustled animals," he said. Mr Isah said during investigations, the suspects confessed that the animals belonged to their masters living in the dreaded Rugu forest. The police spokesperson further said that the owners failed to show up and claim ownership of the animals. He said the animals have already been handed over to the State's Standing Committee for further necessary action while investigations were going on. (NAN) Tunis/Tunisia The governorate of Tozeur recorded 38 additional infections by the coronavirus after the publication of the results of 141 test, according to the last report published by the Regional Health Department. The total number of infected people in the region reached 7,214 cases including 6,915 cured people and 158 deaths, Foued Barani, Head of Department at the Regional Health Directorate in Tozeur, told TAP on Tuesday. According to the same source, 12 COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in the governorate's various hospitals, including 4 people placed in intensive care. Tunis/Tunisia 23 more deaths of coronavirus were recorded in the governorate of Monastir over the last week, taking the death toll to 497 since the outbreak of the pandemic in the region. Similarly, 347 more COVID-19 cases were reported during the same period, taking the count to 18,576 since the spread of the virus, reads a report published by the Local Health Directorate of Monastir Tuesday. On the other hand, 27 more patients have recovered in the region where the number of recoveries has reached 16,715 while 1,364 are still carrying the virus. 82 patients are currently staying in local hospitals and clinics, the same source said. Since the vaccination campaign, 8,541 citizens have been administered the first shot of vaccine while 5,731 of them received their second one. Tunis/Tunisia Foreign Minister Othman Jerandi and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu agreed to combine efforts, regionally and internationally, to provide protection to the disarmed Palestinian people. They also agreed to put pressure on occupation authorities so as to halt violations committed and force them to comply with both the international law and the international humanitarian law (IHL). According to a statement of the Foreign Affairs, Jerandi received, last Monday, a phone call from Cavusoglu, during which they exchanged views on issues of common interest, particularly the latest developments on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. The two ministers emphasized the need to increase regional and international efforts and step up action by UN bodies, particularly within the General Assembly, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), so that the international community fully assumes its responsibility to protect the Palestinian people, the same source adds. Jerandi expressed Tunisia's unwavering support to the just Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people against the policy of annexation and Judaization carried out by the occupying forces. Tunisia will spare no effort to defend the just Palestinian cause at the UN Security Council. It will continue, in coordination with the Palestinian parties, to defend Palestinians' rights to free exercise of worship and establish an independent State with al-Quds as its capital. The Turkish minister welcomed Tunisia's efforts at the Security Council in its bid to alert the international community to the violations committed by the occupation forces in the Palestinian territories, more precisely in al-Quds and in the esplanade of al-Aqsa Mosque. The Security Council Monday held a meeting by VTC to review the latest developments on the situation marked by renewed tension in al-Quds, amid violations of the integrity of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Tunis/Tunisia "Tunisia will overcome its economic crisis the way Portugal did, since it represents a democratic exception in the region and that its European Union partners will always stand by its side," Portuguese Prime Minister and President-in-office of the Council of the European Union Antonio Costa said Tuesday. At a meeting with Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi, Costa also pointed out that Portugal and Tunisia are two friendly countries that share common principles. Mechichi, for his part, commended the good relations of cooperation and friendship between the two countries. He pointed to the COVID-19 fallout on the economic situation, especially that Tunisia has launched major economic reforms requiring international support and solidarity. The two sides agreed to hold the fifth meeting of the High Joint Commission in Lisbon at the end of this year. Tunis/Tunisia Twelve journalists were victims of attacks in April 2021, a figure that is down compared to the first three months of the same year, said the Monitoring Unit of the National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT). In its monthly report for April, the union called on the Interior Ministry to "seriously" investigate the police raid on the premises of the Tunis Afrique Presse Agency on April 13, 2021, as well as the attacks on journalists. The SNJT urged the Prime Ministry to summon the ministerial departments to apply the principles of transparency, open governance and to respect the right of access of journalists to information. In this connection, it invited the Ministry of Public Health to immediately cancel the internal circular that hinders obtaining information from the department's sources. The union also called on the Interior Department to investigate the attacks on journalists by police officers and to take appropriate action. In the same report, the union calls on national organisations to show solidarity with journalists who are victims of attacks and to encourage the establishment of a national strategy to protect journalists against all forms of violence, citing gender-based violence in particular. Of the eight years Ms Lorraine Mwangi Wanjiku from Mombasa County has been in business, 2020 was the worst. This is the year she almost closed shop due to the hard-hitting coronavirus pandemic. The businesswoman who deals in new clothes says she is currently trying to survive, as the income from her shop is too little to sustain her needs. "Business in the past one year has been challenging. The struggle started around July. It wasn't immediate, though. I used to get my goods mostly from Nairobi and Tanzania... but this was hampered by cessation of movement in and out of Kwale, Kilifi, Nairobi and Mombasa counties," Ms Wanjiku told nation.africa. She says when Covid-19 struck, she was forced to start using courier services to get merchandise, which was not only expensive but time-consuming. "I faced challenges in sourcing stock and the prices also rose. Sometimes you would not get what you expected," she adds. During the first wave of the pandemic, Ms Wanjiku says, most customers were unable to visit her stall near the Mombasa branch of the Kenya National Library Services and she had to introduce offers to entice them. "At times I'd sell on credit due to low purchasing power among my clients, some of whom had lost their jobs," she explained. Towards December, the month when traders would ordinarily make the most sales, business had not picked up. Tougher restrictions When this year started, she was full of hope, but this dimmed with the second and third wave, which saw tougher restrictions being imposed by the government to curb the spread of the deadly virus. "The third wave hit really hard. Despite trying to put up a spirited fight, most of my friends gave up and closed shop. We are just trying to survive," she says. "People have had to share to ensure each other's survival. I had two shops and had to let go of one since I could not afford to pay the rent." In 2019, before Covid-19 struck, she would comfortably make between Sh6,000 and Sh8,000 a day. However, in 2020, her daily income reduced drastically. "Now I make Sh1,500 on average and there are days when I make nothing at all," she says. Ms Wanjiku says during the first phase of the pandemic, they got a two-month rent waiver from from her landlord. "The landlord has been fair and understanding but after the virus persisted, we paid in bits," she reveals. "We no longer get walk-in clients. In the past this place was a buzz of activities but since Covid-19 struck, we have seen our colleagues wind up as others shift to hawking their wares." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Business Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Online business Technology has, however, enabled her to remain in business as she also sells her clothes via social media platforms. "We are relying on social media and other online platforms as well as referrals to market our products and to reach clients," Ms Wanjiku explains. A few metres from her stall, Ms Joyce Nalo, who sells second-hand bedsheets and towels, is also in the same predicament. "Business has deteriorated. Before the deadly virus, I used to have at least Sh5,000 at the end of the day. But currently, I sometimes make Sh200, Sh500 and other times nothing," Ms Nalo says. Ms Nalo says she used to buy a bale of towels at Sh18,000, but the price has gone up by Sh7,000, forcing her to double the selling price for the large towels to Sh1,000 apiece. She has not travelled since the pandemic struck and this has made it challenging to access her stocks. Ms Nalo noted the announcement of restrictions in Nairobi, Kiambu, Machakos, Nakuru and Kajiado counties on March 26 worsened the situation. "I find it hard to get mitumba from Gikomba market in Nairobi. I have had to rely on shipping, which takes too long (three months) to get here," she explains. The businesswomen hope the rate of infections will go down and that President Uhuru Kenyatta will then ease the restrictions and save their businesses. Former First Lady Grace Mugabe (right) with daughter Bona (file photo). A Kutama villager in late former President Robert Mugabe's Zvimba home has taken former First Lady Grace Mugabe to a traditional court over her decision to bury her husband in his rural mansion's courtyard. Enos Monongovere challenged Mugabe's widow on 29 April and wants her to appear before Chief Zvimba's traditional court over what he claims was 'mapini' (taboo). Manongovere is demanding that the late former leader's remains be exhumed and re-buried at a known gravesite for the family in Kutama village. He also wants to have the late leader's belongings shared among relatives as per the known Shona custom within the clan. Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years before his inglorious exit following a military assisted coup November 2017, died aged 95 in a Singaporean hospital from prostate cancer. During the period post his exit, a sulking Mugabe was said to have refused to be interred at the National Heroes Acre after his demise. Attempts by the Emmerson Mnangagwa led administration to have the country's founding leader interred at the national shrine where a mausoleum was being built for him were in vain as Grace remained adamant on her husband being buried in his rural home. Fast forward to April 2021, the decision could be backfiring for the late leader's widow who now has to put up a defence against burying her husband in his rural home. Grace Mugabe faces a penalty of five cattle and a goat to be paid to Chief Zvimba after the hearing slated for 20 May, 2021 according to the traditional court papers. According to the summons, the court hearing will go ahead on the mentioned date even if Grace, who is said to be outside the country fails to turn up on the day. Part of the summons read, "You are being called to Chief Zvimba's traditional Court on 20 May, 2021 at Gonzo Guzha Hall, Murombedzi Growth Centre. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "Charges are that you buried your late husband former President Robert Mugabe in his house and according to our culture, this is taboo. "You are therefore being ordered to surrender all his belongings to his clan as per traditional ethos and values of the clan and re-bury the man according to Zvimba culture. "You can bring your witnesses but be informed that if you fail to attend the hearing, judgement will be passed in your absence." Commenting on the development, outspoken journalist Hopewell Chin'ono called on Zimbabwean authorities to allow Mugabe to "Rest in Peace" and respect the late leader's wishes. In a twit, Chin'ono wrote, "Someone is determined to put their hands on Mugabe's body! This is the first time l side with Grace Mugabe. "When a man gives instructions to his wife about how he wants to be buried, the living should respect his wishes. Let the old git Rest in Peace. He is gone for goodness sake! Society should resist this attempt to use body yemudhara uyu!". If indeed Grace loses the case and Mugabe is reburied elsewhere, this could come as some form of victory to President Mnangagwa who was humiliated by his late predecessor's family which defied the incumbent's directives for his burial at the national shrine. Critics say Mnangagwa has a big handle on the outcome of court decisions, let alone traditional ones run by traditional chiefs who live off government's benevolent handouts. The national leader once admitted influencing the courts to grant MDC Alliance top politician Tendai Biti bail. The nation's security chiefs yesterday got a fresh ultimatum of three weeks to abate the worsening insecurity in the country. This was one of the conclusions of the National Security Council (NSC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja. The council has, therefore, given them a mandate to evolve new measures to combat insecurity in all the 11 states in the South-south and South-east. The mandate to the security chiefs came against the backdrop of the rising cases of attacks by non-state actors on police and other agencies' facilities as well as personnel, especially in the South-east. However, the Nigerian Army has said it will collaborate with its counterpart in the Niger Republic to track fleeing bandits who kidnapped 45 worshippers from a mosque in Jibia, Katsina State, and rescue the remaining 10 victims in custody. The NSC at the meeting in Abuja also decided not to publicise henceforth measures to be deployed to tackle insecurity in the country for a more effective result. Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Alkali Usman, who briefed newsmen after the meeting, alongside the National Security Adviser (NSA), Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd), and the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Lucky Irabor, stated that Buhari approved the overhaul of the security apparatus in both South-south and South-east. The security chiefs were also joined by Buhari's Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, who stated that the president, by presiding over the council meeting three times in two weeks, "shows the premium the president and the administration have placed on security issues." Usman said the meeting assessed the situation in the country, particularly in the South-east and South-South, as it affected law and order. He said: "We have some measures, which we have outlined and have been approved by the council and we'll see how we can change the narrative within the quickest possible means to restore law and order and restore peace in that area. We solicit all law-abiding citizens to work with us to identify and deal with the situation. That is that; I may not go into the details of how we will do that." The NSA said the meeting emphasised the need to address the security challenges facing the country, particularly those that cropped up in the last few months. Monguno said the president gave marching orders to deal with the emerging problems physically. He said: "The first two meetings were inconclusive, but today's meeting is the final in the three meetings. Again, Mr. President's concern at the growing trend of insecurity has been highlighted and the meeting, basically, was briefed by the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector General Police. "I briefed the meeting on strategic issues in relation to security, while the Chief of Defence Staff briefed on operational issues, and Inspector-General of Police briefed on constabulary matters. On my part, I briefed council on the enablers of crime and the need to find quick responses with a view to mitigating the growing threats to society. "These enablers are discussed in detail and Mr. President has already given direction on how to deal with them, specifically issues of drug abuse as propellants for crime, how to make the criminal justice system much more effective, as well as looking at issues of unemployment, which of course, the Federal Executive Council had given approval, through previous memos on how to get 100 million people out of poverty, was also discussed. Then, again, the lack of an effective crime reporting system. "Again, the president has given direction on how to make these things effective. Already, the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC) has been given certain instructions on how to deal with this, but by and by, the council has agreed that the level of insecurity in the country, especially in the last one month, is something that has to be addressed with the immediacy that it requires and at the operational level, of course, the Chief of Defence Staff has been working with the service chiefs and the recommendations they've made to the council are already being handled." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs Conflict By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Also speaking, the CDS stated that decisions have been taken to boost the operations of the security agencies. Irabor said: "No doubt, far-reaching decisions were made. On our part, just as the National Security Adviser indicated, I briefed on various measures that the armed forces, in partnership with other security agencies, the measures we've taken to stem the tide of insecurity across the country. "The council was pleased with the actions and of course, the prayers that were made, which council has also graciously undertaken to look into. These, of course, have to do with manpower development, training and equipment issues, and thankfully, the glow on my face should, of course, give you an indication as to the graciousness of the National Security Council, in relation to the briefings that we've given in this regard and I believe that going forward, we shall be translating that and it will have some great impact on the security disposition across the country." Egypt will host virtually an international conference on artificial intelligence (World AI Show) which will be organized on May 31 by the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) in cooperation with Trescon Global company. A host of information technology and artificial intelligence experts will take part in the gathering, said ITIDA chairman Amr Mahfouz in a press release on Tuesday. He said that Egypt is keen on following up the latest developments in the technology domain pointing out that Egypt achieved a tangible progress in the artificial intelligence domain. The gathering aims at exploring the artificial intelligence market in Egypt in light of the digital transformation the country has been witnessing. Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry took part in an extraordinary meeting of the Arab Foreign Ministers to discuss means of confronting Israeli aggression on Al Quds (East Jerusalem), Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Hafez tweeted. The virtual meeting is held under the chairmanship of Qatar and upon Palestine's request to discuss Israeli crimes in Al Quds. The participants will also discuss the Israeli aggression on the sacred Islamic and Christian sites in the holy city and attempts to evict Sheikh Jarrah residents from their homes. Egypt calls upon Israeli authorities to end all violations against Al Aqsa Mosque and stop attempts to evict Sheikh Jarrah residents in Al Quds (East Jerusalem) from their homes, said Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Tuesday. Addressing an extraordinary meeting of the Arab foreign ministers held virtually by the Arab League to discuss the mounting Israeli aggression on the holy city, the foreign minister said the Palestinian residents of the holy city were not given a chance to celebrate the holy fasting month of Ramadan during the past days due to the increasing Israeli provocations and acts of aggression, pointing out that "they are fighting for their identity and presence in their homeland". He said that Egypt will not stand idly by while seeing what is happening in the holy city, adding that Israel's escalations and aggression and attacks on defenseless worshipers run counter to international law, undermine efforts to reach a two-state solution and seriously threaten regional security and stability. He said that Egypt has exerted strenuous efforts during the past few days and sent messages to Israel and international actors to halt the Israeli provocations and aggression. He called on the international community to shoulder the responsibility towards what is happening to the Arab residents in the holy city and strongly criticized the Security Council for failing to shoulder the responsibility of ending the Israeli transgressions. He affirmed that Egypt is fully ready to support the Palestinian people in their ordeal and in their struggle to establish an independent Palestinian state with Al Quds (East Jerusalem) as its capital. MDC ALLIANCE has accused Norton MP Temba Mliswa of indecent assault on party legislator Memory Mbodiah after the opposition lawmakers were Monday involved in a scuffle which saw the abandonment of a Public Accounts Committee meeting which was hosting businessman Wicknell Chivayo's Intratek and Finmark. Mliswa, on his part is also pressing theft charges against Mbodiah whom he accuses of stealing his bag, two phones and US$3 000 in cash. The committee meeting had been called to enquire into contracts awarded to the firms by power utility, ZESA Holdings on the Gwanda Solar and Prepaid Metre Projects respectively. The abortive deal in which businessman and Intratek managing director Wicknell Chivayo's company had been advanced US$5 million by ZESA to kick-start a Solar Power Plant project in Gwanda but failed, is before the courts after the power utility brought the action against the firm. Mliswa and Mbodiah argued on whether Chivayo was indeed supposed to give oral evidence on several issues regarding the deal when the matter was still being determined within the courts of law. On a point of order, Mliswa requested the committee chairperson MDC Alliance MP Brian Dube to get answers from Chivayo on whether his case had been cleared by the courts to avoid falling foul of the law. But of Monday, matters came to a head when Mliswa and Mbodiah were involved in their own squabble on how the matter should be handled. Mbondiah was heard shouting at Mliswa, "I am not your wife. You do not tell me what to do. I am not asking him (Chivayo) that question and I will proceed with the manner that I have indicated. "I am not going to be asked by you what to ask him. I am not your wife." The MP went on to punch Mliswa, inflaming what was already a volatile situation. Mbondia, whose ipad was damaged during the fight, threw some punches at Mliswa who apparently did not retaliate as the argument heated up. Speaking to the media after the chaos, Mliswa said, "I got a few punches from Honourable Mbondia but that is ok. I never fight women. That is what happened. "She took my bag and I am still to check if my money which was there is still in. "My point was that as parliament, we cannot raise issues which are before the courts. The legal counsel of parliament deals with problems which arise. It is a simple separation of powers. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "You have witnessed yourself that women who complain that men beat them but today you saw me being beaten. "I do not know what to say because yesterday was Mother's Day. On the gender aspect, women are saying 'we are being abused by men' and today a woman, Honourable member of Parliament beat me. "She tried to record me when we were in there and I told her not to do so since this was an internal process that we had to deal with as a committee. "I said we need to stand up to protect this institution (parliament). If matters are before the courts, allow the courts to exhaust them and if not, let the legal counsel to give us the way forward. "The Hwange issue is one of such issues, I was the chairperson. The issue was before the courts and we had to stop hearings," said Mliswa. Mbondia refused to talk to the media, only choosing to show her damaged iPad. Police had to be called but left Parliament without any arrests. The chairperson acknowledged the fight but said this would not stop hearing in future as Chivayo and Finmark were still to be advised on a new hearing date. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, have started rolling out a new mechanism in Rwanda to prioritize general food assistance to the most vulnerable refugees. The funding shortfalls, which we were already facing due to the protracted nature of the refugee crisis in Rwanda, have been aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, says Ahmed Baba Fall, UNHCRs Representative to Rwanda. To avoid these cuts affecting the most vulnerable refugees, we have established a targeting system that will allow us to prioritize extremely vulnerable refugees who depend entirely on humanitarian assistance and to ensure that their basis needs are met. This is the right step at the right time when donors globally are under greater pressure than ever because of the impact of COVID-19 and growing demands, said WFP Rwanda Representative and Country Director Edith Heines. By targeting we prioritize funding to the refugees who are most in need of assistance while we work to mobilise more resources and find long-term solutions. This shift is in close collaboration with the Ministry of Emergency Management (MINEMA) and with technical support from the Joint UNHCR-WFP Programme Excellence and Targeting Hub. This is the first country in Eastern Africa where WFP and UNHCR have jointly implemented targeting and prioritization of humanitarian assistance, with the support of the hub. UNHCR, together with the Rwanda authorities, is embarking on a stepped-up livelihoods and economic inclusion strategy that will increase refugee and host community resilience. We are confident that by investing in programmes that promote access to livelihoods and economic opportunities, education enrolment and access to land and financial services, part of the refugee population will be able to improve their livelihoods and support themselves. With this, I believe development partners will come forward with additional resources to support programmes targeting refugees and host communities for more sustainable solutions, added Fall. The president of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL), Mr. Charles Coffey, acknowledges lot of human rights abuses ongoing in the country, especially through attacks, harassments, intimidations, coercions by powerful people. Coffey mentioned that powerful people in the society do a lot to abuse the masses and there is a need for media practitioners to prioritize and be more robust in reporting on abuses that Liberians are facing across the country. Speaking at the opening of a three-day human rights reporting training workshop in Monrovia recently, PUL President said "If you were to go places across this country, especially towns and villages in our rural areas, you will identify countless human rights abuses." He further bewailed; "but let it be established here that as media practitioners, you will be unable to identify those abuses if you do not have the requisite training that would serve as an opener or guide for you. We all need to know what human rights are and what constitutes the abuse of those rights." The initiative is under the auspices of the "Mobilizing Media to Fighting COVID-19 (MMFC) project" initiated by Journalists for Human Rights (JHR), a Canada-based charity organization. The training brought together at least fifteen journalists representing electronic and print media houses have converged in Monrovia to undergo a five-month mentoring program aimed at combating COVID-19 related misinformation and other forms of human rights violations in the country, especially during the course of the fight against the pandemic. Mr. Coffey said in his brief remarks that the project will help unearth many of the violations that went on during the heat of the fight against the pandemic in the country, especially during the course of the state of emergency when some security officers became more ruthless. "This is why this training is so much important. We want to appreciate the JHR and her collaborating partners for initiating such a program. This will be of great help to our journalists in particular and the society in general," he said. The PUL president stated that the media is the watchdog and it most watch over everything, especially how the country's resources are used to benefit the people Though political issues are the concentration of most journalists and media houses, he said there should be some shift or consideration in looking at human rights abuses across the country. "If a community lacks safe drinking water and there are funds allotted in the national budget for such a purposes but nothing is being done and those residents are constrained to fetch water from the creeks and rivers to drink... then their rights are being violated. We need to pursue these stories and bring them to light. Our people deserve better," he said. "We should also look at the people's rights to healthcare and education. We put our leaders in power to maximize the resources we have for the public good." Lead human rights campaigner, Adama Dempster, called on the mentees to acquaint themselves with the various international, regional and local instruments that guarantee the rights of people. "When you do that then you have equipped yourselves adequately for robust reporting on human rights violations in the country," he stated. Mr. Dempster added that it I regrettable that Liberian journalists focus too much on reporting on civil and political rights and while doing so ignore the rest of the eight different international human rights treaties that have come into force. "It is important that you draw a line as to how you are going to engage yourself in covering human rights issues. with that you will not narrow human rights reporting to just civil and political rights. That is you will not take up most of your time following politicians. At a time when JHR believes there is much fake news and misinformation which they termed as "infodemic", the mentees will be capacitated to report objectively and accurately on rights issues. FrontPage Africa's Desk Editor, Lennart Dodoo said the media plays important role in the protection of human rights of citizens in the country serving as the voice of the people. FPA is JHR's official implementing partner in the country. Mr. Dodoo called on the journalists to help unearth and report the human rights abuses that are going on in the country, while urging them to be guarded by the journalistic code of ethics. He said, "As human rights journalists, let us report accurately and objectively to ensure that governments and individuals are held accountable for their actions." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Human Rights Liberia Media By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. JHR and its sponsors believe that trusted local journalists can play a critical role in communicating accurate public health measures and in combating what is now known as infodemic of misinformation--a thought that gave birth to the project. The launch of the project, which officially took place on Thursday, May 6, 2021 in Monrovia, will have the story ideas of journalists selected through a Call for Pitches from across the country while liaising with two media trainers with knowledge on human rights reporting, gender sensitive writing, fact-checking among others. The two local mentors for the project are Mr. William Q. Harmon of the Daily Observer Newspaper and Mr. Gerald C. Koinyeneh of FrontPage Africa with Madam Gloria T. Tamba of Spoon FM/TV, who is out of the country, contributing to the initiative from afar. Meanwhile, the 'Mobilizing Media Fighting Covid19' project will contribute to international public health efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 and its impact on human rights, in particular women's and girls' rights, across 12 countries and is funded by Global Affairs Canada. analysis Dabanga Sudan A compact digest of this week's most-read highlights, from the heart of Sudan. Subscribe to receive this digest weekly in your inbox. Christians in Sudan can 'still not believe the changes' May 7 - 2021 DABANGA SUDAN Sudanese Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter on Sunday. Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok congratulated them on this 'glorious Easter holiday'. The public celebration of Christian feasts has not always been supported by the country's authorities. During the dictatorship of Omar Al Bashir (1989-2019), religious minorities were severely repressed. However, less than two weeks after the ousting of Al Bashir in April 2019, Sudan's Transitional Military Council reinstated Sunday as the official recess day for Christian schools in the country. In December that year, the new government declared Christmas a public holiday for the first time in a decade. For the occasion of this Easter holiday, Radio Dabanga reached out to several Christians in the country asking them if they experience any change. However, many were not keen to answer questions in the media. Jirjis Efendi, a Nuba Christian basic school teacher in Omdurman, told Radio Dabanga that Sudanese Christians keep to themselves. "Christian people here are not used yet to freely expressing their opinion on religious subjects," he said. "Most of us can still not believe that Sudan has changed." 'Resurgence of violence' in North Darfur's Saraf Omra May 6 - 2021 SARAF OMRA A boy was killed by a stray bullet in North Darfur's Saraf Omra, in a firefight between a group of gunmen and paramilitaries of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Tuesday. In another incident in the same area, six farmers were wounded. Activist Mohamed Khater reported that Saraf Omra locality witnesses a resurgence of violence at the moment. More shootings have recently taken place with people being hit by bullets. On Monday, six farmers, including a woman, were injured when armed herders raided farms in the area. The attackers beat them with their rifle butts and stole their belongings. Earlier this year, the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) in North Darfur warned of the growing insecurity and absence of security forces in the state. Last month, a UN Security Council delegation arrived in North Darfur to address the concerns. COVID-19: Khartoum MoH monitors 12 cases from India May 11 - 2021 KHARTOUM / WAD MADANI / EL FULA / SENNAR The Khartoum Ministry of Health announced that it is monitoring 12 COVID-19 cases from India. The Federal Health Ministry reported 37 new COVID-19 deaths ... Sudan's Fiqh Academy prohibits ratification of CEDAW May 10 - 2021 KHARTOUM The Sudanese Fiqh Academy issued a fatwa, barring the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The No to Oppression of Women Initiative calls for the dissolution of the Academy. Protests against water crisis in Darfur and Nuba Mountains May 10 - 2021 ABU ZEREGA / DELLING People in Abu Zerega in North Darfur blocked the El Fasher-Nyala road on Sunday, demanding a solution to the drinking water crisis in the area. In the Nuba Mountains, South Kordofan, the road linking Delling ... Attacks on civilians continue in South Kordofan May 8 - 2021 ABU JUBEIHA A man was killed and another was wounded in an armed robbery in Abu Jubeiha in South Kordofan. An eyewitness from Abu Jubeiha told Radio Dabanga that two gunmen on a motorcycle intercepted the victims ... Sudanese economist: 'Increase of US Dollar rate was expected' May 7 - 2021 KHARTOUM The US Dollar rate recorded a new high at the end of the week's trading on Thursday, reaching more than SDG400. The continuing increase of forex rates in Sudan was expected, says economist Hasan Bashir. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Sudan Media By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Doctors warn of 'impending health disaster' in Sudan May 6 - 2021 KHARTOUM / SENNAR Doctors raise alarm over medicine shortages, lack of funding, insecurity, and an "impending health disaster". Yesterday, the Sudanese Ministry of Health reported 138 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths. UNAMID forces leave Kass site, ICC prosecutor to visit Darfur May 6 - 2021 NYALA / KHARTOUM Yesterday, the joint UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) officially handed its last site in South Darfur to the authorities in Nyala. A delegation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrived in Khartoum ... Hemeti calls for campaign to explain secularism to Sudanese May 5 - 2021 KHARTOUM The deputy chairman of the Sovereignty Council, Lt Gen Mohamed Hamdan 'Hemeti', has denounced protest calls against the separation of religion from the state. In his address to members of the Popular Initiative ... Last year, Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) launched a recruitment drive and registration of new party members. With the party Patron Former President Ian Khama at the forefront, the party traversed the length and breadth of the country wooing and receiving new members to its fold. The intensive recruitment beared fruit as a week hardly went by without the party receiving new members at the expense of ruling Botswana Democratic Party. And when speaking at one of the events to welcome former member of parliament for Palapye, Moiseraela Master Goya who resigned from BDP together with thousands of other members, a couple of months back, BPF Patron and his entourage vowed to dismantle the ruling party, and removing the current Government and it's President Mokgweetsi Masisi. "I made a mistake by appointing Masisi to be your President, for that I apologise, but we are now rectifying that mistake, together with other opposition parties the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and Alliance for Progressives (AP) we will fix this mistake," Khama said then. BPF Patron also said at the same event that, members of the BDP that include MPs, Former MPs, Councillors, former councillors are leaving the party because it has failed Batswana. "More people are leaving CAVA for BPF, I was in Lerala- Maunatlala constituency where I received 2367 members who left BDP from Moremi, Maunatlala, Lerala and Ratholo villages and 365 more from BMD," he further said. Though recently the aggressive recruitment momentum looks to have waned, however, when responding to questionnaire recently, Botswana Patriot Front Information and publicity Secretary Lawrence Ookeditse said, while Covid-19 restrictions had slowed them a bit, but they continue to receive members in very good numbers. "We have had to change our strategy, but we are still doing quite well, so I can say I am relatively satisfied with progress this far," he said. Ookeditse said their strategy is to become a safe haven for all people from all walks of life. "We are getting good numbers from the BDP and we shall continue to, we are also getting people who used to be non-aligned to political parties and we want more and more of these swing votes to join us," he said. With people continually playing down the party's ability to penetrate other parts of the country expect for the northern part, the BPF mouthpiece indicated that a party always starts among a certain group of people and therefore they are not worried by that. "We are stronger in the North but our popularity in the south grows by the day. By the time we go to the 2024 general election you will witness this growth. Sometimes it scares even me how well received we are by people all over the country," he said. He indicated that while they currently going about recruiting members, they are also working with opposition parties to reach an agreement on cooperation. "We are desirous of cooperating with other opposition parties, In actual fact, we are going to work with all willing opposition parties. Our goal is to free our people by removing BDP from power. We can only do this when working together towards achieving the same goals," he said. While there are still some of the opposition members who are still adamant in welcoming the new party to the opposition politics, given the tumultuous relationship the BPF Patron Former President has had with the opposition parties during his presidency. And the fact that the party is made of mostly disgruntled members of the ruling party and therefore there is a believe that the party and BDP are birds of the same feather, however, Ookeditse who also recently dumped the BDP defended the Patron and the party indicating that he is a good and a democrat at heart. "The people who may think he is domineering and would want to rule from the grave clearly have not gotten to know the man. He is one of the easiest people to deal with if you have the interests of Batswana at heart," "And I can say it for the record that he is not looking to get back into power. At the same time, he can not just sit back and look while the country burns. He is helping us put out the fire that is rummaging through our country," he added. He also noted that those in the opposition who had interacted with BPF patron have warmed up to him as they have by now seen for themselves that they are dealing with a principled man. "Unlike the one we have in power now, the patron is a man of his word," said Ookeditse. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Botswana Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Furthermore, Ookeditse indicated that Batswana are looking for something different and therefore the BPF share with them their vision for a fairer, more just and free country." The carnage, upheaval and total incompetence of the regime in power does the bulk of the work for us. One needs not tell people of the uncertainty of being in this country today. You literally could wake up and find the country sold or something. It is that bad," he said. "Batswana are therefore looking for alternatives. And we share with them our vision for a fairer, more just and free country. They are buying into a vision our vision of change towards stability and fairness," he added. So far Botswana Patriotic Front had welcomed to its fold around 10 sitting councillors and former councillors , 1 member of parliament and former MPs, and they are mostly from the BDP. He said they are not yet able to do major events because of Covid-19 , but he noted that they are looking at a possible congress in July. President Yoweri Museveni inspecting a guard of honour during his inauguration ceremony at Kololo ceremonial grounds on May 12, 2021. At least 10 African heads of state arrived in Uganda Tuesday and Wednesday to witness the swearing-in ceremony of President Yoweri Museveni who has been in power since 1986. They include; Evariste Ndayishimiye (Burundi), Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Somalia), Emmerson Mnangagwa (Zimbabwe), Salva Kiir (South Sudan), Hage Gottfried Geingob (Namibia) and Alpha Conde (Guinea). Others are Sahle-Work Zewde (Federal Republic of Ethiopia), Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo (Democratic Republic of Congo), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (Ghana), and Samia Suluhu (Tanzania) who arrived at Entebbe on Wednesday. The presidents were received by Uganda's State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Henry Oryem Okello at Entebbe Airport ahead of President Museveni's swearing-in ceremony for his sixth-elective term of office at Kololo Independence Grounds. Related On Tuesday evening, president Museveni treated his counterparts to a state dinner at Speke Resort Munyonyo. "Interactions with the different visiting Heads of State before the State Dinner at Speke Resort Munyonyo earlier. On behalf of Ugandans, I am supremely honored to host the different leaders here," Mr Museveni said. Mr Museveni was declared winner of the January elections with 58 per cent of the votes cast while his closest contender, musician turned politician, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine got 35 per cent, according to the Electoral Commission. In addition to the six African heads of state already in Uganda, Sudanese vice president, Malik Agar Eyr, South Africa's minister of international relations and cooperation, Naledi Pandor and the executive secretary of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), Joao Samuel Caholo, arrived in Uganda on Tuesday afternoon to witness the swearing in ceremony of Mr Museveni, 76, slated for Wednesday May 12th. Salva Kiir arrived at Entebbe on Tuesday evening accompanied by Minister of presidential affairs, Dr Barnaba Marial Benjamin and the minister of foreign affairs and internal cooperation Beatrice Khamisa Wani. More heads of state and representatives of other governments are among the more than 4,000 guests expected to attend the event which members of Uganda's Opposition have shunned following what they described as a sham election. "Foreign "guests" who come to attend such an imposition of a Junta become accomplices to the NRM/Museveni Junta crimes. Lenders to such a regime must know that Ugandans aren't bound by such debts," tweeted four-time presidential contender Dr Kizza Besigye who is out of the country. The homes of Dr Besigye and and Bobi Wine are currently surrounded by security operatives as a "preventive measure" following intelligence information that some members of opposition were allegedly planning to disrupt the swearing-in ceremony, according to the UPDF deputy spokesperson, Col Deo Akiiki. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Uganda Governance Tanzania By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Police and the army also said there was heightened security in Kampala and surrounding areas to contain any criminal activities and to ensure Mr Museveni's swearing is a success as he embarks on another term to mark four decades in power. Relatedly, police spokesperson, Mr Fred Enanga said the Force had taken a deliberate decision to enhance their enforcement measures on motorists, outside the essential category, who fail to comply with curfew hours. "We are going to impound all motorcycles/boda bodas beyond the 6pm restricted timing, and motor vehicles beyond the 9pm restricted timing. Additional sanctions will include arrests, fines and penalties irrespective of whether you are a driver, rider, passenger or occupant. In addition, all proprietors of fuel stations who continue to park motor vehicles and motorcycles, will be subjected to further investigations, on parking authorisations, as we arrange to impound all motor vehicles and motorcycles parked at respective fuel stations," CP Enanga said in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon. Protesters from Shukushukuma informal settlement in Khayelitsha marched to a City of Cape Town engineering depot on Tuesday and dumped their rubbish on the premises. They were complaining about blocked drains in their area. Some say they have had to leave their homes because the sewage overflow is so bad. This follows protests on Monday when residents blocked busy Lansdowne Road. After a meeting between residents and City officials, a truck was sent to the informal settlement to fix the sewage problem. Khayelitsha informal settlement residents dumped rubbish inside the City of Cape Town Civil Engineering Depot in Makhaya on Tuesday, demanding that the City fix their broken drains. Protesters, from Shukushukuma in Site C, blocked the entrance to the Depot. Some were carrying garbage in plastic bags. They threw it inside the premises. Residents said that for years they had been living with broken drains in the informal settlement, which was formed in 1985 next to a canal. Community leader Khaya Kama said they had taken the matter to ward councillor Mabuti Vellem in June last year and he had contacted the City of Cape Town. "We waited for the City to come fix it but they did not," said Kama. He said he made a number of follow-ups but still the City did not come. "In October the problem started to get worse, I informed the City via email - I have reference numbers - but we were not assisted," said Kama. "Now people have abandoned their homes because the dirty water is going straight into their shacks." The march followed a protest on Monday, when residents blocked busy Lansdowne road with burning tyres and rubbish demanding that City of Cape Town fix the drains. When we visited the area on Monday residents were busy trying to unblock the sewage using rakes, but without success. "What we want is the City to send trucks to unblock those sewerage drains," said Kama. Resident Manyawuza Bayede said she had left her house last month because of the dirty water. She said for months they have been begging ward the councillor to help them. "The Councillor will tell us that he reported the matter to the City and we should wait," said Bayede. "This water is not only dirty but it is stinking." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Governance Urban Issues By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "I don't have a place to live with my children and I can't continue living with relatives. This is very frustrating because I left my belongings in that shack. My cupboard, bed and fridge are still there and I don't think I will use them again." Another resident Nosakhe Sigwela said the City no longer collected rubbish in the area and as a result people dumped it next to the canal, leading to blocked drains. Vellem said he had reported the matter to the City since last year and had made a number of follow ups but the problem of drains at Shukushukuma had not been solved. City workers who spoke to GroundUp at the Depot said they had stopped going to Site C because they were scared of criminals. After an hour-long meeting between community leaders and City officials at the Depot, a truck was sent to Shukushukuma to fix the problem. Responding to GroundUp questions, the City of Cape Town said it was aware of the situation in Shukushukuma and was "mobilising roleplayers to determine what can be done to address the flooding". The City said the settlement formed illegally on a stormwater retention pond which is designed to collect water when it rains. Pumps were being used to empty the flooded areas. The City said a refuse collection service was provided to Shukushukuma, "however it has been impacted by a vehicle shortage in recent months". This article has been changed to include comment from the City of Cape Town. Lawyer and director of Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum, Musa Kika have filed an urgent High Court application litigating Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Ziyambi Ziyambi and 16 judges seeking an order for Chief Justice Malaba to resign by May 15. The application comes at a time Amendment Bill No. 2 was signed into law by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, giving him powers to appoint and also extend tenure of office for serving Judges. Kika who is represented by Advocate Thabani Mpofu instructed by Cinginkosi Dube of Scalen and Holderness argues that Chief Justice Luke Malaba cannot benefit from an extended term of office beyond the age of 70. "Luke Malaba must or did at midnight on May 15, 2021, cease to hold the office of Chief Justice of Zimbabwe" and that "any action, conduct or deed of Luke Malaba post May 15, 2021, purportedly as the Chief Justice of Zimbabwe is null and void and of no effect." said Kika in his founding affidavit. Kika is also seeking the current deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth Gwaunza to be pronounced Acting Chief Justice until Malaba's successor is appointed with Justice Paddington Garwe becoming the Acting Deputy Chief Justice until a substantive appointment is made. The NGO Forum director argues that the Amendment cannot effect extending terms of office for the 16 judges. "I submit in this regard that the law is clear. Whatever else the amendment purports to do, it does not and cannot have the effect of extending the tenure of second to seventeenth respondents (judges). In view of the correct legal position, whether the amendment be valid or otherwise, the fact of the matter is that it cannot benefit the respondents. "I am aware that second respondent (Malaba) turns 70 at midnight on May 15, 2021. He must in accordance with the law immediately cease to hold the position of Chief Justice of Zimbabwe. This is by constitutional command. Respectfully, second respondent has run his course... " Kika says the matter should be heard urgently because of a real danger that Malaba "may continue in office post-May 15 and that if he does that all his actions would be void, including the administration of the judiciary and the resolution of disputes in court." he argues. As the 2023 presidential and general elections draw closer, a cross section of women hailing from the Chocolate City Community in District #13, Montserrado County have petitioned the son of former Chief Justice Chea Cheapoo, Solomon Cheapoo, Sr. to contest for the district seat. Reading the petition statement, the women group of Chocolate City for Development pledged the fullest commitment to the candidacy of Solomon Cheapoo for his humanitarian and contribution made to the citizens of District #13. The women group through their two spokespersons Marie Washington and Rosetta P. Nagbe informed the public that for the short period of time, representative aspirant Solomon Cheapoo has exhibited high level of leadership ability within the district. They explained that aspirant Cheapoo successfully pursued and achieved greatness from Liberia as a Law Clerk of the Cheapoo Law Firm and Community - based Enterprise (CBA) Facilitator for Administration at the Monrovia City Corporation (MCC) to United States Army. The women further narrated that Cheapoo also worked as Sergeant and later as Education Guidance, Counselor (State Correction Institution - Pennsylvania Department of Justice). Cheapoo during the outbreak of the deadly Corona Virus carried out the COVID-19 Sensitization Project in District #13, Montserado County and was providing awareness about uses of the nose mask and printed banners, stickers and posters with the COVID-19 prevention messages to educate community residents within 38 communities and the country at large. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. However, Cheapoo has exemplified unmatched scholastic excellence as a young leader of the 21st century who has worked at the highest level of government in one of the world's most advanced countries - the USA, and currently serves as a role model in the district and the country at large. The women group indicated that over the years Cheapoo has been working closely with the community youth and women organization in promoting the development agenda in fighting against drugs abuse, among others. Cheapoo has vowed to promote women empowerment, reconciliation and creating more jobs for the residents of District #13 and Liberia at large. Cheapoo has reconstructed and provided financial support and assistance in intellectual centers, youth and women groupings and communities within District #13 to sustain the platform for discussing the problems and challenges the residents face while finding the solutions to them. The women group said they deemed it appropriate to petition Cheapoo to canvass for the position of Representative of District #13, Montserrado County for the forthcoming 2023 general and presidential elections. Woodville, AL (35768) Today Rain likely. High 81F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Locally heavy rainfall possible.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms. Low near 70F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Locally heavy rainfall possible. The Liberian National Red Cross Society (LNRCS) has launched a free blood pressure monitoring and sugar testing activities targeting at least 5,000 people in schools, communities and offices in Monrovia as part of celebration of its May Month. The president of LNRCS Mr. Jerome Clark, II, announced Tuesday, 11 May at the institution's office down Lynch Street that the institution is working to reactivate 30 of its school clubs in six counties for health and hygiene promotion, spreading humanitarian values and principles, and promoting leadership and self-esteem. "Therefore, as we celebrate our May Month, I am pleased and honoured to launch our Free Blood Pressure Monitoring and Sugar testing activities targeting at least 5000 people in schools, communities and offices in Monrovia. This is just the beginning and based on the responses and support, we will continue and expand to other parts of the Country," Mr. Clark said. Mr. Clark said counties being targeted include Rivercess, Grand Bassa, Margibi, Nimba, Bomi and Montserrado. He said LNRCS will provide school clubs with sanitizer, hand washing bucket, laundry soap and nose masks. "While the situation with COVID-19 is improving, we must be [vigilant] and remain on the alert for other diseases," Mr. Clark added. According to him, the Red Cross will collaborate with Ecobank Liberia Limited to make donations of food and non-food items to at least ten vulnerable homes and it wholeheartedly appreciates the management of Ecobank for such a wonderful partnership and contribution to the May Month celebration. "Our volunteers will work with communities and engage in clean-up campaign, awareness raising and provide other communities' services during this Month of May," he continued. Mr. Clark noted that the LNRCS' humanitarian actions are not only demonstrated in May but it expresses solidarity, offers hope and support everywhere for everyone at all times based on needs, but May is the time the institution celebrates the birth anniversary of the founder of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Mr. Clark expressed great excitement especially on the occasion marking the commemoration of this year's World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day, adding that Liberia is part of the over 192 countries around the World commemorating a Month-long humanitarian Actions in May. "We are also grateful to the Liberian Government who recognized the importance of this global event and has issued a proclamation declaring the month of May as Red Cross and Red Crescent Month to be observed throughout the month," he said. Mr. Clark said President George Manneh Weah who is also the Chief Patron of the Liberian Red Cross has further requested and called upon everyone and every institution in Liberia to not only observe the Red Cross Month but to fully participate in activities organized by the Red Cross to make the occasion more meaningful and rewarding. "We are not only thrilled that the Government in its proclamation acknowledged our lifesaving humanitarian services, but we are further glad that the government has announced that it is renewing its sense of common purpose and honouring all those whose sacrifices have made the Liberian society more prepared, resilient, and united to address vulnerabilities across the country." He noted that vulnerable homes and communities need adequate support, people with disabilities, struggling parenting mothers and orphans are in dire need of special care and support to live without worry, adding that the community needs access to safe drinking water and better sanitation and hygiene. "As the rainy season also steps in, let me remind you of unprecedented flooding that might hit communities after days of heavy downpour. Based on the history, we anticipate that communities will be flooded and community people be made homeless and there will be critical and urgent needs for food, health care, water and shelter support to affected communities," he stated. Mr. Clark laments that the resources that the Red Cross has are extremely limited to meet the current and anticipated needs in communities. "Therefore, as we celebrate this year's May month with special humanitarian actions, we are calling on government, corporate institutions, private organizations and international and local humanitarian actors for increasing support to the Liberian Red Cross to be able to sufficiently address local humanitarian needs in the areas of disaster preparedness and response, water and sanitation, Health, Hygiene, and Nutrition as well as Food Security and Livelihoods," he noted. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Health By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He said the Red Cross understands that the government has competing priority demands, but the Red Cross as a humanitarian institution created by law needs to be sufficiently supported also through a direct budgetary allotment to enable it better deliver impartial humanitarian assistance to communities and affected people. He called on Red Cross Chief Patron President George Manneh Weah to lead the campaign of resource mobilization and fundraising and ensure that the institution's humanitarian actions in communities remain. Mr. Clark explained that the Red Cross has and continues to render relevant and timely services to distressed and needy people in time of disasters and looking beyond at other compelling humanitarian challenges and adopting ways of addressing needs in communities. He said these activities and intervention have been successful based on the Red Cross' collective efforts and donor support to demonstrate humanity and express solidarity. "But now that things are very tough and rough at the moment, we need more than ever before a stronger and professional membership based not only to build a good governance team but to also keep the NS engaged, connected, sustainable, visible and [relevant]," he added. The Liberia Revenue Authority expresses shock over the gruesome attack on one of its employees late Monday, May 10, 2021.The LRA says information available shows that its employee Moses Jallah was attacked around 8pm, Monday near Nyanfor town, Patience Shop community, Gardnersville. Mr. Jallah is a staff of Customs and works with the anti-smuggling unit. He was just recently assigned at the Freeport of Monrovia, as part of the Destination Inspection (DI) sight team.The Destination Inspection sight team is an anti-smuggling unit of the LRA that usually inspects containers onsight. According to a press release, family of the victim has reported the case to the Liberia National police and investigation has begun.The Liberia Revenue Authority empathizes with the family and wishes Mr. Moses Jallah speedy recovery. According to family sources, Mr. Jallah has been stabilized and is currently receiving treatment at a local health facility. The LRA strongly condemns such cruel act meted against peaceful citizens.The LRA will follow up with the investigation and provide details though it's Communications, Media, and public affairs section. There was no report of arrest. opinion It appears that the current marriage among the four Collaborating Political Parties, including the former ruling Unity Party of ex-Vice President Joseph Nyumah Boakai, the Liberty Party of Grand Bassa County Senator Nyonblee Karnga Lawrence, the Alternative National Congress of businessman turned-politician, Mr. Alexander Benedict Cummings and the All Liberian Party of businessman Benoni Urey is shaky, as constituent parties jostle for the standard bearer post, ahead of 2023. Unlike the marriage that brought the Congress for Democratic Change under a three-party coalition with George Manneh Weah as standard, the CPP is confronting with a power-sharing leaderhip with loose ambition for the presidency. The Congress for Democratic Change was definite and crystal clear about positions, structural engagement and policies leading to the 2017 Presidential election, unlike the Unity Party that had won two successive presidential elections and significant number of legislatives seats. The UP is an institution member of the CPP, but it did not push for positions and structural control; instead, the Unity Party is ready to gamble with the remaining three political parties for the standard bearer post. The former ruling party is reportedly retaining its ex-standard bearer Joseph Nyumah Boakai for the pending 2023 presidential race, while the ANC leader Mr. Cummings is firmly determined to head the CPP's presidential ticket, meaning the two political leaders could battle each other at various levels, including the none voters perception survey and at primary. On the other hand, the Liberty Party of fallen politician, Cllr. Charles Walker Brumskine has held its regular third place in three successive presidential elections. For the record, the ANC has only participated in one presidential election and came fifth place among 21 political parties. Appallingly, it failed to win a legislative seat unlike the UP that took second place and won several legislative seats both in the House of Representatives and the Liberian Senate.Already, both UP and ANC have taken to the social media attacking each other's political leader. The CPP constitution under Article 11.1- eligibility for contesting says: a person interested in vying for the nomination as a candidate for the presidency of Liberia or legislative seat shall meet all legal requirements, including constitutional, statutory as well as the CPP's rules and deregulation appertaining thereto, no person interested in vying for any electoral seat on the ticket of the alliance shall be allowed. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Section 11.2 Mechanism for selecting candidates: the CPP recognizes that political parties are organized along different political interest and ideological, the revolution, maturity, stabilization require the harmonization, accommodation of the various interests of the group members. Section 11.3 naming presidential ticket, the consequent political parties shall endeavor to reach the consensus in selecting the CPP presidential ticket. The presidential aspirant of the constituents political parties has up to and including Wednesday, December 01, 2021, to anonymously decide and name the CPP/ alliance's presidential ticket, including naming a vice presidential running mate. In the event no consensus is reached the nomination process shall proceed to none binding voter's perception survey (VPS), and be determined at the primaries. But the Unity Party, no doubt one of the biggest parties in the CPP, is now ready to politically gamble for the standard bearer, after it came second in the 2017 presidential race. The secretary general of the Council of Patriot, Mulbah Yorgbor has declared his membership for the opposition Alternative National Congress, become the newest member of the ANC. The Council of Patriot is widely known here for peacefully staging the June 06, 2019 protest, which kept Monrovia and surrounding counties on their knees. The group is headed controversial talk show host Henry Costa. "... I therefore unreservedly declare my membership with the ANC from this day forward and will do everything within my human power to ensure that the ANC becomes that beacon of hope, that glimpse of redemption and that bearer of good tidings for the people of Liberia," Mr. Yorgbor announced at a news conference attended by officials of the ANC, including its political leader, Mr. Alexander B. Cummings. Speaking at the ANC headquarters in Monrovia on Tuesday, May 11, he noted, "As if the ANC as an institution founded on the principles of providing genuine democratic and practical transformational leadership and accountability wasn't enough a reason to join ranks with other patriots, then came along Mr. Alexander Benedict Cummings. A cursory review of the life of the man called Cummings will tell you that this man is a go-getter. He is pragmatic, result-oriented and accountable. He navigated his way to the height of corporate governance in a society that has zero tolerance for public and private corruption, unscathed. He epitomizes and embodies the ideal family values that are sadly in short supply at the nation's highest office. According to him, having considered over the last few months the critical importance of the 2023 elections and post 2023, he came to the realization that only an institution with a very concise and equally ambitious plan to rescue the Republic should be given the task to rebuild Liberia, adding that an institution that has a well laid out economic recovery strategy and one that values and amplifies the views of all on the table, and is very concerned about the young people, while holding firmly the belief that Liberia will move no inch further if the young people are not empowered and properly guided, that institution is none other but the Alternative National Congress.The ANC is a constituent member of the Collaborating Political Parties or CPP that unites the ANC, UP, ALP and the UP. Mr. Yorgbor lamented that the woes of Liberia's continue to deepen under the current administration, as hospitals are without drugs; schools without quality education, homes without reliable water and electricity supply; deplorable road conditions; trust in the banking sector at an all time low; mysterious deaths on the rise, and the government is adamant, focusing on politically captivating, substandard and cosmetic projects that lack substantive long-term impact on the livelihood of the people. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Yorgbor, a former communication specialist at the Liberia Maritime Authority during the administration of former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, said the nation has bled for too long and its history is replete with accounts of large scale theft and neglect of the suffering masses. He pointed that about 250,000 fellow compatriots lost their lives - some very gruesomely to years of devastating civil and political unrest, adding that even after this national disaster, one would think that national leaders would act differently to heal the wounds through decent and accountable leadership - one premised on providing the best possible living conditions for the people. "A leadership that facilitates, and through sound public policies, accelerates a vibrant private sector growth that provides job opportunities for citizens. Instead, citizens are continuously deprived of their dignity as humans and have been made ordinary beggars in their own country. This is gut-wrenching. No patriotic Liberian should, in their sound mind sit on the sidelines while this travesty continues unabated. We have to change the narrative. We have to restore decency to national leadership. We need proven practical steps to rebuild this country from the bottom up," he underscored. By E. J. Nathaniel Daygbor press release The newly elected Commissioner of the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the African Union (AU), Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, has assured the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) of participation in both Peace Support Operation and Military Support Operation of the African Union once the new structure comes into force in July 2021. According to a Defense Ministry release dated 11 May, the Commissioner gave the assurance when Liberia's Military Attache and Permanent Representative to the African Union Commission (AUC) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Colonel Davidson F. Forleh paid him a courtesy call. Commissioner Bankole Adeoye further stated that under his tenure as Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, he will foster close and cordial working relations with Liberia.He further assured that he will work assiduously towards opening a corridor where Liberian military officers will be given the opportunity to serve in the Commission. Speaking during the visit to Ambassador Bankole, Colonel Davidson F. Forleh congratulated Ambassador Bankole on behalf of the Chief of Staff of the AFL, Major General Prince C. Johnson, for his overwhelming election by all 55 Member States of the African Union and described his four years of services as Nigeria's Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the African Union and the UNECA as a towering diplomat, prioritizing conflict resolution on the African Continent. He also recounted with admiration the courageous service of Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, the newly elected Commissioner of the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the African Union for his dedicated effort in the consolidation of peace and security on the African Continent. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa Liberia Arms and Armies By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Military Attache Forleh, also during the courtesy call, presented a plaque of appreciation on behalf of the Chief of Staff and the gallant men and women of the AFL and indicated that his office stands ready to work with the Commissioner through the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security in contributing its expertise in the areas of conflict resolution, post conflict reconstruction and development and the consolidation of peace. Colonel Forleh, following his presentation, used the occasion to request Liberia's participation in both Peace Support Operations and Military Staff Support to the African Union Missions. He also informed the Commissioner that the AFL has gone under rigorous and professional training since its restructuring in 2006 to present. This, he said, has led to the participation of the force in the United Nations Peacekeeping Operation in Mali and other missions on the continent. He further averred that Liberia also served as a member of the African Union Peace and Security Council in 2018 for a period of two years, as Chair of the Military Staff Committee. -But will the peace hold Greenville, Sinoe County:-President George M. Weah responding to citizens' petitions in Juarzon Statutory District in Sinoe County on Saturday revealed that the long running dispute between Senator J. Milton Teahjay and Representative Mathew Zarzar both of Sinoe have been resolved. Mr. Weah informed the town hall meeting as the citizens erupted intocelebrations that the two men who hailed from two of the biggest tribes in the area have embraced and buried their ashes. President Weah: "I am happy to see old man (Mathew) Zarzar and my brother (Milton) Teahjay shaking hands after we spoke. And coming here to thank you for reposing confidence in us, I think this is a success story- that we came here in Sinoe and today is the first time I am seeing these two gentlemen hugging each other." "I have sat with them and even before my face they want to throw blow. But thank God I am always in the middle so, they can't throw blow because if one of them throw blow it will hit me. And I say to them no,no, no. But I am happy that today the problem is resolved. I listened to Senator Teahjay in Unification Town where we came from and that when we leave here today, we know that peace have been restored to Sinoe through your leaders." President Weah noted that it was important that the county embrace peace because in the absence of peace there can be no development. Dispute between Sen. Teahjay from the Kru tribe and Rep. Zarzar from the Sarpo tribe has taken many forms and as such brought in division and confusion among the citizens of Sinoe. The division was further deepen when Sen. Teahjay was then the Superintendent of Sinoe and was allegedly embroiled into corruption. But will the peace hold In 2013, as Superintendent, Sen. Teahjay was dragged before the House of Representative were he publicly apologized to Rep. Zarzar for his (Teahjahy's) June 8, 2013 threat to beat up the county's lawmaker. Teahjay made the apology on when he appeared before the House of Representatives in full plenary in response to an official citation to give reasons why he should not be held in contempt for verbally threatening to assault a sitting lawmaker. The apology rendered by Senator Teahjay apparently did not stopped the bitterness between the two rather it heightened the tension between the two men with their tribesmen being at the receiving end of their ugly fight. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In September 2015, angry citizens appearing on then UNMIL radio blamed their two leaders for promoting tribal politics in the county. They accused both men as being responsible for the tribal division being instigated among the local population. As if that was not enough, Sen. Teahjay accused his colleague Rep. Zarzar of the same county of promoting tribal divide by trying to create a Sarpo County that would be detached from Sinoe. Appearing on state radio ELBC Monday morning, August 17, 2015, Teahjay claimed Rep. Zarzar believes that by raising tribal issues, the government would partition Sinoe to create a tribal county called "Sarpo County" to separate the rest of the tribes from the Kru and "Americo-Liberians." "... No, we've been doing that, but the hypocrisy that characterizes Honorable Zarzar's behavior is what is hurting the reconciliation process. He and you will talk something today, having an understanding; before you look he's on tribal field," Senator Teahjay alleged then. But in a follow-up, Rep. Zarzar told The NewDawn via mobile phone that the truth about it was that there was no crime if anybody wanted to have a county, even though he challenged that Senator Teahjay had no evidence to show he was advocating for a new county to be created. The Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency (ZIDA), with technical support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is launching an Investor Confidence Survey to understand the opportunities to increase investment in Zimbabwe. The survey seeks to capture the views of investors on Zimbabwe's business environment, the policy and regulatory framework for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the quality and scope of services offered to investors by ZIDA and related government agencies, as well as any specific challenges that constrain investment. ZIDA plans to use the survey findings to inform policy dialogue around improving Zimbabwe's ability to attract and retain investment. "This survey will deepen Zimbabwe's efforts to change the narrative around the country as an investment destination," said Douglas Munatsi, CEO of ZIDA. IFC technical assistance will help ZIDA develop and administer the survey. The survey will be followed by a planned multi-year advisory support program with ZIDA to identify and support policy, institutional, legal and regulatory reforms to help attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into Zimbabwe. "Firsthand information from current and potential investors about the business and investment environment in Zimbabwe is the best tool to unlock opportunities for private sector growth. IFC is ready to support ZIDA in this very timely endeavor," said Adamou Labara, IFC's Country Manager for Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Officially launched in December 2020, ZIDA was established through the Zimbabwe Investment and Development Agency Act to promote, facilitate, and protect investments in Zimbabwe. This support to ZIDA is intended to enhance ZIDA's capacity to advocate for a policy and regulatory framework that improves Zimbabwe's ability to attract and retain investment. Although the WBG and IFC are unable to develop lending operations or provide financing respectively to the public and private sector, there is a commitment across the World Bank Group to support development outcomes by providing technical assistance and advice, " said Mukami Kariuki, World Bank Country Manager, Zimbabwe The survey will be administered by Zimbabwean survey firm AdvisoryK and survey responses will be anonymous. Respondents should note that the questionnaire will not solicit personal financial information. Chipinge Rural District Council Ward 20 Councillor, Charles Mugidho Mahlonga has blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for stalling development projects he had earmarked for his area. In an interview with 263Chat, Mahlonga said the lockdown measures put in place by government to curb the spread of the deadly virus have resulted in their failure to hold meetings to discuss development projects including a planned clinic at Mbeure and classroom blocks at Mutorwa school. "We have a lot of projects that we haven't done because of COVID-19. Mbeure clinic is one of the project that we were supposed to have finished since council had already allocated funds under the devolution program. In Mutorwa village there were donors who were assisting towards the building of classroom blocks but this was affected by COVID-19," he said. Mahlonga added that schools have not been holding annual general meetings for School Development Committees (SDCs) which are pivotal in how the schools is run. "We are failing to hold meetings because of COVID-19 for example schools annual general meetings which are guided by the statutory instrument 87 of 1992, health centre committees, Village Development Committees (VIDCO) and Ward Development Committees (WADCO)," added Mahlonga. Ward 22 Councillor, Evelyn Mhuru echoed Mahlonga's sentiments adding that most projects that were being done in her ward have stalled because of COVID-19. " The Matezwa - Gumira road that was under construction has been affected, further more the donors that have been assisting us in rehabilitating the irrigation canals haven't finished citing COVID-19," said Mhuru. COVID-19 has wrecked havoc in the country and slowed economic growth and development across the globe. Handeni Two elephants have blocked the road that links Handeni and Korogwe Districts causing panic among road users and residents of Sindeni Village Sindeni's Councilor Mwanaisha Msemi on Wednesday May 12, 2020 told a council meeting that she had been informed that the two jumbos were in the area near bridge that was broken during heavy rains in 2019 close to Sindeni area leaving residents in shock and fear. Following the news, Handeni district council chairman, Mussa Mwanyumbu has advised the District Commissioner (DC) to see if it is possible that the elephants should be killed because for a long time they have been harassing people and destroying crops in various parts of the district. "I advise the DC if there is possibility to kill these elephants because they have caused two people's death, also they disrupt community activity because of the fear of elephants," he said. Handeni District Commissioner, Toba Nguvila has said they have already sent wildlife officers to the scene to evacuate the elephants to the park so that the road can be used. He added the wildlife officers from Arusha has been in Handeni for the long time to monitor the movements of the elephants and to provide education to the public on how to live with the animals. Dar es Salaam The United Kingdom's Minister for Africa, Mr James Duddridge, started his official visit to Tanzania yesterday in renewed efforts to strengthen bilateral ties between the two countries. A statement from the British High Commission in Dar es Salaam said yesterday that Mr Duddridge would be in Tanzania for two days during which he would hold high-level meetings with President Samia Suluhu Hassan and Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation minister Liberata Mulamula. He will also meet with Industry and Trade minister Kitila Mkumbo and his Investment counterpart, Mr Geoffrey Mwambe. On the second day of his visit (today), Mr Duddridge is scheduled to travel to Zanzibar where he is to meet with President Hussein Mwinyi and First Vice President Othman Masoud Othman. The visit is the first of a UK Minister since 2019, and the first since President Hassan took office in March. The statement quotes Mr Duddridge as saying: "I look forward to my discussions with the President and her government on our opportunities for cooperation including our work together with the business sector and how we collectively tackle global challenges including climate change and Covid-19". Relations between the two countries took a downward turn in the last six years that have seen the UK issue some statements that were meant to bring Tanzania back to what it (the UK) believed to be the tenets of good governance. For instance, Mr Duddridge is himself on record as having issued a statement condemning the way Tanzania's 2020 General Election was conducted. He said being a longstanding supporter of Tanzania, the UK was concerned by widespread allegations of interference in the country's elections, including pre-filled ballot boxes and party agents being denied entry to polling stations. The UK, he said, was also deeply troubled by the reports of violence and heavy-handed policing in the elections, including the arrest of opposition political leaders. "Tanzania's future stability and prosperity require a credible democratic process, underpinned by a free media... ," he said. With what was largely viewed as a deteriorating human rights record and government's crackdown on freedom of expression during the past six years, coupled with economic challenges in the UK due to the Covid-19 pandemic, The Citizen understands that the European nation's Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Tanzania will drop by significantly during the 2021/22 financial year. During the 2020/21 financial year, the UK pledged 89 million sterling pounds in ODA to finance 15 projects. However, that amount is expected to be lower by over half during the coming financial year. With a drop in ODA, seven of the 15 UK-funded projects in Tanzania will close down while the remaining eight - in areas of civil service, serious organized crime, girl education, economic development and trade, climate change and family planning - will have their budget cut considerably. The fact that the Covid-19 pandemic will also be discussed during Mr Duddridge's visit suggests that the UK may now be willing to cooperate with Tanzania, following President Hassan's repeated utterances that the country was not an island and therefore, the need to cooperate with others in the fight against the global pandemic. It is anticipated that while Tanzania's approach to the Covid-19 fight had been strange and different from all other countries in the world during the past two years, the meeting may see the country adopting what others have done, including a possibility of going for the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (Covax) programme. The Covax programme - which is backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other multilateral bodies - aims to supply 600 million doses to Africa, enough to vaccinate at least 20 percent of the population. President Hassan has already formed a team of experts that will advise her on steps that Tanzania should take in its fight against the virus. A visit to Tanzania and meeting with President Hussein Mwinyi and First Vice President Othman Masoud Othman suggests a walk in the right direction for relations between the two countries. This is based on the fact that High Commissioners and Ambassadors from the UK, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States in Tanzania issued a statement in February 2016, condemning the annulment of the 2015 Presidential Election in Zanzibar by the Zanzibar Electoral Commission. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Tanzania Governance Europe and Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We reiterate our concern with the Zanzibar Electoral Commission's decision to annul the election of October 25, 2015, without having provided evidence to substantiate its claim that irregularities had taken place, and despite the positive assessments of electoral observation missions conducted by the Commonwealth Secretariat, the African Union, the Southern African Development Community, the East African Community, the European Union, and the United States of America. The diplomats said they regretted that an election re-run was announced, while a dialogue between parties was still ongoing. "We are deeply concerned that the unilateral declaration of a re-run may lead to an escalation of intimidation and tensions. We commend the population of Zanzibar for having exercised calm and restraint to this date, and call on all parties and their supporters to continue to work together towards finding a peaceful solution," the statement read, aiming to overcome the political impasse Dar es Salaam The government said on Wednesday, May 12, 2021, that victims of October 28, 2020 General Election chaos in Liwale Constituency in Lindi Region will not be compensated. Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Labour, Youth and Employment, Mr Patrobas Katambi made the statement in Parliament when responding to a question from Liwale Constituency MP Zuberi Kuchauka. In his principal question, Mr Kuchauka sought to know the government's awareness on election chaos that rocked the constituency that led to destruction of private and government owned properties. He questioned whether the government was planning to compensate the victims whose properties worth Sh886 million including the lawmaker whose two houses and cars worth over Sh301 million and over Sh417 million on houses belonging to other citizens as well as vehicles and properties belonging to other citizens and government institutions were destroyed. Responding to a question, Mr Katambi said the victims will not be compensated because the incidents were closely linked to criminal offenses, therefore by compensating the victims the government would be encouraging repetition of such incidents in other parts of the country. "Defense and Security Committee in Lindi Region is finalizing assessment of the incident in order to take perpetrators to justice," he said, adding. "Compensation of incidents of natural disasters are determined by the Disaster Management Act of 2005. The wards as well as the district's defense and security committees are among the organs required to evaluate and provide their suggestions on the way forward." He said such incidents have been repeatedly happening in constituencies during elections fueled by defeated candidates with intentions to show that they are influential and accepted by citizens. Mr Katambi commended the Police Force and Fire and Rescue Brigade for the outstanding job they did to restore peace and order in the area, calling citizens to respect regulations and laws governing the country. Chaos erupted in Liwale Constituency in Lindi Region on the Election Day after residents protested the initial poll results that were being announced in various polling stations in the constituency. Arusha and Manyara regions has on Tuesday May 11, launched the implementation of the decentralized birth registration system. In the next two months, more than 600,000 under-five children, in the two regions, are expected to receive a birth certificate. With this, the number of regions that have already introduced the new birth registration system reaches 20. The launch, held at Arusha International Conference Centre, was attended by the Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, Professor Palamagamba Kabudi, among other guests. The goal of the programme is to establish a system for registering all new births and register all under-five children in the two regions. The programme makes birth registration more accessible to the community. Where before registration could only take place at the district headquarters, now registration points are established at health facilities, which provide reproductive and child health services, and at the community ward executive offices in line with the government policy of decentralization through devolution. Declaring health facilities and ward executive offices registration points will enable parents in these two regions to easily access more than 800 registration points set up compared to 11 registration points at present. Emmy Hudson, Acting Administrator General and Chief Executive Officer of the Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency (RITA), responsible for the programme, said the new decentralised system has significantly accelerated birth registration in Tanzania Mainland, after years of stagnation. "The system makes it easier for children and their families to access the entitlement of a birth certificate. Now parents can receive birth certificates from the designated health facilities or through the ward executive offices. We are committed to ensuring that no child is left behind and, therefore, have taken extra steps focusing more on gender and equity to leave no one behind". She concluded by acknowledging the contribution of Unicef, the Government of Canada and Tigo for their support to the birth registration system in the country. The programme also introduces a 'one step, one visit' process and adopts an innovative way of data collection. The Government has waived fees for registration under this programme and the first copy of the certificate is given free of charge. Through the use of SMS, data is instantly transferred and uploaded, facilitating a real-time tracking of progress. The Government has been implementing this programme since 2013 in partnership with UNICEF, Tigo and funding from the Canadian Government. The initiative is being rolled out in Arusha and Manyara joining Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Ruvuma, Morogoro, Pwani, Singida, Dodoma, Mara, Simiyu, Lindi, Mtwara, Geita, Shinyanga, Mbeya, Songwe, Mwanza, Iringa and Njombe which have already been covered and thereby reaching more than 5.4 million under-five children. The new system has resulted in an overall increase of certification of under-fives in these regions from less than 10 per cent to more than 80 per cent. The system has also helped in improving the certification rate for Tanzania Mainland from less than 13 per cent to more than 60 per cent in over seven years. Right from the inception of the design of the innovative birth registration system, UNICEF has been working closely with the Government in implementing it seamlessly one region at a time with the aim of covering the entire country. UNICEF Representative in Tanzania, Shalini Bahuguna, said that birth registration will help children in the country to claim their rights and be protected. "Every child has the right to an identity. A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The right to be registered immediately after birth, to have a name and acquire a nationality is every child's right, enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The simplified birth registration programme is ensuring that millions of children under-five who are "invisible" in the nation's records, become 'visible'". The funding for the programme, received from Canada, has facilitated the Government of Tanzania to establish a sustainable model of birth registration. The funding is contributing significantly to the development of an efficient Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System in the country. Helen Fytche, Head of Cooperation and Senior Director (Development), High Commission of Canada in Tanzania said, "Canada is proud to provide over CAD$30 million in support of Tanzania's under-five birth registration system which eliminates barriers to access between urban and rural, rich and poor, and boys and girls. Ensuring access to key services and rights, especially for women and girls, is a priority for Canada under its Feminist International Assistance Policy, as it contributes to eradicating poverty and building a more peaceful, more inclusive and more prosperous world. This project is a great example of innovative partnership - the Government of Tanzania, private sector and development partners have joined hands to design and roll-out an innovative process for the birth registration of over 5.4 million children since 2013. This will unlock children's rights as citizens and is the first step in getting access to health services, education, and other key rights and protections." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Tanzania Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Tigo is supporting the initiative through innovative mobile technology, which ensures that birth registration data is uploaded and sent to a central database in real time. In addition, Tigo is also providing 1,350 smartphones, worth TZS 169 million, and free SMS to support the initiative. Speaking at the launch ceremony, Tigo's Northern Zone Director, Henry Kinabo said, "We are committed to build the digital highways that connect people, improve lives and develop our communities. With this innovation, Tigo is making positive and significant contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals. Additionally, this partnership portrays the role mobile service providers can play in addressing a pressing social need through application of their technology and expertise." Birth registration is critical since children's access to all social services stem from birth certification. Moreover, for adults to acquire other forms of identification such as Voters ID, Driver's license, Passport and National ID, to mention a few, requires birth certificate. Today, SIM card registration cannot be performed without the National ID. Dar es Salaam President Samia Suluhu Hassan Tuesday appointed Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Biswalo Mganga as judge of the High Court in a move heralding changes in the administration of justice in the country. Mr Mganga, who came into the top prosecution office in 2014, prominently featured in the judicial publicity as he supervised the anti-money laundering and handling of grand corruption-related cases which saw prominent traders and officials charged with the non-bailable money laundering and economic sabotage counts. Recently, Mr Mganga released some inmates in Karagwe, Bukoba, Biharamulo and Muleba prisons after dropping charges against them. He also supervised the implementation of the plea bargaining system which came into force in 2019. The law allows defendants in criminal cases to plead guilty during hearing in return for dismissal of charges or a more lenient sentence. The law was introduced to reduce backlog of cases in courts, prison congestion and ensure timely delivery of justice. President Hassan was sworn-in in March to replace President John Magufuli who died of heart condition. The Head of State has so far made changes in some positions including ministers, their deputies, permanent secretaries, and the chief secretary. This is the first time the new President touches the Judiciary in which she appointed seven justices for the Court of Appeal and 21 judges, including Mr Mganga, for the High Court. According to a State House statement issued yesterday, the President also extended the tenure of the Court of Appeal Justice Sivangilwa Sikalalilwa Mwangesi for two more years starting February 15 this year. "The appointed judges will be sworn in at a later date," said the statement. In her maiden speech in Parliament last month, President Hassan promised to continue strengthening other institutions including the offices of the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, the DPP, Police, the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Bureau (PCCB) and Prisons. According to her, she will improve the Judiciary's infrastructure by increasing the number of judges and use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in order to accelerate case processing and record keeping. Ruhengeri Referral Hospital in Musanze District has deployed strong antibiotics to disinfect its neonatal care unit after 19 prematurely born babies died in March 2021, an unprecedented death toll, according to hospital authorities. In a statement that the hospital issued on Tuesday, May 11, the hospital said that it opted for strong antibiotics after conducting extensive laboratory tests to identify the reason for the deaths. Usually, the premature infant mortality rate at the hospital varies between 8 - 11 percent, Dr. Philbert Muhire, Director General of Ruhengeri Referral Hospital told The New Times. However, Muhire said, the rate rose to 18 percent in March after 19 of the 104 infants admitted to the hospital died. The issue, he said, was first observed in mid-March when infants suffered from the same condition. They had fevers that could not go away with treatment usually used. It was then identified that the neonatology unit was infected with drug-resistant microbes. This is an area equipped with, among other facilities, an incubator (an apparatus for maintaining a premature infant in an environment of proper oxygenation, humidity, and temperature). According to the hospital management, the tests performed confirmed that the neonatology unit was infected with two types of multi-resistant microbes (namely enterococcus and staphylococcus Haemolyticus) that have resistance to usual drugs, and required the use of a strong antibiotic called vancomycin. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Health Climate By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Since then, the hospital said, a set of actions have been undertaken to tackle the problem, including treatment with vancomycin. The hospital has also relocated all admitted babies to a different room and has put in place rigorous measures to control infections in the neonatal intensive care unit. The hospital condoled with the affected families, adding that thorough investigations are being conducted and if cases of gross negligence are identified, those involved will be held accountable. Muhire pointed out that in April, eleven of the 105 infants that the hospital had admitted died, accounting for about 11 percent, a 7 percent drop from the previous month. The April statistics, he said, show an improvement compared to the March data. "The affected area was effectively disinfected to ensure that it is free from the germs," he said, emphasizing that the hospital is committed to saving the lives of infants. Major causes of premature infant deaths Muhire said that the main causes of premature infant deaths include congenital malformation such as malformed organs which cannot allow a newborn to survive. Others are prematurity complications including respiratory problems and neonatal infections. Specifically for the March infant deaths, three infants died from prematurity complications, two died from congenital malformations, while 14 died from neonatal infections. Residents of three wards in Kajiado County regard the rainy seasons with a heavy dose of trepidation. For, while heavy clouds are generally seen as a blessing, to residents of this part of the country they are a harbinger of pain, death and destruction. Whenever it rains, the residents of the three wards, which are dotted with traditional maasai manyattas and iron-sheet-roofed houses, are completely cut off from the rest of the country. Matapato North in Kajiado Central sub-county, Mbirikani/Eselenkei in Kajiado South sub-county and Kinyawa Poka ward in Kajiado East sub-county are reduced to an island, with the residents suffering in silence as a result of disruption of their lives and livelihoods. The three wards share a gravel road that takes them across River Orkeriai. The only problem is that the river is seasonal and has no bridge. In the dry seasons, the 50-metre-wide river is a lifeline for sand harvesters. During rain seasons, however, it bursts its banks, making it hard for motorists to cross over. And the locals have watched helplessly as people and vehicles were swept away while trying to cross the swollen river. Livestock have also not been spared. The shared road links the three wards to Mashuru town, the nearest trading centre where one can get good medical facilities, a livestock market and offices offering county and national government services. In the rainy seasons, no one gets into villages and no one leaves until the water reduces to a level where one can wade across. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Climate By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Residents, many of who are herders and agribusiness operators, supply neighbouring areas with farm produce and livestock for meat. Ms Jane Kisotu, 42, said women have over the years borne the brunt of the poor infrastructure. She said expectant women are unable to access health facilities during the rains, with some patients dying on the banks. In an interview, a reflective Ms Kisotu stared blankly into space as she recalled painful moments occasioned by the residents' inability to venture out of the three sub-counties. Tears freely rolled down her cheeks and not even her firm palm could stop the flow. "We have seen the worst, from patients dying and expectant mothers giving birth by the banks of River Orkeriai. We always make sure we have enough foodstuff before the onset of rainy seasons," said Ms Kisotu. Many Maasai women are unable to sell milk - in their culture, milk is women's business. The education calendar is also interrupted during the rainy season as learners cannot access their schools. "Most activities come to a standstill during the rainy season. Our children cannot access schools as there are no alternative routes considering the rough terrain and steep valleys surrounding us," said Mr Joseph Melombuka, another resident. Again during the rainy season, farm produce prices shoot up in Mashuru town and the mushrooming urban centres nearby. "Due to erratic weather patterns, rains fall unexpectedly. We are then left with our farm produce as we cannot access marketplaces," said Mr John Nkaru, a farmer. The Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai has ordered the immediate arrest of hotel staff who were captured on video dragging an individual on the tarmac. The IG instructed Regional Police Commander-Coast Region to immediately arrest all the perpetrators of the offense and arraign them. In the video clip, the manager victim can be seen being dragged on a tarmac road leading into and out of a hotel, with some men holding his arms and legs. "A Video of a person being assaulted and dragged on the ground in Kwale has come to our attention. It has been confirmed that the incident occurred within Ukunda in Kwale County. The @IG_NPS has ordered the Regional Police Commander-Coast Region to immediately arrest all the perpetrators of the offence and arraign them before the court. Nobody is above the law and such acts of impunity will be met with the full force of the law," it reads. pic.twitter.com/DjrILZZL6L - National Police Service-Kenya (@NPSOfficial_KE) May 10, 2021 The victim was identified as the General Manager Chris Indeche of Kaskazi Beach Hotel in Kwale, Diani. He said the incident happened on Thursday, May 6 and he reported it at the Diani Police Station and was issued with a police abstract. According to Mr Indeche, some workers accosted him as he was having breakfast and started demanding their dues. They then reportedly manhandled him, stole some cash and his mobile phone before dragging and throwing him outside of the premises. Police are yet to arrest perpetrators. PREMIUM TIMES speaks to some individuals fingered in Newswire's report, including Messrs Ezeugo and Effiong. A Superintendent of Police, Samuel Ezeugo, and a civil servant, Kufre Effiong, have explained their links to Frank Akpan, the suspected killer of the slain job-seeker, Iniubong Umoren. According to records obtained from his mobile network provider published Monday by Newswire, Mr Akpan, shortly before his arrest, had telephone conversations with Messrs Ezeugo and Effiong, a revelation that has raised suspicion of conspiracy. Mr Ezeugo heads the police division that supervised the arrest of Mr Akpan while Mr Effiong, a civil servant at the Federal Ministry of Niger Delta, is a close relation of the suspect. However, in separate interviews, both men explained to this newspaper that they were only in talks with the culprit to facilitate his arrest. Background PREMIUM TIMES reported how 26-year-old Ms Umoren, a fresh graduate of the University of Uyo, was found dead 48 hours after she left home to honour a job interview scheduled by Mr Akpan at a location on the outskirts of Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. The murder suspect, who, according to the police, later confessed to being a serial rapist, confirmed raping and killing the missing lady. He also claimed he buried her in a shallow grave in his father's compound, after raping her. "On 30/04/2021, the Command received a report on the disappearance of the victim. Following available leads, men of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the Command, led by CSP Inengiye Igosi, consolidated on the initial great progress made by the DPO Uruan, SP Samuel Ezeugo and arrested the perpetrator who confessed to have lured his victim to his house in the guise of giving her a job but ended up sexually and physically assaulting her which led to her death. "To cover his tracks, he dragged and buried her in a shallow grave in his father's compound," Odiko MacDon, the Akwa Ibom Police Command spokesperson, said. Timeline The timeline of events showed that Ms Umoren set out for the interview on April 29. Her Lagos-based friend, Umo Uduak, who initially raised the alarm on social media, informed the Urua police division on April 29 but the operatives did not swing to action until April 30, following a 24-hour guideline. The police usually wait for 24 hours to see if people declared wanted would reappear before launching a search for them. Mr Akpan's father was arrested on April 30 and the culprit was arrested later that day. The suspect's arrest was made on May 1. Fresh findings As Nigerians continue to demand justice for the late Ms Umoren, Newswire, on Tuesday, published the call logs of Mr Akpan between April 14 and April 30. Using open-source intelligence tools like cell site locators and true caller app, the newspaper identified some persons the suspect spoke with before his arrest, including Messrs Ezeugo and Effiong. According to the newspaper's analysis of the available data, Mr Akpan put a call across to Mr Effiong at noon on April 30. The latter called back shortly after the first call ended. A few minutes after, Mr Effiong sent Mr Ezeugo's telephone number to the culprit, who called the police officer immediately after. The conversation between the senior police officer and Mr Akpan went on for 93 seconds. What they discussed remained unclear since Newswire said it was unable to access a recording of their conversation. While details of their discussions remained unknown, the Newswire article suggested connivance between Messrs Akpan, Ezeugo, Effiong, and the other people who spoke with him on the telephone. The report suggested some might have colluded to kill Ms Umoren while some others might be engaged in a cover-up scheme to free the suspect. The article also conjectured that some people who telephoned Mr Akpan or stay in locations around where Mr Effiong was as he communicated with the suspect might be connected to a human parts trafficking syndicate. As of the time of this reporting, PREMIUM TIMES could not access the conversation records of the suspect and those he spoke with and was, therefore, unable to determine the culpability or otherwise of the individuals. "At 4.32 PM on April 30, Frank then makes one of the most interesting phone calls in this entire story. Truecaller pulls up the details of the recipient of the phone call with the number +2348032939326 - one "Kufre Effiong." Unlike the other people Frank has been known to associate with, Kufre Effiong appears to be from a different world," Newswire reported. "On April 30, at 4.40 PM, Frank Akpan placed a call to someone with the number +2348034386086. At this point, I trust it will not shock you to know that when I ran this number through Truecaller, the name that came up was none other than (Mr Ezeugo) ... In other words, while the Akwa Ibom Police Command is releasing statements claiming to be solving a crime by arresting a suspect, the suspect was actually making telephone calls to one of the police officers who would later "arrest" him, and speaking to him for a minute and a half," it read further. "So putting the entire picture together, we have what appears to be a well-connected criminal gang in Akwa Ibom with links to the police and the Federal Ministry of the Niger Delta, which specialises in sourcing human organs either for the purpose of selling to the international black market or to service local politicians who believe in ritual human sacrifice," the paper stated, tracing their address to Plot 58, G Unit, Ewet Housing Estate, the Uyo branch office of a medical NGO called the Center for Clinical Care and Research (CCCR Nigeria). "The first is that the Uyo Branch office of an organisation which specifically offers "supply chain management of health commodities" may have been commandeered by an illegal organ trafficking ring to feed the booming global black market organ trade," the report speculated. Meanwhile, there was an unknown number (+2348122386922), which was more frequent in the logs but could not be traced to anyone. This unknown person contacted Mr Akpan no fewer than 12 times between April 4 and April 27, with an estimated talk time of over 192 seconds. "Finding the individual who owns the telephone number +2348122386922 is central to unravelling the mystery of why Iniobong Umoren had to die, how many more like her have died in the past, and most importantly, who are the big fish behind the entire operation. Exactly what is going on at 58, G Unit, Ewet Housing Estate is another key question that must be answered." Effiong, SP Ezeugo speak PREMIUM TIMES made efforts to speak to all the numbers extracted from Newswire's report but only five of them responded. The telephone number identified with the most frequent calls was amongst the telephones that could not be reached throughout Tuesday and Wednesday morning. But of the successful five, one belonged to Nonso Obosi, another to one Blessing Godwin (an unsuspecting victim of Mr Akpan), two were traced to Mr Effiong and one to Mr Ezeugo. While Mr Obosi abruptly terminated the call after our reporter announced the intent of calling -- enquiry into their relationship with the suspect. Ms Godwin shared her near-death experience with Mr Akpan. Also, Messrs Effiong and Ezeugo, after this reporter pressured them repeatedly, agreed to speak on their connections to the suspect. Mr Effiong, who is a civil servant as reported by Newswire, further revealed that the suspected murderer is his relation. "This boy is related to me in a way. He is my little cousin that did this thing and I didn't want my hands to be connected with this," he said, explaining the reason for not speaking up earlier. He said he had been inundated with telephone calls from social media users who rang him on Tuesday to curse him. Speaking further, he said he played a role in the arrest of Mr Akpan carried out on April 30. "That boy contacted me on the 30th (of April) while in my brother's house who is the Chairman of Uruan local government. They were all seated in his place with the DPO (Ezeugo) and DSP when the boy called, demanding for where his father was because the father had been arrested previously." "I told the DPO that this boy had contacted me. The DPO said we should see how we can bring him. That was exactly what I did." The DPO went to pick him up and handed him to the anti-kidnapping unit of the Akwa Ibom State Police Command. "I did so, so that they can release his father to go and take drugs," he said, justifying his call to Mr Akpan. When asked if he knew Mr Akpan was engaged in crime since they are related, Mr Effiong said, "I don't live with him. I don't know anything about him. They returned to the village three years ago. So I don't know anything. I don't know he is into all these kinds of things." Pressed further on his previous conversations with the culprit, Mr Effiong said although he had been following the social media sleuthing before the arrest, he had not been able to speak to the suspect until he (Mr Akpan) called that afternoon. "On that day (maybe he felt running to us we would be able to assist him but unfortunately when he came around, he called when the policemen were there and I now had to bring him out. I facilitated his arrest." "That was why I sent him the DPO's number. Not known to him (Frank) that the DPO was around." He added that he wrote a witness statement against Mr Akpan at the police headquarters in Uyo, saying the culprit had brought shame on the family and the entire village. On his part, Mr Ezeugo defended himself, saying he had no prior knowledge of the suspect until a report was made on April 29. "If I'm in talk with him before or after arrest, does it make any sense?" "Who arrested the young man you are talking about? I did. If I had spoken to him before or after his arrest, does it make any sense? When you are doing an investigation, you can use any means, provided it is legally fit, to trace a suspect." The Divisional Police officer said he could have been accused of collusion if the suspect had absconded. "He is in custody as we speak." "This case was reported to me by a girl from Lagos," Mr Ezeugo said. "I was not in the office then, so I called my boys. I told them to get information from the tracker and give us a specific address. When we got the address, we started moving there but unfortunately, the young man was not there but we met his father. "After tracing the father's conversation with him. We found out that the man was in contact with his son, that's how we picked the father to my station." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Legal Affairs Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He further explained that the complainant went to the headquarters and met with the commissioner of police, who instructed the anti-kidnapping unit to take over the case. However, he told PREMIUM TIMES that he is still following up on the case despite the fact that it has been transferred to command headquarters. Asked if he knew Mr Effiong before now, the senior police officer did not give a definite response. "I may not know him by that name," he said in this paper's first interview with him. He directed our reporter to the state command's spokesperson, Odiko MacDon, when the question was repeated with a clearer description of Mr Effiong. Mr MacDon, when contacted on Tuesday, said Mr Akpan is still in custody and would be arraigned when courts resume nationwide. He declined comments on Mr Akpan's arrest and the role of Messrs Effiong and Ezeugo in it. CCCR seeks retraction Meanwhile, the Centre for Clinical Care and Clinical Research (CCCR) has reacted to the Newswire publication, demanding a retraction and an apology over the suggestion that it might be part of an organ trafficking syndicate. "Since 2010, the Centre for Clinical Care and Clinical Research has provided health and social services to millions of Nigerians in over 9 states. In Akwa Ibom state, CCCRN provides health, protection, education, nutrition and household economic strengthening services (among others) to more than 100,000 orphans and vulnerable children and their households, working with the Government of Akwa Ibom state and Nine (9) reputable Community Based Organizations," the organisation said. It said contrary to the "Ghost NGO" claim in the publication, CCCR has a functional website www.cccr-nigeria.org containing its track records, physical addresses, email addresses and contact persons for its seven offices in Nigeria. "We also have an email to which the reporter could have sent an enquiry email info@cccr-nigeria.org. It is obvious that the "investigative reporter" conveniently ignored these opportunities to validate who we are and mischievously labelled a charitable organization with over 250 professional staff a "Ghost NGO". "The reporter further speculated or alleged that our Uyo Office 'may have been commandeered by an illegal organ trafficking ring to feed the booming global black market organ trade." "Our business is to save lives which we have done creditably over 10 years. We also demand a retraction and apology by NewsWireNGR and Mr David Hundeyin immediately," the statement read. Monrovia Liberia's Foreign Minister Dee Maxwell Saah Kemayah, Sr, says Liberia is a trusted friend and reliable partner to the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, adding Liberia will never allow an inch of its territory to be used to destabilize any of its neighboring Countries particularly the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire. Minister Kemayah made the statement Monday May 10, 2021 when he led a high level special presidential delegation to meet with President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d'Ivoire, at the Presidential Palace in Abidjan, in the presence of top Ivoirian government officials, The Special Liberian Presidential Delegation is comprised of Justice Minister Cllr. F. Musa Dean and National Defense Minister Daniel D. Ziankahn, Jr. During the meeting, Minister Kemayah used the occasion to present a special message enclosed in a communication from President George Manneh Weah to his Ivorian counterpart President Alassane Ouattara While receiving the Message, President Alassane Ouattara expressed deep gratitude to Foreign Minister Kemayah and members of his delegation for the visit and a solidarity expressed, and at the same time, conveyed warm and brotherly greetings to his Liberian counterpart, H.E. George Manneh Weah, adding that both nations have enjoyed a long-standing regional friendship; increasingly deepened cooperation at the level of the Mano River Union. President Ouattara told the Liberian delegation that the bilateral relations enjoy by the two countries further be described as a model of Cote d'Ivoire-Liberia friendship. President Weah's, in the Special Message to President Ouattara, indicated that both countries have enjoyed a historic and longstanding friendship. Monrovia Several members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday were left astounded by Speaker Bhofal Chambers' unilateral decision to abruptly adjourn the session due to power failure at the Capitol. During Tuesday's session, the plenary was almost set to reach a quorum as per the House's rules, but Speaker Chambers called for the session to be adjourned. Rule 12.1 of the House's rule noted that a quorum shall consist of a simple majority of the members of the Honorable House of Representatives. Quorum shall be necessary for the transaction of business. However, a minority may meet from day to day. Meetings at which a quorum is not present, only a motion to compel the attendance of absent members or to adjourn may be made." Speaking to the legislative press pool in the corridors of the Capitol Building, the Speaker said the decision was in the right direction, as it will allow the electricians sent by the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) perform their duties and restore power. However, several members of the House were not in favor of the Speaker's decision, with some calling it unfortunate and a deliberate attempt to block critical issues from being discussed on the floor. "When he [Speaker Chambers] sees that there are some critical communications coming on the floor that will bring heated argument, he delays those communications so that they will perpetually die. And consistently where there will be no session, the agenda items that will be submitted to plenary sometimes will die after they stay on the dockets for two weeks," said Rep. Richard Nagbe Koon of District #11, Montserrado County. FrontPage Africa contacted the office of the Speaker for response but the Speaker's political officer, George Watkins did not response to series of phone calls and text message. Addis Ababa Thenewly-elected Commissioner of the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the African Union, Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, has assured the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) of participation in both Peace Support Operation and Military Support Operation of the African Union (AU) once the new structure comes into force, in July 2021. The Commissioner gave the assurance when Liberia's Military Attache and Permanent Representative to the African Union Commission (AUC) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Colonel Davidson F. Forleh paid him a courtesy call. Commissioner Bankole Adeoye further stated that under his tenure as Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, he will foster close and cordial working relations with Liberia. He further assured that he will work assiduously towards opening a corridor where Liberian military officers will be given the opportunity to serve in the Commission. Speaking during the visit to Ambassador Bankole, Colonel Davidson F. Forleh congratulated Ambassador Bankole on behalf of the Chief of Staff of the AFL, Major General Prince C. Johnson, for his overwhelming election by all 55 Member States of the African Union and described his four years of services as Nigeria's Ambassador to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, the African Union and the UNECA as a towering diplomat, prioritizing conflict resolution on the African Continent. He also recounted with admiration the courageous service of Ambassador Bankole Adeoye, the newly-elected Commissioner of the Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the African Union for his dedicated effort in the consolidation of peace and security on the African Continent. Freetown The hearings in the war crimes trial of Gibril Massaquoi got underway on Tuesday after a two week delay because of judges' illness. The court, held at a secret location, as it had been in Monrovia, heard from three witnesses - a woman and two men. Defense and prosecution teams tried to establish whether Massaquoi could have been in Liberia to commit crimes in 2003 as many Liberian witnesses claimed but while Massaquoi was under witness protection in Freetown. The second witness, codenamed "21", to protect him from intimidation was called by the Defense team. A male he had been a close friend of Massaquoi whom he got to know him in 1999 after Massaquoi was freed from prison here. "21" said that Massaquoi told him he went to Liberia in 2001 for peace talks with President Charles Taylor to release some peacekeepers he adopted from Sierra Leone and that he stayed in Liberia for six months. He said he did not know whether Massaquoi went to fight in Liberia. "When Massaquoi returned to Sierra Leone in 2001, he was contacted by the Sierra Leone Special Court to testify against former President Charles Taylor, so he could not go back to Liberia in 2002 because he was afraid for his life," "21" told the court. "So he send me to get his woman and his daughter from Liberia in 2002 because he heard Taylor wanted him dead, just as he killed General Mosquito to stop him from testifying against him before the Special court. By then Gibril was under witness protection and the special court provided him security because he was giving them information, so they had to protect him." When asked to point out a traumatic event that made him believe that it was in 2002 he went to Liberia for Massaquoi's family, he replied: "When I went for Massaquoi's wife and child, I remembered it was 2002 because there was an attack at Clay Junction on that day between Charles Taylor's forces and LURD forces, and I was caught up in between and I felt the fear, so I can remember that day very well." Defense lawyers are trying to establish that Massaquoi was in Sierra Leone in 2002 to 2003 under witness protection, and could not have been in Liberia that period to commit the atrocities alleged by over 60 witnesses in Liberia. Nineteen witnesses testifying before the Finnish Court in Freetown are all called by the defense lawyers defending Massaquoi in the ongoing trial in Finland. The Finnish Court moved from Liberia to Sierra Leone after the hearings of over 60 witnesses there. Massaquoi, is being prosecuted in Finland for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Liberia. Massaquoi was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the RUF and an assistant to the rebel group's founder, Foday Sankoh, during the Sierra Leonean Civil War. In 2005, Massaquoi was granted immunity from prosecution for crimes in Sierra Leone in return for his testimony in the war crimes trials in Sierra Leone. Experts said he was instrumental in the convictions of several rebel leaders including former Liberian president Charles Taylor with whom he was close to during the civil conflicts in both countries. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Liberia Legal Affairs Conflict By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Finland granted Massaquoi residency for his role in the Sierra Leone Special Court. But when Civitas Maxima, of Switzerland and Liberia-based Global Justice Research Project presented Finnish investigators with evidence of Massaquoi's war crimes in Liberia, they arrested him in March 2020 for his role in that war. Massaquoi's trial began on February 1 in the city of Tampere, where he had been living. Rather than transport more than 50 witnesses set to testify to Finland in the midst of a pandemic, the Finnish court traveled to the witnesses. The first witness, codenamed "18", was a woman and a cousin to Masaquoi. She told the Finnish Court that she ran for office in 1999 and Massaquoi was a strategic family member on her campaign team along with family in their town called Blama Massaquoi in Sierra Leone's Pujehun district. She said Massaquoi was always in Freetown in 2002 and 2003 under witness protection. "I met him in 2002 in Freetown, where he lived with his wife and children. I also met him in Freetown in 2003, but did not ask where he lived but we used to meet, at times we met at the center of the town, other times, in other parts of Sierra Leone when he used to call to meet me. But I cannot remember the time, in 2003 when I met him." analysis In the aftermath of a North Gauteng High Court finding, judges Willie Seriti and Hendrick Musi will now have to explain why the Arms Procurement Commission overlooked crucial information prior to making findings in 2016 that the arms deal was clean as a whistle. On 7 May, Sello Chiloane, secretary of the Judicial Conduct Committee, informed the NGOs, Shadow World Investigations and Open Secrets, that their complaint against Seriti and Musi had been referred by JCC Acting Chair, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, for investigation. Seriti, a Supreme Court of Appeal judge, and Musi, former Judge President of the Free State High Court, chaired the Arms Procurement Commission, known as the Seriti Commission, for four years at a cost of R130-million. During that period two shipping containers left at the Hawks premises in Pretoria, containing an eye-watering 4.7 million computer pages and 460 boxes of evidence, remained untouched. Neither former president Jacob Zuma nor French arms company Thales - who are both, after almost two decades of legal stalling, about to face charges of fraud and corruption related to the arms deal - were called by Seriti. The decision by the JSC to probe the judges is another victory for... Maputo Mozambican Defence Minister Jaime Neto said in Lisbon on Monday that Mozambique will take "all possible advantages" from its military cooperation agreement with Portugal for the next five years. Neto began a five day official visit to Portugal on Monday. He and his Portuguese counterpart, Joao Gomes Cravinho, signed a framework-agreement establishing the terms of military cooperation between the two countries until 2026, at a ceremony in the S. Juliao da Barra Fort in Oeiras, on the outskirts of Lisbon. The two ministers made short statements to the press, but took no questions. Neto expressed his satisfaction at the renewal of the framework-programme, which he believed "will continue to help Mozambique in the training component, and other projects that have been added to this new programme". "We shall work to draw maximum possible advantage from the agreement, considering the current situation of the country", he added. He did not say what new projects have been added in the cooperation between the two countries. Cravinho expressed "great satisfaction" at the signing of the agreement, adding "we have had the occasion to update the cooperation agreement in accordance with the current challenges". The Portuguese minister said there would be important training programmes for Mozambican Special Forces in the Maputo neighbourhood of Catembe, and in Chimoio, capital of the central province of Manica. He added that one result of the agreement will be to multiply fourfold the number of Portuguese troops working with their Mozambican counterparts. In an interview with the Portuguese news agency Lusa, in February, Cravinho had said 60 special force trainers will soon be travelling to Mozambique, to join the 21 already in the country. Cravinho stressed that Mozambique and Portugal "are brother countries", who have "cooperated very closely in the military area for more than 30 years". Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Mozambique Governance Arms and Armies By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Neto mentioned the situation in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, where Mozambique "is being attacked by foreign forces, by terrorism". To date, he added, the terrorist attacks had resulted in the deaths of at least 2,000 people, and had displaced some 800,000 from their homes. To end this suffering, he thought the international community should support the efforts of the Mozambican defence and security forces to defeat terrorism. In late March, Cravinho had revealed that in addition to training special forces, marines and commandos, the programme includes land-to-air and information components. "I think there is a lot to be gained from working with drones, which offer a capacity for collecting information which could be valuable", he said. The murder trial of four police officers accused of the March 2016 murder of Police Constable (PC) Mokalekale Khetheng failed to proceed yesterday. This after three of the suspects filed an application for the recusal of the presiding judge, Zimbabwean Charles Hungwe. The three are Superintendent Mathibeli Mofolo, Inspector Mabitle Matona and PC Haleokoe Taasoane. They have been charged alongside Senior Superintendent Thabo Tsukulu. In their court papers, the three argue that Justice Hungwe had already shown signs of bias when he suggested that they were deliberately delaying the trial by refusing to plead in the absence of their lawyer, Advocate Zwelakhe Mda. They therefore want the Zimbabwean judge to recuse himself on the grounds that he is unlikely to afford them a fair trial. Justice Hungwe ruled that he will hear the recusal application on 10 May 2021 and deliver his judgement the following day. Former Deputy Prime Minister Monyane Moleleki and former army commander Tlali Kamoli had been lined up by the prosecution as part of 53 witnesses to testify against the four officers. At the time of PC Khetheng's murder Mr Moleleki, who now leads the opposition Alliance of Democrats, was the Minister of Police and Public Safety in the Pakalitha Mosisili-led seven party coalition which lasted from March 2015 to June 2017. Former Defence and National Security Minister, Tseliso Mokhosi, and former National Security Services (NSS) Director General, Mohlakala Lerotholi, are the other prominent witnesses expected to testify at the trial. The prosecution had been expected to call its first witness to the stand yesterday. But this was not to be due to the recusal application which was moved by Supt Mofolo, Insp Matona and PC Taasoane. Their lawyer, Adv Mda, argued that his clients lacked confidence in Justice Hungwe who they accused of insinuating that they were deliberately delaying the trial. "His Lordship Hungwe has demonstrated actual bias against us by unfairly insinuating that we were deliberately delaying the trial. That gave us the impression that His Lordship had already prejudged the matter. We therefore ask His Lordship Hungwe to recuse himself from presiding over the trial," Supt Mofolo states in his founding affidavit which was read in court by Adv Mda. Adv Mda had been absent for the past three court appearances of his three clients from 22 to 27 April 2021. His clients were ordered to plead on 22 April 2021 but they refused to do so in the absence of Adv Mda. However, Justice Hungwe entered "not guilty" pleas on their behalf. SSP Tsukulu's lawyer, Adv Karabo Mohau, had told the court that Adv Mda had told him that he was sick and could not be in court. However, Justice Hungwe ruled that there was no evidence of Adv Mda's illness in the absence of a doctor's sick note. The following day a sick note was tendered in by Adv Mda's assistant but Justice Hungwe proceeded with the trial saying that Adv Mda should have made arrangements for someone else to stand-in for him. In his affidavit, Supt Mofolo says they were shocked by Justice Hungwe's decision to proceed with the trial in the absence of their lawyer, hence they now believed he would not afford them a fair trial. "On 23 April 2021 Adv Mohau asked for this matter to be postponed to allow Adv Mda to be present. The court ruled that the trial would proceed because the court had been lenient on us in the past when Adv Mda was ill-disposed. The court therefore ordered for the matter to proceed with us not being represented. "This sent shivers when the court ruled that it would forge ahead even though we were not responsible for Adv Mda's condition." Supt Mofolo also accused lead prosecutor, South African Adv Shaun Abrahams, of "scaring" them after the court proceedings on 27 April 2021. He alleged that Adv Abrahams said to them, "your lawyer (Adv Mda) is wasting your time". On that day, Adv Thulo Hoeane had been appointed to represent Supt Mofolo, Insp Matona and PC Taasoane on a pro deo basis. This is an arrangement where the state selects and pays the legal fees for a lawyer to represent suspects who cannot afford to pay for themselves. However, the trio rejected him saying that Adv Mda was still their lawyer. On that day Adv Khosi Lesutu had also been appointed to replace Adv Mohau who had withdrawn his representation for SSP Tsukulu on the grounds that he had not been paid by the state as he was representing him on a pro deo basis. However, Adv Mohau returned as SSP Tsukulu's lawyer yesterday. Adv Abrahams objected to this, saying Adv Mohau could not just "miraculously reappear" when he had formally withdrawn from the case. "Mr Mohau withdrew his representation and he miraculously appears today. He needs to clarify on record what transpired," Adv Abrahams argued. Adv Mohau countered that he was no longer representing SSP Tsukulu on a pro deo basis but he had returned after being hired by SSP Tsukulu's wife. "After my withdrawal, Mr Tsukulu had counsel appointed for him on a pro deo basis. As we speak, that counsel has not consulted with him even though he knew that the matter was proceeding today. His (Tsukulu) wife pleaded with me to conduct his defence because there was no way her husband would be properly represented. We filed the notice of appointment yesterday (Tuesday) so our appearance is not miraculous. I do not see the relevance of my learned friend (Adv Abrahams) needing to know about my appointment," Adv Mohau submitted. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Justice Hungwe then postponed the trial pending his recusal hearing. "These are criminal proceedings and the trial judge sets the rules. I am avoiding the risk of procedure being abused if the trial judge doesn't preside effectively. "I am putting you to strict terms. The Crown will file its answering papers tomorrow (today) at 8am. Mr Mda will reply on Friday at 3pm and the matter will be heard on Monday at 9.30am. I will deliver my ruling the following day (11 May 2021)," Justice Hungwe ordered. This is not the first time that the accused police officers and other members of the security agencies have delayed trials by applying for the recusal of Justice Hungwe and his Botswana counterpart, Onkemetse Tshosa. Their previous applications have been thrown out but they continue to file more applications. Some sources have claimed the suspects want to delay their trials as long as possible in the hope that a more amenable government will take power and permanently stop their trials. Mozambique Namibia is interested in investing in the agricultural sector in Angola, to take advantage of the existing potential in terms of arable land. The intention was expressed Monday by the ambassador from the neighbouring country to Angola, Patrick Nandago, while speaking to the press at the end of a visit to the Commercial Port of Namibe. The diplomat acknowledged that in addition to arable land, Angola has a lot of water that must be used well for the development of large-scale agriculture. He added that Namibians also want to invest in tourism, with a view to exploring and capitalizing on the resources that Angola has. Patrick Nandago started Monday a three-day visit to the province of Namibe, with trips to the municipalities of Bibala, Virei and Tombwa. During his stay in Namibe, the Namibian ambassador will learn of the operation of the Mocamedes Railways and the Academy of Fisheries and Marine Sciences. The intention was expressed Monday by the ambassador from the neighbouring country to Angola, Patrick Nandago, while speaking to the press at the end of a visit to the Commercial Port of Namibe. The diplomat acknowledged that in addition to arable land, Angola has a lot of water that must be used well for the development of large-scale agriculture. He added that Namibians also want to invest in tourism, with a view to exploring and capitalizing on the resources that Angola has. Patrick Nandago started Monday a three-day visit to the province of Namibe, with trips to the municipalities of Bibala, Virei and Tombwa. During his stay in Namibe, the Namibian ambassador will learn of the operation of the Mocamedes Railways and the Academy of Fisheries and Marine Sciences. President Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose government continues to keep land borders shut, has left the country again for Uganda where he is set to witness the swearing-in of the East African country President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in Kampala this Wednesday. Museveni was declared winner of a highly contested January election in which he garnered 58 percent of the national vote with his main challenger, opposition figure Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu also known as Bob wine getting 35 percent. Mnangagwa was accompanied on his trip by Foreign Affairs minister Fredrick Shava. The President was in Zambia Monday for the commissioning of the Kazungula Bridge. In March this year, the Zimbabwean leader was in Tanzania for the burial of late leader John Magufuli. However, Mnangagwa's travel, 24 hours from another international trip, may not amuse some ordinary citizens who have been failing to travel to neighbouring countries as government continues to keep land borders shut as part of its measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Locals can only travel by air as the country's airports have not been affected by the ban on foreign travel. A lot of Zimbabweans depend on importing clothing, food, electrical gadgets and other goods mainly from neighbouring South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique. Air travel remains unaffordable to the majority. Some Zimbabweans feel their leader was pursuing double standards in his continued closure of some businesses while others continue to function. The state has also given the greenlight for some political activities linked to Zanu PF to go on in public spaces while opposition activities remain barred. Mnangagwa does not travel cheap and is often denounced for hiring expensive jets from abroad to satiate his thirst for opulent excursion. Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro and Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu have reassured "worried" Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders that their government remains stable and will last its full tenure despite the split in the All Basotho Convention (ABC). This was said by the prime minister's press attache, Buta Moseme, in an interview with the Lesotho Times yesterday. Mr Moseme was speaking in the aftermath of this week's visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's special envoy, Jeff Radebe. Mr Radebe was accompanied by South African Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Candith Mashego-Dlamini, and Deputy Minister of State Security, Zizi Kodwa. The trio jetted into the country on Monday and left the following day after holding separate closed-door meetings with His Majesty King Letsie III, Dr Majoro, Mr Mokhothu and other senior government officials. This amid indications that Mr Ramaphosa and other SADC leaders were worried that the ABC split could bring down the government and thus prevent Lesotho from implementing the much-delayed multi-sector reforms recommended by SADC in 2016. The ABC split a fortnight ago after its former deputy leader Professor Nqosa Mahao left the party with nine legislators to form the Basotho Action Party (BAP). Two other ABC MPs Tefo Mapesela and Nyapane Kaya also dumped the party to form the Basotho Patriotic Party and to join the Movement for Economic Change (MEC) respectively. (See stories on Pages 2 and 8). A few days after jumping ship, Prof Mahao claimed that he had the support of at least 11 more ABC MPs and his new party would soon table a no confidence motion against the government in parliament. This prompted newly appointed ABC deputy leader Dr Majoro and DC leader Mr Mokhothu to address a joint press conference last Wednesday reaffirming their commitment to their coalition deal. They said their two parties jointly had 62 seats, after the defections, enough to sustain the government. Moreover, they said they still had the support of the smaller parties whose combined 18 seats gave the government a commanding 80 out of the 120 National Assembly seats- a two thirds majority. But according to authoritative government sources, Dr Majoro and Mr Mokhothu's public affirmation of their commitment to upholding the government was not enough for Mr Ramaphosa and Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi who chairs the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. They sent Mr Radebe and his team to assess the situation for themselves. "Given Lesotho's chronic instability, President Masisi and the SADC facilitator to Lesotho (Ramaphosa) were worried about the potential impact of the ABC split and wanted their envoy to have face-to-face meetings with key political players to get assurances that this will not in any way derail the coalition government," a source said yesterday. "There is a SADC meeting scheduled for next month and they (Masisi and Ramaphosa) don't want any surprises at that meeting, hence the decision to dispatch their envoy to Lesotho. "We assured them that government is stable despite the split and that the DC has thrown its weight behind Dr Majoro following the split." Another source concurred, saying the envoys also met with Prof Mahao, opposition Alliance of Democrats (AD) leader Monyane Moleleki and fellow opposition Lesotho Congress for Congress (LCD) leader Mothetjoa Metsing. Foreign Affairs and International Relations Minister 'Matsepo Ramakoae yesterday referred all questions to Mr Moseme. On his part, Mr Moseme said, "South African President Ramaphosa's special envoy, Jeff Radebe, paid a courtesy visit to Prime Minister Majoro in Maseru on Monday". "In his discussions with Mr Radebe, Dr Majoro said he was told that the purpose of the visit was to get an explanation on issues surrounding the political events that unfolded in the country in the past two weeks. This follows the formation of a new political party led by Professor Nqosa Mahao. "Dr Majoro said he assured the envoy that government remains intact as he and his deputy had already assured the nation. He (Majoro) advised Mr Radebe to meet with Honourable Mokhothu for him to get the same assurance that the government remains intact," Mr Moseme said. Mr Radebe later told the South African media that his trip to Lesotho had been necessitated by the "recent political developments" in Lesotho. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "Recently there was a cabinet reshuffle which necessitated that we get a full briefing about what is happening because we are concerned about political stability in Lesotho. "We are concerned especially now with all those reform programmes that are under the auspices of SADC being facilitated by our former Deputy Chief Justice (Dikgang) Moseneke ahead of the general elections next year. So, I paid a courtesy visit to His Majesty the King (Letsie III). I also spoke with the prime minister and the deputy prime minister," Mr Radebe said in the brief interview. His remarks about a cabinet reshuffle were most likely in reference to Prof Mahao and some of his allies' dismissal from cabinet shortly after he announced that they had dumped the ABC. Prof Mahao was fired from his post as Justice and Law minister. He was fired alongside Motlatsi Maqelepo (Forestry, Range and Soil Conservation), 'Mamoipone Senauoane (Police and Public Safety) and Deputy Minister of Health Nto Moakhi. The three subsequently joined him in his BAP party. The country's factory workers have been dealt a heavy blow in their quest for salary increments. This after the High Court this weekend refused to entertain an urgent application by the National Clothing Textile and Allied Workers Union (NACTWU) for an order compelling the government to immediately publish a gazette announcing an increase in their salaries. NACTWU had petitioned the High Court to order the Labour and Employment minister to publish the 2020 salaries review gazette for factory workers which they argued should have been published last year. However, to their utter dismay, Judge Moroke Mokhesi refused to grant their request saying their application was not urgent and should therefore follow the normal application process. The net effect of the ruling is that the workers must join the queue of cases waiting to be heard by the courts. Given that there is a huge backlog of cases running into thousands, the application is unlikely to be heard anytime soon. NACTWU's main prayer in the application filed last Thursday is that "the Labour and Employment Minister be compelled to publish the reviewed wages for the year 2020 immediately in the government gazette". "The said gazette shall have a retrospective effect". Former Labour and Employment Minister Keketso Rantso, who served in the portfolio until her dismissal by Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro in a 3 February 2021 cabinet reshuffle, is the first respondent. Ms Rantso was replaced by Moshe Leoma. Acting Attorney General Tsebang Putsoane is the second respondent. In his affidavit, NACTWU secretary general, Samuel Mokhele, states that NACTWU had engaged in negotiations for salary increments with the Wages Advisory Board which had been set up by Minister Rantso. "The applicant, together with other employees' representatives had proposed a 17 percent wage increase, while the employers' representatives had proposed a 6, 5 percent wage increase," Mr Mokhele states. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Legal Affairs Labour By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The first respondent had made a 5, 5 percent wage increase proposal. "At or around 24 March 2020, the entire process for the wages review had been concluded. As a result, the first respondent (Rantso) ought to have published in the government gazette whatever wage increment she had adopted but up to date that has never materialised "Our members continue to suffer immeasurable prejudice because of the first respondent's unlawful acts and omissions. This is because they do not know how and to what extent their wages were reviewed for 2020. "All the endeavours we engaged with the first respondent to publish the said reviewed wages in the gazette proved futile as she kept stalling and ended up using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse for her non-publication until she was eventually dismissed from her ministerial portfolio. "I aver that the application calls for urgent relief in that while our members remain in the dark about their reviewed wages for the past year, the first respondent has already engaged in a new wages review process for 2021. The prejudice is grave as it impacts the economic and financial rights of our members. "I aver that in the prevailing circumstances, the balance of convenience favours the granting of the interim relief and the substantive reliefs as there is absolutely no prejudice to be suffered by the first respondent actually executing his statutory obligations. The real prejudice is on our members if the prayers are not granted." However, the workers will have to wait much longer after Justice Mokhesi ruled that the "matter is not urgent and should be treated as an ordinary application". Mokhotlong legislator Tefo Mapesela, who recently dumped the ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC), has formed his own party called the Basotho Patriotic Party (BPP). News of the formation of the new party was announced this week in parliament by the deputy speaker of parliament, Lebohang Ramohlanka. Mr Mapesela crossed the floor to the opposition benches immediately after Ms Ramohlanka announced that he had formed a new party and notified the house of his intention to cross from the government side. He was ushered to the opposition benches by opposition Alliance of Democrats (AD) legislator Sello Mooki while some of the ABC MPs mockingly referred to him as "Umkhonto", a Nguni word for a spear. Mr Mapesela had initially wanted to call his new party Umkhonto. He had been expected to be in the party alongside former ABC deputy leader Nqosa Mahao and nine others who dumped the ABC a fortnight ago. However, this was not to be with sources saying Mr Mapesela and Prof Mahao went their separate ways after differing on so many things including the name of their proposed new party. Prof Mahao and his allies subsequently formed the Basotho Action Party (BAP). Mr Mooki's actions in ushering Mr Mapesela to the opposition benches prompted speculation that the Bobatsi legislator who dumped the ABC last June would be joining the Mokhotlong legislator in his BPP party. However, Mr Mooki denied that he had any plans of leaving the AD. He said he was just being "brotherly" by ushering Mr Mapesela to the opposition side. It is not clear who else is a member of Mr Mapesela's new party. His mobile phone rang unanswered when this publication called him for comment yesterday. FORMER Ministry of Finance Principal Secretary (PS) Motena Tsolo yesterday appeared before the Maseru Magistrates' Court on charges of corruption in the 2018 procurement of the government vehicle fleet. PS Tsolo served under the previous Thomas Thabane government from June 2017 to May 2020. Ms Tsolo and the Finance ministry's administrator, Mafusi Mosamo, appeared before Magistrate Teboho Thoso who released them on M2000 bail and M10 000 surety each. Their co-accused are businessmen Teboho Tlokotsi and Tumo Ramonaheng, who have already been charged with the crimes and are currently on bail. The four are accused of contravening the Prevention of Corruption and Economic Offences Act after they allegedly "accepted or attempted to accept" bribes totaling M234 000 from current Gender, Youth, Sport and Recreation Minister, Likeleli Tampane, and several others to facilitate the hiring of their vehicles for the government fleet. The tender process for the procurement of the government fleet, which was held in September 2018, failed to yield the required 341 vehicles after hundreds of applications were disqualified for failing to meet the requirements. It was then that Messrs Tlokotsi and Ramonaheng, who were close to the Consortium that controversially won the tender, are accused of soliciting bribes in exchange of helping those who wanted to get their vehicles in the lucrative fleet stream, among other things. Ms Tsolo and Mr Mosamo are alleged to have been part of the con. Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro, who was then Finance Minister, first announced in March 2018 that cabinet had resolved to lease 1400 vehicles from Basotho who included taxi operators, disabled groups, youth, women's groups and legislators who were not cabinet ministers. Senior government officials such as directors in ministries, principal secretaries and deputy ministers, were among those excluded from participating. The finance ministry later said it had received information that some of these officials could have either sneaked in their bids or used ordinary Basotho as "fronts" when the tender bids were submitted in September 2018. The DCEO was then roped in to investigate these allegations. It discovered that some desperate vehicle owners were made to pay as much as M40 000 each to have their vehicles leased to the government. The DCEO subsequently came under fire in November 2019 from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Hlalefang Motinyane, who told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that she was surprised that the anti-corruption body had not prosecuted high profile suspects for corruption in the fleet tender almost four months after she had directed it to prosecute. In terms of the DCEO Act, the anti-corruption body only prosecutes cases after getting the consent to do so from the DPP. Adv Motinyane made the remarks a week after the DCEO Chief Investigations Officer, Thabiso Thibeli, had told the PAC that the DCEO's investigations had pointed to Ms Tsolo, Ms Tampane, Tlokotsi, Ramonaheng and Mosamo as the suspects in the alleged fleet tender corruption. Mr Thibeli was on suspension at the time he appeared before the PAC. He accused now suspended DCEO Director General, Mahlomola Manyokole, of ordering his suspension to punish him for investigating some individuals who were friends for corruption in the procurement of the government fleet. Mr Tlokotsi had been particularly cited as an ally of Mr Manyokole, both being close to then powerful First Lady 'Maesaiah Thabane. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. However, Adv Manyokole vehemently denied allegations that he sought to block any high-profile suspects from being prosecuted. He told PAC that he had forwarded all the case files to the office of the DPP for prosecution and recommended that all suspects be prosecuted except for PS Tsolo because there was no substantial evidence against her. "I realised that Ms Tsolo's alleged involvement in the fraudulent awarding of tenders for the government fleet was just a political agenda being pushed against her. "But I submitted the docket to the DPP. I did not remove anything from it despite my discovery that there was only hearsay evidence against PS Tsolo," Adv Manyokole said. But in the latest turn of events, Ms Tsolo and Mr Mosamo, alongside Tlokotsi and Ramonaheng, have now been charged with corruption just over a month after Mr Thibeli was reinstated to his position. For the early months of the past two years, overdose numbers appear to be similar in Howard County. According to Howard County coroner Dr. Steve Seele, 10 overdoses occurred in the first quarter of 2021, which ended March 31. That number aligned with the first quarter of last year, in which 10 people overdosed as well. However, Seele noted that while the total number of deaths from drug or alcohol abuse was in line with last year, the second quarter already is seeing a drop, with only one possible case awaiting a pending toxicology report. Drug overdoses are the one thing Ive found over the five years that Ive been in that are very cyclic, Seele said. Well have a whole rash of them, and one of the things that we can always tell and this is from a law enforcement standpoint officers know. Drug force people know it. We can always tell when the dope hits the streets, especially if its bad dope or fentanyl-loaded dope, because well have a whole rash of three, four, five, six overdoses Youll just get a whole bunch of them in a few hours over the course of an evening or over a 24-hour period. Of the 10 overdose deaths, some individuals had more than one substance involved. Two individuals tested positive for heroin, five for methamphetamine, four for substances like benzodiazepines, one for alcohol, and eight for fentanyl. Seele theorized that the high number of overdose deaths was a carryover from last year, which was recorded as one of the worst years for overdose deaths in Howard County, with 43 fatal overdoses. The second quarter of 2020, in particular, experienced a rash of drug overdoses, 15, during the shutdowns early in the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, various resources for individuals struggling with addiction, such as Turning Point or Narcotics Anonymous, essentially were disconnected from meeting in-person, which Seele said was a leading factor in the jump in overdose numbers. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute I think one of the things that this did prove was that not that we do it perfect because were all learning but I feel that we know that were in the arena of doing the right thing because all of a sudden that [resource] wasnt there, and this just skyrocketed in that set period, Seele said. I felt like had we not had the pandemic, I felt our numbers would have even been much lower and it be a positive thing for our community to keep lowering this overdose level. Seele cited the continuing work done by addiction resources in Howard County, such as Turning Point, Gilead House, and the newly-opened Wabash Recovery sober living facility, as progress in the battle against addiction. Additionally, Seele said the increased investment in resources like the aforementioned programs, as well as in law enforcement both in the Kokomo Police Department and Howard County Sheriffs Office as ways the community can be proactive instead of reactive. Whats good about that is that not only when you do this, not only when you do bring this down then you should start seeing your other numbers drop, domestic violence numbers, theft, burglaries, robberies, those types of things. You should see a decrease overall because the majority of these people, if you look at the jail population right now, if you pulled the roster and had the background on everybody, they may be in there for theft. They may be in there for burglary. But on the backside, they have a drug problem. The coroners office investigated 63 deaths in the first quarter of this year. Of those, there was one homicide, three suicides, and 13 accidental deaths, including the 10 overdoses. One case is still under investigation, according to Seele. Of the 63 total cases, there were 29 autopsies and 28 toxicology reports performed, running a cost of $49,767 to Howard County. The toxicology on a suspected drug overdose case currently is being paid by a grant through the Indiana State Department of Health, according to Seele. At least 140 diamonds have been confiscated from illegal dealers after they failed to heed the government's call to surrender the gems on or before 31 January 2021, Mining minister Mr Serialong Qoo has said. These will be part of 493 diamonds which will be auctioned some time next month, Mr Qoo added. Addressing legislators in parliament this week, Mr Qoo said, "the Ministry of Mining expects to auction a total of 493 diamonds in an open and transparent auction process open to all who have an interest". "We are expecting buyers from all corners of the world to come and bid in large numbers since the Covid-19 regulations have been relaxed to facilitate travel. "Of the 493 diamonds, 140 were seized from illegal dealers in a joint campaign with the police while the rest were voluntarily handed over to the ministry. "All revenue from the illegal diamonds shall be forfeited to the state while the proceeds for diamonds which were voluntarily handed to the government will be paid into their bank accounts of the former owners of the diamonds. "The government had initially said it would deduct a 4 percent commission but upon review, it has been agreed that they will not be charged anything for the diamonds. "It has also been resolved that all those who voluntarily surrendered their diamonds will be given transport by the government from wherever they are based to enable them to attend the auction. "Since this will be the first time to hold such an event locally in our mining history, it shall be graced by His Majesty King Letsie III, the Prime Minister (Dr Moeketsi Majoro), members of parliament and senators," Mr Qoo said. He however, did not say where the auction would be held. Parliament had in November 2020 approved the Precious Stones (Prevention of Illicit and Theft of Diamonds) Regulations 2020 to allow for the surrender and declaration of diamonds whose holders do not have proper documentation. The amnesty period was for three months ending 31 January 2021. Despite the expiry of the amnesty, Mr Qoo said soon after the auction they will conduct inter-district tours to urge those still holding onto illegal diamonds to surrender them to the state. "Soon after the auction we shall be visiting all districts and encouraging illegal miners to surrender their diamonds. We are also looking at issuing them licences and we promise that the licence fees shall be affordable," Mr Qoo said. FacebookTwitterGoogle+ReddItWhatsAppPinterestEmail Prosecutor General (PG) Kumbirai Hodzi has filed an application with the High Court challenging the decision by Justice Jesta Charehwa to acquit freelance journalist Hopewell Chin'ono in a case he was being accused of publishing falsehoods. Chin'ono got into trouble with the law early this year after he allegedly shared on his Twitter a video of an agitated woman who was dragging a police operative by the collar accusing him of fatally striking her baby with a baton stick. The journalist was charged with publishing falsehoods but Charehwa cleared him of any wrongdoing after finding Chin'ono had been charged under a piece of legislation that was struck off by the Constitutional Court back in 2014. Hodzi deposed an affidavit through Fungai Isaac Nyahunzvi stating that he did not get a chance to respond to Chin'ono's appeal which was upheld. "No opposing papers were filed on behalf of the second respondent, the matter was treated as unopposed and a default judgement was subsequently granted," he said. Nyahunzvi said he had taken over the prosecution of an appeal in which Hodzi was appealing against the temporary release of Chin'ono's passport. He said there was need for him to consult with his superiors on whether the Supreme Court appeal should be pursued since it had been overtaken by events. Chin'ono had already returned the passport. He said Chin'ono's application for review against the magistrate's decision placing him on remand came on March 23, 2020, the same date the Supreme Court appeal was supposed to be withdrawn and he ended up mixing the two cases. "I then erroneously closed my file. It totally eclipsed my mind that I was then also supposed to attend to the application for review that is filing my opposing papers," he said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Legal Affairs Human Rights By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Nyahunzvi said he only discovered his error when a default judgement was passed by Charehwa in favour of Chin'ono. It is his submission that Chin'ono's application was set to flop because the Constitutional Court found it to be infringing, then, on the freedoms. "As things stand, it is still a valid law of the Republic of Zimbabwe. "For it to be declared invalid, the Constitutional Court has to be petitioned again and the question of its validity interrogated vis a vis the provisions of section 61(5) of the current Constitution," he said. Nyahunzvi said hearing arguments from both parties also has the advantage of improving their jurisprudence, because he felt such cases should be decided on the facts and merits as opposed to technicality. "This the applicant is of the view that had the matter been decided on the merits with both parties being heard, then the application for review would not have met any success," he said praying for an order reversing Charehwa's judgement. The matter is yet to be heard. The Auditor-General, Obadiah Biraro, on Tuesday, May 11 tabled his report to a joint parliamentary session where he said there are fears that public funds amounting to over Rwf5.6 billion were either wasted or swindled during the 2019-2020 fiscal year. Biraro pointed out that his team had audited 188 entities (both financial and compliance) compared to 181 in the previous years. They include 175 individual entities, which include; six government business enterprises, 10 boards, 63 projects, 10 ministries, 29 central government entities, 31 local government entities, and 26 district hospitals. The other audited entities are under state consolidated financial statement. The irregular expenditures are in form of unsupported expenditure, partially supported expenditure, wasteful expenditure, unauthorised expenditure and funds diverted or fraudulently utilised. Performance audit focused on environmental protection, expropriation, trade and industry, revenue collection, land use, agriculture, infrastructure and education. Improvement this year Biraro told members of parliament that although institutions should do better, this year's irregular expenditures have reduced by 65 percent reducing by three billion during the year ended 2019 to Rwf5.6bn. "Despite the decreasing trend, public resource management in some public entities is still weak and needs improvement. Unnecessary, unlawful and wasteful expenditure would have been avoided if public entities exercised due care in their operations, coupled with prudent management of public resources," he said. Delayed contracts Like in previous years, Biraro touched on the issue of delayed contracts. The current delays involve 38 public entities and projects to a tune of Rwf212bn. These include 50 delayed contracts worth Rwf195bn identified during this year's audits and 12 others worth Rwf21bn from previous audits. Some of these delayed contracts are as old as seven years. He reminded the legislators that successful and timely execution of government programmes helps to minimize the risk of time and resource waste during the implementation process. "All these delays were associated with delays in paying suppliers' invoices and inadequate contract management. This results in increased cost of government projects and lack of value for money this affecting service delivery," he said. The Auditor-General noted that public entities had abandoned contracts worth Rwf11bn comprising of Rwf795 million this past year and three others worth Rwf10bn from previous audits. By the time the works were abandoned, the contractors had been paid a total of Rwf3bn. Idle assets Biraro said that his team had identified 96 cases of assets worth Rwf21bn which are lying idle in 54 public institutions. These include 58 new cases worth Rwf16bn and 38 others worth Rwf5.6bn from last year's audits. The majority of the assets reported have been idle for a period ranged between three months and ten years. He advised public entities to conduct proper needs assessments and to develop an effective asset management plan before assets acquisition and development. "This will help the government to avoid unnecessary expenditure through purchasing assets not required, additional maintenance costs due to idleness and any other potential losses," he said. MPs react MP John Ruku-Rwabyoma called for those who continue to misuse public funds to be brought to book for them to be examples to others. He called upon board members of the institutions that lose big sums of money to be held accountable. "We have board members who oversee activities in these institutions but I have never heard any of them being held accountable for the losses that the institutions have incurred. We need to hold them accountable," he said. MP Theoneste Begumisa Safari said that although there is still a long way to go, it was important to note that the Auditor General's report did not have the 'shameful' part this year. "I am happy to note that today, this report doesn't have what the Auditor General usually refers to as shameful audits as it has been in the past. My interpretation is that we are getting somewhere," he said. MP Christine Muhongayire called for more institutions to put into consideration the Auditor General's recommendations. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Rwanda Business By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We are glad that there is no 'shameful' opinion from the AG this year but we still have adverse opinions. What is missing so that we get clean reports? Also, why is it that institutions continue to be reluctant to put the AG's recommendations in action?" she wondered. Prosecuting the crime The issue of what happens after the Auditor General has publicly released his report every year has a matter of debate. However, the National Public Prosecution Authority (NPPA) says that it has handled cases related to the 2017-18 Auditor General's report. According to the figures, the prosecution handled 92 files related to this report, and some Rwf537m lost in embezzlement was returned before some of the cases went to trial in the last nine months. Over the same period, Prosecution has also taken 373 people to court over embezzlement and other corruption-related crimes. Official numbers obtained exclusively by The New Times, are part of embezzlement and corruption-related offenses involving 1,253 (992 male and 261 female) received by this office between July 2020 and March 2021. The Bank of Namibia has stepped in with advice on the enhancement of economic development and employment creation in the Kavango East and West regions. The two regions have remained poor despite being endowed with substantial natural resources such as water, forestry and fertile arable land. The central bank involvement also highlights the recognition that the rural economy is equally important as the urban. Most of the green schemes are in the two regions, the Okavango Delta is full of lodges, timber harvesting, and much more are happening in the two regions, the latest being oil exploration. However, none of these activities is bringing significant economic life to the two regions. The central bank's spokesperson, Kazembire Zemburuka, in a press release last week, said the socio-economic situation in the two regions is "a cause for concern, especially against the backdrop of this untapped potential in sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing". In pursuit of economic growth and development, the central bank has submitted recommendations to the Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform and relevant stakeholders centred on five areas with the potential to inject economic life into the two regions. The areas of focus Bank of Windhoek identified are sustainable funding and management of the green schemes, timber manufacturing, cattle marketing, horticultural production and investment in renewable energy. The central bank analysis says its focus areas will contribute significantly to employment creation, while ensuring food security for the country. The central bank said the development programme can be unlocked through private sector investment. "Leveraging on private sector investment is the best and sustainable model towards economic recovery and advancement," said Zemburuka. As in the aspirations of the recently launched Harambee Prosperity Plan II, which conceded that recovery relies more on the private sector investments than on the financially constrained government. He said their assessment of the two regions identified new potential projects and areas of investment that once explored and fully executed, can improve the economic situation in the Kavango regions. The assessment also explored suitable funding models for the identified projects with relevant stakeholders to actualise the developmental aspirations of both regions, revealed Zemburuka. Unlike previous interventions, the central bank hopes its proposed investment avenue will provide enough momentum to unlock the economic potential of the two regions. "The Bank of Namibia is convinced that the targeted interventions in the five identified focus areas, both in terms of investments and reforms, can significantly unlock the economic potential in the two regions," he said. The long-term economic gains to be realised through the targeted interventions are projected to create employment opportunities and uplift the standard of living of the inhabitants of the two regions while contributing to the country's economic growth and advancement. Zemburuka said consultations with the relevant stakeholders concerning the implementation of the recommendations are ongoing. Namibia Statistics Agency poverty statistics show that Kavango East has one of the highest poverty levels, with poverty levels above the national average of 17,4%. First Capital's economy profile of Rundu, the capital city of Kavango West, done in 2018, shows that bout 40% of residents in the area are living in traditional structures. This is much higher than the national average. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Banking By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. A minority 11% of the residents in the town are living in impoverished (shacks) structures. The profile also indicates that Rundu has a housing backlog. About 37% of families live in detached structures (stand-alone houses), the First Capital profile reveals. The profile also reveals that over the medium-term (2018/19-2020/21) the government budgeted N$24,3 billion on capital projects in the country. Allocations by regions show that from the 14 regions, the two Kavango regions, together with Omaheke, are the least funded by the development budget - all below the billion-dollar mark. The profile recommends more investment in agriculture and businesses to diversify sources of income for Rundu's population. By TABU BUTAGIRA As the presidential flag bearer of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party, Mr Yoweri Museveni Tibuhaburwa themed his campaign on "securing the future" of Uganda, if re-elected. He won the January 14 vote with 58 per cent, according to the Electoral Commission (EC), a victory that his closest challenger Robert Kyagulanyi, alias Bobi Wine, of the National Unity Platform (NUP) contested. The Supreme Court sealed the win when Bobi prematurely withdrew his election petition, paving the way for today's inauguration at Kololo Ceremonial Grounds. Whereas the swearing-in legitimates Mr Museveni's victory, it also simultaneously opens the gate to a hard work that the incumbent has done for 35 years. He starts the new tenure amid a politically fractured country in which for the first time he lost the central region to a challenger, Bobi, who was only a toddler when Mr Museveni seized state power in 1986. Besides, the country is grappling with Covid-19 and its adverse ramifications which have illuminated existing fissures in health, economy and other sectors. To secure Uganda's future as promised, the President has to fix these 10 big-ticket issues. 1. Unemployment: This has been an elephant in the room for years, but magnified by the rapid increase in the population of Uganda, from 15 million in 1986 to an estimated 42 million today. The number of educated young people, mainly graduates, too has significantly grown and they are met by scant job opportunities. The World Bank, as of February, proposed that Uganda's economy will require to create at least 700,000 jobs per year, as opposed to the current 75,000 jobs annually, to keep up with the labour force pressure. Official figures place unemployment among Ugandans aged 15-25 at 83 per cent, spotlighting the danger of jobless youth that experts warn could be recruited into crimes, violent demonstrations and cause instability. In the ending term, Mr Museveni's government focussed on accelerated industrialisation by attracting foreign investors, largely from China, to invest in Uganda. Dozens of new factories have in the past few years been opened under the watch of Investment Minister Evelyn Anite and 27 industrial parks, with the largest being the 2,200-acre Kampala Industrial Park Namanve, being established or designated. To bring down the cost of production, President Museveni last week proposed that his government will take electricity directly to the industrial parks and eliminate middlemen such as Umeme, which earns from power distribution. 2. Poverty eradication: When President Museveni snapped state power in 1986, nearly six out of every ten Ugandans lived below poverty line (then $1 per day threshold). Today, however, the figure is down to 19.7 per cent. But these statistics mask the reality. Although they suggest poverty is down by almost 30 percentage points, out computations show that about 8.3 million Ugandans are poor today, almost the same figure of poor people back in 1986. The widespread poverty subsists despite attempts through a plethora of initiatives such as Poverty Eradication Action Plan, Poverty Alleviation Plan, Entandikwa, Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture, National Agricultural Advisory Services (Naads), Operation Wealth Creation and Special Interest funds as well as Emyooga, launched last year, with the latest being the Parish model. The President will in the new tenure have to decide whether intended to fight poverty are channelled and managed directly by government employees or allow individual beneficiaries to set their own priorities and handle funds disbursement. 3. Corruption: Uganda slid by 5 places in the 2020 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index from the previous year's ranking, suggesting public sector corruption is on the rise despite President Museveni's tough rhetoric to end the vice. The increase also contrasts with the glut of agencies in the country set purposely to fight graft, among them, the State House Anti-Corruption Unit, the Inspectorate of Government, Uganda Police Force, the Auditor General, and the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets (PPDA). There has also been established Office of the Auditor General at individual ministries to detect and fight corruption while the fate and function of another unit set up in the President's Office to coordinate resident district commissioners (RDCs) in tackling the vice, remains unclear. This is one enemy, unlike a combatant that the army can shoot and kill, disguises in everyday life of Uganda sometimes in the orbit the President, which opens him as the head of government to scrutiny over his political will to fight corruption. 4. Oil: While still in the ground, a lot of excitement swept through the country when Uganda and Tanzania on April 11 signed the tripartite oil pipeline agreements expected to unlock $15 billion investment in the country. It is jobs. It's expected to be money in the pockets of contractors, suppliers and service providers and direct employees. But with soaring corruption, questions remain about the fidelity of public servants not to dip their hands in the cookie jar when oil windfall starts. 5. Land question: Land remains a hot-button issue in the country, with the problem worsening due to rampant evictions by the moneyed and politically well-connected individuals. It is on this basis that President Museveni, while speaking in Kyankwanzi on April 15, asked the incoming legislators to work with, and help, him solve the land problem once and for all. Part of the government solutions are recommendations by the Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters that, among others, proposed an end to mailo tenure. Mengo objects to the blueprint and offers a six-point solution, which the government is yet to consider, leaving the land question a politically explosive issue. 6. Political question: President Museveni won the January 14 election with 58 per cent, much lower than the landslide victory in 1996. Worse, he lost Buganda, which hosts the commercial and political capital of Uganda, resurrecting debate in the country's politics where leaders have struggled to keep power when at odds with the most populous society. One proposal broached by some Opposition leaders is a national dialogue and reconciliation to bridge the divide in the country and engender unity. Donors are keen to have capacity of political parties built and their resourcing improved to enable them develop systems that outlast individuals, can pipe out well-trained cadres and support democracy. And the Inter-Party Organisation for Dialogue, the legal forum for interface between rival parties, has work at hand to project interests of the country above that of individual parties. 7.Service delivery: Government exists, among others, to protect the lives and property and promote the welfare of its citizens. The United Nations Development Programmes index for human development includes a measure of access to quality education, water, health services, physical security, democracy, freedom, and income. It is on these benchmarks, and promises NRM made in its 2021-26 manifesto, that Mr Museveni's performance will be judged. In a 2016 Unicef report titled, sanitation analysis Uganda, three in every 10 Ugandan children have no access to clean water, predisposing them to water-born and water-related diseases. A similar number of Ugandan households also lack latrines. With local governments, which are frontline actors for service delivery almost out of cash, and worse with budget cuts over the pandemic crisis, President Museveni will have to reconfigure his priorities to guarantee service delivery and not alienate voters. 8. Health security: Uganda, like other countries around the world, is battling Covid-19 that has so far killed 364 people out of 42,226 infected in the country. Whereas it has weathered the pandemic better than many, mainly through gag order and raw power display, questions remain about its preparedness for the next health crisis. There are prospects that Ugandan scientists could find treatment, or perhaps a vaccine, at home but the overheads will demand huge government investment. In addition, Uganda must build high-level security laboratory and undertake substantial investment in scientific research and development. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Uganda Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. 9. Infrastructure: This is President Museveni pet subject and under him, the kilometres of paved roads have increased from 1,000 in 1986 to about 5,500 today, connecting people to people and producers to markets. New hydro-dams have been built, increasing the country's power generation from 150megawatts thirty-five years ago to the current 1,254megawatts. But connectivity remains a problem, mainly for poor households, while Arua elevated to a city last year, is not even connected to the national grip. Entebbe International Airport is under expansion and a new international airport in under construction in Kibaale, Hoima City. The cable-stayed bridge stands imposing on River Nile, but the planned construction of the standard gauge railway to cut import/export haulage cost, has remained a mirage. President Museveni will be obliged in the new term to pull all stops in finding money make the SGR dream a reality. 10. Bloated public administration: Uganda currently has 146 districts and cities, up from just 30 in 1986, burdened by a resource-haemorrhaging bureaucracy. There are more than 80 ministers while the number of members in the 11th Parliament is increasing to 529. Yet the country is burdened by public debt that towered to Shs65 trillion, as of December 2020, prompting the government to commit 36 per cent of the next budget away from service delivery to debt servicing. This makes the plan by the government to merge nearly 100 agencies and reverting others to their mother ministries more ration and urgent in Museveni's new tenure. The President may have to forego political expediency and cut down the number of ministries and ministers in his next Cabinet. Power Issue To bring down the cost of production, President Museveni last week proposed that his government will take electricity directly to the industrial parks and eliminate middlemen such as Umeme, which earns from power distribution. ALll Basotho Convention (ABC) secretary general, Lebohang Hlaele, says he never supported Nqosa Mahao's election as deputy party leader. Mr Hlaele said he and other ABC national executive committee (NEC) members were opposed to Prof Mahao's election "from the word go" and only rallied behind him "on principle" after ABC leader and former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane attempted to oust him. Any such ouster would have been in defiance of the majority of ABC members' decision to elect Prof Mahao to the second most powerful party job. Mr Hlaele also boasted that he wielded so much power as the secretary general was the "nerve centre of the party alongside the leader". He said due to his powerful position, Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro had asked him to indicate which cabinet post he preferred when the current government was formed on 20 May 2021. He said although he had declined the offer, he still had a hand in the selection of ABC ministers who were appointed to the current government. In fact, Mr Hlaele claimed that all but one ABC minister had been appointed on the basis of his recommendations to Dr Majoro. Mr Hlaele's remarks, in an exclusive interview with the Lesotho Times this week, followed a turbulent two weeks for the governing coalition's main anchor party wherein its deputy leader, Prof Mahao dumped it to form his own Basotho Action Party (BAP). Nine ABC MPs subsequently crossed the floor in parliament to join Prof Mahao's BAP. The nine are Mphosong MP Libe Motsoane, Sotlehang Sekhamane (Maputsoe constituency), Fako Moshoeshoe (Mabote), 'Mamoipone Senauoane (Thaba-Tseka), Motlatsi Maqelepo (Berea), Mphosi Nkhasi (Pela-Tsoeu), Nto Moakhi (Malibamatso), Tello Kibane (Peka) and Motebang Koma (Koro-Koro). They crossed to the opposition benches in parliament last Friday immediately after the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Lebohang Ramohlanka, had read each of their letters indicating that they had ditched the ABC. A 10th MP, Nyapane Kaya (Mechachane constituency) also left the ABC. But contrary to Professor Mahao's previous claims that he would join the BAP, Mr Kaya instead joined Development Planning Minister Selibe Mochoboroane's Movement for Economic Change (MEC). Speaking on his decision to dump the ABC a fortnight ago, Prof Mahao told the Lesotho Times that he was left with no choice after Mr Hlaele had betrayed him by joining forces with Dr Majoro and Mr Thabane to plot his ouster from the party. Prof Mahao also accused Mr Hlaele of conniving with Dr Majoro to hand back the party and government to Mr Thabane who they had fought so hard against. Mr Hlaele was one of the "Big Four" ABC's NEC members who had stood solidly behind Prof Mahao in his power struggle with Mr Thabane from 2019 until after the formation of the current governing coalition last May. The others are chairperson Samuel Rapapa, spokesperson Montoeli Masoetsa and deputy spokesperson 'Matebatso Doti. Such was Mr Hlaele and Ms Doti's support for Prof Mahao that they even sacrificed their cabinet posts when they were fired by then premier Thabane in February 2019 over their support for Prof Mahao. Mr Hlaele and other NEC members had traversed the length and breadth of the country campaigning for grassroots ABC supporters to rally behind Prof Mahao in his fight with Mr Thabane. They even lodged several successful court applications together to stop Mr Thabane from ousting Prof Mahao from the party. Despite all these public affirmations of support, Mr Hlaele is now claiming he never supported Prof Mahao's election as deputy leader of the ABC from the "word go". He said his and Prof Mahao's names were first proposed for the posts of deputy leader and secretary general respectively by current ABC deputy chairperson Chalane Phori. He said he had been sitting next to Prof Mahao when Mr Phori made the proposal at a party meeting in 2018 and he immediately opposed Prof Mahao's nomination on the grounds that the latter had not served in a constituency committee to be eligible to contest the post. "I did not know him politically and I could not trace his political profile," Mr Hlaele said of Prof Mahao. "As much as he came into the conference and was elected deputy leader, he wasn't qualified for that position. We all knew that. I had raised this issue during a meeting when Mr Phori suggested that he should contest the deputy leader's post while I contested for secretary general. "I said no, Prof Mahao is not qualified for the position. But his followers made a lot of noise in that meeting saying he was qualified. At the time, I was the deputy secretary general and I told them I did not have anything on Prof Mahao in my records. "I told them they would have to find a way to convince the rest of the party that he was eligible to contest and they submitted to the party's conflict resolution committee that Prof Mahao had joined the ABC in 2015. I told them that the ABC constitution was clear that if you aspire for higher office, you must have spent two years in the branch committee and three years in the constituency committee. I said Prof Mahao had never been in any of those structures. "Anyway, the (2019) conference elected Prof Mahao deputy leader and who was I to challenge the decision of the conference, the supreme decision-making body of the ABC? I did not support Prof Mahao as a person. I supported the democratic principle that this man had been elected by the conference and we should therefore support him because he had been elected. That was all there was to it. That was the thing," Mr Hlaele said. Asked why he eventually ditched Prof Mahao for Mr Thabane's faction, Mr Hlaele said this was after the former deputy leader insisted on maintaining his faction despite the party resolving that all camps must be dissolved in the interests of party unity and cohesion. "After getting together as a party on 10 January 2020, we agreed to dissolve our factions. We agreed to have one group called the ABC. "In that meeting, I told them (Mahao camp), I no longer belonged to their group, I belong to the party. "I told the ABC rank and file that we were on a programme of uniting the party. But he kept on calling people to his house. "His people who have gone with him to his new party kept their faction well oiled. They resisted to be part of the collective. They had their meetings and I ignored them," Mr Hlaele said, adding he however regretted that Prof Mahao had decided to jump ship when he could have contributed so much to the ABC. He said they would still welcome him back into the ABC should he choose to return. However, he would have to start at the bottom as an ordinary card-carrying member not in his former position, Mr Hlaele said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The ABC secretary general said despite having previously sided with Prof Mahao, he enjoyed warm relations with Prime Minister Majoro. The premier had even contacted him about taking up a cabinet post ahead of the formation of the current government last May, Mr Hlaele said. He said although he declined, he was still consulted over the appointment of other ABC ministers. "Regarding the new regime under the leadership of the Prime Minister Majoro, we were together when we were making arrangements for a new cabinet. He (Majoro) asked me, 'where should I place you? But I said no, just leave me out. Let us put other people instead. I proposed names and I can tell you that all but one of the ABC ministers are people I suggested. "So, it is not true that the prime minister sat alone in his corner and appointed people without consulting," Mr Hlaele said adding he had declined the offer of a cabinet post to concentrating on his demanding job as party secretary general. Meanwhile, Mr Phori yesterday confirmed that he was the one who proposed Prof Mahao for the deputy leader's post. "Mr Hlaele is telling the truth. I suggested Prof Mahao because I am friends with his sister and we were looking for a person of his calibre in terms of education and international appeal. "I thought he could work well with others but he proved otherwise. I was also the first person to fight him in the party shortly after proposing his candidature and spending my money on his campaign. I had realised that he was virtually unknown by the grassroots," Mr Phori said in a brief interview with this publication. A consortium of young architects and engineers have submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture on sustainable buildings to be used at schools around the country. The proposal was initiated through the Direct Design Lab in 2017 and involves a donation of copyrights of building drawings/designs by the consortium. During the handover of the proposal yesterday, consortium project manager Lukas Mungolo said the designs were guided by the challenges the education sector experiences. After establishing these challenges, the consortium worked on green, economical solutions for school buildings. The consortium consists of young professionals who want to contribute to the sustainable development of the country through tailor-made solutions. Titled 'Schools New Standard Design Drawings', the project aims to create standard designs that can be implemented countrywide with the flexibility to make use of alternative building methods while reducing construction costs and time. According to the project, the construction of three standard classroom blocks cost on average around N$600 000, which the consortium aims to reduce. Mungolo said they created architectural designs that are relevant and responsive to current and future environmental and socio-economic factors. They also aimed at meeting the needs of users on the ground, administrative requirements, and international standards related to educational facilities. The drawings include designs for a school administration block, classroom block, computer and science laboratory block, and an ablution block. Also included is a server room, library, dormitory block, kitchen, dining hall, as well as teachers' accommodation. The drawings were accepted by minister of education, arts, and culture Anna Nghipondoka, who indicated it would help reduce the cost of the construction of new educational infrastructure - especially since most government institutions are faced with a decline in budgetary allocation, she said. Nghipondpoka said the proposed drawings coincide with the ministry's Accelerated Infrastructure Development Plan (AIDevP), which aims to fast-track the huge backlog in basic education facilities without compromising their quality. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "With this plan [AIDevP] we aim to trim down exorbitant implementation costs of capital projects by adopting standard drawings or designs for all new construction projects," she said. Nghipondoka said she hopes to present the consortium's proposals to the Cabinet. The consortium has also offered to manage the project's implementation, citing that the country is quite good at drafting proposals and strategies, but struggles with implementation. The consortium has made the proposals under the Friends of Education in Namibia Special Education Initiative, which is an initiative of former education minister Katrina Hanse-Himarwa. It aims to bring on board all stakeholders who would want to contribute towards education in the country. This realises the fact that government efforts alone cannot provide for all the needs of Namibia's education system. Email: [email protected] Gaborone The Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority (BERA) has cautioned the public to refrain from using un-prescribed containers for handling, transporting and storing petroleum products. A press release from BERA says this follows an incident in which a consumer's vehicle caught fire at TM Filling Station in Tsabong on March 22, thereby prompting the authority to carry out investigations into the matter pursuant of section 53 of the BERA Act. "The Authority has concluded its investigations in which it found out that the fire was caused by filling of un-prescribed containers with fuel. The act is unsafe and can lead to loss of lives and serious damage to property," it says. In addition, the media release says the filling station has been charged in accordance with section 239(h) of the penal code and has been issued with an official warning to refrain from unsafe conduct, failing which drastic measures will be taken. "The authority has also imposed certain conditions such as suspension of filling of portable containers at TM Filling Station until certain safety measures have been put in place to the satisfaction of the authority," says the press release. BERA, therefore, emphasises that any person caught doing so will be charged in accordance with the applicable laws. Source : BOPA The decision of the Public Appointments Committee (PAC) to reject Ombudsman Martha Chizuma as the new Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) director has annoyed scores of Malawians with most ranting that the Committee's pronouncement is a massive drawback in as far as fighting graft in the country is concerned. Barely three hours after the verdict of Chizuma's rejection was made known to the public, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) has announced that it will stage a march to parliament next week--on May 18--to "bring back our Martha Chizuma." On various social media platforms especially Facebook hashtags: #MarthaChizumaDeservesACBjob and #JusticeForMarthaChizuma, among others, are trending. 'PAC compromised' Most social commentators said they were shocked that Chizuma who by far is regarded as one of the country's most competent public officers was rejected by the committee. Social commentator Pemphero Mphande said there was "no way Chizuma would have failed the interview after being the only person who seems to be fighting corruption without fear or favour." Nyasa Times understands that the Committee which mostly comprises members of the former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had been pre-determining their verdict against Chizuma for weeks. Nine of the 18 members of the committee who made it to the confirmation meeting scored Chizuma 1 out of 25, an outcome most Malawians find quite questionable. Another social commentator, Jackson Msiska, said he was "not really surprised" with the committee's decision considering its composition. The committee comprises 6 members from the DPP, 5 from MCP, 1 from UTM, 1 from UDF, 1 from Aford and 6 independent MPs. 'Scared of Chizuma' Msiska mentioned to Nyasa Times in an interview that PAC's decision was surely as a result of the fear most politicians have for Chizuma based on her impeccable track record in fighting corruption. "Those people represent their parties and surely they would want to protect their colleagues from Chizuma because she is a no-nonsense in as far as fighting graft is concerned," said Msiska. Prior to appearing before the committee Chizuma said she wanted "to use the Anti-Corruption Bureau as a tool to make Malawians uncomfortable with corruption." Recently in her report, 'Secure in Deception', Chizuma's inquiry into the shady recruitment at the Malawi Communication Regulatory Authority (MACRA) makes a whopping six mentions of Zangazanga Chikhosi, Secretary to President and Cabinet (SPC), how he facilitated nepotistic Peter Mutharika's illegal recruits. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Malawi Governance Corruption By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Journalist James Chavula wondered that "how he [Chikhosi] got his mighty hands at a vehicle he is using "up to now" is a numbing David-vs-Uriah masterclass on everything senior public servants ought not to do when approached by aggrieved juniors trampled upon by the system." Chikhosi, who has recently been quashed for executive arrogance, would be one of Chizuma's hit-list should she be made ACB czar. 'Government equally shocked' Minister of Information and government spokesman, Gospel Kazako, said they were "equally shocked" with the Committee's decision to reject Chizuma. "We thought they [PAC] would have no qualms at all in confirming her," said Kazako. In an interview with the press, PAC chairperson, Joyce Chitsulo, said they had made their decision as committee and would forward the results to the head of state who has the final say. "We made our decision, and it will be up to the President to either take it or not. He has the final say," said Chitsulo. Meanwhile social activist Idriss Ali Nassah has asked all Malawians of goodwill to come in their numbers on Tuesday next week. "We will fix this country, brick by brick," Nassah wrote on his Facebook wall. The Namibian Procurement Conference to be held in Windhoek later this month is expected to provide bidders with useful insights on how to make procurement more effective in both the public and private sector. The conference will take place at the Safari Hotel on 27 and 28 May. Julia Itana, one of the organisers, last week said the conference will not only focus on procurement professionals, but also on bidders, and will offer suggestions on bidding strategies and how to prepare a responsive, competitive bid. "The conference will provide an avenue for the business community to engage with procurement officials on issues of mutual interest," she said. Itana explained that procurement has over the decades shifted from having an administrative function to having a more strategic function within organisations. "The efficiency of a procurement division assists the organisation in achieving its strategic objectives while achieving value for every dollar spent in a world of limited funds." Itana said the conference, which is organised by IRC Consultancy, will provide an avenue for the business community to engage with procurement officials from both the private and public sectors. "It is very important that bidders understand what they are bidding for before actually biding. Proper research is needed by the bidder," she said. The conference will also equip bidders with knowledge of avenues available to them when they feel aggrieved in the bidding process or the implementation of contracts. Commenting on common mistakes made by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during the tendering process, Itana said SMEs have a tendency of submitting a bid for every bidding process they come across. She said this at times ends up working against them as they may not have the required capacity or finances to carry the bid through. "What most SMEs or upcoming businesses fail to get is that winning tenders that your company can't adequately perform can be just as costly as not winning the tender, as it has a long-term effect on the reputation of not only your company, but also on that of other SMEs or upcoming businesses," she said. She said most bidders fail to understand the legislative frameworks that govern public and private procurement in Namibia, adding bidders often submit incomplete bidding forms. "This is a sure way to get what may otherwise be a winning bid rejected," Itana said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. She said most bidders fail to visit the involved site to do a proper assessment of all variables to consider in their final bid. In addition, bidders are reluctant to seek clarification from the procuring entity when preparing their bids to have a complete understanding of the information presented in the bidding document. Another common error committed by bidders is not allocating sufficient time to themselves to prepare a good, competitive bid, she said. "The aim of the conference is to equip bidders to better respond to invitations to bid and also to offer guidance on how to ensure that a bid is competitive and responsive," Itana said. She said corruption in procurement can impede economic development, distort market mechanisms, and create inefficiencies reducing competitiveness, trade, and foreign direct investment. "The conference will look into these key roles that could result in uplifting the integrity of any procurement process, as well as look into the dynamics of conflict of interest and how it may tie in to the perception of corruption," she said. Itana said considering the spending power of the government in the local economy, the legislation that regulates public procurement in Namibia will be studied during the conference. Mark and Peggy Hobson apparently dont have a patent for their Monroe Township farm in Howard County, Ind. At least according to the U.S. Department of the Interiors General Land Office (GLO) records. But more on this in a moment. In fact, the Hobson family has owned and worked land about eight miles west of Kokomo just south of the Wildcat Creek since the year before the county was even organized. On July 1, 1843, at the land office in Peru, Ind., Marks ancestor Jesse Hobson, from Parke County, paid $5 an acre for 160 acres in section 2 of township 23 north, range two east. The Hobsons were early, but they werent the first. Joel Hollingsworth from Carroll County was at the head of the line in October 1842 when the Canal Land sales began in Peru. Both families were among the early buyers when Indiana Public Lands became available to help finance the Wabash and Erie Canal. Of course, the Foster family must be mentioned here as well. David and Elizabeth and seven of their children (they had 11 altogether) moved east into the Big Miami Reserve from Burlington, Ind., in the fall of 1842, and later deeded land for the county seat. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute But the 1877 Kingman Bros. Combination Atlas of Howard County shows other families on Hollingsworths first tract, and all the original Foster land is now the city of Kokomo. This gives Mark and Peggy Hobson pride of place as apparently owning the oldest continuously held farm property in all of Howard County. As Mark told me recently, theres not a single inch of land they own -- anywhere -- that hasnt been trod on by a Hobson. We can support that with the original patent, if we can find it. A search for Jesse Hobson in Howard County on the federal governments GLO website returned nothing. So wheres the patent? Well, its in the Canal Lands Abstract of Sales collection at the State Archives in Indianapolis. This multi-volume set contains the original records for public land sales in the Seven Mile Strip, which was ceded by the Miami Tribe of Indians in 1834 and includes Honey Creek, Monroe and Ervin townships in western Howard County. These tracts were sold by the state of Indiana at land offices in Peru and Delphi until 1847. The books were maintained for years at the Auditors office before being moved to the State Archives. The rest of the public land was released two years after Richardville (Howard) County was formed in 1844. At the time, longtime Miami Indian families in the area were being readied for their wrenching removal to Kansas and later Oklahoma. The U.S. surveyors arrived to plat the residue of the Miami reserve in the winter of 1846-47, and sales were entered first at Indianapolis in summer 1847. Many Howard County tracts were also purchased at the land offices in Fort Wayne and at Winamac. A look at the map shows County Road 600 West is the dividing line geographically for understanding the history of land sales here. Records for every property west to Carroll County can only be accessed via a request to the State Archives since purchasers of Indiana Public Lands, including for the Canal Land sales, are not indexed in the states database. However, details for land sold by the United States from 600 W east to Grant County are accessible at blm.gov under Services, Land Records, then the GLO Records website link. But you wont find Jesse Hobsons patent there. Its filed away in Indianapolis. The hearing into the matter in which Vice President Constantino Chiwenga is seeking to divorce his estranged wife Marry Mubaiwa has been postponed to July 5. Justice Esther Muremba said the court would on the return date get an update on the condition of Mubaiwa, before setting a new date for the hearing. VP Chiwenga's lawyer Advocate Lewis Uriri confirmed before the judge that Mubaiwa was unwell and admitted at a local private hospital. Both parties' lawyers yesterday visited Mubaiwa at the hospital to confirm her condition. In his divorce summons, VP Chiwenga indicated that he had no problem with Mubaiwa getting all their kitchen utensils, a bed and three cars in their divorce, but argues that the cash amounting to US$245 428 that is kept in Mubaiwa FBC Bank account, belonged to him. Mubaiwa failed to appear at the Harare magistrates' courts yesterday where she is facing attempted murder charges for allegedly trying to kill VP Chiwenga when he was hospitalised in South Africa. A Chinese businessman was assaulted and robbed by a suspect who impersonated a traffic officer on Saturday at about 09:40 at Iitananga village in Omusati's Tsandi constituency. According to the police crime report, the suspect, who was wearing a reflective jacket, stopped a vehicle driven by a Chinese national and demanded to see the victim's driver's licence. When the businessman asked the suspect to produce a police appointment certificate, the suspect drew a knife and stabbed the victim in the right arm and then robbed him off a bag containing N$130 000 in cash. The suspect then sped off in a white Nissan Tiida with a GRN registration number. The victim has been identified as Chen Daoquan, who lives in Lusaka, Zambia. No arrest was made and police investigations continue. document The Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry heard yesterday from the engagement it had virtually with the stakeholders within the sugar industry that the South African sugar cane Industry has experienced a sharp decline in revenue in recent years, which is a result of mainly the cheap sugar imports that flooded the local sugar market and the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) that is threatening its future prospects. A range of sugar industry's key stakeholders presented their progress towards their implementation of the Sugar Cane Value Chain Master Plan. They all commended the government for its timely intervention in bringing about long-lasting plans meant to sustain the industry by harnessing the competitiveness of its value chain. The stakeholders that presented to the committee on the implementation of the Sugar Cane Value Chain Master Plan included the South African Sugar Association, the South African Sugar Millers' Association, the South African Sugar Cane Growers' Association, and the South African Farmers Development Association. The Deputy Minister of the Department of Trade and Industry, Ms Nomalungelo Gina, told the committee about the worrying trends in the industry due to the annual downward spiral of sugar cane production, the decline in farming by 60% and 60% reduction in industry-related jobs. She said that is due to a mixture of factors mainly driven by global prices, increasing volumes of low-priced, tariffs-free exports, as well as health levy and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. She said the hope of the department to turn this downward trend hinges on the Industry's master plan. Ms Gina told the committee that, to date, of its R1 billion investment in restricting the industry, R400 million has been distributed to relevant stakeholders to, among other things, transform the industry to be more representative, to build a competitive and sustainable and a diversified industry that will enhance its value chain. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The department told the committee that the chief objectives of the master plan include the preservation of competitiveness of productive assets of the industry and to diversify it to withstand competition, and to restore the local market while ensuring that the industry restructures itself to be inclusive and reflective of our country's demographics. The department reported that the master plan should be commended for the 15% increase in local sales, 22% in direct market penetration, 7% increase in soft drink manufacturing and procurement of local sugar. The department's target in the next three months is to finalise its milestones, accelerate and upscale the intergovernmental coordination and participation of the various government stakeholders towards the realisation of the master plan. The Chairperson of the committee, Mr Duma Nkosi, emphasised the need for the industry's role players to diversify their products if they were to have a sustainable economic trajectory in the future. He further stated that the committee is interested to see the progress of various task teams in bringing the master plan into fruition. He added: "We appreciate the work done thus far. A foundation has been set. And there's a need to take advantage of that." Twenty-two police officers have so far been killed in the state during attacks by gunmen. A police officer was killed on Wednesday by some gunmen in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The police spokesperson in the state, Odiko MacDon, confirmed the killing in a statement on Wednesday. Mr MacDon identified the slain police officer as Edogi Bassey, a police constable. The officer was said to have been killed while repelling the attacks, in the company of colleagues. "At about 6:30 a.m. today, armed men, in their numbers, armed with AK 47 Rifles and other dangerous weapons, in two vehicles attacked the rented building housing the Etim Ekpo Area Command and Division," Mr MacDon said in the statement. "The undaunted and vigilant Police Officers on duty, gallantly fought back, repelled them and averted the intended carnage. "Unfortunately, a dedicated Officer, one PC Edogi Bassey paid the supreme price while a small portion of the building was touched." According to Mr MacDon, the gunmen proceeded to another local government area - Ika Local Government Area, to attack a police division there, but were repelled again by the officers at the station. Wednesday's attack is the second attack on Ika Division in less than two weeks. "The gunmen, who proceeded to Ika Division to perpetrate their nefarious activities, were successfully repelled, leaving the Station intact, without loss of lives or arms," the police spokesperson said. The death of Mr Bassey brings to 22 the number of police officers so far killed in the state during attacks by gunmen. The Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel, on Monday, visited the police headquarters in the state to condole with families of the slain officers and the police authorities over the loss. Mr Emmanuel, during the visit, announced a N60 million donation to the families of the slain officers. The commissioner of police in the state, Andrew Amiengheme had told the governor that the police in the state have lost 21 officers so far since February this year. The spate of attacks on security agents in the South-south and South-east regions of the country has been on the rise. press release The Republic of Guinea becomes the seventh (7th) Member State to deposit the instrument of ratification of the African Medicines Agency (AMA). The Republic of Guinea ratified the Treaty for the establishment of AMA on 21 April 2021 in Conakry, Guinea and deposited the instrument of accession, to the Commission of the African Union (AU) on 7 May 2021 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Mme Cisse Mariam Mohamed Director, Department of Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, received the instrument from the Guinea delegation. AMA will be the second specialized continental health agency after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) that will enhance capacity of State Parties and AU recognized Regional Economic Communities (RECs), to regulate medical products in order to improve access to quality, safe and efficacious medical products on the continent. AMA will also coordinate and strengthen ongoing initiatives on the harmonization of medical products regulation and enhance the competence of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) inspectors to do so. The agency will designate, promote, strengthen, coordinate and monitor Regional Centres of Regulatory Excellence (RCOREs) with a view to developing the capacity of medical products regulatory professionals. Speaking during the official deposit of the instrument, the Ambassador of the Republic of Guinea to Ethiopia and the African Union H.E. Gaoussou Toure noted that Guinea was delighted to be part of AMA adding that they would advocate for the signing and ratification of the AMA Treaty among other member states in West Africa region. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Guinea Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. In the face of a looming pandemic, the necessity of AMA has been amplified and particularly its function in coordinating joint reviews of applications for the conducting of clinical trials and providing technical support in quality control of drugs at the request of Member States which do not have the structures to carry out these examinations/controls/checks. In addition, AMA will promote the adoption and harmonization of medical products regulatory policies and standards, as well as scientific guidelines, and coordinate existing regulatory harmonization efforts in the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regional Health Organizations (RHOs). The Commission encourages all its Member States to sign and ratify the Treaty for the establishment of AMA in the interest of public health, safety and security. The Treaty is available for signature at the Headquarters of the Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African Medicines Agency, will enter into force once ratified by fifteen African Union Member States. Further information should be directed to: - Office of the Legal Counsel of the African Union Commission - Dr. Margaret Agama-Anyetei, Head of Division for Health, Nutrition and Population; Social Affairs Department; AU Commission; Tel: +251115162211; E-mail: Agama-AnyeteiM@africa-union.org press release The DA welcomes the parliamentary backflip done by ANC members on the Copyright Amendment Bill in today's Portfolio Committee of Trade, Industry and Competition. This display of acrobatics comes after the President referred the Bill back to Parliament in June 2020 and an initial unwillingness by ANC MPs to listen to his reservations on the Bill. During the drafting of the Bill, the ANC refused to listen to the DA's concerns and objections regarding it's contents, and decided to ram it through before the 2019 elections. We are now essentially back to the drawing board which will see the Bill being re-tagged as a Section 76 Bill, further public participation on the "Fair-Use" clause as well as scrapping retrospective compensation and arbitrary deprivation and deleting executive powers farmed out to the Minister to act without Parliamentary authority. The DA hopes this will be a lesson for the ANC that they operate in a Parliamentary democracy that requires the views of political parties and all of civil society to be heard. We also look forward to engaging with this important Bill in a way that protects content creators, promotes access to information for educational work and ensures equitable protection and rights for those that the Bill seeks to regulate. Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status. Calabar A member of the House of Representatives, Mr Legor Idagbor, has reiterated the need for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police for effective war against insecurity. Idagbor who represents Obanlikwu/Bekwara/Obudu federal constituency told Vanguard in Calabar that insecurity starts at the grassroots and empowering authorities at that level will go a long way in helping in the fight against insecurity. "Security is not only about arms and ammunition but information gathering and if that is limited to the federal government alone, there will be a lot that the state governors will not be aware of and a gap at the grassroots level will be created. "The states and local government need to be part of this intelligence gathering so that within their sphere of jurisdiction, they can maintain some level of network on who and where the flashpoints are". He stated that most of what manifests as insecurity are politically motivated and government should be more proactive in addressing some of the demands and needs of aggrieved citizens. "The local government should be properly funded to empower them to meet some needs of the people and that being done, taking steps to address poverty would go a long way in stemming some of these insurgencies and militancy" The Rep member said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is the beautiful bride for 2023 and if the party can properly manage its affairs, it is obvious with the inadequacies in the All Progressives Congress, APC, government, the PDP is the alternative which can take over government in the next election. "Let's not forget that PDP is an opposition party and in that respect, there is no need for internal bickering and grandstanding within the party "It is a good thing that Tambuwal, Okowa, and Ugwuanyi were in Cross River to find peace to the crisis rocking the party here, we also wished Rivers State Governor. Nyesom Wike was here too". Vanguard News Nigeria Rampaging gunmen in Akwa Ibom State have again attacked a police Divisional station Utu Etim Ekpo, in Etim Ekpo local government area killed a policeman identified as Edogi Bassey while on duty, and set ablaze the station. It was gathered that the incident occurred about 6:30 on Wednesday, allegedly perpetrated by suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, (IPOB). A source from Essien Udim local government area disclosed that the hoodlums also attacked and vandalised the Godswill Akpabio Unity Hall in Afaha Ikot Ebak, the local government headquarters during the attack. It could be recalled that the Unity Hall, was built by the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Senator Godswill Akpabio when he was the governor of Akwa Ibom state. The Police Public Relations Officer in the State, Mr. Odiko Macdon, who confirmed the Etim Ekpo incident in a statement made available to newsmen on Wednesday in Uyo, noted that the unacceptable, worrisome trend which is being addressed by the Police hierarchy requires the cooperation and support of all citizens and residents of the state. MacDon stated, "At about 6:30 am today, (Wednesday) armed Men, in their numbers, armed with AK-47 rifles and other dangerous weapons, in two vehicles attacked the rented building housing the Etim Ekpo Area command and Division. "The undaunted and vigilant police officers on duty gallantly fought back, repelled them, and averted the intended carnage. Unfortunately, a dedicated officer, one PC Edogi Bassey paid the supreme price while a small portion of the building was torched. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The gunmen who proceeded to Ika Division to perpetuate their nefarious activities were successfully again repelled leaving the Station intact without loss of lives or arms. "The Commissioner of Police, Mr. Andrew Amiengheme who is going round formations and Divisions to ensure alertness and safety of Officers, Men and the People has called on law-abiding Citizens to volunteer timely information that will enable the Police to tackle the present security challenges. This time shall pass" The fresh attack is even coming on the heels of the review of the 10 pm to 6 am restriction on the use of motorcycles in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial district, by the state government. Governor Udom Emmanuel had on Tuesday night in a statement signed by the Secretary to State Government, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem issued a directive prohibiting the use of all types of motorcycles from 6 pm till 6 am with immediate effect. The latest killing has brought the total number of slain police personnel in Akwa Ibom from February 22, 2021, by the gunmen to twenty-two. It could be recalled that the CP, Amiengheme had on Monday during the Governor's visit to condole the command over the loss of its officers and destruction of assets, disclosed that twenty-one (21) officers of the command have so far died in the persistent attacks. Vanguard News Nigeria Nairobi United Kingdom High Commissioner to Kenya Jane Marriott has defended her coutry's decision to impose travel restrictions against travelers from the country. Marriott said the decision was arrived at due to increased cases of COVID-19 variants that were detected on a third of travelers from Kenya. "There is significant number of people coming from Kenya who are testing positive for this B135 variant. That is essentially why the UK put travel restrictions place. It was not personal," she said during Kenya Editors Guild press Club held Tuesday. With a much older population than Kenya, she said the UK is extremely cautious to ensure no new variants get to their country. The UK announced travel restrictions on visitors from Kenya last month, in what raised a diplomatic storm prompting Kenya to reciprocate. Nairobi also accused Britain of failing to share its Johnson and Johnson vaccine with developing countries, terming the practice "vaccine apartheid." But on Tuesday, the UK envoy said the decision to impose travel restrictions was purely to protect UK nationals. The B135 variant originated from South Africa. The UK has more than 3 million people who are aged more than 80 years, making them more vulnerable. "Back in the UK, lockdown is, you cannot see other people. My poor 80-year-old parents have not seen other human beings for the best part of the year. They get to go to the supermarket, once a week," she said, "And frankly, they look like they are in some sort of a horror movie in terms of dressing up and protecting themselves while going to the supermarket." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Europe and Africa Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. According to the BBC, more than 35 million people in the UK have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine - part of the biggest inoculation programme the country has ever launched. Further, the UK government said it plans to vaccinate the rest of the adult population, another 21 million people, by the end of July. But the fear of new variants, she said, remains a major concern. "UK vaccine numbers are going up, we are starting to open our economy, but we do not know the impact of these new variants vis a vis the vaccines. And our real worry is that if a new variant gets into our new country, that essentially means, you will have to start the whole thing again... and we have to shut down again while research is being worked through," she said. "We are being super cautious of what potential variants can get into the UK." The United Kingdom has had 3.88 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 120,000 deaths. Kenya's caseload since March 2020 has reached 164,000 cases, of which 2,907 have succumbed to the disease. Cairo Arab foreign ministers lauded, on Tuesday, the role of the Al-Quds Committee, chaired by HM King Mohammed VI, in protecting the holy city. A resolution, issued at the end of an emergency meeting of the Council of the League of Arab States at the level of the foreign ministers, welcomed the role of the Al-Quds Committee in the protection of the holy city and in support of the resistance of the Palestinian people, emphasizing the importance of efforts made by the Bait Mal Al Quds Asharif Agency to this end. Under this resolution, the secretariat general of the League of Arab States was tasked with coordinating action with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to protect the city of Al-Quds against systematic aggression and policies of Israel. Morocco was represented at this meeting, which was held by teleconference, at the request of Palestine, by Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, and Ahmed Tazi, Ambassador of Morocco to Egypt and Permanent Representative of the Kingdom to the League of Arab States. Kokomo, IN (46901) Today Mostly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High around 85F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 67F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Rabat Morocco will exceed 52% of its energy mix in 2030, said, on Tuesday, Energy, Mining and Environment Minister Aziz Rabbah. The minister, who was answering a question on the opportunities of the energy transition in Morocco after the Covid-19 pandemic, presented by the Justice and Development group at the house of advisors, said that the Kingdom will exceed 52% of its energy mix in 2030, estimating that this figure could be reached before 2026, despite the delay that occurred during a previous period. He announced on this occasion that the 2021-2030 electricity system is based entirely on renewable energy and a reduced rate of gas. A roadmap has been developed for hydrogen, a promising energy for Morocco which will receive significant investments in this area, he added, indicating that a roadmap for bio-energy, the orientation towards industrialization and scientific research has also been developed. The minister affirmed that the next decade will be that of renewable and clean energy, noting that the government is supporting this large-scale project through the adoption of laws and the implementation of projects and initiatives at different levels. Rabat Representatives of parliamentary groups and groupings at the House of Advisors expressed on Tuesday their condemnation of the violations of the rights of the Palestinian people. Thus, the Justice and Development group strongly condemned the Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people and the maneuvers aimed at Judaizing the city of Al-Quds, while welcoming the resistance of the Palestinian people and the Maqdessis, and the Kingdom's position in favor of the Palestinian cause. For its part, the Istiqlalian group of Unity and Equality denounced the barbaric attack on the Palestinians, calling on the international community to act to end these maneuvers. The same goes for the parliamentarians of the Authenticity and Modernity group, who after having condemned the violations committed against the Palestinian people, joined the voices of all the free peoples of the world in denouncing these immoral practices which prevent the achievement of peace in the Middle East region, considering that the one and only solution is to establish a Palestinian state with East of Al Quds as its capital. The socialist group condemned the new attack on the right of Palestinians to live in peace, in particular the Maqdessis, who have suffered for a week of continuous repression, and the international silence vis-a-vis the sufferings of the Palestinian people. As for the haraki group, it condemned the abuses against the Palestinians and the attacks against the believers, calling on the international community to act urgently to stop these attacks. For its part, the group of the Democratic Confederation of Labor denounced the attempted assault on the Al-Aqsa mosque, the displacement of residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood and the attack on the worshippers in the mosque. For the group of the Moroccan labour union, it considered that "the Palestinian question concerns all Moroccans", condemning the attacks committed against the Palestinians, in particular in Al-Quds, and expressing its unconditional solidarity with the Palestinians to establish their independent state. Rabat The judicial police services in Casablanca arrested, on Monday, on the basis of accurate information provided by the General Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DGST), a woman aged 66 for her alleged involvement in a drug and psychotropic pills trafficking and possession case. The suspect, with multiple criminal records, was apprehended at the Casablanca train station, said a press release from the National Police (DGSN). The arrest took place following the search operation of the accused which helped seize 6,000 psychotropic pills of the "Rivotril" type in addition to three cell phones and a sum of money suspected of resulting from this criminal activity. The suspect was remanded in police custody for the investigation carried out under the supervision of the competent public prosecutor's office in order to determine the other potential ramifications of this activity, as well as all the criminal charges brought against her, the press release concluded. Rabat Representatives of parliamentary groups and groupings in the House of advisors said, on Tuesday, that the arguments put forward by Spain to justify the hosting of Polisario leader, the man named Brahim Ghali , "are not convincing", calling on the northern neighbor to "thoroughly review" this position. In this regard, the Justice and Development group expressed its strong condemnation of the hosting by Spain of the man named Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario militias, who is accused of horrendous crimes against humanity as well as human trafficking, saying that this attitude, which is hostile to the territorial integrity of the kingdom, is incompatible with the rules of good neighborliness and the customs and traditions of international diplomacy. For its part, the istiqlalian group of unity and egalitarianism reviewed the maneuvers that are being hatched against Morocco, seizing this opportunity to invite neighboring country of Algeria to listen to reason in order to achieve the long-awaited dream of building the Arab Maghreb. Condemning this hostile and detrimental attitude to relations between the two countries, which share a common history, neighborly ties and economic cooperation, the Authenticity and Modernity group, for its part, invited Spain to show honesty as it knows the validity of the national cause. Same story with the socialist group, which affirmed that: "given the sacred aspect of the national cause, we can only denounce and condemn the behavior of the Spanish government which sacrificed its democratic values, and wants to sacrifice its relations with the Kingdom, to welcome a war criminal and the leader of a group of mercenaries prosecuted for crimes of rape and torture", calling this attitude unacceptable. The Haraki group, for its part, underlined that the Spanish attitude is in contradiction with the relations of cooperation, partnership and good neighborliness uniting the two countries, expressing its regret that the Spanish authorities have agreed to receive secretly and under a false identity the man named Brahim Ghali. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Legal Affairs Governance Europe and Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The group of the National Rally of Independents condemned the "scandalous and unacceptable act" of the Spanish neighboring country, denouncing this "provocative" act by Spain which authorized the entry into its territory, with a false identity, of a criminal named Ibrahim Ghali, a "method worthy of criminal groups and terrorist organizations, which does not suit Spain or its history". The group of the Democratic Confederation of Labor also disapproved Spain's hosting of the leader of the Polisario, calling on the Spanish authorities to bring this criminal to justice, especially since he is the subject of legal proceedings. The Moroccan Labor Union group condemned Spain's attitude and its hosting of "a terrorist criminal who killed women, men and children". After condemning the Spanish attitude of welcoming the leader of the separatists under a false identity, the democratic and social constitutional group called on the neighboring country of Algeria to invoke neighborhood relations and the shared history between the two countries to put an end to the maneuvers that undermine territorial integrity. Jeddah The Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hailed, on Tuesday, the role played by the Al Quds Committee, under the chairmanship of HM King Mohammed VI, in protecting of the holy sites of the city of Al Quds Asharif. In the final declaration issued after an emergency meeting, the Committee of Permanent Delegates of the OIC Member States "commended the role of the chairmanship of the Al Quds Committee in protecting the holy sites in the city of Al-Quds Asharif and thwarting the measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities with the aim of Judaizing the holy city". The meeting was devoted to discussing the aggression perpetrated by Israel, as the occupation power, in the Palestinian territories in general and in particular in the holy city of Al Quds. The OIC thus condemned "in the strongest terms the repeated attacks by the Israeli occupation authorities against the Palestinian people in Al-Quds Asharif and throughout the territories of the Occupied State of Palestine, in particular the attacks that grew more intense since the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. During these attacks, the occupation forces targeted the citizens of Al Quds, prevented the believers from accessing the holy sites to perform religious rites, stormed the Al Aqsa Mosque and attacked Palestinian worshipers, added the same source. Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Eldoret on Tuesday evening arrested a blogger suspected to be behind a viral fake court order. The blogger is said to have peddled false claims that a court had issued an order for a man to grant his wife conjugal rights, and directed an Officer Commanding Eldoret police station to supervise its implementation. The arrest of the blogger came after Eldoret chief Magistrate Linus Kassan wrote to DCI requesting them to investigate the origin of the alleged order, which had gone viral on various social media platforms. In the complaint letter, the Magistrate stated, "I have attached a post by a certain blogger about a fictitious court order directing OCS to implement a non-existing court order, which, to say less, requires (the) performance of an act that can never be supervised." Mr Kassan regretted that the post had been shared widely and demeaned the reputation of the Eldoret court and police. Moved in swiftly DCI officers moved in swiftly and arrested the suspect on Tuesday evening. Uasin Gishu County Criminal Investigation Officer CCIO Ali Bule Samatar confirmed the arrest. "The suspect has been arrested and he will be arraigned in court tomorrow as the investigating officer will be seeking more time to detain him for further investigation before charging him appropriately," said Mr Samatar who was reluctant to reveal the identity of the suspect. DCI officers said the suspect was arrested in Eldoret town. Members of the Eldoret Court Users Committee hailed the police and Judiciary for moving swiftly to arrest the suspect. ADAM PHETLHE Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) Members of Parliament who are not in the Executive are reportedly meeting His Excellency the President Dr M.E.K. Masisi this weekend over a variety of matters affecting the party and government. While the meeting is said to be the brainchild of the backbenchers in the main, it appears there are some from the Executive who share their concerns. According to those in the know, this meeting was sought immediately after the 2019 general election but was inexplicably delayed until this weekend. It should raise questions why they allowed this meeting to be delayed for so long when on their version, they had legitimate, hard-pressing national issues to be discussed. It is important to mention that the meeting comes when there are notable political fissures in the BDP occasioned by the latest turn of events in public service appointments and the general administration of the country by the President. BDP MPs have in the public eye, been the staunchest defenders of the President particularly in the National Assembly wherein they took serious umbrage at any criticism directed at him presumably to curry favour for the longevity of their political careers. By not seriously and meaningfully calling out the Executive as it is its duty to do so, the backbenchers cannot therefore claim any thread of legitimacy when they stayed complicit in so far as it relates to the performance of the BDP on one hand and that of the President on the other. While I do not have any qualms with the backbenchers taking on the President on party and government business which is essentially one of their core duties, I believe they are being conveniently disingenuous to the President and therefore throwing him under the bus. Particularly because they have since becoming MPs, decided to forego their oversight function on the Executive by being its lapdog as some would say. To them, the principle of Separation of Powers does not apply and it appears it may not do so anytime soon. It is fair to say it is not in their vocabulary given their lackadaisical conduct and attitude particularly in the National Assembly. Backbenchers behave like individuals whose primary mandate has been synchronised to shoot down anything from the Opposition irrespective of how it could positively impact the lives of Batswana. While this is a political tactic generally used not to give the opposition some limelight or mileage over which it could benefit as a campaign tool, it stands to backfire on the same majority party where it loses public confidence as it increasingly appears to be the case. All Motions and Bills presented to the National Assembly by various Ministers have been seriously defended, supported and endorsed by the backbenchers in full view of Batswana through Botswana Television. On the basis of the foregoing therefore, they cannot turn around and fault the President when they themselves, sat on their rights to bring him to order. What is acutely pushing BDP backbenchers on meeting the President? Backbenchers and other BDP MPs who are also Ministers are feeling the heat from their constituents owing to their poor performance in the National Assembly. Live broadcast of the National Assembly proceedings have all but exposed their serious shortcomings, ineptitude and downright arrogance in terms of articulating bread and butter issues affecting the constituents. Corruption in this country is as old as Botswana is and yet, no BDP backbencher has come out in the open in the National Assembly to present a Motion or Bill to ask the Executive to decisively deal with corruption in terms of reforming DCEC legislation on the same. This is a serious failure on their part considering the Executive is not interested in dealing with corruption. As if the 'conventional' corruption was not enough, Covid-19 corruption has exponentially raised the corruption bar to another level. Consequent to Covid-19 corruption, Batswana have not been able to receive the expected care for various Covid-19 requirements in terms of those in quarantine or isolation as an example. When a suggestion was put before the House to say: let the Minister of Finance and Economic Development produce quarterly reports on Covid-19 expenditure, it was ferociously shot down by the leading voices of the backbenchers. None of them regarded this as a means of curbing the rampant Covid-19 corruption which in the process would erase from the minds of all and sundry that Covid-19 procurement of goods and services is beyond reproach. Backbenchers, barring one or two, were steadfast in opposing the waiver to the introduction of Botswana Housing Corporation rentals by one year considering the socio-economic circumstances of tenants brought by Covid-19 pandemic. This Motion and truth be told, was in the public interest but backbenchers defended a party position and by extension that of the President as opposed to the interests of Batswana. When a question was posed on the electric car promised by the BDP in the lead up to the 2019 general election, none of the backbenchers stood up to say to the relevant Minister: organise a trip to Mogoditshane where MPs would be taken on a conducted tour of the factory working on the project for them to have first-hand appreciation of the said project and to importantly, allay fears that this was not an empty promise. Unexpectedly, Batswana have now turned the heat on BDP MPs by suggesting and justifiably so, that they represent their jackets more than anything else. It therefore stands to reason that the backbenchers in the main, are sensing the highly likely event of the BDP members in particular not re-electing them in BDP bulela ditswe elections let alone the general electorate in the 2024 general election should they miraculously pass the bulela ditswe hurdle. Do the backbenchers have the conviction and courage to take the President head-on? I doubt it. They will be reminded that when some of them won their bulela ditswe elections enroute to the 2019 general election, the President is reported to have said that some if not all of them, were of such inferior quality that they wouldn't be qualified enough to make it into his cabinet. This, put differently, was a serious vote of no confidence in them. I don't remember them taking offence at the President's unfortunate remark. Instead, they blindly followed him to the point of now complaining to some extent, about issues they have supported him on. Backbenchers have loudly sang the chorus that the President's administration is that of morero (consultation) which by inference, should say they themselves, have been consulted on various matters. The fact that it took them about two years to have a full blown meeting with him could be interpreted as a sign that he doesn't take them seriously but that he does so only on the ground of political convenience. The backbenchers will be reminded that when they voted for the floor crossing law, the President told them in no uncertain terms that those who felt uncomfortable with the BDP could exit before the door was firmly shut. Nothing suggests remotely or otherwise that the backbenchers will get something substantial if anything, from the meeting. Are they prepared to support a Motion of No Confidence in the President if push comes to shove? Not by any stretch of imagination. They know very well the implications of such Motion particularly with respect to their own personal circumstances. With the current political atmosphere in mind, it will be foolhardy and some political suicide of note to go for an election. The damage they have already done to the BDP brand and themselves in the National Assembly has armed the electorate with sharp objects to finish them off. Some of them are still looking up to the President for patronage in whatever form or shape and prospects to further their political and other careers. As it stands therefore, they are at the mercy of the President in more ways than one because like I have alluded to above, they have allowed their blind loyalty to him to outweigh that of their constituents. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Botswana Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The political and socio-economic challenges facing this country emanate from the fact that the backbenchers have allowed themselves to be the extension of the Executive. If they had taken their oath of office very seriously to serve their constituents in particular and the Republic in general, we could have in large measure, not be in the precarious situation we find ourselves in. They should have pushed their party to at least honour their election promises like the comprehensive Review of the Constitution; repealing the Media Practitioners Act; the resuscitation of the Public Service Bargaining Council and others. Unless and until they play their true role in the National Assembly by meaningfully holding the Executive and by extension the President truly accountable, they will remain subservient to the same Executive and the President. That said, I will give them the benefit of the doubt in order to see what comes out of the meeting. From where I stand however, I don't expect anything from the meeting. Judge for Yourself! 'No one is safe until everyone is safe'. Let us all adhere to all Covid-19 protocols. It is not a big ask. adamphetlhe08@gmail.com Stories about female circumcision, early marriages and other retrogressive cultural acts are common in Samburu County. Girls are the most affected by these outdated cultural prevalence and most are forced out of school to fulfil 'what the culture dictates'. For decades, there has been spirited activism to end these traditional practices. The most recent was the Kisima Anti-FGM Declaration, an event that was officiated by President Uhuru Kenyatta on March 5. Samburu girls are finding their way out of the cocoon with a majority defying odds to register for national examinations. Statistics from the Samburu County Education office show that 2,435 candidates sat their KCSE exams out of which 892 were female. At the Ministry of Education, data shows that Mandera, Wajir, Turkana, Garissa and Homa Bay are the only counties that had more boys than girls sit the 2020 KCSE. For the first time, Samburu County was excluded. St Theresa's Girls School Nationally, out of the 747,161 students who sat the exam, 366,834 were girls, with Education CS Prof George Magoha noting that the enrolment of girls in Mandera, Wajir, Garissa and Turkana counties was half that of boys. St Theresa's Girls School in Samburu was among the top schools nationally. The school mean score rose from 8.9 in 2019 to 9.1 in 2020, making it a top performer in Samburu. All 41 candidates in the missionary-run school scored direct university entry grades with the last student attaining a mean grade of B-. The first girl Engosan Lilian Buchu, scored a mean grade of A- of 78 points followed by Lekoitip Santima Noimah who scored A- of 76 points. Six girls scored 74 points and above. The school director Peter Leseketet attributed the success to dedication, hard work and prayers. "We are very proud to have sent all our girls to university. It is not easy because the calendar year was disrupted due to the pandemic. This is the power of prayer, dedication and hard work," he said. Though the school did not produce a top performer nationally, their performance is way above some of the schools with big names nationally. The school took position 20 as the best in the 2020 KCSE results. Leading by example Mr Leseketet said the results mirror how far Samburu girls have come to snatch top spots. "It is positive results for a community that believed girls had no room in the society. We are leading by example," Mr Leseketet told Nation.Africa. Other girls' schools that posted exemplary performance include Kisima Girls High School and Baragoi Girls High School. Samburu County Education director David Koech said more girls are enrolling in schools, a rare gesture in the past. Despite introduction of free primary and secondary education in Kenya in 2003 that led to an increase in school enrolment across the country, the rates in Samburu remain low owing cultural practices. Mr Koech appealed to parents to allow girls to complete their studies "because they have huge room in the modern society." "We continue to appeal to parents to bring children to schools because the government is catering for each individual," Koech said. During the Kisima Declaration to end FGM in Samburu County, President Uhuru said girls, if given an education, could make good leaders. The Head of State said the Kisima Declaration was vital on ending harmful practices like FGM and early marriages that had worsened violation of women's rights and dignity in the semi-nomadic community. African traditions "Girls are marketable when they have gone to school. I tell you elders that you will receive double or even triple dowry when your girl child is educated. They can make very good leaders if given a good base and platform, and Ms Lesuuda here is a testimony," the President said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Education By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Kenyatta tasked the elders and other opinion-shapers to sensitize communities on the need to abandon circumcision for women and girls amid negative physical and psychological impacts. He told Samburu community members to embrace alternative rites of passage and ensure girls finish studies. "I want you (elders) to use your influence to enlighten the community on the hazards associated with FGM. We are not here to abolish our African traditions. I urge you to embrace alternative rites that do not harm girls and even boys," the president said during the Kisima Declaration. Kenya has enacted legislation that prohibits female genital cut in line with global commitment to protect women and girls from all forms of abuse and discrimination. Candidates at Isiolo Barracks Secondary had just been issued with Mathematics Paper I examination on March 29 at 8am when Abdi Mohammed Warsamed collapsed, causing panic in the examination room. Unconscious, the supervisor and invigilator rushed him to the school's health facility where he was attended to and regained consciousness minutes later before he was allowed back to the exam room. Unknown to him, Mohammed would score A (plain) in Mathematics and attain A (Minus) aggregate of 76 points and emerge the best student in Isiolo County in the results released by Education CS George Magoha on Monday. When the results were being read out, the first born in a family of eight from Kambi Garba, was with a friend, who also sat KCSE exams in March, following the broadcast on radio while seated under a tree outside their timber house. "Adan (my friend) first sent an SMS and received his results. I borrowed his phone and sent mine too but I became somewhat nervous and took close to 10 minutes before looking at the SMS," Mr Mohammed told Nation at their home. Having gotten B (Plain) in the last examination prior to KCSE, the 17-year-old lad was hopeful he would improve in the national exams and surely did break the county's record last recorded in 2014 by one Mohammed Jillo who got A- of 78 points at Isiolo Boys High School. Hardworking and disciplined "I was so happy when I saw that I had gotten A (Minus) because it is the grade I always prayed for. I thank God for the performance," Mr Mohammed who joined the secondary after scoring 291 marks in KCPE at Dida Abakiri primary in 2016 said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Education Children Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He attributed the success to hard work saying he used to spend most of his time at home studying and that he also prayed a lot. "I used to wake up early to study before preparing to leave for school. I spent all the weekends with my friends revising and was determined to post better results," he noted. His guardian Mr Abdi Abdullahi said the student was hard-working and disciplined and that he used to stay until late in the night studying. "I never expected he would attain A (Minus). I am so happy that his hard work has paid," said Mr Abdullahi lauding teachers who helped him revise during the nine-month Covid-19 break. Isiolo Barracks Secondary Principal Fredrick Gitonga Bundi said Mohammed's performance was a great improvement from last year's (2019) where the first student got B- (Minus). "Teachers had completed the syllabus by last December and embarked on thorough revision beginning this year which helped in preparing the learners for the exams," Mr Gitonga said. County Director of Education Dr Hussein Koriyow reiterated commitment towards ensuring improved performance of Secondary Schools in the county in subsequent years. "We are so happy for posting such remarkable results which is an improvement from the previous year," Dr Koriyow said. Mr Mohammed intends to pursue Medicine when he joins University so that he educates his siblings and supports his family. Another Jubilee MP from Western has defected from Deputy President William Ruto's camp to back ANC leader Musalia Mudavadi, as political realignments intensify ahead of next year's elections. Malava MP Malulu Injendi said he would no longer associate with the Tanga Tanga faction of Jubilee, months after yet another of the DP's vocal backers in the region, Kimilili MP Didimus Barasa, announced "a political sabbatical" from the camp's activities. Mr Injendi initially had been seen to be warming towards Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga but he thereafter hosted Dr Ruto at his home and announced he would support the DP's 2022 presidential bid. But the MP now says he is backing Mr Mudavadi's presidential campaign. He told the Nation yesterday that his defection was informed by the push to unite the region so as to have a high stake in political negotiations, a justification that was almost similar to what Mr Barasa gave early this year. "I have not left the Jubilee Party which sponsored me to Parliament but I have decided that I will no longer associate with Tangatanga team-linked to Ruto and I am now with Musalia... Ruto will remain a friend but not a political ally," disclosed Mr Injendi. Western has more than two million votes spread across its four counties of Kakamega (743,736), Bungoma 559,850, Busia 351,048 and Vihiga 272,409. Trans Nzoia, located in the Rift Valley but with a high Luhya population, has 339,622 votes, with Mr Injendi saying it was time the numbers worked in their favour. "A tribe like Luo are very powerful in this country despite having a small population compared to that of Western just because of their unity and for us we have numbers but we are nowhere because we are ever divided," said Mr Injendi. Mr Injendi claimed plans are in top gear to ensure other MPs who are in other camps rejoin either Mr Mudavadi's camp or that of Ford Kenya leader Moses Wetang'ula. Mr Barasa announced he was taking a break from Tangatanga activities, which has been interpreted as a scheme to defect silently. "I also take this time to reflect on my political journey, bringing everybody onboard ahead of take-off. As people of Kimilili, Bungoma, and by extension the Mulembe nation, we have to rightfully claim our seat at the high table to make our numbers meaningful," said the first-term Jubilee lawmaker. However, Mumias East MP Benjamin dismissed the Luhya unity arguing those championing it are not genuine. "Luhya unity will only work if Musalia will be a presidential candidate, it will also work if the community is benefiting but now, they are not coming out to revive Mumias sugar or Pan paper," said Mr Washiali, who was ousted as National Assembly Majority Whip during a purge targeting the DP's allies. Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala had told the Nation that talks were ongoing to ensure that the region rallied behind Mr Mudavadi. "Talks have been going on and I personally have been reaching out to the likes of Barasa and many others to come back home so that we can popularise the presidential quest of Mudavadi across the country," said Mr Malala. Keiyo South MP Daniel Rono acknowledged that some of his colleagues from Western are working to join Mr Mudavadi and Mr Wetang'ula. "There are chances that some may shift because of personal interests but as it is, we still have strong generals who will remain with us, we cannot say who wants to decamp but it depends on future alliances," Mr Rono said as he dismissed suggestions Tangatanga is jolted by recent defections. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. But Mr Javas Bigambo, a political analyst, said the ongoing realignments are expected ahead of next year's General Election. "Such decamping is likely to be more among non-elected members before the 2022 General Election, purely for purposes of trying to look for good ground through which they can be elected, depending on where they want to run. Prominent parties tend to benefit from such party switching. But it also demonstrates loose party membership and factionalism, pork-barrel politics and lack steadfastness," explained Mr Bigambo. Keen to strengthen support, the DP's camp has been meeting a number of governors, Cabinet Secretaries and Principal Secretaries in the quest to form a formidable team ahead of the elections. "There are many Nicodemus meeting Ruto at night, some are governors, CS, PS, everybody is preparing themselves for the next election," said Elgeyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen. Kokomo, IN (46901) Today Considerable cloudiness. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. High near 85F. Winds E at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight A few clouds. Low 67F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Somalia on Tuesday night said it will issue an appropriate reaction to Kenya's suspension of flights between the two countries. Somalia's Minister for Air Transportation, Duran Farah, said his government only learnt of the decision through the media, as Kenya had not made direct contact with Somalia regarding the matter. "We have only learnt the flight suspensions through social media," Minister Duran told the media. He underlined that the ban will affect both countries, and reiterated that his government will make clear its position on the issue. "The Somali government will state an appropriate response to that matter," the minister said. He was responding to media queries after Kenya released a statement, via the Kenyan Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA), banning all commercial and cargo flights to and from Somalia until August this year. Through a NOTAM, a notice issued to airmen, KCAA indicated that exceptions will be mad for the United Nations, Medevac flights and humanitarian missions. Kenya's decision comes a day after the Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) issued a statement that khat or miraa flights remains suspended, despite agreeing to restore diplomatic relations with Kenya just two days earlier. Somalia had severed relations with Kenya in December last year. Somalia's Transport Minister, however, argued that there was no correlation between stopping khat flights from Kenya and Kenya' suspension of commercial flights. "The issue of khat is a trade subject that needs discussions between the two governments, but the commercial flights mainly concerns movement of people and goods to both sides," said the minister. Located just 33 kilometres north of Nairobi between Ruiru and Juja towns, Juja farm is considered a prime location for residential property. The need for rental houses to help ease the demand for housing in Juja, thanks to the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, has been constant, but the area has maintained a slow pace of development for decades. With the start of the tarmacking of the Juja Town-Juja Farm road, many residents of Kalimoni Ward had hoped that access to the area would speed up development, but lingering insecurity is threatening to further keep the area deserted. As graders level first six kilometres of the road leading to Juja Farm shopping centre, gangsters armed with pistols and riding boda-bodas are terrorising developers in broad daylight. Their targets, according to residents, are land buyers seeking to seal deals with the multiple property investment groups that pitched camp in the area years ago, hoping to one day cash in on demand for the prime land when the road is finally tarmacked. Some of the people who bought land in the area have been warned not to visit their property unaccompanied by the police. They were warned via texts seen by the Nation. "It has come to our attention that there have been incidences of insecurity/robberies in the Juja area. The robbers are mainly on boda-boda and they are attacking people attending to their construction projects and or visiting their plots. "We write to advise you to take precaution if in this area and we recommend that if you intend to visit your property, please seek support from the security agents, especially the police station nearby," says a warning text sent by one of the property developers. Daylight robberies The robbers wait for visitors to alight from their vehicles before striking. They demand money and other valuables, said a victim of the gangs. "They come riding in twos and pretend to be going about their business before turn and demanding money. They brandish a pistol. At that point, many are forced to surrender all they have," the victim, who requested anonymity, told the Nation. The gangs also target supervisors at church constructions and those making payments to their construction crews. "On some occasions, victims have been robbed after withdrawing workers' pay from M-Pesa shops at Salama and Juja Farm shopping centres. We wonder whether it is the M-Pesa agents or the workers, who are working with the gangs," an elder told the Nation. While some incidents appear isolated, the fact that they are recurring and happening in the same style is a matter of concern. "Some will pretend to be asking for manual jobs at 1pm, when all duties have been allocated, a scheme they use to disarm their victims before demanding cash at gunpoint," said the victim. However, local police said they were not aware of the attacks and no one had requested escort to their property. Juja Sub County Police Commander Dorothy Migarusha, however, told the Nation that muggings were rampant in 2019. Rise in insecurity "If there are new cases, then the victims have erred in not reporting them to us. We act on data and if an attack happens to you and you fail to report, how then do we assist you? Let us also be careful, this could also be a new trick deployed by some developers to kick competition out of business now that the tarmac is coming up," she said. "No individual has come to us to request security while visiting their plots. The only security we have provided has been to groups holding their annual general meetings and those surveying their plots because misunderstandings may arise over boundaries," added the police commander. Residents attribute the rise in thuggery to increased economic strain during the Covid-19 lockdowns, which has seen gangsters grow bolder. Others attribute it to an increase in primary school drop outs in the area and drug abuse by young people. In July last year, 50 residents appended their signatures to a letter sent to the Ministry of Interior complaining about the local chief's "laxity" and "detachment" about the security woes in the area. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Legal Affairs Urban Issues By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. They wanted disciplinary proceedings commenced against area chief Sarah Waigwe and an interim replacement installed pending the outcome of her case. However, no action has been taken since. The complaint came after constant house breakings and robberies. Late last year, the attacks escalated, with several homes broken into and women raped. "Our complaints, however, led to the transfer of the previous team of officers attached to Juja Farm Police post. We got a new OCS (Officer Commanding Station) and a National Police Service Land Rover, but we hardly see it around. There has been some improvement since the new OCS came in, but a challenge remains in terms of police mobility," said an elder. "The vehicle is still very much with us. Today you may find it in Witeithie and tomorrow in Juja Farm because it's not meant to be stationary. It's meant to assist officers' mobility while responding to situations," said Ms Migarusha. It was a tense Friday morning - June 23, 2006. The media and police had been alerted that Kenya's rogue Charterhouse Bank, now set for liquidation, was destined for a take-over. In the corridors, shaken directors led by Sanjay Shah - who also owned Kingsway Motors - were making frantic, last-minute calls. A family business where they had put their fortunes was being taken over as they watched. Charterhouse was linked to Nakumatt, a shopping citadel that was more than a supermarket. The shopping mall, which also housed Charterhouse Bank branches, masked the fraudulent dealings that happened under the watch of its owners and managers. At the entrance, 15 years ago, Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) had pasted a notice, signed by acting CBK governor Jecinta Mwatela, stating that Miss Rose Ndetho, then an assistant director, had taken over the bank as the receiver manager. "This is not a bank," Ms Mwatela would later say. Now, despite court battles and demands from the owners, CBK has dashed all hopes of ever reviving the bank and announced that it will be liquidated. The raid at Charterhouse Bank had followed a regular inspection that found, besides other banking vices, that the bank had lent to both Nakumatt Holdings Limited and Triton Petroleum Limited in excess of the single borrower limit of 25 per cent of its core capital. Level of deceit within the bank It was found, too, that some customers were routinely borrowing as much as 20 times the cash they held - and that some accounts were nameless or were opened in violation of the know-your-customer rule, a mandatory requirement in banking. CBK also found that some of the directors were also involved in insider lending, and were found to have borrowed, and without security, above the prescribed limit of 20 per cent of the core capital. So entrenched and powerful were the cartels within the bank that Parliament was later told that the new CBK Governor, Dr Andrew Mullei, was thrown out in 2006 for recommending the closure of the bank for allegedly helping some companies evade taxes amounting to Sh18 billion. Interestingly, it was Dr Mullei who was charged with abuse of office and suspended from office over irregular hiring of a task force which the Minister for Finance, Mr Amos Kimunya, said was a "coincidence". "This is a very serious matter. I sympathise with my friend the minister for Finance. If you look back to determine the time which the Governor was suspended, it is very suspicious... " Three years before the CBK takeover, Charterhouse had hired an internal auditor, Mr Peter Odhiambo, who was shocked by the level of deceit within the bank whose head office was on the seventh floor of Longonot Place, Kijabe Street, Nairobi. Mr Odhiambo not only noticed several irregularities in the bank but also suspicious transactions in some accounts. Started as a family business It was Mr Odhiambo who handed over the dossier to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) and to then Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission, and also shared it with some US Embassy officials. Started in 1996, the bank had taken over operations of Middle East Kenya Finance Limited and quickly opened bank branches in Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa. The bank branches were located inside Nakumatt Supermarkets, an associate of the bank through common shareholding, according to a Central Bank report. Initially, it was started as a family business, sharing directors with Kingsway Group via holding company Ram Trust. The directors were Manish Shah, Manoj Shah, Artur Shah and Sanjah Shah. Ram Trust was named after the father of Kingsway Tyres, the late Ramniklal P. Shah - commonly known as Ram - who in 1962 opened a small shop along the then Kings Way (now University Way) to sell tyres. But the Charterhouse shareholding, like all companies involved in sleaze, was akin to a jigsaw puzzle. By the time the bank was closed, Ram Trust was thought to own 43.8 per cent of Charterhouse Bank but further investigations found that Manoj Shah and his brothers owned over 54 per cent shareholding. This was in violation of the Banking Act, which restricts ownerships by a party to a maximum of 25 per cent. Registered offshore in the billionaire tax haven of Liechtenstein, which is favoured by billionaires thanks to banking secrecy and security, Ram Trust was used by Sanjay, Manoj and Manish to hide their loot. They had also registered another shell company in British Virginia, Proudview Investments, which owned 21.7 per cent of Chaterhouse Bank. Another company, Foreman Corporation, was registered in the Caribbean nation of Belize, and owned 21.74 per cent shareholding in Charterhouse Bank. As such, Charterhouse would normally transfer huge amounts to these perceived owners while also witnessing large inward and outward telegraphic transfers. Money laundering suspicion In 2001, the bank had been involved in the controversial Sh2 billion transfer that was credited to Crucial Properties Limited, associated with a Nairobi businessman, Mr Humphrey Kariuki. The transfer had grabbed the attention of the local police and the US Federal Bureau of Investigations after the money was wired from Liechtenstein. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Banking Company Kenya By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. But when Central Bank froze Crucial Properties' accounts, Mr Kariuki went to the High Court and was allowed to withdraw Sh300 million. He later fought the money laundering suspicion and on May 10, Justice Samuel Oguk lifted the freezing orders, allowing Mr Kariuki to withdraw the money. Within hours, and before the Attorney-General could appeal the order, Mr Kariuki had withdrawn Sh1.6 billion. Later, Justice Oguk refused to order investigations into the withdrawal, blaming Attorney-General Amos Wako for the delay in presenting his application to the court. With the closure of the bank, a few years later, the Departmental Committee on Finance, Planning, Trade and Tourism chaired by then Finance assistant minister Oburu Oginga recommended the opening of the bank and threatened to censure the CBK Governor. There were many attempts from the floor of the House, and from interested parties, to try and force CBK to reopen the bank. An investigation by PriceWaterhouseCoopers indicated some 839 accounts had no opening forms or customer instructions despite some of the accounts handling billions of shillings in transactions. With the liquidation of Charterhouse Bank, a chapter on a rogue Kenyan bank has closed. Friends School Kamusinga and Lugulu Girls Secondary from Bungoma topped the charts in western region in the 2020 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination results released yesterday. With 13 candidates scoring plain As and 85 A minus, Friends School that has traditionally dominated the national exams in the region posted a mean grade of 9.516385. The top candidate, Kevin Kipkurui Ngetich, scored grade A with 83 points. Other candidates who scored plain As with 82 points are Reinhard Kipkoech, Dalton Obure, Lewis Makokha, Franklin Mwasame Ian Kiplagat, Emmanuel Wandera and Albert Sanya. Those who scored plain A with 81 points are Abrahim Kibet, Bryan Otango, Elvis Wakhungu, Emmanuel Omondi and Nashon Simiyu. Lugulu Girls had eight candidates with plain As and 61 A minus grades. The top candidate from the school, Brendah Mutai Jerotich, scored an A of 83 points followed by Mercy Choni Mbaru with an A of 82 points. Other top performers from the schools with As are Cecila Shelvin Achieng (82 points), Bren Kurui (81points) and Mercy Wasonga Awuor (81points), Charity Chelimo (81), and Albright Madigo Atieno (81points). The top candidate at Butere Girls from Kakamega, Faith Rono, scored an A of 82 points. Other top candidates from the school with As are Lyn Brenda (82 points) and Phylis Akinyi (81 points). Other top performers from western region included Kakamega School that posted four plain As and 34 A minus grades. The top candidates from Kakamega School were Kombo Njuimani (83 points) and Owen Changeling Edwin (82 points). Chavakali Boys from Vihiga County had four candidates with As, with the top candidate, David Okello, scoring an A of 83 points. Kiptoo Gideon was second with an A of 82 points. Stellar performance Kenya High School topped the 2020 KCSE examination with a dominant presence on the list of the top 15 candidates nationally, maintaining a legacy of stellar performance even as some traditional giants missed from the list. The school had six candidates on the list, and also produced the top girl nationally. The best overall candidate, however, was Simiyu Robin Wanjala from Murang'a High School, who scored straight As with a tally of 87.334 points. He was followed by Wasonga Allan Udoma of Agoro Sare, who scored 87.173 points. Sharon Chepng'eno of Kenya High School emerged the top girl in the country with 87.173 points. "I thank God for this. We always put God first but also work hard. We received a lot of support from our teachers, who are very committed to duty, non-teaching staff and parents. We also have a chaplain to guide the students," Kenya High School principal, Flora Mulatya, told the Nation. Tears of joy freely rolled down her cheeks as Education CS George Magoha read the list of top performers. The school had 294 candidates. The examinations, which were rescheduled from last year, were the first high school final tests to be administered under the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic notwithstanding, more candidates qualified for university admission than in 2019. There was also an increase in the number of the top grade achievers. The results, which were released by Prof Magoha at the Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec) headquarters in Nairobi, showed that 893 (0.12 per cent) of the candidates scored a mean grade of A compared to the 627 (0.09 per cent) candidates in the 2019 examinations. "Their battle was fought with resilience and won with grace," Prof Magoha said. In a marked improvement from 2019, more candidates made the cut for university admission after 143,140 (19.03 per cent) scored the minimum C+ (plus) and above. Among the qualifiers for university are 223 candidates with special needs. The top candidate with special needs is Kipkemoi Miriam Chepleting, who scored an A plain of 84.8 points. She was a student at Moi Girls High School Eldoret and was followed by Getugi Edgar Omoke (83.566) from Kisii High and Nebet Nyariki Ongubo (81.414) from Nyambaria High School. KCSE giants The other top 15 candidates are: Moriasi Bob B. Ongare ( 87.139) Alliance High, Mbugua Esther Wachuchu (87.113) Kenya High, Mark Kogo (87.106) Alliance High, Kenneth Oranga (87.049) Kapsabet Boys, Henry Madaga (87.046) Maranda High, Chepkorir Patience (87.046) Kenya High, Musomba Edith Kithei ( 87.013) Machakos Girls, Lesley Loise Wanjiku (86.999) Kenya High, Pile Ron George (86.970) Kapsabet Boys, Kiprono Howard (86.949) Maranda High, Njelimo Debrah (86.947) Kenya High, Buluma Daizy Nerima (86.939) Kenya High. The list of top performers, however, missed some of the KCSE giants of yesteryears and some much sought-after national schools. There was no place in the list for schools like Starehe Boys' Centre, Precious Blood Riruta, Pangani Girls' High School, Moi High Kabarak and Sunshine School, which have in the past topped the national charts. The Education CS observed that the Form Four leavers will join universities and other tertiary level institutions as earlier anticipated before Covid-19 disrupted the school calendar. Universities will admit the students in September. He instructed the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service to start placement of the students immediately, while promising that the Higher Education Loans Board will be ready to advance loans to the students. A total of 747,161 candidates sat the 2020 KCSE examination against a registration of 752,602, meaning that 5,441 did not sit the test. The high number of dropouts was anticipated as many candidates fell off the way after staying for seven months out of school due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Thousands of girls got pregnant while others got married. Prof Magoha revealed that 652 candidates sat their examinations from maternity wards after delivering. In the 2019 examinations, a total of 282 female candidates sat their KCSE examination in hospitals. "The number of candidates sitting exams (while pregnant) was the highest in history. We must get to the root cause of the problem," said Prof Magoha, while blaming parents for neglecting their responsibilities when the students were at home. Counties with the highest cases of pregnant candidates included Bungoma (43), Meru (38), Nakuru (36), Kisii (36) and Nandi (31). Boys were reported to have engaged in drug and substance abuse, with others reported to have opted for informal businesses like boda bodas. Some 380,327 of the candidates were male, representing 50.90 per cent while 366,834 were female, representing 49.10 per cent of the total. In the 2019 examination, 697,222 candidates sat the exams. Female candidates Prof Magoha said 15 counties had more female candidates than male examinees. They include Taita Taveta, Kwale, Nyandarua, Nyeri, Kirinyaga, Murang'a, Kiambu, Machakos, Kitui, Meru, Nandi, Elgeyo Marakwet, Kakamega, Vihiga and Kisumu. "The counties with high gender disparity in favour of male candidates during the 2020 KCSE examination included Mandera, Wajir, Garissa, Turkana and Homa Bay," said Prof Magoha. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Education Kenya Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The CS also noted that Turkana County had the highest percentage of over-age candidates (1,603) or 0.213 per cent while Bungoma County had the highest percentage of under-age candidates (1,344; 0.179 per cent). Significant improvement in performance was recorded in 19 subjects compared to 16 subjects in 2019. Knec acting CEO Mercy Karogo said the candidates sat the examinations in 10,565 examination centres while 25,135 examiners were involved in the marking, which was concluded last week. Knec staff worked round-the-clock over the weekend analysing and processing the results. Whereas Prof Magoha said that no results for schools were cancelled, 287 candidates will not receive their results after having been adjudged to have been involved in examination irregularities. The CS, however, fired a warning that more results might be recalled after conclusion of ongoing forensic investigations. The Teachers Service Commission CEO Nancy Macharia said tutors involved in examination cheating will be removed from the teachers' register if found guilty. "We will act decisively and conclusively on errant teachers while upholding the rules of natural justice and the principle of due process as stipulated in the Code of Regulations for Teachers," said Ms Macharia. She announced that the commission will launch a biometric system to collect data of teachers in all schools to ensure that teachers involved in malpractices are punished. Reported by Benson Amadala, Derick Luvega and Brian Ojamaa, David Muchunguh and Faith Nyamai The federal government yesterday secured a major victory in its case against Malabu Oil and Gas after a United Kingdom High Court-ordered JP Morgan Chase, the bank in the middle of the alleged scandal, to release more documents to the lawyers representing Nigeria. Nigeria had asked the UK court to force the United States bank to disclose more records ahead of a trial in which JP Morgan stands accused of enabling the misappropriation of almost $900 million in state funds. The court granted the Nigerian application to secure records from top US executives and compliance officers involved in signing off $875 million in payments between 2011 and 2013 relating to the controversial OPL 245 oil licence deal. Lawyers representing Nigeria said last week that there had been "serious issues" with the US bank's approach to disclosure, adding that its focus on documents and interactions between staff in Europe was "unduly narrow." Delivering the order, Justice Neil Calver said: "A key issue in these proceedings is what JPMC knew and when it knew it," a report in yesterday's edition of Financial Times quoted him as saying. Calver ruled that certain US compliance documents, the significance of which JP Morgan played down at last week's hearing, were "likely to be relevant to the case on gross negligence." The trial is due to start next February after the bank failed in a 2019 attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed. The 2011 deal was an attempt to end a multi-year battle over the ownership of the lucrative OPL 245 oil licence. However, it ensnared European oil majors Royal Dutch Shell and Eni in corruption investigations in Italy. The licence, in the years prior, was shuffled back and forth between Shell and Malabu, a Nigerian oil company backed by a former Petroleum Minister, Dan Etete, that was first awarded development rights in 1998, when he was still serving under the late Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha (rtd). A Milan court in March cleared the oil companies and their senior and former executives of any wrongdoing, and Etete of corruption charges. But Nigeria is pushing ahead with its case in London against JP Morgan and seeking compensation of $875 million-plus interest from the bank for facilitating two payments in 2011 totalling $801.5 million and one in 2013 for $74.2 million. The country alleged that it was a victim of a "fraudulent and corrupt scheme" involving bribes paid to former and current Nigerian politicians and oil executives through the transfer of funds via Malabu accounts. JP Morgan had argued that it received sufficient approvals from Nigerian authorities before allowing the transfer of funds from a government account to those controlled by Etete. Nigeria had also argued that JP Morgan breached its duty of care by going ahead with payments out of the government account despite having reasonable grounds to believe they were intended to defraud it. JP Morgan, the government said in court, "took the irrevocable step of paying vast sums away to Malabu". It highlighted that JP Morgan had not only notified the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency of the proposed payments, it had filed four "Suspicious Activity Reports" in 2011. A US-based compliance officer for JP Morgan also raised a red flag in 2013, saying in a memo revealed in court that "in light of Malabu's reported connection to the alleged Nigerian corruption scheme, there would be a great risk presented if JPMC continues to process wires involving Malabu." The memo was intended to prepare Pamela Johnson, the bank's global head of financial crime compliance, for a meeting with then Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Matt Zames, indicating the matter had escalated to the highest ranks of JP Morgan. The bank is now obliged to share further documentation linked to Johnson and other top US executives, including Lester Pataki and John Gibbons. In previous hearings, even as the bank said it had "no responsibility" to look behind any payment instructions, the judge said this was not consistent with the agreement the bank had with its client. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Nigeria Legal Affairs Petroleum By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. fter the ruling, Financial Times quoted a representative of the Nigerian government to have said: "It is high time JP Morgan gave a clear and unambiguous account of exactly how the decisions to make these huge payments were made when it was on notice that to pay out risked its customer, Nigeria, being defrauded." Last week, fresh documents on the long-standing legal dispute between the federal government and Malabu Oil & Gas showed that JP Morgan may have been alerted by its internal control system that the transfers were questionable. A report by Bloomberg indicated that JP Morgan Chase & Co. was warned by its compliance team over the "great risk" of corruption just days before it made the last of three transfers that totalled $875 million to Etete. The federal government had alleged that most of the $1.3 billion purchase price for the licence for the offshore oilfield known as OPL 245 was siphoned off to politicians and middlemen under previous administrations. With Agency Report Given its national importance and the irreplaceable economic and social benefits it yields to the national economy, Ethiopia has started constructing a flagship hydropower dam (Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam-GERD) at its water resource-Abay River. Following the commencement of the dam, however, a number of concerns have been raised regarding the dam, saying it will reduce the pattern and flow of water and causes environmental issues. In fact, the potential impacts of the dam have been studied;and for the past decade Ethiopia has been concomitantly reiterating as the nation has no intention to harm riparian countries, including Sudan and Egypt, except developing it for generating hydroelectric power. Incontestably,the dam,apart from benefiting Ethiopia has greater role in strengthening regional integration, in terms of facilitating economic corporation in the Horn, specifically with Sudan.Through providing energy interconnection and creating economic cooperation, the GERDbenefits Sudan in numerous ways. As studies indicate, the dam will be capable of handling flood, reduce alluvium in Sudan and also facilitates irrigation of new agricultural lands. What is more, it will enable Sudan to sustain regular flow of water throughout the year and harvest three times in a year. According toDr. Osman Altoum, former Minister of Water and Irrigation of Sudan, GERD is a very beneficial project and is a blessing for all countries in the Horn as it can bolster economic integration. Inan interview he held recently with Sudanese's National TV, he said, if the three countries Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ethiopia Construction Oceans By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. (Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt) work on it accordingly, there is a lot of gain from the dam. "Ethiopia is working to ensure sustainable food security. On the other way round, Sudan is indire need of hydropower generation. And this is an area where those two countries could sit together and work on it so as to benefit from it. In an exclusive interview with ENA, Professor Seifeldin Hamad Abdalla, Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) Secretariat Executive Director also said that the dam would play a crucial role in economic integration among the countries. Thus, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt should resolve the issue of the dam peacefully and amicably. "Itis important for the countries to come to a common understanding on this issue and agree on the filling and operation of the dam together because an agreement is very important for this project; and even for future projects." True, GERD has a number of benefits to Sudan and Egypt.What is more, it will offer a long term development potential for countries of the region. Currently, Ethiopia is in the final stage of completing the construction of the Dam and it has also set plans to hold the second round dam reservoir filling in this upcoming rainy season, July and August.The filling would not be rescheduled as it has its own huge economic costs and all at once the public is waiting eagerly for its successful completion. Thus, instead of attempting to make the dam a source of contention, Sudan and Egypt have to work to reach to significant concessions ending up their intractable rhetoric and futile stabs Ethiopia is a country endowed with many spices products. By adding values to spice products and processing part of them, the nation exports spice to various parts of the world. Spice is, therefore, one area that helps the country to gain foreign currency income. Turmeric is one of the top listed spices in Ethiopia which produces in the South Nation and Nationality and partly in Oromia states. Little producers are partly processing turmeric and supplying for the international market. Due to the less quality and quantity of turmeric, the country has earned less amount of foreign currency. In short, producing turmeric both in quality and quantity and expanding market destinations is quite imperative to up the income from the export and make the farmers beneficiary Nati Coffee and Spice processing company is one among the top listed investors engaged in turmeric production. Of the total 120 hectares of land, the company covered its 40 hectares of land with turmeric products and harvested once a year, said Company General Manager Getachew Mamo. "On average, we harvest 70 to 100 quintals of turmeric per annum. Though the company has been producing turmeric since its inception, it has exported spice products over the past six years and created permanent and temporary jobs for 26 and 300 citizens respectively. However, presently due to the pandemic, it is difficult to get sufficient labourers. Even the existing workers are not able to do their job in their full capacity. Nevertheless, things are facilitated for few workers to do their job keeping their distance even if their performance is inadequate. Apart from producing turmeric by its capacity, the company organized 150 farmers and encouraged them to produce the same by buying the yield at a reasonable cost. The company then exports semi-processed turmeric products for its customers abroad. India, Singapore and Dubai are countries that received Ethiopia's turmeric product; Getachew said adding that presently, though the company is not capable of exporting the product to Dubai and Singapore, the export to India is still operating. As the product is highly demanded by these countries, if we can produce the spice keeping the desired quality and quantity, the country can get extensive market access and earn a sizable amount of foreign currency. In this regard, the company planned to increase turmeric product productivity adding value to it. For this to happen, the government should work to increase such sort of product giving special emphasis. If financial institutions such as the Development Bank facilitate loans to investors, they can increase the product both in quality and quantity using modern machinery. Though turmeric products are increasing, as the exported products were not keeping their quality or holding Aflatoxin, the spice sector was faced with challenges. By lobbying recipient countries, dodging illegal traders who export unqualified products of turmeric abroad, the company is striving to build the image of the country concerning spice products. The absence of quality exists when the product is accumulated without drying it properly. As it generates Aflatoxin substance, the decayed turmeric is hazardous to human health. Therefore, the challenge can only be avoided by drying the turmeric products. The general manager said that to address the challenge sustainably, the company is striving to ensure quality products through raising awareness of farmers, offering continuous training and supplying seeds. In doing so, things are changing for the better. Without limiting ourselves, we have to work harder to increase the quality and quantity of turmeric products to get a better income. On the other hand, the government should encourage farmers to provide various supports. The farmers will get benefit if it produces a sizable amount of turmeric products. If they get little support from the government, farmers can produce quality products and gain benefit from producing spices such as turmeric. If this is so, the country will maximize foreign currency earnings more than ever before. Indicating that there is no other challenge observed in the production and processing of turmeric, he said that the Tea and Coffee Authority should offer training on how farmers produce quality products. Oftentimes, knowingly exporters who supply turmeric products mixing unwanted materials on spice products are swaying the export performance. If we make strong supervision, providing quality products things will change, he said. Molla Demisse, Spice Product Preparation and Agro-processing Director at Tea and Coffee Authority said that the spice sector has not received special attention like coffee. Various tasks have been carried out in the existing and adopt new turmeric species that came from abroad. Effective and productive species would be supplied for willing and intensive farmers. The agreement made between them is, producers will return seeds they take from the authority in the harvest season. By its nature turmeric is boiled after rooting out from the soil. However, the farmer uses traditional methods that took extensive amounts of labour, firewood and time. However, some associations tried to support farmers by providing technology that simplifies the task of cooking and laminating the product easily, the director said. The authority has been providing timely assistance both for farmers and traders apart from offering training to raise knowledge towards the production, processing and handling of turmeric products. To creating market linkage, the authority has not been providing due support for the spice sector and that can be cited as a hurdle. Nowadays, research has been conducted to identify natural and manmade challenges and remedies to make the sector effective. According to the study, most commonly, the sector is challenged by man-made glitches. One is supplying turmeric mixing with unrelated elements. Some other traders are mixing other colourful substances in the spice to make its colour very attractive. Though the authority has deliberated with stakeholders on the identified remedies, what is left is implementation. Even society has been undermining the spice sector. "Spice is nothing but makes our food spicy and enjoyable." said the majority of the public. Even spice products will be produced magnificently, the people do not consider its benefits. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ethiopia Agribusiness Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. These days, spice is one among many sectors that help the youth and women to earn their living. If we can plant turmeric seeds in a plot of land, many people can be beneficial from this economic subsector. For this to happen, various tasks need to be carried out. According to Getachew, turmeric production continues increasing over the past three years. By the year 2019 alone, the country was able to produce 244,287 quintals of turmeric. As it does not require spending huge amounts of capital and intensive care, one can get an extensive amount of turmeric products easily, said Getachew adding that once the land is covered by the seed, farmers can collect the yield keeping its harvest time. On the other hand, the element found in turmeric is useful both for meal and colour preparation. Therefore, utilizing all the opportunities and facilitating conditions, turmeric can be produced as per the desired quality and quantity for the benefit of the society and the nation as well. Concerning market linkage, it is essential to create a market that pays for quality turmeric products. If we can do this, farmers will be encouraged to produce it extensively. By and large, giving special attention to the sector, strengthening the market and quality control system, raising awareness of farmers, the country can maximize profit out of the spice sector in general and turmeric spice in particular. BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW The Ethiopia Herald May 14/2021 ADDIS ABABA--Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (Ph.D) and Congolese President and current African Union(AU) Chairperson Felix Tshisekedi here yesterday discussed extensively on various current issues including the tripartite negotiation on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) Accordingly, President Felix Tshisekedi is expected to discuss a number of issues revolving around the two countries bilateral ties, regional and tripartite negotiation on GERD with Ethiopian senior officials. The ways that help address a range of problems in Ethiopia and the Horn are expected to be dealt with. Recently Democratic Republic of Congo has expressed its keen interest on reopening its embassy in Addis Ababa in a bid to bolster the two countries long standing historical ties. President Felix Tshisekedi was warmly welcomed by Water, Irrigation and Energy Minister Eng.Silesh Bekele ( Ph.D) upon arrival at Bole International Airport, Addis Ababa. Prior to coming to Ethiopia, the AU chairperson visited Egypt, it was learnt. BY MISGANAW ASNAKE As we observe Freedom of the Press day this week, it would be relevant to share some reflections on how democracy and press freedom are intertwined and how deficit in one area is reflected in the other, and this interdependence is facing the test of time as we face election 2021 in Ethiopia. It would also be convenient to point at the fact that both freedom of the press and democratic elections are predicated on a culture of democracy that evolve through many decades and endure the test of time. Basically speaking, why Ethiopia has so far achieved neither the one nor the other may be related to the fact that it has not built a democratic culture either imported from abroad or its own home-grown brand based on its history, traditions and cultures. It would also be necessary to indicate to the bitter reality that democracy and press freedom have a better chance of success in countries where a solid democratic culture is established and exercised while its chance of survival is diminished or ruled out in countries where such a culture is non-existent. In fact, if there is a most used and abused lexicon of political science, it is obviously the term democracy which is dear to the hearts and minds of millions if not billions of people around the world while it is abused by an equal number of people. Hardly a day passes without democracy being mentioned in the media, in political meetings, in media reports or in the program of so many political parties. All government around the world loudly proclaim their commitment to democracy although only a few of them have si far succeeded to live up to this promise. It has become an established practice to judge the political system of countries on the basis of their adherence to democratic principles and practices. Many think tanks have been established around the world to monitor the pace of democratic change in countries and categorize them into two groups as countries with authoritarian, semi-authoritarian, democratic or semi-democratic , or political systems in transition. As we said above Ethiopia has not yet established a solid foundation for democratic culture and democratic governance. The process requires decades of sustainable efforts and systematic adherence to the universal principles popular vote and popular legitimacy. By the same token, Ethiopia's tradition of press freedom is still fragile and not predicated on a democratic culture of tolerance, equal rights before the law impartiality and independence. For this reason and other reasons, the greatest challenge facing Ethiopian intellectual elites at this juncture is to be able to learn from their past mistakes, adopt a more tolerant frame of mind and abandon the usual zero sum politics in which all parties lost in the bargain. Democracy is also one of the most misunderstood and misconceived ideas in political literature and practice. Even the most successful democratic systems in the world such as those in the United States and Europe still have serious issues with democracy hundreds of years after they proclaimed democratic regimes. The United States has been toying with the idea of democracy and its practical implications for the last two hundred years and the job is not yet finished. Democracy in America has sometimes been used and most often abused and even threatened with reversals. As early as last year, American democracy was threatened with the authoritarian behaviors and ideas of the Trump administration that often displayed fascistic tendencies and the emergence of a one-man authoritarian regime disguised as democracy. What saved the US from slipping into a new kind of right wing dictatorship is the fact that the system is well-anchored and well-institutionalized so much so no one person however powerful can shake it off, less demolish it with nationalistic or America First rhetoric. The test of a democracy is in fact its ability to withstand the stresses and strains of electoral politics and survive crises born of right wing nationalistic and fascistic tendencies. Most of all, democracy in the West could survive simply because it has well-entrenched or institutionalized thanks to the existence of independent democratic structures that function irrespective of who is at the top as president or Prime Minister. British democracy has proved strong and irreversible simply because the democratic institutions, such as parliament, the bureaucracy, the army and the media function independently and in accordance with established laws, and rules and procedures that developed for many centuries. As a corollary to this, Western democracies have developed and survived many crises because of the prevailing systems of separation of powers, and rule of law. They have established a democratic political culture. Political culture, like any aspect of culture develops through time after being tested by history and practical politics. The existence or absence of political culture is what makes the difference between and among countries that have built a vibrant and functioning democratic culture and those that have failed to establish such a system. By the same token, democratic elections are relatively easier to carry out in countries where the democratic culture is developed than in countries where democratic culture is less developed or is totally absent. For many centuries, Ethiopian political culture was dominated by autocratic political systems based on the absolute authority of kings and military tyrants until a democratic revolution terminated this long and agonizing period in recent Ethiopian history. Some forty years ago, in 1974 to be more exact, Ethiopia experienced a democratic revolution that demanded land to the tiller, freedom of speech, the rights of assembly and organization. Unfortunately the democratic openings that emerged following the revolution were quickly snuffed and an authoritarian system came into existence lasting for 17 years. Again in 1991, another opportunity for democracy was opened up as the Derg regime was toppled and the EPRDF came to power promising to establish a democratic system of government whereby power would only be captured only through genuinely democratic elections. This promise was unfulfilled as the new system returned to the old autocratic practices in the guise of democracy and the rest is history. Back in 2005, the EPRDF again held elections promising a fair, inclusive, honest in accordance with universal standards and practices. Yet again, 2005 proved an electoral fiasco and what followed was a regime that was ever more determined to preserve its privileges at any cost. The abortion of democracy was indeed painful. And we had to wait 13 years before the people were fed up of such a system and decided to get rid of it. Another opportunity for democratic election and democratic governance was born again in 2018 and is still uner going serious tests. Since 1974, the country has gone through two revolutions and a reform program that was launched three years ago. Despite these changes Ethiopia has not been able to build a democratic political system based on universal principles. It has not guaranteed a genuine freedom of the press in practice although the constitution stipulate these rights. Why is Ethiopia has not lived up to those lofty promises that only remained empty promises for almost half a century? The answer or answers to this question may be complex. There can hardly be a simple answer to the question because the political process that has led to the present impasse has many variables that need to be analyzed objectively and honestly. Democracy is not only about power. It is mainly about building a new political culture. Ethiopia has not yet achieved this in 50 years of political upheavals. First and foremost, democracy was little understood and less practiced in Ethiopia after the revolution. Democracy meant so many things to so many people and there was no consensus as the ultimate objectives of democracy in the Ethiopian context. We lost precious time and historic opportunities by wrestling with Marxist-Leninist ideology which was not only a non-Ethiopian viewpoint but was also wrongly conceived as a weapon of destruction of the old system without a clear strategy as how to build a new one. Poor reading of the idea of democracy and the absence of creative application of the concept sometimes led to bitter arguments among the intellectual elites that ultimately led to armed confrontations and mutual extermination. Democracy needs dialogue, tolerance, humility and a long process of debate and intellectual maturity to bear the desired results. The Ethiopian leftist politicians of the 1970s and post-1970s lacked the experience, the vision and the intelligence to properly and creatively understand or articulate an authentically Ethiopian democratic vision. Those who came to power after the revolution used democracy as a smokescreen while in practice they resorted to authoritarian rule whether under the Derg or under the EPRDF. Pseudo-democratic elections were used as a means of legitimizing their rules and retain their powers forever. They had no patience or commitment to educate the people in the school of democracy so that they could take part in election as informed voters who have clear ideas as to the real stakes. The intellectuals in the opposition spent all their times generating opposing views and not enlightening alternatives as a result of which voters are often duped at elections. Most of all, the intellectual elites had failed to generate alternative ideas that could take into consideration the objective political realities of the country in order to developed democratic ideas based that are in tune with the needs and aspirations of the people. They did not take traditional democratic practices into consideration in order to develop a home-grown ideological alternatives. They stuck to old notions of democracy that looked either to the West or to the East. Consequently, the battle of ideas took mistaken directions. Instead of patience, knowledge or learning, what took the upper hands were anger, hate, mutual recrimination and political vendetta that quickly degenerated into an all out war against one another. Lately, the introduction of ethnic elements into politics further exacerbated the struggle for power and led the people into a political impasse. The cleavage between the interests of intellectual elites and those of the masses widened and chaos reigned in the marketplace of ideas. What we are now witnessing is the combined outcome of the mistakes and misconceptions that were not rectified in time before they assumed such a grotesque proportion. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ethiopia Governance Media By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Freedom of the press like democracy needs time to mature and become functional. There were good beginnings during all those years of revolutionary changes. Yet the windows of opportunity for press freedom were quickly closed and old ideas and practices returned with vengeance. The Russians built their political culture on the 1905 democratic revolution. The Chinese based their brand of democracy on the what they call the May 4th movement of 1924. Latin American countries had also their moments of democratic culture on which they based their democratic systems that were fragile while they proved more or less sustainable. Africa was at a disadvantage. Colonial powers shaped the nature of African democracy by putting it in their own mould that did not fit well into the African body politic. Ethiopia is still wrangling with the idea or practice of democracy and democratic culture simply because the country wasted so much time and energy on irrelevant issues such as the struggle between the political Left and Right and Marxist-Leninist ideology that are completely out of the mark, leading to catastrophic results. It has so far squandered four or five opportunities for laying the real foundations for a functioning political culture. Fortunately, it is now facing another opportunity for correcting the wrong ideas and policies of the past. It should not squander the opportunity this time because the consequences might be too dangerous to ignore. Ethiopia has waited fifty years to reach the present stage. It cannot obviously weight another half century to make democracy both a culture and a tool of governance. We have what it takes to start building a democratic culture. What we lack is the will and patience as well as the tolerance to work together to reach this lofty national ideal for which the nation and its people fought and suffered for half a century. BY MULUGETA GUDETA The Ethiopia Herald May 14/2021 The production of leather shoes in Ethiopia dates from the late 1930s when Armenian merchants founded two shoe factories in Addis Ababa. These factories nurtured a number of shoemakers, who opened their own factories in Addis Ababa and trained their workers. Today, the neighborhood of Mercato, a huge marketplace in the city, swarms with shoemakers, wholesale shops dealing in leather, soles, and shoe accessories, and shoe retail stores. Industrial clusters like this are ubiquitous in developing as well as developed countries because of agglomeration economies originally pointed out by Marshall (1920). If transacting parties are located near each other, transport costs are saved, transaction costs due to imperfect information and imperfect contract enforcement are lowered, and good products and superior production practices diffuse quickly. Thus, industrial clusters enhance the division and specialization of labor among enterprises, the development of the market for skilled workers, and the dissemination of technical and managerial knowledge. Such agglomeration economies attract new enterprises to a cluster, making the cluster larger and reinforcing the agglomeration economies. The footwear industry in Ethiopia is thriving, and in the early 2000s, it managed to recover the domestic market which had been swept by imported Chinese shoes in the late 1990s. Using primary enterprise-level data, this article finds that the industry has been growing not only because of a number of new entrants but also because existing enterprises have been expanding by improving product quality and developing new marketing systems. Such multifaceted improvements have been introduced by highly educated entrepreneurs, who have successfully expanded the size of their enterprises. This development pattern is surprisingly similar to that commonly found in East Asia. Accordingly, one of the major contributors to foreign exchange earnings and boosting the country's economy is the shoe factory. However, the export and import of footwear depends solely on a handful of manufacturers. According to the data obtained from Leather Industry Development Institute, there are four major shoe manufacturers and exporters. According to Tesfaye Berhanu, Director of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the Institute, they are Huajayan, a large Chinese company, Yugang, a sister company, Georisha Factory, a Taiwanese company, and New Wing, an Italian company. Earlier to the outbreak of COVID-19, these four factories alone could able to earn 70 percent of the annual market share plan for the last year. Huajayan's sister factory, Yugang Factory, and Taiwan's Georgesha alone generated 65 percent of their annual foreign exchange earnings up to November last year. However, this year, especially since the outbreak of COVIDE 19 in March last year, the sector's revenue has declined significantly. For example, it was planned to earn 50.93 million USD from the shoe market during the last eight months. Its revenue for the first eight months, however, was 26.16 million USD which is 52 percent of the plan. According to the director, the plan certainly took into account the global and national market conditions of the field. In this regard, it was hoped that in the first six months of the 2020/21 fiscal year, COVID 19 would be reduced and the larger shoe factories, such as Huajayan, would be operational. Last year's performance up to November has been good, but since March this year, production orders have been declining due to the threat of the COVID 19 epidemic. Some of the giant shoe manufacturers and exporters have even dispersed their workers. Of course, the global market is in full swing. But the factories could not enter into production and export. As a result, only 52 percent of the target was achieved in eight months. Although COVID's impact on the recession was huge, he said there were many other problems in the field. Some of the problems are structural problems that can be solved over time. Some of them of course, need to be resolved quickly, but sustained being a problem until now because of structural problem in the field. He further explained that the sector's biggest problem is the supply of foreign exchange. For the past eight or nine months, there has been no foreign exchange supply for chemicals, leather goods and softeners. In this regard, some shoe factories have failed to supply the type of product that the market requires. Besides, lack of operating fund is one of the problems the factories encountered. The government is making efforts to address these issues prioritizing the manufacturing industry this year, especially in terms of foreign exchange supply. Another problem in the past eight months has been lack of supply and exchange of salt which is domestic product and does not require foreign exchange. Salt, one of the basic inputs, is used to soften and tan the skin to make shoes. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ethiopia Manufacturing By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Salt is needed not only by factories but also by skin collectors. Due to unavailability of the salt, in recent months, the skin collectors have found it difficult to collect the skins and treat with salt. However, as was often the case, there was a shortage of salt in the field for various reasons. This has been a major obstacle to the production and export of footwear. However, the government has now solved the problem in collaboration with the Afar State. According to the director, on the other hand, the shortage of lime remains still unresolved in the field. The Derba Cement Factory, which supplies lime chemicals, has been plagued by problems with the power supply and processing of lime. However, this problem has been resolved well since last February. But it is undeniable that it has had an impact on the industry to some extent. Tesfaye also said that the government is paying attention to the lime supply and it is not expected to be a problem anymore. BY BACHA ZEWDIE The Ethiopia Herald May 14/2021 (The Center Square) Indiana is expecting to begin receiving payouts later this year and next year from settlements from its lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors and will also be receiving tens of millions of dollars from the federal government to address the opioid epidemic. The total amount of money expected to be received will likely total more than $700 million. Most of it will have to be spent on addiction treatment, education and prevention. Two attorneys from the Indiana Attorney Generals office gave the update on the states suits against drug makers last week during a meeting of the Indiana Commission to Combat Drug Abuse. Cory Voight, director of complex litigation for the Attorney Generals office, reviewed all the suits the state has filed starting with its suit against Purdue Pharma, maker of Oxycontin, in November of 2018, followed by a second suit filed against the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, in May of 2019. Both suits were halted when Purdue Pharma filed for bankruptcy, Voight said. Purdue Pharmas $7 billion bankruptcy plan is now before a judge in New York, who is expected to soon decide whether to approve it. Thousands of Hoosiers have lost their lives to opioid overdoses in the last several years, Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita had said in March when the plan was first announced, and I am encouraged that this plan will lead to much-needed and long-overdue aid for our citizens. The opioid epidemic continues to plague our great state, and I will do all I can to see that this plan helps end our citizens suffering. To get its full share of the settlement, Voight said the state has to show it has a plan. Indiana has already passed a law affirming a plan whereby the Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) will divide the state into regions, with money distributed to each region to help with the opioid addiction crisis. Marion County and Lake County will be their own regions, said Voight, based on their population. In 2020, 816 Hoosiers died of an opioid overdose either from prescription pain killers or from heroine or fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. This was down from 2019, when the number of opioid deaths was 1,246. The highest death rate from opioid overdoses was in Fayette County, near the Ohio border, where the rate of death from an opioid overdose between 2013 and 2017 was 58.8 per 100,000 population. Support Local Journalism Now, more than ever, the world needs trustworthy reportingbut good journalism isnt free. Please support us by making a contribution. Contribute Voight said Indiana should get its first distribution of money from the Purdue Pharma settlement before the end of the year, and the funds must be used for treatment, prevention and education programs. But in addition to the Purdue Pharma and Sackler family suits, in October of 2019 Indiana had filed a third lawsuit this one against the companies that distributed opioids to pharmacies in the state Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen. The potential settlement in this case is expected to be about $21 billion, and will be distributed to all the states involved starting most likely in early 2022, said Voight. There is also a potential settlement with Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, Janssen, maker of an opioid that was distributed in Indiana. This settlement, said deputy attorney general Betsy DeNardi, is expected to be $5 billion for all states combined. But the amount of money the state gets, she said, will depend on whether the state has the "buy-in" of cities and counties that also filed suit against the company for its role in the states opioid crisis. In addition, the state will be getting tens of millions of dollars in state and federal assistance to deal with the opioid problem, including $45 million from the federal government that was earmarked in the Omnibus Appropriations bill that passed last fall, $45-$60 million from the American Rescue Plan Act passed this spring, and $100 million from the state of Indiana that was in the budget bill that passed last month -- $50 million in fiscal year 2022 and another $50 million in fiscal year 2023. We all know this is one-time money, said Jay Choudhary of FSSA of the programs now being set up to distribute these funds. We want this to be a journey to a healthier and happier Indiana by 2025. ADDIS ABABA (ENA) - Council of the European Union on Monday approved conclusions affirming the EU's commitment to give new impetus to its partnership with the Horn of Africa, and establishing a new strategy for the region. A geo-strategic priority for the European Union (EU) in Africa, the Horn of Africa region has undergone unprecedented developments over the last years and is now at a crossroads, according to EU. With this new strategy, EU's intention is to further strengthen and deepen its strategic relationship and partnership with the Horn of Africa and its countries, notably with a view to reduce instability, promote democracy and sustainable growth. The strategy will aim at reinforcing a joint approach to democracy and regional peace and security, revitalizing multilateralism and the rules-based international order, strengthening commitment to social and human development, boosting post-COVID-19 socio-economic recovery and trade and regional integration. The strategy also aims at strengthening the partnership with the broader region notably the Red Sea, the Western Indian Ocean and the Nile, it stated. The cornerstones of the EU's engagement will be mutual accountability, whereby there is a common understanding of each partner's responsibilities, priorities and concrete objectives, and a Team Europe approach, which has shown that through collective action the EU is a solid partner of the region. Malanje The state owes over nine billion kwanzas to private companies in Malanje province, resulting from the provision of goods and services, during the period from 2013 to 2017. The information was given to the press in Malanje today (Tuesday) by the deputy coordinator of the Technical Group for Support to State Creditors (GTACE) of the Ministry of Finance, Fausto Joao, at the end of a meeting with local businesspeople who are creditors of the State. According to the official, the amount corresponds to 285 registered processes, whose debts are being certified by the Ministry of Finance for later settlement. He explained that for the payment, the process goes through an investigation and certification of the debts, based on the contracts, invoices and other documents that make them up. Without giving any figures, he said that about 15 companies had already been paid their debts by the State, at a time when the remaining 285 credit processes at the Malanje level were being analysed. Fausto Joao said, on the other hand, that many debts had not yet been repaid because the processes lacked analysis, due to the lack of certification documents, particularly contracts and invoices for goods and services provided. The information was given to the press in Malanje today (Tuesday) by the deputy coordinator of the Technical Group for Support to State Creditors (GTACE) of the Ministry of Finance, Fausto Joao, at the end of a meeting with local businesspeople who are creditors of the State. According to the official, the amount corresponds to 285 registered processes, whose debts are being certified by the Ministry of Finance for later settlement. He explained that for the payment, the process goes through an investigation and certification of the debts, based on the contracts, invoices and other documents that make them up. Without giving any figures, he said that about 15 companies had already been paid their debts by the State, at a time when the remaining 285 credit processes at the Malanje level were being analysed. Fausto Joao said, on the other hand, that many debts had not yet been repaid because the processes lacked analysis, due to the lack of certification documents, particularly contracts and invoices for goods and services provided. Cazombo The vaccination campaign against Covid-19 started on Tuesday in Alto Zambeze municipality, eastern Moxico province, where 1,900 people are expected to be vaccinated. The municipality of Alto Zambeze, with over 100,000 inhabitants, is the fourth of the nine municipalities vaccinated so far (after Moxico, Camanongue and Bundas), having benefited from 3,800 doses of Astrazeneca's vaccines, for the two doses. At this stage, the administration of the doses will cover citizens considered as priority group, namely health professionals, teachers and members of the security force and public order. Speaking to ANGOP, the municipal health director, Jacinto Caumba Sandeze, said that despite some scepticism among the population, the first day of the campaign was marked with a considerable participation. According to Caumba Sandeze, the end of the campaign in the municipality located 519 kilometres away is scheduled for Saturday, and then the second dose will start. On the occasion, the municipal administrator of Alto Zambeze, Antonio Muquisse, encouraged the population to participate in the campaign, in order to contribute to fight the pandemic. The municipality of Alto Zambeze, with over 100,000 inhabitants, is the fourth of the nine municipalities vaccinated so far (after Moxico, Camanongue and Bundas), having benefited from 3,800 doses of Astrazeneca's vaccines, for the two doses. At this stage, the administration of the doses will cover citizens considered as priority group, namely health professionals, teachers and members of the security force and public order. Speaking to ANGOP, the municipal health director, Jacinto Caumba Sandeze, said that despite some scepticism among the population, the first day of the campaign was marked with a considerable participation. According to Caumba Sandeze, the end of the campaign in the municipality located 519 kilometres away is scheduled for Saturday, and then the second dose will start. On the occasion, the municipal administrator of Alto Zambeze, Antonio Muquisse, encouraged the population to participate in the campaign, in order to contribute to fight the pandemic. Lubango The United Nations Organisation (UNO) has for the current year funding of USD 56.3 million to support the plan for a socio-economic response to Covid-19 and cooperation for sustainable development with Angola. Of the total amount, USD 36.5 million is already available and the remainder is yet to be mobilised from partners, donors and other United Nations funds. The funding, managed by the 12 UN agencies present in Angola, is directed at economic and social transformation, women's empowerment, environment and resilience of the vulnerable population, as well as democracy and stability. Speaking to ANGOP Tuesday, the United Nations resident coordinator in Angola, Zahira Virani, said that the United Nations has a Global Fund project, where several agencies are working in an integrated way, to support the population directly with food, capacity building and resilience. She reiterated the organisation's readiness to collaborate on socio-economic projects and programmes aimed at the well-being of the population in order to achieve the goals of the 2030 agenda. Of the total amount, USD 36.5 million is already available and the remainder is yet to be mobilised from partners, donors and other United Nations funds. The funding, managed by the 12 UN agencies present in Angola, is directed at economic and social transformation, women's empowerment, environment and resilience of the vulnerable population, as well as democracy and stability. Speaking to ANGOP Tuesday, the United Nations resident coordinator in Angola, Zahira Virani, said that the United Nations has a Global Fund project, where several agencies are working in an integrated way, to support the population directly with food, capacity building and resilience. She reiterated the organisation's readiness to collaborate on socio-economic projects and programmes aimed at the well-being of the population in order to achieve the goals of the 2030 agenda. Luanda Angola registered, in the last 24 hours, the recovery of 373 patients, 271 new cases and 3 deaths. According to the clinical bulletin, the recovered patients are residents of Luanda province. Among the new cases, according to the note, 240 were diagnosed in Luanda, 13 in Huila, 11 in Cunene, 3 in Huambo, 2 in Uige, 1 in Malanje and 2 in Namibe. Of the new patients, whose ages range from 1 to 80 years old, 149 are men and 122 women. Two deaths were reported in Luanda and one in Namibe. In the last 24 hours, laboratories processed 2,625 samples. The general picture points to 29,146 positive cases, with 639 deaths, 25,145 recovered and 3,362 active. Of the active cases, 20 are critical, 36 serious, 147 moderate, 74 light and 3,085 asymptomatic. In the treatment centres, 277 patients are hospitalised, while 47 are in institutional quarantine centres. The authorities are monitoring 1,434 contacts of positive cases. According to the clinical bulletin, the recovered patients are residents of Luanda province. Among the new cases, according to the note, 240 were diagnosed in Luanda, 13 in Huila, 11 in Cunene, 3 in Huambo, 2 in Uige, 1 in Malanje and 2 in Namibe. Of the new patients, whose ages range from 1 to 80 years old, 149 are men and 122 women. Two deaths were reported in Luanda and one in Namibe. In the last 24 hours, laboratories processed 2,625 samples. The general picture points to 29,146 positive cases, with 639 deaths, 25,145 recovered and 3,362 active. Of the active cases, 20 are critical, 36 serious, 147 moderate, 74 light and 3,085 asymptomatic. In the treatment centres, 277 patients are hospitalised, while 47 are in institutional quarantine centres. The authorities are monitoring 1,434 contacts of positive cases. press release The official opening of the Extra Ordinary Meeting of Ministers of Health and those responsible for HIV and AIDS was virtually hosted by Mozambique, as per a communique shared yesterday. The objective of the meeting was to examine the recommendations of the Expanded Technical Committee on Monitoring the Implementation of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Protocol on Health, and to provide guidance on regional face to face meetings for the May/June 2021 Summit of Heads of States and Government, and Council of Ministers. In her opening remarks, the Executive Secretary of SADC, DR. Stergomena Lawrence Tax, gave an outlook of the COVID-19 situation in the SADC region adding that Member States have been steadfast in the implementation of public health, and socio-economic measures to control the pandemic. The vaccination campaign against COVID-19, she underlined, is gaining momentum on the continent, with many countries having rolled out the vaccination drive, and more people being vaccinated. She thus appealed for increased and equal access to vaccines, enhancement of capacities in research as well as the manufacturing of medicines and vaccines for COVID-19 and other diseases in line to the African Union's recommendation on the importance for Africa to build its capabilities and reduce dependency on global markets. She also indicated that the Expanded Technical Committee for Coordinating and Monitoring the Implementation of the SADC Protocol on Health, developed guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures to facilitate cross-border movements of goods and public health surveillance. She expressed her gratitude to each and every one to contribute to the improvement of living standards and the livelihoods of SADC citizens in the fight against COVID-19. press release The Ministry of Health and Wellness has provided the following details following the detection of a positive case of COVID-19 on Tuesday 11 May 2021. - The person is a resident of Vacoas. - The patient's father was tested positive of COVID-19 in a private clinic in the evening of Monday 10 May 2021. - The positive result of the PCR test at the clinic was confirmed by the Central Laboratory of the Ministry of Health and Wellness. - During a Contact Tracing exercise, the positive patient informed the doctors at the Ministry that he had undergone a test as he had attended a place of worship where positive cases had been detected. - The resident of Vacoas also affirmed that he lives with his wife and that the couple has a 16/17 year old daughter, adding that the latter lives with her grandmother. - Doctors from the Ministry asked the patient if his daughter is currently undergoing any exams and his reply was NO. - On the same evening, 10 May 2021, a Contact Tracing team visited the patient's residence in Vacoas and came across both his wife and daughter. - PCR samples were taken from both of them as well as from other relatives living in the same yard. - The Contact Tracing team asked all those who have been screened not to go out and conveyed that a team from the Ministry of Health and Wellness would transport them to a quarantine centre on the next day, Tuesday, 11 May 2021. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Coronavirus Governance Mauritius By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. - In the morning of Tuesday 11 May 2021, the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology contacted the Ministry of Health and Wellness to inquire about the situation of a student who went for an exam in a secondary school in the Upper Plaines Wilhems. - The student went to the examination centre accompanied by her aunt. The latter supposedly told the person in charge of the centre that her niece had been in close contact with a positive patient and that she had to be isolated, which was duly done. - After investigation, the authorities confirmed that she is the daughter of the patient who was tested positive on 10 May 2021. - The latter had her exams, contrary to her father's reply, and went to the examination centre with her aunt, despite prohibition from the Ministry of Health and Wellness. - The student was placed in quarantine initially, before being transferred to a treatment centre as her PCR test was positive. - Even if the student was able to take her exam in isolation and without any contact with other students, these facts show that there has been serious infringement of the current sanitary measures and legal actions will be initiated. - The Ministry of Health and Wellness is working in close collaboration with the Mauritius Examinations Syndicate and the Ministry of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, to monitor the health of students attending that secondary school. - Arrangements have also been made so that those students can sit for their exams according to the health protocol put in place. President Muhammadu Buhari has attributed the calls for secession to the desperate quest for political power being expressed through blackmail. This is even as he sends his best wishes to all Nigerians and Muslims across the globe as they mark the Eid-al-Fitr following the completion of a month of fasting. In a message personally signed by him, President Buhari says: "On this blessed occasion, I wish that the Eid festival brings with it peace, safety, security, brotherhood and love amongst all. "Unity and solidarity among all citizens, Muslims and Christians are imperative especially at a time when our country is faced with multiple challenges which are surmountable only when we come together as one. "It is important that we remember how we share, through our faiths, common bonds that should serve to unite us and not allow ourselves to succumb to those who seek to divide us, using our two great religions, for their own selfish advantages. "We should jointly pray against the tragic incidents of kidnapping and banditry and the desperate quest for political power expressed through blackmail against the existence of our country as a united entity. "We must resist the temptation to retreat into our communities. I urge our political and religious leaders as well as traditional rulers to encourage our citizens to turn towards one another in love and compassion." According to the President, it was noteworthy and delightful to see Christians breaking fast and in some instances, extending goodwill and gifts to Muslim faithfuls during the Ramadan. "This model also shone through with Muslim groups joining Christian festivities. These are practices that promote brotherhood and forgiveness," he said. President Buhari, therefore, urged Nigerians to continue to observe all COVID-19 prevention measures and celebrate responsibly during the holidays. Lagos Dangote Cement Plc, with presence in 10 Africa countries, has contributed and still contributing to economic development on the continent. .The company has a mission to help Nigeria and other African countries towards self-reliance and self-sufficiency in the production of the world's most basic commodity, by establishing efficient production facilities in strategic locations close to key growth markets. Recently, the company's huge investment has been described as one of the major contributors to the development of the Senegalese economy. Besides, the Cement plant located in Pout, 60 kilometers away from Dakar, has greatly assisted in strengthening the business relationship between Senegal and Nigeria. Dangote Cement Senegal currently holds a capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year, producing higher quality cement to meet the country's demand as well exporting to neighbouring countries around Senegal. Charge D'Affaires, Embassy of Nigeria, Senegal, Mr. A.K Zanna, who spoke on the contributions of Dangote Cement's investment in Senegal at his office in Dakar recently, called on Dangote and other interested investors to explore the investment opportunities available in the Senegalese Salt Mining and Real Estate industry. According to him, Dangote's Cement investment in Senegal is contributing significantly to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), through its export revenue from neighbouring countries and social investments in the country. "I think the company has done a lot in strengthening the existing relationship between Nigeria and Senegal," he added. Zanna stated that, "as one of the biggest foreign investors in the Senegalese economy, Dangote Cement is contributing significantly to the country's economic development. We are proud to associate with the company as a Nigerian brand. The company has done a lot in Senegal since its establishment in 2015. It has created huge employment for the Senegalese; it has created both direct and indirect employment opportunities for many people in Senegal." He said Dangote Cement is contributing significantly to the relationship between Nigeria and Senegal. "Unfortunately, most of the trade relations between Nigeria and Senegal are in the informal sector. However, with the way things are going, there is going to be improvement in economic activities between both countries. Already, we have two Nigerian banks operating in Senegal. And Many Nigerian companies have signified interests in investing in the Senegalese economy. This will further improve the business relationship between the two countries," he said. The Envoy also commended the company for contributing to the well- being of its host and surrounding communities in Pout, Senegal, saying, "Dangote is involved in corporate social responsibilities programmes. The company has done a lot for the communities where it is located. The company's community development in Senegal is assisting the government's responsibilities to its citizens. "I know that the company has built maternity clinics, health centres, schools, awarded scholarships to students, and created avenue for poverty eradication in the country. The company is also fully involved in women empowerment. Dangote Cement's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes are having direct positive impact on the host communities. So, by extension, the company is shouldering some of the responsibilities of the Senegalese government." He also urged investors from Nigeria to invest in Senegalese Real Estate industry, adding that, "Senegal is becoming a vibrant economy and the country building a new city at Diaminadio. "There is opportunity for investment in real estate in the Senegalese economy. Apart from that, maybe by 2023, Senegal will start production of crude oil and many opportunities will be available for Nigerians with technical expertise in the oil sector." Country manager, Dangote Cement, Senegal, Luk Haelterman, attributed the success of the company in Senegal in the past five years to the company's investment in quality production and introduction of what is commonly referred to as the 'Senegallisation' policy. According to him, the company's introduction of 42.5-degree brand of cement to the major market in Senegal upon entry has enabled the company gain the desired market share in the country. He stated that, "the success of Dangote Cement is coming from quality planning based merely on the improvement on the quality of cement to 42.5R that was not available everywhere and certainly not to everybody at affordable price in Senegal. Introducing this into the market was a guarantee for us to gain the market share that we needed. "Secondly, without any doubt, is the creation of a very good team spirit and passionate involvement in aiming at continuous improvement towards excellence. When we entered the market, it was characterised by 32.5-grade cement. We supplied 42.5-grade cement at affordable price. Putting up quality gave us a chance to enter the market." Haelterman also disclosed that Dangote Cement Senegal has developed a culture of supporting local employees and prioritising local hiring, which allows local country employees have the necessary knowledge, experience, and support to take up key roles within the company. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Company Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He said the policy aims to gradually reduce the number of expatriates employed by the business by enhancing the skills and capacity of Senegalese employees to take up leadership positions. "We have ensured that our image has been aligned with two key principles from day one: maintaining high quality, and taking a local approach in everything that we do," he said. Dangote Cement is a subsidiary of Dangote Industries Limited, a diversified and fully integrated conglomerate as well as a leading brand across Africa in businesses such as cement, sugar, salt, beverages, and real estate, with new multi-billion dollar projects underway in the oil and gas, petrochemical, fertiliser and agricultural sectors. Dangote Cement operates three cement plants in Benue, Kogi and Ogun states, with a combined production capacity of 29.25 million tonnes per annum. The firm holds the largest market share in Nigeria. Dangote Cement also operates in at least nine other African countries, including South Africa, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Tanzania, Congo, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Zambia, where it has another 12.3 million tonnes capacity a year. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has affirmed that Nigeria's extremely bright economic future, which he said cannot be aborted despite current challenges. Osinbajo stated this on Tuesday while touring SecureID company's premises, a first in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the three such cutting-edge facilities on the continent, with top prime global certifications for smart card manufacturing . According to him in a statement by his media aide, Laolu Akande, despite challenges confronting the nation, he expressed optimism that the issues will be resolved. He said, "the economic future of our nation is extremely bright. Yes, we have challenges today and they may look daunting. But let me assure you that these issues will be resolved. The march of this nation to its manifest destiny as Africa's leading economic power will not be aborted. We are more than able to overcome." An impressed Prof. Osinbajo said the Buhari administration in "following the recommendation of the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, has determined that manufacturing will be our main focus in bringing about dynamic growth, jobs and exports. "This will mean retooling our business environment for greater competitiveness, especially with the take off of the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement. "We are rethinking our tax regimes, sorting out external and internal trade issues, getting our regulatory authorities; SON, NAFDAC, and even Customs, to see their roles more as business facilitators rather than policemen or revenue generators. Our environment must be friendly for local businesses first, foreign investments will follow enthusiastically." Commenting on the efforts of the administration to position the country as a leading economic beacon on the continent, the VP also stated that the Buhari administration was ramping up efforts in improving the country's infrastructure and digital space. He said, "aside from the work we are doing with other infrastructure such as rail, roads and power we are committed to a plan of democratizing broad band connectivity. Our programme, which we have reiterated in our Economic Sustainability Plan, is broadband connectivity for all by 2023. "The Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy launched the National Broadband Plan which is designed to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria of a minimum 25mbps in urban areas and 10mbps in rural areas, with effective coverage available to at least 90% of the population at affordable prices by the target date. Broadband connectivity is as important as electricity in the digital age unlike electricity we do not have to make several mistakes before getting it right." While commending the efforts of the founder and Managing Director of SecureID, Mrs Kofo Akinkugbe, Prof. Osinbajo described SecureID facility as a place of history, innovation and creativity. He said, "This world-class manufacturing facility is reputed to be the first certified smartcard manufacturing plant in sub-Saharan Africa, the only smart card production and personalization plant in West Africa and one of only six on the continent and one of only 80 in the world. "The facility serves 21 countries across Africa and is fully certified by major commercial card companies - VISA, Verve and MasterCard. SecureID has shown that this country can be at the cutting edge of development in technology and digital enterprises. The world in which companies like SecureID operates, providing comprehensive end-to-end payment, identity management and digital security solutions is one that thrives on innovation. Continuing, the VP said, "the company has in these few years of her existence provided notable innovative offerings to the financial services sector, telecommunications, government, education, healthcare and private enterprises. Equally remarkable is the fact that with this facility, the company can produce all the payment cards, SIM cards, loyalty cards and the various identity management cards (residency cards, voter registration cards, drivers' license and national identity cards) required here in Nigeria, with capacity to spare." "Congratulations also for your successes in getting the certifications that will help to meet the demands of customers, such as Global System of Mobile Applications (GSMA), Visa International, MasterCard Incorporated, Verve, Card Quality Management (CQM), GH-link (for cards to be used in Ghana) and ISO 9001/2015 for Smart Card Manufacturing and Personalization of credit and debit cards. "In particular, we must also congratulate SecureID for earning the GSMA certificate last year; this is a world class security requirement for SIM card manufacturing and personalization. Your rapid expansion is also worthy of commendation, especially as you have added a number of subsidiaries, one of which is the digital arm of the business: SID Digital, while the other is involved in transport payment infrastructure. This has put the company in good stead to provide services ranging from identity management to tax collection, school management systems, health management systems, digital cards for the banks and, of course, e-ticketing for all forms of transportation, including road, rail and water." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Business Nigeria By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Speaking earlier at the event, the founder of SecureID, Mrs. Kofo Akinkugbe, highlighted the significance of the Vice President's visit, noting that the VP has come to see some of the much-touted potential being realized. She added that SecureID was a good entrepreneurial story of an abiding faith in God and the nation, proving the viability of investing and staying in the course. Akinkugbe commended the federal government for establishing institutions and agencies to support and encouraged start-ups, MSMEs and other enterprises that had offered assistance to the company. In his remarks, the representative of the Bank of Industry said he was excited to partner with SecureID, being a pioneer of world-class status in the industry, as well as making world class products, while generating foreign exchange earnings and creating jobs. Others who spoke at the event were the Corps Marshall, Federal Road Safety Corps, Boboye Oyeyemi; Deputy Managing Director, First Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Osoba. Accompanying the Vice President were the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Office of the Vice President, Mr. Ade Ipaye; Minister of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada; representative of the Governor of Lagos State, His Lordship, the Anglican Bishop of Lagos State, Bishop Humphrey Olumakaiye and other government functionaries. The Government of Malawi will have to wait a little longer to finalize its campaign to relocate refugees and asylum seekers to Dzaleka Refugee Camp as the High Court in Lilongwe has reserved its ruling on the injunction refugees and asylum seekers obtained last month. The court order stopped the government from enforcing the relocation exercise, which the Minister of Homeland Security Richard Chimwendo Banda says is aimed at bringing sanity in the country. Hence, through Nervous Chisiza, the State applied for the vacation grant of leave of the injunction to commence judicial review. And on Tuesday morning, officials from the Office of the Attorney General of Malawi this morning appeared before High Court Judge Ruth Chinangwa in order to vacate the injunction. But Chinangwa reserved her ruling on the matter. She has since adjourned the matter to 26 May 2021 when she will deliver her ruling. The Parliamentary Public Appointments Committee (PAC) has courted controversy following its decision to reject the appointment of Ombudsman Martha Chizuma as the new Director General (DG) of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Chizuma appeared before the Committee earlier today where nine members voted for her while the other nine voted against her appointment. In a normal circumstance, PAC comprises 21 members, including the chairperson. But for today, only 18 MPs showed up to interview the appointee Chizuma. Those who voted against Chizuma gave her a one out of 25. The Tonse Alliance members of the Committee suspect that her rejection is a calculated move by the opposition members of the Committee to block her appointment, fearing she will go after some of them once she is given the job as some of the MPs are answering corruption charges. Apparently, there are some members of Parliament (MPs) who are answering charges in courts relating to corruption. The Tonse Alliance members of the Committee have threatened to impeach PAC chairperson Joyce Chitsulo if the appointment of the 'Iron Lady' to the topmost position at the graft-busting body does not go through. The Malawi Congress Party (MCP) members of the Committee, Peter Dimba, alleged that during the meeting, Chitsulo insisted that Chizuma had failed because her performance during the interview was below par. He described the rejection of Chizuma is a clear indication that corruption is deep-rooted in the country. Chitsulo reportedly rejected to grant tiebreaker. Social commentators have questioned the rationale for the rejection of Chizuma since it is the same committee, which approved Chizuma as Ombudsman and in October 2020 before renewing her contract on the basis of her exceptional performance. The Tonse Alliance members of the Committee have also wondered why Chizuma has eventually become incompetent overnight. Small scale farmers in the country need to embrace new agriculture technologies if they are to hit it big in their trade and maximize food production efficiency which is key in the elimination of hunger in the country, Minister of Agriculture, Lobin Lowe, has implored. Lowe made the urge Friday at the Capital Hotel Marque in Lilongwe during a premier of a Kulima documentary titled 'School Without Walls' whose chief aim is to promote farmers by improving their access to use of agriculture research innovations by Malawian farmers. The one hour long documentary which was produced by Johannes Preuss--a German national working with the European Union (EU)--features smallholder farmers, extension workers and scientists who show how modern methods are helping to beat challenges necessitated by climate change and declining soil fertility in most parts of the country. Through his virtual presentation, Lowe emphasized that small scale farmers have the potential to contribute positively towards the economic growth of Malawi. Said Lowe: "Smallholder farmers have potential to boost our economy .However, with the ordinary way of doing things we cannot fully achieve whatever we want to achieve in as far as agriculture is concerned, farmers need to learn new ways of farming and catch up with new technology." The minister further commended the Kulima EU Programme being fronted by GIZ and other partners saying it will help smallholder farmers in maximizing their potentials. International Centre For Research in Agro-Forestry (ICRAF) representative, Isaac Nyoka, was upbeat that Malawian smallholder farmers have an opportunity to learn more farming skills through the Kulima programme as it was designed to help farmers learn practical things. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Malawi Agribusiness Food and Agriculture By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. However, Nyoka said for farmers to do better, they need to properly address organic matter of their soil saying if that is not addressed the mineral fertilizers cannot be effective and in so doing they cannot benefit much from sweat. Commenting on the documentary, research associate in sustainable aquaculture and fisheries science at World Fish, Meriam Msatilomo Phiri, said after watching the documentary smallholders farmers will be able to understand challenges they face and how they can be addressed; and in so doing be able to adopt new technologies which can in turn enable them to diverse their farming systems that are key to food security. Phiri advised smallholder farmers to remain steadfast to new research in the agriculture sector and listen keenly to extension workers who disseminate new farming technologies which they need to improve agricultural productivity. The documentary was watched and followed by thousands across the globe as it was live on various online portals including Zoom and Facebook. MALTAHOHE Village Council chairperson Hanna Swartbooi earlier this week allegedly rounded up local residents to block the construction of a N$3 million sanitation project, because it was not being built by her supporters. The project is meant to improve sanitation among rural communities and people in informal settlements who are still resorting to bucket toilets and pit latrines. The tender was awarded to Capital Technical Services, which employed people from the local community, as well as people from other regions. Swartbooi was caught on video undoing some of the ground work the construction workers have done so far, saying: "You can record it and show it to the people. I have the last say, because I am the chairperson of the village council." The video clip has gone viral on social media, with some commentators accusing her of causing division. Contacted for comment, Swartbooi said she would release a statement on the matter "tomorrow or today". The Landless People's Movement (LPM) councillor and her team in the clip seem to be refilling the trenches the company was digging to construct a sewer line from the local pump station, because the current sewer line is damaged and leaking. Project contractor Justice Rudolph of Capital Technical Services this week claimed his workers are fearing for their lives as the councillor has ordered people to "deal" with them. They are being threatened by residents as a result, he said. He said the blocking of the work on the construction site started when the construction company employed three more labourers on Monday. Rudolph claimed since the commencement of the project in March, the chairperson wanted to be the sole supplier of workers, and informed the company she would only employ LPM members, as they voted for her. She insisted she is the boss and has the final say, he said. Rudolph said his company is Namibian and has a social responsibility to employ the inhabitants of any town or village where work is being done, and that the company's employment policy is not based on creed, colour, religion, tribe, or political party. "Our company has three permanent workers, and when we arrived we employed four more labourers from the local people. The councillor supplied them and there was no problem. We realised we needed three more labourers, so we took it on ourselves, and that's where the problem started. She told us she is the boss and [. . .] we will work with the people she supplies," he said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Namibia By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Rudolph said the project has not resumed as they first need to hold a meeting with all parties concerned about the councillor's interference, which is hampering service delivery. 'AGREEMENT VIOLATED' Daweb constituency councillor Nicodemus Motinga, also an LPM member, when called for comment said the construction company violated an agreement they had with the councillor to secure certain locals for jobs. They were provided with a list of suitable candidates, he said. He said Capital Technical Services received the contract to do the project based on the mentioned list and agreement. Motinga said when the company employed individuals not on the list, the chairperson called Rudolph in and informed him that his company is contravening the agreement. The company responded by alleging that local people are weak and cannot do the digging, Motinga said, after which Swartbooi went to the site and stopped the project. "So this is not an issue of tribalism or politics. This was purely an issue of breaching an agreement," he said. Governor of the Hardap region Simon April said he would visit Maltahohe on Wednesday to familiarise himself with the matter. He said there can be no politics or tribal reasoning when it comes to service delivery. "We cannot do business on that stream," he said. Henny Seibeb, deputy leader of the LPM, yesterday said they are not aware of the incident and would also familiarise themselves with the facts before commenting. THREE men involved in the killing of a teenager in a mob attack at Okahandja 13 years ago were sent to prison when their trial finally came to an end in the Windhoek Regional Court yesterday. The men's trial was concluded with magistrate Alexis Diergaardt sentencing one of them, Seth Awaseb (32), to a 12-year prison term. One of Awaseb's co-accused, who was 16 years old when he was involved in the incident that led to him being convicted of murder, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Another accused, who was also 16 years of age at the time of the incident, received a prison term of two years, after the magistrate found him guilty of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, instead of murder. Awaseb and his co-accused were charged over the killing of the 17-year-old Marcel de Klerk at Okahandja on 4 April 2008. De Klerk died of stab injuries to his chest after he had been attacked by a group of people outside a bar in the town's Nau-Aib area. Awaseb, his two co-accused who ended up being convicted with him, and another two accused first went on trial in the Windhoek Regional Court in April 2009, with all of them denying guilt. After repeated delays in the matter, the trial had to start afresh following the initial presiding magistrate's appointment as a High Court judge. The new trial began before Diergaardt in September 2019, when all the accused again denied guilt. The magistrate convicted Awaseb and two of the other accused two weeks ago. During the trial, the court heard that De Klerk had been involved in an altercation with Awaseb at a bar on 4 April 2008. During that incident, he punched Awaseb on the nose. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Legal Affairs Namibia By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Awaseb left the scene in a car and returned to the bar after he had collected some of his friends from their homes. With his return to the bar, he and his friends were armed with lethal weapons, which they used in an attack on De Klerk. After his arrest, Awaseb told the police he struck De Klerk with a panga, while one of his friends stabbed De Klerk with an assegai and another hit him with a knobkierie. One of Awaseb's co-accused - then 16 years old, and now sentenced to 10 years in prison - told the police he stabbed De Klerk with an assegai, while Awaseb "chopped the guy with a panga" and his "colleagues" also joined in the attack on De Klerk. The other accused, who was convicted of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, related to the police that he assaulted De Klerk with a knobkierie. Diergaardt commented during the sentencing that despite their youthfulness at the time of the fatal incident, the two younger accused "acted like ordinary criminals and not like youth". They attacked De Klerk, who was defenceless against them, as a gang, and left him in a street to die, she remarked. The accused were granted bail after two months in police custody. Public prosecutor Filemon Nyau represented the state during the second trial. Awaseb was represented by defence lawyer Susan Nyatondo in the last stage of the trial, while the two younger accused were represented by Flora Gaes and Charles Beukes. THE police say they have not taken action against the officer involved in an incident that led to the death of a one-month-old baby last month because they should not be blamed for what happened. This was confirmed by the baby's parents, who said they had failed to get the details of the officer who was driving the van from the Epako Police Station at Gobabis. Baby Gabriel Cloete, who was being transported with his parents in the back of a police van, sustained a severe head injury on 21 April, which his parents blame on the recklessness of the police officer who was driving the vehicle. They had gone to report the theft of a blanket and the officer ordered them to ride in the back of the vehicle to direct him to the house of the suspect. The police commander in the Omaheke region, Andreas Haingura, said the matter is still under investigation and the police were not the bad guys. "This is too sensitive. When I read the story, the media seemed to mislead the nation," Haingura said. "Because of the baby's death it now appears as if the police are heartless," he added. Haingura last month said a case of culpable homicide had been opened against the officer who was driving the van. "The case is still under investigation," he said at the time. The baby's father, Stephanus Eiseb (39), criticised police inspector general Sebastian Ndeitunga for comments he made. "We needed help, that's why we went to the police station. It's not right that Ndeitunga said we should have refused the lift or that Lucia should have stayed home with the baby. It was dark and Gobabis is a dangerous town," Eiseb said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Legal Affairs Namibia By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "We had no authority to go into the suspect's house and take the blankets, that's why we went to the police station," he added. Eiseb said the driver's frustrations could have come from the fact that he could not locate the suspect's house as they were seated at the back of the van. "The officer could have let her sit in front, so she could direct him to the suspect's house," said Eiseb, adding that the officers are covering up for each other and do not empathise that they had lost a child. "Our son is still at the morgue as we have not buried him because we do not want to bury him with the evidence," said Eiseb. Human rights lawyer Norman Tjombe said he had contacted the parents but could not give further comment. Ombudsman John Walters said the police should have an independent police investigative unit. "The police should not investigate themselves, to avoid claims of investigations not being transparent and fair," Walters said. Walters said the police should not be blamed as investigations are still ongoing, however, the officer concerned should have used better judgement and not have made a mother with two babies sit at the back of a van. Walters added that his office would have taken the case up but did not want to interfere with police investigations. A KHORIXAS woman was allegedly stabbed 10 times by her ex-boyfriend at a church altar where she fled to for safety on Monday evening. Madikizela Horaes (22), who survived the attack, told The Namibian during a telephonic interview from Fransfontein, where she resides, that she ran to the nearest church for cover when her boyfriend was running after her brandishing a knife. The police commander in the Kunene region, deputy commissioner Rudolf Kanyetu, confirmed the incident, saying the suspect has been arrested. "Our members on the ground are busy with preliminary investigations," he said, adding he could not divulge further details. Horaes said her ex-boyfriend on Monday called her to Khorixas to collect some clothing for their three-year-old daughter. "When I arrived, there was no problem between us. We [her boyfriend, his brother and herself] went to Donkerhoek informal settlement to collect money," she said. Horaes said when they arrived at Donkerhoek, they were informed that the person who had their money was not at home. The trio then proceeded to go to the ex-boyfriend's family house to collect their daughter's items. Subsequently, Horaes and her ex-boyfriend started fighting in the street. Horaes ran into a nearby house, she said, where a woman took her to a room. While closing the door, her ex-boyfriend kicked the door open and stabbed her on the head thrice, she said. She then ran to a nearby church, Horaes said. Upon entering the church, her ex allegedly stabbed her several times more. The church is the /Ore-om wing of the Uitani parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia. Horaes said inside the church, she found some women reading scriptures and singing hymns near the altar. As she tried to escape the attack and called for a pastor, she said one of the women rushed to shield her from further attack by restraining the suspect's hand. Horaes said she broke up with her abusive boyfriend in December after five years together. "He used to abuse me. I never reported him. He used to slap me and strike me with his fists," she said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. She advised women in abusive relationships to avoid being trapped with abusive partners. "I am telling you from experience: Do not feel pity for the man, you will die," she said. Church elder Cecilie Geises, who was present when Horaes ran into the church building, said she entered the church screaming: "I am being killed, help me!" Geises said the wife of Damara king Justus //Garoeb, Irmgard //Garoes, restrained the suspect's hand when he attempted to stab Horaes again. "If it was not for the queen holding his hand he may have done something bad. He freed himself from the queen's hand and chased her among the other women," Geises said. Geises said they then alerted the police. "They took Horaes to the Khorixas District Hospital ... She was discharged in the morning and opened a case at the Khorixas Police Station before travelling back to Fransfontein," she said. //Garoes confirmed that she aided Horaes by grabbing the attacker's hand, in which he had the knife, and forced him out of the church. "We blocked the door and told him it's enough," she said. The suspect is expected to appear in the Khorixas Magistrate's Court today. Tunis/Tunisia A high-level meeting will be held Wednesday afternoon at the request of Tunisia, UN Security Council non-permanent member, to discuss the latest developments in the occupied territories. Tunisia had coordinated with the Palestinian side and the eight States supporting this request, to hold this meeting to arrange for this meeting to be held behind closed doors, Attache at the Diplomatic department of the Presidency of the Republic Walid Hajjem affirmed to TAP. Tunisia, an Arab member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) requested a meeting of the UNSC for May 10, in coordination with the Palestinian side and the support of China, current Chair of the Council, Norway, Ireland, Vietnam, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Niger. The goal is to discuss the serious escalation following the occupation forces' attacks on the occupied Palestinian territories, especially Al-Quds, and the storming of the esplanade of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, according to a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Immigration and Tunisians Abroad released Saturday evening. Rabat Policemen on Tuesday seized 6,503 kilograms of cannabis resin and arrested five people for their alleged links to an international drug trafficking network. This operation was carried out simultaneously in different areas, National Police (DGSN) said in a release, adding that the suspects were arrested in Tan-Tan, while the drug was seized in several warehouses in the region of Ras Amlil, some 65 kilometers from Tan-Tan. Search operations led to the seizure of large sums of money, three inflatable boats, seven all-terrain vehicles, five fake license plates and a shotgun, according to the same source. Three suspects were placed on custody under the supervision of the competent prosecutor's office, while two others are the subject of a judicial investigation in order to determine the level of their involvement in this affair and identify the potential ramifications of this criminal network at the national and international level. This operation is part of efforts made by national security services to fight against drug trafficking. Rabat Minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research, Saaid Amzazi, on Tuesday held talks through videoconference with the Portuguese minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor. These talks, which took place in the presence of the ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco in Lisbon, Othmane Bahnini, and the ambassador of the Portuguese Republic in Rabat, Bernardo Futscher Pereira, as well as officials from the two countries, were the opportunity to examine the prospects for strengthening bilateral cooperation in the area of higher education and scientific research between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Portuguese Republic, said a statement from the ministry of National Education. The two sides the discussed means to strengthen relations between the two countries and expand cooperation between Moroccan universities and research institutions and their Portuguese counterparts, particularly in terms of exchange of experiences and expertise, mobility of students and teachers, joint supervision of doctoral thesis and double degrees, the statement added. It also involves the establishment of joint programs for the financing of scientific research and innovation in areas of common interest, both in terms of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. These programs will focus in particular on areas related to agro-resources, the argan tree, lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, oceanography, artificial intelligence, space and satellites. Amzazi underlined, on this occasion, that "this meeting is of particular importance with regards to strengthening bilateral activities and programs". Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Education Europe and Africa Science By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "It is indeed an opportunity to consolidate academic and scientific cooperation in priority areas and explore the prospects for its enhancement," he said, adding that "we call for the development of inter-university cooperation, which is a fundamental pillar for a lasting partnership". "We are determined to strengthen cooperation with Morocco, particularly in academic and scientific issues. We will be very delighted to welcome Morocco to The Atlantic International Research Center, as a member", the Portuguese minister pointed out, as quoted in the statement. The Kingdom of Morocco and the Portuguese Republic enjoy distinguished relations since the signing of the Cultural Cooperation Agreement in 1978, which led to numerous inter-ministerial agreements and joint programs between the universities of the two countries, the statement added. With State of Calamity declared to curb ASF NANCY WELCOMES GOV'T MOVE TO AID HOG GROWERS ...urges DA to fast track programs for repopulation, biosecurity Senator Nancy Binay welcomed the decision of President Rodrigo Duterte to declare a state of calamity throughout the Philippines due to African swine fever (ASF). "I am thankful that the President declared a state of calamity to bring much needed aid to the local hog industry," Binay said. According to Binay, the declaration would enable the national and local governments to appropriate funds to contain ASF. She added that during senate hearings, resource persons representing the local hog industry would lament how they are spending a large amount just to ensure that their communities are safe from ASF. "With the declaration, the government can help provide funds that will focus on the much-needed biosafety protocols to control and curb this disease," she said. Likewise, the senator also urged the Department of Agriculture fast track programs they need to strengthen and support the local hog industry. "After the declaration of the state of calamity, the next step is for the DA to act with a sense of urgency and mobilize needed resources to curtail the spread of ASF. Tutukan ang biosecurity and border controls, ayusin ang sistema surveillance, at ng pagka-cull, kasama na yung imbentaryo ng mga kailangang bayaran. Then, come up with a targeted program for repopulation of healthy F1 lines ," she said. "Hopefully, we can repopulate from commercial to backyard stocks as well as address the supply deficit in local pork products at the soonest possible time," she added. Rabat Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita, on Tuesday held talks by videoconference with the Minister of State, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and the Diaspora, Kandia Kamissoko Camara. The two ministers welcomed the relations of friendship and cooperation between Morocco and Cote d'Ivoire, under the leadership of the heads of state of the two countries, HM King Mohammed VI and H.E. Alassane Ouattara, says the ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement. The two sides, who welcomed bilateral relations, marked by fraternity and solidarity, underlined that these relations cover the areas of education, infrastructure, construction, agribusiness, energy, religion, housing and banking. They also commended the level of execution of bilateral agreements signed during the various visits of the two Heads of State. The two sides reaffirmed, on this occasion, the will of the two Heads of State to strengthen, deepen and broaden bilateral relations. Bourita reiterated Morocco's thanks to Cote d'Ivoire for its unwavering and strong support for Morocco's territorial integrity, in particular through its clear positions in favor of the Moroccan Sahara, in regional and international bodies and through its actions on the ground with the opening of a Consulate General in Laayoune in February 2020, as well as the support of Morocco's action after the securing operation of the crossing border post of El Guerguarate between Morocco and Mauritania, the statement added. Kamissoko Camara reaffirmed on this occasion her country's strong support for a negotiated, consensual and final political solution to the dispute over the Moroccan Sahara and for compliance with decision 693, adopted at the level of African Heads of State, at the African Union Summit in Nouakchott, in July 2018, which reaffirmed the exclusivity of the United Nations as a framework for the search for a political, mutually acceptable, realistic, pragmatic and lasting solution to the Sahara issue. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Morocco Governance Cote d'Ivoire By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. At the regional level, the two ministers reaffirmed the leadership and commitment of their respective Heads of State in the development of the African continent. Regarding security issues, Bourita and Kamissoko Camara expressed their deep concern at the rise of extremism and terrorism in Africa, especially in the Sahel and Sahara regions. In this regard, they reaffirmed their commitment to work together to strengthen peace, stability and development in these regions. The ministers committed to better coordination of their actions and to mutual support of Moroccan and Ivorian candidatures within regional and international bodies. In this context, Bourita voiced his thanks to his Ivorian counterpart for the unconditional support of Cote d'Ivoire to the various Moroccan candidatures, in particular for the post of non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (2028 -2029), the Human Rights Council (2023-2025), the post of member of the Executive Council of the World Tourism Organization (2022-2025) and the post of President of the International Civil Service Commission (2023-2026). Bourita also welcomed the commitment of Cote d'Ivoire to supporting Morocco's action within the African Union, the statement concluded. Kirinyaga Governor Anne Waiguru on Tuesday disbursed another Sh32.8 million as bursaries for the county's needy students studying in secondary schools, colleges, and universities. The beneficiaries include 7,867 secondary school students, 1,514 in colleges and 1,195 in universities. While issuing the bursary cheques to the beneficiaries at her official residence, Ms Waiguru said the funds will facilitate the education of vulnerable students identified during an intensive vetting process by bursary committees. "My government remains committed to supporting the education of our children, the improvement of academic performance in our county and ultimately, the lives of our youth is paramount," said the governor. Covid-19 effects She said the gesture would also assist some of the most vulnerable households badly hit by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and ensure that learning is not disrupted. Ms Waiguru encouraged the students to work hard in their studies and fly the Kirinyaga flag high. She at the same time appealed to school principals to continue encouraging their students as they learn. She said that the disbursement was the last tranche of this year's bursary kitty of Sh113 million benefitting about 40,000 students. "The county government will continue supporting the needy students; we have allocated approximately Sh150 million [for bursaries] for the next financial year," she said. At the same time, Ms Waiguru appealed to school administrators to ensure that all Covid-19 containment protocols are observed at all times in the learning institutions. She said that the county's Health department will continue offering the required support to ensure compliance with the protocols by the institutions. Learners in the flood-prone Baringo South, whose schools were swallowed by rising water levels in Lake Baringo last year, are facing new challenges. The students were forced to relocate to safer grounds and conduct classes in temporary tents, but now the tents have been destroyed by strong winds and heavy rains. Falling apart The Nation established that most of the temporary tents donated to the institutions by the Kenya Red Cross, the county government and other well-wishers are tattered, with the pillars holding them falling apart. Lake Baringo increased exponentially since March last year submerging adjacent structures including schools, health facilities, churches and homesteads which led to the displacement of more than 10,000 locals bordering it. The more than 15 schools that were submerged by the flood waters relocated to safer areas while other learners were integrated in other neighbouring schools. Among the affected institutions include Salabani, Ng'ambo Girls'and Lake Baringo mixed secondary schools as well as Ng'ambo, Sintaan, Leswa, Lorok,Loruk , Loropil, Noosukro, Kiserian, Loruk,Ilng'arua, Ng'enyin, Sokotei and Salabani primary schools. The institutions were supposed to be relocated and rebuilt by the government but they are yet to due to lack of funding. Parents and teachers raised concern that learners have been forced to learn in deplorable conditions exposing them to cold or being rained on following the onset of the long rains. According to teachers, the tents get torn easily and most of them got destroyed as early as last term. At Noosukro Primary school for instance, all the eight tents donated by the Kenya Red Cross have worn off and they have been forced to learn under trees despite the cold as they contemplate looking for an alternative. The school head teacher Jeremiah Nakure said they are resorting to relocate to their former institution after waters receded. "This area is characterised by strong winds even during dry seasons thus destroying the eight tents we received as a donation last year. The pillars had also broken and sometimes it would fall while going on with learning, risking the lives of pupils," said Mr Nakure. He added: "We are contemplating to relocate in the meantime to our initial school, after water at the lake receded as we look for a solution because the rains are here and the pupils cannot learn under trees anymore." The scenario is the same at Ng'ambo Primary, Salabani and Lake Baringo Mixed secondary schools where the temporary tents were destroyed by strong winds and scorching sun, forcing students to learn under trees. At Ng'ambo Primary School, the institution was fully submerged and it was relocated to a new site, Seriani ECDE center, more than 10kms away which had only one structure accommodating the kindergarten learners. According to the head teacher Shariff Parkolwa, they received seven tents from the Red Cross and county government last term but they were not enough for the 320 learners, owing to the social distancing to combat the spread of covid-19. "Some of the tents were small and could accommodate only 10 pupils. We resorted to teaching some under trees to avoid congestion. The long rains have started, posing a challenge because we cannot teach in the open, thus forcing us to combine more than three classes in one bigger tent," said Mr Parkolwa. At Salabani secondary school which was also relocated to a safer area after it was fully swallowed by Lake Baringo had received five small tents from the devolved unit last year, where three of them got tattered forcing some students to study under trees. Mr Joshua Chemjor, the school head teacher said they have built two temporary classes for the form one and two students, while the form three classes learn under trees to avoid congestion in the small tents. "Our school was swallowed by rising water in Lake Baringo last year, forcing us to relocate to a new site with no single structure. We got five tents from the county government but two are remaining after others got torn," said Mr Chemjor. "It is a state of affairs here because the form three students are learning in the open. Now that the rains have started, we do not know where they will study because we only have two temporary classes. The two small tents are serving as staff rooms," he added. At Lake Baringo Secondary school, the two tents which were serving as a dormitory and staff room are also worn out. The initial school is now two kilometers inside the lake and a newly constructed laboratory, two dormitories, four classrooms, kitchen and two toilets had been marooned completely by the lake waters. "Well-wishers helped us to rebuild four classes. We still need a dormitory, laboratory, staffrooms, toilets and bathrooms and are waiting for the funding promised by the government because we already have a new site," said the school head Samson Lekakimon. The government last year had urged locals in the affected areas to look for an alternative site and they would provide funds to rebuild the submerged schools. To date, there is little to show as the funding is yet to be released. When he toured the region in September last year to assess the extent of damage in the flooded schools, education principal secretary (PS) Belio Kipsang said he had given instructions to field officers led by the regional director to first map all the affected schools so that they can be related and reconstructed in other safer areas. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Education Kenya Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Baringo South Sub-County education director George Okeyo said the government had allocated Sh10 million to Salabani secondary and Sh4 million to Ng'ambo primary school to rebuild new structures but were yet to be released. "We are still awaiting funding from the government to commence the construction of new structures in the two institutions. Some schools have sought help from well-wishers and have built temporary structures," said Mr Okeyo. Lake Baringo has increased from 236kms square in 2015 to approximately 270kms square now. The flooding at the Lake has forced more than 10,000 people to seek refuge in temporary camps in safer villages after their houses were completely swallowed by the Lake waters. Among the worst hit villages are Loruk,Noosukro, Kokwa island, Kampi Samaki, Sokotei, Lorok,Loropil, Noosukro, Kiserian,Ruggus, Loitip, Mukutani ndogo, Ng'ambo, Sintaan, Salabani, Ilng'arua, Loboi and Longeiwan. Lake Baringo warden Jackson Komen said the Lake has increased by more than 80 percent since the onset of the long rains, submerging adjacent structures and institutions. For the eight months that the schools were closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Wabwire Nanjala Athman, who scored A- (Minus) of 75 points, shuttled between various construction sites in Mombasa. The 19-year-old had to move from one site to another to supplement the earnings of his mother, who works as a house help within the Central Business District in Mombasa. So, he did not revise regularly for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations like the rest of the students. "I did not open those books. I used to wake up very early in the morning to work in the construction sites. When the sun went down I couldn't study because of fatigue," he says. His predicament was aggravated by the fact that the single room that houses him and his mother is not connected to electricity. "My phone is not internet-enabled. Online learning to me is vocabulary. I just heard that candidates were having their online classes. I did not have that opportunity," he says. Aware of the situation at home, Athman waited patiently for schools to reopen so that he could embark on serious learning and revision. Even when he was not able to make it to the construction sites, the environment at home did not support any learning activity because he was expected to take care of his six-year-old brother when their mother was always away from home. "My mother comes back only on weekends. So I have to look for food so that my brother and I do not starve," he says. When the construction work was unavailable, the boy would do menial jobs just to make the ends meet. But despite these challenges, the teenager managed to register good performance to earn himself a slot in the university. When schools reopened, Athman took his studies seriously to make up for the lost time. "I am a fast learner. I hardly forget anything that I read, so it was easy for me to catch up with the rest," he says. Athman is one of the top students at Istiqama Secondary school. He wants to be an engineer. His life in general has not been easy. He started at St Augustine Primary in Changamwe up to Standard Four before moving to Bright Academy, where he schooled for a year. He again relocated to two other schools before joining Bashir Primary School, where he sat for his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and scored 376 marks. "I was moving from one school to another due to lack of school fees. Whenever I get someone who could support my education I was forced to move to the school of the sponsor's choice," he says. After the KCPE results were announced, Athman was admitted to Shimo La Tewa High School but gave up the slot due to lack of school fees. Together with his mother Juliet Nanjala, he started looking for scholarship opportunities, which unfortunately did not materialise. "When we were about to give up, a friend of my mother informed us that scholarship forms for Shariff Nassir Foundation were still open for application. I applied and that is how I was absorbed into the programme," he says. He then joined Istiqama Secondary School in Malindi under full scholarship. "I joined the school two months after classes had already begun. However, I kept my dreams alive, not giving up despite the many challenges I had. I knew that one day, things would work out. It was just a matter of time," he offers. His mother told the nation.africa that she had struggled to bring up the boy, whose father disappeared as soon as he discovered that she was pregnant. "I thank God for this miracle. I am tongue-tied. Though I believed in his ability, I did not expect this good performance. I am now happy and grateful to God," she says as tears well her eyes. She was particularly worried about his performance, due to the months he stayed at home, doing casual work to help her, instead of focusing on his education. "He is a hardworking boy though I was just worried," says Ms Nanjala. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Education Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Ms Nanjala reveals that she conceived Athman while she was in Class Three after she was impregnated by a vegetable vendor. "I have never seen him since 2002. I used to be sent to him to buy vegetables. I did not know he had ill motives," she recalls. The mother of two briefly narrated how her life became miserable thereafter. "I was thrown out of the house after the man could not be traced," she recalls. She says that it was this early pregnancy that made her look for work to take care of the child. "That is how I became a house help. I have raised the boy with the little that I get from this work," she says. The Director of Istiqama Group of Schools Omar Shariff says that it was the boy's good grades that earned him a scholarship. "We did not care about his tribe or religion. We dealt with his situation to offer him the needed help," he says. bocharo@ke.nationmedia.com The Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning is on the spot over Sh73 million paid to the National Intelligence Service (NIS) for digitisation of land registries in the country. This is notwithstanding that previously, the ministry had spent Sh700 million to develop a Land Information Management System (LIMS) for 14 land registries up to the 2017/18 financial year without involving the spy agency. Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly Tuesday, Lands and Physical Planning Principal Secretary Nicholas Muraguri had a difficult time convincing the MPs why NIS drew funds from the ministry to undertake the job yet it is properly funded by the taxpayer. "We made it a security issue because our land management system is critical," Dr Muraguri told the watchdog committee chaired by Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi. Flagged by Auditor-General The matter was flagged by Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu in the audited accounts of the Lands ministry for the 2018/19 financial year currently before the committee for scrutiny. Dr Muraguri noted that the government's efforts to develop a credible land management system since 2003 have not been successful. He said that this prolonged failure necessitated the ministry to incorporate the spy agency as one of the entities in the multi-agency team "due to the security nature of the documents involved". Clear past mistakes "We collaborated with NIS to ensure mistakes of the past are cleared," said Dr Muraguri. The multi-agency team included the other arms of government in the security sector, the ICT sector and the office of the Attorney-General. The amount was received from the ICT ministry on June 28, 2019 and credited to the deposit account at the Lands ministry and later paid to the spy agency on August 2, 2019 for the exercise. But even as Dr Muraguri defended the involvement of the spy agency officers in the digitisation of the land registries, he did not explain why the funds were not paid directly to NIS by the ICT ministry. This prompted the committee members led by Mr Wandayi and Dr Wilberforce Oundo (Funyula) to demand more from Dr Muraguri. Mr Wandayi specifically demanded Dr Muraguri to come clean on why the ministry required the services of the NIS yet it has competent staff employed and paid from the exchequer to do the job. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Legal Affairs Kenya By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "Why would NIS draw money from the exchequer to do a job other people have been employed to do? Please tell us what is going on," Mr Wandayi demanded. Shocked Dr Oundo, an expert in land economics, said he was shocked to learn that the ministry spent millions of shillings on NIS yet Dr Muraguri "is not coming out clearly" why the expenditure was necessary. "Just tell us that you needed NIS to police yourself and the ministry staff so that you finish the work that you had not finished," said Dr Oundo. The MPs' concerns have been buttressed on the basis that the report of the Auditor-General doubts whether the taxpayer got value for the funds paid to NIS. "Under the circumstances, it is not clear why NIS was engaged to undertake a similar exercise that had already been paid for and whether the ministry obtained value for money," the audit report reads. But the PS noted that the need to clean up the land sector in the country after the many previous unsuccessful attempts, is good value for money. Somalia has rejected the appointment of former Ghanaian President John Mahama as African Union's (AU) special envoy to help mediate its political impasse with Kenya. Somalia argues that the former Head of State has "extensive links" with Kenya, and has written to AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat notifying him that Somalia will no longer support Mr Mahama in his new role. 'Not impartial' Mohamed Abdirazak, Somalia's Foreign and International Cooperation Minister, says the Ghanaian ex-leader is closely associated with the leadership in Kenya, without specifying who in particular. Based on this alone, he says, Mr Mahama cannot be trusted to be impartial and deliver an acceptable solution. In a letter riddled with grammatical mistakes, Mr Abdirazak claims that the AU did not thoroughly scrutinise Mr Mahama's background before appointing him to the role. "It is indeed surprising that a candidate with extensive links with Kenya's leadership has been chosen by the AU to facilitate talks on a political impasse partly engineered by those the Kenyan leadership has supported," the letter dated May 9 but which was circulated among diplomats on Tuesday says. "Given the politically sensitive nature of the task of a high representative in any case, I am certain you will appreciate the importance of any candidate for such a post to be seen as impartial and without any links to the region." Mr Mahama, who ruled Ghana between 2012 and 2017, was on Saturday named the High Representative of the African Union for Somalia's political mediation. A statement from the AU said he will "will work with the Somali stakeholders to reach a mutually acceptable compromise towards an all-encompassing resolution for the holding of Somali elections in the shortest possible time." "In fulfilling his mandate, the High Representative will be supported by Amisom to ensure that the mediation efforts and the peace support operation work together seamlessly." It is likely that the continental body picked Mr Mahama based on its own assessment of his qualities as a mediator. In 2017, he led election observers for the Commonwealth Observer Mission at the Kenyan polls. However, he angered a number of Kenyan opposition leaders for endorsing the vote as "credible and inclusive", but the election was later overturned by the Supreme Court. He became an unpopular figure in Nairobi after that. But Somalia's accusation now means that he cannot take up the role. Mogadishu's argument is also a longshot that prevents Mr Mahama from ever engaging in the country's political mediations. No longer necessary Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Africa Governance Kenya By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. According to Mr Abdirazak, the decision to name a special envoy has been overtaken by events, given that Prime Minister Hussein Roble had already brokered a deal to have parties resume discussions for holding indirect elections. "It is my concern, [that] deploying an envoy in the process now will only confuse the present amicable arrangements and at worse risk the politicisation of the process further than necessary," he wrote. Last week, Qatar's Special Envoy of the Foreign Minister of the State of Qatar for Counterterrorism and Mediation of Conflict Resolution, Dr Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani, helped broker a deal between opposition groups and the Federal Government of Somalia. Qatar, previously loathed by opposition groups, also beat the AU to the Somalia-Kenya mediation role after deploying the special envoy earlier and getting the Horn country to reconsider severing ties. Shortly after his visit, Somalia announced that it would be restoring diplomatic ties with Kenya. The UN, however, had endorsed Mr Mahama as mediator for the African Union. In a statement on Sunday, Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesperson of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the global agency would give "full support for this African Union initiative." Estranged wife to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, Mary Mubaiwa, has been hospitalised in Harare and the case in which she is accused of assaulting a house maid was deferred to next month. Harare regional magistrate Mrs Letwin Rwodzi went to the hospital for the remand where she set June 29 as the trial date. Mubaiwa is being charged with assault after she allegedly bashed a family child minder, Delight Munyoro, outside Hellenic School in 2019. The State had applied for a warrant of arrest for Mubaiwa after she failed to attend court but her lawyer Ms Beatrice Mtetwa opted for the court to visit Mubaiwa where she is admitted for the court to appreciate her condition. Mrs Rwodzi agreed to visit Mubaiwa at the medical institution where she is admitted. On her last appearance, Mubaiwa sought a postponement of the matter saying she was very ill, under heavy medication and could not comprehend court proceedings. Mubaiwa is also facing separate charges of attempted murder after she allegedly tried to kill Vice President Chiwenga while he was in a South African hospital. She is also facing money laundering charges. On those charges, Mubaiwa, applied for refusal for further remand arguing that it was now 15 months of her attending court with the State failing to complete investigations into her matter. She said the State had promised to complete investigations within a month into her arrest, but had failed. Ms Mtetwa argued that the State was aware of the complexity of extra-territorial investigations when they made a one month promise. She made the application after the State led by Mrs Netsai Mushayabasa applied for a postponement of the matter to allow police to complete investigations into the matter. Mrs Mushayabasa told the court that there were extra-territorial investigations which needed to be carried out in South Africa. Correspondent As Zimbabweans commemorated this year's World Press Freedom Day this month, one got readily reminded of a number of media issues such as the opening of the media space, which the new dispensation has been seized with since November 2017. One remembered the six television stations and numerous community radio stations which Government licensed in October last year. One also remembered how the Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Monica Mutsvangwa, is regarded by media players as more proactive and open compared to her predecessors under the previous administration. The fact that she holds post-Cabinet briefs with journalists after Cabinet meetings every Tuesday, which was never done during the previous dispensation, points to a refreshingly different media era in Zimbabwe. This contrasts sharply with the early 2000s when Professor Jonathan Moyo, instead of supporting the media to play its role as the fourth estate, played the hatchet man against media players. Many will remember how he ordered the closure of the Daily News in September 2003. It was during his tenure that the same media house's printing press was bombed in January 2001 in Harare and its Bulawayo offices were petrol-bombed in February 2002. The day also brought to mind the opposition MDC in its various factions and formations and their demand for what they term electoral reforms. One of the demands under the so-called reforms is an aspect that the MDC Alliance describes as media reform. The Western-funded and run opposition outfit is demanding that during election seasons public media houses such as The Herald and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) should cover its activities. The opposition political outfit seems to conveniently forget is that media houses follow news and news makers and that they do not require a statutory instrument or Act of Parliament to force them to cover particular political parties or other news makers. After all, the public media has always covered the MDC Alliance and its officials. What has been unacceptable in a democracy is the opposition party officials' demand for certain angles to be projected when the media covers them. This obviously is counter to media freedom, which the world commemorated a few days ago. Interestingly, since August 2018, MDC Alliance leader, Nelson Chamisa, claims that President Mnangagwa rigged the 2018 presidential poll. He has, however, failed to prove his claims with irrefutable evidence, even when he approached the Constitutional Court. Yet Chamisa and his supporters routinely and treasonously claim that he is the president of Zimbabwe. His political immaturity comes to the fore when he mounts public pedestals to demand electoral reforms from a President and Government that he has refused to recognise for nearly three years. One cannot have their cake and eat it too. Chamisa and his faction cannot falsely accuse President Mnangagwa of electoral theft, but still demand electoral reforms from him. That is political confusion writ large. The way his faction members behave when they see media personnel on duty at its gatherings shows that the opposition is either confused or is not yet sure of what it wants. Chamisa claims that his faction does not get enough of public media coverage, but his faction members show that they are undeserving of not only public media's attention, but that of any other media house from anywhere in the world. This is because in their unchecked violent nature, MDC Alliance activists do not make a distinction between members of the media and those of other factions of the party to which they regularly mete out unrestrained violence. On February 10 2020, ZBC camera person, Providence Maranelli, was assaulted by MDC-Alliance security details in Gwanda, Matabeleland South Province, after Chamisa had addressed a meeting, for covering the event. Chamisa and his faction have been crying loud and long for public media coverage, but his thugs demonstrated that they do not need it. They showed that they are a danger to the journalistic profession. Even in war zones journalists are respected. The MDC Alliance's demand for public media coverage only gives one the impression that the faction is happy with the media coverage that it is getting from private media players. This, however, seems not to be the case. It appears that the MDC Alliance yobs do not care whether a journalist is from a private or public media house. On September 1 2019, an unidentified MDC Alliance security personnel grabbed and confiscated a Canon 6D digital camera belonging to local journalist Ari Goldstein during the party's rally in Glen View. Goldstein is the founding journalist of online publication, State of the Nation. The MDC Alliance security team harassed the journalist as he covered the rally. It was not clear why the MDC Alliance did not want Goldstein to cover the meeting. About five months later, on January 21 2020, the faction's violent security youths were at it again. This time around they harassed Sly Media Productions scribe, Robert Tapfumaneyi, while he was covering the faction's meeting at Stodart Hall in Mbare in Harare. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Zimbabwe Media By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. This happened while Chamisa was addressing a meeting that he termed the State of the Nation and Agenda 2020. The opposition faction always accuses the public media of publishing negative stories about it, but what had Tapfumaneyi and Goldstein done to merit the terrorist kind of treatment they got at the hands of MDC Alliance faction's so-called security personnel? Even if the public media publishes negative stories about the MDC Alliance, it still remains unacceptable to assault journalists. It seems that the faction only wishes to deal with rogue online media houses such as ZimEye, which addresses Chamisa as "President Chamisa", despite him losing the 2018 elections. Even some media titles which the MDC-Alliance projected as under its belt have been receiving quite some flak on social media for pointing out the faction's flaws and shortcomings. One such newspaper is the Daily News. As the media month of May continues, the world should know that the MDC Alliance's calls for media reforms a mere political rallying point. This is because the party has shown its disdain of the media - both public and private. The world should know that the opposition presents a graver danger to the local media. As the media month rolls on, let the world know that in Zimbabwe, the greatest danger that journalists face are the security gangs from the anarchical MDC Alliance faction. Elita Chikwati and Millicent Mtombeni Traditional media should contribute towards the realisation of goals and aspirations of the nation while at the same time being responsible in communicating the truth instead of competing with social media in the propagation of misinformation. Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Senator Monica Mutsvangwa said this in Harare yesterday at the 25th anniversary of privately-owned weekly newspaper, Zimbabwe Independent. Minister Mutsvangwa said the Government welcomed constructive criticism from the media. "The backbone of any democracy is an independent, professional and responsible media. The media play a vital role in democratic societies, enabling the open exchange of information and opinions among ordinary citizens, businesses, citizen associations, political parties and governments. "Free and open media systems give voice to citizens, truth test candidates and political parties during elections, inform policy debates in legislatures, investigate corruption, hold public officials accountable, enable democratic governance and facilitate more effective development," she said. Minister Mutsvangwa discouraged the media from exaggerating or scare-mongering just to sell more newspapers. "Being responsible not only means telling the truth, but also abiding by the law and being honest in the way a journalist gathers information. If the press drifts into law-breaking, then it loses the respect of its readers and the nation," she said. There was need for the Government to invest in the software and hardware infrastructure of modern communications. "That is why HE President ED Mnangagwa is pulling all stops to invest in every aspect of digital links. We need 5G cellular and beyond. We must ensure every Zimbabwean has access to gadgets like cellphones, tablets, laptops, desktops and set-top boxes. "As the Second Republic, His Excellency, President ED Mnangagwa has said that Zimbabwe is open for business and as the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services we take direction from the President and we have said Zimbabwe is open for media business." The Government, she said, was working tirelessly to ensure pluralism and diversity in the media sector and creating an enabling environment for the media to thrive. This included the repealing of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA), replacing it with the Freedom of Information Act and the Zimbabwe Media Commission Act and the licensing of six free to air television stations and six community radio stations. Several tertiary institutions were also licensed to operate campus radio stations. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Media Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Minister Mutsvangwa commended the Zimbabwe Independent for contributing to democratic processes and values, which President Mnangagwa and Government had sworn to uphold and committed to. "To the management and staff at Zimbabwe Independent, today we celebrate your 25 years of journalistic excellence, cutting-edge journalism and innovation." She also applauded the media organisation for appointing Faith Zaba as Zimbabwe Independent's first female editor and also the group's first female editor. AMH chairman Trevor Ncube said media houses should not be political but look at the bigger picture of what is important for Zimbabwe. "The nation must have a platform to engage in a robust manner with facts and truths to create a society that will be inherited by our children and grandchildren. "The most important thing is to see a Zimbabwe that is stable and developed. Senior Reporter There was drama in Parliament yesterday after MDC-T legislator, Ms Memory Mbondiya slapped outspoken Norton legislator, Mr Temba Mliswa forcing the Public Accounts Committee meeting to disband. The committee was supposed to receive evidence from Intratek Holdings and Finmark concerning their contracts with Zesa Holdings on the Gwanda Solar Project and supply of pre-paid electricity meters, respectively. The meeting had earlier been adjourned when Intratek managing director, Mr Wicknell Chivayo was about to give evidence after Mr Mliswa said the matter could not proceed as it was pending before the courts. Following the objections by Mr Mliswa, Mr Chivayo and journalists were asked to leave the room as the committee deliberated on the matter. Ms Mbondiya, an MDC-T proportional representative member, then stormed out of the meeting claiming Mr Mliswa had smashed the screen of her phone. She then returned moments later and slapped Mr Mliswa shouting that she was not his wife. Other legislators immediately intervened and restrained the pair while Parliament staffers closed the doors to prevent journalists from taking pictures of the melee. After tempers had cooled down, the meeting was then deferred to a later date. Ms Mbondiya declined to comment on the matter while Mr Mliswa downplayed the incident saying the misunderstanding arose after she tried to record him while he was speaking during the meeting. "I have already made peace with her. You know when you come to Parliament you have a lot of issues. You probably wake up on the wrong side of the bed and you find someone to vent out your frustrations and anger on and this could be it. "Honourable Mbondiya is a sister of mine, I have already forgiven her," he said. Committee chairperson, Mr Brian Dube also downplayed the incident saying they would reconvene at a later date. "This (the incident) means some people are not smart but we will reschedule to a later date," Mr Dube said. In 2004, then Chimanimani legislator, the late Roy Bennett (MDC-T) was jailed 15 months after he was convicted by a parliamentary committee for assaulting then Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Patrick Chinamasa during a debate in the National Assembly. Press Release May 12, 2021 De Lima seeks probe into alleged links of mining operations in Zambales to illegal construction of Chinese infrastructures in WPS Opposition Senator Leila M. de Lima has urged Congress to investigate the reported illegal mining operations in Candelaria, Zambales and its alleged links to the illegal construction of Chinese infrastructure and reclamation projects in the West Philippine Sea (WPS). De Lima filed Senate Resolution (SR) No. 720 directing the appropriate Senate Committee to conduct an inquiry into the said mining operation in Zambales as well as a systematic review of all pending and ongoing large-scale mining projects in the Philippines to determine their compliance with relevant environmental laws, regulations, guidelines and procedures. "It cannot be gainsaid that the adverse effects, disastrous consequences, serious injury and irreparable damage of this continued trend of the destruction of nature to the present generation and to generations yet unborn are evident and incontrovertible," she said. "The State must not shut its eyes to the realities that demand its urgent action and a faithful compliance to its duty under the Constitution to protect and uphold the right of one and all to a balanced and healthful ecology," she added. A petition paper dated April 21 submitted by the non-government, people's organization Save Candelaria Zambales Movement, Inc. claims that a certain Yinglong Steel Corporation has been illegally conducting mining operations in the municipality of Candelaria in the province of Zambales. The petition paper notes that several ocular inspections by local officials in Candelaria have determined that Yinglong has been cutting trees, constructing access roads, building facilities such as bunkhouses, and using heavy equipment without necessary permits. The petitioners also suspect that the materials being illegally mined are eventually used to construct China's reclamation and military infrastructures in the WPS, a claim which has been raised by several other environmental groups for various dredging and mining projects all over the Philippines. In filing the Resolution, De Lima underscored the urgent need to conduct a systematic review of existing policies and legislation pertaining to mining and determine a policy direction that will not only protect human rights and preserve the environment but also protect Philippine sovereignty as well. "There is also a need to verify the serious allegations that the materials being extracted in various mining and dredging projects are indeed being used to construct and fortify illegal Chinese infrastructure projects in the WPS," she added. De Lima further stressed the need to ensure that the exploration and utilization of the country's natural resources, and the implementation of projects that are public in nature, are in compliance with existing laws and in pursuit of national interests and for the economic and ecological benefit of the Filipino people. "The exigency of raising funds for the government's budget deficit and response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic should never be an excuse to open the 'floodgates' of unregulated and illegal mining that destructs the environment and the future of our younger generations," she said. "The enforcement of existing mining laws and policies should be ensured and the full extent of these laws must be upheld, including penalizing violators of these laws considering the irreparable destruction of illegal mining activities brings to our environment, culture and society," she added. It may be recalled that further controversy surrounding the mining industry was stirred when, in a move intended to spur the pandemic-ridden economy, President Duterte issued Executive Order (EO) No. 130 last April 15 which lifted a nearly decade-long moratorium on new mining agreements. During her stint as justice secretary, De Lima created a task force led by the National Bureau of Investigation to lead a crackdown against several illegal black sand mining operators in Cagayan and Ilocos Sur. The move led to the filing of charges against several individuals. Last March, De Lima filed SR No. 687 urging the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change to investigate the Cagayan Offshore Magnetite Mining Project due to its reported negative environmental and social impacts to local communities and ecosystems in the province of Cagayan. The construction of permanent homes for Cyclone Idai victims, who are still living in a temporary camp, is being expedited by Government with at least 105 houses set to be ready for occupation by June, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has said. He said this after touring the construction site in Chimanimani, Manicaland Province yesterday, as part of his working visit to the province. Yesterday, VP Chiwenga also visited Westend, Ngangu, Jopa and Kopa. He said the construction of houses will go on alongside the rehabilitation of infrastructure such as clinics, roads and schools in the area. I am here wearing two hats, one I am representing my leader and leader of our country President Mnangagwa who would want to know the progress we have made. I am here also as Minister of Health (and Child Care). I want to acquaint myself with the state of health care provision, said VP Chiwenga. But at the core of it all, is to fix the terrible experience that befell us when we were struck by Cyclone Idai. I am advised that the road that connects Kopa and Jopa is in a very bad state. We want to see to it that this road is fixed before the onset of rains. In terms of housing, I have been briefed that we now have 55 built up houses which are at different stages of construction and we really want to thank the Ministry of Public Works (and Local Government) and all partners that have come on board to assist. VP Chiwenga said Government was committed to the restoration of livelihoods of communities affected by Cyclone Idai, which hit Chimanimani and Chipinge in a big way in 2017, leading to over 300 deaths, injuries and infrastructure development. He added that President Mnangagwa has made a commitment to ensure communities affected by Cyclone Idai are restored through rehabilitation of infrastructure including roads, boreholes, schools, health facilities and bridges. In response to the Cyclone Idai disaster, Government with assistance from development partners and well-wishers, embarked on several projects to bring relief to the affected communities. I am here today, with this team of ministers and senior Government officials to assess and monitor the implementation of these projects. As we witness some of these developments, it is gratifying to note that road restoration works within Chimanimani district which include Wengezi-Chimanimani road, Charter-Machongwe-Kepa road, Kurwaisimba-Muchadziya road and Kopa-Mutsvangwa road have been completed, save for the Kopa-Jopa and Kopa-Vimba roads which are still under construction, he said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Aid and Assistance Governance Climate By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. At Chimanimani rural hospital, VP Chiwenga was told that there was a challenge of an ambulance service. He immediately activated systems in his ministry to deliver an ambulance at the institution immediately. VP Chiwenga also promised to periodically visit the work sites so that he pushes for the completion of all the pending projects. Chief Mutambara born, Mr Donald Mutambara, thanked Vice President Chiwenga for following up on the projects to make sure they are completed. I am happy the project (housing) is going on very well, and people here are happy that they will soon move in, in these beautiful houses, said the Chief. People who spoke to The Herald said they were happy Government is building decent shelter for them as well as resuscitating infrastructure. Criminal suspects risk having their bail applications dismissed, or at the very least struck off the roll, when neither the suspect nor, if they are legally represented, their lawyer attends the bail hearing without first getting the agreement of the Prosecutor General's office or the court, the High Court has said. Justice Pisirayi Kwenda made the remarks when he removed from the roll the bail application of suspect Luckman Gunman Pondo, because of non-attendance by his lawyer without excuse, an action seen by the judge as an attempt to usurp the court's right to regulate bail proceedings and so allowing anarchy to prevail. There was suspicion that the lawyers might have simply been trying to have the matter delayed so the next week's duty judge to hear bail applications would hear Pondo's; this is known as forum shopping. "There is a growing tendency by litigants to circumvent the law in bail applications through conduct calculated to usurp the power of this court to protect and regulate bail proceedings with the result that anarchy prevails to the detriment of the good administration of justice," said Justice Kwenda. "Such conduct if allowed to continue has the potential of derailing the bail system and destroy its credibility. This court's power to regulate and protect the credibility of its processes is inherent at common law and codified in the Constitution of Zimbabwe." The ruling means that the hearing of bail applications can no longer be delayed when lawyers disappear from court without consulting first with the prosecution. While Pondo's application was struck off the roll, the possibility now exists that it could be simply dismissed. If a matter is struck off it can be reinstated with the leave of the judge in the case. But if dismissed and a decision has been made, and that means it can only be heard on appeal to a higher court, the Supreme Court if it was dismissed in the High Court. Justice Kwenda said any delay in the hearing of a bail application could only be in terms of a written agreement signed between the applicant and the Prosecutor-General's Office or by order of the court. Under the Constitution, the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the High Court have inherent power to protect and regulate their own process and to develop the common law or the customary law, taking into account the interests of justice and the provisions of the Constitution. In this case, on April 16 this year, Pondo who faces a rape charge, filed a written application for bail pending trial. For charges of this level of violent crime, the bail application has to be made to the High Court at first instance. The bail application was set down on April 21 2021 as case number 14 on the roll for represented applications, that is for those who are legally represented. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Legal Affairs Governance Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Pondo was legally represented by Mudimu Law Chambers. Justice Kwenda was the judge presiding in the bail court that week. When the matter was called there was no appearance for Pondo so the judge gave an ex tempore judgment and ordered that the matter be removed from the roll. Before the Gunman Pondo case was called, Justice Kwenda noticed that a few other matters involving represented persons had been called and there had been no appearance. "I also noticed most cases showed a trend, discernible from the result sheet, in terms of which bail matters removed from the roll because lawyers representing the applicants failed to show up, were just being routinely reset at the lawyers' convenience without any questions being asked," he said. "The result is that the lawyers concerned have staged a coup d'etat and have taken full control of court process and choose the sitting at which they want their matters to be heard." Justice Kwenda said the pattern gave the impression that litigants can forum shop and impairs the dignity of the High Court and the credibility of bail processes by creating the erroneous perception that this court condones wayward behavior. Justice Kwenda said orders removing matters from the roll are normally made in the presence of the litigants or their lawyers. He said the practice of removing bail matters from the roll had not complied with superior courts "Practice Direction 3/13" which makes it clear that a matter removed from the roll can be brought back but subject to compliance with the court's or judge's directions. Agriculture Reporter A tobacco contractor, Victory Services, has been suspended from buying tobacco from its contracted growers in Rusape after failing to pay farmers on time. The Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB), suspended the firm after 22 farmers said they sold their crop in April but had not received their money by Friday last week. The company is said to have had challenges with its offshore funds which were reportedly coming from Mauritius. Last week, restless farmers went to the floors demanding their money and vowed to stay on the premises until they received their payments. The situation got better after the intervention of TIMB officials, who directed the company to give its growers money so they could go back to their farms as staying at the floors would expose them to Covid-19. TIMB chief executive Dr Meanwell Gudu said they had received reports from farmers and had given the company some days to pay farmers their money or risk having their licence withdrawn. "We have received a report from farmers and we have since suspended Victory Services from buying tobacco in Rusape. They said their money was coming from Mauritius and we gave them some days to give farmers their money. "Victory Services are not going to buy tobacco from farmers until they prove to us and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe that they have mobilised offshore funds. "We have given them some days to make sure they pay farmers and failure to do so, we will withdraw their licence and farmers will sell to a contractor of their choice," he said. Victory Services director Mr Zephania Shamba confirmed they had challenges with their offshore funds which had delayed but were working on rectifying the issue. "We had some challenges with our offshore money and also our systems were giving us challenges. We have since started paying farmers their money," he said. Some of the affected farmers claimed their inputs costs were double deducted and other costs for fertilisers were increased to US$1 000 per hectare and US$500 per half hectare, when they had been supplied with inputs whose cost was way below that. The bulk of the tobacco in Zimbabwe is grown under contract where the contractors offer growers inputs and buy all the produce from the growers at the stipulated price. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Agribusiness Zimbabwe By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Upon selling the crop, the contracting company deducts the money for its inputs from the total amount earned by the grower through a stop order facility, and farmers get the balance. Of late, there has been an increase in the number of contractors who have been accused of underfunding farmers and over charging on inputs. To curb operations of fly-by-night contractors that had come on board, TIMB introduced stringent measures so that tobacco growers will not be short-changed and contractors will be guaranteed of their returns. Tobacco contractors are now required to support a minimum of US$500 per half a hectare and US$4 000 per hectare for small-scale and large-scale growers respectively, as the TIMB moved to safeguard the integrity of the contract system. The minimum packages include seed, fertilisers, chemicals, tillage, harvesting, curing and marketing resources. Contractors are also now required to provide proof of commitment or intent to the TIMB by June 30 of every year and failure to do so will lead to their suspension from contracting growers for that season. All contractors will also be required to submit to TIMB a complete schedule of inputs and their costs by June 30 and failure to do so will lead to suspension for that season. Contractors are supposed to submit copies of legally binding contracts by September 30 of every year and proof of inputs distributed either paid up invoices or payment plans with suppliers. All contracted growers without accompanying signed contracts will be de-contracted. In addition, TIMB requires contractors to submit a list of all contracted growers including their contact details by November 30. ZHOMBE villagers had a Mother's Day to remember courtesy of First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa who visited the largely farming and mining area with her Nhanga/Gota/Ixiba programme to tackle rising cases of juvenile delinquency, alcohol and drug abuse. So befitting was the First Lady's visit as it dovetailed with the wishes of every mother to raise morally upright children who can be responsible citizens in the future. In separate interviews on the sidelines of the programme, children, the elderly and chiefs said the First Lady's intervention could not have come at any better time as children had become wayward and were walking in the nude because of bad dressing. One of the participants, Thandolwenkosi Sibanda (16) said she supported the programme which sought to address most challenges affecting youths. "We have been confronted by a very good programme which taught us our values and traditional way of life. We learnt a lot of things which we did not know. The First Lady and other elderly women also taught us how to do household chores some of which were not able to do before their intervention. This programme comes at a time when children of my age were now smoking cigarettes and drinking beer and they were abandoning school. Girls are being impregnated at tender ages. Using the knowledge I gathered here, I will educate others to stay away from mischief since I am now an ambassador," she said. Hillary Mapfumo (16) who took part in the gota lessons showered praises on the First Lady for dedicating her time on mother's day to counselling youths. "I am thankful for this programme because our peers are abandoning school to drink beer at tender ages. Girls too are being impregnated. We hope after these teachings youths will be back on the right path," he said with optimism. A villager, Mrs Catherine Mugwagwa, said what made the First Lady's programme more meaningful was that it was held on Mother's Day to show the pain in her heart over the way children were ruining themselves with drugs. "We are overjoyed on this day Mother's Day when we are putting our heads together as elders led by our First Lady teaching our children the right paths to follow in life. Our girls and boys are now naughty hence we were finding it difficult to discipline them. Both boys and girls are now disrespectful and no longer greet elders. They refuse to be sent on errands, something we never did as we grew up," she said. The wife to Chief Ntabeni, Mrs Sandra Ntabeni, described the First Lady's programme as timely and beneficial to the nation. "We are so grateful for this great programme we never expected. Even now we are lost for words. The First Lady brought a good lesson for us as chiefs' wives because as we live with children in the communities, we see a lot of things as children can now not be disciplined. " When the First Lady brought this programme we were so delighted that we can now control our children. Even when we are left alone here, we can convene a meeting with other women and share notes on what we learnt for the benefit of the community. These children were engaging in sexual activities and dressing provocatively. We do not deny that we are in an era where girls put on trousers, but there is a respectful way of putting these on," she said. Mr Milton Ntabeni, who is Chief Ntabeni said; "This programme is important because people no longer understand where they came from, but the First Lady is encouraging us to keep following our culture. As Chiefs we will see to it that this programme won't die. We will work with our headman and their spouses so that the programme reachs every youth. In the gota we took the boys through various life lessons and i have faith that they will change their behavior for the better," he said. In the Nhanga, the First Lady taught girls with the help of chiefs' wives and elderly women from the village. During the nhanga lessons, Gogo Anna Lino; "These children no longer perform household chores. When they leave for school they return at night and you shudder to think where they will be. They are taking family planning pills and some are getting birth control injections privately. We are troubled by these children who are engaging in sexual activities at tender ages." In her advice to the youths, Gogo Cecilia Govo, warned children against yielding to peer pressure. "Do not yield to peer pressure in schools. As your parents we work very hard to put you to school and we do not expect you to engage in love affairs. You should be focused on education. Some of the boys you elope to do not even have a cockerel at their homestead. Children are copying a lot of bad things from televisions. Take it as a blessing to find a respectable person like the First Lady coming to teach you life," she said. The First Lay said the first husband for every girl should be her education. "We want you to treasure your education. Through these teachings we are not preparing you to elope tomorrow, but we are doing it for your future. Learn to say no, especially to relationships at tender ages. The Government says you can go back to school after giving birth, but things will be different, even your level of concentration will be divided because your mind will be on the child. Sex at a tender age is dangerous as it brings many challenges," she said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Governance Zimbabwe Women By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The programme was held at Chief Ntabeni's homestead. While girls were in the nhanga, boys too were in the gota with chiefs and the elderly being taught various lessons. In her main address, the First Lady said good behaviour and morality were key to a brighter future and implored the children to be respectful. "Madzimai (women) you have left your important chores to come and teach our children on this Mother's Day zvinova zvinoratidza kuti tese tinoziva mwanakomana nemwanasikana watinoda kuumba munyika (which shows that we all know what kind of daughters and sons we want to nurture in the country). As parents let's join hands and advise our children and teach them our traditional values and morals," she said. The children who participated were given certificates of attendance by the First Lady who appointed them ambassadors. They were given food hampers, school bags and stationery. In addition girls were given sanitary ware. The first Lady also gave food hampers to Chiefs, their spouses and the elderly who were teaching the children. The University of Cape Town's (UCT) African Centre for Cities (ACC) launched a new podcast series on 4 May 2021, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Gottingen, Germany. The podcast, The City Show, is presented by ACC research associate and curator-at-large Tau Tavengwa, and a veteran of South African public radio, Dhashen Moodley. It features stories that explore the complexities of life and the impact of dynamic change in contemporary cities from a Global South perspective. The pilot episode focuses on the Bo Kaap in Cape Town, and features ACC director Professor Edgar Pieterse. To date, collaborators Tavengwa and Moodley have not met in person, since they are based in the United Kingdom and South Africa respectively. Their collaboration was one of the opportunities presented by the upsurge in remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. Tavengwa is the founder and co-editor of Cityscapes Magazine, a print magazine focused on exploring and understanding cities in Africa, Latin America and South Asia, from the perspective of a broad array of actors including academics, policy makers, artists, photographers, architects and activists. "We are really interested in tapping into this idea that there is a story to be told from a very different perspective about what's happening in cities across Latin America, Africa and Asia," said Tavengwa. Complexities The podcast builds on the work of the magazine, which has been in existence for a decade, in order to reach more people. The City Show is also an element of a larger exploration as part of the Complexities Project, a multi-year investigation on the difficulty of achieving successful urban intervention in growing cities across the Global South, which will culminate in an exhibition in Berlin, a publication, and a series of public debates in 2022. Zimbabwe-born Tavengwa was one of the first staff members to join the ACC when it was established in 2008 - a distinction in which he takes great pride. Trading Cape Town for London, he has taken up a fellowship at the London School of Economics, after calling the Cape home for almost 20 years. "We want to make something that's important, and that's worth telling well." Moodley has worked on public radio in South Africa for 12 years as a news and current affairs host, senior producer and reporter. After a two-year stint at a private television news station as a senior sub-editor and part-time anchor, he left the newsroom in mid-2018 to focus on his passion project: making narrative non-fiction audio stories. He is involved in this collaboration through the Radio Workshop, a social enterprise formed by the Children's Radio Foundation, with the aim of developing high-quality podcasts and high-quality audio content with creators from across Africa. "We want to make something that's important, and that's worth telling well. People like me, who've worked on radio for years, like to talk about the 'theatre of the mind'. It means that we want to create images in your mind with sound." The pilot episode of The City Show zooms in on the Bo Kaap in Cape Town, South Africa. The episode looks at an anti-gentrification drive that has united residents of the small, largely homogeneous Cape Malay / Muslim neighbourhood in the city centre. The episode also explores the contesting views that exist on what the neighbourhood's struggle to retain its authenticity means. "Cape Town has always been at the heart of all the work that I have done in the sector, partly because it's where the ACC is based," said Tavengwa. "In many ways Cape Town is a very ordinary place. It is not exceptional; neither is Lagos or Rio. All of these places are dealing with the same kind of urban dynamics, but each in their own way." Urban transitions The series explores the massive urban transitions that are happening across Africa, Latin America and Asia. These transitions are reshaping how people live; and in profound ways, will define the future of humanity and the world. "The local perspective and the personal stories matter to us." In conversations with residents, experts and others living in these cities, each episode of the new podcast tells how people living in places where most of the world's population live are adapting. The second episode will focus on Mumbai. "We're not looking for new stories," said Tavengwa. "Instead, we're revisiting stories that we think are often reported with little nuance, and digging into them to see what we can find beneath the headlines, and what we can learn from it. "We hope each episode can provide a different way of understanding the places we will visit, through the stories of people intimately connected with these places. The local perspective and the personal stories matter to us. That is what Dhashen and I are interested in presenting - not everything has to be at this big, massive scale." "The 'special sauce' behind our show is that we rely heavily on local knowledge." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Urban Issues Sustainable Development By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The 'special sauce' behind our show is that we rely heavily on local knowledge to understand the cities where they [the respondents] live. It's the city's residents and experts who help us to see the city through their eyes," Moodley said. "I'm constantly surprised by how similar our problems are - from Beirut to Lagos to Rio, I find similarities with my city and country." Season 1, consisting of six episodes, was launched on 4 May. Episodes will be released every fortnight, and will take listeners to Cape Town, Mumbai, Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Beirut and Tijuana. Each episode introduces listeners to new individuals, and a story that provides unique perspectives on the impact and meaning of the multiple changes taking place all at once in their city or neighbourhood. "The larger agenda of the ACC is to make these connections, and to find a very different way of engaging with these issues - in a manner that is productive, and can kick off a different kind of creativity in how we approach the challenges of urbanisation," said Tavengwa. "It would not have been possible to do this without the intellectual basis that UCT presents." Subscribe or listen to The City Show on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher. The pilot episode can be accessed at www.cityscapesmagazine.com/podcast. Vatican City On March 19, 2021 Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, appointed Fr. Hajjar Mangomo Nanga, of the clergy of the diocese of Franceville as National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) in Gabon for a five-year period (2021-2026). The new National Director was born on April 8, 1986 in Koulamoutou, Gabon, and was ordained a priest on August, 10 2013 in Franceville. After primary and secondary studies, in 2006 he attended the preparatory course at the Maria Regina degli Apostoli major Seminary in Otele (Yaounde), then studied philosophy at the same Seminary (2007-2009). He studied theology (2009-2012) at the Catholic University of Central Africa Nkolbisson and in 2015 he obtained a Master in Social and Management Sciences. Since 2015 he has held the following positions in the diocese of Franceville: diocesan treasurer, diocesan director of development projects, diocesan director of the PMS, member of the Episcopal Council and of the Presbyteral Council, in charge of the development projects of the Episcopal Conference of Gabon and of the Patrimonial Commission of the diocese. Khartoum Doctors raise alarm over medicine shortages, lack of funding, insecurity, and an impending health disaster. Yesterday, the Sudanese Ministry of Health reported 138 new COVID-19 cases and five deaths. The new cases were mainly recorded in Khartoum, El Gezira, Sennar, North Darfur, and Northern State. The country's doctors have raised the alarm, there is a lack of oxygen and hospital beds. Hospitals are on strike for all conditions except for emergency cases. Earlier this week, the hospital's strike committee announced that the strike would be lifted in the emergency departments after the state authorities fulfilled part of the doctors' demands, including police protection for the hospital. The doctors' association demanded an improved work environment and the provision of life-saving medicines and the commitment of the Central Bank of Sudan which, since the beginning of 2021, has not yet provided the funds for the import of medicines. According to the Socialist Doctors Association, medicine availability in the country is only 46 per cent, meaning that only 326 out of 709 classes of life-saving and emergency medicines are available. Stocks of medicines required for the treatment of cancer, kidney diseases, heart problems, and diabetes are almost exhausted. The Khartoum Hospital sit-in against the decomposition of 190 bodies in the hospital mortuary entered its third week despite raids. The government is implementing the Wool and Mohair Promotion Project (WAMPP) with financial support from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) and the Lesotho National Wool and Mohair Growers Association (LNWMGA). The goal of the project is to boost economic and climate resilience of poor, smallholder wool and mohair producers to adverse effects of climate change in the mountain and foothill regions of Lesotho. The Project is coordinated by the Agriculture, Food Security and Marketing Ministry. It is jointly implemented by the Forestry, Rangelands and Soil Conservation ministry as well as the LNWMGA. The project consists of three components to be implemented over seven years; climate smart rangelands management, improved livestock production and management and wool and mohair processing and marketing. The wool and mohair processing and marketing component of the project is being implemented by the department of marketing in the Agriculture ministry. Among others, the component is tasked with facilitating the disposal of unproductive animals from the rangelands and to promote diversification into the development of the red meat industry. Wool and mohair smallholder farmers have predominantly depended on income from sales of fibre, neglecting other products of value accruing from rearing of sheep and goats. In the absence of organised and reliable markets, there has been minimal incentive for rearing livestock for meat production. The lack of organised markets and associated marketing infrastructure impedes progress the culling of off-type sheep and goats and developing the red meat industry and other associated industries thereof, more especially the hides and skins and leather sub-sector. As a consequence, farmers were not convinced of the profitability of keeping livestock primarily for meat production. These setbacks hinder producers from engaging in meat enterprises and compete in various domestic and export meat markets. The lack of marketing infrastructure also promotes importation of red meat for consumption in the local meat markets. Indeed; a huge percentage of agricultural commodities, including red meat traded locally; are imported from South Africa because of their organised value chains. It is therefore, imperative to put in place measures to develop the red meat industry to overcome dependency of income generation from fibre only as the livestock sector has the enormous potential and significance in poverty alleviation. Income generation from meat can supplement and even exceed the income generated from wool although not necessarily more than that from mohair. A profitable and sustainable disposal system of culled animals is crucial for solving the current rangeland degradation. It is for this reason why WAMPP has started the culling and exchange programme, the objective being to provide an incentive mechanism to smallholder farmers who are willing to start the process of reducing the number of unproductive animals and replacing them with high yielding stock. The success of this activity depends on effectiveness of livestock auctioneering and slaughtering facilities. As such several livestock auctions facilitated by the department of marketing have already taken place in Mafeteng, Berea, Mokhotlong, Butha-Buthe, Mohale's Hoek and Maseru where 3408 animals were auctioned generating M2 048 562. WAMPP is also supporting the department of marketing in rehabilitating selected auction yards namely Ketane, Mphaki, Makhoroana and Butha-Buthe for continued running of the auction sales. Mobile auctioneering equipment has been procured for conduction of auctions in strategic areas. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The long-term plan is to hand-over the function to private operators to curb the unemployment rate and to realise profitability and sustainability of the initiative. The ultimate goal is opening up and accommodating all other sheep, goats and cattle instead of restricting the auctions to culled animals only. In addition, the construction of slaughter slabs in the southern and northern districts of Quthing and Butha-Buthe is at an advanced stage to develop the red meat value chain. The management and operationalisation of the facilities will be handed over to private entities once completed. Prominent Gweru businessman Douglas Makwande has set himself on a collision course with the Gweru City Council after converting premises of Zimbabwe Glass Holdings (Zimglass) into a cattle pen for his 100 herd. The businessman, a close ally to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, claims he acquired the premises for US$22 million although this is strongly challenged by his workers. Urban farming remains an offence in the Gweru and indeed in many cities and towns in the country. The giant 10-hectare premises located along Bristol Road in Gweru are now used as grazing and a cattle pen for Kwande's cattle, according to media reports. However, the businessman's decision to turn premises of a lucrative glass making venture into a pen could pass for mockery on government's thrust to reinject life into a comatose industrial sector that has taken a good battering from a sagging economy and the devastating effects of Covid-19 in the recent past. Kwande bought the firm from the state-run Industrial Development Corporation. Zimglass, Zimbabwe's sole producer of glass used to export to Malawi and Zambia, churning out 120 tonnes per week and employing 500 workers. It was one of the biggest companies in Gweru run by the state-owned IDC. Patrick Chirombo a former HR Officer at Zimglass said it was painful to see the giant company sinking further into abyss. He was not amused with government for giving the company to someone who has no capacity. Gweru Mayor Josiah Makombe lamented the deal between IDC and Kwande as an economic disaster for Gweru. Zimglass closed shop in 2010. Makombe said that it is illegal for Kwande to keep cattle in the city and a team of council workers would be dispatched to investigate. He said the grinding mills must be properly licensed for them to operate. According to local media, Kwande has also set up grinding mills at Zimglass where he is processing Premier maize meal that is sold in his supermarkets. Kwande acquired the company through his Brainman Investments at a time when the new dispensation under President Mnangagwa promised a quick fix of defunct companies including CSC, Shabani Mashaba Mines and Zisco. The glass produced by Zimglass was mainly sold to Delta Beverages, African Distillers, Mutare Bottling Company, Straitia Investments, Olivine Industries, Datlabs and E. Snell and Company. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Zimbabwe Governance Company By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "It is sad for the city and the country that the firm was bought by someone who cannot revive it. Obviously, we needed an investor who comes to create jobs and wealth," said Makombe. Moses Chikwadzi, a former secretary for the workers' committee said Zimglass remains a strategic company to the country and called for an immediate intervention. He said that hundreds of workers including some who worked for the company for 30 years walked out of the company empty handed. The understanding was that the workers were going to be paid their benefits from the proceeds of the sale of the company. "It's painful and l feel like crying. All workers walked out with nothing. We must be paid our benefits from the US$22m that IDC received from Kwande," said Chikwadzi. Chirombo dismissed the US$22m tag on the company and said there is evidence from lawyers that the company was sold for a song. He said it went for RTGS$22m. He described the price as peanuts considering that the company has machinery worth millions of dollars. Kwande is said to have also got the industrial sand claim some 10km outside Gweru. This is where sand used for making glass is obtained but instead of keeping the sand for glass making, this is now being sold to those building houses and moulding bricks. A private sector roadblock Covid-19 Testing Initiative to assist the government in the fight against the pandemic by optimizing COVID-19 testing services for the tourism industry was launched on monday in Windhoek. Speaking at the launch the Health Minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula said as part of this initiative, COVID-19 swabbing and testing stations will be established at various strategic locations along the country's national road network to provide services to tourists traveling in the country. "Although the measures we have put in place have enabled us to avert the worst-case scenario in terms of the initial projections, the COVID -19 situation remains critical. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases continues to increase with confirmed COVID-19 cases now at 50,000," he said. Kalumbi said it is pleasing that the private sector has come together to operationalize the initiative. "The synergies created by the tourism industry and their pathology service counterparts is an indication that effective cooperation can be fostered across industries to achieve a common goal," he added. The Deputy Minister of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism, Heather Sibungo meanwhile said the setting up of this testing station at the Windhoek-Okahandja Road Block is highly laudable and a progress contribution to government effort. "This is with no doubt the roadblock with the highest traffic volume and transit point for both nationals and international travelers and therefore very ideal and strategic to serve as a point of service in our current fight of the pandemic," she added. According to Sibungu Namibia has recorded a decline of 87% in international tourist arrivals in 2020 and this is such a major shock that translated into a massive loss of over 1000 jobs. Namibia will host the United Nations World Tourism Organisation Regional Conference on Strengthening Brand Africa for the Swift Recovery of the Tourism Sector from 14 to 16 June and around 50 to 100 international delegates are expected. Press Release May 12, 2021 CNN The Source Interview of Sen. Win Gatchalian on COVID response, West Philippine Sea and WFH tax cuts COVID Response Q: Let's begin the conversation, I first wanted to get your reaction doon po muna, meron na po tayong dalawang case ng variant from India. SEN. WIN: Correct. This is a cause for concern and a case for us to take it seriously because learning from the past, if you remember last February, the virus variants came into our country and these variants were very contagious, in fact we felt it on the ground and we have to take this seriously, this variants were related to the fast phased spread in India. We have to make sure that we contain it as fast as possible. Q: But here's the thing, Senator, 'yun pong dalawang case na nahanap galing sa Middle East. We're not even talking about the passengers who have had or who have had travel history in India or who had arrived from India or dumaan sa India, hindi pa po 'yun. These are two seafarers who actually arrived from Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. SEN. WIN: This is a very unique situation for the Philippines, for our country, Pinky. Because we have 10 million Filipinos abroad and majority of our OFWs that have six to one year contracts, they have to come back to the country. So it's a decision and balancing act because we cannot just shut our boarders immediately because we have OFWs coming in. We have to bring our OFWs back in the embassy but if the embassy gets infected, we have to tighten our quarantine procedures here in our country. So meaning tightening the traveling procedures, coming in to our country. Once the OFWs come in to our country, we have to make sure that they undergo very strict quarantine and monitoring. In my opinion, we cannot take this lightly because of the the contagiousness or the increased speed of infection with these new variants. Q: There's also the possible decision whether NCR plus bubble will move into a more lenient GCQ from MECQ, what are your thoughts? kailangan na po bang maging mas lenient, mas magbukas ang industriya because that ends sometime on May 14? SEN. WIN: Pinky, yesterday I was at the briefing of NEDA at PSAD and our economy shrank by 4.2%, and in that briefing, it's very clear that our economy is correlated with the quarantine levels that we put in place. For example, if it's stricter quarantine levels definitely our economy will contract. If we loosen it up, our economy will expand so it's directly correlated. So yesterday, to be honest about it after the briefing of NEDA and PSA, may initial thought is to go back to GCQ because the more we loosen it up, the more we will grow and the more jobs will create. However, that thought changed when I saw the new variant or the double variant landed, and again, going back to our experience last February and in March, these variants can be the cause of increased phase of infection in our communities and I recommend to extend the MECQ until the end of the month, until we contain this double variant. Q: So extend muna tayo? Now that this news came up yesterday, na pagpasok ng Indian variant here in the country and of course, Sir, meron pa pong tsine-tsek doon sa container vessel that came from India and pass through a number of Southeast Asian countries. SEN WIN: Pinky, actually one of the learnings that we all learned in the past is gatherings, eating out and get togethers, are the catalyst for infections. That's why in this new version of ECQ, we allowed almost everything except for gatherings, eating and get togethers and we can see the immediate effect, our reproduction rate went down, the number of cases went down, the attack rate, another matrix that we used went down, but more importantly, the occupancy of our hospitals also went down. So meaning we have space now for hospitals and ICU beds, so we can see that calibrated effect of the quarantine levels. So in other words, the dining in and gatherings are known as catalysts for infections and we need to keep this sharp for now because of this new variants. West Philippine Sea Q: Senator wanted to get your quick reaction on the President about this campaign promise of his regarding Jetski through the Spratlys, he said it was only a joke, ang tawag nga po niya dito ay bravado during the campaign, while you have colleagues who say that, the Senate President says oo, he knew it was a joke, but you have Senator Panfilo Lacson says sometimes it's hard to determine whether the President is joking or not. Did you see this as a joke when the President mentioned this during the campaign, the presidential campaign? SEN. WIN: Well, Pinky, I want to go beyond the jetskis and beyond the bickering that is happening around the West Philippine Sea. The West Philippine Sea is part of the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, we have jurisdiction over that area, and more importantly we have rights to explore and to exploit the natural resources in that area. People might not know this but there's enough oil and gas there to power our economy for the next 700 years, because of its rich natural resources. I've been tracking down this resource for the past few years and it's really needed, those resources that are really needed to make sure that the economy grows. So in other words, we should explore and take advantage of the natural resources there. But having said that, it's very difficult for me to predict what's in the mind of our president, but what's certain for me are the actions and the statements of our DFA secretary and the statements of our DND secretary are very loud and clear for our exclusive economic zone. And these are the most trusted people of the president. So in other words, we are asserting our rights in that exclusive economic zone, and it's very clear to me that the country's asserting our arbitral award. Q: Okay, so then let me do a follow up on that, just very quickly because Senior Associate Justice Retired Senior Associate Justice Carpio was saying that, to be able to do that, the President should do the following, say that China has no, or take back what he said that the arbitral ruling is just a piece of paper that should be thrown in the wastebasket and that China is in possession of the West Philippine Sea. Do you agree Sir that this has to be taken back because in a way, whatever the President says becomes the policy, a government policy? SEN. WIN: For me, Pinky and this is my own analysis, there is a difference in strategy, some quarters will have a different approach on the West Philippine Sea. Obviously, the President and his team, I call it team because they're acting in unison in my analysis. They may come up in different degree, but in my opinion and analysis, there is a certain direction in their actions, and one of the most compelling with the President is when he addressed the UN General Assembly last year wherein he said that arbitral ruling cannot be diminished. No government, even after his administration can diminish the value of the arbitral ruling. So in other words, the President recognizes this, and the President recognizes the importance of the arbitral award. Q: Are you saying that you are satisfied with how government is dealing with the issue in the West Philippine Sea amidst these incursions from China? SEN. WIN: What's important for me is to assert our rights and jurisdiction in that area and one of the most compelling visuals and optics that I've seen lately was the assertion of our Philippine Coast Guard. Our Philippine Coast Guard was there, patrolling. In fact, the Philippine Coast Guard made that warning, the challenge and the warning against the incursions there in the West Philippine Sea. So my point of the matter here is, the actions are loud to me and the actions are something that we can see. This is what's very important in my opinion, it's a difference in strategy, but the direction is there. The president said that the ruling will not be diminished. It will not be thrown away, and in their actions from our government agencies in terms of protecting and asserting our jurisdictions in our exclusive economic zone. Q: Yeah. So in summary, you're satisfied, Senator? SEN. WIN: It's a balancing act. And so far I am seeing what the President have said in the UN GA and that UN GA is being translated to action, and the statement is being echoed by his alter egos in the DFA and also in the DND so it's a balancing act. There are things that we can improve, definitely. There are things that we can improve in terms of asserting, in terms of exerting, but that's a matter of strategy. WFH tax cuts Q: Okay, Senator, I need to shift topics. Ito pong plano ninyo, proposal to reduce, a reduction in that tax for work from home employees, could you please briefly tell us more about this. Paano po makikinabang ang mga empleyado na nagta-trabaho sa kani-kanilang mga bahay? SEN. WIN: Pinky, I'll keep this very simple and I'll veer away from the complexities of the proposal but basically a lot of our constituents are working from home and especially, like here in the Senate, 50 percent of our workforce are mandated to work from home but we're not giving them. Their telecommunication expenses went up, their DSL expenses went up. Of course, by staying at home, you have other expenses going up like electricity and utilities. So in our proposal, those items that enable you to effectively work from home can be deducted from your income tax. So for example, if the business owner, or your principal are not inclined to support you with those amenities, you can claim this from government. So in a nutshell, it will encourage people to work from home, and it will not a burden for them. Prime Minister Moeketsi Majoro has been appointed deputy leader of the ruling All Basotho Convention (ABC). He replaces Professor Nqosa Mahao who dumped the ABC to form the Basotho Action Party (BAP) after falling out with Dr Majoro and secretary general Lebohang Hlaele whom he both accused of conniving to hand back the party and government to former Prime Minister and current ABC leader Thomas Thabane. His appointment was announced by the ABC's national executive committee (NEC) at a media briefing at the State House this week. The briefing was attended by Mr Thabane, NEC members and members of parliament (MPs) who pledged their support for Dr Majoro to remain prime minister until next year's elections. Asked how it felt to be part of the NEC, Dr Majoro said it was a "relief" because his exclusion had been one of the causes of instability in both the party and government. "I must tell you this is a relief. This is because the government was on one side while the party leading government was on another side. I was not part of the NEC and for that reason the party did not understand how the government functioned. "It (exclusion from the NEC) was a nightmare and a source of instability in both the government and party. Therefore, it (inclusion in NEC) is a good thing which will give us an opportunity to improve our performance. I am happy that this decision has been made," Dr Majoro said. Mr Hlaele said the NEC had resolved to appoint Dr Majoro at its meeting earlier on Monday. "In its meeting today, 26 April 2021, the NEC decided to co-opt Moeketsi Majoro into the NEC to serve as deputy leader of the party. "Ntate Majoro is the prime minister and the premier must be part of the NEC because this party is leading the government. There should be a warm relationship between the ABC's NEC and the executive arm of government," Mr Hlaele said. He said despite "perceptions" of bad blood between them, Dr Majoro and the NEC had always enjoyed good relations since the formation of the current governing coalition. "Even now we are still working together. You cannot have a prime minister who is not part of the NEC and run the party without him. There will always be sharks who will use the vacuum created by the premier's absence from the NEC to create divisions. We identified that problem and agreed to close the gap (by co-opting him into the NEC)," Mr Hlaele said. Dr Majoro's appointment will go a long way in consolidating his government position. He had been in an extremely difficult position of heading the government while not being a member of the party's powerful NEC which inked a new coalition deal with the then opposition Democratic Congress (DC) last April and rallied the party's MPs to oust Mr Thabane. For a long time, the NEC was loyal to Prof Mahao until the cracks began to appear after the ouster of Mr Thabane. Even with Prof Mahao's departure, Dr Majoro's position was still shaky if he remained outside the NEC which has bigwigs like Mr Hlaele and chairperson Samuel Rapapa. The latter has made no secret of his ambitions to challenge Dr Majoro and any others for the party leadership when Mr Thabane goes. Dr Majoro's appointment will therefore increase his clout and standing in the party. Until his elevation this week, he was just an MP for the Thetsane constituency. Mr Hlaele also said the party and government remained solid despite the departure of Prof Mahao and some MPs. He claimed the ABC retained the support of at least 35 MPs. Taken together with the 27 DC MPs, he said the government was not in any danger of collapse following Prof Mahao's vow to table a no confidence vote in parliament in the coming weeks. Prof Mahao has claimed to have 20 ABC MPs supporting his breakaway party. But Deputy Prime Minister and DC leader Mathibeli Mokhothu has thrown his support behind Dr Majoro and the ABC. Their combined 62 seats are enough to save the government from collapse. Mr Hlaele said, "we are meeting as the NEC, women and youth's leagues and ABC MPs under the leadership of Ntate Thomas Thabane to announce that ABC still enjoys the strong support of 35 MPs. The ABC wishes to inform the nation that allegations that Ntate Moeketsi Majoro's government will collapse this week are just wishful thinking." Mr Hlaele said the 35 MPs who remained loyal to the ABC included Prof Mahao's former allies, chairperson Samuel Rapapa (Mosalemane constituency), 'Matebatso Doti (Lithabaneng), Thabo Sophonea (Thaba-Bosiu) and 'Mankoe Maime (Maama). Other MPs who are sticking with the ABC are Lepota Sekola (Makhaleng), Lesego Makgothi (Maseru), Habofanoe Lehana (Khafung), Moshe Leoma (Matlakeng), Chalane Phori (Qoaling), Litsoane Litsoane (Bela-Bela), Likopo Mahase (Mabote), Tseliso Kalake (Thupa-Kubu), Tsoeu Molise (Tsoana-Makhulo), Leshoboro Mohlajoa (Malingoaneng), Mohapi Mohapinyane (Rothe), Lekhetho Mosito (Likhetlane), Tsehlo Ramarou (Leribe), Samonyane Ntsekele (Tsikoane) and Semano Sekatle (Lebakeng). The ABC also has Mahala Molapo (Thaba-Phatsoa), Halebonoe Setsabi (Kolonyama), Prince Maliehe (Teyateyaneng), Thabang Mafojane (Motimposo), Temeki Tsolo (Mafeteng), Lehlohonolo Moramotse (Lithoteng), Keketso Sello (Hlotse), 'Matsepo Ramakoae (Matsieng), Tlokotsi Manyoko (Hololo), Selemo Mangobe (Taung), Nkaku Kabi (Qeme), Dr Majoro (Thetsane), Motlohi Maliehe (Butha-Buthe), Mokoma Khobohelo (Mantsonyane), 'Mathato Phafoli (proportional representation) and Mr Thabane. Mr Hlaele blamed Prof Mahao for the infighting which had plagued the ABC since 2019. "The ABC has been plagued by endless infighting for far too long. We were unable to find the source of our infighting until a few days ago when we heard the former deputy leader (Mahao) telling a local radio station that he had started processes to form a new party. "We were not aware that the primary source of our problem was within us. Our agenda was different. Others' agenda was to build the party and make it stronger while others were busy plotting to pull us down. "The former deputy leader voluntarily left this party after achieving his primary objectives of causing confusion ahead of the (2022) elections." Mr Hlaele's allegations are despite that he and the majority of NEC members had stood solidly behind Prof Mahao in his power struggle with Mr Thabane from 2019 until after the formation of the current governing coalition last May. Despite his previous support for Prof Mahao, Mr Hlaele claimed that he knew from the onset that the former deputy leader did not have the ABC's best interests at heart. "I realised this while we were still the big five (Mahao, Rapapa, Hlaele, Masoetsa and Doti). We spotted his weaknesses but since we were already fighting a bitter war (against the Thabane camp then known as the State House faction), we could not afford to give in and join the state house faction. Our pride would not allow us to do that. We agreed to fight to the bitter end despite realising that we were following the wrong leader (Mahao)." He said Prof Mahao was only elected into the ABC leadership out of sympathy. Although he did not give details, this could have been in reference to the fact that Prof Mahao's younger brother, army commander Lieutenant General (Lt-Gen) Maaparankoe Mahao, was assassinated in June 2015 by soldiers who were under the command of former army commander, Tlali Kamoli. "You all know how he became the deputy leader? It was through sympathy because of the attacks on him. He eventually realised that his agenda was different from the ABC and jumped ship. We then said amen," Mr Hlaele said. Dr Majoro also took the occasion to respond to Prof Mahao's allegations that he had betrayed him by conniving with Mr Hlaele to hand back the government and party to Mr Thabane who they had worked so hard to unseat. "Professor Mahao was my minister who I appointed to the Law and Justice portfolio. "His statements that we have taken the government elsewhere make me wonder what pushed him to say that. Was it not because he was preparing to jump ship? Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "He said the government had been taken to Makhoakhoeng which is Ntate Thabane's home. There used to be stories of enmity between him (Thabane) and I. "Those people wished we would hate each other amidst all the infighting but it was all just wishful thinking. A few days after I had gone to see him, I heard the noise that I had taken the government back to Makhoakhoeng. "I was just there visiting him after he had invited me to a traditional feast. I went there and smoked tobacco, drank mohlaba (traditional beer). We laughed together with Ntate Thabane. "The following week I heard stories that I was in Makhoakhoeng. I never hide my visits to Ntate Thabane. He is my leader and founder of this party. I have every right to consult him regularly and that happens in every party," Dr Majoro said. He also said he had told Prof Mahao that he was not part of any plot to expel him from the party as the latter had alleged. "I heard from the Professor that a plot to expel him was hatched at Makhoakhoeng and I assured him that there was no such plot. I promised to follow up on this matter. After our meeting, I called some people and I was told that there was no such plot." He said he was later surprised to hear a recorded clip of Prof Mahao addressing his party supporters last Tuesday where he repeated allegations of the plot against him. He said the claims that he had handed back the government to Mr Thabane were "absurd" as there was no way he could have been swayed by anyone into plotting against Prof Mahao because he had a "backbone and independently" made his own decisions. His appointment as deputy leader was welcomed by Mr Thabane who warmly embraced him and asked him to "lead this party". He said the party had been founded on values of Christianity and commitment to serving the nation which it had to abide by. "Let us ask ourselves what is the main reason for Lesotho's instability. Who cursed us? Can we all attempt to accept each other and co-exist? Can we not make collective decisions and abide by them," Mr Thabane pleaded. North West Health MEC Madoda Sambatha has expressed appreciation to nurses for their dedication and commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the province celebrates of International Nurses' Day. "It is only when our nurses in all our facilities across the province continue with their commitment to fight this pandemic and care for our people that we will eventually win this battle," the MEC said on Wednesday. International Nurses' Day is celebrated annually on 12 May on the anniversary of the founder of modern day nursing, Florence Nightingale's birthday. The MEC said the role of nurses in health care is irreplaceable and nurses should be celebrated in recognition of their value in the health care chain and in society generally. "As the largest health care profession in the world, nursing is often the only health profession that services all the people, both the poor and the rich. Therefore, nurses are particularly well placed and often the most innovative in reaching underserved and disadvantaged populations. The role of nurses has emerged as essential in the entire health system," the North West Department of Health said. The MEC has called on all the nurses who have registered for COVID-19 vaccination to come forward and be vaccinated. "Nurses are our front-liners and more at risk for COVID-19 than any other category. That is why we prioritised them for Phase 1 vaccination. All nurses who registered to vaccinate, should urgently come forward to take their jab and those who are yet to register should do so as we seek to conclude Phase 1 of vaccination," Sambatha said. press release Over 145 candidates from 29 political parties are set to contest the by-elections in 40 wards on 19 May 2021. The 145 candidates, including eight independent candidates, were certified as contestants for the by-elections on 3 May 2021. Of the candidates, 86 (59.31%) are male and 59 (40.69%) are female. The by-elections will be held across seven provinces: Eastern Cape (7 wards), Free State (2 wards), Gauteng (16 wards), KwaZulu-Natal (7 wards), Limpopo (4 wards) and Mpumalanga (4 wards). A total of 362 965 voters are registered to participate in these by-elections. The full list of candidates contesting these by-elections is attached. The by-elections will be held under strict new COVID-19 protocols aimed at ensuring the safety of voters, election staff, party agents, observers and other stakeholders. These include implementing strict social distancing practices outside and inside voting stations along with the use of hand sanitisers as voters enter and exit the voting station. Voters, election staff and all those entering the voting station will be required to wear a mask at all times. Voters are also encouraged to bring their own pens to mark their ballot papers, although pens will be provided and sanitized after each use. For more information on these by-elections contact your local (municipal) IEC office weekdays during office hours. Contact details for all IEC offices are available on the IEC website at www.elections.org.za under Contact Us. Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula has sent condolences to the families of seven people who passed away in a gruesome crash on the N3, in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday. According to road traffic law enforcement in KwaZulu-Natal, the accident occurred seven kilometres towards the Mooi River Plaza. Further information revealed the accident involved a rigid truck, bus and a tanker that collided and caught fire. "On behalf of the South African government, I send my sincere condolences to the families of the loved ones who passed away during this tragic accident. We saw the horrific scenes from the N3 where people were burnt beyond recognition with many sustaining injuries. "The loss of lives on our roads is a scourge we are fighting. Road traffic law enforcement authorities are investigating the matter and will provide the families the much needed information for closure," Mbalula said. The Minister said that investigations of culpable homicide and the exact cause of the accident, are currently underway. press release Update on the coronavirus and vaccines by Premier Alan Winde As of 1pm on 11 May 2021, the Western Cape has 2343 active Covid-19 infections, with a total of 288 754 people having been infected with Covid-19 to date and 274 738 recoveries. A total of 74 777 vaccines received to date as part of the Sisonke trial have been administered by 5pm on 10 May 2021. The Western Cape has recorded 8 additional deaths since our last daily update on Monday, 10 May, bringing the total number of Covid-19 related deaths in the province to 11 673. We send our condolences to their loved ones at this time. Please note that the data for the sub-district level, as listed in the daily maps, is sourced from the Western Cape Government's Covid-19 Dashboard. To view the Dashboard, visit: https://coronavirus.westerncape.gov.za/covid-19-dashboard Additional data is available on the Western Cape Covid-19 data dashboard which also features active cases per sub-district, active cases per 100 000 and 7-day moving averages. Premier Winde takes #LetsDoThis vaccination drive to Cape Town Central Station With just 6 days to go until the start of Phase 2 of the vaccination programme, I held a #LetsDoThis vaccination registration drive at Cape Town Central Station today to encourage vaccine registrations. Please see photos attached. During my visit, I helped to register two commuters who were over 60 years. I also shared leaflets with commuters on registering and encouraged those not yet eligible for registration to help a family member or friend who is over 60 to register for the vaccine. Among those that I engaged with was Pamela Anthony from Tafelsig. Pamela explained to me that she was not sure of how to register for the vaccine and I explained how quick and easy it is. On being registered, Pamela said, "I am very grateful that I am now registered. I wasn't sure how to do it before, but it is simple". I also had the opportunity to engage with a healthcare worker from Lentegeur Hospital during my visit who advised me that she had had her vaccine. She said: "I encourage people to register for their vaccine. I had no side-effects from my vaccine. I also encourage people to engage with their healthcare practitioners if they have any concerns." Mariam Tukushe from Khayelitsha also had not yet registered for her vaccine, but is now excited to be on the EVDS system. Mariam said: "I was confused about the process. I asked the Premier how to register and I am now registered for my vaccine." It was a privilege to be able to assist Pamela and Mariam, and I encourage all residents to play their part in ensuring that those who are eligible for vaccines are registered. I also want to encourage all residents in our province to help do the same, by calling a family member, member of the community, or friend, who is 60 years or older. Vaccines are rigorously tested internationally and locally and are proven to be safe and effective. If you are 60 or older, register to be vaccinated by following this quick and easy process: Visit www.westerncape.gov.za and click on the link to register Capture your basic details, including your ID or passport number Provide a cellphone number, where confirmation of your registration and future booking details will be SMSed Indicate where and when you would like to be vaccinated Enter your medical aid details if you have one - it doesn't matter if you don't. Check that all your details are correct, and press submit. The system will send you an SMS to verify your registration on the system. When it is your turn, you will receive a second SMS with your appointment time and place. You will need to show this at vaccination sites, with your identification document. Should you receive a 2-dose vaccine, such as the Pfizer vaccine, you will be given a follow-up appointment date. The following contact details can also be used to register: Dial *134*832# and follow the prompts (FREE on all South African Networks) Whatsapp the word REGISTER to 0600 123456 #LetsDoThis Western Cape! The Western Cape Government's Covid-19 dashboard has been updated The Western Cape Government is committed to transparency of Covid-19 data, so that residents have the information they need to change their behaviour and stay safe. To achieve this objective, we launched an award-winning public facing dashboard - which has had more than 2 million visitors to date. To make sure that we keep on innovating, the Department of Health has now updated the Covid-19 Dashboard with new and exciting features to better promote transparency and awareness. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Governance Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Among the most important additions is the "Resurgence Monitor". This looks at two main metrics: The percentage increase week on week in new Covid-19 cases; and The percentage increase week on week in the percentage of average positive cases. If both these indicators increase over 10% for 7 consecutive days, we regard it as an alert. If both these indicators increase over 20% for 7 consecutive days, we regard it as a resurgence. This means that we can now use the dashboard to predict a third wave. The updates to the dashboard include the most updated vaccination data in the Western Cape on the dashboard. We have also included information on Covid-19 reinfections, which forms part of the total case number. The Covid-19 dashboard now features a new "Demographic Profile" component. It includes an age and gender profile for all Covid-19 cases and deaths. The information can be filtered by the district across the province. It also includes a graph showing cases as a proportion of their age-band across the entire epidemic as a means of identifying age-based outbreaks particularly in the inter-wave period. Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, will on Thursday visit the Sky City Housing Development in Alberton, Johannesburg, to check on houses offered to middle income earners. The Sky City Housing Development, which is partly government funded, is one of the projects around the country which also cater for middle income earners. The project has currently delivered over 4 000 housing units. Middle income earners is a category of people who can neither qualify for the fully subsidised government housing (RDP), nor bank bonded housing. Last month, Sisulu called on first time home or property buyers to apply for the Finance Linked Individual Subsidy Programme (FLISP) provided by government to encourage home ownership for those who earn between R3 501 - R22 000. This government financial assistance for the middle-income earners can be used as a deposit or reduce the bond balance. During her visit at Sky City Housing Development, the Minister is expected to interact with the beneficiaries and developers. The Tsepong Consortium has elected not to challenge last month's decision by the government to terminate its lucrative contract to run the Queen 'Mamohato Memorial Hospital (QMMH) on behalf of the state. However, the Consortium wants the government to immediately compensate it for the termination of the contract. It further alleges that the government would have to fork out way more than just the M3 billion which Finance Minister Thabo Sophonea has said is the termination fee. The Consortium alleges the government owes other sums in unpaid fees hence the demand for much more than just the termination fee. However, it does not say how much the government should pay. It merely says the amount is disputed by the government. Health Minister Semano Sekatle announced last month that the government had resolved to cut ties with the Consortium which has run QMMH since it opened its doors to patients in 2011. The parasitic relationship between the government and the Consortium has been a cause for concern for many years with the Consortium allegedly gobbling half of Lesotho's entire health budget, with most of that money ending up in the pockets of South Africa's major hospital chain, Netcare. Mr Sekatle said the government felt it could no longer continue its 18-year Private Public Partnership (PPP) entered into 2008 with the Consortium for the construction, running and transfer of the hospital due to serious differences which had plagued the agreement from the very beginning. In October 2008 an 18-year PPP agreement was signed between the government of Lesotho and the new company, Tsepong Consortium, for the construction and operation of the hospital. Netcare has a 40 percent stake in the Tsepong Consortium. Four other companies, namely, Afri'nnai of South Africa, Excel Health, Women Investment and D10 Investments (all from Lesotho), hold the balance of the shares. However, the Consortium has been under fire for allegedly fleecing the government and flouting the tenets of the agreement over the years. Its operations have also been hamstrung by ubiquitous staff strikes for salary increments since 2012. Mr Sekatle said although the government and the consortium had differed over many issues, the final straw was the latter's decision to fire 345 striking nurses and nursing assistants at the institution. The nurses went on strike on 1 February 2021 to press the government and QMMH to award them salary increments to match their counterparts in other government and private institutions. QMMH nurses said they have not been awarded any increments since 2012 when the government and the Christian Health Association of Lesotho (CHAL) increased the salaries of nurses at other institutions. According to the Lesotho Nurses Association (LNA), nurses at QMMH earn about M9000 each per month. The figure is way less than the M13 000 earned by their colleagues in CHAL facilities and other government hospitals. Health ministry Principal Secretary (PS) Khothatso Tsooana subsequently wrote to the Consortium informing it of the government's decision to terminate the contract. A 12 April 2021 letter to PS Tsooana by Tsepong general manager Zondy Mohapi indicates that the Consortium will not challenge the termination of its contract. "Tsepong is concerned about the media announcements by the government of Lesotho since the commencement of the illegal strike," Mohapi states in the letter to PS Tsooana titled "Notice of Operator Default". "Tsepong is concerned more specifically with regard to the following public messages: government does not support the dismissal of the nursing staff who participated in the illegal strike action and does not agree with actions taken by Tsepong management; government has requested the Minister of Health and Minister of Finance to terminate the PPP agreement; The contract should be terminated due to a parasitic relationship... and the government will re-employ dismissed nursing staff to the hospital as soon as the PPP Agreement had been terminated. "These statements by the government to all major media within Lesotho and South Africa, signals the government's repudiation of the PPP Agreement. "Tsepong is therefore entitled, among other things, to accept the government's repudiation, cancel the agreement forthwith and claim damages. Tsepong is also entitled to terminate the PPP Agreement because a government default prevails whilst undisputed amounts, that are contractually overdue to Tsepong, exceed the termination threshold. We look forward to receiving your election regarding the way forward to ensure the stability of the project whilst the parties agree on the most appropriate manner to hand back the project to government." In his termination letter, PS Tsooana had accused the Consortium of breaching its contractual obligations in terms of the PPP agreement. Among other things, Mr Tsooana accused the Consortium of turning away emergency patients and refusing to admit patients referred from district hospitals. He also accused the Consortium of reducing bed capacity and occupancy. Minister Sekatle also accused the Consortium of firing the striking nurses without first consulting or informing the government. The government has since resolved to rehire the fired nurses and nursing assistants and place them in state-run health facilities with effect from 1 May 2021. However, Tsepong wants the government to shoulder the blame for the nurses' strike. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Company By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. "The government has failed to conduct an affordability review within the agreed time or at all. The illegal nurses' strike was instituted by aggrieved nursing staff, as a result of the government of Lesotho reneging on its undertaking to perform this review," Ms Mohapi states in her response to the government's allegations. She said there was no evidence to back the government's claims that QMMH had refused to admit patients referred to it by the district hospitals. She also denied claims that there was a high nurse to patient ratio which compromised services to patients. "Our records do not show any delay in the treatment of patients. Tsepong has been maintaining a ratio of 6 patients to 1 nurse which is lower than the acceptable industry standard of 8 patients to 1 nurse. "On 26 September 2018, the government instructed Tsepong to terminate extra services and consequently little to no extra services have been performed from January 2019. Tsepong has only performed emergency cases and maternity cases. To accept cold case referrals, a variation to the PPP agreement is required," Ms Mohapi states. Minister Sekatle yesterday acknowledged receipt of the Tsepong letter. He said they were consulting with their finance teams over the amount to be paid to the Consortium. "We are also setting up our legal team because definitely the matter will end up in court," Mr Sekatle said in a brief interview with the Lesotho Times. press release I can categorically state that neither the Western Cape Government (WCG) nor the Western Cape Housing Development Agency (HDA) has received 5 parcels of land from the National Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI). A recent media statement that was issued by the National Minister of DPWI, Patricia de Lille states: "I have approved the release of 5 parcels of land for human settlements purposes in the Western Cape alone." This statement cannot be true, as we have not received formal communication from the DPWI regarding these 5 parcels of land. It is also important to point out that when land is released and or transferred that the Power of Attorney (PoA) must be provided. Should the PoA not be available, a third party is unable to commence with statutory processes such as Water Use License Assessments (WULA), Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) and town planning or any other statutory processes on the owner's land, while the transfer has not been concluded. We've been lodging formal requests for the DPWI to release a number of identified land parcels which it owns within the City of Cape Town since 2017, but this request has fallen on deaf ears. Minister De Lille's continued silence is deeply concerning. The number of properties requested from DPWI stands at 18. Two erven at IThemba has formally been declined. The requested properties are located at Bo-Kaap, Camps Bay, Parow, Rugby, Simons Town, Tamboerskloof and Zeekoevlei, Delft & Weltevreden. They have a combined extent of approximately 30ha and an estimated yield of 3500 units. In non-Metro areas, 34 land parcels have been identified by the local authorities. The properties are located in Wellington, Paarl, Grabouw, Saldanha, Vredenburg, De Doorns, Kylemore, Vlottenburg, Franschoek, La Motte, Wilderness Heights and Blanco, George. The properties have a combined extent of approximately 6600 ha and it is acknowledged that in some instances the entire property will not be developed hence an estimated development yield of only 6800 units. In the Western Cape, between 2009 to date, a total of approximately 360 ha of land in the ownership of the WCG has been availed for residential development purposes. This will over time yield 18 782 housing opportunities. These parcels across the province are in Ithemba, Penhill, Khayelitsha, Eersteriver, Blue Downs, Kuilsriver, Belhar, Mitchells Plain, Charlesville, Paarl and George. Against a target of 219 664 during 2009 - 2019, the Western Cape created 231 090 housing opportunities. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. We have a housing backlog of close to 600 000 in this Province and Minister De Lille's continued failure to release land for human settlement purposes and to issue the POA to the HDA as per the National Cabinet resolution, causes further delays in addressing the housing needs of our residents. The people of this province should ask Minister De Lille why she's conducting herself in this manner, particularly since she's denying law-abiding citizens the opportunity to improve their lives. Being petty does not help anyone, and I'd like to propose to Minister De Lille to embrace an intergovernmental co-operative spirit in her dealings with other spheres of government, so that the needs of our people can be addressed. As the Western Cape Government, we remain committed to accelerating human settlement delivery, utilising technology, while promoting social inclusion through the development of integrated, resilient, safe and sustainable human settlements in an open society. press release Vaccine Registration On The EVDS Registration Link Is Now Open For The Over 60s And Others As Vaccination Starts On The 17 May 2021. Phase 1B of vaccination is starting on the 17 May 2021 for the 60s plus, We appeal to individuals and public to ensure that all our elders are registered on the EVDS Registration SA Site/link (Electronic Vaccination Data system). You need a data device to register. All that is needed on the EVDS System is (1). Identity document, (2). full address, and (3). cellphone number. These important details must be brought to the Vaccine Site for verification (write the correct address and cellphone number for elders). For those who might struggle to register, a team have been dispatched to different identified vaccination sites/facilities across the district to also help with registrations for vaccine on the EVDS (Electronic Vaccine Data System) Site. Please take note that as from the 15th May 2021, Sisonke Vouchers will no longer be used as we will receive Vaccine from Pfizer Biotech. This means that as from the 17 May 2021, there is no longer need to send messages for creation of voucher, as it was with Sisonke. Your only have to register on the EVDS System to qualify for vaccination. Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District- Matlosana Vaccinations team has been working around the clock to make final preparations for the second phase of vaccination. So far all vaccinating health personnel have been trained and went through all steps, and put into practice the safest, and efficient vaccination procedure. We have identified vaccination site which are equip and ready for use. Beneficiaries for phase 1B include specifically the following include: According to Mrs Keitumetse Mlambo the Acting Director of Dr Kenneth Kaunda District, the beneficiaries for phase 1B include the above 60 years plus age home residents including those at Home based, the remaining Health Care workers (HCW), Correctional Centres Health Care Workers (HCW), SANDF Health Care Workers (HCWs, the Formal Funeral Undertakers Employees, Registered THPs. For those elders 60 plus who do not have data to register on the EVDS registration application via their cellphone. A team has been dispatched identified vaccination facilities to help with registration for vaccine. We appeal to everyone to help elders to register for vaccine. This way we will enable the immunity of the elders and reduce hospitalization as a result of covid19. Public should please take note of the following: Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Governance Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Mrs. Mlambo Confirm that in Dr Kenneth Kaunda District the initial identified Facilities for Phase 1b are Klerksdorp Hospital, Witrand Hospital, Potchefstroom Hospital,Ventersdorp CHC, and Nic Bodenstein Hospital. In Matlosana Sub-District Facilities identified and already prepared for phase 1b vaccination sites are; Klerksdorp hospital which has been open and fully function since February 2021, Wesvaal hospital near Orkney will serve community of Orkney, Umzimuhle, Kanana and neighboring farms. The New Jouberton CHC near N12 will be partially open specifically for vaccination purposes, it will serve community around Alabama, Jouberton, Manzilpark and Extension 3, 4, 5 etc. We have further identified and prepared for expansion for Vaccination roll site in Botshabelo Community Health Centre (CHC) for Khuma,and surround areas, Grace Mokgomo CHC will serve in Kanana community near Orkney, Delekile Khoza Clinic in Tigane, Hartebeesfontein as well as surrounding farms areas. Activation for Vaccination sites of other Health facilitates in the Entire district will be communicated to public. We have used all platforms to create demand and urge Health Care Workers to vaccinate. It is worth noting that the vaccination for health professionals at the Klerksdorp Hospital site will continue until the 15th, we edge all healthcare workers (patient facing and non-patient facing) around the district to get vaccinated, if you are struggling to get a voucher please present to the vaccination site and you will be assisted. Although its voluntary, we call on the remaining 17 000 health workers to go and vaccinate. Prime Minister and All Basotho Convention (ABC) deputy leader Moeketsi Majoro has received a major boost in his quest to remain in power until next year's general elections. This after Democratic Congress (DC) leader and Deputy Prime Minister Mathibeli Mokhothu restated his party's commitment to upholding the two parties' April 2020 coalition agreement which gave birth to the current Majoro-led governing coalition. Speaking at a joint press conference with Dr Majoro at State House in Maseru yesterday, Mr Mokhothu said he had no intention of abandoning the government after the ABC's split last week. He said there would be challenges along the way but together with the ABC and smaller coalition partners, they were determined to weather the storms right up to the holding of elections, expected in September next year. Mr Mokhothu's support effectively puts paid to plans by former ABC deputy leader, Nqosa Mahao, to bring down the government through a no confidence vote in parliament. At least for now. Professor Mahao broke away from the ABC last Tuesday to form the Basotho Action Party (BAP). He said he had decided to quit the ruling party two years after he became its deputy leader because Dr Majoro had allegedly connived with ABC leader and former Prime Minister Thomas Thabane and ABC secretary general Lebohang Hlaele to plot his ouster from the party. He also accused Dr Majoro of conniving with Mr Hlaele to "hand back" both party and government to Mr Thabane who was ousted from power last May. Dr Majoro reacted last Thursday by firing Prof Mahao from his post as Justice and Law minister. He was dismissed along with his allies, Motlatsi Maqelepo (Forestry, Range and Soil Conservation), 'Mamoipone Senauoane (Police and Public Safety) and Deputy Minister of Health Nto Moakhi. Mokhotlong legislator Tefo Mapesela was the first to be dismissed from his Agriculture, Marketing and Food Security portfolio a fortnight ago. This after he had said Dr Majoro should finish his current term before stepping down to allow Prof Mahao to lead the ABC into the 2022 elections and take over as premier in the event of an ABC win. Mr Mapesela is not a member of Prof Mahao's new BAP party amid allegations of fallout between the two over the naming of the new party. In the wake of his dismissal, Prof Mahao intensified his fight against his erstwhile ABC colleagues by launching the BAP last Friday. He claimed that at least 20 ABC MPs would defect to the new party. For the time being he said he could only reveal the identities of 11 MPs who had joined him. These are Mr Maqelepo (Berea constituency), Fako Moshoeshoe (Mabote), Tello Kibane (Peka), Sotlehang Sekhamane (Maputsoe), Nto Moakhi (Malibamatso), Molefi Phamotse (Lekhoele), Mphosi Nkhasi (Pela-Tsoeu), Motebang Koma (Koro-Koro), Libe Motsoane (Mphosong), Nyapane Kaya (Mechachane) and 'Mamoipone Senauoane (Thaba-Tseka). However, it appears unlikely, at least for now, that Prof Mahao will have anything more than these 11 MPs in his corner, political observers say. Nor is he likely to succeed with his no confidence push. This amid indications that 35 ABC MPs have thrown in their lot with Dr Majoro. Dr Majoro has now also received the firm support of Mr Mokhothu. The DC has 27 seats which taken together with the 35 ABC seats suffice to meet the 61-seat threshold required to form government. Speaking at their joint press conference yesterday, both Dr Majoro and Mr Mokhothu said their two parties still commanded the majority support in parliament despite the ABC split which gave birth to Prof Mahao's BAP. Dr Majoro said there was a "lot of confusion" within the country regarding the stability of the government. He blamed the "confusion" on the BAP. "We were told that government would have collapsed this week on Monday and when that did not happen, it was said that it will collapse this very Friday (tomorrow)," Dr Majoro said. "The two parties leading His Majesty's government have therefore decided to come out and assure the nation that the ABC and DC remain united in this government. We have enough parliamentary seats to lead this government and it will last until 2022," Dr Majoro said, adding they would use the remaining period between now and next year's elections to fully implement the multi-sector reforms and fight the Covid-19 pandemic, among other things. "I want to assure you that these two parties are committed to ensuring that the reforms are successfully concluded. We have had coalition governments from 2012 to 2017 which collapsed before they could finish their term. We have this current one which we are supporting with stretchers. However, it will last its full term. "Let me tell you a secret. Even though there were many people who wished for this government to collapse, we defeated the challenges because when you form a grand coalition of the two biggest parties in parliament, it is easier to have a stable government. "We have counted ourselves. At the moment the DC has 27 MPs that are wholeheartedly supporting it. We also have 35 ABC MPs for now and that number could go up. Just these two parties (ABC and DC) have 62 members which is more than the minimum required to maintain a government. "We still have our coalition partners to count on. We are still hopeful that some of the ABC members we lost have had time to reflect. I am still struggling to understand the reasons that made them leave the ABC. I have heard a lot of explanations but these explanations do not make sense at all," Dr Majoro said. He said he was still hopeful that some of the MPs who had dumped the party would return to enable the party to focus its energies on service delivery. "We still have a lot of time and we are still committed to delivering services to the nation. We will not be stopped from delivering services, we are not going to prorogue parliament. We have a lot of business in parliament," Dr Majoro said. On his part, Mr Mokhothu said "the ABC-DC coalition is still intact". "We are prepared to continue as government despite conflicts, challenges and splits that may occur along the way. We are convinced that our two parties will carry the government, so there will be no change of government as some people had anticipated. "We are saying to Basotho and the international community that this government will last until the next elections. Now that I have spoken, the good doctor (Majoro)'s fears have been allayed... "It does not mean there won't be challenges along the way; they are many but we are here to solve the problems facing the nation. We have two thirds majority because we have 80 parliamentary seats from the ABC and its partners as well as from the DC and its partners," Mr Mokhothu said in reference to the seven smaller parties which have backed the ABC-DC grand coalition with their collective 18 seats. Over the weekend, Prof Mahao had talked up his chances of a successful no confidence vote, saying his experience in the governing coalition had shown him that the ABC and DC had found it extremely difficult to work together. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. He said although the two parties' national executive committees (NECs) had initially agreed to holding weekly meetings, they last met in September 2020. This after the DC allegedly vowed never to attend the meetings in anger over some ABC officials who allegedly accused the DC leadership of engaging in human trafficking activities. However, Mr Mokhothu dismissed the claims that the two parties were not seeing an eye-to-eye due to the ABC allegedly sabotaging DC-controlled ministries. He insisted that the ABC- DC coalition was the "most stable government" Lesotho had ever seen. "If there has ever been a stable coalition, it is this one. We are not facing any serious challenges. I am the chairperson of the budget committee in my capacity as the deputy prime minister and there was no way the DC ministries would have been disadvantaged. "After all we are not running this government as separate parties but we are His Majesty's government which is focused on service delivery. There are perceptions that certain ministries are being favoured and that is understandable especially when two biggest parties like these are working together. "One will keep the other in check and that is normal and natural. It should not bother anyone. We continue to enjoy good working relations. The nation has full trust in these two parties and if this government fails to last its distance, the nation will lose faith in politics," Mr Mokhothu said. Asked if he would demand the prime minister's post in the event that ABC support declined to a point where the DC became the biggest party, Mr Mokhothu said, "we will cross that bridge when we get there, if it ever happens". Press Release May 12, 2021 Buying Filipino is key to economic recovery: Pangilinan AS the Philippine economy continues to contract in the 1st quarter of 2021, Senator Francis "Kiko" Pangilinan encourages everyone to buy local products to stimulate economic recovery. "Mahalin natin ang sariling atin, bilhin natin ang mga lokal na produkto ng ating mga kababayan. Sa ganitong paraan kumikita sila at nakakatulong tayo sa kanilang kabuhayan. Mga halimbawa nito ay mga lokal na PPEs, mga produktong agrikultural at pagkain," said Pangilinan. "Patuloy tayong nag-iimport ng mga PPEs, samantalang maraming supply na available dito. Dahil sa kakulangan ng demand mayroong nawalan ng trabaho ang 3,500 na manggagawa," said Pangilinan. Earlier, the Confederation of Philippine Manufacturers of PPE (CPMP) said that local suppliers are not maximized in the government's comprehensive procurement program when they joined toward the latter part of 2020. According to CPMP, only 27 percent of the government's monthly demand for cover-alls and gowns, and 69 percent of the monthly mask capacity were granted to local suppliers and were already delivered in January and February 2021. This amounts to 660 million pesos worth of PPEs. "Hindi lamang sa PPEs pero pati na rin sa mga produktong agrikultural katulad ng bigas at karneng baboy. Bakit parang mas kinikilingan ang mga imported na produkto?" he added. While experiencing devastating losses due to African swine fever (ASF), local hog raisers lament the national government's actions which seem to favor importers. Continuous losses and massive pork importation can force raisers out of business. Malacanang has issued Executive Order 128 lowering import tariffs for pork, potentially costing the government 11 billion pesos in tariff collections with the flood of pork imports severely impacting local pork production. The Senate adopted Pangilinan's Senate Resolution 97 calling for the declaration of a State of Calamity to free up funds needed to address ASF, as well as to oppose the reduction of tariff rates and the lifting of the cap on imported pork products. Early this week, Malacanang declared a State of Calamity due to ASF. "We can boost the economy by buying local products, or if we can, buy directly from farmers, hog raisers, fishers. It is beneficial for everyone. Kung may kakilala kayo na nagbebenta ng mga lokal na produkto, supportahan natin sila." "Pag kumikita ang mga suppliers, dadami ang supply, pag dumami ang supply, bababa ang presyo sa merkado. It is a positive chain of effect. Lahat panalo," said the former food secretary. The Philippine economy has continued to contract for five straight quarters, as the Philippine Statistic Authority yesterday announced that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2021. Despite the easing of quarantine restrictions, experts predict that the economy will recover slower than expected. The National Theatre of Namibia (NTN) opened a call for artists with disabilities to showcase their creative talents between 10 to 21 May 2021 for an upcoming project that uses the creative and performing arts to raise awareness among the general public community, on the rights and capabilities of persons with disabilities in Namibia. The project is done in partnership with the Namibian National Association of the Deaf (NNAD) funded by the National Arts Council of Namibia. The project aims to bring together artists with different disabilities (not limited to hearing impairment) to work together in promoting their capabilities and to raise awareness among the general public on the rights of persons with disabilities in Namibia. The project is based in Windhoek, however interested artists living outside the city and are able to relocate to Windhoek at their own costs, should they be successful, are welcome to send a WhatsApp query and showcase to Desiree Mentor, NTN at 081 124 4285. Interested artists with that are 18 years and older are requested to book for a slot with the NTN or the NNAD, for a 1-minute creative showcase of their talents in the areas of, but not limited to Acting, Poetry and Dance/Movement. Successful candidates would be contracted for the projects that will take place 24 May to 12 July 2021. In line with the ethos of investing in the growth of micro entrepreneurs, the One Economy Foundation hosted a two-day Masterclass from 23 to 24 April in Ongwediva under the theme "Building capacity, transforming businesses and improving socio-economic outcomes." The training was attended by 19 young micro-entrepreneurs from Oshana, Oshikoto, Ohangwena and Omusati regions respectively. The Masterclass strengthened the capacity, confidence, networks and capital of youth micro-entrepreneurs, thereby positioning them better to build sustainable, impactful and profitable businesses. The entrepreneurs benefited from an array of business skills development sessions, including market research, design thinking, financing opportunities, mental health, marketing and scaling and growth strategies. The entrepreneurs also received information on how to leverage international trade opportunities and harness partnerships to strengthen and sustain their businesses. The highlight of the training was an exhilarating pitch competition where 10 micro-entrepreneurs battled it out for exciting cash prizes. After an intense round of pitches and questions, Wilbard Wilhem, founder of Shityeni Trading Cc (manufacturing sector) emerged as the pitch competition winner and Gabriel Shilongo, owner of Okalongo Vegetable Supplies (agricultural sector) as the runner-up. The winners walked away with N$15,000 and N$10,000 cash prizes and business mentoring. The main aim of the Masterclass was to build personal and business competencies of participants, connect them with service providers and leverage shared lessons to accelerate business growth and socio-economic outcomes. The participants noted that the Masterclass was very informative and empowering as it created a platform for the creation of business networks, exchange of knowledge, sharing of experience and success stories between the micro-entrepreneurs and the facilitators. One Economy Foundation is confident that with these added learnings, networks and capital, entrepreneurs will sail the tide and transcend some of the challenges they may encounter. Police Commissioner Holomo Molibeli has fired Lesotho Mounted Police Service Staff Association (LEPOSA) spokesperson, Police Constable (PC) Motlatsi Mofokeng. PC Mofokeng was served with his dismissal letter on Monday barely a week after he lost his High Court bid to stop Commissioner Molibeli from initiating processes to fire him from the force. High Court Judge Moroke Mokhesi dismissed his application to permanently interdict Commissioner Molibeli from firing him for allegedly concealing information that he was convicted of assaulting one Thabang Tsubane in 1999. PC Mofokeng had filed his application last October in response to Commissioner Molibeli's 9 October 2020 letter asking him to "show cause" why he should not be dismissed from the police force in terms of section 31 (1) (b) of the Police Act which states that an officer who gains admission into the police service through misrepresentation, concealing information and making a false statement in reply to any question should be fired. In his "show cause" letter, Commissioner Molibeli had alleged that PC Mofokeng was tried and convicted in the Butha-Buthe Magistrates' Court for assaulting one Thabang Tsubane in 1999. That was three years before PC Mofokeng applied and got admitted into the police force. On 21 October 2020, High Court Judge Polo Banyane granted PC Mofokeng an interim interdict barring Commissioner Molibeli from firing him until the matter was finalised. Commissioner Molibeli, former Police and Public Safety Minister 'Mamoipone Senauoane and former Attorney General Haae Phoofolo were cited as first to third respondents respectively. Justice Mokhesi heard arguments from PC Mofokeng's lawyer, Advocate Vuyani 'Mone and the respondents' lawyer Adv Tekane Maqakachane on 18 March 2021 and reserved judgement. In delivering his verdict last Thursday, Justice Mokhesi dismissed PC Mofokeng's application, saying he should face the disciplinary process. There would be nothing peculiar if he was subsequently dismissed, the judge ruled. He said the courts had no power to stop disciplinary processes that were already in progress except where there was a likelihood of a grave injustice occurring. He said the courts could only review the decision of the disciplinary hearing when it had been finalised. The ruling cleared the way for Commissioner Molibeli who subsequently dismissed PC Mofokeng this week. The LEPOSA spokesperson's dismissal letter indicates that the decision to fire him was reached after he supposedly waived his right to a hearing last October. The police's human resources officer, one Superintendent Marou, states in the dismissal letter on behalf of Commissioner Molibeli that PC Mofokeng had been asked to make representations on why he should be fired but had failed to do so, preferring to go to court. Superintendent Marou said PC Mofokeng had been furnished with all the further particulars he had requested to enable him to make his representations but had still failed to do so, preferring to go to the High Court where he won the temporary interdict granted by Justice Banyane before his main application was dismissed with costs by Justice Mokhesi on 22 April 2021. "It is therefore irresistibly axiomatic that you have waived your constitutional right to make the required representation in this regard. It is on this basis of the foregoing that the Commissioner of Police has instructed me as I hereby do to inform you that you have been dismissed from the LMPS with effect from 26 April, 2021 in terms of section 31 (1) (b) of the Police Service Act No 7 of 1998," Superintendent Marou states. PC Mofokeng was also ordered to return all police uniform items issued to him while he was serving as Officer Commanding Special Operations Unit (SOU). Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Lesotho Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. PC Mofokeng was not reachable for comment. Ironically, PC Mofokeng and Commissioner Molibeli are close relatives. Commissioner Molibeli is said to be the one who encouraged his nephew Mofokeng to apply to join the police force way back in 2002. They however, fell out due to the ongoing fight between the LEPOSA executive and the police command. LEPOSA accuses Commissioner Molibeli of incompetence, bias in the promotion of police officers as well as failure to deal decisively with the scourge of police brutality. On the other hand, Commissioner Molibeli accuses LEPOSA of insubordination and open rebellion against his leadership. He has denied allegations of harbouring personal vendettas against PC Mofokeng and other LEPOSA FacebookTwitterGoogle+ReddItWhatsAppPinterestEmail Kenya Airways PLC and Airlink last week inked an interline agreement that will extend the airlines reach in the Southern Africa region via Johannesburg and Cape Town. The new agreement will offer customers seamless travel of over 40 cities across Africa. Kenya Airways continues to diversify its services and operations in response to their customers needs. Under this latest agreement, Kenya Airways customers flying to South Africa will be able to connect with Airlink operated flights to Windhoek, Durban, Gaborone, Maseru, Pemba, Maputo, Port Elizabeth, among others. It will also enable Airlink passengers to book a through ticket to Nairobi and enjoy connections to the rest of Kenya Airways destinations within Africa, including Entebbe, Kigali, Dar es Salaam, Bujumbura, Kinshasa and more. The agreement presents new growth opportunities for both airlines and will strengthen aviation ties between Kenya and Southern Africa. This partnership also plays a significant role economically, improving trade exchange and spurring tourism across the continent, a statement released said. "As global economies continue to reel from the effects of the pandemic, such strategic partnerships are critical. These new routes will positively impact the flow of trade and tourism across the region by offering our customers convenient travel around the continent," said Julius Thairu, KQ's Acting Chief Commercial Officer. The government through the Ministry of International Relations and Cooperation (MIRCO) has expressed concern about the possible evictions and condemns the violence exercised by the Israeli police during the past days against Palestinian demonstrators and the storming of the AL-Aqsa Mosque, assaulting peaceful worshipers. MIRCO Executive Director, Penda Naanda in a statement on Monday said the government has noted with "grave concern" and expresses its solidarity with the Palestinian people and calls on the Israeli forces to end the violent acts against the Palestinians. "Namibia further reaffirms its resolute support for the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation, the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and independence with East Jerusalem as their capital," he added. Naada meanwhile called on the international community to continue to support the Palestinian people through the implementation of relevant UN resolutions and all other agreements. Taschiona Gawaxab took over the new role as the head of Information Technology (IT) at Nedbank Namibia on 1 May 2021. Before joining Nedbank, she held a senior IT role in the banking industry, leading a team of 42 people in her department. Gawaxab was born in Windhoek and attended St Paul's College before working in the United Kingdom at an IT company in networking and systems administration. "I have a passion to help the company achieve its strategic objectives, to drive and exceed expectations and to get things done through others. It is about innovating and creating new value and experiences for Nedbank and its customers. It is not about tech, but about people. So, to get people to embrace changes and partner businesses to achieve their objectives, we create value for shareholders and customers and we provide peace of mind to regulators." One of her objectives is to rally employees around the vision of Nedbank, driving a high- performance culture, prioritising what gets done and inspiring and motivating people. This will be made possible through people management - "how we recruit them, train them, reward, develop and retain them. When we recruit, we need to bring in top talent, develop them and make it worthwhile for them to stay with us. It's fine to let go of under-performers because it allows us to bring in new blood and talent." Gawaxab described information, communication and technology as the heart and centre of the business, where she will manage data and process to create value for the company. She noted that IT is about gaining efficiency, eliminating redundancies and de-risking the business by automating manual processes and partnering business units to achieve their objectives. However, ICT is male-dominated and there are many cultural biases. Women have to work twice as hard as men to prove themselves, which has been the most significant barrier in Gawaxab's career. Her advice to other young women who want to join the industry is that they need to move fast and learn to embrace change "and not to play catch up all the time". One of her inspirations is an American businesswoman and investor, Marissa Ann Mayer, who became president and CEO of Yahoo in 2012 at the age of 37s. While analysing and assessing the impact of the coronavirus on businesses and the economy, Gawaxab says this is the new normal, as the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology. Many manual jobs will be automated and people need to upskill and re-skill to remain relevant. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Company Banking By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. For those in the IT sector, the picture looks different, as data analysts, scientists, software developers and people able to 'code' and write algorithms, are in huge demand. Her motto: "Failure is never permanent. So, it is a mindset. It is not about what went wrong, but about learning from what went wrong and applying those lessons in the next project. Only people who do nothing don't make mistakes. Mistakes are part and parcel of learning. Just don't make stupid mistakes." Gawaxab has vast experience in the IT sector and is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA), Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS), Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) and Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP). She is also skilled in Control Objectives for Information and Related Technology (COBIT), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL), Agile software management and development, and CIO Digital-Certified. Health minister Dr Kalumbi Shangula has cautioned Namibians who spread false and unsubstantiated information about vaccines and other aspects of the Covid-19 interventions. Shangula was speaking during the launch of the private sector roadblock Covid-19 testing initiative in Windhoek yesterday. He added that Namibia cannot ill-afford a situation where the health system becomes overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients; hence, people need to get vaccinated as soon as possible. "It is critical and urgent for more people to get vaccinated so that the country can reach herd immunity to prevent new infections and reduce the severity of illness for those who get infected. As the vaccination programme gathers steam, I urge Namibians to present themselves to the vaccination points and to get vaccinated," he pleaded. According to the ministry's daily Covid-19 update, only 37 819 Namibians had their first jab, while only 2 301 had their second jab as of 9 May. Vaccinations are available in all 35 health districts in Namibia. The country commenced its vaccination programme on 19 March. He further assured that government will not do anything to harm its people. "The interventions that we put in place are aimed at protecting our people and bringing the country back to normalcy. It is, therefore, regrettable that some of our people have chosen to abuse the media, especially some radio stations, to sabotage and undermine legitimate government efforts to protect our people. These irresponsible actions must cease forthwith," he strongly narrated. The concerned minister further explained that if people do not heed the call, there will be more pressure on the available facilities and other resources. He added government has invested a significant amount of resources in the national Covid-19 response and preparedness. "However, for the response to succeed, our people must comply with the public health measures to protect themselves, their families and the communities they live in," he said. Shangula said the number of patients admitted to hospital isolation wards and isolation intensive-care units (ICUs) continues to escalate, although the national isolation bed and isolation high care-ICU bed occupancy rate is 33% and 38%, respectively. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Governance Coronavirus By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The isolation high care bed occupancy rate in the Khomas region alone is 85% and the situation in the private sector is even more disconcerting, with national isolation bed and isolation high care-ICU bed occupancy rates being 76% and 83%, respectively. The minister said although the measures government put in place have enabled people to avert the worst-case scenario in terms of the initial projections, the Covid-19 situation remains critical. The number of confirmed Covid-19 cases continues to increase and has reached 50 000 confirmed cases. "The increasing number of cases calls for greater vigilance on the part of all Namibians. I draw the attention of the Namibian people to the fact that we have also witnessed a steep increase in the number of hospitalisation of persons suffering from severe Covid-19 complications. Many of these persons require intensive care treatment and this has placed additional pressure on the available ICU beds and the personnel to take care of the patients. It is, therefore, important that we all should do our part to suppress the further spread of Covid-19 in our country. Let us all protect ourselves, our families and our communities from new infections," urged Shangula. Meanwhile, the minister commended the Tourism and Safari Association (TASA) and the pathology service providers for the timely initiative, saying it will strengthen the response and ensure tourists to Namibia can promptly access Covid-19 testing services. A spotlight on the work of Emeritus Associate Professor Una Kyriacos, previously of the University of Cape Town's (UCT) Division of Nursing and Midwifery, in commemoration of International Nurses' Day. Kyriacos is behind the development, validation and testing of the effectiveness of a vital signs monitoring tool: the Cape Town-modified early warning score (MEWS) vital signs chart. The chart, designed for adults, is intended for the early identification of deterioration in hospitalised adult patients in general wards. In the public sector, nurses monitor three vital signs of adult patients in general wards: blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and temperature. These are manually recorded on paper charts which do not indicate what the normal values for the vital signs should be - except for temperature. Patients' results are recorded by using symbols, dots and crosses, plotted on a graph, although no values are written on the chart. For HR and BP a small space accommodates 10 unlined gradations (for example, 60-70), so the symbol for a heart rate of 63 is inserted somewhere between these two numbers at the nurse's discretion. Without pre-knowledge or indication of the normal range of values for different patients, nurses may be less able to recognise when a patient's condition deteriorates. There is also no formal guide that tells nurses at what HR and BP level they should call for assistance. This is generally the case in wards but not in the intensive care unit (ICU) where there are monitors and alarms. The success of the pen-and-paper system of recording vital signs results depends on a nurse's ability to recognise clinical deterioration from the chart and by observing the patient. And there are no guidelines for this on the pre-MEWS chart. Lack of adequate early detection The new modified vital signs chart is a product of Kyriacos's PhD. She, in association with Professor Sue Jordan of the Swansea University in Wales in the United Kingdom (UK), conducted the revision of the chart by clinical trial to improve its effectiveness. The MEWS chart is a tool that provides a structured assessment of six bedside observations to assess the severity of patient illness. Its development was inspired by the UK's National Early Warning Score. Through the tool's improved detection system, patient safety is helped in three ways: by limiting emergency admission of ward patients to the ICU, preventing avoidable in-hospital cardiac arrest and reducing patient deaths. "Examination of nursing documentation convinced me that the problem was the lack of an early warning system for the recognition of clinical deterioration and an algorithm for an appropriate response," said Kyriacos. Inadequate, infrequent recording Kyriacos, who has previously been acting head at the division, said that the existing observations chart has compromised nurses' responses by resulting in no response at all, or a delayed response in calling for assistance - and "a delay can result in avoidable harm or death of a patient". She is the lead researcher on this work and has also been an expert nurse witness for local law courts for several years. "In cases I've examined, nurses' recordings of patients' vital signs have at times been inadequate or infrequent and have indicated that they have not recognised physiological and clinical signs of deterioration in a patient's condition," she said. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Health By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Relevant training Monitoring and recording vital signs, as well as a nurse's ability to recognise deterioration in a patient's condition are important for patient safety and survival. Fortunately, these are skills that can be improved through an early-warning score chart, training and experience. "With relevant training and charts that indicate abnormal ranges for vital signs, nurses may more easily recognise deterioration in a patient's condition," said Kyriacos. The new chart is being implemented at the Karl Bremer Hospital in Cape Town, and Kyriacos has been invited to assist with training the hospital's nurses. "We are delighted that the chart has been approved for use by the Western Cape Department of Health," she said. "Three further public sector hospitals in the province have [also] shown interest in implementing the chart." The Office of the Prosecutor General is not happy with lawyer Sisa Namandje defending two men accused in the biggest drug bust in Namibian history because he is "conflicted". State prosecutor Salmon Kanyemba has asked Windhoek High Court Judge Orben Sibeya not to allow Namandje to defend Grant Noble (36) and Dinath Azhar (62) who are accused of dealing in and alternatively possession of 412 kilogrammes of cocaine. According to the prosecution, Namandje also represented one of the State witnesses in the High Court during 2013, as such, he is ethically bound to withdraw from the case. Namandje opposed the application and Judge Sibeya will deliver his ruling on 18 May. Noble and Azhar have been in police custody since 15 June 2018, following their arrest after a container they had imported was found loaded with 412 kilogrammes of cocaine worth an estimated N$206 million. The cocaine was hidden between copy paper boxes the two ordered from Brazil via Cape Town to Namibia through the port of Walvis Bay. It is further stated in the indictment that during February 2018, Azhar made an outward payment of N$17 895.60 from Zeeki Trading to an entity called Safety Com. Importadora E Exportadora Eireli EPP in Santos Brazil under the pretext of buying A4 printing paper for resale in Namibia. During April 2018, it is said, Customs and Excise officials received intelligence regarding the importation of illicit goods from Brazil's Port Santos to Walvis Bay port and ran a risk profiling of imports from South America with a specific focus on commodities such as printing paper, tiles, paint, biscuits and sweets. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Namibia Governance Legal Affairs By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Towards the end of May 2018, it is further stated, Customs and Excise identified the shipment of a container with a description of printing paper from Port Santos and the importer was Noble under the name and style of Zeeki Trading. The shipper was a Brazilian entity named Safety Commercial Importadora E Exportadora Eireli, it is stated. It goes on to say that on 9 June 2018, the container arrived at the port of Walvis Bay and placed under surveillance. It is further stated that the container was still closed and sealed and using a forcible entry tool, Noble broke the seal and the container was opened. Upon search, it contained 480 boxes of A4 printing paper and amongst the boxes of paper, 400 blocks of cocaine were found weighing over 401.52 kg with a value of N$206 million, the indictment states. It further says that a new seal with the same number was found in one of the boxes. Noble and Azhar were arrested on the scene and the cocaine - a dangerous dependence producing drug was seized, analysed and found to contain 87% cocaine. The main trial will start on 7 June. interview "Nursing is not just a profession, it's a skill and an attitude. It's about developing a close relationship with your patients. It's the ability to make a difference in the world - one patient at a time. The compassion and passion that nurses bring to the profession are two of the most highly regarded and valued aspects of their role - not just in South Africa, but also in the world." Nicki Fouche, the head of the Division of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Cape Town (UCT), shared these sentiments on International Nurses' Day on Wednesday, 12 May. The celebration takes place annually on the birthday of Florence Nightingale (the founder of modern nursing), and seeks to honour all nurses and highlight the contribution they make to society. "Nurses provide holistic, patient-centred care, and we believe in treating our patients with dignity and respect." Niemah Davids (ND): Talk to us briefly about the significant role that nurses play in our society. Nicki Fouche (NF): Nurses provide holistic, patient-centred care, and we believe in treating our patients with dignity and respect. We empower patients by ensuring that they are equipped with the correct knowledge to manage their illnesses and teach them techniques on how best to cope during acute illnesses and in rehabilitation. Making a positive difference in our patients' lives and in the lives of their families is what we strive for at all times. ND: Tell us about UCT's Division of Nursing and Midwifery, and the part it plays in teaching and research and in advancing skills and knowledge in the profession. NF: We prepare nurses and midwives as clinical nurse specialists through research-informed postgraduate clinical programmes. We make use of multidisciplinary and collaborative approaches to teaching and learning, and [to] research. We aim to provide quality nursing and midwifery practice, using research and education. This, we believe, will help us to reach optimum patient and family-centred care within a primary healthcare setting. It's with integrity and respect for our patients and each other, and our commitment to our work, that we can do the work that we do every day. ND: How has the field of nursing evolved over the years? NF: Arguably, nursing education has to be the most significant change in the field over the past 10 years. More universities have started to offer specialised degrees, and training has become formal and more complex. But at the same time, learning has become a lot more inclusive, which is wonderful. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Health Labour South Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. With technology advancements and other changes in the industry, universities are always adapting to meet industry needs. And as nursing education evolves, today, programmes place emphasis on innovation, strategy and management to build transformative healthcare leaders. Ultimately, this is what we need. ND: Many refer to nursing as a thankless job. How do we change that and give nurses the recognition they deserve? NF: Maybe education on the role of nurses will help. Many people don't realise what the job entails, and the physical and emotional effect it has on all of us. We experience many daily challenges, and in the past year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, all of it has been amplified. But despite everything - including the thanklessness - we do what we do because we love what we do. "[The COVID-19 pandemic] has taught us the importance of self-care and listening to your body." ND: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the extraordinary role that nurses play. What has the pandemic taught you? NF: [The COVID-19 pandemic] has taught us the importance of self-care and listening to your body, irrespective of the craziness associated with our work during this pandemic. We're of no use to anyone if we're burned out. It has also taught us that life is short, and appreciating each other is essential to just get us through the day - losing so many colleagues has been hard. ND: What is the one perception of nursing that you'd like to change? NF: Nursing is not just a women-only profession. Yes, we have made giant strides to ensure that it becomes a more gender-neutral profession, but the percentage of male nurses in the field remains low. We need more men to take up nursing. Ex-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has handed today his candidacy for June 18 elections as reformist Hassan Rouhanis term comes to an end. German state-run news agency DPA, citing Iranian Press TV reports that the former leader presented his candidacy papers to the Interior ministry to register for presidential elections. Candidates according to the Guardian Council must submit their bids to the interior ministry after which it will analyze the validity for five days after the registration process. The parliament is set to announce the final list on May 26 and 27, after which an election campaign will be officially launched that will last 20 days, the agency notes. Ahmadinejad led the Islamic Republic between 2005 and 2013. His bid for 2017 elections was rejected by the council. Several public figures including Brigadier General Saeed Muhammad (former official of the Revolutionary Guard), former Brigadier General in the army, Muhammad Hassan Nami are rumored to vie for the president position. Incumbent President Rouhani is legally barred to run as he completes two terms in office. About 100 people who used to live at the Makhanda dump were moved after it was upgraded About 100 people were living on the Makhanda dump site last year. They were removed after the High Court ordered that the site comply with environmental legislation. GroundUp spoke to several former dump site residents who want to go back to the landfill. They say life was better and easier when they were living at the dump. The municipal rubbish dump site on Cradock Road outside Makhanda provided a home and a living for a number of people. They scavenged for dumped expired food. But since the site was upgraded, they no longer have access. They say life was easier when they were living on the dump and they are struggling now to survive in the township. In September 2015, the Makana Municipality was ordered by the Grahamstown High Court to bring the dump site into line with environmental legislation. This included refurbishing the perimeter fence, controlling access to the site, developing a waste-screening mechanism, and appointing an independent specialist to review environmental monitoring data When GroundUp went to the site in 2020, about 100 people were living there. Among them were Ronnie Basi, Sanelisiwe Mhlekwa and Mandilakhe Rooi. But when the renovations started in 2021, the people who were living there were removed by the municipality from the site. Basi, from Vukani location, had been living at the dump since 2014. "My life was better there because I never slept with an empty stomach. I left home because I was not working. I was living with my mother who was selling fruit in town. She had grandchildren and the money she was getting was not enough to cater for all of us," Basi told GroundUp last week. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines South Africa Urban Issues By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. Sanelisiwe Mhlekwa said, "I was fine when I was living there at the dump site ... Food was for free there and we never got sick because of the expired food. At least the municipality should make a way and perhaps give us a space next to the dump site." Mandilakhe Rooi, from Xolani location, said he would return immediately if the municipality allowed them back. He is now living from selling scrap metal. "We have been kicked out of the dump site and my life has totally changed for the worse here in the location. We are a family of eight and life is not good," said Rooi. Nompumelelo Ntukwana, from Fingo Village, said she moved to the dump in 2017 when she was just 17 years old. "That was our home. We were used to that life. Why is the municipality doing this to us? We now have to adapt to this life of living at home with families. We were like one family there too," said Ntukwana. Abri Albertyn, from Separation at Source, said no-one was living at the dump any more. But some people did scavenge for food and look for recyclable materials when trucks came to the dump site. Municipality Media and Communications Officer Anele Mjekula did not answer our questions. South African demonstrators march to Parliament to protest against Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip. Kenya has joined the world in condemning clashes in the Gaza after Israeli troops raided a mosque, setting off a chain of violent events. During a debate at the UN Security Council, Kenya said all sides must cease fire to enable an amicable solution. "During the UNSC debate on the violence in East Jerusalem, Kenya urged all authorities, and particularly law enforcement, to de-escalate the situation in Jerusalem before it leads to a more extensive wave of violence," the Kenyan Permanent Mission to the UN in New York said on Tuesday after a session on Monday. Kenya, which supports a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, said it is opposed to violence. "We insisted that the agreed status quo on Jerusalem be respected." Violence escalates Despite the call at the Council on Monday, violence escalated on Tuesday after Israel bombarded Gaza with airstrikes as Hamas fired back rockets into Israeli settlements. More than two dozen Palestinians and at least five Israelis had been killed by Wednesday morning. The UN Security Council was expected to meet again on Wednesday evening for an emergency closed-door meeting. And the Council's members were voicing concerns at the rising tensions after Israel amassed troops at the border and Hamas promised to retaliate. India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador TS Tirumurti said his country is "deeply concerned at clashes and violence in Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount". Danger to entire region Indian, traditionally an Israeli ally, also said the spread of violence into residential neighbourhoods were a danger to the entire region. "India is equally concerned about evictions in Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan neighbourhoods," he said after reports emerged of several Palestinians being evicted from their houses. Israel and Palestine have often fought over the true flow of each other's territories and the status quo. Between Israel and Palestine, the status quo has often implied that East Jerusalem is seen as an occupied Palestinian city, that Palestinian refugees retain right to return and that Jewish settlements remain occupied territories. West Bank raid From Monday, the Israeli army raided the West Bank and arrested dozens of Palestinians it linked to Hamas, the movement that governs Gaza and seen as a danger to Israel. On Tuesday, it shelled and downed a skyscraper said to have hosted Hamas offices. At least five families perished in the debris, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. On Wednesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said both sides should de-escalate the violence for the sake of civilian safety. "I am urging Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint. "The UK is deeply concerned by the growing violence and civilian casualties and we want to see an urgent de-escalation of tensions," he said on Monday. On Tuesday, the African Union also condemned the violence after Israeli security forces attacked the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, wounding some 300 worshippers. "The Chairperson reiterates that the Israeli army's actions, including the continued forced, illegal evictions of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, are in stark violation of international law and further heighten tensions in the region, complicating the search for a just and lasting solution," said a statement from the office of the AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat. "The Chairperson reiterates the continued strong support of the African Union with the Palestinian people in their legitimate quest for an independent and sovereign State with East Jerusalem as its capital." Find lasting solution The AU said there should be renewed genuine international efforts to find a lasting solution to the conflict "based on the existence of two States, Israel and Palestine, within the framework of the relevant African Union and United Nations pronouncements." Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Kenya Governance Middle East and Africa By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. After the incidents on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to express his "concerns regarding rocket attacks on Israel". "The Secretary and the Foreign Minister also discussed the violence in Jerusalem, in particular on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount and in Sheikh Jarrah. The Secretary reiterated his call on all parties to de-escalate tensions and bring a halt to the violence, which has claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children," said Ned Price, spokesman for the State Department, on Tuesday night. "The Secretary emphasised the need for Israelis and Palestinians to be able to live in safety and security, as well as enjoy equal measures of freedom, security, prosperity, and democracy." The US, under Donald Trump, had worsened the relations between Israel and Palestine when it decided to acknowledge Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, violating one of the pending issues that had to be discussed under the two-state solution. Palestine rejected the move, although the US relocated its embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. President Yoweri Museveni inspecting a guard of honour during his inauguration ceremony at Kololo ceremonial grounds on May 12, 2021. Renowned opposition figures stayed mute while little was heard- from outspoken activists in the nation as Mr Yoweri Tibuhaburwa Kaguta Museveni took oath, extending his presidency to four decades on Wednesday. Running on a victory he bagged through a contested January 14 election, the President on May 12 said "elections are over! Let us get down to work, so as to chase poverty from your homes." "Engage in commercial agriculture, counting profitability, industries and services," he urged. The runner-up, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi aka Bobi Wine was unobtrusively out of sight and seemingly out of voice by closure of the ceremony at Kololo with his National Unity Platform (NUP) party members opting for Godly intervention. "We had planned national prayers but security forces disrupted everything. Bobi Wine is okay. Mr Museveni is a coward," NUP spokesperson, Mr Joel Ssenyonyi told this reporter on Wednesday through a phone interview moments after Mr Museveni had taken oath. Mr Museveni's fierce critic and four-time presidential candidate, Dr Kizza Besigye who is currently out of the country last made a Tuesday condemnation of the inauguration from abroad saying "we keep pushing to subdue the gun rule to people rule." Related Activist Dr Stella Nyanzi carried frustration and voiced uproar on social media all day. "Go ahead and shoot us dead like you have murdered myriads of poor Ugandans. Shoot us for another five years but we shall never embrace you," she said. Mr Museveni's inauguration, perhaps the climax of Uganda's election season that claimed over 50 lives in just two days in November last year following the arrest of Bobi Wine in Luuka District, kept Kampala under escalated military surveillance and patrols. Following remarks from his critics that seem to delegitimise his victory which followed a spate of arrests of opposition candidates and supporters, the 76-year-old veteran leader who assumed power through a guerrilla war in 1986 seems unbothered. "It is quite laughable to try to give lectures on democracy to architects of such systems. We neither need nor seek any approbation from anybody outside Uganda except our peers from the African Union (AU)," Mr Museveni said to a cheering crowd of over 5,000 guests, including 11 African heads of state and 33 foreign dignitaries who graced the event at Kololo ceremonial grounds. On the eve of the swearing ceremony, Bobi Wine claimed massive arrest of National Unity Platform (NUP) supporters but said they "shall overcome." As Gen. Museveni prepares to illegally swear himself in tomorrow, abductions of Ugandans have intensified. Yesterday Gordon Ssebagala, our comrade was abducted by heavily armed operatives in plain clothes! His whereabouts are unknown. There must be accountability for these crimes pic.twitter.com/PcT4uGiqqK Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Uganda Governance By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. - BOBI WINE (@HEBobiwine) May 11, 2021 Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga, on May 10, echoed claims that the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party nonconformists were planning a counter-swearing in event, a claim opposition members dismissed as schemes by the security forces to hoodwink Mr Museveni into giving them more money under the guise of intensifying security. "We are serious people. We shall swear in from Kololo after we have deposed dictator Museveni. They (security forces) are just scheming ways of fleecing government revenue," Mr Ssenyonyi said. Mr Ssenyonyi said the "plight of Ugandans will definitely worsen as Museveni invests in military-might to "illegally consolidate power while ruthlessly suppressing dissent." President Museveni in his inauguration speech also blasted as idiotic- the push for African leaders to align with specific foreign powers. "When I had just assumed power, some people would ask me; are you pro-east or pro-west? Idiots!!! I'm pro-Africa. How about being pro-myself!" Mr Museveni said, adding that Africa must find adhesive-gravity. "Where is the economic and strategic centre of gravity of the African race? Everywhere, black people are suffering. It is partly on account of lacking this centre of gravity. Nobody cares about us," the newly sworn president remarked. But as he embarks on the new term and continue making promises, Mr Museveni who has been in power for 35 years has several changes ahead of him, some of which include finding solutions to increasing corruption, land grabbing and youth unemployment, amongst others. Maputo Mozambique's former Labour Minister, Helena Taipo, was released from preventive detention on Tuesday, after a successful writ of habeas corpus submitted by her lawyers in December, according to a report in the independent daily paper "O Pais". Taipo had been arrested on corruption charges in April 2019. She was accused of heading a scheme to steal 113 million meticais (about 1.94 million dollars, at current exchange rates) from the coffers of the National Social Security Institute (INSS). Taipo had been Labour Minister under President Armando Guebuza, from 2005 to 2015. His successor, Filipe Nyusi, appointed her governor of the central province of Sofala, and then ambassador to Angola. Taipo was received at the prison gate by her lawyers and members of her family. She did not speak to the waiting reporters or look at the cameras, but entered a car and was driven away. One of her lawyers, Nercio Bomba, told "O Pais" that the habeas corpus request dates from December "but only today did the Higher Appeals Court rule on it. The court accepted our arguments, and ordered her immediate release. Right now, she is free and with her family". The court did not demand that she pay any bail. She must now wait at home until a date is fixed for her trial. This might still take some time, since other people accused in the same case have appealed to the Supreme Court against the case going to trial, Taipo, however, did not join this appeal. "We don't know what the decision will be, but in principle she will wait for her trial in freedom", said Bomba. There are another 12 suspects in this corruption case, including Pedro Taimo, former coordinator of the mineworkers' project, in the Directorate of Migrant Labour in Taipo's ministry, Anastacia Zita, former director of the migrant labor unit, Jose Monjane, the former head of the Finance Department in the Ministry, and Sidonio Manuel, who once worked in Taipo's office. The suspects are accused of a range of crimes, including embezzlement, illicit participation in business, abuse of trust and forgery. The money taken from the INSS was allegedly used to purchase property, vehicles and other goods. According to the investigations made by the Central Office for the Fight against Corruption (GCCC), the suspects invited members of their families to pass themselves off as suppliers, issuing false invoices and receipts to justify use of the money. The Ghanaian Times is forced to highlight a story on speed humps it carried yesterday in order to save readers time to refer to that story before they can follow this editorial piece. Our story had it that the Minister of Roads and Highways, AkwesiAmoako-Atta, had directed the Ghana Highways Authority (GHA) to remove all illegal speed humps along the country's highways and tasked the Regional Ministers to provide the necessary security for the implementation of the directive within two weeks. The minister's directive came when an illegal speed hump at Suhyen-Jumapo, near Oyoko, in the Eastern Region nearly caught the dispatch riders of his convoy off guard, during his tour of the area. It was reported that saloon cars and other smaller vehicles could not climb over the hump and others that had been constructed with freshly dug-out sand and stones without warning signs, which pose serious danger to motorists. "These illegal humps are potential death traps and sources of accidents and must be removed without further delay," he added. He asked communities along the highways to notify the GHA to provide them with appropriate humps instead of taking the law into their own hands and constructing unapproved humps that eventually damage the roads. The Minister warned of dire consequences for individuals and communities caught erecting such humps as they would be surcharged to repair any damage done to such portions of the road. Mr Amoako-Atta stated that the ministry was ready to construct approved speed humps for every community that needed it and charged the various assemblies to undertake a total audit of their needs along the country's highways for the necessary action to be taken. Close Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox Top Headlines Ghana Transport By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. Success! Almost finished... We need to confirm your email address. To complete the process, please follow the instructions in the email we just sent you. Error! Error! There was a problem processing your submission. Please try again later. The Ghanaian Times is happy that the minister has, at least, informed the public about what not to do or do with regard to speed humps. The truth is that communities do not construct such humps we describe as illegal out of pleasure. They do so because drivers ignore all road safety measures and do what pleases them and no passenger or any member of the public dare challenge them. There are numerous stories of speeding drivers killing some community members without such drivers being given any deterrent punishment, and this angers communities, who then try the use of such difficult-to-climb humps to slow down careless speeding drivers. The Ghanaian Times is not trying to rationalise the construction of illegal humps; rather the paper wishes to call the attention of the minister and the powers that be that it is purely drivers' misbehavior that calls for the so-called illegal humps. Therefore, driver misbehaviour must be seriously tackled and no community would crave for such humps. It is indisputable that driver misbehaviourforms the greatest percentage of the causes of road crashes, so it becomes a bit of a worry when community members are blamed for a well-intentioned act. The police in particular and other atakeholders in road safety must be up to their tasks and there could be some sanity on our roads. The various assemblies should undertake a total audit of the road needs of communities along the country's highways as ordered by the minister for the necessary action to be taken sooner than later. We expect action, not words! The Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has challenged media practitioners in the north to concentrate much on developmental challenges of the area. He stressed that it was prudent the media in the north focused on issues that would help propel the development of the people in the area. The minister stated this when he met with journalists in Tamale at the weekend as part of his working visit to the five regions of the north Mr Nkrumah disclosed the ministry's intention to support build the capacities of media practitioners in the country He hinted that the ministry was fashioning out a programme meant to sharpen the skills of the media personnel to be abreast with time. The Information Minister pointed out that the media front had changed, hence the urgent need to support practitioners to cope with the current trends. Mr Nkrumah maintained that his outfit was ready to partner with media organisations and associations to protect media personnel in the country to improve their media content. He stated that the ministry would put mechanism in placeto facilitate investigations of attacks on journalists in the country. The minister announced that the ministry intended to establish an office to co-ordinating media activities. This, he said would help the media to get any information without difficulties. The minister assured that the government would continue to deepen media freedom and the freedom of expression among media practitioners in the country. The Northern Regional Minister AlhajiShaniAlhassanShaibu on his part commanded the media for their support in the sustainability of peace in the region. He, therefore, urged them to continue to support the Regional Co-ordinating Council to achieve its goals. Caption: The Minister of Information Mr. KojoOppong Nkrumah in a group picture with some journalists in the Northern region. CAR Arrests Frenchman With 'Huge Weapons Cache' A Frenchman has been arrested in the Central African Republic after police said they had discovered a "very large arsenal" of weapons in his home. A government spokesperson told the French news agency AFP that the man, who claimed to be a journalist, was detained in the capital, Bangui. Humanitarian sources said the man worked as a bodyguard for several organisations in the country, which is fighting a major armed rebellion seeking to overthrow the government. Although President Faustin Archange Touadera was re-elected in polls held in December 2020, opposition parties supported by former president Francois Bozize have rejected the results. Militants captured a number of towns in the north and west of CAR, and reached the outskirts of the capital in January 2021, cutting off food supplies to Bangui. With the help of Russian and Rwandan forces, CAR troops were able to drive back the militants, retaking some of the towns. AllAfrica publishes around 900 reports a day from more than 130 news organizations and over 500 other institutions and individuals, representing a diversity of positions on every topic. We publish news and views ranging from vigorous opponents of governments to government publications and spokespersons. Publishers named above each report are responsible for their own content, which AllAfrica does not have the legal right to edit or correct. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica. To address comments or complaints, please Contact us. In this aerial photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the Mount Qomolangma, also known as Mount Everest, base camp is seen on May 25, 2020. China will draw a separation line atop Mount Everest to prevent the coronavirus from being spread by climbers ascending from Nepal's side of the mountain, Chinese state media reported Monday, May 10, 2010. (Purbu Zhaxi/Xinhua via AP) 'The Kiss' wins contest at Taobuk Book Festival French installation in heart of Taormina from 17-21 June (ANSAmed) - TAORMINA, 12 MAG - The Taormina Book Festival chose a French installation titled "The Kiss" as the winner of its international architecture planning contest "The Book Space", and the installation will decorate the centrally located Piazza XI Aprile during the 11th edition of the festival, which runs from 17 to 21 June. The installation was planned by the French team of the Ecole nationale superieure d'architecture de Paris-Malaquais. In explaining its choice, the jury said the project expresses the theme "through two structures that, together, make up an intimate space, and separated become small stages that can be used for festival events". "The architecture interacts with the flooring, offering a double representation of the relationship between architecture and books, both intimate and social," it said. Antoine Geiger and August Hijlkema, who planned the installation, spoke about their inspiration. "The Kiss is a meeting between a book and a landscape in a dance of words," they said. "A refuge for books and for human beings, just like a book, this pavilion is a container to open, a sanctuary for thousands of stories before the Mediterranean horizon. Conceived as a mini amphitheatre, almost a 'little brother' of the Teatro Greco, contained in a diameter of 2.5 metres, 'The Kiss' is a place to leaf through pages and discover other stories, meeting places, conferences, interviews, and, why not - an unforgettable place for first kisses," they said. The jury reviewed 98 submissions admitted in competition, which came from a wide range of international universities. Second and third place went to the projects "Red Lighthouse" by Roberta Pitti of the University of Palermo and "In Pages" by Ludovico Matteo della Lunga and Flavia Di Donfrancesco of Roma Tre University, respectively. (ANSAmed). If you're one of those who shy from the public eye, the grand and glamorous Queen Anne at 2070 San Jose Avenue may not be for you. She's the maison celebre of Alamedapossibly the most photographed and most recognizable Victorian in a city of 4,000 Victorians. She has often been featured in sculpture, paintings, on city phone books, and websites. Hardly a day goes by without some passerby snapping a pic or setting up an easel to capture her likeness. "It's kind of fun, really," says Henry Villareal, who has cherished this gem with his partner, Mark White, for 17 years. "We looked out one time and saw a wedding group out there taking pictures. We opened the door and asked them if they wanted to come up on the porch and take some more. They were thrilled." And that's just the allure of the exterior with its layers of period adornments, witch's caps, gingerbread railings, and wraparound, turreted porch, which is perfect for iced tea time on a lazy summer day. Just wait till you get inside. 2070 San Jose Ave, Alameda, CA www.youtube.com Built in 1893 as the home of David S. Brehaut, this eight-room mansion by architect Charles S. Shaner comes complete with a classic Victorian fainting room, a full attic, and a finished basement that once served the home's 1920's owner, wine merchant Sophus Federspiel, as a speakeasy. There's even a secret room to hide the booze. The home changed hands a couple of times in the '30s, then was owned by the Brown family and their descendants for the following seven decades until Villareal and White purchased it in 2004. When they first walked inside, the couple was surprised to find plain white walls and lots of carpetinglime green shag, in fact, from the mid-20th century. Still, the home had clearly been well-loved and they would go on to develop a close bond with the previous owners. "The son and daughter, Jim and Marsha, of the family who grew up here, they were in their early 60s when they sold it to us," White said. "We wrote a love letter to let them know we'd cherish the house and take care of it." And indeed, loving tributes to the family remain: a photo of Marsha in her old bedroom, and the "Keep Out!" sign carved by Jim on his childhood bedroom door. Over the next 14 years, the homeowners tenderly, painstakingly restored the home to its glory of yore, preserving original details like stained-glass windows and the lincrusta and anaglypta wall coverings along the stairwell. They've added crown moldings and ceiling medallions (hand-painted by White) and dressed every room, ceiling, hallway, nook and cranny with richly toned Bradbury & Bradbury wallpapers, making this showplace a walk-through work of art. Upon arrival, you'll note a brass plaque embedded in the front walkway, announcing the home's historic status. Take the dual curved steps, left to the "tradesmen's entry" and right to the massive wooden front door. Pause for a moment and pretend you've come calling for an elegant soiree. Then enter the foyer and travel back in time, gazing up at the grand staircase. Ten-foot ceilings soar in every space thanks to one-time gaslight fixtures as plenty of airflow was needed above the chandeliers. To the right is a pocket-door passage to the spacious front parlor. Somewhere along the line, the original doors had been removed by early owners (cut up and made into a bar in the speakeasy basement) then replaced with French doors. The couple couldn't have that, so they found some appropriate doors from the era and, during installation, came across an old 1923 newspaper tucked in the pocket space with articles about Prohibition. White put the paper back in where it was, and it's still there. The parlor fireplace, originally coal, now wood-burning, has what looks like a gleaming brass insert but was called a "nightguard" to control the heat from the coal. The tall front windows look out to other Victorians, smaller cottages and bungalows in the lovely neighborhood, all just a quick walk to shopping at the Southshore Center and on down to Alameda's waterfront. The dining room has more tall windows, gold-finished crown molding, sage-green wall coverings and glittering stained-glass windows. There's another fireplace, this one now gas, but with original tile depicting a hunting scene. Across the hall is their favorite room, originally a bedroom, but they call it the library. It's beyond cozy with deep-burgundy-based wallpaper and quotes around the top of the walls: "Pooh! Whispered Piglet. Yes, Piglet? Oh nothing, I was just making sure of you," and "Blue was not necessarily a good bird, but he was a great bird." You'll have to ask Villareal and White about that. At the rear of the first level is the pale-green, tin-ceilinged kitchen that seems sunny even on a cloudy day. They've kept the vintage feel with a corner breakfast nook but reconfigured the fridge's location and stove for modern convenience. Back to the foyer and up the staircase, colored rays of light beam down through more stained glass. At the front of the house you'll find the fainting room, a 10-by-10 space where tightly clad ladies of the era could "have a moment," White said. It now makes for a perfect office. Next to it is a tiny porch that overlooks the witch's cap. And next to that is the primary suite. Each room in the home has its own theme by virtue of the wall coverings. Here it's the Marsh Room with deep blue backgrounds sprinkled with butterflies, dragonflies and reeds. This fireplace has also been converted to gas. There's a jack-and-jill "bathroom" which is really just a small room with a sink that connects to another bedroom, currently used as a sitting room. They call this the Sunflower Room, done up in golds and yellows. This was formerly Jim's bedroom, the one with the fierce warning on the door. Just across the hall is Marsha's room, in a floral theme with hand-painted gold and olive-green moldings. The gorgeous wall and ceiling papers in these last two bedrooms were gifts from Bradbury & Bradbury and used in a photo shoot for their paper patterns. Two unusually narrow doors open off of Marsha's room, one to another small area with a sink, the other to what may have originally been intended as an outdoor porch. Around the corner is the ladder to the attic. Access is tricky, but there's potential for the addition of a media room or other uses. On down the hallway is a bathroom with tub, shower and sink, plus floor tile in robin's-egg blue and a laundry chute. The finished basement and former speakeasy has multiple rooms and as many tales to tell. Here you'll find the pocket-door bar, and there's a small space nearby with a canned goods room, its door hard to distinguish from the rest of the wall. "You could put your illegal booze in here, then close this and slide a shelf over it," White said. "No one would ever know." As far as ghosts go, there are no spirits in the house other than the liquid kind, White and Villareal say. Although there was a time when the door to the speakeasy kept swinging open. They figured it was the husband of the former owner, awaiting the arrival of his wife in the afterlife. "We figured it was Fred. So I stood in the middle of the room and said, 'Fred, Virginia will be coming along soon.' After that, it never opened again." Back up to the kitchen, a small back porch/mudroom leads out to the backyard, where the period theme continues with a traditional Victorian-knot hedge design and traditional plantings of rhododendrons and hydrangeas, all beneath a giant oak. A path leads to the two-car garage with more historical writing on the wall, this time apparently from someone calculating the cost of a 1944 Packard. Though they're all about the history, Villareal and White have brought the home into the modern day with upgrades such as a tankless water heater, upgraded electrical and appliances, gas fireplace conversions, and more. More than anything, they hope new owners will love the place as they do. "We want the same thing the previous family did, somebody to cherish the house," White said. "I don't think you ever really own a house like this. It's more about preserving it for generations to come." Indeed, this celebrated home has more than 120 years of stories to tell and many more to write. Just get used to the paparazzi. Angela Hill Location: 2070 San Jose Ave. (Alameda) Size: 2,851 sqft Bedrooms: 4 Baths: 2.5 List price: $2,375,000 // For more information, contact Liz Rush at Keller Williams, 2070sanjose.com Since the beginning of the debate over net neutrality the question of whether the federal government should regulate the internet to ensure equal access massive internet service providers have argued that would not abuse their vast powers if given greater control. The Federal Communications Commission swallowed that Kool-Aid in 2017, overturning the Obama administrations rules that had maintained equal internet access by precluding ISPs from favoring some customers over others, or manipulating download and upload speeds in their own interests. Now, the New York Attorney Generals Office has issued a report, following a four-year investigation, which contends that major ISPs disproved their own case by using their power to manipulate the regulatory process that upended net neutrality. When the Federal Communications issues a rule, it solicits public comments. Not surprisingly, because this case involved the internet, the agency received millions of fake comments. One 19-year-old who favored net neutrality, for example, set up a program that submitted 7.7 million comments under fake, randomly generated names. But the report alleges something far more egregious by the ISPs. It contends that a industry trade group that includes Comcast, Charter, AT&T, Cox and CenturyLink paid $8.2 million to a company that generated 8.5 million comments against net neutrality, using the names of real people without their consent. The report said that the companies themselves were not aware of the companys alleged cheating, in that it was contracted by the trade association. Nonetheless, such subtrefuge directly or indirectly demonstrates that there is no reason to believe that ISPs will treat consumers fairly, and that net neutrality is the preferable standard. 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). By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/12/2021 ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Colt Johnson and his fiancee Vanessa Guerra are dishing on Colt's marriage proposal and why Vanessa seemed so hesitant to accept an engagement ring.Colt, who finalized his divorce from Larissa Dos Santos Lima in April 2019, and Vanessa, whose divorce from True Maudsley became official in November 2020, were shown getting engaged on Sunday night's finale of 90 Day: The Single Life on Discovery's new discovery+ streaming service.Colt, 35, shared with Us Weekly how he and Vanessa actually got engaged on November 1, 2020 after only one month of dating. (Colt was spotted filming proposing marriage, however, on November 26).When reflecting back on the marriage proposal, which took place on a dock at Big Bear Lake in Southern California, Vanessa explained why she was so nervous about saying "yes.""I thought, 'Not this again!'" Vanessa recalled with a laugh. "I mean, he's known for proposing to everybody."After splitting up with Larissa, Colt nearly asked his ex-girlfriend Jessica Caroline for her hand in marriage. Colt had asked Jessica's father in Brazil for his blessing, but Colt and Jess broke up before their relationship progressed to the next level."Yeah, I was nervous. I didn't really know what to say," Vanessa said. "I think I asked, I don't know how many questions, [including], 'Are you sure?' That was the main one."Colt joked about being on bended knee "for one hour" as Vanessa grilled him with questions and expressed concern over how they had been going through problems."He was just like, 'Can you just give me an answer now?!'" Vanessa said with laughter.Colt and Vanessa revealed they had discussed marriage and Vanessa's ideal engagement ring just a few weeks before Colt popped the question."I said, 'In time,'" Vanessa said of getting married again.Vanessa told the magazine she was in no rush because Colt had "proposed to Larissa in what, five days of knowing her? So, I know he doesn't take his time.""I am someone who [will] procrastinate a little bit though, so I can drag something on for years," she added.Colt said although he recognized there was a chance Vanessa might reject his marriage proposal, he thought their time at Bear Lake was the perfect opportunity to take his shot."I was going back and forth in my mind. You know, let me tell ya. I felt like it was perfect and at the right time," Colt told Us."I was going to ask her the night before actually, but then I said, 'No, no.'"Vanessa agreed that the night before was "definitely not the right time" for whatever reason, and Colt shared how the pair's romantic picnic and deep conversation at the lake made him feel "so close" to Vanessa in a way he's "never felt before.""And I just knew," Colt confirmed, adding, "I really thought I might scare Vanessa away and that would just end our friendship or relationship. And that was a real chance I had to take, but I felt like I had to do it."Vanessa noted, "He got me crying a little bit! And I don't cry very often.""So yeah, I just felt like everything was right -- and I just had to push the button and do it," Colt explained. "I knew that I didn't want to lose her and I wanted to keep her and tell her that I loved her and want to spend the rest of my life with her."As for how Colt's mother Debbie Johnson feels about her son's engagement, Vanessa told Us that Debbie is "super happy" about the news."I was nervous about that one. I was, like, 'Oh, what's she going to think?' She was very, very happy," Vanessa gushed.Colt confessed Debbie "had some reservations" before he proposed marriage but she was ultimately "very, very happy" things worked out.Colt and Vanessa apparently shared the news of their engagement with only close family and friends in November.Colt filed for divorce from his first wife, Larissa -- with whom he also starred on Season 4 of : Happily Ever After? -- in January 2019 after an explosive fight in his Las Vegas home. Larissa quickly moved on with her rumored fiance Eric Nichols.Once his divorce was finalized, Colt struck up a romance with Jessica Caroline and the pair starred on Season 5 of : Happily Ever After?."After my divorce from Larissa, I wanted to date Vanessa immediately. I was like, 'Hey, want to try it?' And she wasn't interested," Colt explained on the Tell-All special of the TLC spinoff's fifth season.Vanessa then shared, "He did ask me to be his girlfriend, and I said, 'No,' and then I kind of started dating somebody else and he got upset."Vanessa reportedly said at the time Colt was not her type and she likes "bearded tattooed men." She supposedly couldn't see past Colt's looks.Colt admitted on the show he had sex with Vanessa one time but didn't tell Jess, who never trusted Vanessa during her short-lived romance with Colt that ended in October 2019."Okay, after I came back from Brazil, I cheated on Jess with Vanessa. I'm sorry, Jess," Colt confessed on the Happily Ever After? Tell-All, later adding, "And then after we broke up, [Jess], I slept with [Vanessa] some more."Jess asked Colt why he started dating her when he clearly loved Vanessa all along, and Colt replied, "Because Vanessa said, 'No.' If she said, 'Yes,' I would've dated her in a second. I'm sorry that you were in a sh-tty relationship with me. It was a summer fling."Vanessa said on the Tell-All she liked Colt only "as a best friend" because she "wouldn't trust him as a boyfriend." Colt, however, insisted he had never cheated on Larissa.Although Colt and Vanessa insisted they were just friends for months, the pair were photographed walking hand-in-hand down a Las Vegas street in September 2020.Jess went on to wed a man named Brian Hanvey, and Larissa and Eric engagement rumors sparked in late March.Want more spoilers or couples updates? Click here to visit our homepage! Galveston, TX (77553) Today Intervals of clouds and sunshine. High 86F. Winds SSE at 15 to 25 mph.. Tonight A few clouds from time to time. Low near 80F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph. Korean citizens who were flown back home from India via a chartered flight gather in the arrival area at Incheon International Airport, Wednesday. Yonhap Korea reports 1st possible case of 'breakthrough infection' By Lee Hyo-jin The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) reported Wednesday that tests it conducted over the past week showed that more than one out of every four COVID-19 patients was infected with a variant of the original virus. Coronavirus variants are known to be more transmissible and virulent than the original strain, and according to the KDCA the detection rate of new strains among confirmed cases here has nearly doubled over the past two weeks, reaching 27.5 percent in the first week of May, up from 15 percent from the last week of April. This is the highest rate of detection since the health authorities began collecting related genome sequencing data last December. As of Tuesday, the KDCA has reported a total of 808 cumulative infections by the British, South African and Brazilian variants, which are classified as "major variants" by the health authorities. New strains originating from other countries are categorized as "other variants." In addition, the KDCA believes that another 1,089 infections are suspected of being epidemiologically linked to the new virus strains, although they have not been subject to sequencing yet, meaning that at least 1,897 estimated cases are related to new variants. Another 2,473 cases are estimated to be linked to the "other variants" such as those from California, India, New York, and the Philippines. Adding to concerns is the recent increase in variant virus infections through local transmissions. Until recently, the new strains were mainly carried into the country from overseas, and they were detected at testing sites at airports or during self-isolation periods by people arriving from overseas. But the number of local transmissions is growing, prompting concerns that the variants may have established themselves and started to spread rapidly. Medical workers in protective gear guide residents at a COVID-19 testing center in Songpa District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap Press Operator I Gannett Publishing Services Wichita Falls, TX The Wichita Falls Newspaper Group is looking for a full-time Press Operator to assist with daily production on our presses. The work includes preparing the presses for production, operating the presses or any of their components, cleaning the presses and the pressroom, maintaining the mechanical readiness of the presses, and other duties as assigned. Every member of the pressroom staff constantly strives to achieve the following goals, and the contribution of every press operator is necessary for success: Optimum quality of printed products. Observance of all scheduled start and stop times. Conservation of material resources, especially newsprint. A clean and safe working environment Requirements: This position requires a high school education or equivalent. Experience in web offset printing is desirable, although production experience of any kind may be helpful. Mechanical ability and familiarity with computers is preferred. Candidates should have the ability to adapt to change, prioritize work, handle multiple tasks, remain flexible and interact with people while demonstrating patience. You must be able to lift/carry up to 100 pounds. Must be able to push/pull up to 2000 pounds. A press operator spends most working hours on his/her feet. In addition to long periods of standing, a press operator is required to climb stairs on the six-level press structure. Operators engaged in press maintenance and some cleaning activities will be required to stoop, kneel, crouch and crawl. They often work in confined areas. Color vision is required. This position is full-time shift work, which may include scheduled nights, weekends, and holidays. 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. Vote View Results The state House on Tuesday approved legislation to roll back the use of noncompete agreements for doctors, amid a fierce battle between Ochsner Health System, which is fighting the bill, and doctors groups and other hospital systems pushing for it. The House voted 56-38 to approve House Bill 483, by Rep. Mark Wright, to restrict the use of noncompete provisions for doctors. Members voted 68-23 for another bill by Rep. Larry Bagley, R-Stonewall, to ban their use entirely for public employees a bill that arose out of LSU Health Shreveport's use of the provisions at that public institution, which is run in conjunction with Ochsner. House Speaker Clay Schexnayder voted in favor of both bills. The bill still needs to be approved by the state Senate, and signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards, before becoming law. Ochsner regularly deploys noncompete agreements when it hires doctors, meaning the physicians typically have to wait two years after leaving their jobs before they may start practicing in parishes where Ochsner does business. With Ochsner's growth, that puts a wide swath of the state off limits. Inside the fight among Louisiana's major hospital systems and why it might become public soon A behind-the-scenes war between some of the states largest health systems could soon spill into public view at the State Capitol, after month The system has been fighting against proposals to limit the noncompete agreements in state law for several years, and lobbyists for both sides have pushed hard in recent weeks to flip votes among House members. GOP megadonor Lane Grigsby even joined the fray, calling members including Wright, the sponsor to urge them to oppose the bill. Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady, which oversees the states largest hospital, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, is among those pushing for the legislation, along with the Louisiana State Medical Society and LCMC, which runs several hospitals around New Orleans. Wright, a Covington Republican, said Tuesday the legislation will help patients continue to see their doctor if she or he quits a hospital system, arguing physicians are routinely forced out of Louisiana when a noncompete is invoked. This is part of the problem. Some doctors have to leave the state because of these agreements, Wright said. Theres a difference between protecting an investment and restricting competition. Theres a fine line. Our Lady of the Lake spokesperson Ryan Cross said the Legislature "clearly realizes that patient care should be at the center of all health care policy decision-making" and that the system is encouraged by the House support of the bill. Should Louisiana doctors have non-competes? Supporters lose first round of legislative battle Ochsner Health System lost the first round of a legislative battle with Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, physicians groups and ot The legislation would ban noncompetes for primary care physicians and doctors employed by the state. It would prohibit noncompetes from staying in the contract of a specialist for longer than three years, and would establish a buyout clause for those three years. It would also limit the geographical area for all noncompete provisions to the parish in which a doctor practices plus two contiguous parishes. Currently, state law allows noncompete provisions if they last no longer than two years after the employee leaves a company. The courts have also put some limitations on how expansive the provisions can be. Opponents of the bill say doctors have the resources to hire lawyers to look over their contracts, and sign the noncompete agreements willfully. Ochsner and other hospital systems including rural hospitals want to be able to protect their investment by avoiding spending big money on a doctor only to see them leave for a private practice across the street, taking the patients with them. Wright said hes working with rural hospitals to provide them an exemption. 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 Ochsner Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Hart said in a statement Ochsner is "disappointed" in the vote. "Louisiana law already limits time, geographic scope and business of these physician non-compete agreements," Hart said. "While a handful of states have decided to aggressively regulate this area, the vast majority of states do not ban physician non-competes, including neighboring states Mississippi and Texas. At Ochsner, we have used non-compete agreements that follow the state statue with reasonable restrictions on time and geographic scope." Speaker Pro Tem Tanner Magee, R-Houma, proposed an amendment to extend the bill to all workers in all industries. Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, offered a change to exempt from the bill any doctor who voluntarily agrees to restrict himself from the practice of medicine through the noncompete agreement. Wright called both amendments poison pills. I honestly dont understand why we would treat doctors differently than anybody else, Magee said. I think plumbers and doctors should be treated the same. Senate panel wants to limit non-compete employment clauses for doctors In what was called a fight between two major hospital systems, a state Senate committee advanced legislation that would limit noncompete claus Grigsby, one of the states biggest GOP donors, said he doesnt think the government should be meddling in contracts between two private entities. Everybody has a right to sign a contract or not sign a contract, Grigsby said in an interview. Just because one party has the legislative clout to do something doesnt mean its right to do it. Bagleys bill targeting only state-employed doctors won more support from the House than Wrights more far-reaching bill. Bagleys effort comes after LSU earlier this year sued a little-known OB-GYN doctor in Shreveport to enforce a noncompete agreement after she left the teaching hospital to work at Willis Knighton, a competing health provider. LSU Health Shreveport started using noncompete agreements in 2018, when Ochsner became its partner. Its unclear whether the Senate will get on board with the legislation. In 2019, senators pushing a bill similar to Wrights pulled the legislation after facing certain defeat. The Senate features a host of new members this time around, but Joel Robideaux, the former state representative who is a close friend and neighbor of Senate President Page Cortez, is a lobbyist for Ochsner. Wright said his bill is a bit of a compromise, given the bill allows noncompete provisions for certain specialists. Ochsner disputes that the bill is a compromise. Proponents and opponents of the legislation met several times at the request of Cortez and other legislative leaders ahead of the hearings on the bill, but the two sides couldnt reach an agreement. Voting to restrict the use of noncompete provisions for doctors (56): Speaker Schexnayder, Reps Adams, Amedee, Bacala, Bagley, Beaullieu, Brass, Brown, Cormier, Crews, Davis, Deshotel, DeVillier, Duplessis, Echols, Edmonds, Edmonston, Farnum, Freiberg, Frieman, Gadberry, Garofalo, Geymann, Goudeau, Green, Hilferty, Hollis, Horton, Ivey, James, Jordan, Kerner, LaCombe, Lyons, McCormick, McKnight, McMahen, G. Miller, Mincey, Muscarello, Nelson, Newell, Orgeron, C. Owen, Pressly, Riser, Romero, Schamerhorn, Schlegel, Seabaugh, Tarver, Thomas, Wheat, White, Willard and Wright. Voting against HB483 (38): Reps. Bishop, Bourriaque, Bryant, Carpenter, Carrier, R. Carter, W. Carter, Coussan, Cox, Emerson, Firment, Fontenot, Freeman, Glover, Harris, Hodges, Hughes, Huval, Illg, Jefferson, Jenkins, M. Johnson, T. Johnson, Landry, Larvadain, Mack, Magee, Marcelle, Marino, McFarland, Miguez, D. Miller, Phelps, Pierre, Stagni, Stefanski, Thompson and Zeringue. Not Voting (11): Reps Butler, G. Carter, DuBuisson, Gaines, Jones, Moore, R. Owen, Selders, St. Blanc, Turner and Villio. Canada-France agreement brings together world-renowned researchers Tweet this "Canada and France have a long tradition of scientific cooperation in many fields," says Antoine Petit, Chairman and CEO, CNRS. "This agreement with CIFAR aims to mobilize researchers from our two institutions and encourage them to cooperate. We expect their mobilization around essential social issues, environment, quantum computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and the microbiome, issues for which the contributions of fundamental research are indispensable to society." Under the agreement each partner will contribute CAD $500,000 to joint scientific research activities over five years, and will support research on cutting-edge science and technology as well as its ethical application. The agreement amplifies existing collaborations between CIFAR and CNRS, including a series of CIFAR AI & Society workshops in 2020 that addressed societal implications of AI. Bernstein and Petit were joined at the virtual signing ceremony by Chief Scientific Advisor Mona Nemer, Canada's Deputy Head of Mission et Ministre plenipotentiare, Amy Baker, Canada's Chief Trade Commissioner, Sara Wilshaw, and French Ambassador to Canada, Karen Rispal. About CIFAR CIFAR is a Canadian-based global research organization that convenes extraordinary minds to address the most important questions facing science and humanity. By building long-term, interdisciplinary, global communities of collaboration, we provide the world's top researchers with an unparalleled environment of trust, transparency and knowledge sharing. Our time-tested model inspires new directions of inquiry, creating a culture of risk-taking, accelerating discovery, and yielding breakthroughs across borders and academic disciplines. Through knowledge mobilization, we are catalysts for change in industry, government and society. In 2017, the Government of Canada appointed CIFAR to develop and lead the Pan-Canadian Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy, the world's first national AI strategy. Our community of researchers includes more than 400 researchers from 161 institutions in 18 countries. Our fellows, chairs, scholars, and advisors are among the most highly cited researchers in the world. Twenty Nobel Prizes have been awarded to CIFAR-affiliated researchers. We are supported by the governments of Canada, Alberta and Quebec, as well as foundations, individuals, corporations and partner organizations around the world. About CNRS The French National Center for Scientific Research is one of the most recognized and renowned public research institutions in the world. For more than 80 years, it has continued to attract talent at the highest level and to nurture multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects at the national, European and international levels. Geared towards the public interest, it contributes to the scientific, economic, social and cultural progress of France. The CNRS is above all 32,000 women and men, more than 1,000 laboratories in partnership with universities and other higher education institutions bringing together more than 120,000 employees and 200 professions that advance knowledge by exploring the living world, matter, the Universe, and the functioning of human societies. The CNRS ensures that this mission is carried out in compliance with ethical rules and with a commitment to professional equality. The close relationship it establishes between its research missions and the transfer of acquired knowledge to the public makes it today a key player in innovation in France and around the world. Partnerships with companies are at the heart of its technology transfer policy, and the start-ups that have emerged from CNRS laboratories bear witness to the economic potential of its research. The CNRS also provides access to research findings and data, and this sharing of knowledge targets many audiences: scientific communities, the media, decision-makers, economic players and the general public. SOURCE CIFAR For further information: www.cnrs.fr Boulder, Colorado, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ColdQuanta, the leader in Cold Atom Quantum Technology, today announced it has secured $20 million in funding from existing investors including Foundry Group, Global Frontier Quantum Opportunity Fund, LCP Quantum Partners and Maverick Ventures. The investment will be used to rapidly accelerate the commercialization of the companys Cold Atom Quantum Technology, in parallel with the companys Series B funding raise. This investment brings ColdQuantas total funding to $74 million. Quantum will develop into a multi-billion dollar market and ColdQuanta will be a leader in commercializing Quantum Technology, said Dan Caruso, executive chairman of ColdQuanta. Just as the Internet impacted all humanity in the past 30 years, quantum will touch every facet of human existence over the next 30, including financial trading networks, autonomous vehicles, drug and material discovery, mobility, spacecraft and far more. Matt Kinsella from Maverick Ventures added, This funding reflects ColdQuantas commitment to accelerate the application of its Cold Atom Quantum Technology to help its commercial and government partners realize the wide-ranging benefits of quantum. ColdQuanta provides core hardware and software technology that enables a broad set of Quantum Solutions across computing, sensing, and communications. The companys breakthrough Cold Atom Quantum Technology, which cools atoms to a few millionths of a degree above absolute zero, serves as the foundation for these applications. In the past two months, ColdQuanta has expanded its executive team announcing Dan Caruso as executive chairman and interim CEO, Rushton McGarr as chief financial officer, and Paul Lipman as chief commercial officer. ColdQuanta is actively hiring for 15 roles including a Senior VP of Engineering and scientists, physicists, and engineers to support the research, development, engineering and production of the companys Cold Atom Quantum Technology. The company has retained the services of PJ Solomon, an independently operated affiliate of Natixis, to guide the company in an upcoming capital raise. About ColdQuanta ColdQuanta is the leader in Cold Atom Quantum Technology, the most scalable, versatile, and commercially viable area of quantum. ColdQuanta is dedicated to making quantum a reality through the development of a cloud-based Quantum Computer and Precision Sensing and Networking solutions. Backed by years of research and development, the story of ColdQuanta began in 1924 with the discovery of the Bose Einstein Condensate (BEC) - also known as the 5th form of matter and 70 years later brought to fruition when it was first synthesized at the University of Colorado at Boulder in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). ColdQuanta was spawned by this BEC breakthrough. Today, ColdQuanta is collaborating with its global customers, which include major commercial and defense companies; the U.S. Department of Defense; national labs operated by the Department of Energy, NASA, and NIST; major universities; and quantum-focused tech companies, to advance products and services developed with Cold Atom Quantum Technology. ColdQuanta is based in Boulder, CO with offices in Madison, Wisconsin and Oxford, UK. Find out more at www.coldquanta.com. The name ColdQuanta and the ColdQuanta logo are both registered trademarks of ColdQuanta, Inc. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tri Capital Opportunities Corp. (TCAP or the Company) (TSXV: TCAP.P), a capital pool company, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an option agreement (the Option Agreement) dated May 11th, 2021 (the Effective Date) with Eagle Plains Resources Ltd., a British Columbia company (the Optionor). Pursuant to the Option Agreement, TCAP will, upon the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange (the Exchange), have the option to acquire from the Optionor an undivided 80% interest in and to certain mineral claims in northern Saskatchewan collectively known as the Pine Channel Gold Property (the Option). The grant of the Option is intended to constitute TCAPs Qualifying Transaction, in accordance with TSX Venture Exchange Policy 2.4 Capital Pool Companies (Policy 2.4). Following completion of the Qualifying Transaction, TCAP intends to change its name to Apollo Minerals Ltd. (the Resulting Issuer) and be listed on the Exchange as a Tier 2 mining issuer under the new trading symbol TSXV: APMI. The grant of the Option will not be a Non-Arm's Length Qualifying Transaction (as that term is defined under Policy 2.4) and TCAP does not expect it to be subject to shareholder approval in accordance with Exchange policies. Option on Pine Channel Gold Property: Pursuant to the terms of the Option Agreement, upon and subject to receipt of Exchange acceptance for TCAPs Qualifying Transaction, TCAP will have the right to acquire an 80% interest in the Pine Channel Property by: (a) paying to Optionor an aggregate of CDN$150,000 in cash according to the following schedule: (i) $25,000 on the Effective Date of the Option Agreement; (ii) an additional $25,000 in cash on or before December 31st, 2021; (iii) an additional $50,000 in cash on or before December 31st, 2022; and (iv) an additional $50,000 in cash on or before December 31st, 2023; (b) issue to Optionor an aggregate of 2,000,000 common shares in the capital of TCAP (Shares), according to the following schedule: (v) 200,000 Shares on completion of the Qualifying Transaction; (vi) an additional 300,000 Shares on or before December 31st, 2021; (vii) an additional 300,000 Shares on or before December 31st, 2022; (viii) an additional 500,000 Shares on or before December 31st, 2023; and (ix) an additional 700,000 Shares on or before December 31st, 2024; and (c) incur aggregate exploration expenditures of CDN$3,000,000 on the Pine Channel Property, according to the following schedule: (x) $500,000 on or before June 30th, 2022; (xi) an additional $500,000 on or before June 30th, 2023; (xii) an additional $800,000 on or before June 30th, 2024; and (xiii) an additional $1,200,000 on or before June 30th, 2025. Upon the exercise of the Option and the acquisition of an 80% interest in the Pine Channel Property by TCAP, the Optionor will retain a 2.0% net smelter returns royalty on the Pine Channel Property, and 1.0% of the net smelter returns royalty may be purchased by TCAP at any time for CDN$1,000,000. Pine Channel Gold Property: The Pine Channel Gold Property consists of 28 mineral dispositions covering 6,502.63 hectares, located approximately 40 km west of Stony Rapids, Saskatchewan, the logistics/business hub for northern Saskatchewan. The property can be accessed year-round by float- or ski-equipped aircraft from Stony Rapids or Fort MacMurray, AB. The eastern and northern part of the property is transected by a high voltage powerline. Most geological fieldwork is limited to late May to October but other operations such as some geophysical surveys and diamond drilling can be completed year round. The main deposit type that is being explored for at Pine Channel is structurally controlled vein-quartz (lode) gold deposits. Mineral occurrences on the Pine Channel Property are predominantly gold with rare base metal occurrences. Within the Pine Channel tenure there are eighteen historical showings reported by the Saskatchewan Mineral Deposit Index (SMDI). In 2019 and 2020, Eagle Plains Resources completed field programs on the Pine Channel property. The work was focused on prospecting, sampling, and mapping in the areas of known mineralization, the highlights from these work programs, and historical work is summarized below. Analytical results from the 25 rock samples collected in 2019 returned values ranging from 7 to 77,500 ppb Au, 15 of which returned greater than 1 g/t Au, and seven returned greater than 10 g/t Au. Analytical results from the 72 rock samples collected in 2020 returned values ranging from 6 to 68,400 ppb Au. 23 of the samples returned greater than 1 g/t Au, and eight returned greater than 10 g/t Au. The most encouraging of the known showings are the ELA Shaft showing (SMDI 1574) and Occurrence No. 6 and No. 8 (SMDI 1581), which both demonstrate anomalous gold geochemical results and potential for extension of known mineralization along strike. The 2019 and 2020 work confirmed the widespread occurrences of structurally controlled auriferous quartz veins and associated shear systems within the Pine Channel property. Prior to 2019 Government mapping in the Pine Channel area dates from 1913, with the first industry work reported in 1950. A total of 51 assessment reports have been filed within the current Pine Channel tenure. Past operators include Golden Rule Resources Ltd. and Colchis Resources Ltd. who were both active on the project during the 1980s, the last sustained period of exploration in the area. The most recent work prior to Eagle Plains acquiring the claims in 2018 was in 2013 when the area was flown with an airborne Variable Time Domain Electromagnetic survey focused on locating targets for diamond exploration. There has been a total of 6,066 meters of diamond drilling in 115 historic holes completed within the current Pine Channel property claim boundaries with the majority of the holes completed less than 100 meters in length. Although the wide spaced drilling did intersect significant gold mineralization in places, much of the drilling was completed using thin diameter core which is not effective for assessing the high grade nuggety" gold shears and veins found at Pine Channel. The first recorded work on the Pine Channel property was in 1950 by Goldfields Uranium Mines. The first significant program on the property was in 1980 by Golden Rule Resources who completed 246 line km of airborne EM (INPUT) and magnetic surveying. Follow-up groundwork located 11 significant occurrences. From 1985-1988 Colchis Resources completed VLF-EM geophysics, biogeochemical surveys, prospecting, soil sampling and trenching followed by shallow diamond drill testing of selected targets. Part of the property was covered by an airborne VTEM survey in 2013. Highlights from historical work include: North Norite Bay (SMDI 2183): 407.96 g/t (14.39 oz/T) Au over 0.5 m (drill hole) ELA (SMDI 1574): 39.96 g/t (1.41 oz/t) Au over 0.55 m (drill hole) Holes G-1 and G-3 (SMDI 2329): 3.20 g/t Au over 1 m (drill hole) Occurrence No. 6/Occurrence No. 8 (SMDI 1581): 90.6 g/t (3.20 oz/T) Au over 0.2 m (trench) Cole Lake Ni-Cu (SMDI 1583): 0.45% Ni over 7.0 m (drill hole), 6.2 g/t Au, 0.01% Ni and 0.06% Cu over 3.0 m (trench) King/Cole South (SMDI 2177): 31.93 g/t Ag, 1.55% Pb, 0.44% Zn over 0.28 m (drill hole) The above historical results were summarized from SMDI descriptions and assessment reports filed with the Saskatchewan government. Management cautions that historical results were collected and reported by past operators and have not been verified nor confirmed by a Qualified Person, but form a basis for ongoing work in the Pine Channel property area. Geology The Pine Channel project lies within the Tantato Domain which is composed of highly deformed mylonitic gneisses of predominantly supracrustal origin which form the eastern margin of the Archean Rae Craton. At a property scale, the geology is dominated by a sequence of mylonitic garnet-quartzofeldspathic gneisses and mylonitic garnet-clinopyroxene mafic gneisses (norites). The rocks have been subject to polyphase metamorphism. A technical report in respect of the Pine Channel Property will be filed in connection with the Qualifying Transaction, which will include a summary of work completed to date on the Pine Channel Property. The report will provide recommendations for further work which the Resulting Issuer intends to commence post financing. TCAP anticipates that the Pine Channel Property will meet the Exchanges requirements for a Qualifying Transaction, as the Optionor has incurred property expenditures in excess of CDN$100,000 within the last three years and it is anticipated that the technical report will include a recommended work program exceeding CDN$200,000 on the Pine Channel Property. Concurrent Financing: Subject to Exchange acceptance and in connection with its Qualifying Transaction, TCAP proposes to complete a best efforts non-brokered private placement of up to 5,000,000 units of the Company (Units) at a price of $0.10 per unit for gross proceeds of up to CDN$500,000 (the "Concurrent Financing"). Each Unit will be comprised of one common share (each, a Share) and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each full warrant (each, a Warrant) will entitle the holder thereof to purchase an additional Share at a price of CDN$0.15 per Share for a period of 3 years from the date of issue. Finders fees may be paid on all or a portion of the financing. The net proceeds from the Concurrent Financing will be used by TCAP to finance the recommended work program on the Pine Channel Property and for general working capital. All securities issued pursuant to the Concurrent Financing will be subject to a four month hold period from the date of issue and may be subject to escrow in accordance with the policies of the Exchange. Management of the Resulting Issuer: It is anticipated that the current directors and officers of the Company will remain as directors and officers of the Company following completion of the Companys Qualifying Transaction. Accordingly, the following people will be directors and officers of the Resulting Issuer: James Pettit President, CEO and Director Mr. Pettit has significant experience with public companies and is currently serving on the board of directors of five publicly traded companies and offers over 25 years of experience within the industry specializing in finance, corporate governance, executive management and compliance. Mr. Pettit is currently the President and CEO of Aben Resources and was previously the Chairman and CEO of Bayfield Ventures Corp. which was bought by New Gold Inc. in 2014. Timothy Fernback CFO and Director Mr. Fernback previously ran the technology consulting practice for a British Columbia venture capital firm specializing in financing and consulting to technology-based start-up ventures, and went on to run the Investment Banking and Corporate Finance Departments for Wolverton Securities Ltd. Mr. Fernback also provides strategic consulting services to several technology and mineral exploration companies including in the areas of business planning and analysis, supply chain management, capital markets support, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Fernback has served as both a director and officer of several public companies and is the current CFO for CubicFarm Systems Corp. (TSXV: CUB) a company in the agri-tech space selling innovative vertical farming equipment internationally. Mr. Fernback is a graduate of McMaster University where he studied molecular biology and biochemistry, and also a graduate of the University of British Columbia, where he completed an MBA with a concentration in Finance. He is an active member of the Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia. Jordan Trimble Director Jordan Trimble is currently the President, CEO and a Director of Skyharbour Resources Ltd. as well as the President and a Director of Rockridge Resources Ltd. By background, he is an entrepreneur and has worked in the resource industry in various roles with numerous companies specializing in management, corporate finance and strategy, shareholder communications, deal structuring and capital raising. Previous to Skyharbour, he was the Corporate Development Manager for Bayfield Ventures, a gold company with projects in Ontario which was successfully acquired by New Gold in 2014. Through his career Mr. Trimble has founded and helped manage several public and private companies and has been instrumental in raising substantial amounts of capital for mining companies with his extensive network of institutional and retail investors. He is a frequent speaker at resource and mining conferences globally and has appeared on various media outlets including BNN and the Financial Post. Mr. Trimble holds a Bachelor of Science Degree with a Minor in Commerce from the University of British Columbia and he is a CFA Charterholder currently serving as a Director of the CFA Society Vancouver. Simon Dyakowski Director Simon Dyakowski serves as the President and CEO of Aztec Minerals Corp. (TSXV:AZT) and as President, CEO, Director, and Co-Founder of GSP Resource Corp. (TSXV:GSPR). Mr. Dyakowski has over 12 years of corporate development and capital markets experience, with an expertise in strategic planning and execution, financing, and marketing of exploration companies. Mr. Dyakowski most recently acted as an adviser to TSX Venture Exchange listed mineral exploration companies on their corporate development strategies. Mr. Dyakowski holds an MBA from the University of British Columbia, is a CFA charter holder and holds an undergraduate finance degree from the University of Western Ontario. He previously worked at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Royal Bank of Canada dealing with investment-grade and mid-market Canadian corporate clients. Mr. Dyakowski has also worked in the equity research and equity sales departments at Salman Partners and Leede Financial. Riley Trimble Director Mr. Trimble brings 9 years of experience in investor relations and venture capital. Currently he advises in corporate communications and digital marketing strategy for five publicly traded mineral exploration companies. He has also worked with private companies in multiple industries including esports, gaming, craft beverages, and health food products. Nick Findler Director Mr. Findler has over 10 years of public markets, capital raising, deal structuring, and corporate development experience. He is the founder and CEO of a company called GoPublic.AI, a technology-driven, go-public investment bank based in Vancouver. Nick also sits on the board of Plantable Health Inc, a clinically proven, plant-based health care company based in Brooklyn, New York that has ongoing clinical trials at Johns Hopkins University, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Weill Cornell. Mr. Findler is also the president of Grantus.ca, a company that enables Canadian entrepreneurs, artists, musicians, and not-for-profits to access government funding. Kelly Pladson Corporate Secretary Since 2009, Ms. Pladson has provided corporate governance and regulatory compliance services to various TSX-V listed companies and CSE-listed companies. Raymond Wladichuk, P.Geo. VP Exploration Mr. Wladichuk, a British Columbia registered Professional Geoscientist, is a technical and managerial consultant in the natural resource, engineering, and construction industries. He has held executive and director positions for a number of publicly-traded resource companies. He is the principal of Waldo Sciences Inc., a science and engineering consulting company, headquartered in the North Okanagan, BC, Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Science in earth sciences and a graduate diploma in business administration from Simon Fraser University. Sponsorship: Sponsorship of a Qualifying Transaction of a capital pool company is required by the Exchange unless an exemption from the sponsorship requirement is available. TCAP intends to apply for an exemption from sponsorship requirements; however, there is no assurance that it will be able to obtain this exemption. Trading Halt: Trading in the common shares of TCAP is currently halted in compliance with the policies of the Exchange. TCAP anticipates that trading will remain halted pending the review of the proposed Qualifying Transaction by the Exchange. Qualified Person: The technical information in this news release has been prepared in accordance with the Canadian regulatory requirements set out in National Instrument 43-101 and reviewed and approved by Raymond Wladichuk, P.Geo., TCAPs VP Exploration and a Qualified Person. About TCAP: TCAP is designated as a Capital Pool Company by the Exchange. TCAP has not commenced commercial operations and has no assets other than cash. The only business of TCAP is the identification and evaluation of assets or businesses with a view to completing a Qualifying Transaction in accordance with Exchange Policy 2.4 Capital Pool Companies. Further details concerning the Pine Channel Property, the Option Agreement and the Concurrent Financing will be disclosed in a filing statement to be prepared by TCAP and filed on SEDAR. Tri Capital Opportunities Corp. Jim Pettit ________________________ James Pettit President and CEO For further information please contact: Tri Capital Opportunities Corp. Kelly Pladson, Corporate Secretary Email: kpladson@sentinelmarket.com Tel: (604) 639-3857 Completion of the proposed Qualifying Transaction is subject to a number of conditions, including but not limited to, Exchange acceptance and if applicable pursuant to Exchange requirements, majority of the minority shareholder approval. Where applicable, the proposed Qualifying Transaction cannot close until the required shareholder approval is obtained. There can be no assurance that the proposed Qualifying Transaction will be completed as proposed or at all. Investors are cautioned that, except as disclosed in the management information circular or filing statement to be prepared in connection with the proposed Qualifying Transaction, any information released or received with respect to the proposed Qualifying Transaction may not be accurate or complete and should not be relied upon. Trading in the securities of a capital pool company should be considered highly speculative. The Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed Qualifying Transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Cautionary Statements Regarding Forward-Looking Information: This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Such information includes, without limitation, information regarding the terms and conditions of the proposed Qualifying Transaction, the terms of the Concurrent Financing and the composition of the board of directors and executive officers of the Resulting Issuer upon completion of the proposed Qualifying Transaction. Although TCAP believes that such information is reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. Forward looking information is typically identified by words such as: believe, expect, anticipate, intend, estimate, postulate and similar expressions, or are those, which, by their nature, refer to future events. TCAP cautions investors that any forward-looking information provided by TCAP is not a guarantee of future results or performance, and that actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking information as a result of various factors, including, but not limited to: TCAP's ability to complete the proposed Qualifying Transaction; the expected timing and terms of the proposed Qualifying Transaction and the related Concurrent Financing; the state of the financial markets for TCAP's securities; the state of the natural resources sector in the event the proposed Qualifying Transaction is completed; recent market volatility; TCAP's ability to raise the necessary capital or to be fully able to implement its business strategies; and other risks and factors that TCAP is unaware of at this time. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. TCAP disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. According to the seventh national population census conducted at the end of last year, Chinas overall population rose to 1.412 billion in 2020, from 1.4 billion a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirmed at an eagerly awaited press conference in Beijing. Chinese mothers gave birth to 12 million babies last year, down from 14.65 million in 2019, the NBS confirmed, marking an 18 per cent decline year on year and continuing the descent to a near six-decade low. Chinas fertility rate was 1.3 children per woman, which is below the replacement level of 2.1 the rate needed for a stable population and close to that of Japan. The NBS added that the average number of children that a Chinese woman was willing to have last year was 1.8. By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 05/12/2021 ADVERTISEMENT FOLLOW REALITY TV WORLD ON THE ALL-NEW GOOGLE NEWS! Reality TV World is now available on the all-new Google News app and website. Click here to visit our Google News page, and then click FOLLOW to add us as a news source! ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. star Chris Williams is immature, not ready for marriage, and failed to honor his wife Paige Banks the way she deserved, according to MAFS alum Miles Williams Season 11 MAFS couple Miles and his wife Karen Landry appeared on the May 5 : Countdown to Decision Day special alongside fellow Season 11 couple Amani Rashid-Smith and Woody Randall as well as Season 9 couple Elizabeth Bice and Jamie Thompson In the process of making predictions and sizing up 's Season 12 couples -- who will face Decision Day on the upcoming May 12 episode on Lifetime -- Miles and Elizabeth didn't hold back when expressing their opinions about Chris and the way he treated Paige."How much time we got? We ain't got that much time," Miles said, ready to unleash his feelings about Chris on the special."Chris is immature, he was not ready for marriage, and he did not honor Paige the way she deserved to be honored."Chris said on his wedding day that he wasn't attracted to Paige and considered her to be "the opposite" of the trophy-wife type of women he was used to dating; however, he proceeded to sleep with her twice in 24 hours and continue a sexual relationship with her.When Chris and Paige traveled to Las Vegas for their honeymoon, Chris appeared to discover his ex-fiancee Mercedes Myrick -- whom he had been engaged to just three months prior to marrying a stranger on the show -- was pregnant with his child.Chris confessed to Paige that he still loved his ex and therefore threatened divorce multiple times, only to draw Paige back in with flirtatious comments "He's so off and on," Elizabeth griped. "[Chris says], 'I want to be with you but I don't want to be with you. I've got a child on the way.' And I'm like, 'This is not fair. It's not fair to a human being at all!"When Paige and Chris were trying to work things out and bond through activities several weeks into their marriage, Paige felt disrespected when Chris informed her -- after the fact -- he had purchased Mercedes a brand new luxury vehicle.Chris finally broke up with Paige -- who had forgiven her husband multiple times and put so much effort into their marriage -- after claiming she wasn't a good communicator because she had missed a few of his phone calls.After their breakup, Chris complained to expert Pastor Calvin Roberson that Paige doesn't have a pretty face and the experts should have matched him with a beautiful Atlanta queen."The man -- I don't get it!" Miles lamented on the Countdown to Decision Day broadcast. "I feel like constantly I'm asking myself, 'Did he really just say that?!' And so, I don't feel like I can fully defend him in any way."Elizabeth then chimed in of Chris, "How do you not understand you are mean, you're rude, you don't know how to control what you're saying, and you don't know how to be polite to a female you just met?"Woody expressed how he wishes Paige would have stood up for herself more and put Chris in his place, and Karen called Chris and Paige's dynamic "a toxic situation for each other."Although Chris and Paige ended their relationship right before their one-month anniversary, a preview of the upcoming episode shows Chris and Paige reuniting with each other and experts Pastor Cal, Dr. Pepper Schwartz and Dr. Viviana Coles on Decision Day."You embody everything that I needed in a wife," Chris tells Paige in the clip, before admitting he's "undecided" on whether to continue his marriage or get a divorce.Viviana shouts in reply, "No, I am not okay with this. I'm not okay with this. I'm being very honest with you."After watching that Decision Day teaser, the alums shared their thoughts."Make it make sense to me please!" Woody yelled. "Make it make sense!"Miles predicted Chris and Paige will mutually decide to divorce on Decision Day but then "still be entangled" with each other."I firmly believe that they will still be entangled," Miles said."I feel like they've got a situation-ship, not a marriage," Karen pointed out.Amani also said she believes Paige and Chris will "continue messing around" after the show because they never had "a consistent go through.""I think they're going to want to try to give it a full shot, but I don't think that it's going to be a healthy relationship," Amani explained.Woody, however, predicted Paige and Chris will both choose to stay married and leave viewers with a big question mark in their minds."I think in typical Chris fashion, he's going to get flustered. I think he's going to say 'yes' out of frustration and then they leave and it falls apart the next day," Jamie suggested.But Elizabeth guessed Paige and Chris will say "no" to staying married and then continue their "cycle" or "dance" of breaking up and making up, which will result in "somebody getting really, really hurt."Elizabeth also complained about Chris making up the rules, complaining, "You don't get to be undecided [on Decision Day]!"'s twelfth season also stars Clara Berghaus and Ryan Oubre Haley Harris and Jacob Harder Briana Myles and Vincent Morales , and Erik Lake and Virginia Coombs Interested in more news? Join our Married at First Sight Facebook Group or click here to view our newspage!And click here for more updates on former cast members and info on where they are now! The quality of bathing water in Ireland has continued to improved, with 96% of waters now meeting or exceeding minimum standards, the environmental watchdog has found. However, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) warned that Irish Water needed to improve its management and treatment of urban wastewater, which it said was the most common source of pollution. In a report on bathing water in Ireland in 2020, the EPA found that 142 out of 148 bathing water locations were in line with or exceeded the minimum required standards. Some 111 bathing waters, or 75%, were classified as excellent, up from 107 in 2019, while four bathing waters were classified as poor, down from five in 2019. Clifden Beach, in Galway; Lilliput in Westmeath; Cuas Crom in Kerry and Balbriggan Front Strand Beach, in Dublin were the locations that were deemed to be poor. It was the fifth year in a row that Clifden Beach was classified as poor, and consequently, it has now been declassified as a bathing water for 2021. Galway County Council and Fingal County Council have taken actions to improve bathing water quality at two bathing locations that were poor in 2019, the EPA said. Ballyloughane Beach in Galway improved from poor to sufficient and Portrane (the Brook) beach in Dublin improved from poor to good. Carrigaholt and Quilty, both in Clare, were identified as new bathing waters in 2020 and will be classified as such for the first time following the 2021 season. Graphic: Irish Examiner There were 57 pollution incidents reported to the EPA during 2020, with discharge from urban wastewater systems being the most common cause of pollution incidents. Incidents have the potential to cause a pollution risk and when they occur, swimming restrictions are applied at the beach until sampling shows the water quality is safe. Irish Water needs to make improvements in the operation and management of urban wastewater treatment plants and networks where these impact on bathing waters, the EPA said. In response, Irish Water said it had made "significant progress" in this regard last year, with an investment of 333m in wastewater infrastructure. "We have succeeded in reducing the amount of raw sewage discharged by 50% since Irish Waters establishment," a spokesman told The Irish Examiner. "Plans are in place to provide wastewater treatment in another 30-plus locations across the country in the coming years." The spokesman said the utility has been working closely with its partners during Covid-19 "to ensure the delivery of water and wastewater services as a priority". Local authorities also put up 135 prior warning notices at beaches in 2020, to warn swimmers that short-term pollution, which lasts no more than a few days, may occur due to heavy rainfall. These warnings are removed when sampling shows the water quality is safe. Dr Eimear Cotter, director of the EPA, welcomed the continued improvement in bathing water quality. It is also positive to see two new beaches being identified in 2020, and to see improvements at two beaches that had poor water quality previously, she said. Good quality bathing waters are important now more than ever as more people enjoy our natural amenities, and particularly swimming. She added: "With many people now swimming outside the bathing season, the EPA is calling for additional water quality monitoring at beaches where there are large numbers of year-round swimmers, and that this information is made available to the public. What part of a person is missing that would lead them to take responsibility for the death of another human being? Ive been thinking about this since March, when I learned that the SC Senate passed a bill that would give death row inmates the choice of firing squad or the electric chair, an answer to the states 10-year-long drought of lethal injection drugs. Last week, the SC House of Representatives voted, 66 to 43, to add death via firing squad to the list of options for how these imperfect human beings, who were judged by other imperfect human beings, can choose to end their lives. Gov. Henry McMaster predictably frothed at the mouth, conflating vengeance with closure and tweeting, I will sign this legislation as soon as it gets to my desk. One more reading of the bill in the chamber and he will get his creepy wish. Having lived for more than six decades in a country that champions Christianity, Ive never been a proponent of the death penalty, as I interpret it as counter to the moral imperative of not murdering another child of God. Not only is the death penalty a prime example of codified vindictiveness, exalting spite to its highest level, but, as an action, it comes from a small and embarrassingly petty place. Were supposed to be better than that. Isnt this what we say when we hear that Iran, who was second only to China in executions last year, publicly stones, electrocutes or slowly hangs prisoners from a giant crane, many of whom have been tortured into confession? Isnt that what we say when our economic frenemies in Saudi Arabia enforce Sharia law and behead their prisoners? Just what level of barbarism are we comfortable with? Its apparently easy to sit around the kitchen table, or the Statehouse chambers, and toss out retaliatory proclamations about an eye for an eye without doing the due diligence to learn that, not since the Code of Hammurabi, has this phrase been interpreted to offer anything other than a limit on reparations not to exceed the value of ones loss. But when it comes down to it, most thinking individuals realize the many flaws in retribution by execution. This is evidenced by SCs inability to procure lethal IV drugs for a decade now, with the drug companies no longer selling them in order to avoid culpability. Its one thing for our state to lag behind others that proudly flaunt their moral progress, but its another thing entirely when we run in the opposite direction. Over the past 16 years, 11 states have rescinded their capital punishment laws. Both prosecutors and juries are increasingly unlikely to ask for or award a death penalty judgement. In the mid-90s, the U.S. executed an average of 300 prisoners per year, but this number has dropped to fewer than 50 per year over the past six, and public support for the death penalty is the lowest it has been in half a century. Maybe thats because, since 1973, more than 180 former death row prisoners have been found innocent in the U.S., with an average of five falsely accused capital offenders being exonerated per year. Maybe its because 88% of former and current presidents of top academic criminology institutions in the U.S. say the death penalty isnt effective crime deterrent, and a poll of 500 police chiefs agreed. Maybe its because 80% of U.S. executions are conducted in the South, and, while Black citizens make up just 13% of the countrys population, 42% of death row inmates are people of color. Of the 284 state executions in SC since 1912, 209 of those murdered were Black. Thinking people recognize there is something wrong with this picture, and it has everything to do with the fact that economically challenged Black Americans are no more likely to commit a crime than poor whites, but Black Americans almost always receive harsher sentences for the same crimes. An interesting note about death by firing squad is the common practice of issuing what is called a conscience round, or a blank round of bullets, to one or more members of the squad without the shooters knowing if they have live or fake ammunition. Ostensibly, this enables all the shooters to sleep at night as they comfort themselves with the possibility that they might not have fired the fatal shots. Maybe, despite the big-talking, macho-monster vigilantism some Southerners, including our governor, try to project, even the biggest talkers arent as comfortable as they profess to be with the level of barbarism needed to take responsibility for the death of another human being. Maybe if they were, theyd fire the guns themselves. Mobile/Web App Developer Remuneration: R18000 - R25000 per month Basic salary Location: Johannesburg, Fourways Education level: Diploma Job level: Junior/Mid Type: Permanent Reference: #Mobile&WebDeveloper Company: Cardilogix Front-end development Languages: JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, PHP , jQuery. , jQuery. JavaScript - React.js, Angular.js, Vue.js, Knockout.js, Node.js Mobile development (Ionic or Cordova) WordPress design AND development Web development Software development Mobile and web design A copy of your CV A copy of your portfolio in PDF (max 8MB) A link to your online portfolio (showcasing digital/web/UI/UX related work) Lastly, some links to websites/mobile apps you've designed/developed Our client a leading marketing agency, requires the services of aMust have at least two - four years of working experience.Please only apply if you have the relevant experience as per our job ad. Our client does not have the capacity to train anyone you need to hit the ground running.Your application will be passed to our team of recruitment consultants and should your skills and experience match the recruitment needs of our client, we will be in touch within a 96 hour turn-around time.Should you not hear from us, please treat your application for this job as unsuccessful. Posted on 12 May 14:55 Mike has reported on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's wildlife, wildlands and the agencies that manage them since 2012. A native Minnesotan, he arrived in the West to study environmental journalism at the University of Colorado. The total population of the Chinese mainland increased to 1.4118 billion in 2020, according to data from the seventh national census released by the National Bureau of Statistics on May 11. The results unsurprisingly revealed that China's population is in an era of low fertility and aging, and the population growth has almost come to a halt. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, significant changes have taken place in the number and structure of the population, as well as fertility, mortality, and migration in the last seven decades. China experienced a complete demographic transition in half a century, from high fertility and high mortality to low fertility and low mortality, and recorded a high growth rate in the 1960s and 1970s. Negative population growth is expected in the near future with a peak size of slightly more than 1.4 billion. The 2020 census is likely to be the last one to witness China's population growth in this century. The process of population transition in China has been greatly compressed in time, brought by socio-economic development and institutional changes including relevant policies. China's death rate declined rapidly in the 1950s, falling by 50 percent in eight years, and further declined to less than seven per thousand in the late 1970s. Benefiting from the improvement of public health, control over infectious diseases, and development of maternal and child health care in both urban and rural areas, the infant mortality rate dropped dramatically from about 200 per thousand in 1949 to 107 per thousand in 1955, and further to 48 per thousand in 1975. The under-5 mortality also dropped significantly during the 20 years. The newly published infant mortality is 5.4 per thousand and under-5 mortality rate is 7.5 per thousand for the year 2020. The fertility transition in China had multiple drivers, similar to most other Asian countries. Initiated by urban fertility decline in 1964, the fertility transition took place within three decades. The total fertility rate has stayed at 1.6 or lower in the 21st century, with the exception of a slight increase in 2016 and 2017 due to the adjustment of birth policy, which released a cumulated potential of second childbirth. The number of children ever born for women aged 50 was 1.65 in 2015 and declined gradually by age to 1.52 at the age of 40, implying the persistence of low fertility and lower fertility among younger cohorts. Due to the decline in the number of women at childbearing age and aging of this group as well as the persistently low fertility rate, the number of births in 2019 fell to 14.65 million, the lowest in about 50 years, and continued to decline in 2020, the downward trend seems irreversible. The declined fertility rate triggered age structure change of the population, that is, population aging. Due to a decline in the number of births, the 0-14 population size in China has continued to decline since 1998, and its share in the total population has gradually decreased accordingly. /Source: National Bureau of Statistics As the "baby boom" cohorts who were born in the 1960s continue to exit from working age, the decline in the working-age population will accelerate. Meanwhile, the working-age population is also aging, and the proportion of people aged 45 and above is increasing. The aging of China's population is advancing rapidly. The number of people over the age of 65 stood at 190.64 million in 2020, or, 13.5 percent of the total population. The rate of natural increase of China's population was about 2.7 percent in the late 1960s, it dropped to below one percent in 1998. The average annual rate of natural increase from 2000 to 2010 was 0.57 percent, and it further dropped to 0.53 percent in a 10-year period during 2010 to 2020. China's population is close to zero growth and is expected to decline sometime earlier than many previous projections. Some provinces in China have already experienced negative population growth in the first decade of the 21st century due to out-migration of young people, while three provinces in northern China have had a negative rate of natural increase since 2011 one after another (Liaoning, Heilongjiang, and Jilin) because of low fertility and aging. While younger and better-educated people moved from less developed rural areas to more developed urban areas, some rural communities are experiencing more advanced population aging. As the low fertility and low mortality are relatively stable and predictable, population mobility in China will become an important determinant of population redistribution and regional population structure change in the future. The population of China has shifted from high-speed growth in the middle and late 1960s to decline soon. This "compressed" population change took place in a large population, which will undoubtedly bring relatively greater impacts. Population decline will be a reality for China, its socioeconomic consequences on all aspects and on families as well as individuals in the future should not be underestimated, and we should be prepared with the response as soon as possible. Many policies, systems, social norms, family traditions, and practices in China developed when the fertility rates were higher and population structures were younger, and they obviously do not adapt to the current population situation. Institutional change adaptation to population changes is necessary. China has just formulated the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), which proposes to implement a national strategy of proactive response to population aging, including reducing the burden of childbearing, childrearing and children's education, improving the policy system to support child care services and early childhood development and improving the old-age care service system. Socio-economic development and public policies have played important roles during the demographic transition in China. In the new era, public policies, especially family-friendly policies, will also have an important role to play. (Source: CGTN) Covid-19 vaccines may be safe during pregnancy, suggests a study that found no evidence of injury to the placenta in pregnant women who received the preventive. The first-of-its-kind study, published on Tuesday in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, adds to the growing literature that Covid-19 vaccines are safe in pregnancy. "The placenta is like the black box in an airplane. If something goes wrong with a pregnancy, we usually see changes in the placenta that can help us figure out what happened," said Jeffery Goldstein, assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the US. Read more: WHO designates Indian Covid variant as being of global concern "From what we can tell, the Covid vaccine does not damage the placenta," Goldstein said. The researchers noted that there is a lot of vaccine hesitancy, especially among pregnant people. "Our team hopes these data, albeit preliminary, can reduce concerns about the risk of the vaccine to the pregnancy," said study co-author Emily Miller, assistant professor at Northwestern University. The study authors examined the placentas from 84 vaccinated patients and 116 unvaccinated patients who delivered at a hospital in Chicago, US. Most patients received vaccines -- either Moderna or Pfizer -- during their third trimester. Last year, the same team published a study that found placentas of women who tested positive for the Covid-19 virus while pregnant showed abnormal blood flow between mother and baby in utero. Pregnant patients who want to get vaccinated to avoid contracting the disease should feel safe doing so, Miller said. "We are beginning to move to a framework of protecting foetuses through vaccination, rather than from vaccination," Miller said. In April, the scientists published a study showing pregnant women make Covid antibodies after vaccination and successfully transfer them to their foetuses. "Until infants can get vaccinated, the only way for them to get Covid antibodies is from their mother," Goldstein said. The placenta is the first organ that forms during pregnancy. It performs duties for most of the foetus' organs while they are still forming, such as providing oxygen while the lungs develop and nutrition while the gut is forming. According to the researchers, the placenta manages hormones and the immune system, and tells the mother's body to welcome and nurture the foetus rather than reject it as a foreign intruder. "The Internet has amplified a concern that the vaccine might trigger an immunological response that causes the mother to reject the foetus," Goldstein said. "But these findings lead us to believe that doesn't happen," he added. The scientists also looked for abnormal blood flow between the mother and foetus and problems with foetal blood flow -- both of which have been reported in pregnant patients who have tested positive for Covid. The rate of these injuries was the same in the vaccinated patients as for control patients, Goldstein said. The scientists also examined the placentas for chronic histiocytic intervillositis, a complication that can happen if the placenta is infected, in this case, by SARS-CoV-2. Although the study did not find any cases in vaccinated patients, it's a very rare condition that requires a larger sample size of 1,000 patients to differentiate between vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, the researchers added. Champaign, IL (61820) Today Cloudy with showers. Thunder possible. High 82F. Winds SSE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Cloudy with occasional rain showers. Low 69F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. KCCI Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, and LGES President Kim Jong-hyun / Korea Times file By Kim Yoo-chul SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, also head of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), plans to accompany President Moon Jae-in next week for the South Korean leader's first summit with U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington, D.C. Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Kim Ki-nam, who is in charge of managing Samsung's semiconductor business, is considering visiting the U.S., while SK Bioscience chief Ahn Jae-yong is scheduled to join the trip. LG Energy Solution (LGES) CEO Kim Jong-hyun will also fly to Washington. But Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun will not join the business delegation, according to officials and sources, Wednesday. The sources said Cheong Wa Dae is in talks with the trade ministry to finalize the size of the business delegation. Senior executives from companies that invested in the United States have been asked to accompany the President. At the planned summit, Moon is set to ask Biden to stand with him to break the continued deadlock in inter-Korean talks. The Biden administration made it clear that it would undertake a "more calibrated, practical, measured approach" in dealing with North Korea, one that seeks progress towards verifiable and complete denuclearization through open diplomacy. Moon said earlier that his administration will upgrade Seoul's alliance with Washington and prepare a comprehensive North Korea strategy. But business circles here are paying more attention to the specifics of the itineraries of top-ranking executives at Samsung, SK and LGES during Moon's U.S. visit, as these companies are major foreign investors in the United States by operating massive manufacturing plants there. It's still uncertain whether they will hold in-person meetings with Biden administration officials. But because Biden is on track to promote a massive infrastructure plan as the country is reeling from the effects of the pandemic, the South Korean businessmen are set to hold "working-level meetings" with U.S. government officials both directly and indirectly, officially and unofficially. Samsung Vice Chairman Kim is set to receive the latest updates on his company's planned massive semiconductor investment plan, as Samsung is increasingly being asked to join Washington's "chip-democracy" initiative amid the continued global semiconductor chip shortage. The world's top memory chip manufacturer is set to announce a $17 billion investment plan during Moon's visit. For SK Chairman Chey, his trip comes after he took the top position at the KCCI, the country's largest lobby group representing the interests of conglomerates here, and its agreement with LGES to end their blockbuster battery intellectual property dispute. "Business circles expect the Moon-Biden summit to pave the way for both countries to level up their alliance in batteries and chips, as South Korea has a competitive edge in DRAM manufacturing, while the United States is home to a lot of companies which have clear advantages in logic-chip manufacturing," an industry official said. [May 12, 2021] Carnegie Dartlet Merges With Underscore to Provide Expanded Enrollment Strategy Solutions for the Higher Education Market Carnegie Dartlet ("Carnegie"), a New Heritage Capital portfolio company, announced it has merged with Underscore. This combination brings together Carnegie's innovative enrollment marketing and strategy services with Underscore's Slate CRM development, optimization and student search business to offer a full enrollment strategy solution for its combined customers. "This merger offers partner institutions of both companies the opportunity to optimize their recruitment operations through a customized integration of their CRM and marketing efforts," said Joe Moore, CEO of Carnegie. "The combined offerings will be a welcomed, cost-efficient solution for clients who are ready to search differently." Underscore's co-founder and CEO, Scott Novak, who will continue to lead the Underscore business added, "We are thrilled to be joining forces with Carnegie. With our combined capabilities, we are now able to meet the full-suite of enrollment needs of our higher education customers." Carnegie has pushed the boundaries of higher education marketing since its founding in 1985, offering custom solutions and innovations in digital marketing, lead generation, research, strategy, and creative. Since its beginning in 2017, Underscore has established itself as higher education's premier Slate CRM partner. The merger further demonstrates Carnegie's commitment to providing industry-leadng marketing and enrollment solutions that help its university partners connect with the right students. Nickie Norris, Senior Partner at New Heritage Capital, added, "We could not be more excited to partner with Scott Novak and the entire Underscore team. The two companies share a unique culture - focused on crafting high-yield, personalized solutions to address the unique needs of each of their customers. We look forward to continuing to invest in the growth of the combined company." About Carnegie Dartlet Carnegie Dartlet is a leading provider of strategic marketing solutions for the higher education market. Carnegie Dartlet offers a comprehensive range of solutions including customized research, creative and content development, digital marketing campaign execution, and lead generation services. Through its highly customized offering and high-touch approach, Carnegie has earned a reputation for delivering high-yield enrollment marketing solutions. For more information about Carnegie Dartlet, visit carnegiedartlet.com. About New Heritage Capital New Heritage Capital is a Boston-based private equity firm with a twenty-year history of partnering with growing, middle market, founder-owned businesses. Through its innovative minority recapitalization and growth equity structures, Heritage helps founders achieve personal liquidity and the capital necessary to spur growth, while at the same time allowing founders to maintain control of their business. With decades of experience managing growth, Heritage gives its partners the strategic, operational, and financial guidance to help its companies reach their growth objectives. To learn more, visit newheritagecapital.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005092/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Grace Gatera grew up in Uganda after leaving her birth country of Rwanda because of ethnic genocide. Violence was a constant for her. She developed PTSD as a child, as well as other mental conditions. But her mental ailments were not acknowledged or treated. Even at school, when she would become agitated, she was beaten and accused of faking her emotional distress. This made me very confused, said Gatera. I asked myself: if they are right, why does it hurt so much to pretend? Today, Gatera is a young advocate for NCD Child My Mind Our Humanity, a campaign for the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development. She also works with NCD Child and the Mental Health Innovation Network. I advocate from my lived experiences of my mental challenges, she said on Monday during a virtual conference The Importance of Including Youth Voices on Gender-based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People. It was sponsored by NCD Child, the University of Miami Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas, and the Lancet Commission on Gender-based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People. I feel that for the first time we [people who have lived these experiences] are finally getting the attention that we had fought for and the appropriate representation, she said. I feel like I am in a space that I could change things for people who grew up like me. Including the voices and perspectives of abused children is a priority for the Lancet Commission, especially at a time in which violence against women and children is increasing. Violence against women and young people is persistent and it is pervasive, said Felicia Knaul, director of the Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas and cochair of the Lancet Commission on Gender-based Violence and Maltreatment of Young People. [Violence] was, it is, and it will be of pandemic proportions and it has only increased with COVID-19, she added. More than a third of women and girlsover 1 billion peopleexperience intimate partner violence or nonpartner physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes. Almost a quarter of all adults worldwide report physical abuse as children. And a lifetime prevalence of sexual abuse is unacceptably high for both sexes, 20 percent for girls and one in 10 for boys. Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation and a commissioner of the Lancet Commission, said that violence of young people is persistent, pernicious, and widespread. According to Clinton, it affects more than a third of women and girls. And, she added, 42 percent of all homicides take the lives of young people under 29 years of age. The risk of gender-based violence is higher for people, particularly younger people, living in poverty and vulnerable situations. Fundamentally, gender-based violence are human rights violations. Mphokuhle Mabhena-Lunga, a regional coordinator for Sonke Gender Justice in South Africa, works with young refugees and migrants where she has encountered victims of sexual abuse, genital mutilation, and rape. Young people often face a great deal of violence, especially during conflict, she said. You find that violence is the top issue that affects young people. We see a lot of violence in Africa, especially in war-torn countries. Young women suffer the most when it comes to a war-torn country since womens bodies [are] used as a weapon of war. Many girls in war-torn countries are raped and impregnated by rebels, she said. We see a sad future for these girls, she added. They have to raise fatherless children. It is painful enough to live in an unsafe space and then be raped and bear a child with the face of your rapist. Studies conducted by the Sonke organization showed that these mothers are often emotionally disconnected from their child, she said. War-torn countries also make it difficult for young people to receive an education since survival is the priority and schools are often closed or inaccessible, she noted. This limits the future of these young people and increases poverty and unemployment. Through different programs, Mabhena-Lungas organization has formed partnerships with faith-based groups and churches, which can provide safe spaces to many. They have also learned that creating youth-led groups is key. In all their programs, they let young people set the agendas to discuss issues relevant to them and offer possible solutions. New Delhi: Supreme Court Justice DY Chandrachud has tested positive for COVID-19, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday (May 12). He is recovering well, the report said, adding that a staffer of the judge had earlier tested positive for the virus. Chandrachud has been hearing cases related to various issues surrounding the coronavirus pandemic in the country such as availability of oxygen, medicines and vaccines. He has issued several directions so far to the Centre as well as the state governments to ensure proper management of crucial resources required in the fight against the pandemic. He headed the bench that constituted a National Task Force (NTF) to assess and recommend the need and distribution of oxygen in the country. He recently refused to expunge Madras High Courts remarks blaming the Election Commission for the spread of coronavirus in the country due to its negligence in conducting polls. On Monday, Chandrachud was hearing a case via video conference which got deferred to Thursday due to technical glitches. Live TV Relentless rocket fire and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab towns fuelled growing fears Wednesday that violence between Israel and Palestinians that has claimed 50 lives could spiral into "full-scale war". Palestinian militants have launched more than 1,000 rockets since Monday, said Israel's army, which has launched hundreds of air strikes on Hamas and other Islamist groups in the crowded costal enclave of Gaza. Also Read | Kerala woman killed in Israel-Palestine conflict The most intense hostilities in seven years have killed at least 43 people in Gaza, including 13 children, two Palestinians in the West Bank, and five Israelis, triggered by weekend unrest at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound, which is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. As world powers voiced growing alarm and the UN Security Council readied for another emergency meeting on the bloody crisis, the UN Middle East envoy Tor Wennesland warned that "we're escalating towards a full-scale war". "Leaders on all sides have to take the responsibility of de-escalation," he said, echoing warnings from the international community. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a state of emergency in the mixed Jewish-Arab Israeli city of Lod, where police said "wide-scale riots erupted among some of the Arab residents". There were fears of widening civil unrest as protesters waving Palestinian flags burnt cars and properties, clashed with Israeli police and attacked Jewish motorists in several mixed Jewish-Arab towns across Israel. Also read: India in touch with Israel after Kerala woman dies in Hamas rocket attack Palestinian groups, mostly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have launched more than 1,000 rockets, Israel's army said, including hundreds at Tel Aviv, where air sirens wailed overnight. Of these, 850 rockets have hit in Israel or been intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system, while the rest have crashed inside Gaza, he said. Israel has launched hundreds of air strikes at Gaza, the Israeli-blockaded coastal enclave of two million people that Hamas controls, targeting what the army described as Palestinian military sites. Aside from the mounting death toll, at least 230 Palestinians were wounded, many rescued from the smouldering ruins of buildings. On the Israeli side, more than 100 people have been injured, as residents across the Jewish state have been ordered to seek shelter. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday urged Israel and the Palestinians to "step back from the brink", calling for both sides to "show restraint". The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Fatou Bensouda, voiced concern at the escalation of violence and said "crimes" may have been committed. Also read: Restricted Palestinian journalists account by accident, has been restored: Twitter Bensouda announced on March 3 that she had opened a full investigation into the situation in the Israeli-occupied territories, infuriating Israel, which not a member of The Hague-based court. Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz warned Tuesday that "this is just the beginning" of Israel's strikes, vowing that the operation, now dubbed "Guardian of the Walls", would aim to restore peace "for the long-term". Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed in turn to step up its operation code-named "Sword of Jerusalem", warning that "if Israel wants to escalate, we are ready for it". Israeli army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said he expected the fighting to intensify and, when asked about unconfirmed reports that Hamas might seek a ceasefire, said: "I don't think my commanders are aware, or particularly interested." In Gaza City, people sifted through debris after an Israeli air strike destroyed a 12-storey building near the coastline. Hamas said the tower block had been a residential building. AFP reporters said it also housed the offices of several Hamas officials. Five members of a single family were killed by an Israeli strike in northern Gaza on Tuesday, including young brothers Ibrahim and Marwan, who were filling sacks of straw at the time. "We were laughing and having fun when suddenly they began to bomb us. Everything around us caught fire," their cousin, also called Ibrahim, told AFP. "I saw my cousins set alight and torn to pieces," said the 14-year-old, breaking down in tears. In Israel's central city of Lod, a man and a girl were killed Wednesday by rocket fire from Gaza. Israel's foreign ministry identified one of the dead as 16-year-old Nadin Awad, an Arab Israeli. Her cousin, Ahmad Ismail, told public broadcaster Kan that he was near Nadin when she was killed alongside her father Khalil Awad, 52. "I was at home, we heard the noise of the rocket. It happened so quickly. Even if we had wanted to run somewhere, we don't have a safe room," Ismail told Kan. Earlier, an Israeli woman was killed as rockets hit Rishon Letzion on the coastal city's southern edge, and in Ashkelon near Gaza, which Hamas threatened to turn into "hell", rockets fired by militants killed two women. The crisis started last Friday when weeks of tensions boiled over and Israeli riot police clashed with crowds of Palestinians at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Nightly clashes since then have rocked the ancient compound and flared elsewhere in east Jerusalem, leaving more than 900 Palestinians injured. Palestinians clashed again with Israeli officers in riot gear on Tuesday evening, with 245 Palestinians injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. Large protests were held Tuesday in solidarity with Palestinians around the world, including in London, as well as in Muslim-majority countries including Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey. Greek authorities have taken the rare step of offering a cash reward for information leading to arrests for a barbaric home invasion on the outskirts of Athens in which burglars strangled a young British woman next to her 11-month-old baby. The minister responsible for public order, Michalis Chrisochoidis, described the killing as particularly heinous, and the government announced a 300,000-euro (260,000) reward. Michigan is facing mounting opposition to its efforts to shut down Enbridges Line 5 oil pipeline, but the governor is showing no signs of surrender. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on the eve of the the shutdown deadline issued a letter to Enbridge Vice President Vern Yu. In it, she wrote that shes confident the state will prevail in court and intends to pursue any profits Enbridge earns from illegal use of the Michigan land beneath the Straits of Mackinac after May 12. That could equate $1.8 million per day, based on estimates previously provided by Enbridge. The legal battle centers on whether Michigan or the federal government has ultimate authority over the pipeline and the ethical fight is between competing financial interests and environmental concerns. The 68-year-old, 645-mile-long pipeline transports 540,000 barrels of oil per day from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario by way of a short cut through Michigan and its Great Lakes. Enbridge did not shut down the pipeline by the governors May 12 deadline and has said it will not do so until forced by a court or regulator. Sen. Ed McBroom, Chair of the Natural Resources Committee, highlighted in-state fuel concerns stemming from a loss of propane that Enbridge says supplies 55% of the states total needs and 65% of the propane demand in the Upper Peninsula. McBroom and joint members of the state Legislature addressed their concerns with Whitmers efforts during a press conference Wednesday morning as the pipeline continued to escort oil through the state. McBroom keyed in on an agreement made with Enbridge during former Gov. Rick Snyders tenure that required the company to construct a protective tunnel around the pipeline to reduce the risk of a spill. Enbridge projected the tunnel could be in place by 2024. The Legislature already studied this issue and bipartisanly adopted a plan to move the pipeline into a tunnel and at that point then shut down and decommission the existing pipeline, he said. This governor and others say we cant wait to decommission the line and yet, why cant we wait? McBroom noted the pipeline has operated safely for more than 60 years, even without additional risk mitigation efforts that have been put in place over the last decade, including rules about shutting down the line during bad weather, new monitoring sensors, ship tracking and enforcement to ensure anchors arent being dragged. Weve got a good plan in place, Sen. Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, said. Lets bury Line 5 with concrete, which by the way we can make here in Michigan, and take care of this issue. 4 Enbridge reported damage to its Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac on June 18 Damage to an exposed pipeline support was noticed during seasonal maintenance in June of 2020 and the line temporarily shut down operations, again sparking a legal feud between Michigan and Enbridge when the company resumed operations without state clearance. Not only is Whitmer and her administration facing off with Enbridge and Republican lawmakers, but Canada, Ohio and Louisiana have filed briefs in a pending federal lawsuit in support of continued Line 5 operation. Canadian supporters argue a shutdown of Line 5 would impact fuel supplies and jobs in Ontario and Quebec. Line 5 is a vital piece of infrastructure for Canada and the United States and has safely operated at the Straits of Mackinac for 68 years, said Canadian Minister Seamus ORegan, who was appointed Minister of Natural Resources in 2019. It remains the safest, most efficient way to transport fuel to refineries and markets and is a reliable source of energy for Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Ontario and Quebec. This pipeline is as important to Canada as it is to the U.S. It heats both Canadian and American homes. It supports both Canadian and American jobs. Attorneys general from Ohio and Louisiana in court filings urged the federal courts to consider the interstate financial implications on their states. Ohio AG Dave Yost on March 19 court filing wrote that the BP Husky oil refinery in Toldeo depends on 155,000 barrels of Line 5 crude oil per day that its 600 employees convert to gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. Yost estimated several billion dollars in losses if the pipeline were to shut down. Whitmer allies in the pipeline feud include environmental protection groups and tribal nations. Its simply unacceptable to risk the worlds largest freshwater lakes and one of the United States greatest economic engines, because of a decrepit oil pipeline thats far exceeded its useful life, said Collin OMara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. Its an ecological, economic, and public health tragedy just waiting to happen. The National Wildlife Federation began referring to the pipeline as a sunken hazard in 2012. The Bay Mills Indian Community based in the Upper Peninsula claims the Enbridge pipeline violates an 1836 land treaty with the U.S. and on Monday its Executive Council passed a resolution banning Enbridge from the reservation and waters of their ceded territory - including the Straits of Mackinac. As part of the Treaty of 1836, (Bay Mills Indian Community) reserved for all time the right to fish, hunt, and gather in the ceded land and waters of the state of Michigan - including the ceded waters of Lake Superior, Huron, and Michigan, which includes the Straits of Mackinac, the tribe said. Banishment is not a practice taken lightly by tribal government. Banishment is a traditional, historical, and customary form of tribal law that has existed since time immemorial and is only exercised by the tribe when egregious acts and misconduct have harmed tribal citizens, treaty rights, territories, and resources. Line 5 has been under growing scrutiny since another Enbridge pipeline caused a massive oil spill of over 1 million gallons of oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. Proponents are planning several days of protests against the continued operation of the pipeline this week, including ceremonies in Mackinaw City and Lansing where symbolic eviction notices will be delivered to Enbridge offices, and in Detroit, where members of the Michigan Anishanaabek Caucus, Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition and Peoples Water Board Coalition plan to rally Wednesday evening. Both Whitmer and AG Dana Nessel campaigned on promises to shut down the controversial pipeline. Lynsey Mukomel, a spokesperson for Nessel, said forthcoming action will be through the courts. Whitmer put Enbridge on notice that its easement rights would be revoked effective May 12, but the company has fought the order and claims it is not subject to state regulators and rather the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The agency didnt respond to MLive requests for comment. We filed our lawsuit on behalf of the Governor immediately after the notice was issued, Mukomel told MLive in an email Tuesday. The lawsuit seeks a court order upholding the notice and requiring Enbridge to comply. Enbridge has taken procedural maneuvers to delay that by removing the case to federal court that does not have jurisdiction over the states claims. We are fighting to get the case back to the state court that does have jurisdiction. Enbridge filed its lawsuit against Whitmer and Department of Natural Resources Director Daniel Eichinger on Nov. 24 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan arguing interstate commerce implications that are governed by federal laws. Line 5 petroleum products serve major refineries in the U.S. Midwest and in Canada and many thousands of consumers across Michigan and the region, the federal complaint said. Michigans easement termination interferes with the comprehensive federal regulation of pipeline safety, impermissibly burdens and discriminates against interstate and foreign commerce, and hinders the United States ability to speak with one voice with respect to transboundary shipments by pipeline. Its not clear when the federal lawsuit will be resolved. Michigan and Enbridge attorneys are currently engaged in mediation efforts to reach an acceptable compromise. More on MLive: Whitmer threatens profit seizures Enbridge settles with shipper after 2018 anchor strike Enbridge pledges to defy Whitmer shutdown order Canadian pressure mounts on Whitmer to back off Line 5 Michigan regulators approve Line 5 tunnel permits Line 5 closure would hike propane costs, consultant says Ohio, Louisiana argue against Line 5 shutdown in court ROME - In a public art project called "The Walk", created by the Good Chance Theatre, a 3.5-metre puppet will take an 8,000-km journey by foot starting at the border between Syria and Turkey and travelling all the way to the UK. The puppet, named "Little Amal", is designed to represent a nine-year-old Syrian refugee girl. The Good Chance Theatre, producers of the theatre work The Jungle, collaborated with the Handspring Puppet Company, which made Little Amal, under the artistic direction of Amir Nizar Zuabi. "The Walk" will take place from 27 July to 3 November 2021, and Little Amal will be welcomed with free cultural events and public shows in the various cities she encounters, together with local partners that are participating in the project. In a statement, organisers said the public can follow Little Amal's journey on social media as well as by participating in person at events. Little Amal's journey will begin on 27 July in Gaziantep, at the border between Syria and Turkey, with a light installation created with Qanadil lanterns. Slowly, one lantern at a time, the city will light up, revealing a trail of light that Little Amal will follow. The journey will continue in Greece and pass through Italy, where Little Amal will arrive on 7 September. In Bari she will be welcomed by a large puppet, an Italian grandmother who will give her wise advice, such as how to overcome the obstacles she may encounter along the rest of her journey. Among the other stops in Italy will be Rome, where Little Amal will remember her lost homeland and memories of the war will blossom again in paintings by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam, which will be projected on the facades of historic buildings in some of the most beautiful squares in the city. The trip will continue with stops in France, Belgium, Germany, and finally the United Kingom, where it will conclude with a special exhibition on childhood presented by the Manchester International Festival, created in collaboration with local schools and refugee communities. Visiting the exhibition, Little Amal will understand that she is ready to start a new journey, an even longer one: creating a new life in her new home. Organisers said Little Amal "represents the millions of child refugees, displaced and separated from their families, and her message is 'Don't forget about us'". .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... A pivot to China was begun under former President Donald Trump and is now accelerating under President Joe Biden. Biden is pursuing a strategy of coexistence with China in four key competitive domains: military, economic, political and global governance. Technology innovation is crucial to both economic and military competition with China. Various legislative measures are recommended to promote U.S. technology innovation. The United States must expand domestic chip manufacturing for automotive and other applications. Congress should make sure Rio Ranchos fab is not overlooked in the appropriation legislation for domestic chip fabs. The Endless Frontier Act further expands the scope of the National Science Foundation, hence universities, in the technology domain. This has the potential to make universities, e.g., UNM and NMSU colleges of engineering, have much more impact on N.M. economic growth. Much U.S. innovation has taken place on the East and West coasts by a relatively small group of white and Asian male STEM workers who have started new companies. If the United States is to compete with China, it must expand its innovation capabilities numerically, geographically, racially and by gender. Congress should make sure the College of Northern New Mexico in Espanola and Central New Mexico Community College in Sandoval County both counties have large Hispanic and Native communities and are under-represented in STEM disciplines are among those locations selected for NSF Regional Technology Centers and make sure their entrepreneurship programs have additional federal funding up to $10 million each. Political leaders seek ways to get more private sector economic growth from the federal R&D investment at government labs and research universities. At 25% of N.M. GDP, federal R&D is New Mexicos most important economic asset; it must become the driving force for creating new, fast-growth, private sector, high-tech firms that compete in the global economy. The Endless Frontier Act has made technology transfer from federal R&D a major emphasis. Congress must critically rewrite cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) legislation to give preference to local start-ups over existing companies, and it must create new categories of temporary employment at government-owned labs for prospective entrepreneurs. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Bidens 30-year goal for carbon neutrality needs a pilot project to retain the long-term commitment of Americans, identify what does and doesnt work, demonstrate that carbon neutrality is achievable and develop more domestic firms that manufacture renewable energy technology. Congress should put New Mexico on a 15-year, federally funded plan to reach carbon neutrality and create a new branch of Los Alamos National Laboratory to manage a multibillion-dollar Manhattan Project for carbon neutrality. New Mexico has the lowest-cost renewable energy in the United States. Energy costs impact manufacturing firms competitiveness. Many U.S. companies that moved their manufacturing offshore are looking to relocate to the United States. Congress should offer these companies federal tax incentives to relocate to states like New Mexico, whose economies are stagnant. U.S. graduate education attracts talented, foreign-born students for study and research. Congress should require that 25% of the research grants to universities be focused on projects that can create start-up companies. If the graduate student doing the research is an immigrant on a student visa, Congress should allow that student to be granted a green card if they start a company in an economically stagnant U.S. county. MIAMI, FL, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Amazonas Florestal, Ltd. (OTC: AZFL) ( azflamerica.com ), a natural resources company dedicated to innovative, sustainable forest management, the certification and sales of carbon credits, and the processing of Industrial Hemp, announced today that effective today, the Company has been reinstated to complete market compliance as a Pink Sheets Information Tier Company. All of the pending financial disclosures have been submitted, reviewed and accepted. The Company ticker is no longer tagged with any flags, having fulfilled all of its current requirements. Company management also announced that it has received the first batch of laboratory equipment at the headquarters of Green America Labs, the Companys new subsidiary, located in Dade County, Florida. A second delivery is expected this week to complete the basic configuration. These deliveries include all of the necessary highly specialized equipment to manufacture premium grade hemp derived cannabinoid concentrates. The Company is completing permits to install the equipment that, once operable, will become the first such lab this far south in the USA. AZFL management further announced that it expects to complete the lab soon and to attract the emerging Latin markets. Most of Latin America is in the process of allowing the importation of these products as many countries legalize these products and this activity within their jurisdictions. As previously reported, Green America Laboratories, a subsidiary of AZFL, has secured a facility in NW Miami-Dade County where the company is building a top-of-the-line hemp derived products lab that is due to begin operations sometime during the next fiscal quarter of 2021. GAL is due to become the largest hemp processor this far south in the USA. GAL is also advanced in the negotiations for opening a second lab facility in the country of Colombia and in joint venture with important entities already licensed by the Colombian Government to produce, manufacture and export high CBD and Delta 8 products derived from hemp in that country. Mr. Jose Giron, General Manager at Green America Laboratories, stated: Our project is well underway. GAL can be expected to become one of the most important hemp derived products processors in the South starting this year. Our team is working diligently to complete permits and buildouts that will bring the lab into production soon. Giron also stated, We have begun interviews to hire lab operators and personnel and expect to have appointed all of the necessary positions in time for training that will begin sometime this quarter. We have received the first parts of our equipment configuration from Precision Extractions and feel confident to be installing what is regarded by many as the best solvent based cannabinoid extraction equipment on the market. Please keep up with our coming announcements as management will reveal the advances completed until the lab becomes operational and as the first products manufactured for sale become available. About Amazonas Florestal Ltd. Amazonas Florestal Ltd. is a natural resources company dedicated to innovative, sustainable management of large tracts of land in the rainforests of Amazonas, Brazil, that include the certification and sale of carbon credits. In 2017, the Company shifted gears to focus on the growing, harvesting, research and development of Industrial Hemp and related products in the U.S.A, for the U.S. and Latin Markets. In 2021, the Company will build an important Hemp Derived Extraction facility in South Florida dedicated to the production of premium bulk cannabinoid extractions derived from Hemp and products that use these extractions as an active ingredient for Human and Animal Health and Wellness. Headquartered in Miami, FL, Amazonas' goal is to become a leader in field of Cannabinoid Extractions serving labs that use these chemicals as a raw material for human and animal consumption in health and beauty products. Disclaimer: Forward Looking Statements Forward-looking statements in this release regarding Amazonas Florestal Ltd. are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, continued acceptance of the company's products, increased levels of competition, new products and technological changes, the company's dependence upon third-party suppliers, intellectual property rights, and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Amazonas Florestal Ltd. Email: azflamerica@outlook.com Roseburg, OR (97470) Today Partly cloudy skies during the morning hours will give way to occasional showers in the afternoon. High near 65F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight A few clouds from time to time. Low 44F. Winds NNW at 5 to 10 mph. English French PRESS RELEASE 12 May 2021 FINANCIAL INFORMATION AT 31 MARCH 2021 SALES OF 21.9BN, UP 6.2% org. (1) 2021 GUIDANCE AND 2022 AMBITIONS CONFIRMED Highlights Discussions on the Arenh reform and the reorganisation of EDF are ongoing between the French State and the European Commission and they remain difficult. There is still no certainty on the timing and the outcome of these discussions. Renewables Offshore wind: launch of the construction of the Courseulles-sur-Mer farm (448MW) Solar and storage: Three contracts for solar projects awarded in New York (303MW) Attribution and launch of the construction of a 300MW solar plant in Saudi Arabia (Jeddah) Acceleration of development in Kenya in distributed and off-grid solar power with the acquisition of 50% of Econet Energy Kenya and Bboxx Kenya Nuclear ASN ruling of 23 February 2021 on the terms for continuing to operate 900MW reactors beyond 40 years Flamanville 3 (2): ASN approval of the repair process of 8 penetration welds on the main secondary circuit using remotely-controlled robots UK: temporary restart of Hinkley Point B and Hunterston B before final shutdown; 3-month extension of the outage of Sizewell B until August 2021 India: binding technical and commercial offer submitted for the construction of six EPRs (3) at the Jaitapur site Coal-fired plants step-out process in Europe France: shutdown of Le Havre coal-fired power plant on 31 March 2021 (4) UK: shutdown of the West Burton A plant planned for September 2022, two years before the deadline set by the UK government for coal-fired plants ESG achievements EDF listed on CAC 40 ESG, the new stock-market index including 40 socially responsible companies Upgraded climate governance: EDF group appointed a Climate representative person within the Board of Directors Sound management of the generation fleet throughout the health crisis in France throughout the health crisis in France Extreme cold snap in Texas: no significant effect on the Groups net income according to first estimates no significant effect on the Groups net income according to first estimates Electric mobility & Innovation Pod Point (UK): nearly 110,000 charging points at end-March 2021 (over 13,000 stations deployed in Q1 2021, representing an increase of around 50% compared to the 2020 average) Blockchain: bond issue by the EIB (European Investment Bank) realised via Ethereum (5), based on solutions developed by Exaion, an EDF subsidiary. First commercial success for this start-up, incubated within EDF Enedis Linky program: around 90% of smart meters installed at end-March (31.2 million) Disposal plan Closing of Edison Norge sale (E&P activity in Norway) Closing of IDG sale (gas distribution network in Italy) Signing of a binding agreement for the sale of the West Burton B gas power plant and its battery storage in the UK Exclusive negotiations for the sale of the Dalkia subsidiary, Wastenergy (ex TIRU) Health situation EDF remains fully mobilised to ensure the continuity of the activities while maintaining reinforced protection measures for employees and service providers 2021 guidance and 2022 ambitions confirmed (6) 2021 Targets EBITDA (7) > 17bn Net financial debt/EBITDA (7) < 3x 2022 Ambitions Operating expenses (8) reduction between 2019 and 2022 500m Group disposals 2020-2022 (9) ~3bn Net financial debt/EBITDA (7) ~3x Dividend Target payout ratio of net income excluding non-recurring items (10) for 2021 & 2022 45%-50% The French State committed to opt for a scrip dividend payment for 2021 fiscal year Change in EDF group sales (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 restated (1) Q1 2021 Organic change (%) (2) France Generation and supply activities 8,440 8,834 +3.9 France Regulated activities 5,115 5,598 +9.4 EDF Renewables 396 437 +14.4 Dalkia 1,244 1,350 +7.9 Framatome 794 728 -6.2 United Kingdom 2,748 2,689 -0.9 Italy 1,715 2,029 +18.5 Other international 727 693 -0.3 Other activities 664 891 +35.1 Inter-segment eliminations (1,142) (1,300) - Total Group 20,701 21,949 +6.2 Group sales in first-quarter 2021 increased relative to first quarter 2020. Sales were bolstered by the positive tariff indexations in France and better electricity and gas prices conditions. However, the favourable trend in gas prices had a limited impact in EBITDA. Sales benefited from favourable weather conditions and a good performance of EDF Trading. Change in Group sales by segment France Generation and supply activities (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (3) 8,440 8,834 +3.9 Sales in France - Generation and supply activities amounted to 8,834 million in the first quarter of 2021, up by 3.9% in organic terms compared to the first quarter of 2020. Sales increased due to favourable energy price effects for an estimated 116 million (4), mainly due to the increases in the regulated sales tariff (including the price catch-up of 2019) of 3% (excl. tax) on 1st February 2020 and 1.93% (excl. tax) on 1st February 2021. Downstream market conditions had a positive impact on sales for an estimated 150 million. Despite the negative impact of the erosion in electricity sales to end customers, sales benefited from the higher capacity remuneration in the offers to end customers linked to the rise in observed prices at the 2020 capacity auctions. The resale of purchase obligations increased by around 132 million resulting from the positive effect of spot prices. However, the impact on EBITDA was neutral. Nuclear output came out at 99.2TWh, down by 2.0TWh compared to the first quarter of 2020, owing mainly to the shutdown of the two reactors at Fessenheim (-3.0TWh). Hydro output (5) totalled 13.7TWh, up by 1.7% (+0.2TWh) compared to the first quarter of 2020. The decrease in nuclear output, partially offset by a slight increase in hydro output, represented a negative volume effect with an unfavourable 113 million (2) impact on sales compared to first quarter 2020. France Regulated activities (6) (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (7) 5,115 5,598 +9.4 Sales from France - Regulated activities amounted to 5,598 million in the first quarter of 2021, up by 9.4% in organic terms compared to first quarter 2020. The positive price effect of 158 million is mainly explained by the favourable indexation of TURPE 5 (8) on 1st August 2020. Sales benefited from a more favourable weather compared to the particularly mild first quarter of 2020 (around 189 million) and from the increase in grid connection services (around 56 million). Renewable Energies EDF Renewables (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (9) 396 437 +14.4 EDF Renewables sales came out at 437 million in first quarter 2021, reflecting a 14.4% organic increase versus first quarter 2020. This positive trend was fuelled in particular by the distributed solar sector in the United States, with a limited impact at the EBITDA level. Generation sales fell slightly, by 1.3%, as a result of less favourable wind conditions in Europe in 2021. Commissionings in late-2020 and early-2021 only partially offset these unfavourable effects. Generated volumes totalled 4.2TWh at end-March 2021 (down by 2.9% in organic terms compared to first quarter 2020). The net installed capacity of EDF Renewables increased relatively to end-December 2020 thanks to commissionings in 2021, totalling 9.2GW (+0.5GW). The extreme cold spell in Texas did not have a significant impact on sales. However, EDF Renewables was obliged to purchase energy at very high prices in order to honor its contractual commitments. Group Renewables (10) (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Change (%) Organic change (%) Sales (1) 1,206 1,721 +42.7 +44.5 Sales for Renewables at Group level amounted to 1,721 million in the first quarter of 2021, up by 44.5% in organic terms. The trend mainly reflected the impact of the sharp increase in electricity spot prices (used by convention to value hydro output (11)) and a slight increase in generation (+0.5TWh). Given the hedging policy, the valuation of additional hydro output had a limited positive impact on Group sales and EBITDA. The gross portfolio of wind and solar projects under construction reached a new high and stood at 8.1GW gross (2.1GW onshore wind, 2.1GW offshore wind and 3.9GW solar) at the end of the first quarter of 2021. Energy Services Dalkia (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (12) 1,244 1,350 +7.9 Sales in the Dalkia segment amounted to 1,350 million in the first quarter of 2021, up by 7.9% in organic terms compared to the first quarter of 2020. The increase in sales mainly resulted from the substantial rise in gas prices compared to first quarter of 2020. Sales were also bolstered by favourable weather conditions, owing to near normal conditions in 2021 compared to a mild first quarter of 2020. Those effects had a limited impact on EBITDA. Dalkia has been awarded a contract for the creation of a renewable heating network in Issoire city (40 buildings), using waste and biomass heat. In the healthcare sector, Dalkia signed an eight-year maintenance operating contract with the W. MOREY Hospital in Chalons-sur-Saone city. Group Energy Services (13) (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Change (%) Organic change (%) Sales (1) 1,564 1,720 +10.0 +8.8 Group Energy Services sales totalled 1,720 million in first-quarter 2021, up by 8.8% in organic terms owing to the sharp rise in gas prices reflected in Dalkia sales. Sales were also boosted by growth in service activities in France and in Italy. Framatome (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (14) 794 728 -6.2 EDF Group contributive sales 512 405 -17.6 Framatome posted first-quarter revenue of 728 million, down by 6.2% on an organic basis. The decrease mainly resulted from unfavourable timing effects in the first quarter 2021 owing to the phasing of fuel assembly deliveries over the year, notably for the Taishan EPR. Framatome is committed alongside TVO and AREVA to the fuel loading of the Olkiluoto 3 EPR in Finland, which has been authorised since 26 March 2021. Framatome strengthened its positions in Europe through the acquisition of the control-command business of Evopro Nuclear and Process Automation (NPA) Kft in Hungary. As part of the call for projects to support nuclear industry investments and modernisation, three Framatome projects have been selected and will be backed by the France Relance recovery plan. United Kingdom (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (15) 2,748 2,689 -0.9 In the United Kingdom, sales amounted to 2,689 million in the first quarter of 2021, down by 0.9% in organic terms compared to the first quarter of 2020. This evolution can mainly be attributed to a contraction in the consumption of industrial and professional customers. Supply activity benefited from an increase in consumption volumes of residential customers, due in particular to the cold weather and the take-over of a customer portfolio. Nuclear generation stood at 10.5TWh, down 1.4TWh compared to the first quarter of 2020 following the extended outage of the Hinkley Point B reactors and the planned outage of reactor 1 at Torness. The Dungeness B reactors are still offline. Thermal output was down by 1.0TWh due to the price context. Italy (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 restated (16) Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (1) 1,715 2,029 +18.5 Sales amounted to 2,029 million in the first quarter of 2021, up by 18.5% in organic terms compared to 2020 first quarter. Sales from gas activities rose by 272 million thanks to the increase in spot gas prices on the wholesale market, both upstream and downstream, though with a limited impact on EBITDA. Sales from electricity activities were up by 44 million in connection with a limited positive price effect due to the indexation of contracts in a context of rising electricity spot prices on the wholesale market. Supply activity benefited from a slight increase in the customer portfolio and from an increase in gas volumes sold to professional customers. In addition, thermal output was up compared to the first quarter of 2020, which was marked by technical unavailability, and ancillary services performed well. Wind generation also increased during the quarter. Other developments: Acquisition of the remaining 70% shares in E2i Energie Speciali (674MW) Moodys upgrade of Edisons rating from Baa3 to Baa2 Other international (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (17) 727 693 -0.3 of which Belgium 539 512 -6.1 of which Brazil 130 139 +32.3 Sales for the Other International segment came out at 693 million in the first quarter of 2021, down by 0.3% in organic terms compared to the first quarter of 2020. In Belgium (18), sales were down by 33 million in organic terms (-6.1%) reflecting a fall in forward prices in 2020. The annual contract indexation (notably for residential customers), which takes place gradually throughout the year, does not yet fully reflect the recent rise in gas prices on the wholesale markets. However, sales benefited from the increase in gas volumes sold to residential customers resulting from a more favourable weather effect than in the first quarter of 2020 and from the growth in volumes sold to professional and industrial customers. The development of wind power is moving ahead, with a net installed capacity of 551MW (19) at end-March 2021. In Brazil, revenue increased by 42 million in organic terms (+32.3%), mainly due to the 25% revaluation of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) in November 2020 for the EDF Norte Fluminense plant, in line with the indexation to gas prices and with the change in the ICMS tax (20) (with no impact on EBITDA). The foreign exchange effect was unfavourable in the first quarter, the Brazilian real declining versus the Euro. Other activities (in millions of euros) Q1 2020 Q1 2021 Organic change (%) Sales (21) 664 891 +35.1 Of which gas activities 252 377 +49.6 Including EDF Trading 303 396 +31.7 Sales for Other activities amounted to 891 million in the first quarter of 2021, up by 35.1% in organic terms compared tothe first quarter of 2020. Sales for the Group gas activities increased by 49.6% compared tothe first quarter of 2020 in a context of very favourable trends in gas prices on the wholesale market and improved use of Groups capacities. However, these effects had a limited impact inEBITDA. EDF Trading revenue totalled 396 million, up by 31.7% in organic terms compared to first quarter 2020 in a context of high volatility in trading activities in the United States and Europe. Main highlights (22) since the announcement of 2020 full-year results Nuclear EDF submitted to the Indian nuclear operator NPCIL the French binding technical and commercial offer to build six EPRs at the Jaitapur site (see PR of 23 April 2021). Renewables (23) EDF Renewables North America has been awarded three contracts for solar projects in New York (see PR of 5 May 2021). EDF Renewables commissioned a 344 MW wind complex in Brazil (see PR of 5 May 2021). Middle Easts largest wind farm in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reached halfway mark on construction (see PR of 12 April 2021). Masdar-EDF Renewables-Nesma consortium reached financial close and started construction on 300 MW solar project in Saudi Arabia (see PR of 12 April 2021). The EDF and SNCF groups signed their first contract on the purchase of renewable electricity for a 20-year period (see PR of 7 April 2021). Launch of the photovoltaic plant project at the Deauville-Normandy airport (see PR of 26 March 2021). EDF Renewables is to build a new ground-based photovoltaic project in the Vienne department (see PR of 5 March 2021). EDF Renewables, Enbridge and wpd launched the construction of the Calvados offshore wind farm (see PR of 22 February 2021). EDF Energy (24) EDF signed binding agreement on the sale of the West Burton B CCGT plant to EIG (see PR of 9 April 2021). Edison (25) Edison completed the sale of Infrastrutture Distribuzione Gas (IDG) to 2I Rete Gas for 150 million (see PR of 30 April 2021). Moodys upgraded Edisons rating from Baa3 to Baa2 owing to the companys improved risk profile, profit growth and increased cash flow (see PR of 19 April 2021). Edison completed Edison Norge sale to Sval Energi for a value of USD 374 million (see PR of 25 March 2021). Other Shareholders General Meeting of 6 May 2021: all the resolutions were adopted (see PR of 6 May 2021). Creation of the nuclear professions university (see PR of 27 April 2021). The EDF Group and Pole Emploi committed to the employment and inclusion of young people (see PR of 24 March 2021). The EDF Group created Datanumia, a subsidiary specialised in the optimisation and management of energy consumption (see PR of 19 March 2021). The EDF Group stepped up its distributed solar and off-grid business in Kenya (see PR of 25 February 2021). As a major player in energy transition, the EDF Group is an integrated energy company active in all businesses: generation, transmission, distribution, energy trading, energy sales and energy services. EDF group is a world leader in low-carbon energy, having developed a diverse production mix based mainly on nuclear and renewable energy (including hydropower). It is also investing in new technologies to support energy transition. EDFs raison detre is to build a net zero energy future with electricity and innovative solutions and services, to help save the planet and drive well-being and economic development. The Group is involved in supplying energy and services to approximately 37.9 million customers (1), of whom 28.7 million in France (2). It generated consolidated sales of 69.0 billion in 2020. EDF is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. Since 2018, customers are counted per delivery site. A customer can have two delivery points: one for electricity and another one for gas. Including ES (Electricite de Strasbourg). This presentation does not constitute an offer to sell securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. No reliance should be placed on the accuracy, completeness or correctness of the information or opinions contained in this presentation, and none of EDF representatives shall bear any liability for any loss arising from any use of this presentation or its contents. The quarterly financial information is not subject to an auditors report. The present document may contain forward-looking statements and targets concerning the Groups strategy, financial position or results. EDF considers that these forward-looking statements and targets are based on reasonable assumptions as of the present documents publication, which can prove to be inaccurate and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties. There is no certainty that the forecast events will take place, or that the expected results will actually be achieved. Important factors that could cause actual results, performance or achievements of the Group to differ materially from those contemplated in this document include, in particular: the successful implementation of EDF strategic, financial and operational initiatives based on its current business model as an integrated operator, changes in the competitive and regulatory framework of the energy markets, as well as risk and uncertainties relating to the Groups activities, its international scope, the climatic environment, the volatility of raw material prices and currency exchange rates, technological changes and changes in the economy. Detailed information regarding these uncertainties and potential risks is available in EDFs Universal Registration Document (URD), filed with Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) on 15 March 2021 , which is available on AMF's website at www.amf-france.org and on EDFs website at www.edf.fr , as well as in 2020 financial report, available on the EDF website. EDF does not undertake nor does it have any obligation to update forward-looking information contained in this presentation to reflect any unexpected events or circumstances arising after the date of this presentation. This press release is certified. Its authenticity can be checked on medias.edf.com Only print this message if absolutely necessary. EDF SA 22-30, avenue de Wagram 75382 Paris cedex 08 Share capital of 1,549,961,789.50 552 081 317 R.C.S. Paris www.edf.fr CONTACTS Press: +33 (0) 1 40 42 46 37 Analysts and investors: +33 (0) 1 40 42 40 38 1 () Organic change at comparable scope, standards and exchange rates. 2 () See Q1 2021 appendices on Flamanville 3, pages 5 and 6. 3 () EDF is neither an investor nor in charge of construction. 4 () The coal-fired plant in Le Havre has been shut down and mothballed (multi-year guaranteed shutdown) since end-March 2021 and will be disconnected from the grid by end-2021. 5 () Ethereum is a decentralised exchange protocol that allows users to create smart contracts. 6 () Subject to additional reinforced sanitary restrictions impacts. 7 () On the basis of scope and exchange rates at 01/01/2021. 8 () Sum of personnel expenses and other external expenses. At constant scope, standards, exchange rates and pension discount rate, excluding inflation. Excluding sales costs of energy services activities and Framatomes nuclear engineering services and specific projects such as Jaitapur. 9 () Signed or completed disposals: impact on the Groups economic debt. 10 () Payout ratio based on net income excluding non-recurring items, adjusted for the remuneration of hybrid bonds accounted for in equity. 1 () The data published in respect of 2020 have been restated for the impact of the change in scope of the Edisons E&P disposal. The sale of the E&P activities in Norway was closed in March 2021. 2 () Organic change at comparable scope, standards and exchange rates. 3 () Breakdown of sales by segment, before inter-segment eliminations. 4 () Price and volume effects are calculated by convention on the basis of the average hedged price of electricity generation (nuclear, hydro and thermal). 5 () Hydro output excluding French island activities before deduction of pumped volumes. For your information, after deduction of pumped volumes: 11.7TWh at end-March 2020 and 12.2TWh at end-March 2021. 6 () Regulated activities including Enedis, ES and island activities. 7 () Breakdown of sales by segment, before inter-segment eliminations. 8 () Indexation of TURPE 5 distribution: +2.75% on 1st August 2020. 9 () Breakdown of sales across the segments, before inter-segment eliminations. 10 () For the renewable energy generation optimized within a larger portfolio of generation assets, in particular relating to the French hydro fleet after deduction of pumped volumes, revenue is estimated, by convention, by valuing output generated at spot market prices (or at purchase obligation tariff) without taking into account hedging effects, and include the valuation of the capacity, if applicable. This convention is the best reflection of the use of the hydro fleet and differs from the convention used in the France - Generation and supply activities, in which all generation (nuclear, hydropower, thermal) is valued on the basis of the average hedged price for the generation fleet. 11 () Production after deducting consumption of pumped volumes. 12 () Breakdown of sales by segment, before inter-segment eliminations. 13 () Group Energy Services include Dalkia, Citelum, CHAM and the service activities of EDF Energy, Edison, Luminus and EDF SA. These include street lighting, heating networks, decentralized low-carbon generation based on local resources, energy consumption management and electric mobility 14 () Breakdown of sales by segment, before inter-segment eliminations. 15 () Breakdown of sales by segment, before inter-segment eliminations. 16 () The data published in respect of 2020 have been restated for the impact of the change in scope of the Edisons E&P disposal. The sale of the E&P activities in Norway was closed in March 2021. 17 () Breakdown of sales by segment, before inter-segment eliminations. 18 () Luminus and EDF Belgium. 19 () Net capacity at Luminus scope. Gross installed wind capacity was 592MW at end-March 2021 vs. 588MW at end-December 2020. 20 () Imposto sobre Circulacao de Mercadorias e Servicos, a tax on the circulation of goods and services in Brazil. 21 () Breakdown of sales by segment, before inter-segment eliminations. 22 () The full list of press releases is available on our website: www.edf.fr 23 () The full list of press releases is available on our website: www.edf-renouvelables.com 24 () The full list of press releases is available on our website: www.edfenergy.com 25 () The full list of press releases is available on our website: www.edison.it Attachment .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal The state Public Education Department made it clear that public schools in New Mexico should open for full-time, in-person learning by April 5. With that deadline come and gone, the percentage of families who opted into the face-to-face instruction as the 2020-21 school year neared its end has varied across the states largest school districts. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ In Albuquerque Public Schools, 35,403 students out of 70,083, or 50.5%, were learning on campus, according to data from April. This means over 34,000 students are still learning at home, which has largely been the way students have been getting an education this year. In-person participation also differed school by school, with some APS schools having nearly all students returning to class and others with closer to 15% to 20% back. Meanwhile, in Rio Rancho Public Schools, 59.7% of 16,732 students were learning in person and the rest were virtual, according to counts from late April. A school-level breakdown reveals that in-person participation ranged from 44% at V. Sue Cleveland High School to roughly 82% at Shining Stars Preschool. Thats because state officials left going back to campus as a family decision and required districts to offer remote options. District data shows that not all parents are rushing back to the classroom, which isnt a trend peculiar to New Mexico. Parents wanted choice A recent national poll that surveyed 1,151 parents with public K-12 students found the majority prefer having a choice between instructional modes. The research released by the National Parents Union showed 58% of parents wanted public schools to offer both in-person and remote learning options next school year, and to allow parents to decide. Parents wanted choice For whats left of this academic year, a higher percentage 62% wanted to be allowed to pick between in-person and remote. The National Parents Union is a collective of parent-led advocacy organizations with network members in New Mexico. Keri Rodrigues, president of the national organization, told the Journal in a phone interview that giving parents autonomy to pick the best education model for their kids will likely be hard to shift away from. Parents have been to the promised choice and thats not toothpaste that is easily put back in the tube, she said. Rodrigues said it comes down to trust. We have seen schools frankly fumble through this moment so now we are looking at everything with a very critical eye and we want to keep our options open, she said. Remote enjoyable for some Rodrigues added that parents have told her that remote education should remain on the table moving forward. Some of us have actually enjoyed the remote-education experience; weve added additional components to our kids educational experience. And, frankly, others are very concerned about our public education systems ability to keep our kids safe, she said. Not only does educational preference differ family to family, but also it can differ child by child. Rodrigues said she has five boys and found that two of them needed in-person instruction, while the other three could learn virtually. Further south in New Mexico, Las Cruces Public Schools had the highest percentage of in-person learners among the larger districts in the state. District officials reported that 14,884 children, or 63%, are coming on to campus and 8,594 kids, or almost 37% of students, are learning from a distance. Thats compared to about 4,700 out of 12,300 students, roughly 38%, who selected in-person in Gadsden Independent School District, according to spokesman Luis Villalobos. A total of 47% of Santa Fe Public Schools 11,562 students were learning face to face. Austin, Texas, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Katie Belfi, Esq, founder and principal consultant of Belfi Consulting, announced today that she is broadening her mission to include resilience support for individuals and families in addition to the institutional emergency management consulting her firm already provides. The expansion reflects the compilation of her expertise and foresight, as well as the impacts of a global pandemic and pervasive natural disasters across the country over the last 18 months. As a way to enable access and commemorate the enhanced missiont, Belfi has launched a new E-Book about resilience support, entitled Bringing Resilience Home. Belfi aims to inform, educate, and empower individuals and families to be better prepared for any emergency that may lie ahead whether its a natural disaster, personal strife or other setback. While there is no way to plan for every worst-case scenario, we want to engender self-reliance and provide people with tools to be better equipped to respond with agility, no matter the emergency, said Belfi. The ways we invest in our own and our familys resilience today, will inform our capacity to adapt, respond, and rebound from whatever challenges tomorrow brings. My free e-book is a start in the right direction, giving peace of mind, helping families plan for how to prepare for the potential unknown. A seasoned emergency management expert and longtime wellness professional, Belfi seeks to position readiness and resilience as a component of ones holistic well-being and likens it to a self-care practice. In the business world, employers must consider supporting their workforce in a resilience building capacity. Bolstering the innate power of the individual to be resilient in the face of dire, dangerous, or difficult situations provides proven benefits to the well-being of that individual, and ultimately contributes to the well-being of the company as a whole. The unprecedented strain on publicly available emergency response and recovery resources (including federal, state, and local) has caused Belfi to further believe there has never been a greater need for readiness and resilience on an individual level.Belfi resounds that resilient individuals are at the heart of every resilient organization, and that for many people talking or even thinking about personal preparedness tends to be overwhelming and unpleasant and yet does not have to be. Preparedness is the new self-care, said Belfi Every single one of us must be ready to take care of those we love, whether thats family, neighbors, or simply ourselves. Find more information at: www.katiebelfi.com. ABOUT KATIE BELFI Katie Belfi, esq., is a seasoned emergency management expert who was the lead attorney for FEMA in New York during Hurricane Sandy. Belfi later joined New York Universitys Langone Health System, where she helped reimagine and build the hospitals emergency preparedness and response program. Since founding Belfi Consulting in 2018, Katie and her team have worked across multiple sectors supporting institutions across the U.S. to build response programs, respond and recover from disasters, and improve institutional resilience overall. Watching her clients as well as family and friends struggle through the disasters of 2020, inspired her to shift her attention to help improve readiness and resilience on an individual and family level. In doing so, Katie is incorporating her skills as a longtime wellness professional and practitioner and hopes to inspire lasting change for communities everywhere. For more information, please visit: www.katiebelfi.com. Attachments Manchester Center, VT (05254) Today Scattered thunderstorms during the morning becoming more widespread this afternoon. High 82F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Cloudy skies after midnight. Low 64F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. The company will hire 50 engineering roles for its first international engineering site TORONTO, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ -- DoorDash Inc. (NYSE: DASH), the leading last-mile logistics platform, today announced the launch of a new engineering site in Toronto with plans to hire at least 50 engineers across back-end, front-end and mobile roles by the end of the year. Engineers in Toronto will work on critical business projects with a focus on expanding DoorDash's reach and breadth of services throughout Canada. The work of the team will also serve as the foundation for growing future, global engineering site expansions. The core areas of focus include the following: Launching New Merchant Services: This team will help expand the breadth of services available to Canadian merchants and will be tasked with innovating on behalf of over 30,000 national partners at a time when dine-in remains limited. This includes creating new retail channels for merchant partners to expand their sales, scaling DoorDash's logistics platform, Drive, and building products that help merchants to expand into new geographies with new delivery-only kitchen concepts. This team will help expand the breadth of services available to Canadian merchants and will be tasked with innovating on behalf of over 30,000 national partners at a time when dine-in remains limited. This includes creating new retail channels for merchant partners to expand their sales, scaling DoorDash's logistics platform, Drive, and building products that help merchants to expand into new geographies with new delivery-only kitchen concepts. Scaling a Reliable, On-Demand Logistics App: The team will continue to build and scale features within the DoorDash consumer app that enable customers to seamlessly find and order from their favorite local and national stores. This includes building better language functionality and helping to launch in new markets. The team will continue to build and scale features within the DoorDash consumer app that enable customers to seamlessly find and order from their favorite local and national stores. This includes building better language functionality and helping to launch in new markets. Enhancing Online Ordering for Restaurants: DoorDash Storefront is a commission-free offering for restaurants to turn their websites into ecommerce stores and offer delivery and pickup directly to their customers. This team will work to enhance the product to better empower any small business to create and operate their owned online delivery channel. DoorDash Storefront is a commission-free offering for restaurants to turn their websites into ecommerce stores and offer delivery and pickup directly to their customers. This team will work to enhance the product to better empower any small business to create and operate their owned online delivery channel. Building a Leading Customer Loyalty Product: DashPass is DoorDash's subscription product, with over 5M DashPass subscribers worldwide, offering unlimited $0 delivery fees to customers nationwide on orders of $12 or more. The team will help expand the product's offerings through new strategic partnerships and integrations and new features for both restaurant and customer subscribers. "As DoorDash expands into new communities globally, it's imperative that we hire tech talent that can help us build a platform rooted in our mission to empower local economies and supportive of the ever-evolving needs of customers, Dashers and merchants across the world," said Andy Fang, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer of DoorDash. "As our first international engineering hub, the founding team will be mission critical to creating impactful products and programs that set DoorDash up for success in Canada and beyond. Toronto has evolved into an incredible global technology hub and selecting the city for one of our engineering sites was a natural choice when considering our ambitious goals and growth in the Canadian market." Throughout its expansion process, DoorDash worked with Toronto Global, a team of experienced business advisors assisting global businesses to expand into the Toronto Region, as well as the Trade Commissioner and Ontario Senior Economic Officer based in the Consulate of Canada in San Francisco. As a leader in innovation and technology, DoorDash is set up for success in Ontario, said Premier Ford. We are laying the foundation for a strong economic recovery in Ontario and companies like DoorDash will play a significant role in our future success. With our deep pool of talent and commitment to cutting red tape, Ontario will once again be the best jurisdiction in the world to do business. I am thrilled that DoorDash has chosen to locate its new engineering office and new jobs in Toronto to take advantage of our skilled and diverse talent pool, said Mayor John Tory. Todays announcement from DoorDash is another sign of confidence in the future of our city as we work to restart and rebuild the economy in the Toronto Region. To lead the new site, DoorDash has hired Qaiser Habib, a veteran engineering leader who has extensive experience leading large engineering teams focused on fulfillment. New hires joining Habib will be founding members of the engineering site and will join a growth-oriented team given the autonomy to execute on critical business initiatives which remain deeply connected to the company's mission. "The investments DoorDash is making in Canada will help A&W respond to the growing needs of time-crunched Canadian consumers who are increasingly seeking the convenience of having their favourite meals brought to them," said Robert Cifarelli Director, Mobile Consumer Success, A&W Food Services of Canada. DoorDash first launched in Canada in 2015 and has since grown its presence to serve over 150 communities and over 30,000 merchant partners. DoorDash currently has offices in four cities including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and Calgary. The company plans to continue hiring for roles across all sides of the business and increase the company's total Canadian corporate headcount to 200 by the end of 2021. Interested candidates can visit careers.doordash.com to view and apply for open positions. About DoorDash DoorDash is a technology company that connects consumers with their favorite local and national businesses in more than 4,000 cities and all 50 states across the United States, Canada, and Australia. Founded in 2013, DoorDash enables local businesses to address consumers' expectations of ease and immediacy and thrive in today's convenience economy. By building the last-mile logistics infrastructure for local commerce, DoorDash is bringing communities closer, one doorstep at a time. SOURCE DoorDash For further information: Sachin Persaud, [email protected], http://www.doordash.com, http://www.doordash.com Related Links http://www.doordash.com I like him personally, McConnell said later of Biden, softening his tone somewhat. I want to do business with the president. But he needs to be a moderate. He said he was going to be a moderate during the campaign. I havent seen that yet. Do you have a news tip? Want to share good news story, or do you have information that should see the light of day? Then we want to hear from you. More here THE CITY OF DOS PALOS INVITES APPLICATIONS FOR CHIEF OF POLICE CURRENT ANNUAL SALARY RANGE: $77,702.00 - $102,250.00 (Appointment may be made at any step depending on qualifications and experience) Application Deadline: 12 Noon, Thursday, June 3, 2021 CHIEF OF POLICE The new Chief must have strong organizational and interpersonal skills, and be ready to lead by example. A Bachelors degree and local residency within city limits are strongly desired. A minimum of five years of law enforcement service with a California city or county, including street level experience, and at least three years of command or supervisory experience is expected. Salary is dependent upon qualifications and experience. THE DEPARTMENT The Dos Palos Police Department currently has 10 full-time sworn Officers, including a Chief, two Sergeants, a Corporal, and six Patrol Officers which include one Detective/Tobacco Grant funded position and two School Resource Officers. The Department also includes a Records/Dispatch Supervisor and 4 Dispatchers, 1 Animal Control/Code Enforcer and an active Police Reserve program. The Department is a generalist law enforcement agency with duties that include all aspects of police work. The Departments employees take pride in their work and strive to perform their duties in a business-like professional but sensitive and positive manner. The Department is dedicated to a community-oriented policing philosophy. THE COMMUNITY The City of Dos Palos, incorporated in 1935, epitomizes small town America. Local residents strongly support local youth. Dos Palos has one high school, one middle school, and two elementary schools. The local economy is based on Agriculture and its supportive businesses. There are 5,700 residents within the city limits but the city serves a greater community of 8,000. Dos Palos is approximately half way between Fresno and San Jose, about 90 miles to the coast and about 100 miles to Yosemite National Park. The city has an area of 1 square miles. A planned new water plant will enable the city to grow significantly over the next few years. BENEFITS The City of Dos Palos offers an excellent benefits package including Retirement: CalPERS Classic (3% @ 50), New CalPERS members (PEPRA 2.7% @ 57). Employee pays full employee share. Fully paid Health Insurance for employee. Dependent coverage paid by employee. Fully paid Life Insurance, Long Term Disability, Short Term Disability, a City assigned vehicle, $700 annual uniform allowance, $100 month for Cell Phone, 16 paid holidays, Vacation of 8 hours per month for 0-4 years, 9.33 hours for 5-10 years, Sick Leave 8 hours per month, and a wellness program. SELECTION PROCESS Applications are now available at City Hall and online. Completed applications must be received at City Hall, 2174 Blossom Street, Dos Palos, CA 93620 before 12 Noon, Thursday, June 3, 2021. Resumes and additional information may be attached, however, applications must be fully completed. Applications will be screened. The most qualified candidates will be invited to personal interviews before a panel of law enforcement and citizens. The finalists will be asked to provide references and submit to a background check. Successful applicant will be provided reasonable time to give notice to current employer. The new Chief of Police should be prepared to begin work July 16 - August 1, 2021. The City reserves the right to change or extend this schedule to serve the needs of the process. Summary: Applications Available: May 10, 2021 Applications Due at City Hall: 12 noon, Thursday, June 3, 2021 Personal Interviews: June 7 June 11, 2021 Final Interviews: June 14 June 18, 2021 Background Check, Physical, Psych, etc. Employment Notification: June 21 July 15, 2021 Anticipated Employment Start: August 1, 2021 It is recommended that you plan your calendar accordingly to accommodate this schedule. For further information, you may contact: Manuela Sousa Darrell Fonseca Director of Personnel (HR) City Manager 209 392-2174 209 392-2174 msousa@cityofdp.com cityofdp@cityofdp.com EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY Qualified applicants will be considered without regard to race or color, ancestry or national origin, religion or creed, age (over 40), mental or physical disabilities, sex or gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or political affiliation. If special accommodations are needed at any stage of the process, please notify this department in advance and every attempt will be made to consider your request. recblid vcdjzswlduthh4z6hq21hu0zplmx5d To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! Hedge funds have stepped up their activity in buying up Irish government bonds sold by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) in the past year. An analysis by the Irish Examiner of Irish sovereign bond sales by the NTMA since the onset of the Covid-19 economic crisis show that hedge funds have accounted for a share of 13% of the bonds sold by the Government in a recent sale. That proportion of Irish sovereign debt bought by hedge funds is almost double the share hedge fund buyers secured in a NTMA debt sale a year earlier. In the most recent sale, in April, hedge funds acquired 13% in the sale of 3.5bn debt of a new 20-year benchmark bond. Hedge funds would traditionally offload purchases to make a quick profit, selling in the secondary market within hours or days of making their purchases in a sale of sovereign debt. The amount acquired by hedge funds in the 3.5bn sale last month compares with a share of 7% acquired by official institutions, buyers which include sovereign wealth funds and central banks. A year earlier, in April 2020, the NTMA raised 6bn after whittling down allocations from an order book of 33bn for the issue of debt of a new seven-year benchmark bond. Hedge funds accounted for a share of 8% of the total bonds sold in that sale. The ECBs huge bond-buying programme, which is designed to keep sovereign interest rates at rock-bottom levels during the Covid economic crisis, has helped boost the activity of hedge funds in eurozone sovereign debt sales. The bond-buying has meant that eurozone governments like Ireland have not faced another sovereign debt crisis despite needing to raise many billions to pay for their Covid costs. A leading market participant told the Irish Examiner that the number of hedge funds has increased in recent times. The allocation secured by any individual hedge fund has decreased, but the number of hedge funds involved in the market has expanded, according to the senior source. Some hedge funds have longer horizons and may hold their sovereign bond purchases for weeks or months and do not necessarily sell back into the secondary market within minutes of acquiring them from a debt office to make a quick profit. The growing trend we have seen is that as more hedge funds have got involved, the average length of time hedge funds hold the bonds has also increased, the source said. Hedge funds help in the day-to-day functioning of the market, the expert said. A spokesman for the NTMA said that since October 2017, hedge fund participation has averaged at around 10%. Hedge funds secured 13% of the allocation in a 4bn syndicated sale in April 2018, the spokesman said. "No orders are excluded but when allocating we may assign a lower percentage or place an upper nominal limit for an institution where we feel the order has been inflated," the NTMA said. Today Mostly sunny skies. High 98F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Tonight Partly cloudy skies during the evening will give way to cloudy skies overnight. Low 69F. Winds W at 10 to 20 mph. Tomorrow Mostly cloudy skies early, then partly cloudy in the afternoon. High around 100F. WSW winds at less than 5 mph, increasing to 10 to 20 mph. Winds could occasionally gust over 40 mph. Cho Duck-hyun's "Underground Elegy 1" (2021) / Courtesy of SeMA By Park Han-sol Although the exact number of Korean laborers Japan forcibly mobilized during its 1910-45 colonization of Korea varies according to historians, the Japanese government in 1947 acknowledged that some 7 million were drafted to work in coal mines, on military construction sites and in mineral fields across East and Southeast Asia. Among them, mineworkers constituted the majority. An exhibition titled "Naming the Nameless," held at the Seoul Museum of Art (SeMA) Bunker and co-organized by the museum and Sogang University's Critical Global Studies Institute, examines the micro histories of colonial-era and contemporary forced laborers, whose names have been erased in larger modern state narratives. Through personal correspondence, photos, historical documents and testimonies collected from the sites of wartime forced labor, along with contemporary art pieces exploring the present-day realities of irregular workers within capitalism, the exhibition illuminates how labor issues intertwine with colonialism, race and gender. Part of the "Yoon Byeong-ryol Collection" (1949), an archive that includes letters, banknotes, a travel trunk and promotional brochures for the coal corporation where he worked / Courtesy of the National Memorial Museum of Forced Mobilization under the Japanese Occupation The "Yoon Byeong-ryol Collection" on display consists of everyday items that Yoon, who began working in the mines of Hokkaido, Japan, in 1942, carefully collected and stored in his travel trunk until Korea's liberation. From a cigarette case, personal letters he exchanged with his family, to banknotes, paychecks and promotional brochures for the coal corporation, the collection reveals the everyday lives of wartime laborers. Archivist Jung Hye-kyung uncovers women's narratives that have been marginalized in the history of forced labor, through footage and transcripts of interviews she conducted from 2011 to 2012 with wives whose husbands never returned from their conscripted labor assignments in Sakhalin, Russia, after liberation cut them off and left them stateless. As they were suddenly put in the role of breadwinner for their families, these women had to struggle to put food on the table for their children as well as tolerate the social stigma surrounding single mothers and widows. Che One-joon's "History of Face" (2019, 2021) / Courtesy of SeMA But the history of labor as a form of sacrifice of individual identities within a grand state narrative is a never-ending cycle that continues to this day, especially under capitalism. "Naming the Nameless" expands the idea of forced labor into the modern era, marked by Korea's rapid economic development in the 1970s and 80s, as well as the dehumanizing working conditions of irregular employees in the present day. Che One-joon's "History of Face" superimposes photographs of workers who were dispatched to the Middle East via state-led transnational migrant labor projects in the 1970s and 80s with their present-day images, bringing forth individuals who were "exploited" for physical labor, even as it contributed to boosting the national economy. Today, irregular workers suffer from worse, poorer working conditions. Artist Oh Min-su spotlighted the lives of these laborers, based on his personal experience of working in the logistics industry, through the mind-numbing repetitiveness visualized by a conveyer belt. Even outside of Korea, this kind of narrative continues. In the late 1930s, a mass deportation of more than 170,000 ethnic Koreans residing in the Russian Far East to the less populated Central Asian region took place. Kim So-young's documentary about Alex Kim, who is the descendent of ethnic Koreans in Uzbekistan, captures his experiences as a migrant worker across Russia and later in his "homeland," Korea. His identity as a permanent outcast comes to reveal the meanings of home and statelessness. Located in SeMA's underground bunker-turned-museum, which is presumed to have been built during the military regime in the 1970s, "Naming the Nameless" invites viewers to witness the terrible living and working conditions of forgotten conscripted laborers, as well as to contemplate the different meanings of labor that remain pertinent to this day. The exhibition runs through June 6. [May 12, 2021] Torry Harris Launches Integration Governance & Empowerment Framework For Large Enterprises BRISTOL, United Kingdom and BANGALORE, India, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Torry Harris Integration Solutions (THIS), a recognized leader in Integration strategy and delivery, launched its integration governance and empowerment framework to enable cohesive integration across large enterprises. This highly refined framework, deployed in large enterprises, ensures all elements are connected, rationalized, and organized to provide consistent guidance and incentives that executives and business unit leaders require. Integration governance typically factors in all aspects of governance, from the duties of the decision-making authorities to the integration team structure and operating model, moving into how it translates to B2B and B2C scenarios and people's day-to-day implementation responsibilities. Torry Harris' whitepaper titled "Why Governance is the key to ROI in Digital Transformation", looks at five key success factors for digital transformation in which good governance has a foundational role. It explores failure and success stories, and offers recommendations to achieve customer transformation objectives. According to Shuba Sridhar, VP - Strategic Initiatives, Torry Harris, "There is no predefined governance structure that intrinsically delivers business benefits. At Torry Harris, we analyze how clients measure performance, and what their capabilities and constraints are. We then establish a realistic, fit-for-purpose team with clearly defined roles and responsibilities." "The role of Integration and API governance is to balance competing objectives to the benefit of all stakeholder interests. The purpose of governance is to align the interests of all stakeholders as closely as possible to the objectives of the organization's integration-driven digital programs," she further adds. About Torry Harris Torry Harris is a multinational provider of business, technology, and IT consulting services. For over two decades, it is focused on providing solutions in the areas of Integration for digital enablement, digital marketplace services, full life-cycle API management, IoT and digital ecosystem enablement. The company is headquartered in New Jersey (USA), with development centers in Bangalore, India. It has offices in Bristol (UK), Slough (UK), Dubai (UAE), Dublin (Ireland), Munich (Germany) and Paris (France). To know more, visit https://www.torryharris.com Contact: Diganta Kumar Barooah marketing@thbs.com +91-80-41827200 Torry Harris Business Solutions [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Congratulations, putaindenuit.fr got a very good Social Media Impact Score! 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Statement by Ambassador Byrne Nason at UNSC Briefing on the Situation in Iraq Statement Thank you very much indeed Mr. President and I want to Jeanine, the SRSG, for her really insightful briefing this morning. Thank you Jeanine. Also, I want to welcome the representative of Iraq amongst us today. I would like to begin by extending our deepest condolences to the people of Iraq following the tragic fire at Ibn al-Khatib Hospital in April. This was a terrible tragedy, and it came at a time when we know the Iraqi people are facing devastating effects of COVID-19. Our thoughts and our prayers are certainly with the families of the victims and of all those affected by the tragedy. Mr. President, Ireland welcomes the commitment of the Iraqi government for free and fair elections in October. We welcome the important preparatory steps we are seeing now taken by the Iraqi authorities to that end since our last discussion back in February. This includes the passing of an amendment to the Federal Supreme Court law, the appointment of members of the Court, and the vote by the Council of Representatives to dissolve itself in the days running up to the election. Important steps. The establishment of a higher committee to promote and monitor womens electoral participation as well as introducing measures to prevent and address violence against women is also welcome and we see these as very positive steps. The recommendation by the Electoral Commission to register internally displaced persons to vote is a significant one, and we encourage that it be enacted without delay. Let me underline again today that it is absolutely critical that the political and electoral process include all parts of Iraqs diverse society in order to be a successful process. The international community of course has an important role to play in constructively supporting peaceful, inclusive and democratic elections in October. We commend the crucial work carried out by UNAMI in assisting with preparations to date. This Council should work intensively and promptly to see how we can best assume our responsibilities to Iraq, and enhance and maximise our role as Iraq undertakes such a critical process for the Iraqi peoples future. Mr. President, Just yesterday, this Council was privileged to hear once more the striking testimony of Nadia Murad. The passing of the Yazidi Female Survivors Law represents a groundbreaking moment in efforts to redress the immense suffering of her community and of women from other minority groups at the hands of ISIL, including conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence. True accountability for survivors, through prosecution and conviction of these heinous crimes, is now needed and urgently. In the words of Ms. Murad during yesterdays briefing, transforming evidence into justice and accountability requires action. We urge Iraq to put in place the legislative framework necessary for this to happen. Mr. President, Ireland remains concerned by reports of continued terrorist attacks across the country. We once again reiterate our firm rejection of any attempts to destabilize Iraq. The peace and stability of Iraq is not only essential for the prosperity of its own people, but indeed for the entire region. Mr. President, The rights to freedom of expression and assembly are already enshrined in Iraqs constitution. However, we continue to witness violations of these rights and a lack of fair trial guarantees. The assassination of a prominent activist in Karbala and attacks against a journalist in Diwaniyah province are deeply troubling and unacceptable. We urge Federal and Regional Governments to redouble efforts to protect and defend these rights and to end impunity. Mr. President, The adoption of the 2021 Federal Budget Law in March was an important milestone, and a real demonstration of what constructive dialogue and compromise between authorities in Baghdad and Erbil can achieve. We call on all parties to continue this spirit of cooperation and to faithfully implement the budget agreement. Furthermore, we welcome the efforts of the Government of Iraq to combat corruption and to ensure that those found guilty of corruption be held accountable for their crimes. Mr. President, We were pleased also like others to see further progress on the identification of missing Kuwaiti and third-country nationals, as well as on the return of missing Kuwaiti property, during the last months. We hope that progress on this important legacy issue continues. Finally, I would like to reiterate again Irelands strong support for the excellent and critical work being carried out by the Special Representative and her team. We look forward to the renewal of UNAMIs mandate at this Council in the coming weeks. Thank you Mr. President. Previous Item | Next Item [May 12, 2021] Tyvak Announces Ret. U.S. Navy Rear Adm. C. D. "Boris" Becker as Chief Executive Officer IRVINE, Calif., May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. ("Tyvak"), a Terran Orbital company and leading provider of next-generation, turnkey satellite solutions, is pleased to announce it named retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Christian "Boris" Becker as its Chief Executive Officer. Tyvak Announces Ret. U.S. Navy Rear Adm. C. D. "Boris" Becker as Chief Executive Officer Admiral Becker brings more than 33 years of leadership in the Navy and Department of Defense to his new role, and an extensive knowledge of global satellite and communication networks. He most recently served as the Chief Executive of the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command (NAVWAR), where he led an 11,000-person global organization responsible for the design, delivery and supporting logistics of the U.S. Navy's global satellite and communications networks and enterprise-wide business systems. His career includes leadership positions supporting the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Admiral Becker has received numerous professional awards including the NRO and the Department of the Navy Distinguished Service Medals. "We are thrilled to welcome Admiral Becker to the Tyvak team," said Terran Orbital hief Executive Officer Marc Bell. "His proven leadership and rich background in satellite systems and U.S. defense and intelligence requirements add tremendous value to our growth strategy. He deeply understands the needs of our customer base and his appoitment reinforces Tyvak's commitment to provide a full suite of satellite solutions to our customers in the U.S. and across the globe." "I am honored and excited to be part of the Tyvak family," Becker commented. "This is a great team focused on delivering game-changing solutions to the most challenging problems our customers face. The demand signal for space-based solutions is enormous and Tyvak is uniquely positioned to serve those growing needs." About Terran Orbital Corporation Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida, Terran Orbital Corporation is a leading innovator and provider of end-to-end satellite services and mission solutions. Through its subsidiary Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. ( www.tyvak.com ), the company is a leading provider of next-generation, turnkey satellite solutions. Building on its satellite heritage, through its subsidiary PredaSAR Corporation (www.predasar.com), Terran is developing and deploying the world's most advanced commercial software-defined Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite constellation. The Company is a pioneer in the miniaturization of space technologies with an unparalleled ability to quickly and economically design, build, and launch state-of-the-art, highly capable satellites. For more information, please visit www.terranorbital.com . About Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Irvine, California, Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Inc. is an industry leader, delivering optimized, end-to-end satellite solutions. For more information, please visit www.tyvak.com or follow the Company @TyvakNanoSat Media contact: Debora Lima, Director of Public Relations | The Tag Experience debora@thetagexperience.com View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tyvak-announces-ret-us-navy-rear-adm-c-d-boris-becker-as-chief-executive-officer-301289255.html SOURCE Terran Orbital Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] COVID-19 updates on vaccination requirements, masking and testing Dear members of the Northwestern community, As confidence increases in the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine and the supply has met the demand in Illinois, Northwestern will require students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the 2021-22 academic year. At this time, faculty and staff will not be required to be vaccinated. COVID-19 vaccines are the most important tool to help end the pandemic, and requiring students to be vaccinated will best support the health of our community and position us for in-person classroom and co-curricular activities for the Fall Term. We will provide information about how to share vaccination status in June. We understand that some students cannot take or are hesitant to receive the vaccine, in some cases for medical or religious reasons. Information about seeking an exception to the vaccination requirement will also be available in June. Students who have not been fully vaccinated or have not received an exception may not be able to register for fall classes. We also understand that our international students have additional considerations. Students who are unable to secure vaccination access in their home countries will be able to request a temporary exception and be signed up to be vaccinated upon arrival to campus. Additionally, international students who receive a vaccine in their home country that is not authorized in the U.S. may be eligible for a medical exception following guidance from Northwestern Health Service. Based on responses to vaccine clinic invitations and vaccine self-disclosures, we estimate that more than 75% of Northwesterns students are currently fully vaccinated or in the course of vaccination. Students who still want a vaccination are encouraged to fill out this simple form, and the Universitys vaccination team will contact you to provide options for receiving a vaccine. Students and employees may also email vaccine@northwestern.edu with questions about scheduling a vaccine appointment. COVID-19 testing updates Because we do not currently have comprehensive information about students vaccination records and a portion of the community remains unvaccinated, all students must continue COVID-19 testing for the remainder of the spring, regardless of vaccination status. This testing, which is supported by our public health and clinical partners, will help ensure the campus environment remains healthy as vaccinated and unvaccinated students interact in person with increasing frequency. For the past two and a half months, we have offered Color tests and Abbott Rapid tests side-by-side, with more than 100,000 total tests over that period. After analyzing the data, we have experienced amazingly consistent performance between the two tests in fact, we have seen more positive cases and higher positivity identified from the Abbott tests than we have the Color tests. The Abbott Rapid tests also have the benefit of giving immediate results, allowing us to separate positive cases from the community and completing contact tracing quickly. Given the performance of the two tests, and the positive impact vaccination will have on campus, our medical experts have recommended that students start completing two Abbott Rapid tests per week, removing the need to complete a Color test. Some students have asked that we simplify the testing protocols, and we hope that completing only one type of test will make the experience easier. As previously shared, students are able to complete as many Abbott Rapid tests as they would like, and we encourage them to do so. There will remain a limited number of Color tests available for those who want them, but students are no longer required to complete these tests. Students can ignore any automated messages from Color about tests being due. Final decisions regarding testing requirements for the summer and fall are in review, following recent updates from the CDC and feedback from public health agencies. We will closely monitor the data as more people are vaccinated, and await initial results from a few important studies about vaccination and testing. Students receiving a COVID-19 vaccination waiver as noted above should expect to have increased testing protocols in the fall. Protocols for vaccinated students are expected to be significantly reduced and will be shared this summer as they are finalized. Please reach out to NU-COVID-Testing-Support@northwestern.edu with any testing questions. Updates to mask requirements Following guidance from the State, Northwestern has relaxed mask requirements outdoors on campus for those who are fully vaccinated. These individuals do not need to wear a mask outdoors unless they are participating in a large outdoor gathering or event. If you are not fully vaccinated, you should continue to wear a mask outdoors if you are engaging with other people. Masks are still required indoors in alignment with the guidelines that have been previously issued, regardless of vaccination status. Capacity and gathering limitations As you may be aware, the State of Illinois will move into a plan called A Bridge to Phase 5 on Friday, May 14. When that happens, we will adjust Northwesterns capacity levels for indoor and outdoor spaces, particularly to support opportunities for more in-person engagement among students, faculty and staff. Please check the On-Campus Activities section of the COVID-19 website for the most current information about support and guidelines for on-campus events and gatherings. Thank you for all that you have done, and continue to do, to maintain a healthy campus environment. We will share more updates with you as they become available. Sincerely, Kathleen Hagerty Provost and Professor Luke Figora Vice President for Operations Julie Payne-Kirchmeier Vice President for Student Affairs The Anglo-Irish Agreement is often remembered for the opposition that it created rather than its considerable achievements. People remember Ian Paisleys never, never, never speech as well as Charlie Haugheys political manoeuvring against it. However, some lessons from this 36-year-old agreement are very useful in deciphering the conundrum that is Brexit and its impact on Northern Ireland. The 1985 Agreement was an extraordinary achievement for Ireland, gaining it an advisory role in the governance of Northern Ireland and allowing it to set up a secretariat in Belfast. For the first time, the UK Government acknowledged that Ireland had a role in the governance of Northern Ireland. These issues are still at the heart of current disagreements between the UK and the EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol as part of Brexit. The Protocol is the direct result of 52% of UK voters voting to leave the EU without considering in any way the consequences on the structure of the Union, that is the Union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Irish Government was paying attention however and immediately started to build alliances with EU partners. When the UK Government finally got around to negotiating Brexit, the EU demanded that ensuring an open border between Ireland and Northern Ireland was the first item on the agenda. After much arm-twisting and false dawns, Boris Johnson agreed to the current arrangements which put Northern Ireland in the unique position of being part of the UK, while also having access to the EUs Single Market. This puts Northern Ireland in an enviable position, indeed Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly said she wants to copy this model for Scotland. In January, Arlene Foster Northern Irelands DUP First Minister said she would work to implement the protocol and exploit Northern Ireland being the only place in Europe that has more or less free access to the UK and EU markets. However, Ian Paisley popped up again, this time it was his son Ian Paisley Junior who saw shadows of creeping Irish influence. Specifically he saw checks on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as threat to the Union. These checks, introduced under the Protocol, ensure that Northern Ireland is not used as a back door to the EUs Single Market. Johnsons predecessor Theresa Mays Brexit backstop deal was careful not to threaten the delicate constitutional balance of the United Kingdom and would have meant no checks on imports into Northern Ireland. However this was vetoed, ironically by the DUPs MPs in Westminster. Given the DUPs current turmoil you would wonder if they now regret this choice? On the other hand, Boris Johnson had no qualms about the effects of Northern Irelands link with the United Kingdom when he signed up to the Northern Ireland Protocol and then subsequently unilaterally rewrote key parts of the Protocol meaning that now some checks on imports arent currently being carried out. The EU and Ireland were unimpressed and the EU launched legal proceedings against the UK. This political manoeuvring would all be fine without the real-world consequences they cause rioting in Belfast last month on a scale not experienced in years. The Irish Governments secretariat, set up during the Anglo-Irish Agreement, was the target of some of these protests. Johnson seems to know little and care less about Northern Ireland. In a letter last month from four former Northern Ireland Secretaries he was told that he should to be seen to take an interest in Northern Ireland. His clueless language and empty promises there would be no checks have inflamed the political debate. So what is the solution that will create stability in Northern Ireland? Well one key lesson from the Anglo-Irish Agreement is the influence of Irish-America. The Congressional Friends of Ireland recently celebrated its 40th anniversary - its leader Tip ONeill played a key behind-the-scenes role in pushing the UK Government to agree to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Recently, the well-timed statements from Representatives Brendan Boyle and Richard Neal were crucial to Boris Johnson softening his stance and agreeing to enter into preliminary discussions with the EU. There is some slow progress apparently, with the EU pushing the UK to adopt EU food safety rules which would eliminate the need for 80% of checks on imports. We may hear more when discussions progress to their next stage in mid-May when the EUs legal complaint is heard. The achievements of the Anglo-Irish Agreement still hold power 36 years afterwards Ive no doubt Garret Fitzgerald and Peter Barry would give wise counsel if they were around today. TORONTO, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Drone Delivery Canada Corp. (TSXV: FLT) (OTC: TAKOF) (Frankfurt: A2AMGZ) (Frankfurt: ABB.F) (the "Company" or "DDC") is pleased to announce that on April 27, 2021, the United States Patent Office granted the Company U.S. Patent No. 10,987,184 for 'Medical or Emergency Package and Method of Use Thereof'. The patent is directed to DDC's proprietary, portable emergency or medical package. In particular, the patent is directed to the concept of a proprietary package including a number of compartments, where some compartments containing medical equipment(s) are locked. The package also includes a communication device that is detachable from the package so that a user of the package can use the communication device to communicate with remote personnel who, based on such audio/video information received from the user, can open a selected locked compartment to permit access to the medical equipment contained therein. "This is our third United States Patent Office grant issued. This patent again demonstrates our innovation and the breadth of applications in this disruptive drone delivery industry. Healthcare and emergency medical response are key markets for the Company, and we continue to mark successes," commented Michael Zahra, President & CEO of Drone Delivery Canada. "On behalf of the Company I would like to thank all of our dedicated staff who were integral to this accomplishment." DDC is currently seeking patent protection for other aspects of its technology in the US and other countries. For information on DDC's first patent, see press release from July 17, 2019: https://dronedeliverycanada.com/resources/drone-delivery-canada-awarded-its-first-us-patent-for-its-proprietary-drone-delivery-technology/ For information on DDC's second patent, see news release from April 22, 2020: https://dronedeliverycanada.com/resources/drone-delivery-canada-awarded-its-second-us-patent-for-its-proprietary-drone-delivery-technology/ About Drone Delivery Canada Corp. Drone Delivery Canada Corp. is an ISO 9001 certified, award-winning drone technology company focused on the design, development, and implementation of its proprietary logistics software platform, using drones. The Company's platform will be used as a Software as a Service (SaaS) model for government and corporate organizations globally. Drone Delivery Canada Corp. is a publicly listed company trading on the TSX.V Exchange under the symbol FLT, on the U.S. OTCQX market under the symbol TAKOF and on the Frankfurt exchange in Germany under the symbol A2AMGZ or ABB.F . Read more about the Company at: www.DroneDeliveryCanada.com or on DDC's social media: https://www.linkedin.com/company/drone-delivery-canada https://www.youtube.com/dronedeliverycanada https://www.facebook.com/dronedeliverycanada https://www.instagram.com/dronedeliverycanada https://twitter.com/DroneDeliveryCa Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Notice Regarding Forward Looking Information: Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking information that involves substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. This forward-looking information is subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company, including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions, and dependence upon regulatory approvals (both in Canada and internationally). Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward looking information. The parties undertake no obligation to update forward-looking information except as otherwise may be required by applicable securities law. SOURCE Drone Delivery Canada Corp. For further information: Investor Relations: Mr. Bill Mitoulas, Telephone: (416) 479-9547, Email: [email protected]; Media Relations: Mr. Nelson Hudes, Hudes Communications International, Telephone: (905) 660-9155, Email: [email protected] Related Links http://www.dronedeliverycanada.com Minister Seamus O'Regan Jr. announces funding for The Rooms in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital city ST. JOHN'S, NL, May 12, 2021 /CNW Telbec/ - The Government of Canada continues to support the creation and renovation of cultural spaces in order to improve access to arts and heritage. Today, the Honourable Seamus O'Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources and Member of Parliament (St. John's SouthMount Pearl), announced $758,170 in funding for public cultural space The Rooms, in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. He made this announcement on behalf of the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage. The funding, which is being provided through the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (CCSF), will allow The Rooms to purchase specialized equipment to manage the environmental conditions inside the building, as well as replace the uninterrupted power supply and the security, sprinkler and lighting systems. The project will also correct the deficiencies identified concerning the location of emergency lighting and installation of a fire separation for the boiler room. Budget 2021: A Recovery Plan for Jobs, Growth, and Resilience provides for investments across the countryincluding investments for aging infrastructureto support the arts and culture sector, which has been particularly hard hit by the COVID19 pandemic. Quotes "Cultural spaces bring people together and enrich the lives of Canadians. That's why I'm proud that our government is able to support the modernization of the spaces at The Rooms, so that visitors in St. John's can keep learning about the history of Newfoundland and Labrador for years to come." The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Canadian Heritage "For the past 15 years, The Rooms has brought families and visitors together to learn who we are and how we came to be, showcasing the best our province has to offer. We're strengthening local cultural spaces so The Rooms can continue to provide unforgettable moments." The Honourable Seamus O'Regan Jr., Minister of Natural Resources and Member of Parliament (St. John's SouthMount Pearl) "The funding announced today will contribute greatly to keeping The Rooms, the province's preeminent cultural institution, in pristine condition. The Rooms is a distinctive and impressive structure that houses our museum, art gallery and archives, but it is so much more than that. It is one of the province's finest cultural gems and a hub for creation, learning, and community. Thank you to the Federal Government for this investment, it will play a key role in preserving and protecting our historical and cultural assets to be enjoyed for generations to come." The Honourable Steve Crocker, Newfoundland and Labrador Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation "This generous contribution from the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage, Canada Cultural Spaces Fund, enables The Rooms to make significant upgrades to the environmental control systems that protect the collections belonging to the people of Newfoundland and Labrador. The fund also affords us the ability to improve accessibility to our galleries, and enhance our public programming. Increased sustainability, accessibility and enhanced experiences are priorities for The Rooms, and we are grateful to receive this grant, which allows us to achieve important work and deepen our impact within our community." Anne Chafe, CEO, The Rooms Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador Quick Facts The Canada Cultural Spaces Fund supports the improvement of physical conditions for arts, heritage, culture and creative innovation, including creative hubs. The Fund supports renovation and construction projects, the acquisition of specialized equipment, as well as feasibility studies for cultural spaces. The Rooms opened its doors to the public in 2005. It is the largest public cultural space in Newfoundland and Labrador. Associated Links Canada Cultural Spaces Fund The Rooms SOURCE Canadian Heritage For further information: (media only) please contact: Camille Gagne-Raynauld, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, [email protected]; Media Relations, Canadian Heritage, 819-994-9101, 1-866-569-6155, [email protected] Related Links www.pch.gc.ca Govt working for migrant resettlement in EU - Draghi Talking to France and Germany to relaunch Malta Pact says PM (ANSA) - ROME, MAY 12 - The Italian government is "exerting intra-European pressure to return to an effective resettlement of migrants" amid a wave of migrants washing up on Italy's shores, Premier Mario Draghi told question time Wednesday. He said Italy was talking to France and Germany to relaunch the Malta Pact on migrant distribution and relocation. At the same time, the premier stressed that "no one" would be left to drown in Italian waters. Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio also said that the EU migrant redistribution mechanism should be reactivated. (ANSA). Dublin, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Global Integrated Facility Management Market, By Type (Hard Service and Soft Service), By Service (Building and Property Management, Cleaning and Hygiene, Security and Staffing, and Others), By Solution, By End-User, By Region, Competition, Forecast & Opportunities, 2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Global Integrated Facility Management Market is projected to grow from USD84.65 billion in 2020 to USD114.86 billion by 2026. Rise in the demand for standardization and simplification of facilities in industries and residential buildings due to the need for good working environment and reduced energy output costs, are expected to positively influence the Global Integrated Facility Management Market in the coming years. The Global Integrated Facility Management Market can be segmented into type, Services, IT (Information Technology) support, solution, end-user and region. On the basis of type, the market can be segmented as hard service and soft service, where hard service segment held a market share of around 55% in 2020 due to rise in investments in energy and project management to achieve long-term efficiency. Moreover, new office buildings in emerging economies are stated to drive the market in the forecast period. Based on service, the market is segmented into building and property management, cleaning and hygiene, security and staffing, IT support and others. Among these, the market share of building and property management segment was around 26% in 2020. The integrated facility management in building and property management sector are the services that include construction management, marketing, building engineering, accounting and financial services to the owners and investors in offices, industrial and retail properties. The increasing development of sustainable infrastructure and growing presence of many enterprises to adopt changing organizational structure and work management are the key drivers for the Global Integrated Facility Management Market. The largest contributor to the Global Integrated Facility Management Market was North America with around 44% value share in 2020. United States was the largest contributing country in the region with around 83% share in 2020, followed by Canada and Mexico. Moreover, the demand for outsourced facility management services is increasing in the developing countries due to rising awareness and improving economies. The leading players in the Global Integrated Facility Management Market are JLL Inc (Jones Lang LaSalle IP, Inc), ISS A/S (International Service System), CBRE Group Inc, Cushman & Wakefield plc, Sodexo Inc., Compass Inc., Aramark Corporation, Coor Service Management Holding AB, Mitie Group PLC, MacLellan Integrated Services, Inc. The market players are ceaselessly presenting services with real-time response, connectivity and 24/7 availability, to build customer base. Years considered for this report: Historical Years: 2016-2019 Base Year: 2020 Estimated Year: 2021 Forecast Period: 2022-2026 Objective of the Study: The primary objective of the study is to understand and gain insights about the Global Integrated Facility Management Market by value and its segmental analysis by type, by service, by IT support, by solution, by end-user, by region and by company. To analyze historical growth in market size of the Global Integrated Facility Management Market from 2016 to 2020. To estimate and forecast the market size of the Global Integrated Facility Management Market from 2021 to 2026 and growth rate until 2026. To categorize and forecast the Global Integrated Facility Management Market by type - hard service and soft service. To categorize and forecast the Global Integrated Facility Management Market by service - building and property management, cleaning and hygiene, security and staffing, IT support and others. To categorize and forecast the Global Integrated Facility Management Market By Solution - asset & space management, project management & real estate portfolio management & lease administration, energy & environment sustainability management, maintenance management and others To categorize and forecast the Global Integrated Facility Management Market by End-User (BFSI, Utilities, Aerospace & Defense, Telecommunication, Manufacturing, Supply Chain & Logistics, Real Estate & Infrastructure, Healthcare, Retail and Others). To categorize and forecast the Global Integrated Facility Management Market by region such as North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa and South America. To identify major drivers & challenges for the Global Integrated Facility Management Market. To identify major trends in the Global Integrated Facility Management Market. To profile major companies operating in the Global Integrated Facility Management Market. Key Topics Covered: 1. Product Overview 2. Research Methodology 3. Impact of COVID-19 on Global Integrated Facility Management Market 4. Executive Summary 5. Voice of Customer 5.1. Factors Affecting the purchase decision of Integrated Management Facility Services 5.2. Customer Experience 5.3. Brand Awareness 5.4. Brand Satisfaction 5.5. Customer Satisfaction 6. Global Integrated Facility Management Market Outlook 6.1. Market Size & Forecast 6.1.1. By Value 6.2. Market Share & Forecast 6.2.1. By Type (Hard Service and Soft Service) 6.2.2. By Service (Building and Property Management, Cleaning and Hygiene, Security and Staffing, IT Support and Others) 6.2.2.1. By IT Support (On-Premises and Cloud) 6.2.3. By Solution (Asset & Space Management, Project Management & Real Estate Portfolio Management & Lease Administration, Energy & Environment Sustainability Management, Maintenance Management and Others) 6.2.4. By End-User (BFSI, Utilities, Aerospace & Defense, Telecommunication, Manufacturing, Supply Chain & Logistics, Real Estate & Infrastructure, Healthcare, Retail and Others) 6.2.5. By Region (North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa and South America) 6.2.6. By Company (2020) 6.3. Market Map 6.3.1. By Type 6.3.2. By Service 6.3.3. By IT Support 6.3.4. By Solution 6.3.5. By End-User 6.3.6. By Region 7. North America Integrated Facility Management Market Outlook 7.1. Market Size & Forecast 7.2. Market Share & Forecast 7.3. Market Map 7.4. North America Integrated Facility Management Market Country Analysis 8. Asia-Pacific Integrated Facility Management Market Outlook 8.1. Market Size & Forecast 8.2. Market Share & Forecast 8.3. Market Map 8.4. Asia-Pacific Integrated Facility Management Market Country Analysis 9. Europe Integrated Facility Management Market Outlook 9.1. Market Size & Forecast 9.2. Market Share & Forecast 9.3. Market Map 9.4. Europe Integrated Facility Management Market Country Analysis 10. Middle East & Africa Integrated Facility Management Market Outlook 10.1. Market Size & Forecast 10.2. Market Share & Forecast 10.3. Market Map 10.4. Middle East & Africa Integrated Facility Management Market Country Analysis 11. South America Integrated Facility Management Market Outlook 11.1. Market Size & Forecast 11.2. Market Share & Forecast 11.3. Market Map 11.4. South America Integrated Facility Management Market Country Analysis 12. Market Dynamics 12.1. Drivers 12.2. Challenges 13. Market Trends & Developments 14. Competitive Landscape 14.1. Company Profiles 14.1.1. JLL Inc (Jones Lang LaSalle IP, Inc) 14.1.2. ISS A/S (International Service System) 14.1.3. CBRE Group, Inc 14.1.4. Cushman & Wakefield plc 14.1.5. Sodexo Inc. 14.1.6. Compass Inc. 14.1.7. Aramark Corporation 14.1.8. Coor Service Management Holding AB 14.1.9. Mitie Group PLC 14.1.10. MacLellan Integrated Services, Inc 15. Strategic Recommendations 16. About Us & Disclaimer For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5h2zcr Minister Colm Brophy announces Irish Aid funding and delivery of humanitarian supplies to respond to Press release Responding to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Mozambique, where over 700,000 people have been displaced due to conflict, Colm Brophy, T.D., Minister of State for Overseas Development Aid and the Diaspora, today announced 2.6 million in Irish Aid support, including the delivery of emergency humanitarian supplies through the Irish Aid Rapid Response Initiative. Minister Brophy said: I am deeply concerned by the deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Mozambique. Over 700,000 people have now been displaced by the conflict in Cabo Delgado, and 1.3 million Mozambicans are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Todays announcement of 2.6 million in Irish Aid support, including the delivery of emergency humanitarian supplies, will support a range of partners to alleviate the suffering of Mozambicans whose lives have been devastated by the conflict. Through our Embassy in Maputo, Ireland will continue to work with our international partners and with the Government of Mozambique to reduce suffering and work toward peace and recovery in northern Mozambique. We are committed to doing what is possible to make sure this does not become a forgotten crisis. Ends Press Office 12 May Notes for Editors A violent insurgency has been underway in the province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique since 2017. In the last year, the humanitarian situation has deteriorated significantly and over 700,000 have been internally displaced, with over 600,000 displaced in the last year alone. Currently, 1.3 million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The 2.6 million in Irish Aid support announced today is being disbursed as follows: 600,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC); 700,000 to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM); 600,000 to COSACA (an NGO consortium led by CARE and Save the Children); 200,000 to the Office of the UN Resident Coordinator; and 200,000 to the Provincial Government of Niassa. Ireland will also deliver 53 tonnes of emergency humanitarian supplies to IOM through the Irish Aid Rapid Response Initiative, valued at approximately 320,000. The Irish Aid Rapid Response Initiative pre-positions humanitarian relief supplies across the globe to be drawn upon in response to crises. These supplies will support the urgent needs of up to 4,200 families displaced by the conflict, providing them with essential items including materials for emergency shelters, mosquito nets and solar lamps. Ireland has also deployed two officers from the Irish Aid Rapid Response Corps to provide remote support to UN agencies in Mozambique. These rapid responders are providing support as Information Management Officers for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) and the World Food Programme (WFP). Ireland has a long history of partnership in Mozambique, which is the second largest recipient of Irelands bilateral overseas development aid, with a budget of 26 million in 2021. Through our Embassy in Maputo, Ireland has contributed significant humanitarian assistance in response to the conflict in Cabo Delgado. Ireland is also playing a key role in ensuring effective humanitarian coordination, as co-chair of the International Community Crisis Taskforce, through which Ireland is working with the Government of Mozambique to support effective prioritisation, civil protection, addressing key bottlenecks in humanitarian access, and planning efforts towards longer-term solutions. Previous Item | Watertown, NY (13601) Today Showers with a possible thunderstorm this morning, then variable clouds during the afternoon with still a chance of showers. High near 75F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Cloudy skies. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Journalist and blogger Craig Murray has been sentenced to eight months in prison for contempt of court in a vindictive ruling with chilling implications for press freedom and democratic rights. Murray was found guilty in March this year for his reporting on the 2020 trial of former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond. Murray, a former British diplomat, was found to have published articles which supposedly seriously impeded or prejudiced Salmond's trial by breaching contempt of court legislation preventing the publication of the names and identity and any information likely to disclose the identity of the complainers against Salmond. Craig Murray speaking at a public meeting in defence of Julian Assange (credit: WSWS media) Sentencing was delayed until May 7, the day after the Scottish election, with the final decision announced by Scotland's Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Leeona Dorrian, Tuesday morning. Dorrian was the judge in Salmond's trial. Dorrian said of Murray, It appears from the posts and articles that he was in fact relishing the task he set himself, which was essentially to allow the identities of complainers to be discernedwhich he thought was in the public interestin a way which did not attract sanction. Dorrian described Murray's actions as a contempt of considerable gravity, which strike at the heart of the fair administration of justice. Murray was initially told to hand himself in to a police station within 48 hours. Only an intervention by his lawyer extended this to three weeks to allow Murray time to prepare an appeal. Dorrian ignored QC Roddy Dunlop's mitigation that Murray was of impeccable character" and untarnished reputation, that the 62-year-old had already suffered considerably and that the only purpose was pour decourager les autres (to discourage others). Submissions on Murray's health also appear to have been rejected. Significantly Murray was told to surrender his passport. He was due to give evidence in a criminal prosecution over CIA spying activities against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Spain this month. Murray has been a dedicated defender of Assange, commenting frequently and observantly on the monstrous, decade long, frame-up and persecution orchestrated by the US and UK. Retaining Murray's passport was specifically intended to prevent him giving evidence in support of Assange. The judges initially proposed holding his next hearing on May 19 to prevent him travelling. He commented that what he found most shocking was the peculiar determination of the judges to make sure that, during the three weeks we have to lodge the appeal, I am not allowed to go to Spain to testify in the criminal prosecution for the CIA spying on Assange's legal team. The commentary of Murray, though he is a dedicated Scottish nationalist, on the background to the case against Salmond, who was acquitted of 13 sex charges, including attempted rape, was one of the few sources of analysis that allowed anyone to understand the political significance of what was taking place. In the face of a Scottish press that was almost universally hostile to Salmond, Murray exposed the factional infighting between Salmond and his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, that lay at the heart of the exaggerated and concocted charges against the former First Ministerall of which were rejected by a jury. Murray brought out, and none of this has been refuted by two Scottish parliamentary inquiries on the matter, the efforts of a narrow clique of close advisers of Sturgeon to set in motion a #MeToo inspired witch-hunt, backed by the full weight of the Scottish legal apparatus, to prevent Salmond's intended return to politics. Murray was found guilty, by a panel of three judges led by Dorrian, of so-called jigsaw identificationwhereby certain facts released into the public domain, combined with other already known facts, may allow the identity of complainants to become known. This is particularly sensitive in rape cases, where, in Scotland, anonymity rests on evidence being given in a closed court from whom all but bona fide journalists are excluded. In contrast no contempt charges have been brought against the bona fide mainstream journalists whose own reporting on the trial potentially allowed some of the complainants to be identified. Murray commissioned a survey which concluded that eight percent of the Scottish population believed that they had been able to identify some of the complainants. The great bulk of these reported the mainstream media as their source. Murray insists he identified no-one. As Murray commented on his own blog, what has been harmful is the gross censorship of my journalism, with my entire daily account of the defense case removed... As a result, he continued it is once again virtually impossible for anybody to discover WHY Alex Salmond was acquitted... In her statement, Dorrian sought to place the case, and the harsh sentence against Murray, in the context of the general need for anonymity in cases where sexual assault is alleged. Dorrian noted that the historical reluctance of complainers to come forward with their complaints, as a result of concern about how they will be treated is at the heart of the basis upon which anonymity is given. Murray himself has repeatedly said he upholds the anonymity of complainants in such cases. But the issue here, which Murray has repeatedly brought outexposure of which is the reason for his being imprisonedis the cynical use of legitimate anonymity safeguards as cover for a vicious politically motivated faction fight. Murray's jailing has been condemned internationally. Journalist and Assange supporter John Pilger noted, In these dark times, Craig Murrays truth-telling is a beacon. He is owed our debt of gratitude, not the travesty of a prison sentence which, like the prosecution of Julian Assange, is a universal warning. Professor Noam Chomsky tweeted, Craig Murray has compiled a remarkable record of courage and integrity in exposing crimes of state and working to bring them to an end. He fully merits our deep respect and support for his achievements. Murray intends to take his case to the UK Supreme Court on the basis that he did not identify anyone and his right to report being denied through an extraordinary, impossibly strict application of 'jigsaw identification' and on fair process not have been observed. Tensions flared again Wednesday in the Louisiana House Education Committee, including charges that a proposed amendment was a replay of a controversial bill by Education Committee Chairman Ray Garofalo that has sparked a racial divide in the Legislature. The anger erupted during a hearing on legislation by state Rep. Valarie Hodges, R-Denham Springs, on how American history and civics are to be taught in public schools. She wanted teachers to include lessons on national sovereignty and American exceptionalism, while requiring textbooks to promote the benefits of capitalism, private property, constitutional liberties, the value of a constitutional republic and traditional standards of moral values. Hodges proposed an amendment that touched on some of the same subjects as those in a bill by Garofalo last month aimed at banning colleges from teaching "divisive concepts," including that Louisiana or the United States is racist or sexist. The Hodges amendment would ban the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education from adopting content standards "that provide a particular sex, race, ethnicity ... is inherently superior or inferior to another." Rep. Ken Brass, D-Vacherie and a member of the committee, said the amendment was a bid to revive Garofalo's bill, which was shelved and considered dead for the session. Louisiana lawmaker drops bid to curb how colleges and schools teach 'divisive topics' The chairman of the House Education Committee shelved his own bill Tuesday that would ban colleges and public schools from teaching "divisive "This is his bill in disguise," Brass said of the amendment, a reference to the Garofalo legislation. "No sir, it is not," Hodges replied. She noted that the amendment would also add Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech to the curriculum. "We want them to understand these core principles," Hodges said to Brass. State Rep. Tammy Phelps, D-Shreveport, a committee member, said she was so taken aback by the language in the amendment that she had to compose herself. Phelps told the committee she was "more appalled than offended by the amendment." She noted that the committee has been a hub of controversy since the Garofalo debate erupted. Phelps also questioned whether the push dealing with racial issues was being imposed on lawmakers without regard to them or their constituents. "I'm sitting here just trying to keep my composure, and I apologize Mr. Chairman," she said. The scoop on state politics in your inbox Get the Louisiana politics insider details once a week from us. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The amendment failed on a tie vote. The proposal, House Bill 352, later cleared the committee 8-5 and next faces action, and likely controversy, in the full House. Phelps and Brass are Black lawmakers and Hodges and Garofalo are White legislators. A brief exchange between Garofalo and his committee on April 26 helped ignite the controversy, which has spilled over to the tax revamp effort and other high-profile issues. Garofalo said at one point a college classroom could have a discussion on slavery. "You can talk about everything dealing with slavery. The good. The bad. The ugly," he said. Rep. Stephanie Hilferty, R-Metairie, replied: "There is no good to slavery, though." Replied Garofalo: "You are right. I didn't mean to imply that and don't believe that." But a video clip went viral on social media, prompting a slew of criticism from celebrities. Critics said the lawmaker implied there were positive aspects of slavery, and both Gov. John Bel Edwards and the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus have said he should be replaced as chairman. House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, who names committee chairs, has declined comment on whether Garofalo will be forced to give up his chairmanship. Garofalo has not responded to requests for comment but he, so far, remains chair of the committee. Garofalo has said his bill was aimed in part at preventing college professors from promoting their own political ideologies under the guise of classroom instruction. After the debate, Education Committee Vice Chair Rep. Mark Wright, the Covington Republican running the hearing in Garofalo's absence, was heard saying into a live mic while talking with another lawmaker: This is a ridiculous day. Voting for HB352: Reps. Ray Garofalo, Beryl Amedee, Rick Edmonds, Chuck Owen, Laurie Schlegel, Vincent St. Blanc, Phillip Tarver and Mark Wright. Voting against HB352: Reps. Ken Brass, Aimee Freeman, Barbara Freiberg, Patrick Jefferson and Tammy Phelps. Ask James Carville about New Orleans and be prepared to hear the Louisiana-born and bred political consultant rhapsodize about his favorite city, his home for the past 13 years. New Orleans has the best food, says Carville. The best music. The most interesting people. Mary Matalin, the Republican half of Americas most famous bipartisan power couple, says New Orleans has magic around every corner. But for the time being, theyll be appreciating the magic from a bit of distance. On Tuesday, Carville disclosed that he and Matalin have sold their Uptown home for $3.3 million after it was on the market for three months. He spoke by phone from his current home -- in Bay St. Louis. Yes, you read that right. Its in a different state, but its the same thing, Carville insisted. Its only 55 minutes from the French Quarter. New Orleans is the same as Bay St. Louis? Were in the process of buying a place in New Orleans, Carville hastened to say. Well have a permanent place in the city of New Orleans. Were as deep in the city of New Orleans as the Mississippi mud. We were New Orleans, we are New Orleans and will be New Orleans for the rest of our days. The Orleans Parish assessors website lists the new buyer of their Palmer Avenue home as Christopher Catrambone. Press reports have described him as a Lake Charles native who earned a fortune as an insurance provider for contractors during the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Catrambone used a chunk of his profits to buy a ship in Virginia that he outfitted in 2014 to rescue African migrants who had foundered while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. He and his wife, Regina, founded Migrant Offshore Aid Station to carry out the work, which has shifted to southeast Asia. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Built in 1906, the house on Palmer Avenue has 8,200 square feet, a terrace overflowing with plants and a swimming pool with five fountains. It seems to attract interesting people. Carville bought it from New Orleans super-lawyer Morris Bart in 2008 for $2.2 million. He and Matalin poured thousands of dollars decorating it for their tastes. They raised their two daughters there and used it to host numerous gatherings for political candidates and nonprofits. But at age 76, with the kids gone, Carville said it was time to downsize. But whats with the move to Mississippi? He explained that he and Matalin bought an empty lot in Bay St. Louis in 2013 from Pete Fountain, the clarinet virtuoso from New Orleans. Matalin, adopting the local lingo, called the oceanfront place they built there a camp. Hurricane Katrina swept away Fountains home there. I built on Petes lot, Carville said. You cant get any more enmeshed in New Orleans than I am. Right now, Im homeless in New Orleans. That will change in the next month or so. Matalin said she had recently returned from their farm in the Shenandoah Valley. After Coviding back east, I know what it means to miss New Orleans for real, she wrote in an email. Theres no place like it. Ever. Or should I say, NOW, MORE THAN EVER, since everyone is shouting at each other everywhere else except here. Seriously, returning was a spiritual experience. The work search requirement is about to restart in Michigan meaning unemployed people must prove theyre looking for work if they want to keep getting benefits. The requirement was halted in March 2020 when the pandemic started. The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency hasnt been enforcing it since. But starting sometime soon, the UIA will begin enforcing it again, it said on its website. The UIA hasnt set an exact date, but said it will become mandatory again sometime in late May. The work search requirement applies to everyone on unemployment, including state and federal programs. We are currently working on system changes to accommodate statutory changes, federal benefit programs that were implemented and ensure that claimants who certify by phone are able to timely submit their work search information, UIA spokesperson Lynda Robinson said in an email. The availability of the COVID-19 vaccine and the reopening of workplaces offers an opportunity for people to be able to return safely to work. There were 700,000 Michiganders claiming unemployment for the week of April 17, all while employers complain of a widespread worker shortage. Some groups have called for Michigan to stop accepting all federal unemployment benefits, including the extra $300 per week. To satisfy the work search requirement, applicants must report one work search activity per week. That includes applying for jobs in person or online, attending job fairs or employment workshops or searching job listings on websites like Monster.com, LinkedIn or MITalent.org. The UIA will ask when and how you applied for each job and ask for the companys contact information. Lately, some employers have had issues with ghost applicants, who apply for a job, but never show up for an interview as they only apply to satisfy the requirement. Some people can get a waiver to avoid having to prove a work search, but the UIA hasnt explained yet who can get a waiver. Watch your email and MiWAM account for more details in the coming weeks, the UIA says. RELATED STORIES Long hours, health risks and ghost applicants lead to desperate staffing situations at Michigan restaurants Cancel extra $300, federal unemployment programs, Michigan business group urges As Michigan restores restaurant jobs, industry is back to 84% of pre-pandemic levels Hospitals, stores, restaurants among 51 Michigan businesses fined for COVID-19 violations Wings are off the menu at Michigan BBQ joints after prices increase nationally 95% in one year Offices can reopen May 24 in Michigan but dont expect traffic jams The Ongoing Politicization of the DOJ Commentary President Joe Biden over the past few months has added to his administration multiple Obama-era officials who had direct participation in Russiagate. The latest addition is Susan Hennessey to the Department of Justices National Security Division. Hennessey was one of the primary promoters of Russia-collusion theories during her time at Lawfare, a blog affiliated with The Brookings Institution. Notably, her outlandish claims of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia have consistently been proven wrong. Prior to her appointment as senior counsel for the DOJs national security division, Hennessey was the executive editor of Lawfare, where she authored numerous anti-Trump articles. She also served as the general counsel of the Lawfare Institute and is a Brookings Fellow. Lawfare, essentially a Democratic activist group of lawyers led by Ben Wittes, was formed precisely for the purpose of weaponizing our laws to push the activists own agendas, with Trump often the target of their efforts. Like so many leading promoters of the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, Hennessey had worked in the intelligence community earlier in her career. Before joining the Brookings Institution, she was an attorney in the Office of General Counsel of the National Security Agency. On July 27, 2016, at the exact time that Christopher Steeles dossier and information regarding George Papadopouloss conversation with Australias Alexander Downer was being transmitted to the FBI, Hennessey and Wittes co-authored an article titled Is Trump a Russian Agent, which discussed if Donald Trump could be subjected to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) surveillance. Hennessey, along with Wittes, would remain focused on promoting allegations of Trump-Russia collusion for the next four years. Hennessey also was routinely quoted in articles on Russia collusion and was the single-source quote for an early influential article in McClatchy that was used to promote the theory that the intelligence community had evidence of Russia collusion that went beyond the Steele dossiera statement that was later roundly disproven. As a CNN analyst, she regularly espoused conspiracy theories, such as her claim that Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was seeking a covert channel to Russia, using Russian communications equipment. In advance of her new DOJ position, Hennessey deleted more than 39,000 tweets; however, many have been archived. Her tweets showed the ongoing pattern of a partisan activist, who constantly pushed debunked Trump-Russia narratives and attacked anyone who disagreed. Hennessey, along with Wittes, made outlandish excuses for FBI Director James Comeys actions during the 2016 election, claiming that Comey had to make his public exoneration statement of Hillary Clinton to preempt Russian disinformation. Of course, there was never any evidence for such a claim and, as we have since found out, Comeys first exoneration of Clinton was written months before he read it out on live TVand also before the FBI had even interviewed her. Comeys second exoneration concerned Anthony Weiners laptop, which had nothing to do with Russia. Hennesseys criticisms extended to many of Trumps Cabinet picks. When Trump nominated Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, Hennessey indirectly claimed that he was effectively an agent of Russia. After Trump became president, Hennessey stated that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) lacked the requisite knowledge to be House Intelligence Committee chairman. It was Nunes, however, who uncovered the fact that the Clinton campaign had directly hired Steele and paid for his dossier. Nunes, who issued a formal congressional memo detailing these abuses, was proven to be accurate, while Hennessey was proven wrong. Hennessey also promoted other Russia-collusion theorists and attempted to lend them credibility. She aligned herself with Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Nuness counterpart whose own Russiagate memo was riddled with falsehoods, and referred to him as extremely measured. Carter Page, the Trump adviser who had his life turned upside down based on Steeles lies, was a frequent focus of Hennessey, who claimed as late as December 2019 that Pages rights werent affected as a result of the FISA warrants on him. At least two of the Page FISA surveillance warrant applications have since been deemed to have been illegally obtained, and Page has never been charged with a crime. When DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released his report on FISA misconduct, detailing massive FBI abuses and condemning the bureaus leadership, Hennessey claimed the 478-page report was so insignificant that it didnt even warrant a podcast. When it became known that Obama officials had made hundreds of unmasking requests on members of the Trump campaign in the final months of his presidency, Hennessey claimed there was zero evidence of any abuses. In some respects, Hennesseys appointment to a senior position within the DOJ after years of promoting now-disproven conspiracy theories is a symptom of a larger problem with our government. Monaco Top positions at Bidens DOJ are now staffed by the very people who spent four years pushing Russia collusion narratives that were used to hamstrung the Trump administration and impaired the effectiveness of his presidency. Lisa Monaco, Bidens deputy attorney general, is now the de facto head of the DOJ, a position previously held by Rod Rosenstein. She somehow managed to sail under the radar during her confirmation process as her nomination was only opposed by two GOP senators, Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.). But Monaco, during the final months of the Obama administration, took the White House lead on the Intelligence Community Assessment, the report that was used to both legitimize and broadcast Steeles salacious lies about Trump. The ICA was also used as the roadmap for Russia collusion during the four years of the Trump presidency. Like so many other members of the Obama administration, Monaco went on to work for CNN, where she frequently pushed Russia collusion narratives. And like so many other promoters of Russia collusion, Monaco also had previous ties to the nations intelligence community. Prior to joining the Obama administration, she was Robert Muellers chief of staff at the FBI and also worked closely with Mueller and prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on the Enron Task Force. During her post-Obama years, Monaco also contributed to Lawfare, the Brookings outlet which, as the name suggests, prides itself on weaponizing the law. Lawfare is known not only for advancing Democratic talking points but also for actively making legal recommendations (including to the FBI) through its articles, which are often later picked up by various Democratic interest groupsapparently including a federal judge. During the saga involving Trumps former national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, many of Lawfares talking points appear to have been used by Judge Emmet Sullivan in his quest to extend Flynns trialeven after the DOJ dropped its case. Lawfare also has served as something of a halfway house for former FBI leadershipwith Comey acting as a contributor and James Baker, the former top legal counsel for the FBI, joining both Lawfare and the Brookings Institution. Wittes has long held a friendship with Comey and was the conduit for Comeys memos to The New York Times in 2017. Brookings Bill Clintons college roommate, Strobe Talbott, who was the president of the Brookings Institution from 2002 to 2017, was one of the first known recipients of the Steele dossier. Hennessey later admitted that, while she was at Brookings, she was given an advance copy of the dossier. Another Brookings alumni is Fiona Hill, the Democrats star witness during the first impeachment of President Trump. Hill is an old friend of Christopher Steeles and was responsible for introducing Igor Danchenko to Steele. Danchenko, who served as Steeles primary sub-source, went from years of working for Brookings to later becoming Steeles main source for the dossier, feeding Steele gossip from his childhood friends in Russia, which Steele would then use to construct fantastical stories used in his dossier. While Steeles stories have been proven to be falseand Danchenko has disavowed details in Steeles dossierit remains remarkable that these individuals were so deeply enmeshed with the same Brookings Institution from where Biden is now drawing his staff. Brookingss efforts didnt end with the dossier. Less than six months after Muellers appointmenton Oct. 10, 2017the Brookings Institution published the first of two reports titled Presidential Obstruction of Justice: The Case of Donald J. Trump, which outlined, among other things, a scenario wherein Mueller would refer his obstruction findings to Congress, which would then take up the matter and continue investigating. The Brookings report also discussed ways in which Congress could impeach Trump, mentioning the word impeachment a total of 90 times. Norman Eisen and Barry Berke, two of the authors of the Brookings report, were later retained by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) on a consulting basis as special oversight counsel to the Democrats majority staff. As Nadler noted, the two men would have a particular focus on reviewing Muellers investigation and would be advising the committee. It also appears Nadler intended for the two lawyers to question Attorney General William Barr. Biden himself recently relied on a Brookings study to promote his economic program, claiming that the institution was nonpartisan. Brookings, however, is anything but nonpartisan. Brookings associates spent four years pulling out all the stops to derail Trump, most visibly by ceaselessly advocating the Russia collusion narrative; now, they appear to have been rewarded with top positions in the Biden administration. Its deeply troubling that Brookings alumni Hennessey and Brookings contributor Monaco, both of whom were deeply entangled in promoting the Russia collusion hoax, now have enormously influential positions in the DOJ. The sanctity and integrity of our Justice Department should be one of the most important goals of any administrationregardless of political affiliation. Jeff Carlson is a regular contributor to The Epoch Times. He is a CFA Charterholder and worked for 20 years as an analyst and portfolio manager in the high-yield bond market. He also runs the website TheMarketsWork.com and can be followed on Twitter @themarketswork. Hans Mahncke, Ph.D., is a lecturer, author, and general counsel at a global investment advisory firm. Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal The University of New Mexicos School of Engineering can be a powerful tool for economic development across New Mexico, as long as theres state-level investment and buy-in from the business community, according to the schools dean. The Economic Forum of Albuquerque hosted Christos Christodoulou, UNM dean of engineering and computing, in a webinar Wednesday. During the presentation, Christodoulou said economic development is part of the mission for the engineering program. Additionally, he said, many of the programs key research areas overlap with city and state economic development priorities, from bioscience to aerospace. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ We do know that Albuquerque wants to become a hub of the aerospace industry, Christodoulou said. Well, we already have a lot of activity in that area. With around 2,800 students and 100 tenure-track professors, Christodoulou said, UNMs engineering school is the largest in the state. The school has a number of partnerships with large employers, including Sandia National Laboratories, Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Air Force Research Lab. For example, Christodoulou said the school of engineering is planning to partner with AFRL and Sandia on a new collaborative center that will be built on UNMs South Campus. This will be a unique example where you have a national lab, a federal lab and a flagship university all working together to create the workforce that we need, Christodoulou said. Christodoulou added that the school has partnered with AFRL on a ground station that can track satellites from Earth. The school is also one of five university members of the Sandia Academic Alliance, a partnership between the laboratory and universities across the country. Christodoulou said he wants the school to grow its quantum computing, which he said has the potential to be an area of strength. UNM is going to become a big player in the area of quantum computing and quantum information, he said. Although Christodoulou praised support from the schools alumni, he said the larger business community in New Mexico hasnt been directly involved with the school. Additional support from the state and the business community could help grow both the school and the local workforce, Christodoulou said. If (state leaders) want a better engineering school out of UNM, they have to invest in it, he said. Youve got to invest into these youth. Central Nebraska Veterans Home is searching for a Director of Nursing The Central Nebraska Veterans' Home is looking for a dedicated and passionate Director of Nursing. We are seeking new leadership for our Veterans' Home. We take great pride in taking care of our Veterans'. EEO/AA/VET recblid 8z0jy1wqivq5xrgqwuj4zfnoo6uvxm San Diego, CA, May 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lincoln Military Housing (LMH) is pleased to announce Gail Miller has been named National Vice President of Operations. In this role, Miller will help plan, direct, coordinate, and support daily operations in the organization. She will be responsible for the successful implementation of efficient operational initiatives, ensuring cost-effective systems are developed to meet the current and future needs of LMH and its residents. Miller brings almost 30 years of residential and real estate experience to her role as the National Vice President of Operations. Since the start of her career with LMH, Gail has been aligned with our core mission to serve military families. She has worked tirelessly to spearhead actions that directly improved the lives of more than 12,000 LMH residents while serving the Southwest Navy region and we are excited to see her share her knowledge so that families across our entire portfolio can benefit from her experience, said Philip Rizzo, COO, and CEO, LMH. Ms. Miller joined LMH in 2003. Since then, she has advanced her career with dedication, commitment, and distinction. In 2011, Miller was elevated to the role of Regional Vice President (RVP) for the Southwest Navy region. In that capacity, she worked in tandem with LMHs government partners to establish best practices for daily operations that directly benefited military families. She quickly adopted innovative solutions for many of the complex problems that military families face and worked tirelessly to promote a culture of empowerment, respect, and balance for her teams. In 2020, Miller was promoted to Vice President of Special Projects. In this role, she helped assist with national initiatives, ranging from standardization efforts to company-wide reforms across the 36,000 homes in LMHs portfolio. Miller worked directly with Christy Pemble, CFO, and Philip Rizzo, COO and CEO to support RVPs and ensure that LMH continues to consistently move forward in its goal to provide military families with exemplary service. Time and again, Gail has proven to be a change agent, both for her region and our military families and for our organization at large. We are extremely excited that Gail will have the chance to become more involved in an operational role as she builds upon our highly-regarded reputation in our core competency areas, said Rizzo. Gail Miller attended California Lutheran University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Miller earned an Executive Leadership Certificate from Cornell University and has an active California brokers license. In addition, she is a Certified Property Manager through the Institute of Real Estate Management. In 2008, Miller received the Industry Achievement Award from the San Diego County Apartment Association. She is a past President of the San Diego County Apartment Association and the past president of The Institute of Real Estate Management, San Diego Chapter. Miller has also served as the VP of Finance and Senior VP for the Institute of Real Estate Management, San Diego Chapter. About Lincoln Military Housing Lincoln Military Housing (LMH) was formed in 2001 through a Department of Defense (DOD) contract with parent company Lincoln Property Company. The goal has always been to increase the quality of military housing for our nation's servicemen and women. Since its inception more than a decade ago, Lincoln Military Housing now provides more than 36,000 family homes for military members across the US. Lincoln is much more than a property management company. LMH acts as a support system for military families and offers community-building activities and 24-hour maintenance assistance programs, free, to all of their residents. Services are available for members of all branches of service -- Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, United States Coast Guard, and National Guard. For more information about Lincoln Military Housing, please visit www.lincolnmilitary.com for more information. Attachment Published: 11 May 2021 Biography Dr. Mrs. Yakama Manty Jones (Nee Mara) is the youngest female Director in the Government of Sierra Leones Civil Service in which she currently leads the Research and Delivery Division in the Ministry of Finance. Dr. Jones has a proven track record of civil and public service having started her career as Budget Analyst at the Budget Bureau, Ministry of Finance Sierra Leone at just 19 years old being the youngest University graduate at the time. Dr. Jones is an expert in Development Economics, Finance, International Business, Economic Policy, Econometrics, Data Analysis, Delivery Systems and Project Management. She holds a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Economics from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone; a Postgraduate Diploma in Finance and Economics from the University of Manchester, a Master of Science in Finance and Economics from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, a Masters of Research in International Business and Economic Development from Birkbeck College, University of London , PhD in Finance and Economics from Birkbeck College, University of London, a Certificate in Social Entrepreneurship from the University of Oxford and is an Alumnus of the Harvard Universitys , Harvard Kennedy School of Governments Executive Education Programme ( Economic Development Pathway). During my visits to Sierra Leone for field work during my PhD studies, I noticed that less and less children can read, have access to books or are just interested the reading. The evidence showed that the majority of children cannot read at their level. Therefore, I started the Yak Jones Foundation to bring back the reading culture to Sierra Leone and complement the Governments efforts in the education sector. Dr. Yakama Jones is also the Team Leader for the Policy Pathway initiative, which is part of the Masters of Research in Public Policy, a collaborative Masters Program between the University of Sierra Leone and the Partnership for African Social and Governance Research. She also doubles as a part-time lecturer in the Department of Economics at Fourah Bay College delivering lectures in Econometrics and Statistics. As an entrepreneur Dr. Jones is the Chief Executive Officer of Peninsular Innovative Group, an indigenous company operating in the shipping and manufacturing industries in Sierra Leone. The company is also one of the leading manufacturers of consumables under the brand 'Crystal Clear where they currently produce products such as water, detergent powder, carbonated soft drinks and fruit juices. Dr. Jones, combined her love for learning and education and founded the Yak Jones Foundation. The Yak Jones Foundation promotes literacy by bringing back the culture of reading among children in Sierra Leone. The foundation organises reading, comprehension and quiz competitions for school going children, forms book clubs across the country, and donates mobile libraries and book chests to schools in remote areas of Sierra Leone. As a leader and community activist, Dr. Jones is a member of the 2021 Cohort of Amujae Leaders at Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development and serves on the board several non-profit organisations such as the Asmaa James Foundation, Grirls + and Childrens Education Foundation SL and offers support to others like STEM Women SL, Project Pikin and Girls Taking the Lead. Dr. Jones is a wife and a mother to 2 loving daughters. Why did you choose to study Economics and Finance? Firstly, I am a numbers person. Hated English Literature. Additionally, growing up in a country categorized as least developing, the conversations are mostly around the economy, poverty and money issues. I was therefore motivated to study Economics and Finance so that I would be equipped to contribute my part in fixing this problematic economy and national development. Why did you choose to do your MSc at Queen Mary and Westfield? It was among the few top rated universities that had a very diverse student population in London that offered the combination of Economics and Finance I was looking for. What motivated you to start Peninsular Innovative Group? I co-founded Peninsular Innovative Group with my husband. Even though we were both in full time employment when we started the business we have always believed that the private sector is the engine of growth in any economy. With a growing family and investment interests we decided to supplement our financial needs with a business sooner rather than later. With my husbands expertise in the shipping and logistics industry, we first established Peninsular Innovative Services and providing customs brokerage, freight forwarding and logistics services. After a terrible outbreak of cholera in Sierra Leone in 2012, we decided to expand into the production of safe but affordable drinking water. Today PIG has now further diversified into production of non-alcoholic beverages and detergent powder with plans to expand to other consumer consumables. What inspired you to start the Yak Jones Foundation? I have always been an avid reader and love teaching. However during my visits to Sierra Leone for field work during my PhD studies, I noticed that less and less children can read, have access to books or are just interested the reading. I searched for some statistics just to make sure I was not imagining things. The evidence showed that the majority of children cannot read at their level. Therefore, I started the Yak Jones Foundation to bring back the reading culture to Sierra Leone and complement the Governments efforts in the education sector. Do you have any particularly fond memories of Queen Mary? I loved the architecture and atmosphere at the Mile End campus especially the canal during summer. What gets you through the tough times? Prayer, reading, listening to music and an innate determination to not fail. I believe I was not created to do the bare minimum and that better is always possible. This profile was conducted by Alumni Engagement Coordinator, Hannah. If you would like to get in touch with Yakama or engage her in your work, please contact Hannah at h.dormor@qmul.ac.uk. A photo posted on the Mutianyu Great Wall's official WeChat account shows two foreigners climbing over the Great Wall on April 30. Two Senegalese tourists were blacklisted for having crossed over an undeveloped part of the Great Wall on April 30 in Huairou District, Beijing, Beijing Daily reported today. Other tourists discovered and reported the two after witnessing them climbing on the wall despite a sign that says "No crossing" at the No. 20 defending tower of the Mutianyu Great Wall. The office at Mutianyu Great Wall scenic area tracked down information on the two Senegalese through a ticketing and monitoring system after receiving the report. They are prohibited from buying tickets to the Great Wall in the future. The area outside the No. 20 defending tower is closed to the public. Many walls have collapsed and others are riddled with loose bricks. Climbing on the undeveloped part of the Great Wall is not only dangerous, but also damages its historical appearance, according to the report. KOMU 8 Reporter/Digital Producer My name is Drew Cusumano and I'm a senior Mizzou student studying Journalism with an interest area in Sports TV & Radio Broadcasting. If you need to contact me you can e-mail me at dvc62f@mail.missouri.edu Updated 6/7/21 Does Northwestern require students or employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19? Northwestern will require COVID-19 vaccination for all students (including exchange and visiting students) in on-campus programs (including the Evanston, Chicago, Qatar, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco campuses) for the 2021-22 academic year. Making the announcement in May gives students the opportunity to complete their vaccination before they leave Illinois at the end of the Spring Term. At this time, faculty and staff are not be required to be vaccinated, but are strongly encouraged to get vaccinated. There are no current vaccination requirements for contractors or other visitors (including visiting scholars or visiting researchers). Why will Northwestern require students to be vaccinated beginning in Fall 2021? Northwestern is requiring COVID-19 vaccination following recommendations from our medical and public health partners. Ensuring students are vaccinated will best allow Northwestern to resume normal operations on campus in the Fall and support in-person classes and activities for students. Northwesterns requirement will support the public health goals of the State of Illinois to vaccinate as many people as possible. The vast majority of COVID-19 transmission in the Northwestern community to date has occurred among students. Which vaccines are approved to meet Northwesterns requirement? At this time, any vaccine authorized by the FDA or the WHO will satisfy Northwesterns vaccine requirement. That includes vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Covishield. How can students sign up to receive a vaccine? Students who still want a vaccination are encouraged to fill out this form, and the Universitys vaccination team will contact you to provide options for receiving a vaccine. Can students choose which vaccine to receive on campus? Northwestern doesnt control which types of vaccines it receives from the State of Illinois. Students who have a preference for a vaccine not offered by Northwestern will need to arrange for vaccinations elsewhere. How can students report their vaccination status or request an exception? Students can report their vaccination status or request an exception through the COVID-19 Vaccination Form. Do students who already submitted a voluntary vaccination self-disclosure need to complete another vaccination report? Yes, students will need to complete this additional process, which will require documentation of vaccination status. What is the deadline for students to report their vaccination status? Students must have their vaccination or exception on record in order to register for classes. Registration for Fall programs generally takes place mid-July to mid-August. Fall Quarter registration for new Evanston students begins in early September. Students are encouraged to receive a vaccination and provide documentation as soon as they are able. Students not able to meet the requirement prior to arriving at Northwestern (such as international students) will need to apply for an initial exception in order to be able to register for classes. Students are asked to complete the COVID-19 Vaccination Form before July 12, 2021 to avoid a registration hold. Can students seek an exception to the vaccination requirement? Yes. Information about seeking an exception to the vaccination requirement, including for health conditions or religious reasons, was communicated in early June. Students receiving a vaccination exception will be required to participate in increased levels of COVID-19 testing, masking, symptom tracking and quarantine/isolation protocols while they are on campus. Please note, students who wish to seek an exception to the vaccine requirement due to emergency-use authorization status may do so. However, students who receive an exception related to emergency-use authorization status must be vaccinated once full FDA approval is received for any COVID-19 vaccine, unless they apply for and receive another exception at the time of full FDA approval. Are students who live and take classes in a state that doesnt allow for vaccine requirements required to get the vaccine? Students who are taking classes exclusively in a state that prohibits vaccine requirements and/or prohibits educational institutions from asking for proof of COVID-19 vaccination are not required to be vaccinated. Students in this situation should seek an exception through the process noted above. Northwestern still strongly encourages vaccination, and there may be other requirements to access campus in the Fall. What are the health conditions approved to seek an exemption? The CDC has provided information on l contraindications related to COVID-19 vaccines. Your personal health care provider should help determine whether you have a health condition preventing you from getting vaccinated. What happens if students dont comply with the vaccine requirement? Students who have not been fully vaccinated or have not received an exception through the COVID-19 Vaccination Form will not be able to register for Fall classes. Will vaccinated students still need to be tested on a regular basis in the Fall? What about wearing masks or social distancing? At this time, we expect to significantly reduce asymptomatic surveillance testing for those who are vaccinated. More information on these topics will be provided as public health guidance evolves. Do students need to be vaccinated if they dont live in the residence halls and dont plan to socialize with other students? Yes, any student planning to access campus for any reason is required to be vaccinated. Are students enrolled in online-only programs required to be vaccinated? Students enrolled in online-only programs and not accessing campus for any reason will be exempted from the vaccination requirement. Applicable programs will communicate to their students that they are exempt from this requirement. If you have questions on if this requirement applies to you, ask your program administrator Are students in mostly online programs required to be vaccinated? Yes, students who are in programs that meet predominately online but include mandatory on campus sessions, however few, are required to be vaccinated. Do students need to be vaccinated if they have already been diagnosed with COVID-19? What happens if someone contracts COVID-19 too closely to the deadline to get vaccinated before arriving on campus? Yes, all students are required to be vaccinated, even if they have already had COVID-19. Students are encouraged get vaccinated as soon as possible to avoid this situation. Students who are not able to meet the vaccination requirement due to a recent COVID diagnosis will be required to get vaccinated on campus or elsewhere as soon as they have met the appropriate window of time post-diagnosis. You may request a temporary exception through the COVID-19 Vaccination Form. Once you receive guidance from your health care provider that you are cleared to receive the vaccine (typically this window is 90 days or less), you will be required to submit documentation of full vaccination or to request an exception. What if I am not able to get vaccinated due to receiving antibody therapy? You may request a temporary exception through the COVID-19 Vaccination Form. Once you receive guidance from your health care provider that you are cleared to receive the vaccine (typically this window in 90 days), you will be required to submit documentation of full vaccination to request a different exception. Does the vaccine requirement apply to international students? Yes. Students, including international students, must receive a vaccine authorized by the FDA or the WHO. What if I received a vaccine not approved by the FDA or WHO? The CDC has stated: People who completed or partially completed a COVID-19 vaccine series with a vaccine that is not authorized by FDA or not authorized for emergency use by WHO may be offered an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine series. International students who have concerns about receiving an FDA or WHO approved vaccine after previously receiving a non-approved vaccine should consult with their own health care provider and, if needed, seek an exception through COVID-19 Vaccination Form. Similar to other students granted exceptions, students who receive this exception will face heightened testing, masking, symptom tracking, and quarantine/isolation protocols. If a student is not able to receive an approved vaccine before arriving on campus, can they be vaccinated upon arrival? Yes. Students needing vaccination when they arrive will have access at Northwesterns Health Service. Students can receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which will meet the vaccination requirement immediately. Students who receive a two-dose vaccine upon arrival will not meet the vaccination requirement until they complete the full vaccine regime. It is important to note students who have fulfilled their vaccine requirement are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after their final dose of a vaccine series, and may have additional requirements during that time (such as increased testing and masking). Should international students who have been vaccinated by a non-approved vaccine disclose that information? International students may disclose this but will still need to submit another record with a vaccine that meets the Northwestern requirement. Will vaccination records that are in a language other than English satisfy documentation requirements? If possible, Northwestern requests the documentation be uploaded in English. If that is not possible, it may take additional time to validate documentation. Do I need to submit the Vaccination Form if I was vaccinated through a Northwestern Vaccination Event? No, if you were vaccinated through a Northwestern Vaccination event, we have your records on file and there is no further action required. What do I do if I lost my vaccination card documenting that I received the vaccine? GATINEAU, QC, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Nurses are the heroes of the health care system and have shown tremendous resiliency at the forefront of Canada's COVID-19 pandemic response. They work hard every day to care for their patients, and their courage and commitment keep communities safe and healthy. Internationally trained nurses too often face challenges getting their credentials recognized in Canada in order to access quality jobs in health care. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of reducing the time it takes for them to complete their certification or licensure, in order to meet the health care system's urgent need for nurses. That is why today, on International Nurses' Day and during National Nursing Week, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, announced over $2.3 million for three projects that will help nurses put their education and skills to work sooner: Progress Career Planning Institute received $795,098 to bridge the gap between the requirements for licensed professionals and the existing skills of newcomer nurses to help them successfully transition into the workforce. Nurses will also learn about certification requirements and develop specific skills needed to acquire their licence so they can take up jobs. received to bridge the gap between the requirements for licensed professionals and the existing skills of newcomer nurses to help them successfully transition into the workforce. Nurses will also learn about certification requirements and develop specific skills needed to acquire their licence so they can take up jobs. Touchstone Institute received $799,014 to support internationally trained nurses with an online self-assessment tool that uses artificial intelligence speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence writing assistance technology for diagnosis and feedback. Nurses will be able to use this tool as well as online modules to meet the requirement for official certification. received to support internationally trained nurses with an online self-assessment tool that uses artificial intelligence speech recognition technology and artificial intelligence writing assistance technology for diagnosis and feedback. Nurses will be able to use this tool as well as online modules to meet the requirement for official certification. McMaster University received $799,989 to support internationally trained nurses through skills upgrading and individual employment supports, including access to job postings and referrals to employers with available jobs. Employers will also benefit from the project by being equipped with tools to help them hire more internationally trained nurses. These supports will help newcomers get quality jobs faster, grow their careers, support their families and contribute to their communities as we work to build back better from the COVID-19 pandemic. Quote "Helping skilled nurses find and keep good, well-paying jobs is part of our plan to support Canada's recovery from the pandemic. Our investment today will help internationally trained nurses get their foreign credentials recognized and take up jobs and will help address the shortage of nursing staff we are experiencing during the pandemic. Their experience and expertise will help keep Canadians safe and communities healthy." Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough Quick Facts The Foreign Credential Recognition Program funds provinces and territories and regulatory bodies to enhance foreign credential recognition processes (e.g. reduce the number of steps to complete the process). The Program also funds organizations to provide loans and support services to help skilled newcomers with the cost and complexity of foreign credential recognition processes, and to provide employment supports (e.g. mentoring, work placements) to help skilled newcomers acquire Canadian work experience related to their professional background or field of study. In the 2020 Fall Economic Statement, the Government of Canada announced that it will invest $15 million in 202122 in the Foreign Credential Recognition Program to scale up and expand existing supports with a focus on in-demand sectors, such as health, information technology and the skilled trades. Up to 7,000 skilled newcomers are expected to benefit from this investment. announced that it will invest in 202122 in the Foreign Credential Recognition Program to scale up and expand existing supports with a focus on in-demand sectors, such as health, information technology and the skilled trades. Up to 7,000 skilled newcomers are expected to benefit from this investment. Internationally educated nurses represent 8.9% of Canada's regulated nursing supply. regulated nursing supply. More than 25,000 nurses immigrated to Canada in the last 10 years. in the last 10 years. Half of newcomers to Canada have a bachelor's degree or greater. Even with their educational achievements, skilled newcomers face a higher unemployment rate than that of people born in Canada and are less likely to work in the regulated occupations for which they have studied. have a bachelor's degree or greater. Even with their educational achievements, skilled newcomers face a higher unemployment rate than that of people born in and are less likely to work in the regulated occupations for which they have studied. Recent immigrants have a lower employment rate (68.5%) than non-immigrants (82%), according to the 2016 Census. Visible minority newcomer women are more likely to be unemployed. The unemployment rate of visible minority newcomer women (8.6%) is higher than that of visible minority men (6.7%) and non-visible minority immigrant men (5.5%), based on the 2016 Census. Associated Links Foreign Credential Recognition Program Credential assessment in Canada Fall Economic Statement 2020 Budget 2021 Follow us on Twitter SOURCE Employment and Social Development Canada For further information: For media enquiries, please contact: Marielle Hossack, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough, [email protected]; Media Relations Office, Employment and Social Development Canada, 819-994-5559, [email protected] Related Links www.hrsdc-rhdsc.gc.ca A cavalcade of cars has passed through Ballymurphy thanking the community for its support over the past 50 years. The convoy made its way through the streets on Tuesday evening beeping horns, hours after a coroner ruled that the 10 people killed in the west Belfast shootings involving British soldiers in Ballymurphy in August 1971 were entirely innocent. The occupants of the vehicles waved white flags with the word innocent on them. Briege Voyle, daughter of victim Joan Connolly, releases doves in the Ballymurphy area (Liam McBurney/PA) Locals lined the streets cheering and clapping, and banged bin lids on the footpaths as the cars made their way past. Banging bin lids on the streets was done during the Troubles to warn people the Army was in the area. The cars passed by the houses of some of the victims. The families of those killed have not been able to hold a large gathering due to Covid-19 public health restrictions. One of the cavalcade with a white flag bearing victim, Edward Dohertys picture and the word innocent (Liam McBurney/PA) Earlier there were jubilant scenes outside Belfast Coroners Court as the families of those shot in Ballymurphy emerged to cheers from supporters. Mrs Justice Keegan ruled out any paramilitary involvement by any of those killed in Ballymurphy, and described them as entirely innocent of any wrongdoing on the day in question. The Army was found to be responsible for nine of the 10 deaths in August 1971, which included a mother of eight and a Catholic priest. Premier John Horgan is joined by David Eby during a press conference at Legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Wednesday, May 15, 2019. Officials in Penticton, B.C., are appealing to Premier John Horgan in the latest twist related to a bitter dispute over a temporary shelter in the Okanagan city. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito Army Vet With PTSD Became Gang KidnapperUntil 11 Years in Prison Reformed Him to Help Other Vets A former soldier has turned his life around after getting mixed up in kidnapping for a gang and serving an 11-year prison term. Now, hes helping other veterans stay off the streets, hoping to keep people from making the same mistakes he made. I was in a bad way, Darren Wright told The Manchester Evening News. I didnt want to live. I just didnt care about life. Thats how it felt after Darren left the military and returned to civilian life. Darren Wright serving in active duty in Afghanistan. (Courtesy of Veterans into Logistics) When I joined, the army became my family. When you leave you miss all that, he said. Darren had joined the army to get a better life for himself and his kids, but he was unprepared for the challenges that lay ahead. I tried taking my own life and spent three months in a wheelchair, he said. I threw myself in front of a car. He started self-medicating with drugs and alcohol, grew distant from family, and soon became involved in a criminal lifestyle. Darren Wright (L) and a fellow soldier. (Courtesy of Veterans into Logistics) Darren Wright serving in Afghanistan. (Courtesy of Veterans into Logistics) Its a spiral Darren calls common, wherein former army veterans become recruited by gangs. Particularly for those whose heads arent in the right place after returning home with PTSD and other adjustment issues, the offer can be tempting. For Darren, the spiral lasted two years. I did that for two years. Two years not being a parent, two years wanting to die, he said. However, when a gang job went awry, Darren was caught and convicted of kidnapping. He spent the next 11 years in prison, where he got sober and committed to turning his life around. According to the veteran, prison saved his life. I would not be talking to you now if I had not got a custodial sentence, he said. It was in prison that I got the help I needed, and the support. Darren Wright when he was in the army (L) and a more recent photo after returning home. (Courtesy of Veterans into Logistics) During his sentence, Darren was diagnosed with PTSD. He feels that if hed been diagnosed before returning to civilian life, all of this couldve been avoided. I wouldnt have ended up in prison, my kids wouldnt have grown up without a dad. Instead, I was left to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs, he says, adding that he feels deep remorse for the distress he caused to others by living a life of crime. I wasnt mentally right, he added. It is a shame that I had to commit a crime and get sent to prison to get correctly diagnosed from suffering from PTSD. If only the MOD took better care of the individuals who fight for their country. (Left) Darren Wright; (Right) Darren Wright (R) with a fellow soldier. (Courtesy of Veterans into Logistics) In the UK, an estimated 50,000 military veterans struggle with mental illness, and thousands are on the streets or in prison, reported iNews. Veterans returning from deployments in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan often suffer from PTSD or other traumatic brain injuries, which directly contribute to the risk of becoming homeless. You never see a homeless former officer on the streets, Darren told The Manchester Evening News. It is the kid from a council estate and a disadvantaged background who joined the army, did five years, served his country as a perfect foot soldier, and leaves with no support. They are the ones that end up on the street, in prison, or take their own life. Sergeant Jamie Doyle took his own life after 22 years of service. (Courtesy of Veterans into Logistics) Its an experience Darren is all too familiar with; not only because of his own obstacles but also those of his military friends, as well. Before Darrens struggle began, a close friend, Sergeant Jamie Doyle, had taken his own life after 22 years of service. Like so many others, Jamie failed to reacclimate to society and couldnt cope with the aftereffects of serving. Thats why Darren took it upon himself to help other army veterans and steer them onto the right path after returning from deployment. The organization he conceived, Veterans Into Logistics, aims to provide support, training, and employment aid to veterans while they reintegrate into their former lives. Former military servicemen, and a servicewoman, who have benefited from training provided by the organization Darren Wright conceived, Veterans Into Logistics. (Courtesy of Veterans into Logistics) Darren hopes his efforts will not only aid other veterans but also honor the memory of those who sacrificed so much for their countrythose like Jamie. Jamies memory will lead the way in supporting ex-military personnel to begin new careers, Darren told the local publication. I wish he was here to see the positive impact that Veterans into Logistics will have on veterans and their lives. If you or a veteran you know are struggling with PTSD or other mental health issues, please reach out to Veterans Into Logistics for support by clicking here. For those struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline immediately. U.S.: 1-800-273-8255 UK: +44 (0) 8457 90 90 90. 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 Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has penned an emotional appeal, seeking help from the international community, as a crushing second wave of Covid-19 hit the country and incapacitated its health system. Our urgent goal is to stop preventable deaths occurring, he wrote in The Guardian, requesting supplies of vaccines, diagnostic tools, oxygen kits, critical care medicines and equipment, to aid the countrys efforts and save lives. The landlocked country depends on its neighbour India for most of its supplies. However, with India facing a grim situation itself, supplies to Nepal have dried up, creating a vacuum of vaccines and oxygen. Nepals daily infections had stayed at around 150 at the beginning of April; the figure has passed 9,000 in about a month. More than 4,000 people have died so far. Read | Maldives bans travel from South Asia as Covid-19 cases soar Oli wrote that while the country had taken steps to expand testing, tracing and treatment, the sheer scale of the pandemic has strained resources and infrastructure, and the pandemic is turning out to be an overwhelming burden. This pandemic has highlighted once again the vast gulf between the rich and poor worlds, Oli wrote in the publication. This gap should be minimised by making the vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics more accessible to all. Billions of people in the global south still do not know when the Covid-19 vaccine will be made available to them. Solidarity with these nations is essential. Also Read | Tragic Covid-19 situation in India should raise alarm bells for all of us: UNICEF Oli made a special appeal to the United Kingdom, as the current chair of the G7 and a champion of human welfare, to use its influence to help accelerate the deployment of vaccines around the world, especially to countries that need them most urgently. When it comes to the United Kingdom, our expectation of solidarity is high at this difficult time, given the close historical ties that we have nurtured, Oli wrote, adding: After all, we are living in an interconnected and interlinked world; this disease affects everyone. Nobody is safe until everyone is safe. Nguyen Thi Hong Cuc proves that education truly is a lifelong process. Nguyen Thi Hong Cuc (right) at the thesis defence in May last year. Photo the Voice of HCM City People In May last year, Cuc earned her doctorate from HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities with a doctoral thesis on the development of non-public universities in HCM City at the age of 68. She was named on the list of 20 most inspirational women in Vietnam in 2021 released by Forbes Vietnam magazine recently. Not giving up her passion, at the age of 68 and just recovered from a stroke, she successfully defended her doctoral thesis after seven years of research, wrote Forbes Viet Nam about Cuc. Indeed, Cuc is one of the oldest graduates from her university and in Vietnam to date. After graduating from the University of Literature in 1975, Cuc didnt do anything related to her philosophy degree but went to Dong Nai Province's Bien Hoa City to do farm work. However, 10 years later, she decided to back to the Social Science Institute for a master's degree in history due to her passion for learning. Then she worked as a lecturer at Hung Vuong University and was responsible for consultant and enrolment activities. After retiring in 2012, she wanted to research the non-public university system. Cuc wanted to interview knowledgeable people in this field but was turned down because people didnt clearly understand the purpose of the interview. That's the reason why I decided to enrol in a PhD programme majoring in Vietnam's early modern and modern history at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities under Vietnam National University HCM City in 2013. "As a postgraduate, I had the chance to meet a lot of people, including former ministers of education and training, she said. In her dissertation, Cuc outlined an overview of the non-public universities in HCM City. It included the Government's policies and the formation and development of this type of universities. The dissertation clarified emerging problems in the organisation and management of non-public universities as well as their contribution to the city. It also pointed out achievements, shortcomings and suggested several solutions. She emphasised the development of the non-public university model was indispensable for the country's development cause. "The development of non-public universities in HCM City now and in the near future is likely to expand quickly due to the market's huge demand for labour," she said. These schools would enter a period of effective operation in the near future, she said, adding that with special advantages, schools in HCM City would grow faster. Cuc said she started writing the thesis in 2016 but faced a lot of difficulties in finding statistics. During this time, she travelled to Hanoi many times to look for information at the Ministry of Education and Training and National Archives Centre. For her, the biggest obstacle has been her deteriorating health. I dont think older people are more knowledgeable than young ones but due to my old age, everyone is very enthusiastic to help me, Cuc said. The challenges in finding the resources, along with old age problems, threatened her ability to complete the programme. However, she accomplished it. It took a lot of efforts, support and understanding from lecturers, tutors and the History Faculty, Cuc said. Luu Van Quyet, Dean of the History Faculty of the university, praised Cuc and her work at the university. We appreciate Cucs great determination and efforts over the past seven years. Cuc enrolled on the doctoral programme when she was 63 years old and now she is nearly 69 years old. "There were times when we thought she would give up because she suffered a mild stroke after the preliminary round of her thesis defence. However, she still strived to make it through the final round." During the thesis defence session which lasted more than three hours Cuc remained calm, gave a good presentation and answered all the questions raised by members of the thesis committee, he said. "This proved that she was serious in her studies regardless of her age and she acted as a motivation for the younger generation to follow. Cuc is a shining example for all of us to never give up the thirst for learning, Quyet said. During the thesis defence session which lasted more than three hours 68-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Cuc remained calm and answered all the questions raised by members of the thesis committee. Photo http:// voh.com.vn According to Vo Van Sen, one of Cucs two advisors, who is also the former principal of HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, there are two trends in the world. The first is that young people study and defend their doctoral thesis when they are young. The other trend is people who have devoted themselves to their sector, accumulate knowledge and experience, then when they retire they go back to university to continue studying and publish their lifelong scientific works. This research is not like that of young graduate students. It is considered a lifetime accumulation of expertise in the form of a doctoral thesis. Nguyen Thi Hong Cuc is a typical example. She has worked in the education sector most of her life. Her thesis is a combination of her experience and research of her whole life, Sen said. Her thesis is completed but Cuc still keeps the habit of going to the library every day, reading books and looking for documents. She plans to continue researching some topics including journalism, religion and culture in ancient Sai Gon. "Studying makes me comfortable and shrewd in my old age. For me, a PhD is not as important as completing scientific research that I have been fond of for a long time", she told Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper. VNS 63-year-old woman enrolls in university to pursue study path An elderly woman in District 8 in Ho Chi Minh City decided to continue her study at a Van Hien University in her sixties. OTTAWA, ON, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Today the federal government announced the formation of the Sustainable Finance Action Council, fulfilling one of the recommendations of the Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance. Following the announcement, Don Forgeron, President and CEO, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC), issued the following statement: "Insurance Bureau of Canada is pleased to see the formation of the Sustainable Finance Action Council. We anticipate the Council will articulate a long-term policy framework and road map for low emissions and climate-resilient growth, and develop a capital plan to meet these goals. We will be watching its progress with enthusiasm, as the Council will focus on issues of importance to our industry and to all Canadians. Insurers continue to stress the need to coordinate physical and transition risk data through a Canadian Centre for Climate Information and Analytics. Consistent disclosure of climate-related financial risk is essential to incentivize the investment needed to transition Canada to a net-zero, resilient economy by 2050. Mobilizing private sector capital is critical to financing the transition to a low-carbon economy. Around the world, institutions and investors are increasingly factoring environmental, social and governance considerations into their business and investment decisions, and evaluating the climate change risks and climate action opportunities of their assets and portfolios. Developing sustainable finance in Canada will promote the long term growth and stability of our financial system in the face of climate change. Sustainable finance will also create new opportunities for Canadian businesses and investors. The creation of the Council is a win for Canada and will benefit Canadians in the near and long term." Additional information on the Sustainable Finance Action Council: The goal of this Council will be to make recommendations on critical market infrastructure needed to attract and scale sustainable finance in Canada in order to enhance climate disclosures and ensure access to sustainability data and climate risks. As well, the Action Council will develop standards for investments to be identified as sustainable. Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Minister of Finance jointly appointed the Expert Panel on Sustainable Finance in April 2018 to explore this field and to make recommendations to scale and align sustainable finance in Canada. In 2019, the Panel made a series of recommendations, one of which was to launch a Sustainable Finance Action Council. In its 2020 fall economic statement, the Canadian government allocated $7.3 million dollars over the next three years to fund this Sustainable Finance Action Council. About Insurance Bureau of Canada Insurance Bureau of Canada is the national industry association representing Canada's private home, auto and business insurers. Its member companies make up 90% of the property and casualty (P&C) insurance market in Canada. For more than 50 years, IBC has worked with governments across the country to help make affordable home, auto and business insurance available for all Canadians. IBC supports the vision of consumers and governments trusting, valuing and supporting the private P&C insurance industry. It champions key issues and helps educate consumers on how best to protect their homes, cars, businesses and properties. For media releases and more information, visit IBC's Media Centre at www.ibc.ca. Follow us on Twitter @InsuranceBureau and like us on Facebook. If you have a question about home, auto or business insurance, contact IBC's Consumer Information Centre at 1-844-2ask-IBC. SOURCE Insurance Bureau of Canada For further information: Media Contact: Vanessa Barrasa, Manager, Media Relations, 416-550-9062, [email protected] Related Links www.ibc.ca Local News, Crime, Community, Charity & Cause, Press Releases By Chris Boyle Published: May 12 2021 Legislator Mule joined her colleagues in the Legislature in the audience during the ceremony at the Cradle of Aviation Museum. Nassau County Legislator Debra Mule (D - Freeport) congratulated the 21 new Nassau County correction officers who were sworn in during a ceremony at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Saturday, May 1. Legislator Mule joined her colleagues in the Legislature in the audience during the ceremony, which was led by Nassau County Executive Laura Curran. Nassau County is one of the safest counties in the country, and this is possible due to the law enforcement professionals who take an oath to serve and protect the public, Legislator Mule said. It was a privilege to attend this ceremony with my colleagues and wish each of the graduates all the best as they embark upon their careers. NEW YORK (AP) A man suspected of shooting three bystanders in New Yorks Times Square was arrested Wednesday in Florida, four days after the gunfire wounded people including a 4-year-old girl out toy shopping in the tourist haven known as "the Crossroads of the World. Farrakhan Muhammad was taken into custody while eating lunch in a McDonald's parking lot near Jacksonville, police said. While there is no joy today, there is justice, New York City Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said. Muhammad, 31, was listed Wednesday in an inmate database for the sheriff's office in Bradford County, Florida. Information on a lawyer who could speak on his behalf was not immediately available. Muhammad is suspected of wounding the three victims with stray bullets during a dispute at about 5 p.m. Saturday in Times Square, where police said he was apparently selling CDs. Wendy Magrinat, a 23-year-old tourist visiting from Rhode Island, was shot in the leg. A 43-year-old woman from New Jersey was shot in the foot. The 4-year-old girl, from Brooklyn, was also shot in the leg. Magrinat, who was in the city for a Mother's Day trip, told the Daily News she was screaming, "I dont want to die, I dont want to die, I have a 2-year-old, after being hit by a bullet that will likely remain lodged in her leg for the rest of her life. Muhammad was apparently aiming for his brother, but investigators haven't yet pinpointed the motive, chief of detectives James Essig said. Police released videos and photos of Muhammad and asked the public for help tracking him down, and Essig said many people called in with tips. Muhammad's family made a public plea for him to turn himself in. Officers identified Muhammad as a suspect within hours and soon realized he was heading south, Essig said. Video then captured Muhammad and a woman, believed to be his girlfriend, buying dog food and other supplies at a store in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Meanwhile, investigators realized he had connections to some addresses in Florida. The U.S. Marshals Service caught up with the two on Wednesday as they were eating in a car outside a McDonald's in Starke, Florida, police said. Two dogs were with the pair when they were arrested, with French fries lying on the car's floor, police said. Muhammad had shaved off some of his hair, Essig said. The woman has not been arrested on any charges, but police consider her a person of interest in their ongoing investigation. Police believe the two had been living together in a building near Times Square. ___ Associated Press writers David Fischer in Miami and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report. BANDON secondary school St Brogans College held its very own Model United Nations Conference on Tuesday. The annual conference, which is hosted by Cork Education and Training Board, normally sees hundreds of Irish students, as well as students from foreign countries enter into a series of gripping debates on issues of pressing global importance. This years event, however, which would have been held in City Hall, was canceled due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic. The students of St Brogans College in Bandon did not want to miss out on the opportunity to learn and debate. They duly organised their own Model United Nations Conference and the topics discussed were: The question of the rights, role and treatment of women in developing countries, the question of promoting responsible consumption and ethical production of food products and the question of a nations rights to determine their own form of Government. Cian Walsh excelled in the role of Secretary General for the Model UN. He was accompanied by Michael O'Donovan and Sarah Appelbe rotating in the role as Chair. The Deputy Secretary-General was Ella Murray, with Jack Downes and Rachel O'Driscoll rotating as Co. Chair. Jack Downes, a TY student in St. Brogans College said: A group of 28 students participated. They debated and discussed very important issues that the world is experiencing right now. Principal Helen Cadogan commented: Debating and discussing topics such as the rights, role and treatment of women in developing countries and a nations right to determine their own form of government; these are very serious concerns for many people around the world. It makes me very proud to see the young students of St. Brogans treat these topics with the gravity that they deserve, she said. Words of encouragement were heard in pre-recorded video messages by Sean Kelly MEP and Minister Simon Coveney. The students also heard from Grace O'Sullivan MEP from the Green Party and the UN Youth Delegates Conn McCarrick and Tara Grace Connolly. What just happened? Xiaomi will no longer be placed on a blacklist that stops US entities from investing in the Chinese company. The phone giant and the Department of Defense have come to an agreement after the former sued the US government over its designation as a "Communist Chinese military company." In one of the final acts by the Trump administration, Xiaomi joined nine other Chinese companies on the Pentagon blacklist on January 15, just days before Joe Biden's inauguration. Firms on the list are subject to an executive order from November 2020 that prohibits Americans from trading or investing in them. It also orders Americans with holdings to sell their stakes within one year. Xiaomi, which has repeatedly denied any association with the Chinese government or military, sued the US government over the "irreparable harm" it said would be caused by the ban. The company claimed it is "unconstitutional because it deprives Xiaomi of its liberty and property rights without due process of law," thereby violating the Fifth Amendment. In March, District Judge Rudolph Contreras sided with Xiaomi, issuing a preliminary injunction that granted a temporary ban to the restrictions, which the US didn't appeal. It appears that Xiaomi and the DoD have now settled their differences, having "agreed that a final order vacating the January 14, 2021 designation of Xiaomi Corporation as a CCMC [] would be appropriate." As reported by The Verge, the two parties plan to negotiate on an order vacating agency action, with a joint proposal expected before May 20. Earlier this month, we heard of a Xiaomi patent that reveals an under-display rotating camera for selfies and rear-facing photography. Defense attaches of Sweden, Denmark and Norway on Wednesday, May 12, as part of their official visit to the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) zone in Donbas, visited military unit No. 3,035, as well as one of the checkpoints of the National Guard of Ukraine, the National Guard's press service reports. "Today's events are only a part of the visit program of a foreign delegation to get acquainted with the security policy, the operational situation in the JFO area and the current state of implementation of tasks to suppress fire and stabilize the line of demarcation of the sides," the report said. It specifies that the delegation included Defense Attache at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Sweden in Ukraine Captain 1st Rank Bjorn Vilbern, Defense Attache at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark in Ukraine Captain 1st Rank Felix Ebbestad, and Defense Attache at the Embassy of the Kingdom of Norway in Ukraine Lieutenant Colonel Boye Lillerud. "At the 15th Sloviansk Regiment, the foreign delegation was familiarized with the features of the functions of the National Guard in the JFO area and presented samples of military equipment and weapons that are used by National Guard's units," the National Guard notes. They add that on the territory of the unit, defense attaches paid tribute to the dead Ukrainian soldiers near the Stele of Memory. The delegation also visited one of the checkpoints. On the spot, foreign colleagues got acquainted with the specifics and conditions of service of the Joint Forces' guards, who provide isolation and restrictive measures. As reported, on May 11, representatives of Kyiv Association of Military Attaches visited units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which perform tasks on the line of contact with the enemy and became acquainted with the infrastructure and work of the Zolote entry-exit checkpoint. Two virus strains with a strong transmissible ability have been detected in Vietnam. New Covid-19 outbreaks have been reported in many localities within very short time periods, sometimes within two days. Since April 27, Vietnam has recorded 501 locally-transmitted cases in 26 provinces and cities. The largest outbreaks have occurred in Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Da Nang, and Bac Giang, where the number of cases has increased sharply each day. This is the largest outbreak in the country so far. Dr. Tran Dac Phu, Senior Advisor of the Center for Emergency Response to Public Health Events, said that the current outbreak is more complicated than previous ones. The expert said that Vietnam is coping with the British and Indian variants, which spread rapidly and can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines. Dr. Tran Dac Phu, Senior Advisor at the Center for Emergency Response to Public Health Events. "The new strain spreads very quickly, causing outbreaks after only 1-2 days like the cases in Mao Dien commune in Thuan Thanh district, Bac Ninh province. Within just four days, this commune had 72 out of the 90 cases of infection in the whole province," Dr. Phu said. During the ongoing wave of Covid-19, sites of transmission have occurred in hospitals, on planes, at bars, karaoke and massage parlors, wedding parties, and beer restaurants and festivals, which are all crowded, high-risk places. Dr. Phu said that all of these places had been previously warned by the Ministry of Health about the risk of spreading the virus. If local authorities had taken preventive plans early, they would have successfully prevented the new outbreaks. However, the senior expert said that the epidemic in Vietnam is still under control. Most of the sources of transmission have been identified. For example, in the North, all outbreaks are mainly related to the Hanoi-based National Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Medical workers take samples for Covid-19 test for people in the central city of Da Nang on May 6. Photo: Ho Giap Professor Nguyen Quang Tuan, Director of the Hanoi-based Bach Mai Hospital, one of Vietnams largest hospitals, said that the new strain has a very fast pace of transmission. "There are cases who have symptoms, with the virus concentration in the oropharynx large enough to test positive only 1-2 days after having contact with Covid-19 patients," said Professor Tuan. The rate of complications in the lungs is also higher. In the northern province of Ha Nam, four out of seven patients had complications in the lungs in the first week, showing that the disease can progress very quickly. The fatality rate caused by the new variants is much higher than the old strains, so we must be very vigilant. Viruses that spread quickly make it much more difficult to prevent the epidemic, so the people must follow the 5K message, said Professor Tuan. The Ministry of Health has encouraged people to follow its 5K message in Vietnamese, namely Khau Trang (face mask), Khu khuan (Disinfection), Khoang cach (Distance). Khong tap trung (No gathering), and Khai bao y te (Health declaration). Thuy Hanh Where is Vietnam on the Covid-19 vaccination map? Compared with neighboring countries such as Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand, the rate of vaccination against Covid-19 in Vietnam is still low, accounting for only 0.86% of the population. Description Temple Israel, Lawrence, cordially invites you to attend the Virtual Book & Author event "The Dairy Restaurant," with Ben Katchor on Wednesday, May 12, 2021, at 7:30 p.m. In "The Dairy Restaurant" Ben Katchor illuminates the unique historical confluence of events and ideas that led to the proliferation of the dairy restaurant in New York City. In words and his inimitable drawings, he begins with Adam entering Eden and eating the fruits within. Katchor examines ancient protocols for offerings to the gods and the kosher milk-meat taboo. He describes the first vegetarian practice, the invention of the restaurant and the intersection between culinary practice and radical politics. Here, too, is an encyclopedic directory of dairy restaurants that once thrived in New York City and its environs. Ben Katchor's picture-stories have been collected in a number of books: "The Jew of New York," "Cheap Novelties, The Pleasures of Urban Decay," and "Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer." Katchor was the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and he is an Associate Professor at Parsons, The New School in New York City. This event is open to the public and Free of charge. Please contact Alan at alan.freedman@tilny.org for the link. This program is sponsored by the Judy and Ben Segan Adult Education Fund of Temple Israel, Lawrence. Spain aiming for 45 mn foreign tourists in 2021 (ANSAmed) - MADRID, 12 MAG - The Spanish government said Spain is hoping to receive about 45 million foreign tourists in 2021. "Spain is ready to reopen very soon to the world," said Spanish Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto in the presentation of a campaign promoting Spain as a tourist destination for this summer. Italy is considered one of the eight target countries for attracting tourists, together with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, said Miguel Sanz, general director of the Spanish Tourism Institute. "These markets made up more than 65% of visits to Spain in 2019," he said. Maroto told Spanish media that the government ruled out the possibility of offering tourists free Covid tests due to the costs it would require. (ANSAmed). MANILA, Philippines, May 13, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Inspiro was named the winner of a Gold Stevie Award for Innovation in Customer Service Management, Planning & Practice in the eighth annual Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards. The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are the only business awards program to recognize innovation in the workplace in all 29 nations of the Asia-Pacific region. The Stevie Awards are widely considered to be the world's premier business awards, conferring recognition for achievement in programs such as The International Business Awards for 19 years. Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word for "crowned," the winners will be celebrated during a virtual (online) awards ceremony on Wednesday, 14 July. Awarded with a Gold Stevie for Innovation in Customer Service Management, Planning & Practice, Inspiro was recognized for its implementation of various CX resiliency and productivity initiatives, including a successful transition to a hybrid operations model, during these unprecedented times. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners were determined by the average scores of more than 100 executives around the world acting as judges in March and April. "The eighth edition of the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards attracted many remarkable nominations," said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher. "The organizations that won this year have demonstrated that they have continued to innovate and succeed despite the COVID-19 pandemic, and we applaud them for their perseverance and creativity. We look forward to celebrating many of this year's winners during our virtual awards ceremony on 14 July." Inspiro President and CEO Yuji Hamamoto hails the latest achievement: "This award is a testament to our global employees' unwavering commitment to innovation and excellence, which our client partners and their customers have consistently recognized us for. Last year was challenging, but we managed to thrive by taking care of our employees, our clients and their customers, as well as fast-track our digital transformation initiatives. Today, we are more than ready for the challenges of our new normal." Details about the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards and the 14 July awards ceremony, and the list of Stevie Award winners, are available at http://Asia.Stevieawards.com. About Inspiro Inspiro is the outsourcing specialist with a network of 32,000 customer champions across 51 strategic locations. We deliver multilingual, end-to-end, value-driven CX solutions to the world's leading brands, enabling our clients to optimize processes, exceed metrics, and surpass overall customer satisfaction. Inspiro is owned by Relia, a member of Japan's Mitsui Group. About the Stevie Awards Stevie Awards are conferred in eight programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, the Middle East & North Africa Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 12,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 70 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at http://www.StevieAwards.com. Sponsors and partners of the 2021 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards include Adobo Magazine, PR Newswire Asia, and the Korea Business Communicators Association. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. Some health officials in Colorado have warned that continued high numbers of COVID-19 hospitalizations point to the pandemic not being over yet despite the states average infection rate decreasing by nearly a third since April. Colorado was averaging 1,731 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases each day in late April the most since Jan. 19 but the numbers fell nearly every day since then, The Gazette reported Monday. The state now averages 1,182 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases over the past week, health officials said. Colorado is heading in a positive direction again, and vaccination coverage is almost certainly playing a key role in this decline, said Glen Mays, chair of the Colorado School of Public Healths department of health systems. But Elizabeth Carlton, who also works for the department, said there are more worrying metrics, including state hospitalizations. Carlton said the state was averaging about 100 new hospital admissions from COVID-19 daily since April 28, but that figure has risen to more than 650 as of Monday. Carlton said the metric means the the number of people developing severe COVID-19 in Colorado doesnt appear to be declining right now. Jon Samet, the dean of the public health school, echoed her concern and told The Gazette on Monday that the state will hopefully see a drop in hospitalizations over the next few weeks. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Carlton and Mays gave some credit to the vaccines, saying the situation would be far worse without it. Some researchers said infection control efforts have fallen and the time people have spent away from home is increasing, meaning the current figures and trends could continue. Carlton said the state is at a critical point in terms of vaccinations, especially after federal regulators announced people ages 12 to 15 are now eligible to be vaccinated. The bad news is that vaccine demand in adults has slowed, she said. If Colorado can achieve high levels of vaccination across all eligible age groups, then we should see hospitalizations and infections decline in the weeks ahead. Malta: pressure from Libya to recover Gheddafi assets For restitution of 80 mn euros deposited in Bank of Valletta (ANSAmed) - VALLETTA, 12 MAG - The Libyan government is putting pressure on Malta to obtain the restitution of part of the assets taken abroad by Muammar Gaddafi. The government is seeking to recover 80 million euros deposited in accounts at the Bank of Valletta (BoV) by the dictator's late son Mutassim, over which heirs of the Libyan dictator who died in 2011 have been fighting a legal battle since 2012. The topic was one of the main points of discussion in a meeting in Valletta between Maltese Foreign Minister Evarist Bartolo and his Libyan counterpart Najla El-Mangoush, Maltese government sources told Times of Malta. They said the meeting also dealt with migration and the resumption of many of the flights between Libya and Malta as well as trade relations between the two countries. During his 40 years ruling Libya, Muammar Gaddafi made significant personal investments in Malta. After the revolution and the dictator's death, the new Libyan government identified the funds that Gaddafi's son, Mutassim, had deposited in Malta through the company Capital Resources Ltd. In February, after a year-long hiatus due to the pandemic, the legal battle in Malta resumed between Gaddafi's heirs and the Libyan government. The Libyan foreign minister on Wednesday asked for help from the Maltese government to have the money released. Sources in the Maltese foreign ministry told Times of Malta that Bartolo told his Libyan counterpart that while the Maltese government would assist Libya in sharing information on the matter, it would not take any steps until an ongoing court battle over the funds is concluded. (ANSAmed). New Delhi: Eid-ul-Fitr or Eid-al-Fitr will be observed on Thursday (May 13) in Saudi Arabia and other middle eastern countries as the moon was not sighted on Tuesday. India, which generally celebrates Eid a day later from Saudi, will look for the crescent moon today and if not sighted the country will celebrate Eid on Friday (May 14). Eid falls on the first day of the tenth month of the Islamic calendar Shawwal, which comes after the holy month of Ramadan in which Muslims observe fast from pre-dawn to dusk for a month. Islamic calendar follows lunar motion unlike the Georgian calendar, hence Ramadan can fall in different seasons over the years. Eid-ul-Fitr is a day of celebration after the spiritual month of Ramadan in which Muslims try to get closer to Allah through fasting and good deeds. It is a day in which Muslims are grateful for being granted the holy month of Ramadan and all its blessings. They pray for a continued increase in their piety level for the rest of the year. You cannot observe a fast on Eid-ul-Fitr as it is a day of celebration. Muslims across the globe perform an Eid prayer in the morning at a congregational mosque, which this year due to COVID restrictions will be performed at home by many families. New clothes are worn and Eidi or Eid gifts are given to younger members of the family by their elders. Delicious food items are also prepared to mark the occasion. In the Indian subcontinent, many families make a sweet dish called sewayyin for Eid. The feast prepared for the festival can vary depending upon the cultural and social factors of a particular geography. The Walk, 8000-km trip to raise awareness on child refugees 'Little Amal' puppet to depart from Turkey and arrive in UK (ANSAmed) - ROME, 12 MAG - In a public art project called "The Walk", created by the Good Chance Theatre, a 3.5-metre puppet will take an 8,000-km journey by foot starting at the border between Syria and Turkey and travelling all the way to the UK. The puppet, named "Little Amal", is designed to represent a nine-year-old Syrian refugee girl. The Good Chance Theatre, producers of the theatre work The Jungle, collaborated with the Handspring Puppet Company, which made Little Amal, under the artistic direction of Amir Nizar Zuabi. "The Walk" will take place from 27 July to 3 November 2021, and Little Amal will be welcomed with free cultural events and public shows in the various cities she encounters, together with local partners that are participating in the project. In a statement, organisers said the public can follow Little Amal's journey on social media as well as by participating in person at events. Little Amal's journey will begin on 27 July in Gaziantep, at the border between Syria and Turkey, with a light installation created with Qanadil lanterns. Slowly, one lantern at a time, the city will light up, revealing a trail of light that Little Amal will follow. The journey will continue in Greece and pass through Italy, where Little Amal will arrive on 7 September. In Bari she will be welcomed by a large puppet, an Italian grandmother who will give her wise advice, such as how to overcome the obstacles she may encounter along the rest of her journey. Among the other stops in Italy will be Rome, where Little Amal will remember her lost homeland and memories of the war will blossom again in paintings by Syrian artist Tammam Azzam, which will be projected on the facades of historic buildings in some of the most beautiful squares in the city. The trip will continue with stops in France, Belgium, Germany, and finally the United Kingom, where it will conclude with a special exhibition on childhood presented by the Manchester International Festival, created in collaboration with local schools and refugee communities. Visiting the exhibition, Little Amal will understand that she is ready to start a new journey, an even longer one: creating a new life in her new home. Organisers said Little Amal "represents the millions of child refugees, displaced and separated from their families, and her message is 'Don't forget about us'". (ANSAmed). The hospital ward at the centre of Brisbanes most recent coronavirus clusters has partially reopened but no COVID-19 patients will be sent there in the near future. Eight beds were brought online in Brisbanes Princess Alexandra Hospital ward 5D on Monday, as the hospital experienced high demand due to greater-than-usual patient numbers. Ward 5D at the PA Hospital has partially reopened but it will not be taking COVID-19 patients any time soon. Credit:Jono Searle/Getty Images The surge in demand was not contained to the PA Hospital but affected hospitals across south-east Queensland on Monday evening, with some hospitals going to code yellow status as a result. There were reports of patients at some hospitals waiting for five hours to be seen as health staff worked to meet demand. MARKHAM, Ontario, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sienna Senior Living Inc. (Sienna or the Company) (TSX: SIA) today provided an update on its operations and announced its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2021. The Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying Managements Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) are available on the Companys website at www.siennaliving.ca and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. With the crucial decrease in active COVID-19 cases at Siennas residences and the Canadian seniors living sector overall, we have been returning to a more stable operating environment and expect further improvements as various restrictions begin to be lifted at both our long-term care and retirement residences, said Nitin Jain, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sienna. In addition to continuing to protect residents and team members, we are focused on working with stakeholders to support and improve our healthcare sector and advancing our development plans that will modernize seniors living over time. Operations Update The early roll-out of vaccines among residents and team members was a significant factor in the 99% decline of active COVID-19 resident cases since the beginning of 2021. Vaccinations According to our most recent vaccination date, approximately 95% of Siennas residents and 74% of Siennas team members have been vaccinated with the first dose of vaccine. According to our most recent vaccination date, approximately COVID-19 Cases As of May 11, 2021, 10 residences of Siennas 83 owned or managed residences have active cases of COVID-19, including one retirement and nine long-term care residences. From the beginning of 2021, active COVID-19 cases among Siennas residents declined by approximately 99% with currently three active resident cases across our portfolio. Lifting of Restrictions The Governments of Ontario and British Columbia eased self-isolation requirements in seniors living residences, and communal dining and social activities in residences with high immunization rates are starting to resume. The Government of Ontario has also removed single-site orders for fully immunized staff members, allowing them to work at more than one location. Additional Government Funding On March 24, 2021, the Government of Ontarios 2021-22 budget included an additional $650 million to protect long-term care residents, amongst other funding programs, increasing total funding announced to date to approximately $2.1 billion. The Government of Ontario also extended occupancy protection funding until August 2021 and a temporary wage increase of $3/hour for personal support workers until June 2021. On April 19, 2021, the Federal Government announced $3 billion in funding over the next five years to support long-term care across Canadas provinces and territories in its budget. The Governments of Ontario and British Columbia eased self-isolation requirements in seniors living residences, and communal dining and social activities in residences with high immunization rates are starting to resume. The Government of Ontario has also removed single-site orders for fully immunized staff members, allowing them to work at more than one location. Addition to Leadership Team On April 19, 2021, Jennifer Anderson joined Siennas leadership team as Executive Vice President of the Companys long-term care operations. Jennifer is a highly experienced operator known for her focused approach to improving customer and team member experience and optimizing operational performance in her previous roles as Chief of Operations and Service Excellence Officer at one of the largest workplace insurance organizations in North America. Development Update Retirement Siennas development of a retirement residence in Niagara Falls is progressing well with construction scheduled to start in Q2 2021. The estimated total capital investment is $49 million to $51 million, with an expected development yield of approximately 7.5%. Siennas share of this 150-suite greenfield joint venture development is 70%. Long-term Care Construction of two new development projects is scheduled to commence by the end of 2021, beginning with a new 160-bed development in North Bay to replace the existing 148 older beds. The Companys estimated capital investment for this redevelopment is approximately $52 million to $55 million, with an expected development yield of approximately 8.0%. These projects are part of Siennas development plans to invest over $600 million in capital to redevelop its Ontario Class C long-term care portfolio through new and upgraded facilities over the next five to seven years. Launch of Sienna for Seniors Foundation On April 7, 2021, the Company finalized the formation of the Sienna for Seniors Foundation (Foundation). The Foundation allows Sienna to raise funds for a variety of important causes in both Ontario and British Columbia. In connection with an enhanced focus on mental health and wellness, Sienna made a $250,000 donation to Scarborough Health Network (SHN) in support of its new mental health hub, which will support quality care for seniors. $0.7 Million Donated to CaRES Fund On May 11, 2021, the Company made an additional $0.1 million contribution to the CaRES Fund, increasing its corporate and Board of Directors contributions to approximately $0.7 million. The CaRES Fund, which provides one-time financial grants to eligible employees of long-term care and retirement operators in Canada who are facing extraordinary circumstances amid the COVID-19 crisis, was launched by Sienna and a number of sector peers. The Fund has helped nearly 800 frontline staff with over $2.4 million in emergency financial assistance to date. First Quarter Operating and Financial Performance The Companys financial performance continues to be impacted by extraordinary expenses incurred to manage the pandemic. In Q1 2021, $15.3 million in retroactive government assistance was received to cover a portion of Siennas pandemic expenses incurred in 2020 in excess of available funding, which was recognized in Q1 2021. Revenue decreased by 2.7% to $161.2 million in Q1 2021, compared to Q1 2020; Operating expenses, net were $117.0 million in Q1 2021, a decrease of 9.4% compared to Q1 2020, driven by timing of pandemic-related government assistance ( net pandemic recovery ); ); Net Operating Income ( NOI ), excluding net pandemic recovery, decreased by 9.2% (or $3.4 million) to $33.2 million in Q1 2021, compared to Q1 2020, mainly due to lower occupancy in the retirement portfolio and lower preferred accommodation revenue in the long-term care portfolio; ), excluding net pandemic recovery, decreased by 9.2% (or $3.4 million) to $33.2 million in Q1 2021, compared to Q1 2020, mainly due to lower occupancy in the retirement portfolio and lower preferred accommodation revenue in the long-term care portfolio; Net income increased by $12.6 million year-over-year to $10.1 million, primarily related to timing of after-tax net pandemic recovery of $7.3 million; Average occupancy in Siennas Long-Term Care ( LTC ) portfolio was 80.3%; ) portfolio was 80.3%; Average same property occupancy in Siennas Retirement portfolio was 78.1%; Operating Funds from Operations ( OFFO ) per share increased by $0.013 year-over-year to $0.378 per share; excluding net pandemic recovery, OFFO per share decreased by 26.5% year-over-year to $0.269 per share; ) per share increased by $0.013 year-over-year to $0.378 per share; excluding net pandemic recovery, OFFO per share decreased by 26.5% year-over-year to $0.269 per share; Adjusted Funds from Operations ( AFFO ) per share increased by $0.012 year-over-year to $0.394 per share; excluding net pandemic recovery, AFFO per share decreased by 23.9% year-over-year to $0.292 per share; ) per share increased by $0.012 year-over-year to $0.394 per share; excluding net pandemic recovery, AFFO per share decreased by 23.9% year-over-year to $0.292 per share; Payout ratio was 59.4% for the three months ended March 31, 2021; excluding the net pandemic recovery, the payout ratio was 80.2%. Solid Financial Position The Company maintained a strong financial position during Q1 2021: Maintained high liquidity of $213 million and a substantial unencumbered asset pool of $840 million as at March 31, 2021; Decreased debt to gross book value by 90 basis points to 46.0% as at March 31, 2021, from 46.9% at March 31, 2020; and, Lowered weighted average cost of debt by 30 basis points to 3.3% as at March 31, 2021, from 3.6% as at March 31, 2020. Financial and Operating Results The following table represents key performance indicators for the periods ended March 31: $000s except occupancy, per share and ratio data Three months ended March 31, 2021 Three months ended March 31, 2020 Retirement - Average same property occupancy(1)(2) 78.1% 85.1% Retirement - As at same property occupancy(1)(2) 78.6% 84.5% Retirement - As at total occupancy(1)(2) 78.2% 83.6% LTC - Average total occupancy(3) 80.3% 97.9% LTC - Average private occupancy 78.2% 97.3% Revenue $161,228 $165,627 Operating expenses, net $116,961 $129,116 Same property NOI(4) $44,101 $36,436 Total NOI(4) $44,267 $36,511 EBITDA(5) $35,948 $33,737 Net (loss) income $10,143 $(2,496) OFFO(6) $25,343 $24,418 AFFO(7) $26,430 $25,584 Total assets(8) $1,616,357 $1,718,716 OFFO per share(6) $0.378 $0.365 AFFO per share(7) $0.394 $0.382 Dividends per share $0.234 $0.234 Payout ratio(9) 59.4% 61.3% Notes: Retirement same property occupancy excludes the results from the expansion at Island Park Retirement Residence, which opened in July 2019 and is in lease-up. Retirement total average occupancy is 77.7% for Q1 2021 (2020 - 84.2%). The year-over-year declines in Retirement occupancy are primarily related to a decline in new residents moving in due to the general impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including access restrictions. Long-term care residences are receiving occupancy protection funding for vacancies caused by temporary closure of admissions due to an outbreak, including COVID-19, and for capacity limitations of two beds per room as residents cannot be placed in rooms with three or four beds. NOI for Q1 2021 includes net pandemic (recovery) expenses of $(11,027) (2020 - $104), respectively. EBITDA for Q1 2021 increased by $2,211 to $35,948 compared to Q1 2020 primarily due to the net pandemic recovery of $9,907, offset by lower Retirement revenues of $1,806 and lower LTC preferred accommodation revenues of $1,123 primarily due to occupancy. OFFO for Q1 2021 includes an after-tax net pandemic (recovery) expense of $(7,275) (2020 - $99) and mark-to-market recovery on share-based compensation of $(25) (2020 - $(2,541)). OFFO per share for the three months ended March 31, 2021 excluding after-tax net pandemic recovery and net mark-to-market recovery on share-based compensation will decrease by $0.109 to $0.269 (2020 - decrease by $0.037 to $0.328). AFFO for Q1 2021 includes net pandemic capital expenditures of $417 (2020 - $nil), after-tax net pandemic (recovery) expense of $(7,275) (2020 - $99) and mark-to-market recovery on share-based compensation of $(25) (2020 - $(2,541)). AFFO per share for the three months ended March 31, 2021 excluding net pandemic capital expenditures and after-tax net pandemic recovery and net mark-to-market recovery on share-based compensation will decrease by $0.102 to $0.292 (2020 - decrease by $0.037 to $0.345). Property and equipment and intangible assets included in total assets are measured at cost less accumulated depreciation and amortization. Payout ratio for Q1 2021 excluding after-tax net pandemic recovery and net mark-to-market recovery on share-based compensation would be 80.1% (2020 - 61.3%). Financial and Operating Results, excluding net pandemic expenses The following table represents key performance indicators excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses for the periods ended March 31: $000s except occupancy, per share and ratio data Three months ended March 31, 2021 Three months ended March 31, 2020 Operating expenses, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses(1) $127,988 $129,012 Same property NOI, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses(1) $33,074 $36,540 Total NOI, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses(1) $33,240 $36,615 EBITDA, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses(2) $26,041 $33,872 Net income (loss), excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses(3) $2,868 $(2,397) OFFO, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses(3)(5) $18,068 $24,517 AFFO, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses(4)(5) $19,572 $25,683 OFFO per share, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses(3)(5)(6) $0.269 $0.366 AFFO per share, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses and net pandemic capital expenditures(4)(5)(7) $0.292 $0.383 Payout ratio, excluding net pandemic (recovery) expenses and net pandemic capital expenditures(8) 80.1% 61.1% Notes: Operating expenses, same property NOI and total NOI for the three months ended March 31, 2021 exclude net pandemic (recovery) expenses of $(11,027) (2020 - $104). EBITDA for the three months ended March 31, 2021 excludes net pandemic (recovery) expenses of $(9,907) (2020 - $135). Net income (loss) and OFFO for the three months ended March 31, 2021 exclude after-tax net pandemic (recovery) expenses of $(7,275) (2020 - $99). AFFO for the three months ended March 31, 2021 excludes after-tax net pandemic (recovery) expenses of $(7,275) and net pandemic capital expenditures of $417 (2020 - $99 and $nil, respectively). OFFO and AFFO for the three months ended March 31, 2021 include an after-tax mark-to-market recovery on share-based compensation of $(25) (2020 - $(2,541)). OFFO per share for the three months ended March 31, 2021 excluding after-tax net pandemic recovery and mark-to-market recovery on share-based compensation will increase by $0.109 to $0.269 (2020 - decrease by $0.037 to $0.328). AFFO per share for the three months ended March 31, 2021 excluding net pandemic capital expenditures and after-tax net pandemic recovery and mark-to-market recovery on share-based compensation will decrease by $0.102 to $0.292 (2020 - decrease by $0.037 to $0.345). Payout ratio for Q1 2021 excluding after-tax net pandemic impact and mark-to-market on share-based compensation after tax would be 80.1% (2020 - 61.3%). First Quarter 2021 Summary Average same property occupancy in Retirement was 78.1% in Q1 2021. The decrease in occupancy was primarily related to a decline in new residents moving in due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including access restrictions. Subsequent to Q1 2021, monthly average same property occupancy improved modestly from 77.7% in March to 77.9% in April, reflecting numerous marketing and sales initiatives, offset by the impact of the third wave of COVID-19. Rent collections remained high and consistent with pre-pandemic levels. The following table provides an update on the monthly average same property occupancy and rent collections in Siennas Retirement portfolio during and subsequent to the end of Q1 2021: 2021 Jan Feb Mar Apr Retirement same property occupancy (average) 78.6 % 78.1 % 77.7 % 77.9 % Retirement rent collection (%) 99.3 % 99.1 % 99.0 % 98.8 % Average occupancy in LTC was 80.3% in Q1 2021. Long-term care residences are fully funded for vacancies caused by temporary closure of admissions due to an outbreak, including COVID-19, and for capacity limitations of two beds per room as residents cannot be placed in rooms with three or four beds. The Government of Ontario has announced that the occupancy protection funding will be in place for long-term care residences until August 31, 2021. Effective September 1, 2021, as new admissions gradually resume, occupancy targets of 97% for long-stay beds and 90% for interim short-stay beds, excluding unavailable beds as a result of capacity limitations in multi-bed rooms and the provision of isolation rooms, will be reinstated. Net Pandemic Expenses decreased by $10.0 million to a net recovery of $9.9 million in Q1 2021, compared to Q1 2020. The net pandemic recovery for Q1 2021 was mainly due to timing of government assistance of $15.3 million in the LTC segment received in Q1 2021 related to pandemic expenses incurred in excess of available funding during the year ended December 31, 2020, partially offset by investments in higher levels of staffing, personal protective equipment (PPE), infection prevention and control (IPAC) supplies and advisory fees to support the management of the pandemic. There are various programs and financial assistance provided by the governments to support pandemic expenses. The following table summarizes the government assistance to Sienna and expenses recognized related to COVID-19 included in operating expenses in the Company's consolidated statements of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2021: Three months ended Three months ended Thousands of Canadian dollars March 31, 2021 March 31, 2020 Retirement LTC Administrative Total Total Government assistance - temporary pandemic pay 521 4,824 5,345 Government assistance 1,438 35,285 36,723 810 Total government assistance 1,959 40,109 42,068 810 Pandemic labour - temporary pandemic pay 521 4,824 5,345 Pandemic labour 1,592 19,260 20,852 547 Personal protective equipment 377 1,704 2,081 280 Other 201 2,562 1,120 3,883 118 Total pandemic expense 2,691 28,350 1,120 32,161 945 Total net pandemic (recovery) expenses(1) 732 (11,759 ) 1,120 (9,907 ) 135 Note: $15.3 million in retroactive government assistance was received to support a portion of Siennas 2020 pandemic expenses spent in excess of available funding in the LTC segment, which was recognized in Q1 2021. In addition, for the three months ended March 31, 2021, the Company has recognized pandemic capital expenditures in its interim consolidated statements of financial position of $9.4 million, reduced by related government assistance which have not been included in the table above of $9.0 million. Pandemic expenses are mainly related to additional staffing, temporary pandemic pay programs for team members and PPE. Other pandemic expenses for the Retirement and LTC residences include investments in cleaning supplies for IPAC, meals and accommodations to support team members. Furthermore, other pandemic expenses recorded in administrative costs include advisory fees to support the management of the pandemic. NOI increased by 21.2% in Q1 2021, or $7.8 million, to $44.3 million, compared to Q1 2020, mainly due to net recovery of pandemic expenses of $11.0 million, as a result of $15.3 million retroactive pandemic funding received in Q1 2021 related to pandemic expenses incurred in excess of available funding during the year ended December 31, 2020. Excluding net pandemic recovery, NOI decreased by 9.2% in Q1 2021, or $3.4 million, to $33.2 million, mainly due to lower Retirement occupancy levels, lower LTC preferred accommodation revenue from lower occupancy in private and semi-private rooms, annual inflationary labour cost increases and higher property expenses, partially offset by annual rental rate increases in Retirement and annual inflationary funding increases in LTC. LTC same property NOI increased by $10.7 million to $31.3 million, compared to Q1 2020. Excluding net recovery of pandemic expenses, LTC's NOI for Q1 2021 decreased by $1.1 million to $19.6 million, compared to Q1 2020, primarily due to lower preferred accommodation revenue from lower occupancy in private and semi-private rooms, annual inflationary labour cost increases and higher property expenses, partially offset by annual inflationary funding increases. Retirement same property NOI decreased by $3.0 million to $13.0 million, compared to Q1 2020. Excluding net pandemic expenses, Retirement's same property NOI for Q1 2021 decreased by $2.4 million to $13.5 million, compared to Q1 2020, primarily attributable to lower occupancy and higher property expenses, partially offset by annual rental rate increases in line with market conditions. Revenue decreased by 2.7% in Q1 2021, or $4.4 million, to $161.2 million, compared to Q1 2020. In the Retirement segment, the decrease of $1.8 million in Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2020 was mainly a result of lower occupancy, partially offset by annual rental rate increases in line with market conditions. LTC's revenues for Q1 2021 decreased by $2.6 million compared to Q1 2020, as a result of $0.7 million of government funding, which would have typically been included in LTC revenues, has been recorded against eligible operating expenses related to the pandemic, and lower LTC preferred accommodation revenue from lower occupancy in private and semi-private rooms and timing of flow-through funding, partially offset by annual inflationary funding increases. Q1 2021 rent collection levels have remained similar to past experience. Operating expenses, net decreased by 9.4% in Q1 2021, or $12.2 million, to $117.0 million, compared to Q1 2020. The decrease was mainly a result of net pandemic recovery of $11.8 million in the LTC segment, as a result of the timing of government assistance related to pandemic expenses incurred during the year ended December 31, 2020, and timing of expenses associated with flow-through funding in the LTC segment, partially offset by annual inflationary labour cost increases and higher property expenses. Net income was $10.1 million for Q1 2021, representing an increase of $12.6 million over Q1 2020, largely due to timing of net pandemic recovery. Excluding after-tax net pandemic recovery of $7.2 million, net income was $2.9 million for Q1 2021, representing an increase of $5.3 million in net income compared to Q1 2020, due to annual rental rate increases in Retirement and the fair value gain on interest rate swap contracts, partially offset by lower Retirement occupancy levels, lower preferred accommodation revenues in LTC and higher income taxes. OFFO increased by 3.8% in Q1 2021, or $0.9 million, to $25.3 million over Q1 2020. The increase was primarily due to net pandemic recovery as a result of the timing of government assistance related to pandemic expenses, partially offset by lower Retirement occupancy, annual inflationary increases in labour costs and higher property expenses. Excluding after-tax net pandemic recovery, OFFO would decrease by 26.3% in Q1 2021, or $6.4 million, to $24.5 million over Q1 2020. AFFO increased by 3.3% in Q1 2021, or $0.8 million, to $26.4 million over Q1 2020. The increase was primarily related to the increase in OFFO noted above, timing of maintenance capital expenditures and pandemic capital expenditures. Excluding after-tax net impact from pandemic expenses and net pandemic capital expenditures, AFFO would decrease by 23.1% in Q1 2021, or $6.1 million to $19.6 million in Q1 2021. Outlook Sienna forecasts that occupancy in its Retirement portfolio will remain below historic levels in the first half of 2021 as COVID-19 access restrictions continue to impact occupancy, in particular with respect to residences located in COVID-19 hotspots. Based on the assumption that restrictions at its residences will ease, Sienna forecasts gradual occupancy improvements during the second half of the year, supported by anticipated pent-up demand and its continued investment in sales and marketing initiatives. Occupancy in Sienna's LTC portfolio is expected to gradually improve in the coming months as admissions resume and occupancy protection funding expires. Excluding the impact of net pandemic expenses or recoveries, the Company expects the financial performance of Siennas LTC portfolio in 2021 to be slightly below 2020. Managements internal forecasts are based on the impact of new and prolonged access restrictions during the third wave of the pandemic on preferred accommodation revenues and additional investments in Siennas properties to elevate resident experience. Although it is impossible to ascertain the ultimate impacts of COVID-19 on the Companys operating results at this time, with an anticipated economic recovery, the positive impact of early vaccinations in the seniors living sector and the return to a more stable operating environment, Sienna remains optimistic in its post-pandemic outlook. Conference Call The conference call will be on Thursday May 13, 2021 at 9:30 a.m. (ET). The toll-free dial-in number for participants is 1-844-543-5234, conference ID: 7187068. A webcast of the call will be accessible via Sienna's website at: www.siennaliving.ca/investors/events-presentations. The webcast of the call will be available for replay until May 13, 2022 and archived on Sienna's website. About Sienna Senior Living Sienna Senior Living Inc. (TSX:SIA) offers a full range of seniors' living options, including independent living, assisted living, long-term care, and specialized programs and services. Sienna's approximately 13,000 employees are passionate about helping residents live fully every day. For more information, please visit www.siennaliving.ca. Risk Factors Refer to the risk factors disclosed in the Companys MD&A for the three months ended March 31, 2021, and its most recent Annual Information Form for more information. Forward-Looking Statements Certain of the statements contained in this news release are forward-looking statements and are provided for the purpose of presenting information about managements current expectations and plans relating to the future. Readers are cautioned that such statements may not be appropriate for other purposes. These statements generally use forward-looking words, such as anticipate, continue, could, expect, may, will, estimate, believe, goals or other similar words and include, without limitation, statements with respect to the impact of COVID-19 and measures taken to mitigate the impact including the effectiveness of the vaccine, availability of government funding, the availability of various government programs, government funding, and financial assistance. These statements are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements and, accordingly, should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results and will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. The forward-looking statements in this news release are based on information currently available and what management currently believes are reasonable assumptions. The Company does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements except as may be required by applicable law. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT: Karen Hon Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President (905) 489-0254 karen.hon@siennaliving.ca Nancy Webb Senior Vice President, Public Affairs and Marketing (905) 489-0788 nancy.webb@siennaliving.ca Bay of Plenty You will be driving the Roller and also required to help out the team hands on. You will be working around Tauranga, for... View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nz .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Its an understatement to say the last 14 months were challenging for educators across New Mexico. As a faculty member in the biology department at the University of New Mexico, I built new online lecture and lab courses in real time to replace face-to-face instruction. I was intent on maintaining quality and substance for the 1,604 UNM students I taught during the pandemic, each of whom was coping with their own struggles. I have been amazed by the resilience of my faculty colleagues this year. They mastered remote teaching, helped each other with tips and techniques, and created volumes of online teaching materials, all while staying engaged with and attentive to their students. Before the pandemic hit, I joined the bargaining team of our faculty union, United Academics of the University of New Mexico (UA-UNM). Along with an overwhelming majority of the UNM faculty, I had voted in favor of unionization because I perceived that there were deep problems that had been long neglected by the administration. The goals of our union are aimed squarely at those problems. We seek inclusive decision-making, fairness, equity and reasonable compensation. Collective bargaining between our union and the administration started in January 2020. Since then, those of us on the UA-UNM bargaining team have volunteered six to 10 hours each week. We crafted well-researched proposals aimed at solving the serious concerns of our faculty, and we have described these concerns in detail to members of the administrations bargaining team. But even after 16 months of bargaining, the administrations proposals show that they have not yet engaged with the seriousness of purpose that is needed to reach an agreement. The UNM faculty deserve a contract that provides them with basic protections, a modicum of job security and compensation that keeps up with the cost of living. Faculty compensation is embarrassingly low at UNM relative to similar research universities, and this hurts recruiting, retention and morale. It is time for the administration to embrace the fact that the faculty are the front-line workers of UNMs academic mission. We provide the substance, and we have maintained the flow and the quality even while short-handed during the pandemic crisis. We did our absolute best to shepherd UNMs students through this brutal year. It is gratifying to see that the Board of Regents recognized the success of UNM through the pandemic by spontaneously awarding a five-figure bonus for crisis management to President (Garnett) Stokes. Now its time for the administration to recognize the faculty contributions to this success by agreeing to a fair contract before the end of the semester. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Page Content In a ground-breaking initiative meant to upskill Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College students, the City has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the South West Gauteng College (SWGC) to prepare 80 students for the world of work. The MoU is designed to enhance employability for SWGC students who are marginalised by corporates due to a biased preference for university graduates. The partnership paves way for the municipality to put the 80 students through a rigorous experiential training programme spanning 18 months. The internship will cover fields as diverse as Human Resource Management, Public Relations Management, Marketing Management and Financial Management. The programme is meant to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge from the classroom and tacit knowledge from the workplace. Cllr Loyiso Masuku, the Member of Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Group Corporate and Shared Services, says the internship is also tailored to address socio-economic ills like unemployment in Johannesburg. We want to foster relationships with TVET Colleges in Johannesburg by providing enrolled students with relevant workplace experience so they can compete in the marketplace, Cllr Masuku explains. Currently, the municipality has over 750 interns employed across diverse fields at an estimated annual budget of R46-million rands, says Tersia Groenewald, the Deputy Director of Corporate and Shared Services. The City administers two other similar initiatives that focus on youth development. In the first category, youths who have completed the theoretical component of their studies and need practical experience to achieve their qualification are hired and trained. The second category focuses on graduates who have completed their qualification, yet still require adequate preparation to enter the job market. The City also hires and trains candidates with a career focus in finance through its partnership with National Treasury. MMC Masuku says the 80 students will be supported in all facets throughout their internship in the City. Written by Gontse Gee Hlophe I am a St. Vincent Nurse. Dan is a Medical ICU RN with CHI St. Vincent. I came to CHI St. Vincent looking for an opportunity to work through my career, but I found a second home. Our leadership listens to nurses, which allows us to better serve our patients. Everybody works together to make sure we can enact new policy changes quickly. If anything, COVID-19 taught us how to work together even more eectively. Join Dan and become part of our work family as a St. Vincent nurse. Sign-on bonuses up to 30K for a short time only! Apply at chistvincent.com/careers Dan, RN ICU view original posting recblid k54n38xkb0ene2so07cnyov3946hnd Owners of Fairbanks gun shops attribute an increased interest in guns and ammo to Joe Bidens presidency as well as to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has both spawned uncertainty and disrupted the supply chain. Metro Creative May 12, 2021 Amsterdam, the Netherlands Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today celebrated 130 years of innovation, collaboration, and social responsibility. During its rich history since being founded on May 15, 1891, in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, the company has continuously reinvented itself to remain relevant to society. Today, Philips is a leading health technology company with a purpose to improve the lives of 2.5 billion people a year by 2030 through meaningful innovation. The companys 130th anniversary is a celebration of the continuous innovation journey that has enabled Philips to positively impact the lives of so many people around the globe, said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. Its also about looking forward continuing to innovate, collaborate and live up to the highest standards of doing business responsibly and sustainably. We will continue to team up with innovators, experts and society to help create new ground-breaking solutions to todays healthcare challenges. New sculpture of Gerard Philips As a tribute to 130 years of innovation and collaboration, Philips will offer an artwork of Gerard Philips, who together with his father Frederik Philips, founded the company. The sculpture will be unveiled in Eindhoven city center at a newly developed public location. Gerard later also founded Philips research laboratories in Eindhoven, the strong foundation of Philips global innovation strength today, which currently includes five innovation hubs and multiple innovation and manufacturing sites. Philips spends EUR 1.8 billion annually on R&D to fuel the companys growth and intellectual property, which comprises approx. 59,000 patent rights and 31,000 trademarks. Innovation and entrepreneurship Philips entry into health technology took place during the First World War when it applied the skills it had developed for manufacturing lightbulbs to repairing, and subsequently manufacturing, X-ray tubes for diagnostic imaging, rapidly innovating their design to minimize X-ray exposure and improve image quality. Since then, Philips has innovated virtually every major medical imaging modality from ultrasound to MRI and CT systems. Philips current innovations span the health continuum from healthy living and disease prevention to diagnosis, treatment, and care in the home. By bringing together devices, systems, software, artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics, the company today develops intelligent solutions that help consumers around the world to live healthy lifestyles and enable healthcare providers to deliver on the quadruple aim: enhancing the patient experience, improving health outcomes, lowering the cost of care, and improving the work life of care providers. Recent examples include: Collaboration and partnerships In an ever more complex and interconnected world, meaningful innovation in healthcare also requires co-creation through partnerships and collaborations with leading clinical researchers and care providers. Key examples of leading institutes that Philips collaborates with include: University Medical Center Utrecht (The Netherlands) - advancing precision diagnosis through breakthrough quantitative MRI technology MR STAT. MR STAT. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston, U.S.) - co-developing Philips Oncology Pathways powered by Dana-Farber to provide clinicians worldwide with access to best-practice and personalized care recommendations for patients, based on the latest scientific advances. to provide clinicians worldwide with access to best-practice and personalized care recommendations for patients, based on the latest scientific advances. Singapore General Hospital (Singapore) - leveraging Philips Pathology Suite IntelliSite in the development of AI-based tools U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (US), expanding the VAs critical tele-critical care program by creating the worlds largest system comprising more than 1,700 sites and serving nearly nine million veterans each year. The program aims to provide veterans with remote access to intensive care expertise, including research into technologies that can better support veterans. to intensive care expertise, including research into technologies that can better support veterans. MONET Technologies Inc. (Japan) - Philips, MONET Technologies and Ina City are addressing the rapidly aging population and shortage of medical facilities and healthcare professionals in Japan through a mobile healthcare vehicle concept equipped with connected care technologies. Philips also enters into long-term strategic partnerships with hospitals and hospital groups that are characterized by new business models and the move from one-time transactions to continuous relationships aimed at offering hospitals a holistic solution that addresses their clinical, operational, and business needs. For example, with: Klinikum Stuttgart Hospital (Stuttgart, Germany) a 10-year innovation partnership to keep the hospital equipped with the latest state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging, informatics, and connected care solutions. (Stuttgart, Germany) a 10-year innovation partnership to keep the hospital equipped with the latest state-of-the-art diagnostic imaging, informatics, and connected care solutions. Flevo Hospital (Almere, The Netherlands) a 10-year strategic partnership agreement to continuously innovate and optimize patient care in the Almere region of the Netherlands. Social responsibility Philips recognition of its social responsibility goes as far back as 1932, when it started screening its staff, and eventually the whole population of Eindhoven (the Dutch city where the company was founded) for tuberculosis. In the 1990s Philips helped to pioneer the Dutch national breast cancer screening program. Today, the companys Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (ESG) commitments are enshrined in its new 5-year ESG targets and strategic plans. Philips is already carbon neutral in its operations and is set to further reduce its CO2 emissions in line with 1.5C global warming and source 75% of its total energy consumption from renewables. The company also aims to increase revenue from circular economy solutions to 25% of sales by 2025. As part of its target to improve the lives of 2.5 billion people a year by 2030, Philips is committed to improving access to care for 400 million people in underserved communities. In collaboration with key strategic partners and the Philips Foundation, it is enabling care in resource constrained settings, for example, by putting portable ultrasound solutions into the hands of trained midwives at primary care facilities in Kenya, and establishing hospital-based cardiology centers in regional cities across India. For details of the above innovations, collaborations, partnerships and ESG targets, click here . For more information on Philips history, click here or visit the Philips Museum website . For further information, please contact: Joost Maltha Philips Global Press Office Tel.: +31 6 10 55 81 16 E-mail: joost.maltha@philips.com Tommie Dijstelbloem Philips Benelux Tel.: +31 6 19 28 83 20 E-Mail: tommie.dijstelbloem@philips.com About Royal Philips Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and well-being, and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2020 sales of EUR 17.3 billion and employs approximately 77,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter . Attachments LANSING, MI - The Michigan Senate on Wednesday approved a series of departmental budget bills for the next fiscal year, including one eyebrow-raising measure that offers legal funds to a company suing the state. The Senate has approved 16 of 17 budget bills so far this week, outlining about $35 billion in spending, leaving room for deliberation Thursday on more than $31 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services. Read more: What to know as Michigan budget talks advance Most bills passed by partisan split, with one of the more heated exchanges stemming from a Republican amendment regarding legal fees in potential litigation over Enbridges Line 5 oil pipeline. The amendment, submitted by Sen. Ed McBroom of Vulcan, would take funds from staff of the Department of Natural Resources to pay the Canadian oil companys legal costs should the state lose the lawsuit over its termination of the 1953 Easement that allows pipeline usage through the Straits of Mackinac. Approved by a 20-16 vote, the amendment seeks to discourage Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the executive branch from pursuing a foolish legal strategy, McBroom said. If we allow our departments to pursue foolish and ill-advised legal strategies, that will land this state in a position of spending incredible amounts of taxpayer dollars in litigation when were going to lose, he said. Right now, the penalty for that is nothing. Our department (has) freely advanced legal theories and litigation with no consequence to themselves... because hey, its just taxpayer dollars! Whitmer ordered the lifting of the easement rights in November, giving Enbridge until May 12 to shut down the pipeline. In a letter to Enbridge Vice President Vern Yu, Whitmer stated she intends to pursue any profits Enbridge earns from using Michigan land after May 12. That could equate $1.8 million per day, based on estimates previously provided by Enbridge. Read more: Michigan Gov. Whitmer doesnt back down from fight to force Enbridge Line 5 shutdown The legal battle centers on whether Michigan or the federal government has ultimate authority over the pipeline and the ethical fight is between competing financial interests and environmental concerns. McBrooms amendment amounts to Senate Republicans asking taxpayers to pay a foreign corporation responsible for the largest manmade environmental disaster in Michigans history, said Sen. Curtis Hertel, D-East Lansing, on Wednesday. He was referring to the spillage of 843,000 gallons of Enbridge oil into the Kalamazoo River back in 2010. These arent the departments dollars. Theyre not the Legislatures dollars. Theyre the Michigan taxpayers dollars, and they should not go to the court or to a corporation, Hertel said. Certainly not a corporation thats not a part... of this state. Further, a corporation thats actually outside of this country. Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, argued that Enbridge made amends for the Kalamazoo River spill. They paid and they cleaned it up and restored it to a better state frankly than it was prior, he said. Sen. Sean McCann, D-Kalamazoo, took exception. It seems to come to suggestion that somehow Kalamazoo and Marshall were better off after an oil spill than before, he said. And if that sits OK in your heads thats an interesting thought. Because Im sure that all the people that were affected by that oil spill would have probably preferred that it hadnt happened in the first place. The bigger disaster, argued McBroom, would be a pipeline shutdown that would affect the jobs and livelihoods of many in the Midwest. Lets have a bigger disaster for our jobs, for our economy, for our ability to live in the Upper Peninsula and Northern Michigan in the wintertime, he said. Michigan Republicans have support from attorney generals in Ohio and Louisiana, who both urged federal courts to consider the interstate financial implications. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost estimated several billion dollars in losses if the pipeline were to shut down. McBrooms amendment does the bidding of foreign oil corporations like Enbridge, said Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan, in a statement. By forcing the public to foot the bill for Enbridges legal battles, theyre making public whose side they are actually on, Scott said. After the amendment passed, the DNR budget outlined in Senate Bill 90 passed along partisan lines. A future compromise could be that Republicans add a cap to the legal fees used through DNR staff salaries so theres no additional cost to the taxpayers of Michigan, said Senate Appropriations Chair Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland. Outside of DNR negotiations, the Senate passed six other budget bills during Wednesdays session. The largest chunk came with $15.7 billion in school aid. Read more: Michigan Senate ties in-person unemployment, Secretary of State services to budget bills One of the bigger provisions is a proposed increase in school funding that would raise the minimum foundation allowance $125 to $250 per pupil. That would constitutes a total appropriation of $308 million. Democrats attempted to remove a provision that would require full in-person attendance during the second half of the next school year. Those amendments failed, so the Senate budget bill requires school districts at least 549 hours and 90 days of in-person instruction once the 2022 semester hits. The school aid funding covered in Senate Bill 83 passed 19-17. The only Republican to dissent was Sen. Tom Barrett, R-Charlotte, who said some K-12 funding was diverted to universities. I believe this is my 7th budget year in a row voting this way, he told MLive. Other Senate budget bills passed Wednesday include: $217 million for the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs. This was the only bill to pass unanimously. $760 million for the Michigan State Police. This passed along partisan lines, as Democrats wanted more funding for de-escalation training. Barrett, who sponsored the budget bill, outlined $500,000 for that training. $565 million for the Department of Environmental, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE). This passed along partisan lines. $338 million to operate Michigan courts. This passed on partisan lines. $5.2 billion for the Department of Transportation. This passed on partisan lines. One key provision expected to pass in the MDHHS budget Thursday is a full-year wage increase of $2.35 an hour for long-term care workers that amounts to $460 million. Once the Senate completes budget voting, lawmakers will begin negotiating with the House and presumably with the Whitmer administration to resolve differences between the House, Senate and executive budget plans. The hard deadline to get a state budget signed into law is Sept. 30, as the next fiscal year takes effect Oct. 1. Read more from MLive: Whitmer threatens profit seizure as Enbridge Line 5 closure deadline looms Enbridge settles with shipping firm after 2018 Line 5 anchor strike Kalamazoo River restoration projects to use $27M in PCB settlements Billions in stimulus money headed to Michigan schools, but slowly. Heres why Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signs $62.8B state budget How to spend federal coronavirus money may be the next big battle between Whitmer and Republicans Yes, Michigan is in a recession, and a quick recovery is unlikely When and how will it end? Considering the end-game for Michigans coronavirus crisis Michigan Senate Republicans unveil $2B plan for spending federal coronavirus money Whitmer budget to include K-12 increase of up to $164 per pupil, more funding for higher education Heres what the states $465 million, the feds $908 billion COVID aid bills mean for Michiganders New York, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Internet Data Center Market in China and Hong Kong - Industry Outlook and Forecast 2021-2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06068339/?utm_source=GNW 4% during the period 20202026. The emergence of the 5G network has been a significant boost to the China & Hong Kong edge data center market. China and Hong Kong governments have been actively supporting the improvement of networking infrastructure in their countries. The implementation of 5G has boosted the digital economy, leading to the increased demand for high bandwidth networking infrastructure. Chinese telecom operators in the region are incredibly active in the implementation of 5G infrastructure. Operators such as China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile are the major players in the 5G landscape. Over 700,000 5G sites were built by these three operators in 2020 and are likely to add 600,000 base stations in 2021 for the implementation of 5G network. China Unicom has deployed edge data centers in the region. Turbidite, an edge data center platform, launched in March 2021, develops international-standard edge data centers across APAC countries, including China and Hong Kong. The company is in the process of acquiring and developing carrier-neutral edge data centers that will support enterprises and hyperscale data center developers to establish their presence in the APAC region. It is expected that the number of connected devices will triple by the end of the forecast period, and smart city growth will involve data centers nearer to customer locations. These deployments will continue to drive innovations in the data center power space, with increased modular infrastructure offerings. The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the China and Hong Kong data center market during the forecast period: Implementation of 5G driving Edge Data Centers Smart Cities fueling Data Center Demand Renewable Energy reducing Power Cost The rise in AI, Blockchain & Quantum Computing Investment The study considers the present scenario of the China and Hong Kong data center market and its market dynamics for the period 2020?2026. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The report offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent ones operating in the market. China and Hong Kong Data Center Market Segmentation The China and Hong Kong data center market research report includes a detailed segmentation by IT infrastructure, electrical infrastructure, mechanical infrastructure, cooling systems, cooling technique, general construction, tier standards, geography. The China & Hong Kong IT Infrastructure market expects to reach over USD 28 billion in 2026, growing at a CAGR of over 3%. Servers are the major revenue contributor to the market as the growth in data generation is fueling demand for fast processing efficient servers. Servers comprising AI-enabled features such as data analytics, development of AI-enabled applications, flexible deployment of data expect to increase the demand during the forecast period. The electrical infrastructure market in China & Hong Kong is likely to grow at a CAGR of approx. 4% during 20202026. In China & Hong Kong, data centers are designed to be of Tier III and Tier IV standards, with the high deployment of 2N redundant UPS systems, coupled with generators and other infrastructure adopting N+N redundancy. The adoption of Diesel Rotary Uninterruptible Power Supply (DRUPS) systems is growing in the Hong Kong market. DRUPS solutions are likely to witness high demand among data centers, with multiple modules having a total capacity of up to 2 MW and N+N or 2N redundant configurations. The adoption of intelligent PDU solutions such as metered and monitored PDU dominates in terms of investments. The adoption of modular infrastructure solutions in prefabricated data center deployment is increasing, continuing to grow and contributing to the market investment by the end of the forecast period. In China, most facilities are colocation and adopt a combination of air and water-based cooling techniques to cool facilities; however, a few are built to support free cooling techniques. In Beijing, a majority of data centers are colocation based and adopt a combination of air and water-based cooling techniques to cool down the facility. Most facilities have installed chilled water-cooling systems. The increased use of rack scale converged infrastructure systems in data centers will impact the rack market, affecting rack adoption. In 2020, the China and Hong Kong data center market witnessed a rack capacity of over 1,00,000. Vendors are constantly innovating rack designs to provide airflow perforation (80%), enhance cabling channels, and support more weight capacity. Several data centers use CRAC and CRAH units to supply cold air and exhaust hot air from the data hall. With data centers now built to handle over 10 MW of IT load, the use of multiple CRAC and CRAH units split across data halls is growing. The market will continue to grow among data centers that use DX or chilled-water cooling solutions. The adoption of chiller units expects to be higher in the market. All high-density data centers in the region depend on chilled water to cool their facilities. Hence, the use of free cooling systems is partially viable in these locations. Data centers in China & Hong Kong are developed to derive benefits from free cooling techniques. The use of evaporative coolers is also gaining traction in these countries, along with the adoption of evaporative cooling systems. China is leading the greenfield construction of data centers. Hyperscale developments expect to increase the demand for engineering services in China. Most data centers in Beijing have 24X7 onsite support, including security, maintenance, smart hands teams. In addition, facilities are equipped with disaster recovery systems. Due to the limited availability of land, brownfield construction has witnessed growth in Hong Kong, and this trend is likely to continue during the forecast period. Most facilities in China prefer at least four layers of safety, with few engaged in implementing five-layer ones due to the increasing demand for colocation services. Several mega data center projects are designed to be of Tier III and Tier IV standards in China. Tier III and Tier IV facilities dominate the China and Hong Kong data center market share, expecting to account for USD 4 billion and USD 2 billion, respectively, by 2026. Around 30 data centers in China & Hong Kong fall under the Tier III category. Equinix, GDS Services Ltd, Global Switch, and China Unicom are major vendors developing Tier III standards facilities. Several facilities in China have received Tier IV Certification for design from the Uptime Institute. These facilities generate more revenue for the market, with focused investment on highly efficient cooling systems. Tier IV facilities involve the adoption of 2N+1 cooling units. By IT Infrastructure Servers Storage Network By Electrical Infrastructure UPS Systems Generators Transfer Switches and Switchgears PDUs Other Electrical Infrastructures By Mechanical Infrastructure Cooling Systems o CRAC & CRAH Units o Chiller Units o Cooling Towers, Dry Coolers, & Condensers o Economizers and Evaporative Coolers, and Other Units o Racks o Other Mechanical Infrastructure Other Cooling Units Racks Others Mechanical Infrastructure By Cooling Technique Air-based Cooling Technique Liquid-based Cooling Technique By General Construction Core and Shell Development Installation and Commissioning Services Engineering and Building Designs Physical Security DCIM/BMS By Tier Standards Tier I &II Tier III Tier IV INSIGHTS BY GEOGRAPHY China accounts for the highest revenue share, expecting to constitute over USD 5.6 billion by 2026. The data center market in China is growing YOY aided by the strong growth in internet connectivity across the country and an increasing number of submarine cable deployments connecting the country. Data center demand in China will exceed supply due to the rising demand for cloud-based services, big data analytics, and IoT. The high demand for data centers is likely to boost the development of colocation facilities and prompt regional cloud service providers to establish multiple availability zones in China. The installation of 5G in Beijing is driving the construction of edge and colocation data centers. The government has planned to develop a pilot trade zone for big data exchange and digital trade in Beijing. The increased focus on digital industrialization, industry digitization, data valuation, digital governance, and digital trade development is likely to influence Chinas market growth. By Geography China o Beijing o Shanghai o Other Cities Hong Kong INSIGHTS BY VENDORS China & Hong Kong is one of the most developed data center markets. The data center market in China and Hong Kong is still witnessing growth in terms of investment from global and local data center operators. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the data generation significantly increased this derived investment in data centers. Vendors are offering innovative solutions for data centers to improve efficiency of data centers. The market is likely to witness the entry of new players that provide DCIM solutions, installation & commissioning services, and physical security services. The success of new entrants mainly depends on their market expertise and understanding of local regulations. The Princeton Digital Group, GDS Services, and BDx invested in the region in 2020. These providers are either building data centers or acquiring existing facilities to create a foundation for expansion in the future years. Key Data Center Critical (IT) Infrastructure Providers Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) Cisco Systems Dell Technologies Hitachi Vantara Corporation Huawei Technologies IBM Inspur Lenovo Quanta Cloud Technology (Quanta Computer) Key Data Center Support Infrastructure Providers ABB Vertiv Caterpillar Cummins Delta Electronics Eaton Fuji Electric Schneider Electric HITEC Power Protection Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Legrand Rittal Rolls-Royce Power Systems AIRSYS Shenzhen Kstar Science and Technology Key Data Center Investors Apple AirTrunk Operating Amazon Web Services (AWS) 21Vianet BDx Chayora China Unicom Chindata CITIC Telcom International Holdings Equinix GDS Services Global Switch OneAsia Network Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Persero) PCCW Global Solutions Princeton Digital Group SUNeVision (iAdvantage) Shanghai AtHub Shanghai Qnet Networking Technology Tencent Holdings Tenglong Holdings Group (Tamron) Key Construction Constructors Arup Group Aurecom Group AWP Architects BYME Engineering (HK) Chung Hing Engineers Group DSCO Group Faithful+Gould Gammon Construction ISG Studio One Design NTT Global Data Centers KEY QUESTIONS ANSWERED 1. How big is the China and Hong Kong Data Center market size? 2. What is the growth of Tier III data centers in China and Hong Kong? 3. What is the growth rate of the China and Hong Kong Data Center Market? 4. What are the new investment opportunities in the data center market? 5. Who are the key players in the China and Hong Kong data center market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06068339/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ An article exalting Prime Minister Narendra Modis handling of the Covid-19 pandemic made a sudden appearance on the Twitter timelines of BJP leaders. PM Modi has been working hard; dont get trapped in the opposition barbs, read its headline in all capitals. The article was shared by BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya, Minister of State in the Ministry of Minority Affairs Kiren Rijiju, BJP MP Dr Jitendra Singh who holds multiple ministries, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kishan Reddy, Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi, BJP MP Narendra Keshav Sawaikar, former Jharkhand CM Raghubar Das and former BJP MLA Archana Chitnis. The entire piece argues how the Prime Minister is working his best, in silence, for the betterment of the country, how Chief Ministers have been acting like crybabies, how the previous Congress government did little to build strong healthcare infrastructure and how PM Modis critics have been trying to paint a negative image of the Prime Minister. The story was published on a never-heard-of-before outlet The Daily Guardian that closely resembles the name The Guardian but isnt associated with the UK daily. Article authored by a member of BJPs national media team While the word Guardian in the outlets name might fool some readers into believing that an international publication praised the Indian Prime Minister in an over 2,700-word piece, the article was penned by Sudesh Verma who is the convenor of the Media Relations Department of the BJP. He also represents the party as a spokesperson in TV debates. Verma tries to hold everyone except the Prime Minister accountable for the mismanagement of the healthcare crisis in India due to Covid-19. No one in the world had expected that the second wave would be so pervasive. Everyone thought this would be less severe. Can we blame Modi for this? asks Verma. But a forum of scientific advisors set up by the government itself had in early March warned of a huge spike in infections. The warnings were ignored. We should not forget that till Atal Bihari Vajpayee became Prime Minister, there had been only one AIIMS set up in 1952. It was Vajpayee who decided to open six AIIMSLearning from Vajpayee, Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister opened one AIIMS in Uttar Pradesh at Rae Bareli in 2013. When Narendra Modi came to power, he decided to open 14 AIIMS to cover the entire country, the article further says, omitting the fact that the six AIIMS announced in Vajpayees term were inaugurated during Manmohan Singhs tenure. Furthermore, none of the 15 AIIMS announced by PM Modi are fully operational. They are either partially functional or in different stages of construction. Nobody had problems with other parties and their leaders campaigning but critics had problems with the Prime Minister. You dont create a different norm for the PM. And he did cancel his meeting towards the last leg of campaigning in West Bengal. BJP leaders including Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah cancelled all their election visits to the poll-bound state of West Bengal. Below is PM Modis speech in Asansol where he said that he has never seen such a huge crowd before. Wherever I turn, I see people, said an unmasked Prime Minister on April 17 when the country recorded over 2.6 lakh daily Covid-19 cases. Five days later, PM Modi decided to not attend election rallies in West Bengal. This was after the state witnessed its highest surge in cases since the pandemic began. Verma conveniently hailed PM Modi for cancelling his visit in the last legs of the campaigning but did not deem it appropriate to inform that the rallies were still being held on the ground with the PMs virtual presence. Why was Kumbh Mela allowed to take place in Haridwar? It could have been cancelled. It was for the state government to decide whether it was feasible to organise such a large mela and yet follow Covid protocolThe Prime Minister did appeal to people and seers to make the mela symbolic, the article says. But this too is a misrepresentation of facts. PM Modi had said that Kumbh Mela should be made symbolic on April 18. This was nine days after Haridwar hosted lakhs of pilgrims. Kumbh Mela advertisements were published in nearly every newspaper featuring the Prime Ministers photograph. A hearty welcome to all devotees, said the advertisement. What a monumentally callous signal for complacency! Here's arguably India's most influential man flagging off an event that is known for MASSIVE crowds, during a pandemic - if that isn't a signal (+ election rallies) for people to drop their guard, what is? pic.twitter.com/NGdlhKqZWd Karthik (@beastoftraal) April 24, 2021 A recent report in The Caravan revealed that ex-Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivdenra Singh Rawat was fired overnight by the BJP for insisting that the Kumbh Mela should be restricted. It was Rawat who suggested that a symbolic festival should be held keeping Covid-19 in mind. However, not only was Kumbh Mela held but it was also advanced by one year based on the reading of astrological charts by jyotishs and tantriks. The Daily Guardian is owned by ITV Network The Daily Guardian was launched by ITV Network in February this year. ITV Network is the parent company of NewsX. NewsX had aired Haryana BJP Presidents congratulatory note to journalists of The Daily Guardian on the launch of the newspaper. Despite being a three-month-old venture, The Daily Guardian published an exclusive interview with Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari where the BJP leader said that the Covid-19 crisis could be a blessing in disguise to attract FDI in India. Apart from several pro-Modi pieces, the outlet has also published an absurd article where the author asks people to stop worrying and have faith in the government. Dear sir, the government is yours, so have faith. And if you dont, what will happen, you know? It will increase negativity, further adding to the fear and anxiety, says the piece, adorning the homepage of The Daily Guardian website. Its headline Be cheerful to produce antibodies is repeated twice. There are also grammatical and formatting errors inside the article. Utpal Kumar is the Executive Editor of The Daily Guardian. A member of BJPs Media Relations Department penned an 'opinion' piece, replete with misinformation, on Prime Minister Modis contribution to Indias healthcare system. This was published in the newly launched The Daily Guardian, owned by ITV Network. A plethora of BJP leaders then shared the article as evidence that the PM has been working overtime for the upliftment of the country during the Covid-19 crisis. This isnt the first time that an article celebrating PM Modi has made headlines. An obscure website British Herald declared PM Modi the winner of a readers poll on who is the worlds most powerful leader in 2019. Despite its name, an Indian businessman owned the website. The S.C. Corrections Department says it intends to release the name of any prisoner who is executed whenever South Carolina gets back into the execution business. That's the good news. The bad news is that it's not releasing the names of any other prisoners who die in state custody unless or until Attorney General Alan Wilson says it may. The new prison policy came to light earlier this month, when a man who had been sentenced to 421 years in prison in 2006 for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl, repeatedly raping her and holding her hostage inside an explosive-laden underground bunker died in state prison. It was a notorious crime that inspired a Lifetime TV movie, and his passing is something our government should tell us about automatically. But the news coverage about Vinson Filyaws death was based on anonymous sources, because the Corrections Department said only the coroner could provide the name of the prisoner who was found dead in his cell, and McCormick County Coroner Faye Puckett refused to do so. There is no justification for the coroners behavior, and voters should let her know that if and when she runs for reelection. But Columbias State newspaper reports that the Corrections Department had instituted a new policy in January against identifying dead inmates, based on concerns that doing so might be illegal. The first thing that needs to be said is that any law that would restrict what a prison can tell the public about inmate deaths is a law that needs changing. We ought to know pretty much everything that is knowable when someone dies in state custody, partly so we can hold prison officials accountable if they contributed to that death. The law in question is the federal health privacy law known as HIPAA, which serves a useful purpose but also has put ridiculous amounts of information out of public reach, and has created an industry of litigation over what sort of information it does and doesnt allow governments, businesses and nonprofits to release or request. The second thing that needs to be said concerns that might be illegal part. Corrections spokeswoman Chrysti Shain tells us that prison medical officials raised concerns in January, based on changes to the ever-changing HIPAA rules and their new realization that the agency was releasing the names of dead prisoners. So the agency asked a HIPAA expert for a legal opinion. When that opinion came back inconclusive, the agency requested what it assumed would be a quick-turnaround opinion from Mr. Wilson's office and stopped releasing the names of dead prisoners while it awaited that opinion. Sign up for our opinion newsletter Get a weekly recap of South Carolina opinion and analysis from The Post and Courier in your inbox on Monday evenings. Email Sign Up! Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said he wants to release the names but felt like he needed to stop until he gets the legal all-clear. The elaborate procedure his agency has devised to get the information to the public seems to confirm his desire: Ms. Shain asks the coroner in the county where an inmate dies to release the name since coroners arent considered health care providers and a prison spokeswoman might be. Usually coroners cooperate, and an agency news release announces the death and quotes the coroner identifying the deceased. In fact, no one seemed to notice the January change until Mr. Filyaw's death this month, because either coroners cooperated or the names of the deceased weren't the newsworthy information for instance in the case of COVID deaths. While we respect Mr. Stirlings desire to be careful, we believe he should have maintained the old policy unless the attorney general told him that federal law prohibited that. In fact, all government officials should err on the side of releasing too much information particularly when it's information about how the government exercises its police powers. Frankly, an attorney general's opinion should have been the first thing the Corrections Department requested once the question arose. One of the attorney generals most important jobs, after all, is to provide just this sort of legal advice to government agencies. Mr. Wilsons office says its been busy producing other opinions and that this one is more complicated than it looks but that it hopes to have it finished this week. We wish it could have been produced sooner; perhaps it would have been prioritized if the request had made it clear that Corrections was withholding names until it got an opinion as it should have. But whats most important now is to get some clarity on the question. And if the opinion is that releasing the names of deceased inmates does indeed violate the federal privacy law, Mr. Wilson needs to help Corrections devise a way around that problem. If nothing else, the Legislature should require coroners to release the names. Facing the complicated development of epidemic, many provinces have ordered local people to apply technology solutions such as filling out electronic medical declarations by scanning QR codes and installing the Covid-19 tracking app Bluezone. In the northern province of Thai Nguyen, since May 3, local healthcare facilities have promoted the use of information technology in epidemic prevention and control. Local people are installing the Made-in-Vietnam Covid-19 tracking applications like VHD, NCOVI, and Bluezone and doing medical declarations by QR Code. Medical centers have organized medical declaration by QR Code at epidemic check points. Local people can use their smartphones to make medical declarations after scanning the QR Code created by the medical centers at checkpoints. The QR Code is available for all the locally-made applications VHD, NCOVI, and Bluezone. The authorities of Bac Ninh province, a hot spot, have requested districts, towns and cities in the province to prepare quarantine centers for 1,500 people, which must have CCTV systems to monitor people under quarantine to ensure that they fully follow epidemic prevention measures. CCTV systems are also installed at pandemic checkpoints. Electronic medical declarations through mobile applications VHD, NCOVI, Bluezone are being used in many provinces. (Photo: Trong Dat) The local Department of Information and Communications coordinates with mobile service providers and updates information on epidemic prevention via mobile phones to local residents on a daily basis. Communications about the prevention of Covid-19 via the public loudspeaker system is carried out by all culture and information divisions and radio stations in districts, towns, cities and wards. The local Department of Information and Communications has also implemented solutions set by the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) in the "Guidance on using the Covid-19 prevention, fighting and tracing solutions in the community under the instruction of MICs Department of Information Technology. In Hanoi, medical declarations using QR codes have been widely implemented since April 27. In particular, upon returning to Hanoi after the April 30 and May 1 holiday, all residents had to make medical declarations on tokhaiyte.vn, by QR Code, or direct declarations to the local authority under the guidance of the Ministry of Health. Hanoians have been also encouraged to use the Bluezone app. As of May 3, in Hanoi, the app had been downloaded nearly 3 million, reaching the rate of 33.83% of the city's smartphone users. Like Hanoi, Bac Ninh, and Thai Nguyen, many other provinces and cities in the country such as Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Thanh Hoa, Kon Tum, Lam Dong ... are also applying technological solutions in Covid-19 prevention. In order to meet the urgent requirements of the prevention and control of Covid-19, on April 23 the Ministry of Information and Communications issued the "Guidance on using the Covid-19 prevention, fighting and tracing solutions in the community. This is a combination of propaganda measures to raise community awareness about administrative measures of the government, in which technology solutions are promoted. The technology solutions proposed by the Ministry of Information and Communications to help local governments detect and zone outbreaks include: Bluezone application, medical declaration app VHD for people who enter Vietnam, voluntary medical declaration management application NCOVI, arrival/departure registration system at public places (QR Code), and an anti-epidemic mapping system. Ngoc Minh In this August 7, 2020, file photo, shows an aerial view of a deforested area close to Sinop, Mato Grosso State, Brazil. AFP-Yonhap Whether it's turning forests into cropland or savannah into pastures, humanity has repurposed land over the last 60 years equivalent in area to Africa and Europe combined, researchers said Tuesday. If you count all such transitions since 1960, it adds up to about 43 million square kilometers (16.5 square miles), four times more than previous estimates, according to a study in Nature Communications. "Since land use plays a central role for climate mitigation, biodiversity and food production, understanding its full dynamics is essential for sustainable land use strategies," lead author Karina Winkler, a physical geographer at Wageningen University Research in the Netherlands, told AFP. Plants and soil especially in tropical forests soak up about 30 percent of manmade carbon pollution, so large-scale landscape changes could spell success or failure in meeting Paris Agreement temperature targets. The 2015 climate treaty enjoins nations to stop global heating at "well below" two degrees Celsius, and 1.5 degrees Celsius if possible. The planet has already warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial benchmark, enough to unleash a crescendo of deadly storms, sea level rise and other impacts. Since 1960, Earth's total forest cover has shrunk by nearly a million km, while areas covered by cropland and pastures have each increased by roughly the same extent, the study found. But the global figures obscure important regions differences. Forest areas in the Global North Europe, Russia, East Asia and North America have increased in the last 60 years, while forest loss in developing countries of the Global South has been staggeringly high, the study showed. Conversely, croplands have declined in the north and expanded in the global South, especially to satisfy rich country appetites. Greenpeace activists in Vienna stage a protest against deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, May 5. Reuters-Yonhap Migrants: Strasbourg calls on Greece to stop pushbacks Council of Europe commissioner writes to Greek ministers (ANSAmed) - STRASBOURG, 12 MAG - Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner Dunja Mijatovic said in a letter to Greek ministers that she is calling on Greece "to put an end to pushbacks to Turkey, by land and by sea, of migrants and potential asylum seekers, and to conduct an investigation, independent and efficient, on all the complaints regarding such practices". Mijatovic addressed her letter to Greek Citizen Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, Greek Migration and Asylum Minister Notis Mitarachi and Greek Shipping and Island Policy Minister Ioannis Plakiotakis. "I am deeply concerned that the official reaction of the Greek authorities has often been to simply dismiss allegations of pushbacks despite the overwhelming body of evidence that has been presented in recent years," wrote Mijatovic. In the letter, the commissioner also calls on Greek authorities not to delay plans to improve living conditions at reception centres and to not hinder the work of NGOs that protect the rights of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers. (ANSAmed). Former Louisiana Sen. JP Morrell said Wednesday he is running for the vacant at-large seat on the New Orleans City Council, making official the long-expected move from the veteran local lawyer and politician to jump into what is shaping up to be a hotly contested race. Morrell, who served 14 years in the state Legislature, said in an announcement on his website that he is running for one of the two citywide council seats because he has the experience to bring the kind of change New Orleans desperately needs. "We choose to live in this city, work in this city, and raise our families here. It shouldn't be this hard to live in a city we love," Morrell said in the video. "There is a different way. I've dedicated my life to building coalitions to defy the odds and deliver different results. And right now, more than ever, we need results, not more empty promises." The news comes a day after City Councilmember Kristin Gisleson Palmer announced her run for the same seat. Both have long said that they were strongly eyeing a run, as has City Councilmember Jared Brossett. Morrell and his supporters are touting a number of legislative accomplishments from his political career. In 2018, he pushed to change the state's non-unanimous jury law, a Jim Crow-era statute that allowed convictions even if some jury members are opposed. After agreeing to sponsor the bill at the request of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and reform advocates, Morrell convinced his colleagues to pass it and put it to a public vote. Voters backed it overwhelmingly, swayed by evidence that showed the law was aimed at denying Black people equal representation in the court system. Top stories in New Orleans in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Also touted was his creation in 2018 of a process to strip domestic violence perpetrators of guns and his help in 2015 to pass legislation, authored by former state lawmaker and current council member Helena Moreno, that better protects victims of sexual assault. Those victims had for years been forced to pay for their own forensic exams. Another law by Morrell requires college and university police to be regularly trained to handle campus rapes. +2 New Orleans City Council race begins; see which candidates are announcing campaigns this week Election season has kicked off in New Orleans, with several high-profile contenders for the City Council announcing this week, or confirming t If elected to the council, Morrell said he would work to increase funding to juvenile court, end monopoly franchises such as the one held by Cox Communications, and urge the city to better fund early childhood education. He also wants to prioritize paying residents a "living wage," which some studies estimate at more than double the current federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. A Gentilly native and a lawyer, Morrell graduated from Metairie Park Country Day School, Spring Hill College in Alabama, and Tulane Law School. He is the son of Clerk of Criminal District Court Arthur Morrell and former City Councilmember Cynthia Hedge-Morrell. In 2006, he was elected as a state representative and replaced his father in the seat. He jumped to the state senate two years later and gave up his seat in 2020 due to term limits. The District 2 at-large seat was vacated by Jason Williams when he was sworn in as District Attorney this year; an interim, Donna Glapion, will serve until a permanent candidate takes office. +7 Several New Orleans City Council members eyeing new jobs after DA race, Richmond departure A high-profile Orleans District Attorney election and U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond's move to the White House staff has the potential to reshuffle Candidates will formally sign up for the seat in July; a primary will be held Oct. 9 and a runoff, if needed, will be Nov. 13. TORONTO, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Wake Network Inc. ("Wake" or the "Company"), a global leader in psilocybin and medicinal mushroom production and developer of genomics-based integration therapies, is pleased to announce that the company has received conditional ethics board approval from the Ministry of Health and Wellness (Jamaica) to conduct a Phase 2b psilocybin microdosing clinical trial together with the University of the West Indies. The receipt of this ethics board approval marks the completion of the final step towards receiving conditional approval to begin the study. Today's announcement marks a significant industry milestone towards the commencement of the world's first psilocybin microdosing trial to be conducted using a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind method with mushroom-based psilocybin. To date, no known studies have documented the effects of psilocybin microdosing in structured clinical trials. In this trial Wake will use naturally-derived psilocybin mushroom material produced in its facility, distinguishing it from all previous trials with psilocybin that have been conducted using synthetic substances only. This trial, as with all other trials in the Wake pipeline, will be registered at the clinicaltrials.gov database and pre-registered at Open Science to improve the quality and transparency of its research. Wake's mission is to produce pharmaceutical-grade psychedelics for clinical research and clinical access from biological sources. Quality data on psilocybin microdosing is currently non-existent. This study aims to provide the industry and the psychedelic research community with insights into the effects of psilocybin microdosing on anxiety and depression. Greater research will provide regulators with greater data on psilocybin microdosing efficacy to increase the availability of products over time. "Microdosing psilocybin is increasingly becoming a popular practice worldwide. Wake is committed to exploring the potential effects that microdosing has on anxiety and depression through controlled clinical research. Our goal is to bring these medicines to a larger group of users in a safe and compliant manner," stated Dr Olga Chernoloz, Chief Medical Officer of Wake Network. ABOUT WAKE NETWORK, INC. Wake Network Inc. is a fungi bioscience company focused on advancing, through research, the field of psychedelic and fungi-based therapeutics. To address the growing need for psychedelic-assisted mental health support in medicine and society at large, Wake has partnered with academics, governments and best-in-class mycologists around the world. Wake is currently developing fungus-derived psilocybin and medicinal mushroom products and is making advancements in the engineering of novel psychedelic biologics, while working on proving out their safety through proprietary genetics-based integration therapies. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. All statements that are not historical facts, including without limitation, statements regarding future estimates, plans, programs, forecasts, projections, objectives, assumptions, expectations, or beliefs of future performance, are "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "estimates", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, events or developments to be materially different from any future results, events or developments expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on certain assumptions regarding the Company, including but not limited to expected growth, results of operations, performance, industry trends and growth opportunities. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on currently available information, they may prove to be incorrect. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to dependence on obtaining and maintaining regulatory approvals, including federal, provincial, municipal, local or other licences, to operate and expand the Company's facilities; the Company's limited operating history and lack of historical profits; reliance on management; the Company's requirements for additional financing and the effect of capital market conditions and other factors on the availability of capital; competition, including from more established or better financed competitors; the need to secure and maintain corporate alliances and partnerships, including with research and development institutions, customers and suppliers; the development and implementation of medical protocols and treatment standard operating procedures for the use of psychedelic therapies; the Company's ability to successfully withstand the economic impact of COVID-19; the medical benefits, safety, efficacy, dosing and social acceptance of psychedelics; and the cultivation and harvest of psilocybe mushrooms; and any other factors or developments that may hinder the market or the Company's growth. These factors should be considered carefully, and readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Although the Company has attempted to identify important risk factors that could cause actual actions, events, or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other risk factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements. The Company has no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, even if new information becomes available as a result of future events, new information or for any other reason except as required by law. SOURCE Wake Network, Inc. For further information: about Wake please visit our website www.wake.net or contact: Nick Murray, CEO, Wake Network, E: [email protected], Tel: +1-833-925-3638; Investor Relations: Wake Network, E: [email protected], Tel: +1 416 842 9003; Press Contact: Krupa Consulting, E: [email protected] * Username This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely! ST24 and ST25 rice varieties are expected to become state assets, ensuring mass production in Vietnam. The Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Development (MARD) is considering to take an unprecedented move by using fund from the government's program on seed research, development and production for agricultural restructuring to buy out intellectual property (IP) rights of the ST24 and ST25 rice varieties. Vice Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien. Photo: Do Huong/Hanoitimes Vice Minister of Agricultural and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien told the governmental portal in reference to the expectation of agricultural engineer Ho Quang Cua, owner of the rice varieties, to transfer the IP rights of these varieties to the MARD. The MARD had provided patent license for ST24 and ST25 rice varieties in 2018 and 2020 with a validity of 20 year. In international markets, ST25 rice won the World Best Rice award in 2019 and is now subject to trademark registration from US and Australian companies. Cua wants ST24 and ST25 rice varieties to become state properties so that local firms and individuals could have opportunity to mass produce ST24 and ST25 rice, said Tien. Tien, however, noted that the ministry has not received an official proposal from Cua, but in case the move is materialized, the MARDs Department of Crop Production would be the new owner and work with localities regarding the production of these rice products. Ho Quang Cua, developer of the ST24 and ST25 rice varieties. File photo Regarding the ongoing process to protect ST25 rice brand in overseas markets, Tien noted the MARD along with the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the owner of ST25 rice variety and Pan Group have sent documents to the US for IP rights registration. Tien also acknowledged the lack of attention from both the government and the local enterprises in protecting brands of local farm produce abroad. Drastic measures are needed to effectively protect brands of Vietnamese agricultural products, given the fact that Vietnam exported farm produce worth US$41.5 billion in 2020, and this year, the figure may raise to over US$42 billion, noted Tien. Details of the application on the USPTO's website. Tien suggested firms that they should learn from previous legal disputes between Vietnamese and foreign companies to anticipate their trademark protection. Firms may hire law firms, use major distribution channels such as Amazon or with clear geographical indication to better protect them from similar incidents in the future, he added. In a latest move, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) revealed Ho Quang Tri Company has applied for trademark registration as Cuas ST25 rice with the mark consisting of a man with glasses (Cuas face) facing the right, over wheat, and the words Gao Ong Cua to the left. The processing time is estimated to last for three months since the date of submission, noted the USPTO. Hanoitimes Trademark trickery blurs rice status Unlike regional competition, Vietnamese branding approaches of well-established rice varieties could still see some improvements because of existing ambiguities in the product development strategies of the responsible government agencies. PAN Group entrusted with protection of ST24 and ST25 rice trademarks in int'l markets The PAN Group has been authorised to register ownership rights for the ST24 and ST25 rice varieties in foreign markets and protect related trademarks. Huntington, WV (25701) Today Overcast with rain showers at times. Thunder possible. High 83F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Cloudy this evening. Scattered thunderstorms developing after midnight. Low 68F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%. Would you like to receive breaking news notifications from The Post and Courier? Sign up to receive news and updates from this site directly to your desktop. Breaking News Columbia Breaking News Greenville Breaking News Myrtle Beach Breaking News Aiken Breaking News Click on the bell icon to manage your notifications at any time. Success! Please click the 'Allow' button in the 'Show Notifcations' alert in your browser if one is available. Thank you for signing up! Please enable notifications in your browser and reload the page. The Ministry of Finance has just responded to the petition of the Vietnam Automobile Manufacturers Association (VAMA) on additional support policies for businesses facing difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry said that over the past time, to solve difficulties for businesses, organizations, households and individuals, including those in the automobile manufacturing and assembly industry, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, many policies to support all economic sectors have been issued. Specifically, the Ministry has submitted to the Government to issue Decree No.41/2020/ND-CP on an extension of deadline for tax payment and land rent; Decree No. 109/2020/ND-CP on extension of payment deadline for special consumption tax for domestically manufactured or assembled automobiles; Decree No. 70/2020/ND-CP on reduction of 50% of registration fee for domestically manufactured and assembled automobiles by December 31, 2020; Decree No. 52/2021/ND-CP on extension of time for payment of value added tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax and land rent in 2021. After reviewing these support policies, the Ministry found that the proposal to reduce 50% of the registration fee for newly registered cars is inappropriate in the current context. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance suggested that VAMA members comply with the current regulations on registration fees. Recently, to promote the development of the domestic automobile industry in the new context, Decree No. 57/2020/ND-CP amends some regulations of Decree No. 122/2016/ND-CP and Decree No. 125/2017/ND-CP on the tax incentive program for car manufacturing and assembly, including: adding electric cars, cars using batteries, hybrid cars, cars using biofuel, cars using natural gas to promote the development of environmentally friendly vehicles; amending of regulations on vehicle models and simplifying related administrative procedures; amending the minimum general output criteria of vehicle groups and the minimum specific output of auto models to suit the current situation of the automobile manufacturing and assembly industry in the context of the pandemic and to be consistent with the industrys development strategy and planning, taking into account forecasting factors in the future. In the coming time, the Ministry of Finance will update the data and production situation of domestic automobile manufacturing and assembling enterprises and developments, and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies in order to suggest appropriate policies for the domestic automobile industry. H. Duy [May 12, 2021] Sorenson Communications Launches Most Advanced Videophone - Lumina - to Elevate Connections SALT LAKE CITY, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Sorenson Communications, the leading provider of American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting services and Video Relay Service (VRS) announced the launch of its new videophone Lumina. As with all Sorenson technology, Lumina is specifically built for Deaf communication and brings together unmatched clarity, cutting-edge innovation, and exceptional design. From the start, Sorenson has been there to support relationships through our Deaf-centric technology, says Sorenson Communications Chief Executive Officer Scott Wood. We are excited to continue that legacy with Lumina by providing our customers with the most advanced technology and world-class ASL interpreting. As Sorensons latest offering, Lumina joins an ecosystem of services and products that support connections between Deaf and hearing people. Lumina offers an even sleeker design, along with these features: 1080p high-definition video with 30 fps Enhanced lowlight and backlight performance Increased LightRing brightness brightness Greater Wi-Fi capability Updated interface USB A and USB-C 3.0 connectors Increased Bluetooth range range Ergonmic remote control VP2 like Wavello, Group Call, Enhanced SignMail, and more. Sorensons ecosystem integrates its services and products to offer a seamless experience with highly trained ASL interpreters. Sorensons solutions include in-person interpreting, VRS interpretation, or interpreting over video through virtual meeting platforms. With Sorenson Relay and the introduction of the Sorenson VP-100 videophone in 2003, Sorenson revolutionized communication between Deaf and hearing callers, giving them the option to converse in real time anytime, anywhere each in their natural language, ASL or spoken English or Spanish. Since then, Sorenson has continued to re-imagine communication by introducing a host of features as well as five next-generation videophones, each specifically designed by and for people who are Deaf. For more technical information on the Lumina videophone, please visit www.sorenson.com/lumina. About Sorenson Communications, LLC Connecting Life. Sorenson Communications (www.sorenson.com) was founded on the principle that communication and being understood is fundamental to the human experience. Inspired by this belief and the core values of our communities, we develop the most trusted communication offerings, including Sorenson Relay, the highest-quality video interpreting service, and Sorenson Interpreting, which matches qualified sign language interpreters to specific assignment needs. As the largest employer of sign language interpreters, Sorenson endeavors to provide each customer with an exceptional communication experience. Sorenson offers innovative, Deaf-specific communication products, such as ntouch videophones and ntouch software applications that connect PC, Mac, and mobile device users to Sorenson Relay. For more information, visit www.sorenson.com. Press Contact Ann Bardsley Director of Public Relations Sorenson Communications and CaptionCall 801-287-9400 abardsley@sorenson.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [May 12, 2021] XpertRule Delivers on Enabling AI Powered Digital Advisors Viabl.ai Combines Advanced Digital Decisioning Capabilities with Conversational AI in New Low Code Development Platform LONDON, May 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Enabling enterprises to drive their intelligent automation ambitions even further, XpertRule (XR) today announced the launch of its Digital Advisors solution enabling clients to easily automate complex decision making and sophisticated customer/employee interactions. The patented software powers deep conversations with employees, customers and partners by digitally capturing, mining, and automating even the most complex of decision-making processes. Digital Advisors offer a new level of automation through conversational decisioning that turns every agent into the best agent and allows a deeper, more tailored self-service customer experience across web, chat, voice and mobile channels. These Digital Advisors are powered by Viabl.ai, a unified low-code digital decisioning platform, that can easily automate front/back-office applicationseither attended or unattended. Viabl.ai supports a native NLP conversational interface that can also drive any third-party digital assistant or chatbot. All this make Digital Advisors the ideal solution for accelerating, improving and extending automation of contact center operations and customer self-service. "The ability to generate more data-driven decision making and automate complex customer interactions is a game changer in te world of contact center operations," says Melissa O'Brien, VP of Research at HFS, a leading intelligent automation research firm. "XpertRule empowers agents by improving their ability to perform more complicated tasks and ultimately to service the customer better. Viabl.ai also aligns with our OneOffice vision where both front and back-office processes work seamlessly together." Digital Advisors are set to transform customer experiences by: Linking front and back-office operations and driving complex conversations with employees, agents and customers. Digitally capturing expertise and executing on business-critical knowledge that directly impacts business performance, including risk assessment, regulatory compliance, complex selling, problem resolution, resource planning, customer retention, and standard operating procedures. Providing a consistent experience across all digital channels. Using machine learning to enhance automated decisioning with predictive analytics and decision mining. Supercharging Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots as well as digital assistants to push automation boundaries further. Integrating with Google Cloud AI, Azure Cognitive Services, AWS, Salesforce and other cognitive services through built in API connectors. Providing decision mining (machine learning) capabilities, which complements process mining. "This is the next step in the evolution of intelligent automation. These capabilities are groundbreaking because they make both conversational AI and machine learning (ML) accessible to a mainstream business audience," says Akeel Attar, CEO and Founder of XpertRule. "The beauty of Viabl.ai is the way it can capture, learn and optimize organizational decision-making and deliver that expertise digitally. It amplifies the impact automation projects can have within an organization because every business decision can be captured, audited and optimized." To find out more about XpertRule and its Viabl.ai platform please click here. About XpertRule (XR) XpertRule is a leading software developer and provider of intelligent automation solutions, which incorporate multiple AI capabilities to streamline and enhance the decision-making process. Founded by AI pioneers and visionaries, the company's Viabl.ai software makes it easy to automate complex decisions and customer interactions through conversational AI digital decision-making. XpertRule's customers have used Viabl.ai at scale in many sectors including financial services, manufacturing, utilities, telecommunications, and public sector. The company's goal is to deliver on the promise of intelligent automation. To learn more visit www.xpertrule.com. Contact Information Andre Fuochi +1-469-394-7274 afuochi@xpertrule.com [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Endeavour Silver Corp. (NYSE: EXK; TSX: EDR) announces that at the Companys 2021 Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on May 12, 2021 in Vancouver, shareholders voted in favour of all items of business. A total of 67,521,897 votes were cast or represented by proxy at the AGM, representing 41.25% of the outstanding common shares as of the record date. The following is a tabulation of the votes submitted by proxy: Director Votes for Votes withheld Percent for Percent withheld Margaret M. Beck 34,983,870 749,106 97.90% 2.10% Ricardo M. Campoy 35,070,420 662,556 98.15% 1.85% Bradford J. Cooke 33,801,339 1,931,637 94.59% 5.41% Geoffrey A. Handley 33,025,727 2,707,250 92.42% 7.58% Rex J. McLennan 34,891,330 841,646 97.64% 2.36% Kenneth Pickering 35,004,529 728,448 97.96% 2.04% Mario D. Szotlender 34,601,368 1,131,608 96.83% 3.17% All director nominees were re-elected. By a vote by show of hands, shareholders voted 98.09% in favour of re-appointing KPMG LLP as auditor of the Company and authorized the Board to fix the auditor's remuneration for the ensuing year. In addition, shareholders also voted 97.51% in favour to reconfirm the Stock Option Plan, as amended by Amendment No. 5 and 97.75% in favour of the Share Unit Plan. As previously announced, effective today, Bradford Cooke has been appointed Executive Chair of the Board and has stepped down as CEO. Dan Dickson has assumed the role of CEO and has been appointed to the Board, Christine West has assumed the role of CFO and Rex McLennan has been selected as Lead Director of Endeavour. Geoff Handley has stepped down as Chairman but plans to remain an active Director of the Company. Bradford Cooke commented, I want to thank all of the people who have supported me over the past 17 years in building up Endeavour Silver to the Company it is today, including our management team, board of directors and of course our shareholders. We have done some great things together but we are not half done yet. The time has come to pass the management baton to our rising stars, Dan Dickson and Christine West. I plan to stay active with Endeavour, utilizing my knowledge of and contacts in the mining industry to continue building a bigger and better Company, and supporting Dan and Christine in their new roles. We appreciate the vote of confidence of our directors and shareholders. About Endeavour Silver Endeavour Silver Corp. is a mid-tier precious metals mining company that owns and operates three high-grade, underground, silver-gold mines in Mexico. Endeavour is currently advancing the Terronera mine project towards a development decision and exploring its portfolio of exploration and development projects in Mexico and Chile to facilitate its goal to become a premier senior silver producer. Our philosophy of corporate social integrity creates value for all stakeholders. SOURCE Endeavour Silver Corp. Contact Information: Galina Meleger, Director Investor Relations Toll free: (877) 685-9775 Tel: (604) 640-4804 Email: gmeleger@edrsilver.com Website: www.edrsilver.com loading......... Vancouver, May 12, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Join Ellis Martin for a conversation with Jordan Trimble, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Skyharbour Resources ( CVE:SYH ) ( OTCMKTS:SYHBF ) a preeminent uranium and thorium exploration Company with projects located in the prolific Athabasca Basin of Saskatchewan, Canada which was ranked as the best mining jurisdiction to work in globally by the Fraser Institute in 2017.The Company has been acquiring top tier exploration projects at attractive valuations culminating in five uranium properties totalling approx. 200,000 hectares throughout the Basin. In July 2016, Skyharbour secured an option from Denison Mines ( TSE:DML ) to acquire a 100% interest in the Moore Uranium Project, now the flagship project, which hosts the high grade Maverick Zone.The Company is run by a strong management and geological team who are major shareholders with extensive capital markets experience as well as focused uranium exploration expertise in the Basin. In this segment Mr. Trimble discusses the completion of the geophysical program and mobilization for the upcoming drill program at its high grade Moore Uranium Project in Saskatchewan, Canada.To view the interview, please visit:About Skyharbour Resources Ltd. Skyharbour Resources (CVE:SYH) (OTCMKTS:SYHBF) holds an extensive portfolio of uranium and thorium exploration projects in Canada's Athabasca Basin and is well positioned to benefit from improving uranium market fundamentals with six drill-ready projects. In July 2016, Skyharbour acquired an option from Denison Mines, a large strategic shareholder of the Company, to acquire 100% of the Moore Uranium Project which is located approximately 15 kilometres east of Denison's Wheeler River project and 39 kilometres south of Cameco's McArthur River uranium mine. Moore is an advanced stage uranium exploration project with high grade uranium mineralization at the Maverick Zone. Drill results have returned up to 6.0% U3O8 over 5.9 metres, including 20.8% U3O8 over 1.5 metres at a vertical depth of 265 metres. Skyharbour has signed option agreements with Orano Canada Inc. and Azincourt Energy whereby Orano and Azincourt can earn in up to 70% of specific segments of the Preston Project through a combined $9,800,000 in total exploration expenditures, as well as $1,700,000 in total cash payments and Azincourt shares. Preston is a large, geologically prospective property proximal to Fission Uranium's Triple R deposit as well as NexGen Energy's Arrow deposit. The Company also owns a 100% interest in the Falcon Point Uranium Project which hosts a high-grade surface showing with up to 68% U3O8 in grab samples from a massive pitchblende vein, the source of which has yet to be discovered. The Company's 100% owned Mann Lake Uranium project on the east side of the Basin is strategically located adjacent to the Mann Lake Joint Venture operated by Cameco, where high-grade uranium mineralization has been identified. Skyharbour's goal is to maximize shareholder value through new mineral discoveries, committed long-term partnerships, and the advancement of exploration projects in geopolitically favourable jurisdictions. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) discussed the implementation of Resolution 1559 related to the situation in Lebanon at a meeting on May 11. Children in Bab al-Tabbaneh area of Tripoli city, Liban According to UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo, the political situation in Lebanon has not seen positive progress, while the country has faced extremely difficult economic and unstable social conditions, along with increased poverty and unemployment. The sovereignty and territory of Lebanon has continued to be violated. Addressing the meeting, Deputy Permanent Representative of Vietnam to the UN Nguyen Phuong Tra expressed deep concern about the multi-faceted crisis in Lebanon, which seriously affects the living conditions of locals. In term of security, the Lebanese armed forces shortage of resources to ensure security for the country has harmed the stability in the country and the implementation of the UNSCs Resolution 1559, she noted. Vietnam called on Lebanese leaders and all relevant parties to overcome barriers for the interest of the people, and establish a government capable of conducting necessary reforms, she stated. She added that Vietnam hopes that international community, donors and UN agencies will continue to help Lebanon to overcome the current crisis, while paying special attention to the humanitarian situation of Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon. Tra also urged all relevant parties to respect independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon. Resolution 1559 was adopted by the UNSC in 2004, requesting respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity, unification and political independence of Lebanon under the single power body of the Lebanese government, as well as the dissolution of all non-State armed forces in the Lebanese territory, and calling on all foreign forces to withdraw from the country. At the meeting, the UNSC approved Resolution 2574 on the supplementation of tasks to the UN Verification Mission in Colombia (UNVM), and Resolution 2575 on the extension of the mandate of the Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) with 15 yes votes./.VNA Thousands of Irish passengers are likely to avail of the earlier re-opening of air travel from Belfast in June and the Government must start moving to 'decouple' over 30 Covid-related travel laws to ensure Ireland is ready to re-open air travel from August. Thats according to Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) CEO Pat Dawson, who said air travel from Belfast is likely to appeal to Irish travellers eager to get away for holidays, to see friends or family, or for business reasons. The UK and Northern Ireland, Mr Dawson said, is around six weeks ahead of Ireland in terms of relaxing restrictions meaning that different travel rules will apply across the island of Ireland as both economies re-open. While mandatory hotel quarantine is operating in both jurisdictions, Ireland currently has more countries (62) on its quarantine list than Northern Ireland (40), which may also be a consideration for would-be travellers weighing up the possibilities of flying from Belfast rather than an Irish airport, which may not open up until later in the summer. Mr Dawson pointed out that Ryanair announced 10 new routes from Belfast to sun destinations in recent months to deal with pent-up demand for travel, while other operators such as TUI and Jet2 Holidays had their engines warming. There will be thousands flying from Belfast. There is no question about that, Mr Dawson said, noting that travel bookings from Belfast were always strong from border counties even before the pandemic. While concerned about the business that will be lost to Irish airports he accepted it was a fact of life given the different Covid responses in both jurisdictions. He doesnt advocate a faster re-opening of air travel in Ireland but said harmonising travel rules would help and that Government departments need to start working on decoupling 31 pieces of travel-related Covid legislation to ensure the country and sector is ready by August. Presenting to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport earlier today, a delegation from @ITAATweets called on Government to support and engage with proposed EU policies for the restart of travel, particularly the #DigitalGreenCertificates. Read more: https://t.co/elMYIFb4ST Irish Travel Agents celebrating 50 years (@ITAATweets) May 5, 2021 There are 31 laws or statutory instruments in place in relation to international travel. They all have to be decoupled and that doesnt happen overnight. We need to be working around the clock to get all of the technology and regulations in place, he added. Travel agents are not selling travel for the months of July or August but are looking for some certainty on when air travel will open up, he said, urging the departments of health, transport, and foreign affairs to coordinate efforts to be ready by August. Were not saying open up in June or July but were saying be ready by August. If its safe to go and restrictions are lifted lets be ready to go in August, Mr Dawson said. The National Fried Chicken Festival will return to New Orleans this fall with creative dishes from a wide range of vendors, live music on two stages and, new this year, sweeping vistas of Lake Pontchartrain. Cleveland Spears, founder of the annual event, confirmed Wednesday that the food and music festival will return Oct. 23 and 24 with a new lakefront roost on a stretch of parklike grounds between Franklin Avenue and the Seabrook Bridge. The location runs parallel to the University of New Orleans' Lakefront Arena, but on the other side of the levee, for waterfront views and lake breezes while the music plays and food vendors provide their own takes on the fests namesake inspiration. +3 When pigs fly? Hogs for the Cause adds 'Wings & Bacon Night' to cook-off competition Hogs for the Cause had to make many logistical changes to bring the popular charity food event back in pandemic times. The latest change, howe The 2020 edition of the festival was yet another event lost to the pandemic. But behind the scenes, Spears and his teams were planning how to bring it back. To move to the lakefront, theyve been working with the Lakefront Management Authority, the body that oversees this and other public areas here. The National Fried Chicken Festival is sponsored by chicken giant Raising Cane's, though the focus of the festival is on smaller restaurants, food trucks, caterers and other pros with a passion for fried chicken. The event has become a showcase for different styles around the common theme of fried chicken. We think its about great chefs and restaurants making unique versions of fried chicken. Thats the headliner, Spears said. Our team is working with new and returning restaurants to be more creative with their dishes. For a new vendor looking to come in, if theyre proposing fried chicken with sides, thats probably not going to make it in. Were looking for creative dishes that incorporate fried chicken. Spears, who heads the local company Spears Group, first held the event in 2016 in Lafayette Square, and it drew an eye-popping turnout. In the second year, it moved to bigger digs at Woldenberg Park, between the Mississippi River and the French Quarter. The event later grew to three days and reported attendance of 183,000 people over that period. But Spears thinks at least a third of that number were people simply passing through, people who were in the area anyway and might not have spent much time at the festival or exploring its offerings. He thinks the new location will mean a smaller crowd but also more support for the vendors and more engagement for sponsors, with more people out to make a day of it. Hes planning for 50,000 people per day this year. The folks coming now will be coming for our festival, and well make it worth their while with new programming on the stages and across the festival grounds, Spears said. Food and restaurant news in your inbox Every Thursday we give you the scoop on NOLA dining. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up The lakefront area is twice the size of the Woldenberg Park location, he said. Its more space, and more contiguous space, which allows our sponsors to create better experiences and activities for people attending the festival, Spears said. As the number of festivals proliferated in New Orleans in recent years, the National Fried Chicken Festival emerged as one of the most successful. The broad appeal of fried chicken is one ingredient. Spears also said an intentional plan to draw a diverse crowd has been a key. He thinks the mix of sponsors, musical acts and restaurants makes it welcoming and inclusive for a wide spectrum of the community. We started this with the premise that everyone loves fried chicken. ... We believe food brings people together, he said. We program it with the goal to appeal to a broad range of people. Admission is free, with tickets available for special access and experiences. Details on those will be announced later. National Fried Chicken Festival When: Oct. 23, 11 a.m.-9 p.m. and Oct. 24, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Where: New Orleans lakefront at Franklin Avenue Updates at friedchickenfestival.com. +3 Ian McNulty: As New Orleans revives, dont pretend restaurants and bars are back to normal When youre fully vaccinated, when you know the people you spend time with are fully vaccinated, things can start to feel kind of, sort of, al Gold Processing Plant Successfully Commissioned Perth, May 12, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Classic Minerals Limited ( ASX:CLZ ) is pleased to announce the successfull assembly and commissioning of the 100% complete Gekko Gold Processing Plant, which has a 30 tonne per hour (tph) capacity and is scalable to a Gekko Python size plant with a processing capacity of 250 tph. The company will look to update shareholders as site mobilisation occurs.Small parcels of ore were processed. Test operations were successfully conducted; with assessment and commissioning now complete this plant will now be moved to Kat Gap.JT Metallurgical Services Pty Ltd (JTMS) undertook the testing and commissioning of the plant. They generated a process flow diagram, process design, electrical load study and mass/water balance for the plant capable of achieving maximum gold recovery.JTMS provided metallurgical support and guidance to Classic Minerals with regard to testing and commissioning the pilot plant that was conducted at Classsic's testing site in Gnangara WA. JTMS aided in the development and operation of the onsite process for the trial parcel and during the operation of the pilot plant, samples were taken of the crushed product and In-Line Spinner tailings to develop a mass balance. JTMS will continue to manage the ore processing at Kat Gap.This achievement marks another milestone met by the Classic Minerals Ltd team as they continue to advance the planned development of its 100% owned flagship Kat Gap Gold Project which lies 170km south of Southern Cross and has an initial JORC 92,869 oz @ 2.96 g/t Au with conventional cyanide leach process proving 95-96% recovery from both fresh and oxide samples.The Chairman, John Lester said "This is yet another key milestone achieved by the management and operations team of Classic Minerals Ltd required to formally transform Classic from an explorer to a miner. We remain on track to construct and mine at full capacity by the end of July 2021 and we look forward to updating shareholders as additional milestones are reached".To view tables and figures, please visit:About Classic Minerals Ltd Classic Minerals Ltd (ASX:CLZ) is an exploration and development company focused on gold deposits in Western Australia's famous Goldfields region. In March 2017, Classic acquired the Forrestania Gold Project, with seven tenements stretching across 450km2. Strategically located in a very prospective region, the FGP is an underexplored package surrounded by multimillion ounce deposits such as Bounty (2Moz) and Yilgarn Star (1.5Moz). Indianapolis, IN (46208) Today Cloudy with rain in the morning...then scattered thunderstorms in the afternoon. High 79F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms in the evening, overcast overnight with occasional rain likely. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 70%. Completion of Share Purchase Plan Sydney, May 12, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Empire Energy Group Limited ( ASX:EEG ) ( OTCMKTS:EEGUF ) is pleased to advise shareholders that it has completed the Share Purchase Plan ("SPP") announced on 23 April 2021.Over 400 Empire shareholders have participated in the SPP.Due to very strong demand for SPP shares, the Board has exercised its discretion to increase the size of the SPP to $6 million in order to accommodate Empire shareholders who have demonstrated their support for the Company by participating in the SPP. This will result in a lower level of scale back than otherwise would have occurred if the size of the SPP had remained at $3 million.The SPP shares will rank equally with existing Empire shares on issue. The SPP shares are expected to be issued on Tuesday 18 May 2021 and to commence trading on ASX on Wednesday 19 May 2021.Holding statements are expected to be sent to eligible applicants in late May 2021. Refunds for application monies subject to scale-back and refunds for late or invalid applications will be processed in accordance with the terms of the SPP.Comments from Managing Director Alex Underwood: "We appreciate the strong support of shareholders who have applied to participate in the SPP. Funds raised under the SPP will support Empire's Beetaloo Sub-basin focused growth activities and further complement the Company's working capital position. On completion of the SPP, Empire's cash balance is expected to be $27.5 million. If Tranche 2 of the recent Placement is approved by shareholders at the upcoming Annual General Meeting, cash resources will be further enhanced by $17.3 million (net of costs), placing the Company in the strongest financial position in its history. The acquisition of the Pangaea and EMG Beetaloo Sub-basin properties are now well funded, as are planned appraisal work programs including the imminent vertical fracture stimulation of Carpentaria-1 and further horizontal appraisal drilling. Activity across the Beetaloo is ramping up again as the dry season commences. Santos has commenced a two well horizontal appraisal drilling campaign targeting the Velkerri Shale and Origin Energy will drill Velkerri-76 this year targeting the liquids-rich window of the Velkerri Shale, and re-enter existing wells for further flow testing."About Empire Energy Group Ltd Empire Energy (ASX:EEG) (OTCMKTS:EEGUF) holds over 14.5 million acres of highly prospective exploration tenements in the McArthur and Beetaloo Basins, Northern Territory. Work undertaken by the Company since 2010 demonstrates that the Eastern depositional Trough of the McArthur Basin, of which the Company holds 80% has very considerable conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon potential. The Beetaloo sub-Basin, in which Empire holds a substantial position, has independently assessed world class hydrocarbon volumes in place with a major ramp up in industry activity underway to appraise substantial discoveries already made by major Australian oil and gas operators. Empire Energy is an experienced conventional oil and gas producer with operations in the Appalachia region (New York and Pennsylvania). Empire has been successfully developing and producing oil and gas since 2006. The Interstate 10 interchange at College Drive, one of Baton Rouges most notorious bottlenecks, is about to get an extreme makeover. Hoping to ease a bit of the city's white-knuckle driving experience, state and local leaders Tuesday announced the start of construction of a new $52.3 million College Drive exit for westbound traffic on I-10 and I-12. Construction will continue through late 2022, weather permitting. The new roadwork has two main parts: New westbound I-12 traffic lanes that will more closely follow the path of the current I-12 eastbound lane. An upgraded I-10 westbound bridge that will cross over all lanes of I-12 before a new exit to College Drive. The goal of the revamped exit is to create a more harmonious merger of I-10 and I-12 westbound traffic, avoiding the current need for I-10 motorists to cross multiple lanes to get off the highway at College Drive. At the same time, the design is meant to minimize impact to surrounding businesses and neighborhoods during and after construction. Want to understand how the new system will change how you drive in that area? Check out this explainer. Its a busy corridor traversed by nearly 100,000 vehicles a day, with 21,000 vehicles daily using that College Drive exit, according to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up Not only will this reduce conflict points for vehicles trying to cross over multiple lanes of traffic, it will also assist by alleviating traffic that stays on the mainline interstate during peak hours, said DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson. This is a signature project for this region and state, and I am very proud of the department for what it has done to deliver it. Gov. John Bel Edwards said the new interchange is part of more than $337 million of infrastructure work his administration has been undertaking in the Capital region. Investments such as this interstate enhancement project improve our economy and our overall quality of life, Edwards said. The design-build team includes contractor Boh Bros. Construction Company and designer G.E.C., Inc., formerly Gulf Engineers & Consultants. This new exit is one phase of a much larger $716 million project to I-10 from La. 415 in West Baton Rouge Parish to the I-10/12 split in East Baton Rouge. The work is being financed with federal bonds that function as a sort of advance on the states annual federal transportation aid. This College Drive flyover will make travel safer and efficient for all Louisianans, said Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome. +4 I-10 expansion in Baton Rouge will affect 28 homes and 5 businesses, officials say A total of 28 homes and five businesses are in the way of the $380 million plan to widen Interstate 10 between the Mississippi River bridge an Baton Rouge Area Chamber President and CEO Adam Knapp said the new College Drive exit is a notable milestone and a meaningful step in alleviating traffic congestion, but the job is still far from done. Full project funding will require at least twice as much investment as has been allocated to this job-killing bottleneck, Knapp said. Moreover, the painful construction process could potentially be shorter if it were fully funded. We continue to call on the Legislature, governor, and our congressional delegation to find infrastructure dollars to accelerate this project. You are the owner of this article. Sentries march off after a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of V-J Day and the end of the Second World War, at the National War Memorial in Ottawa, on Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020. The Canadian Armed Forces is reporting minimal progress at the midway point of its 10-year drive to increase the number of women in uniform. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang ROMA - In the attacks conducted on Gaza by the Israeli air force over the past two days, 43 Palestinians were killed and nearly 300 were injured, according to the Hamas Health ministry. Local sources report that these figures include 8 Palestinians killed this morning: a man who was on a motorcycle in Khan Yunes (presumably a militiaman), four passengers from a car hit in Jabalya and three people who were in a building in the Sabra district of Gaza. Meanwhile, a total of 1,050 rockets and mortar shells have been launched from the Gaza Strip against Israel, according to the Israeli military spokesman, who said 85% were intercepted and about 200 exploded within the Strip. In response, the Israeli military carried out more than 500 attacks against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist targets in the Strip. A man and a girl were killed in the Israeli city of Lod when a rocket launched from Gaza hit their car, Israeli police said. During one of the rocket attacks on Israel a woman died of a heart attack. Thus far, six people in total have died in Israel in the conflict while in the attacks conducted on Gaza in the last two days, 43 Palestinians were killed and almost 300 were injured Unrest broke out on Wednesday morning at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during morning prayers, according to Israeli public television. It said seven Palestinians were arrested by police after an intense stone-throwing against the officers. The incidents took place on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, the celebration that concludes the fasting of Ramadan. Meanwhile in the West Bank, the Israeli military in recent hours arrested local Hamas officials. Media said round-ups took place in Jenin and Tubas in an Israeli attempt to stop Palestinian violence, and also extended into the West Bank. In Jenin and Tubas the military operations were welcomed by the opposition of the local population. On Wednesday the UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting on the conflict underway between Israel and the Palestinians, by request of Tunisia, Norway and China. This is the second meeting in three days, diplomatic sources told AFP. The first, held Monday, ended without a joint statement because the US thought public comments would be counterproductive, the sources said. - Strong Utilization Drives Record Revenue and Profitability - TORONTO, May 12, 2021 /CNW/ - Geodrill Limited ("Geodrill" or the "Company") (TSX: GEO), a leading West African based drilling company, reported its financial results for the three month period ended March 31, 2021. All figures are reported in U.S. dollars ($), unless otherwise indicated. Geodrill's financial statements are prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards ("IFRS"). Financial Overview Q1-2021: Generated record revenue of $30.7M an increase of 70% compared to Q1-2020 and a 24% increase over the sequential quarter; an increase of 70% compared to Q1-2020 and a 24% increase over the sequential quarter; Achieved record EBITDA of $10M or 33% of revenue compared to $2.2M or 12% of revenue in Q1-2020 up 352%; or 33% of revenue compared to or 12% of revenue in Q1-2020 up 352%; Achieved strong profitability by significantly increasing net income to $5.7M or $0.13 per Ordinary share compared to $0.1M in Q1-2020; or per Ordinary share compared to in Q1-2020; Generated a Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) of 22% and Return on Equity (ROE) of 17%; compared to 13% and 4% respectively for Q1-2020; and Initiated a semi-annual dividend to shareholders. Operational and Strategic Highlights: Increased rig utilization to 75% compared to 50% for Q1-2020 and 70% for Q4-2020; Secured new drilling contract in Egypt and extended the Company's contract in Peru expanding the Company's footprint in new geographic locations; and extended the Company's contract in expanding the Company's footprint in new geographic locations; Secured and extended contracts in our core operations in the Ivory Coast , Burkina Faso , Ghana and Mali , three being long-term contracts; and , , and , three being long-term contracts; and Systematically integrated ESG climate and broader sustainability factors into our operations beginning with sustainable water and energy solutions including converting Company's head office in Accra, Ghana , to solar power. Outlook: Significant financings in recent history continues to drive future demand; drilling services in West Africa has increased significantly in 2021; has increased significantly in 2021; Rig fleet, currently 68 rigs with additional rigs in manufacturing and on order to meet growing demand; and Extremely active tendering market, with particularly strong demand in exploration drilling. Financial Summary US$ 000s (except earnings per share and percentages) For the three months ended Mar 31, 2021 For the three months ended Mar 31, 2020 Revenue US$30,665 US$18,003 Gross profit US$9,632 US$3,115 Gross profit margin 31% 17% EBITDA(1)(2) US$10,022 US$2,215 EBITDA margin 33% 12% Net Earnings US$5,652 US$117 Earnings per share basic US$0.13 US$0.00 Return on Equity (ROE) 17% 4% Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) 22% 13% Notes: (1) EBITDA = earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (2) Please see "Non-IFRS Measures" below for additional discussion "We began 2021 with the strongest quarterly financial performance in the Company's history - outperforming in all key metrics. With strong industry tailwinds and increased utilization, we were able to grow revenue 70% and EBITDA 352%," said Greg Borsk, Chief Financial Officer at Geodrill. "With a strong gold price, our principal commodity exposure, demand for our services remains strong. We will continue to focus on providing premium drilling services that set Geodrill apart, in turn, delivering steady revenue growth and a strong balance sheet." "We achieved strong profitability this quarter; Rig for rig, Geodrill continues to outperform the competition. We kept a sharp focus on our capital markets objectives too significantly increasing our return on capital. With this in mind, we are undertaking the strategic initiatives required to drive the growth of the Company and shareholder value," said Dave Harper, President and CEO of Geodrill. "We leveraged opportunities to continue to diversify geographically, increasing regional revenue exposure beyond West Africa and continue to benefit from a robust exploration environment. With current gold prices, we anticipate that significant capital spending by senior producers and junior exploration companies will continue to drive drilling activity in 2021 and beyond." Geodrill's condensed interim consolidated financial statements and management's discussion & analysis ("MD&A"), for the three month period ended March 31, 2021, are available via Geodrill's website at www.geodrill-gh.com and will be available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Management of the Company will host a conference call at 10:30 am EDT to discuss the financial results. You can join the call by dialing 1 888 231 8191 or local 647 427 7450. A live audio webcast of the conference call will also be available through: https://produceredition.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1451845&tp_key=2d20699c55 About Geodrill Limited Geodrill is a leading exploration drilling company in Africa, with a fleet of 68 mineral drilling rigs. The Company has operations is Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, and Zambia. Operating the largest modern fleet of multi-purpose rigs on the African continent, Geodrill provides Reverse Circulation, Diamond Core, Deep Directional Drilling, Air-Core, Grade Control, Geo-Tech and Water Borehole drilling services to major, intermediate and junior mining companies. www.geodrill-gh.com Non-IFRS Measures EBITDA is defined as Earnings before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization and is used as a measure of financial performance. The Company believes EBITDA is useful to investors because it is frequently used by securities analysts, investors and other interested parties to evaluate companies in the industry. However, EBITDA is not a measure recognized by IFRS and does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. EBITDA should not be viewed in isolation and does not purport to be an alternative to net income or gross profit as an indicator of operating performance or cash flows from operating activities as a measure of liquidity. EBITDA does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other publicly traded companies, and EBITDA should not be construed as an alternative to other financial measures determined in accordance with IFRS. Additionally, EBITDA is not intended to be a measure of free cash flow for management's discretionary use, as it does not consider certain cash requirements such as capital expenditures, contractual commitments, interest payments, tax payments and debt service requirements. Please see the Company's MD&A for the three month period ended March 31, 2021 for the EBITDA reconciliation. Forward Looking Information This press release may contain "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to the future financial or operating performance of the Company, its subsidiaries, future growth, results of operations, performance, business prospects and opportunities. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "believes", or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases that state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by the Company in light of its experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors it believes are appropriate. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company and/or its subsidiaries to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release including, without limitation those described in the Management's Discussion & Analysis for the quarter ended March 31, 2021 and the Company's Annual Information Form dated March 29, 2021 under the heading "Risk Factors". Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that may cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should assumptions underlying such forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results, performance or achievements may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. The forward-looking information and forward-looking statements contained herein are made as of the date of this press release and the Company disclaims any obligation to update or review such information or statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. SOURCE Geodrill Limited For further information: Joanna Longo, Investor Relations, (416) 575-6965, [email protected] Hamas-Israele war, rockets from Gaza and strikes on Strip Urgent UN Security Council meeting today (ANSAmed) - ROMA, 12 MAG - A total of 1,050 rockets and mortar shells have been launched from the Gaza Strip against Israel, according to the Israeli military spokesman, who said 85% were intercepted and about 200 exploded within the Strip. In response, the Israeli military carried out more than 500 attacks against Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist targets in the Strip. A man and a girl were killed in the Israeli city of Lod when a rocket launched from Gaza hit their car, Israeli police said. During one of the rocket attacks on Israel a woman died of a heart attack. Thus far, six people in total have died in Israel in the conflict while in the attacks conducted on Gaza in the last two days, 43 Palestinians were killed and almost 300 were injured Unrest broke out on Wednesday morning at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during morning prayers, according to Israeli public television. It said seven Palestinians were arrested by police after an intense stone-throwing against the officers. The incidents took place on the eve of Eid al-Fitr, the celebration that concludes the fasting of Ramadan. Meanwhile in the West Bank, the Israeli military in recent hours arrested local Hamas officials. Media said round-ups took place in Jenin and Tubas in an Israeli attempt to stop Palestinian violence, and also extended into the West Bank. In Jenin and Tubas the military operations were welcomed by the opposition of the local population. On Wednesday the UN Security Council will hold an urgent meeting on the conflict underway between Israel and the Palestinians, by request of Tunisia, Norway and China. This is the second meeting in three days, diplomatic sources told AFP. The first, held Monday, ended without a joint statement because the US thought public comments would be counterproductive, the sources said. (ANSAmed). The service for the late Hall of Fame horseman Keith Waples is available for those wishing to watch online. Regarded almost unanimously as one of the greatest horsemen in the history of harness racing, Keith passed away at Guelph General Hospital on Friday, May 7, 2021 at the age of 97. He will be sadly missed by Eileen, his loving wife of almost 75 years, and his four children, Barbara Lennox, Donna Galbraith (Mac), Karen Hauver (Maurice) and Gord (Denise), as well as his nine grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. Keith was the son of the late Jack and Bertha Waples and was predeceased by sisters, Jean Swan and Annabelle Caffry, and by his grandson Jason (Jay) Waples. He is survived by sisters Dorothy Rumney of Wasaga Beach, Peggi Diebel of Squamish, B.C. and Mary Jane Burnett of Orangeville, and brother Murray of Barrie. As per his wishes, his body has been cremated and a small private funeral will be held at the Gilbert MacIntyre and Son Funeral Home in Guelph, Ont., Wednesday, May 12, 2021 at 11:00 a.m. A Celebration of Life will be held at a later date. The link to watch the service is available here and is provided through Zoom. As an expression of sympathy, donations to the Guelph General Hospital would be appreciated by the family in recognition of the excellent care that he and Eileen have received there over the years. Donations/online condolences can be made through the Funeral Home at gilbertmacintyreandson.com. Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Keith Waples. ROME - A slab containing 13 Diplomystus fish fossils dating to the Lebanese Cretaceous period 145.5 to 65.5 million years ago was returned to the Lebanese Consul General in Milan, Khalil Mohamad, by Major Francesco Provenza, commander of the Carabinieri police squad for the protection of cultural heritage (TPC) in Monza, the Carabinieri said. Investigators said they were alerted to the fossils after the San Vincenzo Institute for Diocese Work in Milan, a civilly recognised ecclesiastical entity, brought the slab to the Monza Carabinieri TPC. The fossils surfaced when a Swiss woman who died in Milan bequeathed them in her will. In its initial investigations, the Carabinieri squad ascertained that the fossil slab wasn't listed in the Italian stolen artwork database. The database, managed by the Carabinieri TPC, is the largest of its kind in the world and lists more than 1.3 million missing works. Verification of the fossil was conducted by the A. Desio Earth Sciences Department at the University of Milan. The fossils were then returned to their country of origin by order of the national prosecutor's office at the Court of Monza. Around the halfway mark of the four-part Neflix true-crime series The Sons of Sam, were about 90% convinced the notorious serial killer David Berkowitz aka Son of Sam had at least one accomplice as he terrorized New York City with a series of gruesome, execution-style murders in 1976-77 before he was apprehended by authorities. Berkowitz looked nothing like the police sketches drawn from the memories of surviving victims. He had a neighbor in Yonkers named Sam Carr owner of the supposedly Satanic dog who ordered Berkowitz to commit the crimes. Sam Carr had two sons, John and Michael, who died in separate incidents within two years of Berkowitzs arrest. Berkowitz claimed the Carr brothers had taken part in the killings. (They were never charged.) Building blocks are laid down to form the foundation for a credible argument there were others involved. Around the three-quarters mark, were still fairly certain Berkowitz didnt act alone, but were also nearly lost in the weeds of an expanding web of murders and suspicious deaths that expand to the West, not to mention a thicket of conspiracy theories involving Satanic cults and a controversial church and literally dozens of tangential storylines and characters. By the time Sons of Sam reaches its conclusion, were left with more questions than answers about whether Berkowitz acted alone and were left shaken by another tragedy: the troubled life and sad death of one Maury Terry, an outsider journalist who became obsessed with the Berkowitz case much like Michelle McNamara threw herself into the case of the Golden State Killer, as chronicled in the book and subsequent HBO series Ill Be Gone in the Dark. But whereas McNamaras posthumously completed book was hailed as one of the best true-crime, nonfiction works since Capotes In Cold Blood, Terrys The Ultimate Evil, while an enormous bestseller, featured an illustration of a red-eyed, crazed dog on the cover and purported to expose a national and even global network of killer cults and tried to connect Berkowitz to the Manson murders and other dark events and entities. To say it was a reach is an understatement. In the more than capable hands of director Joshua Zeman, Sons of Sam becomes as much a profile of Terry and his obsessive attempts to re-open the case (to the expected resistance of the New York City Police Department and others who wanted the nightmare to die with Berkowitzs arrest and conviction) as a re-examination of the investigation of the .44 Caliber Killer, as Berkowitz was called by the media until he began sending letters to New York Daily News columnist Jimmy Breslin calling himself Son of Sam. Even though Terry had scored one-on-one interviews with a jailed Berkowitz and had presented compelling evidence the so-called Son of Sam not only had accomplices but might not have been the triggerman for some of the shootings, he eroded his credibility with a series of clown-show interviews on exploitation talk TV (Geraldo Riveras daytime show, A Current Affair with Maury Povich, Morton Downey Jr., et al.), and he never got authorities to re-open the case. Terry spent his last years drowning in a sea of drink and bitterness, frustrated by his inability to nail down the biggest story of his career, the story that consumed him. This might sound like the kind of melodramatic line you hear in many a true-crime series, but in a way, Maury Terry was yet another victim of the Son of Sam. Richard Roeper reviews movies for The Chicago Sun-Times. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate. WASHINGTON and OTTAWA, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. (SFI) is pleased to announce the Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee as the 2021 winner of the SFI Implementation Committee Achievement Award. This award recognizes the exceptional work done by the grassroots network of 34 SFI Implementation Committees across the U.S. and Canada. These committees respond to local needs and priorities related to implementation of SFI standards, conservation, community, and education work. The Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee was selected for successfully connecting the efforts of teachers and youth to Indigenous cultures and sustainability and for working with partner organizations to build bat-boxes that help battle white-nose syndrome, a disease caused by a fungus that affects hibernating bats. The Minnesota SFI Implementation Committees leadership shows how critical the SFI Implementation Committees are to SFIs success in advancing community engagement and sustainability through forest-focused collaboration. SFI is committed to building and promoting forest-focused collaborations that respect Indigenous Peoples rights and traditional knowledge. We also work tirelessly to conserve at-risk species including bats and are thrilled with the Minnesota SFI Implementation Committees leadership, said Kathy Abusow, SFIs President and CEO. The Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee is being recognized for its commitment to broadening awareness of Indigenous cultural values and species at risk. In both cases, they also collaborated with partners, which is a hallmark of SFIs work. Curriculum that reflects Indigenous culture, language, values, and ways of learning The Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee saw an opportunity to adapt Project Learning Tree (PLT) lessons to help engage Indigenous youth by including educational perspectives that affirm and value their unique cultural identities. Project Learning Tree, an initiative of SFI, advances environmental literacy, stewardship, and career pathways using trees and forests as windows on the world. After consulting the Office of American Indian Education, the committee hired Larissa Harris, a Native American educator, to adapt six Project Learning Tree lessons to better relate to Indigenous people, and to educate non-Indigenous people about Indigenous perspectives. Harris relied on her close ties to Ojibwe and Dakota communities in northern Minnesota. She researched and wrote detailed content about how Ojibwe and Dakota people use and manage forests for homes, food, industry, recreation, and spiritual purposes. The revised lessons reflect Indigenous culture, language, values, and ways of learning. The completed lessons will be posted on the states PLT website and are available to all Minnesota teachers. These lessons will help serve state teaching standards that require Indigenous curriculum. Increasing forest literacy through youth engagement The Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee partnered with SFI-certified organizations Boy Scouts and West Fraser along with Bat Conservation International and Minnesota Power to build 70 bat boxes using wood from SFI-certified forests. The project supports SFIs focus on building youth forest literacy by making connections to forests and biodiversity. Several forest bat species are affected by white-nose syndrome, and up to 90% of some populations have disappeared in Minnesota. Bats are now being considered for the endangered species list. Youth learned how bats can raise their young safely in these boxes so they can repopulate the skies of Minnesota. We want to thank SFI for the community grant, which allowed us to leverage funding to make these projects possible. One of the hallmarks of SFI is its work in community outreach and sustainability. Together, SFI and the SFI Implementation Committees make an invaluable contribution to promoting sustainable forestry, said Quintin Legler, Chair of the Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee. Both projects were funded by the SFI Community Grant Program and support SFIs commitment to better choices for people and the planet. About the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Inc. SFI advances sustainability through forest-focused collaborations. We are an independent, non-profit organization that leverages four interconnected pillars of work: standards, conservation, community, and education. SFI works with the forest sector, conservation groups, academics, researchers, brand owners, resource professionals, landowners, educators, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, and governments. Collaborating with our network, we leverage SFI-certified forests and products as powerful tools to help solve sustainability challenges such as climate action, conservation of biodiversity, education of future generations, and sustainable economic development. Learn more: forests.org. Media Contact Daniel Pellegrom Vice President, Communications Sustainable Forestry Initiative 202-596-3452 / daniel.pellegrom@forests.org About the Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee The Minnesota SFI Implementation Committee includes representatives from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, forest companies, the University of Minnesota, family forest owners, the Minnesota Logger Education Program, Minnesota Timber Producers Association, the Ruffed Grouse Society, and SFI-certified county land departments. Lockdown in UT extended till Jun 14 with more relaxations 08 Jun 2021 | 10:43 AM Puducherry, Jun 8 (UNI) The lockdown with relaxations which is in force in the Union Territory to contain the spread of COVID-19 was extended till June 14 with more relaxations. see more.. PWD worker dies after consuming sanitizer 08 Jun 2021 | 10:27 AM Puducherry, Jun 8 (UNI) A 46-year-old PWD worker died after consuming sanitizer at Nellithope here. see more.. AP: 3 indigenously built advanced light helicopters inducted at INS Dega in Visakhapatnam 07 Jun 2021 | 10:48 PM Visakhapatnam, Jun 7 (UNI) Three indigenously built Advanced Light Helicopters (ALH) MK III helicopters were inducted by flying into Naval Air Station, INS Dega here on Monday. see more.. Telangana: Sr Congress leaders stages satyagraha deekha demanding free Corona treatment for all BPL families in state 07 Jun 2021 | 10:42 PM Hyderabad, Jun 7 (UNI) Demanding the KCR-led Telangana government to provide free Corona and Black Fungus treatment to all BPL families in the state, Senior Congress leaders have staged Satyagraha deeksha' at Gandhi Bhavan, party headquarters, here on Monday. see more.. 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 Vote View Results The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange has affirmed it will provide support to Tran To Nga to continue her lawsuit against US firms that manufactured the toxic AO defoliant used by US forces during the war in Vietnam. A Vietnamese AO victim The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin (VAVA) on May 12 issued a statement regarding the Crown Court of Evry City in Frances May 10 ruling on Vietnamese-French citizen Tran To Ngas lawsuit against US firms that manufactured the toxic AO defoliant used by US forces during the war in Vietnam. The court said it did not have jurisdiction to judge a case involving the US Governments wartime actions, ruling that the US firms were acting on orders from the US Government which was engaged in a sovereign act. VAVAs statement emphasised that the court made a decision that was not based on the principles of existing international law and did not sufficiently consider relevant factors. Its decision rejecting Ngas lawsuit shows that it denied the right of French citizens who suffered damage from foreign legal entities to be recognised by the French law. The statement also mentioned an announcement from Ngas lawyers in which they said the court applied an obsolete definition of the immunity of jurisdiction principle that contradicted modern principles of international and national law. The court did not take into account relevant factors such as US companies being free to participate in tenders to produce toxic chemicals for profit and not being forced to do so. It also did not consider the fact that the chemical companies had known that dioxin was a highly toxic substance but still intentionally changed the technical process to shorten the production time of AO, thus reducing costs and increasing profits. VAVA emphasised that the Evry court should reconsider its decision and expected that an appeal court would consider all relevant factors to make a ruling requiring US chemical companies to pay compensation. The association also affirmed its backing for Ngas appeal and hoped that all lovers of peace, justice and progress around the world would support her and other AO victims in Vietnam. Nga, 79, accused 14 multinational chemical companies, including herbicide manufacturer Monsanto (now under Germanys Bayer Group), of supplying the herbicide and defoliant chemical that was used extensively by the US army between 1961 and 1971 in Vietnam, causing serious consequences for 4 million people and severely poisoning the environment. An AO victim herself, Nga has pursued the lawsuit for over a decade, including six years in court. She graduated from university in Hanoi in 1966 and became a war correspondent for the Liberation News Agency. She worked in some of the most heavily AO/dioxin affected areas in southern Vietnam, such as Cu Chi, Ben Cat, and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, ultimately being contaminated herself. She suffers from a number of acute diseases. Of her three children, the first died of heart defects and the second suffers from a blood disease. A grandchild of Nga also suffers from AO-related illnesses. With support from several non-governmental organisations, she filed the lawsuit against the US companies for causing lasting harm to the health of herself, her children and countless others, and destroying the environment./. VNA Proactively protecting yourself, going out only when absolutely necessary, fulfilling medical declarations, strictly following the 5K message, and installing the Covid-19 tracking app Bluezone are the best ways to prevent the spread of Covid-19. That is the lesson learned from other countries, particularly India. In early February, India appeared to have taken control of the pandemic. The number of infections per day was more than 10,000, which was considered low for a country of more than 1.3 billion people. But after the Ganges river festival a month ago, which attracted 3.5 million Indians, a new outbreak occurred. This event became a super infectious cluster with more than 2,000 cases a day. Analysts around the world believe that crowded festivals, and cultural and spiritual activities have pushed India into the abyss of the pandemic. In addition, the loss of vigilance and the early proud success about controlling the epidemic and the low death rate contributed partly to the outbreak. The second, third and fourth wave of the pandemic is taking place in many other countries. This is a fierce warning to the rest of the world. In Vietnam, the four-day holiday of April 30 and May 1 has just ended. The pictures showing crowds of tourists in the beach cities of Vung Tau, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Sam Son, Cua Lo and the highlands city of Da Lat surprised many people. Vung Tau beach in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau hosted about 70,000 people on April 30, many of whom did not wear facial masks. At the same time, thousands of visitors flocked to Nha Trang beach in the central province of Khanh Hoa, most not wearing masks. Covid-19 cases are not ocurring daily in India since the new outbreak, according to data from John Hopkins University. At the regular cabinet meeting in April, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said: "We should shift state of epidemic prevention from a defense to active attack, but there must be harmony between defense and attack to ensure best efficiency." The two new strategies to move from defense to attack include promoting the use of advanced technology and strong measures; and large-scale vaccination, with priority given to frontline forces who face high risk of infection. Chart of infection rates in Asia. Vietnam is in the group of countries of light red color, with a low number of infections, as of May 5. Photo: Our World in Data Vietnam aims to implement mass vaccination for the community. It id not only importing vaccines but is also striving to produce a homemade vaccine. However, the Government and the Ministry of Health have always emphasized that even if vaccines are available, Vietnamese people must still fully implement the disease prevention guidelines of the health sector. The first thing is to install the Made-in-Vietnam Covid-19 tracking app named Bluezone on their phones. This is a simple, inexpensive and effective way to find suspected Covid-19 patients in the community, thereby limiting the spread of the disease. The new outbreak is more serious than the previous ones, so the response should also be changed to suit the situation. The lesson from India is a wake-up call for many countries. India never expected a second wave would hit it so violently in just a few months, resulting in unpredictable shortages of medicines, medical supplies and hospital beds. Vietnamese need to put aside their normal habits that are no longer suitable in the new context: first of all, limit gatherings, strictly implement the 5K message, and install Bluezone app. Vietnam has controlled Covid-19 well and has been praised by the world. But this battle is long and Vietnam should prepare well for it. The Ministry of Health has encouraged people to follow its 5K message in Vietnamese, namely Khau Trang (face mask), Khu khuan (Disinfection), Khoang cach (Distance). Khong tap trung (No gathering), and Khai bao y te (Health declaration). Tuan Minh 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). Fairbanks, AK (99707) Today Overcast with rain showers at times. Low 49F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Overcast with rain showers at times. Low 49F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%. New York, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Aluminum Market Research Report - United States Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06063292/?utm_source=GNW This helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. The United States Aluminum Market is projected to grow with a significant CAGR in the forecast period. Economic development and substantial infrastructure development have constituted regional revenue generation. Further, the patterns associated with domestic production, import and export, and consumption have helped market participants to analyze and capitalize on potential opportunities. Besides, the qualitative and quantitative parameters provided in the report with detailed analysis highlights the driving and restraining factors of the United States Aluminum Market. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Aluminum to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Aluminum Market on the basis of Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the United States Aluminum Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the United States Aluminum Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the United States Aluminum Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the United States Aluminum Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the United States Aluminum Market? 6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the United States Aluminum Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06063292/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Close Government open minded about extension of furlough scheme, says Michael Gove Boris Johnson faces a major rebellion over his plans to slash foreign aid as a growing number of Tory rebels back an amendement to force the government to make up the shortfall left from the multi-billion pound cut to the UKs official development assistance. Former prime minister Theresa May and six other former cabinet ministers added their names to the 30-strong list of Conservative MPs opposing the governments plan to abandon its commitment to spending 0.7 per cent of national income on aid for some of the poorest and most unstable areas of the globe. Meanwhile, Michael Gove said the government was open minded about continuing the furlough scheme beyond September, ahead of a meeting later where Nicola Sturgeon plans to push for an extension. Albion, IN (46701) Today A few showers early with scattered thunderstorms arriving for the afternoon. High 83F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then variable clouds overnight with more showers at times. Low around 65F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 60%. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE New Mexico is on track to meet President Joe Bidens goal of having 70% of eligible residents get at least their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the Fourth of July, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told the president Tuesday. The number of eligible New Mexicans with at least one dose of the vaccine eclipsed 60% on Tuesday, with the percentage of those fully vaccinated reaching 48.2%, according to the state Department of Health. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Lujan Grisham has pledged to remove most business restrictions under the states color-coded risk system for virus transmission once New Mexico hits the 60% mark for fully vaccinated residents a mark the state could hit by late June. On Tuesday, Lujan Grisham was one of six governors a mix of Democrats and Republicans invited to speak to the president during a virtual White House event focused on nationwide vaccine administration efforts. She said many New Mexico tribal groups who were hit hard last year by the virus would have 70% of their members fully vaccinated by July, and said some tribes already have even higher vaccination rates. And the Democratic governor, who was previously considered for a Cabinet post in Bidens administration, said the state was also on track to meet the presidents goal for its overall population. I can tell you were going to meet your goal and exceed it, Lujan Grisham said. However, the governor also said she would consider copying ideas used by other governors to incentivize vaccine-getting, such as free hunting or fishing licenses for individuals who get vaccinated. Every time someone has a good idea, were deploying it and we appreciate your support to do that, Lujan Grisham said. State health officials did announce Tuesday the start of a new program allowing businesses, churches, community centers and other organizations to request on-site vaccination clinics. The on-site clinics available at getvaxnm.com will be offered to groups that can ensure the presence of at least 25 unvaccinated individuals, though Department of Health officials said some requests from the same geographic area may be consolidated into a single event. New Mexicos rate of COVID-19 cases and deaths has slowed in recent months with the arrival of vaccines, but has not entirely subsided. Three additional deaths related to the virus were reported Tuesday, bringing the states death toll to 4,108 since the pandemic arrived in New Mexico in March 2020. In addition, state health officials announced the number of confirmed cases has reached 200,037 or nearly 10% of the states population with the addition of 137 new confirmed cases. Nearly 93% of those who have tested positive for the virus have made a full recovery, according to DOH data, though that number could be even higher due to some unreported recoveries. Ellen DeGeneres will end her popular talk after the show's upcoming 19th season, according to news reports. The Hollywood Reporter says DeGeneres will discuss her decision on her May 13 show with Oprah Winfrey. The New Orleans area native reportedly informed her staff of her decision on May 11, although the news outlet says it was several years in the making. When youre a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged and as great as this show is, and as fun as it is, its just not a challenge anymore, DeGeneres told The Hollywood Reporter. Ellen DeGeneres apologizes to show's staff amid workplace environment complaints LOS ANGELES (AP) Ellen DeGeneres apologized to the staff of her daytime TV talk show amid an internal company investigation of complaints of The "Ellen" show came on the air in 2003 and has been an audience favorite, particularly its Christmas shows which give away massive amounts of merchandise to audience members. The show also has been responsible for nearly $70 million in charitable donations and more than $300 million in audience giveaways, particularly to teachers, first responders and families in need. Drew and Brittany Brees have been frequent guests over the years. Although all good things must come to an end, you still have hope that truly great things never will, Warner Bros. Unscripted TV President Mike Darnell told The Hollywood Reporter. He said DeGeneres will remain a part of the Warner Bros. fold with other shows including Foxs "The Masked Dancer," NBCs "Ellens Game of Games" and HBO Maxs "Ellens Next Great Designer." Drew Brees once asked his kids if he should retire. The answer: 'No!'; here's what changed When Drew Brees announced he'd be retiring from the NFL, it was his four children who sat together and told the world in an Instagram video. "Though DeGeneres, whos also producing natural history specials and documentaries for Discovery and returned to stand-up with a celebrated Netflix special in 2018, is coy about her next chapter, she is hopeful a juicy acting role and more time for her conservation efforts are a part of it," according to The Hollywood Reporter. The show has been a ratings hit through most of its run, although ratings have tumbled somewhat after a BuzzFeed News expose in July detailed allegations of a toxic workplace. After an internal investigation, several key executives were fired. DeGeneres received the Kennedy Centers Mark Twain Prize for American Humor in 2015 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom under Barack Obama in 2016. [May 12, 2021] Dataiku Ranks Among Highest-Scoring Businesses on Inc. Magazine's Annual List of Best Workplaces For 2021 Dataiku, the world's most advanced Enterprise AI platform, has been named to Inc. magazine's annual list of the Best Workplaces for 2021. Hitting newsstands May 18 in the May/June 2021 issue, and as part of a prominent Inc.com feature, the list is the result of a wide-ranging and comprehensive measurement of American companies that have created exceptional workplaces and company culture whether teams are operating in person or remotely. Dataiku supports the AI strategies of more than 400 companies worldwide, allowing organizations across pharmaceuticals, health care, financial services, transportation, the public sector, manufacturing, retail, and more to massively scale their AI efforts. As a company, Dataiku employs more than 600 people worldwide between offices in New York, Paris, London, Munich, Sydney, and Singapore, and plans to hire another 300 employees in 2021. Its roots are in France, its headquarters is in New York, and its culture is a dynamic melting pot of all of its international influences. Collecting data from thousands of submissions, Inc. singled out 429 honorees this year. Each nominated company took part in an employee survey, conducted by Quantum (News - Alert) Workplace, on topics including management effectiveness, perks, and fostering employee growth. The organization's benefits were also audited to determine the company's overall score and ranking. "We're honored to be recognized on Inc. magazine's list of top-notch workplaces - while we're immensely proud of the best-in-class data science and machine learning platform we've built since Dataiku was founded in 2013, we're perhaps even more proud of our world-class team that builds, supports, and promotes Dtaiku and its customers," said Florian Douetteau, CEO of Dataiku. "The definition of a positive workplace has changed drastically over the past year," says Inc. magazine editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. "Stocked fridges and nap pods were no longer perks many companies could rely on once work went remote. So, this year's list is even more important as it reveals organizations that continue to enrich the lives of its employees amid a pandemic." About Dataiku Dataiku is one of the world's leading AI and machine learning platforms, supporting agility in organizations' data efforts via collaborative, elastic, and responsible AI, all at enterprise scale. Hundreds of companies use Dataiku to underpin their essential business operations and ensure they stay relevant in a changing world, including models driving fraud detection, customer churn prevention, predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, and much more. Dataiku is built for companies looking to democratize AI across their organization, bringing agility and preparedness to the business through the use of data by everyone from analysts to data scientists. About Inc. Media The world's most trusted business-media brand, Inc. offers entrepreneurs the knowledge, tools, connections, and community to build great companies. Its award-winning multiplatform content reaches more than 50 million people each month across a variety of channels including websites, newsletters, social media, podcasts, and print. Its prestigious Inc. 5000 list, produced every year since 1982, analyzes company data to recognize the fastest-growing privately held businesses in the United States. The global recognition that comes with inclusion in the 5000 gives the founders of the best businesses an opportunity to engage with an exclusive community of their peers, and the credibility that helps them drive sales and recruit talent. The associated Inc. 5000 Conference is part of a highly acclaimed portfolio of bespoke events produced by Inc. For more information, visit www.inc.com. About Quantum Workplace Quantum Workplace, based in Omaha, Nebraska, is an HR technology company that serves organizations through employee-engagement surveys, action-planning tools, exit surveys, peer-to-peer recognition, performance evaluations, goal tracking, and leadership assessment. For more information, visit QuantumWorkplace.com. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210512005110/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] According to the Ministry of Transport (MoT), its divisions are striving to complete the statement to the Politburo for the policy approval of implementing a set target of 5,000- kilometer long expressways in the whole country by 2030. Particularly, expressway construction projects with a total length of 871 kilometers will be completed and 1,176-kilometer new ones will be started works in the period 2021 2025. Of which, the country will complete Hoa Lien-Tuy Loan and Dau Giay- Tan Phu- Bao Loc expressways in the Central and Central Highlands regions with a total length of 139 kilometers and start works of Buon Ma Thuot Van Phong expressway project with 105 kilometers. As for the Southern region, there will be two expressways of Bien Hoa- Vung Tau and Chon Thanh- Duc Hoa being completed and three new expressways with a total length of 194 kilometers, consisting the Ring Road No.3 Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City Moc Bai and Ho Chi Minh City Chon Thanh expressways will be started works. In the Mekong Delta region, three expressways with a total length of 136 kilometers will be built, including My An Cao Lanh, Cao Lanh Rach Soi, An Huu Cao Lanh and the 153-kilometer long expressways will be started works, consisting Chau Doc Can Tho and Soc Trang Tran De. In the period 2025 to 2030, the country will continuously complete at least 874- kilometer long expressways. Of which, there will be additional three expressways in the Northern region, including Moc Chau Son La, Phu Tho Cho Ben, Ring Road No.5 in Hanoi with a total length of 363 kilometers; three more expressways, consisting Vinh Thanh Thuy, Quy Nhon Pleiku, Bao Loc Lien Khuong with a total length of 299 kilometers in the Central and Central Highlands regions; additional two expressways in the Southern region, including the Ring Road No.4 in Ho Chi Minh City and Go Dau Xa Mat, with a total length of 170 kilometers. In the Mekong Delta region, Ha Tien Rach Gia and Hong Ngu Tra Vinh expressway construction projects with a total length of 207 kilometers will be started works. To reach the target, it is estimated to have investment capital of around VND350,936 billion (US$15.2 billion), including VND219,523 billion (US$9.5 billion) from the national budget, VND131,413 billion (US$5.7 billion) from other financial sources. As for the national budget, the Government assigned localities to arrange VND37,168 billion (US$1.6 billion). After arranging capital, the localities currently need an additional VND44,355 billion (nearly US$2 billion) to implement the projects. In the period 2026-2030, the capital demand for the above projects will be around VND395,670 billion (US$17.2 billion), including VND209,164 billion (US$9.1 billion) from the national budget and VND186,506 billion (US$8.1 billion) from other financial sources. SGGP Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI. Lawton, OK (73501) Today Cloudy skies this morning will become partly cloudy this afternoon. High 91F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mostly clear. Low 74F. Winds SE at 10 to 15 mph. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Bobby Unser, said his longtime friend and rival Mario Andretti, could be downright annoying in his firm conviction that he was right about pretty much everything pretty much all the time. And yet Sure, there are some things that frustrated me about him, Andretti said by video at a memorial service Tuesday morning at Calvary Church in Albuquerque. But those were also some of the things that Im gonna miss the most. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ Unser, an Albuquerque and world auto-racing icon who won three Indianapolis 500s, died on May 2 at age 87. Several hundred people attended Tuesdays service, and likely many more watched remotely via a digital stream. Andretti and Roger Penske, a longtime racing-team owner and now owner of the Indianapolis Speedway, spoke by video. Auto-racing announcer Paul Page, Unser family friend Carlos Garcia and Calvary Pastor Neil Ortiz spoke from the dais. Ill miss his laughter, which was truly contagious, said Andretti, an auto-racing legend in his own right and the Indianapolis 500 winner in 1969, the year after Unser won at the Brickyard for the first time. His straightforward opinions, his strength and his grit. He was colorful and he had no filter, for sure. Regarding the absence of a filter, Andretti recalled that Unser typically greeted him with a nickname that, coming from anyone else and directed to one of Italian heritage, might have started a fist fight. That was OK with me, Andretti said. Unser was driving for Penske when he won his third Indy 500 in 1981. But on Tuesday, Penske stood next to the Eagle Offenhauser that Unser drove when he first won there in 68. Next to the Offy was the Borg-Warner Trophy, annually awarded to the winner. Unser was a superb driver, Penske said, but was also a racing scientist of sorts. He liked to tell us that he was the one that actually first tested ground effects on Indy cars in the 70s, Penske said, and in fact he did his initial testing and development under high security in his warehouse there in Albuquerque with a pretty advanced system for the time. He used a miniature wind tunnel with a hair dryer to create air flow. Bobby was always very creative. Andretti, Penske, Page and Garcia, it seems, all knew the same Bobby Unser: a man who loved his family, racing, his fans, telling a good story and pulling a good practical joke. The Unser family and auto racing are forever intertwined. Bobby Unsers younger brother, Al Sr., won at Indy four times. His nephew, Al Jr., won there twice. Jerry Unser Jr., the eldest brother, was killed at Indy on a practice lap in 1959. The Unser family Bobby, his uncle Louis, Al Sr., Al Jr., Bobbys son Robby has won the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 26 times. The total number of auto races won by an Unser is likely incalculable. The only thing Bobby Unser loved more than being Bobby Unser, said his friend Garcia, was being an Unser. During his racing career, his post-racing career as a television analyst and in retirement, Unser loved to interact with fans. For years, Penske said, he and Unser stayed in neighboring mobile homes at Indy in May as the big race approached. Bobby became a fixture at the Speedway each May, not because he was being paid, because he wasnt, Penske said. Bobby was there because he wanted to celebrate the greatest month in racing with the fans and make sure they enjoyed our sport and their time at Indy like he did. Unser, Garcia said, was an entrancing storyteller. Bobby made you feel like you were there when he told a story, Garcia said. What I loved most was his ability to recount every single detail and every persons name who was involved in the story. Then, there was the voice that unique, singsong inflection, often imitated but never simulated. Nobody had a voice like Uncle Bobby, Garcia said. Totally unmistakable. Unser, Penske said, loved a practical joke, such as pretending to doze off in the pilots seat while flying Penske team members home from a race on his private plane. Page, who for years played referee between Unser and fellow analyst Sam Posey on ABC-TV Indy 500 telecasts, remembered his friend as a man without pretense. He was just who he was, Page said. He lived the life he wanted, and we are all richer for it. No Unser family members spoke at Tuesdays service. But nephews Johnny Unser and Al Jr. and son Robby Unser were pallbearers. Among the honorary pallbearers were son Bobby Unser Jr., brother Al Sr., longtime Albuquerque race-car owner Rick Galles and 1980 Indy 500 winner Johnny Rutherford. Willy T. Ribbs, an African American driver who broke the color barrier at Indy in the early 1990s, came to Albuquerque for the service and was a pallbearer. Bobby Unser, Ribbs has said, was a mentor and a supporter at the time. When Ribbs learned of Unsers death, he posted the following on Twitter: #Cool as ice #RIP to a Mans Man and I #love that Man. He treated me like one of his own. Forever Uncle Bobby Unser. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal Starting this week, New Mexicans receiving unemployment benefits will have to start documenting their job search to continue receiving benefits. The change, which was announced Tuesday by the Department of Workforce Solutions, reinstates a pre-COVID federal rule requiring unemployment insurance claimants to document at least two job applications per week to continue receiving benefits. Due to the pandemic, the work search requirement was temporarily waived and claimants were able to receive benefits without notifying the department of their job search. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ With the decline in COVID-19 spread and the successful rollout of the vaccine, we have the tools to move New Mexico forward, acting Secretary Ricky Serna wrote in a statement. As a result, more employers are now able to increase their reopening efforts, including bringing more staff back to work and hiring new positions. What do workers need to do? Under the reinstated requirements, claimants must submit two work search activities per week when filing their claims, according to DWS spokeswoman Stacy Johnston. Work search activities can include applying or interviewing for a job the claimant is reasonably qualified for or posting a resume on an online job board, Johnston said in an email. The reinstated requirements can also be fulfilled through attending workshops hosted by New Mexico Workforce Connection. Workers must document the date of their contact, the type of work, employer information and the result of their contact each week. Johnston said the requirement applies to every New Mexican receiving unemployment benefits, including those receiving benefits through federal programs, such as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, that were established to provide additional aid during the pandemic. All claimants must seek work that offers at least 20 hours per week, and claimants who dont complete two work searches during a week will be deemed ineligible for benefits that week, Johnston said. The policy change comes after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham told business owners and leaders during an Economic Forum of Albuquerque webinar that the state was looking into policies that would incentivize workers to apply for jobs. We need to both incentivize employees to go back to work, and were going to need some accountability aspects, the governor said during the April 28 event. A Governors Office spokeswoman said Tuesday that the work search requirement was among the policies the governor was referring to in those remarks. She did not say whether additional policy changes might be forthcoming. Other states have also made recent changes to their unemployment benefits. Governors of some states including Montana, South Carolina and Iowa have recently said they will no longer pay the $300 weekly enhanced federal jobless benefits due to concerns over labor shortages. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday that the assistance has discouraged people from returning to work, according to The Des Moines Register. Lujan Grisham has not suggested she is considering following suit. Ohio, Florida, Kentucky and Indiana also recently reinstated or announced plans to reinstate the work search requirements. Businesses, workers react For weeks, business leaders and owners have voiced numerous complaints surrounding unemployment requirements and benefits, claiming the waiver of the work search requirement combined with additional federal assistance acted as a disincentive for workers to apply for jobs. Those receiving unemployment can currently receive a minimum of $390 per week between state and federal assistance, according to DWS. Were excited for our businesses, because hopefully this might encourage some more folks to apply and perhaps get a job that theyll be happy working at and it will be helpful to the businesses and the economy, said Ernie CdeBaca, Hispano Chamber of Commerce president and CEO. CdeBaca said the return to the work search requirement will help fill many open jobs and that businesses are ready and willing to hire more employees. George Gundrey, owner of Tomasitas in Albuquerque and Santa Fe and Atrisco Cafe & Bar in Santa Fe, said he hopes the return of the work search requirement will encourage people to return to work, and ease what has been a very tight market for employers. Im very hopeful its going to loosen stuff up, Gundrey said. Gundrey said hes hiring for about 25 positions across his three restaurant locations for cooks, dishwashers and front-of-house staffers. Despite raising wages by about $2 per hour since the beginning of the pandemic, Gundrey said, hes found it challenging to find employees. Because of that, he said his existing employees are stuck working overtime and struggling to cover absences. Its increasing the stress level for the entire staff, management on down, Gundrey said. Gundrey said he hopes the work search requirement will motivate claimants to get back in the habit of looking for work. If we got eight new applicants tomorrow, we would hire all eight of them, Gundrey said. Workers rights groups and labor and economic researchers say the lack of job applicants has been due to more than just higher unemployment benefits, with issues including low wages, irregular schedules and child care also influencing workers decisions to remain on unemployment. People want to work. They are looking for work. Theyre declining jobs that dont protect their familys health or provide financial security and accepting jobs that do, Matthew Henderson, executive director of the OLE Education Fund, wrote in an email. The DWS work search requirement doesnt change that. But while some workers may agree with the reinstatement of the work search requirement, the latest change in policy has caused some confusion. Rhiannon Chavez-Ross, the owner of an event company in Albuquerque, has been receiving unemployment benefits since last year because she was unable to operate her business due to public health orders. Chavez-Ross said she thinks a majority of workers should return to work. However, she said that the announcement comes with little guidance from DWS and that it is unclear how this policy will affect business owners like herself or parents who are unable to work due to taking care of their children. The reason I started my own business is because I wanted to have the flexibility of making my own schedule for my family, she said. I dont know if Im just supposed to throw all that away and go look for a job. Okapi to Acquire Multiple Large Scale Kaolin Halloysite Projects Perth, May 12, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Okapi Resources Limited ( ASX:OKR ) is pleased to advise that the Company has entered into a binding heads of agreement to acquire Bulk Mineral Holdings Pty Ltd ("Bulk Minerals") which holds two (2) granted exploration licenses in Western Australia and four (4) exploration licence applications in South Australia ("Acquisition Agreement"). Refer to Figure 1* for the location of the projects.Highlights- Okapi to acquire large scale Kaolin Halloysite and Heavy Mineral Sands Projects across SA and WA with a combined land package of ~2,127 km2- The tenement package includes two (2) granted exploration licences located near Kojonup, Western Australia, known as the Holly Kaolin Project- Recent site visits at the Holly Kaolin Project confirmed widespread outcropping Kaolin mineralisation- Drilling programs in 1995-1996 intersected 5-15m zones of bright white Kaolin- Historical drill results include high brightness Kaolin intercepts > 85%- Okapi to commence exploration work immediately at the Holly Kaolin Project, followed by a drilling program- The package also includes four (4) exploration licence applications prospective for Heavy Mineral Sands and high purity Halloysite on the western Eyre Peninsula in South Australia bordering Andromeda's ( ASX:ADN ) Camel Lake Project and neighbouring Andromeda's Mt Hope depositOkapi's Executive Director Mr David Nour said: "The Board of Okapi is excited to embark on this exciting new chapter for the Company. This acquisition puts Okapi in a highly prospective ground in the heart of major known kaolin halloysite deposits neighbouring the likes of Andromeda Metals. Additionally, historical drill results show the potential of the Holly Kaolin Project in which we will commence exploration work immediately to confirm the quality of the project.""With the fast-moving technological advances in kaolin halloysite, potential application extends beyond traditional uses to now include batteries and super capacitors, hydrogen storage and construction.""We are also excited about Okapi's upcoming drilling campaign at our Enmore Gold Project where we aim to drill an initial 8-12 holes to confirm further gold mineralisation."White Knight Kaolin-Halloysite Project in South AustraliaThe White Knight Kaolin-Halloysite Project comprises 4 Exploration Licence Applications that span over 1,943 km2 in western and southern South Australia (Refer to Figure 2).ELA 2020/00230 is prospective for Heavy Mineral Sands ("HMS") and Kaolin Halloysite. The tenement borders the Andromeda Metals Limited ( ASX:ADN ) ("Andromeda") Camel Lake Project (EL 6128 & ELA 2019/00073).At Camel Lake, white, translucent clay with occasional patches of reddish-purple iron oxides is present below the thin gypsum cover. Halloysite makes up between 9 to 72% of the clay sediment. Electron microscopy of raw samples show the halloysite crystallised as regular tubules showing a high degree of alignment. The clay is readily dispersed to give tubules 0.5-4.0 micronm in length and 0.05- 0.08 micronm in diameter (Keeling et al., 2010).The halloysite occurrence at Andromeda's Camel Lake is high grade and appears to be several metres in thickness. It is interpreted to have formed at the top of the Eocene sands immediately below Miocene carbonate.A brief review of drill sections across the Barton and Paling sand ranges shows Eocene Ooldea Sand to be overlain almost exclusively by Quaternary dune sand. In two drillholes (BD068 and BD069) there is limestone overlying clay at the top of the interpreted Hampton Formation within the Eocene sand sequence. Like Camel Lake, it is considered that the best potential for kaolin halloysite development is between the barrier dune ranges and possibly the Wilkinson Lakes area to the northeast.The potential for the Kaolin-Halloysite mineralisation to extend from the Camel Lake project area north into the White Knight tenement will be a focus for Okapi when the tenement is granted.ELA 2020/00230 is also considered prospective for HMS style mineralisation along the Barton Range and Paling Range and this was the focus of a considerable amount of drilling in the period 2005-2009 by Rio Tinto and from 2009 to 2017 by Iluka Resources.On the southern Eyre Peninsula, ELA 2021/00014, ELA 2021/00015, and ELA 2021/00016 are viewed as prospective for Kaolin Halloysite and neighbouring tenements have reported discoveries. The ELA 2021/00014 and ELA 2021/00015 tenements are located near the OAR Resources Limited ( ASX:OAR ) Gibraltar Project tenements.ELA 2021/00016 is approximately 30km east from the recently acquired PepinNini Minerals Limited ( ASX:PNN ) Hillside Halloysite and Kaolinite Project and circa 40km east of Andromeda's Mount Hope Project.Holly Kaolin Project in Western AustraliaThe Holly Kaolin Project comprises two (2) granted exploration licence E70/5676 and E70/5690 which are located approximately 20km east on Broomehill - Kojonup Road, Western Australia, covering a total area of circa 184km2.Regional Geology of the Holly Kaolin ProjectThe kaolin occurrences that occur throughout the project area are classified as primary deposits formed by in-situ weathering of the felsic granites.In the nomenclature of the Kaolin industry, the kaolin is classified as primary deposits formed by in-situ weathering of felsic igneous and metamorphic rocks. Bedrock throughout the Project area consists of Archaean coarse grained porphyritic granite and adamellite, and leucocratic granofels of granitic admellitic composition.Outcropping Kaolin mineralisation is present along Nookanellup and Warrenup Roads (Figures 7 & 8*). These areas have been deeply weathered, forming an intensely leached kaolinised zone.Zones with high Fe content mapped as a lateritic duricrust (high Fe %) which forms a relict cap over the top of the Kaolinised zones are commonly associated with high topographic features.Historical Drilling at Holly Kaolin ProjectA large-scale air core drilling program was completed over the project area in January 1995 by CRA Exploration Pty Ltd. The wide spaced reconnaissance drill results included many high brightness kaolin intercepts (crude brightness values greater than 85%). Based on historical drilling data (Refer to Appendix 1), the average depth to the top of the mineralisation appears to be approximately 5m. Previous drilling in 1996 identified a 11-metre thickness of white clay.Acquisition DetailsOkapi has entered into a binding heads of agreement setting out the terms and conditions upon which it will acquire 100% of the shares in Bulk Mineral. Bulk Mineral is the sole shareholder of five (5) subsidiaries which, together, hold two (2) granted exploration tenements in the Holly Kaolin Project located in Western Australia and has applied for four (4) exploration licence in the White Knight Kaolin-Halloysite Project located in South Australia.The consideration of $1,491,000 will be satisfied by the issue of fully paid ordinary shares in the capital of Okapi at a deemed price of $0.21 (being a total of 7,100,000 Okapi shares), which will require Okapi's shareholders' approval. The vendors to the transaction are Seattle Capital Pty Ltd ATF Seattle Trust and Snowball Capital Investments Pty Ltd ATF Augustus Family Trust (Vendors), neither of whom are related parties of Okapi.Subject to the conditions precedent set out in the summary of the Acquisition Agreement below, the transaction will be completed in two stages:Stage 1: The issue of 4,600,000 Okapi shares to the Vendors ("Initial Consideration Shares").Stage 2: The Issue of 2,500,000 Okapi shares to the Vendors following the successful grant of the 4 tenements - White Knight Kaolin-Halloysite Project in South Australia ("Milestone 1 Shares").Subject to completion of Stage 1, a joint venture ("JV") between Okapi, the Vendors and the relevant Subsidiaries will be established in relation to the Holly Kaolin Project and subject to completion of Stage 2, between Okapi, the Vendors Subsidiaries will be established in relation to the White Knight Kaolin-Halloysite Project. The Vendors will incorporate a new entity ("Newco") for participation in the JV for exploration of the Projects. Okapi will hold 80% in the JVs and 20% will be held by Newco. The Newco interest will be free carried until a decision to mine the Projects, at which point an 80:20 mining joint venture would be established. Okapi would continue as the Manager of the JV and the parties to contribute to the JV according to their respective shares.The key terms and conditions of the Acquisition Agreement are set out in the link below*.Board and Management ChangesThe Company is pleased to advise that Mr David Nour and Mr Leonard Math have been appointed as Executive Directors of the Company.Mr David Nour has been Okapi's Non-Executive Director since November 2019 and has been instrumental to the Company. Mr Nour comes from private business and has a strong commercial background having worked in private wealth management and professional investment over the past 25 years with CBA & Bluestone Group. Mr Nour is a substantial shareholder of the Company with 6.95%.Mr Leonard Math is a Chartered Accountant with more than 15 years of resources industry experience. He previously worked as an auditor at Deloitte and is experienced with public company responsibilities including ASX and ASIC compliance, control and implementation of corporate governance, statutory financial reporting and shareholder relations. Mr Math was the Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of one of the largest lithium hard rock deposit, AVZ Minerals Limited ( ASX:AVZ ) for more than two and a half years. Mr Math also previously held Company Secretary and directorship roles for a number of ASX listed companies. Mr Math has been Okapi's Company Secretary since April 2019.Mr Nour and Mr Math's engagement terms are summarised below.Associated with the board changes Mr Andrew Shearer and Mr Rhoderick Grivas have resigned as directors of Okapi with immediate effect, due to the potential conflict of interests.As advised on 13 April 2021, Mr Shearer will continue to complete his 2-month notice period as a consultant to assist with the with the existing Mount Day (WA) and Enmore Gold (QLD) Projects. Mr Grivas will also consult on the existing projects.The Company also advises that Mr Raymond (Jinyu) Liu has resigned as Non-Executive Director of Okapi to allow this new transition of Board and management to progress. Mr Liu has been Okapi's director since October 2017.Non-Executive Director, Mr Peretz Schapiro will take on the role as Interim Chairman.Executive Director Mr David Nour commented: "On behalf of the Company and shareholders, I would like to thank Andrew, Rhod and Raymond for their contribution. I wish them well for their future endeavours.""Leonard's broad corporate and financial knowledge will be invaluable to this growing Company. The Board will also commence searching for a technical person to join the Board."Subject to shareholders approval, the Company will issue 6,200,000 Performance Rights to Directors under the Company's proposed Performance Rights Plan. The Performance Rights will vest subject to achievement of the following goals:Tranche 1: Market Capitalisation achieving $20M for 20 trading days;Tranche 2: Market Capitalisation achieving $35M for 20 trading days;Tranche 3: Market Capitalisation achieving $50M for 20 trading days;In the event of a takeover or change of control, the vesting conditions will be deemed to have been achieved.Okapi Raises $700,000The Company is pleased to advise that it has received firm commitments for a placement of fully paid ordinary shares in the Company ("New Shares") to eligible sophisticated and professional investors to raise a total of $700,000 (before costs) at an offer price of 21 cents per Share ("Placement"). The offer price represents a 11.72% premium to the 20-day VWAP of 18.79 cents prior to the Company entering into a trading halt.GBA Capital Pty Ltd (GBA) acted as Lead Manager for the Placement.Strong demand for the Placement was evident with a final scale-back of allocations to $700,000.Subject to shareholders approval, newly appointed Executive Director, Mr Leonard Math will participate for a total of $50,000 in the Placement.The Placement will comprise an issue of 3,333,334 New Shares at an issue price of $0.21 per New Share with one (1) free attaching Listed Option for every one (1) New Share subscribed.The Listed Options (OKRO) have an exercise price of $0.30 each and expire on 31 March 2023.The New Shares and free attaching Listed Options will be issued under the Company's existing placement capacity under Listing Rule 7.1.The New Shares will rank equally with existing fully paid ordinary shares in the Company.Funds raised will be used to pay the costs associated with the acquisition of the White Knight Kaolin-Halloysite Project and the Holly Kaolin Project, exploration on the Kaolin/Halloysite projects and general working capital.*To view key terms, tables and figures, please visit:About Okapi Resources Ltd Okapi Resources Limited (ASX:OKR) is a minerals exploration company focused on the discovery and commercialisation of mineral deposits in Australia. Okapi's primary objective is to discover and develop mineral resources from its current portfolio. The Company has carefully selected projects with historical workings and excellent results. Okapi has a team of professionals with an exemplary record of success and with a particular history in Australia. Okapi is also pursuing a growth strategy that aims to appraise and secure further exploration and development opportunities within gold and mineral endowed districts. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Roswell Republican In March of 2020, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham took control of our lives with the stroke of her pen. At the time, she assured us her administrations limitless power was accountable to the science and she would use data to drive her policies. As we emerge from the pandemic, the question on my mind is, were the governors draconian restrictions effective and actually based on science? Recent statistics and revelations from the Department of Health suggest not. Despite having the toughest lockdown and masking restrictions in the country, New Mexico ranks 14th in COVID deaths per capita. Further, during a February 2021 hearing, the governors secretary of health testified to what many New Mexicans already suspected the administration enacted an iron-fist lockdown policy based on the governors political priorities, not on what was best for the public at large or what the data suggested. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ The Rio Grande Foundation published the transcript of the hearing and highlighted some key insights from the testimony. This is what we learned: The Department of Health did not consider the economic impact of lockdowns in crafting its public health orders. DOH cannot explain why Florida and Texas, which are not locked down, have lower COVID fatality rates than New Mexico. DOH does not take into consideration other adverse health impacts, such as increased depression, suicide and childhood obesity in crafting the public health orders. The DOH secretary placed significant reliance on the DOHs legal staff when crafting the public health orders. She does not know if any of the departments lawyers have any training or education in public health. The DOH secretary is unaware of any scientific studies that support the specific restrictions, prohibitions and permitted activities under the public health orders. The DOH secretary cannot say whether the risk from COVID must be zero before the public health orders will end. The bottom line is New Mexicans suffered because of our governors unwillingness to let go of her power and listen to the science. As recently as the week (of May 6), common sense considerations, such as recovered positive cases, are still not considered part of a countys level of immunity. Now, in an apparent admission of her failed policies and reopening framework, she wants to fully reopen in July. Id like to look beyond the economic decimation caused by the public health orders. I believe the true invisible enemy of the past year was not COVID, but fear and distrust of one another. Our governor was so fixated on politics and power that she infected our state with a fear and disenfranchisement epidemic that will outlast COVID for years to come. This contagious fear and distrust of our fellow New Mexicans will take decades, if not generations, to overcome. Sadly, there is no remediation or vaccine that can mitigate the effects of the Lujan Lockdown on our state. Our only hope is to hold this governor accountable at the ballot box. Vote for leaders who will heal the wounds this administration has left on our economy and society. We know which party has wrecked New Mexico. Weve got 100 years of case study of what doesnt work. Now its time for the people of New Mexico to follow the data unlike this governor and chart a new course. Younger Michigan residents are expected to soon be eligible to receive Pfizers two-dose COVID-19 vaccine. On Monday, May 10, U.S. regulators announced plans to expand use of the vaccine to individuals 12 to 15 years old. The news came after clinical trials involving more than 2,000 volunteers proved the vaccine to be both safe and effective at protecting against COVID-19. The CDCs independent advisory committee will meet virtually Wednesday, May 12, to come up with its recommendation for vaccinating the younger group of teens. From there, federal regulators are expected to consider the recommendation a short time later. Dr. Rosemary Olivero, pediatric infectious disease physician for Helen DeVos Childrens Hospital in Grand Rapids, said Pfizers clinical trial data was astoundingly good. Additionally, she noted the importance of getting younger children vaccinated in order to slow the spread and evolution of coronavirus. Lets say we didnt vaccinate any pediatric patients, she said. If COVID stayed the same, we would have a very low hospitalization rate in children. However, we will have to continue to confront the possibility that the viruses can change in a way that can cause more epidemics or pandemics, with a large impact on the adult population as well. And lets say the virus mutated so much that the current vaccines were no longer as effective at preventing severe disease and hospitalization; then were thinking about taking several steps back in what were trying to do with getting our society functioning more like normal. Viruses, like other living organisms, evolve as they reproduce. The result of those changes is how weve ended up with different variants of coronavirus throughout the pandemic, including some that are more easily transmitted across populations. In order to lessen the chances of the virus mutating beyond the effectiveness of current vaccines, more people have to be vaccinated, reducing the population from which the virus can infect and be spread. The more we allow SARS-CoV-2 to go through populations of people and make copies of itself and mutate, the more likely that were going to need more vaccines to combat the virus in the future, Olivero said. Pfizers two-dose vaccine uses mRNA to teach our cells how to make a spike protein like the one in SARS-CoV-2, which triggers an immune response and the creation of antibodies to fight off the virus. The process happens quickly, Olivero explained, and the vaccine itself is broken down very, very quickly. The mRNA cannot go backwards into the nucleus of the cell and cannot become part of your bodys DNA, she said. Thats a very important point to make, because it is not possible for the mRNA to change our genetic code in any way, shape or form. However, the immune system is incredibly smart and it remembers all of these different things that it has encountered including the spike protein that the mRNA encoded. So the immune system will continue to make antibodies against the spike protein to give us hopefully very long-scale immunity against COVID-19. When 12 to 15 year olds are given the green light to be vaccinated, which could come as early as this week, theyll need to be accompanied by an adult at their appointment. Related: Pfizer COVID-19 shot expanded to U.S. children as young as 12 years old Among the 2,000 youth volunteers who participated in Pfizers clinical trials, none who received the vaccine were infected with COVID-19. Sixteen of the kids who were given a placebo were infected. Researchers also found kids developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than earlier studies measured in young adults. Like the 16 and older population, youth who participated in clinical trials received the same dosage and reported similar side effects, including soreness at the injection site and flu-like fever, chills or aches for up to a few days. Dr. Liam Sullivan, an infectious disease physician for Spectrum Health, said side effects from vaccines have always been discovered within 60 days of the injection. I think were well past the time period now where we need to worry about long-term health effects from these vaccines, Sullivan said. Theyve proven their safety, theyve proven their effectiveness, they were very efficacious in clinical trials and in the real world theyre proving to be every bit as effective. Local health departments are already working with surrounding school districts over the potential of setting up clinics to reach dozens of students at once. Once a dose is taken from a vial, the rest of the doses in that vial must be used in the same time window since there are no preservatives in the vaccine, said Spectrum Healths Dr. Liam Sullivan. Asked when schools might consider requiring COVID-19 vaccines before returning to in-person learning, Dr. Olivero said no school can mandate the shot while it has emergency use authorization. The vaccine would need to get full approval from the federal regulators before a vaccine requirement could be implemented. I think were a ways away from the vaccine being mandatory for schools or even workplaces until we get that FDA approval, she said. More than 4.47 million Michigan residents 16 and older have already received their first dose of vaccine, and more than 3.2 million residents have completed their recommended dosage for the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson shots. Vaccinations per day ramped up throughout March and into mid-April before slowing down each of the last three weeks. The state has administered nearly 7.5 million doses since mid-December. While Michigan has seen reduced case and hospitalization rates in recent weeks, it continues to lead the nation in those areas per capita, and it continues to see increasing daily COVID-19 death rates as a result from the latest surge. Clinical trials are also underway to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines in younger children, including infants. Read more on MLive: Cancel extra $300, federal unemployment programs, Michigan business group urges How Michigan governments can, cant spend their $11B in COVID-19 stimulus money Spectrum Health offering walk-in COVID-19 vaccinations at two locations this week Michigan hits first COVID-19 vaccine milestone, starts 2-week clock for return to office work The Price County Review newspaper, part of APG Media of Wisconsin, is seeking an assistant editor to help run its weekly newspaper and news website. If you are interested in writing, editing, photography, as well as being an integral part of your local community, this position may be for you. Job Summary The job of assistant editor involves writing content, reviewing, correcting, condensing, or adding content to written materials, editing photographs and other media before the product is finalized. Assistant editors are responsible for duties delegated to them by editorial supervisors, including but not limited to proofing and formatting written material for print and web publication. Duties Producing written and photographic content for print, digital properties, and social media The assistant editor is responsible for assisting the editor to fulfill the mission of Price County Review Assist in the formation of storylines and creating solutions to covering pertinent news items Communicate clearly and effectively with internal editorial staff as well as news stringers, correspondents, and the general public Assist the editor in the overall production of the newspaper and website Responsibilities Provide editorial contributions through relevant story ideas and contribute to content on a regular basis Prioritize and accomplish multiple tasks within established timeframes by effectively planning and managing workload. Strong organizational and time management skills are a must. Maintain production schedules and meet deadlines Take part in regular production meetings and brainstorm new and relevant content and help review past content Act as an ambassador for the newspaper and represent the company in a positive and professional manner at external functions Expected to utilize various social networking tools for company business Education A successful candidate should possess a bachelor's degree or 2-4 years of job experience in journalism, creative writing, liberal arts, English, or field-specific courses, such as film editing or graphic design. Advanced computer skills, knowledge in graphics and photography. Excellent language, grammar, and composition skills are a must. recblid wwy9as5r37rij4d3zchrz2a972yqrn Large solar-powered digital data centre to locate in Dubai 100% zero emissions, to serve large companies (ANSAmed) - NAPLES, 12 MAG - Moro Hub signed an agreement with Huawei for the largest solar-powered digital data centre in the Middle East and Africa area, said Emirati daily Khaleej Times. Moro Hub is a subsidiary of Digital DEWA, which is part of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). The new data centre will be located in the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, and will use 100% renewable energy with a capacity of more than 100 megawatts. This is the second solar-powered data centre that Moro Hub has launched in Dubai. The agreement was signed by Marwan bin Haidar, vice president and CEO of Digital DEWA, and Jerry Liu, CEO of Huawei UAE, in the presence of Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of DEWA, and Charles Yang, president of Huawei Middle East. "The sustainable data centre supports the initiatives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE vice president and prime minister, to make the country a place of the future, putting Dubai 10 years ahead of other global cities," Al Tayer said. Efforts are aimed at decreasing CO2 emissions, which in fact Dubai did, by 22%, in 2019. The data centre will offer services to large companies. "The new centre is the largest in the area and will allow large international companies to access the technology without producing emissions," Al Tayer said. (ANSAmed). ROMA - The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in Algeria the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and participation in public affairs continue to be under attack. It said it received concerning reports of disproportionate force used against peaceful protesters, continuing arrests of protesters, as well as allegations of physical and sexual violence in detention. Since February, when weekly protest marches resumed by activists with the Hirak movement, which is calling for radical change in the political system, authorities have continued to block access to meeting points for demonstrations. "Anyone alleged by security forces to be a demonstrator is being arbitrarily arrested, and some were reportedly detained and later released after being forced to sign a document promising to cease participating in protests," said Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Activists, human rights defenders, students, journalists, bloggers and ordinary citizens peacefully expressing dissent with the current political regime have continued to face criminal prosecution. "Around 70 people are still reportedly detained for exercising their legitimate human rights," the UN said. It said it is urging the Algerian authorities to stop using violence to disperse peaceful demonstrations, to halt arbitrary arrests and detention of individuals, and to fulfil the presidential pardon granted to people participating in the Hirak movement and cease all forms of harassment and intimidation against them. INS Tarkash brings medical oxygen from Qatar New Delhi, May 12 (UNI) The Indian Navy said that INS Tarkash, carrying two Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) cryogenic containers of 20 MT each and 230 Oxygen cylinders, arrived at Mumbai on Wednesday. The Oxygen containers were facilitated by the French Mission as part of Oxygen Solidarity Bridge and Oxygen cylinders were gifted by Indian diaspora in Qatar. The consignment was handed over to Civil Administration, Maharashtra for further necessary action, the Indian Navy said in a statement today. As gas inventories run low, NACS is working with the Biden Administration to provide relief By Paige Anderson NACS director of government relations Special to The Auto Channel NACS Online News ALEXANDRIA, Va. May 12, 2021; For decades NACS and the convenience and fuel retailing industry have worked with government agencies and administrations during times of disasterwhether natural or manmadeto ensure our industry quickly responds to fuel supply and demand disruptions. Unlike fuel disruptions caused by hurricanes and other natural disasters, the challenges fuel retailers are currently facing due to Colonial Pipeline shutdown are more about fuel transportation and the ability to move fuel to needed locations, rather than a production or refining issue. The industry is in a unique situation where it is transitioning from winter blends to summer blends of fuel, and consumer demand is increasing as Memorial Day weekend approaches and the summer driving season kicks off. To make matters more complicated, there is national labor shortage in the industry, including a deficit of truck drivers. To address this major supply disruption in the fuels market, the Biden Administration is working with our industry and issued several waivers to help alleviate the issues caused by the shutdown. On May 11, EPA issued a reformulated gas (RFG) l waiver for the Mid-Atlantic which will allow conventional fuel to be sold in RFG areas in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia to facilitate the supply of gasoline. In 2005, NACS worked with Congress to give EPA the authority to waive certain fuel regulations affecting the motor fuel system in times of emergency. EPAs use of these waivers has been critical to bringing the entire fuel supply chain into operation as quickly as possible in many situations, including during the pandemic last year and past hurricanes such as Hurricanes Sandy, Matthew, Harvey and Irma. Some of these waivers provided flexibility by allowing winter blend fuels to enter the market before the September 15 transition date or allowing leftover winter blends to be sold after the transition to summer blends of fuel on June 1. In addition to EPA waivers, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has the authority to waive truck driver hours of service and certain other operations requirements, which help transport fuel and supplies from long distances to needed areas more quickly. On May 9, FMCSA issued a temporary hours of service exemption that applies to commercial drivers transporting gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products to Alabama, Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. FMCSA added West Virginia to the list on May 11. To address the national shortage of truck drivers, NACS and other industry trade groups asked the FMCSA to issue national waivers exempting truck drivers transporting fuel from hours-of-service rules. This waiver has played an important role during the Colonial pipeline shutdown to transport motor fuels. Throughout the week weve been in constant contact with NACS members in the affected regions who are running low on fuel inventory or completely out. We continue to communicate with the Biden Administration, including FMCSA to issue a waiver for certain truck weight and size requirements. Given the truck driver shortage, this additional waiver would be necessary to help move product. Most of this authority resides at the state level, but FMCSA has been helpful in working with our industry and communicating our concerns with their counterparts in the most affected states. In addition, we are working with EPA to grant a RVP waiver to allow those fuel marketers who still have or access to winter blends of fuel to be sold beyond the deadline to transition to summer blends of fuel. This waiver could also make it possible for some NACS members to blend butane into summer blends of fuel which could extend the supply of fuel. There have been conversations about a Jones Act waiver. Jones Act waivers are rarely approved. The only basis for a Jones Act waiver is interest of national defense; however, in response to hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security approved a seven-day Jones Act waiver in due to severe crude oil supply disruptions. As of May 11, the Colonial Pipeline began manual operations of a line from North Carolina to Maryland, with the full pipeline possibly back online at the end of this week according to an announcement by Colonial Pipeline. Meanwhile, the effects of the shutdown are showing at the pump. AAA says were on track to see the most expensive pump prices since November 2014, the last time average prices were $2.99 and higher. Spokesperson Jeanette McGee said higher gasoline prices could vary by region, with Mississippi, Tennessee and the East Coast from Georgia into Delaware experiencing limited fuel availability and price increases. AAA also notes that once the pipeline is up and running, there could be residual delays because it takes about 15 to 18 days for fuel to flow from Texas to New York. Jeff Lenard, NACS vice president for strategic industry initiatives, shared in NACS Daily that the liquid fuels distribution system is complex, and if any component of the system is disrupted, the supply challenges that arise take time to resolve before the market returns to normal. We continue assisting convenience and fuel retailers with the necessary relief our industry needs so normal operations can resume as quickly as possible. Reach out to me so we can make sure your voice is heard while communicating with regulatory and administration officials at panderson@convenience.org. Paige Anderson is the NACS director of government relations, specializing in fuels, energy, climate change, environment, transportation, patent reform, privacy, data and cyber security issues on behalf of NACS members. As of this morning, several new actions have transpired to help our industry move supply: EPA extended the reformulated gas waiver to May 31 and expanded it to include nine additional states FMCSA is providing more flexibility in working with the states on waiving certain weight restrictions The Biden Administration will consider individual Jones Act waivers if they directly help address supply constraints Named after one of the most notable engineers in OPG's history, the John Wesley Beaver Memorial Award was established in 1997 by OPG's predecessor, Ontario Hydro, and is administered by OPG's Indigenous Circle, a resource and networking group for Indigenous employees. Previously, two students per year benefited from the scholarship, which considers not only academic merit, but also leadership skills and community involvement. Under the expanded program, six scholarships per year will be awarded in each of the first two years, with eight scholarships in the third year. Beaver, who died in 1980, was a fighter pilot during the Second World War and served as Chief of Alderville First Nation in the early 1950s. He joined Ontario Hydro in 1949 as a junior engineer and quickly rose through the ranks over 23 years, eventually becoming the Operations Engineer for Northeastern Ontario. Learn more about eligibility and how to apply for the John Wesley Beaver Memorial Award. QUOTES "John Wesley Beaver exemplified the leadership qualities we at OPG embrace," said Ken Hartwick, OPG President and CEO. "These scholarships pay tribute to him while encouraging Indigenous students to pursue their education and reach their full potential. We are truly committed to supporting Indigenous youth in pursuit of higher education" "I commend OPG and Indspire on their partnership to provide educational opportunities to Indigenous youth," said Greg Rickford, Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Energy, Northern Development and Mines. "OPG is a champion of Indigenous education and advancement, and I am sure that the expansion of the John Wesley Beaver Memorial Scholarship Program will help shape and inspire Canada's next generation of Indigenous leaders." "We are pleased to recognize this timely and meaningful expression of OPG's ongoing commitment to Indigenous education," said Mike DeGagne, President & CEO of Indspire. "This expansion of the John Wesley Beaver Memorial Scholarship represents a host of new opportunities for Indigenous learners and serves as a testament to the importance of John Wesley Beaver's legacy." QUICK FACTS OPG is also a sponsor of Soaring, Indspire's annual Indigenous Youth Empowerment Gathering. Soaring allows Indigenous high school students to learn about career and post-secondary education options by participating in career workshops. Soaring, Indspire's annual Indigenous Youth Empowerment Gathering. Soaring allows Indigenous high school students to learn about career and post-secondary education options by participating in career workshops. OPG's Indigenous Opportunities in Nuclear program (ION) is a unique initiative designed to increase the number of Indigenous people working in the nuclear industry. Working closely with Kagita Mikam Aboriginal Employment and Training and the Electrical Power Systems Construction Association (EPSCA), ION places workers in the building trades on some of OPG's most diverse and innovative projects. OPG has a strong track record in developing and maintaining mutually beneficial working relationships with Indigenous communities throughout Ontario , creating economic opportunities, training and jobs. Read more. About OPG As a global climate change leader and the largest, most diverse electricity generator in the province, OPG and its family of companies are helping lead the charge to a post-carbon economy. About Indspire Indspire is a national Indigenous registered charity that invests in the education of First Nations, Inuit and Metis people for the long-term benefit of these individuals, their families and communities, and Canada. Follow us @opg SOURCE Ontario Power Generation Inc. For further information: OPG Media Relations, 416-592-4008 or 1-877-592-4008 Related Links http://www.opg.com Kingstree, SC (29556) Today Showers this morning then scattered thunderstorms developing during the afternoon hours. High 83F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Cloudy skies this evening followed by isolated thunderstorms overnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. ROMA - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday following the announcement that senior Hamas officials had been killed in Gaza by the Israeli military together with Shin Bet that "this is only the beginning". After confirming that operations against Gaza will not end soon, Netanyahu added that Israel will inflict hits on Hamas "that it cannot even imagine". The Israeli military and national internal security service Shin Bet announced Wednesday that senior Hamas commanders had been "simultaneously eliminated in Gaza and Khan Yunis" in the northern Gaza Strip, at the end of a "complex operation, the first of its kind". "The commanders are key men of the Hamas 'general staff' and are considered close to the head of the military wing of the organisation of Mohammed Deif," they said. Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said military operations in Gaza will continue for "as long as necessary" and that Israel is not ready for a ceasefire. Gantz said that as of now there is "no date for the end of operations" and the operations will continue "until calm is restored". "We are not willing to accept lectures from any organisation or institution regarding our right and responsibility to defend the civilians of Israel," Gantz said. He then specified that Israel has thus far hit hundreds of targets in Gaza, including members of Hamas and Hamas infrastructure. The death toll in Gaza currently stands at 53 dead, including 14 children and minors and three women, and 320 wounded, said the health ministry in Gaza. Mentioning Ninh Binh Province, tourists not only think of a historic relic but also an alluring tourism destination. Ninh Binh has numerous valuable cultural and historical heritage sites such as Hoa Lu ancient capital, Phat Diem stone church, Bich Dong Pagoda, Bai Dinh Pagoda, Thai Vi Temple, and various intangible cultural heritage elements such as festivals, folk singing and culinary culture. The golden Ngo Dong River welcome domestic and foreign tourists to the Tam Coc Bich Dong tourism site. (Photo: VNA) Trang An boat station, where tourists visit the caves in the Trang An eco-tourism complex. (Photo: VNA) The golden Ngo Dong River welcome domestic and foreign tourists to the Tam Coc Bich Dong tourism site. (Photo: VNA) Storks spread their wings over the golden rice fields. (Photo: VNA) Temple of King Dinh Tien Hoang, where many cultural, historical, artistic, and spiritual values are kept. (Photo: VNA) Van Long was originally known as a "no-wave bay" because of the smooth water flow like a large mirror reflecting the sky. (Photo: VNA) Ca Cave with magical beauty at Van Long Nature Reserve. (Photo: VNA) Stunning beauty of Tam Coc during the ripen rice season. (Photo: VNA) Bai Dinh Pagoda in Trang An Ecotourism Area is a large temple complex with an area of 539 ha, including a cultural park and a Buddhist institute, Dam Thi lake area and many under construction. (Photo: VNA) Ancient Non Nuoc Pagoda (old name: Duc Thuy Son). (Photo: VNA) A semicircle lake with ancient beauty is located at Thien Ton Pagoda (the historical and cultural site of Hoa Lu ancient capital). (Photo: VNA) Tourists take a boat to Thung Nang (Sunshine Valley). Thung Nang is a low-lying place, flooded and surrounded by majestic high mountains, separated from the noisy life rhythm. (Photo: VNA) A view of modernized Ninh Binh City. (Photo: VNA) A corner of Ninh Binh City by night. (Photo: VNA) Tourists discover the nature and watch the rare flamingoes and storks in Thung Nham bird park. (Photo: VNA) VNP/VNA A visit to Phat Diem stone cathedral Phat Diem Stone Cathedral, located in Kim Son district of Ninh Binh province, is about 120 kilometres from Hanoi. It was built in the 1875s to 1898s, with oriental architecture. Bich Dong pagoda in lotus season Three kilometers to the east of Tam Coc boat pier in Ninh Binh province, Bich Dong pagoda boasts a mysterious ancient look. It is especially beautiful these days as surrounded by lotuses blooming. .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... A plan floated by two elected officials to create sanctioned safe outdoor spaces, aka tent cities for a growing homeless population, is premature at best and a terrible idea at worst. The suggestion by County Commissioner Debbie OMalley and City Councilor Diane Gibson comes as Albuquerque is moving full speed toward opening the long-awaited, scaled-down but still $14 million Gateway Center homeless shelter and services hub in the old Lovelace hospital in Southeast Albuquerque. The city describes this Gateway Center with 150-175 shelter beds plus 25-50 slots to help people recover from acute illness and injury as a physically and emotionally safe place that will help connect people to housing (and) a compassionate solution to supporting those who are unhoused. Meanwhile, the city still runs the Westside Emergency Housing Center, a safe and welcoming environment to men and women experiencing homelessness in Albuquerque. It is open year-round, has 250 beds to follow COVID-safe practices, offers three meals a day, free transportation from eight sites and also works to connect people to services. And the city also offers motel and rent vouchers, Section 8 subsidized housing and the Albuquerque Heading Home project to help people transition into permanent housing. Affordable housing programs provide about 9,500 assisted housing units with about 3,500 of those likely affordable to households with extremely low incomes. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ There is no question more is needed. Albuquerque has seen a sharp increase in homelessness, around 1,500 are homeless any night in the metro area, and that may well jump as eviction moratoriums expire. But given the investment in resources local government is making to shelter and feed the homeless, working to connect them with services and helping them transition to housing, why would we move to the safe outdoor spaces concept before the Gateway Center is even operational? The experiment in Austin, Texas, with allowing encampments on public property proved very popular with some members of the homeless population, but has been a dismal failure along other lines. It increased the number of folks sleeping outside, saw increased violence in the homeless population (by a sizable 10%) and reduced the commitment to invest tens of millions into homeless services. OMalley says encampments address the need of folks who dont want to be in a shelter. She said the camps would offer a level of safety, consistency and sanitation that can help residents better tap into other services and achieve stability. Gibson echoes this, saying some homeless people dont like the options being offered to them (now), and for good reasons. Some have said the shelters are not safe. Others have said they have too many rules some dont allow dogs or require sobriety, for example. Would the safety, security and rules at a tent (or container) city be different? Better? More tolerable? Another massive challenge, as with any shelter, is where to locate a homeless encampment. What neighborhood will accept it? (Opposition from neighbors and the University of New Mexico nearly killed the Gateway Center, and that was at a highly secure, aesthetically designed campus on empty land next to the interstate.) Say you can find this mythical site, is it close to what the homeless utilize so they will stay there? Also, who manages it? Who provides security? Who picks up trash? How are drugs and violence dealt with? What is the city/county liability if/when someone is injured or worse? A self-governed encampment in Dona Ana County has good reviews but on a small scale, perhaps 50 people. Nobody wants to replicate the fetid campsites at Coronado Park or Interstate 40/Second. So far OMalley and Gibson have not volunteered sites in their districts. And folks who work with the homeless like Danny Whatley of day shelter The Rock at NoonDay say encampments are not a solution. While its premature to move forward with tent cities, the discussion is timely: The fall ballot includes mayoral and council races and a bond package with $500,000 for encampments. Voters should press candidates on the issue because they have the final say and have to live with the outcome. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) As India's government scrambles for supplies of oxygen and other emergency aid to control the raging coronavirus outbreak, donors around the world have come to the rescue including a Hindu temple in the United Arab Emirates. On Monday, volunteers from the country's Hindu community gathered at the Jebel Ali Port, here at the northern end of Dubai, to haul hundreds of cylinders of liquid oxygen and massive containers of compressed oxygen onto a ship, where it will head to crisis-wracked India. The organizers, Indian owners of a Dubai helium factory, shifted production to oxygen when the latest surge in virus cases hit India. QUINCY, Mass., May 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On behalf of its 2,500 associates, Retail Business Services, the services company of leading grocery retail group Ahold Delhaize USA, today announced that it will donate $25,000 to support humanitarian aid for India as the country grapples with a renewed COVID-19 crisis. Our hearts are heavy each day with the news of effects of the COVID crisis in India, said Subodh Mishra, VP, IT Solutions Development and Executive Sponsor of the Asian Pacific American Business Resource Group for Retail Business Services. As someone with both family and colleagues who are directly impacted, Im proud that Retail Business Services has stepped up to support the humanitarian response. The donations include $10,000 to Sewa Internationals Help India Fund, $10,000 to UNICEFs Rush Aid to India Fund and $5,000 to Youth Feed India and Helping Hands Charitable Trust. The contributions support funds providing a rapid response for India, as well as food for children and some of the countrys other most vulnerable populations. Im touched by the number of associates who have come forward to express concern about the situation and ask how they can help, said Retail Business Services President Roger Wheeler. It speaks to the culture of care we have with our business, and we are humbled to join the community of care forming around the world to support India during this exceptionally difficult time. The donations are part of Retail Business Services RBS Cares community engagement program, grounded in the organizations service mindset and core value of care. About Retail Business Services Retail Business Services, is the services company of leading grocery retail group Ahold Delhaize USA, currently providing services to five omnichannel grocery brands, including Food Lion, Giant Food, The GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop. Retail Business Services leverages the scale of the local brands to drive synergies and provides industry-leading expertise, insights and analytics to local brands to support their strategies with services including Business Integrity Services (Legal, Risk Management, Quality Assurance), Business Services (HR Technology Systems and Process Management), Communications & Omnichannel Service, Finance Business Services, Financial Planning & Analysis, Human Resources, Indirect Sourcing, Information Technology, Pharmacy Services, Retail Innovation, Store Development, Leasing and Facilities Support, and Strategy & Business Development. For more information, visit www.retailbusinessservices.com. MEDIA CONTACTS: Christy Phillips-Brown 704-310-2221 Erin DeWaters 704-310-3884 .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... Copyright 2021 Albuquerque Journal Izeria Armstead knew something was wrong when she tried to get up off the ground and couldnt feel her legs. Doctors confirmed her fears at the hospital: a bullet had struck her spinal cord. She was paralyzed from the waist down. It did tear me down a lot. I didnt know how to react because thats me not walking ever again Im still trying, to this day to accept it, the 18-year-old high school senior said. ADVERTISEMENTSkip ................................................................ The incident was one of 89 shootings resulting in injury between Jan. 1 and April 20, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. Over the same period last year, there were 65. Joseph Zamora, 18, is charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and shooting from a motor vehicle in the March 14 incident that flared up during a house party on Albuquerques West Side. Armstead said it started when things went sideways between some of her friends at the get-together. Then the guns came out something that she said happens often when tensions rise at gatherings. Armstead said a man with a gun was trying to pull her friend, Zamora someone shes known since middle school out of a vehicle. I just wasnt scared of anything at the moment and I wanted to help him, she said. Because Ive always been against guns I wanted to stop what was going on and prevent anybody from getting shot. But after she pulled the armed man off Zamora, Armstead said she was shot in the back. Police say Zamora fired those shots before fleeing. According to court records, police responded around 1:30 a.m. to reports of gunfire and people running from a home in the 4800 block of Petra Pointe NW, near Unser and Western Trail. Officers found multiple bullet casings in the street and Armstead, who had been shot in the torso and foot, on the ground. A witness told police that, as Armstead pulled the armed man off Zamora, he (Zamora) pulled a handgun from his waist and fired multiple times toward the two. Police say the man Armstead had pulled off Zamora then returned fire. Police found the gun used in the shooting inside a shoebox at the home of Zamoras friend, who had been told to get rid of it. Zamora told police he went to the party, but left before the shooting happened. When told there was cellphone video of him at the home prior to the shooting, Zamora said he no longer wanted to talk and asked police to leave his home. Armstead said she spent three weeks in the hospital, calling it the worst experience ever. I hated being there. I just wanted to go home , she said. In the hospital, I would scream, cry, just hit things I would have really bad days. I would just cry and cry and cry until I was feeling OK. Despite the ordeal, Armstead said she managed to finish her senior year at Volcano Vista with As and Bs across the board. Her last day of school was on Thursday and shes looking forward to graduation, albeit a little nervous to see her classmates for the first time since the incident. Armstead said she tries to stay positive and be happy and grateful. Dont take life for granted because anything could happen to you. For people that are going through things like this be strong and always think of the positive things you can still do, she said. What I always think about is Im still here and still alive. Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. The worst-case scenarios in the fight against COVID-19 should be prepared so as to ensure that Vietnam will not have to experience the worst, according to Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son. Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son At an online conference on response to COVID-19 emergencies on May 11, Son stressed that strictly following the directions of the Prime Minister and the National Steering Committee on COVID-19 Prevention on pandemic prevention and switching from defence to proactive attacking is the best way to prevent the worst. COVID-19 has become extremely serious in Vietnam as well as other countries worldwide in recent days, he said. Director of the Health Ministrys Department for Medical Examination and Treatment Luong Ngoc Khue said that the ministry has lifted the pandemic prevention warning to the highest level, and ordered COVID-19 testing in hospitals. At the event, participants discussed social distancing and quarantine procedures in hospitals, COVID-19 treatment hospitals, as well as strategies on testing, infection control and safe vaccination. Soldiers from the Vietnamese army's chemical division disinfects the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Dong Anh district, Hanoi. The COVID-19 tally in the nation stood at 3,571 as of 6am on May 12, with 34 new cases, including 33 local infections and one imported, recorded in the 12 hours as of 6am on May 12. There are 67,877 people under quarantine nationwide at present. On May 11, an additional 20,732 people in 36 provinces and cities were vaccinated against COVID-19, raising the total getting the jabs to 887,705 as of 4pm on the day./.VNA Land prices recently soared by VND30-50 million per square meter in some places, but the number of successful transactions was modest. The Ministry of Construction (MOC) recently released a bulletin about the first quarter real estate market based on local authorities and agencies reports. The ministry said the basic indexes of the real estate market, including supply, number of transactions, investment capital, credit, and enterprises operations remained stable. Only the index about real estate prices showed heavy fluctuations. The prices increased considerably in Q1 and land fever was found in some areas in provinces and cities. The land prices soared in Hanoi (the districts of Dong Anh, Dan Phuong and Thach That), HCM City (Thu Duc City), Hai Phong (Thuy Nguyen district), Bac Ninh province (Tu Son Town), Ninh Binh province (Gia Vien district), Binh Thuan (Phan Thiet City and La Gi Town), Binh Phuoc (Hon Quang district) and Quang Tri province (Gio Linh district). In Hanoi, the land prices in some suburban areas that are expected to be upgraded into inner-city districts, according to market analysis firms, rose by VND30-50 million per square meter. In the areas of Son Tay, Hoa Lac, Thach That, Hoai Duc, Dong Anh, Gia Lam and Long Bien, the prices increased by 20-30 percent. In HCM City, the prices in Thu Duc City have been increasing steadily for many months, since the news about the establishment of Thu Duc City was released. On Nguyen Xien, Nguyen Phuoc Thien, Hoang Huu Nam and Nguyen Van Tang Roads, the prices of road-front land plots were quoted at VND100 million per square meter. In Truong Tho Ward, the price soared from VND40-50 million per square meter to VND70-90 million. The sharpest price increases were seen in Quoc Oai (+20 percent), Ba Vi districts (+45 percent) of Hanoi, in Hoa Binh (46 percent), Bac Ninh (20 percent) and Hung Yen (26 percent). However, the ministry pointed out that there were few official transactions. In most cases, buyers paid a deposit for land plots and re-sold the land plots soon after they found other buyers who accepted prices which could bring profits. In the land fever last March in Ha Long City in Quang Ninh province, local authorities said that speculators, Ho had worked together had a hand in it. The speculators quietly bought land at projects at low prices. After hearing the news about urban development planning, they spread rumours among the public in order to push up the land prices within a short time, creating artificial demand for land. The market became scorching hot and prices escalated every day. Some transactions of land in these hot areas were carried out by the speculators themselves. MOC affirmed that land price escalations had occurred in some localities but lasted a short time only before the local authorities took action to force prices down. The local authorities released official information about public investment projects and urban development planning (investment in an airport in Binh Phuoc, the administrative center planning of Thuy Nguyen district in Hai Phong and land price adjustment for areas in Da Nang), while warning people against false rumors from speculators. Mai Van Phan, Deputy General Director of the Land Administration General Directorate, at a press conference in late April, confirmed that land prices started going down after local authorities provided official information about land use planning. Land allotments for sale MOC warned about risks of purchases of foundation soil which need intervention from state management agencies. It is necessary for ministries and branches, and local authorities, to tighten land management to prevent land fever from spreading to other areas, which could create a real estate bubble. The basic indexes of the real estate market, including supply, number of transactions, investment capital, credit, and enterprises operations remained stable. Only the index about real estate prices showed heavy fluctuations. MOC said it needed to complete the legal framework on publishing information about housing and real estate market. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) is expected to complete legal documents on agricultural land and forestry land use, to prevent illegal land transfer and the use of land for wrong purposes. The State Bank of Vietnam also needs to tighten control over capital flow into the real estate sector to avoid risks and prevent the use of capital provided to fund production and business for real estate trade. To recent the spread of rumors, local authorities must publicize information about the real estate market, urban development planning, infrastructure development projects, large real estate projects, and thecmerger and upgrading of administrative units. It is also necessary to take drastic measures to prevent the sale of land allotments in areas without investment licenses and completed infrastructure systems. Relevant agencies need to join forces to control the repeated purchases and re-sale of the same properties by real estate brokerage institutions and individuals. Meanwhile, the HCM City Real Estate Association (HOREA) has proposed to the Prime Minister that very high taxes be imposed on the selling and transferring of real estate in the first years after purchase, and then a high tax in the following years. Thuan Phong As land prices soar, land management in 26 provinces to be inspected The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has told local authorities to inventory land and report on land use. Logan, WV (25601) Today A few showers early, followed by isolated thunderstorms during the afternoon. High 84F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms during the evening. Cloudy skies after midnight. Low 69F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. 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. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. WTO TRIPS Waiver for COVID-19 Vaccines Sharing the know-how behind making COVID-19 vaccines is key to scaling up production and addressing emerging variants. A Q&A With Anthony D. So, MD, MPA | MAY 10, 2020 The Biden administration announced it would seek a TRIPS waiver of intellectual property protections related to COVID vaccines. In this Q&A, Anthony D. So, MD, MPA, a professor of the practice in International Health, explains the waiver and what it could mean for COVID-19 vaccines. Whats the TRIPS waiver for COVID vaccines all about? The TRIPS waiver refers to a proposal, advanced by the governments of South Africa and India, to the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property rights protection for technologies needed to prevent, contain, or treat COVID-19 until widespread vaccination is in place globally, and the majority of the worlds population has developed immunity. In 1995, when the World Trade Organization came into existence, those signing up as members agreed that in exchange for the lowering of barriers to trade, they would abide by the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPS. This Agreement, pushed by knowledge-based economies like the United States and the multinational, research-intensive pharmaceutical industry, imposed a base of protections for intellectual property rights, from patents to copyrights. Before this was negotiated, more than 50 countries did not recognize patent protection on pharmaceutical products. The TRIPS Agreement changed that, and after a transition period of 10 years, ratcheted up these requirements on all but the least developed countries. Middle-income countries like India came into compliance by 2005. The TRIPS waiver just seeks to temporarily suspend these protections until the pandemic has ended, so the world can better access the knowledge needed to combat the worst pandemic in a century. Whats the rationale behind waiving intellectual property protections for COVID vaccines? Sharing the know-how behind making COVID-19 vaccines is key to not only scaling up production, but also bringing forward the second generation of vaccines we will need to address emerging variants. No single vaccine manufacturer can produce enough vaccines to cover the globe, and demand has far outstripped supply, with high-income countries taking the lions share of reserved doses. Proponents of a TRIPS waiver wonder how it can be right for a multinational vaccine manufacturer to hold exclusive rights that can stop other firms from stepping up to meet the need for vaccines, particularly in markets not being served by current vaccine producers. They argue that the public already has paid once or twice for such innovation, either upfront in research and development (R&D) costs or through purchase guarantees of these products, or both. Modernas COVID-19 vaccineone of two now in use based on an mRNA platformwas paid for largely by the U.S. government, and in fact, Moderna has pledged not to enforce its patents related to the COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic. However, making the Moderna vaccine likely involves other companies patented equipment and processes as well, so waiving patent protections on one piece of the process may not help other companies make the entire recipe. This is why a TRIPS waiver is considered important to ensure other vaccine manufacturers would have the freedom to operate. It should also be acknowledged that a TRIPS waiver may accelerate scaling up some COVID-19 vaccines where untapped capacity for vaccine production still exists, and it may also encourage existing vaccine producers to step up their technology transfer efforts. By noting its willingness to move forward with text-based negotiations over a TRIPS waiver at the World Trade Organization, the United States signaled a seismic shift in policy. However, it is only the beginning of a process. Who is opposing the TRIPS waiver and why? Other high-income countries, from EU countries and the United Kingdom to Japan and Australia, have yet to join the United States in supporting negotiations for a TRIPS waiver. Multinational pharmaceutical companies have vocally opposed the waiver, and disclosure forms from the first quarter of 2021 reveal that over 100 lobbyists had been enlisted to oppose the TRIPS waiver. The main arguments boil down to protecting the incentive for future pharmaceutical innovation. The idea is that companies will be reluctant to invest in new technology if they feel that they cannot reap full financial benefit from their successes. Yet before COVID-19 hit, R&D for pandemic vaccines was largely neglected by the private sector, and public financing understandably had to support this work. Many of the first COVID-19 vaccines that came to market relied on tax dollars to enable their effective development. One of the key aspects of producing successful COVID-19 vaccines has been the process of stabilizing the COVID-19 spike protein. This innovation relied largely on public funding, and all of the vaccines currently on the U.S. market rely on this technology. But although they all benefited from publicly funded intellectual property, no vaccine company has stepped forward to join a global effort to voluntarily share its know-how through the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), launched by WHO with the support of Costa Rica and 40 member state cosponsors. Another question raised by opponents of the waiver is: Have companies been able to make a strong return on their investment? The answer appears to be yes. In a market almost entirely created by public sector purchase of vaccines for a pandemic, Pfizer brought in $3.5 billion in COVID-19 vaccine revenues in the first quarter of this year, with estimated profit margins in the high 20% range, by far its greatest revenue generator. Pfizers partner, BioNTech, received upfront public financing, both from the German government and the European Investment Bank, while Pfizer itself has secured 6 billion dollars thus far from the U.S. government in guaranteed purchases of its COVID-19 vaccine. So even if the TRIPS waiver were to enable other vaccine producers to meet the huge unmet demand, it is hard to argue that the public sector has not already provided multibillion-dollar incentives to bring forward needed innovation. The pharmaceutical industry has also argued that the TRIPS waiver will not speed the scale-up of COVID-19 vaccines. This argument reflects the fact that the production process is very complex and difficult to develop without extensive support from existing manufacturers. This may be particularly true for mRNA technology. While mRNA vaccine candidates are emerging in India and China as well, the intellectual property landscape for mRNA vaccines is highly fragmented, with a handful of pharmaceutical companies holding half of these patent applications. The TRIPS waiver would clear the path for these firms to move forward, as they enter clinical testing, without concern over conflicting patent claims that may not be resolved at pandemic speed. Unlike Pfizer and Moderna, which make mRNA vaccines, AstraZeneca/Oxford has struck many more technology transfer agreements with vaccine producers in low- and middle-income countries for its vaccine based on adenovirus vector technology, which is easier to produce and distribute. Its vaccine price of $3 per dose is also less than half that of Pfizer/BioNTechs vaccine in the African Union. With first-generation vaccine producers already focused on booster doses to take on variants affecting high-income countries, will they be as focused when a variant spreads through lower-income country markets that largely remain unvaccinated? Two-thirds of the WTOs members support the TRIPS waiver because they are unsure that their COVID-19 public health needs will be met by upholding patent protections as usual. Perhaps this reflects the experience of these countries governments in securing access to Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, let alone the building blocks of knowledge to develop second-generation vaccines. Pfizer has been asking governments to put sovereign assetssuch as federal bank reserves, embassy buildings, or military basesas a guarantee against indemnifying the cost of future legal cases. What else, beyond resolving intellectual property issues, is necessary to scale up vaccine production? These negotiations over a TRIPS waiver will not take place overnight, nor will scaling up the technology transfer and ramping up the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines. In a perspective piece for Cells new translational science journal, we recently discussed the complex issues involved in scaling up vaccine production and, importantly, ensuring that these vaccines make their way not only to high-income countries, but also more equitably to those in need across the globe. This will involve, among other things: Public investment in technology transfer Contracting of existing and new manufacturing facilities Sourcing other inputs like glass vials Pooled procurement facilities, from UNICEF to the Pan American Health Organizations Revolving Fund for Vaccine Access, to buy and deliver the vaccines effectively. We will also need to prioritize scaling up second-generation vaccines that have been adapted to address emerging variants or that are better suited for delivery where ultra-cold chains do not exist. Source: So AD, Woo J. Achieving path-dependent equity for global COVID-19 vaccine allocation. Med 2021; 2(4): P373-377. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medj.2021.03.004 What are the next steps? For years to come, we will need COVID-19 vaccines. A sustainable and affordable pipelineone that will deliver in a timely way to all in need, not just to those in wealthy countriesmust be put in place. In the best-case scenario, a TRIPS waiver for sharing COVID-19-related knowledge and technology can lay an important foundation to an innovation ecosystem that ensures a fairer path out of the pandemic than we took going into the pandemic. But no one doubts that there is a tough road ahead in negotiating the text to this waiver and in all the work that follows so that it might make an effective difference. Other questions will naturally arise, including the approach to intellectual property for tests and treatments for COVID-19, as well as the sharing of key research findings and data. In the near term, the U.S. should also commit to sharing-and-exchange mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccines, especially as uptake of vaccines slows. We had proposed a temporal trade, for example, on the U.S.-reserved doses of the not-yet-approved AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine with countries waiting and ready to use this vaccine now. By just swapping our line in the queue, vaccine doses may reach those in desperate need sooner. More such arrangements will be needed, particularly since AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine supplies globally have since been disrupted with the unfolding COVID-19 resurgence in India, from where much of its manufacture had been sourced. In the meantime, the world must not lose any time in scaling up the public sector investment in the rest of the supply chain, from manufacturing to logistical delivery of these vaccines. The U.S. can lead a coalition of the willing to build upon and extend the use of such vaccine platforms through technology transfer. History will remember what is done to meet this moment. Anthony So, MD, MPA, is a professor of the practice in International Health and the founding director of the Innovation+Design Enabling Access (IDEA) Initiative. The Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) has rejected proposals by Ha Giang, Bac Giang, Ninh Binh, Binh Phuoc and Ha Tinh provinces to build new airports in their localities or develop their military airports into mixed-use facilities. Passengers complete flight procedures at the Noi Bai International Airport. Five localities airport development proposals have been rejected. Photo: VNA In a report sent to the Ministry of Transport, CAAV proposed maintaining the total number of airports in the country at 28 until 2030 and adding the Cao Bang Airport by 2050, news site VnExpress reported. Nguyen Anh Dung, deputy head of the Department of Planning and Investment under the Transport Ministry, said CAAV and transport consulting firm Tedi had set up six main criteria for the necessity and feasibility of new airports, comprising demand, contribution to socioeconomic development, national defense and emergency, natural conditions and their distance to central urban areas and adjacent airports. They have weighed the proposals carefully, learned from international experiences and concluded that the number of airports must be in line with the countrys natural conditions and socioeconomic development strategies, Dung added. He noted that all the airports which annually serve two million passengers a year have recorded losses. Airports built within 100 kilometers from each other will likely result in low efficiency. According to Dr Nguyen Bach Tung, an aviation expert, some airport development proposals were unfeasible. For example, Ha Giang has mainly mountainous terrain and does not have enough flat land for the development of an airport, while Ninh Binh has a large area of rice fields that are the main source of livelihood for locals. Tung said most domestic airports had yet to reach their design capacities. Moreover, residents of Ha Tinh can use the Vinh International Airport in Nghe An or the Dong Hoi Airport in Quang Binh, or passengers in Ninh Binh can fly from the Tho Xuan Airport in Thanh Hoa or the Cat Bi Airport in Haiphong. According to Pham Van Toi, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association on Aviation Science and Technology, many airport proposals had been made without thorough surveys and calculations. Ha Giang, for example, proposed a mixed-use airport for both military and civil purposes, while it has limited land and airspace. In its report, CAAV also proposed identifying the position of the second international airport in the northern city of Hai Phongs Tien Lang District. Tung said Tien Lang had a land fund of 4,000-6,000 hectares available for building an airport with a capacity of up to 100 million passengers a year. The location is some 120 kilometers from Hanoi and less than 100 kilometers from Ha Nam, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh and Hai Duong, so it can serve residents in the south and southeast of Hanoi and ease current overloads at the Noi Bai International Airport. Toi shared the view, saying that Tien Lang is a good location as it has a large land fund and there is an expressway from it to Hanoi, while the Cat Bi Airport cannot be expanded as it is located near a river. A Tedi representative said until 2040, a second airport for the capital area is not necessary. After 2040, the competent agencies will decide if a second airport for the area should be built in Tien Lang. SGT Does Vietnam need more airports? The debate continues The Government Office has asked the Ministry of Transport to consider a proposal by Ninh Thuan Province to use a military airport also for commercial purposes. Vietnams ST25 rice is at risk of having its brand stolen in the US and Australian markets. Losing brands is the heavy price that Vietnamese enterprises will pay for their inappropriate attention to trademark register. CEO Nguyen Ngoc Luan (left) CEO Nguyen Ngoc Luan still remembers the days when his coffee brand Meet More almost fell into the hands of an enterprise in South Korea. In 2018, Luan wanted to export Meet More products to South Korea, but he ran into trouble when registering his brand in the market. South Korean agencies refused to protect Meet Me because the brand had been registered before by another company. Luan found that it was the distributor of Meet Me products in South Korea which registered the brand. At that time, Luan had to submit documents to prove that Meet Me was a brand of Luans company, while the registrant had bought products from Vietnam and distributed them in South Korea. The South Korean Government then accepted our petition and we had to work with our partner to persuade them to withdraw their intellectual property registration, Luan recalled. Luan said foreign enterprises are very swift-footed in branding. They immediately register brands for protection once they find the brands are becoming well known in the market. Luan went on to say that Vietnamese enterprises dont have the necessary factors to compete in the international market. They are reluctant to sell products in the world market because of language barriers and the lack of relations. In general, Vietnamese businesses are not willing to hire third parties, such as lawyers, when following brand registration procedures. It would better to hire lawyers in the target markets to be sure that the registration process goes smoothly. Many Vietnams businesses therefore are at a disadvantage in foreign markets and cannot protect their brandnames. In 2020, Luan conducted a mini survey. He went to a series of supermarkets in Australia and found that a lot of Vietnamese brands had been stolen. Vietnamese pho has been stolen by Chinese, while fish sauce by Thai businesses. Losing brands to foreign hands is no longer a surprise. The inappropriate attention to branding puts Vietnamese businesses at a disadvantage in international trade channels, Luan said. Which is more costly? Lawyer Le Quang Vy from the HCM City Bar Association, said the application for IP registration is implemented in accordance with the principle first come, first served, while latecomers have to submit documents to prove that the products belong to them. Losing brands is the heavy price that Vietnamese enterprises will pay for their inappropriate attention to trademark register. As for brand registration, the laws stipulate that brands are only protected in the territories where owners register. In other words, if brands are registered in Vietnam, they will be protected only in Vietnam. And when products go beyond the territory of one country, they need to be registered for international protection. Vy said the registration fees are not high. It costs several thousand dollars to register an international brand. Meanwhile, one may have to spend from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars to have disputes settled if they dont register. So, which is more costly registering the brand or not?" Sharing the same viewpoint, Luan said the price that businesses have to pay to register their brands will be much lower than the value they can expect to gain in the future. He said that Vietnams businesses just focus on product quality, while the brand value brought by commerce and franchise has not received appropriate attention. We may not get benefits from brand registration when we just launch products into the market. But when the brands cement their positions in the market, the brands will be extremely valuable, he said. And then we have the right to exploit the brand value in foreign markets." In addition to selling Meet Me products, for example, Luan can also earn money from franchising contracts, when someone wants to use the coffee brand. Regarding the news about Vietnams ST25 rice, which is at risk of falling into the hands of US companies which have filed for brand registration, Tran Le Hong, deputy head of the National Office of Intellectual Property (NOIP), said that national brands need to be protected. But Vietnam is lacking agencies in the international market that can help Vietnams businesses register their trademarks. We must not blame businesses. They need to be protected, he said. When a Vietnamese brand is stolen, there will be a noisy media campaign about branding and about the risk of losing brands, and that is all, he said. This problem occurred with Trung Nguyen coffee and then Phu Quoc fish sauce and pho. But we have made almost no move since then, he said, stressing that it is necessary to pay more attention to this issue. Regarding the procedure for granting brand registration certificates, Luan made interesting comparisons. In foreign countries, a brand seeking protection needs consideration which lasts from one week to 10 days. Registrants will be informed about additional documents they need to submit. Brand protection certificates will be granted within six months. Meanwhile, in Vietnam, it takes businesses two years to obtain the certificates. They dont receive any notice during the two years, and they may be rejected by NOIP. Quang Dinh Vietnams no 1 rice in world in danger of losing brand If certain legal entities in the US successfully register the ST25 rice brand, Ho Quang Cua, the real owner of the brand, will lose ownership and it will be very difficult to claim it back. Appoints New Chairman for Next Phase of Growth Perth, May 12, 2021 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Deep Yellow Limited ( ASX:DYL ) ( FRA:JMI ) ( OTCMKTS:DYLLF ) is pleased to announce the appointment of highly experienced executive Mr Chris Salisbury to the Board, replacing Mr Rudolf Brunovs.Mr Brunovs will remain on the Board as a Non-Executive Director and will retain Chair of the Audit Committee. The Company would like to thank Mr Brunovs for his time as Chairman.Mr Salisbury is a metallurgical engineer who brings more than 30 years of mining, strategy and operational experience across a diverse range of commodities. Mr Salisbury has extensive uranium experience having worked in the industry in both Australia and Namibia, through senior roles for the Rio Tinto Group. From 2004-2008, Mr Salisbury worked for Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) which operated the Ranger Mine located in the Northern Territory and during that time held several roles including General Manager, Chief Executive Officer and lastly, Non-Executive Director. During this period ERA was an ASX 100 Company.Following his time with ERA, from 2011-2013 Mr Salisbury was Managing Director and Head of Country for Rio Tinto's Rossing Mine, located in Namibia, where he introduced positive change in a difficult period for the uranium industry.Mr Salisbury's most recent role was Chief Executive Iron Ore for Rio Tinto from 2016-2020.During this period, he was responsible for optimising operations through a value-over-volume strategy, developing and implementing the company's climate change program and improving safety culture and operational performance of a team comprising ~20,000 employees and contractors across 16 mines, 4 ports and an autonomous railway system.Commenting on the appointment of Mr Salisbury as Chairman, Deep Yellow Managing Director and CEO John Borshoff said, "The strengthening of our Board through the appointment of Chris as Chairman is an excellent outcome for Deep Yellow, as we continue to advance our dual-pillar growth strategy to establish the Company as a tier-one, multiplatform uranium producer."To attract someone of Chris' calibre is a strong reflection of where we are heading as a Company and the progress of our strategy over the past 12 months."Chris brings a level of global experience to our Board that is highly valuable, highlighted by his extensive experience running world-class uranium operations in both Australia and Namibia."Deep Yellow is in its strongest position ever as a Company, underpinned by an exciting and advanced project portfolio and a strong cash balance. We see Chris playing an important role assisting the management team in executing our growth strategy, moving towards production and advancing key M&A objectives. I am excited to welcome Chris to our Board and look forward to working with him. Together we make a strong team that will ensure we continue to deliver value to all our stakeholders."Commenting on joining Deep Yellow, newly appointed Chairman, Chris Salisbury said "I am very excited to be back in the uranium sector and be offered this important role with Deep Yellow. I look forward to working with an exceptional management team led by John. The Company has made solid progress since 2016 and is well positioned to advance its growth strategy."When assessing the opportunity with Deep Yellow, what attracted me to the role was that all the key elements are in place to deliver the next phase of value-led growth."Importantly, uranium is starting to gain the attention it deserves and will play a key role in the global transition to clean energy."The reshaping and strengthening of the Board come at a critical time for Deep Yellow, as the Company embarks on the next phase of its dual-pillar growth strategy to establish a multiplatform, 5-10Mlb per annum, low-cost, tier-one uranium producer. With the appointment of Mr Salisbury, the Board has agreed that, under his stewardship, the Board composition will be reviewed to ensure it remains aligned to the emerging needs of the Company and further changes are anticipated in the second half of 2021.About Deep Yellow Limited Deep Yellow Limited (ASX:DYL) (OTCMKTS:DYLLF) (Namibian Stock Exchange:DYL) is a differentiated, advanced uranium exploration company, in predevelopment phase, implementing a contrarian strategy to grow shareholder wealth. This strategy is founded upon growing the existing uranium resources across the Company's uranium projects in Namibia and the pursuit of accretive, counter-cyclical acquisitions to build a global, geographically diverse asset portfolio. A PFS has recently been completed on its Tumas Project in Namibia and a DFS commenced February 2021. The Company's cornerstone suite of projects in Namibia is situated within a top-ranked African mining destination in a jurisdiction that has a long, well-regarded history of safely and effectively developing and regulating its considerable uranium mining industry. Jennifer Dorsey is chief copy editor and Business section coordinator. She worked in Washington, D.C., and Chicago before moving to the Tetons. Pune, India, May 12, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to the report, Electric Vehicle HVAC Market size is projected to reach USD 2,144.4 Million value by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 15.6%. The Electric Vehicle HVAC Industry was valued at USD 840.4 million in 2019. Increasing Adoption of Electric Compressor Systems to Provide Forward Thrust to the Market. The forced shutdown of automotive manufacturing plants will be the key factor affecting the electric vehicle HVAC market growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, the sharp drop in demand for vehicles worldwide resulting from the widespread adoption of remote working facilities has led to unprecedented revenue shortfalls for major electric vehicle (EV) manufacturers and large carmakers. As a consequence, the market displayed a staggering decline in CAGR of -7.6% in 2020. However, the provision of new stimulus packages by various countries to rejuvenate the auto sector will deliver some relief to this market during the rest of the forecast period. Request a Sample Copy of the Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/sample/electric-vehicle-hvac-market-101890 By technology, the market is divided into automatic and manual. Based on vehicle type, the market is bifurcated into passenger cars and commercial vehicles. On the basis of component type, the market has been classified into electric compressors, heat exchanging equipment, expansion valves, and receiver-drier. By region, the market has been grouped into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Sanden Holdings Commences Automated Production of Electric Compressors In January 2021, Japan-based Sanden Holdings Corporation announced the commencement of automated mass production of electric compressors at its Gunma plant to support advancements in electric vehicle HVAC technologies. The plant has an annual production capacity of 750,000 units and the company has managed to achieve 75% automation on this assembly line. The new automated systems are also equipped to perform sophisticated quality control operations, such as image analysis and image detection using 3D technologies. With the deployment of automation solutions, Sanden Holdings aims to reduce emissions and optimize manufacturing processes, thereby bringing down production costs. Click here to get the short-term and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on this Market. Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/electric-vehicle-hvac-market-101890 Attractive Incentives for EVs in Several Countries to Favor Market Growth With the transition towards sustainable mobility intensifying worldwide, several countries have put in place highly attractive policies and incentives to accelerate the adoption of EVs. For example, China, the largest EV market currently, has formulated a host of regulatory incentives that include the removal of registration restrictions and driving bans on certain days that are imposed on conventional vehicles in large cities. In the US, tax exemptions are being leveraged to stoke the adoption of EVs in the country. For example, electric car buyers in the country are entitled to a federal tax credit of up to USD 75,000, besides benefiting from exemptions on federal taxes based on fuel consumption. As EVs proliferate the globe, favorable conditions will also be created for the development of advanced electric vehicle HVAC systems in the foreseeable future. Robust Governmental Backing to EVs to Propel the Market in Asia Pacific At USD 381.4 million in 2019, Asia Pacific is expected to command the electric vehicle HVAC market share during the forecast period due to the strong and unwavering policy support offered by governments in the region to EV manufacturing and adoption. For example, in India, under the second phase of the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) scheme, the procurement of EVs has been ramped up, with the promise of additional financial support. Similarly, China has been aggressively deploying electric buses in major cities. The market for electric vehicle HVAC systems in North America will derive growth from the rapidly expanding EV charging infrastructure across the US and Canada. In Europe, ambitious emission targets set by the European Union (EU) will provide the necessary impetus to electric vehicle uptake in the region. Quick Buy - Electric Vehicle HVAC Market Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/checkout-page/101890 Alliances between Energy Innovators & Auto Industry Giants to Electrify the Market With a focus on augmenting the energy-efficiency of electric vehicles, automotive industry behemoths have been actively forging alliances with innovators in the energy management domain. These collaborations are enabling EV manufacturers to create HVAC solutions that can substantially enhance heating and ventilation in EVs without compromising on their range or efficiency. Industry Development: November 2020: Hanon Systems announced that it will be providing its eco-friendly R744 heat pump components to the Volkswagen Group. This heat pump system has been conceived specifically for battery-powered EVs, where it delivers cabin comfort in any temperature conditions with low power consumption. Panasonic Corporation (Osaka, Japan) MAHLE GmbH (Stuttgart, Germany) Denso Corporation (Munich, Germany) Sanden Holdings Corporation (Gunma, Japan) Marelli Holdings Co., Ltd. (Corbetta, Italy) Brose Fahrzeugteile SE & Co. KG (Coburg, Germany) Valeo S.A. (Chennai, India) Hanon Systems (Daejeon, South Korea) Have Any Query? Ask Our Experts: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/speak-to-analyst/electric-vehicle-hvac-market-101890 Global Electric Vehicle HVAC Market Segmentation: By Technology: Automatic Manual By Vehicle Type: Passenger Car Commercial Vehicle By Component Type: Electric Compressor Heat Exchanging Equipment Expansion Valve Receiver-Drier By Geography North America (U.S. and Canada) Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, and Rest of Europe) Asia Pacific (Japan, China, India, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Rest of Asia Pacific) Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of Latin America) Middle East & Africa (South Africa, GCC and Rest of Middle East & Africa) Get your Customized Research Report: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/enquiry/customization/electric-vehicle-hvac-market-101890 Have a Look at Related Reports: Used Vehicle Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car, Commercial Vehicle), By Vehicle Age (0 to 05 Years, 06 Years to 10 Years, 10 Years and above), By Vendor Type (Organized, Unorganized), By Propulsion Type (ICE, Electric), By Market Type (Offline, Online), and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Vehicle Access Control Market Size , Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Type (Biometric System, Non-Biometric System), By Technology (RFID, NFC, Bluetooth, Others), By Vehicle Type (Passenger Car, Commercial Vehicle) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Autonomous Trucks Market Size, Share & COVID-19 Impact Analysis, By Level of Autonomy (Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4), By Sensor Type (Ultrasonic, Radar, Camera, LiDAR), By Propulsion (Diesel, Electric, Others), By Truck Type (Light Duty Truck, Medium Duty Truck, Heavy Duty Truck), By ADAS Features (Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Keep Assist, Automatic Emergency Braking, Blind Spot Detection, Intelligent Park Assist, Highway Pilot, Traffic Jam Assist) and Regional Forecast, 2020-2027 Automotive Radar Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Range (short-range, medium-range, long-range), By Application (Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), Forward-Collision Warning System (FCWS), Blind Spot Detection (BSD), Intelligent Parking Assistance), and Regional Forecasts, 2019-2026 Electric Bike ( E-Bike ) Market Size, Share & Industry Analysis, By Propulsion Type (Pedal Assist, Throttle), By Battery Type (Lead Acid, Lithium-Ion, Nickle Metal Hydride, and Others) and Regional Forecasts, 2019-2026 About Us: Fortune Business Insights offers expert corporate analysis and accurate data, helping organizations of all sizes make timely decisions. 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Ltd. 308, Supreme Headquarters, Survey No. 36, Baner, Pune-Bangalore Highway, Pune - 411045, Maharashtra, India. Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue. The new European data protection law requires us to inform you of the following before you use our website: We use cookies and other technologies to customize your experience, perform analytics and deliver personalized advertising on our sites, apps and newsletters and across the Internet based on your interests. By clicking I agree below, you consent to the use by us and our third-party partners of cookies and data gathered from your use of our platforms. See our Privacy Policy and Third Party Partners to learn more about the use of data and your rights. You also agree to our Terms of Service. Working in tandem produces a ripple effect for the economy Helping some of the worlds largest companies develop new projects means the work by Tandem has a positive ripple effect for the Cork and wider Irish economy. Established in 2010, Tandem provides project management and solutions across the full lifecycle of a project including design, procurement, construction, commissioning, qualification and operational readiness. Tandem specialises in the life science sector and also successfully applies its skill-set to others sectors including hi-tech, food, commercial and public works. Based in Mahon, the company employs more than 80 people. Tandem operate in a highly competitive market where indigenous engineering consultancies must compete against multinational organisations such as the PM Group, DPS Group Global and Jacobs. The Cork pharma industry is strong and Tandem also helps companies secure foreign direct investment which has a positive ripple effect across the county They have secured significant repeat business, a clear indicator of customer satisfaction. Tandem has achieved a 96% repeat business rate with clients and achieve between 87%-90% success rates on tender proposals submitted. The companys strategy is to add a minimum of 10 new clients in 2021 and retain business with 31 of our current clients. The firm continues to innovate recently embarking on a digitisation programme. Last year, they also developed a programme that involves completing engineering design using intelligent cloud-based 3D software supported by Enterprise Ireland. This year, six members of Tandems management team have achieved Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certification after reviewing existing procedures to identify and remove inefficiencies and wastage in the processes. In 2018 and 2019, Tandem invested significantly by growing the Cork-based project team by 25%, introducing a depth of experience across a range of sectors and disciplines. Tandem has also integrated supply chain sustainability criteria into its procurement process. The company conducts regular audits of suppliers to identify the most significant environmental, social and economic challenges in the supply chain and to set targets to drive continual improvement among suppliers. It is Tandems policy to award repeat business to suppliers with stronger sustainability performance in order to incentivise and drive improvement. Managing director Tim Mulhall said they were delighted to be shortlisted as a finalist in the Cork Chamber Company of the Year Awards. Cork Chamber contributes hugely to the successful and vibrant business environment in Cork. To receive this recognition from the chamber is a great honour for Tandem and our team and we feel privileged to be counted amongst the finalists this year, he said. Mackin Group supporting businesses globally from Cork Supporting businesses small and large across the globe is a challenging task but more so when a global pandemic has put an end to global travel. Andrew Mackin, Managing Director and Founder of Mackin Consultancy. Picture: Darragh Kane Headquartered in Cork the Mackin Group has demonstrated amazing resilience in the face of Covid with plans for significant growth over the coming years. The company was founded in 2004 by Andrew Mackin, who had retired from the Navy after 22 years. He then branched into the recruitment and staffing industry in 2014 and has since grown the business to where it is today. The Mackin Group has two distinct business offerings through Mackin EHS and Mackin Talent. Mackin EHS provides environmental health & safety services, across Ireland primarily, and is managed through its headquarters in Cork City. These services are provided to a range of industries and sectors including construction, financial, tech and hospitality with their clients ranging from multinational enterprises to sole traders. Mackin Talent provides recruitment solutions along with talent management consulting specialising in workforce planning, talent retention, succession planning and employer brand management. Mackin Talent is also headquartered in Cork and manages all their Irish and UK clients directly, as well as clients in the broader regions of EMEA and APAC. The Cork base also acts as the communications and finance hub for the Mackin Talent offices in North America. They describe their reach flexibility as their unique selling point, offering clients support across their one business or one location but also offering a global solution or an agreement for multisite locations. Mackin operates in a very competitive landscape both in Cork and broadly in Ireland. This applies to both the health & safety industry and the talent/recruiting industry. Within the H&S market in Cork/Ireland, Mackin EHS would be well known and highly regarded, and the brand would be well established. Within the talent/recruiting industry in Cork/Ireland, the Mackin Talent brand is quite new still, in Ireland. Despite the Covid challenges, the group grew by 25% last year and is expected to grow further this year targeting 30% to 40% growth. This will include a minimum growth of 50 to 60 positions globally with a minimum of 12 of those positions to be filled in Cork. Further growth is projected for 2022. The global travel restrictions have been an impediment to growth and had an impact in terms of relationship-building but the firm has dived right into the digital world of networking and has brought a lot of its services to life through those online means. Their remote ergonomic assessment is one example; and Mackins online training programmes are another. CEO Andrew Mackin said he was thrilled they had reached the final of the Large Cork Company of the Year award. Cork is so dear to all of us at Mackin and to get that recognition in our hometown, is wonderful. Data obsessed Zyte helps you make sense of the growing web The growing tech company Zyte provides businesses with a simple way to gather and collate web data, allowing them to make sense of it and to act swiftly upon and make a real difference to your business. Shane Evans the CEO of Cork company Zyte. So focused on the area of information gathering, Zyte is now the largest web data extraction company in the world with a team of more than 100 developers and a comprehensive suite of products and services. Web data extraction and scraping is a rapidly growing market and sits within the ecosystem of big data and data and analytics where the total addressable market is estimated to be $103bn (85bn) by 2027. Within this ecosystem is alternative data where the TAM is projected to be $17.3bn by 2027 and Proxy Solutions at $1.02bn by 2025. These projections are supported by Zytes growth and the continued demand for its services. Zyte is poised to increase market share and position itself as the dominant player in the market. Additionally, the number of websites continues to grow rapidly and is estimated at two billion, 190% growth in the last seven years, further adding to the need for reliable web data extraction services at scale. The market Zyte operates in is fragmented with a lot of small players offering single solutions. The industry has seen some consolidation and this trend is expected to continue over the next three to five years. Demand for access to web data is increasing and on top of this, web data extraction getting more difficult. The companies that can add automation to their solutions are poised to dominate the market. Zyte is primed to take a leadership position in the market with its full-service offerings and industry-leading patented technology plus established services capabilities. The smaller competitors with single-point solutions will not be able to compete or scale up to the offering Zyte has built up over the last 10 years. The companys current growth rate is 30% year on year, the vast majority of Zytes revenues comes from the international market. Zyte employs more than 50 people in Ireland and has several more hires planned for this year., adding to the local economy through employment. Globally the company employs 200 people with this headcount expected to double by 2023. This growth will take place across a multitude of countries including, Ireland, Spain, and the US. While offering services across various sectors, Zyte did witness the impact of the pandemic, particularly last year, however, they were able to recover and grow revenues through focusing on sectors not as greatly affected by Covid. Zyte also launched a free service for research institutions and non-profit organisations that were providing Covid-19 aid helping them obtain the data they needed at no cost, including researchers and philanthropists such as Feed the Heros, University of Glasgow, and Covidsnap.org. CEO Shane Evans said he is always amazed at the great companies that operate in Cork. Zyte is honoured to be nominated for such a prestigious award and proud to be among such a high calibre of finalists. Zytes growth, vision and innovation represent everything that embodies this great award, he said. For full access, please log in, register your subscription or subscribe. Try for 99 a month for two months, cancel or pause anytime.